Bester Nährboden für den Bolschewismus –
40 Parteien tummeln sich in Süditalien
…
Der Antisemitismus in den USA
Genf, 25. September –
Der Antisemitismus zeigt den untrüglichen Stand der öffentlichen Meinung an, heißt es in einem Sonderbericht der linksradikalen Tribune über die Judenfeindlichkeit in den USA. In fast allen alliierten Ländern habe seit Kriegsausbruch die Ablehnung der Juden zugenommen, aber nirgendwo so alarmierend wie in den Vereinigten Staaten.
„Ich kann es Ihnen nicht so erklären,“ sagte ein amerikanischer Journalist aus dem Mittelwesten dem Korrespondenten, „warum das so ist, noch vor zehn Jahren machten wir keinen Unterschied zwischen uns und den Juden. Wir gehörten den gleichen Klubs an, besuchten gemeinsam Versammlungen usw. Heute wäre das unmöglich. Die Trennung zwischen uns und den Juden ist vollkommen. Nach der Zeitung Protestant habe Ende vergangenen Jahres eine geheime Umfrage über den Antisemitismus stattgefunden mit dem Ergebnis, daß über 80 Prozent der Befragten judenfeindlich eingestellt und fast 25 Prozent bereit gewesen seien, einer antijüdischen Bewegung beizutreten. Während einer Unterhaltung mit dem Herausgeber einer bekannten jüdischen US-Zeitung sei dem Korrespondenten gesagt worden, eine organisierte antisemitische Propaganda von fünf Jahren würde genügen, um den Juden in Amerika zum Verhängnis zu werden.
In mehreren Großstädten sei es bereits zu judenfeindlichen Zwischenfällen gekommen. Das Herlands-Komitee zur Untersuchung der Neuyorker Vorfälle beschuldige die Polizei, sich dabei gleichgültig, wenn nicht gar parteiisch verhalten zu haben. Die zahlreichen Ausschreitungen zeigten eindeutig, daß die Judenfeindlichkeit immer größere Kreise ziehe.
Der halbjüdische Bürgermeister von Neuyork, LaGuardia, wird unter Ernennung zum General die gesamte alliierte Verwaltung im befreiten Italien übernehmen. Dies wurde auf der Konferenz von Québec beschlossen.
Führer HQ (September 26, 1944)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
An unserem Brückenkopf in Westholland und im Abschnitt von Antwerpen wurden mehrere feindliche Angriffe abgewiesen, ein Einbruch im Gegenangriff beseitigt. In Mittelholland, vor allem im Raum von Eindhoven, dauern die heftigen Kämpfe an. Während feindliche Angriffe südwestlich Veghel scheiterten, konnte der Gegner östlich und südöstlich Helmond einige Kilometer nach Osten vordringen. Ein zum Entsatz der westlich Arnheim eingeschlossenen Reste der 1. englischen Luftlandedivision angesetzter Angriff des Feindes wurde im Gegenangriff zerschlagen. Der Gegner erlitt hohe Verluste. Nördlich Nimwegen führten die Engländer ihre starken, von Panzern unterstützten Angriffe fort, konnten aber nur geringen Geländegewinn erzielen.
Wirksame Angriffe unserer Jagdfliegerverbände richteten sich trotz schwieriger Wetterlage im Raum südöstlich Arnheim gegen feindliche Truppenbewegungen, Infanteriestellungen und Übersetzverkehr. Der Feind hatte schwere Verluste und verlor in Luftkämpfen 23 Flugzeuge.
Südöstlich Aachen örtliche Kampfhandlungen, in denen mehrere Angriffe des Feindes abgewiesen und eine amerikanische Kampfgruppe eingeschlossen wurde.
Der mit starken Panzerkräften beiderseits Lunéville angreifende Gegner wurde abgewiesen.
Starke Verbände der 7. amerikanischen Armee setzten ihren Großangriff zwischen Épinal und Remiremont fort. Gegen den zähen Widerstand unserer Truppen konnte der Gegner seinen Brückenkopf an der Mosel etwas erweitern. Die erbitterten Kämpfe dauern an.
Nach starker Feuervorbereitung ist der Feind gestern zum Angriff auf Calais angetreten. In harten Kämpfen wurde er bis auf einige Einbrüche im Westabschnitt abgeschlagen. Von den anderen Kanal- und Atlantikstützpunkten wird nur lebhafter Artilleriekampf und erfolgreiche eigene Stoßtrupptätigkeit gemeldet.
