Decision 1940! ROOSEVELT WINS!

[NormanStewart]

RELAX, PEOPLE! CAMPAIGN OVER, NOW LET’S GRIN
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Here Is a Column Of Trivia and Oddities From All Over U.S.
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By United Press

Every bit as interesting as statistics on the extent of the cab driver vote polled by Oscar Q. Bazookus, Whig candidate for truant officer, are the little tidbits of information which turn up in every national election but which never get a proper hearing.

This column is dedicated to such vital trivia.

He Didn’t Care
John Zahnd, candidate for President of the National Greenback Party, passed Election Day in his Indiana homestead without knowing, and not caring much, whether he was on the ballot anywhere. Mr. Zahnd said party units in several states had tried to get him on the ballot but had not informed him whether they were successful.

Convicts Get Break
Prisoners at Sing Sing were so interested in the election’s outcome, though they can’t vote, that officials let them keep radio sets tuned in a half hour later than usual.

Willkie Kin Miss Voting
Julia and Edward Willkie, sister and brother of the Republican presidential candidate, did not vote. Miss Willkie, a chemist, has lived in St. Catharines, Ontario, five years. Edward Willkie, who has been accompanying the Republican standard-bearer on his campaign, telephoned the La Grange, Illinois election board that he was “stuck in New York with Wendell.”

Birth Follows Ballot
Mrs. Robert Neff, an expectant mother, was refused an absentee ballot by Dowagiac, Michigan officials, so she left the hospital, voted, returned to the hospital and gave birth to a boy.

Triplets Named W.W.W.
Triplets born in New York to Mr. and Mrs. Carl Cuttita were named Wendy (for Wendell), Louis (for Lewis), and Willkie (for Willkie).

They Forgot G.O.P.
There was some little trouble in a Far Rockaway, N.Y. polling place when election officials discovered that voting machines lacked labels beside the line of Republican voting levers. Somebody just forgot.

Use Old Banner
In Plymouth, Michigan, Republican headquarters unfurled a large campaign banner which read:

No executive dictation, no standing army, no sub-treasury. The Whigs of Plymouth will support that hero, patriot and statesman, William Henry Harrison.

The banner was used in the 1840 election, the first in which Michigan participated as a state.

Siamese Twins Back G.O.P.
Mr. Willkie got the Siamese twin vote. Mary and Margaret Gibb, Siamese twins, mailed absentee ballots from Clovis, N.M., to their home in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Atlanta Vote Tied
Wendell Willkie tied with President Roosevelt in one Atlanta, Georgia precinct. Each received 183 votes.

Wendell For Wendell
Wendell, Massachusetts, voted 81 to 73 for Wendell L. Willkie over President Roosevelt.

Can’t Change ‘Hoarses’
Stressing the unity theme, radio station WHN spent most of the day in New York trying to find two Republican and two Democratic politicians top form a quartet and sing the popular patriotic song, “He’s My Uncle,” immediately after one candidate or the other had conceded. All politicians approached early in the evening pleaded that they were too hoarse from campaigning to sing.

Challenges Wife’s Vote
At Paris, Illinois, a man who cast his vote for Mr. Willkie, challenged his wife’s intended vote for President Roosevelt on the grounds that she was not a naturalized citizen. The election board ruled that she was an alien and should not be allowed to vote.

At Herrin, Illinois, Mrs. Don Hudson, 84, voting for the first time in her life, marked her ballot for Mr. Willkie, because, she said, she objected to conscription.

Carries Own District
President Roosevelt carried his own home voting district at Hyde Park, N.Y. The vote: Willkie, 302; Roosevelt, 376.

Willkie Does, Too
Wendell Willkie carried the 10 precincts of Elwood, his native town, by a total of 438 votes in complete returns Resident s cast 4,151 votes for their native son and 3,713 for Mr. Roosevelt.

Precedent Broken
The Democrats carried Sagadahoc County today for the first time in a presidential election. The vote was Roosevelt, 4,572; Willkie 3,482.

In 1936, the vote was Roosevelt, 3,273; Landon, 3,707.
In 1932, Roosevelt 2,763; Hoover, 4,220.

