UNITED STATES ELECTION

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1932, Page 7

UNITED STATES ELECTION

CONCLUSION OF CAMPAIGN

FORECAST AGAINST HOOVER

IMPORTANT ISSUE AT STAKE

TASK OF THE ELECTORS By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 5.5 p.m. New York, Nov. 7. The United States presidential campaign, which is regarded by many as the most important since the civil war, ended to-night. To-morrow an army of voters, expected to total 47,000,000, will troop to the polls to choose either Mr. Herbert Hoover (Republican) or Mr. Franklyn D. Roosevelt (Democrat) for policies which the candidates themselves have styled as leading the nation out of the worst depression. In addition, a world-weary electorate must decide scores of referenda and fill the posts of vice-president and Federal Senatorships in 35 States, and members from every State except Maine, to the Federal House of Representatives, governorships in 34 States and lesser officials in 39 States. As the campaign closed to the accompaniment of victory claims by each side, most estimates outside of politics forecast Mr. Hoover’s defeat.

Mr. Hoover sped into the Far West on Monday en route ,to his Paloalto, California, home, firing his final shots at Salt Lake City and Elko, Nevada. Mr. Roosevelt motored through his native Hudson Valley, ending with a speech at Poughkeepsie, New York, where he concluded his political campaign of the past 20 years.

METHODS OF ELECTION

HISTORY OF PAST CAMPAIGNS.

TWO GREAT PARTIES CONCERNED,

The quadrennial election of the President of the United States is held every leap year. 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 State may be entitled in Congress; but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States shall be appointed an elector.” The practice is that in every State the electors allotted to the State are chosen by direct vote of the citizens on a general ticket. It is this election of electors that will take place to-day. 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 of their terms of service is as follows-:—

Having regard to the States from which the Presidents have come, it will be found that Ohio can claim six, Nbw 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 nationalism; the Republican F a fty 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 came 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 t w0 —Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson. REPUBLICAN SUCCESSES. Both of these, however, held office for two quadrennial periods. After Cleveland’s second term, which ended in 189 i, came the Republicans McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft covering the period to the victory of Wilson in 1913. Wilson, who retired in 1921, has since been followed by another succession of three 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 the 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 Haves 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 grave 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 declared 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. The 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 the first time since the Civil War several Southern States went Republican. In all 40 out of ■ the 48 States were carried by the Republicans. However, the popular vote was much closer, Mr. Hoover getting 21,429,109 against Governor Smith s 15,005,497.. ‘ .

George. Washington ...j 1789-1797 John Adams .. .j 1707-1801 Thomas Jefferson .. 1801-1809 James Madison .... 1800-1817 James Monroe .... 1817-1825 John Quincy Adams .... 1825-1829 Andrew Jackson . 1829-1837 Martin Van Buren . ...• 1837’184'1 William H. Harrison, Mar.-Apl. 1841 John Tyler ... 1841-1845 James K.. Polk ... ... 1845-1849 Zachary Taylor .... 1849-1850 Millard Fillmore ;.. ...; 1850-1853 Franklin Pierce ..., 1853’1857 James Buchanan >. Abraham Lincoln -.. ... 1861-1865 Andrew Johnson >< Ulysses S. Grant .... Rutherford B. Hayes ..., 1865-1869 .... 1860-1877 ... 1877-1881 James A. Garfield, Mar.-bept. 1881 Chester A. Arthur ..1881-1880 Grover Cleveland .. .... 1885-1889 Benjamin Harrison Grover Cleveland ... .. „ 1889-1893 '..1893-4897 William McKinley 1897-1901 Theodore Roosevelt ;... 19011-1909 William H. Taft ..., 1009-1913 Woodrow Wilson ... 1913-1921 Warren G. Harding Calvin Coolidge .... 1921-1923 ... 1923-1929 Herbert C. Hoover e 1929-1933