The Alamance Gleaner VoL LXVH GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, JULY 17, 1941. No. 24 ? H ?? WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Landing of Naval Forces in Iceland Brings Speculation on Future Moves Of U. S. in Setting Up Defense Bases; Shaded Communiques Dim War Picture (?DROITS NOTE?Wk?a ?pinions sro oxprosoed Is theso columns, thor art thoso of tht nows analyst snd not necessarily of this newspaper.) _________________ (Reloased by Wsstsrn Newspaper TTwin? > Dr. J. C. McCracken, superintendent of tbe American Hospital for Refugees in Shanghai, China, is pictured with two of his charges from the baby clinic. The children seem to be thriving on meals made up of cracked wheat, which they consider a luxury. Ae Red Cross bags are then eut up and used for making clothes for the children. ICELAND: A Move The sudden step which President Roosevelt took in ordering the oc cupation of Iceland by American naval forces, and the plan to thus re lieve the British in the handling of that distant adjunct of the occupied Danish kingdom pot only clarified the present foreign policy but brought repercussions on both sides of the Atlantic. These were both favorable and un favorable to the move, the Brit ish hailing it with obvious delight as "putting teeth" and definiteness into the H. S. policy of insuring arrival of lease-lend aid and the fullest co operation short of war with Britain. The Axis powers, as were to be expected, were quoted variously as vigorously opposing such action which, apparently, they did not learn of until it was an accom plished fact. The Germans said the U. S. now had troops "in the war zone" and could expect results; the Italians called it a "provocative" step; and the Japanese called it "de facto American entry into the war." Thse sentiments, were echoed on this side of the water by the chief opponents of the administration, Senator Wheeler not only being out spoken against it, but drawing White House fire for having an nounced the rumored objective before it took place, thus, accord ing to a White House secretarial statement, "jeopardizing American lives." More interesting were the specu lations concerning future moves, the Nazi sources recalling in their com ment on the President's action the fact that be had spoken previously of the strategic import, from a Western hemisphere viewpoint, of the Azores, the Cape Verde islands, and Dakar, African BSrt. The President also made clear that geographical definitions of the Western hemisphere, as far as he is concerned, do not make much dif ference, and that when one is de fending a certain section of the globe, it is more important to "out guess the other fellow" than to draw geographical limitations on your ac tivities. RUSSIANS: A Picture Gradually, as the Russo-German war moved into the latter part of the first month, a growingly clearer picture of the situation could be ob tained. Stripped of equivocal commu niques, and delving behind these with the aid of town names and gen eral lines, here was the portrait of conditions at that period: The Germans, together with their allies, had attacked along a 1,100 mile front, with initial quick success in the extreme north, in the central district, and a slower success in the south. This continued, with the Russians falling back and burning towns and supplies as far as possible tor about a week or 10 days. Then the German advance ran into the Stalin line and an entirely different tempo of Russian resist ance. It was almost as though a large train had run into a resilient obstacle, which halted it gently and then even began to shove it back ward. AXIS: Sickness? Two American incidents tended to show that since the start of the Rus sian campaign, even before, there had been some signs within Ger many and Italy of what might be termed Axis sickness. /Walter Alexander, 57 - year - old American citizen born in Germany, left the^e about six weeks ago. He had been in the real-estate busi ness in Berlin since 1933. He lnally arrived in Jersey City, where he was quoted as follows: "Forty per cent of the German people are against Hitler and the war. "The German people are just be ginning to tire of it And they have the feeling that it does not matter whether they win. They feel they have lost their freedom anyway. "Business men in Germany are disgusted, because they can make no move except under government reg ulation and orders." And Count Carlo Sforza, once a member of Mussolini's cabinet, but who now declares he was one of the original foes of Fascism, said at Ann Arbor, Mich., that' a British victory in the war would be the ib gtant signal for the fall of the Mus l Wlini government ^ Even now, the count declared, ?v--.? mioM ?? anv time he a "Das sive strike" on fee part of the Italian navy, which does not like to fight on the side of the Germans. He said, however, that Italy was so much under the domination of