Election 1944: Pre-convention news

[NormanStewart]

GOP gives Davis an open field in Senate race

State leaders fear fight in primary would impair strength of party

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania –
Governor Edward Martin, in a statement here last night, disclosed that his campaign to prevent a Republican fight in the April primary had been successful.

He said the Republican organization, led by himself, Joseph R. Grundy and Joseph N. Pew, will not oppose U.S. Senator James J. Davis for renomination.

This will be the first time in the five campaigns Senator Davis has made that he has not been opposed by one or more potent factors in the Republican Party.

Primary fight feared

The Governor for weeks has been arguing against trying to defeat Mr. Davis in the primary. The Senator and the Governor were primary opponents in the 1942 primary for the governorship nomination, Mr. Davis losing for the first time in his career.

Mr. Martin’s main objective is to carry Pennsylvania over the New Deal ticket in November – something the Republicans haven’t done since 1932 – and he fears a primary fight would imperil that objective.

The Governor also announced that the Republican leadership (meaning Messrs. Martin, Pew and Grundy) had agreed to support former Governor Arthur H. James for one of two nominations for the State Superior Court. At the same time, Mr. Martin disclosed his appointment of Mr. James to this bench to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Joseph Stadtfeld. The appointment will run until January.

Justice Hughes endorsed

Also included in Mr. Martin’s announcement was Old Guard endorsement of Justice Howard W. Hughes of Washington for the State Supreme Court nomination and Common Pleas Judge J. Frank Graff of Armstrong County for the second Superior Court nomination. Justice Hughes is now serving by appointment.

He and Republican State Chairman M. Harvey Taylor, who held a joint press conference, declined to name the candidates on the rest of the Martin-Pew Grundy slate.

But it is apparently well settled that City Treasurer Edgar W. Baird of Philadelphia will be on the ticket for the State Treasurer nomination, and State Senator G. Harold Watkins of Frackville, Schuylkill County, will be picked for Auditor General.

Decision ‘almost unanimous’

The Governor said the decision to drop all opposition to Senator Davis was “almost unanimous.” He did not identify any who did not approve the plan, although obviously Mr. Grundy accepted it reluctantly.

Mr. Martin said:

I am for Senator Davis for reelection because we need in Congress men who are imbued with sound American ideals and who believe in the American way of life.

The Democrats have already rounded out a slate consisting of Congressman Francis J. Myers of Philadelphia for the U.S. Senate, Federal Judge Charles Alvin Jones for the State Supreme Court, Superior Court Judge Chester H. Rhodes and Auditor General F. Clair Ross for the Superior Court, State Treasurer G. Harold Wagner for Auditor General, and Ramsay S. Black, third assistant postmaster general, for State Treasurer.

Judge Graff slated for GOP race

By Kermit McFarland

Common Pleas Court Judge J. Frank Graff of Kittanning will be a candidate for the State Superior Court on the Grundy-Pew ticket now being formulated for the Republican primary in April.

This will be his second try for the Superior Court. He served a few months on this bench by appointment of the late Governor John S. Fisher in 1930, but was defeated in the ensuing primary and reappointed by Mr. Fisher to the Armstrong County Common Pleas Court.

Judge Graff is almost as well known in Allegheny County as in his own district, since he has been one of the most frequent visiting judges on the local Criminal Court bench.

To run with James

As an organization candidate for the Superior Court, Judge Graff will run with former Governor Arthur H. James of Plymouth, who yesterday was appointed to the vacancy on this court caused by the death of Judge Joseph Stadtfeld in December. Mr. James sat on this bench six years before he became Governor in 1939.

Two judges will be elected to the Superior Court this year because of the vacancy and the fact that the term of Judge Chester H. Rhodes of Stroudsburg, the only Democrat on either appellate bench, expires.

The Democratic organization has already slated Judge Rhodes for renomination and Auditor General F. Clair Ross for the vacancy.

May fill vacancy

Judge Graff is 56, graduated from Princeton University and the University of Pittsburgh Law School, was a major in the 28th Division in the last war and became a judge in Armstrong County in 1924.

In 1930, after the death of President Judge William D. Porter, Judge Graff was appointed to the vacancy. He served from Feb. 18 to May 22, in the meantime losing the Republican nomination at the May 20 primary, and when Judge Graff was defeated, reappointed him to that bench. He was elected to a new 10-year term in 1931 and reelected in 1941.

The Pew-Grundy organization will back Supreme Court Justice Howard W. Hughes of Washington for nomination to a full 21-year term. He was appointed by Governor Martin last month. The Democrats have slated Federal Circuit Judge Charles Alvin Jones of Pittsburgh for this post.

[NormanStewart]

Guffey denies he sought job for physician

Says he wanted doctor to be given work after he had been appointed

Washington –
U.S. Senator Joseph F. Guffey (D-PA) today explained that those letters he sent to District of Columbia officials in 1942 were not for the purpose of getting his personal physician a job, but to get some work for him to do after he got the job.

Mr. Guffey came under fire of some of his Senate colleagues when it became known that he had threatened an investigation of the District’s hospitals and used “pressure” on behalf of Dr. Eugene de Savitsch, in two letters to DC officials, authorship of which Mr. Guffey admitted. The Senator issued a statement today to clear up “misstatements and a large amount of misinformation concerning these letters.”

He said:

In the first place, the letters were not written in any effort to get anybody a job. At the time they were written, Dr. de Savitsch was and had been for two years a consulting surgeon at Glenn Dale Sanitarium, a position to which Dr. [George C.] Ruhland [district health officer] appointed him.

In the second place, there was no question of getting anyone on the payroll. In the three years of his association with Glenn Dale Sanitarium, Dr. de Savitsch drew three checks for $15 each and in each case, he turned the checks over to indigent patients. Dr. de Savitsch has a large private practice and doesn’t need to get on a public payroll.

