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.
Background of news –
MacArthur complications
By Jay G. Hayden
Washington –
The letters exchanged by Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Rep. A. L. Miller of Nebraska and which Gen. MacArthur now says “were never intended for publication,” seem certain to have far-reaching repercussions with regard both to presidential politics and the war situation in the Pacific.
By the indirect process of approving statements made by Mr. Miller, Gen. MacArthur reveals himself as bitterly critical of the New Deal policies of President Roosevelt and at least a receptive candidate for the Presidency.
Further he sustains the inference contained in some of his earlier official communiqués, that he is dissatisfied with the tools of war that have been allotted him by Washington.
Not that Gen. MacArthur’s presidential prospect is advanced by this incident. To the contrary, it is the opinion of most of the neutral-minded political analysts that if anything further was needed to remove him as a serious contender, the letters have accomplished it.
A much more intriguing aspect of the letters is their added aggravation of an already-strained relationships between President Roosevelt and Gen. MacArthur.
It was Mr. Roosevelt’s removal of Gen. MacArthur as Chief of Staff in 1935 that caused him to resign his commission and become Commander-in-Chief of the Philippine Army.
Scope of command in doubt
When war broke, the President had no other recourse than to accept Gen. MacArthur’s tender of service and make him Commander-in-Chief of Philippine Defense, but even then, there were marked signs of White House perturbation over the situation.
When Gen. MacArthur made his dramatic exit to Australia, there was loud public demand that he be made commander-in-chief of all anti-Japanese forces. The President’s first announcement seemed to give him overall command of land, air and sea forces in the Southwest Pacific, but a little later, dispatches from that front pictured the Navy as refusing to accede to this arrangement.
A subsequent clarification gave Gen. MacArthur control of naval as well as land forces in the Australian area, but when the Battle of the Coral Sea came along, it developed that most of the ships and planes engaged were from the Hawaiian Command of Adm. Chester W. Nimitz.
Just now a situation is developing which may necessitate new chances in command. In the recent attack on Palau and other islands in the Western Carolines, the naval forces of Adms. Nimitz and Halsey for the first time were jointly engaged. Plainly the hour for grand assault by the whole American force in the Western Pacific, operating as one unit, is rapidly approaching, and this would seem to call for the designation of a single directing head – presumably either Gen. MacArthur or Adm. Nimitz.
If he’s demoted – look out!
If Mr. Roosevelt pursues his own inclination, there is very little doubt that Adm. Nimitz would be accorded command of at least all naval forces in this area.
But there is no gainsaying the existence of a political complication, now accentuated by the Miller-MacArthur letters. If Gen. MacArthur’s command is diminished, however slightly, the charge will arise that he has been demoted.
There is a historical parallel in the relationship of President Lincoln with Gen. George B. McClellan.
The latter, who reentered the Army from civil life when the war broke out, was a Democrat with powerful political connections. From the earliest stages of his command of the Army of the Potomac, he made it plain that he considered himself too important for the President to dare to fire. And when Mr. Lincoln’s great patience was finally exhausted and he did oust Gen. McClellan, the Democrats made him their presidential candidate in 1864.
Four grounded, so ace field is wide open
Oil City man is high among ‘eligibles’
By the United Press
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Capt. Gentile’s own story –
Ace trained for his war work by stunt flying during youth
By Capt. Don S. Gentile (as told to Ira Wolfert)
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Primer for primaries –
Tickets will be chosen for 6 statewide races in Tuesday’s election
Candidates to be nominated for 33 seats, in Congress, 25 in State Senate, 208 in House
By Kermit McFarland
Pennsylvania this year will elect a U.S. Senator, an Auditor General, a State Treasurer, a justice of the State Supreme Court and two judges of the State Superior Court.
In addition to these statewide offices, the voters in Pennsylvania will elect 33 Congressmen, 25 State Senators and 208 members of the State House of Representatives.
At the primary next Tuesday, Republican and Democratic candidates for all these offices will be nominated. In addition, the voters at the Tuesday primary will elect delegates to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, members of the state committees of both parties and members of the county committees of both parties.
Five contests
Among the statewide offices, there are actual contests for two Republican nominations and three Democratic nominations.
For the Democratic nomination for Auditor General, the candidates are John F. Breslin, now executive assistant in that office, and State Treasurer G. Harold Wagner. Mr. Wagner has been endorsed by the Democratic State Committee.
Mr. Breslin, 47, comes from Summit Hill, Carbon County, and has been executive assistant in the State Treasury, personnel secretary to Governor George H. Earle and a member of the State Labor Relations Board. He has been in the general contracting, lumber and building and loan business.
Completing term
Mr. Wagner, 43, comes from Dallas, Luzerne County, is completing a four-year term as State Treasurer, is a former burgess and has been in the accounting and publishing business.
