The Washington Merry-Go-Round
By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen
WASHINGTON – Fiorello LaGuardia may go down in history as the best mayor Little Old New York has had. Also, he is still remembered in the House of Representatives for his far-sighted, peppery statesmanship. But as Administrator of Civilian Defense, the Little Flower has been a flop.
This didn’t matter so much as long as the country was still at peace. But now with blackouts, first-air training and bomb protection a very real thing, civilian defense becomes actually the second line of the Nation’s defense.
Fiorello still continues to want to boss the whole show, still cannot delegate authority, still has vigorous differences with Mrs. Roosevelt, even to the point of reaching into her division and firing two of her aides. This caused sparks to fly and the irate First Lady has now rehired her assistants.
Bandmaster
Fiorello, in the first place, can’t get out of the habit of thinking in terms of the bandmaster or theatrical producer. (His father was an army bandmaster.) He sees uniforms, fire hats, sensational rescues as movie material.
Mrs. Roosevelt, on the other hand, believes that civilian defenders would have smart, expensive uniforms designed by Hattie Carnegie. According to Mrs. Roosevelt’s friends he wanted the defenders to be slim, slender females, smartly costumed, parading down Fifth Ave., saluting him from the reviewing stand.
But Mrs. Roosevelt wanted the civilian defenders to be simple folk who would join for real service and who would wear a costume costing not more than three dollars.
Watch McNutt
One of the great troubles has been that Mr. LaGuardia necessarily has had to spend much of his time in New York, but meanwhile insists on passing on minute details. In fact, his office once had to fly an assistant up to New England to catch the Mayor and get his initials on some page proofs for a civil defense bulletin.
In order to east Mr. LaGuardia to the sidelines, President Roosevelt first offered the job to Wendell Willkie and has since been considering the appointment of a chief executive who would really do the job for the Little Flower. But more recently Mr. Roosevelt’s friends have been urging a complete housecleaning, pointing out that he must profit by the lessons of the Churchill cabinet and that the time has come when personal friendships cannot be put above wartime efficiency.
NOTE: Keep an eye on Paul V. McNutt, who has done a quiet, efficient job as Federal Security Administrator, to be Mr. LaGuardia’s successor.
Wheeler tribute
Sen. Burt Wheeler was paid a high tribute by Winston Churchill.
After his speech at the joint session of Congress, the British Prime Minister shook heads with congressmen as they filed past him.
But when Sen. Wheeler was presented, Mr. Churchill stopped him, shook his hand warmly and said, “This is a genuine please to me, sir. I’ve long wanted to meet you. This is one of the pleasantest moments of this very happy occasion.”
Smiling broadly, Sen. Wheeler thanked Mr. Churchill cordially and moved on. Later during the congressional luncheon, the Prime Minister again referred to the Montana senator.
“I liked him,” Mr. Churchill said. “He is a fighting man. I have been in 14 political fights, won eight and lost six. Once I was beaten three times in 18 months. I respect and admire fighting men even if they are against me.”
Churchill routine
During his Washington visit Mr. Churchill, 67, amazed the American public by his vitality. But still more he amazed White House aides who watched the odd routine of his personal life.
“Winnie” Churchill did not heed the Ben Franklin maxim about early to bed and early to rise. His day did not begin until 10 in the morning. At that hour he awakened and plunged into the task of reading the papers, dictating memos and seeing intimate advisers.
At 1 o’clock he ate a tremendous lunch – with champagne. After lunch came a siesta, until 4 o’clock. After that, he worked furiously until 8. Into that four-hour period he packed more than most people can accomplish in a full eight-hour day.
But “Winnie’s” day had just begun. He drank a highball with dinner and was ready for a long evening of conferences and reading and writing, working through most of the night. His associates fell away by midnight and for the rest of the time Mr. Churchill enjoyed the deep concentration that comes from working when the rest of the town is asleep.
His “day” ended at four in the morning, when he retired, to sleep until 10.
Manila’s capture viewed by officials as temporary
American people need not be discouraged by present reverse, Senate leaders console
WASHINGTON (UP) – Congressional leaders took the view today that the fall of Manila is only “temporary” and that ultimately the United States will retake the Philippines.
