Election 1944: Pre-convention news

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (May 19, 1944)

State’s delegation to GOP convention to meet tomorrow

Philadelphia caucus unlikely to endorse a candidate but majority favor Dewey
By Kermit McFarland

Pennsylvania’s delegation to the Republican presidential convention, which meets in caucus tomorrow in Philadelphia, is unlikely to endorse any candidate for the presidential nomination.

However, a majority of the delegates – and probably all of them – will vote for Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York on an early ballot when the convention meets in Chicago next month.

The delegates are posing a noncommittal attitude at present, mainly at the request – implied in some cases and direct in others – of Governor Edward Martin.

May face minor fight

This plan may face a minor fight, however, because W. Clyde Haret of Williamsport, who is Lycoming County register-recorder and a delegate, disclosed today that he will offer a resolution endorsing Mr. Dewey.

He said:

It is the plain patriotic duty of Pennsylvania’s delegation to resolve unanimously to cast the state’s entire 70 votes on the first ballot for Dewey.

Several reasons given

There are several versions of the Governor’s reasons for this noncommittal policy being bruited about. But the most authoritative is that Mr. Martin looks with disfavor on any endorsement by the Pennsylvania delegates prior to the Governor’s Conference which opens at Hershey May 28.

The delegates have been asked to withhold comment until after the conference, at which Mr. Dewey will be a principal speaker. Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio, another presidential candidate, is also a scheduled speaker. The conference will be attended by nearly all the 48 governors, both Republican and Democratic.

Mr. Martin is represented as feeling that as host state it would be a breach of courtesy for the Pennsylvania delegation to pledge itself at this time.

Other versions offered

Other versions of the story less credible include one which holds that Republican state leaders don’t want to get caught out on a limb of Mr. Dewey refused to run, another which maintains that the Governor is endeavoring to show that he holds the delegation in his vest pocket and a third which contends that state leaders don’t want to “embarrass” Mr. Dewey before he formally announces his candidacy.

Adhering, in the main, to this noncommittal policy, the 10 delegates and 10 alternates from Allegheny County are maintaining a loose disguise over their obvious pro-Dewey sentiment.

A poll of the 10 delegates drew a flat commitment from only one, although several indirectly indicated a preference for Mr. Dewey. All of them were elected on an uninstructed basis.

Estep favors Dewey

Harry A. Estep, former Congressman who is a delegate from the 32nd district, said Mr. Dewey is his “personal preference” although he would be satisfied, under the circumstances, if the delegation voted no endorsement at tomorrow’s caucus.

Three of the alternates said they would vote for Mr. Dewey, if they get a vote (Alternates vote only in case of a delegate’s absence).

David H. Anderson of Homestead, alternate from the 23rd district, and Ray E. Schneider, North Side insurance dealer, agreed as candidates to support the popular choice – Mr. Dewey, on the basis of the write-in vote cast at the primary. The other alternate who declared himself is McKeesport physician Dr. Thomas A. Steele.

One alternate, Flora Von Hofen of Sewickley, elected by write-in votes in the 30th district, said she would not attend the convention. She declined to explain.

Mrs. Mary Hart Poling of Dormont, an alternate from the 31st district, is out of the city and couldn’t be reached in the poll, but she ran on an agreement to support the popular choice.

The statements of delegates and alternates from Allegheny County on their presidential preferences follow:

• Frank J. Harris, 31st district delegate:

Any delegate should be guided to a great extent by the sentiment of the people in his party. It is very apparent that the people of Pennsylvania seem to be for Governor Dewey. The write-in votes cast at the primary definitely indicated the wishes of the people. Therefore, the duty of every delegate at this writing is clear and definite.

• William B. McFall, 31st district delegate:

The overwhelming number of those whom I have consulted favor Governor Dewey.

• James F. Malone, 32nd district delegate:

Right now, Governor Dewey appears to be the outstanding candidate.

• Harry A. Ester, 32nd district delegate:

I was elected as an uninstructed delegate, but my personal preference is Governor Dewey/. However, I’m perfectly satisfied if the delegation doesn’t want to act at Philadelphia but decides to wait until we meet again in Chicago.

• Paul W. Mack, 33rd district delegate: “No comment.”

• John S. Herron, 39th district delegate:

I prefer not to make any statement until after the caucus.

• William P. Witherow, 29th district delegate:

I am uninstructed. I intend to give the question of a nominee every consideration, but I wouldn’t like to mention any names now. I feel that the Pennsylvania delegation will do the best job possible.

• Ralph E. Flinn, 30th delegate delegate:

I wouldn’t want to answer. In fact, I don’t know. I’m not instructed. I ran unpledged and unsupported by the organization and I don’t support it matters much whether I’m for a candidate or not.

• William H. Robertson, 30th district delegate:

I’d like to give Governor Martin a complimentary vote, but I don’t want to miss the boat. I think Governor Dewey will be nominated very early in the game.

• C. J. McBride, 33rd district delegate:

I am not committed to any candidate, but I think the Pennsylvania delegation will support the people’s preference.

ALTERNATES

• Mrs. Adelaide Rigby Conly, 39th district alternate:

I am going to wait until the delegation meets. I want to see if there is going to be any group action.

• Mrs. Anna M. Conley, 32nd district alternate:

I want to wait until the caucus in Philadelphia before I make any statement.

• Dr. Thomas A. Steele, 33rd district alternate: “I like Tom Dewey.”

• David H. Anderson, 33rd district alternate:

I think Dewey would be it.

• George R. Hann, 30th district alternate:

I think the delegates should sit down and have two or three conferences before any of them make any commitments.

• Ray E. Schneider, 30th district alternate:

If I have a vote at the convention, I personally would like to be for Governor Dewey.

• Mrs. Nelle G. Dressler, 29th district alternate:

I feel we should wait until the delegate caucus.

