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THE ALAMANCE GLEANER VoL LXVI " GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1940 Na 39 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne National Lottery for Peacetime Draft Holds Spotlight of Defense Program; Germany Changes Tactics in Air War; Tension in Far East Affairs Grows (EDITOR'S NOTE?When opinions an expressed la these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) ih.u.mH by Western Newspaper rininn i Interest in the current draft program has led the government to place on display in the Washington office of the Selective Service board this first World war draft register. The register shows that the draft lottery began 9:18 a. m., Friday, July 26, 1917, and ended 16 hoars and 46 minutes later, with the drawing of the 10,500th capsule. The same method is being used to determine the order in which men shall be called for the 1940 peacetime conscription program. DEFENSE: Numbers Called To War Secretary Henry L. Stim son went the honor of selecting the first number in the national selective service lottery. President Roosevelt was to pick the first capsule out of the goldfish bowl that was used in the 1917 draft lottery, but graciously yielded to Stimson. The late New ton D. Baker, secretary of war un der President Wilson, selected the first number in 1917. Contracts The industrial program of national defense entered its second phase. First was drafting and awarding of contracts. Billions of dollars worth of goods, from battleships to paper clips, were contracted for. , The job now is one of procure ment, actual manufacture on the speed-up scale demanded by the De fense Commission in order to achieve the two-ocean navy and equip an army that will number close to 1,500,000 within a few months. Chief bottleneck is machine tools, the machinery and gear necessary in the process of turning automobile shops^ into tank factories, and the mass" production of warp lanes and munitions. William S. Knudsen, head of the production division of the commission, said tool makers are swamped with orders, sold out a year in advance. President Roose velt issued an order permitting seiz ure of tool machines being made for foreign countries, wherever the ma terial is necessary in American de fense. Outside tools, however, the vast industrial capacity of the United States seemed to be taking both de fense and expanding civilian orders in its stride toward record produc tion figures. The climb in manu facturing indices since last spring still has left a margin of surplus in manpower, raw materials and money. But despite the rise of various business statistics to new peaks since 1929, Wall Street security mar kets remained inert. WAR AT NIGHT: Tactics Change England was emerging from al most three months of continual bombing with greater confidence in its ability to withstand whatever the Luftwaffe can deliver. As the stormy weather wore on and Ger man planes were not halted by fog and freezing weather, British air leaders increased the fury of their own raids oyer France, Germany and Italy. Prime Minister Winston Churchill made bold to predict that by spring, 1941", with the help of American production, England will seize supremacy of the air. The German air attack on London was reduced in one respect. Day light raids were fewer and less vio-. lent. In the beginning Air Marshal Goer in g sent large formations in daylight raids. During this period the British scored heavily. Then the tactics shifted to single planes at varying heights. The German losses were reduced, but still remained high. Now raids are confined largely to night. Bombers drop their packages from the substratosphere and scoot for home. The result is that the Germans no longer can pick their targets, but bomb indiscriminately. However, the height of the German planes is too great for British anti aircraft guns while defense planes are unable to climb into battle fast enough. German losses have dwin dled. The English people have been told a new, fast-climbing plane soon will take the air in quantities. Otherwise on the war front: C France denied rumors in diplo matic circles that it would declare war on Britain in order to get better peace terms from Germany. The terms were said to give Alsace-Lor raine to Germany, Nice and Tunis to Italy, and provide for control of all other French colonies by a three nation board. Vice Premier Laval conferred with Adolf Hitler and was said to favor the plan. C London revealed after several denials, that Adolf Hitler twice has tried to start his promised invasion of Britain. The British said that on September 16, German troops were loaded in barges along the French ports, but R.A-F. bombers attacked the boats so heavily the attempt was frustrated. ROADS OF DESTINY: Burma Road ? For three years China hat ab sorbed and dispersed the heaviest shocks that a superior Japanese army hurled against it While Eu ropean nations who considered them selves a nobler race have been sub jugated, China has produced noth ing to equal the treachery of the Fifth Column, costly errors of com mand, or the crimes and stupidity of European diplomacy. For more than a year its sole ave nue of supply from the outside world has been via