Irving Berlin: British like U.S. slang, gags, tunes
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In Italy – (by wireless)
At long last our company was really underway on its night movement up into the line. It was just past midnight, and very black. The trail was never straight. It went up and down, across streams, and almost constantly around trees.
How the leaders ever followed it is beyond me. The trees on each side had been marked previously with white tape or toilet paper, but even so we did get lose a couple of times and had to backtrack.
The rain had stopped, but the mud was thick. You literally felt each step out with the toes of tour boots. Every half hour or so we’d stop and send runners back to see how the tail end of the column was doing. Word came back that they were doing fine, and that we could step up the pace if we wanted to.
Somewhere in the night, both ahead of us and strung out behind us in files, was the rest of our battalion. In fact, the whole regiment of more than 3,000 men was moving that night, but we knew nothing about the rest.
Throughout the night, the artillery of both sides kept up a steady pounding. When we started, our own guns were loud in our ears. Gradually we drew away from them, and finally the explosion of their shells on German soil was louder than the blast of the guns.
Rifle fire gets louder
The German shells traveled off at a tangent from us, and we were in no danger. The machine-gun and rifle fire grew louder as our slow procession came nearer the lines. Now and then a frontline flare would light up the sky, and we could see red bullets ricocheting.
The nagging of artillery eventually gets plain aggravating. It’s always worse on a cloudy night, for the sounds crash and reverberate against the low ceiling. One gun blast along can set off a continuous rebounding of sound against clouds and rocky slopes that will keep going for 10 seconds and more.
And on cloudy nights you can hear shells tearing above your head more loudly than on a clear night. In fact, that night the rustle was so magnified that when we stopped to rest and tried to talk, you couldn’t hear what the other fellow said if a shell was passing overhead. And they were passing almost constantly.
At last, we passed through a village and stopped on the far edge to rest while the column leader went into a house for further directions. We had caught up with the mules.
One of the muleskinners out in the darkness kept up a long monolog on the subject of the mules being completely done up. Nobody would answer him, and he would go on:
They’re plumb done in. They can’t go another foot. If we try to go on, they’ll fall down and die.
Huffy muleskinner
Finally, some soldier in the darkness told him to shut up. We all privately endorsed his suggestion. But the monologist got huffy and wanted to know who that was. The voice said it wasn’t anybody, just a new replacement soldier.
Then the muleskinner waxed sarcastic and louder. He had an objectionable manner, even in the dark.
He said:
Oh, oh! So we’ve got a baby right from the States telling me how to run mules! A tenderfoot, huh? Trying to talk to us veterans! A hero right from the States, huh?
Whereupon one of the real veterans in our company called out to the gabby skinner:
Aw, shut up! You probably haven’t been overseas two months yourself.
He must have hit the nail on the head, or else his voice carried command, for that’s the last we heard of the muleskinner.
It was almost midnight when the company reached its bivouac area and dug its foxholes into the mud. Always that’s the first thing to do. it becomes pure instinct. The drippy, misty dawn found our men dispersed and hidden in the bottom of shallow, muddy depressions of their own digging, eating cold hash from C-ration cans.
They attacked just after dawn. The Germans were only a short distance away. I stayed behind when the company went forward.
In the continuously circulating nature of my job, I may never again see the men in this outfit. But to me, they will always be “my” company.
Pegler: Father McGlynn’s play
By Westbrook Pegler
Kansas City, Missouri –
I see by the New York papers that Father Thomas McGlynn, a Catholic priest, has written a play, presenting the white man as the minority and the Negro as the majority in our country, in appropriate reversals of the equation.
Jack Chapman, the drama reviewer of the New York News, recalls that some years ago I happened on a similar idea in a sketch for the Dutch Treat show.
In my play, called Old White Joe, the old family retainer was a cringing white man who was hailed into a high-suburban drawing room of the Negro aristocracy, and commanded to bring in the field-hands and sing an old folk song for the gentlemen who were all in dinner jackets and having their brandy while the ladies powdered up.
Old White Joe, played by Ray Vir Den, an old Oklahoma boy who came down East to yell mi-mi-mi in the opera but got a job in the advertising business instead, then backed off and returned with the rest of the Dutch Treat quartet to sing, “Gone Are the Days, From the Cotton Mills Away.”
They entered in faded overalls, blinking at the elegance of the room and the company, and sang beautifully to the final “Hear Them Angel Voices Calling, Old White Joe.”
Radical reformer is guest
Mr. Chapman says that Mr. Fordyce, the master of the manor, snarled at Old Joe, “Come here, you old white bum.” That is not correct. What he said was, “You, Joe, come here, you old white rascal.”
