Raymond Clapper Memorial to further good reporting
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‘We’ll ride – you’ll pay’
Weekly editor ridicules bill for ad subsidy
Calls it election year present
By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent
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Gen. MacArthur ‘smear’ charged
Vandenberg scores Army reading list
Washington (UP) –
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson today agreed with Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI) that the War Department should be “scrupulously careful to avoid the official distribution of partisan or prejudicial material to the Army.”
Mr. Stimson made the statement in reply to a protest by Mr. Vandenberg that a list of recommended magazine articles circulated by the Army War College library included a “smear” article against Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the Senator’s favorite for the 1944 Republican presidential nomination.
List to be eliminated
Mr. Stimson wrote Mr. Vandenberg that the list of magazine articles henceforth would be eliminated from the library bulletin.
Mr. Vandenberg protested that the War Department list referred to the article, printed in the American Mercury, as:
…a comprehensive and objective appraisal of the general as presidential timber, with special reference to the character of his backers and an analysis of his military reputation before Pearl Harbor and after.
Mr. Stimson wrote Mr. Vandenberg that the War College library reprinted the list from a poster sent out each month by Harper & Bros. to public libraries and that the comments reprinted under the title of each article were reproduced exactly from the power.
Selections not approved
Mr. Stimson wrote:
There has been no intent to imply War Department approval of these selections. The sponsorship by a council of librarians is indicated as part of the heading. Monthly circulation of this publication represents fewer than 500 copies.
In order that there may be no opportunity for misunderstanding of the War Department’s position, however, I have directed that the list be eliminated from future issues of the library bulletin.
Guadalcanal veterans meet heavier fighting in Burma
Two U.S. machine guns fire 5,000 rounds each to mow down Japs
By Frank Hewlett, United Press staff writer
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Clergymen’s plea on bombing hit
Aid to foe’s morale, statement says
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In Army since 12, he’s not citizen
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Editorial: Dewey and the soldier vote
Governor Dewey’s soldier-voting plan strikes us two ways.
His affirmative suggestions to the New York Legislature for simplifying the balloting arrangement for troops from that state – particularly the proposed waiver of the registration requirement – should be greatly helpful. But it is regrettable that Governor Dewey omitted a further recommendation for state concurrence in the pending Congressional plan, under which men in uniform who apply for state ballots but do not receive them in time could use the proposed federal “bobtailed ballot.”
It certainly is true, as Mr. Dewey says, that the troops are entitled to vote in state and local elections as well as for federal offices. And his proposals go far toward making this possible for many of them.
Still, his plan involves a triple use of the mails. The soldier voter must send a postcard request, receive a ballot from home, and mail back the marked ballot. And that, as anybody who corresponds with a man overseas knows, is apt to take a long time.
If the President approves the federal-ballot bill, Mr. Dewey should think about using this added opportunity for New Yorkers in the service, as a stopgap in cases where his otherwise-excellent state plan fails because of geographical and other difficulties.
In New York City –
War industries told to retain draft-free men
Plants must drop younger men first
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Theater wins damages from film companies
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Roz Russell signs a pact with Warners Studio
And Hedy Lamarr may leave MGM to make films as freelancer
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In Italy – (by wireless)
Gunner Sgt. Alban Petchal, who comes from Steubenville, Ohio, said that if I would come over to their tent after supper they’d see if they couldn’t drum up a snack before bedtime. He said they often cooked just to pass the time.
So, I went over about 8 o’clock and Sgt. Petchal said:
I didn’t put the potatoes on yet. We were afraid you weren’t coming.
The potatoes were already peeled. Petchal sliced some thin and dropped them into a skillet on top of the fiery gasoline stove. When he got them a crispy brown, he said:
Have you ever eaten eggs scrambled right in with potatoes?
Sgt. Petchal said that’s the way his mother always fixed them, so broke up a few eggs in the skillet, scrambled them with the potatoes, and served them in the mess kits. They were wonderful.
The eggs cost 20¢ apiece.
There were seven boys in the tent, all aerial gunners. We sat and talked for a long time about things in general. Finally I started to out down their names, and one by one I discovered that every boy in that tent with one exception had been through at least one violent experience.
One from Pennsylvania
Sgt. Robert Sweigert is from Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The others good-naturedly call him “Pretty Boy,” because he is sort of suave looking. He had on nothing but shorts, and while I was there, he shaved and then took a sponge bath out of a wash pan.
Sgt. Sweigert was wounded once by flak and spent two months in a hospital. Another time his plane made a crash landing after being badly shot up, and it broke in two and caught fire when it hit. Yet the crew escaped. The boys showed me snapshots of the demolished plane.
