Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1920-10-30
tBy David Lawrencc.) Y,
copyright 1920 by this Grand Forks
). 4t+3sl ryfi yas ~ Hara1d ~ 20.

S4- II s.2 tS Herald.) E N III " % ~
{. (This is the first Of a series Of three
articles forecasting the trend of next
Tuesday'y electoral vote for President
and analyzing the situation in three
fourths OF the states Of the union
visited by the writer during the last
two months. ii3S
The coalition Of the west and south
which gave Woodrow Wilson his VIC
tory In 1916 was new combination OF
electoral votes. Previously the big
eastern states-New York, New
Jersey, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois, to-
f1ctent to tell ellfeverybody on election
night that the, race was over. .5SsS
The big question this year is
whether there Is any combination Of
votes whereby Governor Cox can win
the presidency. Senator Harding has
been picked by most everybody to
win chiefly because of the traditional
habit of America to change admins
trations every few years. But the
League Of Nations to the front as an
issue with remarkable success in the
last fifteen days and any calculations
made bySthe writer or anybody else
as early as October 1 arc necessarily
subject to revision at the last moment.
When this correspondent visited
every state west of the Mississippi
with one or two exceptions, he re-
ported after an investigation of thirty
days that there were only few states
Utah, Montanafand Nevada-where-
in the Democratic nominee for the
presidency had a good chance. In or
der to determine whether these states
are still safe for Cox and whether any
others have been added to the list: the
writer has sent kilograms to almost
every man in the west in whose judg-
ment he can place reliance and has
asked that the replies be sent in a
specified code SO that men working
on Democratic newspapers or in the
Democratic organization or those en-
ployed in the Republican camp would
have no hesftancy in expressing oyer
the telegraph wire their own conf
Dental and innermost Judgment
Several Big Factors.
These kilograms are coming in and
the results will be embodied in to-
morrow's dispatch. AS for the situ-
alton east of the Mississippi river
which has been examined in person
by the writer in the last thirty days,
several factors stand out as extra
ordinary:
|. First, the heavy registration OF
women has made it doubtful whether
in some states everybody will have a
chance to vote in the limited period
that the polls are open. On account
Of the congestion at the polls, es-
pecially in states where no provision
has been made to handle the crowds,
many votes will not be cast at all.
Second, the negro vote in northern
states Is better organized than5it it has
ever been. In some Of the border
states feeling is not altogether pleas
ant over the way the negroes have
been n,obilixed by the Republicans
and It: is not altogether a certainty
tt1.1hssisf ss Gases mere etsssss 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
|reverseyis apt to be the case and many
whites may not get chance to vote.
The race question unfortunately en-
ters into the calculation of certain inn
portant states. n; @
Third, the true effect Of the en-
|franchisement 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