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MUmingtOtt iiornttig £>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 Departments DIAL 3311 Entered as Second Class Matter at Wilming ton, M. C. Postoffice Under Act of Congress ot March 3, 1673. SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY CARRIER Payable Weekly Or In Advance Combine Tima Star News tion 1 Week ...$ 36 8 30 $ 35 1 Month eeeeeteteeeseeesitie 1.10 -00 1»®0 5 Months ..,. 8.35 2.60 4.56 6 Months .... 6-50 5.20 6.10 1 year .18.00 10*0 18.30 News rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue at Star-News BY MAIL Payable Strictly in Advance Combine Star New* titan 1 Month *75 I AO $ AO 3 Months 3-00 LSC 3.75 3 Months •*rai*«i******au«i A00 3.60 A.30 1 Year . 3.00 0.00 10.00 News rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue at Star-News Card ol Thanks charged tor at the rate ct 25 cents per line. Count 0ve words to line. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Is entitled to the exclusive use ol all news stories appearing in The Wilmington Star. WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 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 ovary way the prosecution of the war to complete victory. Public Port Terminal*. Perfected Truck and Berry Preserving and Marketing Facilities. Seaside Highway from Wrightsville Beach to Bald Head Island. Extension of City Limits. 25-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 Drydockt. 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. Modem Tuberculosis Sanatorium. TOP O’ THE MORNING Courage is the candle I must keep alight Through the deepening darkness Of the night. I must watch it closely Lest it flicker out, Blown by some assailing Wind of doubt. —ALINE MICHAELIS On The Alert Wo group in the world keeps closer watch on the fighting on the Kerch peninsular and around Kharkov that the British 10th. army in Iraq and Iran, and the reason is not hard to find. If Hitler should break through to Caucasian oil it would become the duty of this army to go into action, to act as a backstop of Rus sian defense, as one commentator expresses it. We cannot say, but there probably are American troops with this British 10th. army, eager for contact with the enemy. There have been American engineers in the Middle East for a long time establishing communication lines into Russia, making behind-the-lines preparations for battle and disposing equip ment and munitions at points where it will be most readily accessible if and when the combat starts. It is not unlikely that in ad dition to these there are also American com bat troops in the area. The people of the United States, therefore, have increasing interest in the fighting now under way in the Crimea and the Ukraine. And, inasmuch as Hitler’s lie dispensers have claimed that Kerch had fallen only to ac knowledge the Nazis still beyond its gates, there is some reason for them to take com fort in such news as comes through. Con fused and contradictory as reports from Ber lin and Moscow are, the battle still appears to favor the Russians. But it is quite apparent that the British, knowing that if Hitler gains the oil of the Caucasus the war must go on interminably, are fully determined to interpose an impreg nable barrier to his advance if he should suc ceed in forcing a passage across the Sea of Azov or the Black sea. We can but hope that if they are called into actual combat, they will have sufficient men and enough planes to reverse the record of Malay, Singa • jore, Java and Burma. Study The Candidates The primary election is less than two weeks off. As only citizens whose names appear on the primary register will be eligible to'vote, this article is addressed, not to them but to the others whose voice will determine which candidates will be named in the general elec tion for th public offices to be listed on the ballots at that time. It is to be regretted that all persons of the proper age have not taken the trouble to reg ister, but nothing can be done about that now. The fault is theirs alone, and there the mat ter rests. For all others it is appropriate to say that until May 30, when the primary will be con ducted, it is important to weigh the attributes of ail candidates for every office at stake and, dismissing purely personal or political considerations, decide to cast their ballots for the men whom they are convinced are best fitted to discharge the duties that will rest upon them if elected. Efficiency was never at so high a premium as at present. The nation faces such a crisis as it has never before known. To weather it, there must be capable men in office, not only in the federal service, but in every branch of government. It is as vital to have the best available officials in Wilmington as in Washington. Anything less is as liable to result in failure in New Hanover county, in this great emergency, as in the National Cap ital. They can be obtained only by the decisions the voters reach after careful, painstaking consideration. Snap judgment is not commen surate with the issue. Nor is the heeding of glib tongued advisers who have their own gain is view when they recommend support for a particular candidate. The choice should be reached by each individual voter for himself. There is time for close examination of the whole field of candidates. Failure to make that examination will be to exercise the fran chise without respect for its responsibilities. -V A Notable Anniversary Tomorrow is the 61st anniversary of that mild spring evening when a little group