Election 1944: Pre-convention news

[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.

[NormanStewart]

Senator Byrd ‘nominated’ for President

Bailey discounts fourth term try

Washington (UP) –
Senator Josiah W. Bailey (D-NC), influential Southern Democrat, said today he doubted that President Roosevelt will seek a fourth term and “nominated” Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-VA) as the party’s 1944 presidential candidate.

Senator Bailey elaborated on his views after he had written a letter to the Byrd-for-President headquarters declaring that although Senator Byrd is not an announced candidate, “I would support him for the nomination for President with unreserved confidence.”

Senator Bailey said he expected most of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention at Chicago this July, including those from North Carolina, would favor renomination of President Roosevelt.

Senator Bailey added:

But I seriously question he will run for a fourth term. I doubt that any man would aspire to a fourth term in the Presidency.

If the President doesn’t run, I think that Byrd for President and Farley [James A. Farley] for Vice President would make a fine ticket.

[NormanStewart]

Bricker mum on Willkie’s withdrawal

Ohio Governor guest at Duquesne Club

On his visit here last night “just to meet a few people,” Ohio’s Governor John W. Bricker declared that if he is successful in his campaign for the Presidency, he will not be a candidate for a second term.

The “few people” Governor Bricker came to Pittsburgh to get acquainted with at a dinner in the Duquesne Club were 80 of Pittsburgh’s leading industrialists and businessmen. Hosts for the dinner were steel man E. T. Weir, glass manufacturer H. S. Wherrett and Westinghouse official A. W. Robertson.

No comment on Willkie

The Ohio executive refused any comment concerning the announcement in Omaha, Nebraska, last night that Wendell L. Willkie had withdrawn his candidacy for the Presidency. He declared that any comment he might make concerning Mr. Willkie’s withdrawal announcement would come from his office in Columbus, Ohio.

If nominated and elected the nation’s Chief Executive, Governor Bricker declared that he would press for Congressional legislation to limit the tenure of future Presidents to two four-year terms.

The 51-year-old Ohio Governor said:

Too long a time spent in executive office enables a man to build up a power that is detrimental to our democratic processes of government.

I think that the next President should serve only one term and that after that our legislation should permit no man more than two four-year terms.

Not entered in Wisconsin

Asked why he had not entered the Wisconsin primary, Governor Bricker declared he had enough to do in Ohio and that it requires too much money for such an organization as was needed.

Concerning what effect a Republican President would have on the war, Governor Bricker said:

I think a Republican victory would strengthen the war effort.

He asserted that:

Such a victory would be an assurance to our boys at the front that they are still fighting for a democratic government.

Slaps at OWI

Governor Bricker slapped at the present administration, declaring that in his opinion, the Office of War Information has been used as a tool for propaganda purposes and "as a cloak for fourth-term propaganda.”

Among those attending the dinner were W. P. Witherow and William B. McFall, both candidates for delegates to the Republican National Convention in Chicago.

[NormanStewart]

Stokes: Willkie runs true to form as question mark in GOP

By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Cleveland, Ohio –
True to form, Wendell Willkie provided the country with a couple of sensations in one day by his devastating defeat in the Wisconsin presidential primary and his almost-immediate recognition of that personal political debacle by his withdrawal from the race for the Republican nomination upon which he had set his heart.

This double-barreled action created two interesting situations, on as to the nomination, the other as to Mr. Willkie himself.

The way seemed clear for the nomination of Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York and, some were forecasting confidently, on the first ballot. For, in the same primary, the young governor topped off the popular swing toward him among rank-and-file Republicans, matched by general support among organization leaders so hostile to Mr. Willkie, by beating the 1940 candidate on his own selected field and without raising a finger.

What about Willkie?

What about Mr. Willkie?

From his own statement of renunciation last night and from sources close to Mr. Willkie, the immediate situation is about as follows:

He will cease activity looking toward the nomination but he will confine himself to a discussion of principles. He believes the Republican Party must adopt to win and will indulge in no personalities, will attack no other candidate.

After convention

What he does after the convention will depend upon the nominee and the platform.

If he does not approve the candidate and the platform, he has three courses open:

• He could bolt the party and lead an independent movement.

• He could refuse to support the nominee and campaign actively against him, either independently or in an open alliance with the Democrats.

• He could refuse to support the nominee and do nothing – “Take a walk,” as Al Smith once expressed it.

He’s not saying

He is not saying. He is not saying on purpose. He wants to keep the GOP leaders worried for the effect it may have on them in chartering a course that would be satisfactory to him. He still has a considerable nuisance value. He knows that.

He has stepped now into the role so long occupied by William Jennings Bryan in the Democratic Party and the late Senator William E. Borah of Idaho in the Republican Party – the man always in the wings, ready to step out and raise hell at inconvenient moments.

Both those remained in their respective parties.

