America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

8050

29 robot nests set in Cherbourg area

Invasion bares Nazi sites of massive structures for mounting severe blows
By Frederick Graham

On the Cherbourg front, France – (June 25)
The Allied invasion of France probably saved Britain from even more severe bombing by robot planes. When the Germans retreated to Cherbourg, at least 29 sites, from which the enemy planned to launch pilotless planes, were found.

None of these sites was finished, but it seems likely that, if given time, the Nazis would have turned the Cherbourg Peninsula into a nest for these weapons.

The Germans appeared to have been building at least three types of launching platforms – two probably for jet-propelled pilotless planes and the other apparently for rockets. Only two of the latter-type sites have been found.

Fifteen sites in this area are of concrete and steel construction and rather simple. Usually, they consist of two parallel rows of concrete piling sunk in the ground. These stretch about 100 feet. Each carries a single tail on which the wheels of the robot plane ride. At the base, the piling is only eight inches above the ground, but at the takeoff point, the elevation is two feet six inches.

To the rear and the left of these tracks is a square, solid concrete building sunk deep in the ground. To the right and rear of the tracks, there are usually three or more long, slim concrete buildings which, from the air, look like skis. What these were used for is unknown.

Twelve other sites, similar except that the ski shed is missing, were found.

Technicians show interest

Two sites in which 9th Air Force technicians showed the deepest interest were altogether different and much larger. Frenchmen requisitioned by the Germans to work on these believe they were for launching huge rockets. It is significant that all the sites found so far point in the direction of some British port.

Today, this correspondent toured one of the two large sites which may have been meant for rockets. It looked like a foundation for something gigantic, like a pyramid.

About eight miles southeast of Cherbourg, sink in the bottom of a valley rimmed by round, orchard-covered hills, it looked as if work had been suspended for some time. There was little engineering equipment around – perhaps a dozen concrete mixers, and these were rusty.

The entire site, estimated at 80 acres, was pockmarked by the big bombs of the Allies’ heavy bombers.

Joseph Heronard, a 29-year-old native of a nearby village, who worked on the job for the Germans, said that all the workers on the project believed the area was to be used for rocket launching. If it was, there were no signs of how the rockets were to be launched and nothing resembling launching equipment.

Rich concrete mixture

Heronard said the mixture used in the emplacements and buildings was rich – two and a half measures of sand for one of cement – and was reinforced by lattice-type steel rods. These rods were half an inch thick and ran up and down, making a square of 18 inches.

A small-gauge railroad for hauling supplies to the concrete mixers and from these to the pouring funnels was still here, but no rolling stock was visible.

Beneath some of the completed structures were deep tunnels, many twisting and turning to serve as baffles against bomb blasts.

Heronard said that the labor on job consisted on “requis” or Frenchmen requisitioned by the Germans, Spanish men and Russian women. He said the entire job was under Todt Organization supervision, but a French company held a subcontract.

According to Heronard, the lot of the Russian women on the job was particularly hard and many were beaten by German straw bosses.

About two months ago, work on the site was halted because of Allied bombings, Heronard said.

8051

Army task eased by Bailey Bridge

Easily built, it spans 240 feet without pontoons – supports big tanks

SHAEF, England (Reuters) – (June 25)
A sketch drawn on the back of an envelope four years ago has played a big part in the American advance to Cherbourg.

It was the first rough draft of the Bailey Bridge, the most remarkable bridge in the history of military preparations, one that rapidly spans road gaps and replaces bridges blown up by the enemy.

Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery has said:

It is quite the best thing in that line we have ever had. It will be needed everywhere we operate in Europe.

It was revealed tonight that the bridge can cover without pontoons any gap up to 240 feet and much wider spaces with pontoons.

The inventor, Donald Coleman Bailey of the British Ministry of Supply, would not disclose the special metal used, but said, “we don’t like park railings.”

This bridge has greater strength and is more adaptable than previous types. It can cope with the ever-increasing weight of tanks.

All parts are light. Even the heaviest such bridge can be handled easily by six men. It fits together like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. After being built on rollers on the edge of a gap, it can be pushed over by the building crew without mechanical aid.

It is made up of 17 parts, with nine more for foundations. Only one steel pin is needed for each joint.

8052

French patriots gain new status

Forces of Interior put under Kœnig, acting by authority of Gen. Eisenhower

SHAEF, England – (June 25)
The French Forces of the Interior received today a status in the Allied operations comparable to that of the invasion forces.

Supreme Headquarters, which had already been moved to compliment the resistance forces on the positive contribution that their disruptive activities against the Germans had made to the battle of the beachhead, accepted them into partnership in the campaign for the liberation of their country. It announced tonight that Brig. Gen. Joseph-Pierre Kœnig, commander of the French forces in Britain, chief of the French military mission at headquarters and military delegate for liberated French territory, had been appointed commander of the French Forces of the Interior. The announcement said:

Gen. Kœnig is acting under and by the authority of the Supreme Commander [Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower] in directing the operations of the resistance forces in France.

The first message that the hero of Bir Hakeim had to deliver to his new command was one of the “warmest commendation” from Gen. Eisenhower. Gen. Kœnig predicted that the underground would play an “ever-increasing” part in the liberation campaign.

The elevation of the status of the underground was regarded as one of the first fruits of Gen. Eisenhower’s announced military agreement with Gen. Kœnig and the basis for another piece of practical cooperation that might lead to a more friendly understanding among the French, British and Americans. One outcome of the broader recognition of the French underground will probably be an effort to arm its forces more adequately.

Tolerance urged in France

Berne, Switzerland – (June 25)
Some leaders of the resistance movement in France are preaching tolerance under the watchword, “France first,” and their action implies a rebuke for all who advocate a general “purge” as a prerequisite to reconstruction.

The plea is made by the National Council of Resistance, which supports Gen. Charles de Gaulle and the French Committee of National Liberation. Its purpose is to rally the masses whose sole link hitherto has been detestation of the Germans and whose resistance has been merely passive.

The council disapproves of the publication of lists of “collaborationists” in which no distinction is made between those who deliberately mislead and those who have been misled. The council says:

The latter should not be driven into the arms of the occupant but, on the contrary should be welcomed by the resistance movement after due repentance.

Since the armistice, the population has become weary of “purges” ordered by every new Minister. Moreover, many minor government servants, from road menders to stenographers, resent being called “collaborationists” because they kept their jobs in order to live.

French protest U.S. news article

Analysis of differences with U.S. criticized; Roosevelt hits by Algiers paper
By Harold Callender

Algiers, Algeria – (June 25)
The French Committee of National Liberation has protested to the American diplomatic mission here against The Stars and Stripes’ publication of an article from the United States News saying that the differences between President Roosevelt and Gen. Charles de Gaulle had been caused by the President’s reluctance to sanction the return of French overseas possessions without guarantees for American security.