Mr. Guffey added that the physician was never given anything to do, because of Dr. Ruhland’s policies, and the letters were written in an attempt to correct the situation. He cited Dr. de Savitsch’s medical qualifications.

[NormanStewart]

Sinclair Weeks takes Lodge’s Senate seat

Boston, Massachusetts (UP) –
Sinclair Weeks, treasurer of the Republican National Committee, prepared today to fill the vacancy in the U.S. Senate caused by the resignation of Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. until a successor is elected next November for the unexpired four-year term.

Governor Leverett Saltonstall, in announcing Mr. Weeks’ appointment last night, also disclosed his own intention of running for Mr. Lodge’s unfilled term at the November elections.

Mr. Lodge retired from the Senate last week to become an Army officer after serving only two years of his six-year term. Mr. Weeks was defeated by Mr. Lodge for the Republican nomination in 1942. He is a supporter of Wendell Willkie.

Mr. Weeks is the son of the late John W. Weeks, a Boston banker, former Representative and Senator from Massachusetts and Secretary of War in the cabinets of Presidents Harding and Coolidge.

[NormanStewart]

President’s ‘no’ only fourth term bar

By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

U.S. so sensitive, London editor says

London, England (UP) –
The London Daily Mail carried a large cartoon on its editorial page today depicting a gymnasium in which President Roosevelt, Wendell Willkie and Governor Thomas E. Dewey were training.

Mr. Roosevelt was punching two bags bearing the likeliness of Hitler and Hirohito. Mr. Willkie was punching a bag labeled “McCormick.” Governor Dewey was in a corner skipping rope, standing by the door, Uncle Sam, in gym clothes, was telling a man peeking in to “Scram – This Is Private.”

In an adjoining column, the paper advised Britishers that:

If we want Roosevelt to carry on in the White House, we should shun advice-giving to the American electorate.

It said:

You have no idea how sensitive the people are.

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt’s progress toward a fourth-term nomination is gaining such momentum today that only an abrupt and public disavowal from the White House could stop it.

Under those circumstances, Mr. Roosevelt’s refusal to reveal his political plans is accepted generally by politicians and political writers here as demonstrating his willingness or desire again to be drafted by the Democratic National Convention.

Asked directly at his press and radio conference yesterday whether he would accept renomination, Mr. Roosevelt replied there was no news on that subject. But the fourth-term campaign conducted by his associates has been making news for some time.

The Democratic National Committee last month did some precedented-smashing itself in adopting a resolution soliciting the President to stay on the job.

New Hampshire and California party leaders have nominated slates of Democratic National Convention delegates pledged to Mr. Roosevelt’s renomination. That gives the President a head start of 62 convention votes.

The Illinois Democratic organization announced yesterday it would enter Mr. Roosevelt’s name in the state’s April 11 presidential preference primary. Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City, who rules the New Jersey Democratic machine, is out for a fourth term.

Vice Chairman Oscar R. Ewing of the Democratic National Committee told Portland, Oregon, questioners this week that Mr. Roosevelt’s reelection to a fourth term had been assured within the past six weeks by public realization that the war would last for a long time.

Vice President Henry A. Wallace held a San Francisco press conference this week and said:

I suspect President Roosevelt will run for a fourth term. As for me – I am in the lap of the gods.

Washington gave Mr. Wallace top marks for accuracy on both statements. The facts are that the Democratic organization with a few notable exceptions

Former Governor J former Senator James A. Reed of Missouri are trying to raise the anti-Roosevelt battle standard in the Midwest. James A. Farley is struggling against powerful Roosevelt forces in New York. Senator W. Lee O’Daniel (D-TX) and some other Southerners are off the fourth-term reservations.

There are mutterings in Ohio and elsewhere. But the President had similar pre-convention opposition in 1940 and his fourth-term campaigners promise that he will roll it flat again. There seems to be willingness to concede, however, that the 1944 presidential nomination will be considerably closer than any since 1916.

Willkie tour opens in Idaho

Twin Falls, Idaho (UP) –
A change of administration would be “less disturbing in wartime than during the Reconstruction period,” Wendell L. Willkie declared last night in an address in which he charged the present government with keeping the people ignorant of foreign affairs t increase the impression it is indispensable.

Army officers are directing the war, he said, and they would continue to do this with a new administration.

Mr. Willkie’s address was the first of his tour of the West, generally recognized as a test of his popularity as the GOP standard-bearer this year.

He said:

As a matter of fact, our relations with other nations would be strengthened and clarified through new leadership – leadership not grown too tired and cynical to lead; leadership less enamored of the panoply and show of power; leadership fresh from the people.

Mr. Willkie, scheduled to confer with Republicans in Boise today, will continue to Portland, Oregon, and Tacoma, Washington. He will deliver a Lincoln Day address at Tacoma Saturday.

Wallace advocates high peace aims

Portland, Oregon (UP) –
This world was made to be one world, and unless a lasting peace is evolved, the newly developed destructive forces of warfare will make it unsafe to live anywhere, Vice President Henry A. Wallace told a Jackson Day dinner audience in Portland last night.

Mr. Wallace said:

My trips through western war plants, and what I am hearing about rocket planes and high-powered explosives, has convinced me we must set our sights high at the peace table to avoid another war.

Mr. Wallace left last night for Seattle and then Wisconsin.

[NormanStewart]

Fourth term market gets bullish again

By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Washington –
Every flick of President Roosevelt’s cigarette, every flicker of the eyelash, the tone of his voice – all these little signs are interpreted these days when he is asked at his press conferences about a fourth term.

Therefore, it may be reported today the market is bullish again for a fourth-term try.

Not that the President said so. But he didn’t deny it. No longer, as a month ago, did he dismiss it as a “picayune” question.

