Simms: Understanding near in Anglo-U.S. air talks
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
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Stoneman: Food problems to face Allies after invasion
Performance in Italy called bad example
By William H. Stoneman
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Burial at sea described by tearful survivor
By Collie Small, United Press staff writer
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Five saved, but– five have to die
Tragic drama at sea told by survivor
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Senator Byrd ‘nominated’ for President
Bailey discounts fourth term try
Washington (UP) –
Senator Josiah W. Bailey (D-NC), influential Southern Democrat, said today he doubted that President Roosevelt will seek a fourth term and “nominated” Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-VA) as the party’s 1944 presidential candidate.
Senator Bailey elaborated on his views after he had written a letter to the Byrd-for-President headquarters declaring that although Senator Byrd is not an announced candidate, “I would support him for the nomination for President with unreserved confidence.”
Senator Bailey said he expected most of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention at Chicago this July, including those from North Carolina, would favor renomination of President Roosevelt.
Senator Bailey added:
But I seriously question he will run for a fourth term. I doubt that any man would aspire to a fourth term in the Presidency.
If the President doesn’t run, I think that Byrd for President and Farley [James A. Farley] for Vice President would make a fine ticket.
Bricker mum on Willkie’s withdrawal
Ohio Governor guest at Duquesne Club
On his visit here last night “just to meet a few people,” Ohio’s Governor John W. Bricker declared that if he is successful in his campaign for the Presidency, he will not be a candidate for a second term.
The “few people” Governor Bricker came to Pittsburgh to get acquainted with at a dinner in the Duquesne Club were 80 of Pittsburgh’s leading industrialists and businessmen. Hosts for the dinner were steel man E. T. Weir, glass manufacturer H. S. Wherrett and Westinghouse official A. W. Robertson.
No comment on Willkie
The Ohio executive refused any comment concerning the announcement in Omaha, Nebraska, last night that Wendell L. Willkie had withdrawn his candidacy for the Presidency. He declared that any comment he might make concerning Mr. Willkie’s withdrawal announcement would come from his office in Columbus, Ohio.
If nominated and elected the nation’s Chief Executive, Governor Bricker declared that he would press for Congressional legislation to limit the tenure of future Presidents to two four-year terms.
The 51-year-old Ohio Governor said:
Too long a time spent in executive office enables a man to build up a power that is detrimental to our democratic processes of government.
I think that the next President should serve only one term and that after that our legislation should permit no man more than two four-year terms.
Not entered in Wisconsin
Asked why he had not entered the Wisconsin primary, Governor Bricker declared he had enough to do in Ohio and that it requires too much money for such an organization as was needed.
Concerning what effect a Republican President would have on the war, Governor Bricker said:
I think a Republican victory would strengthen the war effort.
He asserted that:
Such a victory would be an assurance to our boys at the front that they are still fighting for a democratic government.
Slaps at OWI
Governor Bricker slapped at the present administration, declaring that in his opinion, the Office of War Information has been used as a tool for propaganda purposes and "as a cloak for fourth-term propaganda.”
Among those attending the dinner were W. P. Witherow and William B. McFall, both candidates for delegates to the Republican National Convention in Chicago.
Stokes: Willkie runs true to form as question mark in GOP
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Cleveland, Ohio –
True to form, Wendell Willkie provided the country with a couple of sensations in one day by his devastating defeat in the Wisconsin presidential primary and his almost-immediate recognition of that personal political debacle by his withdrawal from the race for the Republican nomination upon which he had set his heart.
This double-barreled action created two interesting situations, on as to the nomination, the other as to Mr. Willkie himself.
The way seemed clear for the nomination of Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York and, some were forecasting confidently, on the first ballot. For, in the same primary, the young governor topped off the popular swing toward him among rank-and-file Republicans, matched by general support among organization leaders so hostile to Mr. Willkie, by beating the 1940 candidate on his own selected field and without raising a finger.
What about Willkie?
What about Mr. Willkie?
From his own statement of renunciation last night and from sources close to Mr. Willkie, the immediate situation is about as follows:
He will cease activity looking toward the nomination but he will confine himself to a discussion of principles. He believes the Republican Party must adopt to win and will indulge in no personalities, will attack no other candidate.
After convention
What he does after the convention will depend upon the nominee and the platform.
If he does not approve the candidate and the platform, he has three courses open:
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He could bolt the party and lead an independent movement.
