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The Alamance Gleaner Vol. LXVII GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1941 ' NO. 46 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Entire World Is Thrust Into Battle As Democracies Unite to Fight Axis After Germany and Italy Join Japan In Declaring War on United States (BDITOB'B NOTE?When ?pinions are expressed In these columns, they ?re those of the news analyst and not neeossarlly of this newspaper.) by Western Newspaper XTninn > WAR: Around the World Germany and Italy were only tour days behind Japan in declar ing war on the United States but Washington was even faster in its reply to the Berlin-Rome challenge than to that given Tokyo. For on the very same day, within a few hours after Hitler and Musso lini had announced their nations at war with the United States, congress heard the President's new war mes sage and passed?without a dissent ing vote?formal recognition that a state of war existed. Congress followed this declaration of war with a swift and unanimous vote authorizing selectees and the National Guard to be sent anywhere in the world and likewise extending their terms of service for the war's duration. When the formalities were over and the United States found itself at war it meant the real beginning of ?the second "World" war# of the Twentieth century. For the conflict has now spread to six continents of the globe. Disaster First The war with Japan, which had completed the missing parts of a true World war, started on a note of disaster at sea. Following her age-old technic of war, the Japanese had struck vi ciously and with force at six major points of American tenure in the Pa cific while her envoys of peace were still in communication with the American state department. Her answer to President Roose velt's last-minute plea for peace in the Pacific had been to swoop down out of leaden skies on a Sabbath dawn and deal death and destruc tion to Pearl Harbor, the United States' mid-Pacific stronghold. The government declined to give full details of what happened other than to say that the "casualties were large"?1,500 killed and about the same number wounded, and the "damage was extensive," though Rear Admiral Isaac Campbell Kidd, commander of a battleship of the Pacific fleet was the first high ranking officer of* the navy to be reported killed in action daring the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. definite losses consisted of one bat tleship capsized and a destroyer sent to the bottom. President Roosevelt went to the nation with an address in which he explained that the government had been unwilling to give out all the details until it was sure that the Jap anese knew them, hinting that to do so would "aid and comfort the enemy." This did not minimize fears that the disaster pt Pearl Harbor was a major one. At the same time the Japanese launched a strong attack on the Philippines, also on the British in Malaya and in the waters around Singapore. The Japanese were ap parently super-confident, and reck less of their deployment of fleet and airplanes. In one 48-hour period following the war's beginning the U. S. announced the sinking of a Japanese battleship, the serious crippling of another and the sinking of one cruiser and one destroyer. This was the first Amer ican answer to the Pearl Harbor surprise blow. A report also from Manila indicated that in the first surface clash between the two fleets the Japanese were forced to flee under the cover of darkness and this battle ended "without result." RAIDS: New Fever Evidence that the Pacific coast could not consider itself safe at all from air raids, and that even in land points or the Atlantic coast might be attacked was seen in a triple appearance of Japanese planes over the Golden Gate, re ports that others were seen off Alas ka, Oregon, lower California and the coast of Panama, and other un verified rumors. Chief reaction to these warnings was the realization on the part of the people of their utter unprepared ness for anything of this sort. There was little evident inclination to panic . ^ This air raid warden Edgar Lee (Viee Commander of a New York American Legion post) is shown as he phoned an alarm from New York City's Empire State building ob servation post that he had spotted two planes. He phoned his alarm to "army flash" to pnt aviation fields on the alert and to warn the civilian population. and disorder, but rather a reckless disregard of the dangers of being unprepared. San Francisco, though the planes were actually over the harbor en trance, went through a half-hearted blackout, and the co-operation was so spotty that the defense chiefs were outraged and railed at the peo ple, one actually saying it would have been better if the planes had gotten through and dropped their bombs. Perhaps the best evidence of un preparedness came from New York, where a simple query about a ru mor of a plane sighted out to sea bounced back and forth until nearly 300 planes at Mitchel field took off and criss-crossed the approaches to New York, and a goodly portion of New England's war production in dustries evacuated with considerable loss to production. The originator of it all turned out to be an