[NormanStewart]

WILLKIE ASKS UNITED NATION IN TRYING HOUR
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Congratulates Roosevelt, Accepts Results ‘With Complete Good Will’
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New York, Nov. 6 (UP) –

Conceding his defeat by President Roosevelt, Wendell L. Willkie today called upon his millions of followers to:

…continue as I shall to work for the unity of our people, in the completion of our defense effort, in sending aid to Britain and in insistence upon removal of antagonisms in America – all to the end that government of free men may continue and may spread again upon the earth.

Speaking over all major radio networks after he had dispatched a telegram of congratulations to Mr. Roosevelt on his re-election, Mr. Willkie said that he accepted the voting results “with complete good will.”

Mr. Willkie said:

I accept the result of the election with complete good will.

The popular vote shows the vitality of our democratic principles and the adherence of our people to the two-party system.

I extend my thanks to the thousands who so zealously and wholeheartedly worked for my election on various organizations, and to the added millions who supported me. I know that they will continue, as I shall, to work for the unity of our people, in the completion of our defense effort, in sending aid to Britain and in insistence upon removal of antagonisms in America – all to the end that government of free men may continue and may spread again upon the earth.

I have received too many kind and encouraging messages to permit of individual answer to all. To the senders of them, I express my gratitude and thanks.

Mr. Willkie told newspapermen he would make a statement later on the role he believes the Republican Party and the people who voted for him should play henceforth.

Telegram to President

“I want to reflect upon it”, he said in explaining his desire not to comment more fully now.

His telegram to the President was sent a short time before his 11:45 a.m. broadcast.

Congratulations on your re-election as President of the United States. I know that we are both gratified that so many American citizens participated in the election. I wish you all personal health and happiness.

Cordially,
WENDELL L. WILLKIE

Motion picture klieg lights beat down on Mr. Willkie as he stood before a battery of microphones to tell the people that he accepted defeat after one of the most arduous campaigns ever waged by any man for the Presidency.

Mr. Willkie told newspaper reporters after the broadcast that he “never felt better” and was “proud to have led this crusade.”

‘Without Bitterness’

I believe deeply, if anything more deeply than ever in the principles I preached. I think that their ultimate adoption in America is indispensible to the preservation of this free way of life.

I end this campaign as I entered it – without any ill will or bitterness toward anybody.

Mr. Willkie said he would spend the next “two, three or four days here.”

Then I’m going somewhere for a vacation and some rest. My personal plans are not complete beyond that.

Mr. Willkie chatted amiably, smiled for photographers and asked newspapers reported who had been with him on his campaign special if they had “got any sleep last night.”

‘Stacks’ of Telegrams

Mr. Willkie, preparing to go with Mrs. Willkie to their home at 1010 Fifth Ave. after lunch, said he would remain in New York for a few days “cleaning up a few matters in connection with the campaign.”

He said he had received “stacks of telegrams,” the tenor of which was:

Glad to have had part in this crusade and fight; urge its continuance.

In saying he still believed the principles he had advocated were “indispensable to the preservation of the free way of life in America,” Mr. Willkie said he referred to the points he had outlined in his last major campaign speech in Madison Square Garden Saturday night.

Garden Speech Recalled

In that speech, Mr. Willkie attacked New Deal spending, “concentration of power,” the third term, defense methods and what he said was the stirring up of class hatreds.

Throughout much of the speech ran the refrain:

These are the methods of the New Deal. They are not the methods of democracy.

Someone asked Mr. Willkie if he expected to “stay in politics now that you’ve had a taste of it.”

Mr. Willkie grinned and said:

I haven’t determined my personal plans yet.

Mr. Willkie said he already had sent several wires of thanks and congratulations to persons who helped him in the campaign and that he had talked by telephone to Republican National Chairman Joseph W. Martin Jr. in North Attleboro, Mass., and had sent a telegram to his running mate, Senator Charles L. McNary, on the West Coast.

WILLKIE TELLS McNARY HE’S SORRY
New York, Nov. 6 (UP) –

Republican presidential nominee Wendell L. Willkie today telegraphed his running mate, Senator Charles L. McNary of Oregon, that he was “sorry” about the election results but that it had “been a great joy to be associated with you in this crusade.”

He sent this telegram to Senator McNary at his Salem, Oregon home:

It has been a great joy to be associated with you in this crusade. Sorry about the results. Mrs. Willkie and I send our cordial greetings to you and Mrs. McNary.