Das Störungsfeuer auf London hielt in der vergangenen Nacht an.
In Mittelitalien hat der Feind auch gestern seine schweren Angriffe fortgesetzt. Im Raum von Firenzuola brachten sie dem Gegner keinen Geländegewinn. Allein in einem Abschnitt wurden innerhalb 36 Stunden 27 Angriffe des Feindes abgewiesen, in einem Korpsabschnitt 35 feindliche Panzer vernichtet. An der Adria hielt die neue Abwehrfront dem starken Druck des Feindes stand.
Im südwestlichen Siebenbürgen verstärkte sich die feindliche Angriffstätigkeit an der ungarisch-rumänischen Grenze. Nördlich Arad warfen deutsche und ungarische Truppen feindliche Angriffsspitzen zurück. Zwischen Torenburg und dem Kamm der Ostkarpaten herrschte lebhafte örtliche Kampftätigkeit.
An den Beskidenpässen setzte der Feind unter Einsatz weiterer Kräfte den ganzen Tag über seine Angriffe fort. Sie wurden in harten Kämpfen abgewehrt oder aufgefangen.
Zwischen Düna und Rigaer Bucht wurden im Verlauf unserer Absetzbewegungen zahlreiche Angriffe des nachdrängenden Gegners abgewiesen und 40 Panzer abgeschossen. Damit hat sich die Gesamtzahl der Panzerabschüsse in der Zeit vom 14. bis 24. September auf 933 erhöht.
Unter Ausnutzung einer geschlossenen Wolkendecke führten nordamerikanische Bomberverbände Terrorangriffe gegen Städte in Südwestdeutschland, vor allem auf Koblenz, Frankfurt a. M. und Straßburg. Flakartillerie der Luftwaffe schoss 11 feindliche Flugzeuge ab.
In der Nacht warfen britische Flugzeuge Bomben auf Mannheim.
In der Abwehrschlacht zwischen Düna und Rigaer Bucht fand, in vorderster Linie kämpfend, der Kommandierende General eines Armeekorps, der mit den Schwertern zum Eichenlaub des Ritterkreuzes ausgezeichnete General der Infanterie Wilhelm Wegener, den Heldentod.
Bei den Abwehrkämpfen in Belgien hat sich die 712. Infanteriedivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant Neumann besonders ausgezeichnet. Die Division vernichtete beziehungsweise erbeutete in der Zeit vom 3. bis 10. September 161 „Sherman“-Panzer und Panzerspähwagen, größtenteils durch Panzernahbekämpfungsmittel.
Die 16. Flakdivision der Luftwaffe hat im Westen in der Zeit vom 1. bis 22. September 313 Flugzeuge, darunter 35 Lastensegler, abgeschossen sowie 115 Panzer und 92 gepanzerte Fahrzeuge vernichtet.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (September 26, 1944)
FROM
(A) SHAEF FORWARD
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
261100A Sept.
TO FOR ACTION
(1) AGWAR (Pass to WND)
TO (W) FOR INFORMATION (INFO)
(2) FIRST US ARMY GP
(3) ADV HQ 12 ARMY GP
(4) FWD ECH (MAIN) 12 ARMY GP
(5) AEAF
(6) ANCXF
(7) EXFOR MAIN
(8) EXFOR REAR
(9) DEFENSOR, OTTAWA
(10) CANADIAN C/S, OTTAWA
(11) WAR OFFICE
(12) ADMIRALTY
(13) AIR MINISTRY
(14) ETOUSA
(15) SACSEA
(16) CMHQ (Pass to RCAF & RCN)
(17) COM Z APO 871
(18) SHAEF MAIN
(REF NO.)
NONE
(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR
Communiqué No. 171
Allied troops have made good gains on the east of the Eindhoven–Nijmegen salient. Helmond and Deurne have been captured and we have advanced several miles to the north.
In the Schijndel area, enemy attacks against the supply corridor have been repulsed.
West of Turnhout, our troops have gained a bridgehead over the Antwerp–Turnhout Canal.
From the area north of Aachen to the Meurthe Valley, there has been little change. Sporadic artillery fire and patrolling by the enemy continue in the northern half of this sector. East of Aachen, our patrol activity has met strong enemy reaction.
In the Moselle Valley, slight advances have been made by our troops northeast of Nancy. Southeast of Lunéville, our forces have made gains in the Bénaménil area.
In the Épinal area, our troops have advanced several miles east of the Moselle. The village of Jeuxey has been taken and the occupation of Épinal completed.
