THE NATION: The Decision

The 1948 election was the greatest possible tribute to the secret ballot, which is the heart of democracy. It is true that the vote was low;* there was considerable evidence that many had voted reluctantly. But a reluctant vote counts just as much as an enthusiastic one. The election was a decision, perhaps some day to be amended (as democracy can and does amend its choices), but an affirmative decision nevertheless.

In the main, the people had voted for no change in a social concept which had been pretty well formulated by Franklin Roosevelt in the years between 1933 and 1937. They had also voted against Republicanism. On the basis of still incomplete returns this week, Dewey in 1948 received but a scant 200,000 votes more than Herbert Hoover in 1928 (the last time the Republicans had won).

Since Hoover’s day, a Roosevelt, or New Deal, generation of voters has grown up. The voters of this generation voted, in 1948, for a continuation of social security, a continuation of reclamation, TVAs, AECs, SECs and EGAs; for Government help for farmers and labor; for Government supervision of banks and business practices; for federal aid in housing and education. The people, in effect, had voted for themselves.

Dewey had made some handsome promises. In some instances he had out-dealt the New Deal. But as Russell Davenport, who had brain-trusted Willkie’s campaign, pointed out: Dewey’s interest was “in the manipulation of political machinery and in saying the right thing just before it was too late to say it.”

So the people had voted for the men who seemed to have their interests at heart, including Harry Truman and Alben Barkley, who were the oldest team of victorious candidates on record. The New Deal had become an old and comfortable thing, too, a currently accepted part of America. In prosperous 1948, the people, did not want a change.

* It was also the closest in 32 years both in popular and electoral votes. With 5,586 election districts still missing, the results stood:

Harry S. Truman: POPULAR 23,671,479 ELECTORAL 304

Thomas E. Dewey: POPULAR 21,544,105 ELECTORAL 189

J. Strom Thurmond: POPULAR 1,006,363 ELECTORAL 38

Henry A. Wallace: POPULAR 1,116,390 ELECTORAL 0