America at war! (1941--) -- Part 2

5101

Negroes return to Detroit factories as race riot wanes

Army, police still patrol fight zones

Detroit, Michigan (UP) –
Negro workers returned to factories and boosted lagging war production to near-normalcy today as federal and state troops and city police patrolled streets in the wake of Detroit’s turbulent race riots.

Tension diminished considerably in the Negro district as Governor Harry F. Kelly abolished two of six restrictions included in his state of emergency order issued Monday during rioting which left 29 persons – 25 of them Negroes – dead and more than 700 injured.

Kelly said after a conference with Michigan State Police and military officials today that other restrictions may be lifted tomorrow, “if we get through today without incident.” He added, however, that the 10 p.m. curfew will remain in effect at least one more day.

3,900 troops on guard

Brig. Gen. William E. Gunther, in charge of federal troops in the area, announced there are now 3,900 federal soldiers in the city, including 2,100 infantry and 1,800 military police. In addition, 2,700 State Home Guard troops are here and another 2,600 have been alerted in event of further trouble.

Additional arrests were reported early today, boosting the total to more than 1,300. Thirty-four Negroes were given 90-day jail sentences yesterday and 15 others, including the first five white defendants, received similar sentences today.

A brighter production picture was reported by all major automotive concerns, which yesterday said Negro absenteeism ranged as high as 75%.

Kelly, describing the 1,300 arrests made since the outbreak of fighting, said “at least 75% of the trouble” was caused by boys 15-21 and that three-fourths of all persons arrested are under 21.

Troopers at ballpark

Although Kelly announced that baseball and horse-racing would be permitted today, he ordered dispatch of 350-man state troop contingents both to the Detroit Fairgrounds Speedway and to Briggs Stadium, where the Tigers meet Cleveland in a doubleheader. Both a ball game and the race meet were called off yesterday.

White and Negro leaders attributed the riots to fifth-column activities and the Ku Klux Klan.

Walter White, secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the Klan and “Nazi money” circulating here had “something to do with inciting the riots,” and expressed apprehension over what may happen when the soldiers leave.

5102

Says her daughter, on trial for murder, never dated a boy

…

5103

White Savage exotic film in Technicolor, al Albee Theater, with The Ox-Bow Incident

…

5104

WAVES will drill as Dodgers rest

…

5105

The Pittsburgh Press (June 23, 1943)

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

Somewhere in Africa –
You know me when I get started traveling – I just can’t ever seem to stop. So, I came back to North Africa from the tropics by the longest possible route I could find – via Egypt.

It’s a long haul. It takes you clear across Africa, down the Nile, and back along the whole Mediterranean shore. It takes you into parts of deepest Africa that few Americans had ever seen before this war. It makes you realize more than ever how completely global, poking into the farthest and tiniest recesses, this war really is.

Nearly everywhere you go you find some American troops, from mere handful up into thousands. They are not fighting troops, they are the builders and maintainers of airdromes, who sort of catch our multitudes of airplanes and toss them on to the next station on their long haul from America to Russia, India, China.

The men who staff these remote landing fields up and down Africa live a strange and almost inconceivable kind of existence. They are completely divorced from life as they know it back home, and from the war, and from all normal associations with people of their own kind. And yet, because of the airplane and the radio, they keep in close mental touch with the world.

At the most weirdly isolated places they get mail from home quicker than we do in North Africa. They set themselves up in permanent quarters more homelike than ours in the north. They are in no danger, but they must bear the great crosses of heat, isolation and monotony. On the whole, they don’t seem to mind it much.

At one certain field, our men have built a big permanent camp. Overnight transients are assigned to wooden cots in open barracks. Each block has toilets and showers, and it’s wonderful to get under that water after a hard day of flying. At the back of each block is a big electric refrigerator, and it is filled with scores of Coca-Cola bottles, containing not Coca-Cola but cold water. You drink continuously in these hot places.

There is only one white woman – a British nurse – within 200 miles. All gasoline has to be trucked 375 miles from the end of the nearest railroad. And yet things aren’t so bad. Listen–

Beautiful Arabian horse abound there. Before the Americans came, you could buy one for $20. Now the price has gone up to $50, but even so you’ve got a horse that would cost you $500-$1000 back home. There are 175 Americans in this camp, and 50 of them own their own horses.

