Völkischer Beobachter (February 4, 1944)
London und Washington klatschen Beifall –
Die ‚Verfassungsänderung‘ im Dienst des Weltjudentums
Bolschewistischer Giftköder für die kleinen Völker
…
London und Washington klatschen Beifall –
U.S. Navy Department (February 4, 1944)
Communiqué No. 501
North Pacific.
On the night of February 2-3, two Navy Catalinas from the Aleutian Islands bombed enemy installations on the southeast coast of Paramushiru. Results of the bombing were not observed. No enemy planes were encountered. Both of our planes returned.
Communiqué No. 502
South Atlantic.
Within the space of 48 hours early in January, three German blockade runners, heavily laden with vital war materials, were sent to the bottom of the South Atlantic by surface forces of the U.S. Navy operating under the command of VAdm. Jonas Ingram, USN.
The enemy ships sunk were the BURGENLAND, RIO GRANDE and WESERLAND, en route from Far Eastern Japanese‑held ports. Their holds were filled with thousands of tons of rubber, tin, fats and strategic ores.
The blockade runners were sunk by the USS SOMERS (DD-381) and the light cruiser OMAHA (CL-4) and the destroyer JOUETT (DD-396). A large number of prisoners were picked up following the sinkings. In two of the sinkings, Navy search planes found the enemy ships and called for the surface force to complete their destruction. The WESERLAND fell to the SOMERS alone while the other two were scuttled by their crews and their sinking hastened by gunfire from the OMAHA and the JOUETT.
Summoned by planes, the SOMERS found her target in the darkness of early morning and, on identifying the vessel as hostile, opened fire with her main battery of five‑inch guns. The first salvo hit the WESERLAND, forcing the crew to abandon ship. The destroyer then sank the vessel after internal explosions were set of by the crew as they left. Survivors were picked up at daylight.
A scouting plane from the OMAHA and a lookout in the ship’s foretop were the first to sight the RIO GRANDE. As the OMAHA and the JOUETT closed to investigate the stranger she burst into smoke and flame, the result of demolition charges placed by the crew. The two U.S. warships fired six-inch and five‑inch shells into the blockade runner and she soon sank.
On the following day the OMAHA and JOUETT found the BURGENLAND. As the U.S. warships approached, a similar scene to that enacted by the RIO GRANDE took place. However, destruction was completed as in the former case by shellfire.
Hundreds of tons of baled rubber found floating amid the debris after the sinkings were recovered and are now on their way to the United States.
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 30
Operations at the Kwajalein Atoll continue satisfactorily.
Our forces have landed on Ebeye, north of Kwajalein Island. The landing was unopposed but resistance was encountered a short distance inland from the beach. We have now occupied half the island.
Two small islands between Kwajalein and Ebeye have been occupied following neutralization of moderate opposition. Gugegwe and Loi Islands, north of Ebeye, have been taken under attack by bombing and Naval gunfire, and the enemy is answering our fire.
Resistance on Kwajalein Island continues, but progress is being made. Our casualties continue to be moderate.
The Pittsburgh Press (February 4, 1944)
FORTRESSES RIP WESTERN GERMANY
Yank raiders soar through thick ack-ack
Frankfurt reported target of escorted B-17s and Liberators
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer
…
NAVY SINKS 3 NAZI BLOCKADE RUNNERS
German ships found on way from Orient
Hundreds of tons of baled rubber salvaged from South Atlantic
…
Japs isolated in Marshalls
U.S. invasion fleet enters Kwajalein, main enemy base east of Truk
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
Victory at Kwajalein Atoll for U.S. forces was almost complete today as Army troops mopped up the last Japs on Kwajalein Island, on the southern tip of the atoll. Marines wiped out the last Japs on Namur Island, in the north, and captured several nearby islets, including Edgigen and Gagan. Meanwhile, the U.S. invasion fleet sailed into Kwajalein Lagoon, formed by the reef of the atoll.
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii –
The biggest invasion fleet ever assembled in the Pacific has sailed into and occupied Kwajalein Lagoon, Japan’s main naval base east of Truk, a front dispatch disclosed today as U.S. Army troops mopped up the last battered enemy troops on Kwajalein Island.