[NormanStewart]

Oregon voters go to polls

Portland, Oregon (UP) –
Two senatorial contests feature the Oregon primary today, in which voters balloted on nominees for Congressional, state and local offices.

Senator Rufus Holman (R-OR) was opposed in his campaign for renomination by Wayne L. Morse, former member of the War Labor Board and dean of the University of Oregon Law School.

In the battle for the GOP nomination for the senatorial vacancy created by the death of Charles L. McNary, Guy Cordon (the interim appointee) was opposed by former Governor Charles Sprague.

Willis Mahoney of Klamath Falls was unopposed for the Democratic short-term nomination, while Walter Whitbeck and Edgar Smith sought the regular-term nomination.

President Roosevelt was unopposed in the Democratic preferential primary, while a heavy write-in vote was anticipated on the Republican side, where no candidates were listed.

[NormanStewart]

Stokes: Roosevelt, CIO worry Democrats

By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Washington –
The House of Representatives’ lobbies and cloakrooms are somewhat gloomy with what might be termed “Democratic pre-election blues.”

They are inspired by two fears.

One, presumably common to Democrats of all shades outside the Solid South, is that President Roosevelt may not run again. This anxiety would not seem to be well-grounded from all the preparations that are going on to “draft” Mr. Roosevelt, but the ordinary rules don’t apply to politicians who are a timorous lot. Many, outside the South, are afraid they will be swept out of office if the President does not head the ticket and give them a coattail ride.

They would like some word from on high. They are not going to get it. To keep them on tenterhooks is part of the clever game being played by the President, for that tends to keep them in line and will make the “draft” this year more closely approximate a real call, without the synthetic tomfoolery of four years ago.

The other fear, especially plaguing to conservatives still to face primary tests, is the sudden and surprising strength exhibited by the CIO through its militant and aggressive Political Action Committee which broke out in the South, of all places.

The tall, spare Rep. Smith (D-VA), co-author of the Smith-Connally Act and outstanding anti-labor leader in the House, gave voice to this undercover dread that he sought to calm the fears of his colleagues.

He pointed out that although Attorney General Biddle says the CIO Committee has not violated the Smith-Connally Act by raising a $700,000 fund for political activity, he had introduced a resolution for an investigation into contributions by both corporations and labor unions to political committees. Such contributions are forbidden by the Smith-Connally Act.

This resolution represents the counterattack of the conservatives. It is the brainchild of Rep. Smith and Rep. Cox (D-GA), subsequently it was broadened and was reintroduced in the name of Rep. Gathings (D-AR), who comes from a plantation district safe against any invasion from CIO, so that Mr. Gathings can proceed freely.

During the floor discussion, no one mentioned expenditures by corporations, obviously large in the Florida and Alabama primaries against New Deal candidates. New Dealers will see that this part of the story comes out if the Smith investigation is authorized.

[NormanStewart]

To nominate Stassen

Washington –
Senator Joseph H. Ball (R-MN) will nominate LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen, former Minnesota Governor, for President at the Republican National Convention in Chicago on June 26.

[NormanStewart]

New liberal party to be organized

New York (UP) –
Organization of a new liberal party, which plans to name the first national ticket, headed by President Roosevelt, will be completed at a state convention opening tonight.

The ticket, including Vice President Henry A. Wallace, and Senator Robert F. Wagner (D-NY), will be named at tomorrow’s session of the convention, Dean Alfange, head of the Liberal and Labor Committee, which is organizing the party, predicted.

The new party is composed of former right-wing members of the American Labor Party and other liberal elements.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (May 20, 1944)

Governor Dewey leads in Oregon, 8–1

Senator Holman trails Wayne Morse

Portland, Oregon (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York took an overwhelming lead today over LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen and Governor John Bricker of Ohio in Republican presidential preference write-in votes cast in yesterday’s Oregon primary election.

Returns gave Mr. Dewey a lead of almost 8 to 1. The uninstructed 15-man Oregon delegation is not obligated to vote for the winner of the write-in campaign, but the results of the presidential preference balloting were expected to have a strong influence on the delegation at the Chicago convention.

Roosevelt unopposed

President Roosevelt was unopposed in the Democratic preference primary.

Local interest centered on two close contests for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, where outlying results may decide the issues. Senator Guy Cordon, interim appointee replacing the late Senator Charles L. McNary, stayed slightly ahead of ex-Governor Charles A. Sprague for the Republican nomination.

Wayne Morse, former law school dean who resigned from the National War Labor Board to oppose Senator Rufus Holman (wealthy Republican manufacturer), held a narrow lead throughout the night’s tabulating. It was Mr. Morse’s first political race, while Mr. Holman is a veteran campaigner.

Edgar Smith, member of the State Board of Education, easily won the Democratic nomination for the Democratic nomination for the long-term Senate seat from Walter W. Whitbeck, while Willis Mahoney was unopposed for the Democratic nomination for the short term.

Returns from 829 out of 1,828 precincts gave for the GOP presidential write-in race:

Dewey	14,032
Stassen	1,867
Bricker	979

Returns from 1,029 precincts gave for Senator:

Short term
Henry Black (R)	3,270
Cordon (R)	33,883
John McBride (R)	2,152
Sprague (R)	29,166
Mahoney (D)	9,031

Long term
Earl Fisher (R)	4,456
Holman (R)	29,733
Morse (R)	33,048
Smith (D)	19,523
Whitbeck (D)	7,384

Congressmen renominated

Republican voters renominated all four o the state’s GOP Congressmen with James Mott of Salem the only one with a contest. He led Dan Harmon of Newberg, 2 to 1. The only Democratic Congressional contest found Lester Sheely of Portland holding a slight lead over L. N. Granoff.

The withdrawal of Wendell Willkie from the presidential race did not deter National Republican Committeeman Ralph Cake from being reelected. His opponent, Charles Paine of Eugene, based his campaign on Mr. Cake’s managing of the Willkie campaign.

