The Pittsburgh Press (October 24, 1940)
ROOSEVELT GIVES PLEDGE OF NO WAR
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President Denies U.S. Has Any Secret International Treaties
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By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press Staff Writer
Philadelphia, Oct. 24 –
President Roosevelt’s bid for the vital Mid-Atlantic states was based on a campaign charging his opponents with deliberate falsification and denying the existence of secret international treaties of any kind involving the United States in any way.
15,000 partisans cheered enthusiastically in Convention Hall here last night as Mr. Roosevelt began his whirlwind campaign. He delivers another political speech Monday night in New York City.
He limited himself last night to a recapitulation of New Deal achievements, sharply sarcastic counters to Republican charges and a reiteration that we are not arming for foreign war.
Makes Job Promise
There was one campaign promise – to the youth of the land – that in the next four years, there shall be work for every young man and young woman.
It was a tumultuous meeting in the great hall where Mr. Roosevelt was renominated four years ago and where Wendell L. Willkie won the Republican prize last June. Thousands milled outside the building. There were no unoccupied seats inside. Tremendous crowds welcomed Mr. Roosevelt during his progress through Delaware and New Jersey.
False–false–false, Mr. Roosevelt said last night in answering Republican charges that he had urged the Axis powers to “sell Czechoslovakia down the river,” that he had negotiated secret agreements with foreign governments, that he is committed to involve this country in war. Not just false, but “deliberately false” he branded some Republican charges.
It is the very simple technique of repeating and repeating falsehoods, with the idea that by constant repetition and with no contradiction the misstatement will finally come to be believed.
But, he said, in a democracy such as ours “where the radio and a part of the press remain open to both sides,” the dictator technique of repeating falsehoods would not prevail. At the reference to “part of the press,” the crowd stopped him with one of the 40 or more outbursts of enthusiasm which interrupted his address.
“Outrageous false,” designed to terrorize, was the charge that “this Administration wishes to lead this country into war,” he said.
Dedicates Self to Peace
Mr. Roosevelt dedicated himself again to the cause of peace:
It is for peace I have labored; and it is for peace I shall labor all the days of my life.
And with that paraphrase of David, he ended his speech.
Of the charge that he seeks war, he said:
This charge is contrary to every fact, every purpose of the past eight years. Throughout these years my every act and every thought has been directed to the end of preserving the peace of the world, and more particularly, the peace of the United States – the peace of the Western Hemisphere.
As I saw war coming, I used every ounce of the prestige of the office of the President of the United States to prevent its onset. When war came, I used every ounce of the prestige of the office to prevent its spread to other nations. When that effort failed, I called on Congress and I called upon the nation top build strong defenses…
Fantastic misstatements, Mr. Roosevelt said sharply, and turned to charges of secret understandings.
I give you this most solemn assurance. There is no secret treaty, no secret obligation, no secret commitment, no secret understanding in any shape of form, direct or indirect, with any other government or any other nation in any part of the world, to involve this nation in any war or for any other purpose.
The crowd was cheering again and Mr. Roosevelt acknowledged the demonstration with a big smile that seemed to keep the noise going.
By implication, Mr. Roosevelt made Mr. Willkie the advocate of private over public development of water-power, of repeal of the Social Security Act and abrogation of truth-in-securities legislation. He warmed to his subject and made smiling confession that this reply to “deliberate falsifications” was a pleasant task because he is an old campaigner and loves a fight.
The audience howled its appreciation and over all the noise came bull throated encouragement from down front:
Go to it, champ!
‘A Most Sacred Trust’
The presidency is not a prize to be won by mere glittering promises. It is not a commodity to be sold by high pressure salesmanship and national advertising. The presidency is a most sacred trust. It ought not to be dealt with on any level other than an appeal to reason and to humanity.
He said the partisan desperation which could invent secret treaties was driving his opponents to “the false charge” that business is stifled and can make no profits. Those statements are false, he said, and cited employment, industrial production and wage and corporate earnings figures to prove it.
He estimated nine million more employed in industry now than in 1933, corporate earnings plus $4 billion now instead of minus $4 billion then, average hourly wages of industrial workers 11¢ greater now than in 1929.
“Let us call the roll–” he said and brought from the massed thousands thunderous cheers as he told of old age pensions, unemployment insurance, collective bargaining, minimum wages, maximum hours, the outlawing of child labor, a $10 billion annual factory payroll. And with all of it, he reminded, the cost of living is 22% under that of 1929.
“Unpardonable falsifications–” he called the talk of Republicans that business cannot profit, that business has little confidence in the Administration, that the Administration hates business.
Our national income has doubled since 1932–
Fewer banks had failed in the seven New Deal years than in any single year from 1923 to 1933.
Mr. Roosevelt said:
And yet, there are some banks now using money to advertise, or to send letters to their depositors, hinting that unless this Administration is defeated, the deposits of their banks will be in danger. This is sheer intimidation to blackjack the election and to return the financial control of the government to the very forces which had nearly wrecked the nation