America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

3854

americavotes1944

Remarks by President Roosevelt
November 6, 1944, 1:00 p.m. EWT

Delivered at Kingston, New York

fdr.1944

Your neighbor from across the river is mighty glad to be back here after four years. It has become a sort of a four-year custom by now. But it is rather a good custom for me to come to Kingston, and I always like it. I am happy, too, that now my county across the river is going to have a new Congressman. I told them in Newburgh that I was very glad that the legislature had taken my Congressman away from me, and that Hamilton Fish won’t be my Congressman after the first of January.

You know, I go back into the history of this city quite a long way, because I had an ancestor who came up from New York to a place called Esopus about 1660, which is quite a way back. And he came up here just in time to take a musket and help to repel Indians who tried to kill all the original settlers. He was a member of what they called the militia in those days.

And that, perhaps, is why I inherited a good deal of love for the Armed Forces of the United States, who have been carrying on this war so magnificently.

The war is not in Kingston and Hyde Park physically. It is across the oceans. But it means the preservation of our homes in Hyde Park and in Kingston. The people are beginning to realize more and more that we are fighting for the defense of America. I think we are doing a pretty good job of it.

It takes me longer to go from Hyde Park to Kingston because you have taken off the ferry. I was complaining to the Mayor about it, and I think probably the only other thing to do is to build a bridge.

Well, it has been good to see you on this occasion. I think it is a bigger crowd than it has ever been before. And I hope that in the next four years when I come back for an occasional weekend at home from Washington, I will be able to come over here and see you all.

In the meantime, I have heard of the great things you are doing in the war. Your Mayor was telling me the wonderful figures, the percentage of your boys that are in the Armed Forces. And I want to congratulate you also on what you are doing for the Navy in the two yards, one of which I happened to start 25 years ago.

So, keep up the good work, and good luck to you all.

Goodbye.

3855

americavotes1944

Remarks by President Roosevelt
November 6, 1944, 2:00 p.m. EWT

Delivered at Poughkeepsie, New York

fdr.1944

Neighbors of mine, I have been today on another sentimental journey. I have been among my neighbors. I have come down on this side of the river and crossed a big “sea.” And luckily there were no German submarines in that “sea” – I went from Beacon to Newburgh.

And in my travels this day, I think I have seen a very encouraging sign of our American life – I think the population is increasing enormously. I have seen more children than I knew existed in these three counties. They are coming along in good shape, and it encourages me greatly to think that the future of the country will be relatively safe in their hands, under a Constitution which has lasted more than 150 years – and I think as long as we increase as we are doing now – we shall still be living under the same old Constitution 155 years from now.

Down in Newburgh, I went through a shipyard, having a few moments to spare, and then in the upper part of the city there was a crowd that was at least twice or three times the size it was four years ago. And that was encouraging. And I told them there that I did want to say a good word for our legislature because as you know, the duty of apportioning the Congressional districts of this state is the duty of the legislature. And a curious thing happened recently. Our county used to be in the same district with Putnam and Orange counties. And quite a number of people were irked that the legislature changed it a bit. And then I think a Congressman was taken out of the District, insofar as Dutchess County goes. So, after the first of January we will be in a new Congressional district – we won’t be with Orange anymore, and therefore we will have a new Congressman.

Well, my friends, there is more than one way of getting rid of a Congressman.

Then I went up to Kingston, and there again the crowd was at least twice the size it had been before, and I remarked to them – you can see I am pure Hudson River when you come down to it – that my mother’s family came from Newburgh – but up in Kingston – well, there was an old boy in 1660 who went up there from New York City. He was young, and I guess he was rather Dutch – with the old stubborn qualities. About that time the Indians attacked Kingston, and he became a member of the militia that rolled the Indians back.

And I think that it is for that reason, perhaps, that I am interested and have been all my life – though not in uniform – in military and naval affairs. It comes from the old Dutch boy in 1660 who belonged to the militia.

But one sad thing happened. I had to come all the way back down the west side of the river. They had taken off the Kingston ferry! Otherwise, the district and the county had changed very little in the last four years.

We were headed at that time, four years ago, into a war. We didn’t talk about it very much. It doesn’t do to scare people or alarm people. But we did a good deal of building and preparation, and by 1941 we had over two million men in the Army and Navy. We built up our munitions factories. We sent a great deal of aid to the people who were fighting Nazism and Fascism. And the result was that we were better prepared for this war than we had been in all our history for any war. We haven’t been bombed in this country – rap on wood – and we haven’t lost anything within our own boundaries during this war.

