America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

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Ammunition for GOP –
Perkins: Roosevelt left out in limb by WLB’s inaction

Pay decision now is tied to election
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Washington –
Critics of the Roosevelt administration’s labor policies, including Governor Dewey, will find more ammunition for their attacks in the current situation of the War Labor Board.

This board, after spending 10 months in compiling a huge mass of testimony and arguments on the question of revising the Little Steel formula which is the basis of wartime wage control now has disqualified itself, through the stand of its public members from making a recommendation to the President.

The effect is that Mr. Roosevelt, before or after election, will have to make a one-man decision affecting the incomes of an estimated 20 million Americans and with possible repercussions on all other citizens. Through the mechanics of the stabilization program, Mr. Roosevelt could make this decision anyway, but he would be helped in the public mind if he had some backing from the agency that was appointed to handle the wartime wage problem.

Heat applied to President

Thus “the heat” is applied to Mr. Roosevelt, in the closing weeks of his effort for a fourth term, by an agency of his own creation and with the labor members of this agency announcing they will see that the question is before him well in advance of Nov. 7.

If Mr. Roosevelt decides the issue before election, he will have to choose between pleasing or disappointing the labor groups now supporting him; and between risking a defection of labor votes or of chancing an inflationary rise in cost-of-living prices affecting other groups. If he defers the question until after election he will disappointing the labor spokesmen, including Philip Murray of the CIO and George Meany of the AFL, who have shown a determination to get the issue on the presidential desk by the end of next week.

The WLB directed public members to submit the first draft of their report on the cost of living and inequities between wages and prices next Tuesday and then recessed until that date, thus delaying by five more days, at least, Board action to speed the report to the White House.

Labor to fight delays

The labor group of WLB had declared it will not wait for the lengthy processes of the board, including consultation with other government bureaus concerned with stabilization, but will send its plea directly to the White House. This would be contrary to bureau procedure, but would concentrate the heat where the labor spokesmen think it would have most effect.

Board has ‘failed’ President

The labor members of WLB declared:

The wage-earners of this country are entitled to know, and to know now, in direct and specific language, what this board intends to recommend to the President. By dodging this responsibility with another factfinding report, the Board has demonstrated a timidity unworthy of men charged with so important a phase of our war activities.

The President has relied upon the Board to advise him in matters affecting wage stabilization. At a crucial moment in the administration of that policy, the Board has failed him.

Industries with dispute cases with unions before the WLB are alarmed at the Board’s apparent determination to decide pending cases under present stabilization policies “immediately” after completing its report to the President.

‘Ickes makes us sickies,’ USC Trojans say

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O’Daniel charges probe is ‘smear’

Says facts about his paper are on record

Washington (UP) –
The Senate Campaign Expenditures Committee, now engaged in an informal study of the “Battle of the Statler,” headed toward a new controversy today, this time over the anti-Roosevelt newspaper published by Senator W. Lee “Pass the Biscuits Pappy” O’Daniel (D-TX).

Chairman Theodore F. Green (D-RI), who has set Oct. 18 and 19 for public hearings into the W. Lee O’Daniel News, was asked by the Texas Senator to “stop smearing” him and to call off his “gumshoe investigators.”

O’Daniel charges ‘smear’

Declaring that Mr. Green’s job “is to smear, not investigate,” Mr. O’Daniel said all facts concerning his publication – subscriber lists, receipts, names of staff members and the paper’s backers – had been on public file with the Post Office Department for five months.

Mr. O’Daniel said:

If Green had been as interested in getting the facts as he was in smearing a United States Senator, he would have found all this out long ago, instead of making a mystery out of it and then passing it along to New Deal propaganda minister Drew Pearson to broadcast on the radio.

No decision on tussle

Mr. Green told reporters that there was still no decision on whether the Committee would hold public hearings into the tussle that took place at the Statler Hotel here shortly after President Roosevelt’s address to the AFL Teamsters Union Sept. 23. Two naval officers and reportedly members of the union were the principals.

Committee Counsel Robert T. Murphy is now in New York hoping to see Daniel Tobin, president of the Teamsters, Mr. Green said. The chairman refused to comment on reports that the officers involved were intoxicated.

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A free Italy pledged again by Roosevelt

Nation told it can decide own destiny

New York (UP) –
President Roosevelt, in a brief radio address from the White House, reaffirmed last night that the Italian people “will be free to work out their own destiny under a government of their own choosing” when Allied armies have completed the liberation of Italy.

Accepting a Four Freedoms Award made by the Italian-American Labor Council, he also said that the United Nations are determined that “every possible measure be taken to aid the Italian people directly, and to give them an opportunity to help themselves.”

“To the people of Italy,” he said, “we have pledged our help – and we will keep the faith!”

