America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

3519

americavotes1944

Editorial: Promises – and jobs

“For 12 years in this country,” said Governor Dewey at Syracuse, “we have had an unmanageable surplus of promises, promises lightly made, sketchily kept, or openly violated.”

And President Roosevelt, at Chicago, boosted the output, at least equaling his own record for super promises: Sixty million productive post-war jobs; high wages and efficient production; government encouragement to growth of business, large and small; abiding faith in free enterprise and the profit system; trebled foreign trade; firm prosperity for farmers; America preserved as s land of action, of adventurous pioneering, of growing and building.

Such promises may win votes…

If enough voters have short memories.

Most of what the President said about how an abundance of post-war jobs can be created is thoroughly sound. Just as sound as it was when Mr. Dewey said it at Philadelphia nearly two months ago.

If we could forget Mr. Roosevelt’s record since he first became a promising presidential candidate, we’d hail his Chicago speech as the utterance of an economic statesman.

But there the record stands:

The many fervent promises of government frugality, followed by unprecedented government extravagance. The promises to curb bureaucracy, and bureaucracy enormously swollen in size and power. The promises to “stop the deficits,” and the deficits made an invariable annual event. The promises to preserve state rights, and authority centered in Washington as never before. The promises of jobs, and WPA used as a political machine.

When Mr. Roosevelt talks now of need for vast expansion of job-creating industrial capacity, we recall the long years when he practiced the mature economy philosophy, he stated in 1932 at San Francisco: “Our industrial plant is built; the problem just now is whether under existing conditions it is not overbuilt.”

When he proclaims belief that “private enterprise can give full employment,” we remember how Winston Churchill said in 1937:

The Washington administration has waged so ruthless a war on private enterprise that the United States… is actually leading the world back into the trough of depression.

When Mr. Roosevelt says he knows how to provide 60 million peacetime jobs, we remember that he had been President for seven peacetime years in 1940, and that then there were only 46 million jobs and almost 10 million people unemployed.

When he promises enlightened tax policies to encourage business expansion, we remember that the policies he would have to alter are his own policies, insisted upon by him although business showed that they were discouraging expansion.

We are for the things Mr. Roosevelt promised at Chicago. But we want them delivered, nor promised before election and forgotten afterward. “That’s why it’s time for a change.”

3520

americavotes1944

Editorial: Three-year hush-hush

Pearl Harbor doesn’t appear to be in any desperate danger as of today. Martial law was lifted recently in the Hawaiian Islands. And the Jap navy has been engrossed lately in certain interesting exercises a long way from Honolulu, the major details of which you might get by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Mr. Davy Jones.

We see no reason why this country should not now, at last, be given the true story of an event almost three years old. The American battleships wrecked by Jap planes on Dec. 7, 1941, have been repaired or replaced, and enormously supplemented. The Navy has just released details on the new Iowa class of battleships. If this information can be made public, surely there is little of a technical nature in the old but untold story of Pearl Harbor that needs to be hushed up any longer.

Only last Friday night, at Philadelphia, Mr. Roosevelt was remarking that “we have constantly investigated and publicized our whole management of the war effort.” But the naval court of inquiry and the Army board assigned some months ago to ascertain the facts about Pearl Harbor have now submitted their reports to the Secretaries of the Navy and of War – and have marked these documents “secret” and “top secret.” (Meaning, “You can’t print it.”)

Perhaps there are certain details in these reports that might lend a little aid and comfort to the enemy, but it is hard to believe that the bulk of the material could not be made public with full safety and propriety.

Rep. Maas of Minnesota has charged that the President and other high Washington officials had six hours’ advance notice of the time and place chosen by Japan for her attack, and that they failed to get word to Adm. Kimmel and Gen. Short at Pearl Harbor.

Whether there is truth in that, we do not know. But we do feel that if we were in the President’s shoes, and the charge were untrue, we would want to have the full story told to the public.

Somehow or other, though, our hunch is that the Army and Navy will not put out anything. Not, anyway, until after Nov. 7, 1944.

