Election 1944: Republican National Convention

[NormanStewart]

ACCORD OF NATIONS FAVORED IN PLANK ON FOREIGN POLICY
‘Participation in cooperative organization’ provided ‘to attain permanent peace’

Taft predicts adoption; declaration calls for seeking ‘economic stability,’ pledges constitutional procedure
By James B. Reston

Foreign policy plank

Chicago, Illinois –
The text of the draft of the Republican plank on foreign policy as approved by the Foreign Affairs Committee follows:

The Republican Party pledges:

• Prosecution of the war to total victory against all our enemies in full cooperation with the United Nations, and the speedy return of our Armed Forces.

• Support of our Armies and the maintenance of our Navy under the competent and trained direction of our General Staff and Office of Naval Operations without civilian interference, with every civilian resource.

• Organization of the home front to the maximum of our civilian resources.

We declare our relentless aim to win the war against all our enemies: (1) for our own American security and welfare; (2) to make and keep the Axis powers impotent to renew tyranny and attack; (3) for the attainment of peace and freedom based on justice and security.

We shall seek to achieve such aims through organized international cooperation and not by joining a world state.

We favor 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.

Such organization should develop effective cooperative means to direct peace forces to prevent or repel military aggression. Pending this, we pledge continuing collaboration with the United Nations to assure these ultimate objectives.

We believe, however, that peace and security do not depend upon the sanction of force alone, but should prevail by virtue of reciprocal interests and spiritual values recognized in these security agreements. The treaties of peace should be just; the nations which are the victims of Axis aggression should be restored to sovereignty and self-government; and the organized cooperation of the nations should concern itself with basic causes of world disorder. It should promote a world opinion to influence the nations to right conduct, develop international law and maintain an international tribunal to deal with justiciable disputes.

We shall seek, in our relations with other nations, conditions calculated to promote worldwide economic stability, not only for the sake of the world, but also to the end that our own people may enjoy a high level of employment in an increasingly prosperous world.

We shall keep the American people informed concerning all agreements with foreign nations. In all of these undertakings we favor the widest consultation of the gallant men and women in our Armed Forces who have a special right to speak with authority on behalf of the security and liberty for which they fight. We shall sustain the Constitution of the United States in the attainment of our international aims; and pursuant to the Constitution of the United States any treaty or agreement to attain such aims made on behalf of the United States with any other nation or any association of nations, shall be made only by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.

We shall at all times protect the essential interests and resources of the United States.

Chicago, Illinois –
The Republican Party platform will favor “participation by the United States in post-war cooperative organization among sovereign nations to prevent military aggression and to attain permanent peace.”

The party’s Foreign Affairs Committee, headed by Senator Warren Austin (R-VT), has unanimously approved a plank which calls on the future world peace organization to “develop effective cooperative means to direct peace forces to prevent or repel military aggression.”

Pending the formation of this world peace organization, the plank recommends that the United States should “pledge continuing collaboration with the United Nations.”

Senator Robert A. Taft, chairman of the party’s Resolutions Committee, to which the platform will be submitted later this morning, said he was certain that the foreign affairs plank as recommended by Senator Austin’s committee would be adopted.

Objectives of peace treaties

After stating that the party favored “prosecution of the war to total victory against all our enemies in full cooperation with the United Nations and the speedy return of our Armed Forces,” the plank emphasized that justice in the writing of the peace was the essence of realism.

The Foreign Affairs Committee said:

We believe that peace and security do not depend upon the sanction of force alone, but should prevail by virtue of reciprocal interests and spiritual values recognized in these security agreements.

The treaties of peace should be just; the nations which are the victims of Axis aggression should be restored to sovereignty and self-government, and the organized cooperation of the nations should concern itself with basic causes of world disorder.

Elaborating on “cooperation,” the committee continued:

We shall seek, in our relations with other nations, conditions calculated to promote worldwide economic stability, not only for the sake of the world, but also the end that our own people may enjoy a high level of employment in an increasingly prosperous world. We shall develop Pan-American solidarity.

Open negotiations promised

The Wilsonian doctrine of “open covenants openly arrived at” was also supported in the plank which, pledging the party to keep the American people informed concerning all agreements with other nations, said.

In all these consultations, we favor the widest consultation of the gallant men and women in our Armed Forces, who have a special right to speak with authority on behalf of the security and liberty for which they fight.

Taking cognizance of reports that attempts might be made to submit peace agreements to Congress in the form of a joint resolution instead of to the Senate for ratification requiring a two-thirds vote, the committee put into the plank this declaration:

We shall sustain the Constitution of the United States in the attainment of our international aims and, pursuant to the Constitution, any treaty made on behalf of the United States with any other nation or association of nations, shall be made only by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.

Roosevelt plan compared

At first glance, there seems to be little difference between the organization which the Republican platform suggests and the world security body outlined by President Roosevelt and Secretary Hull.

The plank makes it clear that the Republicans, like the Democrats, do not favor the creation of any superstate, but are willing to see the United States cooperate in an association of sovereign nations.

No attempt is made to define the word “sovereignty” and the general impression here is that the party is not prepared to define, ahead of time, the specific conditions under which it would favor war or state specifically how far it would be prepared to go in applying sanctions.

[NormanStewart]

Willkie condemns peace-policy plan

Republican draft on foreign relations could be used to balk cooperation, he says

A few hours after Wendell Willkie had received the text of the proposed Republican foreign policy plank, the 1940 presidential candidate issued a statement denouncing the plan as ambiguous, subject to opposing interpretations and capable of being used to throttle effective collaboration by the United States with other countries to maintain peace.

Mr. Willkie’s views on the Platform Committee’s suggestions were presented to reporters who had been invited to visit his officers at 15 Broad Street. He explained that he chose this form of making them public because he was not a delegate to the convention.

Likening the language proposed for this year’s platform to that employed in 1920, Mr. Willkie recalled that 31 leading Republicans had assured the country that the 1920 formula “was the surest road to an effective international organization,” but that President Harding, immediately after the election, “announced that the League of Nations was dead.”

He continued:

A Republican President elected under the proposed platform of 1944 could, with equal integrity, announce that the United States would not enter any world organization in which the nations agreed jointly to use their “sovereign” power for the suppression of aggression.

The net result would be no international organization. No effective international force for the suppression of aggression. No peaceful world. Another world war fought in vain. And the youth of America once more betrayed.

As a Republican, I am desperately anxious for my party to pursue a course that will entitle it to win the November elections. As I am not a delegate to the convention, I take this method of presenting my views on the proposed foreign relations plank of the platform, which I understand will be presented to the convention tomorrow [Tuesday]. I have not, as yet, had the privilege of seeing the other proposed planks.

He also made it clear that his criticism was not directed against Senator Warren R. Austin (R-VT), chairman of the subcommittee which drafted the foreign policy recommendation. Describing the Senator as an “able, forthright statesman,” Mr. Willkie said that he hoped his own statement would assist the senator in obtaining “a better resolution.”

