Gene Tunney changes opinion –
Competitive sports demonstrate value in service training
By Jack Cuddy, United Press staff writer
…
Gene Tunney changes opinion –
Republican ‘lies’ charged by Davies
New York (UP) –
Former Ambassador to Russia Joseph E. Davies predicted today that the independent vote of the country would not be fooled by Republican “lies,” but would return Franklin D. Roosevelt to the White House as the man best able to preserve peace.
Mr. Davies said the world was “in such danger of mass murder” as it has not been “since Christ walked on the shores of Galilee” and that only President Roosevelt was sufficiently expert in the “intricacies of foreign policies” to represent the United States at the peace table.
The violent attacks and charges of dishonesty against the President “made by Mr. Dewey and by Mrs. Luce and others” will not fool either the independent voter nor the women of the country, he said.
Mr. Davies said he had “a very high respect” for Thomas E. Dewey but that he believed “there isn’t a human being” who could by cramming or through advice become sufficiently acquainted with the intricacies of the international situation to “play by ear.”
Perkins: Republicans’ apathy costing them Negro vote, publisher says
GOP leaders warned to get on job or group will go 2–1 for Roosevelt
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
Washington –
The Republican Party, with the best program on paper for the Negro people, is failing to drive its arguments home with the rank and file of colored voters in the key and doubtful states, according to one of their spokesmen here today.
Alexander Barnes, manager of the Washington Tribune, a Negro newspaper published here warned Republican leaders verbally and through his publication that unless more direct work is done with the mass of Negro voters, they “will go almost 2–1 for President Roosevelt.”
Describing himself as a Dewey supporter, this publisher said it was the general opinion among people who have studied political and economic conditions among Negroes that without a better Republican effort, the Negro votes in such cities as New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Chicago may swing one or more of the doubtful states of New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
Dewey effort expected
The Washington publisher said that Governor Thomas E. Dewey has made only incidental references to the Negro subject so far but that there are reports the Republican nominee plans to go into it at more length before he ends his campaign.
Meanwhile, the CIO Political Action Committee is making a special point of registering Negro voters in the industrial sections, and much Democratic argument is being directed at them.
A survey just completed by a non-political agency shows that leading Negro newspapers among the more than 200 published in this country are almost evenly divided in their support of President Roosevelt or Governor Dewey.
Field workers bungling
Mr. Barnes said he had recently visited all the important centers of Negro population in the Northern industrial states, and reported “all is not well in the Republican ranks because of the alleged apathy and ineptness in the work among Negro voters.” and “that the bungling of the campaign stem: from the Negro brain-trusters working with the Republican National Committee.”
He pointed out, however, “that there is still time to let the Negro have the facts. Experienced campaigners can be put to work and a wavering Negro vote convinced that Dewey is the man. Thousands of party workers are willing to volunteer their services if the bigwigs will permit them to go to work in traditional Republican fashion.”
‘Tricks’ alarm Negroes
An editorial in the Washington Tribune stated that paper “has not yet decided which candidate it will urge its readers to support, but has become unduly alarmed at the strange tricks which are being played. The Democrats ditched Wallace, and then, from information received this week, the Republicans put two men in to woo the Negro vote who are cold, indifferent, unconcerned and even insolent, at times, when Negroes approach them about aiding in the election of their man.”
The “two men” were identified as Negro leaders with whom some others do not agree on campaign tactics.
The Tribune editor’s idea is that:
Mr. Dewey needs a campaign that is going to bring the issues down to earth. He needs a campaign that is going to let the Negro in the pool rooms, the beer gardens, the fields and the farms, and in the coal mines, know that he stands for justice for all men.
Dewey called ‘just common politician’
‘Rabid isolationists’ assailed by Ickes
Newark, New Jersey (UP) –
Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes characterized Governor Thomas E. Dewey as a “machine politician of the common garden variety” last night and charged that the Republican presidential candidate proposes to take into the White House a collection of “rabid isolationists” to help write the peace.
In an address before an Independent Committee for Roosevelt rally, Mr. Ickes asserted that an “unspeakable rabble of isolationist and reactionaries” have climbed into Dewey’s “Trojan Horse” and that their influence would be felt if the Republican were elected.
