America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

7198

americavotes1944

State opens drive against vote frauds

Herlands appointed to set up permanent nonpartisan bureau
By Joseph H. Schmalacker

A sweeping drive to block ballot frauds was opened by the state today when William B. Herlands, Mayor La Guardia’s former Commissioner of Investigations, was called in by Nathaniel L. Goldstein, the Attorney General, to organize a new Election Frauds Bureau in the State Law Department.

The new bureau, authorized by the Legislature under a $50,000 appropriation, will be permanent and will be formed on nonpartisan lines, Mr. Goldstein announced.

Herlands, a former Brooklyn resident, who is now living in Manhattan, was appointed by Mr. Goldstein as the bureau’s organizer with the rank of Special Deputy Attorney General at a salary which will be at the rate of $750 a month. His assignment will be part-time and he will continue to maintain his private law offices.

Must guard sanctity of ballot

Mr. Goldstein said:

While Americans on the battlefield are fighting a war to preserve democracy, we on the home front must vigilantly guard the sanctity of the ballot so that the vote of the soldier in the field and the civilian at home may be properly protected. The right to vote for candidates of one’s own choosing, the secrecy of the ballot and an honest count of the votes cast lie at the very root of our form of government. These rights must be preserved, even though we may differ as to candidates and issues. It is more important that our elections be conducted free from fraud and according to law than that any particular candidate should win.

Mr. Goldstein said Democrats as well as Republicans would be named to staff the new bureau. The appropriation to permit the new agency to be organized was urged upon the Legislature last winter by Mr. Goldstein. This was after a special report had been submitted to him by J. Edward Lumbard Jr., a special deputy who headed an investigation of election frauds last year.

The investigation was centered in Albany and other large population areas, including Brooklyn, where a spot-check last year uncovered evidence of considerable election irregularities. The Brooklyn investigation was in charge of A. David Benjamin, a special deputy.

Herlands familiar with task

Mr. Herlands, before his appointment in the La Guardia administration, was chief assistant to Governor Dewey while the latter was making his investigation of rackets in New York County. He resigned as Commissioner of Investigations March 1.

Attorney General Goldstein said Mr. Herlands was familiar with election law problems and that he and Mr. Lumbard prosecuted a number of election officials for ballot frauds committed in 1932.

7199

Yanks menace Maffin drome south of Sarmi

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U.S. nurses fought Buna terrors knee deep in mud, leader says

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7200

Al Smith asks FDR aid in giving Jews havens

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Hand, tongue cost Patton promotion

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7201

americavotes1944

Governor Warren shies away from nomination

Washington (UP) –
A telegraphic inquiry to Governor Earl Warren brought an explanation today that “obligations here in California” cause him to shy away from the 1944 Republican vice-presidential nomination.

But Warren did not say he would not accept the nomination if offered. Political observers believe the vigorous boom on his behalf will continue to develop and that he would be a welcome running mate for any likely Republican presidential nominee, including Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York.

Students name Dewey in mock GOP session

Nominated on the first ballot as the Republican candidate for President at a mock GOP national convention staged in two sessions for 3,000 students at Manual Training High School, 7th Avenue and 5th Street, today. Governor Dewey, nevertheless, failed to carry his home state when the booming voice of Roy Bredholt, third-year student, as convention secretary, called the roll of states.

New York’s 93 delegates split its voting strength three ways, casting 46 votes for Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio, 37 for Dewey and 10 for Navy LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen. The big laugh of the roll call was Oregon’s “14½ votes for Dewey and half a vote for Stassen.”

On the shoulders of Mr. Dewey as the convention’s nominee would rest the burden of leading this nation “out of the wilderness and spiritual chaos,” according to Gordon White, “a gentleman from Alabama,” who was elected permanent chairman. Tumultuous applause greeted Dewey’s nomination by 774 votes (only 523 were required). Stassen was a poor second with votes of 154 delegates and Bricker trailed with 127 votes.

Assails New Deal

This nation can’t be run on “promises” of what will be done for the people, said keynoter Ward De Silva in a voice of authority. The New Deal “in its bureaucratic way,” he declared, has “forgotten the rights of industry.”

