America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

5464

americavotes1944

Editorial: The isolation myth

One week after the Wisconsin primary, some fourth-termers and Willkie adherents are claiming that he was defeated by isolationists, as the isolationists themselves contend.

We repeat the well-known facts, which are the opposite of that myth:

Thomas E. Dewey – who won while refusing to run – four years ago was no more and no less an isolationist than Mr. Willkie and President Roosevelt, who campaigned on the pledge of keeping this country out of war if possible. Since Pearl Harbor, Mr. Dewey has gone farther than Mr. Willkie or Mr. Roosevelt in endorsing an Anglo-American alliance, which is the opposite of isolationism – not to mention Mr. Dewey’s strong international plank in his 1942 campaign for governor, and his recent repudiation of “the Gerald L. K. Smiths.”

Mr. Willkie was not the extreme internationalist candidate in the Wisconsin primary. That was Harold E. Stassen, the advocate of a world state, which neither Mr. Willkie nor Mr. Dewey supports. Mr. Stassen ran a good second, in comparison to fourth place for Mr. Willkie.

All of which is unanswerable proof that isolationism did not defeat Mr. Willkie nor account for Mr. Dewey’s large vote.

But no such evidence is needed to disprove the charge that the Republicans of Wisconsin or of the nation are isolationist. The Republican Mackinac Declaration urged American participation in international organization rather more vigorously than any Democratic Party pronouncement. Republicans were as active as Democrats in passing the Fulbright and Connally resolutions for international; cooperation – resolutions long delayed by President Roosevelt.

The truth is that isolationism is insignificant today, as the small vote against the Connally and Fulbright resolutions demonstrated. If there were many isolationists, the name would not be used for smear purposes by politicians who court votes.

But isolationism could grow into dangerous proportions. It probably will, unless the President or his successor is more successful in curbing the European trend toward another balance-of-power system. Certainly, the American people will react bitterly if the joint Allied pledges are ignored, and if our Congressional commitment to democratic international organization is rejected by the big powers in favor of a puppet setup.

If fourth-termers would spend less time smearing their opponents with an imaginary isolationism, and more time trying to remove real causes of potential isolationism, they would serve their party and their country better.

5465

Editorial: The London conference

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5466

americavotes1944

Edson: Rush Holt tries comeback in West Virginia

By Peter Edson

Washington –
Rush D. Holt – remember? – the boy Senator of 1935 et seq., is trying to do a political comeback in his native West Virginia. He seeks the Democratic nomination for governor in the state primary May 9.

People who can’t forget young Mr. Holt’s violent pre-Pearl Harbor isolationism are trying to make out that this is the first test of how much isolationist strength and sentiment there may be remaining in this country after two and a half years of war.

To think that West Virginians would vote for or against a gubernatorial candidate just because of his America First leanings and utterances that long ago seems at first glance to be a bit farfetched.

There are lots better tests of isolationism coming up later. Most important is Senator Gerald P. Nye’s fight for renomination in North Dakota. To a lesser degree, a contest for the seat of D. Worth Clark of Idaho, and to a still lesser degree, the races of Bennett Champ Clark of Missouri and Robert A. Taft of Ohio.

When you get this far down in the scale, it isn’t so much a case of having been isolationist as of having been opposed to many of the administration policies.

Robert R. Reynolds of North Carolina has thus far stuck to his determination not to seek reelection to the Senate, though he did smile coyly when arch-isolationist Gerald L. K. Smith picked him as likely presidential timber a few months ago. Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana doesn’t have to seek reelection till 1946. That will be the real test.

Senate again?

In the case of Rush Holt, some of the effort to pin the isolationist skunk cabbage on him at this time stems from the fear of where he might go from there, if he should be elected to governorship this year. Under West Virginia law, a governor does not have to resign office while seeking election to federal office, and in 1946 West Virginia elects a Senator. Mr. Holt, it is feared, has his eye on coming back to Washington as a successor to Harley M. Kilgore.

Since he last graced the capital scene, Mr. Holt has (a) been married, (b) registered for the draft, (c) been elected to the West Virginia state legislature. Otherwise, blackout.

He has kept his trap shut on all the things about which he used to rant – the New Deal, the warmongers, John L. Lewis and the CIO who helped him to election in 1934 and whom he repudiated in 1935. Maybe people have forgotten. At any rate, it will be an interesting test of the old theory that the memory of the American electorate is short.

Editorial opinion

As to Mr. Holt’s chances next month, and as to the effect which Mr. Holt’s pre-Pearl Harbor isolationism may have on the primary, opinions of three West Virginia newspaper editors queried on these points are enlightening:

Mr. Holt’s pre-Pearl Harbor actions haven’t even been mentioned, according to S. G. Damron of The Charleston Daily Mail. This editorial says observers think Mr. Holt will get a big anti-administration protest vote.

