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The Alamance Gleaner ? ? ? ? ' ? ? ?? VoL LXVIII GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1942 No. 23 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Egypt Defenders Turn on Axis Armies In Struggle for Middle East Control; Nazi Spy Ring Smashed in Canal Zone; Allies' Wheat Pool Aids Famine Areas (EDITOR'S NOTE?When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) ' Released by Western Newspaper Union. EGYPT: Defenders Hit Hard Even as parliament by a 479 to 25 majority voted its confidence in Prime Minister Winston Churchill after a prolonged debate over the Libyan defeat, reports from Egypt revealed that British imperials, heavily reinforced from the Middle East, had struck fiercely at the flank and rear of Marshal Rommel's Axis army to counter its assault on the main British positions. At the same time it was disclosed that United States army air force and Royal air force planes had un leashed a terrific air offensive throughout the eastern Mediterran ean area. In one assault on Mar shal Rommel's supply port of Ben gasi, hundreds of bombers rained destruction down on munition dumps and equipment concentrations. Reinforcements of both men and material had strengthened the Brit ish Egyptian position in the battles on which rested the fate of Allied power in the Mediterranean and Middle East. Crucial battle area was the 40-mile wide strip of desert lying between the impassable Quat tera salt marshes and the Mediter ranean shore. Few observers had doubted that Prime Minister Churchill's position PRIME MINISTER CHURCHILL would be sustained. Facing his critics in the most critical period since the fall of France, Churchill had admitted that Marshal Rom mel's victorious drive from Libya into Egypt had placed Britain in "mortal peril." Meanwhile on the Russian front, the Nazis had opened a new drive north of Kharkov, while hand to hand fighting in the ruins of Sevas topol, RussFa's last stronghold in the Crimea, had highlighted what the Reds termed "an extremely grave situation." SHIPBUILDING: Yanks Break Records Hope that American shipyards would soon equal and then exceed the total sunk by Axis submarines was seen in a report issued by Vice Chairman Howard L. Vickery of the maritime commission which disclosed that 66 vessels totaling 731,900 tons deadweight had been delivered in June and that produc tion was speeding ahead toward a level of 900,000 deadweight tons a month. Admiral Vickery reported that 288 ships of approximately 2,544,000 deadweight tons had been delivered by American shipyards in the first six months of 1942. SECRET SPENDING: f . IJ. K. Accounts How President Roosevelt spent $239,500,000 in secret emergency funds since the war crisis became acute in June, 1940, was revealed in an accounting which the Chief Ex ecutive presented to congress. Eighty-seven per cent of the total was allocated to the army, the navy, maritime commission and Federal Loan agency, the President said. Large sums were spent to sup press subversive radio activities in connection with the German subma rine campaign. Important among expenditures was $52,000,000 for secret naval bases in the Western hemisphere, $12,000,000 for purchase of Austral ian wool for uniforms $8,000,000 for development of air, rail and highway transportation in Latin America and $38,500,000 for con struction of merchant ships. NAZI SPIES: Rival Fiction In a series of dramatic moves matching the thrills of a mystery best-seller, the United States Carib bean defense command arrested 20 alleged Axis agents and broke up what was believed to be a Nazi spy ring refueling submarines and sup plying them with vital information on United States shipping. Nineteen of the enemy agents were rounded up in a trap in Belize, British Honduras. The twentieth? a trusted employee of a labor re cruiting office for the Panama canal ?had been seized a few days ear lier in the Canal Zone. The army disclosed that the leader of the ring was George Gough, a British citi zen who was a shipping executive in Belize. Details of the seizure of the spies were disclosed by Lieut. Gen. Frank M. Andrews, chief of the Caribbean defense command. WHEAT POOL: To Balk Famine With famine stalking many na tions and wheat surpluses taxing the storage capacities of others, an agreement of historic importance to the future of the world's bread sup | ply became effective when five na tions signed a pact creating a vast international wheat pool. Signers of the agreement were the United States, Great Britain, Can ada, Australia and Argentina. The agreement, initiated at a Washing ton meeting last April, created a wheat pool of not less than 100,000, 000 bushels for the relief of famine in war-stricken areas. It forecast international action toward control of prices, production and export of bread grains after the war. The United States is to provide 50,000,000 bushels of wheat or flour to the relief pool and Canada and the United Kingdom 25,000,000. These nations, with Argentina would