America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

4261

americavotes1944

Background of news –
Soldier vote muddle

By Bertram Benedict

Speaker Rayburn declares that he will support the compromise soldier vote bill recently reported out of conference, because he has been informed that it will let more soldiers vote than will the Soldier Voting Act of 1942. But Senator Lucas (D-IL), one of the sponsors of a “national” bill, declares that he opposes the pending bill because it will let fewer soldiers vote than under the 1942 act.

Opinions in Congress differ on whether the pending bill can get through both Houses or whether, if it does, President Roosevelt will veto it. It is generally agreed that the bill cannot be passed over a veto. Senator Connally of Texas says, “It is this bill or no bill at all.” If it is to be no bill, the 1942 act will apply to the November elections.

The bill reported out by a Senate-House conference committee is so complicated that opinions vary widely on how many soldiers would vote under it. The answer would depend in large measure on what action the state legislatures take.

The measure would apply to members of the Armed Forces overseas (probably five or six million by November), overseas members of the civilian groups attached to the Armed Forces, and all servicemen and women from three states – Kentucky, New Mexico, South Carolina – which have no provision for absentee voting.

Procedure outlined

The serviceman overseas would have to apply for a state ballot by Sept. 1 in order to vote under the act. If he receives it before Oct. 1, that is the ballot to use. Only if he certifies that he has applied and has not received it by the latter date may he use the federal ballot. Even so, he may not use the federal ballot unless the governor of his state certifies by July 15 that his state has taken action authorizing the use of the federal ballot.

The bill urges the states to take action allowing their absentee soldiers to vote. It also urges the states to accept as applications for state ballots the postcards to be printed and distributed by the War Ballot Commission. The postcards are to be distributed by Aug. 15 to men overseas, by Sept. 15 to servicemen within the country, and are to go overseas by plane wherever practicable.

The federal ballot will contain blank spaces in which the voter may write in the name of the candidate for whom he votes for President, for Senator, for Representative. Lists of the candidates are to be transmitted to the Armed Forces by the War Ballot Commission. The federal ballots utilized will be transmitted by the commission to the secretaries of state of the several states, who will distribute them to the proper voting precincts, in which they will be counted. The 1942 act is, for all practical purposes, repealed.

President’s approval in doubt

Whether the President will approve or veto the bill if presented to him may depend on how closely he thinks it corresponds to the “state” bill which the Senate passed on Dec. 3, 1943. The President called this a “fraud,” “meaningless,” and no improvement over the 1942 act, which was in turn described as useless.

The 1942 act, enacted Sept. 6, 1942, is a curious piece of legislation. It says that every “qualified” voter in the Armed Forces shall be entitled to vote for federal office irrespective of state laws on registration. No poll-tax requirement mays be imposed for voting for federal office. Requests may be made, on postcards furnished by the government, to the several secretaries of state are directed to have printed. These, when returned, are to be counted in the same way as regular ballots cast within the state.

The ballots are either to list the candidates and their parties, or to leave blank spaces for names to be filled in.

4262

Flamethrowers spew death and ‘stew’ the Japs

…

Americans bomb Wake again

…

4263

Navy to need 500,000 men this year

Rapidly-expanding fleet is cited

…

4264

Millett: Getting ‘her way’ is ominous pleasure

Husband who allows his wife to run things may ‘have say’ later
By Ruth Millett

…

4265

Survey indicates –
Prices to take big leap in post-war era

Will top 1940 level by 30-50%
By Dale McFeatters, Press business editor

…

4266

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

In Italy – (by wireless)
As I got to know the A-20 gunners better and better, they gradually began to tell me their inner feelings about a life of flying in combat.

Several had just about completed their missions, yet they said they were willing to stay if need and fly extra missions.

In any squadron, you’ll find many men willing to fly beyond the stated missions if it’s put up to them, but you’ll average only about one who actually is eager to go on. In our squadron, I found such a gunner in Sgt. John D. Baker of Indianapolis.

