110,000 attend Chicago rally –
Roosevelt advocates reduced taxes, hits his imitators in GOP
New Deal actions to aid U.S. businessmen, farmers and workers cited and extolled
By Merriman Smith, United Press staff writer
Chicago, Illinois – (Oct. 28)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in one of the most spectacular appearances of his political career, before a crowd of 110,000 in Soldier Field tonight heaped sarcastic scorn upon his Republican opponents for attempting to embrace New Deal policies and made a strong bid for business support by advocating reduced taxes to help private enterprise provide 60 million post-war jobs.
House before the President arrived at the huge arena, long lines of Chicagoans pushed and shoved their way into the massive stands which were swept by a cold wind.
Tonight’s crowd was probably the largest ever addressed in person by Mr. Roosevelt, rivaled only by his 1936 crowd in the Hollywood Bowl in California.
Lists post-war plans
The President made a sweeping review of what the administration had done since 1933 to aid the workers, the farmers and the businessmen of the nation. Then he listed a number of things he wants done after the war to keep our economy up to present levels or higher.
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“I propose that the government do its part in helping private enterprise to finance expansion of our private industrial plant through normal investment channels.”
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Encourage large and small plant expansion and replacement of obsolete equipment by acceleration of the rate of depreciation for tax purposes on the new plants and facilities built in the war.
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“An adequate program” to assure “full realization of the right to a useful and remunerative employment” must “provide America with close to 60 million productive jobs.”
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Continuance of local, low-cost housing authorities.
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Congressional creation of the Fair Employment Practice Committee as a permanent agency of the government.
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A “genuine” crop insurance program for farmers.
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The lifting of wage, production, and price controls and soon as possible.
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“Every facility” for small business in the purchase of government owned plants and inventories.
Opens with sarcasm
The President opened up with a sarcastic, scornful mimicry of Republican charges against his administration, saying that while he had “a certain amount of previous experience in political campaigning,” this was “the strangest campaign I have ever seen.”
He said various Republican orators were saying in effect that “those incompetent bunglers in Washington have passed a lot of excellent laws about social security and labor and farm relief and soil conservation” and if elected the Republicans promise “not to change any of them.”
He threw back at Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican candidate. without mentioning his name, Mr. Dewey’s oft-repeated phrase “it is time for a change,” by saying that he would give the Republican campaign orators some more opportunities to say “me too.”
‘Cater to isolationists’
The President said of Republican orators:
They also say in effect: “Those inefficient and worn-out crackpots have really begun to lay the foundations of a lasting world peace. If you elect us, we will not change any of that either.”
“But,” they whisper, “‘we’ll do it in such a way that we won’t lose the support even of Gerald Nye or Gerald Smith – and this is very important – we won’t lose the support of any isolationist campaign contributor. We will even be able to satisfy the Chicago Tribune.”
Mr. Roosevelt based his discussion of the United States of the future on his “economic bill of rights” taking this from his State of the Union Message to Congress last January when he set forth an eight-point plan for economic security and freedom.
60 million jobs
After the war, he said, “an adequate program” to assure “full realization of the right to a useful and remunerative employment” must provide this country with close to 60 million “productive jobs.”
He foresaw a vast expansion of our peacetime productive capacity, proposing that “the government do its part in helping private enterprises to finance expansion of our private industrial plant through normal investment channels.”
As an example of what he had in mind, the President said large and small business “must be encouraged by the government to expand their plants and to replace their obsolete or worn-out equipment with new equipment.”
Future foreign trade
He said:
And to that end, the rate of depreciation on these new plants and facilities for tax purposes should be accelerated.
The President then turned to future foreign trade, saying “never again must we in the United States attempt to isolate ourselves from the rest of humanity.”
He added:
I am confident that, with Congressional approval, the foreign trade of the United States can be trebled after the war – providing millions of more jobs.
Such cooperative measures provide the soundest economic foundation for a lasting peace, and, after this war, we do not intend to settle for anything less than lasting peace.
Bids for labor support
Mr. Roosevelt made a forthright bid for labor and farm support in this, his first major appearance in the Midwest during his fourth-term campaign, demanding that America remain “the land of high wages and efficient production.”
“Every full-time job in America must provide enough for a decent living,” he said, promising an end after the war to wage and salary restrictions.
After the war we shall, of course. remove the control of wages and leave their determination to free collective bargaining between trade unions and employers.”
Saying that it was “common sense to see to it that the working man is paid enough, and that the farmers earn enough,” the President struck at the Republican administrations preceding his first term.
Hits ‘moguls of 1929’
He said:
Certainly, the American farmer does not want to go back to a government owned by the moguls of 1929 – and let us bear it constantly in mind that those same moguls still control the destinies of the Republican Party.
Promising continuance of the policy to help as many farmers as possible to own their own farms, the President said this meant something to the veterans who left their farms to fight.
He said:
This time they can grow apples on their own farms instead of having to sell apples on street corners.
Mr. Roosevelt said the war proved that the American businessman, worker and farmer could work together as “an unbeatable team.”
We know that – our allies know that – and so do our enemies.
That winning team must be kept together after the war and it will win many more historic victories of peace for our country, and for the cause of security and decent standards of living throughout the world.
Speaks at Fort Wayne
At Fort Wayne, Indiana, the President accused the Republicans of continuing campaign “misrepresentations,” and told a railroad station audience that between now and Election Day he will press his policy of citing them.
The President’s train made a five-miles-an-hour run through Lima, Ohio, where a sizable crowd gathered along the railroad tracks to wave at him as he passed through.
‘Don’t seem to like it’
In a rear platform appearance at Fort Wayne, the President piled more scorn on the Republicans, saying he had heard “some rather irritated comment by Republican campaign orators about my taking this campaign trip.”
He said:
They don’t seem to like it. They seem to believe that I promised them that I was not going to campaign under any circumstances and that therefore they could say anything they wanted to about my policies and my administration.
However, they conveniently overlook what I actually said in my speech of acceptance last July. I am going to quote from that speech – and I am sure you will pardon me if I quote correctly.
‘Free to report’
He continued:
I shall, however, feel free to report to the people the facts about matters of concern to them, and especially to correct any misrepresentations.
I believe that the American people know what those misrepresentations have been – and just who have made them. I think the American people know that in my speeches in this campaign I have pointed out and corrected many of those misrepresentations. I expect between now and Election Day to points out and correct more of them.
This seemed to point to several more presidential campaign appearances before Nov. 7. The only ones announced thus far, after Chicago, are a rear platform talk at Clarksburg, West Virginia, tomorrow, Boston Nov. 4 and a radio address on Election Eve.