Political Parties Pledge to Keep Election Campaign Free from Racial Controversy

The national chairmen of the Democratic and Republican National Committees today pledged their parties to keep the election campaign free of racial and religious controversy and denounced the injection of such issues. Both party leaders expressed their abhorrence of disqualifications and hatreds based upon differences in race or religion.

Declaring that the 1944 national election will “some day be looked upon as one of the greatest historical measures of the hardihood and integrity of our democratic way of life,” Democratic Chairman Robert E. Hannegan said; “The election itself, and the campaign that precedes it, must be a consistently democratic performance. It must be kept free of the very taint that we are engaging in war to remove from the world. This means that racial and religious differences, and the hatreds which our fascist enemies have erected upon them, can be given no expression among us. To this resolve, we of the Democratic Party pledge ourselves in letter and in spirit.”

Republican National Chairman Herbert Brownell, Jr. declared that, “Our political system can justify itself only if we are ever alert against any doctrine or practise which seeks to exploit differences of race or religion. Consistent with this fundamental thought are the forthright statements of Governor Dewey in denunciation of political adventurers who, in the hope of personal aggrandizement, have tried to stirrup religious and racial bigotry in its various forms. The party platform takes a vigorous position pledging itself to uncompromising battle against intolerance and discrimination. Its candidates are committed by faith and deep conviction to comity and understanding among the various faiths and to the equality and dignity before man and government of all people of whatever creed or origin.”

Both statements were secured by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, an agency which has for over 17 years worked to promote better intergroup relations and respect for the dignities and rights of all groups of the American people.