Evening star., 1928-10-21
BY WILLIAM HARD.

The Republican invasion of the solid
South, at this week end, continues and
accumulates. 1t is signpost to the
fundamental nature of the whole presi-
Dental campaign of this year.
Senator Borah, Monday night, speaks
at Dallas, Tex Representative Fort of
New Jersey, secretary of the Republican
national committee, is scheduled pres
emily to speak at Greensboro, NJ c., and
at High Point, NJ c. Mrs. Willebrandt
may descend upon Danville. Va, and
also upon Durham, N. c. 1t is possible
further that hailstorm of minor
speakers may be let loose by the Repub-
licans throughout Virginia in the last
days of the contest.
These forayS, and many other similar
ones with them, will be official. They
will proceed directly from Republican
national headquarters. Additionally.
and quite beyond them, there are the
numerous Northern prohibition eXhort-
ers brought boldly down into the South
land by the Southern anti-Smith Demo-
Gratis.
1t is manifest that the menacing word
"carpet-bagger" has ceased to strike the
Northern political invader dead at the
gatewayS of Dixie.
1t is manifest and admitted. on top
of all this, that both political parties
today are equally soliciting the votes OF
the colored population. The Repub-
licans have to do it in order to hope
to carry States like Tennessee. The
Democrats have to do 1t in order to
hope to carry States like New York.
Both parties in fact are doing 1t with
virtually parallel zeal virtually every
where. At this writing it is an open
question which party in the end will
draw to itself a majority Of the suf-
frages of our colored voting citizens.
X
These two facts-the presence of Re-
publican foxes in the vineyard of the
South and the presence of Democratic
wolves in the sheepfold of the colored
vote-attest revolution in American
politics.
1t is further attested by the contin-
ued unchecked activity of Mrs. WILLIE
brandt Criticism of her within the
Republican party has been almost
wholly overborne - everywhere except
In the Northeast-by roar of Republi-
can approval. The Republicans have no
speaker more demanded by local Re-
publican committees and clubs than
Mrs. Willebrandt.
This is partly because, sentence for
sentence, she can speak more pepper
and mustard than any other speaker In
the Republican ranks. If ever a
woman's tongue came to its feminine
own In politics, for audacious pith and
point, it is Mrs. Willebrandt's
The more fundamental reason, how
ever, for the multitudinous requests for
her services is that the local Republi-
ran NOY11pnittnoc and n111hc in y,,ocf re
of the country realize perfectly that
their main chance for carrying their
communities for Hoover lies precisely in
the sort of message that Mrs. WILLIE
brandt spreads.
Mrs. Willebrandt does not talk Prot
estantism, but she does talk a PROPOSE
ton which has become inextricably in
terWoVen with Professionalism in this
country. She talks, with almost IA
natical ferVor and with a religious i'm
pulse, the proposition of the outlawry of
liquor. How deeply this idea has pene-
trated into American Professionalism can
be seen in an extraordinary remark
made recently by the editor of that out
standing Protestant periodical. the
Christian Century of Chicago. He has
been quoted as publicly stating that the
opposition to the liquor traffic lis a
more vital article in the real creed of
effective American Professionalism than
the belief in the virgin birth of Christ"
Against feeling so extreme the count
ercries Of "bigotry" and intolerance"
are beating largely in vain. Eminent
gentlemen of the highest national con-
Sideration are about to publish full
page advertisements in our newspapers
decrying the activity of our Protestant
| churches in politics and in effect sum-
| moning the United States to elect Gov.
Smith to the presidency as proof of
the subsistence or disappearance among
us of religion as factor in public af-
fairs. That blow Is known to the Re-
publicans to be on its way to the news
paper Offices. Mrs. Willebrandt never
theless is eagerly permitted to continue
and to expand her career.
Senator Borah, greatest of Republi-
can speakers, less armed with the stilet-
| to than Mrs Willebrandt, but more
| armed with the majestic battle-ax, Is,
| in fact, propagating precisely the same
gospel that Mrs. Willebrandt purveys,
only doubled.
Senator Borah talks, indeed, about
farm relief and about the resplendent
| intellectual talents of Herbert Hoover,
but those efforts on his part are merely
| incidental The big burden of his
prophesying is prohibition plus. The
plus is anti-immigration.
These two themes are deliberately
the prime themes at this moment of
Senator Borah's eloquence. They are
| two, but they are aimed at one and
the same target. They are aimed at
the voting element which has for its
twin connected achievements in recent