Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, NOV. 7, 1928. THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 292, 7 November 1928, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, NOV. 7, 1928. THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

American electioneering- methods savour of the grotesque, especially when "it comes 'to the election of a President. The party conventions which are held in the first place to select a candidate to carry the Republican or Democratic flag constitute the first step in as bewildering a game of political selection as it seems possible to devise. The conventions are attended by party delegates from each of the States, and they are held amid scenes of mingled turmoil . and enthusiasm, with flags flying, banners waving and bands playing, the candidates being eliminated one by one until the official candidate is chosen. Then the latter goes on tour throughout the States expounding the Republican or Democratic policy as the case may be, while his supporters leave nothing undone that would help to secure his election. All sorts of / devices are adopted to meet the popular fancy and to secure support for the candidate, and—unheard of thing in politics elsewhere —as we heard the other day, a-plebiscite is sometimes taken by an enterprising journal to secure the opinion of its readers on the chances of the respective candidates. In the case reported in a recent cable one journal had received three million voting papers out of the number it had issued. Action of that sort and the publication of the number of votes recorded in favour of either candidate would unquestionably have a psychological effect upon the crowd and might be expected to influence the result of the election itself. How far it will affect the prospects of Mr Hoover and Mr Smith, the respective Republican and Democratic candidates, remains to be seen. President Coolidge evidently 'senses the triumph of the former, who belongs to his own (the Republican) party, and his message to Mr Hoover, on the eve of the election, suggests that he is more concerned in furthering the interests of his own party than in holding the judicial balance between the two candidates, as a fair-minded man should. His action in this resnect is almost without precedent. He would have shown a more dignified attitude had he remained aloof from the election, and recognised that, as the head of the nation, he was called upon to observe a neutral atttiude, so that he might better represent the people as a whole.