Mr. Willkie’s statement on the proposed foreign relations plank was as follows:

The Platform Committee presently proposes to submit to the convention on Tuesday a foreign relations plank, which pledges in part as follows:

We shall seek to achieve such aims [aims to keep America secure, to keep the Axis powers impotent to renew tyranny and attack, and to attain peace and freedom based on justice and security] through organized international cooperation and not by joining a world state.

We favor 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.

Such organization should develop effective cooperative means to direct peace forces to prevent or repel military aggression. Pending this, we pledge continuing collaboration with the principal United Nations to assure these ultimate objectives.

It [such organized cooperation] should promote a world opinion to influence the nations to right conduct, develop international law and maintain an international tribunal to deal with justiciable disputes.

Pursuant to the Constitution of the United States, any treaty made on behalf of the United States with any other nation or any association of nations, shall be made only by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.

In 1920, the Republican Convention adopted a foreign relations plank which provided as follows:

The Republican Party stands for agreement among the nations to preserve the peace of the world. We believe that such an international association must be based upon international justice, and must provide methods which shall maintain the rule of public right by the development of law and the decision of impartial courts, and which shall secure instant and general international conference whenever peace shall be threatened by political action, so that the nations pledged to do and insist upon what is just and fair may exercise their influence and power for the prevention of war.

Thirty-one leading Republicans, interpreting this language, assured the American electorate that a Republican victory was the surest road to an effective world organization.

The Republicans won the election of 1920. A Republican President, claiming that he in no way repudiated the party’s platform, immediately after the election announced that the League of Nations was dead.

A Republican President elected under the proposed platform of 1944 could, with equal integrity, announce that the United States would not enter any world organization in which the nations agreed jointly to use their “sovereign” power for the suppression of aggression.

And every effective world organization proposed could be rejected as a “world state.” And all proposed joint forces for the suppression of aggression could be called armed forces and not “peace forces.” And each proposed step taken by any world organization in which we might participate could be called a treaty and, as such, would be subject to ratification by two-thirds of the United States Senators.

The net result would be no international organization. No effective international force for the suppression of aggression. No peaceful world. Another world war fought in vain. And the youth of America once more betrayed.

It may well be maintained that the language of the resolution means otherwise. And so it might. And so might the language of the plank of 1920 have meant something different from the interpretation given it by the victorious candidate.

But we cannot afford in 1944 to be ambiguous. Sequences, as we may have seen, can be too grave. There must be no playing with phony phrases such as “world state,” or use of gentle language such as “peace forces,” or repeated emphasis on “sovereign” nations with nationalistic implications. There must be no self-defeating requirements about submitting each and every individual step in international cooperation to the advice and consent of two-thirds of the United States Senators.

We know from bitter experience that the United States cannot survive militarily, politically or economically in the modern world without close and continuing cooperation with other peace-loving nations. On the necessity for such cooperation, we should speak in words forthright, clear and strong.

We should demand the immediate creation of a Council of the United Nations as a first step toward the formation of a general international organization in order that all the peoples of the United Nations should have a voice in the decision which will shape the world in which they live. These decisions should not and must not be made by three or four great powers alone.

We should advocate the use of American sovereignty in cooperation with other powers to create a continuing international organization for the good of all, with the power to uphold its decisions by force if necessary. For our sovereignty is something to be used, not hoarded. Each nation should maintain land, sea and air forces to be used collaboratively, in agreed situations and within agreed limits, to prevent aggression.

International disputes, which are clearly covered by international law, should be submitted to courts and judges, and those which are not should be settled by conciliation and compromise.

For such a procedure to work successfully, the members of the international organization must say plainly, in advance, that if peaceful methods fail, the aggressor state will encounter sufficient armed forces to ensure his defeat.

In an international organization which was backed by the machinery needed to enforce its decisions, the United States, for the first time in history, would be in a position to deal boldly and effectively with the problems which will confront it. In cooperation with our allies, we shall still be leaders by virtue of the strength and ingenuity of our people. To use this leadership, for our own enrichment and that of mankind, will not be to weaken the sovereign power of the American people; it will be to widen it and make it more real.

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Willkie’s friends ‘surprised’

Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
Wendell Willkie’s statement, calling the foreign affairs plank “ambiguous” and ineffectual, caught supporters of the 1940 candidate off guard tonight. They said they were “completely astonished” by the statement of their principal.

The group, which is here, includes John Haynes (former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury), John Cowles and Gardner Cowles Jr. (publishers who have been warm supporters of Mr. Willkie), Ralph Oake (Mr. Willkie’s campaign manager before he withdrew from the race), Fred Baker of Seattle, and former Senator Sinclair Weeks of Massachusetts. They said they would issue a statement of their own, endorsing the party’s plank. Their reaction was taken to indicate a definite break with Mr. Willkie.

Word of Mr. Willkie’s statement came while the group was discussing ways and means for effecting a reconciliation between Mr. Willkie and Governor Dewey which would make it possible for Mr. Willkie to take the stump for the party.

Austin defends the plank

Senator Warren R. Austin (R-VT), chairman of the Platform Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs, said of the plank:

It is not ambiguous.

It definitely stands for the employment or direction of military or economic reactions to prevent or repel military aggression. It offers hope that military force may not be necessary ultimately to prevent war and that through the processes of a general international organization, we may attain security and peace on the basis of self-discipline of nations.

Our policy, stated in the plank, is against a superstate. It is for a new principle of international cooperation implemented by an organization to put it into effect for the security and peace of the world. It is for development of international law and establishment of a world court.

There is no ambiguity about the use of the words “sovereign nations.”

It intends that sovereignty shall be used internationally to keep the peace.

Mr. Willkie is mistaken in saying that if the policy were carried out, it would result in no international organization. It expressly supports such an organization. It does not support an international integrated army. Its military resources are vested in a council with power to direct them in the right regions to the right places on the right occasions.

Senator Joseph Ball (R-MN) said of the statement on foreign policy:

On the whole, it is a strong commitment by the party to a strong and effective international organization to stop future wars.

Disagreement with Mr. Willkie was voiced by Senators White of Maine and Burton of Ohio. The latter said:

I think we can stand on this platform and the candidate can elaborate it to the satisfaction of the nation in the campaign.

Edge upholds the draft

Governor Edge of New Jersey, commenting upon the Willkie statement, said he approved the plank and had confidence in Governor Dewey’s interpretation of the statement.

He said he was not concerned with any interpretation that Governor Dewey would repudiate any obligation to use force if necessary to maintain peace.

Governor Edge added:

I am especially confident in view of Governor Dewey’s speech last April before the newspaper publishers of the nation when he gave this pledge, “To carry on the war to total and crushing victory, and in so doing, to drive home to the aggressor nations a lesson that will never be forgotten.”

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Chicago, Illinois (AP) – (June 26)
Senator Taft (R-OH), chairman of the Republican Resolutions Committee, challenged tonight “any adherents” of Wendell Willkie to press before the committee his protest against the foreign policy plank.

He added:

I’d be very much surprised if the plank adopted by the Democratic Platform Committee suits Mr. Willkie any better than that of the Republicans.

