U.S.-Spanish crisis thought near solution
Credit given Nazis caused trouble for Franco; terms outlined; agreement with U.S. may come this week
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Paulus: What will Germany do next?
Sigrid Schultz says ‘Germany will try it again’ in her book by that title
By John D. Paulus
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Stettinius explains ‘lending’
It aided Allies and helped preserve unity here
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Ruth Hussey’s doing all right without squawking at big shots
Gorgeous actress never kicks up arguments
By Erskine Johnson
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War industry menaced by gas shortage
Nelson asks consumers to conserve fuel in next 60 days
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Latin America seen outlet for U.S. goods after war
Westinghouse official says country has vast reservoir of buying power for peacetime
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History repeating itself –
Presidential election year parallels situation in 1864
Demand for ‘military man’ and soldier vote were issues when Lincoln ran 80 years ago
By Homer D. Place
For the first time in 80 years, a presidential election will be held while America is at war.
Mr. Roosevelt cannot continue as President after Jan. 20, 1945, unless he is reelected and the election cannot be put off because of the war.
The Constitution of the United States calls for the election of a President every four years. It does not take into account whether there is war or peace.
The previous presidential election in wartime in American history was that of Abraham Lincoln who was reelected on Nov. 8, 1864, during the critical period of the Civil War.
Army morale low
Early in June of that year, reports of the Union disaster at Cold Harbor began to filter into Washington.
Against a backdrop of this and other military defeats, the National Union Convention was staged in Baltimore June 7, and Lincoln was nominated for a second term.
As a gesture to the South, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee was picked as Lincoln’s running mate, no doubt, with little expectation that Mr. Johnson would ever become the Chief Executive. He had been military governor of his home state for two years and was an ardent Unionist.
Democrats name McClellan
The Democratic Party belatedly held its national convention at Chicago Aug. 29, 1864, and nominated as its standard bearer, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, “the idol of the Army of the Potomac” and successor to the aged Gen. Winfield Scott as general-in-chief of the U.S. Army.
One of the key planks in the Democratic platform declared “the war has been a failure.” This clause in the platform put Gen. McClellan in a difficult position. He had been the popular commander of an important segment of the Union Army which his party declared had failed. He repudiated the platform and took the stump depending largely for success on his personal popularity.
Open season for snipers
The bitter campaign was marked by flagrant disloyalty. It was an open season for snipers. They fired on the administration from the vantage points of high office and from the muffled corners of Congressional cloakrooms. Some high officials publicly denounced the administration and called for new leadership.
One of the most outspoken critics of the President was a member of his Cabinet, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, who openly announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President. Another was Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, whose radical tendencies became so evident that President Lincoln asked for his resignation.
‘Military man’ urged
Members of Lincoln’s party demanded the President withdraw as the nominee on the ground that a military man was needed in the White House.
The President told a delegation from the Union League which came to serenade him after his nomination:
I have never permitted myself to conclude that I am the best man in America. I am reminded in this connection of a story of an old Dutch farmer who remarked, “It is not best to swap horses while crossing the stream.”
President Roosevelt recently demanded of Congress passage of the Green-Lucas-Worley soldier-vote bill.
It’s an old story
This program has irked the Republican leaders now as it did the Democrats 80 years ago.
The October elections of 1864 in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana were watched as indicative of the drift of political sentiment. Soldiers from the first of these states were enabled by law to vote in the field. From barracks and the hospitals of the Capital district, ballots were collected.
The Republican majority was swelled by shipping home about 10,000 Pennsylvania soldier from Sheridan’s Army, because Pennsylvania was a doubtful state.
Army backs President
Even with the help of soldiers rushed home at the last minute to vote, the administration carried Pennsylvania by only a small majority.
The whole power of the War Department was thrown behind the President. Officers known to the admirers of Gen. McClellan were declined promotion. Furloughs were granted soldiers known to be Republicans and thousands jammed the Northbound trains which carried them to doubtful districts. Democratic ballots were seized by administration workers and never reached New York to be counted.
