THE MOOD OF AMERICA

...Since 1954 the Democrats have taken both U.S...

...Liberal Democrats and some GOP friends of public power are convinced that Hatfield was persuaded to run by the private power interests, which have chafed under Holmes' conservationist administration and who wanted a winner...

...Dairy farmers in Wisconsin are voting more strongly Democratic this year than farmers who are not dairymen...

...So in 1956, although Eisenhower carried the farm districts by a narrow margin, other Republican candidates did less well...

...Minnesota dairymen are moving toward the Democrats, as shown by surveys made by the Minneapolis Tribune...

...Part of Hatfield's platform time is also taken up in praising the noble qualities of mothers and lauding the virtues of Christian home life...

...This feed will be turned into livestock sooner or later...

...It's an unwieldy instrument," complains Holmes...

...30% Proxmire (Dem...

...The Hatfield timetable called for him to exploit the office of secretary of state for the fullest measure of publicity, and in 1960 seek to unseat Senator Neuberger...

...For it is difficult for a man with a liberal voting record to make a case against a Democratic administration in one of the nation's most liberal states...

...In Iowa, Ike got 68 per cent of the farm vote in 1952...

...So is Hatfield...

...Hatfield counters that he has made more visits to state institutions than any man who ever sat on the board of control...

...Among Iowa farmers, 57 per cent voted that way...

...This blights our economy...

...How the farm vote finally goes on November 4 will be determined in part by how the major issues look then...

...He was immensely popular in the community as well as on the campus...

...But in 1956, his vote dropped to 53 per cent...

...Farmers in these two states continue to feel strongly about "preventing war...

...He not only defeated both decisively, but swept every one of the state's 36 counties...

...Hatfield's associates, a breezy, casual, but earnest group of young men, readily admit that a Hatfield timetable in politics had been developed even before Hatfield was elected to the state senate...

...It makes you wonder how seriously the war issue is being taken this year...

...Income is up over last year...

...But the Democrats do seem able to pick up votes on the unpopularity of the Administration's farm program...

...In 1956, his share shrank to 55 per cent...

...Then those who gave "preventing war" first place among national problems were sorted out...

...Record-breaking feed surpluses are on hand...

...Hatfield's greatest appeal has been to the young, idealistic voters and to women of all ages...

...Indeed, Hatfield's board of strategy has sought to exploit his July marriage far more than it has concentrated upon any issue...

...In 1952—and to some extent in 1956—the GOP was classed by most corn belt farmers as the party of peace...

...But the Democrats are not settling for this...

...Senate seats and three of the state's four Congressional seats, won the governorship and the office of attorney general, and captured control of the legislature...

...He received the highest number of individual contributions ever given a candidate in a primary...

...Thus far, labor has done little in the campaign, but it is becoming annoyed with Hatfield's suave straddling of issues...

...36 Undecided ..............................15 Judge Steinle apparently got some help from this group...

...He registered by the petition method, instead of filing, gaining some excellent free publicity...

...1956 1958 Republicans better ....53% 38% Democrats better...

...But dyed-in-the-wool conservatives all around the state begged him to run and pledged their support to him...

...We have got to develop Oregon economically...

...The act was instantly attacked by the Unander forces as "a stab in the back...

...THE MOOD OF AMERICA Notes on Election Sentiment in the Corn Belt And a Curious Campaign in Oregon The Corn Bell-Heads Democratic by DONALD R. MURPHY Farm voters in the corn belt have been the victims of political schizophrenia since 1952...

...Opinion polls were taken among farm people by two farm papers, the Wisconsin Agriculturist and Iowa's Wallaces Farmer, in an attempt to determine how attitudes on such issues as preventing war and raising farm income are affecting farm voting today...

...A comparison with summer farm polls in 1956 bears this out...

...Take the Wisconsin poll on Senator: Steinle (Rep...

...Representatives: Republican candidates ........43% Democratic candidates ........44 Undecided ..............................13 These scores are almost the same as the vote by farm people who did not pick "preventing war" as a major issue...

...The trend in farm voting recorded in the 1956 elections seems to be continuing in 1958, according to preelection polls among Wisconsin and Iowa farm voters, who are fairly representative of the farm vote in other corn belt states...

...One of Hatfield's proudest boasts is that he was the first person in the nation to circulate a petition urging Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for President on the Republican ticket...

...Oregon isn't a Nixon state...

...Hatfield hopes to gain votes by inferring that the Democrats do not let the people know precisely where they stand, while he carries on a "we-must-all-work-togeth-er" campaign, lifted above the political arena by God, Mother, and Home...

