America at war! (1941– ) (Part 1)

4369

Coast shelling cited by Pepper in debate

Washington (UP) –
Claude Pepper (D-FL) today cited the shelling of the Oregon coast last night as an argument for approval of his bill to provide war insurance benefits for civilians.

Opening the second day of Senate debate on the administration bill, Mr. Pepper read a dispatch telling of the shelling incident. He said:

That is the second time since Dec. 7 that the enemy has actually hurled missiles against the continental United States. It might have been the sad sequel that a number of American people might have been killed. Had that happened, they would have been direct casualties of the war, just as much as a soldier at the front.

His bill would provide monthly benefits ranging from $30 to $85 for total disability resulting from war action. Dependents of civilians killed would also get benefits.

4370

Hawaii in peril, general warns

Non-essential civilians urged to evacuate
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer

Honolulu – (June 21, delayed)
Lt. Gen. Delos C. Emmons invited non-essential civilians to leave Hawaii today and warned that it was dangerous wishful thinking to believe Hawaii was immune from attack because of the Midway Island victory.

Gen. Emmons, commanding Army forces in Hawaii, especially asked women, children and dependent persons not engaged in essential war work to make immediate arrangements to go.

He said many persons believed – wrongly – that because of the Midway battle the Japs would not attack Hawaii.

He said:

To assume that the enemy will not return in force and utilize every weapon at his disposal is the most dangerous kind of wishful thinking.

Persons willing to leave were urged to put their affairs in order at the earliest possible moment and register at once with the Army transport service to get steamship accommodations.

He said those living outside the main island might register by mail.

Revealing that evacuation of dependents of Army and Navy men had practically been completed. Gen. Emmons said that now some steamship accommodation would be available to civilians for a limited time.

Gen. Emmons said that his evacuation suggestion was important to the war effort of the Hawaiian Department, and he invited persons who had not sufficient money for their transportation or their maintenance on the mainland to say so when they registered.

4371

General Stilwell’s mother dies at 83 in Yonkers

Yonkers, NY (UP) –
Mrs. Mary A. Peene Stilwell, 83, mother of Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, United Nations leader in the Far East, died at her home today after a 10-day fitness.

Mrs. Stilwell was the widow of Dr. Benjamin W. Stilwell, former vice president of the Westchester Lighting Co., and former president of the Yonkers Board of Education.

Gen. Stilwell last visited his mother just before his departure for Asia. Other survivors are another son, Col. John Stilwell, vice president of the Consolidated Edison Co. of New York; a daughter, Mrs. Stuart Wilder of Pelham, NY, and a sister, Mrs. George Farnham of Saratoga, NY.

4372

U.S. tries regimentation and hates it, Barton says

‘World revolution’ marks end of ‘good old days,’ but democracy will live, executive asserts

New York (UP) –
Bruce Barton, New York advertising executive and former Congressman, said today that the people of the United States are:

…presently having a taste of totalitarianism, and they do not like it.

Delivering the keynote speech at the 38th annual convention of the Advertising Federation of America, Mr. Barton said that the war was a world revolution which would mark the end of the “good old days” but that the common man would not let the revolution end in communism or fascism:

…however modified or camouflaged.

He said:

The people of the United States, patriotically, and without grumbling, have relinquished the right to eat and wear what they want, to travel as they please, to determine the conditions of their own living and employment.

Regimentation will end

They are cheerfully determined to continue this self-denial for the duration. But let any man or group of men after the war suggest that this regimentation be permanent, and he or they will find themselves promptly separated from the public payroll.

In the good days of peace, we thought democracy was the best form of government; now, having lost it temporarily, we know it is the best and we want it promptly restored.

Mr. Barton said the common man was doing “an unusual amount of self-thinking” and felt “kindly” toward both government and machine shop because they were trying to win the war and bring home his son.

Industry appreciated

Mr. Barton said:

When he kneels down at night to say his prayers, he thanks God for President Roosevelt but is almost tempted to add another word of gratitude that there was a General Motors handy, a United States Steel and a DuPont Co., when the trouble began.

The more he and his wife see of what is going on elsewhere in the world, the more they are appreciating the United States. I do not believe that they intend for one minute to let this revolution end in fascism or in communism, however modified or camouflaged.

The convention opened with a congratulatory message from President Roosevelt, who commended the federation for contributing its time and skill to the war effort and called upon the advertising world to strengthen:

…the desire for liberty and freedom by reiteration of their benefits.