Lincoln reelected
The election was held Nov. 8. On Nov. 10, when the reelection of President Lincoln seemed assured, he told a delegation which came to serenade him:
A presidential election, occurring in regular course during the Rebellion, added not a little to the strain. If the loyal people. United, were put to the utmost of their strength by the Rebellion, must they not fail when divided and partially paralyzed by a political war among themselves?
But the election was a necessity. We cannot have a free government without elections; and if the Rebellion could force us to forego or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us. The election, along with its incidental and undesirable strife… has demonstrated that a people’s government can sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war.
Völkischer Beobachter (February 7, 1944)
Washington demonstriert die ‚Freiheit für Freibeuter‘
Ungeheuerlicher Raub der Ölmagnaten mit Hilfe der US-Regierung
vb. Wien, 6. Februar –
Der Vizepräsident der Vereinigten Staaten, Henry Wallace, hat sich in einer Rede in Los Angeles gegen die „großen Geschäftsleute, die die Wall Street an die erste und die Nation an die zweite Stelle setzen,“ gewandt.
Sie stellen ihre Besitzrechte über die Menschenrechte und bekämpfen mit gleichbleibendem Haß durch Presse und Rundfunk jede Regierung, die die Menschenrechte über die kapitalistischen stellt. Wenn diese Leute von der Freiheit für geschäftliche Unternehmen sprechen, dann meinen sie Freiheit für Freibeuter.
Wallace wies abschließend warnend darauf hin, daß die Soldaten in Wut geraten würden, wenn sie bei ihrer Rückkehr von der Front in die Heimat dort sehen müßten, wie die Großkapitalisten statt für die Nation für ihre eigenen Interessen und Privilegien kämpften.
Die Großverdiener der Wall Street werden diesen sozialen Auftrag des Vizepräsidenten mit wissendem Augenzwinkern begleitet haben. Denn am gleichen Tag, an dem Wallace für den inneren Hausgebrauch und für die Täuschung ahnungsloser, neutraler Zeitgenossen draußen sich an fremdem Gedankengut vergriff, gab der US-Innenminister Ickes, in seiner Eigenschaft als Erdöladministrator einen neuen großen Fischzug des nordamerikanischen Erdölkapitals bekannt, der den Ölmagnaten der Wall Street dank der Hilfe des Weißen Hauses riesige Kriegsgewinne sichern wird. Die Sonntagsausgabe der Neuyorker Zeitung PM hat dieses Kombinationsgeschäft von Regierung und Standard Oil mit folgendem Kommentar versehen:
Ickes hat ein Geheimabkommen mit zwei großen amerikanischen Ölgesellschaften für die Erschließung des Saudi-arabischen Öls gutgeheißen, das Hunderte von Millionen Dollar Reingewinn für die Gesellschaften verspricht. Dieses Abkommen schließt das Risiko in sich, daß die amerikanische Militärmacht zum Einsatz gebracht werden muß, um die Investierungen zu schützen. Dieses Geschäft ist zwischen Ickes, der Petroleum-Reserve Corporation und den beiden amerikanischen Ölgesellschaften, die arabisches öl besitzen, nämlich der Standard Oil of California und der Texas Company, ausgehandelt worden. Dies würde eine Ausgabe von etwa 160 Millionen Dollar öffentlicher Gelder zum Bau der Ölleitungen bedeuten, und zwar unter Bedingungen, die den Gesellschaften mindestens 650 Millionen Dollar und vielleicht noch ein Vielfaches dieser Summe bei der Investierung von 20 Millionen Dollar erbringen würden.
Das wirkliche Geschäft
Aus einem Washingtoner Reuters-Bericht ist jetzt klarer zu entnehmen, als es bei der ersten Mitteilung möglich war, um was es sich bei diesem Geschäft handelt. Während gestern nur die Rede von dem Bau einer Petroleumraffinerie in Saudi-Arabien durch die zur Standard Oil-Gruppe gehörende Arabian American Oil Co. und von Erweiterungsplänen für die Anlagen auf den Bahreininseln in Abdan am Persischen Golf und in Haifa war, wird jetzt bekannt, daß Ickes außerdem den Plan der US-Regierung für den Bau einer Ölleitung vom Persischen Golf bis zur Ostküste des Mittelmeeres mitgeteilt hat. Diese Ölleitung, die etwa 1.250 Meilen lang sein wird und für die mit von der Washingtoner Regierung aufzubringenden Kosten von 160 Millionen Dollar gerechnet wird, ist für die Zwecke des US-Imperialismus im Nahen Osten bestimmt. Um über diese Zweckbestimmung keinen Zweifel aufkommen zu lassen, erklärte Ickes:
Die bekannten Reserven der USA sind nach unseren Schätzungen für den Bedarf des Landes nur für verhältnismäßig wenige Jahre ausreichend. Der Bau der Ölleitung wird die riesigen Ölmengen des Gebietes am Persischen Golf den USA zugänglich machen, falls und sobald dies erforderlich ist.
