The Pittsburgh Press (September 10, 1944)
Bricker: PAC rules New Dealers
Business shackled, Dewey’s mate asserts
French Lick, Indiana (UP) – (Sept. 9)
Governor John W. Bricker charged tonight that the Democratic administration has shackled business, relegated courts to a minor role and that “Sidney Hillman and his Political Action Committee are now in complete control of the New Deal party.”
Officially accepting the Republican vice-presidential nomination, Mr. Bricker, in an address before the Indiana Republican Editorial Association, pledged his party to “reestablish liberty at home;” to clean “our government house” by eliminating needless bureaucracy, restoring a responsible Cabinet government, end the “reckless trend toward centralization of all power in the federal government,” and create in atmosphere of opportunity for the individual.
Free business urged
The Ohio Governor’s appearance before Hoosier editors was part of the campaign strategy of Governor Thomas E. Dewey, his presidential-nominee running mate, to win Indiana’s U.S. senatorial seat and to further the GOP effort to gain two more of the state’s 11 Congressional positions, nine now being held by Republicans.
Mr. Bricker said that:
Business must be freed from its shackles and government must be taken out of competition with private industry.
Attacking the administration assault on the Supreme Court, Mr. Bricker added that “a substantial majority of all the federal judges now have been appointed by the New Deal President.”
Foes’ errors cited
Reviewing the 11 years of the New Deal, Mr. Bricker branded the present administration as a cradle-to-grave manager of the personal lives of Americans.
Mr. Bricker asserted:
The New Deal candidate recently made his only recorded admission of fault when he said: “We have made mistakes.” I say to you that these were not mistakes. They were the cold, calculated and deliberate acts of an administration that sought, as its prophets predicted, “to undo a century of development – to change statutes, constitutions and government – and to lay rough, unholy hands on many a sacred precedent.
In spite of this record, the New Deal now asks for a fourth term. Again, it has the sinister support of notoriously corrupt political machines such as those of Hague of New Jersey, Kelly of Chicago and Pendergast of Missouri. In addition, it has the fervent support of Sidney Hillman and his Political Action Committee.
It is no secret that this committee, including its communistic adherents, proposes to buy this election with money extracted from the honest and patriotic workers of this country. It likewise is no secret that Sidney Hillman and his committee are now in complete control of the New Deal party.
Mr. Bricker pledged that the Republican administration under Mr. Dewey would return government to the “hands of the duly elected representatives of the people,” and make Cabinet members, chosen on the basis of their qualifications, personally responsible for their offices.
Mr. Bricker predicted that unless the trend of governmental centralization were ended, “state and local governments sooner or later will be reduced to provincial administrative units – mere satellites revolving about an all-powerful national planet.”
The Republican Party proposes to place the nation’s workers in private industry as promptly as possible after victory, giving special attention to war veterans, Mr. Bricker said.
The Ohioan said:
Made-work and government spending never can be an adequate substitute for honest jobs and private employment.
Rationing, price-fixing and all other emergency powers must be terminated as quickly as possible. Detailed regulation of farmers, workers, businessmen and consumers must be avoided. Abundant production in agriculture and industry must be substituted for the New Deal program of scarcity.
The New Deal has demonstrated that it cannot provide jobs without a war. It cannot maintain free representative government. It will not trust the people. It is time to elect a President who will clear everything, not with Sidney [Hillman], but with Congress and the American people. Thomas E. Dewey is that man.