‘We’ll not make money’

At the end of the world revolution, Mr. Barton said:

You and I shall not make money the rest of our lives, at least not in the sense in which we used to think of making money.

Henceforth, we must measure our lives rather in terms of inner satisfaction and the approval of our fellow man. Those who fight against the trend will be washed out…

There will be only one standard of judgment for men and institutions, both public and private: Did he, or it, do the utmost possible to win the war?

4373

Legislators propose vacation gas book

Washington (UP) –
Price Administrator Leon Henderson today considered the problem of summer vacationists without gasoline, consequent overburdening of trains and buses, and the “great hardship” wrought up on the recreation industry by the present gasoline rationing problem.

Congressmen from Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont urged Mr. Henderson to grant extra rations to vacationists to ease all three problems, and warned that the existing restrictions will cause serious economic distress to New England where the tourist trade is of considerable importance.

The legislators wrote Mr. Henderson:

We request that there be made available to persons making bona fide reservations for vacation periods in the rationed areas a supplemental gasoline rationing book, the units of which would be adequate only for travel from the home of the vacationist to the place where his reservation has been made and return.

They made the same request for persons having farms or summer cottages in the rationed areas.

4374

Four Indian soldiers have unusual names

Fort Sill, Okla. (UP) –
Four Indian soldiers of pure Sioux ancestry are now taking basic training with the Army in the field artillery replacement training center at Fort Sill.

The Indians, from Rosebud, SD, have the unusual names of Pvt. Anthony Omaha Boy, Pvt. Narcisse M. Sharpfish, Pvt. Paul V. Yellow Cloud and Pvt. Melvin F. Yellow Cloud (the latter two are cousins).

4375

FLASH: Here’s the lowdown, gals, on V. Lake’s hairdo

That bewitching eye-hiding lock means lots of work for studio attendants
By Ernest Foster

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To get her celebrated locks to do their stuff, Veronica Lake lavishes hours of care on ‘em.

Hollywood –
Want the facts about that lock of blond hair which sometimes hangs down over Veronica Lake’s right eye and is just about the most famous bit of glamor in Hollywood today?

Women write hundreds of letters to Paramount asking how it is kept up.

It is 17 inches long and part of an extremely long hair-dress. In back, the hair is 27 inches long. It grows an inch a month.

On days when the hair is to be seen in a picture, Miss Lake must rise at 6 a.m. and be at the studio hairdressing department by 6:30. It requires an hour and 45 minutes for the hair to be washed and set.

Brushed violently

It is brushed 15 minutes every evening with a stiff bristle brush. It is never treated with ointment but does get rinsed in vinegar. Curlers are never used. And since it is a natural honey-blond, no bleaching is ever needed for it.

In real life, before it became a famous piece of film glamor, it used to hang over one eye, always being brushed violently away from that eye. In its first pictures, that lock was done far up on the head.

But in the search for a girl to play in I Wanted Wings, a girl with long hair was desired. So that hair was combed long and went before a camera for a test. It kept falling in front of that right eye.

Producer Arthur Hornblow thought the effect was colorful. He decided it added to the effect of reckless abandon for the girl. He signed Miss Lake with her lock of hair, and fame came as soon as the movie was released.

A streamlined witch

Next in Sullivan’s Travels, the lock hung low part-time and was tucked under a boy’s cap even more of the time. It then permitted to fly loosely and appealingly in This Gun for Hire and The Glass Key.

Now the lock of hair is being seen in its fourth picture, I Married a Witch. It helps give the impression that it belongs to a real little witch who gets a girl’s alluring body.

When not in front of the cameras, the lock is fastened to the head by means of a net or bandana. Usually at home, it is done up with fellow locks into pigtails.

It has given rise to much coinage of names. Writers have called it the striptease hairdo, the peekaboo bang, the bad-girl style and the sheepdog effect.

Aped by schoolgirls

Thousands of women and girls have copied it. Comedians have wisecracked about it. One claimed to be the luckiest man in Hollywood because he had seen the wearer’s right eye.

In I Married a Witch, Robert Benchley brushes back this lock of hair from the face of Miss Lake, who has been knocked unconscious by a falling picture and says:

It’s a good thing you wear your hair like this, or this accident might have been serious.

And in the Ginger Rogers-Ray Milland comedy The Major and the Minor, much is made of the hairstyle by having two dozen little schoolgirls all wear their hair that way.

