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Utlmtogton UJorning ®tar North Carolina’s Oldest Daily Newspaper Pubiiihed Daily Except Sunday By The Wilmington Star-News At The Murchison Building R. B. Page, Owner and Publisher Telephone All Departments PUL 3311 Entered as Second Class Matter at Wilming ton, N. C.. Postoflice Under Act ol Congress * at March 8, 1879. SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY CARRIER Payable Weekly Or In Advance Combine Time Star News tion 1 Week .$ 25 $ 20 $ .35 1 Month . 1.10 «0 I SO 5 Months . 3.25 2.60 4.55 6 Months . 0-50 5.20 9.10 1 Year .13.00 10.40 18.20 News rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue at Star-News BY MAIL Payable Strictly in Advance Combine Star News tics i Month ..3 75 $ .50 * .90 t Months . 3 00 1.5C 2.75 6 Months . 4 00 3.60 9.90 j year . 9.00 6.00 10.00 News rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue of Star-News Card of Thanks 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 WEDNESDAY. MAY 6, 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 couniy wide tax. Shipyards and Drydocks. Negro Health Center for Southeastern North Carolina, developed around the Community Hospital. Adequate hospital facilities for white. Jun'or High School. Tobacco Warehouses for Export Buy ers. Development of native grape growing throughout Southeastern North Carolina. Modern Tuberculosis Sanatorium. TOP O’ THE MORNING Hark, there are voices, piteous in their pleading, Where mothers cry aloud for war to cease. Their prayers lift up to God like smoking incense, They beg, they plead, they agonize for peace. The mothers of the world fight greater battles Than do their sons, and fight them all alone Save for their God . . . They do not march to music, They face the lonely days, the strange unknown Hours ahead. O God, upon these mothers Have pity now and use Thy power, Thy might To bring the peace that anxious hearts are craving; And out of this deep dark may there come light. —Grace Noll Crowell in “Hollands” —-V Airport Expansion Completion of all land negotiations for the expansion of Bluethenthal airfield means that its conversion into a strong airport will be no longer delayed. We may expect that the ex tension of runways and all other essential work will be speeded as rapidly as materials and workers can be assembled. Meanwhile the southeastern North Carolina coastal area is receiving the protection to be had from far-ranging warplane patrol service. Scarcely a moment passes throughout any day that the whir of motors is not heard di rectly overhead. It is fair to assume that if the enemy has had any intention of shelling this area it has been prevented largely because of these planes and the constant vigilance of the air force stationed here. -V Sirens Arrive For so long a time that one forgets when It originated there has been complaint that Wilmington had no adequate air raid warning system. It may be said now that the delay hag not been chargeable to the defense coun cil, but to a thousand and one difficulties in Washington, among -the chief of which was lailure to recognize this as a vital defense Area. It was found that inland regions were get ting preferred priorities, despite the fact they t were much less liable to attack. And because Washington is still bound ’round with red tape much time was consumed in convincing those in authority that Wilmington should be on the preferred list. Furthermore, government ex periments with sirens and other noise devices were not speedily successful, and more time was lost in further experimentation. These and all other difficulties having been finally overcome,Wilmington now is in pos session of four sirens which will be set up at strategic points. It is expected their voice will be heard far into the suburbs and that the racket they raise will easily be distin guished from any to which the populace is accustomed. Not All Gloomy Next to thorough preparation and implemen tation, Hitler’s successes were due to his abil ity to take the offensive. His armies led the fighting in Poland. They turned the Maginot line after the surprise intension of the Low Countries and swept over Belgium and France in offensive battle. Yugoslavia, Greece went down under the same type of fighting. If was all attack for the Nazis and defense for their enemies. It was not until the Russians and their ally, winter, turned upon Hitler and his attack lost momentum, that the outside world learned it is not necessarily beaten before it starts. Now the Russians, who brought his juggernaut to a complete stop, open a new offensive, and with Hitler definitely on the defensive, are in a fair way to defeat him before his armies can break through to oil and India. There is hard fighting ahead, to be sure— months of bitter combat and tremendous sac rifices—but the Russians have proved that the turning point has come in the war in Europe and that victory can rest with the United Nations if ample aid is forthcoming. Hitler’s losses in manpower and battle equipment through the frozen winter and his difficulty in sending up trained reserves have already disrupted his schedule. He has plenty of men— 5,000.000 are said to be mobilized—but few are trained and most are young boys or men past normal combat age. His war industries in Germany and occupied territory are being blasted by R.A.F, bombing raids, so that he is unable fully to replace destroyed equipment. There is a strong probability that Stalin is right when he says that Hitler cannot seize the offensive again, but must fight it out in defensive positions. With the situation in Russia developing so rapidly to his disadvantage, continued Japa nese success in the Orient decreases in signi ficance. Once Hitler is downed Japan cannot long continue the battle. Meanwhile Mac Arthur is receiving additional recruits for his counter-offensive in the Pacific, which will come, some fine day, with the suddenness and the fury of the hurricane. The outlook is not as gloomy as a first glance at the news would suggest. 