Address of New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey
October 25, 1944, 10:00 p.m. EWT
Broadcast from Chicago, Illinois
It is good to come again to Chicago and to be the guest of your great Governor, Dwight Green. It is also good to hear from everyone that he, together with your next Senator, Richard Lyons, will be overwhelmingly elected on November 7.
Since I was last here in June, a great campaign has gained force daily to restore honesty and competence to our government. All over the country, that movement has taken hold until now it has become an irresistible tide, sweeping on toward victory for a free America in November. The strength of that movement does not lie in any individual. It springs from an urgent conviction in the minds of our people.
The women of our country have had a vital part in advancing this cause. Today, throughout the nation, there has been a splendid demonstration of women’s contribution to public affairs and of their faith in America. And tonight, Republican women in cities, towns and farm areas all over the country are meeting to perfect their plans to get out the largest possible vote.
Governor Bricker and I appreciate deeply the great work women are doing in this campaign. They have again shown an active and public-spirited citizenship. They will, I hope, take an increasing part in our national leadership in the years to come.
The women of America have a special interest in this campaign, because they know that the decision they make will determine the kind of a country their husbands, brothers, sons and sweethearts will return to when the war is over. They know, too, that the decision we make November 7 will determine whether America is to have the kind of government which can carry through to success the hopes of all of us for world cooperation to prevent future wars. And women also are deeply concerned in this campaign because the fundamental issues of this campaign are moral – the simple questions of honesty and good faith.
As this world war moves toward our inevitable victory, it becomes our high duty to decide in an election whether we shall save in America the principles for which we have fought abroad. We have fought at greater cost than ever before in our history for high moral principles – for freedom, justice and integrity. Without these, America would become an empty husk. With these, America is the land of opportunity, of faith and of freedom.
Governments, like people, are judged on the principles by which they live. Thomas Jefferson defined the basic principle of government this way. He said: “The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.” That was a good definition when Jefferson pronounced it. And I am old-fashioned enough to believe it is still a good definition today.
Now, let us see how the New Deal’s most vigorous supporters define the art of government as it has developed these past 12 years. Here is the opening sentence of a fourth-term campaign pamphlet, of which two million copies have been distributed on behalf of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It reads: “Politics is the science of how who gets what, when, and why.”
There, in brief, is the practical lesson of 12 years under the New Deal. There is the practical reason why we find working together for a fourth term the bosses of the corrupt big city machines, Sidney Hillman’s Political Action Committee, and Earl Browder and his Communist Party.
They are working together to perpetuate my opponent in office for 16 years because they think they know the answer to the question of “who gets what, why and when.” What it is they expect to get, the American people are not supposed to know. When and why they expect to get it is clear. They expect to get it in the next four years – as a reward for the services in behalf of the fourth term.
But the American people will have another answer. From the American people this whole greedy, power-hungry assortment will get a resounding “no” next November 7.
The New Deal began by casting aside the platform it adopted in this city 12 years ago. That was the platform that was called a solemn “covenant with the people” and which Mr. Roosevelt promised to support 100 percent.
It went on from there to exploit for its own political ends the plight of millions of American men and women for whom in peacetime it never succeeded in providing jobs.
Men and women on WPA and on relief in state after state were shaken down for political contributions to the New Deal. For the sordid purpose of buying votes with money which belonged to the needy, people were added wholesale to the WPA payrolls before election only to be brutally thrown off after the votes had been safely counted.
Take, for example, the following instructions given to director of WPA by a Democratic county chairman in South Dakota:
Please place this man on WPA on the special setup you have that takes care of fish men as welfare will not certify. Have looked into affair – his nine votes in family.
The whole story was set forth by a Senate committee, four of whose five members were Democrats “Funds appropriated by the Congress for the relief of those in need,” this Senate committee said, have been diverted… to political ends.” The facts, it said, “should arouse the conscience of the country.”
But my opponent’s conscience was not aroused. Instead, he made a speech in Kentucky where some of the worst of the scandals had been uncovered, and said: “Personally, I am not gently disturbed by these stories.” Instead of government consisting in the art of being honest,” we had government as the science of “who gets what, when and why.”
The tragedy was that the needy suffered so votes could be garnered at election time. We don’t want to go back to that after the war. That’s why it’s time for a change.
Time and again this administration has sought to do by subterfuge what it did not dare to do directly. You remember Mr. Roosevelt’s attempt to pack the Supreme Court. He had a Congress overwhelmingly composed of his own supporters, but that was not enough. He wanted an obedient Supreme Court – one which would follow his advice to Congress not to “permit doubts as to constitutionality, however reasonable,” to stand in the way of his designs. He knew no such proposal could succeed if presented in a straight-forward manner. So, he disguised it in a lengthy plan to “reform” the courts. He solemnly said in a message to the Congress of the United States that the Supreme Court was behind in its work. But the Chief Justice of the United States nailed that one personally. He announced that “the Supreme Court is fully abreast of its work” and he cited the figures to prove it.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, a majority of whose members were Democrats, denounced the plan as “a proposal that violates every sacred tradition of American democracy.” The Congress rejected it. But time and mortality and 12 years in office have enabled Mr. Roosevelt to pack the courts with his New Deal appointees. The very preservation of our liberty demands that this practice be stopped – and that’s another reason why it’s time for a change.
Now, my opponent, whose veracity had to be corrected by the Chief Justice of the United States, is now talking in this campaign about “fraud” and “falsification.” He implies that others have adopted his devious methods. Well, once again, he had asked for it. Here it is.
