Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-10-14
moment, throwing cool Judgment to the


winds.
In this case the prejudice theory did not
seem to work to perfection. Wilson az
least offered definite statement OF aims
and intentions, while Hughes offered moth
ing but opposition to Wilson and the plea
of party LOYALTY. No one has ever decided
exactly what happened, but it might be
said that when the smoke cleared away
the Republican party was found pros
trate on the field with the tracks OF the
independent voters all about 1t. In Gaii-
fornia. which was the decisive state IN ths
election, the voting was so independently
and the tickets were so heavily and vari-
ouslv scratched that it took long time
to count the vote and many MINOR errors
were made.
What happened in California has always
been regarded as mystery. Senator hiram
johnson, running on the Repubiican
ticket and ostensibly supporting hughes,
carried il for himself by colossal majority.
Yet it gave q majority to wilson LOT
president. Some hazarded the guess that
the independent and progressive element
back of johnson was not wholly sa'sheo
with the Hughes campaign. That progress
sive vote which Roosevelt led back to tn
fold did not seem TO be as large as 1t had
w
West. which had given Roosevelt most OF
his votes in 1912 was what carried the
day for Wilson in 1916. The result seemed
to confirm what had been Indicated tour
wears before-that there Is really body
of independent and thinking voters III
the country who will not travel IN partisan
leading string, but will follow a leader OF
either party if they think he is offering
something definite.
I.ApoR MAKES POLITICAL PROGRESS.
Next To this emergence of an inde-
pendent vote, perhaps the most interesting
thing was the participation of labor IN
the campaign. Ii will be remembered that
IN 1905 the American Federation of Labor
had for the first time taken a partisan
stand. Ii was generally agreed afterwards
that the labor leaders had failed to de-
liver the labor vote both that year and the
following one Nevertheless there was
significance in the fact that organized
labor had entered partisan politics with
out disrupting it's organization, as 1T had
done at least twice before. In 1916 labor
had more inducements for supporting the
Democratic party than ever before. Inc
Adamson eight-hour law had just been
put on the books in the midst Of storm
of denunciation from capital and Of ap-
proval from labor.
Whether labor really voted the Demo-
cratic ticket in 1916 was at least moot
question. The big industrial centers OF
the East went Republican as usual, thus
indicating conclusively that the labor
vote was at least divided there. On the
other hand, there seemed tO be no doubt
but that labor in many western states
was fairly solid for the Democrats. The
railroad men, especially in the West voted
for Wilson in large blocks. This was per-
haps the nearest thing 10 Glass vote ,
which had ever been cast IN the United
States. No one thought much about It at
the time, but with the intensihcation Of
class feeling that the war brought about,
and the recent formation Of Farmer
Labor party, it begins 10 become apparent
that, for better or for worse, parties
based upon class and oceupational in
terest are almost certain to supersede
the ancient and now largely meaningless
division into Democratic and Republican
parties.