The Pittsburgh Press (October 3, 1944)
Yanks cut Siegfried Line in big push on Cologne
U.S. troops knock out fortresses with bayonets and flamethrowers
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
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Japanese land near Chinese port
Seek to thwart U.S. invasion at Foochow
By the United Press
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Four-day bombings kill hundreds of Japs
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Teamsters boss indignant over story about scuffle
Tobin charges report is ‘political’
Washington (UP) –
President Daniel Tobin of the AFL Teamsters Union was highly indignant today at reports that he had been involved in a scuffle with two Navy men following the President’s speech at the Teamsters dinner a week ago Saturday and said he thought the reports were circulated for political purposes.
“I never heard of this affair until I read it in the papers,” Mr. Tobin said in New York.
Lt. Randolph Dickins Jr., the Navy officer who told his side of the story to reporters yesterday at Bethesda Naval Hospital where he has been a battle fatigue patient since July 18, did not recognize a picture of Mr. Tobin as one of the group.
Mr. Tobin said reports he has attacked the naval officers were “libelous and slanderous.” Such reports were circulated, he said, in hope “that a political purpose might be served by involving me in a disgraceful episode… for the purpose of injuring the candidates of the Democratic Party.”
Mr. Tobin also denied he had been “foolish enough” to telephone the White House, as reported, in an attempt to suppress publication of the incident.
Lt. Dickins said he and his companion were accosted by a group of men who “seemed to get rather angry” when the Navy men declined to answer questions about their political preferences.
The second naval officer involved in the scrap identified himself today as LtCdr. James H. Suddeth, 33, of Greer, South Carolina, on duty in the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics here.
Lt. Dickins said he personally knocked down four or five men, including one whom, he said, his assailants described as a personal friend of President Roosevelt. He said his companion was held down by the alleged attackers throughout the melee.
Cdr. Suddeth corroborated Lt. Dickins’ story except for what he called “a few minor differences.”
“Actually, I was only halfway down and I was doing any almightiest to get back up,” Cdr. Suddeth said.
Navy officials took the view that only “personal affairs” were involved and said there was no “official docketing” of the disturbance.
In response to a question as to whether news to the altercation would be sent to Navy personnel overseas, a Navy spokesman said:
The heavy load on naval communications necessitates limitations on the amount of material which may be included in the daily radio news digests. These limitations do not permit the inclusions of items of a controversial or political nature.
Meanwhile, Rep. John E. Rankin (D-MS) called for a thorough investigation of the altercation. He said he thought such an inquiry would be within the province of either the Navy or the Justice Department.
Jackie Cooper cleared by court in morals case
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Smith’s condition reported weaker
New York (UP) –
Former Governor Alfred E. Smith, who is gravely ill at Rockefeller Institute, was “weaker” today.
Dr. Raymond P. Sullivan said:
Mr. Smith has suffered a little relapse since 7:00 a.m. because of a congestion in his right lung and a consequent embarrassment to his heart and circulation.
Mr. Smith was visited yesterday by members of his family and Catholic Church dignitaries. John J. Raskob, industrialist and friend of the 1928 Democratic presidential candidate, saw him briefly.
Dewey will speak tonight on taxes
Albany, New York (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Republican presidential candidate, resumes active campaigning tonight with a 15-minute radio address on “a subject of vital importance to 50 million Americans – taxes.”
The speech will be broadcast from the New York State Executive Mansion over the Mutual Broadcasting System.
The address will be on WCAE from 8:45 to 9:00 p.m.
The Governor has been working on tonight’s talk with Elliott V. Bell, state superintendent of bank and a close advisor. They also devoted time to the address which Governor Dewey will deliver at Charleston, West Virginia, Saturday night. Originally the Charleston talk had been scheduled for Friday, Oct. 6, the night after President Roosevelt’s address scheduled Thursday night.
It is believed the contents of the Charleston talk will depend in some part in Mr. Roosevelt’s speech.
Rommel lost eyesight, clandestine radio says
London, England (UP) –
The clandestine Radio Atlantic said today that Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had lost his eyesight as the result of wounds received during an Allied air raid in Normandy July 17.
