America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

[NormanStewart]

Stokes: Breach among Democrats manifest in platform fight

Two philosophies are clashing in feud between North, South; something must give
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Chicago, Illinois –
As wide as the Mississippi in flood time in the lowlands of Arkansas is the breach in the Democratic Party between the Northern branch and what are coming to be called again “the Confederates” of the south, so noisily do they raise their rebel yells here in Chicago.

The cleavage stood out stark and clear, like the cloudy profile of a coming storm, in the Democratic Convention which opened here today. Two philosophies are clashing, and something must give.

It is manifest in the fight over the platform. The Northern wing, backed by labor and by Negroes in the big cities – at last released for effective political action by the New Deal – is demanding clear-cut pronouncements against racial discriminations, for the right of franchise for Southern Negroes promulgated by the Supreme Court, for abolition of poll taxes which disfranchise poor whites as well as Negroes in eight Southern states.

South wants Byrnes

The South, particularly the bourbon element entrenched in the tight little political machines represented in delegations here, is resisting bitterly, drawing within itself jealously, its temper up.

The cleavage is plainly revealed in the hot contest over the vice-presidential nomination. The New Deal wing which draws its strength from the masses in the big cities of the East and Midwest, white and black, is demanding the renomination of Henry Wallace.

The Southern leaders, and conservatives elsewhere, will have nothing of him. The South wants James F. Byrnes of South Carolina, former Senator, former Supreme Court Justice, now War Mobilization Director. The North is fearful of his selection, saying it might lose the Negro vote in key urban centers of the East and Midwest.

Byrd given support

The cleavage appears even over the presidential nomination itself, which is assured for Roosevelt, in a protest from sections of the South. In rapid succession, delegations of three states voted to support Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia – Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. He may muster as many as a hundred protest votes, for he has scattering support elsewhere in the South, and his Virginia delegation is expected to plump solidly for him.

By political magic which is the envy of other politicians, high and low, President Roosevelt has been able to hold the diverse and conflicting elements of the Democratic Party together through three elections, and, on account of the war, may hold it together again. But it is coming unsewed at the seams. This is plain enough in what is going on here.

[NormanStewart]

At platform hearings –
World setup to keep peace is endorsed

Witnesses testify on foreign plank

Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Mrs. J. Borden Harriman told the Democratic National Convention Platform Committee today that it is time to establish the international organization of nations to prevent future wars as promised in the Moscow Declaration and the Connally Resolution approved by Congress.

Mrs. Harriman, former Minister to Norway, was among witnesses appearing before the committee as it turned to the vital foreign policy issue, with the broad outlines of the party’s foreign plank apparently already agreed upon.

She added a warning that a national movement has been started by citizens who are willing to “slug it out with all and sundry who are sowing the dragon seed of World War III.”

Isolationists assailed

She said:

I refer to the isolationists, the so-called nationalists… to the cynics and defeatists, to the business-as-usual bunch, and to any little group of willful men that may crop up.

Mrs. Harriman recommended that the international organization:

• Guarantee relief from war to all nations with the “peace-loving nations” pledged to advance together against an aggressor.

• Establish means for peaceful settlement of disputes and for advancement of human rights.

• Create agencies for international cooperation in such fields as trade, labor, currency stabilization, agriculture and aviation, to promote an expanding world economy.

Ely Culbertson, bridge expert, representing a group called Fight for Total Peace, Inc., told the committee a federal alliance between the United States, Great Britain and “a collection of small nations” would not cost this nation its sovereignty because the only sovereign right any of the countries would give up is the right to wage war of aggression.

Police force urged

Mr. Culbertson also called for an international police force.

Frederick J. Libby, executive secretary of the National Council for Prevention of War, urged the party to support a “peace offensive,” a statement of peace aims based on the Atlantic Charter.

Other proposed planks calling for U.S. participation in an international organization with power to prevent aggression were submitted by the National Peace Conference, representing 16 organizations; the League of Women Voters and the Women’s Action Committee for Victory and a Lasting Peace.

Connally will testify

But the man whose recommendation is expected to carry the greatest weight will not be heard until the committee adjourns its open hearings late today and meets in executive session to begin drafting the platform. He is Senator Tom Connally (D-TX), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, author of the Senate-approved Connally Resolution and a special adviser to the Platform Committee.

