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Utlminglon iHorning §tar North Carolina’s Oldest Daily Newspaper Published Daily Except Sunday By The Wilmington Star-Newa At The Murchison Building R. B. Page, Owner and Publisher Telephone AU Departments DIAL 3311 Entered as Second Class Matter at Wilming ton, N. C.. Postoffice Under Act of Congress of March S, 1879._ SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY CARRIER Payable Weekly Or In Advance Combina Time Star News tion 1 Week .$ 25 $ 20 | 35 1 Month . 1-10 30 1-8® 3 Months . 3.25 2.60 4.55 6 Months .,.8.50 5.20 9.10 1 Year .13.00 10.40 18.20 News rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue ol Star-News * BY MAIL Payable StricUy in Advance Combina Star News tico i Month ...8 -75 * 50 8 80 3 Months . 3.00 1 3f 3-75 6 Months . 4 00 3.60 8.60 1 year . 8 00 6.00 10.00 News rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue ot Star-News Card ol Thanks charged tor at the rate ol 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 MONDAY. MAY 18. 1942 \Vilh 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 commute victory. Public Pori Terminals. Perfected l ruck and Berry Preserving and Marketing Facilities Seaside Highway from Wrightsviiie Beacn to Bald Head Island. Extension ot City Limits. 35 t oot Cape t ear Kiver channel, winer Turning Basin, with ship lanes into industrial sites along Eastern bank sou.n ot Wilmington. Paved River Road to Southport, via Orton Plantation. Development ol Pulp Wood Production through sustained-yield methods through out Southeastern North Carolina. Uallied 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. Juiror High School. Tobacco Warehouses for Export Buy ers. Development of native grape growing throughout Southeastern North Carolina. Modern Tuberculosis Sanatorium. TOP O’ THE MORNING I would not have us think our years a weight, something to bear with till our days are done. The same kind Hand, so wrongly termed our fate, Will lead us gently till our race is run. . . I shall not fear my usefulness is o’er, I will be eager for some little thing To do or say that makes my living more Than the mere waiting for the curfew ring. And so, please God, I’ll fill each welcome day Full of the best gleaned from a hallowed past, Crown a long life, as is the better way, With something worth the doing till the last! —“Ye Olde Folk.” Written by an Octo genarian. Japan And Siberia It has been declared the Russian onslaught in the Kharkov battle has been so heavy that Hitler has sent word to the Japanese to launch an offensive against Siberia at once as a means of relieving the pressure on his forces in south Russia. The rumor may be true or false. Because it originated in Switzerland, it might be an other piece of Nazi propaganda designed to lull the United Nations into a fanciful dream picturing Hitlers armies in actual collapse in the Donets basin. Be that as it may, it is hard to believe Japan in a position to undertake a major action in Siberia. It is far easier to believe that Japan would lose more than it could possibly gain by a campaign there now. The forces of Japan are widely scattered throughout south Asia, engaged in the task of holding areas already overrun and seeking new conquests. In addition, Japan is broadening her attack on China, thrusting in half a dozen directions simultaneously. And, what is more important from the United Na tions viewpoint, is suffering tremendous loss es both-' in men and equipment, so that the call for reinforcements and fresh supplies is heard perpetually in Tokyo. Japan may have enough reserves to under take a major offensive in Siberia, but it i? very doubtful. And Russia is not liable to withdraw enough of her forces from Siberia, or to have done so, to weaken her defenses there. One must needs be credulous indeed to believe that the Japanese would venture across the Siberian border, for the easement of "Hitler’s position in Russia, unless Hitler 3 is in a much worse situation than has been revealed and Siberia is much weaker than Stalin has allowed to become known. -V He Can’t Conquer Them The rebellion against Hitler in Europe is evidenced by the increasing forces actually warring on Nazi forces in occupied lands and by increasing executions by Nazi firing squads. Either, alone, shows how bitterly subjugated but unconquered men are fighting for their freedom. Together they write a story to stir the hearts of free men everywhere. In Hungary 16 officers have been excuted within the last 'few days for plotting revolt in the army. In Greece 100,000 guerrillas are preying on German, Italian and Bulgarian armies of occupation and practicing costly sabotage. A thousand German soliders are re ported to have been killed when