America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

3595

U.S. Navy Department (November 1, 1944)

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 171

In the second Battle of the Philippine Sea, October 22‑27 (West Longi­tude Date), several U.S. ships of the Third and Seventh Fleets (the latter operating under the command of Gen. MacArthur) were damaged. The names of these ships will not be made public, nor will the extent and amount of damage be announced at the present time. Such information would be of value to the enemy in estimating accurately the size of our naval forces operating in Philippine waters and what ships are available for immediate action.

Mitchell bombers of the 11th Air Force bombed Paramushiru in the Northern Kurils on October 30, setting buildings afire and damaging several small craft. Anti-aircraft fire was inaccurate and all planes returned.

A single Navy search plane bombed the airfield at Iwo Jima on October 29. Anti-aircraft fire was not encountered.

Corsairs of the Second Marine Aircraft Wing strafed personnel areas on Rota Island on October 30. Anti-aircraft fire was meager.

Seventh Air Force Liberators on October 29 dropped bombs on the airfield at Yap Island, causing fires and explosions. Corsairs of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing also bombed the airstrip and set a fuel dump ablaze.

Corsairs of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing on October 29 strafed targets on Babelthuap Island in the Northern Palau Islands and sank two barges.

Seventh Air Force Mitchells bombed the airstrip and gun installations on Nauru Island on October 30.

Enemy‑held positions in the Marshall Islands were bombed in neutralization raids on October 29 and 30.

3596

PROCLAMATION 2629
Thanksgiving Day, 1944

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 1, 1944

In this year of liberation, which has seen so many millions freed from tyrannical rule, it is fitting that we give thanks with special fervor to our Heavenly Father for the mercies we have received individually and as a nation and for the blessings He has restored, through the victories of our arms and those of our allies, to His children in other lands.

For the preservation of our way of life from the threat of destruction; for the unity of spirit which has kept our Nation strong; for our abiding faith in freedom; and for the promise of an enduring peace, we should lift up our hearts in thanksgiving.

For the harvest that has sustained us and, in its fullness, brought succor to other peoples; for the bounty of our soil, which has produced the sinews of war for the protection of our liberties; and for a multitude of private blessings, known only in our hearts, we should give united thanks to God.

To the end that we may bear more earnest witness to our gratitude to Almighty God, I suggest a nationwide reading of the Holy Scriptures during the period from Thanksgiving Day to Christmas. Let every man of every creed go to his own version of the Scriptures for a renewed and strengthening contact with those eternal truths and majestic principles which have inspired such measure of true greatness as this nation has achieved.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, President of the United States of America, in consonance with the joint resolution of the Congress approved December 26, 1941, do hereby proclaim Thursday the twenty-third day of November 1944 a day of national thanksgiving; and I call upon the people of the United States to observe it by bending every effort to hasten the day of final victory and by offering to God our devout gratitude for His goodness to us and to our fellow men.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this first day of November in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-four and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-ninth.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

3597

The Pittsburgh Press (November 1, 1944)

Tokyo and Yokohama hit by Superfortresses, Japs say

Enemy believes B-29s now flying from bases in Mariana Islands
By the United Press

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3598

Yanks blockade enemy on Leyte

Torpedo boats, planes rip reinforcements
By William B. Dickinson, United Press staff writer

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3599

British land on Dutch isle to clear Antwerp Channel

Canadians also reach Walcheren after drive across causeway against bitter resistance
By J. Edward Murray, United Press staff writer

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3600

americavotes1944

Dewey calls Roosevelt’s pledges bogus

Speech tonight will hit subversive groups

Aboard Dewey campaign train (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey swung his campaign into New England today after charging that President Roosevelt’s campaign promises are “bogus,” “no good” and “worthless.”

The Republican presidential candidate, in a strong bid for Massachusetts’ 16 electoral votes, will make a major radio address tonight from Boston.

