America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

Films inaccurate about history! Shirley says so!


Strike cripples bomb output at Oakmont

50 maintenance men idle 300 at Scaife

Group fights veto power in peace council

96 organizations war U.S. officials

Seventh released in heiress’ death


Sedition group denied dismissal

americavotes1944

Lewis’ foe loses ballot fight

Washington (UP) –
Federal Judge Matthew F. McGuire today denied the petition of Ray Edmundson, former Illinois district president of the United Mine Workers, for an order banning distribution of UMW ballots which do not bear Mr. Edmundson’s name as a candidate for the position of UMW international president.

Mr. Edmundson resigned as Illinois district chieftain early this year. Subsequently he launched a campaign for election as international president to succeed John L. Lewis.

Judge McGuire ruled after Nicholas J. Chase, UMW attorney, said the matter had been properly decided by the union’s convention which met at Cincinnati in September. Mr. Chase said the 3,000 delegates representing 600,000 union members had decided Mr. Edmundson could not be a candidate because he was neither a member in good standing nor a mine worker.

americavotes1944

4th term opposed by Boston Post

Boston, Massachusetts (UP) –
The Boston Post (Independent-Democratic) said editorially today that it “cannot conscientiously support a fourth-term candidate for President.”

The Post said:

Four years ago, a similar position was taken by this newspaper against a third term, and the reasons for the decision taken have not altered but have been aggravated by the events of four of the most decisive years in the history of the nation and the world.

The Post said it was undemocratic “to accept calmly the possibility of a fourth term because of the precedent of the third term.”

Gracie Allen Reporting

By Gracie Allen

Hollywood, California –
I read in the paper that the women in England are worried about the shortage of corsets, it seems their figures are becoming almost as global as the war.

They’re demanding more and better corsets and they say if they don’t get them, they’re going to stage a sit-down strike. Well, I don’t wish to meddle in international affairs, but I certainly wouldn’t advise women who don’t have corsets to do too much sitting down. You have no idea how a situation like that can spread.

Here in America, we’re troubled by the girdle shortage. There’s only one pre-war girdle left in my house. After that’s gone, I don’t know what George will do.

americavotes1944

The truth about the Commies –
Communists switched to Roosevelt after Hitler invaded Russia

Up to that time they sabotaged our war efforts and tried to keep America from arming
By Frederick Woltman, Scripps-Howard staff writer

EDITOR’S NOTE: American Communists, by utilizing their technique of infiltration, have burrowed into American unions, kidnapped the American Labor Party in New York, dominated the CIO Political Action Committee and made strong inroads into the New Deal administration. Today, these Communists stand as the greatest menace to American democracy.

The Scripps-Howard newspaper assigned Frederick Woltman, a staff writer, to ascertain and present the facts about the Communists in a series of articles of which this is the first.

Washington –
But for Hitler’s invasion of Russia, President Roosevelt today would be without the support of the American Communists. Instead, these self-proclaimed superpatriots would be silenced and languishing behind prison bars and the stockades of internment camps.

Sidney Hillman’s CIO Political Action Committee would lack a substantial bloc of its noisiest tub-thumpers and many of its most diligent $1-for-Roosevelt collecting unions would be leaderless.

The Communists’ current strategy of moving in on the Democratic Party under the guise of a “political association” might never have been contrived.

Sabotaged defense efforts

Until the very night Hitler tore up his mutual non-aggression pact with Stalin and turned his armies westward, America’s Communist Party, including its trade-union and other satellites, was engaged in a sabotage drive against the national defense efforts.

For 21 months, from Aug. 23, 1939, to June 22, 1941, as their contribution to the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the Communists resorted to every tactic known to world Communism to undermine America’s frantic, last-minute attempts to build a defense wall against the Nazi horde.

To them, the war was merely a “second imperialist struggle,” and President Roosevelt was a “warmonger” and “dictator.”

Earl Browder, major-domo of Communism’s American outlet, said on Sept. 8, 1940:

Roosevelt is leading the march, and scattering the wreck of even the limited democracy of the American Constitution along the way.

