The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-12-26
NORTH CAROLINA
 ELECTION SEEN AS ENDORSEMENT
Senator Hitchcock Sees It As Vote of Confidence in
 Democrats.

Washington, D. C., Dec. 26-Aside from the ordinary political effect ot the result of the bye-eIection in the Ninth Congressional district of Nortt Carolina. advocates of the League o1 Nations here attach special signif- canoe to the Morehead- -Hoey contest and the part played therein by Sena- tor Gilbert N. Hitchcock, of Ne braska
 Senator Hitchcock is intensely gradfed today over the outcome o1 the North Carolina election, where Clyde Hoey, the Democratic candi- date, decisively defeated John M Morehead, Republican National Com mitteeman from North Carolina and probably the strongest man of the G o. P. organization in the state Sen ator Hitchcock regards the election 't MT. Hoey as an endorsement Of the policies of the administration as wei as the approval by a more or less in dependent constituency of the League of Nations covenant.
 When the Republican organization forced to the front in the Ninth dis trict national issues, and the League of Nations controversy became a sub ject Of debate among rival speakers there was a call from Charlotte tha. Senator Hitchcock make at least one speech during the campaign. The Nebraska Senator was invited to sc to Charlotte by Senators Simmons and Overnan and he spoke at a great mass meeting in that city or the closing night of the Congressiona campaign.
 National issues having been inject ed into the campaign by the Repub- icanS, who announced their deter imitation to carry the district and break into the South, Senator Hitch cock devoted himself almost entirely to a plea for Tindication Of admins tration policies and acts.
 Senator Hitchcock. the acting Dem ocratic leader of the Senate, reviewed the history of the Wilson administra- ton from the enactment of the Fed. eraI Reserve act to the present day Assuming that the North Carolina district in which he spoke was de batabIe ground-in that the opposi. ton party had boasted of carrying i and had made national issues the gauge of battle-Senator Hitchcock stood pat on the record of the Dem ocratic administration al professeG a willingness to have the Ninth dis trict election decided by that stand ard.
 The Nebraska Senator discussed every phase of the League of Ma tions fight. from the preamble of the Lodge rescTva tions to the attacks upon the Shantung settlement anu Article Ten. He mercilessly assaileZ the critics of the covenant, made 2 plea for a vote of confidence in the President and his administration anG boldly accepted the partisan chaI- lenge of the opposition party.
 North Carolinians recently fr Washington estimate that the speech of Senator Hitchcock created such an impression and 50 revived Democratic enthusiasm in the district that it added five hundred in- dependent and doubtful voters to the Democratic total. MeclIlenburg county in which he spoke, gave approximate ly two thousand majority to the Democratic nominee, and this despite local jealousies incident to the failure of Mecklenburg to elect it's ''favorite son" in the elimination pri- mary held by the Democrats.
 Returning to Washington on the day of the election, Senator Hitch cock awaited the result with conf- CenCe and yet with some concern. The struggle in the North Carolina district was a battle royal, with the epubicans making unprecedented efforts to capture the district for the moral effect it might have in the South and upon the elections in 1920
 The vote in the district while liglt- CT than in general election year, re- suited in a satisfying vindication of 1he administration and it's policies. It was likewise an endorsement of the League of Nations, since that issue was injected by the Repu bIican lead CTS in washington and North Carolina who gave as their excuse for this action the Presidents letter to Sena- tor Hitchcock advising against ac- Ceptance of the Lodge reservat ton: and asserting that they nullified tho treaty.
 Senator Hitchcock and Senators Simmons and Overman, of North Carolina, after an analysis today of the election figures joined in the statement that the contest brought about a gratifying victory not only for the local Democracy in the dis trict but for the policies Of the na- tional Democratic administration.
 T regard the North Carolina re- suit" said Senator Hitchcock, "as an unqualified endorsement by an in- teIligent and typical constituency of the League of Nations, as well as If the Democratic administration as whole. Republican claims of carrying the district On national issues have been rejected at the ballot box"