AMERICAN ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19260, 26 August 1924, Page 8

AMERICAN ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

POLITICIANS WARMING HP IFbom Oue Owy Cobrespondekt.) BAN FRANOISCO, July 28. Despite the fact that “dog days’ have been prevailing and the heat has been terrific in some of the Southern States,, the quadrennial Presidential election campaign is well under way, and the injection ot a third political party has tended to increase public interest in the waging of hostilities. It is estimated that from 5,000,000 to 5,000,000 of the votes of organised Labour will throw in their lot with the Independent Presidential candidate, Senator Robert Marion La Follette, whom the Republicans deeply regret to have lost to their told. The Democrats also strongly bemoan the fact that La Toilette will deplete their voting strength. By the announcement of Trank Johns, the Portland, Oregon, orator, as Socialist candidate, a further inroad of the Democratic vote will go to the Oregonian, totalling some two million votes. ... Undoubtedly the severest jar admmisteied to the Democratic Party for many a year has been the secession from its fold or Senator Burton K. Wheeler, the Democratic senator of Montana, ' who is one of the most polished orators of the United States. The senator has accepted the Vice-Presidential nomination on ™e Progressive third party ticket, headed by Senator La Follette. Wheeler said he accepted the “honour of being running mate to La Follette, because he could neither support John W. Davis, the Democratic nominee, nor President Coolidge. The Democrats, he added, “selected as their standard-bearer an attorney who represents the interests of Wall who lives and associates with them and who typifies all that ‘Big Business’ stands for, just as much and just as truly as does the Republican nominee.” Senator Wheeler was offered the nomination in New York for the Democratic party, but he refused, and it is but natural that the Progressives should be jubilant over his assistance, as ho played a pro- • minent part in unearthing some of the national grafting scandals recently, and was the Democratic prosecutor of the Daugherty Investigating Committee when the startling revelations caused an immense sensation throughout the United States. . The nomination of Senator Wheeler as La Follette’s running mate finishes the cast of characters who will play the great American drama of 1924. ’ With Wheeler on the ticket the La Follette faction ceases to look even like a Republican bolt, mid becomes a bi-partisan, non-partisan Progressive party composed of folks who are completely “fed up” on political ‘bunk, and who want public officials that win bo performers instead of conversationalists. Mr John W. Davis, the Democratic nominee has severed all his connections vith the'Wall street financial firm of J. Picrpont, Morgan. He is to introduce an entirely new* tariff note in the campaign, and he will lead the Democrats in a broader stand on this subject than they have ever taken before. Davis has long believed in what he calls a “competitive tariff. tp his mind, the proper tariff for the American producer is one that will permit him to compete on a fair basis with foreign production where labour costs are cheaper because living standards arc lower. Undoubtedly this is a far cry from the free trade” label which once was attached to all Democrats, but Davis believes it to be sound economic theories. Most of the United States’ Democrats view the tariff nowadays more on a scientific than on a political basis, and the ■ South _ now has many interests that require a tariff to keep them on a fair competitive basis With Europe and other sections of the world. Of course, the Democrats will continue to assail the Republican policy of protection. but their tariff declarations do not leave the two old parties in theory so very far apart. Tho new Democratic theory that production shall bo guarded on a fair competitive basis has removed one of the bugaboos that always dominated the old campaigns. _ . . The Democratic platform contains the competitive declaration, but buries it under a grand denunciation of the FordnevM‘Cumber Act, which is scourged as “the most unjust, unscientific, and dishonest tariff tax measure ever enacted in our history. The Act has been branded as “class legislation, which defrauds all the people for the benefit of the few,” and “as heavily increasing the cost of living, ’ as penalising agriculture, corrupting government, fostering paternalism, and in the long run fading to bAofit the very interests for which it was enacted.” Tho tariff ouestion is likely to play a. leading nart in the coming campaign, and it will do’ this because it has been linked bv the Democrats with the entire subject of taxation, and will be so treated by both parties. It is in the north-west States that the fight will bo exceedingly hot, for it will be a ..ght for tho agrarian votes, and managers of all three candidates —Coolidge, Davies, and La Fcllotto—are turning to that section ns one of the vital spots, and for the first time the wide, open spaces are taking on the importance of old-time pivotal States. Each ticket plans an extensive drive as a wind-up, and neither Davis nor Coolidge is willing to concede La Follette an inch out there. This does not mean any lessening of the lines east of the Mississippi. The pivotal battles East will be as bitter as ever. But there will be tightening of the lines on all sides In the West. Davis will personally campaign in the West, according to tentative plans of his chieftains in Washington. He is not satisfied in leaving Governor Charles Bryan to battle La Follette in the crucial position of the West, and expects personally to tour, possibly starting in Nebraska with an oval trip back along the northern border.

