South American Way
Transportation systems are being changed
By John Canetta
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OWI’ll tell the world –
Lucey: Stark drama of mail order catalog is example of propaganda method
Stockpile for psychological warfare is not all quite that fanciful
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Pirates return to Muncie base
Final practice slated; Cuccurullo shines as Bucs again whip tribe
By Dick Fortune
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Cards’ mediocre pitching worries Billy Southworth
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Knows his stuff –
New ‘Voice of Experience’ is psychologist
Is lunacy expert at New York prison
By Si Steinhauser
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Ex-soldiers get old rank if reinducted
Non-coms must take refresher course
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Servicemen ruled out in bargain votes
Can cast ballot on return to civilian job
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Votes to keep Roosevelt in sought by CIO
Two million ‘needed to assure election’
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
Washington –
The most definite statement so far of the CIO’s main political aim in this year’s election is presented in the current publication of the United Automobile Workers, whose president, R. J. Thomas, is a member of the CIO Political Action Committee.
This main aim is to assure reelection of President Roosevelt, or the triumph of another “progressive Democrat.” This hardly will be a surprise to politicians, but the fact has never been officially stated up to now.
The “secret” comes out in an explanation of why “CIO Political Action Committees must round up a minimum of two to three million votes to assure a close but certain margin of victory.”
Cites 1940 vote
This is why, according to the UAW analysis:
The President had 27 million votes in 1940 as against about 23 million for Willkie. Roughly seven million men in the Armed Forces might vote for the President or a progressive Democrat, according to Gallup Poll estimates. The deduction of the soldier vote would have the following effect: Democratic 20 million as against Republican 20 million.
If only a few workers who have moved to new communities and states for war jobs vote, the Democratic vote would be further reduced. The vote totals might then be Democratic 18 million as against Republican 19½ million. That’s why an additional two to three million new votes must be found to guarantee election of a progressive candidate.
Unless the CIO Political Action Committees can scare up this many additional votes, the prospects for a Democratic victory are not bright.
Soldier vote bill criticized
The union’s figures are based on its contention that “at this point, Congress has virtually disfranchised the soldier and sailor.” That is disputed by advocates of the soldier vote bill which Congress enacted, with the President withholding his signature.
The big auto workers’ union, said to be the largest in the world, urges its members to continue efforts to assure voting in the armed services, and also to:
Get workers who have moved to new cities to register and vote. There are from five to 10 million votes involved here.
Induce people who never voted before to register and vote. In 1940, from 10 to 20 million eligible voters stayed away from the polls.
Farm bloc rapped
A reason for the importance of the armed service vote, according to the UAW paper, is that:
Thanks to the lobbying effect of the misnamed farm bloc, a large percentage of draftees are from the metropolitan centers. Far more enlisted men come from the cities than from the rural areas, and cities are normally more Democratic than the rural areas.
The CIO Political Action Committee has been under attack from two Democratic Congressmen, both of whom are described by the CIO unionists as Southern “poll taxers.” Rep. Martin Dies (D-TX), in a report of his investigating committee, criticized the CIO Committee as being subject to Communistic influence.
Wants inquiry reopened
Rep. Howard W. Smith (D-VA) has a request pending before Attorney General Biddle for a reopening of an inquiry into his charge that the CIO Committee has violated the War Labor Disputes Act prohibition of union financial contributions in connection with national elections.
Rep. Smith today said that he had turned over to Attorney General Biddle files which he contends warrant a grand jury investigation.
Biddle criticized
Mr. Biddle informed Mr. Smith last week that the investigation of the committee which Mr. Smith had requested had shown no violation of the section of the Smith-Connally anti-strike law which prohibits political contributions by labor organizations.
Mr. Smith criticized Mr. Biddle’s failure to send an investigator to his office to examine “evidence” which he had on file.
Senator Guy M. Gillette (D-IA), declaring that the Hatch Act limiting campaign expenditures had “a hole in it big enough to drive a team of horses through,” asked for immediate hearings on his bill limiting personal contributions to $10,000 a year.
Door left wide open
He said the present $5,000-a-year limit on contributions to national committees left the door wide open to individual donations to state and county organizations.
Another provision of the Hatch Act, limiting total presidential campaign expenditures to $3 million for each party, Senator Gillette found “wholly ineffective.”
Senator Gillette said he heard that legislation to “patch the holes” in the Hatch Act would drive political contributions under cover, adding:
If we don’t pass something this presidential year, the Hatch Act regarding political contributions will be a dead letter.