Sgt. Baker is 21. He has flown more missions than anybody in the squadron, men or officers. He says it is his ambition to fly a hundred.

Many in our squadron have gone beyond the required goal. Some are still flying, and others have gone on to the breaking point and had to be grounded. The flight surgeons try to sense when the strain is beginning to get a man.

Some of them seem to have nerves that are untouchable. One of my pilot friends told me that on a mission earlier in the day, when the flak was breaking all around, he didn’t think much of the danger but kept thinking that if a fragment should break the plexiglass globe, and let the below-zero air rush through the plane, he would be one mad pilot.

Another told of the funny reflexes you have up there. For example, every combat airman knows you needn’t worry about the flak you see, for it you see it, the danger is over and you haven’t been hit. Yet this pilot, after a harmless puff of smoke ahead of him, goes around it.

Ernie advises a gunner

One of the gunners – a man with a fine record – told me he had not only become terrified of combat but had actually become afraid to fly at all.

He said that when the generators came on that morning, and the radio in their tent started crackling, it made him dream they were being attacked in the air. He dreamed that a bullet came up through the fuselage and hit him in the throat.

Another told me he felt he just couldn’t go on. He had completed his allotted missions, and nobody could doubt his courage. He wanted to go and ask to be grounded, but just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

So, I urged him to go ahead. Afterwards, I got both sides of the story. The officers told me later they were kicking themselves for not noticing the gunner’s nervousness in time and for letting it go until he had to hurt his pride by asking to be grounded.

But those are men’s innermost feelings. They don’t express them very often. They don’t spend much time sitting around glooming to each other about their chances.

Their outlook and conversation is just as normal as that of a man in no danger at all. They play jokes, and write letters, and listen to the radio, and send gifts home, and drink a little vino and carry on just like anybody else.

It’s only when a man “has had it” – the combat expression for anyone who has had more than he can take – that he sits alone and doesn’t say much, and begins to stare.

Job has to be done

Sgt. Alban J. Petchal of Steubenville, Ohio, and Charles Ramseur of Gold Hill, North Carolina, have flown their allotted missions, have been wounded, and both are true veterans, quiet and kind and efficient.

Sgt. Petchal, although an Easterner, is in a way something of the same kind of man as my cowboy friend, Sgt. Buck Eversole. He doesn’t like any part of war, but he has done his job and done it well.

Sgt. Petchal never heard of Buck Eversole, and yet the morning I left he spoke about his place in the war with the same sort of sadly restrained philosophy, and even in almost the same words that Buck Eversole had used at the front. He said:

The job has to be done, and somebody has to do it, and we happen to be the ones that were picked to do it, so we’ll go on doing it the best we can.

And Sgt. Ramseur said:

I don’t ever want to fly again. But if they tell me to keep on flying, then I’ll just keep on flying, that’s all. You can’t do anything else.

4267

americavotes1944

Stokes: Courtin’ Mr. Hague

By Thomas L. Stokes

Washington –
Election year rolls around to find the Roosevelt administration, as usual, making its obeisance to bosses of corrupt big-city machines, just as Republicans make their soft gestures to big men in business with fat pocketbooks.

Boss Frank Hague of Jersey City is a key figure again. In 1942, he was belabored by former Governor Charles Edison, not fatally, but enough that he lost a senatorial election. The Democrats desperately need Jersey this year.

There’s a senatorial election there this year, along with the presidential election. Some Democrats who watched hopefully the attempts of Charlie Edison to curb the power of Boss Hague would like to run for the Senate a Democrat who espoused some progressive principles and was without the taint of Haguism.

They are talking of Dr. Frank Kingdon, former Methodist minister, former president of the University of Newark, now a lecturer and radio commentator, who is a supporter of President Roosevelt’s domestic and foreign policies.

Bridging the gap

They have made overtures to the White House. The political strategy is to get a candidate who would win the support of former Governor Edison, still a power among Jersey Democrats. Thus, they would bridge the gap between the former governor and the Hague machine and pull the various elements of the party together behind a progressive and aggressive figure. The Democratic Party in Jersey is considerably dispirited, chafing vainly under the Hague whip.