furnish additional supplies as need ed on a basis to be worked out by their respective governments. Agriculture department officials pointed out that benefits to American j wheat farmers would be of a long term rather than immediate nature. The agreement will have no effect on the 1043 farm program calling for a planted area of not more than 55,000,000 acres of wheat and ' assuring farmers of parity returns. PRICE CEILINGS: First Hole First hole in the universal price ceiling instituted by the OPA was made when Price Administrator Leon Henderson announced that he was "compelled to take measures that will raise retail prices of the 1942 pack of canned and dried fruits by as much as 15 per cent and pos sibly more." Henderson indicated that congTess was to blame for this, because of LEON HENDERSON special price concessions it granted to (arm products and its failure to vote government subsidies to main tain price ceilings. Throwing down the battle gage to congress, the fiery price official is sued a statement in which he said that the $75,000,000 appropriation contemplated for the OPA in a bill passed by the house, or any amount below the $161,000,000 he originally requested, would cripple his agency and mean "in short that price, rent and rationing controls are all placed in jeopardv." Rubber Hunter His eyes as alert tor rubber as a hawk's are for phickens, Petro leum Co-ordinator Harold Ickes was happy when he spied this 75-pound rubber mat inside the door of the White House. He told his chauffeur to take it to the nearest gas station to con tribute to the rubber drive. When asked for a comment, a White House spokesman declared, "There's no complaint." 1 : I COMMANDOS: Strike at Japs Serving notice on Tokyo that the Australians, the Yanks and the Dutch were ready for hit-and-run thrusts preparatory to the general land offensive which Gen. Douglas MacArthur has promised eventual ly, Allied Commandos swept down on the big Japanese base at Sala maua, New Guinea. Using the elements ot surprise I and terror which have made Com mando raids on Europe so spec tacular, the United Nations' raiders slashed through the defense screen and carried away prisoners, booty and information about the layout of one of the most important Nipponese bases in the Southwest Pacific. Salamaua, on the Huon gulf, lies 170 miles north across New Guinea from Port Moresby, last Allied outpost north of Australia. It was captured by the Japs early in March and ever since the enemy has been attempting to use it as a base for widening their occupation of New Guinea. It has served as one of the principal air bases for attacks against Port Moresby. SCRAP: V. S. Wants More A "new and greatly intensified" program that will reach into every American home and industrial plant and increase the flow of vital scrap materials to the nation's war plants was announced by War Production Chief Donald M. Nelson and Leasing J. Rosenwald, chief of the bureau of industrial conservation of WPB. The new program has a threefold objective: 1?To collect metals, and rubber and other waste materials which will flow through regular channels of trade. 2?To gather up waste kitchen fats, such as bacon drippings from households via meat dealers. 3?To collect tin cans in specified areas. "The immensity of our task," said Mr. Nelson, "makes it absolutely necessary to step up the tempo of our national salvage program." REPATRIATION: Nazis Break Pact Termination of the exchange agreement by which more than 1,400 American nationals were brought home from Axis territory in Europe resulted when Germany withdrew the safe conduct granted the Swed ish liner Drottningholm which had docked at New York with 800 re patriated Americans and alien refu gees. The agreement lor exchange ot nationals held by the respective bel ligerent governments had provided for continued voyages of the Drott ningholm under safe conduct until all Americans held in Europe and Germans held here were repatri ated. No reason was assigned for Ger many's withdrawal of the safe con duct, but it was understood the Nazis cancelled the agreement to emphasize its "paper blockade" of America. Suspicion that the Axis powers might be attempting to get sabo teurs or spies into this country in the guise of friendly aliens, caused the government to institute the most rigid scrutiny of passenger creden tials ever conducted in any east ern harbor. Asks for Check Of Gems in U. S. Diamond* Needed to Give Precision Required in Modern War Engines. WASHINGTON.?Modem war has made the diamond more precious than ever. x Throughout history diamonds have figured in romance, assassinations and adventure. But it remained for the current time to see them used as a tool without which America would find it hard to produce its fighting material. Enemy countries also need dia monds for war. And if the -United States can keep them from getting them, it will handicap them almost as much as though they were cut off from steel or oil. This is why the War Production board is calling upon all Americans having