Evening star., 1932-10-24

That President Hoover has recovered
ground during the past 80 DAYS Is pretty
freely acknowledged by everybody. The
question is. can he retrieve enough 10
win out? On that vital score, OF course
the doctors differ. Republicans say that
the President is now progressing at an
irresistible pace. thanks to MS Des
Moines, Cleveland and Detroit speecneS
and the steadily rising fear OF
poosevelt administration. Democrats,
admitting that Mr.. Hoover may nave
repained support here and there, are
serenely confident that the lead he had
To overcome was-and $50 proolglouS
that it cannot possibly be bridged in the
two weeks left before election day. A
Roosevelt spokesman in Washington puts
II in figures. I'VE could cut down our
margin anywhere from 10 to Is per
cent" he said, land still win hanos
down" Republicans can be heard claim
ing that if the Literary Digest ana otner
Nation wide straw votes coulo pe tahen
TODAY, three weeks after Hoover put ON
his fighting mitts. these polls would tell
vastly different story. VINO kno"s'
Probably the President has added
something as durable as the Ananlas
Club" T. RS coinage. to the country
Detroit Saturday night that Gov
Roosevelt is amazingly removed from
the truth" That IS liar" spelled with
Ave words instead of four letters. It's
almost as polite a way Of putting II as
the taunt once hurled in the House
of Commons at London against winston
Churchill, M. P That vivacious Brlton
was defending his celebrated action IN
ordering q British naval expeditionary
force to undertake the ill-starred !9l4
campaign to hold Antwerp. The rignt
honorable gentleman Is guilty OF Ter
minological inexactitude,' said mem
ber of his majestys opposition. GOV;
Roosevelt, by the way, has now reacneo
the stage at which the Republican
hieh command contends it yearned to
have him. He is talking too much,
saws the G. o. p. which figured that
eventually the Governor would talk
himself to death"
X x + X
It won't be long now before we'll
know about this. Meantime, the TACT
remains that the Democratic nominee
has conducted one OF the most Two
listed. picturesque campaigns in mod
ern presidential history. Whether Gov
Roosevelt has torn up and down the
country, as some allege, primarily to Kill
the whisperings about his physical IN,
capacity. or not, he has made the kind
of fight the average American likes. he
has literally taken his case to the peo-
ple. He has looked them in the eye
He has smiled upon them-and now
F. D. r. can smile! Cynics claim the
Governors grin. as he beams upon the
multitude. is his principal political as
set. Hard-boiled old hands at the game,
| irrespective Of politics, admit (though
not for publication) that Gov. Roose-
veIt's multi-faced attitude on many
questions, designed to please everybody
and offend no one, may not be states
manship of the highest caliber. But
| they'u tell YOU that it's "darned smart
| politics." and that F. D. r. Is proving
himself master of that devious art.
The District of Columbia being the
part of the country where men are men
and women can't vote either, Norman
Thomas. Socialist candidate for Pres1-
dent. talked only to Washington news
paper men and women when he was
| here the other day, without attempting
political speech. 1.-THE Degradation
of Political Action" was his theme. He
hammered both Hoover and Roosevelt
impartially and uttered a plague on
/ both their houses. Ine CultuIeo OocAd1-
ist, who is easily the Intellectual supe-
rior of his Republican and Democratic
antagonists, has covered more campaign
ground than either Of them Reviewing
his observations, Mr.. Thomas says the
people aren't thinking beyond the ends
of their noses, with rare exceptions, and
that the whole contest has become
merely a question of "ganging up on
Hoover" Agreement Is universal that
the Socialist ticket will roll up record
total on November 8. Eugene v. Debs
who scored the high-water mark tc
date, got $4,000 votes IN 1912 ant
Thomas received 267,0G0 in 1928. The
latter's admirers expect he'll have al
least 2,500,000 next month.
l. X y
All the cabinet speculation doesn't re-
volve around the o6acial family witt