Election 1944: Pre-convention news

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McHarg forms group to draft MacArthur

New York (UP) –
Ormsby McHarg, former general counsel of the Republican National Committee, announcing formation of a “Draft-MacArthur organization,” said today that he was “perfectly satisfied” that Gen. Douglas MacArthur would accept the Republican nomination for President if it is offered to him.

Mr. McHarg said his information came to him through sources “I wouldn’t dream of exposing.”

In announcing formation of the MacArthur National Associates, Mr. McHarg said the organization was “dedicated to the proposition that Douglas MacArthur should be nominated by the Republican Party for the office of President” at the Chicago convention in June.

The Pittsburgh Press (January 20, 1944)

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2 Dewey delegates go over to Willkie

Madison, Wisconsin (UP) –
Two more Wisconsin leaders of the “Draft-Dewey” movement switched to the Willkie camp today because they had not “received any encouragement that the New York Governor will be a candidate.”

The two, State Assembly Speaker Vernon Thompson of Richland Center, and Ralph Nelson of Superior, who had previously announced their candidacy for election as Dewey delegates to the GOP convention, became the third and fourth 1940 Dewey supporters to bolt in favor of Willkie.

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Davis holds lead in Louisiana vote

New Orleans, Louisiana (UP) –
Tabulation of more than half the votes in the Louisiana Democratic gubernatorial primary indicated today that a runoff will be necessary to decide the state’s next governor.

James H. “Jimmie” Davis, hillbilly songwriter of Shreveport, held a lead of almost 10,000 votes over his machine-backed opponent, Lewis L. Morgan of Covington, in returns from 1,002 of the state’s 1,867 precincts. Those districts gave Davis 97,157 votes to Morgan’s 87,953.

Davis took the lead yesterday afternoon when returns from the rural areas overcame Morgan’s early margin, built up by the machine vote from New Orleans.

Earl K. Long, a brother of the late Huey Long, was leading the race for lieutenant governor and had almost attained a majority.

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Willkie throws support behind federal vote bill

Washington (UP) –
The CIO Committee for Political Action today pressed a last-minute drive to mobilize support for federal soldier-vote legislation as the controversial issue came a step closer to a showdown in the House.

Sidney Hillman, chairman of the CIO committee, appealed for support for a federal plan in telegrams to Wendell Willkie and Governors Thomas E. Dewey of New York and John W. Bricker of Ohio, prominent prospects for the 1944 Republican presidential nomination.

Mr. Hillman drew almost immediate response from Mr. Willkie, who said he favored federal soldier-vote legislation.

He declared:

I do not believe that it is possible in a practical manner under state statutes for every member of the armed services to be given the opportunity to vote. I would not wish to be elected President of the United States without every member of the armed services having an opportunity to vote to decide whether I should be.

House action on the soldier-vote issue appeared likely next week. Meanwhile, there were charges that the administration was trying to stall the Elections Committee’s state’s rights bill and threats of possible “civil war” should returning servicemen find their political “freedoms” abridged.

Chairman Adolph J. Sabath (D-IL) said his House Rules Committee would open hearing tomorrow to determine rules under which the bill would be debated.

Mr. Hillman’s statement urged Congress to maintain the honor and justice of the nation, its people, its Congress and its Constitution by supporting a federal ballot. He called on the Senate to reverse itself and pass a federal ballot law and the House to recommit this “disgraceful bill” which would keep all the machinery except the carrying of the ballots by mail in the States.

He said he had appealed for the third time to Chairman Harrison E. Spangler of the Republican National Committee to rally the GOP to the support of the federal ballot proposal.

House may avoid soldier-vote roll call

By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent

Washington –
Soldier-vote Congressmen today tried to head off a parliamentary situation which would enable their opponents to avoid a House roll call on the proposal to give every member of the Armed Forces a federal ballot.

The Eastland-Rankin “states’ rights” bill, referring the soldier vote to state legislation, will come before the House as a result of its approval by the House Federal Elections Committee.

Chairman Eugene Worley (D-TX) and other soldier-vote supporters plan to offer the Worley compromise measure for a federal soldier ballot as a substitute for the Eastland-Rankin Bill.

Under House rules, however, there can be no roll call on the Worley substitute bill, because it was defeated in committee and will be offered as an amendment to a bill already amended in committee.

Accordingly, Congressmen who are shaky about voting for a federal ballot, can avoid placing themselves on record for or against it by supporting the bill which comes before the House – the “states’ rights” version.

Rep. James A. Wright (D-PA) pointed out:

It permits them to duck. By supporting the Eastland-Rankin Bill, they can say they voted for a soldier vote. If they vote against it, through preference for the Worley Bill, they can be represented as against the soldier ballot.

The sole chance of getting a clear-cut expression of the House on the Worley compromise bill lay with the Rules Committee.

The Pittsburgh Press (January 21, 1944)

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Farm protest viewed as aid to fourth term

Midwest group proposes to oust Wickard and Black
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Washington (UP) –
Democratic National Committee members gathering here for tomorrow’s one-day meeting were developing enthusiasm today for a fourth term for President Roosevelt.

Representatives of Midwest Democrats have been invited to convene today in a protest meeting curtain-raiser to the national committee session. But all concerned explain there is no protest against Mr. Roosevelt, but only against some of his farm policy advisers.

Today’s meeting has been widely advertised as directed against Harry L. Hopkins and David K. Niles, two of the President’s political intimates. But the farm-conference sponsors deny that, too.