Then he asked him how many hams he reckoned he had stolen in all the years, boy and man, that he had been in the Fordyce family. Old White Joe said he reckoned he didn’t “never stole none, lessen you could call takin’ stealin’.”
Among the Negro guests of the Negro host there was a radical reformer from New Orleans who kept saying that nevertheless white men were human children of the same loving God. He was hollered down by a Negro clergyman who explained that down South they didn’t have the same white problem.
Down South, the Negroes were in the majority and could keep the white man in his place by force of numbers. Up North, the Negro minority had to use prestige and segregation.
Another guest, a noisy, pompous, Greenwich broke type, said that yes, he had been down South on business and that it had made his blood boil to see some great big pushful buck white man walk into a streetcar and deliberately pass up empty seats to plant himself beside some lovely innocent colored girl.
Mr. Fordyce softened the debate by explaining how well his family all loved Old White Joe. At that point, Worth Colwell, another advertising man, ran onto the stage in the role of Miss Pansy Fordyce, the young missy of the household, yelling “rape, rape, rape!” The curtain fell as the gents, including the Southern radical reformer, tore offstage to lynch the beloved Old White Joe.
Versions of typical white men
This sketch was done strictly for the amusement of a stag dinner, but I confess that I have never been able to moralize the story to a happier conclusion depicting mutual trust and friendship.
As a matter of fact, those colored aristocrats were not too fond of each other, nor above a little cheating one way and another, for they were just burnt-cork versions of typical white men.
But, if it comes to that, the Negro is no more tolerant or kind, even among Negroes; and history gives him no reason to boast of his gentle consideration for others when he is up.
And he is to a certain extent to blame for the prejudice which has followed him since slavery through his overbearing conduct in the Southern states during the Reconstruction era. In Haiti and Santo Domingo, Negroes have massacred other Negroes and there were Negro masters of Negro slaves in Abyssinia.
In Father McGlynn’s play, a poor white woman and her baby are evicted by a greedy Negro landlord and the baby is adopted by a Negro family and finally sent to college to study in equality with Negroes.
Well, so what? Well, so I know what, but it wouldn’t do any good to say what because the solution has been there all the time in a building with a cross on the spire where Father McGlynn works, but neither side is yet sufficiently civilized to give it a try.
Chaplin going into court to say ‘I did’ or ‘I didn’t’
Comedian’s attorney to seek another delay despite federal judge’s warning
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Ex-Governor of Oklahoma recalls last soldier vote
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (UP) –
Former Oklahoma Governor Robert L. Williams, who was governor during World War I, says men in uniform voted heavily by absentee ballot during his term of office.
Mr. Williams, now a retired Circuit Court of Appeals judge, believed men overseas and on home soil should be permitted to vote, but he is not sure the absentee ballot would be the best method.
Millett: Appreciated
War separations binds weakening ties
By Ruth Millett
There is a lot of pessimistic talk about war marriages and how many of them are going to be followed by divorce when the war is over.
But there is nothing much said about the marriages that are actually being strengthened by the war. And there must be thousands of husbands and wives such as Bill and Mary, married for three, four and maybe 10 years, who are learning from separation just how important their marriages.
It wasn’t that Mary and Bill were no longer in love when the war came along.
They still loved each other. But they had grown so used to what they had, so sure of security and of each other, they were on the verge of becoming bored with the whole idea.
And then the war came along and separated them, and it didn’t take long for both to realize that their marriage and the way of life they had built together was the most important thing they had.
And it didn’t take long for them to find out just how much each depended on the other for companionship and understanding, and how unsatisfactory freedom is once you’ve become used to being both dependent and depended upon.
Bill and Mary will go back into marriage with a new appreciation for each other and for their way of life, and it isn’t likely that anything ever will make either of them consider a divorce.
So, while the post-war world may see many hasty war marriages ending in divorce, as the experts predict, there are sure to be many marriages that never get anywhere near the divorce courts simply because the war has showed the husbands and wives just how important their marriages really are.
Oil companies study terms for pipeline
Gulf among firms seeking contract for Near East project
By Marshall McNeil, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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U.S. Navy Department (February 25, 1944)
CINCPAC Press Release No. 281
For Immediate Release
February 25, 1944
The following information has been received supplementing Communiqué No. 40:
Our task force commanded by RAdm. Marc A. Mitscher was detected approaching Tinian and Saipan in the afternoon of February 21 (West Longitude Date).
Attacks on our ships were carried out continuously during the night and the morning of February 22 by enemy land‑based torpedo planes and bombers. Fourteen of the attacking planes were shot down by our anti-aircraft fire and five more were shot down by our air patrols.
In spite of the persistent and continuing attacks, our carriers launched their planes according to schedule.
