Evening star., 1932-09-15
MAINE WARNING,
DECLARES EDITOR
Kansan Says Drift Is Strong
Iy Against Republicans
Over Nation.
BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.
pecial Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
EMPORIA, Kans., September IA IN.
ANA). Maine is the national straw
vote. Sometimes, like other Straw votes,
it is not prophetic Nevertheless, the
Republicans should not delude them
selves with political alibis. The situa-
ton revealed in Maine is Nation wide.
This does not mean that the Republi-
cans should close their headquarters In
less, but is hard. Maine revealed what
everybody who has considered the polit-
ical situation knows today-that the
drift of sentiment six weeks before the
election Is strongly against the Republ1-
cans. 1t is not Democratic landslide,
but if the conditions remain unchanged
Mr.. Hoover will have sad time election
night.
Maine voters evidently hold the ad-
ministration responsible for the times.
This is, of course, unjust and absurd,
but politics Is often unjust and absurd.
The whole theory of majority rule, the
principal of democracy, holds in it vast
potentialitieS for injustice and absurd
ity, which potentialitieS, of course, only
occasionally are realized.
Works Also in Good Times
The mental process of the American
people this year in holding the Repub
lican party responsible for the times is
politically logical enough, even if in
truth it is unjust and absurd. The Re-
publicans would not question the logic
of the voters who gave the Republican
party credit for the good times. The
same voters. who upheld Calvin Cool
idge in 1924 and Herbert Hoover in
1923, because the times were good, now
turn against the Republicans because
the times are bad.
For 70 years and more the Republi
cans have dinged into the ears of the
American voters that government is
the chief agency of prosperity or ad-
versity Republicans have won often
when times were hard by turning out
the Democrats. The Democrats have
built their party upon a Jeffersonian
foundation that government always may
be used as the agency of human well
fare, SO the Democrats are not able to
take advantage Of their own good times.
Nevertheless, today the Republicans
must take their medicine, however bit
ter it may be, however poisonous it may
be to good government and to the tragic
needs of the hour
The bright side of the Maine election,
20 far as the Republicans are concerned,
lies in the rapidly changing times. Un-
questionably the current of business re-
covery has started. Every week sees
an improvement in commodity prices.
in car loadings. in all the mystic and
oracular signs that point to better days.
The bitterness of the populace todav
at the Republican administration will
vanish tomorrow. if the miracle happens
and good times definitely do appear.
Not prosperity, not boom, but Just a
reliable trend toward a restoration Of
things as they were. This will suffice.
Eagerness to Believe
The American people are eager to be-
lieve that the Republican party can
strut its traditional stuff, put two
chickens in the pot. second car in
the garage and peel off the second
mortgage on the place.
Moreover. the whole economic stage
Is set for the miracle. Stocks on the
store shelves are ridiculously low. In no
line have merchants enough goods
either on order, in the factory bins or
in the shops to last until Winter. Or
ders must come. They should come
quickly, and when they start coming
the Hoover jokes will cease, the Demo-
cratic jibes will be pointless, and the
logic of the evidence will justify the Re-
publican orators in their ancient claims.
However, the Republicans have the
tremendous advantage now of six weeks
Ol DeulOCIdllC uclp. IL udIc Illc OCIllOr
Gratis have not been particularly helpA
full to the Republican cause. Speaker
Garner helped in June and did his bit
again in July, but Gov. Roosevelt has
contributed little to Republican sue
cess. The betting odds on President
Hoover during August in New York
were based largely upon the vast posi-
bilities inherent in the Democratic ira
dition to help the Republicans in the
last SIX weeks of the campaign. Given
Scent hogs, Ascent wheat, Scent cat
tie and 25-cent corn in the Middle West
and Democratic blunder in the East,
Maine would mean nothing except as
register of public sentiment today.
In the meantime, Maine will bring
sad and terrible realization to Repub-
lican managers and regular Republicans
generally that they must work for what
ever victory they get. Every man who
even thinks he has been Republican,
if he has any feeling for his party, will
understand new that the party is men
aced Fear will be helpful.
And, the other hand, the sense OF
victory in Democratic hearts may pro-
duce confidence which will go to their
heads. Victory is heady wine. And if
their exultation following the Maine
victory produces that naughty spirit
which so many times before has pre-