The Pittsburgh Press (October 27, 1944)
Jap fleet losses mount; six U.S. warships sunk
Toll of enemy vessels blasted reaches 37 as planes push attack
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer
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Allies clearing Germans from Schelde isles
Amphibious thrust may trap 11,000
By J. Edward Murray, United Press staff writer
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Early meeting of Big Three powers urged by Churchill
Last lap of European War here but present stage is dour and hard, Commons told
London, England (UP) –
Prime Minister Churchill today expressed earnest hope that Premier Stalin, President Roosevelt and he may meet again within two months, presumably after the U.S. election, and revealed Russia and Britain have proposed a temporary “united government” for the Balkan countries to aid in prosecuting the war against Germany.
Mr. Churchill told the House of Commons that his Moscow consultations with Stalin achieved “highly satisfactory” results, including full agreement on the Balkans and Hungary, progress on the thorny Polish question and a review of military problems arising in the “last lap” of the war.
He said:
But I am quite sure that no final result can be obtained until the heads of the three governments have met again together as I earnestly trust they may do before this year is at its end.
Mr. Churchill said the Allies believed they were on the “last lap” of the European war, but warned that “this is a race in which failure to exert the fullest effort to the end may protract that end.”
He said:
The present stage of the war is dour and hard, and fighting must be expected on all fronts to increase in scale and intensity.
Premier Churchill emphasized his strong feeling that responsibility for peace in the post-war era rests with the three great powers – Britain, America and Russia. “Other countries will be associated,” he said, “but the future depends on the union of the three most powerful allies.”
Mr. Churchill said he and Stalin achieved “very good working agreement” on policies relative to Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Hungary.
He said:
We have invited them to come together and form a united government for the purpose of carrying on the war. But these workaday arrangements must be looked upon as temporary expedients to meet an emergency. All permanent arrangements await the presence of the United States who have been constantly informed on what is going forward.
Understanding on Balkans
Mr. Churchill indicated strongly that he and Stalin achieved an understanding on spheres of Balkan influence.
The Prime Minister discussed the Polish issue, choosing his words with great care. He said it involved “two crucial issues” – the question of Polish frontiers and the relations of the London and Lublin Polish governments.
He said:
I wish I could tell the House that we had reached a solution of these problems. It certainly was not for want of trying. I am quite sure, however, that we have got a great deal nearer to it. I hope that Mikołajczyk [Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk] will soon return to Moscow and it will be a great disappointment to all sincere friends of Poland if a good arrangement cannot be made which will enable him to form a Polish government on Polish soil.
Frontier changes conceded
Mr. Churchill said of the frontier issue that it was hoped this “though it may not entirely coincide or correspond with the pre-war frontier of Poland will nevertheless be adequate for the needs of the Polish nation and not inferior in character and in quality, taking the picture as a whole, to what they had previously possessed.”
These are critical days and it would be a great pity if time were wasted in indecision or protracted negotiations. If the Polish government had taken the advice we tendered them at the beginning of this year, the additional complication produced by the formation of the Polish National Committee of Liberation at Lublin would never have arisen.
Mr. Churchill said that France would now resume “her rightful historic role upon the world stage” and that “France can by no means be excluded from discussions of the principal Allies dealing with the problem of the Rhine and the fate of Germany.”
Roosevelt speaks tonight in Philadelphia
President parades through city
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania –
A damp, chill wind greeted President Roosevelt as he arrived in Philadelphia today for a motorcade sweep of the historic city and adjacent Camden, New Jersey, across the Delaware River.
Immediately after his arrival, the President entered his open car for a 30-mile parade under heavily overcast skies, in a bid for Pennsylvania’s 35 electoral votes.
The parade will be climaxed by a major political speech to the nation’s business men tonight at Shibe Park – the start of a five or six-state political swing.
WCAE and WJAS will broadcast the speech at 9:00 p.m. EWT.
Guffey, Lawrence there
In the open car with the President were Secretary Stephen Early, Attorney General Francis Biddle and Postmaster General Frank Walker.
A Secret Service car led the parade, and behind Mr. Roosevelt’s car – the second – came autos loaded with Democratic leaders, including U.S. Senator Joseph F. Guffey, Democratic State Chairman David Lawrence and candidates for various state offices.
The motorcade passed Philadelphia’s old city hall, passing under a street-wide banner of Governor Thomas E. Dewey hanging from the city headquarters of the Republican Women of Pennsylvania.
