British clamp invasion gag on diplomats
Censorship hits all but ‘Big Three’ envoys
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer
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Patriots warned invasion nears
French told to store food supplies
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U.S. subs sink 15 more ships
Washington (UP) –
U.S. submarines, striking Jap supply lines in the Far Pacific, have sunk 15 more enemy vessels, the Navy revealed today.
The latest victims were 11 cargo vessels, three tankers and an auxiliary repair ship.
They brought to a total of 682 the number of enemy vessels hit by our submarines. The total includes 532 sunk, 32 probably sunk and 114 damaged.
I DARE SAY —
Many a true world–
By Florence Fisher Parry
One of the most pungent comments on the Willkie defeat can be found in Newsweek for April 17 in Raymond Moley’s excellent column, “Perspective.” Not only does it apply to Wendell Willkie, but it applies to every one of us who thinks that he can accomplish anything single-handed. No one so strong but needs help. This is what Mr. Moley has to say:
It was Mr. Willkie who defeated Mr. Willkie. Ever since his nomination in 1940, he has tried to enjoy the sweet satisfaction of two irreconcilable roles. He has tried to lead a party and be independent of it. He has tried to be a free commentator on public affairs and an actor in those affairs. It can’t be done. Not in this world. The thousands of average people who pay for theater tickets at night, the next morning pay for newspapers which pan the play. They don’t want actors’ opinions or critics’ acting.
Let us take an example from the dust of the last century – William E. Gladstone. Whenever, in his long career as opposition leader or Prime Minister, Gladstone decided to bring his party to a new course of action, he labored incessantly, patiently and earnestly with his fellow leaders. He made more speeches in a year than Willkie has made in his life, but they were mostly in the homes of his colleagues or in the cabinet room, and the net of it all was that Gladstone ultimately brought his party around to almost every position that he thought best. That is party leadership.
Public speeches are easy to make. A crowd doesn’t talk back. It cheers or boos; but the private persuasion of doubtful colleagues is hard labor, for it must be achieved by a mastery of facts and endless patience…
The loss of Mr. Willkie has been serious to him, to the party and to the country.
I read this passage over twice. It struck home. It is true what Mr. Moley says. The old saw, “Hew to the line and let the chips fall where they may” is a good metaphor so long as one is adjured to disregard the “chips” only; but if, when hewing to the line, one cleaves so deep that the timber which one would plane falls apart, that is not good carpentering.
Bristling facts
Lawrence Sullivan wrote a peerless report on our present federal government which, for candor and bristling facts, is matched only by Senator Harry F. Byrd’s report to the nation after having investigated non-essential federal expenditures. Here are some facts which Mr. Sullivan divulges:
Our federal government has a payroll of $522 million per month. That’s $18 million a day; $42,500 a minute. This payroll pays 3,300,000 federal employees. That means that to every three men now in the Armed Forces, there is one government jobholder. That means that our government employs twice as many people to do its civil, not military, mind you civil work, than are employed by this country’s entire steel industry, one-half again as many as are employed in ship construction; several times as many as the states employ. For example, Pennsylvania has 44,500 state employees and she has 215,000 federal employees.
And how do you suppose these 215,000 federal employees are going to vote in November?
Senator Byrd’s report
It’s too bad that Senator Byrd’s report was not required reading for every voting citizen of the United States. Here are a few sentences of its testimony:
Our government is the chief offender in wasting and hoarding manpower. At no time in history has there been so much waste and inefficiency as now exists in the multitude of bureaus which sap the strength of our nation. It is imperative that the people of the United States become aware of this shocking abuse on manpower in the federal government, and that they promote the transfer of all unnecessary government workers to essential war industries.
Unless this is done quickly, the overstaffing in the federal establishment will constitute a serious peril in our war effort. Excluding those engaged in mechanical and construction work, one may say that one-third of the entire civilian personnel of the federal government could be dismissed.
Mr. Sullivan offers the development of OPA as typical of our present government’s tendency to extend its authority, expand its payrolls and invite voting support. The OPA began in April 1941, with a staff of 84. In one year, its staff numbered more than 8,000, and by its second birthday, it employed 90,000 persons.
In Washington –
U.S. peace plan may be similar to old League
But would differ in world army setup
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Simplified tax bill speeded by House
Final draft may be ready by Friday
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Wife divorces Elliott Roosevelt
President’s son fails to contest divorce
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Moreschi pleads fund innocence
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Army may need 750,000 more
Stimson stresses physically-fit angle
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Landing in Kurils forecast by Knox
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Simms: Parties look to Roosevelt and Churchill
U.S., British political situations likened
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard staff writer
London, England –
A very interesting parallel is developing between the political fortunes of Prime Minister Churchill and those of President Roosevelt.
Some of Britain’s shrewdest observers tell me that the Prime Minister may not be able to retire in the full flush of victory as he would like.
