OCR Text |
Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY ROGER SHAW Campaign of 'Peace Rumors' Precedes Britain 'Blitzkrieg'; F. D. and Willkie Set for Battle : (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) "R.iacoH by Western Newspaper Union SJ Seeking John Bull's Eye. THE CAMPAIGN: Chicagoings-on This was the Democratic convention's conven-tion's lead-off message: "I (Senator Barkley) and other close friends of the President, have long known that he has no wish to be a candidate again. We know, too, that in no way whatsoever has he exerted any influence in the selection of the delegates, del-egates, or upon the opinions of delegates del-egates in this convention. "Tonight, at the specific request and authorization of the President, I am making this simple fact clear to this convention. The President Presi-dent has never had, and has not today, to-day, any desire or purpose to continue con-tinue in the office of President, to be a candidate for that office, or to be nominated by the convention for that office. He wishes in all earnestness ear-nestness and sincerity, to make it clear that all of the delegates to this convention are free to vote for any candidate. That is the message I deliver to you tonight from the President Pres-ident of the United States, by authority author-ity of his word." Some 22,500 men and women, packed into the Chicago stadium, heard the presidential message. It was a turning point, probably, in American history. For the convention conven-tion the next day nominated President Presi-dent Roosevelt for a third term. No man had ever before received this honor. A day later, Henry Wallace, secretary of agriculture, was nominated nomi-nated vice president virtually at the request of the President. The convention con-vention indicated the issues would be foreign affairs and the utilities, principally. Wendell Willkie in the meantime warned the Democrats. He said he didn't want to hear any more about the Insull scandal, and indicated that he was tired of wisecracks about public utilities. It was true that some Democrats had been whispering whis-pering at a great rate along those lines. Willkie was a bad man to try and smear, for he is peppy, peppery, pep-pery, and given to rough, biting invective. in-vective. But Willkie did agree with the Democrat Bankhead, in condemning con-demning the speculative orgies of the 1920s. Willkie said, too, that he liked to protect the investments of the people against the assaults of their governments. This all emanated emanat-ed from Willkie's vacation haunt at Colorado Springs, as did a statement state-ment that he welcomed the third term issue presented by Roosevelt. What price "party"? Wendell Willkie, Republican candidate for President, was a registered Democrat Demo-crat until two years ago. Henry A. Wallace, Democratic candidate for vice president, was a registered Republican Re-publican until four years ago. That Willkie would prefer to make the campaign on domestic issues and that President Roosevelt would keep it on the foreign issue if possible possi-ble seemed indicated in the early days of the campaign. But wise William Allen White, who in the capacity of journalist attended at-tended both conventions, declared that neither Willkie nor Roosevelt would determine the results of the final election in November. It would be Hitler, he stated. He meant, no doubt, that the repercussions of a complete Hitler victory, or vice versa, would weigh more with the American voters than the oratory of both Willkie and Roosevelt. One thing seems conclusive. The Old Guard in both the Republican and the Democratic parties were not at first satisfied with the final choices. Much may depend on how they ultimately accept the decision of their conventions. II GERMAN WAR: Rumorings There were twin rumors going the usual rounds in the' usual rialtos. One of these rumors predicted a huge mass offensive by the Germans against England. The other rumor was of peace. Hitler's "blitzkrieg" against Britain had been "set" by various "authorities" on several-days. several-days. These were wrong guesses time and again as were the "peace" guesses. 'NO BASIS': Byoir No Nazi Not everyone who is called a "communist" is one, and not everyone every-one who is called a "Nazi" agent is one. Carl Byoir, New York publicist, publi-cist, is no "Nazi" representative, says the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Investi-gation. The FBI investigated on By-oir's By-oir's request because Rep. Wright Patman one day got up in the house and sounded off against Byoir. The enmity between the two is really over another matter. Patman's "chain-store tax" bill is the source of their feud. Byoir has been directing di-recting publicity against the Pat-man Pat-man bill So, among other things, Patman called Byoir a Nazi tool. There was "no basis" to the charge, reported the FBI. CUBA LIBRE: Elections Col, Fulgencio Batista, Cuban dictator dic-tator for seven long years, beat Dr. Grau San Martin in the Cuban presidential pres-idential election. Also, six provincial provin-cial governorships, most of the mayorships, may-orships, and 24 senatorial seats were scheduled for Batista candidates. Batista had, supporting him, parties of the right, left and center. San Martin had, supporting him, more parties of the right, left and center. The communists plumped for Batista, Ba-tista, but so did some of the Cuban-ero Cuban-ero Tories. Meanwhile, Generals