British gaining toward Florence
Yanks, Germans mass for battle of Pisa
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer
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10 Jap ships sunk by U.S. task force
Americans move up on Tinian and Guam
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer
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Japs deny slaying of B-29 fliers
By the United Press
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Italian war prisoner party is off; too many protests
Cancellation of Jeannette affair believed due to Legion charge of insult to Gold Star mothers
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I DARE SAY —
You can’t make people over!
By Florence Fisher Parry
I can’t help feeling bad over the defeat of Senator “Cotton Ed” Smith of South Carolina. I keep worrying about him and what he’ll do after 36 years in the Senate. He is getting old, you know. His life can’t make new habit patterns. They’ve been fixed for a long time; they’ve woven into the tapestry of Washington and the Senate, and he’ll be lost and miserable.
I don’t know why I should worry about him. I don’t know him. One time he sat at a Senate hearing in which I happened to participate in an unimportant way. But there was a wry, dry quality in his humor that I liked. He was what you might call a character down there in Washington.
And now he’s suddenly a defeated old man with nothing to do but retire and die. Oh, yes, that’s what happens nearly always. Human beings are strange creatures, simply yet wonderfully made. To each one his own life habits become a kind of rut which in times cuts deeper and deeper; and the wheels of his every day just naturally travel along in that rut until the end of the road.
Doctors know this. The really wise doctor never prescribes a complete change of life for his patient. He may prescribe a short change of scene; but if he is really wise, he adapts his prescription as closely to the life his patient has lived before as is possible, knowing that to dislocate the habits of a lifetime too abruptly and violently can work great harm.
The wise physician
I remember one time I was very sick. Yet I kept putting off going to see a doctor. I was afraid. I was afraid he’d prescribe for me an impossible regime, and I knew that were he to do anything so drastic, it would completely defeat his chances of restoring me to health.
Imagine them, my great relief when after finally going to see this certain doctor, before he did anything else, he ascertained the tempo of my life and just what pace I had established, just how packed and urgent my days.
And only then did he prescribe my treatment, not attempting to reduce my life’s tempo, not risking dislocating it from the habit groove which had become the very core and nerve and essence of me.
I lived for a time in Pasadena, and I’ll never forget the homes there that had been built by men whose doctors had told them they had to retire, and who died before their mansions of retirement were completed.
On the other hand, I know a man who was sent home from the Mayo Clinic to die of a swift and mortal disease. Well, he hadn’t expected to die so young. He had already cut out for himself so awfully much to do.
“Why, I can’t afford to die so soon!” I remember hearing him say, “If I just would be given enough time to get things shaped up better!”
So, he pitched into the business of shaping things up. You should have seen him stand up against the scythe! Far from slowing his pace, his tempo seemed to increase with each urgent day. He moved mountains. He performed miracles. There were moments when even the image of the close, relentless specter dissolved before his burning eyes.
I tell you he literally held off death at arm’s length for four years, and only then, when things finally shaped up, as he put it, he walked upstairs, took off his clothes and crawled into bed and died.
Like clocks
Yes, human dynamos like hat are man-made; they are geared to a certain performance and run their course according to the tempo established within them. It’s a bitter thing, it’s a dangerous thing to interfere with that tempo! That’s why it’s a sad thing when a lifelong Senator, never mind his deserving or undeserving, crashes down into defeat.
That’s why, I guess, I keep thinking today of “Cotton Ed” Smith.
No one so ignorant but knows himself better than does the wisest outsider! And be he reformer or healer or even friend, there is no one who is privy to the inner mechanism of another or who dares, without risk, tamper too roughly with the delicate mechanism within another’s solitary itself.
For human beings may be likened to clocks – crude and delicate – large and small – simple and intricate. Each one sets its own tick, some fast, some slow; some erratic, some even; and although the hour hands of all may conform in establishing their circle around the dial within the hour, the inner mechanism, the inner tempo, can be as different as that of a wristwatch to a majestic grandfather’s clock upon the stairs!
Governor Dewey repudiates ‘Ham’ Fish
Congressman blasted on racial issue
Albany, New York (UP) –
Asserting that “anyone who injects a racial or religious issue into a political campaign is guilty of a disgraceful un-American act,” Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Republican presidential nominee, today repudiated the candidacy of Rep. Hamilton Fish (R-NY).
Mr. Dewey’s statement was prompted by an interview with Mr. Fish printed in the New York Post. The interview quoted Mr. Fish as saying that “the Jews are for President Roosevelt and the New Deal.”
Mr. Dewey said:
Two years ago, I publicly opposed the nomination and election of Congressman Fish. The statements attributed to him confirm my judgment expressed at that time.