He enjoys repartee

It was one of those things, he said, and there was no news on it.

But he was not blunt or brusque, as sometimes in the part, to the political inquiries put by reporters when they saw that he did not mind them. Instead, he seemed to welcome them and enjoy the repartee.

The inevitable question was raised again in connection with Vice President Henry A. Wallace’s statement in San Francisco that he “suspected” Mr. Roosevelt would run again.

Mr. Wallace’s “suspicions” are worth nothing. For he boasts that he knew in March 1940, before even the President himself knew, that Mr. Roosevelt would be a candidate for a third term.

Soldier-vote victory

Mr. Roosevelt may have been elated at his press conference by the Senate action in tacking the Green-Lucas federal ballot bill on the House’s “states’-rights” measure, which assures at least consideration of a short federal ballot for soldier voting in the conference between the two branches.

It was a partial victory for the administration.

[NormanStewart]

Smith: Roosevelt secret weapon – Double talk

By Merriman Smith, United Press staff writer

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt has unveiled his secret weapon for use against those trying to pry out his 1944 political plans – double talk.

In 1940, reporters who asked him about his third-term intentions were told to wear dunce caps and go stand in the corner. His strategy this year, however, is to talk all around the lot, leaving the reporters breathless from the chase and more than mildly confused.

Like something from the realm of snasafran and biddleclip was his reaction to fourth-term questions at his news conference yesterday. A woman reporter sounded the keynote when she frankly told the Chief Executive: “I’m confused.”

So is everybody else, the President agreed.

Another victim of the cruppletub and blimplerip was a reporter who planned to ask the President for his views of the Democratic vice-presidential possibilities. Instead, he said “presidential.” But Mr. Roosevelt got the idea, anyway.

The reporter noted that Vice President Henry A. Wallace had been touring the country making what some people construed as political speeches. In view of these statements, the newsmen asked, what did the President think of the Democratic candidacy for the Presidency?

The air was heavy with quirmadil and falantopery as the President started to speak. When he finished it was strictly pluddlestan and number four.

Well, the President started out, those people–. He paused for a split second as if to let his drummolt sink in. he continued by saying there was only one thing for him to do and that was get out and make a speech. Of course, he added, all this criticism about Henry Wallace–.

Somebody in the back shouted “louder.” Raising his voice, Mr. Roosevelt said: Read the sermon on the Mount – is that political? Then he answered his own question by saying that some people would say that it was.

Clearing the tropodgas from his mind and brushing the hornstrawp from his notes, this correspondent asked Mr. Roosevelt: “Would you accept a fourth-term nomination?”

With an expression that seemed to say “I-realize-you-have-to-do-this-sort-of-thing-for-a-living,” the President explained that that was one of them things. It goes back, he said, to the killer of stories – there’s no news on that today.

It was here that the young lady injected her classic cry: “I’m confused.” The President agreed with her.

This seemed to make everybody feel better. Most of the newspapermen thought the doubletalk would be more pleasant to cope with until the President’s fourth-term candidacy is an official fact than the old dunce cap and stand-in-the-corner routine.

As one veteran correspondent put it, “the geigensplock will hemdurndyl better than ever.”

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (February 10, 1944)

Nunan is nominated to succeed Hannegan

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt today nominated Joseph D. Nunan Jr. of Douglaston, New York, to be Commissioner of Internal Revenue, succeeding Robert E. Hannegan of St. Louis who resigned to become Democratic National Chairman.

Mr. Nunan has been collector of internal revenue in Brooklyn, New York.

[NormanStewart]

Bricker favors Army vote by states

Ohio Governor tells capital questioners he’s for more federal economy; thinks GOP will surely win
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Washington –
Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio, bringing to the capital his campaign for the 1944 Republican presidential nomination, today put himself on record as favoring regular state ballots for service personnel and called for drastic reduction in federal payrolls.

Displaying his political wares to a press conference shortly after arriving here, he described the soldier vote controversy as strictly a political issue which he thought should be solved by using regular state ballots rather than the federal ballots advocated by President Roosevelt.

Wants no outside help

He also took occasion to protest against interference with the coming presidential campaign by foreign sources. One of the 50-odd political writers present asked what he thought of recent comment in the British press that Mr. Roosevelt should be reelected.

Mr. Bricker replied:

I think we ought to elect our own President. It is none of their business. We can take care of our own affairs.

Governor Bricker declined to say how much taxes he thought Congress should impose at this time, saying only that he hoped the measure recently approved by Congress a few days ago would be adequate. The need, he added, is not now so much for additional taxes as it is for effecting a drastic saving in government.

Federal payroll too big

“Where would you cut first?” he was asked.

He replied that there are roughly 3.5 million employees of the federal government, and hundreds of thousands of them could be dispensed with.

Governor Bricker said he was also opposed to federal housing, declaring that he saw no reason why the government should go in competition with private builders. Asked if he believed that there could be effective slum clearance under the direction of private enterprise, Governor Bricker replied:

Yes. If there can’t be, then the country is hopeless. We would have to change our system of government. and I certainly don’t want to do that.

‘Any Republican can win’

On other subjects, Governor Bricker:

• Saw no reason for a federal work program to absorb unemployment after the war.

• Was supremely confident that the Republicans would win the Presidency in November regardless of who the nominee may be.

• Thought the Republicans were better equipped than the Democrats to handle post-war problems.

• Said the Republican Party foreign policy plank – would probably be formulated along the lines of the policy drafted by GOP leaders last year at Mackinac Island.

• Denounced the administration’s food subsidy play as “unsound.”

• Described the winning of the war as the most important single issue in the coming political campaign, and said the war is being conducted in a way which all Americans can be proud.

Gives Roosevelt credit

“Do you give Roosevelt any credit for that?” he was asked.

