Japanese air exit in southwest seen
Allied planes sweep New Guinea area without opposition
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Chinese hold foe around Hengyang
U.S. air support aids defense but Japanese crack another outpost at Yuhsien
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Convention opens on a hopeful note
Spangler presides at first session – Green pledges ‘free hand’ to services
By Charles Hurd
Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
The 23rd national convention of the Republican Party finally opened at 11:17 a.m. CT today in a mixed atmosphere of hope and optimism that this year may work a return to the national control rested by the Democrats from the “Grand Old Party” in 1932.
Harrison E. Spangler, chairman of the Republican National Committee, declared the convention formally opened while powerful lights illuminated the scene for newsreel cameras.
Miss Naomi Cook of Chicago led the convention in singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The Rev. John Holland of the “Little Brown Church of the Air” pronounced the invocation. He prayed “that somehow our statesman may have brains enough and sense enough to enact a peace that is worldwide.”
Governor Green of Illinois formally welcomed the convention on behalf of the state and Chicago. He varied the usual form of such speeches to announce his purchase of $5 million of war bonds on behalf of the State Treasury.
By the time Mr. Green began the body of his talk, the convention floor had settled into its orderly pattern of seated rows of delegates. The day was hot and steaming, with the heat indoors increased constantly by the powerful lights.
Green speaks 32 minutes
Governor Green won frequent applause by his forecasts of victory for the Republicans and the election of the eighth Republican President in line from Abraham Lincoln, who was nominated as the first Republican candidate in Chicago.
The delegates applauded when Governor Green exclaimed, “There is no ‘Win-the-War’ Party in America.”
He went on to say that if the Republicans won, the leaders of the Armed Forces would have a free hand, “free from restrictions by second-string bureaucrats.”
Governor Green’s welcoming speech was of record length, lasting 32 minutes. Some regarded it as virtually a keynote speech.
At the close of the speech, Mr. Spangler introduced Harry Reasoner, a private first class of Minneapolis, now stationed in California, who won an essay contest in which members of 2,000 Young Republican Clubs took part on the question of why the Republicans should win.
Mr. Reasoner, in accepting the award, said, “We are all gathered here in one mind, and determined to do something constructive about it.”
Harold W. Mason of Vermont, secretary of the National Committee, presented the call for the convention. No contests over the seating of delegates were put before the convention.
Spangler notified the convention that he had been “instructed by our National Committee” to nominate Governor Earl C. Warren as temporary chairman, which is synonymous with keynote speaker.
Elected temporary chairman
A committee was appointed to notify Governor Warren of his honor after he was elected without an alternative name being offered.
Then there followed the adoption of the usual formal resolutions to govern procedure of the convention.
The opening session of the convention recessed at 12:20 p.m. until 8:15 p.m. CT.
Although scheduled to start at 10:15 a.m., the stadium a quarter hour later was still a picture of milling, perspiring persons on the floor and very thinly dressed galleries. The great hall was sparsely decorated, in keeping with wartime economy. A gilded eagle was suspended from the speakers’ platform. There was a display of flags at one end of the stadium; facing it a banner read, “Godspeed Our Boys to Victory.”
The state standards, marking the blocs of seats assigned to delegates, were plain poles without ornament, with one exception – a feather lei on one marking “Philippine Islands.”
The first touch of convention color was lent by Carl Chaven, leather-lunged Chicagoan, who went to the microphone at 10:25 and with the help of the great organ, played with all stops open by Al Welgard, endeavored to organize some community singing. He opened with “God Bless America” and everybody seated stood up and joined. As “Home on the Range” and “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag” followed, the delegates resumed their buzz of conversation, evidently interested far more in the job of organization than in singing.
The Senate was well represented in the opening session. Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg of Michigan and Senator Joseph H. Ball of Minnesota were walking about discussing the convention’s foreign relations plank. Senator Warren R. Austin of Vermont alternated between the platform and the floor.
Just before the convention was called to order, word was passed around that Governor Dwight Griswold of Nebraska would nominate Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York as the presidential candidate. Alabama agreed to yield when its name is called on Wednesday, in the traditional alphabetical order.
At 11:00, 45 minutes late by the program, Mr. Spangler started banging the speakers’ stand with his gavel, ordering the sergeants-at-arms to clear the aisles. The organist swung into “The Air Corps Hymn,” but talking continued. He switched to “The Marine Corps Hymn,” with the same result.
At 11:11 a.m., Mr. Spangler tried again, with considerably more insistence. The suspicion held by delegates that no one had really meant 10:15 when it was announced was verified when it developed that the radio chains had scheduled 11:15 to broadcast the opening.
