America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

1783

americavotes1944

Bricker: Faith broken by New Deal

Virtual dictatorship claimed established

Baltimore, Maryland (UP) –
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker, charging that Sidney Hillman, Earl Browder and “their Communist comrades” control the Democratic Party, said last night that the New Deal has broken every American tradition in its 12-year program of establishing a “virtual dictatorship.”

Speaking before a Republican rally on a 3,250-mile Eastern campaign swing, the GOP vice-presidential nominee declared that: “The New Deal has failed to keep its promises.”

It has broken the tradition of “limited tenure” in the Presidency.

It has discarded the “relationship of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the government” as fixed by the Constitution.

‘Cause for change’

The New Deal, although failing to “pack” the Supreme Court directly, has succeeded through its long tenure in doing so and has appointed a majority of the judges of appellate courts and district courts who conform to their “philosophy.”

“That alone,” Governor Bricker said, “is cause for a change.”

The danger of the long tenure of the President is “reflected in the judgment of the Supreme Court in many cases,” Governor Bricker said.

The nominee added:

A minority of the court has pointed out that the majority opinions have broken so many precedents, upset so many decisions that the law is in utter confusion and the lower courts are not given guidance for their judgments.

Appeals to Democrats, too

He charged:

At one time, this New Deal court even spoke of the President as a ruler rather than the servant of the people.

Governor Bricker appealed to the Democrats “to take back their party by voting Republican this year.”

He said:

Look at the history of the leaders of the New Deal – Rex Tugwell, Felix Frankfurter, Harry Hopkins. Now Sidney Hillman has come into the inner circle and taken the seat at the head of the table.

It would seem incredible that such a group could take control of the Democratic Party, but it has done so through alliances with nefarious political groups headed by big city bosses such as Kelly of Chicago, Hague of New Jersey and temporarily-inactive Pendergast of Missouri.

‘Shame battle’ charged

Governor Bricker said:

The true Democrats – the Farleys, the Al Smiths, the Byrds, the Garners – have been cast aside as being out of step.

The New Deal put on a “sham battle” at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in order “to deceive the people” in the fight for the Vice Presidency, he said.

He added that Senator Alben Barkley’s defiance of the President over the veto of the Tax Bill soon subsided and he became “the willing worker for the White House clique.”

Governor Bricker asserted:

That short revolt may be the reason that Sidney Hillman vetoed Senator Barkley as a candidate for Vice President.

Says Congress ‘abused’

To bring about the “servile” position of Congress, Governor Bricker added, the New Deal “belittled, abused and smeared” Congress. The New Deal “power grabbers,” he said, have been very “careful” in recent months.

He said:

Be not deceived, people of America. The intent is still there, the habits have not been changed and it is their hope that once the election is by and should the New Deal be successful, that that the program of destroying the very foundation of free government and our constitutional concepts under which we have built so mightily will be revived.

Earlier, at a press conference, Governor Bricker pursued a theme advanced in his speech at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Wednesday night that the administration should now “disclose the facts” about the Pearl Harbor attack.

1784

americavotes1944

Wallace: ‘Hoover panic’ will come with Dewey

20,000 in New York hear Vice President stress ‘experience’ of Roosevelt

New York (UP) –
A cheering crowd of about 20,000 persons packed into Madison Square Garden last night heard Vice President Henry A. Wallace forecast the reelection of President Roosevelt and warn that a Republican victory may return the country to “a normalcy of a Harding and a 10-year decay into the panic of a Hoover.”

Mr. Wallace, who was supplanted as Mr. Roosevelt’s fourth term running mate in favor of Senator Harry S. Truman, addressed a rally, sponsored by the Independent Voters’ Committee of the Arts and Sciences for Roosevelt.

The crowd also cheered as a galaxy of Hollywood stars, including Better Davis, Frederic March and Orson Welles, who introduced the Vice President, appeared on the program.

‘Two problems’

Mr. Wallace, making his first speech on behalf of the Roosevelt-Truman ticket, said that the problem of the current White House campaign is not one of indispensability. The only issue, he asserted, is which of the two candidates – Franklin D. Roosevelt or Thomas E. Dewey – is more capable of handling these two problems:

  • Who can better cooperate with Churchill, Stalin and the Generalissimo [Chiang Kai-shek], in writing a lasting, liberal, democratic peace which will preserve American interests without being unfair to any nation, big or small?

  • Who can best make sure that there will be jobs for everybody and therefore good incomes for farmers, white-collar workers, business and professional men?

He said that it would be absurd to attack the motives of any man seeking national leadership: that both Governor Dewey and Mr. Roosevelt will do their best if called to serve.

‘Equipment and experience’

He said:

The first question to decide is one of equipment and experience. Who can better provide for permanent peace and full employment – Dewey or Roosevelt?

