Rambling Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
SAN FRANCISCO – To the people of San Francisco the blackout is variously frightening, grim, exciting or a nuisance. To me it is something warm and tingling, as from an old book of good memories.
All last winter I lived in the darkness of England. I didn’t mind it – in fact, I liked it. But in no stretch of the imagination did I ever then picture myself walking the streets of one of our own American cities in aboriginal darkness – blindfolded by Nature and learning again to move by the outstretched feeling tips of my toes. But here it is.
We were at the home of friends in the Pacific Heights section when the sirens sounded for my first American blackout. It was early in the evening. We had not yet eaten. San Francisco had had several previous blackouts, but people still were only learning what to do and how to act under peril.
We turned our electric switches and then watched from the window as the light of this lovely, hilly city gradually – and it seemed so awfully reluctantly – went out. Then we threw a pitcher of water on the burning fireplace, got our shielded flashlights, and went outdoors to let the night take us in. We felt our way up into a little park, from where we could look down over the city. All around us there was nothing now but Nature’s own night.
City is serious now
I had never before seen on this certain hill from where we watched. I kept complaining and asking if we couldn’t get to a higher place, where we could look down on the city. And my friends assured me that we WERE looking down on the city. It was incredible.
In the darkness of the grassy park, we bumped into a man with a dog. The dog kept rubbing against my knee, and I reached down and petted it.
“What kind is it?” I asked, for I couldn’t see the dog I was petting. “A young Airdale,” he said. And then he said something that really described the spirit of San Francisco that night. He said:
“I ran up here right after the first alarm. There were still lights all over town. And all over town I could hear people shouting ‘Turn out those lights!’ Hundreds of voices in every direction were shouting it. It was like an angry growl washing over the city.”
And so it was. We heard that angry growl all through the hours that we walked the streets. San Francisco is serious now. The people aren’t making-believe any more.
The greatest difference between San Francisco and Londen in blackout is that all traffic stops here. Only police cars and ambulances, with lights out, dare move. The streets might be dusty remnants of a city dead and uninhabited for a hundred years.
Another difference is that in London there is some faint light on the streets, while here there is none. Over there autos move with one very dim and hooded headlight. Vague little oases of light tinge the street corners, from heavily hooded street lights.
Of course the London blackout is permanent, from dusk till dawn. But here, and in other coast cities, the blackout goes on only during the actual danger periods of the alert.
San Franciscans still have much to learn in the ways and habits of the blackout, I was amused at the fervor of some of the citizens. One of our party made a tent of his coat and lit a cigarette. And several times, as we walked along, people angrily told him to put it out.
Eat in the darkness
Actually, it’s all right to carry a cigarette. In London you dare not light one on the street. But if you light it inside, and then go out, it’s even advisable to carry a cigarette. Its glowing end serves as a tiny torch and keeps people from running into you. And a burning cigarette end cannot be seen from a plane.
To my chagrin, these neophyte San Franciscans seemed to get about in the dark just as well as I did. We walked for an hour and a half, but none of our party stumbled or fell. There were two little girls of 13 with us, and they laughed and enjoyed it all.
When we got home, we experienced one thing that I never knew in England – darkness inside a house. Few people here have had time to put up blackout curtains, so they dare not turn on a light in a room with a window.
So our host, by a dim flashlight, put the fried chicken on the plates and put the plates into the laps of each individual guest. Such fritter things as salad, vegetables, knives and forks were left in the kitchen.
We all ate with our hands. We couldn’t even see the chicken – just had to feel what piece it was and then hunt where to bite. It was swell. Made us feel vital or something.
I think London would have been proud of San Francisco in its blackout. I know I was.
Fair Enough
By Westbrook Pegler
NEW YORK – Soldiers have been detailed to the duty of patrolling the New York waterfront and guarding against sabotage.
These men should be able to prevent sabotage in its cruder forms, but they cannot interfere in the slightest degree with the unimaginably corrupt operations of certain vicious unioneers and degraded politicians of the New York Tammany and Jersey City Hague organizations.
The unions concerned are the longshoremen, the hod-carriers and the construction engineers which are bound together by the ties of crooked politics but are bossed from the top by a thug who holds no union office at all but rules by terror and raw animal brutality. He is an old political intimate of Al Smith and Frank Hague and is well remembered by prize-fight writers, managers and promoters as the scoundrel who shook down Tex Rickard for $80,000 in connection with the Dempsey-Firpo fight at the Polo Grounds. He occupied an official political position at the time which fact enabled him to intimidate Rickard with a threat to prevent the fight.