one guerrilla detachment blew up a troop train. Norway’s clergy and teachers, denied the right to practice their professions have turned themselves into guerrilla bands, killing more than 400 Nazis in less than three months. The strongest opposition to Nazi domination is led by General Mihailovitch, at the head of Chetnic Serbian forces in the Bosnian mountains. Hitler is forced to maintain 24 di visions of regular soldiers on a combat footing against Mihailovitch, whose own strength is being increased by Bulgarian and Rumaniar troops who have refused to fight with the Germans on the Russian front. The magni tude of this guerrilla war may be guessed by the fact that Axis occupation forces have executed more than 465,000 Serbs. And still the war goes on; still Mihailovitch dauntlessly leads his men to new and greater battles. In Austria the Nazis are compelled to wage constant war against “slackers and absentees” in industries working on Hitler war orders. There has been a sharp decrease in manu facturing output. Because he has declared Austria “so glad” to be affiliated with the reich he is very careful that no word of ex ecutions leaks out. The great Skoda munitions plant in Czech oslovakia is producing at only 40 per cent cap acity. Not even a Nazi guard at every fifth machine can halt the sabotage which goes on in the plant. Nor could the Nazis prevent destruction of a power plant which put the whole works out of commission for two weeks. Even in Rumania native guerrillas have wrecked a German troops train, f^red a Nazi oil train and raided a German barracks. And little Luxemburg is contributing a quota to the population of Nazi concentration camps because the new tenants engaged in anti Nazi activities. Hitler could wrest their lands from these peoples. He can’t stop their fight. __17 Interest Focuses On Yunnan Burma is lost for the United Nations, but the Chinese under General Stilwell, with heavy air support, are doing a good job in Yunnan province, where what was intended as a one week conquest by the Japanese has been thrown off schedule. It is still to be seen if the enemy can be completely routed, thus suffering its first major defeat on land. Stilwell has air su periority, it seems, but it is not known if he also has enough troops and mechanized equip ment to complete the task he has thus far done with* splendid success. Yunnan is vital to ultimate United Nations victory in the Pacific war because, among other things, its wealth in natural resources is tremendous. Big as New England, it has been notable in recent years for its large pro duction of tin, with exports amounting to $21, 000,000. In addition it contains huge quantities of coal, iron, gold, antimony, tungsten and lead, all vastly important in the production of war tools. When Japan began to overrun China in numerable small industries were set up in Yunnan, from which Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek has drawn great supplies of equip ment. None of these plants has been large, but in the aggregate their production has been immensely helpful. Yunnan was chosen for these enterprises because of its isolation no less then because of its mineral deposits. If the Sino-Japanese war had followed its original pattern, Yunnan would have been among the last areas in China to be attacked. But because Japan changed the pattern of war by sweeping southward following the at tack on Pearl Harbor, Yunnan became an early objective as a part of the Burma cam- I paign and the attempt to force China out of the war with the closing of the Burma road. Because of its strategic and industrial worth, it is to be expected that General Stilwell will make heroic efforts to hold it. His success will depend upon his ability to increase the forces under his command. He enjoys one ad vantage, in this battle, which has not accrued to United Nations commanders in all other battles in that area. His principal dependence for victory rests upon Chinese troops who, of all soldiers engaged in the Pacific war, know best how to fight and beat the Japanese, and upon American fliers, whose intrepididy and skill in action and daring in attack has been one of the greatest marvels of the conflict. -V A Strange Bottleneck The petroleum industry has developed a strange sort of bottleneck, with production falling off simultaneously with curtailed sup plies in the Atlantic coastal area. The bottleneck is peculiar in that there is neither a shortage in available supply, means of producing it, men to operate the pumps or refineries to crack it into its component parts. It exists as a consequence of U-boat tanker sinkings and an alleged shortage of other adequate transportation from producing fields to consumers on the Eastern seaboard. It