15 SEPTEMBER 1928, Page 3

The unexpected magnitude of the Republican vote in the Maine

Election is rather a cold douche for the supporters of Governor Smith in the Presidential Elec- tion. _ Maine has never been anything but a Republican State, and the result of the election was not in doubt, but nobody foresaw that 30,000 more voters would take the trouble to go to the poll than in 1924. The Washington correspondent of the Times says that the compelling reason for this activity was religion. Maine has, so to speak, issued a Protestant declaration that a Roman Catholic shall not become President. Mr. Hoover, to his credit, has rebuked religious intolerance; but it is nevertheless in full spate. The country is being flooded with violent and malicious pamphlets.

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