RELIGIOUS ISSUE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 259, 1 November 1928, Page 7

RELIGIOUS ISSUE.

DECIDING FACTOR.

Closing Stages Of Presidential Election.

BETTING FAVOURS HOOVER.

(Australian and N.Z. Press Association.)

(Received 9.30 a.m.)

NEW YORK, October 31. fnvL kl \ e - h Wa J d f lared that, having fully discussed the religious issue*, fnl'it L - D Sm^ h ' Democratic nominee tor the Presidency, would make little or no further reference to it, intimation is now given that in his next four and last campaign speeches to be delivered in or near New York City, the Governor will make this question the paramount one.

The candidate's advisers feel that his Catholicism will be the deciding factor in the election and he is reported to be very disturbed over this fact. He was said to have stated that he would rather be defeated, than obtain the support of such organisations as the Ku Klux Klan.

The importance of the Governor's decision to again stress the so-called bigotry issue lies in the fact that always personalities fly thickest toward the end of the campaign and the intense discussion of the religious question promises to make the final week possibly one of the most unsavoury in American politics.

There is a large amount of betting on the results of the election. Prominent Wall Street commissioners estimate that £800,000 in wagers has already been placed and the amount will possibly reach £2,000,000 before the election. The odds have been nine to two favouring Mr. Hoover, Republican, but have wavered from time to time as the fortunos of the two candidates have apparently changed with the ostensible change of sentiment. They have been as low as seven to two favouring Mr. Hoover, and now are four to one.

Along with this sublimated form of trying to guess the outcome of the election are numerous "straw" votes being conducted throughout the country. These, with no exceptions, all show Mr. Hoover as leading. One magazine, which in 1924 was able to forecast the outcome with fair accuracy, has this year conducted an elaborate post-card poll in which votes amounting to over 3,000,000 have been gathered with Mr. Hoover receiving 63 per cent.

A remarkable feature of this poll is that Mr. Smith is leading in only four States, and these are all southern. If the results should bear this out, the Democrat defeat would be nothing short of disastrous.