Hitler that the people knew a signal for revolt against Mussolini would mean that the Germans would march on Milan, Venice and Trieste and also on Rome. Germany must fall first, before the present Italian regime collapses, he said. SYRIA: End of War The official announcement that a formal request for an armistice had come to the British from General Dentz of the Vichy defenders seemed to bring an end to a cam paign which ended on the saddest of possible notes. Churchill struck the British stti tude by saying: "I hardly need say how very glad His Majesty's Government is to see an end brought to this very distress ing conflict in which 1,000 to 1,900 British, Australian and Indian troops who had volunteered in order to defend France have fallen killed or wounded under French bullets as a result of the lamentable confusion into which the affairs of so many good people in so many parts of the world have been thrown by the victories of Hitler's army." This was a gentle way of acquaint ing the people with the number of casualties there had been in the British forces.' How many the Free French, under De Gaulle, had lost, was not mentioned, but it was be lieved to have been heavier, as they assumed the brunt of the sttack. Alfred Duff Cooper said: "I am horrified to hear that funds are being collected to celebrate the victory in Syria." The decision of General Dentz to sue for peace came at a time when the pressure was being put heavily on Beirut, which, it turned oat, eras the key to the whole campaign. Iceland Leader Shown here is Hermann Jonasson, prime minister of in dependent Iceland, who ap proved President Roosevelt's dis patching of American forces to take over defense of the island from the British.' LEASE-LEND: Aid Speeding A report that President Roosevelt was going to ask for another large lease-lend appropriation to add to the seven billions of dollars, a goodly portion of which was spent and all of it allocated, was coupled with the statement that American lease-lend aid to Britain is now moving at a speedier cup. The statement was made that a ship a day, approximately, is dock ing and unloading at Red sea ports, not accounting tor such others as may be arriving in convoy in Eng land itself. If these ships are well loaded with the munitions of war, then the British commands in North Africa as well as on the British Isles should be having measurably strengthened their hands. The period in which General Auchinlech took over and General Wavell gave up the North African command was followed by a con tinuance of the inactivity which had marked this stalemate. But as soon as the Syrian peace was announced, it was expected that the North African battle would be resumed, and that the new general plus his new equipment, would make a determined effort to release the long-besieged garrison of Tobruk. KNUDSEN: And Rubber The statement by William S. Knudsen, of OPM, making a tour of the defense production areas, that he had little worry about the rubber situation, despite the fact that the government, foreseeing a shortage, had ordered the tire makers not to use more rubber than they had in the first six months. Mr. rwnuasen saia umw uic i uuuci situation was this: that even if the supply of real rubber was cut off, the Industry knew enough about syn thetic rubber manufacture to pick right up and continue the supply of suitable tires and other articles without feeling the shortage of the actual article at all. A talk with rubber experts re vealed that while some disagreed with Mr. Knudsen, the outstandmg majority believe it could be done, and with ease. Said one: "We can make a tire that will outlast and outperform a real rub ber tire right now. All that is need ed is for our factories to make slight changes in technique. "If our supply of raw real rub ber were cut off, here is what I think would happen. Factories would be started in construction to manu facture hundreds of thousands of tons of synthetic rubber. "While we were waiting to get them in production, ere have six months' supply of sheet rubber on hand, and for another six months we could operate with mixtures of re claimed rubber and synthetic rub ber, and so, in the IS or 14 months that it would take to get the new factories built and in operation there would be no lost motion at all, tat we have inventories of finished tires that would last about six months." He could say little about the price of such tires, but some experts thought they might be slightly more expensive than rubber tires at first, until the "know bow" had been achieved in making them. MISCELLANY: Lndos: Nazi fliers dropping in cendiaries and bombs over England were beginning to mix leaflets with them, announcing in the Engllah lan guage, "The Battle of the Atlantic is being Lost." ? ? ? Berlin: A German newspaper edi torially commented on the occupa tion of Iceland: "This is a stab in the back of a nation wrestling with T1 