Rangoon by ship, then by narrow gauge railroad across Burma to Lashio, thence over hundreds of miles of tortuous road through wild, malaria-infected coun tryside to Kunming, in China, where railroads again are available. For three months Britain kept the road closed, as an act of appease ment to Japan. When Japan signed the alliance with Germany and It aly the road was reopened. But during those three months Japan seized control of near-by Indo-China from France and based airplanes within bombing distance of the Bur ma Road. Nightly the crude bridges are being blown to bits and rebuilt by thousands of coolies working in disregard of their lives. Blue Danube Famed in song and romance, the beautiful blue Danube has become a highway of conflict in Hitler's march to the east. Germany was supposed to have agreed with Russia to limit its pene tration of the Balkans to commercial ties. When Nazi legions were sent into Rumania to 'instruct" King Michael's army, Russia apparently looked at the proceedings with sour face. Heavy echelons of Soviet troops were sent along the Danube to cre ate a military area. German troops lined the other bank. German sub marines, knocked down and shipped by rail to Rumania, were floated down the Danube to its mouth in the Black sea. There a German na val base quickly grew up. The base is a definite threat to the main Rus sian fleet in those waters. Joys of Childhood? ? U. S. army guns, tanks and toy soldiers in miniature are the > favorite of the current season's new crop of toys as far as Nick Tassalo, 6, is concerned. Nick is shown at the preview of the toy manufacturers' display in New York. A large percentage of the new toys for the coming Christ mas season reflect the national defense program preparations. POWER: A. C? f \jn uus 01. jjuwrvHce An agreement between the United States and Canada looking toward development of a hydroelectric sys tem along the St. Lawrence river has been advocated by four Presi dents but never achieved. The war need for greater power has brought about a start. With the consent of the United States, Canada will take more wa ter from the Niagara river to gen erate power for its defense indus tries. So as to maintain the level of the Great Lakes, waterways now flowing into the Albany river and Hudson bay will be diverted south ward to the lakes. The announcement immediately awoke echoes of the two-decade fight for a Great Lakes-to-the-Seas water way. Existing navigation above Montreal is limited to 14 feet. Locks are sought to provide a 32-foot draft. Farmers of the West favor the plan. It would permit ocean liners to dock at Great Lakes ports and load wheat. Advocates of public power look upon the proposal as pro viding cheap electricity. Opposition comes chiefly from .ports in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic, as well as trans shippers of grain. On the Canadian side the same is true. President Roosevelt has allotted $1,000,000 of special defense funds for a survey. SABOTAGE: Mr. Dies Again A wave of fires and explosions in U. S. defense industries "like the recant Hercules powder blast in New Jersey," is predicted by Rep resentative Dies (D., Texas), chair man of the house committee investi gating un-American activities. He called attention to the fact that a former member of the German American Bund told his committee several weeks before the New Jer sey disaster that it could be ex pected Dies said there are more than 290,000 alien agents in the United States and more than 5,000 in de fense industrial plants in the De troit area alone. Meanwhile members of the same committee declared they have proa* that Friedhelm Draeger, German consul in New York, has for six years been the actual head of the National Socialist party in the Unit ed States. They said the German diplomat has been "under observa tion for a long time" and is head of a vast ring of espionage, sabo tage and propaganda. It was revealed that Draeger's connections were linked up when a raid was made on the German Tour ist Information Bureau pnd Trans ocean Press, both in New York. Far East Bloc In Manilla. Capt. Rufo Romero, a native Filipino, graduate of West Point and officer of the Fourteenth Engineers at Fort McKinley, was formally arrested and charged with plotting to sell confidential military papers to an unnamed foreign pow er. He was taken into custody in the basement of his home while alleged ly photographing documents show ing defense fortifications at the en trance to Manila bay. Two civilian accomplices were arrested. His American-bom wife was sought. Meanwhile a Japanese, who feigned Insanity, was seized oo the U. S. aircraft carrier Langley,' at Olangapo. He was found when still in a wet bathing costume and ap parently had swum from shore to the ship. Washington Digest Congress Establishes'Vocational Schools to Train Farm Youth Rural Schools to Offer Instruction in Mechanical Trades; Rumors Predict Roosevelt, Willkie Will Name Loser to Head Defense Board. By BAUKHAGE (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) WASHINGTON.?Remember that old song: "How you going to keep 'em down on the farm, after they've seen Paree"? Well, you're not going to be able to keep some of them down on the farm who haven't seen