Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-11-01

GRITTY of the senate hinge on the
hances party leaders think they have
4 a group Of wide scattered states,
here Democratic campaign ammuni-
on has been spent most freely dur
1g the summer. These states are
arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, In
lana (Which is to elect two sena-
ors), Kentucky, Maryland, Massa-
husetts, Missouri, Nevada, New York
)hio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, and
Washington. OF these II seats, all
held now by Republicans. the Demo-
Gratis must win nine to have clear
senatorial majority. Even the most
sanguine partisans do not hope to
capture all II, but they do count three
Or four as certain to fall into the
Democratic column. They figure that
N even break elsewhere will be all
hey need.
The Republican answer to this
reasoning is that while very few of
these states may be normally Demo-
cratic and might, in an off-year, re-
turn Democratic majorities, the others
are Republican, and, taken state by
state, can be expected to go that way
in 1926.
The house situation is not so easily
diagnosed. All of the 435 members,
excepting four in Maine who were
chosen at an election in September,
must get credentials at the polls Tues
day. To gain a majority over the
combined opposition the Democrats
must take Sc seats now held by Re-
publicans. The party managers In
sist it can be done, in the face of a
Republican reply that any such sup
position is preposterous, but neither
side has indicated just what districts
contain the political dynamite that is
to plunge the balance of power one
way or the other.
In one respect this campaign may
live in political history as one of the
freak campaigns of all time. In near
~ every instance the issues on which
the decision will hinge have been
handled as local issues, and national
party nagement has been forced to
take a back seat when it came to out
lining the channels along which the
fight was to be made. Thus It hap
pens that in regard to two questions
which at the outset looked most prom
Using as national issues-prohibition
and the world court-neither party
headquarters has said a word. For
where these questions. with the Re
publican candidates, wet in one state
and dry in its neighbor, with the
Democrats fighting the court in one
district and supporting II across the
line, local as we'll as national aspects
have tinged the campaigns. In New
York it WAS pure milk. in Maryland
the Conowingo Power project. in In
diana charges of corrupt Republican
Ku Klux Khan deals picked up an I'M
expected fracas. while in Illinois pub
lie utilities campaign contributions
started a quarrel which eventually led
President Coolidge to issue proela-
nation of neutrality.
If Washington is Interested in any
one senatorial contest more than an
other. it is that in Massachusetts,. Not
only is that state the Presidents own
balliwick, but his personal friend, Sem
ator Butler. whom he elevated TO the
Craftsmanship of the Republican Ma
tional committee, is a candidate
against another figure we'll known IN
the capital, former Senator Walsh.
Besides, the wet and dry question has
been a power in the campaign. and
a majority either way in state like
Massachusetts will provide a fancy
exhibit in the accumulation of ev
dence now being scanned by official
WASHINGTON.