Election 1944: Pre-convention news

[NormanStewart]

Drive is started for fourth term

County organization hears war pleas

Urging the reelection of President Roosevelt for a fourth term, the Allegheny County Democratic organization formally launched its Congressional campaign last night at a dinner rally in the Alpine Hotel, East McKeesport.

The keynote of the rally was sounded by Auditor General F. Clair Moss, candidate for Superior Court, who declared that the progress of the war hinges on November’s election.

Bitter campaign deplored

Mr. Ross said in part:

The election next November will determine whether the progress of this war will continue or whether there will be an interruption. It will also determine if a lasting peace will be written. A lasting peace can be written only under the guidance of President Roosevelt.

Rep. Francis J. Myers, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, told his audience that Nazi and Jap warlords are encouraged by bitter political campaigns and disputes in this country.

Other speakers were State Chairman David L. Lawrence, G. Harold Wagner (candidate for Auditor General), Ramsay S. Black (candidate for State Treasurer), and Mayor Frank Buchanan of McKeesport County Commissioner John J. Kane was toastmaster.

Soldier is guest

Congressman Samuel A. Weiss, who represents the 33rd district where the rally was held, had as guest a wounded soldier, Stephen Timco of Duquesne. Mr. Weiss urged proper provisions for disabled soldiers. He also declared that servicemen should be given a federal ballot so that they may vote in this year’s elections.

The 33rd district, created by the last session of the Legislature, comprises the three third-class cities, McKeesport, Clairton and Duquesne, plus 21 boroughs and eight townships. Republicans are expected to wage an intensive campaign to unseat Mr. Weiss.

[NormanStewart]

Presidential primary vote opens in East

New Hampshire first to cast ballots
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Washington –
New Hampshire today opens the presidential preference primary season which will extend through May 19.

During that period, a maximum of 18 states, including New Hampshire, could give their voters an opportunity in one form or another of indicating their preference among Republican and Democratic candidates for 1944 presidential nomination.

In three states, Alabama, Arkansas and Georgia, State Executive Committees determine whether there shall be a preferential vote. Among the other states, some enable voters to express a preference among potential presidential nominees listed on the ballot and others provide a choice among National Convention delegates who pledge themselves or express a preference for certain individual candidates.

Next primaries April 4

After New Hampshire’s vote today for delegates to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, there will be a lull until after March 28 when New York holds its primary. Wisconsin’s primary is on April 4. Thereafter the primaries come in this order:

APRIL 11: Illinois, Nebraska
APRIL 25: Massachusetts, Pennsylvania
MAY 1: Maryland
MAY 2: Alabama, California, Florida, South Dakota
MAY 9: Ohio, West Virginia
MAY 16: New Jersey
MAY 19: Oregon

Primary preliminaries so far have been notable for activity by Wendell L. Willkie, the most aggressive campaigner for Republican presidential nomination, and apparent agreement by a preponderance of Democratic organizations in primary states that President Roosevelt will have a fourth-term nomination.

Roosevelt challenged

Only in Massachusetts is there any formal challenge so far to the accumulation of delegates by the Roosevelt-for-President forces.

In Massachusetts, the former Governor Joseph B. Ely has authorized the use of his name as an aspirant to the Democratic nomination, but there is no chance of a contest between delegates pledged to Mr. Ely and a slate pledged to the President because Massachusetts statutes require that a presidential candidate must file written assent to the use of his name. So far, Mr. Roosevelt is following the strategy of 1940 when he refused to reveal his political intentions.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: Riddled by politics

This soldier-vote issue has never been straight.

It has been glutted by politics – on both sides.

And the raucous politics which has made a joke of this issue reached a crescendo as a result of Governor Dewey’s proposals to the New York Legislature.

Mr. Dewey, rightfully, finally went before the legislature with a plan for providing New York’s voters in the Armed Forces with a vote. He delayed this action until he measured the probability of a Congressional enactment at little more than zero.

The New York Governor’s address to the legislature at once was interpreted, on both friendly and unfriendly circles, as his first “open” bid for the Presidency.

Maybe there was some politics in Mr. Dewey’s message. But the basic intent of it was sound and justified. He had waited for Congress. Congress had failed to deliver. Now it was up to the states.

Perhaps he overstated the case when he directed a few sharp barbs, a la Roosevelt, at the so-called administration plan for a federal ballot.

But now comes Senator Lucas (D-IL), an original sponsor of the federal ballot plan for enabling the Armed Forces to vote, making two wrongs out of a right.

He described the Dewey message as a “springboard to announce his candidacy for the Presidency.” He used it as a basis for the charge that the sabotage of the soldier-vote plan is “plain, pure, partisan, Republican politics and nothing else.” Mr. Dewey’s speech, he said, was an “unstatesmanlike, unworthy and unjustified assault.”

