Election 1944: Pre-convention news

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (April 4, 1944)

Willkie faces first big test as Wisconsin holds primary

1940 nominee opposed by Dewey, Stassen and MacArthur in race for delegates

Milwaukee, Wisconsin (UP) –
Wisconsin voters gave Wendell Willkie’s campaign for the Republican nomination the acid test today in a primary election to select the state’s 24 delegates to the GOP National Convention.

Mr. Willkie, in a 13-day tour of the state which ended last week, indicated he was prepared to stand or fall on the results of the balloting. He said the primary today would be the most important in the nation.

Willkie lone campaigner

Although Mr. Willkie was the only candidate to campaign for the Wisconsin vote, he was opposed by slates of delegates pledged to three others in today’s balloting.

Fifteen of the delegate candidates were pledged to Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York. They made the race in spite of Mr. Dewey’s request that they withdraw.

Nineteen delegate candidates were running in support of LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen, former Governor of Minnesota. Cdr. Stassen, through the Navy Department, announced he would not seek the nomination but would accept if it were offered.

MacArthur on ticket

Gen. Douglas MacArthur was represented by 22 delegate candidates. He did not acknowledge them or make any statement concerning the campaign.

Only Mr. Willkie had a full slate of 24 delegate candidates in the field.

In the Democratic primary, only President Roosevelt was the contestant with a full slate of candidates. A partial slate of 13 candidates was offered in opposition, but they were not pledged to any candidate.

Willkie scores party cliques

Grand Island, Nebraska (UP) –
Wendell L. Willkie denounced what he called party combinations and manipulations in the selection of platforms and candidates in an address here last night.

Mr. Willkie, speaking before 1,000 persons, said that:

If the Republican do not throw out all forces of negative partisanship, then their victory, if attained at all, would be hollow.

Although he did not mention any names, his remarks were apparently directed at Christopher J. Abbott of Hyannis, Nebraska, banker and landowner, who advised Republicans last Saturday, in Mr. Willkie’s presence at a meeting in Lincoln, to vote for LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen since Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s name was not entered in the April 11 primary.

He said:

Right here we not only are hearing of tales and trades and seeing these repugnant policies beginning to operate, but blunt, public declarations are being made of them.

I have heard speakers calling on the people to vote for a candidate whom they are not really for and every time people read of these things, they have a feeling of helplessness and frustration.

[NormanStewart]

Conventions get special trains

Washington (UP) –
The Office of Defense Transportation announced today that it will arrange special transportation to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in Chicago for bona fide delegates, alternates and newspapermen.

Special provisions for the transportation, however, will be made only “insofar as possible without interfering with war traffic,” Brig. Gen. C. D. Young, acting ODT director, said.

In letters to Republican and Democratic leaders, he said it would be impossible to find train room for “the throng of visitors and sightseers who usually attend political conventions.”

The Republican convention is scheduled for June 26 and the Democratic for July 19.

[NormanStewart]

Bridges fears plan to block soldier voting

Walker’s statement called ‘ominous’

Washington (UP) –
Senator Styles Bridges (R-NH) charged today that the administration apparently intends to discourage voting by servicemen overseas because it failed to push through Congress its “bobtail” federal ballot.

He described as “ominous” a Los Angeles statement by Postmaster General Frank C. Walker expressing doubt that the Post Office Department will be able to deliver ballots in time for the election. The statement, he said, is “in sharp conflict” with President Roosevelt’s promise that the federal government will do everything in its power to get the ballots overseas.

Doubtful about shipping

Mr. Walker said that some of the voting mail undoubtedly would have to be transported by sea since mail planes are already overloaded, and that he doubted if shipment could be made in time.

Mr. Bridges said that Mr. Walker’s statement would tend to discourage servicemen from seeking to vote and discourage states which are now preparing the necessary machinery for absentee voting.

He said:

It sounds as if the administration, failing to get the bobtail or abridged ballot by which the servicemen could not vote for state officials, intends to discourage voting by these servicemen at all, and that its cooperation in getting the ballots overseas will be lukewarm at best. It is most regrettable that this should be the administration’s attitude.

Cooperation pledged

The three-man war ballot commission authorized by the new soldier vote law called on state election officials to cooperate in facilitating voting for as many servicemen as possible.

The commission, composed of Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and War Shipping Administrator Emory S. Land, issued a joint statement pledging to “work with state authorities to facilitate and expedite the transmission and return of all balloting material.”

[NormanStewart]

Norris: GOP puts party above country in its desire to win

Former Senator defends administration’s stand in soldier vote, tax controversies
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer

McCook, Nebraska –
Former Senator George W. Norris, deploring in an interview in his home here the partisanship on Congress which he feels is dividing the country when unity is so needed, was especially critical of the Republican Party with which he was identified for many years. He broke away and ran as an independent for the last term be served.

He said:

It does seem to me that the Republican Party is putting party above country. They are so anxious for victory.

The 82-year-old statesman was not sparing either those Southern Democrats who have been so hostile to the administration.

I don’t think President Roosevelt is right about everything. But in the controversies over the soldier vote and taxes it seems so plain to me that the administration was right that there ought to be no question.

He also regretted the so-called “Barkley incident,” the one-man rebellion which Senate Democratic Leader Alben Barkley staged over President Roosevelt’s tax bill veto, saying that this contributed to disunity and encouraged our enemies.

