The Pittsburgh Press (November 3, 1944)
UAW head speaks –
Bricker called ‘new Harding’
Thomas says GOP lacks ‘progress’
Jersey City, New Jersey (UP) –
R. J. Thomas, president of the United Auto Workers (CIO), asserted last night that the Republican Party has attacked the CIO Political Action Committee because “they have no forces of their own which stand for progress and courageous action.”
Speaking at the Hudson County PAC meeting, he said Governor John W. Bricker, whom he characterized as “the new Harding of the Old Guard,” had left a trail “of smears and lies” in his campaign tour of the West.
Communist claim cited
Mr. Thomas charged that Mr. Bricker had based a claim of Communist domination of the Democratic Party on the fact that PAC Chairman Sidney Hillman was born in Lithuania, then a part of Russia.
He added:
Therefore, according to Bricker logic, Sidney Hillman is a Communist. Therefore, President Roosevelt, because Sidney Hillman supports him, is also a Communist.
Mr. Thomas recalled that Mr. Bricker told a Detroit audience that Mr. Hillman, who came to the United States in 1907, went to Moscow and talked with Lenin at the Kremlin.
Interview cited
Mr. Thomas continued:
Well, publisher Roy Howard of the miserable Scripps-Howard newspapers also went to Moscow and talked with Stalin at the Kremlin.
Roy Howard published his interview with Stalin in all the Scripps-Howard papers on their front pages. Therefore, Governor Bricker, Roy Howard must be a Communist. He must be planning to overturn the U.S. government. He is supporting you, Governor Bricker, and your running mate, Governor Dewey, and therefore you, Governor Bricker, and your running mate, Governor Dewey, must be Communists.