"America Is Winning"

Up rose John J. ("Silent John") Bennett Jr., Attorney General of New York State, to make his first majrar political speech in the dingdong struggle over the Democratic nomination for the Governorship of New York. James Aloysius Farley had kept his man Bennett quiet and withdrawn from the battlefield. This stratagem had two advantages: 1) it kept Silent John from making any mistakes; 2) it left Big Jim free to smite hip & thigh the candidacy of Senator James M. Mead, the man of Franklin Roosevelt.

Last week Big Jim carefully unveiled Silent John as the set piece of the opening session of the American Legion's State convention. Said John Bennett:

"America is winning. America is fighting mad. American labor, American farmers, American industry, all are geared to war production, all are determined to get the job done. The production lines are producing more planes, the munitions plants more armament, the shipbuilders more ships, the farms more food. . . . We are not letting our fighting men down."

The "miraculous" national unity which brought this to pass is, said John Bennett, no accident: "History will reveal that it is the result of an inspiration springing from a man of destiny. The source of this inspiration, undeterred by terrific responsibilities imposed by the vastness of the holocaust, is in the heart and mind and genius of the President of these United States, our redoubtable Commander in Chief, Franklin D. Roosevelt."

Candidate Bennett then turned to U.S. heroism :

"The same red blood that coursed the veins of the men who beat the flower of the German Army at Belleau Wood, St. Mihiel and the Argonne, and broke the Hindenburg Line, flows swiftly, too, through the veins of the heroes of the glorious victories of the Coral Sea and Midway."

And the candidate concluded on a high post-war note:

"I believe that after this war we will see a tremendous revival of faith in God. With this as the basis, the future peace treaties will insure a humane and liberal world, where man will live in good will with his neighbor, not merely because of some human document created and signed by men, but because in his heart and soul he will remember and practice in his everyday life the Ten Commandments which God gave Moses on Mount Sinai."

Next day Big Jim Farley, his genial, pink face solemn with the importance of the moment, called the press in to bear witness to a prophecy not lightly made:

"For over twelve years I have been associated with the Democratic State Committee and for nearly eight years with the Democratic National Committee. During all those years and through many campaigns, I made many prophecies, all in good faith, and I think I may say in a modest way that my prophecies were all confirmed by the results.

"I never made a prophecy more sincere during all these years than the one I am making today--that is that Attorney General John J. Bennett Jr. of Brooklyn will be nominated in Brooklyn next week and will be elected Governor in the election next November."

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