America at war! (1941–) – Part 5

1688

Fulton hinted as successor to Hopkins

Young lawyer has Truman’s confidence

WASHINGTON (UP) – A little more than four years ago when Harry S. Truman of Missouri was appointed chairman of the Senate’s new Special War Investigating Committee, he sought a counsel who would neither “smear nor whitewash” war activities under committee scrutiny.

He asked the Justice Department to recommend a man. The Department said that Hugh Fulton, a special assistant to the Attorney General in the Criminal Division, would fill the bill.

Yesterday, Hugh Fulton was the first man to confer with President Truman as he took over the Chief Executive’s office at the White House.

New job for Fulton

Mr. Fulton spent an hour with Mr. Truman. He would not talk about it afterward, but that the meeting at such a critical hour started a strong thread of speculation running through official Washington.

The talk was that Mr. Fulton would resume his former role as a close and trusted adviser to Mr. Truman – this time in the White House instead of the Senate. There were rumors that he might become President Truman’s “Harry Hopkins.”

Before March 1941, when the “Truman Committee” was established by the Senate, Mr. Fulton and Mr. Truman had never met. But when they did, the Senator from Missouri was impressed. Mr. Fulton got the job.

Fulton not yet 37

Mr. Fulton remained with the committee until Mr. Truman resigned the chairmanship to campaign for the vice presidency last year. The chief counsel resigned at the same time but remained with Mr. Truman as his political adviser during the political campaign. Mr. Fulton then went into private law practice.

Big, boyish-looking, fair complexioned and mild-spoken, Hugh Fulton is not yet 37. He was born in North Baltimore, Ohio, May 24, 1908. Although a hefty fellow, Mr. Fulton has been ruled physically unfit for military service.

Educated at Michigan U

President Truman won national prominence as head of the Senate’s war effort investigations. But he always gave Mr. Fulton a substantial share of credit for the committee’s success.

Mr. Fulton joined the Justice Department in 1940 after serving as an executive assistant to the U.S. Attorney in New York for a year. Before that, he was in private law practice with a firm in New York. He was educated at the University of Michigan.

1689

Eden may sound Truman on early meeting of ‘Big Three’

Churchill, Stalin believed desirous of discussing situation with new premier

WASHINGTON (UP) – British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, who came here by plane for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s funeral today, may take an early opportunity to sound out President Truman on the idea of an early meeting of the new “Big Three.”

The question of a new Polish government and the rapid approach of victory in Europe are creating new problems and Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Marshal Joseph Stalin may want to survey the situation personally with their new partner.

Mr. Eden was sent here as Churchill’s personal representative at the Roosevelt funeral. Before he leaves Washington, he will talk with the new President about the role in international affairs that Mr. Roosevelt had carved out for the United States.

No change in policy

Mr. Truman has already assured his allies and the world that his foreign policies will be those of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He did so by retaining Secretary of State Edward B. Stettinius Jr., and the rest of the Roosevelt cabinet. And yesterday he formalized it by authorizing Stettinius to state: “There will be no change of purpose or break of continuity in the foreign policy of the United States government.”

That policy falls into two broad categories: (1) making certain that Nazism or Prussian militarism never again can threaten the peace of the world; (2) creating a world organization to preserve world peace and permanently outlaw the forces of aggression.

First major test

The first major test of the new administration will be at the World Security Conference in San Francisco April 25. It will mark the first time that Mr. Stettinius will be, in effect, on his own.

Mr. Truman is first to admit that he is a neophyte in the field of foreign affairs. But he will have the help of men who have been closely associated with the late President – Harry Hopkins, who served as a special Roosevelt emissary on many important occasions, and James F. Byrnes and Mr. Stettinius, who were at the recent Yalta Conference.

Mr. Roosevelt had planned to open the conference. The new President is now being urged to attend to allay any feeling that he feels less strongly about the great project.

Before the conference opens, Mr. Truman may come fact to face with a diplomatic problem that had plagued the Roosevelt administration – the Polish question. Attempts to form a new Polish government have bogged down and, barring a miracle, Poland will not be represented at San Francisco for the opening.

Many of the plans Mr. Roosevelt had for the future in foreign affairs were drafted in his historic meetings with Stalin and Churchill. It will be one of Mr. Truman’s most difficult jobs to step into that spot and carry on.

1690

Jap diplomat lauds Roosevelt

By the United Press

A former Jap diplomat in a signed editorial in one of Tokyo’s newspapers today termed the late President Roosevelt “one of the world’s great leaders” and acknowledged that the Pacific War would be fought “to a finish.”

