The Wilmington Morning Star (August 20, 1944)
Nazis push ruthless demolitions preparatory to fleeing Paris
By Gladyin Hill
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Broad enveloping movement headed toward Rhône Valley
By Noland Norgaard
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To operate 99; San Francisco area seizure recommended by WLB vice chairman
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Spread death, destruction among divisions racing for the Seine
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Damage freighter; 14 Japanese barges destroyed or damaged off Manokwari
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Proposes that policing Axis and peace maintenance be separated
Albany, New York (AP) – (Aug. 19)
John Foster Dulles, deputized by Governor Thomas E. Dewey for foreign policy consultations with Secretary of State Hull, proposed today that the problems of policing defeated Axis countries and maintaining lasting peace be separated.
Meeting reporters in the Governor’s study of the Executive Mansion with the Republican presidential nominee sitting nearby, Dulles said he believed difficulties of forming an international security organization ought not to be complicated by the immediate problem of disarming Germany and Japan and making them unable to undertake new aggressions.
The 56-year-old New York lawyer said that Dewey’s statement of this week in connection with the four-power diplomatic conference in Washington should be interpreted as delineating the king of military controls which should be exercised over Germany and Japan.
With Dewey at times nodding agreement, Dulles proposed that the United States, Great Britain and Russia, with “substantial contributions” from nearby liberated countries police Germany and hold her in check. He said the United States, Great Britain and China should undertake the policing of Japan.
With these duties undertaken by the four powers, Dulles said it would be possible to form an international organization in which the small nations would have a voice in the future determination of lasting peace plans without being subjected to four-power domination, which Dewey has opposed.
Asked if a conference he will hold Wednesday with Hull might indicate the possibility of eliminating foreign policy as a political campaign issue. Dulles replied:
I don’t think it is healthy or desirable to eliminate from the campaign the discussion of internal problems. The only way a democracy makes up its mind is by having issues debated and discussed.
Roosevelt also anxious to increase production of trucks and radar
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New York – (Aug. 19)
The announcement was made here today that Westbrook Pegler’s newspaper column will shift from the Scripps-Howard newspapers to the Hearst newspapers which will distribute it through King Features Syndicate at the termination of the present contract.
Roy W. Howard, president of the Scripps-Howard newspapers, said the decision not to renew the contract was “by mutual consent.”
Praising Pegler as “one of American journalism’s most colorful, conscientious and effective craftsmen,” Howard said “many years of effort” in connection with his and other columns had demonstrated “the public’s unwillingness to accept as something apart from the paper’s policy, the opinions of independent writers.”
Washington (AP) – (Aug. 19)
Chairman Robert E. Hannegan of the Democratic National Committee discussed fourth-term campaign plans with President Roosevelt for an hour and a half at the White House late today and told newsmen afterward that prospects for a Democratic victory in November were “favorable.”
He would not go beyond that statement and said it was always a problem in every election “to guard against overconfidence and to see that the people register.” He added that a great number of people have moved away from their homes to work in war industries and it was going to take some extended effort to see that they qualify to vote.
The Pittsburgh Press (August 20, 1944)
Optimism prevails in Washington
By R. H. Shackford, United Press staff writer
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Earliest notice asked by elections office
There is no deadline on submitting the names of voters in the Armed Forces for military ballots.
But County Elections Director David Olbum yesterday urged the families of servicemen and women to turn in the names promptly to assure ballots being mailed in time to reach voters overseas.
The Elections Department already has a list of almost 90,000 names. Ballots to these voters will be mailed within the next 10 days, although the new State Military Ballot Law fixes Sept. 2 as the deadline.
Earlier the better
However, the Elections Department will mail ballots to all voters in the Armed Forces whose names are received after that date.
Mr. Olbum said the volume of military ballots to be sent overseas might preclude the arrival of ballots before Election Day unless the names of military voters are submitted to the Elections Department now.
Inquiries at the Elections Department in the last week, he said, indicated that many relatives of service voters had the erroneous idea that it was too late to submit names.
Extra staff on job
The only deadline fixed by the law is the one requiring the Elections Department to mail the ballots to all addresses on file no later than Sept. 2 and to mail ballots to additional addresses, received after that date, within 24 hours.
The Elections Department has been working an extra staff addressing envelopes for military ballots. The list of names, which will be posted to the Department when it is completed, is being arranged alphabetically.
Relatives or friends in doubt as to whether the name of any voter in the Armed Forces is listed will be permitted to check this list.
All Pennsylvania voters, regardless of whether they are registered, are eligible for military ballots if they are, or will be, 21 on or before Nov. 8 and are members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps or other armed service, the Merchant Marine, Red Cross Society of Friends, WASPs or the USO in service either overseas or within the United States.
45 commonwealths polled show President leading in 26 having 248 electoral votes
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
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Faked ballots turn up in Tennessee
Jackson, Mississippi – (Aug. 19)
Stuffing of a ballot box in a Madison County country store with fraudulent absentee soldiers’ ballots Aug. 3 may serve as a warning to the nation of what might happen on a larger scale during the November election.
Farmers of Madison County, aroused over what they describe as “political crooks taking advantage of our boys while they are fighting for our country,” have demanded investigations by the FBI and the Madison County Grand Jury.
Twenty-seven soldier ballots were cast at the Jones store; six have been revealed as forgeries.
Election judge surprised
Two members of the county Democratic Primary Board, Eugene Bond and Robert Davis, brought the ballots to the Jones store. Bond tore open the envelopes and called out the names, it was related by S. T. Patterson, a judge in the Republican primary, which was being held simultaneously.
Mr. Patterson was startled to hear the name of his son, Pharmacist’s Mate Paul Patterson, called out. The young man had been home on leave a week earlier and had said he did not intend to vote, but Mr. Patterson made no protest at the time.
Not in Army
Then Bond called out the name of Gid Patterson. “Gid is my boy and he’s not in the Army,” Mr. Patterson said, “He’s been working in Jackson for three years.”
“Well, we won’t count that one then,” Bond said.
Interviewed later, Gid Patterson said he didn’t even know an election was being held.
When the name of R. T. Collier was called, a bystander spoke up: “He’s a Negro farmhand who’s never been in the Army. He might come here to vote his afternoon.”
‘Tell him he’s voted’
“If he does,” Bond was quoted as saying, “tell him he’s already voted.”
The next day when Collier was asked if he had voted, he replied: “They said I did.”
A ballot was cast for one soldier who had written his father that he had no intention of voting. “I don’t even know who is running for what. That is the least of my worries,” he wrote.
In same handwriting
The clerk of the board said all the ballots were written in pencil all were in the same handwriting and they were folded identically.
A. R. Darden, chairman of the election board, said he would “take full responsibility,” but he refused to permit reporters to see the applications for the absentee ballots.
At another precinct, Bond and Darden cast 125 absentee ballots. Only 32 other votes were cast there.
Lewiston, Idaho (UP) – (Aug. 19)
Glen H. Taylor, Democratic senatorial nominee, told this one on himself today, and showed blistered hands to prove it.
Mr. Taylor stopped to talk with a farmer putting up hay. “You take this pitchfork and follow along and we will talk politics,” said the farmer.
Every time Mr. Taylor started to speak, the farmer said he’d have to wait until after the next load. Mr. Taylor pitched throughout the afternoon.
And not until supper time did the farmer shake the candidate’s hand and give him his blessing.