"Raw & Wet"

"Tuesday was plainly a raw, wet and characteristically a Democratic day. . . . I have constantly maintained the Republicans would encounter disaster this year. . . . The next two years will contain an amplitude of difficulty for the Administration."

Thus spoke tart Senator George Higgins Moses of New Hampshire, chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, as he mournfully observed State after State replace Republican Senators with Democrats. The Democratic strength in the Senate during election night rose four, six, eight, possibly nine seats, bringing the underdog party within a vote or two of a majority. Certain it was that the coalition of Democrats and insurgent Re publicans would be more strongly than ever in control of the Senate to work against President Hoover's plans.

Illinois. Most spectacular of Democratic senatorial victories throughout the land occurred when James Hamilton Lewis roundly defeated Mrs. Ruth Hanna McCormick's ambition to be the first woman elected to the Senate. Senator-elect Lewis, ever the begloved, bewhiskered, bowing gallant, had made a Wet, witty campaign against Mark Hanna's Prohibition-weasling daughter. He had convulsed his audiences with mock embarrassment at being "pursued by two lovely ladies" (Mrs. Lottie Holman O'Neill was a Dry independent also-ran), with references to Mrs. McCormick's attempt to be a "dripping Venus rising from the sea of Chicago." Even the effort of Chicago's Republican Mayor William Hale Thompson to swing the city's Negro vote to him had not hurt Mr. Lewis who joshed the Mayor for deserting his "political fiancee at the altar." One fact predominated: Illinois is Wet and so is "J. Ham" Lewis.

"Smile, Senator, smile." begged news cameramen as Democrat Lewis received the returns that sent him again to the Senate (he was there through Wilson's time). Retorted he: "I'm not in the vaudeville business. This is a serious matter. I'm not exulting over the defeat of a woman. Mrs. McCormick made a valorous fight." Senator-elect Lewis stopped, coughed, explained a bug had flown down his throat, left it sore.

Ohio. A particularly. hard blow to President Hoover, the Republican National Committee and the Anti-Saloon League of America was the defeat of Dry Republican Senator (by appointment) Roscoe Conkling McCulloch by Wet Democrat Robert Johns Bulkley. Senator McCulloch's fuss-budgety little colleague, Senator Simeon Davison Fess dropped his duties as G. O. P. national chairman to campaign himself hoarse for the Republican ticket. Senator-elect Bulkley (whose friends already talk loudly of him as a presidential possibility) won urban votes largely by a demand for the repeal of the 18th Amendment. His Wetness pulled his Dry friend George White through to the governorship. A factor in Senator McCulloch's defeat was the opposition of Ne groes, aroused by his support of President Hoover's nomination of John Johnston Parker for the Supreme Court last spring.

Massachusetts. A Republican Coolidge, though once President of the U. S., could not keep a Democratic Coolidge out of the Senate in the face of the anti-Administration sweep. Voters ignored Calvin Coolidge's plea to elect his old friend and political helpmate, William Morgan But ler, and instead chose Marcus Aurelius Coolidge, Fitchburg metal manufacturer (see page 16). Here as elsewhere Prohibition and hard times explained the Demo cratic triumph.

Oklahoma. Republican Senator William B. Pine was ousted by blind Democrat Thomas Pryor Gore. Senator-elect Gore, a Wettish Dry, served as his State's first Senator (1907-1921).

South Dakota. Campaigning principally on the issue that his opponent had a job that he wanted, Democratic Governor William John Bulow, famed tobacco-spitter, appeared to have nosed Insurgent Republican William Henry McMaster out of his Senate seat.

Colorado. Factional Republican troubles explained in a measure the victory of Democrat Edward Prentiss Costigan, one-time (1917-28) U. S. Tariff Commissioner. Senator-elect Costigan helped found the Progressive Party (1912), is rated radical in economics by conservatives, is a rampant Dry.

Kansas. Senator (by appointment) Henry Justin Allen, good Hoover friend, chief publicist of the 1928 G. O. P. campaign, was beaten for the short term by Democrat George McGill.

Minnesota. Blind Republican Senator Thomas Schall in his campaign for re-election told a "funny" story of marital infidelity which alienated many a voter and, with other factors, caused Senator Schall's defeat at the hands of Democrat Einar Hoidale.

West Virginia, Again will the two- fingered War hand of Democrat Matthew Mansfield Neely be raised in ironic gesture in the Senate, as the result of his easy triumph over Republican James Elwood Jones, coal man who pays the State's largest income tax.

P: Republicans held their Senate strength in New Hampshire (Henry Wilder Keyes), Delaware (Daniel 0. Hastings), Kansas (Arthur Capper), Michigan (James Couzens), Nebraska (George William Norris), New Jersey (Dwight Whitney Morrow), New Mexico (Sam Gilbert Bratton), Oregon (Charles McNary), Wyoming (Robert D. Carey).

P: Democrats were victors in disputed elections in Montana (Thomas Joseph Walsh), Tennessee (Cordell Hull).

(P: The only Republican gain Senator-Manager Moses could point to with any pride was the ousting of Democrat Senator Daniel Frederic Steck by Lester Jesse Dickinson, longtime (1919-30) Republican Congressman.

(P: Hoovercracy collapsed in Alabama when Senator James Thomas ("Tom-Tom") Heflin, running as an independent after expulsion from Democracy for his 1928 apostasy, was roundly beaten for reelection by regular Democrat John H. Bankhead, son of the State's late great Senator. Senator-elect Bankhead campaigned inanely with such jingles as:

Hoover blows the whistle

DePriest rings the bell.

Heflin cries "All Aboard"

And--business goes to hell!

P: Because of the delayed ballot count in Kentucky where Republican Senator (by appointment) John M. Robsion was hard pressed by Democrat Marvel Mills Logan, control of the Senate might yet turn on the outcome in that State.

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