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JiilmutgtDtt iiomtng §tar North Carolina's Oldest Daily Newspaper Published Daily Except Sunday By The Wilmington Star-News At The Murchison Building R. B. Page, Owner and Publisher Telephone AU Department* DIAL 3311_ Entered a* Second Class Matter at Wilming ton, N. C, PostofTice Under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY CARRIER Payable Weekly Or In Advance Combine Time star News tion f Week .$ 26 $ 20 $ 35 1 Month . 110 JO 1.90 3 Months .2-25 2.60 4.55 6 Months . 0-50 9.20 9.10 l year .13.00 10.40 18.20 News rates entitle subscriber to Sunday Issue at otar-News _ BY MAIL Payable Strictly in Advance Combine Star News tion 1 Month --«•» • » ■“ S Months . I-flO 1.5C X75 I Months .....*-00 *•”” *'*9 t year . ».00 8 00 10 00 News rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue of Star-News Card of Thanhs charged for at the rate of 25 cents per line. Count Pve words to line. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Is entitled to the exclusive use ol all news stories appearing in The Wilmington Star. FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1942 With confidence In our armed forces—with the unbounding de termination of our people—we will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God. —Roosevelt's War Message Star-News Program To aid in every way the prosecution o' the war to complete victory. Public Port Terminals, Perfected Truck and Berry Preserving and Marketing Facilities. Seaside Highway from Wrightsville Beach to Bald Head Island. Extension of City Limits. 35-Foot Cape Fear River channel, wider Turning Basin, with ship lanes into industrial sites along Eastern bank south of Wilmington. Paved River Road to Southport, via Orton Plantation. Development of Pulp Wood Production through sustained-yield methods through out Southeastern North Carolina. Unified Industrial and Resort Promo tional Agency, supported by one county wide tax. Shipyards and Drydocks. Negro Health Center for Southeastern North Carolina, developed around the Community Hospital. Adequate hospital facilities for white. Junior High SrhooL Tobacco Warehouses for Export Buy ers. Development of native grape growing throughout Southeastern North Carolina. Modern Tuberculosis Sanatorium. TOP O’ THE MORNING I want that adoring divine Which only Thy grace can bestow; I want in those beautiful garments to shine Which distinguish Thy household below! —SELECTED. -V Little Enough There Is nothing terrifying about the treas ury’s request that ten per cent of wages and salaries be deducted for the purchase of war stamps and bonds. Many persons complain that it just can’t be done without taking food out of their children’s mouths or making the landlord wait for his rent. Their position is not sound. All that the proposal involves, in nine cases out of ten, is a little tightening up on expendi tures for non-essentials. Fewer cigarettes, less picture shows, more travel afoot instead of by car, are a few ways to cut expenses. Women could help by buying fewer cosmetics, by wearing cotton stockings (or none at all), by a dozen sundry methods by which customary luxuries done without. Ten per cent of one’s earnings is small enough to dedicate to war costs. ---V-. Sheer Perversity __ The greater the effort put forth to win public cooperation for the safe and sane traffic rules «f this city, and the persistency with which they are violated by certain groups, the more we become convinced that the rules are broken in sheer perversity. Among these persistent violators — and they are about the worst of all—are messengers and delivery boys on bicycles. Here is one case in point. Yesterday during the noon pkfcup in motor traffic a delivery boy rode down Fifth street toward Market. When he reached this inter section he swung left into Market, on the near side of the fountain, and cut in front of an automobile at his own imminent peril and to the confusion of the auto driver. In the first place he entered Market street on a red light. In the second he made a left turn, and on the wrong side of the street at that. It is not reasonable to believe him ignorant of the rules. He violated them because he didn’t give a hang. This* is no exceptional case. With'-the mere difference of locale, as great offenses are being committed at all hours of the day. Mes sengers and other youngsters on wheels may be observed crossing intersections on the wrong light, making left turns, traveling the wrong side of the street. They constitute a grave accident hazard, which can be removed only through their own cooperation. The police cannot be everywhere at once. The force is too small adequately to protect mos^ crowded intersections at all times. The