U.S. sub Gudgeon, 66 men lost
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Québec maps direct attack against Japs
Roosevelt, Churchill hold formal session
Québec, Canada (UP) –
President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill held their first formal business session today on new plans for the final destruction of the Axis.
The basic subject was the Pacific War. Plans are expected to be made for a direct assault on the Jap homeland.
White House Secretary Stephen T. Early said that although the conferences were pointed primarily at the Pacific, he did not know whether Chinese representation here had been sought. He added, however, that the Chinese government would be kept informed of the proceedings.
General plan worked out
The President, the Prime Minister, Canadian Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King and their parties had dinner last night with the Canadian Governor-General, the Earl of Athlone.
Today in a face-to-face session, Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill worked out a general plan for the discussions with their military, naval and air experts.
The new unified command for the Jap assault, to be headed by an American, raised many questions.
The proportions of U.S. and British forces to be transferred from Europe to the Fat East as soon as Germany’s defeat is complete must also be determined.
Many subjects faced
Mr. Roosevelt’s and Mr. Churchill’s talks were expected to cover a wide field, including many problems in Europe. But it was officially emphasized that the Pacific War was the No. 1 topic, and the absence of Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin fits in with that program.
Converging drives on the Japs from the Central Pacific and the Southwest Pacific are forging ahead on schedule, but the enemy has recently made fresh progress in China. Those drives must be extended before a direct assault on Japan itself can be started.
But they are going so fast that now the top planners – who must work months in advance of the action – must begin to lay out the strategy of the final assaults.
Four commands active
There are now four commands fighting the Japs:
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The U.S. Pacific forces under Adm. Chester W. Nimitz have struck swiftly across the Central Pacific and have penetrated Japan’s inner defense circle.
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Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s forces have swept up from the south to place themselves in a position to invade the southern Philippines.
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Forces in Lord Louis Mountbatten’s Southeast Asia Command – comprising Burma, Indochina, Malaya and Sumatra – succeeded in driving the Japs out of northern Burma. This will permit early reestablishment of a land supply route from India to China.
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In China, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s troops have been waging a desperate but so far losing battle to prevent the Japs from cutting the country in half.
Coordination lacking
These commands have been operating under broad plans developed at the Roosevelt-Churchill-Chiang conference in Cairo. But they have not had the benefit of the coordination such as Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s campaign in Western Europe.
Already delicate questions have arisen involving the overlapping of some command areas. Unless a new command setup is achieved, these would multiply as the offensives progress.
Gen. MacArthur’s forces and the southern wing of Adm. Nimitz’s are both striking toward the Philippines. Gen. MacArthur’s and Lord Mountbatten’s sphere overlap in the Indies. Lord Mountbatten’s command was established at the first Québec Conference – in August 1943 – but results have not fulfilled expectations.
Stokes: Farmers, sore at New Deal, hope Dewey will ‘free’ them
GOP candidate doesn’t have to sell them; they’re fed up with Washington policies
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
With Governor Dewey’s party –
Governor Dewey today took his presidential campaign cavalcade into Nebraska on what amounted to a carrying-coals-to-Newcastle expedition.
Both Iowa and Nebraska are staunchly Republican. There’s no doubt about that. The people decided some time ago.
Out here, Governor Dewey met an intriguing political paradox, best illustrated by the contrast between today and 1932.
Then there were poverty on the farms and hardship in the towns here. Angry farmers armed themselves with pitchforks to keep the sheriff from foreclosing their acres. The desperate farmers swept up behind Franklin D. Roosevelt as their deliverer, and admittedly his New Deal program helped put them back on their feet.
Farmers ‘rich and sore’
Today, the farmers are prosperous. The war is making many of them rich. They are paying off their mortgages. They are, in the local idiom, “rich and sore.” The majority has deserted President Roosevelt.
What has happened is that the farmer, an individualist by nature – except when he is desperate, as in the depression years – again has become a capitalist in psychology, now that he is again a capitalist in fact. He swings naturally back to political and economic conservatism.
The farmers wrap up all the evils, of which they see themselves victims, in OPA, although this is really just a general term for virtually every agency in Washington which issues regulations for them.
Hot about labor policies
They complain about price restrictions, although prices are good and they are making plenty of money. They have a problem in the shortage of labor, for which they blame the wages for labor at war plants and the draft. They resent gasoline rationing.
Most of all, perhaps, they resent New Deal labor policies, complaining that the New Deal has been weighted heavily for labor and against the farmers. Today, the divisions between farmers and labor in this country is wide and deep and any attack on Sidney Hillman’s CIO and its Political Action Committee is relished.
So, Governor Dewey didn’t have to sell anything here. It was already sold.
But Governor Dewey kept busy consulting with representatives of farmers, business and labor, and politicians. He is making valuable political contacts in this section, not so necessary now, but which will be helpful if he is elected, and, perhaps, even if he is not. For there are some who think the young man, if he fails this time, will try to get control of the party organizations for four years hence.
