French keep secret lists on Nazi terror
Stories verified by underground troops
By Carleton Kent, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Nazis claim three secret weapons
One is described as ‘flaming cloud’
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No draft changes this year foreseen
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Browder-Hillman axis seeks more power, GOP governor says
New Deal welcomes ‘political thugs,’ he adds; Truman inconsistent, Governor Martin charges
New York (UP) –
Governor Andrew F. Schoeppel of Kansas charged last night that the “Browder-Hillman Communist axis,” attempting to “parade under the banner of labor,” was backing the Roosevelt administration for a fourth term because “they want a government in Washington that is indebted to them up to the ears.”
Mr. Schoeppel’s speech highlighted the second of a series of radio talks by Republican governors. Others on the program last night were Governor Edward Martin of Pennsylvania and Governor Edward J. Thye of Minnesota.
Mr. Schoeppel said:
For the past 12 years there has been allowed to grow up in this country small groups of ambitious men who have organized themselves into “pressure groups” as we have come to call them.
The New Deal administration has been attempting to curry favor with these groups. It has not mattered who they were or what they stood for.
The most despicable graft-ridden gang of political thugs is welcomed with wide open arms as they can deliver a block of votes. We now have a national administration which has aligned itself with every corrupt political machine in the country.
He charged that union leaders and members had disowned Sidney Hillman’s Political Action Committee which he said “takes its doctrines direct from Earl Browder.”
Mr. Martin, who spoke first, accused Democratic vice-presidential candidate Harry S. Truman of inconsistency and said the Missouri Senator himself previously had said the nation was “in danger of losing this war in Washington” because of red tape and bureaucratic waste, conflicts between military and civilian agencies and the failure to delegate authority.
‘Hungry for votes’
As a “candidate hungry for votes,” Mr. Truman is not willing to repeat the statements he made as a “United States Senators bent on winning the war,” Mr. Martin said in referring to the speech the Democratic vice-presidential candidate made Thursday night in officially accepting his nomination at Lamar, Missouri.
Mr. Martin quoted Mr. Truman as having said there was a “lack of courageous, unified leadership and centralized direction at the top,” and asserted the Senator no longer talks about such things as the “tragic collapse of the War Production Board.”
He said:
The New Deal in 12 long years has proved one thing – and one thing only.
That is its incapacity to go on for 16 years; its incapacity to make a peace that will stick; its incapacity to lead us into a post-war America in which there will be jobs enough to go around.
Mr. Thye presented Republican presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey as a stateman with a sound, progressive, American doctrine who will give the nation the “house-cleaning” it needs.
Vigorous man urged
Mr. Thye said his state of Minnesota had been in the hands of a “radical political machine” until the people rose to “drive out the Communists and their allies” and elect Governor Harold Stassen. He predicted a similar uprising in the nation.
Quoting Mr. Dewey as having said, “America is young and does not know defeat,” Mr. Thye asserted:
In the years ahead, we want a man out in front who can take it, who has the vigor, the courage and the foresight to take it and yet keep on going.
Mr. Martin spoke from Harrisburg, Mr. Schoeppel from Kansas City and Mr. Thye from Minnesota.
U.S. State Department (September 2, 1944)
740.00116 E.W./9–144: Telegram
The Minister in Switzerland to the Secretary of State
Bern, September 1, 1944 — 11 p.m.
[Received September 2 — noon.]
5751
I read all the pertinent portions of your 2905 August 23 to Mr. Pilet and inquired whether he was prepared to give assurances that Axis leaders and their criminal henchmen would be refused admittance to Switzerland. In reply Mr. Pilet assured me that the Federal Council would be most prudent (French “sage”). They had fully in mind the “exterior” as well as the “interior” repercussions that might arise should such persons be granted asylum. As examples he mentioned Hitler, Himmler, Mussolini, Laval, De Brinon and other members of Laval Cabinet. Mr. Pilet denied rumors that Laval had sought permission to come to Switzerland. Members of armed forces of Reich including SS seeking refuge would be interned. Members of Gestapo, a foreign police, would not be admitted. There might be difficulty in deciding cases of prominent German army officers. In principle refuge would be continued for women and children. Mr. Pilet also stated that each case would be carefully considered and decided on basis of its effect on security and in light of best interests of Switzerland.