And now we are carrying on the offensive against the enemy, in order to make it quite certain that our own homes back here shall be safe.

I don’t know – I think we have done a fair job of it, but anyway we have done it in the American way, with the approval of the American people, and that is something – to go on with our same ideals, our same form of government – as we have always done.

And I hope tomorrow that it is going to be said in this country that the war has been conducted constitutionally, and with the approval of the people of the United States. I hope that will be said. I think it will.

And so, it has been good – it has been a good day. I have seen my near neighbors. I have seen the neighbors across the river and down the county – the southern end. I have seen an awful lot of people. It has been a good day, and I want to thank you for coming out tonight at this late hour, because it has given me a chance to see some of my nearer neighbors.

It is good to see you, and I am going to come back pretty often.

3856

The Pittsburgh Press (November 6, 1944)

Nazis dent 1st Army line

German hurl tanks into forest battle on front below Aachen
By J. Edward Murray, United Press staff writer

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3857

B-29s pave way for Asia landing

Singapore, Sumatra raided by Superfortresses

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3858

MacArthur’s men close on last Jap bastion on Leyte

Advance of 14 miles threatens rear of Jap forces; shells, bombs rained on Ormoc area
By William B. Dickinson, United Press staff writer

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3859

americavotes1944

On election eve –
Both nominees on air tonight in final talks

Entire world watches U.S. election
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

New York –
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Thomas E. Dewey end their bitter presidential campaign today and the polls begin to open next sunrise for a United States election in which the entire civilized world has cut itself a slice of apprehensive interest.

A nationwide forecast of weather for tomorrow revealed no unusual weather conditions anywhere – none that should keep voters away from the polls. The only major section where it will not be clear, according to the forecast, is the Upper Mississippi Valley and eastward into the western lake region where “general widespread rain will occur.”

Both candidates will be on the air tonight.

All networks will carry Mr. Roosevelt’s speech at 10:00 p.m. EWT and they likewise will broadcast Mr. Dewey’s at 11:00 p.m. EWT.

Mr. Dewey, the Republican entry, will do a last-minute campaign whirl around Albany before coming here to vote. Mr. Roosevelt will motor among his Hudson Valley neighbors giving his famous campaign hat another farewell appearance. His polling place is Hyde Park.

Democratic vice-presidential candidate Harry S. Truman and Republican vice-presidential candidate John W. Bricker are back home in Missouri and Ohio, respectively, to cast their ballots. A comparative silence calms the hustings.

World watches

On five continents and most of the world’s islands, urgently interested persons are awaiting our election returns. And there doubtless are many individuals on the face of the globe who wouldn’t know Kansas from Pennsylvania at this moment but who would come up accurately with the electoral vote of both.

The foreign consensus is that this United States election will have terrific impact on foreign affairs. It has been an angry, bitter contest, one of the most unkind in our recent history. It may easily be the closest election since 1916 when the vote of Eureka, California, had finally to be tallied before it was known whether Woodrow Wilson or Charles Evans Hughes had won that state and the election in which its votes were decisive. Wilson won.

Close race forecast

Final returns this year will be delayed for weeks until the absentee armed service vote has been counted. If the poll of civilian voters is close, the presidential winner may not be known until the battlefield ballots have been checked.

Eleven states will delay the count of absentee armed service ballots. They are California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah and Washington. The delay ranges from a day or so to Dec. 7 in North Dakota.

Pennsylvania, whose 35 electoral votes, may be decisive, will not count its armed service ballots until Nov. 22. Altogether, the 48 states have distributed an estimated 4,894,225 ballots and expect 2,855,865 of them to be returned.

Polls indicate the closeness of the presidential contest. A New York check puts the two contestants almost on the 50-50 line. National polls list 15 or more doubtful – very doubtful – states.

Tradition at stake

This election, therefore, is getting off to an uncertain start after a bitter campaign prelude under tradition smashing circumstances. Mr. Roosevelt is seeking a fourth term, the first President in our history so to offer himself for such extended service. Governor Dewey, the young Republican Governor of New York, would, if he should win, be the youngest Chief Executive in our history – younger by a matter of about three weeks than Teddy Roosevelt.

Tomorrow’s polling is expected to have a big impact on foreign affairs. Not only control of the White House is at stake, but control of the House of Representatives and the political complexion of the Senate. House and Senate standings are:

SENATE: 58 Democrats, 37 Republicans, 1 Progressive.