Haguism has become especially obnoxious in recent months because of the machine’s merciless persecution of John Longo, whose crime seems to be that he has fought the machine. The most recent episode was his conviction and jail sentence because of an alleged change of his party designation on the registration books, a charge that was declared false by Governor Edison’s investigators.

The anti-Hague crusader is now out on bail, pending appeal. Meanwhile, the FBI is making an investigation which may produce a new blow at Haguism, though previous Justice Department sallies in New Jersey have stalled.

He who hath a mind–

The only flaw in the Democratic plan to run Dr. Kingdon is that Boss Hague has already laid his blessing on another candidate, Rep. Elmer Wene, who operates one of the nation’s biggest chicken farms at Vineland.

Can President Roosevelt change Mr. Hague’s mind?

Democrats behind the Kingdon movement were somewhat discouraged not long since when Eugene Casey, one of President Roosevelt’s secretaries who is the contact man with the regular Democratic organization, went to a Jackson Day dinner in New Jersey and babbled with raptures about “your great, able and sincere leader, the honorable Frank Hague.”

Speaking of Mr. Hague

He said:

To know your great leader is to honor him, to admire him, to revere him, to respect him and, yes, to love him!

Just like that!

The bubbling Mr. Casey left out of his speech a section of praise for Senator Arthur Walsh, recently appointed by Governor Edison to the vacancy left by the death of the late Senator Barbour, which appeared in the text released to the newspapers.

Boss Hague, meanwhile, enjoys himself at his Florida estate, while his nephew and heir apparent, Frank Eggers, holds political consultations with Communists, Boss Hague’s latest allies, who are insisting upon Congressman Wene and are opposing the selection of Dr. Kingdon.

4268

Maj. de Seversky: Raid losses

By Maj. Alexander P. de Seversky

…

4269

U.S. goes to Mecca with millions as Arabian pilgrimage gold fails

How Britain backed wrong horse in first war is only part of new story of Near East intrigue
By Henry J. Taylor, Scripps-Howard staff writer

New York –
In the forthcoming oil investigation, the Senate’s special committee intends to probe our government’s gift of $25 million to King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia.

Here are a few facts about him.

England’s first Arabian friend in the present Arabian world was by no means Ibn Saud. The British had put their early bet on Hussein bin Ali, Ibn Saud’s bitter rival.

Throughout World War I, Hussein helped the Allies against the Turks by keeping certain Arab groups on our side. He spearheaded a pro-British movement among the tribes. For this reason, Hussein was entitled to consideration when the peace was made at Versailles. But in the peacemaking period, Hussein decided to trade as heavily as he could on his wartime contributions.

Hussein gets the gate

What is more, he decided to be a dominant power throughout the Middle East. Hussein proved so persistent in his mounting demands that finally England had to get rid of him entirely.

Great Britain divided the country and put forward two of Hussein’s 17 sons as independent kings. These two offsprings repudiated their father’s claims and pledged themselves against the fulfillment of his plans.

But Britain had also made wartime promises to Hussein’s bitter rival. Known as Ibn Saud, his name was Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman bin Faisal. He made his headquarters at Al Artawiyah, and on his home grounds, he was a threat to Hussein. So, in December 1915, Britain concluded a treaty of friendship with Ibn Saud – and hoped for the best.

On the sidelines

To Britain’s dismay, however, Ibn Saud did not turn a hand in the war. He simply waited on the sidelines throughout the struggle, embarrassing the British and Hussein alike as often as he could, and this turned out to be often indeed.

One high spot was reached in March 1919, when Ibn Saud simply moved in on one of Hussein’s weak garrisons at Al Khurma. Lord Curzon arbitrated that particular upset. He decided in favor of Hussein. But neither the British nor Hussein were ever able to persuade Ibn Saud to follow England’s order to move out of Al Khurma.