RAdm. Richmond K. Turner, commander of the amphibious forces, ordered all troop transports and most of the supporting, warships into the lagoon – the world’s largest – in the heart of the Marshall Islands so that the surrounding reef would protect them against Jap submarines.
Leif Erickson, representing the combined Allied press on the joint expeditionary force flagship, said the ships entered the lagoon on the second day of the invasion Tuesday while Marines and Army troops were still battling desperately-resisting Japs at either end of the 66-mile-long Kwajalein Atoll.
Other islands cut off
The dispatch did not mention whether the vessels encountered any opposition, but it was presumed that the terrific preliminary bombardment had wrecked any Jap ships still in the lagoon and knocked out enemy coastal batteries.
Mr. Erickson indicated that the Americans might not bother to invade the other atolls in the Marshalls. Cut off from their main supply base at Kwajalein, the enemy garrisons may be left to starve, Mr. Erickson said.
Overruns airfield
A U.S. Army regiment has overrun the airfield on Kwajalein Island, the last airstrip in the atoll remaining in enemy hands, and overwhelmed a tank trap position to the east, Mr. Erickson reported.
Radio Tokyo broadcast an Imperial Headquarters communiqué early today, but it contained no mention of the Marshall Islands.
The 4th Marine Division under Maj. Gen. Harry Schmidt, completed the conquest of Namur Island, blasted by bombs and shells in probably the most concentrated bombardment in history, at the northeastern corner of the atoll at 1:00 p.m. (local time) Wednesday after wiping out the defenders in 24½ hours.
Losses small
The adjacent islands of Gagan, Edjell, Debuu and Edgigen were also overrun by the invaders, with overall U.S. losses in the northern part of the campaign totaling only 100 dead and 400 wounded.
On Kwajalein Island at the southern tip of the atoll, the Army 7th Infantry Division under Maj. Gen, Charles H. Corlett was reported making “satisfactory progress” with tanks, flamethrowers and possibly secret weapons never before employed in the Pacific, methodically annihilating the remnants of the trapped garrison.
A spokesman for Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Fleet, announced yesterday that known enemy dead on Kwajalein Island up to Wednesday night were 1,250 of the estimated original garrison of 2,000, while U.S. casualties totaled 27 dead, nine missing and 190 wounded.
Japs counterattack
The Japs counterattacked on Kwajalein Tuesday night, but were thrown back and dispersed with heavy losses.
Kwajalein Island, 2½ miles long, was the main Jap base for the atoll of the same name and the enemy had massed a huge concentration of military stores in 250 large buildings in the northeastern corner, where the last defenders were holding out.
The record Allied air and sea bombardment preceding and accompanying the invasion of Japan’s principal Marshalls base was so paralyzing that not a single enemy plane had attacked the amphibious forces from the time they left their home port at least through Thursday, Mr. Erickson’s dispatch revealed. Not a ship was lost from any cause.
Cites lives saved
Adm. Turner told Mr. Erickson:
Our gains are important and they haven’t cost us much. Maybe we had too many ships for this job, but I prefer to do things that way. It was many lives saved for us, and it should be a discouragement to the Japs everywhere to know that when we hot, we really hit hard and for keeps.
The U.S. naval escort for the invasion fleet comprised the largest naval striking force every assembled on any ocean and included every type warship from the newest 16-inch gun battleships to submarines.
Attack other islands
Meanwhile, the U.S. 7th Air Force and Fleet Air Wing Two kept up their ceaseless pounding of other islands in the Marshall group, making at least five attacks Tuesday and Wednesday.
A special announcement said Army Liberators dropped nearly eight tons of bombs on Rongelap, 125 miles north of Kwajalein Atoll, Wednesday, while Dauntless dive bombers with a fighter escort placed more than 13 tons of explosives on the airdrome and gun emplacements at Mili. No enemy fighters were encountered and anti-aircraft fire was described as only moderate.
Bomb beached vessel
Navy search planes bombed a small beached vessel at Namur Atoll, just south off Kwajalein, and also dropped one ton of bombs each on Wotje and Taroa Tuesday.
The 7th Air Force alone was revealed to have dropped more than 1,750 tons of bombs ranging from 25-pound fragmentation missiles to half-ton atoll-busters on the Marshalls before the start of the invasion.