3521

americavotes1944

Editorial: Election imponderable

As to Election Day, one imponderable that is stumping the experts is how the absentee civilian travelers are going to affect the result.

Every railway train, bus and plane, come Nov. 7, will be jammed, as they are every day now in the feverish froth of hither-and-yon that always characterizes wartime. You can’t vote on a plane, train or bus. So, many thousands will be out of ballot-box circulation. How many thousands nobody knows.

Further, every great American city is bursting at the seams with transients. You need a shoehorn to get around the sidewalks of New York. The same is true of Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, Kansas City or almost any other metropolis you care to name. No hotel rooms available, long lines before every registration desk and ticket window – that’s the scene right across the continent. There never was an election time when so many were out of reach of voting.

Then, of course, there are the war-plant workers who have moved from where they used to vote to where they may or may not have registered.

As a betting proposition, there is no past-performance chart for use in 1944.

3522

americavotes1944

Edson: PAC embraces religious wing to spur votes

By Peter Edson

Washington –
An effort to incorporate a great religious movement into the program of the National Citizens Political Action Committee, working for reelection of President Roosevelt, is revealed in a series of letters and pamphlets sent to some 20,000 American clergymen of all faiths, soliciting them to become “Religious Associates” of the NCPAC.

New York headquarters of the PAC says that about 130 priests, rabbis, preachers and lay leaders are now enrolled in the “R.A.” branch of the PAC.

The movement has drawn criticism from a number of conservative clergymen, particularly Dr. Norman Vincent Peale of the Marble Collegiate Reformed Church in New York, who has charged that the PAC is “trying to drag the church into politics.” Dr. Peale is listed as chairman of the Committee for Constitutional Government, but as Dr. Edward A. Rumely testified before the House Campaign Expenditures Committee that the Committee for Constitutional Government, of which he is executive secretary, was not a political organization but an educational one, Dr. Peale’s own activities with the Committee could of course not be considered in the same political light with those of the PAC Religious Associates.

‘Cleared’ by Sidney

It was Sidney Hillman himself who started the Religious Associates, with a letter to the 20,000 clergymen, dated Aug. 18. In the letter Mr. Hillman said that the Associates had no blueprints and no goals, but would be an informal fellowship of ministers and lay leaders.

Shortly after this letter went out, the Rev. Dwight J. Bradley became head of the Religious Associates and his name now appears on all the “R.A.” literature. Mr. Bradley has held pulpits in a number of cities and since 1938 has been head of the Congregational Church Council of Social Action.

One of the more intriguing bits of literature which Mr. Bradley has put out is a 16-page pocket size leaflet bearing the old nursery rhyme title, “This Is the Church, This Is the Steeple, Open the Doors… and There Are the People.”

The CIO isn’t mentioned in this sermonette until Page 7, where it explains that anyone who serves the working people well is a friend of the church and “The CIO is primarily concerned with the protection and the improvement of the economic conditions of its members.” Then it explains what the CIO-PAC is, and the NCPAC, finally getting around, on Page 9, to the “R.A.”

A slight suggestion

“Who are the Religious Associates?” asks the pamphlet, and it answers:

The Religious Associates are a group of leaders of all faiths, joined in a fellowship of religious social action and associated with the National Citizens Political Action Committee.

Do religion and politics mix? Politics is a means of achieving freedom and order. Whatever works for freedom and order is a concern of religion. When religion and politics are mixed on a basis of progressive democracy, political action is maintained at a high level of ethics, and religion makes itself felt…

There is a 10-point credo set forth for the Religious Associates, and another decalogue of Political Aims of the Religious Associates. In neither of these does the name of Mr. Roosevelt appear, but in a series of neat little mimeographed notes sent out over the signature of Mr. Bradley, Mr. Roosevelt’s name is mentioned plenty.

The last of these letters, mailed from New York on Oct. 18, begins:

Dear Religious Leader: In the last letter we asked: For whom shall we vote in order to meet these issues in the right way?

There follow six paragraphs of all the things Mr. Roosevelt has done, with the conclusion that:

In the light of this record, it seems to me quite clear that Mr. Roosevelt should be reelected… The issues are not merely political. They are fundamentally ethical. …Shall not the spiritual guides help the people understand? …Shall not he who is ordained to the ministry of religion at least exert his influence to persuade the citizens to vote?

