35 Army tanks tampered with
Shipment left unguarded; inquiry underway
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Morgantown mine fire claims lives of 13 men
Morgantown, West Virginia (UP) –
The death toll in West Virginia’s latest coal mine disaster was fixed today at 13.
Joseph Stewart, manager of the No. 15 mine of the Pursglove Coal Company, at Scott’s Run, near here, announced “we have no hope at all” that any of the men still trapped by a fire two miles underground would be found alive. Sixty-five men escaped the blaze.
Four bodies have been removed from the mine. Nine others are still missing.
Gas-masked rescue crews continued today to fight the fire, which raged more than 24 hours after it began early yesterday when, it was believed, a coal car was wrecked, possibly by a fallen trolley wire.
Mr. Stewart expressed hope that the fire may soon be brought under control, although the rescue crews, working in relays, had not reached the blaze. Their progress was slowed as they neared the fore scene. The men were using rock dust and chemicals to fight the fire.
Bodies removed last night were those of Rene Leroy, of Morgantown, and Paul Pozega and Charles Hart, both of Pursglove. Asphyxiated by the dense smoke, they were found huddled in the No. 14 air course on the other side of the fire.
The body of Guy Quinn, 43, of Morgantown, a mine foreman, was recovered earlier.
Still missing were Earle McCabe, James Tanner, Ralph Riffle, Ralph Tresler, Merle Benhart, James Carter, John Lagka, Robert Kiser and Frank Robinette, all of Morgantown and Scott’s Run.
Six months ago, an explosion at the company’s No. 2 mine, also near here, killed 20 men.
I DARE SAY —
He’s come a long way
By Florence Fisher Parry
Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt has come a long way since he was elected President of the United States 11 years ago on a platform of strict economy and balancing the budget.
As I listened to him give his State of the Union charge to the 78th Congress, it seemed impossible that I was listening to the same man whose voice I had heard for the first time as the Democratic Convention met to nominate its candidate for President, and a silver-voiced supporter rose to acclaim Al Smith as the Happy Warrior.
Could this strong and tolerant and resolute voice be the same that lashed sardonically at our Supreme Court, advocated and attempted revamping and packing it, encouraged bureaucracy, and surrounded himself with Redford Tugwells and created a government of the New Deal, for New Deal and by the New Deal?
Could this be the bitter campaigner of 1940? Surely not; not this reasonable statesman whose every word was charged with harmony, reassurance and a strong new confidence.
Once to every man
Truly, men rise with the circumstance. The measure of a man cannot be accurately taken unless he is challenged to match his stature with crucial times. It is conceivable that, destined to spend his Presidency in a bickering peacetime administration, Mr. Roosevelt might have relapsed into a cynical defeatist, soured by opposition and embittered by criticism.
But slowly, one by one, the lesser traits gave ground to the great urgency of fateful times.
None but his stubbornest enemies could deny or begrudge him the conquest he made over the listening people of the world, when he addressed the 78th Congress: the most impressive, reasonable and charitable speech of his career.
There was no rancor; no sarcasm; no recrimination. A sweet temper pervaded his address. Only when he spoke of our enemy did his voice carry the old-time edge of sarcasm which used to be directed with patent relish at his home front critics. All his malice seemed to be concentrated into a capsule of revenge reserved only and wholly for the common foe.
To evaluate fairly the achievement of President Roosevelt, one must weigh it against the American landscape of 1930, when he first loomed as a possible candidate for the presidency.
It was the year, you remember when we were reeling under a blow too stunning to realize, and we were still going through the motions to which a long era of prosperity had conditioned us… The era which ended in that historic year, that tragic year 1929. The end of a pipedream. The end of our fond illusion that there weas such a thing in this imperfect world as security and trust.
Remember?
Remember 1929?
The incredible era
Remember the big boards of Wall Street? When a 10-point gain a day was the normal rise in stocks, when Montgomery Ward rose from 200 to 400, when 5-million-share-days were the order of the day? The Federal Reserve Board may have felt the beginnings of uneasiness; the farm belt banks, closing right and left because of farm foreclosures, may have been apprehensive; but the country was on a prosperity binge and nothing could stop the celebration!