Leif Erikson Day set
Washington –
President Roosevelt today praised the descendants of Lief Erickson, Norse pioneer who attempted to settle on this continent more than 900 years ago, for the part they are playing in the battle for the “sacred cause of democracy.” Leif Erikson Day will be observed Oct. 9.
‘Death sitting beside you’ –
Doughboys save bridgehead with 3-week miracle stand
Shoes rot off in foxholes, as platoon holds hill against attacks of German tanks
By Collie Small, United Press staff writer
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Front reporter says –
No walkover due in attack above Aachen
Foxholes bolster West Wall pillboxes
By William H. Stoneman
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2,000 planes rip Nazi tank, truck plants
Fortresses pound southern Germany
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Navy chiefs map Japs’ destruction
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Fifth Army drives closer to Bologna
Yanks 16 miles from Po Valley city
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
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After the surrender –
Germany may get food from Allies
U.S., Britain to ship to western area
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Chinese peace plan studied
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Labor planning broad attack on pay ceiling
WLB will resume hearings tomorrow
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Insurance row causes strike
Bridgeport walkout one of five in district
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Perkins: Giving Congress pay reins would solve political mess
President could get off ‘Little Steel’ spot by following Monroney suggestion
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
Washington –
President Roosevelt could remove a ticklish political question from the campaign by adopting a suggestion that the important decision on breaking wartime wage controls should be made by Congress and not by the Executive.
He would be relieved of possible political repercussions, which are thought likely no matter which way he moves.
Congress will not be back in Washington until a week after the Nov. 7 election, and Congressional leaders hold that the decision then could be made without the political pressure that will exist in the next five weeks.
CIO backing fourth term
CIO unions, in the front of the drive to smash the “Little Steel” formula of wage control, are pressing the War Labor Board to get its recommendations on the President’s desk not later than Oct. 16. Philip Murray, CIO president, denied any political implications, but insisted on the deadline. The CIO unions, through the Political Action Committee headed by Sidney Hillman, are prominent in the drive for the fourth term.
The suggestion that Congress make the decision was presented to Judge Fred M. Vinson, Director of Economic Stabilization, by Rep. A. S. “Mike” Monroney (D-OK), who has been active in stabilization legislation. He wrote to Judge Vinson:
Because wages and prices are so closely tied together, I would hike to insist that before any modification of the “Little Steel” formula is made, Congress be given a chance to approve or disapprove this important step…
To break through the “Little Steel” formula now would result in a general upward movement of all prices, of great enough degree to cancel out all, or almost all, of the real purchasing power of any increase.
Formula not in law
The formula is not written into law, but has been given such support by executive orders of the President that the WLB has stated it cannot make a change. It can only advise Mr. Roosevelt – the only official with power to decide – who finds himself called on to approve or disapprove a pay raise for groups including millions who are regarded as his political supporters.
The political implications figured yesterday when the WLB received Statements opposing immediate changes from Robert M. Gaylord, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, and Eric A. Johnston, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Political football
Mr. Gaylord’s statement included a regret “that a decision on this issue has been postponed until this time, when circumstances make it a political football.”
John Brophy, a CIO member of the board, asked if the issue “wouldn’t be just as political after election,” and the NAM president replied, “That depends on the kind of a deal made before election.”
Mr. Johnston was not pulled into the political discussion, but was asked by Mr. Brophy what he thought of the guaranteed annual wage being demanded by some big unions. Mr. Johnston said he had “always been in favor of leveling out the peaks and valleys of industrial production,” and recently had initiated studies looking toward “a more stable pay envelope” for all the employees of American industry.
Meanwhile, some industrialists were wondering if the President would call into consultation an industry war advisory committee which he formed a year ago, but piety has not met since Oct. 27, 1943.
The industry committee includes B. F. Fairless (president of U.S. Steel Corporation), Frederick C. Crawford (former president of NAM), Richard R. Deupree (head of Procter & Gamble Company), George H. Mead of the Mead Corporation in Dayton and an industry member of the WLB, David Sarnoff (president of RCA) and several others.