The bombings were supplemented with cannonading by new rapid-landing 75mm cannon mounted in Mitchell medium bombers. The Liberators were forced to fly up to 2,400 miles – equal to two roundtrips between London and Berlin – for their 680 preliminary sorties.
Jones: Japs almost driven insane by bombardment of island
By George E. Jones, United Press staff writer
Namur Island, Kwajalein, the Marshalls – (Feb. 3, delayed)
Scattered snipers and unseen enemy wounded remain on this shattered, stinking island, but the actual end of sustained combat came at 1:00 p.m. yesterday in a little corner near the northwest tip of Namur Island as the Marines pressed in for the kill.
Organized enemy resistance was ended, and even the toughened, battle-hardened Marines were disgusted with the task of wiping out Jap troops who hovered on the borderline of insanity as the result of the Allied bombardment and the ensuing hopeless retreat across the island.
U.S. casualties have been very moderate, although they include one of the most popular officers in the Marine Corps.
Only a few score Japs of the original force who garrisoned Namur and the adjoining island of Roi were left as a ring of Marine gunfire tightened about their defensive position, which was probably a command post.
Their fight was hopeless from the very beginning. It was a murderous bombardment, then an inevitable retreat in the face of superior Marine firepower. Light mobile artillery, flamethrowers and bazookas thundered and rocked against the crumbling concrete pillboxes and then the Japs were surrounded.
Most remained in hiding, awaiting the end which came quickly in most cases. Only a few tried to break the encirclement and they could not make it.
I was on that battlefield with Capt. Arthur Hanson of Washington when the staccato chatter of machine guns and the resonant thumps of Marine mortars died away.
For more than four hours, I had been dodging sniper bullets as I poked among the ruins, and the silence seemed unnatural.
In their two-day battle, the Japs resorted to a few of their favorite tactics. During the night, some crawled back into wrecked pillboxes and had to be killed yesterday morning.
Sergeant cleans up
The most ambitious maneuver of this kind involved a half-dozen riflemen who sneaked into a dugout and harassed rear echelons until an unidentified sergeant walked inside along with a Garand and killed every Jap.
Sgt. Archie Vale, 45, of Grand Junction, Colorado, was credited with destroying another nest of snipers. He shot three Japs and then tossed in a grenade.
He said:
They’d keep popping up and I threw more grenades. The tip of one officer’s saber kept showing above the shell hole where the Japs lay.
Sgt. Vale killed 13 Japs, including three officers.
Like Indian warfare
The Marines brought ashore a large assortment of heavy and fancy weapons past the wrecked beach defenses. The battle, however, became true French and Indian warfare – tree to tree, men flopping into the coral soil behind available protection when hidden enemy rifles and machine guns opened fire, then circling the flanking pocket of resistance and finally destroying it with grenades and bullets.
The effect of the bombardment can be appreciated only by seeing for yourself the destruction wrought on the islands of Roi and Namur, blockhouses terrifically battered, gun barrels of the coastal defenses twisted and shattered amidst debris and the dismembered bodies of their crews.
The entire island of Namur was transformed into an inferno. Neat rows of palm trees were mutilated and burned by shells and bombs. Tin-roofed barracks were crumpled and disintegrated. Sturdier buildings burned to their concrete framework.
Debris goes 3,000 feet high
The explosion of one blockhouse threw debris 3,000 feet into the air. As I picked myself from the ground, a chunk of concrete the size of my fist, brushed my arm, narrowly missing my typewriter.
Tons of stores and supplies are now pouring ashore, and the Marines who destroyed enemy resistance in 24½ hours are unloading cargo from scores of landing craft.
The crowded beaches greatly resemble Coney Island on a hot summer day. There is a display of newly-acquired loot – nearly every other man carries a bottle of Jap wine or beer. Other Marines captured officers’ swords, knives and insignia and stared in awe at pornographic pictures, of which the Japs seemed to have plenty.
Mostly the Marines are sleeping and eating, comparing experiences and wishing they could remove some of the rotting bodies from these islands.
Each death hard to take
They are also finding out who was killed or wounded. While U.S. casualties were very moderate, each one shot was hard to take.