On Jan. 13, 1941, Browder & Co., now first-class passengers on the Roosevelt bandwagon, warned:

The destruction of the capitalist world is being carried out under the direction of Hitler and Churchill, of Mussolini and Pétain of France and the Mikado – and not of Roosevelt.

Daily Worker joined in

Through party pronouncements, the Daily Worker, the Communist-led unions and its various fronts, such as the American People’s Mobilization, the American Communists:

  • Bitterly denounced Selective Service as “a spearhead of the attacks on our democracy;” popularized the anti-Allied slogan, “The Yanks Are Not Coming;” and, while America’s youth was enlisting to defend their country, gleefully chanted:

Remember when the AAA
Killed a million hogs a day?
Instead of hogs – it’s men today
Plow the fourth one under!
Plow under, plow under
Every fourth American boy!

  • Attacked the 1941 defense budget as “a Wall Street conspiracy against the American people.”

  • Fought Lend-Lease, the arming of merchant ships and the arms mass-production program, which they tried to frighten the American people into believing had maimed and killed “thousands of workers.”

They reached the apex of anti-defense propaganda in a picket line around the White House which ended on the day of Russia’s invasion.

The high point of physical sabotage came with a series of defense industry strikes, culminating in the North American Aviation walkout at Inglewood, California. This was called a few weeks before Germany started war on Russia, which resulted in an instantaneous flipflop among the American comrades.

When the Communists defied the government at Inglewood and the President had to send in troops to protect the patriotic workers, it became evident that the sands were running out for them.

Strike resembled ‘insurrection’

The Attorney General, now Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, called the North American Aviation affair “more nearly… an insurrection than a labor strike.”

He added:

The distinction between loyal labor leaders and those who are following the Communist Party line is easy to observe. Disloyal men who have wormed their way into the labor movement do not want settlements; they want strikes. That is the Communist Party line…

Yet another administration official, terming the Communist strike leadership “irresponsible and subversive,” had this to say:

This defiance is a challenge that goes to the roots of the entire democratic system – and the efforts of this democracy to preserve itself.

Made peace with Hillman

This was the voice of Sidney Hillman, then associate director general of the Office of Production Management. William Z. Foster, now vice president of the Communist Political Association, blasted back that the “Hillman line of policy” was leading down the path “toward the surrender of the trade unions outright to the greed and autocracy of the warmongers and profiteers.”

The Communists and Mr. Hillman have since made their peace.

They joined forces to capture the American Labor Party in New York State; and, more recently to put across the fourth-term program of his CIO-PAC.

Formosa no longer target for Superfortress attacks

By Walter S. Rundle, United Press staff writer

Germans hurl heavy fire on 5th Army

Yanks meet all-out Po Valley defense
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer

Kay: Tears stream from Greeks at sight of first American

Reporter hailed as hero on arrival in Thrace as last Germans evacuate
By Leon Kay, United Press staff writer

Monahan: Ten Little Indians slick who-dun-it

Nixon murder carnival has ‘em guessing, chuckling out front
By Kaspar Monahan


Bette Davis looks ahead

Post-war period vital, she says

Willkie burial to be held today

Rushville, Indiana (UP) –
Burial services will be held today for Wendell L. Willkie.

Mr. Willkie will be laid to rest in East Cemetery, only a few miles from his rich Rush County farms where he vacationed from business and politics.

Rushville’s business places will be closed when final rites are held at the Wyatt Memorial Mortuary this afternoon.

The services will be conducted by Rev. George A. Frantz of the First Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, assisted by Rev. C. B. Reeder, acting pastor of the Rushville First Presbyterian Church.

Mrs. Edith Willkie, the 1940 Republican presidential nominee’s widow; his son, Navy Lt. Philip Willkie, and a group of family friends arrived this morning from New York City where Mr. Willkie died Oct. 8.

americavotes1944

Stokes: Witch-hunting

By Thomas L. Stokes

Salem, Massachusetts –
Waking up in this almost legendary seaport at 3 o’clock in the morning and looking out the window into a fog so thick that it almost hides the large statue of Nathaniel Hawthorne less than a hundred yards down the street is one of those experience that linger, for the past seems to rise with the fog and hover around.

