The Men Behind Dewey
SPIVACK, ROBERT G.
The Men Behind Dewey By Robert G. Spivack in IT was not more than a year ago that some of Governor Dewey's close advisors cautioned him against too many visits to the...
...O VER the past three years there is eTidenee that a Military caste haa been arising in Russia...
...revival of Cxarist army traditions and heroes, such as the glorification of Prince Nevsky, General Suvorov and General Kutusov...
...When the school started enrollment, it had 14.000 applicants, and since then hundreds of letters sre received daily from children—eager, pathetic little letters,—but there simply isn't any room...
...Russia's New Military Caste...
...They also have dress uniforms with gold braided collars, : snd an entirely different set of uniforsss for summer wear...
...Stevens' report reveals that the young boys received in the Suvorov schools are given special training and extra food, actions which obviously tend to reinforce the building of a new caste...
...There are a host of other "friends" Dewey has cultivated in financial circles, not the least of whom is Winthrop Aldrich, president of the Chase National Bank...
...Instead of Hoover arranging introductions for Dewey -to the important financial and philosophical leaders of the party—introductions, it might be added, which were largely responsible for the high esteem in which the Party's right-wing now holds Dewey—the earnest young governor tries to figure out by himself just what Mr...
...There are snch simple evidences as Stalin's assuming the title of Marshal, the reintroduction of the brightlycolored uniforms with epaulettes and decorations, and the...
...Keller is responsible for the boasting about the state's $163,000,000 surplus...
...There are also Elliott V. Bell, formerly one of the New York Times financial editors, and Paul E. Lock wood, once a Brooklyn Eagle sports writer but now a masterful politician...
...Then there is Ernest Weir, the well-known steel magnate who has always played an important role in Republican financial undertakings...
...AH these men are high in Dewey's esteem...
...This will be the most important party fund raising drive on the East coast, and the Hoover influence will be felt mightily in all quarters...
...The report deals with the Suvorov military schools, named after the Czarist general who fought Napoleon in 1812...
...Hope himself has been closely associated with Hoover...
...Everything, in fact, patterned on grown-up Red Army officer's uniform...
...Dewey has around him some of the brightest young publicity men in the country...
...Heading the finance committee Is Walter E. Hope, former assistant secretary of the treasury, under the late Andrew Mellon...
...One el the most noteworthy featurea of the 'Suvorov Military Schools' established taat December to train Red Army leaders of the future is the disciplinary system...
...A LL in all it seems certain that the Dewey campaign will not be at a loss for funds when the electioneering begins in earnest...
...He gives the governor full tnm for it to the point where it has made Dewey thoroughly acceptable in all "sound" business circles...
...They are all fine young men...
...In addition the pupils get four very square meals a day with an individual food ration that is eveu bigger than that of adult workers, and includes 200 grams of meat, and 50 grams of butter daily...
...Whitney on the young governor's doings...
...If you pin them right down to it they will tell you that Franklin D. Roosevelt is « radical...
...This is only the pupils' everyday attire...
...Best known of these is 33-year-old James C. Hagerty, former reporter for the New York Times and son of the distinguished James A. Hagerty, still of the Times...
...Here is what Correspondent Stevens reported, in part, from Moscow • "Practically every little Russian boy of school age would enroll in a Suvorov school if given the chsnce, I *nd P»rents would like nothing better...
...Behind the scenes there is Harold Keller a-former Hearst political reporter, now k charge of publicizing New York State in outof-state periodicals...
...In addition to Mr...
...This isn't surprising if one considers that besides, the honor that ! attaches to being a Suvorovite the pupils wear brilliant uniforms—a blue tunic with red epaulettes, blue i trousers with a red stripe down the sides, blue raps with red bands and black leather visors, blue great| coats to match...
...A more startling indication of the Russian trend is the end of co-education and the introduction of military schools for pre-adolesrent children...
...Besides these respectable gentlemen there is Joseph Pew, the Pennsylvania financial baron and oil king...
...Although the student body is predominsntly Russian—80 per cent—12 other Soviet nationalities sre also represented...
...Dewey and Whitney have not had any recent meetings, but their mutual friend Alfred P. Sloan, head of General Motors, has reported to Mr...
...Effort ia being made to steep the pupil from the outset in the traditions of the grest military heroes of Russian history...
