Newspapers / The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, … / Oct. 1, 1942, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
The Alamance Gleaner VoL LXVIII GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1942 No. 35 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS s Curb on U. S. Civilian Meat Consumption Eases Supply Problem for Armed Forces; Hitler's Russian Time-Table Slowed Up; *Work or Fight' Is Edict of Draft Head (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed in these columns, the? are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) by Western Newspaper Union __J Two Australian seamen, W. D. McBurnie (left) and F. E. Miller, are brought ashore in a lighter at an Australian seaport after being wounded in action in the Solomon islands. They are survivors of the Australian ship Canberra which was lost in action when American marines and naval units supported.by Australian forces made their historic attack on the Japanese-held Solomon islands. RUSSIA: 'If Winter Comes' Chill autumnal winds that swept the Russian steppes had reminded the Nazi invaders that Adolf Hit ler's timetable of conquest was be hind schedule. Every day the Rus sian lines held was that much time lost for the Germans. Every day they held was that much closer to winter. Up the Volga river from the Cas pian sea to beleaguered Stalingrad had come a Soviet naval flotilla. There, southeast of the city proper, the ships poured shellflre on the at tacking Germans, answering the thunder of the big guns the Nazis were using to reduce the city. Mean while tank battles, air assaults and hand-to-hand encounters had Taged in and around the city. While the heroic Red forces had held their ground and even forced the Germans back in places, the situation remained grave. Defeat on the Volga would mean incalcula ble injury to the Russian war effort, with vital communications disrupted and the connecting Red armies of South and Central Russia split. In the Caucasus, the Germans still had goals to reach. Still in the hands of the stout-hearted Red de fenders was the south and eastern half of the peninsula. DRAFT EDICT: Work or Fight A "work or fight" edict to end the occupational deferment of men who stay away from their jobs or go on strike in war plants loomed as Maj. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, director of selective service made public an amendment to selective service reg ulations which stated: whenever the director of selec tive service advises a local board that a deferred registrant or group of deferred registrants is not sup porting or is adversely affecting the war effort or the national health, safety or interest, the local board shall immediately terminate the de ferment and consider anew the clas sification of such registrant or regis trants." Local boards hitherto had authori ty to reclassify such persons and in a number of instances had done so. ALEUTIANS: 'Japs' Wings Clipped! Heartening news from Alaska was brought to Washington by Congress man Warren G. Magnusen on his return from an official visit to Amer ican fighting forces in the north. The navy, said Mr. Magnusen, had defi nitely turned Japanese occupation of the Aleutian islands to our ad vantage. "The situation is good in Alaska," he said. "The joint army and navy command is clearly now offensive minded. The occupation of the Aleu tian islands by Japan has been turned to our advantage by the navy, giving us the opportunity to sink Japanese ships we otherwise would have been unable to get to. "The navy has clipped Japan's offensive wings if she had any idea of using the Aleutians as a stepping stone for an attack against Alaska." MEAT RATION: Aids Armed Forces A voluntary meat ration of Vh pounds per week for every Ameri can was urged by Secretary of Agri culture Claude R. Wickard when he announced that civilian meat con sumption during the last three months of 1942 would be restricted to approximately 79 per cent of the amount delivered by packers for ci vilian use during the last quarter of 1941. After January 1, it was indicated, rationing coupons will be issued. In his role of chairman of the Var Production board's food re quirements committee, Mr. Wickard disclosed that to assure sufficient meat for army, navy and lend-lease needs, deliveries of beef and veal to civilians would be 80 per cent of the amount sold during the last quarter of 1941; lamb and mutton deliveries would be 95 per cent; and pork deliveries 75 per cent. The proposed 2% pound weekly meat allowance, he said, was en tirely adequate for good nutrition. Individual households may use any method the family prefers in effect ing the rationing, he added. How ever, if there are invalids, aged per sons, young children, or vegetarians in the home, the housewife should reduce her purchases accordingly. Simultaneously with his announce ment of a limitation in the civilian meat supply, Secretary Wickard warned of a food shortage "in the not too distant future" in urging congress to consider labor draft leg islation as one means of halting the mass exodus of farm workers to war industries and the armed forces. 