Election 1944: Pre-convention news

[NormanStewart]

‘Get into open,’ Dewey dared by Hannegan

Governor is called ‘blushing violet’

Boston, Massachusetts (UP) – (March 25)
Democratic National Committee Chairman Robert E. Hannegan tonight described New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, leading potential candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, as a “blushing violet” and challenged him to “come out into the sunshine.”

Speaking at a Jackson Day dinner, Mr. Hannegan also challenged minority party spokesmen to discuss openly and frankly government scandals and other incidents that transpired under Republican rule following the end of the Civil War and World War I.

Without identifying Mr. Dewey by name, Mr. Hannegan said his challenge was inspired by predictions of newspaper correspondents that the Republicans would nominate for the Presidency a man who is not even a candidate in the party primaries.

‘Smirking and lurking’

Mr. Hannegan said:

They report that he is smirking and lurking and dodging behind the pretense that he is not a candidate for the Presidency, and hence has no obligation to discuss the fundamental problems which lie before the American people.

If Republican leaders plan to put over such a candidate, then we propose to turn on the searchlight of truth so that all may know their plans.

He described as “arrogance” and as a “libel on our citizenry” a statement which he said Republican National Committee Chairman Harrison E. Spangler made to the effect that the GOP “can win the Presidency with anybody.”

‘Offer nothing’

Mr. Hannegan said:

This means that the Republican Party, in the opinion of its leaders, needs to offer the American people nothing at all – which, in the way of constructive principles, is exactly what the Republican Party has.

It means that the Republican Party is expecting America to accept its own social and economic bankruptcy – take it and like it. It means that our people do not desire nor deserve leadership based on principles of freedom and equality, in the opinion of leaders of the Republican Party.

Mr. Spangler has repeatedly said that he was misquoted in the “win-the-anybody” statement made at a press conference in Chicago during the meeting of the GOP National Committee recently. He contends he said the party could win with anyone the convention nominated, explaining that it “would not nominate a weak candidate.”

Irish issue mentioned

Mr. Hannegan touched lightly on the recent refusal of the Irish Free State to accede to President Roosevelt’s request that Axis missions in Éire be closed for the duration on the ground that they are the sources of espionage activities which threaten the safety of Allied forces poised in England for the invasion of the continent.

Noting that many of his listeners were Irish, Mr. Hannegan said:

The land of our forefathers is in the news these days – not as we Americans would have it, not in the time-honored tradition, not in the great part that Ireland has ever played through the ages in man’s fight for freedom.

Three problems listed

Today, he said, “there is frustration; there is bewilderment. Irish eyes are not smiling.”

Three major problems, he said, will face the post-war world:

• Formation of a just and equitable plan for taking care of the nation’s 11 million returning soldiers and sailors.

• Reconversion to peacetime needs of America’s vast and sprawling war machine.

• Adoption of a peace plan providing cooperation with other nations to banish war from the face of the globe.

[NormanStewart]

Gen. Hurley is mentioned as keynoter for GOP

Washington – (March 25)
Maj. Gen. Patrick J. Hurley, Secretary of War in the Hoover Cabinet and now roving ambassador for President Roosevelt, is being discussed here as a possible keynoter for the Republican National Convention at Chicago in June.

Gen. Hurley’s name, put forward by Rep. Leo E. Allen (R-IL), elicited a favorable response in many Congressional quarters, where it was agreed that he not only would be an excellent choice as the keynote speaker, but that he might develop formidable strength as a vice-presidential possibility.

His colorful career, his military record and his forthright manner of speaking qualify him, in the opinion of his backers, for a place in the front rank of contenders for these posts, while his strongly nationalistic views, coupled with his “energetic support” of Mr. Roosevelt’s foreign policy, would make him an asset to the entire Republican campaign.

The choice of a keynoter will be made by the Committee on Arrangements which will meet April 18 and 19 in Chicago. Others mentioned as possible keynoters are: Rep. Clare Boothe Luce (R-CT), Senator Edward H. Moore (R-OK), Senator Chapman Revercomb (R-WV), Pennsylvania Governor Edward Martin and Illinois Governor Dwight H. Green.

