Evening star., 1920-09-16
OREGON SEEN SURE
FOR C. 0. P, WITH
VOTEL|KE NAMES
Cox, Suspected "Wet" Can.
didate, Fails to Gain Great
Iy by Trip.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

PORTLAND. Ore, September 15.-
Gov. Cox has been and gone and has
left in his wake q trail Of admirers
but not enough to carry the state Of
Oregon
For this state will go republican by
! much larger majority than it did
SON lost the state by about 5000
votes. That was close election.
This year it Is not even a good con-
test. Democrats privately admit the
| situation is hopeless unless by some
eleventh-hour miracle or develop
4, ment the whole aspect Of the cam
paign shall be changed nationally.
Big Majority Expected for G. o. p.
Estimates as to the size Of the ma
1ority which Harding will get are
varied. some venturing the opinion
! that 1t will be as big as Names. But
!, conservative observers who know the
state and are not swayed by hopes or
partisan desires look for at least
10000 majority. ~
Oregon is a rock;ribbed republican
| state on presidential matters. It even
| went republican in 1895. when the
| western wave of Organism was
| sweeping the land. It stood stanchly
in the republican column when the
cry Of "he-kept-us-out-o won
the electoral votes Of California on
the south. Idaho on the east and
Washington on the north.
Gov. Cox was warmly received. Un-
questionably he cut down what might
otherwise have been an overwhelm-
ing majority. Indeed. he won back
many of those democrats who had
strayed from the fold.
Where Cox Failed.
On the other hand, he failed to sat
1 fSfv either vofa nY drvC hv hjo OF ofo
ment that the liquor issue is dead
Most everybody in the cities knows
it is not dead and that attempts to
weaken the enforcement laws will be
/, ed to the next President Of the United
States for consideration.
And the folks in the country know
/ 1t is not dead chiefly because the pro-
hibition agitators will not let them
believe it dead.
| Another Straw.
| Then there is another straw that
shows the way the wind blows. The
western democrats didn't bring about
the nomination of Gov. Cox. They
were for McAdoo because he was dry
and said so openly and unequivocally.
! Perhaps McAdoo will some day be
active in the presidential game. per-
haps not. Anyway the little state
ment he issued on the eve of his de-
parture on a stumping trip for Cox
has attracted no little attention. In
that statement he came out fatty
against any modification Of the dry
laws.
1t has occurred to many observers
that Brother McAdoo didn't set out
on a campaign trip for the democratic
candidate without making it very
clear that he himself was not to be
misunderstood as favoring a wet can
didate. The west understands such
istraightforwardness Of statement back
east.
It will be noted, moreover. that Nc.
Adoo's friends are not contributing
very much money tonthe Cox cam
paign fund, and the reason for their
reluctance is said to be their uncer-
tainty about his attitude on prohibi-
ton.
OF course, it was the wet states that
nominated Cox. Messrs. Brennan Of
Illinois. Murphy of New York and
Ohio governor would sweep these. big
states by his wetness. But the demo-
cratic presidential nominee has evaded
the prohibition issue and declines to
say whether he would favor or op-
pose modification Of the volstead law
There is still time for him to express
himself definitely. The western dry
states are filed with wet voters. Re-
publican vets in Oregon were disap-
pointed by Gov. Cox's statements
about prohibition being dead. and
really the drys didn't take his re-
marks seriously. So he was hurt in
both camps.
| Az to Other Issues.
| As for the other issues. the league Of
nations is not cutting as much figure as