Tin Soldiers, Toy Soldiers, Wartime Toys

He was only a little tine soldier then,
To be used as a battering ram;
Today he’s the pride of a nation wide —
He’s the nephew of Uncle Sam.

Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois) Dec 6, 1941

THE Toyville army, marching
Into billets ‘neath a chair,
Discovered two tin soldier spies
Beneath the carpet there.

The captain sternly marched them out,
Their case and fate to settle.
They stood at ease with steady knees,
For they were men of mettle!

I’m glad Ted chanced to pass just then
And took a hand. He thrust
The two spies in his pocket,
To the captain’s great disgust!

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) May 12, 1918

THE Toyville army bravely marched
Across high table land,
Upon the table edge, some one
Forgot the right command!

No welcome “Halt!” to bid them stay,
So like the gallant host of yore,
Theirs not to question, but obey,
They fell in companies to the floor.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) May 19, 1918

Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada) Nov 16, 1942

LITTLE TIN SOLDIER.

Little Tin Soldier, how stiff you stand
With your sword buckled on and your gun in your hand.
Would you hear aright should your captain say,
“Fall out, dismissed, well done — let’s play!”

Or would the Something that comes with drill
O’ershadow you, follow you, hinder you still —
And you hear like the beat of a distant tattoo,
“Count off, front and rear, one two .  .  .  one two?”

Time was, I am sure, though you look so grim
There’s a gleam in your eye, though ’tis often dim,
When your memory quickens and troubles you
As you quick-step, march — one two, one two.

Little Tin Soldier, how stiff you stand
With your sword buckled on and your gun in your hand.
Would you hear aright if I said what is true,
“I love you, my darling — I do, I do?”

— Ann Drew.

Syracuse Herald (Syracuse, New York) Jul 4, 1926

Billigns Gazette (Billings, Montana) Jul 8, 1945

We Are At War.

Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois) Dec 9, 1941

We Are At War.

(An Editorial)

Japan’s unprovoked and unannounced attack upon the United States removed any remaining doubt about this nation’s position in the world conflict.

We are at war. While it was Japan who attacked us, the other Axis partners, Germany and Italy, are equally our enemies. There is no longer reason for pretense. The United States is in the war and there is no question about who the enemies are.

Japan’s savage attack upon unsuspecting Hawaii is exactly what we should expect from the Axis nations. Germany always strikes first and then announces intentions. Italy stepped into the war with an attack upon France when France was prostrate. Japan’s every move against China has followed the same pattern.

Japan’s method of procedure did bring about united determination in this country to devote all energy to the production of the war. It is reprehensible to us that a nation should make an attack at the very moment its envoys were seemingly engaged in peace negotiations.

Hemisphere solidarity seems assured. The Latin-American nations will give valuable aid, economically, and in furnishing bases and patrols.

We must steel ourselves for a real fight. Japan will not be a push-over. She has been preparing for this conflict for years. The fighting will be on her side of the Pacific, a decided advantage.

We will suffer serious losses. They must be expected. This is real war — grim, relentless war. No quarter will be asked or expected.

The United States faces a tremendous responsibility in the now world-encircling clash between totalitarian and Democratic ideas. We must continue to supply Great Britain, Russia and China, and in addition give our own fighting forces every support.

Our so-called “defense effort” has been little more than half-hearted. Now we must forget all our nationalistic differences, put aside all thought of personal advantage, ignore partisanship and put every effort behind the President and the military forces on the sea, in the air and in the field.

Nothing must be permitted to stand in the way of our prime purpose.

We have a war to win.

Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois) Dec 8, 1941

Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois) Dec 8, 1941

Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois) Dec 9, 1941

Our Liberty and Ourselves

OUR LIBERTY AND OURSELVES

HUMAN LIBERTY is not a gift of God but a social achievement. Pitifully few people ever enjoyed the freedoms we know. And far fewer enjoy freedom now than ten years ago. In fact, we cannot be certain there will be any human liberty in the world at all in the next few years. Over a dozen constitutions of a quality similar to ours have been tossed on the bonfire lit by recent tyranny. What comfortable guarantee have we that our own constitution will survive another 150 years, or even the next 10 years.

