The local elections in the United States, which have just been concluded, do not give any very clear idea as to the opinion of the country on anything much except its own domestic issues, and few of those were directly linked with national policies. The re-election of Mr. Fiorello La Guardia as Mayor of New York may indeed be a severe defeat to Tammany Hall, shown by the reverse to have a weakening hold upon the political machine of that great city, which its opponents will welcome with considerable satisfaction. There were factors in Mr. La Guardia's success not entirely connected with straight warfare between the party machines. His anti-vice crusade, his support of Mr. Thomas Dewey who has carried on a successful fight against gangsterdom in New York. and his own striking personality undoubtedly contributed largely to the victory which he secured in face of the determined efforts of "Tammany Hall to unseat him. But in addition to all that Mr. La Guardia's wordy sparring with certain of the German leaders, regrettable from the point of view of official dignity as it undoubtedly was, secured for him the loyal support of New York's Jewry, a factor in New York politics which no candidate for office can disregard with any hope of eventual success. These considerations do not in any way minimize the severity of the defeat inflicted upon Tammany, wh desperate fight only succeeded in securing 400,000 votes less for their candidate than those polled for Mr. La Guardia.
City elections in other parts of the United States gave little indication of support for the belief held in some quarters that the strength of the Democratic party is waning. This was particularly true of the eastern seaboard, and there is every reason to believe that President Roosevelt's policies still command the support of the electorate at large. That certainly seems to be the one point which the results of the election have emphasized, and short of any really serious error between now and the next presidential election, there seems good prospects that the Democrats will again be successful. It has to be remembered that the Democrats during the past few years, with the New Deal and similar policies have succeeded in welding together a party machine, which for sheer political control has completely "out-tammanied" Tammany. So much so is this the case that the Republicans will be very hard put to it, without the resources which being in power necessarily confer upon a party, to construct a political edifice likely to give President Roosevelt and his followers much cause for anxiety, so long as there is no very wide divergence from the lines which they have been following up to the present Reverting to New York again, it would be rash to argue that Tamrgany has permanently lost the power it once had, and it may be depended upon to fight on to the very last in an endeavour again to regain power; the real state of affairs appears to have been that Mr. La Guardia's personality and his very shrewd pre-election tactics, in circumstances which may never operate as favourably for him again, were things against which his opponents struggled in vain, and were bound to do.
Even more interesting than these two phases of the elections, is the part which Labour played. It had attempted to secure political control of such important industrial centres as Detroit, Mich. and Akron and Canton, Ohio. In Pittsburgh, the Democratic candidate for the mayoralty, supported by the Committee for Industrial Organization, was re-elected, in Canton, the Labour candidate was defeated. Judge Paterson with the backing of the Labour Non-Partizan League, organized by Mr. John L. Lewis, chairman of the C.LO., went down in defeat in Akron; while, in Detroit, C.LO. candidates for the mayoralty and a seat on the Council were both defeated. How far Labour's defeat may be attributed to the schism in the ranks brought about by the dispute between Mr. Lewis's organization and the American Federation of Labour is not at present apparent, but there is every reason to believe that that cleavage undoubtedly had a profound effect upon the fortunes of the party in the cities in which they were defeated.
That reverse is only a temporary one. It is reasonable to suppose that Labour in its own interests will eventually bring about fusion between the two opponents. A united party would then have greater strength than has at present been demonstrated, and while it may be a long time before it can be expected to dominate the polls at either presidential or municipal elections, without doubt the day is coming when organized Labour in the United States will be as much a force to be reckoned with as the Labour Party is in Great Britain.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.