Weather slows blitz –
RAF bombers blast Berlin in new raid
Southern Germany also hammered
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Allies close in on escape gap into Germany
Pershing headquarters town under attack
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer
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‘An incredible accomplishment’ –
Dewey: Roosevelt stretched depression out for 11 years
GOP candidate tells voters choice rests between regimentation and free society
Sheridan, Wyoming (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey said today that despite $58 billion to spend, President Roosevelt “made a depression last for 11 years, which is an incredible accomplishment for any one man.”
Speaking from the rear platform of his special train, Mr. Dewey said that the issue of the presidential campaign involves a choice between the New Deal road to regimentation and a totalitarian society, or a free society with full opportunity of jobs for all.
He told the crowd that he was happy to be in Sheridan and “delighted to see no one here spoiled by the New Deal.”
‘New Dealer’ speaks up
He said:
As I told the people of Valentine, Nebraska, you all look so healthy I’m sure there isn’t a New Dealer in the crowd.
“Oh, yes, there is,” a shout went up from the fringe of the crowd.
Mr. Dewey continued when the laughter died down:
I am confident that with a new administration which believes in the future of America and the American way of life, we can go up the road to prosperity.
Mr. Dewey was greeted by a cowboy band and a crowd estimated at 3,000 persons. Sheridan has a total population of about 13,000.
Plans major speeches
The presidential nominee, who will deliver seven major campaign speeches and sound out local sentiment on various campaign issues on his cross-country tour, scheduled conferences with leaders of veterans, livestock, agriculture, sugar beet and GOP organizations during a seven-hour stop at Sheridan today and will move on to Billings, Montana, tonight for a similar round of conferences tomorrow.
Mr. Dewey is using the private conference method to sound out local groups on their complaints against the Roosevelt administration and their recommendations for changes if he wins election to the White House in November.
Cattlemen fear surplus
At the conclusion of his conferences at Valentine yesterday, Mr. Dewey told a press conference the men he met were greatly disturbed over the apparent failure of the Roosevelt administration to prepare for dealing with the range cattle surplus which they foresee when the war ends.
He blamed government regulations for the fact that there is beef rationing despite the fact that there are 10 million more head of cattle on the ranges today than would be considered a normal supply.
Mr. Dewey also suggested at his press conference that “now that Gen. MacArthur no longer is a political threat” to President Roosevelt, “his talents be given greater scope and recognition.”
Major speech by Roosevelt set for Oct. 5
Hannegan warns of ‘election by default’
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
President Roosevelt will make his second major campaign address over a nationwide radio hookup from Washington Oct. 5, chairman of the Democratic National Committee Robert E. Hannegan said today.
The first fourth-term campaign address by the President will be Sept. 23, as previously announced.
Mr. Hannegan said Mr. Roosevelt’s second speech would be heard by approximately 125,000 voting precinct meetings, each attended by at least 10 persons. The President’s broadcast will follow statewide addresses by state candidates for governor and senator, Mr. Hannegan said.
‘Default’ only election hurdle
The announcement of the broadcast was made at the conclusion of Mr. Hannegan’s three-day conference here with Democratic Party leaders from 23 states.
He said the party’s only election hurdle was to insure the nation against “an election by default.”
He said:
The only slightest hope of a Republican victory would be the failure of the great body of the American electorate to show up at the polls. We are making it our business to see that this does not happen, and it is not going to happen.
San Francisco conference next
He said that if the party meets this problem:
There exists every real possibility that President Roosevelt will be returned to finish a job he has carried along so far and so well by an unprecedented popular majority.
Mr. Hannegan and his staff will hold conferences next week at San Francisco to discuss organization plans with party leaders who have not participated in the New York and Chicago conferences.
Fourth termers oust Texas rebels
Dallas, Texas (UP) –
Pro-Roosevelt Texas Democrats had ridden roughshod over all opposition today to oust 15 presidential electors who had announced they would not cast their votes for a fourth term for the President.
In complete control of a hectic Texas Democratic Convention, the pro-Roosevelt group yesterday substituted 15 electors favoring the Roosevelt-Truman ticket – making a full slate of pro-fourth tern Democratic electors to cast the 23 Texas Electoral College votes.