Two attacks were carried out in force against the principal targets, and a smaller raid was made at Guam. A total of 29 enemy planes were shot down over the targets, and an additional 87 planes were wrecked on the ground. A total of 135 enemy aircraft was destroyed.
Few enemy ships were found; one cargo ship was sunk, another was severely damaged and apparently beached, and another was set afire. One patrol craft was blown up and seven other small ships were damaged. Small boats in the harbor areas were strafed.
Runways, seaplane aprons, and other airdrome facilities, fuel dumps and buildings were heavily bombed and strafed.
Our losses were six planes. None of our ships was sunk or damaged.
On February 23 (West Longitude Date) Liberators of the Seventh Army Air Force bombed wharves, radio facilities, and the cantonment area at Kusaie. On the same day Navy search Liberators of Fleet Air Wing Two bombed Kusaie dock areas, sinking one ship and damaging another. In addition a hit was made on an ammunition dump, which exploded.
Army Mitchell bombers, Warhawk fighters, and Navy search Venturas bombed and strafed ground installations on four enemy‑held atolls in the Western Marshall Islands. Although several planes were damaged, all returned to their base.
Völkischer Beobachter (February 26, 1944)
Die Sorgen um die italienische Front –
‚Bedruckende Enge‘ bei Nettuno
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White House Memorandum on Occupational Deferments
February 26, 1944
The crucial campaigns of this year will determine both the length of this war and its price in men and goods. We are well equipped in food and munitions but their production has drawn over heavily on our stock of manpower. It is time to strike a new balance.
The Armed Forces have continuously adjusted their requirements to the minimum necessary to implement strategic plans. Initial estimates have been reduced by over half a million men. Recently the Army has had to withdraw the great majority of men who were receiving instruction in colleges. The present allocations of personnel to the Armed Forces cannot be further reduced, and there is a very real danger in our failure to supply trained replacements at the time and in the numbers required.
Selective Service has not delivered the quantity of men that was expected. The shortage which commenced to develop last September reached a total of 200,000 on December 31. This means that today we are still short approximately 200,000 trained men although the actual personnel shortage in the Army has been reduced to 150,000. Today, as a result, we are forced to emasculate college courses and trained divisions and other units. The Army will not reach its planned January strength until sometime in April, or even later if Selective Service continues to fall behind on its quotas.
The nation’s manpower pool has been dangerously depleted by liberal deferments and I am convinced that in this respect we have been overly lenient, particularly with regard to the younger men. The overage men, the physically disqualified, the returned soldier, and the women of the nation must be used more effectively to replace the able-bodied men in critical industry and agriculture.
Almost five million men have been deferred for occupational reasons. Deferments for industry include over a million non-fathers, of whom 380,000 are under 26 years of age. Of almost a million non-fathers deferred in agriculture, over 550,000 are under 26. Agriculture and industry should release the younger men who are physically qualified for military service. The present situation is so grave that I feel that the time has come to review all occupational deferments with a view to speedily making available the personnel required by the Armed Forces.
Letter from President Roosevelt on Preference for Veterans in Federal Employment
February 26, 1944
Dear Mr. Mitchell:
I desire to have the Civil Service Commission, in connection with its recruiting activities, give special emphasis to placing veterans who are available in vacancies in the various departments and agencies.
I have learned with real interest of the plans which already have been formulated by the Civil Service Commission along these lines. I have been particularly gratified over the efforts that the Commission has made to study just what skills and abilities are needed in the performance of the specific jobs so that disabled veterans can be placed in positions where they can render effective service.
I am today addressing a communication to the heads of all departments and agencies urging that, whenever veterans are referred to them by the Civil Service Commission, they shall be given preference in the filling of positions. I am also urging the heads of the departments and agencies to take immediate steps to delegate, wherever there is a shortage of qualified personnel, full authority to the Civil Service Commission to recruit for them for specific vacancies in the departments and agencies. This will eliminate the delays incident to the Commission’s referring a number of names to the departments and agencies and then having the departments and agencies decide who, among the persons referred to them, is to be selected for a particular position. In this manner veterans who are eligible for Federal positions will not be subjected to unnecessary delays in their search for employment with the Federal Government.
Under the provisions of the Selective Training and Service Act persons who have left other than temporary positions in the Federal service are entitled to their old positions or to positions of like seniority, status, and pay. I have learned that some confusion exists in the minds of various departments and agencies as to just what is the extent of their obligations under this Act.
