Election 1944: Pre-convention news

[NormanStewart]

The New York Times (January 1, 1944)

President’s cold turns into grippe

Washington – (Dec. 31)
President Roosevelt was in bed with a slight case of grippe today following two days of confinement to his quarters with a head cold.

William D. Hassett, a White House secretary, told correspondents this morning:

I am sorry to inform you now that the President has the grippe. Dr. McIntire [Adm. Ross T. McIntire] reports he has about a half degree of temperature and that he has ordered him to stay in bed today, and probably will keep him in bed tomorrow.

As a result of the President’s illness, the Cabinet meeting, as well as the Friday morning press conference, was canceled.

[NormanStewart]

Guaranteed wage called 1944 issue

Murray of CIO says demands in steel negotiations will be pushed in politics

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – (Dec. 31)
A minimum annual wage for industrial workers, to be paid and guaranteed by employers, is being built up by the Congress of Industrial Organizations as a major issue for the 1944 elections, Philip Murray, CIO president, disclosed here.

Such a guaranteed wage is one of the principal proposals now being urged upon Carnegie-Illinois Steel and other U.S. Steel Corporation subsidiaries through direct negotiations by the CIO United Steel Workers of America. The steel workers are also contending for a 17¢ hourly wager increase and other concessions.

Going several steps further than in previous declarations, Mr. Murray said that the CIO’s political action committee would be directed to enlist all possible labor and liberal support for the minimum annual wage plan as they only feasible means of protecting the nation’s workers from destructive economic post-war jolts.

Appeal to WLB planned

The CIO chief also made known that he would shortly ask the National War Labor Board to “impose, if necessary, a guaranteed annual wage for steel workers” if the steel corporations refuse to adopt this program.

The weekly wage guarantee, Mr. Murray explained, would be computed on the basis of a 40-hour workweek. That section of the contract proposal reads in part:

Such minimum weekly wage shall be computed on the straight time average hourly earnings for the year preceding the effective date of this contract, or such portion during which the employee may have been employed, plus the general wage adjustments included in the new contract, multiplied by 40 hours.

Another proviso says:

For each week during the life of this contract that the employee for reasons beyond his control does not receive a sum equal to this minimum, the company shall make up the difference.

First movement of kind

Mr. Murray said:

So far as we know, this is the first time that a labor organization anywhere has undertaken to seek the establishment of an annual minimum guaranteed wage through collective bargaining.

He pointed out that industry in the United States, through the tax laws, has guaranteed itself post-war protection. Provisions have been made, he added, “though these various measures, to afford security for American business after the war is over.”

He went on:

That may be a good thing but certainly the same thing should be done to protect the interests of American workers.

The annual wage is a sensible way of combating widespread unemployment. If we’re going to spread income and afford workers a just share of the national income, it can be done only through this proposal.

Under the proposal as submitted, if a worker’s average hourly rate has been $1, his guaranteed weekly pay would be $40, the year around, or annual pay of $2,080.

Other demands by the union include one week’s paid vacation for employee with three years or less service, and two weeks for those over three years; time-and-a-half pay for overtime learners not to receive less than the common labor rate; all employees who are in the Armed Forces or Merchant Marine to receive vacation pay while in service.

[NormanStewart]

ODT insists on Chicago

Tells Spangler City has more Pullmans for convention travel

Washington (AP) – (Dec. 31)
The Office of Defense Transportation has reinforced its proposal that both major political parties hold their 1944 conventions in Chicago with a statement that more than three times as many sleeping cars arrive daily at the Illinois city than at any other Midwest point.

In reply to an inquiry from Harrison E. Spangler, chairman of the Republican National Committee, seeking a “list of other cities which might be used with the least interference with our transportation problem,” H. F. McCarthy, director of the ODT’s Division of Traffic Movement, said:

Indicative of Chicago’s dominance is the following table showing the number of beds in regular-line sleeping cars terminating at various favorably located cities:

Chicago	11,368
New York	7,129
St. Louis	3,240
Detroit	1,528
Kansas City	1,279
Cleveland	1,235

McCarthy added that:

The supply of sleeping cars is extremely limited, all available extra cars being dedicated to troop train service.