Down there when you buy a horse you don’t just buy a horse. You also buy (all included in the $50) the bridle, the blanket, the saddle, the horseboy, and the horseboy’s whole family!

Our men have built a big three-sided barn. On one side are the horses’ stalls. At the end the feed and saddles are kept. Along the other side, the horseboys and their families live.

A horseboy does nothing whatsoever except feed and care for your horse. It’s his craft. You wouldn’t think of asking him to do anything else. He sticks with that horse as long as the horse lives, and if he doesn’t like the new owner, professional ethics make him stick with you regardless.

And are you wondering about the upkeep of an Arabian horse and horseboy and horseboy’s family? Well, I raised that question and discovered that the total cost of feed for the horse, pay for the boy and food for his whole family is – 10¢ a day. Horsemen, here’s your paradise.

The commanding officer at this place is Lt. George Hester, of Tubac, Arizona. He spent five years with American Airlines in the States and with Pan American Airways in Central America before coming over here. He likes his work and finds the life interesting and full.

For instance, he was telling me about a recent huge conclave of chiefs, a sort of annual review climaxed by a parade of 500 horsemen. As commandant, Lt. Hester was asked to sit with the big chief and review the parade.

He says it was one of the most moving sights he had ever seen.

The horses were flamboyantly decked out, some of them in red velvet pants, and a thousand of the 5,000 horsemen wore coats of mail that had been handed down right from the day of the Crusaders.

These Negroes are mostly Mohammedans. They seem to have a tinge of Arabian in them, and they speak a language that is incomprehensible to the coastal Negroes.

These people dead in the heart of Africa know little about what goes on in the world. The average native knows vaguely that there is a war on, but he can’t conceive of its proportions because he actually doesn’t know how big the world is. His conception of the Allies is merely that England is big and American generous. He knows little about the oceans. He knows roughly that America is somewhere west and Cairo somewhere east, near Mecca. He has never heard of Japan.

I think maybe he’s got something there.

5106

Völkischer Beobachter (June 24, 1943)

Weiße und Schwarze 36 Stunden im Kampf –
Die Unruhen in Detroit

Von unserer Stockholmer Schriftleitung

Stockholm, 23. Juni –
Über die Negerkrawalle in Detroit wird noch bekannt, daß 1.300 Personen, von denen 83 Prozent Neger sind, verhaftet wurden. In einem von Stockholms Tidningen wiedergegebenen privaten Bericht aus Neuyork heißt es, daß Neger und Weiße 36 Stunden erbittert gegeneinander kämpften.

Die „Schlacht“ fand ihren Höhepunkt in einem großen von Negern bewohnten Miethaus, von wo aus die Neger scharf auf ihre Gegner schossen.

Die Polizei trieb mit Gasbomben und Gewehrfeuer die Mieter heraus, von denen die meisten nur Schlafanzüge anhatten. Zwei Negerhäuser wurden niedergebrannt, die Truppen stellten die Ordnung schließlich mit Geschützen wieder her. 1.100 Soldaten, die mit Stahlhelmen, Gewehren und Maschinengewehren ausgerüstet sind, patrouillieren mit Hilfe der Staatspolizei die Straßen ab.

Die verlogene Erklärung der Behörden, daß diese schweren Zusammenstöße „von der 5. Kolonne verursacht wurden, die die nationale Einigkeit und die innere Produktionsfront brechen wollte,“ wurde vom Chef für das staatliche Untersuchungsbüro dementiert, der davon sprach, „daß die Krawalle durch plötzlich ausbrechenden Rassenhaß hervorgerufen wurden.“

Die schweren Arbeiterunruhen in Detroit, der Stadt der Ford-Werke, die erst nach blutigen Straßenkämpfen durch von Roosevelt aufgebotene Truppen beendet werden konnten, haben in Washington größtes Entsetzen hervorgerufen.

