Ferguson: Tipping
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
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Background of news –
Republicans recall 1920
By Bertram Benedict
Some Republicans declare that recent election results in Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania and Colorado indicate a Republican landslide in 1944 like that of 1920.
In 1920, the Republican Party gained its greatest national victory since Reconstruction days. It had 76% of the electoral vote, carrying every state outside of the South and also Oklahoma and Tennessee, and gained almost 70% of the seats in the House of Representatives. To a considerable extent, these results were presaged by the elections in the winter of 1919-20.
Kentucky, which elected a Republican governor in November 1943 and replaced a Democrat by a Republican in the House, elected a Republican for governor in November 1919 by 32,000 votes, the largest majority ever given a Republican gubernatorial candidate in the Blue Grass state. Kentucky also gave the Republicans a majority in the lower branch of the Legislature, while the Democratic majority in the State Senate was reduced to 2.
Big Coolidge victory
The most startling Republican victory in November 1919 was registered in Massachusetts. There Governor Coolidge was reelected by a majority of 124,000 over the Democratic opponent he had defeated in the previous election by only 17,000.
Mr. Coolidge had won national acclaim for what was considered his strong stand in the Boston police strike, and President Wilson sent him a telegram of congratulations on his victory, as one for law and order. Newspaper accounts said that many recently demobilized soldiers and sailors had voted for Mr. Coolidge in resentment at the police strike and other strikes.
In New York, the Republicans increased their strength markedly in the Legislature. Republican F. H. La Guardia was elected president of the Board of Alderman over the Democratic incumbent in New York City. The Democratic organization lost 10 seats in the Board of Alderman, and was defeated badly in two judicial contests.
On Nov. 8, 1919, in a special election to the House of Representatives from Oklahoma, in a district normally Democratic by about 5,000, the Republican candidate won the seat by a majority of 708.
On the other hand, in New Jersey the Democrats took the governorship from the Republicans, with the Republicans retaining control in the Legislature. The Democratic candidate, Edward I. Edwards, had promised if elected to press for state legislation annulling national prohibition and his election was considered a wet rather than a Democratic victory.
Wilson not a candidate
In Maryland, the Democrats, with Albert C. Ritchie, another wet, retained the governorship by a sharply-reduced majority, but made gains in the Legislature.
Early in 1920, the Democrats retained a House seat from a district in Missouri nominally Democratic. Several special elections for the House from New York City districts were meaningless as a gauge, because the Republicans and Democrats had combined against the Socialists.
It must be pointed out that in 1920, President Wilson was not running for reelection. The Democratic candidate, James M. Cox, had hardly the political appeal which had been Wilson’s. Mr. Wilson had been physically incapacitated for more than a year and the Democratic organization had drifted. The war was over and the peace treaty, rejected by the Unite States, had gone into effect in Europe. And the post-war depression had begun.
It must be pointed out also that in the midterm elections of 1922, with the country still in depression, the Democrats won 75 House seats from the Republicans, whose majority was reduced from 168 to 18.
Millett: Critical feminine trait penalizes war wives
Sometimes they’re not invited because they have a ‘snoopy’ eye
By Ruth Millett
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Cox demands two-thirds rule restored
Convention power of South is issue
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington (UP) –
Rep. Eugene E. Cox (D-GA) today demanded changes in Democratic National Convention procedure which would provoke the bitterest kind of intraparty dispute.
In an address prepared for delivery at Moultrie, Georgia, but released here, Mr. Cox summoned the South to unite to compel the party convention to return to the two-thirds majority system of nominating presidential candidates.
The two-thirds rule was abolished in the harmony convention of 1936 when triumphant Democrats nominated President Roosevelt for a second term. That rule, requiring that a nominee must receive a minimum vote of two-thirds of convention delegates, almost prevented Mr. Roosevelt’s first nomination in 1932.