He cited as Dewey supporters “Gerald L. K. Smith… America’s nearest replica of Adolf Hitler;” United Mine Workers chief John L. Lewis, “the only labor leader in the United States who has failed to set his face against wartime strikes,” and Rep. Hamilton Fish (R-NY), who Ickes denounced as an isolationist and labor baiter.”
‘Honesty’ questioned
Mr. Ickes challenged Governor Dewey’s personal honesty as well as his record of achievement. With regard to Governor Dewey’s speech at St. Louis the Interior Secretary said:
I am glad that Governor Dewey is going to follow me on the air. I understand that he proposes to talk about “honesty in government.” This will be a double adventure into the unknown for Mr. Dewey. He does not know anything about the government and judging by his campaign speeches, he is totally unfamiliar with honesty.
Contribution held ‘zero’
Mr. Ickes accused Governor Dewey of hindering, instead of helping, the war effort during the past three years.
He said:
I suggest to you that the humblest private on the field of battle has made a greater contribution [than Dewey].
The fact of the matter is that during the past three years of bitter warfare Mr. Dewey’s contribution to the prosecution of the war has been exactly zero.
Mr. Ickes said that Governor Dewey’s chief accomplishment during the campaign was the endorsement of “policies which President Roosevelt himself has advocated.”
Bricker woos CIO, assails PAC –
U.S. ‘invasion’ of schools denounced by Bricker
Attempt to override state responsibility charged by vice-presidential nominee
With Bricker in California (UP) –
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker said at San Bernardino last night that federal “invasion” of state public schools was part of the national government’s attempt to override state responsibility.
Governor Bricker will speak tonight at San Diego.
The address will be on KQV at 11:00 p.m. ET.
The GOP vice-presidential nominee, decried the federal government’s failure to confine itself to “national interests.”
Earlier, Mr. Bricker told a Santa Barbara crowd that on Election Day many members of the Congress of Industrial Organizations would “smite down the brazen effrontery” of the Political Action Committee in trying to dictate how labor should vote. He drew a marked distinction between the CIO and the PAC and said he would welcome CIO support of Republican candidates.
PAC assailed
The CIO, he said, is “not a political organization at all.”
He said:
The PAC has tried to force into its ranks many members of the CIO. It has tried to force members to contribute to the fund that is being raised to finance the Democratic campaign.
In a direct bid for Western support, Governor Bricker said at Santa Ana, California, today that East Coast industry should not be permitted to “get the jump” on the West in post-war reconversion. He said, that reconversion, like the war itself, is the responsibility of the whole nation and must be undertaken on a coast-to-coast basis.
States’ rights
Reviewing the growth of the federal structure in his speech last night, Governor Bricker cited fields in which he said it had expanded “to an unprecedented extent.”
He said:
There has been a steady trend toward relaxing the principle that the federal government shall confine its activities to national interests, leaving to the states the conduct of local activities.
He added:
This expansion of federal activity into local affairs threatens the financial independence of local government and opens the door to political domination of them.
Truman: Dewey avoids foreign issues
Stresses danger in shortsighted policies
Los Angeles, California –
Senator Harry S. Truman last night called Governor Thomas E. Dewey a “fence straddler” on foreign policy and said the election of a man like him in 1940 would have cost the lives of American soldiers because “we would have set our sights too low.”
In the first campaign speech of his present swing around the country, Mr. Truman attacked Mr. Dewey’s record at a Democratic rally in the Shrine Auditorium.
Mr. Truman, the Democratic nominee for Vice President, said the nation “took a chance on Harding in 1920” and could not “afford to repeat that mistake.”
Linked with isolationists
He said:
We must support the President. He demonstrated his leadership and courage in foreign affairs when his present opponent was flirting with the isolationists and currying the political support of the Hearsts and McCormicks [William Randolph Hearst and Robert R. McCormick, publishers].
…The Republican candidate has not repudiated them support – no, not even softly. Instead, he has joined them. Like Hearst and McCormick, he spends much of his time denouncing the Communists. And like Hearst and McCormick, he lumps all liberals in with the Communists.
