Personality only reason in Stilwell move, China says
Foreign Minister asserts recall had nothing to do with policy of two countries
…
Liberty ships to honor Norris, Smith, Willkie
…
Simms: Why make issue now out of century-old situation in China
Far East victory may be delayed unless Washington and Chungking recover tact
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
…
Russia upsets oil plans of U.S., British
Makes belated bid for concessions in Iran
…
Stock market officials probe ‘kickbacks’
Fail to end evidence of ‘anything wrong’
…
Brundige: D. Lamour again dons sarong!
Bracken co-star in Penn comedy
By Lenore Brundige
…
Dorsey witnesses disappear
…
Millett: Thoughtless remarks add to war wives’ worries
Stay-at-homes who ‘know how others feel’ just imagine they do
By Ruth Millett
…
EXECUTIVE ORDER 9496
Authorizing the Secretary of War to Take Possession of and Operate the Plants and Facilities of Certain Companies Located in or Near Toledo, Ohio
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 3, 1944
WHEREAS after an investigation I find and proclaim that the plants and facilities of the companies listed in appendix A, attached hereto, located in or near Toledo, Ohio, are equipped for the manufacture and production of articles and materials that are required for the war effort or that are useful in connection therewith; that there are existing interruptions of the operation of certain of said plants and facilities and threatened interruptions of the operation of the others of said plants and facilities, as a result of a labor disturbance; that the war effort will be unduly impeded or delayed by these interruptions; and that the exercise as hereinafter specified of the powers vested in me is necessary to insure in the interest of the war effort the operation of these plants and facilities:
NOW, THEREFORE, by virtue of the power and authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, including section 9 of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 (54 Stat. 892) as amended by the War Labor Disputes Act (57 Stat. 163), as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows:
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The Secretary of War is hereby authorized and directed, through and with the aid of any persons or instrumentalities that he may designate, to take possession of the plants and facilities, or any part thereof in which production is interrupted or threatened with interruption, of the companies listed in appendix A attached hereto, located in or near Toledo, Ohio, and, to the extent that he may deem necessary, of any real or personal property, and other assets wherever situated, used in connection with, the operations thereof; to operate or to arrange for the operation of the plants and facilities in such manner as he deems necessary for the successful prosecution of the war; to exercise any contractual or other rights of the said companies, and to continue the employment of, or to employ, any persons, and to do any other thing that he may deem necessary for, or incidental to, the operation of the said plants and facilities and the production, sale, and distribution of the products thereof; and to take any other steps that he deems necessary to carry out the provisions and purposes of this order.
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The Secretary of War shall operate the said plants and facilities in accordance with the terms and conditions of employment which are in effect at the time possession thereof is taken, subject to the provisions of section 5 of the War Labor Disputes Act.
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The Secretary of War shall permit the management of the plants and facilities taken under the provisions of this order to continue with its managerial functions to the maximum degree possible, consistent with the aims of this order.
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The Secretary of War Is authorized to take such action, if any, as he may deem necessary or desirable to provide protection for the plants and all persons employed or seeking employment therein, and their families and homes. All Federal agencies, including but not limited to the War Manpower Commission, the National Selective Service System, and the Department of Justice, are directed to cooperate with the Secretary of War to the fullest extent possible in carrying out the purposes of this order.
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Possession, control, and operation of any plant or facility, or part thereof, taken under this order shall be terminated by the Secretary of War within 60 days after he determines that the productive efficiency of the plant, facility, or part thereof prevailing prior to the existing interruptions of production, referred to in the recitals of this order, has been restored.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
THE WHITE HOUSE,
November 3, 1944
APPENDIX A – LIST OF COMPANIES
TOLEDO, OHIO
Baker Bros., Inc.
Willys-Overland Motors, Inc.
Great Lakes Stamping & Manufacturing Company.
Ohio Tool and Die Company.
The Inshield Products Company.