Italy is ‘paying now’

The President’s speech was followed by an address, broadcast from Rome, by Premier Ivanoe Bonomi of Italy, who said that Italy now “is worthy of retaking her place among the free democracies of the word” and asked the American people that his country be “welcomed as a sister who has long suffered.”

Bonomi said:

Italy is paying now with her war-stricken land, her destroyed cities, slain or deported citizens and the loss of wealth, for the sims of having too long tolerated the dictatorship of a sawdust Ceasar who had neither honor nor genius.

May I ask you to welcome this returning Italy who, in the day wherein you celebrate the glory of one of her sons and the united fortunes of America, asks only for that justice to which she is entitled.

Aid to Italy cited

Mr. Roosevelt said the American and British governments agreed that their responsibility to help Italy “is great.” Then he outlined what has been done and what the Allies propose to do in the way of aid to Italy.

The mails have been opened for letters to the liberated provinces. Facilities are now available for small remittances of funds from this country to individuals in Italy for their individual support. Shipment of food and clothing have been delivered. Normal life is being gradually introduced. We are taking every step possible to permit the early sending of individual packages by Americans to their loved ones in Italy.

Our objective is to restore all avenues of trade, commerce and industry, and the free exercise of religion, at the earliest possible moment.

Help to Allies lauded

He also lauded the contribution to the Allied war effort of the Italian people, who he said, had been thrown by Mussolini “into an alliance which they detested.”

It was Mr. Roosevelt’s second tribute of the day to the Italian people. Earlier in a Columbus Day address to Latin American diplomats, he told of “Italians bravely fighting for the liberation of their country.”

The President received from Premier Bonomi a Columbus Day cablegram expressing thanks for the “rebirth” of friendship between Italy and the United States and asserting that the ties joining “the new Italy” and the United States were “cemented and reinforced by the blood shed together against a common enemy.”

Biddle presents award

Attorney General Francis Biddle, who received the Four Freedoms Award last year, presented this year’s award to Mr. Roosevelt, asserting that the President’s decision two years ago to regard the Italian people in the United States as non-enemy aliens had been completely justified.

Mr. Biddle said:

The President believed that these 600,000 people who lived in our American land were able and willing to fight against tyranny; the records prove that Italians in our country were proud to do so. The war effort has been benefited immeasurably by their participation.

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Truman begins first leg of swing around country

Aboard Truman’s campaign train (UP) –
Senator Harry S. Truman, Democratic vice-presidential nominee, rolled west across Texas today on the first leg of the avowedly political part of his swing around the country.

He will arrive Sunday morning at Los Angeles where he will discuss reconversion Monday night in the first campaign address of his current tour. He scheduled platform appearances at Houston, San Antonio and El Paso.

He entrained last night at New Orleans where he had spent three days and attended the annual conference of the Mississippi Valley Association. In two addresses yesterday he said floor control should be given first priority among post-war public works projects and urged using the experience of the Tennessee Valley Authority as a guide for developing other river valleys particularly the Missouri.

Mr. Truman traveled in a special car attached to a regular train on the Southern Pacific Railroad. He was accompanied by Matthew Connelly (his secretary), Hugh Fulton (former counsel of the Senate Truman Committee) and Edward McKim of Omaha, Nebraska (insurance man and old personal friend who served under Mr. Truman during World War I). Mr. Fulton will be the nominee’s principal adviser in the preparation of his speeches.

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Dewey favors Jewish nation in Palestine

Governor reviews Columbus Day parade

Albany, New York (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey said today that he “heartily endorsed” proposals to reconstitute Palestine as a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth.

The Republican presidential nominee issued a statement supporting the Palestine plank of the GOP platform after a conference with Dr. Abba Hillel Silver of Cleveland, chairman of the executive committee of the National Zionist Emergency Council.

Favors Palestine opening

Governor Dewey said:

I heartily endorse the Palestine plank in the Republican platform. I again repeat what I previously stated to the great leader of the American Zionist movement and distinguished American, Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, that I am for the reconstruction of Palestine as a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth, in accordance with the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the resolution of the Republican Congress in 1922. I have also stated to Dr. Silver that in order to give refuge to millions of distressed Jews, driven from their homes. I favor the opening of Palestine to their unlimited immigration and land ownership.

Governor Dewey and his wife registered last night to vote in New York City. He gave his age as 42 and his residence as the Roosevelt Hotel.

Windup plans set

Governor Dewey plans to deal with international affairs, agricultural problems and the future of small business during the closing days of his campaign, it was reported reliably today.

He will discuss foreign policy next Wednesday at the Herald Tribune Forum in New York City. The farm speech probably will be delivered on his trip through the Midwest and the problems of small business in one of the Eastern talks.

