America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

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americavotes1944

Rooney, Nolan push campaigns for Congress

By Joseph H. Schmalacker

Rival candidates in the special election for Congress from Brooklyn’s 4th Congressional district continued to step up their campaign activities yesterday against a background of doorbell-pulling and house-to-house canvassing to arouse voters for the balloting June 6.

William G. Nolan, the candidate nominated by the Republicans, came out with a statement through Republican county headquarters in which he asserted that “three terms of jitterbug government have convinced the electorate of the great need for more intelligent administration in Congress.”

Meanwhile, John J. Rooney, the Democratic-American Labor Party candidate, who is an assistant district attorney, announced the personnel of his campaign committee. The chairman is M. Henry Martuscello, also an assistant district attorney.

‘One project to another’

Defining “jitterbug government” as “the combined operation of the present administration in hopping from one project to another, without rhyme or reason; unsuccessful conduct of hundreds of bureaus and agencies, and the socialization of the country’s economic life,” Nolan’s statement added:

My opponent carries the banner of 100% New Dealism to a frantic pitch, but I take pleasure in refuting many of his utterances which are distorted and misrepresented.

Naturally, we are all interested in and wholeheartedly support all labor and social gains, but constructive government should come from the people by due process of legislation and Congressional action, rather than by executive order and bureaucratic decree.

Serving for Rooney

Named to Rooney’s campaign committee were the following:

Mrs. Christopher Barry (Bay Ridge civic worker), Louis C. Andreozzi (assistant district attorney and chairman of the 76th precinct CDVO), Mrs. Mary Tonry (past president of the Ladies Auxiliary Division No. 1, of the Ancient Order of Hibernians), Mrs. George J. Joyce (wife of Justice Joyce of the City Court), Al Torre (sport promoter), Mrs. Mary McQuade (active in women’s fraternal organizations), Joseph J. Glatzmayer (vice president of the Harbor Carriers of the Port of New York).

Also, Mrs. Katherine Neary (president of the women’s unit of the Catholic Circle), Anthony F. Crissalli, Mrs. Mae Burns (past county president, Kings County Ladies Auxiliary, Ancient Order of Hibernians), Walter T. Thomas. Mrs. Mary Sloan (president Women’s Federal Jurors Association, Eastern District), Mrs. Mary B. Sessa, Michael J. Daly, Jacob Hertz (president of Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Ernes), and Joseph P. Clavin (past president of the St. Patrick Society of Brooklyn). Mr. Daly becomes vice chairman of the committee and Mr. Hertz was named secretary.

Both the Republican and Democratic parties are concentrating their campaign activities on direct meetings with the voters. The campaign will conclude with a series of rallies during the current week.

State insurance chief raps pacts of underwriters

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Army nurses, heading for the combat zones, train in tough reality

There’s no room for sissies among women who will take pot luck in aiding wounded
By Alice Cogan

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americavotes1944

Survey: Dewey can get nomination on 1st ballot

Washington (UP) – (May 27)
Governor Dewey of New York has sufficient votes among the pledged and claimed delegates to the Republican National Convention to win the presidential nomination on the first ballot, barring unforeseen developments harmful to his candidacy, an official GOP survey revealed tonight.

The poll is incomplete, Indiana and Nevada not yet having selected their delegates. They will act on June 2 and June 10, respectively, to complete choice of delegates from the 48 states. Puerto Rico has not been heard from and neither have the Philippine Islands. Each is entitled to two votes.

In this connection, there was a possibility that the Philippines may not be represented in either the Republican or Democratic conventions because of Japanese domination of the islands. Leaders of both parties had no knowledge of how this situation would be met, but pointed out that it was of no political importance since none of the vital actions of the convention will be influenced by two votes.

