In Washington –
Easter holiday lets Congress rest 10 days
Members face busy 2 months April 12
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2 Southern cities tied up by strike
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In Washington –
Way opened to hear Alcoa monopoly suit
House bill would end legal deadlock
By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent
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Kirkpatrick: Allies’ setup in Italy held inadequate
Fresh dispute may clear atmosphere
By Helen Kirkpatrick
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Bowing sets new bomber output record
Flying Fortress production up 25%
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Jolly Roger unit tells of exploits
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Willkie faces test Tuesday in Wisconsin
Party heads await vote on delegates
Washington (UP) – (April 1)
Republican leaders tonight expected Wisconsin’s selection in Tuesday’s primary of 24 delegates to the GOP National Convention to provide the first real clue to the strength of Wendell L. Willkie’s bid for the party’s 1944 presidential nomination.
The second test of his strength will come April 11 when Nebraska chooses 15 delegates to the convention which opens in Chicago June 26.
Party leaders awaited the outcome of the Wisconsin primary with mixed feelings – and much curiosity. Some felt that election of half of the Willkie delegates would represent a triumph for the party’s 1940 standard-bearer. Others contended it would take more than this to get the Willkie bandwagon rolling.
Satisfied with majority
Winding up a 13-day campaign in the state, Mr. Willkie was quoted as stating that he would be satisfied if he won a majority of the delegates. State supporters said election of fewer than 18 or 20 Willkie delegates would not be regarded as a decisive victory.
Mr. Willkie was the only one of four potential candidates for the nomination to campaign in the state.
Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York sought unsuccessfully to obtain the withdrawal of candidates pledged to him. LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen, floor manager for Mr. Willkie in the 1940 convention, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Allied Supreme Commander in the Southwest Pacific, are on active duty and thereby prevented from engaging actively in a political campaign. But slates of delegates pledged to each of this trio are entered.
Bound by pledge
Mr. Dewey is bound by a pledge made upon his election to the New York governorship in 1942 to seek no other public office until he completes his four-year term. It was in keeping with this promise that he sought to withdraw delegates in the Wisconsin primary, and today sought to eliminate his name from the Oregon primary to be held May 19.
Despite his pledge, recent polls have shown Mr. Dewey to be the outstanding potential candidate for the GOP nomination at this time. There is no doubt among the party leadership that the governor would accept, if nominated.
More tests needed
The selection of convention delegates thus far is too inconclusive to forecast the comparative convention strength of the avowed and potential candidates, on opening day.
A better picture will be available at the end of this month after more than 400 delegates have been chosen in primaries and state conventions ranging from Virginia to Hawaii.
Willkie: Stress issues, not men
Lincoln, Nebraska (UP) – (April 1)
Wendell L. Willkie, stumping the state capital today for the Republican presidential nomination in the Nebraska primaries April 11, described “old-fashioned politicking and old-time organizational methods” as suicidal to GOP presidential hopes.
He declares:
Glorification of the individual – the tendency to rely upon a person rather than the principles he represents – is the greatest curse of the times. Members of the Republican Party are anxious for candidates who will represent their urgent needs. We must place ourselves on a platform and principles for which we will face even defeat.
In urging that Republicans nullify the Democratic argument that “one individual transcends all others,” Mr. Willkie charged World War II was brought about through faulty political leadership and the reliance “of the free people of the world upon men instead of the principles for which they stood.”
Dark horse to run against George
Atlanta, Georgia (UP) – (April 1)
Senator Walter F. George (D-GA), veteran of 22 years in the upper chamber, tonight was forced into a race for renomination against a political unknown rather than against former Governor Eugene Talmadge, who had been rumored as his opponent.
While Governor Talmadge was announcing to reporters that a heated political campaign was not fitting in wartime, John W. Goolsby of Washington, Georgia, an electric appliance salesman, quietly qualified with Democratic Party chiefs to oppose George in the July 4 primary.
Mr. Goolsby, 47, declared that he was an independent and that he had no factional backing. Political leaders expressed ignorance of his very existence, and Governor Talmadge denied any connection with him.
In his singlehanded campaign against the powerful George, a member of the Senate since 1922 and head of the Senate Finance Committee, Mr. Goolsby said he would run on a farm platform.
Minnesota GOP endorses Stassen
St. Paul, Minnesota (UP) – (April 1)
Minnesota Republicans in state convention today completed a 25-man delegation to the national GOP convention, committed to the candidacy of former Governor LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen as long as it was “feasible.”
Dr. R. C. Radbaugh of Hastings, a Stassen supporter since 1938 and chairman of the Stassen-for-President Association, was not included among the seven delegates-at-large, whose election was the principal business of the convention.
Senator Joseph H. Ball, close personal friend of the former governor, who sought a delegate-at-large position to back Stassen to the limit at Chicago, won election by the lowest number of votes cast for any of the seven.
The convention platform committee brought out a much-diluted resolution on Minnesota demands for a foreign policy plank, which asked for “a realistic program of collaboration with other nations to maintain the peace.”
Governor cites New Deal benefits
Fairmont, West Virginia (UP) – (April 1)
Governor J. M. Broughton of North Carolina tonight summarized accomplishments of the New Deal which he said had served as “a governmental blood plasma” for a nation “threatened with death” and predicted a 1944 victory for the Democratic Party.
In a talk to Democratic Party members of the state at a Jefferson Day dinner, the Governor outlined the 12 years the party had been in power which, he said, resulted in:
…an almost miraculous rescue from financial debacle, continuing to the period of the nation’s greatest prosperity and climaxed with a victorious leadership in the earth’s greatest war.
In praise of the New Deal, the Governor said it might well be termed “a governmental blood plasma administered to a nation suffering from shock and threatened with death.” He added that “in any case, the patient recovered.”
Governor Broughton said at present there is:
…hardly a laboring man or woman… who is not making more money than ever before in our history farm income has attained new heights; business and industry have made record earnings.
I DARE SAY —
Movie book brings back memories
Deems Taylor and aides compile fascinating history of the films
By Florence Fisher Parry
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Monahan: Equity is battling ‘10-percenters’
Actors’ group opposing attempt to up theatrical agents’ fees
By Kaspar Monahan
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Your home when peace comes
Pre-fabricated houses can have beauty and efficiency at low cost
By Edith Goldman
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Pilot’s dream comes true –
Winship: This crew got no Purple Hearts but it’s hard to figure why
By Laurence L. Winship, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Editorial: Still up to the states
We were glad to see that the President, while unwilling to honor the so-called soldier vote bill with his signature, allowed it to become law with the expiration of the constitutional 10-day period after delivery of the measure to him by Congress.
His judgment that the bill is no more than “a standing invitation to the several states to make it practicable for their citizens to vote” can hardly be disputed. But it would have been mischievous of him to revoke that invitation simple because of pique at the success of Rep. Rankin and others in circumscribing the federal ballot bill with all kinds of restrictions.
It’s shameful that Congress couldn’t shake loose from one of the most inept demonstrations of petty politics Washington has seen so that a simple, uniform ballot of some type could have been provided for the Armed Forces.
But now that any further Congressional action is out, we hope the states will speedily enact effective legislation which will enable a maximum number of voters abroad to exercise their constitutional privilege.
We hope, also, that the President will instruct the Army, Navy and Maritime Service to cooperate with the states by distributing the ballots to voters on duty abroad and returning them to the states where they can be counted.