America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

[NormanStewart]

Fast war reporting lauded by Roosevelt

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt said today that American news reporting of this war is so good and fast that more often than not he gets his war news from the newspapers before he receives the official dispatches from the Army and Navy.

He made this point when asked to comment at his news conference on the general progress of the war. He said the situation had reached such a fine point now that the newspapers were just about as up to date as the government.

[NormanStewart]

I DARE SAY —
The overworked word

By Florence Fisher Parry

There are certain things which we should learn by heart; and, once learning them, repeat over and over, so that they become a part of our very being. Prayers learned in our childhood; even certain songs and hymns; our oath of allegiance to our flag: passages of our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution; poems that have come to be deeply familiar to us and especially loved; even the words of the oath that is administered in Court: “I hereby swear by the Searcher of all hearts…” There is a strength that can be drawn from the mere repeating of such words, a kind of reaffirmation.

Now it has been coming to mind lately, oh often, the need to repeat the words which were fashioned to hold this republic together and make it the envy and haven of the world: the words found in our Constitution… in our Declaration of Independence… in the oath our President takes when he assumes his office. They are grave and noble words. Millions of lives have been given up early, to keep them true and hive. So, they are words which must be safeguarded.

The slogan is coined

I have been reading these great pronouncements lately, the better to reassure my troubled mind, the better to strengthen me for what I truly and fearfully believe is to be a kind of internal struggle, here in America, to preserve the American way of life.

And in them all – the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights – the word democracy or democratic does not appear.

Now the other night while I was watching Wilson, the great motion picture, I kept waiting to hear the word republic. 1 did not hear it.

I never hear the word from Democrats.

I heard instead, democratic processes, democratic ways, democratic way of life, make the world safe for democracy. I did not count how many times the word democracy appeared in the text. I would have been cheered if I had heard only once that grand old (and for so long discarded!) word Republic!

For this IS a republic; it was always spoken of as a republic before President Wilson introduced to his party and the world the magical, golden slogan, de-MOC-ra-cy!

To what stunning use the Democratic Party has followed up this advantage, can well disturb the Republican Party now. For the grand old American word republic has been so studiously avowed by those who would have the uninformed accept the Democratic Party and democracy as synonymous, that the rank and file are no longer aware of the deception, and honestly have come to believe that all of our allies are democracies.

Indeed, the only time the forgotten word republic figures is when mention is made of “the 21 republics.” How the word survived in this connection alone, I am at loss to know, but am grateful for even this slight concession that the United States of America is a republic, so designated by our Constitution, Section 4, Article 4: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government.”

What’s in a name?

How it was possible for the Republican Party to fail in vigilance and permit the word democracy to be appropriated by the opposing party as its own exclusive synonymous slogan, is beyond me! Now the thing seems to have got past control. In the furthest outposts of the world the assumption prevails that it is the Democratic Party only which stands for democracy.

WHY is it not more vigorously challenged by the Republican Party, which also claims its guardianship of the republic for which it stands?

What’s in a name? A name can sweep the world! A word can change the course of all mankind! Democracy is a wonderful word, among the mightiest! When used in its strict and absolute sense it stands among the greatest words that ever have animated the souls of men.

That it should be employed as a political catchword to snare the honest votes of the unpurchasables; that it should be accepted by the peoples of other nations as a synonym for the Democratic Party (as opposed to the Republican Party) – all this but adds up to a total misconception of our government appalling in its implications.

[NormanStewart]

Pearl Harbor data sought by Roosevelt

Attack knowledge denied by envoy

Washington (UP) –
Anyone who has information that this government knew 72 hours in advance of the Pearl Harbor attack that a Jap task force was steaming toward the Hawaiian Islands should submit that information to the military boards now investigating the Pearl Harbor case, President Roosevelt said today.

He told a news conference that there would be lots of things like that – referring to Republican charges that information about the Jap naval activity had been submitted to this government in advance of the attack – circulating from now until Nov. 7.

Reports awaited

Asked if he intended to order court-martial trials at any time soon for Army and Navy leaders at Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack, Mr. Roosevelt replied that there are two committees or boards working on that now and it would be just as well to wait to hear from them, He referred to the Army and Navy boards which are investigating all circumstances surrounding the attack.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hull revealed that Australian Minister Sir Owen Dixon had denied to the State Department that he had any advance information the Japs planned to attack American territory.