HARRISON
Lot 60–D 224, Box 55: DO/PR/10
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State to the Secretary of State
Washington, September 2, 1944
Subject: PROGRESS REPORT ON DUMBARTON OAKS CONVERSATIONS – ELEVENTH DAY
Meeting of the Formulation Group on Security
The group reconsidered the questions relating to the determination of threats to and breaches of the peace and action with regard thereto, and made a number of verbal changes in the points agreed to yesterday. The only changes of substance were the following:
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It was agreed that no reference should be made in the basic instrument of the organization to the interim provision by the states party to the Moscow Declaration, pending the conclusion of special agreements on this subject, of forces and facilities necessary for the maintenance of peace and security.
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It was agreed that there should be attached to the council a Military Committee composed of representatives of the Chiefs of Staff of the permanent members of the council, the functions of which would be to advise and assist the council on all questions relating to the employment of forces placed at the disposal of the council. Representatives of other states might be associated with this committee from time to time.
Meeting of the Formulation Group on General Organization
The Formulation Group of the Subcommittee on General Organization met this afternoon to reformulate certain provisions relating to the functions, procedures and voting methods of the council.
As regards functions, the Group agreed that:
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In order to insure prompt and effective action, member states should confer on the council primary responsibility to maintain peace and security.
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In order to carry out this responsibility the council should be empowered to encourage states to settle their disputes by peaceful means, to recommend appropriate procedures of adjustment and, in cases where failure to settle a dispute constitutes a threat to the peace, to take all necessary measures to maintain or restore peace; and to take effective collective measures to prevent and suppress threats to or breaches of the peace.
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In discharging these responsibilities, the council should act on behalf of all members of the organization. (There was a slight difference between the American and British members on the one hand, and the Soviet on the other, as to the wording of the obligatory character of the council’s decisions on member states.)
On procedure, the Group agreed:
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That a state not having a seat on the council should be invited to attend during the consideration of a dispute of which it is a party, but that the council should decide whether to invite a state not having a seat on the council to attend when its other interests are especially affected.
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To present for further consideration by the Steering Committee the wording of a paragraph relating to the continuous session of the council and the character of permanent representation on the council.
In regard to voting, the Group formulated four questions for further consideration:
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Whether the normal vote of the council should be by majority or two-thirds.
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Whether the provisions for unanimous vote of the permanent members should be enumerated or left in general terms.
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Whether provision should be made for voluntary abstention.
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Whether the vote of a party to a dispute should be counted.
740.00119 E.W./9–244: Circular telegram
The Secretary of State to Certain American Diplomatic and Consular Officers
Washington, September 2, 1944 — 11 p.m.
The Department considers that until the situation is clarified by Rumanian and Bulgarian acceptance of Allied armistice terms and until the status of the governments of these two countries is ascertained your attitude toward their diplomatic officials should remain unchanged.
HULL
Reading Eagle (September 2, 1944)
Pegler: Paid by Spelvin
By Westbrook Pegler
New York –
When Mrs. Roosevelt made her flight to the South Pacific last year, to visit and cheer the troops, it was announced that the Red Cross, whose uniform she wore for this occasion, bore no part of the expense. For some reason which never was made clear, it was stated further, Mrs. Roosevelt would donate to the Red Cross and the American Society of Friends each, one-half of the proceeds of her column for the period of her absence. The amount of that donation has never been revealed and the Red Cross in Washington, per James K. McClintock, vice chairman in charge of finance, now specifically refuses to give the information on the reasonable ground that the Red Cross never does reveal such data unless the contributor indicates a desire that this be done.