With former Governor James V. Allred – an ardent fan of the President – in charge as chairman, the convention also ousted all party officials known to oppose a fourth term and completely revamped the state Democratic organization before adjourning at 5:00 p.m.
A court test was certain. The 15 ousted electors, named with eight pro-Roosevelt electors at a state convention last May, said they would go to the State Supreme Court. Mr. Allred agreed the dispute would end in the courts but said, “We are ready.”
The drastic action in removing from their posts the 15 electors who had announced they would vote in the Electoral College for Senator Harry Byrd (D-VA) or some other Democrat, but not for Mr. Roosevelt, came as a surprise. Earlier, leaders planned only to substitute electors for those among the original 23 who refused to sign a statement agreeing to vote for the Roosevelt-Truman ticket if normally-Democratic Texas goes Democratic again this fall.
Racial equality plea doomed
Washington (UP) –
China’s anticipated request that the future world security organization acknowledge the principle of equality of all races was expected today to receive support only from Russia among the big powers.
The United States and Great Britain – as in 1919 – probably will oppose any attempt to have such a clause in the document of the new organization. They can be expected to contend that it is not germane to a security organization, and that such a statement would lead to demands for similar statements on religious freedom, etc.
Britain, primarily because of her Pacific dominions where there is strong anti-Oriental feeling, and the United States, because of both the Negro problem and the anti-Jap attitude on the West Coast, are not expected to be any more willing than they were in 1919 to accept the principle for the new league.
Both parties ban racial issues
New York (UP) –
The Democratic and Republican parties today condemned the use of racial or religious intolerance as a political weapon in the presidential campaign.
The party statements, by Democratic National Committee Chairman Robert E. Hannegan and his GOP counterpart, Herbert Brownell Jr. were issued in connection with the nation conference of Christians and Jews.
The Democratic statement said the election “must be consistently a democratic performance” untainted by “the racial and religious differences and the hatreds which our Fascist enemies have erected upon them,” the statement added.
The Republican statement declared that any disqualification because of race or religion was abhorrent to the party.
It cited recent statements of Governor Thomas E. Dewey “in denunciation of political adventures who in the hope of personal aggrandizement have tried to stir up religious and racial bigotry in its various forms” and said that all Republican candidates were “committed by faith and deep conviction to comity and understanding among our various faiths and to the equality and dignity before man and government of all people of whatever creed or origin.”
Editorial: Count their votes
In Ohio, the Attorney General has ruled that military ballots marked by members of the Armed Forces who are subsequently, but prior to Election Day, killed in action cannot legally be counted.
Perhaps there is something in the Ohio law to justify that opinion. The Attorney General should know.
But here County Elections Director David Olbum says there is nothing in the Pennsylvania law calling for such invalidation. And he adds his opinion that voiding the votes of dead soldiers would be ridiculous.
Of course, it would. By necessity, military ballots may be marked by servicemen and women when they are received. They need not be marked on Election Day, to compel them all to vote on the same day would either deprive most of them of a ballot or require a stoppage of the war.
But once the ballot is marked, it is valid and should be counted.
We hope nobody in Pennsylvania thinks up any ruling like that of the Ohio Attorney General.
Background of news –
The voting age
By F. M. Brewer
Election returns in November will include, for the first time in the history of the United States, a count of ballots cast by 18- to 20-year-old voters. Under a state constitutional amendment adopted in 1943, citizens of Georgia who have passed their 18th birthdays will go to the polls as voters in this year’s national election.
Their addition to the electorate of a solidly Democratic state will not affect the outcome, but their participation in choice of the next President will be of national significance as marking a trend toward enfranchisement of younger men and women.
Eight resolutions for amendment of the Federal Constitution to lower the voting age are pending before the judiciary committees of the House and Senate. These committees have also before them three proposed amendments to abolish the Electoral College and provide for choice of the President by direct vote of the people.
Should any one of these latter proposals become a part of the Constitution, a rapid enfranchisement of 18-year-olds could be expected to follow. Any state which failed to grant the ballot to its younger citizens, after a few other states had acted, would suffer a loss of influence in choice of the country’s Chief Executive.
Teachers favor change
Chief backing for a change in the voting age is found among teachers in public schools. Educational organizations have been urged by the Journal of the National Education Association to give their full support to both state and national action to give the young a voice in choosing government officials and determining public policy.