West of Belfort, gains of several miles were made by our armor and infantry against stiff opposition.
Gun positions and strongpoints in the Arnhem area were attacked by medium, light and fighter-bombers yesterday. Four enemy aircraft which attempted to intercept the bombers were shot down by escorting fighters.
Road and rail transport in the Ruhr was strafed by fighters.
Fortified positions at Calais were bombarded for over an hour by heavy bombers which dropped more than 1,000 tons of high explosives.
COORDINATED WITH: G-2, G-3 to C/S
THIS MESSAGE MAY BE SENT IN CLEAR BY ANY MEANS
/s/
Precedence
“OP” - AGWAR
“P” - Others
ORIGINATING DIVISION
PRD, Communique Section
NAME AND RANK TYPED. TEL. NO.
D. R. JORDAN, Lt Col FA Ext. 9
AUTHENTICATING SIGNATURE
/s/U.S. Navy Department (September 26, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 132
Elements of the 1st Marine Division drove almost to Akarakoro Point at the northern extremity of Peleliu Island during September 25 (West Longitude Date) while other elements of the 1st Division maneuvered to encircle bitterly resisting remnants of the enemy entrenched on Umurbrogol Hill. Units of the 81st Infantry Division took additional high ground in the center of the western arm of the island. Communication between the northern and southern pockets of Japanese resistance has thus been severed. Our advance to the north included the capture of Amiangal Hill and the hills adjacent to it, and was made in the fate of heavy resistance from automatic weapon and artillery fire.
Our casualties in the fighting to seize the Palau Islands through September 25 are as follows:
| KIA | WIA | MIA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Marine Division | 580 | 3,639 | 401 |
| 81st Infantry Division | 106 | 769 | 5 |
No figures are now available as to the number of wounded who have been returned to duty.
The Pittsburgh Press (September 26, 1944)
NAZIS TAKE ARNHEM BRIDGE
Trap drawn tighter on air army
Security censorship clamped on details of Holland battle
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
Critical situation was reported among Allied airborne troops on the north branch of the upper Rhine near Arnhem as British 2nd Army troops strove to effect a juncture despite German attacks on the flanks of the corridor through Holland. Elsewhere on the Western Front, 1st Canadian Army troops advanced north of the Antwerp–Turnhout Canal; U.S. 1st Army troops were hampered by heavy rains across the German border; U.S. 3rd Army forces beat off counterattacks in the area above Nancy, and the U.S. 7th Army of the Sixth Army Group captured Épinal and closed to within eight miles northwest of Belfort.
SHAEF, London, England –
Supreme Allied Headquarters today clamped a security censorship over the wild battle in Holland and the fate of the force of airborne British Red Devils trapped at Arnhem, which Berlin claimed had been “completely liquidated.”
The Allies were known to have lost their hold on the north end of the Arnhem Bridge across the upper branch of the Rhine and the fight now centered around a railroad span running into Oosterbeek, two miles west of Arnhem.
Latest reports from the field said only that the Arnhem force again had drawn in its perimeter and was huddled in a pocket of strangulation under heavy pressure.
The security news blackout obscured the situation elsewhere in Holland, but cryptic field dispatches said the British 2nd Army was wheeling eastward against Germany on a 30-mile front below Nijmegen, at the north end of which the border had been crossed in a direct threat to the Siegfried Line anchor post of Kleve.
More than 1,100 U.S. heavy bombers swept over Germany ahead of the land armies again today and hammered three big centers vital to the Nazi frontline troops – Osnabrück, Hamm and Bremen.
Meager reports couple with Nazi propaganda broadcasts gave the following picture of the battlefronts:
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The Arnhem skytroopers had lost the north end of the Arnhem Bridge across the upper branch of the Rhine and the bitter fight was continuing some two miles to the west, according to late accounts.
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Lt. Gen. Sir Miles C. Dempsey’s troops swinging eastward into the Dutch borderland fronting Germany captured the big bases of Helmond, Deurne and Mook, and fanned on behind them as much as eight miles to the areas of Oploo and Liesel against spotty opposition.
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Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges’ U.S. 1st Army was reported by Berlin to be massing formidable concentrations in the Aachen area for what the Nazis called a prospective attempt to break through to the Cologne area of the Rhineland.
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Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s 3rd Army battered forward from the Metz–Nancy sector of the Moselle Valley, beating off sporadic counterthrusts. Berlin reported a big-scale attack in the Épinal–Remiremont area and called it an apparent prelude to an offensive against Belfort, commanding the approaches to Southwest Germany.