As a matter of more or less idle speculation, I might offer a guess that one-half of Mrs. Roosevelt’s syndicate royalties for a month would have been not more than $1,500. However, it is really none of our business how much she gave the Red Cross, even though she did invite our interest by this announcement which suggested that she was, in some sense, paying her way.
Inasmuch as the Red Cross did not pay the expenses, then who did?
The four-engine ship in which Mrs. Roosevelt flew was the property of the people of the United States and of a type which we have been told costs about $250,000. An executive of one of the large western companies which builds such planes says there are on hand a number of special jobs called super-dupers which are quite ornate and luxurious by comparison with the wagons which do the routine hauling. They are held in reserve for dignitaries of the government who have to keep up in their paperwork while in Right and are not physically hardened to withstand extreme and prolonged discomfort. I find no fault with that.
We were given many details of Mrs. Roosevelt’s journey, but this publicity was handled with more delicacy than we understood at the time. Although we did hear much about her progress, including the nose-rubbing incident, we never have been told whether the ship in which she flew was a super-duper or whether, at certain stages of the flight, she was accompanied by protecting fighter planes, which would have used a considerable amount of high-octane gasoline deducted from the supply available for civilian use here at home, and hauled to the Pacific islands and Australian bases, every drop of it, in tankers, at great peril and effort. There have been reports that Mrs. Roosevelt was so accompanied, but I think it would be useless to ask Gen. Arnold for information on this point, including details of gas consumption, because he could say this was military information and he would be right. Anyway, it would be unfair to put him on a spot that way.
The distance traveled by Mrs. Roosevelt, exclusive of any extra mileage of the escort fighters and mileage ashore in automobiles for Mrs. Roosevelt and the attending dignitaries (all using American motor fuel made available by the self-denial of the people at home) was about 26,000 miles.
President Roosevelt, exhorting the home front to be patient about the gasoline shortage, once told us that a four-engine bomber consumed 1,110 gallons of fuel on a certain mission, which on the map, appeared to be about 700 miles. At the same rate, Mrs. Roosevelt would have used up, in her own ship, alone, a little over 40,000 gallons and the cost to the people, through their taxes, at 15 cents a gallon, certainly a cheap estimate, would have been a little over $6,000. This is saying nothing about the salaries of the crew and other officers who flew Mrs. Roosevelt and accompanied her, of whom we were told when she got home that there were five.
I know of no way. in which a civilian ostensibly on Red Cross business could repay the army for such gas and the salaries of the soldiers detailed to this duty. If you are on legitimate Red Cross business there is no reason why the Red Cross should pay the Army. And if the civilian personally repays the expense, that immediately suggests that the mission was not legitimate.
The upshot of all this seems to be that George Spelvin, American, gave the party and picked up a tab for $6,000, plus, while Mrs. Roosevelt received public credit for a contribution to the Red Cross which probably did not exceed one-fourth of the minimum estimated cost.
Völkischer Beobachter (September 3, 1944)
Das war für Churchill zu viel –
Die Wahrheit über Indien
Der Wortlaut des Briefes von Philipps an Roosevelt
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Führer HQ (September 3, 1944)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
In Nordfrankreich scheiterten feindliche Übersetzversuche über die Somme bei Abbeville. Besonders heftig wurde gestern nördlich Douai, nordöstlich Rethel und nördlich Sedan gekämpft. Die Besatzung der Festung Brest schlug auch gestern alle Angriffe der Nordamerikaner, die ihre von den Kämpfen der letzten Tage stark angeschlagenen Verbände durch neu zugeführte Truppen ergänzen mußten, ab. Geringe örtliche Einbrüche im Festungsvorfeld sind abgeriegelt. Die blutigen Verluste des Feindes waren besonders hoch. Allein vor dem Abschnitt einer unserer Kompanien wurden 150 feindliche Tote gezählt.