Freedom has come only to those people who hated tyranny enough to shatter it at whatever cost. Their children will retain that freedom only if they act in a united way to repel at whatever cost any force which would attack it. We cannot call Washington and his heroes back to defend in our day the freedom they established while we applaud from the sidelines.

There must be a heroic quality in us as there was in them.

But some Americans are already complaining about the disappearance of luxury items from the market. We hear voices protesting the silk stocking shortage. Let them recall the bleeding feet at Valley Forge. Others object to gasoline rationing, no white-wall tires next year, fewer new cars. If we preserve our liberties with the sacrifices as trivial as these, we will be unbelievably lucky.

Mason City Glob Gazette (Mason City, Iowa) Aug 22, 1941

George Washington at Valley Forge

Gunboat Plymouth’s Gallant Death

[Excerpt]

Submarine and Destroyer Among 6 U.S. Ships Lost

WASHINGTON. — (AP) — Six U.S. warships, battling the Axis throughout the world, have gone to the bottom in the last two months, the Navy reported yesterday.

The submarine Pickerel and destroyer Maddox topped the list of lost vessels which also included the gunboat Plymouth, submarine chaser PC-496, mine sweeper Sentinel, and submarine rescue vessel Redwing.

…..

Another underwater explosion sent the gunboat Plymouth to the bottom of the Atlantic off the North Carolina coast Aug. 5. Whether she was torpedoed or struck a mine was not disclosed. Her commander, Lt. Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel Jr. was wounded.

St. Petersburg Times (St. Petersburg, Florida) Aug 16, 1943

St. Petersburg Times (St. Petersburg, Florida) Aug 16, 1943

The Once Over
By H.L. PHILLIPS

LINES TO THE ALVA

(“The gunboat Plymouth, torpedoed off the Carolinas, was formerly the Alva, $3,000,000 Vanderbilt yacht.” — News item.)

Once gleaming beauty of the peaceful seas,
Pristine and regal, born for soft, smooth ways;
A flashing symbol of great luxuries —
A yacht designed for tranquil lazy days. . .
And now a shattered thing with ghastly wounds —
A battered hulk upon the ocean floor —
A mild, great lady who went out of bounds
And died a gallant scrapper in a war!

II.

The Alva! . . . How her name shown in the news
When all the world was free from slimy hate!
How oft we read of some gay, carefree cruise
When no one dreamed of her impending fate!
She was the glamour girl of yachting magazines;
Society observed her every move;
The newsreels played her up mid tropic scenes. . .
Before she died, a scrapper “in the groove”!

III.

To cruise a tranquil world in style deluxe —
To ring with merry laughter and with song —
To know the duchesses and all the dukes —
And hear the rhumba dance tunes linger long. . .
For this was she turned out a few years back,
The dream ship of a famous millionaire;
None sensed the lady would a wallop pack
And go down fighting in a wolf-packs’s lair.

IV.

To take her leisure on far waters blue;
To give some time to scientific aims —
(This, too, the lady found the time to do;)
But all such stuff was just like playing games
Compared to what her destiny decreed. . .
Bold sorties out where dark assassins lay —
Long nights with death about on every watch. . .
Then frightful sounds where once was oh, so gay —
And finally a bloody, spar-strewn patch.

V.

The Alva! I remember her so well.
Each Winter by Miami’s causeway fair. . .
I see her shining  now, and hear her bell. . .
And note the whiteness of her flashing there!
Immaculate, unscratched from stem to stern,
Aloof and with much hauteur in her eye. . .
Yet waiting for Ol’ Davie’s dice to turn
And call on her to battle and to die!

VI.

Now much through every stateroom leaves its mark
And through the portholes puzzled fishes play —
And there’s a gaping wound through which the sharks
Have ample room to weave and twist and sway;
Here’s to you, Alva, game, bold fighting lass —
A heroine, not just a glamour gal!
The men on fighting ships all lift a glass
And say, “Here’s to a sweetheart and a pal!”

Kingsport News (Kingsport, Tennessee) Aug 20, 1943

Coast Guard Rescues 60 Members of Crew Of Gunboat Plymouth

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Coast Guard rescued 60 members of the crew of the gun boat Plymouth, sunk off the North Carolina coast on August 5, the Navy reported yesterday.

Loss of the gun boat previously had been reported by the Navy in a communique which said the vessel sank after two violent underwater explosions.