Senate Democratic Leader Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky recalled he had warned that there was no expectation that Manila could be held under all circumstances.
“I am sure that all Americans appreciate the heroic fight made by the American and Philippine forces to hold Manila and the rest of the Philippines.
“This reverse need not discourage the American people. We have steeled ourselves to expect some temporary reverses in the beginning until the full force of our power is brought to bear, which ultimately will be done.”
Announced in Senate
Chairman Tom Connally, D-Texas, of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, announced the fall of Manila on the Senate floor shortly before adjournment until opening of the new session Monday.
He said that since “under ordinary circumstances” the news would be discouraging he felt somebody should “sound the note that it is no cause for depression.”
“Except for the surrender of our forces the country need not be depressed,” he said. “The Philippines have always been a military liability.”
He said that because of the distance of the Philippines from the United States, Japan probably could put a million men in the Philippine Islands before the United States could send one transport.
Appropriate punishment
“I trust the people of the United States will not be disheartened,” he said. “When we get ready – and I hope it will be soon – of course we will retake the Philippines and take measures to see that the attack on Hawaii will be appropriately punished. The people should be reassured that we’re not losing the war.”
Sen. Gerald P. Nye, R-North Dakota, said Manila’s fall is “quite complete fulfillment of what we have been told for 15 years would be true in the case of the Philippines in the event of war in the Pacific.”
“I don’t doubt but what ultimately we shall redeem ourselves there if we want to do it, but it will probably be a long, hard pull,” Sen. Nye declared.
Sen. Wallace H. White, R-Maine, said “it is a matter of the keenest regret, but is in no sense decisive.”
Other comments:
Sen. Harry S. Truman, D-Missouri: “I’m terribly sorry, of course, but it is bound to be only temporary.”
Sen. James J. Davis, R-Pennsylvania: “It is only temporary. In the end the Philippines will be restored to the Filipinos.”
In the House, Rep. Roy O. Woodruff, R-Michigan, praised Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s “magnificent” defense of the Philippines, but declared that American unpreparedness in the Far East was nevertheless “a black page on our proud record.”
Official laxness charged
The story of the American setback in the Pacific would have been bad enough if the Japanese attack had succeeded because of “a laxity” or “indifference to repeated warnings by Army or Navy officials.”
“But recorded in history as a blacker fact is that high officials of the Army and Navy did not perform their duty,” he said. “It will forever be a black purge on our proud record that Japanese submarines were able to enter Pearl Harbor and do their deadly work before anyone knew about it.”
Rep. Joseph E. Casey, D-Massachusetts, said it is “time now to stop talking, start working and face the facts bravely.”
Rep. Clare Hoffman, R-Michigan, also denounced our unpreparedness in the Far East, telling the House that a boy in his district, whose brother had been killed at Pearl Harbor, had asked him why “fighting planes, bombers and ships were not there to aid my brother in his fight for his country?”
“And did I have an answer?” Mr. Hoffman asked. “No, there wasn’t any answer.”
From the day of the first landing of strong Japanese forces on the Island of Luzon soon after the war began December 7, American and Filipino defenders faced a desperate situation.
Forewarned by Roosevelt
President Roosevelt forewarned the nation of the possible loss of the Philippines Islands. Military experts agreed that the defenders could fight only delaying actions until strong forces can be mustered to fulfill the president’s pledge of redemption of the islands. That line of strategy continues despite the fall of Manila. Air power especially is needed, observers agreed.
The first Japanese assault on the Philippines was launched simultaneously with the assault on Pearl Harbor, December 7. Manila dispatches on that date (December 8, Manila time) reported widespread aerial attacks on scattered sections of the archipelago. Many American planes presumably were destroyed on the ground.
The major battle of the Philippines began when the Japanese landed strong forces at Lingayen Gulf, 150 miles northwest of Manila, on December 22. The landings, in which the enemy suffered heavy casualties, were made from 80 transports escorted by destroyers and warplanes. An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 troops formed the initial force.
Second landing in force
Suddenly, on the night of December 23 the “enemy landed in heavy force in the vicinity of Atimonan, 75 miles southeast of Manila, on the Island of Luzon,” War Department Communique No. 26 reported.
