Evening star., 1936-11-10

enectlve way to D,,
capture the party
machinery is ito bore from within"
The old saying in politics that IF
you can't beat 'em, jine em" has been
given greater momentum by the last
election than by any other circum-
stance in the last quarter Of Ncen-
tury of American politics.
The minor parties henceforth are
likely to become almost negligible in
importance. The Socialist partys to-
tai vote this year, when it is finally
Tailed, will be found to be relatively
small, as will also the Communist
total. Persons in sympathy with the
Socialist point of view, for instance,
probably joined the Roosevelt move
ment in large numbers rather than
waste their votes.
Labor Concentrates Vote.
Organized minorities, too, have a
lesson to learn from the election re-
turns. The American Federation Of
Labor hitherto has been neutral" or
mon partisan Last week its local
membership through alliances with
the New Deal and Federal political
machines. did not divide the labor
vote between the two parties, but
marshaled from 80 to 80 per cent on
the Roosevelt side.
AS for organizations like the Ameri-
can Liberty League, they will find
the field of political opportunity more
and more limited and that the same
amount of time and energy and money
put into political party organization
between campaigns will avail those
who believe in the viewpoint Of one
party or the other more than will
the independent operation of groups.
The extent to which group voting
took place last week Is being gradu-
ally disclosed by the reports from Diff
ferent States. Group voting alone
explains the failure of even the po-
iitical managers themselves to realize
the number of allies which the Roose-
welt administration had modified.
Massachusetts, Case in Point.
A case in point is Massachusetts,.
John Bantry, writing this week for
the Boston Globe, comments thus on
the election and on group voting:
Most persons outside the active
political circles probably find it diff
cult to understand why the straw
votes, the political prognosticators in
the newspa pers and political leaders
could have been so far wrong in the
Roosevelt vote here
Aside from the fantastic Literary
don total here, all the scientific test
polls showed Landon by safe ma
jority in Massa chusetts. Every out
side political observer who came here
reported Landon sentiment predomi-
nant.
The confidential estimates submit
ted to Chairman Farley showed Lam
don. Many OF the Democratic leaders
here felt Roosevelt would lose Mas
sachusetts. Senator Walsh, who ought
10 know as much about Massa chusetts
politics as any many in the State, de-
clared in a public statement that
Roosevelt could not win here II
Lenlke polled 100000 votes. A sur
vev by the BOSTON, Post Demo-
eratic) pointed to Landon by a mar
row margin.
Previous Methods Fail.
t'The explanation is that the straw
votes and the surveys were taken in
the usual manner-by selecting
cross section of the public for polling
This has invariably worked out fairly
well. But it didn't work out with the
Roosevelt vote because OF the failure
to take into consideration the over
Ehelming group vote.
We have never had much group
voting in MaSsa chusetts. 1t has never
before been possible to hold the labor
vote en- bloc. The so-called Jewish
vote has invariably been split between
the parties. So has the Italian vote
snd the French vote. The colored
vote has been heavily Republican.
Also We had the w. P. A. vote and the
relief vote, all cast solidly for Roose-
Welt"
The same story is being told in
other States. Group voting inside
the parties has taken the place OF
affiliation with the minor parties.
Strangely enough, of all the Demo-
cratic State leaders with whom I
talked during the campaign, only one
Prank McHale of Indiana-sensed
the possible gains to the New Deal
from the minority parties. He kept
emphasizing it in my talk with him,
but even his estimate of the Roose-
velt majority in Indiana-about 100,-
900 to 150,000-fell short of the actu-
al result-a $4,000 Roosevelt ma
5ority.
Even insiders Were Low.
The groups were, Of course, culti-
Sated by Democratic national head
quarters, which never before had such
an array of subdivisions giving atten-
ton to them. but even the estimates Of
the insiders in the New Deal hign
command were low as to popular ma
5ority almost everywhere. Emil Hurja,
statistical expert for Farley, placed
the Roosevelt margin at 3,000. 900, and
Farley himself, in my last talk with
him, was inclined to believe that the
Roosevelt majority on popular vote
might even be less than In 1892,
though the electoral vote would be
greater.
Why are these various groups 20
hard to poll in advance?
Evidently the party workers did
not know in advance how successful
their argument was that a vote for
Iemke was q vote for LAndon. Like
wise the generosity Of the New Deal
IN handling relief was piece Of in
formation that was communicated by
word Of mouth in the poorer sections
Of American cities much more effec-
lively than by the radio or the po-
litical speakers.
Coashlin May Come Back.
Leaders Of various groups and blocs
have discovered that to move in on
thA HAo.nrra tic "a rfv snaans nefAn.