On the Verge of Victory in World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt States That He Is “fighting for those policies which…I believe are in the nation’s best interest”

Looking to the future, FDR believes that “America will achieve that essential unity.”

The 1944 election was the 40th presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 7, 1944. The election took place during World War II, which ended the following year. In it, Incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican Thomas E. Dewey to win an unprecedented fourth term. To a degree it was a referendum on Roosevelt’s performance as wartime leader.

PM was a liberal-leaning daily newspaper published in New York City by Ralph Ingersoll from June 1940 to June 1948 and financed by Chicago millionaire Marshall Field III. The editor was John P. Lewis. In the 1944 election, PM endorsed Roosevelt.

The paper borrowed many elements from weekly news magazines, such as many large photos, and at first was bound with staples. In an attempt to be free of pressure from business interests, it did not accept advertising. These departures from the norms of newspaper publishing created excitement in the industry. Some 11,000 people applied for the 150 jobs available when the publication first hired staff. New York Mayor La Guardia joined the staff of PM in December 1945, just months after the war ended.

In the wake of his reelection, FDR wrote PM’s editor to express his gratitude for the newspaper’s support of his effective successful candidacy.

Typed letter signed, on White House letterhead, Washington, November 28, 1944, to editor John P. Lewis, thanking Lewis for his support of FDR’s policies and programs in peace and wartime, praising Lewis for helping foster national unity, and stressing that the future will require Americans to work side by side regardless of party leanings. “In its recent support of my candidacy, and of the war and peace programs of the administration, PM took its place beside a number of other newspapers, some of them old regulars on the side of the Democratic Party, some traditionally Republican, and some, like your own, describing themselves as independent.

“As one of these, PM fought hard and effectively in the campaign. It was fighting for those policies which you and I believe are in the nation’s best interest.

“But it was doing more than that. PM was giving its readers a fine demonstration of our free press functioning at its best. It was pointing the way to a new and stronger national unity which our country must achieve to meet and surmount the problems that lie ahead of us.

“I believe America will achieve that essential unity. I think we have made a fine start – thanks to PM and those newspapers and spokesmen fighting side by side with it regardless of party leanings. Let us keep up the good work together.”

An evocative and very uncommon letter, with FDR looking both to the past and the future, and commenting on the role the press played in his 1944 election victory and would play after the war.