Editorial: Finnish armistice and the U.S.
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Editorial: Where is the plot?
Congressman Rankin of Mississippi, who is the most talkative of the anti-soldier-vote bloc in Congress, says any form of simple, uniform ballot which may be devised for the Army and Navy would be “the greatest fraud ever perpetrated upon the members of our Armed Forces.”
He also claims it “might mark the beginning of the end of constitutional government in America.”
He says:
I realize that is what the Communist Party and its sympathizers want. They want to wipe out the states and set up a system of Sovietized regions.
Mr. Rankin often is tiresome, but seldom even he gets quite so hysterical.
There is no “fraud” in giving the members of the Armed Forces the right and opportunity to vote – providing the system which is adopted is honest and as efficient as circumstances will permit.
By no stretch of the imagination can a simple, uniform ballot, merely because it is set up by Congress, the constitutional representatives of the people, be construed as a threat to constitutional government. On the contrary. What is more constitutional than the right to vote?
As for the attitude of the Communist Party, it is not of consequence in this issue – or any other issue. Establishment of an emergency plan which will enable the Armed Forces to vote while they are overseas fighting a war does not in any manner smack of communism or anything faintly resembling it.
It will not wipe out the states or in any respect interfere with their normal functions. The ballots will be counted, along with the ballots cast by civilians at home, in the home districts of the men and women in the Armed Forces.
The only reason for proposing a simple, uniform ballot, to be provided by Congress, is that it is impossible for the Armed Forces to vote in any strength under existing state laws and it would be impossible for all 48 states to enact, in unison, such a ballot.
If there is any merit in Mr. Rankin’s opposition to legislation which will enable soldiers and sailors to vote, he is not developing it by resorting to such hysterical scare statements.
Mr. Rankin is either seeing something under the bed, or he is hiding something there.
There is no plot nor conspiracy in making it possible for the free citizens of the United States to exercise a right given them by the Constitution.
Background of news –
The farce of presidential primaries
By Bertram Benedict, editorial research reports
With the first of the 1944 presidential preference primaries – in New Hampshire, March 14 – less than a month away, the leading possibilities for the presidential nomination, President Roosevelt and Governor Dewey, are still not avowed candidates. If they continue to disavow active candidacies, the presidential primaries this year will be a farce. In fact, the record shows that the primaries were a farce in 1940 and in 1936.
With only 13 states now holding presidential preferential primaries by law, the results cannot go far toward determining the presidential nominations (in four other states, primaries are optional with the party organizations).
Also, in some of the primaries, delegates will be elected without being pledged to any candidate. In Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio and South Dakota, a candidate or his official agent must authorize the use of his name before his name or the name of delegates pledged to him can be printed on the ballot.
Roosevelt silent in 1940
In 1940, with President Roosevelt silent on another term up to the very hour of his nomination, he won by default in some of the primaries. That is, his name was printed on the ballot without word from him, or his name was written in, or pro-third-term delegates were elected.
In California, Illinois, Oregon and Wisconsin, a Roosevelt slate defeated a Garner slate, and in New Hampshire, a Roosevelt slate defeated a Farley slate, but in some of these contests the anti-Roosevelt forces did not run the full number of delegates.
In Wisconsin, Vice President Garner won delegates in two districts, and in Massachusetts, the delegates were pledged to James A. Farley in case Mr. Roosevelt did not run.
On the Republican side, the winning candidate, Wendell L. Willkie, was not entered in a single primary. There were real contests in only two primaries – Mr. Dewey won over Senator Vandenberg in Nebraska and Wisconsin. Mr. Dewey was unopposed in Illinois, Maryland and New Jersey.
In Massachusetts, an uninstructed slate defeated the Dewey slate. Senator Taft was unopposed in Ohio, Senator McNary in Oregon. The theoretically uninstructed slate in New Hampshire was actually pledged to Senator Bridges. In California, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, there was no contest.
Some 1940 results
Republican primary results in certain states and votes from those states in the convention were as follows:
ILLINOIS: Dewey got most of the delegates in the primary. Most of them voted for Dewey for three ballots; on the fourth, Taft got a plurality; on the fifth, a majority. The vote on the sixth and final ballot was:
| Taft | 33 |
| Willkie | 24 |
| Dewey | 1 |
MARYLAND: Dewey won the primary, and got all the votes on the first ballot. On the second ballot, four votes broke away to Willkie, who had a majority of the votes on all following ballots.
NEBRASKA: Dewey won the primary. He received all 16 votes on the first ballot, only five on the second; on the fifth, Taft had a majority.
NEW JERSEY: Dewey got most of the delegates in the primary, and had a majority of the votes on the first ballot. On the second, most of the votes went to Willkie.
OHIO: Taft won the primary, got all votes on all ballots.