Nobody has done that successfully in recent years, but he did it in New York, being the only defeated candidate for governor in our time who was renominated.
Anti-Roosevelt Democrats in Texas stand ground
Pro-administration forces carry fight into convention as compromises fail
Dallas, Texas (UP) –
Pro-administration Democrats played for high stakes today, with possibly the November election in the balance, as they carried the fight for a complete slate of electors pledged to President Roosevelt and Senator Harry S. Truman to the floor of the Texas state convention.
Both factions offered compromises last night, but each rejected the other’s offer.
As the situation stands, fifteen of the state’s electors have announced they will follow instructions of the May convention and vote for some other Democrat, probably Senator Harry S. Byrd (D-VA), if Texas goes Democratic in November, as it usually does.
The loss of the 15 electoral votes in a close election might swing it in favor of Governor Thomas E. Dewey or throw it into the House of Representatives for a decision.
Dewey’s Army charge denied
Washington (UP) –
House Democratic Leader John W. McCormack (D-MA) today accused Governor Thomas E. Dewey of making “ridiculous and untrue” charges of “political advantage” in suggesting that the administration wanted to retain soldiers in the Army until they were assured of employment.
Mr. McCormack told the House that the Republican presidential nominee made the charge at Philadelphia the day after the War Department announced its demobilization plans.
He recalled that Mr. Dewey attributed to Maj. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, Selective Service director, the statement that men could be kept “in the Army about as cheaply as we could create an agency for them when they are out.”
Mr. McCormack said the only bill he could find proposing the sort of provision Mr. Dewey attacked had been sponsored by a Republican, Senator James J. Davis (R-PA). He said both the War Department and Gen. Hershey had opposed Mr. Davis’ bill, which would have barred the discharge of men without their consent unless employment was available.
Indians, cowboys welcome Dewey
Valentine, Nebraska (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey was greeted by Indians in feathered headdress and cowboys on horseback when he arrived here today for conferences with Nebraska and South Dakota Republicans at the ranch of former Nebraska Governor Samuel R. McKelvie.
The GOP presidential nominee and Mrs. Dewey stepped from the train into an open auto for a parade led by about 50 Sioux Indians from the Rosebud Reservation of South Dakota, followed by sombrero-wearing cowboys from the Nebraska plains.
The parade lasted half an hour and then the Deweys were taken to the McKelvie ranch, 20 miles south of Valentine.
Shortly before the Dewey party arrived here, the Governor’s secretary, Paul E. Lockwood, announce that additional stops would be made at Sheridan, Wyoming, Sept. 14, and Billing, Montana, Sept. 15 so Mr. Dewey might have the opportunity to meet local political leaders in those two states. Governor Dewey had planned to spend three days at the McKelvie Ranch, but his stay here was cut to a day and a half to work the other stops into his itinerary to the West Coast.
Hannegan denies Hillman order
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Chairman Robert E. Hannegan of the Democratic National Committee, denied today he had ever been instructed by President Roosevelt to “clear everything with Sidney [Hillman]” in behind-the-scenes maneuvering at the Democratic National Convention in July.
Mr. Hannegan said the charge was made by Governor John Bricker of Ohio, GOP vice-presidential nominee, in a speech last Saturday, but he said:
The fact is that President Roosevelt, with whom I conferred along on hat occasion [the President’s trip to Chicago prior to the convention], did not say that.
Nor did he say anything else which could have been tortur3d to convey that meaning. That story is absolutely untrue. I don’t know who invented it. I presume that Republican orators will keep repeating this favorite fiction until Election Day in the forlorn hope that some people will believe it is true. I want to get the record straight and identify this one as fabricated out of whole cloth.
Mr. Hannegan was asked if Sidney Hillman, chairman of the CIO Political Action Committee, has anything to do with the convention’s vote, and replied: “If he was a delegate, then he had a vote.”
Mr. Hannegan told a news conference he did not sidetrack Vice President Henry A. Wallace and put in Senator Harry S. Truman, although “I was for Truman.”
Mr. Hannegan was here to confer with Democratic leaders from 22 Midwestern and Southern states on campaign strategy and finances.
Maine election is landslide favoring GOP
Four PAC candidates are overwhelmed
Portland, Oregon (UP) –
A Republican landslide in the Maine “barometer” elections returned three GOP Congressmen to office and elected State Senate President Horace A. Hildreth governor, complete unofficial returns showed today.
It was the largest GOP victory margin ever scored in the traditionally Republican state, assistant National Republican chairman Marion Martin said. The Republican gubernatorial candidate received approximately 75 percent of the votes cast.
The voting proved a blow to the CIO Political Action Committee, which had campaigned actively for the election of two Democratic candidates for Congress.
Margins three to one
Returned to office were Reps. Robert Hale in the 1st district, Margaret C. Smith in the 2nd district, and Frank Fellows in the 3rd district. Mr. Hale’s margin was a little better than two-to-one. The others won by approximately three-to-one.
