America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

U.S. State Department (September 6, 1944)

Lot 60–D 224, Box 55: DO/PR/14

Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State to the Secretary of State

Washington, September 6, 1944

Subject: PROGRESS REPORT ON DUMBARTON OAKS CONVERSATIONS – FIFTEENTH DAY

Regular meeting of the American Group
The American group held its regular 9:30 a.m. meeting to exchange views and discuss developments in the last twenty-four hours.

Meeting of the Legal Subcommittee
The American, Soviet and British representatives on the Legal Subcommittee agreed, subject to approval by their respective groups, that the statute of the international court of justice should be prepared not later than the remainder of the basic instrument of the international organization. To this end it was suggested that the Governments participating in the conference to consider the international organization should send representatives to the seat of the conference, at least two weeks in advance, for the purpose of preparing a draft of the statute for submission to the conference.

Meeting of the Joint Steering Committee
The meeting of the Joint Steering Committee scheduled at 10:30 a.m. today has been postponed until later in the day because of the continued delay in the receipt by Sir Alexander Cadogan of his final instructions. The Committee is holding itself in readiness to meet this afternoon or tonight if these instructions arrive.

Yesterday’s late afternoon meeting of the Formulation Group on Organization
The Formulation Group on Organization late Tuesday afternoon prepared the following sections of the basic document:

(a) The Secretariat
The group agreed that the secretary-general should be the chief administrative officer and should be appointed by the assembly on the recommendation of the council for such terms and under such conditions as are specified in the charter; should act in that capacity in all meetings of the assembly, the council, and the economic and social council; should make an annual report to the assembly on the work of the organization; and should have the right to bring to the attention of the council any matter which in his opinion may threaten international peace and security. (The Soviet group continued to reserve their position on any reference to the economic and social council.)

(b) Economic and social cooperation
The Soviet representative participated in the discussion of the section on economic and social cooperation but maintained the Soviet reservation on the merits of this entire question. The American and British representatives agreed to use substantially the entire American draft text on this subject. It was agreed, however, to reduce the size of the council from twenty-four to eighteen members, and a new concept of the functions of the economic and social council was added by empowering this council to assist the security council upon its request and by enabling the secretary-general to inform the security council on the work of the economic and social council.

Lot 60–D 224, Box 59: Stettinius Diary

Extracts from the Personal Diary of the Under Secretary of State

Fifteenth Day, Wednesday, September 6, 1944

Meeting with the President and the Secretary.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I first presented to the President maps and analyses of the climatic conditions and harbor facilities of the Flores in the Azores and Mihau in the Hawaiian group. The President said he still thought the Azores would be the place. I said, “Well, your island of Flores is fine but has no harbor.” He said, “Ed, you don’t know your poetry.” The President said he would take these memos and maps to Quebec and discuss them with the Prime Minister.

I then informed the President that we felt that inasmuch as Vice Admiral Willson would be in Quebec and was completely informed on the proposals and the activity thus far at Dumbarton Oaks that it would be better for him to rely on the Admiral for information if he became involved in discussions on this subject rather than to burden him with memoranda and other documents. He agreed with the proviso that Admiral Willson be supplied with complete papers in case it was necessary for him to refer to them.

I next took up with the President the question of an international air force. We had some little difficulty in explaining this so that the President completely understood it. But after we had stressed that he had already gone on record against an international police force and recommended to him that we stick to our guns on this question, he finally agreed. I confirmed our previous discussion about the possibility of a change in the Prime Minister’s position and he said that he would be ready to discuss this with him at Quebec if we found it was necessary for him to do so. I then asked the President whom we would work through in Quebec, and he said, “I don’t want you to work through anybody; you should call me direct.” I said this was not always practicable; and he said that in such an event to call Admiral Leahy if Hopkins was not going. (He did not go.) I then told him that if the international air force question remained open until after the Churchill arrival in Quebec that this might hold up our proceedings with the Russians until the middle of next week, and I wondered what he thought of recessing our Russian conversations and holding our Chinese conversations in the interim. Both the President and Mr. Hull approved but Mr. Hull thought that we would have difficulty in persuading the Russians to agree, but that if we could do it graciously it would be an excellent plan and would have a fine public reaction.