KDKA and WCAE will broadcast the speech at 9:30 p.m. EWT.

Paul E. Lockwood, Mr. Dewey’s secretary, said he will discuss in tonight’s speech “the subversive elements who now seek to take over the country,” and would outline “the principles by which we must live if we are to be free.”

Browder, Hillman targets

There was no doubt that his targets would be Communist leader Earl Browder and Chairman Sidney Hillman of the Political Action Committee, both supporting President Roosevelt, and the Democrats’ defense against Governor Dewey’s recent charge that the Roosevelt administration offers for sale a voice in administration policies to those who contribute $1,000 to the fourth-term campaign fund.

At Pittsfield, Massachusetts, before a station audience estimated at about 4,000 persons Governor Dewey promised “the most thorough housecleaning in history” in Washington if he is elected to the White House. He named Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes and presidential adviser Harry Hopkins as three who would go.

20,000 at Buffalo rally

At Springfield, Massachusetts, Governor Dewey told an estimated 10,000 persons on the City Hall esplanade that President Roosevelt’s quarreling with Congress was the reason “why it took months to get a reconversion bill” passed this year.

The charge of “bogus” and “worthless” campaign promises was hurled by the Republican candidate last night before approximately 20,000 in the vast Buffalo, New York, Memorial Auditorium.

Insisting the record of the Roosevelt administration since its inception 12 years ago has been one of “broken promises,” Governor Dewey said: “We cannot live on promises. We must have performance this time – before it’s too late.”

Crowd joins in chant

Five times the GOP candidate said the President’s promise couldn’t be trusted, “even though it is repeated again and again and again.”

Although Mr. Dewey never identified the expression, it was an unmistakable takeoff from Mr. Roosevelt’s Boston speech of October 30, 1940, in which Republicans claim he promised that Americans taken under the Selective Service program would not be sent to fight in foreign wars.

The first time Governor Dewey said it, the audience responded with laughter. The second and third times they applauded. The last two times they chimed in on “again and again and again” and joined him with a tremendous chant when he repeated his now familiar argument that “it’s time for a change.”

3601

americavotes1944

Roosevelt maps driving finish

‘Bareknuckle’ speech expected Saturday

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt today mapped strategy for 3 driving finish against Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican candidate, in the closing rounds of the 1944 presidential campaign.

Mr. Roosevelt planned to devote most of the day to finishing the radio address he makes from Washington tomorrow night. He also delivers four speeches Saturday in a brief tour of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and several impromptu talks on Monday in a tour of his home territory in the Hudson Valley.

The White House said today that his speech tomorrow night will take 15 minutes, It will be part of a half-hour program sponsored by the Democratic National Committee, over the NBC network from 9:00 to 9:30 p.m. EWT.

The President’s Saturday night speech in Fenway Park, Boston, is expected to be a bareknuckle blast at Mr. Dewey in keeping with Mr. Roosevelt’s custom of saving his heaviest ammunition for the closing days of a campaign.

Mr. Roosevelt’s advisers were increasingly confident of his victory, largely because of the reception given him in visits to New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois. They felt that Mr. Roosevelt would carry New York and Pennsylvania and that with these states in the fourth-term column, a Dewey victory would be virtually impossible.

3602

Poll: Pennsylvania, 4 other states are decisive

Their votes will be key to election
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion

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3603

Feared his own generals –
Chiang revealed as balking at plan to build up Army

Harry Hopkins gave word that led to removal of Stilwell, writer says
By Darrell Berrigan, United Press staff writer

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3604

Streetcar strike hits Dallas, Texas

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3605

I DARE SAY —
A father writes a letter

By Florence Fisher Parry

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3606

Gracie Allen Reporting

By Gracie Allen

Hollywood, California –
Goodness, there’s a desperate naval recruiting drive on in Japan right now. The slogan is: “Join the Navy and bring your own ship.”

Adm. Nimitz has got them so scared that Japanese admirals are refusing to get into the bathtub without a convoy.