...Obliging and personable, Hagerty la the one Dewey man who is "tops" in the opinion of the work, ing press...
...But none ranks higher than Charles D. Breitel, his legal counsel...
...But Dewey is not one to become indiscret...
...Aldrich is treasurer of the revived United Republican Finance Committee, which has spacious offices* at 295 Madison Avenue in New York, which is not a loft building...
...Dewey is broadening out these days...
...For failure to obey orders, the young cadets, who range in ages from 8 to 14, receive reprimands of varying degree of severity, culminating with the removal of the epaulettes from their amart, military uniforms, which is the last measure before expulsion...
...and other noted warriors and defenders ef their nstive soil...
...But if anything gets too tangled up, the door at the Waldorf towers is always open...
...They have seen a lot of each other...
...Hoover, he cultivated a number of other important GOP backers, who it can be expected will put huge sums of money at his disposal when the campaign gets under way...
...Hoover's attitude on a given question might be...
...If anything it has grown stronger...
...Probably more than anyone else Hagerty deserves credit for making newspapermen keep their personal opinions of Dewey out of their copy...
...So they hsvs printed standard replies to that effect which are mailed out to would-be applicants...
...They are immersed in Hooverism...
...General Alexander Suvorov, who crowned a lifetime of distinguished military service under Empress Catherine by leading the Russian and Austrian allied armies against Napoleon in Northern Italy in a brilliant campsign, the rooms and halls of the school building sre decorated with the likenesses of Alexander Nevsky, General Kutzov, Prince Dimitri Donskoi...
...Whitney has been terribly well impressed...
...Aldrich is brother-in-law of John D. Rockefeller Jr...
...and it's a safe bet that funds from both these sources will be poured into the Dewey coffers...
...Sharp-witted, cunning and well-versed in legal fundamentals Breitel is largely responsible for what legislative program Dewey has had during his seventeen months in the executive office...
...Of course, there is Sloan himself...
...Sloan has been extremely active in Dewey's behalf, although he won't talk about it...
...More often than not their views coincide...
...This Thomas-Pew agent is frequently about when the important speeches are being written and it is said he has some influence...
...Nor will there be any dearth of brains...
...The bond between the two men has grown firmer since then...
...That is not to say, however, that the Hoover influence has waned...
...During the 1940 convention when Hoover was finally convinced that he could never again be nominated by the Republican Party he threw his weight in Dewey's direction...
...They both have farms at Pawling, N. Y. Besides that affinity Thomas had a special representative assigned to cover Dewey at Albany at the beginning of this year and for all I know he may still be around...
...The Men Behind Dewey By Robert G. Spivack in IT was not more than a year ago that some of Governor Dewey's close advisors cautioned him against too many visits to the Waldorf-Astoria apartment of ex-President » Herbert Hoover...
...First of these is George P. Whitney, successor to J. P. Morgan as head of the firm by the same name...
...This play was hailed by Prmvdm and ran for a long while in Moscow...
...Pew's man Friday, Lowell Thomas, is a close friend of Dewey's as well as a neighbor...
...Front, which severely csatigated the old Bolshevik army leaders and praised the younger, technical officers...
...Formerly associated with Dewey in the special rackets investigation, Breitel later joined Dewey in private law practice...
...Since he has become Governor he has had to stand pretty much on his own feet and unless I am badly informed he does not go running to Hoovei any longer for advice on every important issue that comes up...
...Besides the school's patron...
...One of the first reports on such schools was written last week by Edmund Stevens, the Moscow correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor...
...The committee is just getting started on its regular drive for funds and it is expected to raise the three million dollars allowed by the Hatch Act...
...Former Gov...
...Nowadays it is expressed in different ways...
...I" coming months the school will have its own dairy farm and then daily a half-litre of milk will be added to the diet...
...Lehman, of course, left half of it, but that is conveniently forgotten...
...As is wellknown Dewey holds Hoover in high esteem...
...Another sort of revealing evidence is the popularity in Moscow and the praise accorded Alexander Kornechiuk'g play...
...But they lack the fire, imagination, boldness and social vision that are usually associated with youthfulness...
...It's more a case today of the pupil knowing what the Master has in mind...
Vol. 27 • May 1944 • No. 21
