Evening star., 1928-10-11
City, Normally Republican,
May Not Give Smith Big
Vote 1t Did Reed.
COLORED OBJECTIONS
MAY PROVE SERIOUS
Democratic Negro Lawyer Opposes
Dyer in District Usually
Strongly Proc, 0. P.
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.
Ctn n Hnrrncnnndant of The Star

ST. LOUIS, Mo, october 11.-"Wet
st. Louis, Republican st. Louis, what
are you going to do for Smith or for
Hoover?"
This is the question which Demo-
cratic and Republican political leaders
are asking deep down in their hearts
today, no matter what the claims they
make for publication. And on the
answer to that question probably VIII
depend the result of the presidential
election so far as Missouri is concerned.
st. Louis is normally Republican by
some 10000 votes. But there is no
such thing as normalcy, to use word
the late President Harding worked over
time in 1920, in these hectic days of
1928. Harding carried st. Louis by
$1,000 votes over his Democratic op-
ponent Cox. President Coolidge car
ried the city by $4,000 over Davis. At
the same time a La Toilette, independ-
ant progressive, polled 29,758 votes in st.
Louis. The Coolidge plurality over both
Davis and La Toilette in st. Louis was
$4,000.
Democrats Claim City.
And now the Democrats are claiming
that st. Louis, wet st. Louis, Republican
ST.. Louis, will roll up from 10000 to
$4,000 for Gov. Smith over Hoover.
They are baSing their claims on the wet
sentiment in this city which once gave
$4,000 men employed in its breweries
and saloons, and on the wet sentiment
of its citizens, thousands of whom are of
German descent and most of whom
have been voting the Republican ticket.
They are pointing to the fact that Sen
ator Jim" Reed, Democrat, rolled up
lead of some $4,000 in this city when
he staged his great comeback" in 1922
and to the fact that Senator Harry
Hawes, another Democrat, carried the
city by 1000 votes two years ago. Both
Reed and Hawes are ''wets" and they
were opposed by Republican drys.
Reed had the advantage OF having
opposed President Wilson bitterly on
the League of Nations and the German
Americans hated Wilson because he took
this country into war in 1917. Hawes,
had gone to Europe and brought the
older Mrs. Busch safely out of that
war-torn part of the world and this
made its appeal to the German -Ameri-
cans here, where the Busch family has
been influential for years. But more
important still, Senator Hawes, whose
home is here, is extremely popular in
st. Louis.
''WhiSperers' Are Active.
Added to the fact the German
Americans are wet. along with many
other residents of st. Louis, Is the fact
that a s'whiSpering" campaign has been
staged against Mr.. Hoover here of large
proportions It has been whispered in
the ears of the German Americans that
Mr.. Hoover was hard-boiled and even
cruel in his treatment of the Germans
Immediately after the World War.
His opponents have circulated assidu-
ousely a report that when he was ap-
pealed to for aid for the starving
Germans he said, Let 'em starve." It
is also charged in this whispering cam
paign against the Republican nominee
that he was in part responsible for driv-
ing 200 900 milk cows out of Germany
for the allies after the armistice had
been signed. Furthermore, the Demo-
Gratis have sought to make the Germans
believe that Mr.. Hoover was their pet,
particular enemy during the war, long
before the United States entered the
fray, and that he helped to circulate
reports of German atrocities in Belgium
and France.
Republicans Meet Charges.
The Republicans have sought to meet
this whispering campaign with speeches
and literature, denying these reports
and pointing out that Mr.. Hoover was
largely responsible for the diversion of
$50,0O0,00 to the aid of the German
civilian population Immediately after
the war. Letters that Mr. Hoover wrote
to President Wilson at that time, urg-
ing that the women and children of
Germany be fed at once, have been pro-
duced. Former Representative Cleve-
land A. Newton of st. Louis has taken
the stump to answer particularly the
charges made against Mr.. Hoover
among the Germans.
While August A. Busch the head Of
the Busch family dynasty in st. LOUIS,
and other prominent German-Ameri-
cans here have come out openly for
Smith and have contributed to the
Democratic campaign chest, widely
known German-American leaders have
also come out recently tbr Hoover and
have contributed to the Republican
fund Among them are Louis H. Waltke,
formerly head of big soap manufac-
turing concern; DR.. Thomas W. Say
man, head of the Sayman Products
c.; Harry j. Leschen, manufacturer,
and Herman c. Stifel, president of a
brokerage firm. The Republicans insist
that the rank and file of the German
American group in this city and out in
the State, knowing of these contribu-
tions, will understand that these nromi-
nent members of their race would never
have come out for Hoover if they had
believed the whispers" against him in
connection with the Germans after the
war. The editors of German language
newspapers, it has become known, are
friendly to the Hoover cause, too.
Many of the German Americans in
the city are Catholics. and they are be-
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