---

Alabama group to back Dewey

Birmingham, Alabama (UP) –
Seven delegates instructed to support Thomas E. Dewey and seven others uninstructed but reported to favor the New York Governor were selected yesterday at the state Republican convention to cast Alabama’s 14 votes at the national convention in Chicago.

[NormanStewart]

GOP delegates of state will not endorse Dewey

By Robert Taylor, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania –
Pennsylvania Republicans today organized their forces for the presidential campaign to the accompaniment of resounding criticisms of the New Deal.

According to plan, members of the State Committee were to reelect their principal officials, but delegates to the national convention were to forego endorsement of any candidate for the Republican nomination for President.

Though the nomination of Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York was virtually conceded by party representatives here, the principal business was to name Governor Edward Martin as chairman of the group that will vote for Pennsylvania at the Chicago convention.

That action was expected to rule out any possibility that the Pennsylvania delegates, who usually go to conventions uncommitted, might stand off in the convention by casting ballots for Governor Martin as a favorite-son candidate.

The state committee reelected State Senator M. Harvey Taylor of Harrisburg as chairman and Insurance Commissioner, Gregg L. Neel of Pittsburgh, as secretary.

Former State Senator G. Mason Owlett, president of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, and Mrs. Worthington Scranton of Scranton, members of the national committee, were renamed for four-year terms.

Mrs. Edna Carroll of Philadelphia was named vice chairman in place of Mrs. Margaret R. Lamade of Williamsport, who retired, and Mrs. George Hemphill of Beaver, as assistant secretary.

Two speakers – Philadelphia City Chairman David W. Harris, and Vice Chairman Edna Carroll – told a dinner meeting of Republican women last night that “the atmosphere looks Dewey,” but the decision of party leaders against a Dewey endorsement was expected to dominate the delegate caucus.

Speakers at the series of meetings gave a sample of what Republican campaign oratory will sound like as they denounced the New Deal, its works and personalities.

Edgar W. Baird, candidate for state treasurer, said:

It’s not the New Deal anymore – to my mind it’s the National Socialist Party of America.

Lieutenant Governor John C. Bell asked:

Shall the House of America, built on the rock of Liberty, be supplanted by the House of Roosevelt, embedded and about to be rebuilt on the shifting sands of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Communist Russia.

Government seizure of Montgomery Ward & Co., high taxation and the activities of the CIO Political Action Committee are among the subjects Republicans will hammer on, according to this preview.

Mr. Owlett summed it up this way:

I don’t believe we’re going to turn this nation of ours over to Sidney Hillman, Frankfurter, Hopkins or Mrs. Roosevelt.

Senator James J. Davis, head of the state ticket as candidate for reelection, told the meeting the nation must be prepared after the war for “full participation in an international organization to preserve the peace.”

Must have better program

Governor Martin, in the keynote speech, said that, in five years of Republican rule, Pennsylvania turned a deficit of $71 million into a $100 million surplus, with lower taxes and increased appropriations of $40 million for education and welfare.

After 12 years of the New Deal, he said, the nation now is entering “the most difficult and dangerous period of American history.”

He said:

Regardless of the fact that the Constitution has been ignored and frequently evaded, and that our domestic problems have been recklessly handled, the Republican Party cannot win by griping, complaining and faultfinding.

We must have a better program. We must convince the voters that we have the will and the ability to put that program into effect.

11-point program

The Pennsylvania chief executive expressed the greatest confidence in the ability of the Republican Party to stop the greedy nations of the post-war era, and to lead the people in the “American way.”

Mr. Martin said:

From the days of William McKinley, John Hay and Theodore Roosevelt, the Republican Party has ably handled international affairs. The acquisition of the Philippines and Puerto Rico gave us great concern. The Democrats opposed, but the problems were courageously met and handled to the entire satisfaction of the American people by the Republican Party,

Mr. Martin proposed an 11-point program for the Republican Party:

• The use of all our energies to speedily win the war.

• Work for permanent peace in collaboration with other nations.

• Preservation of the sovereignty of the United States.

• A program of veteran rehabilitation, reemployment and opportunity to succeed as a recompense for sacrifices made in the service.

• A government of thrift and economy. Elimination of all unnecessary super-government.

• A policy toward agriculture, labor and management, that assures them equality of opportunity, freedom of action and minimum of interference by government.

• Simplification and decentralization of government.

• An end to the economy of scarcity and a clear recognition that the economy of plenty is the only economy for America.

• Disposition after the war of all surplus lands, factories and material required by the government for the prosecution of the war and full establishment of an economy of full private enterprise.

• A program of conservation of national resources.

• An adequate program of national defense to safeguard America and secure peace for the world.

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (May 21, 1944)

Tarnungsmanöver auf Befehl Moskaus –
Auflösung der US-Kommunisten

dnb. Genf, 20. Mai –
Wie Reuters meldet, soll die seit 25 Jahren bestehende Partei der US-Kommunisten den einstimmigen Beschluß gefaßt haben, sich als politische Partei aufzulösen. Daß diese angebliche Auflösung nur aus Tarnungsgründen erfolgt, geht aus dem weiteren Inhalt der Meldung hervor, wonach dafür eine neue, nicht politisch aufgezogene Organisation gebildet werden soll.

Genau wie seinerzeit bei der Auflösung der Komintern wird also auch nur das Firmenschild geändert, um unter einem neuen Namen umso ungestörter die Befehle Moskaus ausführen zu können.

Da weite Kreise der USA den Kommunismus ablehnen, wird auch Herr Roosevelt erfreut sein, daß die Kommunisten, die unter Verzicht eines eigenen Kandidaten für die Wiederwahl des Kriegshetzers und politischen Freundes im Weißen Hause stimmen werden, sich ein neues Mäntelchen anziehen wollen, das Roosevelt ermöglicht, sich noch mehr als bisher für die Jünger Stalins einzusetzen, nachdem seine Frau schon vor längerer Zeit als erste Kommunistin bezeichnet wird.

