The writer in this study seeks to do two things: (1) to make clear the fundamental principles underlying the relation of the state and the local school officials to the school district in regard to school district consolidation, and (2) to reduce to a systematic organization the principles derived from cases which are applicable to this problem of consolidation of school districts.

This thesis examines the factors affecting the outcome of the 1948 presidential election. The factors which will be take up are not a complete list of all those influences on the election but will be those which appeared most frequently in writings on the subject and those which, in the writer's opinion, exerted the strongest influence. By combining specific studies of the tree large pivotal states, with the investigation of general factors affecting the election, it is believed that certain rather definite conclusions can be drawn concerning what happened in the country as a whole.