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The Alamance Gleaner , 1 1 ' MMpffnJ Vol LXVIII GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1942 * No. 3 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne l Navy Reveals Damage to Jap Isles; Senate Again Acts on Price Control; LaGuardia Quits OCD, Landis New Head; Normandie Creates Problem for Navy (EDITOR'S NOTE?When ?plnltna an expressed In Una* celamns, they ?re those ef the news analyst and net necessarily of this newspaper.) (Released by Western Newspaper i RAID: On Japs After two weeks of censorship the Pacific fleet command allowed news men to disclose the amount of dam age inflicted by the U. S. navy in their spectacular attack on the Jap anese Marshall and Gilbert islands. These reports indicated that with the loss of only 11 U. S. aircraft, plus a minor bomb hit on one cruis er, and with a small loss of life units of the American fleet accomplished the following: Destroyed four military air bases. Destroyed two military villages. Destroyed four radio stations. Sank at least 16 Jap ships, includ ing a modern cruiser, two subma rines and a 17,000-ton liner. Damaged at least eight other Jap ships. In addition to an undetermined number destroyed on the ground, the Japs lost 38 aircraft, including fighters and bombers. Described as almost perfect tim ing "and executed with speed and daring the raid was the first big an swer to the often asked question, "Where is the fleet?" CONSUMERS: Face Living Costs It was apparent that the price control bill, which had prevented in flation of certain farm prices, was going to be subject to changes that might bring a big rise in the cost of some items. The senate agriculture committee had unanimously approved a bill CLAUDE R. WICKARD Making use of surpluses . . . which sought to prevent Secretary of Agriculture Wickard from using surpluses to keep certain prices down. Passage of this bill had been pre dicted, and it would prevent Wick ard from taking action with sur pluses unless the price of wheat, cot ton and corn had reached 10 per cent above parity. It had been the President's plan to hold these prices down to encour age livestock production. The bill sought to prevent this action. OCD LANDIS: Result of Protest The resignation of LaGuardia as head of OCD and the succession to the high command of civilian de fense of James M. Landis, one time dean of Harvard law school and former head of the Securities and Exchange commission, had closely followed nation-wide criticism of "boondoggling" in the organization. Focal point of the objections to the OCD management had been rather centered on the division head ed by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt than on LaGuardia's civilian defense ac tivities, but the resignation of the "Little Flower" had long been ex pected. LaGuardia was supposed to have plenty to do organizing the defense of New York city, let alone saddling himself with the problems of an en tire nation. He announced that he would de vote his full time to these problems in the future. Criticism, as Landis took charge of OCD, continued chiefly leveled at the health, entertainment and social uplift activities of the organization. It had crystallized into the adoption by the house of an amendment spe cifically forbidding the spending of government funds for "fan-dancing, street shows, theatrical prformances or other public entertainment in the program of civilian defense." The amendment had been tacked onto a bill passed which provided $1,000,000 for the purchase of gas masks, auxiliary fire-fighting equip ment and other protective goods to be used in the protection of the population against air raids. The senate had been expected to go along with the house in its effort JAMES M. LANDIS Succeeding Little Flower ... to weed the "frills and furbelows" out of the program. Senator Byrd, Virginia, keynoted this move by demanding that the OCD send his committee a list of all OCD employees getting over $3,000 a year, and outlining their specific duties. LUZON: 163 Planes Continued efforts by the Japanese to land on Bataan had been turned back by General MacArthur's high ly nhobile artillery forces in the gen eral's "last ditch" fight to keep the American flag flying over the Phil ippines. The anti-aircraft fire of MacAr thur's men had continued good, the bag of seven planes in one day comparing favorably with other fronts where the United Nations had many more ? .serviceable aircraft than did the defenders of Luzon. Captured prisoners and other methods of gaining information re vealed that five Japanese divisions had been identified as taking part in the battle, which would bring the estimated strength of the Japs ac tually on the front battle-line at close to 100,000 men. Other divisions were on the island, keeping communications open, and it had been reported that reinforce ments for the Japs were constantly arriving, thus steadily increasing the pressure on the American-Fili pino army. NORMANDIE: $80,000,000 Job Whether carelessness, sabotage