They are enlivened here and there by the clash of outstanding personalities and by subsidiary local conflicts of more than ordinary interest. But these themes predominate in virtually all of the Senate races and in most of those for the House, where candidates of the two major parties are opposed. How effective they are in swaying the voters cannot be assessed until the tallies are made a fortnight hence. There is much to indicate, however, that the favorable turn of events in Korea has vitiated somewhat the Republican outcry over that episode. Intervention Supported Public opinion seems to have run pretty well with the President in his decision to intervene there in the first place, and the success of our military forces, in spite of rather heavy casualties, is taken as a final vindication of his decision.
Republicans continue to play the Communist issue for all, and perhaps more, than it is worth.
Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin, who gave the crusade its first impulse, is the most popular traveling attraction on the Republican lecture program. But some evidence of a popular reaction to this theme is also becoming apparent. It is not going over at all well, it is reported, in Utah. There the Republicans are trying to paint a Communist cloak on Democratic Senator Elbert D. Thomas. The purely local issues are, of course, having their effect and in some instances may determine the outcome of important contests.