Photograph: Munich, November 8, 1938. Adolf Hitler in Munich’s Burgerbräukeller for the anniversary of the Putsch seems to be looking at the hole in the ceiling from the shot he made in 1923.
Germany’s newspapers call for reprisals for the shooting of embassy official vom Rath in Paris.
The German government retaliated for yesterday’s shooting of vom Rath, who lingers near death, barring Jewish children from German state elementary schools, indefinitely suspending Jewish cultural activities, and putting a halt to the publication of Jewish newspapers and magazines, including the three national German Jewish newspapers. A newspaper in Britain described the last move, which cut off the Jewish populace from their leaders, as “intended to disrupt the Jewish community and rob it of the last frail ties which hold it together.” Their rights as citizens had been stripped. One of the first legal measures issued was an order by Heinrich Himmler, commander of all German police, forbidding Jews to possess any weapons whatsoever and imposing a penalty of twenty years’ confinement in a concentration camp upon every Jew found in possession of a weapon hereafter.
Reichsführer Hitler today demanded the return of colonies in a speech on the fifteenth anniversary of his Munich beer hall putsch. “We are demanding nothing from the other powers except the colonies that were taken from us under false pretenses, and we won’t stand before the door like beggars,” he warned. “If, in 1918, I had stood in the place I now occupy, the German collapse in the world war never would have occurred. A collapse would have taken place, but it would have been that of the German political parties. In the next thousand years Germany will not suffer a collapse like that of 1918.” Declaring Germans must make new sacrifices for the sake of rearmament, Hitler said: “We are not preparing to defend ourselves against attacks from the moon or from Mars, but I am determined to strengthen the security of the Reich. That requires sacrifices and more sacrifices.”
Spanish rebels were reported tonight to have opened floodgates of Pyrenees Mountain dams in an effort to wash out the loyalists’ Segre River offensive. Dispatches from Barcelona, telling of the move, said it was unsuccessful. These reports said the level of the Segre south of Lérida was raised only a few inches. The loyalist offensive crossed the Segre River below Lérida and captured the villages of Alcarraz, Aytona, and Seros on the western side. Aytona is the site of a power dam. The drive was aimed toward Fraga and it was reported the highway connecting the rebel bases of Saragossa and Lérida was cut.
Rebel spokesmen indicated elaborate fortifications had been built south of Lérida to “box” any government push in that zone into a triangle formed by the Segre River, the Aragon canal and the Fraga-Lérida highway. Government dispatches said, however, that militiamen had already broken through this “box” and were threatening Lérida. Thirty miles to the south of this zone, the rebels opened a “mop up” drive to destroy loyalist forces which were isolated west of the Ebro River after the rebels captured Mora de Ebro yesterday. More than 300 planes scouted for loyalist refugees and bombed and machine gunned them. Loyalists asserted the rebels’ drive was made possible by the appearance of new Italian war materials and planes. More than 100 Italian tanks of a new small, speedy type were said to have been used. The rebel artillery was heavily reinforced.
A local official allows 51 Jews, including the elderly and children, to enter Czech territory.
Approximately 40 million voters in the congressional and state elections today would decide issues of vast import to the future welfare of the nation. Upon their votes depend the fate of the New Deal and the course of political events, including a third term for President Roosevelt. In New York, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and several other important states the contests are so close that the weather may determine the result. Inclement weather tends to keep voters away from the polls. Colder weather today is forecast in the central states. In New York the forecast is for clear weather early in the day, with rain probable in the afternoon.
If the Democrats, with their present overwhelming majorities in congress, should suffer a loss of only one or two senators and not more than twenty-five or thirty seats in the house they would consider the result a vote of confidence in the New Deal. The President would be encouraged to push forward his program of government reorganization on authoritarian lines and other radical measures in the seventy-sixth congress to be elected today. If, however, the Republicans should gain half a dozen seats in the senate, upwards of fifty seats in the house and half a dozen governorships they would hail the exploit as signaling a popular repudiation of the New Deal and a mandate for conservative policies of government. The combination of Republicans and conservative Democrats would be strong enough in the next congress to bar the way to further radical legislation and to liberalize the labor relations act and other New Deal innovations.
A notable series of Republican victories in the congressional and state elections today recorded a popular verdict against the New Deal in every part of the country. A wave of conservatism swept the nation engulfing Democratic senators and congressmen and Democratic, Progressive, and Farmer-Labor governors. As a portent of political events in the presidential election of 1940 the turning of the tide against the New Deal was a sensational development. From early results, the Republicans gained not less than 8, possibly as many as 10 seats in the senate and upwards of 60 seats in the house as well as wresting 11 governorships and several state legislatures from Democratic control. The reaction against the New Deal permeated the farming regions and was manifested also in industrial centers where the labor vote failed to measure up to Democratic expectations.
Midterm elections were held in the United States. The incumbent Democratic Party lost 72 seats in the House and 8 in the Senate. The Republicans also picked up seats from the minor Progressive and Farm Labor Parties. Elections in 47 states give Republicans 89 seats in Congress, as well as 12 governorships. The LaFollettes’ new Progressive Party in Wisconsin makes a poor showing. Californians vote against the “Ham and Eggs” pension plan, a plan offering $30 in scrip every Thursday to nonworking residents over 50. In Pennsylvania, Crystal Bird Fauset becomes the first African American woman elected to a state legislature.
The U.S. Navy ordered one prototype XFL-1 (Bell Model 8) aircraft from Bell Aircraft Corporation for trials.
Japan extends its war zone, warning foreigners away from Yunnan, bordering Burma and Indo-China, north to Kansu, adjacent to Mongolia. Szechwan province suffers its first air raid at Chengtu airfield.
A Kwangtung [Canton] province official said today that the Chinese had held General Mok Hing-oh responsible for the collapse of Canton defenses. They said he would be executed before a firing squad soon. The official, who came to this Portuguese colony after the fall of Canton on October 21, said unpreparedness, not treachery, was responsible for abandonment of Canton to the Japanese. “The Cantonese government had been fully confident that Japan would not attack South China because of the danger of involving British property,” he said. “We relied too much on the British.”
Born:
Satch Sanders, NBA small forward and power forward (NBA Champions-Celtics, 1961-1966, 1968, 1969; Boston Celtics) and coach, in New York, New York.
Dick Ritger, American ten-pin bowler (Tournament of Champions 1970, 1979 runner-up; 20 career PBA Tour titles), in River Falls, Wisconsin (d. 2020).
Driss Basri, Moroccan politician (Interior Minister 1979-1999), in Settat, Morocco (d. 2007).
Murtala Mohammed, Nigerian military ruler, in Bendel State, Colonial Nigeria (d. 1976).
Naval Construction:
The Royal Navy Bar-class boom defence vessel HMS Bayonet (Z 05) is launched by the Blyth Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. Ltd. (Blyth, U.K.).
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