I DARE SAY —
Harriet and Sally
By Florence Fisher Parry
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Russia held up as U.S. model in bond drive
Morgenthau finds answer to his ‘ape’ problem; leaders speak
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AFL aims angry charges directly at White House
Criticism of wartime strikes rankles to point of outright anger; action at polls urged
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
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WPB relaxes restrictions on plumbing
Consumers expected to purchase only items actually needed
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In Washington –
House prepares for sharp clash on veterans’ pay
Prominent Democrats and Republicans ask colleagues to make separate bill out of adjusted compensation issue
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Constitution violation seen
Washington (UP) –
The House Elections Committee, formally reporting its “states’-rights” soldier-vote bill, asserted today that proposed compromises involving a federal ballot could open the door ti violation of the Constitution.
The charge was denied promptly by minority members who said they did not share the majority’s “sanguine faith” that each of the 48 states will provide necessary machinery so that all members of the Armed Forces can vote.
The approved committee bill, an amended version of the Senate bill leaving overseas balloting up to the states, limits federal participation to handling of mail applications for ballots and airmail transmission of ballots to and from the voting service personnel. First reports said debate would begin Thursday but it may not come until next week.
A United Press dispatch from Allied headquarters in Algiers said censorship had been clamped down on an expression of soldier opinion on overseas voting. Correspondents may report the attitude of military personnel on the issue.
In Washington, the War Department gave no explanation of the interview ban.
Chairman job is acceptable to Hannegan
Internal Revenue Commissioner will take over if Walker resigns
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington –
Commissioner of Internal Revenue Robert E. Hannegan has agreed to accept chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee if that position is vacated Saturday by Postmaster General Frank C. Walker.
The National Committee meets here then. Mr. Walker is prepared to present his resignation. Mr. Hannegan, a Missourian, named to the commissionership last year, is being touted here as “a second Jim Farley.” His job, apparently, will be to manage a fourth-term campaign for President Roosevelt.
Mr. Hannegan will have tougher going than did Mr. Farley in the 1932 and 1936 campaigns, when Mr. Roosevelt won with lopsided popular and electoral vote majorities.
Qualify Senate claims
Republican National Committee statisticians have been analyzing 1940-43 elections returns from Northern and border states and they come up with some figures upon which the GOP bases its claim that it will win the White House and the House of Representatives in November. Republican spokesmen are inclined to qualify their claims about winning Senate control this time, but not so with the Presidency and the House.
An RNC report says:
In 1940, in the 38 Northern states, which represent a majority of 150 votes in the electoral college, we lost the Presidency by 2.7% of the vote.
In the 1942 Congressional elections, our party in the same Northern states in the aggregate vote for Republican candidates for Congress had 53.9% of the total. If Mr. Roosevelt had been running in that election and had maintained the same three-percent advantage over his party which he had in 1940, he would have been defeated in the electoral college.
Six vacancies in House
Republicans may come close to House control even before the general election. There are now six vacancies in the House. Five of the seats were formerly held by Democrats, including one in Alabama, which is certain to remain Democratic. But the GOP seems to be confident in keeping the seat which had been Republican and of winning four of the five Democratic seats in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Oklahoma and Illinois.
If they are able to do so, the House standing will be:
| Democrats | 219 |
| Republicans | 212 |
| Minor parties | 4 |
Modern David Harums –
Stokes: South will support Roosevelt again, but in return it will demand much
Will seek conservative Vice President and domestic policy at national convention
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Washington –
President Roosevelt gave Southern governors his most charming smile, a pleasant half-hour at the White House over tea and cakes and sandwiches, and the encouraging word that he was in favor of lowering discriminatory freight rates, which is the subject that brought them here for a one-day protest meeting.
But he said not a word about the fourth term. Nor did he talk about the numerous grievances, economic and political – aside from freight rates – which Southern governors have been discussing for months, and which they discussed with members of Congress from the South at a dinner last night full of oratory about freight-rate discrimination and other subjects.
The President preferred to keep the conversation to such subjects as their children and wildlife, including the ivory-billed woodpecker.
Commitment good omen
But the freight-rate commitment was something, and governors took it as a good omen for the case now pending before the Interstate Commerce Commission, of which the President is fully advised.
Disturbed as they are over some administration tendencies, the governors are not going to chance political revolt. They will acquiesce in a fourth term if Mr. Roosevelt chooses to seek it. They are confident, too, that the South will remain Democratic in November.
The Southern governors are traders, not bolters, no matter what they hint.
Are seeking concessions
They came here to raise a din, in the shadow of the White House, in the interest of getting concessions from Mr. Roosevelt, and it is very likely they will get some of what they want.
Their other grievances include:
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Lack of recognition of the Southern viewpoint in national politics.
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Encroachment on state and local affairs.
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Federal regimentation of business and industry.
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Neglect of the South in war contracts.
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Discrimination in patronage by appointment of Republicans to key Southern posts in war agencies.
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Agitation of the Negro problem by New Deal agents and agencies.
At the national convention, they will seek:
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The selection of a conservative, preferably a Southerner, as vice presidential candidate if the President is nominated.
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Representation in the platform of the Southern desire for more conservative administration of domestic policy.
Seek common front
The strategy will be to get Southern delegations, as far as possible, to join in a common front at the convention to achieve these objectives and to seek allies in other delegations. It is obvious, however, from conversations with governors here, that the South does not have a common front now, and cannot have a common front at the convention, for really holding out against renomination of the President until they get all they want.
