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f O £ M "LG SI : PS"? A v O pugucftTtoP A( 2."T tc l ES Arup ftrSTof^te^ o f pofi-f dHicyvtfo (£Vftojft©^> A^O c ty ^ T it^ Y T / * u hyT 7 1 (1 iXAJ — OU'A o~>~. 0 w P - S s J i / s ^.ayjir, n yy U , , C/:i1 L r. y z : s v t - v £ n A j.A^ oxj i^ '* * * X ^ 5> P 2. p P / r - U.S. AT W A R Then a Copian threw a milk bottle. A* hinted at by able, internationalist Repre DISASTERS, I \ it crashed a Chancellor screamed, “Light sentative James Wadsworth of New York, him up!”* who emerged from a long talk with the' Strange Cargo . A , pistol slammed three bullets into Governor to say: “We discussed methods The dangerous job began secretly in the Christy; Both groups disintegrated into of making this country strong and keeping first empty ; days of the, war. It was a, gal , dodging forms and the dark street filled it strong, in a military sense, after the war.” - lant thing then—/dirty old “rust buckets” • / with the flash and roar of confused gun- "Truman, Isn't It?" Candidate Dewey from •’ ■West Coast , b6ne yards taking ; fire. Police from 'the park and from a stayed noncommittal on . two.; ticklish aboard the tag end of a nation’s aged and; | cruising car ran in, shooting. When it was subjects. Eric Johnston, just back from faulty munitions, bound for Pearl Harbor, over a 15-year-old boy lay dying from Russia, went to Albany bubbling with Melbourne, the Philippines. But the, mimi- ■ five police bullets, a revolver in one hand. enthusiasm over close commercial re tions-loading grew. Slingloads of shells and Four other youths were bleeding on the lations with Russia/ after, the war/Tom ; high explosives were turriing dozens pf the pavement; two with their jaws shattered Dewey listened intently, said nothing,for: new1 grey. Liberty ships into floating bombs /; by. slugs fired at point-blank range. A the record. Asked whether the labor lead-; in scores of American harbors. Thousands „ Negro police officer was swaying, with ers he. would see in Pittsburgh included of men & women spent their days & nights j bullet wounds in his belly. making and handling; cordite and TNT. m Last week fifteen Copians and Chancel It was a secret job* Only the cabled lors. had been rounded up. They Confessed accounts of vast air raids, of stupendous that the battle; had stemmed from an ar- barrages, of naval battles, hinted at the - gument over a stolen cap. The police had enormous amount of the output. - to turn twelve of them loose for lack of ;. Month , after month, munitions ships evidence: Extra detectives, sent- into came in, loaded, and headed out again into Harlem to keep a day & night watch, the Gulf, the Atlantic, the Pacific. doggedly made arrests, kept the streets Up. a long inland arm of San Francisco 'quiet; But the law-abiders wondered bow Bay the ships came to the naval magazine-, long the uneasy peace would last. Said a at Port Chicago, a cheerless town sprawl Negro taxi driver: “I walk the long way ing under dusty trees. The 1,500 citizens home. Those boys don’t, care for nothing.” watched them- come & . go incuriously ; | after the novelty wore off, the ships might:; ■ REPUBLICANS have been loading wheat, for all the thrill there was in it. Few even knew the names ■ The Dewey Week of the two ships which lay at the low, At Albany Tom Dewey withheld com-’ ;' wooden naval wharf.one night last week ’ ment on Franklin Roosevelt’s acceptance; with slingloads of heavy- ammunition speech. But he tossed a grenade at the .swaying aboard in the glare of masthead President’s most aggressive supporters, flights. .. — • the C.I.O.’s Political Action Committee. Then the two ships, Quinault Victory ' I p ; P.A.C. had charged . th at. Governor • and E.r A. Bryan, exploded within five sec-1 Dewey deliberately made it difficult, even onds of each other, filling the sky with an impossible, for New York Members'of the - enormous, ’ -blinding incandescence, A Armed Forces to vote by refusing to ap howling : gale blew and died away as air prove the Federal War Ballot. In reply roared, back into the'.vast vacuum. 1 Then Toffi,Dewey hammered two points;. 