davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-08-17

You can't say the Japs aren't op- portunists. They've planted vege. tables on 15,OOO acres of Tokyo that were destroyed by bombing. Bad cess and a New England summer to 'em.
 We know where the political nuddle in Gotham is going to wind I'D. They're going to call on Flo- rello LaGuardia to form a new gov ernment.
 For some inscrutable reason, we keep thinking of the new Prime Minister as MT. Donald. After considerable pyscho-searching, we have decided it is because of MT. Alley of the New York yankees. Our confusion is complete as the persistent phrase, Tinker to Bevan to Chance" run through the de- serted corridors of our mind.
 The Japs didn't care much for the ultimatum, It seems that the MmCOu0LGlOu&l ktpA4sSA turned out to be unconditional. 2 quirk in Occidental psychology that cannot be fathomed.
 Harold Ickes is in favor of ap- pointing an American coal admin istrator for Europe. And, in spite of an overtaxed alphabet in Wash ington, he probably wouldn't be above mentioning that H and are available for the new job.
 We were looking at Peck and Peck advertisement in The Times the other day. It was hot day, and we even started to toy with the idea of Peck and Peck not hiding their light under a half-bushel.
 Someone stole the high school bleachers up in Natick one day last week. Wonder what bleacherites raise instead of the roof.
The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-08-17

Someone stole the high school bIeachers up in Natick one day last week. Wonder what bIeacherites raise instead of the roof.
Evening star., 1945-11-26
This Changing World
By Constantine Br0,cn

When diplomats and high Govern
ment officials get together in Washing
ton their main topic of conversation Is
the stain riddle" In spite of the
reassuring reports from officials in Mos
cow that his rest in the mild climate in
the Crin1ea has immensely improved the
Premiers health, American and foreign
diplomats wonder why no direct reports
have been received from him since early
in October.
Old hands in the State Department
recall that the actual state of health
of Poland's dictator, Marshal Pilsudsky,
was carefully hidden from the public
between October, 1884, and May, 1895,
by a very clever device of the foreign
Office at Warsaw.
Because the Polish government feared
serious outbreaks If the news that the
field marshal was suffering from cancer
Of the liver became known, the then
Foreign Minister, Col. Joseph Beck, ap-
pealed to two of his intimate friends,
British Ambassador Sir William Howard
Kennard and Yugoslav Minister Branko
Lazarevitch, to help him keep this vital
state secret.
These diplomats were asked to give
out occasional reports that they had
visited the field marshal and found him
In the pink of health-sun tanned, in
good spirits and full of energy. The
foreign office press bureau took pains to
call up American, British, French and
other representatives of foreign news
agencies and tell them the British or
Yugoslav ENJOYS had just had conversa-
tlons with the head of the Polish re-
public.
The foreign correspondents would
then call up the British Embassy or
Yugoslav Legation, which thereupon
casually confirmed that such conversa-
tions had taken place, but added they
were not in position to reveal what
had been discussed.
The stories then would be cabled
abroad and played up generally as a
minor news item. The Polish corre-
spondents in the world capitals would
recable them to Poland, where they
would be prominently displayed.
This game went on until May, 1885.
when it backfred on the clever" Col.
Beck.
Pierre Laval, then Premier Of France,
Evening star., 1945-11-26