nlsliasiism " - ooisnevism. U. S. Capitol's 'Face Lifting' Postponed Because of War Historic Building Has Never Been Completed; An Old Prediction on Soviet-Nazi Outbreak Comes to Light ????? By BAUKHAGE National Farm and Homa Hour Commentator. WNU Service. IMS B Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. Hitler has prevented the Capitol from having its face lifted. I sat in the office of the architect of the Capitol, David Lynn, the other day and learned that the historic building which houses our lawmak ers has never been finished. The architect's modest suite is tucked away where few visitors except Cal iforaians seeking out Senator John son in his hideaway next door ever find it. On the walls are the solemn portraits of Mr. Lynn's predeces sors, clear back to Dr. Thornton, the Capitol's first architect, in wig and stock, and the handsome Thomas Hugh Walter, with his. firm mouth and shock of white hair, who seemed to bow in emphatic agreement when his friendly, gray-haired successor spoke: "The extension and completion of the Capitol," said Mr. Lynn, ear n??tlv "has been ureed for the Dast 70 years or more. Legislation to that end has been introduced from time to time but it has never passed. Right now, Senator Conn ally of Tex as and Senator Andrews of Florida are very much interested in the undertaking." I had just left the office of the speaker of the house, Sam Rayburn, and I knew that he approved the idea and I had heard that the Presi dent bad lent a not unsympathetic ear to the project as well. But the war in Europe is interfering, as it is with many other civilian pursuits. Here's the Jeb. The job that the experts say has to be done, in a nutshell is this: The central portion of the eastern side of the building (which faces the Capitol plaza) must be extended 33 feet, ? inches. "This extension is recommended for two purposes," said Architect Lynn, "First, in order to correct the architectural defect in the building which exists due to the skirt or base of the dome extending over the east portico in such s manner as to give the appearance of apparent lack of support to the dome. The second reason tor this step is to provide additional and needed accommoda tions and to replace the existing sandstone exterior with marble." "Few people know it," Mr. Lynr added, "but one reason why we havs I to paint the building every foui years is to mate uie cnuw ?, which is sandstone, match the wings which are marble." Extension of the east front would give 58 much needed extra rooms, provide a passage for members at congress directly from one chamber to the other on all doors. Now when there is a Joint session or when members of one house want to pass to the other they have to squeeze through the main corridors, which are frequently packed with visitors. Spaee Badly Needed. The,additional offices are badly needed and now that radio has come to take Its place beside the press as a medium for reporting the doings of ceugiaas to the people more space would be welcomed by the radio cor respondents. At present the radio newsmen are tucked in between pil lars in the house and senate arings in offices from which it Is very dif ficult to broadcast. Visitors who call upon their rep resentatives in the Capitol may be surprised that they have to talk to them right out in the lobby, for members of the house have no pub lic smiting room. The addition would make such an accommoda tion possible. Many hearings have been held on legislation authorizing the tin tailing of the Capitol, which would complete the work of the famous Thomas Hugh Walter. This talented archi tect planned the two wings which accommodate the senate and the house, respectively, and the short corridors which connect them to the centra] portion of the building. He also replaced the urooden dome, erected after the burning of the Cap itol, with a metal one. But, ac cording to the experts Who have studied his plans and sketches, he never intended to let that massive A Pnncnl Tmhrip said "i? ! quite capable of taking Petrograd , (Leningrad)." ! Mr. Imbrie concludes: "It has long been apparent that ! Russia, as an economic factor has, under the Bolahevicks, ceased to ex ist, at least so far as. the United States and the Allied 'Nations are concerned. Where formerly she pro duced food in such quantities that it formed a large item of her ex port, now she is starving, a condi tion directly attributable to Bolshe vick misrule and terrorism. The world is not only shut off from one of the greatest commercial markets, but It is also deprived at one great source of food supply. Hie sgents of Germany, with an eye to the com mercial and political future, are tak ing full advantage of the existing conditions. Already the feeling at Bolahevick Russia is with Ger many." I never met Mr. Imbrie but his tragedy came back in an oddly per sonal way today when I received the letter containing the above refer