The Pittsburgh Press (October 18, 1944)
Roosevelt to barnstorm New York City
He’ll attend rally, tour the boroughs
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt and his advisers today planned an active campaign for him in the final fortnight before the presidential election, including a tour of New York City and an appearance at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field Saturday.
Democratic National Chairman Robert E. Hannegan announced in New York that although the President will show himself at the Dodgers’ ballpark. he probably will not make a speech, The occasion will be a rally for Senator Robert F. Wagner (D-NY), and Mr. Roosevelt, will content himself merely with greeting the Senator, Mr. Hannegan said.
The President will make a long tour of the city, however, and that night will address the Foreign Policy Association there.
Philadelphia speech scheduled
The only political speech thus far scheduled for the President in that time will be at Philadelphia. David L. Lawrence, Pennsylvania Democratic leader, has announced that Mr. Roosevelt will speak in Shibe Park there Oct. 27.
Mr. Roosevelt told his news conference yesterday there would be some speeches but he did not yet know when or where. Some smart money is down on Cleveland, Chicago or Buffalo. And it is noted that the Shibe Park engagement breaks a precedent which came with the war – the President will make a public appearance at a time previously announced before a catch-as-catch-can audience.
Heretofore his wartime public appearances have all been before restricted audiences. The bars also slipped a notch yesterday when he told news conference questioners he would go to New York by train.
Always kept plans secret
All such presidential plans heretofore have been kept secret for security reasons and he has repeatedly been away from here with the public – including practically everyone in Washington – ignorant of his movements.
Mr. Roosevelt told DNC Chairman Robert E. Hannegan a week before the party’s Chicago convention that he would accept renomination for a fourth term but would not “campaign in the usual sense.”
He has made only two avowedly campaign addresses since then, one to the AFL Teamsters Union banquet here last month and a broadcast this month from the White House. Now the almost inevitable has happened. The President’s advisers have insisted that he go to bat.
Pennsylvania a key state
The choice of Pennsylvania for one of the President’s major campaign efforts underwrites the judgment of political experts that the contest in close and that Pennsylvania – and probably New York – are the key states. If Mr. Dewey can carry those two, he probably is in. If he loses them, his address will continue to be Albany, New York, after Inauguration Day.
The populous Mideastern seaboard states are a battleground. Former New Jersey Governor Charles Edison, one-time Secretary of the Navy in the Roosevelt Cabinet and an early and staunch New Dealer, sounded a sour note on the White House steps yesterday. Emerging from Mr. Roosevelt’s office, he revealed to reporters he had told the President that “New Jersey would go for Mr. Dewey by a substantial majority.”
Mr. Edison said Mr. Dewey would carry New Jersey because of resentment against Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City, the state Democratic boss, who is in disagreement with Governor Edison.
In Jersey City, Mayor Hague said that Mr. Edison will have a “rude awakening as a political prophet” and that President Roosevelt will carry the state in November “by even a vastly increased majority over 1940.”