Currently he is sorely disturbed over the fight Senator McKellar (D-TN) is making against TVA, of which Senator Norris was the sponsor in a Congressional battle that went on for years. Senator Norris’ eyes light up when he talks about TVA. He banged his fist on the arm of his chair as he spoke of the fight against the project now in Washington.

He said:

Senator McKellar gives everybody hell – but they can’t criticize him.

Defends TVA director

He resented the Tennessee Senator’s attacks on David Lilienthal, TVA director, whom he praised most highly. He pointed out that Senator McKellar had fought legislation for the project in its earlier form.

The efficient management and operation of TVA will be severely crippled, Senator Norris said, by amendments requiring confirmation by the Senate of all government personnel making over $4,500 a year and by the proposed prohibition against the use by TVA of funds it derives from the sale of power. This, he said, would hamstring TVA in its program of improvement and handicap it in dealing with emergencies.

Hits partisanship

He said:

I think the way to make Congress more efficient is to make it less partisan. I don’t think they ought to play politics in Congress. I think partisanship is increasing. It always does, of course, approaching a presidential election.

When Congress goes wrong, it is because members are not voting their convictions. Some members are cowards. They are afraid of bossism from one direction or other. Some follow a course to give them votes so they can get reelected. The individual Congressman is honest, but they get afraid they will lose their seats.

George Norris was one of those independent, honest, conscientious, fearless members, as one who watched him for many years can attest.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: The Negro and the vote

The Supreme Court, reversing by 8–1 a decision of nine years ago, now holds that the Democratic Party of Texas cannot bar Negroes, if otherwise qualified, from voting in primaries.

In the earlier decision, now abandoned over the lone but biting dissent of Justice Roberts, the then conservative court had ruled (in Grovey v. Townsend) that to deny a vote in a primary was a mere refusal of party membership with which “the state need have no concern.”

In other words, the Democratic Party in Texas was in the nature of a private club, able like any club to limit its membership as it saw fit.

Now the 15th Amendment (1870) states:

The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

The amendment doesn’t mention primaries. But, as everybody knows, in Texas as in other Southern states, the primary is usually the whole shooting match. The election is only a pro-forma ratification. Thus, exclusion from the primaries is actually exclusion from an effective vote.

Nevertheless, through various expedients – including the one sustained until yesterday by the Supreme Court – this exclusion has been successfully maintained.

The new ruling is a milestone in the long and arduous struggle to obtain for the Negro the civil rights accorded to him by the Constitution. He should exercise great vigilance – and temperateness – lest new expedients be devised to thwart this newly-won franchise.

[NormanStewart]

Roberts adds to his record as dissenter

Opposes granting Negro voting right

Washington (UP) –
Justice Owen J. Roberts, conservative Republican member of the Supreme Court, now ranks as the key figure in two of the greatest reversals in the high tribunal’s modern history.

He was the line dissenter yesterday when the court overruled its own decision of nine years ago and declared that Negroes have a constitutional right to vote in state primary elections. The opinion was written by Justice Stanley Reed.

Justice Roberts, reiterating criticism voiced earlier this year, charged that the court was breeding fresh doubt and confusion in the public mind by its about-face tactics.

Has changed own views

Observers recalled, however, that it was Justice Roberts who in 1937 changed his mind on minimum wage legislation for women and thereby permitted the court to reverse an earlier ruling holding the New York Minimum Wage Act unconstitutional.

That reversal, which came during the famous Supreme Court reorganization fight, has been hailed since as the turning point of President Roosevelt’s efforts on behalf of many of his New Deal programs and policies.

Wage ruling reversed

The minimum wage law for women was originally rejected by the court in a 5–4 verdict in June 1936, but nine months later, it reversed this decision in upholding a Washington minimum wage statute. The split again was 5–4, on the basis of a change of viewpoint by Justice Roberts.

Thereafter, the tribunal held constitutional such programs of social and economic significance as the Railway Labor Act, the National Labor Relations Act, Social Security Act and the powers of the Securities and Exchange Commission – important phases of the New Deal program.

Stone changes mind

The court’s ruling yesterday was considered one of the tribunal’s most important stands in the field of civil liberties in the past decade. Justice Reed’s 8–1 majority opinion reversed a unanimous decision written in 1935 by Justice Roberts in the case of Grovey v. Townsend.

Justice Roberts and Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone are the only men now on the court who were also members when the 1935 case was decided. Justice Roberts stuck to his guns, but the Chief Justice changed his mind and agreed with Justice Reed.

New curb sought by Southerners

Washington (UP) –
The Supreme Court ruling that Negroes may vote in state primary elections raised the possibility today that some Southern states may abandon the primary system and return to the convention method of selecting political candidates.

The prospect of such action was seen by at least two Southern Senators, one of whom said that any Negro attempting to attend a Democratic convention in the South “will be thrown out by the seat of his pants.”

Senator John H. Overton (D-LA) mentioned the possibility of abandoning primaries and predicted at the same time that Southern reaction to the court ruling would be averse to a fourth term for President Roosevelt.

Mr. Overton said:

The South at all costs will maintain the rule of white supremacy. The Negro can be kept from the polls by educational qualification tests. This decision will add greatly to the difficulties of advocates of a fourth term in securing the support of the South,

Texas case involved

Southerners generally denounced the decision, in which the high court ruled that when primaries become part of the machinery for choosing state or national officials, a Negro has a constitutional right to vote.

