traditions which make it a region of one party. We print herewith two diagrams which show at a glance the States that chose McKinley and Bryan electors, respectively, in 1896 and in 1900. Again this year we have the "Solid South" for Bryan. It is true that the diagram shows a practically solid North on the McKinley side. But the real facts are of a sort that a diagram of this kind does not disclose. Every Northern

State was the scene of healthy political activity, free and ample discussion, and equal rights at the polls. In much of the South, on the other hand, there was no actual contest.

Sectionalism

Yet it was not in the least true that at the the leading white men of the South, Polls. in their private convictions, were overwhelmingly of Mr. Bryan's way of thinking. A great many leading Democrats of the North, of whom Mr. Charles S. Fairchild, formerly Democratic secretary of the treasury, is a perfect type, supported Mr. McKinley this year without grudging or apology, and with warm appreciation of the President's loyal devotion to the welfare and advancement of the whole country. Temperamentally, there must be in the South plenty of successors of Henry Clay and the old Whig party. There is not a vestige of sectional ill-feeling in the make-up of Republicans like President McKinley and Governor Roosevelt. We do not for a moment claim that Republicans in the North are, man for man, one whit better than Democrats. But they are just as good; and numerically this year they showed themselves much stronger than Democrats. When Northern men meet Southern men socially and in business, their minds do not work in very different ways. How does it happen, then, that considerably more than one-half of the good white people of the North were ready to support Mr. McKinley this year, while so very few of the good white people of the South were willing to do it? What does this sectionalism mean?

This question is not asked because it Time for a New Era in is hard to answer. All who know Dixie Politics. the political history of the United States are familiar with the reasons why the solid white South has, up to this time, allied itself with the Democratic party of the North. The point we wish to make, however, is simply this: that such an alliance is no longer appropriate or reasonable. The words Republican and Democratic should be sufficiently divested of their traditional significance to allow men to divide in politics upon the living issues of the present day. The North is showing clearly that it does not propose, through the federal Government at Wash

ington, to interfere with the working out of the suffrage question in the South. And if now the Republicans, as is evidently their disposition, should abstain from making a party question out of the XIVth Amendment, the far South ought to become national rather than sectional in politics. The time has come for a new era.

What the Election Meant.

President McKinley, it is true, was not elected by the votes of the extreme Southern States. But the general movement of the country which has ordained that he shall remain four years longer at his post was not keenly partisan in its nature or spirit. What the movement meant we have pointed out so repeatedly heretofore that now when the outcome perfectly sustains and justifies all the positions we have taken and the predictions we have ventured upon, there is not much need to point a moral. A few words may suffice. country had decided in 1896 against free silver as a monetary standard. People may change the fashion of their clothes once or twice a year; but they cannot change all the street-grades of their

GEE WHIZ!

The

UNCLE SAMUEL: "That wuz a lively tussle I've had wid that critter. Thank goodness, I won't be bothered with him for another four years."-From Wasp (San Francisco).

The

town, or the prevailing style of its architecture, more frequently as a rule than once in a generation. It is bad to change a tariff policy too often -usually, the general character of a tariff law should hold for at least ten years. Infinitely more objectionable is the change-except at long intervals, or for most imperative reasons-of the monetary standard that measures all transactions. The fact that the people decided the silver question in 1896 was, of itself, reason enough why the Democrats should have dropped it in 1900. But, further than that, the business conditions of the country were such that the practical arguments for free silver that seemed to have some force in 1896 had lost their force in 1900. mere theory of bimetallism was not practically involved. There was no sufficient practical reason why the great Democratic party, in its convention at Kansas City, should have declared again for the immediate free coinage of silver. Labeling some. thing else the "paramount issue" could not atone for the mistake of forcing the silver question again upon the country at so inappropriate a time. As for imperialism" and "militarism," those issues, like that of the monetary standard, were not accepted by the country as, in any necessary sense, party questions. The war with Spain had been due to the action of Democrats no less than to that of Republicans, and there had been no distinction of party lines in the public sentiment which was responsible for each succeeding step. As the campaign proceeded, it was evident enough that the country did not expect or desire apologies for the policy of American expansion. The popularity of that policy stands revealed. Its completely national character is now beyond all question; for every one knows that the Democratic complexion of the "Solid South" was, in no sense, due to sympathy with the views of the Anti-imperialist League,

or to the acceptance of Mr. Bryan's views on the position of the United States in the Orient. In short, this was not a year for party politics; nor was it a time when the country could possibly afford to repudiate either its fi nancial decisions of four years ago, or its actions on the larger stage of the world's affairs subsequent to the Spanish War. We are in the Orient to stay, to exercise a useful as well as

a powerful influence; and we must, henceforth, take an ever-increasing part in the complexities of diplomacy and international relationship.

