The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-10-27
LltlIs Bu. TOo Wild. Mr. Dswsy

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 Of all wild charges made by Governor Dewey the one that showed perhaps the greatest disregard for truth, logic, or even probability, is that in which ne blamed President Roosevelt for the un- preparedness of the country when the Pearl Harbor sneak attack was made. For four years Roosevelt had been urging the passage of measures to make us ready for war If war came. He hoped like all other Americans that war could be avoided, but If war came he wanted to have our de- lenses in shape.
 He met with the almost unanimous opposition of the Republican members of the Senate and the House. There are miles of type in the Congressional Record devoted to the speeches on the floor; to Interruptions, hampering amendments, and plain filibuSterlng, to enabarraSS, hinder or defeat the bills that provided for the necessities of the situation. Had 1t not been for these tactics we would have been a year or perhaps two years advanced in preparedness than we were.
 Mir. Dewey must be aware of these facts If he paid the slightest attention to the circumstances and episodes he Is now essaying to discuss. Tn his Oklahoma City speech the Republican nominee blamed the loss of countless" American lives upon the President for what he called the Presidents sad record falling to prepare the defenseS of this country for war" Governor Dewey carefully Ignored the record of those who are now hiS sponsors and advocates and, Of course, said nothing of their responsibility for the delays they caused in getting an Army adequate to meet the onslaught or the Ia aVa a AanAhIl of conducting battle In the Atlantic ana Pacific Q. the same time.
 While the President was urging the speedy and sufficient bringing of our military and naval establishments up to the required strength; when he was in- sisting on the measures by which we got arms and combat machines and other supplies to the allied powers that would enable them to hold back their enemies, who were our prospective enemies, the IsolatloniSt group was doing all 1t could in the opposite direction. They argued, and the record Is full of their statements, that there was no likelihood of war, that neither Germany nor Japan had the in- tention or the ability to attack us. They described as rubber stamps" the Sena- tors and Representatives who voted for the Presidents recommendations. The measures they hampered in every way they could. On the preparedness meas ures they could not defeat, they made the process of enactment aS long and dif- ficult as possible,
 The only comparable contention of MT, Dewey with his preparedness absurdity Is his effort to rechristen the Hoover panic as the Roosevelt Depression, accusing the President of having pro. longed the economic catastrophy for Il years. He does this by ignoring the cir' cumstance that the years that have elapsed since the American people dis carded Herbert Hoover have been uni- fornly prosperous; that business which was at diSmayed standstill after three years of Hoover's bewildered inactivity, has functioned with noted success; that the mills which had shut down are run hing to full capacity, and that the people generally are better off than at any time In the nations history It Is not that the war has brought on all this activity be- cause the steady rise was apparent before we got into the war. All of these things are of course known to the Republican candidate, but still he continues to talk of economic failure under Franklin D. Roosevelt.