is the more indefensible because the field of transportation has not been fully examined nor all means of transport utilized. With thou sands of barges available, but idle, it cannot be justly claimed that the petroleum situation has been wisely handled. However, the bottleneck does exist, produc tion is far below that of last year at this time, and because petroleum is a vital in gredient of the war effort, it is up to gov ernment to seek the solution in something more potent than public rationing. The New York Times shows how production stands in this brief article: Reflecting the disruption in the tanker movement of oil to the East Coast, opera tions in the petroleum industry continue to decline. Based on the weekly figures of the American Petroleum Institute, opera tions for the industry as a whole are about 20 per cent less than a year ago. Because of the seasonal demand for gas oline, production of crude oil and refinery operations usually are at a high operating rate at this period of the year. However, according to the last week’s figures of the institute, crude oil runs to stills were 470.000 barrels daily less than the run of 3.876.000 barrels a year ago, while crude oil production was 211,950 barrels below the output of 3,756,100 in 1941. With ra tioning in the East going into effect today, the industry does not look for any im’ provement until methods of transportation to take the place of tankers supplying the East have been developed to the fullest extent. Gasoline stocks for the country as a whole are at record levels and there is no shortage of crude oil pro duction nor refinery facilities. TT High Administration Cost There may be good reason why the cost of administering the Agricultural Conservation program is about four times as high in New Hanover county as for the state of North Car olina and nearly 15 times greater than in Dare county. But what that reason may be does not readily meet the eye. The discrepancy was brought to public at tention by Senator Byrd of Virginia, chair man of the Senate committee on reduction of non - essential expenses, during the Senate’s consideration of the appropriation bill for the Department of Agriculture. The figures he placed on the record show New Hanover’s cost is 44.1 per cent, Dare’s 3.5 per cent, and for the state 11.9 per cent. Some explanation is in order, naturally. And if it is not satisfactory some revision is also in order. Senator Byrd is making a valiant fight for reduction in needless expenditures by govern ment. Substantia] reductions in non-war spend ing are needed. Without them the American people will find their tax bills soon above their ability to pay, even at heavy sacrifices. Mr. Byrd deserves every aid in his fight the people can give him. Particularly he needs the help of the people of New Hanover county in this matter of con servation costs. It will have to be a very good reason indeed to justify expenses four times higher than for the state. -V Washington Daybook (Last Of A Series) By JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON, May 17 — Leon Henderson, chief of the Office of Price Administration, is Washington’s no-man, and I think he loves it. Being only about 5-feet-6 and weighing more than 200 pounds, triple chins and all, Hender son looks soft but don’t let that fool you. He’s as tough as that proverbial boot. He can hit with his fists just as hard as he can with his mind, and that’s hard because with the latter he has bowled over about as many congressional committees and Washington critics as any man in the capital. * * * * IT WASN’T “no” that brought Henderson in to the government nine years ago. It was that much, more expressive slang expression, “nuts.” After he had said it publicly a few times in referring to the late Gen. Hugh Johnson’s NRA, the grizzled old chief of the recovery act said in effect, “if you are so darned smart, come on down here and prove it. Henderson did. He has been around ever since, doing a score of chores, every one of which has involved yelling an emphatic “no” : at a lot of important people. As head of the Office of Price Administra tion, with the new price control law now in effect, he is saying “no” to more people than any other man in the United States. Without detracting at all from the credit ' due Bernard Baruch, that grand old man of World War I who is one of the President’s closest advisers in World War II, I think the pnce control act can be called Leon Hender son s baby. Last year when overwork had forced a vacation in Puerto Rico, Henderson met Harry Hopkins on the latter’s way back from London and the story goes that out of that session, with Henderson doing most of the talking, came the anti-inflation drive. * * * BARUCH already had