WLB freezes labor contracts
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Showdown at hand on $25,000 limit
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Wibecan pleads for equal rights in Lincoln Day talk
Says Americans after war will mean end of discrimination
In a plea for equal rights for Americans of all races and religions, George E. Wibecan, former confidential inspector for the late Borough President Ingersoll, in a Lincoln’s Birthday address over WNYC yesterday, declared that Americanism after the war would take on a new meaning:
…with no color distinction, no race prejudices or religious discriminations.
The broadcast was sponsored by the Crispus Attucks Community Council, with headquarters at the Carlton Branch of the YMCA, 405 Carlton Ave. Mr. Wibecan said:
The lesson of Lincoln’s life and leadership was never more pregnant with meaning than now. A product of the plain people, he believed that the government was made for the people and that all men were equally endowed oy me creator with lights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Let the spirit of Lincoln then be a guide to our men in the higher councils of the nation, that they may understand “might does not make right” and that the liberty of no citizen is assured so long as there exists anywhere under our flag, the individual, white or black, who does not enjoy those rights.
Renewed allegiance
Mr. Wibecan pointed out that the Negro people of the nation look upon Lincoln’s birthday as an occasion to renew their allegiance to America:
…because of an abiding faith in its traditions and in the leadership of the great men and women who laid its foundations.
He declared:
In time of stress and national need, the Negro can be counted upon to defend our flag and our institutions and to help preserve those immortal memories made possible by the struggles of our ancestors.
Kuhn’s wife and son jailed as enemy aliens
Mrs. Elsa Kuhn and Walter Kuhn, 16, wife and son of Fritz Kuhn, former leader of the German-American Bund, now in jail for stealing its funds, are interned as enemy aliens.
They were seized with eight other Germans and one Japanese yesterday as Federal Judge John Bright concluded the taking of testimony in the government’s suit to revoke the citizenship of Kuhn and 19 other Bundists. His decision will be ready next week, he said.
It was believed that Kuhn’s wife and son were arrested because they had seemingly continued their interest in the Bund and its associate youth movement, even after Kuhn himself was sent to prison in 1939.
At the time Kuhn was on trial, it was stated that many of the leaders associated with Kuhn took the position that Kuhn’s use of Bund funds did not constitute larceny. The FBI statement announcing the apprehension of the wife and son carried the inference that the boy engaged in activities in line with the policies of the Bund, for, while his father’s citizenship is in effect, he, too, in a citizen of the United States.
Editorial: Churchill speech heartening shows Allies’ cooperation
To the ordinary American, the noteworthy parts of Prime Minister Churchill’s report to the House of Commons were those that indicated the growth of understanding and cooperation among the United Nations.
Proud as every American must be that our Gen. Eisenhower is Allied Supreme Commander in the African-Mediterranean theater, Gen. Eisenhower’s appointment to that position of great responsibility is of less importance than the fact that Britain and the United States are agreed that the African command must be unified.
Equally gratifying is it to be told that members of the British and American High Commands have conferred with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in China, and with Field Marshal Wavell in India. Implicit in Mr. Churchill’s speech was the indication that the plans for global victory hammered out on the anvil at Casablanca were made with the full knowledge of Joseph Stalin.
All of this is the best possible sign that our war leaders are thinking along worldwide lines, and realize that victory must be achieved as a whole, that military and political moves in one area must be coordinated with moves in all other areas if victory is not to be too long delayed.
Mr. Churchill’s optimistic view of the submarine situation was somewhat surprising in the light of the thoroughly depressing statements that have been issued on this side of the water. One can only hope that the Prime Minister’s views will be justified by the events to come.
Indeed, his whole speech rang with the confidence of a man who never has faltered in his stubborn faith in victory but who now at last feels himself in a position to promise heavy offensive blows, the blows that will bring down the Western bastions of the German fortress as the Russians are bringing down the bastions of the East.
Navy likely to hand football final kayo
Announcement today expected to follow Army’s lead in barring soldiers at colleges from intercollegiate athletics
By Paul Scheffels
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Post-war boxing boom seen by Louis
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The Pittsburgh Press (February 13, 1943)
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
A forward airdrome in French North Africa – (Feb. 12, by wireless)
Although our fighter pilots are shooting down more German planes than we are losing, still they have a deep and healthy respect for the German airmen.
One of the boys said:
They apparently brought their very best men to Africa because the newcomers sure know their business. There are no green hands among them.
American fliers who have been captured, and then escaped, report that there seems to be a sort of camaraderie among airmen – not in the air, but on the ground. There is no camaraderie at all in the air – it’s fight to the death and nothing else.
The other night the boys were recalling stories from the last war. They had read how Allied and German fighters would shoot up all their ammunition and then fly alongside each other and salute before starting home. There is none of that stuff in North Africa.
Our pilots really lead lonesome lives over here. There is nothing on earth for them to do but talk to each other. In two weeks, you’ve talked a guy out, and after that it’s just the same old conversation day after day.
