TWO FEATURES

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 138, 8 December 1936, Page 12

TWO FEATURES

U.S.A. ELECTIONS

VISITOR'S IMPRESSIONS

During his travels in America the Rev. J. R. Blanchard, of St. John's Church, Wellington, found the recent Presidential election of great interest, and in an interview on his return to' Wellington today by the Makura he dealt briefly with feature^ of the returns and the campaign. Mr. Blanchard has been away three months on a health trip and toured in Canada and the United States., ...-•■ There were, two features of the Presidential election which, he thought were very significant, said Mr. Blanchard. The first was that Roosevelt had had the biggest Presidential vote that • any Presidential candidate had had, but he had also had a very big "minority vote cast against him, which indicated that, while he had' had a sweeping victory, there was still a very strong and critical minority. The second thing that impressed him was the forecasts, made by competent people, that Mr. Landon would obtain a sweeping majority. These forecasts had been made on the basis of.Pres3 advocacy j throughout the United States. The Press had been very much in favour of Landon, and Roosevelt's overwhelming victory indicated that the Press on this occasion did not have the influence usually associated with it. One of the Chicago papers, in particular, said Mr. Blanchard, had not played the game by New Zealand during the. campaign. It had suggested that New Zealand was a downright Communistic country. This had been used as a weapon, to warn the peonle that if they returned Roosevelt they would get Communism, such as existed in New Zealand.. It was a blatant piece of misrepresentation. Many of the reforms proposed by Roosevelt had been declared revolutionary. Old-age pensions had been mentioned in this connection, and Americans had been surprised when he told them that they had been long established in New Zealand and were taken for granted. ' . "I was in touch with a pretty good cross-section of New York culture and I found it sharply divided between Landon and Roosevelt," said Mr. Blanchard, One of the most thoughtful men he had talked with told him that although he had been a Democrat all his life, hn was going to vote for Landon. His attitude, arid that of others, was that whatever party got into power it would have to carry out what Roosevelt had initiated, and it was thought it would be better to have a Conservative Government than a Radical Government. However, said Mr. Blanchard, he had formed the opinion, largely from talking to people in the street and those employed in the stores, taxi-drivers, and the like, that Roosevelt was going to win. The attiture of these people was that Roosevelt 'had made their savings bank accounts secure, and the farmers said that Roosevelt had saved them from losing their farms. After all, there were more of these people m the United States than there were of the highly cultured people. ,