The night session
Governor Warren’s “keynote” speech as temporary chairman of the convention was received with repeated applause at tonight’s session. The Governor made a favorable impression on his audience. His declaration that the United States, to maintain a peaceful world, would cooperate with other Allied nations, won approval. Great applause came when, in his discussion of post-war policy, he asserted that the American people wanted a peace which, being mindful of the interests of other nations, did not neglect or sacrifice the interests of our own country.
The delegates and spectators gave their greatest signs of approval to Governor Warren’s denunciation of the Roosevelt administration and the New Deal. Applause followed his assertions that the New Deal was destroying the two-party system, that it was no longer the Democratic Party, and that it had built up a huge bureaucracy by alliances with corrupt political machines.
Bureaucracy is denounced
Governor Warren brought the delegates and many of the spectators to their feet by declaring that the bureaucrats required the farmer to work in the fields all day and keep books for the government all night. They cheered his assertions that the government encumbered the small businessman by a multiplicity of rules and regulations, and that the bureaucrats told the worker what union he must join, how much in dues he must pay, and to whom he must pay them.
Mr. Warren reached the climax of his speech, so far as audience reaction was concerned, when he attacked the New Deal for seeking to perpetuate itself in power by capitalizing a succession of crises, the depression, the recession, and keeping us out of war, and by now bringing out the achievement of peace as the next crisis for which an “indispensable” was necessary to obtain peace.
Saying that the American people were being conditioned for a new song, “Don’t Change Horses in the Middle of a Stream,” Mr. Warren asserted that we had been in the middle of a stream for eleven years and were not amphibious. The delegates and spectators rose and cheered when the Governor added that we in this country wanted to feel dry and solid ground under our feet again.
Delegates slow in gathering
The delegates and spectators gathered slowly for the night’s meeting.
Before Mr. Spangler called the convention to order at 9:05, the audience joined in singing a series of patriotic and familiar songs. Miss Shirley Dickinson of the Chicago Civic Opera Company sang the national anthem. This was followed by recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Right Rev. George J. Casey, Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, delivered the invocation. About 20,000 persons, four-fifths of the seating capacity, were in the Stadium.
Introduced by Mr. Spangler as a veteran of three wars, Governor Martin of Pennsylvania urged the purchase of war bonds.
Governor Martin said:
Gen. Eisenhower has said that 1944 will be the year of decision if those on the home front do their duty. We must do more, give more to the Red Cross. We must produce more food and munitions. Above all, we must buy more war bonds.
After Mr. Martin’s speech, Mr. Spangler presented Governor Warren, who then made his address. Following this, the convention adjourned until tomorrow morning.
16 governors fail in platform plea
Win demand to see draft, but gain no change for stronger foreign plank
Chicago, Illinois –
Sixteen Republican Governors, delegates to the National Convention, who demanded last night that they be made better acquainted with the platform, apparently succeeded early today in inspecting the proposed planks, but not in changing any of them substantially.
Their chief objective was a stronger plank on foreign affairs, one which would call for joining with the United Nations in the use of “economic sanctions backed by force” to maintain peace instead of the plank recommended by the Austin committee, which offers a general formula of “participation in post-war cooperative organization by sovereign nations.”
A conference of the Governors yesterday named a subcommittee, comprising Governors Raymond E. Baldwin of Connecticut, Sumner Sewall of Maine, and Bourke B. Hickenlooper of Iowa, to inform Senator Robert A. Taft (R-OH), chairman of the Resolutions Committee, of their demands. In response, he had them meet with his drafting subcommittee at 10:00 last night.
After this meeting, Senator Taft, in the presence of the Governors, faced a press conference at 1:00 this morning. He told the reporters that no important changes had been made in the foreign policy plank since the original Vandenberg draft, that no final draft had been made, and that redrafting of the entire platform would continue through the night and possibly into the day.
Mr. Taft denied knowledge of any mention of “economic sanctions,” but Governor Baldwin insisted that “economic sanctions backed by force” had been discussed.
The Governor declared that the foreign affairs plank should be forthright, “one that says what it means and means what it says.” He made it clear that the Governors were fighting for a plank which was closer to the Mackinac Declaration.
But questioning by reporters did not elicit that the Governors had attained their aim. In fact, all had the contrary impression.
The Governors attending all or part of the conference, besides those already mentioned, were Blood of New Hampshire, Wills of Vermont, Saltonstall of Massachusetts, Edge of New Jersey, Martin of Pennsylvania, Kelly of Michigan, Bacon of Delaware, Thye of Minnesota, Schoppel of Kansas, Griswold of Nebraska, Willis of Kentucky, Warren of California and Donnell of Missouri. The absentees were Governors Bricker of Ohio and Green of Illinois.
