The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-10-23
BY RODNEY BUTCHER .Wsmocras Washington C0rEe-
 spondentl

6OOSSVclb V1CGuIy GAu uaS pcIouaucu nearly everyone that Michigan is just another of those large and very doubtful states which Landon must carry to be elected.
 Despite 6 record of political in- dependence and singular freedom from boss rule, Michigan has gone for Q democratic presidential can- didate but twice since Lincoln's time.
 Roosevelt took her 1S electoral votes by . plurality of 132J0OO in 1932, but there has been 8 back swing-especiaIIy in rural areas and small towns - and i'm the democratic landslide year of 1884 republicans elected Gov. Frank D. Fitzgerald by 84,0O0.
 If Landon loses the state by Q small margin, he can blame a state organization which sacrif1ed him to its candidate for governor, 8 band- wagon psychology arising from the unprecedented ovationS given Roose- welt, or Landon's own course on his Michigan visit.
 Republican bilIboards are plas- tered over the state, but they say 50 much more about Fitzgerald than Landon that Chairman John Ham, ilton is said to have protested.
 
 Ford Doesn't Help Cause
 Roughly speaking, Landon seem- cd to come to Detroit as the can- date of the automobile manufact- urerS and Roosevelt came as the candidate of the automobile work CTS. There just happen to be lot more workers than manufacturers.
 The president, according to poli- tical experts on pro-Landon news papers in Detroit, scored heavily by batting the former on the back and mildly banning the latter.
 Top men in the automobile in- dustry greeted the governor. But the worst thing that happened to him, one is informed was his en- dorsement by Henry Ford.
 Ford's labor policies are unpOp- ular in Detroit.
 Ford backed Hoover in 1882 and in politics his endorsement is believed by many to be more of . handicap than help. Landon left the lesser automobile men and Michigan politicos who had lunch with Henry and Edsel Ford, and returned at p. m. to go to bed-according to the story that one gets in Detroit, along with the report that the politicos didn't take 1t well.
 F. R. Draws Huge Crowds
 The republican candidate was met by . few hundred persons at the train and, with a bad weahter break, pulled only from 5000 to 14,- 900 people estimates vary = for a big speech in a ball park which can hold 44,000. He did much bet ter upstate, but even at Lansing the pro-Landon newspapers say the Roosevelt crowd of 35,000 was twice as large as the Kansan's.
 Police estimates of Roosevelt crowds seem almost fantastic 45O,OOO to 50O,OO0 in Detroit, 15O,- 900 in Flint, as many in Grand Rapids, and 25,0OO to 5000 at minor stops.
 All this may not be devisively important, but it explains why some of the most seasoned politi- cal observers are betting on Roosevelt by 50,O00."
 On the other hand, this is one state where Roosevelt is definitely menaced by the Coughlin-Lemke vote. If Lemke polls anywhere be- tween and 10 per cent of the total vote, the state is more than likely to go for Landon.
 Democrats, agreeing heartily with most neutral observers that Father Caughlin's political influence is on the wane, admit he pulls 8 much larger vote from them than from the opposition.
 Religious Issue Enters
 Michigan has never elected a Catholic governor and 1t looks as if the religious issue" would be large factor in defeating handsome. red-haired Frank Murphy, erstwhile high commissioner to the Philip pines. Murphy's friends say the Black Legion is much stronger in Michigan than anyone suppose and that it has the knife out for him and Roosevelt.
 Murphy is a glamorous cam- paigner, one of the few men who can visibly make votes by cam paigning, and he is working fast and vigorously on liberal New Deal platform. But the idea that Roosevelt would have to ride on his coat tails is evapOrating.
 Onsetting Murphy's oratory IS that of Senator Arthur Vandenberg, who is cramming in as many re- publican speeches as he can. Senator James Couzens, who knowingly tossed his renomination as a re- publican away by endorsing Roose- welt, has been too i'll to campaign.
 The rural and small town vote usually just about balances the big urban vote, making Michigan tough state to predict. Most polls aside from that of the Literary Di- gest have slightly favored Roose- welt, but may not have been suf- dcienly weighted with rural ballots. Both Have StronghOlds
 The upper peninsula, mining-in- dustrial area where Emil Hurja of national democratic headquarters goes and talks to the boys in Fin nish, and the southeastern part of the state are heavily democratic. The northern and southwestern sec tions of the lower peninsula contain the republican strongholds.
 The county (Wayne) casts about