U.S. PRESIDENCY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 1 November 1928, Page 5

U.S. PRESIDENCY

THE RELIGIOUS ISSUE. i LIKELY TO BECOME PROMINENT TREND OF PUBLIC FEELING. United Press Association —By Eleotric Telegraph Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.) Received 10.30 a.m. to-day. NEW YORK, Oct, 31. While it was declared that, having I (my discussed the religious issue, Governor Smith would make lift.© or no further reference to it, intimations are now being given that in the next four and the last campaign speeches .to ho delivered in or near New York Jity. lie- will make this question the naninmunt one. The candidate’s advisers feel that his Catholicism will be the deciding factor in the election, and Mr Smith is reported-to be very disturbed over this fact. He has said that he ivoat'd rather be defeated than obtain the support of such organisations as the Ku Klux Klan. The importance of Mr Smith’s decision again to 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 m American politic®. There, is a- large, amount of betting on th-5 results of the election. Prominent Wall Street commissioners .estimate that four million dollans in wages have ab'sedv been placed-, and . the amount vj.v roys-ibly reach ten- millions before the election. The odds have been nine to two favouring Mr Hoover. but have wavered from time to time as the fortunes of the two candidates have apm renth' changed with the ostensib.e Change in sentiment. They have been as low as seven to two favouring MiHoover. and now are four to one. A'ong with this sublimated formi or trying to guess' the outcome of the election. "numerous straw votes are being conducted throughout the country. Those, with no exceptions, all show Mr Ho-over as leading. One magazine, which -nn 1924 was able to forecast the outcome with fair pccuracv. has this year conducted an elaborate postcard poll, in which more than three million votes have, brim <rathered. with Mr Hoover receiving 63 per cent. A remarkable feature of this no l is that Mr Smith is leading in ouJy four States, and these are all Southern. re the results should bear this out the Democrats defeat woUUd be nothing I short of disastrous. |