The boys hang around the field part of the day, when they’re not flying; then go to their rooms and lie in their bunks. They’ve read themselves and talked themselves out. There are no movies, no dances, no parties, no women – nothing. They just lie on their cots.
One of them said:
We’ve got so damn lazy we hardly bother to go to the toilet. We’re no damn good for anything on earth anymore except flying.
Flying a fighter plane is not comfortable. There is so much to do, and you’re so cramped, and you strain so constantly watching for the enemy. Also, fighter cockpits are not heated. The pilots get terribly cold at 25,000 and 30,000 feet. They don’t wear electrically heated suits. In fact, they can’t even wear too heavy flying clothes, for their bulk would have made it impossible to twist around in the cockpit. They wear only their ordinary uniforms with coveralls on top of those, plus flying boots and gloves. And they can’t even wear really heavy flying gloves.
One of them said:
Our bodies don’t get so cold, it’s our hands and feet. Sometimes they get so cold they’re numb.
Said another:
It’s funny, but you’re never cold when you’re in a fight. You actually get to sweating, and when it’s over your underwear is all wet in back. Of course, that makes you get all the colder afterwards.
It’s interesting to sit in with a bunch of pilots in the evening after they’ve returned from their first mission. They’re so excited they are practically unintelligible. Their eyes are bloodshot, they are red-faced with excitement, and they are so terrifically stimulated they can’t quiet down. Life has never been more wonderful. They tell the same story of their day’s adventure over and over two dozen times before bedtime. The other night one boy couldn’t eat his supper. Another one couldn’t go to sleep.
The older boys listen patiently. They were that way not so long ago themselves. They know that battle maturity will come quickly. Just drop in a few weeks from now.
The Afro-American (February 13, 1943)
U.S. women reach troops in Africa
Even there Army sets up a colored movie
By Ollie Stewart, AFRO war correspondent in North Africa
Casablanca, Morocco – (by cable)
The arrival here of the first three colored Red Cross workers to reach North Africa for the opening of the special service club for colored soldiers, gives a new lease on life to the entertainment program long awaited by enlisted men and officers alike in the battle area.
Coming here after months in England, the three workers are Miss Mae Moore, Miss Geraldine Dyson and Sidney Williams. Miss Moore is from Atlanta where she graduated from Clark University and the Atlanta School of Social Work, but for the past few years, she worked as an NYA project supervisor in Washington and as junior admitting clerk in Freedmen’s Hospital.
Miss Dyson, of Akron, Ohio, attended Kent University, Kent, Ohio, and was formerly physical education instructor at Vashon High School in St. Louis.
Williams comes from St. Louis and is alumnus of South Carolina State and the University of Chicago. For many years, he worked with the St. Louis Urban League but in 1936 he visited Russia, France and England as a delegate to the International Social Workers’ Conference.
He was in charge of opening of the Duchess Club for soldiers in London early this year.
What club is like
The new service club is located in a spacious building which has been renovated and it is expected to be the meeting place for soldiers from various units in the area. It has a snack bar, bunking accommodations, and reading and entertainment rooms. Plans are underway to have the celebrated Josephine Baker make an early appearance. Now completely recovered from her illness, Miss Baker promised this correspondent during a recent visit to Casablanca that she would be happy to take part in a show for the troops.
Jim Crow theater
Soldiers now have movies three times a week. The Colisee Theatre for colored troops has Cpl. Wilbert J. Whitehead of Richmond, Virginia, and Pvt. Johnny Moore as operators. For a half hour before movies, the QM Orchestra entertains. It is composed of: Pvt. William Booker, piano; Cpl. William Gaines, Pvt. Howard Willis and Sgt. Wilbur Fields, trumpets; Pvt. Paul Reavis, T/Sgt. Robert Claxton and Cpl. Morris Meador, saxophones, all from NYC, except Pvt. Church.
ARMY IGNORES ACE FLIERS
Hastie explains how U.S. Air Force keeps itself lily-white
Lists 5 men given runaround, says U.S. losing respect of Axis, democracies whom we try to lead
Washington –
In a second statement showing how the U.S. Air Force is keeping itself lily-white, Dr. William H. Hastie, recently resigned civilian aide to the Secretary of War, this week lists five expert fliers who were turned down by the government because of their color.
The fliers that were refused include:
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James L. H. Peck, a fighter pilot in the Spanish Civil War, and one of America’s best-known authors in military and civilian aviation;
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Fred H. Hutcherson, working for Canada flying American-made planes to England;
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Gilbert Cargill, who was ordered to Maxwell Field, reported for work and was flatly turned down at the front office;
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Charles Ashe, who suffered the same fate as befell Mr. Cargill at Maxwell Field;
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Robert Terry, who had been rejected as an Army pilot months before.
Peck still a young man
Mr. Peck, although a veteran in the field of aviation, is a man in his early 30s. Mr. Hastie says of him:
Had he been white, the only question would have been whether the Army or the Navy could have grabbed him first. But, being colored, he doesn’t have to worry about the Navy at all. And the Army has been more than deliberate in consideration of his application.