Das Abkommen sieht außerdem vor, daß die Gesellschaften Öl an eine Regierung nicht verkaufen, wenn nach Meinung des Außenministeriums ein derartiger Verkauf der US-Außenpolitik schaden würde. Ickes sagte, das Abkommen habe die Billigung Roosevelts und des Außenministeriums und fügte hinzu:
Die Ölleitung wird das Öl der so geschaffenen Reserve der Regierung jederzeit zum Kauf für militärische oder Marinezwecke zu einem Preise von 25 Prozent unter dem Marktpreis, der in der Gegend des Persischen Golfes oder in den USA für gleichwertiges Rohöl gezahlt wird, anbieten, und zwar je nachdem, welcher der beiden genannten Preise niedriger ist.
Die US-Regierung dürfe jede Menge dieses Öls für einen Zeitraum von 50 Jahren für sich in Anspruch nehmen und im Krisenfalle das gesamte Rohöl erwerben, das die Gesellschaften produzieren.
Die Ölmagnaten haben großmütig der Regierung die Rückzahlung der Baukosten plus Zinsen innerhalb von 25 Jahren zugesagt, „mit einem Nettogewinn für die Regierung, über den man sich noch einigen muß.“ Nach Abzug der Spesen für Ickes und die anderen beamteten Washingtoner Helfershelfer bei diesem ungeheuren Fischzug wird bei den zu erwartenden Riesengewinnen sicherlich auch für die „Regierung“ eine Kleinigkeit abfallen.
Neueste Haßorgien aus Washington –
Japanisches Imperium soll zerschlagen werden
dnb. Stockholm, 6. Februar –
Der US-Journalist Kingsbury Smith, der stets über zuverlässige Informationen aus dem US-Außenamt verfügt und seinerseits schon die Nachkriegspläne Roosevelts über Deutschland und Italien enthüllt hat, berichtet jetzt über die Maßnahmen, wie man sich die „Bestrafung“ Japans denkt.
Alle Städte Japans sollen rücksichtslos dem Erdboden gleichgemacht, alle Kolonien, einschließlich der Mandatsinseln, der Mandschurei, Korea und Formosa, Japan genommen, das japanische Imperium soll aufgelöst werden. Nach der völligen Entwaffnung bis auf die letzte Polizeipistole soll Japan von einem Ausschuß verwaltet und hiebei von einer starken Besatzungsmacht unterstützt werden. Man wolle dem japanischen Volk nie wieder eine Selbstverwaltung gestatten, denn es handle sich um eine „halbwilde Rasse,“ die für eine moderne Staatsführung nicht reif sei. Die japanische Industrie will man so einschränken, daß sie „gerade noch“ die Bedürfnisse des Landes decken kann. Die Japaner könnten sich stattdessen mit Fischfang und der Herstellung typischer „Japanwaren“ begnügen.
Was sich die Haßapostel im US-Außenamt über die Behandlung Japans ausgedacht haben, wird im japanischen Volk genau so wenig Eindruck machen, Wie alle Rache- und Vernichtungspläne Deutschland gegenüber das deutsche Volk nur noch fester und fanatischer in seinem Willen zu Sieg macht. Wenn aber die jüdischen Kriegsverbrecher in einem Lande, das nicht eine einzige Kulturschöpfung aufweisen kann, in ihren Haßorgien vom japanischen Volk mit seiner jahrtausendealten Kultur von einer „halbwilden Rasse“ sprechen, so kennzeichnen sie sich dadurch selbst. Und einen neuerlichen Beweis dafür erbringen die Soldaten der USA.
