MOMENTOUS POLL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 November 1940, Page 5

MOMENTOUS POLL

AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ROOSEVELT’S FINAL WORD DECLARATION OF FAITH IN DEMOCRACY. REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE’S PLEDGE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, November 4. President Roosevelt, broadcasting a final word before the election, compared the fortunate lot of Americans—peace and freedom—with life overseas—bombs and destruction. lie thanked God that America was living in peace and proposed and expected to continue to live in peace. “The dictators have forgotten or perhaps never knew the basis on which democratic government is founded.” he said. “It is that the opinion of all the people, freely formed and freely expressed without fear or coercion, is wiser than the opinion of any one man or any small group. “We have more faith in the collective opinion of all Americans than in the individual opinion of any one American.”

Mr. Roosevelt expressed confidence that the workers on each side in the campaign would continue to co-operate after the election in the service of democracy. He concluded by reading an old prayer asking the guidance of God for the nation.

Addressing a local rally at Ploughkeepsie, Mr. Roosevelt said: “New forms of government based on the theory of might rather than right have waged wars against the Germanic and Italian peoples with their proud heritage of freedom will return with the remainder of the world to self-govern-ment based on free elections.”

The Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull, in a broadcast, urged the reelection of Mr. Roosevelt. He pleaded that after the election the losers should accept the verdict without rancour. Mr Hull described the election as an historic occasion, representing “the emphatic reassertion of democratic progress in a world in which powerful and sinister forces are arraigned against the ideal of popular government.”

The Republican candidate, Mr. Wendell Willkie, in a final broadcast, attacked the principle of a third term of office for the President and reiterated his promises. “My every act as President will be to keep the United States out of foreign wars and keep it at peace,” he said. “I promise not to send your husbands, sons or brothers to death on an European or Asiatic battlefield.”

EARLY VOTING WASHINGTON. November 4. Voting has begun in the Presidential election campaign, and the first few votes cast, shortly after midnight, in New Hampshire, a Republican stronghold, has given the Republican candidate, Mr. Willkie, a lead over the Democrat candidate, President Roosevelt. There are expected to be 50,000,000 voters. The people are voting for representation by States in the Electoral College, which in turn elects the President. The total number of electoral votes is 523, a candidate thus requiring at least 262 votes to win. Members of the House of Representatives and one third of the members of the Senate are also being elected today. The two other candidates for the Presidency are Mr. Norman Thomas, Socialist, and Mr, Earl Browder, Communist. i

BITTER CAMPAIGN HUGE VOTE ASSURED. RIVAL PARTY ESTIMATES OF RESULT. NEW YORK, November 5. .More than 50,000,000 voters will today decide what may be the 1 closest election since 1916 after one of the most turbulent campaigns in history in which international and domestic issues have been so intertwined that the result will be awaited as anxiously in No. 10 Downing Street and the Wilhelmstrasse as in Sioux City, lowa. The bitterness of the campaign has assured a huge vote and caused fears of violence, particularly in New York, because of its mixed population. In sharp contrast to the muckraking charges and counter-charges of recent weeks, both President Roosevelt and Mr Willkie, in their final broadcasts, closed the campaign in solemn promises to keep the United States from war and pleas for unity in a flaming world. Last-minute estimates agree that President Roosevelt has a slight advantage in the popular vote, despite a generally hostile Press, but all polls and surveys show a growing recent trend for Mr Willkie. Experts, however, agree that Mr Willkie must carry the “Big Four, ’ namely New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio, to win. ~ x . Democratic headquarters predicted that President Roosevelt would win 400 electoral votes. Republicans claimed 324, which is 58 above the necessary majority.