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The Alamance Gleaner 1 Vol LXVIII GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1942 * ' No. 29 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Japs' Asiatic Time-Table Delayed by U. S. Offensive in Southwest Pacific; Yank Air Force Now Active in Europe; Russians Continue Caucasus Retreat (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are mriwi la th*M eolsmns, they are these ef Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and mat necessarily ef this newspaper.) ________ Released by Western Newspaper Union. ___J SOLOMON ISLANDS: Marines Landed The marines had landed. The Jap infested Solomon islands northeast of Australia were the site. After seven days of savage fighting, the marines were reported consolidating their positions on three key islands ?Tulagi, Florida and Guadacanal. Key prize on Tulagi, aside from its harbor, was an airdrome in the mountains, said to be the best in that war sector. The effectiveness of the entire of fensive was indicated by a commu nique from General MacArthur's headquarters in Australia which re ported that the marines had cap tured a Japanese airfield on Guada canal island. Intent on India and massing strength along the Siberian frontier, the Japanese command did not like the idea of an American offensive in the Solomons. An offensive it was, however, with the intent of regaining lost territory, cutting a wedge into Japanese supply lines and carrying the fight to the enemy. The marines were only a part of the attacking task force under com mand of Vice Admiral Robert L. Ghormley. They performed the nec essary landing and cross-country fighting operations. But back of them was stout naval power and strong air forces which gave the Yankees a superiority the Japs had hitherto held. U. S. AIR FORCE: Active in Europe The long-awaited enfry of Ameri can fighting planes on a large scale into the European air war took place when U. S. fighting craft engaged in 31 operational sorties. This baptism was regarded as a forerunner of the time when the sky above Germany would be filled with destruction-laden American planes. In the initial operations. United States fighter squadrons flying in con junction with Royal Air Force units made three flights over the French coast. Twenty other aerial missions were over the sea and eight were in terception sorties off the coast of England, according to a communi que of the United States European headquarters. Meanwhile the RAF's assaults on German industrial centers continued with another blistering attack on Mainz in which high explosives and incendiaries were again rained down. The effectiveness of the Brit ish air blitz was attested by Dr. Jos eph Goebbels, German minister of propaganda, who admitted that Ger many is suffering "painful wounds" from the RAF's summer offensive, in an article fpr "Das Reich." NAVY: Policy Board Reshaped Two sea dogs grown gray in their country's service were added to the navy general board, when Secretary Frank Knox announced a reorgani zation of the committee. They were Admiral Arthur J. Hepburn, retired, who was named chairman 'of the board, and Admiral Thomas C. Hart, retired, former commander in-chief of the Asiatic fleet. The board's functions are to ad vise the secretary on matters of policy. The navy said the board's duties and responsibilities had greatly increased since America's entry into the war and that the re organization brought to the board officers well qualified to deal with vital problems arising out of the war. VICE ADMIRAL GHORMLEY He unleashed Devil Dogs. RUSSIA: Cossacks No Barrier The emphasis which Russian com muniques placed on "saber-bearing Cossacks" suggested that the Red forces in the Caucasus lacked the heavy tank and armored equipment with which Nazi advances had pre viously been repelled. The appearance of new geograph ic names in the communiques? Cherkess, Kotelnikovski, Krasnodor and Maikop?indicated the rapidity with which the German steamroller had been able to flatten out Russian resistance and move on to new ob jectives. There was no doubt that Russia needed a second front and knew it. < A Soviet communique acknowl edged that one swift thrust had brought the Nazis to Mineralyne Vody, only 140 miles as the crow flies from the oil wells of Grozny. But things were not completely hopeless. While the Germans had seized some oil in the Maikop area of the Caucasus, the big prize was still out of their reach. Between them and Baku rose the barrier of 1 the Caucasus mountains. Moreover, Marshal Timoshenko's forces were contesting every mile of advance stubbornly. In an area north of the Caucasus the Russian position was grave, for Stalingrad, industrial city of the Vol ga, was menaced by a Nazi pincers movement from the Kletskaya area on the north and the Kotelnikovski sector in the south. INDIA: Gandhi Spins As Mohandas K. Gandhi worked at his spinning wheel in his sumptu ous prison in the Aga Khan's pal ace, the harvest of his passive re sistance campaign against the Brit ish was a series of bloody riots that spread to the far comers of India. Madras, heart of India's war in dustries, populous