Cost of living tilted up by Murray, down by others
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44 U.S. seamen missing after U-boat sinks ship
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U.S. State Department (April 13, 1944)
740.0011 European War 1939/33938: Telegram
The Minister in Switzerland to the Secretary of State
Bern, April 13, 1944 — 10 p.m.
[Received 11:53 p.m.]
2310
In letter dated April 12, received today Mr. Pilet-Golaz acknowledges my letter of April 10 (see my 2228, April 10) and says:
We thank you for this communication and for this payment and we wish to assure you that we appreciate very keenly the American Government’s concern to provide with all the promptness possible for the reparation of damages caused by that tragic accident.
We have contacted at once the Swiss National Bank in order to examine how the exchange value of the sum placed at our disposal could be obtained.
Mr. Pilet-Golaz informs me of the appointment of Professor Bohren of Thun as Federal Commissioner to assess all damages and to be assisted by a committee on which cantonal and municipal authorities as well as the cantonal Tribunal will be represented. He concludes by stating that:
Measures have already been taken or are being studied in order to provide for the immediate undertaking of repair work and the payment of installment accounts to compensate the sufferers thus enabling them to make a new start in life without awaiting the final estimate of the damages which to be conscientious and objective will inevitably require a certain time.
HARRISON
Völkischer Beobachter (April 14, 1944)
Es geht diesmal um das Nahost-Öl –
Machtkampf USA-England
Marineminister Knox sichert dem nordamerikanischen ölkapital den vollen Schutz
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U.S. Navy Department (April 14, 1944)
CINCPAC Press Release No. 353
For Immediate Release
April 14, 1944
Uman, Param, Dublon, Fefan, and Moen in the Truk Atoll were bombed by Seventh Army Air Force Liberators on the night of April 12 (West Longitude Date). Three airborne enemy planes did not attempt to intercept our force. Meager anti-aircraft fire was encountered. Single planes from this force bombed Ponape and Ujelang.
Ponape Island was also bombed by Mitchells of the 7th Army Air Force. An airfield and adjacent buildings were hit. Anti-aircraft fire was moderate.
Forty‑five tons of bombs were dropped on four enemy‑held atolls in the Marshalls by Mitchell bombers of the 7th Army Air Force, Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, and Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing. Hits were obtained on docks, warehouses, barracks and other buildings. At one objective, gun positions were severely strafed. At another, a large explosion was caused by a hit on an ammunition dump.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 354
For Immediate Release
April 14, 1944
Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Four bombed Paramushiru in the Kurile Islands before dawn on April 13 (West Longitude Date). Liberators of the 11th Army Air Force bombed Matsuwa, Shasukotan, and Paramushiru on the same night. The Navy planes drew intense heavy caliber anti-aircraft fire over one objective. The Army planes encountered no opposition.
Ulul and Pakin Islands were bombed by single search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two on April 13 (West Longitude Date).
Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two bombed Kusaie, hitting warehouses, gun positions, and piers.
Mitchell bombers of the 7th Army Air Force with a Corsair fighter escort from the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing bombed Ponape. Fires were started among buildings adjacent to an airfield. One of our fighters made a forced landing and its pilot was rescued.
Four objectives in the Marshalls were bombed 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. Storage tanks, barracks, runways, and an ammunition dump were hit.
The Pittsburgh Press (April 14, 1944)
Yanks down 112 Nazi planes
7 European countries raked in record U.S. blow by 4,000 aircraft
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer
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Artillery trades blows in Italy
Allied planes attack railways near Rome
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
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Japs isolate British force in Indian base of Imphal
Invaders strike toward railway to Bengal; Allies close on key point in Burma
By Darrell Berrigan, United Press staff writer
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Five Jap bases at Truk bombed
Army Liberators raid naval base again
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
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Letters put MacArthur on political spot
Observers believe he’s ‘available’
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Washington –
Gen. Douglas MacArthur has been put in a position where he might properly be expected to explain – to the people, and perhaps to the administration – exactly where he stands in the developing political campaign, whether he is a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.
For, whether he intended it or not, he has been projected directly into political controversy by his correspondence with Rep. A. L. Miller (R-NE), which the Congressman made public.
Makes self available?
Although there have been intimations that the general was a receptive candidate for the nomination, this was the first message from him to come to light bearing upon politics and political issues in the United States.
His two letters:
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Left the definite impression that he was making himself available for a possible convention draft, by his failure to disavow the suggestion by Mr. Miller in a letter which went into details as to how the general should conduct himself and what he should say if drafted by the convention.