of men and women gathered in Clara Barton’s house on I street, Washington, and organized what now is the American Red Cross. Somehow it seems presumptuous to intro duce the Red Cross to the American public. Its achievements in the field of applied mercy, its contributions to the alleviation of suffer ing, in war and in peace, would seem to have publicized this magnificent organization “far above our poor power to add or detract.” And yet, sometimes we take for granted the benefactor who always stands ready with a helping hand. We forget that behind un stinted generosity lies the self-sacrifice of thousands whose glory it is to serve humanity. In time of peace we think of the Red Cross, most of us, on two occasions. One is when we make a little donation for the annual roll call. The other is when some major dis aster—earthquake, flood, famine, explosion— brings into swift play the efficient machinery which has been built up over the 61 years since Clara Barton started the movement in this country. But today we are reminded of the Red Cross dramatically by what it is doing for our sol diers, sailors and marines. The Red Cross is sending food and clothing to Americans imprisoned in Italy and Ger many, is checking prison camp conditions, is arranging for mail to reach our boys captured by the Japanese. Already some 600,000 sweaters, socks, muf flers, helmets, sea boots, scarfs and other knitted articles have been shipped to our fighting men. More than 7,000,000 garments have been sent for the relief of war victims. More than 30,000,000 surgical dressings have been made and sent to Europe, and more than 40,000,000 to our own Army and Navy hospitals. The Red Cross is operating 18 blood dona tion centers, seeking to collect 1,28,000 pints of blood for transfusions for the wounded. It is estimated that of all the men who have passed through our army camps, one out of eight has received assistance from the Red Cross. These are figures, accurate but neither cold nor hard. They are figures of mercy, made possible because millions have donated money and thousands have given of them selves, in work. This is not an appeal for money. The Red Cross has no financial drive on now. This is just a reminder of a very few of the things that the Red Cross, on its 61st birthday, is doing for the relief of distress. -V Himmler In Holland No clearer or more tragic understanding of the unrest and gathering revolt among Eu rope’s Nazi-dominated people could be offer ed than in the announcement that Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s chief executioner, has been sent to Holland and that before starting he conferred at length with Reinhard Heydrich, commonly called “der henker,” or hangman, who is now engaged in the slaughter of Frenchmen following his transfer from Czechoslovakia. Obviously the execution of 96 Hollanders, the rearrest of all former Dutch officers and cadets and the seizure of 460 prominent citi zens in a week have failed to quell the spirit of revolt in Holland or quiet the jittery nerves of Nazi leaders, in deadly fear of a continen tal invasion by United Nations forces. The Dutch people are urged by their gov ernment-in-exile to restrain their impulse to revenge the deaths of thousands during the Nazi invasion and since. "Draw the line where prudence ceases and recklessness begins,” is the advice of their government’s spokesman. It is wise counsel, certainly, but considering the manner in which the Dutch have treated their unwelcome “guests” and their unshak able determination to win free or die in the attempt, it is doubtful that it will be heeded. The mission of Himmler can be nothing else but to suppress this revolt in all its ramifi cations, if that can be done by firing squads. He will fail, of course. As long as Dutchmen survive they will fight—not openly now be cause they are disorganized and unarmed. But the Nazis could quell rebellion in Hol land only with the slaying of the last mem ber of this indomitable people. It is no mere coincidence that Himmler goes to Holland simultaneously with the arrival of additional American soldiers in Ireland. The fear of a continental invasion has gripped the hearts and minds of Hitler and his fel low gangsters. As Holland might be chosen for a landing place for expeditionary forces it is essential to the Nazi cause that they get no help from Hollanders, and to prevent this Himmler is sent to conduct a blood bath, and to imprison all he does not kill. -V Fighting Back It is difficult to follow the course of battle in Burma because available maps fail to show the location of many towns named in dis patches and the terrin is not clearly indi cated. But it is apparent that the Chinese, previously forced to retire before the enemy because they lacked numbers and air support, have at last been reinforced in sufficient strength to turn on the enemy and whittle at the Japanese army's flanks and thrust at the rear with telling effect. Burma might be reclaimed yet. Or the fight ing there might assume a similar pattern to the battle in Russia, where the Nazis swept away all opposition in the early stages only to be halted by impenetrable Russian de fenses. And, again like the Russian invasion, the present fighting might signal a stubborn counter-offensive on a scale much larger than the separate engagements now being succss fully conducted by Chinese forces under Gen eral Stilwell, their American commandant. These are possibilities only the future can reveal. But it is a hopeful sign that the Chi nese are striking back at a dozen