Christmas Day, Gen. MacArthur reorganized and strengthened his lines in the Lingayen sector. And again belatedly on the same day the War Department was advised that Gen. MacArthur had proclaimed Manila an open city.
It was not long after that declaration that Japanese bombers appeared over the city, raining death and destruction on the defenseless civilians and reducing to rubble some of the most beautiful sections of the capital.
New tax bill authors faced with hard job
Congress must up revenue; curb inflation in measure
By Marshall McNeil, Scripps-Howard staff writer
WASHINGTON – Writing tax bills is never easy, but the next one, on which Treasury and congressional experts already are working will be harder than most because it will have the double purpose of curbing inflation and raising revenue.
The new bill, on which congressional committees may start hearings about January 15, is likely to fix the pattern of federal levies for years to come. The corollary of the official prediction that we are in a long war is that we will be a long time paying for it.
A basic controversy is evident at the outset. It involves the question of whether excess purchasing power generated by war expenditures of scores of billions of dollars, can best be held in check by taxing things people buy or taxing their incomes.
The immensity of the problem was indicated by the President at his press conference Tuesday when he said our war program would consume about half the national income, or about $50,000,000,000 annually.
The Treasury, unless it has changed its mind, leans toward curbing purchasing power, and thus holding down inflation, by levying upon incomes at their source. And, even more important, of collecting that levy now, instead of more than a year later, as is done under the regular income tax.
Treasury favors withholding 15%
That tax would be continued, of course, but the Treasury favors – or did favor just a few weeks ago – a withholding tax of 15 percent. Economists have told congressional tax committees that this is one of the best ways to hold excess purchasing power in check.
But at the Capitol, at least, are experts who don’t particularly favor this type of taxation. They would rather increase the regular income tax in all brackets – but not drastically, for fear of meeting with diminishing returns – and at the same time levy generously on things people buy.
In one quarter the suggestion is made that a general sales tax, perhaps applied at the retail outlet rather than upon the manufacturer, to cover everything except food, clothing, medicine and rent, would serve both of the purposes of the forthcoming bill.
It is contended that such a tax with the four exemptions would not bear harshly on the low-income groups, for their greatest expenditures are made on food, clothing, medicine and rent. However, the question of yield from such a sales tax would be affected by what happens to production for civilian needs, and government plans for rationing.
Income ‘roof’ pondered
There has been discussion by some congressmen of a tax plan which would put a roof over all incomes – say $25,000 or so – the government taking all income above that amount, with the regular income tax assessed against the remainder. Some tax experts look upon this as a good “political” tax, which might be defended as democratic; but some, at least, think it is poor economics, and would result in diminishing revenue.
The problem of corporate profits realized out of war expenditures by the government must be dealt with also. The feeling is widely held that out of our defense efforts shall come neither individual nor corporate war millionaires.
Some congressional tax experts are concerned now lest in our effort to prevent war profits, curb inflation and acquire new revenues there is written into the law some theory of taxation which will damage our basic tax – the income tax, levied in accordance with the ability to pay. Among these are some who feel that the combination of somewhat higher income taxes plus a general sales tax, with the four exemptions stated above, may be the best answer.
This combination, some feel, may make easier the government’s sale of defense bonds.
At this point, there seems to be but one thing taxpayers can be sure of: A great deal more of all incomes will be paid into the Federal Treasury in one way or another.
Auto workers cut tape, get big war order
Morgenthau acts; Detroit pair lands contract for $70,000,000
By Edwin A. Lahey
WASHINGTON – Joe Rubin and another gentleman named Swettz, who are assembly line workers in the Dodge factory in Detroit, returned to their homes today from a trip to Washington with an education and a 70-million-dollar war order for their factory.
The education was to the effect that democracy works if you know how to cut red tape. The order, for U.S. Army trucks, will provide many weeks of work for Messrs. Rubin. Swettz, and their 25,000 fellow workers in the Dodge plant, who otherwise face unemployment because of the shutdown in civilian production.
Messrs. Rubin and Swettz are members of the grievance committee of Local 7 of the United Automobile Workers in the Dodge plant, and were sent to Washington about 10 days ago by their local to try to find someone in the OPM who would listen to the story of the devastating effect that the “business as usual” policy has had in the auto industry.
