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NATIONAL POLITICS: THE 1908 ELECTIONS

The Bryan Campaign

As the campaign got under way, Bryan ran in his usual style. He attacked the Republicans for stealing many of his platform ideas from previous years. He argued that he was the rightful successor to Roosevelt because he was more progressive than Taft and could carry out better reforms than his Republican opponent. The Panic of 1907 left the Republicans unable to promote themselves as the party of prosperity, but Bryan did not capitalize on the issue. He campaigned on so many issues that his message failed to reach the public in an effective manner, and he unsettled many middle-class voters by adopting as his campaign slogan, "Shall the People Rule?"—a question whose strong socialist under-tones were repellent to many middle- and upper-class Americans. The Democrats also remained outside main-stream political feelings by adhering to their support for states' rights. In the end his ideas proved too radical for most voters, including labor, despite the endorsement of the AFL.

Taft's Lackluster Effort

Docile by nature and over-shadowed by a much-loved, charismatic president, Taft did little to invigorate the voters on his own. After the convention he took a two-month vacation before hitting

Senate	60th Congress	61st Congress	Net Gain/Loss
Democrats	31	32	0
Republicans	61	61	0
Other	0	0	0

House	60th Congress	61st Congress	Net Gain/Loss
Democrats	164	172	+8
Republicans	222	219	-3
Other	0	0	0

Governors	1906	1908	Net Gain/Loss
Democrats	21	21	0
Republicans	24	24	0
Other	0	0	0

the campaign trail. His speeches lacked the fire of either his predecessor or his opponent, but the crowds proved large and warmly receptive to him nonetheless. He campaigned on the theme of continuity. His administration, he said, would not try anything radical and destructive. Rather, it would continue Roosevelt's policies. Roosevelt tried to stay out of the fight, so that Taft could emerge in the public eye his own man, but he felt compelled to issue a constant stream of press releases because of Taft's apparent reluctance to mix it up with Bryan. At one point the president was receiving more campaign press coverage than the candidate. The action picked up in mid September with newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst's revelation that Bryan's campaign treasurer, Charles N. Haskell, had accepted money from Standard Oil while governor of Oklahoma, thus linking him to the hated oil trust. Roosevelt called for Haskell to step down. Public pressure soon became such that he had little choice.

National and State Results

By October Roosevelt's actions had combined with errors by the Democrats to push voters to Taft, setting up yet another Republican victory. Taft handed Bryan the worst of his three defeats, winning by 7.6 million to 6.4 million votes, or by a margin of more than 1.2 million votes. He gained nearly 50,000 more votes than Roosevelt had received in 1904, and won an astounding 159 more electoral votes than Bryan (321-162). Bryan's total popular vote was lower than in 1896, despite the increase in the nation's population. Eugene V. Debs increased his vote total by only 20,000 over 1904, garnering slightly more than 420,800 votes, 3 percent of the total. State elections reflected the growing partisanship that would soon divide the majority party. The Republicans lost the governorships of Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, and North Dakota, all of which voted for Taft. Progressive Republicans, who had previously defeated conservatives in Republican primaries, swept into the governorships of Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas. The results showed that midwestern voters had separated themselves from the conservative wing and standpat Republicanism, as symbolized by Speaker Cannon in the House and Nelson Aldrich in the Senate.