America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

MacArthur’s army storms road junction on Leyte

Fresh Japs advance for showdown at last major Japanese base
By William B. Dickinson, United Press staff writer

americavotes1944

Editorial: Don’t fail to vote as a FREE American

When you enter the voting booth you are a free American citizen – free to vote as you choose.

Regardless of whether you are registered Democratic or Republican you can vote for any candidates you favor.

Nobody has a right to dictate your vote. Nobody can watch you vote or determine how you mark your ballot. Nobody can punish you for voting as you please.

Your employer hasn’t any right to tell you how to vote. Neither has your union.

Voting is a matter of personal choice – of your own conscience. It is the highest duty and privilege of citizenship; treat it as such.

Guard and dignify your privilege of voting as a free American by refusing to let any individual or organization dictate to you. It is one of the sacred rights for which we are waging this war.

Not so many years ago some employers tried to tell their workers how to vote.

The workers resented it – and properly so.

Largely through the educational activities of labor unions, workers were taught to resist such efforts.

But now certain union bosses are trying to reverse the process – are trying to do the very thing they denounced so bitterly when attempted by employers.

It is just as wrong now as it was then – and we believe free-American workers will be as quick to resent the political dictation of union-bosses as of employer-bosses.

Allegheny County has rolled up a record registration, despite the absence of so many men and women in the Armed Forces.

But how many will actually go to the polls?

Four years ago, the turnout was 85.9 percent of the registration. Which meant that 105,000 registered citizens did not go to the polls.

That 15 percent stay-at-home vote might have changed the county result. In the 1940 election, a change of only four percent would have thrown Pennsylvania to the other side. In this election, Pennsylvania’s 35 electoral votes may determine the national outcome.

In this close contest YOUR vote is vital. Don’t let weather or engagements or anything else keep you from the polls. Every vote may be more important this year than ever before.

Remember that the worst elements in politics always get out their vote. The controlled vote, the machine vote, the racket vote, the Communist vote, the intimidated vote – these are always cast in full.

Don’t help them by negligence and lack of patriotism. Cast YOUR vote at all costs.

Polis are open from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. Vote as early as possible to avoid the last-minute rush. And, above all, VOTE!

22 die in crash of airliner, 2 bodies sought

Servicemen and women among dead

8 Toledo plants seized by U.S.

Effort made to end strike of MESA


CIO machinists end strike in shipyards

Men will return to work tomorrow

Heavier resistance due in Philippines


Record war output

americavotes1944

Walsh walks out on Roosevelt

Boston, Massachusetts (UP) – (Nov. 4)
U.S. Senator David I. Walsh, greatest Democratic vote-getter in Massachusetts’ modern political history, “walked out” on President Roosevelt in apparent resentment at being called an “isolationist” by vice-presidential candidate Harry S. Truman.

At the personal request of Mr. Roosevelt, the 71-year-old senior Senator from Massachusetts, boarded the President’s campaign train at Worcester today but left it at Boston and did not appear on the platform at Fenway Park where the President gave the final speech of his campaign for a fourth term.

When the campaign train reached the Allston siding at Boston, bystanders could see Senator Walsh in a parlor car window talking with Mayor Maurice J. Tobin of Boston, Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and RAdm. Ross McIntire, the President’s personal physician.

Mr. Roosevelt could not be seen but some persons who had been inside the car said that he took part in the conversation.

Senator Walsh, chairman of the powerful Senate Naval Affairs Committee, soon stepped from the car with Mayor Tobin and said he had an engagement to dine with friends.


Election weather in West to be wet

Los Angeles, California (UP) – (Nov. 4)
If Pacific Coast voters don’t turn out at the polls next Tuesday it won’t be the weatherman’s fault, Weather Bureau officials said tonight in forecasting generally fair weather except for light rains in Western Oregon and Western Washington on Election Day.

Voters in the rest of the country, except for local areas in the Midwest, were expected to benefit by fair, dry weather.

americavotes1944

Perkins: Leader hopes to give Dewey 25% UMW vote

Hard coal area still strong for Roosevelt
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Scranton, Pennsylvania – (Nov. 4)
The maximum hope of United Mine Workers leaders in the Pennsylvania hard coal area is to pull to the Dewey camp one-fourth of the 90 percent of miners who, they believe, voted for President Roosevelt in 1940.

The prediction that the 25 percent will be pulled came from a District UMW official who is a Dewey man.

His open Dewey sympathy is not met throughout the mine worker organization of district officials. Some of them are lukewarm and others are reported privately supporting Mr. Roosevelt.