Mr. Truman struck back at Mr. Dewey for quoting reports of the Senate Truman Committee in an effort to show that the war effort had not been properly administered. Mr. Truman said the committee criticized mistakes and never hesitated to lay blame where it belonged but that Mr. Dewey must have known that all committee members, including the Republican Senators, had praised the accomplishments of the war effort in all their annual reports.
Explains Pendergast connection
Asked about his association with the Pendergast machine in Kansas City, Mr. Truman replied that no candidate in Missouri could be elected without the support of that organization.
He said:
I didn’t ask them to support me. They supported me because I was a good vote getter.
New Dewey charges bring reply from White House
Washington –
The White House today replied to Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s latest charges against the administration by issuing another “analysis” of his statements together with “the facts.”
The new White House document dealt with charges voiced by the Republican presidential candidate at St. Louis last night.
The compilation took up Mr. Dewey’s use of a National Resources Planning Board report which Mr. Dewey quoted as saying that “delayed military demobilization has been strongly advocated” after the war.
“The facts” as released at the White House, showed the same passage from which Mr. Dewey took his statement also contained as a “definite recommendation” the following:
A general policy of speedy, but orderly and controlled, military demobilization should be adopted coupled with the use of all reasonable plans and measures to increase the employment available to those being demobilized.
The White House also took up this Dewey statement:
Here is a report from the July 30, 1943, issue of The United States News. It says… “In North Africa… field agents of a dozen agencies – the Treasury, BEW, Lend-Lease, State Department and others – are reported to have brought confusion to the brink of chaos.
The White House document:
The United States News is not an official publication. It is a private publishing venture, edited by Mr. David Lawrence.
Jersey for Dewey, Roosevelt is told
Washington (UP) –
Charles Edison, former Democratic Governor of New Jersey, said after a conference with President Roosevelt today that he told the Chief Executive that “New Jersey would go for Thomas E. Dewey by a substantial majority.”
Mr. Edison, former Secretary of the Navy in this administration, said he thought the “influence” of Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City, state Democratic leader, would “turn the vote for Dewey because there is a tremendous independent vote in New Jersey that is solidly against Hague.”
Navy officer’s attorney asks brawl probe
AFL sends affidavits to Senate committee
Washington (UP) –
Thomas C. Bradley, attorney for the two naval officers involved in the “Battle of the Statler,” today called for a “full and complete open hearing” into the brawl that took place at the Statler Hotel after President Roosevelt’s address to the AFL Teamsters Union.
Mr. Bradley’s appeal came after Joseph A. Padway, general counsel for the AFL, said he had sent to a Senate investigating committee a dozen affidavits on the incident, including two charging that the two officers were guilty of unbecoming conduct prior to their battle with the union members.
Has faith in officers
Mr. Bradley said he had the “utmost faith” in the stories told by the two officers – LtCdr. James E. Suddeth and Lt. Randolph Dickins – and was convinced that the AFL affidavits were based on a case of “mistaken identity.”
Mr. Bradley said:
I now see no escape from a full, complete and open hearing by the Senate Campaign Expenditures Committee, with all witnesses being under oath and the truth of their statements subject to the penalties for perjury.
The committee will meet tomorrow to decide whether to expand its current “study” of the case into a formal investigation.
Vote question blamed
The two officers in their account of the incident contended that members of the union stopped them after Mr. Roosevelt’s address and demanded to know how they would vote. They said they declined to answer and that the subsequent exchange of words led to more violent forms of argument.
Commentator Drew Pearson reported in a Sunday night broadcast that two witnesses were ready to testify that the officers precipitated the brawl by making “unrepeatable” statements about the President.
Rep. Luce: PAC striving to make ‘zombies’ of union men
GOP ‘glamor girl’ speaks at Syria Mosque; control of Democrats also called goal
By Kermit McFarland
It is the purpose of Sidney Hillman and his CIO Political Action Committee, in supporting the fourth term, to take over the Democratic Party and to make “political zombies” of the members of America’s labor unions, Clare Boothe Luce (R-CT) told a Republican rally in Syria Mosque last night.
Mrs. Luce, principal speaker at the second major Republican campaign meeting of the season, devoted her entire speech to an attack on the CIO Political Action Committee, which she described as a “political putsch on the American working man and woman.”
Warns of dire results
She said:
Under pressure from the Political Action Committee, the whole far-flung organization of the CIO has been forced to turn its locals in nearly every city, in every town, in every industrial village into cells to be put at the service of Mr. Hillman’s political high command.
