North Carolina Newspapers

The Alamance Gleaner VoL LXVII ' GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY-, JUNE 19, 1941 No. 20 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Sinking of 'Robin Moor' by Submarine Is Investigated by State Department; Byrnes, Jackson Named to High Court As Stone Is Appointed Chief Justice (EDITOR'S NOTE?When ?pinions aro expressed In those columns, thejr are those of the news analyst and not aooosoarUy of this newspaper.) (Released by Western Newspaper TTnirm \ U. S. citizens are getting s first-hand look at the famous Nasi fighting plane, the Messersehmltt, now on display in a New York theater. Pro ceeds from the showing of this plane will go to bny "bandies for Britain." This is the first time that one of these aerial fighters has been shown in the United States. COURT: Line-Up Changed President Roosevelt's appointment of Harlan Fiske Stone to replace Charles Evans Hughes as chief jus tit* of Supreme court was an nounced at the same time as he sent to the senate the names of two new associate justices he had picked. Sen. James Byrnes of South Carolina and Attorney General Rob ert H. Jackson of New York. A Republican, Justice Stone is 68 years old and was appointed to the Supreme court by President Cool idge in 1926. His appointment as chief Justice came as somewhat of a surprise for many sources in Washington believed that Attorney General Jackson would get the nom ination. Senator Byrnes, who has been a strong administration supporter in the senate since the early days of the New Deal, will succeed Justice McReynolds who retired some time ago. Jackson will take the place left vacant by Justice Stone's ele vation to chief justice. U. S.: Ship Worry The Robin Moor, sunk in the South Atlantic' well within the United States' neutrality zone, was declared by its few survivors to have' been sunk by a German U-boat, the first in what most observers expected would be a series of international incidents, similar to that of the Lusi tania in the last war. The Robin Moor went to the bot tom, bearing seven passengers in rluding a little chikl, and the first lifeboat, the only one immediately found, contained only 11 survivors. The other two boats, according to the evidence of Brazilian ship peo ple who went in search, showed on the surface of the sea some evidence that they had been lost. The first notice of the loss was given as "the result at a storm at sea," but the survivors told their rescuer that they had been tor pedoed. Following these reports try surviv ors. authoritative sources in Wash ington indicated that work on a for mal note of protest to Germany was under way by the state department. It was pointed out that in such a note restitution for loss of Ameri can life and property was only what the Nazis could expect. While at first the White House had announced that "judgment should be withheld" on the incident, later word came that there seemed to be "no longer any reason" for that. TOe state department's report was first made public by Sumner Welles at his press conference. He based his findings on the account of the sinking as it came from Walter J. Linthicum, U. S. consul at Pernam buco, Brazil. Linthicum spent nearly five hours getting the stories of the rescued persons. DUCE: Calls Names Celebrating the year that Italy has been in the war, Mussolini made a speech to his puppet legislators in which he defied the United States to become more active in the war, after saying that this country is "really in the war already." He also likened President Roose velt to Sulla, one of the Moodiest and most tyrannical of all the Ro man dictators. STRIKES: A Formula Ever since President Roosevelt's fireside chat the nation had been waiting for a strike-prevention for mula, realizing that in the presiden tial speech there had been a definite pledge to halt defense work stop pages in labor disputes. It remained for the strike at North American Aviation's plant at Ingle wood, Calif., where 12,000 men en gaged in building $196,000,000 in warplanes, to provide the answer, and the United States to wonder what kind of an answer it was. Swiftly, methodically, the troops moved in and took over the plant, began weeding out the union's labor leaders, inspected even the contents of lunch boxes of returning workers, and put the plant back into produc tion within two days that were re ported to be "approaching normal." Within 24 hours planes were roll ing off assembly lines into test flights, and on the surface all was apparently well. But observers began asking them-' selves questions during the next few days when trouble of various types began to appear, not at North American Aviation, but at other plants. Several things bothered people who were wondering whether the use of soldiers to take over plants would be a workable system of strike-ending. Some wondered if perhaps the strikers at Inglewood weren't a bit too willing to have the plant taken over. Others wondered if, perhaps, the strikers' demand of the