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> The policy of politics-as-usual: the President's appointment of a Boss Hague stooge to the judiciary in New Jersey, to insure Hague support for a Senator William H. Smathers, whose only recorded distinction is that he has voted 100% for the Administration; the President's appointment to a fat St. Louis Federal job of a politician who was a main figure in the city machine when the machine tried to steal the governorship election last year.
> Depression for small businesses and small towns caused by the necessarily inequitable distribution of war business. For instance, the injured citizen blames Washington, and thus the Democrats, even if his injury came from a WPB Republican.
> Out-&-out political disaffection among the farmers and businessmen of the land, because of the Administration's pro-labor policies; among Negroes, because their patriotism is not being adequately put to work in the war effort; among labor, because the Administration has seemingly given over WPB to big businessmen; among New Dealers, because the New Deal is apparently on the shelf.
Stygian Black. But none of these are insurmountable matters—they are problems of emotion, belief, sentiment, which can be overcome by ancient political means of appeals to other emotions, and the setting up of other beliefs. What really crunches the spirit of the Democratic Party are matters of cold fact, which can be added up mathematically:
1) The Gallup poll reported last May 9 the Democrats would gain 38 seats in Congress; on June 20, the Democrats would gain ten seats; on Aug. 15, eight seats; on Sept. 8, that Republicans would gain 21 seats.
2) A military-secret number of young men are in the Army, and are more or less effectively disfranchised. Most studies of young voters have agreed that approximately six are Democrats to every four Republicans. In short, by the draft the Democrats have lost about one-fifth more votes than the Republicans, out of at least 4,000,000 votes.
3) Hundreds of thousands of other people have undoubtedly been disfranchised by moving to Washington and to defense centers following war work. (Some of this may be offset by increased labor-union political consciousness, herding workers to the registration and the polls, but registration this year does not show it yet.) There is little doubt but that the loss of workers' votes will most affect the Democratic Party.
4) Registration this year, probably about 30,000,000, is the lowest in the decade of the New Deal. Traditionally, low registration aids Republicans, who stubbornly go to the polls every election, while most Democrats usually go only when aroused, as by the President. In the primaries generally the Republican vote was sharply up, the Democratic vote generally sagged.
A Time for Greatness. This week the President himself took a hand in the struggle to get out the vote. As he played the delicate political billiard shot in the New York campaign (see p. 19), he urged voters throughout the U.S. to register as a democratic duty.