Election 1944: GOP governors open presidential campaign of Dewey (8-29-44)

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (August 30, 1944)

GOP governors open presidential campaign of Dewey

Fair play, honesty in government stressed by Warren, Green, Baldwin
By the United Press

The Republican Party officially opened its 1944 presidential campaign last night with a three-way radio broadcast by Governors Earl Warren of California, Dwight Green of Illinois and Raymond E. Baldwin of Connecticut.

Governor Warren called for fair play in the election and said:

We want the national administration to apply the rules it has made, whatever they may be, to itself as it does to us.

Governor Green charged that the “bosses of the big city New Deal machines dictated the renomination of President Roosevelt” while the Republican campaign “springs from the people.”

Governor Baldwin asserted that political bosses have “staked all they’ve got to get Tom Dewey because the Republican candidate believes in honest government by honest men and practices what he preaches.”

Republican National Chairman Herbert Brownell Jr. had described the radio broadcasts, which are to be followed by others by Republican governors, as the “kickoff” of the Republican campaign.

[NormanStewart]

Green blasts New Deal for ‘machine politics’

Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Governor Dwight H. Green of Illinois said last night that “the New Deal edicts from on high are being executed by the ruthless heads of corrupt political machines.”

In contrast, he said:

The Republican program, drafted in consultation with the people, is submitted to the voters through the regularly constituted state and local Republican organizations.

Governor Green said:

We in Chicago, where both conventions were held, will never forget them. Every detail of the proceedings which nominated the fourth-term candidate was dictated by the bosses of the big city New Deal machines, Kelly and Hague and Flynn and Hannegan.

The Republican Convention, on the other hand, was a free expression of the will and choice of Republicans throughout the nation. It culminated in the nomination of Governor Dewey by acclamation, because the delegates were convinced that he could best rescue our country from the tragic mistakes of the New Deal and best lead America to victory in the war and to a sound peace.

[NormanStewart]

Warren asks fair play, candid discussion of issues

Los Angeles, California (UP) –
Governor Earl Warren of California last night opened the 1944 presidential election campaign of Governor Thomas Dewey, declaring the Republican Party intended to wage its political fight on a fair-play basis.

He said:

We shall neither hide our own purposes nor seek or misrepresent our opponents. The people are entitled to a candid, sincere discussion of election issues, and we on our part propose to engage in that kind of discussion.

Governor Warren declared the Republicans were not fighting a negative or destructive fight.

The California Governor said he believed the rules of fair play should apply with equal force to each side.

He declared:

New Deal speeches should not be designated as “educational” while others of like character by Socialists and Republicans are suppressed from our fighting men as “political.”

Governor Warren said the Republican Party wanted the fair-play practice to extend to collection and expenditure of campaign funds. He added:

The Republican Party does not propose to buy this election. We insist Mr. Sidney Hillman and his committee shall not be permitted to do it either.

[NormanStewart]

Dewey’s war on racketeers cited by Governor Baldwin

Bridgeport, Connecticut (UP) –
Governor Raymond E. Baldwin last night said that political bosses “have staked all they’ve got to get Tom Dewey” because the Republican presidential candidate believes in honest government by honest men and practices what he believes.

Governor Baldwin asserted that the American people should know “what are some of the forces behind” the Democratic fourth-term drive, for, he said, if the drive is successful “these same forces will… shape the program of a fourth-term administration.”

He said, however, that he would talk “not about the Communists and the corrupt political machines which are among the fourth term’s chief promoters,” but about Governor Dewey.

He said:

I know you will feel the same pride that I feel in knowing that Tammany Hall is against Governor Dewey; that Frank “I Am the Law” Hague is against Governor Dewey; that Boss Kelly in Chicago is against him – and that Boss Pendergast of Kansas City would be against him – if Boss Pendergast were not so recently out of jail.

He added:

Could anything be a greater tribute to Governor Dewey than that. All these are against him because they are against Governor Dewey’s kind of government… He believes that the place for crooks is not in politics, but in prison… He has put more bigtime crooks in jail than any living American.

Governor Baldwin asserted that Governor Dewey, after his election as Governor of New York, found that:

A sinister ring of racketeers had got their hands on the funds which were supposed to go to injured workingmen and their families.

The New York Governor broke that ring, he said, and fired corrupt officials.

“A government of integrity is the Dewey kind of government,” Mr. Baldwin said.