In unterrichteten Kreisen Washingtons wird erklärt, daß die Unruhen von Detroit keineswegs unerwartet gekommen seien. Das immer stärkere Vordringen der amerikanischen Neger in den Industriebezirken des amerikanischen Ostens und Nordens hätte früher oder später zu einer gewaltsamen Abwehr durch die weiße Bevölkerung führen müssen, die sich durch den Strom der Negereinwanderung in ihrer Existenz bedroht fühle. Die Arbeiter von Detroit hätten mit ansehen müssen, wie ein Posten nach dem anderen, der bisher lediglich Weißen Vorbehalten geblieben war, in die Hand der Negerarbeiter fiel, die billiger, anspruchsloser und willfähriger seien. Der Neger sei durch die Umschmeichelung, mit der ihn hohe Regierungsstellen seit Kriegsbeginn umgeben, anspruchsvoller denn je geworden und verlange seine Gleichstellung mit der weißen Bevölkerung. Ein solcher Versuch aber würde in den Südstaaten der Union mit einer Revolution beantwortet werden.

5107

Die politisch unzuverlässigen Amerikaner –
Englische Vorhalte und die Wirklichkeit

Von unserer Stockholmer Schriftleitung

Stockholm, 23. Juni –
In England ist man geneigt, die Amerikaner „wegen ihrer politischen Unzuverlässigkeit,“ die in Streikbewegungen, Sabotageakten, Negerunruhen und nicht endenden Streitereien zwischen Arbeiterschaft und Unternehmertum zum Ausdruck kommt, streng zu tadeln.

Man geht in England, wie aus einer Meldung des Svenska Dagbladet aus London hervorgeht, sogar so weit, zu behaupten, daß es, obwohl man gerade in der Kohlenindustrie mit großen Schwierigkeiten zu kämpfen habe, in England bisher nicht zu Arbeitsniederlegungen gekommen sei.

Zum Pech dieser offiziellen Sprachregelung hat das statistische Amt Englands aber gerade zur gleichen Zeit völlig anderslautende Angaben über die Lage auf dem Arbeitsmarkt herausgegeben. Aus ihnen geht hervor, daß es im Jahre 1942 1.303 mal zu Meinungsverschiedenheiten zwischen den Arbeitern und den Unternehmern kam, im Jahre 1941 dagegen „nur“ 1.251 mal. In diese Streiks waren etwa 349.500 Arbeiter verwickelt. Dazu kommen noch fünf Streikaktionen, die im Jahre 1941 ihren Anfang nahmen und im nächsten Jahre fortgesetzt wurden. Die Zahl der in Streik getretenen Arbeiter erhöhte sich dadurch auf 456.700 im Vergleich zu 361.500 im Jahre 1941.

Zwei Fünftel dieser Streiks gingen – das ist das interessanteste an den Angaben des statistischen Amtes – auf Konto der Kohlengrubenindustrie. Die Engländer haben also kaum Grund, auf die Amerikaner in irgend einer Weise „herabzusehen,“ nur weil die amerikanische Arbeiterschaft noch unzufriedener und darum noch undisziplinierter und unruhiger ist.

Die Konflikte innerhalb der Kohlenindustrie in den USA. zeigen, wie wenig es Roosevelt bisher gelungen ist, der drohenden Inflationsentwicklung in den USA. Einhalt zu gebieten. Diese Entwicklung wird, wie aus einer Meldung von Svenska Dagbladet hervorgeht, von der Londoner City mit allergrößter Besorgnis verfolgt. „Dunkle Prophezeiungen“ über die wirtschaftlichen Zukunftsaussichten der USA. gehören zum Tagesgespräch der englischen Geschäftswelt. Diese stehe auf dem Standpunkt, daß Amerika nach dem Kriege von einer „schweren Inflation“ betroffen würde. Banknotenumlauf, Warenpreise, Arbeitslöhne und Börsennotierungen seien Zeichen, aus denen man eine vorliegende Inflationsgefahr gut ablesen könne. Die Londoner City führt folgende Zahlen an: Die amerikanischen Industrielöhne wurden im vorigen Jahr um 15 Prozent erhöht, der Banknotenumlauf steigerte sich in der gleichen Zeit um 50 Prozent, die Industrieaktien seien seit Jänner um über 20 Prozent gestiegen und schließlich werden die amerikanischen Kriegsausgaben nur bis zu 30 Prozent durch Besteuerung gedeckt. Verglichen mit der amerikanischen Inflationstendenz seien, so stellen die Londoner Geschäftsleute fest, die englischen Anzeichen für eine Inflation verschwindend gering.

