The Pittsburgh Press (September 2, 1944)
Browder-Hillman axis seeks more power, GOP governor says
New Deal welcomes ‘political thugs,’ he adds; Truman inconsistent, Governor Martin charges
New York (UP) –
Governor Andrew F. Schoeppel of Kansas charged last night that the “Browder-Hillman Communist axis,” attempting to “parade under the banner of labor,” was backing the Roosevelt administration for a fourth term because “they want a government in Washington that is indebted to them up to the ears.”
Mr. Schoeppel’s speech highlighted the second of a series of radio talks by Republican governors. Others on the program last night were Governor Edward Martin of Pennsylvania and Governor Edward J. Thye of Minnesota.
Mr. Schoeppel said:
For the past 12 years there has been allowed to grow up in this country small groups of ambitious men who have organized themselves into “pressure groups” as we have come to call them.
The New Deal administration has been attempting to curry favor with these groups. It has not mattered who they were or what they stood for.
The most despicable graft-ridden gang of political thugs is welcomed with wide open arms as they can deliver a block of votes. We now have a national administration which has aligned itself with every corrupt political machine in the country.
He charged that union leaders and members had disowned Sidney Hillman’s Political Action Committee which he said “takes its doctrines direct from Earl Browder.”
Mr. Martin, who spoke first, accused Democratic vice-presidential candidate Harry S. Truman of inconsistency and said the Missouri Senator himself previously had said the nation was “in danger of losing this war in Washington” because of red tape and bureaucratic waste, conflicts between military and civilian agencies and the failure to delegate authority.
‘Hungry for votes’
As a “candidate hungry for votes,” Mr. Truman is not willing to repeat the statements he made as a “United States Senators bent on winning the war,” Mr. Martin said in referring to the speech the Democratic vice-presidential candidate made Thursday night in officially accepting his nomination at Lamar, Missouri.
Mr. Martin quoted Mr. Truman as having said there was a “lack of courageous, unified leadership and centralized direction at the top,” and asserted the Senator no longer talks about such things as the “tragic collapse of the War Production Board.”
He said:
The New Deal in 12 long years has proved one thing – and one thing only.
That is its incapacity to go on for 16 years; its incapacity to make a peace that will stick; its incapacity to lead us into a post-war America in which there will be jobs enough to go around.
Mr. Thye presented Republican presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey as a stateman with a sound, progressive, American doctrine who will give the nation the “house-cleaning” it needs.
Vigorous man urged
Mr. Thye said his state of Minnesota had been in the hands of a “radical political machine” until the people rose to “drive out the Communists and their allies” and elect Governor Harold Stassen. He predicted a similar uprising in the nation.
Quoting Mr. Dewey as having said, “America is young and does not know defeat,” Mr. Thye asserted:
In the years ahead, we want a man out in front who can take it, who has the vigor, the courage and the foresight to take it and yet keep on going.
Mr. Martin spoke from Harrisburg, Mr. Schoeppel from Kansas City and Mr. Thye from Minnesota.