Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1908 — THE VERMONT ELECTION. [ARTICLE]

THE VERMONT ELECTION.

Result of Victory Indicates Undiminished Majorities for Republicans in November. Raymond, the Washington correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, who is regarded as one of the most reliable political writers In the country, regards the result of the Vermont election as presaging absolute victory for Mr. Taft In a recent special dispatch to the Tribune Raymond said: “Practically speaking, the result of Tuesday’s election is more favorable to the Republicans than they had any right to expect because there has been no determined campaign for the purposeof making a good showing in Vermont and few of the big guns of the party have been put on the stump there this year. “There is, of course, a slight falling off in the vote of both Republicans and Democrats, as compared with four years ago, but this was entirely to be expected, because at that time Roosevelt was the nominee of his party for president, and the result in Vermont in that year was merely a forerunner of tLe tremendous landslide which took place Hl] over the country. "As it Is, the plurality of over 29,000 at yesterday’s election is taken to be an indication that, while the campaign this year is dot to be a sensational one, the election of Mr. Taft Is foreshadowed by a safe majority. “If VerAont can be taken as an index of the condition of public opinion throughout the country, it means that in the November election, whatever strength the Independence League develops in the other States will come almost exclusively from Bryan and net from Taft

“The Vermont Democrats, while few in number, are extremely rockribbed in their sentiments. They make a point of going to the polls year after year and carry on a hopeless fight merely because they want to set a good example to the Democrats in other States. In 1896 they repudiated Bryan and the free silver heresy, and they aid it largely by staying at home on election day. The result was a plurality of a little over 40,000 for McKinley, which has been a record in Vermont elections. In the State elections of 1900 and 1904 the Democratic vote was practically Stationary.”