The Pittsburgh Press (October 24, 1944)
First Lady says 4th term is not an important issue
Mrs. Roosevelt lists three major questions as post-war jobs, victory, lasting peace
Washington (UP) –
The fourth term is less of an issue in the 1944 presidential campaign than the third term was four years ago, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt told a press conference today.
She said there are three major campaign issues this year, all of them “tied together” – first, how to provide jobs for all after the war; second, winning the war; and third, building foundations for peace in the future. These points, she said, in her opinion are “the things which are in the minds of the people at present.”
The First Lady said she thought the President’s four-hour open-car tour of New York through a drizzling rain on Saturday “did him good.” He suffered no ill effects from the trip, she said, and gained benefits from it because it had been a long time since he had been “in contact with real crowds – always stimulating to him.”
Approves political campaigns
She said she regarded political campaigns as beneficial to the country because they take officeholders “out to more people” and thus enable the officeholders to determine what the people are thinking.
In ordinary times, she added, “a man in office should travel through the country” frequently.
Calls Ball ‘courageous’
On other matters, Mrs. Roosevelt said:
She looks forward “to the day in which we choose persons for their fitness for the job, whether they are men or women.” This was in answer to an inquiry about the possibility of a woman being elected President.
She was “thrilled” by the news of the Philippine invasion, which she said “must have been a tremendous satisfaction” to Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
Senator Joseph C. Ball (R-MN) was “courageous” in announcing that he would support President Roosevelt, rather than Thomas E. Dewey, because of Mr. Roosevelt’s stand on foreign policy.