I l J. sumocd . ?,: ohday . . thne 23. 1Q/.1 Good Evening, Everybody: Today’s news follows a familiar pattern. As we scan th.e dispatches, the claims, official communiques that come from both sides, we seem to have heard them all before: Fourteen months ago when the Nazi hordes began their invasion of France. We heard them again when Hitler’s panzei* legions roared over the mountain passes of Jugoslavia and Greece. And today, the same all over again; even the same details. Only the names of the places are different. For example, the German high command says little. gives no details, merely announces the invasion is proceeding according to plan. And that plan has existed for years in the files of the formidable building in Berlin that houses the Prussian War Office. ^Proceeding according to plan.** That’s what we heard when they started trampling over Holland, Belgium and France, and again when they swooped down upon the Balkans. 1 LEAD - 2 the official Berlin news agency, says the Nazi legions have smashed the Soviet defenses in many places along that seventeen—hundrednnile battle line* k)ne report put out by D.N.B. is that Goering’s air army des^oyed, in the first few / / hours of fighting, no fewer than twelve hundred of Stalin*s fighting planes* Some of them ^ot out of the air, but many wiped . I / / out on the ground* D*N*B* course, is owned and controlled by / Dr. Goebbels, Nazi Propag^da Minister* / So far as w^/can tell, cunning Joe Stalin, and his / I Kremlin colleagues, ^ere caught napping; and were not forewarned by I j Hitler »s previous Acts of starting war first and declaring it / afterwards* The Nazis, we are told, are swarming into Russia from Finland in the North, from Poland in the center, from Riamania in l the South* Irhe Finns deny that they are in the war on the side of the Germans* They say they have no soldiers fighting with Hitler*s hordes. But the Nazis tell a different stoiy. In the South, Rumanian troops are driving right along with the Nazis, across Bessarabia, which Russia took from ex-King Carol only a few months ago J i I s LEAD - 3 Goebbels* news agency also tells us that mass squadrons of bombing planes have roared back and forth across Russia to drop their bomb-loads on Stalin*s Black Ses naval bases. Moscow admitted that one of the first points that the Wazis attacked from the air was the big naval base of Sebastopol in the Crimea. Sebastopol, where they hadn't heard cannon roar sincejthe middle of the last century, when Russia was attacked by the British, French and Xi Turks. Sebastopol is burning tonight, we hear. Nazi reporters at the front are sending home dispatches ! J simply crumpled that the Russian defenses have irtajglyMrgaptMtx, under the German impact: Soviet pill boxes blown to pieces, seventy defense bunkers succiambing in the first onslaught; concrete emplacements encircled flame-throwers. and their defenders wiped out by^fliawtkkaxxxxj^ One of the fiercest Nazi assaults was delivered on the Russian key fortress of Brest-Litovsk. A vital position, center of the roads that lead around the impassible Pripetjaar6hes^of which we heard so much in the last war. The D.N.B. reporters also were telling today how it took the German engineers and shock troops only five minutes to cross the River Bug with collapsible boats and rafts LEAD - L Tonight even the heavy mechanized forces of the Germans are across the river; plunging and clanking ten miles into Soviet territory in four hours] The Russians didn*t blow up the bridges. becauBe, for one thing, they’re too weak to carry the weight of heavy tanks. But, that didn’t feaze the Germahs, who threw across temporary bridges much stronger than the permanent Russian ones. All this, we must remember, comes from Goebbles, his official news agency. But we know also that, much as we disco\inted D.N.B. reports in the early days or the Battles of France and of the Balkans, every statement was made hx good by the Nazi war machine. have been hurled back with heavy losses, and that the Rgd Line has only been dented in a couple of places — ih Poland below Lithuania, Russia, but were driven off. In fact that siity-five of Goering*s aircraft were shot down the first day. That’s the Russian story] There’s another curious aspect to tonight s news. Moscow, however, insists that the attacking Germans \ 7 That German planes did attack cities, towns and airdrom^^k^ over j Tomorrow Is June twenty-fourth, and on June twenty-fourth. Eighteen Twelve, an army of six-hundred-thousand of the finest fighting troopsf LEAR - 5 -0 > in the world crossed the River Niemen, invdding Russia. | Thus beginning that historic and disastrous invasion