John L. Lewis or blonds are all the same to Army
War Department has heard no charges against men who paid ‘diplomatic’ visit to UMW chief
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Editorial: It’s up to the states
House and Senate conferees, under the tireless flailing of Mr. Rankin of Mississippi, have now compromised and re-compromised the soldier-ballot bill until it is acceptable even to Mr. Rankin, which is passable evidence that the hodgepodge measure falls far short of making it easy for the troops to vote.
The responsibility is thrown back upon the state legislatures.
It may be that most men in uniform are not overly excited today about voting. Other, and urgent, matters are on their minds. But it is reasonable to suppose that as the nominating conventions come and go, and the election draws near, the Armed Forces will work up an active interest in the outcome.
If we were politicians, we would not like to risk letting the idea get around that we had helped either actively or passively to prevent the fighting men from voting.
Some think that those soldiers and sailors who are permitted to vote will vote preponderantly for the Commander-in-Chief. Some think they will vote more or less the same way as the folks back home. As far as we are concerned, such considerations are not appropriate to the issue.
The issue, as we see it, is simply this: If anybody is entitled to vote in a presidential election in a war year, it is the men who are fighting the war.
Congress having flopped its job, it’s up to the legislatures to get busy to that end.
Perkins: Labor in the election
By Fred W. Perkins, Press Washington correspondent
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania –
This is a report on results of a trip through much of the Midwest, which included interviews with a cross-section of labor leaders on the political situation, particularly the 1944 presidential part of it.
These “galloping” endeavors produce the conclusion that the Roosevelt support is considerably down among the rank-and-file in certain important segments of organized labor, including the railway brotherhoods and some big units of the American Federation of Labor. A recession is reported even in parts of the CIO, but the men who ought to know this sentiment best declare that, in the end, organized labor as a whole will go almost as solidly for a fourth term as it did for the second and third terms.
Another conclusion is that the only Republican, among the men now being discussed as the nominee of that party, who has a chance of cracking the labor vote enough to bring about an approximate balance, is Wendell Willkie. That was the only Republican name which did not produce jeers among the interviewed labor leaders.
Willkie program
Mr. Willkie is said to have mapped out a program that might prove attractive to the rank-and-file of labor, but he has not announced it in full. It is based on a full recognition of all the rights that labor won under the New Deal, plus more tangible recognition for labor in the government.
In Chicago, Raymond McKeough, former ardent New Deal Congressman and late unsuccessful candidate for the Senate, was found busily forming a “grassroots” organization on behalf of the CIO Political Action Committee. He is regional director for Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
Mr. McKeough admitted he faced a stiff fight – “the toughest in the country,” he said – to insure the electoral votes of the three states for the probable Democratic nominee.
He said that in the Midwest as in the rest of the country where it will operate politically the CIO will address its appeal to the farmers and the public in general – will try to prove the theory that what helps labor helps everybody.
They’ll ‘come around’
Cincinnati furnished reliable information that the rank-and-file of railway workers are still displeased with Mr. Roosevelt because of the administration’s handling of their recent age controversy and strike threats. An authority on this subject told of being almost thrown out of the kitchen of a railway dining car when he suggested to the half-dozen chefs and their helpers that he supposed they were still for Mr. Roosevelt as in the past.
But this authority thought these men eventually would “come around.”
Cleveland provided the most tangible evidence of an effort to subordinate the internal troubles or organized labor on behalf of a united political front. Jack Gill, a leader in the international setup of the Typographical Union (not affiliated with either AFL or CIO), was one of the main promoters of a meeting Thursday night on behalf of political unity.
Mr. Gill expressed the view that labor unions would make “a tragic mistake” if they allowed their internal differences to divide their political support.
He pointed out:
For nearly 12 years, the national Congress was doing things for or on behalf of organized labor. Now, as shown by the Connally-Smith law, it has started to do things TO labor.
He said:
I believe labor as a whole will support Roosevelt, but if I had to take a Republican, I’d choose Willkie.
