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But the newsmen noted his merits, too. His radio voice is good, and getting better; he had learned much (including such politically important facts as that a candidate never wears a topcoat in California, no matter how chill). He was no amateur; he listened effectively to local complaints. He might not be convivial and gay, but he had a basic, if somewhat stiff, decency and kindness. After the train crashed in Oregon, even the most black-hearted New Deal newsmen threw their hats in the air as they watched Tom Dewey walk through the wreckage, inquire of everyone's injuries, order medical aid instanter.
Merits and demerits aside, and entirely apart from his Oklahoma City answer to Franklin Roosevelt's jabs (see above), Tom Dewey still faces his severest test. With six weeks to go before election, he has to get down to cases.
Last week ex-New Dealer Raymond Moley, a sympathetic Dewey critic, wrote: "He [Dewey] has stated his preference for an economic life more free of restrictions than that which the New Deal has provided. But he has not sufficiently dramatized the conditions that make such a free life attractive to the average American. Nor has he clearly differentiated the way of life which he sees from that which has been created under three terms of Mr. Roosevelt. Somehow, the case against the New Deal has not yet been made."
*Biggest: Franklin Roosevelt's 1936 acceptance speech at Franklin Field in Philiadelphia, heard by 105,000.