The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1947-11-13
ELECTIONS SHOW SHARP
DEMOCRATIC SHIFT; '48
HOPES OF COP DIMMED

kaVSSP eiidI Vic Ncpuul1Cdu dII,
pected to make in Congression
~ state and local elections acros!
the country on Nov. ended il
what union officials claimed was {
violent jolt to the COPS fond hope.
for 1913.
After its crashing 1916 victor.
which gave the COP control O.
Congress for the first time sine,
1882, the 1947 elections last weel
were supposed to provide clinchint
assurance that the Republicans
would occupy not only Congress.
but the White House next year.
But almost everywhere thruout
the nation the Democrats not only
held their own but in many in
stances made conspicuous gains. Ir
scores of elections where Democrat
ic candidates lost, they neverthe
less made sizable inroads on the
margins by which Republicans wor
last year.
One survey, covering three Con
gressional elections last Tuesday
the Kentucky gubernatorial race
and previous Congressional con-
test in September, showed an over
all Democratic gain of 5%o over
last year. Even more impressive
proof of a shift back to Democratic
sentiment in the past year was
contained in recent Gallup Polls.
The worst rebuff of COP hopes
came in Kentucky where the Re
publicans made the Taft Hartley
law the chief issue and predicted
! $4,000 vote victory for their gu
INrnatorial candidate. Rep. Earle
G. Clements, who had both AFL
and CIO support and who voted
against the Taft Hartley law and
to support President Truman's
veto, scored a smashing 80,0O0-vote
triumph. The Republican state gov
ernment was ousted and Clements
swept with him all state offices
and control of both branches of
the legislature.
The Taft-Hartley law was as
clear-cut an issue in Kentucky as
it had been in a September Con-
gressional election in Baltimore
where Rep. Edward Garmatz, a
Democrat, campaigned actively as
a foe of the anti-labor law.
Probably the second most en-
couraging sign the Democrats
found was in Indiana which has
been Republican for the past eight
years. In this state the Demo-
Gratis captured more than half the
city governments, picking up 25
new mayors for total of SO Dem
ocratic mayors and SO Republicans.
Democratic upsets were recorded
in the largest Indiana cities includ-
ing Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and
Evansville. W
In Pennsylvania, Democrats won
14Sof % mayoralty contests, gain
of eight. In Virginia, President w.
H. Murray, of the Richmond Cen
< yal Labor Union-AFL, was elected
|tS the state legislature with CIO
backing, and in New Jersey num-
ber of the AFL Typos, supported
by both AFL and CIO reelected to
the state assembly.
In Sen. Robert Taft's home state,
the voters of Cleveland returned
Mayor Thomas A. Burke to office
in the greatest landslide recorded
in that city. Supported by both
CIO and AFL, Burke piled up
margin of victory that more than.
doubled the vote for the COP op-
ponent.
In Detroit, Eugene i. Van Ant
werp, city councilman and the
AFL's candidate, defeated Mayor
Edward Jeffries, who was backed
by the CIO which had opposed him
twice previously. The AFL and
CIO agreed, however, on the re-
election of City Council President
George Edwards whose victorious
260,903 votes exceeded that of eth
er Van Antwerp or Jeffries.
For the first time in more than
20 years the Democrats captured
Schenectady, N. Y, and IN Bridge
port, Conn.,, Socialist Jasper Nc
Levy was elected to his eighth
consecutive term as mayor and car
ried II of 16 council seats with
him.
Although organized labor played
no decisive role in the Mississippi
contest to fill the vacated seat of
,ate late Sen. Theodore Bilbow there
1Ifas some satisfaction in the vic
tory of Judge John C. Stennis over
union-hating, Negro-baiting Rep.
John Rankin who ran fourth in a
field of five.
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