Evening star., 1928-11-02
CAMPAIGN CAUSES
SELF-EXAM|NAT|ON.
Race Ending With Emotions
at War Beneath Trou-
bIed Service.
BY BYRON PRICE,
Associated Press STAFF Writer.

The presidential campaign is ending
as it began, with mighty currents OF
emotion at war beneath the troubled
surface.
To many millions of Americans,
Tuesdays election has become vastly
more than a choice of men and parties.
Throughout the whole country, new and
surprising forces are on the march to-
ward the ballot box The stormy spirit
of the times has found expression in
a stirring of racial and religious groups,
A. confusion of class impulses, turmoil
in party organizations, and a return OF
the old-time fervor of the political
crusader.
Tossed on these swift-running cur
rents. political issues are in strange dis
array in these closing days OF the CAM
paign. Weeks Of debate have produced
no agreement rs to the paramount con-
siderations that are to be resolved by
the voter. Each side denies that the
other has defined its position clearly.
and each denies the existence OF issues
thrust forward by the other. Farm
relief. prohibition and all of. the others
are jumbled together in tangle OF
argument.
Self Examination.
One thing. however. is fully apparent.
This has been a campaign OF national
self-examination. Not for many years
have the parties gone to the country
talking so little of foreign affairs ana
so much of home affairs. IntroSpection
has turned the light Of public discus
sion on such domestic questions as pro-
hibition, agriculture. immigration, water
mower and general business stability
: In a literal sense it has been time
of national soul searching. Considering
the interplay of the issues with the con-
current awakening of class and group
consciousness, the campaign may be
characterized as the most sweeping
national stock-taking since the United
States became a really cosmopolitan
country.
What sort of balance the voters
will strike off at Tuesdays election, and
whether it will be in favor Of Hoover
or Smith, still rests on the replies to
complicated set of questions, which are
the same questions the politicians were
asking themselves when the campaign
began.
OEtStAOHSs
How great detection will there be
on the religious issue?
How will Smiths gains among Repub-
I lican vets compare to his losses among
Democratic drys?
what part of the farm vote in Re-
publican States can be diverted to Smith
by those farm leaders who have bolted
Hoover?
Will the Republican prosperity argu-
ment be effective in holding those Re-
publicanS who might be inclined to go
to Smith on other issues?
What weight will attach to the per-
sonal records and personalities OF the
nominees themselves?
What will the new voters do, and
particularly what will the millions OF
new woman voters do?
These all are questions which the
national party headquarters now are
quite willing to answer, when they are
Speaking for publication. Each
answers them in such way that the
result would be the election of its own
candidate. But there are politicians
who would be much better pleased If,
for purposes of future reference. all OF
these questions could be printed on
the ballot.
Answer of Voter.
AS it Is, of course, the voter must
make a single collective answer to the
whole group, and his vote will not dis
close by what particular consideration
he was influenced. 1t is probable that
political leaders never will agree just
what won or lost this election.
No confidence is violated when it is
said that the party managers also are
asking at this season Just how many
of those voters who have said they
would bolt will keep their promises.
In many States clubs have been or
ganized to pledge Democrats to Hoover,
Z or to pledge Republicans to Smith. The
experienced politicians realize that it is
one thing for voter to sign a pledge
card in a moment of displeaSure or
under the pressure of an emotional
appeal, and another thing for him to
take his place in the privacy of the
voting booth, weeks later, and enroll
under party emblem he has Stunned
ever since he came of age.
It is certain that in the closing hours
Of this, of all campaigns, boiling voters
and all others y-ho may seem susceptible
will be subject Of special exhortation
on the part of t. very numerous work.
ers with which both party organiza-
tions, for once, are supplied. 1t is the
first time in many years that both have
gone into the last days of the cam