...House of Representatives...

...Yet farmers see trouble ahead...

...But compare this to the vote by farmers who put "raising farm income" in first place and who also said the Democrats would do the better job of helping: Steinle (Rep...

...He entered the U.S...

...They want Mark for anything he wants to be...

...He charges Holmes with "going too slow," but does not detail the statement...

...Reelection in 1952 was won even more easily...

...But the pressures were different...

...The first is economic: "Gee, If Only We Could Have Closed the Courts" "We inherited an Eisenhower-built recession...

...The new voters are enraptured by his high-sounding platitudes, inspirationally delivered, and his Sir Galahad demeanor...

...In 1958, Democratic Senator Proxmire has about the same margin over his Republican opponent...

...Iowa, for instance, elected a Democratic governor...

...After the war, Hatfield returned to Willamette for a year of law, then moved on to Stanford for a master's degree...

...He has taken a position against compulsory automobile insurance, which Holmes endorses...

...House of Representatives had 30 per cent of the Iowa farm vote in 1956...

...In 1958, the Democratic percentage was 43 per cent...

...But Hatfield has taken the tack that the Democrats ought frankly to put their views before the public, in utter disregard of the fact that the Democrats are as open about their thoughts as it is possible to be...

...Both in 1952 and 1956 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention...

...We're not inviting him and we hope he stays away," says Travis Cross...

...They want passionately to support the party that will keep the United States out of war...

...Nowhere else in the United States has the Republican Party taken as many heavy blows in the past four years as in Oregon...

...In 1950, at the age of 28, Hatfield entered politics and was handily elected state representative from Marion County...

...And he has caviled at Holmes for having commuted the death sentences of two prisoners...

...One basic problem that vexes Oregon is the freight rate situation...

...One was Treasurer Sig Unander, whom the GOP immediately counted upon as its next gubernatorial nominee...

...Raising farm income" is an issue of importance in both Iowa and Wisconsin, although it is not named as so important a problem as "preventing war...

...costs are up...

...From 1952 to 1956, per capita income from farming went down steadily, in spite of record migrations from farm to city...

...For another check on the political importance of "preventing war" as an issue, look at the campaign for Senator in Wisconsin, where Democratic incumbent Senator William Prox-mire is running against former Supreme Court Justice Roland J. Steinle...

...What happened between 1952 and 1956...

...In 1957 he gave 118 full length speeches and 255 "short talks...

...Often the farm vote does not even control "farm counties...

...Unander himself has since publicly forgiven Hatfield, but some of Unander's supporters still have steam in their anger...

...Hood...

...Look at the vote among Iowa farm women in 1956 and 1958 on "which party, Republican or Democratic, do you think is likely to do the better job of preventing war...

...Democratic candidates for the U.S...

...Only one Republican—Congressman Walter Norblad—was returned to Washington...

...On November 19, 1957, he replied: "Although there have been other names under discussion...

...I have generally assumed Mr...

...More farmers had doubts about the GOP as an angel of peace...

...That's how popular Mark is...

...Hatfield is as voluble as he is indefatigable...

...Yet it may be influencing more votes in the election...

...They also want to support the party that seems more likely to do something helpful about farm income...

...RALPH FRIEDMAN is a free lance writer on the West Coast...

...In Iowa, a poll was taken of all farm people (both men and women) on Republican and Democratic candidates for the U.S...

...In the primary, Hatfield had two formidable opponents, Unander and State Senator Warren Gill...

...On "raising farm income," Wisconsin farm people rank the two parties like this: Republicans better...

...Yet, in the face of GOP disintegration and Democratic power, some astute observers on the scene believe that the next governor might well be 36-year-old Mark Hatfield—a Republican...

...The other was Mark Hatfield...

...Take Wisconsin and Iowa as examples...

...9 21 Republicans still lead on this issue, but their margin has been cut down...

...In Iowa, farm people make up only one-fourth of the voters...

...Everybody knows Hatfield is the most pro-labor Republican in the state," Travis Cross, Hatfield's administrative assistant, told me...

...Keith Skelton, Congressman Porter's law partner, says bitterly: "Hatfield acts as if he has a corner on God...

...And only two Republicans won statewide posts...

...By 1956 he was ready to try for secretary of state against State Senator Monroe Sweetland, long a distinguished leader of the Democratic Party...

...86 Undecided ..............................11 It looks as if the farm issue is doing the Democratic candidate more good than the war issue is doing the Republican candidate...

...Many farmers see a probable collapse of hog prices in 1959 and are sure they'll get no help from Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson and his party...

