Dewey charges ‘exploitation’ of farmers
Syracuse, New York (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey charged today that the Roosevelt administration has “exploited for political profit” its farm programs of the last 12 years and promised that a Republican victory in November would bring farmers a safeguard against extreme price fluctuations as well as “freedom… from dictation and control.”
In a speech at the State Fair Grounds here today, the Republican presidential candidate challenged what he called the “scarcity theories and shrinking economy of the New Deal years” and demanded that the nation “go forward and develop the great American market for our farm products through improved diet for American people.”
‘No hope’ in New Deal
He said there was “no hope” of achieving such results under the Roosevelt administration because “after it had been in office nearly eight years in 1940, the New Deal still had failed to achieve anything like fair prices for farm products. It took a war to get decent farm prices, just as it took a war to get jobs,” Governor Dewey charged.
He linked the failure to what he said was quarreling and bickering over overlapping responsibility as well as inability to stabilize agriculture on a par with industry and labor.
Governor Dewey charged:
From the very beginning of the New Deal, farm programs put forward by the farmers have been set up, only to be exploited for political profit and to gain control over the operation of our farms.
Offers 10-point plan
As for overlapping authority, Mr. Dewey recalled that Chester A. Davis of St. Louis resigned as first War Food Administrator for the Roosevelt administration after two months on the job with an explanation that “I find that I have assumed a public responsibility while the authority, not only over broad food policy, but day-to-day actions, is being exercised elsewhere.”
As an alternative, Dewey offered a 10-point program from the Republican platform promising a Department of Agriculture under practical and experienced administration free from regimentation and confusing manipulation and control of farm programs, His proposal also included protection of prices, protection of farmers against surpluses and research to aid in new crops.
Governor Dewey said this program was “comprehensive,” and would be adjusted to meet changing conditions. He promised that “for the sake of the nation we can and must avoid these extreme price fluctuations.”
He said:
As a nation, we are committed to the proposition that the prices of major farm products must be supported against the substandard levels we saw for so many years before this war.
In the final analysis, Governor Dewey said, farm prices inevitably are tied to urban prosperity.
He said:
We have learned that depression on the farm leads to depression in the nation just as unemployment and misery in the city lead to misery on the farm. If we are to have a strong, vigorous and happy country, we must have full employment in the factories and fair prices on the farms.
Dewey acts to extend New York poll hours
Albany, New York (UP) –
New York State’s Legislature, for the first time since Oct. 22. 1940, will meet in extraordinary session Monday noon to consider extending election day voting hours in the state.
In 1936 and again in 1940, when the regular closing hours of polling places was 6:00 p.m. ET, the Legislature was called into special session to add three more hours to the voting day by Governor Herbert H. Lehman. Under an amendment to the election law in 1941, the closing hour was changed to 7:00 p.m.
Monday’s special session, the first ever called by Governor Thomas E. Dewey, will last, it is expected, not more than two or three hours and will cost the state according to official estimates between $11,000 and $13,000.
Governor Dewey, in Albany yesterday between campaign trips for the Presidency, took time out to study the voting situation and issued the call after a lengthy conference with Charles Breitel, his counsel, and Republican legislative leaders.