Governor Dewey, it was said, is planning a strenuous “stretch drive.” This strategy was seen in his decision to return here last night, rather than remain in New York City. His aides said there would not be so many interruptions if they worked on the speeches at the capital.

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Bricker urges world bases to protect U.S. interests

GOP candidate ends Oregon tour, begins in California tomorrow

Aboard Bricker campaign train (UP) –
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker wound up his campaign for Oregon’s six electoral votes today after coming out for U.S. maintenance of bases to protect American interests “around the world if necessary.”

The Republican vice-presidential nominee made only three rear-platform talks on the eve of his entrance into California, whose 25 electoral votes have remained a political prize since they topped the scales in favor of Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

Governor Bricker chatted with railroad station gatherings at Roseburg, Grants Pass and Medford during his final day in Oregon. He will meet California Governor Earl Warren at Sacramento tomorrow, speak at luncheon there, and appear at Richmond, Berkeley and Oakland before making a major address at San Francisco tomorrow night.

Clarifies stand on bases

Mr. Bricker’s endorsement of protective bases was made last night at Eugene, Oregon, when he told a press conference the United States “should maintain bases within our sphere of responsibility.”

In response to questions, he explained he meant “sphere of responsibility to trade and security.”

“We should maintain bases wherever our interests lie,” he said, adding that he did not necessarily mean military bases in every ocean and on every continent, but “bases from which we could protect our spheres everywhere.”

“And there’s no imperialistic design in that either,” he said.

Oregon students parade

Governor Bricker’s final formal speech in Oregon was delivered at the University of Oregon, where hundreds of students greeted him with a torchlight parade. He charged that bureaucrats were “stuffed to the suffocation point” through the nation and demanded that the bureaucratic system “patchwork” be “taken apart and streamlined government substituted.”

Subversive charge answered by Hillman

New York (UP) –
Sidney Hillman, CIO Political Action Committee chairman, yesterday charged Ohio Governor John W. Bricker, GOP vice-presidential candidate, with “deliberately impugning the patriotism of the more than five million members of the CIO and other millions of Americans who support its purpose.”

Terming Mr. Bricker’s charge that the PAC is subversive, “the cry of a defeated candidate,” Mr. Hillman said “the Republicans are scared” by the large registration totals “and so Governor Bricker has been selected to do the unutterably filthy job of setting neighbor against neighbor – a job which, from his easy association with Gerald L. K. Smith and other American Fascists, he is well equipped to undertake.”

Mr. Hillman said:

As for the allegation that there is anything remotely illegal in the work of the PAC, the record is quite clear. Two Congressional committees, in addition to the Department of Justice, have investigated PAC and no finding of law violation has been made.

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‘Cold storage’ urged for some Roosevelt aides

Washington (UP) –
Senator Edwin C. Johnson (D-CO) suggested today that Earl Browder, Sidney Hillman and Vice President Henry A. Wallace be placed “in cold storage along with Eleanor” – Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt – for the rest of the campaign.

Mr. Johnson, who personally opposed third and fourth term nominations for President Roosevelt, said the three men “are proving to be a millstone around the President’s neck.”

He said the task of putting them in “cold storage” should go to DNC Chairman Robert E. Hannegan.

Mr. Johnston said his suggestion was based on a belief that the Communist leader, the chairman of the CIO Political Action Committee and the retiring Vice President are alienating independent votes by the prominent parts they are taking in the Democratic campaign.

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Mrs. Luce, Kerr open Illinois fight

Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Rep. Clare Boothe Luce, GOP glamor girl, and Oklahoma Governor Robert S. Kerr, keynoter of the Democratic National Convention last July, will feature tonight’s opening battle for Illinois’ 29 electoral votes.

Mrs. Luce will speak at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall and Governor Kerr will address a Democratic rally at Joliet.

KQV will broadcast Mrs. Luce’s speech at 10:00 p.m. ET.

Mrs. Luce urges change

Both speakers participated in warmup address last night, Mrs. Luce addressing a pro-America Republican women’s organization rally at St. Louis and Governor Kerr speaking at Duluth, Minnesota.

Mrs. Luce called upon the nation’s voters to “do your part in changing horses this year, including Senator Harry S. Truman, the new end of the horse that was cleared at Chicago by Sidney Hillman.”

Dewey ‘shadowboxed’

Governor Kerr told his Duluth audience that in his speech at Oklahoma City, Governor Dewey only “shadowboxed with the champ, leaving unanswered pressing farm problems and a pledge for international cooperation.”

Governor Kerr called Governor Dewey’s indictment of President Roosevelt for unpreparedness “contemptible” unless it is backed by the Republican nominee’s own “record of preparedness for war and peace – a record I fail to find.”