He replied:

Certainly. And I believed the armed services should be allowed to continue to wage the war as they are doing now.

Governor Bricker will speak tonight at the first of some 2,000 Lincoln Day celebrations scheduled throughout the nation by Republicans to spark their effort to regain control of the White House and Congress.

The Ohio Governor goes to the National Press Club tomorrow for a luncheon speaking engagement.

Tonight’s appearance is in effect a trial run for Governor Bricker before the appraising eyes of top drawer party leaders, some of whom have other favorites but are willing to be convinced. He will speak at a $5-a-plate dinner which, the GOP emphasizes, is not a money-raising affair.

KDKA will broadcast the address at 10:30 ET tonight.

Wallace standards are 40% higher

Seattle, Washington (UP) –
Vice President Henry A. Wallace said last night America’s biggest job after the war will be to supply a standard of living at least 40% higher than ever before.

This can be done only through full employment of resources, manpower and skills, Mr. Wallace said in an address in the civic auditorium in which he denounced the “scarcity economics” of “the American fascists of Wall Street.”

American fascists, he added, are those “who believe that Wall Street comes first and the country second.”

He cited Russia as a country where nearly everyone feels:

He is directly working for the welfare of the whole nation.

Mr. Wallace said post-war taxation should be aimed more skillfully at economic objectives and implied that heavy taxes should be applied to large corporate reserves.

He said:

By our taxation system, we must encourage the small and rapidly growing enterprise because such enterprises are the seedbed of the employment of the future.

In an impromptu address to the Washington Press Club earlier in the day, Mr. Wallace predicted further development of Alaska after the war and advocated the construction of another Alaska highway.

He said:

Our transportation routes to Alaska should be continued across the Bering Sea to Russia and the Orient.

Willkie outlines his farm program

Boise, Idaho (UP) –
Wendell L. Willkie today took President Roosevelt has not made known his plans for a possible fourth term.

Mr. Willkie told Idaho Republican leaders at a meeting here:

The President in press conferences kids, dodges and laughs. About what? On a question involving your future happiness, your life, your wellbeing.

The 1940 Republican presidential nominee who is aspiring for the GOP bid again this year said that:

If I have the power – and perhaps I won’t – I am going to force a discussion in America of the questions America had to decide in 1944.

I find some people talking about evading the issues, when what America does at this time will determine not only her future, but the future of mankind.

Many of the Idaho Republican Party officers to whom Mr. Willkie spoke have already gone on record as favoring New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey for this year’s GOP nomination. However, after the meeting, Governor C. A. Bottolfsen praised Willkie’s “fine, straight-forward talk” and said he thought Mr. Willkie “made many friends.”

Writing in the March issue of Successful Farming, Mr. Willkie outlined his own farm program for the first time in the 1944 campaign.

Briefly, it is:

First, correct the glaring administrative weaknesses in the war effort on the farm front.

Then move onward to a program based on expanding markets.

Drop production control and produce to the limit.

Develop a sound national conservation program.

Support farm prices at a fair level and maintain basic-commodity loans.

Pursue every scientific possibility to expand the farmers’ market.

Finally, cooperate with the world to make a prosperous agriculture at home.

[NormanStewart]

Dewey petitions started

Morristown, New Jersey –
Petitions were being circulated today to enter the name of Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York in the New Jersey presidential preference primary on May 16. Petitions must have 1,500 signatures.

[NormanStewart]

In Washington –
Soldier-vote conferee list shows 5 and 5

Three federal ballot backers placed on Senate lineup

Washington (UP) –
The Senate today unanimously agreed to a compromise slate of conferees on soldier-vote legislation after anti-administration forces protested proposed selections which would have been four to one for a federal ballot measure.

The compromise slate included three Senators who voted for the federal ballot plan in the numerous Senate tests of the last two weeks and two who voted for a state ballot plan.

The compromise slate finally agreed upon after almost an hour of floor wrangling included Senators Warren R. Austin (R-VT), Hugh A. Butler (R-NE), Tom Connally (D-TX), Theodore F. Green (D-RI) and Carl A. Hatch (D-NM).

Senators Green, Hatch and Austin voted for the federal ballot in the Senate tests, and Senators Connally and Butler against it.

They will meet with five House conferees in an effort to settle differences between House and Senate versions of soldier-vote legislation.

Three House conferees are states’ rights proponents – Reps. John E. Rankin (D-MS), Karl M. LeCompte (R-IA) and Harris Ellsworth (R-OR). The other two – Chairman Eugene Worley (D-TX) of the House Elections Committee and Rep. Herbert C. Bonner (D-NC) – are federal ballot backers. In the conferees lineup, this shows five on each side of the question.

[NormanStewart]

Labor headed for wide split in 1944 election

By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Washington –
Feelers of the national political pulse are beginning to note symptoms of an extension into the 1944 presidential campaign of the AFL-CIO split in organized labor.

The CIO is steadily becoming more identified with a fourth-term drive for President Roosevelt, while the AFL is repeating and expanding criticisms of the administration.

For instance, the AFL’s weekly news service today, following up an attack by John P. Frey, president of the federation’s Metal Trades Department, blamed wartime labor troubles on the lack of “a clear and consistent national labor policy.”

The blunt truth

It continued:

The public should understand that most disputes which lead to strikes these days do not involve quarrels between management and labor. The blunt truth is that the fight is between labor and the government’s policy, as it is contradictorily administered by federal agencies.

The article concluded:

We still think that strikes under any circumstances are indefensible in wartime. But when workers are driven to strike under such conditions, the blame should be put where it belongs – on the government.

The CIO has made no such inclusive charges, although it has joined with the AFL in an attempt to discredit the cost of living figures of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and to force an upward revision of the War Labor Board’s wage-freeze formula.

