America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

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GOP hopes to control House

New York (UP) –
Today’s election determines which major party will organize the House of Representatives and assume responsibility for vital tax and appropriations legislation in the next two fateful years.

Whether the war is cleaned up on both sides of the world in that time or whether the next election will find the Pacific War still to be won, the new House is certain to face great and difficult decisions in those fields of legislation which it only can initiate – taxation and appropriations.

Republicans claim that when the votes are counted, they will have won a majority of House seats. They have contended all along that this year they had their best chance since the Hoover administration of capturing House control. Democrats dispute this claim.

Neither has majority

Neither big party now has a majority in the House. To achieve a bare majority, one of them must win at least 218 of the 435 seats. The present lineup is 214 Democrats, 212 Republicans and four minority party members, with five vacancies.

The pre-polling indications were that many of the Congressional races would be close. Only 60 candidates are unopposed. House battles receiving a sizeable share of national interest included:

  • Rep. Hamilton Fish Jr. (R-NY) vs. Augustus W. Bennet (nominee of the Democratic, American Labor, Good Government and Liberal parties). The issue: Fish’s pre-Pearl Harbor isolationism.

  • Rep. Stephen A. Day (R-IL) vs. Democrat Emily Taft Douglas. Mr. Day was supported by the Chicago Tribune and the issue was the same as in Fish’s case.

  • Rep. Clare Boothe Luce (R-CT) vs. Democrat Margaret E. Connors, and Socialist Stanley W. Mayhew. Miss Connors has campaigned on a promise to cooperate with President Roosevelt’s programs if they both win.

  • House Republican leader Joseph W. Martin Jr. (R-MA) vs. Democrat Edmond P. Talbot. The Democrats have been claiming that the veteran Mr. Martin “has a race on his hands.”

  • Rep. Andrew J. May (D-KY) vs. Republican Elmer E. Tabbard. Republicans think Mr. Tabbard may win.

  • Rep. Usher L. Burdick (R-ND) vs. Republican Charles R. Robertson and Democrat J. L. Kennedy. Mr. Burdick sought the Republican nomination for Senator against Senator Gerald P. Nye and lost. He is seeking reelection to the House as an Independent Republican.

  • Hal Styles (D-CA) vs. Republican Gordon L. McDonough. Mr. Styles defeated Rep. John Costello for the Democratic nomination. In the campaign, the charge of membership in the Ku Klux Klan was raised against Styles, and Republicans assert Mr. McDonough is in.

Martin’s ambition

If the Republicans recapture the House control which they lost after the 1930 election, and if Mr. Martin survives the race with Mr. Talbot, he will become Speaker to succeed Sam Rayburn of Texas.

In all his years as Republican leader, Mr. Martin has had but one ambition – to become Speaker. After the 1940 presidential campaign, Mr. Martin quickly scotched reports that he might be available as a presidential candidate in 1944. He told newspapermen then that he’d rather be Speaker than President.

If the present ranking Republican members are reelected and the party wins a House majority, new chairmen of the more important committees would be:

WAYS AND MEANS: Harold Knutson of Minnesota, succeeding Robert L. Doughton (D-NC).
APPROPRIATIONS: John Taber of New York, succeeding Clarence Cannon (D-MO).
FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Charles A. Eaton of New Jersey, succeeding Sol Bloom (D-NY).
MILITARY AFFAIRS: Walter G. Andrews of New York, succeeding Andrew J. May (D-KY).
NAVAL AFFAIRS: Melvin J. Maas of Minnesota, succeeding Carl Vinson (D-GA).
RULES: Hamilton Fish Jr. of New York, succeeding Adolph J. Sabath (D-IL).
BANKING AND CURRENCY: Jesse P. Wolcott of Michigan, succeeding Brent Spence (D-KY).

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americavotes1944

Roosevelt’s Boston speech irks Ely

Boston, Massachusetts (UP) –
Democratic former Governor Joseph B. Ely of Massachusetts, an anti-fourth-term candidate for the party’s presidential nomination this year, charged today that President Roosevelt has attempted “to wrap around himself the mantle of a Great American, Alfred E. Smith.”