govern ment that the pay be raised to flTtt cents an hour, or 12 Vi cents an hour more than they were asking of pri vate industry, and the same wage that the government, they claimed, was now paying workers of similar skill in similar jobs. The union leaders were equipping men with signs reading "hold out and remember the army can't make planes"?but their pleas fell for the most part on deaf ears, and the sec ond day of the army occupation they voted to go back in a body. But the army wouldn't take some of them back, ordered others re classified and shoved in the army at $21 a month instead of $20 or better a week. ulu.: Red or Pink One of the by-products of the Inglewood strike and its result was 'that the Dies committee findings came to the fore and began to ren der some sort of answer to the popu lar controversy of fhe past two years, whether the C.I.O. is red, white or just pink. Rival unions used to call the C.I.O. red?the C.I.O. maintained it was pure white, and the Dies committee just hinted around that it might be somewhat pink?that there were Communists in the C.I.O., but that it was not proven that it was Communist-controlled or not. Then came a wide, serious series of defense or partial defense labor troubles, most of them involving one branch or another of the C.I.O. Alabama's Representative Starries, active head of the Dies body, promptty made public that each of the striking unions had a Commu nist or an ex-Communist as its ac tive leader. A 'Hold-Out' Days and weeks passed since the Nazi drive toward Egypt through Libya began and although Axis forces took many points beyond Tobruk they were not able to capture the besieged city itself. Here is British anti-aircraft posi tion inside the Tobruk perimeter. Pro tected by Italian ammunition boxes filled with stones, they provide ample protection from the splinters of bombs dropped by Nazi fliers. SYRIA: Gets in War Names of the world's oldest towns, including such as Damascus, believed the oldest, and Tyre, con sidered its closest rival, got into the front page headlines as the British sailed on into Syria, following the expectations of everyone. Vichy dispatches told of resist ance, but except in certain spots the resistance was of the "token" vari ety?a few shots fired and then the French troops laying down their arms, later to join with the British passively, if not actively. The invading armies were made up of British and Free French under DeGaulle, and seemed to be mov ing more or less unchecked into the chief and most important parts of Syrian territory. Chief work of defense was being done by Nazi warplanes, said to be based on northern Syrian airdromes like Aleppo, principal air center of the country. Britain was not referring in her dispatches to the Syrian advance as a victory, but was rather regard ing, it as simply a tactically impor tant move to circumvent an expect ed German move, or at least to meet it on a battleground farther removed from Palestine and Iraq oil fields. It was obvious that the big Syrian airfields were the prime objective, and that if Britain could get hold of them and defend them with resident assistance, a good battle might be put up on Syrian soil, and protect the "backdoor" entrance to Suez and Alexandria. But the serious resistance near the coastline, and in southwestern Syria made it look as though Brit ain's success in this objective would not t>e won without a good deal of fighting " - r irt In general, however, the first ad vances were meeting with a good deal of resident approval, and with some defections of French colonials to the DeGaulle standard. CHURCHILL: On Spot Most seriously sines the time he took over leadership of the wsr effort of Britain, Churchill found himself "on the spot" because of the Crete mishap?and words flew bitterly around commons and on the editorial pages of British newspa pers as Churchill defended his pro gram. The British leader was holding Arm?refusing cabinet modification or any step that would even look like an admission that the Churchill government was a flop at handling the war. Criticism of Churchill was far less bitter than that which was directed at Chamberlain, but it was still far stronger than anything which had previously been leveled at him. Much of it came from Leslie Hore-Belisha, deposed minister of war. And Churchill turned on this former cabinet member and prac tically told him to hold his tongue ' and to recall that the war ministry was in a "lamentable condition" when he laid it down. Summing up the Crete disaster, he laid it to inadequate control of the air, said the battle was "worth having fought," that it cost the Ger mans a major effort, and resulted in the loss of 17,000 men and 180 1 planes, not to mention many surface 1 ships. Answering the "why" of not enough planes, he said "they were not to be had" unless Britain had ' been willing to denude the island itself, and that he did not believe it a good policy to try to be sale every where at the cost of being strong no- 1 where. 