3 -V Misdirected Energy Although Secretary Ickes often reminds one of the man who started his mouth to talking and walked away and left it, it is not so much what he says about the improbability of in creasing petroleum deliveries to the Eastern seaboard, but what his deputy coordinator, Ralph K. Davies, has to say about conversion from oil to coal burners that will interest, and alarm, southerners generally. Mr. Davies brings up the subject probably with Pennsylvania and Alabama in mind. Cer tainly he has not considered other states where coal is about as scarce as hens’ teeth and as costly as sin. Instead of aiding the people of. non-coal-producing areas, Mr. Davies has thrown a new scare into them and raised a fresh difficulty they are in no way prepared to overcome. Certainly no southern manufacturer or householder equipped for oil has any wish to place a handicap upon war production, but if they are compelled to substitute coal for oil many a business man will be forced to close up and innumerable homes will be hold next winter. Mr. Ickes and Mr. Davies are as far from solving a real petroleum shortage now as they were last summer doing the fake shortage. With a complete system of inland waterways available for transport and thousands of barges at hand which need only deck tanks to bring all the oil the East needs, including industries engaged upon war contracts, it would seem that they could do more to strike 1 a balance between Mid-Continent and Southwest production and Atlantic Sea board needs by utilizing them than by all the talk of “impossibilities” and “conversions” with which they are flooding the public print. -V Heartening News The invasion of Madagascar by British Com mandos is the most heartening news of the day. The strategic value of this great island off the African coast is inestimable. Its possession will go far to keep the supply line to Australia and India unbroken. Its loss would give the Axis such an advantage that the United Na tions might have to spend years in winning the war in the Pacific. That the move will bring relations between Britain and the Vichy government to the breaking point is hardly to be doubted, but at this stage of the war so many worse things could happen that the rupture would be of little consequence. What France’s forces in Madagascar consist of is not immediately known. Nor is the size of the expeditionary force sent by Britain. But it is not conceivable that London would have *• ' V launched this attack without full knowledge of the defenses and of the strength required to overcome them. Three French cruisers and a submarine were reported a few days ago to have arrived at Diego Suarez. They should prove no serious obstacle if the British force was provided with both naval and air support. Blows between French and British, so re cently allies, create a sad situation, to be sure, but war is always creating sad situa tions, and it is consoling to know that what ever Hitler forces the Laval turncoats to do, the people of France are not in sympathy with the collaboration program and await only an opportunity to turn on their conquerers and Laval as well. -V Study In Contrasts The campaign for pledges to buy war stamps and bonds is bringing out strange attitudes among the people of Wilmington, some highly commendable, some even reprehensible. There is the woman who earns little, pays high rent and has dependents, but who is willing to forego her one luxury—two packs of cigarettes a week that she may put the equiv alent of their cost into war stamps. In contrast, there is the man who complains that he has io pay 6 per cent on the money he borrows for his business and therefore cannot devote any of his earnings to an in vestment .returning only 3 per cent. In one case we see patriotism in the top place. In the other, business comes before patriotism. Th esix-per-center ought to think a little on the prospects of remaining in business if we do not win this war. Workers report a good response generally to the appeal that a definite amount be pledged regularly for war bonds. This gives reason to believe that the greater Wilmington community will reach the goal alloted to it by the treasury. But it would be unwise to take this for granted. Only by combing the com munity thoroughly and impressing every resi dent with the obligation to support the war effort by investing in these securities will it be possible to achieve the desired end. -V Washington Daybook By JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON—Get a crowd of Washington correspondents together these days and al most certainly the conversation will swing at some time to the change in President Roose velt’s mood in recent weeks. Almost every press conference lately has found him cheerful and in good spirits—a mood that