How the Two National Committees Are Preparing for the Campaign.

Abstract

Twelve years ago, in the first Bryan campaign for the Presidency, nearly 14,000,000 voters cast their ballots, and of these about 13,400,000 were divided between the two leaders of the poll--McKinley and Bryan. The total vote that year was 13,952, 179.. Four years later, when Bryan made his second canvass, the total vote was 13,956,672, or only 4,400 greater than that of 1896; although Bryan had gained about 70,000 and McKinley 100,000. The increase in population through out the country in the last eight years renders it reasonably certain that at the election next fall well over 14,000,000 votes will be scast, and the probability is that, as before, the two leaders in the fight--Bryan and Taft--will aggregate all but a few hundred thousand of them. The combined Bryan-Taft vote may, in fact, come close to 14,000,000.