DWIGHT J. BRADLEY

3523

Ferguson: More about a refugee

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

…

3524

americavotes1944

Background of news –
Pennsylvania’s vote

By Bertram Benedict

In journeying to Philadelphia last Friday to make one of his major speeches of the 1944 campaign, President Roosevelt testified to the political importance of Pennsylvania this year.

In a close election, Pennsylvania might well prove pivotal with its 35 electoral votes, fewer only than New York’s 47. It is being frequently said that Mr. Roosevelt, with a foundation of 113 votes in the Deep South, will win if he carries Pennsylvania even if he loses New York, but that Governor Dewey, absolutely sure of only 55 electoral votes in the Midwest, needs Pennsylvania as well as New York.

In 1940, the Keystone State gave Mr. Roosevelt a majority of 221,187 in a total of 4,060,883 presidential votes cast. Mr. Roosevelt had a majority of 177,271 in Philadelphia County and one of 104,641 in Allegheny County. In the rest of the state the result was 50-50, with Wendell Willkie receiving a net majority of 725.

In 1936, Pennsylvania gave Mr. Roosevelt a majority of 663,488 over Alfred M. Landon. But in 1932 Pennsylvania was one of the six states which stuck by Herbert Hoover, giving him a majority of 157,592 over Mr. Roosevelt.

From Civil War until 1936

Pennsylvania never went Democratic for President between the Civil War and 1936, even when the Democrats won the presidency in 1884, 1892, 1912 (Pennsylvania voted for Theodore Roosevelt on a third-party ticket), and 1916. In the close election of 1916, the Keystone State gave Charles Evans Hughes almost 60 percent of its major-party vote.

Possibly it was because Pennsylvania was not regarded as a doubtful state that the Republicans never went to it for their presidential nominee, Although the state always has ranked second or third in population, it has given only one President to the nation – Democrat James Buchanan, elected in 1856, and perhaps the weakest of all our Presidents.

In the decades prior to the New Deal, a very large proportion of Pennsylvania’s miners and factory-workers had been won over to the Republican gospel of a high protective tariff to keep wage rates high. John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers since 1919, was a Republican and worked for the Republican ticket.

Democratic in 1934

But after 1932, the miners and factory workers of Pennsylvania seemed to go over to the Democrats with a whoop and a holler. In 1934, Pennsylvania elected a Democratic Governor, a Democratic Senator, and Democrats to 23 of its 34 seats in the House of Representatives. Mr. Lewis became an ardent supporter of the New Deal and told the country over the radio in October 1935:

The President has succeeded so well in his task of rehabilitating America that the industrialists and financiers have recovered sufficiently to fight him with malice and venom.

In 1938, Pennsylvania went back to Republicanism in the state election. It elected a Republican Governor by a 279,000 majority, a Republican Senator by 393,000.

In 1940, when Mr. Lewis was back in the Republican camp, he could not carry his miners with him. The state voted for Mr. Roosevelt and for a Democratic Senator (by 177,000), and sent more Democrats than Republicans to the House.

But in 1942, Pennsylvania was back with its old love, the GOP – it elected a Republican Governor by 218,000 majority, sent almost twice as many Republicans as Democrats to the House, and elected a Republican as its Representative-at-Large by a majority of 255,000.

3525

Anybody want any pigeons? See Treasury

Zippers, snow shoes, a grouser for sale
By Frederick C. Othman, United Press staff writer

…

Kress gives art to U.S. gallery

…

3526

Surprise for Japs –
U.S. bombers defeat Zeros

Foe learns hard way about Americans

…

Army accused of ‘filtering’ news

…

3527

Garrison: Kelly’s from Pittsburgh and he is almighty proud of the fact!

Hoofer devoted to wife and baby
By Maxine Garrison

…

Excellent whodunit at Harris

Gene Tierney stars in mystery film
By John D. Paulus

…

3528

americavotes1944

Truman to make reply to Dewey

Will speak in Providence tonight

Boston, Massachusetts (UP) –
Senator Harry S. Truman, Democratic candidate for Vice President, winds up the New England leg of his campaign tour today with a reply to Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s references to the “Roosevelt depression.”