She asked:
What is that going to mean, carried to its logical conclusion? It means that if Mr. Hillman wins in November, from there out no CIO working man’s or woman’s job will be safe unless he votes the way he is told by Mr. Hillman in any election, local or national.
For it is Mr. Hillman’s idea that the basic political unit isn’t an individual citizen, is not you and you and you. He holds that the basic political unit is a collective labor group, to be voted like heads of cattle, by orders from above, and without reference to the individual preferences at the members.
Mrs. Luce spoke to an overflow audience of 5,000 which jammed Syria Mosque and compelled the management to take down even the SRO signs. It was a far bigger crowd than heard Ohio Governor John W. Bricker, the Republican candidate for Vice President, who spoke in the same hall last month.
‘Monstrous idea’
The slight lads from Connecticut, prim and precise as she stood before the microphones, described the Political Action Committee as a “monstrous idea by every traditional American standard of freedom or democracy.”
She said:
It stems from the philosophy of Herr Karl Marx, the German father of Russian Communism. In this new interpretation of the Hillmanites and their Communist cohorts. however, this Political Action Committee plot is a dish no real American can stomach. I say it is Nazi German sauerkraut with Russian dressing.
And yet without the support, the active vociferous tireless support of this Communist-dominated PAC today, not one single political analyst in the country believes that Mr. Roosevelt can be reelected for a 16-year term in office.
Martin speaks
Mrs. Luce was preceded on the platform by Governor Edward Martin, who had escorted her to the hall. Mr. Martin, before introducing the flaxen-haired Republican “glamor girl,” briefly scored the proposal of a group of Democratic U.S. Senators who propose to shift industry to the South and West by government decree.
The Governor said:
No part of this nation is more concerned… than the Pittsburgh district.
This would mean the death to many of your industries and would destroy the wellbeing of our working people. We will fight this sectional discrimination to the bitter end.
During the war years, the income increase in Pennsylvania has fallen far below the national average and far below that of many other states.
If the McCarran plan should be carried out, this situation would be further aggravated. All of us – labor, agriculture, industry and government – must unite to defeat this dangerous plan to cripple our industry and our state.
Dewey speech tuned in
After Mrs. Luce’s address which took a half hour, the Republican management tuned in Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s speech from St. Louis.
When Mrs. Luce finished, the crowd started moving out. At first, there were dozens to take the seats of the departing. But before the presidential candidate had completed his radio speech, empty seats began to show in the great auditorium.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Luce, accompanied by the Governor had buried to a downstairs hall to greet the overflow arenes which presumably occupied it. But the audience down there was scanty and she and the Governor beat a hasty retreat back up the stairs.
However, the hallways, stairways and the outside sidewalks were jammed with people seeking a glimpse of the demure-looking lady of the bristling speeches.
Colorful ceremony
At the conclusion of the Governor’s speech, a great backdrop was raised and behind it stood four long lines of troops, brought in by the Governor. Then, while a chaplain spoke briefly and a trumpet blew taps for the 7,500 Pennsylvanians who have lost their lives in the war, a giant American flag was lowered slowly in the background.
Mrs. Luce entered sedately from side stage and shook hands before the microphones with Governor Martin.
She wore a black suit and a ruffled American Beauty shade blouse, set off by a single American Beauty rosebud a favorite with her. Her high-heeled suede shoes were toeless and heel-less. She wore no hat, and her hairdo was described as “simple and severe.”
PAC called a ‘plot’
Her delicately flashy earrings were matched by a costume pin on her dress.
All this may not be a part of political reporting, but every woman in the audience noted these items and commented on them.
Mrs. Luce’s speech, delivered with less fire and punch than some of her previous oratory, described the Political Action Committee as a “plot.” but she said it was “equally accurate to describe it as an accident, a major political accident which has befallen the Democratic Party, and with it the whole labor movement in America.”
She said:
It befell as a result of Mr. Roosevelt’s vacillating, unstable and confused labor policies all during his last term, and his increasing inability to chart any coherent domestic course, either for his own party or for the working people of this nation.
Farley praised
When the President “dropped” James A. Farley, former Democratic National Chairman, she said, “the regular Democratic organization lost its ablest organizer.”
