Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1904 — JUDGE PARKER’S WEAKNESS. [ARTICLE]

JUDGE PARKER’S WEAKNESS.

Congressman Crumpacker announced Saturday that he would withdraw from the senatorial race. This gives Heminway a clear field.

And now the announcement has gone out from the postoffice department that no changes will be made in fourth class postmasters except for “cause.” This will be good news to the present incumbents, who have been shaking in their boots for the past few weeks, but will probably not set well with the hungry horde of patriots who hoped to get a place at the postoffice pie counter.

County treasurer Frank Obenchain of Cass county has been missing from Logansport for the past two weeks, and his bondsmen have taken charge of the office. It is thought the shortage will reach $50,000, It is also rumored that a pretty stenographer left Logansport at about the same time Obenchain left, and it is surmised that they left together. Obenchain is about 38 years of age, has a family and, we are sorry to say, is a democrat.

The Newton County Enterprise thinks a measure should be introduced in the forthcoming legislature to relieve county treasurer F. M. Coovert of that county from loss of county funds in the -Gilman bank, which failed last ■summer at Goodland. The Goodland Herald, also a republican paper, comes back at the Enterprise and intimates very broadly that the treasurer knew the bank was weak and was warned by his bondsmen, and also says that “it would seem that an official bond is jno longer a security but rather an ornament to make taxpayers feel good as long as there are no lost funds or malfasance in office.”

Some Two Million Democrat* Palled To Vote In the Recent Election. The following article from the New York World, one of the most active supporters of .1 udga Parker in the recent campaign, will be of interest: The comparative statistics of Presidential elections since 1868, printed in another column, show that Judges Parker was the weakest candidate ever nominated by the Democratic party for President. Even Greeley had 44 per cent of the popular vote, while Parker got only 33 per cent. Of the total number of persons eligible to vote in the election less than 33 per cent cast their ballots for Parker Electors.

On the basis of population the total vote should have been more than 15,OCX),000. The actual vote was approximately 13,400,000. Between 1876 and 1900 tbe Democratic candidates averaged 47.7 per cent of the popular vote and the Republican candidates slightly more than 48. By the law of averages Roosevelt should have had 6,432,000 and Parker 6,391,000, on the basis of the vote actually cast. Roosevelt’s total vote, however, was 7,702,000. Yet this represents only 214,000 more thnn the normal Republican vote should have been on the basis of a total vote of 15,600,000. J udge Parker fell 2,200,000 short of receiving the vote a Democratic candidate was entitled to on a full poll.

Mr. Roosevelt's strength was due largely to Judge Parker’s weakness. Even in New York City, supposed to be the Parker stronghold, his majority was only 84,666. He received only 8,000 more votes than were cast for Bryan, and his majority was only 6.000 greater than Bryan’s in 1900, although Bryan represented al-

most everything toj which New York was 'opposed. Democratic dissatisfaction expressed itself in various ways. First, in the enormous stay-at-home vote; second, in the Democratic vote for Roosevelt, which more than offset any dissatisfied and stay-at-home Republican vote; third, in the vote for Debs, and fourth, in the vote for Watson.

But if Parker got fewer votes than Cleveland in 1888 and only 200,000 more than Cleveland in 1884, it is none the less evident 1 that there must be nearly 2,000,000 Democrats in the country who did not vote in 1904, but who are likely to vote in the next election if the Republicans do not behave themselves. Because they would not vote for Parker against Roosevelt it does not follow that they will refuse to vote for a Democrat against a republican in 1908. Greeley had only 44 per cent of the popular vote in 1872, but Tilden in 1876 had 51. Nearly 1,500,000 Democrats who did not vote for Greeley voted for Tilden. By 1908 it is conceivable that, with the increase in population, there might be fully 3,000,000 Democrats and independents who did not vote for Parker but who would vote for some other Democrat candidate for President to punish Republican misgovernment. The results of the election do not guarantee the Republican party an indefinite lease of power regardless of behavior.