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He could refuse to support the nominee and campaign actively against him, either independently or in an open alliance with the Democrats.
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He could refuse to support the nominee and do nothing – “Take a walk,” as Al Smith once expressed it.
He’s not saying
He is not saying. He is not saying on purpose. He wants to keep the GOP leaders worried for the effect it may have on them in chartering a course that would be satisfactory to him. He still has a considerable nuisance value. He knows that.
He has stepped now into the role so long occupied by William Jennings Bryan in the Democratic Party and the late Senator William E. Borah of Idaho in the Republican Party – the man always in the wings, ready to step out and raise hell at inconvenient moments.
Both those remained in their respective parties.
Little room in party
Mr. Willkie is not leaving himself much room in which to move around in the Republican Party. He sees hardly anyone beside himself who would fit the prescription he has written in his Wisconsin campaign. Governor Dewey does not seem to suit him, and certainly not Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio.
Governor Saltonstall of Massachusetts, or perhaps Senator Burton of Ohio, might satisfy him, but they are distinctly dark horses, and LtCdr. Stassen, whose general political philosophy is akin to that of Mr. Willkie, is also in the dark horse class. Mr. Willkie is feeling somewhat resentful at Cdr. Stassen, once a close ally and ex-Governor of Minnesota, who ran ahead of him in Wisconsin.
Mr. Willkie is going to be hard to satisfy.
Roosevelt-Willkie ticket is rumored
Boston, Massachusetts (UP) –
The Boston Post, in a dispatch from Washington, said today that some political observers predict that President Roosevelt would propose Wendell Willkie as the vice-presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket. The Post said the idea was to form a coalition government while the war was on and for settlement of the peace.
Ely calls Democrats
Boston, Massachusetts –
Former Massachusetts Governor Joseph B. Ely announced today that the state’s anti-Roosevelt Democrats will hold a mass meeting here next Thursday in preparation for the April 25 presidential primaries in which 50 Ely-for-President delegates and alternates will appear on the ballot.
Tests prove superiority of U.S. weapons
Captured ordnance under constant check
By Dick Thornburg, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Co-ed’s mysterious return expected by Indian friend
Valsa Matthai hunted in Gotham coal pile
Valsa Matthai
New York (UP) –
A friend of Valsa Anna Matthai, who disappeared at dawn 16 days ago, said today that she had “sort of a feeling” that the 21-year-old student from Bombay, India, will return as mysteriously as she left.
Pritha Kurmappa, a student living at International House with Miss Matthai, said:
She was very happy the night before she vanished. I can’t believe that she would kill herself – or that anyone would want to kill her.
No confidential type
Miss Kurmappa, from near Calcutta, India, said he had known Miss Matthai since she came here to study business administration last September. She described her as a slight, pretty girl, rather aloof but popular, with Indian nationalist sympathies politically.
Miss Kurmappa said:
She was not the kind of girl who confides in anyone, but she was friendly and like any girl, liked a good time.
Police, who have searched the 534-bed dormitory, a 150-ton coal pile, the Hudson River and the neighborhood of Columbia University for the girl, said that she had a large acquaintance in New York, among both Indians and Americans, but no “special friends.”
Left money behind
She was last seen by an elevator man at the house at 4:50 a.m. Monday ET, March 20, when he took her to the main floor. It was a snowy, blustery morning, but she was clad in slacks, sandals, polo coat and silken scarf. Behind her, police said, she left her pocketbook with $17 in it, and her $1,400 bank account has been untouched.
The daughter of a wealthy Indian industrialist, John Matthai, general manager of Tata Chemical Company, Miss Matthai spent the Sunday before her disappearance having tea with a U.S. Army officer, and, after dancing at an Indian festival at International House, visited Miss Kurmappa and an Egyptian girl in her room.
At the House, there was speculation that she might have been attacked in the nearby park since on March 17, all girl students were warned not to venture into the parks alone after several had been molested.
Fears of dangerous strikes hang over steel wage hearing
Value of rank-and-file’s endorsement of Murray’s no-strike pledge questioned
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
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Editorial: Willkie’s opportunity
Wendell Willkie’s withdrawal as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination is a bow to the inevitable. He chose to make the Wisconsin primary, in which he was the only active candidate, a personal test. Crushing defeat was the result. As he admitted last night with commendable candor: “It is obvious now that I cannot be nominated.”