But in the next breath he singled out – not without cause – Rep. Rankin (D-MS) as the chief obstructionist to a soldier-vote law.

That has been the trouble from the start.

Both the protagonists and the antagonists have been more concerned with their own partisanship than with the need – a simple, uniform method of enabling the Armed Forces to vote.

Both sides have angled the issue. Those opposing a federal ballot have angled to from the anti-New Deal slant. Those favoring a federal ballot have angled it from the fourth-term slant.

This is not an issue which concerns the welfare of politicians, be they Republicans, anti-New Deal Democrats or New Deal masterminds.

It is an issue that concerns the constitutional rights of millions of men and women in the Armed Forces who have been rooted from their homes to fight and die for a free country.

It is an issue which calls for statesmanship and sincerity, but which has been handled with the rawest kind of selfish partisanship.

[NormanStewart]

Background of news –
Soldier vote muddle

By Bertram Benedict

Speaker Rayburn declares that he will support the compromise soldier vote bill recently reported out of conference, because he has been informed that it will let more soldiers vote than will the Soldier Voting Act of 1942. But Senator Lucas (D-IL), one of the sponsors of a “national” bill, declares that he opposes the pending bill because it will let fewer soldiers vote than under the 1942 act.

Opinions in Congress differ on whether the pending bill can get through both Houses or whether, if it does, President Roosevelt will veto it. It is generally agreed that the bill cannot be passed over a veto. Senator Connally of Texas says, “It is this bill or no bill at all.” If it is to be no bill, the 1942 act will apply to the November elections.

The bill reported out by a Senate-House conference committee is so complicated that opinions vary widely on how many soldiers would vote under it. The answer would depend in large measure on what action the state legislatures take.

The measure would apply to members of the Armed Forces overseas (probably five or six million by November), overseas members of the civilian groups attached to the Armed Forces, and all servicemen and women from three states – Kentucky, New Mexico, South Carolina – which have no provision for absentee voting.

Procedure outlined

The serviceman overseas would have to apply for a state ballot by Sept. 1 in order to vote under the act. If he receives it before Oct. 1, that is the ballot to use. Only if he certifies that he has applied and has not received it by the latter date may he use the federal ballot. Even so, he may not use the federal ballot unless the governor of his state certifies by July 15 that his state has taken action authorizing the use of the federal ballot.

The bill urges the states to take action allowing their absentee soldiers to vote. It also urges the states to accept as applications for state ballots the postcards to be printed and distributed by the War Ballot Commission. The postcards are to be distributed by Aug. 15 to men overseas, by Sept. 15 to servicemen within the country, and are to go overseas by plane wherever practicable.

The federal ballot will contain blank spaces in which the voter may write in the name of the candidate for whom he votes for President, for Senator, for Representative. Lists of the candidates are to be transmitted to the Armed Forces by the War Ballot Commission. The federal ballots utilized will be transmitted by the commission to the secretaries of state of the several states, who will distribute them to the proper voting precincts, in which they will be counted. The 1942 act is, for all practical purposes, repealed.

President’s approval in doubt

Whether the President will approve or veto the bill if presented to him may depend on how closely he thinks it corresponds to the “state” bill which the Senate passed on Dec. 3, 1943. The President called this a “fraud,” “meaningless,” and no improvement over the 1942 act, which was in turn described as useless.

The 1942 act, enacted Sept. 6, 1942, is a curious piece of legislation. It says that every “qualified” voter in the Armed Forces shall be entitled to vote for federal office irrespective of state laws on registration. No poll-tax requirement mays be imposed for voting for federal office. Requests may be made, on postcards furnished by the government, to the several secretaries of state are directed to have printed. These, when returned, are to be counted in the same way as regular ballots cast within the state.

The ballots are either to list the candidates and their parties, or to leave blank spaces for names to be filled in.

[NormanStewart]

Stokes: Courtin’ Mr. Hague

By Thomas L. Stokes

Washington –
Election year rolls around to find the Roosevelt administration, as usual, making its obeisance to bosses of corrupt big-city machines, just as Republicans make their soft gestures to big men in business with fat pocketbooks.

Boss Frank Hague of Jersey City is a key figure again. In 1942, he was belabored by former Governor Charles Edison, not fatally, but enough that he lost a senatorial election. The Democrats desperately need Jersey this year.

There’s a senatorial election there this year, along with the presidential election. Some Democrats who watched hopefully the attempts of Charlie Edison to curb the power of Boss Hague would like to run for the Senate a Democrat who espoused some progressive principles and was without the taint of Haguism.

They are talking of Dr. Frank Kingdon, former Methodist minister, former president of the University of Newark, now a lecturer and radio commentator, who is a supporter of President Roosevelt’s domestic and foreign policies.

