THE WEEK IN REVIEW
THE WEEK IN REVIEW ABI-PARTISAN coalition of conservative Democrats and Republicans showed last week that it was still very much in control of the U. S. Senate. After 10 days of debate that was...
...Claude Pepper, Florida Democrat, on the other hand, decried the Senate's adoption of the George Bill...
...On another front, the National Association of Manufacturers issued a report asserting that British officials have told American leaders continuation of Lend-Lease after Germany's defeat is essential to England...
...The Republican Party has a program, I am told...
...George Bill Provisions In the form in which it rode through the Senate on a final passage vote of 55 to 19, the George Bill contained these principal provisions: 1? lt extends unemployment compensation benefits to Federal war workers, but retains control with the states which are authorized to set individual rates and standards...
...The Race Sen...
...War Marriages...
...Last week Sen...
...Robert Taft, Ohio Republican, lauded defeat of the Kilgore-Murray version, which he condemned as "a rapacious grab of money and power...
...Theodore Green, Rhode Island Democrat and co-author of the Soldier Vote Act, and Army and Navy officials...
...2? It establishes an Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion to be headed by a Presidentially-appointed director who would serve for two years at a salary of $15,000 annually...
...In reply, Sen...
...These and other ridiculous prohibitions have led to a growing demand that the provision be amended or that interpretation and enforcement be made more sensible...
...The 49 votes cast against the Kilgore-Murray Bill came from both the major parties...
...Short Of Kilgore Bill Thus, in its final form, the George Bill was a far more extensive measure than it was when first introduced...
...GOP leaders were convinced that the President's trip was part of his strategy to associate himself more closely with the war in the Pacific because of (a) the increasing possibility of the war in Europe being won before Election Day, thus diluting the "don't change commanders in chief plea," and (b) the absence of as many embarrassing political problems in the Pacific theater as there appear to be in Europe...
...Robert M. La Follette, Jr., Wisconsin Progressive, were paired in opposition to the substitution of the George Bill for the Kilgore-Murray measure...
...After 10 days of debate that was always sharp and often bitter, the Senate voted 49 to 25 to kill the Kilgore-Murray Bill, and then voted 55 to 19 to pass the far more conservative George Bill for economic demobilization and reconversion...
...Names And Notes In The News Willkie Politics...
...The GOP platform reference to postwar international "peace forces" is all inclusive, embracing everything from "an editorial to a 16-inch gun," Edge said, quoting Dewey...
...New York's fretful "Little Flower," Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, abruptly ended his weekly short-wave broadcast to the Italian people last week because he feels the Allied powers are bungling the situation there...
...He permitted Gov...
...He would be given broad powers over problems of war contract settlement, recommend appropriate legislation to Congress, evaluate and report on projects affecting war mobilization, and make studies of the need for simplifying, consolidating, or eliminating war agencies...
...There were several other noteworthy developments in the field of American foreign relations last week...
...The GOP votes came from Sen...
...5. Matt Hammond, president of Detroit's UAW-CIO Local 157* who was elected president of the Michigan Commonwealth Federation at its first constitutional convention in Lansing last month, will lead the new party's first campaign by running for Congress in the 17th Michigan District...
...The President, absent on a tour of Pacific military establishments (see Page 2), remained completely aloof from the struggle, while James F. Byrnes, who as Director of the Office of War Mobilization is known as the "Assist-tant President," was reported to have worked for rejection of the Kilgore-Murray measure in favor of the bill sponsored by Sen...
...Small business would be given special consideration...
...Unless we can guarantee the fundamentals of security to the American workingman, the American farmer, and the American business man, we are doomed to a new depression that will make Mr...
...For instance, the War Department announced on one day last week that it had banned the motion pictures Wilson and Heavenly Days, the former because it was allegedly pro- and the latter because it was allegedly anti-Administration...
...Arthur Vandenberg, Michigan Republican, charged that adoption of the Kilgore-Murray Bill would destroy completely the system of state unemployment compensatiop...
...State treasuries would be reimbursed by a Federal revolving fund...
...Opposing the decisive motion to substitute were 22 Democrats and three Republicans...
...George Aiken, Vermont...
...Its first principle is to protect the vested interests of American monopoly and American big business behind a thick smokescreen of defending states' rights...
...James J. Davis, Pennsylvania Republican, and Sen...
...Foreign Policies...
...4. A poll of 50 Washington political writers by Newsweek showed that 33 believe President Roosevelt will defeat Dewey...
...Enforcement was placed in the hands of the War Department, which decided on a policy of strict and literal interpretation, so literal, in fact, that books like Charles A. Beard's The Republic and Catherine Drinker Bowen's Yankee From Olympus, a biography of the late Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, were among books denied to soldiers...
...In addition, Sen...
...Henrik Shipstead, Minnesota, and William Langer, North Dakota...
...At the same time, these correspondents, replying to the question as to "whose election do you think would be to the best interest of the country," cast 23 for Dewey, 21 for the President, and six were "undecided...
