The Alamance Cleaner
VoL LXVU - GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 1942 ' No, 52
WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne
President Sketches World Strategy;
Australia Is Periled by Japanese Army
Invasion of Its Key Island Outposts;
Nelson Speeds Up U. S.War Production
(EDITOR'S NOTE?When opinions are expressed In these eolnmns, they
are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.)
_________ (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) ,
Sumner Welles, undersecretary of state and bead of the C. S. dele
gation to the Pan-American conference at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is
cheered by spectators as he waves his hat from the Tiradentes palace,
scene of the historic meeting.
BLUEPRINT:
Of World Battle
While the nation girded itself for
victory production on a scale never
hitherto dreamed of, and while
American soldiers were arriving on
foreign fields ready to do battle un
til victory, while still others were
filling the news with their heroic ex
ploits, President Roosevelt gave
newsmen a hint of the "blueprint of
- battle."
The President, following the close
of the Churchill conferences, and the
safe return of the British premier
to London by airplane from Ber
muda, had told little to newsmen
save that there was a complete ac
cord among the united nations.
Now he had begun to give them
theVicture, a portrait of battle car
ried on simultaneously in every part
of the globe by the soldiers of all
nationals working in concert with
each other.
Thus were found American avi
ators fighting in the Singapore area,
with the Dutch in the East Indies,
in the Philippines, over the Seven
Seas, and most lately arriving in
Britain and other points for service.
The President said one could look
at the map of the world and assume
that the anti-Axis group was doing
something at almost every strategic
point.
He said that joint technical com
mittees "we^e busy, covering the
subjects of production, of transpor
tation of produced supplies to
every part of the globe,-also to the
assignment of fighting men and ma
chines to points where they were
most needed.
??n.n_ _n ?f k;? information had
been of a general nature, the near
est he came to giving out details
was when he said that excellent
progress was being made in
strengthening the Allied forces in
the Pacific.
This latter statement was taken
by the press to be an attempt by
the President to allay Chinese fears
that the Allies were not going to
make a vigorous enough battle
against the Japs.
The President had finished a con
ference with Dr. Hubertus Van
Mook, lieutenant governor general
of the Netherlands Indies. Dr. Van
Mook came out of the conference
room beaming.
JAPS:
Extend Fronts
The Japs, far from being licked
or even stopped, were constantly ex
tending their front, and with reports
of their continued advances spread
ing out with attacks on all fronts,
came dispatches telling of two new
ventures. These were the invasion
of New Guinea and the Solomon is
land area; and an invasion of Bur
ma by the Siamese as a measure to
aid Japan.
Indicating a threat to Australia
itself, the New Guinea invasion was
paced by air attacks and a move
ment of naval forces. The Solomon
islands lie in a chain northeast of
Australia and east of New Guinea.
The Burma invasion had started
at Myawaddie on the Burma-Thai
frontier. This lies at the northern
end of the Burmese panhandle bor
dering the puppet country.
PRODUCTION:
OPM Finally Dies
The OPM, over which William
S. Knudsen and Sidney Hillman had
presided as twin genii for many
hard-working, hard-fighting months
prior to American entry imo the
war, finally died, Production Chief
Donald Nelson supplanting it entire
ly with his new War Production
board, probably to be known as
WPB.
Mr. Nelson, however, had "port
folios" in his hew series of divisions
for most of the key men in OPM?
.for it was not so much a junking of
an old organization as a revamping
of it on a streamlined basis.
The placing of one man, Nelson,
at the head of the war production
effort, also necessarily called for a
change in organization.
This was undertaken fearlessly by
Nelson, who created five primary
divisions, most of them utilizing as
heads former members of the organ
ization of OPM, SPAB and other
groups.
Leon Henderson still was in
charge of civilian supply; Hillman
still had the labor job; Stacy May
was "progress reporter," and so on
down the line.
Probably the first and most vital
job, almost coincidental with the
naming of Nelson himself, went to
Knudsen. The big motor .man be
came a Lieutenant General, in di
rect charge of the speeding up of
factory production in general, that
is, as far as Army procurement
was concerned.
D..? 4L. mnn n,LA ?,na 4a ko ?ma?4
xju t uic inau wuu nas w uc tiiusi
in the public eye for the next lew
weeks was Ernest Kanzler, a new
figure in the picture, who was
named automobile production czar?
not of automobiles, but of what the
auto factories are going to make.
MAC ARTHUR:
Resistance
As if to prove that the defeat of
his army had been prematurely pre
dicted, General MacArthur sprang a
distinct surprise on Washington and
the country's newspapers when he
reported that American-Filipino re
sistance was continuing on the
island of Mindanao in the vicinity of
Davao.
