Evening star., 1936-04-16
VOTE IN ILLINOIS
BAD c. OF. OMEN
Failure to Win Back Losses
in 1882 Seen in Large
q Roosevelt Ballot.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE

President Roosevelt'S vote In the
Democratic primaries in Illinois, where
he had no opposition, must be regarded
as the most significant evidence thus
far that the Republican party as sucn
has not yet been able to win back the
votes it lost in 1882.
When the Democratic vote materially
outnumbers the combined vote of the
Borah and Knox supporters, indeed
when many more people prefer to enter
a Democratic primary In which there
is no contest and just give compli-
inentary ballot to the leader of the
party, the realists in the ranks Of
American politics must take notice
that something fundamental is hap
pening.
The explanations, of course, will be
varied 1t will be asserted that the
Democrats have organized the voters
who are dependent on relief and doles
and that the people are intimidated
into believing that, unless they vote III
the Democratic party, their financial
support will be curtailed or cut of.
Lack of Personality Blamed.
Charges of this kind have been
frequently made and there is no doubt
some of this kind of campaigning has
been going on. But it would hardly
account for the size of the Democratic
preference as compared to the small
Republican totals.
The answer is much more likely to
be found in the fact that the Republi-
can party today is not dramatized by
any single personality or any single
program. The Republican contest has
revealed serious cleavage between
those who lean toward some of the
New Deal principles and those who
are sticking to the old-fashioned Re-
publcanism of yesteryear.
The name Republican" has SEEM
ingly lost its magic appeal in a State
as big as Illinois. and unless the trend
is reversed in that type Of State the
hope of the Republican party for VIC
tory in the coming election may COL
lapse.
The Illinois result, on the other
hand, is bound to revive the discus
sion so cavalierly thrust aside by
standpat Republicans several months
ago when a coalition of Democrats
and Republicans was seriously urged
To date, the Republican high COM
mand has done nothing to attract
Democratic voters who agree with the
Republican party on certain princi-
piles of government. The Democrats
OF the Jeffersonian party nave had
no overtures made to them. The Re
publcans want them all right, but
will welcome them more as deserterS
from the opposition than as members
OF a reorganized party in their own
right.
Talk of Coalition.
There has been talk Of offering i'm
poItant cabinet posts to Democrats
and of making a sort Of coalition dur.
ing the campaign wherein promises Of
collaboration after election would bt
emphasized That is not, however. the
way the rank and file of the country'E
voters can be won to a reorganiZec
party. The Republican State and ma
tional committeeman who hold thu
reins of the party are trying to holc
on to that power. All suggestions o.
a grass roots" convention or a coali.
tion movement to frame platform oi
progressive principles on which al
Democrats and Republicans who op-
pose the New Deal party can unite
seem to have been abandoned Had
such steps been taken several months
ago, the name Republican" or a new
name, "Jefersonian" party might
have attracted a bigger vote in the
Illinois primaries.
Judging wholly by the way the nli-
nois vote turned out, the Republican
party is in for major defeat in No.
Vember, after which, perhaps the de-
feated groups will listen more sympa-
thetically to proposals of coalition. II
sometimes takes an overwhelming de-
feat to produce a realistic point OF
view, and it was such a defeat in 1856
that sounded the death knell Of the
Wing party and gave birth to the party
OF Abraham Lincoln.
(Copyright. 1850