Already the leaders of the Republican and Democratic Parties in the United States are commencing to forecast their respective chances in the election next year. Last week's voting in state and local elections indicated that traditionally Republican districts which supported President Roosevelt in 1932 and 1934 are beginning to return to their old allegiance, and despite the huge plurality obtained by the Democrats in the New York State elections, it was felt that the upper portion' of the State has returned to" the publicans. It is not always safe to ake the results of minor elections as indicative of possibilities in national contests, for very often in the former: considerations prevail in the minds of the voters which may have little influence in deciding how suffrages shall be cast on wider issues. Undoubtedly the policies of President Roosevelt are open to considerable criticism. Whether that can be Justified depends entirely upon the school of political thought consider-{ng them, but ft is clear that during hig term of office the President has been the victim of a fair amount of frustration which has had an undoubted effect upon the success of hig schemes and' his consequent popularity with the electorate. Before the elections are held the question of the constitutionality of more of his measures will have been decided by the United States Supreme Court, with possible further impairment of the success of his polley. Tt hag to be remembered that. whatever results have been oblained,—and there ig reason to believe that much improvement has been secured—have been obtained by what after all is a badly mutilated machine. It 1s, perhaps, idle to contend that if he had been left alone the President would have done better than he had, That can be merely a matter of opinion, though if the whole machine had worked as well as that which has been left after very energetic legis-ion, it is not unreasonable to believe that the improvement in conditions in the United States might very well have been greater
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.