The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-10-29

are open. Il On account of congestion at
the polls, especially in states where moi
provision has been made to handle the
crowds many votes will not be cast at all.
Second. the Negro vote in northern
I states is better organized than it ever has
been In some of the border states feel
ing is not altogether pleasant over the
iway the Negroes have been modified by
| the Republicans and 1t IS not altogether
a certainty whether in cases where the
Democrats control the election machinery
there will be time enough for the Negroes
to vote. though in certain cities where the
Republicans have control just the reverse
! is ant to be the case and many whites
may not get a chance to vote. The race
question unfortunately enters into the
calculation of certain important states.
Third. the true effect of the enfranchise-
ment of women throughout the nation Is
! the most uncertain quantity in the whole
situation. Politicians profess to know
how the women will vote, but they don't.
No political leader in all the states that
the writer visited was able to produce |
canvass of the feminine vote which could
be considered complete.
4 Time and again, the canvass of the mas |
culine vote has been accomplished with
such accuracy in advance of the election
shat the result has varied but little from |
the official result. Most editors and polit- |
zeal leaders agree. however, that the
women will merely double the Republican
least so per cent. As the husband votes,
so votes the wife. That's the theory.
Il Westerners who have had experience with
woman suffrage for many years uphold
that view. vet in Indiana. Kentucky,
West Virginia and even Ohio it has been
admitted by politicians that perhaps the
\ league of nations has made more women
voters independent of party lines than at
\ first expected. In West Virginia, Indiana,
Ohio New York and New Jersey there
Isg- - "a Al of inf
4 among men and women in the league of
Il nations. A wider reading of the covenant
Il than was believed possible on a question
II that has so often been dismissed by the
Il professional politicians as dead OF
with the statement that the people are
d sick and tired of the thing
r. Fourth. another remarkable thing is
that while the street talk and club talk
a and smoking car gossip and newspaper
talk have constituted an apparent wave of
ID ! anti wisconsin. the casual mention of the
g name of Woodrow Wilson ia meetings
u held by the Democrats has not been met
ii with silence or n few scattered hand-claps,
y but by spontaneous OutbuTSts of applause.
III The Democrats themselves have been
II pleasantly surprised by those demOnStra-
u tions and don't know whether to interpret
I'D ii as a feeling of sympathy for the man,
81 who has broken down in health in his en-
U dcavors to serve the people as he thought
III best, or whether to regard it as an indica-
Isl ton Oh AbtlnbGF3liG III at tHt lbllS
Al Fifth the economic situation has had sc
ii many pulling developments in the last
M three or four weeks. Prices have dropped
Ia SO materially and unemployment has come
81 SO suddenly in many cities that in more
Ia than one case are suspicious expressed
81 that the shutdown has something to dC
with the oft-heard conspiracy of intimi
III dating labor. On the other hand. in the
Is rural districts the fall in the price ot
wheat and the general decline of livestock
s. made friends for the Republican tariff
program. The reader himself has prob
ably noticed that Senator Harding hat
evidently been told of this. for he hat
devoted two or three statements TO j
81 lately.
Moreover, the rising tide of interest il
Id the league of nations has been met by tn,
q Republicans in the last two weeks b,
campaign speeches from such friends O
the league as Herbert Hoover, William
Howard Taft and Elihu Root. The at
I'D tack has been against article 10 and ii
the East. at least. nobody including Sena
tor Harding has sent messages in the las
n few days to Senators Johnson or BOral
telling them they were interpreting tn
Republican platform correctly. Indeed
the restlessness displayed by William
Ia Randolph Hearst, who calls on Governor
RI Cox to repudiate the league and at tn,
same time criticiZeS Harding for wig
III Cling and webbing" is another indication
IA of unrest in the camp of the 'irreconcil
ableS' and others who favor the rejection
OF the treaty and any league of nations
b With a growing sentiment in favor o
y the principle of a league of nations
there is no question that Senator Hard
& ing's speech at Des AIoines. saying HI
didn't want to clarity obligations, bu
q that he was seeking rejection has beer
construed as meaning rejection of tn
IA whole league and not article 10 alone a
his friends insist was the meaning
n However east of the Mississippi rive
81 it is the judgment of this correspondent
that even the changing of votes at tn
u eleventh hour to Cox from Harding vii
not enable the Democrats to carry New
81 York. New jersey, Illinois or Ohio though
II they have admittedly made progress ever,
day since the Des Moines speech and ar
" daily acquiring the votes of large mum
IA bers of women. President Wilson saw
b the issue of this camnaign before anyon
n else i'm his party and his Judgment ha
been vindicated in the sense that he ha
been able to make mare progress thai
IL with anything else The big question i
b whether the Democrats have been able t.
"a ~c0ver up mistakes upon domestic admin
M istration by the use of the league issue o
81 to put it another way. is the countr-
IA going to. vote on questions of foreign mol
81 icy to the exclusion of domestic trouble
II or irritations and restrictions growing on
III of the war and the reconstruction period
Il The only place for such independence t
~ be displayed.-if it appears at all-is il
a the West, which showed itself able in 1911
u to part company with tho rock ribbed Re
III publican Fast Can the West ard Soutl
81 win for Cox or Is there any other com
by hinatiGn, partially in the East and mar
a TALLY in the West, which would carrv hir
Fl to victory? These questions will be an