[NormanStewart]

McCormick: A grown-up America faces the year of decision

By Anne O’Hare McCormick

The year 1944 will be a year of decision and a year of test. Gen. Eisenhower predicts that it will see the end of the European war, and this means that Britain, Russia and the United States will have won from Hitler the power he aspired to when he threw down the gantlet in 1939. They will have won the power and the responsibility to reorganize Europe.

The European nations were already weak, weary and torn with internal strife when the Nazi drive began. Hitler’s plan of conquest was based on the assumption, largely justified, that all of Europe was as divided as Germany was when he took over. He thought he could ride to continental power over the same divisions, frustrations and hates he had exploited to achieve mastery in the Reich. He was the first to realize a truth that Stalin has now accepted: he saw that the old force of nationalism, harnessed to the new force of socialism would make a formidable team out of the two strongest impulses in the modern world.

Conquered never submitted

But he ignored the fact that the sense of nationhood is as intense in the smallest states as it is in Germany. Fortunately for the three great powers that slowly combined to defeat the Nazi dream of empire, this stubborn spirit of resistance of the lesser peoples held the fort until the big guns were ready to breach the walls. It is hardly too much to say that the fragmentations, the excessive nationalisms, which make it impossible for Europe to live in a world of larger units also make it impossible for Europe to die. If Hitler had been able to conquer Europe, if he had succeeded in convincing Poland or France, Yugoslavia or Holland that German hegemony was tolerable, the war would have been lost in 1940. If Europe had stood with Germany, neither Russian nor Anglo-American force could have taken the fortress.

The decisive factor in this war is not the four-power alliance, omnipotent as that combination of strength will be in the peace. The decisive factor is the crowd presently pushed into the background – the loose, amorphous federation called the United Nations.

The force of nationalism

This came together before the great powers merged. The truth is that not a single European people, and this goes for the satellites as well as the prisoners of war, accepted Hitler’s claims. Like it or not, our first line of defense was the force of European nationalism. This is a fundamental reality the victors will have to face. Stalin has faced it for Russia. He dissolved the Comintern because in twenty-five years it did not win a single nation. He has dropped “The Internationale” because he has learned that it will never have the appeal of a national anthem. This reality will have to be taken into account in the reorganization of the continent. The primary problem of victory will be to reconcile the force of nationalism – the force that won the war – with the compromises among nations and the concessions of sovereignty that will be necessary to maintain the international equilibrium that spells peace. For if it is clear that order cannot be maintained without force, it is equally clear that it can never be maintained by force alone. Except for a breathing spell, nations cannot be kept quiet unless they have an independent status and a conscious stake in the general security.

Many hardships ahead

For the United States, 1944 will be a hard year. This country will have to pour out blood, resources and energy as never before to ensure the victory Gen. Eisenhower expects. His appointment in itself signifies how large our share must be in the desperate struggle ahead. Victory, moreover, will bring burdens as onerous as the sacrifices of war. We shall have to assume a major responsibility for the future of Europe at a time when our minds and hands will not be free to concentrate on European problems. We shall be fighting with all our strength in the Pacific. We shall be distracted by a political campaign at home.

When Tobruk fell, the position of Churchill seemed much more precarious than the President’s. The Prime Minister in Washington during that crisis was strongly incline to agree with Roosevelt’s arguments that a fixed tenure of office for the Executive was safer and sounder than a system in which the government could be voted out of office any time. But as the President’s term nears an end, the advantages are all with the system that can put off a general election as long as necessary. Of the Big Three, Roosevelt is the only one who must face election in the decisive year of the conflict.