Studies drama

A movie director must know his payers as well as a doctor knows his patients.

So Jean Renoir, the noted French film director who will guide Deanna Durbin in Universal’s Forever Young, has begun a cinematic case study of the singing film star.

Renoir’s case history method will be to witness the 10 photoplays in chronological sequence in which Miss Durbin has starred, beginning with Three Smart Girls, the movie in which she made her screen debut in 1936, and concluding with her latest release, It Started With Eve.

Renoir points out:

In this manner, I shall be able to discover things about Miss Durbin which no amount of discussion with her could bring forth.

Right material necessary

I believe great acting results when a director really knows his players, when he presents material to them in such a way and with such rightness for them that they automatically feel it is tailor-made for them.

Renoir is a son of the great impressionistic painter, Pierre August Renoir. He directed such film art landmarks as the French Of Human Bondage, Grand Illusion, La Marseillaise and Madame Bovary. He is a stickler for realism in his pictures.

He says:

Actors can give realistic performances only when their material is realistic for them. It is the duty of the director, to the star and to the audience, to make certain that the material given the star is right.

Names truck “Deanna”

So, the director must know his players as well as a doctor who prescribes medicine for the physical wellbeing of his patients.

Forever Young is a romantic adventure story backgrounded by the Far East and San Francisco. Edward O’Brien will appear opposite Deanna Durbin.

Miss Durbin recently received a letter from Pvt. Howard Jones, truck driver with a machine gun battalion of the Australian Imperial Forces “somewhere” in the Libyan desert saying he had named his truck after her.

The engine sings that sweetly that I decided to name the truck Deanna after you.

4376

Heroic pilot film adviser

Hollywood –
Capt. Hewitt T. Wheless, heroic Flying Fortress pilot who was highly commended by President Roosevelt for extraordinary heroism in an aerial engagement with the Japanese, is in Hollywood to assist in the filming of a motion picture that will tell what the American Air Force is doing in World War II.

Capt. Wheless has been assigned by the government to work at Warner Bros. in association with Capt. Sam Triffy, technical adviser on the film entitled Air Force, which will be produced by Hal B. Wallis and directed by Howard Hawks.

It was last December in the Philippines that Capt. Wheless performed the feat that brought commendation from the President in a recent nationwide radio address. On a bombing mission, his Flying Fortress was attacked by 18 Jap planes, one of his crew was killed, another wounded and the plane itself badly battered, but he bombed his objective and brought the big ship back to its base.

The 27-year-old bomber pilot will remain at the Warner studio until given his next active service assignment.

4377

Century-old monument closed for duration

Boston (UP) –
The Bunker Hill Monument, completed just 100 years ago, has been closed to the public for the duration.

Commanding a sweeping view of Boston Navy Yard and important harbor installations, the 220-foot granite obelisk has drawn tens of thousands of tourists to its observation tower down through the years.

It took 17 years to build this historic shrine, Lafayette having laid the cornerstone in 1825.

4378

Bonds replace tour

Bristol, Maine –
High school seniors here collected $400 for a graduating class trip to New York, but unanimously voted to cancel the sightseeing tour and invest the money in defense bonds as a class gift.

4379

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‘American Principles’

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

While I favor a marked decrease in the number of organizations, one recently brought to my attention has basic aims which sound desirable. It began with a woman who wishes to remain anonymous.

After listening for several years to harangues, political promises, slogans and conversations, she decided that the American people as a whole had almost lost sight of the fundamental principles of their own form of government. As a result, “American Principles, Inc.,” was founded.

Its chief objectives, I gather, is to persuade people to study their government and to become better acquainted with the Constitution.

And, while the idea of delving into the origins of government may sound stodgy, it means essentially that we would become better acquainted with the history of man’s struggle for liberty.

To date, that struggle has reached its peak in our own nation. We the people and our way of life are the results of long ages of bitter conflicts. The slow churnings of revolutions and the steady march of evolution have brought us a long, long way on this path to freedom.

Yet every day we seem to be retracing some of those steps. In fighting fascism, we move closer to collectivism. Many economists contend that a collectivist society is the natural result of industrial and technological developments such as those which originated in this country.

They contend we shall be forced to accept drastic changes in our social order after the war is over – and who doubts it? Yet we can and must insist upon the right of the individual American to personal and economic freedom. It seems as evil for the minority to be oppressed by the majority as it does to submit to any other form of dictatorship.