The case arose in Texas where, as in other Southern states, the Democratic primary usually decides the winner of the general election.

Southerners in Congress predicted their states would find some other way, such as conventions or education tests, to prevent Negroes from participating in their primaries.

‘An abiding faith’

Rep. Nat Patton (D-TX) said:

I have an abiding faith that the Negroes aren’t going to vote in the white man’s Democratic primary. Our Democratic people in Texas will find some way to work out a Democratic primary for white folks. The Negroes don’t want to vote in an election that is not for them.

The high court’s ruling was broad enough to cover all primaries in which state and national candidates are nominated, but J. Lon Duckworth, chairman of the Georgia State Democratic Executive Committee, said in Atlanta that it should not qualify Negroes to participate in the Georgia Democratic primary.

[NormanStewart]

Women may rule

Bedford, Indiana –
If the Democratic slate of office-seekers is nominated and subsequently elected, Lawrence County will be run by the “kitchen brigade.” All Democratic candidates for nominations – from sheriff to county commissioners – are women.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (April 5, 1944)

Dewey wins in Wisconsin; Willkie 4th

Stassen, MacArthur run second, third

Milwaukee, Wisconsin (UP) –
A slate of convention delegates, who ignored Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s appeal to leave him out of the Wisconsin presidential primary election, emerged victorious today over the supporters of Wendell L. Willkie and two other GOP presidential possibilities in 1944’s first major test of Republican sentiment.

Incomplete returns from yesterday’s Wisconsin primary election gave Governor Dewey of New York 15 probable delegates to the GOP convention at Chicago, LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen five, Gen. Douglas MacArthur two, and uninstructed delegates, two.

There were 24 convention seats at stake in yesterday’s balloting. Four delegates were elected at large, and two more were selected from each of the state’s 10 Congressional districts.

Dewey’s men win

Dewey supporters had only three candidates running at large, and they won easily. A delegate pledged to Gen. MacArthur appeared certain to win the fourth seat in the statewide balloting.

In the contests for the 20 delegates from the Congressional districts, a MacArthur-pledged candidate was leading in the 5th district, bringing the general’s total to two.

All of the five apparent winners in the camp of former Minnesota Governor Stassen were running in the Congressional district races.

Figures given

Secretary of State Fred Zimmerman, who led the Dewey victory for delegate at large, said the New York Governor’s forces were certain to control the Wisconsin delegation to the GOP convention.

The Dewey victory was achieved without help from the New York Governor who has insisted he was not a candidate and had asked his delegates to withdraw.

In the contest for delegates at large, Mr. Zimmerman led the field with 95,328 votes in 2,365 of the state’s 3,075 precincts. David Hammergreen, second Dewey delegate, had 89,883, and the third, Edward Hilker, 87,881.

Willkie men disappointed

Fred F. Koehler of Milwaukee, a MacArthur candidate, had a vote total of 58,136 for the fourth delegate at large seat. He was followed closely by three other MacArthur candidates. A Stassen candidate, William J. Campbell, was next with 45,271 votes and the highest Willkie-pledged delegate was Vernon Thompson with a total of 38,995.

The voting was a big disappointment to backers of Mr. Willkie, who had campaigned for 13 days in the state seeking election of his delegates.

Walkaway for Roosevelt

The Democratic primary was a walkaway for the slate of 26 delegate candidates pledged to President Roosevelt.

The only opposition came from a partial slate of candidates who were not committed to anyone and ran only under the slogan “Stop Politics – Win the War.”

During his handshaking and speech-making tour from one end of Wisconsin to the other, Mr. Willkie had emphasized that he believed the Republican Party must be willing for the United States to play a dominant role in world affairs.

‘Important’ victory

He said the Wisconsin primary would be the most important primary election in 1944 and probably would point the way to later developments in the GOP’s selection of a 1944 presidential candidate.

Willkie was the only candidate to have a fill slate of 24 delegate-candidates pledged to him. MacArthur had 22, Stassen 19, and Dewey 15.

Under Wisconsin voting laws, the primary vote is not binding on the convention delegates, but by precedent they stick to their candidate as long as he has a chance for the nomination.

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West Point, Nebraska (UP) –
Sacrifices will be great and casualty lists long before the war is won, Wendell L. Willkie, candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, told approximately 500 persons here today while en route from Norfolk to Fremont and Omaha.

Mr. Willkie, who will wind up tonight his campaign for Nebraska’s preferential primary April 11, did not mention results of the Wisconsin primary yesterday. Mr. Willkie was to speak later today at Fremont and will make an hour-long speech at Omaha tonight on America’s foreign policy.

Willkie assails Roosevelt regime

Norfolk, Nebraska (UP) –
Wendell L. Willkie said today that the Roosevelt administration was “tired, cynical and disregardful of the will of the people” and added that he wanted to substitute a “Republican administration for this group.”

Mr. Willkie, in addressing a group of 1,000 at a local hotel as a part of his campaign for Nebraska’s 15 votes in the Republican National Convention, appealed to voters to help end “one-man rule, bossism and inside controls.”

[NormanStewart]

Clark faces fight in Missouri

Jefferson City, Missouri (UP) –
Senator Bennett Champ Clark entered the bitter Missouri political turmoil today, seeking Democratic renomination for the Senate seat he has held since 1932.