identifiable civilian who was absolved of all blame. New York, however, realizing how tenu ous its preparedness was, proceeded to carry through a program of test warnings designed to get the ma chinery in order. GERMANS: Winter Slow-Down The costliest failure in the history of human warfare was the decision of Germany to abandon the central and northern Russian campaigns for the winter. Berlin frankly admitted that the weather had gotten the best of them, and that there would be no further attempts to advance until spring. Men were unable to fight in those low temperatures, said the Nazi high command, and fuel oils and gaso lines were ruined by freezing con ditions, halting the mechanized forces. The Russians calmly announced that the Germans had lost 6,000,000 men in the campaign, and went on fighting. Town after town, village after vil lage had been'recaptured, and there was no apparent diminution of the scale, of the Russian effort. If the Nazis planned to "dig in" and simply cease the war of move ment during the cold weather, it was evident that the Russians aimed to make this policy even more costly to the invader. Important had been the report of the capture of Tikhvin, vital com munication center 110 miles east of Leningrad, a city so clo^ly menaced by the Nazis only a short time be fore. # Bygone Friendship Four Japesmm cherry troes, tymbolt of by gone friendship between the United Stales and Japan, were cut down by sealous patri ots near Washington, D. C. i famed Tidal Basin during a temporary blackout of Potomac park while poeoer company work men were installing new electric circuits. The superintendent of perks said "the only thing accomplished was the destruc tion of beauty in Washington." Lettered on the stump of one tree is "To Hell With Those Japanese." SPIRIT: Now United First and most salutary reaction of the attack by Japan on the United States and the subsequent declara tion of war by a practically unani mous congress was the vanishing of all controversy, and the unity of the people as to our war aims. President Roosevelt's speech in which he outlined the U. S. aims as "viytory in war and victory in peace" met with universal approba tion, even from those who had been his sternest critics. The President was Arm in align ing Germany and Italy inseparably with Japan, solemnly warned the people to be ready for.a long and difficult war, and for reverses at the outset. To-all this most thoughtful persons agreed, and from America First, and all other isolationist and non interventionist groups came an out burst of patriotism, willingness to serve and a general all-out reversal of their former tactics. In this spirit joined Lindbergh, Nye, Wheeler and the rest, and Rep resentative Fish of New York said he was going to offer his services to the armed forces as he did in the last war. LATINS: Climb Aboard Latin-America, as a whole, was swift to rally around the American banner, and though there were ex ceptions as to a whole-hearted dec laration of war, even these nations assured the United States that they were with us at heaTt. Mexico made arrangements to rush her troops around through American territory into Lower Cali fornia to present a defense front there against a possible Japanese land invasion. Cuba, Panama, Costa Rica and others went all the way in support of this country, and Argentina, which said' she would remain neu tral, declared she would consider this country a non-belligerent, thus permitting us to refuel or repair war vessels in her ports without time limit. The Pan-American Republics de cided it would be a good thing for all the foreign ministers to meet and to map out a united front for this hemisphere against the enemy. To the north Canada, its West coast sandwiched in between the United States and Alaska, girded itself for the conflict, the United Kingdom having followed this coun try promptly with a declaration of _ war against Japan. President Roosevelt truly pointed out that "four-fifths of the people of the world are on our side," and in this hemisphere the groundwork done during the past year and a half was bearing fruit. BRIEFS: From War Fronts Mexico City: President Avila Ca macho urged that Mexico increase production as far as possible, stress ing that as the best way in which the nation could help the United States. Washington: Congress had set in motion a bill providing for the send ing of an American Expeditionary Force to the Far East for immedi ate service. The bill, it was said, might reduce the draft limit from 21 to 18. New York: Army, navy, marine corps and coast guard enlistments were at new highs following the war declaration, the services reporting, respectively, in one day, 1,500, 1,200, 700 and 985. Food Dearth in France Serious Search for Sub*titute* Is Urged; Lack of Edible And Other Oils. VICHY, FRANCE.? The search (or substitutes continues to develop in France on account of the dearth of standard commodities. While le gitimate in same cases there are people who plead for more reflec tion. "It is all very well," they urge, "to grind a miscellaneous assort ment of husks and call the result coffee. But surely it is going too far to propose building a plant for the process. The war must end some day and coffee