Evening star., 1942-10-19
Hoover Urges Voters
10 Show Axis Spirit
OF 0Democracy Lives
Declares Ballot Will
Preserve Liberties of
Civilians in Wartime
~ the Associated Press

~ the Associated Press.
Former President Herbert Hoover
urges all American voters to 90 tn
the polls November 3 as one means
OF notifying the totalitarian powers
tnat the spirit of democracy still
lives within U.s."
Mr.. Hoover said exercise of the
franchise would result in preserya-
ton OF individual liberties neces-
sarily yielded to the Government
IN wartime. The former Presi-
dents statement was published in
the current issue of Pathfinder
Magazine, released yesterday.
1otal war, he said. requires the
total direction of civilian energies
py the Government" but "the pro-
found essential today is that we
preserve the instruments" for safe
guarding individual liberties after
the conflict.
Sees Votes as Safeguard.
The greatest of all these safe
guards are the elections. the ballot
and the two-party system. =
Never was it more necessary to
Keep alive our safeguards than to-
day, Tor never before was it neces-
sary to yield SO much of liberty.
ana we owe it to our boys who are
nghting this war that they find these
foundations of freedom intact when
they return.
Therefore every citizen irrespec-
tive OF how he votes should go to
the polls the third day of November.
1t will be notice to the totalitarian
world that the spirit of democracy
still lives within U.S."
. In other overnight developments
bearing on the forthcoming election,
Frank Gannett, assistant chairman
OF the Republican National Commit
tee, charged-and provoked an i'm
mediate denial-that the Agriculture
Department was using or permit
ting the use OF an official poster to
further the candidacy 'of Lewis j.
Murphy, Democratic congressional
nominee, against Representative
Grant, Republican, in the Sd Indiana
district.
: Philip Murray, CIO president,
called on labor to vote for members
of Congress who have supported the
Presidents war effort, and against
those who, he said, have attempted
to sabotage" the war program. In
signed editorial in the CIO News,
Mr.. Murray described the Novem-
Der elections as "the most crucial in
American history" Members of
Congress who have campaigned for
"repressive laws aimed at labor"
were his particular targets.
In his attack on the Agriculture
Department, Mr.. Gannett cited a
Government poster urgin farmers
to contribute scrap. At the bottom
of the poster was campaign ap-
peal for Mr. Murphy, followed by
the line, sponsored at the request
OF the United States Department of
Agriculture"
Mr.. Gannett's statement termed
this "one of the most fragrant and
reprehensible abuses of govern
mental power and authority ever to
be injected into congressional
campaign" and said 1t was per-
tinent to inquire whether the de-
partment Is confining its poster
campaign to this one district"
The Agriculture Department later
issued statement saying the poster
was printed by private concern
and that its only connection with
1t consisted of advising the printer.
when consulted by telephone, that
1.-The copy seemed to present cor
rectly the message of the Govern
ment scrap iron salvage campaign" !"
A week later copies of the poster
we're received here, the department
continued, and it Immediately noti-
fled the printers that the lines
claiming Department of Agriculture
sponsorship for the poster should
be removed as this department does
not take part in advertising enter
prises OF the sort"