AMERICAN PRESIDENT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 52, Issue 158, 16 April 1932, Page 5

AMERICAN PRESIDENT

HOOVER'S CHANCES IMPROVE. SPLIT !N DEMOCRATIC RANKS. ECONOMICS AND RELIGION. United Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) NEW YORK, April 15. Mr Hoover's chances of re-election as President in November have been materially improved with the appearance and widening of a split among the Democrats. No matter what Democrat interpretation may be placed upon the denunciation of Mr Franklin D. Roosevelt by Mr Alfred Smith (Democrat) this week, there will be several schools of thought. It is clear from the comment by leaders and the Press that Mr Roosevelt's chances have diminished. Mr Smith, with some return of the personal fire and magnetism he displayed in 1928, without actually naming Mr Roosevelt but making it clear whom he meant, has accused the latter of being a demagogue, setting class against class. Mr Smith proposed a 20-year war moratorium with provision for debtreduction to the amount of 25 per cent of what the debtor nations bought from the United States. In short, he drove a wedge into the Democrats by setting forth in round periods the programme of the Democrat big business, and incidentally the Republican big business. By stating that Mr Roosevelt s speech of several days ago was a general harangue and an appeal to. the disgruntled voter, Mr Smith took from the Government considerable support in New York and the east. On the other hand arithmetical odds are still heavily with Mr Roosevelt for nomination. If he can hold the South and get the West, he can get the job. Mr Smith's proposals for a 20-year moratorium plan have laid him open to effective attack by the supporters of Mr Roosevelt throughout the.country. . . • ■ -ar i The consensus of opinion in Wasliington is that a party dividend on the economic policy, into which now enters the religious issue, cannot hope to defeat the vigorous solidarity of the Republicans behind Mr Hoover.