November 8, 1944;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1944:

Democrat Edge

Appears Certain

In Both Houses

New Jersey bounced back into the democratic column this afternoon after briefly yielding Governor Thomas E. Dewey a "narrow lead. Further substantial boosts in President Roosevelt's heavy electoral majority appeared possible. The outcome in Ohio and Michigan was most uncertain.

Dewey was leading in each state by several thousand tallies but thousands more were uncounted and the Dewey leads were shrinking.

Dewey Votes Drop.

With New Jersey's 16 votes, Mr. Roosevelt had a total indicated electoral count of 407 and Dewey sank back to 124 after having held 140.

Other late returns expanded the Roosevelt lead and generally strengthened the  democratic party's position in congress. Ample working majorities in both houses appeared assured. At Fargo, N. D., Senator Gerald P. Nye, bitter republican foe of the president's foreign policy, conceded defeat in his reelection race against Governor John Moses. ,

A mix-up at Detroit, blamed by officials on inexperienced election workers, resulted in "losing" 50,000 votes in about 100 precincts. A special canvass will have to be made and the state's electoral votes appeared certain to remain in doubt until that is done tomorrow.

Total Popular Vote.

The total popular vote in 101,263 precincts out of 130,810 stood at 20,647,097 for Roosevelt to 18,193,942 for Dewey.

Manila Raid

Nets 30 Ships,

440 Aircraft

PEARL HARBOR. — (U.P.)

American carrier planes striking a new at the Manila area in preparation for the next phase of the liberation of the "Philippines had raised their toll to 30 Japanese ships and 440 planes destroyed or damaged today.At least five vessels were sunk, a heavy cruiser and a destroyer probably sunk and 23 other vessels damaged in attacks Saturday and Sunday on the enemy's waning sea and air power by planes from Admiral F. Halsey's 3^rd fleet.

The battle of the Philippines already was shaping up as the most decisive campaign fought in the Pacific since the United States regained the initiative.

Jap Commander Returned.

Tokyo, recognizing that her entire southern empire was threatened, announced that Gen, Tomoyuki Yamashita, who captured Bataan, Corregidor and Singapore, had returned to the command of Japanese forces in the Philippines area.

On Leyte, some 350 miles south of Manila, Gen. Douglas MacArthur's American invasion forces finally joined battle with elements of four Japanese divisions in what probably will prove the final and decisive struggle for the central Philippines island.

Units of the American 24^th division ran head-on into elements of the 1st, 30th and 102nd Japanese' divisions and remnants of the notorious 16th division some 15 miles north of Ormoc, west coast sea and air base and last enemy stronghold on Leyte.

"Sharp fighting" was under way, MacArthur reported in his daily communique. The Japanese launched three strong counterattacks, but all were thrown back

with heavy enemy losses.

Five Ships Sank.

Extension of the 3rd fleet's carrier assault on the Manila bay area of Luzon into its second day was disclosed in a communique from Admiral Chester W. Nimitz'sPacific fleet headquarters

Patton's Men

Attack Anew

In East France

PARIS-U.P.) —

Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's American 3rd army made a new attack between Metz and Nancy in eastern France today and advanced up to one mile in the first few hours, capturing at least four villages and crossing the Seille river.

The doughboys forced the Seille, a tributary of the Moselle, at several places approximately 13 miles south of Metz and already had outflanked that enemy bastion from the south. United Press war correspondent Collie Small reported from the front.

On the southwestern approaches to Cologne, a German counterattack drove American 1st army troops out of the hamlet of Kommerscheidt, some 13 miles southeast of Aachen, but the doughboys held firmly to high ground 500 yards to the northwest and edged closer to Schmidt, a mile to the southeast.

Third Town Lost.

Kommerscheidt was the third town to be won and lost in the period of a few days at the tip of the deepest Allied salient in Germany.

The swaying street battle for Vossenack, a mile and a half northwest of Kommerscheidt, raged on into its third day on a rising scale of fury.