She went on:
Today, engaged in a desperate rearguard fight for the Presidency, Mr. Roosevelt cannot be choosey about where he gets help. So, holding his nose and closing his eyes no doubt, he is taking plenty of it from the Communists and fellow travelers.
His enemies in 1940 are today his last great vocal supporters. In 1940, the Communists in America were against the President because at that time only America was in danger from Hitler. Soviet Russia seemed safe. Soviet Russia was Hitler’s ally.
But when Soviet Russia was attacked, the American Communists abruptly altered their whole position. Today they are for the President for two reasons. First, because Russia came into the war, and secondly, because they see a way of exchanging their support at the polls for the right to take over the whole CIO union today, and tomorrow the whole union movement and the Democratic Party.
Requotes Governor Dewey
Mrs. Luce requoted Governor Dewey’s recent speech in which he said:
The indispensable man is only indispensable to those who plan to control the destinies of the United States – to Hopkins, and Hague, and Hillman – to Earl Browder.
She said:
And, as a woman, I would like to add, indispensable to Mrs. Earl Browder, the Communist librarian who has helped the cause so dear to her brain, slavishly and fanatically, during her 11 years of unlawful residence in our country.
Oh, yes, Mr. Dewey’s opponent is indeed dispensable to the Communist-controlled Political Action Committee. For only if he succeeds in reelection can they succeed. And then they will take over his ancient policy of “divide and rule.” And when they take him over, you will see the beginning of the end of the American labor movement. For whoever divides the house of labor against itself can rule the working man of America forever.
Malone speaks
Republican County Chairman James F. Malone accused the Political Action Committee of going into “the numbers racket to raise money for the campaign.”
He held in his hand a lottery ticket he said was sponsored by Local 21, “FGCSSW of A,” which he said sold for $1 and gave the winner $650. The drawing, he said, is scheduled for Nov. 1 on the New York Stock Exchange number, commonly used for payoffs by the numbers racket.
Editorial: The Commies reform – oh yeah?
Until the fateful day of June 22, 1941, when Hitler attacked Russia, American Communists were busily engaged in what reasonable men might now regard as treason – except that they were usually careful to keep within the letter of the law – within the protection of the civil-liberty guarantee so dear to this country and so alien to the country of their preference.
Have the Communists changed?
Does the leopard change its spots?
Immediately after that June 22, the same Commies who had been screaming to high heaven about the imperialistic war, and about the evil designs of Mr. Roosevelt to help out England at the expense of Russia’s dear ally Hitler, began to shoot off their mouths about the urgency of all-out aid to Germany’s enemies. No more peace picketing of the White House, no more Commie-fomented strikes at war plants.
Eventually the Communist Party of America was formally “dissolved,” to be succeeded by the Communist Political Association or some such thing.
Does a rose by any other name smell differently?
Today the Commies are openly supporting Mr. Roosevelt, to his political embarrassment. He disavows their help. but he welcomes that of Sidney Hillman, whose Political Action Committee is crawling with Commies and fellow travelers.
Do they expect political rewards if Mr. Roosevelt wins? The question answers itself.
It seems to us that the seriousness of the American Communists’ revolutionary intentions has been dulled, in the consciousness of many, by their hypocritical pretenses of the last year or two.
Perhaps a reminder is needed.
So, we commend to our readers a series of articles by Frederick Woltman on this subject.
Editorial: Does he run foreign affairs like the home front?
Of all the muddy arguments in this campaign, we think the phoniest is the line that although Mr. Roosevelt’s administration is inept, confused and bankrupt on the home front, nevertheless the President is touched by some kind of magic in the conduct of foreign affairs.
Is Mr. Roosevelt a different man when he deals with foreign governments? Is he any more adept in formulating and executing a foreign policy than in devising and carrying out domestic policy? If so, why, and how? He’s the same fellow, whether butting into the business of the Secretary of State or meddling with what should be in the domain of the Secretary of Labor.
After all, doesn’t that line of “reasoning” stem from wish thinking? They really don’t know what Mr. Roosevelt is doing in the foreign field. They don’t know what commitments he made at Casablanca, Cairo, Tehran and Québec. They merely hope for the best and assume that he’s in control of the situation.