The two auto workers bounced around the OPM for some time, cooling their heels in the outer offices of the important personages who run that defuddled organization but were never able to talk to anyone above the rank of senior office boy. Finally, Messrs. Rubin and Swettz recalled that Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau had made a rather impressive address in Detroit some time ago, at which he declared that it would be the workers who would defeat Hitler.
Last try succeeds
They decided in a two-man caucus that a little more pushing around wouldn’t hurt them, so they went over to the office of Secretary Morgenthau. Instead of being pushed around, they were ushered into the Secretary’s office, where Mr. Morgenthau listened with interest to their story.
Messrs. Rubin and Swettz gave their own workingmen’s interpretation of the failure of the auto industry to convert its plants for war production. They impressed the Secretary with their willingness to suffer unemployment if the factories were converted, but pointed out that war orders were not being distributed, and used the startling statistics of their own plant, where they said 25,000 men were working at the peak last spring making autos, but at this late date only 25 men in the entire plant were working on war orders.
Secretary Morgenthau immediately gave the two auto workers a lesson in cutting red tape. He telephoned K. T. Keller, president of the Chrysler Corp., and “requested” him to appear in the Secretary’s office on the morning of Monday, December 29. He also called officials at the OPM and brass hats in the quartermaster division in the Army, and asked them to appear in his office at the same time. Secretary Morgenthau told Messrs. Rubin and Swettz to stay in Washington over the weekend and also appear at the meeting in his office.
OPM, Army dignitaries flayed
When President Keller and the dignitaries of the OPM and the Army were assembled, Secretary Morgenthau asked the slightly dazed auto workers. Messrs. Rubin and Swettz, to repeat their story. They recovered their poise sufficiently to do so.
There then followed an angry colloquy between the Secretary, Army brass hats and OPM officials over the failure to spread out war orders. The threat of Secretary Morgenthau to take this specific case to the President was implicit in the argument. It broke up with Secretary Morgenthau insisting that the Army men find work for the Dodge plant. He also insisted, with disregard for official protocol, that they report to him several times a day on their progress.
U.S. prepares counter drive on propaganda
‘Strategy of terror’ to be popularized in program to begin soon
WASHINGTON (Scripps-Howard) – The counter-propaganda program of the Office of Facts and Figures will begin in two or three weeks. Two objectives have been set:
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To popularize the information in Edmund Taylor’s book, “Strategy of Terror.”
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To call each turn in Axis propaganda as the “line” shifts to accommodate developments.
The OFF is headed by Archibald MacLeish, librarian of Congress, who believes that American morale will take care of itself if the people are forewarned of Axis propaganda trickery and are sufficiently appraised of dangers and responsibilities.
Mr. Taylor, an American reporter in Paris before the debacle, describes in his book the Nazi methods of sapping civilian morale by spreading false rumors and racial and religious prejudice. Mr. MacLeish thinks so well of the book, intimates say, that he recommends no other text on Nazi propaganda methods.
How the volume is to be popularized for the millions has not been divulged.
The second aim, to point out propaganda shifts, will be a continuous objective. Mr. MacLeish is said to believe that official Axis statements, and those inspired in “neutral” capitals, should be accompanied to American leaders by judicious annotation.
The OFF will warn America not to be taken in, for instance, when the Axis exaggerates its own reverses in order to create Allied overconfidence while it prepares a new coup.
Roosevelt hits stupid ousters
Raps discharges of men with foreign names
WASHINGTON (UP) – President Roosevelt today denounced as “stupid” and “unjust” the increasing discharges of loyal, efficient workers in American industries “simply because they were abroad or because they have ‘foreign-sounding’ names.”
“I am deeply concerned over the increasing number of reports of employers discharging workers who happen to be aliens or even foreign-born citizens,” the president said in a press conference statement. “This is a very serious matter.”
“It is one thing to safeguard American industry, and particularly defense industry, against sabotage; but it is very much another to throw out of work honest and loyal people who, except for the accident of birth, are sincerely patriotic.”
The statement of the president’s views on discrimination against patriotic aliens came after a conference with Attorney General Francis Biddle.
The Chief Executive asked newspapermen to give as wide publicity as possible to the situation because unfair discharge of aliens and foreign-born citizens “plays into the hands of the enemies of American democracy.”