Senator Clark faces the toughest election test in his career in opposing Attorney General Roy McKittrick, a frequent critic of Senator Clark’s pre-war isolationism.

Six in Missouri pledged to Dewey

St. Louis, Missouri (UP) –
Six of Missouri’s 30 delegates to the Republican National Convention were instructed today in favor of Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York.

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Cicero, Illinois, elects five Republicans

Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Cicero, a Chicago suburb, elected Republicans to five of six town offices in a local election yesterday, ending 12 years of Democratic control.

Henry J. Sandusky, police magistrate for 23 years, was the only Democrat to win, being elected president of the Town Board.

The offices of collector, clerk, supervisor, assessor and trustee were won by Republicans, giving them control of Town Hall.

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Roosevelt, Willkie run in Oregon

Salem, Oregon (UP) –
Wendell L. Willkie, Republican, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democrat, will be unopposed in their bid for Oregon’s support at the national party conventions.

President Roosevelt’s name was entered in the May 19 Oregon primary late yesterday by Democratic Party leaders who filed petitions with 1,848 signatures. Mr. Willkie requested two weeks ago that his name be entered on the Oregon ballot. No other presidential candidates filed.

[NormanStewart]

Parties back state session on war ballot

Group appointed to prepare plan

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (UP) –
Governor Edward Martin today had unanimous backing of both Republican and Democratic leaders in his plan for a quick special legislature session to assure about one million servicemen and members of allied war agencies a chance to vote this year.

Chieftains of the two major parties decided at a conference with Governor Martin here late yesterday to delegate to a subcommittee the job of working out details of the plans.

The leaders will meet here again April 20 to study results of the subcommittee’s work and suggest possible changes. The Governor then will summon the Legislature to convene May 1 – the Monday after the primary election – for a meeting he now believes will last only a week.

Points proposed

Governor Martin said the subcommittee’s job will be to draw up measures embodying these points:

• Elimination of the party or non-partisan registration requirement for voting by persons affected.

• Revision of the election calendar to allow the absentee voters as much time as possible in which to cast ballots.

• Provisions for mailing ballots automatically to all servicemen and members of allied groups who are 21 years of age or older.

Governor Martin emphasized, however, that the committee must decide whether the last point would be “practicable” before making it part of the proposals. Such a provisions would eliminate necessity for those wishing to vote to request ballots from county election boards.

CD block canvass

Governor Martin confirmed reports that Civilian Defense block leaders would be authorized under the prospective legislation to gather names and addresses of servicemen and women and members of the Red Cross, United Service Organizations, Committee of Friends and similar organizations to facilitate mailing of ballots – but he disclosed that civic and fraternal organizations and individuals will also be invited to help in the task.

Members of the group drafting the measures are Attorney General James H. Duff, Commonwealth Secretary Charles M. Morrison, Deputy Highways Secretary Ray F. Smock, Senators Weldon B. Heyburn and Bernard B. McGinnis (majority and minority leaders, respectively, of the State Senate), and Reps. Franklin H. Lichtenwalter and Reuben E. Cohen (majority and minority leaders of the House).

Services speed votes for troops

Washington (UP) –
The armed services and the War Shipping Administration were taking steps today to provide voting opportunities under the new soldier vote law for servicemen, merchant seamen, Red Cross and USO workers overseas to the fullest extent consistent with “waging a victorious war.”

The War Department said it was sending to commanders in all areas circulars explaining the new law and instructing them to provide every possible chance for their men to vote.

The Navy announced that it had made plans for rapid transmission of both state and federal ballots.

The WSA said ballots will be sent by air if shipping schedules do not permit overseas delivery in time.

[NormanStewart]

Norris: Failure to reelect Roosevelt would delay peace

Former Senator stresses essential points he regards as vital to nation’s security
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer

McCook, Nebraska –
Looking to the future, the venerable statesman, former Senator George W. Norris, outlined in an interview at his home here some things he regards as essential.

• Reelection of President Roosevelt.

I am for a fourth term for the President principally on that it would be a mistake to change before we have a peace treaty made. I believe if President Roosevelt were defeated it would hurt the morale of our Army and increase the morale of Hitler and his armies. Hitler is just holding on now, hoping there will be a change, hoping thus that he can get better peace terms.

Senator Norris added:

I don’t like some things that are going on. I don’t like our dealings with Badoglio. Russia is being criticized for recognizing Badoglio, but I don’t think Russia would have recognized him if we hadn’t set him up. I think we’ve been too lenient with the Vichy government.

But I think to take Roosevelt out now and put someone else in would hurt what has been achieved. There’s no prominent man in the United States who seems to measure up to the task of the Presidency in the immediate future. I hate to say that.

• Creation of an international organization to keep the peace, total disarmament of our enemies, no vengeance in the peace settlement.

I believe we will have some sort of organization among nations to keep the peace, and I am for it, though I was against the League of Nations. I think we ought to disarm completely Germany, Japan and Italy, and perhaps Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria. All their munitions factories should be destroyed and they should not be allowed to build more.

We must not leave any humiliation in the hearts of the Germans. It passed from father to son, and then Hitler came along and capitalized it, and we had another war.

• Safeguards against cartels and monopolies after the war.

I think our own country has got to be careful lest monopolies and combinations get control of our country after the war. There’s always danger of that after a war. The fellows who are making large profits in the war want to keep on.

• Economic protection for returning soldiers.

I want to see everything done that can be done to help the returning soldiers.