They brought down the body of one of the most popular officers in the Marine Corps yesterday afternoon. He leaped into battle, throwing grenades and firing a rifle, standing upright in a field of fire. A machine-gun burst got him.
As his poncho-covered body came down a trail on a litter, one Marine told me:
He was standing up when he got it.
The Marine looked at the corpse and muttered, “Damn fool!”
There were tears in his eyes as he plodded on.
Death fight being waged for Cassino
Allied beachhead forces face serious threat below Rome
By the United Press
…
New Guinea pincers –
Bombers lead attack on Japs
Aussies, Yanks closing trap along ground
By Don Caswell, United Press staff writer
…
Two Navy bombers blast Paramushiru
…
Senate spurns curb on voting
Taft proposal is turned down, 46–42
Bulletin
Washington –
The Senate today rejected, 46–42, the substitute Taft plan for soldier voting which would have restricted use of a federal ballot in the coming election. The plan called for a federal ballot only in event the voter’s home state failed to certify by June 1 that it would be able to provide, 45 days before the Nov. 7 election, a regular state ballot weighing not more than 1.2 ounces.
Washington (UP) –
The administration’s fight for a special federal ballot for absentee voting by servicemen concentrated in the Senate today after undergoing a stunning defeat in the House of Representatives.
The House climaxed an 11-hour marathon session last night by passing, 238–69, a bill to leave the balloting process almost entirely up to the states – the same bill denounced by President Roosevelt last week as a “fraud.”
At his news conference today, Mr. Roosevelt was reluctant to discuss the House rebuff. He said the situation is now more up to Congress than to him.
The measure, originally approved by the Senate Dec. 3, thus went back to the Upper Chamber, carrying only minor House amendments. It promised to complicate still further the soldier-vote debate in the Senate which is considering whether it should reverse itself and provide at least limited use of a federal ballot.
The administration’s defeat in the House was administered by a coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats. They not only upset administration strategy – to stall House action until the Senate acted in a compromise measure – but also accepted President Roosevelt’s challenge to “stand up and be counted” by name.
The coalition defeated an administration motion to recess without a final vote. It defeated, 215–164, an attempt to substitute the administration-approved Worley federal ballot bill for the states’ rights measure. It defeated, 155–104, a compromise substitute which would have provided limited use of a federal ballot.
Margin never close
The 51-vote margin in those two tries was as close as the administration ever came to stemming the tide.
Then, with victory at hand. House Republican Leader Joseph W. Martin Jr. (R-MA) announced to the chamber that his party was ready to accept the President’s challenge. He called of a roll call vote on a Republican-sponsored motion to recommit the bill to committee. The motion was defeated, 224–168.
A moment later, Mr. Martin clinched his victory. He obtained a “stand up and be counted” roll call on final passage of the state’s rights bill. Rather than be counted as voting against any form of soldier vote legislation, administration supporters swung over in droves and the final tally was 328–69.
‘It’s not hopeless’
Senator Scott W. Lucas (D-IL), co-sponsor of the federal ballot bill which the Senate has been debating for two weeks, said after the House action that the situation still “certainly is not hopeless.”
He was not certain by what parliamentary method the Senate could inject a federal ballot provision into a measure which had been passed by both Houses without it, but he was certain it could be done.
Otherwise, many Congressional observers believe that if the bill reaches the President without substantial change, he will veto it.
The bill approved by the House provides that members of the Armed Forces, the Merchant Marine, the American Red Cross, the Society of Friends, the Women’s Auxiliary Service Pilots or the USO outside the United States, and eligible to vote in any primary, special or general election, shall use the absentee balloting procedures of their home states.
It recommends that the states accept applications for absentee ballots which have been prepared under the 1942 Soldier Voting Act and which would be distributed by the Secretaries of War and Navy and the War Shipping Administrator.
Upon receipt of such applications, the secretaries of states should forward them to the voter’s home county or local election official who would then mail the proper ballot to the individual. The bill suggests that the states waive any registration requirements.
As a substitute for the state ballot method of absentee voting, the administration on Jan. 24 began a fight in the Senate for a special federal ballot, to be issued every qualified voter without application, allowing space for a “write-in” vote by either name or party designation for President, Vice President, Senator and Congressman.
