FINLAND: Old Cart Out

Crusty but popular President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, 76, described himself as "a worn out old cart" when his followers recently insisted that he stand for reelection. Last week the Electoral Assembly of 300 passed over the "Old Cart" and by just one vote failed to elect Jurist Kaarlo Stahlberg who was the Finnish Republic's first elected President in 1919-25 and today is supposed to stand for drawing Finland into closer relations with the Soviet Union. On the second ballot, Agrarian Party Leader Kyosti Kallio, the only man who has been uninterruptedly elected a Finnish Legislator since 1907, who has been twelve times Speaker of the Diet and who since last October has been Premier, was elected President. Significance: no Finnish political change.