Clark-Wilson case
It did actually prevent the nomination of Champ Clark of Missouri in the Democratic National Convention of 1912. Woodrow Wilson was chosen there after Mr. Clark piled up a majority vote but was unable to achieve a two-to-one margin.
Under the two-thirds rule, Southern delegates had in effect a veto power against any candidate.
Mr. Cox said:
When the two-thirds rule was abrogated, the South completely lost its power independently to influence party affairs. It is true that the South may still vote in national elections, but for candidates chosen by others.
Favors unequal
So long as the South submits to this, a single Northern state in the politically doubtful column and with only a handful of people will continue to receive governmental favors far exceeding those bestowed upon the entire South.
Now is the time for the South to make itself heard. Let the demand be made upon candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency before the convention is held that they make disclosure of their attitude toward the proposal to reenact this two-thirds rule.
Mr. Cox is a notable anti-New Dealer and a consistent critic of Mr. Roosevelt.
Willkie wins 6 of 11 delegates in primary
Concord, New Hampshire (UP) –
Complete returns from New Hampshire’s presidential primary, the first such contest in the nation in 1944, today gave Wendell L. Willkie six of the state’s 11 delegates to the Republican National Convention.
Two will be pledged to Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, while the remaining three will be unpledged.
The Democrats elected a complete slate pledged to a fourth term for President Roosevelt.
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In Italy – (by wireless)
I heard a funny story about a demonstration, back of the lines, of a new type of rifle grenade.
It seems a lot of high-ranking officers were invited to the demonstration, including generals and colonels. Rows of chairs were placed for them out in the open.
Then a soldier fired the new grenade. It landed about 150 yards ahead of the officers, and failed to go off. No sooner had it hit the ground than a big black dog, doubtless with retriever blood in him, dashed out, grabbed the grenade in his mouth, and started back toward the assembled brass.
They say you never saw such a scramble as the visiting dignitaries made getting out of their chairs and heading rapidly to the rear. Fortunately, the grenade was so hot the dog had to drop it. At last reports, it still hadn’t gone off.
An old dog man, himself
Speaking of dogs, the 47th Bomb Group has more of them than any outfit I’ve been with yet. It’s hard for an infantryman to take care of a dog, but the Air Force men are often based at the same field for weeks or months, and can live a sort of permanent life.
One of the soldiers was telling about an order put out some months ago by the doctors, requiring that all dogs in camp be shot. For some reason, it was never carried out.
Then the soldier said:
Boy, I’d like to see any doctor try to have our dogs killed now, with this new squadron commander we’ve got.
He was referring to Lt. Col. Reginald Clizbe, who is a dog man himself. Incidentally, Clizbe was a major when we mentioned him a few days ago, but now he has gone up a step.
Too black to picture
Col. Clizbe has a coal-black Labrador retriever named Tarfu. That’s one of those mystic Air Force names which you’ll have to get somebody else to explain to you.
Col. Clizbe got Tarfu in England when he was so tiny, he carried him inside his shirt. Now he’s as big as a German shepherd. He is wonderfully smart, and good too. He is so black that Col. Clizbe can’t even get a good snapshot of him. He was raised on the treeless and windswept plains around two airdromes in Tunisia, and he still hasn’t learned to use a tree.
There’s a great communion between man and dog. Tarfu almost goes frantic when it’s time for the colonel to return from a mission.
Col. Clizbe has a large doghouse for Tarfu, built out of frag bomb boxes, and he keeps it right in the tent with him. Anytime he says “Bed,” whether it’s day or night, Tarfu goes reluctantly into his doghouse and lies down.
Likes a face wash
Of a morning when Col. Clizbe gets up. Tarfu waits about 15 seconds, then slips out of his doghouse, gets into Col. Clizbe’s sleeping bag, and burrows clear down out of sight. If he were a little dog, it wouldn’t be so funny, but he’s so big he practically fills the bag.
Unlike most dogs, he loves to have his face washed. After Col. Clizbe gets through washing his own face of a morning, he washes Tarfu’s.