Rickard never got his $80,000 back
When Al Smith, who was governor then, heard of the shakedown, he ordered the money returned to Rickard. Rickard never got his $80,000 back, but a crooked municipal judge who was connected with the promotion got part of it and the rest vanished, presumably into the treasury of Tammany Hall and the private fortunes of various politicians less honest than Smith.
The poor, brow-beaten longshoremen along the docks are absolutely helpless under the system which generally approximates that which existed on the Pacific Coast until Harry Brides stole the slaves from the crooked saloon-keepers and thieving unioneers, and delivered them over to the Communist Party. They are shaken down for part of their pay chiseled by usurers and, in one variation of the remorseless system of extortion, all longies in a certain jurisdiction are compelled to buy a bottle of rotgut each week from a union boss who runs a liquor store and charges them Park Avenue prices.
A Catholic priest who has been trying to help some of the men on the waterfront has been unable to make any headway as yet, although most of the crooks on top of the racket are Catholics of the type known as candle-burners, which is to say they perform all the outward signs of Catholic piety but live the life of wolves.
They are at their worst in Jersey City where the corruption of government has so depressed the physical condition of the people and the community that Hague, himself, for several years hasn’t even pretended to live there except for voting purposes. However, they are almost as bad on the west side of New York in the region where Gene Tunney grew up and where his father was a stevedore.
The Hudson River is no demarcation because the crooks are equally at home along both shores and Staten Island and Perth Amboy are equally plagued by these criminals whose operations also include some of the teamsters and the trucking business.
Fay scared, tries to make character
The union of Joe Fay, the brutal, drunken thug who slugged David Dubinsky at the New Orleans convention of the AFL last year for suggesting that racketeers be thrown out of union leadership, is involved in the situation.
Fay, incidentally, is now under indictment in Syracuse for a cowardly assault on another union official who was severely injured and he is now badly scared for the first time in his long career as a union racketeer. He could get five years in prison if convicted, so he has gathered a whole crowd of high-priced lawyers and is trying to make character by explaining matters in the papers.
Fay broke a precedent recently by requesting The Newark News to send a reporter to hear his side of the case, whereas in the past he had always ignored public opinion.
The priest referred to is very sad because he feels that the mess must be cleaned up, but realizes that the worst of the crooks are candle burners and that their Irish names and church connections will cause scandal. He also realizes that, as on the West Coast, the New York victims of the crooks will not object to the leadership of a Communist if, like Bridges, he will pretend to fight for his men and protect them from systematic robbery.
This is just an overture to the piece and I will give particulars from time to time. The racket is incredibly big and foul and the most evil crook of the whole system is the political skullbuster who tried to swipe the $80,000 from Rickard and whose name will be on the tip of Al Smith’s tongue as he reads this.
Clapper: Allied compact
By Raymond Clapper
WASHINGTON – For obvious reasons officials do not wish to discuss at this time what is being done toward an Allied compact for joint management of the war and for restoration of a free world after the victory.
Except to say that discussions are going on, President Roosevelt remains silent. High officials in London have indicated that important announcements may be expected soon.
The most logical and practical move would spring from the Atlantic Charter itself. This was drawn up on the high seas by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill last August, before the United States went to war.
As they said at the time, they were stating the principles common to the two countries on which they based their hopes for a better future of the world. This document related to the post-war world, but in point six, the final destruction of Nazi tyranny was recognized as a necessary preliminary.
Joint conduct of war required
Now that the United States has entered the war, the two governments are in a position to transform that charter, or statement of principles, into a compact with which others like Russia, China, the Latin American nations and the governments in exile could affiliate. Thus would be set up the core of a new free world, bound together not only for victory but to win the peace afterward.
Such a program requires, first, joint conduct of the war. This could operate through an inter-Allied war council on the military side. With it would go joint economic measures, and pooling of shipping, plus fluid financial and maternal assistance already operating through the lend-lease policy. The need for joint conduct of these activities is recognized everywhere as the only means of effectively using Allied resources over the literally world-wide front of the war.
In the second phase, the program requires preparations now for managing the victory. President Roosevelt has just called on all state governments to begin preparation of programs of public works to cushion post-war unemployment. Similar forehandedness is necessary among the Allied nations, with commitments now to participate, so that social and political upheavals may be less severe.
