Election 1944: Hillman attacks GOP Old Guard (10-12-44)

The Pittsburgh Press (October 12, 1944)

americavotes1944

Hillman attacks GOP Old Guard

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (UP) –
Sidney Hillman, CIO Political Action Committee chairman, charged last night that the Republican Party and its candidates stand for “another return to normalcy – to do-nothing Hooverism at home and narrow, stupid nationalism abroad.”

Mr. Hillman, who spoke to delegates at the CIO Shop Stewards Union convention, asserted:

The Old Guard has recaptured control of the party – the Old Guard of Herbert Hoover, Robert Taft, William Randolph Hearst, Robert McCormick, Joe Pew and Joe Grundy.

Mr. Hillman, attacked by Republicans as favoring Communistic ideology, said that “because Earl Browder wishes to see President Roosevelt reelected, the Old Guard smear artists argue that anyone who opposes their candidate is a Communist or a fellow traveler.

He continued:

By the same reasoning, we might say that since Gerald L. K. Smith and all the Fascist vermin in this country wish to see Mr. Roosevelt defeated, anyone who votes the Republican ticket is a Fascist or a Fascist follower.