The Pittsburgh Press (September 24, 1944)
Slav Congress told to back fourth term
Resolution on issue to be voted on
A resolution calling for endorsement of a fourth term and reelection of President Roosevelt will be placed before delegates to the second national American Slav Congress today as the Congress closes its two-day convention at Carnegie Music Hall.
More than 2,000 delegates registered for the convention yesterday and heard Leo Krzycki of Milwaukee, the Congress president, keynote the opening session by calling upon “every Slavic American, regardless of party affiliation, to vote and work for the reelection of President Roosevelt and those candidates for Congress who will support his general policies for victory, security and peace.”
Scully speaks
Officials of the organization say the Congress represents 15 million people of Slavic descent living in the United States.
Mr. Krzycki’s address followed an address of welcome to the delegates by Mayor Cornelius D. Scully who also urged their support of President Roosevelt.
Halls closed to group
John Sobczak, Pittsburgh district organizer for the CIO Amalgamated Clothing Workers of which Mr. Krzycki is a vice president, and also chairman of the Western Pennsylvania Committee of the Congress, explained to the delegates that the “cramped quarters” in the Music Hall was due to two halls in Pittsburgh breaking contracts with the Congress “on grounds that we were holding a political meeting.”
Soldiers & Sailors’ Memorial Hall refused the Congress on grounds that its session was a political meeting. Syria Mosque also refused to entertain the convention but gave no reason.
Mr. Sobczak asserted that only a short time before in one of the halls a Republican meeting had been held where Ohio Governor John W. Bricker, GOP vice-presidential candidate, had been the speaker. The Congress delegates booed roundly at mention of Governor Bricker’s name.
Letter from Roosevelt
Mr. Sobczak charged:
Those in charge of those halls are more interested in the kind of politics than they are in whether a meeting is political.
Jaroslav Zmrhal, vice president of the Congress, in a brief address, told delegates that “the hour of the Slav has struck… and with the unification of all Slavs the day of bloody wars has ended.”
A letter to the Congress delegates from President Roosevelt read at the opening session pointed out that “the day of liberation of peoples of Slav blood draws near and with it the time for administration of retributive justice on their Nazi enslavers.”
The message urged the Congress “in all of your deliberations to be inspired by constructive action to further the great objective of hastening victory as a preliminary to peace on earth.”
An Army chaplain, Lt. Ernest J. Zizka of Camp Barkeley, Texas, gave the invocation at the opening session.