The Japanese diet consists chiefly of raw fish, and our sailors are certainly putting them where they can get them.

But don’t think our own Navy isn’t having trouble, too. It reports a shortage of cigars and chocolate-covered raisins. Well, if someone else will send raisins, I’ll be glad to send a couple of boxes of George’s cigars. But boys, if I were you, I’d smoke the raisins.

3607

americavotes1944

Perkins: Check election returns from Arthurdale; homesteader claims it will go for Dewey

Miner objects to over-supervision
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Arthurdale, West Virginia –
Memo for a week from today: Watch the election returns from Arthurdale, model community of subsistence homesteads built by the New Deal.

One of the homesteaders said today that it is going heavily Republican, although it was nearly unanimous for Mr. Roosevelt four years ago.

The complainant was a coal miner, one of those transported from dingy mining towns and deposited here in an attractive dwelling, surrounded by grass, fresh air and the beautiful rolling country of Preston County. The trouble with this miner was that he is one of the buyers of the houses which the New Deal built here, and which the administration is now trying to sell off, with the idea of getting out of the subsistence homestead business. He showed his contract of sale, under which he is required to pay $22 a month until 1982, if he lives that long – he is now about 45.

One of his objections

This homesteader cannot be named. In fact, he said, “they” had told him not to talk to newspaper reporters. That was one of the things to which he objected. The others all had to do with government supervision of his affairs.

“They used to try to make us kind of share up around here,” said the miner, “but there were too many loafers trying to live off the rest of us, and we stopped that. But still, every time you turn around, there’s some government regulation staring you in the face.”

That seems to be the reaction you get, after a few years, toward the New Deal’s ventures in collectivism, when they encounter the individualist in these mountains.

To check up on it the reporter went to see M. B. Mott, the project manager for the Federal Public Housing Authority.

Bomber parts factory

We stood on Mr. Mott’s porch and looked at Arthurdale. It was beautiful in the autumn sunshine. Neat little houses and homesteads stretched away until the hills provided a backdrop. Over there was a community center and the community store. Farther away were three factory buildings, now leased by the Ballard Aircraft Company and making parts for bombers.

There were 165 housing units in view. Mr. Mott said 72 are in process of being sold. The community represents about 800 men and women and children, in addition to the 125 young men who have gone away to the armed services.

Civic spirit waning

Mr. Mott admitted that some in the community are not full of the community spirit on which Arthurdale was founded, but he pointed out that 114 of the original 155 homesteaders are still here.

The New Deal put millions into Arthurdale, and more millions into similar projects, many of which are in process of liquidation. No authority has claimed that there will be anything like a full return to the public treasury.

“You can’t measure these things in dollars,” said Mr. Mott. “Out of it we’re getting a better class of citizenry – look at the healthy children around here.”

Arthurdale has been much identified with Mrs. Roosevelt, who has visited here frequently.

So, if Arthurdale goes Republican next week, it will be a surprise to the New Deal. But the miners said it will.

3608

Morgenthau Plan called blunder

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3609

americavotes1944

Biddle to get PAGOP’s booklet case

Ohio CIO pamphlet also investigated

Washington (UP) –
The Senate Committee Investigating Campaign Expenditures unanimously adopted a resolution last night urging Attorney General Francis Biddle to file a test case against the Ohio State CIO Union Council to determine whether its political activities violate the Corrupt Practices Act.

It also voted unanimously to refer to Mr. Biddle “for his information” all committee records on activities of the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee.

The Ohio case involves distribution of a pamphlet by the Ohio CIO Council, urging defeat of Sen. Robert A. Taft (R-OH) and the election of his Democratic opponent, William G. Pickerell. CIO officers told a subcommittee today that the pamphlet was for the information of CIO members and the general public and thus was neither a campaign contribution to Mr. Pickerell nor a violation of the Corrupt Practices Act.