...Oregon's Billy Graham of politics, Hatfield devotes sizeable portions of his speeches to the powers of the Almighty and to the services he has rendered Him...

...If labor sits on its hands and the Democrats cannot pin Hatfield down, and if Hatfield captures the feminine and church vote (he lets it be known he is a teetotaler), Oregon may have a new chief executive...

...In Iowa, in the summer of 1956, the successful Democratic candidate for Governor, Herschel C. Loveless, had 29 per cent of the farm vote...

...The Interstate Commerce Commission has permitted 14 or 15 increases in freight rates in the last 10 years, a total of 125 per cent," Holmes told me...

...Hatfield makes much about it but when he was teaching political science he spoke against the board of control, and as a legislator he joined in a bill to do away with it...

...The Republican Party in Oregon is clearly in a demoralized and desperate condition...

...At the same time in 1958, Governor Loveless had 56 per cent of the farm vote...

...It does not seem likely that any of the issues will excite the populace...

...If he does so, I cannot now conceive of circumstances under which I would enter that race or seek any other office in 1958...

...In varying degree, these attitudes are echoed all over the corn belt...

...Many farmers who distrusted Republicans on farm issues nevertheless voted for Eisenhower and an end to war in Korea...

...On the other hand, the campaign of Hatfield, who calls himself a "known liberal," and has a generally liberal record, was led by Elmo Smith, a bitter foe of public power and one of Oregon's arch-reactionaries...

...Yet in comfortable time before the primary Hatfield announced his candidacy...

...Oregon: Scene of Strange Campaign by RALPH FRIEDMAN The strangest election campaign of the year is being staged in Oregon, where Republican Secretary of State Mark Hatfield, the handsomest and most ambitious politician Oregon has known in decades, is seeking to wrest the governorship from slangy, fast-talking Robert "Bob" Holmes, the Democratic incumbent...

...there are threats of a further cut in supports...

...Both polls have reflected farm opinion in their states with a fair degree of accuracy for two decades...

...The same split was present in 1956...

...They are still trying to smoke Hatfield out on issues and pin him down to specifics...

...The farm people who voted for "preventing war" as a major issue also voted like this on Senator in an August poll: Steinle (Rep...

...Hatfield has not spoken out on this issue, but it is impossible to see how he could disagree with Holmes...

...Usually in a Democratic year, farm voters and city voters—somewhat to the surprise of both—find themselves voting together for Democrats while the small towns vote heavily Republican...

...Why is this...

...But knowing Hatfield's ambitions, newsmen queried him about his 1958 election intentions...

...9% Democrats better ..................54 No difference ........................24 Undecided ..............................13 Iowa farm people show a similar preference for the Democrats on the farm issue...

...In Wisconsin, Iowa, and many other states, a so-called "farm county" may go 60 per cent Democratic in the farm precincts and 60 per cent Republican in the small towns...

...Navy, served 31 months, during which he saw action at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and was discharged an officer...

...Plainly Iowa and Wisconsin fanners became less worried about war, more worried about farm income...

...The big question, however, is this: Is a mildly favorable attitude toward the GOP on this issue being turned into votes...

...In the same years farmers gave the edge to the Democrats on farm issues...

...votes as they used to...

...If he comes, Mark will have to welcome him, but he won't be happy about it...

...There is no question of Hatfield's popularity...

...Governor Holmes also wants to dissolve the board of control, unique in Oregon among all states...

...But how do you vote for Republicans and Democrats at the same time...

...They give this subject first place among national problems...

...His platform of God, Mother, and Home may be too much for dazed Oregonians, still stunned by an economic tremor that has wiped out many thousands of jobs, to turn down...

...In his speeches, Hatfield declares: "There are many desirable qualifications as governor but none as important as personal and political integrity...

...In other corn belt states it seems likely that hog men and dairymen will share to a degree the sentiments of those in Iowa and Wisconsin...

...In 1952 he was executive secretary of Oregon Citizens for Eisenhower, and still calls himself an "Eisenhower Republican...

...In Wisconsin, the farm percentage is even less...

...The Mark Hatfield story is an Horatio Alger-Prince Charming tale that has left Oregon breathless...

...In Wisconsin, dairy supports are lower than several years ago...

...God, Mother, and Home are three topics he never tires of—especially in 1958...

...Republican candidates in both Iowa and Wisconsin seem unable to cash in on Ike's prestige as an angel of peace...

...If farm income is the big issue, look for Democratic gains in the corn belt...

...As for the women—the young fall in love with him and the old want to mother him...

...49% Proxmire (Dem...