Mr. Connally has drafted a proposed plank of less than 300 words which was reported to beat the approval of President Roosevelt. It is expected to call for a post-war association of sovereign nations to maintain peace. It was understood that Senator Connally favored language advocating specific authorization of military force to prevent aggression, to contrast with the Republican platform pledge to support “peace forces” against aggression.

Platform Committee Chairman John W. McCormack (D-MA), House Majority Leader, said the committee expected to begin whipping the platform into shape for submission to the convention tomorrow.

Domestic issues

The committee completed hearings on domestic issues yesterday, receiving lengthy statements from AFL President William Green and CIO President Philip Murray. They submitted recommendations for labor, reconversion, foreign policy and other planks.

Both urged U.S. participation in a post-war association of nations, reconversion programs to assure full employment after the war and immediate repeal of the Smith-Connally anti-strike law. Mr. Murray read the text of the program adopted at a CIO Political Action Conference at Washington last month.

Racial issue paramount

Mr. Murray also added to the flood of testimony on the racial issue – an explosive one for the Democrats – by urging the committee to draft a strong plank condemning racial discrimination.

The party’s declaration on the race issue promised to rival the foreign plank in importance.

[NormanStewart]

Nominees picked in three states

By the United Press

A “decisive victory” for Governor Sidney P. Osborn, who won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Arizona by a 2-to-1 margin, and a substantial lead piled up by Senator Carl Hayden (D-AZ), running for renomination, highlighted light primary election returns from three states – Arizona, Montana and Wyoming – today.

In Montana, where a three-way battle for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination was the principal feature of an otherwise dull primary, Lief Erickson, 38-year-old justice of the State Supreme Court, was leading Austin B. Middleton and former Governor Roy E. Ayers.

In the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Governor Sam C. Ford was far out in front of his only opponent, former Congressman Dr. J. Thorkelson of Butte.

Governor Osborn was conceded the Democratic nomination in Arizona by William Coxon, who extended congratulations for winning “a decisive victory.”

Senator Hayden, and Reps. John Murdock was Richard Harless were leading their opponents for renomination on the Democratic ticket.

In Wyoming, where the only contest was for the Democratic nomination for Congress, Charles E. Norris of Laramie was leading Clyde C. Winters.

[NormanStewart]

Allies advance near Burma base

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[NormanStewart]

Introducing Skipper Homeier, ‘nice little nasty brat’

12-year-old youngster plays Nazi juvenile in new movie

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[NormanStewart]

Editorial: ‘I do not wish to appear…’

Two things stand out at the Democratic National Convention. It is dominated by the indispensable man who isn’t there. And he is operating as usual through party machines headed primarily by the notorious Mayor Kelly of Chicago, Boss Flynn of New York and Mayor Hague of Jersey City.

There is a great show of fighting over the Vice Presidency. But when the final gavel falls on the perspiring delegates who sit in the convention hall while the managers elsewhere rig the plays, it will be clear that Mr. Roosevelt got what he wanted. Not only the fourth term candidacy for himself, which he in effect has already accepted in advance, and the platform he has already outlined, but also the running mate.

We don’t know Mr. Roosevelt’s choice for second place. Even some who think they are close to him, including Henry Wallace, apparently cannot be sure – yet. That is not surprising. It happened in 1940. Remember? Several vice-presidential aspirants, who had talked with Mr. Roosevelt, had been told it was an open race and that any one of them was acceptable of not his favorite. But, when he finally showed his fist, Mr. Wallace was in it – along with an ultimatum to nominate Mr. Wallace or else. Kelly, Flynn, Hague and Company delivered.

We can’t guess the meaning of the President’s letter to the convention chairman regarding Mr. Wallace, because it is deliberate double-talk. Its purpose may be to damn Mr. Wallace with faint praise, as his friends fear and his opponents hope, and to clear the way for the real FDR selection. Or it may be canny encouragement for several other aspirants to kill each other off, so that Mr. Wallace can be named in the end without the appearance of White House dictation.

