America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

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americavotes1944

Miners remain firm backers of Roosevelt

Rank-and-file turns deaf ear to Lewis
By William Forrester

With a great majority of Western Pennsylvania miners, it is still “Lewis for president of the UMW, Roosevelt for President of the U.S.”

That’s the summary resulting from queries directed to union officials, rank-and-file miners, mine town store and tavern keepers and others who follow the trend in the bituminous fields.

Lewis backs Dewey

And it holds true despite three major factors in favor of Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s candidacy:

  • Support of Governor Dewey by United Mine Workers Union President John L. Lewis and Vice President John O’Leary, and such local and state officials as John P. Busarello, president of District 5, and Abe Vales, state director of District 50.

  • Constant hammering in the UMW Journal, the semi-monthly publication of the union, against the administration in general and President Roosevelt and Solid Fuels Administrator Harold L. Ickes in particular.

  • Dissatisfaction among the miners over the “kicking around” they believe their wage case received at the hands of federal officials and agencies.

These factors may have swung some former Roosevelt adherents into the Dewey camp.

Sample viewpoint cited

But considering the fact that the recent UMW convention in Cincinnati passed a resolution bitterly assailing the administration, the preponderance of Roosevelt support might be thought surprising.

The general attitude of a majority of mine workers seems to be that the convention action came as a result of the Roosevelt-Lewis feud, and will be paid little heed by the rank and file.

Here’s a sample viewpoint from a Russellton bartender, who hears hundreds of miners talk:

They’re as strong for Roosevelt as ever. I don’t think the Republicans will get any more votes out here than they did before.

Others quoted

And another of a woman store clerk in a small Allegheny River mine town: “There are a few around here for Dewey, but most all for the President.”

Or as a minor UMW official explained:

Sure they’re for Roosevelt. A lot of them aren’t saying much around the union offices, because of what the convention did, but they haven’t changed a lot.

Busarello for Dewey

Of the three district presidents in this immediate area. Mr. Busarello of District 5 here, William Hynes of District 4 at Uniontown, and Frank Hughes of District 3 at Greensburg, only Mr. Busarello has come out for Dewey.

District 5, however, is taking no active part in the campaign, and Mr. Busarello was giving his own opinion, he said.

Both Mr. Hynes and Mr. Hughes said they planned to make no political commitment whatever, but that their offices would carry out national UMW policy.

Journal backs Dewey

As for the UMW Journal, it is conducting a full-scale campaign on behalf of Governor Dewey, The current Oct. 15 issue has no less than 14 articles. editorials or cartoons which are open attacks on President Roosevelt or the administration.

Two stories praise Governor Dewey’s stand on security for servicemen and stabilization of the coal industry. An article, much more bitter than anything which has appeared in daily newspapers, links Sidney Hillman and Earl Browder with the administration.

Ridicule for Ickes

Others attack various phases of the New Deal, with special ridicule for Mr. Ickes.

And every issue of the Journal dwells on the “shabby treatment” accorded miners by government agencies.

Yet the best estimates throughout the district by Republican leaders are that the Republicans will let “some” of the miners’ votes. Not a single person close to the field is willing to predict any large-scale defection from the Roosevelt banner the miners have followed again, and again, and again – and again.

3149

Poll: Dewey gains votes in farming sections; Roosevelt stronger with skilled labor

Nation divided along occupational lines; fewer unskilled workers backing President
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion

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3150

Gunnison: Island hopping brings U.S. to Philippine goal

There was no choice but the hard way
By Royal Arch Gunnison, North American Newspaper Alliance

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3151

americavotes1944

Editorial: Dewey’s speech to labor

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3152

Editorial: Home front delays victory

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3153

americavotes1944

Taylor: The Hatch Law this time

By Robert Taylor, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

It has almost passed public notice, but this year’s presidential election is the first to be held since the Federal Clean Politics Law, more familiarly known as the Hatch Act, went into full effect.

There was a Hatch Act in 1940, too, but it didn’t take full effect until the middle of the campaign, when much of the Democratic National Committee’s campaign fund had been raised, so it wasn’t as important a factor that year as it is now.

The law has been amended in a number of respects since then. Also, its enforcement has been standardized to the point where the U.S. Civil Service Commission is ready and willing to crack down on any federal employee who steps out of bounds to do some politicking. In Pennsylvania, the Commission now has cases pending against both Democratic and Republican state officials, charging macing of payrolls supported partly with federal funds.