Mr. Ely, who nominated the “Happy Warrior” for President at the 1932 Democratic national convention. declared that Mr. Roosevelt injected Mr. Smith’s name in his final major campaign speech Saturday night “for the obvious purpose of luring to his support men and women who loved Al Smith.”

The President blocked Al Smith’s nomination in 1932, Mr. Ely charged, and consistently ignored his advice on matters of policy.

Election facts at a glance

New York (UP) –
Voters today are electing: President, Vice President, 36 U.S. Senators, 432 members of the House of Representatives, 31 Governors and thousands of state and local officials.

Candidates for President and Vice President are:
DEMOCRATIC: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.
REPUBLICAN: Thomas E. Dewey and John W. Bricker.
SOCIALIST: Norman Thomas and Darlington Hoopes.
SOCIALIST-LABOR: Edward A. Teichert and Arla A. Albaugh.
PROHIBITION: Claude A. Watson and Andrew Johnson.
AMERICA FIRST: Gerald L. K. Smith and Harry Romer.

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americavotes1944

Indiana squabbles over vote order

Indianapolis, Indiana (UP) –
The Indiana election board today instructed its 92 county boards to allow unlisted voters to cast ballots merely by showing their registration receipts and signing affidavits.

Attorney General James A. Emmert, Republican candidate for reelection, promptly charged the Democrats were attempting to “steal” the election and advised the county boards to disregard the state board orders.

He charged that the instructions are “a clear violation of law” and “open the door for the grossest kind of election frauds.”

Governor Henry F. Schricker, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senator, and David M. Lewis Jr., Democratic member of the election board, said the affidavit system is authorized by a provision in the state board’s manual interpreting state election laws.

Intercession asked for voting time

Seattle, Washington (UP) –
Senator Mon C. Wallgren, Democratic candidate for Governor, today wired President Roosevelt asking immediate presidential intercession against the alleged refusal of the management of the “hush-hush” federal project at Hanford, Washington, to grant workers time off to vote.

Senator Wallgren’s wire stated:

I ask your immediate intercession to see that regulations promulgated by other federal departments be made applicable to the Hanford engineering project.

Security regulations in the past have prevented mention of the number of employees working at the huge project, or the nature of the work involved.

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americavotes1944

Coast candidate files libel suit

Hollywood, California (UP) –
Radio producer Harold “Hal” Styles, Democratic Congressional candidate in California’s 15th district, today filed a million-dollar libel suit against the Los Angeles Examiner, charging the newspaper “maliciously” linked him with the Ku Klux Klan.

The suit, filed in Superior Court, was based upon an article and a cartoon appearing in the Oct. 26 edition.

Mr. Styles said he had demanded and been refused a retraction.

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americavotes1944

Fighting men overseas will get results

Broadcasts begin at 7 o’clock tonight

Washington (UP) –
Election returns will be radioed to U.S. fighting forces on every continent and in the remotest islands of the South Pacific today.

News will be flashed over Signal Corps and commercial wireless by a special point-to-point voice-casting arrangement.

Six shortwave transmitters on the East Coast will send five-minute bulletins across the Atlantic beginning at 7:00 p.m. EWT and seven other shortwave outlets will provide identical coverage starting at 8:00 p.m. EWT.

Far into the night

Also at 8:00 p.m. EWT, six powerful transmitters on the West Coast will begin flashing returns to the small Pacific Islands, Alaska, China, Hawaii, the Philippines, New Guinea and Australia.

Two stations made available to the Army by OWI will broadcast bulletins and summaries on the returns from the Army News Service in New York from 9:45 p.m. EWT through 2:30 a.m. EWT to Great Britain, Italy, the Mediterranean and North Africa.

The Army Communications Service hopes to reach even Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s troops on Leyte with a point-to-point voice casting by Army announcers direct from New York.

State returns tomorrow

Additional election coverage by Signal Corps and commercial wireless, through extra editions of The Stars and Stripes and widely-scattered unit newspapers and rebroadcasts of shortwave will give soldiers on isolated fronts full returns.

Tomorrow, a detailed analysis of the state voting will be sent by airmail to all overseas newspapers and radio stations.

