Election Day in America Some sidelights

A Page from History : Election Day in America Some sidelights

The American presidential  election of last week has been the most memorable in living memory.
The US public had seldom been so enthusiastically belabored by the public-spirited and the civic-minded. Except in Minnesota; which bars transportation of voters as a corrupt practice;, there was hardly a city in which a voter could not get a lift to the polls just by picking up his telephone. In some towns he could get a free taxi ride, and in Rochester, NY an ambulance was his for the asking, even if he wasn’t sick. Orange City, Iowa blew its fire siren every hour on the hour to remind the apathetic that it was election day. From New York to San Diego volunteer baby-sisters offered their services to voting mothers. Thousands in St. Louis turned on their porch lights as dusk fell to remind the laggards of their duty.
The vast majority of citizens, however, came to the polls with the air of people who needed no urging or reminding. The weather was fine almost every where, but most of the electorate acted as though it would  have braved the rain, sow or a plague of grasshoppers. Mrs Virginia Borrison of Tarentum, Pa. went to the polls six hours after giving birth to a baby. In Seattle an old man who had waited in line for three hours was told that he had forgotten to register. He began to weep. “This,” he sobbed” is  my last time.” The crowd yelled: “Let him vote”. He registered forthwith voted and said happily : “I thank you all”.
In the course of his campaign, Adlai Stevenson had become famous for his anecdotes. None he had ever told was more fitting than the one  which he added to his formal
statement  conceding lke’s victory. Some one, he said, had once asked Lincoln how he felt after losing a political campaign. Said Stevenson : “He said he felt like a little boy who stubbed  his toe in the dark. He was too old to cry, and it hurt too much to laugh.”                         

Reactionary Rebels

Bhopal politics are reported to be much disturbed by recent happenings there. While Chief Minister Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma was out in Sevagram, six Congress MLA’s got up a meeting and publicly denounced him. It is learnt that four of them are ex-ministers of the Nawab of Bhopal. It is felt that the cause of this indiscipline is the Nawab himself who will be affected by the Jagirdari Abolition and Agricultural Income Tax bills not on the anvil.
Dr Sharma is now in the Capital urging disciplinary action against the reactionary rebels. He is reported to be ready to resign should his advice not be entertained by the High Command.