Paree. This time it isn't the bright lights that are calling, it's the pay envelope. Not the lure of the ladies but the lathes and riveters and stamping machines in the factories that are calling. At least, that is what the experts here in Washington who claim they can see through a haystack without blinders prognosticate. And Uncle Sam is helping. Most people didn't notice it but congress slipped $10,000,000 into the last de ficiency bill, most of which is going toward helping the farm boy get a job in the city. The money is to be appropriated as part of the indus trial defense program for "out-of school rural and non-rural vocation al schools" but the fact is that states will share in the fund according to their farm population. At present iqore than 2,500 rural vocational schools are offering in struction in vocational agriculture. These schools, if they get additional money for equipment and teaching, can provide training in auto-mechan ics and other skills basic to defense industries. ? ? ? City Employer! Prefer Men Raited on Farm And this isn't just a defense meas ure, either. We know that scarcely any city produces enough babies to keep its population even. We know that while some farm districts are overpopulated now and have been since the depression, a lot of farm ers' sons will always go to the city if they can find work there. Right now defense industries need help and they prefer a man with a card that shows he has had vocational training. This doesn't mean that ag ricultural vocational training will be cut down but the $10,000,000, while it won't go very far, will help a lot to give the farm boy the mechanical training the city boys have been get ting. But there is another reason why more farm boys ara going to get city Jobs. They are preferred in a lot of industries anyhow. A farm boy makes a good factory worker, the experts tell us, if he comes from a farm where machinery has been used, because he's just that much more experienced than the city boy. Especially the tractor wheat farms of the Northwest, the corn-belt, the Mississippi South. He knows a cam from a gear, he knows what makes the wheels go round. He can trans fer this "feel" he has for farm ma chinery to a lathe or any other simple machine. Another thing, he's better disci plined than the city boy. On the farm Pa is the foreman. The boy is used to taking orders. Also he's used to working hard. And when he goes to the city he's likely to be steadier and more reliable than the city worker. ? ? ? Defense Commission Post in Doubt There is an interesting rumor chasing itself around the lamp-posts on Pennsylvania avenue these days. It's one of those wish-fathered thoughts but It's worth repeating over anybody's back fence. This is the way it goes: "If Roosevelt is elected he's going to make Wendell Willkie chairman of the defense commission. If Will kie is elected he's going to name Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the job." Such a consummation might do more to unify the defense program than any other single thing. At present there isn't any chair man of the commission. When Mr. Knudsen, head of the production unit of the group, has a problem that in volves national policy he has to put on his hat and walk over to the White House, or else call National 1414 and ask to speak to one Frank lin Delano Roosevelt, for he's the boss. The same thing applies to the heads of the other units. As a mat- , ter of record there has been no pub- , lie criticism on the part of the de fense commissioners about the ar- , rangement but some people feel that < it would be a wonderful thing as far { as public opinion goes, if the next , President, whoever he may be aft- i er next January, picks his erstwhile 1 political opponent as head of our gigantic effort to ring America with an impenetrable wall of wings and ships and men. ? ? ? U. S. May Lack President in January As a matter of fact when inaugu ration day rolls around there actual ly may not be any President to in augurate. At least that's what some of the prophets of gloom on Capitol Hill are predicting will happen if the November election should be very close. This is what the worrying ones s?y: "When the Lame Duck amend ment to the Constitution was written and inauguration day and the con vening of the new congress were moved back from March to Janu ary, Senator Norris and everybody else thought our troubles were over. We all agreed it was wonderful to get rid of the painful sight of lame ducks limping around the political barnyard. It was a waste of time, often with a defeated President still ! in the White House, always with ? some defeated congressman who ? really didn't represent anybody, sit- < ting in the Capitol until the March following the November elections. "That's all very well under ordi nary circumstances, that is when we don't have a close election. But suppose we do have a real close j election this year. Congress meets on January 3. The brand new con gress. It has to organize, elect a speaker and be ready for the Joint session with the senate three days later because that's when the elec toral vote is counted. And until the vote is counted and approved by the whole of congress the results of the election are not official. "Usually