After two days in Massachusetts, Mr. Truman’s schedule called for him to motor to Providence, Rhode Island, today and to address a party rally tonight. He will speak in New York’s Madison Square Garden tomorrow night.

During his two days in Massachusetts, the nominee appeared at party rallies at Fall River, New Bedford, Worcester, Lawrence and Lynn.

The failure of Senator David I. Walsh of Massachusetts, anti-administration Democrat, to appear at the Worcester meeting provoked speculation over his political intentions, but he silenced rumors by greeting Mr. Truman at Lawrence yesterday and announcing that he was “heart and soul for the success of our entire ticket.”

Earlier, Chairman Robert E. Hannegan of the Democratic National Committee, who conferred with Mr. Truman here yesterday, had a telephone conversation with Mr. Walsh.

Mrs. Stassen backs Dewey

St. Paul, Minnesota (UP) –
Mrs. Harold E. Stassen, wife of Minnesota’s former governor, today urged the election of Governor Thomas E. Dewey and his running mate, Governor John W. Bricker, because they “have a far better chance to solve the vital problems of peace than the present administration.”

Mrs. Stassen said.

No President can succeed in creating unity and harmony in world affairs unless he can first create unity and harmony at home.

Every mother knows that the family which has harmony, unity and cooperation within the four walls of the home has the basis of friendly relations with the neighbors.

Mrs. Stassen’s husband is serving in the Pacific as a commander in the Navy.

3529

Millett: It’s easy

Waitress course is offered
By Ruth Millett

…

3530

Russia balks on meeting with neutrals

Reds refuse to attend aviation conference

…

3531

americavotes1944

Stokes: Michigan test

By Thomas L. Stokes

Detroit, Michigan –
Michigan offers perhaps the best laboratory in the nation for a test of the influence in politics of newly alert and highly organized labor and of its effect upon the complexion of the Democratic Party.

It also provides a test of labor’s influence through politics upon the changing economic pattern of the country, for it is here that labor in the huge auto industry has been most vociferous in demanding a greater share in the management of industry. This demand has been silenced temporarily by the war.

Economic and political analysts undoubtedly henceforth must give this state and its highly concentrated auto industry the same close study they gave some years ago to the Wisconsin experiments in state social welfare and economic legislation sponsored by the LaFollette regime which gradually percolated into the national government. Wisconsin was a pattern for the New Deal in many ways.

A significant political test for labor here is in the presidential election next week.

GOP registrations down

If President Roosevelt should carry Michigan, it will be because of the intense activity of the CIO Political Action Committee, which has done perhaps the best Job of registration of any unit in the country. A few weeks ago, Michigan generally was put down safely in the Republican column. It had moved back to its traditional Republicanism nationally four years ago, but insecurely, for the late Wendell Willkie carried it by only 7,000 votes. For a while it seemed destined to remain Republican, and it may yet, of course.

But a big cloud of doubt, ominously regarded by Republicans, was formed when new registrations in Wayne County (Detroit) raised the total some 72,000 above the 1940 figures, and with the soldier vote, the total may be something over 100,000 larger than four years ago. The story is the same in Flint, Pontiac, and other auto centers. Registration in rural areas, almost solidly Republican, is down somewhat from four years ago.

Another significant development in Michigan is that the Democratic Party here today closely approaches a labor party. The old Democratic leadership virtually has disappeared. There is friction between the organization and the Political Action Committee, which is running its own show, and almost the whole show. The CIO dominated the state Democratic convention.

Labor has earned partnership

The Democratic organization is so weak in some parts of the state that it has no candidates for local offices. The party is preponderantly a city party now, with labor the predominant influence.

Labor has encroached upon the Democratic Party in this state to a greater degree than is apparent in other big industrial states, although the trend is noted elsewhere. This development provokes speculation as to the future of the party nationally. The country does not seem ripe yet for a labor party – if it ever will – and certainly any attempt to make the Democratic Party a labor party will be resisted stoutly, as it is now, by the old-line leadership still entrenched in the South and in the big cities of the North and East.

