The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1917-01-04
LIGHT ON A PARTY'S FUTURE.

LIGHT ON A PARTY's FUTURE.
The official returns on the popular
vote for president in November were
last week made public by the Asso-
rent American politics is Of such
universal interest as that of the fu-
ture of the republican party. What
are it's tendencies? Is its vitality in
creasing in those states in which it
still commands the support OF plur-
alities? Is it a vigorous party in
temporary eclipse or a decadent
The answer to these questions is
to be sought in the returns from the
eighteen states which Mr.. Hughes
carried in the November election.
They included all New England,
with the exception Of New Hamp:.
New York, Pennsylva aIa Nsx Jer,
might group West Virginia; the
middle western commonwealth Of
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wiscon-
sin, Minnesota and Iowa; the prairie
state Of South Dakota. and Oregon
on the Pacific seaboard. :,
types OF political life, ranging from
the wire.-wound standpatism of
Rhode Island, Vermont and Della
ware and the scarcely less immovable
regularity" of great machine-dom-
mated states like Pennsylvania and
New York, to Wisconsin, Minnesota
salient Of the far-flung battle line
of progressivism.
These states are, politically. alike
in but single thing-technical re-
publicanism. We beg pardon. They
are alike IN another thing also. Ev-
cry one of them is nursery of grow
ing Wilson sentiment. Every one
% Vote e for Wilson by conparison WisS
the vote of 1912, and in every one
except Wisconsin,, where the rates
were equal, the Wilson vote showed
more rapid increase than the
Hughes vote, compared with the
combined votes for Roosevelt and
Taft in 1912. Delaware showed the
IS per cent in the state Of Du Points
however, gave Wilson "a per cent
more votes in 1916 than in 1912,
Pennsylvania 81 per cent more. New
York 5 per cent more and New Jer-
sey 18. In New England, Vermont,
giving Taft a plurality in 1912,
Wilson, Maine Is per cent, Connec-
ticut, SO per cent and Massachusetts
AZ per cent. West Virginia, manu-
featuring state like Pennsylvania, in
creased its Wilson vote "a per cent. |
Coming to the middle west we see
II in Wisconsin, 10 in Iowa, while !
in Minnesota the Wilson gain was
81 per cent over 1912, and in Michi- !
gan it reached the imposing figure
of 80 per cent.
Illinois shows, on the face of the |
returns. growth of 1874 per cent: II
Of of the 6aA ADVENT VENT Of Nv Woman Suffrage and
divide the remainder by two, we shall |
have II per cent, which, Judging by |
the result in Wisconsin ana Iowa,
cannot be far from the true figure.
South Dakota increased its Wilson |
vote 20 per cent. and the Oregon re-
increase of q per cent. after being
subjected to the same process as III
IinOis.
That there is nothing sectional
about the growth of the Wilson
strength is evident by running over
the first half of the list of Hughes
sass g their tine SfSsa OF vo
They are: Michigan, Minnesota. Yer
mont, Massachusetts,, Rhode Island,
Connecticut. Pennsylvania, Oregon,
Maine.
We now come to the comparison
of the Hughes vote with the COM
ened gSs OF .3s sas
nine-just half the number-shOw !
a loss by comparison of the popular
vote for Hughes with the combined
vote of Roosevelt and Taft. This
ranges from l l per cent in the case
of Massachusetts and Vermont down
through z per cent in Michigan and
2 in Pennsylvania, to three-tenths of
l per cent in Iowa.
In class by themselves are the
woman suffrage states of Illinois and
Oregon; the Hughes vote was 80 per
cent larger in Illinois than that cast
far Taft and Roosevelt and Is per
cent fend larger in GregG 5ase 1x the sts
this represents a relative loss of 10
per cent in Illinois and IL in Oregon.
OF the states showing gain for
Hughes over the Taft-Ro0sevelt vote,
Wisconsin tops the list with II per
cent. Next comes New Jersey, Is
per cent; Indiana and south Dak ot;.'
Connecticut and Delaware. 4, and
Rhodes Island, 1.
Look at the republican machine
strongholds, comparing the Wilson
vote with that of Hughes. Delaware
shows the least gain for Wilson, but
her vote for Wilson has grown twice
as fast as the Hughes vote grew, by
comparison with the Roosevelt-Taft
vote.
Rhode Island increased her Will
son vote "a per cent and her Hughes
vote over her Taft-Roosevelt vote
six-tenths of l per cent. PennsyE
vania's Wilson increase is 81 per
cent, compared with 2 per cent on
the other side. Illinois, allowing for
n0 nor cont. innroaa no in the f0fal