Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
Where the News Ends By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN •tf*WO YEARS have passed since the surprise J" attack on Pearl Harbor aad the German and Italian declarations of war. While the first year yt...
...But on tbe basis of the known facts of the present situation, I should consider it probable that Germany will . be knocked out some time between June and October, 1944...
...State righs, as Arthur Krock explains with sly smirks in the Time*, were preserved...
...Tanyljjf not go to Washington...
...Between 6,000,000 and 8,000,000 citizens who are out-aide their election districts could cast their votes under this arrangement...
...Yet it would be a very dangerous illusion to imagine that the rest of the war will be an easy parade to victory...
...Five of the seven Democrats on the Committee are from southern states...
...the Netherlands Indies, the Philippines, Malaya, Burma...
...but the surviving Japanese soldiers proved formidably able to kill, as well so to die, for their god-emperor...
...There is equally little sign of any crack in morale in Japan...
...He, too, read a Hat of foreign-sounding names— and quietly continued: "These, gentlemen, are the names of Assart an soldiers and sailors, who bane been decorated for heroic service to the their country " In the interest ef such men the fight still goes on...
...soldiers who face death for then- oeasny af} not be allowed to help run it Bat toesansfl politicians are pursuing a policy at sasaajr...
...For the moment we had, m the Senate chamber, the sort of sinister clique which backward-looking plotters have long hoped for as the nucleus of a hew and solidly conservative political party...
...If they succeed today, It will be'm f*fl as morrow...
...Up to the end of October the amount '• of explosives dropped on German territory in tjMfi amounted to 220,009 Jons...
...The sjsajsm and most direct way for them te ragawaT t*j will is to write or telegraph to Senate* BsMft F. Wagner, Chairman of the Senate Mpi and Currency ComoVttee With the New Year— A New 'New Leader' A New Format . . . More Features . . . A More Attractive PaperCombined In a Unique Experiment in American Journalism . . . TWs Is the Story COR some years The New Leader has been both a nsjefpytT and a magazine...
...It is easy enough for fair-minded citizens to say that this has nothing to do with the case...
...Then all prices will as^iuitsV aa* so on and so on...
...Then followed Congressman George Bender, a Democrat from Ohio...
...Most soldiers never get ballot*, rawer still fill them out and return them...
...The substitute is a piece of shameless humbug...
...Reactionaries covered their treachery with suave professions of love for fighting youth...
...Equally important with these victories on the battlefield is the definite tipping of the scales of air and naval iuperiority in iiavbr of the United Nations...
...The original measure proposed to send to soldiers, sailors, marines, seamen and civilians in overseas service a simple form of ballot that could be filled out and returned through the regular service channels...
...Japan is controlling and exploiting, subject to depletion of its merchant shipping, the* vast area., rich in raw materials, which H overran during the first few months of the war...
...While the Germans have given up some three hundred thousand square miles of Russian territory this year, their retreat has been a fighting retreat and, in the main, ah orderly retreat...
...The searing destruction that has raged most recently in Berlin and Leipzig,' formerly in Hamburg, Cologne, Essen and many other German cities, is the most drama tie expression of air . superiority...
...The little Atoll of Tawara was more heavily bombed than Berlin...
...No one can blame them...
...Every selfish Ois*fg tion of food speculators is on hand te eevajp a favorable report Speakers for all tat fJr masse* of the population sppear ia saaaawpk The two great labor federations are wa*ejM| great consumer groups, the social aetfasa Representative Mary T. Norton, ChalrwsaW the House Labor Committee reports that d* has received from 15.000 to 20.000 layoff* and only three of them in support ef tWj The people ef the country are against R. Wm know that the one of subsidies is ?keg practical way to keep prices down...
...If the fearful reactionaries succeed...
...Frankly, we were nntthag fully a newspaper nor a magazine...
...who wish to save the country WJTjWwlsy inflation...
