Reading Eagle (October 9, 1940)
WILLKIE SEES DRIFT TO WAR
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Says Administration Is ‘Careless’ in Speech And in Action
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En Route With Willkie Through Connecticut, Oct. 9 (AP) –
A refusal to “appease the dictators” and a pledge to let the people say whether they want war were coupled by Wendell L. Willkie before he started a combined train and auto campaign tour of New England today.
In a series of New York City talks last night the Republican presidential nominee called for a strong national defense, but advised against “shouting insults at the dictators or anyone else.”
He asked a flag-waving crowd in a Bronx high school auditorium:
Does anyone in this audience think that the President is really trying to keep us out of war?
“No,” came a shout from many of his listeners.
Are there any international understandings about American entrance into the war that our citizens do not know about?
After all, I represent in this campaign millions and millions of voters, and I think I have a right to ask Franklin D. Roosevelt about American participation in the involvements of Europe or Asia at this time.
Says War Up to People
Three hours later, addressing a midnight crowd near the 125th Street railroad station in Manhattan, he said:
If you elect me, this country won’t go to war until the people say they want war.
Willkie’s statement about appeasement was made in a radio interview with Oren Root, young New York attorney who organized Willkie-for-President clubs in the pre-convention campaign.
Willkie said in reply to a question:
Under no circumstances would I appease the dictators. The search for peace through appeasement has resulted in the destruction of the appeasers.
Contending that a “dagger in the back speech” does only harm, he expressed his belief “in the policy of the other Roosevelt, who said, ‘Speak softly, but carry a big stick’.”
If he is elected, he added, his first job would be to speed up defense production by revitalizing industry.
We can best aid Great Britain and at the same time serve our own interests by producing promptly and in large enough quantities supplies which we both need.
We are being edged toward war by an administration which is careless in speech and action. We cannot aid Great Britain by going to war right away.
Says U.S. Unprepared
The United States is so unprepared, the candidate asserted, that should it go to war now, all available supplies would have to be kept here.
Willkie’s comments on defense and foreign policy were intertwined with a variety of other topics in his series of talks which included one to a loudly cheering Negro audience in Harlem.
His first speech, in the Bronx, contained criticism of Edward J. Flynn, Democratic National Chairman, who lives there. He declared that the Democratic Convention in Chicago was controlled “by three of the most vicious political bosses of America, among whom is a resident of this city.”
Asking his audience a series of questions about New Deal actions, Willkie said:
I know it is a very serious charge to make, but I want to make it very clearly, very definitely and very briefly – that this administration does not tell us the truth.
Any administration that is not telling the truth is not qualified to lead a nation in time of crisis or otherwise.
He demanded that Mr. Roosevelt make public his views on a fourth term, a proposal which brought long applause, whistles and cheers.
In a speech on New York’s upper west side, Willkie assailed “prejudice and bigotry.”
If you accept them, you are raising an instrumentality that eventually will come back and destroy you.
In his Harlem talk, delivered in a ballroom, Willkie pledged equal treatment for all races in event of his election. On the way to the hall his auto caravan was booed by groups of Negroes, but during his speech he received frequent applause.
The nominee’s party rode overnight by special train to Stamford, Conn., to begin there an all-day auto trip up and down western Connecticut. Norwalk, Bridgeport, Waterbury, Hartford and New Haven were on the speaking schedule. Willkie will remain in New England until Saturday night, and then will visit upstate New York.