Despite all Governor Dewey’s assertions, he continued, the isolationists are going to vote Republican in November.

He said:

Just as Harding placated the isolationists in 1921, so Dewey would be under the necessity of placating them in 1945. The Republican Party in spite of the millions of its members who think clearly about international affairs, has been, is now, and will be the channel through which the isolationists, the cartelists and the international freebooters work best.

‘Jobs for all’

The heart of the liberal program for post-war America, he said, is “jobs for all.” Next, he said, is the willingness of all men to work – “there can be no sit-down strike of idle seeking the dole.” He listed as a third point job priority to veterans and men and women who toiled in war plants at home.

Mr. Wallace conceded that a readjustment period would be needed before jobs for all could be provided. But he was confident the job could be done.

He said the post-war battle on the home front will be an exciting one and held that “there can be no slackers as we fight for the common man in the pursuit of the richer life.” He disapproved of the $1-a-year man plan but insisted that the government had the first call of services of the nation’s leaders.

If a wartime President may draft the brains of this country to fight, certainly a peacetime President may draft the brains of the country to work full-time in the most exciting battle of modern times – the battle against depression; against panic; against defeatism; the battle for full employment, national health, and a permanent peace.

He concluded with the declaration that “there shall never be a return to the normalcy of yesteryear – to normalcy for the few and sub-normalcy for the many.”

He said:

We welcome – yes, we shall fight for something we never have had – the normalcy of the good life for everybody.

1785

WLB relaxes pay rules on new employees

Boosts in hiring rates approved
By Dale McFeatters, Press business editor

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1786

In Washington –
Cutback data to be given by two agencies

Byrnes announces new procedures

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Gangster faces surplus probe

Chiseling charged by La Guardia

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1787

americavotes1944

GOP charge answered –
Tobin denies his union has ‘inside track’

Labor leader hits delays by WLB
By Daniel M. Kidney, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Washington –
President Daniel J. Tobin, of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, said today that his greatest wartime worry in union affairs has been the War Labor Board delays.

Mr. Tobin is here to preside at a meeting of his union, with President Roosevelt scheduled to be a banquet guest and make his first “political speech” of the campaign tomorrow night.

Mr. Roosevelt’s address will be broadcast at 9:30 p.m. ET tomorrow over KDKA and WJAS.

The labor leader talked today of WLB delays with as much ire as did Governor Dewey in his labor speech at Seattle.

But, nevertheless, Mr. Tobin and his union are on record for a fourth term and Mr. Tobin will manage the Democratic Party’s labor division for a fourth time.

His comment about WLB was in refutation of a charge by Rep. H. Carl Andersen (R-MN) that Mr. Tobin has an inside track for pay raises for his truckmen “through the back door of the White House.”

What is charged

Here is what Mr. Andersen said:

Through the back door of the White House Mr. Tobin has been able to set up a little War Labor Board of his own, known as the trucking commission, which he has put in charge of one Frank Tobin, thus keeping it in the family.

By this device Tobin has kept his union out from under the stabilization program and apparently immune to the Wage Stabilization Act. For the past three years this commission has granted huge wage increases to members of Tobin’s union in direct violation of the stabilization act and over the head of the War Labor Board itself.”

Tobin’s answer

After reading the Anderson statement, Mr. Tobin declared that it is “full of lies and full of holes.”

He explained that no wage increase has been approved without WLB authorization and that all were within the 15 percent of the “Little Steel” formula. However, like other union leaders, he wants to see the “Little Steel” formula scrapped.

Mr. Tobin declared:

My union has more cases pending before WLB than any other. There were 2,000 cases pending there when the panel was set up with my son Frank as the labor member. The union pays him, although the government pays the panel members representing the public and employers. They would pay him, of course, but we didn’t want it that way. He is 41, a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and well equipped for his position.

Delay is big complaint

However, nothing which the panel approves can be effective until final WLB approval is given and increases passed upon by Stabilization Director Vinson. To say this is any “inside track” is nonsense. All WLB cases are handled in the same manner. My only complaint is the delay. Now the panel has 2,000 cases pending.

We have 700,000 union members and right now, there are no strikes anywhere. But because it takes months to get a decision on wages, I have had great difficulty in holding the membership in line and there have been strikes in the past because of the great delay.

Mr. Tobin, who is a vice president of the AFL, continued:

I told an AFL convention over a year ago that unless WLB congestion was cleared up we were headed for trouble in keeping the no-strike pledge.

Bricker hits PAC in talk in Maine

Portland, Maine (UP) –
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker, Republican vice-presidential nominee, attacked Sidney Hillman and his CIO Political Action Committee again today, charging that the New Deal has relinquished its leadership to the “Browder-Hillman Axis.”

