A Lady in the House

A brief comment notes that Jeanette Rankin is the first woman to have been elected to the House of Representatives.

It remains to record briefly other features of this remarkable election. The most important is the composition of the House. Indications as we write are that here the Republicans will have a slight technical majority (probably of four to seven votes) over the Democrats, while the balance of power will rest with the Independents: a Prohibitionist, a Socialist, an avowed Independent, a Progressive, and a Protectionist. In the Senate the Democratic majority remains, though reduced in number. As a result of the election four more States have gone "dry." viz Michigan, Nebraska, Montana and South Dakota. Woman suffrage was defeated in the only two States, South Dakota and West Virginia, that voted on the question, but as compensation suffragists have the return, from Montana, of the first Congresswoman in the person of Miss Jeanette Rankin. Socialists profess elation at an increase of some 25 per cent. in the vote for their Presidential candidate, which is estimated at between 1,200,000 and 1,500,000, as against 916,000 in 1912. The so-called "hyphen" vote, which was discussed with more heat and less light than any issue of the election, appears not to have done either candidate any particular good or any particular harm.

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