The Crescent Engineering Corporation.
The Toledo Steel Tube Company.
Wayne Metal Products Company.
Reading Eagle (November 3, 1944)
ON THE RECORD —
The Chinese crisis
By Dorothy Thompson
It is probably just as well that the recall of Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell from China has lifted the veil on conditions there. Correspondents who have returned from the Far East have discussed the situation privately with anxiety for years. Toward none of our allies, considered as a people, are American hearts warmer than toward the Chinese. The dogged sacrificial heroism of the Chinese common soldier has been confirmed by every American reporting on China,
Nor were we, for a time, in a position to make criticisms of the conduct of the Chiang regime, Stilwell went to China as hardly more than a token of good will, and a promise substantially to aid, as and when we could. No officer ever undertook a more thankless mission. I believe that at least one general turned it down, before Stilwell said laconically: Okay. When do I start?
But with the epochal naval victory in the waters of the Philippines, the war in the Far East enters a new phase, and American prestige has skyrocketed in the Pacific area. So, it became necessary both to clear up certain matters as a preface to new operations, and possible to take a stand in good grace. If the withdrawal of Stilwell is confirmation of a diplomatic failure it is dubious whether our prestige suffers as badly as the Generalissimo’s.
For Lt. Gen. Stilwell is not a man who cares about prestige – certainly not about his own. If he did, he never would have undertaken his mission in the first place. Stilwell is an American patriot, a warm and sincere friend of China, whose language he speaks fluently, and over and above everything else, a soldier. Although the President said in his press conference that it was all just a personal matter – which is the diplomatic way for the head of a state to put it – the personal matter extends to the American Ambassador, Clarence E. Gauss, who has resigned and is on his way home.
The sad truth is that diplomatically and politically we have recognized China as the fourth power on earth, which she potentially is, but as a promise of future greatness and not as an existing fact.
The existing fact is that China is not yet an organized national state, but a country that has been fighting a civil war since 1911, and a foreign war for seven years, without pacifying the internal struggles. We have three Chinese areas: The one controlled by the Japanese; the one controlled by the Chinese “Communists,” who are in reality radical agrarian reformers with attractions toward the Soviet Union, but as a party more independent of Russia than any other Communist Party has been; and, third, the Chung-King area of Chiang’s Kuomintang.
The three areas are at war with each other, and two of them at war with Japan. Constant attempts have been made, with American support, to end this feud, which is tying up, from Chiang’s side an estimated three to five hundred thousand men, and from both sides, from six hundred thousand to one million men.
The opening of the Pacific offers possibilities of fighting the Japs, in other ways than from the interior of China. If we should have a united Chinese Army on the Asiatic mainland, it would be worthwhile to surmount the fantastic difficulties of supplying such a force. But if, on the other hand, this Chinese force is paralyzed within itself, and the leader of the Chinese state unwilling to accept an impartial American command, which might be able to cement the politically divergent forces for military purposes, then every expert on logistics would, I think, say that we should use our ships to reach the Pacific shorelines of China, there create a force of our own, and continue the war against Japan as an amphibious operation, thus putting to fullest use our present naval supremacy.
Also it is an open secret that we hope that with victory in Europe the Soviet Union might join us against Japan and there are compelling reasons why the Soviets might do so, But certainly they will not join us, in order to consolidate in China, the country with which they have the longest land frontier, a regime bitterly hostile to them. There, as in Europe, the Soviets will consider their future security. If Chiang can compromise Chinese differences on a democratic basis, he would be acceptable to the Soviets. If he wants to force a one-sided solution, he will be unacceptable.
Pegler: Dishonest conduct
By Westbrook Pegler
New York –
Tom Dewey recently said that nowadays the problem of the people in judging news from the White House was not whether it was good or bad but whether it was true or false.
