Background of news –
Higher military ranks
By Bertram Benedict
…
Creation of work suggested as basis for new tax program
High national income will permit payment of post-war levies, Ruml says
By Beardsley Ruml, written for United Press
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Millett: ‘Blessed event’ news has now reached the ultimate
Seems as though public knows about pending births before mothers
By Ruth Millett
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Stokes: Cooperation
By Thomas L. Stokes
With Dewey’s party –
Republicans expect to make much capital out of a point stressed by Governor Thomas E. Dewey in his Portland speech about the troubles that President Roosevelt has with Congress.
It may be effective. The Republican presidential candidate put it very persuasively last night:
Every step we take in these critical years ahead must have the joint support of the Congress and the President. Can any such joint action and harmonious relationship be achieved under this administration?
And again:
We need an administration that wants to work with the elected representatives of the people and that knows how to do it. We can get such an administration only by getting a new Chief Executive.
Governor Dewey put his finger on a very vulnerable spot. He dramatized the wide rift in the Democratic Party between the New Dealers and left-wingers. on the one hand, and on the other, the conservative Southern Democrats who go traipsing off with Republicans on virtually every domestic issue to form an anti-administration coalition that makes it so hard for Mr. Roosevelt to do business with Congress on any liberal measure.
Both sides vulnerable
The President has let them alone lately. But it is a real dilemma that has spread gloom through the progressive political forces of the country.
They do not like to look ahead to such a situation in what Governor Dewey termed “these critical years ahead.” Nor do they get any encouragement from anticipating a Republican Congress if it is going to follow the general course of the Republican minority in recent years on both domestic and foreign policy.
Governor Dewey must prove, as in the case with his progressive labor program, that he can carry his party and Congress along with him. The record of his party in Congress is his highest hurdle, and is the vulnerable spot on his side.
He must convince progressives that it is going to be different with him. or they will take a chance with President Roosevelt and the possibility that, if he is elected, he will be able to carry a Democratic Congress in with him which for a time will go along with him,
Democratic split cited
The Republican candidate dramatized, likewise, a Democratic Party, once fairly closely knit, that is now beginning to shake loose at the joints. This was clearly demonstrated at the Chicago convention when the Southerners were emitting rebel yells of dissatisfaction over the new power in the party assumed by New Dealers and CIO labor.
Republicans have capitalized upon this. In Congress, Republicans are egging on the Southern conservatives, fraternizing with them sweetly, throwing their support to them at every opportunity, often accepting without question the leadership the Southerners exercise so effectively through their committee chairmanships and other posts of power and influence.
In the campaign the second-string performers, not Governor Dewey himself, are exploiting the CIO’s PAC at every opportunity to frighten off middle-class voters and tempt them into the Republican camp.
The whole tone of the Dewey presidential campaign has been to stress his ability to work with political leaders and his Legislature.
Since his nomination, Governor Dewey has worked hard at it, in the Governors’ Conference in St. Louis and on this trip. He has spent hours with local politicians on this trip, getting acquainted, listening to their troubles and making a fine impression, according to reports.
What will Johnny be like when he comes home –
Wecter: Soldiers don’t turn out to be criminals
Teaching a man to shoot enemy doesn’t mean he’ll come home and shoot neighbor
By Dixon Wecter
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Forrestal: Legion asked to support military training law
Convention endorses program calling for aid to veterans, payments to widows
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Allen: Maybe Sinatra could make the Germans swoon
By Gracie Allen
Hollywood, California –
First it was Bing Crosby… Now they’ve got Dinah Shore singing to the Germans in their native tongue to lull them into surrender. It begins to look like the tonsil is mightier than the sword.
And we haven’t even turned Sinatra loose on them yet!
Imagine what might happen if Frankie, like some modern Pied Piper, started to work on those Rhine maidens. I can just see Frau Goering sitting in front of the radio in bobby socks as Der Frankie croons: “Ich bin nicht much to look at – nein schön to see.”
She squeals and says, “Ach, Hermann, stop the shooting! I want to hear Frankie! Ich liebe dot boy!”
To which Hermann replies: “Stop the shooting? But what about Der Fuehrer?”