Members of the crew, the Navy said yesterday were picked up from stormy waters by the Coast Guard cutter commanded by Lieutenant Woodward B. Rich, Baltimore, and by a life boat crew from the cutter who volunteered to search for survivors.

Gazette and Bulletin (Williamsport, Pennsylvania) Oct 8, 1943

A Little Less Patter and A Lot More Fury

Not parades, not fireworks, not speeches or flagwaving will feature this fateful anniversary of the birth of our nation this year.

Instead grim-faced workmen toiling through the holiday in Fitchburg’s 100 per cent war industries, children and housewives still searching out precious scrap to add to the nation’s resources, civil defense unites going seriously about their protective duties and Fitchburg businessmen unselfishly contributing to the great community effort mark this 166th birthday of our independence.

This is a Fighting Fourth; bullets and bombs replace firecrackers and rockets. It’s time to face the issue squarely and to stop side-stepping and avoiding the sacrifices that must be made in the daily life of every man, woman, and child.

It’s time to show a little fury; to get mad at the things that are threatening the freedom we have gained through 166 years of sweat and struggle. We’re a free nation; we’re a fighting nation — read the battle-cries of the men who have fought to protect this country as they are dramatically presented by picture and story elsewhere in this issue of The Sentinel.

What is your battle-cry for this Fighting Fourth?

Fitchburg Sentinel (Fitchburg, Massachusetts) Jul 3, 1942

FIGHTING WORDS FOR THE 4th

IF THERE were no man like Douglas MacArthur to say, “I came through, and I shall return;” if there had been no man like John Paul Jones to shout, “I have not yet begun to fight”; if there were no men like the doughboy at the left, who know such words in their hearts, even if they have not heard them spoken — if none of these men had ever lived, there would be no Independence Day now for America. On this page are pictured some of the Americans whose fighting words have echoed ’round the world. They are shown in the dramatic settings under which the words were spoken.

“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves . . . . The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this Army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of a brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or to die.

“Our own, our Country’s honour, calls upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion; and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us, then, rely on the goodness of our cause, and the aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions. The eyes of all our countrymen are now upon us; we shall have their blessings and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the tyranny meditated against them. Let us, therefore, animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a freeman contending for liberty . . . is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.

“Liberty, property, life and honour are all at stake.”

— GEORGE WASHINGTON,  before Battle of Long Island, 1776.

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“Give me liberty, or give me death.” — Patrick Henry, 1775.

“Damn the torpedoes, and full speed ahead” — Admiral David Farragut, 1864.

“Don’t give up the ship.” — Capt. James Lawrence, 1813.

“Come on you __ __ __ do you want to live forever?” — Marine Sgt. Daniel Daly, 1918.

“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” — Nathan Hale, 1776.

Fitchburg Sentinel (Fitchburg, Massachusetts) Jul 3, 1942

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Fitchburg Sentinel (Fitchburg, Massachusetts) Jul 3, 1942

Hugh Mulcahy, left, is greeted by Hank Greenberg on arrival at Air Force Officers’ school, at Miami Beach. Mulcahy, former pitching star of Philadelphia Nationals, and the big boy who hit home runs for the Detroit Americans are in the same league now.

Fitchburg Sentinel (Fitchburg, Massachusetts) Jul 3, 1942

“If You See General Ike, Tell Him We’re The Boys Who Can Do It.”

Mason City Globe Gazette (Mason City, Iowa) Jun 6, 1944

D-DAY — from History.com

During World War II (1939-1945), the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. Prior to D-Day, the Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target. By late August 1944, all of northern France had been liberated, and by the following spring the Allies had defeated the Germans. The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe.

Delta Democrat Times (Greenville, Mississippi) Jun 6, 1944

First Wave Of Assault Troops Mowed Down

By James C. McGlincy
United Press War Correspondent

LONDON, June 7. — Some of the first assault troops who stormed the French beaches were mowed down by German crossfire but succeeding waves climbed over their bodies until a foothold was established, an eye-witness who returned from the beachhead reported today.

Bert Brandt, 28, an Acme News photographer, spent a half hour on the beach yesterday and several hours more cruising within gunshot of the landing scene.
“It was hotter than hell over there,” Brandt said. “I was at Anzio but Anzio was nothing like this.”