• Limitation of incomes and salaries.

I was concerned when Congress refused President Roosevelt’s plan for limiting salaries to $25,000 a year. We may have to go even lower.

I think everybody will be happier that way. There’s a limit to an income that will bring enjoyment or pleasure to the man who gets it. We’ll have a happier world, with less poverty and less riches in it.

[NormanStewart]

Governor Dewey warns of rabble-rousers

New York (UP) –
Warning against “blatant rabble-rousers or worse,” Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York said last night that the U.S. government must be kept “strong and clean within” so that the nation can fulfill its post-war world responsibilities.

He said at the opening of the United Jewish Appeal campaign:

The Gerald L. K. Smiths and their ilk must not for one moment be permitted to pollute the stream of American life.

Such would be a betrayal of the sacrifice now being made on the battlefields by millions of Americans who fight for their county and for the basic principles of freedom these rodents would undermine.

Governor Dewey also urged a post-war system of “international cooperation based on justice.”

[NormanStewart]

Missouri chooses two to back Dewey

St. Louis, Missouri (UP) –
Four delegates from two Missouri Congressional districts were elected yesterday to support Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York as Republican candidate for President.

The endorsements came during GOP convention within the 11th and 13th districts. A convention of the 12th district failed to enter a Dewey-for-President resolution.

All three conventions endorsed Barak T. Mattingly for reelection as national Republican committeeman from Missouri. Mr. Mattingly is considered to be a Dewey backer.

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Oregon primary spurned by Dewey

Portland, Oregon (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York has once more declared he is not a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and has refused to authorize use of his name on the Oregon May 19 primary election ballot, according to word received here today from an Oregonian who flew to New York State to confer with Governor Dewey.

Thus, petitions bearing more than 1,000 names seeking Governor Dewey’s name on the ballot will be consigned to the waste basket, said Frank S. Senn, chairman of the Dewey Committee in Oregon.

[NormanStewart]

Suit to test poll tax laws is promised

Strategy follows high court ruling

Washington (UP) –
Tradition voting procedures in the South, already threatened by a Supreme Court ruling permitting Negro voting in primaries, faced still another threat today in a promised court test on legality of poll taxes as prerequisites to voting.

The new challenge of the poll tax was voiced by Arthur Dunn, New York attorney, in announcing formation of a new organization called Parents and Wives of Fighting Americans.

Suit to be filed

He said a test suit challenging the Virginia poll tax soon will be filed in federal court at Roanoke, Virginia.

He added:

And we’ll take it to the Supreme Court if necessary.

In the light of Monday’s Supreme Court decision that Negroes cannot be excluded from state primary elections, some Southern Senators conceded that they feared a court test more than the forthcoming Senate debate on a House-approved poll tax repealer.

Sees no sense

Senator John H. Overton (D-LA) said:

I don’t see any sense in a poll tax fight in the Senate when the opponents of the poll tax apparently could get the same result in the seclusion and cloister of the Supreme Court.

There was a possibility that the Supreme Court decision will influence Southern Democrats to reject a proposed agreement under which the Southerners would move to invoke the cloture (debate limitation) rule and, if the motion failed, proponents would concede defeat.

[NormanStewart]

In Washington –
GOP Senators plan reforms in committees

Program hinges in victory in elections

Washington (UP) –
Republican leaders in the Senate are now working on plans to tighten up the Senate committee system in event they gain control of the upper house in the November elections.

The plans, being prepared by the Republican steering committee under the chairmanship of Senator Robert A. Taft (R-OH), include tentatively the following reforms:

• Reduce the number of committees. At present, there are 33 standing committees and 11 special committees.

• Restrict the number of committee memberships that one Senator may hold.

• Require formal committee quorums. Sometimes only one Senator is present at a committee hearing, which means that absent members are unable to follow the course of developing legislation.

• Do away with proxy voting, which is used at present to report out bills which many of the men recorded as voting have not had a chance to study.

• Increase the number of technical experts assigned to a few of the more technical committees, such as Appropriations and Finance.

• After committees have been reduced and members have been given a little more time to become specialists in their fields, there should be joint hearings with correspondent House committees, thereby doing away with duplicating testimony and an unnecessary waste of time for both Congress and witnesses.

Other suggestions for Senate reform which have been before the Rules Committee since last November have been made by Senators Francis Maloney (D-CT), Robert M. La Follette Jr. (PR-WI) and Guy M. Gillette (D-IA).

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: Chance for states’ rights

Throughout the debate over the soldier vote issue in Congress, and at many times while other issues were in dispute the last few years, the states’ rights cry repeatedly has been raised.

States’ rights was and is an issue. And while, in these modern days, it is hard for statesmen, or others, to draw the line where the issue begins, the line needs to be drawn in the interest of home rule.

In the soldier vote issue, however, an even more fundamental question was involved: The right of free American citizens, dispersed to the far corners of the globe, to cast a ballot in a free American election.

This right, it seems to us, transcends all other matters, political or mechanical, in resolving the issue.

Congress didn’t resolve it on that basis.

Now it is up to the states.

It is up to the states to demonstrate, now that the so-called states’ rights phase of this dispute seemingly has been turned in the states’ favor, to show that they are capable of meeting the problem.

Obviously, it will not be as simple, or as effective, for 48 states to devise anything resembling a uniform system of voting for the Armed Forces.