Im Marsch durch das Rhônetal nach Norden haben unsere Truppen Lyon planmäßig durchschritten. Starke feindliche Angriffe von Osten her wurden von unseren Flankensicherungen abgewiesen, dabei ein feindliches Bataillon vernichtet.
Sicherungsfahrzeuge der Kriegsmarine wehrten in der Nacht zum 2. September in der Straße von Calais im Feuer englischer Fernkampfgeschütze zahlreiche Angriffe feindlicher Schnellboote und Jagdbomber ab. Hierbei wurde ein feindliches Schnellboot versenkt und vier feindliche Jagdbomber abgeschossen, ein eigenes Fahrzeug ging verloren, zwei weitere wurden beschädigt.
Nach fünfwöchigem erbittertem Ringen gegen eine vielfache feindliche Übermacht erlag die heldenhafte Besatzung der Marinebatterie Ile de Cézembre unter Führung des Oberleutnants der Marineartillerie der Reserve Seuss der feindlichen Übermacht, nachdem durchrollende Luftangriffe und pausenloses Schiffsartilleriefeuer auch die letzten noch brauchbaren Waffen. und Stellungen zerschlagen worden waren.
In Italien setzt der Feind unter stärkstem Einsatz von Artillerie und Panzern seine Großangriffe an der adriatischen Küste auf einer Breite von 20 Kilometer fort. Besonders erbittert waren die Kämpfe an der Küstenstraße nordwestlich Pesaro, in die auch feindliche Schiffsartillerie eingriff. In beispielhafter Standhaftigkeit verhinderten unsere Divisionen auch gestern wieder den Durchbruch des Feindes nach Nordwesten. 55 feindliche Panzer wurden abgeschossen.
In den Süd- und Ostkarpaten wurden erneute heftige Angriffe der Sowjets abgewiesen.
An der übrigen Ostfront kam es nur noch nordöstlich Warschau zu größeren Kampfhandlungen. Alle Durchbruchsversuche der Bolschewisten wurden hier auch gestern unter Abschuß von 35 feindlichen Panzern vereitelt.
Die Altstadt Warschaus wurde nach heftigem Kampf von Aufständischen völlig gesäubert.
Schlachtflieger vernichteten bei Angriffen gegen einen rumänischen Flugplatz elf abgestellte Flugzeuge und eine große Flugzeughalle.
In der Abwehrschlacht zwischen Bug und Narew hat sich die westfälische 211. Infanteriedivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant Eckhardt besonders ausgezeichnet.
Das auf allen Kriegsschauplätzen bewährte Jagdgeschwader 52 erzielte unter Führung seines Kommodore, Eichenlaubträger Oberstleutnant Hrabak, seinen 10.000 Luftsieg.
White House Statement on Labor Day
September 2, 1944
American workers can observe this Labor Day in the proud knowledge that in the battle of production their free labor is triumphing over slave labor. It was their determination to safeguard liberty and to preserve their American heritage for coming generations that made possible the greatest production achievement in the world’s history.
Our soldiers, sailors, and marines are carrying on an amazing offensive all over the world. They are doing it with the finest weapons in the world – weapons which have been made possible only by the unwavering loyalty and unflagging resolution of the workers and managers of our industries.
The position of our battle lines in Italy, in France, and in the Pacific zone today is greatly dependent on the production miracle which labor and management and farmers have accomplished.
We now have the enemy on the run. Yet we must face the prospect that the hardest fighting and the biggest job of supply are still ahead of us. Our needs for the products of our industries, mines, and farms – weapons, raw materials, transportation, and food – are as urgent as ever.
Our immediate job is victory. To attain it quickly will require the fullest utilization of our manpower and woman power in the production of the necessary weapons of war. American labor can be depended on, I know, to continue to devote itself primarily to that task.
Once the forces of tyranny have been overcome, we shall be faced with difficult problems of transition from war to peace. There will be matters of international arrangements as well as questions of internal economic policy. What we do in both spheres will affect our success in attaining a durable world peace – a peace which will contribute to the progress of mankind, and will give to all who work and produce, an opportunity constantly to better their own lives.