responsibility, therefore, save as it rests upon the boys themselves, falls upon employers who ought to keep the importance of strict observance of the rules ever before their employes. -V Burma’s Defense Totters There is still confusion on the true situation in Burma, but there is little doubt that the greatly reinforced Japanese with undoubted air superiority, have come close to the victory they have sought during weeks of bitter fight ing. They appear to have reached the vital Burma road and are spreading their attack to wider frontiers all the time. Latest dispatches in hand when this was prepared indicated that the Allied defenses In all sectors of the Burma battlefront were crumbling. If this is true, if Burma falls, it will represent one more example of too little too late. Britain had too few men, too few planes, for the task assigned them. China was able to get too few of its troops into action under General Stilwell in time to stem the tide. His air force could not clear the skies of Japanese bombers and fighters. Like every other section in the vast Pacific war. the danger was under estimated, the enemy’s strength greater than originally believed. There is one compensating element, in the fact that by engaging so large a force and staving off defeat so long, the mobilization of Allied forces in the Pacific has been advanced. Nevertheless there is small consolation, at present, in that fact. It will mean that the general counter-offen sive by which the Japanese will be forced out of the war may be launched the sooner, but it still represents another defeat. The scorched earth policy that has been applied to Burma’s oil fields also helps a bit, but it, too, cannot remove the sting of defeat. President Roosevelt has said that China, the chief sufferer through Burma’s collapse, shall have the tools it needs for greater parti cipation in the ultimate defeat of the Japanese. The loss of the Burma road will make ful fillment of this pledge difficult, because the tedious, rugged trails available are hard to travel. Because of the critical situation in the Pa cific, any delay in equipping an ally, especially an ally capable of striking such heavy blows as the Chinese, is serious. It becomes the more apparent that the coun ter thrust must come quickly, or it, too, may be too late. -V Rubber From Sugar In general, public thought on synthetic rub ber has centered upon petroleum, because of its availability in large quantities. Now comes the announcement that rubber may also be manufactured from sugar cane— and at a lower cost than from petroleum. And in addition, it may also be had from peanuts and sweet potatoes. One estimate is that 50,000 acres of cane, 25,000 acres of sweet potatoes and a like number in peanuts would produce 90,000 tons of rubber. Experiments are said to have revealed that rubber produced from these materials would cost from 25 to 30 cents a pound, which is said to be less than the cost of production from petroleum. The United States Sugar Com pany, which has conducted the tests, declares that sugar rubber is not as serviceable as the natural product for tires, but has recommend ed. it as a substitute for other rubber geods that more of the natural rubber may be re leased for tires. Sugar rubber is said to have one advantage in that it is as transparent as glass. It might appear to some that the manufac ture of rubber from these vegetable growths could be started at once on a large scale and help to relieve the rubber shortage. But it must not be overlooked that great acreage would have to be planted and that plants would have to be equipped, a time-consuming process. We still cling to the belief that American ingenuity will develop a wheel for motor ve hicles which will do very well as a substitute for rubber. -V Illustrious Home Again As the announcement is made in London, obviously with consent of the censors, there is no good reason to soft-pedal the news that the British aircraft carrier Illustrious, which was in drydock at Norfolk for so many months undergoing repairs, is again in British waters, safely made fast at a north England wharf. The Illustrious was a victim of a dive-bomb ing attack in the Mediterranean, but escaped sinking. Brought across the ocean to Norfolk and restored to battle condition, it has again made the perilous voyage across the Atlantic at the height of the Nazi U-boat campaign, and probably will soon be the mothership of planes striking at Nazi European strongholds. The stay of the vessel in this country was not without its romantic side as six members of its crew acquired American brides under the influence of soft southern skies. No Negotiated Peace There is no official confirmation in London of increasing reports that Hitler is renewing his peace