500,000 line crowd
Police Capt. Vincent L. Elwell estimated 500,000 persons lined Broad Street for three blocks below City Hall as the motorcade headed for the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
Two accidents marred the early Stages of the parade. Marine Col. A. E. Randall died of a heart attack while waiting with a group of naval officers at the main gate of the Navy Yard. At City Hall, the tail end of the motorcade was delayed for a few minutes when a police horse was knocked to the pavement by a car.
Mr. Roosevelt’s entrance into the Navy Yard was greeted with the traditional ruffles and flourishes, played by the Navy Yard band, and followed by the national anthem.
Welcomed by admiral
Welcomed at the main gate by RAdm. M. F. Draemel, Navy Yard commandant, Mr. Roosevelt was sped through the yard as thousands of workers braved the damp weather to cheer him all along the route.
A brief pause was made before the USS Olympia, the preserved flagship of Adm. Dewey and relic of the Battle of Manila Bay, before the tour continued.
A biting and intermittent rain followed the presidential tour through the Navy Yard. Witnesses caught no sight of Mr. Roosevelt’s dog, Fala, and it was not learned whether the President’s pet had been left behind because of the inclemency of the weather.
Stops at Wilmington
On his rain-swept tour through New York City last Saturday, Fala accompanied the President.
Mr. Roosevelt’s arrival in Philadelphia followed a brief stop at Wilmington, Delaware, where he told the station crowd that the Republicans were trying to prove “that a horse chestnut is a chestnut horse.”
Lincoln quoted
The President said at Wilmington:
A big vote in America this year will speak powerfully for the cause of democracy all over the world, the President said at Wilmington. We are holding a national election while the nation is at war – and this is the first time an election has been held under such conditions since 1864 – 80 years ago.
Which calls to mind a remark made by Abraham Lincoln when he was campaigning against Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln said, “In every way possible, he tried to prove that a horse chestnut is a chestnut horse.”
It seems to me that applies very neatly to some of the Republican political oratory which has lately been agitating the air waves.
…I think we all know the difference between a horse chestnut and chestnut horse.
Mr. Roosevelt will speak at Chicago’s Soldier Field, returning to Washington Sunday.
Chicago Democratic leaders said the advance demand for tickets indicated that 110,000 persons would crowd into Soldier Field to hear Mr. Roosevelt and it was estimated that 50,000 more would stand outside listening over a loudspeaker system.
One more major trip
The President has at least one more campaign journey scheduled in this extraordinarily bitter and personal contest with Governor Dewey to determine who shall be President for the next four years.
The President will pause for 15 minutes tomorrow in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for a short speech. Reportedly on the schedule is a train-end appearance either at Akron or Youngstown, Ohio, one purpose of which – if it takes place – will be to blast the reelection prospects of Senator Robert A. Taft (R-OH), a standout adversary of administration policy, both domestic and foreign.
In New York, Robert E. Hannegan, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Mr. Roosevelt will stop briefly at Clarksburg, West Virginia, on his return trip.
Despite announcement of the Sunday return to Washington, there remained the possibility that the President would pack up early enough next week to speak in Cleveland, Detroit or Buffalo, New York, before an officially announced engagement in Boston on Nov. 4. That is the Saturday before Election Day.
Poll: Five big states hold key to election with race neck-and-neck
Pennsylvania still 50–50; 21 states too close to be certain for either candidate
By Dr. George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
How civilian vote stands today
Definitely for Roosevelt today
Roosevelt Dewey South Carolina 87% 13% Mississippi 87% 13% Georgia 80% 20% Louisiana 78% 22% Alabama 77% 23% Florida 71% 29% Arkansas 70% 30% North Carolina 69% 31% Virginia 64% 36% Tennessee 64% 36% Texas 64% 36% Arizona 58% 42% Utah 57% 43% Rhode Island 56% 44% Montana 54% 46% Nevada 54% 46% California 54% 46% Washington 54% 46% 179 electoral votes
Definitely for Dewey today
Roosevelt Dewey Nebraska 37% 63% Kansas 37% 63% South Dakota 37% 63% North Dakota 40% 60% Iowa 44% 56% Colorado 45% 55% Vermont 45% 55% Indiana 46% 54% Wisconsin 46% 54% 66 electoral votes
Pivotal states
Roosevelt Dewey Kentucky 53% 47% Connecticut 52% 48% Maryland 51% 49% Massachusetts 50% 50% Pennsylvania 50% 50% Delaware 50% 50% Oklahoma 50% 50% Oregon 50% 50% Missouri 49% 51% West Virginia 49% 51% New Hampshire 49% 51% New York 49% 51% New Mexico 49% 51% New Jersey 48% 52% Illinois 48% 52% Idaho 48% 52% Ohio 47% 53% Michigan 47% 53% Maine 47% 53% Wyoming 47% 53% Minnesota 47% 53% 286 electoral votes
With Election Day little more than a week away, latest figures in the Institute’s state-by-state poll show Roosevelt-Dewey sentiment almost equally divided.
