The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1918-11-15
SENIORITY RULE CAUSED
DEMOCRATIC DEFEAT
Also Lack of Unity in Supporting Will
son Contributed to Their Loss
of Control in Congress

r were there in 1910 and 1912, the cleo
ton of 1920 may show a reversal. L
the Republican party takes the initia
} tive and abolishes seniority, it will
, have accomplished a genuine reform.
/ There is good reason to believe il
: the President had it to do over agar
he would even in the light of Tues
days results make an appeal for the
i support of the Democratic party
Probably, however, he would not make
it vague. Probably he would not al
low 1t to be susceptible of the inter-
probation put upon it--that Repub.
lican voters or leaders were unpatri-
otto. He might seek to show why the
settlement of the great war meaning
as it must a stimulus to liberalism
everywhere is closely related to the
particular policies of reconstruction
which he believes the Democratic par
ty would advance and the Republican
party oppose.
Government ownership of railways,
of telegraph lines, government control
of important resources to the end that
private interests may not have mon
opolies which affect the cost of living
and the mage scale all these things
have been in the back of the minds of
Democratic leaders as likely to COM
pei lines Of cleavage between our po-
litical parties in the next Congress.
But if the President shared that view
he failed to give the country the
slightest intimation of the character
of the reconstruction program for
which he would ask his own party to
stand Domestic problems of recon-
struction even in their natural rela-
tionship to foreign policy were sub
ordinated.
The voters of the country We're I'M
willing to believe the Republican par
-ty would do anything to obstruct the
President either in his conduct of the
war or negotiation Of just peace.
Where Damage Was Done
When Democrats who had voted
against CONSUMPTION or against the
war itself argued that the people
should heed the Presidents appeal for
a Democratic Congress on patriotic
grounds, voters were inclined to re-
gard the cry as specious. A vote for
Democrat was not always vote for
Wilson and the people knew it. The
Democrats themselves had not fol-
lowed their leader.
When Wilson begged the members
of his own party to pass the suffrage
amendment, he did not change vote.
The South stood solidly against him.
Western Democrats in suffrage States
were hurt by it. The women helped to
beat Senator Shafroth in Colorado
and nearly caused the downfall of
Senator Walsh in Montana, Senator
Salisbury of Delaware, Democrat,
was beaten partly because he did not
follow the President on suffrage. The
reputation of Wilson's leadership in
the matter of suffrage showed the
country that the Democratic party |
was not unit behind Wilson and |
that helped to weaken the effect of |
the Presidents generous plea in be-
half of men who had not supported |
him.
Wilson's Attitude
There is gloom, of course, at the
White House. The President never
had been impressed with the criticism
that it was improper for him as the
leader of the party or even as Presi-
dent to go before the people for sup
port. The only criticism which his
friends have to make is that he made
but one appeal and did not make