November 20, 1939; EIGHT SHIPS SUNK BY MINES:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1939:

EIGHT VESSELS

SUNK DURING
THE WEEK-END

177 Persons Reported

Dead or Missing

London, Nov. 20—(.T)—Mines at least temporarily supplanted submarines as the leading sea menace off the British coast today as the floating explosives added still further to the war's greatest week-end toll for merchant shipping.

Eight vessels were reported sunk in the North sea during the weekend, with 177 persons dead or missing.
Trawler Sunk
The sinking included the 345-ton British trawler Wigmore with a crew of 16 and the 1,267-ton British collier Torchbearer, which were disclosed today. Four survivors of the Torchbearer's crew, reported to have numbered 13, were landed at an English port.

The total tonnage of the eight vessels was 27,748. Neutrals were the chief sufferers, losing five ships to Britain's three.

The sunken vessels were:

Simon Bolivar, Netherlands, 8,309 tons
Grazia, Italian, 5,857 tons.
Blackhlll, British, 2,492 ions.
B. O. Borjesson, Swedish, 1.586 tons.
Carlca Milica, Yugoslav, 6,371 tons.
Kaunas, Lithuanian, 1,521 tons.
Torchbearer, British, 1,267 tons.
Wigmore, British, 345 tons.
Full Loss Not Computed
Authorities had not computed the full loss of life in the sinking Saturday of the Netherlands liner Simon Bolivar, but the number was
set tentatively at 140. Eleven were believed drowned or killed by explosions onboard the four other ships.

The admiralty accused Germany of laying the mines, and the British, press today raged against the Nazis, stressing the presence of women and children aboard the Simon, Bolivar, which was bound for the West Indies from Amsterdam.

In Berlin, however, German authorities declared "a German mine could not have been responsible'' for the sinking of the Simon Bolivar.

 

THIRD TERM
AGAIN REVIVED
BY ROOSEVELT

Remarks at Site of His

L i b r a r y Bring
Speculation

By DOUGLAS B. CORNELL
Hyde Park, N. Y., Nov. 20—(AP)—Another wave of speculation over President Roosevelt's political intentions rolled along today in the wake of a speech in which he expressed hope that his collections and papers would be ready for "public inspection and use by the spring; of 1941.

In a bantering mood yesterday at the site of the library that will house the private papers of his public life, the president said he hoped "my good friends of the press" would give "due interpretation to the expression of my hope that when we open the building to the public it will be a fine day."

Lays Cornerstone
The remark was interpolated in his address at the laying of the library cornerstone on the Roosevelt estate and interpreted by most reporters as meaning the president actually is enjoying all the hullabaloo over whether he will aim for a. third term.

The disclosure that the president's correspondence would be available to students, historians and biographers by the middle of 1941 furnished no real clue to his intentions.

It did serve, however, to bring the third-term puzzle to the fore again by leading to conjecture whether Mr. Roosevelt would wish the public to have access to records of the new deal's intimate workings, if he intended to seek re-election next year. Into a copper box that fitted into the cornerstone of the library, the president tucked copies of newspapers which printed stories that linked the third term and the 1941 opening date of the library.

 

WOULD DRAFT
ROOSEVELT FOR
A THIRD TERM

Liberals Seek to Obtain

Local Control
of Patronage

Wisconsin liberal Democrats, convening in Stevens Point Sunday afternoon, pledged themselves anew to support President Roosevelt and the national administration and formulated plans to carry out party organization work in counties and precincts. Nearly 400 men and women from 48 counties assembled at the armory as representatives of the Democratic Party Organization of Wisconsin, volunteer group which was organized at Oshkosh last April. Gustave J. Keller of Appleton presided as president.

For "New Deal" Delegates
The organization went on record by resolution to select exclusively delegates to the Democratic national convention who are pledged to the policies of the national administration and of President Roosevelt. It directed, in this resolution, that its executive board make arrangements to call congressional district conferences for selection of district delegates to the national convention, and to call a state conference for selection of delegates at large. It cited that the organization was created for and exists for the purpose of harmonizing the objectives of the Democratic party in Wisconsin with those of the national administration, and to insure their perpetuation locally and nationally, and pledged fidelity to this purpose. This action was in line with one of the principal objectives of the state organization, to line up Wisconsin