Edson: Range of naval forces stepped up in this war
By Peter Edson
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Background of news –
President, party and Congress
By Bertram Benedict, editorial research reports
Gen. Washington, Woodrow Wilson has pointed out:
…set an example which few of his successors seem to have followed… he made constant and intimate use of his colleagues in every matter that he handled, seeking their assistance and advice by letter when they were at a distance.
The record shows that President Roosevelt, even in the pre-war years of his administration, consulted very sparingly with his party leaders.
The “soak-the-wealth” administration tax program of 1935 was sprung without warning upon a Congress which had been led to believe that the President desired no new general revenue bill in that year. The undistributed-profits tax program was placed before Congress in 1936 without Congressional leaders having been consulted, and in the following year, revision of the tax was demanded by Chairman Harrison of the Senate Finance Committee.
Senator Robinson, then Senate Majority Leader, complained that he had not been consulted on the President’s Supreme Court plan of 1937, and Chairman Farley of the Democratic National Committee was not a party to the President’s purge attempt of 1938.
‘Intrusion’ resented
Party leaders complain that at the same time President Roosevelt has intruded into what should be their private province. His “Dear Alben” letter to Senator Barkley in 1937 was supposed to have shown presidential preference for Mr. Barkley over Mr. Harrison for the post of Senate Majority Leader, and in 1940, the President forced the nomination of Henry A. Wallace for Vice President.
Party leaders have also complained that when they have wrung concessions from the President, he does not stay put. In November 1941, the House, bitter at strikes in defense plants, passed by a narrow margin the administration-supported revision of the Neutrality Act only after Speaker Rayburn had read aloud a letter from the President interpreted as promising immediate action against such strikes. The House leaders felt the promise was not kept.
The record also shows that even at the beginning of the New Deal, an overwhelmingly-Democratic Congress refused to follow the new President in all issues, though the President sent Congress in 1933 a letter thanking it for “a more sincere and more wholehearted cooperation” than had existed between the executive and the legislative branches for many years.
Congress in 1933 toned down the administration’s draft of the NRA Act, forced concessions in the administration’s original economy program, and rejected several presidential appointments. In 1934, Congress overrode a presidential veto in order to restore cuts made in government salaries and veterans’ payments.
Wilson’s method recalled
Older members of Congress recall nostalgically that Woodrow Wilson put through his program in his first term largely by working hand-in-glove with the party leaders and caucuses. Yet in 1916, when the party leaders rejected Wilson’s defense program, he went over their heads by appealing to the public in a speaking tour.
Wilson also called upon Democratic voters to purge, in the party primaries, certain outstanding Democratic members of Congress who had been anti-administration.
Most strong Democratic Presidents have had party revolts on their hands in Congress.
In Cleveland’s second term, Democratic leaders in Congress joined with the Republican minority to emasculate the administration’s low-tariff bill. In terms not unlike Roosevelt’s attack on the tax bill of 1944, Cleveland denounced the bill as “party perfidy and party dishonor” and an “abandonment of Democratic principle.” In terms not unlike Barkley’s attack upon Roosevelt in 1944, Senator Gorman of Maryland, leader of the Democrats in the Senate, thereupon delivered on the floor of the Senate a bitter personal attack on the President.
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In Italy – (by wireless)
Sometimes a person says the silliest things without being able to account for them.
For example, one night our command post made a move of about five miles. I went in a jeep, perched high atop a lot of bedrolls.
The night was pure black and the road was vicious. We were in low gear all the time, and even that was too fast. Many times we completely lost the trail, and would wander off and bump into trees or fall into deep ditches.
It was one of those sudden nosedives that my story is about. We were far off the trail, but didn’t know it. Suddenly the front end of the jeep dropped about three feet and everything stopped right there. That is, everything but me.
I went sailing right over the driver’s shoulder, hit the steering wheel, and slid out onto the hood. And I remember that as I flew past the driver I said, “Excuse me.”