Then when the British got rid of ambitious Hussein and began to rely on Hussein’s offspring, Ibn Saud saw his real chance. He simply stepped to the front and called on England to make good her promises to him.

Puppets are ousted

To enforce his conversations, Ibn Saud gradually took over what was left of Hussein’s pro-British movement among the Arabs and finally deprived the British of any support they had in Arabia unless they came to him. This left the puppet princes right in the middle of nowhere.

By October 1924, Ibn Saud had Hussein’s eldest son actively on the run. And by December, Ibn Saud quietly moved into Mecca. On Jan. 8, 1926, he crowned himself King of Hejaz in the Great Mosque of Mecca and in 1932, he changed the name of Arabia and his other dependencies to “the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

The British had gone out on the end of a limb with Hussein. But they had given a saw to Ibn Saud.

Rich on a thread

Once he was snug in Mecca, the Arabian chieftain’s fortunes rapidly improved. With a glint in his eye, Ibn Saud saw new gold in the form of the Mecca pilgrims. He refined all earlier imposts in such a way that his royal treasury soon flowered and bloomed with the shuffling of each of the faithful down the Taif road.

Among other special tolls which he instituted, Ibn Saud put a look at the magic gold carpet strictly on a gold basis. Then he grew rich on it thread by thread.

This holy carpet, known as Mahmal, is one of the most important religious symbols in the Islamic world. Woven in Egypt with the purest gold thread, a new holy carpet is made each year by the faithful Egyptians, on something like a Lend-Lease basis, and sent to Mecca for the pilgrims. There it is placed near the famous Black Stone in the Kaaba, the chief sanctuary of Islam.

Appeals to Roosevelt

To the dismay of the Egyptian government, Ibn Saud closed each pilgrimage in the last month of the Arab year by cutting the golden carpet into minute pieces and selling them to the pilgrims as a final windup of the local celebration. He reversed Lend-Lease by utilizing the carpet on a cash-and-carry basis.

Beginning with the Ethiopian War in 1935, however, the pilgrimage trade hit a slump. With the tightening of wartime conditions in the Arab world, it has been going downhill ever since. By 1941, Mecca’s pilgrim depression had put a terrible crimp in King Ibn Saud. And members of the Senate committee find that it was in that year that he turned, first to the American oil companies and then to President Roosevelt, for relief.

How he got it will be told tomorrow.

1 Like
4270

Backlog floods Supreme Court

…

4271

Reds’ squad grows to 20 as two new players sign

…

4272

Ten years after war –
Television use in 80% of homes seen

Billion-dollar service to be available

New York (UP) –
A billion-dollar television service will be available to 80% of the wired homes of the nation 10 years after the war, T. F. Joyce, manager of the radio, phonograph and television department of RCA Victor, predicted today.

He foresaw television solving the nation’s distribution problems not only for the stores but also for farms. He regarded distribution as the number one post-war problem and said the problem of production had been solved by war expansion.

Speaking before the Sales Executives Club of New York, Mr. Joyce urged immediate expansion of television once war ends. Requisites for this, he added, include full agreement on television standards, and operation of television in a portion of the radio spectrum which has been proven suited for this form of broadcasting.

Set to retail for $200

Mr. Joyce said:

Assuming that television is given the green light and no obstacles are placed in the path of its commercial development, then this is what we may expect:

  • Development of a satisfactory home radio and television set to retail for approximately $200. Our analysis of the market has shown that 61.3% of the people are prepared to buy a set at this price.

  • Rapid expansion of television receiver sales in the first television market – New York, Philadelphia, Albany-Schenectady, Chicago, and Los Angeles, containing 25,907,600 people, 7,410,000 wired homes and 28.46% of the U.S. buying power.

Within 18 months after television receivers are available at a $200 retail price, 741,000 homes will be equipped. Assuming the average viewing audience per receiver, on the basis of 741,000 equipped homes, is six people (the present average is 10), the total advertising audience would be 4,446,000 people.

