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The Alamance Gleaner VoL LXVI GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1940 NO. 44 i. ?????? WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne 64 Killed in Rumanian 'Blood Purge'; Hitler Forms New League of Nations Until Soviet Russia Scowls at Bulgaria; U. S. Food Industry Faces Investigation ? > (EDITOR'S NOTE?When opinions are expressed to these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) by Western Newspaper'Union.. LEAGUE OF NATIONS: New Memberships Adolf Hitler was lining up states for what Berlin termed a modern League erf Nations when he met up with Bulgaria. He had signed three nations to the Axis alliance, although it must be admitted all of these long had been in the Axis sphere of influence and their formal initiation could not be expected to occasion any great sur prise. Fir$t came Japan, which for more than four years was allied by treaty with Germany and Italy. Japan en rolled anew. Then came Rumania, which two months before was taken over by Iron Guard Gen. Ion An tonescu. Antonescu signed up for mally, but the signature gave Ger many no more oil than it had been getting since the war began. Then Slovakia attached its signature to the dotted line. Slovakia is the splin ter state left after the Nazis hacked away the Czechs and the Bohemians. Then came King Boris of Bulgaria. He listened, went home and said he would send a delegation to carry KING BORIS OF BULGARIA Hit 'Red Brother' scowled. out the arduous duties of treaty sign ing. But nd delegation arrived in Berlin. It was intimated in Sofia that Bulgaria had received covert advice from Russia that the Big Red Brother wouldn't be pleased at all to have German troops in Bul garia, 250 miles from the Darda nelles. The German ministry of propaganda and public enlighten ment said Germany hadn't wanted Bulgaria anyhow. There was some whispering that all the fuss and feathers on the dip lomatic front was just a means of covering up Hitler's lack of activity on the military front. Experts guessed that perhaps Hitler had heard some segments of the German people were not at all impressed with his failure to invade England and the spanking being taken by Mussolini in Albania. Diplomatic "victories" might fill the bill for a time and cover up the situation until spring, when a more determined at tack on England is generally ex pected. Blitzgreek "Have you heard Of .Mussolini's new secret weapon?" one diplomat in Switzerland asks another. "No," said the man addressed. Then leaning forward and cupping his ear, "What is it?" The first diplomat places a hand at the side of his mouth to simulate a whisper, and replies, "It's the German army." At the end of the third week of Benito Mussolini's invasion of Greece, the Italians found them selves halfway back through Albania on their way home. The progress being made by the Fascist legions produced more humor in neutral sources than respect. Outnumbered and outequipped, the Greeks fought a type of war that seemed to have the Italian ver sion of the blitzkrieg dazzled. The Greeks refused to come out in the open and give battle in force. In stead they maneuvered through the Macedonian peaks catching the Fas cists on their flanks and from the rear. Losses were not high on either side, but the Fascists were forced to retreat from Koritza to Pogradez to Argiocastro, surrendering base after base and leaving behind tanks, combat cars, automobiles, motor cycle# and even bicycles. RUMANIA: Blood Purge Anarchy stalked the Balkan na* tion of Rumania, as members of the fascist Iron Guard party executed at least 64 political enemies. With out benefit of official sanction from their leader, Premier Gen. Ion An tonescu, self-appointed execution squads raided a jail where political prisoners were held and led them before the tomb of the founder of their party, Corneliu Codreanu, and there put them to death. A Rumanian communique admit ted the killings and stated that the government "disapproves." It is understood that the section of the Iron Guard party which has taken the law into its own hands, believes their founder, Codreanu, to be a martyr, and their action has been taken to avenge his killing during King Carol's regime. Admittedly they are paying off their chief political score by this method, now that they have driven the king from his country. STRIKE: In Defense Plants At opposite ends of the nation, strikes in two factories engaged in airplane manufacture for the army attracted national attention. At Downey, Calif., production was halt ed for 12 days m the Vultee Aircraft factory when the aircraft division of the C. 1. O. automobile workers de manded higher pay. Chief trouble seemed not to be over the higher wages, which were granted, but to an insistence on the part of the corporation that an agreement be reached guaranteeing there would be no strike for two years and that in the meantime all disputes be settled