Wednesday, November 22, 1944

The Charlotte News

Wednesday, November 22, 1944

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the remaining northern section of Metz had been captured to complete the taking of the city by the Third Army, primarily the 95th and 5th Divisions, with help from the 80th and 90th, making General Patton the first military commander since Attila the Hun in the fifth century to take the city by frontal attack. More than forty forts had surrounded the bastion, most heavily fortified town in Western Europe. Pushing east from Metz, the XII Corps of the Third Army pressed the Germans to within ten miles of the German frontier, just west of Saarbrucken.

On the northern flank of the front, the First Army captured Eschweiler, along the autobahn from Aachen to Berlin, 28 miles from Cologne.

The Ninth Army, slugging through extremely cold weather to the north of Aachen captured high ground overlooking Linnich and Julich on the Roer River, and fought around Fronthoven. German reports stated that a tank drive had reached Bourheim, 25 miles west of Cologne.

The British Second Army broke through the German bridgehead at Roermond on the Meuse, clearing out the German nests on the west bank, and moved to within three miles of Venlo in Holland.

To the south, the French First Army took Mulhouse and Saverne, then drove swiftly upon the Rhine, along which only three bridges remained intact in the sector south of Strasbourg. The Army then pushed through the German front in Alsace-Lorraine, advancing 22 miles from Mulhouse to Colmar, capital of Upper Alsace, placing them 19 miles from Strasbourg.

The Seventh Army was 23 miles from the French forces; its breakthrough along the northern slopes of the Vosges Mountains was so complete as to leave no German defenses intact. The 44th Division combined with French armor to advance 15 miles in 24 hours toward Strasbourg, past Fort Phalsbourg, to reach Schalback and Sieweiller, ten miles northwest of Sarrebourg, as well as entering Mittelbronn, eight miles east of Sarrebourg and five miles northwest of Saverne, from which led a pass to Strasbourg. The 100th, 103rd, and 36th Divisions fought their way as well into the cold passes of the Vosges.

German radio described fiercely violent tank battles, the worst since the invasion of France, all along the front, from Aachen to the Swiss border at Belfort, where, French reports stated, the fall of the city appeared imminent as fighting within continued.

American heavy bombers struck targets in Munich and Salzburg, Austria.

In Italy, the Polish troops of the Eighth Army had re-captured Monte Fortino, five miles southeast of Faenza. The hill position had recently been recaptured by the Nazis.

The Red Army, amid rainy weather hampering progress, had, after a six-day battle, captured Verpelet in Hungary, eight miles southwest of Eger, moving closer to Miskolc and Hatvan. There was no new word out of Budapest on the ongoing battle for that city.

In Czechoslovakia, a new offensive was begun southwest of Ungvar, 75 miles northeast of Miskolc.

The Germans in Latvia had made 40 ineffective counter-attacks in a single day below Jelgava, but the Moscow communique did not yet confirm, as claimed by the Germans, that the Soviets had launched a major new winter offensive on that front.

The B-29 raid the day before against Omura on Kyushu in the Japanese home islands was said to have resulted in the loss of two or, possibly, three of the Super-fortresses, the first time that Japanese planes had shot down any of the new behemoths of the Twentieth Air Force since their first raid on June 15. A B-29 raid on Yawata, Japan, August 20, had resulted in losses, but apparently from ground fire. No B-29's were lost over Nanking or Shanghai, the secondary targets.

The Japanese claimed that 63 B-29's had been shot down over Kyushu.

Twenty Japanese planes were shot down during the raid at Omura, with 19 others probably destroyed, and 22 damaged in the largest contingent of Japanese aircraft yet to resist one of the Super-fortress attacks.

The Japanese continued to be frustrated by the American 24th Division as reinforced by the 32nd Division in the area south of Limon on Leyte. General MacArthur stated that General Yamashita had thrown his best division of troops into the fight to defend Limon and appeared ready to sacrifice the entire division to protect Ormoc. The typhoon continued to hamper transmission of supplies to the American troops.

The 96th Division took out a strong Japanese position west of Dagami.

The Seventh Division repulsed the fourth enemy counter-attack in ten days on the south end of the American line.

American heavy bombers were now operating from airfields on Leyte.

P. G. Wodehouse, arrested in Paris on charges of collaboration with the Germans for a Berlin broadcast in 1941, was released from custody after two days on condition that he leave Paris and remain more than three miles away from the city.

Mr. Wodehouse had been arrested by the Germans in his French villa in May, 1940 at the time of the German occupation of France and had been confined for nearly a year in a German prison and an internment camp. Prior to his return to France upon release, he was permitted to roam about Berlin freely. It was in this period that he made a broadcast over Berlin radio, for which he was severely criticized in both the United States and his native Britain.

