The Pittsburgh Press (November 3, 1944)
President tempers advice with plea to employers, warns of possible GOP ‘trick’
Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt requested today that any employee not allowed sufficient voting time away from his job next Tuesday “inform me of the circumstances together with the name of his company and any pertinent facts.”
Urging all employers to allow workers enough time off to vote, the President said certain companies with government contracts had raised the question of whether pay to their workers will be allowed by procurement agencies as reimbursable costs if the Election-Day time off is granted.
He said:
The agencies have ruled that such payments are legitimate expenditures under cost-plus contracts, may be considered for the purpose of making any computation or adjustment required by provisions of fixed-priced contracts, and also may be appropriately allowed as such expenditures in renegotiation of lump-sum contracts.
Asks vote for all
The President said that under these circumstances:
All firms having contracts with the government are especially urged to allow their workers to have full opportunity to express their choice in this election, whatever that choice may be.
And I ask that any employee not allowed enough time to vote, inform me of the circumstances.
Mr. Roosevelt stressed that the mandate of this election “should be as representative of the whole people as possible, irrespective of whom they vote for.” He added:
There has been much interest in the subject of soldier young. I am sure that there is an equal interest in facilitating the vote of civilian workers.
Works on speech
Meantime, Mr. Roosevelt was working on the remaining speeches that will carry him down the home stretch to Election Day, particularly the major address he will deliver in Boston tomorrow night after a day-long tour of Connecticut and Massachusetts.
All Pittsburgh stations will broadcast the speech at 9:00 p.m. EWT.
Questioned about various reports published today about his administration, the President recalled his warning in his radio speech last night that there would be “hysterical, last-minute accusations or sensational revelations” which should not be believed.
Wallace for Hull?
He was asked specifically about:
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A statement by Rep. Walter H. Judd (R-MN) that Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, recently relieved as Far Eastern American commander, was an agent of the White House and gave Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek an ultimatum to turn over command of all Chinese forces to him.
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That Vice President Henry A. Wallace would succeed Secretary of State Cordell Hull after the election.
The President said of both reports that maybe this was what he was talking about last night when he warned that “trumped up” accusations or purportedly “sensational developments,” “may come in an attempt to “panic” voters into the Republican camp.
‘No news’ about Hull
Asked whether he had any indication that Mr. Hull planned to resign, the President said no.
The President said he was praying for good weather tomorrow for his trip to New England. His first stop will be at Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he will speak briefly from his train.
The party will proceed by train to Springfield, Massachusetts, where the President will make another rear platform appearance, then leave for Boston.
‘Spite’ attempt charged
Accusing the opposition and some newspapers of campaigning with whisperings, rumorings and “wicked charges,” Mr. Roosevelt told his radio audience last night that he did not propose to “answer in kind.”
“This election will not be decided on a basis of malignant murmurings – or shouts,” he said. “It will be on the basis of the record.”
Speaking from the White House, Mr. Roosevelt also charged that the Republicans were threatening to build a “party spite fence between us and the peace” by saying that Congress will not cooperate in fashioning the peace unless Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the GOP candidate, is elected.
‘Busy days’ cited
The Chief Executive said that the exigencies of war had prevented him from making a personal swing to Cleveland, Detroit and Upstate New York as he had desired. He said: “Therefore, I am speaking to you from the White House… I follow the principle of first things first; and this war comes first.”
Declaring that the war against Japan is “many months ahead of our own optimistic schedule,” Mr. Roosevelt expressed satisfaction at the “record of our teamwork with our Allies,” and said this team work would prove a foundation for a “strong and durable organization for world peace.”
Plans for future
Without mentioning Governor Dewey by name, Mr. Roosevelt replied to the Republican nominee’s charges that the present administration had no adequate plans for the future.
“By carrying out the plans we have made we can avoid a post-war depression – we can provide employment for our veterans and our war workers – we can achieve orderly reconversion,” he said. And then, in an implied reference to the Hoover era, he asked:
Above all, we can avoid another false boom like that which burst in 1929 and a dismal collapse like that of 1930 to 1933.
Hannegan speaks
Democratic National Chairman Robert E. Hannegan, speaking from New York on the same radio broadcast, said that his party had conducted a campaign “based on three simple issues – victory, peace and jobs.”
“On these three issues the Democratic Party was able to present to the American people not merely promises but a record,” he said.
Emphasizing that the Democrats were confident of “overwhelming victory,” Mr. Hannegan devoted a major part of his speech to answering, Republican campaign charges which he said were “falsehoods and designed primarily to create hate.”
Mr. Hannegan predicted that Mr. Dewey’s “smear” will prove offensive to many Catholics who believe Mr. Roosevelt’s doctrines of social justice are essentially those that Catholic leaders have been advocating since the time of Pope Leo XII.
Mr. Hannegan also hit at attacks on Sidney Hillman, the CIO Political Action Committee chairman. and asserted that Governor Dewey had not considered Hillman a threat when, running for office in 1937, Mr. Dewey “solicited and received a $5,000 contribution from him.”
Communist charge denied
Mr. Hannegan cited three publications to prove that Hillman is not a Communist. He said the three were America, The Commonweal and The Liguorian.
Mr. Hannegan said:
Here is what the Commonweal leader in the AFL ever hunted down Communists with more relentless zest than Sidney Hillman in his own union. In the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Communists are as inconspicuous as Nazis in liberated Paris. Sidney Hillman preaches and practices the theory of capital-labor collaboration for mutual interests.
After careful investigation of Mr. Hillman, The Liguorian reached the same conclusion.”
He also declared that “the Democratic Party is not for sale,” adding that a “well known labor leader discovered that in 1936 and is now in the Dewey camp,” obviously referring to John L. Lewis.
