OCR Text |
Show Early Voting Is Heavy and Almost Unprecedented Un-precedented Interest Is Manifested; Dunne and Busse Partisans Equally Confident; Traction Interests at Stcke I . ': ',; . More excitement is shown in the municipal election ,, in Chicago today than in any other political contest in that city in many years. The day dawned - bright and clear; withj indications that a large proportion of- the 391,000 registered voters would exercise their right of suffrage. , , . ; Each side claims confidence in the outcome of - the Mayoralty fight between Purine, Democrat, the incumbent,' and Busse, Republican, at present the postmaster of the' city. I The traction question also is to be definitely decided j The (Democrats uphold the municipal ownership policies' of Mayor Dunne, while the Republicans oppose them. I CHICAOO, , APRIL 2. NOT IN MANY1 YEARS HAS THERE BEEN HELD ! IN CHICAGO A MUNICIPAL ELECTION SO IMPORTANT AND FAR-REACHING IN ITS EFFECTS AS THAT WHICH BEGAN AT O'CLOCK THIS MORNING AT THE 1256 VQTINP PRECINCTS IN THIS CITY. 'BESIDES THE ELECTION OF CITY OFFICIALS THE PEOPLE WILL DECIDE OR FAIL TO DECIDE THE STREET CAR QUESTION, WHICH HAS KEPT THE CITY IN AGITATION DURING THE LAST TWO TEARS. ....,..,. . THIS ELECTION ALSO WILL BE THE FIRST BY WHICH CITY OFFICIALS OFFI-CIALS ARE TO BE SELECTED FOR A TERM OF FOUR YEARS. AS AGAINST THE TWO-YEAR TERM WHICH HAS BEEN THE LAW IN THE PAST. ' THE POLLS WILL CLOSE AT . 4 O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON AND IT IS ESTIMATED ESTI-MATED THAT 350,000 CITIZENS WILL! EXPRESS BY THEIR BALLOTS BAL-LOTS THEIR CHOICE, BOTH AS TO CANDIDATES AND THE VARIOUS QUESTIONS OF PUBLIC POLICY THAT WILL BE SUBMITTED TO THE PEOPLE TODAY. In "Hinky DinkV Ward. A comparatively light vote was cast during the early hours in the First ward down (town, and it waa declared " that this ward, which is usually considered Democratic by 3500 plurality, will give Mayor Dunne only about 1500 plurality.) plu-rality.) The fact that there is no Republican Re-publican candidate for Alderman opposing! op-posing! Michael Kenna (Hinky Dink) was given as one reason for the light vote. The voting in other wards w. unusually heavy. . ' i' 'In the -Twenty-first ward' Busse 's' home, a heavy vote was polled early, and it was declared by Francis W. Tav-i lor, Republican candidate for Alderman1 in that ward, that Busse would win out by a -large plurality, although Mayors Dunne carried the ward two years ago by 800 majority. - , - The Republican managers claim that their candidate for Mayor, Frederick A. Busse, present postmaster of Chicago, will have a plurality of from 30,000 to 40,000. The Democratic leaders asserti their belief in the success of Mayor , Edward F. Dunne by about the same ad vantage, over Busse that the Republicans Repub-licans claim for their candidate. . . Trao.PropoBitloni, : v .',:; J.,- ' Besides the 'candidates for office the people will be called en to vote en sev ' eral propositions.- One of these is the; question of public policy by. which the! people will declare for or against' ap- proval of the traction ordinances passed, by the , City Council, vetoed by Mayor i?rvl n( aKain passed over the veto. While these ordinances have been made a party measure, it is likely that party lines will be crossed bv many of the voters on the proposition. The Democratic platform declared against the ordinances and Mayor Dunne. has made his campaign in opposition to them. The Republican platform declared for the ordinances -and Busse is pledged to enforcement of the measures if elected. Seldom in the history of Chicago were the election precincts manned by so large an army of watchers and workers work-ers of both parties. .The day opened clear and cold. Will Know Result Early. The result of the election, unless the contest is surprisingly close, will be in-1 dicated thirty minutes after the polls close. This-quick forecast, forecasting the total result will-be due to the vot-, ing machines which are stationed in each ward of the city. The instant the polls close at 4 o'clock the machines will be opened, the dials read and the! result telephoned to the office of the; election commissioners in the city hall. . Comparison of these early results j with the Dunne-Harlan vote in the same precincts two years ago will give an' indication of the result of today 's lec-! tion. Special clerks have been assigned byi the election commissioners to record1 the results handled over the telephone.! Thirty-seven machines are distributed; throughout the thirty-five wards of the city, the Twenty-fifth and Thirty-first wards each having two. The total registration for today is 391,588. Chief Clerk Powell of the election board estimates that 85 per cent of this number, or 332,850 votes will be cast. Numerous reports were received by the election commissioners of trouble throughout the city. In one precinct of the First ward a policeman stationed' himself in the polling place and refused! to allow anybody to vote unless he was , assured that they would vote "right."; He was arrested and locked up. j In the Seventh ward a fight was pre-! cipitated by two men claiming to be! challengers of the Prohibition party,! who invaded a polling place, carrying! a large camera and claimed the right j to take a photograph of the voting ma-! chine. They were thrown into the atreet' and their camera with them. Small Riot Averted. The judges of the election in the ' Twentieth precincts of the Thirty-! fourth ward found that 100 ballots had' bcn cast aiter ninety-nine vo;cts had' been checked off. They closed the poll-' ing place and counted the votea several' times. A long string of waiting voters threatened to break the door down unless un-less they were allowed to vote. A small riot was finally averted by the. direction of the election commissioners that the voting be allowed to proceed and the error corrected in the count at the close of the day. - . ( Numeroua reports of purchases of votes were received, but none of them stood the light of investigation, and up to noon no arrests had been made. , Another fight waa precipitated in the first precinct of the Tenth ward by. a Socialist voter who refused to 'accept the working of the new voting machine, claiming that it would only register Republican votes. After much debate, the voter was arrested. The vote up to noon was remarkably -heavy, it being in a majority of the wards almost as heavy as in the last -Presidential election. , |