title to 10 carats or more of rough diamonds to report their holdings. At present the order applies only to rough diamonds. But a call may eventually be expected for an inven tory of all stocks of the precious stone. Help War Drive. Meanwhile, purchasers or engage ment stones and other decorative diamonds are helping the war effort. For industrial diamonds would be five or six times as costly if they were not a by-product of the mining and cutting of more valuable gems. The importance of this may be judged from the fact that just one war production plant in Detroit uses industrial diamonds at the rate of $2,000,000 worth annually. Only the diamond has the hard ness necessary to repeat the same precision operation over and over again, with never a variation. Since precision is an essential of assembly line production, war factories with out the diamond would have to fall back on the old hit-and-miss meth ods of hand work. Chief uses of the diamond in war industry are to true super-hard abrasive tools, turn delicate ma chine parts, draw wire to precise thickness, and to grind lenses for bomb-sights, range-finders and navi gation instruments. Fortunately this country has an abundance of gems. Between 1934 and 1941 United States dealers im ported $42,753,517 worth of industrial diamonds alone. In addition, the Union of South Africa, one of our allies, produces 95 per cent of all diamonds. Other Sources Available. Even should this source be cut off, however, Brazil is a large source of diamonds and diamonds of good in dustrial quality have been found in Arkansas. Output of Africa was shut off to Axis powers three years ago. As a result the Axis powers are so hard pressed for industrial diamonds that they are said to be using cut stones in their factories. The Japs also, reportedly short of diamonds when they entered the war, may have their eye on the Im mense treasure chests of Indian rajahs. Incidentally, the Germans greatly augmented this country's diamond supply without intending to. When the Nazis invaded Belgium and Hol land, they had planned to seize the huge stock of diamonds in Antwerp and Amsterdam, centers of the world diamond cutting industry. But the diamond cutters, two jumps ahead, got their stocks aboard Brit ish warships which had been lying by for that purpose. On the ships also fled some of the world's most famous diamond cutters. Some of these cutters went to Lon don; others are now in the United States and have established Amer icanized "streamlined" diamond cutting establishments on West For ty-seventh street. New York city, the new center of Anferica's dia mond trade. War May Cause Return of Old-Fashioned Nightshirt WASHINGTON. ? The war may bring about a revival of the old fashioned nightshirt, or its 1M2 model cousin. One of the proposals for cloth con servation advanced at a meeting of men's pajama makers with the War Production board was a collarless sleepcoat?described by WPB as "a sort of nightgown." Other suggestions, which may be embodied in a forthcoming order, included the shortening of trousers and coats on ordinary pajamas; the elimination of collars, lapels, cutis, pockets and belts; the use of only a few specified fabrics, and the manu facture of perhaps not more than three pajama styles. Doctors and Nurses Atrocity Victims Escaped Seaman Describes Japanese Tortures. SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS.?A story of Japanese brutality in the Philip pines ? including atrocities upon American doctors and nurses?was related here by Samuel Roberts, 26 year-old navy machinist mate. He said he saw the bodies of doc tors, their clothing removed, their hands chopped off and their ears slashed from their bloody heads. Bodies of nurses, he said, showed signs of worse treatment. "Bodies of two nurses and dour doctors were found in one place," Roberts said, "and they were not pretty sights. It was awful." Roberts said he was captured by the Japanese soon after the out break of the war and placed in a concentration camp, but escaped and made his way to engage with the American forces in the fighting in the Philippines. While he was in the concentration camp, he said, the Japanese tor tured him in an effort to obtain in formation. "They shoved rice straws under my fingernails and set them on fire. They put glass in my shoes and made me walk around." Roberts enlisted in 1940, navy authorities here said. He told his story as a naval officer stood by to see that no information of value to the enemy was revealed. The San Antonian told also of seeing his buddy?who had escaped with him from concentration?and two other men go to their deaths on a destroyer's bridge as they manned a machine gun in blazing oil on water covering the ship. "They just stood there firing away with the machine gun until they dropped in flames," Roberts said. War Glider Plant Is Completed in 30 Days WICHITA, KAN.?A glider fac tory, begun 30 days ago "some where in the Middle West," is ready to turn out the motorless craft es sential to the army's recently an nounced