‘Air invasion’ rips Europe
U.S. bombers strike; 7 air, rail centers hammered by RAF
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer
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Democrats block Abernathy vote
Party caucus denies labor board support
By Kermit McFarland, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
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I DARE SAY —
AWOL
By Florence Fisher Parry
No, I haven’t been sick. I haven’t been away. I haven’t (I hope) been fired. I haven’t stopped writing a column.
I played hooky. I never did such a thing before, not even at school. Don’t ask me how it happened.
I got up one morning and sat down to write this column, and it just wouldn’t write. I couldn’t believe it at first. I’d been so used to turning it on just like a spigot and it never failed before, never mind what. Fever and chills; death and birth; sorrow and joy. It had always got itself written somehow, sometimes almost as though it were proceeding without me, itself taking charge.
But that morning it was different. So, I called up The Press and I said: “I can’t write. I can’t send in a column. I want a week off.”
They said: “OK, go ahead and forget it.” For they knew that the heart of me and the mind of me were so full that there wasn’t room for anything but the magic of reunion. Reunion with my son.
Reunion! What Webster could supply the meaning it has for us today? This new, dazzling, heart shaking meaning that this war has given it! All over the earth – in palaces, in huts, in roaring cities, on lonely plains – the meaning of that word is being made clear. Reunion of wives with their husbands, of sons with their mothers and fathers and families; of friends, of lovers.
Strange pang
Reunion on a vaster scale than human history has ever before known. Reunion made all the more exquisite because it could so easily not have been; yet a reunion which, for all its sweetness, carried with it a strange new pang. For even in the instant of that first sweet impact, you feel the need to hush and hide your joy, lest those around you, already bereft, feel the thrust of the cruel contrast between your reunion and their bitter denial.
For see! Even as his arms encircle you there at the station in that first strong embrace, beside you there stand, swaying, two lovers about to be torn apart, perhaps forever. For see! As you alight from the car and throw open the doors in loud welcome, your voice suddenly hushes, for you see in a neighbor’s window a gold star to remind you that happiness such as yours must walk softly, softly and humbly, all its days.
Now it seems to me that I know, as though for the first time, the sweet importance of having a family; of being able to draw, from far and near, those of your own blood to share in the reunion. Oh, what is so exciting as a meeting of the clan, drawn together by a strong bond of blood! Oh, what is grander than to bring out the table leaves and draw the table longer and longer and still longer, to the furthermost walls of the dining room! Oh, what music to match the loud intermingling of family voices all speaking at once, of family laughter and chatter!
Turn on the lights in every room! Bring out all the summer blankets! Count the napkins! Count the places! Thirteen at the table? No matter. We are past superstitions. How little they counted; how vain and false all our dreads and dreams!
He is here. He is whole. He is safe. He is well. What was too good to be true is true. What could not be, is. And shall we torment ourselves with morbid, unhealthy thoughts? Shall we question our right to be happy?
Oh, surely once to every human being comes his moment, his right, to be happy. Oh, surely there is no one who would begrudge that sweet capsule!
Red letter day
The sun shines bright upon me today. Never mind what tomorrow may bring. Yesterday has been forgotten and tomorrow is so very far away.
There have been times in my own life when, bereft and agonized, I have looked upon the loud, glad joy of others with morbid bitterness. And today, even as I celebrate this dear reunion, I know that there must be surround me, heartbroken ones to whim my own good fortune must seem almost a bold effrontery, so sharp a contrast is it from their own dark despair.
Oh, let us somehow learn to accept with better grace the vagaries of this life. My day of rejoicing may be your day of sorrow. Your day of celebration may be my own Calvary. To each one, in due time, comes his portion of pain and his brief drop of reward.
Each human life possesses its own calendar, marked with its own red letter days, and each is different. Yet in the aggregate they all show a curiously equal number of red letter days, whether they fall in spring or autumn, summer or winter, this year or the next.
My red letter day is now. Tomorrow may be yours. And let me not forget, when mine is over, that I have had it, that it is imperishable, forever fixed like a new star in its own constellation.