[NormanStewart]

I DARE SAY —
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Election memories
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By Florence Fisher Parry

Maybe those of you who were “born and raised” in the city have your own vivid memories; but it is a feeling I have that city memories do not return to you in such nostalgic waves. The city has a way of swallowing up one’s memories it seems to me. They are not given the elbow room necessary to fix into enduring full-proportioned shape.

But in a little town there are only certain places for memory to attach to Main Street and the houses on it, and the short trudge to school, and the East End Bridge, and the place back at Winslow’s where the Johnny-Jump-Ups were always the thickest. Just a few locations really, for the memories to stand in and take root forevermore.

There was an old home on Main Street, I remember, the Altman home, which, after the family scattered and died went the way of most Main Street homes that are built near the Up Town section and became our first Telegraph Office. I remember how mysterious it was to me, passing there on the way to school and hearing the little click-click of the Wonder Machine. The telegrams went “over the wires,” I was told. But no amount of looking ever revealed to me a telegram moving along the wires, and I began to suspect my elders of some kind of hoax.

The Telegraph

The McKinley Election is the one I remember first. The Telegraph Office clicked furiously that day and several of the boys volunteered to run over to the newspaper office so that the returns could be posted in the News Windows. Practically all the able-bodied men and boys in Our Town stayed right there outside the news office from the minute the returns began to trickle in until the very last. The women stayed at home putting up with their men running in, breathless, to grab a bite and then dash back to the news office. The day threw all the housewives pit terribly, they complained that they couldn’t get a thing done. All this fuss about President! Both candidates were Good Men.

It was grand for us children on election eve! Torch light processions, bands, and a high platform in the middle of the Public Square and all the Factors in The Community Holding Forth just like on The Fourth!

Things got hot along towards curfew. The din rose above the curfew, and anyway, only the Strictest parents made you go to bed early That night.

The crowds, the crowds, on election day! They’d stand there, rain or sleet, yelling at the returns, and brawling on the rim of the crowd. Of course there wasn’t anything more serious to fight about than the tariff, but that furnished ample cause. it’s wonderful how agitated a good American could grow over the Protective Tariff, in those good solidified American days!

Every once in a while one of the boys would tear back to the house with the Latest Figures and grab a piece of bread and apple-butter. They’d be mad when some grown-up would say, “Yes, George just telephoned us!” The boys weren’t quite tall enough yet to reach up to the telephone there on the wall.

When the movies came in, they could flash the returns on a big white sheet stretched across the alley there by the Punxsutawney Spirit office. That was considered a wonderful advance but nobody had yet acquired the habit of leaving the Mass Meeting to go into a movie house to watch the returns. In those days the populace stuck together at such crucial moments. You were a sis or a poor sort of citizen if you sat inside anywhere.

The Radio

A few people we knew had crystal sets at the time of the Harding election, and claimed they could get the returns right out of the air. That was the last straw! What sissy trick was this, to sit at home and hear anything like an Election Return, instead of joining the Rank and File outside the Spirit Building! As the returns of each precinct would be flashed, the roar of the crowd could be heard all over town.

It was a one-sided roar for such candidates as President, for Our Town was 99 and 44 hundredths per cent Republican. But the local candidates, that was something else again.

I think, looking back, that the thing that Killed the Election Returns in Our Town was this thing of radio. Yes, we got soft. We started to stay indoors. Life was beginning to be handed to us on a tray; and it’s as true as true can be that when you cease to have to make an effort for what’s dear and important to you, it grows slowly less important.

Our Elections began to be too comfortable. That wonderful spirit that can be produced only by ASSEMBLY, began to wane. How could it MATTER so much to you which candidate was ahead, when you were seated at home alone by the fire, instead of swaying with a close herd of Fellow townsmen in front of the Spirit Building?

[NormanStewart]

WILLKIE PLANS RADIO MESSAGE
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Defeated Candidate to Advise His Supporters
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By William H. Lawrence, United Press Staff Writer

New York, Nov. 8 –

Wendell L. Willkie began work today on a message to the more than 20 million persons who voted for him on the role he believes they should play in President Roosevelt’s third term.