In placing Dewey’s name in nomination, Joan Abbrancati noted opponents’ claim that New York’s Governor is “too young” and then proceeded to show what “this young man” has done.

The party platform, presented by Joseph Tesoriero, recorded its opposition to a fourth term favored an organization of all the nations for “collective security” and promised simplification of the tax system.

7202

Allies ward off Myitkyina attacks

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7203

americavotes1944

3rd party aim is disavowed by Hillman

The Congress of Industrial Organizations has no intention of using its Political Action Committee to create a third party, but intends to work within the major parties solely for the support of “liberal, win-the-war candidates” and the reelection of President Roosevelt, according to Sidney Hillman, chairman of the committee.

Hillman said today that the committee has a fund of about $700,000. He declared the 5,500,000 CIO members would not be under any compulsion to vote the committee’s choices, but described the CIO as the largest voting bloc outside either of the two major parties.

Hillman said:

All we are conducting is an educational campaign. We give our members the records of Congressmen so that they may vote intelligently.

Immediate aim of the committee, he said, is to “get our members to register – we don’t ask that they register Democratic: we are interested in getting them to qualify to vote.”

Hillman credited the committee with having purged Martin Dies from Congress and with the capture of the American Labor Party in New York State. Hillman is the state chairman of the party.

He declared the committee’s books are open to inspection and ridiculed Governor Bricker’s charges that the committee has $5,000,000 allocated for a fourth-term drive.

Because only 28,000,000 votes were cast in the last Congressional election, Hillman said, his committee would attempt to mobilize war workers who have migrated from their homes. He estimated New York State had lost 1,000,000 workers and indicated this aided the Republicans.

He declared that the CIO had no further “purge list” but other CIO leaders placed Senator Taft high on such a list.

7204

Army shifts all fit men into combat service

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Adm. Land: Third of Axis ships should go to U.S.

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7205

Mayor dedicates new firehouse, says U.S. will keep strong Navy

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7206

Authority says ‘D-Day’ has no verbal meaning

By Frank Colby

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7207

Reuters accused of coloring news in Africa

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Word expected on ‘transfer’ of ship to Russia

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7208

The Pittsburgh Press (May 25, 1944)

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

A B-26 base, England –
Sgt. Phil Scheier is a radio gunner. That is, he operates the radio of his B-26 bomber when it needs operating, and when over enemy territory he switches to one of the plane’s machine guns.

It’s hard to think of Sgt. Scheier as a tough gunner. In fact, it’s hard to think of him as an enlisted man. He is what you would call the “officer type” – he would seem more natural with a major’s leaves on his shoulders than a sergeant’s stripes on his arms. But he doesn’t feel that way about it.

He says:

I’m the only satisfied soldier in the Army. I’ve found a home in the Army. I like what I’m doing, and I wouldn’t trade my job for any other in the Army.

Not that he intends to stay in after the war. He’s 28, but he intends to go to college as soon as he gets out of uniform. He has been a radio scriptwriter for several years, but he wants to go to Columbia School of Journalism and learn how to be a big fascinating newspaperman like me.

Sgt. Scheier’s home is at Richmond, Staten Island. Like the others, he has a DFC and an Air Medal with clusters.

He says:

When I won a Boy Scout medal once, they got out the band and had a big celebration. But when you get the DFC, you just sign a paper and a guy hands it to you as though it was nothing.

Later, when I mentioned that I would like to put that remark in the column, Sgt. Scheler laughed and said: “Oh, I just made that up. I never was a Boy Scout.”

Sgt. Kenneth Brown of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, is one of two men in my barracks who have the Purple Heart. He was hit in the back and arm by flak several months ago. He is a good-natured guy, and he has the next war figured out.

He isn’t going to go hide in a cave or on a desert island, as so many jokingly threaten to do. He thinks he has a better way. The minute the war starts, he’s going to get a sand table and start making humps and valleys and drawing lines in the sand. He figures that will automatically makes him a general and then he’ll be all right.

Sgt. Kenneth Hackett used to work at the Martin plant near Baltimore, which makes these B-26 bombers. He is 34, and he had supposed that if he ever got into the Army, he would be put in some backwash job far removed from combat.