by arbitration. The strike came in for debate in congress when demands were heard in the house that a law be enacted forbidding labor to strike in any plants where defense contracts were being filled. Attorney General Jack son also referred to the strike in a dispute with Representative Dies (D., Texas) over methods of proce dure in handling subversive influ ences. The attorney general said the FBI was aware that the Vultee strike was "being prolonged" due to Communistic influence. The strike was finally settled after Dr. John R. Steelman, chief of the department of labor's conciliation service, and R. J. Thomas, national REP. MARTIN DIES A ditpttu with the Attorney GeneraL president of the union, made hur ried trips by plane to the scene. Eastward, at the New Kensington, Pa., plant of the Aluminum Cor poration of America, a dispute be tween the firm and the Aluminum Workers union, C. I. O., shut down production. The issue was refusal of one man to pay $12 back dues and an alleged threat passed by the dues-ower against a union official who tried to collect it The union demands the man be discharged. The company refused to comply. C. I. O. chieftain Philip Murray gave the situation his personal attention, his first real job as national leader. WOMEN . . ? in the news Gaest?Princess Juliana of the Netherlands will be a White House visitor December U. The Dutch minister in Washington said the visit would be "strictly personal and pri ] vate in character." AID TO BRITAIN: Money Needed AMBASSADOR LOTHIAN He haa a frank statement. Lord Lothian, British ambassador to Washington, returned from Lon don with a frank statement that his government has spent almost all the American money it can lay its hands on. He intimated that if the United. States is to continue to give aid in the form of supplies, some method soon must be found to finance fur ther orders. He said virtually all the gold and American securities of British ownership had been sold in the U. S. markets to obtain the American dollars already used. The Johnson act forbids American credits to any nation which default ed on its 1918 war debts. Pro-British groups here have urged the act be repealed but Lord Lothian refused to comment on this. President Roosevelt also made it known that no administration source had advocated the Johnson act be abolished. In reply to some criticism that the United States was not giv ing sufficient aid to Britain, the President declared that such assist ance had about reached the maxi mum possible under present indus trial capacity. He told reporters if any way to make airplanes faster could be found, he would like to know it. "You can't give orders one day and have planes the nex\," he said. In London there was talk in semi official circles that eventually it might be well to offer the United States possessions of British crown colonies in the Caribbean in ex change for munitions. INVESTIGATION: Food Prices Following up the inquiry into home building several months ago, the de partment of justice has decided to inquire into what it believes is monopolistic tendencies in the na tion's food markets. The home-building investigation ended in 99 indictments against 1,538 contractors, manufacturer's aasocia - tion and labor union executives. The objectives of the food-price inquiry will be two-fold, said the depart ment: To iower the price of living and to protect the farmer who buys retail and sells wholesale. Processors and distributors, the department says, receive about 50 to 60 per cent of the consumers' dollar. In the fish, cheese, poultry and retail grocery markets, it is charged, prices are fixed by fictitious auctions. The canning and bread in dustry are declared to engage in price-fixing. CONGRESS MOVES: No Adjournment When house and senate refused to quit and go home, architects of the Capitol served notice to get out be fore the roof came down on their heads. The architects were not thinking in the terms of heated wrath. Rather they were concerned with cold snow. The roof of the Capitol long has been regarded as too weak for safe ty. Plans had been made to strengthen it during the recess of the seventy-sixth congress. But con gress refused to recess. It did move, however, to give workmen a chance to get struts in place before snows arrived in Washington. MISCELLANY: C The Pan-American Airways Clip per plane set out for Honolulu on the Pacific crossing the other day, the 442nd such trip. There was no.special ceremony, but that trip was an anniversary flight?the fifth year that passenger air service has been in existence on the largest ocean route. ? England and Germany continued to swap air raids. The British paid nightly visits to ports along the coast from Trondheim to Lorient and smashed at electrical power plants, munitions factories, airplane fields and rail lines in Germany, Holland, Belgium and France. The Germans invented a new word, "Coventrat ed," for towns given concentrated assaults like was