Now the MESA

Criticisms of the Roosevelt administration have also been made by spokesmen for large groups of organized workers not members of the AFL or CIO. These include the railway brotherhoods and John L. Lewis’ United Mine Workers.

A third group which asserts it isn’t being treated right is made up of independent unions built around the Mechanics Educational Society of America, now in a row with the War Labor Board over that body’s policy of confining labor representation in its membership to representatives of the AFL and the CIO.

These developments have produced the opinions in the minds of political observers that Mr. Roosevelt, if he is a nominee, cannot be sure of the great mass of labor support he has had in three campaigns; that if the labor-sponsored criticisms continue, the support for the two major candidates may be in approximate balance.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (February 11, 1944)

Strike ban urged –
Bricker extends a friendly hand to Congressmen

Reversing Willkie’s tactics, Ohio Governor seeks to play legislators against a ‘weak’ executive
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Washington –
Governor John W. Bricker’s Lincoln Day speech proposal for absolute prohibition of wartime strikes aroused top interest here today among the issues discussed by the Ohioan in his pre-convention campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

But Governor Bricker’s bid for consideration in this political hotspot proved to be a combination of bitter denunciation of the Roosevelt administration and of significantly kind words for Congress. He pegged his appeal on domestic issues, but did propose that the United States “should take her place in a cooperative organization among sovereign nations after this war.”

Differs from Willkie

His tactics were in contrast with those of Wendell L. Willkie, the Ohio Governor’s most active opponent, who occasionally undertakes to shake Congress by the ears, losing more than a few friends thereby.

Governor Bricker challenged “weakness of the New Deal in handling labor relations” and said:

A law should be enacted by Congress laying down fundamental principles for the administration and adjudication of labor disputes and the prohibition of strikes in time of war.

He said it was too late now to consider a national service act as proposed by Mr. Roosevelt.

In a final major appearance here today, Governor Bricker told the National Press Club at a luncheon that he proposed that the term of the President be limited to one six-year term or two four-year terms. He preferred the latter, he said, but in any event believed that the tenure “must be restricted.”

Express Democratic help

Rep. Joseph W. Martin (R-MA), introducing Governor Bricker to the Mayflower Hotel audience, said it was the largest Republican gathering held here in a dozen years. He predicted victory in this year’s elections, but said it would not be Republican victory alone.

He said:

Victory will come because millions of honest, sincere, patriotic Jeffersonian Democrats will submerge part to the welfare of their country and because independent voters will unite with us.

He told last night’s audience that Mr. Roosevelt’s policies were leading the country to socialism, if not communism.

Proposes fiscal program

In his prepared text, he proposed a new fiscal program linked with early post-war balancing of the budget art a rate of spending approximating $15 billion a year. Here is Governor Bricker’s substitute for what he termed Mr. Roosevelt’s policy of “spend, waste, borrow and tax:”

• Simplify and stabilize the tax laws.
• Use the tax power to raise necessary revenue and not “as an undercover method of effecting social changes.”
• Limit federal taxation so that adequate revenue sources will remain to the states and local governments.
• Adhere to fiscal and tax policies which will stimulate private enterprise and venture capital.
• Reduce federal taxes as soon as possible after victory.

We’re all in the war

Charging that the Roosevelt administration has “bewildered and oppressed” the people, Governor Bricker said:

The New Deal is the American counterpart of the sweep of absolutism which has destroyed so much liberty around the world.

He sought to rebuke Mr. Roosevelt for personifying his administration as “Dr. Win-the-War.”

Mr. Bricker said:

Winning the war is not a partisan opportunity. It is an American responsibility.

Governor Bricker’s bid for Congressional friendship and support was direct and full of sympathy. He said:

The time has come to take the policymaking of government out of the hands of the arrogant bureaucrats and return it to the hands of the elected representatives of the people.

Willkie wants party to look forward

Seattle, Washington (UP) –
Wendell L. Willkie, 1940 Republican presidential candidate, accused the administration of “fighting a soft war” last night and said the people would willingly bear an increased tax burden if the government made an effort to halt the “reckless expenditure of their money.”

Mr. Willkie told a Lincoln Day audience of 2,500 persons:

After the war, we should reverse our taxation system in order to stimulate our economy and prove the largest possible national income.

If the Republican nominee is a forward-looking leader, the rank and file of the party will rally as a unit in his support.

Statement is explained

He confirmed a statement attributed to him at Baker, Oregon, earlier in the day in which he was quoted:

I’m going to be nominated for the Presidency on the Republican ticket.

He smilingly recounted the incident, saying about 300 persons gathered at his train when it stopped in Baker briefly.

He said:

I made a few remarks and among other things said, “I’m going to take you into my confidence – I’m going to be the Republican nominee for President.” You wouldn’t expect me to tell them I was not going to be the nominee, would you?

Program outlined

Mr. Willkie revealed that following an address in Tacoma today and an appearance in Portland, he would fly to Sacramento Sunday and have lunch with Governor and Mrs. Earl Warren and make a radio address there Sunday afternoon. Mr. Willkie has agreed not to enter the California primary, in favor of Warren.

Denying to reporters that the Republican Party is divided, Mr. Willkie said it was natural for the party out of power to have leaders with diverse ideas, and added that the election of 26 governors and additional members of both houses of Congress had given the party “new vigor.”

Sees Roosevelt handicap

In support of his charge that the Democratic Party is divided, he cited refusal of “a committee of Democrats” to support the Treasury Department’s tax program, which he said was itself “wholly inadequate,” and the fact that the states’-rights soldier vote bill was prepared “by members of the President’s own party in opposition to the administration-supported federal ballot bill.”

The Democratic Party is “decadent and falling apart” and President Roosevelt, if reelected, would be frustrated by the division in its ranks, he insisted.

