Daily Capital Journal

Majority Favor Statement No. 1.

Complete returns from all counties in Oregon show that there are altogether 230 Republicans and Democratic candidates for the state legislature who will be voted on in the coming primaries by the voters of their respective districts. Of these 230 candidates 130 are pledged unqualifiedly to vote for the people's choice for United States senator. Of the remaining 94 candidates, 50 have modified this pledge, usually by the proviso that they will vote only for a Republican, and 44 are on the fence, having given no intimation as to the course they propose to pursue.

No party lines have been drawn on the issue presented by Statement No. 1. In Clackamas county, where there are 15 Republicans and one Democrat candidate, every one of them has subscribed unqualifiedly to Statement No. 1. Lane county has nine candidates for the lower house, four of them Democrats and five Republicans. All are pledged without qualification to vote for the people's choice for senator. In Yamhill county every candidate, with the exception of one Republican, has signed Statement No. 1.

All over the state the candidates have been compelled to recognize the insistent demand of the people that the next senator shall be the man who received the popular vote in the June election. In a number of cases candidates who have originally given no pledge on this point or had given some modification of Statement No. 1, were forced to amend their petitions, and come out with a positive pledge to vote for the people's choice for senator.

In Clatsop county about 200 voters agreed among themselves early in the campaign that they would not vote for any candidate who had not subscribed to Statement No. 1, and the result was that, with a single exception, every candidate pledged himself to observe the people's will. As the signification of Statement No. 1 becomes more generally understood, the sentiment in favor of it grows constantly stronger. There can be little doubt that a majority of the members of the next legislature will be under pledge to elect as U. S. senator the man whom the people shall have chosen.