America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

3319

americavotes1944

Truman denies ever being Klan member

Report called ‘lie out of whole cloth’

Peoria, Illinois –
Senator Harry S. Truman, Democratic vice-presidential nominee, today described as “a lie out of the whole cloth” a charge that he was a former member of the Ku Klux Klan.

At a news conference shortly after his arrival here, Mr. Truman was told by a reporter for The Chicago Herald-American that there was a report that he was once a member of the Klan.

“I am not a member of the Klan and never was,” he said.

‘Helped beat’ him

The reporter asked Mr. Truman if he knew a man named Harry Hoffman, and Mr. Truman replied that he knew the man and that he “helped beat” him when Hoffman was a candidate for Jackson County (Missouri) marshal in 1922.

The reporter then said Hoffman had signed an affidavit that as Grand Kleagle of the Klan he had sworn Mr. Truman in as a member in 1922.

“That’s a lie out of the whole cloth,” Mr. Truman said. He said the report “started in the campaign of 1922 and was nailed as a lie then.”

Candidate for judge

Mr. Truman said he was a candidate then for county judge in the Eastern District of Jackson County.

In Kansas City, Missouri, Lee M. Allen, one-time Klan Cyclops, charged that Mr. Truman joined the Klan in 1922 and spoke at a big rally of the organization. He alleged that Mr. Truman’s initiation fee check “bounced” and said another member paid it for him.

“He didn’t stay in the organization long – dropped out a short time after the election as I recall it.”

3320

americavotes1944

Roosevelt policies praised by Hull

Washington (UP) –
Secretary of State Cordell Hull, in a statement praising President Roosevelt’s leadership in foreign affairs, said today that he was a statesman “equipped by nature and by experience” as few statesmen have been equipped in the nation’s history.

The statement did not mention directly the forthcoming presidential election, but it was obviously an endorsement of Mr. Roosevelt’s bid for a fourth term.

The statement was issued through the State Department. Mr. Hull is in the Naval Hospital at nearby Bethesda, Maryland, for a physical checkup following a cold which kept him home more than two weeks.

Mr. Hull’s statement reviewed the foreign policy steps taken by the President in the last four years and emphasized the importance of international problems now confronting the United States and the world.

3321

British troops gaining along Bologna front

Ferni is menaced by new advance

…

Full recognition given to Italy

Kirk to be named U.S. Ambassador

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3322

Stiffer Jap resistance predicted by Stimson

Secretary of War says enemy is tough and long and bitter fight is expected

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3323

Jap airplane factories hit in B-29 raid

Damage is admitted in Tokyo broadcast

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Navy praised by Roosevelt

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3324

Ernie Pyle gets doctor’s degree

Albuquerque, New Mexico (UP) –
The servicemen’s “representative to the folks back home” – war correspondent Ernie Pyle – was awarded an honorary degree of doctor of letters at the University of New Mexico’s fall commencement exercises yesterday.

Pyle, recently returned from Europe, was presented for the degree by Dean George Hammond of the university’s graduate school, who said:

Peoples of the United States – in fact, the whole world – have come to know Ernie Pyle as a roving reporter during the present World War, writer of keen observation, tireless energy and a faithful and sympathetic nature.

He followed the soldiers around, wherever they were and, in his writings, became their representative to the folks back home.

The veteran Scripps-Howard correspondent received the degree with his usual modesty. He had said in advance of the ceremony that he didn’t think he deserved to be awarded the honorary degree.

3325

Gracie Allen Reporting

By Gracie Allen

Hollywood, California –
Goodness, I wish those radio commentators would be a little more careful about their pronunciations.

Our cook was upset enough when Crosby stayed in England so long, but last night she really had a fit. She heard a commentator say that the British were going to take Sinatra. It wasn’t until this morning that George explained that it wasn’t Sinatra but an island called Sumatra.

