The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-09-18

neghborhood was ordinarily republican.
 with fair mixture of dem ocratic votes.
 This tendency is in the air. It is rein | forced by the desire of the foreign voters to punish Wilson for the peace treaty. In this state the German voters
 might almost be said to hold the balance of power. They swung the republican party in the congressional election of 1918, with the result that a republican congressional delegation was elected from Indiana They are still with the republican party
 This is considerable gain for the re- publicans. The wet-dry issue is an old issue in Indiana. It sent many of the Germans in the democratiic party. How many, no one knows. The democrats say they never had more than half of the Germans, any way, but they acknowledge that they have lost most of those they had The republicans assert that nacn more than half the Germans were origi-
 nally democrats. and independent observ- CTS incline to agree with them. What ever fraction of the German vote each party once had the republicans have al most all of it for this election. Tnere 1 is no difference of opinion about where the German vote is,
 The lr1Sn vote IS not so cltdT. AhS SAiiiA LFein Irish voters, the professional Irish man. Is off the democratic reservation 1 How many Irishmen or Irish sympathiz- l CTS have gone with him no one knows. The democrats think that most or the | Irish will be back in their party on cleo tion day. And the republicans make no special claims to the Irish vote. There
 are signs here that It IS waverhs, put 1 there will be some considerable loss to Cox and gain to Harding. Everybody ! grants that
 1 Now, there is the negro vote, Demo- | crats say bitterly that the majority or | the whites of Indiana are democratic. me war has greatly increased the numoel I of negroes here, and it is said that equal suffrage has more than doubled the black ' vote in this state, there being more ne- gro women here than men who have
 bona fide residence in Indiana. There are 1 said to be 1o,00O negro votes in lnuiana,
 practically all republicans. It is a olg 1 factor.
 LEANS TOWARD DEMOCRATS | There are some countervailing fac tors. Indiana is becoming more ana more an industrial state. Under normal
 conditions it is leaning more ana more 1 to become democratic state. The | labor vote here is largely democratic l and the war has increased that vote 1 But two years ago this vote largely 1 failed to register and go to the polls, l So far it has been slow to register this 1 year and some of this vote is foreign and anti Wilson for that reason, Both parties are well organized, the ! democrats having perhaps the better | and more aggressive organization. In Indiana they have adequate sources of money. Their work among the women 1 is said to have been more effective l than that of the republicans.
 ] They have hopes, too. of the voter 1 who has not yet made up his mind. | The republican polls show an unusual | number of such voters. AS many as | twenty per cent of men and women l either decline to give their politics or declare themselves in doubt. The ! democrats hope to reach these doubt ful voters through an effective presen- ! tatiop of the League of Nations.
 l That sums it ups The democrats see rotentialities in the League of Nations, The republican see actualities in desire
 of whole classes. American and foreign.
 for . change of administration.