News of the Week
THE defeat of President Hoover and the Republicans is the most sensational event in American party history for more than a century. Since the foundation of the party no Republican candidate has been so com- pletely overwhelmed. Governor Roosevelt has 472 votes in the electoral college, as against Mr. Hoover's 59. The Democrats carried 42 States, leaving only Pennsylvania and five small States to the President who in 1928 swept the board. That Mr. Roosevelt should have carried New York and Massachusetts is noteworthy enough ; that he should have captured Illinois and Ohio, Michigan and California, with the vast area of the Mid- West and North-West farming region, -means a range of electoral victories for which there is no parallel in American annals. The flood of voters was stupendous —a total of more than 40,000,000—with crushing Democratic victories in every quarter. Both Houses of Congress will have large Democratic majorities, so that President Roosevelt may count upon stronger legislative support than either Mr. Hoover or his predecessor could command. Many familiar figures will disappear from Washington, including Senator Reed Smoot, whose name. is attached to the tariff measure which was among the heaviest of Mr. Hoover's . burdens in the campaign. New York State will have in Mr. Lehman an excellent Governor to succeed Mr. Roosevelt.