In this he challenged not merely the veracity of a rival candidate for office but the morality, the character, of the most influential elective official in the nation. For if, as Dewey said, President Roosevelt is intentionally untruthful, then his morals are bad. And, inasmuch as moral currents emanate from the character of the President and affect his administration, then, if the President is dishonest, tricky and cynical, the morals of the people and the national character must suffer.
It is not only by laws, enforced by policemen, that a moral people are moved to maintain decent standards in their relations between themselves and their government. A finer force, a product of civilization, operates here. For a decisive test of Roosevelt’s veracity, we need proceed no further in his reign than his first Presidency, in which he soon repudiated and violated every persuasive promise on which he had been elected. Economy, which he had promised, became a fabulous program of alms under political control extending down into the very precincts, The bureaucracy which he had condemned in the Hoover administration was multiplied to make places for his political following. He vowed that he would not devalue our money, an inflationary course, but did repudiate the gold pledge. an act of repudiation which shook the confidence of the rest of the world in the United States.
That much being established by citations which could be multiplied a thousand times, how have his actions affected the morals of the people and their confidence in the integrity of their government.
A few nights ago, Roosevelt said, with a note of a snarl in his delivery, that some Republicans were now threatening, in the event of defeat, to refuse to cooperate with him in the building of the peace. They would risk total calamity for partisan political advantage. But what did he do in a similar case, in the interim between his first election and his inauguration of Hoover begged him to cooperate to avert the bank panic, but Roosevelt and the New Deal brain trust hilariously taunted the now powerless chief of an expiring and discredited regime and went away. Merely to humiliate Hoover and create counterfeit political capital, where they have used ever since, they invited the panic and all its consequences for all the people.
They were flippant and frivolous and riding high, and to them the juvenile, exultant fun of mocking a somber and unpopular man was worth all the suffering imposed on millions of others. Yet, ever since, they have profited by the public impression that this panic was not Roosevelt’s and wrought intentionally, but Hoover’s, and due to his reactionary stupidity.
The morality of Roosevelt, himself, was revealed again in his court-packing plan. I could go to the files and cite editorial comments from papers now supporting him for a fourth term. which denounced him in terms so contemptuous that they could not today support him in a petition for a parole from prison were they consistent. They accused him of aspiring to dictatorship, they pointed out the similarity of this scheme to Hitler’s way, they accused him of fraud and “viciousness” was the adjective most generally used. The public which usually grasps only the larger facts of a situation still believes this was a scheme to pack only the Supreme Court. It was much worse. It was a plan to organize a corps of New Deal judges in the federal district courts and to assign these new appointees, and only them, to cases in which the New Deal had a political or ideological interest.
Judges already on the federal district bench were not to be so assigned. They might not rule as he wanted them to. His own new appointees would be chosen for their reliability.
Early in the game there was a small, brief scandal over some extremely valuable philatelic rarities, desperately created by Jim Farley in the Post Office Department. Farley was no stamp collector. He hadn’t yet learned the value of such freaks. But Roosevelt and Harold Ickes were collectors of old. They had been keeping and trading stamps for years and they knew that the sheets of stamps which Farley was sending them for face value were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. In one case, as the scandal broke, they were caught in the act, so the stamps in question were devalued by inflation. Farley ran off thousands of sheets more, for general sale, and these particular freaks dropped to par. But what other sheets they had been given we were not told.
Was that the conduct of honest men?
But, surely, President Roosevelt, rich in his own hereditary right and full of honors, wouldn’t stoop to obtain a financial profit or gain!
He wouldn’t? Analysis of his “gift” of his ancestral home to a nation which did not ask the favor shows the it was a tax trick whereby his heirs will save inheritance tax and, adding insult to injury, the transaction was given a false seeming of patriotic philanthropy. His wife’s uncle was given a job at $100,000 a year as lobbyist for the liquor trust soon after repeal as a tribute on the industry in return for the precious gift of renewed life. His mother and his wife both quickly exploited his new office for their private profit, and when the income-tax returns of other citizens were thrown on the table for public analysis by experts, the returns of the Roosevelt family were protected by the head of the family, the President, himself, who had sole authority to authorize their inspection.