Coolidge had put the seal of quiet assurance upon the American future:
The country can regard the present with satisfaction and anticipate the future with optimism.
Government was keeping its nose out of business. Andrew Mellon was being called “the greatest Secretary of the Treasury since Alexander Hamilton.”
The Prince of Wales and Charles Lindbergh were the most popular young men of the day. Al Capone was taking in millions of dollars from his various gangster rackets and Prohibition was riding drunkenly in a slipping saddle.
Our relations with Japan were considered ideal. The Washington Naval Conference had settled for all time the disturbed conditions in the Pacific. We had 10 light cruisers, most of them overaged, and eight under construction, so we felt justly safe. We laughed in our sleeves at David Lloyd George, even then considered a little dotey, for saying:
As things are now the nations of the world are heading straight for war – not because anyone wants it, but because no one has the courage to stop the runaway horses.
Just about that time, Franklin D. Roosevelt rode into office on an economy platform. He would balance the budget. He would inaugurate a New Deal. The public debt was $17 billion. But he would fix all that. He would oust the money changers from the temple. He would institute new uses for leisure, of which there was to be an abundance.
He has come a long way since then. A long way. It has chastened him. His latest address stands as evidence of that.
Confirmation on Flynn post expected soon
Boss Democrat to be President’s representative ‘down under’
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Midway victim’s sister to report to WAACs
Bradford, Pennsylvania (UP) –
Mary Enright, awaiting her orders to report for Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps training, has a personal reason for enlisting in the services.
Her brother, Ens. Robert Enright, was killed in action in the Battle of Midway last June. One of the first Bradford men to die in the present war, Ens. Enright was praised by Cdr. Arnold True, of the destroyer Hammann, as:
…one of the finest and most capable young officers I have ever known.
As she passed her final physical examination, Miss Enright said:
I hope to make up for Robert.
Unions oppose report on airplane wage plan
Manufacturers agree to 6.75¢ raise but AFL and CIO assure WLB investigator of undue favoritism
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Countess indicted for FBI masquerade
Miami, Florida (UP) –
Countess Elsa von Starhemberg, now in federal custody in Los Angeles, California, was today indicted by a federal grand jury here on charges of posing as an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Assistant U.S. District Attorney Ernest L. Duhaime, who described the woman as “an adventuress,” said she obtained $300 from Lawrence Dodd, Hungarian refugee, in Miami Beach last March while posing as an FBI agent.
Mr. Duhaime said she had also attempted to involve such notables as ex-King Carol of Romania and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes.
Phillips in India
New Delhi, India – (Jan. 8, delayed)
William Phillips, former U.S. Ambassador to Italy, arrived today as President Roosevelt’s personal representative in India.
Editorial: Free play of free minds
Two young American naval officers were recently returning from duty with a fighting Murmansk convoy resort, they decided they would take the time to write out what they had observed on the voyage. What precautions should they have taken that had been neglected? Could any untried device be employed to frustrate and beat the enemy?
The young men argued and discussed. In the end, their suggestions numbered 23. A wise captain, looking over the paper, forwarded it to Washington. The Navy Department approved 19 of the 23 suggestions, put them into effort and warded medals to the boys.
This is reassuring evidence that much-condemned “channels” are still open, and that the minds of the higher-ups are open, also. No less is there cheer in the evidence that American men, in this new and ghastly business of total war, can apply themselves to it and can learn it. If America encourages the free play of free minds, through free channels, it will not take long to make a veteran Army, a seasoned Navy.
Background of news –
Congress vs. President
By editorial research reports
Congress in 1943 will reassert its constitutional prerogatives against presidential dictation, according to both Republican and Democratic spokesmen.
In furtherance of the Constitution’s tripartite division of powers, the Founding Fathers provided that the President was to give a lead in legislation only by presenting to Congress an occasional review of the state of the nation and recommendations he deemed expedient.
For more than a hundred years, the President followed both the spirit and the letter of this arrangement. They left it to Congress to formulate the laws. Moreover, they seldom exerted pressure on Congress. True, in 1893, Cleveland intervened actively on Capitol Hill to get the Silver Purchase Act repealed, but he apologized by insisting that that act has taken the nation to the very brink of financial disaster. It is also that after the Civil War, Presidents began to veto legislation solely because they doubted its wisdom, whereas the earlier Presidents (Except Jackson) had used tge veto power only when they through bills unconstitutional or hasty. However, this was hardly an assumption of new prerogatives.