Results of survey

The GOP survey, based upon newspaper dispatches, reports from state officials and other data, showed:

Dewey Bricker MacArthur Stassen Warren Griswold Willis Unpledged Uninstructed
Alabama 14 – – – – – – – 0
Arizona – – – – – – – 8 0
Arkansas 2 – – – – – – – 10
California – – – – 50 – – – –
Colorado – – – – – – – – 15
Connecticut – – – – – – – – 16
Delaware 6 – – – – – – – 3
Florida Even Even – – – – – – 15
Georgia – – – – – – – – –
Idaho – – – – – – – – 11
Illinois – – – – – – – 59
Iowa – – – – – – – – –
Kansas – – – – – – – – 19
Kentucky – – – – – – 22 – –
Louisiana – – – – – – – 13 –
Maine – – – – – – – 3 10
Maryland – – – – – – – 16 –
Massachusetts – – – – – – – 3 32
Michigan – – – – – – – 41 –
Minnesota – – – 23 – – – – 2
Mississippi – – – – – – – 6 –
Missouri 6 – – – – – – 7 17
Montana 8 – – – – – – – –
Nebraska – – – 6 – 6 – – –
New Hampshire 2 – – – – – – – 9
New Jersey – – – – – – – 28 7
New Mexico – – – – – – – 8 –
New York – – – – – – – 93 –
North Carolina – – – – – – – 20 5
North Dakota – – – – – – – – 11
Ohio – 50 – – – – – – –
Oklahoma 2 – – – – – – 21 –
Oregon 15 – – – – – – – –
Pennsylvania – – – – – – – – 70
Rhode Island – – – – – – – – 8
South Carolina – – – – – – – – 4
South Dakota – – – – – – – 11 –
Tennessee 6 – – – – – – 9 –
Texas – – – – – – – 33 –
Utah 8 – – – – – – – –
Vermont – – – – – – – – 5
Virginia 2 – – – – – – – 17
Washington – – – – – – – 16 –
West Virginia – – – – – – – 10 9
Wisconsin 17 – 3 4 – – – – –
Wyoming – – – – – – – 9 –
Alaska – – – – – – – 3 –
Hawaii – – – – – – – – 5
DC 3 – – – – – – – –

A simple majority of 530 is necessary to nominate. Although most signs point to a probable first ballot victory for Dewey, the Bricker forces have refused to concede such an eventuality and are continuing a vigorous campaign for the Governor.

7268

50,000 on strike; public inflamed, says union head

By the United Press

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7269

Editorial: Jap peace terms should jolt overconfident Americans

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7270

Editorial: They’re resourceful

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7271

Corby: Motherhood as a career in films has 4-time movie mother worried

By Jane Corby

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U.S. Navy Department (May 29, 1944)

CINCPAC Press Release No. 423

For Immediate Release
May 29, 1944

Ponape and Pakin Islands were strafed by 7th Army Air Force Mitchell bombers during daylight on May 26 (West Longitude Date). Anti­aircraft fire was meager.

Mitchell bombers of the 7th Army Air Force, Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, and Navy Hellcat fighters bombed and strafed remaining enemy targets in the Marshalls on May 26. Storage areas, runways, and anti-aircraft batteries were hit.

CINCPAC Press Release No. 424

For Immediate Release
May 29, 1944

One hundred and one tons of bombs were dropped on Ponape Island during daylight on May 27 (West Longitude Date) by Liberator and Mitchell bombers of the 7th Army Air Force. Ponape Town and the airfields were principal targets and barracks, hangars, and storage areas were hit. Moderate anti-aircraft fire was encountered.

Fifty tons of bombs were dropped on Wotje Island during the afternoon of May 27 by Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters, a Ventura search plane of Fleet Air Wing Two, and Navy Hellcat fighters. Defense installations were hit and several fires started.

Other objectives in the Marshalls were attacked by Navy Venturas and Marine Corsairs on May 27. Anti-aircraft fire ranged from moderate to meager.

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The Brooklyn Eagle (May 29, 1944)

3,700 PLANES BLAST NAZI AIRCRAFT PLANTS
U.S. fliers strike from west, north

Other Allied bombers attack objectives in Berlin area

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7274

Yanks within sight of Rome

Battle foe 16 miles from city as Nazis try counterdrive
By Eleanor Packard

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Sees Philippines invasion near

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Fighter planes in Burma using effective rockets

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Ponape bombed again

Washington (UP) –
Medium bombers strafed Ponape and Makin Islands in the Carolines east of Truk, while other U.S. aircraft continued to bomb defense installations at the remaining Japanese bases in the Marshall Islands, the Navy announced today. The attacks took place on Friday.

