Vote of Thanks

"What's your name?"

"It's still Franklin D."

So the President of the U. S. made answer to the woman election clerk as he went to cast his ballot. Accompanied by wife and mother he had driven through a pouring rain to Hyde Park's town hall.

In that building for 30 years, Roosevelt, Franklin D., had cast his vote on election day. Last week's occasion differed from others only in one important particular: The election in which he voted was the nearest thing possible to a national referendum on Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Said he as he stepped out of the downpour: "It's good weather for ducks. The Democrats ought to win."

His prognostication was perfect. The U. S. gave him a huge vote of thanks. In midterm elections during the past half century the minority party has taken from the majority an average of 48 seats in the House of Representatives. As soon as the counting began Republicans saw that they were only going to add about 20 seats to the scant 114 they now hold. The Democrats would still hold two-thirds.

Actually the Republicans had lost ground in many places. For 22 years Philadelphia has sent a solid Republican delegation to the House. This year Philadelphia elected three Democrats. In Illinois, Representative Fred Britten, Republican, was beaten after 22 years. Oscar de Priest, Negro Republican from Chicago's Black Belt, lost to Arthur W. Mitchell first Negro the Democrats ever nominated to oppose him (see p. 16).

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