That’s all there is to the story.
Has been wounded twice
Our company had a mascot which had been with it more than a year. It was an impetuous little black-and-white dog named Josie, a native of North Africa. Josie’s name gradually had been transformed into Squirt.
Squirt was extremely affectionate, and when she came romping back to camp after a whirl with some gay Italian dog, she would jump all over the old-time sergeants and lick their faces until they had to push her away.
Squirt had been wounded twice, which is an unusual experience for a dog. But more a source of wonderment to the soldiers is how, unchaperoned and free-reined as her life is, she has managed to survive all the time without becoming a mother.
Shell was all a mistake
While I was with my company, we had one afternoon that was beautifully sunshiny and warm. Incessant but distant artillery walled the far horizons, yet nothing came into our area, and the day seemed infinitely peaceful.
We ate supper about an hour before dark, in the grove back of a stone farmhouse. We had just started eating when all of a sudden “Whyyyeeeooowww-Bang” came a shell right over our heads and whammed into the hillside on beyond us.
It was so close and so unexpected that even the veterans ducked, and the soldiers took to their foxholes pronto. Lt. Jack Sheehy, the company commander, ducked too, but then he immediately said:
There won’t be any more. That one was a mistake.
Lt. Sheehy used to be a clerk for American Airlines, but he has been at war a long time. He instantly figured out that the Germans had pulled a tank out of the woods a mile or so away, and were trying to shell the hillside ahead of us. And their first practice shot had gone high and come over the ridge.
His theory was proved right a few moments later, when shells began pounding steadily on the other hillside just over the ridge. Which shows how wise a man can become in the ways of a world utterly foreign to a ticket desk in the dimly remembered city of New York.
German ‘fire’ pills handy
Eggs are now 30¢ apiece over here, and it’s hard to get any even at that price.
Our soldiers tell of a small white oil they discovered in captured German combat rations. It is a “fire” oil, which produces heat without either flame or smoke, and which is sufficient to heat a cup of coffee or a can of ration.
I forgot to ask how you start the pill going. I do know that our troops would like to have something similar for frontline mountaintop work, for just one warm meal a day would mean a great deal.
On further nosing around, I discovered that we have specialists over here studying just such a thing. And that when the invasion of Western Europe starts, the British troops at least are to be equipped with them, and possibly ours will too.
Press freedom held big issue in radio dispute
Down-through-the-ages attempts to strangle newspapers emphasized to show needs of free ‘audile journalism’
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Baruch report simplified –
Higher living standards predicted IF all cooperate
By Arthur F. Degreve, United Press staff writer
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Poll: GOP’s chances better than voters think
Tide strongest in 4 years but half of members doubt own strength
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
The Republican Party’s prospects in the coming presidential election are much better than the average Republican voters is inclined to think.
After seeing the GOP lose three elections in a row, the typical Republican voter is inclined toward a dark outlook when considering his party’s chances for victory next November.
Only about half of all Republicans in a poll just completed by the Institute say they think their party will win.
Yet an Institute survey on actual party strength, reported last week, shows that the Republican tide is running stronger today than at any time in four years.
On the other hand, at a time when Democratic Party prospects are the lowest in four years, a buoyant optimism permeates the Democratic ranks. Nearly two-thirds of all Democratic voters say they think their party will win in November.
To determine relative optimism in the two parties, this question was put to voters by the Institute:
Regardless of what party you yourself favor, which party do you think will win the presidential election?
| Democratic | Republican | No opinion | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | 65% | 17% | 18% |
| Republican | 31% | 49% | 20% |
Actual party strength today, as reported last week on the basis of an Institute survey, indicates that the Republicans and Democrats are running virtually neck and neck. In terms of civilian vote, the party strength of the Democrats is 51%, and of the Republicans 49%.
Normally, the Democrats must have more than 51% – in fact, usually more than 52% – of the popular vote to win a majority in the electoral college.