Nebraska committeeman James C. Quigley, who invited representatives of 13 farm states to meet today, said they would be gunning for Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard and Governor A. G. Black of the Farm Credit Administration.

Invited to the conference were national committeemen and state chairmen from North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Indiana and Wisconsin.

Mr. Quigley said he hoped the conference would help win back to the Democratic Party the farm vote “lost by such misfits as Wickard and Black.”

Looks to ‘the peace’

Mr. Quigley is for a fourth term, explaining that “President Roosevelt should write the peace.”

He added:

Who should make the peace is going to be the whole issue this fall. If the Republicans ever hope to win, they will have to produce a statesman who can sit down with Stalin and Churchill and hold his own.

Maine committeeman F. Harold Dubord said he was for a fourth term and predicted that Mr. Roosevelt could carry Maine this time. He lost in his first three tries.

California committeeman Culbert Olson said he and many other members were for the President again. Oregon committeeman Howard Latourette said his state would send a Roosevelt delegation to the Democratic National Convention.

It’s purely personal

Reports of Midwest rumblings against Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Niles have been interpreted as reflecting considerable farm sentiment against a fourth term for Mr. Roosevelt.

Mr. Hopkins was the actual ringmaster of the 1940 Democratic National Convention at which the President was nominated for a third term. Until the war began to absorb his interest, Mr. Hopkins was generally regarded as the administration’s most active political figure, next to Mr. Roosevelt.

Mr. Niles has been charged in the anti-Roosevelt camp with responsibility for fourth term strategy. He is one of six administrative assistants to the President.

According to report

Mr. Hopkins is a special assistant to the President in addition to his responsibilities as a member of the Red Cross Central Committee, chairman of the Munitions Assignment Board, member of the War Mobilization Committee, and trustee of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.

Other than persistent published reports, however, there is no evidence here that the farm state conference is intended as a challenge of any kind to a fourth term.

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Racial groups plan active part in 1944 vote drives

By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Washington –
Color and racial discrimination will be kept a live issue through this session of Congress and the 1944 political campaign, according to plans being made here by a conference of more than 100 leaders of Negro and other minority groups.

Their main effort will be centered in the next few weeks on urging Congress to enact legislation, just introduced, to make a statutory and permanent agency out of the Fair Employment Practices Committee, which was established by presidential order June 25, 1941.

March is planned

This committee, now under investigation by a House committee on a charge of exceeding its authority, would be made into a commission of seven $10,000-a-year members, and would be empowered to issue orders and cause the punishment of persons who resist them, including employers in interstate commerce and officers of labor unions maintaining bars to membership on color or racial grounds.

A “mass march on Washington” to impress Congress with the demand for this bill is in a stage of advanced planning, said B. F. McLaurin, national organizer of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, who declared it would be “a peaceful demonstration intended to prevent possible violence and rioting in the middle of war, or after the war.”

Such a march was planned in early 1941, and is said to have been averted when President Roosevelt agreed to appoint the Fair Employment Committee. A. Philip Randolph, the Harvard graduate who heads the sleeping car porters and is guiding the present Washington conference, went on the radio on two nationwide hookups to call off the march.

Committee called blunder

In the first session of the conference, Mr. Randolph charged President Roosevelt with “a great blunder” in appointing a committee to seek a solution to the present controversy of FEPC with 16 Southeastern railroads and some of their unions of white employees. The committee has met with outright refusal from these railroads to obey its directives ordering employment of Negroes, and the unions have ignored the committee.

The committee is headed by Judge Walter P. Stacy of North Carolina. Its appointment, the Negro leader said, was:

…a delaying tactic which kept us from being farther on our way. Some Southern railroads already have begun to give jobs to colored men who were heretofore barred, and there has been definite progress. The President must be made to see that he made a great blunder in that the Stacy Committee serves to give aid and comfort to the recalcitrant railroads.

To write political planks

The conference also plans a meeting of Negro politicians prior to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions this summer, to draft proposals for incorporation into the party platforms.

The International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, headed by David Dubinsky, is announced as contributor of $5,000 to an expense fund now at $25,000.

Among well-known names listed in the membership of the National Council for a Permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission are those of Senators Capper (R-KS), Gillette (R-IA) and Wagner (D-NY); several members of the House; William Green, Philip Murray, R. J. Thomas, Walter Reuther and other labor leaders; Msgr. John A. Ryan, Roger Baldwin, Norman Thomas and Wendell Willkie.

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Soldier vote fight near

Washington (UP) –
The House and Senate moved toward an inter-chamber battle today over soldier-vote legislation as administration opponents professed to see fourth-term propaganda in administration support of federal balloting machinery for servicemen.

The Senate Elections Committee late yesterday approved by a 12–2 vote the Green-Lucas compromise designed to meet protests of Southern Democrats and Republicans against earlier proposed soldier-vote legislation.

Meanwhile, a widely divergent measure approved by the House Elections Committee, leaving soldier voting in the hands of the states, was before the House Rules Committee.

Rep. Calvin D. Johnson (R-IL), in a speech prepared for delivery in the House, charged that administration interest in the soldier vote and President Roosevelt’s “insincere suggestion” that national service legislation be enacted were motivated by the hope that service personnel will “support the administration for a fourth term.”