Bombay, Wardha in the central provinces and Madurw in the far south had been the scenes of outbreaks, despite official threats of death and flogging for all who took part in the revolution. That the British had the situation well in hand was indicated by the fact that the disorders were sporadic ahd confined to big cities, whereas the countryside was virtually unaf fected. Meanwhile in Washington, the state department made it clear that American military forces in India had been ordered to "exercise scrupulous care to avoid the slight est participation in India's internal political problems." A statement ex plained that "The sole purpose of the American forces in India is to prosecute war of The United Na tions against the Axis powers." PRIMARIES: Triumphant Fish As political wiseacres examined the results of primary elections in five states, one conclusion emerged. Isolationism was apparently fading out of the picture as a prime polit ical issue. Outstanding example of this trend was the result in President Roose velt's home bailiwick, Dutchess | county, New York, where Congress man Hamilton Fish, prewar critic | of the President's foreign policy, won renomination by a three-to-one satio. Informed of his success, Fish said: "Prewar issues were sunk at I Pearl Harbor." I HAMILTON FISH . . prewar issues were sunk." ALEUTIANS: Japs Pay Dearly Japan was paying a high price (or the occupation of three western Aleutian islands. That was evident when a navy communique disclosed that 21 Jap ships had been sunk or damaged, an undetermined number of airplanes lost and important shore installations had been blasted since the invasion was first under taken. Latest exploit was a surprise at tack by an American task force on Kiska harbor. Caught unawares, the Japs replied to the first Amer ican shells with anti-aircraft fire. In the raid, the navy said, shore batteries were silenced by cruisers and destroyers, fires started in the enemy camp area, a cargo ship ap parently sunk and "the only resist ance encountered was from air craft." Kiska is the Japs' main base in the Aleutians, although the Nippon ese have also occupied Attu and Ag gattu, at the tip of the island chain. WAR SITUATION: Realism Required Examining the war situation with cold realism, Senator Millard E. Tydings, ranking majority member of the senate naval affairs commit tee, warned that a United Nations victory cannot be expected before 1944 at the earliest. And, added the Maryland senator, the sooner the American people realize what lies ahead, the better off the United States will be. "It ought to be perfectly obvious to any one that, barring some whol ly unforeseen and unpredictable event," he said, in a radio broad cast, "there is not a chance for this war ending in 1942, and little chance for it to end before 1944 at the earliest, unless, of course, the Unit ed Nations are willing to submit to a Hitler-dictated peace. Senator Tydings said it is useless to hope for a revolt of the Ger man people against the Nazi. "It is well to remember that the German people, whether Nazi or non-Nazi, have been winning almost constantly ever since the war start ed. The sooner we realize the grim ness and gigantic size of the task ahead, the sooner we will have a complete comprehension of the great demands needed in blood and treasure." DOCTORS: Getting Scarcer Mounting needs for doctors in the armed services will make necessary a speeding up of medical training and an expansion of their practice by physicians remaining in civilian life. This was made evident when statistics released in Washington showed that the cpuntry has 60,000 doctors, whereas needs for military and civilian functions will require 140,000 physicians. As a result of this situation, selective service headquarters said local boards had already begun to reclassify physi cians who can be spared from civil ian service. For every 1,000,000 men in the army, approximately 6,000 doctors are required. The navy's needs are 6,500 physicians to every 1,000,000 men. President Roosevelt's recent statement that 4,000,000 men are al ready under arms indicates that 24,000 doctors are ticketed for mili tary service. The army recently declared it will need 20,000 more by the end of the year. MISCELLANY LONDON: Soil that had not been cultivated for almost 2,000 years has been reclaimed for wartime food production in Britain, Lord Woolton, food minister, announced. This land, which is producing oats, wheat and potatoes, has not been in crop since the days the Romans moved through the district. SENATOR TIDINGS .. 1944 at the earliest." Shortage of Farm Labor Caused by War Demands Wages 42 Per Cent Above 1941; Ray of Hope Seen in Release of Workers from Construction Jobs. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNC Service, 1343 H Street, N.W., I Washington, D. C. While Mr. MeNutt's man-power commission is considering the draft of a new bill for mobilizing the workers and the students and even the employers of the nation, the farmer is scratching his chin and wondering just where he will fit into I the picture. Farm laborers, of course, will be registered along with the rest, bat will that cure the farm er's headaches? Today the farm labor problem is 1 full of superlatives and paradoxes. ! In the first place the unfulfilled de mand for farm labor reported for i July was the largest in history, 58 [ per cent of the total demand. In other words for every 100 hands needed, there were only 42 avail able. That doesn't mean less people were working?as a matter of fact in spite of the shortage the number of people working on the farms has increased?there were 12,009,000 as of July 1. This seeming paradox merely means that more members of the farmer's family are working, more women, high school boys and girls and many older men who had retired. Older men who did a few hours light work a day, mending fences and odd jobs, are now work ing full time. Of course the shortage of farm la i bor is due to the fact that the war and the war industries have ab sorbed so many people. And this competition has skyrocketed farm wages. They are the highest in 22 years. They are 42 per cent above the wages of a year ago. The aver age day wage rate is the highest since 1920. It is $2.45 and ranges all the way from $1.15 paid in South Carolina to $4.85 paid in the state of Washington. You can get some idea why the farmers are fighting for parity prices when you learn that the ratio of prices received to wage rates is 75 (the figure 100 standing for the ratio in the parity years, 1910 to 1914) that ratio stood at 83 last year since when it has dropped 8 points. I asked a member of the depart ment of agriculture if that wasn't an argument in favor of the farm bloc fight in congress to keep prices up. He replied that he thought it was an argument against war and high prices in general. Well, there is the farmer's problem: although he pays al most double what he paid in the good old parity years 1910-1914, he still can get only 51 per cent of the labor he needs. Now comes the government ready to mobilize 60 million labor units. That includes men, women and younger folks, with the purpose eventually of having the government assign each available person to the special job in the war effort for which he is capable. But the farmer has peculiar diffi culties. He may need a lot of help for say two days putting up his hay, and then things are pretty Slack un til the wheat comes along. Either he will have to provide for the sup port of the extra help between times, or depend on the "Oakies," the migrant labor whose trials and tribulations we've heard so much about. An example of this came up recently when It was suggested that Mexican labor be brought into this country. That is a problem in the state department's bailiwick. It was pointed out that it would not be pos sible to pay the Mexicans for only the work actually done because as aliens they could not be permitted I to enter the country if they were al lowed to become public charges. Therefore they would probably have to be guaranteed a weekly or even a monthly wage rate. Local Problem One reason why a general mobili zation of labor is not of much help j to the farmer is because the farm labor problem is Argely a local one. In normal times the farmer usually knows the man he wants and can call him up on the telephone and be pretty sure he will come for ( the few days he will be needed at the peak season. Many of these men now, of course, are off working ; in an armament factory, or have been drafted. In the totalitarian countries the authorities Just take anybody they want by the scruff of the neck and send him off anywhere they want him to go. The United States is not yet ready to break up families, or to move homes. Of course, transfer of large numbers of people has been achieved to some degree in the case of the war industries where the fed eral government provided or helped to provide adequate housing for new industrial communities which have suddenly mushroomed into exist ence. There is just one ray of light on the farm labor problem and that Is this: Although we expect that there win bo a stiH greater demand for farm help next year, H is possible that some of It ean be recruited from construction workers with farm experience. It is believed that many of the plants and other buildings which had to be constructed to meet the war needs win be fairly weU completed by next year. This may release a number of work ers. - Of course, the manpower mobili zation bill will be very valuable in one respect. It will enable the man power commissioner to flip a card and find out exactly what anyone who can do anything can do, what he is doing now, and where he is. The mere registration of people has a helpful effect, too. I know a former farmer who is now working in an office. He was one of the re cent registrants in the 18 to 65 group ?nearer 65 than 18. He said to me. "When I filled that card out and put down 36 years experience on a farm. I thought to myself, 'well, here I am, Uncle Sam knows how to locate me and old as I am, I think I could still swing a pitchfork if they need me.' " * ? ? A Good Word For Mr. R. Hied el In these days when wastefulness in Washington is the theme of many a letter, there is one government employee who probably has known personally more senators