Mr. Holt is an enigma to Malcolm T. Brice, editor of The Wheeling News-Register. Mr. Holt’s traditional anti-labor stand while he was in the Senate would argue against his getting any labor support in this election, says Mr. Brice, but if John L. Lewis told the state’s 120,000 miners to support an anti-administration candidate, his chances for nomination would be favorable! This editor points out, however, that all straw ballots indicate the state is going Republican in the fall anyhow, with or without Mr. Roosevelt, so Mr. Holt doesn’t matter.

From Clyde A. Wellman, editor of The Huntington Advertiser, comes the guess that Mr. Holt will be a sure winner in the primary, the basis of his strength being the fact that his opponent, Clarence Meadows, has been tagged, rightly or wrongly, the crown prince of Governor Neely and all anti-Neelyites are rallying to Mr. Holt. Mr. Holt’s isolationism is not considered a big factor.

Republicans are hoping Mr. Holt gets the nomination so they can beat him with the isolationist label.

5467

Ferguson: Mrs. Roosevelt’s barrier

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

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5468

americavotes1944

Background of news –
What will Willkie do?

By Jay G. Hayden

Washington –
Wendell L. Willkie, by his sudden withdrawal from the race for presidential nomination, has stolen the headlines from his own funeral.

The first reactions in Republican circles to Mr. Willkie’s announcement reflected complete satisfaction. He had discovered in Wisconsin that he was licked, something they had known for a long time, the party wheelhorses said, and most of them added that nomination of Governor Thomas E. Dewey on the first convention ballot is now inevitable.

Then, all at once, the thought seemed to pop up that Mr. Willkie, absolved of the role of self-seeker, might exercise more influence both as to candidates and policies than he has heretofore. Particularly there was speculation as to just what Mr. Willkie meant when he said:

I honestly hope that the Republican Party will nominate a candidate who will represent the views I stand for.

The inference plainly was that Mr. Willkie might decide to intervene for or against somebody. There is the suggestion even that he might bolt if he decides that the candidate nominated does not represent his views.

Dewey repudiates ‘Firsters’

Governor Dewey himself may have designed to head off any attempt by isolationists to lay claim to his Wisconsin victory when, in a statement just as the first returns were coming in, he declared that “the Gerald L. K. Smiths and their ilk must not for one moment be permitted to pollute the stream of American life.” In the same statement, Mr. Dewey renewed his commitment to a policy of American collaboration in world affairs.

The Wisconsin primary result, in fact, tended to dim the notion that only isolationists were opposed to the renomination of Mr. Willkie. LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen, who has gone even further than Mr. Willkie in urging sacrifice of American sovereignty to a better world order, ran surprisingly well.

Isolationism in Wisconsin, to the extent that it affected the primary result, probably worked on behalf of Gen. MacArthur. Lansing Hoyt, who directed the MacArthur campaign, headed the America First organization in the state before Pearl Harbor. Also, Gen. MacArthur’s candidacy took on an isolationist tinge from the support given him by The Chicago Tribune.

There can be no mistaking that the immediate effect of the Wisconsin primary was to increase greatly the probability that Governor Dewey will be the Republican nominee.

Big margin over Willkie

Despite his unquestionably sincere effort to remove himself from the contest, the 15 candidates who persisted in running under the Dewey label all were elected by substantial pluralities, and so were two others who adopted an ”uninstructed” designation but announced themselves for Mr. Dewey.

Based on the vote cast for the leading candidate on each delegate-at-large slate, Mr. Dewey polled more than 41% of the votes cast in the four-man contest. Mr. Willkie’s vote, in contrast, was about 10%.

The fact that Mr. Dewey beat Mr. Willkie so soundly in the only official election contest in which they have run against each other obviously makes it difficult for Mr. Willkie to turn against Mr. Dewey now without inviti9ngf the charge of sour grapes.

If Mr. Willkie should base his support of a presidential candidate on international policies, it would seem that he should pick Mr. Stassen who, in addition to having been an ardent internationalist ever since 1939, was Mr. Willkie’s floor manager in 1940.

When Mr. Stassen let it be known, two weeks before the Wisconsin primary, that he would accept the presidential nomination, however, Mr. Willkie sharply criticized him.

Mr. Willkie is known to believe that, in view of their common international views, Mr. Stassen should have supported him, and that if this had happened, his [Mr. Willkie’s] chances both in Wisconsin and Nebraska would have been greatly improved.

5469

americavotes1944

Stassen watched in Nebraska

Omaha, Nebraska (UP) –
With Wendell L. Willkie out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen had an opportunity today to pick up 15 delegates to the GOP National Convention in the Nebraskan preferential primary.