Anyone who injects a racial or religious issue into a political campaign is guilty of a disgraceful un-American act. I have always fought that kind of thing all my life and always will, regardless of partisan considerations.
I never accepted the support of any such individual and I never shall.
Two years ago, after his nomination for governor, Mr. Dewey said, “I would not vote for Hamilton Fish even if I were a resident of his district.” At that time, Mr. Fish’s district included Dutchess County, where the summer homes of Mr. Dewey and Mr. Roosevelt are. The Governor votes in New York City, however.
Majorities reduced
Previous attempts to draw Mr. Dewey out on the Fish controversy were unavailing, despite an appeal by supporters of Augustus Bennet, who will oppose Mr. Fish in the primary.
Mr. Fish has been a consistent winner in his district for many years and won last year despite the opposition of Mr. Dewey and other Republican leaders. His majorities, however, have been reduced until last year when it reached approximately 4,000. Previously he carried the district with as much as 40,000 votes.
Running in the 29th district this year, he will oppose Mr. Bennet who has already received the endorsement of the Democrats. The district includes Delaware, Orange, Rockland and Sullivan counties.
Fish replies to Governor Dewey
New York (UP) –
Rep. Hamilton Fish (R-NY) said today that “I will bet a dollar that Dewey does not carry a single district in New York City that is predominantly Jewish.”
Mr. Fish offered the bet shortly after Governor Thomas E. Dewey had repudiated Mr. Fish’s candidacy for reelection on the ground that he had injected a racial issue into the campaign.
“I am for the election of the Dewey-Bricker ticket and will support it loyally as a Republican,” Mr. Fish said, but he predicted that his repudiation by the presidential candidate would increase his [Fish’s] majority in the 29th Congressional district, “as the people of my district resent any outside political interference.”
Mr. Fish said:
When I referred to the fact that the people of Jewish origin are largely in favor of the New Deal, I stated a fact that everybody knows. I made no attacks whatever, and never have, on the Jewish people. I have never been antisemitic.
War program affected by 8,000 strikers
1,400 quit Detroit plane engine plant
By the United Press
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Teamsters’ Union faces new war
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Curbs on bond speculation in 6th War Loan planned
Treasury finds some large subscribers made quick, safe profit during last drive
By Ned Brooks, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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MacGowan: Yanks fire from ditches, hedgerows near Marigny
Town strategically captured, but tactically it was still in German hands
By Gault MacGowan, North American Newspaper Alliance
With U.S. forces in Normandy, France –
Though strategically ours, Marigny, a pretty Normandy town, was still tactically in enemy hands when I approached. A battalion had the job of clearing the enemy out, while our flying columns pushed ahead on either side.
Street fighting was in progress and the enemy was shipping us from houses in the town or straggling out of it and shooting from woods just beyond, which commanded the road as we came down the valley. We, on one side, and they, on the other, could look down into the town – really little more than a village – and “see down each other’s throats,” as someone graphically described it.
Runs into orchard
It wasn’t too comfortable on our side of the road and my jeep driver from Illinois ran the vehicle into a little apple orchard, while I talked with the infantry boys shooting from ditches and from sheltering hedgerows.
This street and village fighting isn’t exactly a movie cameraman’s dream. Nor does it move with the pace you might think. It’ s more like evicting a band of gangsters out of a city dwelling in which they have barricaded themselves. There’s a lot of lying around to do, keeping the bandits engaged with your fire while the police get around at them over the rooftops.
Takes time
It takes time to locate the exact building from which their fire comes and a good deal more time than just attacking a gang of bandits, because there is not just one gang, but several, each keeping you covered lest you attempt to isolate them.
So, it’s your supporting fire against the enemy’s and it takes old hands to do the job with a minimum of delay.
It is just another variation of hedge warfare which you don’t learn on drill ground or on Hollywood sets. This is a pocket-handkerchief country with hedges wound around every one- or two-acre lot and villages that are laid out in a snakelike fashion and not on the square.
20 Nazis surrender to Negro signalman
With U.S. troops near Marigny, France (UP) –
A Negro signalman was stringing wire along the road near Marigny last night when a German suddenly approached him in the darkness.
He jumped and shouted: “Who dat?”
At the same time, he reached for his rifle and started firing. That brought 20 more Germans tumbling from the hedges. They had been waiting all around him and debating whether to surrender. His random shots convinced them.
The Negro shouted for help and got it.
