Looking from a distance of the picture of a. great nation taking a decision on the governance of its affairs, the sense of detachment, seems' almost cold-blooded. Discussed merely in terms of 2 Roose veltian of Landonian victory—the approval or condemnation of the Administration which for the last three and a halt years has attempted to revive economic prosperity by way of the New Deal—the bitterly fought campaign which the polls -bring to a conclusion monday assumes no more: importance than" the tussle. between the Yankees and the Giants for the World Series, " Yet participants in the struggle raging around the two principal candidates and their lesser rivals who provide the comic relief, have quite another feeling which indeed Is justified by the special interest taken by the world outside. Shrewd observers consider that this one of the most important prestdential contests ever: fought in the United States, Four years ago the electoral vote which' defeated Mr. Herbert Hoover was thought to have grievously erred. It sent to White House Mr. Franklin Roose-volt, the member of a Party which for the greater portion of a century has been consistently In a minority. Mr, Roosevelt faced a cataclysm on taking office. He completely disproved the theory that he was merely a amiable platform ora~ for gifted with certain political races. He showed himself be aman who would take risks—he called it, the process fof "trial and error"—and in the early months at all events he was centhuslastically hailed by an almost unanimous judgment as a great de~ mocratic leader. The situation is very different to-day. The process of "trial and error," taking the con~ crete form of the New Deal, has tured out to be a sweeping method of instituting 'a series of experi ments which have. achieved recovery and relief in a measure far below the aims of their authors and have awakened the acute hoaility of a great section of the people, Unfortunately the resultant cleavage has followed" class tines. A few months ago Sir Arthur Witlert, an experienced English observer of American polities, crystallized the position by'asserting that the President had all the @limer jackets in America against him, 'That explains why' the Literary Digest's" formerly accurate straw vote which has predicted a Republican victory variance with assessments more Konerally based. Whether the fault lies with Mr. Roosevelt or with his opponents, the fact that the election is being thus fought on class Unes is disturbing. Mr, Roosevelt hhimselt has not been chary of in~ yiting the animosity of the moneyed {interests and the important business concerns which have so greatly contributed in the past to American prosperity and have suffered severely in the slump of the later Hoover era, It is doubted however whether the violent opposition which has been generated against the President—and accentuated by the knowledge that one of their own class is Jeading the revolt against them—will be suMeient to tive Mr, London the entry to White House.
Ambitious as Mr, Roosevelt's New Deal has been it. has not touched more than the fringe of some of the problems of modern America, The adverse decisions of the Supreme Court which have effectively blocked several drastic proposals have perhaps been bless {ings to him in disguise, in that they have averted exposure of the impracticability of some of his empiricism. It ts significant that he thas abandoned the idea of challenge ing those decisions by making an amendment of the Constitution part cof his platform. He has thus lett unsolved the problem of fitting to the procrustean bed of that Constitution the construction of a socially responsible and socially regulated economy. So there has been no adjustment of the agricultural dimcuities on permanent lines; the future of industrial production as uncertain as before and though ostensibly the monetary system has been subjected to considerable review and taken within the more direct management of the Treasury, it 4s doubtful whether the control in essence is as effective as before.
Nevertheless the _Administration has acquired well-merited approval for its admirable handling of the Gold bloc crisis and its participation in the three-Government accord which has facilitated "a more promising outlook," says the National City Bank of New York "than has been known since the exchanges were disrupted five years ago." Moreover, the period of acute depression is passing: bank credit rising and industrial prospects are buoyant, Of those facts the Democratic Party is entitled to take cognizance in claiming electoral renewal of support. Nor is it unlikely that Mr, Roosevelt has pointed out that bitter attacks on his own personality do not disguise the tribute which Republican ponents pay him by adopting many of his policies as their own for the Purpose of establishing credit at the poll. Perhaps the most serious weapon in the hands of Mr. Lan-don's supporters is the charge that Mr, Roosevelt is Communistically-inclined. The accusation is laughable if it be noted that he is being} steadfastly opposed by extreme radical coteries to some of whom redness of hue might be reasonably: ascribed, It becomes irksome only if the elector be asked to give a literal interpretation to some of the President's specially provocative speeches in denouncing the alleged self-interest of the business and financial groups arrayed against] him.
Mr, London has the support of Mr. William Randolph Hearst and the tentaculate press at his command. That is a doubtful advantage and Mr. London may have found his newspaper octopus} embarrassing on occasions.. Soundness is the great Republican asset, but Mr. Roosevelt's unrivalled sense of political values has been greatly developed by the last three years' experience. His speeches "have! been frequently acclaimed _as above the level of ordinary platform utterances—his opening Acceptance Speech was especially] commended.as framed in the Language of the American Revolution. His quotation.from Dante that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-blooded in different seales was considered to comprise "the most human words an American President has uttered in this generation." In another he put the same sentiment: "Botter the occasional faults of a' Government that Jives in a. spirit of charity than the consistent.omissions of a Government frozen in the: ice of its own indifference." His opponents accuse him of many' things and chiefly of using the re-Hef measures of the New Deal to consolidate his voting strength. The charge finds illustration in the admitted fact that the fight will largely depended on the class issue already mentioned, But in the event there must be an important section of the electors who are neither dependent on the favour of the business interests nor recipients of eleemosynary state aid. They may be inclined to argue that the New Deal, with all its fall-lures and inadequacies, has accomplished more than the Republicans. They will point to the America of 1933—despondent, un: confident and dismayed—and contrast it with that of 1936—hopeful, unafraid to. fact dimeutties and] gra able to count advances made—and they may hold to the view that no change at Washington is desirable. To them and to many others who do not necessarily scorn the dinner} jacket, Franklin Roosevelt is to be commended because he has brought within the nation's grasp various much-needed measures of soclall reform the lack of which put their country at a disadvantage In comparison with democracies still isting elsewhere. Whatever Wall Street's opinion of the respective candidates may be, it is a by no means negligible assessor of probabilities. "Its quotation of the odds in favour of a second term for Mr. Roosevelt seems to be a safe guide to the verdict which will be known here to-morrow,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.