[NormanStewart]

The Brooklyn Eagle (May 21, 1944)

New Liberal Party lines up for Roosevelt and Wallace

World peace unit plank is adopted

The new Liberal Party, organized by former right-wing leaders of the American Labor Party and allied groups as the nucleus of a potential national liberal party, threw itself once into the 1944 national campaign yesterday by voting by acclamation to nominate President Roosevelt for a fourth term.

The action, climaxing a two-day convention in the Hotel Roosevelt in Manhattan, was voted by 1,124 delegates who. shortly afterward, also now chose by acclamation Vice President Wallace as their nominee for reelection. The same method was used to vote the renomination of Senator Robert F. Wagner for a new six-year term in Washington.

Claim 400,000 votes

Convention spokesmen predicted at the close of the proceedings the new party would poll 400,000 votes lor Roosevelt. The new party comes into existence less than 60 days after former right-wing leaders of the ALP withdrew from the latter organization after a losing primary fight in March which involved the issues of party control and alleged ALP domination by Communists and their so-called fellow travelers.

Under the state election laws, the new political group, in order to place the names of the President, Vice President and Senator Wagner on the ballot, must nominate by petition as an independent party. Its nomination of the Roosevelt-Wallace ticket will require 12,000 signatures of state voters, with at least 50 from each county.

A demonstration of between 10 and 15 minutes was staged when President Roosevelt’s name was presented to the delegates in a nomination speech by Samuel Shore, vice president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, the most powerful union group behind the new party.

Delegates parade

Horn-tooting, cowbell-ringing, banner-waving delegates paraded around the main ballroom, in which the convention was staged, and went into a similar demonstration later when the nomination was made.

Mr. Shore said:

In hours heavy with uncertainties, we need men who are unswerving in their certainty of principle, their devotion to justice, their loyalty to ideals. Small men cannot perform great tasks – no matter how big their ambition or how wealthy their backers.

The speaker placed the President’s name before the delegates without a reference to a “draft” movement.

O’Leary endorses choice

Joseph V. O’Leary, former State Controller, made a seconding speech. The convention howled with laughter later when Prof. William Withers of Queens College, in another seconding speech, declared:

It is a privilege to second the nomination, not of an Ohio Governor, not of a naval officer from Minnesota, not of a Pacific war commander, not of a man in a blue serge suit, but of a real liberal, the greatest of them all, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The nominations came after the convention, at its morning session, had adopted a declaration of the need for the formation of the new party and a program containing 12 planks.

The plank dealing with foreign policy called for the immediate creation of a United Nations Council and the post-war creation of a permanent international organization with power to maintain peace and carry out its decisions. One of the specific recommendations was for the formation of an “effective system of international policing to suppress aggression.”

Rejects isolationism

The plank rejected “isolationism and imperialism for American” and warned against alliances of the big powers, declaring that after the war there must be collective security and world organization.

The platform also included planks on a post-war economic policy; the transition from war to peace economy; democracy and equality; labor’s rights, agriculture, cooperatives, civil rights, education, housing, social security and civil liberties.

Prof. John L. Childs of Teachers College, Columbia University, was elected party chairman. Alex Rose was chosen chairman of the party’s administrative committee, and 21 members were named as vice chairmen, including Andrew R. Armstrong and Alexander Kahn of Brooklyn. The vice presidents include Mr. Dubinsky of the Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.

[NormanStewart]

Browder: FDR retirement would be disaster

The recent visit of Father Stanislav Orlemanski, Polish-American Roman Catholic priest, to Moscow means “the opening of a final opportunity for the [Polish] government-in-exile to purge itself of its anti-Soviet personnel and policies and merge into the new Polish government which will undoubtedly arise,” Communist leader Earl Browder said yesterday.

Speaking at the opening session of the Communist Party’s final convention as a political party, at the Riverside Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, Browder declared that the American Communists would support President Roosevelt for a fourth term and added that the President’s retirement now, if it were to come, “would be a disaster to our country.” That is so generally recognized, he declared, that “Republicans-for-Roosevelt clubs are springing up all over the country.”

Browder announced dissolution of the Communist Party as such and said it would carry on as “a new non-party organization through which we expect to contribute to the common cause of the progressive majority of the American people,” under a new name such as the American Communist Association or American Communist Political Association.

[NormanStewart]

Heffernan: On Americans without a candidate

Sometimes I wonder if this presidential campaign, like that of 1940, will find Americans of my turn of mind without a candidate for the Chief Magistracy.

There have come to my desk letters from supporters of Mr. Roosevelt who say that they are against a fourth term but that the Republican Party offers no acceptable candidate against the present incumbent. There have come letters from readers who say that, although they are not satisfied with Governor Dewey, whose mobility of sentiments is already a target for New Deal attack, they would vote for a piebald puppy rather than for Roosevelt again.

Then there are others who, like myself, base their political action on these points:

• Desire for a return of constitutional government.

• A two-term limitation on the presidential tenure.

• This polity pronounced by Washington and a guiding influence of our foreign policy up to President Wilson’s time: “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.”

The quotation is from Washington’s Farewell Address.

People of my mind realize that we are in this war, that our bravest and best blood is being shed on a hundred fields, and that extrication when the cannon cease their thunders will not be a matter of easy and immediate process. We shall have to aid the other powers involved to enforce peace where force is necessary and to persuade it where persuasion is possible.

But that still can be attained, we think, without the permanent alliances which Washington considered ruinous to our government, and which if we make them, will create a constant drain on our manhood and wealth and a continuous irritation of our domestic politics and a continuous depreciation of the value of our way of life.

Our opposition to President Roosevelt is the result of the lack of correspondence of performance with profession. The campaign speeches of the last presidential campaign seem like words floating in air against the American boys on foreign fields today. And even before the war the domestic policy of the administration has been a strange commentary on this from his 1935 Message to Congress:

Continuous dependence on relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive of the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.