10-DAY MIRACLE: Performed by Kaiser Shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiser had broken many a naval construction record and been justly proud. But proudest of all was he when the 10,500-ton Liberty freighter Joseph N. Teal hit the water in Kaiser's Portland, Ore., shipyard exactly 10 days from the time its keel was laid. This amazing feat clipped 14 days from the previous speed record for shipbuilding. Addressing shipyard workers, maritime commission representa tives and shipyard officials, Kaiser said: "Our original contract called for the delivery of ships in about 150 days. Many experts shook their heads and said we could not do it. Yet here beside us is this great craft?only 10 days from keel laying to launching. It is a miracle, no less?a miracle of God and of the genius of free American workmen." Kaiser saw in the new record a promise Of future prosperity for America. "If American brains and ingenui ty do what they should do," he said, "I will have no fear for the future. We will have to rebuild what we have destroyed. Prqsperity can go on and on." Meanwhile Kaiser was recruiting an additional 50,000 workers to as sist him in the construction of three mammoth aircargo planes as the nucleus of a huge air fleet. MADAGASCAR: Safe for Allies Active Vichy French resistance on the Island of Madagascar came to an end when British occupation forces supported by South African armored units and East African troops took over Tananarive, capital of the strategic island. The communique that told of the British capture of Tananarive also disclosed that Antalya, 200 miles from the northern tip of Madagascar on the island's northeast coast was also occupied. Allied control of Madagascar, ly ing athwart Africa's southeast coast and commanding sea lanes from Capetown to Cairo and to Australia and India meant that a strategic set back had been handed the Axis. It had been known that the Vichy au thorities on the island had been friendly to Axis agents and it had even "been reported that\Japanese submarines had put into out-of-the way harbors on the island for fuel and supplies for their forays' against United Nations shipping i i the In dian ocean. SCRAP METAL: Need 17 Million Torjs America had stopped living on its metal "fat" and now must dip back 40 years for steel and iron junk, leading steel producers declared in assaying the nation's critical scrap metal situation. "Many millions of tons of iron and steel scrap must be collected if the tremendous tonnage of steel needed in the nation's war effort is to be produced," said Eugene R. Grace, president of the Bethle hem Steel corporation. At least 17 million tons of scrap would be needed before January 1, t when war production was scheduled [ to reach its peak. Monthly con sumption of scrap was running about four million tons, the greatest in history, but still not enough. "Every farmer and every house holder has a heavy responsibility for the country's production of guns, tanks, ships and shells," said Ralph H. Watson, vice president of the U. S. Steel corporation. "The re covery of scrap is one of the most important war jobs facing America today." NAVY: Gains on Subs Evidence that the United Nations were forging ahead of the Axis in the race for control of the oceans was disclosed by Chairman Carl Vinson of the house naval affairs committee in a report compiled in co-operation with the navy depart ment. Allied shipping losses along the Atlantic coast had virtually ceased, the report said, while a five fold increase was being achieved in the navy's shipbuilding program. "At sea we have begun to turn the corner," said Congressman Vin son. "Directly or indirectly the first fruits of American naval expansion are already influencing the course of the war." Citing the American victories in the Solomon islands as an indication of the offensive spirit among the United Nations, Mr. Vinson re vealed that at the beginning of July, the United States was building 3,230 combat, auxiliary, patrol and mine vessels for its own navy. This compared with only 697 ships of the same category under construction a year earlier. VATICAN: Post-War Plans? No official announcements from the Vatican followed the confer ences of Myron C. Taylor with Pope Pius XII. But seasoned diplomatic observers viewed the visit of Presi dent Roosevelt's personal represent ative to Vatican City as a step in paving the way for collaboration in post-war plans. This was given cre dence in the light of Mr. Taylor's subsequent conferences with the i British and French envqys to the Vatican and the representatives of : conquered Poland and Jugoslavia. [ REP. CARL VINSON ? . begun to turn the corner Wheat Price Minor Factor In Present Cost of Bread Improved Merchandising, Manufacturing Methods Boost Baker's Bills; Raw Material Cost Relatively Negligible. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. ?rni) service, uu n aireei, n-n, Washington, D. C. The recent debate in congress over the stabilization of prices and wages goes as deep into the home and the farm and the factory as any national issue ever has. I received a typical letter on the subject?a query about the relative cost of wheat and bread, what the farmer gets and what the baker charges. In trying to answer it, I found a mountain of statistics and a wide variance of opinion; but it was a childhood memory which gave me the most convincing part of the answer. First, the letter from my listen er in Bismarck, N. D.: "Before you put too much blame on farm products for the rise in the cost of living, please explain soon in one of your radio talks, why during World War I, when wheat was sell ing for $2.25 to $2.50 per bushel, that bread was selling for ten cents a loaf while now, posted local prices at this pojnt, are 92 cents (for wheat) and bread retails at 13 to 15 cents a loaf . . Now the memory: It was a clear summer morning. School was just out and there was a treat in store for me. I got up long before the family was awake, slipped into the summer kitchen and poured myself a glass of milk and put a couple of cookies in my pocket. As I went quietly out the front door, I tiptoed across the stoop where the empty pan with a red milk-ticket lay beside it. I walked down Locust street to Arthur Barnes' house just in time to climb into the bread wagon beside him and his father. We crunched down the driveway and through the empty streets to the New York Cen tral station. Before we got into the freight yards the train from Buffalo was rolling in. By the time Mr. Barnes had backed the wagon up to the freight station platform the bread crates were waiting. Fast Delivery We stood beside the crate. Mr. Barnes was in the delivery wagon. I wasn't nearly as adept as Arthur, of course, for he had much more practice in extricating and tossing the loaves and he often had to wait a second or two, while he toyed with the unwrapped loaf before I had managed to toss mine to Mr. Bames who deftly caught it and put it in place in the layers that rose from the wagon's floor. This lack of dex terity on my part made me a little nervous and one loaf went wild. Mr. Barnes reached out nobly but it hit the side of the wagon and caromed over into the cinders. Mr. Barnes was a man of deeds, not words. He leapt - out of the wagon and recovered the treasure. I looked sheepishly at Art. There was half my pay gone, surely. But no! Mr. Barnes was frowning, he looked around, whipped out his knife and with a few expert incisions re moved the cinders, gave the crust an affectionate stroke with his bare wrist and leapt back into the wagon with it. The loading continued in silence for a moment. Then Art leaned over and said in a reproving whisper, "Don't say nothin' about that." It was that concern over a pos sible aroused public opinion over a lapse in our sanitary discipline which foreshadowed one of the de velopments that has increased the cost of bread. The incident I have described took place about 1898 and it reveals some of the primitive methods of the bak ing industry which sanitary laws, popular taste, cost of labor make impossible today. Take the most obvious: packag ing. Can you imagine bread being shipped in crates and massaged by human hands today? Yet even as late as the time of which my cor respondent writes, 1914?wrapping bread was unknown in many com munities. This one sanitary measure is only one of many which have made the cost of bread higher?the conditions with the bakery have changed even more radically. Of course, labor is the most important factor. In 1914 men worked much longer hours for much less money. Cost of Ingredients And when we come .to the content of the bread, of which wheat, the commodity which most concerns my listener, is the most important, we And it almost negligible in figuring the cost of the finished product. Ex perts studying the question, state that there are few food commodities in which the chief raw material pro vides so small a fraction of the final cost as in bread. According to current statistics it would take an increase of 60 cents' a bushel in wheat to cause an increase of one cent in a loaf of bread. Compare this with potatoes for instance. When a housewife buys potatoes, she pays only for the spuds themselves plus the cost of handling. Now all of these factors are men tioned merely to justify an increase in the price. of bread since 1914. Officials concerned with food costs were careful to warn me that they do not all justify the amount of the increase. There is not complete agreement on that subject by any means. Some members in the de-' partment of agriculture say that bread could be sold much cheaper and still yield a profit to the baker. Probably one of the most impor tant factors in the price of bread is the fact that the public just prefers to pay more for it than to bake it themselves. As one official said to me: "In the last war when I lived on a Kansas farm the women in the small towns in the vicinity as well as the farm ers' wtves baked their own bread. Today you'll see the bakery wagon making deliveries right out in the country. Perhaps if the women who still bake their own bread charged for their own time, they would find it cheaper to go to the bakery. Meanwhile, it is another case of charging