War comes to Pittsburgh tonight to Army’s show
Sham battle, exhibit included; latest weapons to be demonstrated by crack soldiers
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Editorial: Land of the free
Independence Day means more to us this year. For many years, we took our liberties for granted and approached this anniversary as an unrestful holiday of forced oratory, gas fumes, traffic jams, ants on the picnic butter and noise.
Today, none of us is so insensitive. Most of us will not be troubled by motor hazards, factories will make more noise than fireworks and we shall be more thankful for bread and butter.
We used to say our forefathers guaranteed our freedom for us. Now we know they could not. They won freedom. They passed it on to their children. They could do no more. But that was not enough to preserve a free land from enemies foreign and domestic.
Each generation must win and hold its own freedom. For us, it has been easier because of the vision and courage and sacrifice of our fathers. But perhaps just because it was easier, we were asleep when freedom was threatened, we were soft when the enemy struck.
How much Americans have learned since last Fourth of July! Most of the interventionists and noninterventionists alike then boasted of our strength. If Hitler forced us into the war, we could turn the tide of battle quickly; and as for the puny Japs, we could knock them out in a matter of weeks.
We know better now. We have learned the hard way that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
We are stronger now. Not only in weapons and in trained men. We are stronger in things of the spirit – in humility, in consecration, in willingness to work and fight and die that liberty may live. Americans have not yet recaptured the Spirit of ’76, but they are coming closer to that high estate.
Therefore, we have more right to celebrate this Independence Day. Our minds are clearer and our hearts are cleaner. Our marching men are worthy to win again the freedom our fathers won.
Background of news –
The Declaration of Independence
By editorial research reports
Tomorrow will be the 166th anniversary of the adoption of the American Declaration of Independence.
One interesting point about the Declaration of Independence is that it was adopted so tardily. More than a year previously, armed conflict had occurred with the English troops, an inter-Colonial Army under Gen. George Washington had been organized to carry on war, and George III had proclaimed the colonists in open rebellion.
The delay in proclaiming independence proved how slowly the colonists came around to the idea. In the interim, sentiment for breaking with the Mother Country had been augmented by a flood of pamphlets, sermons, speeches, newspaper articles.
It was on June 7, 1776, that Richard Henry Lee, for the Virginia delegation, presented a series of three resolutions for independence. The Congress held them in abeyance, but several days later, appointed a committee to draft a statement. Thomas Jefferson was chosen chairman because of his reputation as a facile writer. The other members were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston.
Jefferson composed the document. Some phrases he took verbatim from a rough draft which he had drawn up for a constitution for Virginia. He admitted afterwards that the ideas expressed were not original; they merely voiced sentiments which had become prevalent.
Jefferson accepted changes suggested by Franklin and Adams, then submitted his document to the Congress on June 28. Before adopting it on July 4, Congress made additional changes. For a last paragraph, it added the first of the Lee Resolutions. That had been passed on July 2. Independence was really first affirmed in this Lee Resolution rather than in the Declaration, which was designed primarily to explain and defend action already taken. Technically, therefore, the anniversary of American independence should be July 2 rather than July 4.
The Declaration falls into two divisions. The first presents the ideas about government which the colonists were adopting. Those were based largely on the philosophy of John Locke, which had been used to defend the revolution the English themselves had undertaken in 1688. In 1776, kings were still supposed to rule by divine right; hence it was important to explain why that thesis was being disputed.
The second part of the Declaration rehearses the wrongs perpetrated on the colonists by George III. No mention is made of Parliament, although the acts complained of had been voted by Parliament. Also, the Declaration ignores the rights of the colonists as British subjects, although these rights had been affirmed in the negotiations with Crown and Parliament. The colonists put themselves in a better legal position if they did not admit the power of Parliament over them and did not describe themselves as British subjects. If they were Americans tied to the Mother Country only by a voluntary pledge of allegiance to the King – like British colonials today – they were on better ground in freeing themselves from that allegiance when the King had wronged them.
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German-born man convicted of treason
Detroit, Michigan (UP) –
German-born Max Stephan, 49, Detroit tavern keeper, was found guilty of treason against the country of his adoption today by a federal court jury which deliberated an hour and 20 minutes.
Judge Arthur J. Tuttle instructed the jurors to consider only the government’s contention that in aiding Peter Krug, German Army flier, in his escape from Canadian and American military authorities, Stephan was helping the German war effort.
Maximum penalty on this, the first federal treason conviction in the United States in 150 years, is death by hanging. Minimum penalty is five years’ imprisonment and $10,000 fine.
Justice Department records disclosed it to be the first conviction of its kind since the Whisky Rebellion of 1791. Records showed that in each case during the Rebellion, a pardon was granted the convicted person. John Brown of Harper’s Ferry fame was hanged for treason, but not under federal statute. President Jefferson Davis of the Confederate States was charged with treason but was reprieved before trial. There were numerous prosecutions, but no convictions, during World War I.
Government attorneys said sentence will probably be imposed within a week or 10 days.
Krug escaped from a Bowmanville, Ontario, prison camp last April and, with money provided by Stephan and Theodore Donay, awaiting trial on a charge of concealing an act of treason from the government, fled to New York. He was captured May 1 at San Antonio, Texas.
Soldier and woman found dead in park
Fort Worth, Texas (UP) –
The hanging in a city park of a Camp Bowie, Texas, soldier from Springfield, Massachusetts, and an unidentified woman, presumably his wife, will be investigated by civil and military authorities to determine whether they were murdered, police said today.
The bodies were found late yesterday in a wooded section of Trinity Park. They had been hanged with pieces of sash cord, which had been purchased in a local store. The fact that a sales slip for the cord was found on one of the bodies prompted the theory that it was a case of murder and suicide, officers said.
The soldier was Donald J. Belden, who had been missing from his camp since June 25. The woman lived at the guest house at the camp for several days, registering as his wife. When he got a short leave, they came here together and registered at a hotel.
The couple had been dead for about five days.
Congressmen come and go but critics go on forever
Newspapers rapped them back in 1837, too – members now admit they’re pretty fine body
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MacArthur’s fliers blast Japs at Timor
Melbourne, Australia (UP) –
Allied planes scored direct hits and started fires in two heavy night attacks on the Jap airdrome, wireless action and building areas at Dili, in the Portuguese area of Timor Island, a General Headquarters communiqué announced today.
It was added that late reports indicated enemy casualties were greater than had been believed in the Allied night raid on Salamaua, in New Guinea, on the night of June 27.
Army relaxes standards for 1-B inductions
Men to be liable for limited military duty, Stimson says
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Viceroy of India to celebrate ‘4th’
By A. T. Steele
New Delhi, India –
When the Viceroy and Marchioness of Linlithgow entertain American diplomats, Air Force officers and newspaper correspondents at a Fourth of July reception at the Viceroy’s residence tomorrow night, they will be setting a precedent unthinkable in past years. Never before has American Independence Day been thus recognized by Indian officialdom.
Melbourne, Australia –
Americans and Australians began a joint observance of the United States’ Independence Day today when Mrs. Douglas MacArthur and U.S. Army representatives attended ceremonies at a theater. The program including the showing of motion pictures depicting the life of George Washington.
Tomorrow’s ceremonies will feature the laying of the foundation stone for the new U.S. legation at Canberra.