US-Totschlägerliga
Man erinnert sich, daß die US-Piloten einen Mordverein gegründet und ihre Zugehörigkeit zu diesem Klub in großen Buchstaben auf die Fliegerkombination gedruckt hatten. Nun teilt die amerikanische Zeitschrift Time in einem Bericht über die Kämpfe in Süditalien mit, daß die Soldaten der dritten US-Division einen eigenen Verein „Sauerkraut-Totschläger-Liga“ gebildet hätten, zu dem nur der als Mitglied zugelassen sei, der einen Deutschen getötet habe. Wer fünf Deutsche erledige, erhalte einen Pfeil als besonderes Abzeichen auf den Ärmel seiner Uniform.
Die Nordamerikaner werden sich nach diesem weiteren Beweis für ihr niedriges kulturelles Niveau wieder damit herauszureden versuchen, es handle sich um einen Scherz. Ihre beispiellose Verkommenheit läßt dies nicht gelingen und stempelt sie zu Angehörigen eines halbwilden Volkes.
U.S. Navy Department (February 7, 1944)
Communiqué No. 503
North Pacific.
At 10:00 p.m. February 4 (Tokyo Time) U.S. naval surface units bombarded enemy installations on the south and east coast of Paramushiru. A number of fires were started, and one unidentified enemy ship was hit and beached. Enemy coastal guns returned fire, but U.S. units sustained no damage.
During the same night a flight of our aircraft bombed Paramushiru and Shimushu. All U.S. planes returned.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 255
For Immediate Release
February 7, 1944
The following details regarding casualties in the assault on Kwajalein Atoll have been compiled on the basis of reports received as of the evening of February 6 (West Longitude Date):
In the Southern Attack Force, which captured Kwajalein Island and adjacent objectives, our dead number 157, our wounded 712, our missing 17. In the same area the enemy dead number 4,650, enemy prisoners 173.
In the Northern Attack Force, which captured Roi and Namur Islands and adjacent objectives, our dead number 129, our wounded 436, our missing 65. In the same area the enemy dead number 3,472, enemy prisoners 91.
It is expected final figures will vary only slightly from the above.
U.S. State Department (February 7, 1944)
President Roosevelt to the British Prime Minister
Washington, 7 February 1944
457
For the Former Naval Person.
Combined Chiefs of Staff have reached an impasse on the subject of countries and areas to be occupied by British and United States forces in RANKIN or following OVERLORD. U.S. Chiefs of Staff have pointed out that a changeover from spheres of responsibility connection OVERLORD to spheres of later occupational responsibility desired by U.S. is militarily feasible and no vital objection can be made on that score. Matter now appears necessary for study by you and me in order to have decision before OVERLORD and to proceed with plans. United States proposals are set out in CCS 426/1 paragraph 18 (Report to President and Prime Minister, SEXTANT Conference).
I am absolutely unwilling to police France and possibly Italy and the Balkans as well. After all, France is your baby and will take a lot of nursing in order to bring it to the point of walking alone. It would be very difficult for me to keep in France my military force or management for any length of time.
ROOSEVELT
The Pittsburgh Press (February 7, 1944)
U.S. warships bombard base on Jap home island
Paramushiru shelled and bombed; ship hit; fires started
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In Marshalls –
Battle ended at Kwajalein
Record number of Japs captured by Yanks
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
Bulletin
Kwajalein, Marshall Islands – (Feb. 4, delayed)
Japan sacrificed 7,000 troops in the brief U.S. campaign against Kwajalein Atoll without exacting even a token toll from the U.S. force, it was estimated today.
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii –
Victorious U.S. Marines and Army troops, completing the occupation of Kwajalein Atoll in the heart of the Marshalls, were today reported rounding up the largest number of Jap prisoners taken in any campaign since the start of the Pacific War.
Navy Seabees and Army construction engineers were already repairing the atoll’s two airfields and a seaplane base that Maj. Gen. Willis H. Hale, commander of the U.S. 7th Air Force, implied would be a powerful aerial offensive against the Caroline Islands, possibly including Truk, Japan’s “Pearl Harbor.”
