America at war! (1941–) – Part 5

1634

British fear blow to security plans

Cabinet called – Eden to attend funeral

LONDON (UP) – Prime Minister Churchill called the British cabinet into special session today to consider the effect of President Roosevelt’s death, which many diplomats feared might have grave repercussions on world security plans.

Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden was named to represent the British government at Mr. Roosevelt’s funeral.

Mr. Churchill and King George led the British in paying tribute to Mr. Roosevelt. For the first time in history the House of Commons adjourned in observance of the death of an American President.

Eight-minute meeting

Commons met for eight minutes, heard Mr. Churchill speak briefly but feelingly, and adjourned. When it reconvenes next Tuesday, Mr. Churchill is expected to offer a traditional motion expressing sympathy to the King on the death of “his cousin” – the time-honored designation of the head of a great and friendly state.

Amid the mourning for Mr. Roosevelt, the realization persisted that the “Big Three” is dead with him. Diplomats felt that the peculiar personal type of negotiations of the Roosevelt-Churchill-Stalin triumvirate had passed away.

Whitehall and Allied government offices in London were filled with wonder at what would happen now.

Truman almost unknown

President Truman is virtually unknown in Britain. There was a fear born of uncertainty that he might be unable to get world security organization proposals through the U.S. Senate.

As one Allied government diplomat put it, “Everybody here rejoiced when Mr. Roosevelt was reelected, because we felt we knew what American policy would be for the next four years. But now we are confused.”

A high official of the Polish Foreign Office called the United Press today and asked, “Who will be the real power behind American foreign policy now?”

Mr. Churchill told Commons that Mr. Roosevelt’s “friendship for the cause of freedom and for the causes of the weak and poor won him immortal renown.”

Earlier, Mr. Churchill had cabled Mrs. Roosevelt that the President’s death was a “loss to the British nation and the cause of freedom in every land.”

King sends cable

King George cabled Mrs. Roosevelt that he and Queen Elizabeth were “deeply grieved and shocked” by news of the President’s death.

The British royal court suspended all activities for one week.

All the morning newspapers carried front-page editorials praising Mr. Roosevelt. Special editions were rushed to the streets at 1 a.m.

In Red Cross Clubs, public announcements were made – most of them twice, because nobody believed it the first time.

Telegram to Truman

King George sent a telegram to President Truman saying that his sorrow “will be shared by all my peoples who have long since felt that under President Roosevelt’s wise and understanding leadership problems of war and of the peace that is to follow were in the hands of one who had proved himself, in so signal a manner, to have at heart the welfare of mankind.”

It is especially grievous that at this moment, when forces of the Allies are bringing to a close the evil which has for so long overshadowed the continent of Europe, the knowledge and wise counsel of President Roosevelt should be taken from us…

1635

Stamp collector role retained by Roosevelt

WARM SPRINGS, Georgia (UP) – President Roosevelt was an enthusiastic stamp collector to the end.

White House Secretary William D. Hassett said the last direction he received from Mr. Roosevelt yesterday morning concerned the purchase of some stamps for his collection.

The President told Mr. Bassett he wanted to buy some of the San Francisco United Nations Conference commemorative issue which goes on sale April 25. And the President said he wanted to buy them from the San Francisco postmaster.

Medal of Honor urged for Roosevelt

DETROIT (UP) – Congressional bestowal of the Medal of Honor to the late Franklin D. Roosevelt was proposed editorially today by the Detroit News.

The News said:

He was as truly a war casualty as any man who stepped into a withering fire at Iwo or the beaches of Anzio or Normandy. And let us here, in all reverence, propose that the Congress of the United States vote him posthumously the highest award for valor in its gift, the Medal of Honor.

1636

Submarines sink 15 new Jap ships

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Superfortress raid reported by Tokyo

By the United Press

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1637

Reds in action with Third Army

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1638

81 seamen missing in ship collision

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1639

Simms43

Simms: Other nations to feel loss of Roosevelt

Was best known of U.S. Presidents
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor

WASHINGTON – The impact of President Roosevelt’s death on the governments and peoples of foreign lands will be scarcely less shocking than it was here at home. Abroad, he was known as no other American President ever was.

