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Wilmington Wonting §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 Department# DIAL 3311 Entered as Second Class Matter at Wimting ton, N. C.. Postoffice Under Act ol Congress ol March 3, 1879. SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY CARRIER Payable Weekly Or In Advance Comblna Tim. Star News tion ? Week .$ 25 # 30 $ 35 l 55®“! .... 3.50 5.20 8.10 ;fi£10.40 «.» News rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue of Star-News _ 7 BY MAIL Payable Strictly In Advance Combine Star News ticn 1 IMS .»•« » “ *» » Moalh. . > » * * J™ J . # 00 8.00 10.00 News rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue ol Star-News Card ol Thanks charged lor at the rata ol 25 cents per line Count Pve words to line THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Is entitled to the exclusive use of eli news itories appearing in The Wilmington Star TUESDAY. MAY 19, 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 trom Wrightsville Beacn to Bald Head Island. Extension ol 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, vis 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 nospital 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 Arise and meet the daylight, Be strong and do your best, Wish an honest heart and a childlike trust, And God will do the rest. —MARGARET E. SANGSTER, JR.. -V Plea For Sales Tax . There is no more reason to suppose the peo ple of the United States would not ultimately accept a national sales tax than the people of this state have failed to accept the same method of raising revenue for state needs. Probably its introduction would stir a quick storm of protest—just as happened in North Carolina—but it would subside as quickly. And it would distribute the tax load among all the people more equitably than any other system. Representative Robertson’s declaration that congress should have the courage to approve a sales tax in the emergency, without rgard to political expediency, is commendable, not only because the tax is needed but as exhibit ing the type of courage he urges upon con gress. “The only way of meeting this emergency,” he says, referring to the treasury’s $8,700, 000,000 revenue goal, “would be to include some suitable consumption tax.” No truer word has been spoken since the war created the need for tremendously increased national revenue. If it were imposed, no buyer would escape, even though his purchase were only of a nickel’s value. -V High School Orchestra An important event happened in Wilmington Sunday afternoon, but for the most part Wil mingtonians knew nothing about. There was nothing spectacular about it, but the handful of people who were present realized that some thing new has been created and that its exis tence constitutes another cultural asset in the city. With the beginning of the preseni high school term a group of pupils was assembled to form an orchestra. Rehearsals have been held reg ularly. Gradually the members have been welded into a unit. Improvement has come not only because each player has been bene fited by individual practice upon the instru ment of his or her choice but through con certed playing. Finally they were gathered upon the stage of the high school auditorium an3, as cited above, the concert was impor tant as proving that Wilmington has musical talent among its young people. The high school orchestra has taken its first step. The road ahead is hard and the going difficult. Orchestras “arrive” only by travel, ing this road and enduring its strenuous pas sage. It is gratifying to music lovers to know that the start has been made. -y Expert Evidence With the arrival of American correspondents at Lisbon, following their concentration-camp experiences in Germany and Italy, something of the true situation in these enemy countries is coming to light. Edwin A. Shanke of the old Berlin bureau of the Associated Press, and Richard G. Massock, chief of the former AP bureau in Rome, have filed interesting dis patches from their Lisbon quarters. Mr. Chanke declares the morale of the Ger man civilian population is slipping, but hastens to add that this does not indicate Nazism is near internal collapse. Mr. Massock says the Italian people, “ridden with hardship and unrest” are “ripe for de featism and disillusion,” but adds that collapse from a food shortage or an economic break down is not imminent, although “elements are lacking to make Italy an ally of predictable worth to the Axis.” This is evidence gathered on the ground by men eminently fitted by their long raining to look below the surface and weigh all factors in an equation. It must have the weight that belongs to expert testimony in any court. When