or Fate was responsible, the 83,000-ton Normandie, former luxury liner and now the naval auxiliary Lafayette, lay on her enormous beam-ends in 40 feet of water and 12 feet of mud at her dock in New York, an $80, 000,000 salvage job for the U. S. navy. Twenty-two hundred men were at work inside o 1 her, changing her over from peacetime to wartime uses when a welder's torch started a fire. Within minutes it was out of control. SINGAPORE: Water-Pincers A new tactic in warfare, the "water-pincers" movement, utilized by the Japanese in Malaya, had brought Singapore to her knees, spreading gloom in Britain, and making the defense of the East In dies a nearly superhuman job. General Yamashita, commander of the Jap forces in Malaya, had won the Order of the Golden Kite and the Order of the Rising Sun for his success in driving the defenders out of Malaya, for smashing into the island of Singapore, first time in history that the historic port had been tested in battle. The long, narrow peninsula of Malaya, difficult terrain, had appar ently presented enormous inva sion problems. The Japs had solved these by using small boats, many of them commandeered or captured, and sending small, well-armed and highly mobile detachments, first down the east coast, then down the west, making landings by night, and infiltrating behind the defenders. SPY RAIDS: On West Coast TWO BUDDHIST PRIESTS TAKEN Weren't always praying ... More and more Japanese contin ued to be caught in the nets spread along the West coast by the FBI. The spy raids were being carried out almost daily by the G-men, who in one raid got 20 alleged spies and saboteurs and a truckload of ammu nition and weapons. Chief concentration of the raids was in Pacific coast counties where there were large military establish ments. At Salinas, Calif., following the questioning of several Japs taken into custody at a large lettuce farm, one of them turned out to be a for mer chief of police in Tokyo. An other was formerly a high official in the same police force. A raid on a Buddhist temple in Monterey county yielded three priests. All of them had been in this country only a few months. In a sporting goods store, about to purchase firearms, a former Jap anese bootlegger with a police rec ord was taken into custody. It was here that a whole truckload of ammunition, rifles, shotguns, etc., was seized, together with the propri etor, a Japanese. In 45 places searched, the yield was, among other things, 60,845 rounds of ammunition. TEA: Panic Buying A new U. S. agency had been formed to handle the tea situation which developed after grocers were apalled to And customers ordering tea- in five-pound lots. The panic in buying followed simi lar lines to that in sugar, and which had resulted in the setting up of a sugar rationing plan. As more or less a natural out come of the news from the tea-grow ing areas, WPB began to get re ports of "five-pound tea buying" from all sections of the country, and it was regarded as essential that rationing be adopted if the buy ing panic had not been stopped vol untarily. In the sugar situation, cases of prosecution began to pop up, one chain store manager, trying to make a sales record for himself, having disposed of 31,000 pounds of sugar, allegedly to illicit still operators. He was fined $500. DUTCH: Under Pressure Complaints from the Netherlands East Indies command that too much of the naval force of the United Na tions was engaged in "non-combat ant work" came as the Dutch faced a pincers movement against Soura baya and the fear of a frontal at tack on Java generally. It was evident, said the Dutch leaders, that a giant pincers move was being directed at Java when the Japs landed in force on Celebes island, which formed the tip of the right flank of the Javanese defense line. At the same time Axis sources had reported that the Japanese were de manding the surrender by the Dutch of all the East Indies, together with their oil supplies, in return for which the islands would be technically left as Dutch possessions. Dutch sources said, however, that no Japanese proposal would be en tertained, and they continued their "scorched earth" policy of destroy ing all oil installations before aban doning any property to the Japs. Despite the costly losses inflicted on the enemy in Macassar strait last month, the Japs evidently had been able to make successful land ings there. Chief hope at present of the Dutch in captured territory was the re port of successful guerrilla action which had really been the answer to the loss by Japan of any real vic tory in the war with China. One Dutch authority had said: "Nowhere do the Japs feel safe. Our men behind their lines are pick ing them off, two today, ten tomor row, and the toll is mounting and steady. This guerrilla war is being fought in an incessant downpour of rain. United Nations Are Forced f Into Postponing Offensive Axis Prepared for War Before Fighting Started While U. S. and Allies Must 'Prepare' As Battles Are Raging. By BAUKHAGE National Farm and Homa Hour