The North-west has suddenly taken on Importance for all three candidates. Davis, with about 147 electoral votes in the “solid South,” seemingly tucked in his pocket, and with claims of 183 as certain being made bv his followers, can greatly ease his needs in the East by capturing a State here and there in the West. The total necessary for election if 266. Coolidge, who already has ordered his lieutenants to do considerable frolicking in Da Follette’s playgrounds, also finds the North-west of vital value to the Republicans. If La Follettee makes a clean sweep of the nine States he claims as certain out there, he will gather 71 electoral votes. That would mean that for Coolidge to get the necessary 260 he would have to overwhelm Davis elsewhere. With La Follette getting the. 71 amt Davis his 147, there would be only 313 electoral votes left. To be elected Coolidge would have to take 266 of these, or in other words, shut out La Follette completely outside the North-west and keep Davis from getting more than 47 votes outside the South. More than that would mean victory for Davis, but it would mean throwing the election into the House, for no one would have a majority in the electoral college. Thus giving La Follette an open Held would moan that Coolidge would have to sweep the Middle West and East overwhelmingly to win, while for Davis to weaken La Follette would mean that he also would weaken Coolidge by making it necessary for Coolidge to get landslides in other States. The whole situation appears full of probabilities and possibilities, and with a. deadlock the American system of selecting a President appears to be bordering on the farcical, instead of permitting the people a direct vote throughout the country on a certain dav. This method, it is urged, would save the country untold expense and bo a fairer way of deciding who should fill the Presidential chair at Washington for tlie ncxC four years.

Undoubtedly one of the most picturesque factors in the present campaign is the importance that radio is playing. Senator Borah, of Idaho, chairman of the Special Senate Committee, which is to report campaign expenditures, expects to have a busy lime of it between now and early November, for all of the committees have decided to emulate the example of Chairman Butler of the Republicans and give Borah detailed reports from time to time as th? campaign progresses. Announcement is made that, the Independent Progressives are going to attempt lo raise a campaign fund of at Jeast 5.000,000 dollars. The Democrats may easily raise a fund of 5,000.000 dollars, but (he rich Republicans will have no difficulty in gathering over 15.CC0.0C0 dollars. Radio, an cntirelv new expense in national campaigns, will get (he lion’s share of (he expenditure, according to present plans. The broadcasting companies expect lo rear) a real harvest and get bark some of the heavy sums they have spent in developing this newest art of communication. Thus far there has been no attempt to standardise the political charges for broadcasting other than a preliminary statement bv the American Telegraph and Telephone Company that it expected to get 10 dollars a minute, and to limit speeches to 10 minutes’ durfaion. This time limit is proposed not alone for the benefit of the, ligteners-in, hut for the politicians as well. The broadcasting

agencies know their invisible audiences, for people will not listen patiently to any person for much more than 10 minutes.. The Republicans believe that they 'will be returned to power again, and at the present juncture are not very active. Hie most helpful factor in their situation is thr rising prices of farm products. The moaf important items of current political new* are those that tell of the upward movement in tile Western markets. With wheat at 1.50 dollars and tending higher, ana with the fat hog at nine dollars per 1001 b, and prices still rising, there is certain to be a more satisfied slate of mind on the part of the Western agricultural producer.