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The Alamance Gleaner * , * Vol. LXVII GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1941 No. 14 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne U. S. 'Aid-to-Britain' Shipping Losses Brings Convoy Issue Into Open Debate; 45,000 British Soldiers Are Saved As Nazis Complete Balkan Campaign (EDITOR'S NOTE?When Nlalena ue iiprtuti la U?h ulaaia, U^T ?f? those of the news analyst aai not aeeessarlly of thla newspaper.) a by Western Newspaper TTw<? t CONVOY: Argument The anti-convoy and pro-convoy fight in the senate picked up when the Tobey and Nye resolutions were given formal consideration in com mittee. Both resolutions were defeated In committee, but only by a vote of 13 10, and this showed what strength the non-interventionists had gained. The resolution would have tied the President's hands most effectively, in the question of using the Amer ican navy to protect shipments to Britain and other defending democ racies. Both would have demanded that the President get congressional ap proval for any convoying that might be done, and pledged congress to give or withhold it within 14 days. This would have slowed the pace of the naval commander-in-chief to a walk. There was little repetition, however, of the charges that con voying already was being done. Senator Nye, in some of his speeches, began to give figures of U. S. losses of equipment en route SENATOR NYE flu bill: 40% lau,a to Britain by sea, and said that these ranged from 40 per cent to more than half. He then quoted a high defense official as saying, "they were nowhere near 40 per cent and were getting less constant ly." However, it was still apparent that Britain preferred to send American aircraft across the ocean by air rather than on the water, and the President backed up this effort by announcing he was asking for a survey to get all the commercial air transports possible, presumably to ferry the pilots back and forth who were in the transatlantic ship ping^of warplanes to Britain. That this was a big industry and getting bigger was seen by the new revelations of the prices being paid to American pilots for doing the fer rying. Some of these salaries were quoted at )1,SOO a trip, which didn't seem so much, but it was a good deal for a day's flying, and some of the bombers were making it in 12 hours. Of course, there was the wait be fore you got back to earn another $1,500, but the pilots were getting astronomical "waiting salaries" as well. But there were signs that as American production was stepped up, this business was beginning to get out of hand, and that there was a woeful shortage of planes capable of bringing the pilots back to Amer ica. There also was revealed another British immediate request for a quantity of mosquito torpedo boats, and also the fact that American sup ply was short, for Secretary Knox said, "We'll let them have some, and more as we finish them up." Highlights ... in the netcs Washington: President Roosevelt himself opened the government's multi-billion dollar defense savings campaign by buying the first bond himself. The ceremony was broad cast from coast to coast. New York: Jesse Jones announced that the government debt would go to 90 billions, and that America, which had no sacrifices as yet, would be making them "and plenty of them." * London: Belgian circles reported that Germany is holding 118,000 Bet gians prisoners of war. GREEK: Bill Presented The debacle in Greece seemed to be "small potatoes" as tar as men and munitions were concerned, as compared with Dunquerque, but the pattern turned out to be almost iden tical. There was little question but that the fighting had been as hard at one place as at the other, with probably more successful work done by the British in Greece than they did in France. It seemed that the Greeks were better co-operators than the French, whose morale was utterly shot long before the British began to fall bacl|, and had to contend with clogged roads and fleeing millions. But Churchill let the commons have the "Greek bill*' of expenses as soon as he knew what it was, and announced he would permit a full debate on this motion: A vote of confidence in the con duct of the war by the British gov ernment?and a vote of approval on the giving of aid to the Greeks. Churchill said the British had put 00,000 soldiers into Greece, including WINSTON CHURCHILL Hit bill: 3JM0 killed in Grate*. one division each (about half of the total force) of Australians and New Zealanders. He said that of this number there were about 3,000 casualties (killed aad wounded and missing), about 45,000 "got away to fight on other fronts," and 12,000 were still un accounted for. This, presumably, included those left to screen the re treat (suicide battalions); and those lost at sea in sunken transports. The prime minister said "British losses were small compared to the losses inflicted on the Germans, who on some occasions for two days at a time were brought to a complete standstill by forces one-fifth their number." He said, further, that the conduct of the troops, especially