this ceremony is just an empty form?unlocking the specially made box, taking out the beautifully engrossed certificates from each state signed by the proper officials [ and reading off the score that every body has known since election day. But suppose the vote is close and there are charges of fraud and the ( side which makes the charges has enough votes in the house to de mand a recount? ? ? ? Close Election Would Necessitate Recount "The law says that if the elector* can't decide on the Preiident that the Vice President with the most vote* has to take over the presi dency in the interim. But it would be quite likely that if one candi date's vote was questioned his run ning mate's would be, too. So who would be President then?" This is the problem as some of the legislators see it. They point out that if fraud were approved in a single precinct in a single state, it might change the electoral vote of that state and so the outcome of the election. Meanwhile, an inves tigation might drag out and post pone the approval of the electoral vote indeflnitely. Of course this isn't likely to hap pen but at least it provides some thing for congress and the country to worry about and take their minds off the war. And it could happen. In the famous case of President Hayes the vote was protested and it took a nine-man commission to set tle it. Congress selected three mem- 1 bers of the Supreme court, three senators and three representatives to do it. Their task was consider ably expedited, however, since they had a pro-Hayes majority and sim ply threw out all the electoral votes challenged by the other side. The supporters of Tilden, the defeated candidate, were never convinced that he wasn't cheated out of the presidency. Such a thing could hardly happen again but it is true that fraud charges are predicted this year and nobody but a spendthrift or a vio lently loyal partisan Is anxious to risk hi* money betting on the num ber of seats that will be won or lost in the house in November. What we forget is that the Amer ican people usually go in for land slides and the close election is the exception. That's probably why we don't take close races into consid eration and perhaps it's why Sena tor N orris and his friend* who drew up the Lame Duck amendment didn't allow a little more time be tween the meeting of the new con gress and the counting of the elec toral vote and inauguration day, "just in case." I SPEAKING OF SPORTS By ROBERT McSHANE Heavyweight Hopefuls A RTURO GODOY, the South American glamour boy. is guiv nlng for a third bout with Heavy weight Champion Joe Louis. Just why Godoy should be re matched with the champ is a mattei which cannot be explained to any one's satisfaction. The demand for this boat is Just a boat as great as the demand that Hitler and Mus solini visit New York's east side. Fortunately, at this writing, the bout is still in the conversational stage. And the conversation is prac tically all Godoy's. Uncle Mike Jacobs will think a long time before he promotes a bout with as little in its favor as this setup. Sadly enough. Godoy epitomises the field of defeated fighters new monopolising heavyweight circles. That field includes Max Baer, Leu ! Nova. Lee 8avoid, Pat Cemiskey and Bob Pastor, Touy Gslento evident ly has decided?and very wisely thai enough Is enough. The Roll Call It is quite evident that the con tenders do not fit into the champion ship class. Max Baer, when the right occasion arises, is one of the most dangerous of present-day fight ers. But that right occasion will never come for him in the same ring with Joe Louis. Nova took a horrible lacing at the hands of Ga lento. It won't be easy for him to climb back even as far as his former rating. Dopesters wouldn't give Savold much of a chance an the basis of his past victories. Pat Comiskey's stock didn't climb when Baer whipped him in their recent encounter. Comiakey, nevertheless, is young enough to snap back after sufficient seasoning in the big time. Pastor, sole remaining white hope in the list of aspirants, lacks the punch to reach the top. And his drawing power seems limited to his relatives and a few close friends. The solution? There just doesn't seem to be any. Time will have to take its toll and some day a now un heard of youngster will arise and overpower 01' Pappy Louis. ? ? ? Financial Success ["RESPITE the American league's failure to produce the world's championship baseball team for 1M0. the junior circuit has ample cause for rejoicing. The official books disclose that an all-time. American league attend ance record was set in the season just cloaed. Will HarrMge, president sf the league, re parted recently that the home attendance o? the eight elabs was 5.423,791. This shattered by 172, 352 the 14-year old record, 5.255, U?. The 1*M to tal exceeded last rear's figures by aa amazing 1,1(3, M. The season got off to a poor start due to unfavor able weather con Will Hmrrtdfc ditiona. However, the lost (round vu more than recovered when the Yankees failed to assume an early and definite control of the pennant situation. The open race that result ed for the championship attracted fans who weren't interested in last year's one-team marathon. Night Game Leader The Chieafo White Sex paid