that four great nations flushed with
victory and stung with injury !" VOL
unfairly submit their captive enemies to
the judgment of law is one of the most
magnificent tributes that power ever
has paid to reason
One of the most impressive parts of
Justice Jackson's indictment deals with
crimes against humanity-forced labor
systematic determination of races, and
subjection of established human and
legal rights to the single criterion of
the Nazi program. Justice Jackson
includes among the victims the German
people themselves
But the weakness in this part of the
indictment Is that the crimes are indi-
Gated only as a feature of aggressive
war.
Actually, they were not committed
for the purposes of war, but as part of
the German revolution" Had the
Nazis never gone to war; they would
have exterminated the Jews And had
they successfully spread the NaA revo-
luton outside their borders, they would
not have needed war.
These persons stand accused of the
attack on Austria. But the Austrian
government was overthrown by fifth
columnists who established friendly
government" which invited in the Ger
man troops. This friendly govern
ment" then put into practice the Nan
program of determination of dissenters.
If these trials condemn only crimes
against humanity committed in the
prosecution of aggressive war between
nations, they will offer no future guar
antee against such crimes If the ears
OF the judges are sensitively attuned,
they may hear the cries of suffering
humanity from all quarters of the globe.
and from countless graves into which
men have been shoveled, not only
because they were racial interiors, but
because they were bourgeois, or Trot-
skyists, or theological deviationists or
at present-merely German
The worst crimes against humanity,
exactly those of which the accused are
indicted, have been committed in civil
wars and revolutions, domestically or
externally fomented, that Is how this
war began-and in the future aggression
in the usual sense may never occur,
but only armed interventionism for or
against revolutions within nations.
Thus, even If aggressive international
war Is established as criminal, revolu-
tions which make their own law in
the blood-baths of their opponents, will
still commit atrocious crimes against
humanity.
released by the Bell Syndicate. Incl
Evening star., 1945-11-26
On the Record
BY Dorothy THOMPSON

Justice Jackson's opening of the prose-
cution. before the War Crimes Tribunal,
is on high level of pleading. He is
aware that unfortunately the mature
of the crimes is such that prosecution
and judgment must be by victors over
vanquished." The prosecution Is ex-
post-facto-the accused being tried for
what was obviously illegal in interna-
tional law when committed.
But Justice jackson bases his case on
natural law, and the state of public con-
sciousness and conscience. Much law
has been judge-made. The conscience
OF mankind is against aggressive war.
This universal sense that aggressive war
Is a crime must, he argues, become law
by establishing the precedent that in
dividuals who conspire and assist to
make it shall be held personally re-
sponsible.
Only persons commit crimes" JUS
tice Jackson elevates his case by saying,
While this law is first applied against
German aggressors, the law includes,
and must condemn aggression by
any other nation, including those who
sit in judgment"
I am not impressed in this case by
arguments against ex-post-facto law.
Sometime, somewhere, supreme tri-
bunal must fix responsibility for acts
committed in the name. of states that
were they private would send any man
to the gallows. 1t is precisely because
these trials should create new law for
the conduct of nations that 1t is of
supreme importance that they be con-
Quoted with the most exact justice.
There is, therefore, dismaying para
graph in Justice Jackson's indictment:
IF these defendants should succeed
for any reason in escaping the condem-
nation of this tribunal those who
are American-held prisoners will be
delivered up to our continental Allies"
This is judgment in advance of the
hearing. 1t throws doubt on the juris-
diction of the tribunal itself. In the
dock sit heterogeneous individuals, sepa-
rately charged, and with various de-
grees of innocence or guilt. Anglo
Saxon justice is based on the assump-
ton that every man Is innocent until
proved guilty, and no state based on law
condemns the accused in advance of
trial. Revolutionary peoples tribunals"
do, but civilized men recognize this as
lynch law"
What Justice jackson says in effect is:
If this jury, which Is also prosecutor,
fails to support its own case we will de-
liver these men to others who will con-
denim them. In that single paragraph,
Justice Jackson undoes his argument,
Evening star., 1945-11-26
Robert BenchIey