But a weekly here, that professes simon-pure de Gaullism, has published a long attack on Mr. Roosevelt on the assumption that he seeks “to acquire strategic bases at the expense of the French Empire.”

What impresses Frenchmen who are not extremists is the fact that the United States News article was published on French soil by an official American newspaper just when anti-American sentiment here has been stimulated by Gen. de Gaulle’s denunciation of American policy in France and the consequent severe comments in the American press. Frenchmen point out that The Stars and Stripes is widely read by Frenchmen here who cannot make fine distinctions between the source of an article and the instrument of its distribution.

Frenchmen concerned for future relations with the United States are disturbed by the whispering campaign to the effect that U.S. troops are unpopular in North Africa and will be even more unpopular in France. They wonder what the motive for this can be unless it is to alienate France from the West in the interest of what is called a continental policy based on the alliance with Russia that Gen. de Gaulle has advocated.

Even those who are friendly to the United States say, “You must not treat us like a conquered country.” Thus, they imply that there is a danger of such treatment. This is the popular version of the long-existing official fear of the Allied Military Government in France.

This fear and Gen. de Gaulle’s recent criticism of the Allied policy in liberated France have encouraged the tendency to look with frank distrust on the liberators of France, above all the Americans, to whom imperialistic aims of various kinds are widely attributed in private conversation and sometimes in print. One French observer said:

This is pure folly, for we shall rely on the United States for machinery for French factories, most of which have been destroyed or robbed of their equipment by the Germans, and in our weakened condition we shall have to count on America for protection for our empire.

8053

Battle for Cherbourg

Time as well as harbor is at stake, for defense lets foe prepare for next blow
By Hanson W. Baldwin

London, England – (June 25)
The battle for Cherbourg, which was reaching its climax tonight, is a battle for time as well as conquest.

The eventual issue, as far as Cherbourg is concerned, is not in doubt; U.S. patrols have pushed into the streets of the city and at least one German propaganda agency has written the city off. There has never been much doubt, since our rapid penetration of the Atlantic Wall and our severance of the approaches to the Cotentin Peninsula, that Cherbourg would fall. What has been in doubt is how long the battle would take.

Cherbourg is naturally defensible by either land or sea; stouthearted defenders with the will to die might hold it for a long time. Obviously, it is to the German interest to make a protracted and vicious defense. The longer the facilities of the port can be denied to us by combat and by demolition, the better it will be from the German point of view. For the Germans know as well as we do the difficulties of unloading over open beaches; they know that the larger our armies grow in Normandy, the harder will be the task of supplying and reinforcing them unless we have a port.

Allies hampered by weather

They know, too, that our building to date has been made more difficult by unfavorable weather; gales and low overcasts have hampered our landing craft and reduced the margin of our air superiority. A long defense of Cherbourg, therefore, would give the enemy time. He might have the opportunity to overtake us in the supply and reinforcement race and he would be able to strengthen his positions along the high ground south and east of the Cotentin Peninsula.

The fierce fighting in Cherbourg and the bitter enemy resistance on the eastern flank of the Allied beachhead reveal something of the enemy’s intended strategy. The Germans have not yet committed the bulk of the strength of the rest of their divisions to Normandy. There are some 60 enemy divisions in France and the Low Countries and at least half of these could be thrown against us. But today there are not more than elements of 14-17 divisions facing our troops in Normandy, including those units hopelessly encircled in Cherbourg.

In a considerable part, this slow German buildup is the result of our interference by air with the enemy’s communications lines. But in part the slow rate of German reinforcement is deliberate; the enemy has not “shot the works” in Normandy because he fears another Allied landing elsewhere.

British offer threat

Such a strategy of cautious waiting would explain the fierce resistance offered on the British sector of our beachhead, the enemy has been constantly and consistently trying to whittle down the British bridgeheads across the Orne River and has so far strongly opposed with the majority of his tank forces the inland expansion of the British flank. It is the British flank that is outside the Cotentin Peninsula proper; it is the British flank that offers the eventual threat to Le Havre, to Rouen or to Paris.

The containing of our Normandy beachheads within the Cotentin Peninsula, therefore, seems to be the enemy’s strategy. Meanwhile, he appears to be trying to build up a mobile reserve to meet any other landing.

The enemy knows as well as we do that the Cherbourg Peninsula along will not be a sufficiently large base for an operation as huge as the conquest of France. He fears the great numbers of U.S. divisions that have never yet been in action but are trained and ready. The enemy is not likely to commit his full strength to battle either in the air or on the ground until he is certain that we shall not strike again against the coast of Western Europe.

Such a strategy explains the furious defense of Cherbourg, the holding and bitter delaying resistance south of the Cotentin Peninsula and the counterattacks against the British flank. The triumph of such a strategy would be to rob us gradually of the initiative that the Allies have not yielded since June 6 and to halt slowly the momentum and impetus of our Normandy drive. The failure of such a strategy would mean the rapid conquest of Cherbourg by the Allies and the expansion of the British flank southward and possibly eastward.

That is why the news tonight is encouraging. But time is still an important element in the victory.

Normandy wounded evacuated swiftly

Navy ‘overprepared’ because estimates exceed casualties

Aboard a U.S. cruiser, off the French coast (UP) – (June 24, delayed)
The task of moving thousands of wounded men from the Normandy beachhead to Great Britain by sea has almost been completed and was accomplished with complete success, Navy Capt. George Dowling said today.

Of the total wounded, slightly more than 5,500 were Germans or members of the polyglot forces making up the enemy armies in the invasion area.

Capt. Dowling said that his medical forces had been 50-75 percent overprepared for their task in the invasion. “We got ready for the worst – which of course didn’t happen,” he said.

Capt. Dowling used his experience in the Mediterranean, gleaned from handling the casualty evacuation in Sicily, to estimate what he needed in the invasion. In the early stages, the handling of all casualties fell entirely to naval transports and LSTs, which were rigged to take care of at least 200 wounded each after depositing their cargoes ashore.

Then practically every small craft which went to the beach, including the comparatively commodious, if flat-bottomed, types such as Tank Landing Craft (LCTs) were pressed into service to keep the lines of wounded moving.

The greatest percentage of the wounded have only minor injuries to arms and legs.

8054

Big Allied force fights in Mogaung

British Chindits and Chinese get much booty at enemy base in North Burma
By Tillman Durdin

…

8055

French cut hair off girls who were kindly to Nazis

Bricquebec, Normandy, France – (June 25)
With the goose-stepping enemy cleared from this village, Frenchmen are having their revenge on those who collaborated or fraternized with the Nazis and the hair has been sheared from the head of many a woman who was friendly to Nazi troops during the four-year occupation.

