very interesting coming from the liar bircher known as Pegler the rotting in hell man.
Remarks by President Roosevelt
November 4, 1944
Delivered at Springfield, Massachusetts
I had hoped to be able to motor up here from Hartford, but I thought to myself that the gasoline would be of more use in a tank in Germany than in my car.
Somebody tells me that there is a political campaign on.
I think we all agree that it is probably one of the important political campaigns in our history.
But – here in Springfield – I cannot refrain from suggesting that there is also a war on, a war which, I very deeply believe, will decide the fate of our America and of the whole human race for generations to come.
You good people here in Springfield know a great deal about war. You have known about munitions for years, since long before I was born. You know about our preparedness, and you knew about it long before Pearl Harbor.
This city – located on one of the most beautiful rivers in the United States – it isn’t quite so refined as the Hudson – this city has always been the center of experimentation and production of the weapons of defense against aggression.
The Springfield rifle – the Garand rifle – they have proved themselves, in one battle after another, essential weapons of war.
Here in Springfield, great history has been made. As your President during these eventful years, I am proud to be here and proud to be looking into the faces of all of you who did so much for America, and for the cause of civilization.
And also, I might add, because I have known publishers for a great many years – this city is the home of a great newspaper. And I wish that we had more papers throughout the nation like the Springfield Republican.
It has been four years – four eventful, stirring years – since you people gave me the last mandate in an election. And here I am, back again.
For many American homes they have been years of personal heartbreak and tragedy, about which any words that I could say would be idle.
Yet, even for them – I would say, for them above all others – there is the proud sense that America has come greatly through a dark and dangerous time. The ship of state is sturdy and safe, and with continued courage and wisdom we can bring it into a harbor where it will not be whipped by the storms of another war within any foreseeable period.
But we are going to remain prepared. I take it as a matter of wisdom that we should not dismantle the Springfield arsenals. This time we are not going to scuttle our strength.
Four years ago, many of us knew that this war might come. We sought to prepare America for it, often in the face of mocking gibes from those who said that we had nothing to fear from Germany or Japan.
We went about the work of building the national defenses and of setting up a system of selective service. We had the stern resolve – that I expressed many times four years ago – that we meant this for defense and not for offense – and that we would not send our boys to fight abroad unless we were attacked.
The attack came – treacherous, deadly attack.
Our pledge was kept. We fought back when we were attacked – obviously, rightly.
We fought back – as our forefathers had fought. We took the offensive – and we held it. The kind of America we inherited from our fathers is the kind of America we want to pass on to our children – but, an America more prosperous, more secure – free from want and free from fear.
It was to save that America that we joined in a common war against economic breakdown and depression – and we won that war.
It was to save that America that we joined in a common war against the Fascist ruthlessness and brutality of Germany and Japan. And we are winning that war.
It is to save that America that our sons are fighting gloriously on battlefields all over the world.
You and I have been through a lot together. And we are going to go ahead together – until we have finished this tremendous job of winning the war and building a strong, enduring peace.
So, sometimes I really honestly do forget politics. Regardless of what happens on Election Day – I assure you that I shall be the same man you have known all these years, and I am still dedicated to the same ideals for which you and I and our sons have been fighting.
I am very glad to have had this all too brief opportunity to be back here – I might almost say to chat with you.
I am glad to be back here in Springfield now, and I am coming back again. And being half from New England myself – up the river here in Northampton – I have a hunch – as lots of people do in Western Massachusetts and Eastern New York – I have a hunch that I shall be back here again soon as President of the United States.
In any case, as your President, I want to say to you – thank you for coming here. I have never spoken from here before – I think it’s a pretty good spot. And thanks particularly for the magnificent job you have been doing in this city towards winning the war.
Address by President Roosevelt
November 4, 1944, 9:00 p.m. EWT
Broadcast from Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts
Broadcast audio:
This is not my first visit to Boston. I shall not review all my previous visits. I should have to go on talking for several days to do that – and radio time costs a lot of money.
But I want to recall one visit, back in October 1928, when I came here to urge you to vote for a great American named Al Smith.
And you did vote for that eternally “Happy Warrior.”
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts – and your good neighbor, Rhode Island – both went Democratic in 1928, four years before the rest of the nation did.
This year – and I am making no predictions, I just have a little hope – this year we would like to welcome into the family Maine and Vermont.
And while I am speaking of that campaign of 1928, let me remind you that, having nominated Al Smith for the second time for the Presidency, I was then running at his request for the Governorship of New York. And people were then — even then – saying that my health would not permit me to discharge the duties of public office.
Well, you know, I think that it is by now a pretty well-established fact that I managed to survive my four years as Governor of New York. And at the end of that time, I went elsewhere.
In this connection, in 1928 – that first year that I ran for Governor – Al Smith remarked publicly that the Governor of New York does not have to be an acrobat. And not many months before his untimely death, he remarked to me in my office in Washington, “It is perfectly evident that you don’t have to be an acrobat to be President either.”
When I talked here in Boston in 1928, I talked about racial and religious intolerance, which was then – as unfortunately it still is, to some extent – “a menace to the liberties of America.”
And all the bigots in those days were gunning for Al Smith.
Religious intolerance, social intolerance, and political intolerance have no place in our American life.
Here in New England, you have been fighting bigotry and intolerance for centuries. I reminded a genealogical society – I think they are called “ancestor worshippers” – I said to them that they knew that all of our people all over the country – except the pure-blooded Indians – are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, including even those who came over here on the Mayflower.
Today, in this war, our fine boys are fighting magnificently all over the world and among those boys are the Murphys and the Kellys, the Smiths and the Joneses, the Cohens, the Carusos, the Kowalskis, the Schultzes, the Olsens, the Swobodas, and – right in with all the rest of them – the Cabots and the Lowells.
All of these people, and others like them, are the lifeblood of America. They are the hope of the world.
It is our duty to them to make sure that, big as this country is, there is no room in it for racial or religious intolerance – and that there is no room for snobbery.
Our young men and our young women are fighting not only for their existence, their homes, and their families. They also are fighting for a country and a world where men and women of all races, colors, and creeds can live, and work, and speak and worship – in peace, and freedom and security.
If we can shorten this war by one month – even by one minute — we shall have saved the lives of some of our young men and women. We must not let our comforts or conveniences, our politics or our prejudices, stand in the way of our determination to drive – to drive relentlessly and unflinchingly – over the hard road to final victory.
You and I – all of us who are war workers – must stay on the job!
Although victory over the Nazis and the Japanese is certain and inevitable – and I for one have never had one moment’s doubt of our ultimate victory – the war is still far from over. There is tough, hard, bloody fighting ahead.
We got into this war because we were attacked by the Japanese – and because they and their Axis partners, Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy, declared war on us.
I am sure that any real American – any real, red-blooded American – would have chosen, as this government did, to fight when our own soil was made the object of a sneak attack. As for myself, under the same circumstances, I would choose to do the same thing – again and again and again.
When our enemies flung the gauge of battle at us, we elected to fight them in the American way, which meant that we went after them, and we started punching – and we are still punching. And we have driven our enemies into their own corner.
One of the tyrants, Mussolini, has been knocked out for the count. And the others are getting groggier and groggier every day.
We are made happy by the fact that the Italian people – our longtime friends – are started once again along the paths of freedom and peace.
I think that history will say that we were better prepared for this war than for any previous war in all our history.
On the day of Pearl Harbor, for example – the day before the declaration of war – we had more than two million men in our Armed Forces.
Our war production, started a year and a half before that, was rolling toward the gigantic volume of output that has been achieved.
Our Navy was building – indeed, it had been building ever since 1933. And we know why it went down. It started to build up again – when I first used PWA funds to start a naval building program – that included our first modern carriers. One of those carriers, by the way, that you have read of, authorized ten years ago, was the Enterprise - a name well known throughout New England, the original Enterprise being the hero of the War of 1812 – but this new Enterprise, a grand and gallant ship, has also covered herself with glory all through this war, and was in there fighting last week in the great victory in Philippine waters.
But, in addition to our physical preparedness, we had something far more important – spiritual preparedness.
The American people were ready for it. On the day of Pearl Harbor, they rose up as one man with a mighty shout – a shout heard ‘round the world – the shout of “Let’s go!”
And we went!
Everywhere I go I find that the American citizen is doing some hard thinking these days about what sort of government he wants during the next four years.
The memory of our people is not short. The years from 1929 to 1933 are thoroughly and grimly remembered by millions of our citizens – by workers who lost their jobs and their homes, by farmers who lost their crops and their farms, by families who lost their savings.