the rear guard, merited the highest praise, and that the British demonstrated that prolonged air bombing by day and night had no power to shake their discipline or their morale. Some members of the house want ed to know if the 45,000 had fled to Crete or had reached their own bases. Churchill said he believed the latter to be the case. He ad mitted that the army in Greece had been forced to abandon or destroy all of its heavy equipment, which could, of course, not be removed. He was highly positive, however, not only of the escape of 45,000 men, but hinted that the other 12,000 "un accounted for" probably would die or be taken prisoners?but might, possibly, escape somewhere else temporarily. The Nazi communiques announced the Greek war over, the formation of a "new government" similar to that of occupied France, and the af fair officially at an end. KUS51A: At Crossroads Indication that Soviet Russia is facing a situation that is becoming less and less healthy for the Soviet's peace of mind came when it was officially announced by Moscow that' 12,000 German troops, well equipped with tanks and heavy artillery, had moved into Finland by water with the evident intention of staying there. The official announcement coupled with this move by the Nazis, at least former allies of Russia, with the decision by Russia not long ago not to permit further shipments of arms and munitions over her rail roads, or through her country by air or land. Mother of '41 Mrs. Dena Shelby Diehl of Danville, Ky., by marriage a great-great granddaughter of, Isaac Shelby, Revolutionary war hero and first governor of Ken tucky, is the American Mother of 1941. She was extended this honor by the American Mothers* committee of the Golden Rule foundation, which annually spon sors the American Mother. Cited as being "representative of the best there is in motherhood," Mrs. Diehl is the mother of four grown children?all girls. 'COPPERHEADS': And FDR The "tone Eagle," Charles Au gustus Lindbergh, once more land ed an Page One as the first Ameri can news story. Lindbergh, who had first associat ed himself with the non-intervention ists and later with advocates of the theory that British victory was im possible and German victory cer tain, carried his views to the Ameri can public until finally President Roosevelt took cognizance of them in a press conference, mentioning Lindbergh by name and in no complimentary terms. Lindy countered by resigning his commission in the air corps reserve, and accompanied it with a personal letter to the President which he re leased to the press as soon as it was written, and long before the Presi dent received it. The war department accepted the resignation. The President received the letter. Lindbergh received from Presidential Secretary Early the hint that perhaps he would like also to return to Hitler a decoration he had received from Der Fuehrer some years back. The open controversy had its backers on both sides, both public and private. The non-intervention ists immediately made of Lindy a martyr, and at a subsequent public meeting, Senator Nye, leader of the "keep out of war" bloc in the senate, along with Senator Wheeler, made , capital of the incident by addressing his hearers as "fellow-Copper heads." The copperhead reference was President Roosevelt's, used in the press conference anent Lindbergh. Lindy's name was cheered to the echo at each of these meetings, and the leaders of the movement were quick to seize on him as a martyr. Opponents of Lindbergh's attitude were glad he resigned his commis sion but took the stand that he ought to be silenced and deported, in fact there were few limits in the sugges tions that emanated from various sources backing up the President in his questioning of the flier's patri otism. Along came the Hugh Johnson in cident to tan the flames and to give the anti-administration movement more stature. General Johnson, holding, like Lindbergh, a reserve army commission, was denied a re appointment by the President John son had been authoring an anti-ad ministration column which had been widely distributed in the press. He, a former New Dealer and a former head of the NRA in the early Roosevelt days, had been busy in anti-Administration circles, mostly in magazines, prior to the last elec tion, and had continued with a news paper column. The army had certified Johnson for reappointment so in refusing to allow the commission to go out, the President went against his army chiefs' advice, and further stated that as there was no likelihood oi Johnson's actively serving, he want- ' ed to spare the commission for somebody that would. Lindbergh, in his letter to the President resigning, had made quite a point of the fact that as an in active army officer, he had felt per mitted to use the freedom of speech in attacking the administration's for eign policy, but that if the Presi dent was going to impugn his pa triotism?why then be was going to resign. Rural Boys Make Good' As President's Advisers Harry Hopkins and Leon Henderson Have FDR's Confidence in Policies Vital To U. S. Welfare. By BAUKHAGE National