In 1906 Dr. Cooper, the Liberal candidate, polled 4,775 votes
and the Unionist candidate only 3,016. That is, there was a Liberal majority of 1,759. Now, in spite of the fact that the Liberal candidate was able to go to the electors with the alleged blessings of ten millions permanent annual expendi- ture on old-age pensions and a land-clauses Budget at his back, the Liberal only succeeded in polling 3,291 votes Assuming, however, which is in truth a very unsound assump- tion, that every vote given for Dr. Salter, the Socialist, would have been given for Mr. Hughes if there had been no Socialist candidate, there is no doubt an apparent pro-Budget majority of 448. Compare this with the Liberal majority in 1906 of 1,759 and_we find a reduction of 1,311. But if a reduction on this scale were to take place throughout the country, the present huge Government majority would be turned into a minority. We may add that the increase of the total poll was 1,213, and the increase of the Unionist vote 1,262. The assumption that if Dr. Salter had not stood all his votes would have gone to the Liberal is, as we have said, unsound for this reason. There are plenty of Socialists who under no consideration will vote for a Liberal, and who, if no Socialist is standing, abstain. There are others, again, who would no doubt have voted for the Tariff Reformer, since a very large number of Socialists have Protectionist leanings. This view is borne out by the fact that the number of votes given to Dr. Silter corresponds very closely with the increase of the total poll. The Socialist candidate got men to go to the poll who would have gone -there for no one else.
