The Side Issues

The election settled a number of lesser issues all over the U.S. -- at least temporarily.

Foremost was the clear emergence of organized labor as an independent political power. Sidney Hillman's P.A.C. got the voters registered, and then delivered them to the polls.

The results: 1) a bigger national vote than was expected; 2) a tremendous strengthening of labor's political power in the states as well as in Washington; 3) a new No. 1 labor politician with more prestige than failing John L. Lewis ever had.

The easy inference was that P.A.C. had helped mightily to re-elect Roosevelt. But this conclusion would need close analysis when the final results were in. Increasing the vote in Democratic cities did not necessarily mean improving Roosevelt's prospects for victory. In New York City, for example, incomplete returns gave Roosevelt almost 61.6% of the vote, but in 1940 he got over 61.2%.

It might turn out that in spite of P.A.C. the Republicans had at least held their own in industrial areas, but had lost be cause Republican districts had backslid --yielding slimmer majorities than anticipated.

Said Boss Hillman, rubbing out the G.O.P.'s "Clear it with Sidney" campaign slogan: "President Roosevelt's reelection. . . has been cleared with the American people." Now Hillman, like Miner Lewis after 1936, could try to collect dividends on P.A.C.'s investment.

Labor's House Divided. In New York, labor divided -- and divided the credit. Here Hillman had made the deal with Communist elements in the American Labor Party, which then split in two.

The new Liberal Party splinter, controlled by Labor Leader David Dubinsky, and attracting such independent Republicans as Russell Davenport, such New Dealers as Leon Henderson, polled 319,085 votes (nearly all in New York City) for Roosevelt. Hillman's A.L.P. polled 483,371. These two totals, added to the Democrats' 2,461,771, were enough to beat Tom Dewey's 2,952,867 straight G.O.P. vote in crucial New York State.

Hague Reprieved. For the first time in 100 years, New Jersey voters had a chance to get a new constitution, better than the old in two respects: it would have simplified state government and courts, would have made municipal officials subject to ouster if they refused to answer a legislative committee's questions. Jersey City's imperious Mayor Frank ("I am the law") Hague opposed it. So did the Roman Catholic priests (still smarting because there were no tax-supported busses to take children to parochial schools), the state C.I.O. and the A.F. of L. (because the new constitution was no better than the old on labor's rights), the state Grange (because it would have lost control of the Agriculture Department).

Hague stumped the state. In a Donnybrook of bigotry, lying and slander, the new basic law was killed. Soldier ballots were 6 to 1 for it.

Tolerance. In Nebraska prohibitionists tried to put it over again while the boys were at war. The drys were inundated.

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