The Roberts Report on Pearl Harbor, while convicting two high commanders without trial, plainly shows that Roosevelt had a share of the fault. Yet he has smothered the two service inquiries and suppressed the reports until after election.
This is not even a summary. It is only a random selection of acts of defiant dishonesty and scheming.
Völkischer Beobachter (November 4, 1944)
‚Offene Worte‘ des Maquis –
Das Bolschewistentreiben in Frankreich
Von unserem Berichterstatter in der Schweiz
…
Führer HQ (November 4, 1944)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
Auf Walcheren und an der unteren Maas setzten unsere Truppen den von Schlachtfliegern und Panzern unterstützten kanadischen und englischen Angriffen erbitterten Widerstand entgegen. Nordöstlich Roosendaal und bei Oosterhout sind harte Kämpfe mit dem in unsere Stellungen eingedrungenen Feind im Gange. Südöstlich Helmond wurden die angreifenden Briten unter Abschuß mehrerer Panzer abgewiesen.
Die im Wald von Hürtgen auf schmaler Front vorgedrungenen Nordamerikaner wurden durch unsere Grenadiere auf ihre Ausgangsstellungen zurückgeworfen. Südöstlich davon wird um einzelne Ortschaften heftig gekämpft.
Von der lothringischen Grenze südlich des Rhein-Marne-Kanals bis in den Raum Saint-Dié hielten wir unser Hauptkampffeld gegen den erneut in mehreren Abschnitten angreifenden Feind. An der Straße Remiremont–Gerardmer konnten französische Verbände erst nach mehrfachen erfolglosen Angriffen geringfügige Einbrüche erzielen.
Zusammengefasstes Feuer aller Waffen zerschlug einen stärkeren feindlichen Panzerangriff auf die Südwestfront von Dünkirchen. Durch leichte Flak der Festung Lorient wurden zwei Kriegsfahrzeuge des Gegners versenkt und weitere in Brand geschossen. Eigene Spähtrupps sprengten vor Saint-Nazaire feindliche Bunker und stießen bis 30 Kilometer östlich der Stadt in das von amerikanischen Truppen besetzte Gebiet vor.
In Mittelitalien wurden Vorstöße der Nordamerikaner westlich Imola ebenso abgewiesen wie Versuche britischer Verbände, den Roncoabschnitt östlich und nordöstlich Forli zu überschreiten.
Das dicht westliche Rhodos gelegene Insel Calchi ist wieder vom Feinde gesäubert worden.
In Mazedonien stehen unsere Truppen in harten Kämpfen gegen die in zahlreichen Abschnitten erneut angreifenden bulgarischen Verbände. Eigene Angriffe gegen die Bolschewisten am Oberlauf der westlichen Morava sind in gutem Fortschreiten.
An der Donau blieben bolschewistische Angriffe gegen die Brückenkopfstellung bei Dunaföldvár erfolglos. Panzer und Panzergrenadiere schlugen südöstlich Budapest an der Bahnlinie nach Szolnok starke feindliche Angriffe in erbitterten Kämpfen ab. Die nordwestlich Ungvár auf zehn Kilometer breite mit Panzerunterstützung angreifenden Bolschewisten konnten nur einen geringfügigen Einbruch erzielen.
In Ostpreußen brachte ein eigener Angriff bei Goldap trotz hartnäckiger sowjetischer Gegenwehr gute Erfolge.
Im Kurland ließ die Heftigkeit der feindlichen Angriffe südöstlich Eibau weiter nach. Dagegen setzen die Bolschewisten im Raum von Autz ihre zusammengefassten Durchbruchsversuche mit Panzern und starker Artillerieunterstützung fort. Sie scheiterten an dem zähen Widerstand unserer Grenadiere. Einzelne Einbrüche wurden abgeriegelt.
