Jackie’s finance retains faith
Delinquency charge termed ‘frameup’
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Japs on Guam facing final drive by Yanks
Enemy trapped on third of island
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer
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Safe at last from Nazis, 1,000 reach haven in U.S.
Refugees from war-plagued Europe dance and sing while on way to freedom
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Editorial: Senator Truman resigns
One of the outstanding jobs that has been done on the home front in this war is the one accomplished by the Special Committee of the U.S. Senate to Investigating the National Defense Program.
This group, which became known as the Truman Committee, after its chairman, Senator Harry S. Truman (D-MO), has done a necessary job, a constructive job, a earnest job. Instead of waiting until the war’s end to investigate production and the general conduct of the war, this committee has been at work since early in the game.
It has nailed down fraud before it got well started. It has uncovered and aired flagrant deficiencies in production. It has been critical alike of the government, industry and labor. It has operated on the one principle that the purpose of the whole war effort was to get the job done, speedily, honestly, at reasonable coat, with efficiency and to the best interests of the fighting men overseas.
Perhaps the committee has made mistakes. In such a gigantic job, mistakes would be inevitable. But it has more than earned its salt by throwing the light of publicity on holes in the war program.
Of course, the bulk of the real work was done by the investigating staff of the committee. It was they who dug up the information and prepared the numerous reports.
But the staff could not have done a sound job unless the 10 Senators on the committee wanted a sound and impartial job done.
Those 10 Senators have worked together – six Democrats and four Republicans.
It is essential that a committee of this type keep up this job, and that the work be continued on the same impartial basis on which it has been begun.
However much he might desire to avoid political implications, it would have been inevitable that some would have crept into the picture if Senator Truman, as the Democratic candidate for Vice President, had remained as chairman.
As the Senator said in his letter of resignation:
I am of the opinion that any statement, hearing or report for which I would be responsible would be considered by many to have been motivated by political considerations.
As a candidate, Mr. Truman might find it difficult on his own part to refrain from such considerations.
The Senator said:
I do not want even the shadow of suspicion that the committee’s activities in any way are determined or influenced by political considerations.
Such suspicions immediately would destroy the usefulness of the committee. Senator Truman used good judgment in quitting.
Robot bombs protested
Church leaders issue manifesto
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Poll: U.S. citizens skeptical of robot raids
Only 2 of 10 think it could happen
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
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Wheeler: Marines ask no quarter, give none in Guam battle
Devil Dogs and Japs hit gap at same time – and enemy is ‘killed by potful’
By Keith Wheeler, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Johnson: Love was her crime, it sez, but Deanna hasn’t changed
Varying reactions from fans who send notes to her about new film
By Erskine Johnson
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Fans new ‘crybabies’ at Cleveland as Tribe pulls familiar foldup
By Carl Lundquist, United Press staff writer
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Attack by ‘flying infantry’ thrilling sight in Normandy
Doughboys watch as planes go in to strafe tough SS troops holding out in France
By Gault MacGowan, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Arnot: Guam’s war value ignored by Japs
Enemy failed to develop island
By Charles Arnot, United Press staff writer
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Ferguson: Women voters
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
A valued correspondent writes:
I don’t see what good it does women to have the vote or equal rights if they don’t use them. do you remember what the main argument for suffrage was? When women get the vote, we said, they will outlaw war.
I remember – with bitterness and sorrow. Women have not done one-half of one percent of what they might have done with the ballot. In a period when they control so much wealth, and are numerically superior to men, they remain political nonentities. But they know it – and that’s something.
The fact that they felt completely helpless to prevent World War II opened the minds of millions of feminine voters. At last, they realize how cheap talk is. Having fine ideals and making them work are two very different things. Noble aims, unless implemented by political power, will get us nowhere.
That’s what we’ve learned in the 24 years since we were given the franchise. If the lesson is well learned, the years were not wasted.
Today, of course, many millions of women are unaware of their power – they just aren’t interested. Lots of men are like that too. It’s a trait of human nature, not of sex.
But other millions are awakening to their citizenship duties and rights. They realize that politics is a game, as well as a science, and they must learn to play that game. Men make the rules, and perhaps they will go on making them foe a long, long time. But women will go on learning too – slowly, haltingly, at first, but with determination – and the man who discounts our desire for self-improvement in the arts of political finesse is due for some bad times. So far, we’ve mastered just about all the tricks of masculine trades. Don’t fool yourself that we can’t master those of the politicians.
If you want help in learning about the franchise, get Eve Garrette’s Political Handbook for Women. It is an excellent text for new voters and for those whom the war has made newly aware of their ballot privileges and powers.
Heath: Republicans in Missouri hopeful about election
By S. Burton Heath
Mr. Heath’s report from St. Louis replaces the Washington Column usually written by Peter Edson, who is on vacation.
St. Louis, Missouri –
Republicans, who have feared that their party was throwing away Missouri’s 15 electoral votes by internal bickering, are encouraged by the primary defeat of Democratic Senator Bennett Champ Clark.