HOUSE: 214 Democrats, 210 Republicans, 2 Progressives, 1 Farmer-Labor, 1 American-Labor, 7 vacant.

Senate seats sought

There are sufficient safe and Southern Democratic seats among the 36 for the Senate at stake tomorrow to assure that the Republicans will not be able to increase their membership to 49 which would be necessary for them to obtain control of the Upper House. Of the 36 Senate seats up now, one is for a short term which ends Jan. 3, when the new 79th Congress meets.

Republicans insist, however, that they will be able to win the eight or more additional House seats which would give them a numerical majority of the whole House and control of that chamber.

As of now, 51 Democratic candidates, including Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas, are unopposed, and five Republicans are without opposition. In addition, three Republicans were elected to the House in Maine’s jump-the-gun election last September.

Democrats are depending on Mr. Roosevelt’s vote appeal to reverse an anti-New Deal-Democratic trend. The trend became emphatically evident in the 1942 general elections and has persisted through a series of subsequent byelections in which the slim Democratic House majority has been whittled down. There are 432 House seats at stake tomorrow – and three already seated from Maine equal 435.

Gubernatorial races

Maine also elected a Republican governor last September. Gubernatorial elections are fixed for tomorrow in 31 states in which 19 governors now are Republicans and 12 are Democratic. The states outside the Solid South among which the Republicans may hope to increase the number of GOP governors are Arizona, Rhode Island, Utah, Indiana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia.

This presidential election looks close and it appears that both major parties have a real chance to control the new House of Representatives, Although control of the Senate will not shift, the scattered senatorial contests have aroused blazing worldwide interest.

The President to be elected tomorrow and the legislators who win seats in the 79th Congress will make the decisions by which this country’s role in the post-war world will be decided. The President and Senate are charged variously with responsibility for our foreign policies but the House has been increasingly declaring itself in on such matters in recent years.

But win who may, both candidates have promised that the war will continue with increasing tempo until the Germans and the Japs are licked – and under the same generals and admirals who have been directing the fighting heretofore.

3860

Poll: Roosevelt has slight advantage, gains 1% lead in Pennsylvania

Dewey’s chance for upset lies in 20 pivotal states with 281 votes
By Dr. George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion

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3861

americavotes1944

The shouting ends –
It’s nearly over, all but voting

How state will go is BIG question
By Kermit McFarland

Tomorrow: The Decision.

And the way it turns, judging by a virtually unanimous estimate of the public opinion polls and the political experts, will hinge on how Pennsylvania goes.

How Pennsylvania will go is a sheer guess, on which both the polls and the experts are extraordinarily uncertain.

From the political camps, outside the usual boasts of confidence, a divergence of opinion is apparent over whether President Roosevelt or Governor Thomas E. Dewey will capture the state’s important 35 electoral votes. But both camps, whatever their forecasts, concede that the result in Pennsylvania may be extremely close – possibly so close it will not be decided until the soldier vote is counted late this month.

Today most of the tumult and the shouting of one of the nation’s bitterest political campaigns was washed up and all activity centered, on producing the biggest possible turnout of voters tomorrow.

The voters will ballot from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. EWT.

Fair weather forecast

Weather predictions for tomorrow indicated a day favorable to a heavy voter turnout. The forecast for the day was “fair and warmer.”

In expectation of a heavy, and possibly a record turnout, the rival political organizations were set to make a special effort to “get ‘em out early.”

Republican County Chairman James F. Malone issued a last-minute statement in which he said that “believers” in the Dewey-Bricker ticket “dare not fail” to go to the polls tomorrow.

He said:

Every vote counts tomorrow. It’s up to the supporters of the Dewey-Bricker ticket to defend in Allegheny County the Republic which our fighters have saved on foreign soil.

State posts open, too

In addition to voting on the presidential ticket, the voters of Pennsylvania will ballot on a U.S. Senator for a six-year term, a Supreme Court Judge for a 21-year term, two Superior Court judges for 10-year terms, an Auditor General and State Treasurer for four-year terms, 33 Congressmen for two-year terms, 25 State Senators for four-year terms and 208 members of the State House of Representatives for two-year terms.

Allegheny County will elect five Congressmen, two State Senators and 21 members of the State House.

Upwards of four million voters are expected at the more than 8,200 polling places in Pennsylvania, while in Allegheny County alone a turnout approaching 700,000 is anticipated at the 1,024 polling places.