In Nordfinnland verlaufen unsere Marsch- und Absetzbewegungen bei geringer Gefechtstätigkeit planmäßig.
Der Feind setzte seine Luftangriffe auf die Zivilbevölkerung im linksrheinischen Gebiet fort und warf außerdem mit schwächeren Kräften verstreut Bomben unter anderem auf München, Wien und Berlin.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (November 4, 1944)
FROM
(A) SHAEF FORWARD
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
041100A November
TO FOR ACTION
(1) AGWAR (Pass to WND)
TO (W) FOR INFORMATION (INFO)
(2) FIRST US ARMY GP
(3) ADV HQ 12 ARMY GP
(4) FWD ECH (MAIN) 12 ARMY GP
(5) AEAF
(6) ANCXF
(7) EXFOR MAIN
(8) EXFOR REAR
(9) DEFENSOR, OTTAWA
(10) CANADIAN C/S, OTTAWA
(11) WAR OFFICE
(12) ADMIRALTY
(13) AIR MINISTRY
(14) ETOUSA
(15) SACSEA
(16) CMHQ (Pass to RCAF & RCN)
(17) COM Z APO 871
(18) SHAEF MAIN
(REF NO.)
NONE
(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR
Communiqué No. 210
On the Island of Walcheren, Allied troops have cleared Domburg of the enemy. The regimental command of the enemy troops in Flushing was captured yesterday, but there still is some resistance in the northern part of the town and mopping-up continues in the docks area. To the west of Flushing our troops have joined with forces advancing along the coast from Westkapelle. Early yesterday morning, allied units from Zuid Beveland landed on the east side of the island and have made good progress. Gun positions and strong points near Middelburg were bombed and strafed by fighter-bombers. The buildup of supplies on Walcheren Island is being satisfactorily maintained.
During the earlier stages of the landing operation, the Royal Navy gave support to the land forces by bombardment of enemy guns and positions and the landings were successfully completed in spite of severe opposition from enemy batteries. North of Oudenbosch, our bridgehead over the Mark River has been widened and deepened. Northwest of Oosterhout the two bridgeheads established earlier have merged, and our troops have advanced to the vicinity of Den Hout in spite of heavy opposition. Concentrations of enemy troops and military buildings north of Breda were attacked by fighter-bombers. Road and rail transport in Holland and the Ruhr were the targets for other fighter-bombers. Northeast of Weert, the enemy has been driven out of an area between the Bois-le-Duc Canal and the Noorder Canal.
Southeast of Aachen, fighter bombers, in close support of our ground forces, attacked enemy units and tanks. Our forces made small gains south of Vossenack against moderate to heavy resistance and have entered the town of Schmidt, two miles to the southeast. In the forest southwest of Vossenack, we are clearing out pillboxes against stubborn opposition. Communications in the Rhine River Valley and westward to the enemy line, and in the Moselle River Valley were attacked by medium, light and fighter-bombers. Among the targets were seven bridges and a railway tunnel. Additional gains have been made in the Baccarat sector where the village of Reherrey has been freed. East of Remiremont, Vagney, and several nearby villages have been freed. Down south, north of Menton, heights overlooking the Italian frontier has been taken without resistance.
COORDINATED WITH: G-2, G-3 to C/S
THIS MESSAGE MAY BE SENT IN CLEAR BY ANY MEANS
/s/
Precedence
“OP” - AGWAR
“P” - Others
ORIGINATING DIVISION
PRD, Communique Section
NAME AND RANK TYPED. TEL. NO.
D. R. JORDAN, Lt Col FA Ext. 9
AUTHENTICATING SIGNATURE
/s/U.S. Navy Department (November 4, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 174
Corsairs of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing bombed and strafed targets on Yap Island and in the Northern Palaus on November 1 (West Longitude Date). Two small cargo ships were heavily damaged near Babelthuap, while barges and trucks were destroyed at both Babelthuap and Yap.