He had stated in September that his remarks in 1941 were misconstrued, that he intended only to let friends know that he was alright. His remarks were not scripted, he said, and had passed German censors.

A report came from Magdeburg in Germany that the ceremony swearing in members of the Volkssturm, or People's Army, included the statement "in memory of Adolf Hitler" or "im gedenken an Adolf Hitler". The Office of War Information had suggested that it could mean that Hitler was dead. But the report indicates that the German phrase was routinely used when Hitler was not present at an official function. The better translation therefore, in all probability, was, unfortunately, "with thoughts of Adolf Hitler".

Striking Ohio Bell workers rejected an order by the War Labor Board to return to work, leaving matters at an impasse.

It turned out apparently that the well-meaning precinct workers in Hyde Park had fibbed a little the week before on behalf of the President in the face of the Time report that he allegedly had stated on election day, when his voting machine jammed, "The goddamned thing won't work." Precinct observer Thomas Leonard, standing two feet from the President, had stated that, instead, the President had only said: "Tom, what's the matter with this thing? It doesn't work. Oh, it's all right now."

The Glendale, California, Ministerial Association, having read of the allegation, had demanded an apology to the nation and repentance by the President for his taking of the Lord's name in vain—even if the Time quote was as we print it, not as printed the previous week in The News piece, with a capital "G", and thus was subject to interpretation as the thing having been damned, for instance, by only Zeus or Apollo.

Now, it turned out, by the President's own admission, that he did cuss a little, but did not take the Lord's name in vain. What he actually said, he told a press conference, was: "Tom, the damn thing won't work." He suggested that the unknown person who had put in "god" before "damn" was a bit deaf.

The Glendale Ministerial Association promptly apologized to the President for believing that he had said such a thing as "goddamned". They called a meeting the previous night which had lasted until early on this day, the 22nd day of November, 1944. Said their official statement, "If we made a mistake in sending a wire to the President, it has at least accomplished the purpose of getting a denial from him which is better than an apology."

Which is a hell of a lot more reasonable than some lofty, idiotic officials in the State of California today, holdovers from the Neanderthalic era, who not only are deaf and dumb as fenceposts, but can neither even read the English language when you put it before their fool faces, not just once but twice, causing them to be nothing short of liars in reconstructing a record of events, unfit to serve in any capacity, save perhaps gravediggers.

Again, we stress, it is a good thing that the gentleman's name was not Charles.

On the editorial page, "Nick the Imp" discusses the shortage of cigarettes in the country and the adverse impact on the population addicted to them. There was talk of black markets. But no one in Charlotte yet had been observed to pay more than the standard price. Yet, a black market would make a handsome profit.

It would do no good to point fingers, the piece resigns itself in frustration, for the finger would inevitably have nicotine stains upon it. Everyone smoked, admits the piece. And everyone who smoked, smoked too much. It was "a dirty little custom, an expensive little vice, an overpowering little habit."

"Have one? Well, if you're sure you've got plenty."

Ha, ha, ha.

Hey, ho, the wind and the rain.

"Three in Ten" indicates that the usual North Carolina Republican turnout showed up at the polls in 1944 to cast their votes for the Republican gubernatorial candidate, about 30 percent, roughly 200,000 voters.

In the Legislature, the 100 county by county vote for the House gave the Republicans only 14 members, whereas they should have expected 36. In the Senate, where Senators were elected from districts subject to gerrymandering, the Republicans picked up three seats when they should have, by 30 percent proportion, only elected one and a half seats.

The editorial wasn't sure what the results showed. The districts were so misshapen as to dispel any notion of sportsmanship in gerrymandering by the Democrats.

"In Character" tells of the resignation of the county farm agent, after the County Commissioners had requested it. In so doing, he faced them and told them that he did not bring on the Depression nor organize the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, was simply called upon to administer it in Mecklenburg. He likewise asserted that he did not start the war and only had sought cooperation between area farmers and the war agencies. He did not start Selective Service, but faced the duty to assist farm registrants in the draft.

In its dealings with the agent, the newspaper had found him to be a man of good character, honesty, and good humor, leaving behind him nothing for which he had to apologize or be ashamed.

But it was best for someone to come into the position who would be received by farmers with an open attitude.

"Fanfarade" introduces a "fiscal sockdolager"—perhaps relating to the holy socks of which Hal Boyle reported from the German front the previous week, when the jeep driver carrying a load of fresh socks temporarily lost his bearings and wound up heading to the German front, into the unholy fusillade of Attila.

But, no, it was not so.

The piece merely tells of the national debt entering a new dimension, about to edge up against the quarter-trillion dollar mark. (Now, 67 years later, we are trying to figure a way to cut 6 trillion from the budget for the next decade, without the Bachmann Work-or-Starve Program being implemented.)