An all-out Japanese effort to turn
the Luzon defenders' right flank had
earlier been turned back with heav
iest Jap losses, and yet the danger
was far from over, for the Japanese
were reported returning to the at
tack again with vigor.
It was reported that an entire Jap
anese army?estimated by some as
many as 300,000 men?had been
thrown into the battle for Luzon and
the whole Bataan peninsula front
blazed into action in a renewal of
the Japanese attempt to crush the
defenders.
But the word from MacArthur's
headquarters that fighting was con
tinuing in Mindanao came long after
official Washington had given up
Mindanao for lost, and simply
showed how difficult communica
tions were in the area.
It was believed possible that Mac
Arthur himself had thought Min
danao gone until he received belat
ed word from the southern island
that the battle was still in progress.
/
I
'March of Dimes'
Alma F. Borgmeyer, clerk In
the mail room at the White
House, opens mail bags jammed
with "March of Dimes" letters
addressed to President Roosevelt
and designed to aid in the fight
against infantile paralysis. The
mail was reaching its peak just
before the President's Diamond
Jubilee Celebration on Janu
ary 30.
SUB ATTACKS:
Intensified
Submarines, probably German U
boats, were pressing their attacks
along the East coast of the United
States, but the Navy department
had reported that strong counter
measures were being taken.
The whereabouts of the navy's
chief strength was being kept a
closely guarded secret, but all
authorities from the President down
continued to insist that the navy
was extremely active, and was dis
posed in such a manner as best to
meet present threats.
The sinking of a Japanese cruiser
by navy bombing planes was an
nounced, and there had been a num
ber of sinkings of supply ships,
some of them close to Japan.
Most dramatic had been the ex
ploit of PT-boat division command
er Lieutenant Bulkeley, who shot
his own boat at 80 miles an hour
into the Bay of Olongapo, sent a
5,000-ton Japanese vessel to the
bottom and escaped unscathed.
Bulkeley's boat, a 77-foot speed
ster, carries heavy machine-guns
and 18-inch torpedoes. He was be
ing hailed as a hero almost on I
a par with Colin Kelly. * v.
The cruiser sinking lacked details,
but the navy said it was sent to the
bottom 100 miles off the island of
Jolo, one of the nearly 8,000 isles of
the Philippine group.
Where the American bombers
which did this trick and achieved
other victories were based was a
closely guarded secret, but there
were many possible bases in terri
tory within reach of the location
where the sinking occurred.
PRICE CONTROL:
'Joker'
The price control bill, sulking in
the house and senate conference un
der the baleful displeasure of the
President, continued to bog down as
prices continued to soar.
The farm relief "joker" in the
bill had met with condemnation, not
only from the White House, but
from many leading agricultural
centers, and this remained the main
point of controversy-in the bill.
In the meantime, Secretary of
Agriculture Wickard came out with
a statement" that there probably
would be a shortage of sugar, just
after all the refinery men had gone
out on a limb with the opposite pre
diction.
Sugar hoarders, and other pur
chasers of foodstuffs were continu
ing to storm grocery stores and car
toons were published under the cap
tion "this little pig went to market"
showing hoarders at their deadly
work at the grocery counters.
Administration circles were at
their gloomiest over the situation,
one source saying "we had hoped to
get an improvement over the house
bill when we got to the senate, but
the senate bill was worse than the
house bill, and now most of us
would be calling it a victory if we
could get the house bill enacted."
MISCELLANY:
?
Bern: German rationing has cut
men down from five cigarettes a day
to three. Women are allowed no to
bacco ration whatever.
? ? ?
Vichy: A German soldier was shot
and killed outside a Paris night club.
Police were able to arrest a young
girl said to have been a witness.
She was confronted with a dozen
suspects and ordered to pick out the
man who fired the shot
A Strange 'Open Secret' I
Blocks U. S. and Britain \
Large Forbidden and Mysterious Area in F
Pacific Is Believed to Shelter Most
Of Japan's Naval Strength.
By BAUKHAGE
National Farm and Home Hour Commentator.
WNU Service, 1343 H Street, N-W,
Washington, D. C.
There is a strange open secret
about the war against Japan which
concerns a mysterious area in the
Pacific ocean and about which very
little is known even to our high
command. Its existence explains
why a little island nation is holding
at bay the two greatest powers in
the world?Britain and the United
States.
This forbidden territory includes
a group of scattered islands cover
ing a sea space about 2,000 miles
from east to west and a thousand
miles from north to south. It is the
hiding ground of the Japanese fleet.
