America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

2578

44_mlbplayoffs

Cards were stacked –
Williams: Browns fought but bowed to ‘inevitable’

By Joe Williams

New York –
There is much to say for the St. Louis Browns: They went about as far in the series as they figured to, and they got about as much out of their limited abilities as they could. They may not have been the weakest team ever to represent the American League in the championship but few knowing baseball men would care to argue to the contrary.

Yet facing practically the inevitable against the Cardinals, the only team of pre-war strength in baseball, the Browns, celebrating their first pennant victory in history, managed to make most of the games dramatically close and to impart to the series a competitive evenness which did not actually exist. They were finally beaten 4–2 in games and over a season’s stretch they would be beaten just as decisively.

There was no material department in which the Browns could match the National League champions. Only in nerve and resolution were they able to hold their own. The spiritual qualities which enabled them to overcome a fearful slump, regain the league lead and fight off one challenger after another down the stretch were still present in the series but these were not sufficient to offset obvious inferiorities.

Did have chance

In spite of all this they had a chance to win. Looking back, the turning point probably came in the second game when Potter failed to break fast enough for Morton Cooper’s pop bunt. This led to an unearned run which in turn cost the Browns a game they might well have won, and, succeeding, they would have won the first three games, a handicap which even the gifted Cardinals might not have been able to overcome.

In the net analysis, of course, the Cardinals carried too many guns. No matter how the breaks of the games might go they figured to wear the patched-up AL champions down in the end. Their overall superiority is clearly reflected in the figures; they had the hitting, the pitching and the fielding. And once they shook off the notion, dangerous but understandable, that they could call the score. Once they settled down to serious, determined play, they took full command.

Defense helps

A tight defense is not always the deciding factor in the series but it never hurts. The Yankee teams, when they were winning, were remarkably equipped for defensive play, a fact generally overlooked because of their more stirring and spectacular exploits at the plate.

The Cardinals, as a team, set a new fielding record this year, and they came close to perfection in the series when they committed only one error in the six games. As against this impressive performance the Browns made ten. This inequality helped to illuminate the difference between the two clubs as big-time workers, adroit play makers.

Just couldn’t hit

The Browns’ manager used pinch-hitters freely. This identified him as an optimist, for it had to be assumed his bestmen, even as hitters, were his regulars. In the last two games of the series, he used eight pinch-hitters and every one of them struck out. This further illuminated the mediocrity of his material, at least in contrast with that of the Cardinals. Moreover, it pointed up the shabbishness of the AL as a whole; it was additional proof the Browns, in winning the pennant, were no more than the best of a squalid lot.

2579

44_mlbplayoffs

Cards get $4,063 apiece, Browns $2,708

St. Louis, Missouri (UP) –
Winning the World Series netted the Cardinals a bonus of $4,063 each while the Browns got $2,708 each as their share from the first four games.

The players’ share, which is divided among the four teams finishing in the first division of each league, was $309,590, of which the Cards and Browns received a total of $216,713.

Of that amount, the Cardinals received $129,907 and the Browns $86,609.

2580

Gracie Allen Reporting

By Gracie Allen

Hollywood, California –
Did you read abut the man who left his 12-month-old baby in a lower berth while he got off the train in Kansas City? When he came back, the train and baby were on their way to Chicago. Everyone says: “How could a man do a thing like that?” That’s what I want to know – how did he get that lower berth?

Have you tried taking he train lately? Last week, George and I asked the ticket seller if we could get space to San Francisco. He said., “Yes, if you can shovel coal.”

But we didn’t have to shovel coal. Goerge finally got a seat and I sat on his lap. Well, not directly on his lap… first came George – then a soldier – then a sailor – then me.

2581

americavotes1944

Red tape likely to void many soldier votes

21,000 may be invalidated in state
By Robert Taylor, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania –
Despite the efforts of the State Legislature and state administration to make it possible for every eligible Pennsylvania voter in military service to cast a ballot in this year’s election, a series of “red tape” fights over soldier voted is expected next month.

The administration drafted a liberal soldier vote bill, and the Legislature passed it with the stipulation that the law “shall be liberally construed” to enable absent servicemen to vote.

Preliminary estimates by state election officials, however, are that some 21,000 soldier ballots will be thrown out as defective because of irregularities and failure to comply with the exact terms of the Soldier Vote Act.

One principal reason

These ballots, it is predicted, will be invalidated in Congressional and Legislative districts where the civilian vote is so close as to be affected by the soldier poll, through challenges by candidates and rulings by County Election Boards.

One of the principal reasons for invalidation of ballots is already known – signing of the jurists, or oath to the soldier-voter, by a noncommissioned officer instead of a commissioned officer, as required by the Soldier Vote Act.

