Japanese routed in India region
Allies rout remnants of two divisions
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De Gaulle aims to put regime on French soil
Says goal attained in Roosevelt talks
By R. H. Shackford, United Press staff writer
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Packard: Talks way out of suspicion as spy
Doughboy comes to rescue of war reporter after she enters frontline town in Italy
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer
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Editorial: A two-term limit?
The fact that 66% of the public favors a two-term limit for Presidents after this year’s election, as shown by the Gallup Poll, indicates that although prior to 1940 the two-term limit was only a tradition, it was nevertheless a tradition that the people approved of.
When the Constitution was written, many different suggestions concerning presidential tenure were put forth. Alexander Hamilton favored life tenure. Other proposals of single seven-year and five-year terms were made. None was accepted, other than the provision that the term be for four years. Not a word was said about reelection, or about how many reelections were desirable.
The two-term tradition was instituted by the first occupant of the office, President Washington. It took on the strength of an accepted limit principally by Jefferson’s insistence that two terms were enough, and that for any man to seek to exceed that limit would stamp him as an enemy of free government. It was one of Jefferson’s opinions on the subject, quoted by Senator Carter Glass in nominating Jim Farley, that drew resounding boos at the convention of Jefferson’s party in 1940.
The tradition was cast aside in 1940, however, by the people themselves. The issue was clear-cut and the third-term candidate won by a decisive, though not overwhelming, majority. The decision was reached constitutionally and legally, by the court of last resort in a republic – the voters.
But it is a different matter if now the same people seek to prevent a repetition. The only method possible to prevent it is by amendment to the Constitution which the Gallup survey finds that 66% of the people are for.
That does not necessarily mean that a majority which voted for a third term in 1940 is so disappointed in the experiences that it regrets its vote of four years ago. It may mean only that it is willing to accept this one exception, but is aware of the potential danger of unlimited tenure and believes a legal limit should be established.
Be that as it may, the tradition itself is dead. If the two-term principle is to be reestablished, an amendment is the only recourse. And if 66% of the people want it, it likely will be adopted – perhaps not at once, but in times to prevent a longer-than-two-term issue ever arising again.
Editorial: Caen cost 33 days
The British capture of Caen has broken a dangerous stalemate in the Battle of Normandy. Caen was scheduled for capture a month ago. The British took part of it on D-Day, but had to retreat quickly. The enemy then succeeded in holding up the British advance for 33 days.
It is no secret that Allied victory depends on slashing, rapid advances, and that Nazi strategy is to contain the Allies within a fixed line where attrition is heavy. In this case, the Nazis achieved a temporary stalemate without calling out their major strategic reserves. That makes the Allies’ task ahead all the more difficult.
When went wrong with Gen. Montgomery’s plans will probably remain a mystery until after the war. Some of the experts are suggesting that his famous super-caution may have tricked him into a slower and, in the end, more costly operation than necessary. This criticism strikes us as premature.
Bad weather may have accounted for most of the Caen stalemate. Many of those 33 days were such that Gen. Montgomery could not land supplies on the beaches to build up his forces, and could not use his great air superiority to turn the balance. Apparently during the past two weeks, he has had infantry and artillery superiority amounting to a 4-to-1 advantage in firepower. Whether he was or was not slow to use it, he had taken advantage of it fully in this successful two-day offensive.
Another reason why criticism seems to us premature is that much depends on the next big move by the Allies. The German General Staff still does not know whether Gen. Eisenhower will put all his eggs in the Normandy basket, or whether he soon will make other landings in the region of Le Havre or Brest, or even in Belgium or Holland.
Events may prove that the Caen delay was due more to Gen. Montgomery’s overcaution than to the Germans’ refusal to be caught off balance by drawing their main reserves toward Normandy, which in turn delayed an Eisenhower invasion elsewhere.
Whatever the explanation, it must be admitted that little was achieved by the Allies in the period between the fall of Cherbourg and that of Caen, compared with the miraculous first period of the invasion. Three or four more Caen clinches would carry us close to the fall stalemate for which the Germans are fighting. Every week counts now.
Allies make successes and failures in month they have ruled Rome
World watches to see how ‘liberators’ act and future peace hopes rest in balance
By Edward P. Morgan
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Simms: State control of press, radio, films alarms friends of France
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
Cherbourg, France –
Among the things which have alarmed friends of France the most was the decree of the Provisional Government in Algiers placing press, radio and films under state control.
