U.S. Navy Department (October 24, 1944)
On October 23 (West Longitude Date), enemy forces including battleships and cruisers were sighted moving eastward through the Sibuyan Sea and Sulu Sea in the Philippines and were attacked by carrier aircraft of the Third Fleet. Further details are not yet available.
The Pittsburgh Press (October 24, 1944)
U.S. tanks reported landing on nearby island of Samar
By William B. Dickinson, United Press staff writer
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Guerilla leaders disclose terrorism by oppressors during two-year occupation
By Ralph Teatsorth, United Press staff writer
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By J. Edward Murray, United Press staff writer
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Address to be on air at 10:30 tonight
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Minneapolis, Minnesota –
A speech in which Governor Thomas E. Dewey will haul the history books up to the microphones to propound some of the questions left untouched by President Roosevelt in his Saturday night foreign policy address is on tap here tonight.
Mr. Dewey’s address tonight will be broadcast over KDKA and KQV at 10:30 p.m. EWT.
The Republican presidential nominee tucked away in his suitcase the farm speech he had prepared for his Minnesota audience and announced he would “fill in the gaps” in certain large areas of recent history where, he said, Mr. Roosevelt’s memory “seems to fail him.”
Declines comment on Ball
Governor Dewey arrived in this city, confronted with the fact that one of the state’s two Republican Senators, Joseph H. Ball, is openly supporting President Roosevelt for reelection.
The news reached Governor Dewey last night in Cleveland but he declined to comment. Mr. Ball told a press conference in Washington yesterday that he would “vote for and support” President Roosevelt because his views on foreign affairs, go further into the field of international collaboration than those of the Republican nominee.
Possible Dewey attack
A chief point on which Governor Dewey is expected to rake the Roosevelt administration over the coals tonight is its pre-war policy of sending scrap iron and oil to Japan – a policy continued as late as 1940 and denounced as “appeasement” in the past by other critics of recent foreign policy.
Another point on which Governor Dewey may attack was Mr. Roosevelt’s mention of isolationist obstruction of his attempt to lift the arms embargo, but his failure to mention that the embargo was part of the Neutrality Act – passed earlier by a Democrat-controlled Congress and signed by Mr. Roosevelt.
Mr. Roosevelt, in his Saturday speech, said the embargo “tied our hands against selling arms to European democracies for defense against Hitler,” and charged that after it had become plain to Hitler that the embargo would not be lifted, the Nazis attacked Poland.
Dewey on offensive
Carrying the fight to Mr. Roosevelt, the Republican candidate is emphasizing again his refusal to stay on the defensive and his determination to give back, if he can, blow for blow, or better.
The big talking point of Mr. Dewey’s campaign has been the Roosevelt “fumbling” on the home front. The President has been rated strong on foreign policy, and the GOP candidate could have pulled away from this subject and turned again to his emphasis on Washington “bickering and bungling” and his charge of the administration’s inability to provide jobs at the war’s end.
But Tom Dewey didn’t choose to turn away. Again, he will go to the record and meet Mr. Roosevelt on his own grounds – the field of foreign affairs.
Mr. Roosevelt’s Saturday night speech chided Mr. Dewey for using quotations in his speeches which were out of context and, it is claimed, presented a distorted picture.
“Mr. Roosevelt, I’m afraid, took his history out of context in that speech of last Saturday night,” Mr. Dewey told reporters.
“His memory seems to fail him on large areas of recent history, so I’ll fill in the gaps in my Minneapolis speech tonight.” He said he was delaying his farm speech to “fill in the context which Mr. Roosevelt forgot.”
President may speak there next Saturday
Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt will make a campaign speech in Chicago, the White House announced today, and although there was no official word on its time, previous scheduling of a Democratic rally at Soldiers’ Field there next Saturday led to belief he would speak then.
White House Secretary Stephen T. Early said the President was starting work today on both the Chicago speech and the address he is to deliver Friday night in Philadelphia.
Only one caller – W. Averell Harriman, U.S. Ambassador to Russia, who flew back with reports on the Churchill-Stalin conferences in Moscow – was scheduled for the Chief Executive today.
Mr. Early would not discuss plans for any other campaign talks. Mr. Roosevelt will speak at Boston Nov. 4 and there have been repeated reports from Democratic sources that he will speak in Cleveland and Detroit.
Ex-dancer dared him because of broken fidelity pact, Canadian testifies
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About the only thing certain is that lady soldiers at Fort Belvoir are up in arms
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Result may be kept secret forever
Washington (UP) –
Evidence on the facts surrounding the Pearl Harbor disaster was in today, but its classification by Army and Navy investigating boards as “top secret” and “secret” made it doubtful when, if ever, the information would be revealed to the public.
The Army phase of the inquiry was completed yesterday when a special board submitted its report – a 5,000-page document containing testimony taken in the last three months – to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson who has referred it to Maj. Gen. Leroy Cramer, the Army’s Judge Advocate General.