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americavotes1944

President will vote in Hyde Park hall

Hyde Park, New York (UP) –
President Roosevelt today did all he possibly could toward defeating his Republican opponent, Governor Dewey, by going to the polls and voting – for Roosevelt.

Following a custom of the years, the President and his wife were scheduled to appear at the white-walled town hall of Hyde Park this afternoon and cast their ballots.

To get returns in home

Tonight, the President will settle down in the library of his home and watch election returns fed into his house through press association wires and in other dispatches from party leaders throughout the nation. And if around midnight there is a clear trend of his victory, the loyal Democrats of predominantly Republican Dutchess County will organize a torchlight parade and weave through the President’s estate to give him their personal congratulations.

Last night, the President returned to his house after an afternoon tour of the Hudson Valley to broadcast an appeal for a vote of 50 million to prove the democratic process in this country and resultantly assure a lasting peace.

Introduced by Georgia girl

He was introduced on the air by Bettie McCall, Decatur, Georgia, who was chosen as the typical 18-year-old Georgia college girl who, under her state laws, is eligible to vote. She was presented on a Democratic committee program by Julius O. Regnier, 94, who will vote in his 19th presidential election and who shook hands with Abraham Lincoln at Galesburg, Illinois, in 1898.

In the afternoon, the President made a four-and-a-half-hour drive around the Hudson Valley, giving a “howdy do” to his neighbors and a sharp political needle to Rep. Hamilton Fish (R-NY), who is one of the President’s more outspoken and active political foes.

The President made no political predictions except to say that he “hoped” he would not be beaten “too badly” in traditionally-Republican Dutchess County.

He recalled that when he campaigned down the Hudson Valley four years ago, he was reputed to have said that obviously was his last trip as a candidate for public office. “This time,” he added, “I’m not doing any prophesying.”

Governor to ballot in New York City

Albany, New York (UP) –
Governor Dewey submitted his candidacy for the Presidency to the nation’s voters today with an appeal for a Republican victory “to shorten the war” and lay the groundwork for post-war peace and prosperity.

That was the theme of his final message closing the first wartime political campaign in America since 1864.

The GOP candidate asked that every qualified voter in the nation participate in today’s election. He proposed to suit his own words to action by traveling from Albany to New York City, where he has been a registered Republican for 21 years.

To vote after noon

His schedule provided that, accompanied by his wife and a host of reporters, he leave Albany by special tram and arrive in New York City at 12:10 p.m. ET, there proceeding directly to his polling Place at 108 East 48th Street to cast his vote before retiring to his suite at the Roosevelt Hotel to await the election returns.

The Governor made his last speech of the campaign last night in a 15-minute radio talk over all networks.

Describing today’s election as one which “may be the most fateful in our history,” and “a test for each of us of our devotion to the American system of government,” he declared:

The great test is whether, knowing we need a new administration, we will make the change necessary to speed victory and to build the peace to come.”

Three questions for voters

He predicted that the years from 1945 to 1949 will be important, difficult years, requiring “vigorous, hardworking, harmonious leadership, with abiding faith in America.”

He asserted that “everyone will agree that we need improvement and need it badly.”

In conclusion, he posed for voters in today’s election three questions:

How can I help shorten the war? How can I help secure lasting peace? How can I help give jobs and opportunity in the years that lie beyond our victory?

He said:

If you will soberly ask yourself these questions and will think the answers through in the light of your own knowledge, I have no doubt of the outcome.

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americavotes1944

West Virginians vote on governor

By the United Press

West Virginia’s two gubernatorial candidates took to the airways last night in a last-minute appeal for the support of the state’s 1,046,514 registered voters and to land a final punch in one of the most strenuous general election campaigns in state history.

Both candidates, confident of victory, spoke from their home cities in an effort to bring out the vote today.

Mayor D. Boone Dawson, GOP nominee, spoke from Charleston, delivering a “thank you” message to the voting public.

Circuit Judge Clarence W. Meadows, Democratic nominee, spoke from Beckley and urged a heavy vote.

In addition to electing a governor, West Virginians will select members of the Board of Public Works, a judge of the State Supreme Court of Appeals, 16 Senators, 94 members of the House of Delegates, 25 judges and six Congressmen.

