Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-04-26
GERMAN REPUBLIC
FACES GRAVE TEST
IN ELECTION TODAY
Hindenburg Given Edge in
Few Guesses Hazarded
! on Final Result.
SENTIMENT BIG FACTOR
IN FAVOR OF MARSHAL
Marx Victory Regarded Resting
Upon Small vote-League
Apprehensive.

By the Associated Press
BERLIN, April 25.-The voters
throughout Germany will decide to-
morrow who shall be next President
of the republic. DR.. Wilhelm Marx,
representing the Republican bloc,
Field Marshal Won Hindenburg. can
didate of the Nationalists, and Ernst
Thaelmann, Communist party, are the
nominees. Thaelmann is considered a
negligible quantity so that the real
contest is between Won Hindenburg
and Marx.
Unless DR.. Marx scores a lead of at
least three or four million votes, the
cause of democracy in Germany will,
in the opinion of the leaders of the
liberal parties, have suffered a severe
setback. They admit that they will
be satisfied with a safe margin in the
former chnacellor's favor, but never
Iheless, realize that a heavy poll for
Won Hindenburg means definite CO.
ordination of pronounced anti-repub-
liCan sentiment, and that it will in
evitably leave German internal politics
in a state of turmoil and ferment for
an indefinite period.
Situation i'm Doubt.
The eve of the election finds the
situation wrapped in doubt, with
optimism more strongly entrenched
in the camp of the nationalist bour-
geois bloc than in the ranks of the
Weimar coalition. Won Hindenburg's s
campaign managers expect about so
per cent of the voters to cast their
ballots as compared with 81 per cent
If the first indecisive elections four
weeks ago. This would bring the total
poll to about 81 900 900, and their esti-
mates give the field marshal a lead
of 100000 over DR.. Marx
They reckon with defections from
the right wing of the Center party
and Democrats and also assert that
Marx will fail to command the un-
broken strength of the Socialist party.
The men in charge of DIR. Marks
campaign tonight decline to hazard
even a modest campaign prediction;
they explained that the 10000, 900
registered ''stay-at- home" voters,
whose political attitude was not yet
established, constituted the outstand-
ing enigma of the campaign.
On the other hand they are conf
dent of Marks ability to capture the
million votes which the Bavarian
Peoples party gave DIR. Held, the
Bavarian candidate on March %, and
also claim the bulk of the Hanoverian
or Guelps vote, which is slightly in
excess of quarter of a million. Both
of these parties heretofore have been
counted among the supporters of Won
Hindenberg and sponsored his NOM
ination.
Must Muster 100000.
The Bavarian Peoples party COM
prises the Catholic electorate of Ba-
t-Hn md NVNgn IN
900 votes. Advices from Munich in
dicate that Premier Helds party has
let down the bars and will permit
its members a free choice of candi-
dates
Field Marshal Won Hindenburg is
expected to make a strong run in the
fiat country and rural district, while
DIR. Marks chief support will come
from metropolitan areas and indus
trial sections. That large number
of voters viii ignore party lines is
taken for granted, and this is one of
the contributing elements to a highly
Obscured situation. Such defections
in both party camps, 1t is assumed, |,
will be largely due to religious bias
If the managers of the PEOPLES
bloc look for reinforcements from the
Communists, there is no present indi-
cation of such aid, as the German
Reds outWardly are determined to
keep the partys vote intact for Herr
Thaelmann, despite the report from
Moscow that Zinovieff, chairman of
the executive e-committee of the Third
Internationale, is strongly opposed to
an Independent Communist candidate
because of Hindenburg's favorable at
titude toward German Socialists and
labor leaders during the past week
who have sought to induce the Ger
man Communist party Ito abandon
their rigid theory for the benefit of
practical politics" on this occasion.
Sentiment Big Factor.
Much of the non-partisan support
sccruing TO Won Hindenburg has been
actuated by the slogan "he has been
nominated, and therefore must be
spared the humiliation of defeat
This apparently Is meeting with wide
spread response, and is further in
dication of the extent to which senti
ment mingled with hero worship in
'fiuences the psychology of a large
body of voters.
Straw votes or a census of the man
in the street fail to adduce tangible
evidence of the German political temp
er on the eve of the election, and the
outcome will remain in doubt until
\ survey of the early returns shows
the drift of the vote. The polls will
close at o'clock in the evening.