Commentator. WNU Service, 1343 H Street, N-W, Washington, D. C. It is an open secret that the high commands of the United Nations have agreed to postpone the hope of a general offensive for a year? possibly two. Circumstances have forced the re writing of the old military adage which says "The best defense is of fense." The axis powers were pre pared for war before they started fighting. The United Nations had to prepare after they started fighting. The axis powers choose their own time and place for battle. They have the initiative. For the United Nations, because they have no choice, the best offense is defense. Besides preparation, the axis pow ers?Germany and Italy in Europe and Japan in Asia?have another advantage, geographical position. That is, their supply lines radiate out from their own or occupied terri tory, to the fronts on which they choose to fight. Although the total naval power of the United Nations is greater than that of the axis, it is so widely spread that it cannot contact the enemy at any one point where the enemy is not superior. In places where the enemy lacks ships it more than makes up in air power. When the United Nations have trained and equipped land forces and have constructed naval air forces superior in quantity to the axis they will have an even greater advantage than mere numbers of ef fective man power. Then they will be able to take the initiative and when the axis is placed on the de fensive, the latter powers will have one of their advantages of today turned into a disadvantage, namely, their geographical positions. They will become prisoners to sea power. Sea power will cut them off from the resources necessary for the armies and navies to carry on war, and food and fuel for the civilian populations to carry on life. ?w m m - ? ? WW* *f a a Haw material* wiu toum The United Nations can build su perior land, air and naval torces be cause they control more raw materi als. So, military experts say, the task of the United Nations is to remain on the defensive, wasting down as much of the enemy's power as pos sible while building up their own. Holding as much ground as possible, but sacrificing territory which they do not need now in order to save manpower and supplies which they do need now. The territory can be won back by the United Nations. The manpower and supplies which the enemy loses cannot be replaced. This is not a popular kind of war fare. It is the kind that makes the people rise up and demand new leaders to bring them quick vic tories. It makes armies and navies restive. It is bad for morale. But it is the only kind of warfare that the United Nations can engage in now. More haste on the battlefield will make less speed toward final victory. According to this plan, the defend ers of the Philippines, of Singapore, of the Netherlands Indies, must fight as long as they can. But their com FURLOUGH ON THE FARM?The kid sister rises wide-eyed st her sailor brother as he spins a yarn of the sea while helpinr her with the farm chores.?Offleia! U. 8. Nary Pbotofraph. rades cannot risk too much to help them. At least they cannot risk of fense which might temporarily dis tract the enemy. So we must expect more enemy victories. While we make over our civilian way of life into a military way of life we must expect to hear the cries of the defeated and the dying. While we sacrifice the things which the axis civilians began sac rificing long ago, we must expect our soldiers and sailors to sacrifice their lives. The longer the war lasts and the fewer men and supplies we risk un til we have so many equipped men and supplies that we can afford to risk them, the sooner our victories will begin. The longer we make the war now, the shorter it will be in the end. Basinets Man Gets A New Friend and Adviser Back in the hectic summer of 1933 when the Blue Eagle was spreading its wings?the NRA, if you have for gotten?I had a strange experience. I was standing in the corridor of the department of commerce where the NRA had its headquarters. The place was seething with business men all trying to find out what they could and could not do under the Blue Eagle. There were offices of information and guides and deputies and building guards trying to direct each worried business man to the place where he could (try to) find out what he wanted to know. On this particular day a little man came in. He looked confused. He was most humble. The guards eyed him suspiciously and treated his re quest with doubt if not scorn. Final ly he turned to me: "Sir," he said, "could you tell me?" "What does your firm produce," I started to ask. "Oh," he replied with a frightened look, "I'm just a consumer." Today it is the producer and not the consumer who claims that he has been getting the run-around in Washington. Cognizant of this the President has turned to the man who established Washington's first na tional information bureau, as a re sult of needs of the NRA. His name is Lowell Mellett. He is one of those "anonymous advisors," one of the executive assistants to the