NEW LAMPS FOR OLD

When Franklin Delane Roosevelt enters the White House on March fourth next, he will assume his now duties with the overwhelming approval of a sovereign people. His party will control Congress by large majorities; his personal victory will go down in history as one of the greatest landslides ever, recorded by a Democratic candidate. The fog and hysteria of a campaign have dissipated before cold numbers; the Digest Poll is again right.

Yesterday's stampede is, even cursorily, all too easy to understand. Depression, to be sure, played the largest part; Republicans were in office when the crisis broke, they failed immediately to overcome it, they must be the butt. An equal share of credit, however, must go to the Democratic campaign managers. Aggressive from the start, James Farley outlined a program that would appeal to every class of people; speakers were admirably fitted to audiences, texts to local interests. The personal charm and sympathy of his candidate, the confident progression of his campaign, contrasted favorably with the cold mechanical personality, the franctic last minute efforts of Mr. Hoover. More-over, to a nation oppressed with taxes and disgusted with the failure of the Eighteenth Amendment "Immediate Repeal" had far more meaning than the verbiage surrounding "Resubmission."

The Republican "campaign of fear" has small significance. Armed with a confidence that only such a victory can give and with a Democratic Congress, Mr. Roosevelt will be in position to take full advantage of the executive power, a feature fatally absent in the Hoover regime. There need be no fear of radical demagegism in the new administration; in his security, Mr. Roosevelt can easily dispense with the Long's, the Norriss's, and the Brookhart's. The president-elect will desire to show the competence of Democrats in office; he will surround himself with capable advisers.

To many it will appear unfortunate that the restrictions of an antiquated law prevent the immediate enforcement of the people's will. Ordinarily the delay is of no consequence; but so sweeping an indictment of an administration should not remain for four months officially unrecognized by the President. As Walter Lippman has suggested, cooperation in matters of policy between the defeated incumbent and the victor would be not merely a gracious acknowledgment but a necessary recognition of public opinion.