Evening star., 1920-10-22
SUFFRAGE LINKS
OCEAN TO OCEAN
Geographic Bulletin Depicts
Great Changes in Election
of Presidents.

/ OF PRESIDENTS.
i "Fron the time the first voter regis
ters his choice for President on
November 2 in Eastport, Me-. eastern
most community in the United States.
until some sixteen hours later, when
| Ozette. Wash. the presidential suf-
1 frage community farthest west, the
heaviest battle Of ballots ever wit
messed will be in progress" says a
bulletin Of the National Geographic
Society.
| THE battle will not be made greater
than those Of 1912 and 1916 BY any
increase In the area over which it
will be fought" continues the bulletin,
for Arizona and New Mexico, casting
their ballots for President for the
first time in 1912. completed the roster
I of the states in the United States
proper and signalized the extension
OF the presidential suffrage to every
political unit between the two oceans
and the Canadian and Mexican bor-
der dsrs except the District Of Columbia.
The battle will be almost doubled in
magnitude. however. by the extension
lof suffrage to women in the many
states which did not permit them to
vote in previous elections.
Far-Flung Ballot Box.
This greatest of election strug-
giles will take place in an area of
approximately 100000 square miles.
rosy %saep of saryhs hs Eam he
boundary. and the not improbable
snowstorms Of the higher communi-
| ties Of the Rockies, to the burning
| sunshine Of Key West and some of
the cities and villages Of the south
western border. Ballot boxes-em-
blems of American sovereignty-will
be set up in the hearts Of great
! cities, in villages, in wayside school
houses. on isolated islands, in pock-
| cts of the great woods; far up among
| the sea; in many cases in communl-
i ties which lie behind great natural
1 barriers that cut them of physically
i from other settlements.
il :"And yet, because of the telephone
and telegraph wires that extend into
Il nearly every community, and wire
Il less communication that supplements
1 them, most American citizens, unless
II the contest is unusually close. Will
Il learn the results from the far-nung
Il battle line at their breakfast tables
next morning. Indeed. impatient FOL
Il know the results before midnight;
II reading reports as they are flashed
II on screens before newspaper omces
] in countless cities and towns.
! TT was far different parado4icAI
4 as it may seem at first sight, during
1 the early presidential elections in
which popular voting figured, in spite
! of tho fact that practically all voters
): were east Of the Mississippi river ana
!: most of them in the states along the
!: Atlantic seaboard. Lacking eiectrical
!: lmeans Of communication and rail-
roads, and having but poor highways
and vehicles. the country was often IN
!: ignorance Of the candidate elected for
weeks after the election. The con-
trast cannot be carried back to elec-
tions when the United States was CON
Timed to its original thirteen members
along the narrow strip of coast coun-
try, FOR in those days the voter and
the campaign manager had not come
into their own. The choosing OF
President was a partyless, campaign
less and-so far as most OF the me men
in the street were concerned-a vote
less affair. Legislatures saved voters
from the bother of casting ballots by
IappointinE electors, and the latter
chose President.
Tennessee Planted Seed.
"Westerners might assert that the
extension of the vote to their states
lpopularized the government. AT any
jrate. as the course of statehood has
taken it's way westward voters have
icome more and more into closer man .
lapement of their government, ana
their various activities have left geo.
lrraphical milestones along the road.
Tennessee originated the h;st first
movement toward the popular Gno.Is
stand before the country as a candi-
date. This first impulse which
brought about nominating conven-
tions, competing parties and cam.
Ipaigns much as we know them To-Day
istarted at a mass meeting OF ciIilens
fat the little town Of Marysville in
l1823. Speechmaking trips were f1rst
made in the campaign of 1S4o, ana
what was considered the big swing
around the circle of phen A.
Douglas in 1860 covered Q. y a part
of the country east of the MISSISSIPPI:
At that the trip was much more or
an undertaking than the transconti-
mental campaigning tours of today:
| "The expanding geography of the
limited States has played its part in
the elections of Presidents in more
ways than one. Missouri and its COM
Mexican war and the winning OF
Texas elected Zachary Taylor. South
lCarolina Florida, Louisiana and Ore
son were the scattered pawns in the
greatest and most dangerous point
ical game that has ever been played
! IN AIneTlCa-InS WI
test of 1876 which gave the presidency
to the former.
NEARLY every succeeding presiden-
! tial campaign since the estaoiish-
ment of the Union has seen votes
counted from new states. The first
six Presidents were elected by votes
entirely from east of the Mississippi.
With the admission Of Louisiana in
1872 voters living west of the great
river that formed the early western
boundary Of the country cast their
first votes for President. Growth of
the country during the next few years
took place in the great lakes region.
| and it was not until 1921. when Mis-
souri, was admitted that a state lying
| entirely to the west of the Mississippi
Joined in choosing a chief executive.
Suffrage Linked the Oceans.
1.-The annexation of Texas in 1s4o
! carried the territory of the United
States in which participation could be
had in presidential elections much
! farther west than it had ever extend
( ed before, and in the election of 1913
voters living as far west as the 106th
| meridian had the right to cast bal
| lots. Texas was the westernmost
state for only a brief period. In 1850
California was admitted to statehood
the first state separated by territories
| from the great group of contiguous
states. Presidential suffrage had at
last reached the Pacific coast. Nine
years later Oregon. touching Cali
! fornia on the north was annexed, and
| in 1864 Nevada was admitted, and
with the other two long constituted
| an island Of statehood in the far
| west.
kansas in 1854, Nebraska a few
years later. and Colorado in 1875 car
| ried the main hody of states closer to
| the little western group. but it was
not until 1890. when Wyoming and