Editorial: Let Henry punish Germany
…
Perkins: Communist meeting backs Roosevelt to last comrade
Dewey characterized as ‘Hoover stooge’ with dangerous Fascist tendencies
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
Washington –
In one of this non-voting city’s infrequent political meetings, the leading Communists of the community made it clear last night beyond any doubt where their votes will go this year – they are for FDR to the last comrade.
Governor Thomas E. Dewey was characterized as not only a “Hoover stooge" but as a dangerous person of pronounced Fascist tendencies, something like Hitler.
James W. Ford, Negro and three-time vice-presidential nominee of the Communist Party, did this characterizing in a calm and cultured voice. Comrade Ford drew the comparison of Dewey with Hitler as follows:
Dewey is unable to answer the questions raised by Roosevelt so he adopts the Hitler policy of telling big lies. With added boldness following his speech in Oklahoma City he has adopted the Hitler purge policy – he says he will purge Earl Browder, the CIO-PAC, Sidney. Hillman, Madame Perkins, and Ickes.
National anthem opens meeting
The proceedings opened with “The Star-Spangled Banner.” There was an appeal for blood donors for war purposes, and $38 was collected to buy Christmas packages for local Communists serving in the Armed Forces.
Also, there was a plug for a new book by Earl Browder, Tehran, and the paid circulation of that Production was increased on the spot by 25. Mr. Browder, the habitual presidential candidate of the former Communist Party, is now president of the Communist Political Association. The meeting was in observance of the 25th anniversary of the Communist movement in the United States.
James L. Branca, a paid organizer of the party and president of the Washington branch, explains that the Communist Party no longer exists and that its place has been taken by the Association, the motives of which, he said, are “educational.”
Praises Negroes’ progress
Mr. Ford devoted much of his speech to praising the progress of Negroes in recent years, and he credited nearly all of it to President Roosevelt, and especially to the latter’s use of his executive power in creating the Fair Employment Practice Committee.
He described both major parties as part of the “bourgeois democracy system,” and said Mr. Roosevelt is a representative of “bourgeois democracy.” So, he said, is Mr. Dewey, but not as acceptable a one as Mr. Roosevelt. This was the nearest he got to the vernacular of the Marxian philosophy to which the American Communists cling.
Denounces Negro leader
Mr. Ford bitterly denounced Edgar Brown of Washington, head of the National Negro Council, who is opposing reelection of President Roosevelt.
But Mr. Ford had kind words for a leading spokesman for the American capitalistic system – none other than Eric Johnston, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He quoted Mr. Johnston as saying, “The present capitalistic system is on trial, and we must make it work.” Mr. Ford, referring to Mr. Johnston’s recent visit to Moscow, remarked “He has learned much in recent months.”
Mr. Ford said, to prolonged applause:
Basically, the policies of President Roosevelt are those we have fought for. Our inevitable duty is to see that he is again elected.
Stokes: Dewey optimism
By Thomas L. Stokes
With Dewey party –
Governor Dewey came back to New York from his transcontinental trip in quest of the Presidency, with his spirits and those of his campaign managers in a state of optimism, largely as a result of the fighting technique he adopted in the final stages with his direct attack on President Roosevelt at Oklahoma City.
Throwing off the wraps had an obviously elating effect upon the Republican presidential candidate, again the young District Attorney prosecuting a case, as it did upon Republican Party workers encountered since, in Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. Talking back to Mr. Roosevelt is the medicine that was needed to pep up the campaign, they said.
The enthusiastic response of his audience at Oklahoma City had an exhilarating reaction upon Governor Dewey. His managers immediately scheduled four additional stops in Oklahoma and Missouri.
About once an hour until midnight he was out on the back platform, smiling down upon hilarious crowds at every stop, a rousing stump speaker denouncing Sidney Hillman, Earl Browder, Secretaries Harold Ickes, and Frances Perkins and Harry Hopkins, pledging a housecleaning it he goes to Washington, satirizing bureaucratic government.
Different figure now
Mr. Dewey was a different figure than the calmer man who had devoted his previous major speeches to catching up with the New Deal social welfare program as he traveled down the Pacific Coast, now with a bit of the air of the rabblerouser. He spit out harsh adjectives, calling the New Dealers “that motley crew,” “that leprous collection,” and referring to the minions of the big city bosses – Ed Kelly of Chicago and Frank Hague of Jersey City and Tom Pendergast of Kansas City – as “hoodlums.”
