Show I I ELECTION RETURNS By y Frederic J. J Haskin r ANY NY thoua thousand American citizens had ad a deep interest in the returns MAN 5 from rom yesterdays yesterday's balloting The craf a person Is interested only Inthe in inthe the congressional and gubernatorial races In the various states But there were ore thousands of candidates for other offices offices county county treasurers county clerks supervisors s road commissioners over over- peers of the poor magistrates consta- consta and and to each of them his own race was of or more heart Interest than the r race ce between Dix arid Stimson or the fight for or control of the house houseIn In the sixty second 1 I congress No one has undertaken to coun count t how many candidates there are for foJ office 1 Ip 1 the theof of year in AmerIcan American Amer Amer- ican politics but I they have counted them in a Hal year and it is upward of leaI leaving out the approximately officials who are directly or ln- ln elected on that day In other nearly a million candidates nigh low have their political fate decided in the great quadrennial reckoning In Which Vh ch the people are for once the actual rulers of the nation Pos Possibly a fourth as many were up for election lection yesterday While hi he culminating event of ot American Amer Amer- ican ican- politics is election lection night in presidential presidential years a growing interest has been manifested d In the midterm congressional figh fights s. s The al crowds which gathered gath ered last night around the places where election returns were out testify to the fact that the election returns this year have a deeper meaning to the people people peo peo- than formerly The promptness with which the returns cane came in is but another of or h how the world Ms Is moving forward or ard Only fifteen years ears ago U it re- re a full d day y in some counties to know who was was' elected In a county ticket Jn n tho e counties the returns ar arc now complete t two o hours hour after the polls close The telephone a and nd shorter ballot are are re responsible le hut but most of the credit belongs to the telephone I Every er t telegraph and telephone company in the country ro Jent ent itself to the last night for the transmission of th returns No one has attempted to su- su m mate te the amount of- of f business the these e in institutions fn- fn earn carry over their wires wirt's on n election elec tion ol eights Even ven the the wireless comp compa companies n nies les made special efforts to keep the ships ship's med as as' to the progress of or h count o Many a voy voyager er far out at kept in cl close e touch with the drift or oI returns last night New ew York surpasses ses every other in the country in the size of its election night crowds and also in the volume oft of t noise the crowds make when the result resul are known known When President Taft was elect elected Q one Gotham r reporter porter in despair of f conveying Oe an idea nf nr the amount of noise t to his t. o of town rea readers lers finally wrote If four hundred lunatic asylums loose their entire list turned lums had of Inmates and the band of Co- Co and that eve ever manches had been b en commissioned to help helP make makl weird eird and and uncanny noises it still sUII would have been been- as aa but b the soft Mft sign 01 of ofa witt a lovesick lo malden maiden a compared nol noise e that started below new p row rowand and across the there town and sent on up the So rapid has been the growth of ot communication that the na nation nation na- na facilities s of re results re- re to know election is able abl tion now d days hours than it re in fewer We hae got two I go the C lI fine that to such a Or gon and Quits voting how New NewYork 1111 I now before he Massachusetts wen en The eastern east east east- York or ern chi chi- population how however er Is at a th the of Because se respect in thi this anta e difference in tine it has to walt wait three returns from the theW hours longer to hear west W the return re- re New York is able blE to announce c than any oth other l' l city more people ople turn to n nt searchlights on the ma t able It sk on within to tIle entire t the news If lle ll h Is A radius of many directIon es in one Intermittent that the returns arc arc fa fa- fa tb to the the populace lt is intermit orin the Democrats If it it Indicates other direction tent in the A Ate the Republicans toward leaning a te dy i ht in either indicate sit by t y the result In this way Y one can window i dow and know in general his own what is happen happening Ins Ins- just Justas as well as a's If hw he h- bulletin the brightest w were re in front of board boara and the loudest m megaphone ga In town which promise two things further fuSS There to are Un hasten th to receipt of elec election on returns One of these is the proposition the sky with in tP anc r o-r a vast th r turns c ns and throw upon it Is pro blY somewhat l. l But not so with the proposition to voUn machines aut m to register the vote and give vote has haR been summarY when the last the summary machine