points, with a nibble here and a slash there, which are costing the enemy great numbers of men kill ed and great quantities of war tools destroyed. Even if General Stilwell is unable to assem ble sufficient forces fully equipped for the major thrust which might hurl the enemy out of Burma, he and his Chinese troops will have contributed greatly to United Nations success in the Orient if he is able to keep a large force of Japanese (roughly estimated at 100,000) engaged for a long time as was done in the Philippines. The time thus gained will be of inestimable worth to MacArthur, who is gathering a mighty army in Australia for the final victory. • V — ■ Washington Daybook By JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON, May 19 — “National De fense” was a byword long before Pearl Harbor but only now a bill emerges from Congress (it has passed the Senate and probably will pass the House any day) designed to give re lief to some 3,000,000 small manufacturers and business firms in this country whose business es have been turned topsy-turvy by priorities, war contracts, shipping, price controls, and the flow of labor into war industries. Some political observers around here are saying that this procrastination will probably have more effect on this year’s elections than any other factor and that the congressmen who have been worrying about other things are —much to their amazement—not coming back to Washington, despite the fact that their rec ords on other defense matters are clean as a whistle. * * * The excuses for the delay have been many. The one that holds the most water is that Congress and the government would have been foolish NOT to gear big business to the war effort first. According to Rep. Wright Patman, of Texas, one of the authors of the small business bill experts informed the joint congressional com mittee that of the 184,000 small manufacturing plants in the country, some 45,000 could be converted to the war effort and that these non-war producing planfs represent almost 50 per cent of our entire productive potentiali ties. If that is true, then the productive ef forts of this country haven’t really been tap ped, in spite of all the glowing accounts of progress that have come from the War Pro duction Board and other official sources. The proposed bill (it may be different in its final form) provides broadly for two things: (1) A small business division in WPB that will expedite contracts and subcontracts to small manufacturers and otherwise cut red tape in seeing that their productive potential ties are used, and (2) the establishment of a Smaller War Plants Corporation, with $100, 000,000 to start, which would have authority to make loans for conversion and financing on war contracts. The proposed SWPC would also have the authority to take contracts from the Army, Navy and Maritime Commission and farm them out to the small manufacturers. It also will not confine its activities wholly to arms production firms, but to thousands of others who produce and distribute clothing, food and many other things for that vaster civilian force that is backing up the Army in the field and in training. It sound simple. It should give relief to hundreds of distressed communities. It has been a long time coming. _v QUOTATIONS Despite the extraordinary success Of the Axis with the air arm, it was only a few months ago that air training was first intro duced at West Point.—Maj; Benjamin Namm, chairman of Retail Advisory Committee to Treasug| Department “DADDY’S GONE A-HUNTING!” f SMOTUTJOR. V'lL YOUWKtCK* ✓ M2* > MAVsl WOW MUCH LOMCitK OOMfHAV^ ^rWAiT?y Russia | As Olhers Say It TRAVEL RESTRICTED This summer will be one for North Carolinians to discover the glories of North Carolina. Gaso line and rubber rationing, to gether with proposed travel ra tioning. perhaps will keep our people at home—and at the same time prevent residents of other states from seeing the “Variety Vacationland. It appears that the resort proprietors will take a financial licking this season. — Kinston Daily Free Press. * * * IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN England, the United States and France with comparative ease could have stopped Japan when she invaded Manchuria in 1931 and Hitler when he rearmed the Rhineland and Mussolini w'hen he attacked Ethiopia. And had they done so. the present global war almost certainly would have been averted.—Charlotte Observer. 5 * * * MEANS BUSINESS Girls, if the boy friend calls you “sugar’’, he’s getting serious. — Pittsburgh Press. 5 DISTURBING Another hardship of war for those already fearing the loss of cans and can-openers is the threat of discontinuing ready-sliced bread —Christian Science Monitor. 5 * * * THANKFUL Doubtless the tireless motorist is grateful that he will not be on the road behind that bus-trailer-to-end all-bus-trailers which carries 141 passengers. — Christian Science Monitor. 5 * * * WAIT AND SEE We'll ask you as it was asked of us: If a child is born at mid night now daylight saving time, from which day will his or her birthday be reckoned. We wouldn't know. Would you?—Opwego Inde pendent. 5 * * * A LUCKY GUY “And Columbus,” says Erma, “thought he had a problem, get ting only three ships across the ocean.”