America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

1874

americavotes1944

In Washington –
GOP refuses to end fight on Pearl Harbor

‘People want facts,’ Congressman says

Washington (UP) – (Sept. 23)
Republicans continued their efforts to smoke out the facts about the Pearl Harbor disaster today despite every indication that the administration has no intention of saying a word until official Army and Navy inquiry boards have completed their investigations.

Rep. Ralph Church (R-IL), indicating GOP dissatisfaction with waiting for the military board to report, said again that “the people want the facts.”

The work of those boards is going forward steadily, but there is no knowledge as to how much of their factfinding task has been completed. Neither has there been any indication as to when they expect to make public their findings.

General summoned

Evidence that the factfinding is being accelerated was seen yesterday in a War Department announcement that Maj. Gen. Leonard T. Gerow, commanding general of the V Corps of the 1st Army now fighting in Europe, has returned to testify before the Army board.

Removal of an officer from his post during active operations indicates anxiety to obtain vital information at once. Both Army and Navy authorities had previously objected to investigations until after the war partly because key witnesses might be engaged in fighting and unavailable for questioning here.

The Navy last winter sent Adm. Thomas C. Hart to Pearl Harbor to conduct an on-the-post investigation His findings have not been made public.

GOP may be aided

The Republicans might have much to gain politically should any high administration officials be involved in responsibility for the surprise with which the Japs caught U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941.

On the other hand, they would have little to lose if the guilt lay on the accused Pearl Harbor Army and Navy commanders or on non-administration shoulders, since the Republicans were not in power and could scarcely be held accountable for the Pearl Harbor disaster.

1875

6 U.S. ships lost in Mediterranean

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Newsprint quota used for overseas editions

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1876

Fliers bolster troops in Holland

London, England (UP) –
Huge forces of bombers and fighters streaked across the Channel toward the continent this afternoon, possibly going to the aid of Allied forces in Holland, as an estimated 500 Italian-based heavy bombers hammered industrial targets in the Sudetenland.

Other squadrons of U.S. 15th Air Force heavies lashed at railroads in southern Austria and bridges in northeastern Italy, while three formations of Mitchell bombers blasted the German-held 5,000-ton cruiser Taranto at the La Spezia Naval Base. The warship, which the Nazis had so placed as to block the harbor entrance in the event La Spezia fell to the Allies, was set afire, it was reported from Rome.

Hit bow, stern

German anti-aircraft batteries threw up a terrific barrage, but bomb-strike photos showed explosives fell across the Taranto’s bow and stern, and amidships. There was no immediate announcement of the specific targets hit by the Lightning and Mustang-escorted bombers in the Sudetenland and Austria.

Despite yesterday’s bad weather, the 9th U.S. Air Force flew 750 sorties during which it dropped 200 tons of bombs on rail communications, motor transport and power stations in the vicinities of Coblenz and Saarbrücken, Germany. Six planes were lost, but the pilots of two were safe, it was announced officially.

U.S. and French P-47 Thunderbolts of Brig. Gen. Gordon P. Saville’s 12th Tactical Air Command struck at German locomotives and vehicles along the Rhine in good weather Friday after being grounded for almost a week by bad weather.

1877

americavotes1944

Bricker to speak in Connecticut

World court urged in his Boston speech

Norwalk, Connecticut (UP) – (Sept. 23)
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker, Republican vice-presidential nominee, came here tonight for his last speaking engagement on his 3,250-mile eastern campaign swing through Pennsylvania, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Connecticut Governor Raymond E. Baldwin boarded the Bricker train at New London, Connecticut, and accompanied the governor to the home of Mrs. Clare Booth Luce, Republican congresswoman.

Calls for cooperation

Earlier at Boston, Mr. Bricker told the Massachusetts State Republican Convention that the United States must cooperate with other nations in the post-war era and use force if necessary, to prevent a third world war should “moral persuasion or economic pressure” fail.

The United States, Mr. Bricker said, should “take the leadership among the nations of the world in organizing to preserve the peace.”

Mr. Bricker said:

The United States has always had a tremendous stake in world order and stability, yet we have not kept ourselves alert to developments threatening peace and world order. We have not kept ourselves prepared to cope with them when they attained world-shaking proportions.

Expediency is charged

The administration’s international policy, he said, has been ruled by “day-by-day expediency.” America sent money to China while sending war material to Japan, he said. Hitler seized power in Germany at the same time the New Deal entered office, he added, but the administration did nothing to keep “orderly peace” in the world.

Mr. Bricker proposed that a World Court be established “wherein justiciable questions will be decided” and adequate machinery created for arbitration and conciliation of international disputes.