Started as miner

Born in the Choctaw Nation before it became Oklahoma, Gen. Hurley made his way from a humble beginning as a coalminer and a cowboy to positions of prominence in the legal profession and in government. his military record is unusual, in that he has held every rank in the Army from private to a major general.

During World War I, he participated in the Aisne-Marne, Meuse-Argonne and Saint-Mihiel offensives. President Hoover appointed him Assistant Secretary of War when he formed his Cabinet in March 1929, and, late in the same year, promoted him to the secretaryship.

On domestic issues, Gen. Hurley opposes governmental ownership in general, and is an ardent believer in private enterprise; yet, abhorring communism and those who advocate its adoption in this country, he is a strong believer in Russia as a world power.

At Tehran Conference

He has long been a member of the English-Speaking Union and believes that the future peace of the world rests upon the maintenance of Great Britain in her present position of eminence.

As one of the President’s aides at the Tehran Conference, he drafted the Iran declaration guaranteeing the independence of Iran and reaffirming the principles of the Atlantic Charter. For several months, moreover, he has been ironing out differences and difficulties between the British and the United States in Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Near Eastern countries.

He thus is being suggested by his friends as the logical answer to the problem which the Republicans face this year in charting a course between the isolationist elements of the party and the interventionist supporters of Wendell L. Willkie.

[NormanStewart]

The New York Times (March 26, 1944)

Support of fourth term is growing despite anti-New Deal feeling

By James E. Crown

New Orleans, Louisiana – (March 25)
Theodore “The Man” Bilbo (D-MS) pointed probably to the most authoritative political trend of the Deep South when, in addressing the joint session of the Mississippi Legislature, he urged the renomination of President Roosevelt for a fourth term.

For some months now, especially in Louisiana and Mississippi, there has been considerable agitation against renaming the President and against the New Deal. The Deep South is still against the New Deal, but opposition to the nomination of Mr. Roosevelt is waning. The tendency in the South now is to select, if possible, a conservative candidate to run as Vice President. In some quarters it is hoped that this man will come from the South. The names of Senator George (D-GA), Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, and in some quarters, Governor of Louisiana Sam Jones, are being mentioned.

Not only the Deep South, but the entire Mississippi Valley is now trying to form a movement to have transportation facilities of the Mississippi River improved. Advocates of greater use of water transportation are organizing all up and down the great artery.

Last year, according to figures made public this week, more than 9,000,000 tons of freight were floated up and down ole man river.

The transportation problem is one that is being wisely studied in the South. It is believed that river transportation will do much toward development of the states bordering the Mississippi.

[NormanStewart]

Willkie’s campaign arouses the voters; draft causes concern

By Roland M. Jones

Omaha, Nebraska – (March 25)
Interest in the Midwest is focused quite sharply on national politics, particularly on the Republican situation. This stems from the imminence of the Wisconsin and Nebraska primaries, the presence of Wendell Willkie, making his campaign tout, and the approach of conventions in Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas. The issue, as voters see it, tends to crystallize into a question of Willkie or anti-Willkie.

Opinion is common that those Midwestern states which turned thumbs down on the third term four years ago will protest even more emphatically against a fourth term this year, with the expectation that they will be joined by many others. But Republican feeling is not so much that the party can win with any candidate as that it matters more than ever who the candidate is.

Increasing concern is felt over the prospect of further service drafts on the labor supply, emphasized by repeated warnings of State Selective Service directors to local draft boards. It is presumed that agriculture will be less affected than small industrial plants having war contracts, but there is an indication that it will feel some of the pinch by the time the harvest season arrives. Operating farmers are well enough protected, but it seems inevitable that hired labor will be harder than ever to get.

Notwithstanding the attention which has been given the soldier vote issue, there is little to indicate any deep popular feeling about the matter, one way or another. Some state absentee voter laws have already been liberalized and others will be, but there still remains considerable question about how many of the absent sons will ever receive their local ballots.

[NormanStewart]

Chicago Tribune stirs up the voters against Willkie

By Louther S. Horne

Chicago, Illinois – (March 25)
Citizens of the Central states became increasingly aware this week that Col. Robert R. McCormick and his Chicago Tribune, pre-war non-interventionists and harsh critics of the Roosevelt administration, are factors to be reckoned with both in the selection of a Republican presidential nominee here in June and in the fall campaign to determine the next White House occupant.