He said the Germans laid down intensive fire on the beaches with well-emplaced machine-guns. American casualties were spotty, heavy on some beaches and light on others.

On one beach, Brandt reported, the German machine-gunners waited until the landing craft lowered their ramps and then poured deadly fire into the barges. The opposition met by the first wave delayed the landing of demolition parties scheduled to follow with heavy equipment.

The German defenses finally crumbled under the weight of attack and by the time Brandt left the beachhead at 3 P.M. yesterday, the Americans were firmly ashore and beginning to advance inland.

“The whole thing was an unbelievable sight,” Brandt said. “Planes criss-crossed overhead constantly. You never could look up without seeing a formation of planes somewhere, P-38s and P-47s zoomed right overhead all the time blasting the German defenses.

“Some boats were burning and a pall of smoke hung over the beach. I saw some of the bodies of our soldiers who had been killed in the first landings floating in the water. Some of the boats were swamped in the choppy seas.

“There were tremendous rafts just floating offshore jammed with trucks, tanks and ambulances. On one beach we landed tanks from LCT’s. Then some waves of Infantry went in, followed by engineers and then more Infantry.

“On the beaches the men crouched behind jeeps, tanks, anything they could find for cover. At one point they made their way to the German concrete defense wall, and that was the first cover they found.

“Right off the beach were tall cliffs which were scaled by the rangers. They captured gun positions within 15 minutes after they went in.”

Despite fierce resistance, Brandt said, everyone was calm and the operation was well organized. On the landing boats going over, the troops were so confident, Brandt was worried. He saw Pvt. Charles Blackledge, Columbia, Miss., sitting amid bangalore torpedoes, bazookas, TNT and other deadly weapons reading a little black-covered Bible.

Daily News (Huntingdon, Pennsylvania) Jun 6, 1944

He snapped a picture of one boy asleep on top of a jeep five minutes before landing. As the troops went overside into smaller boats for the assault, one yelled: “If you see General Ike, tell him we’re the boys who can do it.”

Two negro jeep drivers stood at the rail looking at the looming continent.

“Yassuh,” one laughed, “theah she am!”

One small boat which supported the landing was commanded by Lt. Richard Margetts, San Diego, Cal. Its crew included Lt. ?g? Chester Hendrickson, Grove City, Minn., Cox. Robert Jaggers, Stantonville, Tenn., Seaman 1c Gilbert Aguilar, Houston, Tex., and Seaman John Hornyal, Bridgeport, Conn.

After piloting an assault craft ashore and back to the larger ship, Seaman 1c Forrest Hillegas, Allentown, Pa., called: “Anybody got a cigaret? I think I’ve got one coming after that.”

Daily News (Huntingdon, Pennsylvania) Jun 6, 1944

Brandt hitch-hiked back on a boat returning with wounded in order to get his pictures out. In a corner of the returning craft a wounded boy sat sobbing. He told Brandt:

“For three years I’ve been training for this and what happens? As soon as I get off the boat I get hit. I didn’t even get a chance to fire a shot at a German.”

Anniston Star (Anniston, Alabama) Jun 7, 1944

Battle of Midway – Japs Caught By Surprise

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Jun 9, 1942

Japs Caught By Surprise, Report American Fliers

Young Airmen Grin As They Describe Raid

—–

Flying Fortresses Bomb Big Jap Transport And Two Heavy Cruisers In Battle Of Midway

—–

(By FRANK TREMAINE)
United Press Staff Correspondent

At an army air base, Hawaii. —
(UP) — Sprawled around their “Yankee Doodle” flying fortress under the palm trees of this air base, army aviators talked today about the battle of Midway.

They grinned like school boys on commencement day.

Capt. Paul Payne, 25, Des Moines, Iowa, who studied banking at the University of Illinois, answered for all of them when in reply to a question he said:

“We we scared? Gosh! To tell the truth I don’t know. But come to think of it, I guess we were all scared as hell, now that you mention it.”

Most of them had had the first taste of fire in the battle of Midway. They went in boys and came out veterans. They had fought off the attack of Japanese planes, and had hit a big Japanese transport and two heavy cruisers, scored a near miss which probably damaged a carrier and shot down a zero fighter.