To serve 19-state area

Within three or four years after the commercial resumption of television, a network will connect the main cities on the East Coast between Washington, DC, and Boston, Massachusetts, and by the end of the fourth year, a 1,500-mile network circuit will connect the Midwest with the Atlantic Seaboard. This trunkline television network, with the secondary networks that would be offshoots from it, will serve the 19-state area bounded by Illinois and Wisconsin on the west and Virginia and Kentucky on the south. There are approximately 70 million people in this area. It represents approximately 62% of the purchasing power of the country.

  • Within five years, television transmitting stations will provide coverage for the 157 key cities of the United States.

  • It would be reasonable to expect that by the end of the fifth year, after full commercialization of television, the engineers of the industry should be able to develop a low-cost automatic rebroadcasting transmitter to provide coverage of the smaller markets.

1 Like
4273

Heck with regulations –
Fightin’ Kellys plan two-way radio greeting

Charlie and Jim on air tonight
By Si Steinhauser

…

4274

In Washington –
Shipyard sale reveals facts on war waste

Millions are spent, $200,000 returned
By Marshall McNeil, Scripps-Howard staff writer

…

Veterans bill offered

Washington (UP) –
A veterans’ omnibus bill sponsored by 77 Senators and providing for post-war loans and educational facilities for returning servicemen was introduced yesterday by Senator Bennett Champ Clark (D-MO).

He said the measure, endorsed by the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, is a “fundamental bill of rights for America’s servicemen and women.”

Edward E. Odom, solicitor for the Veterans Administration, proposed to the Senate Military Affairs Committee that rating boards be set up in hospitals and discharge centers to rate a servicemen’s disability and determine his compensation.

4275

Völkischer Beobachter (March 15, 1944)

Politik in Kürze

„Wir Soldaten wissen nicht, wofür wir kämpfen.“ so bekennt ein US-Unteroffizier in einem Brief an die New York Times, und fährt fort: „Ich kann diejenigen an Fingern und Zehen abzählen, die irgendeine grundlegende Überzeugung davon haben, um was es sich bei diesem Krieg handelt.“ Das werden ihnen die Roosevelt und Genossen auch schwerlich auf die Nase binden, denn für Wallstreet Geschäfte und jüdische Weltherrschaft gehen Yankees bestimmt nicht begeistert in den Tod.

Das US-Handelsministerium teilt mit, daß das Finanzjahr 1943, was die Einfuhr aus Ibero-Amerika anbelange, ein Rekordjahr gewesen sei, während die Ausfuhr erheblich dahinter zurückgeblieben sei. Auf eine so vornehme Weise wird die Ausplünderung der südamerikanischen Trabanten umschrieben!

4276

U.S. Navy Department (March 15, 1944)

CINCPAC Press Release No. 311

For Immediate Release
March 15, 1944

Our air forces in the Central Pacific Area attacked seven enemy‑held bases on March 13 (West Longitude Date).

Liberators of the 7th and Navy search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two bombed airdrome installations and mining facilities at Ponape.

Kusaie was bombed by Army Liberators and a beached cargo ship was hit by Navy search planes with bombs and machine gun fire.

Shore facilities and a small beached ship at Oroluk Atoll were attacked by Navy search planes.

Army Liberators and Mitchells, Marine Dauntless dive bombers and Hellcats, and Navy search Venturas attacked four bases in the Eastern Marshalls, starting fires at all bases.

A Navy search plane shot down an enemy medium bomber 250 miles north of Truk.

We lost no planes in any of these operations.

4277

The Pittsburgh Press (March 15, 1944)

BOMBS LEVEL CASSINO
Yanks open massive offensive to smash Nazi front in Italy

Infantrymen move up after bombs, cannon obliterate bastion
By C. R. Cunningham, United Press staff writer

…

4278

Nazi aircraft center ripped in Yank raid

Brunswick assault costs 8 planes
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer

…

4279

Naples bombed by Germans

Heaviest enemy blow in months reported
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer

…

4280

americavotes1944

House passes soldier vote to Roosevelt

Measure adopted, 273–111

Washington (UP) –
The House today approved the compromise soldier vote bill and put it up to President Roosevelt for signature or veto.