Bridging the gap

They have made overtures to the White House. The political strategy is to get a candidate who would win the support of former Governor Edison, still a power among Jersey Democrats. Thus, they would bridge the gap between the former governor and the Hague machine and pull the various elements of the party together behind a progressive and aggressive figure. The Democratic Party in Jersey is considerably dispirited, chafing vainly under the Hague whip.

Haguism has become especially obnoxious in recent months because of the machine’s merciless persecution of John Longo, whose crime seems to be that he has fought the machine. The most recent episode was his conviction and jail sentence because of an alleged change of his party designation on the registration books, a charge that was declared false by Governor Edison’s investigators.

The anti-Hague crusader is now out on bail, pending appeal. Meanwhile, the FBI is making an investigation which may produce a new blow at Haguism, though previous Justice Department sallies in New Jersey have stalled.

He who hath a mind–

The only flaw in the Democratic plan to run Dr. Kingdon is that Boss Hague has already laid his blessing on another candidate, Rep. Elmer Wene, who operates one of the nation’s biggest chicken farms at Vineland.

Can President Roosevelt change Mr. Hague’s mind?

Democrats behind the Kingdon movement were somewhat discouraged not long since when Eugene Casey, one of President Roosevelt’s secretaries who is the contact man with the regular Democratic organization, went to a Jackson Day dinner in New Jersey and babbled with raptures about “your great, able and sincere leader, the honorable Frank Hague.”

Speaking of Mr. Hague

He said:

To know your great leader is to honor him, to admire him, to revere him, to respect him and, yes, to love him!

Just like that!

The bubbling Mr. Casey left out of his speech a section of praise for Senator Arthur Walsh, recently appointed by Governor Edison to the vacancy left by the death of the late Senator Barbour, which appeared in the text released to the newspapers.

Boss Hague, meanwhile, enjoys himself at his Florida estate, while his nephew and heir apparent, Frank Eggers, holds political consultations with Communists, Boss Hague’s latest allies, who are insisting upon Congressman Wene and are opposing the selection of Dr. Kingdon.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (March 15, 1944)

House passes soldier vote to Roosevelt

Measure adopted, 273–111

Washington (UP) –
The House today approved the compromise soldier vote bill and put it up to President Roosevelt for signature or veto.

The House adopted the long-disputed measure by a vote announced as 273–111.

Administration sources said Mr. Roosevelt was still undecided and that there was no unanimity among his advisers as to what he would do. He has indicated his primary consideration will be whether the bill would permit more soldiers to vote than could do so under present law.

Worley urged acceptance

The House vote, which ended months of wrangling among its members and between the two houses of Congress, came after only two hours of debate, contrasted with the two days of argument that preceded the Senate’s vote of 47–31 yesterday.

Chairman Eugene Worley (D-TX), of the House Elections Committee, urged acceptance of the conference version of the bill. He had led the fight in the House by New Deal supporters for a federal ballot for all servicemen and women. But the final bill, adopted by an overwhelming coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats, put many limitations on the use of such a ballot and apparently would prevent any voting by service personnel from Kentucky and New Mexico.

Federal ballots can be used only by persons overseas, only if states agree to accept them and count them, and only if the voter is unable to get a state ballot. These provisions satisfied Rep. John Rankin (D-MS), leader of the states’ rights bloc which so violently opposed the original federal ballot proposal.

‘Best we could get’

In debate on the bill, Mr. Worley told the House he felt the conferees “could have done better,” but said the agreement was reached “in the true democratic spirit and in the spirit of compromise.”

He added:

I am firmly convinced that this is the best compromise we could get out of Congress.

Rep. Karl M. LeCompte (R-IA), ranking Republican on the committee and member of the Senate-House conference that drew up the final bill, likewise contended that “vastly more” soldiers would be able to vote under the bill than under the existing statute.

Sabath charge protested

Two Republicans vigorously protested a statement by Rep. Adolph J. Sabath (D-IL), first to speak in opposition, that “the Republicans want this bill because they feel more men will be deprived of the right to vote than under the present law.”

Mr. Sabath said:

The Republicans are afraid most of the soldiers will vote for President Roosevelt.

The two Republicans – Reps. Ben F. Jensen of Iowa and Homer A. Ramey of Ohio – withdrew their protests as Mr. Sabath’s time expired and he returned to the Democratic side of the aisle amid boos from Republicans.

Senate vote is 47–31

The Senate passed the bill by a 47–31 vote yesterday.

Some observers believed they had a clue to the President’s decision in the fact that Senate Democratic Leader Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky, after conferring with Mr. Roosevelt Monday, opposed the bill yesterday.