The only other primary contests are for the two Democratic and the two Republican nominations for 10-year terms on the State Superior Court.
Entered in the Democratic primary are former Governor Arthur H. James, Judge Chester H. Rhodes and State Treasurer F. Clair Ross.
Entered in the Republican primary are Mr. James, Judge Rhodes and Judge J. Frank Graff of Kittanning.
Mr. James, former lieutenant governor, served on the Superior Court six years until he was elected Governor, and recently was reappointed to this bench by Governor Edward Martin. He is 60 and lives in Plymouth, Luzerne County.
Judge Rhodes, 56, comes from Stroudsburg and is the only Democrat on either Pennsylvania appellate court. He seeks a second 10-year term. He was a district attorney four years and a state legislator 10 years.
Lost to Governor Martin
Mr. Ross has been Auditor General, as well as State Treasurer and is a former deputy attorney general. He ran for Governor in 1942, but lost to Governor Martin. He is 49 and comes from Butler. If elected, he will be required to resign from the Treasurer’s office to be inducted as a Superior Court judge in January. His term as Treasurer will not expire until May 1945.
Judge Graff, like Judge James, has been endorsed by the Republican organization. He has been a judge in Armstrong County 20 years except for three months on the Superior Court by appointment in 1930. He resigned after losing in the Republican primary and was reappointed to his Common Pleas Court position. He is 54.
Davis runs again
For the other statewide nominations, candidates endorsed by the party organizations are unopposed. U.S. Senator James J. Davis of Pittsburgh seeks renomination on the Republican ticket for a third full term. He is 70 and was Secretary of Labor in the Harding, Coolidge and Hoover administrations.
The Democrats have slated Congressman Francis J. Myers of Philadelphia for this nomination. He is 42, a lawyer, and has served three terms in Congress.
Also at stake are nominations for a 21-year term on the State Supreme Court. The only Republican candidate is Justice Howard W. Hughes, now serving by appointment of Governor Martin, and the single Democratic candidate is Charles Alvin Jones, now on the Federal Circuit Court.
Graft trial judge
Justice Hughes, 52, lives in Washington, Pennsylvania, and before his appointment was a Common Pleas judge in Washington County nearly 15 years. He presided over some of the “graft” trials during the Earle administration. Mr. Jones, Democratic nominee for Governor in 1938, is 56 and comes from Edgeworth. He was appointed to the Circuit Court by President Roosevelt in 1939.
The nominations for the two parties for State Treasurer are also uncontested. The single Democratic candidate is Ramsey S. Black, 63, of Harrisburg, now third assistant postmaster general. The only Republican candidate is Edward W. Baird Jr., 46, of Philadelphia, now City Treasurer in the eastern city.
Keys to GOP campaign held by governors
Dewey-Warren parlay favored in betting
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Washington –
State governors and state governor psychology are predominant in Republican affairs this election year. They lead among candidates for both the presidential and vice-presidential nomination.
There are 26 of them, executives in more than enough states to win the election. They will dominate the National Convention. Also, they will be effective in shaping one of the major issues of the party, revolving about what Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York calls “personal government.”
The Governor, the leading candidate for the nomination, set the tone for this issue in his latest speech giving an account of his stewardship in New York, a speech undoubtedly directed to the nation.
Cooperation cited
He spoke about the “spirit of teamwork” exhibited in his state “between the legislative and executive branches, working in cooperation with each other, with the people of the state, and with the local units of government which are closest to the people.”
He added:
We are striving to establish and maintain a genuinely competent and progressive government – in sharp contrast with that type of personal government which talks fine phrases of liberalism while seeking to impose its will and its whims upon the people through centralized bureaucracies issuing directives from a distance.
One of the surest bets anyone can make this year is that a governor will fill each end of the Republican ticket.
List named
Almost as sure a wager is that both the candidate for President and Vice President will come from this group of governors: Dewey, Saltonstall of Massachusetts, Bricker of Ohio, Baldwin of Connecticut, Griswold of Nebraska, Warren of California, and one not so long out of the governor’s chair, thrice elected, Stassen of Minnesota, now in the Navy.
Favored in betting odds is a Dewey-Warren parlay.
The Governors bring to the party vigor and practical experience in government. For the most part, they are more forward-looking in their thinking, both on domestic and international affairs.
Stress state rights
For the last two years, the Governors have concentrated on recovery by the states of some of the powers and functions they had yielded up to the federal government in the Depression years.
To their credit, the Governors did not content themselves with merely shooting about “state’s rights” as an abstraction as is so fashionable in some quarters. They recognized that if the states are to recapture some of the functions they previously had exercised, they must accept responsibility and take the initiative and see that the states meet the needs of the people in matters of social and economic welfare.
They saw the immediate need in planning for the post-war period. Many states have detailed plans for providing work for veterans, for retraining programs to fit former soldiers into industry, and have laid aside surpluses for this purpose.