Two full slates of delegates were entered on the Republican ticket, one pledged to vote for the former Governor of Minnesota on the first ballot only, and the other pledged to the favorite son, Governor Dwight Griswold.

Although Mr. Willkie was out of the race, his name was still on the ballot, which was printed before he announced his withdrawal. Because of that fact, he was expected to draw a sizable vote.

The Nebraska primary vote means nothing in delegating authority to the convention. The delegates, once elected, may vote any way they choose. When chosen by slate, however, it is understood generally that the delegates will vote for the winner of the primary on the first ballot at least.

5470

americavotes1944

Illinois votes on MacArthur

Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Gen. Douglas MacArthur was the only major presidential possibility whose name appeared on the ballot today in the Illinois presidential preference primary election.

Gen. MacArthur, whose name was entered without his consent, was opposed on the Republican ticket only by Riley A. Bender of Chicago, a political unknown and former boxer. There were no contestants on the Democratic ticket.

Preferences shown by the voters in the Illinois primary are merely advisory and not binding upon the delegates to the national conventions.

The principal Republican contests are for the nominations for U.S. Senator, Representative-at-Large and Secretary of State.

5471

americavotes1944

Dewey to get New York’s 93

Albany, New York (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey was assured the unanimous support of New York’s 93 delegates to the Republican National Convention as the state committee met today to select eight delegates-at-large.

While no formal endorsement of Mr. Dewey as a candidate for the presidential nomination was expected at the meeting – probably at his own request – the leaders made it clear that the Governor would have the unanimous support of New York’s representatives.

5472

americavotes1944

Bricker seeks Democrats’ aid

Spokane, Washington (UP) –
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker today keynoted his campaign to gain Western support for his aspirations as Republican presidential nominee with an appeal to “old-line Democrats” to join a “growing nationwide reaction against concentration of power and spread of bureaucracy.”

A Republican victory in this year’s elections would “aid attainment of the war and peace aims of the American people,” Mr. Bricker said.

Nothing could do more to give business, agriculture and labor the encouragement and spirit to produce to the limit for victory on the fighting fronts than a Republican victory at the polls.

Mr. Bricker will speak in Seattle tomorrow during his none-day Pacific Coast tour.

5473

Steel output sets record in first quarter

Manpower shortages plague industry

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Outlook held favorable for big 1944 crops

Near-record acreage believed possible

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5474

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

With 5th Army beachhead forces, Italy – (by wireless)
One night I bunked in the dugout of Sgt. Bazzel Carter of Wailing Creek, Kentucky, which is just a short way from the famous coal town of Harlan. In fact, Sgt. Carter’s brother is a miner there.

Sgt. Carter is a tank commander. He has had two tanks shot out from under him, one by bombing, the other by shellfire, but he didn’t get a scratch either time.

He is the typical man of the hills who doesn’t say much until he gets to know you, and even then, he talks very quietly and humbly.

Gradually we got acquainted. Sgt. Carter told me about his folks at home and got out pictures of his father and mother and younger brother. He hoped his mother wasn’t worrying too much about him.

He told me how he had gone to the University of Kentucky half a semester and then restlessly quit and joined the Army before we were in the war. Now he feels that he didn’t do right, because his father had worked so hard to save the money for him to go. But when the war is over, he is determined to go on with his schooling.

I hit Sgt. Carter’s bailiwick at a propitious time – for me. He had just that day received a box from his mother and in it was a quart mason jar of good old American fried chicken.

We heated it on our little Coleman stove and ate it for breakfast. When the word got around that we’d had fried chicken for breakfast we were both the envy of the others and the butt of all “plutocrat” jokes for the day.

‘Old Nick’ reaches him

For once in my life I was able to reciprocate the sharing of this gift. It’s a long story, but it seems that a friend of mine from Indiana University, Stew Butler, manages or owns a candy factory in Chicago which makes a bar called “Old Nick.” The day before I left Washington last November to return overseas, Stew called up long-distance to say he was going to send me a box of his candy every week. Never one to refuse anything, I said try it if you want to, although I’ll probably never get any of them.

So, a couple of months went by and nothing happened and I forgot all about it, and then all of a sudden, all this pent-up candy came pouring in two and three big boxes at a time. Brother, do I have candy! So lately I have been taking it to the front with me a box at a time and passing it around.

I had a box along on this trip, so I gave it to Sgt. Carter and his tank friends, and you should have seen them go for it. We get hard candy and plenty of gumdrops and lifesavers, and sugar too, but very little chocolate.

WARNING: Having had experience with Americans’ generosity before, let me urge you, too, not to start sending me candy, because very shortly I may be changing location, and it would never reach me.

Sgt. Carter fares pretty well himself on packages from home. Three are sent him every week, one by his mother, one by his sister, and one by his cousin. He gets most of them, too. They don’t send fried chicken every time, but there is always something to eat.