Lt. Francis Carpenter of 117-01 Park Lane South, Kew Gardens, Queens, reported that he was in the main square when he saw a crowd around a young girl.

He said:

Someone had the girl by the hair. Then I saw the flash of scissors and great chunks of black hair fell from her head. I asked a Frenchman the reason and he said she had been a friend of the Germans.

An American MP and I made an effort to keep the crowd moving, but without success. They soon had her bald, and she ran away sobbing.

Previously, Alfred Grey Jr. of 529 Crown Street, Brooklyn, New York, while driving through Bricquebec, had seen another girl completely baldheaded “running away from a crowd.”

Grey said he had also seen a buxom middle-aged woman “operating” on another girl with a pair of barbers’ clippers.

8056

MacArthur fliers aid Saipan fight

Liberators pound Yap, Truk and Palau to pin down Japanese planes on bases

Allied HQ, New Guinea, (AP) –
Maintaining their intense pressure against Japanese flank air bases which might menace the Saipan invasion, Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s bombers smashed again at Yap Island, 650 miles southwest of the Marianas, and hit 14 other objectives in widespread raids, headquarters announced today.

Forty-five tons of bombs were rained on the Yap Airdrome during the assaults Friday which blanketed the major Japanese airfields between New Guinea and flaming Saipan. The bombers also lashed at Truk, Woleai and Palau in the Caroline Islands, and airstrips on New Guinea, Timor and New Britain.

Several parked planes were destroyed during the midday attack on Yap. Ten Japanese planes were intercepted, and one of the assaulting Liberators was missing. It was the second consecutive strike at Yap by land-based planes. The previous day, Liberators destroyed 12 and damaged 10 grounded Japanese aircraft.

A spokesman for Gen. MacArthur said the operations were designed to pin down planes that the Japanese might attempt to use for interfering with the Saipan battle.

A number of aircraft were also destroyed during a strike at Sorong, at the northwestern extremity of Dutch New Guinea, described as the last effective Japanese air base on that land mass. The communiqué added “there was no interception” when Liberators bombed Jefman Field. Fires and explosions were observed.

One U.S. plane was lost over New Britain.

Mitchell bombers again ranged far westward of New Guinea over the Banda Sea, damaging a 1,500-ton freight in the Watu Bela Islands. Bostons damaged a 1,000-ton ship and a coastal craft in MacCluer Gulf, in northwestern Dutch New Guinea.

Headquarters announced 345 Japanese were killed during mopping-up operations on U.S.-invaded Biak Island, off northern Dutch New Guinea, June 22 and 23. They are included in the total of 2,333 Japanese dead and captured, which a spokesman announced Sunday for the period between May 27 and June 23.

8057

top.banner.rep.conv

Chicago sidelights stick to tradition

Convention’s ferment produces usual characters and banalities
By Meyer Berger

Chicago, Illinois – (June 25)
The Republican Convention Committee’s Subcommittee on Housing wishes all room-hunters might approach the scramble for quarters as cheerfully as a woman delegate from Connecticut did.

After considerable fuss and fret the subcommittee located a room on the Hotel Stevens’ 22nd floor and sent the delegate – chirrupy middle-aged lady – happily on her way.

She came back in about 20 minutes, still cheerful, but without the room. She told the committee:

Couldn’t take it. When I opened the door, I disturbed a gentleman in shorts who was shaving.

The subcommittee apologized singly and as a body, but the lady explained she wasn’t embarrassed or frustrated. She confided:

When I was assigned to a room at the 1940 convention, I found two men in shorts shaving in it.

The subcommittee has her wait around until they located another room and until they had checked and made sure it contained no men and no shorts.

Some of the elevator girls in Chicago’s hotels don’t seem to have quite caught the hang of stopping the cars in the right places nor of making them go up when they want to go the other way.

An irritable old gentleman tried to “tell off” one operator who took him right up into the Stevens Hotel Tower, beyond the last floor. After the girl had backed the car to the 25th, where he wanted to get off, he said, “Thanks for the ride, Miss One-Way Corrigan.”

The girl didn’t seem to mind a bit of poisonous criticism. She said, “No extra charge, sir, and thank you just the same.” She closed the door on his last comment, which started off explosively and as if it might not have been polite.

You run into some strange paradoxes in a convention city. Through the deviousness of political trumpery, you find the hotel lobbies screaming with all sorts of signs and banners announcing “Dewey Headquarters,” although Dewey workers keep reminding you that Mr. Dewey is not officially an aspirant for the Presidency.

On the other hand, you run into aspirants who have no headquarters, and can’t find any. The Subcommittee on Housing was faced with this problem when a Mr. Bowers of Georgia turned up and announced he was entering the field for the Republican presidential nomination. Last they heard of Mr. Bowers, he was still roaming Chicago for a place to hang his hat and stack his campaign literature.

An animated young lady wriggled her way into the “Bricker for President” room at Mrs. Bricker’s reception there for her husband and made the rounds, being introduced to all the notables. Finally, she reached a dignified, gray-haired gentleman who seemed to be getting a lot of attention, and managed to get an introduction to him to. She wriggled out again. “Who is that man,” she wanted to know.” “I didn’t catch the name?” “That’s Mr. Bricker,” she was told. “Who’s he?” she asked brightly. “I’m so interested in all this politics and everything.”

The first true signs of animation developed in this convention when photographers posed 15 models on the lobby staircase in the Hotel Stevens just after breakfast this morning. The girls wore Dewey sashes and were told off to different posts to hand “Draft Dewey” signs on customers.

An affable gentleman who seemed to be handling this department for the Dewey division assured reporters that “This show is spontaneous.” He said, “These girls are volunteers. They’re high schoolgirls and working girls, who are giving their own time for Mr. Dewey.” He said they just wanted political education.

One of the newspapermen spontaneously took one of the girls aside. “Where do you work, Miss?” he asked her. “I’m one of Vera Jane’s models,” she told him. “We all are.” It seems all the girls were spontaneously hired for the day from the Vera Jane Studio of Fashion Modeling in East Jackson Boulevard. And that their interest in political education was somewhat on the thin side.

The “Stassen for President” workers in the Stevens, all simple, friendly folk, got nowhere trying to tack their signs on one of the downstairs walls this morning. They gave up when they finally caught on that the wall was marble. Ingenious folk, they finally found some scotch tape that worked all right.

