America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

3036

americavotes1944

‘Hi, Tom,’ ‘Attaboy, Tom’ greet Dewey on parade

Procession moves at rapid rate, and many who sought to see visitor are disappointed
By Gilbert Love

Dewey changes plans; avoid wreck delay

If he had not made a last-minute change in plans, Governor Thomas E. Dewey would have been delayed today in his arrival in Pittsburgh by a train wreck – a much less serious one than that which caused him so much trouble in his tour of the West Coast.

Traffic on the Pittsburgh division of the Pennsylvania was tied up several hours today by a freight wreck near Altoona. No one was hurt. The change in plans kept Governor Dewey off that line today. He came by way of Buffalo and Youngstown instead.

Thomas E. Dewey received an enthusiastic welcome in Pittsburgh today.

The crowds that lined the streets as he was driven from Pennsylvania Station to the William Penn Hotel were much larger and more vociferous than on his first visit, in July.

There would have been more spectators if the procession had not moved so rapidly.

It sped through the Triangle at such a clip that persons in buildings adjoining the route, hearing the roar of the motorcycle escort, got to the street in time to see only the last cars of the motorcade whiz by.

“Where is he?” asked many a spectator who pushed through the crowd.

“He’s gone.”

Smiling and hatless

But those who had waited at the curbs, and moved out into the streets as the procession approached, got a glimpse of the candidate, smiling and hatless, riding in an open car with Mrs. Dewey.

You could follow the route of the parade by the wave of cheers that ran through the Triangle.

Shouts of encouragement for the presidential contender rose above the general clamor – “Hi, Tom!” “Attaboy, Tom.”

During the candidate’s appearance here in July, before he had actually begun to campaign, most persons on the streets merely applauded, with some shouting f more formal “Hooray for Dewey!”

Welcomed by Martin

Mr. Dewey’s special train arrived at Pennsylvania Station a few minutes after noon. Governor and Mrs. Edward Martin boarded his private car and welcomed him to Pennsylvania.

The official party walked through a cheering crowd at the station to the rotunda, where a red-coated band played “Hail to the Chief” and war songs while the motorcade formed.

Then, leaving the band behind, the procession swung into an aisle formed by men, women and children, many of whom waved cardboard pennants bearing the words “Welcome Governor Dewey.”

Streets crowded

The aisle of humanity thinned out, but continued down Liberty Avenue.

Fifth Avenue was black with humanity – office workers out to lunch, clerks who deserted their counters, and persons who had come Downtown especially to see the candidate.

Many persons raced from Liberty to Fifth to seek to get a second look, but their efforts were foiled by the speed of the motorcade.

Commenting on the latter, Safety Director George E. A. Fairley said that the traffic inspector generally sets the speed of a parade, but pointed out that in this case the motorcycle escort of city police was preceded by state troopers.

3037

Perkins: WLB more favorable to management than labor, record shows

Operators win 315 cases in three months while unions get decision in 296
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

…

Series of court decisions backs up Petrillo’s stand

Unions upheld in their defiance of antitrust, anti-racketeering laws
By Edward A. Evans, Scripps-Howard staff writer

…

3038

Gracie Allen Reporting

By Gracie Allen

Hollywood, California –
I have to laugh at the way Germany and Japan try to boost each other’s morale. When the Germans were retreating pell-mell across France, Tokyo sent congratulations on the magnificent “advance,” and now Berlin has sent congratulations to the Jap fleet for its “victory” off Formosa.

If anyone deserves congratulations, it’s the messenger who was able to find the Jap fleet to deliver the message. There’s a real Sherlock Holmes.

Radio Tokyo says that Adm. Halsey’s fleet has been “annihilated.” This makes the fourth or fifth time that they have “annihilated” the Admiral’s fleet. I’m waiting for the day the Jap messenger rushes into Hirohito’s throne room to deliver that message and finds Adm. Halsey sitting there.

3039

americavotes1944

Myers calls Davis ‘peace scuttler’

New Castle, Pennsylvania (UP) –
Congressman Francis J. Myers of Philadelphia, Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, last night attacked Senator James J. Davis, GOP nominee for reelection, as one of the “shortsighted Republican isolationists in Congress” who will try to scuttle the peace.”

That group will try to block American participation in an international peace organization “regardless of whether Roosevelt or Dewey is elected,” Mr. Myers charged, but “under Dewey and in a Republican Senate, they would be in an infinitely better position to do the dirty work.”

It was the “shortsighted Republican isolationists” who defeated President Wilson’s League of Nations plan after the last war, Mr. Myers said.