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Chicago, Illinois (AP) – (June 26)
Senator Vandenberg (R-MI), defending the proposed foreign policy plank against criticism by Wendell Willkie, said tonight that he hoped it was “too late” for anyone to break down efforts made to unite Republicans “upon a program to preserve America and exert our national power for organized peace with justice in a free world.”

[NormanStewart]

Convention opens on a hopeful note

Spangler presides at first session – Green pledges ‘free hand’ to services
By Charles Hurd

Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
The 23rd national convention of the Republican Party finally opened at 11:17 a.m. CT today in a mixed atmosphere of hope and optimism that this year may work a return to the national control rested by the Democrats from the “Grand Old Party” in 1932.

Harrison E. Spangler, chairman of the Republican National Committee, declared the convention formally opened while powerful lights illuminated the scene for newsreel cameras.

Miss Naomi Cook of Chicago led the convention in singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

The Rev. John Holland of the “Little Brown Church of the Air” pronounced the invocation. He prayed “that somehow our statesman may have brains enough and sense enough to enact a peace that is worldwide.”

Governor Green of Illinois formally welcomed the convention on behalf of the state and Chicago. He varied the usual form of such speeches to announce his purchase of $5 million of war bonds on behalf of the State Treasury.

By the time Mr. Green began the body of his talk, the convention floor had settled into its orderly pattern of seated rows of delegates. The day was hot and steaming, with the heat indoors increased constantly by the powerful lights.

Green speaks 32 minutes

Governor Green won frequent applause by his forecasts of victory for the Republicans and the election of the eighth Republican President in line from Abraham Lincoln, who was nominated as the first Republican candidate in Chicago.

The delegates applauded when Governor Green exclaimed, “There is no ‘Win-the-War’ Party in America.”

He went on to say that if the Republicans won, the leaders of the Armed Forces would have a free hand, “free from restrictions by second-string bureaucrats.”

Governor Green’s welcoming speech was of record length, lasting 32 minutes. Some regarded it as virtually a keynote speech.

At the close of the speech, Mr. Spangler introduced Harry Reasoner, a private first class of Minneapolis, now stationed in California, who won an essay contest in which members of 2,000 Young Republican Clubs took part on the question of why the Republicans should win.

Mr. Reasoner, in accepting the award, said, “We are all gathered here in one mind, and determined to do something constructive about it.”

Harold W. Mason of Vermont, secretary of the National Committee, presented the call for the convention. No contests over the seating of delegates were put before the convention.

Spangler notified the convention that he had been “instructed by our National Committee” to nominate Governor Earl C. Warren as temporary chairman, which is synonymous with keynote speaker.

Elected temporary chairman

A committee was appointed to notify Governor Warren of his honor after he was elected without an alternative name being offered.

Then there followed the adoption of the usual formal resolutions to govern procedure of the convention.

The opening session of the convention recessed at 12:20 p.m. until 8:15 p.m. CT.

Although scheduled to start at 10:15 a.m., the stadium a quarter hour later was still a picture of milling, perspiring persons on the floor and very thinly dressed galleries. The great hall was sparsely decorated, in keeping with wartime economy. A gilded eagle was suspended from the speakers’ platform. There was a display of flags at one end of the stadium; facing it a banner read, “Godspeed Our Boys to Victory.”

The state standards, marking the blocs of seats assigned to delegates, were plain poles without ornament, with one exception – a feather lei on one marking “Philippine Islands.”

The first touch of convention color was lent by Carl Chaven, leather-lunged Chicagoan, who went to the microphone at 10:25 and with the help of the great organ, played with all stops open by Al Welgard, endeavored to organize some community singing. He opened with “God Bless America” and everybody seated stood up and joined. As “Home on the Range” and “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag” followed, the delegates resumed their buzz of conversation, evidently interested far more in the job of organization than in singing.

The Senate was well represented in the opening session. Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg of Michigan and Senator Joseph H. Ball of Minnesota were walking about discussing the convention’s foreign relations plank. Senator Warren R. Austin of Vermont alternated between the platform and the floor.

Just before the convention was called to order, word was passed around that Governor Dwight Griswold of Nebraska would nominate Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York as the presidential candidate. Alabama agreed to yield when its name is called on Wednesday, in the traditional alphabetical order.

At 11:00, 45 minutes late by the program, Mr. Spangler started banging the speakers’ stand with his gavel, ordering the sergeants-at-arms to clear the aisles. The organist swung into “The Air Corps Hymn,” but talking continued. He switched to “The Marine Corps Hymn,” with the same result.

At 11:11 a.m., Mr. Spangler tried again, with considerably more insistence. The suspicion held by delegates that no one had really meant 10:15 when it was announced was verified when it developed that the radio chains had scheduled 11:15 to broadcast the opening.

The night session

Governor Warren’s “keynote” speech as temporary chairman of the convention was received with repeated applause at tonight’s session. The Governor made a favorable impression on his audience. His declaration that the United States, to maintain a peaceful world, would cooperate with other Allied nations, won approval. Great applause came when, in his discussion of post-war policy, he asserted that the American people wanted a peace which, being mindful of the interests of other nations, did not neglect or sacrifice the interests of our own country.

The delegates and spectators gave their greatest signs of approval to Governor Warren’s denunciation of the Roosevelt administration and the New Deal. Applause followed his assertions that the New Deal was destroying the two-party system, that it was no longer the Democratic Party, and that it had built up a huge bureaucracy by alliances with corrupt political machines.

Bureaucracy is denounced

Governor Warren brought the delegates and many of the spectators to their feet by declaring that the bureaucrats required the farmer to work in the fields all day and keep books for the government all night. They cheered his assertions that the government encumbered the small businessman by a multiplicity of rules and regulations, and that the bureaucrats told the worker what union he must join, how much in dues he must pay, and to whom he must pay them.

Mr. Warren reached the climax of his speech, so far as audience reaction was concerned, when he attacked the New Deal for seeking to perpetuate itself in power by capitalizing a succession of crises, the depression, the recession, and keeping us out of war, and by now bringing out the achievement of peace as the next crisis for which an “indispensable” was necessary to obtain peace.

Saying that the American people were being conditioned for a new song, “Don’t Change Horses in the Middle of a Stream,” Mr. Warren asserted that we had been in the middle of a stream for eleven years and were not amphibious. The delegates and spectators rose and cheered when the Governor added that we in this country wanted to feel dry and solid ground under our feet again.

Delegates slow in gathering

The delegates and spectators gathered slowly for the night’s meeting.

Before Mr. Spangler called the convention to order at 9:05, the audience joined in singing a series of patriotic and familiar songs. Miss Shirley Dickinson of the Chicago Civic Opera Company sang the national anthem. This was followed by recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Right Rev. George J. Casey, Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, delivered the invocation. About 20,000 persons, four-fifths of the seating capacity, were in the Stadium.

Introduced by Mr. Spangler as a veteran of three wars, Governor Martin of Pennsylvania urged the purchase of war bonds.

