GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: I am within a fe miles of the Mississippi River ~onight, and I came here by rocket. That is part way in the cab of a diesel engine of a stream line rocket train, on the Rock Island. And then 6 miles in an auto on rails•• a Rock Island General Superintendent. I did this after broadcasting to the East from Chicago; and in a few minutes The Golden State will pull in here and I'll board that. And now, let's look at the world from this room high up in a yardmaster's office at Silvia, Ill. near the Mississippi. PRESID E NT ROOSEVELT ----------------- President Roo evelt today held the first White H ou se pres s conference•• since his return -~~~.~- from the gre t conferences -- and the President lived A up to his reputation as a press conference expert. The newsmen are•• always looking for a headline and they go one a Presidential state ■ ent that tka at Teheran\here was a German plot against the lives of the big three -- Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt. He didn't go into the aa exact nature of the conspira y, but . stated that sa ■ it had been uncovered by the Russians and that, in const:!quence, he had moved fro ■ the American Emb_a6'sy to the RuSB~basaJ '11.4.....- ~ ~ - ~ -f.e · ~ .. -·;;; The President rel a ted that on the very night of his aTrival at the Ame~ican legation at Teheran he got personal word from Stalin -- that the Russians h d picke d up word of the Nazi plot . At first F.D.R. wasn't inclined to put much stock in the story ut fR E SJJ2.!f!T .ROQ§ ~ !R! - 2 Stalin made a plea -· asking him to come to the Russian Embassy and stay there. There was particular reason for this:- As the American Legation is some distance froa the Russian ~mbassy and this entailed co111iderable travel through the streets of Teheran, if the conferees were to pass baot and forth from the American to the Russi n headquarters. Teheran, liie ■oat eastern cities, abounds in spies, and it ~ --8 ..,.~ certainly would~ a great Nazi coup to wipe out the Big Three or an7 of them. The President's residence at the Soviet Embassy made travel through the streets un-necessary, because the British Embassy ' is just next door. That affor1ed no travel and made the whole thing safe. This mis•i•••z•• disclosure of a plot was given in connection with the immense amou t of secrecy thats . rrounded the conference -- President Roosevelt . , having been asked about all that secrecy by the newa ■ en at the hite Bouse ne s gathering today. ~ ~ : f u r t h e r went on to explain the accomplishments of the conferences and stated his belief' that these will result in the prevention ot another war in this generation And the •• President hia eaphasized that this was not only~ belief' but••• alao that o:f' Marshall St~a~l~i~n~•---------~-_, i Th news froa Italy tells of slow going on the ground and fast going in the air. Both Gener al Clark's Fifth Army and Gener al 11ontgomery' _ s Eighth Army haamered their way ahead on either side of the Penihsul -- virtually foot by foot across the ru ged country. The fast going was on the wings a.. of lrl'iation -- ~owerful force of heavy bombers hitting hard at the Brennet Pass area, the slender valley line bet ; een laziland to the north and Italy to the South. Flying Fortresses slash~~t ~ ,.. railroal communications. - - .. - On the island of New Britain the Americana are mopping u p - are clearing out the Japs on the Ara e Peninsul, the neck of land invaded by the Americans in the great blow agaiaas announced yesterday. The fact that General MacArthur's headquarters lay stress on the mopping up wou l d indicate that our troops are experiencing little • ••i resistance right now on the Arawe Peninsula. That is, resistance on the ground. The Japa h ve been trying to strike through the air, but their assaults have been beaten off. In fact, after th~t first commando type of preliminary landing had been roughly handled byte, ~ the AmericanSencounte~ed no great amount of ifficulty. The main invasion forces in their lan d ing barges established their footing ashore with r pi . . and tonight the first initial prec1s1on -- !!L!H!ll!IJ! - 2 phase of the New Britain inv a sion is an accomplished success. Of to with a suamits. ' ow er fully / drawn naTal - - 4. of mountains, a ~ MARSHALLS ------~---- ... -- The Marshall Islands were batter ed again, as was announced today. Long range Ar ■y , bo ■ber,s hit the Jape at the airdroae of lotJe. It is well to reaa~k over and over again that these repeated are boabinga eu has the llarshalls have been taking,/••• a ■oat likely pr~luue to an invasion attack -- the bombings being the softening up. I To r turn to Silvi a for a mo nt : I am the cen er of o ne of the re railro ards 0 Americ . Al . 