Big service vote

More than 200,000 members of the armed forces and auxiliary services already have cast their ballots in Pennsylvania and more thousands of military ballots are expected before the Nov. 22 deadline.

Men and women in the Army, Navy, Marines, Merchant Marine, Red Cross, WASPS, Society of Friends or USO service who are home on furlough must vote tomorrow at the polling places in their home districts. Military ballots may be obtained and marked | today at the County Elections Department, but the department is barred by law from issuing military ballots on Election Day.

While presidential elections usually produce a greater volume of straight party voting than other elections, split tickets may be cast tomorrow in somewhat higher proportion than in the normal national election.

Race for Senate

In Pennsylvania, a matter of headline interest centered on the contest between U.S. Senator James J. Davis, Republican candidate for a third full term, and Congressman Francis J. Myers of Philadelphia, the Democratic nominee for the Senate.

Both candidates have conducted intensive campaigns, 42-year-old Mr. Myers basing his bid for election chiefly on what he charges as Senator Davis’ “isolationist” voting record in pre-Pearl Harbor years. The 70-year-old Senator Davis, making his fifth bid for election at the hands of Pennsylvania Voters, has waged his fight primarily on attacks against the New Deal in general and his own reputation as a “friend of labor.”

It is considered possible that either presidential candidate might carry the state while the senatorial candidate of the same party was losing.

Scanlon vs. Corbett

In Allegheny County, the principal congressional contest is the battle between Congressman Thomas E. Scanlon, Democrat seeking a third term, and Sheriff Robert J. Corbett, Republican nominee, whom Mr. Scanlon defeated in 1940.

The revision of the Congressional districts last year favors Mr. Corbett, but the district, which takes in all the boroughs and townships north of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers and four North Side wards, is expected to produce an unusual number of split ballots.

In the new 29th district, taking in six East End wards and some of the boroughs and townships between the rivers east of the city, the Republican candidate, Howard E. Campbell, is heavily favored, while in two other districts, Congressman Herman P. Eberharter and Samuel A. Weiss (Democrats) are expected to win handily. In the 31st district, mostly South Hills, a fairly close result may develop between Democrat Congressman James A. Wright and his Republican challenger, Dormont attorney James G. Fulton, now a lieutenant in the Navy.

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americavotes1944

Editorial: Don’t fail to vote – this is a crucial state

This is one of the most vital elections in our history.

Polls indicate that it is so close that Pennsylvania’s 35 electoral votes may determine the outcome.

This makes it of the utmost personal importance to every citizen that he cast his ballot. Voting is the highest privilege of citizenship – don’t fail to exercise it. And don’t let anybody control or intimidate you.

You have the right to vote as you please, no matter how you are registered. Your vote is secret; nobody can watch it or check up on it.

Voting is a matter for your own individual conscience. No person or organization has any right to try to control it. Don’t let either your boss or your union dominate you.

Polls will be open until 8 o’clock tomorrow night. In order to avoid a last-minute rush, vote as early as possible.

And don’t fail to vote! Pennsylvania is a crucial state and every ballot may prove of the utmost importance.

3863

americavotes1944

Moscow paper blasts groups backing Dewey

Roosevelt to win, Izvestia says

Moscow, USSR (UP) –
The newspaper Izvestia said today that the election of President Roosevelt was certain on the basis of polls by experts and at the same time it attacked the “groups” behind Governor Thomas E. Dewey, asserting the course of the campaign had shown they were not supported by the broad masses of the American people.

Izvestia reported rumors alleged to be circulating in U.S. newspaper circles that Republicans might be planning to announce a faked attempt on Mr. Dewey’s life and attribute it to Communists in a last-minute effort to win the election.

Izvestia said the Reichstag fire in 1933, which the Nazis blamed on the Communists, was a similar fake staged by Adolf Hitler as a pretext to seize absolute power in Germany.

At Albany, New York, Governor Dewey declined to comment on the article in Izvestia.

‘Tried to keep aloof’

Izvestia said:

The campaign is going on in the midst of war while the best. American sons are fighting against Fascism in union with all freedom-loving peoples for peace and international cooperation.

Dewey tried to keep aloof from defeatist and isolationist ideas and the most compromised Fascist leaders such as Hamilton Fish and Gerald Smith.

But the Fascist sympathies and German ties of those who constitute the Republican staff and those who finance Dewey are well known.

Dewey was not careful enough not to reveal the names of those who in case of his victory would lead the Senate and House of Representatives.

