Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1944-09-05
behind
The NEWS
BY Paul
Mallon

Gallup pott cidiiilS iNoose
Welt leading by a small margin.
These commercial polls gen.
orally. in the past, have noted
presidential races about even
until two or three weeks before
the real vote counting.
A magazine poll of the politi-
cal experts in the Washington
press corps indicates a rather
stronger expectation of a Roose-
Welt victory. This reflects, L
think. the popular disbelief that
any one could ever beat Mr..
Roosevelt, the natural sports
notion that nearly always makes
the champion the favorlte. Cen
orally the public cannot con-
ceive of champ losing, as ne
has never lost before.
Yet the inside unquotable re-
ports of the congressman from
back home actually give Dewey
an even or better chance TO WIN,
as matters stand today.
Discard all Republican re-
ports, as these might be paru-
san. Consider only those of
Democratic legislators. They
have been so diScouraging as TO
alarm and even embltter the
Democratic political leaders,
who are urging the President TO
drop his "nonpartisan' cam
paign and start a partisan one
and he will Sept. %.
The Spearhead of the fourth
term movement was the Hill
man-CIO political action COM
mittee, and all the politicos can
see its effectiveness has been
dulled, if not splintered. The
other unions, and some ClO
unions, would not stand for 1t.
Wagering odds have dropped
from IN TO / on Roosevelt to
9 to in the best racing circles.
Take Maryland, which always
has been listed as a sure Roose-
Welt state. Today there Is d
Democratic cloakroom saying.
possibly oyerdrawn but never
theless significant, that, Only
Senator TydingS and his secre-
tary think Maryland is going
Democratic" These two claim
the Roosevelt majority would
be $4,000 today, but Roosevelt
carried Maryland four years ago
by $4,000.
l know southern Demo-
cratic leader who thinks Dewey
will win and is making prepara-
tons accordingly. Other SOUTH
erners insistently list Texas,
Mississippi nd Virginia as
doubtful.
All reports agree the farm
vote is lost beyond redemption
and the business vote for RooSe-
welt was damaged by the de-
parture of Little Businessman
Nelson and Big Businessman
Wilson from WPB in favor of a
IVA engineer.
On the other hand, New Eng
land is still classed as largely
doubtful (by Republicans al
though Dewey has gone long
way tow satisfying the
Willkie elements there. Prob
ably Willkie expects TO come
out for Dewey just before cleo
ton as he did on the eve of the
election of 1912 in New York.
These developments as a
whole may explain Mr.. Roose-
velt's decision to make a labor
speech in Philadelphia and fol-
low with others.
After all, 22,304,755 votes
were cast against him four
years ago 27,243,466 for him)
and all symptoms of sentiment
suggest this opposition has been
greatly enlarged. These D.
304,755 are nearly as many as
elected him president in 1882
(22,821 $50. His totals in SO
and 40 ran 27,000,000.
Now many a campaign has
been won on Labor Day only to
be lost two months later on
election day. L think Willkie,
for instance, was stronger at
this stage of the race four years
ago, than when the %, 304, 755
votes were cast for him.
Also, l have seen Mr.. Roose-
welt completely turn over
campaign situation S t a C k Q d
mountain-high against him. He
has been more clever as a
campaigner than in any other
phase of his duties. Yet moth
ing which has developed so far
in this campaign yet points to
that outcome again.
The unpopular HilIman spear
h e a d ing, the Nelson Wilson
switch, the ineffective "nonpar-
tisan attitude have not seemed
to bring the results. compared
with Dewey's organizing of the
26 governors in the only states
he needs TO WIN, his use of
Dulles in the peace conference
to kill the isolation tag on him
and get the Willkie support, his
killing of the radical campaign
which had built up an elaborate
case, accusing him of opposing
soldier votes Che demonstrated
that one-fifth of all soldiers so