The Pittsburgh Press (January 22, 1944)

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In Washington –
Soldier vote scheduled for House debate

Rules committee approves controversial states’ rights measure

Washington (UP) –
The House Rules Committee today gave the go-ahead for floor consideration next week of controversial legislation that would leave control of soldier voting with the states, and the Senate arranged to decide Monday whether it will act then on a compromise version of its previously-approved state’s rights measure.

The prospect that the Senate will vote twice on the same subject before the House even takes initial action drew a protest from Senator Robert A. Taft (R-OH), who said he considered it “an extraordinary parliamentary procedure.” Senate Democratic Leader Alben W. Barkley (D-KY) said it was not at all unusual.

This was the situation:

Last December, the Senate approved a substitute measure giving states control over soldier voting. The measure was sent to the House, but the Christmas recess blocked House consideration. Now, the Senate is preparing to act on a compromise which calls for federal distribution and collection of the ballots and leaves with local election boards the counting of the ballots and determination of their validity.

This week, a Republican-Democrat coalition forced House Elections Committee approval of a bill similar to the original Senate state’s rights measure, Committee chairman Eugene Worley (D-TX) was in the minority. He backed a bill similar to the compromise measure now pending in the Senate.

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Hannegan made new chairman of Democrats

Unanimously elected to succeed Walker as head of party
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Washington –
The Democratic National Committee today unanimously elected Robert E. Hannegan of St. Louis as the party’s new chairman to lead the anticipated fourth-term campaign for President Roosevelt.

Mr. Hannegan, now Commissioner of Internal Revenue, was chosen by acclamation after James P. Aylward, Democratic national committeeman from Missouri, had placed him in nomination in a speech which roused the committee to a burst of applause when he referred to Mr. Roosevelt’s election to a fourth term.

Mr. Hannegan succeeds Postmaster General Frank C. Walker in the national chairmanship.

Resigns revenue post

Mr. Aylward began:

When the history of the next campaign is written and we win another presidential election with President Roosevelt for a fourth term–

…when he was interrupted by the committee’s enthusiastic response.

In a brief talk following his election, Mr. Hannegan did not mention the fourth term, but said the party could win this year if members all pulled together.

Hannegan continued:

I am a plain, ordinary, everyday, 100%, straight organization Democrat. I’m not angry at any Democrat. I am very proud to have worked under Jim Farley for years and I don’t think we will ever had another chairman as able as he.

I’m frightened up here, this is the big league for me. I am used to the bush leagues out in the Ozarks.

Immediately after his election, the White House announced Mr. Hannegan’s resignation as Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

Practiced law 15 years

Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. appointed Assistant Commissioner Harold N. Groves as acting chief of the Internal Revenue Bureau.

Mr. Aylward, in proposing Mr. Hannegan as Mr. Walker’s successor, said that Mr. Hannegan said practiced law for 15 years in St. Louis, had served as chairman of the Democratic City Committee in that city for four years and “under his leadership the Democrats regained control of the city.”

He described Mr. Hannegan as an active, aggressive and progressive” man who “knows politics from the bottom up.”

Tribute paid Walker

Mr. Aylward told fellow committeemen:

You may be sure that he will deal with your problems with honesty and in a very practical way.

While a committee sought Mr. Hannegan to escort him to the platform, members paid tribute to Mr. Walker’s service. Mayor Edward Kelly of Chicago said that he was regretful that Mr. Walker was leaving his post because “I think he is perfectly competent to again lead this party to victory.”

Mrs. Mary T. Norton of New Jersey said that no man was more loyal, patriotic and sincere than Mr. Walker.

Calling the New Deal administration period the “glorious decade,” Mr. Walker said the future demanded the election in 1944 of a President and a Congress who will fearlessly lead the country to victory in war and victory in peace.

Resigning with regret

Democratic leaders here for the meeting generally agreed on making President Roosevelt their nominee again.

Mr. Walker told the committee he was resigning the chairmanship “with genuine regret.” War, he said, had brought fresh problems and a constantly growing volume to the Post Office Department which now requires “the full attention and energy of the Postmaster General.” He asked that there be “no misunderstanding” as to his attitude.

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GOP gains send Democrats rushing back to Roosevelt

Willing to forgive and forget, they concede President is only hope of November success

Washington –
The effect of a fear psychosis is illustrated in the attitude of Democratic leaders who have gathered here to plan their National Convention and to celebrate Jackson Day at dinner tonight.

They are somberly reflecting the constant succession of Republican by-election victories. Gone is the buoyancy of old.

In their fear they are rushing pell-mell to President Roosevelt as their only possible hope of success in November, with a “Save u “ gesture. They are ready to forget and forgive.

Glibly they predict that the President will run again.

‘Revolution’ fizzles

The lion-to-lamb transformation was symbolized in the fizzle of the one-man revolution plotted by National Committeeman James C. Quigley when he faced reporters who had listened to him blowing hot and heavy for several days about the revolt he was engineering among Midwestern members – about Secretary of Agriculture Wickard and farm policy, about lack of recognition in patronage for the regular organization.

He sat at the head of the table, among the remains of the luncheon consumed by the supposed “revolters” from a dozen Midwestern and Northwestern states. Chagrin overspread his round face. The fire was gone from his eyes.

Meeting in complete unity

This committee, Mr. Quigley said, had been delegated to–

Eyes were alert. Pencils poised.

“– meet the press.”

Anti-climax.

The meeting, he said, was “in complete unity.”

Pencils dropped.

They had adopted a resolution unanimously.

Once more attention.

Mr. Quigley read it.