1) the ; great chunks of twisted metal from, the; Federal War Ballot, which provides a ships and jagged fragments of exploded ; place to vote only for the President, Vice ; shells; began falling. The people, of Port : -President and members of Congress, would Chicago, asleep seconds before; began call not- be valid in New York because the ing' out in the darkness amid the falling • State; Constitution specifies that every walls of their wrecked town. , ' , , candidate running must be listed; 2) it is /■/ .Thousands in San Francisco, in 'Oakland ; easy.: for a soldier to vote under the I and ! Alameda,| in towns for 50 miles % Dewey-sponsored ' law. Federal’ law re afouhd, saw the glare in the sky and, sec International onds later’ felt a rumbling earth' shock. quires that each Soldier & sailor shall be Pawling Golfer handed a postcard application for the bal jjjfl On schedule. Windows broke in houses 20 miles away/; lot. All he has to do. is send this to Albany Telephone lines were down; many a doc- and he will receive his ballot. ; John L. Lewis' (last week his UnitedMine s tor .and nurse blundered for hours before ., Tom. Dewey added : “This is the sim Workers came out for Dewey), the candi they found the scene of - the disaster,- It plest application form of any state in the date said: “My plans are not definite, was dawn- before Port Chicago could see; • ' Union. .+ It is time this campaign of yet.”; / : ; • what had-happened. r ; deceit was labeled and exposed.” Then h e. was off for another working There was not an undamaged house ; ;Not This Time. Then Candidate Dewey weekend at his Pawling farm. The only - •within three miles of' the kindling wood settled back, to quiet, careful„ building break for relaxation was his regular week-, which had been the water front; scores-of i He., indicated that he ly 18 holes of golf (see cut)t He shot a 94. buildings were ; flat or leaning tipsily. ; was going to make; reconversion a major The rest of the time was given to plans for ■Hardly a man,’ -woman or .child, was ;un- 1 . issue’ by, announcing that, on his way to the Governors’..-Conference,’ which he will bandaged.' Three.; hundred -find twenty- the. conference of Republican Goverhmrs go over with John Bricker this week. Just one men were dead—merchant seamen on ( which he has called in St. Louis, he would before leaving fof New. York, Candidate the vessels and Negro naval enlisted men' vflstop over in Pittsburgh for reconversion Brjcker made the . first comment of the v on the- wharf had , simply Vanished. ; ; - • I talks with, businessmen and labor leaders. Dewey-Bricker team on the .Democratic ' 1 ’At week’s end the Shattered to^vh-echoed Aiiother Deweycampaign. attitude; was Convention. Said he, scratching his brow; ■ to WHarlemese—-shoot- him. |g ;; “Truman—that’s ( his name, isn’t it? I ;;-patched their homes. The cause?ofbthe t .Equally simple: 2.9 other states. * never can remember that name.” i j l ‘ ' II explosion would probably never be/known;' I! TIME/JULY 31, 1944 426 California: A History of the Golden State Arsenal of Democracy 427 l 4. T P**toh /f recreational opportunities and blacks were not welcome there or in ad 1 (5 c*~ i—tX->-sy c r K ^ * p uv/j u. ) *? 7 jacent cities. They suffered insults and harassment by their own officers THE PORT CHICAGO EXPLOSION A N D MUTINY and by Marine guards. The court-martial revealed that many of the incriminating statements introduced into evidence were obtained by ^ glimpse of the devastation of war in all its fury came to Californians officers who threatened to shoot the accused unless they signed the on July 77, 1944, when a fully loaded cmzmunition ship, the S.S. E. A. documents thrust into their hands. One poor seaman who was completely Bryan, blew up. The blast of 9000 tons of explosives took 929 lives illiterate confessed that the interrogating officer signed his confession for and injured 98. Some 990 homes in Fort Chicago, just off San Francisco him. The Navy prosecutor, who had been a district attorney, lost no Bay, were destroyed along with most of the business district. The streets opportunity to belittle the accused. Thurgood Marshall, an observer at were strewn with timbers, telephone wires, glass, and bricks; fifty parked the proceedings, bitterly criticized the blatant discrimination practiced automobiles were totally destroyed and countless others severely damaged. by the Navy. Despite the fact that the black seamen sought only a Pieces of steel from the ship's hull and superstructure showered the town, change of duty by their action and did not realize their actions constituted perforating roofs, walls, and sidewalks. Live shells fell everywhere. Peo a mutiny, they were found guilty as charged. Harsh prison sentences of ple 10 miles distant were cut by flying glass, and windows were broken 99 fifteen years were first meted out to all. However, forty men had their miles away. Several ships in the channel were damaged or destroyed. In punishment reduced to eight to twelve years by appeal of the Navy all, property damages totaled $12,921,999.