Planes, PT boats batter enemy supply line
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‘Down Under’ country appreciates U.S. help, but remembers it is part of empire
By George Weller (special radio), The Chicago Daily News Foreign Service
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Morale and ability of U.S. troops lauded by Red observers
By John Lardner, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Reasons given for defection from party include coddling of labor and price-curb policy
By Dr. George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
Of all major groups in the voting population, farmers have shown some of the sharpest defection from the New Deal.
All signs indicate that if presidential election were held today, farmers outside the solid South would go Republican by a substantial majority.
Today’s survey attempts to answer the all-important question of why farmers have turned against the New Deal.
Interviewers’ reports reveal that farmers have three chief complaints at present against the Roosevelt administration.
…squandering money on every project… finances being handled on too loose a setup… not enough results for money spent… too many costly bureaus eating up salaries which the taxpayers have to pay.
Too much government control… too many irritating little rules… Washington bureaucrats try to dictate to us… Farmers don’t need to be told every little thing to do.
Roosevelt is coddling the unions… He can’t seem to stop strikes in wartime… He shouldn’t have given in to Lewis… Labor unions get a free hand while farmers are regimented.
The full list of farm criticisms follows:
Interviewing Date 11/25 – 12/1/43 Survey #307-K Question #2bFarmers were asked: What do you dislike most about the way the Roosevelt administration is handling things?
| Government extravagance | 20% |
| Incompetent and dictatorial management of home affairs, especially with farm problems | 15% |
| Coddling of labor | 13% |
| Farm programs not effective | 11% |
| Bad job of rationing | 6% |
| Failure to keep prices down | 2% |
| Miscellaneous | 13% |
| No complaint | 20% |
The farmers also have good things to say about Washington.
War policy liked
The results show that the handling of the war is placed at the top of the list.
Next in esteem comes the administration’s foreign policy. Next is the farm program. Other farmers commented favorably on the administration’s efforts to help poor people through Social Security and on attempts to bring about social democracy by giving underprivileged classes more consideration.
Midwest trend
The more rural areas of the country north of the Mason-Dixon Line, which began to turn Republican as early as 1936, are today showing an accelerated trend toward the GOP. A recent Institute study found that of the 1,058 counties in the great Midwest farm belt of America, no less than 925 now want a Republican victory in 1944. In 1936, only 236 went Republican, and in 1940, 763.
The shift in political sentiment can be seen from the following table:
MIDWEST FARMERS
| 1936 | 1940 | Today | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | 56% | 45% | 40% |
| Republican | 44% | 55% | 60% |
Berlin assumes Allies will be too easygoing to punish Germans for their war crimes
By Carroll Binder, The Chicago Daily News foreign editor
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Plan for trying of Hitler and others to be ready early next year
By Leo S. Disher, United Press staff writer
London, England (UP) – (Dec. 25)
The first detailed draft of a plan for establishment of an international court to try Adolf Hitler and other war criminals is likely to be submitted early next year to the United Nations Commission investigating war crimes, it was learned today.
The plan, it was understood, foresees creation of a court of 35 international jurists in London with powers to try any war criminals, including heads of states.
The draft plan of 62 articles was drawn by a Belgian judge, Marcel de Baer, who is in the United States at present. He is chairman of an unofficial body known as the “International Assembly” whose experts in the past two years have been studying the question of bringing war criminals to justice.
Defines war crimes
The draft defines war crimes as:
Any grave outrages violating the general principles of criminal law as recognized by civilized nations and committed in wartime or connected with the preparation, waging or prosecution of war or perpetuated with a view to preventing the restoration of peace.
It was learned that it states war crimes could be committed either by direct action or by aiding or ordering them.
According to this plan, the international court would try war criminals, including the heads of states, when domestic courts of any United Nations would be without jurisdiction or unable to handle such trials themselves. The language of the court would be English.
Plan seven-year terms
Thirty-five judges, primarily authorities of international law, would have a seven-year term and be eligible for reelection. The president and vice president each would have two-year term.
The court, it was understood, would have a body of “international constabulary” available to execute its orders. Hearings would be public, but the judges’ deliberations would be private and decisions would be reached by a majority vote.
Super craft designed for bi-motored bombers; three planned
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WLB member may quit, run for Senate in protest at ‘surrender’ to unions’ pressure
By Jay G. Hayden, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Rankin, military affairs group stake claims to jurisdiction
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Some folks will live in luxury and ease but it isn’t fair to make too liberal promises
By Ruth Millett
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Snipers, bombs fail to deter ministers
By Casper Nannes, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Highly mobile Red Army may force Nazis into wide retreat
By Thomas M. Johnson
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By John Lardner, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Newcomer rates good chance to get one; Garson, Ginger leaders in the race
By Erskine Johnson
Hollywood, California – (Dec. 25)
BEHIND THE SCREEN: Film studios are rolling the publicity drums again in Hollywood’s annual deluge in pre-Academy Award propaganda. Somebody should award private Oscars to hard-working press agents who will spend the next two months trying to corner the votes with all the adjectives in the book. It’s a little early to stick out our necks and predict the winners, but we are willing to take a chance on the leading contenders for the best performances of the year.