Georgia Governor Ellis G. Arnall, a leader in the Southern protest movement, will handpick a delegation from his state which will be uninstructed and should be in a good bargaining position. There is some talk that Senator George (D-GA) might be put in nomination for trading purposes.
But other Southern delegations will not be so independent.
Wallace explains South’s problem
Washington (UP) –
Vice President Henry A. Wallace asserted last night that the South had failed to build a balanced regional economy because vested interests have sought to protect uneconomic profits through control of finance production, markets and monopolistic transportation.
In an address before a banquet attended by eight Southern governors who met here to urge removal of allegedly discriminatory rail freight rates, he said the South’s problem must be solved on a national rather than on a regional basis.
Simms: New Red attitude to U.S., Britain causing concern
Foreign envoys believe Russia moving to create string of buffer states from Atlantic to Pacific
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
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Kirkpatrick: Post-war aims kept secret by Britain and U.S.
London writers perturbed by moves to hide discussions
By Helen Kirkpatrick
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Shuttle raids by Yanks near
Gen. Arnold gets medal for achievement
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Planes batter Japs in Burma
British beat off assaults north of Akyab
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Background of news –
Mustering-out and Social Security
By Burt P. Garnett, editorial research reports
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Nelson: U.S. fascists aiding Hitler
They, pressure groups, seek to exploit America, destroy freedom
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Senator Davis supports bloc against Oleo
Guffey votes for repeal of margarine tax, but it is defeated
By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent
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U.S. jury to hear Ickes on ‘Hopkins letter’
Interior Secretary asks to appear after name is linked with case
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In Italy – (by wireless)
It has been more than a year since I last spent any time with our Air Forces overseas. So now for a little while I’ll try to tell you what a gigantic thing our “air” has become in this theater.
In the past year I have written so much about the ground forces that they have become an obsession with me. They live and die so miserably and they do it with such determined acceptance that your admiration for them blinds you to the rest of the war.
To any individual the war is seldom any bigger than the space of a few hundred yards on each side of him. All the war in the world is concentrated down into his own personal fight. To me all the war of the world has seemed to be borne by the few thousand frontline soldiers here, destined merely by chance to suffer and die for the rest of us.
All over the world other millions are fighting too, many of them under conditions as wretched as our infantry faces in Italy. But it is easy to forget them in your intentness upon your own hundred yards.
Death comes recently
But now, remembering once again, this column will do its stuff with the Air Forces. We may break it up with a short nostalgic jump back to the infantry now and then, but on the whole for the next few weeks we’ll be learning about the flying men.
You have to make some psychological adjustments when you switch from the infantry to the Air Forces. The association with death is on a different basis. You approach death rather decently in the Air Forces.
You die well-fed and clean-shaven, if that’s any comfort. You’re at the front only a few hours of the day, instead of day and night for months on end. In the evening you come back to something approximating a home and fireside.
In the Air Forces, you still have some semblance of an orderly life, even though you may be living in tents. But in the infantry, you must become half-beast in order to survive.
The subtle difference
Here is your subtle difference between the two: When I’m with the infantry I never shave, for anyone clean-shaven is an obvious outside and apt to be abused. But in the Air Forces if you go for three days without shaving you get to feeling self-conscious, like a bum among nice people, so you shave in order to conform.
I’m now with a dive bomber squadron of the 12th Air Force Command. There are about 50 officers and 250 enlisted men in a squadron.
They all live, officers and men too, in a big apartment house that the Italian government built to house war workers and their families. It looks like one of our own government housing projects.
It is out in the country at the edge of a small town. The Germans demolished the big nearby factories beyond, but left the homes intact. When our squadron moved into this building, it was their first time under a roof in six months of combat.
Stoves and dates
Now our airmen have wood stoves in their rooms, they sleep in sleeping bags on folding cots, they have shelves to put their things on, they have electric light, they eat at tables sitting on stools, and have an Italian boy to clear the dishes away.
They have an Italian barber, and their clothes are clean and pressed. They have a small recreation room with soldier-drawn murals on the walls. They can go to a nearby town of an evening and see American movies, in theaters taken over by the Army. They can have dates with nurses. They can play cards. They can read by good light in a warm room.
Don’t get the wrong impression. Their life is not luxurious. At home we wouldn’t consider it adequate. It has the security of walls and doors, but it is a dog’s life at that.
The toilets don’t work, so you have to flush them with a tin hat full of water dipped out of an always-filled bathtub. The lights go out frequently and you have to use candles.
Teamwork developed
It’s tough getting up two hours before daylight for a dawn mission. The floors are cold, hard tile. There are no rugs. Some of the windows are still blown out.
And yet, as the airmen unblushingly admit, their life is paradise compared with the infantry. They are fully appreciative of what the infantry goes through. There has recently been a program of sending pilots up to the front as liaison officers for a few days at a time. They come back and tell the others, so that the whole Air Corps may know the ground problem and how their brothers are living up there in the mud.
It has resulted in an eagerness to help out those ground kids that is actually touching. On days when the squadron divebombs the Germans just ahead of our own lines, it isn’t as academic to them as it used to be. Now the pilots are thinking of how much that special bomb may help the American boys down below them.
It is teamwork with a soul in it, and we’re fighting better than ever before.