Napoleon! Tt proved to be the ruination of Bonaparte. To be sure foVyr days after he had crossed the Niemen, he marched CTgpyiw unopposed in\o the important City of Vilna, which the Russian Generals had evaduated. But it was the beginning of the end at for the Corsican. This bit of history isn't brought in for the sake of arousing any wishful thinking. There's no guarantee that Russia will also be the end of Hitler. Russia today may be a pushover The principal question among military observers right now is not whether the Russians can hold out; but how long can they hold out? The German high command estimates one month. And we have not forgotten the staggering velocity of the Nazi conquest of Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, France and all the Balkans. Neutral military experts have long predicted that Hitler's war machine could overrun the Ukraine in a few weeks. Tonight the world wonders: Just how much of Russia does Hitler covet? D» he hope to drive the Soviets back to the N LEAD - 6 Asiatic side of the Ural Mountains? If so, how would he exploit his conquest? Would he import German workers to develop the country, or just engineers and technicians? There also arises the question: Could he miam enslave the entire Hussian peasantry? Some say they are slaves already, and that it wouldn't matter a lot to them idiether the whip-cracking were done by the Ogpu or the Gestapo. I BALTIC It was only last summer th:.t the Reds grabbed Lithuania, Latvia and Esthonla, announcing magnificently that they came to liberate those independent Baltic republics. They liberated them by over-turning their republican governments and annexing them to the t>oveit Union. it Today.is reported that those ungrateful Baltic peoples are ^ i upon turning their Communist benefactors, revolting, throwing out the! Bolshevok rulers. JOf course they*11 only be swapping them for Nazis. According to a report from Stockholm, Lithuania was proclaimed this morning a free and independent country once more. Similar reports come from Latvia and Esthonia. ■‘■t is reported that the new head of the revolutionary government in Lithuania is a man who was formerly minister rrom Lithuania to Berlin. I mmm BRITAIN There’s one point on which all are agreed, that this is a golden opportunity for the British. They now have at least month, perhaps more, to hammer away at the invasion coasts of France, Belgium and Holland and the Interior of western Germany. And the British appear today to be taking full advantage of the absence of most of Geering’s heavy air squadrons on the Russian front. The R.A.F. are hammering away at the French invasion coast. Relays upon relays of British air fighters crossing the Channel, dropping their bombs and going back for more. Bombing Nazi supply depots and bases without let-up all afternoon and evening. Last week’s bag of German planes mountain up to a hundred and five; with thirty British most. I. In Syria, another name of picturesque antiquity and fascination comes into the news, the once luxurious and magnificent] City of Palmyra. The British and Free French took it. I They didn’t J get much, if you ask people who have been there. All that is left | k of the great city that Solomon founded, is a pile of ruins. But I it’s an important airport and oil pip line station, On the coast, British w^arships are still hammering awjiy at Beirut, and Vichy claims there was a naval engagement in which one of King George’s raen-0-war was seriously damaged. REACTIQjjS There*s one bit of grim humor in today’s war situation and that is the intellectual plight of the Communistjbrethern in America. Two years ago as we all recall, they were the loudest of all denouncers of Nazis, of Hitlerism, of everything German. Then, twenty-one months ago, when Dictator-Comrade Stalin kissed and made up with Hitler, the local comrades had to flop over night, as per direct order by radio from Moscow. It was too strong a pill for some of them, who resigned from the party in a hurry But, most of the American Communists continued obedient to the party line and suddenly grew loud in their cheers for the 1 Fuehrer, chortling everytlme he broke a new treaty and invaded a country. Now they have to roll over again with much twistings j new and turning and squirming Inevitable, the Nazi invasion of Russia has given a strong urge to the War Party in America. Some are saying openly that this is the golden opportunity for the United States to plunge in at least to throw our destroyers into the fight on behalf of Britain in the hope of clearing the Atlantic of German swA sea raiders. You will even find European correspondents on the Interventionist