...The bill, he said, "would have placed in the hands of Government bureaus the complete regimentation of industry and labor for at least three years," and would have entailed "a rate of Government expenditure after the war which would have bankrupted the nation...
...Hotel officials in New York and other cities are considering a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages for 24 hours after receiving news that fighting has ended in Europe...
...They announced agreement on a relaxing amendment which would leave the choice of publications to be made impartially by methods devised by the Army and Navy...
...6? Authorizes the Government to lend or advance money to states for public works projects...
...The United States and Great Britain reached an accord on postwar oil policies designed to prevent peacetime disputes...
...Four days later, however, after a great deal of hysterical editorializing in the press, especially among papers which want everyone to be exposed to the movie Wilson, the Army came through with a second statement, this one asserting that the two motion pictures it had said were barred from distribution to troops were not even considered, and that no ban had been ordered...
...Thomas E. Dewey made a bid for Willkie's support by putting out a strongly internationalist interpretation of the GOP foreign policy plank...
...The investigators charged that "hoarding" by distillers was as much to blame for the shortage as any illicit actions by other segments of the public...
...Dry V-Day...
...That Army Censorship Congress appeared ready this week to correct a piece of legislation which, as a result of careless writing or overly literal interpretation, has resulted in a harsh and often stupid censorship of reading materials and movies for men in the armed services of the United States...
...The Soldier Vote Act passed last Spring contained a provision prohibiting the use of Federal funds or sponsorship in any way "calculated to influence" service men in voting in Federal elections, especially through the Army's special services, which provide reading matter and entertainment for the troops...
...Although organized labor, the National Farmers' Union, and other liberal groups were united in support of the Kilgore-Murray version of reconversion, the Roosevelt Administration itself played a curious role in the proceedings...
...Booze...
...Hoover's depression of 1929 look like a dress rehearsal," Sen...
...James Murray, Montana Democrat and co-author of the rejected measure, read into the record a newly written section which he said made doubly certain that no infringement of state systems was intended, nor would result...
...Much of the confusion appeared to have resulted from the Army's slipshod methods of dealing with reading materials and movies...
...Undersecretary of State Stettinius issued a statement asserting that no decision had been reached, and there were indications that both the British and the Administration would stall a public announcement until after the elections...
...Murray asserted...
...Taft conferred with Sen...
...Walter George, Georgia Democrat...
...Dewey has a program...
...5? Establishes a re-train and re-employment admini-stration comprising a director at $12,000 a year, and representatives of Government agencies...
...The political parade this week was highlighted by these developments: 1. Friends of Wendell L. Willkie revealed that he has been invited by President Roosevelt to a White House talk-fest on foreign policy...
...Nearly 10,000 American service men have married Australian girls and already 1,000 war brides and 200 babies have left for the United States, Australian newspapers reported last week...
...3? It creates a bi-partisan Congressional committee and a tri-partite advisory board which would consult with the President and with the mobilization director on questions of policy...
...A Senate committee which has been investigating the liquor shortage called upon the nation's distillers last week to show "good faith" by releasing more bonded whisky as a result of the current 30-day liquor holiday permitting manufacture of beverage alcohol...
...4? Prescribes contract termination procedure aimed at channelling into civilian production plants and materials not needed in prosecution of the war...
...Walter E. Edge of New Jersey to announce that he (Dewey) is determined that "any future threat to the peace of the world will be promptly stamped out by international action...
...Transportation allowances up to $200 would be permitted demobilized war workers...
...3. Republican strategists went into a huddle to discuss how to deal with President Roosevelt's recent visit to the Pacific area...
...2. Meanwhile, Gov...
...Suicides...
...Robert A. Taft, Ohio Republican who introduced the provision, has insisted that the only purpose of the amendment was to insure that the armed services did not receive too onesided a view of political developments at home...
...Indicating he was concerned about the lack of any clear-cut policy in Italy and the delays in launching a genuine policy of rehabilitation and reconstruction, La Guardia said he would not resume his radio talks "until I have something definite to say...
...There were 26 Republican and 23 Democratic votes in favor of the motion to substitute the George version for the Kilgore-Murray Bill...
...A general decline in the suicide rate in recent years, resulting from favorable economic conditions and the psychological effect of the war, was reported last week by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company...
...Only the most general outline of the plan was released...
...Still, it fell short of the Kilgore-Murray measure which would have created far more elaborate reconversion machinery, fixed uniform unemployment compensation rates as high as $35 a week, provided for Federally-financed vocational training for idle persons, and greatly increased mustering-out pay and unemployment payments to veterans...
...This action, he said, "paved the way for another depression, for billions of investor losses, more billions of lost purchasing power, and innumerable tragedies and heartaches...
...This office would direct the re-training and re-employment 6f discharged service men and war workers...
Vol. 8 • August 1944 • No. 34