given Coventry, Southampton, Bristol and Birming ham, they said, were "Coventrated." Washington Digest Wallace, Capitol Spanish Club, Improve Pan-American Relations Work to Remove Language Barrier Between Countries; Continued Aid to England May Soon Require Large U. S. War Loans. By BAUKHAGE (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) WASHINGTON.?It was midday in the Department of Agriculture build ing. The goldfish in the piarble basin in the patio were wiggling hopeful tails in the prospect of a few crumbs that might be dropped by clerks hur rying back to their desks from the cafeteria. At a table in a little lunchroom upstairs a man with touseled hair, a somewhat self-con scious smile on his face, pulled some manuscript from his pocket and be gan to read: "Me es sumamente grato y hono roso ..." It was not a visiting Spanish dig nitary saying in his native tongue, "it is indeed a great honor to be asked to make introductory remarks on the occasion of this distinguished gathering." It was the then secre tary of agriculture, Henry Wallace, rehearsing before his fellow execu tives, the speech in Spanish that he was to deliver before the Pan Amer AENRI A. WALLACE lean Scientific congress last May. And he knew what he was saying and so did his audience. That informal Spanish club was only a little over two years old then but it is symbolic of a movement which has had a powerful influence in Washington?a movement the re sult of which is considered in Latin America fcs one of the real, practical steps toward Western hemisphere solidarity. The story of that luncheon group and the man who started it is one of the fascinating stories of Amer ican diplomacy that doesn't get into the text books. It is largely the story of Secretary WaHace himself, and the story of a side of him that few people know. Except for the scholarly interest which a man who is an inveterate reader might have, Henry Wallace knew little more about South Amer ica than you or I when he came to Washington. Today his name is one of the best known of all of our of ficials to the Latin American news paper reader. And they know it as the name of a man who understands them and their problems as few North Americans do. Wallace Symbolized Friendship With Mexico When Vice President-elect Wallace shook hands with the President-elect of Mexico before the recent inaugu ration in Mexico City, he did so as a person who was far more than the mere official representative at the President of the United States?he came as a symbol of practical friendship between this country and the republics to the south. To grasp the reasons back of this achievement you have to watch Henry Wallace at work. Wallace wasn't satisfied to read ! about South America, he wanted to read what South Americans said in their own tongue; he wasn't satisfied with talking about South Americans, he had to talk to them. So ha learned the language and immedi ately the bars went down. For lan guage is'a barrier. That is typical of his methods. Out of those luncheon meetings grew a Department of Agriculture Committee on Latin America. Armed with the data furnished by this committee and supported by his own array of factual information, Mr. Wallace went to Undersecretary Welles in the state department and to the President. The result was the formation of the Interdepartmental Committee on Co-operation With the American Republics, which studied the financial needs Tor activity in cultivating relations with South America. Now money makes the mare go and this interdepartment commit tee's efforts helped secure the appro priation which put the teeth into the secretary's own practical efforts. Last July he saw one practical achievement of a step which he had been fighting for for years. It will make possible actual experimenta tion in the development of rubber in South America which may some day make us independent of the foreign rubber markets and bolster one of the greatest defense needs. I mention rubber because it is typ ical of the practical work which Mr. Wallace has done. This step has won the gratitude of Latin America. But what is more important to the American farmer is that it stimu lates growth of a product which complements but does not compete with his product. Valuable Products Groum In Latin America There are many other similar fields in which his efforts are bear ing fruit. The department of agri culture, through study, through ex perimentation. through co-operation of representatives of the department attached to our diplomatic missions in Colombia and Argentina and our traveling representatives in South America, has made valuable studies which will aid the production of products the United States needs from South America which we can't raise here. Here are some of them: First, rubber, which I mentioned; second, hemp; third, insecticidal roots (ro tenone) so valuable to fanners who grow products like vegetables, for while this poison kills the bugs it is