Such unfair discharges, the president said, engender “the very distrust and disunity on which our enemies are counting to defeat us.”
Coastal war plants face shifts inland
WASHINGTON (UP) – The government is studying proposals for transfer of essential war industries such as aircraft and engine factories away from coastal areas to inland points, President Roosevelt disclosed today.
He told a press conference that scattering of war production plants over interior areas would obviate the possibility of an entire plant or group of plants being destroyed by a single bombing raid.
The plan under consideration, he said, contemplates scattering small plant units over several points, with a final assembly plant located away from the actual production units.
Virtually no new defense plants have been constructed in coastal areas during the last year. Some existing aircraft plants along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts have been expanded, but almost all new facilities have been constructed inland.
Stokes: Nation buries its partisan politics
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
WASHINGTON – A New York begins with partisan politics more completely buried than perhaps at any time in the nation’s history, though this is the year for congressional elections.
The two parties have joined publicity in a truce for national unity, a sincere truce. Wendell Willie, who a little more than a year ago was beating the toms-toms against the party in power, long ago came to the support of the Administration in its foreign policy. He is being talked of for a post in the top command.
What of political issues henceforth?
When the shock of sudden attack wears off and the people begin to look stoically toward a long war, it is expected that issues will develop around the conduct of the war, its efficiency and effectiveness.
For this constant checkup, it is held vital here that a constructive opposition be ready on the sidelines, constantly on the alert; an opposition which need not be politically partisan, but may draw from both parties as the war effort progresses.
Looking immediately ahead, as Congress prepares to go into a new session, the checkup job is seen to lie in these directions:
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Continuation of investigations now under way in both House and Senate to unearth any graft and favoritism in government contracts.
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The effort, by the same congressional committees and others, to find out where the arms program is falling down, where it is inefficient, how it best can be revised to get maximum production.
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Reduction of ordinary government expenditures as far as possible by elimination of agencies and functions not essential to the war program.
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Formulation of tax programs to distribute the burdens fairly. Public resentment is believed certain to be the lot of anyone who tries to exploit the public purse.
It is planned to continue all the investigations now under way – those conducted by the Truman (Senate) Defense Committee and the House Military and Naval committees. Some rather sensational disclosures of exploitation of the government are forecast when these committees resume their discussions in the next few weeks.
Sen. Truman, D-Missouri, in announcing continuation of his investigation, pointed out that a special House of Commons investigating committee has functioned in England since the outbreak of war, looking into all phase of the defense program.
“It is amazing,” he said, “how their committee finds the same things that we have disclosed here. The records are very much alike. Their investigation is going right ahead, and so is ours.”
The public is expected to give these investigations even more attention now and to demand that the full facts be brought out.
Violence kills 237 in nation over holiday
Traffic accidents mostly to blame despite safety campaigns
By the United Press
Sudden death in the form of traffic accidents, airplane crashes, fires and suicides claimed 237 lives – enough to man a destroyer and two submarines – over the New Year’s holiday.
Traffic accidents caused 163 deaths on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day despite restrictions on motoring.
The number of traffic deaths was considerably higher than a year ago when the United Press recorded a total of 142 during the New Year’s holiday.
For the past month, the National Safety Council has issued frequent warnings to drivers, calling for special care on the highway to reduce accidents which hamper the nation’s all-out war effort. The council warned that 4,050 highway deaths in November were pushing the 1941 total toward the all-time high of 39,643, reached in 1937.
The first holiday fatalities of 1942 included five men who died in an Army bomber crash in New York; five members of a Mexican family in Texas in a fire started by a stove explosion; three guards at the criminally insane section of the Bridgewater, Mass., state farm slain by two inmates attempting escape; a farm worker in Alabama and another in Tennessee, killed by tornadoes.
Ohio led the list of states with 29 deaths but California, with a grand total of 26, had the greatest number of highway deaths, 25. Ohio’s traffic toll has 24. New York and Pennsylvania were tied for third place with 18, Massachusetts fourth (15), Illinois fifth (14), Indiana and Texas sixth (13) and Washington seventh (11).
