Evening star., 1948-10-02
Oregon Victory Seen
For Dewey by Margin
0f'50,000 10 100000
BY Gould Lincoln
Stor Stoff Correspondept

Stor Stoff Correspondent
PORTLAND, Oreg, Oct. Gov
Dewey's May victory in the Oregon
presidential preferential primary
gave the New Yorker the boost he
badly needed at that time to win
the Republican nomination. The
State is not going to let him down
in November.
Oregon is fundamentally Repub-
lican. Since the days of Gen. Grant
the only two Democratic presiden-
tial candidates who carried the State
were Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Woodrow Wilson, the latter in 1917
WHEN the Republican Party was
split. Oregon acquired the Roose-
welt habit in the days of the depres-
sion and kept it right through 1914
Gov. Dewey in that year cams
within $4,000 of the Roosevelt vote
with nearly 100000 votes cast.
Even in the Roosevelt days, Ore
gon kept right on electing Repub-
licans to Congress and to the Gov.
ernor's chair, with only few lapses
Today it has two Republican Sena.
tors, a complete Republican House
delegation and a Republican State
administration and Legislature.
Lead of $4,000 -100, 600 Seen
Gov. Dewey will beat President
Truman here by a margin variously
estimated from $4,000 to 100000
Even the most conservative, rock
bottom figure given for Republican
victory is a margin of 25.000.
The Democratic Party in the
State, in addition to its string of de-
feats in State and Congressional
elections, has the added handicap
of facing the Wallace Progressive
Party. The Progressive leaders
make no bones about their desire te
sink Mr.. Truman and the Demo
Gratis. They are busy and fanatical
They admit they have no way o1
estimating their own strength-bul
they give glowing accounts of sup
port they are receiving from former
left-wing Democrats.
Most of them are young, bent on
bringing into being a new party
more than on winning the coming
elections. Indeed they admit. when
speaking privately. they have no
chance to carry the State. Their
comment is, however: wait until
you see the Democratic Party and
what's happened to it on Election
Day."
Turning to Republicans.
The left-wingers, of whom there
were plenty in the constantly grow
ing population of Oregon, got their
grip on the Democratic Party. The
result has been a growing list of
more conservative-sounder, if you
will, Democrats declining their sup
port, and plunking for Republican
candidates, This is one of the rea-
sons the Republicans feel so conf
dent about electing Gov. Dewey and
the whole party ticket. Even with
the big influx of new population
during the war, there seems no rea-
son to doubt this.
There is very considerable labor
vote in the State, with an estimate
of 225.000 union members. Some of
this labor vote will go to Gov. Dewey.
Mr.. Wallace will get a chunk of it,
even though orders have come
through from the top CIO and AFL
leaders to go for Mr.. Truman.
American Federation of Labor un-
ion members far outnumber the
CIO-perhaps 3la to l.
Water Power Big Issue.
A great issue in the State is
water power and reclamation. SEN
ator Gordon. Republican, who is
standing for reelection, opened up
a few days ago in defense of the
Republican Congress record on rec
lamation appropriations. after Presi-
dent Truman and the Democratic
high command had labeled the COP
an enemy of reclamation and water
power. Gov. Dewey Immediately
picked up the Gordon statement and
has made 1t his own in his travels
into other Western States on his
present swing.
Senator Gordon said:
"The Eightieth Congress, being the
first Republican-controlled Congress
in almost 20 years, appropriated for
1948 S144, ,238,048 and for 1949, $245,-
566.139 for reclamation). This was
q total of 1889 ,804, ,187 for two years.
This was more than was .appro-
priated by the Democratically-con-
trolled Congress for the four preced-
ing years and more than was appro-
priated in any four-year period in
the history of reclamation"
At the same time. Senator Gordon
brought out of the files letter writ.
ten by Mr.. Truman on August 2
1946, to the Secretary of the Interio,
directing him to freeze reclamation
funds for so days and placing a bar
on construction of Federal projects
The letter also placed a limit or
expenditures for construction OF
projects of $85, 900 900 in each of the
fiscal years 1947 and 1948. How the
funds got "unfrozen" later on, SEN
ator Gordon said, the Democrats
would have to explain.