Camacho (government candidate) and Alma-zan Alma-zan (opposition candidate) continued to fuss and argue about the net results re-sults of the Mexican presidential election. Both appealed to the fair and tolerant President Cardenas, the "honest broker." Just the same, Camacho had it in the bag. Rome JT'ants Return The University of Rome demanded demand-ed that France give back, pronto, all the art treasures that Napoleon carted out of Italy, and set up in Paris. HOLY LAND: Bombed! Italian airplanes raided British-mandated British-mandated Palestine, and dropped 50 bombs in 20 minutes. They peppered pep-pered the Mediterranean port of Haifa, where an oil pipeline for the British navy feeds John Bull's water wa-ter monsters. It brings in petroleum petrole-um from the rich fields ' of Irak, and is considered a key spot in the empire. In the Italic aerial stab, one American oil-refiner was injured. in-jured. His name was Flannigan. Italian planes also were raiding off the Grecian coast, while Italian and British warships were skirmishing up and down the blue waters of. Mare Nostrum. But the loudesti bombs exploded on the pages of the, Italian newspapers. The above was, ancient Palestine's first experience with streamlined, modern, bellicose methodology. Spanish War ? ? The hideous Spanish civil war, 1936-39, killed more people by murder mur-der and execution than it did in actual fighting between the armies. It resulted in the clerical dictatorship dictator-ship of Generalissimo Franco, a kindly, pudgy creature on the whole. Meanwhile, a number of the exiled Spanish reds fled to Latin American Amer-ican spots like Mexico and Chile. In Mexico they made a certain amount of trouble, but in Chile they agitated actively against the fascists of Spain. Chile had a so-called Popular Popu-lar Front government, and loyalist Spain had had the same thing. The Spanish radicals felt quite at home in Santiago and Valparaiso. But Franco didn't like all this. He was touchy about his relations with Latin America, and distrusted Popular Popu-lar Fronts of all sorts. Chile had been pro-loyalist in the Spanish civil war. So Franco broke off Spanish-Chilian Spanish-Chilian diplomatic relations a bitter bit-ter family quarrel between mother and child. It was too bad, for Chile (a long strip of rocky coastline, coast-line, with only 4,000,000 people) could hardly damage Senor Franco, the friend of Herr Hitler. Meanwhile, Chile's President Pedro Aguirre banned strikes, lockouts, and other labor disturbances, and kept a cold hawkeye on the local Nazis. This was one of the things that Franco-Hitler Franco-Hitler did not like. NEXT DOOR: Canadians Every Canadian had to register, if he or she was over the tender age of 14. Failure to register means a fine of $200, and three months imprisonment. Also, there was provided pro-vided a $10 daily fine for lateness in registration. False information means another $200, and refusal to answer questions costs $100. Other "crimes" cost $50 apiece. If you lose your registration card and it may be demanded at any time it's an additional $20. Observers declared de-clared that totalitarian England, on the point of invasion, still appeared more liberal than the No. 1 dominion, domin-ion, safe by 3,000 miles. Meanwhile, Canada was not invited in-vited to the Pan-American conference confer-ence at Havana, which tended to simplify things considerably, for Canada has no exact legal standing stand-ing under international law. MANILA: Quezon, M. The little boss, Manuel Quezon, of the Philippine islands, began to talk about a semi-dictatorship way out there toward Asia. Already Senor Quezon has compulsory military service. Now he wants social restraints, re-straints, social justice, and the yield-up yield-up of property rights. He does not want the Japanese, incidentally, at any price. By 1945, the Filipinos Filipi-nos were supposed to get their complete independence, but with Nippon on the loose, things did not look so promising, and Senor Quezon was doing a bit of back-watering. Meanwhile, at Tokyo, the Japanese Japa-nese army forced out of office the comparatively liberal Yonai cabinet. Prince Konoye (father of the captain cap-tain of the Princeton golf team) was scheduled to come in, and bring with him a new semi-fascist setup. Mo wonder that Senor Quezon felt jumpy, only a couple of jumps away from that Mikadonian rising sun. The Filipinos began to realize that there was worse than your kindly old Uncle Samuel. FLYING: Atlantic 11 The civil aeronautics board, at Washington, gave permission for Export Ex-port Airlines Inc. to start a transatlantic trans-atlantic service, in competition with Pan-American Airways. The new service was to be operated between New York and Lisbon, and was set to start at a near date. The Export outfit announced that its planes and ships would be co-ordinated. Nothing Noth-ing succeeds like competition, said the aviation critics, and they pointed out (as proof) that Roosevelt had liberalized the Republican party. BALTIC: Bust-Ups The three little Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia went red, and then went Russian. They were to become federal states of the great Soviet Union, which already al-ready had approximately a dozen of these entities (they vary somewhat, and some are elaborately subdivided). subdivid-ed). In Estonia, the red vote totalled 93 per cent. Lithuania, a thoroughly Catholic country, voted 90 per cent red, just the same. |