It is so, particularly, for anyone with a feeling for the lure of this 300-year-old town whence the whaling boats sailed off to the cold waters, where they once hanged people for witchcraft, where long afterward the moody and mystical Hawthorne lived an almost solitary life and wrote his tales of tortured souls.

As I sat by the window the past receded into the present, into the current political campaign, and there came back, for reflection here in the stillness, the voices I had heard in Boston all the day before, the voices that told of the prejudices, the hates in men’s souls, even as Hawthorne knew them, the witch-hunts that are going on today.

A new kind of witch

There is a man named Earl Browder, out of Kansas – just as were was in another era a man named William Z. Foster and a man named Eugene V. Debs and another today named Norman Thomas who advocates a political, social and economic theory much in conflict with majority opinion.

He can still talk in the American tradition of free speech. He can even talk in Boston, as he did, though he got a few firecrackers tossed into his meeting. That is acceptable American practice, very proper in Boston. Once, there, a bunch of men threw some tea overboard into the harbor.

But Earl Browder is a modern witch, far beyond old Salem, not so much of himself. but as a symbol in this campaign because he has happened to come out for the reelection of President Roosevelt. Republicans are very joyful, and are thumping the tubs merrily, and thumbing their noses at Democrats and shouting “Communism” and “Reds.” Democrats are frightened about it, and complaining among themselves.

Why doesn’t that man quit making a show of himself?

And there’s another witch named Sidney Hillman. They are burning him too at the stake, mentally.

The voices I had listened to, which came back as I sat at the window staring into the fog, had other things to say, too, as had voices in New York when I was there, in explanation of the political reactions in this campaign. These were about foreign nationalities in Boston and New York, set aside in the minds of politicians in separate compartments, just as if they were not Americans.

Appeal to ancient prejudice

The politician must appeal to them – or so he thinks – on the basis of ancient desires and ancient prejudices about the homelands, as they may be affected by the war. It happens every four years.

They propose to appeal to the Italians, the Poles, the Irish, and the others, as if they had just come here yesterday. The politician plots his devious doctrines. The plotting goes all the way to the top. President Roosevelt and Governor Dewey are making statements and speeches and receiving delegations to entice this or that group, and smart men sit in backrooms and try to figure out the reaction and the next move.

There’s a Saltonstall and a Bradford running for high public office in this state. Their forebears came over at the start. They are Americans. Why do those who came over only three generations ago, or two generations ago, or even one generation ago have to be treated otherwise?

The question was propounded into the fog. It was drifting about, so that it seemed the stone image down in the street moved.

Perhaps he was shifting about uneasily. I couldn’t see his face. He had his back to me.

Gene Tunney changes opinion –
Competitive sports demonstrate value in service training

By Jack Cuddy, United Press staff writer

Harold Lloyd ends long holdout on radio

Silent star heeds call of sponsor
By Si Steinhauser

Airline plans U.S. to Paris trip for $250

Expects to make flight in 13 hours

Ferguson: Dinner in New York

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

americavotes1944

Republican ‘lies’ charged by Davies

New York (UP) –
Former Ambassador to Russia Joseph E. Davies predicted today that the independent vote of the country would not be fooled by Republican “lies,” but would return Franklin D. Roosevelt to the White House as the man best able to preserve peace.

Mr. Davies said the world was “in such danger of mass murder” as it has not been “since Christ walked on the shores of Galilee” and that only President Roosevelt was sufficiently expert in the “intricacies of foreign policies” to represent the United States at the peace table.

The violent attacks and charges of dishonesty against the President “made by Mr. Dewey and by Mrs. Luce and others” will not fool either the independent voter nor the women of the country, he said.

Mr. Davies said he had “a very high respect” for Thomas E. Dewey but that he believed “there isn’t a human being” who could by cramming or through advice become sufficiently acquainted with the intricacies of the international situation to “play by ear.”

americavotes1944

Perkins: Republicans’ apathy costing them Negro vote, publisher says

GOP leaders warned to get on job or group will go 2–1 for Roosevelt
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Washington –
The Republican Party, with the best program on paper for the Negro people, is failing to drive its arguments home with the rank and file of colored voters in the key and doubtful states, according to one of their spokesmen here today.