We are now confronted with the strong probability that Mr. Dewey will be the Republican candidate. His 1940 addresses, which were strongly non-intervention, are at odds with his present-day declarations on national policy. But if he be the candidate, we shall find ourselves forced either to vote for him or for the continuance in office of the New Deal and the consequent obsequies of the Constitution of the United States.

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (May 22, 1944)

Eine wohlverdiente Unterstützung –
Die Bolschewisten stimmen für Roosevelt

vb. Wien, 21. Mai –
Aus Washington meldet das Reuters-Büro, die Generalversammlung der nordamerikanischen kommunistischen Partei habe zum erstenmal in der Geschichte dieser Partei beschlossen, keinen eigenen Präsidentschaftskandidaten aufzustellen. Earl Browder, der Sekretär der Partei, erklärt in diesem Zusammenhang, daß die amerikanischen Kommunisten sich für die Wiederwahl Roosevelts einsetzen würden, denn ein Abgang Roosevelts würde ein Unglück für das Land sein.

Selten hat ein Präsidentschaftskandidat soviel dafür getan, sich die Unterstützung einer anderen Partei zu sichern, wie es bei Herrn Präsidenten Roosevelt und bei den amerikanischen Kommunisten der Fall ist. Außer dem britischen Premierminister hat Stalin niemandem so viel zu verdanken wie dem gegenwärtigen Präsidenten der Vereinigten Staaten. Dank der mächtigen Hilfe Nordamerikas herrscht der Bolschewismus heute bereits in Nordafrika, dringt er immer weiter in Süditalien vor, ist ihm gerade noch Nordnorwegen und Kiel angeboten worden, soll ihm für die Zeit nach dem Kriege Polen, das Baltikum, der Balkan, die Tschechei und schließlich ganz Mittel- und Westeuropa gehören. Es ist nur in Ordnung, wenn Stalin für so viel selbstlose Hilfe auch einmal einen Gegendienst leistet. Das Bündnis zwischen britisch-amerikanischem Kapitalismus und östlichem Bolschewismus findet durch die Empfehlung der kommunistischen Partei Nordamerikas an ihre Mitglieder und Wähler eine neue Steigerung.

Dieses Bündnis hat in der gleichen Sitzung der Partei noch eine höchst aufschlußreiche Deutung erfahren. Nach seiner Mitteilung über die Haltung der Partei in der Frage der Präsidentenwahl erklärt Browder weiter, auch die Kommunisten müßten die Einigkeit in den Vereinigten Staaten fördern. Man müsse die Politik von Moskau und Teheran beschützen. Deshalb dürften die Kommunisten nicht die Frage des Sozialismus in einer Form auswerten, die die nationale Einigkeit gefährden könnte. Er sagte: „Wenn irgendjemand das bestehende kapitalistische System in den Vereinigten Staaten als freies Unternehmertum zu bezeichnen wünscht, so haben wir nichts dagegen.“ Nach einigen wohlwollenden Bemerkungen für die breiteren Schichten der Bevölkerung fügt Browder hinzu: „Wir erklären in aller Offenheit, daß wir bereit sind, unsere Mitarbeit zu gewähren“ – und schließlich gab Browder noch den entscheidenden Satz:

Wir ziehen im Wahljahre 1944 keine politische Trennungslinie hinsichtlich irgendwelcher Form oder Fragen des freien Unternehmertums.

Man kann nicht deutlicher ausdrücken, wie sehr sich die Börsengrößen der Wall Street und die Machthaber des Kreml geeinigt haben, um in der ganzen Welt ihr Spiel mit verteilten Rollen zu spielen. Man kann aber auch nicht deutlicher den Völkern die Lehre erteilen, daß es nicht genügt, eine dieser beiden Mächte zu zerschlagen, sondern daß man sie beide treffen muß, wenn man die Welt wirklich befreien will.

[NormanStewart]

The Brooklyn Eagle (May 22, 1944)

President to get complete physical checkup this week

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt will go this week to the Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland, for a complete physical checkup.

Mr. Roosevelt’s physician, VAdm. Ross T. McIntire. felt sure the examination would show the Chief Executive is back in good physical shape following a month’s vacation in South Carolina and as the result of a new, easier work routine at the White House.

Results of the checkup were expected by many of Mr. Roosevelt’s political supporters to cinch his decision to seek reelection. Many Democratic leaders, at least, were planning in that direction, and the final physical answer from the Naval Hospital this week was expected to remove from many of their minds all doubt as to his plans.

The medical checkup itself will be brief, probably not requiring more than a couple of hours of the President’s time, because McIntire already has much of the information that goes into such an examination. No hospital stay will be involved and Mr. Roosevelt will be away from his office only for a comparatively brief period – probably for part of a morning or an afternoon.

To guard against any loss of progress made during his South Carolina rest, McIntire has put President on a “take-it-easy” schedule, which is being followed every day. The President has abandoned his habit of doing business and engaging in conferences while eating lunch from a tray at his desk. He is now seeing very few callers in the afternoon and, in general, his routine has been lightened after 11 years of a hard-driving dally schedule.

[NormanStewart]

LIFE (May 22, 1944)

Editorial: Advice to the Republicans

Before stampeding to Dewey, the delegates should consider the claims of the Midwest

As a magazine, LIFE is neither Democrat nor Republican. If and when this magazine comes out for a candidate in the 1944 campaign, it will do so from a nonpartisan base. Thus, in giving some advice to the Republican Party, which we now propose to do, we are not adopting that party, or asking it to adopt us. We are giving it the kind of advice which any outside has the right to offer to any party whose affairs are, after all affected with a public interest.

The delegates to the Republican National Convention seem at the present moment to be hellbent on nominating Governor Dewey as fast as possible and then hellbending home. This may turn out to be a good thing for them to do. But our advice is: think it over. A case can be made that the best thing the Republicans can do is nominate a Midwesterner. And not only the best thing for the Republicans, but – more to the point – the best thing for the country in case they win the election.