I then told the President of the possibility of Cadogan being called to Quebec. Mr. Hull thought this would be bad and the President felt so strongly about it that he said that if Churchill spoke of having a diplomat come that he would suggest Eden… During this conversation, Mr. Hull got the incorrect impression that the President was talking about Eden taking Cadogan’s place in Washington while Cadogan was in Quebec and objected violently to such a procedure. We of course straightened this out. I suggested that I be authorized to press for Halifax taking Cadogan’s chair if the latter should be called away. Both gave complete approval to this but wished me to make every effort to persuade Cadogan not to leave the meeting. I told the President that inasmuch as I had some other special matters pertaining to the conversations to discuss that I would leave today’s progress reports with Miss Tully. I then presented the memorandum on bases which had been prepared by Pasvolsky and Dunn. At first I could not get the settled interest of either on this question but when I explained it was a matter of the Council being given authority to demand territory or bases they both had violent objections, feeling this whole performance should be voluntary and that it would be a great mistake at this time to place any compulsion on a small nation to furnish a base or facilities. They felt that the Council should have authority to request but not the authority to demand.

We then reviewed the question of the next step. I said we hoped to finish within two weeks and that we felt the demand in this country from the public for the plan would be so great and the demand from the smaller nations to get it would be so great that it would be most embarrassing not to send out the memorandum to the United Nations just as promptly as possible and that it would be ideal if we could possibly keep the schedule to send it to the other Governments the latter part of September, simultaneously inviting them to attend a United Nations full dress conference in the interior of the United States the latter part of October. I said we had been thinking of French Lick, Indiana. At first the President thought this would be too early but then after he had grasped the idea of having it in the interior, isolationist part of the United States he said it was a magnificent idea. The name of French Lick made his face light up… He agreed on an immediate presentation to the United Nations and to aim for October 25th at French Lick.

We then discussed the idea of presenting the document simultaneously by the four participating Governments in the capitals of the other countries with the invitation to the big conference accompanying it. The President approved this procedure.

Just before the Secretary and I left, I told him that while I was not pressing the matter as it would take some time to get the Russians and the Chinese to agree on a procedure for presentation and approval, etc., I wondered if he would have any objection to my raising, on my own initiative, this question with the representatives of the other Governments. They both approved this immediately and wholeheartedly, asking me to take whatever action I felt necessary and they expressed the hope that I would do so promptly.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

During our discussion of French Lick I told the President that our recent international conferences had been held on the Atlantic Seaboard (Hot Springs, Atlantic City, Bretton Woods, Philadelphia) and that we had not held any in the West. He was quite impressed by that point. The President inquired who owned French Lick and Mr. Hull said that Tom Taggard had owned it and that his son still did. All in all the President was quite pleased with the idea of French Lick and said there was no other place comparable to it.

I then raised the question of the provisions on suspension and expulsion for which the Soviet group has been pressing and reminded them that they had both previously said that that should not be included in the document. I explained that our group agreed with them but as the provisions were relatively minor in nature it might be wise for us to yield on that, especially if we could get something in return. They authorized me to use my own discretion on this, feeling that it would be all right to trade on the matter.

We then discussed the question of voting in the Council and I explained that they had both instructed to take the position that a two-thirds vote was preferable. I reported that the Russians were insisting on a majority and that this was another matter on which we thought it might be wise to yield, particularly for trading purposes. I explained that with a Council of eleven, the difference between the two methods meant only one vote. Mr. Hull backed me up at this point with a convincing argument that it made little difference either way and that it should be settled as we thought best at Dumbarton. I received authorization to proceed along those lines.

