The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-10-07

with feeling that Senator Harding has
the lead and with a suspicion that the
reaction across the Mississippi against
the Democrats is so great that even Sena-
tor Penrose himself could carry the West,
this year, there is every reason to be
optimistic about the future support that
will be given by the West to the entrance
of the United States into the league of
nations
So far as the West is concerned it
will vote for Harding, but by no means
will repudiate the covenant of the league.
Many Republican newspapers whose
heart is with the league of nations, have
already made that statement so that the
verdict may not be misconstrued.
President Wilson is still as much re-
spected as ever west of the Mississippi, but
he has lost his hold on the voters. His
failing health has aroused here and there
considerable sympathy, but the knowl-
edge that he is not a vigorous leader in
his party, has caused the voters to exam
inc carefully the new leadership. They
do not attribute to Governor Cox the same
high ideals that they did once to Wilson.
They see no Bryan going from state to
state preaching and crusading as he did
in 1916. They see a sulky Nebraskan
calling Cox a wet and charging that he
was nominated by the bosses in the Dem
ocratic party. They see. too, many
originally Wilson and McAdoo men going
emotion. Most of these Democrats will
vote for Cox, but they are not throwing
themselves into the fight as they did in
1916 though in some states like Califor
MIA it is the McAdoo organization which
is putting up the fight for Cox and doing
well Unquestionably, William Gibbs
McAdoO would have carried more west
ern states than Governor Cox viii. The
Democrats out west were for him as the
numerous ballots at the San Francisco
Convention viii show. Furthermore.
McAdoo has been and is bone dry and the
Anti-saloon league endorsed him. There
is doubt about Cox and while he will bene-
fit to some extent by spirit of wetness
that still prevails in some parts of the
West, his stand on the liquor question
has not been sufficiently clear cut to make
the women voters believe that he will
stand with them absolutely in what they
regard as the big moral issue of the day
Governor Cox might have made of his
campaign in the West q crusade by TAX
ing the bone-dry side of the argument and
emphasizing the league of nations to the
exclusion of criticism of the Republican
candidates supposed reactionary views.
To call man reactionary is one thing
to prove that he is, may be quite another
If the Democratic campaign in the
East is no better than it is in the West
the jig Is up, the campaign is over. But
the month of October is the time when
drifts set in and desperate efforts are
made, sometimes successfully. Charles
f. Hughes was elected early in October,
but was defeated at the end of the month
despite an eleventh hour drive. The
Democrats have learned from sources un-
questiOnably friendly to them that there
isn't a chance of winning the campaign
by a combination of western and south
ern states, as four years ago, and that
the big electoral votes in the East alone
can avert defeat.
The writer will visit in the order
named the states of Maryland, New Jer-
sey. Connecticut. Rhode Island. Massa-
chusetts. New York. Michigan. Wiscon-
sin. Illinois. Kentucky. Indiana. West
Virginia and Ohio and will present
summary in the four days preceding elec-
ton day. a..