This, despite the general belief that even if John L. Lewis could not divorce his union followers from Roosevelt allegiance, he at least could count on unanimous support from the field and district officers and organizers. most of whom are dependent upon Lewis’ favor for their jobs.

Lewis stays away

Mr. Lewis hasn’t appeared in the anthracite region during this campaign. He seldom does. Thomas Kennedy, International secretary-treasurer, and formerly Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, lives at Hazleton, near here, but has not appeared in the campaign.

The Democrats have capitalized on Mr. Kennedy’s silence by digging out a fairly old speech, castigating the Republican Party in general. The Republicans appear to have overlooked a piece of ammunition that could be used on their side. It consisted of some remarks about a month ago by Mr. Kennedy in criticism of “government by decree or fiat” with apparent direct reference to the Roosevelt administration’s handling of last year’s coal wage controversy.

Speech emphasized

The newspapers in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, most of them Dewey supporters, gave much attention to a speech in the huge Wilkes-Barre Dewey rally by John Kmetz, a district representative of the miners’ union and also president of UMW District 50. Mr. Kmetz devoted much of his talk to an effort to demonstrate that Communists and their support of the Democratic presidential nominee constitute a real menace to the United Mine Workers.

Mr. Kmetz is credited with real influence among the large groups of Slovaks, Poles, and other nationality groups in this section.

Conclusions by this writer from visits to miming sections of West Virginia and Pennsylvania indicate that considerable swings of miner strength from President Roosevelt to Mr. Dewey are indicated only in the southern section of West Virginia and the eastern or anthracite section of Pennsylvania. The symptoms of a swing seemed to fade out in Northern West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania.

The results will be easy to check because of the concentration of miners in certain voting precincts.

Ex-British Chief of Staff Field Marshal Dill, dies

He rebuilt army after Dunkerque; for two years has been in Washington


Japs driving on major U.S. Air Force base

Enemy 53 miles from airfield at Linchow

americavotes1944

Candidates denied use of union funds

Los Angeles, California (UP) – (Nov. 4)
Seven political candidates today were enjoined from receiving or using funds of the CIO Shipbuilding Workers Union.

Senator Sheridan Downey (D-CA), Congressional candidates Helen Gahagan Douglas. Hal Styles, Elis Patterson and Clyde Doyle, Assembly candidate Vincent Thomas and incumbent Superior Court Judge Stanley Mosk were named in the preliminary order.

Roy T. Trent, union member, brought suit, saying the union had spent $6,000 before the primary and $30,000 since, for the CIO Political Action Committee in violation of union bylaws and the Smith-Connally Act.

Jackie Cooper is ‘washed out’ of officer class

British bombers obliterate Ruhr Valley city of Bochum

RAF attack follows 2,000-plane U.S. attack on German railyards and oil plants

Simms: Power politics roars head despite Dumbarton Oaks

Russian pressures Iran for oil concessions; move begun for ouster of premier
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor

425,000 casualties flown back to U.S.

americavotes1944

Insurance firms accused of political activity

Washington (UP) – (Nov. 4)
The Senate Campaign Expenditures Committee revealed tonight that it is investigating alleged political activities of some insurance companies and complaints that certain radio broadcasts, put on the air as impartial news commentaries, are “highly partisan.”

Committee Counsel Robert T. Murphy said insurance company complaints involve the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Casualty Insurance Company, and the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, Fire Insurance Company, both operated by the same board of directors, and alleged to be “mailing out huge quantities of Dewey literature.”

Letter mentioned

Another complaint involves a letter entitled, “Revolution,” written and distributed to stockholders, agents and employees by H. K. Dent, president of the General Life Insurance Company of America, First National Insurance Company of America and the General Casualty Company of America, home Office, Seattle. Washington, Mr. Murphy said. He said the letter mentions no names, but is “cleverly written – we think it should be looked into.”

Inquiries into reported use of radio news broadcasts for political propaganda, he said, have not progressed far enough to make a statement, “but… complaints have been made that certain commentators have… given highly-colored versions of current news events, which are, in effect, political speeches.”

The insurance and radio investigations are only two of several studies being made by the committee which intends “to make the most complete study of the overall cost of a national election ever undertaken.”

Final report made

Meanwhile, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives a final pre-election report showing $3000 expended since Oct. 21 for the campaign of Senate Democratic Leader Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky.