The argument of educators is that the training high school pupils receive today amply prepares them to vote intelligently, and that a gap of several years between leaving school and exercise of the franchise tends toward a loss of the interest and enthusiasm which they are prepared to bring to the electorate.
Political leaders at present appear reluctant to enfranchise a body of young people who presumably would become independent voters. Groups wielding political power, such as the veteran and labor organizations, have shown no inclination to press the issue.
So far as the veterans are concerned, the younger men now serving in the Armed Forces soon will have reached the normal voting age of 21. Many young people at work today are expected to return to school or college and the remainder would not add significantly to labor’s political power.
Support from three parties
Among individual leaders in public life who have endorsed efforts to reduce the voting age are Frank C. Walker, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and two Democratic state governors – Georgia Governor Ellis G. Arnall, whose support was largely responsible for adoption of the 18-year-old vote in his state, and South Carolina Governor Olin D. Johnston.
Senator Arthur Vandenberg (R-MI) was the first to introduce a resolution in the Senate for a federal constitutional amendment to give the vote to 18-year-olds, and Norman Thomas, Socialist candidate for President, has announced his support.
Mr. Vandenberg said:
If young men are to be drafted at 18 years of age to fight for their government, they ought to be entitled to vote at 18 years of age for the kind of government for which they are best satisfied to fight.
Mr. Thomas said there was certainly no magic in 21 to give wisdom to voters:
I wish we could find magic to give them wisdom at any age, but boys and girls compelled to face war so realistically at 18 should be given a vote.
Dorseys and gambler pal told to post $1,000 bonds
Tooter, wife and friend will plead later to those assault charges
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In Washington –
Democrats charge MacArthur ‘negligence’ in the Philippines
Replying to ‘Pearl Harbor tactics’ of GOP, foes open up in rebuttal
Washington (UP) –
Congressional Democrats yesterday opened a counteroffensive against repeated Republican charges that the administration is responsible for the Pearl Harbor disaster and that it has been “covering up the true story” of the Dec. 7, 1941, debacle.
In the first full-dress Democratic rebuttal, House Majority Leader John W. McCormack and Reps. George E. Outland (D-CA) and Daniel L. O’Toole (D-NY) denied the GOP charges and accused the Republicans of playing politics in their demands for full facts of Pearl Harbor.
Between speeches, Republican members reiterated their charges and, in turn, accused the Democrats of injecting politics.
Mr. O’Toole told the House that, at the start of the war, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was “guilty of carelessness” in defense of the Philippines, but no charges have been made against him.
‘Lost his air force’
O’Toole asked:
Has anyone told the House that 95 percent of MacArthur’s air force was destroyed in the Philippines despite the fact that Pearl Harbor was attacked first? He, too, was guilty, but no charges have been made against him.
He said:
Seven weeks before election, the Republicans become suddenly interested in the defense of RAdm. Husband E. Kimmel And Maj. Gen. Walter C. Short [Navy and Army commanders in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked].
Is it because Short is listed as a Republican in Who’s Who?
‘A political speech!’
He put full blame on Kimmel and Short for not taking “proper precautions” when they knew war with Japan was imminent, and he charged Republicans with using innuendo for political gain.
Rep. Earl Michener (R-MI) replied that Mr. O’Toole’s talk was “a political speech if one ever was made” and said Congress has been requesting the facts about Pearl Harbor since the attack.
Mr. Outland touched off the debate by challenging Republicans to prove their charges that Australia furnished advance warning to the United States that the Jap fleet was steaming toward Pearl Harbor. He quoted Australian Prime Minister John Curtin that reports of such a warning were “pure invention.”
‘Withholding full story’
Then, Rep. Harold Knutson (R-MN) renewed charges that the administration is withholding the full story of Pearl Harbir, saying that “when the facts are known the blame will not be on Tokyo, it will be in Washington.”
Mr. McCormack replied that charges the administration is covering up the story of Pearl Harbor is “entirely without foundation and made out of whole cloth.”
Ohio firms charged
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Stokes: Farmers
By Thomas L. Stokes
Valentine, Nebraska –
We were sitting in front of the hotel on Main Street, our chairs on the sidewalk against the big front window, and I was learning from the farmer who sat at my side how it is with the farmers out this way.
