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THE ALAMANCE GLEANER ? ? j. IM Vol LXVn - GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1941 ? No. 19 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Current War Front Shifts to Syria With Oil Fields of Iraq as Prize; 'Draft Everything' Legislation Aims To Break Strikes in Defense Plants (EDITOR'S NOTE?Whom tplikii art ixprtiMi Is IktM eoluni, they ?? "???? ?* ??? analyst Ml not atctmrOj of this newspaper.) (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) ' ! WAK IN U. S. Citizens of Bear Mountain, Tf. re ceived a taste of tchat actual war attack might mean when the coast artillery and West Point cadets put on a dive-bombing attack and anti-aircraft defense of a big bridge near that point. Guns and equip ment used were in same positions they would actually occupy in an actual battle for defense of the bridge. w?m ^ Urges Arms Boost DEFENSE: Production Returning foreign correspondents, making a junket of the defense pro duction industries as guests of the war department, found that airplane motors, considered one of the poten tial bottlenecks, are being rushed into production at one plant in Con necticut to the tune of 1,400,000 horsepower monthly. One official of this concern, re viewing what he knew of the po tential production of this industry, predicted that between 70,000 .and 100,000 airplane engines will be turned out during 1M1-42. The total airplane industry, from a motor standpoint, should eventual ly be turning out 10,000,000 horse power a month. While these producers had no ac curate figures on Axis production, it was figured that it might be be tween 3,000,000 and 5,000,000 a month at the present time, with future capabilities unfigured. In addition to the three great American aviation motor concerns' output, the automotive industry has been asked for some, and while not in production yet, they will eventual ly contribute a large percentage of the total. This turned, the pages back to World War I, when America's most important fighting airplane motor, the Liberty, was turned out in quan tity in a leading automotive factory. This factory also, by the way, was making the recoil mechanism for the 75-millimeter gun?then a war bot tleneck. DRAFT: 'Everything A still fight against President Roosevelt's "draft everything" measure sent to the congress closely following his "freedom speech" ap peared likely, though the adminis tration forces seemed willing enough to modify the tneasure from its first draft. The President softened the shock of the measure, which at first sight looked like an effort toward a com plete economic dictatorship, by a later announcement that its major i ur rvsc was to permit the admin istration to break strikes in defense industries, which were still a knotty problem all over the nation. Both Senator Byrd of Virginia and Senator Tydings of Maryland had taken the floor to demand that the President himself take the leader ship in halting strikes, Byrd saying: "There are 80 to 70 strikes in de fense industries, and new ones are occurring every day. I don't as sume the government would want to take over and operate all these plants. "A prohibition against strikes and compulsory arbitration would be a better method." The bill, which in its original form would give the President, under his proclamation of a state of unlimit ed emergency, power to seize and sell anything in the nation's long list of private property, found its first compromise offer coming from ad ministration leaders in the form of a time limit on the President's pow ers, together with a proviso that congress must first itself declare a national emergency before they could be used. "Labor-minded members of both houses, wildly suspicious of the measure, started their own investi gation to try to determine its origin. / WAR: On New Front The collapse of the Greco-British defense of Crete was followed by a good deal of backing and filling as the forces of Great Britain won dered where the axe was going to fall next. The preponderance of British be lief was that it would be in Syria, and two things happened at once: The British started mobilizing toward Syria and began air attacks on Syrian points, and the French started propaganda efforts to prove that they needed German aid to re pel British attack. The British countered by announc ing, via their Turkish friends, that Germany already had landed 20,000 men in civilian dress, who would doff their tourist garb and take up arms just as soon as sea-borne transports landed them. Also the British asserted that 400 German planes were already at Syrian airdromes, ready for an at tack on Iraq's British army from bases supplied, in defiance of Franco-British friendship, by agree ment "with the Petain government headed by Darlan. The observers in this country were not fooled by this sort of diplomatic byplay, and were able to recognize the same maneuvers, with some variations, that had preceded the German occupation of the Balkans and the subsequent blitz attack upon Greece. Britain's plan was not only a de laying action, but because of the peculiar location of the immensely valuable Mosul oil