The Pittsburgh Press (October 12, 1940)
SPEED ARMING, OHIOANS TOLD BY ROOSEVELT
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Dayton Talk Tonight to Climax Defense Tour Of Mill Areas
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By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press Staff Writer
Columbus, Ohio, Oct. 12 –
President Roosevelt arrived in Columbus today to begin the military phase of his national defense inspection swing through Ohio and Pennsylvania, where he has been urging citizens to speed up rearmament as the best protection against war.
Crowds in these two politically potent states, Ohio with 26 electoral votes and Pennsylvania with 36, have been giving the Presidential party greetings pitched to a campaign year fervor.
It was Mr. Roosevelt’s first visit in four years to Columbus, where he began his first presidential campaign in 1932.
Talks With G.O.P. Governor
Mr. Roosevelt talked briefly with Republican Gov. John W. Bricker just after his special train arrived at the Union Depot. After Gov. Bricker left the Presidential train, the President continued to talk for some time with prominent Ohio Democrats.
KDKA, WCAE and WJAS will broadcast President Roosevelt’s national defense address at Dayton, Ohio, at 9 o’clock tonight.
Martin L. Davey, former Ohio governor and again the Democratic candidate for the governorship, followed Gov. Bricker into the President’s car. Others who talked with Mr. Roosevelt were John McSweeney (Democratic Senatorial candidate) and Stephen M, Young and Francis Durbin (Democratic Congressional candidates).
Democratic National Committeeman Charles Sawyer of Cincinnati was on the President’s train when it arrived here.
Bricker, Davey Ignore Each Other
Gov. Bricker and former Gov. Davey, opponents in this campaign, stood 10 feet apart outside the Presidential train but ignored each other. Mr. Davey was a bitter New Deal critic during his two terms as Governor by has supported President Roosevelt’s third term campaign.
The President’s defense tour will culminate tonight in his worldwide radio discussion of Western Hemisphere defense.
Literally hundreds of thousands of persons cheered him through the great industrial centers of Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Akron and in smaller cities where the Presidential Special merely slowed a bit to acknowledge that the crowds were there.
“God Bless America” was the theme of this journey. Speed and more speed, the President told mill workers, mill superintendents and train-side crowds, is the immediate national defense necessity.
25,000 Cheer in Akron
The best way to avoid attack, he said last night in Akron, is to be prepared to meet it. But he was confident that the United States would escape war.
Police estimated that 25,000 persons were packed tight around the Pennsylvania Station area in Akron where the President took a full 60 seconds of cheers and then said:
You and I know the difficulties and the dangers of these times in the world. For many years we in the United States have managed to keep out of trouble in other continents and I am confident that in the future we shall be able to avoid being brought into war through attack by somebody else on the Americas.
Makes Local Politics Happy
Mr. Roosevelt presided in Pennsylvania over a final campaign-year adjustment of a political feud between Senator Joseph F. Guffey (D-PA), a candidate for re-election, and Democratic National Committeeman David L. Lawrence.
There is much of the pulse and throaty enthusiasm of a political campaign among the crowds.
Local politicos are happy that Mr. Roosevelt is swinging through their states, Congressional districts and cities just bat this time. Senator Vic Donahey (D-OH) showed less enthusiasm than some others of his party, having advised the White House that illness would prevent his accompanying the Presidential progress.
Inspects Wright Field
In Columbus, Ohio today, Mr. Roosevelt will visit Fort Hayes, consult with officers of the Army and Civilian Conservation Corps and inspect the Poindexter housing project. It is Christopher Columbus’ Day and Major General Edwin M. Watson, White House military aide, will lay a wreath on behalf of Mr. Roosevelt on the city’s statue of the discoverer.
Arriving in Dayton, Ohio today, Mr. Roosevelt will visit the new war veterans’ facility and the Wright Memorial to the brothers who first successfully applied the principle of heavier-than-air flight.
He will inspect Wright Field there, the Army Air Corps, research center where Elliot Roosevelt, the President’s second son, had just begun his military career as a captain in the specialist reserve.
He will have tea at Trail’s End, the home of James M. Cox, who headed the 1920 Democratic ticket on which he ran for Vice President. He speaks to the world at 9 p.m. from his train on a three-chain nationwide hookup which will cover the United States and for the first time bean his address in English to South America. Later it will be translated for rebroadcast.
Mr. Roosevelt turns back then to Washington, where he is due tomorrow afternoon.
The text of President Roosevelt’s informal address at Akron follows:
I am glad to see you. I wish I could stay longer in Akron.
I have had a very interesting day. I have been trying to learn at firsthand how this great defense program of ours is going.
May I say this to you: You and I know the difficulties and the dangers of these times in the world. For many years we in the United States have managed to keep out of trouble in other continents and I am confident that in the future we shall be able to avoid being brought into war through attack by somebody else on the Americas. But I also believe, and I think most of you do too, that the best way to avoid an attack is to be ready to meet one.
And that is why in the steel plants, in Pittsburgh and in Youngstown
And so, to you who are a part of defense, to you in this town, I give the message: Speed up all you can.