The Re-Election

In our Record of Current Events," of President on another page, will be found some McKinley. tabulated statistics of the Presidential election of November 6. The Republicans were successful in twenty-eight States which have an aggregate of 292 votes in the electoral college. The Democrats were successful in seventeen States which have an aggregate of 155 votes in the electoral college. Those who would keep in mind the mechanism of our elections must remember that, in the legal sense, the Presidential election has not yet been held. Each of the 447 electors has a perfect right in law to vote for any citizen whom he may prefer. Custom that is stronger than law, however, makes it certain that all the Republican electors will, on December 5, vote for McKinley and Roosevelt, and that all the Democratic electors will vote for Bryan and Stevenson. Four years ago, Mr. Bryan had 176

votes and Mr. McKinley 271. The Republican ticket again carried all the States that were Republican in 1896, except Kentucky. In addition to those States, and as an offset to the loss of Kentucky, the Republicans this year carried Mr. Bryan's own State of Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, Wyoming, Utah, and Washington.

The Result in Various States.

The election in Kentucky was this year so much complicated with local issues, and there has since been so much dispute over the manner in which the Goebel election law affected the fairness of the returns, that no national significance whatever is to be attached to the result in that State. The Republican success in Nebraska, in spite of the complete fusion of Democrats, Populists, and Silver Republicans, and their warm, personal allegiance to Mr. Bryan, was a great moral victory, not so much for Mr. McKinley personally, as for the principle of sound money and the pol icy of American expansion. The reduction of Bryan's majority in Colorado to about the dimen sions of the Republican majority in Connecticut. or Indiana, in view of the fact that almost every man in Colorado voted for Bryan four years ago, was morally the greatest Republican triumph of all. The plurality in Kansas of 12,000 for Bryan in 1896 was changed last month to a McKinley plurality of 24,000. Wisconsin and Illinois, which throughout the campaign the Democrats were claiming on the strength of their supposed conquest of the German American vote, each gave McKinley about 100,000 plurality.

theless, was complete and decisive. He was em barrassed by the multiplicity of his issues. He found himself the foremost champion on too many different fields. He could not abdicate his place as head and forefront of the great free silver movement, by virtue of which he had brought about the amalgamated support of three parties. Nor could he repudiate a position in which the Olneys, Schurzes, and Atkinsons of the anti-Imperialist movement, as well as the Kansas City Convention, had recognized him as the leader in a crusade that proposed to preserve the republic and avert the "empire." But for political purposes, an even greater question, if possible, than either of the others was that involved in the hue and cry against trusts" and plutocratic tendencies in government. And here, again, Mr. Bryan found practically the whole work of saving the country thrown upon his one pair of sturdy shoulders. Single-handed, he fought for an income-tax. It was he, moreover, who was selected to champion the cause of the Boers; to denounce the alleged secret alliance of Mr. McKinley and Secretary Hay with Lord Salisbury; and to proclaim the grievances, if any could be found, of the Porto Ricans and the Cubans against this country. The load was too heavy for any candidate that ever lived. The only wonder is that Mr. Bryan carried it so well. This was not a politi cal year, after all. Mr. Bryan made perhaps more out of the situation than any one else could have done. In times of prosperity it is natural that people should prefer not to ask searching questions or make experimental changes. Again, as four years ago, Mr. Bryan made a wonderful speaking campaign. He is still a young man and of unimpaired vigor. Let us hope that he will not, at his age, become a mere martyr-the Jefferson Davis, so to speak, of the lost cause of free silver. One might be tempted to say to Mr. Bryan, in the slang of the day, "Cheer up; the

worst is yet to come." There are always clouds on the horizon, and there will be no dearth of first-class causes to champion. Soon enough, too, there will come elections when the country is not under the spell of business conservatism.

Elections.

So much attention is always attracted Congressional by the Presidential election that the general reader may be pardoned if, in a Presidential year, he has less in mind the importance of the Congressional and gubernatorial elections. The present House of Representatives has 186 Republicans and 171 opposition members-a Republican majority of 15. It is estimated that the next House will have 202 Republican members and 155 opposition members-a Republican majority of 47. In the Senate, as at present constituted, there is a Republican majority of about 16. In the Senate as it will be after the 4th of March it is estimated that the Republican strength will be materially enhanced.