“Uncle Joe” Tolbert showed up today as delegate from Ninety-Six, which is the name of a cotton-farming community in South Carolina. “Uncle Joe” has been attending Republican conventions since around 1880, when he used to travel with his daddy, who was a delegate from Ninety-Six, before him. He voted for Benjamin Harrison in 1888, and likes to tell about the time Russell Alger “got beat” for the nomination in Chicago that year. “Uncle Joe” is around 75 or 76 now – he isn’t quite sure of the sum of his years – and he misses faces he used to see around. “Cain’t get used to not seein’ fellers like Elihu Root an’ Chauncey DePew an’ ‘Uncle Joe’ Cannon,” he tells listeners sadly. He’s a Bricker man this year, but seems a little befuddled by the way conventions are run nowadays. “Got a passel of young bucks up here who think they know more’n anybody, and blessed if I think they really do.” “Uncle Joe” wears all black, including a sombrero, favors his cane and makes quite a bit out of the fact that he never wore a necktie. “Never did like to fool with no tie,” he says fiercely.

Wendell Willkie’s ghost seems to haunt this convention. Dozing delegates started right out of their bobby chairs last night when a bellboy passed through shrilly calling “Mr. Will-kie, Mr. Will-kie.” Nobody found out what this was all about, but the general guess was that the call was for Mr. Willkie’s brother who lives out in Wheaton, Illinois. Other delegates were startled this morning by a grim-faced fellow who stood outside the Michigan Boulevard entrance to the Stevens for hours and glared at them as they entered. He wore a pie-plate-size campaign button with the single word – “Willkie.” And down in the bar in late afternoon, when shoulders and spirits seemed sunk pretty low by the heat and by general dullness, another gentleman unsteadily shoved his glass back for a refill: “Willkie and soda,” he ordered.

8058

top.banner.rep.conv

Leaders applaud Dewey’s ‘drafters’

Sprague, Jaeckle, Brownell praised for the way they have handled campaign
By James A. Hagerty

Chicago, Illinois – (June 25)
With Governor Dewey’s nomination for President by the Republican National Convention now assured on the first ballot, the three New Yorkers heading the “Draft Dewey” movement, J. Russel Sprague, national committeeman; Edwin F. Jaeckle, state chairman, and Herbert Brownell Jr., chairman of the law committee of the state committee, have won the admiration of party leaders for the effective way they have conducted their campaign for the New York Governor’s nomination.

The strategy has been simple. It has been based primarily on the argument that Governor Dewey, of all the candidates available, is the most likely to carry New York with its 47 electoral votes and therefore is the most likely candidate to win the election.

This argument has been reinforced by the contention that Mr. Dewey as governor of the most populous state in the Union has demonstrated marked ability as an administrator and can go before the waters with an enhanced reputation which he did not fully possess when he was a presidential candidate four years ago.

At the Philadelphia convention in 1940, Mr. Dewey’s reputation, so far as the country was concerned, was based on his success as a prosecutor in curbing rackets in New York City and exposing alliances between politics and crime. His conviction of James J. Hines, powerful Tammany Assembly district leader, received wide publicity.

Record as Governor emphasized

This year., Mr. Dewey will enter the national convention with the emphasis on his record as Governor. In their talks with delegates and party leaders from other states, Messrs. Sprague, Jaeckle and Brownell have pointed out that in 1942, Mr. Dewey was elected Governor by a plurality of 647,395 over Democratic candidate John J. Bennett Jr. and by a majority of 243,786 over Mr. Bennett and American Labor Party candidate Dean Alfange. They have also pointed out that Mr. Dewey was the first Republican to be elected Governor of New York in more than twenty years and have expressed the belief that if nominated for President, Governor Dewey would carry New York, and that with any other candidate the outcome would be doubtful.

The “Draft Dewey” leaders have contended that Mr. Dewey’s administration has the approval of the people of New York State and cite as evidence the election of Joe R. Hanley as Lieutenant Governor last year over Lt. Gen. William N. Haskell, who was the candidate of the Democratic and Labor parties and whose candidacy had the approval of President Roosevelt.

Mr. Dewey’s position on foreign policy has not been stressed, and the impression has been created that he will approve the plank adopted by the convention. For the most part, delegates calling at the Dewey headquarters have shown more interest in Mr. Dewey’s vote-getting ability than on his stand on issues. The one factor that has brought a majority of the state delegations to the support of Governor Dewey is the belief that he can get more votes than any other candidate who might be named. To foster, maintain and increase this belief has been the main task of Messrs. Sprague, Jaeckle and Brownell.

The fact that about 850 votes out of 1,057 in the convention are now in sight for Mr. Dewey’s nomination is proof that these tactics have been successful. Should a fight on the platform develop in the convention, it will not affect the nomination of Governor Dewey, which is already foreclosed, whatever effect the fight might have on the election in November.

The “Draft Dewey” forces reached Chicago a week ago with a majority for their candidate assured it they could hold what they had, and support from such states as Pennsylvania and Illinois, of which definite assurance had been lacking, not only added more than a hundred votes to the Dewey strength but prevented any possible defections.

The situation at this convention is comparable to that which existed at the 1932 Democratic convention which nominated Franklin D. Roosevelt for the first time. Mr. Dewey, as Mr. Roosevelt was then, is Governor of New York and each had won a gubernatorial election by a large plurality. Mr. Roosevelt, if nominated in 1932, however, seemed certain to win the election. Mr. Dewey at this time is merely the Republican candidate adjudged to have the best chance to win.

Mr. Roosevelt in 1932 faced more formidable opposition for the nomination, and it required a deal with Texas and California and agreement on the nomination of John N. Garner for Vice President to get Mr. Roosevelt the two-thirds vote needed to nominate.

A majority of the delegates to this convention have been obtained for Governor Dewey without commitments. So far as it has been possible to observe, Messrs. Sprague, Jaeckle and Brownell have made no errors in tactics.

Because of his position as a member of the National Committee, Mr. Sprague has been the acknowledged leader of the “Draft Dewey” forces. He would be acceptable to the membership of the committee as national chairman, but it was learned definitely that he would not accept the post, though preeminently qualified.

Mr. Sprague is the Nassau County executive, a position that pays $15,000 a year. As county executive, he operates under a charter containing a provision, which he was instrumental in inserting, requiring the executive to give full time to the duties of that office, which is comparable to mayor of a city.

Sprague declines chairmanship

Nassau is a very wealthy county with a population of half a million, and Mr. Sprague takes great pride in heading its government, the form of which he had a large part in establishing.

Mr. Sprague has informed members of the National Committee and presumably Governor Dewey that it will be impossible for him to take on the full-time duties of national chairman because of the Nassau charter provision, and that he has no intention of resigning as county executive.

In 1940, when Mr. Sprague was the Dewey pre-convention campaign manager, charges were filed with Herbert H. Lehman, then Governor, seeking to oust Mr. Sprague as county executive because of allegations that he had violated the full-time service provision. Mr. Lehman, however, dismissed the charges.

