The Charlotte News
Wednesday, February 14, 1945
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Canadian First Army troops, including British, Scotch, and Welsh troops under the command of General Henry Crerar, repulsed six German counter-attacks to advance beyond the Siegfried Line, turning its northern flank west of the Rhine, the Welsh unit moving into Asperberg to within 1.5 miles of Goch, others toward Calcar and Moyland, three miles northwest of Goch and 18 miles from Wesel. The forces captured Bedburg and Hasselt east of Kleve, outflanking Goch. Kellen and Greithausen also were taken. The Army advanced up to two miles through mud and icy waters of the flooded Rhine northeast of Kleve. The Scots were said to have attacked with "
The Nazis appeared to be retreating to positions between the Rhine and the Meuse. The capture of Goch by the Allies, after crossing the Niers, would place them in position to sweep southward between the Rhine and Meuse, taking out the German defense positions.
More than 2,250 American planes, 1,350 of which were heavy bombers, struck Dresden in the first 24 hours of major raids on that doomed city; the RAF had left the city burning the night before in two attack waves, three hours apart, by 800 heavy bombers, dropping 2,200 tons of bombs. Dresden was 68 miles from advancing Russian troops of Marshal Ivan Konev's First Ukrainian Army. Dresden controlled railroads to Berlin, Prague, Vienna, and Breslau, and thus was a strategic target to enable the smooth advance of the Russians.
It was believed that the raid was directly ordered from the Big Three Conference.
Also hit were Chemnitz, 35 miles southwest of Dresden, and Magdeburg, 70 miles west of Berlin. Another raid flew in support of the Canadian First Army, hitting in the area of Wesel.
The notion has been advanced by revisionists, as with the revisionists who seek to moralize over the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan in August, whether it was truly necessary to destroy Dresden so close to the end of the European war.
The problem with that 20-20 sentimental hindsight is that, as with the atomic bombs, no one knew how long the Axis was prepared to hold out, appearances being that they were set to fight to the bitter end, if need be, to the point of Armageddon--which, had the Nazis developed the atomic bomb first, as they might have otherwise, it might have been. In aid of the Russian assault on Berlin, harsh and bloody for the Nazis stiffening their resistance as the approach to the capital came closer, it was of course necessary to bomb any target which served the Reich's purpose to lengthen the war. Dresden poses no obvious exception.
It is, as with most such apologetic theories on the war in terms of conduct by the Allies, an absurdity which blinks the reality of the war as it occurred, now five and a half years in duration for the British and French, over seven and a half years for the Chinese, and over three years for the Americans, the latter suffering by this juncture the greatest proportion of losses on the Western Front and in the Pacific.
To focus on one set of Allied raids or one raid of the war, against the backdrop of the outrages to humanity committed by the Nazis and by the militarist-feudalist Japanese is an historical error of outrageous proportions. One might as well confess to being a closet Nazi or militarist-feudalist, or, at very least, not too well informed, beyond myopic, microscopic teary-eyed focus on one point to the exclusion of the whole plane, about the subject on which they profess some level of expertise.
On the Eastern Front, the First Ukrainian Army had moved to within 68 miles of Dresden by breaking through the Quels River line, supported by the Allied bombings.
The Russians continued their drive 69 miles northwest of Breslau, taking Sprottau, on the Bober River, and Neusalz on the Oder's west bank, entering Sorau, 17 miles northwest of Sprottau and 83 miles southeast of Berlin, seeking junction with the Russian forces moving from the east toward Berlin. At Neusalz, the troops of Konev were very close to those operating under Marshal Gregory Zhukov further downstream, near Crossen. Neustadtel was also taken, along with Jauer, Goldberg, and Streigau, all in the general area of Breslau, about 35 miles distant.
The forces of Marshal Konev were attempting to split Germany in two, south of Berlin, approaching the Neisse River, 50 miles south of Dresden.
The capture of Budapest the day before had freed Russian forces to join these offensives. Moscow stated that the Germans and Hungarian Axis forces had lost 159,000 troops captured or killed during the siege of Budapest, lasting 45 days.
In Manila, Japanese holdouts stubbornly refused to surrender against hopeless odds south of the Pasig, along Taft Avenue to the College Ground near Harrison Park, a mile from the bay front, the area of enemy occupation now reduced to a mere three square miles. The 37th Infantry Division captured the Masonic Temple on Taft. The enemy's ammunition appeared to be running low as they had been reduced in house to house fighting to automatic and small arms and smoke grenades, no longer using mortars.
The First Cavalry Division advanced through to Manila Bay through suburban Pasay, skirting the area besieged by the 37th.
Below Pasay, the Eleventh Airborne Division the day before captured Cavite naval base on the south shore of Manila Bay and Nichols Field, near the southern outskirts of Manila. Nelson Field was also taken.
