Willkie leadership best, Vermont Governor says
His arms are free and he ‘packs wallop in both fists,’ Wills says, urging fair play
Montpelier, Vermont (UP) – (Jan. 8)
Governor William H. Wills of Vermont called on the Republican Party tonight to nominate Wendell Willkie for President because:
He can give leadership better than President Roosevelt, better than any other prominent Republican challenger.
In a nationwide radio address from his home, the Republican governor of a state that has never sent a Democrat to Congress said “only Willkie packs a wallop in both fists.”
Governor Wills asserted:
Roosevelt’s right arm is in a sling labeled “Domestic Shortcoming.” In a sling, too, is the left arm of every Republican challenger except Willkie, and this sling is labeled “No Foreign Policy.”
Both Willkie arms free
No slings hamper Willkie. Both arms are free. Willkie’s left glove is stamped “Sound Foreign Policy,” his right glove is marked “Sound Domestic Policy.”
Governor Wills said he felt that too many “professional politicians” believed that Republican victories last November indicated the GOP could win with anyone.
He said:
The last ballot in Kentucky was hardly counted… when the four-year locusts of Republican politics blackened the horizon to blight the victory crops. This cloud had some leaders and some spokesmen. I do not have to tell you who they were: Alf Landon, John Hamilton, Joseph Pew, Senator Nye and the Rev. Gerald L. K. Smith; and, of course the Metropolitan McCormack-Patterson newspaper axis. They were loud. They were angry. They indulged in much loose talk.
Nothing constructive
But Governor Wills said, he could not believe these were the “voice of the resurgent Republican of 1944.” He said the resurgent Republican is “forward looking… seeks to build and strengthen… wants ours to be a better country, this a better world.”
Governor Wills said:
These political locusts… had nothing constructive to say. They agree on no candidate. They simply agreed in their hatred of the outstanding Republican of our times – Wendell Willkie.
Governor Wills said he did not mean to infer that Mr. Willkie is the only Republican qualified to be President.
Plea is for fair play
He said:
Nevertheless, I think Wendell Willkie is the only Republican certain to beat the strongest Democratic candidate.
My plea… is for fair play in our convention. If Willkie is given an honest chance to win the Republican nomination and loses it our party will still be one of which we can be proud, even though we go down to defeat at the polls with a lesser man as candidate.
If, however, he becomes the victim of smart political manipulation in a Stop-Willkie drive, with a handful of bosses dominating the Republican National Convention in 1944 as they did in 1920, I fear for our survival. Such a course, I fear, means suicide for the Republican Party.