The Pittsburgh Press (October 25, 1944)
Truman attacks Dewey as evasive
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Senator Harry S. Truman, Democratic nominee for the Vice Presidency, said today that Governor Thomas E. Dewey was “hiding under the bed” in ignoring Mr. Truman’s challenge that he repudiate eight Republican Senators seeking reelection this year.
When he learned that Mr. Dewey had declined to comment on his demand, Mr. Truman issued a statement which said:
Just as I feared, Mr. Dewey has neither the courage nor the honesty to tell the American people what he intends to do about these eight Republican isolationists whose public utterances and voting records brand them as isolationists and untrustworthy on foreign affairs. Mr. Dewey is hiding under the bed, afraid to answer that question.
The statement said Mr. Dewey had resorted to “subterfuge” in getting telegrams from five Republican Senators and reading only one – from Senator Wallace H. White Jr. of Maine – in his address last night.
“Mr. Dewey did not read the telegrams from Senator [Robert A.] Taft, Republican isolationist from Ohio,” Mr. Truman said.
When I reach Akron, I am going to tell the people of Ohio about Senator Taft’s voting record on foreign affairs. It was a mighty bad one.
The other seven isolationists seeking reelection on the Republican ticket either were not asked or did not send even a meaningless telegram to Mr. Dewey. Why not? On Wednesday Mr. Dewey will follow me to Wisconsin, the home of Alexander Wiley, one of those seven, Let us ask Mr. Dewey whether he is for the reelection of Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin.
Mr. Truman said Mr. Wiley had voted against the Selective Service Act and its extension, the Lend-Lease Bill, defense appropriations, acquisition of merchant vessels, the arming of merchant vessels, and authorizing the requisitioning of plants and equipment for defense.