He says:
I earnestly hope that the Republicans will nominate a candidate and write a platform which really represents the views which I have advocated and which I believe are shared by millions of Americans. I shall continue to work for these principles and policies for which I have fought during the last five years.
As an American, he knows the meaning of sportsmanship. As a politician, he knows the public has no use for a poor loser.
This defeat is at once a test of his character and a new opportunity. In losing his chance to be the Republican nominee, Mr. Willkie by good sportsmanship may get a better chance to serve the ideals he professes. Now that the personal ambition barrier has been removed, the people may hear him more readily than ever. If he believes in his crusade enough to serve in the ranks, he may yet achieve in another way the results and the popularity he missed.
He has been fighting against the administration’s excesses and failures on the one hand, and against “economic Toryism and narrow nationalism” on the other. Well, that fight goes on. It will go on with or without Mr. Willkie.
But Mr. Willkie can help in the fight. He can help very much, for he has a great deal to give. We hope he will.
Use more eggs, WFA urges; price juggled
Producers, however, get federal ‘support’
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Vivien: ‘Who’s reading my letters?’
It’s up to coffee, contractor asserts
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
With 5th Army beachhead forces, Italy – (by wireless)
Our artillery up here is terrific. The beachhead being as small as it is, we can, whenever we wish, train every gun in the 5th Army forces on a single German target.
In my wartime life, I’ve had a good many stray shells in my vicinity, but not until I came to the beachhead was I ever under an actual artillery barrage.
The Germans shell us at intervals throughout the day and night, but usually there are just one or two shells at a time, with long quiet periods in between.
The other night, however, they threw a real barrage at us. It was short, but boy, it was hot. Shells were coming faster than you could count them. One guess is as good as another, but I’d estimate that in two minutes they put 150 shells in our area.
I was in bed, in a stone house, when it started, and I stayed in bed, too, simply because I was afraid to get up. I just reached out and put my steel helmet on, and covered my head with a quilt, and lay there all drawn up in a knot.
Shells came past the corner of the house so close their mere passage would shake the windows. A shell that close doesn’t whine or whistle. It just goes “Whish-bang!” The whole house was rattling and trembling from constant nearby explosions. The noise under a barrage is muddling and terrifying. Of course, we had casualties, but our own house came through unscathed.
That little barrage seemed awful to us and it was awful, but just think – we had maybe 150 shells around us in two minutes, but I know of cases where our guns have fired incessantly hour after hour until we have put 30,000 shells in a single German area.
We have had reports that the Germans were burying their dead with bulldozers, there were so many of them.
Visitors are ones who get hit
I had lunch with one of our artillery batteries which shoots the big Long Toms. They’ve been in the thick of the fighting since a year ago December – three phases of Tunisia, then Sicily, then through the Salerno-Cassino push. Yet they’ve fired more rounds since they’ve been sitting here in one spot on the Anzio beachhead than they did in the entire year before that. And they told me of another battery which fired more in four hours one night than in the previous eight months.
The Germans throw so much stuff back at them that the fields around them are gradually being plowed up. Yet this battery has had nobody killed, and only a few wounded.
They told of one soldier who was standing in a ditch the other day with one foot up on the bank. An 88 shell went right between his legs, bored into the bottom of the ditch, blew an artillery rangefinder all to pieces, and never scratched the fellow. But after it was over, he was so scared he was sick for two days.
The men of this battery say that people who come to visit them, such as nearby ack-ack crews, road patrols and ammunition truckers, are always the ones who get hit. Being in the visitor category myself, I said a quick goodbye and was last seen going rapidly around an Italian straw stack.
Won’t chalk any more shells
One gun of this battery, incidentally, has a funny little superstition. It seems that on the very first shell they ever fired when they hit Africa, in 1942, they chalked a message – the kind you’ve seen in photographs – saying “Christmas Greetings to Hitler,” and all put their names on it.
They sent the shell over, and immediately the Germans sent one back which exploded so close to the gun pit it wounded seven of the 12 men who had chalked their names on the American shell. From that day to this, that crew won’t chalk anything on a shell.
One day an Army photographer came around to take some pictures of this gun crew firing. He asked them to chalk one of those Hitler messages on the shell.
The crew obliged and he took the picture. But what the photographer doesn’t know is that the shell was never fired. After the photographer left, they carried it up the hillside, dug a hole and buried it.