Governor Martin said:

Gen. Eisenhower has said that 1944 will be the year of decision if those on the home front do their duty. We must do more, give more to the Red Cross. We must produce more food and munitions. Above all, we must buy more war bonds.

After Mr. Martin’s speech, Mr. Spangler presented Governor Warren, who then made his address. Following this, the convention adjourned until tomorrow morning.

[NormanStewart]

16 governors fail in platform plea

Win demand to see draft, but gain no change for stronger foreign plank

Chicago, Illinois –
Sixteen Republican Governors, delegates to the National Convention, who demanded last night that they be made better acquainted with the platform, apparently succeeded early today in inspecting the proposed planks, but not in changing any of them substantially.

Their chief objective was a stronger plank on foreign affairs, one which would call for joining with the United Nations in the use of “economic sanctions backed by force” to maintain peace instead of the plank recommended by the Austin committee, which offers a general formula of “participation in post-war cooperative organization by sovereign nations.”

A conference of the Governors yesterday named a subcommittee, comprising Governors Raymond E. Baldwin of Connecticut, Sumner Sewall of Maine, and Bourke B. Hickenlooper of Iowa, to inform Senator Robert A. Taft (R-OH), chairman of the Resolutions Committee, of their demands. In response, he had them meet with his drafting subcommittee at 10:00 last night.

After this meeting, Senator Taft, in the presence of the Governors, faced a press conference at 1:00 this morning. He told the reporters that no important changes had been made in the foreign policy plank since the original Vandenberg draft, that no final draft had been made, and that redrafting of the entire platform would continue through the night and possibly into the day.

Mr. Taft denied knowledge of any mention of “economic sanctions,” but Governor Baldwin insisted that “economic sanctions backed by force” had been discussed.

The Governor declared that the foreign affairs plank should be forthright, “one that says what it means and means what it says.” He made it clear that the Governors were fighting for a plank which was closer to the Mackinac Declaration.

But questioning by reporters did not elicit that the Governors had attained their aim. In fact, all had the contrary impression.

The Governors attending all or part of the conference, besides those already mentioned, were Blood of New Hampshire, Wills of Vermont, Saltonstall of Massachusetts, Edge of New Jersey, Martin of Pennsylvania, Kelly of Michigan, Bacon of Delaware, Thye of Minnesota, Schoppel of Kansas, Griswold of Nebraska, Willis of Kentucky, Warren of California and Donnell of Missouri. The absentees were Governors Bricker of Ohio and Green of Illinois.

At a meeting yesterday, Governor Griswold offered a resolution endorsing Governor Dewey, but his fellow Governors rejected it as wrongly timed, holding that it should follow the nomination.

[jacktyunmen]

The only good supreme court chief justice and it’s not even close.

[NormanStewart]

OLD CIRCUS GOES ON, BUT WAR HAS FLOOR
Convention subdued and dull, aware that destiny will determine election

‘Phony’ flush of 1940 gone; party evidences that quest is not for ‘big man’ but the epitome of average man
By Anne O’Hare McCormick

Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
France was falling as the Republicans met four years ago. It was an hour of defeat for democracy and all the traditional whoopee was turned on to make the delegates forget what the disaster portended for the United States.

The Philadelphia convention was lively, noisy and high-pitched. It was marked by contest suspense and an unexpected turn at the end when Wendell Willkie stole the show.

To an American fresh from the war front, that had seemed phony for so long, the peace at home that summer appeared even more phony in the political circuses staged by both parties in the same old way, the phoniest business of all.

They were like shadow-dancing against a brightly painted asbestos curtain that did not hide the spreading fire on the other side.

This convention is not like that. It has no air of carnival. It is dull. It seems to make a point of dullness. The Republican Party seems bent on making a policy of dullness. When one of the stage managers was asked why no effort was made to brighten up the show, his reply was, “The duller the better. We are not out for fireworks or drama.”

Talk in various state bases

The party leaders seem to have the same idea about the candidate. Listening around the various state headquarters, one gets the impression that the last thing they want is a “big man.” They talk as if the ideal quality in a standard-bearer is mediocrity.

Against “the great leader,” “the man of genius,” “the glamor boy,” the convention evidently wants to nominate the personification of the average man. It will not be surprising if the campaign is keyed to this slogan.

This is a listless but not a frivolous convention. The delegates stand quietly and very soberly around the hotel lobbies as they sat in orderly rows at the opening session this morning – waiting for what they know is going to happen. They don’t expect any surprises, and they’re not likely to get any.

The whole aim, indeed, is to avoid the unexpected, and there is no enthusiasm for the predetermined. There is no enthusiasm for Governor Dewey. Most of the delegates express a sneaking preference for someone else, but they will unite solidly behind him because they are convinced by the Gallup polls that he will gather in the most votes.

But this is not the main reason for the apathy everyone feels here. In its well-dressed, well-fed, cheerful way, it is somehow akin to the apathy the Allied armies met in Italy and are meeting in France.

Know where decision rests

The Republicans gathered this year as Americans fight to free a France that has been held in bondage since the convention of four years ago. They gather as the victory of democracy is assured, but they go through the motions more automatically than usual, because they know very well that the coming election will not be decided by anything their candidate will do or say, or by anything the opposition party will do or say.

For Americans, as for the French, the future will be decided by the progress of the war. The next administration will be swept in or out of office on a great tide of war emotion.

The war has the floor. Under the blazing tent, the old circus goes on, but the war is the key in order. Conventions are always middle-aged, and in this one the gray hairs are accentuated because about the only young folk in evidence are the glamor girls serving as ushers and distributors of Dewey badges and groups of soldiers and sailors wandering through the corridors with the air of sightseers, viewing the relics of antiquity.

The G.I.s get a lot of fun out of the show, and they make the politicians look older, more tired and more crumpled than usual.

Thoughts on sons at front

In the Chicago Tribune Sunday, the Russian offensive was backed off the front page by the convention, but this order of priority was not observed by the city of Chicago or the delegates themselves.

The people in the streets are uninterested in the proceedings. In the stadium, the scalpers cannot sell the unused tickets. As to the delegates, most of them are thinking more of their sons at the front than of the debate in the Resolutions Committee. That is what they talk about under the blare of mechanical music that celebrates the end of each speech.

The atmosphere is heavier but more real than it was four years ago. The ballyhoo, the cavorting, the stale oratory, and the fake stampedes that enliven our quadrennial political festival belong only to the folkways of the United States. Yet even as a show, what is going on in Chicago is as important as any battle and the actors sense it.

“Isn’t this what the battles are for?” said a woman delegate from Minnesota to a soldier boy making sport of the convention songs.

“You said it, Ma,” answered the G.I. “Bring on the calliope. You bet we’re fighting to be free to choose, elect, and fire our governors in any old way we please.”

[NormanStewart]

Punch, iced and non-kick, is put into Bricker drive for delegates

His headquarters has homey Ohio touch – Dewey buttons, large size, in boom as they are found fine as ash trays
By Meyer Berger

Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
The only genuinely warm spot at his convention, when you’re out of the sun or get from under the stadium kliegs, is Bricker headquarters.