The New Governors.

Twenty-six of the forty-five States elected governors on November 6. In the East, the most conspicuous contest was in New York, where the Hon. B. B. Odell, Jr., was chosen over Mr. J. B. Stanchfield by a plurality that exceeded 100,000, although, as was expected, it fell a good deal behind that given to McKinley. Elsewhere we publish an interesting characterization of Mr. Odell as a Republican by Dr. Lyman Abbott. In Massachusetts, Governor Crane was reëlected as a matter of course. In Indiana, the Hon. W. T. Durbin was elected governor by a plurality a little less than that given for McKinley. In Michigan, the Hon. Aaron T. Bliss is chosen governor to succeed Mr. Pingree, his opponent having been Mr. Maybury, who succeeded Mr. Pingree as mayor of Detroit. In Minnesota the Hon. Samuel F. Van Sant was elected by a close

margin as against the Hon. John Lind, the present governor, who made a very strong fight. Mr. McKinley carried Minnesota by 70,000, while the governor - elect had a plurality over Lind of only 4,000. In Illinois, also, Mr. Alschuler, the Democratic candidate for governor, had great popular strength, and the governorelect, Hon. Richard Yates, fell more than 30,000 behind the Republican vote for President. In Nebraska, curiously enough, Mr. Bryan fared much worse than the State ticket with which he was associated. The Republican governor-elect, Charles H. Dietrich, came through with a plurality not more than a quarter, perhaps, of that given to Mr. McKinley; and the Fusionists also seem to have come very close to a control of the new legislature, which will elect two United States Senators. In the State of Washington, the present Democratic governor, Rogers, was reëlected, while the State went for McKinley. Kentucky declares that Governor Beckham is rëelected, although the Republicans affirm that their candidate, Mr. Yerkes, actually polled the larger number of votes, and that he has been counted out. Some interesting senatorial struggles are in prospect; but of these we shall have enough in future months. The minor parties made no great showing in this year's election, and apparently had little or nothing to do with turning the scale in any of the forty-five States. Next month it may be possible to say approximately how many votes were cast for Mr. Woolley the Prohibitionist candidate, Mr. Baker the Populist, and Mr. Debs the Socialist.

reasons various members have expressed a desire to lay down their public duties. Mr. Hay, secretary of state, who has shown great capacity and won wide fame in connection with the diplomacy about China, is said to have felt the strain upon his health. If he should retire, it is supposed that the portfolio of State would be tendered to Mr. Root, now secretary of war. Mr. Root has had even more arduous duties than Mr. Hay, and undoubtedly he too would like to seek relief in private life. Attorney-General Griggs has definitely decided to leave the cabinet at the end of the present term on March 4. It is believed that Mr. Gage will consent to stay at his post and help readjust the revenue system at a time when war taxes are producing a surplus. Secretary Long, it is

now reported, may also be persuaded to forego his prefer. ences and remain at the head of the Navy Department. It would be a distinct loss to have Mr. Wilson leave the Department of Agriculture. It is well known that Mr. Charles Emory Smith desires to lay down the postmastergeneralship and resume his

CHESTER B. JORDAN.

(Gov.-elect of New Hampshire.)

W. MURRAY CRANE. (Gov.-elect of Massachusetts.)

otherwise to find things going steadily on with the same cabinet and the same executive organization throughout the country, and without the customary clean sweep of ambassadors, ministers, and consular officers abroad. There are times, of course, when changes are wholesome and beneficial; but there are other times when the avoidance of change is of much profit and advantage to all but office-seekers.

editorial functions in Philadelphia; but it is reported that he will accept as law the President's wish to have him stay in the cabinet. It has not been reported, so far as we are aware, that Mr. Hitchcock, the secretary of the interior, has intended to retire. The President's specific invitation to all members of the cabinet to remain at their posts will make it unnecessary for them to tender their resignations, as a matter of form, at the end of the present term. We have, perhaps, never had a President who maintained, as perfectly as does President McKinley, the appropriate relationship that should exist between the

Questions for Congress this Month.

In his forthcoming message to Congress the President will deal at some length with the Nicaragua Canal question. Undoubtedly it is his laudable ambition to see work actually begun on a trans-Isthmian canal before he retires from the White House in 1905. Doubtless, also, he will recommend some reduction of war taxes and a readjustment of the revenues. The question of shipping subsidies is expected to come up again for consideration this winter. There will be an effort made to fix the congressional apportionment under the new census; and since, apparently, the question of negro disfranchisement is to be waived, the business ought not to be hard to manage. The