Two other factors will enter into Mr. Roosevelt’s consideration of the bill: A Republican warning that a veto would make him subject to charges of having made it impossible for soldiers to vote, plus the fact that Kentucky and New Mexico servicemen away from their home states may be disenfranchised if he signs the measure.

State approval needed

The Kentucky and New Mexico Supreme Courts have held that state soldier vote laws are unconstitutional because their constitutions require that voting be done in person. However, soldiers of those states got the right to cast absentee ballots under the 1942 Soldier Voting Act which, as a federal statute, superseded state laws.

The new bill provides that federal ballots can be used only with the approval of state governors and legislatures – but New Mexico and Kentucky probably cannot grant such approval because of their constitutions.

The bill provides that the federal ballot be made available to overseas servicemen whose state legislatures and governors have certified by July 15 that they will accept them. The serviceman using it would be required to certify that he had applied for a state absentee ballot by Sept. 1, but had not received it by Oct. 1. Those in this country would have to use state absentee ballot forms.

War Ballot Commission

Thus far, only California, Minnesota and North Carolina have agreed to accept federal ballots. Some administration sources feel most states will follow the cue of Governor Thomas E. Dewey, who says New York will not accept them.

The bill calls for a War Ballot Commission, composed of the Secretaries of War and Navy and the

The present waiver of poll tax and registration as prerequisites to voting, as provided in the 1942 law, would be retained for those voting from overseas. Those within the country, however, would have to meet state regulations.

States still requiring poll taxes are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

[NormanStewart]

4th term deplored at White House

Washington (UP) –
Thomas Rhea, prominent Kentucky Democrat, said today after a conference with President Roosevelt that the Chief Executive does not want to be a candidate for reelection.

After first saying that the President had told him as much, Mr. Rhea then said that this was only his personal impression.

Mr. Rhea, prominent in Kentucky politics for a number of years and a delegate to the Democratic conventions in 1932 and 1940, was asked this question as he left the President’s office: “Did you get a line on 1944?”

Mr. Rhea replied:

He says he does not want to be a candidate.

“Did he tell you that?” a reporter asked.

Mr. Rhea said:

Now, wait a minute – I don’t know that he said that. My impression is that he would like to get out of the whole thing. Now, don’t misquote me – the President did not make that statement.

I think he would like to go home if conditions warranted.

Mr. Rhea followed this by saying that he did not discuss “politics” with the President.

Under further questioning as to exactly what the President said, Mr. Rhea remained steadfast in saying that he had not discussed a fourth term with the President, but that if Mr. Roosevelt was a candidate, he would carry Kentucky. Mr. Rhea said he hoped the President would run.

[NormanStewart]

Willkie leads New Hampshire primary slate

Dewey is second in first vote test

Concord, New Hampshire (UP) –
Complete returns from New Hampshire’s “first-in-the-nation” presidential primary showed today that six of the state’s 11 delegates to the Republican National Convention will be supporters of Wendell L. Willkie.

Two will be pledged to Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, while the remaining three will be strictly unpledged.

In the 19-man contest for seven delegate-at-large seats, unpledged pro-Willkie candidates, two, and a Dewey-pledged candidate, one.

In contests for the two district delegate seats in each of the state’s two Congressional districts, unpledged pro-Willkie candidates won two while a Dewey-pledged aspirant and an unpledged candidate won the others.

The Democrats elected a complete slate pledged to President Roosevelt for a fourth term.

[NormanStewart]

GOP leaders stay in Senate

Washington (UP) –
Senate Republicans today voted unanimously to retain their present temporary organization until after the November election in which they hope to gain a majority in the Senate.

They retained Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI) as acting chairman, Senator Wallace H. White (R-ME) as acting floor leader, Senator Kenneth S. Wherry (R-NE) as whip, and Senator Harold H. Burton (R-OH) as secretary.

They also confirmed the nine-man steering committee appointed by Senator Vandenberg. The committee members are Mr. Vandenberg, Mr. White, Mr. Wherry and Senators Robert A. Taft (R-OH), John A. Danaher (R-CT), Styles Bridges (R-NH), C. Wayland Brooks (R-IL), Harlan J. Bushfield (R-SD) and Eugene D. Millikin (R-CO).

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: The bobtailed ballot

The Republican National Committee is making capital of the soldier vote issue by distributing widely its version of the “bobtailed ballot” called for in the compromise Congressional bill, now in its final stage.

The ballot covers only the presidential, senatorial and Congressional races. This, the Republicans say, means that the Armed Forces “would be partially disfranchised in that they could not participate in state, county and local elections.”

