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The Alamance Gleaner Vol LXVII GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1941 No. 16 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne ! Reports of Hess Flight to England Fill News Columns and Radio Lanes; Convoys Plus Strikes Plus Priorities Equal Headaches in Defense Program (EDITOR'S NOTE?When ?pinions expresses In these ??lamas, they f,, are those ol the news analyst and Ml necessarily ?( this newspaper.) ' _______________ (Released by Western Newspaper Union.)_______J BOMBSHELL: Human Variety The Rudolf Hess incident was the dropping of a bombshell Into the moors of Scotland which went up with a louder explosion than any of the tons of TNT that Hitler's aviators had yet sent across the channel. Imaginations ran riot?the house of commons was in a dither?more than 20 basic theories were ad vanced to explain why Hess fled Germany in an airplane and dropped to earth in a parachute, and with the interweaving and vari ations of these, one had several thousand stories to choose from. To list the British theories and those of neutrals would be futile be ' cause they were not only limited by the imaginations of their creators. To list the German explanations also would be futile because they obviously were the propagandic out bursts of a government whose nose was temporarily out of joint. Outside of this, all was specula tion, all was guesswork, but the guessers, most of them being paid at so much a word, let themselves go and endless columns were printed. Yet the story was not being "over played"?most thinking newspaper men being at a loss for earlier com parisons in journalistic history, which, one must recall, doesn't go far back when history is considered. But outside of the type of story .that history presented in the Middle Ages and during the days of Caesar and Hannibal, and Anthony and Cleopatra, and Cassius and Brutus, and Helen of Troy, Hess' flight was unique. Most newspaper commentators were willing to call it the biggest story in centuries and let it go at that. They wagged their heads and said, "What if Cordell Hull were to fly to Germany, or what if it had been the other way over the chan nel and Anthony Eden had made the trip?" ? This was enough to settle the point as to the magnitude of the news to their own satisfaction, anyway. Basic explanation of the Hess in cident, on the standpoint of logic, RUDOLF HESS 'A louder explosion ikon bombs.' brought personal considerations and personal safety to the fore. It was pointed out: a. Hess had evidently wanted to escape Germany for some reason for he was practically under a de tainment sentence by Hitler's hav ing grounded him. b. If his reason for escape was sound, then to pick out a spot where he would be utterly safe from retri bution, England was the one and only spot in the world. c. If personal safety was his mo tive, then an inescapable parallel eras that something must have been wrong with the unity of the Nazi party of which he was No. 3 fuehrer. This was enough explanation for British serenity over the incident, also for German perturbation. It was significant that most German dispatches covered these three points. Point No. 1 was covered when Hitler announced Hess was crazy and had been detained for his own safety. No. 3, that he should select England, Germans explained by say ing that the nature of his insanity was that be believed that he, single handed, could bring about peace. Point No. 3 was handled by a straight-out denial that anything was wrong with the Nazi party. Hess was a "good Nazi but crazy." PRIORITIES: And OPM A new difficulty in the U. S. han dling of defense work loomed when William S. Knudsen, motor official and head of OPM, seemed to take as a personal issue the question of taking priorities out of his hands and giving them to a special organi zation answerable only to the army and navy chiefs. Knudsen was quoted as saying that he would quit if the plan went through. Thus the question of priorities lilt ed its head as a vital defense issue, further complicating the picture. Priorities were becoming a very real issue in business, also, many manufacturers finding that this one question might easily keep them from success or failure in carrying out contracts. The right to a prior ity of delivery of machine tools might alone answer an entire ques tion of manufacture. Knudsen took the attitude that if the work of production manage WILLIAM S. KNUDSEN He forced an iuue. ment was his, that to remove trom his hands a vital tool like the right to decide questions of priorities, would be to make his task impos sible, and to rob him of his prime prerogative. It seemed likely that unless this question was ironed out swiftly to the liking of -the Danish-born pro duction expert, the government might be looking for a new man. STRIKES: lip-Grade Again The labor trouble tempo in the United States defense industry was on the upward curve again, with a $30,000,000 order for Browning ma chine guns held up at the Colt fac tory at Hartford, Conn., and other old labor difficulties threatening to break out anew, including the coal strike. Always rearing its head was the threatened