This belief has long been prevalent throughout Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, Tribune circulation territory. Here, large numbers of people either praise or denounce The Tribune’s editorial criticism of the war strategy, its tirades against the administration’s domestic and international policies, the Communists, “global planners” and bureaucrats.

Among this segment of public opinion, the Chicago publisher and his paper loomed larger than ever as political influences after Wendell Willkie, speaking in Wisconsin, “read” Col. McCormick out of the Republican Party, a step the colonel had taken against the party’s 1940 candidate some months ago.

Certain defeat and the re-election of President Roosevelt, Mr. Willkie predicted, face the Republicans if the “taint” of The Tribune’s editorial “preachments” of “narrow nationalism and economic Toryism” is imposed upon the party’s nominee and platform. The people, he said, do not want the leadership “of the Col. McCormick.”

This challenge to the colonel and The Tribune from “the barefoot boy from Wall Street,” as the paper terms Mr. Willkie met a quick retort. Asserting that “Willkie is not so stupid as to think he has a chance of getting the Republican nomination,” The Tribune asked, “What game is Willkie up to?”

Col. McCormick, who refused to have his name placed in the Illinois preferential primary by the Republican Nationalist Revival Committee, an isolationist group, favors Gen. MacArthur as the Republican nominee. If Governor Dewey is picked, The Tribune undoubtedly will support him in the election.

But if Willkie is the choice, what will The Tribune do? That is a question often asked.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (March 27, 1944)

Hull: Governor Dewey wrong

Washington (UP) –
Secretary of State Cordell Hull said today that Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York was “100% wrong in the accuracy of his statement” that the State Department had requested the British censors to suppress political news sent to the United States.

Mr. Dewey said last week while awarding prizes at the annual exhibit of the press photographers association of New York:

When we find the State Department requesting the British censor to suppress political news sent to American papers by American correspondents abroad, it begins to amount to deliberate and dangerous suppression of news at home.

[NormanStewart]

Assembly to get soldier vote copy

Martin asks study before session

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (UP) –
Copies of proposed law changes to facilitate voting by Pennsylvania servicemen abroad will be sent to all members of the General Assembly for perusal before Governor Edward Martin convenes a special session of the Legislature.

An administration spokesman explained that while such a procedure might be condemned under normal circumstances:

We believe everyone will understand the Governor’s only motive is to guarantee our servicemen a reasonable chance to voter without incurring unnecessary expenses or causing too great a loss of manpower.

Disclosing that Attorney General James H. Duff is already preparing a draft of what Governor Martin hopes will be the “most liberal” soldier balloting law in the nation, the spokesman said the proposed statute would change the election calendar to give servicemen, Merchant Marines and members of other “war agencies” an extra 20 days, or 70 days in which to vote.

The measure would also eliminate party or non-partisan registration as a franchise prerequisite.

It was understood the Governor’s call, expected to be issued for May 1 convening of the Legislature, may include a measure to allow the State Defense Council to conduct a house-to-house canvass to obtain names and addresses of servicemen to facilitate mailing of absentee ballots.

The session will cost $360,000-$400,000 if completed in less than a month – but each member automatically will have $250 added to his base salary of $500 for an extraordinary session if the meeting goes as much as a day over a month. Governor Martin said all necessary action can be taken in two weeks and hinted he would object strenuously if the session is used as a springboard for the 1944 election campaign.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: Oklahoma’s byelection

Having lost an uncomfortable number of byelections in the last year, the Democrats have wheeled in their heavy artillery to win the contest in the 2nd Oklahoma Congressional district tomorrow. They have sent no less a personage than Senate Leader Alben W. Barkley to sing the administration’s song at Muskogee tonight.

On the record, the Democrats should win. If they can’t carry that gerrymandered district they might as well quit. In its 30 years of existence the district has gone Republican only one – in the Harding landslide of 1920.

In the last election, 1942, the Democratic nominee for Congress won by only 385 votes. But there were special circumstances which made the Republican vote so large. An unpopular Democratic Senator – Josh Lee – was being voted out of office; and a full Republican slate of candidates for Senator, Governor, other state offices and county and township offices, was on the ticket.

In tomorrow’s contest there are only the candidates for the Congress seat, and Democrat Bill Stigler is better and more favorably known than the Republican, E. O. Clark. There is no such thing in that district as a Republican organization, while the Democrats have state, county and township machines working together.