At a meeting yesterday, Governor Griswold offered a resolution endorsing Governor Dewey, but his fellow Governors rejected it as wrongly timed, holding that it should follow the nomination.
OLD CIRCUS GOES ON, BUT WAR HAS FLOOR
Convention subdued and dull, aware that destiny will determine election
‘Phony’ flush of 1940 gone; party evidences that quest is not for ‘big man’ but the epitome of average man
By Anne O’Hare McCormick
Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
France was falling as the Republicans met four years ago. It was an hour of defeat for democracy and all the traditional whoopee was turned on to make the delegates forget what the disaster portended for the United States.
The Philadelphia convention was lively, noisy and high-pitched. It was marked by contest suspense and an unexpected turn at the end when Wendell Willkie stole the show.
To an American fresh from the war front, that had seemed phony for so long, the peace at home that summer appeared even more phony in the political circuses staged by both parties in the same old way, the phoniest business of all.
They were like shadow-dancing against a brightly painted asbestos curtain that did not hide the spreading fire on the other side.
This convention is not like that. It has no air of carnival. It is dull. It seems to make a point of dullness. The Republican Party seems bent on making a policy of dullness. When one of the stage managers was asked why no effort was made to brighten up the show, his reply was, “The duller the better. We are not out for fireworks or drama.”
Talk in various state bases
The party leaders seem to have the same idea about the candidate. Listening around the various state headquarters, one gets the impression that the last thing they want is a “big man.” They talk as if the ideal quality in a standard-bearer is mediocrity.
Against “the great leader,” “the man of genius,” “the glamor boy,” the convention evidently wants to nominate the personification of the average man. It will not be surprising if the campaign is keyed to this slogan.
This is a listless but not a frivolous convention. The delegates stand quietly and very soberly around the hotel lobbies as they sat in orderly rows at the opening session this morning – waiting for what they know is going to happen. They don’t expect any surprises, and they’re not likely to get any.
The whole aim, indeed, is to avoid the unexpected, and there is no enthusiasm for the predetermined. There is no enthusiasm for Governor Dewey. Most of the delegates express a sneaking preference for someone else, but they will unite solidly behind him because they are convinced by the Gallup polls that he will gather in the most votes.
But this is not the main reason for the apathy everyone feels here. In its well-dressed, well-fed, cheerful way, it is somehow akin to the apathy the Allied armies met in Italy and are meeting in France.
Know where decision rests
The Republicans gathered this year as Americans fight to free a France that has been held in bondage since the convention of four years ago. They gather as the victory of democracy is assured, but they go through the motions more automatically than usual, because they know very well that the coming election will not be decided by anything their candidate will do or say, or by anything the opposition party will do or say.
For Americans, as for the French, the future will be decided by the progress of the war. The next administration will be swept in or out of office on a great tide of war emotion.
The war has the floor. Under the blazing tent, the old circus goes on, but the war is the key in order. Conventions are always middle-aged, and in this one the gray hairs are accentuated because about the only young folk in evidence are the glamor girls serving as ushers and distributors of Dewey badges and groups of soldiers and sailors wandering through the corridors with the air of sightseers, viewing the relics of antiquity.
The G.I.s get a lot of fun out of the show, and they make the politicians look older, more tired and more crumpled than usual.
Thoughts on sons at front
In the Chicago Tribune Sunday, the Russian offensive was backed off the front page by the convention, but this order of priority was not observed by the city of Chicago or the delegates themselves.
The people in the streets are uninterested in the proceedings. In the stadium, the scalpers cannot sell the unused tickets. As to the delegates, most of them are thinking more of their sons at the front than of the debate in the Resolutions Committee. That is what they talk about under the blare of mechanical music that celebrates the end of each speech.
The atmosphere is heavier but more real than it was four years ago. The ballyhoo, the cavorting, the stale oratory, and the fake stampedes that enliven our quadrennial political festival belong only to the folkways of the United States. Yet even as a show, what is going on in Chicago is as important as any battle and the actors sense it.
“Isn’t this what the battles are for?” said a woman delegate from Minnesota to a soldier boy making sport of the convention songs.
“You said it, Ma,” answered the G.I. “Bring on the calliope. You bet. We’re fighting to be free to choose, elect, and fire our governors in any old way we please.”
Punch, iced and non-kick, is put into Bricker drive for delegates
His headquarters has homey Ohio touch – Dewey buttons, large size, in boom as they are found fine as ash trays
By Meyer Berger
Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
The only genuinely warm spot at his convention, when you’re out of the sun or get from under the stadium kliegs, is Bricker headquarters.
