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:
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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.
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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.”
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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.