been preaching it and his idea was an absolute over-all ceiling on everything, wages included. Henderson argued that it should be done piecemeal. But in spite of the difference of opinion, Baruch told con gress and the administration that Henderson was the man for the job. When the hearings on the bill opened before the house banking committee, there were a lot of axes being sharpened for Henderson in congress. When they were over, he had the job. There wasn’t any question too silly nor any too complex for the one-time professor of economics. For weeks, the newsmen were commenting on his patience and somebody re called that among those 14 jobs he held to work his way through college, one was tend ing babies. Henderson was born of poor parents in Mill ville, N. K., 47 years ago. He worked his way through high school and college. He taught at Swarthmore, his alma mater, and at the Uni versity of Pennsylvania. He went into the army in 1917 as a private, came out a captain * * * IN Washington, he probably is the govern ment’s most unorthodox bigwig. His capacity for work is prodigious. He arrives at his (now sometimes steaming) office in one of the government’s shoddy temporary buildings an hour or two before his staff. He’s always there when they are gone. He frequently an swers his 'own phone and in spite of the tre I ANOTHER CHANGE FOR THE ROLE OF HONOR ■ AMERfOq/^T ✓ As Others Say It ROAD ACROSS PANAMA Completion of the new concrete lighway across the Isthmus of r’anama, paralleling the c a nal, ;nds an astonishing anomaly. Heretofore there has been no high way across the isthmus and the anly means of travel from ocean to acean was through the canal by aoat or by the Panama railway. Not until a couple of years ago lid the great strategic value of a motor highway override traditions and red tape in the zone. The Pan ama railway, which is owned by the United States, had the power to veto construction of a highway, rhis it did. There were besides natural engineering difficulties. Today, with the completed high way, the canal is in better position [or defense.—Kansas City Times. * * * IN THE CYCLE OF HISTORY History is repeating itself. On Page 553, Volume III, of “Marl borough: His Life and Times,” by the prime minister, you will find these words: “We have now reach ed the culmnation of the eighteenth century world war. . . . We have witnessed a spectacle, so moving for the times in which we live, of a league o ftwenty-six signatory states successfully re sisting, and finally overcoming, a mighty coherent military despot sm.”—From a letter in the Lon lon (Eng.) Times. * * * LAVAL AND HIS SPONSORS It would be eminently appropri ite, we submit, for that ineffable statesman and staunch champion if human liberties, Pierre Laval, ;o conclude his broadcasts from /ichy to the unhappy people of France with the familiar line, ‘And now a word from my spon iors”—Roanoke (Va) Times. Raymond Clapper Says: Congressmen Being So Stupid About Gasoline BY RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON, May 17.—A Gov ernment official says the Army is switching from rubber to steel treads on tanks. That means loss of 10 per cent in speed. But the rubber shortage makes it nec essary to thus slow down the speed of our tanks. You would think that Senators and Representatives, knowing what a desperate effort must be made to save rubber and gasoline, and to release tankers from carrying fuel to the armed forces, would be the first to co-operate. Yet on the same day that this disclosure was made about taking rubber treads off of tanks, Sena tors and Representatives were staging an obscene spectacle in demanding the right to unlimited use of their automobiles. I have a lot of sympathy with the need of Senators and Represen tatives to get around, and am far less inclined to question the mile age they pile up than I am th.e spirit—the selfish, obstructive spir it—they display in claiming unlim ited privileges. Fortunately they are being so stupid in this chat a number of them are apt to pay for it dearly at the hands of indig nant voters. We'll find out that some of them are not essential gasoline users after all. The very men to whom the whole country looks to set an example and to encourage the public to ac cept the personal inconveniences needed to help win the war are doing exactly the reverse. Instead of trying to co-operate they are cackling like wet hens to hold their special privilege. They are handing out personal abuse to rationing officials and are denouncing the press for reporting the fact that they are chiselling unlimited gasoline cards. They are claiming that the press and the officials are trying to destroy Con. gress. The Senate majority leader, Barkley, instead of appealing to his colleagues to help save gaso line, flies into a rage when Sena tor Downey of California asks the Senators to waive their rights and pledge themselves to restrict their use of gasoline. Barkley says some newspapers are trying to under mine faith in Congress and adds defiantly that “I am going to take whatever I am entitled to without apology.” Rep. Faddis of Pennsylvaliia holds out foi his right to unlimited use of gasoline to campaign back home in spite of “any nitwitted bureaucratic clerk to the contrary.’ He and the whole horde of them are indulging in an orgy of morale destroying chatter. Rep. Leland Ford or California says in the House that it is time Congress showed tney “were not going to take orders from the bureaucrats downtown.” That’s outspoken defi ance of Government authority. Rep. Wilson of Indiana, evidently nauseated by this line of talk, chal lenged the need of unlimited cards for Congressmen. He was saying that it was hardly a credit to men in their positions when Rep. Hoff man of Michigan jumped up and, by declaring the remarks improp er, cut Wilson off from further dis cussion. * * * The number of unlimited cards being issued is so unexpectedly large that the allowance on all other cards may have to be cut so there will be enough fuel for the unlimited cards. The attitude of these Senators and Representatives makes one’s blood boil. But more than that, it makes you. solemnly wonder for the future of Congress. This is symptomatic like the pension grab last winter. The retirement scheme was not vicious in itself and had much to commend it but Congress stupidly tried to sneak it through at the very time the country was being asked to make heavy sacri fices. Popular resentment was so strong that some members already have been defeated on the issue More are likely to bite the dust especially now that Senators and Representatives have blundered again by this destructive and stupid conduct with regard to the gaso line ration. 3 --V ! Factographs Before a United States battleship can fire a salvo from her 15-inch guns alcohol enough to provide anti-freeze for the radiators of 198 autos must have gone into making smokeless powder. * * * It takes the work of 18 men back home to keep a single soldier on the fighting front. * * * Fort Macon at Morehead City, J. ■ 1S now garrisoned for the first time since 1865. 3 The Literary Guidepost By JOHN SELBY ‘FLOODS OF SPRING,” by Hen 'S’ Bellamann (Simon & Schuster: S2.50.) There is a peculiar something about Henry Bellamann’s “Floods if Spring” that cannot be explain ed very well. This would be why i-'ou believe in the novel when ihe ihief character is not believable aimself. But you do believe, strong y enough. Mr. Bellamann’s chief character is a man named Peter Kettring. Peter served in the Union army dirough the War Between the States. He left the army dissatis fied and dissillusioned, and after a time he decided that the dark rrge within him was toward free lorn. He married a Pennsylvania Dutch girl and at once took her vith him to Missouri. There he lought a farm on the north bank if the Missouri river, and there le tried to build himself a small kingdom. He wanted, like Greta fjarbo, to be alone. mendous pressure of work, is prob ably easier to see than any other Dig official in Washington. He has a charming wife and three children. They have a mod est home in Washington and a cot age on Chesapeake Bay near An lapolis. The family, a bridge jjame, a mandolin, singing, a bot ;le of beer, and fishing are Hender son s chief recreations. Time and vork permitting, those are the hings to which he doesn’t say no.” “Floods of Spring” is the story of Peter’s campaign against the world, and of its effect on the lives of his wife, his two sons, the girls these sons loved, and the neighborhood as a whole. His wife and his younger son died because of him. His neighbors distrusted the hard-shelled Yankee in their midst. Slowly he bound himself in chains which existed in his own mind, and only with the greatest difficulty was he saved in the end. The strange thing is that by any reasonable analysis I can devise, Mr. Bella mann’s central figure simply could not have acted the way he did. Peter was not stupid, yet for the best years of his life Mr. Bellamann makes him act as only a stupid man could act. He knew what he wanted, and again and again he did things to his family and his neighbors which pre vented his getting what he wanted. And this seems not only futile but unlikely. Just the same, it is not easy to read “Floods of Springs” without being caught up on the crest and carried along. When this happens, it is pretty likely to be because the writer himself truly believed, and probably that is the reason this time. Mr. Bellamann sees Peter as the symbol of man against the world, of the individua list pushing against the well known trammels of society. You have the feeling that even if logic is lacking in some departments, the basic thesis of the book is valid, believ able and honest. And you overlook some inconsistencies. 