In the Senate, as in the House, the opposition consisted of a coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats. The Senate coalition stalled action in that chamber until after the House acted, upsetting administration strategy and throwing the whole issue into a parliamentary tangle.
Myers named by Democrats
Senatorial candidate choice delays committee
By Robert Taylor, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania –
Congressman Francis J. Myers of Philadelphia was chosen today by State Democratic leaders as the party’s candidate for U.S. Senator.
Agreement on Mr. Myers came after a wrangle held by action by the 109 members of the Democratic State Committee for 1.5 hours beyond the scheduled meeting time.
Once the leaders had settled on Mr. Myers, a three-term Congressman, immediate approval of the committee was conceded.
To seek Davis’ seat
Mr. Myers, if nominated at the April 25 primary, will oppose the Republican nominee for the post now held by U.S. Senator James J. Davis of Pittsburgh, who will seek renomination on the GOP ticket.
The wrangle over a Democratic endorsement developed when James P. Clark, Philadelphia city chairman, declined to select a candidate for State Committee endorsement but summoned a caucus of the Philadelphia delegation.
After 1.5 hours, the delegation and the state leaders announced agreement on Mr. Myers, this turning down the bid of some Philadelphia leaders, headed by publisher J. David Stern, to obtain endorsement for ex-Congressman James P. McGranery, who resigned his House position recently to become an assistant to the U.S. Attorney General.
Myers attends session
Opposition to Mr. McGranery arose when he took the Justice Department job and his vacated post was snapped up by a Republican in a special byelection several weeks ago.
Mr. Myers informed of the tangle, came here early today after a late-night session of Congress, and appeared before the Philadelphia group. Mr. McGranery was not here.
Forty-five minutes after the committee was scheduled to meet, State Chairman Davis L. Lawrence announced the delay was due to caucus of Philadelphia members.
Lead for 4th term
In addition to picking a senatorial candidate, the Democrats were prepared to take the lead in the fourth-term movement and instruct their leaders to enter President Roosevelt’s name in the April 25 preferential primary.
A resolution to that effect was to be presented to the State Committee and its adoption appeared certain.
The rest of the slate of state candidates was complete, although there was a prospect that one or two competing candidates will carry their fight for endorsement before the State Committee.
Previous agreement
The leaders ratified a previous agreement on U.S. Circuit Court Judge Charles Alvin Jones of Pittsburgh for Supreme Court, Superior Court Judge Chester H. Rhodes and Auditor General F. Clair Ross for Superior Court, State Treasurer G. Harold Wagner for auditor general and Ramsay S. Black, third assistant postmaster general, for state treasurer.
A Westmoreland County delegation, led by State Senator John H. Dent, urged a place on the judicial slate for Common Pleas Judge George E. McWherter of Westmoreland County and Mr. Dent said his name would be placed in nomination at the Committee meeting.
Another competing candidacy which may be put before the Committee is that of John F. Breslin of Carbon County, executive assistant to Auditor General Ross, seeking nomination for auditor general. State Treasurer Wagner, however, with soldier support from Luzerne County organization leaders, is scheduled to get the endorsement.
War writers escape invasion incidents
…
Stoneman: Brave medics slain aiding their friends
By William H. Stoneman
…
Mustering out plan approved by Roosevelt
President also renews request for rest of his program
…
Roosevelt loses wen
Washington –
President Roosevelt disclosed today that he went under the knife at the Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, earlier this week for removal of a wen from the back of his head. He was in the hospital for about half an hour.
Four Yanks see Rome on 2-day patrol mission
‘Cat Eyes,’ ‘Bloodhound’ and ‘Strong Man’ get real Italian spaghetti
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
…
He died in ‘the thick of the fight’ –
Roosevelt leads nation in tribute to Clapper’s integrity and ability
Cabinet joins public and press in voicing loss
By Scripps-Howard Service
President Roosevelt and other leaders in any fields have paid tribute to Raymond Clapper, whose death in an airplane collision over the Marshall Islands was reported yesterday.
To Mrs. Clapper, Mr. Roosevelt wrote:
The tragic event which has brought such sorrow to you and the children emphasizes once more the constant peril in which correspondents do their work in this war. It was characteristic of Ray’s fidelity to the great traditions of reporting that the day’s work should find him at the scene of action for first-hand facts in the think of the fight.
