Senator Ball: World future is vote issue
Invitation to visit Roosevelt revealed
Baltimore, Maryland (UP) –
Senator Joseph H. Ball (R-MN), who has announced his support of President Roosevelt because of the President’s foreign policy stand, said last night the American people will have perhaps their last chance on Nov. 7 to express their determination to prevent civilization’s destruction in a Third World War.
Speaking before the local chapter of the Foreign Policy Association, the 38-year-old liberal said the United States and the world are at the “crossroads of history” and that decisions of the Allies in the next few years will determine whether a world security organization can be established to prevent future wars.
U.S. support needed
He emphasized his “deep desire” to keep the question on a nonpartisan basis, but added that “it is a political issue because the convictions and attitudes on it of the President and the Congressmen and Senators elected this fall will determine whether or not the United States will join an effective world security organization.”
“Without the United States, such an organization cannot hope to succeed,” he said.
Talked to Roosevelt
In announcing his support for Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Ball told a news conference yesterday that he spent an hour “discussing Dumbarton Oaks and other phases of foreign policy” with Mr. Roosevelt on Oct. 15. He said he went to the White House in response to an invitation sent through presidential adviser Harry Hopkins “as a result of my statements and speeches emphasizing the importance of the foreign policy issue in this election.”
Mr. Ball added:
Because of my great concern with the foreign policy issue, I would have been more than happy to have accepted a similar invitation from Governor Dewey or any of his advisers. I never received any.
Senator Ball predicted Mr. Roosevelt’s reelection. In response to a question, he said that if Governor Dewey should advocate in the next two weeks a stronger foreign policy satisfactory to him, it would be “a little late in the day” for him – Ball – to switch his support to Dewey.
He said he plans a 15-minute radio speech at 10:00 p.m. Thursday, under sponsorship of the Independent Republican Committee “giving my reasons for supporting Roosevelt.” He said he still considers himself a Republican /and expects to run for reelection in 1948 on that ticket.
Ball assailed by Governor Bricker
Cheyenne, Wyoming (UP) –
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker said yesterday that Senator Joseph H. Ball (R-MN) made a “grievous mistake” and rendered a “disservice to his party and to his country” in announcing that he would support President Roosevelt for a fourth term.
Advised of Mr. Ball’s announcement, the GOP vice-presidential nominee first said “you can never analyze what a man’s motives are.”
He said it was an American’s right to “vote for whom he pleases” in a national campaign, and pointed out that that was what the Republicans were fighting for in this campaign. But he added:
Mr. Ball has sought office in the Republican Party. He seconded the nomination of Tom Dewey in the Chicago convention. I think he has made a grievous mistake and that he has rendered a disservice not only to his party but to his country through injury to the two-party system.
Ball unlikely to be Willkie heir
Washington (UP) –
Senator Owen Brewster (R-ME) today ridiculed speculation that Senator Joseph H. Ball (R-MN), who repudiated his own party’s presidential candidate to back a fourth term, would fall heir to political followers of the late Wendell Willkie.
Mr. Brewster, vice chairman of the Senate Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, said in an interview that Mr. Willkie and Mr. Ball had been in disagreement on several issues, and that for several months prior to his death, Mr. Willkie was not on speaking terms with the Senator.
Mr. Brewster said:
It is impossible to believe that someone who was utterly persona non grata to another man could take on his mantle, and any implication to that effect is a strain on credulity.
Mr. Ball will further explain his decision to back Mr. Roosevelt on Thursday when he speaks for 15 minutes on the Blue Network at 10:00 p.m., under sponsorship of the Independent Republican Committee.