DESPERATE FIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 106, 1 November 1926, Page 9

DESPERATE FIGHT

REPUBLICANS BACK TO WALL,

WASHINGTON, 29th October. As the election campaign draws to a close the fear that the Republican Party will lose its majority in the Senate takes on special emphasis. The situation has few parallels in the political history of the nation, since there is not a single Senatorial seat held by a Democrat in danger,-while not less than sixteen held by Republicans are imperilled, some of them so much so that even tho Administration leaders privately admit that only a political miracle can save them. There will be 35 Senators elected, due to three deaths in office, and in fourteen States Republicans are fighting desperately with their backs to the wall. The Democrats cannot possibly lose any seats, due to the fact that only six are seeking re-election, and these are in States traditionally Democratic. It is amongst the remaining 29 seats that the Republicans expect large losses. It is noteworthy how relatively localised issues are playing an important part in several populous States which are always pivotal and decisive as concerns the entire nation. THE ISSUE IN NEW YORK. The New York State finds all other questions dwarfed by the issue of adulterated milk, the Republicans alleging that the Democratic State Administration has showed gross corruption in allowing New York City's millions to drink a bad beverage, __rom which many contracted disease. Pennsylvania's expenditure of nearly a million and a half dollars by candidates in primary elections overshadows all other issues in that State. It is also interesting to see how the World Court, once an all-important question, has assumed a> minor role, there being a sort of gentleman's agreement to let it rest in peace. President Coolidge's personal prestige is involved in his home State (Massachusetts), where his close personal friend, Senator Butler, who also is chairman of tho Republican National Committee, is opposed for re-elec-tion by ex-Senator Walsh. Senator Butler's defeat would be construed as the turning of sentiment against President Coolidge.