On one point, however, the President’s letter is clear. He has grown sensitive about his party dictatorship and is terribly anxious to remove the “appearances” of it before they become a worse campaign liability. To quote: “At the same time, I do not wish to appear in any way as dictating to the convention.”

Well, that is Mr. Roosevelt’s only important wish in connection with the convention which cannot come true. Because it is not within the power of the convention – not even of Kelly, Flynn, Hague and Company – to give him that on top of everything else. The “appearances” in the end will be unable to cover up the fact that the absent indispensable man made all the final decisions. With all of his skill as a political manipulator in absentia, not even Mr. Roosevelt can control a national convention and keep that a secret.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: Montgomery’s offensive

Allied forces in Normandy have scored successes on both ends of the line in the fiercest fighting since D-Day. In the west, the Americans have taken Saint-Lô, and in the east, the British have broken through the Caen line.

Whether the victory around Caen is assuming the “gigantic proportion” claimed by initial dispatches probably cannot be determined for several days. The British were in Caen on June 9 only to be pushed back, and several offensives there in recent weeks have been abortive. It is not enough to break through, the gap must be widened and exploited and the new positions rendered safe from counterattack. That cannot be done in the first day of the battle.

The chief factor during the coming week, as during the first day, probably will be the weather. The breakthrough followed an 8,000-ton air bombardment. If Gen. Montgomery can continue to use his great air superiority, which bad weather denied him so often during the past six weeks, obviously the chance of pushing along the Paris road will be much better.

If the enemy’s communications for an estimated 250,000 troops can be cut, as hoped, then he can no longer keep us bottled up in the Normandy tip with his tactical forces alone. He will be forced into a general retreat, or to commit his strategic reserves which have hitherto been held against a possible Allied landing elsewhere. In either event, Gen. Eisenhower would have ended the dangerous temporary stalemate that has consumed more than a month of the precious summer season.

An enemy retreat would allow Gen. Montgomery’s larger armored forces to spill over into open country beyond Caen, and to do the job they have been prevented from doing in their tight pocket. That should soon thereafter draw in more of the Nazi strategic reserves, which seems to be Gen. Eisenhower’s purpose.

But all that depends, of course, on keeping the Montgomery offensive rolling.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: Jap crises

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[NormanStewart]

Edson: Some letters from Jefferson on retirement

By Peter Edson

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[NormanStewart]

Ferguson: Basic right

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

CIO leaders overlooked a bet with formulating their recent Bill of Rights. They left out the right of every woman to a good husband. Their list includes:

• The right of every person to a job.
• The right of every farm to a decent living.
• The right to earn enough to provide food, clothing and recreation.
• The right of every businessman to protection against unfair competition and monopolies.
• The right to medical care and good health.
• The right to protection against economic fears of old age, sickness and unemployment.

One is surprised to find the feminine voter forgotten. Plans to provide her with a form of security which transcends all others were evidently an oversight.

For women there is no such thing as a husbandless utopia. May we remind the gentlemen who are politically active this year that a fear is now growing in feminine minds that their world, beautifully planned though it may be will lack this essential ingredient. The women just won’t be satisfied with jobs, or even a release from old-age fears. They’ll go on wanting what they wanted long before the CIO decided to give everybody everything – the married woman’s status in a monogamous society.

This campaign year calls for something extra in the way of political promises, so why not add another to the CIO’s list – the right of every woman to a husband.

[NormanStewart]

Background of news –
Is Guam next?

By Bertram Benedict

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[NormanStewart]

Welles wants three-way split of Germany

Would give East Prussia to Poland
By R. H. Shackford, United Press staff writer

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[NormanStewart]

Public, private debt rises to $338 billion

War accounts for all of increase

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Money conference enters last lap

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[NormanStewart]

Wards lose again in WLB power test

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Roosevelt admits 1,000 refugees

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[NormanStewart]

CIO political group hit by AFL spokesman

Support by committee called kiss of death

Washington (UP) –
Philip Pearl, publicity director and official spokesman of the American Federation of Labor, charged today that the CIO Political Action Committee was resorting to “typical communist technique” and predicted that most candidates would find its support “the kiss of death.”