He said:

In so doing, it has struck a blow to free and unintimidated voting by the American people. They have turned over to this group that feeds on class hatred the conduct of the campaign because the PAC has its hands on millions of dollars.”

Speaking at a rally at City Hall, Governor Bricker said Mr. Hillman’s influence is “alien” and has its “roots in communism.”

The Bricker train was to make short stops at Lewiston, Winthrop, Waterville and Pittsville during the day. Governor Bricker speaks in Bangor tonight.

Brownell: Labor swings toward Dewey

Albany, New York (UP) –
Herbert Brownell Jr., National Republican campaign manager, asserted yesterday that evidence was increasing that “organized labor is swinging to the Dewey-Bricker ticket.”

“We have had a fine and enthusiastic response from organized labor leaders as a result of Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s Seattle speech,” Mr. Brownell declared at a press conference prior to a meeting of 21 eastern Upstate New York Republican county leaders.

He added that certain labor leaders resent bitterly the Hillman-Browder group’s attempts to take over organized labor as well as the New Deal party.

1788

americavotes1944

Dewey backed by Chicago Daily News

Late Frank Knox’s paper hits 4th term

Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
The Chicago Daily News today announced it will support Governor Thomas E. Dewey for President.

The News, formerly published by the late Frank Knox who, before his death, served in President Roosevelt’s Cabinet as Secretary of the Navy, said in an editorial prepared for Friday editions that it opposes a fourth term.

The editorial said, in part:

In 1940, despite the courage Mr. Roosevelt had shown in seeking to arm the nation against the perils that surrounded it, despite the fact that Col. Frank Knox, our publisher, had been called to the cabinet, in the emergency, to serve as Secretary of the Navy, this newspaper was opposed to a third term. We supported Mr. Willkie, the Republican candidate. And we have not changed our mind. We were not for a third term. We are not for a fourth. Nor do we believe the American people desire a perpetual President.

…In short, no fourth term is necessary, for in Governor Dewey there has arisen among us a young, new, vigorous leader, with faith in the future…

Governor Dewey belittles activity of ‘bosses’

San Francisco, California (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey predicted yesterday that letters by Mayor Edward J. Kelly or Chicago to soldiers overseas advocating reelection of President Roosevelt would benefit the Republican Party in the November election.

The Republican presidential candidate offered his prediction when published accounts of the Chicago mayor’s activities were called to his attention.

He commented:

I should think that any letters Mayor Kelly writes to soldiers would greatly assist the Republican cause.

He did not elaborate, but the Republican Party has previously attacked the “bossism” leadership of Kelly at Chicago, Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City, New Jersey, and National Committeeman Ed Flynn in New York.

1789

Ruml: Farmers, laborers have big stake in tax policy

Lower wages and higher prices mean less purchasing power, he points out
By Beardsley Ruml, written for the United Press

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1790

At request of ‘highly placed’ people –
Mrs. Browder upsets deportation order, gets a legal visa

Appeals Board acts despite objections of Army, Navy and FBI officials
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer

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1791

UNRRA to aid friend and foe

Delegates’ attitude tempered by mercy
By Hal O’Flaherty

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1792

Breaking of news monopolies requested by Congress

By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

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1793

10,000 tons of steel lost during strike

Attempt to end walkout made today

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1794

‘Pa’ Ferguson, once ousted as Texas Governor, dies

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1795

americavotes1944

‘Cotton Ed’ leads New Deal foes

Washington (UP) –
Senator Ellison D. “Cotton Ed” Smith (D-SC), vigorous critic of the administration who was defeated for renomination this summer, said today that President Roosevelt “can be beaten in November – he must be if America is to be redeemed.”

The 79-year-old Senator blasted at the New Deal as he prepared to preside over a meeting of anti-fourth-term Democrats and farm representatives which he called in an effort to rally the farm vote behind the Republican Dewey-Bricker ticket.

Mr. Smith sought to leave the impression with reporters that he was not bitter about his defeat for renomination to the chamber in which he had served for 36 years.

“They liberated me,” he said.

“From what?”

He replied:

From bonds which tied my hands in regard to the administration. Now, I am free to do what I think best to redeem my country from these bureaucrats.

Davis attacks Socialist forces

Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania (UP) –
U.S. Senator James J. Davis, Republican candidate for reelection, said last night that a victory for President Roosevelt in November would give the United States a representative at the peace conference who would be committed to Communist and Socialist forces supporting his campaign.

Mr. Davis, on a speaking tour of the state, said that the “Sidney Hillman-Earl Browder influence has been manifested in every act of the fourth-term candidate.” Mr. Davis said these influences would be a factor at the peace table in the event Mr. Roosevelt were reelected.

1796

Editorial: How not to make peace

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1797

americavotes1944

Editorial: Forward – not back

Henry A. Wallace, in New York last night, warned the American people that if the Republicans win in November: “We may return to the normalcy of a Harding and a 10-year decay into the panic of a Hoover.”