5108

Die Sowjets als ‚anständige Nation‘ –
Davies und die gleichgestimmten Seelen

dnb. Vigo, 23. Juni –
Roosevelts Sonderbeauftragter für Moskau, Joseph Davies, sprach auf einer Versammlung der kanadisch-sowjetischen Vereinigung über seine Reiseeindrücke in Moskau. Dabei betonte er, daß gegenseitiges Vertrauen und gegenseitige Achtung zwischen der Sowjetunion, Kanada und den USA von besonderer Bedeutung seien. Meinungsverschiedenheiten in ideologischer und religiöser Hinsicht dürften Übereinstimmung und Vertrauen in den lebenswichtigen Fragen in keiner Weise beeinträchtigen.

Mit besonderer Betonung verkündete Davies:

Die Ziele und die Politik der Sowjetunion stimmen sowohl im Kriege als auch im Frieden mit dem überein, was wir und alle anständigen Nationen von Herzen wünschen. Die Sowjetregierung hat den beneidenswerten Ruf, ihr gegebenes Wort gehalten zu haben.

Ein recht bemerkenswertes Urteil über den Bolschewismus, dem, da es aus dem Munde eines Roosevelt sehr nahestehenden Mannes stammt, immerhin einige Bedeutung zukommt. Der Diktator im Kreml mag gelächelt haben, als er von dieser Kriecherei einer Roosevelt-Kreatur erfuhr.

Streik in den USA beendet

dnb. Bern, 23. Juni –
Wie aus Washington gemeldet wird, wurde der Kohlenarbeiterstreik in den USA beendet. Die Bergarbeitergewerkschaft habe die Rückkehr der Kohlenarbeiter an ihre Arbeitsstätten angeordnet. Innenminister Ickes sei im Aufträge der Regierung zum Treuhänder der Bergwerke ernannt worden, unter dem nunmehr die Arbeitsleistung zu vollziehen sei.

5109

Die USA.-Juden gegen Shakespeare

(dnb.)

Im Namen von fünf Millionen Juden hat das American Jewish Committee gefordert und durchgesetzt, daß Shakespeares Kaufmann von Venedig in den nordamerikanischen Theatern nicht mehr aufgeführt wird. Als Begründung wurde angegeben, daß Shakespeares Darstellung des Juden Shylock „für die jüdische Rasse verletzend“ sei. Die Theater kamen der Forderung des in den USA. allmächtigen jüdischen Ausschusses natürlich sofort nach.

5110

U.S. Navy Department (June 24, 1943)

Communiqué No. 422

South Pacific.
On June 20, during the night, a U.S. light surface unit was unsuccess­fully attacked by a Japanese plane in the vicinity of Savo Island.

On June 22‑23, during the night, two U.S. patrol craft were unsuccess­fully strafed by a Japanese floatplane in the vicinity of the Russell Islands.

5111

The Free Lance-Star (June 24, 1943)

U.S. Armed Forces report 87,304 casualties in war

Washington (AP) –
The U.S. Armed Forces have suffered 87,304 announced casualties in all war theaters to date. Of that number, 15,132 were killed in action or died of wounds.

Army casualties total 63,958, Secretary of War Stimson said, and the Navy’s latest list, also issued today, placed Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard losses at 26,902, with 7,604 dead, 4,732 wounded, 11,010 missing and 3,556 prisoners of war in its three branches.

The lull in recent fighting has permitted the Army to complete a tabulation of its casualty reports, Stimson told his press conference, disclosing that the Army lost 7,528 men who were killed in action or died of wounds, 17,128 wounded, 22,687 missing and 16,615 officially reported prisoners of the Japanese, the Germans or the Italians.

The Secretary said:

While our casualties have been heavy, it is certain that in practically all theaters of war in which our troops have been engaged, the enemy’s losses have been much greater than our own.

Expect heavier losses

He added, however, that future military operations are likely to involve much greater numbers of our troops and that correspondingly heavier casualties should be expected.