But the Congressmen from many of these states, including a solid Republican bloc from Pennsylvania, and many governors, maintained throughout the debate that the states could handle the problem, and handle it efficiently.

They now have that opportunity. And if they stumble, they will do much to discredit the states’ rights argument on some future issues when it may be far more applicable.

And, more serious, they will be shown deficient in their unquestioned obligation to make it possible for the members of the Armed Forces to vote in an important American election.

So far as Pennsylvania is concerned, the state government has approached this task auspiciously.

This state already has on its statute books an absentee voting law for members of the military services. True, it is a cumbersome measure and the deadlines it imposes on the fighting men in far regions of the world are almost impossible.

But the law is on the books and some simple amendments can easily weed out the red tape and simplify the procedure.

To that task, Governor Martin already has assigned a responsible committee, sympathetic to the problem.

Mr. Martin has also taken into consultation the legislative leaders of both parties, a move which ought to smooth the way for prompt agreement and action when the Legislature convenes in special session.

The Governor has announced that it is his aim to make Pennsylvania’s soldier vote law the “most liberal” in the country. In that purpose, he deserves the utmost cooperation from both Democratic and Republican leaders.

Republican leaders in this state have been among the most industrious in raising the states’ rights issue. Now it is up to them to make that position stand up, to exert their influence and efforts on behalf of a “most liberal” soldier vote law, to demonstrate that the state is fully capable of handling the problem.

And, having done their best to write a simple statute, easy of compliance, they will have put on the Army and Navy the obligation of providing a maximum of assistance in making the plan work.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: Willkie goes down

Mr. Willkie is washed up, if the Wisconsin primary means anything. He said he would stand or fall by the results. The voters let him fall.

Even if he had won most of the delegates, that would not have proved him the favorite in Wisconsin. For he was the only active candidate. The others were not campaigning. LtCdr. Stassen was willing but absent. Gen. MacArthur had not committed himself as a candidate. Governor Dewey not only declined to enter the primary, but requested his enthusiastic supporters to desist.

That, of course, is what makes the result so significant. Mr. Willkie appeared to have all the breaks. His stumping was probably the hottest in the history of presidential primaries. Moreover, under Wisconsin law the Democrats could vote for Republican delegates – and doubtless many went for Mr. Willkie.

The reason Mr. Willkie tried so hard in this primary is no mystery. Unless he got a big popular vote, there was little or no chance of the national convention nominating him, because the party politicians by and large were and are against him. He had to show that he was a far better vote-getter than they rated him. That is why his Wisconsin failure seems so conclusive in terms of the Chicago convention next June.

There appears to be no doubt that the New York governor, though not a candidate, is at present the national favorite – among the Republican leaders, and also among the people, as indicated by unofficial polls. But there were good reasons, in addition to his refusal to run in Wisconsin, why he might have trailed the field in that state. Apart from Mr. Willkie’s active campaigning, Gen. MacArthur was believed to have the support of ex-Governor La Follette, now serving under the general in the Southwest Pacific. And Mr. Stassen, former Governor of Minnesota and glamorous young naval officer on combat duty, was almost a native son.

If Mr. Dewey can run so well against such a strong local field, and without even trying, he must have more Midwest and national vote-pulling power than even his most optimistic friends supposed. Add to that the New York Governor’s obvious superior strength in his own state, whose vote the politicians consider virtually decisive in a presidential election, and Mr. Dewey looks like the national convention winner.

[NormanStewart]

Statement of Wendell Willkie Withdrawing from the Presidential Race
April 5, 1944

Broadcast audio (WOR):

If in our foreign policy we deny any worthy aspirations of those who want to be free, as secret power politics inevitably tends to deny them, we shall be laying the groundwork for the third world war.

The American people have faith, infinite faith, in the process of democracy. They want – they demand – a foreign policy that will affirm that faith.

Now my fellow Americans, I have something quite personal that I want to say on this occasion – something that perhaps is of not much importance, but it involves what I have been trying to do, the things I have been fighting for.

As perhaps some of you know from the public press, it is my conviction, and it has been my conviction, that no Republican could be nominated for President of the United States unless he received at the convention the votes of some of the major Midwestern states. For it is in this section of the country that the Republican Party has had its greatest resurgence. Therefore, I quite deliberately entered the Wisconsin primary to test whether the Republican voters of that state would support me in the advocacy of every sacrifice and every cost necessary to winning and shortening the war and in the advocacy of tangible, effective economic and political cooperation among the nations of the world for the preservation of the peace and the rebuilding of humanity.

The result of the primary yesterday is naturally disappointing to me and doubly so since the delegate who led at the poll is known as one active in organizations such as the America First, opposed to the beliefs which I entertain, which I deeply believe.

Now, as I have said on many occasions of late, this country desperately needs new leadership. It is obvious now in view of the results yesterday that I cannot be nominated. I therefore am asking my friends to desist from any activity toward that end and not to present my name at the convention. I earnestly hope that the Republican convention will nominate a candidate and write a platform which really represents the views which I have advocated and which I believe are shared by millions – millions of Americans. I shall continue to work for these principles and policies for which I have been fighting during the last five years.

Thank you very much.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (April 6, 1944)

WILLKIE ABANDONS NOMINATION RACE
Withdrawal laid to defeat in Wisconsin

Spectacular move ends stump speech
By Gaylord P. Godwin, United Press staff writer

Omaha, Nebraska –
His “One World” crumbled by an overwhelming defeat in the Wisconsin primary election Tuesday, Wendell L. Willkie headed East today after a dramatic withdrawal from the race for the Republican presidential nomination last night.

