isa-normaladvance-1913-00113-Feb

Description:	IndianaSTATE NORMAL- LIBRARY _The Normal AdvanceVolume XVIII.TERRE HAUTE, IND., FEBRUARY, 1913.Number 5.W^t election of 1908 anb 1912 in SnbianaTHOMAS R. JOHNSON/T~VHE smoke of battle from November 6,-*■ 1912, has lifted from the Indiana battlefield. To the winners, the Democrats, belongthe spoils of their victory, and many membersof the party, too well aware of this fact, arebeseiging the sucessful candidates for appointment to the many hundreds of offices that canbe, vacated w7ith the change of administration.The Progressive party, although but an infantwhen compared to the other two battle scarredorganizations, made a great showing in its firstcampaign, and the enthusiastic members arewell pleased with the result in nearly every instance. At Mishawaka, the stronghold of Progressives in Northern Indiana, but a few dayshad elapsed from the election of November 6,when announcement w7as made that the partyworkers would start at once making plans to.perfect a closer organization in that section,and to further the cause of Progressivism inthat locality and wherever possible. The partysprang from the third party, the name bywhich it was known before the election, to thesecond place, and at once became one of theleading parties. The Republican party is generally conceded to be politically dead, by thetwo opposing factions, and even some of itsown members, but the figures of the electionwill show that it is far from dead, althoughits former strength has left it, and it is thoughtthat^a short time will put an end to the oncegreat political party.Witli the result of the election known, a lookat the figures for the vote from over the state,will show that it was very much lighter thanin the election of 1908. Various papers, representing all three political parties, have madean effort to explain this, but have not met withsuccess thus far. The one great factor thatis assigned for the lighter vote is the corruptpractices act, a law passed by the IndianaLegislature which recently went into effect.This requires voters to register in order to vote,and as many failed to comply with the law,they did not get to cast their ballot as a consequence. Some of the papers have asserted thatmany men registered and then did not vote,through lack of interest. This is the real question, the lack of interest among the voters, andit is something over which the politicians andstatesmen can ponder.In practically every county of the state afalling off of the vote Avas noticeable, the decline ranging from barely a hundred to severalthousand, according to the total number ofvoters in the county. But few of the countiesshowed the gains to be expected, the best example of this being in Allen county, wiiere thegain was about 3,500.In scanning the official vote of the state bycounties, it can be ascertained that Rooseveltsecured a great number of Democratic votesfrom almost all the counties, although he drewprincipally from the Republican party. Practically every county was carried by the Democratic leader, AAroodrow AVilson, but it was asmaller vote than that of 1908 which was gotten by Bryan. The combined vote of the Progressives and Republicans, although showing aloss from the Republican vote of 1908. is not asgreat a loss as the figures show was sustainedby the Democrats. An example of this is inAdams county. In 1908, the vote wTas: Bryan,3.404: Taft. 1.726. In 1912, the returns were:
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/34558
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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