Robert Benchley, dead too soon at
fifty-six, was automatically an Amer
ican. The circles he moved in were
cosmopolitan to the point of chaos
and certainly he was no intellectual
isolationist, yet it definitely is part of
his story that he was native son of
the United States-born at Worces-
ter, educated at Harvard, trained in
journalism in New York. His humor
derived from his own background,
observation and experience. That is
another way of saying that he did
not specialize in degrading the all
too-human race.
But it would be a mistake to
imagine that Mr.. Benchley went
through an imperfect creation with
blinkers on his eyes. He knew as
we'll as any of his fellows that there
was room for improvement in the
world, and he spoke out to that
effect when he thought it necessary.
Yet he was no radical. His indigna-
tions were directed against injustice
wherever it appeared and without
regard to the label that it wore. On
the other hand, he found pleasure
if not authentic happiness in try
ing to be contented even when con-
ditions were most notably disturb
ing. Some of his funniest pieces"
were of the "escapist" variety. And
that may be why they were so pop
ular in an era of global wars and
coSnlic confusions. He kept sane
while number of his contempo-
raries were going utterly mad-and
thus he helped to preserve the sanity
of those who quietly sat themselves
down to read his little books instead
of willingly rushing off to the ever
lasting bow-wows.
MIR. Benchley, however, ought not
to be classified with the congenial
buffoonS. 1t would be more accurate
to describe him as belonging to the
company OF Moliere and Charles
Lamb. He had the formers sense
for dramatizing the ridiculous and
the latter's instinct for making
Evening star., 1945-11-26

stopped over In Warsaw in the first
week Of May. He was on his way to
Moscow to sign the French-Soviet al
lance which had been negotiated by
Foreign Minister Barthou, who had been
assassinated at Marseilles together with
King Alexander of Yugoslavia
Before signing the treaty with the
Russian government, Laval was anxious
to talk with Marshal Pilsudsky and de-
manded that he be received by the head
OF the Polish government. Col. Beck
explained that the old man was dying
and could see no one. Laval, who had
seen the frequent dispatches that Pill
Sudsky was in the best of health, did not
believe the foxy Beck, whom he sus-
pected bf having a political filtration
with Hitler. He was convinced that
Beck had cooked up the marshals ill
ness to prevent heart-to-heart talk
between him and the French Premier
Laval produced the various press dis
patches reporting lengthy conversations
between Sir Howard and Pilsudsky and
remarked angrily that "Pilsudsky is well
enough to see the British Ambassador
but not the Prime Minister of France"
He left Warsaw without making the
ordinary courtesy calls and went to
Moscow and signed the treaty with Rus
sia, disregarding certain clauses which
the Polish government had wished to
have inserted.
+ n
But while he was being wined and
dined in the Kremlin the world received
the news that Pilsudsky died, on May
II, 1885. Laval realized then that it
was the public and the foreign govern
ments which had been the victims of
hoax and not the head of the French
government. He returned to Warsaw
to attend the Polish statesman's funeral
together with Marshal Petain and Field
Marshal Hermann Goering.
There is, of course, no evidence
that the Soviet government is fol-
lowing the same strategy at the pres
ent time, although the situation is
somewhat similar so far as the effect
Stalin's death would have on the world.
The news that Pilsudsky was i'll beyond
any chance of recovery may have
created trouble only in Poland, but the
Soviet government is fully aware that
Stalin's grave illness or disappearance
would have wide repercussions both in
Russia and abroad
Evening star., 1945-11-26

words tickle. His imagination was
as active as electricity, yet he did not
burn or sting. The best of his
achievements were the quantity
philosophic commentaries on the
fads and the foibles of the epoch in
which he moved. He was a wit, not
a mere punster, not a bumptious
zany nor conscious and deliberate
screwball cashing in on his infirmity.
Much of what he left will become
part Of the durable stock Of Amer
ican humor.
Evening star., 1945-11-26
The AntiWar PARTY?
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot

The Pearl Harbor inquiry is doing
useful job in bringing to light many
hitherto unpublished facts concerning
the crucial period Immediately preced-
ing December Z, 1941.
1t is also, unfortunately and probably
inescapably, acting as a sounding-boar
for the reiteration of the theory that
we, somehow could have stayed out of
the war, that we ought to have stayed
out of the war, that we would now be
much better off if we had stayed out
that, in fact, going to war was worse
for us than the inevitable consequences
of not going to war.
This column reviewed some of those
consequences the other day. The mail
has brought certain amount of abuse
and vituperation for that review, but
no factual refutation. No refutation
is, indeed, possible.
If we had stayed out of the war,
Britain, China and probably Russia
would have been defeated, or would
have been compelled to make terms
with their Axis enemies.
If we had stayed out Of the war,
Europe, Asia and Africa would now be
in the hands of the Nazis and the
Japanese militarists. And South Amer
lea? You guess that one.
If we had stayed out of the war, the
scientists of Germany, with the re-
sources of the whole world except North
America at their disposal, would long
since have found the secret of the
atomic bomb, while we would not have
had wartime powers and wartime ap-
preparations to enable us to do like
wise. Undisturbed by air attacks and
by the need to prepare against western
invasion, the Germans would have de-
veloped the Notwithstanding weapon
The foes of all that America has
championed and believed in and hoped
for would have triumphed throughout
the world, save in this continent, nor
would our turn be long in coming.
It might be pertinent, If it were I'M
portant, to ask whether these are the
consequences which were desired by the
men who are still saying that we would
have been better of If we had stood
in bed But the minds Of most Of
these are so clouded by prejudice and
hatred as to be unreceptive to any facts
which do not at their preconceptions.
Evening star., 1945-11-26
New Bargaining Bid

The unexpected proposal from the
United Automobile Workers for a
resumption of collective bargaining
negotiations with General Motors
supplies some basis for hope that
the deadlock which has shut down
the giant of the automobile industry
will be broken.
This latest suggestion, though &C
companied by two conditions, is
more conciliatory in tone than the
unions arbitration proposal of last
week, which was in the nature of an
ultimatum. The union demanded
last Monday that the company agree
to arbitration within twenty-four
hours, and that the arbitration
board be empowered to examine the
company's books, to grant 80 per
cent pay increase, and to prohibit
any price increase on any General
Motors product. When the company
acknowledged receipt of the pro-
posal within the stipulated deadline,
but stated that its reply would not
be forthcoming until Friday of last
week, the strike was called. Sub
sequently, the company turned down
the arbitration proposal, contending
it had not been made in good faith,
but was intended merely to ma
neuver General Motors into posi-
ton where it could be blamed for
the strike.
The move for resumption Of col
lective bargaining is not hedged
around with these offensive condi-
tions. It was accompanied by sug-
gestions that the meetings be open
to the public and that Federal con-
ciliators be allowed to participate.
Presumably, however, the union does
not attach great Importance to
either of these stipulations, and it
is difficult to see any reason why this
dispute cannot be settled between
the parties, assuming that both
want to settle it in that way. 1t
may be that the grim outlook for
both sides as the strike goes into its
sixth day has made the collective
bargaining procedure look more at
tractive than was the case when the
strike was called last week. That, at
any rate, is a reasonable inference
to draw from the unions latest
move, and it is to be hoped that it is
well founded.
Evening star., 1945-11-26

They hate Franklin D. Roosevelt, they
hate Britain and Russia, and apparently
they would have been quite willing to
accept the consequences to the Ameri-
can people of a NaZ-Jap victory, could
they only have seen Britain and Rus
sia defeated and Mr.. Roosevelt dis
credited. Fortunately, such men have
themselves been discredited by events.
What they say today has little If any
influence on thinking Americans. They
would hardly be worth mention by seri-
GUS reporters, were it not for the legacy
which they have left behind them
the faint remnants of the bitter feelings
OF 1904, of America First" and the
"stay-out-of-war" uproar. Consequent
ly, there are still some well-intentioned
folk who, rightly considering the war
a great disaster, have not yet fully
grasped the realization that American
aloofness from the war would have
been far greater disaster, and one
from which there could have been no
recovery.
the political attitudes of Republican
leaders IN and out Of Congress, it is a
matter Of the gravest national impor-
tance.
IT, in any measure at all, the Repub-
ican party is going to accept this false
Interpretation of history and mold its
political doctrine on this theory, It is
Of the first Importance that the voters
OF this country should fully understand
all that is thereby implied. We live
now in world where only eternal yigi-
lance and eternal readiness for effec-
tive action, both in diplomacy and in
the military policy which must support
our diplomacy, can possibly preserve
from destruction this Nation and the
civilization Of which It is the strongest
pillar.
The timely use Of force against the
seeds and breeding places of future
wars may be our only salvation in the
years to come. If we Ere not ready
morally to use force, we shall never be
ready materially to do so. We shall not
be ready morally II we begin with the
idea in high places that the late war
had better never have been fought at
all, that our dead died in vain, that our
victories had better never have been
won.
tcopyrisht ls4sy
Evening star., 1945-11-26
Kitchen Stove

