Off-Year Elections

POLITICAL NOTES Political Notes

Off-Year Election

Came the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. To the polling places went civic-minded citizens. It was an off-year election, mostly of mayors, sheriffs and other large frogs in small puddles. Two States, however, elected new Governors. Three elected U. S. Representatives. Here and there were statewide issues-- constitutional amendments, laws, bond issues. From such results, political pundits made halfhearted attempts to draw large deductions. These deductions had to be colored highly by partisanship to become visible. G. O. Pundits said in effect: "The elections of three Republican U. S. Representatives, of many a Republican mayor, and, in Governor Alfred Emanuel Smith's New York, of many a Republican Assemblyman, indicate Republican strength for 1928."

Democratic pundits said, in effect: "The three G. O. P. Congressmen succeeded three G. O. P. Congressmen. The elections of many a Democratic mayor and the amendment victory of Governor Alfred Emanuel Smith in New York, indicate Democratic strength for 1928."

Some election items: New Hampshire. Miss H. Gwendolyn Jones, wholesome 26-year-old graduate of the State University, tried to become the mayor of Concord and thus first woman mayor in New England on a campaign expenditure of $25, with one 15-minute speech per day. Flood conditions hampered voting. Miss Jones lost to Mayor Fred N. Marden, 2,200 to 4,464. Miss Jones said she would now study law at Yale University.

New York voted heavily against amending its constitution to give its Governor a four-year term with elections in presidential years. Governor Smith led the Democratic fight against this amendment.*. . . Republicans gained four Assembly seats. . . . Democrats pushed through a $300,000,000 state bond issue for building Manhattan subways. . . . Republican mayors replaced Democratic in Buffalo, Schenectady, Little Falls, Rome. . . . Democratic mayors replaced Republicans in Auburn and Troy. . . . Tammany Democrats swamped New York City .

New Jersey stayed strongly Republican in both houses of its Legislature. . . . Democratic Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City again demonstrated his strength when his henchmen elected eleven of the 14 Democrats in the State Assembly. ... In Princeton, B. Frank Bunn, keeper of the University store, was elected mayor over Democratic Orren Jack Turner, town photographer. For the first time in Princeton's history, students of the University were kept from voting by the local election board. Professor Edward A. Stephens of the Hun Preparatory School, just outside the Princeton limits, was arrested for perjury when he swore his legal residence was in Princeton. Professor Stephens is a G. O. P. leader. Justice of the Peace John Golden, Democrat, made the arrest.

Pennsylvania. Senator-elect William S. Vare was "vindicated" of allegedly purchasing his disputed Senate seat when Philadelphia elected the Vare-backed G. O. P. candidate, Harry A. Mackey, for mayor, over J. Hampton Moore, Independent G. 0. P. man. All other Vare candidates won, including onetime (1921-25) U. S. Solicitor General James M. Beck, now U. S. Representative-elect Beck. ... In Reading, the Socialist Party swept the board. Tax reform was the issue. It was the most notable uprising of the kind since Milwaukee went Socialist in 1910. Of some 26,000 votes cast, Socialist J. Henry Stump, running for mayor, and his colleagues, won nearly half. Democrats and Republicans divided the other half. Said Mayor-elect Stump: "We will strive to make the future brighter for the men & women of the working class!"

Ohio. The big issue was a referendum on a bill which would have reestablished "kangaroo courts" (justices of the peace who share in the fines they impose for liquor law violation).*The Anti-Saloon League pressed the bill as a Wet & Dry issue. The bill was defeated by some 300,000 votes. ... In Cleveland it was voted not to revert to mayoralty form of government, to retain the city manager plan, of which Cleveland is the most populous exponent.

Michigan. Mayor John W. Smith of Detroit called for support from drinkers, bootleggers, "speakeasy" men. Candidate John C. Lodge, grand-uncle of Col. Charles Augustus Lindbergh, called for no one's support. He made no speeches, signed no campaign literature, made no promises. His friends elected him Mayor of Detroit by a margin of 12,188 votes. Mayor-elect Lodge announced he would not sweep Mayor Smith's appointees out of office wholesale, would not countenance Prohibition "snooping."