ine the modern modem Adding m c cast st-lIk st like gives the result of a column of ot fig figures utes 1 mu lt Jook look look-in In tle ion or t th the New Orleans Picayune wh when n nt fion t wishes to bestow credit for fot the Idea of out ut the the returns as they come in In 1848 Ge General eral Zachary Taylor was as running running run run- ning tot fot president and his friends were much wrought rought up over the race and wanted want want- ed d to know th the result as' as s' s quickly as pos pos- sible S So the Picayune une decided d fo give Us Its r readers aders the benefit of immediate bulletin bul bulletin bul- bul letin announcements The telegraph was as then but four years old and did not embrace em embrace em- em brace every railroad ad station in hi the country country coun coun- try as It does today Even at that the bulletin board exp experiment worked so sonell well nell I that it as as generally adopted Few people have stopped to analyze the vast results that hinge oh on last hl nights ht's r returns t ms Th There re are many state legislatures legisla t tures r s whose political al complexion complex n depends oh on what tile the returns how To legislatures leg leg- Is will fall faU the task of ot redistricting redistrict redistrict- ine ing the states stales which they represent nt Where a It state stat was redistricted by thE tho Republicans upon the apportionment of th the 1900 cen census the lines Unes of f the con congressional on- on gressional Districts were PO flO laid out ut as asto asto to make the majority of the district Re Re- Re publican except in times VIf bf landslides All AU the Democratic counties were herded off together In Democratic states the same sam t turn rn was taken a against the Rep Re Re- p publicans The party which v controls the legislature this year yeat will have a chan chance e eto to do some gerrymandering which will put the other party narty at a disadvantage e dur I ing the five ensuing congressional elec elec- As th elections come and nd go there seems to be a falling failing 0 off hi the number of freak bets made mad One a man might be seen rolling roiling a peanut up Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Pennsyl Pennsyl- vania avenue or Broadway because he had bet on the m man n who lost or a girl going down street with a barrel as a a. part of her attire all because she she- was more enthusiastic than wipe In political matters It also is probable that there is a tailing falling oft off In the mone money bot bets It was estimated that In 1908 there were staked on the complexion of the election returns AJ Af this rale the money at stake in Jn the whole country countr probably was equal to the entire fortune of or some ome bf f our richest multimillionaires The returns of last night are the last national election returns in which wh six forty states will have a say By Br Bythe the time the presidential election ejection of 1912 comes around Arizona and andew New ew Mexico in the natural order ordet of things will be full fledged sisters In the statehood They stand a chance of ot sometimes deciding the political comple complexion ion of ot the senate Both the house and the presidency have hae been been won or lost on on as narrow a margin as all the votes these states will have ha In th the electoral colleges and in the hotH If It the time tI shall come where there Is a healthy third party in the ft field ld strong enough to prevent any candidate from setting getting one more than half of the votes in the electoral Colleges the house of representatives will have to elect the president arid the senate the vice dent ent In the presidential contest each st state tc would have one vote and th complexion complexion com com- o of that v vote te would depend upon which party part controlled the dele delegation of oC that state If neither party had a majority ma ma- tho states state's vote woul J be lost Under such conditions Arizona and New Mexico easily might overturn things and th tho nation be treated to the spectacle if f a Democratic president an and a ican vice president or vice versa As time has gone on the people of th the country have become more and more willIng will will- ng Ing to accept the election returns fiB is the Judgment of the people When men are lre Inclined to be p pessimistic an and to think that the country Is going to the bowwows the they wilt will good cheer In taking a look backward They would se see see- where John Adams connived Adams connived at t an Interregnum rather than permit Jefferson Jefferson Jef Jef- ferson to become his become his successor They see territories were allowed to I vot vote in the electoral colleges the they I had not the slightest st right to to todo do so a procedure which John Quincy Ad Ada arris s said would unhinge the union if it thone thole votes otes were det determinative The world of offers of fers no other spectacle of ot people people peo peo- fighting until the sun goes goes down on election day only to accept the res result Jt of th the returns with absolute unanimity and with perfect feeling |