Twenty-one pivotal states, in which sentiment is too close to list them in either candidate’s column, are the big battleground.
Pennsylvania is still equally divided – neither candidate showing the slightest advantage.
The results in this poll, it must be remembered, are obtained from civilian voters only. Service voters cannot be polled under the law, and the service vote may determine the outcome if the civilian vote is as close as now indicated.
Dewey shows strength
Any advantage which the Democrats may have gained through heavy registration in large industrial centers has been offset in the last two weeks by increased evidence of Dewey strength.
The situation is substantially the same as it was when the last nationwide poll was printed on Oct. 15.
With an estimated voter turnout of 47 million civilians, President Roosevelt is found polling 51 percent of the popular vote and Governor Dewey 49 percent. This does not include any votes of men and women in the armed services.
Indications are still that the decision as to the winner will rest in five large industrial states which are still hovering near the 50-50 line — Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut.
122 electoral votes in doubt
The electoral votes of these very important states total 122. If Mr. Roosevelt gets all of them his electoral vote would assume landslide proportions. If, on the other hand, Mr. Dewey got them he would win with a comfortable majority.
State-by-state analysis shows 18 states with 179 electoral votes definitely in the Roosevelt column and nine states with 66 electoral votes definitely in the Dewey column.
The remaining 21 states with 286 electoral votes are pivotal areas where the lead for either candidate is less than 54 percent.
Among the pivotal states, Mr. Dewey has the advantage at present in 13 and Mr. Roosevelt in three.
Roosevelt improves total
Compared to the poll published Oct. 15, Mr. Roosevelt has improved his total of states definitely for him and Mr. Dewey has lost ground; but of pivotal states leaning to one candidate or the other, Mr. Dewey has gained ground and Mr. Roosevelt lost ground.
The comparison is as follows:
| Today | Oct. 15 | |
|---|---|---|
| Definitely for Roosevelt | 119 | 158 |
| Definitely for Dewey | 66 | 121 |
| Leaning toward Roosevelt | 27 | 85 |
| Leaning toward Dewey | 189 | 107 |
Adding the states leaning toward Dewey to the states definitely for him gives him 255 electoral votes; adding the definite Roosevelt states to those leaning toward him gives him 206 votes.
The remaining 70 electoral votes are in the five states dividing evenly.
It takes 266 electoral votes to win.
Aside from the normal margin of error in all polling operations, an error which in this country and four foreign countries amounts to between three and four percent, information is not available on one important segment of the voting population – voters in the Armed Forces.
Military regulations forbid the polling of these voters, and the readers therefore must take this tact into account in interpreting the results shown here. No one knows how the soldiers will vote in any specific state, but it is believed that in some states the soldier vote may add as much as one percent to the Roosevelt figure.
In a state which on the basis of poll samples is found to be evenly divided, the vote of the Armed Forces can obviously be the deciding factor.
Final figures on political sentiment in the 48 states, based on polling which will be going on this week and next, will be reported Monday, Nov. 6.
Hillman tactics called disturbing
Washington (UP) –
Labor, weekly publication of 15 railway brotherhoods, predicted today that “the largest labor vote in the history of America” would be cast Nov. 7.
Claiming that the brotherhoods started the voter registration drive more than a year ago and that other labor groups followed their lead, Labor said:
There is just one disturbing factor. The unfortunate tactics of Sidney Hillman and his Communist-controlled CIO committee have aroused an immense amount of resentment particularly among residents of the rural districts. Democratic and Republican leaders are agreed on that.
Labor said President Roosevelt will receive “80 percent of the labor vote and progressive candidates for the House and Senate in industrial areas will probably get record-breaking majorities.”