Since those dark days early in 1933, many fortifications have been built to protect the people of this country – just as we promised that there would be.
What kind of fortifications? Well, fortifications, for example, which have provided protection for your bank deposits and your investments – your standard of living – your right to organize unions and to bargain collectively with your employers.
Your fortifications protect your soil and rivers and trees – your heritage of natural resources. They provide you with protection against the hazards of unemployment and old age – they protect you against inflation and runaway prices.
These fortifications are now manned by zealous defenders – and these defenders are not Communists, and these defenders are not fossils.
Can the citizens of the nation now afford to turn over these bulwarks to the men who raised every possible obstacle to their original construction?
Does the average American believe that those who fought tooth and nail against progressive legislation during the past twelve years can be trusted to cherish and preserve that legislation?
Can it be that those who financed the bitter opposition to the New Deal through all these years have made an about-face and are now willing and able to fight for the objectives of the New Deal?
We have all heard Republican orators in this campaign call this administration everything under the sun, and they promise that they, if elected – and oh, my friends, what a big “if” that is – they promise that if elected they would institute the biggest housecleaning in history. It sort of brings to my mind that that is just the thing that the “outs” always say.
What a job that would be, that housecleaning! It would mean, among other things, sweeping out with my administration the most efficient and most patriotic Republicans that could be found in the whole country.
But – despite these campaign promises of wholesale housecleaning – have you heard one word of specific criticism of any of the progressive laws that this administration has proposed and enacted?
Have you heard any talk of sweeping out any of these laws or sweeping out any of the agencies that administer them?
Oh, no, on that subject the Republican politicians are very uncharacteristically silent.
This administration has made mistakes. That I freely assert. Assert. And I hope my friends of the press will not change that to admit.
But, my friends, I think it is a pretty good batting average. Our mistakes have been honestly made during sincere efforts to help the great mass of citizens. Never have we made the inexcusable mistake – we know some who have – of substituting talk for action when farms were being foreclosed, homes were being sold at auction, and people were standing in breadlines.
I thank God that it cannot be charged that at any time, under any circumstances, have we made the mistake of forgetting our sacred obligation to the American people.
And, I might add, never will we make that kind of mistake.
Is it conceivable to you that this administration with its record of very deep concern for human welfare could ever be guilty of neglect of the welfare of our fighting men?
When your sons, and my sons, come home from the battlefronts – and they are coming home just as quickly as they are no longer needed for the essential job of this war – we are going to see that they have work – honest, self-respecting jobs.
We are going to see to it that those of them seeking farms get a real chance to settle on land of their own.
We are going to see to it that those who hope to establish businesses have a legitimate and fair opportunity to do so.
The American people are quite competent to judge a political party that works both sides of a street – a party that has one candidate making campaign promises of all kinds of added government expenditures in the West, while a running mate of his demands less government expenditures in the East.
You know – just as an aside, and I think I can speak freely to my old friends here in Boston – this is really a funny campaign.
I think I heard some campaign orator say that Secretary Hull and the rest of us had done such a fine job with the Good Neighbor Policy and our plans for world peace – that it is time for a change.
I believe I heard some campaign orator say that the “incompetent” administration had developed a program that was so good for the farmers and the businessmen and the workers of the nation – that it is time for a change.
I think I heard some campaign orator – you can identify him – say that we have so thoroughly shifted the control over the banks from Wall Street and State Street to Washington, DC that it is time for a change.
And I am quite sure that I have heard somebody say that this “chaotic” administration has done such an amazing job of war production – that it is time for a change.
I think I even heard somebody say that these “tired, quarrelsome” old men – are waging such a victorious war- that it is time for a change.
Well – if it is time for a change – the way to get it in this democracy is by means of votes. Whether I win or lose, I want to see a turnout next Tuesday of the biggest vote in all American history.
And I am hoping to see 50 million American voters go to the polls.
We could not find a better way to tell our boys overseas that the country they are fighting for is still going strong.
Just the other day you people here in Boston witnessed an amazing demonstration of talking out of both sides of the mouth.
Speaking here in Boston, a Republican candidate said – and pardon me if I quote him correctly – that happens to be an old habit of mine – he said that, “the Communists are seizing control of the New Deal, through which they aim to control the government of the United States.”
However, on that very same day, that very same candidate had spoken in Worcester, and he said that with Republican victory in November, “we can end one-man government, and we can forever remove the threat of monarchy in the United States.”
Now, really – which is it – Communism or monarchy?
I do not think that we could have both in this country, even if we wanted either, which we do not.
No, we want neither Communism nor monarchy. We want to live under our Constitution which has served pretty well for 155 years. And, if this were a banquet hall instead of a ball park, I would propose a toast that we will continue to live under this Constitution for another 155 years.
I must confess that often in this campaign, I have been tempted to speak my mind with sharper vigor and greater indignation.
Everybody knows that I was reluctant to run for the Presidency again this year. But since this campaign developed, I tell you frankly that I have become most anxious to win – and I say that for the reason that never before in my lifetime has a campaign been filled with such misrepresentation, distortion, and falsehood. Never since 1928 have there been so many attempts to stimulate in America racial or religious intolerance.
When any politician or any political candidate stands up and says, solemnly, that there is danger that the government of the United States – your government – could be sold out to the Communists, then I say that that candidate reveals – and I’ll be polite – a shocking lack of trust in America.
He reveals a shocking lack of faith in democracy – in the spiritual strength of our people.
If there was ever a time in which that spiritual strength of our people was put to the test, that time was in the terrible depression from 1929 to 1933.
Our people, in those days, might have turned to alien ideologies – like Communism or Fascism.
But our democratic faith was too sturdy. What the American people demanded in 1933 was not less democracy but more democracy, and that’s what they got.
The American people proved in the black days of depression – as they have proved again in this war – that there is no chink in the armor of democracy.
On this subject – and on all subjects – I say to you, my friends, what I said when first you conferred upon me the exalted honor of the Presidency: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
And today I can add a corollary to that. I do not think that you will ever cast the majority of your votes for fearful men.
We face the enormous, the complex problems of building with our allies a strong world structure of peace.
In doing that historic job, we shall be standing before a mighty bar of judgment – the judgment of all of those who have fought and died in this war – the judgment of generations yet unborn – the very judgment of God.
I believe that we Americans will want the peace to be built by men who have shown foresight rather than hindsight.
Peace, no less than war, must offer a spirit of comradeship, a spirit of achievement, a spirit of unselfishness, and indomitable will to victory.
We in this country have waged war against the wilderness, against the mountains and the rivers, against droughts and storms. We have waged war against ignorance, against oppression, against intolerance.
We have waged war against poverty, against disease.
We fought the Revolutionary War for the principle that all men are created equal – and in those days we pledged “our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
This war, which we are now fighting, has been an interruption in the story of our forward progress; but it has also opened a new chapter – a chapter which it is now for us the living to begin.
At the end of this war this country will have the greatest material power of any nation in the world.
It will be a clean, shining America – richer than any other in skilled workers, in engineers, and farmers, and businessmen, and scientists.
It will be an America in which there is a genuine partnership between the farmer and the worker and the businessman – in which there are abundant jobs and an expanding economy of peace.
All around us we see an unfinished world – a world of awakened peoples struggling to set themselves on the path of civilization – people struggling everywhere to achieve a higher cultural and material standard of living.
I say we must wage the coming battle for America and for civilization on a scale worthy of the way that we have unitedly waged the battles against tyranny and reaction, and wage it through all the difficulties and the disappointments that may ever clog the wheels of progress.
And I say that we must wage it in association with the United Nations with whom we have stood and fought – with that association ever growing.
I say that we must wage a peace to attract the highest hearts, 'the most competent hands and brains.
That, my friends, is the conception I have of the meaning of total victory.
And that conception is founded on faith – faith in the unlimited destiny – the unconquerable spirit of the United States of America.
Address by New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey
November 4, 1944, 10:30 p.m. EWT
Broadcast from Madison Square Garden, New York City
All over the world tonight Americans are fighting for the might of free men to govern themselves. Here at home, we are waging a political campaign to secure the liberties for which they fight.
Openly and in plain words John Bricker and I, in the name of the Republican Party, are dedicated to these propositions:
To speed total victory and the prompt return of our fighting men by putting energy and competence in Washington behind the magnificent effort of our military command.
To provide American leadership in the world for effective organization among all nations to prevent future wars.
To direct all government policies in the peacetime years ahead to achieving jobs and opportunity for every American.
To these ends, we shall restore honesty and integrity to our national government; we shall put an end to one man rule; we shall unite our people in teamwork and harmony behind a President and a Congress that can and will work together to realize the limitless promise of America.