Gen. Eisenhower forbade all news and speculation on the battle in Holland.
Headquarters said the secrecy had been imposed because the situation had become “extremely fluid,” making it imperative to screen Allied moves from the enemy.
Radio Berlin boasted that the Allied drive into Germany would be “measured in inches and will cost streams of blood,” and that “war of destruction will be opposed by defense of destruction.”
Run gantlet
Official spokesmen said supply columns were still running the gantlet of Nazi shellfire northward from Nijmegen to the south bank of the Rhine, where the British 2nd Army was building up a powerful relief column within full view of the trapped paratroopers om the far side of the river.
It was admitted, however, that the convoys were forced to travel on secondary roads above Nijmegen, since Elst, almost midway between that town and Arnhem, was still in German hands.
Allied patrols fanned out through the five-mile-wide corridor between the two Rhine channels 15 miles northwest of Nijmegen and about the same distance west of Arnhem, and found strong Nazi forces dug in on the north bank of the upper Rhine to prevent a flanking attack on Arnhem from that direction.
Cut down foothold
United Press writer Ronald Clark reported that heavy German mortar and shellfire and almost continuous infiltration thrusts by Nazi infantrymen had cut down the foothold of the remaining paratroopers west of Arnhem.
German troops and guns lined the north bank of the Rhine in considerable strength, presumably barring the railway bridge, too, and Mr. Clark said a 1,000-yard no-man’s-land lay between the airborne forces and the river.
Headquarters said a limited amount of supplies was dropped to the advanced battle forces by air Monday, but it was not disclosed whether they were parachuted to the sky soldiers at Oosterbeek, just west of Arnhem, or to forward elements of the relief column.
British 2nd Army troops drove into the Rensel area, 15 miles southwest of Eindhoven, coming within nine miles of a junction with 1st Canadian Army units that entered Turnhout and crossed the Antwerp–Turnhout Canal west of that town.
U.S. airborne units operating with British tanks broke up a strong German roadblock that halted all traffic on the Eindhoven–Nijmegen highway for several hours yesterday.
The Germans threw about 3,000 infantrymen, 10 to 15 tanks and self-propelled guns across the road between Veghel and St. Oeedenrode and ranged up and down the highway shooting up British trucks, but were finally driven off.
Capture of Kleve reported
Mr. Clark reported that Allied successes east and west of the Eindhoven–Nijmegen highway in the past 24 hours nearly doubled the width of the corridor around Eindhoven and that a second unidentified supply road had been opened to Nijmegen.
There was no official word on the progress of the Allied columns stabbing into German soil southeast of Nijmegen, although a dubious report broadcast by the French Radio Montpelier said the Allies had captured Kleve, 12 miles southeast of Nijmegen and the northern anchor of the Siegfried Line.
Down 24 Nazi planes
The Nazi Air Force appeared in considerable strength over Holland yesterday, coming up in formations running to 100 fighters to challenge RAF Typhoons and U.S. medium bombers attacking the German ring at Arnhem. Twenty-four enemy planes were shot down.
Heavy rains slowed operations on the U.S. 1st Army front east of Aachen, where U.S. guns yesterday poured one of the heaviest barrages of the war into the Rhineland. Scattered patrol operations were reported, and headquarters said at one point the Germans forced several thousand civilian refugees of undisclosed nationality back through the American lines to place the burden of feeding and housing them on the Americans.
Beat off attacks
Farther south, U.S. 3rd Army forces beat off a half-dozen German counterattacks in the Dieuze sector northeast of Nancy, knocking out another eight enemy tanks. The Germans were reported digging in feverishly in that area in expectation of heavy U.S. aerial attacks as soon as the weather lifts.
Southeast of Nancy, the 7th Army cleared the last German resistance from Épinal and captured Jeuxey, two miles to the east. The 7th Army also scored general advances around the shoulder of the Vosges Mountains between Épinal and Belfort, capturing a number of strongpoints on the Lure–Belfort highway.
One U.S. spearhead bypassed Ronchamp and pushed on to less than eight miles northwest of Belfort.
Little band of paratroopers overwhelmed at key bridge
By Richard D. McMillan, United Press staff writer
…
Superfortresses pound Japanese industrial targets in Manchuria
Steel centers and port damaged, Tokyo admits, but claims 13 planes shot down
By the United Press
…
‘Mudslinging’ hit –
Dewey pleads for return of ‘integrity’
President indispensable to bosses, he says
Aboard Dewey campaign train (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey called upon the American people today to elect him president in November to “restore integrity to the White House.”