There has been a suspicion that some Republicans are bleeding less over the possible disfranchisement of the soldier than over the danger that he will instructively write in the name of his Commander-in-Chief rather than that of Mr. Dewey, Mr. Willkie or whoever the Republican nominee may be. Be that as it may, recipients of the GOP’s “sample ballot” should bear in mind that–

Under the Congressional bill – to which the Senate gave its final assent yesterday – the “bobtailed ballot” can be used only by overseas servicemen whose states have certified acceptance of the federal ballot, and who have applied for but not received state ballots.

The onus for any disfranchisement of the troops is thrown back on the states, whether or not President Roosevelt vetoes this bill.

It is to the governors and the legislatures that the serviceman must look for an opportunity to cast either a full state ballot or the short federal ballot.

[NormanStewart]

Stokes: Willkie’s circus

By Thomas L. Stokes

Washington –
Beginning next week, the Wisconsin woods will echo with something more than the call of a moose to his mate.

It’ll be like a circus in the small towns. In the big cities, there’ll be fun in the streets.

Wendell L. Willkie, the man who would be President, is taking his one-man show for a barnstorming tour to rouse the folks to vote for a slate of delegates who will support him for the Republican presidential nomination in the national convention.

It will be the opening act to revive his languishing campaign. Mr. Willkie is giving himself plenty of time. The primary is April 4.

He goes to Wisconsin somewhat in the role of a mighty nimrod gunning for three fellows who aren’t there, not even concealed behind the trees.

Three other well-known figures have been entered by their sponsors in the Wisconsin primary. Gen. MacArthur is busy with other matters in the Pacific, but still there is no sign from him that he is not a receptive candidate. LtCdr. Stassen, former three-time governor of neighboring Minnesota, is also in the Pacific on Adm. Halsey’s staff. Governor Dewey is chewing his silence at Albany.

Ball for Stassen

Senator Ball (R-MN) is in the state now talking up his friend Harold Stassen.

Governor Dewey tried to get the delegate candidates pledged to him to withdraw, explaining that he isn’t a candidate. They refused. So, he is a factor in the four-cornered contest whether he likes it or not. In 1940, he won the Wisconsin primary against Senator Vandenberg (R-MI), as he did likewise in Nebraska.

Wisconsin’s primary is a vital affair for Mr. Willkie. If he loses there, he can pack up his bag of hopes and go back to practicing law or literature. Weak in the support of politicians, he is now basing his claims for preference on backing among rank-and-file voters. Wisconsin will test that.

Should he win there, his campaign should benefit. If he also wins in Nebraska, which holds its primary a week later, he again would be counted a factor. He will take his road show to Nebraska. There his slate is matched against two others, one for LtCdr. Stassen, the other pledged to Governor Griswold.

An uphill battle

Mr. Willkie admittedly faces an uphill battle. In recent months, he’s become like the rich boy who had everything, and is suddenly thrown out on his own.

This time four years ago, he was rapidly becoming the darling of various interests who thought they had found in him the reality of their dreams – the man who could beat Franklin D. Roosevelt. The sun was high, the skies were bright, and everything was coming his way.

On the day of his defeat, he started running again for 1944.

But, in the campaign and later, something happened. He was partly to blame. He didn’t pay enough heed to the politicians. He disregarded them, snubbed them in some cases.

But he never stopped running. He ran clear around the world, to lift his star again high in national and international notice. Many Republicans didn’t like this, said he was playing too cozy with FDR. He began to try to cultivate the politicians, though never wholeheartedly it seemed, for he broke out, at odd moments, to insult them.

Can he come back? Wisconsin may tell.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (March 16, 1944)

Result of election upset by ruling

Trenton, New Jersey (UP) –
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled today that men and women in the Armed Forces whose names appear on a list certified by the state adjutant general as eligible to receive ballots are entitled to vote even though they are not registered.

The ruling was made in reversing a decision of the Middlesex Circuit Court which had rejected 241 ballots of servicemen in a recount of last May’s City Commission election at New Brunswick.

As a result of the rejection, Frederick P. Richardson, who received 4,384 votes, was elected to the Commission, despite the fact that 4,393 votes were cast for Thomas C. Radics, another candidate. By today’s Supreme Court action, Mr. Radics is the winner.

[NormanStewart]

Roosevelt ‘studies’ veto of soldier vote bill

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt delayed his decision on whether to sign or veto the compromise soldier vote bill today pending results of his canvass of state governors on effectiveness of its federal ballot provisions.

Acting shortly after the House completed action on the measure by approving it 273–111, Mr. Roosevelt wired the 48 state governors yesterday for their opinion as to whether their state laws would permit use of the federal ballots and, if not, whether steps would be taken to make their use possible.

Rep. Charles A. Halleck (R-IN), chairman of the Republican Congressional Elections Committee, said he believed the survey unnecessary because the positions of the states were already known.

Move assailed

He recalled a similar survey of gubernatorial opinion by Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-VA) and said it shows that governors were:

…willing and ready to provide soldiers with a full local absentee ballot, if the government provided transportation, thereby making the bobtail federal ballot unnecessary.

