i?. D.-it 1) POOSVVELT^SPEECH ^ "WrC 1 A e hear that this is a ousy nifht at tne ’white House - with President Roosevelt and his advisors working hard on the presidential message to Conrress, which will be delivered on Thursday. £-t—t-he* b q , m 4-nn in <■ of —eft-e-h- eon^i*eor ton-a 1 - s. 3 Ion ^ otni e T ^ e*s-c ut tve -a 1 w a-y-s-ere oen-te t Congreso^th-t? --reg-ttlei* aga ? arr^'OTi irh^a b-a^B gf—tt»e—n-ati-'n. r An»+ this is the first time trh-e* President Congress with xkiKiixihK such a large opposition party The Republic ans, as we know, ire not far short of control. All of which gives Thursday's presidential T message anxBspKKiai special, importance. It has required more work than us>u<. l . The Presiden -fwith hiB adviaero, dori44^g ^wan--whe^ «e ‘»14 th,‘l tl,e iTan 18 tftigK-Lgjie e^-s-ton w i 1 J ^ ROOSEVELT_S?EECH - -i-p ht—ue ana And tonight is cutting night, so they say - riieTr. the nought draft ^ff^boiled down to the right length. So ^|*Mr-now President Roosevelt and his advisors, likely enough, are eliminating paragraphs and trimming phrases. Two advisors on the literary job are mentioned - 5udge Samuel I. Rosenman of New York and Robert Sherwood, the playwright. Judge Rosenman is an expert in cutting and trimming - the art of getting the oresidential wordage down to right length without changing the basic thought. He is the President’s favorite - "editor”. Playwright Sherwood is an adept at building punch lines. They do their editing and punch lining, and then the President alters phrases to suit his own style of diction. White House Secretary Steve Early stated today that the President will confer with § number of ROOSEVELT SPEECH - 3 Congressional leaders concerning the message, getting their advice phraseology. This will happen tomorrow, and then early on Thursday morning the message will be turned over to the clerical force for copying. Later in the day, the'President will take his own copy in a black loose-leaf notebook and proceed to Capitol Hill - Congress. DEMOCRATS The Democrats in the House of Representatives had a caucus today, and chose their candidate for SpeaVer, Since the Democrats have a majority in the House, though a slim one, their choice today is as good as elected*-Sprerakeas- He is the same as last year - Congressman Rayburn of Texas, renominated today. At the same time, the Democrats reelected Congressman John McCormack of Massachusetts as Majority Leader. STRIKES 7 T There seems to be an end to the strike trouble at the big Ford plant at River Rouge, where air equipment for the Army is being turned out. A late news dispatch iates that strikers began returning to work late today - this in response to an order issued by the Union, the United Automobile Workers the C.I.0. The walkout was staged by maintenance workers who objected to a reorganization of the maintenance system at the Ford River Rouge plant. Because of the strike, more than six thousand workers were made idle last night and more than eight thousand today.^Therts-ffeo aa- t i-ffi-a-t ed -1 as-s—of -thousand -hours —kas t n-i-g-ht» and another -eighty -trho-tisa-ftd -ffrarn-haurs Jh vs j^^^-feAcolonel Strong, who represents the Army Air '5^’ at the factory;"The situation is growing more serious as time passes." Later in the day, the Union sent a STRIKES . 2 order preemptory^Kfc#** to to £0 back to work, to last reports. the maintenance men, And this they are do telling them inp - according 1 HOTELS We have some information about the hotels the i fi Government has taken over xx as a war measure. This i comes in consequence of an argument acquisition of the Stevens Hotel in Chicago. That huge hostelry, with thirty-five hundred rooms, was purchased 9 ■ by the Government for six million dollars. And now along comes Senator Byrd of Virginia with a blast of criticism.jl The Senator, who was a member of the joint economy committee, says it would have been cheaper to have leased the hotel for the duTation of the ui <i oumobly the Government i n t .pn_d—w&e-ft To this, Under-Secretary of War Patterson responds toda, b, saylnc that it .as chs.per to b«, th. rhieapo than to lease it - at the price Stevens in Chicago unau demanded. HOTELS o All of which suggests the question- How many hotels has the Government taken over, how many ~~T~ZZje. boufht and how many leased? ¥1*4^ information is given Ve—t i on-—w i4rh—4rh-e th^ (^W ~ j <2 } -- The Government has ta^en over four hundred and eighty-three hotels, a total of A forty-three thousand and ninety rooms. Eight hotels have been bought at a cost of sixteen million dollars. Four hundred and seventy-five 7?