The Charlotte News
Tuesday, July 17, 1945
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Third Fleet had shelled Hitachi, industrial center for the processing of nearby mined copper, 80 miles north of Tokyo, making it the third shelling of a Japanese coastal city in four days. There was no return fire by the enemy.
It followed a day-long bombardment by 2,000 carrier planes of the Third Fleet and the British Pacific Fleet on targets in the area of Tokyo, from the largest carrier force ever assembled. It was the first combined American-British raid on Honshu.
Japan was now estimated to have less than two million tons of shipping remaining.
The 1,500 carrier aircraft during the weekend had taken out 374 enemy vessels, totaling 159,000 tons sunk or damaged, and 129 locomotives, of which 84 were destroyed.
A flight of 450 B-29's struck four Japanese cities, Hiratsuka, 34 miles southwest of Tokyo, Numaru, 55 miles southwest of Tokyo, Kuwana, twelve miles southwest of Nagoya, and Oita on Kyushu. These same four cities were reported the day before to have been hit by a similar size force of B-29's and it is not entirely clear whether the presently reported raid was the same or a different strike. The report describes the bombing raid as occurring this date and so presumably it was a distinct raid.
It was reported that Monday's raid of Mustang fighters had drawn out interceptors from the Japanese, resulting in 40 enemy planes being shot down or probably shot down. The sudden reappearance of the Japanese planes was thought to have resulted from en exhortation by Emperor Hirohito to the air force to resume active air fighting to repel the American raids.
Tokyo radio expressed the concern that the Australian troops which had been fighting in Borneo would soon be redeployed across the Makassar Straits, onto neighboring Celebes.
The 17-day newspaper strike in five major cities involving fourteen dailies ended, after the War Labor Board promised an immediate hearing on the reasons for the strike.
A cruise ship sailing from Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit on the Great Lakes caught fire, causing 350 passengers and crew to abandon ship. No one suffered serious injuries.
The Office of Defense Transportation placed all railway passenger coaches in a pool, to be available for military service, meaning that considerably less space would be available for civilian rail travel. Earlier, 650 Pullmans, in service for runs of less than 450 miles, had been removed from civilian use, and another 1,000 were expected soon to follow.
The State Department promised to investigate a report by The Chicago Times from Buenos Aires that Hitler and Eva Braun had landed on the Argentine coast by submarine and were living on an estate in Patagonia. Correspondent Vincent De Pascal stated that he was "virtually certain" of the facts of the story. The estate was one of several previously purchased by the Nazis as planned refuges for top Nazi officials in the event of loss of the war. Mr. De Pascal stated further that there were sufficient numbers of Nazi sympathizers who would jump at the chance to provide safe haven for Hitler and his wife.
In the second installment of the account by General Maurice-Gustave Gamelin, commander of French forces just prior to the fall of France in May, 1940, he responds to the question often posed to him: whether Marshal Petain interfered with his duties during his time as supreme commander. He states that Petain never directly opposed him and instead consistently approved of what he did.
Yet, he had brought General Gamelin before the tribunal in Riom, condemned in advance for the very actions which Marshal Petain had approved.
Petain, he instructs, had not been respected by Marshal Foch, one of the three chiefs of the Army during World War I, along with Marshals Joffre and Petain. He was likewise not well thought of by Joffre. While Petain had been the victor at Verdun, his demands for reinforcements had been so great that if they had been satisfied, the whole French Army would have been squandered in that one battle. The ability to seize the initiative at the Somme would have been lost. And the Somme counter-offensive had freed Verdun. Had Petain been supreme commander of the Army at the time, opines General Gamelin, the war would have been lost.
Petain was defensive minded whereas Foch and Joffre took the offensive. Petain did not like to accept responsibility and blamed subordinates when things went awry.
From 1940 onward, he was content for France to play the ostrich sticking its head in the sand. He was glad to submit to the Nazis as long as he retained power, fulfilling his large personal ambitions.
His main claim to fame was that his defensive mindedness had led him to keep down losses inevitably incurred in grand offensive strategies.
The Big Three Conference in Potsdam began in earnest this date after an initial ceremonial meeting the previous day. It was believed that the Pacific war was the major initial item on the agenda.
The Russian entourage, including Premier Stalin, came to President Truman's headquarters to meet with him and have lunch.
Secrecy was being maintained, however, on the exact progress of the meeting.
Mr. Truman wore a brown business suit and sat at the head of the table. Premier Stalin wore a fawn-colored uniform with silver-edged stars on the epaulets and sat to the President's right. Lunch consisted of creamed spinach, fried liver and bacon, smothered with pieces of baked ham, potatoes, string beans, pumpernickel bread, cookies, candies, and cigars.
No doubt, afterwards, they all had to adjourn for a nap. But that was probably top secret.
On the editorial page, "All About Traffic" finds the traffic survey for which the City had shelled out $4,000, in order to obtain Federal funds for improvement of streets, to be so far worthless. The first installment reported only on Charlotte birthrates and said nothing of streets or driving habits. The percentage of girls and women over five years of age had increased between 1940-45, said the report. That could have been determined by looking out the window, carps the piece.
The conclusion was that the city had some people who had babies, including girl babies, and who used the streets.