They don’t seem to like what’s going on in Washington, judging by the man who was talking.
An auto with big loudspeaker horns blossoming out in every direction passed slowly by, and the voice rang all up and down the street, saying there were only 90 grandstand seats and seven boxes left for the rodeo in the afternoon which Governor Thomas E. Dewey was to attend. Tickets were available at the courthouse, the voice said. It was then 11:00 a.m.
Autos rolled down the street, bringing visitors from miles around. Some were crowded with big families, the kids sticking out at the edges. This was the big day. They all wanted to see the Republican presidential candidate, who do a day and a half, after a brief appearance here the day before, had been virtually in hiding at the ranch of former Governor Sam McKelvie, 20 miles away. Governor Dewey’s picture beamed all along Main Street, and his name was on banners which fluttered overhead.
Nobody very hilarious
Little knots of men stood along the street – stolid Sioux Indians with wrinkled, leathery faces, ranchers, brown and squint-eyed with the sun, farmers in overalls, cowboys, and just plain hands. Nobody was very hilarious. These people are not just that way, there was an occasional drunk, waddling and grinning.
My friend had come from his quarter-section farm, 150 miles to the southeast. He was a wiry fellow, slight of build. He wore a big hat. His tanned face was unwrinkled and did not look as if it had seen 50 years, but that was his age.
“If Roosevelt’s reelected, I’ll sell out my farm.”
A blunt statement thrown into the conversation. What would be do then?
Oh, I don’t know. I’m not worrying much. I beat around for years, working with rodeos, working on ranches and farms. I never had any trouble getting a job. I might go down to old Mexico. I’ve been down there before.
What’s the trouble?
He repeated the story you hear so often. Too many regulations from Washington. He’s a cattle feeder, said he feeds about a thousand or 1,500 head a year. The cost of corn is too high, the ceiling price too low for feeders. He lost $450 this year on hiss cattle. He raises hay and soybeans. The prices have been good for them.
They don’t like ‘this rationing’
He said dolefully:
But they won’t let them go up anymore.
Folks down our way don’t like all this rationing. They could give us our gasoline and sugar. They could have just told us what we could have, without all this rationing business. We wouldn’t have hoarded. There was a ration official down our way who was just as mean as he could be, wouldn’t let anybody have anything. His house caught fire one day, and the fireman found all kinds of things hoarded away in his attic.
He was particularly irate about high wages in war plants.
And they aren’t saving a thing. Living high, buying liquor, getting drunk, it’s bad for our young folks.
He had a stern morale strain, characteristic of lots of folks in the farm country.
How bad off was he really? Not so bad when he let out the facts, gradually. He bought his farm in 1931. It had a $7,500 mortgage on it. He borrowed some from a neighbor. Later he got a loan from the Federal Land Bank. That’s nearly all paid off now.
I had a big year two years ago. I could pay off the rest now easy, but they told me it’s better to have a mortgage on if I want to sell.
He was very bitter about President Roosevelt.
“We’ve got to get rid of one-man government,” he said.
He added, as I got up to go:
And I wish if you see Dewey, you’d tell him not to let Hoover or Willkie make any speeches in this campaign. Hoover’s bad stuff among our folks. Willkie could have been elected two days after he was nominated – but he talked too much.
And that’s how it is with the folks out this way.
Gracie Allen Reporting
By Gracie Allen
Hollywood, California – (Sept. 13)
I knew there was a housing shortage in this country, but I didn’t realize it was so desperate. Here Mr. and Mrs. Winston Churchill come over to visit the Roosevelts and they have to go clear to Canada to find a room!
I understand the Canadian Prime Minister loaned them an old stone house over 200 years old. I can’t imagine keeping a house for 200 years – unless maybe there are still payments due on it. Well, perhaps they have an FHA in Canada, too.
Incidentally, lots of people wonder just how much Mr. Churchill spends on cigars. He is supposed to smoke as many as 15 a day.
Well, my husband, George, smokes cigars too, so using the price of George’s cigars as a basis, I figured it out. You can stop worrying, folks, Mr. Churchill can afford 25 cents a day!