He said:

I am going to break this power in Washington if I can, for if I don’t, everything I hold precious will disappear.

Wallace puzzled by Johnston plaint

Minneapolis, Minnesota (UP) –
Vice President Henry A. Wallace said today that he had not talked to President Roosevelt regarding his candidacy for Vice President in the November elections.

Mr. Wallace, who stopped in the Twin-Cities for several hours when his Seattle to Chicago plane was grounded by storms southeast of here, said:

But then I did not consult with him in 1940 either.

Mr. Wallace said that he had found “an unusual sentiment in the West for a fourth term for Roosevelt.”

When informed that Eric A. Johnston, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was critical of his speech at Seattle last night. Mr. Wallace said he could not “see any reason for that.” Mr. Wallace had labeled certain business interests as fascist in tendency.

In Washington, Mr. Johnston said Mr. Wallace was sowing “seeds of disunity… on the event of an invasion which will bring our most crucial military test.”

Mr. Johnston said:

Name calling by the Vice President of the United States is the wrong way to get national unity in this hour of crisis…

American business despises fascism. If there is a threat of it in this country, it is not to be found in big business, but in big government.

[NormanStewart]

Stokes: Bricker roars at the New Deal in its den, and (obviously) it was planned that way

By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Washington –
Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio, who has been browsing around the outlying precincts as a sort of Ferdinand-the-bull candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, came to the capital, to the lair of the New Deal, to change all that – and how!

He shook his big frame – and he’s a husky specimen – and began to roar in all directions – at the White House, where that man still resides, at the government buildings, where there are too many folks, as he sees it, busy about “bureaucracy,” and he even had a few suggestions for Congress.

‘Go get ‘em’

No longer was he the careful, cautious gentleman, a little timid about issues, spouting generalities.

The unveiling of the new Bricker was carefully arranged in advance, perhaps a shade too obviously, for it was a bit of a shock to see the once-amiable fellow come out talking so loud, somewhat as if he had been studiously instructed and shoved out before the footlights. You could almost hear the stage whisper:

Now get out there and tell ‘em!

He did.

Strikes at hot issues

He stepped right into the midst of the middle on Capitol Hill, which has got President Roosevelt down for the moment. He came out for state ballots in soldier voting, which President Roosevelt has called “a fraud.” He came out against subsidies, over which the Senate is wrestling, taking direct issue with the President.

He demanded that Congress pass a law to prohibit strikes in time of war and laying down “fundamental principles for the administration and adjudication of labor disputes.”

Jumping right into current controversies, while they are not, is somewhat unusual for candidates for presidential nominations, even for Wendell Willkie, who spoke up about taxes after Congress had already acted, and espoused a federal Ballot for soldier voting too late for any effect.

Strictly Republican!

Governor Bricker’s credo is strictly conservative, old-school Republican, entirely acceptable to the Old Guard element which is backing him, including Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio. He abhors the New Deal, lock, stock and barrel, and makes no bonds about it. He disagrees, he said, with the whole philosophy of the New Deal. He did not temper his Lincoln Day speech here to concede anything to the Roosevelt dispensation.

The two-day Bricker show here was quite an event for the candidate and the entourage which came on from Ohio to celebrate his launching here in the deep waters of national affairs.

Advance agents arrived days ago to pass out photographs of the candidate and his wife and their schedule to newspapers, to arrange for the press conferences of the Governor and Mrs. Bricker and for the Lincoln Day dinner last night.

Taft stands by

Republican members of House and Senate, as well as a few Democrats, filed by to shake his hand in a reception in the capital. The candidate beamed on all comers, and his henchmen glowed.

Senator Taft stood to one side, smiling. He has a stake in all this. If the Governor doesn’t make the grade, then the Senator is presumed to inherit back the organization which he has turned over for the Governor’s candidacy to use for himself at the convention.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: Bricker goes to Washington

Governor Bricker of Ohio went to Washington last night to make a campaign speech. His indictment of bureaucracy and of concentration of power in the President was effective.

He read the record: Relegating Congress to an inferior position, attempting to pack the Supreme Court, moving into fields of state and local administration, expanding authority of the White House at the expense of coordinate branches of government. This process, he said, operates on pap and patronage – particularly the deficit financing of spend-waste-borrow-tax. Unless checked, it can destroy the autonomy of state governments, the federal system, and free enterprise.

Apparently, the President himself is aware of the public reaction on this subject, or he would not be so anxious to bury the New Deal label, which now evokes more moans than cheers.

Governor Bricker, for his domestic policy would eliminate overlapping boards and bureaus. He favors “a sound constructive post-war tax policy,” including simplification of returns stabilization, taxation for revenue rather than for social changes, adequate revenue sources for the states, encouragement of venture capital and private enterprise, and reduction of federal taxes “as soon as possible after victory.”

His foreign policy was hardly mentioned. To say that “we want no super-government,” but membership in a cooperative organization among sovereign nations, is clear so far as it goes.

But to say “an international cooperative organization, whatever precise form it may take, can solve the problems which lead to war and fulfill the hopes of our people for a peaceful and better world” means little or nothing. If he has knowledge of foreign affairs or conviction on foreign policy, he is keeping it quiet. Maybe he will speak out as the campaign progresses.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: A clean fight won’t hurt

Republican manipulators whose money and activity have out them in positions of party leadership have decided against risking a primary fight in a year when they think they have a chance to carry Pennsylvania.

Specifically, they have decided against opposing U.S. Senator James J. Davis, who will be a candidate for renomination in the April primary, although they have consistently been against Mr. Davis in former elections.

Credit for this development must go to Governor Edward Martin and, from the standpoint of party interest and discipline, it was a magnanimous and intelligent decision. Mr. Martin has now love for Senator Davis, whom he fought for the governorship nomination in 1942.

