It sounds crazy, but –
People have more fun than anybody if they read Stoopnagle
Fred Allen pens precede saying ‘world just doesn’t make sense’
By Si Steinhauser
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It sounds crazy, but –
The same old story –
Cards and Yankees again teams to beat for pennant
By Jack Cuddy, United Press staff correspondent
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Baseball season begins Tuesday
By Glen Perkins, United Press staff writer
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Völkischer Beobachter (April 17, 1944)
Dreierpaktkommission lagt in Tokio –
Gemeinsamer Krieg bis zum gemeinsamen Sieg
Bedeutsame Ansprachen General Tojos und Botschafter Stahmers
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Immer noch Widerstand auf den Marshallatollen –
Japaner auf isolierten Stützpunkten
Von Marinekriegsberichter Dr. Hanns H. Reinhardt
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U.S. Navy Department (April 17, 1944)
CINCPAC Press Release No. 360
For Immediate Release
April 17, 1944
Seventh Army Air Force Liberators dropped thirty‑eight tons of bombs on Dublon, Fefan and Moen Islands in the Truk Atolls before dawn on April 16 (West Longitude Date). Fires and explosions were observed. One airborne enemy plane did not attempt interception. Two Liberators from this force bombed Ponape Town and an airfield on Ponape Island.
Pakin, Ulul, and Ant Islands were bombed by single search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two on April 15 (West Longitude Date).
Enemy‑held atolls in the Marshalls were bombed and strafed by Mitchells of the 7th Army Air Force, Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing and Navy Hellcat fighters on April 15. Gun positions and barracks were bombed and at one objective two small craft were strafed.
The Pittsburgh Press (April 17, 1944)
3 Balkan capitals raided
U.S. big bombers blast Sofia and Belgrade; RAF strikes Budapest
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer
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3,560 destroyed in battle –
U.S. air attacks cost Nazis 8,000 fighter planes
By Edward W. Beattie, United Press staff writer
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8th Air Force ace’s own story –
Capt. Gentile tells how Mustangs put punch in Yank air drive
Long-range fighter carries war to Nazis, gives Allies offensive in sky over Europe
By Capt. Don Gentile (as told to Ira Wolfert)
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British in India counterattack
Inflict heavy losses on Jap invaders
By Harold Guard, United Press staff writer
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Anzio patrols pierce Nazi lines
German ammunition dump destroyed
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
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MacArthur opens door to draft by Republicans
Sole ambition is to help win war by fulfilling ‘such duty as may be assigned to me’
Allied HQ, Southwest Pacific (UP) –
Gen. Douglas MacArthur, in a statement interpreted as meaning that he would be available for the Republican presidential nomination if drafted but would not seek it, said today that his sole ambition was to aid in winning the war “by the fulfillment of such duty as has been or may be assigned to me.”
Gen. MacArthur, in a statement on his correspondence with Rep. A. L. Miller (R-NE) who urged him to run, said his letters were not intended for publication, that they were not politically inspired and that he repudiated the “sinister suggestion that they were intended as criticism of any political philosophy or of any personages in high office.”
He said the American election system was of “so imposing a nature as to be beyond the sphere of any individual’s coercion or decision,” and added in conclusion:
I can only say, as I have said before, I have not sought the office nor do I seek it. I have devoted myself exclusively to the conduct of the war.
My sole ambition is to assist our beloved country to win this vital struggle by the fulfillment of such duty as has been or may be assigned to me.
Two years ago, Gen. MacArthur said he was not a candidate; in March 1942, when he arrived in Australia, he said: “I began the war as a soldier and I will end it as one.”
Last year, when American politicians started demanding that Gen. MacArthur declare his intentions, he said, “let’s get on with the war.”
Hence Gen. MacArthur’s statement today tended to confirm the growing impression in the best-informed quarters here that he would not seek the Republican nomination but would accept it if the party drafted him.
The final sentence of his statement, regarding duty that might be assigned to him, was taken to mean that, if drafted for what he believed the country’s good, he would accept.
‘Personal correspondence’
Gen. MacArthur said:
My attention has been called to the publication by Congressman Miller of a personal correspondence with him.
Their perusal will show any fair-minded person that they were neither politically inspired not intended to convoy blanket approval of the Congressman’s views.
Mr. Miller, urging Gen. MacArthur to run, had said that “unless this New Deal can be stopped this time, our American way of life is forever doomed” and that “I am certain that this monarchy which is being established in America will destroy the rights of the common people.”
Gen. MacArthur called these letters wise, statesmanlike and scholarly and said Mr. Miller’s description of conditions “is a sobering one indeed and is calculated to arouse the thoughtful consideration of every true patriot.”
In his statement today, Gen. MacArthur said:
I entirely repudiate the sinister interpretation that they [his letters] were intended as criticism of any political philosophy or of any personages in high office.
The letters, Gen. MacArthur said, were “amiable acknowledgements” to a Congressman’s letters “containing flattering and friendly remarks to me personally.”
Warns of misrepresentation
To continue them otherwise, he said, was to misrepresent the intent.
Gen. MacArthur said he had not received Mr. Miller’s third letter, urging him to announce his candidacy, and commented:
The high constitutional processes of our representative and republican form of government in which there resides with the people the sacred duty of choosing and electing their Chief Executive are of so imposing a nature as to be beyond the sphere of any individual’s coercion or decision.
Then he continued with his final paragraph saying that he did not seek office but would do the duty assigned him.
Regrets publication
Well-informed quarters expressed belief that Gen. MacArthur obviously regretted the publication of his letters and felt that he had been put on the spot.
Of Mr. Miller’s letter saying that “unless this New Deal can be stopped our American way of life is forever doomed,” Gen. MacArthur had written that “I do unreservedly agree with the complete wisdom and statesmanship of your comments.”
Mr. Miller’s second letter, saying a monarchy was being established in the United States, Gen. MacArthur had called scholarly.
It was felt here that publication of the letters had done Gen. MacArthur no service and, in fact, would seem to be the very thing his supporters would want to avoid because it might antagonize some people.
Finally, it was felt here that the whole Miller affair was a teapot tempest because Gen. MacArthur never had more than an outside chance and that was lessened by Wendell L. Willkie’s withdrawal.
Out here, so far from the United States, it had been felt that any chance for Gen. MacArthur would have been in a Dewey-Willkie deadlock but that now it appeared that Governor Thomas E. Dewey probably would be nominated on the first ballot.
When Mr. Willkie announced his withdrawal, one MacArthur supporter commented:
I’ll bet the Democrats are laughing like hell this morning. Willkie has won the election for them by assuring the nomination of the one man they are sure to beat.
Inquiry opens Wednesday –
Black market in gas rivals Prohibition Era
Public’s help asked to end chiseling
By Marshall McNeil, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Super-transport crosses nation in record time
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Lonergan gets 35 years to life
Motion to set aside verdict overruled
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Johnston denies he’s in politics
Detroit, Michigan (UP) –
Eric Johnston, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who has frequently been mentioned as Republican presidential material, denied today that he had political ambitions and asserted that he was doing a job for business in which politics had no part.