America at war! (1941– ) (Part 1)

1080

House passes bill fixing war powers

Exempts draft officials from Hatch Act

Washington, Feb, 28 (UP) –
The House today tentatively adopted, by voice vote, an amendment to the Second War Powers Bill which would exempt members of local draft boards from provisions of the Hatch “Clean Politics” Act.

The amendment was offered by Rep. James W. Wadsworth (r-NY), a co-sponsor of the Selective Service Act, He asserted that draft board members were not jobholders in the ordinary political sense.

Members of the board serve without compensation, he pointed out, and are appointed on recommendation of local sponsors by the government of their state, with the approval of the President.

Communities watch the draft boards with a “lynx eye,” he said, adding that he could not conceive of political activity in the selection of soldiers.

The House also tentatively wrote into the War Powers Bill an amendment providing that compensation paid to an owner of plant machinery seized by the government shall be based on the damage done to the business as a whole.

The amendment, approved by a teller vote of 91–77, was offered by Rep. Clarence E. Hancock (R-NY). It stipulates that compensation must amount to at least the difference between the value of the plant as a while before and after the machinery was removed.

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1081

War makes Patterson No. 1 spender in U.S.

Chief of procurement in Army will dish out $40,200 a minute
By Alexander R. George, Wide World Features writer

Washington, Feb. 28 –
A Republican who gave up a lifetime federal judgeship to become Assistant Secretary of War in the defense emergency has become the nation’s No. 1 spender.

Robert P. Patterson, now Under Secretary of War, in a spot to make Harry Hopkins in his big WPA days look like a miserly piker. As chief of Army procurement, Patterson will disburse some $21,000,000,000 in the next fiscal year.

That means dishing out about $1,750,000,000 a month, $58,000,000 a day, $2,416,000 an hour, $40,200 a minute. His monthly spending will be almost three times this country’s total outlay for the Spanish-American War, and his daily spending will be $23,000,000 more than our entire expenditure in the War of 1812.

Nine big outlets

As chief of the Army’s eight supply services, Patterson will direct the spending of some $16,500,000,000. In addition, he will supervise the expenditure of more than $4,000,000,000 in Lend-Lease funds for military supplies for troops of the United Nations.

Under Patterson’s supervision are three major and five minor purchasing agencies of the Army. The “big three” are the Ordnance Department ($7,935,000,000), The Air Corps ($5,000,000,000), and the Quartermaster Corps ($1,554,000,000).

Judge Patterson, a soldier-hero of World War I, went to camp at Plattsburg, NY, for a military “refresher” course following the fall of France in the summer of 1940. He was a buck private, paying his own way to train for national defense, when President Roosevelt appointed him Assistant Secretary of War.

A captain and a major of infantry in World War I, he won a Distinguished Service Cross for a daring daylight raid with two non-commissioned officers.

And he’s a southpaw

Under Secretary Patterson is a slight, wiry man; calm, plainspoken and unassuming. He is left-handed, an expert shot and keen about the Garand rifle. He has pitched hay, milked cows and run a tractor in his 70-acre farm on the Hudson River.

He was born 51 years ago in Glens Falls, NY, birthplace of Charles Evans Hughes, on Lincoln’s birthday. He was appointed a federal judge of the Southern District of New York by President Hoover in 1930. President Roosevelt promoted him to the Circuit Court of Appeals in 1939.

The Washington residence of the country’s No. 1 spender in an unpretentious Georgetown cottage, painted yellow. The Pattersons have four children, ranging in age from 4 to 18.

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1082

U.S. Navy Department (March 2, 1942)

Navy Communiqué No. 49

Admiral Ernest J. King, U. S. Navy, Commander in Chief, United States Fleet, made the following statement today:

I have noted the widespread interest in the press about what the United States Fleets are doing. Did this interest not exist I should be deeply concerned.

As to the activities of our fleets, the public can count with certainty upon being furnished all information which does not give aid and comfort to the enemy. The traditional title of the Navy as The Silent Service is, however, based on experience and necessity. It will have to be maintained.

On the other hand I can say, that while no miracles are to be expected, an all-out effort is being made in the unspectacular but vitally essential task of establishing our sea and air communications.

Appropriate measures are being taken to strengthen the key points of these communications, with a view to developing an offensive, which slowly but surely, will gain scope and power as we gain strength, through the production of aircraft, ships and guns.

Currently, therefore, the United States Fleets are carrying on with the basic idea to “Do more than your best with what you’ve got.” This means to take and make every opportunity to harass and damage the enemy, while building soundly for his ultimate defeat.

1083

Reading Eagle (March 2, 1942)

Taxicab force attacks Japs on Java
3 basic units are created by President

Ground, air and supply branches now under separate commands

Speeds functions

Each group will be under commanding general in setup

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1084

U.S. helping Free French guard isles

Gives some recognition to de Gaulle regime in Pacific, London told

Bases vital in war

Are stepping stones on route to New Zealand

London, March 2 (AP) –
The United States has given partial recognition to Free French rule in the Pacific and is cooperating in the defense of French islands there, Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s headquarters announced today. These islands are vital stepping stones along the route to New Zealand and Australia.

The Free French released a statement attributed to the United States Consul General at Nouméa, New Caledonia, which declared the United States government would deal with Free French authorities in “effective control” of French islands and:

…with no other French authority.