He gave every indication that he would be as unusual as a defeated presidential no0minee as he was a candidate.

He obtained 30 minutes on all three networks – NBC, CBS and MBS – at 10:30 p.m. Monday to tell the nation which would not elect him President, how he intends to continue a “crusade” for governmental policies which differ in many respects from those advocated by Mr. Roosevelt, whom the voters gave another term.

The address will be broadcast by KDKA, WCAE and WJAS.

Mr. Willkie declined to reveal his personal plans before he talks, and would confirm reports that the Willkie Clubs, headed by “political amateurs” largely responsible for his nomination, and which, before Tuesday had thousands of members, would be continued indefinitely as a personal political organization.

Thousands of those who voted for Mr. Willkie have written to urge him to keep up the fight against the New Deal. Many of these letters were bitter. They appealed to Mr. Willkie to devise some means of translating the policies he advocates into action. More than 10,000 letters were received in three mails yesterday morning, and the tenor of all of them seemed the same, Mr. Willkie said.

Excerpts from this mall, selected at random by this correspondent with Mr. Willkie’s permission, said:

New York City Resident:

What are we to do now? Must those of us who believe in your “crusade” just sit back and let nature (the administration) take its course? The cry is for a united country, and we all agree that in union there is strength, but must we quietly acquiesce to a leadership whose judgment and intellectual integrity we distrust? Is there any way that the millions of your supporters can exert any influence? You aroused many of us out of our political lethargy…what can we do? If anything, I want to be in on it?

Pelham, N.Y., Resident:

I am afraid this is much more serious than just another election. I am rolling up my sleeves to begin the fight! Please continue with the same fire and spirit, working against every dictatorial measure and crackpot scheme that will arise from the New Deal and please, oh please, don’t accept any post with the New Deal…We are still with you, and we have just begun to fight.

There were some letters which urged him to co-operate with the administration, even to accepting a post in the government if he is offered one by Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Willkie’s aides said.

Don’t desert us…You have done so much for American democracy and God willing can do so much during the next four years.

Chicago Resident:

You must make the way to continue this fight where you left off on Monday night and not ever concede to co-operate in their wishes unless they co-operate in ours…There are many ways to get what you want from the other fellow carrying a heavy responsibility who is calling for your help and co-operation…If we co-operate without concession to our wishes we will be defeated. Now is the time for action to obtain that which we must have returned from the state before we concede anything that the state wants from us.

The only precedent for Mr. Willkie’s talk to the nation as an defeated presidential nominee, was Alfred E. Smith’s 1928 address to the Democratic Party urging it to remain “alive and vigorous” but counseling Democrats not to let “bitterness, rancor or indignation, over the result blind us to one outstanding fact: That, above everything else, we are Americans.”

Mr. Willkie’s manner of announcement his speech indicated that his might be much more than that. He said his “basic beliefs,” outlined in his vigorous campaign, especially in the Madison Square Garden speech last Saturday, had not been changed.

Mr. Willkie said he decided to talk to the nation as a result of his “fantastic” mail and a conviction that he owed those who voted for him, a recommendation on their course now. The radio networks donated the time at Mr. Willkie’s request.

He plans to leave New York either late Monday after the broadcast or early Tuesday for Rushville, Indiana, where he had five farms, to begin a two or three-week vacation.

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PRESIDENT GUESSED WRONG ON VOTE TOTAL
Washington, Nov. 8 –

President Roosevelt revealed today that his personal prediction on outcome of the Tuesday election was wrong by 109 electoral votes – that he had predicted his total would be 340 rather than the 449 which he actually received.

The President said he made his prediction last August.

His political guesses on other angles of the election also went awry, he said. With Washington correspondents at Hyde Park on election eve, he entered 109 other pools seeking to predict the outcome of the election in certain sectional combinations of states. He guessed wrong on all 10 combinations, he said.

Queried as to whether his pre-election statements meant that he would not seek a fourth term, Mr. Roosevelt replied sharply that the reporter who asked the question should return to grammar school and attempt to master simple English. He said that his statements that a third term would be his last one were understood by the country.

Mr. Roosevelt said he had not had time to consider any Cabinet moves when he was asked about reports that he might invite Wendell Willkie to become a member of his Cabinet or to accept some other important post in his administration.