It’s a blessing the Allies chased the Nazis out of France so quickly too. The only French town most commentators could pronounce was Paris. And heaven help them now that they’ve got to pronounce cities like Düsseldorf, Kassel, Kissen and Essen. That will really make them sound like they’ve got upper-plate wobble.

3326

americavotes1944

‘1000 Club’ organized to raise extra million for Roosevelt

President credited with originating plan
By Peter Edson

Washington –
Details of a plan to raise an extra million dollars to support the reelection of President Roosevelt through the formation of “The 1000 Club of the USA,” made up of 1,000 members, each contributing $1,000, have been announced by Frank J. Lewis of Chicago, national president of the club.

Organization of this club, which now has a paid-up membership of “over 100.55” is partially Mr. Roosevelt’s own idea, and the President is a paid-up member, having given his check for $1,000 to National Treasurer George K. Bowden of Chicago and received in return his red-enamel or engraved copper-plate lifetime membership card.

NOTE: This story was written and received prior to Governor Dewey’s address of last night in which he read a letter soliciting membership for the club, stating the idea originated in the White House and promising special favors for the contributors.

To buy radio time

The million-dollar club fund will be used to buy radio time and for other campaign activities which the 1000 Club will sponsor, independently from the activities of the Democratic National Committee which is limited by law to $3 million expenditures in a presidential campaign.

The fact that the 1000 Club was Mr. Roosevelt’s own idea was stated by Democratic Committee Chairman Robert E. Hannegan at a meeting of businessmen in Chicago on Sept. 11, when the club was formed. Minutes of this meeting have just been made public.

Roosevelt quoted

Quoting the President, Mr. Hannegan told the Chicago dinner meeting that the President had said to him:

I think it would be a good idea to have a list of 1,000 persons, banded together all over the United States, to act as a liaison to see that facts relating to the public interest are presented factually to the President and members of the Legislature.

Mr. Hannegan arranged for the Chicago meeting, but having tossed the assembled businessmen this flaming torch, they picked it up and went on from there.

Edwin W. Pauley, treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, who was also present, said the President’s idea could develop into a powerful interest for good.

Made up of admirers

The club, it was stated, would be made up of admirers of the President and would be an organization of business and professional men he could call on for advice and counsel, not only during the campaign but also after the election.

Irwin Walker was named temporary chairman of the Chicago meeting, and a committee consisting of George K. Bowden, Marshal Field, Richard S. Reynolds of the Reynolds Metals Company, James Shepard of Los Angeles, Hunt Walter and C. V. Bay of Chicago was named to draw up a constitution.

Oklahoma Governor Robet S. Kerr spoke briefly in support of the objectives and William G. Johnstone, Oklahoma City oil and cattleman, proposed a club motto of “1000 members for the 1000 Club in 1000 hours,” which was received with such acclaim that Charles Bidwell of Chicago made out his check for $1000 on the spot, thus becoming really the first member of the club, although the President officially holds membership No. 1.

National head elected

The Chicago chapter was the first to be organized, with the election of Mr. Lewis as national president and George D. Crowley heading up the local chapter.

Organization has been directed mainly from Chicago. Plans call for setting up a chapter in every state.

Oklahoma was the first state to fill its quota of 25 members, through the efforts of Mr. Johnstone. The California organization is headed by Sam Goldwyn.

The Washington chapter is headed by Joseph E. Davies of Mission to Moscow fame.

Party chiefs invited

The Washington chapter of the 1000 Club is expected to be one of its strongest. Alfons B. Landa, one of the Davies law firm partners, has been doing most of the active organizing work among Cabinet officers – excepting Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and Under Secretary of War Robert B. Patterson, who are Republicans.

Other high party chieftains and government administrators will be invited to join.

Assisting in the national organization work as executive directors in Washington are six Congressmen who have no contests for election in their districts:

Estes Kefauver of Chattanooga, Tennessee; Robert L. F. Sikes of Crestview, Florida; F. Edward Herbert of New Orleans; Oren Harris of Dorado, Arkansas; Eugene Worley of Shamrock, Texas; and John J. Sparkman of Huntsville, Alabama.

