Dewey approves party platform
Amplification of views is expected in his acceptance talk; floor fight fails
Chicago, Illinois (AP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey apparently held the key today to a question of whether Wendell L. Willkie and other party critics will go along with a Republican platform pledging American cooperation to prevent future wars by use of “peace forces” and ruling out entry into a “world state.”
The party’s prospective presidential nominee was expected to amplify, in his acceptance speech, a post-war foreign policy plank shoutingly approved by delegates but sharply criticized earlier by the 1940 standard-bearer and a group of governors.
A convention floor fight failed to materialize after it was reported that Dewey had given the plank his specific approval and two critical governors – Walter Edge of New Jersey and William H. Willis of Vermont – had expressed the view to reporters that nothing could be gained by a fight.
Upon the ability of the New York Governor – assuming, of course, that he will be the nominee – to satisfy criticisms of Willkie and the governors that the plank is “ambiguous” and offers inadequate hope for post-war peace collaboration, possibly hinges the question of whether the 1940 candidate will go along, bolt, or remain silent during the campaign.
Willkie silent
In New York, Willkie refused last night to say what action he would take.
The controverted plank was a featured part of a 2,000-word statement of principles.
On domestic issues, the platform promised the party would devote itself to “reestablishing liberty at home;” to providing stable employment by encouraging private enterprise freed of government competition and “detailed regulations.”
Remedies for economic and political problems should be based, the statement asserted, “on intelligent cooperation between the federal government and the states and local government and the initiative of civil groups, not on the panacea of federal cash.”
The platform said:
Four more years of New Deal policy would centralize all power in the President, and would daily subject every act of every citizen to regulation by his henchmen; and this country could remain a Republic only in name. No problem exists which cannot be solved by American methods. We have no need of either the communistic or the fascist technique.
Making appeals to business, labor and agriculture alike, the platform charged that New Deal “perversion” of labor laws “threatens to destroy collective bargaining completely and permanently.”
Promises to farmers
Farmers were promised an “American market price” to be maintained by commodity loans, price supports and other measures, and government aid in dealing with “unmanageable surpluses” by means of crop adjustment. This probably will go a long way toward removing the principle of crop control as an issue. The Republicans pledged, however, the elimination of subsidies as a substitute for adequate prices at the market prices. They also promised to free farmers from “regimentation and confusing government manipulation and control of farm programs.”
In the field of foreign trade, the Republicans promised farmer, livestock producers, workers and industry that they would establish and maintain a “fair protective tariff” on competitive products produced with lower-paid labor.
They expressed willingness nevertheless to cooperate with other nations to remove international trade barriers.
Other planks pledged aid to small business; tax belief for individuals and corporations when peace returns; a “genuine” Western Hemisphere good neighbor policy “commanding respect, and not based on reckless squandering of American funds;” rigid economy in government expenditures; extension of Social Security; and enforcement of laws against monopoly and unfair competition.