...The heart of Japan's industrial strength ia not even within range of serious bombing...
...So states rights would be violated...
...We have a new format and a new make-up...
...This is a simple and practical way of giving the vote to fighting men...
...George Gallup estimates that among the stay-at-home citizens the Democrats get only 47^r of the votes but that among the soldiers they would come away with 6i...
...Despite the rising costs we have been one of the few journals that have not raised their subscription price...
...What seemed like a breathtaking Overturn (m the surface was evidently the result of careful' conniving behind the scenes.' Tbe Lucas-Green Bill had been debated at length and amended in detail...
...The proposal from the upper chamber is now in the hands of the House Committee on Privileges and Elections...
...r*HE Germans lost hundreds of thousands of ear* their best troops in the ruins of Stalingrad ^sjfhd on the frozen steppes around the city, and 1 the High Command he's been obliged to give Up the hope of knocking Russia out of the war and obtaining for German exploitation the agricultural and mineral wealth of the Ukraine and the oil of the Caucasus...
...If the "substitute" is accepted by the House, it will mean the burial of the whole idea...
...The .war may last fer yesav bet eventually the boys will come beams, ^ SUtSftMES BfFO*f 7m$k%Wt JAMES F. Byrnes' radio addrern'owSsawg may serve as the raUymg enAgj|yte...
...But their words were belied by their actions...
...But the "substitute" is no substitute...
...and not more than three years after the-trttshing -of Germany...
...f-JLivi iJ ,Mb K. Rankin, of Mississippi, is one ef these five...
...The "substitute" bill was passed by a vote of 42 to 87...
...EDITORIAL COMMENT Fear of the Soldier Vote IT has become clear that a lot of politicians * are afraid eg the soldier vote...
...While Japanese moderates might have been willing to accept a peace settlement that would have left the original Japanese Empire intact, the terms worked out in Cairo—to the Japanese mind—would mean national ruin, if not actual starvation' for the part of the Japanese population that "is more or less, dependent for a livelihood on Japanese industrial and commercial enterprises in Korea, Formosa and Mancheukuo...
...While some of the conservative officers doubtless dislike the Party extremists, there would be no future for them in a disarmed and subjugated Germany...
...The simple ballot forms could be shipped out well in advance, collected by officers and returned in sealed parcels...
...It puts in the place of a practical and substantial measure nothing at all...
...Now, with the magazine New Leader, we are forced to raise the pric e to Three Dollars a Year—a price ridiculously low compared to other weeklies that charge Five dollars and Seven-Fifty a year...
...Indo-China, Thailand...
...They are handled in the districts through the regular machinery...
...In the present global war, 1943 possesses much the same significance as 1863 in the American Civil War...
...But staggering transportation problems over great distances of sea and jungle must be solved before this potential can be brought to bear against the Japanese homeland...
...There will be no and at yean after the end of Ac war...
...American military potential is far superior to the Japanese...
...Bat now, we feel, we have a solution...
...It has been done—quickly and efficiently...
...The only two organised forces in Germany are the Nazi Party and the Army...
...Fighting men and women have a double right to vote...
...America's reply to Pearl' Harbor has been to build a new fleet, moref powerful and more modern than the one that was destroyed or crippled in the Japanese attack...
...The Army and Navy records would serve as registration lists...
...Moral and psychological, as well as military and industrial factors count in war...
...When the time was ripe they introduced into the Senate a.substitute measure...
...From New Zealand comes the news that in tbe recent election, soldier votes swung the pendulum toward the Labor Party side.'•'Without counting the army and navy the Laborites would have had exactly" half of "the members of Parliament...
...What reactionaries are scared of is clear...
...In reply, Ger-many 'had only beert able' to 'drop' two thousand tons on Great Britain...
...They are citizens, and they are facing death for their country, ¦ There was, in fact, no argument introduced against counting them...
...In all the long history of Congress there have been few events more disgraceful than the sudden defeat of the Lucas-Green Bill in the Senate...