It is up to us

This decision is added to the others weighing upon the American democracy during the coming year. The judgments we are forced to make in our own affairs and the affairs of the world are new in our experience, new in the effect they will have on the course of history. The terrible burdens of maturity descend upon us while we are still hesitant and unprepared. But nations never go out to meet destiny. It always catches up with them at an unexpected turn of the road. On this grave and portentous New Year’s Day, it is well that Americans have to realize that they have passed the point where they can blame other powers for the mistakes of war or the failures of peace. The end of war is the beginning of the struggle for peace and of our inescapable responsibility for the world born in 1944.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (January 2, 1944)

Germans hope U.S. election will aid them

Want to hold until after voting, then obtain compromise peace
By Richard Mowrer

Cairo, Egypt – (Jan. 1)
Germany’s political and military leaders, with few exceptions, are convinced that Germany must hold at any price until after the American presidential elections in November 1944, according to neutral sources recently in contact with Germany.

The Germans’ reasoning is said to be as follows:

The reelection of President Roosevelt depends on the successful opening of a second front and victory for the Allies before the November elections. If victory is not achieved by autumn, Mr. Roosevelt will not be reelected.

Nazi hopes

American opinion, disgusted by Allied failure to beat Germany, by then will compel the withdrawal of the American war effort from Europe to concentrate it on the war in the Pacific and will elect to the presidency somebody who will concentrate entirely on winning the war against Japan.

Germany thereupon will approach the new American government and make a deal which Britain, no longer supported by Americans arms in Europe, will have to accept.

Want compromise

If the German Army puts up stiff resistance on the second front and inflicts severe casualties on the Americans, the public outcry in the United States will be such that the presidential elections will be strongly influenced.

Such at least, appears to be the line of thought of German higher-ups who, although knowing they cannot win, hope to avoid total defeat by making German resistance drag on.

[NormanStewart]

‘Let’s win the war in ’44,’ new slogan for AFL

Washington (UP) – (Jan. 1)
The American Federation of Labor said tonight it has chosen “Let’s win the war in ‘44” as labor’s slogan, its objective and its highest resolve for the coming year.

In a New Year’s Day message, the AFL said U.S. workers are ready to work and sacrifice as never before to help the fighting forces in the great tasks that lie ahead.

The message warned, however, that victory will not end labor’s responsibilities to the cause of freedom.

It said:

We will not consider this war win until we have capped our military victories with equal triumphs for our chief post-war objectives.

These are:

• The establishment of lasting peace under world democracy.
• The provision of jobs for all in peacetime America.

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (January 3, 1944)

Wendell Willkie bestätigt:
Roosevelt unter Stalins Diktat

dnb. Genf, 2. Jänner –
Wendell Willkie bescheinigt den anglo-amerikanischen Mächten noch einmal nachdrücklichst ihre Abhängigkeit von Stalin. Die USA hätte es versäumt, so schreibt er, die moralische, wirtschaftliche und politische Führung zu übernehmen und daraufhin sei Stalin zum „mächtigsten Staatsmann der internationalen Politik“ geworden. Roosevelt habe bei der Schaffung der politischen Grundlagen für die internationale Zusammenarbeit und der wirtschaftlichen Basis für den internationalen Handel die Führung nicht an sich gerissen. Das Unvermögen des Präsidenten, dies zu tun, habe bereits auf der ganzen Erde seine Auswirkungen gezeigt.

Überall in der Welt, so meint Willkie, lege sich der Durchschnittsmann die Frage vor, was wohl Stalin demnächst tun werde, nicht aber, was Roosevelt und Churchill Unternehmen würden. Die dringlichste Frage sei die, was die Sowjetunion mit der politischen Integrität Polens und der Baltenstaaten zu tun gedenke.

Die USA, so schließt Willkie seinen Artikel, könnten die Haltung Sowjetrußlands den Kleinstaaten gegenüber nicht dadurch beeinflussen, daß sie das Mißtrauen gegen die Sowjetunion schüren. Die USA könnten Stalin nicht von der Richtigkeit und Klugheit ihrer Ideen dadurch überzeugen, daß sie „sein Land zum Fußball unserer innerpolitischen Streitigkeiten machen.“

Wendell Willkie bestätigt damit die These, daß Roosevelt und Churchill in Moskau und Teheran lediglich zum Befehlsempfang waren und widerspruchslos die Diktate des Kremlhäuptlings entgegenzunehmen hatten.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (January 3, 1944)

First Lady says she’s tired of ‘New Deal’ too

But she thinks substitute offered by President isn’t adequate

Washington (UP) –
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who has not laid the New Deal “away in lavender,” but is “sort of tired” of that name, suggested today that the President’s proposed substitute, “Win the War,” is not enough.