The statement, a reversal of previous Jap propaganda which had blamed the Pacific War primarily on Mr. Roosevelt, was made by Kumatoro Honda, former Jap Ambassador to Germany and China, broadcast by Radio Tokyo. In a signed editorial in the newspaper Nippon Shimbun, Honda said:

Roosevelt has died but the design he made for world hegemony will not, I think, change… Roosevelt’s death is purely an American internal affair and will have no bearing on the war against Japan.

No matter who may succeed Roosevelt or even his successor will carry on the war to a finish with Japan.

His death is a loss of one of the world’s great leaders and in that respect, it was not without a feeling of regret that I heard the news.

1691

Truman likely to give future Cabinet chiefs increased authority

President is also expected to appoint his own men to White House circle
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

WASHINGTON – Despite invitations to the Roosevelt Cabinet to “stay on,” Washington observers foresee a new political era dawning and a time of new political stars.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is still dominant here, even in death. But this is his last appearance in Washington.

President Harry S. Truman joined today in the rites for the man who last July decided that he should have his chance to be Vice President of the United States.

Will have own men

After tomorrow, the complexion of this government will begin to change as the man from Missouri and his men take over.

There is talk already of “going back to Cabinet government.” That means a Cabinet of stronger men on the average than Mr. Roosevelt was accustomed to have around him. They would be men who would expect to participate more full, in forming the policy than the late President sometimes permitted his official councilors to do.

The unofficial Cabinet will change too, in time, and Mr. Truman will have his own men around him.

Peace stressed

Fundamental in the policies of the Truman administration as in that of Mr. Roosevelt is the determination to obtain an agreement to maintain the peace.

The new President will make his first formal declaration of policy Monday in an address before a joint session of the Congress. He will speak in the chamber of the House but his words will be directed to the people of the United States and beyond them to the world.

On Tuesday, he will address the armed services by radio with a pledge to carry on the war they have so nearly won in the West and which they are winning in the East.

Victory is first

He will accompany that pledge with a promise that this nation will take its part in seeking to maintain peace, once we get it. But licking Germany and Japan is the immediate order of business.

Already established in the executive offices of the White House, the new President will attend the funeral of his predecessor in the East Room where some 200 of the senior domestic and foreign offices and some of their immediate families will gather.

The President and perhaps his wife and daughter will travel north tonight to Hyde Park where Squire Roosevelt will be buried tomorrow morning.

Secretary aide mentioned

Among the men around Truman who will have great influence, in this new administration if they want it, is Leslie Biffle, the slight, quiet secretary of the Senate who has known the new President intimately for 10 years.

Mr. Biffle is one of the few persons in Washington with a real passion for anonymity. His long service as secretary to the Democratic majority and recently as secretary of the Senate has equipped him better than most men to keep the President informed of the temper of Congress.

There is Hugh Fulton, who was counsel to the Truman committee which investigated the administration’s conduct of the war. A boyish-looking man of about 37 years, he is already on the White House scene. Max Lowenthal was an aide in earlier investigations.

Byrnes offers services

There are Sam O’Neal. former St. Louis and Washington newspaper reporter who now is publicity director of the Democratic National Committee, and Robert E. Hannegan, the committee head.

James F. Byrnes has offered his services to the President in a private capacity. Mr. Byrnes long was Mr. Roosevelt’s most effective spokesman in the Senate.

Mr. Roosevelt placed him on the Supreme Court, then enticed him to the White House to be more active in winning the war. Mr. Byrnes resigned this month as director of the Office of War Mobilization.

More conservative

Mr. Byrnes is regarded as a “strong man.” The word is passing around Washington that the new President will want stronger men in certain positions. That there will! be Cabinet changes is assumed here almost without dissent.

Mr. Truman’s tendency to lean more to the conservative wing of the Democratic Party than did Mr. Roosevelt’s would seem to assure that.

It also is a fact that Mr. Truman concedes his lack of mastery of some matters which require executive decision. Mr. Roosevelt’s habit of acting as his own secretary of this or that when tough decisions were to be made is not one Mr. Truman is likely to adopt right away.

State Department watched

Foreign relations is a field in which he certainly is no expert. It remains to be seen, therefore, whether the team which Mr. Roosevelt placed in the State Department this year to carry out White House policies will be the team Mr. Truman will need to participate more fully in the making of policies before they have to be carried out.

There is no disposition to underrate Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, but one fact stands out.

Mr. Stettinius, a young man, is next in line of succession to the Presidency. Mr. Truman is a vigorous man who will be 61 years old next month. Even vigorous men die.