field, to try to get into Syria first, while the German "tourists" were still unarmed, and to destroy the landing fields there if possible. Home Front Churchill's government, taking a great deal of criticism because of the Crete disaster, because many British people thought the Crete bat tle might have been won if better handled, now found itself with an intensely serious problem on its hands. There were signs that "authorized sources" in Britain were preparing the public as gently as might be for a practical abandonment of the Mediterranean as a naval control area since the loss of Crete, and one announcement flatly said that Amer ican aid must hurry if it was to get 'to the Red sea and Suez in time to get to the British forces in North Africa. The British were expecting air borne attacks on Malta, Cyprus, Alexandria and Suez, but whether the Germans would attempt para chute troop operations after their huge losses in Crete was doubtful. In fact, the Turkish slant on the attempt to land in Syria was that sea-borne invasion would be carried out. A dozen or more large ships were to carry supplies to Syria via the Dodecanese islands, and from these it would be possible, Turkey said, to land in Syria by an over night sailing under cover of dark ness. Five hundred motorized troops had made such a trip, Turkey said, though France vigorously denied it. Harking back to the days when Weygand's Near-East army was es timated at 790,000 men, figures were now being given out in allied circles i that De GauHet had an army at 1 SO,000 men at the present time. . i ~ Stacy May, research chief of OPM, is pictured as he told the senate defense committee that the gigantic American armament program must be doubled to aid Great Britain and other nations in overcoming the German ad vantage in production. He pro posed that the goal of spending twenty billion dollars next year for arms be increased to forty billions. DOORN: End of Road The death ol former Kaiser Wil helm at 82 of a blood clot on the lung and the elaborate military fu neral accorded him by the dictator of Germany, Adolf Hitler, former Austrian paperhAnger, brought an odd and dramatic close to a long and interesting career. The man who was so much in the forefront of .the last war that the slogan "Hang the Kaiser" was on the lips of half the Allied soldiers, died after 22 years of exile after a ripe and peaceful old age, even in the midst of a present war which had brought the conquering hordes of his former country in triumph to his point of exile at Doom, Holland. Yet, even in this triumph, though the Germans could have brought the Hohenzollera monarch back to his throne had their desire been to do so, this was not done, and the kaiser and his family remained in exile, there for death to And him while the issue of the fate of his country was still in doubt. However, the relations between Hitler-controlled Germany and the former monarch were as odd as the position of the civilized world at the time of the kaiser's death. Hitler seemed Ailed with respect and hom age to his former monarch, though what the kaiser thought of the hum bly bom Austrian who succeeded him was little in evidence, and mat tered just as little. Hitler's Anal move?to order a funeral with full military honors, was the last there was In the news about the lord of the Hohenzollerns. GASOLINE: An Issue No sooner had Secretary Ickes suggested "gasless Sundays" as a means of controlling the oil supply of the country than administration critics began asking embarrassing questions. How could this country, with con trol of half the world's oil supply, be facing an oil shortage? How did it happen that American concerns were selling oil and its products to Japan? To Russia? To other countries via which it might *et into Axis hands? The defense investigating commit tee in congress was asking some of these questions, and getting strange answers. The Standard Oil com pany had to explain the deal to its stockholders, and this brought the issue into more prominence. The oil concern admitted the sale of oil and gasoline (except the 100 octane airplane gas) to J a pern, bat said that when the agreement was made the British, American and Dutch governments were consulted, and that the terms were entirely ac ceptable to all three. It was one of the puzzling phases of America's defense effort. SEA WAR: Claim* Berlin, having claimed that half of Britain's entire merchant ship strength had been destroyed, assert ed that the total had reached 11,000,000 tons. Britain admitted six millions. Both agreed that British pre-war strength had totaled around 21 mil lions or 22 millions of tons. The German claim was that, her ships sunk, Britain was "bleeding to death," and that a speedup of air plane attacks on merchant ships and war vessels might be expected. U. S. Invaded by Foreign Weeds 1,000 Species Have Come to America During Past Three Centuries. WASHINGTON. ? More than a thousand European "weeds" have invaded America in the past three cen turjes. In their native lands they may have been lovely flowers, such as the Sk-James's-wort, one of the handsome plants of British hillsides. About 70 years ago this species ap peared in Nova Scotia, and by 1800 it had become one of the worst pests of the countryside. Farmers rechristened it "stinking Willie," and it now has reached as far south as Massachusetts. This is only one striking example, says Dr. M. L. Fern aid of Harvard university in the latest annual re port of the Smithsonian institution. The invaders include the common dandelion, burdock, white daisy, witchgrasa, Canad thistle, plantain, pigweed and dock. They are crowd ing out some of the rarest and most delicate North American flowers. ITn-l?