at tendance was 989,118 a kith fact caused a wide smile to crease the face of Maaaper Jimmy Dykes and brought untold happiness to the members ef the Comlskey family, whose finances are Involved to a very large extent, la reoad nam hers the 1938 attendance was SM.M. The seven night games played by the White Sox attracted 214,780 pay ing patrons, or almost a third as much as the 70 daylight contests. The average for the night contests was 30,680, highest in the league. Cleveland averaged 30,198 for its after dark games. The league's 39 night games at tracted a total of 834,228 customers, for aa average ef 18,121. The St. Louis Browns, wbejtlayed 14 of their games under the lights, averaged 8,364. The Browns, incidentally, more than doubled their 1938 attend ance. Bad news came to the St. Louis club, however, when Harrtdge intimated that they would be limit ed next year to seven night games, maximum number permitted under existing leant rales. Detroit led the list with a total attendance of 1,112,883. New York was second with 988,879. St. Louis ranked last with 239,981. (General HIND L johnson Jour: M mm urn Washington, B.C. WAS PROPAGANDA # Never in our history hm? there been such open propaganda lor of tensive action that would make unavoid able our prompt in volvement in war on the other side of the world ? war indeed over a ranee at least as wide as the vast stretch from the Straits of Malacca to the Straits of Dover. It might be wider. oo the side of Bag land, whatever we call ourselves we shall be her ally. We mat fight wherever defeat threatens, or vic tory beckons. It now seems quite probable that the direction of the war has turned from westward to southeastward. New Theaters threaten in file Medi terranean, the Balkans, pel haps Persia, the Persian gulf and even unto India. That is the British domain on which "the sun never sets." Propa gandists now openly say that to pre serve democracy on earth we onto preserve the British empire. Per haps the mill inns of conquered and exploited black people in Africa and brown people in Asia and Malaysia are their idea of democracy; but to try to push this great. |s?s?i ifal and peaceful nation into wars to piutott such foreign pmwsrirm is hysteria that has broken all bonds at reason. These war-minded men advance measures which could take ua into such remote and sterile fir Ids as "defense of America." They say that the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are no longer barriers of defease, but avenues of attack. Stoce Hitler can't cross twenty-add miles at flie British channel to get at Britain with a land army, it is a safe bet fimt be doesn't turn up his nose at the At lantic ocean, even if these potential architects of their country's disaster do so every day to their war danc ing madness. B we posh our belated datasse preparations on land and seas as rapidly as possible, the rhanre of our involvement is bloody war, as matter what may come, is too re mote to consider. The catastrophe of our invutve ment in war would not be merely the bloody loss and danger to Rfe and limb. It would immediately ad journ our free democracy lor a war dictatorship. It would permanently adjourn our free economic system at private ownership and liberty at en terprise by so burdening it with ad ditions] debt and taxes that the gov ernment would control all private property and absorb all private to come in the United States. ? ? ? ST. LAWRENCE WATERWAY The senate has twice refused to ratify the St. Lawrence waterway. It never waa and never win be a waterway project. It te a power project. It waa called a shipway to fool the Middle West Actually a 10,000 cubic foot diversion into the Mississippi from Lake Michigan which was bargained tor with Can ada in the boundary waters treaty lor the Chicago Drainage canal has al ready been largely surrendered. That greatly helped low water navi gation in the Mississippi. Its sur render hurt every Mississippi valley state far more than the St Law rence can ever help them. The plea eras "Great Lakes navi gation." The facta were that inex pensive works in the lake outlets could have raised their levels M times the amount that diversion low ered them. The motive was not navigation but power?and. In that particular case, private power at Niagara Falls. a ? a SHADES OF TEXAS GCINAN "Hello, suckers!" So Texas Guinan used to greet her guests in her high-class honky-tonk, where she sold them champagne which they knew to be faked from apple cider, at prices which they knew to be multiplied. She fleeced them out rageously in many other obvious ways from the moment they gave their wraps to the hat girl to the in stant of their departure. She was rolling them, but made no effort to conceal that process of her methods of doing it. Texas Guinan was tops in invent ing and putting over attractive fakes She gloried in being able to do that even while laughing openly at the weakness of their deception and the incredible gullibility of the suckers who swallowed than, paid through the nose lor them, and clamored for more. . ? . nM
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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Oct. 31, 1940, edition 1
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