In the solution of these problems, we will need the cooperation of free American workers, free American employers, and free American farmers. I am confident that we shall have it in days of peace as we have had it in days of war.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (September 3, 1944)
Communiqué No. 148
Allied forces expanding their drive north from ARRAS have crossed VIMY RIDGE and occupied LENS and BULLY-GRENAY. To the east, we have taken DOUAI and a thrust westward has brought us to the area of SAINT-POL.
On the Channel coast SAINT-VALERY-EN-CAUX is in our hands. We have reached ABBEVILLE and closed on the SOMME between there and the sea.
In the area of the FORÊT DE COMPIÈGNE, northeast of PARIS, advances were made against varying resistance. The AISNE River was crossed west of SOISSONS.
A thrust northeast of MONTCORNET has put us across the BELGIAN frontier.
Further south, progress continues east of VERDUN.
Bad weather again hindered air operations over northeastern FRANCE. A force of heavy bombers attacked shipping at BREST.
The Pittsburgh Press (September 3, 1944)
AMERICANS DRIVE INTO BELGIUM
Forts in Maginot Line captured
Radio Atlantic reports Yanks also in Reich; British sweep ahead
Battle of Belgium begins as front dispatches say U.S. forces drove across the Belgium border after capturing the Maginot Line forts of Sedan and Hirson. The U.S. 3rd Army was reported to have crossed the German border near Thionville, close to Luxembourg. To the northwest, British forces smashed toward Lille. The Canadians opened a frontal attack on Le Havre and drove to within two miles of the city from the north after clearing sections of the coast to Dieppe. In southern France, Allied forces were within 14 miles of Lyon, having captured Vienne, in the Rhône Valley. Other U.S. forces reached Beaurepaire, 20 miles from Lyon. Broken lines on the map show the positions of Allied forces at various dates since the invasions.
SHAEF, London, England –
U.S. armored columns have driven across the Belgian border, front dispatches said early today, as Berlin reported another U.S. tank force has speared to Thionville on the Moselle River, only 11 miles from the German frontier.
The mystery radio station Atlantic said that Allied troops had crossed the German and Luxembourg frontiers as well as into Belgium, but there was no substantiation of the report.
The Yanks swept into Belgium after seizing the frontier forts of Hirson, Sedan and Charleville in the Maginot Line, front reports said, and other Allied columns were driving up to the border on a 100-mile front.
Front dispatches to the Exchange Telegraph reported that the Americans had crossed the Belgian border at Maubeuge, France, and near Tournai, 45 miles southeast of Brussels, and that the enemy retreat northward was completely disorganized.
Abbeville, the channel port where German armor burst through to the sea in 1940, fell to a Canadian column which had mopped up almost half of the robot bomb coast, and U.S. troops entered Compiègne after fighting through the “armistice forest” to the south.
Lt. Gen. Courtney Hodges’ 1st Army also captured the famous World War landmark of Saint-Quentin, 37 miles southeast of Arras, where the Germans launched their last great juggernaut offensive in the spring of 1918.
German broadcasts said that still another U.S. spearhead had reached Longwy, two miles from the frontier of the tiny Duchy of Luxembourg and 16 miles from Luxembourg City.
The Allies were punching relentlessly at the retreating remnants of the German armies in France along a 250-mile front and the British Army, swiftly bringing up the left flank to within 15 miles of Belgium, pounded forward in four powerful columns in gains up to 21 miles.
Overrunning Vimy Ridge, where Canadian troops fought one of their bloodiest battles in the last war, the British captured Douai, Lens, Pernes and Cambligneul and drove to within 14 miles of the great textile center of Lille, 39 miles of Calais and 35 miles of Dunkerque’s historic beaches.
One column shot out 21 miles west of Arras and captured Saint-Pol, only 320 miles from the Pas-de-Calais coast at Étaples.
