Evening star., 1934-11-04
S,oeep by Ne,0 Deal, With Cain of 4 to 9 Seats
In Senate, Is Predicted at Polls on Tuesday
Continued From First Page.)

L
| Congress, the Democrats have tre'
! mendous majority, swept into ofhc'
on the anti-Republican tidal wave o
1882. With the figures standing al
300 Democrats, ia Republicans.
Farmer Labor, and vacancies
| in a total membership Of 435, 1t Il
clear that a change of 80 seats. ol
even more, from the Democratic tt
the Republican column would not bt
considered a Democratic defeat.
Loss of House seats by the party ir
control of the Federal Government
in the middle Of a presidential tern
has come to be an expected event
1t is almost automatic. For example
in IA out of Is midterm elections ir
the last hundred years, President.
and their parties have lost control
of the House. In the II remaining
midterm elections, the control of the
House remained with the Presidents
but always by reduced majorities-
some Of them materially reduced
except in 1902, two years after the
election of President Mckinley. Ir
that year the Republicans slightly in
creased their lead in the House
Therefore, if the Democrats this veal
continue to hold the House by
large majority, as they are expected
to do, the New Deal will be considered
victorious.
The odds against the Republicans
appear to have been too great. The
Democrats have had leadership, or
ganization and plenty of money. The
Democratic candidates, generally
speaking have been Endorsed by or
ganized labor. The whole Democratic
cause is expected to benefit from the
hundreds of millions Of dollars ex-
pended by the Democratic admins
tration throughout the country for
relief. industrial and agricultural, fol
public works and for relief works
The Democratic campaigners have
been united, with rare exceptions, In
their demands that the New Deal be
supported by the people. All Of them
have wrapped the mantle of Presi-
dent Roosevelt's popularity about
themselves.
G. o. P. Drive Patchy.
The Republican campaign, on the
contrary, has been patchwork af-
fair at best, a crazy quilt. The G. P. O.
National Committee, under the lead
erShip of Chairman Henry p. Fletcher,
has attacked the New Deal vigorously
1t has warned the voters that the
Constitution is in danger and that
the people are being regimented. 1t
has charged that the Democrats are
playing politics with relief funds and
is seeking to Tammanyize the Nation
Some of the individual Republican
candidates for the Senate and the
House have followed the same line OF
attack. But far more OF them have
soft pedaled the New Deal issue and
have centered their fire on State is
sues and on the personal records OF
their opponents. While Senator David
A. Reed in Pennsylvania lambasts the
New Deal and all its works, and Sim
mons, the Republican candidate for
Senator in Nebraska. and McGugin,
Republican seeking reelection to the
House in Kansas, follow suit, Senator
Vandenberg in Michigan treadS a
medium course, praising the New Deal
here and denouncing it there. In
Massachusetts,, the Republican candi-
dates are fighting the campaign on
State issues. In Ohio, while Senator
Fess trains his guns at the New Deal
other Republican candidates are say
ing little about 1t.
AS a matter of fact, the Republicans
at present are devoid of active ma
tional leadership, and in too many in
dividual States the same lack of ade-
quate leadership exists. 1t is signifi-
cant that the titular head of the party,
former President Herbert Hoover, has
taken no part in the campaign what
ever.
Voters Begin to Wonder.
The New Deal is not without its
enemies. 1t has many of them and
they seem to be on the increase Busi-
ness men on large scale are opposed
to it. Farmers have begun to question
it as it affects them. The man on the
street has begun to complain of
higher prices and because unemploy-
ment has been increased rather than
reduced There is the fear that the
Government, having gone so far in its
relief measures and placed SO many
persons on the pay roll and on the
dole, will not be able to give up these
payments and, on the other hand that
it will not be able to find the money
fn ~
opposition, however, has not been able,
because of its lack of unity, to afford
these disgruntled voters q central
rallying post.
In addition to electing new House
of Representatives and "a Senators,
the voters will choose 80 Governors,
the members of State Legislatures and
State and local officials.
They will pass on programs in Cal
ifornia, Washington and Minnesota
far more radical than anything the
New Deal has yet produced.
They will vote on proposals to re-
peal prohibition clauses in the con-
stitutions Of six States. This prohibi-
ton issue, like Banquo's ghost, will
not down.
One State, Maine, has already re-
elected Democratic Governor, a Re-
publican Senator and has chosen two
Democratic Representatives and one
Republican. OF the 80 States in which
Governors are to be elected, "a now
have Democratic Governors, eight
have Republican and one has Farm
er-Labor Governor.
Sinclair Draws Spotlight.
Outside of the principal issue in the
campaign, Roosevelt and New Deal
supremacy, no contest has attracted
as wide attention as the fight for Gov
ernor in California, where Upton Sim
clair, with the Democratic nomination
in his pocket, is standing for his E. P.
I. C. program-end poverty in Cali
fornia. Opposing him is Republican
Gov. Frank w. Merriam, rated con-
servative, although he has swung far
to the left with his support of the
Townsend plan for pensioning all
persons so years of age and over at
5000 a month.
A few weeks ago, Sinclairism seemed
to be sweeping California. More re-
Gently the drift has been away from
Sinclair. The Roosevelt administra-
ton has turned its back where at first