These are no partisan objectives. They are in truth the objectives of the American people. They can never be attained under the tired and quarrelsome administration that has been in office for 12 long years. They can only be attained under a new, vigorous administration that comes fresh from the people. That’s why all over the country the people are saying it’s time for a change.
America is determined to win a speedy and overwhelming victory in this war. All of us have perfect confidence in our military and naval commanders. But this war cannot be won alone upon the battlefronts. It must also be won at home. And each of us must play his part.
As recently as Sept. 1, Gen. Eisenhower renewed his earlier prophecy that Germany could be beaten in 1944 if everyone at home would do his part. Yet last Thursday, and again one hour ago, Mr. Roosevelt decided to tell us that the war had still a long way to go.
What happened in two months to cancel Gen. Eisenhower’s prediction? Mr. Roosevelt has not told us the whole story but part of it we know.
Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill held a conference in Québec. Our Secretary of State was absent. Our Secretary of War was absent. In their stead Mr. Roosevelt took with him that master of military strategy and foreign affairs, the Secretary of the Treasury, with his private plan for disposing of the German people after the war. The plan was so clumsy that Mr. Roosevelt, himself, finally dropped it – but the damage was done.
The publishing of this plan while everything else was kept secret was just what the Nazi propagandists needed. That was as good at ten fresh German divisions. It put fight back into the German Army; it stiffened the will of the German nation to resist. Almost overnight, the headlong retreat of the Germans stopped. They stood and fought fanatically.
Here is how the military expert of Newsweek described the tragic consequences of this blunder. “This necromancy ruins Gen, Dwight D. E1senhower’s campaign… Now he finds himself faced by resistance he never expected and which, in my opinion, would never have materialized had Allied political warfare been astute instead of idiotic.” So says the military expert.
Here’s the report from the front by the United Press:
The home front talk about stern treatment for a defeated Germany has inspired bitter and fanatical resistance among German troops, in their sector at least, and the G.I.’s are a little bitter about it. Sometimes the Doughboys who are fighting and dying in the mud on this side of the Moselle wish people at home would quit announcing what they think should be done about a defeated Germany. Some soldiers said today that they thought it might be better to win the war first.
What does this mean? It means that the blood of our fighting men is paying for this improvised meddling which is so much a part and parcel of the Roosevelt administration. And at the very moment when his own confused incompetence has thus prolonged the war in Europe, Franklin Roosevelt goes on the radio and claims for himself the credit for everything our engineers, our war workers, our industry, our farmers and our fighting sons have done.
We are advancing and we shall reach our goals. Once rid of capricious, personal government, once we give our whole, our united thoughts to victory, we shall reach Berlin and Tokyo quicker – with less cost.
Let me make one thing clear: Your next administration will never claim personal or political profit from the achievements of the American people or from the sacrifices of their sons and daughters. But it will put a stop to the incompetence in Washington which is costing the lives of American men and delaying the day of final victory.
The people of this country are determined that we shall not again go through the heartaches and sacrifices of the last three years. This war must be the last war. We shall take the lead in the formation of a world organization to prevent future wars. And we know that effort can never be the work of one man or of one nation. It can never be the product of secret agreements worked out in secret conferences between two or three rulers. For the United States, this great effort must have the support and understanding of all our people. And it must, under our Constitution, have the support and approval of the people’s representatives in Congress.
Yet Mr. Roosevelt, year after year, has systematically abused and insulted the members of Congress. Having already alienated his own leaders im Congress, he has now gratuitously insulted the Republican leaders of the Senate and the House. Those leaders join with me in an effort to lift the program for a lasting peace above partisanship.
They publicly pledge themselves to support the program for world peace on which Secretary Hull and I have cooperated. But this harmonious, non-political approach Was not politically profitable to Mr. Roosevelt, so he denounced the Republican members of Congress and accused them of erecting “a party spite fence between us and the peace.”
The time has come to bring an end to this name calling and abuse. American participation in a world organization for peace can only be built by a President and a Congress – Republicans and Democrats alike – working together in harmony and mutual respect. To achieve that harmony, we must have a new Chief Executive who believes that fundamental principle and practices it. That’s another reason why it’s time for a change.
When victory is won, 11 million Americans will return from our fighting forces. They will be looking for jobs and opportunities.
They will want to marry, go to work and get ahead. Twenty million war workers will be looking for jobs in peacetime industries. If we are not to betray those who have fought and worked for victory in this war, we must have here in America, the land of opportunity, a land of full employment and high wages, with a rising standard of living.
My opponent talks once again of jobs in the future, but he offers us nothing except a repetition of the New Deal policies which failed for eight straight years. This administration took office when the worldwide depression was nearly four years old. No previous depression in 100 years of our history had lasted more than five years. Yet Mr. Roosevelt contrived to make that depression last 11 years – twice as long as any depression in a century. He had unlimited power; spent $58 billion; yet in March 1940, there were still 10 million unemployed. Under the New Deal, it took a war to get jobs.
We dare not, we must not risk the future of our country in the hands of those who never succeeded in eight peacetime years in even approaching full employment. We need to sweep away the strangling mass of rules and regulations, of petty bureaucratic interferences. We need to sweep away the old, dank, wretched atmosphere of hostility and abuse. We need once more to Jet the American people – industry, labor and agriculture – know that their government believes with them in the American tradition of opportunity for all.
We need an administration that cares more about official business than it does about big government. We need an administration that will not be afraid of peace – that will want to bring our fighting men home when victory is achieved – and will keep its promises to do so. And that’s another reason why it’s time for a change.
There are other reasons, For 12 years we have watched the shifting, slippery nature of the present national administration. It has stood for no principle except self-perpetuation of its power. The result has been decay of the moral fiber of government. That decay reached its logical result when Franklin Roosevelt was compelled to admit that it was he, himself, who sponsored the $1000 Club. This is the scheme which offered in writing for $100 “special privileges” and a voice “in the formulation of administration policies.”
Never in our history has corruption been so brazen. Never before has a President admitted sponsorship of such a scheme.
All this is the inevitable result of too many years in power – and the desire for perpetual office. It is exactly what every American beginning with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson warned against. It is inevitable that it should have produced political leadership which today publicly defines politics as the science of “how who gets what, when and why.” I say the young men of America are not fighting and dying for these corrupt and decadent practices. In the name of those men, the American people will rise up and repudiate that whole philosophy of government. The time has come to put an end to government by “who gets what, when and why.”
That’s why it’s time for a change.
They, the great Democratic Party, weakened by 12 years of one-man rule, is being leased out to men who Vote that they owe no allegiance to that party for its principles. It has been put on the auction block for sale to the highest bidder, and the highest bidders are Sidney Hillman’s Political Action Committee and Earl Browder’s Communists. There is only one way for the real members of the Democratic Party to win in this election. That is to join with Republicans in defeating the New Dealers, the Political Action Committee and the Communists. That’s why those who believe in our system of government, Republicans and Democrats alike, agree that it’s time for a change.
In this campaign I have set forth a constructive program for the years ahead, built soundly brick by brick. It shows how we can achieve our objectives – each of them, including full employment, high stable income for labor, agriculture and business, broader old age benefits, tax reduction with an increased national income and freedom of both labor and business from crippling government regimentation.
My opponent has offered no program because the New Deal has nothing to offer save more of the same quarreling and vacillation which has marked its career for 12 long years. We can no longer afford the luxury of a government which spends half its time quarreling among itself and the other half quarreling with one segment or another of our people. In the years immediately ahead, we need new hands to steer the ship of state steadily through the balance of the war into quiet peacetime waters where we can again make progress. We need to learn how to work together again in unity. We need above all to renew our faith; faith in the goodwill of our fellow men regardless of race, color or creed; faith in the limitless future of our country.
Our nation was founded and built by men of great faith and goodwill, who came here to do great things. They created our institutions in the image of their beliefs. First of all, they believed in Almighty God. That was the rock on which they built. They believed in the moral law; they believed in the dignity of man. In the Bill of Rights, they consecrated and established that dignity of man without distinction of race, creed or color. They believed that man should be free – free to worship after the dictates of his own conscience, free to live in his home, to raise a family – free to speak his own mind without fear or favor, free to get ahead in the world. They believed that government would be the servant, not the master of the people. Because they believed these things and built upon them this nation has been richly blest of God.
Our people have known hardship but they have never despaired. They have faced great odds, but they have never known defeat. To them the difficult is never too difficult. With them the impossible can be brought to pass.