The Republican renascence

The average delegate entraining for Chicago next month knows there is a widespread reaction against Washington bureaucracy, against OPA, against 12 too-exciting years of personal and theatrical government. he figures it’s a Republican year, so what the hell. It is true that this may be an anti-Roosevelt year. But if it is also a Republican year, what made it so? What and who revived the Republican Party? How does it happen that the anti-Roosevelt sentiment, instead of skulking through the streets, has a respectable vehicle?

The mainspring of the Republican renascence is the Midwest. Here, in the birthplace of the Republican Party, the land of corn, wheat and Lincoln, the Republican renascence got its start. Since 1938, the Midwest has been returning Republicans to Congress in an ever-widening stream. It gave Willkie 68 of his 82 electoral votes in 1940. Even those Midwestern states that went for Roosevelt that year went Republican in their state governments. To be sure, other sections did their share to keep the party together, notable New England. Nevertheless, the spearhead of Roosevelt’s Congressional opposition is 22 senators from the Midwest. The Midwest is the one section which can be counted on to go Republican this year.

For that very reason, many leading Republican politicians feel that it is unnecessary to take the Midwest’s mood into account. They concentrate their calculations on the problematical East and West. Hence: “Dewey and Warren.” Although the Midwest would support this ticket, it would rather have some recognition for its years of loyalty and hard work. But quite apart from that, there are serious national reasons why a Midwesterner, if the country goes Republican, should take the responsibility that goes with the victory the Midwest will have earned.

Whoever is President during the next four years will not have an easy time. While he is trying to conclude the peace treaties with one hand, the other will have to deal with a turmoil of demobilization. For a while the economic pie will be smaller; inevitably there will be renewed bitterness over who gets what. In that bitterness, group and sectional rancors will come boiling to the top.

Of sectional prejudice, the Midwest has perhaps a little more than its share. At its worst, it is suspicious of foreigners, of the East, of big cities (including its own), of Wall Street and of Big Business. The only thing the Midwest completely trusts is itself. The Midwest is just like the rest of America, only more so.

How can the Midwest be kept at its best during the next four dangerous years, instead of at its worst? By giving it responsibility, which is the surest antidote to prejudice. With 22 Senators, the Midwest is bound to exercise a great deal of power, of it does not enjoy responsibility commensurate with this power, it may become more self-sufficient, self-regarding and exclusively regional than ever.

Republican foreign policy

Among the serious consequences of such a withdrawal would be its effect on U.S. foreign policy. This would be the first target of the Midwest’s suspicions.

A lot has happened in the last few weeks to change the Republican position on foreign policy. Soon after Willkie’s withdrawal from the race, Governor Dewey came out for Secretary Hull, Governor Bricker came out for post-war credits abroad, and both came out for a joint peacekeeping deal with Britain, Russia and China. Meanwhile Senator Taft has written a blueprint for a new League of Nations and, of course, ex-Governor Stassen went on record with his famous seven-point program way back in January 1943. Throw in progressives like Senators Ball and Burton and throw out the Illinois crowd (who though powerful are not candidates) and you emerge with a wholly new Republican orientation: its leaders, even without Willkie, are all on record against anything that could remotely be termed “isolation.”

Now, the Midwest is the old home of isolation. The Midwest today is not against America’s participating in world affairs; but it is still very skeptical about any program of participation that has been offered to it to date. It is still isolationist in a relative sense; it is capable of supporting an active foreign policy, but only after its doubts about the motivation of that policy are completely removed. And the doubts of the Midwest spring from its prejudices – its suspicions of all foreigners and their supposed influence on the East.

A vocal handful of diehard Willkieites may say, “The Midwest is hopeless. No appeasement!” That is tantamount to saying that on foreign policy, the Republican Party without Willkie has no case.

But the Republicans have a foreign policy case. Their case is that internationalism will be not so much an issue as a fact of post-war life. Given this fact, U.S. foreign policy should be one of enlightened and responsible selfishness. Their case is not that Roosevelt is too inclined to make commitments, but that he cannot make his commitments stick. Congress will probably be Republican and certainly anti-Roosevelt; therefore, only a Republican President can make any foreign policy responsible and effective.

The Republican case is that when a Republican President sits down with Stalin, Churchill, Chiang Kai-shek and whoever else, the meeting will get somewhere; for Stalin et al. will know that the presidential signature on a treaty will not be written in vanishing ink.

Keep it clean

But if this is a good case for a Republican President, why is it not an even better case for a Midwestern Republican President?

If a Republican foreign policy were administered by a Midwesterner, its selfishness would never be open to doubt. For the Midwest trusts its own – especially those whom it has elected to office. With both the selfishness and the responsibility of our foreign policy assured, the debate could then be conducted on one level only: is it enlightened? This debate will go on forever. Our problem will be not to end it, but to keep it on this high plane.

The best way to keep it on this high plane is to stage it at the corner of Main and Elm. To the Midwestern eye, America is merely an extension of these two streets, and maybe the Midwest is right. In any case, they are long, straight streets, and they can lead to all parts of the world.

By naming a Midwestern candidate, the Republicans will assure the country that the great post-war debate will not degenerate into a sectional brawl. Yet to name a Midwesterner would not turn the Republicans into a sectional party, or an isolationist party, or otherwise narrow its base. There are at least four candidates – Bricker, Burton, Stassen, Taft – who are not only representative Midwesterners, but also men with a national viewpoint, and an expressed realization of America’s need to participate in world affairs.

The political case for Dewey is a strong one: his state is doubtful, while the Midwest is not, and any party has to figure things very closely when it is up against The Champ. But the delegates to Chicago will perform a patriotic service if they delay the stampede at least long enough for the Midwest’s case to be heard.