Trustees named

The Board of Trustees of the 1000 Club, who are empowered by the club constitution to administer its affairs, are, in addition to President Lewis and Treasurer Bowden, Charles Ulrick Bay of the Bay Petroleum Company of New York; Marshall Field, New York and Chicago heir and publisher, Richard S. Reynolds of Virginia and Mrs. Jean Tuerk of Chicago.

The 1000 Club has no connection with the Business Men for Roosevelt, Inc., whose honorary president is Andrew J. Higgins of New Orleans. Mr. Higgins is, however, a member of the 1000 Club.

3327

americavotes1944

Arkansans accept ‘responsibility’ –
‘1000 Club’ link to Roosevelt denied by party leaders

Democratic chiefs say instigators of plan to raise money have already been rebuked

New York (UP) –
Democratic leaders said today that President Roosevelt had no connection with the “1000 Club” which Governor Thomas E. Dewey said had been promised special privileges for $1,000 campaign contributions. They also denied that it was authorized by the Democratic National Committee and said its instigators had already been criticized by party officials.

DNC Chairman Robert E. Hannegan said the club was never discussed with President Roosevelt, and “any quotation contained in the letter read by Governor Dewey attributed to the President is wholly without substance.”

Two accept ‘responsibility’

Mr. Hannegan said:

There is nothing mysterious about the “Thousand Club.” It is entirely independent of the Democratic National Committee and the statement attributed to the President, I repeat, is wholly without foundation and unauthorized.

H. L. McAlister and Samuel J. Watkins, Arkansas Democratic finance directors, whom Governor Dewey said signed the letter from which he quoted, issued a statement at Little Rock in which they assumed full responsibility for the letter and said it had been misinterpreted by the GOP presidential candidate.

Statement quoted

Their statement said:

We assume personal responsibility for the “Thousand Club” letter. The interpretation Mr. Dewey placed on the sentence “members of this organization undoubtedly will be granted special privileges and prestige by party leaders” is entirely foreign to ours.

The words “prestige and special privilege” do not mean to us what has been inferred by him.

Arkansas citizens have received many benefits, directly and indirectly from the present Democratic administration. We know what to expect from a Republican administration. We have tried both. Our thinking on the matter of contributions to the party is definitely expressed by this sentence which was placed in practically all of the letters going out from this headquarters – the amount of your contribution should be measured by your ability to pay, by your party spirit and by your desire to see the present Democratic administration continued.

‘In trouble before’

The men revealed that they had been in trouble before with the national party for their efforts to build a fire under hesitant campaign contributors and on one occasion Wilburn Maycock, National Committee counsel, wrote them that one of their letters “does not reflect the policy or ethics of the Democratic administration and it is to be repudiated as such…”

Mr. Hannegan seized the opportunity to criticize GOP campaign contributions.

He said:

The Democratic National Committee does not have “angels” of the type of Joe Pew of Pennsylvania who has contributed $13 million to the Republican Party.

Because of this fact, the project to interest liberal and progressive business and professional people who are able to make a contribution of $1,000 was developed to assist in financing the campaign.

‘Investment in democracy’

Mr. Hannegan said he had not seen the letter to which Governor Dewey referred but had been advised of the “Thousand Club” by Edwin W. Pauley, treasurer of the National Committee.

“Those who subscribed $1,000 are making an investment in democracy and this project has my approval,” he said.

3328

Five Hodcarrier officials indicted

$250,000 reported to have disappeared

…

3329

americavotes1944

Despite Lewis –
Fayette miners still favor fourth term

But GOP leaders hope for inroads
By Robert Taylor, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Uniontown, Pennsylvania –
Fayette County has the largest group of soft coal miners in Pennsylvania – 20,000 of them – and they are defying the wishes of John L. Lewis, the United Mine Workers chieftain, to support President Roosevelt for the fourth time.

Not only do rank and file miners attend Democratic rallies, but local unions in the coal fields have formally endorsed Mr. Roosevelt.