The 1940 GOP nominee, who polled more than 20 million votes when he ran against President Roosevelt four years ago, made his exit at the conclusion of a 45-minute speech in which he bitterly attacked the administration’s foreign policy.

‘It is obvious’

“It is obvious now that I cannot be nominated,” he said, and with the promise to “continue to work for these principles and policies for which I have fought during the last five years,” he threw in the towel.

Only the reporters in the audience of 4,000 persons knew that Mr. Willkie was to make his farewell address as he walked onto the stage of the Omaha City Auditorium. He had summoned them to his hotel room yesterday afternoon and casually told them of his decision.

The Wisconsin vote was so decisive, he said, that he had decided to withdraw, but he requested that they withhold the announcement until after his speech.

Blows kiss to crowd

He walked onto the stage a half hour late and blew a kiss to the crowd in response to the cheers.

He said:

I wish I could speak to you from my heart tonight. But if I spoke of what’s on my mind, I would make too great a castigation of American politics.

He then began his prepared address.

Mrs. Willkie sat in the audience and hardly took her eyes from her husband as he made his farewell.

Wife is relieved

“Are you relieved?” a reporter asked afterward.

She replied softly:

Yes, I am if Wendell is. Whatever he does is 1000% all right with me.

Mr. Willkie made his decision to quit about midnight Tuesday while listening to the results of the Wisconsin primary. He and Mrs. Willkie were sitting in their hotel room at Norfolk, Nebraska, when he told her of his decision, a friend and political adviser reported.

Task to be great

He then went to bed and slept soundly, rising the next day to go to West Point where he told his audience:

I hope America unites behind the next President, whoever he may be, for his task will be greater than that of the first President of the United States.

He spoke again at Fremont and then returned to Omaha yesterday afternoon to tell news reporters of his decision.

Gardner Cowles, one of Mr. Willkie’s closest friends, said he appeared “more jovial yesterday than he had been in the last two weeks. He seemed relieved.”

Dewey supporters are jubilant

Milwaukee, Wisconsin (UP) –
The forces of Governor Thomas E. Dewey were jubilant today as they counted 15 and possibly 17 of the state’s 24 delegates to the Republican National Convention bagged in Tuesday’s primary election.

Wisconsin Secretary of State Fred Zimmerman said:

It’s no longer a question of whether Dewey will be drafted [at the national convention]. He already has been drafted by the voters of Wisconsin.

Mr. Zimmerman, head of the state’s Dewey organization, polled 112,737 votes to lead the delegate-at-large candidates.

Returns from 80% of the state’s 3,074 precincts assured the New York Governor of 15 of the state’s delegates, with two uninstructed delegates described as “leaning toward” Governor Dewey.

LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen, former Governor of Minnesota, ran second with four delegates and Gen. Douglas MacArthur was in third place with three.

Wendell L. Willkie, the only candidate to have a full slate of 24 delegate candidates, failed to grab a single delegate, despite his active 13-day campaign in the state.

Cavendish sees Dewey victory

Fred T. Cavendish, the 1940 pre-convention campaign manager in Allegheny County for Thomas E. Dewey, today said he saw in the Wisconsin primary results evidence of a nationwide sweep for Mr. Dewey.

He said:

The unusually large number of voters taking part in the primary in Wisconsin is an indication of the sentiment for Governor Dewey and I believe this sentiment prevails throughout the nation.

London hears Willkie to back fourth term

London, England (UP) –
The Evening Standard said in its Londoner’s Diary column today that Wendell L. Willkie, as a result of his defeat in Wisconsin, was expected to advocate a fourth term for President Roosevelt.

[NormanStewart]

Bolt by Willkie is possibility

Republican chiefs shed few tears
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Washington (UP) –
Wendell L. Willkie’s withdrawal from the contest for the Republican presidential nomination projected him today into a new role as freelance political adviser with a mission to commit the party to significant post-war cooperation in international affairs.

He withdrew last night in a statement that challenged the party with the possibility that he may bolt the ticket this year if he regards the candidates or the platform to be against the principles he has espoused.

There was recognition of the possibility that Mr. Willkie might take a walk is the comment of most party members on his retirement from office-seeking politics. They generally expressed the hope that he would remain on the anti-New Deal firing line through the presidential campaign.

He retired when Wisconsin Republican preferential primary voters accorded Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York a vote of confidence despite the fact that Governor Dewey repudiated his backers there and Mr. Willkie made a vigorous campaign. The slate of Willkie delegates not only trailed Governor Dewey’s men, but ran behind those committed to LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen, former Governor of Minnesota, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Mr. Willkie was blanked.

But Mr. Willkie’s acknowledgment of the futility of his own presidential ambitions was accompanied by an aggressive insistence that he would continue to speak his mind. He aimed at Governor Dewey, too, an indirect charge of accepting so-called America First support.

It is assumed that Mr. Willkie intends to continue the America First line of criticism wherever he deems it to be justified and that he will make himself notable in this political year by asking most of the embarrassing questions.

Criticized Dewey

Mr. Willkie has criticized and resented Governor Dewey’s unruffled insistence that he is not a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and that he will not campaign for it. In his new role, Mr. Willkie inevitably will undertake to smoke the Governor out.