The Pennsylvania case involves distribution of state committee pamphlets attacking Chairman Sidney Hillman of the CIO Political Action Committee and linking him with President Roosevelt. Harvey Taylor, chairman of the State Republican Committee told the investigators that the publicity division had arranged for printing and distributing three million of the pamphlets.

Mr. Taylor disclaimed any responsibility for the pamphlets, asserting that he approved the original order on recommendation of the publicity committee and had nothing to do with the actual distribution.

Committee Chairman Theodore F. Green (D-RI) voted with the Republican Senators; Joseph H. Ball (R-MN) and Homer Ferguson (R-MI) at a closed meeting to refer the cases to the Attorney General.

Senator Ball told reporters that the recommended test case would be the first in history, but that the committee felt it was warranted since testimony of the CIO officials “indicated possible violations” of the Corrupt Practices Act section defining political contributions and expenditures.

Jack Kroll, the council president, told Senator Ball’s subcommittee that the organization ordered 200,000 couples of a pamphlet entitled He Wanted to do Business With Hitler and Hirohito – the Amazing Story of Sen. Robert A. Taft, at a cost of about $2,368, for distribution among CIO members and the general public. He said the pamphlets were intended only for the readers’ information and, as such, could not be considered a campaign contribution.

Roosevelt joins the ‘$1000 Club;’ to check benefits

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt is a member of the so-called “$1000 Club” but he’s not quite sure what it entitles him to.

He told his news conference yesterday that last summer he jocularly suggested a club to be composed of $1000 contributors to the Democratic campaign fund. Then he forgot about it until the other day when he was handed a membership certificate, he said.

“What does a certificate entitle you to?” he was asked.

He said he would have to find out.

The President reported that he was talking to some people last summer and asked why they did not start a “$100,000 Club.” They laughed, he said, and told him that no one would contribute that much. Then he suggested a $10,000 Club and again they laughed. Finally, he said, he suggested a $1000 Club and they thought that might be feasible.

3610

americavotes1944

Kelly accused in removal of ballot official

Cabinet aide denies pressure in ouster

Washington (UP) –
Under Secretary of Navy Ralph A. Bard said today that a former Republican businessman who was to have directed distribution of war ballots in the Pacific was removed because he had once been “an active partisan political worker,” and not because of any pressure from Democratic leaders.

Mr. Bard specifically denied charges by Senator Homer Ferguson (R-MI) that the war ballot officer – identified as LtCdr. Edward McGinnis – was replaced because of pressure brought by Mayor Edward J. Kelly of Chicago.

Mr. Bard, a Republican, said Cdr. McGinnis was removed only in the interests of nonpartisanship when it was found that prior to joining the Navy he had been “an active partisan political worker in Chicago.”

Mr. Bard said in a statement:

Nothing was ever said to me by Senator Lucas about votes for Mr. Roosevelt. At no time did I talk to Mayor Kelly on this subject. The action taken was highly proper, was thoroughly approved by Capt. William D. Puleston, who was in charge of the ballot distribution, and I have no apologies whatever to offer in connection therewith.

Wrote to Green

He said that he wrote a letter explaining the incident to Senator Theodore F. Green (D-RI), chairman of the Senate Campaign Committee of which Senator Ferguson is a member. “As I have had no reply or comment,” he said, “I judge the explanation was satisfactory to the committee as a whole.”

Senator Ferguson, detailing his charges at a press conference, said that he decided to make the matter public after Democratic committee members blocked his proposal that the group investigate.

He said:

Certainly, the public is entitled to know what a political boss can do in Washington. Mayor Kelly was interested in the reelection of Mr. Roosevelt and Senator Lucas was just slightly interested – he’s up for reelection.

Had not talked to Bard

He said that he had not talked with Mr. Bard, although he has requested an interview. “Mr. Bard is the man who should appear before the committee,” he added.

