Times Square bond rally cheers armistice news
Ticker tape cascades from New York skyscrapers as office workers swarm into streets
New York (UP) –
Ticker tape, torn telephone books and newspapers rained from the skyscrapers of Manhattan today as word of the Italian armistice brought a spontaneous demonstration of joy and hope from thousands who swarmed into the streets.
Several thousands attending a noonday bond sales rally in Times Square broke into a roar of cheering when the news was announced from the platform by Newbold Morris, president of the City Council. Their numbers were augmented by many more thousands who tumbled out of offices and stores.
On historic spot
Morris held up his hand and said over the loudspeaker system:
Here in Times Square, this historic spot, I have an announcement to make and if you want to cheer, let it go. It has just been announced that Italy has unconditionally surrendered–
His words were drowned in a roar of cheers that lasted three or four minutes.
Movie star Carole Landis, who was one of those on the platform, shouted at the top of her lungs.
Foul forces dead
When comparative quiet was restored, Morris shouted:
The foul forces of Fascism are dead and the people of Italy will live again. This means the soldiers of America will not have to shoot again at the soldiers of Italy.
In “Little Italy,” the city’s chief Italian section, there were wild shouts and spontaneous dancing. Some snatched corn and tomatoes from pushcarts and tossed them in the air.
One Italian mother, Mrs. Margaret Baroni, who was buying from a pushcart, let a bunch of grapes fall from her fingers and cried:
God bless us all.
Son may come home
She shouted to all who could hear that her son Dominick, 23, who is with the Americans in the South Pacific, would “maybe be home soon now.”
At City Hall, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia called in reporters and said:
I just can’t help feeling now that the jig is up soon in Europe.
La Guardia expressed confidence that the American people would help in the reconstruction of Europe, and added the hope that no one would stop work today or slacken the war effort on the strength of the good news.
Cheering broke out on the floor of the stock exchange and torn newspapers snowed down from the galleries.
Soldier’s lament
A soldier in Times Square with his girl was overheard to say:
I’ll miss the big show if they don’t hurry me over.
A civilian shouted:
Out of the trenches by Christmas!
A taxicab driver observed:
This will break the German morale.
Bets were being made that the war would be over by the end of the year.
‘Glorious,’ Hoover says of surrender
New York (UP) –
The Italian surrender “is a glorious turning point in the war,” former President Herbert Hoover said today.
In a statement, Mr. Hoover said:
The Italian victory is a glorious turning point in the war. We can take pride in the share of our splendid forces with the British in bringing it about. We have now quickly to show the Italian people that this is their redemption from oppression; that it is the resurrection, not the destruction, of their national life. Great statesmanship will now hasten the surrender of others.
Providence, Rhode Island –
Wendell Willkie said today that the unconditional surrender of Italy was “not unexpected but a magnificent result.”