[NormanStewart]

The Brooklyn Eagle (May 23, 1944)

ALP names union chief for Congress

Municipal workers head chosen to make race in new 14th

James V. King, president of the CIO-affiliated State, County and Municipal Workers, has become the first member of the American Labor Party to be entered as a candidate in Brooklyn’s 1944 Congressional race, it was learned today.

Petitions designating him to run in the new 14th Congressional district, as established under the State Reapportionment Act, have been placed in circulation with the leaders setting 10,000 signatures as their goal. The district is one of several in Brooklyn, where the ALP outranks the Republicans as the runner-up to the Democrats in strength.

The new district has no Representative in Washington now and must elect one for the first time in November. This has produced a wide and open field to the Democratic, Republican and Labor parties, with the latter becoming the first to reach a definite agreement on its candidate. The district consists of the new 2nd and 16th ADs and includes Coney Island, much of the area which touches Gravesend Bay south of 16th Avenue and a large part of the Kings Highway section.

Ready to fight

The ALP’s selection of King is regarded as the first confirmation of the party’s determination to fight both the Democrats and Republicans, in certain districts, if necessary, in order to win a share of Brooklyn’s legislative offices. Although the party in recent years endorsed numerous Democratic and a more limited number of Republicans, no ALP member now holds an elective office from Brooklyn.

The only Democrats who have been assured to date of ALP endorsements for reelection are Irwin Steingut, the Democratic minority leader in the Assembly at Albany, and Rep. Emanuel Celler. A “limited number” of others will be endorsed, according to ALP leaders, with such backing being based on the candidates’ support of President Roosevelt’s fourth term and his New Deal administration policies.

Rayfiel mentioned

The Democratic leaders controlling their party’s slate in the 14th Congressional district have reached no decision on their choice. They are Kenneth F. Sutherland, the Coney Island leader, and Joseph B. Whitty of the 2nd AD. However, the name of Assemblyman Leo F. Rayfiel has been prominently mentioned.

King is one of the ALP’s most experienced members in legislative procedure. He has gone frequently to Albany, where he has appeared at legislative hearings in support of progressive legislation. As legislative spokesman for the State, County and Municipal Workers, he has been active to obtain an adjustment in the wage standards of thousands of low-paid state hospital workers.

[NormanStewart]

Browder seeks to extend basis of Communism

Communists, by dissolving their political party and reorganizing under the name of the Communist Political Association, hope to gain collaboration with “broader circles” of American life, Earl Browder, general secretary of the Communist Party of America since 1930 and president of the newly-formed association, said at the close of the Communist convention yesterday in the Riverside Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.

Browder, elected to head the new association by acclamation, explained that the political party has been an obstacle to such collaboration. He added that other obstacles remain such as “the Red scare and anti-Communist ideology fostered by Hitler’s propaganda organization.”

In placing Browder’s name in nomination, William Z. Foster, veteran lender, described the first president of the new association as “one of the finest agitators and educators” America has produced.

Commenting on German criticism of the Communists’ reorganization, Browder said he was happy the Communists had “displeased Berlin.”

“It was as I expected and predicted,” he said, referring to a Nazi DNB broadcast that assailed the new setup as a move to stop criticism of United States and Russian collaboration.

The broadcast stated that Berlin political circles viewed dissolution of the party as a “technical maneuver” to stifle attacks by President Roosevelt’s enemies against the “Roosevelt-Bolshevist coalition.”

‘Comrades’ no longer

In his closing address to the convention, Browder addressed his audience as “Ladies and Gentlemen,” dispensing with the customary Communist greeting “Comrades.”

A national committee of 40 members and 20 alternates will govern the new association. Among those elected as members of the committee, which includes all 27 members of the governing body of the dissolved party, were City Councilmen Peter V. Cacchione and Benjamin J. Davis Jr.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: Success of Wallace’s mission would enhance his prestige

The circumstances attending Vice President Wallace’s departure on his mission to China and Siberia make it possible to speculate with somewhat more certainty upon prospects for his renomination in July. When the announcement was first made some weeks ago that the Vice President would be out of the country at a significant time there was a hasty disposition to see in it a portent of political doom. President Roosevelt, it was assumed, had reached the decision that Mr. Wallace was not a political asset and that the cause of a fourth term would be served best by looking around for another running mate, one who would placate the conservative South, where there have been disturbing rumblings of discontent.

The possibility of Mr. Wallace’s retirement has brought a number of potential candidates for the vice-presidential nomination to the forefront but today Mr. Wallace looms somewhat larger upon the political scene than in the past and there is in consequence diminishing probabilities of his being replaced.

As the President’s personal representative to an Allied nation which has been waging a war for freedom for the last seven years and which has earned the right to a strong voice in the peace and in the future of Asia, Mr. Wallace undertakes a mission whose success will enhance his stature. It is unquestionably true, as the President said in his announcement, that “Eastern Asia will play a very important part in the future history of the world’” and that “forces are being unleashed there which are of the utmost importance to our peace and prosperity.”

This is not a junket nor is it a scheme cunningly designed to eliminate Mr. Wallace from the political scene at a time when his fortunes will hang in the balance. It is a mission planned to meet a definite need which is essential to the winning of the war and to the establishment of a satisfactory peace.

The Allied leaders have been charged frequently with thoughtlessness with respect to China’s interests and there is some justification for the charge. Preoccupation with the more pressing challenges of the Pacific and of Hitler’s Europe has operated to the neglect of China, whose needs have been great and whose sacrifices and sufferings cannot even be comprehended by their Allies.

It is important that we know more about China and that we bring to her plight a more practical and sympathetic concern. “The Vice President.” Mr. Roosevelt has said, “because of his present position and his training in economics and agriculture, is unusually well fitted to bring both to me and to the people of the United States a valuable first-hand report.”

The personnel of a carefully selected staff must be recognized as a further indication that the mission is one which is intended to accomplish purposes vital to a nation which has endured much in the struggle for a peaceful world.