I am therefore designating the Civil Service Commission as the agency which is responsible for issuing, from time to time, as my representative, instructions as to just what the departments and agencies shall do under specific sets of circumstances in granting reemployment rights to veterans. In discharging this responsibility, it is my desire that the Civil Service Commission give full weight to the spirit and intent back of Section 8(A) of the Selective Training and Service Act. The Federal Government, as an employer, must act in connection with these matters in such a manner as to leave no doubt in the minds of the citizens of this country of its intention to fully comply with the promises made to the members of our armed services through the Selective Training and Service Act.
If the Commission notes any reluctance upon the part of any department or agency of Government to conform to the instructions relative to the reemployment of returning veterans which may be issued from time to time, I desire to have this reluctance called to my attention at once through the Liaison Officer for Personnel Management.
Letter from President Roosevelt on Preference for Veterans in Federal Employment
February 26, 1944
To the heads of executive departments and agencies:
I have today addressed a letter to the Civil Service Commission in which I have directed it, in connection with its recruiting activities, to give special emphasis to placing veterans who are available in vacancies in the Federal service.
It is my desire that, whenever the Civil Service Commission refers veterans to the various departments and agencies, these veterans be given preference in the filling of vacancies.
In addition, it is my desire that, wherever there is a shortage of qualified personnel, the heads of the various departments and agencies delegate to the Civil Service Commission full authority to recruit for them for vacancies which may exist in such types of positions as may be requested by the departments and agencies. This will eliminate the delays incident to the Commission’s referring a number of names to the departments and agencies, and then having the departments and agencies decide who, among the persons referred to them, is to be selected for a particular position. Except in the case of filling unusual types of positions, there is no reason whatsoever why, taking into consideration the present manpower situation, the departments and agencies should not delegate this authority to the Commission. Not to do so means that the veteran is being subjected to unnecessary delays in his efforts to secure employment. This can not and should not be tolerated.
My attention has been called to the fact that there is some confusion in the minds of appointing officers in the departments and agencies as to the Federal Government’s obligation to provide reemployment for persons who left the Federal service and entered the armed forces. I am today designating the Civil Service Commission as my representative for the purpose of issuing, from time to time, instructions which will indicate just what the rights of the returning veterans are under certain sets of circumstances. The instructions issued by the Commission should be rigidly adhered to by the heads of the departments and agencies and by their representatives.
I have instructed the Commission to notify me, through the Liaison Officer for Personnel Management, of any reluctance upon the part of particular departments or agencies to adhere to these instructions relative to the reemployment of returning veterans. The Federal Government’s record in this regard must be one which will constitute an example for all employers.
Dear Mr. Ramspeck:
I have learned with real interest that your Committee is planning to consider, in the near future, certain legislative proposals relating to the extension of preference to veterans who desire to compete for positions in the Federal Civil Service.
I believe that the Federal Government, functioning in its capacity as an employer, should take the lead in assuring those who are in the armed services that when they return special consideration will be given to them in their efforts to obtain employment. It is absolutely impossible to take millions of our young men out of their normal pursuits for the purpose of fighting to preserve the Nation, and then expect them to resume their normal activities without having any special consideration shown them.
The problems of readjustment will be difficult for all of us. They will be particularly difficult for those who have spent months and even years at the battlefronts all over the world. Surely a grateful Nation will want to express its gratitude in deeds as well as in words.
I believe that legislation relating to preference for veterans in positions in the Federal Civil Service should include, among others, the following points:
Authority should be granted, during the war and for a period of five years following the war, to restrict to veterans examinations for such positions as may, from time to time, be designated by the President. Those who are fighting for the life of the Nation today will, upon their return to civilian life, be in a position to make a unique contribution to the administration of Government. We should be in a position to take full advantage of this fact.
Where competition is not restricted solely to veterans, provision should be made for adding points to the earned ratings of veterans who compete for positions in the Federal Civil Service.
The Civil Service Commission should be given the authority to determine whether or not the reasons advanced by appointing officers for passing over veterans on lists of eligibles are valid. Furthermore, appointing officers should be required to consider the Commission’s findings before filling vacancies. This will center in one agency the responsibility for determining whether or not a veteran is entitled to consideration for a particular job.
Veterans should be accorded special consideration in connection with any reductions in total personnel which it may be necessary for Federal agencies to work out from time to time.
It is my understanding that H.R. 4115, as introduced by the Honorable Joe Starnes of Alabama, is in substantial conformity with the principles above outlined. I sincerely hope, therefore, that this bill may receive the early and sympathetic consideration of the Congress.
The Pittsburgh Press (February 26, 1944)
JAP FLEET EVADES U.S. THRUST
Enemy loses 135 airplanes in Marianas
But U.S. force bags only two ships in Pacific blow
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
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Yanks down 641 planes over Germany in 6 days
RAF joins in all-out push to kill Luftwaffe, hits Augsburg twice
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer
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