Help of Reds repudiated by Roosevelt
President assails ‘loose talk’ of foes
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington –
President Roosevelt has repudiated Communist support in his reelection campaign, thereby pointing this country toward more embittered dispute over the political affiliations of many of his left-wing adherents.
In a broadcast directed specifically to thousands of Democratic Party workers gathered in meetings throughout the nation, the President last night defied as Hitleresque and “loose” use of the term Communism by “labor baiters, bigots and some politicians.”
But he also repudiated American Communists, who are among his acute campaign supporters.
‘Support not welcome’
He said:
I have never sought and I do not welcome the support of any person or group committed to Communism, or Fascism, or any other foreign ideology which would undermine the American system of government or the American system of free competitive enterprise and private property.
That repudiation came within a week of an address in New York City in which Earl Browder, president of the Communist Political Association, said:
American Communists, even as our great Communist forebears in 1860 and 1864 supported Abraham Lincoln, will in 1944 support Franklin Delano Roosevelt for President of the United States.
GOP charges answered
Just where the Communists stand as a result of the President’s repudiation was not immediately evident.
Mr. Roosevelt’s repudiation of Browder’s support was in reply to Republican charges which he interpreted as “being that the Roosevelt administration is part of a gigantic plot to sell our democracy out to the Communists.”
He linked his repudiation of the American Reds with a tribute to “our Russian allies” and a pledge that his administration would participate with them after the war in a strong organization to maintain peace – “if necessary, by force.”
Foes challenged
In spurning the Communists of this country, the President challenged those who apply the term Communism or Communist to “every progressive social measure and to the views of every foreign-born citizen with whom they disagree.”
Sidney Hillman, head of the CIO’s Political Action Committee, has been the most frequently assailed on that score among Mr. Roosevelt’s 1944 supporters and the firing is likely to continue against him and his associates.
Mr. Roosevelt emphasized that his repudiation of American Communists “does not in the least interfere with the firm and friendly relationship which this nation has in this war, and will I hope, continue to have with the Soviet Union.”
He continued:
The kind of economy that suits the Russian people is their own affair. The American people are glad and proud to be allied with the gallant people of Russia, not only in winning the war but in laying the foundation for the world peace which will follow – and in keeping that peace.
Raps Republicans
Mr. Roosevelt assailed Republicans for having distributed, under Congressional frank, more than three million copies of a speech made by Rep. Fred E. Busbey (R-IL) attacking the PAC.
Without mentioning Mr. Busbey or PAC, he called on his audience to examine the document which was mailed out by “one Senator and twelve Representatives – all of them Republicans… at the taxpayers’ expense.”
He said:
Well, this document says that the “red specter of Communism is stalking our country from East to West, from North to South” – the charge being that the Roosevelt administration is part of a gigantic plot to sell democracy out to the Communists.
‘Fear propaganda’
He called the document a “form of fear propaganda [which] is not new among rabble-rousers and fomenters of class hatred – who seek to destroy democracy itself.”
He said:
It was used by Mussolini’s Black Shirts and by Hitler’s Brown Shirts. It has been used before in this country by the Silver Shirts and others on the lunatic fringe.
The President ended his speech on that note, saying:
We must and we will continue to be united with our allies in a powerful world organization which is ready and able to keep the peace – if necessary, by force.
To provide that assurance of international security is the policy, the effort and the obligation of this administration.
Vote plea made
Although the broadcast from the White House was especially for Democratic Party workers, the President made an urgent plea to all qualified persons to register and vote, reminding that it is not only a right and duty but a sacred obligation.
Win or lose, Mr. Roosevelt said, he would prefer the outcome to be revealed in a flood tide of ballots rather than with more than half the electorate failing to vote as in 1920 or with one-third being remiss as in 1940.
Soldier vote discussed
Turning then to the political infighting he enjoys, Mr. Roosevelt implied that the Republicans had conspired to make it difficult or impossible for servicemen and women and other absentee voters to participate in this year’s election.
Mr. Roosevelt remarked that there are many undemocratic defects in our ordinary voting laws and made a powerful one-paragraph appeal for Negro support by declaring:
The right to vote must be open to our citizens irrespective of race, color or creed – without tax or artificial restriction of any kind. The sooner we get to that basis of political equality, the better it will be for the country as a whole.
War still to be won
He warned that the war is not yet won, but that German and Japanese resistance remains as “determined and fanatical as ever.”
He said:
We shall have to fight our way across the Rhine – we may have to fight every inch of the way to Berlin. But we Americans and our British and Russian and French and Polish allies – all the massed forces of the United Nations – will not stop short of our final goal.
But the controversial campaign subjects with which Mr. Roosevelt dealt in most detail were Communism and the Republican charge that the administration contemplates keeping men in the armed services until there are jobs for them outside.
Promising that servicemen “will come home and be returned to civilian life at the earliest possible moment consistent with our national safety,” the President accused Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Republican presidential candidate, with use of “reckless words” in implying to the contrary.