“I sure never figured when I was helping build these planes that someday I’d be flying over France in one of them as a radio gunner,” he says. But here he is, with half his allotted missions run off.

Sgt. Hackett’s home is at North Miami. In fact, his father is chief of police in that section. But the sergeant’s wife and daughter are in Baltimore.

Hackett showed me a snapshot of his daughter Theda sitting on the fender of their automobile. He said she was 12, and I thought he was kidding. She seemed so grownup that I thought she must be his sweetheart instead of his daughter. But I was convinced when the other boys chimed in and said, “Tell him about the lipstick.”

So here is the lipstick story. It seems Theda wrote her daddy that all the other girls her age were using rouge and lipstick and was it all right if she did too.

Well, it wasn’t all right. Sgt. Hackett says maybe he’s old-fashioned but he sent word back to Theda that if she started using lipstick now, he’d skin her alive when he got back, or words to that effect. And he didn’t take time to write it in a letter. He sent it by full-rate cablegram.

Sgt. Howard Hanson is acting first sergeant of this squadron. He’s the guy that runs the show and routs people out of bed and hands out demerits and bawls people out. In addition to that, he is an engineer-gunner. He has long ago flown his allotted number of combat missions, and he is still flying.

Sgt. Hanson is 37 and therefore is automatically known in the Army as Pappy. Any soldier over 35 is almost always called Pop or Pappy. Sgt. Hanson doesn’t care. He likes his work and has a job to do and wants to get it done.

“I know what I’m fighting for,” he says. “Here’s what.” And he hands you a snapshot of his family – wife, girl and boy. The girl is almost grown and the boy is in the uniform of a prep school. Hanson’s home is at Topeka, Kansas.

Pappy used to be in the motor freight business before the war. I suppose in a way you could say he’s still in the motor freight business. Kind of ticklish freight, though.

7209

Völkischer Beobachter (May 26, 1944)

Neue deutsche Abwehrfront in den Volsker Bergen

Die jüngste Entwicklung der Fesselungs- und Ablenkungsoffensive in Italien

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7210

Luftschlacht gleichzeitig über Wien und Berlin

Von den 139 insgesamt über dem Reichsgebiet vernichteten Feindflugzeugen sind allein in der Doppelschlacht 103 Maschinen abgeschossen worden

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7211

Europa auf der Sonnenseite

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7212

Panzersterben am Liri –
Abwehrschlacht in Italien nimmt an Heftigkeit zu

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7213

Krise im Schatzamt von Washington –
Der Goldnimbus der USA verblaßt

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Chikago-Methoden in Schweden –
USA stiften zu Weltspionage an

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7214

Von Washington bis Roosevelt

Geschichte der USA im Spiegel ihrer Briefmarken

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7215

U.S. Navy Department (May 26, 1944)

CINCPAC Press Release No. 417

For Immediate Release
May 26, 1944

Shimushu in the Kuril Islands was bombed by Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Four before dawn on May 24 (West Longitude Date). Several fires were started. Anti-aircraft fire was moderate. All of our planes returned.

CINCPAC Press Release No. 419

For Immediate Release
May 26, 1944

A single search plane of Fleet Air Wing Two bombed Kusaie Island during daylight on May 25 (West Longitude Date). Medium anti-aircraft fire was encountered.

Ponape Island was attacked by 7th Army Air Force Mitchells on May 24. An airfield and dock areas were hit. Anti-aircraft fire was meager. One of our aircraft was damaged.

Enemy positions in the Marshalls were bombed and strafed on May 24 by Mitchell bombers of the 7th Army Air Force, Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, Corsair fighters and Dauntless dive bombers of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, and Navy Hellcat fighters. Numerous fires were observed. Anti-aircraft fire was moderate. Hits were obtained on anti­aircraft batteries and buildings.

7216

The Brooklyn Eagle (May 26, 1944)

U.S. troops seize Cisterna, slash 6 miles toward Rome

Direct threat posed to Via Casilina, Nazi escape road

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7217

South France hit by bombers based in Italy

Yanks blast half-dozen rail targets from Lyon to Riviera

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