Liveblogging World War II: November 2, 1940
U.S. Attorney General Robert Jackson:
Robert Jackson: In this election, every citizen must vote as if that vote alone would decide the election. If any of your friends tell you that they intend to vote for Willkie, ask them to stop and think seriously about the consequences of such an act. What do they really know about Willkie? They know only what the advertising experts have told them. They know only that because he owns some farms in Indiana he has been offered as a friend of the farmer; that because he had some summer jobs in factories as a youngster, he is being paraded as a friend of labor; that because he was a lawyer and lobbyist for a big utility system, he is being hailed as a business executive....
[A]s a result of his brilliant handling of America’s foreign affairs, President Roosevelt today is feared in some capitals, beloved in others, respected throughout the world. Nobody—no thinking person—can in good conscience vote for Willkie unless he knows what his foreign policy will be. What do they really know about Willkie? They know only what the advertising experts have told them. Anyone who intends to vote for Willkie had better ask himself what kind of man Willkie would be on the cold morning after election, after the honeymoon of election promises is over....
[Do we know whether] Willkie would be able to control the financial and business powers behind him who might have their own selfish ideas on what our foreign policy should be? We know what Roosevelt’s foreign policy is and we know that the country thoroughly approves it. In our national self-interest, we cannot afford to risk a change. We have had a vigorous foreign policy for seven and a half years. Any shift at this time would mean giving up the valuable momentum that has been building up in those years....
The President has backed business when Wall Street would not back it [and he has] backed the American home [when] bankers did not even make gestures. President Roosevelt fought the fight for the American farmer as no man has fought it before. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first President to have a living faith that labor could be trusted to make its own collective bargains with employers, faith that a system could be set up which ultimately, and when it was accepted by employers, would result in the settlement of labor disputes by reason instead of force...