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Kimmel demands an early trial on Pearl Harbor neglect charge

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7278

americavotes1944

Newsmen predict Governor Dewey has 50–50 chance with FDR

By Joseph H. Schmalacker

Albany, New York –
Governor Dewey’s White House qualifications and prospects, the question of his press relations and other subjects were put under the microscope here today in a poll of newspaper correspondents who have reported his activities since he assumed office Jan. 1, 1943.

Eight overall questions were submitted confidentially to 26 of his newspaper associates on Capitol Hill by John Mooney, legislative correspondent of the Albany Knickerbocker News. Twenty-three replied.

The 1944 national campaign’s $64 question – Dewey’s chances against President Roosevelt – found none of

However, most of the writers believed Dewey would poll a larger popular vote than Wendell L. Willkie received as the 1940 GOP nominee, thereby establishing an unwritten consensus that a Roosevelt-Dewey race would be a closer one, possibly of the photo-finish variety, than the campaign of four years ago. While none of the correspondents would predict Dewey’s election, their combined opinion is that his chances of defeating Roosevelt range up to 50%.

The correspondents stated they were convinced Dewey would be nominated and that, in fact, he is practically the nominee now.

Most of the replies expressed belief Dewey’s age (he is 42) was an asset rather than a liability for the Presidency. The dissenters said, “Age is important from the dictatorship angle. Age, experience, temper a man, make him less impetuous, more tolerant.”

With three exceptions, all the correspondents declared Dewey’s record as Governor has been a good one, although some assorted adroit publicity and headlines had overemphasized certain features.

In the critical category, it was said Dewey “neither pioneered nor advanced social legislation,” and that he had been fearful, rather than forceful, in certain respects. One objection raised was that he was “opportunistic” and “dictatorial.”

The correspondent’s consensus, with a few exceptions, is that Dewey has maintained press relations ranging from “friendly” to “cordial.” Three replies objected Dewey was not sufficiently frank and free at his press conferences.

Among the Republican Governor’s presidential assets, the poll listed: His records; his buildup; that he symbolizes the vast body of anti-New Deal sentiment and political philosophy; public acceptance of his current views on foreign policy; his showmanship and radio personality; his appeal to women voters (an important factor this year); his own vote-getting ability as Governor of New York, pivotal in the national picture; the pronounced GOP trend with Dewey riding the crest of that wave; “untainted as a politician,” and because his silence to the day of his nomination will make it possible for him, if he can do it, to make the issues of the campaign rather than to trail always on the defensive.

His major weaknesses in the national arena as seen by the reporters: His vacillation; past statements, and present inexperience in foreign affairs; “certain pressure and lobby groups behind him;” his reckless audacity; “all his talk about the tired old men will go out the window when they begin to show him the tricks he doesn’t know;” that he is not intimately known to any of the major figures on the international stage; President Roosevelt; the war.

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americavotes1944

Dubinsky backs Roosevelt for another term

Boston, Massachusetts (UP) –
President David Dubinsky of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (AFL) endorsed a fourth term for President Roosevelt today.

Addressing 800 delegates representing some 305,000 members at the Garment Workers’ 25th Annual Convention, he called for government cooperation with industry in providing employment “for the great many millions who will lose their jobs on the day of the final armistice.”

Praising the New Deal as a “progressive national administration,” he said “Franklin Delano Roosevelt must and will be reelected President.”

He said:

Those who raise the cry of dictatorship expose their lack of faith in our government and in the democratic processes of government.

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Editorial: The workings of bureaucracy in coal case puzzle laymen

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Editorial: Let us highly resolve–

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7282

New controversy looms at Ward Chicago plant

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7283

Lord Croft: Weather favors West Europe invasion

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7284

The Pittsburgh Press (May 29, 1944)

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

London, England –
The good news from Italy has been tinged with bad for some of us who still have strong roots and half our hearts in that cruel battleground.