I share personally the grief which has been laid so heavily on you and yours and offer this assurance of heartfelt sympathy, in which Mrs. Roosevelt joins.
Stephen T. Early, White House Secretary, said:
He died as he had lived – selflessly – impervious to personal danger, a working newspaperman, with one thought uppermost; to get his facts right where the story was hottest. Honest, upright, resourceful and industrious, he had the faith and courage of a great reporter. He was just that.
Secretary of State Hull:
I was privileged to know Mr. Clapper as a friend and held him in the highest esteem. He was one of our most eminent and distinguished journalists who earned the confidence and respect of the people.
Gen. George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff:
I have been shocked and distressed. During the past four years I had come to feel a sincere friendship for him and great respect for his integrity. He had seen much of the war on many fronts where he displayed the courage and adventurous spirit of a true soldier.
Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau:
His writings had the quality of statesmanship.
Acting Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson:
His devotion to the broad welfare of his country made him one of the outstanding journalists of our time. The manner of his death indicated his willingness to accept any hazard in his search for truth.
Attorney General Francis Biddle:
…A great reporter, a fine writer and an honest critic – a newspaperman’s newspaperman.
Postmaster General Frank C. Walker:
**He fell in the line of duty well performed just as any brave soldier or sailor… He aimed solely at the truth, and his words carried the sincerity of his fine intellect…
Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox:
He was a great newspaperman and his sober, thoughtful reports will be sorely missed. We shall always remember him as a great friend of the Navy.
Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes:
Raymond Clapper dealt in facts and his published opinions rested firmly on these facts as he saw them. While he might have remained at home in one of those comfortable strategic armchairs – telling us what was wrong or right with the way the war is being won, he elected to go where the lead was flying and find out first-hand. He was that kind of newspaperman.
Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones:
He was a credit to the press.
Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins:
A great reporter who had both brains and conscience.
Lt. Gen. Carl A. Spaatz:
When he visited Africa, nothing was too difficult or too dangerous for him… He died exemplifying the motto of the great newspapers for which he write: “Give light and the people will find their own way.”
Roy W. Howard, Scripps-Howard Newspapers president:
Ray Clapper has written himself into a place in contemporary journalism to which no words of his associates can add luster. He graced a profession of which he was proud and which was proud of him. First, last and always a reporter, he valued fact about every element in the journalistic alloys which combine to make a daily newspaper. Integrity which was never challenged; strong convictions untainted by bias or prejudice; a tolerance so deep-rooted as to command respect even from those in complete disagreement, won for Ray Clapper the most enviable award within the gift of his fellow journalists, the title “newspaperman’s columnist.”
G. B. Parker, editor-in-chief of the Scripps-Howard Newspapers:
Reporting is the foundation of all good journalism – accurate, sincere reporting, interestingly written. Then there are the trimmings - interpretation
W. W. Hawkins, Chairman of the Board of Scripps-Howard:
…one of the very few truly great reporters. He actually fulfilled the dreams and ambitions of all newspapermen. He will remain a shining example.
Hugh Baillie, United Press president:
…one of the finest newspapermen of this generation… a fearless reporter in his personal contact with news figures as well as in his operations at the war fronts.
Kent Cooper, Associated Press general manager:
…a career marked by brilliance since his youth on the Kansas City Star. His earnestness and warmth of personality, his tolerance and fairmindedness won him affection and respect.
Barry Faris, International News Service general manager:
…further evidence of the terrific toll this war has taken in the ranks of the country’s foremost newspapermen. He was held in high esteem by the entire newspaper fraternity.
Lowell Mellett, executive assistant to the President and former editor of the Washington Daily News:
Ray’s death is a personal blow to millions. I know because I have seen the faces of people as they received the news. The faces not only of personal friends, of whom he had so many, but of others who knew him only as a name or a voice. He had become something important in our lives.
Peterborough, Diarist of the London Daily Telegraph:
American journalism has lost one of its ablest and most fair-minded columnists. He had a great gift for reaching conclusions that appealed to the sound common sense of the average American.
