Evening star., 1942-10-27
BY GOULD LINCOLN,
Star stan Writer

oSo4 401, Wv. Zt-ACSpAtc d VcI
table maze OF cross currents run
ming in the Massachusetts, political
campaign today, it looks as though
Senator Lodge and Gov. Leverett
Saltonstall, both Republicans, would
be reelected November 3, though
the margin Of victory may be slim.
In addition, the Republicans prob
ably will elect 10 Representatives in
the House to four for the Democrats.
Representative Casey, the Demo-
cratic candidate for Senator, has
made an active campaign against
Senator Lodge, and his chances
have improved. With a week still
to go, 1t does not appear he has
yet topped Lodge. Just as Senator
Lodge is counting on Democratic
and independent votes, plus the
Republicans, to put him across in
this election, so Representative
Casey is relying. on Republican
votes, Independent, and the great
majority Of Democratic votes.
This seeming political paradox
grows out of the old pre-Pearl Har-
Dor isolationism issue and the con-
ditions developing from the war.
The Republican opposition to Sen
ator Lodge is based on the isola-
tlonism issue. While Senator Lodge
was one of the first men in Con-
gress to advocate the SeIective Serv-
ice Act, supported all military and
naval appropriations, and voted for
the Lease-Lend Act, he was q nom
1nterventionist when many of the
Republicans in this State were 60
ing along with Wendell L. Willkie
and President Roosevelt on foreign
policy.
Recall League Fight.
There is a group of Republicans
IN the State who strongly favored
the entrance of the United States
into the League of Nations after
the close OF the last war-and they
remember that Senator Lodges
grandfather, the first Senator Henry
Cabot Lodge, did complete wreck
Ing job on the League covenant
when that document was before
the Senate. They visualize Lodge
the younger in a similar role, when
the war has been won. Also. al
though Senator Lodge voted for
the lease-lend bill on its final
passage, he delivered bitter speech
against it when the debate opened
In that body.
So some Of Massachusetts, lead
Ing citizens who also happen to be
Republicans have turned thumbs
down on the Senator. Indeed, they
sought to defeat him for renomi-
nation in the Republican primary
last September and backed Courte-
nay Crocker, another member of
an old family, who has now come
out for Mr.. Casey. ~
The effort to dislodge Senator
Lodge. however proved a dud The
vote in the primary stood 10000
Tor Senator Lodge and $4,000 for
Mr.. Crocker.l It is these interview
zionist, anti-isolationist Republicans
to whom Mr.. Casey looks for aid
on election day. It is possible to
get a considerable list of these
anti-Lodge Republicans, among
them members of the intellectual
group. bankers and prominent busi-
nessmen.
Irish American Support.
1t should be remembered, how
ever, that the largest racial group
IN Boston, which is a Democratic
stronghold, is Irish-American, In
that group the stand taken by SEN
ator Lodge before Pearl Harbor is
regarded with good deal of svm-
pathy. From that group the Sena-
tor hopes to get as many or more
votes than he will lose in Repub-
lican defections.
THESE issues of isolationism and
non-1nterventionism are having
thelr effects on other racial groups,
1t is said, notably the Italian, the
Polish, the Canadian and the Jew
Nh groups, all of which are large,
Not by any means all or any of
these groups are going to be guided
purely by these issues in voting IN
the senatorship, but it is likely that
appreciable numbers will be af-
fected.
1t is a far cry from the war is
sue TO birth control. However. a
birth-control referendum is on the
ballot in Massachusetts, this year
placed there by means of the In
ltlative and Referendum Act.
The Catholic Church is conduct
Ing campaign against the amend
ment- From every Catholic pulpit
the word has gone forth to defeat
the amendment. Special efforts have
been made to register Catholic men
and women so that they may vote.
Irish americans are traditionally
Democratic Catholic.
May Swing Ticket.
What the Democrats are hoping is
that the strenuous effort made to get
the Catholics to vote in the election
will bring an unusually heavy Demo-
cratic vote to the polls, and that
while these voters are plunking
against birth control, they will vote
the straight Democratic ticket. No
one knows for certain Just how
effective this campaign will be, but
1t is one of those currents which
sometimes swing elections.
Representative Casey has attacked
Senator Lodge on the ground that
he has tried to carry water on both
shoulders-as when he spoke against
the Lease-Lend Act and voted for it,
He has sought to ridicule Senator
Lodges Army service in Libya last
summer, calling it cooks tour"
and made vigorous criticism of Sec
retary of War Stimsons letter to
Senator Lodge, ordering Mr.. Lodge
OF active Army duty so that he
might remain in the Senate. Sena-
tor Lodge, on his part, has charac-
terized Mr.. Casey as New Deal
rubber stamp member of Congress.
So the fur flies.
In the gubernatorial race two
Massachusetts, blue bloods" are
fighting each other-Gov. Salton-
stall, the Republican, and Roger L.
Putnam. Mayor of Springfield, DEM
ocrat. Mr.. Putnam is a descendant