intimately than most Washingtonians and who hasn't had a pay raise in 14 years! And according to most of my col leagues he has more than deserved a raise. He is a bubbling young man in his early thirties whose job is press re lations officer for the United States senators. And his functions are multifold. He labors in the service, not only of senators but also of newspaper men, radio reporters and commentators and by no means the least in their particularly pressing demands, news photographers. He is Richard Riedel, who lacks one year of being in the government service a quarter of a century. He started as a page boy in the senate at the age of nine. He has literally grown with the work and the work has grown with him. When he first came to the senate he was too small to reach up to the counter to sign his name for his pay, he had to go in behind to get it Today, be stands 6 feet 3 inches. And the work he does has expanded, too, immeasur ably since the time he just ran er rands for the senators. Riedel remembers when the "lob by" of the senate, that hallways just off the chamber through which the senators pass when they leave the floor, was a teeming alleyway from which nobody was excluded. Any visitor, any lobbyist, had a right to come in there and buttonhole a so Ion as he emerged from the chamber. But in 1919, Sen. Philander C. Knox, earlier secretary of state, changed all that. Now this sacred precinct is treated upon only by legitimate members of the press and radio. And, demo cratically enough, where they bold most of their interviews is in the President's room. That's the first one to the right just off the "lobby." A President uses this ornate salon about once in his term of office, and then when he announces to a com mittee from the senate that he is through just before his successor takes the oath. At the doorway of the lobby Riedel stands with some of his colleagues. The newsmen come to him, demand the presence of a senator and are usually accorded an interview unless the gentleman in question is about to speak on the floor, or dares not miss some procedure vital to him or his constituents. But in the "lobby" and its adjoin ing anterooms no "lobbyists" may enter. Feed Millions With Our Waste ? Nutrition Expert* Start Drive To Teach People Better Buying Habits. WASHINGTON.?American house wives would be horrified if they were told their garbage pails are instruments of sabotage. Yet this is in too many instances the truth, say government nutrition experts. They are intensifying a campaign to convince Americans that they waste much valuable food. It has been established that food enough for 9,000,000 persons is coo signed to garbage pails throughout the country every day. This would be sufficient to feed the combined populations of Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Nebraska. Actually, more edibles are thoughtlessly discarded by loyal Americans than could possibly be destroyed by enemy agents delib erately bent on that purpose. To overcome this waste the new food requirements committee, bead ed by Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard, has charted a course for American families to fol low in order best to further the war effort. The program will not cause any civilian to go hungry, but it will re visd the buying and culinary habits of many families. Wise Purchasing. The slogan of the committee is "Waste not?want not." To carry out this principle, bulle tins are jiirected at the housewives on the home front. They emphasize these points for co-operation in win ning the war: (1) wise purchasing; (2) no hoarding; (3) sensible cook ing and (4) no waste. If this advice is followed general ly, enormous supplies of staples, concentrates and packed meats can be released to our armed forces and those of our Allies without denying the civil population any of the ele ments necessary for wholesome diet. First, it is suggested that home makers work out a family spending plan and never shop without their notes. They should choose what is cur rently plentiful, fresh fruits and vegetables in season. They should purchase large cuts of meats in preference to smaller cuts because they give better valoe and better flavor. They should shop around and compare prices. They should make sure that the butcher puts in all the fat trim mings with a cut of meat. These can be used in cooking. Bones also should be included. They are ex | celent for soups. Hoarding Unpatriotic. As for the hoarding of food, the committee points out that it is both unpatriotic and unnecessary as there will be enough for all. Further advice from the commit tee has to do with the preparation of foods. Uuch waste occurs when foods are being readied for cooking. There is loss when potatoes are peeled too thick, when outside leaves of lettuce or cabbage are thrown away, when grapefruit, lem ons or oranges are only partly squeezed, when batter is not thor oughly scraped out of the mixing bowl, and when sour milk is not used for making cakes, biscuits or pancakes. The fourth point stressed by Sec retary Wickard's committee is high ly important. It is the wise use of leftovers. Stale bread can be employed