NEW YORK 8 7S 



The presidential campaign resulted in Woodrow Wilson receiving the 45 electoral 

 votes of the state. The popular vote was: for Wilson, 655,475; for Taft, 455,428; for 

 Roosevelt, 390,021; and for Debs, 63,381 (38,451 in 1908). The Democratic machine, 

 it was supposed, would not exert its utmost strength for Woodrow Wilson, whose 

 nomination it had opposed at Baltimore, where the delegation voted (as a unit) for 

 Judson Harmon on the first nine ballots and thereafter for Champ Clark 1 ; and because 

 Wilson had urged the nomination for governor of no machine candidate. 2 The press 

 of the state was less favourable to Wilson, much less favourable to Roosevelt and more 

 kindly disposed to Taft than that of any other part of the country. And the Republican 

 party organisation, which had long been hostile to Roosevelt, suffered less from 

 schism and gave to Taft a stronger support than in almost any other state. The 

 state's representation in Congress, 3 43 under the new apportionment, instead of 37, 

 will be composed of 30 Democrats, 10 Republicans and 3 Progressives. W. Bourke 

 Cockran (b. 1854), a New York Democrat, who had campaigned for McKinley in 1896 

 and was representative in Congress in 1887-89, 1891-95 and 1904-09, joined the 

 Progressive party and was a candidate for Congress. 



In August the new Progressive party organised separately. In the primaries of Septem- 

 ber 17 Progressives largely refrained from taking part. The anti-Tammany wing elected 

 about a third of the delegates to the Democratic state convention. Early in September the 

 Progressives met in an unofficial convention at Syracuse. A split threatened between the 

 followers of two rival candidates for governor. One of these was William H. Hotckhiss, 

 formerly state commissioner of insurance, chairman of the convention, who repeatedly refused 

 to have his name considered, but who was still urged as a candidate by his followers ; the 

 other William A. Prendergast, comptroller of the city of New York, who had the backing of 

 Timothy L. Woodruff. The convention was stampeded by a single speech (September 6) 

 for the nomination for governor of Oscar Solomon Straus (b. 1850), ambassador to Turkey 

 in 1887-89, 1898-1901 and 1909-10, a member of the Hague permanent court of arbitration 

 since 1902, and secretary of commerce and labor (1906-09) in the cabinet of President 

 Roosevelt. A full state ticket and local Progressive candidates were subsequently nominated 

 by petition. The Republican state convention met at Saratoga on September 25, adopted 

 a state platform with many progressive features and nominated (September 27) for governor 

 Job Elmer Hedges (b. 1862), a New York lawyer, known as a witty campaigner and after 

 dinner speaker. The Democrats, at Syracuse, nominated (October 3) for governor William 

 Sulzer (b. 1863) who had been a member of Tammany but had not been closely identified 

 with that organisation and who had been a representative in Congress in 1896-1912, where 

 he was prominent On the foreign relations committee, especially in connection with the 

 question of passports in Russia. Governor Dix was a candidate for renomination but his 

 weakness and vacillation had made him unpopular. Most of the state officers elected with 

 Dix in 1910 were renominated and at the general election, November 5, the entire Democratic 

 state ticket, including two judges of the state court of appeals, was elected. Sulzer received 

 649,559 votes (less than for any Democratic candidate for governor since 1898); Hedges, 

 444,105; and Strauss, 393,183. In New York City the Progressives elected one representative 

 in Congress and one state senator and polled many more votes than the Republicans, who 

 elected no senators or assemblymen. The political alignment of the legislature in 1913 is: 

 senate, 32 Democrats, 17 Republicans, 2 Progressives; assembly, 103 Democrats, 4.1 Repub- 

 licans, 6 Progressives. As the Progressive party was not second in the state election it will 

 be at a disadvantage on the ballot; and it will not be an "official" party until 1914 when it 

 may vote at a legal primary. 



There were no local elections of importance in New York City either in 1911 or 1912. 

 In 1911 the anti-Tammany judicial and county officers were successful and the fusion forces 

 won control of the board of aldermen from the Democrats, who elected a sheriff by only 

 2,200 votes. William J. Gaynor (b. 1851, justice of the New York state supreme court, 

 1893-1909), Over a divided opposition, was elected mayor in 1909 on the Tammany ticket, 

 but he was from the Borough of Brooklyn, where there is no Tammany organisation, and his 

 earliest political fame had been gained in crushing a corrupt ring in Brooklyn. On the whole 

 he kept his administration free from extremely partisan control. In general he acted in 

 harmony with the fusion majority in the board of estimate, elected with him, and furthered 

 reforms in the direction of efficiency in many city departments. He delayed a decision in 



1 This solid vote of New York for Clark helped to turn Bryan and his followers against 

 Clark and to lose him the nomination. See UNITED STATES, Political History. . 



2 But the Wilson and Marshall electors received more votes than were cast for the Dem- 

 ocratic candidate for governor or for any state office except lieutenant governor and controller. 



^ 3 Two congressmen died in 1912; on July 5 George R. Malby (b. 1857), Republican, in 

 Congress since 1907; and on Octobe- 30 Richard E. Connell (b. 1857), Democrat. 