General Motors strike, which would, if it occurred, affect millions of dollars in defense work and about 160,000 employees, and John L. Lewis said that if the coal contract with southern operators was not forthcoming soon, he would call the 400,000 coal miners out again. This brought the strike news back onto the front pages with a bang, and Representative Thomas of New Jersey, a Republican, called for a roundup of Communists in labor groups, and to order them all arrest ed on treason charges. This was the most drastic step suggested thus far. SHIPS: Britain Bound President Roosevelt assured the nation that the administration's ob jective of 1,000,000 tons of merchant shipping for Britain would be real ized by mid-June. This assurance carried with it the important promise that the bill per mitting the President to take pos session of foreign vessels idle in American ports was in the category of "sure things." The senate and house engaged in a desultory effort to write into the bill amendments chief among which was the Tobey amendment forbid ding the use of convoys. The whole convoy issue, as indeed all other news of the war on this side of the water took a back seat during the news ascendancy of Ru dolf Hess, but the issue was there, ready to rip itself out into the open at an appropriate moment, and to become the central point of a whole congressional debate on the Presi dent's general foreign policy. Gold Star Mother When American Gold Star Mothers conducted their annual ceremoniet in Glendale, Califor nia, Mrs. Anna Bambrock, 94, oldest of the group in the nation, participated in the ceremonies. Mrs. Bambrock is pictured stand ing before the marble statuary, "A Compassionate Mother," which tool unveiled. DRAFT: Bars Lifted Of extreme import was the deci sion of congress to lift all bans to the size of the army or to the ques tion of selective service for any pur pose for which it might be used in the national defense. Also vital was the decision imme diately to classify the 10,000,000 young men still unclassified in the first call, and to set up the second call for an early date, probably in July. Two things were highly likely as a result?that the draft would be used to call men of a younger age than before, and that it would also be used to hunt out "missing links" among the skilled trades for use in defense industry. The first eventuality naturally would follow the report at army chiefs after a few months' experi ence with draftees that the younger men were far more adaptable than the older, and could take their train ing quicker and better. The second resulted from the realization that many men in the uniform would be much more pro ductive to defense in shipyards or munitions plants and that the classi fica|ion lists, if turned over to de fense production men might result in discovery of these facts before the uniform was donned. The lifting of any ban on the size of the army tended to indicate that there was justification for the grow ing belief that the end of a calendar year would not very likely mean the end of a man's military service, under present conditions. VICHY: A New Role More and more it was becoming apparent that newest German prop aganda was to convince the world, especially the United States, of one fact?that the war was over anfl Germany was about to undertake the difficult task of reconstruction. In effect the story to (as one Ger man writer put it) "poor daddy Roosevelt" was this: "All British have been chased from the European continent except at Gibraltar. "Thus Germany's prime objective has been achieved. We shall now try to cement these 300,000,000 peo ple into one force, working for Ger many. "With this force we shall confront the United States and defeated Britain." First move in the "war is now over game" was to lighten, somewhat, the armistice terms for France? and to ask deeper collaboration. This, according to dispatches, Vichy accepted unanimously. The German plan called for the return of some prisoners of war, the raising of the line between oc cupied and unoccupied France, and a list of demands on the French for co-operation which might never be made public.* Most observers believed that Ger many, in order to get and hold the Mediterranean, would give almost any concession to beaten France to grab the French fleet, but this did not appear on the surface as a condition. Why a Change? What did change Vichy's role in the world? Up to that moment the world had pictured Vichy and un occupied France as a saddened, hungry nation, bled whits by the Nads, and hoping against hope for the day when a British victory would return the country to peace, prosperity and freedom. U. S. Plans Broadcasts In German for Aliens Prepare Campaign of 'Counter - Propaganda'; Russo - Japanese/ Neutrality Pact Cools U. S. 