AFL test of strength to remain checkbook instead of numbers
Tobin loses to carpenters’ union head in move to change per capita tax system
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
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Plant to retain some inductees
Army counteracts manpower drain
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Friends hope invasion holds off till Ernie has time to celebrate
But indications are, he’s too busy, anyhow
by Lee G. Miller, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Simms: British Empire premiers grow more nationalistic
Tendency to forget U.S. aid being shown as post-war plans are discussed
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
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Famous professor who lived in ‘self-made prison’ dies
Dr. Leonard, Wisconsin educator, confined himself because of fear of distance
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Fierce patrol fighting rages in Italian area
Bombers again hit Nazi supply lines
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
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Nothing violated –
CIO committee wins approval
Political action group is ‘educating’ voters
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Attorney cited in sedition case
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U.S.-manned tanks join Asia fighting
Reconquest of Burma drive pushed
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Singapore’s sea lanes blockaded –
Subs sink Jap destroyer and four merchant ships
British undersea crewman also bombard port in strategic Andaman Islands
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Roosevelt called poor administrator
Norfolk, Nebraska (UP) –
Senator Ralph Owen Brewster (R-ME) quoted “one of the best-informed Democrats in Washington” yesterday as saying “President Roosevelt is one of the greatest politicians and one of the worst administrators the world has ever seen.”
Mr. Brewster did not identify the Washington Democrat in his keynote speech to the Republican State Convention.
The New England Senator charged that:
The New Deal was considerably concerned over the youth of Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York. There are others of us who think this administration is too old.
Mr. Brewster called Mr. Dewey “a young David who may be the one to slay the Goliath of bureaucracy that now dominates in Washington.”
In Washington –
Senate group hears district foes of canal
City heads continue opposition today
By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent
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Eric Johnston gives 10-point post-war plan
Expanding economy possible, he says
Washington (UP) –
Eric A. Johnston, president of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, today urged Congress to guide the reconversion of industry to a peacetime basis with a 10-point program “grounded in boundless confidence in the free enterprise system.”
In a statement prepared for delivery to the House Special Committee on Post-War Planning, he declared that business, labor and agriculture, under favorable government policies, can provide a high expanding economy assuring a high level of post-war employment.
He emphasized the need for a favorable atmosphere for business, including decreased taxes, relaxed government controls and favorable legislation for post-war expansion.
Favors rationing
He said, however, that elimination of priorities, allocations, rationing and price ceilings should wait until raw materials and finished products approximate demand, and that even then their abandonment should be cautious but complete.
Mr. Johnston’s 10-point program follows:
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Establishment of government policies favorable to business.
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Enactment of laws setting policy for reconversion.
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Immediate legislation for prompt and equitable settlement of war contracts.
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Early establishment of policies governing disposition of surplus war plants and supplies.
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Maintenance of some war controls for a temporary period after the war to check inflationary tendencies and assure fair distribution of raw materials and consumer goods, but their elimination as soon as possible.
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Modification of “oppressive” laws and administrative regulations to provide an adequate flow of investment capital to sustain an expanding economy.
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Congress should encourage a return to state and local financing of public works and should take steps to strengthen the financial independence of states and communities.
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Federal and state governments should correlate their expenditures for public improvements with private capital expenditures to insure the maximum practicable stability in construction work.
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Business through individual companies and activities of local, state and national organizations “is doing its part” to promote post-war employment.
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The House Special Committee On Post-War Economy Policy “might” examine present laws and their administration to determine what factors are acting as a brake on job-creation in our war economy.
Specific proposals
Among his specific proposals were: The creation of a demobilization agency to establish policies for disposition of surplus property and supervise demobilization of servicemen and war workers; the immediate organization of “settlement teams” of government negotiators to supervise the termination of war contracts; and the establishment of overall budget committees in both Houses to improve control over appropriations and increase Congressional authority over creation and operation of government agencies.
He reiterated his belief that labor and management must work together in order to increase their efficiency to meet post-war conditions, and said both must work with agriculture to provide an economy of abundance “under favorable government policies.”