In 1936, Governor Landon won the Republican primaries in Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, South Dakota. In California, Mr. Landon lost to an uninstructed slate. Senator Borah won in Nebraska, Oregon, Pennsylvania (no other candidate), West Virginia and Wisconsin. Frank Knox won in Illinois, Mr. Taft in Ohio. At the convention, Mr. Landon’s was the only name placed in nomination.
Fight over living cost is traced to weak labor policy
Dumping of dispute within WLB on White House doorstep by representatives of labor follows usual pattern
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In Italy – (by wireless)
The company commander said to me:
Every man in this company deserves the Silver Star.
We walked around in the olive grove where the men of the company were sitting on the edges of their foxholes, talking or cleaning their gear.
He said:
Let’s go over here. I want to introduce you to my personal hero.
I figured that the lieutenant’s own “personal hero,” out of a whole company of men who deserved the Silver Star, must be a real soldier indeed.
Then the company commander introduced me to Sgt. Frank Eversole, who shook hands sort of timidly and said, “Pleased to meet you,” and then didn’t say any more.
I could tell by his eyes and by his slow and courteous speech when he did talk that he was a Westerner. Conversation with him was sort of hard, but I didn’t mind his reticence for I know how Westerners like to size people up first.
The sergeant wore a brown stocking cap on the back of his head. His eyes were the piercing kind. I noticed his hands – they were outdoor hands, strong and rough.
Later in the afternoon, I came past his foxhole again, and we sat and talked a little while alone. We didn’t talk about the war, but mainly about our West, and just sat and made figures on the ground with sticks as we talked.
We got started that way, and in the days that followed I came to know him well. He is to me, and to all those with whom he serves, one of the great men of the war.
Cowboy before the war
Frank Eversole’s nickname is “Buck.” The other boys in the company sometimes call him “Buck Overshoes,” simply because Eversole sounds a bit like “overshoes.”
Buck was a cowboy before the war. He was born in the little town of Missouri Valley, Iowa, and his mother still lives there. But Buck went West on his own before he was 16, and ever since has worked as a ranch hand. He is 38, and unmarried.
He worked a long time around Twin Falls, Idaho, and then later down in Nevada. Like so many cowboys, he made the rodeos in season. He was never a star or anything. Usually, he just rode the broncs out of the chute for pay - $7.50 a ride. Once he did win a fine saddle. He has ridden at Cheyenne and the other big rodeos.
Like any cowboy, he loves animals. Here in Italy one afternoon Buck and some other boys were pinned down inside a one-room stone shed by terrific German shellfire. As they sat there, a frightened mule came charging through the door. There simply wasn’t room inside for men and mule both, so Buck got up and shooed him out the door. Thirty feet from the door, a direct hit killed the mule. Buck has always felt guilty about it.
Another time Buck ran onto a mule that was down and crying in pain from a bad shell wound. Buck took his .45 and out a bullet through its head. Buck says:
I wouldn’t have shot him except he was hurtin’ so.
Cold, deliberate in battle
Buck Eversole has the Purple Heart and two Silver Stars for bravery. He is cold and deliberate in battle. His commanders depend more on him than any other man. He has been wounded once, and had countless narrow escapes. He has killed many Germans.
He is the kind of man you instinctively feel safer with then with other people. He is not helpless like most of us. He is practical. He can improvise, patch things, fix things.
His grammar is the unschooled grammar of the plains and the soil. He uses profanity, but never violently. Even in the familiarity of his own group his voice is always low. He is such a confirmed soldier by now that he always says “sir” to any stranger. It is impossible to conceive of his doing anything dishonest.
After the war, Buck will go back West to the land he loves. He wants to get a little place and feed a few head of cattle, and be independent.
He says:
I don’t want to be just a ranch hand no more. It’s all right and I like it all right, but it’s a rough life and it don’t get you anywhere. When you get a little older you kinda like a place of your own.
Buck Eversole has no hatred for Germans. He kills because he’s trying to keep alive himself. The years roll over him and the war becomes his only world, and battle his only profession. He armors himself with a philosophy of acceptance of what may happen.
He says very quietly:
I’m mighty sick of it all, but there ain’t no use to complain. I just figure it this way, that I’ve been given a job to do and I’ve got to do it. And if I don’t like through it, there’s nothing I can do about it.
Democratic 4th term foes bring campaign into open
Ex-Governor Ely of Massachusetts seeks nomination in home state
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington –
Moving boldly in Massachusetts against President Roosevelt’s renomination, anti-New Deal Democrats are out in the open today with their threat to bolt the party if necessary to block a fourth term.
Success of this anti-fourth-term strategy would inevitably obtain election of a Republican President next November.
The Democrats who hope to het Mr. Roosevelt out of the White House are reconciled to that., they seek, primarily. To eliminate the President as party leader and to regain control of the organization foe regular Democrats.
The movement was formally launched in Boston last night with announcement that former Governor Joseph B. Ely was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in that state only. His name will not be entered in other states.