REACTIONS - g papers sending editorials by cable instead of reports, editorials offering reasons why we should plunge in. Lewis Douglas of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies declares that the attack cm Russia should convince all doubting Thomases that Hitler is planning world domination. On the other hand, iJohn Flynn of the America First Committee wants to know whether we are now going to fight to make Europe safe for Communism In Washington the official opinion was expressed by Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles, who spoke not omly for his chief. Secretary Hull but for the President. And what hel s^d was more or less an echo of what Britain's Prime Minister /Wilton Churchill said over the air yesterday That all forms of dictatorship are hateful to us — but that the immediate issue is to stop Hitlerism, That, said Sumner Welles, is the job right now. Hitler's treacherous attack on Soviet Russia, said Sumner Welles, furnished the final proof of German ambitions for world domination. And the Under-Secretary of State then used these words:- ”To the present German Government the very meaning of the word honor is unknovm.^ Strong words from a diplomat. He added that in the opinion of this government ^ny rallying of the forces opposing Hitlerism will hasten [\ I « !1 BmilQM-.- 3 the eventual downfall of the present German leaders and redound to the benefit of our own defense and security. Hitler’s armies. he added, constitute the chief danger to us — both North and South America. One question in many minds is: will the Lend-Lease Bill nc be applied to help Communist Soviet Russia? [ According to the defense the President considers necessai^ to the defense of the United States. But, that question is merely ^ademic. Even if we had the materials to s pare, how would we let them to Russia^ Besides, as help from Russia. Among Congressmen opiri^ons were divided. Isolationist Senator Bennet Champ Clar/of Missouri slad It was a case of dog wording of the Act, help can be furnlshed/to any country whose | Sumner Welles remarked, so fd we*ve received no requests for j eat dog and he didn’t t/inlc we should help eighter ^ our own business. j^Se^or Harry Truma^of Missouri said we ought to help whichever side seems to be losing and let them kill each other off — as many as possible. ym ADD LEAD ' * lateo dispatch from Berlin»carries the prophecy that A r\ the next fe^ days will see a battle with such numerous masses of troops and strong motorized forces as has never before occurred in history in a single theatre of war. HULL Secretary of State Hull has to put in these exciting days away froQ VKashington. For two weeks he has been laid up at his apartment, partly because of a cold, party because of what the doctors describe as exhaustion, from the strenuous work he has had to do at the State Department. Today his physician decided the Secretary would recover more quickly away from the terrific summer heat of Washington, So he’s leaving for a rest at Greenbriar - White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. With a direct wire from his rooms to the State Department and to the White House. SUPREME COURT The Judiciary of the Senate nad a matter if historic importance to consider today. The appointment of a new Chief Justice of the United States, a question that has come up only ten times in our history. Not a voice was raised against the nomination of Harlan Fiske Stone, as the eleventh Chief Justice. The name of Attorney General Robert H. Jackson as an Associate Justice also came up for consideration. But that was postponed. Senator Tydings of Maryland asked for a hearing, said he wainted to appear at it and speak against Jackson. The chief objection to this promotion of the Attorney General is that he refused to prosecute a group of people in Detroit who had recruited volunteers to fight in Spain during the recent Civil War there. However, the Washington experts tell us that lt*s a foregone conclusion Attorney General Jackson will be approved by the Senate. The objections to him are not considered serious. 5 O^lv I i 1 FOOD PRICES ^ For some time we’ve been hearing tliat our government is going to keep an eagle eye on the rising price* of food. Today we hear that this has begun in earnest. Leon Henderson, A(^ministrato^ of Price Control, has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to begin a daily check-up of the cost of living. IfF^fsc^Jf necessary the check-up will be maintained hourly. In particular coffee, tea, pepper, cocoa are mentioned. But I this watchfulness will range over a wider field which will include rubber, leather, silk and metals. -U j ‘