Sir Owen, who is departing to take a seat on the Australian High Court, was drawn into the running Pearl Harbor debate between Republicans and Democrats when Rep. Ralph E. Church (R-IL) read to the House yesterday an affidavit quoting Sir Owen as saying he had advance information of the Jap plans.

Two messages reported

In the last 72 hours before the Dec. 7, 1941, attack, Mr. Church said, Naval Intelligence sent the White House two messages based on the Australian information.

The officer who delivered the second warning, Mr. Church declared, told the White House: “This looks like a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and a midnight attack on the Philippines.”

The Roberts Commission which investigated the Pearl arbor disaster said that a last-minute warning had been flashed to Hawaii but did not arrive in time to prevent the attack.

Ex-West Pointer quoted

Mr. Church read the House what he said was a notarized statement by Sidney C. Graves, Washington insurance man and West Point graduate, saying that at a dinner on Dec. 7, 1943, Sir Owen told him and others in substance:

About 72 hours before Pearl Harbor, I received a flash warning from my Naval Intelligence that a Japanese task force was at sea and Australia should prepare for an attack; 24 hours later this was confirmed with a later opinion of Intelligence that the task force was apparently not aimed at Australian waters and perhaps was directed against some American possessions.

Finally on Dec. 7, 1941, my Intelligence stated, “We are saved. America is in the war. Pearl Harbor has been bombed.”

This Australian Minister was questioned by one of the guests as to whether this information was available to American authority and he stated in substance that it was if requested.

Some quarters here said there was “general knowledge,” before the Dec. 7 attack, that an enemy task force was roaming the Pacific, but that there was no expectation that it was headed for Pearl Harbor where a major part of the Pacific Fleet was at anchor.

[NormanStewart]

West Virginia pastor admits unlawfully marrying couple

Plea made hour after indictment; ‘license bureau’ proprietor is also accused

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Butter supplies to remain ‘tight’

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[NormanStewart]

Bricker: Faith broken by New Deal

Virtual dictatorship claimed established

Baltimore, Maryland (UP) –
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker, charging that Sidney Hillman, Earl Browder and “their Communist comrades” control the Democratic Party, said last night that the New Deal has broken every American tradition in its 12-year program of establishing a “virtual dictatorship.”

Speaking before a Republican rally on a 3,250-mile Eastern campaign swing, the GOP vice-presidential nominee declared that: “The New Deal has failed to keep its promises.”

It has broken the tradition of “limited tenure” in the Presidency.

It has discarded the “relationship of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the government” as fixed by the Constitution.

‘Cause for change’

The New Deal, although failing to “pack” the Supreme Court directly, has succeeded through its long tenure in doing so and has appointed a majority of the judges of appellate courts and district courts who conform to their “philosophy.”

“That alone,” Governor Bricker said, “is cause for a change.”

The danger of the long tenure of the President is “reflected in the judgment of the Supreme Court in many cases,” Governor Bricker said.

The nominee added:

A minority of the court has pointed out that the majority opinions have broken so many precedents, upset so many decisions that the law is in utter confusion and the lower courts are not given guidance for their judgments.

Appeals to Democrats, too

He charged:

At one time, this New Deal court even spoke of the President as a ruler rather than the servant of the people.

Governor Bricker appealed to the Democrats “to take back their party by voting Republican this year.”

He said:

Look at the history of the leaders of the New Deal – Rex Tugwell, Felix Frankfurter, Harry Hopkins. Now Sidney Hillman has come into the inner circle and taken the seat at the head of the table.

It would seem incredible that such a group could take control of the Democratic Party, but it has done so through alliances with nefarious political groups headed by big city bosses such as Kelly of Chicago, Hague of New Jersey and temporarily-inactive Pendergast of Missouri.

‘Shame battle’ charged

Governor Bricker said:

The true Democrats – the Farleys, the Al Smiths, the Byrds, the Garners – have been cast aside as being out of step.

The New Deal put on a “sham battle” at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in order “to deceive the people” in the fight for the Vice Presidency, he said.

He added that Senator Alben Barkley’s defiance of the President over the veto of the Tax Bill soon subsided and he became “the willing worker for the White House clique.”

Governor Bricker asserted:

That short revolt may be the reason that Sidney Hillman vetoed Senator Barkley as a candidate for Vice President.

Says Congress ‘abused’

To bring about the “servile” position of Congress, Governor Bricker added, the New Deal “belittled, abused and smeared” Congress. The New Deal “power grabbers,” he said, have been very “careful” in recent months.

