THE WEEK IN REVIEW
THE WEEK IN REVIEW CHATTING with White House correspondents at a regular press conference just before his third term ended, President Roosevelt said that his fourth-term strategy would be to...
...Half of the 15,600 Canadian Home Defense troops who were ordered overseas under the new draft act went AWOL from ports of embarkation and 6,300 of them are still missing...
...It was from the official Red paper, Pravda, and from Prime Minister Churchill, Shipstead recalled, that the people had learned of the "proposed butchery of Poland by Russia, the destruction of Finland's freedom, the rape of the Baltic states,- and the poker game of power politics in the Balkans...
...We can and we will achieve such a peace...
...The New Yorker told the Senate that it was his "painful duty to reveal to the Senate an alarming condition...
...Allen J. Ellender, Louisiana Democrat, bitterly denounced Great Britain for causing disunity among the United Nations by "seeking to expand her vast empire and to form blocs of nations to help her maintain her prewar world-wide domination...
...James M. Mead, New York Democrat, ordinarily an Administration stalwart...
...Total American war casualties stood at 663,859 through Jan...
...In the form in which it was scheduled to go to the House this week, the May measure would make men between the ages of 18 and 45 liable to a fine of $10,000 and imprisonment for five years 1) for leaving an essential job without draft board approval, and 2) for refusing to take an essential job at the request of the draft board, unless the registrant has a "justifiable reason...
...President, while I must accede to your decision, I cannot agree with either of you...
...Re-education...
...Figures by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson claimed that German casualties during the Nazi counter-offensive on the Western Front totaled 90,000 as compared with 52,594 American casualties, but a dispatch filed by American correspondents on that front asserted that the figure on German losses was grossly exaggerated...
...I have your letter . . . asking that I relinquish my post...
...Typical of the reaction of many a Congressman was Chairman Andrew J. May, Kentucky, Democrat, of the House Military Affairs Committee, who introduced the "work-or-go-to-jail" bill at President Roosevelt's request...
...Describing the present "colonial situation" as a mess, Ickes demanded a definite Congressional decision on whether we are to "hold on or let go...
...Last week, on the very day that he took his fourth term oath of office in a severely simple inaugural ceremony, the President bounced Jesse Jones, hard-bitten Southern Tory, from his post as Secretary of Commerce and head of the powerful Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and replaced him with former Vice President Henry A. Wallace, a man of far more liberal philosophy...
...Walter George, Georgia Democrat and chairman of the Finance Committee, introduced legislation to establish a separate loan agency and thus strip Wallace of this great power...
...The suit accused the defendants with conspiring with the foreign powers to divide the world into exclusive market areas to eliminate competition...
...Roosevelt nor the White House had asked for the priority, and that the whole affair was "a most regrettable combination of errors...
...The War Department revealed this week that the Allied Commission in Italy nas printed 1,000,000 textbooks for a re-education campaign to remove fascist doctrines from the minds of Italian children...
...Jones' letter of a reply was a sharp attack on Wallace's fitness for the post and a curt refusal to accept any ambassadorial assignment—although Jones did indicate he might be persuaded to accept a non-diplomatic job...
...Roosevelt wrote, "I hope you will think about a new post—there are several ambassadorships which are vacant—or about to be vacated...
...During the next few days," Mr...
...You state that Henry thinks he could do the greatest amount of good in the Department of Commerce, and that you consider him fully suited for the post...
...The hard-hitting Montan-an asserted that he would never vote to give the American representative to any world organization power to send this country's troops into war...
...The President's action was widely interpreted by friends of the Administration as a major move toward resurrecting its long abandoned progressivism, but the President himself ticketed the Jones dismissal and Wallace appointment as a simple political reward for a faithful servant...
...Debate On Foreign Policy In the simple inaugural service which ushered in his fourth term, President Roosevelt dedicated the remainder of his career to winning total victory on the battle-front and establishing a just and lasting peace in the world...
...Colonial Policy...
...Sen...
...Henrik Shipstead, Minnesota Republican, took the floor to criticize President Roosevelt for asserting in his message to Congress that "evil and baseless rumors" bearing the mark, "made in Germany," were being circulated against the British and the Russians...
...I make this suggestion among many other posts and I hope you will have a chance, if you think well of it, to speak to Ed Stettinius...
...Priority...
...Organized labor threw its weight into the struggle against a draft of labor, the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the Railroad Brotherhoods joining the American Federation of Labor in contending that free American labor will feed the nation's needs without compulsions and enslavement...
...Congressional leaders yielded to bitter protests from farm leaders and wrote into the pending legislation the principles of the so-called Tydings formula for deferring farm workers...
...At the Norfolk, Va., navy yard, reported by other officials to be short 4,000 essential workers, there is "excess manpower, wasted labor, hoarded labor, and enforced loafing," Mead charged...
...Atty...
...The Manpower Mess President Roosevelt cracked the whip over Congress last week, demanding immediate action on forced labor legislation, but there was a disposition in Congress to determine the facts before rubber-stamping the White House proposal...