But organization and Congressional Republicans generally waived him out of the contest with some cheers and few misgivings. The consensus seemed to be that Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s chances of being drafted for the nomination steadily were improving.

Rep. Joseph W. Martin Jr. (R-MA), House Republican Leader, said he was confident Mr. Willkie would stand by the Republican Party, to which he went from the Democrats after President Roosevelt’s first election in 1932 to help lick the Roosevelt administration this year.

Willkie’s statement

Mr. Willkie’s statement in Omaha last night follows:

It has been my conviction that no Republican could be nominated for President unless he received at the convention the votes of some of the major Midwestern states. For it is in this section of the country that the Republican Party has had its greatest resurgence. Therefore, I quite deliberately entered the Wisconsin primary to test whether the Republican voters of that state would support me in the advocacy of every sacrifice and cost necessary to winning and shortening the war and in the advocacy of tangible, effective economic and political cooperation among the nations of the world for the preservation of the peace and the rebuilding of humanity.

The result of the primary is naturally disappointing and doubly so since the candidate who led the poll for delegates is known as one active in organizations such as the America First, opposed to the beliefs which I entertain.

As I have said many times, this country desperately needs new leadership. It is obvious now that I cannot be nominated. I therefore am asking my friends to desist from any activity toward that end and not to present my name at the convention. I earnestly hope that the Republicans will nominate a candidate and write a platform which really represents the views which I have advocated and which I believe are shared by millions of Americans. I shall continue to work for the principles and policies for which I have fought during the last five years.

Dewey backer hit

The reference to the former America First adherent was evidently to Wisconsin Secretary of State Fred R. Zimmerman, who organized the Dewey-for-President movement in Wisconsin and got more votes than any other delegate-at-large candidate.

Mr. Zimmerman retorted today in Milwaukee:

We’re all 100% for America around here. Regardless of what contributed to my vote, if Willkie thinks I’m for America second or third or fourth, he’s crazy. Maybe that’s why he got the licking he did at the polls. Maybe the voters feel that he’s for Russia, or England, or France first. If anybody else feels as he did let ‘em line up with that young man and they’ll get the same licking he did.

Smith sees victory

This charge followed shortly upon a statement by Rev. Gerald L. K. Smith, one-time Louisiana minister who variously attached himself to the late Huey P. Long, the Townsend Old-Age Pension movement, Father Charles E. Coughlin and others, that Mr. Willkie’s defeat in Wisconsin was a great victory for America First.

He added that he was communicating with Governor Dewey who, in a New York speech this week, said “the Gerald L. K. Smiths and their ilk must not be permitted to pollute the stream of American life.” Rev. Smith said he was writing to Governor Dewey that he was not at all offended by the remark and that he was “confident you have been misinformed concerning my activities.”

Two third parties

There have been two recent third-party movements of consequence. Theodore Roosevelt, a national hero, wrecked the Republican Party in 1912 by organizing the Progressive Party and becoming its presidential nominee. The late Robert M. La Follette, a great political figure in his own right, organized a Progressive Party in 1924. He carried Wisconsin and the city of Cleveland, Ohio.

There was scant support for speculation that Mr. Willkie would attempt a third party. But as a free agent – a rover in the political croquet game – he may prove now to be in a position to exert more influence than as a candidate for the presidential nomination. His opposition to Governor Dewey’s nomination generally is conceded. He now is in a position to ask embarrassing questions. That Mr. Willkie will continue the “America First” theme of attack is almost inevitable and he is expected to bombard the Governor with questions about his availability for the Republican nomination in view of Governor Dewey’s repeated statements that he wants to complete his four-year term in Albany.

Stop-Dewey drive

Another development foreseen today was a “Stop-Dewey” movement which should attract Cdr. Stassen, Gen. MacArthur’s supporters and Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio. It is the custom of presidential aspirations to mow down the frontrunner. That may explain in part what happened to Mr. Willkie in Wisconsin.

Some Republicans expressed regret that Mr. Willkie attacked Governor Dewey as being supported by “America Firsters.” Among them Senator Robert A. Taft (R-OH), who said:

It is unfortunate that Willkie allowed his natural disappointments to lead him to attack Republicans who disagree with him on foreign policy. Nevertheless, his withdrawal will lead to greater unity of all Republicans behind the principles declared at Mackinac.

Other Republican comments:

• Senator Gerald P. Nye (R-ND):

I am surprised at Willkie would allude to the America First backing… which seems to be an acknowledgment that the America First thought is still prominent in this country.

• Senator John A. Danaher (R-CT):

If Mr. Roosevelt would only do the same thing, I think our people would have a great deal more confidence in the general scene.

• Rep. Hamilton Fish (R-NY):

The withdrawal of Mr. Willkie is an unselfish and patriotic act in order to promote unity in the Republican Party and assure the Republican Party and assure the defeat of the New Deal, the fourth term and the bureaucratic administration.

Landon surprised

Alf M. Landon, 1936 Republican nominee, said he was surprised by Mr. Willkie’s action and added:

Last December, I predicted that Dewey would be the nominee and that Willkie would not be much of a factor at the convention. The results in Wisconsin speak for themselves.

Representative Democratic command came from Herman P. Eberharter (D-Philadelphia):

Willkie had no chance from the beginning because the bosses had greased the Republican machinery for their favorite boy – Dewey. We’ll take Dewey without even breathing.