It expected to find out in the next installment how many people slept without the tops to their pajamas and the difference between squash and simlin.
More short-sass, no doubt.
"Cotton's Decline" comments on the State Agriculture Department report that cotton production was at its lowest acreage since 1872. But it was no cause for mourning. Rather, it signaled that farmers had at last begun to diversify crops.
Bad weather, scarcity of farm labor, and increase in production of tobacco in the eastern counties all had an impact on the cotton acreage.
But diversification was good and the land would benefit from it, as would the farmers.
"Change of Horses" discusses the newspaper strike in five cities, where recognition of the International Typographical Union by-laws in contracts with publishers was the sole issue. The ITU contended that the refusal to accept the by-laws had effectively resulted in a lock-out and was not a strike. Yet the plants had remained open and the workers were welcome to return.
It had been customary to insert the by-laws in contracts and publishers had not objected until the subjects went beyond wages, hours, and working conditions to include holiday pay, vacations, and overtime, matters usually left to the publishers and local unions to determine.
The War Labor Board had ruled that the union was placing its by-laws over the laws of the country and defying Government authority, while repudiating the no-strike pledge.
The editorial remarks that the ITU had been a respectable union through its hundred-year history and its leadership had generally been wise and reasonable. But now it appeared to be changing into something else.
The WLB was revoking several concessions and wage increases made to the union and was challenging the new leadership.
Something had to give.
The excerpt from the Congressional Record is too dim to tell who is speaking or to determine much about what is being spoken. The Congressman remarks on the feeding and clothing of Europe, and that failing to do so would leave unfed peoples who would choose communism over republican government if it meant the difference between eating and starving.
Drew Pearson reports that the Senate had found a document of Dr. F. H. Albert, chairman of the Ford Auto Works in Germany prior to the war, urging, on November 25, 1941, the Nazis to cooperate with American business, that the 52 percent of the company held by American stockholders should be used to bring all Ford companies in Europe under German influence. It was important to maintain the American interest to enable receipt of American ingenuity and production and sales know-how, as well the latest model vehicles.
Mr. Pearson notes, after setting forth the letter of Dr. Albert, that Hitler had, on July 30, 1938, decorated Henry Ford with the Order of the German Eagle, the highest award provided foreigners in Germany. Edsel Ford, at the time of the fall of France in spring, 1940, had agreed with Assistant Secretary of War Louis Johnson to manufacture airplane motors for sale to the British, but Henry Ford had canceled the order the following day.
He next turns to former Postmaster General Frank Walker, known for his fall, 1943 ban of Esquire by denying it preferential second-class postage rates based on its Vargas Girl depictions. Just before he had left office, he had provided, however, to Senator Pappy Lee O'Daniel of Texas second-class privileges for his weekly isolationist paper and refunded $50,000 in postage. It amounted to a taxpayer subsidization of the rag at the rate of $1,000 per week.
The preferential rate was supposed to be provided only for newspapers and publications which contained no political campaign literature and for which half of the subscriptions were from individuals. The Senate, the previous year, had determined that Senator O'Daniel's publication was strictly political in nature and had even recommended that the Justice Department investigate for possible prosecution under the Corrupt Practices Act for improperly obtaining the preferred rate.
Marquis Childs is much to dim to read today and so we will have to have a go at it later. Do your best. Eat some of the long sass and maybe it will come through.
It appears to have to do with a topic he had discussed previously in recent weeks, the need to encourage development of students of the sciences and medical arts, urging laws to enable Selective Service to allow deferments for students who showed such an aptitude. But as to the precise nature of his commentary this day...
Dorothy Thompson suggests that the Big Three Conference at Potsdam was of greater significance than the San Francisco Conference of April 25 through June 26. The course of world events was not determined by generalities as in the Charter, she offers, but rather by specific actions, which would likely be determined at Potsdam.
But there were uncertainties because the outcome of the July 5 British election still hung in the balance while the votes were being counted. Thus, Russia and the United States did not know whether they were dealing with a lameduck Prime Minister or whether Clement Atlee, also at the Conference, would become the new P.M. Moreover, President Truman and Secretary of State James Byrnes were unknown to both Britain and Russia. President Truman had held no preliminary conference with Mr. Churchill, as had FDR before both Tehran and Yalta.
President Truman was not his own foreign minister whereas his predecessor had been. Thus, the Russians and British would have to adapt to an entirely different role for the President in dealing with the United States. Furthermore, both Byrnes and Truman were politicans with an eye on the 1948 election. FDR was a master of molding of political opinion; his successor was not.
In the previous conferences, the primary issue had been the conduct of the war. With the war in Europe concluded, the only issues in respect of war dealt with the Pacific. Political issues were now front and center.
Samuel Grafton suggests that American policy toward Japan appeared as uncertain as had the policy toward Italy and France. He offers a contrast between the Japanese militarists, the Gumbatsu, and the industrialists, the Zaibatsu. The two groups were somewhat at odds with one another, according to observers of the culture in a pair of recent articles in The Nation.
There were those in the society who supported both the
"Such an event is simply not within its perspective, and nothing stranger could be said about the thinking that accompanies, or should accompany, a war for democracy."
Such was the news and commentary of the day, the 1,319th day of the war since the attack at Pearl Harbor at 7:50 a.m.
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