“We came out of the mess unscratched simply because we caught the Japs by surprise the first time and were just gosh awful lucky other times,” Payne said, propping himself against the massive wheel of the Yankee Doodle.

Spotted Them First

“We spotted them long before they spotted us. It was a pretty sight to look down on those columns of ships. I don’t want to guess how many there were, but there were plenty.

“Our three flying fortresses picked the biggest one in the bunch, a battleship or a big cruiser, and we saw bombs of all three planes strike on or alongside it. Then they gave us the book.

“Then we had a piece of luck that seemed bad at the moment but turned out to be a break. One of the doors of the bomb bay stuck and we couldn’t release all our eggs. Finally we worked it open and looked for a target.”

“An d we didn’t have to look far,” said Lieut. Gone Wills, Petersburg, Tenn. “There below us was a big transport.

“I heard Payne say, ‘Let’s go get the big one,’ and got her we did. We unloaded our last bombs squarely amidships. Flames enveloped the whole superstructure and smoke, that black, oily kind, gushed from every part of her.”

“And that was our first day’s work completed,” Payne said. “We high-tailed it home and arrived right on the nose at nightfall. We didn’t have a mark on us.”

The next day the three planes in Payne’s element attacked a carrier.

“All the time it was going around like a dog chasing its tail, and it and its escorts were peeling shells at us from all directions,” Payne said.

“They had our altitude but they couldn’t get the range. The shells exploded beside us and behind us. Some came so close that the concussion slapped

Bargdill to the floor when he stuck his head out of the window of the gunner’s compartment.
(Bargdill is Coroporal Don C. Bargdill, 27, Hutchinson, Kans.)

“Just then Karotsky hollered over the phone:

“‘Three zeros from the carrier are coming after us.'”
(Zarotsky is Corporal Alexander Zarotsky, 20, Cincinnati, Ohio.)

“Bargdill, you pick it up from here. That Jap was your baby.”

Bargdill scratched at the back of his neck.

“The tracers were scooting overhead as I looked out the window,” he said. “One zero came up as fast as lightning. In a few seconds he was heading right for my side of the ship, throwing plenty of lead. And I was throwing plenty right back on him.

Plummets Into Sea

“I didn’t bother to use the sights. I just followed the tracers. They practically cut him in two. I saw the first burst hit his cowling and watched the tracers move down his fuselage. He seemed to hang in the air just a fraction of a second. Then he slid off into an uncontrolled dive. He plummeted straight down to the sea.

“He was so close when he got my last burst that I could make out his facial features. It’s the gospel truth. That Jap looked just like the cartoons. He had goggles on and he had buck teeth.

“He also had guts. He came right on into the face of that fire until it got him.

“Did he hit me? Shucks, no. He ought to have practiced more. He didn’t even come close.”

On the way back Zarotsky hurt his little finger in closing the bomb door, but it didn’t rate as a casualty.

They refueled and went back.

“Every once in a while we would see a burning ship as we flew toward the Japanese fleet. It was ample evidence that the torpedo planes and the dive bombers were having a field day of their own,” Capt. Payne said.

This time they attacked a cruiser, flying high above 25 Japanese fighters which did not rise to challenge them.

“The cruiser was zig-zagging around but we crossed its stern and the bombs fell right across it,” Payne said. “As we swung around I could see we had hit it badly. It was burning amidships and aft.”

With Payne and the others mentioned were Sergt. Barney Ford, Sergt. R.L. Pleky, Rear Gunner Leonard Hendry, Brentwood, Md.; and Corporal J.J. O’Brien, Jermyn, Pa.

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Jun 11, 1942

Ogden Standard Examiner (Ogden, Utah) Jun 12, 1942

Doughnuts for Doughboys

DOUGHNUTS FOR DOUGHBOYS

Of course you’re planning a party for the boy home on a furlough and you will want to serve the food he likes best. Put doughnuts at the top of the list for at canteens they are first choice.

Here are doughnuts that will top any your doughboy ever tasted. Light as a feather, moist, tender, deliciously spicy pumpkin doughnuts. Sugar a few for the folks with a sweet tooth and serve wedges of cheese for added goodness. Make them often for the family, too.

Try this new way of frying doughnuts. See how light and tender they are — how delicate tasting. There’s no unpleasant smell or smoke, and foods fried the

Spry way are so digestible even the children can eat them. Will they love that pumpkin flavor, too!