non-poisonous to man. Then there are the various hard woods we can't grow in our latitudes. A soil book, the result of Puerto Rican experi ments, printed in Spanish has proved a gold mine to the folks of the Carib bean. That rotenone is a story in itself. The secretary had read about how certain South American natives used these roots to kill Bah. He followed it up. Had the department investi gate it. Found how it could be processed in South America. Today seven million pounds are imported into the United States and when you realize that for use the solution is diluted five to one, you can see what a quantity our market can ab sorb. And for every dollar of these com plementary products sold here, the Latin American has just that many more dollars to spend in this coun try. Britain's Rssoarces Dwindling Rapidly Washington is beginning to feel the weight of pressure groups which are demanding short cuts in our efforts to aid Britain. There are a number of commit tees like the one headed by William Allen White to defend America by aiding the allies?formed when France was still an ally?which keep hammering on the White House door. They have various specific aims but the general purpose is help for Great Britain, with which most people agree heartily in principle. The administration has taken no official recognition of these various propaganda movements. Of some It approves. Of others it disapproves. But it is becoming clear that some leaders in congress will not oppose certain specific demands when they become more pressing. One Is an amendment to the John son act which prohibits loans to for eign nations which haven't paid their war debts. There is no of ficial confirmation of this step but it is taken for granted by those who are supposed to know, that adminis tration support will not be lacking if and when such an amendment is proposed aa it probably will be by the time the new congress has set tled down early in the new year. Earlier it was said that Britain had enough gold and securities in this country to cover her purchase of war supplies here for some time but latest figures indicate that she has placed orders for four and a half billion dollars worth of supplies already. This leaves only a billion aad a half on credits, according to the estimates of experts, and it is believed that will soon be exhausted at the present rate of purchasing in this country. ? SPEAKING OF SPORTS By ROBERT McSHANE | /CHICAGO'S great North Side won't ^ be the same next summer?not with Charles Leo Hartnett absent from his old haunts in Wrigley field. Gabby's honorable lb-year career with the Chicago Cabs drew to a close a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't Just the kind at a finish that thousands of friends wanted for old Tomato Face but it was just as def inite as owner P. K. Wrigley's soft words could make K. Gabby, play er-manager of the Cubs since July, 192*, and member of the team since 1922, was fired with a few weU chosen remarks, la giving Gabby the bounce, Wrigley said, among other tilings: "We are not blaming Hartnett? he has done everything he could, but we feel it is up to us to try and keep on frying to get the best possible combination of personnel to produce the best possible results." A Fine Phrase Even Gabby win admit that is a mouth-filling, tonsil-tickling phrase. It deesa't mean a great deal. It has the sound hat not the fnry. Mr. Wrigley, not nnlike other major and minor league etub owners, weald tike very mack to kavo a competent manager at the helm of a pennant winning team. The "best possible combination of personnel" means, of coarse, s winning ball club. The news of Gabby's discharge came aa a surprise to everyooe?at least to everyone outside Mr. Wrig ley's circle of intimate friends. On GABBY HABTNETT August 27 the wwner of the Cubs stated that Hartnett was going to stay on as manager. Then, 78 days later, he dropped his employee like a hot potato. One thing in Mr. Wrigley's favor ?he personally conducted the firing of Gabby. It couldn't hare been an easy thing for him to do since Gabby bad spent his entire big league career with the Cubs. He stepped up from Worcester of the Eastern league in 1922. The Hard Way W rig ley could have turned the very unpleasant task over to Jim Gallagher, former Chicago sports writer whom he named general manager, or president, of the Cubs at the same time he fired Gabby. In other words, Wrigley could have hired Gallagher with instructions to fire Gabby as his first duty. How ever, that would have placed Gal lagher on the spot. Hartaett's admirers claim, seem tasty with Jostificatieo. that Wrigley has reversed Ms Mi since August 27, wbea he said that no change ta managers was ceateseplated. Ctab officials have a different stery. What Wrigley really said, according to them, was that "a change is net contemplated at this time." The subsequent firing supposedly resulted because the Cubs finished in the second division for the first