Farm and Homo Hour Com man tat or. (WNU Service, 1143 H. Street N. W., Washington, D. C.) WASHINGTON. ? America faces its second crisis under Roosevelt. Whether America knows it or not? and by the time this reaches print the last doubt may be removed?the President knows it now. The first crisis was the peak of the economic panic. The present one is the valley of allied fortunes. The WPA and the NRA were two of the institutions which the Presi dent created to meet our economic problems in 1933. Since then many an outstanding member of the New Deal palace guard has had his hour to strut and fret upon the stage and then be heard no more. General Johnson and his blue eagle?now a mere columnist; Donald Richberg, his successor, back with his law books; the professors, Raymond Mo ley, once in the state department, to day behind an editorial desk in the seat of the scorner, and Rexford Guy Tugwell, still loyal, but silent, a partner of industry. We might go on. But two men, one a veteran of NRA, another of WPA, have been chosen to sit at the right and left hands of the Chief in crisis II; Harry Hopkins, head of the program HARRY HOPKINS under the lend-leaae law, and Leon Henderson, officer of price adminis tration and civilian supply. The two men are alike in few characteristics except that both were poor farm boys, both have a New Deal slant on life, and neither has much interest in the art of a Fifth avenue tailor. There is no doubt that the defense program, if we must still use that euphemistic label for this anything but negative undertaking, has passed out of the joint power of the dollar a-year men and into control of these two staunch supporters of the Roosevelt administration. The rtee of Harry Hopkins' influ ence has been steady, interrupted only by periods of ill-health. His relationship with the President start ed from a sympathy of viewpoint concerning the duty of government toward its underprivileged. It has grown into an intimate friendship, bastkmed by propinquity that comes from sharing the same rooftree and many leisure hours, before nine in the morning and after six at night. since May of last year. , That was when Hitler's blitz across the low countries showed the President that the possibility of peaceful intervention in the cause of democracy in Europe was over. In his despair, he called his friend to the White House tor a week-end of comfort and counsel. Hopkins has been there ever since. Perhaps the barefoot boy driving a neighbor's cows up a dusty lane some four decodes ago dreamed of the White House?every boy has a chance to be President we know. But how many boys dream of being a President's chief advisor and boss ing seven billion dollars' worth of supplies for democracy? Harry's father was a harness maker. He had a harness shop in Grinnell, lows, and it was in Iowa because Mrs. Hopkins was am bitious for her children and there was a college there. Harry earned some nickels and dimes herding cows, and then worked in the shop. Later he worked his way through college. Money never meant much to him. He never handled much of his own. But he has bossed millions far other people in the Red Cross during the World war, with tha Asso ciation tor the Improvement at the Poor in New York, where he got to know Governor Roosevelt, and then with the relief organization of the federal government. Hopkins, lean, slight, amiable, 1 grew up with the New Deal. So did Leon Henderson but he reached the inner circle by a more roundabout way. He is thick-set and dynamic and he blustered into the confidence of General Johnson in the NRA, as an economist who could punctuate his theories with the salty expletives that appealed to Old Iron Pants. When the blue eagle folded its wings, Henderson plowed his own furmw and got out of the way when he was not needed but always man aged to bob up when he had a chance to say something important. He predicted the "bust" as he called it?the slump of 1937. In 1938 he warned against price rises. He kept warning. Prices went up. Now he is czar over prices. Like Hopkins, Henderson worked his way through college. Like him, too, the jobs he has held since his maturity were all outside the marts of trade and commerce. These two self-made rural boys see the same dreams of America when they look out of the White j House windows side by side with the . Hyde Park Squire. * * ? Early Morning , In a Nation'? Capital Six o'clock in the morning. From a Saturday to a Monday spring changed to summer in Wash- ( ington, buds turned to blooms and bare branches burst out into full leaved green. In a city, the first walk under i this newly spread canopy of green is a strange delight. There is nothing quite like it. Leafy curtains shut out the harsh, cold stone and steel about you as a drawn shade shuts out the night from a lamp-lit room. Washington does not wake early. At six in the morning there are so few people on the streets that the folks you pass seem as friendly as . a neighbor you meet on a lonely : lane. The red and green traffic lights still have their eyes closed and only the yellow bulbs blink sleep ily at