This is not only because he served more than three terms. It is because, long before World War II, he took his stand against Hitler and the Nazi-Fascist gang and called on America and the world to “quarantine” aggressor nations.

Throughout the Western Hemisphere, Mr. Roosevelt’s name stands for the Good Neighbor Policy. It is inextricably associated with the Atlantic Charter, today the beacon light of small nations everywhere. And his Four Freedoms have been translated into every tongue.

British favored him

In England, prior toa the last elections, I found the British government and the people alike overwhelmingly for Mr. Roosevelt. They had nothing against Gov. Thomas E. Dewey or the Republican Party. They were for Mr. Roosevelt, they told me, because they felt they knew him and liked him.

That was a typical bit of British understatement, however. For, to the British, Mr. Roosevelt was America. Somehow to them he was pretty much the whole war effort.

Hadn’t he aided Britain long before the shooting began at Pearl Harbor? Hadn’t he sent American weapons to England after Dunkirk? Hadn’t he traded 50 destroyers to Britain in exchange for some bases in the Atlantic?

Lend-Lease cited

To the British, Mr. Roosevelt was also Lend-Lease. He was the American Army, the American Navy and the American Air Force. They knew that to him, this war was not an American war, a British war, a Soviet war or a Chinese war, but a vast global conflict in which only two armies are at grips: The Allied army and the army of the enemies of mankind.

And they knew that Mr. Roosevelt had only one aim and that was to utilize all Allied men and ships and gun and tanks, planes, money, food and equipment wherever it would do the most good. Mr. Roosevelt made America “the arsenal of democracy” – another phrase with which his name will go down in the histories of foreign countries.

Wonder about changes

And what Mr. Roosevelt was to the British, he was to most other peoples the world over – except those of enemy countries. So, his sudden passing will not only be a tremendous shock to them but to their capitals as well. They will all be wondering what, if any, material changes will be made in his policies.

None of the Allies, of course, has any doubt that the United States will remain in the war to the very last. Or that it will continue to back the Dumbarton Oaks plan for international security after the war. One of President Truman’s first acts, after being sworn in, was to confirm that the San Francisco Conference would be held as scheduled, April 25.

But an American President, foreign capitals know, wields more power than any other one man on earth. And no two men are exactly like. They cannot help being anxious, therefore, to know whether the new man in the White House will put on the brakes a little, or go farther and faster along the road traveled by his predecessor.

Met with leaders

Moreover, in the international field there are bound to be many things – some perhaps of grave importance – about which the late President knew but which no other American does, at least not in such detail.

The first of our Presidents to make extensive journeys abroad in his official capacity, Mr. Roosevelt met again and again with Prime Minister Churchill, Marshal Stalin, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Gen. de Gaulle and other world figures.

Together they discussed affairs of state and reached understandings even involving the future peace. Because of the war, much of this necessarily was carried on in the greatest secrecy. It will be difficult for President Truman to pick up and carry on.

1640

Perkins: Murray, Hillman are told at their press conference

CIO president resumes statement about PAC and then tells of the ‘very bad news’
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

WASHINGTON – CIO President Philip Murray and Sidney Hillman, the labor leaders generally credited with mobilizing the margin of votes that won Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fourth election, were holding a press conference when news of the President’s death came.

They were completing an explanation of expansion and intensification of the CIO Political Action Committee work.

Several men entered Mr. Murray’s office. Among them were youthful “Jim” Carey, CIO secretary-treasurer, and C B. “Beany” Baldwin, former aide to Henry A. Wallace and now CIO-PAC manager. They whispered to Mr. Murray.

Fails to change expression

Nothing in the CIO president’s usually serious face indicated he had just heard of an event which must have affected him deeply.

He resumed his explanation of the CIO-PAC announcement.

Then he said, “Some very bad news has just come to me, some very bad news. It is that the President is dead.”

The press conference quickly broke up. Reporters asked Mr. Hillman for a comment.

Withholds comment

“No, no,” he pleaded. “Not now, please.”

His grief was obvious.

The main item of the CIO-PAC expansion program, as adopted by the CIO Executive Board, provides for establishment of Political Action Committees by each state and city industrial council. Thus, the organization is pointed toward activity in municipal and state, as well as congressional and presidential, contests.