'r o un me sit t men w 0 control s untin g of en less trains of t is ') -mile Rock Islan d system, in the e rt of Americ a-- n that in the e rt of America's war effort on t . e Home Front. in e me ns Scores of steam and diesel locomotives are moving u and down outside my window. Handling more than 500 cars a day. A few block buster born s would play plenty of havoc here, but no one fe rs that. Fr the Allies are on them rch now, an e blockl'ius e ~ are all falling in Europe, Asia and the acific. Seventy-five per cent of the peo le in this town of 35 0 work here in these great Rock Island yards. And to see the way they do it is one of the sights of the land. Even the ma or works in these yards; and most of the aldermen. Arau d me are the countless flickering lig ts o is, one of the great centers of the American r ilroan worl. ~ILVIS --- · - · -- And railroading is one of e fiel in w ich 11te le d the worl d . n one oft e reasons why we are going to win this global war in which the movement of materials plays such n overw elmin part. ''R E CK -- - -- - To day ~ . r o u h t the dea t h li st in y e s t er da y's fri h t f u l /\ tr a in r e ek to th e tr ag ic f igure of ei g hty. An w it h thi s co m e ••a•g•a ch a r g es t h a t the lo s s of l ife s cau s e d by .,._ ne g li ge nc e on th e part o f t h e tr a inmen. Capt a in J. L. Allen of t~e Bav~ i a me ■ ber of the Army a n d Navy W ar Colle ge in Washington st a ted today t h at t here was not, in his w or d s -- "any ex c use for aai anyone be ing scratch e . ' And he charged the trainmen with what he calle n •a complete lack of horse sense•. The story told by the Navy Captain concerned the astonishing fact that the long period of forty m inut e s elapsed b et w een th time hen the south bound train r a n off the t r a cks and lay across th e rails ) and the terrible mom e nt when the north bound train c a me ch a rgin g a nd smashing into th e reek. The re a son w hy the s outh bound tr a in on the Atlantic \ R CK - 2 ------ Coat Line was der iled seems to be officially est bli s he -- a bre k• in the steel -- what is palled a fis ure in the rails. In itself this mishap in North Carolina ould have amounted to no great disa ter, if the other train• h a d been halted before it got to the cars lying acros ,3 the track. Captain Allen of the Navy states that in the forty minutes between accidents he and another passenger took measures to · stop other trains from crashing into the wreck. They went along the track and lit fires between the rails to stop southbound by trains. And one w s stopped safely -- ~•" the blaze on the track. Then they went irr the o her direction to do . the same thing and stop north bound trains, but they weren't in time. Along came a crack passenger express, a Tamiami Champion, at high speed. la W RECK - 3 ----- • A n ot r pas s enger and I" rel a tes C a ptain Al ~ en li g hted a newspaper with a match and waved it. It seemed tha t the Engineer applied hi brakes but ne didn't h a ve time to slow up very much.