What this means in terms of campaign work is that the major sources of Democratic campaign funds are closed and the bulk of the Democratic workers – those rewarded with jobs for their services in past campaigns – have been “graduated” out of politics.

Democrats built on payrolls

This accounts for the relative weakness of the Democratic organization, both here and elsewhere, in contrast with the Republican organization which gets its political strength from local and State payrolls not subject to the Hatch Act, and contributions from individuals who can give up to the limit of $5,000 for any one committee or campaign.

From 1932 on, the Democrats built their state organization on payrolls, chiefly federal, and their chief sources of campaign funds were the same payrolls, until the Hatch Act stopped that form of money-raising.

The WPA and other Depression-era federal agencies provided a lure and a reward for political workers, funds and votes for the organization, and the power of that form of political activity was great enough to provide safe majorities in presidential years and challenge the majority Republicans in state elections.

Today, if an aspiring precinct worker or ward heeler turns in consistently good performances for the party and is finally rewarded with a federal job, he is immediately removed from politics and assured of freedom from political pressure as long as he holds it.

Party workers must be replaced

That makes it necessary to replace the worker in the next campaign – not an easy task in a wartime manpower shortage. In Philadelphia, where Democrats have little local patronage, this system of rewarding and replacing faithful party workers is spoken of as comparable with that of the U.S. Air Forces: 25 trips over the enemy lines and a furlough. In at least one county, a federal official had to resign so his party could have a campaign chairman.

The CIO Political Action Committee, with its un-Hatched but untrained political workers, is filling in the gaps this year for the Democratic organization, but the effects of the Hatch Act are noticeable in Pennsylvania where local payrolls are in the hands of Republicans.

Not only is the Hatch Act hampering the Democratic organization this year, but it is being demonstrated, now, that it will be a curb on any party organization in the future which uses the federal payroll to reward its faithful workers.

3154

G.I.’s say they’re glad Ernie Pyle is getting a rest

By Sgt. Mack Morris, Yank staff correspondent

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americavotes1944

Perkins: The ‘annual-wage’ issue

By Fred W. Perkins, Press Washington correspondent

Washington –
The question of whether or not American industry can or should guarantee an annual wage or steady work the year around to wage earners isn’t exactly an election issue, but at the same time it has some connection with the balloting Nov. 7.

Neither major party platform covers the subject, nor has it been dealt with specifically by either the Republican or Democratic candidate for President. But with the increasing attention being given to the right of the man who works for wages to some assurance of a dependable income, it is conceivable that the post-war period will include a real drive toward an objective that authorities agree would represent a great advance in the industrial and economic life of this country.

So, the question related to the election is whether President Roosevelt or Governor Dewey would be most likely to espouse this idea and give effective national leadership to it.

Mr. Roosevelt’s friends will argue that he is the man for this particular job, because of his labor record.

Mr. Dewey’s supporters will counter with the argument that their candidate is more likely to be successful in assuring steady work for all, as the full sympathy and cooperation of business would be required to reach this objective without government coercion; that Mr. Dewey could be relied on to enlist business support, and Mr. Roosevelt couldn’t.

Nunn-Bush plan

Recent evidence of interest in the guaranteed wage or steady work idea was a discussion by radio on America’s Town Meeting of the Air.

One of the two speakers on the “pro” side was Henry L. Nunn, shoe manufacturer of Milwaukee.

He said:

On July 3, 1935, management and the workers in our Milwaukee factory signed what might be called a share-the-production and 52-paychecks-per-year agreement.

Over good times and bad, it was found that production wages had maintained a more or less constant percentage of the value of business done, so it was agreed that this share, determined by experience, should be the basis for dividing the value of production between the workers and the company. We established drawing accounts for our workers, based on estimated annual income – one fifty-second to be withdrawn each and every week. Adjustment with actual earnings is made monthly.

Nine years in effect

It was a thoroughly new concept. No longer was the company buying labor as a commodity. The innovation made a common enterprise of the business, Sharing the value of production with the workers.

For more than nine years these workers have received an annual income which, we have reason to believe, is much more than the average for the industry. For 482 consecutive weeks, these workers have received a paycheck, regardless of how many hours were worked.