The principles which will govern were outlined in the Atlantic Charter. Roosevelt and Churchill stated their common principles as opposition to aggrandizement by any country, or territorial changes not freely accepted by the peoples concerned; respect for the right of peoples to choose their own form of government; free access by all countries on equal terms to trade and raw materials; international collaboration to improve labor standards, economic advancement and social security; free use of the oceans by all; disarmament of aggressor nations until a wider and more permanent system of general security has been developed.
Charter built around trade policy
This charter was built around the core of our own international trade policy as outlined by Secretary Hull a few weeks earlier, on May 18. In a broadcast, Secretary Hull said the post-war program must not permit discrimination in commercial relations between nations. Raw materials must be available to all nations without discrimination, and international agreements regulating the supply of commodities must be so handled as to protect consuming countries – a provision directed principally at the British and Dutch monopolies of tin and rubber in the Far East.
Mr. Hull also insisted that international finance must be set up to give aid to essential enterprises and continuous development of all countries, and to permit payment through trade consonant with the welfare of all countries. He insisted also that measures taken to give effect to these principles must be freely open to every nation willing to co-operate in maintaining peace.
These are the foundations for the more binding measures which must be taken soon and which will broaden the Atlantic Charter into a compact for winning and holding Allied victory.
Maj. Williams: Our first lesson
By Maj. Al Williams
We Americans must remember that we are not a lot of irresponsible bleacherites free to yell anything we please. Our country is at war, grim war. Somewhere in the Pacific American men are fighting for their lives and for us. Irresponsible rumor-mongering is, first, a most vile attempt to advertise one’s omniscience; second, it is aid to the enemy. By no means does this necessary censorship or personal self-restraint from loose gossip imply that criticism must end.
Criticism is the alarm clock of progress. Still or ignore its challenge and you may slumber complacently to disaster. Good, healthy criticism brings its own reward. Bad criticism destroys itself. Every citizen is sacredly bound to conceal information of value to the enemy. But, likewise, his duty to speak his mind and constructively criticize the management of government and of this war is just as sacred. The freedom to speak one’s mind, with honest intent, is one of the chief reasons why we are fighting this war.
The British won the last war because they never suppressed the free expression of what citizens thought of the war’s management. Lloyd George himself, the man who saved England’s food lines on the seas, cleaved a stultified cabinet wide open with his criticism in order to get the job done right. The British are doing the same thing in this war. And we are going to imitate the British in our own American way when we think the war is being mismanaged and supply suggestions for the winning of the war. Mealy-mouthed sentiment cloaked in dumb silence is, to my way of thinking, the cultivation of spinelessness equivalent to aiding the enemy.
Pearl Harbor nettles citizens
Of course, we are all burning with the news of the Jap bombing of our greatest Naval Base in the Pacific, Pearl Harbor and its air fields, and also Wake Island, Guam, and the Philippines. But the Pearl Harbor bombing sticks in our American craw. How under the sun could the Japs have surprised and pierced the patrol and scouting system of our entire Pacific Fleet? Likewise, how could they do the same thing to our Air Corps detachment in Hawaii and the Philippines? Where was the United States Fleet? These are the questions that are most naturally hurled at me from all sides.
I don’t know the answer, and I refuse to conjecture or guess until I do know.
Whatever the reason why the Japs got away with this surprise, we had better get busy and make whatever readjustments and corrections may be necessary to prevent duplication. That’s a constructive move that will take steel-hard constructive criticism – the stuff that it takes to win any war.
Airpower proves its supremacy
British admirals told the world that the disastrous defeat of their fleet by German airpower was the greatest naval victory for the British Fleet since the Battle of Jutland. And remember also that that Skagerrak “Victory for the Fleet” was immediately responsible for American admirals racing to Congress and using this unfounded victory report as a basic reason for Congress instantly approving greater appropriations for more and still larger battleships.
Airpower has revealed itself within the last few days as never before – despite the startling lessons it had previously taught. Warships have their place – but, compared to them, airpower has proved its supremacy.
