Evening star., 1942-04-23
Indiana Republicans
Fight 10 Hold Gains
Made in 1910
Party Leaders See
Lock OF Interest
Harmful TO Chances
BY GOULD LINCOLN,
Etkf stzff CnrrRnnorrep4

ANDAA1%f1E- E-OAAss AEla-s ABH IL 10
War or no war. Indiana takes it'
politics seriously. Although there 4
no presidential, gubernatorial OF
senatorial elections this year, there
sre more than twice as many pub
lie offices to be filed In Indiana a,
In 1910. In these "off year" elec-
tions, county, city and township Of.
ficials are chosen In large numbers
es well a. members of the State Leg
sslature and the States delegation
In the House Of Representatives
There are 2.ie4 officials to be elect
ed this year. compared TO $50 in
1910. It Is these local elections that
bring out the vote. the party lead
ers say.
Two years ago Indiana swung
over TO the Republican column. CIV
ing rs electoral votes TO Wendell
L. Willkie, electing Senator willis
over Judge Minton and eight men,
bers OF the House TO three for the
Democrats. They lost the governor
ship race. however. and Gov. Henry
Schricker. Democrat, sits in the
statehouse today.
Hoosier Republicans are eager TO
continue their victory course next
fall. They even talk Of holding all
the congressional districts they now
have and of picking up one or two.
They point out that Is an assign
ment already given them by the Re
publican Congressional Committee
and the National Committee. They
may be lucky, however, to hold
what they have. The candidacy of
Mr.. Willkie, Hoosier-born, for Pres
ident in 1910 carried the rest of the
Republican ticket that year. In large
part, to victory. Mr.. wilIkie is not
running this year.
Primaries May 3.
The nominating primaries are
slated for May 5. Some of the mem
bers Of the House are without oppo-
sition for denomination, as In the
cases Of Representative Halleck Of
the ID district, who placed Mr..
Willkie in nomination at the Repub-
lican National Convention two years
ago; Representative Gillie in the
4th district, Representative Lands
in the 7th district, Representative
Wilson in the 9th district and Repre-
sentative Springer in the 10th dis.
trict. All of them are Republicans.
All three Democratic incumbents
have opposition in the primaries.
Representative Ludlow, veteran
Democratic House member from the
18th district, indianapolis, undoubt-
edly viii be renominated, notwith-
standing the fact two other candi-
dates have filed. Against him the
Republican organization is backing
John @. Coulter for the nomina-
ton. There are two other Republi-
cans in the race here, and an in
dependent. Harold c. Colvin, also
has filed.
Mr.. Coulter is vice president OF
Wabash College. Years ago he was
managing editor Of the Manila
Times. He has an uncle who is
dean Of Purdue. The Republican
organization drafted Mr.. Coulter at
the. 18th hour, believing he would
make O strong candidate.
The race between Mr.. Ludlow and
Mr.. Coulter II both are nominated,
will present a novelty. Mr.. Ludlow
has for years been a strong advo-
cate of international peace. He
was strongly against the irvolvment
of this country IN the present war.
Mr.. Coulter, on the other hand, be-
longs to the Willkie brand of Re-
puhlicans who have gone along with
the interventionist idea. Take 1t by
and large, the Republican leaders
in Indiana, including the Republican
members of the House and Senator
willis, belonged to the isolationist
group. The Democrats in Indiana,
too, have had their isolationists and
opponents of entry into the war,
among them Senator Van Nuys,
along with Mr.. Ludlow.
Difficult to Predict.
Until the nominations for Con-
gress have been made. both Demo-
cratic and Republican leaders are
slow to make predictions about the
probable results in November. Even
after the nominations have been
made 1t will be difficult to predict
the outcome Of the November elec-
tions, they agree. Both sides say
that much will depend upon how
the war is going-whether victory
has begun to come to American
arms. The Democrats recall that
they suffered an upset in the con-
gressional elections in 1918, almost
at the close OF the First World War.
even though the American war ef-
fort had been then signally sue
ceSSful.
As one leading Democratic fgTe
here pointed out today, it is impos-
sible TO know what grudges, or for
what reasons, the voters may have
when election day rolls around.
Upon one thing the leaders in
both parties are a unit-the deter
mination to win the war. Whatever
the isolationist spirit and whatever
the sentiment against entry into the
wsr-and both were rampant before
the japanese attack on Pearl Har-
bor-that has been forgotten in the
desire for victory and readiness TO
back the war effort. Indiana, they
insist, has become war minded and
in big way.
This does not mean that the
Democrats will fail to asssil the Re-