Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1916-09-13
ANALYSIS OF MAINE ELECTION

The Maine election is over and the results except as
to exact figures are known. There seems to be wide
divergence of opinion to what anything II pesages
Mr. Hughes says ne is pleased ana VIII press M :;
with renewed confidence" Secretary Daniels says 1t Is
encouraging to the democrats; happy omen OF victory
in November" The New York World says neither party
has ANYTHING to brag about The Sun says 1T indicates
the republicans and former progressives came together
in a wave that swept over democratic hopes Inc III
hne ps it the returns indicate decisive republican
victory" The Times comedies that Roosevelt earned
most of the progressives with him into the repuoca
camp" While Champ Clark briefs it into we've had nell
licked out of u.s."
With due Difference to the World, Sun, Times and the
big guns politically either side the returns do not
warrant any of the opinions expressed by any OF le
Analyzed carefully the returns show democrauc gains
and important ones The only question is were those
gains large enough supposing they hold through the
country generally to carry the democrats to victory
In 1912 Mr.. Wilson's vote in Maine was o. ao d T1e me
combined vote of Taft and Roosevelt was 75Os8. Inc
majority over Wilson of the combined vote was 259zo
The total vote was 129637 Mr. Wilson's percentage OF
the entire vote was 39.44 o c.,.
The total vote Monday was above l4oooo ana oI & tls
vote hut 5 precincts out of 65 had been counted Ihese
gave the republican senator for the long term oO49 ana
his democratic opponent 6S2 while for the short term
the republican senatorial candidate received 1865 ana
his opponent 66S 1872 The majority for the hrst was
977O and for the other 1886 Averaging this vote be-
tween the two winners gives majority OF lllo@ eacn
If the other AZ precincts averaged the same NUMBER ol
voters as those counted this would increase the TOTAL Voe
as the balance of the vote would add 535 to the epub
Ican vote and 1866 to the democratic, increasing the
republican majority to l22 or about lzooo less ta
the majority over Wilson, The total vote is given as
above 4SO0O but the combined vote given for the two
candidates in the 593 precincts amounts to almost tnat
number it is fair to presume the AZ precincts were not IN
cuded in the totals and that this will be about loSooo.
In 1912 Mr. Wilson received 3944 per cent OF the total
vote but this year the democrats received 454 per cent
If the Maine election indicates anything 1t that @ Te
result of the presidential election is in doubt Inc
democrats have made gains doubt but the question Is
whether these gains will offset the republican gains que
to the return to the fold of the progressive voters one
thing that the Maine results does show concuslvey is
that the republican party in Maine at least Is mo- not hs as
strong as it was in the old days before Roosevelt leo ms
following into new party since republican majority
of 10000 would have been regarded as an unusually Sum fo
president in 1904 was 36S07 1908 305S4 and in 1872
the combined republican and progressive majority 5 oNen Nen
to 90 on if President Wilson as much stronger than his
party as persons think he is has chances for carry
ing Maine in November not entirely gone, although
such thing was probably never expected by his party
managers.