Presi dent, a former newspaper man and friend of newspaper men. He runs il AflC .S A a D uie Venice 01 vxuvcnuucui ncpuiu. His office sees all, knows all, that is happening in government. It publishes the United States Govern ment Manual, one ol the most com prehensive current guides to the government departments and agen cies ever issued. So now Lowell Mellett is going to head the clearing house of govern ment information. When his Office of Government Reports is expand ed, as it is to be under new orders from the President, this institution will be the guide, philosopher and friend of the wandering business man. No matter what your busi ness with government is, you will come to Mr. Mellett's office and tell him your troubles. He will get hold of the man who knows the answer. That will save shoe-leather and pa tience, time and money. Hereafter when you come to Washington you can tell your trou bles to Mellett. ? ? ? Curfew Law For Washington? The department of Justice has or dered a nine o'clock curfew law for alien enemies in the "vulnerable zone" which is a belt stretching from Oregon to Los Angeles and extending ISO miles inland. Strange lights flashing on the seacoast, weird stories of bombs that came near exploding under bridges and aqueducts, were the things that compelled this move. But lights that go 'on and off late in the stilly night right here in Washington have been reported, too. But there are no alien enemies who are causing this temporary illumi nation in the witching hours, but hard-working girls employed by your Uncle Sam, according to Rep resentative Wilson of Indiana. Mr. Wilson says that all this must be stopped. He declares that these girls are promulgating the theory at "too little and too late"?too little sleep, too late hours. And so he has sponsored a plan for a curfew for government workers. Women Toil on Defense Work Volunteer* Go Into High Gear With Attack on Pearl Harbor. NEW YORK.?A day in the life of a woman volunteer defense worker is more crowded than a debutante's social schedule and more hectic than a housewife's blue Monday. Volunteer defense work, covering anything Americans may do on the home front in total war, went into high gear with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Most active organizations so far are the American Red Cross, American Women's Voluntary serv ices and the Office of Civilian De fense. At the office of the motor division of the A.W.V.S., smartly uniformed Be mice Reedy was on duty at 7 a. m. to answer telephone calls for emergency motor service. In spite of the confusion of 50 or 60 women who "want to do some thing" milling about, Miss Reedy dispatched a car to take a small child to a throat clinic. No Lunch Hour Here. She directed three fur-coated, shrill-voiced women to the registra tion desk and at the same time ar ranged transportation for a troupe of entertainers to Camp Upton. While she ate her lunch off a tray she arranged to have surplus food from a day market picked up and delivered to a social service agency. The motor corps is only one di vision of the A.W.V.S. which is or ganized in 28 states and has 150,000 workers. In the last two weeks more than 1,000 eager women have registered at its local office. Motor corps volunteers must have a driyer's license. They take courses in first aid, convoy driving, map reading and mechanics and must give 50 hours service before they can wear the corps uniform?a tidy, two-piece outfit in gray blue gabar dine with lots of brass buttons. Air raid and fire wardens, many of whom registered with precinct police and fire chiefs months ago as a lark, found themselves in class rooms, manual and notebook in hand. To a timid woman in a class of 85 prospective wardens, who asked "What can you expect in a black out?" Miss May Breen, instructor, answered crisply "a lot of dark ness." 10,too Job* Listed. She proceeded to outline war dens' duties: enforcing lighting re strictions; helping steer persons to sale places; assisting victims; re porting fires, and organizing neigh borhood groups. Most members of the warden classes proceeded immediately to first aid classes. These are organ ized by the Red Cross with some duty to fit every woman's talent. At the Office of Civilian Defense a group of 40 interviewers who vol unteered to help volunteers, strug gled at cataloguing qualifications of 000 workers a day. The OCD acts as a clearing house. The idea is to get volunteer workers into one of the 10,000 jobs listed with the OCD. "I got up at six this morning to get to a class in airplane spotting, before I came here," a weary inter viewer said as she catalogued her last applicant. "I guess I'll end the day by go ing over to the Red Cross blood bank and give 'em a pint?if I have any red corpuscles left!" Army Vehicle Jockeys Have Jive Talk of Own BROWNWOOD, TEXAS ?No good "cowboy" will do any "highballing" because he knows that if a "Jesse James" doesn't get him the "meat wagon" may. Puzzling? Well, maybe, to civil ians, but the terms are in everyday use in the motor