Evening Standard (Uniontown, Pennsylvania) Oct 23, 1942

The doughnut has been removed from the list of indigestibles by the Chicago school of domestic science. Those who have been forced to take to their beds after eating them in the past, will now be able to partake in safety.

The Daily Herald (Chicago, Illinois) Jul 1, 1910

New York Times – Chicago Tribune Leased Wire.

CHICAGO. May 7. — Any housewife who things she may have unexpected guests — say, about 600 of them and mostly male — will do well to cut out and paste in her cook book “Ma” Burdick’s tested recipe for doughnuts.

“Pa” and “Ma” Burdick, the doughnut king and queen of the Salvation Army, reached Chicago yesterday, after nearly two years of service overseas — two years of work for the American doughboys.

“What’s the most important thing in making doughnuts?” “Ma” was asked.

“Speed, she replied. Then she gave her recipe.

“It’s for six hundred,” she said, “but I guess you can divide it.”

Here it is:

Salvation Doughnuts.
Twelve quarts of flour.
Six quarts sugar.
Twenty-four tablespoonsful baking powder.
Three teaspoonsful salt.
Three quarts milk.
Fry in deep fat.

“The secret’s in the mixing,” said “Ma.”

“Ma” Burdick’s “shrapnel cake” was another favorite with the boys.

Here is the recipe:

Shrapnel Cake.
(Three pieces.)
Two large cups sugar.
One cup molasses.
Two cups milk.
One cup strong black coffee.
Three heaping teaspoonsful cinnamon.
One heaping teaspoonful cloves.
One teaspoonful salt.
One teaspoonful baking powder.
Two large cups raisins (the shrapnel).
Flour to make a stiff batter.

The famous flapjacks were made in the following manner:

Fifty Flapjacks

One quart flour.
Two heaping teaspoons baking powder.
One teaspoon salt.
Milk to make a soft batter. Beat until light.

San Antonio Evening News (San Antonio, Texas) May 7, 1919

Hot, tasty doughnuts and a cup of steaming, fresh coffee really hit the spot these damp, cold days in England .   .   . and especially for two Iowa doughboys who know the Red Cross Iowa clubmobile was made possible through contributions by residents of their own state.

Once a week the club-kitchen on wheels drops in at an aerial reconnaissance station with “doughnuts for doughboys.” When it does, Cpl. Clyde Olsen, left, and Pfc. Carl C. Larsen, right, of Forest City, Ia., are among the first to welcome it and its two comely attendants, Miss Leo Lindsley of Fallons, Neb., and Mrs. Georgette Hayes of Middletown, N.J.

Corporal Olsen, a radio operator with a Station Complement squadron, assisted his father on his farm near Missouri Valley, Ia., before he entered the army May 29, 1942. He is the husband of Lucille Craig Olsen, 1 11 Stutsman street, Council Bluffs, and a son of Mr. and Mrs. John H. Olson, RFD No. 2, Missouri Valley.

Council Bluffs Nonpareil (Council Bluffs, Iowa) Nov 17, 1943

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Sep 21, 1927

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The Chronicle Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) Oct 11, 1926

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By the way, it’s National Doughnut Day.

Cinco de Mayo, 1945

The free world had cause for celebration on May 5, 1945.

Tucson Daily Citizen (Tucson, Arizona) May 5, 1945

Nazis Whipped – Burma Japs Gone!

Yanks Down 154 Nippon Aircraft

Germans in North Quit

San Antonio Express (San Antonio, Texas) May 5, 1945

Nazis Give Up Southern Germany

Patton Tries for a Knockout

The Fresno Bee (Fresno, California) May 5, 1945

1,000,000 Nazi Soldiers Laid Down Their Arms

Continued Fighting Against West Allies Senseless

Air Power Prime Factor in Defeat

Indiana Evening Gazette (Indiana, Pennsylvania) May 5, 1945

Major German Resistance at End

Desperate Foes Fights Grimly

Denmark Celebrates End of Five-Year Nazi Rule

The Coshocton Tribune (Coshocton, Ohio) May 5, 1945

Women Everywhere Taking to Slacks

(With women, everywhere taking more and more to slacks, overalls, halter-alls and similar garb formerly associated only with males and publicity-minded feminine movie stars, a man offers some advice to the opposite sex about wearing pants. He happens to be so expert on women’s styles, whose famous comic strip character, “Tillie the Toiler,” was one of the original factors in popularizing slacks among working girls. This is the first of a series of articles written especially for The Light.)