Governor Purest C. Donnell, who won a rather overwhelming victory in the GOP primary against the Mattingly organization candidate for the U.S. Senate, is considered a colorless campaigner, but is very strong in the rural regions and is expected to make a first-class race.
The simultaneous victory of the Mattingly candidate for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, Jean Paul Bradshaw, may help to heal the wounds between National Committeeman Barak T. Mattingly and Governor Donnell, and result in an all-out Republican effort on behalf of the whole party ticket.
Paradoxical conflict
Senator Clark’s defeat by Attorney General Roy McKittrick emphasized a paradoxical internal conflict In the Democratic Party which is very pleasing to Republicans.
McKittrick was running on a pro-Roosevelt platform calling attention to Senator Clark’s alleged isolationism and his frequent differences with the president. The CIO’s Political Action Committee worked for McKittrick. Seemingly the primary resulted in a victory for the New Deal elements in the state Democracy.
But the President’s personally-selected National Chairman, Robert Hannegan, was for Senator Clark. So was Mr. Roosevelt’s running mate. Senator Truman. And the CIO was forced to back McKittrick very cautiously, so that, If Clark had won, the PAC would not have been on bitter record against a candidate (Mr. Clark) whom it would then have had to rapport in order to help hold down the Dewey-Bricker vote in Missouri.
Intense fight
McKittrick got enough votes out of this cross-current to win the nomination, but many observers feel that he will make a weaker candidate, in November, than Senator Clark would have been, and that the Roosevelt-Truman ticket will be the loser because of the New Deal CIO victory in the primaries.
On the Republican side the fight between Governor Donnell and Committeeman Mattingly’s organization was intense and acrimonious. It was so bad, indeed, that at the state convention last spring, the Republican Governor was given no part – not so much as a courtesy introduction – in his own party’s proceedings.
It did not, however, concern or affect allegiance to Governor Dewey. Both the Governor and the committeeman were staunch protagonists of Mr. Dewey’s nomination, which will make it the easier for them to bury the hatchet – now that each has one of the two top places on the state ticket – and pun together for party victory in November.
May shift to GOP
It was really in part because of this fight, and the strained relations it produced, that the convention of the country’s 26 Republican governors was brought to St. Louis at this time. To avoid embarrassment arising from the fight Governor Dewey, at the last minute, interpolated a visit to Springfield. Illinois, for Missouri primary day, instead of coming directly here from Pittsburgh as he had planned, and stopping in Illinois on the way home.
Missouri is the most populous of the border states, and now, as things appear to be turning out, is considered as probably the most, likely to shift this fall to the GOP electoral column.
It is not, by any means, a walkover. If it can be delivered – against the special efforts that will be made by those two eminent Democratic Missourians, vice-presidential candidate Truman and National Chairman Hannegan – the victory will be a bright feather in the caps of the Republican organization.
what german submarine did they sink?
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The submarine sunk was U-371 (this happened in May).
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Background of news –
Midsummer election odds
By Bertram Benedict
A betting commissioner in St. Louis, scene of Governor Dewey’s conference with Republican governors, reports that betting odds on the outcome of the election in November have narrowed, due to “a flood of Dewey money” in recent days, but that the odds still strongly favor the reelection of President Roosevelt. Immediately after the Republican Convention, the odds were 2.5–1 on Mr. Dewey to win; now they are 9–5. Immediately after the Democratic Convention, the odds on President Roosevelt to win were 1–3; now they are 2–5. At the present odds, a $5 bet on Mr. Dewey would win $9; a $5 bet on Mr. Roosevelt would win $2.
Before the days of systematic polls of voters, the betting odds on presidential elections attracted wide public attention and were credited with something of the same “bandwagon” influence that is at present attributed to the polls.
August polls not practical
During the last 60 years, there have been only two really close presidential elections – those of 1888 and 1916 – but the campaign of 1896 promised a close race down to its last six weeks. In each of these years, the midsummer (August) odds favored the loser – Cleveland in 1888, Bryan in 1896, Hughes in 1916. Greater reliance was placed on the September and October odds than on the August odds.
In 1916, shortly after the nominating conventions, the odds quoted by New York betting commissioners favored the election of Hughes by about 2–1. In the final betting in Wall Street, they were 20–17 (Hughes carried New York by 869,115 to 759,426 for Wilson); in other cities, most bets were made at even money.
Similarly, in 1888, the betting was about even just before the voters went to the polls. Cleveland’s chances were supposed to have been injured by the Sackville-West incident, in which the British Ambassador was enticed into saying he thought the Democratic Party was more favorably disposed towards England than the Republicans. In the election, Cleveland won the popular vote (5,540,050 to 5,444,337) but Harrison had a large majority in the Electoral College (233 to 168).
Laws ban election betting
The laws of two states – New York and Florida – provide that persons who place wagers on the outcome of elections shall be barred from voting on Election Day. In New York, betters on elections are classed with vote-buyers and convicted felons; in Florida with duelists. These laws are seldom enforced; officials at polling places seldom have any way of knowing the identity of betters.