The men and women from Ohio have spread a gentle, homey glow in this political wasteland. They have daily concerts by a female string trio, an adult male chorus, and an extraordinary boy choir, brought on from Columbus.

This afternoon the Ohio women were political Florence Nightingales. With the thermometer mercury knocking its head at the top of the glass, they passed out life-giving iced punch which went all the better for the smiles they added for kicker.

An emotional woman visitor at this afternoon’s reception, sipping her third glass of punch, sighed from ‘way down her capacious bosom when the boy choir finished “Beautiful Ohio.” “I don’t really need this refreshment to get cool,” she told a friend. “Every time I hear those children, I get goose pimples, just like winter.”

The punch was non-alcoholic.

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The demand for Dewey buttons, large size, shot ‘way up today. Political writers suddenly discovered, in this world of war shortages, that the big buttons make swell ashtrays.

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The disappointing turnout for the morning session at the stadium caused gloom in the most astonishing places.

Chicago’s sewer superintendent, Tom Garry, who has charge of the stadium, came in from the half-filled arena shaking his head. He had tried to tell the Republican committee how to jam the place to get a good showing in the first newsreels and news photos, but it seems they were suspicious. Tom’s staff could not understand his solicitude over the weak Republican display, because he is a Mayor Kelly Democrat. “Politics don’t figure in my thinking,” the sewer boss explained. “It’s only that my civic pride’s hurt.”

---

**Chief American Big Horse from Kyle, South Dakota, made the only splash of color on the convention floor. He wore full white deerskin regalia with headdress. Chicago policemen were inclined to frisk the deerskin scabbard he carried, but thought better of it when they found he was a delegate alternate. The scabbard concealed the chief’s pipe of peace. American Big Horse is impressively tall, granitic and unblinking. He is 74 years old and this is his first national powwow. “You like ‘um, Big Chief?” a reporter wanted to know. American Big Horse didn’t stir a facial muscle. He said, “I’d describe it as rather interesting.”

---

The most melancholy note on the convention floor is the empty space reserved for the Philippine delegates. A wreath hangs on the Philippine standard.

---

A Bricker promotion man stood in Michigan Boulevard this afternoon staring wistfully at the silver barrage balloon floating over Grant Park. “Swell spot for a Bricker sign,” he remarked. It was just an idea. The balloon is a war bond puller.

---

Two perspiring delegates from a dry state took aside one of the Chicago policemen guarding Gate 3 at the stadium. “Any place around here a man could get a real drink?” they asked him confidentially. The policeman suspected wagering, or a sight on his hometown, but the delegates were sincere. The policeman waved down Madison Street. “Start across the way,” he directed, “and then stop every 15 or 20 feet. That’s the distance between bars. If you make all the stops, from there to Oak Park and are still on your feet, maybe Mayor Kelly’ll commemorate the deed with a monument in Grant Park.

The delegates entered the stadium a little late.

---

Other thirsty delegates who got into Billy the Goat’s place on Madison Street, opposite the stadium, got a liberal treatment of lusty old Chicago hospitality.

Billy the Goat is Mr. Slanis, a former Loop newsboy who delights in practical jokes. This morning he befuddled dignified convention visitors with trick beer glasses, which look full but hold no refreshment, with a visiting card that leaves carbon smudges on the holder’s fingers, with an electrically charged cigar box and other surprising gadgets of nonsense.

Each time a customer registered fright or indignation, Mr. Slanis rang a fire gong or sounded a siren just back of the bar and roared with laughter.

---

New Yorkers, familiar with the ancient custom in their city to have gun-toting celebrants check their guns at the door, were startled this morning when they noticed Chicago policemen checking their guns at the door. “Precautionary measure,” a sergeant explained. “You get some of these Texas or Oklahoma guys tuned up and they’re apt to grab a rod and fire a few shots through the roof.”

---

March of Progress item: Some delegates are sending back to radio stations in their home districts their own recorded commentary on convention doings.

---

An Americana shop next to the Chicago Club on E Van Buren Street has its window filled with old-time convention and campaign posters, pictures and literature, including an original Whig Ticket, dated 1840. The embittered shopkeeper who staged this display has not had a single call from a convention visitor. “Might have known better,” he said glumly. “Politicians don’t read.”

[NormanStewart]

Bricker backers still seek votes

Despite declining prospects, campaign is pushed along 800 unpledged delegates

Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
The declining prospect that Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio can win the nomination as Republican standard-bearer failed today to diminish their persistency with which he and his backers are pressing his campaign.

A statement from his headquarters indirectly recognized the odds against him when Roy D. Moore, Mr. Bricker’s campaign manager, stated that the Governor would not withdraw from the race and that the nomination would be placed before the convention.

Mayor James G. Stewart of Cincinnati has been designated to make the nominating speech for Governor Bricker. He has asked the Ohio delegation, unanimous in its backing of Governor Bricker, to “carry the torch for John Bricker to the end.”

W. B. Horton, secretary of the Chicago Bricker-for-President Club, denounced the Illinois delegation for pledging its vote to Governor Dewey.

Mr. Horton said:

On behalf of the 13,000 new members of the Chicago Bricker Club who have enrolled during the past three weeks, we repudiate the actions of the Illinois delegation, as not representing the sentiment of Illinois Republicans, in pledging their support to Thomas E. Dewey.

We believe this to be true of other Midwestern states included in our membership. Several Illinois delegates have advised us that they only voted for Dewey under pressure. We do not believe this is the time for such action.

We further believe that John W. Bricker, the only avowed candidate for the nomination, is the only real American who can defeat anyone the Democrats nominate. He is the popular choice among Republicans of this state.

Governor Bricker spent most of the day conferring privately with delegates, but made no formal appearances or engagements. His workers spent the day meeting as many as possible of the 800 unpledged delegates.

[NormanStewart]

Plan anti-4th term call

Bolters expect to meet in New Orleans after convention

Atlanta, Georgia (AP) – (June 26)
Anti-New Deal Democrats, who are opposed to a fourth term for President Roosevelt, will meet in a Southern city, probably New Orleans, soon after the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Eugene Talmadge, former Governor of Georgia, said today.

The spirit of the meeting would be to name electors opposed to the fourth term and to arrange for them to run on the Democratic ticket and elect a President and Vice President in the manner prescribed by the Constitution, he said.

[NormanStewart]

DEWEY WILL ‘TIME’ ARRIVAL IN CHICAGO
He will accept tomorrow night if nominated in morning, Sprague says

Trip by plane is planned; Governor, however, would not leave Albany until named by the delegates
By James A. Hagerty

Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
The arrival of Governor Dewey to accept the Republican nomination for President will be timed to suit the convenience of the delegates to the national convention. This was made known today by J. Russell Sprague, National Committeeman from New York, who has been leading the “Draft Dewey” movement, now approaching success.

Should the Resolutions Committee, as expected, present its report tomorrow evening, or if no fight of sufficient strength develops to prevent adoption of the platform tomorrow night, the Dewey supporters, now in a large majority in the convention, intend to press for nominating speeches at the Wednesday morning session and the continuation of that session to permit balloting and the nomination of Mr. Dewey in the afternoon.