In good years, the Democrats carry this district by 2–1; in normal years, their majority is about 15,000. If the Democrat wins tomorrow, it will be only what is expected. If the Republican wins, it will be an upset that will reflect more than just a trend.

[NormanStewart]

Aides insist Dewey to stay on sidelines

Willkie blasts foes who keep silent
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Washington –
Associates of Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York are convinced that prior to the nomination of this year’s presidential candidate he will make no further statement regarding the widespread discussion of the possibility of his own selection.

As some observers see it, demands or entreaties for an amplification of Mr. Dewey’s announcement that he would not seek the nomination come for the most past from three sources:

• Wendell L. Willkie, the most active Republican aspirant, has recently been assailing “candidates who refuse to discuss the issues.” Dispatches from Wisconsin, where Mr. Willkie is presently making a pre-primary campaign, suggest that he meant Mr. Dewey, although Mr. Willkie has also said the governor’s statements to date have definitely taken him out of the contest.

• Democrats seeking President Roosevelt’s fourth-term renomination are also raising the issue of Mr. Dewey’s silence. Chairman Robert E. Hannegan of the Democratic National Committee did not name Mr. Dewey before a weekend Boston audience, but evidently had him in mind in an attack on a man prominently mentioned for the GOP nomination who is smirking and lurking and dodging behind the pretense that he is not a candidate for the Presidency.”

• Some of those Republicans who would like to help nominate Mr. Dewey also wish the Governor would give a green light to a national pre-convention campaign. At least as many however are probably content with things as they are.

But the apparent certainty among the Governor’s associates that he has said all he intends to on the subject is generally accepted here as accurately foreshadowing Mr. Dewey’s intentions.

[NormanStewart]

Stokes: Dewey’s chance

By Thomas L. Stokes

Milwaukee, Wisconsin –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York is seemingly missing a big opportunity out this way.

He appears strong in this state and you get the impression that if he were an out-and-out candidate for the Republican presidential nomination he would be very hard to beat in the April 4 presidential primary here, even though he has three rivals – Wendell L. Willkie, LtCdr. Harold Stassen and Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Chunky, vigorous little Ben Gettelman said:

If he would only just say that he would accept the nomination there would be no question whatever of winning easily.

Mr. Gettelman (a state senator) shares with Fred Zimmerman (secretary of state, ex-governor, and outspoken isolationist) the direction of the Dewey campaign here.

He is still confident that the Dewey delegates here will win despite the New York Governor’s message to every delegate a few weeks ago, saying flatly he was not a candidate and demanding that all withdraw their names. Nine complied with his request. But 15 others, including Mr. Gettelman and Mr. Zimmerman, refused to withdraw. Four other delegates who are running uninstructed are for Governor Dewey, Mr. Gettelman said, making a total of 19 in the race.

Dewey’s stand causes resentment

Wendell Willkie has a full slate of 24; Gen. MacArthur, 22, and ex-Governor of Minnesota Cdr. Stassen, 19.

Eight of the 15 pledged Dewey delegates were delegates on the Dewey slate four years ago when he made a clean sweep against Senator Vandenberg in the Wisconsin primary.

Governor Dewey still seems to benefit from the impression he made in his personal campaign four years ago, as well as from his increased political stature since as a result of his election as Governor of New York and his administration in that office.

His flat announcement that he is not a candidate and his demand that his delegates withdraw has caused resentment among some of his delegate candidates, who felt he was letting them down. It is reported also that it affected his rank-and-file support. They are uncertain about his status.

Mr. Willkie is capitalizing upon this confusion by insisting that candidates should discuss the issues here. The MacArthur spokesmen are pushing their campaign among isolationists by classing Governor Dewey as “an internationalist” because of his advocacy of a British-American alliance at Mackinac.

Dewey stronger than Willkie

But Mr. Gettelman is still optimistic and does not concede that Governor Dewey’s uncertain position has hurt him.

He said:

Governor Dewey is stronger today than when Willkie came into the state. I feel he is going to elect all his delegates.

Why is Governor Dewey stronger today?

He replied:

Because the people here believe he is the only one who can cut out those 421 bureaus down in Washington.

Mr. Gettelman’s second choice for the nomination is Governor Bricker of Ohio.