Governor Edward Martin, who advocated the liberal soldier vote law, told newspapermen his administration originally proposed a bill under which corporals and sergeants, as well as commissioned officers, could administer the oath.

Democrats blamed

He said the draft of the bill was changed when Rep. James Lovett (D-Trafford), one of the Democrats called in to confer on terms of the bill, insisted that the bill specify that only commissioned officers could certify the vote.

A number of county officials have already challenged the informal ruling of the State Election Bureau that soldier-voters must comply with the State Elections Law by marking their ballots with an “X” and that ballots marked with a checkmark should be thrown out. The soldier vote law doesn’t require a specific kind of mark.

They based their objections on the legal point that the intention of the voter was clear and that votes should not be thrown out because of minor technicalities, in the absence of fraud – a point repeatedly upheld in court decisions.

An example of what can happen when the soldier vote threatens to overturn the result of a civilian vote is shown in a World War I case that was decided by the Carbon County Court in favor of soldier votes, despite irregularities.

In 1918, civilian voters of Lansford elected Thomas J. Gallagher Chief Burgess over Benjamin M. Arthur, by a 655–640 vote. Camp Meade soldiers voted 12–1 and Camp Hancock soldiers voted 19–0 for Mr. Arthur.

State law, at that time, made no provision giving soldiers the right to vote for local officials, there was no return of the names of voters to show that the Camp Meade votes were cast by electors of the borough, and some solder-voters wrote on the face and back of the ballot.

Soldier vote admitted

The court admitted the soldier vote and declared Mr. Arthur elected, adopting as part of its opinion this legal dictum, which previously figured in other election case decisions:

It is the duty of the court to sustain an election authorized by law, if it has been so conducted as to give a free and fair expression of the popular will and the actual result thereof is clearly ascertained, for elections should never be held void unless they are clearly illegal.

2582

Roosevelt’s request refused –
Petrillo’s union refuses to lift ban on recordings

AFL musicians vote against ending strike against three large companies

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2583

I DARE SAY —
Home front, battlefront

By Florence Fisher Parry

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2584

Eight-state search on for kidnapped boy

Taken for haircut by newly-hired nurse

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Bomb-laden trolleys ‘visit’ Nazi lines

With U.S. 1st Army in Germany (UP) –
American engineers sent “secret weapons” into the German lines before Aachen yesterday. They were streetcars loaded with shells and dynamite.

2585

Big U.S. guns hammer vital Italian road

Rain and mud slow ground activity
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer

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2586

Adm. Nimitz: ‘U.S. Fleet ready to go anywhere’

Landing in China ‘when ready’ forecast

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2587

Jap fleet hit major blow, but it happened in 1592

Radio listeners get big surprise; Adm. Nimitz reads old communiqué

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Allies batter Mindanao bases

Fires, blasts set off near Philippines

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2588

Never dig a foxhole beneath a tree –
Yanks capture forest of the dead where Nazis forgot a rule of war

By Robert Richards, United Press staff writer

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2589

Thousands pay tribute to Willkie

Funeral services in New York today

New York (UP) –
Representatives, great and small, of the “one world” that Wendell L. Willkie envisaged pay their last tribute to him today at impressive funeral services in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.

The body of the one-time homespun Indiana lawyer who became the Republican presidential candidate in 1940 lay in state in the big brownstone church where Dr. John Sutherland Bonnell will reach the funeral sermon this afternoon.

Some 60,000 persons filed through the church yesterday to pay their final respects. They were, in the main, office workers and laborers.

Mrs. Roosevelt to attend

Today’s services, by invitation, will be attended by Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, representing the President, by Governor Thomas E. Dewey and many other dignitaries of this and other nations. The public will be admitted to those seats remaining of the church’s 2,400.

Mr. Willkie died Sunday of coronary thrombosis in Lenox Hill Hospital after he had previously shown improvement in a compilation of diseases, colitis and lung congestion.

At 6:00 p.m. ET, a Pennsylvania train will carry Mr. Willkie’s body toward Rushville, Indiana, 40 miles from Elwood where he was born and where he made a speech accepting the Republican nomination for President.

Son’s return awaited

Burial in Rushville will be postponed until Lt. (jg.) Philip Willkie, the only child of the Willkies, arrives home from convoy duty somewhere in the Atlantic.

Mrs. Willkie, ill from a throat infection similar to that which contributed to her husband’s death, will travel to Rushville with her brother-in-law, Edward Willkie.

2590

Powers yield to Russia on air force issue

Aviation unit is kept separate

…

Russians insist on veto power

By the United Press

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2591

Churchill, Stalin open session

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2592

americavotes1944

Dewey calls Italy an ally, urges active, friendly aid

No other course can serve United Nations so well, Republican candidate says

Albany, New York (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey, amplifying his stand on international policy, said today that Italy must be considered a “friend and an ally, not just a cobelligerent.”