'Friendship.' By BAUKHAGE National Farm and Home Hour Commentator. WNU Service, 1343 H Street N. W., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON.?You hear more and more talk in Washington these days about total defense with the accent on the total. Another way to say it would be "all-out" since that is the popular phrase of the day borrowed from the English who usually borrow their slang from us. A better way to say what officials are now calling for is "everybody out." If there is to be a final test between this democ racy and totalitarianism it will be "everybody out with a vengeance. Already the ramifications of the defense effort are reaching into all corners of national activity. While our factories are filling the air with bombers and fighters for England, the government is planning a little peaceful air-offensive of our own against Germany. When you feel around on tht dial of your radio set some day you may suddenly pick up a voice in German broadcasting from Washington. Do not worry. That will not mean that the fifth' columnists have ar rived on the Potomac. The voice will be coming forth not in spite of, but because of, the department of justice. The words may be as per suasive as those of Propagandist Goebbels or as pleasing as those of the Poet Goethe but they will be boosting democracy. If you can understand what the broadcaster is saying, you can learn some good things about your coun try and its customs that you may have forgotten even if the message ia not meant for you. It is meant, as a matter of fact, for the German speaking foreign-bom of this coun try and the broadcast has been planned for two purposes. The first is to remind these more recent arrivals on our shores who may have been listening to the short wave broadcasts from Berlin ; that there are a lot of good points about the country of their adoption which they may have overlooked. The second is to try to unite the newcomers and their offspring in an effort to use their influence, if they I have any, to pass on some of these points to the people in the old coun try with whom they may still be in touch, directly or indirectly. The idea has the support of At torney General Jackson but he would carry it still further. He believes in fighting fire with fire and shooting counter-propaganda right at the Ger mans in Germany. Of course, news reports from the United States are being beamed at Germany and Prance and other European countries, as well as South America right now. We know bow difficult it is for the Germans and people in the occupied countries to listen to foreign broadcasts. It may mean a life sentence. But we have ample evidence that the Amer ican stations have listeners?a great many more than would be expected under the circumstances. The peo-1 pie in those countries are starved for the news. They know that the newspapers they get are simply rub { ber stamps from the censor's office. They know our news is authentic, unbiased, accurate. But some people think that we ought to go much further in this battle of the ether than merely broadcasting news. They think 1 thai, in addition to the newscasts, there should be interesting feature broadcasts which would contain material planned to counteract the propaganda which the Germans are sending out to their own people and to others abroad. There are thoee, of course, out side the government who are open ly demanding that we go even fur ther than this. They say that we should not limit our efforts to de feating German propaganda by a counter attack on the air waves, but that we must take over some of the Goebbels methods fat foreign coun tries where his fifth-column ists are busy now?that we should match dollars against marks where they will do the moat good, organize se cret agents of our own, especially in South America. Right now American business aoen in South America on their own initiative have bought time on the air for programs of news and other material concerning the United Whet further steps the department of Justice, or whatever government agency might undertake the work, may do or may be doing now for that matter, ia not officially re vealed. But thia we do know: the station! of the National Broadcast ing company, Columbia, Westing house, General Electric and the pri vately owned station WRUL in Boa ton expect greatly to increase the number of newscasts they are send ing out to foreign countries in for eign languages. ? ? ? Soviet Diplomat* Hold an "At Home" Many, a Washington official who speaks of Russia's dictator with a curl of the lip has a secret admira tion for the wiley Comrade Stalin. Some call him the "Volga Goat man"?because he gets so many diplomatic goats. Recently it was the policy of the state department (following the Brit ish lead) to make up to the czar of the Soviets. Russia wanted ma chines and tools. We wanted Russia to growl at the Japanese. And so the anything-but-proletarian Sumner Welles, our undersecretary of state, was forced to let his chin down at least one hitch and converse pleas antly with the anything-but aristocratic Tovarisch OumanSki, charge d'affaires of the Soviets. Then came the sudden announce ment of the Russo-Japanese neu trality pact. It broke upon the dig nified diplomatic world with all the indignity of an over-age egg explod ing on an immaculate shirt front. About that time of the month there occurred an "at-home" at one of the Sixteenth afreet's most promi nent residences (to quote the official guide book). This mansion, built originally by the widow of the Pull man palace car millions and later palace