1878

Gen. Eisenhower: Power of Gestapo factor in length of war

General injured knee; he believes Germany’s military situation is hopeless
By John E. Lee (representing combined U.S. press)

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Eisenhower bars travel of civilians to war zones

Headquarters to probe charge businessmen were transported into liberated areas

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1879

Allies smashing toward Bologna

Seize key positions in Gothic Line in Italy
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer

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1880

Morgenthau calls tax cut ‘hopeful’

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1881

americavotes1944

Two-term advocate backs Roosevelt

Washington (UP) – (Sept. 23)
Senator Josiah W. Bailey (D-NC) said today that Republican presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey has “endorsed all the New Deal except Secretary Ickes, Miss Perkins and President Roosevelt and proving almost as good a New Deal speechmaker as Vice President Henry Wallace.”

Mr. Bailey, who has introduced a bill to limit presidential terms to two, said he would support President Roosevelt for a fourth term because “I am a Democrat,” but that he intended to do what he could to keep Sidney Hillman, chairman of the CIO Political Action Committee, out of the party.

Mr. Bailey said:

It appears Mr. Hillman is trying to control of both the political parties with a view of setting up his own peculiar sort of government.

1882

Local Western Union unit pledges support of national strike

Fight between CIO and AFL since merger with Postal Telegraph nears showdown

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1885

americavotes1944

Perkins: Hopes for wider security are bolstered by Dewey

By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Washington – (Sept. 23)
Hopes for an early extension of the social security system were raised in Washington today through Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s endorsement, in a Los Angeles speech last night, of some important features of legislation stalled in Congress since its introduction in June 1943.

The Republican presidential nominee, it was noted here, came out in favor of certain major phases of the program which appeal to the largest number of citizens and which have encountered the least opposition.

On one controversial feature, which its foes call “socialized medicine,” he proposed a method intended to turn the opposition of powerful medical groups into cooperation.

Job for the states

He would legislate “assurance of medical service to those who need it, and who cannot otherwise obtain it,” but he would reach that objective by enlisting “the leadership and aid of the doctors of America in organizing our private and public hospitals as well as our other services into a fully effective system to protect the health of all our people.”

He would not follow the proposal of the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bills in placing technical and professional administration under a federal bureau (the U.S. Public Health Service).

In another important particular, Governor Dewey differed from the philosophy of the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bills, and did so in harmony with the declared Republican policy of maintaining and strengthening state functions rather than extending federal power. He would return to the states the control of employment services, and would leave unemployment insurance with the states.

Present law cited

In the long argument over the wisdom of encouraging the individual to look more and more to the federal government for his upkeep in times of unemployment and to depend on Washington to get him a job, the New York Governor takes the side of those who believe these are proper functions of the states.

But Governor Dewey expressed full support for the effort to add 20 million Americans to the 40 million now carrying federal social security cards which promise them old-age pensions after retirement at 65.

Under the present law, enacted in 1935, and for which the Roosevelt administration claimed full credit (although the Republican candidate pointed out it was passed “by a nonpartisan vote of overwhelming proportions”) the old-age survivors’ insurance plan covers business and industrial jobs.

Some excepted now

Congress excepted a number of other large classes of employment – including agricultural labor, domestic service, public employment, service for non-profit and government institutions, and self-employment.

For instance, a printer who works for a commercial publisher gets the benefit of the present law, but a printer for a religious organization does not. The law covers a janitor who sweeps out a grocery store, and a stenographer for an industrial concern, but not a janitor in an educational institution, nor a stenographer for a charitable group.

‘Not good enough’

These exceptions were made for various reasons, including the one stated by Governor Dewey, “difficulties of administration.” Governor Dewey said this was “not a good enough answer.”

Governor Dewey did not adopt all the ideas of the Social Security Board, nor of the framers of the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bills, nor of the American Federation of Labor, which has been active on the subject. But his supporters think he may have found a way to end the stalemate in the Democrat-controlled Congressional committees (Ways and Means in the House, Finance in the Senate) where the proposed legislative extensions of social security have rested for 15 months without even a hearing.

1886

Change in enlisted Navy men’s uniform unlikely now

New styles must await end of war

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1887

Smith quits hospital

New York –
Former Governor Alfred E. Smith was discharged from St. Vincent’s Hospital today after an examination disclosed that his condition was “much improved.” He entered the hospital Aug. 10, suffering from heat exhaustion.

1888

A payment on debt –
German town pays price for Nazism

Once it was city, now it’s rubble
By W. C. Heinz, North American Newspaper Alliance

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1889

Poll: Roosevelt gains in 27 states with Dewey advancing in 14

President has electoral vote lead, drops slightly in Pennsylvania
By George Gallup, director, American Institute of Public Opinion

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1890

americavotes1944

Farmers urged to fight New Deal

‘Cotton Ed’ heads Democratic group

Washington (UP) – (Sept. 23)
Anti-fourth-term Democrats appealed to farmers tonight to “smash the vicious control of the New Deal” by giving overwhelming support to the Republican Dewey-Bricker ticket in November.

The plea came from the newly-formed National Agricultural Committee, headed by Senator Ellison D. “Cotton Ed” Smith (D-SC), a bitter critic of President Roosevelt and his policies. Mr. Smith was recently defeated for renomination. The drive to place the farmers in the Republican camp is part of a continuing revolt by Southern conservative Democrats which began this summer in South Carolina and spread to Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and other areas south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Southern customs involved

One of its primary purposes was to seek to force the administration to go on record in opposition to racial equality, repeal of the poll, tax and other kindred measures involving deep-rooted Southern customs.