Let us in this election send a ringing affirmation to all the world that the love of freedom is still strong in the hearts of the American people. Let us register our faith that in America there is no indispensable man. Let us prove that free government still lives. Let us send the thrilling message round the world that America has changed administrations in der to speed victory and ensure lasting peace – that freedom is the most vital thing in the world – hat we intend to have it – to hold it forever.
Völkischer Beobachter (November 5, 1944)
Wunder des deutschen Widerstandes
Die unvergleichliche Truppe
…
Rosenberg: Nüchternheit und Hysterie in der britischen Politik
Von Alfred Rosenberg
Immer mehr hören wir von jüdischen und amerikanischen Plänen nicht nur zur Vernichtung des Deutschen Reiches, sondern auch über die buchstäblichen Dutzenden von Millionen zugedachte Verschleppung und Ausrottung. Aber nicht nur von jenseits des Ozeans dringen derartige Planungen zu uns herüber und nicht nur seitens des Bolschewismus werden solche eindeutigen Drohungen ausgesprochen, sondern ebenfalls von Vertretern Groß Britanniens. Wenn man von berufsmäßigen Hetzern absieht, so ist mancher sicher erstaunt gewesen, Pläne namentlich über die Ausrottung unserer Jugend aus dem Munde sogenannter britischer Geistlicher, neuerdings aber auch englischer Offiziere zu vernehmen.
Im Großen und Ganzen galt der Engländer auf dem Festlande als ein außer ordentlich nüchtern überlegen der Geschäftsmann, der sein Ver halten Europa gegenüber ebenso nach kaufmännischen wie nach seiner Politik sichernden Gesichtspunkten einzustellen gewohnt war. Das Postulat eiskalter britischer politischer Gedanken und Handlungen war auch bei uns weit verbreitet, und zweifellos war eine solche Vorstellung geschichtlich durchaus berechtigt. Die großen Staatsmänner der britischen Vergangenheit, etwa vom Beginn bis über die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts hinaus, haben bei aller humanitären Phraseologie und dem Massenverbrauch religiöser Begriffe in den Wahlkämpfen ihr außenpolitisches Handeln tatsächlich nur nach nüchternen machtpolitischen und wirtschaftspolitischen Gesichtspunkten ausgerichtet und die jeweiligen Bundesgenossen niemals aus Überzeugung oder Dankbarkeit an sich gefesselt, sondern sie, nachdem ihr Einsatz für Großbritannien nicht mehr zweckmäßig erschien, fallengelassen, um sich, gestützt auf eine nahezu unangreifbare insulare Lage, neue Bundesgenossen für kommende Auseinandersetzungen zu wählen. Selbst der Krieg von 1914 konnte teilweise noch unter den Gesichtspunkten dieser von seiten Großbritanniens – ob richtig oder falsch, mag dahingestellt bleiben – nüchternen Politik gewertet werden. Dann setzten aber immer bemerkbarer Tendenzen ein, die man mit solchen Abwägungen nicht mehr zu erklären vermag, die vielmehr schon rein hysterische, ja pathologische Züge aufweisen. Das, was sich jetzt an Hassausbrüchen in England zeigt, läßt einen Zug Großbritanniens hervortreten, der früher zwar vorhanden, in den letzten Jahrzehnten aber besonders deutlich geworden ist.
Neben dem nüchternen englischen Geschäftsmann wirkten in England – vielleicht als Auspuffventil für die wohlgeordnete Langweiligkeit des britischen Lebens – stets auch sektiererische Züge mit, die zu verschiedenen Zeiten in allen Lagern in Erscheinung traten. Wir erlebten die merkwürdige Tatsache, daß aus dem alttestamentarischen Puritanismus heraus sich in England Gesellschaften bilden konnten, die den Nachweis versuchten, daß die Engländer nichts anderes als die verschollenen zehn Stämme Israels darstellten, daß die Prophezeiungen der Bibel auf die Engländer als auserwähltes Volk gemünzt seien. Und als weitere Konsequenz dieser Sektiererei sehen wir die englische Heilsarmee mit Pauken und Trompeten, Psalmensingen und merkwürdigen „militärischen“ Gewohnheiten ins Leben treten. Diese Bewegung der Heilsarmee, die Tausende und aber Tausende umfasste und organisierte, trug alle Zeichen einer sozialen Hysterie an sich, die sich weltanschaulich auch noch auf anderen Gebieten äußerte. So war gerade England ein Hauptsitz der spiritistischen Bewegungen. Ihnen gehörten nicht nur Zirkel sich langweilender Ladies an, sondern Schriftsteller wie Conan Doyle, Physiker wie Crookes waren überzeugte Geisterseher und widmeten den Großteil ihres Lebens der Tischklopferei und Geisterbeschwörung. Andere Gruppen gründeten theosophische Zirkel, reisten nach Indien, um dort Seeleninkarnationen zu ergründen.
Die Frau Annie Besant reiste mit ihrem wiedergeborenen Buddha durch ganz Europa, und es gab zweifellos Leute, die das nicht nur lehrten, sondern hysterisierend auch glaubten.
Als die Frauenbewegung sich im europäischen Leben ankündete, waren die englischen Suffragetten kennzeichnend für die extrem hysterische Seite dieser an sich verständlichen Bestrebungen, die sich merklich von anderen Bewegungen auf dem europäischen Kontinent unterschieden. Die Aufpeitschung dieser in manchen Unterströmungen das englische Leben kennzeichnenden Leidenschaften zeigte sich auf dem Gebiete der Politik in manchen für uns gänzlich unverständlichen Presseerscheinungen, in der fast ausschließlich auf Sensationen gerichteten Berichterstattung in der Großpresse, die nur in wenigen Zeitungen, wie der Times, ihr nach außen nüchternes Gegengewicht fanden. Alle diese Strömungen sind, wie gesagt, in den letzten Jahrzehnten immer stärker geworden, und dementsprechend sind nüchterne Überlegungen nicht immer ausschlaggebend im britischen Leben gewesen.
Der Haß gegen Deutschland gehörte nun in steigendem Maße zu jenem Mittel unterweltlicher Politik, die eventuelle nüchterne Überlegungen immer erneut durchkreuzte. Es hat in England eine ganze Menge nüchterner, kluger Politiker in allen Schichten der Bevölkerung gegeben, die einen Krieg gegen Deutschland, besonders nach den negativen Ergebnissen für England nach 1918, als einen politischen Wahnsinn empfanden und auch als solchen bezeichneten. Sie hatten gesehen, daß man mit dem alten, früher vielleicht verständlichen Wort des Gleichgewichts der Kräfte, in dem man das französische und das deutsche System sich abwechselnd gegenüberstellte, nicht mehr auskam, weil im Osten eine zentralistisch-bolschewistische, alle bedrohende Großmacht aufgetreten war, die nur durch einen anderen Block hätte mattgesetzt werden können als durch das Kräftespiel im Sinne des 19. Jahrhunderts. Auf diesen Bolschewismus und seine Gefahr haben viele hingewiesen in voller Erkenntnis der politischen Machtverlagerungen, manchesmal allerdings auch wieder mit einer Leidenschaft, die hysterisch und deshalb unwahr wirkte.
Inmitten dieser Veränderungen des britischen Lebens von der Nüchternheit zum schwankenden Urteil und zur pathologischen Unbeherrschtheit ist die Persönlichkeit Winston Churchills gleichsam ein Symbol dieser Zeit geworden. Eine Zeitlang liberal, dann konservativ, anfangs extrem antibolschewistisch, jetzt probolschewistisch in einer kaum noch zu überbietenden Weise, einmal streng in parlamentarischer Opposition, das andere Mal, während der Abdankung Eduards VIII., mit einer Königspartei zu dessen Schutz liebäugelnd, so sprang dieses Mann von einem Lager zum andern, immer nur auf eins bedacht: entweder an der Macht zu bleiben oder, falls das nicht gelang, durch alle nur irgendwie möglichen Mittel wieder an die Macht zu kommen. In den entscheidenden Jahren bis zum Ausbruch dieses Krieges ist dieser pathologische Motor Winston Churchill unentwegt dabei gewesen, nicht etwa nüchterne britische Politik zu treiben, sondern die oben kurz skizzierten hysterischen Gefühle im Britentum zu schüren und sie auf das Gebiet des politischen Vernichtungshasses gegen Deutschland zu lenken.