Speaking of Mr. Hutcherson, Mr. Hastie avers:
He is young in years but old in flying experience. When I met him last spring, he was working in Canada, flying American-made planes to England. He had just delivered his sixth bomber to England in command of a white crew and returned to Canada.
He later came to Washington and spent days going from office to office, trying to get action. He felt that he was getting nowhere, so he went back to Canada.
He can remember 369th
If it is any consolation to him, he can remember that in the last war, there was a whole colored regiment which the American Army did not want. But the 369th went on and did its fighting with the French, who were glad to have it, and it came back with battle honors such as few regiments of any army could match.
Continuing, Mr. Hastie said:
One day last December, a colored civilian pilot received the following telegram from the Army Air Forces:
You are authorized to report to Maxwell Field for service pilot training. You must have clear release from present employment.
There was nothing unusual about this message. The Air Forces are recruiting large numbers of civilian pilots, many of them overage for combat flying or lacking the physical perfection required of the combat pilot.
‘Taken for a ride’
These men become Army fliers and perform the many essential flying missions, other than combat, which the Army requires. But two of the men who received such directions to report for training were colored. They were Cargill and Ashe who reported to Maxwell Field, but never got any farther than the front office.
They were told bluntly that no provision was made for training colored men. It is still not clear what special provision is necessary. They did not even get a refund of their train fare. They just got a ride.
Probably Cargill and Ashe did not know that Terry had been rejected as an Army service pilot months before.
Certainly, they did not know that the Air Command is handicapped by that type of mentality which cannot picture a colored pilot flying a plane into a strange field, sitting down to dinner with other fliers, taking temporary quarters with them, then flying off on another mission.
Segregation seen as hitch
Of course, it just isn’t possible to segregate a man who is working as a service pilot. So, we have no black service pilots.
Colored specialists of various kinds have received similar treatment. The few colored air units do not require many specialists. And the colored specialist, in military contemplation, can exercise his skill only for other colored persons.
One colored applicant is told in November 1942 that:
At the present time, there are no further vacancies available for the training of colored aviation cadets for service as ground officers as the quota for the coming year has been filled.
To another applicant, the Air Command explains in greater detail:
Reference is made to your letter of October 20, 1942, requesting information relative to training facilities, with the Army Air Forces for colored meteorologists.
There are at present no colored Air Force weather groups, nor are any contemplated in the near future. However, there is now one colored meteorologist attached to a colored Air Force fighter group, and six others in training who will be attached to colored fighter groups upon graduation.
It is believed by the Army Air Forces that the above-mentioned seven colored meteorologists will take care of their needs for quite some time.
This doesn’t mean you
Yet on January 8, 1943, the War Department published the following announcement:
To fill the urgent need for more than 1,000 meteorologists in the Air Forces, men between the ages of 18 and 30, inclusive, qualified for meteorological training, will be certified for voluntary induction into the Army as aviation cadets in meteorology.
This may not make sense, but it is understandable. Weather may be black, or it may be fair, but the skin of the man who makes the weather calculation has to match the skin of the flier who uses the information.
At a press conference on November 19, 1942, the Secretary of War explained that relatively less colored men would be in the Air Forces than in some other branches of the Army because of the particular skills required in aviation.
He said:
There are some branches which require specialists and for which the number of men has to be determined by the number and capacity of the recruits who are available for it.
Unquestionably the Secretary spoke in good faith. But on the record, the Air Command does not want all the colored specialists who are available.
Until we abandon this stupid notion that colored specialists can work only for and with other colored persons, James Peck and Fred Hutcherson, and potential colored service pilots and meteorologists will continue to be wasted.
And, so long as we tolerate such vicious nonsense, we can be respected neither by the forces of fascism which we condemn nor by the forces of democracy which we assume to lead.
DAWSON HALTS PURGE OF PICKENS
Maiden speech of Illinois Congressman cheered heartily
New House member flies from Chicago to defend Treasury employee Dies would purge
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U.S. has 62,005 BWI aliens, 5,050 from Africa
Of 4,291,451 aliens registered in the United States (Dec. 31, 1940), 62,005 are from the British West Indies, 13,433 from Cuba, 219 from Liberia, 44 from Ethiopia, 1,244 from Egypt, 83,677 from the Philippines. From all sections of Africa, the total is 5,050.
More than a quarter of all the aliens (1,235,425) were found in New York City. California (with 531,000) is second, Pennsylvania (365,000) third, Massachusetts (360,000) fourth, Illinois (320,000) fifth, Michigan (296,000) sixth and New Jersey (275,000) seventh.
The report on alien registration submitted to the Attorney General by Commissioner Earl C. Harrison of the Immigration and Naturalization Service on Feb. 1, showed 314,000 alien Germans in this country; 695,000 alien Italians; 191,000 Austrians and 116,000 Hungarians.