In Webster Land

Last week the voters of Daniel Webster's old constituency--the 1st New Hampshire District--filled the 435th seat in the House of Representatives. Some 52,000 of them tramped through zero ROGERS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE More was drifting than the snow. winds and over snowdrifts to participate in a special election to fill the vacancy caused by last year's death of Republican Representative Fletcher Hale. When they had finished registering their sovereign will, it was found that the populous southeastern section of New Hampshire had switched from Republican to Democratic, from Dry to Wet, by a 2,948-vote majority. It was hardly colder in New Hampshire than it was in the Republican council halls at Washington when the election results from this rock-ribbed corner of an arch-Republican State were announced.

A decade ago these same voters sent a Democrat to Congress. His name was William Nathaniel ("Our Bill") Rogers. He served but a single term (1923-25). Last week it was again Democrat Rogers whom the voters chose to represent them in the House, rather than John Henry Bartlett, onetime (1919-21) Governor, onetime (1922-29) First Assistant Postmaster General, lately an International Boundary Commissioner. At Dartmouth (1911-14) Congressman-elect Rogers, strapping strong, played notable football. He wears old caps and rough clothes, practices law at Concord, has two daughters. Last week he celebrated his 40th birthday.

Hoover relief policies were the nub of the New Hampshire campaign. Republican Bartlett extolled the President's efforts, promised to support a three-billion-dollar U. S. bond issue. Democrat Rogers ridiculed the White House program, demanded something better. He favored outright repeal of the 18th Amendment while his opponent weaseled with referendum talk.

Nationally the New Hampshire election was interpreted as part of the same anti-Republican, anti-hard times drift which caused recent overturns in New Jersey (TIME, Dec. 14), Texas (TIME, Dec. 7), Michigan (TIME, Nov. 15).

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