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

Nikola Tesla, discoverer of radio principle, dies

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New York (UP) –
Nikola Tesla, 86, the electrical genius who discovered the fundamental principle of modern radio, was found dead in his hotel room last night.

He died in bed sometime yesterday. The maid who cleaned his room every day found the body. Gaunt in his last years, he had lately been wasting away.

Tesla was never married. He has always lived alone, and the hotel management did not believe he had any near relatives.

Despite his more than 700 inventions, he was not wealthy. He cared little for money, and so long as he could experiment, he was happy. Much of the time, he did not even have a laboratory and worked where he lived.

Invented arc lighting

He was the first to conceive an effective method of utilizing alternating current, and in 1888 patented the induction motor, which converted electrical energy into mechanical energy more effectively and economically than by direct current. Among his other principal inventions were arc lighting and the Tesla coil.

As a young engineer, Mr. Tesla was hired in 1887 by George Westinghouse to develop the alternating current induction motor. He conducted these experiments in Pittsburgh, then left the organization three years later.

Working independently, he continued his experiments with high potential, high frequency alternating currents, and is noted for his invention of the polyphase alternating current motor.

He once said:

The radio. I know I’m its father, but I don’t like it. I just don’t like it. It’s a nuisance. I never listen to it. The radio is a distraction and keeps you from concentrating. There are too many distractions in this life for quality of thought, and it is quality of thought, not quantity, that counts.

Evidently, he did a lot of thinking that never materialized. It was his custom on his birthday – July 10 – to announce to reporters the shape of things to come.

On his 76th birthday, he announced:

The transmission of energy to another plant is only a matter of engineering. I have solved the problem so well I don’t regard it as doubtful.

On another birthday, he predicted that power would soon be projected without wires through the stratosphere.

When he was 78, he announced he had perfected a “death beam” that would bring down a fleet of 10,000 enemy planes 250 miles from a nation’s borders and make millions of soldiers drop dead in their tracks. His beam, he said, would make war impossible.

Born in Croatia

Tesla was born in Smiljan, Croatia, when it was part of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. His first electrical invention was the telephone repeater, which he perfected in 1881 while working for the Austrian government.

Three years later, he came to the United States, became a citizen and an associate of the late Thomas A. Edison. Later, he established the Tesla Laboratory in New York and devoted himself to research.

He had lived at the hotel where he died for years, and amused himself by feeding pigeons in the nearest park. Several years ago, he hired a boy to take five pounds of corn twice a day and feed it to the pigeons. He said he had found it “more convenient” to use the boy.

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By Fred W. Perkins, Press Washington correspondent

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U.S. and Allies cheer address by Roosevelt

War strength revelations hailed! Axis attempts usual distortions
By the United Press

President Roosevelt’s State of the Union address to Congress was received with almost unanimous approval in the United States, with jubilation by our allies, because of its revelations of mounting American war strength, and with misinterpretations and distortions in the countries of our enemies.

The United States

New York Times:

The message left no doubt that complete victory, complete disarmament of the Axis powers and maintenance of the United Nations’ front to prevent any attempt at aggression is the central aim of the administration.

New York Daily News:

The gist of the 1943 message was that the Union is in as good a state as could he hoped for, all things considered.

Baltimore Sun:

With his assurance that victory in the war is our first goal and that victory in the peace is sound, President Roosevelt stated the case as his countrymen in general must wish it stated.

Cleveland Plain Dealer:

The conciliatory attitude which the President displayed toward Congress should help to promote national unity…

Kansas City Star:

It was a masterful statement of America’s position in the war and of the entire United Nations cause.

Tulsa World:

We believe the President passed over too lightly the growing dissatisfaction with the bureaucratic element in the federal government which is a creature of the New Deal.

The Scripps-Howard newspapers:

His message, in content factual, held to the achievements and broad purposes that unite us as a people.

House Minority Leader Joseph W. Martin (R-MA):

It is very encouraging to realize that we have passed from the defensive to the offensive.

Senator Robert A. Taft (R-OH):

It was conciliatory and that ought to add to unity and create no dissension.

Senate Minority Leader Charles McNary (R-OR):

It was an excellent review of our war production and efforts based on a faith in ultimate victory.

House Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-TX):

It was a splendid report.

Senator Burton K. Wheeler (D-MT):

It was a very clever political speech.