Military people believe that most of
Japan's naval strength, not in ac
tual use in protecting troop ships on
the way to Malaysia, is sheltered
there. And this sea stronghold is a
tower of strength against the Amer
ican navy, against aid to the Philip
pines, Singapore and the Nether
lands Indies.
This area lies about 2,000 miles
from Hawaii and extends westward
from the Japanese mandated islands
of the Marshall group which lie
south of Wake island to the eastern
extremity of the Caroline 'fKtflJ'
(also Japanese mandates) a few
hundred miles west of the Philip
pines. Guam, once ours, now Ja
pan's, is within the area.
Accurate Reports
Difficult to Obtain
"For ten years," a British diplo
mat said to me recently, "only one
of our people who got into that area
ever came out to report what he
saw."
rvmei ikicuis iidve &unu?*i ictica iu
tell. In 1939 a fishing boat from the
island of Saipan, one of this group,
was wrecked near Guam but, when
an American ship started to return
the survivors, a Japanese ship
stopped them at sea and took off
the survivors.
It is known, however, that for a
decade great quantities of cement
and other building materials, end
less stores of-food and war supplies
have been pouring into that zone
where ij/is believed that among the
nearly/2,000 islands lie at least 50
base^ There are no known large
harbors but there are plenty of sub
marine and air bases and big ships
can be fed and watered and supplied
with munitions for an indefinite pe
riod. From these spawning grounds
Japan can strike in all directions,
threatening the sea routes from our
western shores to the southwestern
Pacific.
Here is the hornet's nest from
which the swarms of enemy air and
sea craft are making their sorties
against the reinforcements from
America which are the only hope for
Singapore and the Netherlands In
dies.
Already the Philippines are virtu
ally a part of this nest. As soon as
the Japanese had secured beach
heads in the archipelago, they made
temporary air bases and the narrow
waters which might give entrance to
American supply ships were made
UIl|/a9aaUiC. UVCIi u muciibon BU>r
ply ships could have reached the is
lands in time to save Manila and
relieve General MacArthur, they
could not have penetrated the nar
row waters protected by land-based
planes. American bombers?our
pitifully few bombers?did some
damage to the Japanese here, but
bombers cannot flght long against
protecting interceptors and fighters.
; The little fighting planes can fly only
a few hundred miles. We have few
airplane carriers and it would be
risky business to send them past the
hornet's nest. Carriers are about
"the most vulnerable things afloat.
J apt Were There
'Fustett with Mottcit'
The Japs applied the ancient prin
ciple of being there "fustest with the
mostest" of everything, and the
; carefully built "hornet's nest" was
created to the utter indifference of
the American public in spite of the
futile warnings of military men.
In February of 1941 the navy
asked for $9,000,000 to improve the
harbor facilities of Guam. Con
gress turned down the appropria
tion. "It is not a wise thing for
the American navy to go 6,000 miles
from borne when we do not have a
single thing to defend in that terri
tory . . ." was one of the arguments
against this appropriation. In the
same debate the statement was
made that "for Japan to attack the
United States, it would have to have
twice as big a navy as it has now."
There is no use to cry over spilt
milk, but it is well to recall when
people are asking "where is the
United States navy?" to know where
the Japanese navy is and what an
impenetrable wall of defense Japan
built for her navy right under our
noses, the presence of which now
postpones united nations' victory in
the Far East.
? ? ?
Washington?
A World Center
These days Washington is a cita
del within a citadel, a world center
which, paradoxically, is nearer its
circumference than all else within
the circle. On the perimeter of
America's existence is the war. It
is very far away. It is a dim and
distant domain where men and boys
from American cities stand on ice
fringed decks in the North Atlantic;
where others stand?and fall?in the
swamps and jungles of the Far
East; 'where still others hurtle
through the bullet-and-shell-torn
heavens.
Between that frightful edge of
things and the separate beings
bound to it by fragile threads of
anxiety, lies the vast expanse of
peaceful America, still sleeping to
the murmur of distant guns, shud
dering only fitfully now and then
when bitter news stabs a waiting
heart.
Anxiously out impersonally cairn,
nearer to that vague, far-flung un
dulating line which is the front, is
Washington, the dynamic center of
wartime America. Here is known
all the hope, fear, triumph and de
feat that the rest of the nation does
not know, yet knowing that only a
fraction of what it knows is truth.
For certainty today is speculation
tomorrow. Here, ifl the citadel
within the citadel, the imponderabil
ity of war rests with all its weight
upon the slender minds of men.
? ? ?