Senator Green said that the committee had made a preliminary inquiry but had decided not to conduct a formal investigation. Senator Ferguson and Senator Joseph H. Ball (R-MN) voted for the inquiry but Senator Green and Senator Tom Stewart (D-TN), the latter voting by proxy, opposed the move.

3611

americavotes1944

OK for Roosevelt by UMW doubted

Welch, West Virginia (UP) –
“The validity and sincerity of all the Roosevelt endorsements… by UMW locals in the state… have become questionable,” William W. Lester, field director of District 29 of the United Mine Workers, declared in a speech here last night.

Mr. Lester asserted that the endorsement of President Roosevelt for reelection by several UMW locals “actually had been a split vote on the question with most of the members not voting at all.”

He said that a vote of the UMW local at Coalwood had resulted in 15 members splitting a vote with Mr. Roosevelt receiving eight and Mr. Dewey receiving seven.

He reported that “of 751 UMW members at Hemphill, only 18 voted, with 17 of the votes being for Mr. Roosevelt and one against him.”

At the Jenkins-Jones operation, he said, “only 20 persons out of 1,400 employed voted in an attempt to secure endorsement of President Roosevelt,” he reported the voting a “failure.”

The UMW official declared that “two local officers at ASCO adopted a resolution endorsing Mr. Roosevelt and then announced that the local had given such a vote. In reality,” he asserted, “no endorsement of Mr. Roosevelt was secured.”

The district union official declared that “the conflict of opinion among UMW members in the southern coal fields has gone to such an extent that endorsements have become questionable.”

3612

americavotes1944

GOP promises Yanks a break, Martin insists

Says peace must be ‘open, aboveboard’

Trenton, New Jersey – (special)
Pennsylvania Governor Edward Martin told a Republican meeting here last night that men and women in the Armed Forces “want no part in the great military, economic designs of future four-power imperialism.”

Governor Thomas E. Dewey and his running mate, Governor John W. Bricker, Mr. Martin said, want to give the World War II veteran the chance in life he deserves and “they do not plan that the oncoming American generation shall spend its days in some foreign barracks or on some forgotten island base in distant seas.”

‘Open’ peace demanded

The peace that is coming, the Pennsylvania Governor said, must be written by the best minds of America and other peace-loving nations, and it must have the approval of the American people.

He said:

It [the peace] must be made in the open and aboveboard. It must be discussed so Americans will understand it. The way to lose it is to write it behind closed doors. Political intrigue will kill it before it is born.

‘A nonpartisan peace’

Governor Dewey has made it plain that we will have a nonpartisan peace, Whatever has been well and wisely done by the present administration need not be lost. We should bear in mind the terrific physical punishment endured by both the President and the Secretary of State.

We must recall how Woodrow Wilson’s help was lost for that reason when World War I came to an end. We must remember that history may repeat itself if the President is reelected.

Roosevelt bets two bits on vote

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt said yesterday he had made an election bet – 25 cents even money – on the outcome of the election in a certain state.

He said he made the bet recently on his campaign train.

Mindful of the law in New York State designed to prevent voters from betting on the election, a reporter asked whether his bet would disqualify him in the balloting.

No, the President said, laughing the bet was made outside of New York State. To reporters who wanted to know how and with whom he bet, the President cupped his hands around his mouth in a mock stage whisper and said it was none of their business.

He said he had not yet made his usual secret guess on the outcome in electoral votes but would write it soon and lock it in his top desk drawer.

3613

americavotes1944

Truman here tomorrow on speaking tour

Syria Mosque rally to highlight visit

Senator Harry S. Truman, in the first visit to the district by a Democratic national nominee, will make half a dozen speeches tomorrow in a tour through Pittsburgh, the Turtle Creek Valley and Fayette County.

The vice-presidential candidate will appear tomorrow night at a rally in Syria Mosque, featuring half a dozen speakers and a radio reception of President Roosevelt’s speech from the White House.