4380

Quiet please: U.S. at work!

It may not seem to be such a vital matter at first glance, but to many individuals just now it’s of major importance – the inability of night-shift war production workers to sleep during the day in noisy neighborhoods.

The mother of two men working what she called “the MacArthur shift” brought it to our attention recently. Children shouting at play, neighbors’ radios at high volume all day long, and similar noises make it next to impossible for her sons to sleep.

She said:

There is nothing nicer than a radio or children. I have both and enjoy them.

But she felt that all families should devise ways of respecting their neighbors’ wartime sleeping hours to as great a degree as possible.

William L. Shirer in his Berlin Diary told how even a few British planes, whether they dropped bombs or not, could hamper production in Berlin war plants simply by flying over. Sending the populace to air raid shelters at night and disrupting their sleep. Industrialists know how fatigue reduces output.

Every family should have some idea of the work-hour habits of its neighbors. A little thoughtfulness, without hard feelings or resentment at inconvenience, will give hours of needed rest to that war worker living next door and multiply his productive capacity.

4381

Background of news –
Civil rights

By editorial research reports

Questions of civil rights, in wartime, usually attract widespread public notice when they are concerned with such matters as treason, subversive activities and allegations of other “unpatriotic” offenses. However, a recent scrutiny of court records and news items reveals that more citizens are involved in cases which seek to establish certain rights as property owners, operators of businesses and means of livelihood, than in questions of freedom of speech, of free press and spectacular “personal liberty” issues.

“Rights” recently affirmed or denied by courts in a number of cities throughout the country include the following:

A man in Des Moines was denied the right to drive through a stop sign at a street intersection, even though there was no traffic in sight.

A resident of San Diego County, Cal., was denied the right to establish a “one-man cemetery” on his own property in a residential district, forbidden by the county zoning ordinance.

The right to operate a poolroom under the guise of a club was denied to a citizen of Laurel, Miss.

A defendant in Miamisburg, Ohio, stored paper, cardboard and rags on his premises, in violation of an anti-junk yard ordinance. The court ruled his arrest and conviction were “reasonable.”

The right to receive a pension was denied to the widow of a fireman in Springfield, Ill., on the ground that the marriage occurred after the man’s retirement.

The right of free speech was not denied to a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Rochester, NH, but he was convicted for using abusive words in a public place, addressed to the city marshal.

A street photographer in Los Angeles was denied the right to hand out order blanks after pictures were taken.

A magazine agent’s right to solicit business on private premises in Osceola, Iowa, was upheld, and a city ordinance which attempted to deny such a right was held unconstitutional.

Voters in New Orleans were denied the right to vote in any other manner than by the use of official voting machines.

The right to damages resulting from injuries suffered through broken sidewalks and public roadways was affirmed in Philadelphia and Miami Beach, Fla.

Two corporations in Florida found that they have no right to unregulated use of billboards for advertising purposes, and esthetics are recognized as a legitimate basis for reasonable regulation of private business and property in the interests of:

…the comfort, common good and general welfare of the public.

A per diem city employee of Philadelphia, injured while playing baseball at 7 p.m., was denied the right to disability benefits because he was not injured while in the employ of the city.

A corporation’s suit to set aside a special assessment levied for street-widening by the city of Syracuse, NY, was denied.

A citizen injured by a fall on an icy sidewalk in Kansas City collected from the city, despite an ordinance requiring owners to clear sidewalks. The court ruled that the primary duty of the city to keep its sidewalks safe could not be shifted to property owners by ordinance.

A defendant in New York State, engaged in a dredging operation in a residence section, sold the sand which was recovered, and was charged with violation of the zoning ordinance. The court held that he was engaged in “temporary” business in such sales, and that the ordinance was intended to apply only to permanent businesses.

4382

Hull pledges Russia increased supplies

Washington (UP) –
Secretary of State Cordell Hull, on the eve of the first anniversary of the Nazi attack on Russia, last night promised the Soviet Union that, during the coming year, American arms and supplies will be shipped to them:

…in an ever-widening stream until final victory has been achieved.

In a message to V. M. Molotov, Commissar of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Hull predicted that before the end of another year, the instigators of this war will have learned that:

…in an aroused world, aggressors can no longer escape the consequences of acts resulting in human suffering and destruction.

