The Pittsburgh Press (February 15, 1944)
Republicans in 5 states press for byelections to capitalize on GOP trend
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington –
Democratic membership in the House again has fallen below a numerical majority and Republicans in five states are pressing for byelections to capitalize the trend toward the GOP.
The five states are those with Congressional vacancies. The latest is in Illinois’ 7th district, a thickly populated Cook County constituency in the political domain of Chicago Mayor Edward J. Kelly.
Rep. Leonard W. Schuetz, a Democrat who represented that district, died here Sunday, reducing the Democratic membership of the House from 218, a bare numerical majority, to 217, which is just below the majority line.
The Democrats fell to 217 once previously in this Congress but had just received their 218th seat again last week in a special election to fill the vacancy created by the death of Rep. Henry B. Steagall (D-AL).
4 held by Democrats
Of the five vacancies now existing, four are for seats formerly held by Democrats. They are those of Mr. Schuetz and of the late Lawrence Lewis (D-CO), Joseph A. Gavagan (D-NY) and Jack Nichols (D-OK), both of whom resigned. The fifth vacancy was created by the death of Rep. William H. Wheat (R-IL).
If and when byelections are held, Republicans might take all five seats. Mr. Gavagan’s district in New York City is probably the safest for the Democrats. Mr. Nichols’ Oklahoma district will send a Republican or a staunchly anti-New Deal Democrat to the House, according to reports from there.
GOP confident
Republicans are confident they can carry Mr. Lewis’ Colorado district despite the fact that it lies in Denver and the Democrats uniformly find their greatest strength outside the South in urban communities.
Mayor Kelly’s Cook Country machine is formidable. But even there the Republicans believe they have a better than even chance to pick up a seat. Mr. Schuetz won in 1942 by only 2,000 votes of 257,000 cast. That margin is so slim that the slightest thing could reverse it.
Oregon man named Willkie manager
Portland, Oregon (UP) –
Wendell L. Willkie, Republican candidate for President in 1940, officially threw his hat in the ring last night and announced his candidacy for the GOP nomination, naming Ralph H. Cake, national committeeman from Oregon, as his pre-convention manager.
Mr. Willkie also named Mrs. Frank Reynolds, national committeewoman from Indiana and a former treasurer of the Hoosier state, as head of the women’s organization and promised as “active and intensive campaign would be waged in every state where a primary contest developed.”
Campaign workers would be organized in all states, he added.
His candidacy would probably be no surprise, Mr. Willkie explained, since he had already announced his entrance in the primaries in Nebraska, Wisconsin and Oregon.
The Republican Party must demonstrate through its platform that the “war can be brought to a conclusion, or can be fought effectively, or more effectively” with a change in administration, he said and that:
It has a better comprehension and understanding of domestic, economic and social questions and can handle the adjustments with which the United States will be confronted when the war is over.
Wallace urges people’s peace
Minneapolis, Minnesota (UP) –
“In the peace to come, the New Deal will not be dead,” Vice President Henry A. Wallace declared last night, “but if it is dead, the Democratic Party will be dead, and well dead.”
The Democratic Party is the people’s party, Mr. Wallace told a mass meeting at the Minneapolis Auditorium.
The war, he said, is a people’s war and the peace must be a people’s peace.
Mr. Wallace added:
By looking toward peace, the farmers, workers and soldiers will increase, not diminish the intensity of our all-out war effort.
Mr. Wallace urged the adoption of post-war policies which would give greater industrial, economic and agricultural strength to the West and South where the “ten million poorest people live.”
Earlier in the day, Mr. Wallace made a plea for continued support of the Roosevelt administration and told leaders of the Minnesota Democratic and Farmer-Labor parties that:
If Mr. Roosevelt is elected again, he will be helpless unless you send Congressmen to support his administration.
He said:
It is not fair to allow a fine progressive President to be left in a position to kowtow to a conservative crowd.
Retain Democrats, Truman pleads
Jacksonville, Florida (UP) –
Senator Harry S. Truman (D-MO), describing the coming national election as the most important in history, said last night that a Republican victory could affect adversely the progress of the war.
Mr. Truman said at a Jackson Day dinner here:
Democratic defeat at the polls this year could hamper, delay, and confuse the conduct of the war and imperil the peace.