...In size it will be similar to the Sunday magazine supplements of the metropolitan press...
...They may have hot opinions of certain fat and foolish fellows in Washington who have been getting in the way of the war...
...For the United Nations, Stalingrad and El Alamein (the latter quickly followed by the American landings in French North Africa) were comparable in importance with Gettysburg and the capture of Vicksburg by the Union armies in July, 1863...
...EI AJamein and its sequel, the occupation of the whole of North Africa, the conquest of Sicily, Southern Italy, Sardinia and Corsica, opened the vital sea artery of the Mediterranean for the United Nations and destroyed the hope, which Germany and Japan might have cherished in the summer of 1942, of a rendezvous Bomewhere in India or in the Mfiddle East...
...The flower of thev Con-federate Army was decimated at Gettysburg, and the hope of bringing the war to an end -by a successful invasion of the North was dashed...
...It should have nothing to do with it...
...At this time next year I Hall return to this prediction and try to explain why it went wrong if, as is quite probable, this proves to be the case...
...In a state like New York where we count voters by the millions we never get mere than a few thousand soldier votes...
...Some of the fiercest battles in the Civil War were fought after Gettysburg and the outlook was so gloomy for the North in the spring and early summer of 1864 that Lincoln considered his re-cleetjon improbable...
...Not an inch of territory that belonged to the original Japanese Empire has been taken, although our Navy may have attacked the Mar-shalls, easternmost of the Japanese Pacific islands, before this appears in print...
...GERMANY and Japan still possess powerful, ^* well-disciplined, well-organized war machines...
...White and black southerners might get the astern thai they have a right te vote...
...Read the special offer in the adjoining box...
...The counting would be under the supervision of a top board made up of two Democrats and two Republicans...
...The weakest of the Axis powers, Fascist Italy, has been almost literally broken in pieces...
...The majority was achieved by a combination of Republican and Democratic reactionaries—the Democrats, of course, hailing from the South...
...Ballots are sent when nomination* are complete...
...It has bean a vigorous fighting n ?wspaper ea the vital issues of labor's rights and a more democratic America.-^ Aad in its feature pages it has presented stimulating and thoughtful air* ticks by America's leading liberal spokesmen...
...We are broadening our news coverage to provide a comprehensive survey of the week's events: we are enlarging our book and feature sections-and adding new columns, including a department on La tin-American .events...
...It would work...
...Germany and Japan still possess powerful war machines...
...So' something had to be done' to keep flgbtmg men from voting...
...All through the debate the poll tax asen from the South played a prominent part Payment of such a tax as an electoral requirement could not, ef Bourse, be required of soldiers and sailors far from home...
...And—if one wishes to be realistic and tries to place oneself for the moment in the position of an average German or Japanese, not a fanatical Nazi or military officer—it must be recognized that the demand for unconditional surrender is calculated to inspire a last-ditch spirit of resistance...
...All they can reasonably hope to accomplish now is to wear down the United Nations by prolonged defensive operations...
...But the time has passed when Hitler and the Japanese militarists could seriously hope to win the war...
...Whether it can succeed there still remains questionable...
...It witnessed the completion and development of two turning-point battles in a Struggle that is almost too vast to be decided by battles in the old-fashlones conventional sense of the term...
...sent in letters in favor of it They were, of course, foreign names, in some cases Jewish names...
...One can find strategic parallels between these events...
...r"" In its news columns it has uncovered and printed news stories that the commercial press avoids: revelations of cartel machinations, disclosures of fascist activity, exposes of Communist maneuvers, stories of racial discrimination...
...ft*Fj(tfjf aaek lees than they paid for thoarsanffe Every holder of a social security sanftet...
...It is represented in the House...
...The surrender of Vicksburg 6pened the Mississippi to Union vessels and cut the Confederacy into two separate parts...