what the traffic will bear? and in this case most of the traffic is willing to bear it." There is one comforting thought for the farmer. When Price Admin istrator Henderson puts into effect the measures to stabilize all prices, he will still have to let wheat go up quite a ways before it hits its own ceiling?parity. But bread, for all its yeast, won't be allowed to rise much more. ? ? ? Aviation Accidenta Show Marked Decrease The number of crashes of mili tary planes in this country reported recently in the newspapers has served to disturb some people. Of ficials in Washington have received many letters on the subject. One which I received recently from an obviously intelligent wom an, may be typical. In it, she meticulously listed the number of accidents, reports of which had been published, sill of which involved fatalities to military personnel. There were 77 deaths within a com paratively short period. The writer was shocked and asked if the cause might not be an organised campaign of sabotage. Because I felt that there should be some official comment on the subject, I talked at length with an officer in the air force. The rate of accidents In lying in this c eon try today, he told me. Is tt per cent lower than it was in UN. I think the adjective "remark able" is justified when you think of the number of planes that are in the air now as compared with the num ber 12 years ago. We are not al lowed to reveal the number of planes now flying but General Marshall recently stated that the goal of the air force was two million men and one hundred eighty-five thousand planes by the end of this year. We know that we are well on our way toward that goal. With these facts in mind the number of accidents seems incredibly low. One reason for the reduction in the num ber of accidents is the Air Force Safety program. This program is in charge of a colonel who has the authority to give orders to a three star general if he violates any of the safety regulations. The air force goes on the principle that it is just as important to prevent the loss of planes and men from accidents as it is to prevent their loss at the bands of the enemy. Many Ships Sail Without Convoy Newspaper Man Tells About Three Trips in Vessels Unescorted. LONDON.?Although London and Washington report losses to con voys, they do not give many details about the cargoes of men and ma terial which arrive in safety, despite Axis submarines and war planes. This is particularly true regarding the ships which make Safe voyages alone. Martin Moore of the Daily Telegraph of London, who has made three unprotected voyages, writes about them to his paper from Co lombo, the principal seaport in Cey lon?clearing house for war supplies : to India?as follows: I am not going to tell stories of being torpedoed or dive-bombed or mined or flred on by enemy raiders. I cannot tell these stories because no such experiences have happened to me In all the 17,000 miles I have traveled. Nor can I describe how naval escorts saved us from these dangers, because I have never sailed in convoy. This is a story of the ships that get through alone. There are many hundreds of them on the seas to day, carrying Allied aircraft and tanks and guns and munitions to the theaters of war. If every cargo waited for a convoy these supplies would be seriously delayed. Precautions Taken. There is nothing spectacular in their lonely voyages. The naval authorities who plot their courses, and within a narrow margin the naval command knows every day the whereabouts of every merchant ship voyaging In its area. The most careful precautions are taken to ensure that nobody knows when she is sailing, where to, by what route and with what cargo. For weeks after I had booked my passage from the United States to Australia I received no hint when the ship would sail or from where. Only a day beforehand did I learn the date of departure, and that information had to be given me oral ly, not in writing or on the tele phone. Two of the cargo vessels in which I traveled carried passengers. Yet particulars of the route we were fol lowing were kept from us as secretly as if we were all enemy agents. These unescorted vessels are an immensely important factor in the building up of Allied striking power. One ship in which I traveled carried about three-quarters of a million pounds' worth of war material? bombers, fighters, tanks, explosives. Yet she was only a medium-sized freighter and only one among many making this particular crossing. only One Alarm. She was loaded as surely no vessel has ever been loaded in the history of sea transport. Not only were her holds full, but from stem to stern her decks were piled high with this cargo of war. There was bare ly room for the crew to clamber past the planes, the tanks and the crates. Throughout the voyage of nearly three weeks we had only one alarm. A faint plume of smoke was sighted on the starboard bow at dawn. This might have been the smoke of a friendly vessel, but we took no risks. Our ship swung hard to port, the crew were piped to action stations, passengers were mustered at life boat stations. For more than an