Mr. Gettelman conducts his part of the Dewey campaign here in a small, bare office he shares with his brother, which carries on the door “National Soap and Products Company.” He has a telephone on his desk and a picture of his boy who is serving with Gen. MacArthur. Over his head, on the wall, is a pay telephone stand and roosting on that, a picture of Tom Dewey.

“How’re you doing for dough?” he was asked.

He is the sort of realistic, amiable politician whom you can address that frankly. He grinned.

He answered:

I’m glad you asked me that. I don’t think money will win the campaign this time. I’d rather take out a few cards and make a few radio speeches. This is a shoestring campaign.

Is there any money being provided from New York?

“If there’s any money coming from New York they forgot Wisconsin,” he said, grinning.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (March 28, 1944)

Trial balloon election held in Oklahoma

GOP tries to win Democratic district

Muskogee, Oklahoma (UP) –
Voters in Oklahoma’s traditionally Democratic 2nd district today chose between a Republican and Democratic Congressman in a hotly-contested special election that may prove a trial balloon for both parties.

The race for the House seat vacated by Democrat Jack Nichols was climaxed last night with speeches by Senator Alben W. Barkley, Democratic Majority Leader, on behalf of his party’s candidate, W. G. Stigler, and Senator E. H. Moore (R-OK), who spoke for the GOP nominee, E. O. Clark.

Cooperation stressed

Mr. Barkley, who spoke here and at Okmulgee yesterday, called for the election of a Congressman “who is in sympathy with the great objectives” of the administration and said that Congress must in future months give Mr. Roosevelt “a maximum amount of cooperation.”

Mr. Moore attacked the record of the Democratic Party, repeating his charges that bureaucracy threatens the foundations of American political and business life.

Mr. Barkley criticized Republicans for attempting “to mobilize every sore toe into an army of opposition,” by capitalizing on such war inconveniences as rationing, price control and heavy taxes, and branded his party’s opponents “diehards,” “obstructionists,” and “lying partisans” who “rail out as if they were permanent inhabitants of a national wailing wall.”

Elected only one GOP

The 2nd district gave Mr. Nichols a 20,000-vote majority over Mr. Clark in the 1940 campaign, but this was pared to 385 ballots in 1942 when Mr. Clark was again the Republican candidate.

The district has elected only one GOP representative. That was in the Republican landslide of 1920 when Miss Alice M. Robertson of Muskogee defeated the incumbent by 209 votes.

[NormanStewart]

Bricker lashes Senator Barkley

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (UP) –
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker was scheduled to make an address at Wichita, Kansas, today following his address at a Republican rally here last night in which he accused Senate Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley of “taking orders from the New Deal on Capitol Hill.”

Governor Bricker, candidate for the Republican nomination for the Presidency, said Senator Barkley’s visit to Oklahoma on behalf of W. G. Stigler, Democratic candidate in today’s special election, was “an example of the inconsistencies in which New Dealers engage to retain power.”

Governor Bricker spoke here on behalf of his own candidacy for the presidential nomination, but took advantage of Senator Barkley’s appearance at Muskogee to snipe at the Senate leader and at the same time boost the GOP special election candidate.

[NormanStewart]

New York elects convention delegates

New York (UP) –
New York State voters will elect 90 delegates to Republican and Democratic national conventions today, with neither party expected to experience opposition difficulties.

Principle interest in the presidential primary centers around the interparty American Labor Party committee election. Right-wing and left-wing opponents have wrangled bitterly and have drawn Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia into the factional dispute in the role of unsuccessful peacemaker.

New Deal leaders admitted that results of the ALP voting would have a definite effect on the fourth-term changes of President Roosevelt.

[NormanStewart]

An ‘ambition-bitten aspirant’ –
‘Willkie Rides Again’ article tries to put Wisconsin ‘hep’

La Follette publication attempts to discourages Progressives’ support
By Daniel M. Kidney, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Washington –
“Wendell Willkie Rides Again” is the title of an article on the candidate’s Wisconsin tour appearing today in The Progressive, published at Madison, Wisconsin, by a company headed by Senator Robert M. La Follette (PR-WI).