The men and women from Ohio have spread a gentle, homey glow in this political wasteland. They have daily concerts by a female string trio, an adult male chorus, and an extraordinary boy choir, brought on from Columbus.
This afternoon the Ohio women were political Florence Nightingales. With the thermometer mercury knocking its head at the top of the glass, they passed out life-giving iced punch which went all the better for the smiles they added for kicker.
An emotional woman visitor at this afternoon’s reception, sipping her third glass of punch, sighed from ‘way down her capacious bosom when the boy choir finished “Beautiful Ohio.” “I don’t really need this refreshment to get cool,” she told a friend. “Every time I hear those children, I get goose pimples, just like winter.”
The punch was non-alcoholic.
The demand for Dewey buttons, large size, shot ‘way up today. Political writers suddenly discovered, in this world of war shortages, that the big buttons make swell ashtrays.
The disappointing turnout for the morning session at the stadium caused gloom in the most astonishing places.
Chicago’s sewer superintendent, Tom Garry, who has charge of the stadium, came in from the half-filled arena shaking his head. He had tried to tell the Republican committee how to jam the place to get a good showing in the first newsreels and news photos, but it seems they were suspicious. Tom’s staff could not understand his solicitude over the weak Republican display, because he is a Mayor Kelly Democrat. “Politics don’t figure in my thinking,” the sewer boss explained. “It’s only that my civic pride’s hurt.”
**Chief American Big Horse from Kyle, South Dakota, made the only splash of color on the convention floor. He wore full white deerskin regalia with headdress. Chicago policemen were inclined to frisk the deerskin scabbard he carried, but thought better of it when they found he was a delegate alternate. The scabbard concealed the chief’s pipe of peace. American Big Horse is impressively tall, granitic and unblinking. He is 74 years old and this is his first national powwow. “You like ‘um, Big Chief?” a reporter wanted to know. American Big Horse didn’t stir a facial muscle. He said, “I’d describe it as rather interesting.”
The most melancholy note on the convention floor is the empty space reserved for the Philippine delegates. A wreath hangs on the Philippine standard.
A Bricker promotion man stood in Michigan Boulevard this afternoon staring wistfully at the silver barrage balloon floating over Grant Park. “Swell spot for a Bricker sign,” he remarked. It was just an idea. The balloon is a war bond puller.
Two perspiring delegates from a dry state took aside one of the Chicago policemen guarding Gate 3 at the stadium. “Any place around here a man could get a real drink?” they asked him confidentially. The policeman suspected wagering, or a sight on his hometown, but the delegates were sincere. The policeman waved down Madison Street. “Start across the way,” he directed, “and then stop every 15 or 20 feet. That’s the distance between bars. If you make all the stops, from there to Oak Park and are still on your feet, maybe Mayor Kelly’ll commemorate the deed with a monument in Grant Park.
The delegates entered the stadium a little late.
Other thirsty delegates who got into Billy the Goat’s place on Madison Street, opposite the stadium, got a liberal treatment of lusty old Chicago hospitality.
Billy the Goat is Mr. Slanis, a former Loop newsboy who delights in practical jokes. This morning he befuddled dignified convention visitors with trick beer glasses, which look full but hold no refreshment, with a visiting card that leaves carbon smudges on the holder’s fingers, with an electrically charged cigar box and other surprising gadgets of nonsense.
Each time a customer registered fright or indignation, Mr. Slanis rang a fire gong or sounded a siren just back of the bar and roared with laughter.
New Yorkers, familiar with the ancient custom in their city to have gun-toting celebrants check their guns at the door, were startled this morning when they noticed Chicago policemen checking their guns at the door. “Precautionary measure,” a sergeant explained. “You get some of these Texas or Oklahoma guys tuned up and they’re apt to grab a rod and fire a few shots through the roof.”
March of Progress item: Some delegates are sending back to radio stations in their home districts their own recorded commentary on convention doings.
An Americana shop next to the Chicago Club on E Van Buren Street has its window filled with old-time convention and campaign posters, pictures and literature, including an original Whig Ticket, dated 1840. The embittered shopkeeper who staged this display has not had a single call from a convention visitor. “Might have known better,” he said glumly. “Politicians don’t read.”
Bricker backers still seek votes
Despite declining prospects, campaign is pushed along 800 unpledged delegates
Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
The declining prospect that Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio can win the nomination as Republican standard-bearer failed today to diminish their persistency with which he and his backers are pressing his campaign.