American casualties on Luzon rose from 7,078 to 9,683, 2,102 of whom had been killed, a little over 500 more than the previous week, with 192 missing and 7,380 wounded.
American planes again bombed Corregidor and Bataan, from which no enemy fire was reported still to be emanating. But the presence of heavy guns on Corregidor required that they be fully eliminated before the harbor could be cleared of mines.
The British Minister of State, Richard K. Law, announced in Commons that as part of the agreement between the Greek Government and the EAM, general amnesty would be provided for all political crimes committed since the outset of the revolt.
Samuel Rosenman, special advisor to the President, was reported on his way to Italy by plane to meet with the President. It was believed that the President might stop off in France on the way home from Yalta. An unconfirmed report had the President's plane landing in Marseilles. It was also stated that a huge scandal might come forth should the President visit France, for the fact that he had ordered civilian relief which had not yet been implemented by the military.
A map on the page shows the location of the Curzon Line, the line to which the Russians, under the terms of agreeement concluded at Yalta by the Big Three, would be ceded territory of Poland as a buffer zone against future attacks, in exchange for which Poland would receive territory in East Prussia, eastern Germany, and possibly part of Silesia.
In New York, a seven-man military tribunal was deliberating on the cases of accused Nazi spies, William C. Colepaugh and Erich Gimpel. Defendant Colepaugh, a native of Connecticut, while admitting violation of the law of war, had contended that his mission to the United States was intended as a way to escape the grip of the Nazis, not to do their bidding. The alleged criminal acts involved passing through U.S. defense lines with alleged intent to commit espionage and sabotage by landing on the coast of Maine via U-boat. If convicted of spying by five of the seven members of the tribunal, then the men would automatically incur the death penalty.
Private Henry Weber, originally sentenced by a military tribunal in California to die for refusal to bear arms during training, having been denied non-combat duty, then having his sentence reduced to life, had, under ordinary procedures, the sentence reviewed by the Judge Advocate General in Washington, who, in accordance with policies established by the War Department, determined that the more appropriate sentence was five years, to which, then, Private Weber had his sentenced reduced.
A Federal District Court judge in Newark described the persons responsible for the cigarette shortage as "blood-sucking pirates", chiselers", and "black market racketeers", in charging a Grand Jury called to investigate the shortage. He bemoaned the fate of the working man who had to stand in line for his cigarettes or had to pay double the money to a racketeer to obtain them.
He warned the jury of attempts unduly to influence their judgment.
Whether he was smoking a little as he delivered the charge is not stated.
On the editorial page, "Blood and Death" remarks on the third murder of the new year and nine cases of shooting and cutting, all incidental to the previous weekend. Police Chief Walter Anderson believed the city's problem in violence to be more acute than other cities of comparable size, that its cause came from lax law enforcement.
The Chief wanted less drinking, gambling, adultery, and carrying of weapons, each being a stimulus to violence. There were too many armed persons on the streets, especially in black sections of the city.
The piece offers that not only more police personnel were needed, but more vigorous prosecution of violent crime. After lenient treatment by the Parole Board, it informs, convicted murderers in North Carolina received an average sentence of a little over two years.
"A Great Decision" comments that, after so many long years of the country's isolation before the war, the Yalta Conference had now committed the nation to a new offical foreign policy under which the United States would participate in the political and economic affairs of Europe, as well as of most other nations of the world. It was not unilateral: the other Allied nations would likewise have an interest in the affairs of the United States. Henceforth, the country would be a citizen of the world, not a self-sufficient entity living apart from it.
The new motto for this cohesive structure would be that a threat to democracy anywhere on the globe was a threat everywhere. Responsibility had been embraced mutually by the countries involved in the conference to uphold this vital principle to prevent another world war.
"Planners All" once again endorses the need for new building codes for better housing in the city. While the City would make the rules, the Real Estate Board would actually have the greater responsibility of seeing to it that the houses would be built.
City planning now was drawing the attention of numerous civic organizations, each having recently appeared before the new planning committee with proposals.
"Salvage Slump" points out that, while the citizens of the country had been forced during the war to practice frugality in terms of waste and consumption of materials, forced not to buy new cars for want of any, forced to ration food, shoes, clothing, etc., in varying degrees, despite fatter pocketbooks with greater buying power than at anytime since the twenties, the trend now was developing that memories were growing short and a return to profligate living seemingly on the horizon.
In North Carolina, the director of the State Salvage unit expressed frustration at North Carolinians no longer contributing tin and paper in previous quantities. Women seemed especially reluctant to salvage materials, though always ready to volunteer services.
The drive for waste fats, necessary for munitions, entailing the collection of kitchen grease and turning it in to the Government, was far behind schedule.