Mr. Hull pointed out that although the United States itself is threatened with aggression, this danger did not prevent it from sending aid to its Russian ally.

The Armed Forces of the Soviet Union and the heroic civilian population have won the admiration of all the liberty-loving peoples of the world, Mr. Hull asserted, and have earned a place in history beside:

…the Russian armies which over a century and a quarter ago did so much to ruin the plans of another aspirant to world conquest.

4383

Newspaper guild opens convention in Denver

Denver, Colo. (UP) –
The American Newspaper Guild opens its ninth annual convention today to determine how:

…organized newspapermen can aid the war program.

Milton Murray of Detroit, president, said no controversial issues were before the delegates, and that the Guild’s main problem was to:

…do whatever we can to help win this war through sacrifices, work and cooperation, yet maintaining our union strength.

Approximately 125 delegates were expected for the opening business session. Mr. Murray said attendance was curtailed by transportation difficulties and that a convention may not be held next year if the problem becomes more serious.

4384

Two destroyers launched at shipyard in 12 minutes

Kearny, NJ (UP) –
Two destroyers were launched yesterday 12 minutes apart at the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., a U.S. Steel Corp. subsidiary.

The vessels, launched without fanfare, were the Jenkins, named for Rear Admiral Thornton A. Jenkins, a Civil War naval officer, and the La Vallette, named for Rear Admiral A. F. La Vallette, who distinguished himself in the Battle of Lake Champlain in 1814.

Vessels bearing the same names were scrapped under the terms of the London Naval Treaty.

4385

U.S. crackdown on war frauds is underway

Five grand juries hear evidence presented by new federal unit

Washington (UP) –
The Justice Department’s new War Frauds Unit hits its stride this week with the convening of grand juries in five widely-separated cities for investigations of alleged frauds upon the government in connection with the war program.

Functioning jointly under the Department’s anti-trust and criminal divisions, the unit was organized in February. But until last week, it confined its efforts to laying the groundwork for prosecutions.

The inquiries into the first batch of complaints sent in by various government departments and from other sources have been completed and the unit is ready to crack down on the violators.

Grand juries convene

Grand juries considering evidence gathered by the unit are meeting this week here, and in Baltimore, Md.; Trenton, NJ; Los Angeles and in a Virginia district.

The first indictment obtained by the unit was returned against four union representatives at Albany, NY, last week. The defendants were charged with violating the “anti-kickback” statute by allegedly forcing non-union men to obtain permits at $1-2 a day to work in a factory where the union had a closed shop.

Biddle tells about cases

Tom C. Clark, chief of the unit, did not disclose the specific nature of the cases going before the five grand juries, but Attorney General Francis Biddle recently said cases under construction involved:

  1. Faulty materials, supplies and workmanship which have resulted in defective products being delivered to the government.

  2. Alleged conspiracies to increase the cost of plants and factories built to manufacture war materials.

  3. Practices increasing the cost of food and other supplies for the armed forces.

Mr. Biddle, in commenting on the work of the unit, said:

It is important from the standpoint both of national morale and of accelerating war production that prompt and vigorous investigation be made of all such complaints, that the guilty be punished and that the reputation of the innocent be protected. Only in this way can the confidence of the nation in the integrity of the war effort be preserved.

4386

Jap forces 200 miles nearer Alaska after landing on another Aleutian Isle

Another enemy cruiser hit and another transport sunk
By Sandor S. Klein, United Press staff writer

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The arrow indicates Kiska Island, part of the Aleutian chain jutting into the Northern Pacific from Alaska. Japanese forces have landed on the island, as they landed previously on Attu Island, the Navy has announced.

Washington (UP) –
Jap invasion forces today are 200 miles closer to the North American mainland, having established a second toehold in the Aleutian Islands.

But, when weather permits, American airmen are continuing their aerial bombardments of the enemy forces now on Attu and Kiska Islands off Alaska. The latest report revealed that American bombers have hit another cruiser and sunk a transport.

The Navy announced last night that Jap forces, under cover of almost continuous fogs, have landed on Kiska Island. That is about 200 miles east of Attu Island at the very western end of the Aleutians – which the Navy announced June 13 had been occupied by Japs.

Ninth Jap ship blasted in area

The Navy’s announcement of hits on a cruiser and the sinking of a transport brought to nine and possibly 10 the number of Jap vessels which have been sunk or damaged by Army and Navy fliers in the Aleutians.