Vandenberg, Taft hit

He named the well-known isolationists Vandenberg and Taft, one of the most reactionary leaders of the Republican Party.

Senators Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI) and Robert A. Taft (R-OH).

The Republicans failed with their political program with which they named their candidate for the Presidency [The Republican platform]. They tried to maneuver. First, they tried to attract people’s attention to domestic politics, saying foreign policy must be left outside the election campaign. But to exclude foreign policy from the campaign at the present time is less possible than ever.

At a time when the greatest army in the history of the United States has been formed, at a time when the entire industry of the country is working for war, questions of war and peace and international cooperation took the important place in the campaign.

‘General terms’

Dewey tried to say in general terms that he was for victory but he had to answer such unpleasant questions as why he and his supporters in Congress tried in every way to block development of U.S. military strength.

Dulles could not give him real help in this difficult position. Dulles himself had to look for explanations of his close connections with German banks.

John Foster Dulles, Mr. Dewey’s adviser on foreign affairs.

The Hearst-McCormick-Patterson-Gannett press campaigned for Dewey. Sometimes it was candidly defeatist. Sometimes it was a Hitlerite campaign.

3864

Latins oppose U.S. air policy

Small nations seek equal voting power

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3865

Joe E. Brown’s daughters hurt

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‘Hellship’ charged by Australian

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3866

MESA orders end of strike; details secret

End of other walkouts sought

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Dr. Alexis Carrel, biologist, dies

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3867

Bomber follows tracer to U-boat

Plane riddled but sinks Nazi sub
By North American Newspaper Alliance

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3868

americavotes1944

Roosevelt visiting home valley today

Hyde Park, New York (UP) –
President Roosevelt went calling on his neighbors of the Hudson River Valley today, following his usual custom of concluding his campaign on home grounds.

The President had cold weather for his open-car trip to the towns around his home here. There were light snow flurries almost until the time Mr. Roosevelt left his house, when the snow stopped and the sun peeked through a murky overcast.

Mr. Roosevelt went first to the Nelson House in Poughkeepsie to pick up Jim Benson, Dutchess County Democratic chairman, then headed for Wappinger Falls, Beacon, Newburg and Kingston before returning lo Poughkeepsie for a little afternoon speech at the post office.

Speech at 10:00 tonight

Tonight, he makes a nationwide broadcast based on this thesis: A full turnout at the voting booths will be an act by the people at home to protect the right of a free vote for the men fighting overseas.

All networks will broadcast Mr. Roosevelt’s speech at 10:00 p.m. EWT.

There was another factor in the drive by the President and his campaign advisers for a record-breaking vote. Most of the higherups in the Democratic Party believe the President’s reelection chances increase in direct ratio to the size of the vote – the more votes, the heavier the odds on Mr. Roosevelt.

The President spent Sunday touring his Hudson River estate and working over war dispatches with his Chief of Staff, Adm. William D. Leahy.

Country gentleman’s day

Tomorrow, the President will follow his custom of past years by motoring the short distance from his estate to the old town hall in Hyde Park where he will confront his old friend and election official, Mrs. Emma Crapser, give his name and occupation – “tree grower” – and then cast his vote.

Yesterday at Hyde Park was relatively quiet. A pouch of important dispatches was flown in from Washington. Others came in by radio for the President and Adm. Leahy.

For the most part, he spent the day of a country gentleman, going out in the late afternoon for a brief drive around his property – driving his own open car.

Meanwhile, his campaign advisers and immediate staff were ecstatic about the way “the boss” came through what they considered an arduous campaign schedule. Everybody in the Roosevelt camp was confident of victory tomorrow and the general feeling was that Mr. Roosevelt will be reelected by a substantial margin.

Governor Dewey resting second straight day

Albany, New York (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey took it easy today, his vigorous campaign for the Presidency over except for a nationwide broadcast tonight to urge Americans to exercise the rare wartime privilege of casting a ballot, regardless of their choice.

All networks will broadcast Mr. Dewey’s speech at 11:00 p.m. EWT.

The Republican candidate’s advisers anticipated that the broadcast would reach the largest audience of the campaign, but Mr. Dewey was expected to confine his remarks to a plea for a record vote, which in itself would be a challenge to Democratic claims that President Roosevelt’s fourth-term chances will be in direct ratio to the size of the popular vote.

Two days of leisure

Governor Dewey consented to having the fiery speech he delivered Saturday night in New York City rebroadcast at 9:30 p.m. EWT over the Mutual Network.