He said:

Be not deceived, people of America. The intent is still there, the habits have not been changed and it is their hope that once the election is by and should the New Deal be successful, that that the program of destroying the very foundation of free government and our constitutional concepts under which we have built so mightily will be revived.

Earlier, at a press conference, Governor Bricker pursued a theme advanced in his speech at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Wednesday night that the administration should now “disclose the facts” about the Pearl Harbor attack.

[NormanStewart]

Wallace: ‘Hoover panic’ will come with Dewey

20,000 in New York hear Vice President stress ‘experience’ of Roosevelt

New York (UP) –
A cheering crowd of about 20,000 persons packed into Madison Square Garden last night heard Vice President Henry A. Wallace forecast the reelection of President Roosevelt and warn that a Republican victory may return the country to “a normalcy of a Harding and a 10-year decay into the panic of a Hoover.”

Mr. Wallace, who was supplanted as Mr. Roosevelt’s fourth term running mate in favor of Senator Harry S. Truman, addressed a rally, sponsored by the Independent Voters’ Committee of the Arts and Sciences for Roosevelt.

The crowd also cheered as a galaxy of Hollywood stars, including Better Davis, Frederic March and Orson Welles, who introduced the Vice President, appeared on the program.

‘Two problems’

Mr. Wallace, making his first speech on behalf of the Roosevelt-Truman ticket, said that the problem of the current White House campaign is not one of indispensability. The only issue, he asserted, is which of the two candidates – Franklin D. Roosevelt or Thomas E. Dewey – is more capable of handling these two problems:

• Who can better cooperate with Churchill, Stalin and the Generalissimo [Chiang Kai-shek], in writing a lasting, liberal, democratic peace which will preserve American interests without being unfair to any nation, big or small?

• Who can best make sure that there will be jobs for everybody and therefore good incomes for farmers, white-collar workers, business and professional men?

He said that it would be absurd to attack the motives of any man seeking national leadership: that both Governor Dewey and Mr. Roosevelt will do their best if called to serve.

‘Equipment and experience’

He said:

The first question to decide is one of equipment and experience. Who can better provide for permanent peace and full employment – Dewey or Roosevelt?

Despite all Governor Dewey’s assertions, he continued, the isolationists are going to vote Republican in November.

He said:

Just as Harding placated the isolationists in 1921, so Dewey would be under the necessity of placating them in 1945. The Republican Party in spite of the millions of its members who think clearly about international affairs, has been, is now, and will be the channel through which the isolationists, the cartelists and the international freebooters work best.

‘Jobs for all’

The heart of the liberal program for post-war America, he said, is “jobs for all.” Next, he said, is the willingness of all men to work – “there can be no sit-down strike of idle seeking the dole.” He listed as a third point job priority to veterans and men and women who toiled in war plants at home.

Mr. Wallace conceded that a readjustment period would be needed before jobs for all could be provided. But he was confident the job could be done.

He said the post-war battle on the home front will be an exciting one and held that “there can be no slackers as we fight for the common man in the pursuit of the richer life.” He disapproved of the $1-a-year man plan but insisted that the government had the first call of services of the nation’s leaders.

If a wartime President may draft the brains of this country to fight, certainly a peacetime President may draft the brains of the country to work full-time in the most exciting battle of modern times – the battle against depression; against panic; against defeatism; the battle for full employment, national health, and a permanent peace.

He concluded with the declaration that “there shall never be a return to the normalcy of yesteryear – to normalcy for the few and sub-normalcy for the many.”

He said:

We welcome – yes, we shall fight for something we never have had – the normalcy of the good life for everybody.

[NormanStewart]

WLB relaxes pay rules on new employees

Boosts in hiring rates approved
By Dale McFeatters, Press business editor

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[NormanStewart]

In Washington –
Cutback data to be given by two agencies

Byrnes announces new procedures

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Gangster faces surplus probe

Chiseling charged by La Guardia

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[NormanStewart]

GOP charge answered –
Tobin denies his union has ‘inside track’

Labor leader hits delays by WLB
By Daniel M. Kidney, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Washington –
President Daniel J. Tobin, of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, said today that his greatest wartime worry in union affairs has been the War Labor Board delays.

Mr. Tobin is here to preside at a meeting of his union, with President Roosevelt scheduled to be a banquet guest and make his first “political speech” of the campaign tomorrow night.

Mr. Roosevelt’s address will be broadcast at 9:30 p.m. ET tomorrow over KDKA and WJAS.