^ have been leased. Among the hotels purchased, some of the best known are the Miami-BiItmore with four hundred rooms at Miami Beach, Florida; El Mirador, with a hundred and fifty rooms at Palm Springs, California,* and the Greenbrier, with seven hundred rooms, at /v. White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. __ Pigh* Vitvi-pj-H —prtrrctnrsed-wiil be u^ to-ruarter troops^ ttiid-six will be converted into permrnent army .. Jmspitals • ) AUSTRIAN BATTALION Pres ident'Roosevelt denied today that the United States Array is organizing an Austrian battalion, Wfcten under control of Archduke Otto of Hapsburg - the heir to the ancient and abolished crown of the Austrian Empire. The President stated that the Army is organizing a number of free battalions^ dne^ is Austrian. He said that the two younger brothers of Archduke Otto have enlisted in it as privates. There have been reports fchxixxxiiafcxHf with a lot of angry criticism - that Archduke Otto is the head of this Austrian battalion. Pres identt.oosevelt stated that these reports were completely vicious and untrue. GUADALCANAL Todays account of a futile Jap attempt to land supplies to their garrison on Guadalcanal makes a dramatic story - the way ten Jap destroyers headed for the embattled island - the way they were beaten dfi, and the way they still tried to get supplies ashorteJ t / Secretary of the Navy Knox, in his. 1 conference today, stated that t*h4 Jap destroyers were attacked by American air forces ajnd torpedo speed boats. J American bombing planes damaged t|-vo ol the enemy ships and our P T boats hit three other^. Smashed up like that, the Japs were unable to do ^^^hey tried something unusual. /Speeding off^stes^ they b V gular landing job. dropped drums of supplies - hoping that these would / carried by tide and wind. The drums of j | sunolies went drifting all-right - but they were spotted and sun, by our planes and P T boa^ ,hich represents a new hind of naval sinhing - shooting J GUADALCANAL j - 2 floating containers, and sending them to the bottom. Today*s bulletin, issued by the Navy Department, tells of a new success for our ground ] forces on GuadalcanalA Four miles southwest of Henderson Field, there is an elevation called Mount Austin, and the Japs use it as an artillery position. So the marines and regular soldiers launched an attack in that direction* 'St^TThey stormed enemy positions on high ground. Killing a lot of Japs, they seized elevations favorable for the placing of our own artillery. And, American bombers^dropped -vueW^ high explosive on the^Jap airfield at Munda, on New Georgia Island. They are doing it all the time. Bombing Munda ^vLW SAN FRANCISCO Another chapter of the epic of the cruiser SAN FRANCISCO was written today. President Roosevelt bestowed the Congressional Medal of Honor on Commander Herbert SchonLand of New London, Connecticut, decorating him not only for heroism, but also for humility. The story has been often told how in the sea battle of the Solomons, the SAN FRANCISCO, flagship of the American squadron, sank Jap ships, and was savagely 9 hit by enemy shells. Admiral Callahan wa>s killed, and so was Cruiser Captain Cassin Young. Whereupon, the command was taken by young Lieutenant-Commander McCandless, who directed the flagship through the rest of the battle. But he was not really next in command, I after the Admiral and Captain were killed. The ranking officer who remained was Lieutenant-Commander Schonland. I * He, however,was damage control officer and was below SAN FMNCISCO So he called to the bridge, and said: "I am too doggone busy down here fighting fire and water - let Bruce McCandless take the ship.” Today President Roosvelt, in presenting the Congressional Medal, commended this unselfish decision Schonland assigning to another off icer ^ headline distinction of commanding the flagship of the squadron in battle. What 1 ieutenant-coramander wouldnft jump at a chance like that? So humility was decorated today. And as for heroism - the President cited the way that Schonland, in the flooded hold amid the fives, went waist deep in water and by the light of hand lanterns directed the task of getting the water out of the RUSSIA In Russia, the Soviet forces have recaptured the important tov/n of Nalchik in the Caucasus. a r Mozdok, another Number One place retaken by the Red Army. Moscow reports, moreover, the seizure of a string of other inhabited localities. rz ----------- —------- So liodayfs news continues the day after day story of jJ rJ Soviet advance.^ The gains in the Caucasus indicate that the Germans are receding from the most advanced points of their push toward the Caspian Sea. The question of the hour is - How far do the Red Army advances represent a possible collapse of the Germans in RussiaTj Is the enemy being routed into disorderly defeat; or; are the Germans retiring to prepared positions, as they did last winter? Aii Along this line we have a story from Stockholm, which has attracted a good deal of attention today. Stockholm attributes the account to RUSSIA . 