So, we’re glad Governor Dewey has taken hold of that shaggy myth and nailed it to the barn door – as he did last night in St. Louis:
Let me ask you: Can an administration which is so disunited and unsuccessful at home be any better abroad? Can an administration which is filled with quarreling and backbiting where we can see it be any better abroad where we cannot see it? Well, the answer to that seeps through even the thick wall of censorship.
And he went on to relate how the cat-and-dog fight between Vice President Wallace and Commerce Secretary Jones was reflected by competing foreign agents of our government mixing into the interdepartmental rows of the Brazilian government.
How New Deal Senator Russell of Georgia, after an overseas inspection, reported:
Our civil agencies abroad are numerous, but too often they are either working at cross purposes or, worse to relate, in some cases have no apparent purpose.
And how, all over the world, in addition to the State Department, our government is represented by such agencies as:
The FEA, RFC, WPA, OCIAA, OSS, OWI, WSA, WRB, OAPC, OC, OWM, PWRCB, OFAR, FRC, and the ACPSAHMWA.
Mr. Dewey has done well in pointing out that other people see our government through the same kind of alphabetical haze that fogs up the domestic scene.
It’s true across the waters, as well as on this side, that “Mr. Roosevelt gives two men the same powers and then turns them loose to fight about it.”
It’s true over there as well as over here, that his is an administration of “little men rattling around in big jobs.”
Abroad, as at home, he has “the most spectacular collection of incompetent people who ever held public office.”
Mr. Dewey’s St. Louis speech is one of the best he has made. Another thing he talked about was the “Hershey incident” – the rash statement of the Selective Service director that it would be about as cheap to keep people in the Army after peace comes as to “create an agency for them when they are out.”
The White House belatedly sought to repudiate Gen. Hershey’s views, and the general himself publicly ate crow, explaining that he is a Republican and anyway was expressing only his personal views – though why the director of Selective Service should select a press conference for an exposition of his purely private views is not apparent.
In any event, Governor Dewey revealed that the Hershey boner was practically copied from a report of a presidential committee headed by the President’s own uncle, Frederick A. Delano. This committee – “The Conference on Post-War Readjustment of Civilian and Military Personnel” – reported to Mr. Roosevelt:
Rapid demobilization might throw into the labor market large numbers of men just at the time when the industries might be least able to absorb them. It might create unemployment and depression. Those in the services will constitute the only large group of persons ever whom the nation could, in the event of economic crisis, exercise any degree of direct control.
The economic and social costs of retaining men in the services would be less than those involved in dealing with an unemployment depression through a civilian relief…
So, it appears, Gen. Hershey was not quite the bull-in-the-china-shop he had been made to appear.
Of course, it can be pointed out that Mr. Roosevelt does not automatically become the sponsor of every recommendation made to him by every committee he appoints. It may be that the President is completely out of sympathy with the callous proposal that veterans be kept in barracks because this would cost less.
But there is something about this pat, glib proposition that is characteristic of the New Deal as we have come in later years to know it – the papa-knows-best stuff, the increasingly authoritarian tone of the administration, the drift away from the President’s original preoccupation with human values. This is just the sort of thing toward which the tendencies of the New Deal’s arrogantly paternalistic planners have been pointing for a long time.
Edson: …But they didn’t keep the foreign issue out of it
By Peter Edson
Washington –
So foreign policy was going to be kept out of politics. So, the matter of the proposed United Nations organization to maintain peace and security wasn’t going to be dragged into the presidential campaign as a major issue. So President Roosevelt accepts an invitation to address the Foreign Policy Association’s annual dinner in New York Oct. 21.
And what do you suppose he’ll talk on – Fala’s pedigree? With the President himself thus poaching on the foreign policy issue, it becomes open season for shooting at this sacred cow.
The tactical question posed for Candidate Dewey is whether to wait till the President has emptied both barrels, or to blaze away first himself.
If Mr. Dewey adopts the latter course, he can again put the President on the defensive. But as a matter of record, Mr. Dewey has already sounded off on this question, taking the initiative on Aug. 16 in a statement criticizing the various proposals of the Dumbarton Oaks Conference as world domination by the Big Four, as “imperialism which would coerce smaller nations… cynical power politics… an immoral military alliance.”