A statement from his headquarters indirectly recognized the odds against him when Roy D. Moore, Mr. Bricker’s campaign manager, stated that the Governor would not withdraw from the race and that the nomination would be placed before the convention.
Mayor James G. Stewart of Cincinnati has been designated to make the nominating speech for Governor Bricker. He has asked the Ohio delegation, unanimous in its backing of Governor Bricker, to “carry the torch for John Bricker to the end.”
W. B. Horton, secretary of the Chicago Bricker-for-President Club, denounced the Illinois delegation for pledging its vote to Governor Dewey.
Mr. Horton said:
On behalf of the 13,000 new members of the Chicago Bricker Club who have enrolled during the past three weeks, we repudiate the actions of the Illinois delegation, as not representing the sentiment of Illinois Republicans, in pledging their support to Thomas E. Dewey.
We believe this to be true of other Midwestern states included in our membership. Several Illinois delegates have advised us that they only voted for Dewey under pressure. We do not believe this is the time for such action.
We further believe that John W. Bricker, the only avowed candidate for the nomination, is the only real American who can defeat anyone the Democrats nominate. He is the popular choice among Republicans of this state.
Governor Bricker spent most of the day conferring privately with delegates, but made no formal appearances or engagements. His workers spent the day meeting as many as possible of the 800 unpledged delegates.
Plan anti-4th term call
Bolters expect to meet in New Orleans after convention
Atlanta, Georgia (AP) – (June 26)
Anti-New Deal Democrats, who are opposed to a fourth term for President Roosevelt, will meet in a Southern city, probably New Orleans, soon after the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Eugene Talmadge, former Governor of Georgia, said today.
The spirit of the meeting would be to name electors opposed to the fourth term and to arrange for them to run on the Democratic ticket and elect a President and Vice President in the manner prescribed by the Constitution, he said.
DEWEY WILL ‘TIME’ ARRIVAL IN CHICAGO
He will accept tomorrow night if nominated in morning, Sprague says
Trip by plane is planned; Governor, however, would not leave Albany until named by the delegates
By James A. Hagerty
Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
The arrival of Governor Dewey to accept the Republican nomination for President will be timed to suit the convenience of the delegates to the national convention. This was made known today by J. Russell Sprague, National Committeeman from New York, who has been leading the “Draft Dewey” movement, now approaching success.
Should the Resolutions Committee, as expected, present its report tomorrow evening, or if no fight of sufficient strength develops to prevent adoption of the platform tomorrow night, the Dewey supporters, now in a large majority in the convention, intend to press for nominating speeches at the Wednesday morning session and the continuation of that session to permit balloting and the nomination of Mr. Dewey in the afternoon.
Arrangements for a dash
In that event, every effort will be made to get the New York Governor here in time to accept the nomination at the Wednesday night session.
As Mr. Dewey, according to present plans, would not leave Albany until he is actually nominated, it would be necessary for him to come to Chicago by plane. This will be possible if the nomination is made by three or four o’clock Wednesday afternoon and if priority for plane transportation for Mr. Dewey can be arranged.
In no circumstances will Mr. Dewey’s arrival be delayed until Thursday evening. Leaders of the Dewey movement believe that this would be unfair to the delegates and alternates, many of whom have reservations on trains departing.
After his speech of acceptance, in which he is expected to state his position on leading issues of the campaign, Governor Dewey will confer with members of the National Committee and other party leaders about a new chairman of the committee to succeed Harrison E. Spangler of Iowa.
With Mr. Sprague continuing to insist that he is unavailable because of the provision in the Nassau County Charter that he must give full time to his post of county executive, the choice seems to have narrowed to one between Herbert Brownell Jr., close friend and New Yorker.
Mr. Sprague, who will be reelected to the National Committee by the convention, will be active in the campaign at the New York City headquarters. It has long been the party custom to permit its presidential nominee to name the national chairman.
Reaction to Griswold good
The choice of Governor Dwight Griswold of Nebraska, to make the speech putting Governor Dewey in nomination before the convention, has had a good reaction among the delegates and has been accepted as recognition of the Midwest.
It has not been forgotten by the delegates that Mr. Dewey was born in Michigan and graduated from the University of Michigan.
Rep. Leonard W. Pall of New York’s 1st Congressional district is scheduled to second the nomination of Mr. Dewey.
The nomination for Vice President will probably be made at the Thursday morning session. There is a possibility, however, that if there should be no difficulty in the selection of a candidate – which means that Governor Warren of California will take second place on the ticket – the candidate for Vice President might also be nominated Wednesday and adjournment of the convention come after a three-day session.
With Mr. Dewey’s nomination assured, Messrs. Sprague, Jaeckle and Brownell were busy all day receiving members of delegations who had declared for the New York Governor.