She did not propose another substitute for “New Deal,” but hinted that her choice probably would be something like: “Win the War and Win the Peace.”

Mrs. Roosevelt denied a report that during her trip to the South Pacific she told servicemen that the President “has decided to give you the privilege of walking the streets of Tokyo” instead of coming home. She also said she did not recall being “booed” anywhere as was alleged in an interview with a wounded sergeant by the New Bedford Standard-Times.

Mrs. Roosevelt said she would not have been surprised if the soldiers had booed her after a Tokyo propaganda broadcast which quoted her as saying that the Marines should be kept in the Pacific six months after the war so they would have time to get “cleaned up” before returning home. Many soldiers had heard this broadcast, she said, which was propaganda.

[NormanStewart]

Roosevelt urged as world’s leader

Minneapolis, Minnesota (UP) –
Dr. George Mecklenburg, pastor, world traveler and student of international politics, today suggested that President Roosevelt retire from American politics to head an association of nations, and that Democrats and Republicans name Wendell Willkie President by acclamation.

Dr. Mecklenburg, of the Wesley Methodist Church here, said Mr. Roosevelt is the only international figure fitted to head the world organization.

He said:

Churchill, nearing 70, is too old. Stalin is not temperamentally fitted for the place, and has too many problems at home. Chiang does not understand the world.

Dr. Mecklenburg said Mr. Willkie would be the only man left at home with a clear conception of world affairs.

[NormanStewart]

Roosevelt improving

Washington –
President Roosevelt’s head cold and case of mild grippe kept him in bed again today, although his physician, RAdm. Ross T. McIntire, said that he might get up for a while this afternoon.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (January 5, 1944)

New GOP leader?

Washington (UP) –
Prominent Republican Senators believe the time is ripe for formal election of an acting successor to Minority Leader Charles L. McNary (R-OR), recuperating in Florida from a serious operation undergone last November. Senator Wallace H. White Jr. (R-ME) has been acting leader under appointment from Senator McNary.

[NormanStewart]

Dewey asks surplus saved for post-war

Albany, New York (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey, prominently mentioned as possible Republican presidential candidate, told the New York Legislature today that it should “lock up” a $140-million State Treasury surplus for a post-war program to aid returning veterans.

In an address to a joint meeting of the Senate and Assembly, Governor Dewey waved aside demands for immediate reduction of state taxes as “unsound and irresponsible” and asked that the money be earmarked to provide financial relief for war veterans and defense workers thrown out of jobs when peace comes.

He said the surplus was the result of economies in operation and increases in the amount of revenue from current taxes.

Governor Dewey also suggested revising the present system of succession to the governorship. Some observers interpreted the plan as a move to assure continuation of Republican control of New York in the event Governor Dewey is nominated and elected President this year.

[NormanStewart]

Stimson, Knox hit vote bill for soldiers

Recommendations to set up uniform state laws are outlined
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Washington –
Secretaries Stimson and Knox have dealt a heavy blow to the soldier-voting legislation recently passed by the Senate, and now pending in the House, which would turn the problem over to the states with their complicated absentee-voting laws.

A joint statement by the two Cabinet officers to the Council of State Governments said:

The services are unable effectively to administer diverse procedures of 48 states as to 11 million servicemen all over the world in primary, special and general elections.

While the statement emphasized that “the War and Navy Departments do not advocate or oppose any particular voting legislation,” it is expected to give impetus to compromise measures to be considered when Congress resumes next week.

Compromises outlined

The compromises, sponsored by Senator Lucas (D-IL) and Rep. Worley (D-TX) would set up a federal commission to supervise distribution and collection by the Army and Navy of a simple ballot for President, Vice President and members of Congress. The ballots would be turned over to the states for counting under their laws.

