Evening star., 1932-09-09
CAMPAIGN BATTLES
POLITICAL EXPERTS.
Midstretch Reached Without
Definite Voting IncIina-
tionS Shown.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

The midstretch in the national cam
paign has been reached. From now or
the slow-moving machinery Of both
party organizations will speed up, and
1t is already apparent that the 1882
contest will be wholly unlike anything
the present generation of political lead
ers can recall
First. the lack Of campaign contribu-
tions Is making difference. Second
the strategy of the Republicans Is to
let the Roosevelt campaign develop It's
attack and then enter a rebuttal In
mid October, with an offensive toward
the end Of the campaign.
The Roosevelt management Is ham,
mering away every day through such
organizations as it can command and
through the use of the candidates trips
The short Journeys into New Jersey
Connecticut and Vermont by Mr.. Roose-
welt, together with excursions to other
nearby States. Is one way of using the
early days of the campaign and OF
Strengthening lines in pivotal States.
Relies on Personality.
Mr.. Roosevelt still is relying on the
idea that personal appearances count
for a great deal in national campaigns
Mr.. Hoover Is following Just the oppo-
site theory, namely, that speeches heard
or read are sufficient, and that not toe
many utterances are necessary. Mr.
Roosevelt probably will make three OF
four times as many speeches as Mr.
Hoover.
The Republican management feels
that unless those speeches present a
constructive program that rivals what
the administration now Is doing to
bring about economic recovery, there Is
nothing to fear on that score, and that
mere denunciation without effective
programs will not be acceptable to the
mass of Republican voters whose reten-
ton in the fold is the real problem OF
the Hooverites.
Among the Roosevelt men, however
there prevails a sublime confidence that
even a mediocre campaign on their part
cannot stem the administration
tide. even if it does not accelerate II
very much. They believe that all the
Democrats have to do this year is show
that their candidate Is an honest. able
and fearless executive and the country
will accept him with open arms as an
alternative to the misfortunes of the
last few years which the Democrats in
sist are rightly or wrongly being blamed
on the Hoover administration.
Drift Opposite Way.
The writer was talking with a man
who was familiar with a confidential
survey made by the Democrats In q
Middle Western State usually Republi-
can. The results were puzZling -Four
years ago the man who made the sur
vey found Smith sentiment in the cities
and Hoover strength in the country
districts, with large numbers of voters
ready to abandon Smith for Hoover
Today he finds just the opposite-a
goodly number of Democrats in the
cities, especially among the smaller
business men, saying they will vote for
Hoover, while in the rural districts he
Is discovering a decided drift Of Re-
publican votes to Roosevelt
The explanation of this phenomenon
may, of course, be the attack made in
that State on the farm policies of the
administration and the fact that in the
cities the conservative Democratic vote
Is drifting from Roosevelt to Hoover,
especially in view Of the charges of
radicalism hurled at the Democratic
nominee after his Columbus speech.
These early-seaSon straws may or
may not be significant, but they do
prove that this Is to be a strange cam
paign. -
(copyright, l932)