Labor has earned its right to a partnership. If President Roosevelt is reelected, it undoubtedly will make its claims. Whether this will result in some compromise that will satisfy old-line leaders, or whether the party will fall apart because of antagonisms already manifest and bring new political alignments, remains to be seen.

But something interesting is happening, and it is seen in its most advanced stage in Michigan.

3532

americavotes1944

Electors intend to vote for Byrd

Jackson, Mississippi (UP) –
Announcement by three of Mississippi’s nine Democratic presidential electors that they intend to vote for Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-VA) instead of President Roosevelt today was expected to have wide repercussions throughout the state.

The electors, Frank E. Everett of Indianola, Clarence E. Morgan of Kosciusko and W. G. McLain of McComb, issued the statement yesterday, addressed to the Democratic voters of Mississippi, saying the Mississippi Democratic Convention last June had freed all electors of the obligation of voting for party nominees if the national convention failed to restore the two-thirds rule or if it adopted race platforms obnoxious to the South.

The Democratic National Convention passed obnoxious race planks and did not even consider restoration of the two-thirds rule, the statement said.

3533

Steelers outplay Redskins but lose

Fists fly, McCarthy hurt as Washington wins brawl, 42–20
By Carl Hughes

…

3534

Radio’s ‘mom’ Dorsey Hollywood’s ace cook

Stars go for her beef and cabbage
By Si Steinhauser

…

3535

Kaiser urges new policy on depreciation

Industry held in need of encouragement
By Roger Budrow, Scripps-Howard staff writer

…

3536

EXECUTIVE ORDER 9495
Extension of the Provisions of Executive Order No. 9177 of May 30, 1942, to the United States Maritime Commission and the Administrator of the War Shipping Administration

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 30, 1944

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, and particularly by Title I of the First War Powers Act, 1941, approved December 18, 1941 (55 Stat. 838), I hereby extend the provisions of Executive Order No. 9177 of May 30, 1942, to the United States Maritime Commission and the Administrator of the War Shipping Administration; and, subject to the limitations contained in that order, I hereby authorize the United States Maritime Commission and the Administrator of the War Shipping Administration to perform and exercise, as to their respective agencies, all of the functions and powers vested in and granted to the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation by that order.

This order shall be applicable to articles entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after August 1, 1944.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
THE WHITE HOUSE,
October 30, 1944

3537

Völkischer Beobachter (October 31, 1944)

Unberechenbare Faktoren –
Militärische Kraft und moralische Stärke Deutschlands

Das hohe Risiko der Feindkoalition
Von unserem Berichterstatter in Portugal

…

3538

Führer HQ (October 31, 1944)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

Unter dem Eindruck der nachhaltigen Abwehr unserer Besatzungen hat der Feind gestern seine Angriffe weder auf die Festung Dünkirchen, noch gegen unseren Brückenkopf nordöstlich Brügge fortgesetzt. In schweren Kämpfen haben sich unsere auf Südbeveland kämpfenden Truppen nach Walcheren zurückgezogen. Kanadier, die sich den Zugang dorthin erzwingen wollten, wurden durch zusammengefasstes Feuer zerschlagen.

In der Schlacht in Nordbrabant fasste der Feind seine Panzerverbände vor allem zwischen Roosendaal und Breda und östlich Oosterhout zu starken Durchbruchskeilen zusammen. In erbitterter Abwehr vereitelten unsere schwer ringenden Truppen alle Versuche, ihre Front aufzuspalten und brachten die vordringenden gegnerischen Divisionen an vorbereiteten Brückenkopfstellungen südlich der unteren Maas und ihrer Mündung zum Stehen.

Eigene Angriffsunternehmen südöstlich Helmond führten zu Stellungsverbesserungen. Feindliche Gegenangriffe scheiterten. Bei diesen Kämpfen wurden innerhalb von drei Tagen 85 feindliche Panzer abgeschossen.