Secretaries Stimson and Knox submitted their statement in reply to an inquiry by Frank Bane, executive director of the Council of State Governments.

The statement explained that it is Army and Navy policy “to assist and encourage servicemen to vote, so far as practicable and compatible with military operations.” It said that service voting is subject to factors beyond control – weather, war and plane space – and that no assurance could be given that enactment or elimination of any legislative provision “will result in the casting of more votes by servicemen.”

Recommendation made

It ruled out, as impracticable of administration by the services, numerous requirements of state laws as to furnishing names and addresses of servicemen, a specific day or period for voting, and the like.

For uniform legislation, the Cabinet officers recommended that state secretaries of state be authorized to transmit to appropriate election officials the form prepared and distributed by the War and Navy Departments as an application for a state absence ballot and for wartime registration as a voter – when executed by the absentee serviceman – and that election officials be authorized to receive these at any time before election.

They recommended that, for servicemen within the United States, at least 30 days be permitted before election in which to send out absentee ballots and, for those outside the United States, at least 45 days and perhaps longer.

They also specified a limit of eight-tenths of an ounce for total weight of covering envelope, enclosed outer envelope, inner envelope, ballot and voting instructions, and outer dimensions of the covering envelope at 4⅛ by 9½ inches, No. 10 size. The outer envelope would be clearly marked “official ballot.”

---

Right to vote is preferred to Varga girl

Algiers, Algeria (UP) – (Jan. 4)
A poll of servicemen and women by the Army newspaper, Stars and Stripes, showed today that in a choice between the thinly-clad Varga girls which brought the wrath of the Post Office Department down on Esquire Magazine and the right to vote, the boys and girls in uniform prefer the latter.

The poll was taken following a recent observation by Rep. Ranulf Compton (R-CT), that servicemen were more concerned over the fate of the Varga girls than their right to vote. Mr. Compton’s lone supporter, reported the Stars and Stripes, was Seaman Moses Ellen Detroit, who said:

I’d rather have a Varga girl than a vote.

WAC Pvt. Marguerite Burney of Salem, Oregon, said that all the WACs with whom she had discussed Postmaster General Frank C. Walker’s ban on Esquire were against it:

…because the Varga girl is not really vulgar in this day and age, and it seems like an infringement of the freedom of the press.

Pvt. Burney said:

But we over here, the men who are fighting and the women who are helping, should have the right to choose our leaders. This Congressman made no sensible comparison at all.

[NormanStewart]

Marshall urged by Rickenbacker for presidency

Boston, Massachusetts (UP) –
Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker today suggested Gen. George C. Marshall as a presidential candidate, declaring that the Army Chief of Staff has all the qualifications which the next President should possess.

Speaking to the Advertising Club of Boston yesterday, the World War I flying ace praised Gen. Marshall for the statement which the latter was reported to have made that American rail and steel disputes have prolonged the war and cost the lives of American and Allied soldiers.

Capt. Rickenbacker said:

If Gen. Marshall was the author of this statement, he will be the first to admit it. We Americans should be thankful that we have a man in high position in the government who is not afraid to make such a statement.

Capt. Rickenbacker outlined these qualifications which he thought the next President should have:

• He should think in terms of America first – so that America will last.
• He should stand by his convictions and not coddle pressure groups.
• He should amend labor laws to protect workers.
• He should protect states’ rights.
• He should add a freedom of opportunity to the four freedoms.
• He should cut bureaucracy to a minimum.

Gen. Marshall possesses these qualifications, Capt. Rickenbacker concluded.

[NormanStewart]

Guffey: President sure to run again

And he’ll be reelected, Democratic ‘victory rally’ is told
By Kermit McFarland

U.S. Senator Joseph F. Guffey is “sure” President Roosevelt will be a candidate for a fourth term, he told a Democratic “victory” rally here last night.

Mr. Guffey said:

I never have discussed it with him, but I am sure President Roosevelt will be a candidate for a third term–

Mr. Guffey immediately interrupted by a chorus of shouts, “Fourth term!” and hastily corrected his slip of the tongue.