will return. What will you do with your plant then?" It may happen also that -the dis covery of a substitute brings no al leviation but merely causes scarcity of the raw materials entering into the composition of that substitute. The stock reply to such arguments is to recall that it was during the Napoleonic wars that beet sugar was devised to replace cane sugar and that now beet sugar holds the field. Weak Pointi Appear. This is irrefutable but it brings the retort that immediately after the armistice there was much talk of sugar from daffodils and choco late from beechnuts and that noth ing has come bf it. The weak point about some pro posed substitutes is inconsistency on the part of those who propose them. Thus, one man wants to heat homes by burning wastepaper soaked in water for two days and then dried out. He forgets that there is a law whereby all wastepaper must be sal vaged so that it may be used for making new pulp. Then there is the question of oil, both edible and lubricating. Farm ers are' urged to sow colza and rapeseed, while the production of olive and walnut oil is encouraged. All these sources of supply have been more of*less neglected ever since the development of the peanut oil industry in the French African colonies. In some of them the pea nut is the staple crop and the main source of wealth. The dearth of oil is due solely to difficulties of im portation. Real Progress Here. But the greatest progress ? and probably the most lasting?has been made in the realm of plastics, in which pre-war France had been greatly outdistanced by the United States and Germany. The latest product is known as "rhodoid." Its composition is not revealed but it is to be used for making fountain pens, bicycle handlebars, automo bile windshields and cinema film, among other things. It was announced that the govern ment is experimenting with substi tutes for tobacco. Private citizens have forestalled it. Ever since the cigarette ration was brought down to four a day men have been trying the leaves of various trees, includ ing eucalyptus, com silk and several medicinal herbs. The field is un limited. More activity on the part of the "economic police" ia foreshadowed in an official announcement regard ing the shipping of "family pack ages" of foodstuffs. The "economic police" consists of agents of the ministry of supplies, who may enter all eating houses and investi gate every shipment of goods. Then the minister, without any other proc ess Of law, may order the closing of any restaurant or the confiscation of any shipment. Nevertheless, it is conceded that in France individual Inconveniences must give way to the common good. Lodge Sends Ambulance For an Injured Member ROSEVILLE, CALIF.?Mrs. A. H. Swan, chaplain of the Rebekah lodge in Roseville, fractured her ankle in a fall in her bathtub and was sitting at home wishing she could be at the lodge initiation that night. , To Mr surprise, an ambulance rolled up the driveway. The driver, George Lambert, was a fellow lodge member and said he had volun teered the ambulance service so she could participate in the initiation ceremony. i I ; i Women Win Divorce and Strap Their Husbands ] PORTSMOUTH, N. H.-Two wom en who got divorces last June have i swapped husbands. < Mrs. John B. Mooney divorced her i bank clerk husband on grounds that I the union was injurious to her I health, while Mrs. Charles G. Em ery, wife of a navy yard employee, t won a divorce on grounds of incom- I patability. Mrs. Mooney then be- \ came Mrs. Emery, and vice versa, i Europe Turns to Wood Gas for Cars Various Types of Choppers Devised to Cut Fuel. VIENNA.?Center of interest to tens of thousands of visitors to the Vienna trade fair this fall was a wood chopper, which within the next few months may be a common sight in many parts of Europe. The wood chopper, one of several types exhibited at the fair, is the chief part of the equipment of gas wood filling stations for trucks and tractors now being constructed along many of the Old world's high ways. With the assistance and under the supervision of the German govern ment, 700 such stations have been established and plans approved for 1,S00 others. Under ideal conditions this wood chopper hacks almost 300 cubic feet of cord wood an hour into small chunks and blocks which wood-gas generators require as fuel. For pleasure cars it is not likely that either wood or coal gas will ever prove a satisfactory substitute for gasoline. For utility vehicles and stationary motors, however, a new adapted type motor with its own wood, coal or peat gas-genera tor appears to have a bright future. To this potential market nearly 40 German firms exhibited at the Vi enna fair one or more machines or spare parts which have passed the efficiency tests required by the gov ernment before any motor or vehi cle can be offered to the public. In Greater Germany and those parts of Europe now occupied by the German army, according to an of ficial announcement, approximately 190,000 generator-gas trucks are in service. Through their use Germany saves each month more than 11, 000,000 gallons of gasoline for mili tary purposes. In some of these trucks coal or peat is the genera tor's fuel, in others it ig. wood. 