has been almost totally lacking since those gray days that followed the Jap attack on Hawaii. It is almost a capital axiom that President Roosevelt wears best in adversity. When things are going wrong, he shoulders the load and seems almost to relish the carrying of it. Certainly there has been no w<ir President who has borne up so well as President Roose velt since Pearl Harbor. But until recently something was lacking. Press conferences, even those in which the rare bits of good news were given out, had an atmosphere of de pression. * • • It was something that could not be entirely attributed to adverse reports from the war front. It was something that seemed to flow from the President himself. It is true that he was working prodigiously, but the President has always done that with out losing his buoyant spirit-or his confidence in the future of the United States. It is true that he was not always well, being twice threatened with those annoying colds to which he is subject. But sometime ago now, Rear Admiral Ross T. Mclntire, the White House physician, persuaded him to drop some of the late night detail work which was too much of a drain on even the President’s great ener gies. Generally, his physical condition has been excellent. Then suddenly, a week or so ago, the Presi dent changed and the new mood, or rather resumption of that old one which Washington newspaper men know so well, has been main tained. There are quips again from the President’s desk—like his solemn announcement that the planes that bombed Japan came from Shang ri-La. Once more there are those little par ables with which the President delights to clothe his news releases. Once more there is that unflagging spirit that seems to say if things are not all right they are going to be. * * * And this change in mood seems to have spread out from the White House over Wash ington. I think it would be wrong to draw any con clusions from this, to gather from it any false optimism. The task ahead_ is not becoming any lighter as the spring Says tick off. The comparative quiet on the major war fronts is not necessarily filled with any certainty of a turn in the tide of war. No one of those few who have access to all the news are will ing to say anything like that, so far as I am able to determine. The importance in this change in the Presi dent’s mood and its reflection in other places in the capital, lies in the fact that it exists and seems to be instilling in many of those who are giving their long days entirely to the war effort a new courage and determination which has not always been apparent in the months since we went to war. 4 -V Quotations Russia may settle the war for us in 1942.— Lord Beaverbrook. * * * I understand that Hitler uses a type of anti trust enforcement which is a bit meaner than anything I advocate.—Assistant Attorney Gen eral Thurman Arnold. * * » I believe labor is so patriotic that if they were assured all gains would go into the na tional treasury and not into the pockets of some firms, they would make any sacrifice.— rear Admiral Emory Land, chairman of Mar itime Commission. * » * The day of the vast empire is past, but the day of equal peoples is at hand—Wendell Willkie. I always thought I was a good sailor until I joined the United States Navy.—Lieut. Doug las Fairbanks, Jr. * * * War profit millionaires are bad on morale. —Dr. Mark A. May of Yale University. THE BIG ONE RIGHT NOW Yesteryears 10 YEARS AGO TODAY The $3,000,000 intra-coastal canal project was completed today, and declared open to boats having a draft of not more than 7 ft. 25 YEARS AGO TODAY Reports of German commerce raiders off Atlantic coast ports were flashed along the seaboard to day, and practically all shipping was tied up while naval patrols searched for the mysterious ships. 50 YEARS AGO TODAY In describing a game between the Wilmington and Atlantic base ball clubs. The Morning Star said: “Both batteries did excellent work throughout the game, and though there was some fine bat ting done on both sides, the field ers put in good work, and thus the game was close. At the end of the ninth inning the score stood 5 to 3, the Wilmington club not taking the last inning. Both captains pro nounced the umpiring first class, especially on close and quick de cisions.” -V As Others Say It THE FRENCH KNOW HOW TO WAIT. The coming of Laval intensifies the affection the German master has for his French slaves. Demon strations can hardly be restrained and once again it’s open season for those suspected of being luke warm, tainted pethaps with fatal contact with Jew or Communist. France does not forget. Forty-five years long she wore mourning for Strasbourg. Her favorite proverb reminded people that all things come to those who know how to wait for them. — Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal. NOT SO FUNNY “It says here in the paper that in Egypt women carry baskets of fruit and flowers on their heads.” “That’s nothing so remarkable. Women do that over here and call them hats.”