The other two manipulators, Joseph R. Grundy, who symbolizes and directs the bulk of the so-called Old Guard faction of the party, and Joseph N. Pew of Philadelphia, who has contributed a disproportionate share of campaign expenses in recent years, also sacrificed some pride on coming to this conclusion – because they likewise haven’t had much time for Mr. Davis.

But the whole maneuver, despite the mutual buttering-up, was founded on expediency. It didn’t stem from any respect for Senator Davis’ statesmanship, but from fears that a vigorous primary battle might so cleave the party as to imperil success in the November election.

This type of thinking, which also characterizes the leadership in the Democratic Party, probably takes its roots from the 1938 primary when the Democrats, riding high up to that time, split in a bitter campaign and subsequently were decisively beaten in the November election.

But it wasn’t the mere fact that the Democrats disagreed over candidates in the primary which led to their downfall in Pennsylvania. Not even the vindictive mudslinging in which they engaged could be held solely accountable.

The Democrats were beaten in 1938 because they tried to scuttle the grand jury system. They were beaten because they abused and wasted the WPA. They were beaten because they became unreasonable and arrogant.

They would have been beaten, under these circumstances, even if their preceding primary had been a model of harmony and unity.

They beat themselves, but not because they indulged in a primary contest. That’s what primaries are for.

There is just as much reason for a party to get licked if it doesn’t put up its best candidates. And when the so-called party bosses grease the machinery so that all opposition is skidded out the door, the best candidates are seldom nominated.

A primary contest is a healthy thing. No party can long maintain virility without differences of opinion. And the place to settle those differences is in a free and open primary, not among a few self-constructed leaders in a backroom.

The primary need not degenerate into a mudslinging contest. Issues can be debated, constructively and informatively, as well as in a general election campaign.

The candidates who are nominated by the Republican Party in Pennsylvania – and the Democratic Party, too – should be nominated by the registered voters in that party, not by two or three scrapping leaders who get together and make a deal.

[NormanStewart]

Prohibition leader’s brother on probation

Los Angeles, California (UP) –
C. Arthur Watson, 48, brother of Claude Watson, Prohibition Party candidate for President, began two years of probation today following its conviction on charges of intoxication and drunken driving.

Watson, who said he was sorry to have caused any embarrassment to his brother, admitted in court that he had taken three alcoholic drinks early in the evening of Nov. 21, and said he had been taking codeine tablets for dental ailments. He said he did not know what effect the combination would produce.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (February 12, 1944)

Bricker’s plea for strike ban meets apathy

Congressmen think time unripe for action at present
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Washington –
Prohibition of strikes in time of war, as recommended here by Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio, has not changed that majority Congressional disposition to move slowly on this subject, according to opinion samplings today.

Even some of the Ohio Republican Congressmen expressed privately a regret that the Governor had unveiled this dynamic issue at this time. Another Republican from the Midwest, who has been active in efforts at union-regulatory legislation, took the same stand, but said he thought Governor Bricker had expressed a demand that exists among a substantial number of plain citizens and men in the Armed Forces.

Reasons for apathy

Reasons for the Congressional apathy on the subject are two: No serious strikes are going on now; the House would probably pass such legislation, but the Senate would probably let it die.

A bill to prohibit all wartime strikes is in the House, but until the situation changes it will be “just another bill.” The bill introduced by Rep. Howard W. Smith (D-VA) provides penalties of revocation of rights under the National Labor Relations Act and other labor-protective statutes for any union whose members strike in wartime, whether or not the disturbance is “wildcat” or authorized by the union’s officers.

Political factor

The subject is linked up with the presidential campaign. Republicans see a chance to divide the administration’s labor support this year. Among the leading Republican possibilities, Governor Dewey has made no labor pronouncement, nor has Mr. Willkie.

On the Democratic side, the labor-politico picture may be affected by two oncoming developments:

• The Department of Justice will find it necessary to make a statement eventually on its investigation of charges that the War Labor Disputes Act has been violated by a collection of a $700,000 political campaign fund under direction of CIO president Philip Murray.

• Congressman Dies (D-TX) says he will tell the House within two weeks what his investigating committee has turned up regarding alleged cultivation of un-American subversive elements by the CIO’s “Political Action Committee.”

Miners’ protest

Criticism of the administration from the American Federation od Labor and the non-affiliated unions has increased. Among the latter is the United Mine Workers, headed by John L. Lewis, who supported Mr. Willkie in 1940, but might find it hard to do so in 1944. This union’s magazine says in the current issue:

There are any number of honest American labor leaders willing and anxious to vote the Republican ticket if the Republican Party can and will furnish the assurance that it is ready and willing to become the party of the people.

[NormanStewart]

Democrats select July 19 to open 4-day convention

Roosevelt’s nomination for fourth term expected on third night; battle for Vice Presidency expected
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Washington –
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s nomination for a fourth term can be expected with some confidence to become an accomplished fact at about 9:30 p.m. ET Friday, July 21 next.

But if you want to bet and play it safe, make it not later than the same hour on the following day, Saturday, July 22, Chairman Robert E. Hannegan of the Democratic National Committee announced yesterday that the streamlined Democratic National Convention would meet Wednesday, July 19, in Chicago.

The committee, which chose the site at a meeting here last month and solicited Mr. Roosevelt to run again, left to Mr. Hannegan the fixing of a date.

Must reach soldiers

Mr. Hannegan would have liked to delay the convention until August but the hare facts of the soldiers’ ballot compelled a July selection.

The ballots cannot be distributed to the armed services until it has been officially established who the Republican and Democratic candidates will be. And if the Democratic nomination were delayed much beyond mid-July, it probably would not be possible for the troops to vote and get the ballots back to be counted.

