October 28: ON THIS DAY in 1945, Truman pledges armed might of U.S. to safeguard world peace

October 28, 2019 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1923, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “With great simplicity and in the immediate presence of no more than 400 people who had known and loved him, the birthplace of Theodore Roosevelt, at 28 E. 20th St., was dedicated yesterday as Roosevelt House by the Women’s Roosevelt Memorial Association, the organization which has been responsible for the restoring and opening of this, another national shrine. At the time of this solemn dedication, one of the greatest Navy Day celebrations in the history of the service was in progress at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. And thus two monuments were brought at once into public view — the one the birthplace of a great man, the other the partial product of his national service.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “President Harry S. Truman told the nation in an historic Navy Day address yesterday that the United States, while retaining possession of the atomic bomb as ‘a sacred trust,’ intends to maintain its armed might to preserve world peace as the only sure method of making this country’s own freedom secure … Facing an audience estimated at more than 1,000,000 persons in Central Park and speaking over combined nation-wide radio networks, the president outlined a 12-point foreign policy, in his administration’s behalf, which highlighted the declarations that the United States, seeking no territorial expansion or selfish advantage for itself, will ‘refuse’ to recognize any government imposed upon any nation by the force of any foreign power.’ ‘We believe,’ he declared in ringing tones, ‘that all peoples who are prepared for self-government should be permitted to choose their own form of government by their own freely expressed choice, without interference from any foreign power.’ While the president’s remarks were construed by many among his listeners as a broad suggestion to Soviet Russia to alter its policy in setting up puppet regimes among her European neighbors, Mr. Truman went on: ‘That is true in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, as well as in the Western Hemisphere.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “A law to prohibit the sale of crime comic books to minors was advanced last night by Assistant District Attorney John E. Cone at installation ceremonies of the 64th Precinct Co-ordination Council in the board room of the Fort Hamilton police station 86th St. and 5th Ave. One of the founders and the first chairman of the council, Mr. Cone said ‘these crime comic books depict murder, arson, burglary, assault and kidnaping. They infect and inflame the minds of the young people to such an extent that many endeavor to fulfill the synthetic thrill they receive while reading these articles by committing similar crimes in real life.’ Referring to the ‘toy gun murders,’ he said that youngsters who have committed murders and assaulted people with converted cap pistols have frequently confessed that they obtained their ideas from reading this ‘gutter muck.’ The speaker asked the Council to take the lead in New York City toward having the sale of such books prohibited, thus ‘rendering a great service to our youth and our city.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “Stockholm (U.P.) — Ernest Hemingway today won the 1954 Nobel prize for literature for his book ‘The Old Man and the Sea,’ which he said he wrote ‘because I was broke.’ The writer of he-man tales, whose savage stories of bulls, bitterness and bravery repeatedly had been bypassed by the Nobel committee, got the award for his gentle story of a noble old man and a fish. Informed at his Havana ranch home that he had received literature’s greatest honor, the noted American novelist said, ‘I am very pleased and proud.’ But he said he will be unable to travel to Stockholm to receive the coveted award from the hands of Sweden’s King Gustav Adolf because of injuries received in two African plane crashes earlier this year. It was to raise money for that African adventure, Hemingway said,’ that he wrote ‘The Old Man and the Sea.’ He said he wrote and rewrote the manuscript until he was ‘exhausted.’ And he explained to his Havana press conference that he tested his writings on his wife, Mary, to see if they are good. ‘If she gets goose pimples,’ he said, ‘I know they are good.’”