House Republican Leader Joseph W. Martin Jr. said he was unable to explain the motives behind the President’s move.

What bill provides

As finally approved by Congress, the bill provides that the government shall transport state ballots to the men and women of the Armed Forces, the Merchant Marine, the Society of Friends and the American Red Cross. The federal ballot can be use only if the soldier certifies that he had applied for a state ballot by Sept. 1 and had not received it by Oct. 1; and his state has certified that it will accept and count a federal ballot.

Servicemen stationed in the United States are barred from using the federal ballot.

The President telegraphed the governors “to enable me to form an opinion as to the effectiveness” of the bill. There answers will help him reach his decision on whether to sign or veto the bill**

Vote analyzed

On the basis of the House vote, a presidential veto could be overridden by the necessary two-thirds majority, but the Senate vote, if maintained, would not be enough to override.

The House roll call showed 175 Republicans, 97 Democrats and one Farmer-Laborer voting for the bill. opposed were 96 Democrats, 12 Republicans, two Progressives and one American-Laborer.

The Senate vote on the bill was 47–31.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: The President takes a poll

Mr. Roosevelt’s telegram to the 48 governors, asking whether they think the soldier vote bill just passed by Congress will be implemented by the laws of their states, is a new wrinkle for a President pondering a veto. It seems to make common sense.

If most of the governors reply that their states probably will not act before the July 15 deadline to authorize use of the federal short ballot – in cases where state ballots are unavailable to soldiers and sailors overseas – then the President will have a strong case for a veto.

If on the contrary the replies are weighted on the side of state cooperation, he can safely sign the bill as preferable to the existing but very controversial statute of 1942, in which Congress sought to eliminate poll tax and registration requirements for men, in uniform and to make ballots available to them on request.

In any event, the President draws dramatic attention to the fact that the responsibility for facilitating or blocking the soldier’s right to vote now is back on the doorsteps of the state legislatures.

[NormanStewart]

Background of news –
Republicans recall 1920

By Bertram Benedict

Some Republicans declare that recent election results in Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania and Colorado indicate a Republican landslide in 1944 like that of 1920.

In 1920, the Republican Party gained its greatest national victory since Reconstruction days. It had 76% of the electoral vote, carrying every state outside of the South and also Oklahoma and Tennessee, and gained almost 70% of the seats in the House of Representatives. To a considerable extent, these results were presaged by the elections in the winter of 1919-20.

Kentucky, which elected a Republican governor in November 1943 and replaced a Democrat by a Republican in the House, elected a Republican for governor in November 1919 by 32,000 votes, the largest majority ever given a Republican gubernatorial candidate in the Blue Grass state. Kentucky also gave the Republicans a majority in the lower branch of the Legislature, while the Democratic majority in the State Senate was reduced to 2.

Big Coolidge victory

The most startling Republican victory in November 1919 was registered in Massachusetts. There Governor Coolidge was reelected by a majority of 124,000 over the Democratic opponent he had defeated in the previous election by only 17,000.

Mr. Coolidge had won national acclaim for what was considered his strong stand in the Boston police strike, and President Wilson sent him a telegram of congratulations on his victory, as one for law and order. Newspaper accounts said that many recently demobilized soldiers and sailors had voted for Mr. Coolidge in resentment at the police strike and other strikes.

In New York, the Republicans increased their strength markedly in the Legislature. Republican F. H. La Guardia was elected president of the Board of Alderman over the Democratic incumbent in New York City. The Democratic organization lost 10 seats in the Board of Alderman, and was defeated badly in two judicial contests.

On Nov. 8, 1919, in a special election to the House of Representatives from Oklahoma, in a district normally Democratic by about 5,000, the Republican candidate won the seat by a majority of 708.

On the other hand, in New Jersey the Democrats took the governorship from the Republicans, with the Republicans retaining control in the Legislature. The Democratic candidate, Edward I. Edwards, had promised if elected to press for state legislation annulling national prohibition and his election was considered a wet rather than a Democratic victory.

Wilson not a candidate

In Maryland, the Democrats, with Albert C. Ritchie, another wet, retained the governorship by a sharply-reduced majority, but made gains in the Legislature.

Early in 1920, the Democrats retained a House seat from a district in Missouri nominally Democratic. Several special elections for the House from New York City districts were meaningless as a gauge, because the Republicans and Democrats had combined against the Socialists.

It must be pointed out that in 1920, President Wilson was not running for reelection. The Democratic candidate, James M. Cox, had hardly the political appeal which had been Wilson’s. Mr. Wilson had been physically incapacitated for more than a year and the Democratic organization had drifted. The war was over and the peace treaty, rejected by the Unite States, had gone into effect in Europe. And the post-war depression had begun.