2 neutral observers in close contact with Berlin, and these tell us that Hitler is beginning a gigantic withdrawal in southern Russia, a withdrawal that will take the Germans entirely out of the northern Caucasus. The information goes on with the statement that a considerable proportion of the German Army in that Area has already retired behind the lower reaches of the River Don. The Stockholm story^goes on with a good deal of circumstantial detail, and relates the whole ttream .1—- 4 -^-—shake-up o- the Ger/iic.n general staff, about which we heard a little while ago, - when Chief of Staff General Haider was ousted by Hitler. The^ -H^rld er Ve *b d~ ft i tri e r- haTC 4-—-doure—i—when-i-t-Ja^e*me-»?par«Hbt -A-pay1 arrttn d - St a lii^md Mmt d - n o t-fee..crtmfe^l- -s on —the—o-an-e- n et- W c aptiirodr RUSSIA - 3 1 advised that the whole Caucasus area must be /- evacuated i or the winter. tf-e""erfwd-th-ftfr the Qgr»c»p i-or'Ce s "fc h 0 w-ere -rrorn-^^t, g-i v » r -a—r o m t-^ d*w4ftg-1li u "T? tj I'd _Hence there should be a withdrawal to the Don, where easily defensible positions could be held by a rear guard. Hitler did not agree with this. He had another|| - I T intuitionjy and decided to hang onto the Caucasus. A A O e fired Haider and replaced him with General Zeitzler. Now, however, says the Stockholm story, things have got so bad that Zeitzler is compelled to carry out the __ I plan presented by Haider -thing for which that former ! t. Chief of Staff was fired. T-he reasqri-is said to the - unex]>«^4«4—»-trength of .the SoviAWfr&unter offonrervo j 3^4 the ixl 11L ul I 1 ■■'I Mii. Gnrimnti—TTTT hav ing--w4th«»*g|iii«^| . thanr—1 1 in‘e=s=EFf 4^srn*-nort th^-way^ #r-e-a Gf-i mh . uj necrrly 4r»—the-Ca-;re»aatfc. . %y TX * r RUSSIA - 4 Here is the latest, from London. British military sources give us the opinion that the awTHfr-rt t in the Caucasus, as announced by the Soviets> !r3i^ retreat from the north Caucasus* area an -—-Uxat—Tgay : c ~ - in r- X all the way back to Rostov. AFEICA Things are still pretty well tied up in North Africa. Today American b°ombers were battering enemy positions in northeastern Tunisia - the vicinity of Medjes-El-Bab. In that sector, German armored force^# have been trying to push forward and create a threat against the Allied flank. The Nazis have also launched an assault against positions held by the French at a place called Foudouk. The attack, made with from twenty to thirty tanks, lost some twelve or fifteen of the mobile forts- about half of the armored strength that came rumbling forward. dr#—Irirby^a irooks as if Rfr^noo 11 s- bea e really—-going te—4»ake a s-4c£trrd"r^ T-his -*e heai d 1 atrt -n-i-ght, -the ir^eat ion^ax.e .,the— - R o n n4 k^ad-i seventy—mi-les —£xjim Tr-l^eii. j I CAMERAMEN As a worker in newsreel, with a job at Movietone, I have a special interest in a war story today about tv’o cameramen in North Africa. They are Lieutenant JohnMcQain of New York and Lieutenant Kenneth Pier of Los Angeles. Nowadays the Army and Navy photographic units are producing some great motion oictures of the battlefront/ the military cameramen foing right out into action. And this is wnst Lieutenants McClain and Pier did. Their adventures were astonishing. At least, were astonished - a coup 1 e of times. They swioed a truck from an ab8nc.oneQ gai a^ e, and headed for the battleline. On the way they kept rlAring the truck into ditches - awi Nazi planes =tepdE A swooning down at them every so often. Finally, they took a dive into one big ditch and there found twenty soldiers. C£jIFPA\lFN_- ? o "Where is the front?" demanded the cameramen. ’’This is it, buddy," one of the soldiers replied. The photographic lieutenants were astonished, but it was indeed the battlefront - as they presently discovered. They took refuge for the night in ah abandoned farmhouse, and the next morning saw twenty tanks rolling down a nearby hill. Simultaneously, a British captain appeared. Lieutenant McClain gave the Britisher a hail: "I sure sm glad to see you." "Why?" demanded the Captain. "Well," McClain replied blithely: those good old American tanks, and here you are - a British ally. " "Those are enemy tanks," responded the British CAMERAMEN Captain. "We are surrounded." The Lieutenant heard some machine £uns coming from the opposite direction and thought Allied reinforcements were coming to rescue them. The Captain said: "No, not at all. Those are Germans coming up by the other road." Whereupon the astonishment of the tv/o cameramen was complete. The Nazis had surrounded a British unit at that particular place. A three hour battle followed, in which British artillery knocked out seven Nazi tanks and dispensed the rest. The enemy was driven off. The cameramen watched from behind a haystack - filming the battle, wo ho[e.