The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-11-18

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separable From Local Welfare
The 1948 election belongs to his
tory, and the historians will dig
deep and long in search of the why's
and wherefores of Mr.. Truman's
amazing victory. 1t was an unpre-
cedented contest i'm several re-
spects, and not the least of these
is the fact that apparently only one
man in high position in the country
sincerely believed that the Presi-
dent could be elected. That was the
President himself, and he was
right.
The magnitude of the upset is
by the publication, in
one of the nations largest weekly
picture magazines, just prior to the
election, of full-page photo Of
Governor Dewey with caption re
ferring to him as the President
Elect! Every one of the polls, dc
spite a remarkable record of accul
acy in previous elections, was dea
wrong. So were the gamblers VIII
fixed the betting odds. And so-t'
their current sorrow-were a grea
many Democratic officeholders VIII
abandoned the Truman cause in tn
belief that all was lost and trie
to save what they could for them
selves.
SO much for the Interchangeable
facts. What theories can be advanc
ed to explain Mr.. Truman's demon
strated ability to get the vote?
There is some criticism of Tho
Republican campaign, and it exist
ed even before the election. Those
who feel this hold that Mr.. Dewe.
was too confident, too sure of vic.
tory, and, as a consequence, too
careful in his tactics. He did not &c
in for an all-out scrap.
1t is possible that, also due to
over-confdence, the COP organiza.
tions partially failed on the vita
job of getting out the vote. The
total vote cast, while large, was
not as great as was expected. The
Democrats worked extremely hard
at urging their followers to go to
the polls. So, perhaps, substantial
numbers of Republican registrants
didn't trouble to vote due to the
comfortable illusion that it was in
the bag.
The labor leaders, as was to be
expected, are claiming the lions
share of the credit for the upset.
Labor was doubtless an important
factor-but it is also true that Mr.
Truman was very strong in the
great agricultural areas which had
been written off as Dewey territory.
His margins in most industrial
regions, for example, were not as
great as Roosevelt's. But his mar
gins in the country were often
greater. Perhaps the farmers took
Mr.. Dewey's assurances with a
grain of salt that farm price sup
port would be continued, and re-
garded Mr.. Truman as a safer bet.
DR.. Gallup, whose poll missed
the boat with the rest, has said
that there was tremendous surge
to Truman at the very end, and
that this was largely at the ex-
pense of Henry Wallace. That, he
thinks, is the main reason for the
polls going wrong. The very poor
showing made by Wallace gives
credence to this opinion.
In all probability Mr.. Truman
scored heavily when it came to the
housewives vote. He never stopped
blaming the Republicans for the
high cost of living. So, rightly or
wrongly, many women voters de-
cided that he was the man to help
them with their budget problems.
Last, but by no means least, was
the Presidents courageous fight in
the final weeks. He conducted an
essentially old-fashioned campaign.
He called names and pulled no
punches. On several occasions he
threw carefully prepared speeches
away, and spoke his mind without
text-and it was then that he got
the most tumultous applause. His
approach and his attitude were
homespun and down to earth, and
people liked it. American sentiment
traditionally runs to fighters and
to underdogs, and that may have
been enough to put the President
over in an election which was very
close. 1t was so close, in fact, that
a shift of but a handful of votes
in a few key states would have
given the decision to Dewey.
One of the big questions now
concerns the future of the Republl-
can Party. 1t could not have receiv-