And she says: “All right – one more shot, but be sure you hit him.”
I don’t know, Gen. Eisenhower, it might be worth a thought.
Tigers claw way nearer to pennant
Newhouser wins 26th subduing Yanks while Browns, Red Sox lose
By the United Press
…
Beck: Labor 85% for Roosevelt
Washington (UP) –
Dave Beck, vice president and member of the Executive Board of the International Union of Teamsters (AFL), declared today that President Roosevelt was supported by “at least 85 percent of the nation’s workers,” and predicted the Chief Executive would be reelected in November.
Mr. Beck is here making arrangements for a meeting on Saturday of more than 800 state and local officials of the union before whom President Roosevelt will make his first outright political speech of the current campaign.
The address will be broadcast throughout the nation on time purchased by the Democratic National Committee.
Mr. Beck said:
There is no political significance in the meeting. It was not called to discuss politics. The President addressed our convention here in 1940 and we thought it only a matter of courtesy to invite him again. We are glad that he accepted.
Asked whether he thought that Mr. Roosevelt would use the occasion to announce an increase in the base level fixed by the Little Steel wage formula, Mr. Beck replied: “I don’t know, but it would be a damn good place to make the announcement.”
Negroes for Roosevelt, Congressman says
Washington (UP) –
Rep. William L. Dawson (D-IL), the only Negro member of Congress, predicted today that President Roosevelt will get 70 percent of the Negro vote in the nation – eight percent more than he polled in 1940.
Mr. Dawson, an official of the Democratic National Committee, declared that Negro voters in the critical border states “will throw their weight to Roosevelt.”
He said:
Surveys show the Negro vote can carry New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia, Missouri and Michigan.
Russians say isolationists still lead GOP
Moscow writer hits Hoover and London
Moscow, USSR (UP) –
Isolationism has declined in the United States under the pressure of public opinion, but it still lingers, particularly among reactionary Republicans, an article in the magazine War and the Working Class said today.
Nina Sergeyeva, the author, wrote:
The Republican Party always has been a citadel pf isolationism/ now this party is the rallying center of opponents of present American foreign policy. Through it, extreme reactionaries, pro-Fascist and Fascist elements, American defeatists and appeasers, and even Hitlerite agents, are seeking access to the political arena.
Hoover, Landon hit
A predominant influence in the Republican Party is exercised by a reactionary group headed by former President Hoover and Republican candidate Landon. This constitutes the “Old Guard” isolationism which dominates the machinery of the Republican Party.
It was precisely this group which last June promoted Dewey’s candidacy. This group gets certain support from the National Association of Manufacturers, long well-known for its pro-Fascist tendencies.
du Pont, Ford named
Owners of the powerful chemical concern of du Pont de Nemours; the noted industrialist, James Mooney, vice president of General Motors; the auto manufacturer, Henry Ford, and the Chicago banker, Robert Wood, are the people who finance the Republican Party.
It was characteristic, War and the Working Class said, that:
This reactionary, isolationist group, which seized control of its part convention, accepted an election platform establishing the principle of international collaboration, which clearly contradicts its oldline isolationism.
It continued:
In their recent utterances, Dewey and even Hoover attempted to shake off diehard isolationists and defeatists like Hamilton Fish and the Fascist leader Gerald Smith.
It is entirely clear that the Republicans cannot ignore public opinion, particularly before elections.
Articles names Senators
It said that the America First organization was closely connected with Senators Arthur H. Vandenberg, Robert A. Taft, Burton K. Wheeler, Gerald P. Nye, Robert Reynolds and Bennett Champ Clark, and Reps. Clare Hoffman, Fish and Martin Dies, and was financed by du Pont, Robert Wood, Ford and Mooney.
The author continued:
Among the isolationists and appeasers, there are several noted Democrats, like Senator Reynolds, Wheeler, Clark and Rep. Dies. But within the Democratic Party these men constitute an uninfluential group.
The article then listed and denounced the Hearst, Patterson and McCormick press and organizations such as America First and the various leagues against war, accusing them of sabotaging the war front by campaigns to discredit the Allies, England and the Soviet Union, and of advocating the appeasement of Germany by a compromising peace.