As far as President Roosevelt is concerned, Mr. Pearl declared, his election to a fourth term would be in spite if, rather than because of, CIO backing.

‘A tricky outfit’

Mr. Pearl said in his column in the AFL’s Weekly News Service that the CIO committee had shown itself to be a “rather tricky outfit” when it set up its new national citizens political action committee “to front for it.” By thus going underground, he said, the committee followed typical communist tactics.

He said:

The reason given is that unions, under the Connally-Smith Act, are forbidden to make political contributions and that therefore a new committee was necessary to raise campaign funds by voluntary contributions.

But a more practical reason is apparent. That one is to take the CIO name out of the organization’s title. The communist stooges behind the PAC are canny enough to realize that the initials CIO are

Backs Gallup poll

Mr. Pearl said that while he often disagreed with findings of the Gallup poll, he agreed with its recent report asserting that many people would be “inclined to vote against, instead of for, candidates who bear the CIO label.”

He declared:

If President Roosevelt is elected, the CIO will loudly claim all the credit. But if the President is elected to a fourth term, it will be in spite of rather than because of the CIO’s help.

As for candidates for lesser office, they are likely to find that the benison of the CIO in 1944, as in former years, will turn out to be the kiss of death.

[NormanStewart]

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

In Normandy, France – (by wireless)
Everything seems odd in Normandy.

The hedgerows are thick and ancient. The stone walls are sometimes so mounded over with earth that you don’t know there’s a wall beneath. The trees in the apple orchards are mellow with moss so thick that it seems like a coat of green velvet.

The towns and cities are just as old and worn-looking. I have yet to see a building in Normandy that appeared to have been built within the last three generations.

The tone is not one of decadence, but just of great and contented age. Even Cherbourg was a surprise. All of its buildings were old and worn.

It was a contrast to other war cities we have passed through – Algiers and Palermo and even Naples – where much building and remodeling have been done in this country, and the new homes are shiny and modernistic, and the street fronts look almost American.

A street scene in Cherbourg looks so much like the Hollywood sets of old European cities that you get your perspective reversed and feel that Cherbourg has just been copied from a movie set.

It’s the same way with the Norman architecture. The houses aren’t so smooth and regular and nice as California homes of Norman design. When you look at them you feel, before catching yourself, that they have copied our California Norman homes and not done too good a job.

Everything is of stone. Even the barns and cowsheds are stone – and in exactly the same design and usually the same size as the houses. They are grouped closely together around a square, so that a farmer’s home makes a compact little settlement of buildings that resembles a country estate at a distance.

Have more butter than they can use

Normandy is dairy country. Right now, the people have more butter on their hands than they know what to do with. It is a stupid soldier indeed who can’t get himself all the butter he wants. But even though it is a glut on the market, the French still ask 60 cents a pound for it.

When the Germans were here, they bought all the Norman butter, and at fancy prices too. German soldiers would ship it home to their families.

And although their new order is strict and full of promises of an ordered world, the Germans themselves created and fostered the Paris black market, according to the local people. Much of the butter bought in Normandy by German officers went to Paris for resale at unheard-of prices.

To be honest about it, we can’t sense that Normandy suffered too much under the German occupation. That is no doubt less because of German beneficence than because of the nature of the country. For in any throttled country thew farm people always come out best.

Normandy is rich agriculturally. The people can sustain themselves. It is in the cities that occupation hurts worst. I suspect that when we get to Paris, we will hear an entirely different story from the people.

Good-looking children the rule

Normandy is certainly a land of children. It seems to me there are more children here even than in Italy. And I’ll have to break down and admit one thing – they are the most beautiful children I have ever seen.

It is an exception when you see a child who isn’t exceptionally good-looking. Apparently, they grow out of this, however, for on the whole the Norman adults look like people anywhere – both good and bad.

One thing about the Normans is in contrast with the temperament we have known so long in the Mediterranean. The people here are hard workers. Some of the American camps and city offices hire teenage French boys for kitchen and office work, and I’ve noticed that they go at their work eagerly and like the wind.

The story of the French underground, when the day comes for it to be written, will be one of the most fascinating things in all history.

