The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-07-29

WashIngton, July 2o-It is still toe early to tell whether Governor Lan- don's acceptance speech has had any markedly favorable or adverse effect on his election prospects.
 Neither group of politicians is able to sense any ground swell resulting from it and it is quite possible that the effect either way was nil. The polls will tend to show that, at least more accurately than anyone can now guess.
 But that speech was vitally im- portant, if only for two things: Tt emphasized the fact that | chief republican politicians-- leaders in both parties, for that matter--believe this b Q campaign in which people will vote not for LAndon, but against Roosevelt. Thii s c basic tenet in their campaign strategy and the buildup for Lan- don is that of an average, "com- mon sense" man, rather than Q bril- liant, breath-taking super-man. O-lt showed that the Landon ap. C peal will Do to the conservative middle class and farmer vote, with few compromises to progresSlveS or labor and no conspicuous gestures of the type that might alienate the forces of industry and wealth which are largely behind the Landon can- didacy.
 There k no reason to believe that to Do Q political error, because there Is plenty of evidence that this D Q conservative country.
 Leans Toward Open Shop
 Listening to the speech in Wash. ington, one was often reminded of the many eastern writers who have returned from Topeka to report pri- vately in effect: "Landon Is for practically everything in the New Deal. But he insists it can be had much more cheaply, with less waste and partisan politics, under hard- boiled business man."
 On the labor question, however, LandOn dlverged sharply from Che Roosevelt tactics. As the New
 York Times said, he made what amounted to . declaration in fa- vor Of the "0pen shop" His state. ments As to labor sound FeaSOn- able and fair tO the average cltl. zen, but tO most labor union men they were very far from that.
 The suggestions that workers needn't join any union If they didn't want to, that they had Q perfect right to join company unions, and should Do free from intimidation or coercion by fellow employees or out- side organizations, were the exact opposite of Q bid for labor support. May Have Given Up Labor
 This may have meant on accept- ance by Manager John Hamilton and Landon of the common impress sion among political observers that the bulk of labor is going to vote for Roosevelt this year.
 It probably ls easy to overestl. mate labor voting stgength, but Che old Idea that lab0r's vote can't Do delivered" may als0 be . dangerous one to depend upon. on one hand It can be said that fews CT than 4,0OO,O0O workers gre or. ganISed in labor unions. On the other, that there's also . strong trend to Roosevelt among the un. organized.
 It probably b fair to say that if Roosevelt has really caused the campaign to talk 0 on certain as. poets of class struggle, Landon hasn't been slow to recognize that, and to stake his fortunes on the other, right.wing side.
 More Room for Argument
 The rest of the speech left more room for argument as to how Landon would 90 about achieving his announced objectives. Revival of confidence as Q cure, for un- employment Is an old recipe, preached by oil.
 Whether federal policies or . combination of technologlCal dis- placements, longer work weeks since NRA, as claimed by the A. '. of L., and tagging purchasing power ls the cause for the failure of R0osevelrs optimistic re.em. plOyment predictions to come true k Q good point for argument.
 So is tho promise to take econ. omies in relief out of administra- ton costs and "the hides of the political exploiters" because the total cost of WPA administration is now computed at less than 5 per cent of expenditures,