Diese Entwicklung gilt es zu sehen, wenn man sich erklären will, was sich in den letzten Jahren in England abspielte. Nimmt man noch hinzu, daß das mächtige jüdische Kapital in Großbritannien eindeutig sich auf die deutschfeindliche Seite stellte und alle dahinzielenden Kräfte finanzierte und einsetzte, so stehen wir vor der Tatsache, daß ein angeblich so nüchternes Volk wie das englische in entscheidenden Stunden seiner Geschichte diese frühere Nüchternheit vergaß und sein Schicksal Menschen anvertraute, die von pathologischen Gefühlen und nicht mehr politischen Überlegungen getragen wurden. Dieser Tatsache widerspricht durchaus nicht, daß das englische Volk sich einer einmal gefällten Entscheidung fügte. Hier zeigte sich die durchaus alte Haltung Englands, daß, wenn einmal so oder so eine Entscheidung gefallen war, sich die Nation geschlossen dieser Tatsache beugte. So sind auch die entschiedenen Gegner des Churchill-Kurses von ihrer Tätigkeit zurückgetreten und mußten achselzuckend und bedauernd diesen Kampf des Churchill-Englands mitmachen. Daß Churchill dabei eventuell doch gefährlich werdende Persönlichkeiten in großer Zahl einkerkern ließ, versteht sich von selbst.
England hatte nach dem ersten Weltkrieg seine Machtpositionen des 19. Jahrhunderts an die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika abgetreten, der Traum eines Zwei-Flotten-Standards war für immer dahin, aus einem Gläubigerland war ein Schuldnerland geworden, und trotzdem gelang es, die pathologischen Gefühle nicht gegen einen neuen geschäftlichen Gegner zu richten, sondern gegen Deutschland. Und England bezahlt jetzt in diesen Jahren des Krieges dafür mit dem Verlust einer Machtstellung nach der andern. Die letzten englischen Millionen, die in Ostasien und in Südamerika investiert waren, sind nahezu dahingeschmolzen, von den eigenen Bundesgenossen, USA. und Sowjetunion, werden Indien und die Ölfelder des Nahen Orients bedroht, in Mittelamerika gehen britische Kolonien in Form von Stützpunkten in amerikanische Hände über, und das soziale Elend in England wächst von Jahr zu Jahr, wobei die Abhängigkeit von der Einfuhr jetzt und für die Zukunft immer größer wird. Es ist ein nahezu unverständlicher Weg gewesen, den Großbritannien eingeschlagen hat, er ist bis zu einer gewissen Grade nur dann verständlich, wenn man nicht nur nüchterne geschäftliche und politische Kalkulationen im Spiel der britischen Politik einsetzt, sondern noch jene unterirdischen, nur manchmal aus der Oberfläche herausbrechenden hysterischen Instinkte in Rechnung stellt, die sich auf dem Gebiet des Religiös-Philosophischen ebenso äußerten wie auf dem Gebiet des Sozial-Politischen. Auf dieser Welle eines pathologischen Hasses konnte allein ein Churchill zur Macht gelangen, er ist ein Symbol dieser Erscheinung des britischen Lebens. Englische Nationalpolitik ist von kleinen Epigonen übernommen und nicht verstanden worden und hat schmählich versagt angesichts der Probleme, die im 20. Jahrhundert geistig und politisch dem ganzen Kontinent, aber auch Großbritannien als einer Überseemacht gestellt worden waren.
In der Erkenntnis der inneren Notwendigkeit der großen sozialen und politischen Auseinandersetzung ist die nationalsozialistische Bewegung kämpferisch groß geworden und hat sich die redlichste Mühe gegeben, die Kulturvölker Europas über die ihnen gemeinsam drohende Gefahr aufzuklären. Die Entwicklungen sind aber nicht gleichzeitig gewesen. Während sich Deutschland unter einem harten Schicksal schneller entscheiden mußte, glaubten die sogenannten Sieger von 1918, sich in gemächlicher Form mit den Problemen auseinandersetzen zu können, und sind dann an dieser Problematik des 20. Jahrhunderts gescheitert: Sowohl die Franzosen, die jetzt die eigentlichen Auswirkungen dieser ganzen Entwicklung eines Jahrhunderts durchzumachen haben, aber auch die Briten, die glaubten, hochmütig abseitsstehen oder gar gegen uns hetzen zu können. Eine kommende Geschichtsschreibung wird Winston Churchill als Symbol eines solchen hysterischen Abweichens von ehemaligen britischen nüchternen politischen Kalkulationen und damit als ein Gleichnis eines britischen Niederganges zu schildern haben.
Führer HQ (November 5, 1944)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
In erbitterten Kämpfen erwehren sich unsere Grenadiere auf der Insel Walcheren des von Westen, Süden und Osten vordringenden Feindes. An der unteren Maas verhinderten die eigenen Brückenkopfbesatzungen den beabsichtigten Durchbruch der Engländer und Kanadier auf die großen Maasbrücken bei Moerdijk.
Schnelle Kampf- und Nachtschlachtflugzeuge griffen in der vergangenen Nacht wiederholt einen feindlichen Nachschubstützpunkt bei Aachen an. Es entstanden Brände und Explosionen. Durch unsere Gegenangriffe südöstlich des Waldes von Hürtgen wurden mehrere vorübergehend verlorene Ortschaften zurückerobert. Die entschlossene Gegenwehr unserer Grenadiere brachte auch gestern wieder westlich St. Diö den beabsichtigten Durchstoß feindlicher Verbände ins Meurthetal zum Scheitern.
Stärkeres Feuer unserer „V1“ lag auf dem Großraum von London.
In Mittelitalien kam es zu keinen größeren Kampfhandlungen. Im dalmatinischen Küstengebiet griffen zwei zur Geleitsicherung eingesetzte U-Boot-Jäger und ein Torpedoboot in den Abendstunden, des 1. November einen überlegenen Verband britischer Seestreitkräfte an. In aufopferndem Kampf erzwangen sie die freie Fahrt des Geleits in seinen Bestimmungshafen. In Erfüllung dieser Aufgabe gingen die drei Fahrzeuge verloren.
In Mazedonien hat sich die Lage wenig verändert. Nordöstlich Skopje wurde durch unsere Gegenangriffe eine bulgarische Kräftegruppe abgeschnitten. Der feindliche Druck im Raum nordöstlich Pristina dauert an. Vorübergehend im Tal der westlichen Morava eingedrungene bolschewistische Kräfte wurden wieder geworfen.
Im Donaubrückenkopf Dunaföldvár wehrten deutsche und ungarische Verbände bolschewistische Angriffe ab. In der Panzerschlacht südöstlich Budapest scheiterten erneute sowjetische Durchbruchsversuche. Szolnok fiel nach heftigen Kämpfen in Feindeshand. Im Raum von Ungvár schränkten Hochwasser und Verschlammung des Geländes die Kampftätigkeit ein.
Bei Goldap wurden die Bolschewisten in schwungvollen Angriffen aus ihren Stellungen geworfen, feindliche Kräfte in der Stadt selbst abgeschnitten. Ihre Ausbruchsversuche und Entlastungsangriffe von Osten her scheiterten. In Kurland griffen die Sowjets in den bisherigen Schwerpunktabschnitten während des ganzen Tages erfolglos an. In den harten Abwehrkämpfen wurden 36 feindliche Panzer vernichtet.
Feindliche Terrorflieger warfen im Laufe des gestrigen Tages und in den ersten Nachtstunden im nordwestlichen, westlichen und südlichen Reichsgebiet Spreng- und Brandbomben, durch die in mehreren Städten Personenverluste und Gebäudeschäden verursacht wurden. Jäger und Flakartillerie der Luftwaffe schossen am Tage 29, in der Nacht 34 feindliche Flugzeuge ab, darunter Insgesamt 54 viermotorige Bomber.
Im ostungarischen Raum hat die ostmärkische 3. Gebirgsdivision unter Führung von Generalmajor Klatt einen großangelegten Umfassungsversuch des Feindes zunichte gemacht und sich durch vorbildliche Tapferkeit ausgezeichnet. Im westungarischen Raum hat sich die „Tiger“-Abteilung 503 unter Führung von Hauptmann Fromme hervorragend geschlagen.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (November 5, 1944)
FROM
(A) SHAEF FORWARD
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
051100A November
TO FOR ACTION
(1) AGWAR (Pass to WND)
TO (W) FOR INFORMATION (INFO)
(2) FIRST US ARMY GP
(3) ADV HQ 12 ARMY GP
(4) FWD ECH (MAIN) 12 ARMY GP
(5) AEAF
(6) ANCXF
(7) EXFOR MAIN
(8) EXFOR REAR
(9) DEFENSOR, OTTAWA
(10) CANADIAN C/S, OTTAWA
(11) WAR OFFICE
(12) ADMIRALTY
(13) AIR MINISTRY
(14) ETOUSA
(15) SACSEA
(16) CMHQ (Pass to RCAF & RCN)
(17) COM Z APO 871
(18) SHAEF MAIN
(REF NO.)