Sgt. Carter’s dugout is just a bare one, with straw on the floor, a tiny electric light in the ceiling and a little shelf he has anchored into the dirt wall.

He said that after he got his dugout finished and moved in, he discovered a mole burrowing in the wall. So he killed it and skinned it, and the hide is still hanging on a nearby tree.

Luxury of pantslessness

The sergeant sleeps in his overalls, but the dugout was so snug and warm I decided on the luxury of taking off my pants. Even so, I was kept awake a long time by our own guns. Not by the noise, for it was rather muffled down there below ground, but the vibration of the earth was distracting.

When the big “Long Toms,” which were almost half a mile away, would go off in battery salvo, the earth on which we were lying four feet below the surface would tremble and jerk as though it were in an earthquake. But once asleep I never awakened, even though they said later that bombers were over during the night.

Sgt. Carter gets up at 6 every morning, and the first thing he does is slip out and start the engines of his tank, which is dug in about 20 feet from his dugout. This is a daily practice just to make sure everything is in readiness for a sudden mission.

After breakfast, he showed me all through his tank. It’s so spotless you could eat off the floor. He is very proud of it, and had me sit in the driver’s seat and start the engines to hear them sing. I was proud too, just because he wanted me to.

5475

Maj. de Seversky: Air losses

By Maj. Alexander P. de Seversky

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5476

South American Way

Surinam is strange and glamorous!
By J. Warren Nystrom

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5477

OWI’ll tell the world –
Lucey: DeMille production has nothing on U.S. blow of propaganda

By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer

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5478

Strincevich to face Indians today

Butcher blanks tribe, 6–0, in short contest

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Latin must register –
Griffith unworried by draft ruling

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5479

Memorial in music –
Network offers Lionel Barrymore tone poem

Brother composes tribute to John
By Si Steinhauser

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5480

Völkischer Beobachter (April 12, 1944)

‚Seit Herbst 1943 auf Arbeitsuche‘ –
Dank der Demokratie

Entlassene US-Soldaten warten vergeblich auf die Erfüllung der Versprechungen

…

5481

Politisches Tauziehen um Süditalien –
Anglo-Amerikaner wollen die Scharte auswetzen

Eigener Bericht des „Völkischen Beobachters“

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5482

Der blamierte Admiral Nimitz –
U-Boot-Verluste im Pazifik

dnb. Tokio, 11. April –
Der Oberbefehlshaber der US-Flotte im Pazifik, Admiral Nimitz, betonte seinerzeit, daß das Unterseeboot im Pazifik eine der wichtigsten Waffen sein werde. Dennoch wurden seit Ausbruch des Großostasienkrieges bis Ende Februar 1944 bereits 172 U-Boote der USA versenkt und 62 weitere schwer beschädigt.

Inzwischen haben sich die Verhältnisse für die Amerikaner weiter verschlechtert. Allein in der Woche vom 31. März bis zum 5. April wurden weitere vier Unterseeboote versenkt.

5483

U.S. Navy Department (April 12, 1944)

CINCPAC Press Release No. 349

For Immediate Release
April 12, 1944

Liberators of the 11th Army Air Force bombed Matsuwa and Onekotan in the Kurile Islands on April 10 (West Longitude Date).

Moen and Dublon in the Truk Atoll were bombed by Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force on the same day. Fires were started at Dublon Town and a large explosion observed. Hits were obtained on the Moen airstrip. Six enemy planes were seen but only one attempted interception and it did no damage. A single Liberator from this force bombed Ponape Island.

Ponape was also bombed by 7th Army Air Force Mitchell bombers, which obtained hits on airfield runways.

Four objectives in the Marshalls were bombed and strafed by Mitchell bombers of the 7th Army Air Force, Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, and Navy Hellcat fighters. Anti-aircraft fire ranged from moderate to meager.

The pilot of a Hellcat fighter forced down near Majuro was rescued by one of our destroyers.

CINCPAC Press Release No. 350

For Immediate Release
April 12, 1944

Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Four bombed Paramushiru and Shimushu in the Kurile Islands on April 11 (West Longitude Date). A Liberator bomber of the Eleventh Army Air Force bombed Matsuwa.

A search plane of Fleet Air Wing Two bombed a beached ship on Oroluk Atoll, another bombed Ulul Island, and a third dropped incendiary bombs on Ponape on the same day.

Mitchell bombers of the 7th Army Air Force with a Corsair fighter escort of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing also bombed and strafed Ponape, hitting buildings, a storage area, airstrips and small craft. Anti-aircraft fire was intense.

Mitchell bombers of the 7th Army Air Force, Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, and Navy Hellcat fighters bombed and strafed three enemy‑held atolls in the Marshalls. Gun positions and runways were hit.

All of our planes returned.