The labor leader talked today of WLB delays with as much ire as did Governor Dewey in his labor speech at Seattle.

But, nevertheless, Mr. Tobin and his union are on record for a fourth term and Mr. Tobin will manage the Democratic Party’s labor division for a fourth time.

His comment about WLB was in refutation of a charge by Rep. H. Carl Andersen (R-MN) that Mr. Tobin has an inside track for pay raises for his truckmen “through the back door of the White House.”

What is charged

Here is what Mr. Andersen said:

Through the back door of the White House Mr. Tobin has been able to set up a little War Labor Board of his own, known as the trucking commission, which he has put in charge of one Frank Tobin, thus keeping it in the family.

By this device Tobin has kept his union out from under the stabilization program and apparently immune to the Wage Stabilization Act. For the past three years this commission has granted huge wage increases to members of Tobin’s union in direct violation of the stabilization act and over the head of the War Labor Board itself.”

Tobin’s answer

After reading the Anderson statement, Mr. Tobin declared that it is “full of lies and full of holes.”

He explained that no wage increase has been approved without WLB authorization and that all were within the 15 percent of the “Little Steel” formula. However, like other union leaders, he wants to see the “Little Steel” formula scrapped.

Mr. Tobin declared:

My union has more cases pending before WLB than any other. There were 2,000 cases pending there when the panel was set up with my son Frank as the labor member. The union pays him, although the government pays the panel members representing the public and employers. They would pay him, of course, but we didn’t want it that way. He is 41, a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and well equipped for his position.

Delay is big complaint

However, nothing which the panel approves can be effective until final WLB approval is given and increases passed upon by Stabilization Director Vinson. To say this is any “inside track” is nonsense. All WLB cases are handled in the same manner. My only complaint is the delay. Now the panel has 2,000 cases pending.

We have 700,000 union members and right now, there are no strikes anywhere. But because it takes months to get a decision on wages, I have had great difficulty in holding the membership in line and there have been strikes in the past because of the great delay.

Mr. Tobin, who is a vice president of the AFL, continued:

I told an AFL convention over a year ago that unless WLB congestion was cleared up we were headed for trouble in keeping the no-strike pledge.

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Bricker hits PAC in talk in Maine

Portland, Maine (UP) –
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker, Republican vice-presidential nominee, attacked Sidney Hillman and his CIO Political Action Committee again today, charging that the New Deal has relinquished its leadership to the “Browder-Hillman Axis.”

He said:

In so doing, it has struck a blow to free and unintimidated voting by the American people. They have turned over to this group that feeds on class hatred the conduct of the campaign because the PAC has its hands on millions of dollars.”

Speaking at a rally at City Hall, Governor Bricker said Mr. Hillman’s influence is “alien” and has its “roots in communism.”

The Bricker train was to make short stops at Lewiston, Winthrop, Waterville and Pittsville during the day. Governor Bricker speaks in Bangor tonight.

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Brownell: Labor swings toward Dewey

Albany, New York (UP) –
Herbert Brownell Jr., National Republican campaign manager, asserted yesterday that evidence was increasing that “organized labor is swinging to the Dewey-Bricker ticket.”

“We have had a fine and enthusiastic response from organized labor leaders as a result of Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s Seattle speech,” Mr. Brownell declared at a press conference prior to a meeting of 21 eastern Upstate New York Republican county leaders.

He added that certain labor leaders resent bitterly the Hillman-Browder group’s attempts to take over organized labor as well as the New Deal party.

[NormanStewart]

Dewey backed by Chicago Daily News

Late Frank Knox’s paper hits 4th term

Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
The Chicago Daily News today announced it will support Governor Thomas E. Dewey for President.

The News, formerly published by the late Frank Knox who, before his death, served in President Roosevelt’s Cabinet as Secretary of the Navy, said in an editorial prepared for Friday editions that it opposes a fourth term.

The editorial said, in part:

In 1940, despite the courage Mr. Roosevelt had shown in seeking to arm the nation against the perils that surrounded it, despite the fact that Col. Frank Knox, our publisher, had been called to the cabinet, in the emergency, to serve as Secretary of the Navy, this newspaper was opposed to a third term. We supported Mr. Willkie, the Republican candidate. And we have not changed our mind. We were not for a third term. We are not for a fourth. Nor do we believe the American people desire a perpetual President.