time in IS years and attendance took a sharp turn downward. Gabby always was one of Chicago's most popular players. But fata dealt him a poor hand when be suc ceeded Charlie Grimm as manager. Not ooce did he ever manage a full squad of active players. He went through the IBM wars with only 23 men, two of whom had bum legs, one had his appendix removed and one who was a dead-arm pitcher. The 1939 campaign waa even worse. At one time he waa so short handed he had only three outfield ers and was on the sick list. Hartnett admitted that ha waa "finite surprised" when informed ef fans alee were finite surprised. Bat at least they hake something with They can riddle out Mr. Wrigley's statement concerning the "best pas libit combination of personnel." General HUGH s. johnson Jour: Washisftoa, D. C. CURRENT TRADE PICTURE As all current trade statistics show, due largely to the defrnss pro gram, the gigantic American eco nomic system is swinging into an upward surge of consumption, pro duction and employment. As those statistics do not show, we ain't seen no thin* yet. Neither the mere ap propriation of federal money, nor even the letting of contracts pro duces these results. They come from the actual out-pouring of money in payment by the govern ment for goods delivered, or by can tractors in preparing to produce those goods. This piocesa has scarcely started. Yet it baa already resulted in a vast ti tm|ib?jiin id, not merely in the war industries, but in all industries to winch the increased payrolls trickle down h supply all those lunw wants sa long deferred. As this column has tried to toow from studies of our esperienae to the World war and the experience to other countries, this to a suuwbaR rolling-downhill process. We base started it. There are ways?not of stopping it?but of regulating and controlling it. II-it ixat regulated and controlled it could cseato com plete and expioene disaster. * Let's skip that for a shsnsL The point to make just now is that, judging from re mho of en agi I spending to date, by next aommer, American btitinrts?all of A?will bo ever known. Beyund that, wmd de no man can foresee, the toy to the limit. So what? Let me quote from a UP dwpatrh. Garner, a banker, and Rex TUgwefl, est, who was (hupped into a tax knows how to create employment, why hasn't it hw aa fa too pato eight years? 'Tugwell ? It always uipfatd tram 13 to IS billion (totters of gov ernment ?|lending a yeas to da the job. not two or tfare hdlinna '' e - ,, s 1 -i * ? ? a ra lmerrupooB uy luuiinan .vqoh ?Do you mean that, tram an eco nomic point of view, it's a grand wmrT Tun*U?Ym. if We don't pt into it." In other words, this necessary bat hectic war atrawpon was oaar only way oat. It was Hitler's way out?absorb his aBemplqyad by As forced draft ml vast industrial re armament, labor battalions sad btta the army, navy and air force. It worked to the pomt abate it could work no longer without war?"ex port or die. conquer or die." Far a century it was truly said: "The principle businig ml Prussia is war." But modern war is as longer good business. It costs too much in capital investment to leave any mom for revenue. It dtstiujs too muck at the conquest la make the game worth the candle. A people prosper whan Mr la bors crests production hr their ass and the instruments d gtealas pro duction. War production is not tor use but for destruction and lor cru sting instruments of stiD more de struction. It may bring momentary industrial activity and employment, but that blows a bubble the very existence of which depends wholly on greater wars or tin threat at them. If peace came tomorrow and his industrial war bubble blew up m Hitler's face, the whole economy at Germany would collapae in gi eater unemployment, bankruptcy and des peration than her people have ever known. If. without proper wisdom in controls and regulation of our war effort, we gear up our industrial ma chine in complete dependence on the continuance of war. are shall ba in exactly the same position. ? ? ? PRICE AND PRODUCTION At times I have discussed war in flation and its cures. Now I want to talk about a kindred subject upon which I have merely tonched?taxa tion. It ia the fashion now to say: "Pile on the taxes. What we need now is confiscatory tares, especially on profits." For excess and prof iteering gains, yes. But on ordinary profits, new investments far increas ing production or en living costs, it would be a blunder amounting to a crime. Our authorities must see and act on this principle. It is the first end truest one in the book: What ore need is not merely mare taxes, but more revenue and more production. Revenue is mostly a sum in multiplieatioo?"total pro duction, profits and sales multiplied by whatever percentage of taxes yon assess on thvm."
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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Dec. 5, 1940, edition 1
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