The Algiers ordinance would seem to destroy freedom of the press and other means of public expression. The state would have the say as to who could run newspapers. The French Information Agency alone would have the right to circulate government communiqués, domestic and foreign news and to acquire the services of foreign news agencies.
Movies could not operate until authorized by the Commissioner of Information.
Tempered ruling hoped for
Events here, however, lead to the hope that the Algiers degree may be somewhat tempered in practice. Supposedly, all newspapers and periodicals which carried out Nazi or Vichy policy were to be confiscated. Yet none of that seems to have happened here.
One of the oldest newspapers in this part of France is Éclair of Cherbourg. After the German occupation, it turned collaborationist. But when the Americans marched on the port, the editor fled to Paris, leaving the paper in the hands of his brother-in-law, M. Hamel.
New name for paper
After the fall of Cherbourg, Algiers Regional Commissioner François Coulet began to apply the law. He ousted Hamel and appointed Roger Pillet, a newspaperman and member of the resistance group, as editor. Printers and other employees of Éclair struck. They contended Hamel had never written any collaborationist stuff. He had only managed the property as he had done before 1940, and throughout the occupation he had carried on “in a spirit of friendly cooperation with the workers,” they maintained.
Subprefect Leviandier, a Coulet appointee, who was called in to arbitrate, decided to give the newspaper a new name, La Presse cherbourgeoise, and to go on publishing with the old staff, including Hamel as managing director and Pillet as editor.
Commendable discretion
Throughout all this the U.S. Army’s Civil Affairs officers remained aloof.
Whether this incident means a more democratic formula will be followed remains to be seen. Certainly, Commissioner Coulet, who has wide powers, appears to have used commendable discretion.
In England, many liberal Frenchmen had looked askance at the Algiers press-radio regulation. They observed that the road to liberty is hardly through dictatorship. They said that if democracy is to be restored in France, the way to do it is not by abandoning the principles which are the foundation of democracy.
Reporter to advise on Pyle movie
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New merchant ship contracts expected soon
Most of construction to take place in 1945
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Work on money fund nearing completion
Commission to pass on documents
By Elmer C. Walzer, United Press financial editor
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Superfortresses catch enemy napping
B-29s unscathed in second raid on Japan
By Walter Rundle, United Press staff writer
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World security plank stressed
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Poll: Presidential sample starts with Dewey leading in New York
Governor polls 52% of vote in first test but 1940 experience is recalled
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
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America Firster demands Bricker
Gerald L. K. Smith wants Dewey to quit
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Gerald L. K. Smith, chairman of the America First Committee, said today he would ask his organization to approve a resolution calling on Governor Thomas E. Dewey to withdraw in favor of Governor John W. Bricker as the Republican presidential candidate.
Mr. Smith said the meeting will be held here July 17 and that 2,000 of his “people” would attend, including “numerous delegates to the Democratic Convention.”
He added:
We are hoping that Senator Reynolds can be present. Should his duties as Chairman of the Military Affairs Committee of the Senate prevent his presence, a message from him will be read at the rally.
He said his organization would call on the Democrats to nominate Senator Burton Wheeler (D-MT) for President.
He said:
If the Democrats go internationalist and nominate Roosevelt, we will call a national convention of America First people and nominate our own candidate for President unless Dewey resigns in favor of Bricker, as he should. If we call our own convention, I am convinced that our people will attempt to draft Charles A. Lindbergh for President.
Governor Dewey waws unpopular when nominated by the GOP, due to his mistreatment of our people, the America Firsters, and I prophesy that his stock will show a big slump in the coming reports of those who poll public opinion.
Light vote forecast in Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota (UP) –
The lightest vote of any primary election in recent years was predicted today in Minnesota where voters choose candidates for Congress, Governor, Lieutenant Governor and other state offices on the Republican and Democratic-Farmer-Labor ticket.
The election followed one of the dullest political campaigns in a state noted for its interest in politics. Lack of issues and personalities were expected to produce a vote far less than the 580,000 ballots cast two years ago.
Tobin becomes ‘problem child’ for Democrats
He’s Labor Committee head – hostile to CIO
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
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