Simms: Austria called new test for United Nations
Choice of democracy for nation urged
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
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Rains bog down Yanks in Italy
Eighth Army patrols cross Ronco River
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Cleveland death toll reaches 134
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Raids ‘finish’ carrier-based Jap aviation
Mitscher cites blows at Formosa, Luzon
By George Jones, United Press staff writer
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‘One lousy little old G.I. company’ beats off 3 German divisions
Troops on ridge for 38 days and nights fight on after Yanks conquer city
By W. C. Heinz, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Survivor of ‘expendables’ reveals behind-lines war
By Frank Hewlett, United Press staff writer
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Never look back, war widow warns
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‘Dutch Country’ is mad –
Trend in Lehigh County indicates vote for Dewey
Considered good barometer for state in past; farmers are sore about government forms
By Kermit McFarland, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
Allentown, Pennsylvania –
The trend in the Dutch Country is away from the New Deal.
Usually Democratic in presidential years, if not at other elections, the shift this year has worked up to such a stage that there is a real prospect of the Republicans winning Lehigh County, often a good barometer for the state.
Every year Pennsylvania has gone Democratic in a national or statewide election, so has Lehigh. In the recent state elections won by the Republicans, Lehigh went Republican.
While local Democratic leaders still profess to see a Roosevelt majority in this county, the more impartial observers are convinced the county will go Republican.
Two years ago, Governor Edward Martin won the county by 6,000. Four years ago, President Roosevelt carried it by 3,400.
GOP registration lead
This year, the Republicans hold a voter registration lead of 2,370, and four years ago, the Democrats led in voter enrollment by 691.
The Republican majority here, if the forecasts are borne out, probably won’t make so much difference in the grand totals, but the fact that this is a “swing” county makes the outlook here significant.
And the reasons underlying the evidence of a Republican trend are significant because they are common, although in varying degree, to other parts of the state.
The most vocal of the “new” opposition to the New Deal – that is, from groups which hitherto have been pretty sod for the President – comes from the potato farmers in this county. They are disgruntled because they say the OPA and other government agencies have kept them in a lather with regulations, rulings, forms, quotas and “regimentation.”
Resent federal forms
The potato farmers are particularly expressive because, as they look at it, the potato business was the victim of a special “bungle” on the part of the Government.
Other farmers in this county sound off about the New Deal and “regimentation” in much milder terms and concrete evidences of a Republican trend among them are more difficult to trace.
Government forms, however, have been taking a toll of hitherto Democratic votes among the small businessmen of this and neighboring Northampton County – which this reporter also explored.
Republican leaders in this area are keyed up about the Nov. 7 outlook far more than in the last presidential campaign.
The district workers are more zealous about their work, they are putting in longer hours, they are operating like a group which thinks it has a winner. In the last two presidential years, they had an air of hopelessness about them.
Big silent vote
There is a good deal of evidence to show that while there is a large “silent” vote which puzzles the political dopesters, here and elsewhere in the state, there is a heavy interest in the election.
Political leaders on both sides say they don’t know what the “silent” vote intends to do, but both sides are hoping for at least an even break.
The fact that Mr. Roosevelt is running for a fourth term, the prestige of the Martin Administration at Harrisburg, the natural bent of American voters to turn, sooner or later, against the “ins,” the plethora of government regulations which have harassed salaried workers as well as businessmen, the Communist issue to some extent and wartime strikes also are cutting ice in the campaign hereabouts.
The CIO Political Action Committee staged an intensive registration campaign here before Oct. 7, and an even more aggressive drive in Northampton County, where the CIO has heavily organized industry. But the Republicans managed to hold their own in voter enrollment in Lehigh County. Northampton, as hitherto, has a Democratic majority.
Northampton for FDR
President Roosevelt generally is doped to carry Northampton, but by a majority somewhat under his 1940 lead. Four years ago, he was 7,900 votes ahead of the late Wendell Willkie. The generally accepted figure this time is an estimate of 6,000.
The Republicans in this end of the state are not making use of the billboard signs erected by the Republican committee in Allegheny County, which read, “If you want bring the boys home sooner… vote for Dewey and Bricker.” Here all the billboard signs read, “For Peace-Time Jobs, 1945-1949, vote for Dewey and Bricker.”
In Scranton and Lackawanna County, the Democrats profess not to be alarmed about the possibility of President Roosevelt losing the county, which he has carried three times. In this position they seem to be supported by the Republicans, who display little real hope of turning the county in Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s column.
But the Roosevelt majority, which exceeded 30,000 in 1936 and 16,000 in 1940, will be pared still further Nov, 7. Most guessers put the figure at 10,000, which is fairly close in a county of some 230,000.