Mr. Sprague believes that acceptance of the national chairmanship would violate the charter. Unless the chairmanship should go to someone outside New York State, either Mr. Brownell, close friend of Governor Dewey, or Mr. Jaeckle will be named national chairman. One difficulty in the selection of Mr. Jaeckle is that he is valuable in his present post, for the national election my turn on the results in New York, and a change in its state chairman may not be desirable.

Governor Dewey on arrival after his nomination will discuss the selection of a national chairman with members of the National Committee and state chairmen and will undoubtedly make a suggestion. It has been the practice of the Republican Party that the suggestion of the presidential nominee for the national chairmanship is followed invariably.

8059

top.banner.rep.conv

Talk of Warren for ticket grows

He says war duties on coast provide major reason for his reluctance to run

Chicago, Illinois – (June 25)
Talk of Governor Earl Warren of California for second place on the Republican ticket gained volume today despite his reiteration that he was not a candidate and had asked his state’s delegation not to put him in nomination.

At a press conference after his arrival, with the California delegation, he was asked if he would accept the nomination if it was proffered. He responded, “I am not going to deal in the realm of hypothesis.”

He said that one of the main reasons he did not wish to run on the national ticket was that he was “wartime” Governor of California and his term did not expire for more than two years.

He added:

My obligations as Governor are great and they will be greater when the fighting shifts completely to the Pacific after the fall of Germany. The arrival of peace will bring with it a variety of extremely difficult problems for California and we must be prepared now to meet them.

His supporters conceded that he was not anxious to obtain a place on the ticket, but declared that he could not very well refuse it if it came. They said they would abide by his request not to place him in nomination, but were confident that his name would be offered by delegates from other states.

Backers of Ohio Governor John W. Bricker were still battling to delegates to support him for the presidential nomination and were inclined to discount talk about the possibility of second place for him, but in other quarters he was considered a close runner-up to Governor Warren for the vice-presidential nomination.

Workers at his headquarters said that they would like to see him on the ticket if he should be defeated for the top nomination and pointed out that he had never said that he would not accept the second-place nomination.

The candidacy of Rep. Everett M. Dirksen (R-IL), who shares with AFL vice president William L. Hutcheson, the distinction of admitting a desire to be nominated for Vice President, seemed to be fading. His supporters, however, were still busy checking the state delegations as they arrive and endeavoring to pick up support for their man.

8060

top.banner.rep.conv

Bricker fights on, with help of Taft

Ohioans ask candidates be invited to address convention, and only he is on hand
By Charles Hurd

Chicago, Illinois – (June 25)
The Ohio delegation to the Republican National Convention emphasized its determined and continuing support for the nomination of Governor John W. Bricker as standard-bearer by adopting today a resolution requesting the convention to invite “all persons whose names are to be presented in nomination” to address the convention.

Such action would be a new departure in convention procedure. There was no immediate indication as to the response the suggestion would receive if made tomorrow, as scheduled, by Ed D. Scharr, chairman of the Ohio delegation.

In actual effect, adoption by the convention of a resolution incorporating the request would benefit principally Governor Bricker among the so-called general candidates, together with a few favorite sons. Other leading candidates, such as Governor Thomas E. Dewey and LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen, are not in Chicago. Governor Dewey probably would not accept such an invitation. Cdr. Stassen did not.

Bricker’s fight unabated

The principal effect of the delegation’s action was to demonstrate the determination with which the Bricker nomination advocates are pressing their fight, despite growing indications of the pre-convention strength of Governor Dewey.

Governor Bricker made no public statement today, but Senator Taft of Ohio firmly contested claims that other candidates, which could mean only Governor Dewey, “control large blocs of delegates.” He questioned this control in a speech before the meeting, preliminary to renewed activity in which the Bricker adherents set out to canvas personally today, and in the next two days, all of the more than 800 among the 1,057 delegates who are not formally pledged elsewhere.

Senator Taft said:

A lot has been said about certain individuals reported to have control of large blocs of delegates. There are no individuals who have such power.

A great majority of the delegates to this convention want John Bricker nominated for President. He can carry New York States just as well as Dewey, and Minnesota just as well as Stassen. The American people want a direct fight on the New Deal and on President Roosevelt. There is no one who will carry that fight so directly and so definitely as John Bricker.

Rep. Bender of Ohio, who is also a delegate from that state, entered the motion fo the delegation to open the platform to aspirants for the nomination.

Demands Bricker be heard

He said:

If John Bricker appears before the convention, his nomination and election will be assured. He has been carrying the fight against the New Deal for months. We should demand that John Bricker be heard. He would make a speech that would sweep the convention. We are tired of pussyfooting around. Let’s get these names and these men before the convention. And we want a man of courage to carry the Republican banner, a man whose views are known.

The meeting of delegates from Ohio attracted a gathering of about 500 persons who call themselves the “Bricker Battalion.” They also heard Rep. Clarence J. Brown of Ohio and Mrs. Katherine K. Brown, Ohio committeewoman, declare emphatically that the nomination for President was still wide open.

Governor Bricker spent today as quietly as was possible for the leading contender on the scene. His only engagement was a brief visit to the Ohio delegation to thank them for their continued work.

Otherwise, he was at his headquarters in the foyer of the Stevens Hotel ballroom or in the lobby of the hotel talking to delegates individually or in small groups.

Regardless of the size of his following in actual votes, he continues to attract the active interest of most of the persons attending this convention.

8061

top.banner.rep.conv

Martin: ‘Sanity’ to return

Convention chairman asserts party means American way – Spangler hits Democrats

Chicago, Illinois – (June 25)
A prediction that “our country is about to get back on the right road to sanity and success” under the leadership of a Republican President was made tonight by Rep. Joseph W. Martin (R-MA), who will preside as permanent chairman at the party’s national convention.

Mr. Martin spoke at a pre-convention coast-to-coast welcome to more than 1,000 delegates staged by MBS. Sharing the program with him were Harrison E. Spangler, party chairman, and Col. Robert R. McCormick, editor and publisher of The Chicago Tribune. Governor Dwight H. Green of Illinois presided as toastmaster.

Rep. Martin said:

The American people will determine in this election whether we are going to have a new kind of America, or remain loyal to our own form of government. Shall we become a one-man government, with rigid bureaucratic control of all our activities, or shall we have personal freedom and individual opportunity in America?

To put it more bluntly, do we want the American way of life, or state socialism?

Describing tomorrow’s convention as “unbossed,” Mr. Spangler leveled this criticism at the Democrats, who will meet in Chicago July 19 to select a presidential ticket:

The [Republican] convention does not meet with orders in advance to select a certain candidate for President. It will not select a candidate already named by the Communist Party. It does not meet with orders from one man to select a certain man for Vice President. It does not meet with a platform prepared in advance by unknown advisers.

Col. McCormick told the delegates:

It is for you to defeat the domestic enemy which would destroy our Republic and make us a dependent nation.

