Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1914 — REPUBLICAN SENTIMENT AT RISING TIDE [ARTICLE]

REPUBLICAN SENTIMENT AT RISING TIDE

Sumner Curtis Gives An Impartial View of the Massachusetts and New Jersey Results. The congressional elections in the 7th New Jersey and 12th Massachusetts districts last week resulting in the actual election of a republican congressman in the one and the advance of the G. O. P. fioin third to second place in the other, has been a national topic for the past week. Sumner Curtis in the Chicago Record-Herald thus analyses the situation: The most significant thing about all the returns to the impartial observer is the disintegration of the progressive vote. All questions of immediate advantage in the tote showing asides it is indicated most plainly that without the personality of Roosevelt the candidate, to keep the bull moose forces together, the next great (battle will be between the two old armies—the republicans and the democrats. The progressive leaders are in the dumps, for it is being shown that it will be mighty hard to carry out their program of keeping congress democratic for another two years merely by keeping up the third party organization. / In the 7th New Jersey district the democratic candidate’s vote dropped from 9,990, received by Bremnor in 1912, to 5,420, while the republican vote Increased from 6,666 in 1912 to 10,620. And the progressive vote dropped from 4,746 to an insignificant 611. The socialist vote of 5,053 cast yesterday is interesting in a sense, but it is not important from a national point of view. It merely reflects a local situation. But, as stated in the beginning, neither the democratic slump nor the republican gain would have been of such damaging significance as far as the administration is concerned had the president and his friends not staked so much on the result in advance.

In returning to their former republican allegiance the voters of this New Jersey district possibly have emphasized disapproval of democratic policies, especially by reason of the fact that it embraced a manufacturing community which is keenly interested in the protective tariff. In this connection let it be said that the tolls question, which was made an eleventh-hour Issue by the declaration of O*Bryne in favor of the president’s stand, did not cut as much of a figure in determining the result—in the minds of unbiased analysts-as questions of economic policy. In Massachusetts the thing most interesting to the national leaders is the terrific slump of the progressive vote from 9,001 In 1912 to 3,502, thereby raising the republican party from third to second place in the district Massachusetts is a stronghold of the progressives, as indicated by recent elections, but the original strength is not being held. In this district, moreover, the tolls question was more of an issue than in New Jersey. The democratic candidate squarely opposed the president in this matter, while the other candidates sidestepped. Democratic candidate received a majority- over both the other candidates, while in 1912 Curley, democrat, fell a few hundred short of a majority. Representative Mann declared that the New Jersey election is only a precursor of what will come. The republican congressional campaign cominittee in a statement tonight says that 'Tn every special Section since 1912 the anti-democratic vote has exceeded the vote cast in support of the administration, thus negativing the claim thgt the democratic policies are being endorsed by the people.”

Job work at Republican office.