Some are still in Congress – and their eyesight has not improved. They have been joined since 1920 by others who share their isolationist philosophy. Together, they mean to scuttle the next League of Nations plan, no matter what its name may be.

The “compromises” America will have to make in the peace treaty will be “distorted, twisted, emphasized out of all proportion” by these men, the Democratic nominee predicted.

He said:

That’s what happened after the last war when America turned its back on world affairs and the Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles.

Mr. Myers cited Mr. Davis’ record of “consistently wrong votes on defense measures” and his “obstinate, unyielding, inflexible” refusal to “apologize for his mistakes.”

Cox assails GOP as ‘isolationist’

Dayton, Ohio (UP) –
James M. Cox, former Governor of Ohio and Democratic candidate for President in 1920, charged last night that the “economic isolationists” who wrecked the peace during the Harding administration “control the Republican Party still” and are concealing their plans “till their chance to act has come” again.

Mr. Cox said:

The economic isolationist knows that cooperation of nations pledged to just relations between the nations of the earth bodes no good for him. It will mean not only freedom from war but freedom from commerce… he has found his chance in the international market through that modern monopoly device, the cartel. That is why he so desperately wants his representative in the White House and he pours forth his campaign contributions accordingly.

3040

americavotes1944

The truth about the Commies –
PAC was invented by Communists and first outlined in Red paper

Daily Worker told of plan as ‘new departure in trade union life’
By Frederick Woltman, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Washington –
It was the American Communists who set the pattern of Sidney Hillman’s CIO Political Action Committee, President Roosevelt’s loudest backer in the fourth-term campaign.

Just two months before Mr. Hillman established his veto power at the Democratic National Convention and “Clear it with Sidney” became a national expression, Earl Browder, Communist leader, laid down the dictum that the old-line Democratic and Republican Party leaderships could no longer be trusted.

Browder thundered last May 20:

This election must not be left in the hands of the old party machines of professional politicians, The extraordinary emergency in which our country finds itself calls for an extraordinary manner of handling the election, that it may be transformed from a threat against national unity into a means of uniting the nation on a higher level.

We must slap down the loud-mouthed demagogue, expose the wily maneuver, retire the old machine politicians to the background, and begin to bring forward a new type of people’s leadership.

The Political Action Committee filled the bill.

Today the Political Action Committee’s busiest and noisiest segment of mass support comes from the Communist Party which, despite its nominal demise, has now reached the high point of 25 years of Communist political activity.

The Communists’ pattern for the Political Action Committee was invented more than a year before the Browder speech. The first announcement appeared in The Daily Worker (Earl Browder, editor) of March 13, 1943, which described it as “a new departure in trade union life that has historic potentialities.”

It was the creation of community political action councils by the Communist-controlled Greater New York Industrial Union Council – now PAC’s official New York branch.

“National CIO leaders are watching closely…” said the Worker.

Reds going into action

These community councils became the election district vote-corralling machine of the New York CIO, for years the political sounding board of the Communists. Now it knew how to translate into vote-getting political action its earlier resolutions demanding the release of Browder from federal prison, the premature opening of a second front, the election of local Communist candidates and the support of other Red-inspired programs.

“CITY CIO ROLLS UP BIG GUNS FOR COUNTERATTACK IN POLITICAL ARENA,” said the Communist Worker, adding this “marked labor’s emergence for the first time here as an organized group in politics.”

Five months afterwards, July 7, 1943, the national CIO Executive Board created a national “Political Action Committee” which proceeded to extend the New York idea throughout the nation.

Communists on board

Ten of the board members were New York Communist union leaders represented in the New York Council; at least eight others were Communists from elsewhere, according to a Congressional report.

In appointing the eight-member Political Action Committee board, CIO President Philip Murray was careful to avoid Communist names. Only one of them was president of a Communist-led union, the United Electrical and Radio Workers, CIO. Fifteen ex-New Deal officials were put in charge of operations.

As the Political Action Committee’s general counsel and his own right bower, Mr. Hillman selected John Abt whose wife, Jessica Smith, has for years been a leading Communist apologist as editor of Soviet Russia Today. Mr. Abt’s sister is Marion Bachrach, executive secretary of the Council for Pan-American Democracy. This is a Communist Front organization headed by Frederick V. Field who, as executive secretary of the notorious American Peace Mobilization, led the anti-national defense picket line around the White House until the day Russia was invaded.

Browderites sparking campaign

Not content with paving the way for “political action,” the Communist Political Association, Browder’s new name for his party, is throwing all its resources and propaganda skill into the Political Action Committee’s fourth-term campaign.