I then raised the difficult question of voting on the part of a great power when it was involved in a dispute. Although this had been raised previously with the President on several occasions this time he seemed confused on the issue and both Mr. Hull and I had to explain the matter in some detail before it was clear to him. Mr. Hull said that the Russians would be practically unanimously voted down on this issue at the United Nations conference and that in their own self-interest they should see that point now and agree to the other procedure (Mr. Hull while driving to his apartment, after leaving the White House, advised me to stress this point strongly when talking to Gromyko in the morning). I told the President this question might be the one big point on which we could not reach agreement at Dumbarton. The President then spoke up and said there might be a second – whether that might be the one of the use of force without the approval of our Senate. Mr. Hull and I both replied to this, saying we thought it was pretty well in hand and it was something he could follow through politically on a sound basis. The President indicated clearly that he realized that this question of the immediate use of force is a key point of the whole plan, saying that if we had to go to the Senate in each case as it arose, the plan would not be any good. Mr. Hull in explanation said that of course if the Council used force and if the Senate later disapproved through failure to authorize appropriations, etc., we could always withdraw. This approach was new and apparently of interest to the President.

I then said that Sir Alexander Cadogan had received instructions today that he could settle on a majority vote but that he must stand pat on the larger issue of a great power voting when involved in a dispute. I reported that Cadogan had reported to me that Eden felt the issue was of such prime importance, and that if it could not be settled at Dumbarton, consideration should be given to having it settled at a meeting of Foreign Ministers. The President and Mr. Hull felt that was unthinkable and that having Foreign Ministers devoting the two-, three-, or four-weeks’ time, which would be necessary for that would be widely misunderstood. The President added that he saw no reason why this should not be left open for settlement at the United Nations conference. I explained that it was doubtful the Russians would agree to going into that conference with the point open, and also that as it would look as if we had not reached agreement on such a big point it might arouse suspicions of the Soviet Union on the part of smaller nations and in that way perhaps jeopardize the possibility of success of the big conference, or of some of the smaller nations attending it. That did not impress the President or the Secretary and it was left that if we could not agree we would attempt to find some very general language to hold the matter over for discussion at the later United Nations conference. Practically, this means that I am now instructed by the President and the Secretary to stand firm against the Soviet position.…

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

During our conversation with the President, he said that he hoped we would do everything within our power not to allow the “X” issue to become public and he quizzed me in some detail on how we stood. I reviewed the matter with him, mentioning the cable to S, etc.

The Pittsburgh Press (September 6, 1944)

PATTON MASSES THIRD ARMY FOR SIEGFRIED LINE SMASH
U.S. patrols stab into Germany

Moselle defenses cut by Yanks; Allies close on Channel ports
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

Nazis stand and fight

map.090644.up
The first action in the Battle of Germany was reported today along the borders of the Nazi Rhineland. As Canadian troops battled hard to capture the Channel ports (1), U.S. and British troops drove toward Rotterdam (2). Gen. George S. Patton’s U.S. 3rd Army crossed the Moselle River (3), apparently in the Mousson area, and U.S. patrols crossed the German border and then returned, presumably in the region near Metz. Junction of U.S. forces in northern and southern France (4) was reported as Allied troops advanced north in the Saône Valley.

SHAEF, London, England –
U.S. combat troops have invaded German soil for the first time in history at an undisclosed point and have smashed across the Moselle River in a drive toward the Siegfried Line which a staff officer said today the Allies “of course” can break.

U.S. patrols stabbed across the German border into the Nazi homeland and returned to France after a scouting mission a Lt. Gen. George S. Patton massed this 3rd Army for coming blows at the Siegfried Line. Only after the armistice did Americans cross the German borders in the last war.

On the opposite wing of the Western Front, the battle of the Channel ports whirled toward a climax. Canadian troops reached the coast on both sides of Calais, clamping a pincer on the town, swarmed into the outskirts of Boulogne, and struck within 20 miles of Dunkerque.

United Press writer Robert C. Richards reported from the 3rd Army front that German resistance had stiffened as the Americans burst through the Moselle River line, apparently in the Pont-à-Mousson area midway between Metz and Nancy.

Supreme Headquarters cautioned against taking the patrol thrust into Germany to mean that the assault on the Nazi homeland had begun. A headquarters broadcast to foreign workers in Germany, however, said that “the collapse of the German armies in the west means that battles soon will be fought on German soil.”

Coincident with the official assertion that Gen. Patton’s operations were still in the buildup stage and encountering increased resistance, a senior staff officer made the unequivocal statement: “Of course, the Allies can break the Siegfried Line” – the primary defense belt of Germany proper.