It declared for a fourth term for President Roosevelt and for the election of Robert E. Hannegan of Missouri as new national chairman to succeed Frank C. Walker, who is retiring.

Still against Wickard

Several questions were popped at once. All right, but what had happened to the advertised revolt? How about Secretary Wickard?

Lamely, Mr. Quigley said he was still against him personally, wanted his ousted from the Cabinet, but this question was not before the conference. It was learned later that Mr. Wickard had not even been mentioned at the closed luncheon session.

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Editorial: Still on guard

From the Philadelphia Bulletin

Republican National Committeeman G. Mason Owlett, in a letter to The Evening Bulletin, insists his warning against the “post-war return of American-made, government-owned war merchandise to this country at bargain prices and duty free” has nothing to do with the repayment of war debts, our gold supply or Lend-Lease. It is Mr. Owlett’s opinion that the influx of such distressed merchandise after the last war “helped create a depression which ran six years.”

But Mr. Owlett himself in his letter worries about:

…the amount of goods and material of foreign origin which is apt to find its way into this market following the close of the war.

In capital letter phrases, he warns against such economic cooperation with the rest of the world as may make “American enterprise a decadent, retrogressive victim of low-cost foreign competition.”

It is clear that Mr. Owlett looks upon the import of foreign goods into this country with an unfriendly eye, as though they were a menace to be guarded against and not an asset.

Such an attitude does concern the repayment of Lend-Lease and the future of our foreign trade markets. For we cannot be repaid or expand our sales abroad unless we are willing to accept the goods of other nations in greater volume than before the war. Foreign trade is not a one-way street.

The Pittsburgh Press (January 23, 1944)

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Chicago chosen for convention –
Democratic leaders back fourth term for Roosevelt

Approve resolution asking President to continue as ‘our great humanitarian leader’
By Arthur F. Degreve, United Press staff writer

Washington – (Jan. 22)
The Democratic National Committee, in a thinly-veiled appeal to President Roosevelt to seek a fourth term, today unanimously approved a resolution calling on him to continue as “our great world humanitarian leader” and declaring his liberalism “must be imprinted in the peace.”

The resolution, the last of 12 approved without dissent, said:

We pledge full and unflinching confidence in President Roosevelt’s leadership at home and abroad.

The action came after Robert E. Hannegan of St. Louis, a 40-year-old lawyer-politician, had been named national party chairman as successor to Postmaster General Frank C. Walker, who resigned to devote his entire time to his federal post.

Coincident with his election, the White House announced Mr. Hannegan’s resignation as Commissioner of Internal Revenue. In accepting Mr. Hannegan’s resignation, Mr. Roosevelt avoided all mention of politics, but said Mr. Hannegan had “my continued good wishes and confidence.”

The committee chose Chicago as the site of the forthcoming national convention – when, if the delegates’ wishes are followed, Mr. Roosevelt apparently will be named the party’s standard-bearer for the fourth time – but left to Mr. Hannegan’s discretion the time. The Republican National Convention will be held in Chicago beginning June 26, and the Democratic meeting is expected to be late in July.

Show of sentiment

The first show of delegate sentiment on a fourth term came early in the meeting when James P. Aylward, Missouri national committeeman, recommended Mr. Hannegan as Mr. Walker’s successor.

He began:

When the history of the next campaign is written and we win another presidential election with President Roosevelt for a fourth term–

He was interrupted by cheering delegates.

In accepting the post, Mr. Hannegan described himself as a “plain, everyday, 100%, straight organization Democrat.” He said he was “frightened up here – this is the big league for me and I’m used to the bush leagues out in the Ozarks.”

To avoid party feuds

Mr. Hannegan made it plain that he would remain aloof from party feuds. He paid tribute to James A. Farley, former national chairman who managed the first two Roosevelt campaigns and then broke with his political partner over a third term, and said he would seek advice from him.

At the same time, however, he emphasized he would also consult with Mr. Walker and with Edward J. Flynn of New York, who succeeded Mr. Farley to the chairmanship.

Mr. Walker left the chairmanship expressing confidence in a Democratic victory and warning that the nation must elect a President and a Congress in November who “will fearlessly lead America to victory in war and to victory in peace…”

Green reports resolution

The resolution soliciting the President to “continue as our great world humanitarian leader” was reported by a committee headed by Senator Theodore F. Green (D-RI), a strong administration supporter and fourth-term proponent. On the group were also other fourth-term supporters as Mayor Edward J. Kelly of Chicago.

The Democratic chieftains will leave for home as much in doubt about the President’s fourth-term plans as they were when they came here. Mr. Roosevelt gave them no hint of his intentions at a tea given in their honor at the White House Friday.

There was general agreement that the party could not win in 1944 unless the President headed the ticket. But one committeeman described the feeling of his colleagues toward a fourth term as one of acquiescence rather than appeal.

Wants two-thirds rule

Former Governor E. D. Rivers of Georgia protested against the view “that this party will go by the boards with the passage of time and unavailability of the President.”

He said:

We know that any two men nominated and backed by the sincere support of the party, including Mr. Roosevelt and Jim Farley.

He precipitated a brief skirmish by proposing that the party readopt the two-thirds rule under which it nominated presidential and vice presidential candidates until 1936. The delegates tabled Mr. Rivers’ proposal.

Anti-New Dealers out to stop Roosevelt

Omaha, Nebraska (UP) – (Jan. 22)
Anti-administration Democrats will open a drive Feb. 4 at Chicago against a fourth term for President Roosevelt, Robert O’Brien of Des Moines, president of Tabor College, said today.