Farther south in Ohio, at Columbus, the CIO State Industrial Council has announced formation for the first time of all branches of organized labor in “a broad political front.”
Pittsburgh dope
John L. Lewis, international president of the Mine Workers, is not expected to be in any way favorable to Mr. Roosevelt. He supported Willkie in 1940, but the precinct results indicate the miners didn’t follow him. Mr. Lewis will not support Mr. Willkie this year, which is said to be all right with Mr. Willkie.
In Pittsburgh, “Chick” Federoff, head of the Steel City Industrial Union Council, said he favored a union for political purposes with the AFL, and that his group will try to make plans in a meeting next Tuesday. But John A. Stackhouse, secretary of the Pittsburgh Central Labor Union, said that organization had just decided to set up its own political committees, with no plans for active cooperation with any other labor group.
At the other end of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia groups of both the AFL and CIO organized a “united front” last year, and hope to continue it.
Somber notes of war in Four Jills in a Jeep
But it is also a gay account of Carole Landis and three other actresses entertaining servicemen overseas
By Harry Hansen
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I DARE SAY —
Theater is finding that anything goes!
Regardless of quality the public flocks to the shows
By Florence Fisher Parry
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U.S. asking for increase in victory gardens in 1944
Enough food was raised last year to fill 160,000 freight cars or 800 Liberty ships
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PROCLAMATION 2607
“I Am An American Day,” 1944
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 6, 1944
WHEREAS Public Resolution 67, approved May 3, 1940 (54 Stat. 178), provides in part:
That the third Sunday in May each year be, and hereby is, set aside as Citizenship Day and that the President of the United States la hereby authorized and requested to issue annually a proclamation setting aside that day as a public occasion for the recognition of all who, by coming of age or naturalization, have attained the status of citizenship, and the day shall be designated as “I Am An American Day.”
That the civil and educational authorities of States, counties, cities, and towns be, and they are hereby, urged to make plans for the proper observance of this day and for the full instruction of future citizens in their responsibilities and opportunities as citizens of the United States and of the States and localities in which they reside.
WHEREAS our nation has been enriched, both spiritually and materially, by the naturalization of many thousands of foreign-born men and women, and by the coming of age of great numbers of our youth, who have thereby achieved the full stature of citizenship; and
WHEREAS these citizens have strengthened our country by their services at home and on the battlefield:
NOW, THEREFORE, I, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, President of the United States of America, pursuant to the aforesaid public resolution, do hereby designate Sunday, May 21, 1944, as “I Am An American Day,” and do set that day aside as a public occasion for the honoring of American citizenship by giving special recognition to all of our citizens who have attained their majority or have been naturalized during the past year; and I call upon Federal, State, and local officials, and patriotic, civic, and educational organizations to plan and hold, on or about May 21, exercises designed to assist our citizens, both native-born and naturalized, to understand more fully the great privileges and responsibilities of citizenship in our democracy.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.
DONE at the city of Washington this sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-eighth.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
E.R. STETTINIVS JR.
Acting Secretary of State
Völkischer Beobachter (March 6, 1944)
Der Halle Osten unter internationaler Kontrolle
Das Judentum im Zusammenspiel mit den Bolschewisten
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U.S. Navy Department (March 6, 1944)
CINCPAC Press Release No. 295
For Immediate Release
March 6, 1944
Aircraft of the 7th Army Air Force and Fleet Air Wing Two attacked three enemy‑held positions in the Marshall Islands on March 4 (West Longitude Date).
Army Mitchell bombers and Dauntless dive bombers, Navy Hellcat fighters and Ventura search bombers dropped approximately 35 tons of bombs and strafed ground installations. Fires were started and explosions were observed. Anti-aircraft fire was encountered, but all of our planes returned safely.
The Pittsburgh Press (March 6, 1944)
Heart of Berlin set afire by 15-mile Yank armada
U.S. fliers smash through screen of fighters
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer
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