A few months ago, Mr. Roosevelt drew up a list of New Deal achievements for the benefit of the press. Almost the first achievement for which he took credit was the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for insuring bank deposits. This is a matter that goes right to the heart of the honesty of this present administration. The truth is the man who sponsored federal insurance of bank deposits was Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, a Republican, and Mr. Roosevelt opposed and fought against it every step of the way.
Here is the record. Senator Vandenberg first introduced a bill for deposit insurance in December 1932. Mr. Roosevelt had previously opposed the whole idea as “an impossible drain on the Federal Treasury.” Senator Vandenberg again proposed it as an amendment to the Banking Act of 1933. Mr. Roosevelt, on June 2, 1933, wrote Senator Carter Glass as follows:
I must, therefore, again express to you my definite feeling that the Vandenberg amendment must be rejected in toto, even as revised, and again repeat, no modification of this amendment proposed so far will avoid a serious situation.
I am glad to say other members of this administration have acknowledged the truth. For example, the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation wrote to Senator Vandenberg in 1934: “I consider you to be the father of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.”
Once again, we find that social progress is not the property of any one party, or of any one man. Certainly, it is not the property of the tired and worn-out New Deal.
Yet, my opponent, who brazenly claims credit for what another man did, recklessly tosses about the words “falsification” and “false witness.”
This is the same man who, when he ran for a second term, said: “My great ambition on January 20, 1941, is to turn over this desk and chair in the White House to my successor.”
This is the same man who, when he ran for a third term, said: “When that term is over, there will be another President.” And to make that doubly impressive, he said to his neighbors on the evening before he cast his ballot in that election that this, and I quote, “is the last time, very obviously, that I will do this as a candidate for office.”
And now he’s running for the fourth time. Is it any wonder that when the White House speaks, the first question the people ask is not whether the news is good or bad, but “is it true?” Is it any wonder that the Christian Century, an outstanding religious publication read by thousands of God-fearing men and women in this country, has passed this sober judgment on the present administration:
From the very beginning, Mr. Roosevelt has used deception as a major political stratagem until today he has lost the moral confidence of the nation. Even in the ranks of those blocs which represent his followers, his support rests not upon their confidence in his integrity, but upon the cynical assurance that he will serve their interests because their votes are necessary to his maintenance in power.
But deception is not the only political stratagem that this administration has employed in the effort to perpetuate itself in power for 16 straight years. Listen to this brazen piece of business.
I have here a letter dated October 16, 1944. It is written on the letterhead of the National Democratic Campaign Headquarters, Little Rock, Arkansas, and signed by H. L. McAlister and Sam J. Watkins, state finance directors.
It begins: “This is an invitation to you to join the One Thousand Club…”
“The idea of such a club,” the letter continues, “originated at a recent conference at the White House between the President; Robert E. Hannegan, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Edwin W. Pauley, treasurer of the committee. At this meeting the President commented:
“I think it would be a good idea to have a list of one thousand persons banded together from all over the United States to act as a liaison to see that facts relating to the public interest are presented factually to the President and members of Congress.”
The letter explains the idea behind this plan of my opponent. This is what it says, and I quote:
Members of this organization undoubtedly will be granted special privilege and prestige by party leaders. These members will be called into conference from time to time to discuss matters of national importance and to assist in the formulation of administration policies.
To be eligible for membership in the One Thousand Club will require a contribution of $1000 to the National Democratic Campaign Fund.
There, in crude unblushing words, is the ultimate expression of New Deal politics by the theory of “who gets what, when and why.” For a thousand dollars laid on the line to finance the fourth-term drive, this administration boldly offers for sale “special privilege,” including the special privilege of assisting” in the “formulation of administrative policies.”
And the sponsor of this idea is frankly stated in that letter to be the President himself. The man who holds the highest office within the gift of the American people at a conference in the White House sponsors an idea to sell “special privilege” and a voice “in the formulation of administration policies” for $1,000 on the barrel head. That’s why it’s time for a change.
Let me make one thing clear. In the new administration that takes office next January 20, there will be no special privilege for sale to anyone at any price. There will be no special privilege for individuals, groups or sections of our people.
When that new administration takes office, every American will stand equal in the eyes of our government. We will once again restore honesty and integrity to the White House, so that its spoken word can be trusted.
In the years that lie ahead, the United States must have leadership to the world if we are to realize the aspiration of people everywhere for enduring peace.
How can we give that leadership when our own government has lost the moral confidence of the nation? How can such an administration give strong and effective representation to the interests of the American people anywhere? How can we hope to solve the massive social and economic problems that will confront us in the post-war years with an administration which lacks every rudimentary honesty – an administration which has forgotten that “the whole art of government consists in the art of being honest?”
Let us resolve here and now to put an end to government by the cynical theory of “who gets what, when and why.” We need a housecleaning of the followers of that practice who have for 12 years infested our nation’s capital.
We need then to create a responsible cabinet composed of the ablest men and women in the country. We need once more to make government responsible to the will of the people. We need men in Washington who believe in the people of America and in the unlimited future of this country. We need the kind of government in which there will be no place for deception or for special privilege. We need a government which believes and practices, in public and in private, the art of being honest.
With such a government, quarreling and bickering will come to an end and victory on every front will be speeded. With faith in our future, we can and will bring 10 million heroes home promptly after victory – home to an America with jobs and opportunities for all.