Mistake bombing kills U.S. troops
U.S. 9th Air Force HQ, Normandy, France (UP) – (July 26, delayed)
About 50 Flying Fortresses and medium bombers dropped bombs shot of their assigned area and killed and wounded American soldiers during yesterday’s record 3,000-plane bombardment of enemy lines west of Saint-Lô, Maj. Gen. Lewis Brereton acknowledged today.
Gen. Brereton, commander of the 9th Air Force, told correspondents that the American casualties were much fewer than had been feared and added that:
You are practically certain to have some shorts when you have that many planes in the air and resulting smoke obscures the ground.
In the case of one group of Havoc bombers, he said, the bombing release mechanism on the lead plane went wrong and bombs plummeted down 10,000 yards short of the scheduled area. Other planes in the group immediately released their explosives.
Though practically the entire mass of bombs fell in the assigned area 9,000 yards long and 2,000 yards wide, Gen. Brereton admitted that the Army was not satisfied with the results of the mass bombardment, presumably because of its failure to bring a quick breakthrough by tanks and infantry.
The breakthrough was achieved late Wednesday and Thursday, however.
He said the bombardment was planned at the request of the Army commander, who indicated the area to be hit.
Guam landing called perfect U.S. operation
War reporter sees little opposition
By Keith Wheeler, North American Newspaper Alliance
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‘Nothing too good’ –
Resort hotels set aside for weary soldiers
First battle veterans to move in Tuesday
By William Sisson, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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U.S. ambulance plane hits cliff in Scotland; 22 killed
Yanks wounded in Normandy and en route to America are among victims
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Eyewitness story –
Gorrell: Yanks to try bold maneuver to trap Nazis
Germans rushing up men to stop us
By Henry T. Gorrell, United Press staff writer
Five miles from Coutances, France (UP) –
Guns are booming a prelude to the next big battle of the Normandy campaign – a bold attempt by Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s armored army to trap the German 84th Army Corps north of Coutances.
The Germans already know what we are up to and our spotters report they have rushed up reinforcements of artillery, anti-tank guns and mortars during the last few hours in an attempt to protect the bottleneck at Coutances until the 84th Corps can slip out.
Resistance is stiff
On arrival at this armored command post, I was informed that our tank spearheads had probed to within 2½ miles of the vital road junction and that other tank units, supported by motorized infantry, were dashing north and northwest of the Marigny–Coutances highway in an attempt to cut roads north of the town.
They were meeting stiff German resistance centered on Hill 176, located on one of the highways running into Coutances just south of Mont Houchon, off to our right.
Great convoy moves
A great convoy of multi-wheeled vehicles and halftracks is bringing the infantry down from Marigny to join the battle. Giant bulldozers are clearing a path for them through roads littered with burned and blasted Nazi Panther and Tiger tanks. I saw many of these scorched monsters lying overturned in shell holes at the roadside where the bulldozers had shoved them.
The countryside west of Marigny is infested with German troops bypassed in our rapid advance. That they did not fire on my jeep as I motored toward the front, I attribute to the fleet of Piper Cub spotter planes which patrols the roads at treetop height looking for signs of the enemy.
Prisoners brought in
When these Cubs spot an enemy concentration, they radio a report to batteries which at once open up. Hundreds of German prisoners are coming in from such bypassed points, including paratroops wearing camouflaged helmets and fatigue uniforms.
I watched a long line of them being herded toward prisoner pens. They were young and cocky and they walked with a spry step. There was nothing beaten about them. They merely had been outmaneuvered and had quit when they saw resistance was futile. Some of them complained that if our tanks hadn’t broken through behind them, they never would have been beaten.
Technicality delays Nye’s certification
Bismarck, North Dakota (UP) –
Official publication of last month’s state primary election results in which Senator Gerald P. Nye won the Republican nomination by 972 votes has been prevented by a technicality.
The State Canvassing Board last night refused to make an official announcement of the totals because one county auditor failed to affix his official seal to the country’s abstract of votes.
Unofficial totals gave Mr. Nye 38,191 and his leading opponent, Lynn U. Stambaugh, former National Commander of the American Legion, 37,219.
Editorial: Gen. McNair
When the Army Chief of Staff last month inspected the Normandy beachhead, he was asked what impressed him most. Gen. Marshall replied that American troops never before under fire had fought like veterans. This was the highest tribute to the bravery and skill of America’s citizen-soldiers. It was also praise – as every soldier and officer knew – for the man who had organized and trained them.
Lt. Gen. McNair was not as well known to the public as such famous front commanders as Gens. Eisenhower, MacArthur, Stilwell and Bradley. But without his work and achievement theirs would have been impossible, as they have always said. He expanded an American Army of 1,500,000 into a team of 7,700,000. They came to him amateurs; they left him professionals. He even followed them to the fighting fronts to check on their training and perfect it, as he did last year in Tunisia where he was wounded.
