Evening star., 1944-07-20
Kerr Filings Age Issue
Back at Dewey in !
Keynoie Address
(Tert OF Kev Address on Page A-lJ

(Tert OF Kerr Address on Page A-l.)
By Staff Correspondent Of tn. star.
CHICAGO, July 20.-The
fourth-term Democrats laid
their 1914 campaign strategy on
the line today, and it amounted
to this:
If, as Thomas E. Dewey, Repub-
lican presidential candidate says,
President Roosevelt and his New
Deal colleagues are tired old men, -
so are Prime Minister Churchill,
Premier Stain and Generalissimo
Chang Kai-shek. ~
The 42-year-old Dewey raised the
age issue when he was nominated.
1t was tossed back at him last night
by Gov. Robert S. Kerr of Okla
homa. Democratic keynoter. to
cheering thousands in the Chicago
Auditorium, as he predicted that
President Roosevelt, our great
Commander in Chief will defeat
the Herbert Hoover selected" Gov.
Dewey in November.
Gov. Kerr, temporary chairman
OF the convention, stressed the
Commander in Chief note in his
address. declaring that Mr.. Roose-
velt was needed not only Tor the
successful prosecution of the war
but for successful peace.
Gov. Kerr depicted his party under
President Roosevelt as the party Of
achievement: the Republicans as
exemplifIed by Gov. Dewey as un-
tested with no program except to
oppose"
Deplores Stumbling" of Willkie. :
AS he pinned a Hoover label on
Gov. Dewey. he also -deplored the
'snubbing and sidetracking" of
Wendell L. Willkie by the Republi-
cans-their presidential candidate
of 1910 who failed to be renomi-
mated. He insisted that the Republi-
can old guard was again in the
saddle. He warned that a Republic
can victory would bring with it in
dation and another depression.
The American people will have to
determine whether they will rely
upon the tried" Roosevelt or the
"untried" Dewey, not only to carry
on the war but also to sit at the
peace table after victory, he said.
But it was Gov Dewey's accept
ance-speech criticism of the Roose-
welt leaders as tired, quarrelsome
old men" that provoked Gov. Kerr's
n1Oct vionro,lS roh1,ffo1
Suppose Gov. Dewey were Presi-
dent and not Mr.. Roosevelt. he said
What would Churchill and Stain
and the Generalissimo and the
other Allied leaders think and do
when they learned he looked on
them as just a group of tired old
men," Gov. Kerr demanded.
Quotes Churchill.
The keynoter said that Mr..
Churchill, when he was about as old
as Gov. Dewey, permitted an inn
petuous urge to lead him into the
tragedy of Gallipoli."
But how different he acted at S."
continued Gov. Kerr. After Dun
kerque. he stood before the House
Of Commons. LiSten-are these the
words of a tired old man? We
shall not flag nor fail. We shall
fight in France and on the seas and
oceans. We shall defend our island,
whatever the cost may be. We shall
fight on the beaches, landing
grounds, in the fields, in the streets
and on the hills We shall never
surrender
Look at Stalingrad. Whose figure
looms amid its defenders? Mr..
Dewey would have discarded him
nearly three years ago when he was
81, as tired old man. But Russia
is smarter than that"
Gov. Kerr cited the ages of
Americas S famous military and naval
leaders today. asking if they should
be discarded because they are tired
old men"-Admiral Nimitz, SO: Ad-
miral Halsey, 81: Gen. Macarthur,
"a; Admiral King, Sc, and Gen
Marshall, 81.
mo. Mr.. Dewey" Gov. Kerr con-
tinued, I'VE know we are winning
this war with these tired old men
including the 62-year-old Roosevelt
as their commander in chief.
Declaring that the Americans are