Abstract

What Happened in Michigan

The action of Michigan electors who, comprising a Republican majority of over 200,000, turned aside to defeat a Republican Senator of twelve years' service and elect in his place a Democrat, carries two implications. First, there is a positive repugnance of the American public to the money taint in politics. Second, there is a growing consciousness that party solidarity almost inevitably makes for the decay of public service and encourages the elevation of small men who serve the party only and then become, by mere passage of time, national figures. Voters, even if not wholly alienated from Republicanism, were in no mood, apparently, to respond to the campaign orators sent into the State from Republican National Headquarters and strengthen an Administration they distrusted by the preservation of Senator Charles Townsend.