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Martin charges ‘vote buying’ by Roosevelt

Attacks New Deal’s ‘blundering waste’

Springfield, Massachusetts (UP) –
Pennsylvania Governor Edward Martin today attacked the Roosevelt administration for “flooding the land with promises” and for not having been prepared for World War II.

Mr. Martin said in an address prepared for delivery to the Republican Women’s Club:

The economy promise of 1933 had gone with the wind before the end of that year. Blundering waste and reckless extravagance played their parts in the enormous peacetime debt increase.

When the fourth-term candidate took office in 1933, there were about 550,000 employees on the federal payroll. On Dec. 6, 1941, the eve of Pearl Harbor, the number had risen to more than 1.5 million. Today it is more than three million. Nobody seems to know how many more.

Mr. Martin referred to President Roosevelt’s criticism of the Hoover administration for “piling bureau on bureau, commission on commission,” and then compared the national setup of 1932 with that of today when “there are many more such bureaus and commissions.”

‘Indicts’ Roosevelt

Mr. Martin said:

As a responsible American citizen, I indict Franklin D. Roosevelt for his failure to prepare for World War I for his domestic policies that left us 10 million unemployed, years after the worldwide depression had ended in other nations, and for his attempted packing of the Supreme Court and his political debauchery of that tribunal.

Mr. Martin also accused Mr. Roosevelt of “buying elections by long lists of federal employees trained to snoop into the private affairs of people,” and for “New Deal blunders, quarrels, crackdowns, mistakes and indecisions and for lifting into high places of this nation, men and women of doubtful loyalties.”

Raps ‘swing to left’

The Pennsylvania Chief Executive “indicted” Mr. Roosevelt additionally for the “steady swing of the federal government toward the left and toward the dangerous totalitarianism that has made a shambles of the Old World and has turned back the clock of civilization."

President Roosevelt was accused by Mr. Martin of not heeding U.S. Army and Navy leaders’ “pleas” for increased forces, and added that “there is no military reason why the American people should not be told about what happened” at Pearl Harbor.

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Labor gains under Dewey, Italian told

Record as Governor pointed out here

What Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s labor policy will be if he is elected to the Presidency must be judged on his record in New York State, a member of his cabinet asserted here today.

Edward Corsi, industrial commissioner for New York, who is making a nationwide tour on behalf of the Dewey candidacy, declared at a luncheon attended by prominent Italian leaders here that the record has been a good one.

Mr. Corsi said:

A study of his labor policy shows that in this war emergency he has not only preserved all if labor’s gains but strengthened its position.

Allowances most liberal

He said the Governor has given labor the greatest representation in his administration that it has ever attained in New York State, added that unemployment compensation and workmen’s compensation laws have been liberalized, with the allowances the most liberal granted in the United States.

Mr. Corsi said:

Under his administration, the state enacted the equal pay bill for women workers who do the same work as men. The first labor university in the country was established under state auspices.

He cited as outstanding the freezing by the Dewey administration of its $165-million surplus as a fund for the relief of returning veterans who seek jobs and said the state now has an unemployment reserve of $800 million to meet post-war unemployment problems.

Proved his ability

Mr. Corsi said:

Governor Dewey has proved his ability to conduct a liberal administration which has strengthened labor’s position. He can transit his program to a national scale.

Mr. Corsi was formerly Commissioner of Welfare in New York City and before that was Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island. In the company of Attorney Joseph Rossi, he met many Republican leaders here today.

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Village honors dead Yank for outstanding courage

Sergeant riddled by Nazi bullets while trying to save buddy from flaming tank
By Robert W. Richards, United Press staff writer

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2732

Battle faced on creation of new League

Peace ‘hamstringing’ charged by Senator

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Churchill pays tribute to Willkie

Washington (UP) –
Wendell L. Willkie “will always be remembered” by Great Britain for “the warmth of his support” in Britain’s darkest days, Prime Minister Winston Churchill said in a cablegram to Mrs. Willkie released by the British Embassy today.

Mr. Churchill’s message said:

I am greatly grieved to hear of your husband’s death and beg you to accept my deepest sympathy. His visit to our blitzed cities and the warmth of our support for Britain’s resistance was a source of much comfort to us in those dark days, and will always be remembered by those who had the privilege of meeting him and by countless others. We salute a great American.

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Simms: Allied action put Hungary on Nazi side

Country was left defenseless
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor

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2734

Aachen ghost city but still not destroyed

Fires blaze unhindered, cameraman finds
By Bert Brandt, ACME Newspictures cameraman

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Nazi plane output halved in week

Arnold reveals toll of pre-D-Day raids

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Kidnap suspect pleads innocent

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2736

British roll Germans back along Adriatic

American drive on Bologna stalled
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer

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Editorial: ‘There is where we came in’

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Editorial: Needless waste

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2739

Editorial: China waits

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Edson: Setting changed for President’s pollical speech

By Peter Edson

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