Mr. Shanke says, therefore, that Ger does not say cracking) we may be sure that man civilian morale is slipping (note that he a revolution in the thinking of the people of Hitlerland is undergoing a chance which is in no way to the Fuehrer’s advantage. A very slight shove is all that anything already slip ping needs to send it quickly to whatever bot tom it can hit. It would seem that only a little push, something like a definite victory over the Nazi armies in the field, is all that is needed to make the German people, like the Italians, “ripe for defeatism.” A second Ar gonne would deflate German morale beyond recovery. But we must not kid ourselves into thinking that anything less than a major victory on any of the many battlefields of this war will do the trick. W’ith Hitler telling Mussolini what he may or may not do, and 200,000 Nazis in Italy to see that he obeys, no particular reason exists to fear any positive Axis action from that country. A Hitler defeat will end Italy’s war participation and her people's misery. -_v 30 Ships The launching of 30 cargo-carrying ships as a part of the program arranged for Maritime day is significant on many counts. Perhaps the most important is that it will demonstrate the increasing speed with which American shipyards are turning out merchant craft, spe cifically Victory ships, to keep war materials moving to our own forces abroad and to the Allies who with us. are fighting the world threat of despotism as represented by the Axis nations. On September 27 last, 14 Liberty ships were launched, up to that time the greatest mass launchings on record. In seven months Ameri can shipyards obviously have more than doubled their production as the 30 scheduled to slip down the ways on Friday indicates. The completion of no single ship has been delayed to swell the total launchings on that day, Admiral Land, head of the Maritime Com mission, assures us. They represent the new stride in production, and will mark the be ginning of the two-ships-a-day program in augurated. with the goal set for 23,000,000 dead tons of shipping set afloat this year and next. Another feature of the Maritime day pro gram is the record set by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company in Wilmington which is launching a ship a week in a plant which was non-existent a short year and one-half ago. -V Different Kind Of Sunday The first Sunday under gasoline rationing produced expected and unexpected results. Among the latter may be mentioned a fal ling off in church attendance. As the automo bile in its earlier life was widely blamed for decreasing congregations, this suggests either that the blame was misplaced or that the people generally have become so dependnt upon their cars that they would rather stay abed when they can’t use them for junketing than walk to church as they did in childhood. On the other side of the record, there was a sharp decrease in highway accidents, with ambulances idle in Albany, N. Y., and Atlanta, Ga. Neighbors, previously strangers, discover ed the good points of each other and even members of families who seldom met together became reacquainted. Traffic was greatly re duced on the highways. Presumably car owners saved money. Cer tainly hordes of them did not make their cus tomary Sunday expenditures for gasoline, meals and general recreation, a situation vast ly to their own benefit but hard of businesses which previously depended chiefly on week-end trade for profits. Life’s like that at every turn. One man’s good invariably is another’s harm. Every rose, as we used to sing, must have its thorn. Altogether the first gasoline-ration Sunday appears to have been worthwhile, whether ra tioning is necessary or not. If it only made some thousands of persons mindful that we are at war, it accomplished a great thing. Counting Spoils Of Battle Russian accounts of the fighting in the Khar kov area continue to claim increasing advan tage for the Reds. They would be more cred ible if they did not specify German losses in such minute detail. They share this fault with the Germans. We read, for example, that between May 12 and 16, “by incomplete reports,” the Russians captured 365 guns, 25 tanks, 188 mortars, 379 machineguns, 46,413 shells and 89 cases of shells. In addition it is said, “other trophies” were 23,384 mines, 1,000,000 cartridges, 13,000 hand grenades, 90 trucks, 29 radio stations, 38 artillery and supply dumps. Among “tools” destroyed are 400 German tanks, 210 guns, 33 mortars, 217 machineguns, 700 trucks, 100 sup. ply carts, 12 various dumps and 147 planes. To have counted and listed these articles the Russians must have a force of auditors with adding machines in the front line. Heaven knows we want