The tone of the article is such as to discourage Wisconsin Progressives from following the editorial suggestion of William T. Evjue of The Capital Times of Madison to vote in the Republican primary in favor of the 1940 GOP presidential candidate.

The author of the Willkie article is L. T. Merrill, described in The Progressive as “a professor of American history and former Wisconsin and Washington newspaperman.”

Mr. Merrill writes:

American political history hardly affords any parallel spectacle of an ambition-bitten aspirant bumping around at such a hectic pace trying to reinflate his sagging pre-convention prospects.

All the more surprising are these highly organized personal forays and sorties in view of Mr. Willkie’s hardboiled air of assurance last fall when he laid down his policies at Washington with a take-it-or-leave-it air.

Cites ‘truculent’ speed

The reference is to the speech Mr. Willkie made to freshmen Republican Congressmen which man who attended called “truculent.” The Progressive article continues:

All the subsequent traveling showmanship tends to belie a sense of genuine assurance on his part that he has the nomination in the bag or that millions of those he left holding the bag last time are as willing to hold it again.

Mr. Willkie’s current foray into Wisconsin follows a previous lure tour last November that apparently did not have all the desired effects, though it was carefully organized.

Mr. Merrill concludes that Mr. Willkie is winning more “newspaper decisions than anything else.”

Only one wants him

He writes:

Mr. Willkie’s checkup agent, who came into Wisconsin after he had left last fall, must have discovered that flattered or dazzled Wisconsin editors have given him a better “break” than any other GOP presidential aspirant – although this would not be the first time Wisconsin editors have climbed on the wrong horse and ridden off somewhere without great results in pulling their readers.

Despite the whooping and booming of which Mr. Willkie has been the beneficiary in some Wisconsin dailies, what are the results? A Gallup poll published Feb. 23 indicates only one of five Wisconsin Republicans wanted Mr. Willkie as their standard-bearer again.

[NormanStewart]

Stokes: Willkie on labor

By Thomas L. Stokes

Milwaukee, Wisconsin –
Wendell L. Willkie does not have the highly critical attitude toward labor now prevalent among some elements in his own party and in the Southern wing of the Democratic Party.

This attitude expresses itself in exaggeration about strikes, in minimizing labor’s contribution to the war, and in demands for enactment of a law by Congress to prevent strikes in wartime.

Mr. Willkie deplores these tendencies and counsels moderation in approaching the problem.

This was the spirit, a spirit of tolerance, in which he presented a program for labor last night at Milwaukee that is designed to attract to his side elements of labor that are becoming dissatisfied with the Roosevelt administration. He believes large groups of labor was included in that independent vote, still undecided, which he says the Republican Party must have to win, and to which he is making a studied appeal in his campaign for delegates in the April 4 primary election here.

He said:

You’d think from public statements that all labor is doing is striking. Its contribution in this war has been magnificent. One of the most magnificent stories that will come out of this war will be labor’s record of production.

Basic in appraisal of the labor problem, he holds, is recognition first that only in recent years has labor established its rights, and only recently has engaged in political activity to protect those rights.

Mistakes are natural

He said:

It has had less experience than other elements of society. It was natural that it should make mistakes, that its leaders should make mistakes. That must be expected.

For that reason, tolerance is needed, he explains.

He does not condone strikes in wartime. No one, he said, has been more condemnatory of strikes in wartime than he. Some of these have been wildcat strikes; some he attributed to a vacillating policy of the government.

Likewise, he is highly critical of some labor leaders. He condemns labor racketeering, but emphasized that this has been less than sometimes represented, and has not affected the great mass of union members.

He believes that labor, itself, must set its house in o5rder and must recognize its responsibilities, rather than seeking to accomplish this by issuing public statements and by having Congress pass laws.

For that he recommended a threefold program:

• Labor must remove from its leadership arrogant and corrupt leaders.

• Labor must develop more of a sense of responsibility in its economic and social relations.

• Labor must democratize itself, must give more power to individual union members, more participation for them in its activities and in the formulation of its policies.

Capable young men in ranks

In connection with the necessity of removing corrupt and arrogant leaders, Mr. Willkie said there are many capably young men in the ranks of labor who are qualified for national leadership, and these men should be recognized and given an opportunity for leadership.