The drive will be spearheaded by a speech of former Secretary of War Harry Woodring of Kansas before the Chicago Executives Club, Mr. O’Brien said.

Mr. O’Brien, former Iowa Secretary of State, added:

Mr. Woodring’s speech will be the initial move of anti-administration Democrats to prevent the President from running for a fourth term. We must eliminate from the Democratic Party all terms of New Dealism.

Mr. O’Brien said he expected attendance from all parts of the country at the Chicago meeting.

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In Washington –
Stimson opposes soldier-vote bill offered in House

Regular state ballots would cut space for servicemen’s mail and hurt morale, War Secretary says

Washington (UP) –
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson feels the soldier-vote bill approved by the House Elections Committee would “interfere with the prosecution of the war” because distribution of regular ballots to servicemen overseas would cut into space available for mail and thus lower morale.

A letter from Mr. Stimson expressing these views was made public by Committee Chairman Eugene Worley (D-TX), who is leading a fight for House approval of federal ballot legislation instead of the so-called states’-rights bill approved by his committee.

The tangled and controversial issue is scheduled for House consideration next week. It also may come up in the Senate, which last month rejected a bill providing for federal control over balloting by servicemen and women and passed a measure urging the states to make special provisions for absentee voting by members of the Armed Forces.

House, Senate bills similar

The bill brought out by the House Elections Committee is similar to that passed by the Senate. But the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee in the meantime was sent to the Senate a “compromise” bill which would call for creation of a war ballot commission which would supervise distribution of special federal ballots, collect them and then turn them over to the states.

This compromise may be called up for Senate consideration Monday. Thus, the hotly-debated issue was headed for a showdown and final decision.

Mr. Stimson’s letter to Mr. Worley took issue particularly with a clause of the House committee’s bill which would give transportation priority – over all other communication, official and unofficial, except those whose delay would interfere with the war effort – to state ballots and election material.

Amendment planned

Mr. Worley said he would offer on the floor of the House an amendment to follow out Mr. Stimson’s suggestion that a “simply, uniform” federal ballot be adopted. He said it would not replace he regular state ballot in all cases, but would be used only when it was impossible to transport the bulky state ballots with sufficient speed.

Meanwhile, CIO president Philip Murray wrote letters to all members of Congress urging them “to provide federal machinery for placing ballots in the hands of every qualified soldier and sailor and for guaranteeing that his vote when cast will be counted in accordance with the law of the land.”

He said the bill passed by the Senate was a “grievous affront to the nation’s fighting forces.”

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New Democratic leader –
Hurd: Hannegan has habit of getting things done

Left flourishing law practice to enter federal service
By Carlos F. Hurd, St. Louis Post-Dispatch staff writer

St. Louis, Missouri – (Jan. 22)
When black-haired, square-jawed Bob Hannegan takes over as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, some visitors to Washington headquarters are likely to ask how Hollywood came to overlook him.

Had he taken a scree test instead of the bar exams, Joel McCrea and Gary Cooper might have had competition for some of their best roles, and the 21st Ward precinct organization in St. Louis might have had to get along with a less dynamic leadership.

As it was, the boys in his ward, and the friends whom he made at City Hall, gave him a lively short term and a later, longer and less disturbed term in the St. Louis city chairmanship. There he learned to add and balance the items of urban voting strength in somewhat the way that he will have to figure the electoral trends of New York, Indiana and California next summer when, three years after conducting a losing municipal campaign, he will direct his party in a crucial contest for the Presidency of the United States.

Financial loss

Mr. Hannegan, now in Washington a little more than three months as Commissioner of Internal Revenue, is 40. Lawyers who know the extent of his practice say he took not only the $6,500-a-year job of Collector for the Eastern Missouri District, but also the $10,000 Washington job, at a financial sacrifice, and might have decided, after making good in the Washington post, to resign and return to St. Louis.

Now, however, as National Committee chairman, he is on the path that leads, in the event of party victory this year, to the President’s Cabinet, as Postmaster General, an office which has been combined with the committee chairmanship under presidents both Democratic and Republican.

Washington reports that Mr. Hannegan, since his appointment as commissioner, has been working like a beaver. He has bachelor quarters at the swank Shoreham Hotel, his family having remained in St. Louis.

Holds pep meetings

Weekends he has made train or air trips to hold pep meetings of regional collectors. Mr. Hannegan reads all papers and documents requiring his signature and has taught his immediate subordinates to do the same. This was after he found an order signed by seven sub-executives and was unable to get an outline of it from some of them.

The social swirl does not interest him, and though he finds himself in some convivial groups, he has not abandoned the no-liquor, no-tobacco rule which he adopted in St. Louis several years ago. While others lament the scarcity of their favorite beverages, he takes ginger ale.

Golf is his recreation; he plays frequently with Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, who cites an age handicap of 29 years as a sufficient reason why Mr. Hannegan beats him.

Politicians say Hannegan tends to regard political maters in a professional and impersonal light, just as he would look at a law case; that he seldom permits himself to be drawn into heated political arguments, and will grin and walk away when others become unduly excited.

Helps his workers

Up to a year and a half ago, when he took the St. Louis collectorship, Mr. Hannegan knew about as much of its problems of accounting as any lawyer might learn from handling estates in Probate Court. He found the office bookkeeping being supervised by two men, past middle age, who were doing capably and were not complaining although they had received no adequate pay increase in a period when the work of the office had multiplied.

