Party Readjustment
greatly emphasized the need of a more radical prosecution of the reforms which had been begun under the Roosevelt administration. It contained an unequivocal declaration in favor of “equal suffrage to men and women alike.”
The Democrats, in a convention dominated by Mr. Bryan, nominated Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey and Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana on a platform calling for a “tariff for revenue only,” an income tax, and abandonment of the Philippines. Socialist, Prohibitionist and Socialist Labor nominations were also made. A vigorous campaign was waged and the Republicans polled a large majority of the votes of the nation. Yet, owing to the division in their ranks, they were badly defeated and the Democratic ticket was elected. Mr. Wilson received 435 electoral votes, Mr. Roosvelt 88, and Mr. Taft only 8. Yet Mr. Wilson received only 6,292,670 popular votes, while Mr. Roosevelt got 4,169,482 and Mr. Taft 3,441,568; so that had the two wings of the Republican party remained united that party would have had 7,611,050 votes, or 1,318,380 more than the Democrats, and it would have had 379 electoral votes to the Democrats 152. In this election the Socialists polled 898,538, the Prohibitionists 207,959 and the Socialist Labor party 29,083 votes. The Democrats also gained control of Congress.
After the middle of the Taft administration, therefore, the Republican party had for a number of years no control of legislation, and after the close of that administration they also lost control of the executive for eight years. In 1916 the party was reunited on a basis of sanely progressive principles. Its platform
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