Evening star., 1936-10-05
The Last Four Weeks.

Four weeks from tomorrow the voters
of the country will go to the polls and
cast their ballots for the electors who
will in turn vote for the nominated
candidates for President and Vice
President. The campaign is now in full
swing and it will grow in fervency until
on the eve of the election it will be
intense in its vigor. Thus far it has failed
to develop the quality of bitterness pre-
dicted by the former Postmaster Gen
eral, now, as then, the chairman of the
Democratic National Committee. 1t has,
indeed, rather followed the usual course
and while there have been some pointed
personalities they have, in comparison
with some former struggles, been mild
and innocuous.
In the main the great debate has
been more academic than vindictive.
There has been no element of surprise,
and indeed there is no prospect of any
development involving fresh elements OF
assailment not already outlined. Argu-
mentation, attack, refutation, explana-
ton and rebuttal have marked the
deliverances of the speakers on both
sides. The tactics of the opposition have
been those of criticism and prediction
of economic and financial disaster if the
course of the administration is continued
by q favorable vote of the electorate.
rT1l,o of I,o nd hn odnoinic-
tration Is always on the defense is such
a campaign, especially if the ticket is
headed by the incumbent executive
have been those of justification.
Even in the matter of party defections
there have been no surprises. Nor have
there been more in this campaign than
usual, though some of them have been
momentarily sensational. In every cam
paign there are such changes of polit-
ical faith, such walks" out of the party
ranks into the camp Of the opposition.
Whether these changes of personal
allegiance will affect considerable num-
bers of other voters is always question
that is never satisfactorily answered,
even in the light of final returns.
The Republican strategy in this cam
paign has been from the outset and
will be to the end the arousal of fears
of future economic disaster resulting
from the elaborate and sweeping de-
partures from the established system of
administrative finance. The Democratic
strategy is that of denial of possible
disaster together with constant itera-
ton of the necessity for enormous spend
ing to prevent the collapse of the estab-
lished social order. Alternately the
campaign speakers appeal to the fears
and the hopes Of the people. The pol
emics of the campaign are all pitched in
these two keys.
Meanwhile the currents of factional
conflict within the parties are in evi-
dence, though to the multitude these are
not Immediately as interesting or as COM
prehenSible as the general debate that
is now in progress and that will con-
tinue up to the eve of the election. The.
electoral votes of some of the States,
perhaps enough of them to decide the
contest, may be turned through these
maneuvers, of which the great body of
the electorate is unaware. Parochial
partisanship plays large part in de-
termining the results of these quadren-
nial contests.
These next four weeks will be in
creasingly hard on the nerves of the
people. But they have, the elders have
at least, been through numerous such
experiences, and they have found that
while results have been sometimes bit
terly disappointing, and on a few
occasions provocative of temporarily
distressing consequences, in all cases the
country has survived, the Government
has remained unchanged in its essentials
and despite occasionally harmful re-
actions the basic principles of the Amer
lean social and political system have been
preserved and maintained.