1 General Seeks to Relieve Drain Upon Farm Labor Urges Draft Boards to Consider Deferments; Lack of Boats Limits Shipments Of Foodstuffs to England. By BAUKBAGE National Farm and Homo Hour Commentator. WASHINGTON. ? You would be surprised at the people in Washing ton who are worrying over the farm er's worries which have been in creased by the emergency. The chief worries are two: The drain of farm labor caused by the draft and the demands of the defense in dustries; the inability, because of defense priorities, to get the labor saving devices which the farmer needs to replace human hands. In a top-floor office of a convert ed apartment house overlooking the Potomac I found a sandy-haired Hoosier who is doing some of that worrying. He is concerned with the problem of "maintaining an ade quate supply of farm workers for production of essential foods re quired for national defense." He did not write those words just quoted. Secretary of Agriculture Wickard wrote them. The sandy haired gentleman is not even in the department of agriculture. He is a general in the army. What is more he is head of the organization which has been drawing "heavily upon the supply of farm labor." He is Brig. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, acting di rector of the Selective Service sys tem. But that is only half the story. Lewis Hershey is farm-born and farm-bred and although his official duties are concerned only with the selective service, he is unofficially __ BRIG. GEN. HER8HET familiar with the other problem* which affect the farmer. The draft is his business and he has told draft boards all over the country to give "serious considera tion to individual claims of men en gaged in agricultural pursuits for occupational deferment from Mili tary training." _ Ftns Workers Important. " ?s "One feasdo why so many young fellows are in the army today in stead of working in the field*," said General Hershey to me, "is because even the farmers on the draft boards, when a husky lad comes along and says he is trilling to Join the army do not realize bow hard it trill be to replace him. "It is a lot easier to teach a young town boy the skills so be can replace a man taken away from the produc tion line in a factory than it is to teach him bow to farm," said the general. "You can't Just tell a green hand to hitch up the wagon and go down and get a load of corn. You know yourself that a farmer can do In three hours what it takes a green hand 10 hours to do. "It's hard enough to keep the boys on toe farm anyhow these days," the general went on. "They don't tike to stick their noses into toe hot side of a cow in July when they can get a Job in a factory, work until five o'clock, and then get off and go to toe movies. They soon get enough cash to make a down payment on a car and the first time they come home in it to see the folks they take two or three other young fellows torn toe neighborhood back with them." But somebody has to feed the fac tory workers and the soldiers. "We have got to have food," Gen eral Hershey concluded, "and toe draft boards will have to learn to inswer toe question: Where can we (et another man to replace the farm worker before they accept him for military service." When Lewis Hershey talks about trying to replace a man on the farm he knows what he is talking about. He still owns a farm?his share of what is left of his Mennonite grand father's original 360 acres in Steu ben county, Indiana. Grandfather Hershey came to Steuben county from Pennsylvania whither his ancestors had immigrat ed from Switzerland in 1708. Twelve hundred men out of Steu ben county, Indiana, left the plow to go to the Civil war. One out of six came back to the farm. It was nat ural that young Lewis Hershey, back in 1911 joined the national guard. You may remember the national guard went to the Mexican border in 1916 and it was only a jump from there to France. That jump took young Lieutenant Hershey away from the farm but his roots are still there and he still talks the language. He knows the farm is a vital part of our defense. Food for England Waiti at Docks Another problem of the emergen- 1 cy is feeding the British. There was some consternation ex pressed in the department of agri culture when it was learned that the first food ship from the United States under the lend-lease .law did not ar rive in Britain until almost three months after the bill had been passed. Reports from London reflected this surprise, too. It was suggested there that perhaps the United States might institute cheeseless and ere ami ess days in order that Britain might be supplied. The ship carried 4,000,000 shell eggs, 120,000 pounds of cheese and 1,000 tons of flour. This seemed a drop in the British food bucket. But the records now reveal that the department of agriculture had $70,000,000 worth of food on or near the docks and has had ever since shortly after the lend-lease act be came a law. The trouble has been lack of ships. There has been some surprise, too, 1 over the fact that shell-eggs, which might be considered almost as per ishable aa shells, were sent instead of powdered eggs. Lord Woolton, food minister, who < met the ship, tasted the cheese when it arrived and said it was quite as good as the English Cheddar. He j did not taste the ggs and some folks wondered ? for the^ were NOT . shipped cold storage. ""?J . * * * ~?