Comparing notes in the private car, the candidate and his aides toted up these gains as they saw them from his western tour:
-
They forced President Roosevelt to take the political stump earlier than had been expected, noting that the President has now added additional “political” speeches to his October program.
-
They drew blood from the administration by the charge that it was planning to keep millions of men in the Army after the war to take up probable unemployment, at least that is what they read in Maj. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey’s statement that Selective Service accepted responsibility for demobilization and the lifting of controls by the War Manpower Commission on veterans so they could seek any sort of civilian jobs they wanted.
-
Governor Dewey has now removed the post-war international organization issue and the New Deal social welfare program from the realm of debate, leaving him free now to devote himself to an analysis of the defects of administration by the Roosevelt administration.
-
He injected new enthusiasm into part workers by the conferences he held with them in the states he visited.
Republicans optimistic
Republicans were found by newspaper correspondents who talked with them on the trip to be in a very optimistic frame of mind, even in states now seemingly safe for President Roosevelt, working hard, expecting some sort of break to play into their hands, and ready to capitalize upon it.
The campaign plainly took a new turn with Governor Dewey’s frontal attack on President at Oklahoma City, and it will be interesting to watch whether this is the beginning of a trend, or whether President Roosevelt can still hold the advantage that he apparently now holds.
All tired out, Ernie Pyle gets no rest in New York
His name and face are better known than ever but his year-old hat still fits
By Lee G. Miller, Scripps-Howard staff writer
…
Gracie Allen Reporting
Hollywood, California –
The World Series situation has the men in our neighborhood all excited, but it has me all confused. George refuses to discuss it with me – he says I don’t understand baseball. Would his face be red if he knew my brother used to be a quarterback!
But anyway, there must be millions of you wives in the same fix, so I’ve figured this thing out by reading the newspapers and I’ll explain it to you.
It seems that the Browns of St. Louis – and there must be thousands of them in a city of that size – have a baseball team, and they are practically tied with the Detroit team for the lead. And the newspaper headline says: “The Winning Team Will Play Cards.” Well, that doesn’t make sense at all. You’d think the losing team would play cards and the winning team would play baseball.
That’s all I’ve figured out up to now, but I’ll have more information about it later.
G.I. Joe to get World Series by shortwave
Uncle Sam plans special service
By Si Steinhauser
G.I. Joe won’t have to wait for mail from home to know who wins every game in the World Series, beginning Wednesday, Oct. 4. Uncle Sam’s Armed Forces Radio Service has seen to that and they’ll give the boys the games right from the field, commercials deleted. Until this year but one shortwave transmitter was used to carry the big games Over There. This time there will be six, one in New York and two in Cincinnati for the European and Mediterranean theaters of war and three on the West Coast for the South Pacific and South and Central America.
It will be a thrilling thing to know that the kids over there may take time out between shots at the Boche and Nips to whisper back to their pals whose ears are glued to the receiver “what’s the score now?”
Tonight’s Town Meeting will discuss the returning serviceman’s preferential rights over senior workers.
Igor Gorin and Keene Wynn will be George Murphy’s guests on the Bing Crosby Hour. Murphy subs for Bing while the latter is overseas.
Pittsburgh’s Jimmy Murray, sales promotion manager of the Blue Network, can’t keep out of sports. Following old habits here, he will describe the Cornell-Bucknell game in Saturday for the Blue.
A cosmetics firm tried to interest Tommy Manville in a radio series called My Autobiography of Famous Loves, but he said “nix.”
Ed “Archie” Gardner boasts that he has played at least 1,000 holes of golf with the famous links star, Babe Didrickson. “And,” boasts the boss of Duffy’s Tavern, “I’ll never forget the time I won one.”
Paul LaValle, maestro of Basin Street and Stradivarius broadcasts, adds the Lucille Manners hour beginning tomorrow night. He will feature a 35-piece string orchestra, largest of its kind on the air. Jessica Dragonette feature the program for seven years and Miss Manners nine.
A lotion maker is dealing with the silent screen’s Gloria Swanson for an air series about the movies.
Jim Cassidy, NBC’s reporter in the Belgian area, got as big a kick as his listeners out of his report of a Nazi trick that backfired. The Germans set up a loudspeaker system in a forest and the commander ordered the Yanks to “surrender or die.” Jim said:
That’s all the Yanks wanted to know so they just opened fire with their artillery, the loudspeaker was silenced and the Nazis didn’t even get a chance to surrender. They died.
