UNITED STATES ELECTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14566, 31 December 1910, Page 5

UNITED STATES ELECTIONS.

SWEEPING DEMOCRATIC VICTORY.

The New York correspondent, of the London Times writing on November 9, says : —The country awoke this morning to find itself Democratic. Not since 1890, in the mid term election which preceded Cleveland's second Presidency, has there been such a turnover of votes. Never has a change been accomplished in so spectacular a manner. Uncertainty ran high till the last moment; yet the result could hardly have been more decisive. In New York the Roosevelt forces have been routed. In Massachusetts all the traditions of "rock-ribbed" Republicanism have gone by the board. New Jersey, for the first time in a generation, has called to office a Democratic Executive. Connecticut has done the same. From Indiana and Illinois and from other "Western States comes the news of Democratic triumphs.

A Democratic majority in the next House of between 30 and 40 is assured. The Republican majority in the Senate has probably fallen below 15. Sir. Chanucey Depew (New York), Mr. Beveridge (Indiana), and Mr. Kean (New Jersey) are among the Republican Senators who lose their seats. In the House such Republican leaders as Mr. Herbert .Parsons (New York), Mr. Mann (Illinois), and Mr. Tawney (Minnesota) will next year be missed. New York City will only send one Republican representative to Congress. Among the Democrats who have been elected is Mr. Henry George, eon of the single taxer.

THE FAILURE OF MR. ROOSEVELT. The utter failure of the Roosevelt Republicans in this State attracts, of course, most attention. Mr. Roosevelt has met the first grave political reverse of his career. His own district of Oyster Bay went .'igainst him. His proteges and followers were singled out for especial humiliation. His enemies proclaim gleefully this morning that he has met his Waterloo; that his career as a Presidential possibility is over; that his power as a great political leader is gone; and that his new nationalism is consigned to the limbo heretofore reserved for Mr. Bryan's multitudinous and abortive policies. Doubtless the ex-President has .been dealt a, smashing blow. He is no longer the invulnerable Crusader of American politics, but there is no good reason why, with his power of political appeal and his compelling sincerity for the broader good of his country, Mr. Roosevelt should not recover most of the ground he has lost-.

CAUSES OF THE REPUBLICAN DEFEAT. Tho best immediate explanation of the Republican debacle is probably the unpopularity of the Payne Law, aggravated by high prices. Then come the somewhat unsatisfactory business conditions which are ascribed to the menace of Administrative interference.

The elections may fairly be regarded as tho registering rather of a rebuke to the Republicans for their too tardy self-emanci-pation from the sway of the '"Old Guard'' than a whole-hearted endorsement of tho Democrats. They have, of course, been a grave reverse to the Administration. Mr. Taft after the next session will bo confronted by a hostile House. The ultimate conclusion of Canadian Reciprocity and the passage of other measures on which he set his heart may well be imperilled. Bat its very comprehensiveness has robbed the defeat of- some of its sting both for Mr. Taft and Mr. Roosevelt. There is little invidious distinction about either New York or Ohio. Though too early even to speculate, it is at least conceivalifci that Mr. Roosevelt may become less Radical, and that two years hence he and the President may be found working shoulder to shoulder in the interests of sanity and Progressive Republicanism. Another alternative is, of course, that recently suggested by Mr. Root—Republicans with. the Roosevelt of Osawotomie, or some even mora Radical statesmen, at their head, ' ranged against a Conservative Democracy.