Thus far, Stimson said, the defensive campaign in the Philippines remains the costliest in casualties. The total, including the Philippine Scouts but not the Philippine Constabulary or the Commonwealth Army, is 31,610. Most of these are presumed to be prisoners, he said, and many have been so reported officially.

Because of the failure to receive casualty reports during the last bitter days of fighting in both Bataan and on Corregidor, the Secretary cautioned that the Philippine casualty figures probably include some duplications, many listed as wounded presumably being also included among the missing and the prisoners, and probably many of those listed as missing being killed or wounded in the final days of combat.

Detailed figures

The Philippines figures, he said, show 1,273 killed, 1,746 wounded, 17,939 missing, and 10,652 prisoners.

For other theaters, he supplies these figures:

ASIA (291): 131 killed, 15 wounded, 85 missing, 60 prisoners.

CENTRAL PACIFIC, INCLUDING PEARL HARBOR (741): 272 killed, 412 wounded, 57 missing, no prisoners.

EUROPE (2,890): 436 killed, 664 wounded, 1,196 missing, 594 prisoners.

LATIN AMERICA (37): 8 killed, 3 wounded, 26 missing, no prisoners.

MIDDLE EAST, INCLUDING 9th AIR FORCE (462): 106 killed, 96 wounded, 214 missing, 46 prisoners.

NORTH AFRICA (18,738): 2,574 killed, 9,437 wounded, 1,620 missing and 5,107 prisoners.

NORTH AMERICA, INCLUDING ALASKA AND GREENLAND (2,324): 864 killed, 1,246 wounded, 214 missing, no prisoners.

SOUTH PACIFIC, INCLUDING GUADALCANAL (2,023): 622 killed, 1,165 wounded, 233 missing, no prisoners.

SOUTHWEST PACIFIC, INCLUDING NEW GUINEA (4,842): 1,242 killed, 2,344 wounded, 1,100 missing (including 500 listed after the capture of Java by the Japanese), 156 prisoners.

5112

Army to get 115,000 new planes

…

5113

Nazis hear riots in U.S. ‘explained’

New York (AP) –
The Nazi-controlled Vichy radio asserted today that Detroit’s race riots were symptomatic of:

…the internal disorganization of a country torn by social injustice, race hatreds, regional disputes, the violence of an irritated proletariat and the gangsterism of a capitalistic police.

The broadcast was recorded by CBS.

The rioting was declared to be both a handicap to war production and an indication of the scope of what the radio said was “the moral and social crisis in the United States.”

5114

U.S. planes bomb Makassar

Raid grim warning to Japs of what is yet to come

…

5115

Marine machine-gunner stood off Jap regiment

…

5116

Brooklyn Eagle (June 24, 1943)

Weigh coal rationing

Ickes sees threat as thousands of miners stay out

…

5117

House group votes to make Davis food czar

Ignores President’s wishes by approving measure 18–8

…

5118

Roosevelt faces fight on plan to draft 65s

…

5119

Joan spurns soldier who claims paternity

…

5120

Detroit curbs eased as four probe rioting

Detroit, Michigan (UP) –
Governor Harry F. Kelly ordered further relaxation of his emergency proclamation today as “nearly normal” conditions prevailed and a fact-finding committee inquired into the causes of Detroit’s race riot in which 31 Negroes and whites were killed.

The Governor lifted all restrictions in outlying Oakland and Macomb Counties and extended the Wayne County (Detroit) curfew from 10 a.m. to midnight. He also granted permission for sale of liquor in Wayne County from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Since Monday’s rioting, there has been an absolute ban on sale of alcoholic beverages.

Kelly’s new order, indicative of generally calm conditions, came as authorities sped prosecution of more than 1,300 persons arrested during the bloody riots.

Today’s supplementary order left in effect bans on public assemblies and carrying of firearms. It moved the closing time for places of amusement from 9:15 to 11 p.m., but permitted their opening at 6 a.m.

Kelly urged:

…a generous display of the American flag… to raise the morale and restore the peace of mind of the good citizens of Detroit, who may take comfort in the knowledge that they are under the protection of the greatest free and democratic nation in the world.