It must be pointed out also that in the midterm elections of 1922, with the country still in depression, the Democrats won 75 House seats from the Republicans, whose majority was reduced from 168 to 18.

[NormanStewart]

Cox demands two-thirds rule restored

Convention power of South is issue
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Washington (UP) –
Rep. Eugene E. Cox (D-GA) today demanded changes in Democratic National Convention procedure which would provoke the bitterest kind of intraparty dispute.

In an address prepared for delivery at Moultrie, Georgia, but released here, Mr. Cox summoned the South to unite to compel the party convention to return to the two-thirds majority system of nominating presidential candidates.

The two-thirds rule was abolished in the harmony convention of 1936 when triumphant Democrats nominated President Roosevelt for a second term. That rule, requiring that a nominee must receive a minimum vote of two-thirds of convention delegates, almost prevented Mr. Roosevelt’s first nomination in 1932.

Clark-Wilson case

It did actually prevent the nomination of Champ Clark of Missouri in the Democratic National Convention of 1912. Woodrow Wilson was chosen there after Mr. Clark piled up a majority vote but was unable to achieve a two-to-one margin.

Under the two-thirds rule, Southern delegates had in effect a veto power against any candidate.

Mr. Cox said:

When the two-thirds rule was abrogated, the South completely lost its power independently to influence party affairs. It is true that the South may still vote in national elections, but for candidates chosen by others.

Favors unequal

So long as the South submits to this, a single Northern state in the politically doubtful column and with only a handful of people will continue to receive governmental favors far exceeding those bestowed upon the entire South.

Now is the time for the South to make itself heard. Let the demand be made upon candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency before the convention is held that they make disclosure of their attitude toward the proposal to reenact this two-thirds rule.

Mr. Cox is a notable anti-New Dealer and a consistent critic of Mr. Roosevelt.

[NormanStewart]

Willkie wins 6 of 11 delegates in primary

Concord, New Hampshire (UP) –
Complete returns from New Hampshire’s presidential primary, the first such contest in the nation in 1944, today gave Wendell L. Willkie six of the state’s 11 delegates to the Republican National Convention.

Two will be pledged to Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, while the remaining three will be unpledged.

The Democrats elected a complete slate pledged to a fourth term for President Roosevelt.

[NormanStewart]

Stokes: GOP drifters

By Thomas L. Stokes

Washington –
Two political developments in the day’s news point up the alternatives which confront the Republican Party in its attempt to return to power.

The choice lies between a passive, wait-and-see attitude which counts on drifting into power on what looks like a Republican tide, and moving out aggressively with a definite, forward-looking program.

Senate Republicans took the easy way when they decided to continue with a temporary organization instead of electing a permanent leader now to succeed the late Senator McNary, one who could take command boldly in shaping a party program to arouse the voters.

Wendell L. Willkie is taking the hard road, out beating the bushes, speaking day and night in the personal interest of his candidacy for the Republican nomination and in the broader interest of a progressive domestic and international program for the party.

Primary dividends

He got some dividends in the New Hampshire primary in winning six delegates who, though not actually pledged, will support him at the Chicago convention. Three are unpledged and two are for Governor Dewey. Next week Mr. Willkie takes to the hustings in Wisconsin and later in Nebraska, with primaries April 4 and 11.

Whether the bolder method, exemplified in Mr. Willkie’s one-man campaign, is the better party policy strategically remains to be seen.

But some of the newer and younger Republicans think a definite and aggressive policy by the party in the Senate is wiser. They wanted to set up a permanent organization now. But they acquiesced in the temporary organization.

Senator White (R-MO) will continue as acting leader; Senator Vandenberg (R-MI) will remain as acting chairman of the party conference, and Senator Taft (R-OH) will be chairman of a steering committee of nine appointed by Senator Vandenberg. This committee includes the three named, and party whip Senator Wherry (R-NE), Senators Danaher (R-CT), Bridges (R-NH), Brookes (R-IL), Bushfield (R-SD) and Millikin (R-CO).

Senator Vandenberg explained that this temporary organization is based on expectation of Republicans winning the Senate as well as the White House next November, in which case:

We wish to be entirely free to fit the permanent organization to the necessities of those events.

Guilty of own charges

Such a position has been criticized as based on the implication that Senate Republicans would lean on their President to name a Senate leader, which is just what they have so often jibed at in President Roosevelt’s intervention to elect Senator Barkley (D-KY) as Democratic Leader, all a part of the picture they built up of a “rubber-stamp Congress.”