In exact reverse to the situation in neighboring Luzerne County, the Lackawanna Democrats are a smooth outfit, and the Republicans are not too happy among themselves.
Dewey turns to problem of voting time
New York City wants polls open until 1000
Albany, New York (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey turned today from campaigning to a New York State problem – voting hours in New York City – which may in itself affect his bid for the White House in the Nov. 7 election.
The New York Governor is scheduled to receive a report from Charles Breitel, his counsel, today on a proposal to keep New York City polling places open three hours longer this year to accommodate the heavy voter registration.
Under present law, voting hours are from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. EWT. Mr. Breitel met earlier this week with members of the New York Board of Elections. His report is expected to influence Governor Dewey’s decision on whether to call a special legislative session to authorize an extension.
Observers see handicap
Many political observers believe that an extension of voting hours would work to the disadvantage of the Republican presidential candidate. The belief is based on the idea that the heavier the vote in New York City, the greater margin Dewey will have to gain upstate in order to win the state’s 47 electoral votes.
Governor Dewey apparently doesn’t subscribe to that theory. He told a press conference in St. Louis last week that he was pleased with the heavy New York City registration.
Twice before in recent years, 1940 and 1942, the New York City polls were kept open beyond 7:00 p.m. President Roosevelt carried the state against the late Wendell L. Willkie in 1940. Governor Dewey, in winning the governorship, led the Republican Party to a state victory in 1942.
Has open date
Next Monday is an open date on Mr. Dewey’s schedule on which he could be on hand for an emergency session of the state legislature to extend the voting hours.
He is scheduled to resume campaigning tomorrow with a farm speech from Syracuse, New York, heart of the state’s agricultural district and scene of the annual state fair.
KQV will broadcast the speech at 12:30 p.m. ET.
Gracie Allen Reporting
By Gracie Allen
Hollywood, California –
Well, if you ask me, what the field of international diplomacy really needs is a woman here and there to put some real common sense into it.
For instance, our country had been having a lot of trouble recognizing Gen. de Gaulle. Goodness, I’d know that big, handsome fellow anywhere.
And speaking of recognition, take Turkey.
If you’re talking about fancy diplomacy, there’s a smooth one.
In fact, Turkey has been so clever about being neutral during the entire war, that it’s hard to tell whether the Allies or the Nazis are getting the part that comes over the fence last.
Barmine: Communists support Roosevelt to push own future program
Democrats warned to fear subversive groups bearing votes – for cost will be heavy
By Alexander Barmine
EDITOR’S NOTE: Alexander Barmine, 44, fought in the Russian Army during the last war, and graduated from the Soviet General Staff College in 1923 as brigadier general. As a foreign trade office representative, he subsequently saw dictatorships supplant democracies in Europe, Asia and Africa. In 1933-34, he was president of Auto-Moto-Export the Soviet Union’s central trust for exporting all products of its auto, aviation and armament industries. While serving as charge d’affaires in Athens in 1937, he broke with the Soviet regime. resigned and found refuge in Paris. He came to the United States in 1940 and worked in a metal factory, entered the U.S. Army as a private in 1942 and subsequently became an American citizen. An article by him on “The New Communist Conspiracy” appears in the current Reader’s Digest.
New York –
**Despite President Roosevelt’s declaration that he does not welcome Communist support, the Communist leaders are continuing to back him for a fourth term in order to advance their long-range plans.
In his speech of Jan. 20 last, Earl Browder, Communist leader, complained:
The American people ae so ill-prepared for any deep-going change in the direction of socialism…
Browder meant ill-prepared for the Russian brand of socialism. He recognized that new means must be found for edging the American people into a state better prepared for totalitarian trends. The “indispensable man” idea – the permanent or semi-permanent leader idea – was made to order for the furtherance of their totalitarian aims.
Their next objective, ambitious though it may seem now, is the capture of the machinery of the Democratic Party.
Strategy described
They are extremely active among Americans of foreign extraction. Through Communist-influenced foreign language papers, they hammer home the idea that anyone exercising his right to vote against the party in power is disrupting American wartime unity.
Capture by a small group of camouflaged Communists of the American Labor Party, representing half a million New York State votes, was a successful test of strength and technique. In the same way they have captured many CIO unions. These captures were essentially tryouts.
Through their ally, Sidney Hillman, the Communists are delivering these captured. votes to the Democratic Party. But the Democrats should beware of this “gift.” The ultimate cost will be heavy.