But Governor Dewey’s speech in San Francisco was a convincing answer to Mr. Wallace’s dismal forecast of disaster through Republican victory.

The great question, we believe, is whether Franklin D. Roosevelt or Thomas E. Dewey better understands how this country can provide jobs for all. Because, without understanding, it is idle to expect accomplishment. And Mr. Dewey gave a convincing answer to that question when he said:

There can be jobs for all only if business, industry and agriculture are able to provide those jobs, there are no clever shortcuts to this goal. It cannot be achieved by some ingenious scheme concocted by a social dreamer in a government bureau. The New Deal pulled rabbits out of the hat for seven years and ended up with 10 million still unemployed. We will achieve our objective only if we create an economic climate in which industry, business and agriculture can grow and flourish.

Nor does Mr. Dewey’s understanding stop with that. It compasses the proper role of government as a servant rather than a master of the people. It takes in the fact that government measures to influence broad economic conditions are both desirable and inevitable, but that these measures need not, and must not, deprive the people of political freedom under the pretext of giving them economic security.

The freedom he would preserve is not freedom for farmers “to go broke when there are peacetime surpluses and the prices of crops, fall ruinously” or for labor “to walk the streets in bad years, looking for work at any price.” It is freedom for agriculture and labor and industry to go forward together, helped and not hindered by their government, united and not divided by their President, toward the true security of peace and sound prosperity.

That – not the normalcy of a Harding or the panic of a Hoover – is Mr. Dewey’s goal.

1798

Editorial: Vocal complications

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1799

Edson: Signs indicate industrial wages will be raised

By Peter Edson

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1800

Ferguson: Dearth of husbands

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

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1801

americavotes1944

Background of news –
The transient vote

By Jay G. Hayden

San Francisco, California –
The biggest single question mark in this 1944 presidential contest is the roving industrial vote, and nowhere is this element of uncertainty more in evidence than in Oregon and Washington, which Governor Thomas E. Dewey has just visited.

Literally hundreds of thousands of new people have been drawn into the teeming war industries of these states. Henry Kaiser alone has approximately 90,000 employees in his three shipyards in the twin cities of Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington.

Mr. Kaiser has brought men from New York by scores of trainloads and the draft of workers from the Deep South has been even greater. Portland’s Negro population has jumped from 1890 to 30,000. That city’s overall increase is placed at 175,000 and Seattle’s even higher.

The political point is that President Roosevelt’s greatest strength always has been among the factory workers and, in consequence, the great influx of these into Oregon and Washington should make them a Democratic cinch.

Many transients not registered

The disturbed circumstance from the Democratic standpoint is that the increased population is not reflected in the registration figures.

Multnomah County, containing Portland, has a trailer registration booth that travels from factory to factory to enable the workers to register. There, as in all other war production centers, Sidney Hillman’s CIO Political Action Committee is putting on a vigorous campaign to induce labor union members to qualify for voting. But registration figures for Multnomah County, released on Tuesday, disclosed no appreciable increase over either 1940 or 1942.

This year’s total is 180,962. On the same date in 1940, the total was 180,833 and in 1942, 177,903.

In Washington, the registration in 1940 was about 990,000. It fell to 700,000 in 1942 and now has climbed back to only 890,000, still 100,000 less than when Mr. Roosevelt was elected for his third term.

The facts seem to be that at least half of the imported workers are unable to qualify because of an insufficient period of residence or other cause, and many even of those entitled to vote are disinclined to do so.

At the Kaiser plants presently the net decline in employment is 2,500 a month and the turnover – that is, the number moving out and in – is much greater. Whether they are coming or going, the nomads are unlikely to be able to vote.

Poll tax feared

The most astonishing circumstance, reported in both Portland and Seattle, is that a lot of war workers refuse to register. Some of the boys from down South, both white and Negro, believe that voting will make them liable to a poll tax and no amount of explaining that these western states have not now, and never have had, such a tax, seems able to disabuse them of this notion.

Principally on the basis of the scant registration of war workers, Republicans question the reliability of the Gallup Poll, which shows Mr. Roosevelt leading by a ratio of 55 to 45 in Washington and California and 51 to 49 in Oregon. The assumption of those who disbelieve this finding is that those polled include city workers, in proportion to their total, rather than the number of them who are registered.

It is pointed out that almost all elections, since 1940, have shown a marked decline in votes cast and that, generally, the smaller the vote the greater the Republican trend.

Wherefore the Dewey backers are hoping that enough workers will stay away from the polls for one reason or another to turn these Pacific Coast states to their man on Nov. 7.

1802

U.S., Britain discuss help for Italians

Roosevelt, Churchill consider subject

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