The rebellion suffered a reversal today when the Texas Supreme Court ordered names of 23 pro-Roosevelt electors placed on the Democratic ballot in the state’s general election Nov. 7. They will replace a former slate which included 15 members who publicly announced they would not vote for the President.

The action assures the Roosevelt-Truman ticket the support of all Texas electors. since Chief Justice James P. Alexander of the Texas Supreme Court said no motion for a rehearing would be entertained.

Economic freedom urged

Mr. Smith’s organization, in a resolution adopted at the close of a two-day session here, said “it is the patriotic duty of Americans to place the interest of their country above any selfish party affiliation.”

Mr. Smith said:

The time for the economic freedom of the American farmer has arrived. He has been held in virtual slavery for 12 years by New Deal schemes designed to keep him dependent on government handouts which he never wanted.

Ralph Moore, former official of the Texas Grange and secretary of the new organization, said:

This committee will get out a farm vote sufficient to offset any possible gains to be made by Sidney Hillman and his Political Action Committee.

1891

americavotes1944

Wrong addresses cutting soldier vote percentage

By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent

Washington – (Sept. 23)
Wrong or obsolete address, given for soldier voters, are cutting into the potential vote of the more than 550,000 men of the Armed Forces on the soldier-vote lists of Pennsylvania.

Army officials said they could furnish no figures on the number of state ballots sent out, or the number returned for lack of proper addresses, but they conceded that many ballot envelopes had been returned because of wrong or old addresses.

It was pointed out that the Army averages some 70,000 transfers daily and the Navy 30,000 and that addresses furnished by friends or relatives may be so obsolete as to be valueless.

Most states furnishing absentee ballots to service men have followed the suggested procedure of waiting until the military voter sends in his application card, containing an up-to-date address, but under Pennsylvania’s law ballots were mailed out on the basis of a local canvass.

Despite the state canvass, 193,680 service men have sent applications for ballots to the State Elections Bureau, which were referred to County Elections Boards. Most of them are believed to be duplications of names listed in the state canvass, which totaled 554,332 two months ago.

Service men may apply for federal ballots if the state ballots for which they made application fail to reach them by Oct. 1 and War Department officials have distributed 3,800,000 federal ballots to the Army, 3.400,000 to the Navy and 400,000 to the War Shipping Administration.

Unofficial estimates here are that Pennsylvania ballots returned because of wrong addresses have totaled as much as 15 percent of those sent out from individual counties.

At the start of the soldier voting program, it was recognized that there would be difficulty in getting mail to men in combat theaters, whose addresses are subject to frequent change. In many cases, soldiers have reported that mail failed to catch up with them for months.

It was also recognized that men in actual combat, including whole divisions and units, may not get the chance to vote in time to count in the election, despite elaborate plans to make it possible, including training of special officers to handle voting details.

There are no official estimates of what percentage of the eligible military voters may cast ballots, in event they are made available on schedule, and the possibility of wrong addresses and uncertainty of delivery will complicate further political forecasting.

1892

Binder: Nazi hierarchs plot post-war chaos in Reich

Hitler fights on to save own skin
By Carroll Binder, Chicago Daily News Foreign Service editor

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1893

Editorial: V-Day celebrations

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1894

Editorial: The post-war tax milk cow

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1895

americavotes1944

Editorial: Hillman at the crossroads

Speaking with what may have been unintentional candor, the CIO Political Action Committee’s Sidney Hillman gave the United Auto Workers’ convention some pretty concise directions on which way the United States ought to go. He said:

The right-hand fork is a wide road on which the National Association of Manufacturers, the Chamber of Commerce, the Farm Bureau and the Committee for Constitutional Government drive abreast at full speed with an escort of motorcycle police. It leads straight to the arid plain of “normalcy.”

The other road is neither smooth nor straight. It runs up hill and down dale, skirting the sides of many precipices and bumping along over stretches of bad pavement, but it leads eventually into the fertile valley of lasting peace and stable prosperity. I need not tell you much about this road, for it is the only one which we have been traveling for the last 12 years under the leadership of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The PAC people’s program… points the way.

To the left, of course. The “normal” America of busy factories, abundant jobs, prosperous farmers and the world’s highest wages arouses only contempt among Mr. Hillman’s Communist associates.

He’s right about that left fork he says we’ve been following, though. It isn’t smooth and it definitely isn’t straight. It has, in the 12 years he mentions, bumped over some mighty bad pavement and past plenty of precipices – only we call them “emergencies.” It has brought us, so far, to raking leaves for WPA, to waste and idleness and debt and endless depression – but nobody has ever yet seen the happy valley at the end of Mr. Hillman’s pink rainbow.

Well, it’s still a free country, and if anyone wants to follow a strange guide down an unmapped detour toward an unknown destination, it is still his privilege to do it. We’ll stay on the main highway, ourselves.