Arrangements for a dash

In that event, every effort will be made to get the New York Governor here in time to accept the nomination at the Wednesday night session.

As Mr. Dewey, according to present plans, would not leave Albany until he is actually nominated, it would be necessary for him to come to Chicago by plane. This will be possible if the nomination is made by three or four o’clock Wednesday afternoon and if priority for plane transportation for Mr. Dewey can be arranged.

In no circumstances will Mr. Dewey’s arrival be delayed until Thursday evening. Leaders of the Dewey movement believe that this would be unfair to the delegates and alternates, many of whom have reservations on trains departing.

After his speech of acceptance, in which he is expected to state his position on leading issues of the campaign, Governor Dewey will confer with members of the National Committee and other party leaders about a new chairman of the committee to succeed Harrison E. Spangler of Iowa.

With Mr. Sprague continuing to insist that he is unavailable because of the provision in the Nassau County Charter that he must give full time to his post of county executive, the choice seems to have narrowed to one between Herbert Brownell Jr., close friend and New Yorker.

Mr. Sprague, who will be reelected to the National Committee by the convention, will be active in the campaign at the New York City headquarters. It has long been the party custom to permit its presidential nominee to name the national chairman.

Reaction to Griswold good

The choice of Governor Dwight Griswold of Nebraska, to make the speech putting Governor Dewey in nomination before the convention, has had a good reaction among the delegates and has been accepted as recognition of the Midwest.

It has not been forgotten by the delegates that Mr. Dewey was born in Michigan and graduated from the University of Michigan.

Rep. Leonard W. Pall of New York’s 1st Congressional district is scheduled to second the nomination of Mr. Dewey.

The nomination for Vice President will probably be made at the Thursday morning session. There is a possibility, however, that if there should be no difficulty in the selection of a candidate – which means that Governor Warren of California will take second place on the ticket – the candidate for Vice President might also be nominated Wednesday and adjournment of the convention come after a three-day session.

With Mr. Dewey’s nomination assured, Messrs. Sprague, Jaeckle and Brownell were busy all day receiving members of delegations who had declared for the New York Governor.

Among these was the North Dakota delegation of eleven, which, at a caucus this morning, decided to vote for Dewey on the first ballot. Delegates were introduced by William Stern, National Committeeman, who assured Mr. Sprague that North Dakota would go Republican at the November election.

Governor Dewey was assured of Connecticut’s 16 votes when that state’s delegation, under the leadership of Governor Baldwin, voted to cast its solid vote for the New York Governor.

---

Dewey’s air trip linked to radio

Maximum night audience is sought for broadcast – Taft fails to consult Governor

Albany, New York – (June 26)
The speed with which the Dewey bandwagon is rolling along at Chicago made it possible tonight that Governor Dewey would fly to the Republican National Convention to accept the nomination for the Presidency rather than travel by train as originally scheduled.

It was learned that the Governor, if nominated on the first ballot Wednesday, would take the air route of less than five hours, instead of the 14-hour train trip, so that he could broadcast his speech of acceptance in the evening when the widest radio audience can be reached.

On the other hand, travel by train would delay the speech until Thursday evening to obtain the same big radio coverage. And this would prolong the convention beyond schedule.

The plane trip would make it impossible for most of the press corps here to accompany the Governor, and probably only one representative from each of the major news services would be able to cover him en route.

The Governor’s own party will include Mrs. Dewey, his secretary Paul Lockwood, his executive assistant James C. Haggerty, his personal secretary Lillian Rosse, Hickman Powell (an adviser), and State Banking Superintendent Elliot V. Bell,

During the day, Mr. Dewey was in frequent contact by telephone with Herbert Brownell, who is directing the Dewey “draft” at Chicago; Edwin F. Jaeckle, state chairman, and J. Russell Sprague, National Committeeman.

There was no call, however, from Senator Taft, with whom the Governor had volunteered to talk by telephone should his advice be desired on shaping the party’s platform.

The Governor was kept in touch with progress through two state members of the Resolutions Committee: Mary H. Donlon, vice chairman of the committee, and Kenneth X. Mccaffer, Albany County chairman.

The Executive Office here also explained that the Governor’s past expressed views were known to the drafters of the platform.

In the forenoon, Mr. Dewey posed obligingly at routine duties for a battery of newsreel photographers. There he devoted considerable of his time in his office to dictating letters.

The Governor finally quit his office at 6:30 this evening, went to a downtown barbershop for a hair trim, and then went home for dinner. His barber, Pasquale Pugliese, said that the Governor and he talked exclusively about the war. He added:

I didn’t ask him about the convention because I didn’t want to get too personal.

[NormanStewart]

Delegation tells Warren to accept

Californians act as choice of Governor as Dewey’s mate appears certain
By Charles E. Egan

Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
Selection of Governor Warren of California as running-mate for Governor Dewey appeared a virtual certainty tonight as the Republican National Convention settled down to the task of filling out its 1944 ticket.

Governor Warren, who has insisted that he does not want a place on a national ticker this year, was reported to have received a virtual ultimatum from members of his own delegation. The delegates called on him last night and insisted that he accept the second place on the ticket on the ground that he will help to carry doubtful California for the Republican Party and that he owes it to his state and party to run with Dewey.

Governor Bricker, who is still fighting Governor Dewey for the presidential nomination, was believed to be fading rapidly as a possibility for the vice-presidential nomination if he fails of the higher goal.

The proposal that Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-VA) be named to run with Governor Dewey on a coalition ticket, has also collapsed. The Virginia Senator’s name will not even be proposed to the convention, according to word tonight.

Just who will place Governor Warren’s name before the convention, however, was undecided tonight.

[NormanStewart]

Ask free press plank

Editors urge inclusion in platforms of both parties

Chicago, Illinois (AP) –
The board of directors of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, meeting here tonight, unanimously urged that the Resolutions Committees of both the Republican and Democratic conventions include a plank in their respective platforms on the issue of a free press and unrestricted communications for news throughout the world.

This plank, which has been prepared by a committee named by John S. Knight, president of the society, in cooperation with all the wire services, all the press associations and all the broadcasting organizations, declares that an unrestricted interchange of news and equal opportunity on all world transmission facilities is essential to the building of a lasting world peace.

[NormanStewart]

PLATFORM MAKERS RUSH TO END DRAFT
With agreement on general principles, stress is put on precise phrasing

Care on foreign policy; Taft committee hears pleas of CIO – consents to crop control as last resort
By C. P. Trussell

Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
The Republican Platform Drafting Committee was racing with the clock late tonight, despite the development of new complications from outside the policy-framing body itself to complete its budget of declarations and pledges to the now formally organized Resolutions Committee by 9:00 tomorrow morning, and for its tests before the convention as a whole before the end of the day.

With the drafting body apparently steadfast in general agreement on principles enunciated in more than a dozen planks at hand or in the making, concentration was upon phraseology and the definitions and interpretations of individual words and passages. The only stumbling blocks, it was reported from the closely guarded executive sessions, appeared as differences arose over the written expressions of principles.