The present debt stood at $212,624,043,411.20 on November 22, 1944. It was incomprehensible, concludes the editorial. It had been at 50 billion dollars before the war. Now it was over four times that, and would be five times that before the end of fiscal year 1944-45.

What would they have said at a debt today reaching, at midnight, November 23, 2011, $15,053,648,741,935.45?

And, by the time we had written out the numbers, it had gone to $15,053,651,554,989.92.

Oh, there it goes again: $15,053,653,906,887.92.

We added over five million dollars in the space of two minutes or less.

Anyway, it is over 70 times more incomprehensible than that incomprehensible to the editors 67 years ago.

Burke Davis lived until 2006 and so saw most of that debt accumulation during his lifetime.

Maybe, the editorial was anent holy socks, after all.

Drew Pearson points out that Charles Wilson, president of GE, had a lot of industrial moguls upset with him for his indication that GE would hold the line on post-war prices for its appliances at 1942 levels, urging all of industry to do likewise while keeping wages high, meaning higher wages to compensate for reduction of hours back to a 40-hour week, to avoid post-war inflation. He also advocated that labor increase its output to maintain the pace of production. The auto industry was especially angry at Mr. Wilson's exhortations; they were seeking from OPA authority to set automobile stickers at 30 percent above 1942 prices, but might accept 20 percent.

He next tells of James Byrnes deciding to remain as War Mobilizer until the end of the war in Europe based on the urging of fellow South Carolinian Bernard Baruch. Mr. Baruch had worked through Harry Hopkins to exert influence on Mr. Byrnes. He had also talked to the President and then to Mr. Byrnes, himself. But before he got to Mr. Byrnes, as Mr. Baruch was leaving the President's office, Mr. Byrnes called the President to say that he had determined to remain on the job. He did so, with full knowledge that Mr. Baruch was on his way to see him, because, he told a friend, he did not want Mr. Baruch to be able to say that he had talked James Byrnes into staying on the job.

Samuel Grafton, in Des Moines, finds importance in the contrast between the locale of the CIO headquarters in the town, in a small brick building on the far side of the Des Moines River, and that of the headquarters for the Iowa Farm Bureau, in the Valley Bank Building at the center of town. Iowa was a farm state and the importance of farming relative to labor was thus apparent.

The labor union office existed primarily to educate the farmers to the importance of labor. The Farm Bureau understood that keeping wages high after the war was important to the farmer, so that the worker could afford to buy food. The National Farm Institute in town regularly invited speakers from labor, such as Sidney Hillman. Though heavily Republican, the farmers of Iowa supported Secretary Hull's reciprocal trade agreements, in contrast to most farmers across the country. So a healthy forum of exchange of ideas helped to formulate opinion.

Marquis Childs continues his report from the CIO convention in Chicago. The organization was expected to make permanent the Political Action Committee, begun during the 1944 campaign. It marked a new phase of American political life.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch had editorialized that PAC might come to have the same power as the Anti-Saloon League had under the direction of Wayne Wheeler in the 1920's, keeping Congress in support of Prohibition long after the country at large had turned against it.

The long term objective of PAC would be to remove barriers from the exercise of the franchise, thus steadily to increase the number of eligible voters in the country, seeking a goal of 90 million out of the 135 million population. Fifty million had voted in 1940, about 47 million in 1944.

The immediate objective would be to assure in 1946 a Congress with as many Congressmen and Senators as possible favoring international cooperation and amity with labor. With PAC studying the votes of legislators in the interim between elections, it could offset the absence in the future of a strong personality at the head of the Democratic ticket as FDR. Or, if the conservative wing of the Democratic Party should nominate someone not so friendly to labor and the Republicans were to nominate Harold Stassen, a labor proponent, the labor support might swing to the Republicans.

Hal Boyle, reporting from an American infantry division headquarters in Germany on November 16, tells of the planning at the headquarters, located within a German farmhouse, having been completed, leaving the game, for the nonce, one of waiting.

The men played chess.

Just then, the silence was broken by the approach of planes. It was a routine raid by the American Air Corps. The men ran to the windows to watch as the hundreds of planes let go their bombs along the nearby front. Then came artillery rounds from American guns. Hundreds of yards away, infantrymen crouched in foxholes awaiting the signal to advance behind the bombardment.

The men resumed their chess game while the artillery concussions continued to vibrate against the windows.

An editorial in Army Ordnance, in a few words, had said a mouthful:

There can be no doubt that military armament now stands at the threshhold of unknown vistas the ends of which seem to be limitless. Electronics, atomic energies, rockets, jet propulsion...all pave the way to realms of research formerly unknown.

Not to mention, budgets formerly unknown.

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