By ordering the convention to start in mid-week, Hannegan sought to assure a short meeting. His announcement said it was expected that all proceedings would be completed in the remainder of that week – four days. The Republican Convention will begin Monday, June 26, in Chicago.

Vice-presidential battle

Barring a knockdown battle over the vice-presidential nomination, which is more than likely, the Democrats could nominate their ticket and adopt a platform in a couple of days. But both political parties have learned to arrange their convention schedules to take advantage of the best evening radio hours.

Therefore, it is expected that the Democratic keynote speaker – still to be named – will do his stuff on the first night, July 19. The permanent chairman could speak his piece on the evening of July 20 and the Resolutions Committee come in with the platform late Friday afternoon.

Adoption of the platform will probably be the prelude to the nomination of a presidential candidate.

Rayburn mentioned

Then, provided Mr. Roosevelt did not insist on having Mr. Wallace as a running mate again, the vice-presidential nomination could be given quickly to any one of a dozen party stalwarts, especially House Speaker Sam Rayburn. If the convention had serious vice-presidential problems, there would still be Saturday for their solution.

The convention could be run off that fast, or faster, provided good, gray Charlie Michelson does not again decide that each state should have an opportunity to make a seconding speech to Mr. Roosevelt’s nomination. Good, gray Charlie did it that way in Philadelphia in 1936 and it ran into a great deal of oratory.

All in confidence

The seconders clamored to be heard because Mr. Michelson, wily as he is good and gray, passed the word in confidence to everyone in the hall that the platform microphone was connected with a nationwide hookup and that the second speakers would be heard everywhere, including back home.

Some of them even signed off with a “Good night, Myrtle” after reporting that their state, too, was honored and then some to second the nomination of and so forth–.

The fact that there was actually no nationwide hookup always delighted Charlie and he felt that the seconders had just as much fun out of it as though they really had been on the air.

[NormanStewart]

GOP leaders divided on foreign policy

By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Washington –
A real issue developing within the Republican Party on foreign policy was projected into sharp relief during the two-day visit here of Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio to promote his campaign for the party nomination for President.

It does not revolve about old-fashioned “isolationism,” as such, which Governor Bricker said is not an issue in the campaign. He added that anybody who charges isolationism in this campaign will be raising a “phony” issue.

The issue concerns how far the “international cooperation” to which the party had pledged itself in the Mackinac declaration of last September shall do, how it shall be implemented, and in this important question there is a basic cleavage within the party, one which must be fought out at the convention.

Governor Bricker is for international cooperation and collaboration, which he says should be implemented, but does not say how. He wants no superstate to “direct the course of American destiny,” but this country must remain free in international affairs and all nations must retain their sovereignty.

This raises the question, which is stressed by the other viewpoint within the party, as to how any country, including the United States, can associate itself in an international organization to keep the peace without giving up some of its freedom of action, or “sovereignty.”

This viewpoint is represented by Wendell L. Willkie; former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen, who favors a United Nations organization with a parliament and an international police force; Senator Joseph Ball (R-MN) and others.

The Republican Post-War Advisory Council confronted the issue at Mackinac and compromised with its declaration for:

…responsible participation by the United States in post-war cooperative organization among sovereign nations to prevent military aggression and to attain permanent peace with organized justice in a free world.

Landon asks coalition to oust Roosevelt

Knoxville, Tennessee (UP) –
Former Kansas Governor Alf M. Landon last night called for a union of Republicans and Democrats in the November election to oust President Roosevelt and “clean house” in Washington.

In a Lincoln Day speech, the 1936 Republican presidential candidate asserted that:

It is painfully evident to an increasing number of real Democrats that they must turn their back temporarily on the political party of their fathers in order to keep American faith with their sons and daughters.

Mr. Landon attacked the President’s “win-the-war” slogan and said the claim of one man that one party had a monopoly on such a slogan was “the cheapest and sleaziest kind of politics.”

Called an insult

He said:

The President’s attempt to substitute “win-the-war” for the “New Deal” as a campaign slogan is an insult to every member of our fighting forces.

Mr. Landon said the issues which will be decided in the November elections can all be summed up as:

Will our country continue to move toward the national socialistic state which is the objective of the New Dealers, or will we keep the faith? – the faith of our fathers; the faith of our sons and daughters who fight the war.

He asserted:

Fascism is here in America and its name is the New Deal.

‘Hypnotic ringmaster’

Already the big and the petty bureaucrats of Washington are developing all the facets of an arbitrary regime. And that is fascism – no matter by what name it is called by its genial and hypnotic ringmaster.

He charged that Mr. Roosevelt had entered into agreements with foreign representatives without consulting the State Department and added that:

It is a matter of common knowledge that there are entirely too many agencies studying problems, arguing abstract issues, bickering among themselves and interfering with the miracle of production by farmers, labor and business.

[NormanStewart]

Wallace urges jobs authority

Milwaukee, Wisconsin (UP) –
“Jobs will be our number one economic problem the moment peace comes,” Vice President Henry A. Wallace said in an address here last night in which he proposed the creation of a jobs authority with responsibility and power subject only to the President and Congress.

He told an audience of 2,000 persons in the municipal auditorium:

We should have some sort of organization that can get at least as prompt action on behalf of jobs as the War Production Board got on behalf of fighting material.

---

Willkie makes disunity charge

Tacoma, Washington (UP) –
The Roosevelt administration has forfeited its right to moral leadership because “it has lost the sense of the importance of unity which has saved us in previous national crises,” Wendell Willkie declared last night.

Mr. Willkie told the Pierce Country Republican Club at a pre-Lincoln Day observance:

Only in the Republican Party can the nation reforge a feeling of national unity, strong enough to stand the tests that lie ahead of us.

He assured the administration of promoting disunity and cited as an example the recent railroad strike call which he said was brought on by the President’s “equivocal answers, broken promises and delaying tactics.”