Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-05

Roosevelt vote becomes 23807 ,903 as
against the Willkie vote Of q ,316 ,965
This differential of less than
100000 votes in 80 States, out of a
$4,000, 000-vote election, is one of
the most remarkable in history, for
when one examines the variations
from section to section and from
tradition to tradition, there is hard
~ any explanation for the way one
State behaved as compared with
another.
Thus. the official count for Kansas
shows Mr.. Willkie to have been the
victor by a plurality of l24,444, yet
four years ago ALI M. Landon, the
Republican nominee who hailed
from Kansas, lost that state by 66,793
to President Roosevelt. Maine, how
ever, which four years ago gave Mr..
Landon 40 400 majority, was carried
by Mr. Willkie this year by major
ity of only 7,473-perhaps the small
est in any presidential election in
many years.
Likely to Remain Mystery.
Just why Kansas should be over
whelmingly Republican this time
and Maine, normally a Republican
State, should show such sharp loss
is something which the analysts of
the election Of 1910 will be discussing
but hardly explaining for many
years to come. There have been re-
ports that Names result was af-
fected by the presence of a large
number of French Canadians and
other foreign-born who cast their
ballots on the theory that more aid
to Britain would come through Mr..
Roosevelt than through Mr.. Willkie.
But inasmuch as there is a secret
ballot, nobody can tell exactly how
the foreign-born registered their
votes.
The tally in Illinois is interesting
As a reflection of the closeness of the
race in some parts OF the Middle
West. Out of a total of 4l97,l74
votes cast. the Roosevelt majority
was 102,694, but in Iowa. next door,
out of total of 1,211 ITO votes cast,
Mr.. Willkie won by a majority of
$500.
This will be commented on no
doubt as being the difference be-
tween a semi-agricultural State in
which there is a metropolis like
Chicago and an agricultural State
with smaller cities, for there is no
doubt that the bulk of the majority
of the President was obtained in the
large cities. Recently some figures
were published to the effect that the
President had a plurality of 2,414,366
in the Is largest cities of the country,
which is almost the same as his
plurality when the solid South is
excluded.
Nine Cities Big Factors.
Four years ago about nine cities
accounted for a major part of Mr..
Roosevelt's 8,5OO0O0 majority outside
of the solid South.
The Republicans, therefore, while
not so weak in 1910 as in 1886 in the
country as a whole, are still con-
siderably on the deficit side when it
comes to the city vote in the
NOTIl6Tn OIdVeS.
Four years ago nine cities &C
counted for 3163,889 of Mr.. Roose-
velts majority outside the solid
South and they were strategically
important enough under our cleo
toral college system to account for
1886 electoral votes.
While the city vote has not yet
been separated from the rural vote
In all cases this year because final
figures on that basis are not yet
available, it would appear probable
from the returns already published
that the same nine cities again &C.
counted for the bulk Of the electoral
margin which Mr.. Roosevelt re-
ceived.
These nine cities were New York,