As for government, he held that labor should not have to deal with a multitude of boards and commissions as now, and, to this end, he said much could be done by having real labor representation in the Cabinet, in the Secretary of Labor. The Secretary, he said, should recognize labor’s interest in international affairs as well as domestic affairs, in tax programs, welfare and the like. It should be developed into a real broad-gauge office.

Mr. Willkie deplored very much all the talk that this country faces some “inevitable, irresponsible conflict” between capital and labor. He doesn’t see any such inevitable, irrepressible conflict.

He gave his prescription for solving labor troubles.

He said:

You solve them by creating an atmosphere in which there is no occasion for them, and by a policy of government that is fair, firm and non-discriminatory.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (March 29, 1944)

I DARE SAY —
Poker game

By Florence Fisher Parry

Thomas L. Stokes is writing some very pungent political commentary. His column the other day on Wendell Willkie’s minor league itinerary seems to me to be one of the most pungent pieces of reporting of recent date. For the presidential campaign is upon us, a campaign that promises to be the most dramatic this country has ever known.

Mr. Willkie has devoted the last four years almost exclusively in preparation for this campaign. He has traveled and talked, talked and traveled, and he has written the biggest-selling book since Gone With the Wind. Never has a man met with greater opposition outside and within his own party. There are those leaders among Republicans who would rather have the party lose than have Mr. Willkie win. They hate Mr. Roosevelt, but they hate Mr. Willkie more.

Meanwhile, Mr. Willkie is pinning his faith and his hope upon the rank and file, the off-the-beaten track, small-town common man.

There is something pathetic to me in Mr. Willkie’s faith that the little man – the little un-unionized, unbossed, unregimented, unsubsidized, unbought American man can help him get to be President! This little man, for the moment, happens to be living in Wisconsin. Mr. Willkie is working very hard in Wisconsin. He is hoping that he wins a vote of confidence there. It will serve as an example to other states and set the pace for independent, uninfluenced moves all along the line.

Moreover, a Willkie victory in Wisconsin, a Midwest state, where Mr. Willkie is supposed to be the weakest, would do much to slap down the isolationist opposition within his own party.

Lantern slides

The best way, it seems to me, for us to choose a candidate for President would be to picture him sitting alone in a little private room face to face with Joseph Stalin in a poker game. What man have we upon whom we could rely to keep up his end in such a game? Let us toy with a few lantern slides.

The first, let us say, is a picture of Stalin and Roosevelt sitting over the game. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen, upon the outcome of this game. Who do you think would win? Mr. Roosevelt or Mr. Stalin?

Now let us seat Mr. Dewey at the table with Mr. Stalin. How long do you think he would last? He would play a slick game. His plays would be quick and dazzling for he is an adept showman, and could be counted upon to employ an adroit technique. Mr. Kibitzer, how long do you think you would be seated at that table?

Now let us take Mr. Stassen at the table. Mr. Stassen is a realist. He would know what he was up against. He would see in his opponent not a politician nor yet a statesman, but a sharp business competitor. He would play that kind of game. But for how long would he play it, dear reader? Watch the clock.

Supposing we put Gen. MacArthur at the table. His success would depend very largely upon what kind of game his opponent would elect to play. If military strategy were to be employed, the game might last through the night. If, on the other hand, power politics ruled, Gen. MacArthur would be in bed by midnight.

Pull up a chair

Now it is Mr. Willkie’s turn at the table. Better pull up a chair, Mr. Kibitzer. When good fellows get together, they’re apt to take their time. Mr. Stalin’s smile is enigmatic but expensive. Mr. Willkie’s is as sunny as that of a child.

As the game progresses, however, we may look for a slight change in the mien of Stalin. Mr. Stalin knows men like nobody’s business. He has coped with them all from Tōjō to Franklin, from Adolf to sunny Winston.

But in his lexicon, one word has been left out. He should have learned it. It would have served him in this game.

The word is “Hoosier.” Indiana Hoosier. In this game he may learn the meaning of that word.

“Hoosier” is that plus element in a Yankee. It is that added “R” in American. It is that quality that can outsmart, that can out-smile, that can out-believe, and so can outlast, any antagonism. It combines naïveté with complicity; distrust with abounding faith. It is unlickable for the simple reason that it never knows when it’s licked.

Yes, that might be a pretty good game to watch. A game played by two kinds of men – deep-dyed men, shrewd as sin, smart as Satan, deep as the deepest well, and both possessed of vision dazzling as the sun.