Lacking official information, it was believed the American frontier crossing was made somewhere in the area of Thionville, just south of Luxembourg.

Hurdle last barrier

By forcing the Moselle, the Americans hurdled the last river barrier west of the German frontier. Ahead of them was no major obstacle to interfere with a full-dress push into Germany and the Siegfried defense zone.

Far behind the fighting front, the German garrisons of Brest and Le Havre were still holding out despite heavy bombing. Another ultimatum was delivered to the Le Havre garrison today after Royal Air Force heavy bombers saturated the force of some 5,000 diehards with more than 1,200 tons of bombs late yesterday.

About 300 Marauders and Havocs of the U.S. 9th Air Force hit Brest again today, attacking in 16 waves for an hour. The bombers hit gun positions, strongpoints and ammunition dumps in the fifth strike at the base since Sept. 1.

The Canadians reached the outskirts of Boulogne after an advance in the face of artillery fire. An estimated 5,000 Germans were manning the Boulogne defenses.

At the same time, other Canadian elements swung inland around Boulogne and reached the coast on each side of Calais. It was possible that the column east of Calais would continue along the last miles of the coast road to Dunkerque.

Some 50,000 Germans were pocketed along the Channel coast by the Allied thrust into Holland.

Capture 14,000

Headquarters revealed that the mop-up of a big pocket southwest of Mons had yielded 14,000 prisoners and the total might go considerably higher. The cleanup of the pocket was essential to the advance of the U.S. 1st Army since it was too big to leave indefinitely. The 3rd Army was reported to have taken 76,000 prisoners and killed 19,500 Germans.

The Nazis appeared to be trying a major stand in defense of the fatherland along the Moselle River line, which runs into the Reich at the Luxembourg border and curves away to a distance of about 40 miles in the area east of Nancy.

The rout of the German armies in the Low Countries was in full swing, as units of the U.S. 1st and British 2nd Armies linked up beyond Antwerp to drive an armored wedge deep into Holland. Unconfirmed reports said the Allied columns were across the Rhine estuary within sight of Rotterdam after an advance of almost 60 miles from Antwerp.

Flee in disorder

Front reports said the Nazis were fleeing in wild disorder, with thousands surrendering daily as Allied troops cut across their line of retreat.

The breakthrough across the Moselle came after two days of hard fighting, during which the Germans poured a murderous rain of artillery and machine-gun fire down on the Americans from steep heights overlooking the narrow river.

Mr. Richards reported that the Nazis fought desperately for the crossing but the Americans drove across in force, established a firm bridgehead and pressed on to the east.

Lack official backing

Gen. Patton’s scouts were the first Americans officially disclosed to have reached German soil, although unconfirmed reports broadcast by the Paris and Swiss radios said U.S. troops had captured Aachen, just across the southeastern border of the Netherlands, and Saarbrücken, 38 miles east of Metz.

Neither report had official backing, and the seizure of Saarbrücken seemed highly improbably in view of the admittedly-stiff fighting in progress along the Moselle between Metz and Nancy.

The German Transocean News Agency said counterattacking Nazi troops recaptured Audun, 12 miles west of the Moselle and 21 miles northwest of Metz.

Third Army troops broke into Nancy yesterday and were believed to have cleared the last enemy resistance from the city this morning, and the Swiss radio said without confirmation that Gen. Patton’s men effected a juncture in central France with 7th Army troops advancing from the south. Fighting is in progress at the Belfort Gap, 90 miles below Nancy, the Swiss reports said.

Test underway

The first great test of Germany’s frontier defenses was underway in the Larraine Gap beyond the Moselle, however, and dispatches from the front said Gen. Patton was moving tanks, artillery and infantry up to the Moselle in force for a full-scale drive into the Reich.

The broad belt of fortifications in the Siegfried Line was believed to be strongly defended with heavy artillery, tank traps and hidden mortar and machine-gun nests, but headquarters spokesmen expressed confidence that it would be breached in short order.