Another radio guy reports a sign in a neutral Madrid store window. It read, “Germany Will Invade Europe Industrially.” A pro-Allied wag write below, “With what, Grandma’s spinning wheel?”
Patti Dawson of the new serial, Rosemary, is named for and patterned after Patti Carrington, the 15-year-old daughter of the author, Elaine Carrington. Rosemary will be portrayed by Betty Winkler, who played Rosemary in Abie’s Irish Rose on the New York stage.
Tom Howard of It Pays To Be Ignorant and his daughter, Ruth, have written a son carrying his program’s title. It invites everyone to “be a dope” and among other things the lyrics says, “When there ain’t no income, there ain’t no income tax.”
Tom’s funniest gag to our way of thinking is the one about the dame with dishpan hands and a dishpan.
“Rosie the Riveter” has a sister. She’s “Dungaree Nell,” the star of a new song.
She doesn’t care what other girls wear, no feminine touch, no makeup or such. The shoes on her feet are like the cop’s on the beat. Her cap’s pulled way down on her eyes. Her love she declares on the jacket she wears for on the back is written “Bill.”
Sounds like something.
Artie Auerbach, who became a radio bigshot as Phil Baker’s “Mister Kitzel,” will join Abbott and Costello when they return to the air next week. Artie is a former newspaper photographer turned comedian.
Radio’s Silver Theater passes out of the picture for keeps after Sunday’s broadcast. Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Hilliard take over the time.
Lee Kelton will have seven-year-old David Badger of Mt. Lebanon as his guest piano soloist with the WJAS staff band this evening. The lad will play Bach and Mozart works.
Station WISR (Butler) will celebrate its fourth birthday with a banquet tomorrow night. Rosey Roswell will head a Pittsburgh delegation.
Very funny and ironic.
2 Likes
Völkischer Beobachter (September 29, 1944)
Die wachsende Kraft der Westfront –
‚Arnheim mehr als eine verlorene Schlacht‘
Eisenhowers Umfassungsplan gescheitert
dr. th. b. Stockholm, 28. September –
Die Vernichtung der 1. englischen Luftlandedivision bei Arnheim hat bei den noch immer im Siegesrausch lebenden englischen Massen eine schockartige Ernüchterung ausgelöst.
Vergeblich hatten die militärischen Mitarbeiter der großen englischen Blätter bereits in den Vortagen vor einem Überoptimismus gewarnt, auf die Abschnürung der Verbindungslinien nach Arnheim hingewiesen und betont, daß man sich die noch bevorstehenden Kämpfe als keinen militärischen Spaziergang vorstellen dürfe. Die Massen wollten die Wahrheit einfach nicht mehr sehen und glauben und der moralische Rückschlag ist dementsprechend groß, wie folgende Meldung des Aftonbladet aus London deutlich zeigt:
„Das viele Gerede über einen sicheren Sieg vor Jahresende ist durch die Entwicklung in den letzten Wochen in eine realistischere Perspektive gerückt. Die deutsche Verteidigung ist zu einer eisernen Mauer gefestigt, die nicht mehr nachgibt.“ Noch weigert man sich im Hauptquartier Eisenhowers, den schweren Rückschlag bei Arnheim einzugestehen. Aber schon ist in den Berichten die bekannte Phrase aufgetaucht, „die Lage sei fließend und undurchsichtig.“
Es sei verständlich, so heißt es in der Times weiter, daß der erfolgreiche Einsatz von Luftlandetruppen große Begeisterung in England ausgelöst habe. Trotzdem müsse man die Grenzen ihres Einsatzes erkennen. Zu glauben, daß man mit Luftlandetruppen Deutschland erobern könne, sei mehr als töricht.
Bei den Kämpfen im mittelholländischen Raum haben die Briten noch eine weitere Überraschung erlebt: den Einsatz starker deutscher Luftstreitkräfte.
„Am Dienstagabend,“ so heißt es in einer Meldung aus London, „wurden mächtige Luftkämpfe über Holland zwischen der englischamerikanischen und der deutschen Luftwaffe gemeldet. Letztere entwickelte eine solche Stärke wie seit ihren Glanztagen nicht mehr.“ Im Hauptquartier Eisenhowers schweigt man, um den Kampfverlauf möglichst zu verdunkeln und der Öffentlichkeit die bei den schweren Kämpfen erlittenen Verluste zu verheimlichen.