He got handsome pay raises for the two elderly men and kept them at their former work, with increased authority. For others, as their competency was shown, he obtained increases and promotions, he made an able clerk a department head.

By the time income-tax returns were due, at the beginning of 1943, he streamlined the procedure considerably.

Goes to Washington

About the time he was ready to plan new methods for handling the 1944 taxpayers’ rush, Mr. Hannegan was called to Washington. The administration had decided that the important national office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue, about to become vacant, should be filled from the ranks of the district collectors. Four names were considered, and Mr. Hannegan, backed by Missouri’s two Senators, was selected.

In the brief time since his appointment and confirmation in the first week of October, Mr. Hannegan extended throughout the country his rules for courtesy in forms of correspondence with taxpayers and took up a pressing problem outside income tax matters – a drive on the black market in liquor.

Mr. Hannegan is the son of Police Capt. John P. Hannegan, in St. Louis. As a student in St. Louis University, he played football and went for a time into minor-league professional baseball. He took his law degree in 1925, and in 1933, at the beginning of Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann’s first administration, was appointed by Governor Guy B. Park to the Democratic City Committee.

Named chairman

Elected chairman of the committee in August 1934, he was soon in the thick of a fight for the Mayor against his opponents in the committee and in the Board of Aldermen. He represented the city administration, at the 1935 legislative session, as city lobbyist, receiving $3,000 and expenses. One of his duties, on the Mayor’s order, was to oppose the Hess horse-dog racetrack betting bill, which the Senate defeated after it has passed the House.

In June 1935, the anti-Dickmann faction turned Mr. Hannegan out of the chairmanship. Mayor Dickmann went all-out for Mr. Hannegan with city patronage, firing adherents of anti-Hannegan men right and left. Turmoil at City Hall reached its height when, on Sept. 11, 1935, factional fighters shot up the new chairman’s office and the adjacent City Hall lawn, wounding four persons and piercing English’s coat with a bullet.

The patronage purge was effective, and in the August 1936 primary, which served as the quadrennial election of committee members, the Mayor regained control and Mr. Hannegan was reelected chairman.

In midst of probe

The 1936 primary was held in the midst of an investigation of city-wide registration frauds, instituted by The Post-Dispatch and resulting in the later removal of the entire Election Board by Governor Park “for the good of the public service.” The Mayor and Mr. Hannegan, it was learned, sought to dissuade the Governor from this action on the ground of party welfare.

Between November 1940 and April 1941 came the attempt of the Democratic majority in the Legislature to overturn the result of the state’s vote for Governor, the Republicans having elected Forrest C. Donnell by a small lead. Lawrence McDaniel, Democratic candidate, had the right to file a legal contest, but some of the party leaders decided that the Legislature should block the seating of Mr. Donnell and should then “investigate” the election. This plan, worked out chiefly by the then state chairman, C. Marion Hulen, followed a preliminary discussion at a meeting in St. Louis, called by Mr. Hannegan, at which the Mayor was present. At Jefferson City, Republican State Chairman Charles Ferguson charged that Mr. Hannegan was “riding herd” on the St. Louis Democratic legislators to keep them in line for the program. A Supreme Court decision wrecked the conspiracy.

Doubt remains

Just how far Mr. Hannegan, and the Mayor approved the Hulen scheme has been in some doubt ever since.

Some Democrats did object, and the attitude of the Mayor and chairman, in contrast, caused them to be castigated by Republican campaign speakers and contributed to the defeat of Mr. Dickmann for a third term and the election of the late Judge William Dee Becker.

Mr. Hannegan resigned from the city committee chairmanship after the election but remained as a member until his federal position made resignation mandatory. His appointment to the collectorship was opposed by The Post-Dispatch because of the governorship episode.

He and Mrs. Hannegan, formerly Miss Irma Protzmann, daughter of a late North St. Louis banker and real estate dealer, have two sons and two daughters.

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americavotes1944

Rayburn joins in endorsement of Roosevelt

$100-a-plate diners hear Speaker and Wallace laud New Deal

Washington (UP) – (Jan. 22)
House Speaker Sam Rayburn and Vice President Henry A. Wallace, either of whom may be selected as President Roosevelt’s running mate if he makes the race in the coming election, tonight vigorously defended his leadership at home and abroad in what appeared to be endorsements of a fourth term.

Neither actually mentioned a fourth term possibility, however, in their speeches before the $100-a-plate Jackson Day Dinner here. And the President, in line with his expressed desire to keep politics out of the war effort, sent no message to the gathering which was held to raise funds for the 1944 presidential campaign.

No ‘shooting Thomas’

Mr. Rayburn, who made the main address, linked Secretary of State Cordell Hull with the President in describing them as two heroic figures “Who would bring the light of satisfaction into the eyes of our forefathers.” But when he described the kind of a candidate the Democrats will name at their convention in Chicago late in July, the picture he painted greatly resembled Mr. Roosevelt.

The Speaker said the Democrats would not palm off on the American people an imitation liberal and that the people would not entrust the Presidency to one who has no proved ability in the field of foreign policy. The Democrats, he said will offer no “shouting Thomas” and the party is not “shopping around for symbols whether they are Main Street or Wall Street.”

New Deal alive

Mr. Wallace said the New Deal is not dead and has yet to attain its full strength. The statement recalled President Roosevelt’s recent press conference declaration that the New Deal had served its purpose during the domestic crisis and was being replaced by a “win-the-war” policy.

