Election 1944: Pre-convention news

[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.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (March 18, 1944)

GOP in state taken to task

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (UP) –
The failure of the Pennsylvania Republican nomination to name its ablest men for governor and for the U.S. Senate was cited by Chief Justice George W. Maxey of the State Supreme Court as one reason why the party has never nominated a Pennsylvanian for President.

Judge Maxey, speaking at the annual banquet of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick last night, said the GOP party leadership in Pennsylvania “too often refused to place in the conspicuous positions of governor or U.S. Senator Pennsylvania’s ablest public men.”

On the national political front, he charged the “rights of several states are rapidly being destroyed by the federal government.”

U.S. Senator James J. Davis told the banquet America must not repeat mistakes of the past when the present war is over. Senator Davis added he will “never vote to give any nation the power to dominate the destiny and fate of the United States.”

Judge Clare G. Fenerty succeeded Barry Hayes Hepburn as president of the organization.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (March 19, 1944)

President’s survey shows –
Half of states plan to use federal ballot for soldiers

Washington (UP) – (March 18)
An unofficial survey of replies by state governors to President Roosevelt’s question on the Soldier Vote Bill showed today that probably at least half of the 48 states will not use a federal ballot for servicemen if the Soldier Vote Bill passed by Congress becomes law.

The replies from 16 state governors left no doubt that they would not use the federal ballot. Six others indicated they would not. Several of these indicated that present laws are adequate if the Army delivers the ballots.

Five say ‘yes’

Only five states replied with a categorical “yes” to the question of whether present laws permit use of the federal ballot. But 14 others replied that they would try to get their state legislatures to make use of the federal ballot valid.

Seven states have given no indication of their answer.

President Roosevelt will announce his summary of the replies late tomorrow afternoon. He may indicate then whether he will veto or sign the compromise bill passed by Congress. He has said that his decision will be based on whether that bill will give more servicemen a chance to vote than did the 1942 Soldier Voting Act.

States are summarized

The replies showed that most of the existing state laws do not permit use of the federal ballot as proposed by Congress, and many of them plainly stated that they would do nothing to change the law.

Here is a summary of the position of the states, based on either the governor’s reply to the President or other statements:

• States that will not use the federal ballot – Idaho, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Iowa, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Washington, Minnesota, Montana, Virginia, Arizona, Texas.

• States whose present laws allow use of the federal ballot – California, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, Vermont.

• States whose governors have promised to take steps to validate use of the federal ballot (special sessions of legislature, etc.) – Oklahoma, New Mexico, Nebraska, Indiana, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, Utah, South Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania.

[NormanStewart]

Roosevelt, Willkie favored by women

New York (UP) – (March 17)
Women voters favor a Republican ticket headed by Wendell Willkie and a Democratic ballot with President Roosevelt again a candidate, a survey conducted by the Women’s Home Companion showed today.

Answering the magazine’s question of “Who would be the best candidate in 1944?”, 28.2% of the women voted in favor of Mr. Willkie for the GOP ticket. However, the 1940 presidential candidate received only 0.2% more than New York Governor Thomas Dewey. Ohio Governor John W. Bricker was third.

Forty percent of the women polled favored Mr. Roosevelt’s renomination. The second choice was Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-VA).

[NormanStewart]

Willkie offers 6-point plan for farmers

Opens his campaign for primary aid

Richland Center, Wisconsin (UP) – (March 18)
Wendell Willkie, opening a three-week campaign for Republican votes in Wisconsin and Nebraska, said tonight he was sure a majority of farmers were convinced “that a change of national administration is… overdue.”

Addressing several delegations of farmers prior to Wisconsin’s April 4 primary in which he hopes to demonstrate his strength as a candidate for the Republican 1944 presidential nomination, Mr. Willkie decried administration farm policies and outlined six “specific policies for desperately-needed farm production.”

For “the quickest winning of the war and for the soundest building of the future,” Mr. Willkie made these suggestions for “this year.”

• A manpower policy which “simply must not be permitted to strip our farm below the irreducible minimum of strength and skill.”

• A speeding of war machinery production so machinery now wearing out can be replaced “before it is too late.”

• “A workable policy for the fair distribution of food…”

• “Food policies that take account not only of production but also of marketing…”

• “Policies based on real horse sense in pricing for production.”

• “Complete elimination of partisan political scheming from the farm-producing agencies of government.”

In his “beyond victory” program for the “building of economic foundations of prosperity and peace,” Mr. Willkie said:

Thirty markets are a No. 1 need for the wellbeing of the farmer.

He added:

The second need of agriculture is for decent prices.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: Do-nothing party?

Failure of the Senate Republicans to select a permanent leader is not so important in itself as it is in indicating a state of mind.

Aside from espousing an occasional easy-to-climb-aboard issue which seems popular at the moment, the Republican membership of both houses of Congress has shown a remarkable ability to evade decisions and positive action. Faced with political opportunity inasmuch as natural reaction against a too-old administration is running in its favor, and Democratic-controlled domestic policies are inept and fumbling, the GOP nevertheless seems determined to play it the cautious way, the indecisive way.

