NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE causes and implications of Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt's astonishing vietory are discussed at length on a later page of this issue. Here it is sufficient to emphasise the universality of the sentiment that has given Mr. Roosevelt a victory unprecedented since the days of Monroe. Apart from the President's personal success the Democrats have maintained their position in the Senate and actually improved it in the already overwhelmingly Democratic House of Representatives, while in the contests for State Governorships victory seems likely to fall to the Democrats in the proportion of about 5 to 1. All these figures, it is necessary to remember, enormously exaggerate the preponderance of Democratic sympathies measured in terms of individual votes. The final returns are not available as these lines are written, but the latest totals-24,628,962 for Roosevelt and 15,423,055 for Landon—represent a proportion that is likely to be fairly closely maintained to the end. Roughly speaking, three men (and women) out of every eight voted' Republican and five Democrat. The result is an immense personal triumph for Mr. Roosevelt, but the temptation to declare that democracy too can have its dictators must be resisted. Congress is an effective brake---or shackle--7and a Democratic Congress can be almost as much a thorn in the side of a Democratic President as a Republican. Mr. Roosevelt discovered that more than once in his first term.
