The Republicans of the Senate, will probably make a gain of four members. The terms of thirty senators will expire on March 4, 1907, fifteen of them being Democrats and fifteen Republicans. Patterson, of Colorado, Guerin, of Oregon--appointed to succeed the late Senator Mitchell, who died in disgrace--Dubois, of Idaho, and Clark, of Montana, are the four Democrats who will probably be succeeded by Republicans. Then the Republicans in the Senate will have more than a two-thirds majority.
Senator Dryden, the life insurance president of New Jersey, doesn’t know whether the legislature in January is going to re-elect him or not--and no one else seems to know any more than he does. The Republican majority is very close, and there is considerable defection in the ranks. He may be opposed by Gov. Edward S. Stokes.
Pennsylvania went Republican all right, but it was not exactly as “Maine went for Governor Kent.” Edwin S. Stuart--the first bachelor in a generation, by the way, to occupy the Keystone White House--is conceded to be “a very nice man,” so the Republicans elected him over the fusion candidate, Emery. It is charged in some quarters that his election indicates that Pennsylvania has recovered from her spasm of righteousness and reform, but the fact remains that Boss Penrose is now asking that things be done instead of demanding them, as he formerly did, after the manner of the Quay school in which he was educated.
New Hampshire has a peculiar election system. If no candidate receives a majority over all, the election is thrown into the legislature. Hon. Charles M. Floyd, Republican, received a plurality, but not a majority. His election by the legislature is assured, however.
[Illustration: MR. BRYAN--“ALAS, POOR HEARST! I KNEW HIM WELL!”
The election of James O. Davidson as governor of Wisconsin was hailed as a victory for the anti-Follette forces, since they had opposed his nomination, but the junior senator made his influence felt in no uncertain way elsewhere, notably in the defeat of Representative Babcock, who has served seven terms in the house, and for a long period was the official fat-fryer of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee.
The new state of Oklahoma selected Democratic members of the constitutional convention and will stand by Jeffersonian principles. Some effort is being made to embody white supremacy provisions in the organic law which is being framed, and this has started a discussion as to whether the President, under those circumstances, would issue the proclamation admitting the new state to the Union. It is recalled that under somewhat similar circumstances the statehood of Missouri was held up for fifteen months.