RIVAL ARMIES READY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 452, 6 September 1928, Page 9

RIVAL ARMIES READY

U.S. PRESIDENCY FIGHT INVASION OF STRONGHOLDS i (United P.A.—By Telegraph—Copyright) | (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) NEW YORK. Tuesday. The two candidates for the Presidency of the United states, Mr. Herbert Hoover (Republican) and* Governor Al. Smith (Democrat) and the huge campaign organisations of both the parties, are completing plans for an intense effort to secure the support of the country’s electorate. Both candidates have chartered trains, which will proceed in opposite directions. The Democrat train will go west to invade Mr. Hoover’s strong - holds, and Mr. Hoovorfo will oobm snot* ostensibly to storm the industrial areas of America, where Mr. Smith’s appeal is distinctly predominant. It is estimated that the party which wins the Senate will probably have to spend £200.000. * Twenty of the 35 seats in the Senate to be tilled arc now occupied by Democrats and 13 by Republicans. There are two vacancies caused by deaths. Ten of the Democrat seats at issue arc in States one Senator representing which is a Republican. It is quite conceivable, and wholly possible, that a Republican President mav find himself with a Democrat Senate. or vice-versa. It has happened before, notably in Dr. Woodrow Wilson’s second administration. Far above all other issues prohibition has progressively assumed tin* largest proportions. It promises to absorb popular interest to a degree which will make it probably the single issue when the ballots are, taken. Prohibition has markedly cut across part' lines, and in many cases will break them. NEW ELEMENTS Important roles may be played by two comparatively new elements in American politics, namely, women and negroes. It Is increasingly evident that more women will vote this year than ever before, and the party managers are making shrewd bils for this vote. Mr. Hoover’s work as Food Administrator during the war, when he cooperated with large bodies of women, has given his managers a basic organisation on which to appeal to the female electorate, and this is being done. One of Mr. Smith’s closest advisers is a woman, and she is conducting a campaign in female ranks for him. Moreover, the nomination of a negro Congressman in St. Louis by the Democrats has led this party to attempt to organise the negroes* votes In such debatable States as Ohio. Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland. This is an effort to change the politics of the negroes, who, if anything, have been Republican since the days of Abraham Lincoln.