Canadian 1st Army troops launched a frontal attack on the prize harbor of Le Havre, France’s second port, and crashed through its outer defenses after reaching the coast to the north, driving to within two miles of the city.
The Canucks also occupied the ports of Étretat (12 miles north of Le Havre) and Saint-Valery-en-Caux (midway between Étretat and Dieppe).
Climaxing a 60-mile march up the Rouen, the Canadian 1st Army seized three Somme River bridges at Abbeville which the Germans in their rushed retreat had left intact, completing the isolation of German garrisons and robot bomb crews in the Le Havre and other areas by passed in the advance.
With the British advance on Calais threatening to shear off the rest of the Channel coast, several small convoys attempted to evacuate key German personnel from the Pas-de-Calais Friday night, but were intercepted by British and Dutch naval craft which sank at least three vessels.
Despite a roaring gale, British Channel residents late Saturday heard a terrific explosion originating in the Boulogne area, resembling the sounds that reverberated across the strait in 1940 when the British blew up installations in the French ports. It was believed the Germans were destroying the Boulogne dock area.
Front reports said that a U.S. spearhead had reached Sedan and Charleville, respectively six and five miles from the Belgian border, while another had driven 10 miles above captured Vervins to Hirson, five miles from the border and 28 miles northwest of Charleville.
Thus, cracking the old Maginot Line at Sedan and its 1939-40 extension at Hirson and Charleville, the Yanks had battled into the head of the Ardennes Gap, reversing the invasion route into France that the Germans took in 1871, 1914, 1940.
Another significant “security blackout” overtook Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s 3rd Army in its eastward drive, but authoritative quarters gave credibility to German reports of its progress.
Lorraine residents are being evacuated from villages in the old Maginot Line along the route of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s 3rd Army advance, a Berlin broadcast said.
If the Yanks had reached Thionville, which has been called Diedenhofen during its various stages of German occupancy throughout the centuries, they have penetrated German-annexed Lorraine to within 11 miles of the “pure German” frontier at Sierck, where the borders of France and Luxembourg converge with those of the Reich.
It was in this corner that the so-called “Phony War” of 1939-40 was fought between the Maginot and Siegfried Lines as the people of Luxembourg watched through their telescopes as if it were a sideshow.
An advance to Thionville would extend Gen. Patton’s front 36 miles northeast from Verdun in 24 hours, a pace that if it were maintained would put his spearheads well inside Germany by Saturday night and in front of the Siegfried or West Wall forts which lie 20 miles beyond Thionville.
More than 450 miles to the west, U.S. troops opened the second week of a grim siege of the Breton port of Brest, where a German garrison of 20,000 men was fighting to delay our use of the fine harbor.
Berlin broadcasts reported the evacuation of the Armorique Peninsula south of Brest and said the German commander of the fortress has rejected a third surrender ultimatum.
Another 20,000 Germans were reported entrenched in Lorient and Saint-Nazaire in Brittany and 2,000 others were still fighting at Le Havre, although sounds of demolitions from the latter port indicated that it would not be defended much longer.
Storms and high winds cut down on air support Saturday after a field day against jammed German retreat columns and troop trains in North France, Belgium and Holland on Friday.
Paris attacked with robots; ‘pick-a-back’ raids failure
New German weapon ‘sitting duck’ for Allied fighters and easy ack-ack target
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Germans hint they’ll flee all Italy
Big guns being sent back to Reich
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Yanks seize Pisa, push on in Italy
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer
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Small shift needed, GOP chairman says
Chicago, Illinois (UP) – (Sept. 2)
Herbert Brownell Jr., chairman of the Republican National Committee, believes that a switch of only about four percent of the vote cast in 1940 will be necessary to elect Governor Thomas E. Dewey Nov. 7.
The GOP chairman said:
There is a much greater defection for the New Deal, particularly in Texas and the border states than is indicated on the surface.
