Roosevelt’s visit to naval base is called a phony
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Sidelights on Democratic Convention in Chicago
By Carl D. Lawrence
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Brown almost an ‘incident’ at Democratic Convention
By Harry McAlpin
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Editorial: The postcard Democratic plank
That’s all, brother
The Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week adopted a postcard plank of 41 words on the race question. This is it, and for the sake of comparison, beside it are printed the Democratic plank of 1940 and the plank adopted by the Republicans:
1944 Democratic plank – Roosevelt-Truman (41 words):
We believe that racial and religious minorities have the right to live, develop and vote equally with all citizens and share the rights that are guaranteed by our Constitution. Congress should exert its full constitutional powers to protect those rights.
1940 Democratic plank – Roosevelt-Wallace (103 words):
Negroes
Our Negro citizens have participated actively in the economic and social advances launched by this administration, including fair labor standards, social security benefits, health protection, work relief projects, decent housing, aid to education, and the rehabilitation of low-income farm families.
We have aided more than half a million Negro youths in vocational training, education and employment.
We shall continue to strive for complete legislative safeguards against discrimination in government service and benefits, and in the national defense forces.
We pledge to uphold due process and the equal protection of the laws for every citizen, regardless of race, creed or color.
1944 Republican plank – Dewey-Bricker (108 words):
Racial and Religious Intolerance
We unreservedly condemn the injection into American life of appeals to racial or religious prejudice.
We pledge an immediate Congressional inquiry to ascertain the extent to which mistreatment, segregation and discrimination against Negroes who are in our armed forces are impairing morale and efficiency, and the adoption of corrective legislation.
We pledge the establishment by federal legislation of a permanent Fair Employment Practice Commission.
Anti-Poll Tax
The payment of any poll tax should not be a condition of voting in federal elections and we favor immediate submission of a Constitutional amendment for its abolition.
Anti-Lynching
We favor legislation against lynching and pledge our sincere efforts in behalf of its early enactment.
At first glance, it is evident that the 1944 Democratic plank is less than half as long as the other two.
In addition to its brevity, it is so general that it does not use the word Negro or colored. The party states its belief in equal rights and a vote for minorities as expressed in the Constitution, and adds that Congress should see that these rights are protected.
In 1940, the Democrats were far more specific in promising colored people (they used the word Negro then) legislation against discrimination in government service and in the Armed Forces. At that time, they also promised enforcement of all laws without regard to race, creed, or color.
By contrast, the 1944 Republican Convention plank, adopted in the same Chicago Stadium just a few weeks previously, not only condemned race and religious prejudice, but pledged (1) an investigation into mistreatment and segregation of colored people in the Armed Forced and legislation to remedy it; (2) a permanent Fair Employment Practice Commission; (3) a constitutional amendment to abolish poll taxes, and (4) a federal anti-lynching law.
While the Democratic Convention substituted general and almost meaningless phrases on the color question, it was quite definite and specific on other matters.
For example, it favored (1) the opening of Palestine to unrestricted Jewish immigration and citizenship; (2) legislation guaranteeing women equal pay for equal work with men; (3) self-government for Alaska, Puerto Rico and Hawaii; (4) a vote for the citizens of the District of Columbia; (5) use of an international armed force to prevent future wars, and (6) a constitutional amendment on equal rights for women.
Why, then, was the Democratic Convention so definite and sure on those six issues mentioned above and so mealy-mouthed on the issues affecting the progress and welfare of colored people? Why did it say something in 1940 and little or nothing in 1944?
The answer is: the South. The Southern delegates who stand for segregation and white supremacy, came to the convention united upon the program of eliminating the “colored” plank altogether.
They did not succeed entirely but they did “cut and carve” the plank until it bears no relationship to the party’s stronger stand of 1940.
All told, the 1944 Democratic Convention plank is not only disappointing to colored Democrats, it is unsatisfactory to colored people.
Certain it is that the great Democratic Party which bid openly for the colored vote in 1940 has withdrawn the glad hand in just four years.