At the Mosque with Senator Truman will be former Governor Gifford Pinchot, screen and radio celebrity Orson Welles; James L. McDevitt, president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor (AFL), and Mrs. Kermit Roosevelt. Mr. Pinchot and Mr. McDonald are officers of the National Citizens Political Action Committee.

To make short speeches

Senator Truman’s party will arrive in Pittsburgh at 8:45 a.m. EWT on a special car on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and his tour will start at 10 o’clock from the William Penn Hotel.

He will make 10-minute speeches at 10:45 a.m. at 8th Street and Braddock Avenue, Braddock, and at 11:30 a.m. at the gate of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company plant at Cable and Braddock Avenues. At noon, he will speak at the Wilmerding plant of the Westinghouse Airbrake Company.

Kane to introduce him

After a luncheon at the Penn-McKee Hotel McKeesport, at 12:30 p.m., he will go to Fayette County for a speech at the courthouse in Uniontown at 3:30 p.m. At 6:15, he will broadcast a 15-minute speech over KQV, to be rebroadcast by WCAE at 11:15 p. m. and at 9:00 p.m., he will appear at Syria Mosque. He will leave Pittsburgh at 12:32 a.m.

County Commissioner John J. Kane, pre-convention Truman booster, who seconded his nomination at the Democratic National Convention, will introduce the vice-presidential candidate at the Mosque meeting, which will begin at 8:00 p.m.

3614

americavotes1944

Both for the Chief –
Truman, Wallace on same platform

Time Dewey changed, Senator insists

New York (UP) –
Vice President Henry A. Wallace and Senator Harry S. Truman, nominated by the Democrats to succeed him, spoke from the same platform last night for the first time since the Democratic Convention and called for the reelection of President Roosevelt.

Speaking at a Madison Square Garden rally sponsored by New York’s Liberal Party, both asserted Mr. Roosevelt’s experience was needed to win the war and the peace. Both attacked the Republican record on foreign policy.

Agrees on ‘change’

Criticizing the Republican foreign policy record, Senator Truman said:

In the face of this dismal Republican record, Governor Dewey’s only answer is that it’s time for a change. I agree with him – it’s time to change some of the isolationist faces in the Senate and the House… Yes, I agree it’s time for a change – a change in the inconsistent and deceptive policies of Thomas E. Dewey.

He concluded that Mr. Roosevelt was “qualified as no other American is qualified to lead our people to victory in war and to progress in peace.”

‘Wallace in ‘48’ cries

Mr. Wallace received the greater ovation from the crowd of 20,000. There were cries of “Wallace in ‘48” when the Vice President spoke. He said:

We still have a war to win. Every sane person knows Roosevelt can do a better job of winning that war than Dewey. We still have a peace to write, and all well-informed people know that Roosevelt’s broad experience in international affairs makes him infinitely the stronger man in this field.

Keep them in right places

Mr. Wallace called Governor Dewey “patriotic, intelligent and fine in every way."

He said:

But the war is a serious matter and the problems of the peace are grievous. The people of New York have two well-known citizens and they should do their duty by each. They should keep their governor in Albany and their President, whose experience so richly qualifies him to be there, in the White House.

Senator Truman will speak over a statewide radio hookup from Parkersburg, West Virginia, tonight from 8:00 to 8:30 p.m. EWT.

Mr. Truman’s speech will be on KQV at 10:00 p.m. Mr. Wallace’s speech tonight in New York will be on WCAE at 11 o’clock.

Jesse Jones lauds Roosevelt’s record

Washington (UP) –
Secretary of Commerce Jesse H. Jones said last night that President Roosevelt led the nation out of history’s worst depression, is leading it to victory in World War II and must remain in office “to establish a lasting peace.”

He said that in his opinion, based on 12 years of close association with the President, Mr. Roosevelt’s reelection would be “to the best interests of the United States, and of the world.”

“We could not have the fate of our boys, and our country’s future, in better hands,” he said.