A Revealing Book
On Nation's Capital
1 wanted to review "Washington
Dateline," a new book by Delbert
Clark, but when I found he had so
little to say about radio I decided
-that l had better turn it over to a
more objective mind. There is so
much interest in Washington as a
news center now that the book is
important. So 1 asked Douglas Sil
ver, a veteran newspaper man, now
a writer of radio serials, to review
it. This is what he says:
A good fat juicy account of how
the 500 Washington newspaper mett,
and women "mingle with the great,
the small, the nobles and the knaves
who make up a government and its
camp followers" is sandwiched be
tween the covers of "Washington
Dateline," by Delbert Clark
(Stokes). _
Although having no illusions aDout
the city which, as he says, "crouches
miserably in a reclaimed marsh,
and lifts up its eyes to the hills of
Virginia and Maryland which cut
off the breeze," Mr. Clark, a vet
eran member 61 the New York
Times Washington staff, manages
to invest his book with a great deal
of the glamour and excitement of
capita] newschasing.
From first to last Clark Is con
cerned with the progress, ethics
and usefulness of his craft in a
democratic society; tracing the his
tory of Washington newsgathering
from the vitriolic and venial dis
patches of 100 years ago to the pres
ent era of comparative respectabil
ity. But respectability definitely
does not mean dullness. The ac
counts of our latter day saints ajjd
sinners are replete with inside sto
ries, quoting chapter and verse.
This high assay value in anecdote
runs all through the book. It in
cludes some choice bits about Mr.
Coolidge's pathetic attempt at hu
moring the press, a delightful yarn
about the slightly insane congress
man who sought to influence news
paper men with annual oyster roasts
and it features timely and factual
accounts of reporters and their run
ins with the present administration.
This book can be read with profit by
anybody who wants to know what is
going on in Washington and how it
gets in the papers and on the air.
?Bay Defease Bowds
U. S. Prepared
For Part in War
In Better Condition Than in
1917 to Co-Ordinate
With Allie*.
WASHINGTON, D. C.?The United
States is in far better condition to
day to speedily co-ordinate her war
effort with those of her anti-Axis al
lies than it was in 1917.
The tremendous task will benefit
by preparations already made.
At the outset of America's last
war effort, much time was lost in the
confused dispatching of missions on
subjects which this time have been
dealt with well in advance.
It was six months after the 1917
war declaration that the United
States participated in Allied confer
ences. And it was not until November
28, 1917, that Robert Lansing, then
secretary of state, sent a circular
telegram to American diplomatic
representatives abroad to "establish
close and confidential relations with
Allied representatives."
Supply Is Developed.
But today, "close and confiden
tial" relations with Great Britain,
China and Russia already have been
established and in many other ways
time has been saved which should
be of the utmost importance.
Already, discussion is heard of
formation of a supreme war council
involving statesmen and other rep
resentatives from the United States,
Britain, Russia and China. In the
last war, the Allies council had no
American representative until De
cember 28, 1917, or nearly nine
months after the United States had
entered the war.
American observers already have
been to practically all the war fronts
and others have witnessed air raid
defenses bf the democratic powers.
Supply lines for American goods
have been developed to all centers
of hostilities, in contrast to the hit
or-miss technique of the last war
when the problem was complicated
by private financing and shipping.
Many Policies Defined.
The early days of World war I
found the United States struggling
with problems ofc. alien property,
alien funds, diplomatic property and
accounts, shipping, allocation of
food and supplies and scores of other
questions which jammed the ma
chinery of government.
Now the policies on most of those
questions already are defined and
many of them are in operation.
Communication^ have improved
greatly since 1917 and the great
mass ol necessary detailed work will
be cared for more speedily.
Japan, an ally in 1917, sent one of
the first missions to visit this coun
' try during that struggle. There also
were Belgian, Rumanian, many
British missions as well as many
American missions to Europe.
In a November 7, 1917, conference
at Rapallo, seven months' after
America's war declaration, Britain,
France and Italy formed the su
preme war council. The JJnited
States joined more than two months
later.
Today's war is a far different war
?both in the amount of territory in
volved and the intensity with which
it is being fought.
60,000,000 Americans Are
Without Birth Records
CHICAGO. ? Efforts are being
. made by many states to provida sat
isfactory, yet quick methods by
which native-born Americans may
obtain birth certificates.
Approximately 60,000,000 Ameri
cans lack proof of their birth, ac
cording to the Council of State Gov
ernments. Of increased importance
as a result of rulings that defense in
dustry employers hire only native
born Americans for certain types of
work, records are being sought by
many persons who lack such proof.
One reason for the mass failure to
have certificates, the council said,
is that before 1900 only two states
?Maine and New Hampshire?pro
vided by law for official registration
of births.