- t\ 1 "Their army is reinforced," says Dr. Femald, "by every arrival of uncleaned European seeds, in the stockings, trouser bottoms, skirt hems and blankets of immigrants and in the letter and old straw used in packing from abroad. Arrived in a new country, they know no re straints, and after a period of ad justment become the bulk of our plant population, wherever natural conditions have been destroyed." A notable case is that of the "devil's paintbrush," a lovely plant with orange and scarlet blossoms, which was highly prized in New England gardens a half century ago. In the early nineties it had become acclimated and began to appear in the fields. It has now, as Dr. Fer nald points out, mined thousands of acres of field and clearing from the tip of the Gaspe peninsula in Quebec to Michigan and southward to Pennsylvania. Are 8erto*s Menace. "These invaders," says Dr. Fer nald, "are our thoroughly success ful wild plants and their success is to be compared with that of Euro pean man, the European rat and mouse, the European starling, the English sparrow, the European gypsy and brown tail moths, and the European housefly." These weeds are much more of a menace, he believes, than such common but purely native species as poison ivy, wild strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, fire weed, pennyroyal and others. "These," he says, "are our native invaders, but they are relatively harmless. They have been longer on the ground and, although show ing some of the unrepressed traits of aggressive youth, are surely less obnoxious in their behavior than many of the recently arrived Euro pean invaders." Cow Convert* Iron Into Milk in Five Minutes BERKELEY, CALIF.?Univcrsity of California scientists have upset long-lived theories concerning iron in the milk of cows. They reported iron begins to ap pear in the milk within Ave minutes after iron-containing food is eaten by the cow, thus repudiating ear lier theories that it takes consider able time for a cow to break down her food and make iron available to the la eta ting cells. Dr. Lowell Erf, research fellow in the radiation laboratory, conducted experiments with the use of radioactive atoms of iron from the university's cyclotron. He discovered that enzymes, armies of tiny agents that break down foods and liberate iron for the body, apparently work at speeds heretofore unsuspected. If the average cow, producing four liters of milk a day, is fed a 10-gram oral dose of iron each 34 hours, Dr. Erf said, there wBl be enough iron in the milk for a grow ing child consuming a liter of milk a day. Historic Texas Mission Added to Federal Sites WASHINGTON?Secretary Ickes announced that the old mission San Jose De Aguayo at San Antonio, Texas, a group of historic buildings begun in 1730, had been added by the national park service to the na tional historic sites administration. An advisory board of one repre sentative each of the interior secre tary, Catholic church, Texas state parks board, Bexar county commis sioner's court and the conservation society of San Antonio, will be es tablished to advise on any matters relating to the site's preservation, restoration, reconstruction and gen eral administration. War Makes British Provident People Workers Buy Frugally; Save Much of Higher Pay. LONDON. ? British munitions workers of today are a strangely sober lot. They are more intent on getting out of debt and on saving money than they were during the delirious war boom of 1914-18 when they an noyed the "upper classes" by buy ing pianos and fur coats. At least this is the conclusion reached by Charles Madge of the Institute of Economic and Social Research, after a study of family expenditures in the typical muni tions town of Coventry, as published in the Economic Journal. He found that semi-skilled work ers hi Coventry are getting between $38 and $40 a week (thanks partly to considerable overtime) while skilled workers, doing piece-work and willing to work seven nights a week, are earning up to $93 and $98 a week. In all, 48 per cent are earn ing more than they did in Septem ber, 33 per cent are earning about the same and 20 per cent are earning less. But the striking part is that 97 per cent of the families are saving money every week. Furthermore, in their current pur chases they are showing great cau tion. These consist mainly of neces sary clothing, sheets, blankets, and similar household necessities, bought in anticipation of rising prices when the dreaded "purchase tax" ia im posed. All observers report that the big gest sub rosa worry in thia war is the outlook after the war. Will there be another fearful slump as