‘Kathleen’ at Stanley stars Shirley Temple
Youngster ends ‘retirement’ and proves she’s ready for long career; Jan Savitt’s orchestra swings the classics
By Dick Fortune
Shirley Temple has returned to the screen! That’s good news for movie fans because the talented youngster has what it takes to carve out a movie career and shouldn’t worry about the bugaboo of “old age.” The young lady who retired at the ripe old age of 10 is back after two years lay-off and shouldn’t need any further “retirements.” She can act.
However, the vehicle which is employed to bring her back to the movie fans isn’t anywhere near as good as Miss Temple. It’s “Kathleen” and it’s the Stanley screen feature for the pre-Christmas program .
Shirley is “Kathleen,” a little motherless rich girl whose only companion is a domineering and snoopy nurse. Her father is busy at his office and with social affairs and the little girl’s only respite from a sad life is her keen imagination which enables her to picture much happier things.
Her father is infatuated with a scheming woman and Kathleen is afraid he’ll marry her. Then a new companion replaces her nurse. The newcomer is a doctor of child psychology and a pretty girl too. Kathleen decided the doctor should be her step-mother and the play then moves along to bring her wishes to a successful conclusion.
The script, as anyone can see, is not new. In fact, it has been done many, many times. But Shirley moves right along regardless of the handicaps and proves that she’s ready for better parts. The work of her supporting cast also is superior to the demands of their roles and it seems an unforgivable waste of talent to cast such dependable stars as Felix Bressart, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall and Gail Patrick along with Shirley in such a weak play.
The highlight of the Stanley stage show is the music of Jan Savitt’s Orchestra. Jan and his boys give class to swing arrangements and one doesn’t consider it sacrilegious even when the boys put such classics as “Carmen” and Rachmannioff’s “Prelude” into swing tempo.
Ruth Robin, a Pittsburgher, and the well-known Bon Bon take care of the vocal assignments very capably and the musical portion of the program makes nice listening. The dance trio, DeVal, Merle & Lee, present a satire on adagio dancing which has just the right proportion of comedy mixed into a difficult routine. There’s fun inserted into an excellent adagio act.
In the closing spot the show has Martha Raye, who has been starred on the stage, screen and radio. To this reviewer, Miss Raye always has seemed to have talents which she doesn’t use. Instead, she seems content to rest her arguments for a career on a large mouth, some songs shouted into a microphone and crazy antics. Her act is practically the same, line for line, as she used at the Stanley two years ago and last year. If she would forget this hokum and really try to be entertaining, she would be much more fun.
Hollywood has competitor as Latins make own films
South American producers draw on West Coast talent in making movies
By Charles R. Moore
HOLLYWOOD – Newest competition in the production of movies comes not from New York or Florida, which would like some of the business, nor from Europe, pretty well closed down for the duration, but from South America.
This word comes from B. L. Schulberg, veteran Hollywood producer and one of the best-informed persons on conditions in the industry here and abroad.
The South American producers, he said, are even drawing considerable technical talent from Hollywood in order to make their own movies.
Schulberg, now producing “Bedtime Story” for Columbia, said that although he expected it would be a long time before South American movie makers could match the best Hollywood product, they would be able to cut out a large part of the Latin-American and Spanish business.
One factor in the growing importance of South American production has been the inability of Hollywood to turn out films acceptable to the Latin Americans. When Hollywood has tried to turn out something specifically for the South American trade, its efforts have been poorly received. Many of the films succeeded only in offending.
Argentina, Schulberg said, has made the most progress thus far among Latin-American nations producing their own movies.
It will be some time, the producer said, before the South Americans can develop a large number of film specialists, such as writers, to compete with those here.
Writing, Schulberg commented, has improved more than any other phase of film production. He referred to writing directly for the screen, either original stories or adaptation of already published material.
Hewlett: New invading horde lands at Philippine danger spot
Jap troops reach Davao ‘in force,’ Army communique reports; heavy fighting in progress; Nichols Airfield bombed again
By Frank Hewlett, United Press staff writer
MANILA (UP) – An Army communique reported today that Japanese troops had landed in force at Davao, acute danger spot of the Philippines, and that heavy fighting was in progress.
No details were available immediately on the numbers involved or the positions of the defense forces.
News of the new threat to the United States and Philippine forces came in the following communique: “It has been reliably reported that the Japanese have landed in force at Davao and that heavy fighting has been going on all morning.”
A late communique said that fighting continued at Davao and announced a “light” bombing the Army’s Nichols Air Field here at mid-day.
German-controlled Radio Paris, heard by the Exchange Telegraph in London, reported that the Japanese were meeting strong resistance.
