North, South, East, West

Last week the air was filled with straws in the political wind, blowing in all directions. Gusty or strong, or just an off-year breeze, the wind ebbed and eddied over Ohio, California, the cities of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. Although local crosscurrents were set up, the general direction was Right, the temperature generally warmer.

In Detroit, a new mayor--young Edward Jeffries--was elected with C.I.O. backing. In San Francisco, Mayor Angelo Rossi was re-elected over a New Deal Congressman who had the support of Harry Bridges and the C.I.O. Republican victories in Pennsylvania and New Jersey brought a bugle blast of triumph from National Chairman John Hamilton; Democrats did not whoop so over a minor Tammany victory in New York City, or the expected Kentucky election of Governor Keen Johnson. Said Jim Farley: "The results are entirely satisfactory from a Democratic point of view."

The Bigelow Plan of Ohio, calling for a $50-a-month pension after the age of 60, went down, 1,527,577 to 460,537. Parimutuel went in in New York, setting Pundit Mark Sullivan a brooding: if you check gambling on the stock exchange, does it come surging back on the race tracks? Socialist Jasper McLevy stayed in as mayor of Bridgeport, Conn. Socialist John Henry Stump went out as mayor of Reading, Pa. Boss Edward Crump was elected mayor of Memphis--only to keep his machine in power, since he is to reign for five minutes Jan. 1 before resigning in favor of the vice mayor, who would in turn surrender the job to a Crump henchman. But everybody knew that the Big Wind had blown over California, where Ham & Eggs was defeated, two-to-one.

Victor. Only national figure to emerge from the California election was Columnist Westbrook Pegler. Fortnight ago the ex-sports writer landed in Los Angeles and began sending out appalled columns: "This community lives under ether and utters weird cries in its waking dreams." Westbrook Pegler was alarmed, not because a proposed Ham & Eggs amendment to the State Constitution promised $30 every Thursday to retired citizens over 50 years of age, not because it would have compelled the Governor to name a leader of Ham & Eggs to administer the act, not because it would set up a State bank system with power to issue money, or that this money would be accepted by the State in payment of debt and taxes. What alarmed Mr. Pegler was that the story of Ham & Eggs could not be told "without a sense of shame and fear," and that the whole fantastic scheme could be put forth as a pension plan.

Although the U. S. as a whole waked up slowly to Columnist Pegler's warnings, subsided in relief when Ham & Eggs lost by a million votes, Mr. Pegler took no comfort. "Ham-and-Eggs signifies comfort and plenty and the phrase has an alarming sound when shouted at random . . . by bitter men and women on the fringe of shapeless crowds. . . . If the audacity of the promoters of Ham-and-Eggs has stunned Americans . . . the trustful tolerance of the rank and file should knock them for a loop." Ham & Eggs had the endorsement of the Communists and California's C. I. O. Despite the opposition of newspapers, of Dr. Townsend, of onetime Ham & Eggs Supporter Governor Olson, despite the fact that the leaders of the movement were known to be professional promoters, it polled 972,575 votes. While editorial writers all over the U. S. found a reassuring rejection of crackpot schemes in last week's elections, Prophet Pegler gloomed: "The opposition won big, but it didn't win easy or for good and all. This demand, like the sea, will come rolling in again and again, for it is a rich and easy racket, and the power of the poor is still there, to wash away everything in one big, well-timed revolutionary breaker."

Off-year election oddities:

> In Little Ferry, N. J., three men who were WPA workers on election day became Mayor and Councilmen next day.

> In Detroit, Coach Charles E. (Gus) Dorais, who startled Eastern footballers 30 years ago with the innovation of overhand forward passes tossed to a spindly-legged end named Knute Rockne, was elected to the nine-man City Council.

> In Salt Lake City, bronzed, bashful Race-driver Ab Jenkins, holder of 153 speed records, was elected Mayor by 51 votes of 42,203 cast.

> In Compton, Calif., two spry septuagenarians voted for Ham and Eggs, emerged from the polls, demanded on the spot their $30 Every Thursday, had to be forcibly ejected.

> In Stony Point, N. Y., Assessor Ambrose James, 82, died Monday, was re-elected Tuesday. 840-15.

> In Charleston, S. C., dark-haired, attractive Mrs. Thomas Sanders McMillan, onetime church organist, mother of five sons, was elected to fill the House of Representatives vacancy caused by her late husband's death six weeks ago, thus became the fifth woman in the House.*

> In Westfield, Mass., Mrs. Alice D. Burke, 46, onetime schoolteacher, became Massachusetts' first woman mayor.

> In Fayette, Ohio, three candidates for constable tied with one vote each, drew straws for the job.

> In Johnstown, Pa., a young Democrat, John Conway, aided by the first smoothly running C.I.O. political campaign, cut across the conservative current by defeating Republican Mayor Daniel J. Shields, who helped break the 1937 "Little Steel" strike.

> In Pennsylvania, scene of another Republican victory, the Board of Game Commissioners announced day after election day that the State suffered from "a surplus skunk population."

* Others, by seniority: Mary Teresa Norton, Jersey City; Edith Nourse Rogers, Lowell, Mass.; Caroline O'Day, Rye, N. J.; Jessie Sumner, Milford, Ill.

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