On the Cherbourg Peninsula the underground was made up of cells, five people to a cell. Those five people knew each other, but none of them knew any other members of the underground anywhere.

It was fun to see the Frenchmen on the day the underground began coming out into the open. They identified themselves by special armbands that they had kept in hiding. One underground man would look at a neighbor wearing an armband and exclaim in amazement: “What! You too?”

In one village, we asked some people who were not in the movement if they had ever known who the underground members in their town were. They said they could pretty well guess, just from the character of the people, but never actually knew for sure.

[NormanStewart]

Pegler: Democratic Convention

By Westbrook Pegler

Chicago, Illinois –
With the presidential nomination disposed of long before the fall of the gavel by Mr. Roosevelt’s grinning acceptance of a fourth nomination, the incongruous and uneasy Democrats at their convention present a new spectacle in the politics of the United States, a strange congress of distrust, resentment, fear and a cynicism such as not even the most sordid Old-Guard Republican ever had the effrontery to express.

Here is idealism of the most pretentious and milky sort, the pious nobility of purpose of the New Deal, fermented and soured into a mesh of underworld politics and European continental trickery, all in the course of 12 years since the faithful went forth from the same hall in 1932, bawling “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

Many old faces are missing now, a few to appear in the following of Tom Dewey, disillusioned, repentant and humbly eager to atone. Many enthusiasts of the early New Deal have gone to their graves. And Jim Farley, standing ears above the crowd and wearing the same smile as of old, but a smile done with the muscles now and not by the impulse of a confident heart, has become a beloved but pathetic has-been, trampled, scuffed and confused, while Sidney Hillman, leader of the CIO-Communist coalition, holds press conferences at a hotel of his own selection, the Sherman House, at the other side of the Loop.

To a degree, it may be said for Jim that he is standing by his principles for he never would court or have any political traffic with Hillman’s aggregation of naturalized but unassimilated Europeans in New York when they called themselves the American Labor Party. Never yet has he compromised his total American devotion by appearing, under any pretext of emergency or wartime unity, on any platform where he could be photographed under the hammer and sickle of the Communist conspiracy.

Yet, although, as an American, he obviously believes the election of President Roosevelt to a fourth term would be a national misfortune, still his deep, personal devotion to the rules of the game will deter him from opposing the ticket.

No longer ambitious for Presidency

Jim is no longer ambitious for the Presidency. He may hope to become Governor of New York two years from now, but even that is a remote and highly speculative possibility and would be a dull climax to the career of a man who, four years ago, had an honest, if naïve, hope of going to the White House.

But boy and man, Jim has been a Democrat, and that perverse loyalty, that spirit of politics as a game, is stronger in Jim and, also, in many others here this week, than the inner whisperings of patriotic judgment.

Many men and women in this convention long ago lost their belief in the President as an idealist, even lost faith in him as a party man as he steadily took over and became, himself, the party, but, in resignation, go along anyway this once more because they don’t know what else to do.

Some feel an obligation to their little followings back home. Some are too proud to make public demonstration of their private fears for the country after four years more of the same. Some are so degraded they would risk it all for the little pay and power the politics gives them.

There are men and women here who hatefully resent Hillman and his small but tireless and clever group of scheming Europeans and fully understand the superior importance of a few hundred thousand New York votes, cast under the influence of European fears and hatreds, as compared with several times the same number of votes cast in their own home states.

Hillman most prominent lay-Democrat

They know the power of such people to pull the switches and throw American cities and factories into darkness and terror for they have seen it demonstrated. They know that, at Hillman’s plea, Charles Poletti, as temporary governor of New York, secretly released from prison a European communist firebug who held office in Hillman’s union and that, nevertheless, if not for this very reason, Poletti was made a full Army colonel and the American Military Governor of Rome.

It was not so much that Hillman and his group demanded Wallace. The humiliation, the startling, disturbing change lay in the fact that they could make any demands on the convention.

Whether or not, Hillman has his way, he becomes, nevertheless, the most prominent lay-Democrat in the party, although not necessarily the most powerful. For Kelly of Chicago and Hague of New Jersey are still in silent, secret action and these tough old brawlers this time are under no cloud of outward disavowal.