to believe the Rus sians are doing a marvelous job around Khar kov. We want to believe that Timoshenko is mopping up on Hitler and his minions. And we certainly do believe that Hilter can be crushed in Russia this summer. But for the life of us we cannot see how it is possible for an advancing army, or any of its soldiers, to pause long enouugh to make such tabulations as these without jeopardizing its continued advance. -v Washington Daybook By JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON. May 18. — Oddly enough, Washington, as a city, doesn't pay much at tention to house and senatorial eelctions until the votes are in. Ask a hundred persons how this race or that is going, before it’s run, and unless the person questioned has some particular affinity for the state or district under discussion, you will only get a blank look or raised eyebrows. There are, however, exceptions — and the senatorial race coming up in Texas is A-I this year. There are good reasons why. * * * The three leading candidates are all two term governors. The oldest living politician here can’t remember when that ever happen ed before. In the second place, one of the candidates is incumbent Sen. W. Lee (Pass the-biscuits-Pappy) O’Daniel, who was consid ered pretty much of an amateur politican until he tromped on the Administration-sponsored Rep. Lyndon Johnson and much publicized Rep. Martin Dies in the election that seated him in the upper house. ' His opposition in the coming election is com posed of former Gov. Dan Moody, who has been in the political thick of things in Texas ever since the forced abdication of the Fergu sons. Ma and Pa; and of former Gov. James V. Allred, the Wichita Falls attorney, who not only made his political mark very young in life, but who has stepped out of a life-time job as federal district judge to make this race. There is another factor. In the last senatorial campaign, the Administration threw its weight behind young Johnson. Apparently a certain sector of Texas voters resented this Adminis tration interference in local politics. In spite of that, there is some possibility the Adminis tration may jump in again. I’m not going to try ro anticipate the admin istration action, but if it does get into the pic ture, it won’t be behind Senator O’Daniel. The Senate stands on dignity, precedent, tradition and whatnot. Freshman Senator O’Daniel paid little attention to them. In fact, some observ ers say that not since the late Huey Long took his seat has any incoming senator paid so little attention to the traditional methods of the Senate, Don’t ask me if that is good or bad—but I do know that it hasn’t made the senator the most popular freshmen to come into the north wing of Congress. On the other hand, I don't think that this time any oldtimers in the Senate will make the mistake of underestimating O’Daniel’s vote-getting powers. Apparently, Washington’s popular young Lyndon Johnson (now in the Navy as a lieutenant - commander) and na tionally - publicized Martin Dies have had enough anyway. It would be hard to find two young men with such political springboards who would shy away from a senatorial race. Some ancient and impartial observers here are grinning over the Texas senatorial picture. Their guess is that “Pappy” O’Daniel has done it again. Allred and Moody, they say, will split the opposition. That’s the aim of every candidate, as well as every general. 3 -V Editorial Comment DEFEAT AND THE WORKING MAN Christian Science Monitor Discontented European workers who believ ed Hitler’s promises that establishment of his “new- order” would represent merely a victory over their capitalist overlords now know bet ter. Or if there are,some who do not, they need only study the new Nazi decree increas ing working hours in French factories. Of course, an increase in working hours does not necessarily represent a setback for labor, in France or elsewhere. If the national economy can absorb increased production, la bor can get a return for increased hours which may make them very attractive. But business is not that good in France these days, in fact, Frenchmen have been working on a forty hour week as under the Popular Front, but not because Hitler favors Leon Blum’s theo ries; only because there has not been work enough to go round. Many plants have operat ed on a twenty-hour basis so as to spread employment. to this extent the French employer has been co-operating with French labor. But these advantages for the French workman do not interest the Nazis. They seem to consider he is being too well looked after. What the Nazis want is not less but more unemployment in France. Hence the decree to increase work ing hours. The order is expected to result in the