Thursday, July 20 Call to order at 11:30 a.m. CWT by Temporary Chairman Governor Kerr of Oklahoma Invocation by Rabbi Louis Binstock of Chicago National anthem by Lucy Monroe Report of committee on permanent organization Resolution to confirm committees selected by the several states Address by Permanent Chairman Senator Jackson (D-IN) Report of committee on platform and resolutions and its adoption Reports of other committees and their adoption Recess until 8:15 p.m. Call to order at 8:15 p.m. by Permanent Chairman Jackson Invocation by the Rev. Joshua Oder of Chicago National anthem by Danny O’Neill, USS Lexington Address by Mrs. Helen Gahagan Douglas, vice chairman, California State Committee Address by war correspondent Quentin Reynolds Roll call for presidential nominations Appointment of committee to notify successful candidate
Wallace and Truman camps spar to land knockout punch
Bitter behind-the-scenes battles split convention; Senator’s supporters waver
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Bulletin
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Mayor Edward J. Kelly of Chicago said today he had “changed my mind” about Senator Harry S. Truman for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination because the Missourian “doesn’t want the job.” Senator Truman later today told the United Press, “I am not a candidate, but will accept the nomination if the delegates want me.”
Chicago, Illinois –
The Democratic National Convention nominates President Franklin D. Roosevelt for a fourth term today with both Wallace and Truman forces claiming Mr. Roosevelt’s blessing in the bitterly-contested vice-presidential nomination.
As the convention entered its third session, with presidential and vice-presidential balloting scheduled for late today and tonight, Edwin Pauley of California publicly claimed President Roosevelt’s support for Senator Harry S. Truman (D-MO).
Mr. Pauley, National Democratic Committee Treasurer and newly-elected California National Committeeman, told his state delegation that Mr. Roosevelt is convinced Senator Truman will cost him fewer votes than any other candidate for Vice President.
“And I could not make such a statement,” he added, “if I didn’t have the approval of the President!”
Wallace forces confident
Wallace forces, contending they had more than 400 first ballot votes, presented an equally confident claim of Roosevelt support. Georgia Governor Ellis Arnall, a Wallace leader, said his side would go on assuming that Mr. Roosevelt still favored Mr. Wallace’s renomination until the President told the convention “in writing” that he had changed his mind.
The Wallace people said the balloting couldn’t come too soon to suit them.
National Chairman Robert E. Hannegan, who has been plugging Senator Truman, still refused to comment on the so-called “Truman letter” in which the President was reported to have stated that he would be happy to have the Missourian for his 1944 running mate.
Hannegan is challenged
Wallace supporters had challenged Mr. Hannegan to produce such a letter. Governor Arnall, expressing skepticism, said he did not believe Mr. Roosevelt would “permit himself to be ‘used’ by those who would misquote him.”
The Credentials Committee of the convention, by a vote of 18–6, today recommended the seating of both delegations from Texas. The Texas “Regular,” or anti-New Deal, delegation threatened to walk out of the convention when this word was received.
Meanwhile, members of the Illinois delegation disclosed after a lengthy caucus that they had decided to cast their 58 votes for Senator Scott W. Lucas (D-IL) for Vice President until Senator Lucas releases them.
A spokesman for the Alabama delegation said it would vote for Senator John H. Bankhead on the first ballot and then decide what to do on the next.
May postpone vote
Mr. Hannegan, in the meantime, said that while there was “always the possibility” that vice-presidential balloting would start as soon as President Roosevelt is renominated, such a schedule had not been officially decided.
This meant the vice-presidential vote might be put off until tomorrow.
The delegates in their third session installed Senator Samuel D. Jackson (D-IN) as permanent chairman and heard him declare that a change of administration in these critical times would be “frightening to contemplate” and “dangerous to make.”
Hits at Dewey
Hitting at 42-year-old Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican candidate for President, Mr. Jackson asserted:
What the Presidency demands now is not so much a bright young man as a man of wisdom and breadth of vision.
Mr. Roosevelt will accept the nomination in a radio address tonight. His voice may calm the storm which threatens to weaken the New Deal-Democratic coalition of 1936 and 1940 in this campaign year.
Some of the President’s closest political associates here have fallen out and are beginning to call each other names. Southern leaders met in rebellious conferences last night and broke up, apparently frustrated both as to their objectives and methods of achieving them. Principally they wanted to scuttle Vice President Henry A. Wallace and put up a Southerner for his $15,000-a-year job.
Mr. Wallace is still likely to be scuttled in his contest with Senator Harry S. Truman (D-MO), who has some kind of White House acceptance and the support of some of the big party bosses here, but putting a Southerner on the ticket this year does not seem likely at the moment.
Senator Alben W. Barkley (D-KY), who feels along with some others here that he has been maneuvered out of his chance at the vice-presidential nomination, jarred convention managers with a surprise request that they hold up release of his speech placing Mr. Roosevelt in fourth term renomination. That was a bald threat to run out on the assignment to propose the President’s name, but it lasted only a few hours.
Toward 2:00 a.m. today, one of Mr. Barkley’s aides said the Senator had sent a note to National Committee publicity headquarters authorizing release of the speech on schedule today.
Meanwhile, it was learned that Mr. Wallace will deliver a speech seconding Mr. Roosevelt’s nomination for the Presidency.
‘Big Four’ runs show
The presidential nomination was scheduled for midafternoon, following the address of Permanent Chairman Samuel Jackson, disposition of credentials and rules disputes, and adoption of the platform.
Mr. Barkley was evidently resentful of the smooth operations here of the Big Four – National Committee Chairman Robert E. Hannegan, who was handpicked last winter to handle Mr. Roosevelt’s reelection campaign; Chicago Mayor Edward J. Kelly, who bosses the Democratic Party in Illinois; Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague, who rules the organization in New Jersey; and Edward J. Flynn, leader of the Democratic Party in the Bronx and the manager of the President’s successful third-term campaign.
The center ring battle is over the vice-presidential nomination for which Mr. Roosevelt personally endorsed Mr. Wallace but for which Mr. Hannegan now says the President would be happy to have Mr. Truman.
Guffey gets angry
The fact that Mr. Truman and Mr. Hannegan are fellow Missourians and that Mr. Hannegan owes some of his rise to political heights to Mr. Truman makes the Wallace men more than a little suspicious that something is wrong. But there is supporting evidence that Mr. Hannegan does have a go-ahead for Mr. Truman and directly from the President.
Persuasive reports persisted that he had received a letter to that effect. Mr. Hannegan denied it. Others said that it was received and that it suggested either Mr. Truman or Associate Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas if Mr. Wallace were not acceptable to the convention.
Senator Joseph F. Guffey (D-PA) shouted what other Wallace supporters had been whispering when he said:
I doubt very much if Mr. Hannegan quoted all of the letter the President is supposed to have written. It is time that Mr. Hannegan remembers that he was elected chairman of the National Committee to serve all the members of our party, to give some of his time to the party and not all of it entirely to the candidate [Truman] of Hannegan, Kelly, Hague and Flynn.
CIO spokesmen echoed Mr. Guffey’s charge that these four men who are bulwarks of the New Deal-Democratic coalition are unfairly bossing the convention.