In New York City, the Browderites teamed up with the Political Action Committee to capture the Republican as well as the Democratic and American Labor Party nominations for their sole spokesman in Congress, Rep. Vito Marcantonio. By marshalling thousands of doorbell ringers, they furnished the manual labor; the Political Action Committee gave $5,000.

In the Political Action Committee’s national campaign, Mr. Hillman has continued to accept the vigorous and effective cooperation of the official Communists, as well as their union followers. In industrial centers throughout the country, they furnish a large share of the drive behind the Political Action Committee’s presidential campaign.

While denying any Communist control of the Political Action Committee, Mr. Hillman has not repudiated their assistance.

Disregards own warning

Nor has Mr. Hillman followed his own tearful warning against collaboration with the Communists made at the CIO National Convention in Atlantic City, Nov. 20, 1940. Then he said:

Now I would not be doing the right thing if I would not tell you that from our experience in 30 years, I know that there are elements who cannot participate in the democratic processes… Their loyalty is to an organization outside of this organization. I don’t have to call them by name; whether their orders come from Rome, Berlin or Moscow, it is the same.

I say to you that we must warn our young membership not to be misled by the fine speeches they will make, by the confessions of loyalty… these people are a menace to the labor movement…

3041

americavotes1944

Roosevelt ‘dared’ on Pearl Harbor

St. Paul, Minnesota (UP) –
Rep. Melvin J. Maas (R-MN) challenged the administration today to deny his charges that it knew six hours in advance that the Pearl Harbor attack would occur and yet failed to notify Army and naval authorities on the spot.

Mr. Maas reiterated the prediction he made in an address here that RAdm. Husband E. Kimmel and Maj. Gen. Walter C. Short would never be brought to court-martial by this administration because their testimony would reveal that the real blame for the surprise Jap attack rested in Washington.

Mr. Maas said in the address that most of the U.S. fleet was berthed at Pearl Harbor late in the fall of 1941 to appease Japan, which had protested against the Navy’s carrying on practice maneuvers. Earlier, Mr. Maas said, naval chiefs at Pearl Harbor had requested more patrol bombers and 300 had been recommended by a naval board, but just as the last 250 were completed, they were transferred to Britain. The highest naval officials protested to Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Maas claimed, and were referred to Harry Hopkins, then in charge of allocation of war materials.

Mr. Maas charged:

Hopkins received them as he lay in bed, nonchalantly smoking a cigarette. He listened to them, then told them the interview was over and that he had already made the allocation.

Adm. Kimmel told me if those 250 patrol planes had been sent to Hawaii, the Dec. 7 attack could never have succeeded, and probably would never have been attempted.

3042

americavotes1944

Speech time is increased by Roosevelt

President doesn’t want radio shut off

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt disclosed at his news conference today that the time for his foreign policy speech in New York tomorrow night has been extended from 30 to 45 minutes.

The President’s radio time will be from 9:30 to 10:15 p.m. EWT.

The address will be broadcast over KDKA and KQV.

Mr. Roosevelt said this did not mean he was going to speak for 45 minutes – that it was just a precaution to see that he was not cut off the air.

He said he was sorry the broadcast of Orson Welles’ talk before the New York Herald-Tribune Forum was cut off before Welles had completed his address, because he was listening to the actor who was speaking on behalf of the Chief Executive’s reelection.

Asked about future speaking dates, the President said it looks like rain and a 50-mile gale for his tour of New York City tomorrow morning, and he remarked that that was not cheerful.

He would not say anything about reports that he will speak in Chicago.

Dewey statement contested

Meantime, the State Department, contesting Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s statement on Russian surrender terms for Romania, said in a formal statement that the United States participated “at all stages in the formulation of the armistice agreement.”

Governor Dewey said Wednesday night that the day after the armistice was signed, “the Secretary of State of the United States declined to comment on the ground that the terms had not been received from Moscow in time to study.”

The State Department said that when Secretary Hull told a news conference Sept. 13 that the Romanian armistice had been agreed to and indicated that he had not received its contents, “he, of course, referred to the final official text… the definitive text was received later the same day and immediately released to the press.”

3043

americavotes1944

Truman pledges to convert war plants for prosperity

Democratic vice-presidential candidate hits proposals for abandoning U.S.-built units

Seattle, Washington (UP) –
Senator Harry S. Truman, striking out at proposals for abandoning $20 billion worth of government-built war plants, said last night that they can form “the nucleus of a great prosperity” after the war and must be kept in operation by private business.