The Germans, one source said, have suffered such heavy losses in the Battle of France that they no longer have the men to hold fortifications against the weight of infantry, armor and planes the Allies can throw against them.

Fan out in Holland

U.S. and British forces fanned out across the Netherlands against only feeble opposition, and Radio Paris said their vanguards were in sight of Rotterdam, Holland’s largest seaport, presumably after crossing the Rhine Delta beyond Breda.

British 2nd Army troops entered Ghent after a 13½-mile advance northwest of Alost, while headquarters confirmed the capture of Charleroi and Namur by U.S. 1st Army forces in southern Belgium. The 1st Army also crossed the Meuse at Dinant (14 miles south of Namur) and Givet (nine miles below Dinant).


‘Lay down arms,’ radio tells Nazis

By the United Press

An Allied appeal that Germans in the west lay down their arms was broadcast by the British radio today.

The broadcast was in German and was described as “official messages to members of the German Wehrmacht in the west.” One addressed to German officers said:

You know that the defeat of Germany is a military fact. To you the inevitable consequences of party politics are clear – the senseless deaths of thousands of your men and the destruction of German cities. You alone in Germany are now responsible. If these things are not prevented, you alone in Germany have the power and the authority to prevent them. Give orders to the soldiers under your command to cease firing.

The message to the troops said:

Your high-ranking officers know that the war is lost. Those among them who realize their responsibility have given orders to cease fire. Only those who are utterly desperate and the party fanatics insist that you have to sacrifice yourselves.

From today until the time when everything is over, which means the officials general capitulation, many German soldiers will go to their death. Why should you be one of them? The outcome of the war has been decided. You have done your duty as soldiers. Now you have duties at home.

In American or British prison camps, you will receive the decent treatment soldiers deserve. Over 300,000 of you have already surrendered, many of your generals and commanders among them.

Slave workers in Germany get orders to help Allies

Broadcast tells foreigners to prevent destruction of industrial installations by foe

Junction of Yanks in France reported

By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer

Germany fearful of Red vengeance

London, England (UP) –
The strange spectacle of Nazi forces in disorderly flight in the west while putting up a terrific fight against Russia in the east was attributed today to German fear of Russian vengeance for uncounted atrocities in the Soviet Union.

Both Allied and Russian observers believed Germany would rather lose in the west to the Americans and British than in the east to Russia.

The Germans never attempted to bring up heavy reinforcements to delay the Allies in France, although they continually were replenishing their hard-pressed forces through Poland where they lost as many as 1,000 tanks in some weeks.

A German Army spokesman, Lt. Gen. Kurt Dittmar, in his weekly broadcast to the German people, attributed the collapse in France to the lack of reserves and the material superiority of Allied forces.

He said Germany’s greatest concern was the Western Front, where, he said, British and American material advantages “permits absolutely a comparison with our breakthrough the Maginot Line and the push toward the mouth of the Somme which followed it in 1940.”

Dittmar’s explanation was in contrast to the fact that the Germans have been able to find resources to hold the Russians in Poland and on the borders of East Prussia.

The situation of letting one front fall while bolstering another was emphasized by one Russian observer. He said that while the Germans were collapsing at Avranches, in Normandy, leading to the Falaise encirclement in one of the most complete defeats of the German Army’s history, they were moving 12 full tank divisions to the Warsaw area.

He added:

It is obvious that even a part of this huge array of tanks might has prevented Falaise or at least saved part of the huge number of Germans taken prisoner.

But Warsaw is not the only example. As their forces were being shattered in France, the Germans mounted violent counterattacks on the East Prussian border at Siauliai, in Lithuania, together with Tartu, in Estonia, and other Baltic areas.

The German Air Force is being handled similarly. Although the Nazi pilots hardly make an appearance even when the most vital targets are attacked by British or U.S. planes, the air battles in Russia have never diminished, though the Russians now have full superiority.

In addition, the Germans maintain about three times as many men on the Russian front as they do on the west.

Hopes for stalemate

Some observers believe Adolf Hitler has hopes of effecting a stalemate along the Siegfried Line, but if this fails the war will be over and the Anglo-Americans can pour through Germany. They think it likely that the Germans will not quit on the Russian front until the British and Americans complete the occupation of Germany.