1641

Eisenhower orders 30-day G.I. mourning

All flags in France at half-staff

PARIS (UP) – Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered a 30-day mourning period for U.S. troops throughout the European Theater today in memory of President Roosevelt.

Gen. Eisenhower flashed back the order to Supreme Headquarters from the front, where he was conferring with his generals on the final phases of the Battle of Germany.

The battle was drawing to the end long ago envisioned by President Roosevelt. And it was under the direction of the man he picked to be supreme commander on the Western Front.

News spreads rapidly

Word of the death of the President spread rapidly through Supreme Headquarters and Paris, leaving sadness and grief in its wake.

Gen. Charles de Gaulle, Provisional President of France, cabled President Truman that the French government learned of Mr. Roosevelt’s death with “great emotion and deep sadness.”

He ordered flags lowered to half-staff throughout France.

In the cabarets, at the Red Cross Rainbow Corner and along the boulevards swarming with khaki the reaction was heartfelt.

Band silenced

At fashionable Ciro’s, the band was silenced and the leader read a brief announcement of Mr. Roosevelt’s death. All Allied troops left immediately.

A tank brigade sergeant on furlough tried to get through to his commanding officer to arrange to return to the front.

“I voted for him four times for President,” he said. “Since I can’t vote for him a fifth time, the least I can do is to go back up there and fight for him.”

At the Scube Hotel, headquarters of war correspondents assigned to Supreme Headquarters, a klaxon sounded three blasts – the signal reserved for major announcements. Then an officer read a United Press flash reporting the death.

‘He was a real guy’

Dumbfounded, sad-eyed American soldiers clustered about the radio in the Rainbow Corner’s big reception hall seeking further details.

Cpl. Joseph Koval of Boonton, New Jersey, was closest to the radio when the first flash was broadcast.

He leaped from his chair and screamed, “Good God, the President’s dead!”

“He was a real guy,” Sgt. Larry Buzin of Elizabeth, New Jersey, said. “We never had a guy like him.”

1642

Three columns close on Spezia

Yanks, partisans near Italian sea base

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1643

Bohol invaded in Philippines

Yanks attack last big Philippine isle

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1644

Phones jammed

WASHINGTON – The announcement of President Roosevelt’s death flooded the Washington Telephone Company with the greatest “sudden peak” load of calls in recent years. Both local and long-distance circuits were swamped.

1645

Latin America decrees mourning

Government building flags at half-mast
By the United Press

The death of President Roosevelt was mourned through Latin America today.

Official periods of mourning were decreed, business and schools closed in cities and flags on government buildings were flown at half-mast.

In Brazil, President Getulio Vargas ordered three days of official mourning beginning today.

National mourning was decreed in Argentina by President Edelmiro Farrell and a funeral service was planned in the Buenos Aires cathedral.

Embassy flags lowered

The Cuban cabinet ordered three days of mourning beginning today.

Peru’s President Manuel Prado and Foreign Minister Manuel Gallagher cabled condolences to President Harry Truman and Secretary of State Edward Stettinius.

Banks and stores closed at Managua, Nicaragua, when the large flag on the U.S. Embassy building was lowered to half-mast, confirming reports of the death. The government declared eight days of mourning.

Play religious music

Radio stations in Chile went silent or played solemn religious music last night following news of the death.

In San Juan, Puerto Rico, nightclubs and public entertainment closed for the weekend in respect to the memory of President Roosevelt.

Dutch Guiana flags were lowered in Paramaribo to half-mast today.

In Caracas, Venezuela, the semi-official newspaper El Tiempo declared in an extra edition last night that “the greatest champion of democracy is dead.”

1646

Truman friends in two groups

War pals, party workers are cronies

WASHINGTON (UP) – The “Men Closest to the President” at the start of the Truman administration fall into two principal categories – cronies of World War I and old-line Democratic Party workers.

If the new President decides to make many changes in the White House official family – and he may not because of the war – the men whom he picks to help him guide the nation’s destiny probably will come from among those two groups.

Politically, President Truman is 100 percent a Democratic Party man.

War buddies are closest

Personally, he has many friends but those of whom he speaks with the greatest affection are the men with whom he served im the last war.

One of them, Col. Harry Vaughn, is probably the closest friend of them all. Col. Vaughn, who also is a veteran of the present war, has been military aide to Mr. Truman since he became Vice President last January.

