AN ELECTION LULL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22540, 3 October 1936, Page 12

AN ELECTION LULL

The contest for the American Presidency has got into the, doldrums. A few doughty folk seem to be trying to provide a breeze by individual means that have been known to create amusement on shipboard when no stormy winds do blow and a calm becomes nauseating ; but the two great parties and especially their chosen champions are for the nonce content to walk spiritlessly round each other and trust to luck. At all events, " Roosevelt's luck " is at present exciting more attention than his policy, without tempting his opponents to any exuberance in wishing their chief candidate a slice of the same. " Third party " hopes are too modest to voice themselves loudly in public, and the Communist aspirant for the latch-key of White House is resting in prison without access to any latch key at nil. It is all very sad. To say that the two major contestants are sparring for position or trying to steal each other's thunder would be an abuse of toil-worn phrases, for neither manifests enough energy to spar, and there is no thunder that any ordinary hearing can notice. A tradition obtains that by the end of September the vote is " frozen," this meaning the negligible chance of changing any American citizen's preference after that date. Perhaps a sorrowful realisation of this is beginning to haunt the party leaders, who may be stoically preparing for the worst. They should pluck up heart, lest an idea get abroad that the contest is about to be called off and a decision eventually made by putting two names into a hat and drawing ono out. There are worse ways of conducting an election, and the way now being taken is one of them. It is contributing less than it should to the • edification of peoples.