'Flying Harvest-Hand' Now Preps for Army Role PASCO, WASH ? George W. Shoe maker, the "Flying Harvest Hand" of eastern Washington's wheatflelds, has discovered a unique way of earning his commercial flying li cense. He flies over huge tracts of wheat, searching for overlooked clusters of sacked wheat, and tells the farm ers where to And them This year I the demand for his services rose a notch, because wheat had grown un usually high and therefore was being topped high. _This makes it difficult to spot the sacks from the ground. Because be doesn't have a com mercial license. Shoemaker is paid by farmers to walk around the field looking for sacked wheat. He doesh't find any, but he gets paid for it? whereupon, he climbs into a rented plane and finds the sacked wheat from the air. Shoemaker's income pays for the rent of the plane, but he gets his hours in the air. The fanner is happy; he gets his lost wheat. The 23-year-old pilot hopes to be come an instructor, then present himself to the army air corps or the Royal Canadian air force. French Show Germans What Red Tape Really Is LONDON.?French civil servants are competing with one another to "misdirect orders, muddle com mands, and lose instructions," a newspaper in German - occupied Paris complained in an article quoted by the British Broadcasting corporation. lite newspaper described the methods as a "new kind of sabo tage" and said they were being em ployed by all civil servants, "high and low alike " "The chaos which results is caused by the fact that these people (civil servants) are Marxists, De Gaul lists, democrats or Christians influenced by Jews?or aU these things at once," the newspaper said. The British Broadcasting corpo ration did not name the newspaper. Britain Bans Hot Water In Government Buildings LONDON.-Whitehall, whose civil servants are the most carefuUy pro tected workers in Britain, may soon become known as the Street of Dirty Faces as the result of a new govern ment order. The edict has gone out that there will be no hot water in government sffices this winter. The new rule ipplies to 400,000 civil servants in 18.000 government buildings throughout the country. Night workers are exempt from this Spartan order. Stokers have been instructed by the office of works to supply warm water?of a strictly limited temperature. wtrnfiemammm I _ _ ? ? Changes Are Proposed In U. S. Sugar Quotas Administration Holds That Revision of Present Arrangement Would Represent a Slap at America's Good Neighbor Policy. By BAUKHAGE National Farm anJ Home Horn Commentator. WNU Service, 1343 H Street. N-W? Washington, D. C. Sugar Quota And 'Good Neighbor In 1934 "after long and extensive hearings," as the Congressional Record puts it, a sugar law was passed. The law stabilized the sugar industry by establishing quotas to be raised, imported and refined and provided for benefit pay ments to growers for following cer tain agricultural and labor prac tices. Again, in 1937, after long and extensive hearings it was renewed. Behind that phrase "long and ex tensive" lies the story of a ferocious battle on the part of the sugar in terests to defeat the administration measure. Each time they failed, but easly this month in 40 minutes and in the teeth of the state depart ment, the department of interior, the department of agriculture and the White House, the law was so rewritten by the house of represen tatives as to amount to defeat of administration wishes. The senate is as yet to act, after studying reports from the above named departments. The bill as originally written authorized the secretary of agriculture to estimate the amount of sugar required by American consumers for a definite period. Then, according to a pre scribed scale, it apportioned quotas among the producers of continental United States, Puerto Rico, the Ha waiian Islands, Cuba and other for eign countries. As passed by the house, the pres ent measure would increase the amount of sugar purchased from the beet and cane sugar growers on the mainland and reduce the amount of raw and refined sugar purchased from other growers. This step, if finally enacted into law, says the administration, would be a slap in the face of good-neigh borship: Cuba alone would have her quota cut by 50,000 tons of raw and 75,000 tons of refined sugar. And it would completely dislocate the computations of Secretary Wickard who thinks that the sugar quotas and benefit payments for certain practices have kept the sug ar situation pretty well in hand. The only lobby I ever heard the President mention by name is the "sugar lobby." It is one of the most powerful pressure groups in the capital. ? ? ? Speaker Rayburn Ha* Power, Energy I looked down from the radio gal lery of the house of representatives the other afternoon on a large pink globule in the well of the chamber. Every eye in the house was cen tered on it. It seemed to glow, to radiate power and energy as well as a roseate hue. It was the all but hairless head of Speaker Sam Rayburn, and out of that head came the energy which directed the action which saved from defeat the administration's measure to revise the neutrality law. It was that energy which jammed through the Security Exchange law against stone wall opposition. It was that energy