THE CONGRESS: The Speaker Speaks

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In industrial sections the Republican vote will be reduced, due to unemployment. . . . The issue that is causing the greatest trouble is Prohibition and in Ohio and Massachusetts some Republican candidates for the House may be defeated because of this. . . . In the always accurate poll of the Cincinnati Enquirer the Democratic candidate for the Senate [Robert Johns Bulkley'], who favors repeal of the 18th Amendment, is running 100% ahead of the Republican candidate [Roscoe Conkling McCulloch] who is dry. . . . Many dry Republicans may go down to defeat in the November election. But ... 7 cannot see the Democrats winning the House. However, the Republican majority will be reduced and this may give the Democrats and independents an opportunity to tie up legislation through a combination similar to that in the Senate.

Not by an impartial newsman, not by an unboastful Democrat, not by a man from Mars was this analysis and forecast of the November elections made last week. The speaker was none other than the arch-Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Congressman Nicholas Longworth of the First (Cincinnati) Ohio District. A political realist with an uncommon sense of election drifts, he made the above remarks in an interview to newshawks in Washington. His statement made other G. O. P. leaders wriggle and squirm with acute pain. But a few hours later Speaker Longworth atoned for his frankness, proved himself still the orthodox partisan when he broadcast a campaign speech in which he flayed Democrats and their tariff tactics as responsible for the Depression.

To win the House, the Democrats must take 53 seats from Republicans. Even if they fail to make this full gain necessary to organize the chamber and elect their own Speaker (it would be John Nance Garner of Texas), they may achieve practical control of House affairs with the aid of about 15 Wisconsin and other Republican insurgents. Many a Republican leader considers such an eventuality as worse than an outright Democratic victory. Particularly sensitive to the possibility is the man who would then be presiding over a House that would be Republican in responsibility but Democratic-Insurgent in power and practice.

¶ In Kansas Republican Senator Arthur Capper is campaigning for reelection. Excerpt : "This is no time to put Democrats in power—the Lord knows it is all the Republicans can do to keep things going in times like these."

¶ In New Jersey Democratic Nominee Alexander Simpson is making just the sort of campaign for the Senate against Republican Nominee Dwight Whitney Morrow that G. O. P. leaders deplore loudest. Nominee Simpson's attack: "This isn't a political campaign. It's a crusade against intolerable conditions. . . . Five million people walking the streets looking for work! Do you assume the people will . . . say to Hoover: 'You're all right. ... We want more men in the breadlines . . . more businessmen out of business . . . more farmers bankrupt? . . . The people are going to tell the President he has to do more than make long speeches."