The Republican presidential nominee wound up a seven-speech coast-to-coast campaign tour in Oklahoma City last night with a charge that integrity had been lacking in the 12 years of President Roosevelt’s administration and in his opening bid for an unprecedented fourth term.
Fightingest speech yet
It was Governor Dewey’s fightingest speech to date and his audience, estimated at 15,000, was the most boisterously responsive.
Governor Dewey appeared confident that his plea would be answered, he predicted that the American people will “restore integrity to the White House so that its spoken word can be trusted again.”
He said the President’s speech Saturday night completely ignored his pledge on acceptance of the 1944 nomination that he would not campaign in the usual sense and was one of “mudslinging, ridicule and wisecracks.”
Demagogy charged
He charged:
It plumbed the depths of demagogy by dragging into this campaign the names of Hitler and Goebbels; it descended to quoting from Mein Kampf and to reckless charges of “fraud” and “falsehood.”
Governor Dewey promised that he personally would not resort to such tactics.
He said:
The winning of this war and the achievement of a people’s peace are too sacred to be cast off with frivolous language.
Then, with an explanation that his opponent has “made the charges, asked for it, and here it is,” Governor Dewey took up, point by point, the subjects of President Roosevelt’s opening campaign speech.
‘Countless lives lost’
Governor Dewey accused Mr. Roosevelt of failure to prepare for war and said it had “cost countless American lives; it has caused untold misery.”
He recalled that in 1937, Mr. Roosevelt remarked:
How happy we are that the circumstances of the moment permit us to put our money into bridges and boulevards… rather than into huge standing armies and vast implements of war.
Governor Dewey continued:
But the war came just two years later. It was in January of 1940 that I publicly called for a two-ocean navy for the defense of America. It was that statement of mine which Mr. Roosevelt called, and I quote his words, “Just plain dumb.”
‘Indispensable man’
Then, Governor Dewey took up the issue of the “indispensable man.” He pointed out that neither Senator Harry S. Truman nor Mayor Edward J. Kelly of Chicago has been repudiated for his statement that Mr. Roosevelt’s reelection is vital to future peace and prosperity and salvation of the nation.
Governor Dewey conceded:
The man who wants to be President for 16 years is indeed indispensable. He is indispensable to Harry Hopkins, to Madam Perkins, Harold Ickes, to a host of other political jobholders. He is indispensable to Sidney Hillman and the Political Action Committee. to Earl Browder, the ex-convict and pardoned Communist leader.
Wife’s hometown welcomes Dewey
Sapulpa, Oklahoma (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey carried his campaign into his wife’s childhood hometown today. asking Republicans and “good Democrats” to join him in a complete housecleaning of the federal government.
After a short talk at Bristow, Oklahoma, in his first stop before reaching Sapulpa, Mr. Dewey turned the spotlight on his wife, the former Francis Eileen Hutt.
A huge reception was held at the local high school, from which Mrs. Dewey was graduated as class valedictorian 20 years ago.
A crowd estimated at 25,000 persons – twice the town’s normal population – greeted the Deweys.
“You are here to do honor to the lady who is my wife,” Governor Dewey said. He thanked citizens of Sapulpa for the friendliness, the education and the love shown to his wife but said the best thing they did was “let her go to New York where I found her and have kept her ever since.”
Negroes form group for fourth term
New York (UP) –
Thirty-five Negro leaders announced today the formation of the “National Nonpartisan Committee for the Reelection of Roosevelt.” It is headed by Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune.
The committee’s statement said:
We will work and vote for those men and those measures which, irrespective of party labels, will best advance the welfare of our people.
Officers of the committee include Doxey A. Wilkerson (New York vice chairman), Ross Gragg (Detroit secretary) and William P. Harrison (Chicago treasurer). Regional vice chairmen included Arthur Huff Fauset of Pennsylvania and Bishop R. R. Wright Jr. of Ohio.
‘Cleared through Sidney’ –
PAC ‘a company union in politics,’ Thomas writes to Hillman
Tie-up of CIO group with ‘city bosses’ put it in wrong boat, he asserts
By Fred Woltman, Scripps-Howard staff writer
New York –
In an open letter to Sidney Hillman, chairman of the CIO Political Action Committee, Norman Thomas, Socialist candidate for President, today charged that PAC “is, in effect, a company union in politics,” and that the tactics “have delayed rather than advanced intelligent labor action in the political field.”
