Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1936-12-24
ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTs

ssThe Roosevelt victory is of such
proportions as to leave nossrQt1l Tor
his opponents to be bitter or his
critics to cavil. 1t is so overwhelm-
ing that alibis, analyses and explain
ations seem foolish. The only thing
to do is cheerfully accept the re-
suit, with wonder that it was pos
sible to be so blind before the cleo
ton to the irresistible nature of the
combination of sentiment and forces
behind him
So wrote Frank Kent, one of the
most fortnight of Roosevelt crit
les. This view is generally held by
the professional publicists who sup
ported Landon. Those who support
ed the president say with justice
that they anticipated the result, that
it was inevitable most OF
them were surprised by the extent
of the victory.
For the sake of the record, here
is how the great battle of 1896
came out: The president carried 46
states, for total of 523 electoral.
votes. Governor Landon carried two
states, with eight electoral votes.
The popular vote gave the president
a majority of about 10000, 900
26, 900, 900 to 16,000,000 for his OPP
ponent. 1t was the most decisive
electoral college victory since the
two-party system became we'll estab-
| ished.
So far so good But when it comes
to guessing why Mr.. Roosevelt
achieved the unprecedented, there
is considerable difference of opinion,
especially in the Republican camp.
Thus, Walter Lippman, who support
| ed Roosevelt in 1882, but turned to
Landon in the last campaign, has
written that the campaign was more
or less normal-that it simply prov
ed the truth of the old adage that
an incumbent is unbeatable in pc
Iriod of industrial improvement. Mr..
Lippman also says that if the solid
lsouth-which no Republican can
hope to carry under any clrcunl-
stances-is eliminated from consid-
Grafton, such Republican candidates
as Harding, Coolidge and Hoover
won just as handily.
On the other hand, famed Will
liam Allen White, one of Landon's
closest advisors, sees the election
very differently. He believes thai
"it was not just an election which
the country has just undergone, bu'
a political Johnstown flood. The
dam gave way which has been slow.
ly filing for 40 years, fed by the
waters of Organism, of Theodore
Roosevelt's progressiveism, of La
Follett's Wisconsin insurgency. o.
. Wilsonian liberalism, of the pro
!gressive bloc in the senate under the
administrations Of Harding, Cool
idge and Hoover. The waters Of tht
New Deal cover the earth. Republi
cans did not heed the warnings.....'
Generally speaking, this view Is
widely held. In addition, practi
cally all commentators agree that
the Republican campaign was inep
and badly handled, that the party
organization was about as bad a!
| it could be, and that Landon ant
Ibis advisors failed to make thu
best of the situation. By contrast
the Democratic machine under jim
Farley was a marvel of efficienc,
+. and effectiveness. There was M
; waste motion-ev everything worked
with the precision of a series o.
relay switches.
: Furthermore, it is difficult tx
exaggerate the political Importance
of the presidents personality. 4
natural born speaker, he has tht
rare faculty of establishing a per
, sonal relationship between himself
: and the voters. AS many point out
no one in the political history of the
last century has had SO great :
grip on the emotions of millions O.
. American citizens.
Il The important question to be an
, swered now is, what direction viii
future Roosevelt policies take? Ant
: here again there is wide differ
! ence of opinion, even in the presi
, dents own camp. Supported as M
is by amazingly varied groups, NJ
one but the chief executive himsel
; can answer that question. Thus
one New Deal group is of the opin
ion that the president is likely tt
take a conservative course, now tha'
business has recovered much Of the
ground lost during depression, anC
will refrain from new experiments
This is a small group.
| Another group feels that the pres
ident will swing sharply to the left
and go whole hog along the path ol
a socialist or collectivist or fascist
program. This too is small.
The largest group, and the one
which seems best informed and clos.
est to the White House, feels that
the second Roosevelt administration
will follow a middle-of-the-road
course-that the president will at.
tempt the difficult job of holding the
balance between radicalism on the
one hand and reaction on the other
hand. In other words, they feel
that he will try to maintain a gov
ernment-regulated capitalism-and