ence. Some 10 years after Imbrie was killed I was on a hiking trip in the Green mountains and a friend of mine loaned me an army can teen, my own faithful container hav ing outlived its usefulness. Later I learned that the flagon which had 1 cooled my Hps with the wsters of 1 Vermont's mountain springs had ' once belonged to the murdered con-' SU1. HOW, 111* |liuat WMWW with ? prediction he made in 1933. at the time of the Lausanne con ference. "Within a decade," my informant quotes Imbrie as saying, privately, then, "hell will break lodee with more fury than ever. Beasarabian oil will be the decisive factor." ? ? ? National Indian Day la Being Planned A National Indian day for Amer ica I That is what J. A. Youngren of Pocatello, Idaho, proposes. He tells ! me that 11 state governors are ready to co-operate in such an undertak ing. Washington has heard about it, too. I remember my first Indian day. I did not know what it was then. It was in western Washington. There was a knock at the door of our home. My mother, who, like the rest of the family, was fresh from "the East" (Illinois), an swered the knock. I was frightened, j Maybe she was, for all her piooeer blood. Tot there silhouetted against the afternooo was the tallest man 11 ever saw?and wrapped in a blan ! ket. He wanted my father, who was justice of the peaee. And when the brave learned ha wasn't there he went away peacefully, leaving only a faint odor of salmon behind him. I have known a few Indians my self. Jim Thorpe whom I once in terviewed, football star of Carlisle, and young Afraid-of-a-Bear who served with ma in Prance in the artillery. I am not mentioning the 100 per cent Americans with Indian blood like my fraternity brother in the university, Freeman Morgan. So I am for this Indian day tepee, tomahawk, papoose and an. And I'D bet that Skeeter Vogt, edi tor of the Gallup (N. M.) Gazette, when be reads this in his own paper will agree with me. So ought the rest of the paler faces who might not be here now if the Red Men had had a couple of panzer divi sions and a few lees pipes of peaee. War Once More Booms Halifax Busiest Port in the World Has Thrived on Ships For 190 Years. HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA.-This is the city that wars built. For 180 years this Anglo-Saxon citadel of the North American con tinent has thrived?and suffered? in wartime; struggled for economic security in peace. Today the story is the same. The boom is on again. Halifax may not be the biggest part in the world but today it probably is the busiest. It moves the most ships, a large percentage of them in convoy for Britain. "It's a pity we must always thrive on war," says Port Manager Ralph Hendry. He wishes there were no such tragic design for prosperity here. But he knows, as do all native Hali faxers, that you can't beat fate and geography. Nova Scotia sits out on the eastern fringe of the continent, some 2,700 miles from Liverpool. So Halifax once more becomes the Gibraltar of the Western world, the great crossroads of empire, where a Hindu turban is almost as common as a New Zealander's overseas cap. Evidence of the crossroads nature of Halifax is on every side. Port b lee Free. Ask a native Halifaxer why it takes a war to push his city into prosperity and he'll answer you j short and easy. lieograpny naiiui nas one ? inc Finest natural harbors in the world. Farther inland, connected with the outer harbor by a deep narrows, lies a huge anchorage basin, where ?cores of ships may lie awaiting convoy. The port is ice free all winter. Geography alao made Nova Sco tia, and more particularly Halifax harbor, a British perch to flank the French in North America in the Eighteenth century. Parliament subsidized a colony in 1740 and sent it to the Harbor of Chebucto in Aca dia. That colony became Halifax. There followed the French and In dian wars, when British navy pay masters brought prosperity to Hali fax. Then the American Revolu tion. Halifax remained loyal to the end, supplying blockading fleets and privateers for the British. During the Napoleonic wars the royal navy kept big fleets in the har bor. Wolfe planned the capture of Quebec here. And it eras here dur ing the War of 1813 that the world's first modern convoys were made up and escorted through the American blockade by British men o' war. Prospered la 1?1?. The story was the same in the Crimean and Boer wars. The big gest prosperity came in 1914. It was the same business of supplying rendezvous for coovoys, a North At lantic base for the British fleet, and later for the Americana. Supplies (or great waves of France-bound soldiers were furnished here, too. Halifax was in the money again. Through it all, Halifaxers have not rested content to reap the profit of war. They've also taken the risks. You can name hardly a battle fought by British forces any where in the world without running into a Halifax hero. And it was at Halifax that a mu- ' nitions ship explosion In the World war killed 1,000 and left 10,000 < homeless. 