When James W. Gerard, former Ambassador to Germany, placed a bet of $20,000 on the reelection of President Roosevelt early in 1936 at odds of 2–1, that fact was widely published in the newspapers. Mr. Gerard attempted to withdraw from the wager when his attention was drawn to Section 152 of the New York election law which bars betters from the polls. Mr. Gerard’s betting commissioner was unable (in August) to obtain odds longer than 6–5 to replace his 2–1 bet, and Gerard paid $3,400 to be released from his commitment. Father Coughlin offered to bet $25,000 to $16,666.66 (odds 3–2) that the votes in Rhode Island of the independent candidate Lemke would exceed the vote of Alf Landon, the Republican candidate, but the wager fell through. The Rhode Island results in November were:
| Roosevelt | 165,238 |
| Landon | 125,031 |
| Lemke | 19,569 |
| Thomas | 929 |
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In Normandy, France – (by wireless)
A few days after D-Day, you may remember we spoke in this column of five early phases of the continental invasion that would have to take place.
Phase No. 5 was to be the break out from our beachhead after we’d held it secure long enough to build up vast quantities of troops and supplies behind us. And once we’d broken out of the ring of Germans trying to hold us in and completed Phase 5, the real war in Western Europe would begin.
Well, we’re in Phase 5 now. At least we are while I’m writing this. Things are moving swiftly. You realize that several days elapse between the writing and the publication of this column. By the time you read this we may be out in the open and pushing into France.
Surely history will give a name to the battle that sent us boiling out of Normandy – some name comparable to Saint-Mihiel, or Meuse-Argonne of the last war. But to us here on the spot at the time it was known simply as “the breakthrough.”
We correspondents could sense that a big drive was coming. There are many little ways you can tell without actually being told, if you are experienced in war.
And then one evening Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley, commanding all American troops in France, came to our camp and briefed us on the coming operation. It would start, he said, on the first day we had three hours good living weather in the forenoon.
Glad of news
We were all glad to hear the news. There isn’t a correspondent over here, or soldier, or officer I ever heard of who hasn’t complete and utter faith in Gen. Bradley. If he felt we were ready for the push, that was good enough for us.
The general told us the attack would cover a segment of the German line west of Saint-Lô, about five miles wide In that narrow segment we would have three infantry divisions, side by side. Right behind them would be another infantry and two armored divisions.
Once a hole was broken, the armored divisions would slam through several miles beyond, then turn right toward the sea behind the Germans in that sector in the hope of cutting them off and trapping them.
Keep pressure on
The remainder of our line on both sides of the attack would keep the pressure on to hold the Germans in front of them so they couldn’t send reinforcements against our big attack.
The attack was to open with a gigantic two-hour air bombardment by 1,800 planes – the biggest. I’m sure, ever attempted by air in direct support of ground troops.
It would start with dive bombers, then great four-motored heavies would come, and then mediums, then dive bombers again, and then the ground troops would kick off, with air fighters continuing to work ahead of them.
It was a thrilling plan to listen to. Gen. Bradley didn’t tell us the big thing – that this was Phase 5. But other officers gave us the word. They said, “This is no limited objective drive. This is it. This is the big breakthrough.”
In war, everybody contributes something, no matter how small or how far removed he may be. But on the frontline, this breakthrough was accomplished by four fighting branches of the services and I don’t see truly how one could be given credit above another.
None of the four could have done the job without the other three. The way they worked together was beautiful and precision-like, showering credit upon themselves and Gen. Bradley’s planning.
Goes with infantry
I went with the infantry because it is my love, and because I suspected the tanks, being spectacular, might smother the credit, due the infantry. I teamed up with the 4th Infantry Division since it was in the middle of the forward three and spearheading the attack.
The first night behind the frontlines I slept comfortably on a cot in a tent at the division command post, and met for the first time the Fourth’s commander – Maj. Gen. Raymond O. Barton, a fatherly kindly, thoughtful, good soldier.
The second night I spent on the dirty floor of a rickety French farmhouse, far up in the lines, with the nauseating odor of dead cows keeping me awake half the night.
The third night I slept on the ground in an orchard even farther up. snugly dug in behind a hedgerow so the 88s couldn’t get at me so easily. And on the next day the weather cleared, and the attack was on. It was July 25.
If you don’t have July 25 pasted in your hat, I would advise you to do so immediately. At least paste it in your mind. For I have a hunch that July 25 of the year 1944 will be one of the great historic pinnacles of this war.
It was the day we began a mighty surge out of our confined Normandy spaces, the day we stopped calling our area the beachhead, and knew we were fighting a war across the whole expanse of Europe.
On final victory move
From that day onward all dread possibilities and fears for disaster to our invasion were behind us. No longer was there any possibility of our getting kicked off. No longer could it be possible for fate, or weather, or enemy to wound us fatally; from that day onward, the future could hold nothing for us but growing strength and eventual victory.
For five days and nights during that historic period I stayed at the front with our troops. And now, though it’s slightly delayed, I want to tell you about it in detail from day to day, if you will be that patient.