you as they have all night. But these days the sun is well up and as you walk west to east the light strikes you square in the eyes. It always reminds me of a prairie j town and that always reminds me of how I was reminded of my prairie town when we used to be marching j eastward in the dawn of a murky 1 French morning when the sun sud denly burst on us and made us long { for the old, wide-brimmed cam paign hat instead of the little cloth rag of an overseas cap. You don't . see many campaign hats any more. . As I came down the avenue this morning almost-empty buses passed me. I saw a colored man watering a pathetic little patch of lawn in front of his two-story cottage. The rest of the family were still asleep, the bedroom windows were open. I saw an old-fashioned ornate oil lamp in one. All rooms sesm to b? bedrooms in Washington. The fine old resi dences are turned into rooming houses?many of them?and early in the morning the windows are open. In an hour thousands of govern- | ment workers will be hurriedly dressing behind carelessly drawn | shades, then jamming the now empty buses with all the roomy comfort of steers in a cattlecar. Between old, transmogrified resi dences rise the new apartments. Here and there are a few that sprang into being when 1917 filled the city with war workers. They are frequently impressive looking on the outside, built to sug gest a French chateau. Inside, tiny little boxes of rooms with low ceil ings that the third Boor windows can hardly see over the stills of the sec ond floor of the residences next door. But the modern apartments that are springing up like dandelions these days do not go in for French fa cades. They are the same boxes in side. Outside, there are ugly flat walls with plenty of glass, the whole entrance is glass. They look too much like modem Moscow to please my old-fashioned eyes. Expect Rise in Air Accidents Personnel Expansion Cited As Army Officers Are Told to Give Facts. WASHINGTON.?The lowering of the average experience of the pilots now training tor the army air corps arill result in an increase in the rate of flying accidents, because of the greater number oPmen involved and the risks in training for mod ern aerial combat, the war depart ment announced in an explanation at recent accidents to army planes. The proficiency of the air corps pilots and the condition of the army planes and ground equipment are not measured by the number of such accidents, but rather by the acci dent rate, officials stated. "In IS40, army airplanes were flown more than 900,000 hours as compared with about 77,000 hours in 1921, but the percentage of accidents in 1940 was far below that of two decades ago," the war department said. /tl n_k.il. wr A? uitc runic ricu. The announcement came aa Henry L. Stimson, secretary of war, met with ISO army public relations of ficers whom Haj. Gen. Robert C. Richardson Jr., head of the war de partment public relations section, had called in from all parts of the country to discuss publicity policy and problems. The secretary told the officers that the success of the army's program depended upon its morale, which in turn depended upon the morale at the people at borne who supported it, and he warned against the feel ing of disillusionment which would spread if these people felt they were being deceived. "Nothing can undermine this mo rale, both of the army and of the people behind it, so rapidly and so thoroughly as the feeling that they are being deceived." he said, "that they are being given the real facts ?bout their progress and the prog ress of the cause which they are pre paring to defend." The war department report on ac cidents did not reveal any precise figures as to the number of acci dents, but merely gave percent ages covering the various reasons causing them. "The detailed data on accidents maintained by the air corps indicate that personnel errors still account for 80 out of every 100 mishaps of all kinds, fatal as well as those which result in no injury to persons and only slight damage to property," the report stated. "Mechanical failure or defects in airplanes and equip ment caused but 14 per cent of all accidents and less than 0- per cent of these were due to miscel laneous and undetermined causes." Personnel Errors Bluid As to the fatal accidents, in which one or more persons were killed, during 1M0 77 per cent were due to personnel errors, while but 4 per cent were caused by faulty material and 19 per cent were chargeable to miscellaneous and undetermined factors, the war department said. The war department pointed out that because of the great expansion of the air corps In the last two years, the proportion of experienced dying instructors and commanders at com bat units had been greatly reduced contributing to a higher accident rate. In closing the report warned the public to be prepared for further in crease in the number of accidents. "At the same time e warning is sounded that in view of the great increase in the amount of dying there will be a proportionate in crease in the number of accidents, fatal and otherwise, with which the air