8062

top.banner.rep.conv

Willkie aides seek unity

Urge him to endorse promptly, cordially the Republican nominee and platform
By Arthur Krock

Chicago, Illinois – (June 25)
In the drive for unity which is in progress here by Republican leaders who feel it will be necessary in the campaign to make up for a certain lack of enthusiasm over the prospective presidential candidate, members of the late movement on behalf of the renomination of Wendell L. Willkie are conspicuous.

Among these are men and women who concentrated their energies for months, after Mr. Willkie decided to seek the Presidency once more, in advancing his prospects. They formed what organization they could, arranged for widespread publicity and, in the face of growing apathy toward Mr. Willkie in the national financial and business communities, raised as much as they could of the modest sum which was spent for him before the Wisconsin primaries ended Mr. Willkie’s renomination effort.

With some exceptions, most of these cheerfully accepted what they some time ago conceived to be the inevitable selection of Governor Thomas E. Dewey to head the 1944 Republican ticket and have since urged Mr. Willkie to do the same unless he finds in the platform some major position which he cannot in conscience espouse. They expect to find no such positive bar in the platform as it was outlined to them today.

They have reminded Mr. Willkie of what he said at St. Louis in the speech with which he formally opened his renomination attempt. He said that, even if he had generally agreed with President Roosevelt’s politics and actions, which he emphasized he did not, he would hold that a change of government was vital to the progress of the country and the world. The only way to bring about this change, they have argued, is to elect the nominees of this convention, and therefore they are urging Mr. Willkie to endorse them promptly and cordially after he has had a full opportunity to examine the proceedings.

It is accepted here that Mr. Willkie’s chief anxiety is over the international plank, which has now been drafted in secret by a subcommittee headed by Senator Warren Austin (R-VT) and has the unanimous support of that subcommittee. Mr. Willkie’s friends on the ground here are inclined to think that it will authorize this convention’s presidential candidate to adopt the foreign policies for which Mr. Willkie has long contended.

Mr. Austin has expressed himself as finding it “acceptable” to him, and this has encouraged the workers for Willkie-Dewey unity because the Vermont Senator was in many respects the most outspoken Republican advocate of intervention and has been in favor of the broadest form of post-war cooperation for security by the United States. They reason that if Mr. Austin, “who risked his political neck,” can accept the plank, Mr. Willkie should be able to do the same. The Vermont Senator, it is recalled, candidly accepted Lend-Lease, which he supported, as an act of war and said he favored it despite the clear risks of war involvement, almost a unique Republican attitude at that time.

Efforts today to discover the details of what has passed between these missionaries of unity and the candidate for whom they labored so diligently were unsuccessful. Nor could it be learned whether they have gathered from their former leader whether he is likely to be persuaded by their arguments if he finds in the platform no retrogression toward what is newly called “nationalism.”

It seems certain, however, that if Mr. Willkie withholds his support of the platform and the nominees for any length of time, this group will not wait to announce theirs.

Among those who worked with Mr. Willkie to the end of his renomination campaign, and are now urging unity, it is understood that the following are included: John W. Hanes, his financial chairman and general economic adviser, and John Cowles and Gardner Cowles Jr., his close personal friends, who were also associated in the management of his interests at Philadelphia in 1940.

8063

top.banner.rep.conv

OWI state’s group endorses Dewey

Directs delegation chairman, after tactical delay, so to cast all 93 votes
By Warren Moscow

Chicago, Illinois – (June 25)
New York took officially tonight its long-delayed action in endorsing Governor Dewey for President, instructing the chairman of its delegation to the Republican National Convention to cast its solid bloc of 93 votes for him on the first ballot.

The delay had been only for tactical reasons, and the unanimity was far different from 1940, when Mr. Dewey’s weakness in his home state delegation was a factor in his loss of strength from the time the balloting began in Philadelphia.

Tonight, it was different. With no rollcall and with state chairman Edwin F. Jaeckle standing on a chair in a ballroom recently used for a buffet supper, the vote was unanimous on a resolution presented by Troy Mayor John J. Ahearn.

Text of the resolution

The resolution read as follows:

In 1942, Thomas E. Dewey was nominated for Governor by the duly elected delegates of the Republican Party in New York State and was thereupon elected. He has devoted himself wholeheartedly and exclusively to the responsibilities of that office.

Today, we, the duly elected delegates from New York State to this convention, join with delegates of other states in the draft of Governor Dewey for the service of the nation.

We take this action because we recognize that the interests of the people of New York, like those of all of our people, will best be served by electing Governor Dewey to be President of the United States.

Therefore, be it resolved, that the chairman of the delegation from New York State to the Republican National Convention be and hereby is instructed to cast the votes of the delegates of New York State for Thomas E. Dewey for President.

Organizing is completed

Just before adopting the resolution, the delegation completed, equally informally, its organization for the convention. J. Russel Sprague and Jessica McCullough Weis were reelected national committee members, Mr. Jaeckle was picked as chairman of the delegation, Mrs. Weis became vice chairman, and Harold Turk of Brooklyn, secretary.

William H. Hill, long-time leader of the Southern Tier counties, was named to the committee on permanent organization; Mrs. Harriet Mack of Westchester to the Committee on Rules, and Livingstone Platt of Westchester, to the Committee on Credentials.

Meanwhile, it became known that the problem of providing a Governor for New York during the period that Mr. Dewey will be out of the state to attend the convention here has been solved.

All three statutory successors, Lieutenant Governor Joe R. Hanley. Senator Majority Leader Benjamin F. Feinberg and Speaker Oswald D. Heck of the Assembly are delegates, and one should return to the state before Mr. Dewey leaves it on Wednesday.

It became known tonight that Mr. Feinberg had been selected, and he will leave here about the time Mr. Dewey leaves Albany.

Enthusiasm at headquarters

With the New York delegates’ arrival on a special train this morning, Dewey banners and buttons sprang into sight.

Their first act was to set up Dewey headquarters in a large ballroom on the third floor of the Stevens Hotel, to put on a reception which outdrew the Bricker headquarters, on the same floor, by a wide margin.

Delegates and distinguished guests from other states were greeted throughout the day. In a corner, on the same floor, are separate county headquarters established by New York, Kings and Westchester counties, where open house is held, and tickets are distributed.

The dominant note in the Dewey headquarters is a blue banner about 20 by 10 feet bearing the slogan “Thomas E. Dewey” on one line; “For President” on a center line, and “Vote Republican” on the third line. Close inspection by reporters showed that the words “For President” had been neatly stitched over the previous exhortation, “For Governor.” It was the same banner which was used at the Saratoga convention in 1942, at which Mr. Dewey was nominated for Governor. Pat Gogerty, owner of the banner, explained that its history actually went back eight years, to 1936, and that the upper line, “Thomas E. Dewey,” if peeled off, would reveal the name of William F. Bleakley, who ran for Governor in 1936.