The navy and commerce depart
ment has proposed that states with
out provisions accept certain infor
mation as proof of birth. Such in
formation includes affidavits by
relatives and supporting statements
by doctors or hospital authorities.
Antarctic Area Named
For U. of M. Professor
ANN ARBOR, MICH.?One thou
sand miles of the shoreline of the
Antarctic continent has been named
Hobbs Land, in honor of William H.
Hobbs, professor-emeritus at the
University of Michigan.
Admiral Byrd said be had named
the tract after Professor Hobbs in
recognition of the letter's explora
tions.
Byrd said part of Hobbs Land was
the area formerly known as Rup
pert Land.
*Remember Pearl
Harbor Ji^ju^Cry
Takes Its Place Alongside
Slogan of Other Wars.
WASHINGTON, D. C.?"Remem
ber Pearl Harbor!"
Born in Japan'* treacherous,
peace-shattering attack on the great
American naval base in Hawaii, the
phrase overnight became the battle
cry and the byword of the nation.
As such, it ranges itself beside
such other famous expressions in
American history as "Taxation
without represenation is tyranny,"
"Damn the torpedoes?full speed
ahead," "Don't give up the ship,"
"Lafayette, we are here," and those
two others dealing with poignant
memories: "Remember the Alamo."
"Remember the Alamo" was
voiced by Gen. Sam Houston preced
ing the Battle of San Jacinto, in 1838,
when Texas gained its independence
from Mexico.
Curiously, the World war seems to
have had, lor Americans at least, no
one battle cry to ring discordantly
on the ears of the foe. The tribute
to Lafayette, who aided this nation
in the Revolution, was paid by CoL
C. E. Stanton before the French
man's grave.
"Damn the torpedoes?full speed
ahead" came from Admiral David
Farragut in the Battle of Mobile in
1864.
"Don't give up the ship" was an
order from Capt. James Lawrence
in the War of 1812. "Keep the guns
going," he said. "Fight her until
she strikes or sinks." "Don't give up
the ship."
The famous Revolutionary war
taxation slogan came prior to the
nation's fight for indpendence.
Countless others were originated
during the wars in which the nation
took part.
The latest, however, looks good for
the duration?and then some.
"Remember Pearl Harbor!"
Big Air Rings to Dispel
Smoke in Factory Areas
PITTSBURGH, PA.?"Smokeless
rings" projected from "guns" may
soon be used to dispel smoke in in
dustrial areas, Dr. Phillips Thomas,
research engineer for the Westing
house Electric Manufacturing com
pany, ^believes.
TAllintf of PTnorimanta with th*
device, Dr. Thomas described bow
artificially ? created "whirlwinds"
may be used to blow factory smoke
high into the atmosphere and thus
provide clean air in industrial cities.
By means of a metal drum, which,
when tapped with a hammer, era*
ates rings of air. Dr. Thomas has
blown out candles and rung gongs
100 feet away. A special air-ring
projectoi;, developed by Westing
house, can, when struck with a
heavy hammer, deliver an air ring
powerful enough to throw a man off
balance at 20 feet.
Dr. Thomas reported that in the
Westinghouse research laboratories
scientists are studying the possibility
of utilizing the more powerful of
these vortex rings to blow giant puffs
of factory smoke into the air.
"Such a method of smoke elimina
tion would outmode ugly smoke
stacks and perhaps make power
plants and mills welcome near in
dustrial areas as clean, streamlined,
buildings," he said.
Captain Tells How 'Mine*
Came Up and Sank Ship
WASHINGTON. ? A Norwegian
sea captain, testifying at an offi
cial investigation that his vessel had
been stopped and sunk by a British
submarine off the coast of Norway,
was interrupted by a German offi
cial
"Nonsense!" shouted the German.
"There are no British submarines '
off the Norwegian coast. You must
have struck a mine."
"Very well, then," the captain re- *
plied, according to the report re- ;
ceived here by the Norwegian News ;
Service. "A mine came to the sur- '
face. It halted us, gave us ten min
utes to get into lifeboats, and then:
ran amok into our ship, sinking it.'"
Farmer Finds Vein of
Onyx Marble in Oklahoma1
HOMESTEAD, OKLA. ? C. H.
Carey was strolling over his 800
acre farm in northwest Oklahoma
when he discovered some pinldsb
white rock.
He found that with little effort be
could chisel the rock into ash trays,
lamp stands and fancy paper
weights. He sent some of the rock
to a chemist in Phillips university) i
in Enid, Okla., and some to chem- ?
ists at the University of Oklahoma)
in Norman. ,
Carey, a former member of thai
Oklahoma legislature, was told bjt
chemists at both schools that ha had
discovered a Una grade of alabaster,
often called onyx marble.
!