Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-10-20
DAVIS FORCES PIN
HOPES UPON HOUSE
New York BackerS See Little
Hope of Victory if Choice
Rests With People.
By FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

NEW YORK, October 20.-Here in
New York. where the fight for Davis
is conferred and directed. the one hope
Democrats seriously cherish is thai
the House, not the people, will elect
the next President of the United
States. In the quaint words of L
Democratic national leader, it is con-
sidered so slender hope that moth
ing but procession of mira Cles"
can prevent the victory of Mr.. Cool
idge on November 1. There will be
no diminution of effort between now
and election day to breathe life and
vigor into the Davis campaign. All
along the line whirlwind finish is
planned. But it is as plain as a
pikestaff that Democratic leaders
face the final fortnight of the con-
test as men with a long, steep hill
ahead of them and with painful
realization that it is well-nigh in
surmountable.
New York is not the United States.
and presidential elections no longer
are won and lost on Manhattan Is
land. Even Republicans recall, lit
tie anXiouSly. that Hughes carried
New York in 1916 and was not elect
ed. So politicians of all hues are
ehary about letting the atmosphere
prevalent hereabouts lull them into
wrong deductions.
Hurt BY Khan Stand.
The shrewdest Republicans depre-
cate in particular the suggestion that
Mr.. Coolidge will duplicate the Hard
ing landslide majority of A million.
Two reasons are assigned for the un-
Likelihood that the President Will even
approximate the Harding majority.
In the first place. he is opposed by La
Toilette, who viii draw heavily,
though not principally. from Repub-
liCan votes. both in Greater New York
and upstate. In the second place
and that is the main reaSon-Mr.
Coolidge's refusal to assail the Ku
klux klan by name will cost him
tens Of thousands of Republican Cath
olic. Jewish and negro votes all over
the State. OBJECTIONS from normal
G.. o. P. strength on that score may
bring the Coolidge majority down to
As low as 100000, or 100000 below the
Harding record breaker of 1920. The
Presidents failure to pillory the klan
is conspicuous because every other
major candidate in the field in New
York State has indicted the kluxers-
Col Roosevelt in his State campaign
having gone as far as "Al' Smith. and
Davis and La Toilette having emu
lated them.
Trend of Wall Street.
1t is an old-time American COM
monplace that nobody knows quite as
accurately what's in the wind, politi-
caliy and otherwise. as that wise cal
culating old bird known generically
as Wall Street. Wall street this year
has discounted a Republican national
victory On November as thoroughly
as a couple of weeks ago it discounted
the success of the German loan.
Every future plan of big business"
as far as it is directed from Wall
street, had been predicated on the GER
tainty that the Coolidge administra-
tion will be perpetuated.
Commercial and financial New York
is filled with only one genuine con-
cern about election events. 1t fears
another radical-ridden Congress, DOM
mated as tyrannically by the La Fol-
lette bloc as the Sixty-eighth Con-
gress has been. 1t also fears that La
Toilette and Wheeler will roll up so
huge a popular vote all over the coun-
try that the foundations of a perma
nent radical party will be laid. Big
business" therefore, would consider
the election of Coolidge and >Dawes
only half a Republican victory.
Frankly it anticipates the realization
of the Democratic taunt that Repub-
lican victory on November 4 will spell
Coolidge and chaos" Few authori
ties in New York expect the Presi-
dent, if perpetuated in power, to COM
mand workable bloc of his own on
Capitol HILL
Fail to Get Cash.
New York is ideal terrain beneath
which to explore the causes which
Democrats hold responsible for their
plight. 1t is here that Mr.. Davis was
nominated, where he lives, where he
practices law, where his personal
friends are behind the guns on his
behalf where the finances of the cam
paign are managed and where it's high
strategy is mapped out. One of the
outstanding items in the long cata-
logue Of Democratic disappointments
is the failure of Mr.. Davis wealthy
friends and clients to finance his
campaign on anything remotely ap-
preaching the expected scale. Davis
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