Seventh Air Force Thunderbolts bombed Pagan Island on November 2, destroying a twin‑engine bomber as it neared the airfield. Corsairs of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing strafed gun emplacements at Rota Island on the same day.
Seventh Air Force Liberators bombed the airstrip and installations at Marcus Island on November 1, repeating the attack the next day.
A single PBY of Fleet Air Wing Two bombed Nauru Island on the night of November 1‑2. Anti-aircraft fire was inaccurate.
Corsairs of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing continued to neutralize enemy‑held positions in the Marshall Islands on November 2.
Remarks by President Roosevelt
November 4, 1944
Delivered at Bridgeport, Connecticut
This is not a formal campaign speech. It’s just a visit from one neighbor to a lot of other neighbors, because, you know, from my place up on the Hudson River when I look east I can see into Connecticut, and it doesn’t take me very much more than an hour to get down to Bridgeport from my house.
So let me just tell you as a neighbor that I am glad to be back.
This being war, though I am told not to mention that subject, I always remember back in 1917 or 1918 coming to Bridgeport when I was in the Navy Department, and seeing the building of ships, the manufacturing of munitions, guns, and bullets. And I remember very well the reputation that Bridgeport had in those days in the first war. And it has got the same reputation for a magnificent industrial effort and help to our troops in this war.
I hope that, while we are alive, Bridgeport will never be called on again to make munitions in a world war. And it is interesting, at this time, for the first time since the days of Lincoln, that we are conducting a war and carrying on a presidential election at the same time.
Some of us are trying to get excited about politics. Some of us become even rather agitated. You ought to know. Yes, there are a few politicians, even men and women, who work themselves into such an emotional state that they say things I hope they will be sorry for before they die.
There isn’t very much that I can say, except to talk about the record. You know that. A lot of people don’t like me to talk about the record. They don’t like to be reminded that people have been taken care of by the Congress through the passage of all kinds of social legislation. When I talk about those things again, some people say, “Oh, why do they have to bring that subject up?”
I think we have made a pretty good record in running this war, and they don’t like that talked about either. They like to talk about some kind of a wild, weird future. Well, believe me, you see it and then you don’t see it. One candidate says one thing and, in another place, simultaneously, another candidate says another thing. I get tremendously amused by some of this – not all of it – because I wish in a way I were back in 1910, when I was running for the State Senate in the State of New York, and I had a particularly disagreeable opponent, and he called me names. Well, I wasn’t anything in those days – I wasn’t President – and I answered him in kind. And the names that I called him were worse than the names that he called me. So, we had a very joyous campaign.
In this campaign, of course, all things taken together, I can’t talk about my opponent the way I would like to sometimes, because I try to think that I am a Christian. I try to think that someday I will go to Heaven, and I don’t believe there is anything to be gained in saying dreadful things about other people in any campaign.
After next Tuesday there are going to be a lot of sorry people in the United States.
I want to say, looking into the future, that I hope some of my good friends who happen to be running for office – your candidate for Governor, your candidate for the Senate – both of them old friends of mine – will be elected; and I hope, too, that very soon after the first of January, Mrs. Roosevelt and I will have a call – in the White House – from the charming lady, Miss Connors, on my right.
So it’s good to see you all, and I’ll be back some day, very soon I hope, as President.
Thanks.
Remarks by President Roosevelt
November 4, 1944
Delivered at Hartford, Connecticut
I am glad to come back here. It’s rather a happy surprise. Four years ago, I was told terrible things were being circulated all over the country. People all over the United States were being told that if I got reelected, all of the Hartford insurance companies would go broke. So, coming in here, I expected to see vast, empty buildings not being used and employing no people. The insurance business was going to go flat. And yet they are still present. And, of course, the joke is that the insurance companies, not only of Hartford but of other places, are better off than they ever have been before. They are pretty good insurance companies, you know. They subscribe to the war loans. They have been patriotic. They just have only one unfortunate habit which they acquire every four years – in fact, the last few months of every four years. They say, “If this man Roosevelt gets elected President, we will have to go out of business!” So, it is good to see them still going good to see that Hartford is not a city of empty homes.
