The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1916-10-06
DEMOCRATS ARE LOSING
GROUND IN CENTRAL WEST
Unable to Meet or Withstand Repub-
lican Attacks on Administration.

The Christian Science Monitor is
unprecedented to say the least. Its dis
cussion of the political situation is
to state conditions exactly as it finds
them The Monitor is convinced that
Mr.. Hughes has made an effective
compaign, and that the Democrats
cisms leveled at the Wilson admins
noted that the Hughes campaign
Democrats, like Champ Clark, have
virtually admitted that such is the
case. Thus far only a very few of
the many effective speakers have
started out and the newspapers have
abided their time. The campaign will
be on in earnest now.
In commenting on the situation as
it appears the Christian Science
Monitor says:
In the Central West.
Impartial dealing with the presi-
dental campaign in the United States
will call, during its progress, for as
full recognition of the estimates and
claims made by commanding officers,
and by experienced observers on all
sides, as the facts may seem to war
rant. Mr.. Hughes, having visited the
| politically uncertain central west, and
uncovered its sentiment to a consid-
cradle degree, the managers of the
Republican party and the editors of
Republican newspapers are giving
large share of their attention to what
they regard as favorable. and almost
satisfying, indications in that quarter
Some of them are speaking with prac
tically unqualified assurance. One OBJ
server among the correspondents ac-
Complying Mr.. Hughes puts it down
as foregone conclusion that Illinois,
| Wisconsin and Indiana, as a direct
] consequence of the Republican nomi-
nee's experimenting tour, will go over
to the Republican party in November
These states went Democratic in 1912
The Democratic pluralities then were
Illinois, 1850; Indiana, 1883; Wis
consin, $685. In the landslide of that
year the Democratic gain in the con-
gressional representation of the three
was large.
Two years later, however, as Chair
man Wilcox of the national Republi-
can committee points out in his latest
statement, there was a reaction. AL
though the tremendous Democratic
majorities in the senate and house
were not overcome, they were greatly
reduced. The elections of 1914 did
tration, but they fell short of making
a victory. The interesting question at
the present time is. whether or not
action in 1916 The Democratic man
| cta 70 ha h01
ing that, two years ago, the Republi-
cans exhausted the entire strength of
the opposition in an effort to prove
that the Democrats were not, as a
Iparty, competent to pull the country
through the crisis occasioned by the
Mexican situation and the European
war. They hold, also, that what the
Democrats then had to offer as prom
Uses are now presented to the country
as accomplishments. Practically the
entire Wilson program, they say, has
been carried out or set going, and the
great mass of the people are content
with it.
The Republicans take diametri-
cally opposite view, of course, and it
is important as revealing the basis
upon which they are framing their es-
Inmates. Take, for instance. Mr.. Will
cox's statement. The great pivotal
states in 1914, the states that were GER
tain to decide the election of 1916,
went back into the Republican column
he says, and adds:
I'm 1914 it was dem onstrated that
the split in the Republican party was
not fundamental. Maine proves that
! that answer was correct 1t is only
necessary to study the returns of 1914
to find the answer to the problem of
1916 The Republican majorities of
two years ago all but engulfed the
Democracy and it was the short, two
year wave that did it. The LONG four
year wave is now rolling in. When it
breaks in November its power will be
resistlcss."
The Republican chairman is en-
couraged in his optimism by reports
from that portion of the central west
in which Mr.. Hughes has met the peo-
pie That candidates progress
through thirty-four cities and towns
of the section is pronounced, by one
correspondent, "a triumph" Politi-
clans who hitherto have been apathetic
toward the Republican nominee, it is
said, since he has achieved such sue
cesses in Wisconsin. Illinois and In
diana, are working for him harder
than they worked for any candidate
in years"
The Republicans in the central west
are making the most of the Maine
election. They insist that in that
state the issue between Hughes and
Wilson was sharply defined, and that
it was upon this issue that the cam
paign was fought. Mr.. Wilcox and