New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-06
G. 0. P. HOPEFUL
IN CINCINNATI
Expects to "Win in the
Stretch"-WilsOn Ahead
of His Party

Cincinnati. Nov. 5-Thi. city is sup
posed TO be one OF the lairs of the
hyphen, the German hyphen. So i'm
portant, in the huge Republican ma
jority which Hamilton County ordi-
narily rolls up, are these devoted ad-
herents of the fatherland that it has
been considered political wisdom TO get
along without the services of Theodore
Roosevelt on the Cincinnati stump.
Now these citizens of Cincinnati of
German birth or parentage, on whose
activities the Democratic orators have
been ringing the changes in desper-
ate effort to start backfre against
the rising rage at the foreign policy
Of Mr.. Wilson, are naturally and
normally Republicans. If there were
no hyphen issue, il there had been no
great war and if the only question Of
the campaign Of 1916 were purely do
nestle, these German-Americans of
Cincinnati would be voting the Repub-
lican ticket just the same.
Not Deceived About Hughes
Furthermore, there isn't a single
Germans can quickly be learned in
extremely frank conversations which
they willingly take part in--not a
single German who is under any delu-
sion as to Mr.. Hughes. They know
what he would have done in the case
OF the Lusitania-broken with the
Kaiser. They reflect upon his name,
Charles Evans Hughes, and find moth
ing Teutonic in any of those syllables
They consider his record and his
speeches and find nothing there sym
pathetic to the German system of gov
eminent But they do regard him as
man who means what he says and
who will do what he says. They have
come to despise Mr.. Wilson as man
who does not mean what he says and
who will not do what he says.
After all the German vote in this
town is not so considerable as Of itself
to make any appreciable difference in
the result unless that result is much
closer than seems probable. The Ger
man vote is important in three or four
wards. 1t probably is not so important
as the German vote Of Buffalo, always
assuming that there really is a big
block of the electorate determined to
vote as Germans. The Cincinnati
hyphen has been made more important
by adroit Democratic campaign mana
gers than 1t really is. They have used
it in an attempt to cloud in the minds
of those who put America first the real
issue of the campaign. Even in this
city the German vote is in the same
class with the religious vote and the
labor vote, largely imaginary.
Wilson Ahead of Party
There is no difference of opinion
among old guard Republicans, Progress
sives and Democrats of this city as 10
something which may be set down as
positive fact-Wilson is stronger
than his party. II is that which puts
the element of doubt. very grave doubt
into the Ohio situation. And an analy-
sis of that strength here as everywhere
else in the state always brings one to
the same conclusion. Unthinking peo-
pie are so prosperous that they suffer
from the obsession that 1t was always
so and always will be so. They can't
remember the hard times Of two years
ago, and they are blind to the hard
times ahead, once the feverish stimula-
ton of the war is taken away, so blind
that well informed men of Ohio fear
that they can't be made TO see the need
of protective tariff as soon as it is
possible 10 put one on.
At the beginning of the campaign no
body had any doubts about Ohio. 1t
would, Of course, be one of the banner
Republican states, and the county of
Hamilton, in which is the city of Gin
cnnati, would roll up one of those
monumental majorities as in 1904 for
Roosevelt, $4,000. As the case stands
to-day they are counting on about 90,
900. Anything less than that prob
ably means that the state is lost to the
Republicans.
Democrats Got the Jump"
There are several reasons for Re-
publican weakening in this county, the
most important being that the Demo-
Gratis got the jump on the doing Re-
publicans two months ago and have
taken prompt advantage of every op-
portunity since. One of the opportuni-
ties of which such prompt advantage
was taken was supplied by the city
council, for which the Republican or
ganzation here is responsible. That
council stood for al increase in the
Price of gas. II bears most severely on
the people of moderate means, and they
are in rage.
The State Of Ohio often has been
shaken and disturbed in mind by the
wet and dry issue. Hamilton County
is the wettest in the state. IL frotns
nj the mouth and paws the ground