The Nunn-Bush Shoe Company’s plan varies from others in various enterprises that have found it possible and practicable (and according to what they say, very wise) to guarantee steady pay or steady work. The Procter & Gamble Company in Cincinnati has a different plan, and the Hormel Packing Company’s plan is different from both. There are plenty of plans, but so far they have been applied only in individual enterprises, and no attempt has been made to adopt the idea for huge industries such as coal mining or steel manufacturing or auto production.

CIO speaker

The other favoring speaker on the Town Meeting program was Harold J. Ruttenberg, research director of the CIO United Steel Workers, who gave most of his attention to the annual-wage demand in the current wage case of that union before the War Labor Board. He noted that his union “took the annual wage off the shelf of idle talk and put it into the arena of collective bargaining.”

However, the WLB panel was much less certain that this federal wartime agency could legally and with propriety order such a drastic step in American industry. Some opinion is that the problem will be solved eventually only through an overall organization of American industry, working voluntarily to level out the peaks and valleys that now disfigure the peacetime chart of industrial production.

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Hansen: Half-witted characters in Tragic Ground supposed to be victims of war work

Despite appalling picture presented, story is described as entertaining
By Harry Hansen

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3157

I DARE SAY —
Professionals would aid Playhouse drama case

By Florence Fisher Parry

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Hopper: Gregory Peck hottest thing in Hollywood

Lanky young man new film idol; Hitchcock pairs him with Ingrid
By Hedda Hopper

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3158

Bela Lugosi has hard time living down Dracula role

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Super vaudeville circuit proposed for war plants

Hollywood café owner visions ‘name’ acts at popular prices on big scale
By Ben H. Cook, United Press staff writer

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3159

Radio poll mixed as politics

‘Favorites’ are absentees
By Si Steinhauser

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3160

Medical colleges asked to join veterans program

Government will pay school fees, buy books, pay pension for approved ex-servicemen

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3161

West opposes plan to freeze war factories

Fair treatment in conversion demanded
By Robert C. Elliott, Scripps-Howard staff writer

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3162

Gallant Georgia Tech holds Navy on 1-foot line to triumph, 17–15

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Steeler-Cards still after first league triumph

New York seven-point favorites to reverse defeat in exhibition
By Carl Hughes

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3163

Salzburger Zeitung (October 23, 1944)

Aachens Verteidiger sprachen für Deutschland

‚Es wird weitergekämpft‘

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3164

Explosionskatastrophe in USA

Stockholm, 22. Oktober –
Wie aus Cleveland (Ohio) gemeldet wird, ereignete sich dort eine gewaltige Explosion in einem Laboratorium, in dem flüssiges Gas hergestellt wird. Es brach ein Brand aus, der, angefacht durch starken Sturm, rasch um sich griff und eins zweite sehr heftige und eins Reihe kleinerer Explosionen auslöste. Dabei wurden nach einer Reuters-Meldung 70 Personen getötet, 163 Personen werden vermisst und 235 wurden schwer verletzt. Etwa 3.600 Personen sind obdachlos. Weiters 10.000 mußten unbeschädigte Häuser räumen, weil die Gefahr neuer Explosionen besteht und die Gas-, Wasser- und Stromversorgung unterbrochen ist.

3165

Oberdonau-Zeitung (October 23, 1944)

Atlantikhäfen sind eine verlorene Schlacht

Amerikanische Eingeständnisse – Der tapfere Kampf hat weitaus gelohnt

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3166

Die Kämpfe bei Formosa

Von Vizeadmiral Lützow

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3167

Führer HQ (October 23, 1944)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

Unsere Truppen brachten durch Gegenangriffe und zähen Widerstand die Angriffe der Kanadier im Raum nördlich und nordöstlich Antwerpen im Wesentlichen zum Scheitern. Auch die englischen Divisionen, die östlich Herzogenbusch zum Angriff antraten, konnten nur wenig Boden gewinnen.

Im Raum von Würselen halten harte Kämpfe in und um Bunkerstellungen an. Östlich Lunéville und im Raum von Bruyères kam es auch gestern zu heftigen örtlichen Gefechten. Eigene Gegenangriffe brachten den stellenweise vorgedrungenen Feind nach geringen Anfangserfolgen rasch wieder zum Stehen.