It was the second straight day of rest for the youthful candidate. Mr. Dewey arose leisurely Sunday, boarded the special train which carried him on his 20,000-mile campaign tour at noon in New York, and went immediately to the Executive Mansion after arriving here.

The crowd in the New York railroad station applauded the GOP candidate and Mrs. Dewey as they walked to their train. Mr. Dewey appeared ready to stand on his campaign argument that “it’s time for a change” and his promise, if elected, of “the biggest Washington housecleaning in history.”

Charges and promises

Governor Dewey visited 22 states in his campaign, with stops ranging from railroad station appearances to nationwide radio speeches. He charged that the Roosevelt administration failed to provide jobs in peacetime, had become “tired and quarrelsome in office,” had prolonged the war through “confused incompetence” and “improvised meddling,” and now seeks to sell out the Democratic Party for self-perpetuation.

He promised “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 an effective organization among all nations to prevent future wars,” and “to direct all government policies in the peacetime years ahead to achieve jobs and opportunity for every American.”

Mr. Dewey will leave Albany tomorrow morning, probably by train, for New York City, where he will cast his vote at a 48th Street polling place. He will go to his New York hotel suite to listen to election returns.

3869

americavotes1944

35 seats at stake in Upper House

New York (UP) –
Voters tomorrow will elect 35 Senators who can play major roles in determining the degree of U.S. participation in a world security organization.

Of major concern, also, particularly for Republicans, but of primarily domestic significance, will be the 31 state governorships at stake.

Popular interest focuses on the presidential and vice-presidential races, but the treaty-making (and thus, the peacemaking) function of the Upper House of Congress endows the senatorial election with virtual equality as an event of historical importance. The Dumbarton Oaks plans are already being debated.

Actually, 36 Senators will be elected, but one will be for a term expiring next January – that of the late Sen. Frederick Van Nuys (D-IN).

Mathematically possible, but politically doubtful, is the chance that the Republican Party might gain formal control of the Senate. Most political experts, however, look for a total Republican addition of five – or, at best, six – seats to the party’s current 38.

Depending on the outcome of the presidential campaign, Republican strength can be more than that, and for this reason, peacemakers attach primary significance to Election Day. If President Roosevelt gets his fourth term, observers predict Republicans will have support on the greatest issues – such as peace plans – from anti-Roosevelt Southern Democrats. But whether this support could be counted on in the event of a Dewey victory is not at all certain. Election of a Republican President might destroy the working alliance between Southern Democrats and Republicans which has opposed administration measures during the past two years.

Seventeen senatorial contenders are expected to have little opposition in winning reelection, either because they come from states which are traditionally Democratic or Republican, or because they are personally popular enough to overcome partisan prejudices.

Saltonstall popular

Governor Leverett Saltonstall, Massachusetts Republican, is so popular personally that all polls concede his overwhelming election to the Senate regardless of whether Governor Dewey or President Roosevelt carries the state in the presidential contest.

A total of 15 senatorial contests are in the doubtful column, among them being Connecticut, where incumbent Republican John A. Danaher is receiving stiff competition from Democratic Brien McMahon; California, where Democratic Senator Sheridan Downey is up against Republican Lieutenant Governor Frederick F. Houser; Illinois, where Democratic Senator Scott W. Lucas is opposed by Republican Richard J. Lyons, and New York, where veteran Democratic Senator Robert F. Wagner, is running against Republican Secretary of State Thomas J. Curran.

Nye in three-way fight

A stiff contest is also underway in North Dakota, where isolationist Republican Senator Gerald P. Nye is in a three-way race with Democratic Governor John Moses and Independent Lynn U. Stambaugh.

In the border state of Kentucky, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley is battling a popular Republican, James Park. Kentucky went Republican for the governorship in 1942, and most soundings indicate that the Senator is having a tough battle.

Senator Robert A. Taft (R-OH), although believed by most observers to be safe for reelection, is meeting bitter opposition from CIO and other liberal groups on the basis of his pre-war foreign policy voting record.

Dewey predicts Congress control

New York (UP) –
Republican hopes of capturing a majority of House seats appeared brighter today than at any time since the GOP lost control of the House after the 1930 election as then-President Herbert Hoover was starting his last two years in office.

Neither party has an absolute majority as of today.

Republican National Chairman Herbert Brownell has predicted that tomorrow’s young will swell the GOP’s present total of 210 to a majority of the 435 seats.