The present style was set by the first Roosevelt. He believed that the people expected the President to formulate and put through a legislative program – that the voters would hold him, not Congress, primarily of an administration – that Congress has become too unwieldy, too beset by partisan and geographical considerations, to lead effectively in legislation, the old practice was reversed; instead of Congress submitting laws to the President for his approval or rejection, Theodore Roosevelt presented “my policies” to Congress for their approval or rejection.
However, despite his great popularity the first Roosevelt got relatively little of his program through Congress, especially in his second term. Most of the Republican majority (in both houses) was conservative, and Senators were still elected by state legislatures. Taft received in part to the pre-Roosevelt conception of the presidency; then came Wilson.
Woodrow Wilson had much liking for the British parliamentary system. In this, major bills are prepared by the executive branch of the government and must be accepted by the legislative branch unless a change of government or a general election is to result. Wilson also believed firmly in party responsibility. He worked incessantly with the party leaders in Congress, presented legislation for the consideration and approval of the party caucuses, freely used members of his Cabinet on members of Congress with whom they had influence.
Coolidge was largely “hands-off” as to Congress; Hoover stood about halfway between Theodore Roosevelt and Coolidge. The second Roosevelt has out-Roosevelted the first. He has used all the methods which his fifth cousin used in order to get the presidential program adopted; he has adopted the Wilsonian technique of having the executive branch draft bills, consulting somewhat less freely than Wilson with the party leaders.
Well, what does rhyme with ‘just about nuttin’’?
Hollywood, California (UP) –
The Office of War Information wants accuracy, even at the price of rhythm in a popular song, band leader Tommy Dorsey said today.
Dorsey said he had changed the line “Right soon there’s gonna be no more meat, not even mutton,” in the novelty tune “No Stuff in Your Cuff” because the OWI objected.
The line was revised to “There’s gonna be not much meat, very little mutton.”
The piece was played once over NBC, but it was barred both by NBC and CBS, after the OWI objected, until the lyrics were altered.
Wage policies must be upheld, WLB reiterates
Labor-management pact turned down
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President’s pastor gets Navy chaplain commission
New York (UP) –
The Rev. Frank Ray Wilson, President Roosevelt’s pastor at Hyde Park, New York, was a lieutenant in the Chaplains’ Corps of the Navy today.
Lt. Wilson, 48, was sworn in here yesterday. He was a Signal Corps sergeant in World War I, and has a son, Frank Ray Jr., 19, in the Navy. He was rector of St. James Episcopal Church at Hyde Park.
He gave Mr. Roosevelt as a reference in his application for a commission, and Mr. Roosevelt wrote him:
Congratulations! If I were in your position, I would do the same thing.
Labor ranks shrink by million workers
Washington (UP) –
The civilian labor force declined by 1,100,000 persons in December, with a 900,000 decrease in employment and 200,000 decrease in unemployment, the Census Bureau said today.
The labor force totaled 53,400,000 in December, compared with 54,500,000 in November. Employment declined from 52,800,000 in November to 51,900,000 in December, due chiefly, the bureau reported, to seasonal decreases in agriculture. Non-agricultural employment remained at the same level of 43,000,000.
Unemployment dropped to 1,500,000, the lowest level of 1942. Census records showed a consistent decline in unemployment from a high point of 9,300,000 in July 1940. The bureau said December’s unemployment “approaches the minimum required for normal labor turnover.”
2 unidentified officers die in Army plane crashes
Omaha, Nebraska (UP) –
Seventh Service Command Headquarters said today that three Army officers had been killed in airplane accidents, two in a crash near Burlington, Iowa, and one in another mishap near Coffeyville, Kansas.
The Burlington crash involved a plane from Ellington Field, Texas, and occurred three miles west of the Iowa Ordnance Plant. The Service Command said the pilot was apparently trying for a forced landing because the ship crashed from a height of about 20 feet.
The other crash occurred a mile north of Coffeyville. The takeoff field of the plane was not learned immediately.
No information on the identity of the victims was available.