NONE
(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR
Communiqué No. 211
Flushing is now clear of the enemy, and Allied forces have made some gains north of the town. Our units which landed on the east side of the Walcheren Island have now joined with our troops at the west end of the causeway. On the Dutch mainland, Steinbergen, Nieuw, Vossemeer and Kladde have been freed. Our bridgehead over the Mark River north of Oudenbosch has been enlarged and we are within a mile of Klundert. Enemy troop movements in this area were attacked by fighters and fighter-bombers. Rocket-firing fighters destroyed enemy observation posts at Dinteloord and strafed defense positions.
Fighter-bombers also attacked an ammunition dump at Zevenbergen. In the Oosterhout sector, our bridgehead has expanded to the north where we are within a mile of Geertruidenberg. Wagenberg has been freed and good gains have been made further west. Fighter-bombers, striking deeper into Holland, bombed and strafed an ordnance factory at Utrecht. Other fighter-bombers and fighters, operating over a wide area of Holland and the Ruhr, went for rail and water transport and cut rail communications in some 40 places. Medium and light bombers, with fighter cover, attacked a road and rail bridge over the Meuse River at Venlo. To the west of Venlo, our ground forces continued to advances eastward along the Noorder Canal and some progress has been made farther to the north.
An enemy counterattack in the vicinity of Schmidt, from which we had been forced to withdraw, was repulsed yesterday afternoon, and our troops are again making progress towards Schmidt. Pillboxes are being mopped-up in the area west and northwest of the town, which was dive-bombed and strafed by our fighter-bombers yesterday. In the area of Hürtgen, we continued to make slow progress against mines, infantry and artillery. Less than half a mile to the southeast our advance is meeting strong resistance from tanks and infantry. East of Aachen, medium and light bombers, attacking in waves, bombed enemy strong points at Eschweiler. Fighters and fighter-bombers went for railway yards at Düren, Hamm and Brühl; an airfield west of Neuss, and an ammunition dump at Lechenich, southwest of Köln.
Other targets for fighter-bombers were rail bridges at Baal (Hückelhoven), northeast of Aachen, and at Bergheim, west of Köln. Yesterday afternoon, heavy bombers with fighter escort, attacked the industrial town of Solingen, a few miles south of the Ruhr. In the evening, heavy bombers in very great strength, went again to Germany with Bochum in the Ruhr as the main target. Medium and light bombers attacked ordnance supply depots near Trier. In France, in the Lunéville sector, slight gains were made northeast of Manonviller. Our troops are mopping-up resistance pockets in the Baccarat area and in the Vosges heights southwest of Gérardmer.
COORDINATED WITH: G-2, G-3 to C/S
THIS MESSAGE MAY BE SENT IN CLEAR BY ANY MEANS
/s/
Precedence
“OP” - AGWAR
“P” - Others
ORIGINATING DIVISION
PRD, Communique Section
NAME AND RANK TYPED. TEL. NO.
D. R. JORDAN, Lt Col FA Ext. 9
AUTHENTICATING SIGNATURE
/s/U.S. Navy Department (November 5, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 175
Liberators of the 7th Air Force attacked enemy shipping in Chichijima Harbor in the Bonin Islands on November 2 (West Longitude Date). Targets included two destroyers, one large transport, four medium transports and four small transports. Other 7th Air Force Liberators bombed a large enemy transport at Hahajima on November 2. Land objectives at Hahajima were attacked by Liberators the next day.
A Navy search Liberator attacked Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands on November 2. Seventh Air Force Liberators bombed the airstrip on Iwo Jima on November 3. Two grounded enemy planes were destroyed and one probably destroyed. Six to eight Japanese fighters were seen in the air but did not attack our planes. Five Liberators were damaged by intense anti-aircraft fire.
Koror Island in the Northern Palaus was heavily attacked by 7th Air Force Liberators on November 2. Large fires were started and explosions were observed.
Thunderbolts and Liberators of the 7th Air Force damaged the airfield on Pagan Island in the Marianas on November 2 and 3. Corsairs of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing strafed enemy installations on Rota Island on November 3.
Yap was hit by Seventh Air Force Liberators on November 2.
The Pittsburgh Press (November 5, 1944)
DEWEY CHARGES ‘WAR MEDDLING’
Morgenthau Plan cited as aid to Nazis
Governor promises end of incompetence
New York (UP) – (Nov. 4)
Governor Thomas E. Dewey, returning to scenes of past triumphs as the nation’s No. 1 rackets prosecutor, charged tonight that President Roosevelt by “confused incompetence,” has prolonged the war in Europe at the expense of “the lives of American men.”
Climaxing in his home city a fighting campaign for the Presidency, the Republican candidate addressed a cheering crowd in Madison Square Garden estimated by Chief Inspector John J. O’Connell of the New York police at 25,000.
To prolonged cheers, Governor Dewey promised if elected on Tuesday to “put a stop to the incompetence in Washington which is costing the lives of American men and delaying the day of final victory.”
Governor Dewey asserted the war was being prolonged by the “improvised meddling which is so much a part and parcel of the Roosevelt administration,” he also declared:
At the very moment when his own confused incompetence has thus prolonged the war in Europe, Franklin Roosevelt goes on the radio and claims for himself the credit for everything our engineers, our war workers, our industry, our farmers and our fighting sons have done.
Long way to go
Mr. Dewey said that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower last Sept. 1 reiterated an early prediction that Germany could be beaten in 1944 “if everyone at home would do his part.”
“Yet,” he added, “last Thursday, Mr. Roosevelt decided to tell us the war had still a long way to go.”
Governor Dewey said Mr. Roosevelt took to his Québec Conference with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill “that master of military strategy and foreign affairs,” Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr., “with his private plan for disposing of the German people after the war.”
Claims plan aids Nazis
Mr. Dewey said:
The plan was so clumsy that Mr. Roosevelt himself finally dropped it – but the damage was done.
The publishing of this plan while everything else was kept secret was just what the Nazi propagandists needed. That was as good as 10 fresh German divisions. It put fight back into the German Army; it stiffened the will of the German nation to resist. Almost overnight, the headlong retreat of the Germans stopped. They stood and fought fanatically.
Mr. Dewey asked “What does this mean?” and answered:
It means that the blood of our fighting men is paying for this improvised meddling which is so much part and parcel of the Roosevelt administration.
Dedicated to 3 propositions
He summed up the campaign situation this way:
All over the world tonight, Americans are fighting for the tight of free men to govern themselves. Here at home, we are waging a political campaign to make secure the liberties for which they fight.
He said he and Governor John Bricker, GOP vice-presidential candidate, were dedicated to these propositions:
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“To speed total victory and the prompt return of our fighting men.”
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“To provide American leadership in the world for an effective organization among all nations to prevent future wars.”
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“To achieve jobs and opportunity for every American.”
To accomplish these ends, he added:
We shall put an end to one-man rule; we shall unite our people in teamwork and harmony behind a President and a Congress that can and will work together to realize the limitless promise of America.
These objectives, Mr. Dewey said, “can never be attained under the tired and quarrelsome administration that has been in office for 12 long years. They can only be attained under a new, vigorous administration that comes fresh from the people.”
In blaming the New Deal for prolonging the war, Mr. Dewey asked what had happened “in two months to cancel Gen. Eisenhower’s prediction.”
Left behind Hull, Stimson
“Mr. Roosevelt,” he said, “has not told us the whole story.”
He criticized the President for leaving behind, when he went to Québec, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and taking “in their stead” Secretary Morgenthau.
Mr. Dewey did not say what Mr. Morgenthau’s plan for Germany was, but a high Treasury official in Washington recently described it as a proposal to eliminate heavy industry from the Reich, leaving Germans a light industry and agricultural state. In addition to being completely disarmed and deprived of the power to make war, Germany would be required to give up the Saar area to France and submit to international control of the Ruhr industrial valley, according to this explanation of the Morgenthau Plan.
Fanatical resistance cited
The Republican candidate buttressed his argument that the Morgenthau Plan stiffened German resistance by quoting an article in Newsweek Magazine as saying “this necromancy ruins Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s campaign.”
He also quoted a United Press front dispatch as saying that:
The home front talk about stern treatment for a defeated Germany has inspired bitter and fanatical resistance among German troops, in this sector at least, and the G.I.’s are a little bitter about it.
