The Pittsburgh Press (October 29, 1944)
Dewey pledges stable prices to farmers
He also promises end of ‘dictation’
Aboard Governor Dewey’s campaign train, Utica, New York (UP) – (Oct. 28)
Voicing his confidence that he will win the presidential election next month, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey told a crowd of several hundred persons here today that “Your new President will never use his office to separate the country.”
Mr. Dewey added in a brief speech from the rear platform of his campaign train:
Your new President will never use his office to claim personal or political credit for the magnificent achievements of the military leaders and the sacrifices of the American people and their sons.
Several hundred persons, carrying banners which read “We Want Dewey,” “No Fourth Term” and “Win With Dewey,” gathered around the rear platform of the train when it stopped here en route to Albany from Syracuse, where the GOP standard-bearer made a speech attacking the Roosevelt administration’s farm program.
Hits farm program
Mr. Dewey told the crowd that it was just “like old home week” and that he was glad to be “campaigning in my own home state.”
He said:
Change in administration can only mean that we will end the chaos, bungling and confusion in Washington.
When we have a new administration, we can go forward and win the war even quicker.
In his Syracuse speech, Mr. Dewey charged that the administration’s farm program had been “exploited for political profit” and was designed to give the national government “control over the operation of our farms.”
Urges ‘expanding industry’
Bringing his campaign for the White House to usually-Republican Upstate New York, Mr. Dewey told an overflow crowd at Syracuse Central High Schol that it “took a war to get decent farm prices” under President Roosevelt and that farm programs had been set up “as an excuse for regimentation and wasteful bureaucracy.”
The nominee said farm prices are linked with factory employment and that to maintain fair returns for the nation’s farmers the city dweller must be able to find jobs.
He said:
We can have fully employed agriculture with fair prices and a real market if we have three square meals a day for all our people. That can be obtained through a fully employed, expanding industry with real money for real jobs.
The farm and food problems of the United States are inseparable. Neither will be solved until all our people are well fed, and our agriculture is stabilized on a par with industry and labor.
Willkie backer helps
Republican Leader Rolland B. Marvin, ardent supporter of the late Wendell L. Willkie, presided at the rally. Mr. Marvin and Mr. Dewey were reported at odds for some time, but have since closed the breach.
Mr. Marvin said:
I want to say to Governor Dewey today that you don’t have any worry or fear what we’re going to do in this section of the state. We are going out and give Tom Dewey the biggest, majority that any candidate ever received.
Counts on farm vote
Mr. Dewey’s farm speech, which had been postponed a few days ago so the GOP candidate could “reply” to Mr. Roosevelt’s foreign affairs address, opened his drive for support in upstate counties of New York, whose 47 electoral votes are expected to play a major role in the election. GOP leaders are counting on a heavy upstate vote to offset the usually large Democratic margin in New York City.
Iowa Governor B. B. Hickenlooper introduced Mr. Dewey by radio from Burlington, Iowa. He said Mr. Dewey would sponsor a farm program “free from politics.”
Hits price structure
The Roosevelt administration failed to achieve “anything like fair prices” for the farmers despite 12 years in office and that the underlying factor was that there were 10 million unemployed, Mr. Dewey said.
He assailed the administration for assigning two men to one job and cited agencies involved in the sail conservation program. He said the Soil Conservation Service had accomplished good im some parts of the country but added that the program “will fail if it is used as an excuse for regimentation and wasteful bureaucracy.”