The name of Roderick MacDonald means nothing to you in America, but it meant much to many of us who marched with the wars in Tunisia, Sicily and Italy. For Mac was one of our bunch – a war correspondent – and he was killed the other day at Cassino.

Mac was a Scot. His family emigrated to Australia and he was schooled there and eventually went to work for The Sydney Morning Herald. He left Australia in 1941 and followed the wars in China, the Near East and all through Africa.

We first knew him in Tunisia. Just after Tunis fell, he came down with a savage recurrence of malaria and spent three weeks in a hospital. Finally, he got strong enough to get back to Algiers during that peaceful interval between Tunisia and Sicily.

During that time, our public-relations section was set up in a camp on the sandy and gentle shore of the Mediterranean, some 20 miles outside of Algiers. That’s where I used up six weeks of peace – one of the grandest six weeks of my life, just lolling in my tent, eating well, working a little, reading a lot, mostly loafing and being wonderfully warm.

Roderick MacDonald sent word that he was in a hotel at Algiers, and I got a jeep and went and picked him up. He was so weak he couldn’t even carry his bedroll. We brought him out to camp and put him in the tent next to mine.

For days he lay listlessly, with strength enough only to get up for meals. The sun was broiling and he would strip down to his shorts and lie there in the hot sand, baking his body a sleek brown. Gradually life began to flow into him again his face filled out, the glaze left his eyes, and the famous MacDonald smith and MacDonald barbed retort began to return.

Mac had everything to live for, and he loved being alive. He was young, tall, handsome, brilliant, engaging. He had a sensitive mind, and he would have been a novelist had there been no war.

Among Americans he was the best liked British correspondent I have ever known. With his Scottish and Australian heritage, he understood us. He would kid the pants off us about the way we talked, and mimic our flat pronunciation in his yarns. He in turn took the same razzing about his Oxford accent.

He had never been in America, but it was his one ambition to go there.

Like most correspondents, Mac felt that he had to write a book. He had it about two-thirds finished when he came to our camp to recuperate. During the latter days of his stay, when his strength had returned, he tapped away belligerently on his little typewriter, cussing the day he ever started the book, resenting the deadline his London publishers were heckling him with. But he did finish it.

The day I arrived in London from Italy, I went into a bookstore, and I noticed Mac’s book. I bought it just because I knew Mac, and brought it home and put it on the table, but never did read it.

Now I will read it. What an ironic world, that only the compulsion of death makes us do for our friends – in more ways than merely reading a book – what we should have done while they still lived.

I suppose my best friend in Italy was Lt. Col. Ed Bland, a dive bomber squadron leader. He was tall, blond Westerner of 28, who looked much older than he was and who had the open honesty and good humor of the West. Word has just come that he has been shot down.

Probably the story has been told already in America, for Ed was popular with all the correspondents. The letter that brought the word to me said this:

Ed was strafing about 30 feet above the ground when a small shell set his plane afire underneath. Ed didn’t know it until his wingman radioed him. Then he climbed to 1,500 feet and bailed out.

The wingman said his chute didn’t open till he was 200 feet from the ground. There was a great deal of shooting, and one theory is that it was directed at him, but majority opinion ruled differently and the boys believe he is OK.

Wick Fowler of The Dallas News was a close friend of Ed’s. We used to sit around indulging in idiotic talk and Ed was always talking about how funny it would be to telephone Rome for hotel reservations and throw the German into a panic.

After I left Italy, Ed’s oil line stopped up one day on a mission near Rome and he was certain he would have to bail out. Later, he told Wick that while he was in trouble and sure he’d have to jump he got to thinking about that telephone idea and had to laugh at himself.

And now that he really has bailed out, Wick sends along this thought in a letter:

Ed’s time was short at 1,500 but I have a hunch the telephone idea came to him again on the way down.

If Ed did call up Rome for reservations, I hope the Germans gave him the royal suite, for he’s the best there is.