Editorial: What national service law?
…
Poll: Voters’ shifts give problem to Democrats
Question is: Can migrant groups be talked into going to polls?
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
Besides the normal worries of a campaign year the Democrats will have an added worry in the November presidential election because of wartime migration of workers.
Roughly one-fourth of all the people who would normally be in the voting population – or 13 million – now live in election districts where they have never voted before. The majority of them are Democrats.
The problem which faces the Democratic Party is to induce these people to tale the trouble to register, where necessary, or to satisfy other requirements for voting in districts where they are newcomers.
Majority voted
The size of this group and its importance to the Democratic Party is revealed in a survey by the Institute. The study first ascertained the total number in the group by asking the following question:
Interviewing Date 12/17-22/43 Survey #308-K Question #9aHave you ever voted in the election district where you now live?
| Yes | 75% |
| No | 25% |
Each voter in the two groups was then asked what party he would prefer to see win the presidential election this year. The results indicated that the Democratic Party will probably exert a great deal of effort to get the migrant group to the polls because the proportion of persons with Democratic leanings in that group is far higher than in the other group.
Sentiment tested
The party sentiment of those who have never voted before in the district where they now live follows:
| Democratic | 61% |
| Republican | 39% |
The party sentiment of those who have voted before in the district where they now live follows:
| Democratic | 49% |
| Republican | 51% |
The voter turnout in this group might make the difference between victory and defeat for the Democrats in a close election.
Another problem
To this headache must also be added the problem of the soldier vote. Ever since President Roosevelt took office in 1933, the Democrats have held an advantage over the Republicans among voters in the younger age levels – 21-29 years old.
With the Armed Forces largely made up of men from that and younger age brackets, the Democrats will be at a disadvantage in the election if only s small number of soldiers vote.
Ferguson: An angry view of marriage
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
Alma Booker of Pittsburgh is a valued correspondent, because she does such a swell job of romping on a columnist.
Believing in moral as well as economic and political freedom for women, she offers some fine arguments to make her point:
Why do you defend the state of marriage? It needs no defense, for it’s still the best of chiseling rackets for women, although they haven’t sense enough to resist its superstitious trimmings.
On all sides I see reason to be ashamed of my sex – girls trying to force men to marry them “for the baby’s sake,” trying to force them to establish a home.
If marriage is so important, it is a crime that society fails to provide every woman with that status automatically on her coming of age. Make it a criminal offense to insult a woman who has children without a husband. Have all women use the same title. The depth of their degradation I s measured by their present willingness to brand themselves as “Miss” or “Mrs.”
Motherhood should be subsidized. Birth control should be legalized, but discouraged. No disgrace ought to be attached to fertility in a woman. Personally, I’m sick of reading of doctors imprisoned for illegal operations. If motherhood were no disgrace such operations would be unnecessary.
Why couldn’t we have the luck of the Swedish, Norwegian, Russian and Danish women whose governments have recognized them as equal, decent human beings instead of the property of men? Women need a good strong dose of freedom.
It seems to me the first reform must be made in the character of men and women. Others would follow naturally. No institution is better than the individuals who maintain it.
Background of news –
Dewey stresses thrift
By Jay G. Hayden, North American Newspaper Alliance
Washington –
Because Governor Thomas E. Dewey is by all odds the most likely Republican nominee for President, and he knows it, his annual message to the New York Legislature last week assumed nationwide interest.
Particularly, this message is being compared with one another New York Governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, delivered in the same circumstances just 12 years ago.
From the standpoint of comparison, the remarkable thing is the unlikeness of these messages. Mr. Roosevelt’s bristled with obvious thrusts against the national administration of Herbert Hoover.
He said:
Not since the dark days of the sixties have the people of this state and of the nation faced problems as grave, situations as difficult, suffering as severe. The economies of America, and indeed of the whole world, are out of joint.
The states were doing their best, Mr. Roosevelt said, but because the problems are:
…national in scope, it is impossible to solve them without leadership and a plan of action by our national government… The public asks that they be given a new leadership.
‘Political bombast’ lacking
In contrast, there is not one word in Governor Dewey’s current message that even his most captious critic could spot as “political bombast” or “playing to the national gallery.”
Even so, the Dewey message contains many implications both as to future national policy and the character and political views of the man who wrote it.
Its high point is easily the announcement that the state has a $140-million surplus, coupled with a recommendation that the whole of this be saved for the after-war “rainy day.”
Mr. Dewey said:
Either tax reduction or increased spending at this time would, in my judgment, be unsound and irresponsible. We must never forget that this is not a normal surplus… It has come to us out of the hurricane of war. It can be, it must be, safeguarded to meet post-war needs.
Through the whole message runs the idea, not only that the states are financially better able than the federal government to handle many post-war problems, but a realistic thrift in dealing with them is imperative.
Bonus according to need
Whereas President Roosevelt has proposed a severance bonus for “every soldier,” Mr. Dewey differentiates according to need. Of 100,000 New York servicemen probably to be discharged during 1944, he says:
About one in five is likely to be unemployed and in search of a job for varying periods of time.
His plan is to give this unfortunate “one-fifth” fully adequate aid, rather than a bonus indiscriminately to all soldiers, poor or rich.
He says there has been much “talk” of federal action, “thus far exactly nothing has been done” and “returning veterans cannot wait for Washington.”