Im Etruskischen Apennin führten die Verbände der 5. amerikanischen Armee eine Reihe von Angriffen, die abgewiesen wurden. An der adriatischen Küste zerschlugen unsere Divisionen feindliche Angriffsgruppen, die den ganzen Tag über mit vermehrter Wucht gegen unsere Stellungen anstürmten. Nur nördlich Cesena konnte der Feind einen kleinen Brückenkopf über den Savio gewinnen.

Kampffähren der Kriegsmarine versenkten im Golf von Genua ohne eigene Schäden ein britisches Schnellboot und beschädigten ein weiteres schwer.

Auf dem Balkan kämpften sich unsere Truppen, nachdem sie sich tagelang im Raum von Nisch gegen die andringende feindliche Übermacht hatten behaupten können, von den gegnerischen Umfassungsversuchen frei und gewannen Anschluss an unsere Hauptkräfte.

In Südungarn hat sich der Druck des Gegners in Richtung auf die Donau verstärkt. Deutsche und ungarische Truppen schlugen nordwestlich Szeged wiederholte bolschewistische Angriffe ab.

Die Vernichtung der östlich Szolnok eingeschlossenen rumänischen und sowjetischen Divisionen geht weiter. Nach hartnäckiger, aber vergeblicher Gegenwehr wurden sie in einzelne Gruppen aufgesplittert. Nördlich Debrecen schnitten unsere Truppen die bis an die obere Theiß vorgedrungenen sowjetischen Verbände von ihren rückwärtigen Verbindungen ab und fügten ihnen hohe Verluste zu.

In den Ostbeskiden, wo der Feind westlich des Duklapasses wieder erfolglos angriff, warfen unsere Grenadiere die Bolschewisten aus einer am Vortage verbliebenen Einbruchsstelle zurück.

In mehrwöchigen harten Gebirgskämpfen in der Ostslowakei haben Truppen des Heeres und der Waffen-SS größere Bandengruppen zerschlagen und umfangreiche Beute sichergestellt. In der Mittelslowakei sind weitere Unternehmungen gegen die durch bolschewistische Fallschirmspringer verstärkten Banden im Gange.

Beiderseits Seroc stehen unsere Verbände in harten Abwehrkämpfen gegen die mit starken Kräften angreifenden feindlichen Divisionen.

Die Schlacht im ostpreußischen Grenzgebiet hat nach Süden bis in den Raum Augustow übergegriffen; zwischen Sudauen und Goldap gelangen den Bolschewisten tiefere Einbrüche. Nach schweren Straßenkämpfen ist Goldap in Feindeshand gefallen. Südlich Gumbinnen unterbrachen unsere Grenadiere im Rücken der vorgedrungenen Sowjets deren Nachschubstraßen. Durchbruchsversuche der Bolschewisten beiderseits Ebenrode sind blutig gescheitert. In die erbitterten Kämpfe im ostpreußischen Grenzgebiet griffen Schlachtflieger und Flakartillerie erfolgreich ein, zerschlugen sowjetische Angriffsspitzen und vernichteten zahlreiche Panzer. In der siebentägigen Schlacht in diesem Kampfraum wurden bisher 616 feindliche Panzer abgeschossen oder erbeutet.

Angriffe der Bolschewisten gegen den Brückenkopf Memel blieben erfolglos.

Auf der Landenge der Halbinsel Sworbe drängten unsere Grenadiere den eingebrochenen Feind wieder nach Norden zurück. Sie wurden dabei wirksam durch das Feuer leichter deutscher Seestreitkräfte und Kampffähren unterstützt.

Im hohen Norden setzte der Feind bei Kolosjoki und an der Eismeerstraße seine Angriffe unter starkem Schlachtfliegereinsatz fort. Grenadiere und Gebirgsjäger wiesen die sowjetischen Angriffe ab und vereitelten Umfassungsversuche des Feindes.

Anglo-amerikanische Terrorbomber griffen bei geschlossener Wolkendecke Hannover, Münster, Braunschweig, Neuß und Hamburg an und warfen vereinzelt Bomben in Westdeutschland.

Im ostpreußischen Grenzgebiet hat sich die Panzerabteilung 118 unter Führung von Major Grohe durch besonderen Angriffsschwung ausgezeichnet.