Although the convention swing remained decisively for Governor Dewey, the foreign policy plank was viewed in some quarters close to the drafting group as being “usable” by “almost anybody but Stassen.”

Taft takes drafting helm

With the formal organization of the Resolutions Committee this afternoon, Senator Robert A. Taft (R-OH) became official chairman of both the Drafting Committee and the platform body itself. The committee’s first action was to hear a final series of recommendations from organized labor, as represented by the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Appearing before the committee was Van A. Bittner, assistant to Philip Murray, president of CIO in his capacity as head of the United Steel Workers’ Union. Mr. Bittner presented to the committee almost the full program adopted in Washington recently by the CIO Political Action Committee, which the Republican platform drafters had declined to hear during the pre-convention hearings. The only part of the PAC’s original platform which Mr. Bittner omitted was a preamble which endorses President Roosevelt with great enthusiasm for reelection.

Since Mr. Bittner’s speaking time was limited in accordance with hearing rules, he did not attempt to read all of the program which he brought along. He concentrated, however, on the full employment plank, which proposes that the federal government endorse the principle of a guaranteed annual wage and encourage its cooperation in collective bargaining agreements.

This, it is learned authoritatively, is not included in the plank submitted to the Drafting Committee last night by the convention Labor Committee headed by William Hutcheson, president of the Carpenters’ Union (AFL).

Mr. Bittner also urged that the National Labor Relations Act be held “intact as is.” The pending Labor Committee’s plank is understood, in its present draft, to call explicitly for amendments to that statute, particularly a change which would prevent the National Labor Relations Board from forbidding the selection of collective bargaining agents by crafts, rather than on a plant-wide or industry-wide basis, as is preferred by the CIO.

As to foreign trade, reciprocal trade agreements are sanctioned only to the extent to which they may be “mutually beneficial” and on condition that they receive Congressional ratification. The foreign trade plank in general tone, it is contended, gives recognition to the protective principle without foreclosing economic cooperation, and, it is agreed, satisfies former Governor Alfred M. Landon, chairman of the committee, who has been friendly toward the trade agreements program, and also the most outstanding of the high-tariff protectionists on that panel.

The Foreign Trade Committee will recommend to the Resolutions Committee that there be no establishment, at this time at least, of an international bank, such as has been projected by the administration. However, it will advocate the continuance of monetary conferences and cooperation on money programs through them.

[NormanStewart]

Maine avoids bandwagon

One delegate says group is not yet sure Dewey ‘is the man’

Chicago, Illinois (UP) – (June 26)
Maine still refuses to climb aboard the Dewey bandwagon.

One delegate explained after the third caucus today:

We want to win the election this fall and to do that we must put the strongest possible candidate in the field. We are not convinced yet that Dewey is the man.

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Mrs. Farley finds session dull

Chicago, Illinois (UP) – (June 26)
Mrs. James A. Farley, wife of President Roosevelt’s former campaign manager, was a center of attention today when she took her place in a box at the Republican convention. Mrs. Farley, a veteran of many Democratic conventions who has said that she would vote Republican rather than for a fourth term, remarked that “there doesn’t seem to be as much excitement as we used to have at the Democratic conventions.”

[NormanStewart]

Platform victory is won by women

Two planks are adopted by Resolutions Committee – three Senators oppose one
By Kathleen McLaughlin

Chicago, Illinois – (June 26)
Reports coming out of executive sessions of the Resolutions Committee engrossed feminine delegates to the Republican convention today, now that gossip has almost ceased about the probable nominee. Two planks of special interest to the women’s group have been written into the document, according to reports, one of them over the protests of Senators Taft (R-OH), Danaher (R-CT) and Milliken (R-CO).

One provides for submission to the states by Congress of an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. This plank has become almost a tradition in both major parties. A similar declaration was written into the 1940 Republican platform, but failed of acceptance by the Democrats. Sponsored at first by members of the National Woman’s Party only, it has of late years been endorsed by such organizations as the National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs.

The second plank, reflecting the growing concern of working women in this country over their status after the war, recommends equal job opportunities for men and women, “without discrimination in rate of pay because of sex.”

Modeled almost verbatim after the law recently enacted by New York State through the efforts of Republican Assemblywoman Miss Jane Todd, this proposal has received enthusiastic endorsement by organizations of women.

Resignation of two women members of the Republican National Committee, Mrs. Grace Reynolds of Indiana (who was manager of the Women’s Division in Wendell Willkie’s preliminary campaign), and Mrs. Paul Fitzsimons of Rhode Island, rose speculation as to their successors at the luncheon at which Miss Marion Martin, head of the women’s division of the party, was hostess to incumbent and newly elected and appointed National Committeewomen.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: The Republican keynote

Governor Warren’s keynote speech last night to the Republican convention follows pretty closely the long-established bipartisan pattern for such addresses. The gist of this, for the party in power, is to claim credit for all good things as of its own creation, and for the party out of power to blame the in’s as the source of all misfortune. Governor Warren does the latter with such gusto that by the time he has finished with Mr. Roosevelt, he has no time left for Hitler and Tōjō. If one searches this speech for a reason why 10 million young Americans are now in arms, why half that number will soon be abroad and why the whole economy of the country is geared to war production, one comes out with little more than a single sentence near the close: “The cries of anguish from the victims of Axis tyranny violate our sense of justice.” No doubt Mr. Warren felt it unnecessary to labor such familiar points as Axis aggression against the United States itself, which was the reason why we went to war, or the character of the enemies against whom we fight. But certainly one good ringing paragraph on the inescapability of our involvement and the essential purposes for which we fight would not have been out of place in a keynote sounded at the very crisis of the greatest struggle for national survival in the lifetime of the American people.

So much for the chief omission. On the positive side, there are some good points, reassuring in what they promise. Mr. Warren pledges the unlimited support of the Republican Party to a victory in the field so complete that before the fighting ends, American troops will be “bivouacked along the main streets of Germany and Japan.” He promises that this time the fruits of victory will not be wasted through inaction: It is the purpose of the Republican Party “to make and guard the peace.” And again: “We [Republicans] are prepared to take a definite stand against aggression, not merely to denounce aggression, but to resist it and restrain it. That calls for effective cooperation with all the peace-loving nations of the world.” To which our allies, as well as the great majority of the American people themselves, will say Bravo!

Finally, on the domestic side, Mr. Warren vigorously attacks the administration for its evident belief that the private-enterprise system in this country has deteriorated to a point where its weaknesses can be offset only by more and more governmental direction and more and more public spending. He calls for a post-war economy in which the government encourages private enterprise to provide full-scale employment. At the same time, he warns the Republican Party not to look for a road back to the status quo – “there is no status quo to which we could or should return” – and he specifically asserts, apparently with the major legislative measures of the New Deal in mind: “We do not propose to deny the progress that has been made during the past decade. Neither do we aim to repeal it.” On these points, the keynote speech presumably forecasts the platform.

