Press.

ROOSEVELT, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945; WILLKIE, Wendell L. (Wendell Lewis), 1892-1944

The article presents the characteristics of the press during months of July, August and September of 1940, which were strongly reminiscent of July, August, and September of 1916. Amongst the similarities it is seen that during both the periods a Democratic President was running for re-election. Fear of being involved in a European war was topmost in the minds of the voters, and the national defense and foreign policies were hotly debated issues of the campaign. Especially there is a striking similarity in the attacks upon the administration in power for "failure to adequately build up the national defense." The National Newspaper Week that began on Monday, September 30 was devoted to making the American public aware of the value of a free press. The U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Wendell L. Willkie, the Republican candidate, wrote National Newspaper Week letters emphasizing the necessity of a free press in upholding democracy, and most of the daily papers in the country published their letters. All of the straight Republican and independent Republican newspapers in the country supported Willkie's candidacy for the Presidency. Less than one-half of the newspapers which described themselves as independent Democratic were supporting Roosevelt.