large-scale air training pro gram, Dwane Wallace, president of Cessna Aircraft company, said. Cessna is one of three major air craft factories awarded glider con struction contracts. Wallace said equipment is almost complete in the new plant. Its size and the number of employees are military secrets. Wallace's announcement gave substance to claims of Wichita man ufacturers that plants in the Mid west are producing more training planes than any other section of the country. Cessna is one of SO war-production plants being visited by newspaper men by special permission of the government and under the auspices of the National Association of Manufacturers. Wallace said the Cessna plant is ideally prepared to build gilders be cause of previous experience with twin-engined trainer planes. Cessna manufactured Bobcats and Cranes, used by the United States army and British joint air-training program. Obstacle Run Newest Conditioner for Airmen SACRAMENTO, CALIF.?At least once a day, every member of the military personnel at McClellan field, army air depot near here, must ne gotiate a 440-yard obstacle course to keep them in condition. Three such courses have been in stalled, including hurdles ranging from 2 feet to 30 inches high, 7-foot sandbag walls to scale, simulated tank traps which must be cleared by broad jumps of 11 feet or bet ter, 11-foot fences which must be scaled by an overhand rope climb and a series of two-barrel hurdles. There also are a two-sided, 10 foot ladder, parallel bars 24 feet long and many other features. Sensitive Bus Driver Draws Line at Snakes ATLANTA. ? Dogs, yes. Cats, okay. But snakes 1 Nosirree! So decreed an irate bus driver shortly after an elderly, mild-man nered gentleman had boarded his trackless trolley. The man was reaching in his pocket for his money when a snake, about an inch in diameter, crawled out of his shirt bosom and dived under the driver's seat. The driver was startled (under statement). "He ain't gonna hurt you," ob served the snake fancier. "That's all right," retorted the | driver. "You can't buy him a seat , and be ain't gonna ride free!" Farmers, Workers United In Less-Than-Parity Issue Seven Groups Back President on Continuation of Farm Security Administration; Veteran Observers See New Trend. By BAUKHAGE IVem AnalyU and Commentator. n?u service, uu h street, in. w., Washington, D. C. There is an interesting story yet to be told, behind the letter sent to the President urging him to take to the public the issues ot continu ation of the Farm Security adminis tration and the sale of grains for feed below parity. The story lies in the signatures to that letter. There were seven of them and they represented two farm organizations, three labor or ganizations and two religious groups. The combination of names, united in a single plea, marks one of the few occasions when farmer and worker found common ground on which to take a stand on policy. And some persons in Washington who are working for a closer farm labor alliance see in the move the beginnings of a realignment of the farm organizations, with the forma tion of a new group that has at least a loose agreement with the AFL and the CIO behind it. Veteran observers who have watched agriculture and labor pull in opposite directions for many years still feel these two groups have more to disagree than to agree upon. But they admit that this time the situation was ideal for mutual logrolling. Backers of a new day in farm organizations say it is more than that. They point to significance in the signatories of the letter to the Presi dent. The seven signatories of this letter were: First, James G. Patton, president of the National Farmers union, the most radical of the farm groups. This group contains more tenant farmers and fewer farm owners, than the other farm groups. It is a virile, growing outfit. Second, Murray Lincoln, execu tive secretary of the Ohio Farm Bu reau Federation of Ohio. The Farm Bureau federation is not a left-wing organization. Its President O'Neal is opposed to selling grain below parity. But Mr. Lincoln, head of the Ohio Farm bureau units, has a mind of his own. He runs buying co-operatives in the country. He is very consumer-minded. The next signature is that of Wil liam Green, president of the Amer ican Federation of Labor, and the next Phillip Murray, head of the CIO. The fifth of this gToup is J. G. Luhrsen, executive secretary of the American Railway Labor Execu tives association. The religious groups are headed by L. G. Ligutti, executive secre tary of the National Catholic Rural Life association, and Benson Landis of the Federal Council of Churches. Those who don't know the whole story behind efforts to realign the farm organizations see only the sur face reasons why all the organiza tions represented by the above names were willing to support the issues mentioned in the petition. The tel&nt farmer who is am bitious wants to own his own farm. He sees in the Farm Security ad ministration an aid to that end. He considers this help a substitute for the