The article further charged that firms such as DuPont, Ford and General Motors, have substantial commercial interests in Germany, Italy and Japan, and therefore were interested in their preservation.
U.S. State Department (September 20, 1944)
Lot 60–D 224, Box 55: DO/PR/27
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State to the Secretary of State
Washington, September 20, 1944
Subject: PROGRESS REPORT ON DUMBARTON OAKS CONVERSATIONS – TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY
Meeting of the Joint Steering Committee
The Joint Steering Committee met this afternoon to consider the revised draft of the proposals prepared by the joint formulation group and to take up matters on which agreement had not yet been reached. The Committee completed its consideration of the proposals, which were cabled tonight to Moscow and London. The principal changes agreed upon, other than matters of verbiage, were as follows:
a) Human rights and fundamental freedoms
The paragraph under Chapter II. Principles, relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms has been eliminated. We have requested the Soviet and British to send special messages to their Governments expressing our hope that this point can be included briefly somewhere in the document.
b) Initial members
Agreement was reached to confine the Chapter on Membership to the single statement that membership in the organization would be open to all peace-loving nations. Reference to initial members was eliminated since agreement could not be reached that the nations which are associated with the United Nations but are not actual belligerents should be among the initial members.
c) Non-permanent members of the Security Council
A provision which made the contribution of non-permanent members to peace and security a qualification for election to the Council was omitted upon our insistence.
d) Voting in the Council
All substantive points relative to voting in the Council were eliminated in view of the proposed agreement to continue consideration of this subject.
e) Matters within domestic jurisdiction
A bracketed provision excluding from the application of procedures for peaceful settlement matters within domestic jurisdiction was eliminated due to inability to reach agreement.
f) Sites for bases
Agreement was reached to eliminate the last remaining reference to the Russian proposal that smaller states should provide sites for bases.
g) Air force contingents
Our provision for the immediate availability of national air force contingents was accepted and the British alternative providing for future study of something akin to an international air force was eliminated.
h) Amendments
The chapter relating to amendments was eliminated due to inability to reach agreement.
Meeting of the American Group
The American group considered the changes in the draft proposals made by the Joint Steering Committee and the joint formulation group. Most of the group felt that it would be satisfactory to omit reference in the document to non-intervention, but the group as a whole urged that some reference to the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms be included in the draft proposals. Most members felt that the Russian proposal concerning Fascist or fascist-type states should not be included. Other changes were regarded as satisfactory.
The group agreed upon a memorandum to the President and the Secretary offering a suggested course of procedure as an alternative to continuing the conversations with the Soviet group in the hope of reaching early agreement on the question of voting.
Memorandum by the President
Washington, September 20, 1944
This is a very rough suggestion made by me – among others – for a subdivision of Germany after the peace.
F D R
USA im wahren Lichte –
Angst vor der Nachkriegszeit
hb. Lissabon, 20. September –
Roosevelt führte das Volk der Vereinigten Staaten in den Krieg, weil er innenpolitisch mit seinem New Deal scheiterte und nicht in der Lage war, die permanente Arbeitslosigkeit von etwa zehn Millionen voll Erwerbsfähiger durch soziale Reformen zu beseitigen. Heute liegt die Aussicht, daß zehn Millionen Soldaten nach den USA zurückkehren und ihre sozialen Forderungen an die Nation richten, wie ein Alpdruck auf der Rooseveltschen Politik und bestimmt entscheidend die Stellung der Vereinigten Staaten in diesem Kriege.
Wenn unmittelbar nach den letzten anglo-amerikanischen Besprechungen ein Schreiben des Präsidenten an den Direktor des Haushaltsabteilung im Washingtoner Finanzministerium, Harold Smith, veröffentlicht wurde, worin Roosevelt auf eine Beschleunigung der Arbeiten in dem Umstellungsplan der Industrie von der Kriegs- auf die Friedensproduktion drängt, so steht das in einem direkten Zusammenhang mit diesen Unterhaltungen. Roosevelt fürchtet heute die heimkehrenden Soldaten genau wie 1939 das Heer der Arbeitslosen. Indem er allen feierlichen Versprechungen zum Trotz die Jugend Amerikas auf die Schlachtfelder Europas führte, hat er die große soziale Auseinandersetzung zwischen den Repräsentanten des Hochkapitalismus in Amerika und der grauen Masse der Habenichtse zwar verzögert, aber keineswegs aus der Welt schaffen können.
