Milford chronicle., 1936-08-07


iTsr known to millions of others only b,
cause his name appeared on Cor
gressional bill which was declare
demonstrations by the Suprem
IIoa Io5 Court of the United States.
Thai man is Congressman william
~ Lemke of North Dakota, Presiden
tial nominee of the newly-forme,
= Union Party. Principal plank in hi
platform is currency imitation, anC
Sc he has the support of Father Cough.
- lin Of Share-the-W Wealth fame. Fur.
- thermore, it is widely believed that
9 before November comes round, he
= will have entered into an agreement
: with DR.. Townsend and will have the
official support of the Old-age-pen-
? sion movement.
!. No One-aside from a few zealOts-
= believes that Lemke can be elected
a Few believe that he can attain a ma
jority in even one state. But he can
, be of tremendous Importance in de-
: termining the ROosevelt-Landon
race. Before going farther into that
it is well to present a brief history
of the third party movement in
American politics.
There are always third parties. of
course, and fourth and fifth parties
as we'll. Best examples are the So
cialist and Communist parties, which |
put ticket into the field each year.
But these parties do not affect either
OF the major parties-they have a
certain established following, and
their total vote varies but little from
election to election. They do not at
tract voters in any number from the
Democratic or Republican parties.
The important third parties are
those which are brought into being
by some problem or condition of the
moment and which. though they may
live only for one election. present an
appeal to a certain proportion of the
voters of the major parties. Il is
in this classification that Lemke's
new party belongs.
Several times in the history of the -.
Republic. such third party has de-
termined the election. Most notable {
example of that was the election of
1860. when Lincoln and Douglas con- ,
tended for the Presidency. Two &,
other parties were also in the field d.
Lincoln received only 40 per cent p
Of the vote, yet was elected. Had =
all of Lincoln's opposition gone to
Douglas, the latter would have won 2,
easily. -
Another notable example occurred =
in 1884, when Blaine was the Repub- ;,
lican nominee, running against Dem /,
ocrat Cleveland. Decisive state was =,
New York. Cleveland carried it by >,
he astonishingly small majority of =,
100 votes, and so was elected to the r.,
highest office in the land. The Pro- 9,
libition candidate in New York re- E,
eived the record total of 25.O0O -,
otes that year. Had ten per cent
+ those votes gone to Blaine. he
7Ould have won.
Most successful third party was W
hat led by Theodore Roosevelt in ~
9l2, which ran second to the Demo- :,
ratio party headed by Wilson. In -
hat year. the Republican candidate. ~ -,
AFT, took the worst beating ever re- "
eived by major party candidate.
Most recent example Of an import ~,
Mt third party was the Progressive
arty which had the elder Senator
aFollette for its candidate. This -.
lrty carried but one state. Wiscon- -
n but received a good-sized vote
almost every state. II was not a,o
'cisive factor in the election, how a.,
er' for the reason that Coolidge 49,,
ent into the Presidency by a tre- v
endous electoral majority: his op- o,d
nent' John W. Davis, carrying only old
traditiOnally Democratic Solid ola
nth. iU
TO return to. the present. Candi- Aft,
-e Lemke has a strong following eed
number of what may be extreme vou
important states-states which corp
more or less in the doubtful" yen
SIS, and which might be able to
ing the battle in favor of either III
1sevelt or LandOn. These are the of I
'thwest states-the Dakotas. Mon Isv,
and Wyoming. and, to drop s;nc
tn a bit. Ohio. etc. Under the cam,
erican elective system. the candi- wb.,
who attains a majority in a NJ r.
e receives all its electoral vote. mad,
though his majority consists of tn
one vote. Thus, in a close state. solid
W thousand votes cast for Lemke that
= very easily taKe that state the {
frow one major candidate and poIit
lg 1t to the other. Tb
hich candidate has the most to three
from Lemke's candidacy? Best with
rvers say that at least 80 per eress
of the Lemke vote will be taken nrese
Roosevelt, practically none a new