Sure of reelection

The Senator said:

I think I know his mind and I think I’m safe in saying that not only will he be a candidate for a fourth term, but he will be reelected.

Mr. Guffey said he had never discussed the President’s candidacy in advance, save in 1932 when he was first a candidate – a significant intimation since the Senator was a bellwether of the 1936 and 1940 candidacies.

The Senator said he and Democratic State Chairman David L. Lawrence, now holding a series of pre-slate conferences with county leaders, were endeavoring to select strong candidates for Congress and the State Legislature “that will appeal to the people.”

High-class ticket promised

He said:

We’re going to get a ticket that will be an aid to President Roosevelt this time, and not a load to him.

Despite his fourth-term forecast, however, Senator Guffey took second billing on the program to County Commissioner John J. Kane.

It was Mr. Kane who “laid on thick” the demand for a high-class slate of candidates for the Legislature and for Congress.

He said:

If we are going to have a strong Democratic Party, we’ve got to do more than win public offices to get a few jobs. We’ve got to sell the people on the idea that we are the party Jefferson founded, that we are the party that does something for the people.

Urges able candidates

It is not so important, as I see it, who is Auditor General or State Treasurer, except for party prestige, but we’ve got to select and send to Harrisburg men who will do something for the people.

Ours is a government of laws, and the laws are made in the Legislature in Harrisburg and in Congress in Washington.

Don’t let us concentrate on just winning a few jobs. Let’s concentrate on winning the Legislature and Congress. The government of Pennsylvania is in the Legislature, and the government of the United States is in Congress.

Warns against reactionaries

And let’s concentrate on electing a liberal Legislature and a liberal Congress. We don’t want reactionary Democrats any more than we want reactionary Republicans, although we have some now.

Mr. Lawrence, as toastmaster, wound up the dinner rally with a similar plea, demanding a Democratic Congress to back up President Roosevelt in the peacemaking.

He said:

The same men who rushed to Washington in 1933 and pleaded with this man [Mr. Roosevelt] to save their crashing financial institutions, are now coming out of their storm cellars to crucify the man who saved them.

‘A Roosevelt party’

He said the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania is a “Roosevelt Democratic Party” and described the rally last night as “an auspicious start of the 1944 campaign.”

Mr. Kane warned the new Democratic officials, in whose honor the dinner was held, that:

The people aren’t going to be satisfied with just a good job; they’re going to ask us to do a better job.

He said:

The boys in the Armed Forces don’t want to come back to the America they left. They want to come back to a better America.

Responsibility emphasized

The Democratic Party has a tremendous responsibility. They tell us about the democracies throughout the world, and I’m willing to go along with them if that will help win the war, but I don’t know any other place where the people have an opportunity to vote in elections whether there is a war or not.

Mr. Lawrence also attempted to cement the theory, first announced in Washington several weeks ago, that he and Senator Guffey have patched up all differences and will function as a unit in the coming campaign.

He said:

To the great discomfort of the Republican Party, the relationship which existed for many years [before the break in 1938] has been revived.

Meet with county leaders

Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Guffey yesterday conferred with Democratic leaders from Butler, Armstrong, Venango, Erie, Warren, Indiana, Jefferson and McKean Counties. Today, they met leaders from Mercer, Fayette, Somerset, Cambria, Beaver, Lawrence, Clarion and Clearfield Counties and tomorrow will meet additional leaders in Harrisburg.

The purposes of the conference, which will take in Democrats from all counties, is to sound out sentiment on legislative, Congressional and statewide candidates.

New officials speak

In addition to the new Democratic officials – Judges Walter P. Smart, Harry H. Montgomery and Hugh C. Boyle, Prothonotary David B. Roberts, Treasurer Bernard H. Goodwin and Recorder of Deeds Anthony J. Gerard – the rally was addressed by Auditor General F. Clair Ross.

Judges Benjamin Lencher of County Court and Gustav L. Schramm of Juvenile Court (Republicans supported by the Democratic organization) were present. Missing were Judges Thomas P. Trimble of Orphans Court and Harry H. Rowand of Common Pleas Court (also Republicans backed by the Democrats).