Among these was the North Dakota delegation of eleven, which, at a caucus this morning, decided to vote for Dewey on the first ballot. Delegates were introduced by William Stern, National Committeeman, who assured Mr. Sprague that North Dakota would go Republican at the November election.
Governor Dewey was assured of Connecticut’s 16 votes when that state’s delegation, under the leadership of Governor Baldwin, voted to cast its solid vote for the New York Governor.
Dewey’s air trip linked to radio
Maximum night audience is sought for broadcast – Taft fails to consult Governor
Albany, New York – (June 26)
The speed with which the Dewey bandwagon is rolling along at Chicago made it possible tonight that Governor Dewey would fly to the Republican National Convention to accept the nomination for the Presidency rather than travel by train as originally scheduled.
It was learned that the Governor, if nominated on the first ballot Wednesday, would take the air route of less than five hours, instead of the 14-hour train trip, so that he could broadcast his speech of acceptance in the evening when the widest radio audience can be reached.
On the other hand, travel by train would delay the speech until Thursday evening to obtain the same big radio coverage. And this would prolong the convention beyond schedule.
The plane trip would make it impossible for most of the press corps here to accompany the Governor, and probably only one representative from each of the major news services would be able to cover him en route.
The Governor’s own party will include Mrs. Dewey, his secretary Paul Lockwood, his executive assistant James C. Haggerty, his personal secretary Lillian Rosse, Hickman Powell (an adviser), and State Banking Superintendent Elliot V. Bell,
During the day, Mr. Dewey was in frequent contact by telephone with Herbert Brownell, who is directing the Dewey “draft” at Chicago; Edwin F. Jaeckle, state chairman, and J. Russell Sprague, National Committeeman.
There was no call, however, from Senator Taft, with whom the Governor had volunteered to talk by telephone should his advice be desired on shaping the party’s platform.
The Governor was kept in touch with progress through two state members of the Resolutions Committee: Mary H. Donlon, vice chairman of the committee, and Kenneth X. Mccaffer, Albany County chairman.
The Executive Office here also explained that the Governor’s past expressed views were known to the drafters of the platform.
In the forenoon, Mr. Dewey posed obligingly at routine duties for a battery of newsreel photographers. There he devoted considerable of his time in his office to dictating letters.
The Governor finally quit his office at 6:30 this evening, went to a downtown barbershop for a hair trim, and then went home for dinner. His barber, Pasquale Pugliese, said that the Governor and he talked exclusively about the war. He added:
I didn’t ask him about the convention because I didn’t want to get too personal.
Delegation tells Warren to accept
Californians act as choice of Governor as Dewey’s mate appears certain
By Charles E. Egan
Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
Selection of Governor Warren of California as running-mate for Governor Dewey appeared a virtual certainty tonight as the Republican National Convention settled down to the task of filling out its 1944 ticket.
Governor Warren, who has insisted that he does not want a place on a national ticker this year, was reported to have received a virtual ultimatum from members of his own delegation. The delegates called on him last night and insisted that he accept the second place on the ticket on the ground that he will help to carry doubtful California for the Republican Party and that he owes it to his state and party to run with Dewey.
Governor Bricker, who is still fighting Governor Dewey for the presidential nomination, was believed to be fading rapidly as a possibility for the vice-presidential nomination if he fails of the higher goal.
The proposal that Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-VA) be named to run with Governor Dewey on a coalition ticket, has also collapsed. The Virginia Senator’s name will not even be proposed to the convention, according to word tonight.
Just who will place Governor Warren’s name before the convention, however, was undecided tonight.
Ask free press plank
Editors urge inclusion in platforms of both parties
Chicago, Illinois (AP) –
The board of directors of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, meeting here tonight, unanimously urged that the Resolutions Committees of both the Republican and Democratic conventions include a plank in their respective platforms on the issue of a free press and unrestricted communications for news throughout the world.
This plank, which has been prepared by a committee named by John S. Knight, president of the society, in cooperation with all the wire services, all the press associations and all the broadcasting organizations, declares that an unrestricted interchange of news and equal opportunity on all world transmission facilities is essential to the building of a lasting world peace.
PLATFORM MAKERS RUSH TO END DRAFT
With agreement on general principles, stress is put on precise phrasing
Care on foreign policy; Taft committee hears pleas of CIO – consents to crop control as last resort
By C. P. Trussell
Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
The Republican Platform Drafting Committee was racing with the clock late tonight, despite the development of new complications from outside the policy-framing body itself to complete its budget of declarations and pledges to the now formally organized Resolutions Committee by 9:00 tomorrow morning, and for its tests before the convention as a whole before the end of the day.