In that event, Republicans would organize the House, heading up the committees and electing Rep. Joseph W. Martin Jr. (R-MA), now Minority Leader, as Speaker to succeed Sam Rayburn (D-TX).

During last week’s campaign swing through Massachusetts, Republican presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey repeatedly referred to Mr. Martin as “the next Speaker of the House of Representatives.”

Democrats confident

Democrats, however, have insisted not only that they will not lose any of their 214 present members but will add to their total.

A bare majority requires 218 seats.

The voters will elect 432 representatives tomorrow, Maine having picked three Republican members in September. With these three, the GOP has eight sure House members for the next two years before the polls open, five of the party’s candidates being unopposed

Similarly, the Democrats are sure of 51, including Speaker Rayburn, four seats in California, Louisiana’s eight, one in New York and others scattered through the Southern states.

Dies, aides out

Prominent members certain not to be among those present in the new House include Chairman Martin Dies (D-TX) of the House Committee Investigating Un-American Activities, and Reps. John Costello (D-CA) and Joe Starnes (D-AL), members of the Dies Committee.

They were strongly opposed in pre-primary campaigns by the CIO Political Action Committee. Mr. Dies did not seek renomination, the selection going to J. M. Combs. Mr. Costello and Mr. Starnes were defeated. The latter will be succeeded by Albert Rains (D-AL), Hal Styles, who defeated Mr. Costello in the California primary, is opposed for election by Republican Gordon L. McDonough.

Two races in which more than passing general interest has been manifest involved two prominent pre-war isolationists, Rep. Hamilton Fish (R-NY) and Rep. Stephen A. Day (R-IL).

Glamor in race

Each party is running a “Glamor Girl.” Rep. Clare Boothe Luce, (R-CT), ending her first term, is seeking reelection against the opposition of Democrat Margaret E. Connors and Socialist Stanley W. Mayhew.

Helen Gahagan Douglas (D-CA) is running against William D. Campbell. Mrs. Douglas, a former actress, is the wife of screen actor Melvyn Douglas.

3870

americavotes1944

25 women seek seats in Congress

Clare Boothe Luce headlines fight

New York (UP) –
More than 25 women contestants are entered in tomorrow’s election contest for House seats while another is seeking the governorship in Michigan.

The most interest centers in the fight of Rep. Clare Boothe Luce (R-CT) to retain her seat from the state’s 4th Congressional district. She is opposed by Margaret E. Connors, a Democrat.

In California, Helen Gahagan Douglas, wife of movie actor Melvyn Douglas, is running against Republican William D. Campbell for the 14th Congressional seat of Democrat Thomas F. Ford, retired.

Rep. Stephen A. Day (R-IL) has been campaigning against two women seeking to unseat him – Emily Taft Douglas, a Democrat, and Elizabeth S. Carr, Prohibition Party candidate.

Five up for reelection

Mrs. Luce is one of five women, up for reelection. A sixth, Republican Margaret C. Smith, was returned as Maine’s representative from the 2nd district in the state’s election in September. The others are:

  • Republican Rep. Jessie Sumner opposed by Democrat Carl B. Jewell in the 18th Illinois district.

  • Republican Rep. Edith Nourse Rogers, representing the 5th district in Massachusetts, opposed by Democrat Milton A. Wesson.

  • Democratic Rep. Mary T. Norton, opposed in New Jersey’s 13th district by Republican Frank J. V. Ginimo and William S. Dowd, running as a “victory without hate” candidate.

  • Republican Rep. Frances P. Bolton is opposed by Democrat Don O. Cameron in Ohio’s 22nd district.

Woman is Socialist candidate

Most of the other women contestants are running on minor party tickets.

Katherine Odell, Socialist Party candidate, has entered Michigan’s gubernatorial race but it expected to end up third behind Republican Governor Harry F. Kelly and Edward J. Fry, a Democrat.

Ban on Dr. Poling laid to politics

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (UP) –
Dr. Daniel A. Poling, president of the World’s Christian Endeavor who announced Friday that he would support the reelection of President Roosevelt, yesterday was barred from the pulpit of a suburban church where he was scheduled to make a religious talk,

Rev. Franklin Duncombe, pastor of Bala-Cynwyd Methodist Church and pastoral counsellor of the State Christian Endeavor Society, said the talk had been cancelled because he “didn’t want to bring partisan politics into my church.”

