The Pittsburgh Press (September 6, 1944)
Dewey needed to rid nation of ‘bossism,’ GOP governors say
Republican candidate can meet trials of post-war era, they assert
New York (UP) –
The Republican governors of New Jersey, Michigan and Washington, completing a series of nationwide radio addresses on behalf of GOP presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey, asserted last night that his leadership was essential for the nation to rid itself of “bossism” and “pressure groups” and successfully meet the trials of the post-war era.
Governor Walter D. Edge of New Jersey launched a bitter attack on “political bossism,” saying his state had suffered at the hands of Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City and declaring that “a national condition of political bossism would eat out the heart of our country.”
Governor Arthur B. Langlie of Washington attacked the “negative philosophy” of the New Deal, asserting that it “can only function by piling agency upon agency, bureau upon bureau, debt upon debt and promise upon promise.”
Leadership promised
Governor Harry F. Kelly of Michigan presented Mr. Dewey as a man who can provide the leadership and cooperation to meet the problems of labor, agriculture and business.
Mr. Edge said:
My state, New Jersey, has had intimate experience with governments which have selfishly sought personal power and perpetuation at the expense of the good of the people.
The New Deal, notwithstanding its lofty and noble pretentions, does business in New York with the radical Sidney Hillman and the Communist Earl Browder in the hope they can supply votes needed to win.
Dictatorship feared
Mr. Edge said Democratic vice-presidential candidate Harry S. Truman had based his arguments for the reelection of Mr. Roosevelt almost completely on the matter of experience, and asserted “if one carried that reasoning through to its final analysis, it would mean there never would be a change of Presidents.”
“In other words, it was a clear bid for a dictatorship, the indispensable man,” he said.
Mr. Langlie charged that “present administration has passed the prime of its vitality” and is “insulated from the people by an ever-groping tier of bureaus.”
He said:
There is a feeling on every hand that our national government is no longer of the people.
Four more years of this trend would place a disheartening damper upon our hope for a more bounteous life, and through confusion and internal strife would gravely endanger those basic values which have made our country strong and our people free.
‘Hasn’t mortgaged future’
He said Mr. Dewey “has the uncanny ability to surrounded himself with competent people and delegate to them responsibility, at the same time giving leadership to all that they do.”
Asserting that Democrats were joining with Republicans in backing Mr. Dewey, Mr. Kelly said the New York Governor would make a “realistic approach” to post-war problems and work with Congress, industry, labor and agriculture to provide post-war jobs for returning servicemen and those displaced by the completion of war contracts.
Mr. Kelly said:
The American people can be thankful that they have in Thomas E. Dewey a candidate for President who believes in America and did not mortgage the future of America or his own future for the nomination.
Last night’s addresses were the third in a series leading up to Mr. Dewey’s first major speech in Philadelphia Thursday night.
Republican National Chairman Herbert Brownell Jr. described them as “frankly political, designed as a forthright and honest approach to the real issues of the campaign.”