For the best feminine acting job, it looks like a four-way race between film newcomer Jennifer Jones for The Song of Bernadette, Ingrid Bergman’s Maria in For Whom the Bell Tolls, Greer Garson for Madame Curie and Ginger Rogers’ Tender Comrade. Greer’s Oscar last year for Mrs. Miniver will be against her, although her performance in Curie is equally as good. Jennifer Jones is the dark horse to watch.
Mickey Rooney, Walter Pidgeon and Gary Cooper will battle it out for the best male performance. If Pidgeon’s Pierre Curie in Madama Curie doesn’t ring the ball loud enough, the press agents will remind you that he almost won last year for Mrs. Miniver. “So, let’s give it to him this year,” will be the basis of Pidge’s campaign. Rooney, meanwhile, is a strong nominee for The Human Comedy, in which he gave the best performance of his life. Cooper’s Robert Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls left a lot of people cold, but he’ll be nominated because of the picture’s importance.
Show stopper
On a recent personal appearance in San Francisco, Eleanor Powell stopped the show at every performance with a dance number she’s never done on the screen. She calls it her goulash number – “everything I can do.” She’s tried several times without success to include it in a movie. Studio officials always threw it out, Eleanor said, “because it always topped the finale.” Someday she hopes to bring the routine to the screen as the finale of a picture. The title will be “Goulash.”
The nicest review Pat O’Brien has received on his portrayal of the late Maj. Frank Cavanaugh in the Iron Major was written by the major’s two sons, Phil and Bill. They wrote Pat: “You made us think of Dad.”
Makeup expert Max Factor Jr. has long insisted that no woman can be completely glamorous unless she has an appealing voice. He picks the tones of Ingrid Bergman, Claudette Colbert, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Greer Garson, Rita Hayworth, Hedy Lamarr, Michele Morgan, Merle Oberon and Lana Turner as Hollywood’s ten best in this appeal department.
Ten years ago, a young unknown named Paulette Goddard was given her first call to act in a movie. Thrilled, she arose early, dressed
Add ad lib
Carole Landis hereafter will think before she speaks. When director Bill Seiter finally okayed her scene aboard a camel in Foul Jills in a Jeep, sore-muscled Carole said:
To think I wanted to be in a circus when I was a kid.
Seiter said:
That’s good. That line should be in the script. We’ll reshoot the scene.
Fan letter to Evelyn Keyes from a soldier she danced with at the Hollywood Canteen:
I am deeply, insanely and passionately in love with you. By the way, can you get me the addresses of Betty Grable, Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr and Rita Hayworth?
Here and there
Marlene Dietrich and Ronald Colman, costarred in Metro’s Kismet, are speaking to each other only when the script demands. Colman is burning over all the publicity Marlene has been getting.
And Hollywood ironies. It took studio workmen three days to build a replica of a section of the Kaiser shipyards for a scene in Paramount’s I Love a Soldier. Kaiser could probably have knocked it out himself in three hours.
Producer Harry Sherman will neatly sidestep threatened legal action by Tom Mix’s two ex-wives over the famous cowboy’s film biography. There will be no mention of Mix’s marriages, or romances, in the picture… Bob Crosby is now rated among the ten best amateur golf players of the nation. Sometimes, he never beats brother Bing.
Jane Wyatt has turned down her fourth New York play offer in as many weeks. She prefers pictures to the stage… Aside the comedian Jack Douglas: That live pig you sent us is being fattened up on a friend’s ranch. Thanks for a very hammy Christmas present… Smiley Burnette is celebrating his eighth anniversary as western character Frog Millhouse.
Apology!
Frieda Inescort met a rude actress at a party the other night. Her escort apologized:
You must forgive my companion’s behavior. She’s herself tonight.
Reviving song hits of yesteryear has become a vogue in Hollywood, Casablanca revived “As Time Goes By,” and now you’ll be humming “I’ll Get By” again. Irene Dunne sings it twice in producer Everett Riskin’s A Guy Named Joe.
Plenty of potatoes
Things are getting tough in Hollywood department: Unable to obtain enough ice cream for soda fountain sequences in You Can’t Ration Love, Paramount prop men were forced to whip up a huge pot of mashed potatoes. The substitution was perfect for the camera but a headache for extra girls playing coeds who had to eat dishes of the stuff before the scene was completed.
Paul Henreid is getting laughs at the Hollywood Canteen without saying a word. Walks out on the stage, puts two cigarettes in his mouth, lights them, takes a deep drag, and walks off the stage.
Week after she married a soldier, Lt. Robert Olsen, Fox starlet Gail Robbins was cast in a new movie. The film’s title: I Married a Soldier.