But, you know, that was like a lot of other campaigns. Back in – what was it? – 1932, they said that grass was going to grow in the streets. But it didn’t! And Mr. Hoover wasn’t reelected President.
And then in 1936, some of the people all over the country – you know the kind I mean – tried to instill fear in the minds of the American people by saying that the social security funds of the United States were no good – they weren’t safe. They even went to the extent of having some of their large financial backers put this type of scare material in the pay envelopes of millions of employees. And the interesting thing was that the employees didn’t fall for it. They thought they knew better than the president of the company. And they took another chance with me.
Now, they will apparently never learn that this kind of campaign does not produce the results they look for. In fact, it usually produces the opposite result. It is going to do that again this year.
And they are making the fantastic claim this year that your government is now engaged in some deep-dyed plot to take over the insurance business.
Well, it so happens that I have had some experience in the insurance business myself, and I know that the workers and managers in that business cannot be easily fooled by that type of propaganda.
Why, the insurance policies of the United States and your savings are safer than they ever were in the whole history of the United States – and so is the insurance business.
That was not true in 1933 when I took office. I don’t have to recall to you the closing banks and the shaky insurance companies of those days. In fact, I think it is safe to say that a great many of the insurance companies in 1933, if they had tried to liquidate their assets for the benefit of policyholders, would have found themselves in the “red.” They would not have had enough money. And the reason is obvious – because before 1933 – a year before and the year before that – the value of the farms and mortgages and other properties on their books had depreciated so much that by March of 1933, they couldn’t have been liquidated at anything like the figures at which they were carrying their assets on their own books. That’s a pretty serious charge. But the record is there. Under the last Republican administration, the insurance companies were “bust.”
You know what happened in 1933. You know how quickly the action of this administration resulted in increased earnings and savings and property values. And that is what this “bungling, incompetent” administration has done for the people of the United States.
There is one thing that I have meant to say for the last two months, and haven’t had a chance. It’s a word about a group of our citizens that have been pretty hard hit by the war. They have not been able to earn the high level of wages that have been paid in shipyards and war factories – and yet, with amazing patience and fortitude they have continued in their essential jobs – carrying on as best they can. And those are the white-collar workers of America.
I think, however, that in addition to being thoroughly patriotic, staying at their work, they realize that this administration has done a pretty good job in keeping down the cost of living, in protecting the purchasing power of their dollars in terms of rent and other necessities of life. Compared with the skyrocketing cost of living in the last war – twice as much of a rise as in this war – our record in this war, on the whole, has been very good. And I want you – as they used to say – to give a hand to the white-collar workers of the United States.
Because during the war, for the first time in history, we have avoided wartime inflation. Inflation means nothing more than a rise in the cost of things, and the white-collar workers’ wages haven’t gone up anything like what the wages have gone up in other professions or trades.
The lesson of the last war was clear to us – nearly all of us – in the administration, but to many Republicans it was not plain at all.
Time and again the Republicans in the Congress voted overwhelmingly against price control, and in favor of letting prices go skyrocketing.
So, I make an assertion. The Democratic Party in this war has been the party of sound money. The Republican Party has been the party of unsound money.
If the Republicans had had their way, all of us – farmers, white-collar workers, factory workers, housewives – we would all have had our dollars cut by inflation and a higher cost of living.
I hope to come back here very often either as a private citizen, or as President of the United States. But I am very confident today that when I come back during the next four years it will be as President of the United States.
And in saying goodbye to you, after this very pleasing visit, I assure you that when I do come back, I will still be able to wear the same size hat.