The Chicago Daily Tribune (November 7, 1944)
FDR appeals for militant, united people
Urges 50 million to cast ballots
By William Edwards
Hyde Park, New York –
President Roosevelt wound up his fourth-term campaign tonight with a plea that the nation “face the future as a militant and united people – united here at home as well as on the battlefronts.”
In a solemnly-worded appeal, he urged 50 million American voters to “show the rest of the world that our kind of government is the best in the world – and the kind we propose to keep.”
He said the political battle was finished and he did not want to talk of partisan politics. He concluded, as he had on election eve in 1940, with a prayer by an unidentified author asking the blessing of God upon the whole land.
The text of the radio address, which had been in readiness since early in the afternoon, was withheld from the press until Mr. Roosevelt actually began speaking into the microphones in the library of his big home on the Hudson River.
Delay not explained
No official explanation was given for this unusual delay.
Tonight’s sober speech was in contrast to the informal speeches delivered by Mr. Roosevelt this afternoon in a tour of the Hudson River countryside.
His last address to the voters before they march to the polls tomorrow was almost somber at times. The President said he and millions of other Americans were most deeply concerned with the wellbeing of our fighting men far away from home.
These men, he continued, will be asking questions sooner or later as to whether the folks back home looked after their interests while they themselves were off at war.
Jazz closes campaign
New York – (Nov. 6, special)
A strange medley of jazz, jingles, and wisecracks, interspersed with political potpourri put the finishing touches tonight on the New Deal’s fourth-term campaign.
For three-quarters of an hour over all major networks, writers, singers, comedians, politicians, and movie stars from Hollywood and New York followed each other in bewildering succession in the Democratic National Committee’s vaudeville jamboree.
After Frank Sinatra had spoken and others in the heterogeneous array of performers had done their bits, President Roosevelt came on in a serious mood.
Groucho Marx adlibs
Speakers included writer Quentin Reynolds, U.S. Ambassador to Russia W. Averell Harriman, Dorothy Parker, Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney. Groucho Marx adlibbed a few quips on behalf of the New Deal. So did Milton Berle. Several comedians recited bits of doggerel about Dewey and Hoover.
Chants of vote, vote, vote were heard at intervals during the program and an overlay of continuous jazz music made the words of some of the speakers almost indistinguishable. Voices came on the air said to represent typical farmers, union members, aircraft workers, and working girls.