—Fairfield iTex.) Re corder. The Literary Guidepost By JOHN SELBY “A PRIMER OF SCULPTURE,” by Suzanne Silvercruys (Putnam $2.75.) A good many thousand persons over the country have heard Su zanne Silvercruys lecture, and watched her do a portrait bust of a sitter chosen at random, as she talked. A good share of those who watched came to her afterward, she says, and asked “Exactly how do I go about learning to be a sculptor?” With the accent on “ex actly.” Mme. Silvercruys, for all her terrific enthusiasm, could not an swer the question. She never had time. So a year or so past she determined to write the answer, and this has become one of the unique books on any art. It is even titled with precision: “A Primer of Sculpture,” which is pre cisely what it is. More than the other arts, sculp ture demands knowledge of skills outside the direct line of the art itself, among these plumbing, car pentry and even engineering. That is, even thoughg you have some gift for reproducing form, you can not just sit down to a gob of clay and produce a work of art. Your first attempt must have “insides,” or it will collapse. So Mme. Silvercruys first tells you how to make the insides, tech nically known as an armature. First she tells you to buy 20 pounds of plastelina (a clay substitute which remains plastic); four mod eling tools; calipers; a board; some pipe; some lead wire, and these parts of the human head— an ear, a nose, a mouth and an eye. Casts, of course. She tells you how to build an armature, how to make a plaster cast, how to plug up the arma ture to form a base, how to meas ure a head, why it is best to "see” the model with your thumbs. And a great deal more than I can men tion here. These are the things that usually are omitted, or slurred, in a book on sculpture in tended for the general public. And they are the really impor tant things, oddly enough. Mme. Silvercruys cannot give you, or anybody else, artistic ability in fif teen lessons. She can, however put the mechanical sides of the art into such understandable terms that anybody can manage them. And once these are out of the way, you easily can determine for yourself what your abilities may be. They may be enhanced, too, by the author’s enthusiasm. Raymond Clapper Says: New Dealers Realize Hard Steps Necessary Bv RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON, May 5.—It isn’t that the more aggressive new .deal ers have suddenly become hard hearted and callous when they ad vocate drastic repressive measures such as compulsory savings, and end to wage increases, and war consumption taxes, or sales taxes if you prefer the harsher term. The new dealers still believe so cial gains are a basic objective of government. But they are realis tic enough to know that unless this war is won there won’t be any social gains at all—nothing but so cial losses. Furthermore they know that unless we have the nerve to do the hard things nec essary now to run this show and keep it under control, we won’t have a chance of controlling the situation after the war and will be caught helpless in economic chaos. The best friend of social gains now is the one who is willing to do whatever is necessary to make it possible to have social gains after this war. The real enemies of social progress are those who refuse to face realistically the ac tual situation and who persist in living in a dream world of the past. * * * President Roosevelt says all of us will have to lower our standard of living. There is only one way we can translate that language. We can translate it only into lower real wages, heavier taxes, fewer clothes, fewer luxuries, handing over of ever larger sums of our earnings to the government. There is no way to make a lower stand ard of living go down easy. It isn’t fun. It’s like firing a man. Nobody has found a way to make it painless. Of course through all the years employers have xought wage in creases because they wanted to hold as much of the gravy as pos sible. They have urged a general sales tax because that would tax the poor and make less necessary higher income taxes on the .wealthy. The Roosevelt administration would have nothing to do with either of those causes because it was interested in reviving the economy by improving the stand ard of living and encouraging wider distribution of buying power. The administration still looks to ward the day when its purposes can be resumed. But to win the war and to have any chance of coming out of it with an economy that won’t go to pieces under the impact of the change back to peace conditions, we have to put ourselves through a good deal of self-discipline now. * * * In this a number of new deal ers find themselves at odds with Secretary of the Treasury Mor genthau. When he opposed the sales tax before the House Ways and Means committee last March 3, Secretary Morgenthau, among numerous objections, cited these: It falls on scarce and plentiful commodities alike; it bears dis proportionately on low income groups; it encroaches harmfully upon the standard of living; it in creases prices; it stimulates de mands for higher wages; it is not easily collected. On the other side, the answers made are that war needs require discouraging all consumption to save manpower if not materials; that while the sales tax bears dis proportionately on lower income groups the bulk of the inflationary purchasing power is going into that group, and furthermore the income tax takes a disproportion ate share of the higher incomes, thus balancing the inequalities; that if the sales tax tends to lower the standard of living, it is in line with the government policy of forc ing down the standard because of war needs; that price-control mar gins will control the pyramiding tendency which would cause trou ble in the absence of price con trol. Any tendency of the sales tax to