*e*r Radio Artist Works V His Own Farm *i ? Information grows in the Strang Ht places in Washington. The other day I learned a lot about moles and : .how to feed yourself from your own farm from Bud Ward. Of course, the information did not cover sugar and coffee growing, nor, in this case, meat, though Bud tells mj hf will j have plenty of pork by spring besides what be is going to sell. I forgot to say who Bud is. Well, I will tell you later. Be has a farm over in Virginia. It's the kind of a place that people stop to look i at when they are out driving. Bud does all the work with the help of Mrs. Ward and the baby, ' Amlellta. She la not a baby any more, the way I first knew bar. Now she is a young lady and pretty enough to make any star of stage or screen or radio envious. Bud says the family bad a surplus of fruit and vegetable and chicken to put up ever 100 cans?that is glass Jars?Of food last year. "Sometime," Bud told me the oth er day, "we put up 35 or 90 cans in the evening, after we get borne from the studio." And that reminds me. I was go ing to tell you who Bud is. Well, he and Mrs. Ward and Amelita run ] one of the most popular weekly pre grams In Washington. In fact they have two, and one annual, interna tional blue network show, "Congres sional Children." The "National Children's" pro gram is weekly and it consists ot children?and I mean children?little tots some of them who can hardly i talk. All three of the Wards have their part in running these programs. Oh, the molasl Well, I have to let that go until next time. States Take Up Defense Plans Most of Them Have Acted to Provide for Home Guard Units. NEW YORK. ? A majority of ?states already have taken precau tions to protect their populations and vital industries against sabo tage, espionage and shortages of skilled manpower, a survey of the 48 states revealed. Legislatures of 29 states have es tablished or planned home guard or ganizations replacing National Guard units called to service with the reg ular army; 13 have enacted, or have pending, bills providing for rigid anti-sabotage restrictions; 11 have passed bills, aimed at saboteurs, re stricting use of explosives; and at least 19, acting in collaboration with the federal government and lpcal authorities, have organized special training classes for defense work ers. Women Included. Women, too, have been included in the states' defense plans. One hundred volunteer women are on call in Massachusetts to assist as air raid "spotters" as they did re cently when the entire northeast conducted aerial warfare games. No bills have been passed out lawing strikes in defense industries but Michigan, Georgia, Texas and Oklahoma have strengthened legis lation to curb such strikes. All of the states have set up de fense councils to co-ordinate activi ties with sectional and federal or ganizations. On recommendation of these councils at least 30 states have passed or are considering bills which would: Authorize slum clearance projects to provide safe and sanitary hous ing facilities for workers engaged in defense industries (Iowa, North Da kota and Tennessee); protect tax exemption rights of citizens called into the armed forces (Iowa); strengthen a criminal anarchy law to include radio speeches and pam phlets (Washington); curb Nazi, Fascist, Communist and other sub versive activities (Arkansas, Ne braska and Washington), and pro vide for supervision of zoning regu lations around defense industry plants. Provide for Home Gaard. States with new home guards are Michigan, Rhode Island, Ohio, New York, Connecticut, Colorado, Illi nois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North and South Caro lina, New Mexico, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsyl vania, Texas, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Nebraska. States which have enacted or have pending anti-sabotage legislation are Iowa, Washington, Ohio, Con necticut, Nebraska, Tennessee, Ar kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massa chusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont. Those with new legislation on control of explosives are Iowa, Rhode Island, Ohio, Geor gia, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Jjew Yorit, Oklahoma, Vermont and Washington!" "* ? Money Troubles Foremost In Florida Divorce Cases MIAMI.?Money, or rather the lack of it, is the mbst common cause of marital troubles, according to Circuit Judge Paul D. Barnes of Miami, and he should know, for last year he handle*} 4,90$ divorce jas^y. "Willingness to live within Income is the ftlOSt jjnportant thing 1 can saf fo, young fAitrtcd coup lei,'* Judge BarnM laid. J The