...That would be bad for blimpy and pompous politicians...
...Tbe Director of War ItsbJan^afss soberly explained how a spiral n»*g| Tj* Brute hill, 'which is sot before w#9ftflh provides for the ending of sufasiey fBfhnsaB after January 1. If this measure is asa*** by the Senate, food prices wffi uassasUsalT jump...
...If Congress finally pasaas Has aeswri, everyone except profiteers wail be laeaest tk soldiers will be cWted they wttl V* earn § debased coin...
...The amount of submarine destruction and the ratio of, sunk and damaged vessels to the quantity of new ship construction have declined enormously...
...Tell Your Friends about the new New Loader...
...While the first year yt America's participation in global war was marked ,by severe defeats and loas of much rich (md valuable territory in the Far East and by holding operations in Europe and Africa, with the mastery of the Atlantic seriously disputed by German submarines, the second year of conflict has been marked by an almost unbroken *eries>of rictorlea...
...f. For a long time, though, we have felt that the two sides of The New Leader's activity were not sufficiently integrated...
...op be chanted He pays now in good Sseauypt he win imiai his benefits later ea Of and fighting forces will be cheated...
...The living standard ef that families will go down while they aje |sjbh»j te preserve our way of life ^BfBjMMP of war bonds will be cheated...
...The other day before his assembled colleagues he denounced the Lucas-Green Bill and all who supported it To drive home his ooint he read and spelled out the names of some who haw...
...In spite of distance and certain urgent business engagements having to do with Japs and Germans, the fellows in the foxholes probably have a pretty good idea of what is going on...
...Bnt ia its conception and arrangement it differs from any other publication in the country, as the present-size New Leader is different...
...So the substitute preserves all state limitations—and Arthur Krock feels good...
...Oar size did not permit enough flexibility...
...Then, within a few minutes, a substitute of exactly opposite' purpose and effect was accepted...
...Workers will have to haw .Utter wages...
...The soldiers and sailors gave them five additional members, a dear working majority...
...XflW are giving everything in order that a* im preserve a safe, decent and demoeratis wjna If we go waUcwing into a time of 1sfl*«ig flat ion, no one would dare prophesy ajng UJP of social and political situation we may flpa Inflation is one ef the reads to poverty, fa-employment and fasc-.sm j ni As we go to press the Senate Baalraat;j|p Currency Committee is conducting Bearhaara) the anti-subsidy Dill...
...This combination auras ad ad in the Senate...
...The deadline for subscriptions at the old rate is January 1. If yon are a subscriber now you can get year next year's New Leader at the old rate...
...Whether thaw v*g» win be heard remains to be seen...
...while the military downfall of Japan will probably occur not less than one yea...
...We know from New York State experience how few soldiers vote under the slew and over-careful rules of the states...
...So the United fisnjfjsg -vf-tory ;w« MfMay come about only as % result of a military knockout, unassisted by any internal explosions in Germany or Japan, although the subjugated peoples of Europe are already giving some help to" the United Nations and will doubtless give more as the German military eclipse becomes more evident...
...That is why powerful forces are against it...
...But all this costs money, and rising costs have hit as as sharply- as any other publication...
...The present balance of naval strength as between the United States and Japan is summarized In the following figures r ¦ ' ¦ United State* Japan Battleships- 21-22 10-11 Regular carriers- 15-16 7-9 CjQuisers —-.49-55 30-36 destroyers_.300-320 70-80 . Submarines _—-465-tlo 80-90 v|S ope considers that American Shipbuilding and aircraft construction facilities are far greater than Japanese, that America is technically more advanced than Japan, that the British Navy and Air Force will be available for use against Japan after the defeat of Hitler, the long-range statistical odds against Japan...
...It provides simply that this matter of giving votes to '•' ¦ *'•.:'iti- ___.________x fighters be left to the states...
...Prediction is proverbially risky...
Vol. 26 • December 1943 • No. 50