Mr. Dewey will make one more speech before next Tuesday’s voting when he broadcasts over all the major networks from Albany Monday night. He will return to New York to cast his ballot Nov. 7.
Assurance from associates
Mr. Dewey entered the last phase of his campaign with the assurance of his political associates that he will win New York’s 47 and Pennsylvania’s 35 electoral votes. In both states, he has been told, the big city Roosevelt pluralities of past election years will be whittled, down to the point where Republican pluralities in rural and smaller city areas will be decisive.
Republicans also say they believe they will capture Massachusetts, Minnesota and enough border states to swell the electoral total from so-called “sure” Dewey states.
20 major addresses
Mr. Dewey brought his campaign to a New York finish after a coast-to-coast stumping tour on which he traveled 15,000 to 20,000 miles and made 20 major addresses and numerous brief ones.
Since his nomination last June, he has campaigned in every section of the country except the Deep South and has promised, if elected, to bring about “the greatest housecleaning in the history of Washington.”
ROOSEVELT RIPS GOP CANDIDATES
President asks nation to cast a record vote
Lays contradictions to Dewey, Bricker
Boston, Massachusetts (UP) – (Nov. 4)
President Roosevelt tonight climaxed a tour of New England by accusing his opponent, Governor Thomas E. Dewey, of “a shocking lack of trust in America” and charging that the GOP was working “both sides of the street” in an attempt to win the election by embracing New Deal reforms of the last 12 years.
Making his last major campaign stand, the President told a nationwide radio audience and a crowd in Boston’s Fenway Park that he wanted a turnout at the polls next Tuesday of at least 50 million votes to prove the democratic process of this country and “to tell our boys overseas that the country they are fighting for is still going strong.”
Accuses GOP of fear campaign
Earlier, the President spoke at Bridgeport and Hartford, Connecticut, and in Springfield, Massachusetts, accusing the Republicans of attempting to win the election by a “campaign of fear” and promising that this country will remain prepared for any eventuality after this war.
A crowd estimated by police at 40,000 greeted Mr. Roosevelt with wild cheers and a rousing chorus of “We Want Roosevelt” when he drove into the park. The start of his speech was delayed four minutes by the tremendous ovation.
The President spoke from the back seat of his limousine, parked at the pitchers’ box in this baseball park, home of the Boston Red Sox. Hatless and wearing a gray topcoat over a brown sweater, he spoke to an audience which interrupted him frequently with thundering applause.
In a fighting mood rivaled in this campaign only by his September speech to the Teamsters Union in Washington, the President – without calling names – pictured Governor Dewey and his Republican running mate, Ohio Governor John W. Bricker, as conducting contradictory campaigns.
He said:
The American people are quite competent to judge a political party which works both sides of the street – a party which has one candidate making campaign promises of all kinds of added government expenditures in the West, while a running mate demands less government expenditures in the East.
Dewey speech taken up
Calling on the nation to return his administration to office, instead of choosing the “fearful men” of the Republican Party, the President developed his charge that Governor Dewey was “talking out of both sides of the mouth” by taking up the Republican candidate’s speech here last Wednesday.
Apologizing for quoting Mr. Dewey “correctly,” the President said his opponent said:
“The Communists are seizing control of the New Deal, through which they aim to control the government of the United States.”
The President then pointed out that on the same day the Republican candidate told a Worcester, Massachusetts, audience that with a Republican victory:
“We can end one-man government; we can forever remove the threat of a monarchy in the United States.”
We want our Constitution
Then the President asked:
Now, really – which is it – Communism or monarchy? I do not think we could have both in this country, even if we wanted either – which we do not. We want neither Communism nor monarchy. We want to live under our Constitution…
He said:
When my political candidate stands up and says solemnly that there is danger that the government of the United States – your government – could be sold out to the Communists, then I say that that candidate reveals a shocking lack of trust in America.
He threw back at Governor Dewey the oft-repeated charge by the Republicans that “it is time for a change.”
Wants to see biggest vote
After saying that the Republicans wanted a chance to continue the accomplishment of his administration, Mr. Roosevelt said:
Well, if it is time for a change, the way to get it in this democracy is by means of votes. Whether I win or lose, I want to see a turnout next Tuesday of the biggest vote in our American history and that means at least 50 million votes.
While his appearance in Boston was regarded as his campaign windup, the President will take his usual day-before-election tour of the Hudson valley near his Hyde Park, New York, home, making several impromptu speeches and a radio speech Monday night urging a big vote.
Charges ‘wild, weird future’
At Bridgeport earlier today, the President said he could not talk about his opponent as he would like to because he was “a Christian and would like to go to Heaven someday.” He did charge, however, that the Republicans were offering the electorate a kind of “now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t… wild, weird, future.”
In Hartford, the President took the Republican Party to task for attempting to panic the American people by repeating a charge of four and eight years ago that “if that man Roosevelt is reelected, the insurance companies will go broke.”
On the contrary, he pointed out to a crowd estimated at between 25,000 and 35,000 that the insurance companies in Hartford and elsewhere “are better off than they have ever been before.”
Party of ‘sound money’
He punched away at Republicans for opposing price control and favoring “skyrocketing” prices instead.
He said:
The Democratic Party in this war has been the party of sound money. The Republican Party has been the party of unsound money.
The President saw large crowds in virtually every town in the two states through which his train passed.
“FDR” signs were in plentiful evidence along his route, and at Thompsonville, near Hartford, a bridal party, complete with white satin gowns, large bouquets and priest, dashed from a house near the railroad tracks to wave.
For Luce opponent
At Bridgeport, in the district of one of his most bitter critics, Rep. Clare Booth Luce (R-CT), the President plumped particularly for Mrs. Luce’s Democratic opponent, Miss Margaret E. Connors, who was on the platform with him, waving and smiling at the large crowd.
Speaking to a rear-platform crowd at Springfield — his first stop in doubtful Massachusetts – the President voiced pride in the manner in which America has come “greatly through a dark and dangerous time.”
He said:
The ship of state is sturdy and safe, and with continued courage and wisdom, we can bring it into a harbor where it will not be whipped by the storms of another war within any foreseeable period.
But we are going to remain prepared. This time, we are not going to scuttle our strength.
Because it will be close –
Election in Pennsylvania still very much a tossup
Trend found definitely Republican, but how much remains to be seen
By Kermit McFarland
Pennsylvania, according to all gauges of public opinion, is a doubtful state in Tuesday’s election.
The outcome, as nearly as it can be measured, is uncertain mainly because it promises to be close.
The trend is definitely is Republican, as it has been the last six years.
Whether or not the trend is strong enough to swing the state’s 35 electoral votes to Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican candidate for President, is a question on which no unbiased, competent authority will do more than merely guess.
‘Take your choice’
As it looks, it is even money and take your choice.
As a result, the state in the last two weeks has come to be regarded as the key to the result of the national election.
Most observers believe Mr. Dewey must carry it to win. A majority believe President Roosevelt, because of the running start he will get from the Solid South, could lose Pennsylvania and still win, providing he carried some of the other large industrial states of the North.
1940 recalled
In 1940, against the late Wendell L. Willkie, Mr. Roosevelt carried 25 of the 67 counties. This time, he faces a loss of six to eight of the smaller counties in this group and pared-down majorities in most of them.
His vote, however, may be increased in normally Republican counties because of wartime industrial expansion which has added thousands of new voters to these counties.
The President won the state in 1940 by 281,000. He carried Allegheny County by 104,000 and Philadelphia by 177,000, the two together being almost precisely the total of his statewide plurality.
Here it is generally expected his majority will be reduced, possibly to 75,000 which is a commonly accepted figure. However, private polls and other measuring devices in some cases have indicated an even greater decline in the President’s popularity here.
GOP is hopeful
Republicans are hoping to hold the Roosevelt lead in this county to 50,000.
Philadelphia appears to be the principal question mark. If the President holds his majority there, as indicated by the polls, the probability of his carrying the state will be greatly enhanced. Republicans there think they can hold him to a lead of less than 100,000.
Both the soft and hard coal fields still appear to be in the Roosevelt column, although by sliced majorities, according to most opinion.
In other counties, frequently or usually Democratic, Mr. Roosevelt is in more trouble, judging by the standard signs of measuring voter sentiment.
GOP active
Mr. Dewey’s prospects in this state have been helped by the aggressiveness and the intensive operations of the Republican state organization, pepped up by the scent of a kill. Meanwhile, the once potent Democratic organization has slipped, badly in some sections, leaving Mr. Roosevelt to pull his own weight.