Besonderen Eindruck hat auf die amerikanische Öffentlichkeit, in der übrigens das Verlangen wächst, die „Boys“ bald wieder zu Hause zu haben, ein Aufsatz des Berichterstatters der New York Times bei der ersten amerikanischen Armee gemacht. Dieser gibt zu, daß der Versuch Eisenhowers, das Rheindelta zu überspringen und den Westwall vom Norden her zu umfassen, gescheitert ist. Er schreibt:
Wenn der britische Stoß durch Holland rund um das nördliche Ende des Westwalls nicht schnelle Fortschritte macht – und es sieht nicht so aus – bestehen große Aussichten dafür, daß sich unsere Armeen in diesem Winter festrennen. Vielleicht könnte es der ersten amerikanischen Armee gelingen, bis an den Rhein vorzustoßen. Auf der anderen Seite gibt es so viele Schwierigkeiten, die mit Operationen großen Stiles in Nordwesteuropa während des Spätherbstes verbunden sind, daß ein Durchbruch in das Herz Deutschlands an dieser Front in hohem Grade unwahrscheinlich ist.
Die Amerikaner, so fährt der Berichterstatter der New York Times fort, sollten außerdem jede Hoffnung auf einen inneren Zusammenbruch Deutschlands begraben. Er habe mit vielen Persönlichkeiten aus neutralen Ländern gesprochen und sei dabei zu dem Ergebnis gekommen, daß ein innerer Zusammenbruch Deutschlands ferner von aller Wirklichkeit liege als jemals zuvor. Es sei eben nicht so, daß der Krieg in fünf Minuten oder in fünf Wochen zu Ende sein werde.
Zu diesen Feststellungen des amerikanischen Journalisten schreibt der Neuyorker Vertreter des Svenska Dagbladet, sie spiegle die Ansicht maßgebender Kreise in Washington wider, wo man immer mehr von einem neuen Feldzug im kommenden Frühjahr zu sprechen beginne. Das gleiche ist in London der Fall. Dort hatte man die englischen und amerikanischen Panzerverbände schon in die norddeutsche Tiefebene einströmen gesehen, um jetzt einzugestehen, daß das Scheitern der Luftlandeoperationen bei Arnheim nichts anderes bedeutet, „als daß sich die Aussichten für die baldige Beendigung des Krieges im Westen erheblich verringert haben.“
Zu der im Feindlager eingetretenen Ernüchterung hat weiter beigetragen, daß die englischen und amerikanischen Truppen überall an der Westfront auf einen Gegner gestoßen sind, der trotz der schweren Rückschläge des Sommers nichts von seiner Kampfhärte verloren hat. „Es war eine traurige Kavalkade von erschöpften, verschmutzten und zerschlissenen Männern, die aus Arnheim zurückkehrten,“ heißt es in einem englischen Bericht. Ein britischer Sergeant erklärte:
„Das Schlachtfeld von Arnheim war eine Hölle, wie man sie sich auch im Traum auf dieser Welt nicht vorstellen kann. Es war ein fürchterlicher Kampf, der Tag und Nacht vor sich ging, ein furchtbares Leiden, ein Ringen auf Leben und Tod, in dem kein Pardon gegeben wurde.“ Ein englischer Offizier sagte: „Ich war mit in Kreta. Es war ein Kinderspiel gegen das Schlachtfeld vor Arnheim.“
Wenn man aber auf amtlicher englischer Seite, immer noch den Versuch machen sollte, die Bedeutung der Vernichtung der 1. Luftlandedivision zu bagatellisieren, dann braucht man nur an die Ausführungen zu erinnern, die der Daily Telegraph noch am 25. September machte:
Für den weiteren Verlauf des Krieges hängt viel von der Zähigkeit unserer Männer bei Arnheim ab und von den Anstrengungen, die zu ihrer Verstärkung aus der Luft und zur Aufnahme der Verbindungen zu Lande gemacht werden. Jetzt, da die Schlacht bei Arnheim in ein kritisches Stadium gerückt ist, sind die Operationen in der Luft wichtiger als jemals zuvor. Die Deutschen haben aus Avranches sehr viel gelernt.
Geradezu dramatische Töne schlug die Sunday Times an. Die Augen der Welt, so schrieb sie, seien auf Arnheim gerichtet. Ohne Übertreibung könne man sagen, daß zurzeit ein schrecklicher Augenblick in der Geschichte Europas kommen werde. Die Hoffnungen der Alliierten und die Befürchtungen der Deutschen kreisten um Arnheim.
Nach solchen Worten ist es kein Wunder, daß für das englische Volk die Vernichtung der 1. Luftlandedivision mehr bedeutet als eine verlorene Schlacht.