Previous naval communiqués reported three cruisers, one destroyer, one gunboat and one transport damaged. Lt. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, Army Air Chief, has disclosed the sinking of a Jap cruiser and the hitting of an aircraft carrier. But it has never been clarified whether the cruiser Gen. Arnold mentioned was one of those reported by the Navy.

The Navy indicated that the invasion forces on Kiska, like that on Attu, was small. It said:

Tents and minor temporary structures were observed to have been set up on land.

Call it ‘strange struggle’

Last Saturday, a spokesman for the 13th Naval District at Seattle said the action in the Aleutians was:

…a strange struggle of give and take.

…with the enemy:

…getting smacked whenever there is rift in the fog banks.

He said:

It’s a weird, wild country up there. There are great patches of fog and rain in which an enemy can hide. There are literally thousands of small bays and inlets. The Japs know the country, but so does the Navy.

Delegate Anthony D. Dimond of Alaska viewed the new occupation as “fraught with danger.” Not only does it put the enemy in position to cut off aid to Russia in case of a Jap attack on Siberia, but it gives them facilities for an attack on the Western Hemisphere, he said.

See it as defensive move

He said there is also great danger that the enemy would now organize air bases on Kiska that would organize air bases on Kiska that would give them:

…a powerful advantage over our carried-based aircraft.

He said:

If we allow them 60 days to complete their construction, we will have to being immense pressure to bear before we can remove them.

Most observers here continued to believe that the Jap objective in the area is defensive rather than preparation for anything approaching a grand-scale offensive against the North American mainland.

Kiska’s shores are hilly and rocky. A series of mountain ridges having elevations ranging from 4,000 feet to 12,000 feet form its backbone. It is 585 miles west of Dutch Harbor.

4387

The Pittsburgh Press (June 23, 1942)

$42 billion for Army –
U.S. is warned that war may last 5 years

Record appropriation bill provides funds for ‘critical’ year

Washington (UP) –
A $42,820,003,067 Army supply bill – the largest single appropriation in any nation’s history – was placed before the House today with a warning that the American people should assume the war may last five years.

The measure was approved by the House Appropriations Committee this morning and House debate began immediately.

High Army officials, in asking for the money said the military situation is the “most critical” in this country’s annals and we:

…must avoid at all costs the error of underestimating the task ahead of us.

Snyder opens debate

Rep. J. Buell Snyder (D-PA), chairman of the Military Appropriations Subcommittee which prepared the measure, then opened debate on the bill after telling newsmen that the “only safe thing to do” is to assume that this will be a five-year war.

He said:

Then we must hope and pray and work to shorten the time.

The measure provides funds for 23,550 new Army planes at a cost of $11,316,898,910 – the largest item in the bill. Army officials said aviation is getting “first priority” in development of offensive and defensive weapons.

Offensive is keynote

Offensive action is the keynote of the Army’s planes, its officials indicated. Its deputy chief of staff told the committee that:

Every effort is being directed to making our power felt by offensive action in consonance with the accepted basic strategy of the United Nations.

As recommended by the Appropriations Committee, the bill would bring total war commitments since June 1940, to $228,811,233,542, half again as much as the United States spent for all purposes – including all previous wars – from its founding until June 30, 1940.

May be only beginning

And that may be only the beginning, the committee warned. “Unpredictable contingencies” will probably soon increase the total.

The largest previous single appropriation was a $32-billion supplemental measure passed earlier this year providing funds for the Army, Navy and Maritime Commission.

During the 1942 fiscal year, which ends June 30, Congress appropriated $75,427,593,587 for the War Department, but that included several deficiency bills.

Early estimate exceeded

Today’s measure gives an idea of how the war picture has changed since the first day of the year. On Jan. 6, President Roosevelt estimated in his annual budget measure that the War Department would need $18,618,615,000 for fiscal 1943 in contrast to the $42 billion plus requested now.

Testimony by high Army officials before the committee was released today too. Although heavily censored to keep military secrets, publishable parts revealed that:

  1. Aircraft factories under contract to the Army will produce in 1942 and 1943 at least 148,000 planes – the Army’s share of President Roosevelt’s 185,000-plane goal for those two years.

  2. The Army will have a strength of 4,500,000 men by the middle of 1943. Lt. Gen. Brehon B. Somervell said the Army’s goal of 3,600,000 men by Dec. 31, 1942, had been “materially increased.” It will cost $1,290,000,000 to feed next year’s Army.