The committee also reported contributions of $3,500 to the campaign of North Dakota Governor John Moses, $2,000 to Francis J. Myers of Pennsylvania and $1,500 to Rep. Warren G. Magnuson (D-WA), Mr. Moses is seeking to unseat Senator Gerald P. Nye (R-ND), while Myers is opposing Senator James J. Davis (R-PA). Mr. Magnuson seeks the vacancy created by the resignation of Senator Homer T. Bone of Washington, recently named to the Circuit Court of Appeals.

Final pre-election accountings of the Democratic and Republican National Committees, filed yesterday with the House clerk, showed that the Republicans had spent $2,008,000 between Jan. 1 and Nov. 1, and the Democrats, $1,331,713.

On Italian front –
Fifth Army Yanks hole up in rain


Navy planes damage two Jap vessels

americavotes1944

Final blows struck by Roosevelt, Dewey; bitter campaign ends

Massachusetts Democrats jarred by Truman’s isolationist charge against Senator Walsh
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

New York – (Nov. 4)
The angriest political campaign in recent history was in its final bitter hours tonight and the voters will cast their presidential ballots Tuesday in an election whose winner perhaps may not be known for days or weeks after the polls close.

The unknown factor is the armed services absentee vote. In 11 states with an aggregate of 123 electoral votes, absentee service ballots are counted in whole or part after other ballots have been tallied. The latest count is Dec. 7 in North Dakota.

The most significant delayed count probably will be in Pennsylvania which casts 35 electoral votes and for which complete returns will not be available until Nov. 22 or even later. All service ballots in Pennsylvania will be impounded for the late tally.

The two presidential candidates ended their major campaign efforts tonight.

Democrats jarred

Mr. Roosevelt spoke in Boston where the Democratic Party has been jarred by a chance remark by vice-presidential candidate Herry S. Truman that Senator David I. Walsh (D-MA) was an “isolationist” in need of reform.

Mr. Walsh lashed Mr. Truman in a bitter statement which seemed to invite his friends to bolt the party ticket – although the Senator, himself, said he would vote it straight. Mr. Dewey spoke tonight in Madison Square Garden in another bid for New York’s 47 electoral votes.

Both candidates will rest tomorrow and undertake a bit of neighborhood campaigning Monday, Mr. Dewey in Albany and Mr. Roosevelt up and down the Hudson Valley.

‘Lie’ charge hurled

They have hit at each other with unusual bitterness, charging each with the lie early in the campaign and going on from there, each hoping to convince the voters that if the other were elected the future of the Republic would be in instant jeopardy.

Mr. Dewey has travelled from coast to coast. Mr. Roosevelt got as far west as Chicago, but said he was not campaigning in the usual partisan sense, but only “to correct misrepresentations.”

Some of the presidential campaign bitterness is reflected in lesser contests, notably in New York and Connecticut.

Bennett opposes Fish

Rep. Hamilton Fish (R-NY), whom some of Mr. Roosevelt’s supporters have sought to tag for near treason, is opposed for reelection by Augustus Bennett who lost the Republican primary to Mr. Fish but won on the Democratic primary ballot.

In Connecticut, Rep. Clare Boothe Luce, a Republican member of the House and the prettiest woman in Congress – which is faint praise – is opposed by Margaret E. Connors, a politically experienced young woman who is making a good fight.

Senator Robert F. Wagner (D-NY) is running this time against Thomas J. Curran, Secretary of State here, who was handpicked by Mr. Dewey to take the veteran New Yorker out of national politics.

Hot Illinois contests

Senator Scott Lucas (D-IL), a member of the New Deal wing of the Democratic Party, is opposed by Richard J, Lyons, a Republican, who has the support of the Chicago Tribune. Another hot Illinois contest is between Representative-at-Large Stephen A. Day, Republican, with Tribune support, and Emily Taft Douglas.

There is a straight New Deal contest in Connecticut where Brian McMahon, one-time Assistant U.S. Attorney General, is trying to unseat Senator John Danaher, a Republican, who has been among the most alert and effective Congressional opponents of the Roosevelt administration.

Senator Gerald P. Nye (R-ND), who is high on the list of “isolationists” denounced by administration supporters, is in a three-way race against Governor John Moses, Democratic nominee, and Lynn U. Stambaugh, former national commander of the American Legion, running as an independent.


Davis warns labor ‘to shed shackles’

Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania (UP) – (Nov. 4)
U.S. Senator James J. Davis, seeking reelection on the Republican ticket, warned labor and industry tonight that they must “prepare to throw off the shackles of regimentation imposed by the government, as soon as the peace has been won.”