offensive. There may be more than rumor behind them. Or they may be part of Nazi propaganda designed to create a popular outcry for peace. It could be either or neither of these with London’s silence cloaking an actual proposal to end the war without more bloodshed, to the advantage of the Nazis. But, whatever there is in or behind the reports, it is to be repeated, as has been said every time rumors of similar nature have been spread, that any negotiated peace with Hitler would leave the world no better off than before. Plainly, the world would be even worse off, with the chief gangster in sole control of conquered continental Europe, in cluding Nazi occupied areas of Russia, and the peoples of the countries affected in literal slavery. There is no way of making peace with a rattlesnake save by killing it. Hitler must be defeated and all that he stands for or advocates crushed, if the world is ever to have a safe peace. To negotiate with him now, after the suffer ing and slaughter he has caused, and with him and his forces nearing the end of their rope, would be a greater folly than was com mitted when the great powers failed to arm adequately in advance of his march into Po land. -V Washington Daybook WASHINGTON, Apr. 30. — The Capital in Wartime: It probably has no significance whatever so far as major strategy in this war is concerned, but unofficial Washington is tossing a lot more verbal venom at the Japs these days than at any other of our enemies. Typical is the story that came out of the District of Columbia dog-bite investigator’s of fice the other day. All dog bites, like traffic accidents, are supposed to be reported. Also, all rodent bites are supposed to be reported; but since the latter are so few, the reports are made on dog-bite forms. This one had to do with a rat bite. The victim came to that spot in the questionnaire where he was asked: “Owner of the dog.” He simply scratched out “dog,” wrote “rat” in its place and answered the question: “Ad miral Tojo, Tokyo, Japan.” * * * Just when you think that the war and its prominence in world affairs is causing Wash ington to outgrow its knee-pants, the nation’s capital kicks off its bootees and goes wading in a purely Main Street controversy. For example, the District Physical Educa tion association had as a guest speaker a Columbia Teachers college professor of health education In the course of her address, the said CTC professor deplored that there “is lot of drinking going on in Washington.’* An official of the district school system countered with: "I am disturbed to have any one from New York come down here and tell us we drink.” The last word in that argument probably hasn’t been thought of yet. It’s only in its in fancy. The controversy that really has gotten under way with readers belting the newspapers with letters to the editors, and Department of Agriculture officials being called upon to dodge the issue as best they can—is whether pressure cookers destroy or preserve to the nth degree the vitamins in vegetables. * + * Misdemeanors and traffic violations certain ly are keeping pace with Washington’s war time expansion. The police courts are proud to report that this year they are going to do better than a $1,000,000 business in fjtiei^col lected—almost $200,000 more than thlfriiom year of 1941. Tt/ There has been a lot of talk (and I’ve con tributed my share) about the staggering vol ume of new employes that are flocking to Washington daily, but hardly any one ever mentions the equally staggering labor supply that seems to be lurking about in the shadows of the Washington monument. . othei day, Civil Service opened applica tions for examinations for junior clerkships. More than 29,000 persons applied—all within commuting distance of Washington or in the city itself. „ -V- 3 Editorial Comment FAREWELLS AT VICHY New York Times In his address last night the President ex pressed for the first time publicly his concern lest the new Government of France “seek to force the brave French people to submission to Nazi depotism.” We may be sure that ways will be ■found to bring his words to the ears of the F.ench people, and that the warn ing he has given will not make it easier for Pierre Laval to betray the interests of his country. We may also be sure that our own people will endorse to the hilt the President’s declaration that our armed forces will, if nec essary, take every step that lies within their power .