3 Interpreting The War Tide May Reverse In Allies Favor During This Yea, BY EDWARD E. BOMAR Wide World War Analyst The safest view of the \va,- p duction Board’s decision lo contracts for many war p;an"CCl that it means merely new er, nh is on winning the immediate bat* tie of shipping and vms ' The announcement that pl,itls,, „ be shelved for virtually all . tions factories which can not , completed before mid-1943 L°e itself nevertheless to the ;dea , a drastic revision of UnitedV'1 tions grand strategy, looking winning the war this year. Although a pinching shortage ri raw materials was a major’ sideration, the WPB was said bv a spokesman to have been also by a belief that this sumno may bring a turning point. Already optimism was swelled by the Red army’s blows at Xha kov and by Prime Minister Church" ill’s assertion that the beginniaJ of victory was in sight. Some sec° tions of the London press are im! pelled to headline “Victory m 194> ’ as a new war aim of democracy's arsenal. Under the circumstances, ttie White House and a realistic' ad. miral were doubly timely in ham mering further on the familiar but vital shipping theme. Fresh evidence is forthcoming daily to support the idea that w° are winning the battle ot produc" tion, but the current rate of los. ses of cargo vessels to U-boats means victory is still well over the horizon in the struggle to trans port arms to the fighting fronts. The appeal for greater speed m turning out ships voiced at Oak land, Calif., by Rear Admiral John W. Greenslade, put into specitic t terms a situation which hitherto : had been only hinted. “War goods are piling up at the Jocks on both coasts and are back ing up at some inland war plants.'’ le said. “For example, 40.000 no tary trucks are standing at a sa - le east coast port waiting t r ships. “At one inland plant there are 30,000 combat vehicles ready to fee shipped. We lost the Philippines and Singapore because we did act have enough ships of both types, combat and commercial. We rr.aj lose Australia, perhaps Alaska, n the same reason.” The White House summary seem, ed intending to be reassuring, arc had that general effect. Less thar a month ago President Roosevelt confirmed that there was a nation wide shortage of steel plates. Now comes the statement that the ship construction program is on sche dule although a shortage of ton nage will continue "until sink ings throughout the world us brought under better control' and building gets into full swing Altogether, there is shaky sap port for the idea of victory ,:i 1942, even though hope is strm - that before the year is out Ha ler will have been stopped, ti.e Japanese put on the defensive and the tide definitely reversed. It was only last month tit.: President Roosevelt termed tn ■ the survival war and declare,1 would take two or three yen.? to make certain that our type civilization would be saved. He n given no indication of any change in his estimate. iTs That So! Pennsylvania led all the s in a recent estimate of Unit States big-game animals, act' ■' ing to government experts. It -us approximately 777.300 animals i five species. * * * Let summer bring w h a t may, says Grandpappy Jenk as long as they don't rati watermelon and corn on tl * * * Zadok Dumbkopf says he kno-ts a chap who wants to buy a "c of those new steel teeth so he 1 find another excuse for not elut ing water. The ball club dropj u first place into the second d ; might explain it by saying : ly retreated to a “more s position.’’ * * * Some fruit should be pick read, before it is ripe, include political plums'.’ The word “ukulele.” to Factographs. means flea.’’ Is that why some f' just bugs over that kind i>! According to the Japar endar, now Imposed on 1 ; of the Dutch East Indii j the year 2602. That - f with the Japs — ah'- - | ahead of themselves. § It’s a small world a. rohito and Mussolini v.-'K when that day comes v.r.en will try to hide from human--: vengeance. * * * Brazil and Hungary are ^ each other but thev may ; tough time getting close m ' exchange punches. * * * Grandpappy Jenkins. "'.hr nervous passenger, wants 0 .. what they mean by ca:~ “pleasure” driving. * * * Junior has turned invento1' Ke iow working on a formula lew type of synthetic rubbes n’-“ , exclusively of castor oil- !
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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May 18, 1942, edition 1
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