Mr. Roosevelt and the World President Roosevelt's striking speech at
Chautauqua a week ago was well timed for his own country. The rebuke to covenant-breaking nations was, of course, badly needed, and Mr. Roosevelt linked it with an unequivocal new pledge to keep the United States out of war. The speech cannot fail, incidentally, to improve his own prospects . in the election. The American voter is inevitably looking upon the terror in Spain with a feeling of anxiety as to how the results in Europe are likely to affect the foreign policy of the United States, and that directly touches the Presidency. The Repub- lican newspapers are proclaiming that Governor Landon is making steady progress, and more than one of the Washington correspondents whose daily column is syndicated through the country is writing as though Mr. Roosevelt's defeat had become almost certain. That, however, at the present stage betokens desire rather than belief. Advancing business in the industrial States, the desolation of the great drought in the Middle West, the chances of violent disunion in Mr. Lemke's so-called Union Party, Mr. Landon's connexion with Mr. Hearst—these and other important factors must tell during the next two months. And Mr. Roosevelt has not yet entered upon his radio campaign.
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