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Press, Volume LII, Issue 15774, 15 December 1916, Page 6

Yesterday's mail "brought details of tho voting in tho American Presidential election, and although tho excitement of that event is very completley over, the New Zealand public will bo interested to know something more than tho cables told us as to how the voting went. The first returns were largely from States east of the Mississippi, and these, especially JS'cw York and Illinois, showed great and unexpected Republican strength. These States had been regarded by both parties as "pivotal'' ones, and accordingly a groat victory for Mr Hughes was taken for granted. The returns from the West then placed the result in doubt, and it became evident that tho issue lay with West Virginia, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, •New Hampshire, and, above all, California. When all the returns except California had come in, the voting stood: Wilson 263, Hughes 250. California's thirteen votes thus decided the contest. The final voting— at least so far ns it could bo considered final, pending various difficulties which it was thought might alter tho result—was as follows :—Wilson 276 electoral votes, Hughes 253. The biggest States—New York (45), Pennsylvania (38), and Illinois (29) all went Republican, and this by popular majorities (or "pluralities,'" as tho Americans say) ranging from 109,000 to 18-1,000. The contest was very close in several States. In Minnesota, for example, Mr Hughes was only 298 popular votes to the good, and in New Hampshire Mr Wilson had only 63 supporters to spare. Altogether 8,563,713 votes were cr.st for Wilson and 8,160,401 for Hughes—a total vastly greater than had ever previously been recorded. Although Mr Wilson thus had a "plurality" or 400,000 votes, a transfer of less than 2000 votes in California would have given him that State, and, with it, a majority in the Electoral College.

The Presidential contest, of course, overshadowed the Congressional elections. The parties were almost exactly evenly represented in the House, but there was a Democratic majority of a dozen in the Senate. Some curious results are noted. In Rhode Island, a strongly Republican State, a Democratic senator was elected. In Maryland, immemorially Democratic, and still Democratic in the Presidential contest, a Republican was elected for the Senate. in California, which gave Mr Wilson his final victory, Mr Hiram Johnson, the Republican and Progressive candidate for the Senate, -was elected by an enormous "plurality" of about 200,000. Mr Johnson's election caused the regular Republicans to charge the Progressives with secret treachery on the national ticket, but Mr Johnson retorted that it was the "Old Guard" of Republicans who had betrayed Mr Hughes.