Immediately after the European War, Great Britain will have a national election. With Mr. Churchill as leader, many are saying the Conservative Party will remain in power. With anyone else in his place, the chances are it would be defeated.
The Prime Minister would like to retire from public life as soon as possible after victory. As a student and a maker of history, he knows that would be the moment to step down. But he has yet to reckon with his party.
Today in America, scores of Democratic candidates are plugging for a fourth term for President Roosevelt.
Without Mr. Roosevelt at the head of the ticket, they are afraid the Democratic Party will be defeated. And as their best, if not their only, chance of election is by riding on the President’s coattails they are doing everything in their power to keep him in the race.
Just as the Democrats want President Roosevelt to run, the Conservatives here want the Prime Minister to run.
The big question is whether Mr. Churchill will let himself be persuaded.
Like others in his position, I am told, he is not without a strong feeling of party responsibility. Whether President or Prime Minister, a political leader doesn’t like to “let his party down” at a critical moment and certainly Britain’s post-war election will come at such a time.
Should Mr. Churchill listen to his party’s call however, I am told, he would almost certainly seek an early opportunity to withdraw after the elections.
Clare Luce boomed for GOP keynoter
Vandenberg also strong contender
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI) and Rep. Clare Boothe Luce (R-CT) were mentioned today for the keynote address at the Republican National Convention as the committee on arrangements, headed by Harrison E. Spangler, national chairman, met to pick a temporary chairman.
One chore of the committee will be the selection of the keynoter, but Mr. Spangler refused to speculate on any possible choice.
Republican leaders, however, talked most of Senator Vandenberg, who recently named Gen. Douglas MacArthur as his choice for the Republican presidential nomination. This might preclude the selection of the Senator since supporters of Governor Thomas E. Dewey were reported to be in a position to veto selection of a keynoters unacceptable to them.
The actual selection of the keynoter and other convention officials will be made tomorrow. Subcommittees on such convention activities as housing, concessions, and the radio, press and motion pictures met today to draw up their reports for presentation to the whole committee tomorrow.
Mrs. Luce was boomed by J. Kenneth Bradley, Connecticut member of the committee who was reported to have written letters to the 11 women members emphasizing her availability. Mrs. Luce, a freshman in Congress, would be the first woman keynoter in history.
However, it was pointed out that Mrs. Luce’s New England background would be against her being elected for the post.
Mr. Spangler conceded that Rep. Joseph W. Martin Jr. (R-MA), minority leader in Congress, has a “good chance” of being named permanent chairman, a position he held four years ago at Philadelphia.
Dewey will gain, capital believes
MacArthur’s backer await announcement
Washington (UP) –
**House Republicans today believe that Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York will be the GOP presidential nominee despite latest indications that Gen. Douglas MacArthur may be available for a draft.
Most Republicans declined comment on the state of Gen. MacArthur, who disavowed office-seeking but suggested that he would accept the nomination if he were drafted by the Republican National Convention.
Privately, however, House Republicans believed that nothing would stop Governor Dewey’s rise in popularity among convention delegates. Many Democrats expressed similar sentiment.
Rep. A. L. Miller (R-NE), whose recently publicized exchange of correspondence with Gen. MacArthur gave added emphasis to him as a possible candidate, was certain the general would make an announcement within six weeks “regarding his receptiveness” to the nomination.
Rep. Miller revealed last week that he had written Gen. MacArthur urging him to announce his candidacy.
Meanwhile, pre-convention talk that Associate Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts was a good bet as a dark horse candidate was evident at the Capitol and elsewhere, but found no general support.
Gerald L. K. Smith, head of the America First Party and a presidential aspirant, issued a statement saying that Justice Roberts “is worse than Wendell Willkie” and has a “repudiation for internationalism which is more completely and dangerously developed even than it was in Willkie.”
Vest pocket is main office of gas-legger
Black market stocked by fakers and thieves
By Marshal McNeil, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Editorial: Guessing game
This year’s election will be harder to figure in advance than most of its predecessors.
Of course, the dopesters often have been wrong in trying to foretell elections in normal times.
But this one ought to make their hair curl. And that will apply to the candidates, as well.
This is the first presidential election since the draft. Some 10 million men are in the Armed Forces. How many of them are voters is problematical, but undoubtedly an overwhelming majority.
How many will cast ballots will depend on how well the states assume their obligation to provide them with the machinery for voting. It will also depend on the exigencies of war, for the Armed Forces’ personnel constantly is on the move and it will be impossible to get ballots to thousands of men in actual combat.
But there is another factor which will make election guessing a dubious assignment this year.
Thousands of Americans at home have been uprooted by the war. Eleven states are estimated to have gained population since 1940 despite the loss of many thousands to military service. Millions of workers have left their homes to take war jobs in distant spots.
Voting requirements among the states differ, some requiring only six months’ residence, others a year. Many of the war workers who have transferred probably haven’t caught up with the voting requirements.
All this will total up to a lot of confusion.
It is enough to drive an election prognosticator nuts.