One Russian observer said he thought the Germans were wrong if they are basing any hope for the future on this plan.

He explained:

I believe the Anglo-Americans will take Russia’s views into account when the time comes to occupy Germany. All the world knows Germany’s record in Russia. Millions of Russians have been tortured and slaughtered indiscriminately or driven to slave labor in Germany.

Russia will not forget Lublin’s charnel house, or Babi Yar’s thousands of corpses or the decimation of number of villages, towns and even cities.


Stockholm, Sweden (UP) –
The newspaper Aftontidningen yesterday published an uncredited report, probably from a propaganda broadcast of dubious repute, that rioting and mutinies had broken out in several German cities, most of them in the Rhineland or South Germany.

The dispatch, lacking corroboration in any known quarter, said women, soldiers and workmen demonstrated in the streets.

SS Elite Guards in several cases used firearms against the demonstrators, the Aftontidningen report said.

It said the German garrison at Döberitz near Berlin mutinied. Shots were exchanged during the showing of a film of the execution of Gen. von Witzleben, accused in the anti-Hitler rebellion.

Adm. Kimmel’s son, sub, 65 men lost

Washington (UP) –
The Navy today announced loss of the submarine USS Robalo in the Pacific and reported that its skipper, LtCdr. Manning M. Kimmel, son of RAdm. Husband E. Kimmel, is missing together with the sub’s 65-man crew.

Adm. Kimmel, who is awaiting court trial proceedings on charges growing out of the Pearl Harbor attack, was notified that the elder of his two sons in the naval service was missing.

The Robalo, a 1,525-ton craft, was the 28th U.S. submarine lost from all causes in this war.

The Navy gave no details of the submarine’s loss.

Cdr. Kimmel held the Silver Star Medal for conspicuous gallantry while serving as diving officer of a submarine during three extensive and highly successful war patrols in Jap-infested waters.

Action on the home front –
Rationing to be ended Sept. 17 on 17 foods; reconversion pushed

G.I. wishes followed –
Priority plan to demobilize Army revealed

Fathers to receive preferred status

10 million new jobs aim of tax reduction program

Economic committee offers plan to remove restrictions on risk capital, boost U.S. income

I DARE SAY —
Time for improvement

By Florence Fisher Parry

Spying clerk ‘blacks out’ U.S. codes

Major communications threat revealed

Former Democratic Leader dies

Washington (UP) –
Burt New, one-time executive director of the Democratic National Committee, died yesterday at the home of his daughter here. He was 74.

A native of Vernon, Indiana, and a law graduate of Indiana University, Mr. New was appointed to the party committee post in the early 1920s under the chairmanship of Cordell Hull, now Secretary of State. In 1927, he became Washington representative of the Motion Picture Producers And Distributors, a position he held until retirement a year and a half ago.

Manpower crisis cited by McNutt

U.S. record –
1,500 bombers a month made

americavotes1944

CIO office union supports Roosevelt

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (UP) –
Delegates to a convention of the United Office and Professional Workers of America (CIO) today were pledged to support the Roosevelt-Truman ticket in an election which they said “will decide the speed of our victory in the war and the path to be followed in the peace.”

In passing a resolution presented by the resolutions committee, the delegates praised Roosevelt’s leadership and said that through his “Economic Bill of Rights,” solutions would be found to the economic problem of white-collar workers.

The convention pledged a voluntary contribution of $50,000 to aid the ticket. At least $1 will be sought from each member, according to the resolution.

Another resolution passed by the convention endorsed the conduct of our foreign policy by the President and Secretary of State Cordell Hull and called for continued unity among the United Nations for solving post-war problems and establishing a “peace-maintaining international organization.”

americavotes1944

Senator McCarran wins in close race

Reno, Nevada (UP) –
U.S. Senator Patrick A. “Pat” McCarran today won the Democratic senatorial nomination for the third time as unofficial returns from yesterday’s primary elections in Nevada gave him an increasing lead over Lieutenant Governor Vail Pittman, Ely publisher and brother of the late Senator Key Pittman.