The excerpt from the Congressional Record finds Representative Jerry Voorhis of California speaking to the House in support of Henry Wallace. He urged that it might be said of Mr. Wallace: "God protect me from my friends. I can take care of my enemies myself." Mr. Voorhis believed that the people of the country could not understand why the hue and cry had been raised over Mr. Wallace's nomination to become Secretary of Commerce. And, consequently, the more objection was raised, the more suspect the people became that Mr. Wallace was actually fit for service.
Mr. Wallace's opposition to monopolies, suggested Mr. Voorhis, appeared consistent with traditional American positions throughout its history, from Jefferson through Theodore Roosevelt.
Mr. Murdock of Arizona interrupted to remind that George Washington also considered monopolists a bane and recommended they be hanged.
Mr. Wallace, continued Mr. Voorhis, also had favored incentive taxation, to induce constructive investment and stimulate employment.
Mr. Holifield of California interjected that Mr. Wallace had also favored more equable freight rates for the South and West versus the North and Midwest and wonders that the Southern critics of the former Vice-President appeared not to reckon with that position.
As we have previously pointed out, Mr. Voorhis would be defeated for re-election in the next Congressional race by Richard M. Nixon, who managed to convince a majority that Mr. Voorhis was a little Red. Mr. Voorhis had once worked at the Ford assembly plant in Charlotte during the 1920's.
Drew Pearson opines that the reason why the work-or-fight legislation, having passed the House and now before the Senate Military Affairs Committee, would likely not pass the Congress except in a diluted form was that maneuvering behind the scenes had produced conflict in the Army position on who would administer the program, resulting in frustration on the part of the committee, now no longer favorably disposed to the bill.
The desire by the Cabinet was to have administration of the program vested in War Mobilizer James Byrnes who would turn it over to Manpower Coordinator Paul McNutt. The House bill had provided that it would be administered by Selective Service, headed by General Lewis Hershey.
Undersecretary of War Robert Patterson, present at the meeting of the Cabinet when it discussed the matter, expressed in a letter to the committee only tepid support for the change of administration. Mr. McNutt told him that unless he wrote a stronger recommendation, he would tell the committee what he actually thought of the legislation, opposing any form of labor draft. Regardless, Undersecretary Patterson told the committee that, in fact, he and his military advisors favored General Hershey as administrator.
In consequence, several committee members, including chairman Thomas of Utah, were upset by the change of Army policy. Senator Ed Johnson of Colorado was a friend to Mr. McNutt, former Governor of Indiana, and was especially incensed by the vacillation. The committee voted to backtrack and hold hearings on the matter after it had initially approved the altered version of the bill. Many members of the committee had now lost their zeal to pass it in light of the Army's shift.
Samuel Grafton finds it hard to talk back to the experts on banking who were criticizing the July Bretton Woods agreement to establish a World Bank and International Monetary Fund. "They are experts, and the public is not; I am not, you are not, he, she or it is not."
The argument they made contended that if the United Nations set up the IMF with capitalization of nine billion dollars, then some small nations might borrow and fritter away the money, without any means to pay it back. Some of the nations might not like the principals behind the fund and deliberately squander the money, encouraged by profiteers, as the Fund would serve to maintain the value of their currencies regardless of shoddy financial performance.
The problem in their argument, however, asserts Mr. Grafton, was that, while setting forth the dangers of establishing such a fund, the critics did not provide the dangers of not setting up the fund. The danger was that, as following World War I, unstable currencies worldwide could occur from time to time, creating economic instability and eventually depression, resulting in ripe conditions for the rise of Fascism or heavy emotional appeals to nationalism among the deprived underclasses, with promises of plenty through militarism offered as inducement to reactionary revolution, as Hitler had done in the twenties during the inception of the Nazi Party movement, appealing the while with his plan for national militarism to the Junker professional military class and the industrial aristocrats, eager to make profits from a war and the accession by force or coercion to other countries' industrial infrastructure and natural resources.
While the bankers had demonstrated the risk, the public was entitled to make its decision on whether or not the greater risk lay in not undertaking this prophylactic measure against the procreation of future Hitlers and Mussolinis. In a democracy, the basic decisions, after hearing from the experts, were made by non-experts.
The World Bank, to be set up primarily to guarantee privately made loans, was not opposed by the bankers, even though the purpose was the same ultimately, to stabilize currencies. Making the loans through the World Bank meant profit; making them through the IMF to governments meant the prospect of losing the money. Profits, in the bankers' view, took precedence over the policy goal for establishing the two entities in the first place, that being monetary stabilization.
While Mr. Grafton hastens to add that he was not impugning the bankers' integrity for being desirous of a profit, it was a consideration which the public should bear in mind in reaching its decision on whether to endorse the proposal, as just urged by the President to Congress on Monday.