of the perfumed and be monocled emissaries of the Roman offs, is now the Soviet embassy. The "at home" was a great suc cess. The great and the near-great from belligerent and peaceful na tions were there. In fact, it was quite a Job keeping the Canadian diplomats out of one salon while swastika and hammer and sickle tete-a-teted over the tall tea-glasses. Earlier that day the state depart- , ment had minimized to inquiring re porters the importance of the Russo Japanese pact But diplomats, as you know, use words to conceal i their thoughts. Their actions speak much louder than their official state ments. At the Soviet "at home" state department officials were ex ceedingly conspicuous by their ab sence. * ? ? ? Germane Prepare To Invade England Will the Nazis try to invade the British Isles? Most experts say, yes. The question is when? Recently some information has come to my ears which touches on this point. It comes from two sources which are sound and reli able. One is a story which was told to me by a French newspaper wom an who is Hitler's Privste Enemy Number One. She Is Madame Gene vieve Tabouis, and she escaped France ahead of the hungry Gestapo and is here in the United States. She told me that the Germans had held a practice maneuver in France which consisted of pouring oil on a certain river. They then Ignited the oil and hundreds of German sol diers, dressed in specially prepared fireproof clothing jumped in. The next day the river was full of corpses and the hospitals full of frightfully burned soldiers. The experiment did not work. Spreading burning oil at invasion points is said to be one of the meth ods of defense the British are plan ning against invasion. Now the second story comes from a man whom I cannot name but who has recently been in Germany. He says that the Germans have been working a long time on perfecting amphibian tanks?tanks which win actually float He believes that there will be no invasion until these tanks are ready. He also says that a psychological moment will be chosen. One when British morale is at a low point. For inrtance, if both the Suez and Gibraltar were captured the Ger mans might feal that this was the moment. Drill Mountain For Elton Tube ? 24,100-Foot Tunnel in Utah Is N earing Completion After Four Yean. TOOELE, UTAH. ? Eighty men who have been driving through ?olid rock, thousands of tons of dirt and braving manmade waterfalls in ?ide a mountain are. approaching their long-sought goal after four years?completion of the 24,100-foot Elton tunnel through the Oquirrh mountains. The tunnel, starting from Tooele on the western slope of the Oquirrhs, was designed to provide drainage for mines at the upper end of Bing ham canyon, site of fabulously rich deposits of copper and rare metals. Water from the mines will flow through the tunnel to irrigate hun- 1 dreds of acres of now-arid lands : in desert-like Tooele valley. Through the tunnel will be hauled | ore from the mines to smelters al- ' ready operating here. The ore now is hauled over a tramway that crosses the summit of the mountains, named the Oquirrhs because that is the Ute Indian word for "west hills." The mountains rim the west ern edge of the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Drill 39 Feet in Day. The average progress of the min ers is about 35 feet a day. Last August a monthly record was es tablished when the bore was ad vanced 1,042 feet in 31 days. Hard rock and treacherously soft rock, in addition to floods of water, have presented the chief difficulties to the tunnel workers. When hard rock was encountered, a drill carriage was brought to the face of the tunnel. Five drillers mounted the carriage, drilled the rock face in 35 places and loaded the holes with dynamite. The pow der, exploded electrically, shattered tons of rock from the face and it was hauled out by "bull gangs." Engineers put the average rock broken out with each round of blasts at 125 tons. The soft dirt presented the dan ger of cave-ins and carpenters were kept busy, fashioning supports tor the roof of the tunnel. Excelsior si Blotter. The water, trickling through the hill from snows that cover the moun tains from November to June, came through at times in virtual torrents. Last December, a subterranean stream was struck that released a flow of 5,514 gallons a minute. Av erage flow is 4,300 gallons a minute. Only through use of tons of excel sior?fashioned into huge blotters? and miles of steel rods that sup ported the excelsior was the water kept away from the working sur face. Four major faults ? geological term for a strata of rock formed by earth slippage?have been encoun tered so far. Supt. A. W. Filion be lieved one more fault will be en countered before the tunnel is fin ished. On February 18 of this year a fault was encountered that was so hard that crews required 30 days to flght their wsy through 28 feet of water and rock. Man, 80, Given License To Pilot an Airplane WATKINS GLEN, N. Y.