GOP committee claims foreign policy accord
Chicago, Illinois (UP) – (June 24)
The Republican convention’s foreign policy subcommittee, striving for a platform declaration which would unite the party and at the same time eliminate international relations as a November campaign issue, reported tonight it had completed its task in “complete harmony.”
Committee Chairman Senator Warren R. Austin (R-VT) declined to reveal the details of the foreign policy proposal until it is reported to the next meeting of the convention resolutions committee, scheduled for Monday.
It was expected, however, to follow closely the recommendations of a foreign policy advisory committee for “cooperative” direction by the United Nations of “peace forces” to prevent future wars.
Divergent views presented
Foreign policy had been one of the chief intra-party divisions as Republicans began drafting the platform on which they intend to challenge the New Deal in the November elections.
Agreement came despite the fact that the concluding public hearing this morning had been marked by presentation of widely divergent views on the question.
Senator Joseph H. Ball (R-MN) said that a tentative draft favoring “cooperative” direction of “peace forces” to prevent future wars, contained “rubber words,” but would be acceptable if endorsement of an outright international police force such as he advocates cannot be obtained.
Would put U.S. interests first
Senator Edward V. Robertson (R-WY) went to the other extreme by proposing a nationalist platform which would put American interests ahead of all other considerations and would stipulate that international cooperation does not mean an international police force or “an international New Deal with the United States in the role of Santa Claus.”
In the final analysis, the subcommittee is expected to recommend to the convention without material change the tentative draft submitted yesterday by Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI) as chairman of a special committee appointed six months ago to make a particular study of party sentiment. Vandenberg called his draft the “common denominator” on which all members of the party could stand.
Domestic issues less difficult
Platform proposals on domestic affairs, being drafted by six other subcommittees, generally involved less intra-party differences.
The agriculture group, headed by Governor B. B. Hickenlooper of Iowa, this morning heard Albert Goss, master of the National Grange, condemn government farm subsidies, and then recessed until tomorrow to receive the report of a farm advisory committee appointed last September at the Mackinac Conference.
The general drafting committee, handling such miscellaneous questions as equal rights for women, race discrimination, the St. Lawrence Seaway and a host of other subjects, was the only other group meeting during the day.
Other questions up
The other platform subcommittees and some of the questions before them included:
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Post-war business: Principally a plank which will stress that a healthy post-war economy depends upon a free enterprise system with a minimum of government interference.
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Foreign Trade Committee: Tariff considerations which may include a demand that reciprocal trade treaties be submitted to the Senate for ratification.
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Western and Pacific: The fate of war-borne industrialization of the far West in the post-war period as well as post-war programs for irrigation and reclamation.
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Labor: Confronted with a demand for repeal of the Smith-Connally anti-strike act which Congress passed over a presidential veto last year.
Dewey aides sure of keystone group
Chicago, Illinois (UP) – (June 24)
Supporters of Governor Dewey of New York expressed confidence today that Pennsylvania’s 70 Republican convention votes will be cast for his presidential nomination.
“They’ll go along with him,” said one of the spokesmen at Dewey-for-President headquarters. He added that Joseph N. Pew, one of the leaders of the Pennsylvania delegation, has been in touch with J. Russell Sprague, a Dewey manager.
The Pennsylvania delegation caucuses tomorrow night and is expected to make a final determination of the course it will follow.
Meanwhile, Dewey headquarters continued confident that he would win the nomination on the first ballot. Dewey, Sprague said, has agreed come to Chicago to appear before the convention “right after his nomination.”