By RUSS WESTOVER

Famous Cartoonist – Creator of
“Tillie the Toiler”

I find that among women the question no long is, “Shall I wear trousers?” but “What kind of trousers shall I wear and when?” Slacks for women have passed the fad stage; they are every day garb for hundreds of thousands of them and are actually mandatory in numerous industries from coast to coast. In the machine shops of the naval station at Alameda, Calif., at the Pan American Airways base at New York, the rule is: all women employes wear pants.

However, the utility of slacks, halter-alls and such as feminine garb in war work doesn’t mean that skirts are going to be, or should be, abandoned altogether. It isn’t necessary, and it is undesirable, both from the standpoint of expediency and feminine attractiveness. Slacks designed for all hours of the day are available now, but as a uniform to replace skirts in public, they are affected and in bad taste. Furthermore, to abandon all skirts and dresses in favor of mannish attire would be wasteful of materials urgently needed for the war effort.

It’s my opinion that the less women wear slacks or other forms of pants when their work doesn’t require it the better for their appearances. Slacks are really becoming to but few adult women. However, if a girl’s job must be done in slacks, she need not dress at home in skirts and change at the plant, unless her travels to and from work wearing slacks would make her unpleasantly conspicuous. On the other hand, work which requires halter-alls accompanies a mechanical career, and men at such jobs shirt to overalls at the plant.

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Tomorrow: Helpful hints on slacks for office wear.

San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Texas) May 18, 1942

By RUSS WESTOVER

“Tillie the Toiler”

No woman thinks in terms of glamour, of course, in buying trousers or pants for factory wear. Glamour doesn’t mix with safety and safety must set the style for women workers. However, for the sake of uniformity in appearance, many concerns are requiring women office help, as well as feminine machine operators, to wear pants. The office worker can safely give more thought to good appearance.

Most women to whom slacks now occur as revolutionary garb for everyday wear, will probably have to go through the novice coyness about them, or they think they will. One group will get too mannish and look like fools; the other will go too far in the opposite direction.

The best advice is to get full cut garments, with correct waistline measure. Good fabric, good fit, good lines, the right color, determine the figure you cut in slacks. They should be more a tailoring job than a dressmaker’s creation. Don’t choose slacks that have too deep a crotch and wide, flapping legs.

As a man in public unless he is a slum vacationer at a resort seldom wears a shirt and pants without a jacket, the woman doomed to slacks will find her looks bolstered if she wears a coat when not on the job in the office or shop with her slacks. Her tailored suit jacket or tweed sports coat will be proper with them.

The strictly tailored blouse, the knit pullover, the bellhop jacket, are appropriate with slacks as the working garb at typewriter, desk or counter.

Stockings beneath slacks are uncomfortable; wearing socks to protect the feet from the shoe-lining is the sensible thing, besides saying wear and tear on more expensive hose.

Proper underwear is, of course, essential to the fit and comfort of slacks. Women need no advice from a man about the proper panties, girdles, etc., which every shop, from dime stores up, now stock. The combination one-piece streamlined shorts and slip-like middles, seems to be a good idea.

San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Texas) May 19, 1942

By RUSS WESTOVER

Famous Cartoonist-Creator of
“Tillie the Toiler.”

Any job, from making a bed to constructing an airplane, is easier done in slacks or overalls than skirts. Stooping not only wipes the floor with your skirt, but creates a real accident hazard. You stumble and trip over the spread skirt, if it’s full. If it’s tight you can’t stoop in it without appearing obscene. So it’s natural that more and more women should be taking to slacks for home tasks.

However, slacks should be considered primarily as working clothes and not as round-the-clock garb. A woman with any sense would never deliberately wear slacks to a home wedding or a funeral; or, unless at a nobody-cares resort, to a dining or lunching date in public. Even dinner pajamas are restricted by usage to your own home, or the home of a neighbor or close friend whose home you visit by automobile.

