THE AMERICAN ELECTIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24423, 5 November 1942, Page 2

THE AMERICAN ELECTIONS

A Republican victory in the great State of New York, and particularly. th«t election of Mr. Thomas h. Dewey as Governor, and Mr. Hamilton iisn as a Congressman, are disturbing to Mr. Roosevelt. It is too early to say whether the Republican swing will be strong enough to destroy the President's majority in the House of Representatives. But in re-electing Mr. Hamilton Fish the electors have shown that isolationism, however marked and unpleasant, is no bar to success. The new House of Representatives will probably help to shape the peace and therefore the future of the world. If after the war the House becomes isolationist, the world can reckon with trouble. The record of Mr. Fish before Pearl Harbour showed him against any help to the democracies and full of goodwill toward Germany. None the less, he is back in power, and he will not lack the company of other pronounced isolationists, some of whom, however, have repudiated their old policies. The return of Mr. Dewey is another matter. His pre-

decessor was a Democrat. Mr. Roosevelt received his first rebuff when the Democrat nominee was chosen against his wishes. Mr. Dewey is politically so agile that before Pearl Harbour nobody could be quite sure whether he was an isolationist or not. This nimbleness has now stood him in good stead. The Governor of New York State is often the future President. He certainly has a very good chance of securing his party's nomination for the great office. The campaign for the New York Governorship combines, it is said, "some of the attractions of a three-ring circus, a mediaeval tournament, a war, a horse race, a Hollywood super-epic, a Shakespearean play, a free-for-all riot, and a poker game for tremendous stakes." From all this Mr. Dewey has emerged victorious ; his next position may be even more important.