Mr. Thomas called many of the charges against the PAC “unfair and frivolous,” but, he declared:
The net result of PAC activity has been to make you one of the motley crew of bosses who control that extraordinary conglomeration of Northern city political machines and Southern bourbons, known as the Democratic Party.
Truman assailed
You, Hague, Kelly, Hannegan and the Southern bosses managed to blackmail your pet hates until by elimination you got as a possible future President of the United States that mediocrity, convict-boss Pendergast’s protégé, Harry Truman.
You got personal power, but not power enough to renominate Henry Wallace, whom Mr. Roosevelt dismissed with a character reference, and not power enough to write planks in behalf of the rights of Negroes or of labor itself, as good as even the Republicans produced.
The Socialist candidate wrote:
I emphatically oppose attacks on PAC on the irrelevant issue of the land of your birth. I applaud the idea of workers’ participation in politics.
I think it unfortunate that your present playmates, the Communists, are so influential in your organization because they have no principles except a desire for power.
‘Company union’
His main objection, however, said Mr. Thomas, “is your company unionism politics.”
You had a rare opportunity to start effective organization of the workers on behalf of some new political realignment based on principle. Instead, you chose to play along with the bosses…
In one respect, the PAC is less advanced than the American Federation of Labor. You have been very hesitant about endorsing any candidates, however well qualified, except Democrats, because, as some of your subordinates have explained, “the workers are too dumb to split their ticket.” The AFL is far less hesitant in crossing party lines in “rewarding its friends and punishing its enemies.”
What of coercion?
Mr. Thomas criticized PAC as “undemocratic in that its meetings or conventions have never been allowed to share policy but only to execute your policy.”
He went on:
You have challenged anyone to prove coercion of CIO members to support the PAC. I am not a detective and I shall not press individual cases, but I can testify that in state after state which I have visited there is among CIO workers a definite feeling that it would be very unhealthy not to support the PAC, especially if they happen to be on the CIO payroll.
Your cynicism infects your subordinates so that they can print a picture of the Chicago massacre of 1937 where workers were victims of Mayor Kelly’s police, as if it had happened under a Republican administration. That’s company unionism with a vengeance!
Future wars?
On none of “the great issues of future peace or war, of abundance or depression,” he told Mr. Hillman, “did you get any worthwhile declaration from the Democratic Party. The President, with your approval, is preparing the way for future war by underwriting with American blood the indefinite ‘Balkanization of Europe’ and by supporting the French, Dutch and British empires in the Far East.”
Pointing out that he “was not indicting PAC” for its failure to support the Socialist ticket, Mr. Thomas concluded:
…My indictment of your manipulation of the potentially useful PAC goes far deeper. It is that you have delayed the awakening of American workers by your application of the principles of company unionism to support the party of Kelly, Hague, Crump and Bilbo.
PAC denounced by Jeffers
Democracy’s, union’s death knell feared
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
William M. Jeffers, president of the Union Pacific Railroad, today denounced the CIO Political Action Committee and declared that if the PAC succeeds in its aims “the disintegration of American labor unions starts and democracy begins to crumble.”
Mr. Jeffers, former controller of the rubber industry, told the 70th annual convention of the American Bankers Association that he was speaking as a man “who has carried a union card all his working life – and still does.”
Longtime union man
He said:
I was a union man before the un-American element now dominating segments of American labor was born. The railroad brotherhoods know how and where I stand. But I say that no Political Action Committee or any group or individual is going to tell me or any upheaded American how he is going to vote or what he is going to think.
Mr. Jeffers declared that when the victorious U.S. Army comes home, the fighting men are going to insist upon coming back to a better America than when they left.
He said:
It may go hard with any individual or group who attempts to herd them in a civil non-thinking regiment or attempt to stamp them in a common mold.
Post-war business
Mr. Jeffers urged the convention to liberalize banking practices to aid little businessmen in the post-war period. It is there, he said, that the Walter Chryslers and the Henry Fords of the future will be found. He said that many post-war planners have dreams of enticing large established business institutions to new locations.
“But the mirage of big business on the dreamy horizon,” he said, “must not blind these communities to the successful little businesses now within their grasp.”
Mr. Jeffers also denounced the government’s antitrust suit against the railroads and declared that Attorney General Biddle and his assistant, Wendell Berge, “hate secured the bulk of their railroad knowledge from riding in Pullman drawing rooms paid for by taxpayers.”