The maneuver frankly was acknowledged to be designed to block a fourth term. The Massachusetts presidential preference primary is on April 25.
Third party planned
The pattern sketched by Mr. Ely’s manager envisages a conservative Democratic bolt, organization of a third party and nomination of a Jeffersonian Democratic presidential and vice-presidential ticket if Mr. Roosevelt is nominated against at Chicago next July.
Mr. Ely led the Alfred E. Smith Stop-Roosevelt movement at the 1932 convention. He participated in the futile 1936 convention of Jeffersonian Democrats in Detroit. He opposed a third term.
Most significantly, the 1944 Stop-Roosevelt movement has cemented roots. Senator David I. Walsh (D-MA) is reliably reported to be backing Mr. Ely. It is in the Senate that any national conservative Democratic movement probably have to be originated.
Somewhat the same strategy has been tried before in half-hearted fashion. Mr. Smith “took a walk” in 1936. It got nowhere.
To succeed this year, it would require bold cooperation in other states and so far, the Stop-Roosevelt movement has been more word than action throughout the country. It is known, however, that former Postmaster General James A. Farley has been hopeful that several Southern and other states would put up favorite-son candidates who would withhold delegate votes from Mr. Roosevelt at the Chicago convention.
Difficult job faced
If enough did so, considerable shine would be removed from the Draft-Roosevelt movement begun here last month by the Democratic National Committee.
To make the plan work, the difficult business of setting up a third party would have to be undertaken in the event of Mr. Roosevelt’s renomination and it should present a ticket which would allay the fears of Southern Democrats at the idea of a bolt.
Senator Ellison D. Smith (D-SC) has already proposed Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-VA) as the ideal candidate of the south for the presidential nomination. Senator Edwin C. Johnson (D-CO) recently proposed that Mr. Roosevelt retire and that the Democrats nominate Gen. George C. Marshall.
There is bitter feeling in the South against the administration on some issues, notably those raised by the President’s Committee on Fair Employment Practices which is endeavoring to give Negroes a better position in industry.
Unrest in North
And there is conservative Democratic unrest in the North and, generally, throughout the country. Vice President Henry A. Wallace, who feels sure Mr. Roosevelt will be reelected this year, has just returned to Washington acknowledging that the Midwest is inclined to be off the reservation.
But against these factors is the unanimous action of the Democratic National Committee last month in urging Mr. Roosevelt to run again. Likewise, the great Democratic political machines in Chicago, New Jersey and New York are whooping it up for a fourth term.
Furthermore, the Democrats have no other candidate who would have a chance to be elected, according to the best judgment of most observers hereabouts.
The opening of the anti-fourth-term campaign, for those reasons, does not throw any great shadow over Mr. Roosevelt’s prospects.
How serious the threat may actually be depends on developments and, for instance, how Mr. Ely and any other anti-Roosevelt candidates run in their own states. It also depends on how real is the threat to form a third party if the President is renominated.
Charles H. McGlue, Mr. Ely’s campaign manager:
It is entirely possible that if Mr. Roosevelt is nominated, the Ely forces would join with other “Jeffersonian Democrats” in the country to nominate a separate slate for President and Vice President.
‘America Firster’ challenges Wallace
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Gerald L. K. Smith, head of the America First Party, today offered to debate with Vice President Henry A. Wallace on the necessity of the United States taking “suggestions of philosophical help from Communist Russia” on its post-war problems.
Mr. Smith issued the challenge in a telegram to Mr. Wallace last night and said he would meet Mr. Wallace at St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh or Philadelphia.
Mr. Smith said in the telegram:
You are quoted as praising the Communist regime of Stalin’s Russia. You represent a substantial number of American people who are pro-Communist and in agreement with your philosophies. I represent several million Americans whom you are now attacking. Because we are America Firsters and because we recruit our followers from the right and center you call us Fascists.
A national America First rally is scheduled to be held at St. Louis March 30.
WPB head sees some shifts in production
Nelson: But reconversion must wait until Nazis are defeated
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Prison-beating charge backed by 2 chaplains
12 inmates of U.S. medical center say they were attacked
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Guffey asks U.S. Poles to be patient
Indicates government believed border dispute should be mediated
By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent
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Völkischer Beobachter (February 22, 1944)
Eine Erklärung des Abts von Monte Cassino –
Weder Soldaten noch Waffen im Kloster
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Der Angriff auf Truk
tc. Tokio, 21. Februar –
Das Kaiserliche Hauptquartier gibt folgendes Kommuniqué heraus: Der schnelle feindliche Verband, der einen Angriff gegen die Insel Truk ausführte, ist dank der Leistungen der japanischen Armee- und Marinekräfte zurückgeschlagen worden. In diesen Kämpfen wurden zwei amerikanische Kreuzer, ein weiteres Schiff (es kann ein Schlachtschiff gewesen sein) versenkt, ein Flugzeugträger und ein Kriegsschiff unbekannten Typs wurden beschädigt.