Roosevelt to speak in Boston tonight
President lays ‘fear’ campaign to foes; Hudson Valley tour planned
Hartford, Connecticut (UP) –
President Roosevelt, carrying his fourth-term campaign into this insurance center of the nation, charged today that the Republicans are making “a deliberate attempt to panic the American people” by saying that their insurance policies will be worthless unless the Roosevelt administration is beaten.
He arrived here at noon en route to Springfield, Massachusetts, and Boston after making a platform speech at Bridgeport.
His speech here was the second in a series of four in a day-long tour that will be climaxed with a major address tonight at Boston’s Fenway Park.
KDKA, WJAS and KQV will broadcast the speech at 9:00 p.m. EWT.
‘Like previous campaigns’
In a year platform address here, he told a station throng that he wanted to say a word “about the campaign of fear which some Republican orators are seeking to spread among holders of insurance policies.”
He said:
It is much like previous Republican campaigns.
Today as before, they are saying that unless this administration is removed from office, the insurance policies of the people of the United States will be worthless.
The President said that type of campaign has “been rebuked by the American people at the polls before – and it will be again.”
GOP policies scored
He also charged that:
Time and again the Republicans in the Congress voted overwhelmingly against price control, and in favor of letting prices go skyrocketing.
He said:
The Democratic Party, in this war, has been the party of sound money. The Republican Party has been the party of inflation.
If the Republicans had their way, all of us – farmers, white-collar workers, factory workers, housewives – we all would have had our dollars cut down by inflation and higher living costs.
Without mentioning Republican presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey by name, he struck sharply at Mr. Dewey’s campaign charge that this is a “bungling, incompetent administration.”
Record cited
Referring to the “record” of this administration after 11 came into office in 1933, he said:
You know how quickly the action which this administration took resulted in increased earnings and savings and property values of our people.
That is what this bungling, incompetent administration has done.
Denouncing what he described as a Republican campaign of “fear,” he said:
Republican leaders tried the same kind of campaign in 1932 – when the people… were told that “grass would grow in the streets…” unless Mr. Hoover were reelected.
Well, he was not reelected President. But instead of grass growing in the streets we saw the streets hum with a revival of business and revival of employment.
From Hartford, Mr. Roosevelt was proceeding to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he was due for another rear-platform speech. The presidential train will also make a brief stop at Worcester, Massachusetts, to pick up Senator David I. Walsh (D-MA) and proceeds to Boston, where it is due at 5:30 p.m.
For the most part, tomorrow will be a day of rest at Mr. Roosevelt’s Hyde Park (New York) family home. Monday he will make what has become a traditional tour if the Hudson Valley around Hyde Park.
To vote in Hyde Park
Tuesday, the President will make his usual trip to the white-walled town hall in Hyde Park village where the election registrar will ask his name and occupation and the President will reply, “Franklin D. Roosevelt, tree grower,” before casting his ballot.
At Bridgeport, the President was greeted by Democratic officials who flanked him as he spoke from the rear platform of his special train.
Addressing a station throng, Mr. Roosevelt said he hoped that very soon after the first of January he and Mrs. Roosevelt would be able to greet at the White House “the charming lady on my right” – Miss Margaret Connors, Democratic candidate for Congress opposing the incumbent, Mrs. Clare Boothe Luce (R-CT).
Two developments
As the President left Washington last night, there were two developments:
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The President, asking employers to give their workers sufficient time off Tuesday to vote, asked “that any employee who is not allowed enough time to vote inform me of the circumstances, together with the name of his company and other pertinent facts.” The President pointed out, too, that companies having government contracts would be allowed to charge as reimbursable cost the pav to workers for election time off.
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White House Press Secretary Stephen T. Early said Senator Carter Glass (D-VA) had telephoned him, asking him to give the President his “love” and assure him that Mr. Glass would vote for him. Mr. Glass opposed the third term nomination and until a day or so ago had said nothing about favoring a fourth term.