In the face of these indications of the sentiment of the miners, the UMW district officials – all appointees of Mr. Lewis, as District 4 has no autonomy – have formally adopted an attitude of neutrality.

Officials keep silent

District President William Hines and other officials have taken the position that, since the recent UMW convention, at which Mr. Lewis denounced the Roosevelt administration, endorsed no candidates, they will follow the lead and refuse to endorse a candidate.

In other coal districts, UMW officials attend Republican rallies and give other evidence of supporting Mr. Lewis’ opposition to the New Deal, but here none of the District officials speak for candidates. The officials concede that some of their locals have declared for the President and maintain they are keeping hands off the campaign.

Republicans, facing a Democratic registration majority in the county of 15,248, and a two-year record of Democratic vote majorities which included victories in local, state and national elections, are hoping for at least a share of the miner vote.

Figures quoted

To the extent that they are able to get miner votes – the dominant factor in Fayette County elections – the Republicans can cut down the expected Democratic majority, estimated now at from 7,000 to 10,000 as compared with a 1940 majority of 18,052.

At the depth of the depression, half the population of the county was on relief and no group of voters in Pennsylvania has given more unswerving loyalty to Mr. Roosevelt than this county’s miners.

In 1932, he got a majority of 11,759 here, and in 1933, the miners struck for what they contended was support of the NRA which featured Mr. Roosevelt’s first term. In 1936, he got a majority of 26.307. In 1934, Governor George H. Earle got a majority of 12,127, in 1938, Democrats got a 7,328 majority for Governor and, in 1942, Fayette was one of 11 counties that went Democratic, by 2,092.

Congressional race

The most promising candidate for the Republicans is Carl H. Hoffman, Somerset businessman running against Democrat Rep. J. Buell Snyder for the Congressional seat in the Somerset-Fayette District.

Two years ago, the Congressional district consisted of Somerset, Fayette and Democratic Greene County, and Mr. Snyder, running for his sixth term, nosed out Mr. Hoffman by 1,466 votes in 65,494. With the last reapportionment, the district now consists only of Republican Somerset and Democratic Fayette, and Mr. Hoffman’s chances are rated as better.

The 1942 vote, however, was lighter than usual and the Nov. 7 vote is expected to be heavy. Accordingly, Mr. Snyder is given the advantage because of Fayette’s larger voter population. Four Democrats are favored for election to the State Legislature in Fayette.

3330

americavotes1944

Magazine survey gives Roosevelt slight edge

New York (UP) –
Fortune Magazine reported today that its latest election survey conducted in the week ending Oct. 20 showed a 53.5 percent preference for President Roosevelt against a 46.5 percent vote for Republican presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey.

While the Roosevelt lead represented a slight gain over the survey of the previous week, the magazine said three factors make the margin unstable and offer possibilities of an upset.

The soldier vote, which cannot be “sampled” under present law, was cited as the most important of these factors. Wartime migration, with its accompanying effect on registration, and the possible occurrence of events from day to day which will shift opinion were listed as other major influences.

3331

americavotes1944

‘Overtaxing’ hit by Governor Bricker

Business profits termed necessary

Shawnee, Oklahoma (UP) –
Business profits were called “necessary insurance” against industrial risks today by Ohio Governor John W. Bricker as he charged the New Deal with overtaxing business and setting employer and employee against one another.

The GOP vice-presidential nominee brought his campaign into this border state with a bitter denunciation of the Roosevelt administration’s attitude toward business and labor.

Employers ‘scourged’

He said:

Business success is the sign “to attack” with the New Dealers.

While the employer was being scourged, the employe has been encouraged to believe that his best interests will be protected by the bureaucrats – that conflict, not accord, is the road to progress – and that industrial strife is essential to better working conditions and better living standards.

As a result, he charged, the New Deal “destroyed fair collective bargaining,” and substituted “political bargaining” to the detriment of both employer and employee.

Tax system scored

The New Deal tax system, he charged, actually “discourages” profits.