Mr. Davis said at a United Mine Workers Republican rally:

The present national administration has discouraged business ventures, and, under the guise of assistance, is progressively encasing labor in a straightjacket.

If that administration continues in power four more years, labor will be entirely beholden to the federal government, and business will be hogtied.

Impeded by bureaus

The Republican nominee said the nation must have a government “that has faith in the productive capacity of America and its workmen,” and does not favor “the creation of endless bureaus to regulate and control the economic life of our people.”

Freedoms extinguished

He said:

It is the joint obligation of management and labor to keep free from government control, for when the economic life of a nation comes under rigid control of the government it is not long until the individual and political freedoms of the people are extinguished.

If American labor and American management are to remain free and enjoy the benefits of a progressive and unregimented economy, they must establish and sustain mutual machinery for industrial peace.

americavotes1944

Delay in soldier vote counting in 11 states may hold up decision

Last day for receipt of ballots is Dec. 7 in North Dakota; states’ dates listed

New York (UP) – (Nov. 4)
The names of the next President of the United States may not be known for a month after the votes are cast next Tuesday.

Such a contingency could come bout only in event of a very close race. But if the race should be close enough to make the election hinge on votes cast by service personnel, the decision conceivably could be delayed until as late as Dec. 7, the last day for receipt of soldier votes in North Dakota.

Eleven states are to count their service ballot after Nov. 7. Most of those states plan to impound the ballots until they are counted, although a few plan to count them as they are received.

Of the states where the soldier ballots are to be impounded after Nov. 7, the actual count will take place: California, on Nov. 24; Colorado, Nov. 22; Florida, between late next week and Nov. 17; Maryland from Nov. 9 until the count is completed; Nebraska, Dec, 1; Pennsylvania, starting on Nov. 22; Rhode island, starting on Dec. 5; Washington, Nov. 8 through Nov. 25.

Missouri starts counting its service ballots on Nov. 10 and expects to take about two weeks to complete the job. In Utah, they will be counted from Nov. 7 to Nov. 13.

Accompanying is a table showing the number of service ballots sent out by each state and the number expected to be returned.

Millett: Use idle hours to advantage

War wives can improve looks
By Ruth Millett

americavotes1944

Veteran’s room barred as polling place

Los Angeles, California (UP) – (Nov. 4)
A soldier home from the wars needn’t share his living room with an election board and the neighborhood voters, Area Rent Director David Barry Jr. said today in giving the room back to Lt. B. M. Garrett.

His landlady had rented it out for a polling place.

Lt. Garrett can legally throw out the board and the entire neighborhood as trespassers, Mr. Barry ruled.


London gets mixed up on election date

London, England (UP) – (Nov. 4)
A two-column front-page headline in The Evening Standard today said: “America Chooses Next President on Monday.”

The story under it, by The Standard’s New York correspondent, also said the election will be held Monday.

americavotes1944

Willkie backers urge Dewey vote

Portland, Oregon (UP) – (Nov. 4)
Wendell Willkie’s 14-member executive committee tonight urged friends and supporters of the late Republican leader to vote for Governor Thomas E. Dewey for the Presidency.

The committee conducted Mr. Willkie’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination earlier this year but became inactive when Mr. Willkie withdrew from the race.

The group declared it had joined with Mr. Willkie two years ago to “check the continuing power too long held in our national Capitol” and was vitally interested “in his business-like approach to the solution of our woefully handled domestic economy, his broad concepts of international problems, and the establishment of a world peace organization.”

The statement said:

Our sole interest was the promotion of a presidential nominee with a sound and progressive domestic and international program…

We have not attempted, we cannot and will not, attempt to speak for our late and beloved friend, Wendell Willkie… [but] we believe that Governor Dewey through his potential leadership in national and international affairs will fulfill those aims.

Ralph Cake of Portland, Republican National Committeeman from Oregon and Mr. Willkie’s pre-convention campaign manager, issued the statement, which he said included the views of the following committeemen: Sinclair Weeks of Boston; Frederick E. Baker of Seattle; John Hanes of New York; Robert Burroughs of New Hampshire; Mrs. Grace Reynolds of Indianapolis; J. Kenneth Bradley of Connecticut; Frank O. Horton of Laramie, Wyoming; Harvey Jewett of Aberdeen, South Dakota; Wilson Williams of Atlanta, Georgia; Mrs. Pearle Wates of Birmingham, Alabama; Mrs. Paul Henry of Seattle, Washington; Mrs. Gladys E. Knowles and Mrs. Margaret Marr.