The Pittsburgh Press (October 25, 1944)
La Guardia: Roosevelt needed
New York’s Mayor speaks at rally here
New York’s Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia told a Democratic rally in North Side Carnegie Hall last night that the best interests of the nation require the reelection of President Roosevelt.
“This campaign is different,” he told a crowd of more than 1,500 Democrats. “We’ve never had anything like it before. This time, we just cannot make a mistake.”
Mr. La Guardia said the President won a war against hunger, poverty and disease at the start of his administration, is now engaged in a second war against Nazis and Japs and must win a third war for peace and the establishment of justice in the world and a fourth for economic security for every individual in the United States.
Can be no prejudices
He said:
When it comes to the peace conference, we must have someone there who loves folks. No one should go there who has prejudices against any people. The oppressed people, whose lands have been invaded, not only have admiration for our President, they have confidence in what he will do.
In a slap at John Foster Dulles, foreign affairs advisor to Governor Thomas E. Dewey and prospective appointee to succeed Secretary of State Cordell Hull in event of a Dewey victory, Mr. La Guardia said:
As between a Tennessee mountaineer with no axe to grind and a slick New York City international lawyer with private international clients, I’d pick the mountaineer.”
Security is objective
He advised:
Be fair to yourselves. Talk it over with your neighbors. This is not a matter of publicity, of how much time on the air, of which party will win – it’s a matter of what’s best for your family. your country and the happiness and security of the world.
The New York Mayor, a Republican elected on a Fusion ticket, said he wasn’t making a political speech.
He said:
I never lasted 15 minutes in any party. And I’ve been in public office 40 years. I just don’t get along with politicians.
He was sponsored by an Independents for Roosevelt Committee headed by James S. Crutchfield. Also on the program was Republican Mayor George W. Welsh of Grand Rapids, Michigan, who said he was a Willkie supporter four years ago.
This year, he said, Mr. Willkie couldn’t get a seat at the Republican convention, although former President Herbert Hoover had a place on the platform.
Mr. Welsh said:
There has been a lot of speculation about what Wendell Willkie would have done, if he had lived, about the present Republican candidate, but there need be no speculation about what the present Republican leaders did about Wendell Willkie – they didn’t want any part of him.