pool of the army's 30th division, based in Camp Bowie here. A "cowboy" is a good driver of any army vehicle. He is contrasted with a "gear-fighter" who makes noise shifting gears, a "hot foot" who rides the clutch, a "firebug" who drives with one flat tire on a dual wheel assembly despite knowl edge the resulting friction causes a fire hazard, and a "highballer" who drives at excessive speed. A "cop caller" is a truck with noisy brakes, while one with de fective brakes is a "killer." A radio reconnaissance car is a "crackle crate," a motorcycle is a "pop cart," an ammunition truck is a "boom wagon," and a convoy com mander is "the bull o' the woods." A mechanic, of course, is a "nut buster," or a "grease monkey," while the crank handle is the "Arm strong starter." And, as for those terms in the first paragraph, no good driver will do any speeding because he knows , that if a military policeman doesn't i get him the ambulance may. Patched Suits and Less Food Foreseen What the War Will Mean to Average American. NEW YORK.?Mr. and Mr?. Av erage American can look forward to living in a smaller house, having one egg instead of two for break fast, wearing patched clothes and playing parlor games instead of go ing to the movies, for the duration of the war. Prof. Colston E. Warne, professor of economics at Amhurst college and president of the Consumers union, painted this picture of plain living for the average American family? the one that lives on $1,180 a year. His statement was based on sur veys made by the union. "The average American has a better job and more money," Warne said, "but he is squeezed between higher prices and fewer consumer goods to be had at any price. "The fact that the estimated na tional income for 1942 is $100,000, 000,000 against $90,000,000,000 for 1941 and that we are soaring toward a super-boom in jobs and produc tion, is a little cause for cheer for most of us. "Taxes for 1942 will reduce Mr. Average American's $100 to $60 and rising prices reduce the purchasing power of this to $42, compared to 1939." In terms of every-day living, Warne explained that this would mean many families would not be able to buy milk. Others, accus tomed to having an egg and toast and potatoes for breakfast would get along on toast and potatoes. "People who are used to buying one or two new clothing outfits a year," he said, "probably will patch up what they have. He'll move into a smaller house to cope with spiraling rents. Warne's best advice to average Americans was to concentrate on buying good food. Monocled Hobo Ends 56 Years of Globe Trotting MIAMI, FLA.?A 70-year-old mon ocle-wearing hobo named Sandy J. Ledger, who has crossed the At lantic 42 times and has held such jobs as circus peanut vender and typesetter for the Times of London, has announced his 56 years of globe tramping are over. He is not a bum. but a hobo. A hobo, he said, is a rover who works ?a bum is Just a bum. Ledger de clared he has always worked?in his time he has been a weaver in Mas sachusetts, a longshoreman in France, a bull puncher on a cattle boat, a compositor cm the Times of London, the London Daily Mail and the Paris edition of the New York Herald Tribune. "You can't go on wandering for ever, not at my age," Ledger said as he remarked that he had decided to settle in Miami which he described as "one of the finest cities in the world." Ledger, who is a printer by trade, claims the distinction of being the first American printer to print a newspaper at sea. Optometrists Find Way To Measure Eye Fatigue CHICAGO. ? Optometrists know that tired eyes do strange things. They twist, turn upwards and some times refuse to focus at the end of a fatiguing day. So the optometrists have invented a new device for measuring eye fatigue. It is a stere ohypercyclophorometer. Dr. Shurin of g,wfyt City, Mo., recommends the stere? etc., for measuring eye fatigue at pilots and automobile drivers to de termine when they should and should not fly or drive, thus dimin ishing danger to themselves and oth ers. He told the America Academy at Optometry that the device is the only one ever advanced that tests upper and lower deviations of the eye ?sure signs of fatigue?at the same time. Its most practical value in the present emergency, Shurin said, will be to determine the length at time pilots can operate before their vision becomes too distorted. Red Chutists Play Both Ends Against Middle LONDON. ? Russian parachutists set German troops firing upon each other during a recent raid, reports the Soviet army newspaper, Red Star. As heard by the British Broad casting corporation, the Red Star said that Red chutists "encountered a long column of German motorised infantry, supported by tanks and armored cars. They opened fire an the center and both ends. Confused by the darkness both ends of the column started biasing away at each other, and the parachutists watched the Germans exterminating their own men." _ _
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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