—Kansas City Star. 5 The Literary Guidepost By JOHN SELBY “THE SEASON,” by David Walden eystone: $2.50). David Walden begins his “The Season” on the lower East Side of New York. The novel has nothing to do with the lower East Side except that some of its people come from there; the reason it be gins so is that Jake’s hotel em ployment agency occupies an old East Side store building—and “The Season” is a novel about a hotel. About one of those not-so-good Catskill resorts, to be specific. Sam Barsky runs it, and when Mr. Walden’s story opens, Sam just has returned from Bratislava with a wife named Paula, and just has been varned by the bank that if he does not paint the buildings at Pinecrest, it will foreclose his mortgage_ that fall. With.all this on his nnnd it is not remarkable cannot think of raises for the help. , .Most of the help has worked for him before, and does not expect much-Snake and Jerry, bus-boy and waiter; Rose, the chamber maid who endures anything from Sam because he allows her to keep whnT\With n,er; EnriC0> the cook who gets drunk; Chester, the han dyman who lost his far western farm and needed any kind of work —the lot of them. And Stephen, who was an actor in the Federal Theater, and Philip, who was a refugee and hated readily. The book is a peculiar tangle. It takes the reader step by step through the business of running a poor hotel through a difficult summer. Sometimes its detail is a little wearisome, but there is no lack of action. The help is inter ested in liquor, women (or men) and gambling. Sam is continuous ly involved in balancing the books, and playing off one guest against another, or one duty against an other. Paula is his refugee wife, and she is interested in herself and the power she can seize, plus on or two of the boys on the place. The number of cross-cur rents is incredible, and sometimes a little confusing. But no matter. Slowly you find yourself a part of Sam’s titanic struggle. You wrap yourself in the absurd life of the social director, are sorry for Philip who hates so much, worry because it is dry and the lake is gummy and stag nant, even feel for little Fritzi, whose emotional problems are so important to her. You are also glad you never-stayed at Sam Bar. sky’s Pinecreet. 2 Raymond Clapper Says: Chance Is Seen For Early End Of War, Maybe 1943 By RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON, May 19. — The switch in war production policy now being made here indicates we see a chance of an early end to the war—perhaps late next year. Public remarks by both Secre tary of War Stimson and Donald Nelson, chairman of the War Pro duction Board, seem to imply the existence of that hope and effort. Secretary Stimson says the army hopes to be ready with the bulk of its troops for action next fall. Donald Nelson says the main ef fort now will be to get weapons actually off the line for immediate use. He didn’t go into detail but be hind that is a fundamental change of production policy. Hitherto we have put much ef fort into building new war factories, the breath-taking bomber plants, the tank arsenals, dozens of am munition plants, rows of shipways. We have proceeded on the plan that there was no limit to the amount of production capacity we must have. That meant consump tion of enormous amounts of ma terials in building plants for future production. It would mean weap ons in 1943 or 1944 or 1945. Now the policy is to stop further expansion on the whole and put everything into turning out weap ons now, this summer. One tank this summer is worth a dozen in 1944 under the new point of view. The underlying purpose is to build up for smashing blows this year and next, to end the loss of life and world . wide suffering as soon as possible. * * # Plants actually under construc tion, if at all advanced, undoubted ly will be finished so as not to waste the effort and materials al ready expended on them. Contracts signed but on which work has not begun probably will be cancelled. Few new contracts will be let for plant construction. Some excep tions will be necessary but the pol icy will be to discourage them. » * * The fact is we do not have enough materials in some lines to permit full production and addi tional facilities. Neither would there be enough of such materials to feed the new plants at full ca pacity after they were in opera tion. Steel is badly needed to turn out ships and tanks in yards and fac tories already in operation To di vert steel for construction of addi tional plants would cut into pro duction possibilities of existing fa cilities. Furthermore, by denying permission to build new plants, the pressure is increased to convert existing factories. Donald Nelson says from now on America’s industrial plant will make nothing but war goods in an absolute maximum of production. There is no sense in using steel to increase production capacity for 1943 if the steel is needed for pro duction of weapons this year. * * * While prospective shortages in some raw materials would make this policy necessary in any event in some cases, the War Produc tion Board intends to apply the pol icy straight across the board. So the inference is that there is more behind it than the pinch in certain materials. Informed sources here believe they have rather convincing evi dence that Germany is approaching the outside limit of her capacity to fight on. Manpower is becoming a more serious problem. So many reports are coming out concerning morale that officials are beginning to place some cautious credence in them. The gray faces and irritable temper of the people in Germany are so noticeable now as to be commonly reported by travellers coming out. Everyone recognizes that wheth er it is to be a short war or one of indefinite length depends largely on how Russia comes through the summer. The Russians themselves sound a pessimistic note in their conversations around here and it is the Americans who are on the optimistic side about Russia. Whether the Russians are taking the grim view as a matter of pys chology to spur American help, or whether the Americans are doing too much wishful thinking, are questions one can only guess about. Anyway the American gov- ■ ernment appears definitely set to I pull for a victory next year at the I e*?