Tartar and Hoosier! A good game to watch.

[NormanStewart]

Communications union endorses Roosevelt

Kansas City, Missouri (UP) –
The American Communications Association today became the first Congress of Industrial Organizations international union to go on record as favoring a fourth term for President Roosevelt.

Joseph P. Selly, president of the ACA, said he believed the national CIO organization and Philip Murray, its president, would take similar action within two or three months.

[NormanStewart]

New Deal wins special vote in Oklahoma

Democratic candidate has lead of 3,642

Muskogee, Oklahoma (UP) –
Democrat William G. Stigler, running under New Deal colors, won the special election in Oklahoma’s traditionally-Democratic 2nd Congressional district yesterday by a margin that approaches 4,000 voters, incomplete and unofficial returns disclosed today.

With returns from all but 12 of the district’s 331 precincts tabulated, the vote stood:

Stigler (D)	21,806
Clark (R)	18,164

Only returns from isolated rural districts remained to be reported.

Mr. Stigler’s plurality of 3,642 is being compared with the 380-vote margin by which Democrat Jack Nichols, who later resigned, won the seat in 1942. Clark was also his opponent.

Mr. Stigler’s election gave the Democrats a seven-to-one margin in House members from Oklahoma. Rep. Ross Rizley, of the 8th district, is the only Republican.

A temporary gain

It also strengthened, but only temporarily, the margin of Democratic Party strength in the House. It gave the Democrats 217 seats against 210 for the Republicans and four for minor parties, with four vacancies. But today Rep. Domengeaux (D-LA) resigned to enter the Army, again raising the number of vacancies to five and reducing the number of Democratic seats to 216.

The election was considered a clear-cut test of New Deal sentiment in Oklahoma and was watched closely by political leaders as a possible barometer for the presidential election in November.

National talent called in

The personalities of Mr. Stigler and Mr. Clark, neighbors in Stigler, Oklahoma, were all but submerged by the array of political talent that participated in the campaign.

Senator Alben W. Barkley, Senate Majority Leader, climaxed the campaign for Mr. Stigler while Mr. Clark’s drive was led by Senator E. H. Moore Jr. (R-OK), with the help of Senator W. Lee O’Daniel (D-TX) who urged the voters to “kick out” the New Deal, and the indirect aid of Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio who was also stumping Oklahoma on behalf of how own candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination.

[NormanStewart]

Left-wingers win in New York vote

New York (UP) –
Left-wing elements, which won control of the American Labor Party in yesterday’s New York State primary elections, moved today to restore harmony in the party’s split ranks.

Immediately after the right wing conceded defeat last night, Sidney Hillman, left-wing leader, made a plea for unity in the party which holds the balance of political power in the state.

Left-wing forces claimed more than 600 of the 750 places on the state committee, governing body of the party.

Called Communist victory

Alex Rose and Dr. George S. Counts, right-wing leaders, in conceding defeat on the basis of incomplete returns, issued a joint statement saying:

The Browder-Hillman coalition won the primaries. The Communists who controlled Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens have now extended their control to the whole party. From now on, the American Labor Party will be controlled by Earl Browder [head of the Communist Party USA] no matter who will be put up as its fronts.

We have no regrets. We fought a good fight for great principles.

Dewey and Roosevelt

Voting in Republican and Democratic primaries was light. The Republicans elected 85 district delegates, and alternates to their national presidential nominating convention; the Democrats 86.

Of the Republican delegates, a majority was said to favor Governor Thomas E. Dewey as a presidential candidate.

On the Democratic side, most delegates favored President Roosevelt for a fourth term.

[NormanStewart]

Dewey urges fight against antisemitism

New York (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey yesterday warned that the American people must combat “antisemitism within,” if the Nazis and what they represent are to be defeated.

The Governor, here to cast his ballot in the state primary elections, made his statement to the American Federation of Polish Jews as he accepted a copy of its book describing Nazi atrocities against the Jews of Poland.

Mr. Dewey said:

We as a people are spending the blood of our soldiers and our substance in the fight against these beasts, but we must do more. We must strengthen ourselves against antisemitism within and we must extend to the victims abroad every kind of help, both spiritual and physical.