Alexander Barnes, manager of the Washington Tribune, a Negro newspaper published here warned Republican leaders verbally and through his publication that unless more direct work is done with the mass of Negro voters, they “will go almost 2–1 for President Roosevelt.”

Describing himself as a Dewey supporter, this publisher said it was the general opinion among people who have studied political and economic conditions among Negroes that without a better Republican effort, the Negro votes in such cities as New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Chicago may swing one or more of the doubtful states of New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

Dewey effort expected

The Washington publisher said that Governor Thomas E. Dewey has made only incidental references to the Negro subject so far but that there are reports the Republican nominee plans to go into it at more length before he ends his campaign.

Meanwhile, the CIO Political Action Committee is making a special point of registering Negro voters in the industrial sections, and much Democratic argument is being directed at them.

A survey just completed by a non-political agency shows that leading Negro newspapers among the more than 200 published in this country are almost evenly divided in their support of President Roosevelt or Governor Dewey.

Field workers bungling

Mr. Barnes said he had recently visited all the important centers of Negro population in the Northern industrial states, and reported “all is not well in the Republican ranks because of the alleged apathy and ineptness in the work among Negro voters.” and “that the bungling of the campaign stem: from the Negro brain-trusters working with the Republican National Committee.”

He pointed out, however, “that there is still time to let the Negro have the facts. Experienced campaigners can be put to work and a wavering Negro vote convinced that Dewey is the man. Thousands of party workers are willing to volunteer their services if the bigwigs will permit them to go to work in traditional Republican fashion.”

‘Tricks’ alarm Negroes

An editorial in the Washington Tribune stated that paper “has not yet decided which candidate it will urge its readers to support, but has become unduly alarmed at the strange tricks which are being played. The Democrats ditched Wallace, and then, from information received this week, the Republicans put two men in to woo the Negro vote who are cold, indifferent, unconcerned and even insolent, at times, when Negroes approach them about aiding in the election of their man.”

The “two men” were identified as Negro leaders with whom some others do not agree on campaign tactics.

The Tribune editor’s idea is that:

Mr. Dewey needs a campaign that is going to bring the issues down to earth. He needs a campaign that is going to let the Negro in the pool rooms, the beer gardens, the fields and the farms, and in the coal mines, know that he stands for justice for all men.

americavotes1944

Dewey called ‘just common politician’

‘Rabid isolationists’ assailed by Ickes

Newark, New Jersey (UP) –
Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes characterized Governor Thomas E. Dewey as a “machine politician of the common garden variety” last night and charged that the Republican presidential candidate proposes to take into the White House a collection of “rabid isolationists” to help write the peace.

In an address before an Independent Committee for Roosevelt rally, Mr. Ickes asserted that an “unspeakable rabble of isolationist and reactionaries” have climbed into Dewey’s “Trojan Horse” and that their influence would be felt if the Republican were elected.

He cited as Dewey supporters “Gerald L. K. Smith… America’s nearest replica of Adolf Hitler;” United Mine Workers chief John L. Lewis, “the only labor leader in the United States who has failed to set his face against wartime strikes,” and Rep. Hamilton Fish (R-NY), who Ickes denounced as an isolationist and labor baiter.”

‘Honesty’ questioned

Mr. Ickes challenged Governor Dewey’s personal honesty as well as his record of achievement. With regard to Governor Dewey’s speech at St. Louis the Interior Secretary said:

I am glad that Governor Dewey is going to follow me on the air. I understand that he proposes to talk about “honesty in government.” This will be a double adventure into the unknown for Mr. Dewey. He does not know anything about the government and judging by his campaign speeches, he is totally unfamiliar with honesty.

Contribution held ‘zero’

Mr. Ickes accused Governor Dewey of hindering, instead of helping, the war effort during the past three years.

He said:

I suggest to you that the humblest private on the field of battle has made a greater contribution [than Dewey].

The fact of the matter is that during the past three years of bitter warfare Mr. Dewey’s contribution to the prosecution of the war has been exactly zero.

Mr. Ickes said that Governor Dewey’s chief accomplishment during the campaign was the endorsement of “policies which President Roosevelt himself has advocated.”