Show a Some Grand Old Theories Wrecked Wrecked by the Election 0 By BYRON PRICE I WASHINGTON Nov 15 Not 15 Not the 1 least notable feature of at the great I Democratic hurricane of November 8 was the manner in iii which it wrecked finally and completely some of ot th the pet theories on which poll political planning planning plan plan- ning has been based for many years What becomes of the long accepted notion that in this country there ore are two parties fairly evenly matched with a comparatively small group of independents holding the balance of power Or the tradition established In Lin coins coin's time and reaffirmed in Wilsons Wilson's Wilsons Wilsons Wil sons son's that the country will hesitate to change presidents in a time of great national stress Or the idea that in a two candidate contest for the highest office the theman theman theman man who is in will necessarily be bc hard to beat because of at the favors he has done and the organization he heIS has S I during tour four years of power Or the old conviction that the respective respective re re- re interests of at the states have grown so diverse that never Dever again will wm all aU sections unite in finding rinding any anyone one candidate preferable The answer is that all these thesa assumptions as are arc as dead as last summers summer's sum sum- mers mer's flower garden Everyone Every one of them was nurtured by the supporters of ot Mr Mn Hoover yet he was tho the worst defeated candidate of any an m major jor party ja In in history AN N ABOUT FACE The election returns arc are much more decisive on that point when they are compared detail for detail with the figures of 1928 It is in itself an astounding contradiction contradiction contra contra- diction of the old political theories that the two greatest landslides of all time could have taken place at two succeeding elections and arid operated Inexactly Inexactly in inexactly exactly opposite directions Mr Roosevelt's popular plurality approximates that by which Mr Hoover won four years ago ago some something thing above six millions In other words more mare than six million voters not simply a minor group of Independents Independents Inde Inde- changed tickets between one election and the next And tAnd that figure it should be remembered remembered re re- re i Is net It takes no account account ac ac- ac count of the undeterminable number who changed the other way way that that is those who voted against Mr Hoover last time and supported him this time timeTo To put it In terms of f state majorities major majori ties 34 states or m more re than two- two thirds the whole number numb r went Re Re- publican In 1928 1028 and switched 1 t Democratic in 1932 C Considered along with the br brea ing up of the 8 solid slid south In the la las election the statistics mean that th tj hI bloc of independent voters has beer bee i increasing by leaps and bounds j i h recent times and that an nn almost ne neg number of states can be bo t Ie down at the start of future campaIgn campag as safe for or either party VOTING HABITS CHANGING Of course cours it would be a mist to draw too broad conclusions iron fro two such Stich extraordinary years i those of 1928 and 1932 Each of at these campaigns Involver Involve certain elements not usually preset and alloWances should be made a ac accordingly cordingly But certainly political axioms cj car be regarded no longer as melon when they have been twice In fri so short a time The ev e dence deuce is ample mple that voting habits ai ar at- at changing and th that th the politician hereafter must stop look and Ster li-Ster instead d of taking too much fi f fo granted 6 |