there was in 1920, followed by long years of depression T Even the young peo ple seem sobered by the thought. Unusual Noise Found to Upset Normal Health STATE COLLEGE, PA Unneces sary horn-blowing, riveting and sim ilar sudden and unexpected noises may do serious harm to the human body's nervous system. Dr. R. K. Bernhard, head of the department of engineering at Pennsylvania State college, believes. Dr. Bernhard, who has Just pub lished studies measuring the effect of sounds and vibration on both in animate structures and human be havior, said that "there are definite limits to the amounts of noise and tremors the body can bear." He said that noise alone can nev er destroy a building, but it can harm the human body seriously. The body can adapt itself to a certain extent to constant noise or to regularly repeated mechanical vi brations, he said, but it may be "definitely damaged" by sudden, unexpected sounds, by tremors, or by the combination of noise and me chanical vibrations. Explaining the difficulty at devis ing instruments to measure the ef fects of noise on human beings, Dr. Bernhard recommended that medi cal doctors and psychologists co operate with engineers in solving noise and tremor problems. Stove Wood Substitute* For Ammunition Loading CAMP SHELBY, MISS.?Ammuni tion trucks, familiarly known in the army as "garbage cans," rum ble over the winding roads of this military reservation on day-and night problems. Instead of shells to feed the 75 and 155 mm. guns with which the troops here are armed, the trucks carry stove wood. It's Just an idea ?f the army that the men can learn to handle the shells without the danger by using the wood. Soldiers are being trained in load ing ammunition trucks, making cross-country trips on both good and bad roads, with the proper amount of ammunition on each truck. The trucks carry only the prescribed personnel, equipment and load. Brig ham Young's Illness Diagnosed After 94 Years 8ALT LAKE CITY.?Ninety-four years after he came down with the illness, physicians Anally have diag nosed the mysterious fever that af flicted Brig ham Young at the time of the arrival of the Mormon pio neer* in the Salt Lake valley in 1M7. Dr. William M. McKay, acting Utah health commissioner, dis closed that intensive research and much careful examination of the daily Journals kept by some ~ of Young's companions indicated the Mormon leader suffered from Rocky mountain spotted fever. The disease was unknown at that time and it was only Young's strong constitution that enabled him to sur vive the ailment. Dr. McKay be lieves. U. S. Ads to Encourage South American Market Endeavor to Prevent German Trade Foothold; Famous Men Mingle in Washington; Railroaders Neglect Annuities. By BAUKHAGE National Form and Bomo Boar Cnmmmf*,. nnu service, uu n sireei, n-n, Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON.?The other day rumora began to spread around the capital that the United States had declared a war that nobody knew anything about?a war marked "pri vate and confidential," the kind that nobody must talk about So everybody talked about it At cocktail parties, in the Press club, in the corridors of the solemn build ings with the "closed doors." You have heard of them?the closed doors behind which all the real things happen that are not supposed to. Finally, since this was a highly private and confidential matter it soon got into the papers, labeled "economic war." Immediately the idea was roundly denied, dispar aged, and generally abused. So I started out to try to locate it. There was smoke. Where was the fire? Since economic warfare is dollar warfare, I went to see the man who has a whole arsenal full of dollars which could be used as ammunition in such a battle, namely, Jesse Jones, federal loan administrator and secretary of commerce. I found him in his office. The tall, good-natured, hard-working Texas multi-millionaire was friend ly, helpful, sympathetic, as he al ways is. But what he did not say about economic warfare would have filled a volume. Visits Leading Economist. So I went to another man, who if such a war is going on right now is sitting on the board of strategy. I must not- mention his name, but be knows the terrain perfectly. He has been all orer the ground which, I might mention here is South Amer ica. He has served as a govern ment representative and as a busi ness representative, and in other capacities which I cannot catalogue without identifying him. "Economic warfare," he said, "is impossible, without war." What he did nj^dhy was that un declared economic warfare is im possible without wartime conditions, and right now, we seem to have enough of those to make possible some early skirmishes. This is the situation as it was "un-revealed" to me (officially) by a certain official. In the first place, experts here are convinced that even if be takes Africa, Hitler cannot feed and clothe Germany and its acquired domain without a strong trade foothold in South America. As one German economist recent ly put it to a former American rep resentative in Berlin: "South America is a natural com plement for the expansion of indus trialized Germany in the field of for a I_ *? eign vraue. Africa has raw matarials but it will take a long time to exploit them. The Nazis cannot wait. Hence, South America becomes the goal of their triple threat: economic, political and military. Now what are we going to do about it? Three Methods Open. There are three methods which the United States can use to keep the totalitarian businessmen, the totali tarian trade methods, the totalitari an politics out of the Western world. We can deal with South America by means at: 1. Voluntary co-operation. 