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Show GRASSROOTS GOP Ignored the Rural Press, Lost Farm Vote By WRIGHT A. PATTERSON SINCE that day, Tuesday, November Novem-ber 2, when the Republican party marched up the hill toward confidently confi-dently expected victory, and then during the night marched down again utterly defeated, there have been many explanations as to what happened. Political leaders, newspaper news-paper columnists, radio commentators commenta-tors and election analysts have detailed de-tailed the causes of that defeat, but no one, as far as I know, has told the "why" of that cause. THAT it was not the vote of organized or-ganized labor has been made quite evident, despite the claims of organized, labor leaders. In the large industrial centers where organized or-ganized labor is es-p es-p e c i a 1 1 y strong President Truman did not receive anywhere any-where the majori- for the campaign management Irl ask each editor if he wished to sitJ port the party ticket, and if so what type of material he could use to best advantage. As many as 7,000 rural editors have responded favorably to such an appeal. The editors of the small city dailies, the town and village weeklies, week-lies, have led their city, town, village vil-lage and farm readers along the Republican road. They could do that because such editors are known to all In the community; they have the respect and confidence of all; they have the facilities through which to reach the people and express their opinions. The people in each community look to these editors for leadership. They exert far more influence than can any imported political spellbindery or any voice over the radio. Individually they are influential, collectively they represent rep-resent a tremendous power. THE IGNORING of that influence was the "why" of the loss of the expected rural majority. The campaign cam-paign management had taken that rural vote for granted. The management man-agement considered it as "in the bag," as it might have been haV the management not overlooked aJ-ignored aJ-ignored its most important available avail-able assistance. Failure to utilize the influence and vote-pulling power of rural editors and their newspapers was the one big "why" of the Republican defeat. de-feat. Without the encouragement and approval of the rural press as a support a major portion of the farm vote either stayed at home, or switched to the opposition. Research laboratories, operated by many of the large corporations, mean much to the small business interests of the nation. In the laboratories lab-oratories of the DuPont company rayon was developed at a cost to the DuPonts of some 30 million dollars. dol-lars. Today more than 13.000 separate sep-arate small business enterprises are successfully operating because j the discovery and development a the rayon product. These small business enterprises provide jobs for hundreds of thousands of workers. work-ers. Eggs for which the farmer receives re-ceives 46 cents a dozen sell to the 1 ousewife for 75 cents. Of the distribution dis-tribution cost, more than 15 cents is represented by arbitrary labor union rules. Why not ease the agonies of presidential pres-idential campaigns by extending the term of the president to six, or even eight, years? . It is estimated that "feather bedding" bed-ding" adds close to 20 per cent to our cost of commodities. Released hv WNU Features, -4 ties the late Presi-PATTERSON Presi-PATTERSON dent Roosevelt received re-ceived in 1944. It was not the labor vote that elected Truman. In the rural districts of the northern north-ern and western states Governor Dewey did not receive the heavy majorities depended upon to offset the Democratic majorities of the cities. The experts have agreed that it was the stay-at-home, or the switches from the Republican to the Democratic tickets of the rural, the so-called farm vote, that defeated de-feated the Dewey-Warren ticket. No one has explained the "why" of that rural result, but the "why" is quite obvious to anyone familiar with methods used in previous campaigns. FOR MORE than half a century the Republican party has solicited, and has received, the support of a large majority of the rural editors and their papers in the northern and western states. Up to this year the only exception to such a program pro-gram was in 1932, when Henry Allen Al-len of Kansas directed Republican publicity. Without consulting the head of the ticket, Herbert Hoover, or without his knowledge, Allen gave out a newspaper statement saying bluntly that the party had not solicited and did not want support on the part of the rural newspapers. It was not until Just before the election that President Hoover Hoo-ver learned of the Allen statement. state-ment. He insisted upon Its immediate im-mediate correction, but it was too late for any attempted correction cor-rection to be effective. The result re-sult in the rural sections in that election told the result. IN THE recent contest the Republican Re-publican campaign management did not decline assistance from the rural press, but they did not ask for such help from any one of these DaDers. The method in the past was |