The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-11-06
ASTUTE OBSERVERS
 SEE |. !. P. D|SCORD
 IN NEXT FOUR YEARS
Difficulty of Satisfying All Fac- tions Brightens Democratic Chances Four Years
 Hence
By HUGH W. ROBERTS
 washinrtsn sursau The Ass- Herald

Washington, November 5.-(Special J.
 Despite the crushing defeat of the hosts of democracy last Tuesday, there are
 some astute politicians in Washington
 who believe that the republicans, with
 senator Harding at their head, will be
 defeated four years hence
 This hope is not simply the hope that springs eternal It is seriously argued
 that as the ensuing four years will note the most crucial stages of natonal read- Justment, no administration could possi-
 ply please the people. There is also the contention that Senators Borah and Johnson will prove even greater disturb
 ing factors than they have always been A third thorn which these politicians declare will soon infest the side of the
 new President will represent the plans of the progressive element to unhorse the "standpat' crowd which will have re- turned to rcwer Ma-aN 1o-
 SEARCH FOR CAUSES Ihe oeiluci ats, Tor the eral days since the election, have been endea vor!ny to agree upon the causes which resulted in their defeat. Neither. Wilson nor 'WilSonism, nor Cox, nor the League of Nations Is held primarily responsible. It
 is generally agreed that the racial groups-the German. the Irish, the Ital- ian, the negro-contributed in an im- measurable scale to democratic disaster Capital, directly antagonized by organ
 ized labor, assisted by the man who oc- cupies middle ground between capital and labor, and who feared the domina-
 ton of the American Federation of La- DOT. did the rest.
 The racial groups were animated by
 the part played by the administration in foreign affairs. The hatred of the
 German Is understood. The Irish were
 convinced that the League of Nations
 was scheme of Great Britain more
 firmly to bind it's dependent nations to
 its chariot wheel. The Italians were moved to revenge because of the ad-
 ministration's position relative to Plume.
 The negro has always been republican,
 but in the campaign just concluded he
 was apparently more incensed than ever before.
 GOAIPERS' SUPPORT The support of the democratic ticket by Samuel Gompers and other leaders of the American Federation of Labor was perhaps a handicap. The labor vote was , not delivered. Ranks of labor include the German. the communist, the bomb thrower, and this element was not to be dissuaded from an intention to vote against the administration. And there is said to be no question but that there is a general fear on the part of what is perhaps great majority of the people or every American IState lest the radical wing of the American Federation of La Dor become eltrenched in national poli- tics.
 The republicans were adequately f. nanced. Will H. Hays, chairman of the republican national committee, was very alert. He had fought the battle two years prior to the nomination of the republican candidate. He had imbued the minds of, the people through indefati- gable propaganda with an ineradica bls ] belief that the League of Nations and ! President Wilson were totally bad. There are two outstanding facts con- nected with the result. The first is the proof that the so-caIled senatorial oli. garchy, the Penroses, the Lodges. the Watsons and the Shoots were wizards in political prophecy. They were so certain of their grr und that they nomi- mated perhaps the most vulnerable one of the several possibilities before the Chicago convention. They were so cer. tain of the result that they repudiated the instructions of the people in pre- ceding presidential primaries-and thus eliminated Johnson with considerable brutality-and proceeded to write a plat
 form which they did not seriously deny was essentially reactionary.
 The other outstanding fact is that the
 political ''truism." "As straddler can't
 win,'' was disproved Senator Harding straddled on the League of Nations. II certainly cannot be denied that without