in many ways. Cooked cereals can be made into fritters or puddings and served with syrup or fruit sauce. Many fats may be saved and utilized. Keep bacon fat and drip pings for seasoning vegetables. Leftover vegetables can be made to seem like something else again in scalloped dishes, in soups, stews and in salads. Work and Don't Talk, Wounded Men Tell U. S. SEATTLE.?Urging citizens in the States to "work like hell and keep their mouths shut," another group of men who fought at Dutch Har bor, most of them wounded, ar rived in Seattle. "Just tell the people to work like hell and keep their mouths shut!" Pvt. Bob Milan of Chicago said. | "Tell them to keep producing war materials at top speed and get them to the men at the front. Don't say anything, then the Japs won't hear anything that will help them. Broth er, they've got ears." Milan said he and Corp. Bruce Richardson of Hot Springs, Ark., were hurled 30 feet by one bomb ex plosion when Japs raided the Aleu tian area several weeks ago. ^ BjLL STEVENSON Blindfold a veteran New Yorker? Conrad Thibault is doing this col umn lor me?and he'll tell you what street he's on. It's not done with mirrors or are New Yorkers espe cially steeped in the occult. Rather it's done with the ear for New York is a city of unique noises. For ex ample : You know you're on "long haired" 57th street when you hear contralto "la-la-las" floating above the rumble of traffic. These trained voices pour out of the high, old fashioned windows of the many mu sic studios neighboring Carnegie and Steinway halls. Frenzied and more rhythmic voices pour out ad other studios and their "zaz-zn-zaz" quality tells you that you're en Broadway and 48th street, near the Brill building, the Palace Theater building or the Strand building? headquarters for music where young hopefuls from all over the world give endless auditions for musical shows, for night-dub re views and for one-night stands. ? ? ? Not all of New York's voices are singing, however. The heated, un grammatical bickerings of the city's dead-enders, or the raucous voicing* at the hucksters tell you that yon are near the East Side or the West Side waterfront- The despairing, un ashamed "Spare a dime, mister?** would tip this observer off to foe shadowy Bowery or sun-drenched South street. Wild, lowdown and sensuous rhythms and "jive," which passes for conversation, these are the oral landmarks of Harlem after dark. Animated controversies, bor dering on the belligerent, at a socio political nature are a dead give away of Union square. No longer of Columbus circle, however. There the loud bla the rings of the soap box ers have been cancelled for the dura tion. ? ? ? A soft babble of voices, aa ur bane discussion of art values, tilled ever so neatly with the Bohemiaa concept, that could be no other place than Greenwich village. Excited . , talk of the theater, mayfaa a vigor ous exchange of opinions- regarding a play, a playwright or an actor, that must be 44th street west of Broadway where even the ram Is a Shubert production The whisperings of sweethearts tell you that you are on Riverside drive and the sprightly cbckety-clack of the hooves of horses is ample proof that you are in Central park, where han som cabs, fetching reminders of ass other day and another New York, still travel their appointed rounds which is a clear case of aiding and abetting love. ? ? ? On the other hand. New York is a city of unique sights, many assured ly not very inspiring or even pretty, but almost all overwhelmingly hu man in their mingled elements of greed, kindness, despair, joy, strug gle. hypocrisy, humanity, psycbo pathia. ad nauseam. Fleeting pic tures that become fixed in the mind like a crazy quih or some giant panorama of movement and peopia and noise. The great lights of the city are now dimmed because at the war. But the surging night life which they once illumined, is StQI very much alive. ? ? ? Recollections: A sailor with a touch of supermania, getting a kick out of scaling a great sign construc tion off 42nd street, ambling pre cariously along a ledge some 73 feet above ground while a crowd gawks below, knowing not whether to ap pear horrified or amused ... A tattered W. C. Fieldsian mendicant on Lexington avenue begging a dim* and then intoning a prepared twe minute benediction on his "sainted sucker" ... A loud and offensive character, known as "Broadway Rose," approaching celebrities of the entertainment world, demanding hand-outs of money, insulting them and sometimes spitting in their faces if they refuse. She has been put, away on various occasions, but as I am writing, is again at liberty. ? ? ? These and a million and one other dramatic minutae make New York the swarming and unbelievable mi crocosm it undoubtedly is. It's full of raw impulses and is driven by a great lust for living. It is eternally fantastic and wonderful. It glories in the praises that are sung to it? and yet it defies description! Ball Syndicate?WNU Faaturaa. ., i i lniiM
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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Aug. 20, 1942, edition 1
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