As Thomas L. Stokes pointed out the other day, the only conspicuous example of forthright expression and plain speaking in Republican ranks is furnished by Wendell Willkie, who is campaigning frankly for the Presidency. Do the other spokesman for his party imagine, in the light of recent byelection results, that this is just naturally a Republican year, and all they have to do is sit tight and win?

If so, they’re in for a rude awakening. The country may be willing and ready to change from what it has to something better. But there’s no reason for thinking it’s in the mood to change to a do-nothing party to run the war and win the peace. That’s the only alternative, so far.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (March 20, 1944)

Willkie holds secret parley with leaders

Senators told of ‘stump’ plans
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Washington –
Wendell L. Willkie was revealed today to have had last-minute conferences here with Republican Senators before beginning his three-week campaign for the Wisconsin and Nebraska presidential primaries.

In contrast to other visits to Washington, Mr. Willkie was unseen and unheard except by those with whom he had political conferences. He opened his Wisconsin campaign over the weekend with a farm policy speech in Richland Center.

His opposition

Full slates of Willkie delegates are entered in the April 4 Wisconsin primary and the April 11 Nebraska primary. Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York is represented by a partial slate in Wisconsin despite his request that his name not be used. Former Governor Harold E. Stassen of Minnesota, now a naval officer, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur will also be represented in Wisconsin.

Top heavy Willkie success in those states would serve somewhat to ease the shock of North Carolina’s bolt for Governor Dewey. North Carolina Republicans named their convention delegates last week ands thereupon adopted a resolution endorsing Governor Dewey for President.

Mr. Willkie has consistently recognized but minimized the fact that Congressional Republicans are cold to his candidacy. The fact that he came here last week to talk quietly with several of them suggests to some observers that Mr. Willkie hopes to improve his relations with Republicans in Congress.

Hosts for parley

Senator Sinclair Weeks (R-MA), a recently-arrived industrialist, who succeeded the resigned Henry Cabot Lodge, has long been a Willkie adherent. Both he and John W. Hanes, former member of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Under Secretary of the Treasury in the Roosevelt administration, are named as luncheon hosts at the principal meeting between Mr. Willkie and Republican Senators.

Last week’s appearance here was in marked contrast to that of Oct. 19, when Mr. Willkie spoke off the record before House Republicans as the guest of first-term GOP members. Mr. Willkie pleased a few of his hearers, surprised many of them and annoyed some by announcing without qualification that he could have the Republican presidential nomination if he wanted it.

[NormanStewart]

Background of news –
Presidential elections

By Bertram Benedict

Although the soldier vote bill leaves to the states the decision on whether to use the federal ballot, and although the bill repeals most of the Soldier Voting Act of 1942, the bill leaves untouched the most contentious section of the 1942 act. This section orders the states to waive their registration requirements in federal elections for members of the Armed Forces qualified to vote. It also bans the poll tax as a requirement for voting by any member of the Armed Forces in a federal election.

Several states have already reported that they are constitutionally unable to comply with these requirements, and other states undoubtedly will disregard them. there seems to be nothing the federal government can do to enforce compliance. The Constitution allows the federal government only to make regulations on the “times” and “manner” of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, and on the “places” of holding elections for Representatives.

There has been some speculation on whether a move might be made to declare the presidential election of 1944 invalid if the states disregard federal regulations on the subject, but the speculation seems unwarranted.

Considered state officials

The Constitution prescribes how the presidential electors shall cast their votes within the states. The electors are considered state, not federal, officials (if they are remunerated fir expenses, the remuneration comes from the states). The Constitution does prescribe that the votes of the presidential electors shall be counted in the presence of both houses of Congress, but it does not say how they shall be counted.

Congress undoubtedly has the authority to reject any electoral vote submitted, but only if the electoral vote thus submitted was submitted improperly, or contravened an express provision of the Constitution.

In 1868, for instance, the vote of Georgia was rejected largely because the state was held not yet eligible to participate in the election. In 1872, the electoral votes of Arkansas and Louisiana were rejected as not representing the true results in those states. Congress also refused to accept three votes from Georgia for the Democratic candidate, Horace Greely, because he had died after the election was held. And in 1876, Congress passed upon several cases of electors who were alleged to be constitutionally disqualified because they were federal officeholders.

In 1887, Congress passed the Electoral Count Act which practically allows each state to decide any dispute arising out of a presidential election within its borders, and forbids Congress to interfere with that decision. In any event, the concurrence of both houses of Congress is necessary to reject the electoral vote submitted by any state.

Federal inspectors used

In one of the “Force” acts, that of Feb. 28, 1871, Congress authorized the use of federal inspectors in elections for the House of Representatives, on application to a federal court. In the election of 1876, some 7,000 U.S. deputy marshals supervised elections in the Southern states. there was grave doubt as to whether the 1871 act was constitutional, and it was repealed in 1894.

What caused the dispute in the election of 1876 between Hayes and Tilden, and its final adjudication by an electoral commission set up by Congress, was the fact that in several Southern states the government of the state was in dispute between rival factions, each of which sent in an electoral vote. Congress had to decide which return from those states to accept.

Although the commission probably decided several of these contests improperly, several of the Southern states probably had violated the law in denying votes to Negroes, and it was commonly said at the time that the Democrats stole the election at the polls and the Republicans stole it back again in Congress.