It was not accident that made Gen. McNair chief of the Army Ground Forces. He had long been known as “the GHQ sparkplug.” Gen. Marshall had called him “the brains of the Army.”
So, Gen. McNair trained the G.I.s, believing that “the infantryman is our foremost soldier.” He was forever reminding his associates that other arms of the service could prepare the way, but the ground soldier must take and hold positions. When the tank loomed large, he, an old artilleryman, helped to bring up the anti-tank weapons and tactics.
He even matched the morale of more glamorous services. When the humble mud-slogging G.I. seemed neglected for the more publicized airmen, paratroopers, tankmen and others, he set up a unit to educate press and public in the Army truism that “the infantry is the Queen of Battles.”
Two weeks ago, the big training job almost done, the War Department announced that the chief of the Army Ground Forces had been given another important assignment overseas. Yesterday the Department announced that he had been “killed by enemy fire while observing the action of our frontline units in the recent offensive” in Normandy.
Americans everywhere, indebted to this great and gallant officer, join in Gen. Marshall’s tribute to him: “Had he the choice, he probably would have elected to die as he did, in the forefront of the attack.”
Heath: Truman ‘appeals’ to Governor Dewey’s masterminds
By S. Burton Heath
While Peter Edson is absent from Washington, S. Burton Heath is writing a series of articles on the campaign plans of the Republican presidential candidate.
Albany, New York –
Dewey strategists would have been delighted if the Democrats had renominated Henry Wallace for Vice President. They profess to feel that Mr. Wallace could have attracted no votes that President Roosevelt will not get anyway, and would have alienated enough to have helped Governor Dewey’s cause materially.
But don’t get the idea from this that the choice of Senator Truman discouraged the Dewey entourage. Quite the contrary. When the President’s he-is-my-beloved-friend letter sent Mr. Wallace’s prospects tumbling to about two degrees above freezing, almost everybody around the State Capitol held his breath least by inadvertence he should chill the ensuing boomlet for Senator Truman.
Before the campaign is very old, the public is going to be reminded of Senator Truman’s political debts to the notorious Pendergast machine in Kansas City. The text of the Missouri Senator’s tribute to his benefactor, after Boss Pendergast had been sent to the penitentiary for his proved crimes, will be given wide distribution.
This, however, is not the Achilles’ heel that pleases the Deweyites most. Paradoxically enough, the real reason GOP lads think a Roosevelt-Truman ticket was made to order for Governor Dewey’s big guns is the splendid job the Truman Committee has done checking war contracts and their fulfillment – the very job that made Truman a national figure and won him the vice-presidential nomination.
Damaging witness
Dewey researchers, even before they begin checking the committee’s reports word by word, are certain that its findings can be used to make Senator Truman their most damaging witness against his running mate.
The Truman Committee hearings and reports unquestionably would have been combed anyway for ammunition in support of the GOP contention that President Roosevelt has badly mismanaged war production. But the blessing that the Democratic Convention placed upon the Missouri Senator’s work is counted upon to make this material the more devastating.
It will no longer have to be presented as the findings of a statesman who, though a Democrat, might be considered hostile to Mr. Roosevelt. It now becomes a reluctant indictment drawn by the Democratic Party’s alternate choice for President by one of the three men with whom President Roosevelt said he would be glad to run for reelection.
The line of attack opened up by Senator Truman’s selection is broader than that which would have been available if Vice President Wallace had won out.
In the latter case the major argument would have been that Mr. Wallace himself is unfitted in capacity and temperament to succeed to the President, if anything, should happen to Mr. Roosevelt.
Triple-threat attack
With Senator Truman, the approach has three spearheads:
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Senator Truman’s indebtedness to one of the worst big city machines in recent political history.
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The findings of Mr. Truman can be used against Mr. Roosevelt’s conduct of the home front.
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The contention that when the Democrats discarded Henry Wallace and his four years of experience, they knocked the props out from under their own don’t-change-horses argument for a fourth term.
Even Senator Barkley, with the record of his recent short-lived break with the President and their harsh interchange of invective, did not seem to the Deweyites to offer them so much ammunition as does Senator Truman.
It cannot be said that the Republicans around here were fully satisfied with the doings of the Democrats in Chicago. They would have preferred another Madison Square Garden fiasco, like that which gave President Coolidge a walkover in 1924.
But they aren’t complaining. The Southern delegations came through better than the GOP dared to hope. And the nomination of Senator Truman was pleasing, and – foolishly or not can be determined in November – the Deweyites seem very cheerful.