Byron Price, Office of Censorship director:
One of the great figures of journalism. Every newspaperman has lost a friend.
Elmer Davis, Office of War Information director:
A great reporter – a man of integrity. His death exemplifies the high courage of the men who are bringing the news from the fronts.
Bert Andrews, chief of the New York Herald-Tribune Washington Bureau:
The affection that his colleagues held for Ray Clapper is his best eulogy. His felloe workers not only respected him for his craftsmanship but loved him for the warmth that was in his great soul.
Charles Gridley, President of the Gridiron Club:
**For millions, he provided an invaluable sense of balance in his interpretation of national and world affairs. He was that rarest of individuals, a man without prejudices.
Arthur Krock, chief of the New York Times Washington Bureau:
His fatal errand was self-assigned. By no normal concept of duty was Ray Clapper obliged to run the risks of a war front again, risks he already had run and knew well. But his concept of duty was not normal, and he pursued it to a hero’s death, to the great loss of honest journalism and a vast audience which, knowing how honest that journalism was, respected and depended on it. Of him it can be said, as of very few of us who were his contemporaries, that he had at the end “a peace above all earthly dignities – a still and quiet conscience.”
Charles G. Ross, chief of St Louis Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau:
…One of the great reporters. People turned to his column because of its beautiful clarity and because they sensed its complete honesty and the hard and faithful work back it is. The column was a perfect expression, therefore, of the most wholesome things in what we call the American way of life.
Eugene Meyer, Washington Post publisher:
The Post is proud is have been the first to sponsor and encourage his column of comment… His honesty stuck out all over him. His application to the job at hand was unremitting. He has the strong body and sturdy mind that we associate with the best human products of our Midwest. He belongs in the hall of fame of America’s greatest newsmen.
Ernie Pyle:
Ray was a great newspaperman and a gallant human being. I am heartsick.
Walter Lippmann:
We have lost him when we are going to need him the most. He has perished in the act of preparing for the supreme work of his life, which was to make us see truly what this terrible war is, and to make us understand, while we still have the chance, how we can win it greatly. None can replace him, for the absolute honesty of his mind and his purpose had won for him the absolute confidence of all his colleagues and of the responsible public.
Lyle Wilson, chief of the United Press Washington Bureau:
Ray Clapper marched in the front ranks of his profession.
Mark Sullivan:
What made him utterly likeable as a man was the same quality that made him effective as a commentator. Among those who came in contact with him, his simple heartiness made friends and kept them; and in his writing this quality gave him persuasiveness. It enabled him to express his views with sturdy directness, but without stirring hostility on the part of those who differed with him – these not only differed with him – these not only respected him; they composed a large part of the immense circle of friends and admirers he had.
Ned Brooks, Standing Committee of Congressional Correspondents chairman:
The 600 members of the Washington Press Corps had deep admiration and respect for his ability and his devotion to the ideals of his profession. Freedom of the press had no champion more ardent.
Paul Wooton, White House Correspondents Association president:
In the exemplary work of Ray Clapper, the press has a fine legacy. He was enterprising, considerate, sincere. There was nothing reckless in his makeup, but as a matter of routine he flew across oceans and through flak so he could write more realistically. An ace of journalism has gone down.
John T. O’Rourke, Washington Daily News editor:
He has been an unfailing example of everything that is fine and decent and intelligent in newspapering. Millions will miss him, but none more keenly than his fellow newspapermen who know that his writing mirrored a warm and generous spirit, one incapable of dealing with anything but the truth.
Arthur Hays Sulzberger, New York Times:
Your loss is sustained by all newspapermen, as it is in fact by the while community.
Helen Reid, New York Herald-Tribune vice president:
I am heartsick. He was a fine craftsman and a beautiful soul.
James Wright Brown, Editor & Publisher:
He added distinction to journalism.
Herbert Bayard Swope:
Journalism has lost one of its strongest champions of all that is right and decent. He was never more needed than now.
Earl Godwin, radio commentator:
Ray Clapper spared himself nothing in his zeal for finding the truth, and he spared no one in the telling of it. We respected his ability; we revered his splendid fairness; and we loved his personality. Truly, the American people have lost a gentleman of the press.