tendency id exceed Income sedm) to be a fashion of the times, but ltrs prob ably tho most disastrous habit fhirried couples cart foil intd/'' Judge Barnes said he believeo Florida's flve-year-old 00-day resi dence law for those eeeking divorcee had made Miami "a southern Reno." Figures bear #ut hie belief because divorces filed In Miami during 1M0 outnumbered those in the Nevada ctty. Florida Law Proridds For Drastic Conscription TALLAHASSEE, FLA.?Residents of Florida have been living under a conscription provision of the state constitution far more drastic than the Burke-Wadsworth act. Article 14 of the state constitu tion reads: "All able-bodied male inhabitants of the state, between the ages of IS and 49 years that are citi zens of the United States, or have declared their intention to become citizens thereof, shall constitute the militia of the state." State Rep. William J. Ray of Bra d en too pointed out that the article says "all" and not "some" able bodied citizens, and says "shall con stitute Am militia," not "may." Mock Battle Is Set For Record 400,000 Maneuvers in Fall Include All Types of Forces. RALEIGH, N. C?Lieut. Gen. Hugh A. Drum, commander of the First United States army, stated that the largest army maneuvers in peacetime history of the United States, involving 400,000 men, would be held in this area in die autumn. The maneuvers will be held in a 4,800-squa re-mile area along the North Carolina-South Carolina bor der in October and November, Gen eral Drum said in a statement is sued jointly with Gov. J. M. Brough ton of North Carolina. The rolling terrain of the section, the general said, is almost ideally suited to the type of maneuvers planned, mass movements of all types of land and air forces. The 400,000 troops, he said, include complete mechanized divisions who will put into practice lessons learned from the European war. Two armored divisions will be test ed over the sandy terrain, which en compasses the Peedee and Wateree rivers. General Drum said that the two principal streams were a major factor in choosing the site. The area extends from Fort Bragg, N. C., largest artillery train ing post in the world, to Fort Jack son, S. C. The two posts will be bases for opposing forces. The area, nearly half of which is in each state, is a roughly oblong stretch of territory running parallel to the coastline and about 100 miles inland. It is about 90 miles wide at the widest point and 140 miles long. The border of the area follows the North Carolina-South Carolina border for about 40 miles at the western end of the area in order to avoid the heavily populated industri al sections around Charlotte and Gastonia, N. C. Farm Population of U. S. Found Almost Stationary WASHINGTON.?The census bu reau estimates that JO.ffiJN per sons lived on farms when the coat was taken a year ago. This lepta sented an increase of only 2*,HS, or 0.1 per cent, since UN, while the population as a whole increased 8,804,228, or 7 J per cent. Thus tfaa farm population in relation to the total dropped 1.7 points to B.1 per cent. The bureau made its estimate from a 5 per cent i iosi etctiui check. It attributed the failure af the farm population to keep pace with the general population to in creased efficiency in farming and a decline in exports of certain agri cultural products. The number of farms declined 1.1 per cent during the decade, ao that the average number of residents on each farm increased to 5, as com pared with it in 1830. The Pacific division?Washington, Oregon and California?showed an increase of 10.9 per cent in its farm population since 1830, but the dust bowl area fell off sharply. The West North Central division lepoited a decline of 394,729, or 7 per cent, and the West South Central division dropped 294,423, or 4.8 per cent. The only other geographic division to show a decline was the mountain states, which dropped 1930S, or L7 per cent. * Proper Food for Deer v Goal of Michigan Tests SHINGLETON, MICH -Michigan conservation officials are hopeful Jceding experiments now being dirried orf with domestic sheep at the Cusino wild life experiment sta tion may produce needed nutritional knowledge that can be used in main taining the state's growing deer al foods on which deer subsist in the woods and it is hoped that the effects of the diet may supply * yardstick that will allow experi ments to apply the findings of re search experts to the problems of supplying adequate diets for Michi gan's herds. During the last four winters the state conservation department has sponsored the largest deer feeding experiments in the world at the Cu sino station. Favorite Horse in Race Jumps Fence, Goes Home RAND WICK, AUSTRALIA.?Some hearts were saddened and some were gladdened?according to how bets were laid?when Res ton, a fa vorite, suddenly left the race course, jumped the fence and went home. Jockey Thompson had been obliged to give it that alternative to a head-on fence crash and the horse rose magnificently to both the occasion and the fence.