At that time Mr. Dewey had not seen any of the drafts submitted at Dumbarton Oaks and frankly, he was shooting in the dark.
Secretary of State Cordell Hull was quick to point out that Mr. Dewey had mussed the target. But to correct his sights and put him back on the mark, Mr. Hull invited Mr. Dewey to discuss post-war security plans, and Mr. Dewey sent John Foster Dulles to confer.
‘Understanding’
They held three meetings and in a joint statement at their conclusion, Mr. Hull stated his belief that the American people considered the subject of future peace “a nonpartisan subject which must be kept entirely out of politics.”
Mr. Dulles said Governor Dewey shared this view, but in the understanding which made it no understanding at all was Mr. Dulles’ statement that treating it as a nonpartisan subject “did not preclude full public nonpartisan discussion of the means of attaining a lasting peace.”
In other words, Mr. Dewey and Mr. Dulles were leaving the gates for future discussion slightly ajar.
Mr. Dewey then kicked them wide open in his speech on foreign policy delivered at Louisville Sept. 9:
“I believe that the organization of peace is a subject which should be talked about earnestly, widely and publicly,” he said, adding that he would insist that the American people should be fully informed on our efforts to achieve the peace, and that these matters should never be a subject for partisan political advantage by any individual or by any party in or out of power,
Nearly all the remainder of Mr. Dewey’s foreign policy speech was practically another endorsement of everything the Roosevelt administration has already announced as its post-war foreign policy – punishment of war criminals, complete disarmament of Germany and Japan, close cooperation of the four great powers, creation of a security organization with a world court, an assembly of sovereign nations and a small council empowered to use force and economic sanctions to maintain peace.
Heard it again
In a nutshell, this last is the plan announced at Dumbarton Oaks.
The conclusion of Mr. Dewey’s foreign policy speech and its only criticism of the Roosevelt foreign policy was a vague sort of warning against the Washington wasters who believed that America was old, and who proposed “to buy international goodwill with the contents of American pocketbooks and set up an international WPA.”
This criticism was never amplified and that was the last word heard out of Governor Dewey on foreign policy till he tried to adopt Cordell Hull for his administration and got promptly sat on by the tall Tennessean.
As far as the record goes, however, it can be seen that Mr. Dewey has not kept the question of the peacetime foreign policy out of the campaign and on that ground, Mr. Roosevelt may be entitled to his say-so come Oct. 21.
And from now on, as says Senator Tom Connally, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, campaign discussion of the peace issue is unavoidable. Senator Connally himself is going to make three speeches about it.
Kirkpatrick: Chance good for defeat of Nazis in 1944
Germany faces loss of 2,250,000 men
By Helen Kirkpatrick
Paris, France –
There is still a better than even chance that Germany will be defeated before the end of this year, or at least that all organized resistance by the German Army will have been overcome in that time.
According to German estimates, some 800,000 Nazi troops have been killed, wounded or captured in France since our landing June 6. But overall, the Germans must reckon with a loss of 2,250,000 men removed as effective soldiers from the defense of the Reich.
Many troops cut off
In addition to the 800,000 figure of casualties and prisoners, many thousands of Wehrmacht fighters are pinned down in French ports. There are another 150,000 in Norway and Denmark, which the Germans seem ready to write off. There are 100,000 cut off in Finland, 150,000 in the Mumel–Riga area cut off by the Russians, and 150,000 in the Balkans, unable to retreat into Germany.
The Germans have lost the effective use of some 30 divisions of Hungarian and Bulgarian shock troops. They have about 300,000 men tied up in Italy.
Red threat from south
The Russian drive through Hungary threatens southern Germany as the Allied troops on the Western Front constitute a grave menace to Germany’s industry in the Ruhr and Rhineland. Vienna has been converted into one of the principal centers of German war industry since Allied Air Forces started ranging across Europe. With the Russians at the gates of Budapest, Vienna is only 120 miles away up the Danube Valley.
Once the Russian advance up the Danube begins, Germany risks being cut in two from both east and west. It may be presumed that an Allied breakthrough on the Western Front will be attempted. If it comes in the north, across the Dutch border, the Allies will enter the heart of the industrial Ruhr. If it comes in the 1st Army area, a foothold on the eastern bank of the Rhine will be established, if it comes in the Belfort region, the Americans could join up with the Russians driving from Vienna and cut off Württemberg and Bavaria.
