Evening star., 1942-11-07

terize the Re 80 '''"'
publicans as David Lawrence.
well to do" and his statement that
only the well to do" had time to go
to the ballot box is comment that
must be attributed to naivete rather
than to knowledge of American
politics.
Just why the "well-to-do" Demo-
crats-comprising the workers who
are earning higher wages than ever
before in American history-stayed
away from the polls when so i'm
portant an election as that involv-
Ing Congress was at stake is not
explained on the ground that those
who stayed away were satisfied"
and hence didn't go to protest.
Such an analysis of the reasons
why people 60 to the polls doesn't
seem to explain why so many peo-
pie went to the polls in 1886 and
1910. They were supposed at that
time not to be protesting at all, but
merely to be expressing their graft
tude for the many benefits con-
ferred on them by the New Deal
administration.
No Mystery to Reason.
The stay-at-home vote is not at
all puzzling to any one who is IA
miliar with politics. People stay at
home usually because they are dis
gusted with their own political par
ty and do not want to vote for the
opposition. Again and again at
tempts to reason with such folks
that staying at home helps the op-
position has been of little avail, the
real point being that they don't
care if their own party is defeated
their grievances make them feel
that way.
AS for the question of whether
a total vote of 26,000,O00 or 100000
represents a true expression of the
American electorate, experience with
literally hundreds of surveys of hu-
man behavior which have been
made by statisticians, with all sorts
of products and with all sorts of
elections, has proved that if sur
vey is made with due consideration
for geography and other important
factors, the survey is accurate when
only few thousand people are
sampled.
Where the sample is as big as
100000 1T is in accord with all
scientific findings on the subject to
say that the result would probably
not have varied even as much as l
per cent if double the number had
participated.
But doubtless the fact that
smaller vote was polled will be used
as an alibi by the administration.
One excuse, however, which also
came from Vice President Wallace
will be easy to disprove. He said
that If the soldiers and sailors had
been voting the result would have
been different.
Judging by the comments that the
servicemen make when they get
home on leave, Mr.. Wallace is far
from familiar with the facts. The
servicemen, it is reported from every
side, are unusually bitter about what
they consider to be bungling of the
war effort back in Washington. If
the vote had been augmented by
the ballots of soldiers and sailors, it
seems probable that the opposition
or protest majority would have been
considerably larger than it was last
Tuesday.
COP Hope for 1914.
If the New Dealers are going on
the assumption that the election
really didn't mean anything and
that they have majority of the
voters back of the New Deal pro-
gram of social reform, the Republic
can leaders might as we'll begin
celebrating the 1914 election, because
nothing would contribute more to
landslide two years hence than for
the New Deal tacticians to assume
that everything is fine throughout
the country and that all that it's
necessary to do next time is to get
out the Democratic vote.
The Republicans know by bitter
experience that stay-at-home votes
mean protest almost as deep as
that of the voters who go to the
polls and register their protest. The
Democrats also ought to know that
the women voters, who have time to
60 to the polls, would have been
enough to swing the election II
they really favored the New Deal.
Many reports are reaching here
that the women voters have been
antagonized by the New Deals
clumsy handling of rationing and
the draft and that they were IN the
forefront of Tuesdays protest.
Reproduction RIGHTS Reserved)