“to prevent the use of French territory in any part of the world for military purposes by the Axis Powers.” When Ambassador Leahy leaves Vichy next Friday, perhaps never to return, he will carry with him the memory of final days which for him will always be poignant, and for all of us touching and dramatic. There can be no doubt that a real friendship grew up between Admiral Leahy and Marshal Petain, and we can think a little more kindly of the old Mar shal because of it. History has forced on Pe tain the role of the compromiser who appeal ed in words to the soul of France but, by his deeds, little by little, betrayed her. But now we have Laval, whose betrayals are not re luctant. The Marshal shines perceptibly beside Laval. We have Laval, indeed: Laval guarded front and back wherever he goes, so that his own people will not work their will with him; La val explaining to Admiral Leahy, in the words of a Vichy dispatch, “that France did not want to break relations with the United States and would not initiate such action, but that France’s political and economic situation made it necessary for her to improve rela tions with her European neighbors”- Laval breaking the law of France by publishing six teen newspaper pages of accusations against the Riom defendants, with no corresponding record of their defense. s We do not know what words Laval used in his talk with Admiral Leahy. We do know l that Admiral Leahy comes home because our THE WASTE PAPER COLLECTOR \pv\,C.'5"V ^ k*®* I ach! „ DER FUEHRER & HE ISS lp\/OMDERFilL Yesteryears 10 YEARS AGO TODAY Plans were drafted and submit ted today by a former city and county official for consolidation of city and county government. Governor Roosevelt was back in Georgia today for the last vaca tion he will take before his name is offered for the presidential nom ination at the democratic national convention in June. * * * 25 YEARS AGO TODAY Bombs were dropped from an airplane Sunday night on Zierik zee, in the Dutch province of Zee land. Three persons were killed. A terrible panic prevailed in the town, according to reports, inten sified by the play of searchlights operated by the airmen. * * * 50 YEARS AGO TODAY Work is beginning on the Bruns wick, Western and Southern Rail road line from Southport to Wil mington. Is That So! Display of a ham in a store win dow in hunger-pinched Italy caus ed a riot. Strange that so many Italians remembered what a real ham looked like. * * * The Axis which has wasted hun dreds of thousands of bombs on the impregnable island of Malta might switch their tactics and try to torpedo it. * * * To the folks on the island of Malta, air-bombed more than 2, 000 times, a hail storm must seem like nothing more than a bit of solidified dew. The bell-shaped flowe of the campanula is so named because the word, in Latin, means “little bell.” Raymond Clapper Says: Prices Advanced Often In China Since The War By RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON, April 30— As I saw in China less than a month ago, inflation is not a fancy word that economists play with. It is a monster which reaches its hug e, greedy hand into every family clothes closet. It is always among those present when the family sits down to eat "and it gets the big gest spoon. The danger against which Presi dent Roosevelt is now warning us has hit China with all of its cruel force. Prices have gone up an average of thirty times since China went to war. Chinese inflation is so advanced that it is a question whether it can be checked now. The govern ment is obliged to issue large volumes of paper money. It is printed in England and flown into China by airplane. A friend of mine rode recently on a bale of five million dollars in Chinese cur rency which was being flown to Chungking. Officials concerned with getting war supplies aboard planes to . China struggle as be tween putting war supplies aboard and giving way to the demand for flying in bales of currency. Prices quoted in Chinese dollars sound fantastic. A man’s sh i r t costs $140 to $160 — and Ameri cans there cashing United States money must pay $7 or $8 for a shirt worth $2 or less in America. I saw canvas slippers priced at $65 in Chinese currency, shoes at $500. Even though some coolie wages have risen considerably and you see chair bearers handling large rolls of bills, they can buy little at such prices. Worse yet, several hundred thou sand government employes, teach The Literary Guidepost By JOHN SELBY , “THE MIDNIGHT READER,” by Philip Van Doren Stern; (Holt: $2.75). A good m»ny things have come out of Philip Van Doren Stern’s house in Brooklyn, and one of the best of these has nothing to do with his specialty, which is the time of Lincoln. It is a book of shockers called “The Midnight Reader.” There are fifteen of these, if I did not miscount. Most of them are fiction—perhaps all of them. They range from Oliver Onions’ unforgettably. horrible “The Beck oning Fair One” to that master piece of Henry James’: “The Turn of the Screw.” This last is also the longest story in the book. But you go for those things