  3. Youths of 18-20 years of age who enlist now are being trained for combat duty. Maj. Gen. J. T. McNarney, Deputy Chief of Staff, said the Army knows that in certain assignments those youths:

…make the best soldiers.

  1. The Army is planning for mass evacuation of wounded by air, a system successfully used by the Germans. The committee was told Germany had evacuated more than 200,000 men that way.

  2. Offensive gas warfare is getting the major attention of the chemical warfare branch of the Army. The War Department asked for $620,546,241 for that service.

  3. Alaska – the newest war theater – may be served eventually by a railroad. Gen. Somervell said the Army hopes to have four ways of getting there – by sea, by air, by road when the highway now under construction is completed, and “one [route] may be by railroad.” The bill includes money for a survey of land for such a railroad.

  4. Part of the need for Army officers will be met by increasing the strength of the West Point Corps from 1,807 to 2,440 men next year.

1942 goal being met

The committee report disclosed that aircraft production was up to – if not exceeding – President Roosevelt’s 1942 schedule which called for 60,000 new planes.

The second largest item in the bill was $10,739,559,342 for pay, subsistence, clothing, medical care and welfare of men in the Army and Air Force. Recently enacted legislation, increasing Army pay and making provision for the government’s share of family allowance payments to dependents, forced the committee to add $1,414,824,950 to the War Department’s original estimate.

Distributed among the many component parts of the bill, the committee said, was $12,700,000,000 for Lend-Lease purposes.

Above amount asked

It said:

The approval of this proposal would raise to $32,170,000,000 authorized (Lend-Lease) transfers chargeable to War Department appropriations, and to $62,944,650,000 the value of aid that can be furnished in pursuance of all authorizations and appropriations heretofore made.

The committee’s grand total for the bill was $3,289,634,005 above the amount originally requested by the War Department.

The committee said:

For the information of those interests in such angles, appropriations have been made thus far since Pearl Harbor for the military and naval establishments aggregating $86,686,006,014 – $60,782,314,300, Army; $25,903,691,714, Navy.

The bill was placed before the House by Mr. Snyder, Democrat from Fayette and Somerset County of Western Pennsylvania.

Mr. Snyder said:

I entertain no sense of pride in being in charge of this measure because it happens to be the largest in history. The only safe course for us is to assume that this war will last five years, while working and hoping for an earlier victorious conclusion.

Mr. Snyder is chairman of the War Department Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, and was in charge of hearings.

4388

Strict control urged –
War contract waste scored by committee

‘Honeymoon at expense of taxpayers’ must end, report insists

Washington (UP) –
The House Military Affairs Committee reported today that it had found “nearly every conceivable type of extravagant waste” in its investigation of War Department contracts.

The report, presented to the House by Chairman Andrew J. May (D-KY) said that:

The time has come… when the contracts’ honeymoon at the expense of the taxpayers of the nation must end.

The report summarized the findings of the committee’s inquiries into various phases of the war program. It also said at one point:

Evidence developed by the committee reveals a “sordid picture” of excessive commissions by so-called defense brokers, huge profits by vendors, exorbitant salaries, bonuses and fees for management and related services in many War Department contracts.

Urges stricter control

The committee added that while the Department had taken steps to correct conditions when abuses had been brought to the Department’s attention, it felt:

There is urgent need for a far more stringent control over these practices which persist.

Such control, the committee said, should it be exercised by “better and closer bargaining” on the Department’s part, in which it should insist on recapturing excessive profits from contractors.

“Hundreds of millions” of dollars have already been saved through legislation requiring a renegotiation clause in all contracts of more than $100,000, the report added.

Hits red tape

The committee also criticized “top-heavy organization” and “endless red tape” in government war agencies and recommended that the Secretary of War:

Tighten supervision over all accounting and auditing; enforce with greater stringency prohibition of excessive commissions on cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts; review and adjust management fees paid to big companies for their “services,” and require all persons employed or retained by contractors in connection with procurement of contracts to file monthly reports with the department showing all expenses incurred.

The report said:

Citizens of this country cannot be expected to be faced interminably with indifference in spending on the part of the officials of their government after the period of initial necessity has passed, and continue buying bonds with enthusiasm overlooking the extension of bureaucratic domination and suffering the deprivations with a complacent attitude.