[NormanStewart]

Bradley will seek election to Senate

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (UP) –
Congressman Michael J. Bradley, Philadelphia Democrat, announced his candidacy last night for the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania.

He said he felt:

My record merits for me the support of the Philadelphia Democratic organization, the party leaders in the state and the Democratic State Committee.

A member of the House Naval Affairs Committee, Mr. Bradley is serving his fourth term in the House, to apply the decision to other cases pending in various federal courts, including cases in which “permit fees” charged by unions on federal construction jobs are in question.

Fees went to stewards

These cases include instances in which, the government charges, some of the money collected in permit fees went, not into the union treasury, but to business agents or stewards.

Assistant Attorney General Tom C. Clark said:

Where the union doesn’t extend union membership, but simply collects fees for the right to work, we are hopeful of putting that under the federal statute.

The Supreme Court opinion did not touch on application of the “kickback” law to labor unions but, significantly, stated that the court was not passing on “the outside limit of the statutes.”

Labor cases pending

In some of the pending federal cases, labor unions, providing workers on requisition of contractors, certified them for jobs on payment of “permit fees” which did not entitle them to union membership.

One of the pending cases which will come before the Supreme Court on argument later this month involves the right of a federal grand jury to subpoena books of a labor union to determine what “permit fees” were collected by the union on a federal project.

The case came up on appeal of Jasper White, official of the Stationary Engineers Union of Philadelphia, who refused to present the union records during a grand jury investigation of kickbacks in construction of the naval supply depot at Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

Justice Black pointed out that the kickback law was part of a Congressional program, including the National Industrial Recovery Act and a law requiring minimum wages on federally-financed construction projects to assure that federal funds provided for workers would actually be received by them for their own use. The law provides a penalty of $5,000 fine or five years in prison or both.

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (January 6, 1944)

Gerüchte um eine Regierungsumbildung –
Roosevelts politische Krise

dr. th. b. Stockholm, 5. Jänner –
Die schon seit einigen Tagen verbreiteten Gerüchte über eine Regierungskrise in den Vereinigten Staaten verdichten sich nach einer Meldung der Daily Mail aus Neuyork, die auch vom Reuters-Büro aufgegriffen wurden.

Führende Mitglieder der Demokratischen Partei haben an Roosevelt die Aufforderung gerichtet, sich von seinem vertrauten Mitarbeiter Harry Hopkins und von dem Landwirtschaftsminister Wickard zu trennen. Aber auch der Kriegsminister Stimson, der Marineminister Knox, der Justizminister Biddle und der Arbeitsminister Miß Frances Perkins werden genannt.

In der Meldung der Daily Mail wird es als ausgeschlossen angesehen, daß sich Roosevelt von Hopkins trennen wird. Es ist aber möglich, daß er den Landwirtschaftsminister Wickard fallen läßt, der sich unter den Farmern keiner Beliebtheit erfreut. Schon aus Wahlrücksichten könnte Roosevelt zu diesem Schritt gezwungen sein, wie ja eine Regierungsumbildung überhaupt nur im Hinblick auf die Präsidentenwahlen akut ist.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (January 6, 1944)

Uniform soldier vote urged

Washington (UP) –
The War and Navy Departments today called for uniform legislation for the entire country to facilitate absentee voting by members of the Armed Forces in this year’s elections.

In a joint statement, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson warned that the services could not administer effectively “diverse procedures” of the 48 states “as to 11 million servicemen all over the world in primary, special and general elections.”

Meanwhile, Rep. George Bender (R-OH) praised the “good intentions” of governors who have sought to solve the soldier vote problem through special sessions of their legislatures, but said that:

Despite these good intentions, our soldiers are not going to be able to vote unless the Congress provides them with a simple, uniform federal ballot.

The Knox-Stimson statement was issued in reply to an inquiry from the Council of State Governments, and was made public by the Council.

[NormanStewart]

Background of news –
Presidential candidates

By Harold Kellock, editorial research reports

Because of war uncertainties, the election year 1944 has begun with the identity of the presidential candidates to be selected by the two major parties veiled in more than usual mystery.