dis missal of large numbers of French workers, who will then be economically as well as po litically at the mercy of the Herrenvolk. These dismissed Frenchmen are expected to consti tute a reservoir of unemployed labor more susceptible to Nazi offers of jobs necessary to the Nazi war effort. One need not explain to any French worker today that this is only a refined form of forced labor. The skilled machinist, out of work long enough, with hungry mouths at home, becomes an unskilled agricultural la borer. The bookkeeper, stronger mentally than physically, may yet find himself digging ditches where the Nazis want them dug. ■ j “DOWN UNDER” p? / The Editor's \ Letter Box The editor does not necessarily endorse any article appearing in this department. They represent the views of the individual readers. Correspondents and warned that all communications must contain the correct name and address for our records, though the latter may be signed as the writer sees fit. The Star-News reserves the right to alter any text that for any rea son is objectionable. Letters on controversial subjects will not be published. A SPLENDID JOB To The Editor: The citizens of Wilmington have just witnessed the finest bit of public service I have seen ren dered by volunteer workers. I re fer, of course, to the splendid way in which our school authorities and teachers handled the difficult su gar and gas rationing registra tions. Many people do not realize how great was this burden on the rela tive handful who did the great bulk of clerical work involved. Some complained at the inconven ience of standing in line for an hour or two, awaiting a rationing card. Many realize that these workers spent many hours a day, during the past two weeks, first taking instructions for the task of registering the public, then exer cising the necessary skill and pa tience required by the actual reg istering. Besides this, amid the al ways heavy burdens of the closing month of school, class programs had to be compressed and stepped up to make fullest use of the re duced classroom time available. To the superintendent, the as sistant superintendents, and the teachers of the schools of New Hanover county belong the warm est thanks of this community. They performed a delicate and arduous task efficiently and cheerfully. 2 J. ROY CLIFFORD Wilmington, N. C. May 18, 1942. -V Herr Goebbels wants the Ger mans to be more cheerful. His campaign would beome an in stant success if only he and his boss would resign. The Literary Guidepost | By JOHN SELBY “Georgia: Unfinished State,” by Hal Steed (Knopf; $3.50). One of the best books for brows ing I have seen for months is Hal Steed’s “Georgia: Unfinished State.” It is as good as the Geor gia State Guide and, as the stand ard dictionary joke has it, a good deal more consecutive. Mr. Steed has not written a his tory of Georgia, but an impres sion. Oglethorpe is in the book, and so is General Sherman. But Dutch, the soda squirt who made and lost millions in the Florida land boom, is there, and so is Mr. Tittle, who spends his life running a trolley by day, and taking his wife over his experiences, block by block, at night. Places are treated as personalities, and schools as well. Governor Tal madge, Fanny Kemble, Gutzon Borglum, Warm Springs, Georgia cotton, Rhett Butler and Tobacco Road are in the book and the re markable proceedings at Atlanta, when the movie premiere of “Gone With the Wind” shattered the ijerves and the good sense of the populace, make a vivid chap ter. Curiously, the two most vivid impressions I had from the book concern two widely different events—Sherman’s campaign, and i the city of Savannah. Mr. Steed has been remarkably successful in suggesting the quiet beauty of that most charming of Georgia cities, even if he is a little naive in ac cepting hurricane lamps as oddi ties. Savannah is one of the few American cities which was laid out from scratch; its alternating parks and built up squares are unique, and the life of the people has ab sorbed, according to Mr. Steed, something tangible from contact with the physical advantages of the place. And Sherman comes out of Mr. Steed’s narrative rather better than you might think. He emerges a remarkably astute commander, for one thing—a general who ven tured a campaign only after he knew precisely what lay ahead, who used pincer movements 75 years ahead of Hitler, who worked with some success to hold down his marauding men. But also as a general who knew the uses of ter ror, and developed these into a technique. Mr. Steed says flatly that Wheeler’s Confederate com mand was just as much feared, perhaps more feared, than Sher man’s army—something formal historians have sometimes glossed. . Mr. Steed’s book is better than a picture in prose. It is an enter taining picture. 