hour we stood on deck, wearing life-jackets. But if the other vessel was a raider we gave her the slip. They Were So Dumb Th*t Policemen Grabbed Them WTLKES-BARRE, PA -Two pa trolmen crept on hands and knees to a warehouse in an attempt to sur prise a pair of boys ransacking the place. One kicked in the door and shouted: "You're under arrest!" The boys kept right on working. Themselves stunned, the cops re covered and grabbed the pair. One twisted free and wrote on a pad: "What's upT" "You're under arrest," the law re peated?in writing. It took a ser geant 43 minutes of heavy pencil work to book two deaf-mute broth ers on charges of burglary. British Diners Chided For Toying* With Bread LONDON.?Great Britain's food minister, Lord Woolton, denounced thoughtless Briton's who, conscious ly "toy" with bread or rolls served in homes or restaurants. "If you saw, as I see every day, the sinking of ships, and if you had the imagination to think of the men and their families involved in these sinkings," he declared, "you would not toy with bread." Handicapped Find Place in War Work Disabled Vets to Take Up Diamond Cutting. WASHINGTON. ? Industrial dia-i mond cutting and skilled office! work, including stenography, are al few of the occupations in which the War Manpower commission is plan ning the placement of the nation's disabled service men and physically hahdicapped men and women who constitute a reservoir of "unused man power" estimated to contain 4,000,000 persons. The latest step toward solution of the problem of finding work for the physically handicapped is an agree ment recently concluded by man agement and labor in the small diamond cutting industry under which disabled veterans of the army and navy will receive special pref erence as apprentices with age lim its waived. The cutting of small diamonds for industrial uses is an industry which, until the Nazis overran the low coun tries, employed about 23,000 people in Holland and Belgium. Now we are trying to make ourselves self sufficient in this highly skilled and important craft. Most of the work is being done now in New York city, but it is planned to set up appren ticeship programs in other sections. Increased employment and faster production rates in the munitions and heavy industries already are adding to the number of handi capped, whose misfortunes fre quently prove, after proper training, to be no handicap at all, a fact which, according to the commission, war industry and business gradually are discovering. The blind are being used success fully in a number of industrial op erations as well as for such skilled work as stenography. Survey Cites Violations Of 40-Mile Speed Limt WASHINGTON.?The pdbbc roads administration reported that more than half the motorists "in several states" still drive over 43 miles an hour despite an appeal by President Roosevelt that this ipted be adopted to consene tires and gasoline. At the same time, the agency said traffic volume on rural roads dur ing June was down 33 per cent ? the gasoline-rationed East and down 22 per cent in non-ratiooed regiuna, compared with die same month last year. The reports were based on speed and travel volume measurements at ten states, and the data turned over to the war department's highway traffic advisory committee, which in waging a campaign to save tiles and gasoline. This survey showed that the av erage speeds oI traffic were two to eight miles an hour slower than be fore Pearl Harbor oo sections of highways in Nebraska. South Dakota. Virginia. Wisconsin. Arizona. Mary land, Missouri and South Carolina, with the reductions greatest in the first four states. Napoleon Was Germanic, Says Hitler Collaborator STOCKHOLM. SWEDEN An at tempt to demonstrate that Napoleon was of German descent IS marts by one of Reichsfuebrer Adolf Hit ler's intimate collaborators. Chief of the German Reich Chancellory Phil ip Bouhler. in a book entitled "Na poleon : The Comet-like Rise of a Genius." , The name Bonaparte, he an nounces, derives from the old Ger manic-Lombardian name of Boni pert. He also asserts that Napoleon's ancestors in the year 933 had such Germanic names as Konrad and Er mengarde. ? The author draws a parallel be tween Napoleon and Herr Hitler, saying that although the freudi em peror "did not really know the Jews," ha hated them no less. The essential difference between the two Is said by Herr Bouhler to be that while the soldier dominated in Napoleon. HerT Hitler is mud) more the statesman. 4 Reds, With 2 Guns Knock Out IS Ttnkt MOSCOW.?The army newspapes Red Star, in an editorial, told of four Russian guardsmen, armed with two anti-tank rifles, who found themselves in the path of 30 enemy tanks and armored cars which had broken through Russian lines at S point on the Kletskaya front. As the tanks advanced, the four men embraced each other, took ad oath to fight to the death, and then opened fire. After they had knocked out IS tanks. Red Star reported, the remaining IS retired, and the four Russians emerged alhra, ,
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 1, 1942, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75