In reply, Dr. Poling said he questioned the “fair play” of the cancellation, and added:

Personally, this is a small price to pay for freedom when so many are dying for it. I never carry partisan politics or candidates into the pulpit. When, as a citizen, I must speak on such matters, I rent a hall or go on the air.

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GOP speakers ‘lie,’ Murray asserts

Buffalo, New York (UP) –
CIO President Philip Murray charged last might that the Republican presidential campaign for Governor Thomas E. Dewey has “sunk to the veritable pits of complete degradation to get votes” and asserted “that sort of campaign bespeaks disaster.”

In a speech before 1,800 persons in a CIO-sponsored rally here, Mr. Murray accused the Republican National Committee of resorting to “lies that have emanated from the mouths of men who knew they were lying.”

He declared the CIO had been “subjected to the castigation of Dewey” as a subversive organization “bent on overthrow of our government” when “every high school student knows” its membership, which he said was 6,250,000 persons, was “a cross-section of the American people.”

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58,800,000 man-days lost by injuries in 1943

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It’s Dewey easy, reveals Emil Hurja

Analyst has picked 5 of 6 elections right
By Scripps-Howard Service

Washington (UP) –
Along about election time, ever since 1932 up pops Emil Hurja, the big chart and graph man, with a forecast.

This time, Mr. Hurja says it’s Governor Dewey with 364 electoral votes. That would leave Mr. Roosevelt with a puny 167.

Mr. Hurja, who used to do the analyzing for the Democratic Party in the Jim Farley days, correctly forecast the 1932 and 1936 presidential races, and the 1934, 1938 and 1942 Congressional elections.

*Fell flat on Willkie

But there are some not above recalling that he foresaw a victory for the late Wendell Willkie in 1940; he said it would be Mr. Willkie by 353–178. The voters pulled the rug from under Mr. Hurja that time; the vote was Mr. Willkie 82, and Mr. Roosevelt 449.

Mr. Hurja laughs that off by telling a story about an old woman in Oklahoma who had a reputation as a weather prophet. Once she forecast snow for Muskogee on Aug. 15. When it didn’t snow, people asked her why she had made such a prediction, Mr. Hurja recounts.

“Well,” said the old lady, “think of the reputation I would have had if it had snowed.”

28 counties sampled

Mr. Hurja’s current method of arriving at a forecast consists of polling 28 counties (out of the country’s 3,069) which have perfect records on presidential elections for 11 consecutive times – since 1900.

If his poll of these counties is correct, Mr. Hurja contends, Governor Dewey should win by at least two million majority.

The poll indicates that Republicans have enjoyed a 7.1 percent increase in popularity since 1940, Mr. Hurja estimated.

This “key” counties include: Pennsylvania, Fayette; Maryland, Frederick and Washington; West Virginia, Berkeley, Marion and Wood; Indiana, Gibson and Vanderburgh; Ohio, Belmont and Ross; California, San Joaquin and Sutter.

Jack of all jobs

Mr. Hurja, son of Finnish immigrants, left his home in Michigan at 16, knocked around Alaska a few years, mining and reporting on a Fairbanks newspaper; worked his way through the University of Washington and was the university’s representative on the Ford peace ship; studied the oil industry and edited a small paper in Texas; then took his oil knowledge to New York where he opened an office as a mining analyst. As it turned out, the depression ended the enterprise and he turned to politics.

Mr. Hurja in 1932 convinced Frank Walker, one of the Democratic Party’s “angels,” that he could forecast accurately vote trends by a sampling process, similar to that used to test a mine’s potentialities.

Only three states wrong

That year, he hit the election result practically on the nose. He said the Democrats would get a plurality of 7,500,000. They got 7,200,000. He was wrong on only three states. Thereafter, election after election, he enhanced his reputation – until 1940 when he fell on his face.

But he got up, grinned, and now he’s adding up numbers again and coming out with answers and forecasts. To fill in the time between elections, Mr. Hurja is associate publisher of Pathfinder Magazine.

Roosevelt leads in Fortune poll

New York (UP) –
Fortune Magazine said today that its final public opinion survey on the presidential election showed that between five and seven and one-half percent of those polled are still undecided on how they will vote.

The magazine reported that, among those with definite opinions, President Roosevelt still held a 50.5 percent preference in the poll, with 43.8 percent of the participants favoring Governor Thomas E. Dewey.

The Republican nominee’s lead was increased slightly in the tally of a secret ballot used in addition to the regular questionnaire, the magazine said.