What is most regretted by some younger and more progressive Republicans is that the Senate policy of delay and evasion seems to fit a pattern favored by the GOP old guard of avoiding party conflict and side-stepping troublesome issues.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (March 17, 1944)

States at odds on soldier ballot

Roosevelt’s survey seems inconclusive

Washington (UP) –
Telegrams carrying widely divergent answers piled up in the White House today in President Roosevelt’s survey to determine whether the various states will accept the federal ballot provided in the new Soldier Vote Bill.

More than half of the 48 state governors have responded to the President’s request for the information, with unofficial returns showing only five unequivocal decisions – four accepting the ballots or promising acceptance, and one rejecting him.

In between the direct “Yes” and “No” columns, nine governors indicated their states probably would take action to validate the ballots, seven that it was unlikely they would accept, and most of the others apparently unable to give clearcut information, saying merely that they would do “everything to enable the soldiers to vote.”

While more than half of the governors have replied so far, their answers have not given the ringing chorus of affirmatives which the President may have wanted before signing the bill.

Here is the tabulation of unofficial replies given so far:

• Maryland, North Carolina and California governors said their laws already authorized use of a federal ballot. Utah’s governor said he would call a special session of the legislature to authorize it.

• New Jersey, Connecticut, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maine, Nebraska, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and New Mexico gave replies indicating they would seek federal ballot authorizations.

• Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisiana and Illinois governors had not yet made up their minds.

• The only positive “no” came from Idaho’s Governor C. A. Bottolfsen, who said state laws did not authorize a federal ballot and no steps would be taken to legalize it.

• However, replies largely negative came from governors of Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, Montana, Iowa and Colorado; and Governor Thomas E. Dewey previously indicated New York would not accept the federal form.

• Kentucky’s Governor Simeon Willis said merely that he would do “everything possible” to assist soldier voting.

[NormanStewart]

Voting record shows GOP as best legislative team

By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Washington –
Voting records of the first session of the 78th Congress compiled today show that House Republicans worked together last year in considerably more harmony than did their Democratic colleagues.

Editorial Research Reports compiled the record of political alignments on outstanding House roll calls in four categories: Taxation and appropriations; price, farm and labor legislation; war and post-war policies; miscellaneous roll calls. The first two categories contain the most numerous votes and fairly completely cover the field of domestic policies dealt with by Congress last year. Eight roll calls are recorded in each of those two categories.

Republicans are FOR

On the eight major price, farm and labor issues voted upon in the House, Democrats cast an aggregate of 1,481 votes, Republicans cast 1,421 votes. The significant factor is that the Democratic votes tabulated on those eight issues show 743 FOR and 738 AGAINST whereas the Republicans divided 1,158 FOR and 263 AGAINST. The average division further emphasizes policy disputes among Democrats and comparative cohesion among House Republicans. The Democrats average 93 votes FOR to 92 AGAINST, Republicans averaged 145 votes FOR to 33 AGAINST.

Here are the issues upon which the votes were cast:

No rollbacks on foods below parity; override anti-subsidy veto; new anti-subsidy bill; motion to consider anti-strike bill; anti-strike bill (passage); anti-strike bill (conference report); override anti-strike veto; Hobbs anti-racketeering bill.

The taxation record

On eight taxation and appropriations issues, the Democrats nearly voted together but Republicans were even more cohesive. On those eight issues, Republicans and Democrats cast the same aggregate of votes, 1,509, divided as follows: Democrats FOR 411, AGAINST 1,098; Republicans FOR 1,415, AGAINST 94. The average of votes was: Democrats FOR 51, AGAINST 137; Republicans FOR 177, AGAINST 12.

The tax and appropriations issues involved were: Compromise pay-as-you-go tax bill; first, second and third votes on the Ruml Plan; Robertson-Forand compromise tax bill; debt limit increase coupled with salary limit repeal; reduction of Office of Price Administration appropriation by $35 million; withhold funds from Office of War Information Domestic Branch.

The division of Republican votes in those two categories fluctuated from 105 FOR and 71 AGAINST the motion to take up the anti-strike bill, to 163 FOR and 3 AGAINST the bill to forbid rollbacks on foods below parity prices.

The division of Democratic votes fluctuated from seven FOR and 190 AGAINST the Ruml Plan on the third vote to 89 FOR and 99 AGAINST the compromise pay-as-you-go tax bill.

Research Reports says that Republicans maintained better attendance records than Democrats during the early months of last session and were able sometimes to achieve results which could not have been attained had Democrats been voting in full strength.

The figures do not suggest that the Democrats have been politically impotent. For instance, Democratic votes defeated the Ruml Plan and sustained President Roosevelt’s anti-subsidy veto.

But the compilation does spotlight policy disputes within the Democratic Party. It is partly upon the basis of these disagreements that Republicans confidently argue that the New Deal-Democratic coalition which was so effective from 1932 at least through 1940 has disintegrated considerably.