I actually get jealous when I see some of the soldiers over here with dogs deeply attached to them. it’s the nearest thing to civility in this weird foreign life of ours.
Pitt partner in Italy
Of late I’ve had to carry around a little vial of something called liver essence, and get a slug of it injected into me by a needle about twice a week.
It’s supposed to be good for hemoglobin. Mine has got down to 20 points below what is required to keep a man alive, which seems to me a great joke on the medical profession, since I’m still here.
At any rate, my latest needle pricking was done by Capt. John R. Grant, who is doctor for a service squadron I happened to be near. Capt. Grant comes from Pittsburgh. He drives a jeep with “Pitt Panther” painted on the front of it. In front of his dispensary is a red-and-white sign which says, “Limp in, leap out.” That’s good psychology, but it didn’t work on me. I limped in, and crawled out. It gives me the willies to have people sticking needles into me.
Extent of Arabian oil deal known only to White House
Cabinet members are just now learning proposal involves more than pipeline
By Henry J. Taylor, Scripps-Howard staff writer
New York –
In preparing to press President Roosevelt for information, members of the new Senate committee investigating oil matters say that vital facts about the Anglo-American post-war project in the Middle East are largely unknown outside the White House. Only now, and chiefly as a result of public revelations, they say, are Cabinet members being brought up to date on decisions reached abroad.
The dimensions of the proposition seem to expand all the time. For it develops that apparently much more is involved than a pipeline, costing $100-odd million, across neutral Saudi Arabia. It involves governmental relationships with a dozen or so Arab sheiks, several British protectorates, a sultanate, two British-mandated territories and five rival countries in the Middle East.
The United States undertakes to “construct and maintain” the pipelines, but the undertaking clearly does not acquire, or make accessible for Americans, rights or leases. It does not pertain to America’s oil reserves for the future. The Senators are prepared to challenge President Roosevelt’s recent statements to that effect.
Three lines, not one
There are three projected pipelines, not one. The first would run from the Iranian oil fields to Iran’s port of Abadan at the head of the Persian Gulf. Although this particular line may cost $50 million, say the Senators, its whole existence in the White House project has been largely overlooked.
Line No. 2 would run from Abadan across Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Transjordan, Palestine and Egypt. Line No. 3 would parallel the present pipeline from Kirkuk in eastern Iraq to the Mediterranean port of Haifa, Palestine. Two and possibly three refineries would be built.
As for the financing, the Senators say the entire project may be supplied under Lend-Lease, or at least would involve a loan to Britain to facilitate her own part, including her ownership in the refineries and pipelines.
Cartel is involved
As to export markets, the proposal apparently involves the formation of what would amount to a cartel between the U.S. government, Great Britain and the USSR. The understanding would provide that none of this oil be shipped to the United States. It would be used exclusively for a European price-and-territory government partnership in Europe’s post-war oil – an Anglo-American-Russian cartel. There is little doubt that some members of the Senate committee will insist that the project should be stopped on that point alone.
South Americans fear the Middle East plan would shut off their important oil exports to Europe. As a showcase for America’s global behavior, members of the Senate committee fear the venture might prove a hard blow to American goodwill around the Caribbean, from where it is obvious much of America’s oil for any future war must come.
Stokes: GOP drifters
By Thomas L. Stokes
Washington –
Two political developments in the day’s news point up the alternatives which confront the Republican Party in its attempt to return to power.
The choice lies between a passive, wait-and-see attitude which counts on drifting into power on what looks like a Republican tide, and moving out aggressively with a definite, forward-looking program.
Senate Republicans took the easy way when they decided to continue with a temporary organization instead of electing a permanent leader now to succeed the late Senator McNary, one who could take command boldly in shaping a party program to arouse the voters.
Wendell L. Willkie is taking the hard road, out beating the bushes, speaking day and night in the personal interest of his candidacy for the Republican nomination and in the broader interest of a progressive domestic and international program for the party.
