Evening star., 1932-10-07

President Hoover is eminently well
pleased with the immediate results of
his fighting speech" at Des Mones.
He Is conscious that it takes more
than one campaign swallow to make an
election Summer, but he believes that
his invasion of so-called enemy coun-
try demonstrated that his stock in the
Middle West, to say the least, is vastly
higher than the Democrats depict 1t.
That Is this Observers unqualified
judgment, as an eyewitness, too. Bar
ring the very feeble show put on by
the Farmers Holiday Association at
Des Moines several hours before the
President arrived, Mr.. Hoover nowhere
encountered the remotest semblance OF
hostility or disfavor. II there IS re
volt against him in Ohio, Indiana.
Illinois and Iowa-the pivotal territory
he crossed this week-it was not man
ifest visibly at any point or IN any way.
:; = =
All this is not to say that the Middle
West is an enthusiastic unit Tor Hoover.
In Iowa itself. where he received wei
come of which any man might De
proud. there is recent statistical evil
dence that his political fortunes are in
none too good shape. Within 48 hours
of the Presidents arrival in that city
the Register Tribune of Des MONIES,
rock-ribbed Republican, published the
result of its Statewide straw vote. II
was 3 to 2 in favor of Roosevelt, count
ing some 45,C00 for the Democratic
candidate and about 10000 for Hoover
At this rate, the Democrats will carry
Iowa next month by something better
than 100 900 majority. If they do, it'll
be the first time since the foundation
of the Republican party, except during
| the 1912 split, that the Hawkeye State
| has ever been lost by the G. o. P. In
presidential election. There's about only
one thing-Iowa Democrats say-that
can or will pervent their victory, and
that is a heavy increase in the price
of corn, a prospect of little likelihood.
| One of the amazing aspects OF the
campaign as it enters upon the home
stretch is the almost total eclipse Of
prohibition as an issue. Newspaper
men who swung around the circle with
Gov. Roosevelt say they hardly heard
it mentioned anywhere. The country
seems to have got it into its head that
| Uncle DAM UcSCtllG liOlil VIC "oeSt
wagon is only a matter OF time and
method, no matter which party wins
the presidency or the next Congress.
There are die-hard prohibitionists who
will tell you that millions" OF their
ilk are going to boycott Mr.. Hoover
not by voting for Gov. Roosevelt, but
by withholding what would otherwise
have been substantial support from the
Republican national ticket. Mrs. Henry
w. Peabody and her woman drys in
particular, are said to be in state
of high dudgeon over Mr.. Hoover's
"desertion" of their cause. As these
Sahara sisters claim to have been the
element that largely rolled up the Presi-
dents big vote in 1928, their abstention
from his camp this year may prove to
be factor.
While the presidential train was
stopping in the little college town OF
Wooster, Ohio, homeward-bound, last
Wednesday, the White House party
learned of a unique ceremony to take
place at the nearby Western College fol
Women at oxford, Ohio. on October IL
The college will confer the degree Of
doctor of laws upon Mrs. Elias Comp.
ton, class Of SO, "for achieving highest
distinction and success Is wife ane