Which hit you hardest, and the one story that is not fiction happens to be “it,” for me. It is a reprint from Louis Adamic’s “My Ameri ca,” and it concerns the now well known “Millvale Ghost.” About four years ago Maxo Van ka told this story to Adamic, a compatriot of his. Vanka is the man who painted those incredibly beautiful murals in St, Nicholas Church in Millvale, which is a own country ccoulcl not let its own good name and its prestige with the French people he used as a sereen by a French traitor. suburb of Pittsburgh and about the least likely place for such mu rals in all America. The murals were painted in two sets, one of which was completed some years ago; one last summer and fall. While he was working on the first set Vanka and Father Zagar, the priest who commissioned the murals, both had an experience with a man in black who knocked, who walked down the aisle, made ritualistic gestures before the al tar, even blew out the sanctuary lamp and burned candles. Vanka saw him again and again, but Van ka is a man of great heart though very slight physically, and in spite of his fear he forced himself to work late every night. And this is the sequel. Last fall I went to Millvale to see Vanka and Father Zagar and the finished church. And of course I asked the two friends about the ghost— whether it had returned and what about it. And neither man would talk about it. It seems so much at tention had been attracted by the ghost story that the churchly pow ers had put the lid on the pot. Of ficially, there is no Millvale ghost now. But if you look up Vanka at his Pennsylvania farm, and then look deep into his keen eyes, you may see something there. In any case, the Millvale ghost is one of the few to be laid by official ukase. 2 ers and others on fixed salaries, are left practically destitute and the Chinese government has had to give them food and c 1 othing cards because they cannot buy anything with their salaries. * * * Prices are rising so rapidly that Chinese merchants tend to hoard their goods instead of se 11 i n g them. You go into a shop and the owner really is better off if you don’t buy anything. For, if he sells his goods, he has only paper money whose value is shrinking in his hands and he may not even be able to obtain new goods. In fact shortage of goods is a factor in Chinese inflation, perhaps a minor one. Mainly China has been financing its war by printing banknotes. It was when President Roosevelt’s adviser, Laughlin Currie, went to China a year or so ago that the Chinese government was persuad ed to begin heavier taxation. Taxa tion in money was of no use be cause the value of money was go ing down. But the Chinese government has begun taking in kind, collecting a portion of the crop, and that has some moderating effect. Particu larly it is enabling the govern ment to establish stores of Vice and wheat which can be distribut ed as extra payment to govern ment employees whose salaries are looted by the inflationary decline in the value of the, currency. * * * In America we have two dangers. One is the actual short age of goods. We expect soon to devote half of our productive ca pacity to war. In many lines, such as refrigerators, household electrical appl'ances, automobiles and other mechanical goods, the whole production capacity is being taken away. So shortage of goods becomes an increasing factor in our price danger. The other danger is that our enormous war expenditures -—now $100,000,000 a day and likely to be double that by the end of the year—act as increases in the cur rency insofar as the money'is bor rowed. Hence every dollar that can be paid by taxation takes money out of circulation instead of add-1 ing to the volume. These processes seem remote to the average person, but they are not remote at all. They bounce directly in his face when he goes to the store and places his money on the counter. No one single measure will head off the danger, as President Roose velt says. But among the most important are price control, heav ier taxes, and voluntary economies in every family. Pegging of prices is the surface check. But in the long run the strength of price con trol will depend upon how severe ly we tax ourselves and restrict our consumption. -V 1NKW YORK’S DRIVING LAW. N«w York state has set a 40 mile-an-hour rate for motor ve hicles as the legal speed limit and the new law stipulates that driv ing more than 40 miles an hour is “presumptive evidence of driving at a rate of speed which is not careful and prudent.”