The Republican Party, he promised, will substitute a tax program that will make it possible for industry to set aside adequate funds for depreciation, renewals, repairs and future reverses.

Last night, Governor Bricker called President Roosevelt the “political prisoner” and “front” of the Hillman-Browder Communists who, he said, will “call the tune” if the President is reelected.

He charged that Mr. Roosevelt has “alienated” so many voters that he was now in “desperate need of any kind of support.” The President has not “repudiated” Communistic support, Governor Bricker said, “because he, himself, is their political prisoner.”

3332

americavotes1944

Lyons: Ignoring Communism as campaign issue is dangerous policy

Subversive groups aided by tendency to underestimate totalitarian conspiracies
By Eugene Lyons, written for the Scripps-Howard newspapers

EDITOR’S NOTE: Eugene Lyons, until recently editor of the American Mercury, is best known for the autobiography of his disillusionment with Soviet Russia, Assignment in Utopia, which he wrote after serving for six years as United Press correspondent to Moscow. Born in Russia, he came to America as a child, later wrote for various newspapers. After serving as an Army private in 1918, Mr. Lyons subsequently edited Soviet Russia Pictorial and was assistant director of TASS, the official Soviet newswire service, from 1923 to 1927. At present, he is editor of a new magazine, Pageant, the first issue of which will be published next month.

New York –
No intelligent voters can overlook the fact that Communist influence in the government, in labor and in American life is generally an important issue in this campaign.

Whether it is an issue important enough to outweigh other vital considerations in voting is for the individual citizen to determine.

But to pretend that the Communist issue is minor, or that it is a “red herring” dragged into the fight by Republicans, is just dangerous nonsense. The tendency to shrug off and underestimate the force of totalitarian conspiracies, whether Fascist or Communist, is one of the strongest advantages enjoyed by anti-democratic groups in democratic countries.

France, Germany good examples

Not until France collapsed did the world see how the Communist-inspired Popular Front government had undermined the stamina of that nation. Not until the Nazis came to power did the democratic elements in Germany realize their tragic blunder in discounting Nazism in the years when it seemed a minor crackpot affair.

The same kind of self-delusion is evident in our country today in relation to the rapidly-growing Communist penetration of American life. It is apparent in the silly optimism with which so many Americans assert that the Communists after all are just a handful; that they have dropped their Communist ideas anyhow; that their influence is exaggerated.

To begin with, the Communist issue in this campaign was not injected by the Republicans. It was injected by the Communists and their fellow travelers themselves – not in words, of course, but in actions.

Led 4th-term movement

Long before Democratic strategists had come out frankly for the fourth term, demands that President Roosevelt be drafted were being shouted by every Communist publication and every Communist-controlled organization in the land.

The united front of the Browder groups and the Communist wing of the CIO which blossomed into the Political Action Committee under Sidney Hillman did more to put the Communist issue in the forefront than any move by Republicans.

Most important, there is the notorious fact that the New Deal administration has been honeycombed with open and disguised Communists through most of its career.

Issue not invented

The issue thus did not have to be invented or inflated. It has been there, large as life, all the time. Indeed, the Republicans have played down the issue rather than exaggerated it – when one contemplates the ammunition that they have somehow ignored.

I suspect that some Republicans are as complacent as the Democrats about the whole matter, and for the same reason: Ignorance of the real magnitude of the Communist movement and how far it has already affected our political life, our schools, our literature, our labor unions, our entertainment and even our churches. At bottom, I suspect, the Republicans share the widespread illusion that because the Communist underground is numerically small it is not a real challenge.

For nearly a decade we have had, in effect, a Popular Front government. It has functioned through what might be described as interlocking directorates – through thousands of big and little officials serving in the government and at the same time supporting an array of Communist-front organizations.

Two groups interwoven

Look at the activities of any of these organizations – the League for Peace and Democracy, the American Peace Mobilization (which pushed isolationist propaganda until June 1941), the Workers Alliance, the National Maritime Union, the American Youth Congress, the Lawyers Guild, the Daughters of the American Depression, the American Negro Congress, the American Writers Congress, the so-called Friends of Spanish Democracy, etc.