He said:

One man more than any other in all history has given dynamic power and economic expression to the ageless New Deal. That man is Roosevelt. Roosevelt has never denied the principles of the New Deal and he never will. They are part of his very being.

Roosevelt, God willing, will in the future give the New Deal a firmer foundation than it has ever had before. So, on with the New Deal, on with winning the war and forward march for peace, justice and jobs.

Why we are here

Mr. Wallace said that the diners, as individuals, were present:

…because the people, suffering from the Hoover-Mellon-Wall Street collapse, demanded a New Deal.

The people believed in Roosevelt, the Democratic Party and the New Deal in 1932 because they felt that the New Deal stood for human rights first and property rights second. The people confirmed their faith in Roosevelt and the New Deal in 1936 and 1940.

Mr. Rayburn asserted that many economic reforms achieved by the Roosevelt regime would not be junked after the war. He slapped at the “small minority of hecklers” who still complain of administration policies; pointed to the nation’s outstanding production record since Pearl Harbor, and declared America went to war under a caliber of leadership that has proved that it was worthy of the high trust placed in it.

americavotes1944

Lawrence and Guffey hope for harmony at Harrisburg

Washington meeting ends in ‘progress’ report as state ticket remains a mystery

Washington – (Jan. 22)
Ten Pennsylvania Democrats, at their semi-final slate making conference here tonight issued a non-committal report of “progress” toward selection of a candidate for the party nomination for U.S. Senator and other statewide offices.

State Chairman David L. Lawrence, spokesman for the group, said, however, that “everything was harmonious and we are very sanguine about having a harmonious meeting of the state committee.”

Avoidance of an open fight in the state committee meeting, scheduled for Feb. 4 at Harrisburg to recommend candidates for the April 25 primary, will depend on whether Mr. Lawrence and U.S. Senator Joseph F. Guffey, recently-reconciled party leaders, can agree.

Guffey favors Black

Mr. Guffey was represented as favoring Ramsey S. Black of Harrisburg, third assistant postmaster general, for the Senate nomination, while the Lawrence group was considering other possible candidates.

Among those discussed in a series of meetings with county leaders which preceded today’s conference are Auditor General F. Clair Ross (Lawrence-supported candidate for Governor in 1942), State Treasurer G. Harold Wagner, former Philadelphia city chairman John B. Kelly, and former Auditor General Warren R. Roberts.

Already in the senatorial race, independently of the two leaders, is have sizeable backing from labor organizations.

Mr. Lawrence admitted that candidates were discussed at tonight’s meeting, which followed a meeting of the Democratic National Committee, but refused to say who had been proposed for the Democratic slate.

One man is sure

One candidate was definitely endorsed by the group – Judge Chester H. Rhodes of the Superior Court, who will seek reelection to another ten-year term.

The state committee will designate candidates for auditor general, state treasurer, two Superior Court places and one judgeship on the Supreme Court. Candidacies in these offices will depend upon selection of a candidate to run for the place now held by Republican Senator James J. Davis.

Attending tonight’s meeting, in addition to Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Guffey, were Allegheny County Commissioner John J. Kane, Irwin D. Wolf (Pittsburgh department store executive) and county leaders from Philadelphia, Luzerne, Lackawanna and Berks Counties.

americavotes1944

Ex-Governor of Michigan, now 84, supports Dewey

Poulan, Georgia (UP) – (Jan. 22)
Chase S. Osborn today observed his 84th birthday anniversary quietly at his winter camp, Possum Poke in Possum Lane.

Blind and with his physical powers impaired by two strokes, Michigan’s oldest living former governor, said that while he asks nothing more of life, he would enjoy living to see Tokyo “made the Carthage of modern times, and Tom Dewey in the President’s chair.”

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americavotes1944

Editorial: Non-Democratic unity

Shortly before his death, Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Democratic Party, wrote: “Four Presidents voluntarily retiring at the end of their eighth year” [Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe] established a precedent so strongly that:

…should a President consent to be a candidate for a third election, I trust he would be rejected on this demonstration of ambitious views.

The principle that two terms are enough for any man was not challenged until near the end of President Grant’s second term. And that challenge was rebuffed when the House of Representatives passed a resolution that:

…any departure from this time-honored custom would be unwise, unpatriotic and fraught with peril to our free institutions.

The vote was 234–18 – the Democrats voting unanimously.

In 1928, when some feared that President Coolidge might be drafted for a third-term nomination despite his “I do not choose” statement, the Senate adopted (56–26) a similar resolution offered by Senator La Follette – the Democrats voting 40–4.

The Democratic National Committee met in Washington yesterday to ratify a choice already made for a new party chairman, and to ratify a choice already made as to the time and place of the party’s next nominating convention, and among the committeemen and committeewomen there seems to be unanimity of opinion that the party at its convention will have only one man to offer – that he who served a third term must be drafted for a fourth.

Did somebody say a leopard couldn’t change its spots? Or is this some other party that now carries the Democratic label?

americavotes1944

Taylor: Don’t get excited

By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent

Washington –
The first Congressional elections of 1944 provided two morsels which the members of the House of Representatives have been chewing on for days, what with the entire membership facing a test at the polls next November and the political weather being cloudy.

The elections were held in pivotal Pennsylvania – one in Philadelphia and the other in Montgomery County – to fill vacancies, and resulted in two Republican victories, which were promptly hailed as a trend.

