The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 12, 1917, Page 6

capture of these two counties has given great satisfaction to League men. The vote was only a medium sized one. It was large for a special election, but all the voters did not get out. While the members of the League did nobly, as the big country vote for Baer shows, they could have done better. The farmers evidently were over-confident in some districts and did not think it was important to get to the polls regard- less of anything else. If this feeling had been widespread it might have feen fatal. Allit did was to cut down Baer’s pluralities. FIRST DISTRICT HARDEST TO CARRY FOR FARMERS Ramsey county, if it has been lost by the League, was for this reason alone. There was a circus at Devils Lake, which took thousands of people to the city. In a large number of cases they went to the circus without voting at their home precinets beforehand. The First North Dakota congressional district, containing as it does the biggest cities of the state—Grand Forks and Fargo—and having LATEST TABULATION County Total precinets Reported Baer Burtness Bangs G 1N 32 1005 773 280 Cavalier ... 41 591 358 Grand Forks 60 1627 735 Nelson . . ... 31 558 5137 Pembina . . 39 811 409 Ramsey . ... 37 624 143 Ransom . ... 31 304 Richland ... 44 751 Sargent . ... 24 376 Steele . ... 24 - 802 Towner .. .. 34 311 Trajllsosss 29 846 39 702 Totals. @ Z& a considerably larger city and town population than'any other district of the state, is the hardest to carry for a farmers’ candidate. But it was done by a big, safe margin. The loss of Grand Forks by Baer was to be expected. This city, is the headquarters of the bitterest opposition to the farmers in North Dakota. - The League lost Grand Forks city last year. But the city of Grand Forks, even with its intensified and organized -opposition to the farmers, beat Baer by only a few votes. GREAT INCREASE IN LEAGUE STRENGTH SHOWN BY VOTE An analysis of the primary and election vote last year in the First distriet, compared with the Baer vote, shows that the League has more than held its own. Out of every 100 votes cast in the primary last year Frazier got 46 in the First distriet. Out of every 100 votes cast Baer at least got 49—very likely 50 or 51. The Leader’s latest compilation, with much strong Baer territory to hear from, shows him with over 48 out of every 100 votes cast, considerably better than Frazier did in the primaries. In the First district last year the voters failed to give Casey, League candidate for state treasurer, a lead over Steen. The district gave a majority of 700 to Steen, yet Baer this year has prob- ably caried the district by 3300 votes. RANSOM MAY PROVE TO BE BANNER COUNTY Ransom county, where Sheriff Ray Craig and a bunch of loyal boosters aided the League forces, probably will prove the banner Baer county of the district. It gave Baer a plurality of 509 votes over Burt- ness. Ransom county gave Baer nearly twice as many votes as all other candidates combined, the yote for Baer being 903 and the com- bined vote of Burtness and Bangs being 465. Richland county, down in the southeast corner of the district, a former anti-League stronghold, with five precinets missing, gave Baer a plurality of 486 and may yet beat Ransom county’s record. Towner county, clear in the northwest corner of the district, is next, giving Baer a lead of 440 on complete returns. Baer here got 751 votes to a combined vote of 403 for Burtness and Bangs. Steele county gave Baer a lead of 308, with one precinct still missing. Ran- som, Towner and Steele counties all gave Baer more than thee as many votes as Burtness. Big l.eague Vote Gain Shown Analysis Shows Strength of Farmers Has Materially Increased Since Last Year, Although Over-Confidence Kept Many From Polls district Tuesday means more than just another victory for the organized farmers. It shows a big increase in their strength everywhere. . THE special election held in the First North Dakota congressional - ‘While last fall the League candidates ran as Republicans or Demo- crats, and had the regular Republican or Democratic vote added to the Nonpartisan vote, at the special election in the First district this year the Nonpartisan candidate ran alone. He polled more votes than the five Republican candidates combined, and polled PRACTICALLY AS MANY VOTES AS ALL THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES AND THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE COMBINED. LEAGUE POLLED ONLY 10,873 VOTES IN THE 1916 ELECTION 5 At the 1916 election Governor Lynn J. Frazier polled 28,917 votes in the First North Dakota district to 8,101 for McArthur, Democrat. However, most of these votes were ‘‘regular’’ Republicans. John Steen, running for state treasurer on the Republican ticket, and op- posed by a League candidate, received 18,044 votes in the First distriet. Therefore of Frazier’s 28,917 votes, 18,044 were ‘‘regular’’ Republican votes and only 10,873 were Nonpartisan votes. The First district vote of 1916 was: Nonpartisan, 10,873; Republican, 18,044; Democratic, 8,101, In other words, of every 100 votes there were only 29 Nonpartisan votes, 49 Republican and 22 Democratic. BAER GOT 49 VOTES IN EVERY 100 THIS YEAR : At the special election this year latest returns give Baer, Non- partisan, 11,302 votes, Burtness, Republican, 8396 votes and Bangs, Democrat, 3097 votes. Aaker, Cuthbert, Plain and Vick, Republicans, received a total of about 500 votes. The missing precinets will increase Baer’s lead. Out of every 100 votes this year there were 49 Nonpartisan votes, only 38 Republican and only 13 Democratie. In other words, out of every 100 voters in the district, 20 men who were opposed to the League a year ago—11 Republicans and 9 Dem- ocrats—voted thig year with the organized farmers. = PAGE SIX Casey, League candidate for state treasurer a year ago, lost the First district by 747 votes, although he had, besides the League vote of approximately 10,000, the vote of approximately 8,000 regular Demo- crats. Baer, with both Democratic and Republican candidates opposed to him, will carry the district by more than 3000 votes. Casey lost Traill county by more than 500 votes. Traill county this year yolled up a handsome plurality for Baer, gave him, in fact, more votes than the Republican and Democratic candidates combined. Casey also lost Richland county by approximately 300 votes, because the farmers in Richland county were not organized at the time of the last campaign. This year Richland turned around and gave Baer a lead of 600 votes. The farmers had organized in the meantime. Nelson and Cass counties, which also rolled up hostile majorities against Casey last November, turned around and gave Baer big leads. MORE REPUBLICANS VOTE FOR BAER THAN FRAZIER In the First district at the June primaries last year, when only the Republicans voted, Governor Frazier received only 10,741 votes, while the combined vote of the three Republicans running against him was 12,357. Frazier’s vote was the Nonpartisan vote, the vote against him was the vote of “regu]ar” Republieans. - This year, with returns still mcomplete Baer has recelved in the First district 11,302 votes, as against 8396 for Burtness, while if the other Republican candidates are allowed 500 votes and these are added to the vote for Burtness, it shows that Baer had 2506 more votes than all his Republican opponents combined. On the other hand Frazier, a year ago, had 1616 LESS votes than all his Republican opponents combined. BURTNESS STRONGEST MAN OPPOSITION COULD FIND Frazier in the primaries lost Cass county by 800 votes and Rich- land county by 350 votes, but both of these countles turned around and rolled up big votes for Baer. Another point is worth éonsidering in connection with the recent election. Burtness, put forward by the anti-League men as their candi- z 5 (Continued on page 17)