AMERICAN ELECTIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21333, 7 November 1932, Page 6

AMERICAN ELECTIONS

PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST THE VOTING TO-MORROW ./ THE TWO GREAT PARTIES . The quadrennial election of the President of the United States, which is held every leap year, will take place to-morrow. The candidates of the two great national parties, Mr. Herbert C. Hoover, who seeks re-election for a second term as nominee of the Republican party, and Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt, tho representative of the Democrat party, are now drawing to the close of / strenuous electioneering campaigns. The general opinion among political observers, supported by such indications as the "straw" vote organised by the Literary Digest, is that Roosevelt will succeed in unseating Hoover by a substantial majority. The method of election of the President is laid down as follows:—"Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of % senators and representatives to which the rState may be entitled in tho Congress; ®bufc no senator or representative, or person holding, an oflico of trust or profit under the United States shall bo appointed an elector." Tho practice is that in every State the electors allotted to tho Stato are chosen by direct vote of tho citizens on a general ticket. It is this election of electors that will take place to-morrow. These electors will meet, and give their votes at their respective State capitals on the first Wednesday in January. These votes of the electors of all the States are opened and counted in the presence of both Houses of Congress /on the second Wednesday in February.// The presidential term begins on March 4. Past Presidents The list of Presidents with the dates their terms of service is as follows:

No President has served for longer than the. eight years—representing two terms of office —and only one, Grover Cleveland, has ever returned to office for a second period after having once relinquished it. The nhortest term on record is that of William H. Harrison, who died only a month after his inauguration, in 1841, following upon a great electoral victory over Van Buren. ffhe term of the great patriot and statesman, James A. Garfield, was cut down to six months by the bullet of an assassin in 1881. Abraham Lincoln, another of the nation's greatest, had just been returned for a second time when his life was similarly sacrificed. , Ohio's Distinction Having regard to the States from which the Presidents have come it will be found that Ohio can claim six, New York and Virginia five each, Massachusetts and Tennessee three each, Illinois two, and Pennsylvania, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Indiana, New Jersey and California one each. Politically throughout its history, the United States has been a country of two parties, with some lesser party only occasionally /Important. In the early years of the nation the Federalist Party represented the interests of a stronger national- j ism; the Republican Party under Jefferson, the interests of the States. In the period of Andrew Jackson, a hundred years ago, the name of the then dominant party changed from Republican to Democratic, and the Federalists having disappeared, the Whigs became the other great party. The Whigs were replaced by the Republicans, who elected Abraham Lincoln to'the presidency in 1860. The Democrats, therefore, founded by Thomas Jefferson, the third president, claim to be the oldest continuously existing political organisation in the United States. The Republican Party, on the other hand, was not organised until 1854, six years before it elected Lincoln. In its early days up to the return of ■ Polk in 1844 the Democrat Party had an almost unbroken run of successes, but since the Republican Party returned its first President 72 years ago the Democrats have been able to appoint only two Cleveland and Wood row Wilson. Republican Successes Both of these, however, held office for two quadrennial periods. After Cleveland's second term, which ended in 1897, came the Republicans McKinley, Roosevelt and iTaft covering the period to the victory of Wilson in 1913. Wilson, who retired in 1921, has since been followed by another succession of threo Republicans, Harding, .Coolidge and Hoover. The campaign of Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) against Samuel J. Tilden '(Democrat) in 1876 resulted in one of the closest and most dramatic contests in the history of ihe presidency. Tilden, according to the count of both parties had a plurality of over 250,000 votes, and at first this was conceded, but the Republican headquarters claimed the election of Hayes by one electoral vote, based on the belief that South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana had gone Republican. These States were all in a condition of transition and gravo unrest, and elections were notoriously open to fraud. A commission of inquiry was appointed, but it refused to go behind the returns officially sent in, and Hayes was declaied elected by one .vote. :, / Election of 1928 In the election of four years ago the religious issue played a sorry part in the struggle, as did also the bitter issue of " wet " versus " dry." Neither Mr. Hoover nor his opponent, Mr. Al. E. Smith, stooped to personalities, but their followers were less restrained. Tho result was a " landslide " for Mr. Hoover, who carried' the country—as represented by electoral votes —by 444 against 87 cast for Governor Smith. For tho first time since the Civil War several Southern States went Republican. In all 40 out of tho 48 States were carried I by the Republicans. However, tho popular vote was much closer, Mr. Hoover getting 21,429,109 against Governor Smith's 15,005,497. Tho vast problem of prohibition has again been a weighty factor in tho present campaign, and both parties have given official expression to their dissatisfaction .with the status quo. Mr. Roosevelt has definitely taken his stand for the repeal of tho Eighteenth Amendment. Mr. Hoover has always been regarded as a firm friend of the " drys," but his attitude at the present time is not so unequivocal as it has been in the past.

George Washington .. 1789-1797 John Adams . . . ► 1797-1801 Thomas Jefferson K . 1801-1809 James Madison . * s . 1809-1817 James Monroe . 5 1817-1825 John Quincv Adams . * 1825-1829 Andrew Jackson . . 1829-1.337 Martin Van Buren . . 1837-1841 ■William H. Harrison, Mar.-Apl. 1841 John Tyler . . .. . . 1841-1845 James K. Polk . „ 1845-1849 Zachary Taylor . s B . 1849-1850 Millard Fillmore <« «• 1850-1853 Franklin Pierce . s s . 1853-1857 James Buchanan . a .. 1857-1861 Abraham Lincoln *.. 1861-1865 Andrew Johnson . . 1865-1869 Ulysses S. Grant . . 1869-1877 Rutherford B. Hayes . . 1877-1881 James A. Garfield, Mar.-Sept. 1881 Chester A. Arthur .. 1881-1885 Grover Cleveland . . .. 1885-1889 Benjamin Harrison . > 1889-1893 Grover Cleveland . . .r 1893-1897 William McKinley . s . 1897-1901 Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1909 William H. Taft . . 1909-1913 Woodrow Wilson . . 1913-1921 Warren G. Harding .. 1921-1923 Calvin Coolidge . . 1923-1929 Herbert C. Hoover .. 1929-1933