Mr. Truman keeps up an active correspondence with many of the others. One of his proudest possessions is a dog-eared black notebook in which he keeps the names and addresses of those friends. He says that it lists every surviving member of the field artillery battery which he commanded “and I can tell you a story about every one of them by just glancing through and picking out the names.”

Hannegan is pal

His devotion to the Democratic Party stems from his introduction to politics as a young member of the Pendergast machine in Kansas City more than 20 years ago.

Probably his closest friend within the party is Democratic National Chairman Robert E. Hannegan, who engineered his nomination to the vice presidency at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last July.

Although the presidency carries with it leadership of the party, Mr. Truman can be expected to leave the purely political matters in the hands of men like Bob Hannegan and Sam Wear, Democratic State Chairman of Missouri.

Within the party, his closest friends include New Dealers and old-line conservatives alike. The conservatives are in a majority.

1647

Tornadoes kill 81 in Oklahoma

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1648

Woman who stole from boss sentenced

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1649

Monahan: Rosaline Russell in role of author

Jack Carson her husband in film version of Roughly Speaking
By Kaspar Monahan

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1650

Pacific Fleet plans memorial services

GUAM (UP) – The officers and men of the U.S. Pacific Fleet will pay a wartime tribute to their late Commander-in-Chief.

Memorial services will be held on all ships and stations, where war conditions permit, on the day of the President’s funeral. Colors will fly at half-mast for 30 days. But mourning badges will not be worn nor salutes fired because of the war.

1651

Stokes: Superlative job

By Thomas L. Stokes

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1652

Othman: The White House

By Fred Othman

WASHINGTON – As word of President Roosevelt’s death spread through Washington, hundreds of people gathered bareheaded on Pennsylvania Avenue to stare silently through the dusk at the tulip-bordered White House across the street.

Seven big limousines were parked helter-skelter under the portico, where the paint was scabrous, because the President had ruled no redecorating would be done during the war.

Sad-faced Secret Service agents and uniformed police patrolled the grounds, whio;le a constant stream of disbelieving newspapers reports, photographers, and newsreel men besieged the executive offices.

The cameramen gathered on the freshly-green lawns waiting to photograph Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone, who hurried to the White House to sweat in Vice President Harry S. Truman as the Chief Executive.

Inside the office, a drawn-faced Steve Early – close friend and longtime presidential secretary – told the press of Mr. Truman’s immediate plans. With deep circles under his eyes, and his loud-splashed tie askew. Early told how Mr. Truman hoped “to carry on.”

Press room a madhouse

Mr. Early was so distraught that he talked as though he were dictating to his secretary, saying “period” and “comma” as he went along.

The White House press room, meantime, was a madhouse. A dozen phones rang at once, while others were busy as reporters dictated descriptions of the White House and its occupants.

Startled stenographers in the White House executive wing did not, themselves, learn of the President’s death until many minutes after it had been flashed by the news services to newspapers and radio stations.

Slowly it sank in. The hints of tears began to show in the eyes of men and women alike.

A United Press reporter, the fist to reach the White House as the news was being telephoned to press offices, asked the women in Press Secretary Jonathan Daniels’ office for details.

“We don’t know what has happened,” one of them sobbed. “We just don’t know what has happened.”

A dozen telephones rang steadily as the inquiries poured in.

Policeman gives press a jolt

Movie cameramen climbed up on the shining surface of the great, round mahogany table in the main lobby, lit their portable klieg lights, and photographed the only thing to photograph – the hoard of perspiring reporters jammed around the door to the cabinet room.

The radio networks set up their microphones. The moviemen strewed their machinery through the public rooms.

“Gentlemen, please,” cried a White House usher as a maze of cable and storage batteries were strewn across the black-and-white checked marble floors.

The secretary called out representatives of the three press associations to witness the swearing in of the new President. The other reporters, by now numbering perhaps 200, jammed chest-to-back in the corridors, straining to see. But they couldn’t see anything.

The cabinet members paced out slowly into the halls, perspiring in the intense heat.

The uniformed policeman on the door gave the press something of a mental jolt when he said: “The President has gone to the Main House with Mrs. Truman.”

1653

Maj. Williams: Production record

By Maj. Al Williams

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