Editorial: Roosevelt and Truman
Unable to prevent the renomination of President Roosevelt, the South ganged up on Vice President Wallace Friday night in Chicago so that the 1944 ticket is Roosevelt and Truman.
In the interest of party harmony, Mr. Roosevelt, who cast Garner aside in 1940, fed Wallace to the wolves in 1944.
To the credit of the liberal Mr. Wallace, it can be said that he went down fighting.
His dramatic challenge, “The future belongs to those who go down the line unswervingly for the liberal principles of both political democracy and economic democracy regardless of race, color or religion. In a political, educational and economic sense, there must be no inferior races. The poll tax must go. Equal educational opportunities must come. The future must bring equal wages for equal work regardless of sex or race,” electrified the convention and stunned the white-supremacy Southern delegates.
The answer of the South, led by Maryland, Delaware, Alabama and South Carolina, was to switch their votes from their favorite sons to Truman. In this, they had the help of machine bosses of Chicago, New York and Jersey City who opposed Wallace for his tie-up with the CIO labor unions.
Altogether the South had a couple of field days in Chicago last week. So far as the convention itself was concerned, the New Deal was held in check. The South had one foot in the saddle.
Flier saves white crew of 9 on crippled bomber
Lt. Maceo Harris of Boston leads B-24 to safe airfield in Italy
By Max Johnson, AFRO war correspondent
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Troops in France perform many tasks amid hazards
By Master Sgt. W. A. Johnson
Somewhere in France –
Since D-Day, colored soldiers here have been making vital contributions to the fight for victory as they perform their manifold jobs amid dangers from artillery and shellfire, bombs and exploding mines.
Along the shorelines, DUKWs (2½-ton amphibian trucks), manned by a driver and his assistant, shuttle supplies between the cargo vessels and the central point ashore where the cargo is transferred to waiting trucks.
The convoys of trucks, loaded with men, food, ammunition and equipment, protected by anti-aircraft artillery units, proceed along the road to the ordnance depots which receive, sort, store and issue supplies to the units.
Ammunition protected
The ammunition depot, operated by Tech. Sgt. M. C. Darkins, whose wife, Mrs. Beulah Darkins, is a Baltimore schoolteacher, is carefully concealed and protected by the barrage balloons which prevent strafing and precision bombing.
Also seen along the road are Signal Corps members repairing disrupted lines of communication and establishing new ones. A Red Cross flag indicates the location of a dispensary operated by members of the Medical Corps.
All of these men, the engineers who repair the bridges in record time, and others, when questioned, declare one thought foremost in their minds: the end of the conflict and a speedy return home.
White Dixie pastor holds church must destroy bias
Floridian says white man no longer may consider himself superior
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Rides ‘white’ press train to Democratic Convention
By Harry McAlpin
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Democrats avoid racial designations in platform
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Address by Vice President Wallace
July 29, 1944
Your choice of me as permanent chairman is deeply appreciated as a token of respect and affection. It is good to be with old friends to plan for victory on November 7, here in Iowa. The prospects for a Roosevelt victory in the Midwest, and especially here in Iowa, are brighter than they were four years ago. At that time, we were not in the war. Now we are, and the most reactionary Republican has reason to be concerned as to what might happen to the war effort if we should lose the skilled leadership of the President.
Roosevelt will win next fall in Iowa provided you do your part in getting out the full Democratic vote and provided, furthermore, you conduct the campaign on a high plane which does not alienate Republican voters who otherwise would be with you. This plan of campaign will give several Midwestern states to Roosevelt, but it is not enough to win many Congressional seats or many state or county tickets.
To do a real job on this front it will be necessary to make the Democratic Party a vital, continuously functioning organization through which farmers, workers and small-town business and professional men can come to agreement and make their wants known. The Republican Party and its organs of publicity have already tried to separate the farmer and the worker. The Democratic Party can succeed only if it brings the farmer and the worker together on a liberal, constructive platform. Those Democrats who fight such a program are Republicans wearing false faces.