®nse of continuing to enlarge fa cilities for more distant needs. 3 _ir Factographs Waldo E. Sexton of Vero Beach, Fla., has recently acquired the largest single board of mahogany in existence. It is a plank four inches thick, five feet wide and 35 feet long, and weighing nearly two tons. It appeared first at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904, has since lain in the basement of the American Mu* seum of Natural History, and in various warehouses of furniture makers. Mr. Sexton has built a room to house this huge table. Interpreting The War Hitler Gets Invasion Jitters As U. S. Troop Units Land In Engk^ BY KIRKE L. EIMPsny Wide World War Analyst Whatever the actual purposes fn which a powerful American-Briti! Canadian striking force is b . mustered in the British isles th?? is sound reason to believe it giving Hitler’s generals a of the invasion jitters England Y endured since France fell a®! that is a far cry indeed fromT war scene as it looked jU!t * year ago. ” * Last May 19, the air ai) Crete, Britain’s last meagre 1,1 j foothold in Europe, was blossom, ing with thousands of Nazi oar chutes. The first air-borne inv®' sion in history was on; anoths' British disaster in the making f Invasion apprehensions in '{v, land reached a new high, visions of mightier air-ferried armies de luging the tight little isle with German parachutists were conjiir ed up to increase the gloom .f the developing Crete disaster. That was a black day in England' Its first anniversary saw the announcement of safe" arrival in northern Ireland of strong re:n forcements for the American expe ditionary force already there ln. vasion became again the main theme of parliamentary debates - London; but in reverse. It was not fear of attack; but ardetr hope of an impending Anglo-Ami erican thrust into the continent that key-noted disci\sion, Prime Minister Churchill’s spokesmen were non-commiial. Second-front possibilities, they told questioners, were “in our minds" and also “in the minds of the German general staff.” Yet it was added that practical execution of any such project to aid Russia’s valiant stand against the common, foe must be “conditioned by tram, prot problems.” That is true. It is equally true, \ however, that the first and long est step in mastering those trans port problems has been taken sue. cessfully in safe passage to the British isles, through submarine infested seas, of not only Americn but Canadian forces and then equipment for offensive action. When the day of invasion will dawn is another matter. The tim ing of a second - front operation would be conditioned by more than transport problems alone. It uvula depend as much upon what happens in the weeks ahead in Russia and upon the effectiveness of the Brit ish air offensive, soon to be sup plemented by American Army bombers and fighters. It has seemed quite dear to this observer that the timing o( any Anglo-American counter invasion designed to squeeze Germany bt twreen two fronts must depend upon the extent to which German armes: in Russia are engaged beyond with drawal. Kerch and Kharkov area: best but the preliminaries of the battle to come in the east. Neither the scope of the Germar. summer offensive nor the dent tie Russians have put in it at Khar kov are yet clearly enough de fined to warrant immediat second front expectations, unless in strict ly limited form. Yet northern Nor way offers an increasingly invit-tf objective as summer draws on to safe-guard Atlantic - Artie com munications lines with Russia. Ar-i it is there, in rocky and remote upper Norway, that Nazi fears :. an early Allied invasion attempt seem most apparent. Is That So! _ —1 Boston newspapers are usir.i horses to deliver the news. ’ excellent idea, which would h«;j been applauded by that famous fc Bostonian, Paul Revere. * * • Zadok Dumbkopf says that whs he first heard of the Bong Wong, he though folks were rt» ring to a new big league home king. * * * Most of us would be p'-^' if there was a way to ration words of those endless telepho conversationalists. * * * A new ink glows in ^e _ This should be an effective • • of preventing one stumbling the wastebasket at night. * Fashion writers _ refer ^ static silhouette. This is a“ $ telligible to us as that other of static—the radio varie.j. * * * The boss says we have a L silhouette here in the off. shadow of that new office • ■ * * * ^ Another reason the Jap; 'i;«j failed to pull off their offensive” against Austra ia be the fact that it's autumn * * * .f. The League Against Abuse o bacco has been drsso' ^ Frane. It had no work French women are not Pe,i }, to have cigarettes, and ra ^ limited to one package ev days. * * * h(v! Crocodiles are said not to yy the long life span “suf‘Let! lieved to be theirs. Go' ^ experts say a 4u-year-oid jjv(t dile can be said to hav ave." four times longer than age member of the clan * * * . ,ve The Hundred Years wan told, actually lasted lie >e„s‘|,e;sl agine remembering a war > shorter that it really WM
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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May 20, 1942, edition 1
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