Little room in party

Mr. Willkie is not leaving himself much room in which to move around in the Republican Party. He sees hardly anyone beside himself who would fit the prescription he has written in his Wisconsin campaign. Governor Dewey does not seem to suit him, and certainly not Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio.

Governor Saltonstall of Massachusetts, or perhaps Senator Burton of Ohio, might satisfy him, but they are distinctly dark horses, and LtCdr. Stassen, whose general political philosophy is akin to that of Mr. Willkie, is also in the dark horse class. Mr. Willkie is feeling somewhat resentful at Cdr. Stassen, once a close ally and ex-Governor of Minnesota, who ran ahead of him in Wisconsin.

Mr. Willkie is going to be hard to satisfy.

[NormanStewart]

Roosevelt-Willkie ticket is rumored

Boston, Massachusetts (UP) –
The Boston Post, in a dispatch from Washington, said today that some political observers predict that President Roosevelt would propose Wendell Willkie as the vice-presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket. The Post said the idea was to form a coalition government while the war was on and for settlement of the peace.

---

Ely calls Democrats

Boston, Massachusetts –
Former Massachusetts Governor Joseph B. Ely announced today that the state’s anti-Roosevelt Democrats will hold a mass meeting here next Thursday in preparation for the April 25 presidential primaries in which 50 Ely-for-President delegates and alternates will appear on the ballot.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: Willkie’s opportunity

Wendell Willkie’s withdrawal as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination is a bow to the inevitable. He chose to make the Wisconsin primary, in which he was the only active candidate, a personal test. Crushing defeat was the result. As he admitted last night with commendable candor: “It is obvious now that I cannot be nominated.”

He says:

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 these principles and policies for which I have fought during the last five years.

As an American, he knows the meaning of sportsmanship. As a politician, he knows the public has no use for a poor loser.

This defeat is at once a test of his character and a new opportunity. In losing his chance to be the Republican nominee, Mr. Willkie by good sportsmanship may get a better chance to serve the ideals he professes. Now that the personal ambition barrier has been removed, the people may hear him more readily than ever. If he believes in his crusade enough to serve in the ranks, he may yet achieve in another way the results and the popularity he missed.

He has been fighting against the administration’s excesses and failures on the one hand, and against “economic Toryism and narrow nationalism” on the other. Well, that fight goes on. It will go on with or without Mr. Willkie.

But Mr. Willkie can help in the fight. He can help very much, for he has a great deal to give. We hope he will.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (April 7, 1944)

GOP rivals scramble for Willkie vote

Governor Bricker first to woo supporters

Washington (UP) –
The scramble for the Republican presidential support cast loose by Wendell L. Willkie was underway today with Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio the first in the field.

Governor Bricker, the only remaining announced candidate among the top contenders, told the Indianapolis Press Club last night that Mr. Willkie’s withdrawal would intensify his own campaign for delegates to the GOP National Convention at Chicago late in June.

Whether Governor Bricker can assemble enough strength before the convention to outstrip Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, generally accepted as frontrunner at the moment, remained problematical.

Johnston mentioned

Meanwhile, the name of Eric A. Johnston, president of the Chamber of Commerce, was projected into the picture as a possible dark horse contender.

Mr. Johnston’s name was suggested by a New England Senator, a supporter of Mr. Willkie’s policies on international affairs. He said he had been sounded out recently by influential persons on his attitude toward the Chamber of Commerce president.

Some believed that Mr. Willkie, instead of accepting Governor Dewey, might get behind the candidacy of someone with a foreign policy more nearly like his own, such as LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen, who was his 1940 convention floor manager, or a dark horse such as Mr. Johnston.

Appeal of winner

There was some argument that a large segment would fall to Governor Dewey because of his leading opposition and the “human desire to ride a winner.” But this was countered by the contention that some of the Willkie supporters would never side with what they consider the isolationist elements that have joined in backing the New York Governor.

Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI), the Senate’s principal advocate of Gen. Douglas MacArthur for the nomination, insisted that the convention will be dominated by uninstructed delegates and “the result, therefore, still is in the laps of the gods.”

Senator Vandenberg, now in Florida, said the Wisconsin primary showed “a spectacular testimonial to his [Dewey’s] 1944 popularity,” but he believed Gen. MacArthur’s showing likewise was “remarkable, with the candidate not only silent but 10,000 miles away.”

Pace-setter Dewey has ‘no comment’

Albany, New York (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey sidestepped questions regarding his presidential aspirations at his first press conference since Wendell L. Willkie’s withdrawal from the GOP nomination race.

He added:

I have discussed that subject so many times that my position in it is entirely clear. There won’t be any comment on any political question. I’m wholly engaged in attempting to dispose of some 900 bills left by the Legislature.