corps and the public will be coo fronted," the war department con cluded. Captures German Spy; Credit Goes to Films LONDON. ? Hollywood can now boast of having helped In capturing an escaped German prisoner of war. Wearing gray flannel trousers, sports jacket and a check cap, the escaped prisoner boarded a bus traveling between Gainsborough and Sheffield, and asked the oonductor for a return ticket to Sheffield. But on receiving the ticket he tor got himself and clicked his heels and bowed, as so many Hollywood films have portrayed the typical German in uniform. Conductor Colin Spittle, an ardent film fan, having already been warned that there was an escaped German prisoner at large in the district, in formed his driver. Apparently taking no further inter est in his passengers, and continuing with his job, Spittle took no action until his driver pulled up alongside a policeman. Rivets Eliminated By Latest Process May Prevent Bottleneck in Plane Production. DETROIT. ? Development at m new high-speed process for alumi num sheet welding which may pew vent a bottleneck forming in plana production has been announced by a welding company. Tests on duralumin urn strips sim ilar to aircraft fuselage disclosed that the new machine produced a spot weld twice as strong aa re quired under government specifica tions for rivets in 1-300th of a sec ond, a spokesman said. It was asserted that the new weld er, embodying principles long aougbt by aircraft companies as a short-cut in the tedious process of drflttng. placing and clinching rivets, could replace with welds virtually all the 490,000 rivets in a four-i nghiad bomber. Adaptations make it una ble in virtually every part at aa air plane assembly. Other concerns have announced development of duralummum weld ing processes which could be adapt ed to some sections of a bomber, but would not replace rivets entirely. If plane manufacturers dad the welder acceptable, engineers said it was possible that die time needed for bomber production would be cut ? in half. The weld is accnmpfrhed fay a "pulsating" direct alec Ilk current of about 29,000 amperes at about seven volts, the makers aaid. Dsn inventors said that flee product warn free from cracks and blowholes and did not vary much mora than ? par cent from a stress test at 419 f mints a square inch for rivets. The "treated" alternating currant to form a spot wold so swiftly font delicate recardaw msrhwww rssusf catch it, U is asserted. Airplane Manufactnrer Builds Bomb Shelter* LONG BEACH. CALIF.?Book proof abetter* tor workmen . . . Underground vault* for alining materiel* . . . And a huge plant with no ? imhi? at all and a new device an the tai to prevent light from eeepmg am... That* the new Doug la* "blackout" plant at now under ccnotrnctioo under a ^cohp program to accelerate the aoothorn California production of war planan. The factory, comprising 11 budd ing* on a JOO-acr* site, wfll hear porate every defense feature. Be sides the bomb shelters and (he vaults and the absence of ? iiiluwa. the plant will be so construe tad and painted that it will blend with the landscape so that it arQl be neap tion ally hard to And by an enemy in the air. Evan the transformer* from which will come the electric power for the new plant are built far undergmmdL Large crews are working day and night, rushing construction of the plant which, as soon as It it Ih iiahad, wiU go into production of bomber* and transports for the United Melee army and navy and the RAF The plant may be ready for operation by midsummer. Skipper Tells How Nans Bombed Skip With Dad* AN EAST COAST CANADIAN PORT.?How his ship vas bathed by German airplanes, bet escaped damage when the expiosivss proved to be duds, was told hers by an AS lantir gkiDMF. "Lucky? Maybe it was," the skip per observed. "Somehow, I cant help thin kins thst those dud hots he indicate something more than that.. Could it be that our friends to Naai occupied territories are doing thaw part? Two phony bomhe at ene time is more than passing strange." Three times bombers dived at the ship, he said, white the ship's crew blazed away with a raptd-Ariag can Don. * Nine bombs fell. Two struck the ship. One dented the steel deck te a depth of almost two feel then it bounced Into the sea. The captain showed a An from a BOO-pounder Is beck up his story. Nickel-Minting Pane* The 2,000,000,000 Mark WASHINGTON.?The minting at nickels has passed the 1,100,000,000 mark. NeUie Tayloe Ross, director of the mint, made this announcement in connection with the celebration by numismatists of the seventy-fifth an niversary at the five-cent piece. The present Jefferson nickel, of which 403,314,450 have been struck off al ready, is the fourth nickel. When congress authorized the coht in 1000, the first nickel bore a shield, design. Then came the liberty ntd* el, and then the buffalo nickel. The Jefferson nickel started coming sad of the mints October 1, 1090.
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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May 8, 1941, edition 1
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