...Here the board, which directs the affairs of buildings and institutions, is composed of the governor, the secretary of state, and the state treasurer...

...The state expected Treasurer Sig Unander to be the GOP candidate for governor this year...

...Farmers don't have as many DONALD R. MURPHY is director of editorial research for Wallaces' Farmer and Iowa Homestead...

...To Governor Holmes, the issues of the campaign are the problems facing Oregon...

...When he filed for state senator, in 1956, the Democrats refused to contest the election...

...The Hatfield forces are hoping for some outside support, but there is one man they can do without— Vice President Richard Nixon...

...And Hatfield-for-Governor committees, sparked and sometimes wholly manned by women, sprang up as fast and thick as wildflowers on the slopes of Mt...

...It was a stunning performance...

...The fighting Democratic rank-and-file spirit, which carried Richard L. Neuberger in 1954 and Wayne Morse in 1956 to sensational Senate victories, is being lulled by Hatfield's refusal to raise sharp questions, and by his strategy of waging a campaign designed to convince the voters that he is closer to Heaven than is Governor Holmes...

...Second is the tax problem—income versus sales tax...

...Their vote for first place came out like this: Preventing war......................55% Raising farm income............15 Getting rid of corruption in government....................11 Maintaining strong national defenses ..............10 Improving schools...

...Other issues seem to get less attention...

...1 The strong vote for "preventing war" in both states looks as if the party with the better olive branch should win, but which party is that...

...Labor does not now regard Hatfield as a serious contender, but it soon may...

...Travis Cross lets it be widely known that Hatfield has been moderator of Salem's First Baptist Church for three terms...

...And that will be an anomaly—for there is not a Republican in the state who thinks the GOP has the ghost of a chance of capturing the legislature or the Congressional delegation...

...In Wisconsin, in 1.952, Eisenhower got 66 per cent of the farm vote...

...Thus far, Hatfield's criticisms of the Holmes administration have been minor...

...He returned to Willamette as an instructor and soon became dean of students and associate professor of political science...

...The son of a railroad blacksmith, Hatfield worked his way through Willamette University, receiving a bachelor's degree in political science in 1943...

...As things stood recently, Democratic candidates seemed to have the edge in farm districts in the corn belt...

...But we'll let him wake us up...

...The 1952 election was a landslide for peace...

...24% Proxmire (Dem...

...4 Dealing with racial segregation...

...The timing of 'the wedding was worth five thousand votes," an active Hatfield worker told me...

...4 Relieving unemployment in cities...

...How do farm people who regard "raising farm income" as the major issue vote...

...49 Undecided ..............................21 This gives Republican Steinle only a few more votes than he got among farmers who did not pick "preventing war" as a major issue...

...When Mark starts making a dozen speeches a day, up and down the state," a union business agent said, "we'll stir ourselves and go to work...

...The Wisconsin farm people who picked "preventing war" as the top issue, and who also said the Republicans would do the better job for peace, voted for Senator as follows: Steinle (Rep...

...In Iowa, hog prices are good...

...Of Wisconsin farmers, 55 per cent named "preventing war" as the most important problem...

...More were worried about farm income...

...6 13 No difference ............32 28 Undecided...

...In Wisconsin, in 1956, Republican Senator Wiley was running far ahead of his Democratic opponent...

...But even if the farmers are shifting toward the Democrats, the farm vote doesn't control the so-called "farm states...

...Holmes is opposed to saddling Oregon with a sales tax...

...It seems more than coincidence that the supposedly conservative Sig Unander had as chairman of his committee Oregon's outstanding Republican, the liberal Charles A. Sprague, whose position on power and natural resources closely approximates that of the Democrats...

...Seven national problems were put up to Wisconsin farmers...

...One of the men expected to do this best is Senator Wayne Morse, who regards Hatfield with strong dislike...

...These peace-conscious voters lined up like this in voting for U.S...

...A Medford Democrat told me: "It's almost impossible to convince the women that Hatfield isn't entered in a beauty contest...

...The fall pig crop in Iowa is estimated at 20 per cent more than last year...

...With hogs, it is probably sooner...

...That was the year Wayne Morse rubbed the White House nose in the Oregon dirt by decisively trouncing former Governor McKay, who had been shorn of his Cabinet post and sent home to oust Morse from the Senate...

...Thus, in a Democratic administration, the Republicans rule in a vital area...

...3% Proxmire (Dem...

...Unander would enter the primary contest for governor...

...57 Undecided ..............................19 There is another way of checking the political importance of the two issues, "preventing war" and "raising farm income...