Mr. Wallace’s opponents will not find it easy to make political capital of his trip to Siberia and China, particularly when there is the probability that he will return in time for the Democratic National Convention in mid-July. The developments are in his favor.

[NormanStewart]

The Brooklyn Eagle (May 24, 1944)

4th term splits Democrats in Texas session

Austin, Texas (UP) –
A split over the fourth term issue divided Texas Democrats into rival camps today and provided the party with what appeared to be its first convention fight.

The break occurred at the party’s state convention yesterday when the pro-Roosevelt faction, headed by A. J. Wirtz, former Under Secretary of the Interior, bolted from the meeting and held a rump session, naming a separate group of delegates to the national convention.

Under the usual convention procedure in disputes of this kind, the Credentials Committee will have to decide in advance of the balloting for nominations which delegation to seat. Texas has 48 votes at the convention.

Split over pledge

The split resulted from the question of pledging electors to support the Democratic national ticket, regardless of its composition.

A resolution which favored a return to the old party plan of nominating the candidates for President and Vice President by a two-thirds majority rule and declaring that states and parties had a right to fix their own election rules precipitated the break.

According to the terms of the resolution, if the national convention did not approve the proposals, the delegates would be free to cast the state’s 48 votes for any Democrats “holding views in accord with those here expressed.”

FDR group bolts parley

The pro-Roosevelt faction bolted the meeting and held a rival convention, naming a full slate of delegates.

Governor Coke R. Stevenson was invited to head the main convention’s delegation to Chicago and former Governor Dan Moody was named its chairman.

A resolution adopted by the pro-Roosevelt group declared that the original convention was an “usurpation and manipulation by enemies of the Democratic Party procured by delegates from Texas’ four largest counties, a large part of whom supported the Republican candidate for President in 1940.”

[NormanStewart]

Three groomed for Twomey’s seat in Senate

Assemblymen Rudd, Smolenski, Gittleson considered by party
By Joseph H. Schmalacker

Three Democratic legislators were being considered today for their party’s nomination to succeed Senator Jeremiah F. Twomey of Greenpoint, who has announced that, after nearly 30 years of service at Albany, he does not intend to run for another term. The three are Assemblymen John Smolenski, who now represents Greenpoint in the lower branch of the Legislature; Roy H. Rudd of the Bushwick section and Harry Gittleson of Williamsburg.

According to word from Leader Frank V. Kelly’s office at Democratic headquarters, no immediate decision on the choice is expected. It may be deferred until a number of other pending Democratic designations are ironed out.

The chief one in the latter group is the designation for the $22,500 judgeship in the County Court. The judicial office must be filled at the November election lor a 14-year term because of the death of Judge Peter Brancato. Judge Nicholas Pinto, a Republican, is the temporary incumbent by virtue of appointment by Governor Dewey.

McGuinness for Smolenski

Assemblyman Smolenski’s name has been advanced for the Senatorship with the backing of Greenpoint leader Peter J. McGuinness. Greenpointers have also talked of booming Walter Carley, chairman of the Greenpoint district committee, but Carley has eliminated himself. He has been aide to Twomey for 14 years and is minority secretary of the Senate Finance Committee at Albany, of which Twomey was formerly chairman.

Democratic insiders said the seniority factor would be an important, though not necessarily controlling one, in deciding the race. From this standpoint Rudd, Smolenski and Gittleson are closely bunched. Rudd entered the Assembly in 1937. He was followed in 1938 by Smolenski. Gittleson served his first term in 1938 and, after an interruption of service, returned in 1941.

Greenpointers said Smolenski rates high consideration because he ranks as one of New York State’s outstanding Polish-Americans, whom the Democrats are anxious to keep in line for President Roosevelt. Estimates place the Polish-American vote in Greenpoint at 5,000.

Rudd strong in 20th

On the other hand, Rudd carries the 20th AD for the Democrats in his Assembly campaigns, although the Bushwick district is inclined to go Republican in presidential and gubernatorial election years. He has a strong following among taxpayer groups.

Gittleson, however, is rated as one of the Democratic Party’s most skillful debaters against the Republican majority in Albany. Republican majority members, although they follow the strict party line when votes are cast on the roll call, applaud Gittleson when he has finished a full-dress debate on civil rights issues.

Twomey’s old senatorial district has been revised under the state Reapportionment Act so that it now extends from the East River and Newtown Creek as far as the upper Bushwick section. The Democratic leader in Bushwick is the veteran James W. Tuomey. Gittleson’s leader is Dr. Joshua H. Friedman, whose district, according to pre-presidential straw polls, is one of the strongest New Deal areas in Brooklyn.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: What’s in a name?

The American public has been officially informed, to the accompaniment of all the excitement of a party convention plus the usual paraphernalia of a huge Madison Square Garden rally, that the Communist Party is dead! Yes, honest to goodness dead, and Comrade Browder would presumably swear it on a stack of Bibles if he felt that would lend any plausibility to his story. But knowing it wouldn’t, he didn’t.

At any rate, that’s his story and he’s stuck with it. Orders from Moscow, you know. Just as when he changed overnight in 1940 from being anti-Roosevelt and pro-Hitler to pro-Roosevelt and anti-Hitler when he got unexpected orders from Moscow.

If he received orders from the same source tomorrow to start propaganda for a peace settlement with Japan and a movement for the removal of Eisenhower if he didn’t start his invasion by next Tuesday morning, there is little doubt in most American minds as to what Mr. Browder would do.

Anyway, the Communist Party in America is now dead, according to Browder and Stalin, and, we presume, all the fellow travelers are delighted. In its place stands the Communist Political Association – pure as driven snow.

Americans with any memory will remain unimpressed. This new Red outfit will be 100% Russian as its predecessor has always been. It will stand for American policies and ideas only as long as they meet with Stalin’s approval. And it will bear close watching just as the Communist movement always has, regardless of the name it may adopt to suit its own selfish purposes.