Primary dividends
He got some dividends in the New Hampshire primary in winning six delegates who, though not actually pledged, will support him at the Chicago convention. Three are unpledged and two are for Governor Dewey. Next week Mr. Willkie takes to the hustings in Wisconsin and later in Nebraska, with primaries April 4 and 11.
Whether the bolder method, exemplified in Mr. Willkie’s one-man campaign, is the better party policy strategically remains to be seen.
But some of the newer and younger Republicans think a definite and aggressive policy by the party in the Senate is wiser. They wanted to set up a permanent organization now. But they acquiesced in the temporary organization.
Senator White (R-MO) will continue as acting leader; Senator Vandenberg (R-MI) will remain as acting chairman of the party conference, and Senator Taft (R-OH) will be chairman of a steering committee of nine appointed by Senator Vandenberg. This committee includes the three named, and party whip Senator Wherry (R-NE), Senators Danaher (R-CT), Bridges (R-NH), Brookes (R-IL), Bushfield (R-SD) and Millikin (R-CO).
Senator Vandenberg explained that this temporary organization is based on expectation of Republicans winning the Senate as well as the White House next November, in which case:
We wish to be entirely free to fit the permanent organization to the necessities of those events.
Guilty of own charges
Such a position has been criticized as based on the implication that Senate Republicans would lean on their President to name a Senate leader, which is just what they have so often jibed at in President Roosevelt’s intervention to elect Senator Barkley (D-KY) as Democratic Leader, all a part of the picture they built up of a “rubber-stamp Congress.”
What is most regretted by some younger and more progressive Republicans is that the Senate policy of delay and evasion seems to fit a pattern favored by the GOP old guard of avoiding party conflict and side-stepping troublesome issues.
U.S. Navy Department (March 17, 1944)
CINCPAC Press Release No. 314
For Immediate Release
March 17, 1944
Seventh Army Air Force Mitchells, Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, and Dauntless dive bombers and Hellcats of the 4th Marine Air Wing attacked three enemy‑held bases in the Eastern Marshall Islands on March 15 (West Longitude Date).
An ammunition dump was blown up by the Mitchells. The Venturas scored hits among ground installations. The dive bombers and fighters strafed and bombed small craft and shore facilities.
Navy search planes bombed Pingelap and Oroluk Atolls.
All of our planes returned safely.
The Pittsburgh Press (March 17, 1944)
VIENNA BLASTED BY U.S. FLIERS
Americans rip Austria from bases in south
Bombers fail to see any Nazi fighters
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Nazis at Cassino in death pocket
Main escape road cut; infantry bayonets way through ruins
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
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Ernie Pyle hurt by flying glass in Nazi bombing
On the 5th Army beachhead, Italy – (March 16)
Ernie Pyle, roving war reporter and Scripps-Howard columnist, narrowly escaped death or serious injury today when German glider bombs wrecked a correspondents’ headquarters building on the Anzio waterfront.
Mr. Pyle, who was cut by flying glass, leaped from his bed when ack-ack fire gave notice of the approaching bombs, and was blown across the room by the first blast. He got to his feet in a corner when the second bomb landed, blowing down slabs of heavy wall tile on the bed he had occupied a moment before.
Mr. Pyle was cut on the right cheek but did not require hospitalization, although other correspondents agreed that if he had remained in bed, he undoubtedly would have been severely injured or killed by the falling slabs.
Four other American correspondents who were sleeping in the building when the bombers came over shortly after 7:00 a.m. (local time) suffered minor injuries in the raid, three requiring hospital treatment.
The headquarters building was crowded with sleeping reporters and Army Public Relations personnel.
Those requiring hospital treatment were William Strand of The Chicago Tribune, George Tucker of the Associated Press and Wick Fowler of The Dallas News.
George Aarons, correspondent for the Army weekly Yank, was treated at a first-aid station.