2 Raymond Clapper Says: Barkley Could Do Well To Think Things Over By RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON, May 18.—Sena tor Barkley cjn call this indigna tion over unlimited gasoline cards for congressmen a tempest in a teapot if he wants to. But he is the majority leader of the Senate, and as he wants to preserve Congress as a force in our public affairs, he might do well to let down his blood pressure and think it over. Whether two hundred congress men and a flock of their secre taries get unlimited gasoline cards is a small thing in the relative amount of gasoline involved. If the senator sees no more in the matter than that then he is asleep. As a force in our government Congress is sliding down hill. It is endangered not by the press nor by the executive branch but by its own shallow incompetency. It fails to exert the real leadership that the nation must have in modern times. Congress has remained a collec tion of two - cent politicians who could serve well enough in simpler days. But the ignorance and pro vincialism of Congress renders it incapable of meeting the needs of modern government. Consequently the center of gravity has shifted toward the executive branch. * * * No matter how capable . ongress might be, many of its lunctions would have to be delegated to ad ministrative officers. Regulatory bodies have had to be set up. The power over tariffs, one of the most important held in the past by Con gress, has had to be delegated to the executive branch because no large legislative body can handle the delicate and complicated ad justments necessary under modern world economic conditions. Those delegations of power, while remov ing a good deal of responsibility from Congress, need not mean the decline of Congress. On the contrary, by getting rid of the details of tariff making and other housekeeping routine, Con gress releases itself from a bundle of petty chores. It becomes free to fulfill a more fundamental func tion. * * * Never was there such need or intelligent and informed debate on public affairs. People are looking to editorials, radio commentators and newspaper columnists for the discussion of public affairs that they ought to get from Congress. Not the newspaper columnists but senators and representatives should be developing and leading the think ing of the country at this time. Since we have not Webster-Hayne debates, people want to know what Dorothy Thompson and Walter Lippman think. Our problems were never so worthy of earnest thought and dis cussion. The people are hungry for it — so hungry that they sit up nights at the radio and pore over their newspapers eager to soak up what they can from those speakers and writers in whom they have confidence. Never has Congress had such a chance to make itself a great na tional forum of discussion. Our su preme debating forum should be Congress—not Town Hall of the Air. The people elect Congress and surely tney would rather hear from it. Surely in this democratic struggle they would like Congress to be the great tribune of the peo ple. The only reason Congress is not just that is that people don’t give a damn what the average senator or congressman says. The reason they don’t care is that they know what you hear in Congress is 99 per cent tripe, ignorance and dem agogery and not to be relied on. * * * At the Harvard Tercentenary a few years ago I heard Dr. A. Law rence I owell say that great institu tions were not killed but commit ted suicide, and then somebody came along and buried them. Nobody is going to destroy Con gress. It is doing that job itself at the very moment when it is most needed. Members are so busy sneaking through retirement pen sions, grabbing unlimited gasoline rationing, hiding wives, children, nephews, and in-laws on the pay roll that they are missing the boat. And then they say the newspa pers are out to destroy Congress. Think it over again, Senator Bark ley, please. 3 -V F actographs The word “salary” comes from the Roman word, “sal,” meaning salt. In the early days of the Roman empire salt was not eas ily obtained, a nd soldiers re ceived an allowance of salt as part of their wages, called “sa larium.” Later the word came to mean fixed wages, or “salary.” * * * Killer whales will attack and smash a small boat, eating what ever in living form falls out. Thev are so powerful that they can shat ter an ice floe a foot and one-half thick by hitting it with their heads. Interpreting The War Russians Appear To Have Turned Tables On Germans By KIRKE L. SIMPSON - Wide World War Analyst A grim possibility that his prom, ised “annihilation” offensive jn Russia will turn into a Nazi rout on a wide front south of Kharkov confronts Herr Hitler. For seven days he has been outguessed and outfought by Russian armies he once told his people he had de stroyed. The exact contour of the 100-mi]e wide Russian front around the Kharkov bastion of German com munications is not clear.Russian seizure of Krasnograd junction. 