1 Like
George W. Norris dies at age of 83
Stroke proves fatal to ‘father of TVA’
George Norris
McCook, Nebraska (UP) – (Sept. 2)
Former Senator George William Norris, one of the nation’s most distinguished statesmen, died tonight after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage and paralytic stroke Tuesday. He was 83.
Mr. Norris, known as “father of the TVA” and the “great insurgent,” was stricken in the little stucco home, where he had lived since he was defeated in his bid for a sixth term in the Senate to which he was elected after having served earlier in the House – a total of 40 years in Congress.
Funeral tomorrow
He was the last of six Senators who voted against American entry into World War I.
Funeral services will be held Monday at the McCook Congregational Church. The rites will be conducted by the Masonic Lodge.
In Washington, President Roosevelt described the death of Mr. Norris as “a national bereavement” and said that “a grand old champion of popular rights has made his journey.”
First elected in 1902
Mr. Norris had a record of 40 years of continuous service on Congress, beginning in 1902 when he was elected to the House and ending in 1942 when he was defeated for reelection to the Senate by Kenneth S. Wherry.
For 33 years, he was a Republican, but for the last six he was an Independent. He achieved his first national prominence in his fight against what he claimed was the one-man rule of the House by Speaker Joe Cannon, a battle he won in 1910.
His battle against “Cannonism” led to his election to the Senate in 1912.
With La Follette Sr.
In the Senate, Mr. Norris aligned himself with Senator Robert M. La Follette Sr., and became one of President Wilson’s “little group of willful men” who defeated the war President’s bill to arm American merchant ships.
He also sided with Mr. La Follette in voting against American entry into the war, a vote that almost cost him his seat in the Senate.
During his long years in Congress., he attained a high record for constructive, liberal legislation, the most notable of which was the Tennessee Valley Authority Bill, which he sponsored. His greatest monument is Norris Dam, the first to be constructed by the TVA. A town near the dam site was also named Norris.
Champion of labor
An advocate of cheap electric power for the public, Mr. Norris also sponsored the Rural Electrification Act designed to bring power to farm homes. The bill was passed in 1937.
A champion of labor legislation, he backed the Norris Act of 1932 which restricted the use of injunctions in labor disputes, outlawed “yellow dog” labor contracts, and guaranteed labor the right to organize and bargain collectively.
Mr. Norris also waged and won a one-man fight to liberalize state government and was instrumental in the establishment of a unicameral legislature in Nebraska.
Abandoned ‘lame ducks’
He also sponsored the “lame duck” amendment to the Constitution which changed the date of inauguration of the President from March 4 to Jan. 20.
The amendment, which abolished the “lame duck” session of Congress was adopted in 1933.
Although Mr. Norris opposed America’s entry into World War I and into the League of Nations, his views on international affairs changed before the present war and in 1941, he voted for a declaration of war against Japan.
He also changed his mind about international cooperation. He approved membership in an international society for peace and cooperation.
Explains change
“Changed circumstances demanded a changed attitude,” he said.
Warren G. Harding was the last Republican Mr. Norris supported for President. In 1924, he campaigned for Senator La Follette Sr., who ran on a third-party ticket. He supported Democrat Alfred E. Smith in 1928 and after 1932 he was an outspoken supporter of President Roosevelt. Shortly before his death, he said he would support the President for a fourth term.
Mr. Roosevelt also admired Mr. Norris and in 1936, he said Nebraska should keep Mr. Norris in the Senate as long as he lived. He reiterated his endorsement in 1942 when Mr. Norris was running unsuccessfully for his sixth term.
‘Never told lie’
Mr. Norris said that throughout his long Congressional career his “lips have never told a lie and my hands never touched a bribe.”
He was born July 11, 1861, at Clyde, Ohio, and attended Baldwin University, Northern Indiana Normal School and Valparaiso University. He was admitted to the bar in 1883. He was married to Pluma Lashley at Beaver City, Nebraska, in 1890. She died in 1901 and two years later, he married Ella Leonard of San Jose, California. His widow and three daughters survive.