'Greatest' Fighting Plane Is Announced by Britain LONDON ?Britain's new fighter airplane, the Typhoon, was de scribed as "the greatest fighting in strument ever put into the air." Performance figures of the Ty phoon were disclosed as it was re vealed that the successor to the Spit fire and Hurricane fighters was in mass production. The plane is a single sealer with mixed machine gun and air cannon armament It flies more than 400 miles an hour with a 2,400 horse power Sabre engine. Its ceiling is said to be higher than anything the German air force has put into action. Ugly Duckling* Skips To Float Ahead of Time WASHINGTON.?Its vast emer gency ship construction program is "well ahead of schedule," the Mari time commission reported and ships will go down the ways in November, a full mootb ahead of contract dates. The emergency program, distinct faom the commission's long-range construction program,-calls for 412 vessels, most of them to be built in newly established yards, but in formed sources predicted the pro gram might be increased to provide additional tonnage for this cuuutiy and Great flrttain. Red Cross Trebles Workers in Camps Wide Increase in Service to Military Forces. WASHINGTON.?An extensive in crease in American Bed Cross serv ice to the nation's armed forces, in cluding the trebling during die past year of trained staff workers as signed to the military establish ment, was reported to the 3,700 Bed Cross chapters by Chairman Nor man H. Davis in Us annual report. More than 100 Bed Cross Add di rectors and staff assistants are now serving in the army camps, naval stations and in military hospitals Supplementing this force are then sands of volunteers, such as the Gray Ladies, who direct the icciest tional program for men in the mili tary hospitals, and motor corps women. "The Red Cross," Mr. Davis re ported, "is the only non-military or ganization serving within the mili tary reservations, under army and navy regulations. "To give this seisiLe to the great ly expanded army, navy and marine corps, with an estimated 1.800.0M men under arms, the Bad Quashes its trained personnel and luhsilsars and made supplementary appropri ations For example, it order ta meet an emergency need for recre ational equipment lor army poet^ the Red Cross adsamed BjNMN pending passage at a congressional the future "Thus far the wtrrt iait expendi tures for the Red Cross miu ta the armed forces hare bean met from our cash icscieea. A general this work has not been made to toe en important part at toe Bat Call for a greatly increased naiiilaidig next November." Globe Trotting Miner, 95, Reftnea to Live in Past SALT LAKE CITY. Moat people like to look back sear ttiino when they reach the age at M, bat est an with Charles C. ftoartds While cale bra ting Us ninety-ftfto leitbdaj ab "in?li^^ol,bir,ito"^,<,l,,,B Mr. Shields ? Utah's aUaat actrm membership card Ho. W. The ana time globetrotter has lived in Utah ? tor 70 years. Mining and ptaapectoM bans been the biggest things to Us hie. At the age of IT he went to Aaemlto. later returning to the United States. towns at California and Ws? aila iwisptilis went to Wyomag to Jain his first Manato lodge. M?air/ had no organization to Utah at the iTTT': throughout the state. Life on Yacht la Eaay Approach to Geography FORT MYERS, TUt?Gtfmr Wa ters, 17-year-old itaighla (t Die Water*, adventure star author, has spent most of her His aboard a 50 foot sailnyg schooner. The family recently purchased a see, but they still vent most st their time aboard their boat, alse named the Gipsy Water*. And MMa Waters loves the life an the water. "It's really fun to gat your geogra phy at first hand," she says. "In the porta of the lastini seaboard we find something different. We have been as far south as the true tropica. I had lota of fun riding the huge Galapagos turtle." Gipsy studies as Mm trwveia, un der Mrs. Waters' tutorhg- It ? not _ ?i s . . > .I. t.Li -a- ? a puDiic scnooi curriculum, out sow studies a wide range of subjects and knows far more of nature study than the average pupil who goes to achooL Members of Family Get News by Chain Letter FORT WAYNE, IND.-Speaking of chain letters: The various members of the tarn- 1 By of the Rev. C. O. Shirey of Pact Wayne have one all their own?bid It is used only for family new* Mailed in a special pouch, the chain letter has traveled 33,000 miles a year, with some OS persons contributing items of family interest. When each of the various members of the far-flung family receives the pouch, he takes out the letter he put in last time, writes a new one bring ing everything tip to date, and mails it an to ths next name on the list Postages costs about $5 a year, an the letter goes to Indiana, Ohio, Illi nois, Michigan. Wisconsin. Florida. California, and Oregon. It once made regular tripe to Armenia