In round numbers Taft received 7,680,000 votes and Bryan 6,410,000. The electoral vote stood 321 for the Republican candidate and 162 for the Democratic candidate. Thirty States elected Republican presidential electors; eighteen elected Democratic electors. With the exception of Nebraska, Nevada, and Colorado, which together contributed sixteen electoral votes, all the States carried by the Democratic nominee were Southern States. The nation had approved the Roosevelt policy, but the great popular vote for Mr. Bryan showed clearly the loyalty of millions of voters. These men believed that their leader stood for the plain people--for the unprivileged. There were many who had feared Mr. Bryan's policies in 1896, who voted for him in 1908 because they believed that twelve years of public life and the study of national problems had changed and bettered his ideals. Some Republican writers professed to believe that the popular vote indicated that a majority of people adhered to the policy of protection. To others it appeared that the voters were willing to accept the protective policy with a promise for honest tariff revision in order to obtain a continuation of the Roosevelt policies. The popular vote is interesting mainly for what it showed concerning the changed strength of the small parties, During the period 1904 to 1908 the drift had evidently been away from them. The Socialist vote was nearly as large in 1908 as in 1904, which was a consolation to Socialists, for they had held the ground gained by the heavy vote in 1904. The Prohibition vote fell off about ten per cent from that polled in 1904 and the Independence party polled only 82,000 votes. In the House of Representatives the Sixty-first Congress had 219 Republicans and 172 Democrats; the Senate 60 Republicans and 32 Democrats. CHAPTER XV THE ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT TAFT [1909] On March 4, 1909, the date of the inaugural ceremonies, Washington was visited by a heavy snow-storm, and Mr. Taft, departing from the custom of delivering his inaugural address at the east end of the Capitol, spoke in the Senate chamber. Many trains bearing visitors to Washington, from various parts of' the country, were blockaded, This condition served to emphasize the call, many times made, for the transfer of the date of these services to April 30, the day on which President Washington took the oath of office. President Taft's inaugural address was wise and temperate and satisfactory to the country at large. He asserted that the most important feature of his administration would be the maintenance and enforcement of the reforms inaugurated by President Roosevelt. He justified appropriations, as his predecessor had done, for maintaining a suitable army and navy; advocated the conservation of our natural resources, the establishment of postal savings banks, and direct lines of steamers between North and South America.