The House adopted the long-disputed measure by a vote announced as 273–111.

Administration sources said Mr. Roosevelt was still undecided and that there was no unanimity among his advisers as to what he would do. He has indicated his primary consideration will be whether the bill would permit more soldiers to vote than could do so under present law.

Worley urged acceptance

The House vote, which ended months of wrangling among its members and between the two houses of Congress, came after only two hours of debate, contrasted with the two days of argument that preceded the Senate’s vote of 47–31 yesterday.

Chairman Eugene Worley (D-TX), of the House Elections Committee, urged acceptance of the conference version of the bill. He had led the fight in the House by New Deal supporters for a federal ballot for all servicemen and women. But the final bill, adopted by an overwhelming coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats, put many limitations on the use of such a ballot and apparently would prevent any voting by service personnel from Kentucky and New Mexico.

Federal ballots can be used only by persons overseas, only if states agree to accept them and count them, and only if the voter is unable to get a state ballot. These provisions satisfied Rep. John Rankin (D-MS), leader of the states’ rights bloc which so violently opposed the original federal ballot proposal.

‘Best we could get’

In debate on the bill, Mr. Worley told the House he felt the conferees “could have done better,” but said the agreement was reached “in the true democratic spirit and in the spirit of compromise.”

He added:

I am firmly convinced that this is the best compromise we could get out of Congress.

Rep. Karl M. LeCompte (R-IA), ranking Republican on the committee and member of the Senate-House conference that drew up the final bill, likewise contended that “vastly more” soldiers would be able to vote under the bill than under the existing statute.

Sabath charge protested

Two Republicans vigorously protested a statement by Rep. Adolph J. Sabath (D-IL), first to speak in opposition, that “the Republicans want this bill because they feel more men will be deprived of the right to vote than under the present law.”

Mr. Sabath said:

The Republicans are afraid most of the soldiers will vote for President Roosevelt.

The two Republicans – Reps. Ben F. Jensen of Iowa and Homer A. Ramey of Ohio – withdrew their protests as Mr. Sabath’s time expired and he returned to the Democratic side of the aisle amid boos from Republicans.

Senate vote is 47–31

The Senate passed the bill by a 47–31 vote yesterday.

Some observers believed they had a clue to the President’s decision in the fact that Senate Democratic Leader Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky, after conferring with Mr. Roosevelt Monday, opposed the bill yesterday.

Two other factors will enter into Mr. Roosevelt’s consideration of the bill: A Republican warning that a veto would make him subject to charges of having made it impossible for soldiers to vote, plus the fact that Kentucky and New Mexico servicemen away from their home states may be disenfranchised if he signs the measure.

State approval needed

The Kentucky and New Mexico Supreme Courts have held that state soldier vote laws are unconstitutional because their constitutions require that voting be done in person. However, soldiers of those states got the right to cast absentee ballots under the 1942 Soldier Voting Act which, as a federal statute, superseded state laws.

The new bill provides that federal ballots can be used only with the approval of state governors and legislatures – but New Mexico and Kentucky probably cannot grant such approval because of their constitutions.

The bill provides that the federal ballot be made available to overseas servicemen whose state legislatures and governors have certified by July 15 that they will accept them. The serviceman using it would be required to certify that he had applied for a state absentee ballot by Sept. 1, but had not received it by Oct. 1. Those in this country would have to use state absentee ballot forms.

War Ballot Commission

Thus far, only California, Minnesota and North Carolina have agreed to accept federal ballots. Some administration sources feel most states will follow the cue of Governor Thomas E. Dewey, who says New York will not accept them.

The bill calls for a War Ballot Commission, composed of the Secretaries of War and Navy and the

The present waiver of poll tax and registration as prerequisites to voting, as provided in the 1942 law, would be retained for those voting from overseas. Those within the country, however, would have to meet state regulations.

States still requiring poll taxes are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.