Senator Homer T. Bone (D-WA):

I particularly liked the President’s approach to the solution of post-war economic problems.

The Allied world

Great Britain: Mr. Roosevelt was heard at the dinner hour. Reporters watching the crowds saw and heard many gestures and expressions of approval. British newspapers were enthusiastic. The London Times thought the address:

…breathed a high sense of purpose without once losing his characteristic grasp upon realities.

The London Daily Herald remarked that Mr. Roosevelt’s statement that the United States could not remain an island in the post-war world was one of “great courage – in the face of an isolationist renaissance.” The newspapers were generally elated with the production figures Mr. Roosevelt revealed.

Latin-American allies: Mexico, Brazil and Cuba were lavish in their praise, particularly of Mr. Roosevelt’s vision of a lasting peace.

The friendly world

All South and Central American countries heard Mr. Roosevelt’s speech clearly by shortwave radio. A Spanish announcer interposed a running translation and later the entire text translated into Spanish was read over the national radios of most countries.

Comment ranged from the approving to the fervent.

The enemy world

The Axis radios, led by the German radio, began at once the task of misrepresenting, misinterpreting and generally tearing down Mr. Roosevelt’s speech for their domestic listeners and for the oppressed in occupied countries.

The speech was being broadcast again and again by the British radio, in English, French, German, Italian and ither languages, however, and the Axis propagandists had their work cut out for them.

The Nazi thesis: Mr. Roosevelt revealed an intention to concentrate mostly on air attacks, indicating that America had realized:

…after setbacks in North Africa and in the Pacific, that American naval or land actions have not the slightest chance of success.

The President appealed to American farmers, because they were causing him grave difficulties, and he made references to “criticism of existing corruption.”

The Italian thesis: His speech was one of “inflated, boastful hopes.” He “sees already the United States dominating the whole world.”

The newspaper Asahi of Tokyo found the President’s message without “facts or convincing arguments,” and said that:

It is ridiculous of the United States President to speak of disarming Japan, Italy and Germany at a time when he must admit serious military defeat.

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Simms: Internal feuds abroad menace post-war unity

Yugoslav civil war called example of difficulties facing United Nations
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Jap bites like trapped rat when soldier offers succor

Gen. Blamey gives highest praise to Allied troops in campaign against ‘things’ defending Buna
By Frank Hewlett, United Press staff writer

Marines lower Henderson flag to spoil target

Barney Ross revealed as leader in Christmas Carol sing
By Robert Miller, United Press staff writer

Allied invasion points hinted by Roosevelt

President indicates major aims; Axis may have to alter strategy

Germans man Italian U-boat

U.S. survivors in Indian Ocean recognize Nazis

….

Mrs. Caraway wins new bill marathon

Axis radio ‘identifies’ Darlan’s assassin

London, England (UP) –
Axis broadcasts tonight identified the assassin of Adm. Jean François Darlan as Bonnier de La Chapelle, a 20-year-old student follower of Gen. Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Fighting French.

After Berlin had set the propaganda pace, the Paris and Vichy radios fell in line on the purported identification, giving the first name as Bonnier instead of Berlin’s Dornier.

The later broadcasts credited the information to reports from Tangier:

…emanating from quarters in contact with the British Secret Service.

Darlan, High Commissioner of French Africa, was shot to death in Algiers on Christmas Eve. His assassin, never identified in official reports, was executed two days later.

The name of Chapelle, among others, has been mentioned frequently in unofficial circles speculating on the identity of the assassin. Nazi broadcast of the name drew no comment from officials here.

There was no evidence to link the assassin with Bonnier de la Chapelle, a cousin by marriage of the French author, Drieu La Rochelle.

Editorial: The President’s message

A confident Commander-in-Chief reported on the State of the Union and of the war yesterday. His message, in content factual, held to the achievements and broad purposes that unite us as a people. A sober report, it was lightened by a justified hope of victory.

Americans share the pride with which the President recounted production gains. They understand that all depends upon that arsenal which has grown so rapidly during the last year through the cooperation of government-industry-labor. For our Army and Navy, and the forces of our Allied as well, can advance no faster and no farther than the supplies from that arsenal will take them.

The President’s figures were a promise of mounting output. The 48,000 planes produced last year – more than all the Axis nations together – has already risen to a rate of 66,000. Production increases for the year ranged from five to 12 times. Let Hitler and Tōjō explain to their dupes, if they can, how this “decadent, inefficient democracy” can so quickly outproduce them.