Dieses politische Moment schob sich in den letzten Wochen stark in den Vordergrund. Soweit es ein rein amerikanisches Problem ist, wird es natürlich von den sozialen Erwartungen bestimmt, die die amerikanischen Soldaten an das Kriegsende knüpfen. Dafür scheint uns ein Brief symptomatisch zu sein, den ein amerikanischer Unteroffizier an die Zeitschrift New Republic richtete.
Es heißt darin:
Ich fürchte, daß die Wahrheit über die Meinung der Soldaten viele Leute zu Hause erschrecken wird. Nur wenige, vielleicht 10 Prozent meiner Kameraden, haben eine klare Vorstellung von dem, was sie wollen. Davon bekämpfen mindestens 7 Prozent die jüdische Vorherrschaft, die Gewerkschaften und den Einfluß der Neger in unserem Lande. Die anderen 3 Prozent drücken ihre Ansichten nicht so klar aus, und die restlichen 90 Prozent haben überhaupt keine Überzeugung, kein Interesse an der Politik und auch keinerlei Kenntnis über das politische Geschehen. Sie kämpfen als Soldaten gut, weil schwer arbeiten und viel Sport treiben ein national-amerikanischer Zug sind, wenn es so etwas bei uns überhaupt gibt.
Es wäre aber unehrlich und unklug, anzunehmen, daß diese Leute nach Hause zurückkommen, um sich wieder in die alte ruhige Routine eines Lebens für das Kino, für Liebschaften und elektrische Eisschränke einschalten zu lassen. Was früher eine passive und vielleicht unschädliche Unwissenheit war, wird jetzt zu einem aktiven Haß, der sich aber nicht gegen Hitler richtet. Worte wie Toleranz, Brüderlichkeit und Nächstenliebe haben für diese Leute einen völlig überholten Klang. Wir müssen uns stets die Tatsache vor Augen halten, daß unsere Soldaten, sozial gesehen, unreif sind, und daß diese Situation eine der mächtigsten und gefährlichsten Kräfte in der Gesellschaftsordnung nach diesem Kriege darstellt.
Dieses Bekenntnis eines Soldaten gründet sich natürlich auf die sozialen Missstände im Roosevelt-Paradies, über die ein Bericht des Senatsausschusses für Volksgesundheit und Erziehung Aufschlüsse gibt. Danach mußten von 16 Millionen Wehrdienstpflichtigen 4,1 Millionen wegen körperlicher oder geistiger Untauglichkeit zurückgewiesen werden. Weiter heißt es in diesem Bericht, daß 95 Prozent sämtlicher Untersuchten eine Zahnbehandlung nötig hatten, davon 30 Prozent sehr dringend.
In der Rüstungsindustrie der Vereinigten Staaten wurden im Jahre 1943 infolge unzulänglicher sozialer Sicherungseinrichtungen 2,4 Millionen Menschen zu Vollinvaliden, die bei dem Fehlen einer staatlichen Invalidenversicherung der öffentlichen Wohlfahrt zur Last fallen.
Der medizinische Direktor der amerikanischen Armee, Oberst Leonard Rowntree, stellte vor dem Untersuchungsausschuss des Heeres unumwunden fest: „Die amerikanische Jugend ist verweichlicht. Unser Land ist krank.“ In einem Kommentar zu diesem Tatbestand sagt die amerikanische Zeitschrift Newsweek die vom Senatsausschuss veröffentlichte Statistik sei auf das tiefste beschämend für eine Nation, die sich stets ihres Lebensstandards, ihrer Ernährung, ihrer Wohnungen, ihrer Schulen, Krankenhäuser, medizinischen Einrichtungen und Volksgesundheit gerühmt habe.