Mr. Truman, Democratic candidate for Vice President, addressed a party rally here and asserted that:

  • The Democratic administration would work for post-war utilization of government-built plants but “not government operation of such plants.”

  • The war can be won quickly “with the right kind of leadership – the kind we have now – but “with the wrong kind of leadership, it could take years longer.”

  • That Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s stand on foreign policy made him “all things to all people.”

Senator Truman said:

The Democratic administration believes that we should go forward and utilize to the best advantage the fine plants and facilities built to win the war.

Senator Truman said the transcontinental railroads would never have been built “if we had heeded those who cried that the wagon freighters would be ruined and that the government ought not to help finance such crackbrain schemes.”

Senator Truman said that to avoid future wars “we need a strong foreign policy under the administration of an experienced leader, a leader with the courage and vision to act,” and added that “the President has demonstrated that he has that kind of leadership.”

Bricker: New Deal is ‘unreliable,’ breaks pledges

Violation of ‘almost every major promise’ in 1932 Democratic platform is charged

Fresno, California (UP) –
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker closed his California campaign last night with a blast at President Roosevelt who, he said, has violated almost every pledge in the 1932 Democratic program which launched his 12-year administration.

The GOP vice-presidential nominee attacked Democratic Party denials that it intended to keep men in the armed services after the war as another “unreliable New Deal promise,” recalling Maj. Gen. Lewis Hershey’s statement that “men could be kept in the service about as cheaply as we could create an agency for them when they are out.”

Mr. Bricker asked:

How can the American public be expected to believe these new New Deal promises and protestations when, for 12 years, this administration repeatedly broke its word to the public?

Departing from his prepared text, Governor Bricker said he would like to “see a law” that would “fine a public official who does not keep his promises – or else remove him from office.”

The Democratic Party, Mr. Bricker said, wrote “a splendid Jeffersonian platform” in 1932, and Mr. Roosevelt accepted it 100 percent.

“Actually, he has violated almost every major pledge stated in that platform,” he charged.

Governor Bricker continued:

One day Mr. Roosevelt is an inflationist, the next day a deflationist. He talks of the more abundant life, and then sanctions policies that destroy foodstuffs while millions of his countrymen are undernourished. He declared for the American system of government, but surrounds himself with men steeped in foreign ideologies, like Tugwell, Berle, Hillman and Browder.

He declares for a “liberal” Supreme Court, and then, by devious methods, “packs” it with his own disciples… he criticizes the financial policies of his predecessor, and then piles up a debt so vast that the American taxpayers will stagger under its weight for decades to come.”

Private enterprise hailed by Bricker

Reno, Nevada (UP) –
Private enterprise and a philosophy of production were listed today by Ohio Governor John W. Bricker as keys to post-war jobs.

The Republican vice-presidential nominee opened his drive for Nevada’s three electoral votes here with a speech in which he called for the repudiation “of alien forcers which would make our workers economic slaves.” He said he referred “in particular” to Earl Browder.

He added that private enterprise was threatened by “unreasonable government control and by an unstable system of taxation” which he said was “designed to confiscate wealth.”

3044

americavotes1944

No PAC coercion, Hillman repeats

New York –
Sidney Hillman, chairman of the CIO Political Action Committee, said today that Governor John Bricker’s charges that PAC used “threats and intimidations” to force a labor vote for President Roosevelt were “the charges of a candidate gone wild with fear at the sight of the grim specter of defeat.”

Mr. Hillman said:

If he can’t win the votes of labor, he’s going to scare them into voting for him. Governor Bricker knows that he has no evidence to prove this charge that workers will lose their jobs unless they vote for Mr. Roosevelt – or any of the other wild charges he has been making against PAC in this campaign. No one has ever been able to find a single specific instance to prove PAC coercion.

3045

Navy to accept Negro women

…

3046

americavotes1944

Dewey likened to Chamberlain

Foreign policies of GOP leader hit

Washington (UP) –
Democratic congressmen bitterly assailed the foreign policy pledges of Governor Thomas E. Dewey today with charges that the Republican nominee had the same “lack of foresight” as Britain’s “umbrella-carrying Neville Chamberlain.”

Governor Dewey was likened to the late British prime minister by Rep. J. Buell Snyder (D-PA), who said the Governor’s “inability to see through international moves” was demonstrated by his original opposition to the Lend-Lease Act.

Mr. Snyder said:

But after Russia acknowledged that our Lend-Lease aid enabled her armies to hold Stalingrad. Dewey, with his umbrella in hand, came in the back door and said Lend-Lease was a good thing.