It is important to say a word about my Southern friends. The farmers of the Middle West owe a lot to the farmers of the South. We would never have gotten satisfactory agricultural legislation if it had not been for men like Marvin Jones, Senator John Bankhead and Senator Alben Barkley. True there are certain reactionary leaders, but these men are usually financed directly or indirectly from the North. More and more an intelligent, constructive liberal leadership will arise in the South which will not owe anything directly or indirectly to Wall Street or to outworn prejudices. Senator Claude Pepper of Florida and Governor Ellis Arnall of Georgia, illustrate what I mean. Watch these men. They are young and have a sense of future trends.
One function of a liberal, constructive Democratic Party is to keep the West and South united. Another function is to keep the farmer and labor united. In carrying out the second function, the Democratic Party in Iowa should preach to the farmers every day in every county-seat town in Iowa – “Your income from hogs, butter, eggs and cattle goes up and down precisely with the total payrolls of labor. The moment labor gets into trouble you get into trouble also. You must have a sympathetic understanding of labor’s problems if you are to understand your own.”
After saying this, ask if it is not true that the Republicans are more interested in balancing the budget than in preventing unemployment. The Republicans were in charge after the Civil War and after World War I and on both occasions proceeded on the assumption that the depressions and unemployment were necessary correctives. The worldwide economic whirlwind unleashed sooner or later after the end of this war will be of such a magnitude as to require vigorous action of a type which the Republicans have never been willing to make.
That segment of the press and radio which is controlled by evil monetary interests continually fans every flame of prejudice which will maintain hatred between the farmer and worker. It is easy to state the fundamental Democratic thesis of unity between the farmer and the worker and contrast it with the Republican thesis of hatred between the farmer and worker.
The problem is to do something effective about it. It is not enough to make fire-eating speeches for three months once every four years. The money behind the Republican press and radio subtly spreads its poison every day. To counteract this, we must be on the job forming constructive public opinion.
We do not have much money and our avenues of press and radio publicity are, therefore, seriously limited. But we do have manpower, womanpower and the enthusiasm of youth on our side. All that is necessary is to formulate a liberal program for constructive Democratic action which is so compelling in its appeal to farmers and workers in both the North and South that they will be anxious to give personally of their time and money to building a precinct-by-precinct and county-by-county organization with channels of publicity to service the members of the organization.
In doing such work we must enlist the services of the forward-looking men among the lawyers, the school teachers, the doctors, the bankers and all other professions. You will find help in the most unexpected places provided your program is based on the full use of all manpower, all resources and all technologies for the purpose of equal opportunity and a higher standard of living for all.
The liberal cause has not been defeated and will not be. It merely is in the process of being reborn. I ask you to look up – not down; ahead – not backward. When we battle for full production and equal opportunity we battle for the common man. That cause cannot die no matter what may happen temporarily to certain individuals.
And so, for the sake of your boys I ask the members of this convention to work with all the fervor that is in them for a Roosevelt victory in the conviction that only by such a victory can the war be terminated promptly and rightly. A Dewey victory no matter how estimable Mr. Dewey himself may be personally, will inevitably give hope to the wrong elements in Germany and Japan. A Dewey victory, just as was the case with the Harding victory in 1920, would make difficult the building of world order characterized by abiding peace. The Republicans betrayed the common man of the United States after the Civil War and after World War I. We shall not let them do it again. We will win with Roosevelt.
Völkischer Beobachter (July 30, 1944)
Neuer Ansturm gegen Florenz blutig zusammengebrochen –
Ausdehnung des Feindangriffs in der Normandie
Erbitterte Kämpfe im Osten – Zahlreiche sowjetische Angriffe abgewehrt
dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 29. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Im Westteil des normannischen Landekopfes nahm die Ausdehnung des feindlichen Großangriffes gestern noch weiter zu. östlich Saint-Lô wurden starke örtliche Angriffe bis auf geringe Einbrüche abgewiesen und südlich der Stadt bei Moyon und Villebaudott feindliche Angriffsspitzen im Gegenangriff zerschlagen. Westlich davon gelang es dem Feind unter Einsatz neuer Kräfte, nach erbitterten Kämpfen weiter nach Südwesten vorzudringen. Am Westflügel des Landekopfes setzten sich unsere Divisionen im Kampf mit dem stark nachdrängenden Feind in den Raum beiderseits Coutances ab. In den neuen Stellungen wurden dann alle feindlichen Angriffe abgewiesen.