You may have seen photos of Paulette Goddard, the film star, wearing short slacks as evening garb at a resort some time ago. Well, as Paulette told me a few days ago,  she’s had a change of mind about slacks. She’s decided that they’re not becoming to a feminine figure. She’s adhering to the conventional evening gown now.

Paulette told me, by the way, that there was a howl of protest from the soldiers when a contingent of Hollywood feminine entertainers showed up at an army camp in slacks or uniforms. The soldiers made it plain they wanted the femmes who visit them to look feminine. So now the stars wear their prettiest frills and furbelows when they go to the camps to contribute their bit to morale.

For dress-up slacks, if you do choose to wear them, frilly blouses, sheer shirts, costume jewelry, etc., are part of the costume, the more feminine the better the effect. Low heels are always the correct item with slacks, unless the evening variety; replacing the teagown or dinner gown, are the slacks in question.

Tomorrow: Helpful hints on accessories for the slacks costume.

San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Texas) May 21, 1942

By RUSS WESTOVER

Famous Cartoonist – Creator of
“Tillie the Toiler”

The girls appear to be winning their battle for the right to wear slacks to school. In Pittsburgh, for example, the superintendent of schools approved, provided, however, the girls do not take to any outlandish fashions that will create a distraction and a disturbance. In New York, when Beverly Bernstein was forbidden to wear slacks to Abraham Lincoln High School, she and fellow students staged a strike for the emancipation of women from skirts. They got up a petition which school authorities couldn’t talk down:

“The undersigned want official permission for girls to wear slacks to school for the following reasons:

(a) the United States government advocates slacks for school, because they are better than skirts in the event of an air raid; (b) they conserve silk stockings; (c) they curb sexy clothes such as short skirts.

Note: Boys also wish the girls to wear slacks and are signing this petition.”

It isn’t exactly true the government is advocating slacks for school. In fact, it’s fearful that unnecessary adoption of the style will aggravate the shortage of wool. However, in scores of other cities, girls have donned pants for school hours, and they’re on their honor not to let the fashion get beyond conservative bounds.

The least captious girls hate their beaux to present a rumpled, unpressed appearance. Let them take this tip unto themselves and keep slacks in press. Washable slacks should be kept at least as fresh as a girl keeps her blouse, her handkerchief. If the tailor stitches down the crease of wool pants, pressing them neatly is then an easy home job, and the crease doesn’t get out of line between pressing.

There has been a great spurt of publicity to get hats onto heads above slacks. And the long-visored cap, the cocoanut straw hat and the felt fedora type have been advocated for the slacks ensemble. The scarf or handkerchief turban is very popular. Another suggestion is the worsted snood.

Tomorrow: Practical hints on getting the best fit in slacks.

San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Texas) May 22, 1942

By RUSS WESTOVER

Famous Cartoonist, Creator of “Tillie the Toiler.”

Even if you do not have an ideal figure like Film Stars Hedy LaMarr and Peggy Diggins, there are a number of things you can do to look your best in slacks.

First of all, choose slacks of a masculine cut — the straight-hanging style helps a lumpy figure a lot. You can add a jacket capable of concealing average figure faults. Slacks tailored of dark, substantial material flatter heavy figures.

Be sure, in fitting your slacks, to study the back view in a long mirror. Avoid slacks with too deep a crotch, and wide, flopping legs.

Prefer high-waisted lines; instep-length, tapering at the ankle; no pleats or bunchiness about the waist.

I find some good advice to women on this subject in Good Housekeeping magazine:

“Consider slacks as part of an ensemble — not just a pair of trousers. Complement them with the right accessories — low-heeled shoes, tailored shirts or blouses, right-length coats, informal hairdos, appropriate headgear. Follow masculine preference in fabrics and colors. Determine which becomes you most — fly-front or side-closing. Be sure slacks have well-pressed creases.”

Don’t be afraid to wear slacks. Any objectionable points will not be seen once the novelty wears off. Tillie the Toiler is no slacker when it comes to slacks. You shouldn’t be either, if by wearing them you can do your war-time job better.

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(This is the last of a series in which a man who is an expert on women’s styles gives some advice to the opposite sex on wearing slacks.)

San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Texas) May 23, 1942

Below are two examples showing Tillie in slacks, the first one also has her mom wearing them:

San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Texas) Apr 11, 1942

San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Texas) May 8, 1942