The Pittsburgh Press (November 2, 1944)
Truman praises war’s operation
Roosevelt efficiency prevents scandals
By Robert Taylor
Because the country had a Commander-in-Chief who “knew where he was going,” Senator Harry S. Truman, Democratic candidate for Vice President, said here today, “there never has been a war in the history of the world more efficiently operated than this one.”
Mr. Truman, here for an all-day tour of the district and a major address at a Democratic rally in Syria Mosque tonight, said the fact that President Roosevelt “knew where he was going” was responsible for the lack of scandals in the war program.
‘Dragged in gutter’ by GOP
Speaking to some 5,000 employees of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh, Mr. Truman said:
This campaign has been dragged in the gutter by the opposition because they have no issues on which to base their demand for replacement of the President.
Mr. Dewey is trying to cut the Commander-in-Chief down to a Prosecutor’s size, but he can’t do it.
There never was a war in the history of the world more efficiently run than this one. I’ve been in a position to see it.
Large turnouts in valley
Senator Truman, before his nomination for Vice President, was chairman of the Senate committee investigating the war program.
He spoke to about 2,000, mostly schoolchildren, in Braddock, and another 2,500 in Wilmerding. Escorted by motorcycle police, the Truman entourage was greeted in the Turtle Creek Valley towns by large turnouts.
The East Pittsburgh rally, at which Mr. Truman tarried the longest, was managed by three officials of the CIO United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers’ Union.
Three main issues
Here the vice-presidential candidate said the three main campaign issues are “couldn’t afford” to “take a chance on Harding promises again.”
“We are hearing almost exactly the same promises [from the Republicans] now as in 1920,” he said.
Schoolchildren enlisted
The candidate, in an obvious dig at Governor Thomas E. Dewey, said President Roosevelt “doesn’t have one foreign policy for New York, another for California, and maybe another for Minnesota.”
“He has one foreign policy,” the Senator said.
In Braddock, Mr. Truman told assembled school children to “go home and get your parents to keep Roosevelt” so another world war won’t happen.
Lunch in McKeesport
The Senator, escorted by local Democratic leaders, followed his valley appearances with a luncheon given by Mayor Frank Buchanan in McKeesport. Later in the day, he was due to speak in Uniontown.
An extensive program arranged by George B. McDonough, Braddock Democratic chairman, was cut short in that borough to enable Senator Truman to maintain his schedule.
Mr. McDonough introduced the candidate as “the No. 2 man of this great nation.”
Met at station
Democratic city and county officials met him on arrival at 8:45 a.m. at the Baltimore & Ohio railroad station and escorted him to the William Penn hotel, preparatory to starting out on a six-speech schedule of personal appearances.
Mr. Truman’s visit is the first appearance on behalf of the Roosevelt-Truman ticket in the campaign in Allegheny County, where President Roosevelt 12 years ago outlined his New Deal in a huge Forbes Field meeting.
Governor Thomas E. Dewey and Governor John W. Bricker, Republican nominees, have made two appearances each here, since their nomination last June, indicating the importance GOP campaigners attach to the vote of the district.
Program at Mosque
The night rally in Pittsburgh at Syria Mosque will start at 8:00 p.m. At 9:00 p.m., the audience will hear President Roosevelt’s address from the White House, after which they will hear six speakers from the stage.
Senator Truman said he would devote his speech tonight in part to stressing “the necessity for continuation of an administration that understands the problems of the country, particularly as they affect reconversion and jobs after the war.”
Other speakers will include former Governor Gifford Pinchot; screen and radio celebrity Orson Welles; James L. McDevitt, president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor (AFL); David J. McDonald, treasurer of the United Steelworkers (CIO), and Mrs. Kermit Roosevelt, widow of the late son of President Theodore Roosevelt.