AH PRESIDENCY

Evening Star, Issue 21079, 16 April 1932, Page 13

AH PRESIDENCY

MR HOOVER'S CHANGES MATERIALLY IMPROVED Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. NEW YORK, April 15. (Received April IG, at 10.45 a.m.) Mr Hoover’s chances of re-election in, November have materially improved with tho appearance and widening of the split among the Democrats. No matter what Democratic interpretation may be placed upon the denunciation of Mr Roosevelt by Mr Alfred Smith this week there will be several schools of thought. It is clear from the comment of the loaders 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. He also proposed a twenty-year war debt moratorium, with the provision for debt reduction 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 Democratic big business, and incidentally Republican big business. By stating that Mr Roosevelt’s speech of several days ago was a general harangue and an appeal to the disgruntled vote, he took from the Governor considerable support in New Y’ork and in 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 twenty-year moratorium plan has laid him open to an effective attack by Rooscveltites throughout the country. The consensus of opinion in Washington is that a party divided on economic policy, into which now enters the religious issue, cannot but hope defeat. The vigorous solidarity of the Republicans is behind President Hoover.