Authority recognized

De Gaulle’s French National Committee in London was named officially for the first time as the recognized authority governing the French Pacific possessions, although the United States maintains diplomatic relations with Marshal Pétain’s administration in Vichy.

The statement added:

In its relations with local French authorities in French territories, the United States has been and will continue to be governed by the manifest effectiveness with which those authorities endeavor to protect their territories from domination and control by the common enemy.

Islands described

France’s island possessions in the Pacific are primarily New Caledonia and Oceania, and their importance to the United States lies in their position athwart American sea lanes to Australia.

The islands of Oceania, of which Tahiti is the most important, have gone over to the De Gaullists.

New Caledonia, an island of 8,548 square miles devoted to agriculture and grazing, is the administrative center of several small groups with little economic importance.

The islands of Oceania are spread over a wide area of the South Pacific and include such groups as the Society Islands, of which Tahiti is one; the Marquesas Islands and the Leeward Islands.

1085

’Nazi planes’ used to hit MacArthur
Attacks made behind new battle line in Philippine fighting

Cause no damage

’Lost detachment’ wins glorious victory in northern Luzon

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1086

Probe explosions near Atlantic City

Blasts and heavy smoke reported at sea

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1087

Roosevelt streamlines U.S. Army
Smashing air assault aids motor cannon in battle on beaches

Havoc wrought among foe in counterdrive waged by defenders

Trucks join fray

Vehicles camouflaged by Dutch; enemy is 30 miles from Bandoeng

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1088

Flying Fortresses bomb Japanese invasion ships

Dutch armored wedges also roar into action against three enemy bridgeheads on island of Java in fierce battle

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1089

Convoy prey of wolf pack

Loss of at least four ships in mid-ocean related by survivors

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1090

MacArthur as chief in Pacific War urged

Sydney, Australia, March 2 (UP) –
The independent newspaper Telegraph urged today that Gen. Douglas MacArthur be named Commander-in-Chief of the United Nations in the Pacific on the ground that Gen. Sir Archibald Wavell’s United Nations Command had been moved westward to Burma and a new Pacific commander was required.

The Telegraph said that most of the “new” Pacific commander’s forces would be American and that the commander should be American.

It continued:

MacArthur has all the qualities needed to make a man acceptable to this country. He is dynamic, courageous and aggressive – unlike most generals on our side – successful.

His name is already a terror to the Japanese and a pick-me-up to the morale of the Pacific people.

1091

Destroyer on maiden voyage encounters, sinks Axis sub

Editor’s note:
This account of a recent engagement between a U.S. destroyer and an enemy submarine was written by an officer of the 3rd Naval District Public Relations Office, who saw the engagement.

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1092

Three clear Sen. Langer

Senate Minority Group urges dismissal of charges against him

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1093

$600,000 U.S. experiment in ‘co-op’ farming profitable

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1094

Service pay capital issue

Congress considering increased stipend for armed forces

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1095

Detroit housing riot leaves homes empty

Detroit, March 2 (AP) –
All dwelling in the big Sojourner Truth Defense Housing Project, over whose occupancy white persons and Negroes rioted Saturday, stood empty today with city authorities awaiting advice from Washington.

Mayor Edward J. Jeffries, who said it would take “at least 3,000 policemen” to place Negro families in the new homes, planned to go to Washington to consult with defense housing officials after the order to halt the projected tenancy.

Police guarded the area, where stones flew and steel bars and clubs were brandished at the height of the disturbance, and meanwhile arranged to bring more than 100 persons into court on various charges from inciting riot to felonious assault.

1096

News reports reveal preparedness of Japs

Noted authority on military affairs discusses dispatches sent by correspondent about Malaya
By John Callan O’Laughlin

One of the most notable reporting jobs of the wart has been the work of Harold Guard, of the United Press, in Malaya and Java. He has not been satisfied to confine his dispatches to surface facts alone, and his reports have been distinguished by their emphasis on why and how the Japanese were able to attain their objectives with such remarkable speed in the Southwest Pacific. Today, a distinguished authority on military and naval affairs, the publisher of the Army and Naval Journal in Washington, explains the importance of these reports to the American people and fighting forces.

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1097

Army commissions offered more men

Those with dependents given new opportunity

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1098

Describes drifting at sea to wife

Navy bomber pilot sends her radiogram

San Diego, Cal., March 2 (AP) –

Drifted ashore February 19. Doing nicely. Drifted at sea 34 days. Love.

Thus, by radiogram, did Harold E. Dixon, of La Mesa, Cal., Navy bomber pilot, advise his wife of his rescue from a South Pacific atoll and his safe arrival at some undesignated base in western waters.

The Navy Department at Washington had previously announced the discovery of Dixon and two companions on the pinpoint islet to which they had drifted in a rubber life raft after their bombing plane crashed at sea in January.

The Navy cited Dixon for his resourcefulness in wresting sustenance from the sea. He and his fellow airmen, Anthony J. Pastula, of Youngstown, Ohio, and Gene D. Aldrich, of Sikeston, Mo., lived for weeks on fish, birds and rain water.

They were emaciated and severely sunburned, but will return to duty soon.

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1099

Marshall urges war carried to enemy by freeing forces in U.S.
General hits at keeping Army fixed

Immobilization of men in continental America opposed in letter

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