The Pittsburgh Press (July 31, 1944)
Reconversion main theme in Dewey’s visit
Peacetime work is vital, he declares
By Kermit McFarland
Dewey parade tonight
Pittsburgh’s second chance to get a look at Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican candidate for the Presidency will come this evening when he leaves the William Penn Hotel at 9:15 p.m. ET for his return trip to the Pennsylvania Station.
Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Republican candidate for President, came here today to trade ideas with local leaders over plans for shifting Pennsylvania industry from wartime production to peacetime operations.
That was the Governor’s summary of his purpose in breaking his journey to a conference with 25 Republican governors so he could spend a 13-hour day in meetings here with representatives of industry, business, labor and war veterans.
Mr. Dewey also sandwiched in a few hours for practical politics, despite the weekend statement of Republican County Chairman James P. Malone that the Governor’s visit was “non-political.”
Opportunities for work
The nominee said:
It may not be long before the most vital thing that faces every American is his opportunity to work, either for himself or for someone else.
I’m entirely satisfied that with competent governmental policies, the opportunities in this country are still unlimited.
Mr. Dewey accused the Roosevelt administration of failing utterly to meet the problem of unemployment before the outbreak of the war and of failing to prepare now to meet the problem at the end of the war.
‘Roosevelt depression’
He said:
We’re making gratifying progress in the fighting of the war, but governmentally, we are making no progress in preparing for what is to follow.
We will elect a President whose term will be in peacetime. As I see it, the United States cannot face another period like the Roosevelt depression which lasted eight years, with more than 10 million men unemployed continuously, from 1933 to 1940, inclusive.
Mr. Dewey declared his purpose in visiting Pittsburgh at a news conference, held in the Forum Room of the William Penn Hotel shortly after his arrival at 8:55 a.m. ET.
Rest before conferences
Following a parade through downtown streets, the Governor and Mrs. Dewey went to their suite on the 16th floor of the hotel for a short rest before the candidate began his whirl of conferences with several hundred persons selected by local and state party leaders.
He began by seeing some 40 labor representatives, mostly AFL men picked for the purpose by David Williams, former AFL official who is now a deputy in the state Labor and Industry Department.
This was followed by a “give-and-take” interview with nearly 100 business leaders from this area, all of them obviously Republican-minded.
Steel and coal cradle
It was at these conferences – all closed sessions – that Mr. Dewey said he hoped to develop a program of governmental policies which will prevent post-war depression and expedite reconversion.
The Governor said:
Pittsburgh produces one fourth of the steel in the whole United States. Pennsylvania produces one-fourth of the coal.
While the physical reconversion of factories will not be as great a problem here as in the arms factories, which must have complete new equipment for the manufacture of autos, refrigerators, and so on, the employment will be perhaps even more acutely affected with the tapering off of production as we come closer to the end of the war.
It was for that reason that I wanted to stop in Pittsburgh to meet first-hand the people closest to the problems, from all its aspects.
Mr. Dewey said many of the answers to the problems of reconverting government to peacetime pursuits had been worked out by the conference of governors – which includes both Democrats and Republicans – but that here the main problem before him is the “too-long delayed preparation for reconversion – which involves, of course, unemployment.”
He said:
We don’t need to surrender our liberties to the totalitarianism of the New Deal and we can’t afford to.
It is my idea that the proper governmental policies can contribute enormously, and I believe successfully, to avoiding the specter of unemployment which so many now regard as inevitable. Governmental policies will make all the difference, in my judgement.
Seeks leaders’ stories
Mr. Dewey indicated his chief purpose in meeting the labor, business, farm and war veteran leaders was to hear what they had to say.
But he had several political events crowded into his busy schedule.
He had lunch and a conference with the 33 Republican candidates for Congress from Pennsylvania, State Senator G. Harold Watkins (candidate for Auditor General), City Treasurer Edgar W. Baird of Philadelphia (nominee for State Treasurer), and state and local party leaders.
Sessions with Congressmen
He held a short session with Walter Hallanan, Republican National Committeeman from West Virginia, and Congressman Charles A. Halleck (R-IN), chairman of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, met the Governor at the train and stayed through the day.
Reports that the Governor would see John L. Lewis, United Mine Workers president, were met with doubtful answers on all hands.
“Not that I know of,” Mr. Dewey said in reply to a question on that subject.
However, the Governor was scheduled to meet a delegation of 15 UMW officials tonight. John P. Busarello, District 5 president of the union, arranged the guest list.
One poke at Democrats
In his press conference, Mr. Dewey took one poke at Democratic politics.
When a reporter asked him if he thought the “don’t-change-your-horses-in-the-middle-of-the-stream” issue would play an important part in the campaign, the Republican challenger said: “That was demolished at Chicago. They changed half the horse.”
Mr. Dewey referred, of course, to the switch in vice-presidential candidates from Vice President Henry A. Wallace to Senator Harry S. Truman.
Governor Edward Martin of Pennsylvania, who was the first to greet Mr. Dewey when he stepped off the train at the Pennsylvania Station, accompanied the New Yorker to the press conference, but excused himself after the photographers finished flashing their bulbs.
Faces 50 reporters
Mr. Dewey sat on a slightly raised platform facing the corps of 50 reporters – many of whom traveled on the same train with him.
The Governor sat quietly while pictures were snapped from all angles, then quietly “dismissed” the photographers and volunteered the statement of his purpose in visiting Pittsburgh.
While he talked, he drew light puffs from a cigarette stuck in the end of a long silver holder – not as long, however, as Mr. Roosevelt’s famous cigarette stem.
Leaves at 9:44 p.m.
At a reception this afternoon he is to meet all comers, spending two hours in handshaking. This affair was planned mainly for Republican Party workers, but was open to the public.
Mr. Dewey will leave here at 9:44 p.m. on the special nine-car train scheduled as a second section on a regular Pennsylvania express train. His trip from the William Penn states at 9:15 p.m.
He goes first in Springfield, Illinois – Illinois being another “pivotal” state in this year’s election – for other similar conferences tomorrow.
Governors’ conference Wednesday
On Wednesday, he and 25 other Republican governors of the country will begin a two-day session of conferences at which Mr. Dewey hopes to develop a clear-cut program drawing a line of demarcation between state and federal functions in government.
Governor Martin will leave here tomorrow to attend that conference.