[NormanStewart]

Perkins: Democrats fully aware of importance of CIO

Hillman-Murray influence is indicated in deference shown them by party leaders
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Chicago, Illinois –
As the Democratic Convention opens here today a definite contrast is presented in the political positions of the principal leaders of American organized labor.

Philip Murray and Sidney Hillman. of the CIO, are deeply involved in the affairs of the Democratic Party; staking their present prestige on winning a renomination for Vice President Wallace; and risking the future of their organization on success of the Roosevelt ticket in November.

William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, pursues the traditional policy of that organization in not becoming an appendage of any political party, and of working both sides of the street in efforts to get favorable commitments from both the Democratic and Republican platforms.

Lewis backing GOP

John L. Lewis, of the United Mine Workers, got some burnt fingers through involvement as head of the CIO with the Democratic Party in 1936 (on a scale not so great as that on which Messrs. Murray ad Hillman are now involved), is backing the Republican ticket, and hoping he will be more successful than in 1940 in swinging miner votes against President Roosevelt.

The Murray-Hillman importance in Democratic affairs is indicated by the deference being shown them by other party leaders in selection of the running mate for Mr. Roosevelt; by a press conference they held which drew one of the largest crowds of reporters during this convention period; by applause in the Resolutions Committee for Mr. Murray when he finished a spirited presentation of the CIO ideas of what should be in the Democratic platform.

Votes in strategic states

Just how many delegates the CIO has in the convention is uncertain, but the number is believed to be less than a hundred among the total of 1,176. That proportion, however, is not the important point. The Democratic leaders are depending on the CIO to produce enough votes in strategic states to produce a victory over the Dewey-Bricker ticket. If it works out that way, the Democratic Party will become more than an alliance of professional politicians with labor leaders. If it doesn’t, the strategy of the politicians and the labor leaders will be due for a revamping before another presidential campaign rolls around.

[NormanStewart]

Allen: Roosevelt-Willkie ticket would save lots of metal

They could go out to Wisconsin and dig up all those buttons Wendell buried there
By Gracie Allen

Chicago, Illinois –
Every reporter dreams of having a scoop. Well, today it’s just possible that I may have a scoop. Here ‘tis: Guess who might be proposed as President Roosevelt’s running mate at this Democratic Convention. Wendell Willkie! Yes, sir, I heard that straight from a delegate who says he is going to do the proposing. George says the man pulled my leg when he told me that. Well, I was too excited to notice, and besides, if this turns out to be a scoop, let him get fresh.

Wouldn’t that be sensational? Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Willkie running together? It would certainly save a tremendous lot of metal, they could go to Wisconsin and dig up all those Willkie buttons that are buried there.

No more mussed hair

One thing – if Mr. Willkie should leave the Republican Party to run with Mr. Roosevelt, he wouldn’t have to worry about his hair being mussed up anymore. What the Republicans would have to say to him would undoubtedly curl it.

As I told you yesterday, stripteases have been banned in Chicago during the Democratic Convention. Today there’s a report that there will be no beer or hard liquor sold at the Stadium where the convention is to be held. The Republicans had all the stripteases and liquor they wanted. What puzzles me is that Chicago is Democratic, yet it seemed more hospitable to the Republicans than to its own party.

I asked one Chicago Democrat about that and here’s what he said:

Well, Gracie, we figure this way – let the Republicans have a good time at their convention. It’s the only fun they’ll have for four years.

On second honeymoon

The Democratic Convention officially opens today and that means I’ll be putting in my full time as a reporter. Up to now George and I have been enjoying a sort of second honeymoon. And it’s really better than our first. On our first honeymoon, we stopped at a cheap hotel and because George wanted to save money, I used to spend hours cooking our meals over a sputtery little alcohol stove.

Now we are stopping at the Ambassador East, where that famous restaurant, the Pump Room, is located. We have a lovely suite on the top floor and I don’t have to spend all that time cooking. The alcohol stove burns much better up there.

So now our second honeymoon is ended because I have to go out and get to work. Funny thing – that’s what ended our first honeymoon.

That’s all for now – more political news tomorrow.

[NormanStewart]

Infantry posts open to lieutenants

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