National Affairs: Socialism!

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(See front cover) Monster demonstrations for Smith along the Atlantic seaboard were the most interesting topic of the week for Democrats (see p. 13). Did those great crowds mean votes — or curiosity? Was Demos what Alexander Hamilton called it, "a great beast," or was it a thinking creature of articulate enthusiasms? Republicans also pondered the Smith ovations, both as campaign phenomena and with reference to a problem of their own. What were Republicans to think of Nominee Hoover's cry of warning against "State socialism" in his New York speech last fortnight? Was that a sincere cry against a genuine danger? Or was it the ecclesiasticism reaches, as everyone knows, from Maine to California, from Mississippi Baptists to Princeton theologues. Religion is an open, acrid issue in Tennessee and Alabama. It is a tacit factor in New Eng land.

Registration. By "Hague-Land"' is meant the strongly Democratic northern counties of New Jersey, dominated by the Hudson County machine of Boss-Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City. A typical complication of the election was seen last week in Hudson and Essex Counties. N. J. Republicans had been 'trying to fasten shame on Boss Hague. They obtained a new election law and challenged some 40,000 names on the heavy registration .'lists', as illegal. The Democrats retaliated -by charging that in Atlantic City, a Re publican stronghold. 2,370 names were il legally registered, including names of dogs, cats, dead men and a pet parrot named "John Talk." Atlantic City's population is some 57,000, of which some 10.000 are schoolchildren. Registrations reached the suspicious total of 41,643.

Tremendous registrations were the rule, however, even without parrots and dead men. The Associated Press reported a total registration of 43,084,257 for the whole U.S., about four-fifths of the eligible population. A vote of 37 millions was predicted, or an increase of eight millions over the votes cast in 1924.

Governors, Senators. Complicating the presidential vote in many a State, are gubernatorial and Congressional elections. Republican Indiana, for example, seemed last week in a fair way to acquire a Demo cratic Governor. So eaten with corruption is the local G. O. P. reputation that Demo crat Frank C. Dailey, running on a "house-cleaning'' platform, seemed well ahead of Republican Harry G. Leslie.

Illustrative of how Senatorial elections can influence the presidential vote are Minnesota and Wisconsin. In each of these States, the Democratic candidate for Senator withdrew. In Minnesota, the pur pose was to give Senator Shipstead. Farmer-Laborite, a clear field against a Re publican opponent. In Wisconsin, it was to give Senator LaFollette, Progressive Re publican, a clear field against an upstart "regular" Republican. The Hons. Shipstead and LaFollette reciprocated these courtesies by helping the Democratic na tional ticket.