In den Wäldern zwischen der oberen Meurthe und Mortagne wurde auch gestern erbittert gekämpft. Die immer wieder angreifenden Nordamerikaner kamen nur wenig über ihre Ausgangsstellungen hinaus. Ein eigener Angriff nordöstlich Remiremont stieß in angreifende nordamerikanische Bataillone.

London lag wieder unter dem Feuer von „V1.“

In Mittelitalien griff der Feind im westlichen Frontabschnitt vergeblich den Raum von
Castelnuovo an. Zäher Widerstand unserer Truppen brachte auch südwestlich Vergato die feindlichen Angriffe zum Scheitern. Nach starker Feuervorbereitung konnten britische Verbände nördlich Melaola den Übergang über den Ronco erzwingen.

Unsere Stützpunktbesatzungen, die auch nach der Räumung Griechenlands auf einigen ägäischen Inseln belassen wurden, stehen auf Milos und Piscopi im Kampf gegen gelandete feindliche Kräfte.

Auf dem Balkan wurden bulgarische Angriffe gegen unsere Stellungen östlich des Vardartales abgewiesen. Auch bei Pristina und an der westlichen Morava hat sich die Lage trotz anhaltenden bolschewistischen Druckes nicht wesentlich verändert.

Zwischen Donau und unterer Theiß dringt der Feind mit neu herangeführten Verbänden in Richtung auf Kecskemét vor. Deutsche und ungarische Schlachtflieger führten wirkungsvolle Angriffe gegen die feindlichen Angriffsspitzen. Flakartillerie der Luftwaffe vernichtete dort gestern 20 Panzer.

Bei Ungvár drängten unsere Gegenangriffe den in einen Abschnitt eingebrochenen Feind auf engem Raum zusammen. In den Ostbeskiden erlitt der Gegner bei vergeblichen Angriffen erneut hohe Verluste.

Nach vorläufigen Zählungen wurden seit dem 26. Oktober in den Kämpfen gegen das slowakische Bandenzentrum Altsohl-Neusohl über 10.000 Gefangene gemacht und über 100 Geschütze aller Kaliber, 600 Lastkraftwagen und ein Panzerzug erbeutet. Außerdem fielen unübersehbare Mengen an Waffen und Ausrüstung in unsere Hand. Die Säuberung des Raumes von den Restgruppen der unter bolschewistischer Führung stehenden Aufständischen ist weiter im Gange.

Am Narew nahmen die Sowjets beiderseits Ostenburg ihre Angriffe wieder auf, konnten jedoch keine nennenswerten Erfolge erzielen.

In der 14tägigen Schlacht im ostpreußischen Grenzgebiet haben die unter dem Oberbefehl des Generals der Infanterie Hoßbach stehenden Verbände die sowjetischen Großangriffe zum Stehen gebracht und den Feind unter schwersten Verlusten geschlagen, über 35 Schützendivisionen und zahlreiche Panzerverbände scheiterten an dem zähen Widerstandswillen und den entschlossenen Gegenangriffen unserer Divisionen sowie dem vorbildlichen Einsatz des Deutschen Volkssturms. Auch die Materialausfälle der Sowjets sind hoch. In der Zelt vom 16. bis 28. Oktober wurden dort 1066 Panzer, 330 Geschütze und 48 Flugzeuge durch Truppen des Heeres vernichtet oder erbeutet. Fliegende Verbände und Flakartillerie einer Luftflotte; unter Führung von Generaloberst Ritter von Greim, schossen im ostpreußischen Kampfraum in der gleichen Zeit 264 sowjetische Flugzeuge ab und vernichteten 189 Panzer.

In Kurland setzte der Feind südöstlich Libau und im Raum von Autz seine Großangriffe in verstärktem Maße fort. Nach schwerem Ringen wurden die Durchbruchsversuche der Sowjets vereitelt und dabei 111 feindliche Panzer vernichtet.

Feindliche Terrorflieger griffen bei Tage Hamburg, Münster, Hamm und rheinisches Gebiet, bei Nacht Köln an. Außerdem war in der vergangenen Nacht die Reichshauptstadt das Ziel schneller britischer Flugzeuge.