An earlier communique had reported intensified patrol activity in the three other invasion zones – Vigan, in Western Luzon Island; Aparri, in Northern Luzon, and Legaspi, in Southern Luzon.
They want the bay
In striking at Davao, the Japanese had finally started an expected attempt to seize Davao Bay which could be used as a naval base for big-scale operations.
Davao, at the southern end of Mindanao Island, is 900 miles from Manila. For many years it had been apparent that the Japanese had selected it as the base for a future attack on the Philippines. There has been a large Japanese colony there for years.
Arrest 18,000 Japs in province
Within 48 hours of the Japanese attack on the United States, Philippines constabulary men had rounded up approximately 25,000 Japanese in the islands, and of these 18,000 had been arrested in Davao Province.
How many Japanese remained at large in hiding, possible Fifth Columnists, was not known.
Davao was among the first Philippines objective hit by the Japanese. There was an attack by 24 planes the morning of December 6 and another at dusk the same day. Ensign Robert J. Tills, USN, one of the first casualties, was killed in the defense as Navy aviators battled the raiders.
Expect big Jap drive
Of the 25 million dollars Japanese capital invested in Philippines real estate, most is concentrated in Davao Province, which is rich and fertile, and in Davao City which has an estimated population of 95,500. In 1918, Davao had only 13,300 people of whom 2,874 were Japanese.
There was nothing as yet to show whether the reported landing at Davao meant that the Japanese were now prepared for their full-scale attack on the Philippines.
Lack of determination in the Japanese attacks on Luzon had convinced experts here that the enemy was engaged in preliminary maneuvers, preparatory to a big offensive possibly to be deferred until the fall of Hongkong and Singapore.
Manila had an air raid alarm period of 69 minutes.
Poison gas raid peril stressed
Civilians in coastal areas to receive masks as safeguard
WASHINGTON (UP) – A grim warning that in an all-out war gas may be used against the civilian population was contained today in the announcement that gas masks may be available for those living in coastal areas by late 1942 or early 1943.
A joint plan being worked out by the Office of Civilian Defense and the Army would provide babies with tiny masks; children of two or three with “Mickey Mouse” masks: children from three to 12 with “small children’s masks;” adults – mostly women – who have small faces with “small adults” masks, and others with “universal adults” masks.
To order 50 million
Director Fiorello H. LaGuardia of the Office of Civilian Defense disclosed that an “initial” order for 50 million masks will be placed by the government if Congress approves a request for a $190 million appropriation the Budget Bureau is expected to ask for soon.
The masks would cost about $3.75 each and would be available without cost to civilians living within 200 miles of the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts.
Mr. LaGuardia said fate of the plan now rests solely with the Army but indicated that the OCD has received sufficient assurances “to proceed with this project.”
Situation changed
While cities still do not have adequate firefighting equipment, insignia and steel helmets for air raid wardens and other groups, Mr. LaGuardia said the situation throughout the United States changed overnight after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Apathy has vanished, he said.
Commenting on his recent West Coast trip to speed up civilian defense preparations, Mr. LaGuardia said that most armament factories remain at work during blackouts. To stop work, he added, “is to play directly into the enemy’s hands.”
He explained that during air raid alarms “everything must stop;” during blackouts, civilians must train themselves to continue their normal activities.
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Don’t question air raid alarms as they are always given at the command of the Army.
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General rules issued from OCD headquarters must be modified to meet local conditions. Warnings given in some areas are inadequate in others.
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Everyone must give unqualified support to the OCD program to prevent panic “which is our greatest enemy.”
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Air raid wardens must be trained every day or night to make them familiar with actual alarms.
Adm. Yarnell sees long war with Japs
SAN FRANCISCO (UP) – Rear Adm. Harry E. Yarnell (ret.), former commander of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, today warned that the United States faces “a long, hard war” and said the Japanese have a good navy, army, “and as we found out, a good air force.”
Adm. Yarnell said the Japanese Navy shoots as well as any navy and warned the fall of Singapore, if it comes, will be a serious blow to the Allies. He said it is his personal belief Saburo Kurusu, Japanese envoy extraordinary, and Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura negotiated in Washington in good faith and the Japanese government acted behind their backs.
He indicated he did not think Mr. Kurusu and Mr. Nomura were aware their country was planning to attack in the Pacific.