-There's quite a contrast between driving ox carts and piloting an airplane, but 80-year-old A. I. Martin, Watkins Glen resident, has proved himself proficient at both. Martin, who recently received his solo pilot's license after successfully passing his flying test, is believed to be the oldest man in the country to receive such a permit. Belying bis four-score years, Martin obtained such high standards in his physical examination that he received a com mercial pilot's rating. The latest Schuyler county flier has been an ardent aviation student for the past two years. Ha is an active member of a nearby flying club where his sage advice has often proved of aid to the organization New Glass Proves Aid To Army Photographers ROCHESTER, N. Y?A new kind of glass which is giving American military aviation improved aerial photographs was announced by the Eastman Kodak company. The glass is made without silica, and the result is glass which bends light more than has hitherto been possible. Applied to a camera lens, the new "eye" will photograph a wider area and at the same time give a sharper picture over the entire area. Substituting tor silica are three elements: tungsten, tantalum, and lanthanum, a rare metallic sub stance. The new glaaa was perfect ad a year ago, and kept secret Tourist Travel for 1941 to Be Record Florida Leads in Increases For Winter Season. DETROIT.?Tourist travel, stimu lated by defense spending and a rec ord number of automobile sales, will be at least 10 per cent higher this year than last, according to a travel authority. E. S. Matheson, travel manager of the Automobile Club of Michi gan, and nationally known travel expert, said that motorists went to the open roads during the winter months in numbers t per cent great er than the 1030-40 winter. "Most of the increase was ac counted for in Florida where travel was 23 per cent over the same period a year ago," Matheson said. The encampment and industrial defense areas of the South were scenes of heavy motor travel. "Motor travel usually drops as employment figures near 100 per cent," the travel authority contin ued'. "Motorists are too busy mak ing money to take extended trips and they seek recreational facilities nearer home." It was pointed out that automo bile production and sales, nearly 500,000 units a month, was giving the motoring public new means at getting to the national highways. Thomas P. Henry, president of the American Automobile association, reported that domestic turning would continue "at boom propor tions" while there would be big hs creases in travel to Canada and Mexico. Henry said several states were contemplating increases in their tourist advertising expenditures to compete for larger shares at motor vacation expenditures which m 1M0 were "well over" tfi.OOO.OOS.WO. All travel records were amsrissd in 1M0 "and there is every tikett hood that this large volume sriD bo matched if not exceeded in 1M) " Henry said. Louisiana Man Hews Out Decoys With Knife, Ax LOCRPORT, LA?Clevis Vizier, the gray-mustached litUe "Calf" from the John Guidry community, has his summer's work waiting for him and his supplies gathered ?L Vizier caters to the sputtaiaen who haunt this swampy section at South Louisiana during the duck season. He furnishes them their de coys, fashioned by his small hand axe and his old-fashioned whittling knife. ,? I usually have enough decays or dered to keep me busy until the fal lowing year," the bald little man Mid. Vizier's friends and neighbors fishermen mostly?know the type wood he needs tor his decoys. Wherever they are, in the ewampa or shrimping on the Gulf coast, they pick up pieces of wood they think he can use. Preliminary work on the decoys la * done with the hatchet. Then cornea hours of tedious whittling?smooth ing out the marks left by the aae and cutting out the sweeping lines for the wing*. The body of the de coy Is carved first. Then, at night, before the fire, he carves the bird's head, figuring out the smsltost de tail. When a decoy is sanded down ?Vizier uses a steel file instead? the head and body arw nailed to gether and then painted Bombs Increase Truancy In Birmingham Schools BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND?Al most 40 par cant of the school chil dren of Birmingham are playing truant, and many boys of 13 and 14 are earning as much as $8 a weak in factories This week la mostly pari fkna The rest of the time the boys ream the streets, and as a result than baa been an Increase in the neither of esses in the Juvenile court. The trouble began when attend anew was made voluntary bar ansa of inadequate air-raid shelters at the schools. Now the children refuse to return to school, and ignore parents sod friwfti attendance officers alike. Seven Bells Are Added To Valley Forge Carillon WASHINGTON ?Seven additional carillon belle are being dedicated at the Washington memorial at Valley Forge, Pa., by tha National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The bells have been pre sented by the D. A. R. of Ala bama, North Dakota, Arkansas, Minnesota, Mississipi, Oregon and They will bring the total number of bells at the carillon to ST. Whan completed, the carillon will have one large national and 4fi state bells.
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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May 22, 1941, edition 1
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