Vor dem Lahdekopf beschädigten Torpedoflieger ein feindliches Frachtschiff von 6000 BRT schwer.
Schnellboote versenkten in der Nacht zum 27. Juli vor Le Havre zwei britische Schnellboote und beschädigten mehrere andere. Ein eigenes Boot ging verloren.
Im französischen Raum wurden wiederum 189 Terroristen im Kampf niedergemacht.
Das Vergeltungsfeuer auf London dauert an.
In Italien brach der zweite feindliche Großangriff gegen Florenz blutig zusammen. Mit etwa acht Divisionen rannte der Feind, von stärkstem Artilleriefeuer unterstützt, immer wieder gegen unsere Front an, ohne einen Erfolg zu erringen. Nach schwersten Kämpfen, bei tropischer Hitze, waren die Stellungen am Abend fest in der Hand unserer Truppen. Zwanzig Panzer wurden abgeschossen.
An der übrigen Front beschränkte sich der Feind auf schwächere Angriffe westlich des Tiber und im Küstenabschnitt, die erfolglos blieben.
Im Osten wurden heftige Angriffe der Sowjets im Karpatenvorland zum Teil im Gegenangriff abgewehrt.
Östlich des großen Weichselbogens schiebt sich der Feind mit starken Kräften an den Fluss heran. Ein übersetzversuch über den Fluss wurde vereitelt. Südöstlich Warschau und bei Siedlce dauern erbitterte Kämpfe an. Zwischen dem mittleren Bug und Kauen schlugen unsere Truppen alle Durchbruchsversuche des Feindes ab.
Im Abschnitt Kauen–Riga verstärkte sich der feindliche Druck. Trotz zähen Widerstandes der Besatzung drang der Feind in die Stadt Schaulen ein. Nach Mitau vorstoßende feindliche Kräfte würden im Gegenangriff aus der Stadt geworfen.
An der Front zwischen der Düna und dem Finnischen Meerbusen scheiterten auch gestern zahlreiche Angriffe der Bolschewisten. 43 feindliche Panzer wurden abgeschossen.
Schlachtfliegerverbände vernichteten vierzig weitere Panzer, zahlreiche Geschütze und mehrere hundert Fahrzeuge.
In der Nacht führten schwere Kampfflugzeuge einen zusammengefassten Angriff gegen den Bahnhof Molodeczno, der starke Brände und heftige Explosionen unter abgestellten Transportzügen hervorrief.
Bei der Abwehr eines sowjetischen Luftangriffes auf die Stadt Kirkenes schossen unsere Jagdflieger zwölf feindliche Flugzeuge ab.
Nordamerikanische Bomber griffen bei Tag Orte in Mittel- und Westdeutschland, darunter Wiesbaden und Merseburg, an.
In der flacht waren Stuttgart und Hamburg das Ziel feindlicher Terrorangriffe. Luftverteidigungskräfte brachten 97 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 95 viermotorige Bomber, zum Absturz.
Rassenkampf am Mississippi
Genf, 29. Juli –
In dem Staate Mississippi, wo es über eine Million Neger gibt und sieben Prozent der ganzen Baumwolle der USA geerntet werden, müssen die Weißen, so meldet die Zeitschrift Time, jetzt selbst auf die Felder gehen, sie beackern und die großen Baumwollballen schleppen, da seit Kriegsbeginn 50.000 Neger nach den Nordstaaten ausgewandert sind, wo sie höhere Löhne und ein besseres Leben erhofften. Die Negerzeitung Jackson Advocate führt die scharenweise Abwanderung der Negerbevölkerung aus Mississippi auf den Rassenkampf der weißen Südstaatler zurück. Nach der Time reihe sich dort ohne Pause in den 36 Rekrutierungslagern des Staates ein Zwischenfall an den anderen, wo Weiße und Schwarze untergebracht sind.