2. Enticement. 3. Pressure. Number 1 is not warfare. Nor is it the old-fashioned "dollar-diploma cy" which exploited South and Cen tral American countries for the good of the few and made us hated as the Colossus of the North. It is, however, "dollars PLUS diploma cy" This method is already at work. It consists of loans to South Ameri ca; cultural activities and good will propaganda, genuine co-operation in finding complementary outlets which will encourage a north-and south Sow of goods. When we come to number 2, we must be very careful. This method will never be mentioned in any official statement. We have to fight fire with Are, or to be more literal, fight marks with dollars. In plain unvarnished language, a large part of method 2 la "graft." You slip a few well-chosen "gifts" into the right palms. It is not nice but after all we are talking shout war-time conditions and it is far nie er to snooi a man wun a suver or a golden bullet than with a steel-Jack eted one. Method number 3 is also unpleas ant, but still it is far this side' of "shooting" in the literal sense, ft is, to give one example, refusing to buy from a country unless you ? can buy on certain terms one at which would be that that country . would not sell to any other country whose methods you did not cars for. This in a very sqaaH nut-shell is economic warfare, and if it sue not still marked "private and confi dential" I'd tell you that it has al ready started. ? ? ? MingUm Capital "A pony will be a dollar, sir." The voice that spake was soli, in gratiating, with a foreign accent. He seemed a little surprised at the price. So was I. For the "pony" he was getting tor a dollar was an oversize thimbleful of brandy. In a moment a group at man came in, one's face familiat" Ha gentleman who had purchased the? pony rose beaming. "Well, how are you general?" _ he aaid. For just a second there waa a blank look on the general's face. He put out his hand and aaid with all the warmth of a good politician: "Well, well, well, how are you. Mr. Jones, and how's the missus?" Jones beamed again, mumbled and sat down satiafted. He had been greeted by one of die great. Not, however, by a high officer at the army as the title he used might indicate, but a former cabinet mem ber. Just then a headwaiter answered the phone at the dining roam en trance. "Tea," be said, in a voice quite audible, "table sixteen tor Mr. Rockefeller" A group of ladies tried not to took impressed and were so loudly silent that I could not help noticing them. One was a little bit mare human than the others. She wore a perfect red hat and "a little less can descending air. "But couldn't this defense pro gram have been much better pre pared tor?" asked a beautiful child of M . _ ? The Red Hat smiled "Ob. perhaps," she answered, "but things are going rather well. Of course so many of my hus band's friends come down here to talk to him about priorities." The others were obviously too polite to ssk what kind of socialistic thing a priority was or whether it meant more taxes. And after all their husbands were only million aires. Mrs. Red Hat was obvioualy the wife of a dollar-a-year man. I left this colorful comer of the emergency scene. "If Uncle Sam pays a dollar a year for a man," I mused, "the friend of the general ought not to object to paying a dol lar for a pony." ? ? a Railway Employ* Neglect Annuity Benefit* Have you "been working on the railroad" and forgotten all about it? Strange as it may seem 300,000 railroad employees who were em ployed before 1037 have failed to Ale statements which would entitle them to full annuity service 'when they retire. The railroad retirement board in Washington has been sending out notices and writing letters, urging everyone to spread the word and still a long list at names remain without the check mark against them that shows they have sent in their statements. Congress authorised the board to determine in advance of a railroad employee's retirement the amount creditable to his annuity. The ma chinery to do this was created and already nearly a million cards have been filed. In this day and age when so many people are anxious to collect money that is not coming to them it seems a shame that people who have earned an honest credit are not tak ing advantage of it Just to help matters along, I shall be glad to forward any letter sent to me in Washington, to the proper persons. So if you were working on the railroad before 1937 drop bo ? - : . &u,> *
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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June 12, 1941, edition 1
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