Not one of these pulled a mass meeting or manifesto or picket line without the public blessings of some New Dealers.

In writing a history of the Communist movement in our country, in 1941, I found that after 1935, the record became in large part a history of the New Deal. So much of the personnel and the ideologies had merged that it was not easy to tell precisely where one left off and the other took over.

GOP ignoring real facts

The Republicans have failed dismally to bring this picture into such clear focus that the Americans could see and comprehend. They have contented themselves with slogans about “clearing everything with Sidney” when a mountain of concrete facts about a concrete situation covering nearly a decade was at their disposal.

But the Republican failure does not cancel the reality. Communism is not an issue “dragged in” by the Republicans. It’s an issue they found waiting and failed to exploit because they, too, tend to underestimate it.

3333

War needs urged as key to newsprint control

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3334

americavotes1944

Editorial: Fourth Term, Inc.

In each of Mr. Roosevelt’s campaigns for the Presidency, there has been at least one cute little trick for raising money.

One time it was the Democratic convention book, in which corporations doing business with the government purchased high-priced advertising, and the books themselves were sold for $100 apiece with the President’s autograph.

Another time WPA workers were shaken down for contributions – the New Deal political machine was never one to turn down a widow’s mite. A crowd which espouses the doctrine of “spend and spend, elect and elect” is not likely to be touchy about where it gets its money.

In this campaign there are a couple of innovations, patterned somewhat after the financing of corporate holding companies in the balmy days. First, there is the CIO Political Action Committee, that “educational organization,” whose slush fund was raised by labor-union officers dipping into union tills. and its subsidiary, the National Citizens Political Action Committee, also run by Sidney Hillman, which gets its gravy by asking union members for a dollar a head.

These dollar contributors perhaps could be called the common stockholders in a subsidiary corporation. Certainly, their dividend claims will be very common and secondary, in light of what Governor Dewey gave publicity to last night – the 1000 Club, whose members kick in $1,000 apiece, on the promise that they “will be granted special privilege and prestige by party leaders” and “will be called into conference from time to time to discuss matters of national importance and to assist in the formulation of administration policies.” Certainly, they are entitled to be called the preferred stockholders in Fourth Term, Inc. A thousand members at $1,000 each is a neat way to raise a million bucks for the campaign kitty.

All this, in what the President once called the “new moral climate.”

Since to err is human, we should not want to attribute either to Mr. Dewey or to Mr. Roosevelt a monopoly on morals.

But we are glad to see Mr. Dewey step out and challenge that kind of claim on that kind of cartel – a claim of special virtue which has threaded through the whole 12 years of that “new moral climate.”

It has been a constant wonder to us how the New Deal has been able to get away with it – how this sanctimony has been able to survive when so conspicuously abetted by the Hagues and the Kellys and the Flynns, not to mention the innumerable other and kindred deacons.

As to what has been going on in the political choir loft during this too-long era of self-asserted righteousness, Mr. Dewey last night had some things to say.

He read the record, showing that the New Deal has been something less than 99 44/100ths percent pure—

The cynical scheme to pack the Supreme Court; the false claim that insurance of bank deposits was a New Deal accomplishment, though its origin was Republican and the President actually opposed it; the wholesale hiring of WPA workers before elections, and their firing after the votes were counted; the man who got on WPA because there were nine votes in his family.

Mr. Dewey, the prosecuting attorney, is by way of being a capable trust-buster too, when it comes to New Deal claims of monopoly on morality. We have a hunch that those on high in Washington will sing low on morals, for a few days at least.

3335

Editorial: Well done, Navy

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3336

americavotes1944

Editorial: Playing with a buzzsaw

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3337

americavotes1944

Edson: ‘Non-political’ Texas paper puzzles probe

By Peter Edson

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3338

Ferguson: Comfortable houses

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

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