Strict party man

One of the things which endears Mr. Truman to many Democrats is that he not only is a strict party man, but a strict organization man, too.

Mr. Truman’s loyalty to his Democratic organization is as firm as that of James A. Farley, who used to be Mr. Roosevelt’s political manager.

Regular men are delighted to have an organization man in the White House. Mr. Roosevelt was not an organization man. His first exploit as a 28-year-old freshman member of the New York State Legislature was to lead a bolt against the party organization. Regular Democrats have been bemoaning Mr. Roosevelt’s party irregularity for years.

Liked in Congress

Mr. Stettinius is not an organization Democrat. either. The Democrats in Congress like Mr. Stettinius fine but they probably would be appalled at the idea of his succeeding to the party leadership.

In the more than 12 years that he was in office, Mr. Roosevelt personalized the executive departments. Around himself he gathered a little group of advisers who came and went, causing anxiety and mistrust among regular party men at every appearance Harry L. Hopkins is currently the best known of these.

Mr. Hopkins was Mr. Roosevelt’s confidante at the various international conferences in which the late President met with the leaders of other great nations. Now there is speculation that there will be another Big Three meeting soon. Mr. Hopkins probably would not be there. Mr. Byrnes would be a more likely choice.

Gets Yalta program

Some persons suggest that things have not gone so well as was expected after the Yalta Conference. If so, adjustment is in order and it might have to be made at the top. Mr. Byrnes outlined to Mr. Truman yesterday his inside slant on the Yalta meeting. He also discussed problems to be created by Germany’s imminent collapse.

It is suggested here that a meeting of the Big Three is indicated. An unchallenged fact is that Mr. Truman, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Marshal Joseph V. Stalin ultimately must decide on methods of Anglo-American-Soviet discussion of top priority matters. The question is whether Mr. Truman cares to continue the personal contact which so pleased Mr. Roosevelt.

1692

Roosevelt ‘gay until end,’ Russian-born artist says

Woman was alone with President when he complained of ‘terrific headache’

RALEIGH, North Carolina (UP) – The last impression left by Franklin D. Roosevelt on the woman portrait painter who was alone with him when he was stricken was a man who was kind, pleasant and “gay until the end.”

Mrs. Elizabeth Shoumatoff, middle-aged artist, who was sketching the late President as he worked on some papers in the “Little White House” at Warm Springs, Georgia, was on her way home to Locust Valley, New York, today.

Mrs. Shoumatoff was still shaken by the sudden collapse of the man who had been chatting cheerfully as he arranged his papers a short time before.

Friend of cousins

Mrs. Shoumatoff, a Russian-born artist, was a friend of the late President’s two cousins, Laura Delano and Margaret Suckley, who were with him at Warm Springs.

She had done a watercolor in 1943 of Mr. Roosevelt wearing his favorite Navy cape which he liked so well that he had it copied and distributed prints to close friends at his last birthday party.

She had gone to Warm Springs to sketch the President for another portrait while he relaxed at his Southern retreat. Mrs. Shoumatoff was accompanied by Nicholas “Robbins” Katzubinsky, a Russian-born photographer whom she employs to photograph in character studies persons who do not have time to pose at length for portraits.

Wrong identity

It was Katzubinsky who in the contusion following Mr. Roosevelt’s death was identified as N. Robbins and was said to be the artist with him at the time he was stricken.

But it was Mrs. Shoumatoff who was alone with the President when he complained of a “terrific headache.” He was sitting before the open fireplace. She summoned Miss Delano, who sailed one of the physicians attached to the Presidents staff. Mr. Roosevelt was unconscious when they reached his side.

“The President never looked better than he did just before he was stricken,” Mrs. Shoumatoff said. “He was such a wonderful person, and he was so gay until the end.”

1693

Roosevelt’s death means ‘end of world’ for valet

Navy steward was close to President

WASHINGTON (UP) – The happy little world, in which Chief Petty Officer Arthur Prettyman lived in quiet dignity during the last six years he served as President Roosevelt’s valet, has collapsed.

Few men were as close to the President, or as devoted, as was this Negro Navy steward.

It was PO Prettyman who carried the prostrate form of his “Chief” from the room in which he fainted to a bed in the “Little White House” at Warm Springs, Georgia. White House attendants say the President’s death was tantamount to the end of the world for PO Prettyman.

Served aboard cruiser

His happy association with the President began some years ago while he was serving aboard the cruiser USS Tuscaloosa during one of the President’s many trips out of the country. Mr. Roosevelt took a fancy to PO Prettyman and when his old valet retired, he called in PO Prettyman to serve him.