Among the visitors at the Dewey headquarters today were Nebraska Governor Dwight Griswold, U.S. Senator John G. Townsend Jr. (R-DE), former Governor Samuel R. McKelvie of Nebraska, National Committeeman R. B. Creager of Texas, U.S. Senator Chapman Revercomb (R-WV) and U.S. Senator George Wilson (R-IA).

The Dewey headquarters was placarded with signs carrying the picture of the New York Governor and such slogans as “Dewey Will Win,” “The People’s Choice” and “America Wants Dewey.” They appeared to have been brought on from New York by his backers, despite his not having made any formal statement that he is willing to accept the nomination.

8064

top.banner.rep.conv

No speech written, Dewey aides say

Governor returns to Albany from his farm – gives no hint of his plans

Albany, New York – (June 25)
Governor Dewey returned here tonight from a weekend visit to his farm at Pawling avowedly still not a candidate for the Presidency, despite the fact that he is an odds-on favorite to win the Republican nomination on the first ballot.

Members of the Governor’s official family reported that no work had been done on an acceptance speech.

A corps of reporters representing many of the country’s leading newspapers are on hand here, waiting for a “slip” or intimation that the Governor is relinquishing his role as a “non-candidate.”

The reporters are convinced that Mr. Dewey intends to go to Chicago immediately following his nomination to make a speech of acceptance. All are prepared to make the trip, yet the Governor had denied all stories that reservations for such a journey have been made.

Meanwhile, the question still remains unanswered as to who will become Acting Governor in the event Mr. Dewey should go to Chicago. Lieutenant Governor Joe R. Hanley. Benjamin F. Feinberg, President pro tempore of the Senate, and Speaker Oswald D. Heck of the Assembly, who would be in line to take over the office in the absence of the Governor, are in Chicago.

Before his departure last night, Mr. Hanley said he would certainly not return because his 93-year-old mother is gravely ill in Iowa and he intended to visit her. Since it is imperative that an acting Governor be on hand because three men are sentenced to die in the electric chair Thursday for a slaying in New York City, it must then be either Mr. Feinberg or Mr. Heck who must return.

The condemned men are Alex Bellamo, Peter de Lutro and Frank di Maria, who were convicted in the slaying of Francis Servidio on May 18, 1942, in a poolroom. In all executions, the Governor is the person to whom last pleas for clemency are made.

Nothing of political significance occurred during the Governor’s stay on his farm, where his wife and two boys have been living. Rain kept him indoors a good part of Saturday, though he did inspect some farm improvements being made. Today, he shot a round of golf, then returned to entertain two neighbors, Carl T. Hogan and his wife.

8065

top.banner.rep.conv

War overshadows GOP deliberations

Lincoln’s prophetic words on strain of a war election recalled at Chicago

Chicago, Illinois – (June 25)
Chicago has tried hard to whoop up the Republican National Convention, but the race between Governor Thomas E. Dewey and Governor John W. Bricker seems so one-sided and the big guns at Cherbourg make so much noise that it just won’t whoop.

The trappings may be pretty frivolous, the bands are as brassy, the lights as bright, but the war is not somebody else’s this time; there are soldiers and sailors on Michigan Boulevard and anti-aircraft balloons over the lake front, and while delegates are endangered only by their own indulgences, most of them have sons who are in danger, and that takes priority even over politics.

The talk, of course, is little different. The delegates are here to “kick the rascals out,” and most of the speeches and meetings in the Loop are looking to that end, but just as the Republicans are, for the moment, dominating Chicago, the war is dominating the Republicans. Even in the first editions, they cannot get the big headlines over Cherbourg and Vitebsk, and Saipan.

Difference in atmosphere

The atmosphere of the convention is different in more ways than one. The wind is blowing the wrong way from the stockyards and the amount of excitement that can be created over whether Mr. Dewey is nominated on the first or third ballot is not unlimited, but the essential difference is that America is having its first war political convention since the War Between the States, and the delegates are aware of it, even if they say very little about it.

Eighty years ago, near the end of the Civil War, it was the Democrats who held their convention in Chicago, and then, as now, the election was overwhelmed by the war. The great difference then was that the opposition party declared the war a mistake and called in its platform, for a negotiated peace. The opposition this time is not making that mistake.

In the course of that presidential campaign 80 years ago, however, President Lincoln made a statement which foresaw the campaign that starts tomorrow and defined its purpose.

Lincoln statement quoted

As the results of the election of 1864 were coming in, he addressed a group of his supporters who came to see him at the White House.

He said:

It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too strong for the liberties of the people, can be strong enough to maintain its existence in great emergencies. On this point the present war brought our government to a severe test and a presidential election, occurring in regular course during the Rebellion, added not a little to the strain.

The election, along with its incidental and undesirable strife, has done good. It has demonstrated that a people’s government can sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war.

8066

top.banner.rep.conv

Mrs. Farley ready to bolt her party

Won’t vote for Roosevelt, but shares Chicago suite with Mrs. Mesta, new Democrat
By Kathleen McLaughlin

Chicago, Illinois – (June 25)
Mrs. James A. Farley issued a political declaration of independence today, confirming a report that she will vote Republican unless the Democratic nominee is other than the present occupant of the White House.

Characteristic of the current state of things here, Mrs. Farley is happily sharing a suite with her longtime friend, Mrs. Pearl Mesta, widow of a wealthy Oklahoma oil man, now operating a ranch which she has bought near Prescott, Arizona. Mrs. Mesta, a lifelong Republican, will not only vote Democratic in November but will also be an Arizona delegate to the party’s convention.

Mrs. Mesta’s friends are as stunned at her conversion to the Democratic as Mrs. Farley’s are dumbfounded at her desertion of it. But, since they avoid argument by mutual consent, they are having a gay time of it.

Asked why she was here now if she was a Democrat, Mrs. Mesta smilingly replied, “Oh, I’m just snooping.”

Mrs. Farley said she and her husband had long seen eye to eye politically and that although she had registered as a Democrat, she had voted “independently” for some time.

She went on:

I believe in democracy, and we haven’t got democracy now. I have a couple of children growing up, and if it’s a case of voting for a fourth term, I simply won’t do it. That isn’t democracy.

Her favorite candidate is Governor Warren of California, who, she thinks, should be on the ticket.

She said that her husband, now in Mexico, knew she was here and added that she would be at the Democratic sessions next month.

Mrs. Robert Lincoln Hoyal of Douglas was elected head of the Arizona delegation today, the first woman to hold such a post in the history of the party. She was head of the Women’s Division of the National Committee, 1935-36 and later served as assistant to the national chairman.

Among the “regulars” is Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who explains that she attends more out of habit than because of political connection, this being her ninth Republican convention in succession.