...Sensational disclosures regarding the wasting of manpower at a time that the Administration is demanding a forced draft of labor (see above) were laid before the Senate this week by its special War Investigating Committee headed by Sen...
...This generalization by the President came in the midst of a sharp debate in the Senate over the goals of American foreign policy...
...Organized labor's worst fears—that the "work-or-go-to-jail" legislation would be used as a weapon to smash unionism—-appeared at least partly confirmed this week when the House Military Affairs Committee accepted a provision that no person drafted for forced labor be obliged to join a labor union...
...Earl Brow-der, leader of the Communists in the United States, as-» sailed the Michigan Senator's plan as a "sortie" against President Roosevelt, designed to "cancel the foundations laid at Teheran except in purely military questions...
...I'm not very strong on national service legislation myself," May told his wavering colleagues on the Committee...
...Ellen-der offered a resolution declaring it the sense of the Senate that the formation of blocs or regional groups of nations for military purposes is a menace to world peace and security...
...Only Congress, Wheeler asserted, should be permitted to make such a fateful decision...
...For you to turn over all these assets and responsibilities to a man inexperienced in business and finance will, I believe, be hard for the business and financial world to understand...
...In the days and years that are to come," he said, "we shall work for a just and durable peace as today we work and fight for a total victory in war...
...Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., hailed the Vandenberg plan as useful and courageous, and a few days later, Sen...
...Sen...
...I think we will reap a reward far beyond what we put into it if we recognize this fact, which will in turn instill a feeling of pride in the people themselves...
...With all due respect, Mr...
...AWOL...
...The average attendance in Italian schools is about 80 per cent of that before the war...
...We shall strive for perfection...
...I feel very profoundly that we should take into consideration the fact that these millions are peoples with desires, ambitions, and frustrations...
...This is the yard which is asking for 4,000 additional workers," Mead commented sarcastically...
...The workers themselves "think there are too many of them on the job," Mead asserted, revealing that a system of alarms had been installed to warn the shops when official visitors or inspectors might be on the way...
...We shall not achieve it immediately—but we still shall strive...
...The United States, he said, hasn't "thought through" the question about becoming an empire, and this has led to dissatisfaction in Puerto Rico, AJaska, and other areas...
...Tom Connally, Texas Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, came forward with a suggestion for the immediate creation of a "provisional council," backed by the weight of the United Nations, to deal with controversies which have developed or may develop before a permanent peace can be arranged...
...The President's appointment of Wallace did not go unchallenged...
...An "A" priority granted an imported bull dog belonging to Col...
...THE WEEK IN REVIEW CHATTING with White House correspondents at a regular press conference just before his third term ended, President Roosevelt said that his fourth-term strategy would be to operate just a bit left of center...
...American Communists, however, launched a propaganda assault on the Vandenberg proposal...
...Wallace sought to appease conservative opposition with a statement that the drive for full employment after the war should be financed by private enterprise and private capital as far as possible...
...Cartel Action...
...Burton K. Wheeler, Montana Democrat, entered the fray with a blistering three-hour indictment of American foreign policy...
...Arthur Vandenberg, Michigan Republican, for the signing of treaties now and the creation of Big Power machinery to keep Germany and Japan disarmed after the war, appeared to have won Administration support and Communist suspicion...
...Senate Tories opened fire on Wallace's qualifications for the management of the Federal lend-' ing agencies which have $42,000,000,000 under their control...
...so that you can give it to Henry Wallace as a reward for his support of you in the campaign...
...Finally, let me tell you that you have my full Confidence and that I am very proud of all that you have done during these past years...
...Meanwhile, the proposal submitted by Sen...
...My Full Confidence' In his letter to Jones, the Chief Executive expressed no reproach for the Southern Tory's constant resort to reactionary policies and, in fact, invited the Texas multi-millionaire to pick himself out another post in the Administration...
...A personal inspection by Committee members disclosed "idleness and loafing on a big scale," with management completely unconcerned...
...with maintaining international cartel agreements with companies in Japan, Germany, and four other foreign countries...
...Names And Notes In The News Waste...
...Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes last week summoned Congress to adopt a "coherent colonial policy...
...Elliot Roosevelt, son of the President, for a transcontinental trip by plane resulted in delaying the passage of at least four, and possibly six, servicemen last week, provoking a national uproar in the press...
...Casualties...
...Ass't...
...We may make mistakes—but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral principle...
...Wendell Berge asserted that a major reason for launching the action was the finding of evidence that General Electric is already "planning to negotiate similar agreements" for postwar division of the world market...
...The Department of Justice filed a civil suit in Newark, N. J., last week charging General Electric Co...
...This provision would result in breaking closed shop contracts in many plants...
...7, of which 143,108 were dead, according to figures released by the War and Navy Departments last week...
...Members of the President's family and official staff insisted that neither Col...
Vol. 9 • January 1945 • No. 5