With the drafting body apparently steadfast in general agreement on principles enunciated in more than a dozen planks at hand or in the making, concentration was upon phraseology and the definitions and interpretations of individual words and passages. The only stumbling blocks, it was reported from the closely guarded executive sessions, appeared as differences arose over the written expressions of principles.
Although the convention swing remained decisively for Governor Dewey, the foreign policy plank was viewed in some quarters close to the drafting group as being “usable” by “almost anybody but Stassen.”
Taft takes drafting helm
With the formal organization of the Resolutions Committee this afternoon, Senator Robert A. Taft (R-OH) became official chairman of both the Drafting Committee and the platform body itself. The committee’s first action was to hear a final series of recommendations from organized labor, as represented by the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
Appearing before the committee was Van A. Bittner, assistant to Philip Murray, president of CIO in his capacity as head of the United Steel Workers’ Union. Mr. Bittner presented to the committee almost the full program adopted in Washington recently by the CIO Political Action Committee, which the Republican platform drafters had declined to hear during the pre-convention hearings. The only part of the PAC’s original platform which Mr. Bittner omitted was a preamble which endorses President Roosevelt with great enthusiasm for reelection.
Since Mr. Bittner’s speaking time was limited in accordance with hearing rules, he did not attempt to read all of the program which he brought along. He concentrated, however, on the full employment plank, which proposes that the federal government endorse the principle of a guaranteed annual wage and encourage its cooperation in collective bargaining agreements.
This, it is learned authoritatively, is not included in the plank submitted to the Drafting Committee last night by the convention Labor Committee headed by William Hutcheson, president of the Carpenters’ Union (AFL).
Mr. Bittner also urged that the National Labor Relations Act be held “intact as is.” The pending Labor Committee’s plank is understood, in its present draft, to call explicitly for amendments to that statute, particularly a change which would prevent the National Labor Relations Board from forbidding the selection of collective bargaining agents by crafts, rather than on a plant-wide or industry-wide basis, as is preferred by the CIO.
As to foreign trade, reciprocal trade agreements are sanctioned only to the extent to which they may be “mutually beneficial” and on condition that they receive Congressional ratification. The foreign trade plank in general tone, it is contended, gives recognition to the protective principle without foreclosing economic cooperation, and, it is agreed, satisfies former Governor Alfred M. Landon, chairman of the committee, who has been friendly toward the trade agreements program, and also the most outstanding of the high-tariff protectionists on that panel.
The Foreign Trade Committee will recommend to the Resolutions Committee that there be no establishment, at this time at least, of an international bank, such as has been projected by the administration. However, it will advocate the continuance of monetary conferences and cooperation on money programs through them.
Maine avoids bandwagon
One delegate says group is not yet sure Dewey ‘is the man’
Chicago, Illinois (UP) – (June 26)
Maine still refuses to climb aboard the Dewey bandwagon.
One delegate explained after the third caucus today:
We want to win the election this fall and to do that we must put the strongest possible candidate in the field. We are not convinced yet that Dewey is the man.
Mrs. Farley finds session dull
Chicago, Illinois (UP) – (June 26)
Mrs. James A. Farley, wife of President Roosevelt’s former campaign manager, was a center of attention today when she took her place in a box at the Republican convention. Mrs. Farley, a veteran of many Democratic conventions who has said that she would vote Republican rather than for a fourth term, remarked that “there doesn’t seem to be as much excitement as we used to have at the Democratic conventions.”
Platform victory is won by women
Two planks are adopted by Resolutions Committee – three Senators oppose one
By Kathleen McLaughlin
Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
Reports coming out of executive sessions of the Resolutions Committee engrossed feminine delegates to the Republican convention today, now that gossip has almost ceased about the probable nominee. Two planks of special interest to the women’s group have been written into the document, according to reports, one of them over the protests of Senators Taft (R-OH), Danaher (R-CT) and Milliken (R-CO).
One provides for submission to the states by Congress of an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. This plank has become almost a tradition in both major parties. A similar declaration was written into the 1940 Republican platform, but failed of acceptance by the Democrats. Sponsored at first by members of the National Woman’s Party only, it has of late years been endorsed by such organizations as the National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs.
The second plank, reflecting the growing concern of working women in this country over their status after the war, recommends equal job opportunities for men and women, “without discrimination in rate of pay because of sex.”
Modeled almost verbatim after the law recently enacted by New York State through the efforts of Republican Assemblywoman Miss Jane Todd, this proposal has received enthusiastic endorsement by organizations of women.