[NormanStewart]

The Free Lance-Star (June 27, 1944)

GOVERNOR WARREN SEEN LIKELY AS RUNNING MATE WITH DEWEY
California may reach decision tonight

Choice of Dewey is held assured

Chicago Stadium, Chicago, Illinois (AP) –
The Republican National Convention rushed toward climactic development today. Platform drafters announced agreement, and it was learned that Governor Earl Warren of California might say, by nightfall, whether or not he was in the running for the vice-presidential nomination or moving definitely out.

Heavy pressure was being brought to bear on the big Californian to announce that he would take second place on the ticket running with Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York if the nomination is offered. On the platform, where he acted as temporary chairman before turning the gavel over to Rep. Joseph W. Martin (R-MA), permanent presiding officer, he was the center of clusters of party prominents.

Governor Thomas E. Dewey, assured of the presidential nomination, was reported making preparations to come here on short notice, possibly by tomorrow, to accept. Many more than the votes required to nominate were already his.

The platform-drafting Resolutions Committee approved a foreign policy plank retaining the pledge to enforce future world security by an international agency employing “peace forces.” This pledge had been criticized by Wendell Willkie and others, including 15 governors.

Willkie’s statement of criticism, released in New York last night, caused a stir when word reached the convention and led to new speculation on the possibility Willkie might bolt the party he led on the campaign of 1940. He kept his own counsel on this point.

Former President Herbert Hoover, arriving for a major address before the convention tonight, predicted agreement on a plank and praised the speech in which Warren last night predicted that the state victories won by Republicans in the last two years will extend to the nation in 1944.

Urge acceptance

Some clearing of the vice-presidential picture impended members of Governor Warren’s own delegation were reported urging him to state he will accept second place if offered it.

Supporters of Governor John W. Bricker for President, still fighting for the nomination, contended “steamroller tactics by the Dewey camp” was reacting in the form of new expressions of interest in and support for the Ohioan.

Warren, the most discussed possibility for second place on the ticket, told the delegation before the convention opened Monday that he did not want his name placed in nomination or a California vote if someone else nominated him.

With the renewed pressure on Warren – and amid discussion also of Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio, Governor Dwight Griswold of Nebraska and Governor Dwight Green of Illinois – the convention looked for some sign of a trend and decision today.

California called a caucus at which, it was learned, Warren’s position was under discussion. Warren himself has taken the position. He was elected in California on a platform calling for the development of projects that will require years. Moreover, he has insisted he can be “of more use” to the party in California than in Washington. But he is a staunch party man.

Martin opens parley

Today’s convention program in the big steaming Chicago Stadium bulged, starting with the address of Rep. Martin, permanent chairman of the convention, and followed tonight by speeches of former President Herbert Hoover and Connecticut’s Rep. Clare Boothe Luce.

Appearing fit and ready, Mr. Hoover arrived from New York with the declaration that he’d give his best for a Republican triumph in November. He told reporters:

I am going to stay in this fight until I die. The fight is for everything that is precious to the American people.

The third session of the convention was slowly getting underway.

[NormanStewart]

Hoover active in GOP campaign

Chicago, Illinois (AP) –
Arriving to address the Republican convention, Herbert Hoover said today that he would participate vigorously in the election campaign.

The only living former President told newspapermen as he stepped from his train:

I am going to stay in this fight until I die. The fight is for everything that is precious to the American people.

Hoover would not say whether he expected to “barnstorm” for the Republican ticket, but left no doubt that he would contribute all his energies to the Republican ticket. He said, “The prospects for a Republican victory this fall are good.”

[NormanStewart]

Foreign policy plank drafted by GOP body

By Jack Bell

Chicago, Illinois (AP) –
The Republican Platform Committee approved today a foreign policy plank retaining the pledge, criticized by Wendell Willkie and others, to enforce future world security by an international organization employing “peace forces.”

It rejected protests of Willkie and 15 Republican Governors that this language was not sufficiently plain.

The Platform Committee inserted a promise that the party would bend all efforts to bring home members of the Armed Forces “at the earliest possible time after the cessation of hostilities.”

Committee officials, releasing only a portion of the platform immediately, said it would be laid before the convention during the afternoon. They hoped to complete the draft during the day.

Provision approved

In another portion of the platform dealing with the maintenance of post-war Armed Forces, however, the committee approved a provision some members interpreted as a gesture toward those, like Willkie, who have been demanding that the United States join an international organization with military force to preserve peace.

The platform declared at this point for “the maintenance of post-war military force and establishments of ample strength, for the successful defense and the safety of the United States, its possessions and outposts, for the maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine, and for meeting any military commitments determined by Congress.”

The latter pledged to have Armed Forces available for any use approved by Congress suggested the possibility of a military allotment to an international organization to enforce peace, some said.

Fight is seen

A fight on the foreign plank might be carried to the floor by some of the governors who asked for more specific pledges.

As it was approved by the committee, the foreign plank pledges prosecution of the war to “total victory” and proposes to achieve peace aims “through international cooperation and not by joining a world state.”

It favored “responsible participation” by this country in a “cooperative organization among sovereign nations” to prevent aggression and said such an organization “should develop effective cooperative means to direct peace forces to prevent or repeal military aggression.”

Senator Warren Austin (R-VT), chairman of a foreign affairs subcommittee, predicted that the final draft would produce “complete harmony” in the Resolutions Committee.

Although Austin and other platform drafters called Willkie “mistaken” in his stand on the plank, there was evidence that backers of Dewey had no relish for any situation that might cost Willkie’s November support of the New York Governor, if the latter becomes the presidential nominee as expected.

[NormanStewart]

Martin installed as GOP chairman

Says day of reckoning for New Dealers is at hand

Chicago, Illinois (AP) –
Rep. Joseph W. Martin (R-MA) took up the gavel as permanent chairman of the Republican National Convention today with a declaration that his party would “save constitutional government at home” and “build an enduring peace.”

Martin, House Minority Leader, told the delegates the “day of reckoning” was at hand for the New Deal because people are “tired of bungling and fumbling, waste and extravagance, arrogance and bureaucratic dictatorship.” Even some Democrats have rebelled, he said.

He went on:

We have seen the head of the Communist political party in this country, Earl Browder, merge his political party with Sidney Hillman’s CIO Political Action Committee in a drive for a fourth term for President Roosevelt, and the election of a Congress that will be subservient to the will of those organizations.

It presents a vital issue of this campaign. Do the people want these radical organizations, with their avowed purpose to remake America, to control the Presidency, to secure a “rubber stamp” Congress, and to nominate… our government? Of course they don’t.

Martin outlined the course he believed the Republican administration would pursue and concluded:

We will save constitutional government at home and, on the firm foundation of freedom and individual opportunity, we will build an enduring peace.

Martin said:

The first thing the Republican Party will do when it comes into power will be to restore to Congress its responsibility and functions…

He promised a “genuine economy in government,” and a tax system as simple as possible, equitable and designed to stimulate industry and create jobs.

Labor will retain “all the essential rights and just privileges it has gained,” Martin continued, while agriculture will be assured “a commensurate return on investment and labor.”