Indiana. The Indianapolis City Council resolved their city's mayoral tangle (TIME, Nov. 7, CORRUPTION) by casting ballots for a successor to Mayor John L. Duvall, convicted & resigned. On the 38th ballot, L. Ert Slack, onetime laywer for the K. K. K., was elected. Mayor Slack's term will end Jan. 1, 1930, when a city manager system goes into effect in Indianapolis.

Kentucky. Flem D. Sampson, Republican, stood for retaining "pari-mutuel"*betting machines at racetracks. J. C. W. Beckham, Democrat, onetime (1915-21) U. S. Senator and onetime (1900-07) Governor, stood against mechanical, state-supervised betting, for private bookmaking. Each wanted to be Kentucky's Governor. Kentucky had a hard time deciding, but chose Mr. Sampson and the betting machines. Governor-elect Sampson announced that he would appoint none of his kin to office; that he who has three daughters,/- would revoke Governor William J. Field's present rule against dancing in the executive mansion.

Mississippi was the other State to elect a Governor. Theodore Gilmore Bilbo was the Democratic nominee. The voters knew him well--Odd Fellow, Elk, Mason, Baptist, Woodman, etc., etc., onetime (1908-12) State Senator, onetime (1912-16) Lieutenant Governor, onetime (1916-20) Governor. His opponents revivified bribery charges of which Mr. Bilbo was acquitted in 1916,-- but election is a mere gesture in Mississippi. The Democratic nomination is all that matters. Nominee Bilbo became Governor-elect Bilbo once again.

California. Some 251,000 San Franciscans registered to elect a mayor. They had had but one mayor since 1912--crisp, greying Mayor James ( Plain Jim of the Mission") Rolph Jr. To oppose Mayor Rolph's reelection there had now stepped forward James E. Power, tEe power behind whom was Sheriff Tom Finn, old-time politician. Mayor Rolph endorsed William J. Fitzgerald to oust "Boss'' Finn as Sheriff, saying: "Bossism must be thrust down!" San Franciscans reflected that "Plain Jim Rolph of the Mission"/-/- was the man who had brought the Panama-Pacific International Exposition to town, in L915. He was the man whom they had elected in 1912 to keep San Francisco from being exploited as "the Paris of America." The San Franciscans re-elected Mayor Rolph for a fifth four-year term by a 30,000-vote margin.

*New York's gubernatorial term is two years. Democrats favor the four-year term--but not with leap-year elections. -Last March, the U. S. Supreme Court declared such courts unconstitutional. The referendum would have made such courts constitutional in Ohio. *Machines in which betters place their money on their chosen horses, receiving tickets in return. The betting odds of each race are figured by the machines in ratio to the total amount bet on each horse and winners cash in their tickets at these odds, which are not announced until after each race. The machines also figure out a percentage for their operators, and for the State.

/-Two are married.

--In 1917, Mr. Bilbo was attacked by his onetime law partner, Gambrell Austin Hobbs, in typical Mississippi oratory. Wrote Mr. Hobbs: "... A curious compound of audacity and folly, like a child who would make a plaything of the serpent's rattle. His mind does not realize probable results. Emerging from perfect obscurity by the criminal court route, carrying with him the odium of an indignant attempt on the part of the Senate to expel him--he went before the people to tell a story in which his own part had been one of infamy. He assumed the role of martyr. ... I stood by him with such loyalty as only a young man of unshattered ideals can give another."

/-/-The "Mission" section of San Francisco--so-called from the Dolores Mission which once stood there--corresponds to that section of many another U. S. city where stands the ghosts of a bygone gentility, old houses built for large, well-to-do families which have long since scattered or died out. Cf. Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, the "West Side" in Manhattan, Boston's "Back Bay" (still showing signs of life), Chicago's original "South Side" (almost erased).