Senator Joseph C. O’Mahoney (D-WY) joined in the attack, saying Governor Dewey’s promises of international cooperation were in sharp contrast to the voting records of leading Republicans in the Senate.

Mr. Snyder predicted that Pennsylvania would go Democratic by 300,000 votes and would prove itself “more than ever the Keystone State.”

3047

Storm moves northward; danger over

Damage minor at Charleston, South Carolina

…

3048

americavotes1944

Poll: 45 million votes forecast in presidential election

Five Eastern states, including Pennsylvania, indicated as holding the key to victory
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion

The 1944 presidential election campaign, which started slowly, has now shot into high gear. On the basis of latest figures from areas where registration has been completed, including New York City, it now appears that an estimated 45 million civilian voters will turn out to vote on Election Day.

This figure, of course, may be revised upward or downward when complete registration figures from other areas are available.

The armed services vote has been estimated at somewhere between two and a half million to three million. The indications thus are that the total vote to be cast in 1944 will be slightly under the nearly 50 million total of 1940.

A large turnout normally can be expected to help the Democrats but, despite this fact, the election on the basis of Institute public opinion sampling surveys looks to be almost a tossup.

While Institute surveys show President Roosevelt having a 51-49 percent advantage in the division of popular votes, poll returns now show sentiment so evenly divided in five large industrial states on the Eastern Seaboard – Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut – that a shift of but one or two percent could throw all of them to Governor Dewey.

Electoral vote cited

Should the Republican candidate take all of these five states which are now at or around the 50-50 line and retain those states where he is indicated to be leading, he would win the election with 287 electoral votes.

On the other hand, if Mr. Roosevelt should win these states, he could win handsomely in electoral votes even though the division of the popular vote is extremely close percentagewise. His total would be 341 electoral votes to Governor Dewey’s 190.

The reason for this of course is that a candidate who gets a majority – no matter how slim – in any state, gets the entire electoral vote of the state.

Because the election is likely to be won or lost in these five states the chief efforts of both parties will be concentrated there between now and Election Day.

3049

americavotes1944

Japs call invasion election move

By the United Press

Jap propaganda on the invasion of the Philippines took the line today that the operation was ordered by President Roosevelt so the “defeat” of the U.S. Fleet off Formosa would not embarrass his reelection campaign.

Admitting that U.S. forces had succeeded in landing on Leyte, Radio Tokyo said the invasion “obviously” was an attempt on the President’s part to “hide the Formosa defeat.”

Radio Tokyo said:

According to a report from the front, it appears that enemy forces which penetrated into the Bay of Leyte in the Central Philippines Oct. 19 landed on the southern part as well as the eastern part of the island.

In their intention to land on the Philippines and subsequently reach the Chinese continent, the enemy brought into action naval units east of Formosa. With heavy counterattacks of Japanese forces, the American attack on Formosa resulted as known in total defeat. Despite all that, the enemy, basing himself on his material superiority, by no means gave up his intention to reconquer the Philippines and on Oct. 17 in the area of the Bay of Leyte, with all the small parts remaining of his Pacific Fleet, initiated new operations.

The Japs, in a communiqué yesterday, said “more than half of the enemy forces” attacking Formosa were destroyed, including 11 aircraft carriers, two battleships and three cruisers, but acknowledged that 312 Jap planes and 30 to 40 small craft had been destroyed.

Actually, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz reported that an overall total of 205 Jap vessels were wrecked during the three days that the Third Fleet knocked out Formosa. U.S. losses were 21 planes, 31 pilots, and 21 air crewmen with two “medium ships” suffering “superficial damage.”

A Dōmei transmission said the Jap forces “are at present engaged in strong counterattacks against the enemy invader” at Tacloban on the northeastern part of the island and in the Cabalian area on the southern tip of Leyte.

In a Tokyo radio overseas broadcast, the Imperial Jap Navy announced that a U.S. battleship “in its desperate attempt to attack the Philippines” Tuesday night, had run aground.

Tokyo newspapers called for increased production of aircraft and other war materials and warned that “decisive battles” were developing in the Philippines.

3050

Pact slaying story told to jury

…

3051

Fines by union end strike at rubber plant

500 CIO workers must pay $6,000

…

AFL stands aloof of trade congress

Refuse to assemble with Soviet delegates

…

3052

Marine pleads innocent in death of girl

…

Ex-WAC names attacker, dies

…

3053

‘Baby Joe’ leaves for home of grandparents in U.S.

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3054

americavotes1944

Editorial: Isolationist Senator Davis should be defeated

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3055

Editorial: The Philippine campaign

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