• And thus it was that the Tamiami Champion ran headlong into the care lying across the track -- in one of the ~ ~ J • or .La . s/l;:::::::::9rL sas te rs. In Con ress t day the demand w a s made that ye s terday's disastrous train wreck be ~nvestigated. A resolution w s introduced &alk•i calling for an inquiry. And Congressmen wil1fecallthat earlier this week the Truman Committee of the Senate ,~••t&ai ■ i predicted that the whole railway system of the country w sin danger of a breakdown -- unless the railroads ere able to replace worn out equi p ment and procure materials needed for repairs. e ore :e t a rt criticizin the r ilroads ther are a number of thing we should rem mber. Our Ameri ca n rai roads h a ve bean bearing the brunt of the war time job here on the home front. Coordinator of Railro de Joe Eastman was here in Chi c ago today, discussing ' matter with the heads of the line that radiate out from this, the greatest railro d center on earth. The top official~ of the great Rock Island System, J D. Farrington toid me that his line, for example. is no · carrying six hundred percent more passenger traffic than in Nineteen thirty-nine which was the last year when they ere able to get any new passenger equipment! He said that for some reason hard to explain the railroads have been treated as the stepchild of the war effort. And he added that th railroads are serjously handicapped i n t o ways in particular:- F A R R I GTOn - ROCI I S LAND - 2 ----- - ---------- -- ----- r a il a n m an po e r. But, : e have b e en makin our rai lroa s carry all th w a r sup p li e s; makin g th e m c arry th m at e rials for the b u il ing up of our va s t new w ar in ustries; ma.kin them c a rry six hundr e d percent more passengers as in the case of the Rock Isl a nd, and they h ve not been allowed to expand as other •••x war in d ustries have been permitted to do. CHOR HILL ----- ---- t re t e .., c . : e 11, on comes W O that rs, Winston C UC ill ka:sx is now at t e bedsi e of her hu n ' n un , i lo ce in the id le Ea w ere the rime inister i striken with P neumoni - - i econd at ck o f m 1 ~v in ten mon s' an t e 1 est l C urc i l l l e ter. The me ic'"'.l bulletin just in . e ks 0 marked improvement in the case w ic is di no.ed in the following •ords, "a patch of pneumonia on the left lun g ." The bulletins from the Churchill be side were scanned ansiously in Britain today. One eminent p ysician p ut it as follows: " , e c an not e x p e c t to be to 1 d th at the p n e um on jE is diminishing, for three or four days yet. CHU R CHILL - 2 --- - -- ,r p:t. But the ul le t i n a kes it cl ea r that th ere are no c o mp l i c at i on s th u s far?') And h e add e d " the 8 tr e n gt h of the he art ia which i s the mo s t important thing at pr e . ent, is holding up" This medical authority sulllllarize d Churchill's case by sayin g :- •so f a r the illness appears t o be t a king a normal satifactory course•.< Britain's concern about Wl111tu11 Churchill~ ~ ~ c l 1111!:t-ull Dog o~ a statesman I\ having written only too g~•at clearly in the pages of contemporary hi s tory the positi o n that he holds in the minds and imagination of his country~ Perhaps the most pointed inst a nce of Churchill's position in the aff a irs of the wo r ld a nd war is to be seen in speculation concerning t ■ his successor -- if the worst shoul d come. Lon on takes it for gran t ed that the statesman g room ed for the Prim Mini s terial successor is Anthony Eden, For e ign Mini s t e r. In this CHURCHILL - 3 --------- they see the xplanation of the fact that Eden has een taken so much to the the reat conferences in which,_{Prime ini ter and President Roosevelt hav played star parts , Britain regards Eden as the successor-- if need be• ,) but not as another Churchil l . The present Foreign Secretary has all the confidence in the world -- but not that peculiar Churchill genius. .. .. .. ........ - ...... - r ?i IG H T R OT fERS -- --- --- --- --- Fort years ago to day the wea ther along th e coa . t of the C a rolinas was much better than it w as today an d that w as lucky . Because, if~ had b ee n as ba as i t w a s tod ay , one of the gr ea test events in hi s tory wou l d not have taken place -- man's first fli g ht. This is the fortie t h nniversary of that exploit of the Wright Brother s , who on the sand dunes at Kitty Hawk toot off in the first heavier than air flying machine. There was an anniversary si celebration*• down there near t h e sea, but the ceremonies were badly handicapped by the wintery - ~~ ~~---- M-t.Jl...... - ~1-4-- blustery antics of Old Man · Wint 9 r,~"""Anyone on +.he eeeae , tllepe aigh+i - har.•e eh:ioPt . e d W!tb the - thou g ht of whe:,t 11.ou l d bava ae.ppen · ed if that origin!ll i ■ Wrigllt BrnthePG--...,