NEW YORK, Tuesday—When I arrived back in New York City from Rochester I found a mountain of work waiting for me. A desk piled high is a familiar sight!

I am particularly happy to note that there has been such a large registration this year and that everywhere it seems we will have a record vote cast. I see by the papers, too, that for the first time there are more women registered in the State of New York than men. Both parties are speculating as to who will win the majority of this increased women's vote. We women want peace regardless of party. I think we have watched the campaign with a very keen eye in an effort to judge which of the two candidates will handle in the wisest manner, and with the most imagination and flexibility, the difficult international situations that face us in the next few years. My vote goes to Governor Stevenson.

I have not yet told my readers that the State Department has done me the honor to appoint me as head of the delegation to go to the inauguration of the new President of Chile. I do not yet know all of the other members of the delegation, but all are distinguished Americans. We will leave here on October 30 and be back November 6.

I was troubled at the thought of leaving my United Nations work for a week. But my alternate, Mr. Sprague of Oregon, is better fitted than I am to handle some of the items that will come up while I am away, and the State Department has reassured me about my absence. I shall be delighted to have an opportunity to visit Chile, particularly because my husband was always so interested in the members of his family who settled there. One of his earliest sea captain relatives once sailed into port in Chile, found the country at war, joined their navy and stayed to become a citizen.

My husband used to say with amusement that he thought there were more Delanos in Chile than in the U.S. He was always delighted when one of this branch of the family turned up in this country and either he or I had the good luck to meet them. I remember once being in San Francisco when a naval training ship from Chile, with one of the young Delanos on board, was in port. They were kind enough to ask me down to the ship so that I could meet this distant cousin. And last winter I had the pleasure of meeting another Delano who had come here to be honored at Columbia University. Meeting more of these relatives of my husband will therefore add to the other interests of this trip.

Everyone has said to me, when I mentioned that I would have to be away: "Oh, you won't be here to vote." I think I ought to say that nothing would keep me from voting for Governor Stevenson. But in any case, since the U.N. does not give a holiday on election day, it has been my custom for the past few years to ask for an absentee ballot, and I cast my vote even though I cannot be in Hyde Park. No vote will be lost because I will be in Chile on November 4.