Editorial: Mr. Morgenthau’s job
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What?? This is all too interesting ( and stupid)
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Editorial: Let the WAACs alone
Nothing is more malicious than an untrue rumor.
Because war times are times of extraordinary excitement and national tension and because information is often restricted by military necessity, there are more rumors, they spread faster and nearly always they are farther from the truth.
By the same gauge, they are inevitably more harmful.
We have had enough lessons, in this war alone, to learn that rumors heard in barrooms, over backyard fences, on streetcars or wherever, are usually unfounded and generally disastrous.
Because of rumors, we have had craven hoarding which has disrupted our wartime economy, cheated civilians and members of the Armed Forces and compelled the government to resort to rationing.
Rumors, gossip and reckless talk have sunk ships, lost battles and cost the lives of uncounted soldiers and sailors.
For vicious mischief, however, there have been no more dastardly rumors than those spread recently about the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. Fictitious stories reflecting on the morality of the daughters, wives and even the mothers of America have made the rounds, in many cases repeated and exaggerated by intelligent, otherwise responsible people, including some Army officers.
If these rumors were not started by Axis agents, they are as effective, for Axis purposes, as any they could have started.
In the midst of this wave of ugly rumors, a Washington writer for the New York Daily News – an isolationist paper that has been constantly critical of our war efforts – sank to the depths by writing a story that contraceptives and prophylactics were to be issued to be WAACs. Col. Oveta Culp Hobby promptly denounced the story in its entirety and no foundation for it has been revealed. Nevertheless, it did cruel damage to the WAACs and thereby helped the Axis.
As Secretary of War Stimson said:
When they [the WAACs] are maligned, when vicious rumor destroys their reputations, the effects could reach into our very frontlines, injuring the morale of the Army itself.
The WAACs represent a cross-section of American womanhood. Like the Army and Navy, they are the flower of this generation. They are subject to Army discipline and they are making huge sacrifices to play their part in winning the war. They deserve the respect and admiration of the nation. The rumor-mongers deserve a punch on the nose.
Great story of American Fortresses told by W. L. White in Queens Die Proudly
As in ‘they were expendable,’ author lets others do talking
By Harry Hansen
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Midwest motorists face ban on pleasure driving
Loss of gasoline expected of transportation problem is not solved satisfactorily
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I DARE SAY —
Old age and actors don’t mix together
The veterans find marching years a bitter cross to bear
By Florence Fisher Parry
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Head or feet too big? They may be made into an asset in films
For trademarks often assist the actor
By Hedda Hopper
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U.S. Navy Department (June 14, 1943)
Communiqué No. 410
South Pacific.
On June 12, during the night, Army Flying Fortress (Boeing B‑17) and Liberator (Consolidated B‑24) heavy bombers attacked Japanese positions at Kahili, Buin area. Results were not observed. No. U.S. losses were sustained.
Communiqué No. 411
Pacific and Far East.
U.S. submarines have reported the following results of operation against the enemy in the waters of these areas:
- 1 destroyer sunk.
- 1 large transport sunk.
- 5 medium‑sized cargo vessels sunk.
- 1 large trawler sunk.
- 1 patrol vessel sunk.
- 1 small supply vessel sunk.
- 2 small cargo vessels sunk.
- 1 large tanker damaged.
- 1 destroyer damaged.
- 1 medium‑sized transport damaged and probably sunk.
- 1 medium‑sized transport badly damaged.
These actions have not been announced in any previous Navy Department Communiqué.
The Pittsburgh Press (June 14, 1943)
AIR FURY TURNED ON SICILY
U.S. fliers hit 158 planes in two days’ raids
Bombers from Tunisia and Middle East batter island which may be next goal in Allied offensive
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
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OWI tells spy story –
Nazi’s signal aided Japs at Pearl Harbor
Would-be Gestapo chief is given 50 years at hard labor
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Hannah’s black-eye charge denied by Jack Dempsey
Champ says he threw out drunken guests; witness absent, actress’ suit dismissed
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Flaming destruction –
Air blows rock 7 Nazi targets
Fortresses blast Bremen and Kiel; 26 lost
By Nat A. Barrows
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Justices switch votes –
Ruling changed on flag salute
Supreme Court upholds children of ‘witnesses’
Washington (UP) –
The Supreme Court, by a 6–3 split, today reversed itself and upheld the right of children of Jehovah’s Witnesses to refrain from saluting the American flag at public schools because the salute is contrary to their religious beliefs.
The court specifically overruled its famous Gobitis decision of three years ago, in which it held that children of Jehovah’s Witnesses could be compelled to salute the flag in public school exercises on penalty of expulsion from school.
Justice Robert H. Jackson, delivering today’s majority opinion, declared that to compel members of the sect or their children to salute the flag would be to:
…say that a Bill of Rights which guards the individual’s right to speak his own mind left it open to public authorities to compel him to utter what is not in his mind.
The court today upheld the same sect – Jehovah’s Witnesses – in another case in which it invalidated a Mississippi statute under which three persons had been convicted of sedition for preaching the sect’s tenets in the state. The trio were Betty Benoit, Ralph E. Taylor and Glen Cummings.
In the flag salute case, three of the jurists who were in the eight-man majority three years ago – Justice Hugo L. Black, William O. Douglas and Frank Murphy – changed their minds to join today’s majority in overruling the decision for which they had voted originally.