The Pittsburgh Press (October 12, 1944)
CIO-PAC called subversive by Governor Bricker
Activities violate law, he believes
Portland, Oregon (UP) –
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker today charged the CIO Political Action Committee was “subversive” and said that, in his belief, an “honest opinion by the Attorney General would rule PAC’s campaign activities a violation of the law.”
The Republican vice-presidential candidate, on a Western campaign swing, told a news conference:
The Political Action Committee is a real subversive organization. It marks the first time we’ve had a political force based on a subversive philosophy from other countries in our campaign.
Attorney General Biddle hit
Mr. Bricker did not elaborate his charges against PAC, but he added that “if we had an honest opinion from the Attorney General… it would rule the PAC a violation of the law.”
Governor Bricker today for the first time listed eight states as in the Republican “sure” column: Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota and Iowa.
Governor Bricker climaxed his Washington drive in Tacoma last night when he told the biggest indoor audience he has faced on this tour that the New Deal candidates should be judged by the company they keep – Sidney Hillman and Earl Browder.
Support not repudiated
His speech was described by his staff as an answer to President Roosevelt’s address of last Thursday. He said that Mr. Roosevelt, “in weak words,” denied he sought or welcomed Communistic or Fascistic support.
Governor Bricker charged:
But he did not repudiate their support. That is a significant fact. Is he now resigned to their support?
The Ohioan recalled a statement the President made in 1938 that political candidates should be judged by their companions. Mr. Roosevelt’s “companions” in this campaign, he said, are Hillman and Browder, “the convict he pardoned.” These two, he added, are the “promoters and financiers” of the New Deal.
Dragged to the bottom
He denied Mr. Roosevelt’s statement of last Thursday that “we have fought our way out of an economic crisis.”
Governor Bricker said:
The fact is that after years of unprecedented spending, pump-priming and economic tinkering, after multiplying the public debt, after exercising power never dreamed of by a preceding administration, and after killing livestock, destroying crops and hamstringing business, the New Deal dragged this country to the bottom of the list of nations in terms of industrial recovery.
With Governor Thomas E. Dewey as President and a “supporting Congress,” he promised there would be jobs for returning soldiers and the people at home, more of “the things we want and need,” and an America “once more on the high road to a noble and better future.”