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.