If the European phase of the war ends before the nominating conventions assemble in June or July, a hasty reassessment of campaign values may bring last-minute changes in the political picture; the situation would be complicated by the fact that post-war problems in Europe would demand attention concurrently with problems of speeding up the war in the Far East. Any candidate who offered glittering generalities as solutions to these diverse puzzles might find himself highly embarrassed before the electorate in November. The war has injected various imponderable factors into the choice of candidates for both parties.

The enigma of the fourth term is another factor of uncertainty which hangs over both nominating conventions. According to established political techniques, President Roosevelt will probably not reveal whether he will be a candidate to succeed himself in office until after the Republican convention. The dearth of candidates for the Democratic nomination this year indicates the extent to which a twelve-year President forces other leaders of his party into political obscurity.

Byrnes a possibility?

In 1940, Vice President Garner and National Chairman Farley, both opposed to a third term, were candidates for the nomination. The names of both, and that of Senator Tydings (D-MD), were placed before the Democratic National Convention, but Mr. Roosevelt was nominated by acclamation on the first ballot. None of these three seems in the picture this year.

War Manpower Commissioner McNutt and Vice President Wallace have lost political face recently, through reallocations of administrative power. None of the New Deal executives, except possibly James F. Byrnes, chief of the Office of War Mobilization who served in the Senate from South Carolina for 10 years, apparently would be acceptable to the powerful Southern wing of the party. Some Southern leaders, led by Senator “Cotton Ed” Smith (D-SC), have proposed to nominate Senator Byrd (D-VA) on an anti-New Deal platform, but Mr. Byrd has said he is not a candidate.

The Republican race is wide open. The four leading candidates thus far are New York Governor Dewey, Wendell Willkie, Gen. MacArthur and Ohio Governor Bricker. Others mentioned include Harold E. Stassen, who resigned after his third election as Governor of Minnesota to enter the Navy, and Governors Warren of California, Saltonstall of Massachusetts and Griswold of Nebraska.

Willkie most outspoken

Gen. MacArthur and Mr. Stassen, as officers in the Armed Forces, cannot engage in political activity, but would be permitted to resign to accept high public office. Gen. MacArthur’s friends have organized MacArthur-for-President clubs in nine states and Mr. Stassen’s supporters are preparing to enter his name in the Western primaries. Mr. Bricker has announced his candidacy and will file in the Ohio primaries.

Mr. Willkie has said his candidacy is contingent on adoption by his party of a satisfactory program of post-war international cooperation.

The most outspoken of the Republican presidential possibilities, Mr. Willkie has urged his views before party gatherings and public forums over a wide area. A number of party leaders are openly opposed to his nomination.

After Mr. Dewey was elected Governor of New York in November 1942, he said he planned to stick to his job for four years and added:

I am not and shall not be a candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 1944.

He reiterated this stance a year later, but has never stated that he would refuse the nomination if it were tendered him.

Mr. Dewey leads in most straw votes for a Republican nominee to date, with Mr. Willkie close behind him.

[NormanStewart]

AFL digs up labor views of MacArthur

Magazine’s release was ‘relevant’ in June 1942

Washington (UP) –
The statement by Gen. Douglas MacArthur that “labor has never failed the Army or the nation,” which the American Federationist, the official magazine of the American Federation of Labor, said would be a feature of its next issue, turned out today to be about 20 months old.

As distributed in advance yesterday, the publications’ handout suggested to editors that Gen. MacArthur’s statement was relevant to “a somewhat contrary statement made by an anonymous high personage.”

The reference was to the “informed source” statement warning that rail strike threats might prolong the war. AFL President William Green last Monday charged the statement was “inflammatory” and said “press reports” had attributed it to Gen. George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff.

Mr. Green disclaimed any knowledge of the AFL magazine’s release on Gen. MacArthur, and Philip Pearl, AFL representative, said he had no connection with the publication and that the release had not been issued by “anyone in authority.”

Gen. MacArthur’s statement was first carried by the American Federationist in its June 1942 issue.