—Charleston (S. C.) Evening Post. Interpreting The War New Major Disaster Looms For Allies In Burma Theatre By KIRKE L. SIMPson. (Wide World War Analyst). A new major disaster f,i;. tii9 United Nations is looming in Hur , t although its scope and consequew i'-s can not yet be gauged. A Japanese armored s pearl1 • j has not only captured Lashii s, ,,.r. ing the main British-Chinese * ■ munication line, hut possildi ],, ^ pushed north of that rail termin' ( to positions astride the Burma r ■ itself. If that is true a desperate r,r e of British Imperials and rain. H troops must be on west of tl» in-. ak to escape entrapment and eManij. , a new line to the north for den i of the route to India. Thai ,,u;,i mean both evacuation of Mandate. and surrender of the last oil fields still within British lines. Grave fears are expressed in I. don and Chungking about the f, a of both the British on the Irrawati iy front and the Chinese on the Sit. tang, west of Lashio. Should Gen. eral Stilweil’s Chinese troops fail to hold the eastern Burma flank against a Japanese effort to turn westward down the railroad to Mandalay, the plight of defending forces still far south of Mandalay on both river fronts would be desperate. There is an even graver threat in the Allied right flank, however, it it is true, as London intimates that the Japanese are forging northward from Lashio along the Burma road instead of westward toward Mun.ia. lay. Tlys would menace the last communication route between the Irrawaddy front and China. An off-shoot feeder for the Burma road runs west from AVanting, P'd miles or so north of Lashio, to Ghamo in the Irrawaddy valley, it affords communication between the British and the Chinese even with the Mandalay-Lashio railroad cut. It also affords, however, a chance l r the enemy to stab around the am ing-Bhamo bend far in rear of the British presumably already falling back northward up the Irrawaddy. The presumable new defense front to hold both the road to India and the road to China must include that AVanting-Bhamo connection unless British and Chinese forces are to he completely separated from each other. That gives the London s c • gestion that the enemy is driving northward from Lashio especially ominous meaning. Bleak as the prospect in Burma1 seems to be, there are still certain relieving elements in the situati. One is that the strength and sus tained striking power of the Japa nese armored force that made die amazing dash to Lashio in four days is yet to be revealed. It made the 170-mile forced march through difficult and all but road less mountain country, apparently almost unopposed. It has now lost the surprise values which aided it. It also has been subject to cumula tive human fatigue and mechanical wear and tear as well as battle casualties. That may be expected to limit its effective radius of further self-sustained action. Another factor is the cl'se proximity of the wet monruon that deluges Burma and India for months beginning in mid-May. That f"1" shadows a lull on the Burma front. Short of complete entrapment "t the British-Chinese forces west the Lashio break-through, mmis- u weather may still intervene in time to limit the scope of the Allied >'■■■• aster. -V As Others Say It BRAVE FIGHTER. Add to the list of brave, fighters: Monty Stratton. A promising pur - er for the Chicago White Sox two or three years ago. he lost a leg through a hunting accident. Deter mined to stay in baseball, he got an artificial leg and continued on the Sox pay roll as a coach. Now as manager of the Lubbock, Tex. team in the West Texas-New Mexico league, he says he will take his turn in the box. His main.tria ble is likely to be not so mucn ln actual pitching as the fielding his position. But his determination may overcome even this obstacle. ■Some of us think we have trou bles.—Portsmouth (Va.) Star. WASTE PAPER That Maine editor who charges governmental and military agen* cies are using up too many ^ kraft envelopes and too much r,,P paper to convey tens of thousar.-5 of words — mostly to newspaper waste baskets—is probably a d.< • blamed Republican. But he ' hit the nail on the head. Me a. using a great big box to salva.s envelopes and have gathered a s months supply the last few 'vee ' Some modest advertising ca paigns—paid ones — would sat money, and get printed.—Lexnv ton Dispatch. DOWN As Pierre Laval sinks lower ?■ lower into degradation the Q1-'■' tion is whether he'll drag F down with him or will the rop^ pop.—Charleston tS. C.) Event-? Post. TOO LATE To keep the record straight, was not at the 11th hour that Singa pore set out to dig raid shelters > the surrounding hills. It was ha past 12.—Detroit News. INCIDENTALLY, A PASSENGER In a collision at a nearby inter section last evening two tires^ an one passenger were reported lu>i • —Detroit News.
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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May 1, 1942, edition 1
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