Stimson to review data
Mr. Stimson will also review the report. Subsequently, appropriate military authorities will review the need for the secrecy classifications made by the board.
A similar report, based on a separate inquiry conducted by a Navy board, was submitted to Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal last Friday.
The Navy board also classified its report as “secret” and “top secret,” and Mr. Forrestal referred it to Adm. Ernest J. King, commander-in-chief of the Fleet, and RAdm. Thomas L. Gatch, Navy Judge Advocate General.
Back to Forrestal
Adm. King will determine which portion of the Navy report, if any, can be made public without violating military security. After Adm. Gatch has reviewed it from a legal standpoint, it will be returned to Mr. Forrestal, who will determine what action to take on the basis of opinions by Adm. King and Adm. Gatch.
It was believed that the task of review would not be completed until well after Election Day. Republicans in and out of Congress have been clamoring that the facts be disclosed before Election Day.
Drive within five miles of road to Bologna
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By Robert W. Richards, United Press staff writer
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Allies may bypass Chinese mainland
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Democratic regime set up under AMG
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New York –
Actor Orson Welles was reported “considerably improved” today by Jack Lighter, his manager. Welles has been confined to his hotel suite with a severe throat infection.
Allied Big Four may become Big Five
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
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Roosevelt has already warned of handicap; ‘seniority’ policies again reviewed
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington –
From a sideline point of view, it looks today as though the winner of next month’s presidential election maty have chairmanship trouble in the ensuing four years regardless of his identity. Presidents usually do.
President Roosevelt raised the question by warning the nation in his weekend foreign affairs broadcast that a GOP victory would make the isolationist Senator Hiram W. Johnson (R-CA), chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.
The isolationist Senator Gerald P. Nye (R-ND) would take over leadership of the Senate Appropriations Committee. And the isolationist Rep. Hamilton Fish Jr. (R-NY) would become chairman of the House Rules Committee, one of the most powerful bodies on Capitol Hill.
Martin assailed
Mr. Roosevelt made a point of the probability that Rep. Joseph W. Martin Jr. (R-MA) would be Speaker of the House if the Republicans get a Congressional majority, and he assailed Martin’s voting record.
The President, however, probably would concede quickly that he would have chairmanship trouble himself if he were reelected. He unquestionably regards the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as safely led by Chairman Tom Connally (D-TX) and there are other Congressional committee chiefs even more in tune with the Roosevelt administration.
‘Purge’ attempt recalled
But some of the major committee chairmen are anything but New Dealers and a few are open and constant in their opposition to the White House.
Mr. Roosevelt, himself, pointed in 1938 to some of those whose views he challenged. It was in that off-year Congressional campaign that Mr. Roosevelt personally undertook to prevent the renomination of Senators Walter F. George (D-GA), Ellison D. Smith (D-SC), and Millard F. Tydings (D-MD), and Rep. John J. O’Connor (D-NY).
Only O’Connor fell before Mr. Roosevelt’s 1938 attack.
Smith, Tydings and George came through easily and today are, respectively, chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Insular Affairs and Finance Committees. Smith’s tenure, however, is only until the new Congress meets in January. He was licked in the primary this year.
Others also listed
Those are three of a dozen major Senate committees. Of the others: Appropriations is headed by Senator Carter Glass (D-VA), who has been cool from the start to Roosevelt policies and whose newspaper in Lynchburg has not yet taken a stand for or against Mr. Roosevelt in the present campaign.
Banking and Currency is headed by a staunch New Dealer, Senator Robert F. Wagner (D-NY). But the Interstate Commerce Committee is headed by the bitterest anti-Roosevelt Democrat of them all – Senator Burton K. Wheeler (D-MT). Senator Pat McCarran (D-NV), is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and is often off the administration reservation.
Chairman Robert R. Reynolds (D-NC) is chairman of the Senate Military Affairs Committee but not for long. He is not a candidate for reelection. He has been a bitter critic of Roosevelt’s foreign and domestic policies.
Chairman David I. Walsh (D-MA) of the Naval Affairs Committee is of the conservative wing of the Democratic Party and gets his party line in Massachusetts rather than from the White House.
The Senate Rules Committee is not so powerful as its opposite number in the House. But for what it is worth, the chairman is Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-VA), who was against a fourth term before the Democratic National Convention and who has not yet said anything back home in favor of Mr. Roosevelt’s reelection.
Invitation to visit Roosevelt revealed
Baltimore, Maryland (UP) –
Senator Joseph H. Ball (R-MN), who has announced his support of President Roosevelt because of the President’s foreign policy stand, said last night the American people will have perhaps their last chance on Nov. 7 to express their determination to prevent civilization’s destruction in a Third World War.
Speaking before the local chapter of the Foreign Policy Association, the 38-year-old liberal said the United States and the world are at the “crossroads of history” and that decisions of the Allies in the next few years will determine whether a world security organization can be established to prevent future wars.