PAC intends to stay
At first, the CIO Political Action Committee declared that its only purpose was to get out votes for this election, but Sidney Hillman has now announced that the Political Action Committee will be maintained after the elections.
With the key positions in the Political Action Committee occupied by Communists and fellow travelers, there has been established what may become a balance of power in the Democratic Party. If this balance of power can be established and maintained, the Democratic Party will be headed for oblivion or ultimate totalitarian domination.
Since January 1944, the Communists have proclaimed themselves to be enthusiastic supporters of democracy, capitalism and free enterprise, just as in June 1941, they became overnight “patriotic Americans.”
Browder quoted
In his Jan. 10 speech, Browder said:
We may compromise and do, on a hundred other questions, including the basic one of postponing all radical proposals for changing the social and economic system.
Postponing until when? Browder did not say. But Stalin has said. In his Foundations of Leninism, he wrote:
A revolutionist may sponsor a reform because he sees in it a means for linking up constitutional action, because he feels he can make use of it as a screen behind which he can strengthen his clandestine work, whose aim is to educate and prepare the masses for the revolutionary overthrow of the bourgeoisie.
Stalin’s advice cited
In a speech to the Comintern’s American Commission on May 6, 1929, Stalin said:
The American Communist Party is one of the few Communist parties in the world upon which history has laid tasks of a decisive character from the point of view of the world revolutionary movement… when a revolutionary crisis develops in America, that will be the beginning of the end of world capitalism as a whole. It is essential that the American Communist Party should be capable of meeting that historical moment fully prepared… every effort and every means must be employed in preparing for that, comrades.
In the light of this, it becomes clear that by “postponement” Browder meant until the Communists in America have got enough power to again come out into the open or “until a crisis develops in America.”
‘They stoop to conquer’
The Communists know they are certain to encounter desperate opposition when Americans awaken to the fact that their liberties are being threatened. That is why the Communists are stooping to conquer the respectable old Democratic Party, which they detest as thoroughly as they do the Republican Party.
The plot may sound fantastic to the American voter who takes as a matter of course his political liberty and his right to freedom to vote under a two-party system. But the program is neither fantastic nor impractical to the totalitarian planners.
Europe offers too many examples of what happened to democracies which were contemptuous of warnings such as are now being sounded in America. To ignore them is to flirt with disaster.
Club chairman calls Dewey’s charges false
Says accusations are based on ‘hearsay’
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Frank J. Lewis, national chairman of the 1000 Club, today said that Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Republican presidential nominee, made false charges against the organization on the basis of “hearsay statements of two Arkansas gentlemen, neither of whom are members of the club.”
Governor Dewey, in a Chicago address Wednesday, said the club’s existence was proof of an attempt by the New Deal to sell political influence in exchange for campaign contributions.
Not formed in White House
Mr. Lewis said that the club, which was formed Sept. 11, in Chicago “and not the White House, as Governor Dewey claims,” is made up of Midwestern business and professional men “who are not actively identified with either major political party, and whose immediate objective is the reelection of President Roosevelt.”
Mr. Lewis said:
The 1000 Club is greatly indebted to Governor Dewey for the nationwide publicity given it in the Governor’s Chicago address. The club is sponsoring President Roosevelt’s Chicago broadcast tomorrow evening and is hopeful that the wide publicity will help the club to raise the funds to pay for this broadcast.
Mr. Lewis expressed surprise that “so able an investigator as the New York Governor” should have spoken “so authoritatively without consulting any members of the organization.”
Dewey’s sources questioned
“Had he done so,” Mr. Lewis asserted, “he could not, with any regard for the truth, have made the statements about the club he did make.” Mr. Lewis said neither H. L. McAlister nor Sam J. Watkins, quoted by Mr. Dewey as the source of his charges, "have been active in or authorized to speak for the club.”
Mr. Lewis said:
The policy of the club is to put the war above partisan politics. The interest of the club is the war, not party spoils. Since the group is nonpartisan, it has not sought and will not be entitled to receive patronage from any political party.
White House denies cut in war budget
Washington (UP) –
The White House today contested a charge by Governor Thomas E. Dewey that the Budget Bureau cut $552 million from an Army appropriation in 1939, asserting that the overall appropriation was actually increased 800 percent over the previous year.
The White House said:
The cut Mr. Dewey mentioned amounted to less than seven percent of the total, not the 23 percent cut inferred. On the other hand, the $8,038,550,718 recommended by the Bureau or the Budget for the War Department compared to $895,745,260 for the previous fiscal year, an increase of almost 800 percent.