Three strongholds taken
Official reports indicated that the 4th Marine and 7th Army Divisions had occupied all major islands and islets in the 66-mile-long atoll and only a few isolated coral formations, none held in any strength, remained to be mopped up.
The fall of the last three strongholds, Gugegwe, Bigej and Ebler Islands, all at the southern end of the atoll, after the quelling of “moderate resistance,” was announced in a communiqué yesterday by Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Fleet.
U.S. casualties light
More than 2,000 Japs were believed to have been killed in the capture of the atoll, Japan’s strongest air and naval base east of Truk. U.S. casualties were not announced immediately, but a front dispatch said the Americans killed 40 Japs for every man they lost.
Maj. Gen. Harry Schmidt, commander of the Marines, described the American casualties as light in comparison with 1,200 killed in the capture of Tarawa last November.
Richard W. Johnston, United Press correspondent aboard the joint expeditionary force flagship, estimated the number of Jap prisoners taken as the largest yet seized in the Pacific War, a sign of growing Jap reluctance to fight to the end for the Emperor.
Another United Press correspondent, Charles Arnot, reported from Kwajalein Island that U.S. Army troops there used loudspeakers in the last stages of the campaign to urge the Japs to surrender.
Meet with success
Mr. Arnot said:
The appeals met with considerable success.
The last strong enemy resistance in the atoll ended Friday with the capture of Kwajalein Island, largest in the atoll and administrative center for the whole Marshall group, just 78 hours after the initial landing.
Overrun quickly
Ebeye Island, site of a seaplane base, Loi, and finally Gugegwe, Bigej, Eller and several additional undefended islets were then overrun in rapid succession. All were at the southeastern corner of the atoll.
Tokyo broadcasts claimed that “intense fighting” was still raging yesterday on Kwajalein Island and said two U.S. destroyers had been sunk, another destroyed and a cruiser set afire.
A Jap communiqué said a Jap submarine sank a large U.S. cruiser near Wotje Atoll in the Marshalls at dawn last Wednesday.
Gen. Hale told Malcolm R. Johnson, United Press correspondent at the 7th Air Force advanced base, that the capture of Kwajalein put every Jap base on the Carolines as far west as Truk, 938 miles away, within American bombing range.
RAdm. John S. Hoover, U.S. air commander in the Central Pacific, said planes from the Kwajalein airfields would prevent all air or sea aid from reaching the remaining enemy-held islands in the Marshalls, dooming their garrison to starvation even if they were never invaded by the Americans.
New raids made
New raids by 7th Air Force Mitchell medium and Liberator heavy bombers and carried-based planes Saturday on the bypassed atolls of the Marshalls, as well as others to the west, were disclosed in announcements at Pacific Fleet headquarters.
The attacks included one by varied-based planes on Ujelang Atoll, less than 250 miles from the nearest Carolines and the deepest penetration yet of Japan’s mandated empire. Ujelang lies 600 mules east of Truk.
All planes returned safely and no fighter opposition was encountered.
Allies halt Nazi thrusts below Rome
5th Army repulses tank attacks, tightens grip on Cassino
By C. R. Cunningham, United Press staff writer
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Jeep shot from under Gen. Roosevelt in Italy
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In soldier-vote fight –
States’-rights backers score
Force consideration of amended House measure
Washington (UP) –
Senate opponents of the administration’s federal ballot plan for soldier-voting succeeded today in forcing consideration of the amended state ballot measure approved by the House.
The vote to take up the state ballot bill was 50–38. It came on a motion by Senator John H. Overton (D-LA) after the Senate had progressed right up to the point of a final vote on the administration-backed Green-Lucas federal ballot bill.
Senator Overton’s previous efforts to take up the state bill had been defeated narrowly.
Earlier, administration forces had defeated, 44–42, an attempt by states’-rights advocates to sidetrack the federal ballot soldier-vote bill in favor of a state ballot measure.
The administration strategy is to delay action on the state ballot bill until it can perfect and offer as an amendment the federal-ballot provisions of the pending Green-Lucas measure. This would send the issue back to the House of Representatives for another test before Congress takes final action.
Senate Democratic Leader Alben W. Barkley said he was confident that when Congress finally completes action on the legislation, there would be some form of federal ballot provision.