Women are in more favorable position in the convention than at any time since 1924, the session that followed their enfranchisement, when they had 121 full delegates and 285 alternates. This year, they had 102 full delegates and 270 alternates.

States which have noticeably increased their feminine groups are Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wyoming.

8067

top.banner.rep.conv

New Jersey delegates 34–1 for Dewey

Only Senator Hawkes opposes New Yorker as Edge champions latter as nominee

Chicago, Illinois – (June 25)
With Senator Albert W. Hawkes of Montclair, New Jersey, the lone dissenter, the New Jersey delegation to the Republican National Convention recorded itself as 34–1 for Governor Dewey for President at a caucus held this noon at the Hotel Blackstone. Senator Hawks voted for Governor Bricker of Ohio.

There was almost another Bricker vote in the New Jersey delegation. On the first rollcall, Thomas A. Mathis of Toms River cast his vote for Governor Edge of New Jersey, who was presiding.

Governor Edge rose and said, “Look, we’ve been through all that and I’m not a candidate.”

“Is Dewey?” asked Mr. Mathis. Then he added, “Make it Bricker for me.”

When the rollcall was completed and no other Bricker votes had appeared, Mr. Mathis again rose and asked permission to make one more change in his vote. He voted for Mr. Dewey, amid applause.

Governor Edge, after organization of the delegation had been completed, made a short speech in which he noted that he was expressing only his own opinion, and that he did not expect anyone to be bound by it, but that he thought the delegation ought to be for Governor Dewey.

Governor Edge said:

I feel, as a result of the preliminary actions thus far, that it is pretty well settled that the distinguished Governor of New York, Thomas Dewey, will be the nominee of this convention. I expect to vote for him on the first ballot. If things develop beyond that, we can then further consider our viewpoint.

It is not a question of getting on the bandwagon. It is a question of showing to the electorate around the country the confidence and the unanimity of the party’s mood. I feel that New Jersey should not straddle, but should take a definite position. It is the best thing to do, and I do it with confidence.

The group voted to send a telegram of good cheer to Mrs. Edna B. Conklin, one of the delegates-at-large, who has been unable to attend the convention because of illness.

New Jersey’s delegation ran into room trouble, with no one apparently getting what had been ordered. Governor Edge had received the suite and an extra room, and tonight only had the extra room. His suite had been appropriated by a woman delegate from a Western state, who refused to move out. Others experienced similar difficulties.

8068

top.banner.rep.conv

Gerald Smith ‘seizes’ ballroom for speech

America First crusader invades Republican quarters

Chicago, Illinois – (June 25)
Gerald L. K. Smith, leader of the America First Crusade, caused a minor diversion today by “seizing” the ballroom of the Stevens Hotel, Republican convention headquarters, and holding a rump meeting in the face of disapproval by the convention management.

Mr. Smith, followed by several hundred of those who favor nationalistic views, took over the ballroom to harangue these persons and numerous others, who were drawn in by curiosity, foe about two hours. His speech was marked by equal denunciation of Harrison M. Spangler, chairman of the Republican National Committee; Governor Dewey of New York, and President Roosevelt.

He led his followers in cheers for Col. Robert R. McCormick, publisher of The Chicago Tribune, and Senator Robert Reynolds (D-SC), who is retiring from the Senate and has intimated an intention to form a new national party.

Mr. Smith issued a typewritten statement in which he said that a group of “Independent Republicans,” had reserved the ballroom for his meeting today, but that “pressure” by the Republican leaders caused the hotel to cancel the reservation. This statement was ignored.

No other meeting was scheduled for the time during which Mr. Smith held the ballroom, as he said, “by force.”

8069

Editorial: Americans in Cherbourg

Cherbourg has been entered, and the first great prize of the invasion is virtually in Allied hands after a great final assault that began with the war’s mightiest combined barrage from land, from the sea and from the air, and is ending in bitter hand-to-hand fighting from house to house and from street to street. Some mopping-up of individual sections of the town still remains to be done; for the Germans converted many of its houses into forts, and German officers forced their weary troops to continue a hopeless struggle at the point of a gun in conformity with an order issued by their commander to fight or be shot. But these last desperate tactics were of no avail. Berlin was the first to announce the fall of the city, which means the loss of between 25,000 and 50,000 men, with the explanation that they had fought to the “last bullet.”

This is a splendid, heartwarming victory, won less than three weeks after D-Day and only five days after the actual attack on Cherbourg was launched. It completes the Allied break through the German “Atlantic Wall” and clinches our hold upon French soil. There is glory enough here for both the American and British armies: the Americans, who gained the city by assault; the British, who made the assault possible by holding against strong German counterattack the pivotal eastern end of the line.

Cherbourg will now become for the European war what Naples became for the Italian campaign and what Brest was in the last war – the great disembarkation port and supply base for the Allied armies which must break the deadlock in Europe. It is the third greatest port of France, amply able to take care of all Allied requirements until other ports are opened up by further Allied advances or invasions. And though German demolition squads have been reported active for some time, and the Germans have undoubtedly done their best to blow up the port’s facilities, Allied ability for restoration thus far has always exceeded the German power of destruction.

Cherbourg will permit the Allies to land troops and heavy equipment in protected waters. It will permit America in particular to ship men and supplies directly to the European continent and close to the battlefront without first unloading and transferring them at British ports. Finally, it will give the Allies a naval base from which whatever remains of the German submarine menace can be met far more effectively than at present. A safe base, safe communication lines and speed in the handling of equipment and supplies are of the essence of victory, and all these elements are now provided by the capture of Cherbourg.

Beyond that, the capture of Cherbourg means first the capture of the Cherbourg Peninsula. And this peninsula, together with the Allied bridgeheads captured in the first onslaught, provides the first really adequate marshaling ground and springboard for large-scale Allied attacks on the German armies in the West.

It may be assumed that one of the first Allied moves will be in a southwesterly direction toward the Loire to cut off the Brittany Peninsula as well and thereby secure the Allied rear., but the Germans have been forced ti tie down so much of their strength in the west to guard king coastlines still exposed to new invasions that they may have little left for mobile armies with which to counter Allied thrusts. And this opens up the chance for an even mire daring strategy than might have appeared possible at the start of the invasion when the Allies still counted on a mighty German counteroffensive – a strategy which would reduce the capture of the Brittany Peninsula to a secondary operation and wheel the Allied armies toward the southeast for a drive toward the Seine and Paris. The resumption of the American offensive southeast of Carentan, the new British-Canadian drive which led to the capture of Tilly-sur-Seulles, the continued German attacks at Caen, all point in that direction. Cherbourg is still 200 miles from Paris, but its capture has put the Allies definitely on the road to the capital of France. And beyond Paris lies Berlin.