Then we turned to Sgt. Guadalupe Tanguma of San Antonio, Texas. He had just got his orders home, and may be in America by the time this gets into print. He was feeling wonderful about it.
Sgt. Tanguma is of Spanish blood, speaks fluent Spanish, and therefore gets along fairly well in Italian. His experience was a gruesome one, although it turned out fine.
His plane went into a dive and he couldn’t get to the pilot’s compartment, so all Tanguma and the other gunner could do was try to get out. They finally made it.
Tanguma landed upside down in a tree. Italians came running and got him down. He gave the parachute to the crowd. Forty-five minutes after his jump, he was in a farmhouse eating fried eggs.
An Italian volunteered as guide and started walking with him. The Italians wouldn’t take money for their help. The other gunner got back also.
Fliers rated ‘tops’
Next, I put down Sgt. Charles Ramseur of Gold Hill, North Carolina. Sgt. Ramseur used to fly with my dive-bombing friend Maj. Ed Bland, and Maj. Bland says he’s tops.
Ramseur was about to shave off a half-inch growth of whiskers. He was feeling a little abashed because the first sergeant had spoken sharply about it that afternoon. When he did shave, he left a mustache and a straggly little goatee.
Ramseur is the quiet, courteous, unschooled but natively refined type you find so often in the hill country in the South. He hopes to be going home soon, although his orders haven’t been put through yet.
Ramseur has taught himself engraving since being in the Army. At least it’s a form of engraving. He pricks out designs on all his medals with a penknife. His canteen top is covered with names and flight insignia.
He has a photo album with aluminum covers made from a German plane, and all over it are engraved names and places. Sgt. Ramseur hopes maybe this talent might lead to an engraver’s job after the war.
On the fiber lining of his steel helmet, he has chronicled his missions, with a small bomb representing each one. They cover the entire front of the helmet, and he looks at them with relief.
Stokes: GOP problem
By Thomas L. Stokes
Washington –
The optimistic state of mind among Republicans over November election prospects shows itself in the current disagreement among them in the Senate over election of a successor to the late Senator Charles L. McNary as party leader in that body.
Aside from the question of who it should be – and the rivalry is lively – the Republican Senators are divided over whether they should choose a leader now or wait until after the election.
One group, which includes the nine “freshmen” members swept into office in 1942, wants to elect a vigorous leader, carry the fight aggressively on every issue to the Democrats from now until election, and perfect a smooth-working party organization that would function effectively if the party captures the White House.
Other group wants to wait
The other group, which includes some, but not all of the older members, prefers to wait until after election to see if their optimism about victory is borne out, meanwhile retaining their temporary organization with Senator Wallace H. White (R-ME) as acting leader.
In the event they capture the White House, they might want to choose a different type of leader than if the party were still a minority party. They would want as leader a man who would work well with their President and no one knows now who this might be, or what the party situation might be, it is pointed out.
They want no repetition of their last experience with Senate Republican leadership when they were in power. Senate Republican Leader Jim Watson, who had little regard for President Hoover, was constantly crossing up the President and making light cracks about him. One of his favorite quips about the President was:
How’re you going to follow a man who has St. Vilus dance?
Senator McNary, rather than “Sunny Jim,” became the liaison with the White House when the Depression began to pile trouble high.
Should the Republicans capture the Senate, which looks now to be a long-shot bet, the Senate Leader would assume commanding influence in the party councils.
Even should Republicans fail to get control of the Senate, they are certain to make gains and narrow the margin between the parties. There are now 58 Democrats, 37 Republicans and one Progressive. With a Republican President and a Senate nominally under control of the Democrats, a skillful leader would be needed who could work with the Democrats as far as possible to the best interests of the administration, particularly with the country at war.
Conference to decide course
The group which wants to wait leans toward caution. Among them are some who would not go too strong in opposition now, depending rather upon the present trend picking up momentum of its own weight, without any continuous running fight that might produce tactical errors of which President Roosevelt could take advantage.
Republicans will decide on their course at a party conference next Wednesday, with the advantage on the wait-and-see side.
Mentioned for the leadership are Senators Robert Taft (R-OH), Arthur Vandenberg (R-MI), John A. Danaher (R-CT) and Styles Bridges (R-NH).
Senator Taft takes the position among his friends that he would step aside if Senator Vandenberg wants the post. The Michigan Senator, it is reported, would like the job as long as the party is in the minority, but if it won control of the Senate, he would prefer to be President pro tempore and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, on which he is now ranking Republican member.
Senators Danaher and Bridges are younger men who have taken an active role in the Senate. Each has a following.