Election 1944: GOP labor policy blasted by priest (10-16-44)

The Pittsburgh Press (October 16, 1944)

americavotes1944

GOP labor policy blasted by priest

Dewey ‘lies’ cited by Rev. Orlemanski

If Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Republican candidate for President, is elected, he and his backers will “throw out every labor law enacted under the present administration,” Rev. Casimir Orlemanski yesterday told a C1O-Citizens Political Action rally in Lithuanian Hall, South Side.

Father Orlemanski, pastor at St. Mary’s Church, New Kensington, recalled to his audience that he had led a hunger march on Washington when “millions of Americans were starving under the Republican administration.”

Charges Dewey lies

He charged that Mr. Dewey “lies” when he alleges President Roosevelt failed to prepare the nation for war.

Leo Krazycki, president of the American Slav Congress, urged his listeners “not to forget the misery and the empty bellies of the Hoover days.”

He said Republican attacks on Communist influence in the Political Action Committee was “Red scare propaganda" and an “old trick used against Lincoln 89 years ago when every lie and slander and all the muck was thrown at him.”

Murray message read

Frank Burke, district director for the CIO United Steelworkers, read a message from CIO President Philip Murray, in which he said:

Dewey and Hoover are hoping we will fail to vote in sufficient numbers to reelect President Roosevelt. Their only hope is a light vote… This means day-by-day and house-by-house work between now and Nov. 7. The people will win, but only if the people will vote.

The rally was also addressed by Democratic Congressmen James A. Wright and Herman P. Eberharter.