Democrats, aided by the CIO Political Action Committee, are basing their main hope of carrying the state on turning out the “labor” vote on Election Day. All along they have been fearful that war plant workers, who are in the money and therefore not “mad at anybody,” might not come out in full force.
Stirring them up was the main purpose of Mr. Roosevelt’s sole visit to the state, his tour and speech in Philadelphia on Oct. 27.
If the election in Pennsylvania is as close as all the dopesters believe, the disposition of the state’s 35 votes in the Electoral College may not be determined until about Dec. 1, when the count of military ballots will be completed.
Military vote important
More than 650,000 military ballots have been mailed to members of the Armed Forces, both in this country and overseas, and latest reports showed a return of more than 225,000. Military ballots marked not later than Tuesday will be accepted up to 10:00 a.m. EWT Nov. 22, when the official military ballot count begins.
If either candidate for President manages to carry the civilian vote by less than 100,000, the military vote is sure to be the deciding factor. It undoubtedly will be the deciding factor in some of the legislative contests and perhaps even in Congressional contests.
Surveys throughout the state indicate that while there has been less public demonstration over the presidential campaign than in previous years, there is a high degree of voter interest in the election, indicating a possible record turnout of voters. Registration is high despite the absence of hundreds of thousands in the armed forces and the major shifts in population brought about by war industry.
Both sides optimistic
Rival political leaders here yesterday issued optimistic statements concerning the Tuesday prospects.
Democratic State Chairman David L. Lawrence predicted the President would carry Pennsylvania by a bigger majority than he received in 1940.
Republican County Chairman James F. Malone forecast the biggest Republican vote in Allegheny County in the last 12 years.
Lawrence cites reasons
Mr. Lawrence gave six reasons for his forecast.
He said the people trust Commander-in-Chief Roosevelt’s direction of the war, that they do not trust “the ‘deathbed’ conversion of the predominantly isolationist Republican Party, including Dewey, to international cooperation,” that labor is more militant than in 1940, that Mr. Dewey is “no Willkie,” that the Dewey campaign “hasn’t clicked” because of “fouling, too much vituperation, too much bigotry, too much pure malice and hate, hope for a light yote is out the window.”
Full turnout urged
Mr. Malone said he believed the vote in Allegheny County could decide the national election “on the simple basis that a big enough Republican vote here can carry the state and the state can carry the nation.” He urged a full turnout of voters, saying:
Undoubtedly the stay-at-homes who avoid their duty could decide the result of the election if they threw aside their lethargy and cast Republican votes Tuesday.
Mr. Malone said the Dewey-Bricker ticket has “aroused more Public enthusiasm, more hard work on the part of party workers and more support from political independents than any campaign in the experience of local politicians since the 1920s.”
MacArthur’s army storms road junction on Leyte
Fresh Japs advance for showdown at last major Japanese base
By William B. Dickinson, United Press staff writer
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Editorial: Don’t fail to vote as a FREE American
When you enter the voting booth you are a free American citizen – free to vote as you choose.
Regardless of whether you are registered Democratic or Republican you can vote for any candidates you favor.
Nobody has a right to dictate your vote. Nobody can watch you vote or determine how you mark your ballot. Nobody can punish you for voting as you please.
Your employer hasn’t any right to tell you how to vote. Neither has your union.
Voting is a matter of personal choice – of your own conscience. It is the highest duty and privilege of citizenship; treat it as such.
Guard and dignify your privilege of voting as a free American by refusing to let any individual or organization dictate to you. It is one of the sacred rights for which we are waging this war.
Not so many years ago some employers tried to tell their workers how to vote.
The workers resented it – and properly so.
Largely through the educational activities of labor unions, workers were taught to resist such efforts.
But now certain union bosses are trying to reverse the process – are trying to do the very thing they denounced so bitterly when attempted by employers.
It is just as wrong now as it was then – and we believe free-American workers will be as quick to resent the political dictation of union-bosses as of employer-bosses.
Allegheny County has rolled up a record registration, despite the absence of so many men and women in the Armed Forces.
But how many will actually go to the polls?
Four years ago, the turnout was 85.9 percent of the registration. Which meant that 105,000 registered citizens did not go to the polls.
That 15 percent stay-at-home vote might have changed the county result. In the 1940 election, a change of only four percent would have thrown Pennsylvania to the other side. In this election, Pennsylvania’s 35 electoral votes may determine the national outcome.
In this close contest YOUR vote is vital. Don’t let weather or engagements or anything else keep you from the polls. Every vote may be more important this year than ever before.
Remember that the worst elements in politics always get out their vote. The controlled vote, the machine vote, the racket vote, the Communist vote, the intimidated vote – these are always cast in full.
Don’t help them by negligence and lack of patriotism. Cast YOUR vote at all costs.
Polis are open from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. Vote as early as possible to avoid the last-minute rush. And, above all, VOTE!
8 Toledo plants seized by U.S.
Effort made to end strike of MESA
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CIO machinists end strike in shipyards
Men will return to work tomorrow
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Walsh walks out on Roosevelt
Boston, Massachusetts (UP) – (Nov. 4)
U.S. Senator David I. Walsh, greatest Democratic vote-getter in Massachusetts’ modern political history, “walked out” on President Roosevelt in apparent resentment at being called an “isolationist” by vice-presidential candidate Harry S. Truman.
At the personal request of Mr. Roosevelt, the 71-year-old senior Senator from Massachusetts, boarded the President’s campaign train at Worcester today but left it at Boston and did not appear on the platform at Fenway Park where the President gave the final speech of his campaign for a fourth term.
When the campaign train reached the Allston siding at Boston, bystanders could see Senator Walsh in a parlor car window talking with Mayor Maurice J. Tobin of Boston, Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and RAdm. Ross McIntire, the President’s personal physician.
Mr. Roosevelt could not be seen but some persons who had been inside the car said that he took part in the conversation.
Senator Walsh, chairman of the powerful Senate Naval Affairs Committee, soon stepped from the car with Mayor Tobin and said he had an engagement to dine with friends.
Election weather in West to be wet
Los Angeles, California (UP) – (Nov. 4)
If Pacific Coast voters don’t turn out at the polls next Tuesday it won’t be the weatherman’s fault, Weather Bureau officials said tonight in forecasting generally fair weather except for light rains in Western Oregon and Western Washington on Election Day.
Voters in the rest of the country, except for local areas in the Midwest, were expected to benefit by fair, dry weather.
Perkins: Leader hopes to give Dewey 25% UMW vote
Hard coal area still strong for Roosevelt
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
Scranton, Pennsylvania – (Nov. 4)
The maximum hope of United Mine Workers leaders in the Pennsylvania hard coal area is to pull to the Dewey camp one-fourth of the 90 percent of miners who, they believe, voted for President Roosevelt in 1940.
The prediction that the 25 percent will be pulled came from a District UMW official who is a Dewey man.
His open Dewey sympathy is not met throughout the mine worker organization of district officials. Some of them are lukewarm and others are reported privately supporting Mr. Roosevelt.
This, despite the general belief that even if John L. Lewis could not divorce his union followers from Roosevelt allegiance, he at least could count on unanimous support from the field and district officers and organizers. most of whom are dependent upon Lewis’ favor for their jobs.
Lewis stays away
Mr. Lewis hasn’t appeared in the anthracite region during this campaign. He seldom does. Thomas Kennedy, International secretary-treasurer, and formerly Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, lives at Hazleton, near here, but has not appeared in the campaign.
The Democrats have capitalized on Mr. Kennedy’s silence by digging out a fairly old speech, castigating the Republican Party in general. The Republicans appear to have overlooked a piece of ammunition that could be used on their side. It consisted of some remarks about a month ago by Mr. Kennedy in criticism of “government by decree or fiat” with apparent direct reference to the Roosevelt administration’s handling of last year’s coal wage controversy.
Speech emphasized
The newspapers in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, most of them Dewey supporters, gave much attention to a speech in the huge Wilkes-Barre Dewey rally by John Kmetz, a district representative of the miners’ union and also president of UMW District 50. Mr. Kmetz devoted much of his talk to an effort to demonstrate that Communists and their support of the Democratic presidential nominee constitute a real menace to the United Mine Workers.
Mr. Kmetz is credited with real influence among the large groups of Slovaks, Poles, and other nationality groups in this section.
Conclusions by this writer from visits to miming sections of West Virginia and Pennsylvania indicate that considerable swings of miner strength from President Roosevelt to Mr. Dewey are indicated only in the southern section of West Virginia and the eastern or anthracite section of Pennsylvania. The symptoms of a swing seemed to fade out in Northern West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania.
The results will be easy to check because of the concentration of miners in certain voting precincts.