The Republican presidential candidate’s statement, issued shortly before he left Albany for New York City to attend the funeral of Wendell L. Willkie, followed his proclamation of Thursday as Columbus Day.

He said:

We Americans cannot and will not stand by and watch Italy suffer. …She needs our active, friendly help in her fight against Nazism and on behalf of her own freedom.

In the name of our common human heritage, in the name of gratitude, in the name of generosity, we must stand beside Italy today. No other course can serve so well the cause of the United Nations in charting the future of Europe.

Italians ‘forced into war’

Governor Dewey said the Italian people were forced into a war “they did not want,” and that they were betrayed by their own government.

Earlier this week, the Governor issued statements which said Poland must be reestablished as a free and independent nation and that the United States must speed more aid to China.

To register Thursday

Governor Dewey will return to Albany after Mr. Willkie’s funeral. He will remain only briefly, returning to New York City Thursday to review the Columbus Day parade and register so he will be eligible to vote in November.

His next major political address will be next Monday at St. Louis.

Dewey forgetful, Hillman charges

Cleveland, Ohio (UP) –
Sidney Hillman, CIO Political Action Committee chairman, last night described Republican presidential nominee Governor Thomas E. Dewey as “a man with an extraordinary case of amnesia.”

Addressing the state convention of the Ohio CIO, Mr. Hillman asserted Governor Dewey had developed “his own peculiar form of doubletalk.” Quoting from the Republican candidate’s Louisville address, he said:

Our would-be President proclaimed, “I have long and repeating insisted we must continue close cooperation among the four great powers.”

Mr. Hillman asked:

Was he insisting on it on March 30, 1940, when he said this government should keep its hands wholly out of the European War and out of any negotiations that may take place between the warring nations now or at any other time?

2593

Limited-service status eliminated

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2594

americavotes1944

11 states hold election key with only four weeks to go

Roosevelt can win if he holds own in areas of close vote in 1940
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Washington –
Four weeks remain today of the election campaign in which the voters will decide whether President Roosevelt shall have a fourth term or be supplanted by Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Republican presidential candidate.

The campaign is primarily a contest for 11 big states where the vote last time was close and of which Mr. Roosevelt carried nine in 1940 and the late Wendell L. Willkie, Republican nominee, carried two.

If Governor Dewey holds the two Mr. Willkie carried four years ago and reverses the trend in the others, his chances of election will be excellent. If Mr. Roosevelt can hold his own in most of these states, he probably will be reelected.

The key states are Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Mr. Willkie carried Indiana and Michigan.

But the count was close in all of those states. their aggregate of electoral votes is 237. Only 266 electoral votes are required to win.

In 1940, these states cast 15,613,807 votes for Mr. Roosevelt and 13,522,386 for Mr. Willkie. The nation as a whole cast 27,243,466 votes for Mr. Roosevelt and 22,304,755 for Mr. Willkie. Discounting the South where Republicans get hardly more than token support, the President had a 1940 margin of around four million votes.

Total vote a factor

Of that nationwide edge, the 11 pivotal states accounted for just over two million votes of the margin by which the President was returned to office. A slight shift in some of these states would move them from the Democratic column to the Republican. And a factor to be remembered is that, whereas nearly 50 million votes were cast in the 1940 election, estimates of the probable total this year range from 40 million up.

A reduced vote would be attributed to apathy, failure of servicemen to vote in large numbers and – the bugaboo that keeps Democratic managers awake at night – the failure of hundreds of thousands of war workers to register and to vote in their new election districts.

Political Action campaign

There has been an enormous migration of workers. That is why the CIO Political Action Committee undertook a doorbell-ringing campaign to persuade the workers to register. Those votes are regarded as more favorable to Mr. Roosevelt than to Governor Dewey, by a considerable margin. But they must be cast to be counted.

Although the President’s 1940 aggregate margin was large, there were some narrow margins among the states both for Mr. Roosevelt and for Mr. Willkie. Take the 11 pivotal states and the record of their 1940 returns:
Illinois 2,149,000 2,047,000
Indiana 874,000 899,000
Massachusetts 1,076,000 939,000
Michigan 1,032,000 1,039,000
Minnesota 644,000 596,000
Missouri 958,000 871,000
New Jersey 1,016,000 945,000
New York* 3,251,000 3,027,000
Ohio 1,733,000 1,586,000
Pennsylvania 2,171,000 1,889,000
Wisconsin 704,000 679,000

*In 1940, the Democrats polled fewer votes there than the Republicans, but that Mr. Roosevelt won New York’s 47 electoral votes because of the 417,000 popular votes cast for him as the candidate of the American Labor Party.

Starting from scratch a few years ago, the ALP has become the balance-of-power party in New York.