Rep. Charles A. Halleck (R-IN) called the election returns “proof that the New Deal is withering at the grassroots,” and a definite indication that the Republican march to victory in 1944 is picking up speed.

Mr. Halleck is no expert on Pennsylvania politics or he would have excluded Montgomery County, at least, from the scope of his remarks. Montgomery County is referred to proudly by its residents as the wealthiest county in the state and its population makes up a major part of Philadelphia’s swanky “Main Line.”

It is, moreover, the home county of Joseph N. Pew Jr., the Republican leader with apparently inexhaustible patience and campaign funds, as well as other hearty contributors to the GOP cause. It has been Republican as long as anybody can remember. If Montgomery County is a grassroots area, you can bet the grass was carefully tended by a skilled Republican gardener. The chief significance of the special election there is that the Republican organization picked Samuel K. McConnell to fill the seat of J. William Ditter, killed in a plane crash last year.

There is more substance to the claim that the special election in the 2nd District (Philadelphia) represented a Republican advance, but it’s still not an outstanding victory for the GOP.

The district has been represented since 1936 by Democrat James P. McGranery, who resigned from Congress to become assistant to Attorney General Francis Biddle and a potential candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator.

Republicans carried it last week by more than 5,500 votes for Joseph M. Pratt, who polled 24,910 votes to 19,329 for Democrat William A. Barrett.

That’s a clear gain for the Republicans, but subject to some analysis. For instance, Mr. McGranery’s hold on his district – despite his prominence in Congress and in party affairs – has never been too secure in the off years.

When President Roosevelt runs, the Democrats do well in the 2nd District. In 1936, the total vote for Congressional candidates was 107,046 and the Democratic majority was 24,512. In 1938, the vote dropped to 97,813 and the majority to 5,317.

In 1940, the turnout of voters rose again to 102,333 and the majority to 23,355, but in 1942, when only 71,803 ballots were cast in the Congressional race, Mr. McGranery squeaked through by a majority of 713. In last week’s special election, about 45,000 voters cast ballots and Philadelphia’s Republican machine workers carried the election.

Democrats need a large turnout of voters to win in Philadelphia, especially when they are competing against an organization which has just succeeded in winning the mayoralty for another four years and retaining its City Hall patronage.

It’s a fairly academic point, at any rate, because the city’s Congressional districts were reapportioned by the 1943 Legislature and the November election is going to be held in a revised, and more safely Republican, district.

But in the halls of Congress, you can hear dialogs like this:

Republican:

You saw what happened in McGranery’s district. Well, that shows you what to expect in November.

Democrat:

There wasn’t any incentive to vote in this election. Wait until November when the President runs and the voters turn out.

The Pittsburgh Press (January 24, 1944)

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South barred in preparing 4th term plea

Guffey backed resolution urging President to run again
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Washington (UP) –
Democratic National Committee records showed today that the South was not represented on the Resolutions Committee which proposed at the meeting here a surprise solicitation that President Roosevelt seek a fourth term.

The National Committee adopted the resolution unanimously.

There is no Democratic Party rule that the South must be recognized in allocating such positions of responsibility at party meetings but it has uniformly been the practice to include Southerners on any such group authorized to propose party policy.

Feeds ill feeling

Exclusion of Southerners from the Resolutions Committee will probably aggravate further the ill feeling between the old-line party members and the newcomers among Mr. Roosevelt’s associates whom they term “New Dealers.”

The Resolutions Committee, six men and one woman, was heavily weighted with fourth-term sentiment. The big industrial states and notably the Democratic machines of Mayor Edward J. Kelly of Chicago, Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City, and Senator Joseph F. Guffey in Pennsylvania were well represented.

Senator Guffey, the most active advocate of the fourth term, is not a National Committee member and therefore could not have been on the Resolutions Committee. But his Pennsylvania organization was well represented with two of the seven members by his sister, Mrs. Emma Guffey Miller and David L. Lawrence.

Other members

Resolutions Committee chairman was Senator Theodore F. Green (D-RI). Mayor Hague was not a member, but was represented by Rep. Mary T. Norton (D-NJ). The other members were Mr. Kelly, boss of the Illinois Democratic machine, former Governor Keen Johnson of Kentucky, a member of the Roosevelt faction, and O. S. Warden from Montana.

The National Committee adopted the fourth-term resolution with neither debate not dissent. Veteran political observers ascribed the actions in part to the belief that the President is the only Democrat who would have even a remote chance of being elected this year.

Willkie won’t run in California

New York (UP) –
Wendell L. Willkie, who announced yesterday that he would not enter the California presidential preference primary in May, was expected today to place his name before Republican primary voters in four and possibly five other states.

His name definitely will be entered in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Oregon and Pennsylvania, his associates said, and possibly in New Hampshire.

Mr. Willkie announced his decision after a telephone conversation with California Governor Earl Warren.

He issued a statement saying:

In the last few days, I have discussed this situation fully by telephone with Governor Warren. He assures me that he is not and will not be a candidate for the presidential nomination and that he has no agreement, arrangement or understanding with any candidate or potential candidate that he is not and will not become associated with any Stop-Willkie movement.

4th term support pledged by CIO

New York (UP) –
Calling upon President Roosevelt to seek reelection, 2,500 CIO leaders were on record today with a formal pledge to support a fourth term.

Meeting under the auspices of the Greater New York CIO Council, the officials also adopted a resolution endorsing the President’s five-point home front program, including passing of a national service act.

The conference also adopted a resolution demanding that the War Labor Board permit wage increases of 20%.