Mr. Dewey emphasizes that the main after-war economic hope is the revival of private enterprise. He cautions the Legislature not to do anything that will “interfere with or hinder the fullest possible productivity and employment of our people.”
Other features of the message carry a national appeal. Mr. Dewey presents the form of a state income-tax return that any taxpayer can fill out “in five or ten minutes.”
He enthusiastically supports governmental measures for better medical care, but stipulates that these should be a “partnership of government and the medical profession, functioning cooperatively,” rather than in the nature of complete “governmentalization.”
In time of war –
Richberg: ‘Service law’ is right idea
Most of people will do duty, but grafters must be squelched
By Donald R. Richberg
…
State leaders ‘mum’ –
Keystone men ‘put on spot’ by Roosevelt
Many believe labor draft plan is not needed by Pennsylvania
By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent
…
In Washington –
Barkley presses for compromise on food subsidies
But House foes call President’s program to control prices same thing under a new name
…
Democratic majority cut
Washington (UP) –
The Democratic Party was threatened with loss of voting control of the House today when Rep. Joseph A. Gavagan (D-NY) resigned to cut party membership to 217 and leave it with the narrowest majority since 1931.
The division of the House is now 217 Democrats, 208 Republicans, four independents and six vacancies which will be filled by special elections.
Two Pennsylvania seats will be settled Jan. 18. One was formerly held by a Republican and the other by a Democrat, but observers predict the GOP will capture both.
Soldier vote proponents aided
Washington (UP) –
Congressional leaders declared today that prospects of a bitter fight over soldier-vote legislation were only slightly lessened by President Roosevelt’s assertion that absentee voting for servicemen could not be effective without participation by the federal government.
Proponents of federal participation, nevertheless, welcomed the support given them in the President’s message to Congress and his fireside address to the nation last night. They said it should help considerably in beating down charges that a federal plan would violate both states’ rights and the Constitution.
Davis fights paper tariff
Says duty-free newsprint would ease shortage
…
Sole Yank control over islands urged
…
Coal industry fails to meet needs for 1943
Ickes: Nation saved from ‘possible disaster’ by stockpiles
…
Movies seen playing big part in post-war era
…
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In Italy – (by wireless)
In one frontline outfit I was with recently, I noticed the boys always used the word “Uncle” when they meant the powers that be. They said, “You do whatever Uncle tells you,” or “I wish Uncle would hurry up with those overshoes.”
Another slang term is “eyeballing,” which means viewing and gendering around, such as “eyeballing into Naples.”
At the front one morning, I heard another expression which may be old, but which sounded funny at the time. About a dozen soldiers and I were sleeping in a goat shed. The soldiers hadn’t shaved for weeks, or washed either. And they always slept with their clothes on. When they first came out of their blankets on a cold morning, they were enough to frighten children.
It was at that early-morning moment when one soldier looked for a long time at another one and then said:
Cripes, you look like a tree full of owls.
Mess sergeant gains 46 pounds
Imagine my surprise and delight one day when, after several days of C and K rations, we wandered into a division command post and sat down to a luncheon of fresh, crisp, American-style fried chicken, the kind we have in Indiana. Texas’ now famous 36th Division was the provider.
One of the jovial mess sergeants in the 36th Division is Charles Morgan of Gladewater, Texas. His wife is in Mexia, Texas, and she’s hardly going to know him when he gets back. When the sergeant went into the Army, he weighed 189 pounds. Now he weighs 235.
The soldiers who fight on top of the mountains, who don’t dare build a fire even in daytime because the smoke would attract attention, have discovered that the paraffin-scaled pasteboard box the K ration comes in will burn without smoke, and will burn just long enough to heat one canteen cup of coffee.
The other day I was on a mountain trail and met three German prisoners coming down, with one dogface trailing behind them with a Tommy gun.
Some Signal Corps movie photographers were on the trail and they stopped the little cavalcade for pictures. They asked the soldier to take the Germans back up the trail about 50 feet, then march them down again past the cameras.
At first, the Germans were puzzled, but when they sensed what was happening, they began their overcoat collars snugly and straightened their pants, and came marching past with big grins on their faces, as vain as children.
Christmas brightens Nazi prisoner
Speaking of vanity, one regiment of the 36th Division had some fine photographs of me taken at their outdoor box toilet on the hillside. They think it’s a great joke, and no doubt plan to blackmail me into buying the film from them.
But I’ve got them whipped. I’ve lived the war life so long, where everything is public, that I just don’t care. In fact, I might even pay them to publish the picture.
A strange little incident happened a few weeks ago at one of the prisoner-collecting points, where German prisoners were being interviewed.
One of the German kids who came through seemed terribly depressed. When the examiners get a case like that, they try to find out what the trouble is, other than the normal depression over being captured. But they couldn’t seem to get at this boy.
Finally, just to make light conversation, one of them said:
Well, cheer up, at least you’ll be able to spend Christmas with us.
Thereupon the boy sat up and said eagerly:
Do you celebrate Christmas, too?
He didn’t know that we knew about Christmas, and apparently had been brooding over the prospect of spending it with a heathen people.
After that, he was bright and chipper.
New fashions dedicated to woman alive, alert, confident, and yet ever feminine
Designers turn pages of history to get themes
By Lenore Brundige. Press staff writer
…