There is something about kitchen
stove that sets it apart from other
heating devices. In the days before
oil and electricity brought their
magic labor-saving to household
tasks farm life centered around the
big, cleaning, polished stove. And
there are still many homes where
the wood-burning stove is the heart
OF good living.
There is something friendly and
comfortable about it. Solid and
substantial, with its bright trim,
with the warming oven above the
surface and the deep reservoir for
heating water at the rear, it domi-
mates the honey, -lived-in
room of the farmhouse. The shin
ing black stove is more than de-
vice for heating and cooking. It's
spirit is the background for the red
geraniumS blossoming in the south
window, the almanac hanging from
a nail in the wall, the big dining
table with its red and blue checked
cover, for the spotlessly clean kero-
sene. lamps setting on the oilcloth-
covered shelf above the sink.
On evenings in late fall and win
ter the kitchen stove best exempli-
fies its role as heart of home. Shep,
the farm collie, sleeps behind it and
makes little uneasy meanings as he
dreams of the bewhiskered willy old
woodchuck beneath the pasture
wall. Father sits in his disreputable
old morris chair before the open
oven and reads the daily paper and
farm journals. At one side, near the
front of the stove and beside the
kitchen table, mother sits in the
Boston rocker, moving gently back
and forth as she does the inter.
minable mending for the family
The steady heat from the solie
Evening star., 1945-11-26
Yes, Providing
From the London Daily Express.

CTon the Lonoon daily Express.
1t Is quite wrong to suppose that ws
cannot afford extended social services,
The money provided by the taxpayer
for this purpose does not go down the
drain. 1t is returned again to the ma
tion's benefit in the form Of increased
buying power among our own people.
There is no reason why the cost Of ex-
port should be greatly increased on
account of social services. A man does
better work if he lives in proper condi-
tions. woman provides better home
If she Is free from want and fear.
Money spent on social service Is bene-
fetal In any. economic structure, pro-
vided only that the spirit of drive, en-.
ergy and improvisation still persists,
that the incentive continues to extraor-
dinary effort, and that the reward Of
the adventurer remains now as always
the crowning glory.
Evening star., 1945-11-26
Beethoven

Deat7 Through life he heard the ps-
dnissfno
OF whispering minds that fingered
through his hair
When he aDds but a lad. He clearly heard
The mounting step OF stars upon the
stair
OF night, and listened tor the coming
dapn
Turning to gold crescendo OF the dag;
He caught the soft staccato-undertone
OF lotDering sunsets disappearing y6y.
As crystal in roaring tpGterfall
Reveals the glory Of the spectrum.
light,
His mingled harnsonies 81 rnpturous
tones
Rushed into tempo NTH huriang
might.
In Gilman upon ciinsar Of his art
He left dtDe- filed enchantnaent for nsdn,s
heart. ROSE MYRA PHILLIPS.
Evening star., 1945-11-26

chunks of maple, hickory, ash and
oak make the room comfortable for
the young people, who do their
homework around the big table.
And by and by, after the studying
is finished and the paper read,
father may say, Lets have some
popped corn before we call it a
day." Then the red Goals in the
stove are just right to pop the corn
quickly. The old-fashioned stoves
are humble and unpretentious, but
they serve man well. They make
ashes and dirt, to be sure, but there
are those who feel that electric
and gas gadgets can never equal
wood d-burning stove for cooking and
heating.