The election has been called a national barometer for the November presidential elections – “as Maine goes, so goes the nation” has been the saying – despite the 1940 balloting which saw the Republicans win overwhelmingly in Maine in September only to lose the presidential race in November.
Complete unofficial returns gave:
| Race | Status | Candidate | Vote | Vote % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maine Governor |  |
 Hildreth |
131,989 | 75% |
 Jullien |
51,107 | 25% |
Complete unofficial returns for Congressional contests gave:
| Race | Status | Candidate | Vote | Vote % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maine 01 | |
Hale (incumbent) |
47,580 | 69% |
| Pettis |
21,634 | 31% | ||
| Maine 02 | |
Smith (incumbent) |
45,101 | 69% |
 Staples |
20,321 | 31% | ||
| Maine 03 | |
Fellows (incumbent) |
36,486 | 77% |
| Graham |
11,145 | 23% |
CIO opposition bitter
Congressmen Hale and Smith had been opposed bitterly by the CIO-PAC, Mr. Pettis, president of the shipbuilders union in Portland and a Republican-turned-Democrat, had been expected to give Mr. Hale more of a race.
Regardless have long claimed that when the September Maine vote was 60 percent or more in their favor, they won the presidential election. This held true from the Civil War until the second Roosevelt term in 1936. That year, the Republicans won in Maine by approximately 60 percent. Again in 1940, the barometer failed when Maine went 65 percent Republican.
Maginot Line forts intact after four years in Nazi hands
Massive machinery in working order; guns might be used on retreating Germans
By Robert Richards, United Press staff writer
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De Gaulle promises election when conditions permit
General says women of France will vote; demands voice in world discussions
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‘Happy days are here again’ –
UMW isn’t ‘pantywaist;’ fist fight opens convention
Fracas breaks up meeting of Lewis insurgents; Yablonsky accused of brawling
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
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UAW ‘bad boys’ stir up fight at convention
One faction opposes R. J. Thomas, president
By Ray Decrane, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Editorial: Québec problems
International and European political questions doubtless will be dealt with by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill before their Québec Conference closes. There are plenty such hanging fire. Some, including the German and Polish problems, are of great urgency. But the early sessions of the conference are to be almost exclusively military.
European military decisions related to the approaching victory over Germany cannot be reached without Marshal Stalin, who has his hands too full on the Eastern Front to travel to Canada. Tentative Anglo-American agreements will be passed on to Moscow in preparation for the earliest possible meeting with Marshal Stalin. The weakness of this plan, however, is that smaller nations are still excluded. Unless they are called in noon, most of the basic questions will have been decided by the Big Three or by the swift passage of events – which would be neither fair nor effective.
Apparently Pacific military problems are first on the Québec agenda. Most of those boil down to the matter of British participation. Hitherto Britain has been too busy at home and in the Mediterranean to help much in the Far East. Most of her forces there are Indian and immobilized in India.
Lord Louis Mountbatten’s Southeast Asia Command, which was set up and over-advertised at a similar conference a year ago, has achieved little. The British have pushed back the Japs who slopped over the Indian border, and Gen. Stilwell’s American-Chinese forces have reclaimed much of northern Burma under hard conditions.
But Lord Mountbatten’s attack on South Burma, and his naval-air end run for Singapore and the South China sea, have not materialized. He, according to reports, is not to blame. London and New Delhi never felt they could give him the required equipment and forces.
Now the question is how much aid Britain will give in the Pacific War, and how long it will take after Hitler’s defeat. Officially the London government has given plenty of promises publicly of all-out war against Japan. But at the same time, Mr. Churchill has promised England large-scale demobilization of troops and reconversion of industry as soon as the European conflict ends. This policy is popular in England, where there is inevitable war weariness after five years and much less feeling than here about the Jap menace.
To a lesser extent the American policy of partial demobilization and reconversion after Hitler’s fall also influences Pacific war plans. Though our government says it will not permit the Army cutback or the changeover to peace production to interfere with Pacific requirements, there is hope in Tokyo and fear in Washington that there will be an American letdown.
Actually, most of our naval and air forces and many of our technical ground forces – along with increased war production in some lines – will be required for the big and bloody Pacific job ahead. Devoting one hand to military and industrial reconversion to peace, while using the other hand for so-called all-out war against Japan, calls for a near-miracle of coordination.
But a Québec agreement for a fair sharing of effort in the Pacific War can hasten Jap defeat.
Allen: Patton’s men need pretzels to go with German beer
By Gracie Allen
Los Angeles, California – (Sept. 11)
Don’t forget to mail those Christmas presents to boys overseas between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15.
One woman I know, whose boy is with Gen. Patton, is sending her son a box of pretzels.
She figures by the time he gets the pretzels, he’ll be where there’s plenty of beer.
Sometimes I wonder if this wave of optimism that’s sweeping the country is good or bad.
For example, one California plant has already started reconversion to peacetime industry. They’re making electric irons – 20,000 a week.
It’s true the country’s pants need pressing, but it’s also a perfect time to be caught with them down.