The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-11-06
VOTERS MOOD
STRANcEST IN
US. HISTORY
fContinued from First Pase.)

ton of circumstances entirely un-
related to national issues deter
mines the result.
Not National Election.
There is nothing of the spirit OF
national crusade in the nations
mood, nothing of the urge Of party
or national principle-it's not ma
tional election at all except in the
sense that the states are voting on
the same day. There are some ex-
ceptions, Of course Senator Lodge
is the whole campaign in Massa-
chusetts. Senator Poindexter is the
outstanding figure in Washington
and so is Beveridge in Indiana, but
not one of these men will be elect
ed or defeated because of their
sins of omission or commission On
national questions-personal i'm
preston. popularity. political vogue
will have more bearing on the out
come.
And vet 1922 is not like any of
year since 1910 Think back and
recall the active campaign waged
at that time against schedule TX
and the Payne-Aldrich tariff and
the nationwide protest against the
"cost of living'-a new term then
in political phraseology. Cannon
ism, an arbitrary rulership in con-
gress on the part of the Republican
party. swept the Democrats, with
Champ Clark and Oscar Underwood,
!, into power.
Cites 191. Split.
The beginnings of insurgency
came then and the split OF 1917
completed the revolt. The autumn
! of 1914 saw the Democrats on the
! defensive, but they had reformed
, the currency system, had passed a
, number of important pieces of leg
islation and the European war help
ed divert the nations attention and
began to rally the people behind
! the president.
Nineteen hundred and sixteen
saw war issues foremost and con-
gress remained Democratic as did
the presidency. The Inflated cleo
ton of 1918 saw the beginning
however, of the present mood. Re.
sentiment, negative voting, irrita'
ton, protest seemed to take the
place of the affirmative mandate
There was not SO much of a de-
sire for particular program as
the expression of an emphatic wish
to dispose of the old program-the
battle cry was I'VE want a change
Nineteen twenty saw this even more
accentuated. The overthrow of the
Democratic party was merely one
way of expressing the craving fol
change. And the pendulum swung
then to the extreme. 1t has mo-
developed anything SO explicit OF
understandable as the wave of pro
gressivism which gave birth to the
Bull Moose party or the tides Of
conservatism which have spoken
the nations command in times o.
economic disturbance and panic.
j All Against War.
Foreign questions, whether Amer
lea shall cooperate with Europe BY
league of nations or by economic
partnership, is vital and plays /;
large part in the discussions O
thoughtful leaders in most commu
mites, but it is nevertheless tru,
that the nation is not bestirred.
can as easily be led into one for
mula as another-provided, o
course, that every entanglemen
even remotely involving the us,
of force is tabooed. The American
; people could be reused on an anti
war program more easily toda.
than in 1916. The burdens of re
} construction have cut deeply int
the tissue Of American life. Thi
,, is partly the reason for the indif
} ference toward foreign policy.
But il the people are not excite,
over European matters, they ar
bewildered by the mass of domesti
problems left by the war, the dam
, age done by strikes, the fiuctuat
ing scales of living and wages ant
the economic upheavals caused b,
the large SURPRISES gathered at
time when America supplied tn