PO Prettyman retired from the Navy and went to the White House. For the last six years, he had helped the President dress, took care of his dog Fala and went with him on every trip. Mr. Roosevelt would trust no one except him to bathe Fala.

PO Prettyman carried himself with a quiet dignity. In conversation he referred to Mr. Roosevelt as “Chief.” But in addressing Mr. Roosevelt, he always said “Mr. President.”

Never talked of President

He had very little contact with members of the White House staff and, as one messenger said, “We could never get a word out of him about the President.”

After the outbreak of war, PO Prettyman was placed on active duty as a chief steward in the Navy but remained assigned to the President. The only difference was that PO Prettyman wore a gray Navy uniform.

When the President was in Washington, PO Prettyman usually went home nights to his family in Marshall, Virginia, near the capital. But if the President needed him in the evening, or at any time, he was always on hand.

1694

Tornado deaths now exceed 110

…

1695

27 Americans rule 150,000 in Frankfurt

Dog-tired officers each do work of 4
By Helen Kirkpatrick

…

1696

Roosevelt death to spur last-ditch stand by Nazis

Hitler expected to seize on event to demand just a little more resistance by followers

PARIS (UP) – A senior officer at Allied Supreme Headquarters said today that the death of President Roosevelt would encourage a German withdrawal into “national redoubts” in the northern port area or the Southern Alps.

Such a movement, in apparent preparation for a last-ditch stand, has been evident for several weeks. But it is believed that not all Nazis were convinced they would win anything from a long-drawn-out suicide stand.

It is believed that Adolf Hitler’s strategists may view the death of President Roosevelt as weakening the bond among Britain, Russia, and the United States.

Hope to escape justice

The Allied officer pointed out that Berlin repeatedly has denounced Mr. Roosevelt as the man who welded the three major Allied powers against Germany and the Nazis may feel that there is a greater chance now of a falling-out among Allied powers which would give the Nazis a chance to escape justice if they held out long enough.

Therefore, they are driving their forces at top speed, first north of a line running roughly from Emden east to Luebeck, secondly into a resistance zone running from the Black Forest of Germany to Prague, Czechoslovakia.

Kiel, former headquarters of the German Grand Fleet, would be the capital of the northern “redoubt” and Berchtesgaden, Hitler’s hideout, would be the capital of the southern.

Without commenting upon the merits of the Nazi belief of the effects of Mr. Roosevelt’s death, it obviously is the kind of occurrence which Hitler and Nazi Propaganda Minister Goebbels would seize upon as an excuse to demand just a little more resistance by their followers.

According to some observers here, in the beginning Hitler’s demand for protracted resistance was based on the claim that Nazi inventors soon would bring new weapons from their laboratories to change the face of the war and to nullify Allied superiority in manpower and weapons.

Plants smashed

As the battle of Germany roared to a climax, more and more of the laboratories and factories which might have produced a new weapon were reduced to ashes. Hitler’s weapon argument lost its punch.

At the same time, German desertions increased manyfold. Prisoners admitted their high hopes for the effect from a new weapon were shattered.

The tragedy of Mr. Roosevelt’s death gives Hitler something new to use.

“Fight a little longer,” he will say. “Soon our enemies will be quarreling with one another. Perhaps we can escape the trap. Only keep fighting.”

1697

On Luzon –
Battle-weary Yankees sent to rest camp for four days

6th Division in combat 64 straight days before officers find a relief center
By Lee G. Miller, Scripps-Howard staff writer

…

1698

British 22 miles from Bologna

Eighth Army driving eastward in Italy

…

1699

Jap counterattack fails on Okinawa

U.S. troops resume slow advance

GUAM (UP) – Troops of three Army divisions battled slowly through Southern Okinawa today after turning back a strong Jap counterattack along the Naha defense lines.

The attack was made by between 500 and 750 Japs and a large proportion of them were killed in the futile attempt to check the American drive.

Although ground artillery and heavy naval guns continued an intense pounding of the enemy positions, the troops were unable to make any substantial gains and their advances were measured in yards.

Marines gain

Marines in Northern Okinawa, however, were moving ahead on Motobu Peninsula and Ishikawa Isthmus against ineffective resistance.

A Jap communiqué claimed that suicide planes were still attacking U.S. warships around Okinawa and that an additional 12 vessels were sunk or damaged.

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz disclosed that Vice Adm. Marc A. Mitscher’s fast carrier force had destroyed 1,200 Jap planes in less than four weeks.

In the last three days alone, more than 228 planes were destroyed throughout the Ryukyu chain, of which Okinawa is the principal island.