vanished frontiers?the days when a man with a strong will, a willing wife and a sharp axe could cut a new home out of the wilder ness to which the government was glad to hand him the deed. Cheaper Food This concept concerns labor less directly but the question of cheaper food concerns him considerably. The argument for sale of grain below parity is that it is necessary to keep dairy and meat products prices down and the Farmers union claims that oppositiorf to Farm Security comes from "interests solely com mitted to the high-price-through scarcity concept" which of course is the opposite of labor's platform. Those are the obvious and imme diate reasons why the signature of two of the country's leading labor leaders rest among the seven. The religious organizations have the family and general welfare in mind of course. But there may be another reason why Mr. Murray and Mr. Green signed up, and why their one-time colleague, John Lewis, didn't. The story of the part Mr. Lewis didn't play is closely connected with the effort to create a new farm organ ization which will have the blessing of labor. Tills IS wnai nappeneo. vuuu' Lewis, head of the powerful United Mine Workers of America, as you all know, has been trying to organ ize farm labor. He has made soma progress under the so-called Dis trict SO of his union in signing up hands in the dairy industry. But he has encountered obstacles of all kinds among farmers who Sre all potential employers and capital ists at heart. If he could only get some really respectable farm organ ization, of a man connected with some such organization to take up his banner it would help. He settled on the Farmers union not because of the name for it is not a union at all in the sense labor employs the word. But because it was left-of-center and had an ag gressive president. Through negoti ators he made an offer to Mr. Pat ton something like this: "Fall down and worship me, get your organization to stand behind my District SO drive and here is a million dollars to play with." Mr. Patton's answer was "no." But that move made Messrs. Murray and Green very Patton conscious. It also called the atten tion of other up-and-comers with a left-of-center inclination to the pos sibilities of developing an organi zation which without in any way get ting under the direct influence of a union labor movement such as Lewis', might work out a practical working agreement for pooling com mon interests. Whether this is a practical idea will be revealed by the amount of activity the labor whips show when farm issues are up in the next months?whether this is just'anoth er temporary log-rolling alliance which has made stranger bedfellows before, or whether it has the basis of a more permanent working agree ment. Times are changing. It's worth watching. ? ? ? 'Victory Pig ClubV Prove Successful A prominent former Washing toman. who moved to Kansas City with his cohorts in order to make room for war workers, was in the capital on business recently. He is A. D. Black, head of the Farm Cred it administration. He was full of the story of the "Victory Pig." He said the Victory Pig move ment, which is getting a good start in the South, promises to spread into the northern states. The first Victory Pig auction was held at Jonesboro, Ark., recently and the farmers and farmer boys who signed up to deliver pigs were paid in war bonds and stamps. The cry of the auctioneer worked prices up to {15 30 per hundred pounds, and that was more than top hogs were bringing on either the Memphis or St. Louis market. The idea was hatched by the sec retary of the local Production Cred it association. He held a contest, offering $5 for the best name for die plan and so the Victory Pig chib eras bora. The local chamber of com merce joined with the association and the whole countryside soon was feeding pigs to trade for war bonds. This, in spite of the fact that this agricultural county, Craighead, had signed up for {600,000 in bonds in the last 12 months. Although Jonesboro claims to have held the first auction, Quitman, Ga., boasts of the organization of the first Victory Pig club. Many of these auctions will be held this fall prior to the date when Secretary Wickard says there is likely to be a bottleneck in bogs. By this he means that there has been so many million more hogs raised this year than normally it is going to tax both transportation facilities and the capacity of pack ing houses. The secretary is urging farmers not to try to market too many hogs between Thanksgiving day and Washington's birthday, which is the time of the year when the pack is ordinarily particularly heavy. ? ? ? More accidents happen to farm people than to any other class of workers, and in wartime accident rates usually rise sharply. Careless use of the tractor and other farm machinery causes 29 out of every 100 farm accidents, ,
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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July 9, 1942, edition 1
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