Farmer and Family

A year ago last week. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was re-elected President of the U. S. by the biggest vote in U. S. history. Last week, while local elections popped and fizzled through the land, the President drove to the town hall of Hyde Park to cast his vote on a ballot headed by the candidate for town supervisor. Inquired Miss Alma Van Curan, Democratic chairman of the election board:

"What is your occupation?"

Chuckled the President: "Farmer."

Last week's elections (see p. 15) large and small, proved nothing if not that most of the voters who had gone to the polls had been more concerned with local issues than with national party lines. The President's vote--299th in his District--helped re-elect his friend Elmer Van Wagner by 275 votes.

P:Back in Washington after stopping off in New York to "meet" re-elected Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia (see p. 15), the President had traveled 114,008 miles in office, finally passed by eight miles the record established by William Howard Taft in 1909-13. In his press conference Mr. Roosevelt sparred with reporters by comparing a speculative stock market with speculative news stories (see p. 75). He then settled down for a series of talks with Congressional leaders over plans for a program on farm aid and wages-&-hours for the special session opening Nov. 15. Other callers included Unemployment Census Director John D. Diggers and Chairman Charles F. Hosford of the Bituminous Coal Commission, who had just announced his intention of resigning by January 1 after a protracted wrangle with his fellow members over patronage.

P:The President received autographed copy No. 1 of This Is My Story by Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt.

P:Charles Michelson in his regular Democratic National Committee publicity hand-out to the press, "Dispelling the Fog," added some to a moot question: "When they are not talking about the hopeless viciousness of the New Deal principles nowadays, they are invoking the old favorite fable of Roosevelt seeking a dictatorship. And then they trot out the old bogey of a third term. . . . Obviously, the President cannot in advance decline a renomination that may never be offered him. Just as obviously, with the world in such a turmoil as it is today outside of this continent, it cannot be forecast whether the American people would permit him to lay down his burden in view of possible eventualities."

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