Evening star., 1932-10-27
OHIO DEMOCRATIC
GAIN HELD HALTED
Smith Newark Speech Be.
Iieved to Have Caused Un-
favorable Reaction.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

CLEVELAND, Ohio, October 27-
Northern Ohio has been definitely
swinging to Roosevelt with a bigger
majority than has heretofore been
given any Democratic candidate for the
presidency But the events of the last
few days have reduced the estimates
somewhat and have made it clear that
Hoover gains are growing.
Republicans hereabouts are appre-
hensive about the outcome but doggedly
refuse to believe that when ballots are
cast many of those who talk against
Hoover now will really vote against
him.
Reaction UnfavOrable.
The reaction from the AL Smith
speech was distinctly unfavorable to
the Roosevelt cause From rural Ohio
comes word that the speech stirred up
the amin osities of four years ago and
gave many a dry Republican an excuse
to vote for Hoover again. 1t is one of
those curious episodes in national
politics which can only be explained
on the ground of accident rather than
intent. though scme of the anti-Smith
Democrats and pro-Roosevelt enthu-
siasts have raised the question of
whether the speech was a deliberate
attempt by Smith to break down the
Roosevelt chance of victory.
Anybody who understands the genesis
of the Smith grievance will not have
any difficulty in penetrating the Smith
reasoning He lost four years ago, he
feels, not through his prohibition stand,
but because of religious bigotry He
realizes that in New England his own
admirers have been off the Demo-
cratic reservation because of their be-
lief that a combination of Western and
Southern "bigots" deprived Smith Of the
nomination in this year of all years,
when he had real opportunity to win,
not only on the wet issue, but on eco
nomic questions.
Sought Own Crowd.
AL Smith set out to win back his own
crowd Had the Democratic Committee
confined the radio hook-up to New
England or New Jersey, it would not
have caused such a furore out here.
Now that the committee is reported as
preparing to shift the hook-up on fu-
ture speeches, the Western Smith sup
porterS are beginning to feel offended.
There was plenty of Smith sentiment
here four years ago.
So the Newark speech was a two
Republicans regard it as a lucky
break" for them-one of the first they
have bad. If this campaign becomes
close the Smith incident may be
turning point as it will leave a resi-
due. The chances of carrying Ohio
for the Democratic ticket have de-
pended entirely on rural districts
That's where the Smith speech hurt
the Roosevelt cause most
Incidentally, the colleges in Ohio
which have been taking straw votes
show curious result. Hoover is lead
ing in most of them but entirely apart
from this is the fact that Norman
Thomas, Socialist, usually runs second.
One college professor when asked about
this said that he believed the students
recognized that Roosevelt was making
promises which only a Norman Thomas
could carry out and that as between
Thomas and Hoover many students
saw no middle ground and not few
leaned to the Hoover side as pre-
ferable to Thomas"
Thomas Vote Higher.
Nevertheless, it will be surprising to
note the Thomas vote which shows
signs of being appreciably higher in
Cleveland and Wcinity-which went for
La Follette In 1924-than anywhere
else in the State. Conflicting impress
sions prevail as to the source of the
Thomas vote, but it would seem to be
natural to find it coming largely from
industrial employees in the cities rather
than the farms and it has always been
supposed that the labor vote here was
Democratic.
Before the Smith speech. all pre-
dictions agreed that Roosevelt could not
lose Ohio. Today there is some doubt
about it and it will take week or so
to appraise the real effects of not only
the Smith utterance but the renewed
Hoover drive
tCopyright. 1922