The Pittsburgh Press (August 26, 1940)
GOP Nominee May Make Strong Statement If Congress Lags
New York, Aug. 26 (UP) –
Republican Presidential nominee Wendell L. Willkie believes Congress should pass the military conscription bill immediately and is considering making a strong statement if it bogs down in Senate or House debate.
Mr. Willkie’s aides said some persons had “distorted” his acceptance speech endorsement of the principles of selective service training to infer that he did not favor immediate passage of a military conscription bill. They said he wanted a bill passed as soon as possible because he felt it “indispensible” to an adequate national defense.
Praises Byrd
Thus Mr. Willkie was represented as in general agreement with President Roosevelt, who on Friday urged immediate passage of a draft bill, although the Republican nominee fired some new shots at the Administration for the rate at which its rearmament program is proceeding, particularly in the procurement of airplanes.
He told reporters that he wished to commend Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-VA) for demanding an inquiry "into why 100 days have gone by since the President said that we needed 50,000 airplanes and yet only 343 new combat planes have been ordered by the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, none of which will be delivered in 1940 and some of which will not be delivered until 1942.
Tragic Situation
It is a tragic situation that we are dallying along in the face of the present emergency.
Mr. Willkie said he felt the slow progress was due to both Administration and failure of Congress to pass proper tax legislation to facilitate plant expansion, but added that it was the responsibility of the “present Administration in power” to see to it that “this bottleneck must be cleaned up.”
What we need is airplanes. I’m not interested in talking about who’s to blame for the failure to produce them.
Mr. Willkie conferred today with former State Senator Frank J. Harris of Pittsburgh concerning a Western Pennsylvania speech late in the campaign.
Rejects McNutt’s Challenge
The Republican nominee spent what he called a “quiet Sunday” during which he:
- Rejected Federal Security Administrator Paul V. McNutt as a substitute for Mr. Roosevelt in public debate, declaring that “debating with McNutt would be a pure loss of time.”
Mr. Willkie, a classmate and fraternity brother of Mr. McNutt in Beta Theta Pi at Indiana University, said he thought it “particularly interesting that the President refuses to debate because he is too busy, while having ample time to make purely ‘non-political’ dedicatory addresses.”
This was a reference to Mr. Roosevelt’s scheduled trip to North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia to open some national parks, dedicate a new TVA power dam, and inspect a national defense project.
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Declared that the political “machine” of Jersey City’s Mayor Hague was “doing a little momentary damage” in New Jersey “which will turn out to be a great asset later on.”
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Expressed gratification that the latest Gallup Poll of Public Opinion showed Willkie gains “in the Midwest – Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and Indiana – where I have been.” Asked about states in which he showed a loss to Mr. Roosevelt. Mr. Willkie replied: “I haven’t been there yet.”
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Expressed pride in his record as a businessman. This was in response to a Seattle, Wash., speech by Solicitor General Francis J. Biddle.
Mr. Willkie said:
I notice that the Solicitor General of the United States, devoting himself to other than the duties of his office, says that I have been a businessman.
I admit it and am proud of it. I can see why Mr. Biddle thinks it’s strange for a businessman to run for public office because there certainly hasn’t been anyone in Washington lately who did anything for business.
- Offered to reporters, without comment, a quotation from one of President Roosevelt’s 1932 speeches in which the then-New York Governor agreed with the late President Woodrow Wilson that “there is no indispensable man” and declared that “to indulge in such a fantastic idea of my own individual importance would be to betray the common hope and the common cause that has brought us all together this year.”
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