Marquis Childs, still in London, finds the city dirty, battered, and gray, more so than ever before, consequent of its battle scars. Yet, at night, it held a magical quality, the absence of lighting save for dim streetlamps and slitted traffic lights providing an atmosphere divorced from twentieth century conventions and associated trappings. Headlamps of cars, for the most part, remained masked. The result was a ghost city, where most carried flashlights by which to light their paths.
Mr. Childs finds it remarkable that the city had survived the two blitzes, the one of 1940-41, especially of that fall when bombing was most intense and frequent, as well as the more recent V-1 and V-2 attacks, the former having begun June 15, the latter in early September. The Germans had intended to send more V-1's but were pre-empted by the bombing and overrunning of their bases along the Pas de Calais coast. The V-1's had been especially nerve-wracking to residents for the buzzing sound just before they hit.
In the two years since he had last been in London, he reports, the damage accumulated was obvious and substantial.
On a recent night, flares had been lit in St. James Park as the bombers came home from a raid. Coming home, he said, was a longing for millions of war-weary. They had not yet had much time to consider to what it was they were coming home. It was enough for now to embrace the hope of the hearth's home fires still, in some manner, awaiting their arrival.
Hal Boyle, in Germany, tells of the buzz along the front lines among American doughboys that the German buzz-bomb, as a weapon, was a joke. Several of them had struck within an infantry sector without causing a single casualty.
The soldiers had proposed tying ropes to the trees so that they could be pulled down for the next incoming V-1, to avoid having the trees harmed by the flying bombs. Another notion was to construct aerial gas stations to provide a little extra boost for the V-1's so that they might reach rear echelons, raher than petering out prematurely as was the usual occurrence.
A S/Sgt. complained, after a V-1 exploded nearby, blowing newsprint into his face, that it was as bad as the New York subway.
German prisoners complained of the miracle weapons as well, saying that one had given chase to a Luftwaffe plane while another turned around and fell on German lines.
Mr. Boyle next informs of the American infantry unit which had, during the Battle for Brest during the summer, found a cache of German straight-edged razors, attached them as makeshift bayonets to their rifles, prompting many Germans in subsequent street fighting to surrender before the prospect of being slashed with a straight-edge. The men had regarded the refitting as a gag; the Nazis took it seriously, had trouble perceiving what manner of soldier might display this new form of bayonet, not in their guidebooks.
Another S/Sgt. had memorized the German phrase for, "Come out with your hands up or our artillery will come," leading to the surrender of dozens of fearful German soldiers, who felt more harried by American artillery than the repercussions from their commanding officers for surrendering.
A letter writer, upset by the report on February 3 of the dog poisonings on Hermitage Court in Charlotte, both dogs having now apparently died, the Pekingese being that of a neighbor of the letter writer and the other, he says, a dog belonging to a soldier killed in the service, expresses the hope that the poisoner would be found and placed in the Japanese Army as a buck private.
Well, that seems a bit extreme. It is quite appropriate to be upset about the act, but let us not be wingedly carried away with the punishment. If they only meted two years in prison for killing a human being, then it seems probably just that maybe 20 days per dog would be quite adequate, as that roughly equates to dog years, or something like that. Maybe that's 20 percent, so 4.8 months.
But, compounded times two, to run consecutively for the fact that the dogs were of two different breeds, and breeds being dissimilar, in need therefore of two different replacements adequately to recompense the families of the bereaved, dogs being more easily replaced than human beings for the fact that all of a breed, being one for all in the pack, run most decisively to being as
Ergo, be it known, by these honorable presence, that the just and right sentence of a Solomon would be 9.6 months, provided that the sentence might be remitted of its consecutive nature to a concurrent term by the fact of the culprit finding suitable replacement dogs for the bereaved and providing same at no cost to same, the party of the first part, having rightly compensated the owners thereof the dogs thus found; so done, reduced of sentence to 4.8 months, albeit with an enhancement added to the same of either sentence for the fact of especially cruel circumstances attendant the caninocides, that being poison, so rounded to 12 months on the consecutive and 6 passages of the moon's cycle on the remitted calculus. With good behavior while in lock-up, reduced, at the discretion of the parole board, to as little as thirty days, the sum total of the sentence being subject to service upon a road gang of a touring company of meistersingers or theatrical
Otherwise, with Draconian punishment, everything simply
The original author of "Ode to Blaze" weighs in again with his offerings critical of the Roosevelts and lashes back at his several critics who wrote in harsh rebuke of his previous meanderings.
He concludes:
Away with this King! whose praises you sing,
Let's get back again to saneness;
Our resources he's spent and
Squandered under lease-lent;
All done under a leadership-brainless.
Well, that again seems a little precipitous since the President had only been re-elected to his fourth term by a small landslide three months earlier.
Anyways, like, Happy late
Framed Edition
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