Völkischer Beobachter (February 27, 1944)
Wieder 106 Terrorflugzeuge vernichtet –
Voller Abwehrerfolg nördlich Rogatschew
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U.S. Navy Department (February 27, 1944)
CINCPAC Press Release No. 286
For Immediate Release
February 27, 1944
A study of reconnaissance photographs of Truk has revealed total damage to shipping greater than was originally announced.
The photographs disclose that 23 ships were sunk, six probably sunk, and eleven damaged; earlier reports had indicated 19 sunk, seven probably sunk and none damaged.
On February 25 and 26 (West Longitude Date), enemy bases in the Central Pacific area were attacked by aircraft of the 7th Army Air Force and Fleet Air Wing Two.
On the 25th, Army Liberators dropped 30 tons of bombs on Ponape, scoring hits on docks, airdrome installations, a gasoline dump, and a cargo ship.
On the same day, Army Mitchells and Warhawks and Navy Venturas attacked four enemy‑held Marshall Island bases. An Army Liberator bombed Kusaie and a Navy search plane bombed Nauru.
On the 26th, Army Mitchells and Warhawks, and Navy Venturas attacked three enemy‑held atolls in the Marshalls.
The Pittsburgh Press (February 27, 1944)
NAZIS LOSE 15,000 IN ANZIO BATTLE
Thrusts fail Germans out on defensive
Foe’s plans for Western Europe upset in Italy, Allies declare
By Robert Vermillion, United Press staff writer
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Germany’s air defense crushed
17,000 tons of bombs rip Reich in week of most terrible attacks
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer
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U.S. warships shell Jap base
Kavieng bombarded; 22nd raid on Rabaul
By Don Caswell, United Press staff writer
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‘The best’ for ‘Topper’ –
Libby asks $435,183.57 to build home for her son
Torch singer Holman wants trust fund tapped for place in Connecticut
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GOP in Senate to take time naming leader
White, Vandenberg, Taft and Bridges mentioned as McNary successor
Washington (UP) – (Feb. 26)
The choice of a Senate Republican Leader to succeed the late Charles L. McNary (R-OR) appeared tonight to lie among Senators Wallace H. White Jr. (R-ME), Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI), Robert A. Taft (R-OH) and Styles Bridges (R-NH).
There was no disposition among Republican Senators, however, to hurry selection of Mr. McNary’s successor. No action will be taken at the earliest until after his funeral.
Mr. McNary was elected chairman of the Senate Republican conference as well as leader on Thursday, the day before he died. Mr. White, elected assistant leader, will be acting leader until another election is held, and Mr. Vandenberg, elected vice chairman, will be acting chairman.
Senate to meet Tuesday
The Senate will meet again Tuesday and then recess in tribute to Mr. McNary after brief eulogies by Mr. White, Democratic Leader Alben W. Barkley, Senators Rufus C. Holman (R-OR) and others. The Senate will also adopt a resolution conveying its condolences to Mr. McNary’s family.
Because of the time element, there was some question whether the Senate will select an official delegation to go to Oregon for the funeral, scheduled for Friday.
President sends condolences
In his message of condolence to Mrs. McNary, President Roosevelt said:
The United States Senate, in which your husband served with distinction for more than a quarter of a century, the great state of Oregon which showed its confidence in repeated elections and the nation as a whole have lost the counsels of a faithful and efficient public servant.
He possessed, besides a delightful personality, rare gifts of statesmanship. As Minority Leader of the Senate, he put national interest above blind partisanship and was ever free of rancor or intolerance. I counted Charlie McNary among my real friends and I shall miss his companionship and his helpful cooperation in essential things.
To you and to who mourn with you, I offer this assurance of heartfelt sympathy in which Mrs. Roosevelt joins.
Hull, Ickes send tributes
Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Secretary of Interior Harold L. Ickes added theirs to the many tributes evoked by Mr. McNary’s death.