Face trap in Italy
Once the Russians have reached Vienna, they will have outflanked the Brenner Pass and taken the first step toward encirclement of the Germans in northern Italy.
According to “Gen. Hoffman” of the “German Freedom Radio,” there is nothing between the Rhine defenses and Berlin save Götterdämmerung Divisions – the equivalent of the British Home Guard. These divisions are made up of teenage boys and old men, equipped with spades and shovels.
Spades against artillery
He asked the Germans last night:
How? Do you expect to defend the Fatherland with spades against American artillery?
There are numerous factors which enter into the picture – the weather and the long supply lines on both the Eastern and Western Fronts and these may prolong the campaign through the winter, but if the Allies in the west are as successful in breaking through the outer crust of the German defense to the eastern bank of the Rhine, as the Russians have been in the east. Germany may well be defeated by the end of the year.
Address by President Roosevelt on the National War Fund Drive
October 17, 1944, 10:30 p.m. EWT
Broadcast audio:
My friends:
Once again, I come to you on behalf of your community war fund, united with the National War Fund in a common federated appeal for us and for our allies.
This year, more than ever, we need the friendly aid and assistance of all these great humanitarian agencies for our fighting forces, for the long-suffering peoples of the United Nations, and for those in need among our neighbors here at home. These united services can bring us one step further in our fight for decency, humanity, and good will towards men.
Through a single gift to this united appeal, we are able to extend the hand of friendship to millions of people at home and around the world – to perform millions of acts of kindness.
Through this one gift we show the warmth of our affection for our men and women in uniform by providing them with the home comforts and the conveniences of the USO – and, to those whose service has been fulfilled, a friendly hand in getting adjusted to civilian life all over again. Through USO Camp Shows, one of the great institutions of this war, we bring the spirit-refreshing tonic of good American entertainment to every camp, every military hospital, and every fighting front.
Through this same gift we also support United Seamen’s Service, providing rest and relaxation for our merchant seamen, the men who are bringing the convoys through.
And we help to keep up the spirits of the homesick and heartsick prisoners of war – with the music, and the books, the sports and games provided by War Prisoners Aid.
It is through this gift that we send a token of our own personal friendship to the tragic victims of brute slavery and to those who have so long borne the burden of fighting this war – the hungry, the sick, and the homeless peoples of China, Russia, Britain, Belgium, France, Greece, Norway, Poland, The Netherlands, the Philippines, and other friends and neighbors in the community of nations. This personal gift made by you, this token of sympathy and appreciation, is much more than the mere monetary assistance.
The great warmhearted good will that you have expressed through these funds has helped immeasurably to revive the spirit of faith and hope in many lands across the seas – and in many homes back here – where there has been bitterness and hatred after years of war and oppression.
Wherever our boys in the services go, they are welcomed not only as liberators but as good friends. Wherever they go, their presence spells “America,” and that is a word now more beloved, I think, by more millions of people throughout the world than ever before in all our history.
And finally, through this united gift, we contribute to the important wartime job at home of taking good care of our children and our young people – giving a helping hand to our neighbor down the street – maintaining standards of welfare worthy of the great efforts of our fighting forces.
This gift of friendship – this participation in our community war appeal – is one war job we are not compelled to do, but it is one that we all willingly wish to do. This is typical of democracy at its best.
In these days, as we begin to see the approach of victory, it may seem more of a burden to us to measure up to our war jobs and responsibilities. Our gift to our community war fund is one way to show that there is no letdown in the spirit and the unity of this country. This gift, this expression of our own free will, speaks from the heart of the nation.
Because of this, I know that this appeal will be met gladly and generously. I know that it will reaffirm our concern for our own and for our allies.
We cannot let them down now! I know that we will keep faith with them, as they are keeping it with us, until their job is done. I know that we will all have a great sense of pride on that glad day of their return – which we are trying to make as speedy as possible – when they shake us by the hand and say, “Thanks for helping, friend. In many ways, it meant a lot to us out there!”
And so, I ask your support in a big way – a way that will count.