Blast Formosa

Disclosure of these results indicated that some 2,000 Jap planes had been destroyed or damaged since March 18. The others were accounted for by British carriers, land-based Army, Navy and Marine planes and Superfortresses.

The British task force destroyed 17 enemy planes and damaged five in an attack on airdromes on Formosa Thursday. Tokyo reported that about 70 carrier planes raided Formosa again yesterday for the second straight day.

U.S. carrier planes destroyed 13 other Jap aircraft in the Northern Ryukyus yesterday and in addition sank 23 barges and small craft.

1700

75 taken off roof of train in river

…

Actress’ suicide laid to lovers’ quarrel

…

1701

Patton leads prayer

WITH THE U.S. THIRD ARMY, Germany – Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, in the absence of his chaplain, today led a one-minute silent prayer for the late President Roosevelt during a staff conference.

1702

Millett: Beauty rates in service

WACs, Marines, WAVES dress up
By Ruth Millett

…

1703

Sports pauses to mourn ‘the champ’

Most activities curtailed – few games played

…

1704

Pirate-Indian series cut to two games

By Chester L. Smith, Press sports editor

…

1705

Raise in pay refused, Cooper brothers quit Cards ‘never to return’

…

Misleading sign leads to rumor Dempsey dead

NEW YORK (UP) – A sign in the Broadway restaurant bearing his name apparently led to the circulation of rumors late yesterday that Lt. Cmdr. Jack Dempsey of the Coast Guard had been killed on Okinawa.

The sign said: “Closed on account of the death of our beloved President. – Jack Dempsey.”

Some persons apparently took that to mean that Dempsey had died.

Dempsey, former heavyweight boxing champion, recently left his Coast Guard base here for a tour of the Pacific and was last reported at Okinawa, where he witnessed the invasion of that island off Japan.

A couple dozen telephone calls were received at The Press yesterday asking about the “death” of Dempsey, so the rumor apparently spread throughout the country in a short time.

1706

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

OKINAWA (by Navy radio) – The bulk of the battle of Okinawa is being fought by the Army – my old friend, the doughfoots. This time the Marine had it easy, and by the turn of circumstance the Army is the one that has the job to do.

But my self-assignment on the Okinawa blitz was to write about the Marines and that’s what I continue to do. I landed with the Marines, crossed the island with them, and have been living with them amidst fleas, mosquitoes, goats and a few Japs, hiding under bushes. So naturally I want to tell you about them.

Marine Corps blitzes out here have all been so bitter and the Marines have performed so magnificently that I had conjured in a mental picture of a Marine that bore a close resemblance to a man from Mars. I was almost afraid of them myself.

I did find the Marines confident, but neither cocky nor smart-alecky. I found they have fears, and qualms, and hatred for war the same as anybody else. They want to go home just as badly as any soldiers I’ve ever met. I found them good, human Americans.

They are proud to be Marmes. They wouldn’t be in any other branch of the service. Yet they are not arrogant about it. And I found they have a healthy respect for the infantry.

One day we were sitting on a hillside talking about the infantry. One Marine spoke of a certain Army division – a division they had fought beside – and was singing 15 praises.

In peacetime, when the Marine Corps was a small outfit, with its campaigns highlighted, and everybody was a volunteer you could understand why Marines felt so superior.

But since the war the Marine Corps has grown into hundreds of thousands of men. It has been diluted, so to speak. Today it is an outfit of ordinary people – some big, some little, some even draftees. It has changed, in fact, until Marines look exactly like a company of soldiers in Europe.

Yet that Marine Corps spirit still remains. I never did find out what perpetuates it. They’re not necessarily better trained. They’re no better equipped and often not as well supplied as other troops. But a Marine still considers himself a better soldier than anybody else, even though nine-tenths of them don’t want to be soldiers at all.

The Marines are very cognizant of the terrible casualties they’ve taken in this Pacific War. They’re even proud of that too, in a way. Any argument among Marine units is settled by which has had the greatest casualties.

Many of them even envisioned the end of the Marine Corps at Okinawa. If the Marine divisions had been beaten up here as they were on Iwo Jima, the boys felt it would have been difficult to find enough men of Marine Corps caliber to reconstitute all the divisions.

They even had a sadly sardonic song about their approach to Okinawa, the theme of which was “Goodbye, Marines!”

So, you see, Marines don’t thirst for battles.

I’ve read and heard enough about Marines to have no doubts whatever about the things they can do when they have to. No Marine need ever apologize for anything.

The Marines are O.K. for my money, in battle or out.

1707

Stokes: Forgotten men

By Thomas L. Stokes

…