Resignation of two women members of the Republican National Committee, Mrs. Grace Reynolds of Indiana (who was manager of the Women’s Division in Wendell Willkie’s preliminary campaign), and Mrs. Paul Fitzsimons of Rhode Island, rose speculation as to their successors at the luncheon at which Miss Marion Martin, head of the women’s division of the party, was hostess to incumbent and newly elected and appointed National Committeewomen.
Army will do more in manual therapy
To put occupational programs in 60 regional hospitals – urgent call for workers
By Bess Furman
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Shipyards seeking to recruit 138,000
McNutt: Naval battle in Pacific shows need for extra manpower
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Editorial: The Republican keynote
Governor Warren’s keynote speech last night to the Republican convention follows pretty closely the long-established bipartisan pattern for such addresses. The gist of this, for the party in power, is to claim credit for all good things as of its own creation, and for the party out of power to blame the in’s as the source of all misfortune. Governor Warren does the latter with such gusto that by the time he has finished with Mr. Roosevelt, he has no time left for Hitler and Tōjō. If one searches this speech for a reason why 10 million young Americans are now in arms, why half that number will soon be abroad and why the whole economy of the country is geared to war production, one comes out with little more than a single sentence near the close: “The cries of anguish from the victims of Axis tyranny violate our sense of justice.” No doubt Mr. Warren felt it unnecessary to labor such familiar points as Axis aggression against the United States itself, which was the reason why we went to war, or the character of the enemies against whom we fight. But certainly one good ringing paragraph on the inescapability of our involvement and the essential purposes for which we fight would not have been out of place in a keynote sounded at the very crisis of the greatest struggle for national survival in the lifetime of the American people.
So much for the chief omission. On the positive side, there are some good points, reassuring in what they promise. Mr. Warren pledges the unlimited support of the Republican Party to a victory in the field so complete that before the fighting ends, American troops will be “bivouacked along the main streets of Germany and Japan.” He promises that this time the fruits of victory will not be wasted through inaction: It is the purpose of the Republican Party “to make and guard the peace.” And again: “We [Republicans] are prepared to take a definite stand against aggression, not merely to denounce aggression, but to resist it and restrain it. That calls for effective cooperation with all the peace-loving nations of the world.” To which our allies, as well as the great majority of the American people themselves, will say Bravo!
Finally, on the domestic side, Mr. Warren vigorously attacks the administration for its evident belief that the private-enterprise system in this country has deteriorated to a point where its weaknesses can be offset only by more and more governmental direction and more and more public spending. He calls for a post-war economy in which the government encourages private enterprise to provide full-scale employment. At the same time, he warns the Republican Party not to look for a road back to the status quo – “there is no status quo to which we could or should return” – and he specifically asserts, apparently with the major legislative measures of the New Deal in mind: “We do not propose to deny the progress that has been made during the past decade. Neither do we aim to repeal it.” On these points, the keynote speech presumably forecasts the platform.
Editorial: Air victory at Saipan
As time passes, the extent of our victory in the great air battle over the Marianas will be more fully realized. The dramatic pursuit of the task force which brought the enemy planes to action, and the escape of the force with four ships lost and 13 damaged, have obscured the decisive nature of the Japanese defeat in the air off Saipan the day before. This defeat broke Japan’s hold on her inner line of defense and seems bound to affect the course of naval warfare in the Pacific for some time to come.
We now have Adm. Nimitz’s final figures on this furious conflict. They are almost incredible. On that memorable Sunday, our forces destroyed 402 enemy planes – 369 in aerial combat, 18 by anti-aircraft fire and 15 on the ground after they had landed to refuel. This is the greatest number of planes ever brought down in a single action anywhere, either over land or sea. It is safe to assume that most of these planes were naval craft based on enemy carriers, for airfields on the Marianas had been pretty well cleared of land-based planes in previous fighting. So far as we know, the largest Japanese carriers do not exceed the capacity of our own Enterprise, which accommodates about 85 planes. The average enemy carrier will barely accommodate 50. Thus at least seven or eight Japanese carriers were stripped of their fighting craft. Such a loss in material and personnel is not easily replaced. The Japanese fleet at Midway lost 275 planes, and it took Japan five months to restore her naval aviation to a point where it could again offer battle. The overwhelming loss in the Marianas will affect not merely the task force engaged in this disastrous venture, but all the task forces Japan has at sea.
The immediate effect of our victory was to speed the conquest of Saipan virtually without interference from enemy planes. That conquest now seems assured with the capture of Mount Tapochau, the island’s central volcanic peak. The broader effects of the victory cannot yet be gauged. Obviously, however, Japan’s control of her vital home waters has been seriously shaken.