With only 34 scattered precincts to be reported, unofficial tabulations gave Mr. McCarran a majority of nearly 1,000 votes over Mr. Pittman and observers said he had won the nomination regardless of how the vote went in those sections still to be reported.

Returns from 249 of the state’s 283 precincts gave McCarran 10,441 votes, compared to 9,588 for Pittman.

Mr. Pittman made a campaign issue of Senator McCarran’s pre-Pearl Harbor isolationism, classing him with Senators D. Worth Clark (defeated in Idaho), Bennett Champ Clark (who went down in Missouri), Cotton Ed Smith (who lost in South Carolina) and Gerald P. Nye (who barely won renomination in North Dakota).

Mr. McCarran apparently will oppose George Malone, former state engineer, in the general election in November. Incomplete returns showed that Mr. Malone apparently had won the GOP nomination over Reno divorcee lawyer Kendrick A. Johnson and youthful State Senator Kenneth F. Johnson.

americavotes1944

Dewey needed to rid nation of ‘bossism,’ GOP governors say

Republican candidate can meet trials of post-war era, they assert

New York (UP) –
The Republican governors of New Jersey, Michigan and Washington, completing a series of nationwide radio addresses on behalf of GOP presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey, asserted last night that his leadership was essential for the nation to rid itself of “bossism” and “pressure groups” and successfully meet the trials of the post-war era.

Governor Walter D. Edge of New Jersey launched a bitter attack on “political bossism,” saying his state had suffered at the hands of Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City and declaring that “a national condition of political bossism would eat out the heart of our country.”

Governor Arthur B. Langlie of Washington attacked the “negative philosophy” of the New Deal, asserting that it “can only function by piling agency upon agency, bureau upon bureau, debt upon debt and promise upon promise.”

Leadership promised

Governor Harry F. Kelly of Michigan presented Mr. Dewey as a man who can provide the leadership and cooperation to meet the problems of labor, agriculture and business.

Mr. Edge said:

My state, New Jersey, has had intimate experience with governments which have selfishly sought personal power and perpetuation at the expense of the good of the people.

The New Deal, notwithstanding its lofty and noble pretentions, does business in New York with the radical Sidney Hillman and the Communist Earl Browder in the hope they can supply votes needed to win.

Dictatorship feared

Mr. Edge said Democratic vice-presidential candidate Harry S. Truman had based his arguments for the reelection of Mr. Roosevelt almost completely on the matter of experience, and asserted “if one carried that reasoning through to its final analysis, it would mean there never would be a change of Presidents.”

“In other words, it was a clear bid for a dictatorship, the indispensable man,” he said.

Mr. Langlie charged that “present administration has passed the prime of its vitality” and is “insulated from the people by an ever-groping tier of bureaus.”

He said:

There is a feeling on every hand that our national government is no longer of the people.

Four more years of this trend would place a disheartening damper upon our hope for a more bounteous life, and through confusion and internal strife would gravely endanger those basic values which have made our country strong and our people free.

‘Hasn’t mortgaged future’

He said Mr. Dewey “has the uncanny ability to surrounded himself with competent people and delegate to them responsibility, at the same time giving leadership to all that they do.”

Asserting that Democrats were joining with Republicans in backing Mr. Dewey, Mr. Kelly said the New York Governor would make a “realistic approach” to post-war problems and work with Congress, industry, labor and agriculture to provide post-war jobs for returning servicemen and those displaced by the completion of war contracts.

Mr. Kelly said:

The American people can be thankful that they have in Thomas E. Dewey a candidate for President who believes in America and did not mortgage the future of America or his own future for the nomination.

Last night’s addresses were the third in a series leading up to Mr. Dewey’s first major speech in Philadelphia Thursday night.

Republican National Chairman Herbert Brownell Jr. described them as “frankly political, designed as a forthright and honest approach to the real issues of the campaign.”

60 U.S. Navy brides arrive from Ireland

Kirkpatrick: Patriots to ask ouster of Archbishop of Paris for catering to Nazis

Cardinal Suhard barred from Notre-Dame during first services after liberation
By Helen Kirkpatrick