Governor Dewey likewise declined comment on a statement by Mayor Theodore R. Keldin of Baltimore that Governor Dewey was a “100% candidate.” Mr. Keldin’s statement was made following a visit with the Governor in New York City.

Bricker prepares to press campaign

Indianapolis, Indiana (UP) –
Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio today prepared to redouble “my efforts to fully inform the nation of my position on all the important questions confronting the people of the country today.”

Governor Bricker said later in Chicago he does not believe Wendell Willkie will bolt the Republican Party. At a press conference, he said he was “fairly certain” Mr. Willkie would not form a third party or return to the Democratic Party.

Governor Bricker, making his initial bid for support of the Hoosier delegation at the Republican National Convention, spoke at the Press Club last night shortly after Indiana GOP leaders indicated they would support Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York for the presidential nomination.

He said:

I am convinced that the Republican convention will be a deliberative one and that it will select as the Republican nominee the man that it determines represents the thinking of the Republicans of the entire country, and the man who can defeat in November the New Deal philosophy of government.

I have in the past few months spoken before hundreds of interested groups of Republicans and real Democrats alike in the East, South and Midwest, and in the next two weeks will carry my campaign to the Far West.

[NormanStewart]

I DARE SAY —
Travesty

By Florence Fisher Parry

Wendell Willkie is through. That’s what people are saying, the stunned ones and the gloating ones alike.

The Republican Party does not want him. Four years ago, it did. Four years ago, 22,304,755 people voted for him – the greatest number of people who ever cast their votes for any one man, except Franklin D. Roosevelt, for President. No Republican total for any elected President had ever been so high.

But that was four years ago. How could an honest man, a forthright and outspoken man, not afraid to speak the unpopular truth, think for a moment that he could last four years?

Now he is through at 52 years. He finds himself repudiated, denied, unwanted by American people who four years ago whipped themselves into a frenzy of determination that he was to be their President.

It is an American trait. It can happen only here. It is one of the oldest traits in human nature, but elsewhere it has not the opportunity to function so unimpededly. Only here, only in this free, unbridled land, can fickleness function with such utter ruthlessness.

Suicide

There are those, of course, who even now are saying he brought it on himself. He would not listen. And they are speaking truly. That is so. Wendell Willkie is an unmanageable man. His party could not manage him. Even the small and dedicated coterie of disciples who were so willing to work and die for him could not manage him.

Always there were those who were saying to him, “But Wendell, you can’t afford to do this and you cannot afford to say that.”

Looking back upon it now, one might have known he was bound to fail, for, realist though he was, he possessed one fatal trait. He believed with an almighty passion in the American people’s basic common sense; and that belief led him into making the fatal mistake of putting that common sense to too severe a test. He overestimated our intelligence. He lost out because he believed us faithful.

I knew. I knew on the last day of March what would happen in that Wisconsin primary. I knew it by a simple token. This is how and why I knew it:

I was standing by my window looking down at the shoppers. The streets were as crowded as they had been on Christmas Eve. Swarms of people were jamming into the stores and emerging from them heavy with bundles. The streetcars sagged with their human loads. The restaurants were packed. No merchant, no restauranteur, no salesgirl, no policeman had ever known such an Easter shopping frenzy. It was the day before the new tax on luxuries went into effect.

The nightclubs and hotels could not understand such Lenten business! For this, dear reader, was Lent in wartime, on the zero hour of our Allied invasion in Europe. Lent. Invasion. And a frenzied spending spree. And the Red Cross couldn’t meet its quota.

And there was Wendell Willkie up in Wisconsin, pumping his heart out hoarsening his voice again, trying to be heard, trying to make them listen, telling them what they were going to be in for in sacrifice and taxes and post-war burdens. Warning them. Telling them the truth. Exhorting them to face and prepare for what was to follow the war and its crushing, unavoidable, unending cost. Trying to sell them the fantastic idea that I-am-my-brother’s-keeper. Trying to sell them a map of One World.

Campaigning like that! Can you beat it? Pumping his heart out, ruining his chances, killing himself, this American, this man Willkie!

The great loss

Well, they say he had it coming to him. Didn’t he know when to shut up? Would he never know what was good for him?

Look at that man Dewey now, for example. Close-mouthed, noncommittal, Tom Dewey. Now there’s a candidate for you… a man who knew how to avoid taking risks, a man so slick that he couldn’t make a damaging statement or offend a voter! Tom Dewey, our Republican No. 1 prospect for the office of the President of the United States. A wonder boy. The Manhattan go-getter. The GOP’s pet, now.

But I and millions of others are unreconciled. We have not so many great men in this world that we can afford to render one impotent for the work that is ahead.

His prophetic warning should burn into our hearts, pound at our ears, and give our minds no peace, the fearless and honest speech of a man who knows no fear who will not be intimidated, who counts his country’s welfare greater than his own. And who in a moment of his acknowledged defeat, stands still among the great Americans we have today.