which carried out an idea starting in that same head when it was on callow shoulders and finally made him speaker of the United States house of representatives. A barefoot boy curled up in the corner reading biographies of the country's great men was the avatar of this congressman. And he was still a schoolboy when he announced the fact that he was going to run for the state legislature as soon as he finished his law course, that be was going to be speaker some day and after that run for congress. And that's Just what he did. And all he had to start with was $25 and his father's blessing. Young Sam Rayburn was 1 of 11 children, whose forbears came by way of Tennessee from Virginia to a borderline county in Texas (he was born in Bonham) and there turned the virgin furrows hi a neighborhood that still wins its bread from the soil. The country schoolhouse was the community center of the times and here on many a festal day the Ray burn buggy was tied while the whole family heard the local poli tician's oratory, or attended the recitations or spelling-bees and dis cussed the latest news in the weekly editions of the Courier-Journal. When Sam had absorbed all thai the country school had to offer either in its regular sessions or when some visiting pundit proclaimed his views, he went to his father and said he had to go to college. The father was in favor of the motion but re gretfully explained that there was nothing in the till for racoon-akin Cits or flivvers or the local equiva t of the day. He did, however, ' present his ambitious son with $22 in coin of the realm and escorted him to the station on the branch line that was to take him to the Texas normal college. The boy was a good student, bright and determined to learn all that there was taught him. But when he finished his course and since he was. as we have noted, al ready on his way to congress, the next step was naturally the State university law school. His shingle was hardly floating on the Bonham breezes when he was already ready for the legislature. At 24 he was elected. He was a member for four years and then, as per schedule, was elected speaker and served in that capacity for two more. Meanwhile in the sum mers he practiced law. Then one day in 1912 the county paper an nounced in blackfaced headlines: "Stores Closed All Day and Ev erybody Out to Hear Fannin Coun ty's Gifted Sou Who 1* Candidate for Congress." just now uus specialist in meas ures dealing with some of the most _ intricate and abstruse principles of political economy translates his record into votes for his constituents would seein difficult to fathom. His purely agricultural district is far more interested in stock with four legs and a moo than it is in a stock exchange, and a transportation act to them is chiefly the act of trans porting a bale of cotton from hither to hence. But he gets things done for the folks and they seem to take him and his other achievements at their face value. Written in large letters of achieve ment against his name are the Securities Exchange act, the Hold ing Company act and the Rural Electrification act, all, and especial ly the first two, representing long and bitter battles. The pressure exerted on Repre sentative Ray bum during the battle for the securities and holding com pany laws was terrific. The Presi dent knew this would be the case and that was the reason the Texan was chosen to handle them. Every body knew that once he got his teeth into the measures neither fine words nor offered favors nor threats would make him let go. It is still Sam Rayburn?now stepping down from the speaker's rostrum?who is picked to lead some of the President's biggest bat tles on Capitol Hill. ? ? ? Mrs. Roosevelt't Plan Far U. J. 'Farmerettes* You can take the city girl out of the city but can you take the city out at the girl? That will be the problem of the Office at Civilian Defense if llrs. Roosevelt's ides, which she dis cussed at one of ber recent press conferences, goes through. The idea is to create a "land army" of women to help the farm ers handle tneir crops next year when male hands will probably be scarce. If an unpaid land army of volunteer women workers is creat ed, Mrs. Roosevelt's idea is that the Physical Training division of the Civilian Defense organization un dertake the training of the "farm erettes." This division is headed by the famous athlete, former Olympic scull star, John Kelly. Obviously skull practice is necessary for con testants on an agricultural team., Mr. Kelly has as his assistants Alice Marble and Mary Brown, tennis stars, to say nothing of the advice and counsel of former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey and the famous sports writer, Grantland Rice. Undoubtedly Mr. Dempsey, who has tossed many a haymaker in his day, would be an excellent trainer for the ladies who hope to emulate Maude MuBer. Grantland Rice, knows his baseball- It seems logi cal that if you can criticize the way a man pitches a ball you ought to qualify to coach a lady pitching fertiliser. ' '-^i- u. -C . ...
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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Dec. 18, 1941, edition 1
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