stimulate demands for higher wages would exist also with re gard to other taxes that reach the lower income groups. While the sales tax is not easy to collect, no tax is. To guard against the tendency to retain such taxes after the war When we might again be needing to stimulate mass purchasing, the idea is to adopt “war consumption taxes” limited to the duration of the war and proceed from there, depending on what the conditions are. 2 -V Factographs The emerald is said to sharpen the wits, confer riches and give the owner the power to predict future events. To evolve t h is latter virtue the emerald must be held under the tongue, it is said. * * * Shipbuilding has been revived along the North Carolina coast. Five yards now are producing types of vessels from 10,000 ton Victory freighters to dinghys. Interpreting The War British Seizure Of Madagascar Boon To Allies By KIRKE L. SIMPSON Wide World War Analyst Britain’s surprise move to seize control of the French island "M Madagascar off the southeast coast of Africa has served to lighter the gloom in United Nation capji tals over Allies’ plight in Burma and Japanese troop assaults on the Philippine island fortress of Or regidor. While primarily a defensive measure to protect the long and difficult Cape route of supply for India and the Eastern Mediterran ean, British occupation of the French naval base at the northern end of the Texas-sized island would have strong offensive value as well. It could mark the beginning of the United Nations’ effort to drive Japan out of the Indian ocean. With Diego Suarez bay, site of this base, in British hands, the Allies would have a naval and air center capable of seriously threat, ening the Japanese flank in the Bay of Bengal. In this connection, there are insistent, but unconfirm, ed, reports from Axis sources that heavy British and American naval units have been moving into the Indian ocean around the Cape and from the Mediterranean. There is also a grim challenge to the Laval regime at Vichy m the Madagascar operations. It im plements President Roosevelt's re cent warning that the United Na. tions were prepared to take any necessary - measures to prevent French warships and strategic co. lonial outposts from passing into Axis hands. Madagascar is, in brief, a test case of what the return of Pierre Laval to power actually means so far as French military collabora tion with Germany goes. There is a striking difference be tween Madagascar and S y r i a, where former British-French com rades-in-arms last met in battle. Britain made it clear in Syria she was moving, as she did in the I abortive thrust at Dakar, only to support the Free French. This time London emphasizes that the powerful task force hurled against Madagascar is "all British." The size ana composition 01 tin: task force was not disclosed be yond the fact that it included strong naval and air detachments as well as highly trained com mando units. It may be assumed, however, that the British, schooled by bitter experience in Norway and Greece, have concentrated enough troops, ships and planes to insure not only the capture of tiie Diego Suarez base, but to hold it against possible Japanese attacks. The full importance of this un tertaking on the African side of the Indian ocean cannot be gauged until Japanese reaction, in addi tion to that of Vichy, becomes known. It appears possible, how ever, that the challenge may prove to be the beginning of the battle for the Indian ocean. The French island is 2.000 miles closer to the Bay of Bengal center of gravity than any other Allied base heretofore available nn the Cape route. It is more than 2.000 miles from Ceylon which, while limiting its usefulness as an s:r base for Bay of Bengal operations, also insured the British again;: land-borne Japanese air attack. In any event, a firmly establish ed United Nations foothold on Northern Madagascar must have an important diversion effect on Japanese plans for the Indian ocean and Australia. This is not the least important aspect of the British attack. | Is That So!| Junior thinks science has gone too far now that a corn-substitute has been discovered for tapioca, the supply of which was made scarce by war. * * * Registering in the last draft has made Grandpappy Jenkins feel s3 spry he has begun to take roll** skating lessons. * * * Hitler boasts he hasn't had a vacation in nearly 10 year.'. Hs should worry, he’s about to “e permanently retired. * * * A diet of carrots is sue crested as a cold preventative. Mi :. at that—who ever saw a >' sneeze? * * * The fellow who used to canoe for a laugh now turns 1,1 '* light to see what a blackout 1°0K like. * * * When his tires finally w, a road hog can always get fun by crowding the lawn ®°” out of the garage. * * * Airplanes of the future. " e 5 6 told, will have a 25.000- n. •_ range. Goody, then we’ll be ^ to picnic week- ends at the Pole and get away, at lash J0' those pesky ants. * * * jf Grandpappy Jenkins says ; looks like an unusually c c ^ summer ahead with the go'6-'', ment doing so much freezing everything. • • • Zadok Dumbkopf r e m a-^,s. that one person w-ho ti°es , have to be urged to hoard is the janitor of the apart®6' house in which he lives. He s ‘6 hoarding it for years
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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May 6, 1942, edition 1
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