Yet there was nothing smug about this progress report. The emphasis was more on what remains to be done than on what we have done – as it should be. We are “not

In discussing the better world for which we are fighting, the President presented no tentative blueprints. Those are to come later. He simply stressed the general aim of international security and security for individuals:

The men in our Armed Forces want a lasting peace, and, equally, they want permanent employment for themselves, their families, and their neighbors when they are mustered out at the end of the war.

From the President’s survey of the military situation, all of us can get a better global perspective on present and future battlefronts. He put first the Russian offensives, which are still rolling.

Our occupation of Northwest Africa, and the British sweep across Libya, are preparing the way for Allied attack on “the underbelly of the Axis,” after much more fighting in Tunisia. We are going to strike in Europe – “and strike hard.” Where and when, of course, he could not say. But he did specify bombing “day in and day out,” thanks to Allied air superiority.

The battle of the convoy routes in the Atlantic was stressed, and the destruction of Jap shipping by our submarines – up to “the very mouth of the harbor of Yokohama.”

In the Pacific, our “most important” victory was not in the essentially defensive delaying actions of the Solomons and New Guinea but off Midway. We shall strike at the Japanese home islands, and bomb them constantly. Hence the importance of China:

In the attacks against Japan, we shall be joined with the heroic people of China… We shall overcome all the formidable obstacles, and get the battle equipment into China to shatter the power of our common enemy.

But the Commander-in-Chief indulged in no promise of easy battles, no pledge of victory in 1943. The Axis has passed its peak. The Allies are on the offensive. But there is long hard fighting ahead.

The most he would prophesy for 1943 was:

…a substantial advance along the roads that lead to Berlin and Rome and Tokyo.

And even that – let us not forget for a single day – depends on all-out effort and unity here on the home front.

Editorial: Pass the new editions

Editorial: Axis agents

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Ferguson: Post-war jobs

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

If women are really people, we can be sure that housewives who have been coaxed into industry will not give up their jobs gracefully after the war. All such talk is wishful thinking on everybody’s part.

Those who are studying the question of womanpower mobilization admit their worry over the problem, which is a tough one any way you look at it.

At the moment, of course, women say they’ll gladly duck back home when the soldiers return; they won’t mind giving up fat pay envelopes and getting at the dishes, to hear them tell it. You’d think they love actually having to wangle a few extra nickels out of the week’s grocery allowance for chewing gum.

But people who understand that the female is as human as the male already see the beginning of another horrible economic struggle between the sexes – unless we educate and plan to prevent it now.

Women always have lost these struggles. And, if we can’t build a social system which assures every adult a paying job, we’ll lose the coming one. For when wars are finished, it’s the women who make the greatest sacrifices and the greatest adjustments for peace.

Whereas the veteran gets his pension and the young soldier his position, the feminine worker, who may have answered her country’s call as gallantly as either, is left to look after herself.

These are plain facts without trimmings. Therefore, it is both shortsighted and cruel to leave young girls with the impression that they will be as welcome in the business world after the war as they are now.

There’s a lot of post-war planning to be done, in the domestic as well as the international field. Certainly, the creation of better understanding between men and women at home and in business should top the list.

Enemy broadcast –
128 U.S., British planes destroyed, Tokyo claims

Dispatches from enemy countries are based on broadcasts over controlled radio stations and frequently contain false information for propaganda purposes.

Tokyo, Japan (UP) – (Japanese broadcast recorded at San Francisco)
The Jap Air Force shot down or otherwise destroyed 128 U.S. and British planes over Burma, eastern India and Yunnan Province, China, during December, front dispatches said today.

President Roosevelt’s statement that United Nations air forces are destroying four planes for each one lost, applied to the Jap claim, means the Japs lost more than 500 planes in the same length of time. Jap claims, however, are consistently and grossly exaggerated.


RAF bombers continue attacks in Burma

New Delhi, India (UP) –
The British aerial offensive against Japanese defenses in western Burma struck again yesterday at enemy positions in the area of Rathedaung, 25 miles northwest of the port of Akyab, and harassed shipping along Arakan Province’s coast.

A communiqué said that RAF bombers hit buildings and inflicted casualties on enemy personnel at Rathedaung, and caused considerable damage to the nearby village of Tsunghlemaw. No planes were lost.