Promotion awarded to Jimmy Stewart
MOFFETT FIELD, California (UP) – Cpl. Jimmy Stewart, film star, was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
Stewart was drafted last March 22 and inducted at Fort McArthur, Los Angeles. He was sent to Moffett Field March 28 on the basis of his flying experience. Lt. E. L. Reid, Moffett Field personnel director, said Stewart’s commission did not specify the air force but he would most likely be assigned to that branch.
Stewart entered the Army only a month after winning the Motion Picture Academy’s award as the outstanding actor of 1940.
Before he joined the Army, Stewart had 325 hours of solo flying to his credit and held a commercial pilot’s license. However, he is 32 and the maximum age for flying cadet training is 26 years 6 months.
Three guards slain by insane criminals
BRIDGEWATER, Massachusetts (UP) – Three guards in the criminally insane section of the Bridgewater State Farm were hacked and beaten to death yesterday, allegedly by two inmates who attempted to escape by firing a four-story brick building housing 455 delinquents.
The pair, who wielded chisels and iron bars in their dash for freedom, were subdued by tear gas bombs and clubs while 200 police cowed other rebellious patients with riot guns.
The slain guards were Franklin L. Weston, 63, of Bridgewater; George Landry, 46, of Whitman, and Howard V. Murphy, 48, of Taunton.
Their alleged slayers, Donald Milland, 18, of Nashau, New Hampshire, and Joseph E. Sheppard, 25, of Worcester, sustained severe cuts and bruises. Sheppard had been confined in the institution for six years, Millard for three. Both had previous criminal records.
Mary Lewis, ex-star of opera, dies at 41
NEW YORK (UP) – Funeral services were to be held today for Mary Lewis, 41, former star soprano of the Metropolitan Opera and one of the most publicized singers in America in the 1920s, who died Wednesday at a sanitarium after a four-month illness.
Miss Lewis had lived in virtual retirement since the death in 1939 of her husband, Robert L. Hague, former vice president of the Standard Oil Co.
Born in Hot Spring, Arkansas, she began singing in church choirs in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Dallas, Texas, rose to stardom in the Ziegfeld Follies, and made her debut at the Metropolitan in January 1936, singing the role of Mimi in “La Boheme.”
Brookline youth pens he’s safe in Hawaii
Her son’s fate at Pearl Harbor had been unknown since the outbreak of the war, but Mrs. Nora W. Pratt, 736 Woodbourne Ave., Brookline, learned today that he was “well.”
On a United States Navy form post card, mailed December 9, Eugene D. Wiskow, 20-year-old gunner, informed his mother briefly: “I am well. Love to all. Eugene.”
Wiskow enlisted in the Navy in Pittsburgh two and a half years ago and had been at Pearl Harbor since October 1. Previously, from October 1940 to July 1941, he also served in Hawaii.
U.S. will transfer immigration office
WASHINGTON (UP) – The entire Immigration and Naturalization Service will be moved from Washington to Philadelphia, Director of the Budget Harold D. Smith announced today.
Approximately 1,600 employees are involved in the transfer, a considerably larger number than proposed in the original plan to move only part of the service. Attorney General Francis Biddle recommended that three additional divisions be included in the transfer.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service is one of 12 government bureaus that will be moved from the national capital to provide office space for expanding defense agencies.
First phonograph singer taken by death at 76
JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania (UP) – Margaret Newton – the first woman to have her voice recorded by Thomas Edison after he perfected the phonograph – died in her home in nearby Gallitzin yesterday. She was 76.
A prominent figure of the New York concert and theater stage of 40 years ago, Miss Newton had been in retirement since the World War. She began her concert career at the age of 14 and appeared in many musical productions of the Victor Herbert era.
In later years she appeared on vaudeville circuits and on the stage at Chautauqua, New York.
Aviator saves self
WASHINGTON – Second Lt. Doyne L. Turner, an Army pilot, of Bolling Field, D.C., safely parachuted to earth 35 miles north of Lynchburg, Va., yesterday when ice forced his plane down. The War Department was advised that Turner’s plane, a trainer, crashed and burned.
Opera singer dies
NEW YORK – Charles Hackett, 52, former Metropolitan and Chicago Civic Opera Company tenor, died yesterday after an appendicitis operation.