U.S. support needed
He emphasized his “deep desire” to keep the question on a nonpartisan basis, but added that “it is a political issue because the convictions and attitudes on it of the President and the Congressmen and Senators elected this fall will determine whether or not the United States will join an effective world security organization.”
“Without the United States, such an organization cannot hope to succeed,” he said.
Talked to Roosevelt
In announcing his support for Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Ball told a news conference yesterday that he spent an hour “discussing Dumbarton Oaks and other phases of foreign policy” with Mr. Roosevelt on Oct. 15. He said he went to the White House in response to an invitation sent through presidential adviser Harry Hopkins “as a result of my statements and speeches emphasizing the importance of the foreign policy issue in this election.”
Mr. Ball added:
Because of my great concern with the foreign policy issue, I would have been more than happy to have accepted a similar invitation from Governor Dewey or any of his advisers. I never received any.
Senator Ball predicted Mr. Roosevelt’s reelection. In response to a question, he said that if Governor Dewey should advocate in the next two weeks a stronger foreign policy satisfactory to him, it would be “a little late in the day” for him – Ball – to switch his support to Dewey.
He said he plans a 15-minute radio speech at 10:00 p.m. Thursday, under sponsorship of the Independent Republican Committee “giving my reasons for supporting Roosevelt.” He said he still considers himself a Republican /and expects to run for reelection in 1948 on that ticket.
Cheyenne, Wyoming (UP) –
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker said yesterday that Senator Joseph H. Ball (R-MN) made a “grievous mistake” and rendered a “disservice to his party and to his country” in announcing that he would support President Roosevelt for a fourth term.
Advised of Mr. Ball’s announcement, the GOP vice-presidential nominee first said “you can never analyze what a man’s motives are.”
He said it was an American’s right to “vote for whom he pleases” in a national campaign, and pointed out that that was what the Republicans were fighting for in this campaign. But he added:
Mr. Ball has sought office in the Republican Party. He seconded the nomination of Tom Dewey in the Chicago convention. I think he has made a grievous mistake and that he has rendered a disservice not only to his party but to his country through injury to the two-party system.
Washington (UP) –
Senator Owen Brewster (R-ME) today ridiculed speculation that Senator Joseph H. Ball (R-MN), who repudiated his own party’s presidential candidate to back a fourth term, would fall heir to political followers of the late Wendell Willkie.
Mr. Brewster, vice chairman of the Senate Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, said in an interview that Mr. Willkie and Mr. Ball had been in disagreement on several issues, and that for several months prior to his death, Mr. Willkie was not on speaking terms with the Senator.
Mr. Brewster said:
It is impossible to believe that someone who was utterly persona non grata to another man could take on his mantle, and any implication to that effect is a strain on credulity.
Mr. Ball will further explain his decision to back Mr. Roosevelt on Thursday when he speaks for 15 minutes on the Blue Network at 10:00 p.m., under sponsorship of the Independent Republican Committee.
Teamsters official journal prints affidavits to support its version of story
Indianapolis, Indiana (UP) –
The International Teamster, official organ of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (AFL), charged today that two naval officers had been drunk and had provoked a fight with union members in the “Hotel Statler incident” which followed President Roosevelt’s address to the union Sept. 23.
Lt. Randolph Dickins Jr. charged that he and a companion identified as LtCdr. James H. Suddeth of Greer, South Carolina, had been beaten by Teamsters Union members at the Hotel Statler, Washington, following President Roosevelt’s Sept. 23 speech, because they refused to tell who they favored for President.
The magazine’s November issue, edited by International Teamster President Daniel J. Tobin, claimed that “those two young naval officers who have been raised up to high heaven by the newspapers as having been decorated for bravery, were according to all evidence, imbibing freely all evening and were hanging around the mezzanine floor at the entrance to the banquet hall, accosting everyone who came out and challenging them, using vile language and calling them names for supporting Roosevelt.”
Affidavits quoted
Among the affidavits printed by the magazine in support of its story was one from Peter J. Hoban, delegate from a Chicago local, which claimed that “they used grossly insulting language of a nature which is unprintable and addressed same to the President of the United States and to the Teamsters Union.”
An affidavit by Charles A. Burns of Boston related that he heard two naval officers “using profane language and cursing the President of the United States,” and that he saw “a lieutenant commander punching and kicking a man who was holding him and trying to quiet him down.”
Woman tells of affair
“To hell with the President – the President – he is no good,” was a statement attributed to the officers by John F. English, a Teamster delegate, and Mrs. Helen Rowland, declared that an officer “grabbed my arm, swung me around to face him.”
Her statement:
He asked me, “Who are you for?” I replied, “I’m for Roosevelt, the same as you.” He replied, “I’m not, he is no damn good.”
The magazine commented:
Only one of those young men had been overseas and the man who was overseas never was decorated for anything.