Lowell Thomas:
The quality that distinguished Ray Clapper was his ability to remain in all circumstances and in spite of all temptations and excitements, unfailingly level-headed. Aside from being so brilliant, he was a swell fellow.
Raymond Gram Swing:
A clear-headed, practical servant of true democracy.
Fulton Lewis:
Every real reporter has the dream-ideal to be what I believe Ray Clapper was – honest, truthful, careful in the extreme not to use the power of his profession to I jure an innocent man, but equally determined without personal fear to tell the truth.
George Fielding Eliot, military expert:
He never wrote or spoke a phony word.
The Association of Radio News Analysts, in a resolution:
He raised the standard of both journalism and broadcasting.
Wendell Willkie:
He had the indescribable something that makes a reporter a great newspaperman.
H. V. Kaltenborn, radio commentator:
One of the great figures of American journalism… perhaps the most influential of Washington correspondents.
Majority Leader Barkley (D-KY), speaking in the Senate:
He died as a soldier in the cause of democracy.
Senate Minority Leader White (R-):
Mr. Clapper’s ending was a glorious one. He was on the battle line, serving the public for which he had labored for many years.
Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the House:
A great newspaperman.
House Majority Leader McCormack (D-MA):
He made a great contribution to American thought.
House Minority Leader Martin (R-MA):
Journalism has lost a great personality.
Thurman Arnold, Associate Justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals:
A fighting and courageous liberal. Those who knew him lose an unfailing source of inspiration and help.
RAdm. Land, Maritime Commission chairman:
A national loss.
Paul V. McNutt, Federal Security Administrator:
Three things marked him – honest, sincerity and ability. I am deeply moved.
Rep. George H. Bender (R-OH), addressing the House:
His ability to report objectively and without bias was typical of the best historical mind.
Rep. A. S. Mike Monroney (D-OK), a former newspaperman:
I know of no American whose judgment has been so consistently accurate.
Senator Ball (R-MN):
Even when he became a nationally-known columnist, he went out and got his news firsthand.
Senator Hatch (D-NM):
He was a brave man, a courageous man, and a man of honor and integrity.
Senator Hill (D-AL):
He was making outstanding contributions to the winning of the war and the building of a lasting peace. He gave his life for his country.
New Deal foe supports Hull
Group to meet in St. Louis in April
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Harry H. Woodring, former Secretary of War in the Roosevelt administration, said in an address prepared for delivery today that a meeting of “anti-New Deal Democrats” would be held soon with the aim of preventing a fourth term and proposed Secretary of State Cordell Hull for President.
Mr. Woodring prepared the address for delivery before the Chicago Executives Club after he met with anti-administration Democrats from 23 states to plan a campaign to “oust New Dealers” from the party.
He praised President Roosevelt’s foreign policies and suggested that he be appointed to head the American delegation to the peace table.
Mr. Woodring, former Governor of Kansas, in an interview, declined to divulge details of the proposed anti-New Deal meeting but said it probably would be held in St. Louis before the middle of April.
Mr. Woodring said New Dealers by necessity would have to align themselves again with the Democratic Party. He added:
But if those factions fail to relinquish control of the party and continue their dictatorial tendencies, the true Democrats will take steps to prevent them from using the name Democratic Party, thus forcing the New Dealers to organize a party of their own.
Mr. Woodring said a poll conducted recently by Herbert Hoover showed that “71% of the people of the United States are tired of present governmental operations.” But, he added, they are divided between the Democrats and the Republicans.
Draft dodger Bergdoll let out of prison
Government closes books on wealthy fugitive of World War I
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Appropriation bill reduced by $23 million
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U.S. fliers downed in Yugoslavia rescued
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British occupy Burmese town
RAF, U.S. planes attack Jap positions, river craft
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Senator Vandenberg supports MacArthur
Washington (UP) –
Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI) said today that he favored Gen. Douglas MacArthur for President because he would be a “better commander-in-chief” than President Roosevelt – particularly “if by next November, we are concentrating on wiping Japan from the Pacific map.”
Explaining his support of Gen. MacArthur, Mr. Vandenberg opposed nominating a civilian on the Republican ticket on the ground that he would not be impressive against “Roosevelt’s ‘win-the-war’ appeal, and against ‘swapping horses,’ etc.”