60 miles west-southwest of Kharkov is imminent, according to reports frdm Moscow and London. Its fail would put Red forces within three score miles of Dnepropetrovsk, site of the rail bridge upon which main supply lines of German forces in a rapidly developing Sta lino-Taganrdg pocket depend. With Krasnograd under Russian gunfire, (London observers go far ther and intimate it is already jn Russian hands), the vital German communication link east of the Dnieper river at the north elbow of the stream’s great Eastern bend would be broken. Even Kremen chug, the next major river cross ing northward and 80 miles farther west, would be threatened. South of Krasnograd, the Rus sians are already reported astride one rail line to Stalino at Lozovaya junction and threatening the direct Stalino-Dniepropetrovsk route and its Taganrog and Mariupol con nections on both sides of Stalino. If that is true the whole southern mainland flank of the German line to the sea of Azov coast, from which the main attack on the Cau casus was to be launched, is in deadly peril. So far as the breach m the Nazi lines south of Kharkov can be trac ed on the maps, it seems to rep resent a huge bulge with a front of 50-mile width or more from Krasnograd to Lozovaya bearing down on Dnepropetrovsk from the east and northeast. It is far from clear yet, however, whether Marshal Timoshenko’s objective is confined to reaching the Dnieper at the Dniepropetrovsk crossing cl aimed at sweeping its eastern banks clear to Kremenchug. At Krasnograd he would be in a po sition to strike on westward to ward Poltava, then southwest to Kremenchug, or turn his whole strength southward on Dnepropet rovsk and the closure of the S a lino-Taganrog pocket to prevent a Nazi escape. Whatever his purpose or the forces he has available to exploit fully the startling Red success, the Russian commander has already gone far to nullify German vic tories on Kerch peninsula. Us coni, plete capture would be all b u t meaningless to Hitler unless he promptly halts the forward surge of Timoshenko in the Krasnograd Lozovaya breakthrough. The Russian leader, not Hitler, seems to have been the one to achieve the incalculable advantage of surprise. There is every evi dence that he managed to mars tremendous power in men. guns, tanks and planes for the Kharkov operations without Nazi intelli gence officers discovering the fact. Timoshenko also appears to have fooled his rivals completely as io his real purpose in the first phase of his attack. The Chugnev - Volchansk line east of Kharkov from which he jumped off on a 4,1 mile front seemed aimed at re gaining the city by frontal at'.' The real thrust fell to the south a that line, however, once Nazi e serves had been sucked in to bo ter Kharkov defenses. Even more important than ground won or lose is the evidence of brilliant Russian generalship and adroit staff work. Timoshe: i has so far beaten Hitler and «■= generals at their own game. 3 ----V As C ihers Say it CHESS IN WAR The death of Capablanea. our London correspondent. * * raised discussion whether chess ■■ as popular in the armies as • was last century. It seems ■ the game is officially approved -■ officers in the German and ^ anese armies The view js that chess provides training '■■■ looking out for the unexpected a “ teaches the importance of cone - tration of force on a given P°-1' In Russia, where so many P •; a small masters’ tournament ■ ^ just taken place in Moscow • second to be held there in spue the strain of the war. Today in the British army ^ are more players than them boards and chessmen.—Nanc i • ter (Eng.) Guardian. * * * WHAT WAS IT? “No sabotage, only care‘®7.. ness,” reports the house com tee investigating the disaster to Normandie. What is careless" - but sabotage? The effect is same. The damage to the Not die is as great whether it caused by carelessness, or lect, which is carelessness. or caused by a deliberate act. ■ lessness is sabotage. That P-^ ciple needs to be hammered 0 .; Treatment of carelessness on ■ same basis as sabotage lTl1 " to drive that truth home. The less man is a saboteur. ^ reaL,-c js as such. It sounds hard, t>ul e a time when softness can _ everything we have.—San ' s cisco Chronicle.
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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May 19, 1942, edition 1
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