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.