…In short, no fourth term is necessary, for in Governor Dewey there has arisen among us a young, new, vigorous leader, with faith in the future…

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Governor Dewey belittles activity of ‘bosses’

San Francisco, California (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey predicted yesterday that letters by Mayor Edward J. Kelly or Chicago to soldiers overseas advocating reelection of President Roosevelt would benefit the Republican Party in the November election.

The Republican presidential candidate offered his prediction when published accounts of the Chicago mayor’s activities were called to his attention.

He commented:

I should think that any letters Mayor Kelly writes to soldiers would greatly assist the Republican cause.

He did not elaborate, but the Republican Party has previously attacked the “bossism” leadership of Kelly at Chicago, Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City, New Jersey, and National Committeeman Ed Flynn in New York.

[NormanStewart]

Ruml: Farmers, laborers have big stake in tax policy

Lower wages and higher prices mean less purchasing power, he points out
By Beardsley Ruml, written for the United Press

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[NormanStewart]

At request of ‘highly placed’ people –
Mrs. Browder upsets deportation order, gets a legal visa

Appeals Board acts despite objections of Army, Navy and FBI officials
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer

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[NormanStewart]

UNRRA to aid friend and foe

Delegates’ attitude tempered by mercy
By Hal O’Flaherty

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[NormanStewart]

Breaking of news monopolies requested by Congress

By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

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[NormanStewart]

10,000 tons of steel lost during strike

Attempt to end walkout made today

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[NormanStewart]

‘Pa’ Ferguson, once ousted as Texas Governor, dies

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[NormanStewart]

‘Cotton Ed’ leads New Deal foes

Washington (UP) –
Senator Ellison D. “Cotton Ed” Smith (D-SC), vigorous critic of the administration who was defeated for renomination this summer, said today that President Roosevelt “can be beaten in November – he must be if America is to be redeemed.”

The 79-year-old Senator blasted at the New Deal as he prepared to preside over a meeting of anti-fourth-term Democrats and farm representatives which he called in an effort to rally the farm vote behind the Republican Dewey-Bricker ticket.

Mr. Smith sought to leave the impression with reporters that he was not bitter about his defeat for renomination to the chamber in which he had served for 36 years.

“They liberated me,” he said.

“From what?”

He replied:

From bonds which tied my hands in regard to the administration. Now, I am free to do what I think best to redeem my country from these bureaucrats.

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Davis attacks Socialist forces

Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania (UP) –
U.S. Senator James J. Davis, Republican candidate for reelection, said last night that a victory for President Roosevelt in November would give the United States a representative at the peace conference who would be committed to Communist and Socialist forces supporting his campaign.

Mr. Davis, on a speaking tour of the state, said that the “Sidney Hillman-Earl Browder influence has been manifested in every act of the fourth-term candidate.” Mr. Davis said these influences would be a factor at the peace table in the event Mr. Roosevelt were reelected.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: How not to make peace

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[NormanStewart]

Editorial: Forward – not back

Henry A. Wallace, in New York last night, warned the American people that if the Republicans win in November: “We may return to the normalcy of a Harding and a 10-year decay into the panic of a Hoover.”

But Governor Dewey’s speech in San Francisco was a convincing answer to Mr. Wallace’s dismal forecast of disaster through Republican victory.

The great question, we believe, is whether Franklin D. Roosevelt or Thomas E. Dewey better understands how this country can provide jobs for all. Because, without understanding, it is idle to expect accomplishment. And Mr. Dewey gave a convincing answer to that question when he said:

There can be jobs for all only if business, industry and agriculture are able to provide those jobs, there are no clever shortcuts to this goal. It cannot be achieved by some ingenious scheme concocted by a social dreamer in a government bureau. The New Deal pulled rabbits out of the hat for seven years and ended up with 10 million still unemployed. We will achieve our objective only if we create an economic climate in which industry, business and agriculture can grow and flourish.

Nor does Mr. Dewey’s understanding stop with that. It compasses the proper role of government as a servant rather than a master of the people. It takes in the fact that government measures to influence broad economic conditions are both desirable and inevitable, but that these measures need not, and must not, deprive the people of political freedom under the pretext of giving them economic security.

The freedom he would preserve is not freedom for farmers “to go broke when there are peacetime surpluses and the prices of crops, fall ruinously” or for labor “to walk the streets in bad years, looking for work at any price.” It is freedom for agriculture and labor and industry to go forward together, helped and not hindered by their government, united and not divided by their President, toward the true security of peace and sound prosperity.

That – not the normalcy of a Harding or the panic of a Hoover – is Mr. Dewey’s goal.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: Vocal complications

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