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Stamped him as a critic of the Roosevelt administration by his comments on the Congressman’s vitriolic attack upon the New Deal.
In reference to Mr. Millet’s suggestion that he become a candidate and the Congressman’s prediction that he would sweep the country, the general replied, “I do not anticipate in any way your flattering prediction, but I do unreservedly agree with the complete wisdom and statesmanship of your comments.” He did not thrust the offer aside.
Surprises Washington
The whole tone of his letters was patently political.
The revelation of the letters, which Mr. Miller said he released on his own responsibility, was a surprise here because the general hitherto has kept discreetly quiet about the talk of him as a candidate.
His friends have insisted that he did not want to become involved in political controversy in any way, that he would remain in his military role and remain silent, though they have not diminished on this account their campaign to draft him.
The Congressman timed release of the letters – the first of which was written Oct. 2 last year; the second, Feb. 11 – to follow the popular vote rolled up for the general in the Wisconsin and Illinois primaries, which, it is obvious, will be exploited in the campaign.
Ran behind Dewey
The general ran behind New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey in the delegate vote in Wisconsin, where he won three delegates, and his popular vote in Illinois was about half that rolled up by Governor Dewey in the 1940 Illinois preferential primary.
Mr. Miller scoffed at reports that the general might be brought him for “consultation.”
He said:
President Roosevelt and his palace guard are scared to death of the general right at this time. A lot of lesser lights have been brought home for consultation but not MacArthur. They want to keep him as far away from the voters as possible.
MacArthur is the idol of the country. The palace guard has another idol.
Mr. Miller said he had met Gen. MacArthur in this country and in Europe on two occasions but that they were not intimate friends.
He said:
I’m for him because I believe a military man of his stature in the White House would shorten the war – and that’s what we all want.
Organization Republican leaders, for the most part, have been hopping on the Dewey bandwagon.
Vandenberg silent
Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI) is the only prominent Republican identified with the MacArthur movement. The Senator was apparently displeased with publication of the letters. He declined comment. Asked if he had received any letters, he retorted: “Ha! Ha! Good afternoon!”
The general has been a political enigma. He has refused to make public statements removing himself from the race when offered the opportunity by visiting interviewers, and left them with the impression the bee was buzzing around him.
Some of his friends have insisted that he didn’t want to make any statement because he didn’t want to give the slightest recognition to politics. Others have the impression he would accept a convention draft.
Maybe he will clear it all up now.
Text of letters from MacArthur
Washington (UP) –
The texts of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s letters to Rep. A. L. Miller (R-NE) follow:
Dear Congressman Miller:
I thank you so sincerely for your fine letter of September 18 with its cordial expressions of real friendship. I do not anticipate in any way your flattering predictions but I do unreservedly agree with the complete wisdom and statesmanship of your comments.
I knew your state well in the days of used-to-be. I have enjoyed many a delightful hunting excursion there and shall always remember with so much gratefulness the wholehearted hospitality and warm comradeship extended to me on such occasions. Those days seem singularly carefree and happy compared to the sinister drama of our present chaos and confusion.
Most cordially,
DOUGLAS MacARTHUR
Dear Congressman Miller:
I appreciate very much your scholarly letter of January 27. Your description of conditions in the United States is a sobering one indeed and is calculated to arouse the thoughtful consideration of every true patriot. We must not inadvertently slip into the same condition internally as the one which we dight externally. Like Abraham Lincoln I am a firm believer in the people and if given the truth they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring before them the real facts.
Out here we are doing what we can with what we have, I will be glad, however, when more substantial forces are placed at my disposition.
With cordial regard and best wishes,
DOUGLAS MacARTHUR
Draft boards to call non-fathers before men with families
Selection of registrants for induction does not follow in same order as exams
By John Troan
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Bricker assures West on Jap war
Portland, Oregon (UP) –
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker, bringing to a climax the Oregon phase of his campaign for the Republican nomination for the Presidency, last night blasted any eastern hopes for conversion to peacetime industry once Germany is beaten while the West would shoulder the war against Japan.
He said at a dinner rally here:
It has been suggested that as soon as the Germans are beaten, the East Coast can convert its war plants to the production of peacetime goods, leaving the West Coast to finish off the Japs.
I say that is dangerous and wishful thinking which will prolong the Japanese war. The defeat is the Japs is not the sole responsibility of any one geographic section of the country. It is the responsibility of 130 million Americans.
And we ought to have the full support of our Allies as well.