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americavotes1944

Hull protests ‘link’ with Dewey

Washington (UP) –
Secretary of State Cordell Hull protested today against a published story predicting that Governor Thomas E. Dewey, if elected, would ask him to remain with the government as special foreign policy adviser.

He said in a statement that he “must object to it or anything of the kind,” regardless of whether it was authorized by Governor Dewey.

He said:

My support and loyalty belong primarily to the government and… President Roosevelt. And in order that no American citizen may be misled, this will continue to be my attitude.

The published story said Governor Dewey is planning, if elected, to ask Mr. Hull to remain and work toward building an international peace organization.

Mr. Hull said he was forced to object as an early stage in order to “preserve the policy of nonpartisan efforts rather than the contrary.”

2596

americavotes1944

Davis scores New Dealers’ war claims

Senator belittles defense efforts

Erie, Pennsylvania (UP) –
President Roosevelt and those backing his fourth-term campaign are trying to convey the “utterly false impressions” that winning of the war and the peace following it “have been and are the sole concern of the New Dealers,” U.S. Senator James J. Davis charged last night.

Mr. Davis, Republican nominee for reelection, said in a campaign address that the Democratic claim that the Roosevelt administration built up the nation’s defenses before Pearl Harbor was false and that their contention that they alone favor international cooperation to preserve the peace of the world is “just as preposterous.”

Cites King’s report

While Adolf Hitler was rearming, absorbing Austria and Czechoslovakia and invading Poland in the 1933-39 period, Mr. Davis said, “this administration added only 110,000 men to the Armed Forces of this nation.” He cited an official report of Adm. Ernest J. King as showing that during 1933-38, “not one single warship was added to the U.S. Navy.”

Mr. Davis said an official report of Gen. George C. Marshall showed that:

We had on hand in 1940 only 461 anti-aircraft guns, 186 infantry mortars, 142 tanks and 38,000 Garand rifles.

These conditions existed, Mr. Davis said, despite the fact that “in every year from 1935 through 1940, the Congress appropriated more money for defense than the administration asked for - $208 million more.”

Favored cooperation

Countering the second claim he attributed to Mr. Roosevelt’s supporters, Mr. Davis, who served three terms as U.S. Secretary of Labor, said:

I have served in the cabinets of three Republican Presidents, and all of them favored international cooperation. Not only did they favor it; they promoted it. Under their administrations the Nine-Power Pact, the inter-American conferences and numerous other international organizations and agreements were formulated and what is more those agreements were honored throughout those Republican administrations.

Mr. Davis said that during Mr. Roosevelt’s first two terms the League of Nations fell apart and “the New Dealers permitted every international agreement to which this nation was a party to die completely.”

The Senator told his audience:

I say to you that the New Dealers are no more fit to create and keep world peace today than they were fit to preserve peace from 1933 to 1939. As they proceeded with indifference and secrecy before the war, so too are they proceeding with indifference and secrecy at the present time – indifference toward the rights of small nations and secrecy toward their own people.

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americavotes1944

Bricker lashes ‘unwise spending’

Cites Republican record of economy

Spokane, Washington (UP) –
The Roosevelt administration’s necessary war and relief spending neither explains nor justifies its unwise, wasteful and sometimes unconscionable squandering which has made it the “most spendthrift regime in American history,” Ohio Governor John W. Bricker declared today.

In a speech for delivery here, Governor Bricker, who last night at Great Falls, Montana, called President Roosevelt “the most prolific spender in world history,” continued to criticize the New Deal fiscal policies.

The Republicans, their vice-presidential candidate said, had established a record in Congress which is “convincing evidence” that the party’s pledge to reduce government costs and eliminate waste will be kept.

Into the red before war

Instead of reducing government costs as he promised, Governor Bricker charged, President Roosevelt’s administration “skyrocketed” them.

He said:

Worse than this, the New Deal launched upon… unlimited deficit spending and financing, and as a result we had been plunged into the red even before the war.

Some of the national debt increase, he continued, was necessary for relief.

But the depression does not explain – and should be justify – the squandering of billions of dollars for unwise, wasteful and sometimes unconscionable purposes. Never in the history of this country has there been such a spendthrift administration.

GOP record concrete

On the other hand, Governor Bricker asserted, Republicans under the leadership in Congress of Senators Arthur Vandenberg (R-MI), Wallace White Jr. (R-ME) and Robert Taft (R-OH); Reps. Joseph Martin (R-MA) and the late Senator Charles E. McNary (R-OR), fought for reduction of “non-essential spending.” However, he said, they gave “full support” to all appropriations needed for war.

He said:

The Republican record in Congress is concrete and convincing evidence that the party’s pledge for economy will be kept.

Governor Bricker arrived this morning from Great Falls, Montana, to begin a whirlwind campaign down the Pacific Coast to San Diego. He speaks at Wenatchee tonight before moving to Seattle tomorrow.