Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 68, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1916 — THE INDEPENDENT VOTER AND HIS WORK [ARTICLE]

THE INDEPENDENT VOTER AND HIS WORK

The voting of November 7 marks a great transformation in the political conditions throughout the country. Party lines were broken in millions of instances by the voters, and the South alone of all the sections seems under the sway of party spirit. New England, from Maine to Connecticut, exhibits the crumbling of Republicanism, as do all- the states west of the Mississippi river. New York city, the Gibraltar of the Democratic party in the East, cuts its former great majorities down almost to one-third. Ohio stands out before the nation, redeemed from Republicansim in a national contest in a straight-out struggle, and the result cannot fail to have most pronounced influence upon the political future of th£ state.

Indiana, though maintaining its reputation as a close state in political contests, was the scene of as numerous instances of cutting away from the directing influence of former party association as almost any other state in the Union, and no state has greater claims than it has to a free and independent electorate. The predilection of the great masses of the Republican party for the protective policy has kept Pennsylvania well up to its party record, although many thousands of former Republicans in that state undoubtedly supported Mr. Wilson Tuesday in preference to the protective champion, Mr. Hughes. The trend of sentiment in both parties has, for the past two years, been toward protection of our industries, and the enactment of the tariff commission law by the Democratic administration served to render It easier for friends of a reasonable tariff to votg the Democratic ticket throughout the states of the Union.

The feature of the campaign is the extension of Democratic sentiment, influence and power through the states beyond the Mississippi river, the capture of Ohio and the grinding away through constant attrition of Republican supremacy in New England. The old lines of battle have been greatly changed by the results of Tuesday, and the contest of 1920 will be fought under conditions far different from those of the past half century.-—Cincinnati Enquirer.