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Millett: G.I. Joe will like quiet

Don’t annoy him with conversation
By Ruth Millett

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Editorial: United we stand

Today we vote as partisans, but we do not cease to be Americans, We shall prove that, when the verdict of the polls is in, by laying politics aside and joining hands to support the chosen President.

People in other countries are said to be amazed that we in the United States have dared, at a crucial moment in history’s greatest war, to argue our differences of opinion publicly and hotly and even bitterly in an election campaign “as usual.” They think it displayed a lack of unity which we might wisely have concealed.

Such people do not know the secret of our strength. They fail to understand that we preserve our unity because we do argue publicly about our differences and because, at stated intervals, we settle our arguments by casting our ballots and accepting the results. If we had feared to hold an election at this time, that would indeed have been a sign of division, deep and dangerous.

In this campaign, as in many, many others, things have been said on both sides that might better have been left unsaid. But a reading of history would show that more bitter campaigns than this one have come and gone and left no lasting scars. And none has revealed a more fundamental agreement on main objectives – to win the war quickly, to make America’s influence count decisively for enduring peace, to achieve sound prosperity and abundant employment within the framework of the private-enterprise system.

Those were the things pledged by both presidential candidates, for the compelling reason that those are the things most desired by a vast majority of the American people, Democrats and Republicans and independents alike. Our arguments have been about methods and men, not about goals.

The next President, whether his name be Dewey or Roosevelt, will need the support of a united nation. He will have it. The nation will need the leadership of a President whose aim is to preserve unity. May it have that!

As we await the returns tonight, let us resolve not to gloat in victory, not to sulk in defeat, not to cherish partisanship and forget sportsmanship. We have mighty tasks ahead of us. We must tackle them together.

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Editorial: Stalin on victory and peace

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Editorial: Initiative

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Editorial: Women and post-war jobs

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Editorial: You can always turn it off

Not so many years ago, a citizen could take his politics or leave it alone. He didn’t have to listen to campaign speeches unless he wanted to.

Then, the radio revised campaign methods in 1928 and now you can’t escape hearing the candidates.

But there’s more to come – in the post-war world. Senator Wagner, last Sunday night, was the first candidate for major office to be televised right into the homes of voters. Wonder what the campaign of 1948 will be like?

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Edson: Three proposals dominate Chicago air conference

By Peter Edson

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Ferguson: Political campaign

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

As this is written the election is in doubt. Although many people are saying so, this campaign has been no meaner than many others we’ve staged. Between campaigns, we forget old rancors.

The reason we can forget the wounds of political campaigns is because we are essential a fair-minded people. Even when contests are hottest, neighbors and friends on opposing sides can laugh together over their differences.

Editorial and platform accusations sometimes sound vicious, but that’s a part of the game too, and those who are engaged in the fight know it. In Washington, Democrats and Republicans fraternize in private even while the public is led to believe them mortal enemies. Those skilled in political techniques use every device to win, but a good deal of their alarmist talk is pure bosh and nobody knows it better than they do.

Whatever the election outcome, the country faces a crucial period. It will take the best efforts of all good Americans to pull us through. We could therefore utilize the day to examine our own hearts and ask ourselves seriously why mankind has not been able to outlaw war.

We know the answer, too. Peace is not built on hates. It does not spring from greed. It is the result of human behavior. And a good many humans must change their behavior in order to achieve it. Maybe that means you and me, as well as our leaders.

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Background of news –
War reparations

By F. M. Brewer

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Simms: Security plans depend on Russian stand

Exclusiveness gives rise to anxiety
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor

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Lawyer uphold troop use if U.S. safety is threatened

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Hughes and Frye flying to Russia

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americavotes1944

Bricker casts vote

Columbus, Ohio –
Governor John W. Bricker, Republican vice-presidential nominee, today voted the Republican ticket “all the way down the line.”

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G.I. ‘affirmative’ wins debate –
Verona brothers on patrol ‘reason’ Nazis out of pillbox

Argument in no-man’s-land results in 18 Germans deciding to save their skins
By William H. Stoneman

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Yank goes AWOL to get in fight

Wounded sergeant tires of red tape

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