The Alamance Gleaner
Vol LXIX GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1943 No. 5
WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS
Parity Vote Heralds Farm Price Rise;
Allies' North Africa Strength Grows
As Yanks Wipe Out Rommel's Advance;
RAF Raids Strafe German U-Boat Nests
(EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions sro expressed la these columns, they are those ef
Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and net neeessarUy ef this newspaper.)
i Released by Western Newspaper Union. ?
Ob their war to continue the offensive against the Japs at Salamana
in New Guinea, Australian troops pass through a group of Americans who
had been in action earlier. This photo was made after the successful
close of the Papuan peninsula campaign against the Japs.
TUNISIA:
Rommel Pays Dearly
The 50-odd miles that Marshal
Rommel had originally advanced
against American forces in Tunisia
had cost the "Desert Fox" dearly..
For not only had most of that gain
been lost in retreat, but the Axis
offensive had been converted into a
first-class Axis setback, with heavy
casualties.
Pell mell through the Kasserine
pass Rommel's Afrika Korps tank
forces had retreated to the south
west under powerful Allied gun and
aircraft attack. Seasoned observers
termed Rommel's maneuver, a typ
ical Axis hit-and-run action. The
Axis had found the American forces
overextended and trying to man un
tenable positions. The Axis had
struck hard. When the American
high command met this offensive
with a more powerful counteroffen
sive, the Axis ran for cover.
Thus Rommel's first major bid to
cut Allied communications lines had
been thwarted.
As the Allied fortunes in Central
Tunisia thus turned brightly upward,
reports disclosed that General Sir
Bernard Montgomery's British
eighth army had been on the move
in North Africa and had struck with
augmented power in southeastern
Tunisia. Smashing with tanks into
the Mareth line, General Montgom
ery had seriously threatened Rom
mel's rear.
HITLER BOASTS:
Nazis Not Yet Beaten
Adolf Hitler's absences at key
Nazi party gatherings had caused
speculation as to his health and rea
sons for remaining under cover. But
wherever he was, his remote-control
message to the German people via a
Munich proclamation was as harsh
and fanatical as if der fuehrer had
delivered it personally.
Ominous to the people of occupied
Europe was Hitler's declaration that
"we shall not scruple about foreign
lives when such hard sacrifices are
exacted from our own lives."
Germany's future and the future
? of Europe, he said, will be decided on
the Eastern front. He boasted that
enemies who believed they almost
had Germany down would be "ter
ribly disappointed."
"No matter how great the coali
tion of our enemies may be," his
proclamation added, "it is smaller
in power than the strength of the
alliance of our peoples."
4,403 NEW SHIPS:
To Help Beat Axis
Funds for the construction of 4,403
ships for the Maritime commission
were approved when the house ap
propriations committee reported an
appropriation bill providing $6,298,
530,435.
The current shipbuilding program
to thwart .the Axis submarine peril
and provide transoceanic facilities
for men and supplies has been
mapped through 1943, according to
Admiral Emory Land, director of
the Maritime commission. The
schedule called for construction of
2,242 ships of which 554 were deliv
ered before January 1, 1943. In ad
dition, he said* it was proposed to
extend the program to provide for
2,161 additional ships to be contract
ed for during 1943.
FARM PRICES:
Wickard vs. Senate
When Secretary of Agriculture
Claude R. Wickard requested con
gress for a "clear mandate" to pro
ceed with his 1943 farm production
program, he asked for sanction to
attempt the difficult feat of increas
ing farm prices without raising
prices to consumers. The "clear
mandate" was appropriation by con
gress of $100,000,000 for incentive
payments.
But the senate farm bloc had ideas
of its own about solving the farm
income riddle. Legislation provid
ing higher ceilings on prices of some
farm commodities passed the senate
by a 78-2 vote. Under the terms of
the new act, the government no
longer would deduct benefit pay
ments from ceilings.
How much this measure if finally
approved by all branches of the gov
ernment would add to the food bills
of consumers was a question neither
the department of agriculture nor
the OPA was prepared to answer im
mediately, because of technical fac
tors involved.
OPA officials, however, expressed
the view that increases in living
costs would be considerable.
AIR OFFENSIVE:
Allies Harass Europe
A1lL?.wL A 111-J i J ? sf? ?A
niuiuugii niueu ixu uperduon 01
fensives against Hitler-held Europe
were still in the blueprint stage, the
offensive by air continued to gather
momentum.
Wilhelmshaven, the major Nazi
naval base, and Lorient, the vast
Axis submarine base on the French
coast, were repeated targets. The
RAF celebrated its 16th raid on
Wilhelmshaven by bombing key ob
jectives without the loss of a single
plane. In one of the raids on Lorient
Allied fliers dropped more than 1,000
tons of explosives.
In a summary of operations, an
RAF spokesman revealed that 100,
000 tons of bombs had been dropped
on German objectives to date in the
war and that 2,000 daylight sorties
had been made by the bomber com
mand in 1942 alone.
CAFE RATIONING:
Streamlines Bill-of-Fare
Diners-out in restaurants and ho
tels faced slimmer helpings on their
plates and a streamlined bill-of-fare
reducing the variety of foods of
fered, as enforcement of the food
administration's rationing orders for
commercial eating establishments
was undertaken.
Aimed primarily at food waste,
the orders governing restaurants,
hotels and other institutions did,
however, provide a larger propor
tionate allotment of canned and pro
cessed foods than individual house
holders were permitted to have. Be
cause allotments were based on the
number of persons served*in Decem
ber rather than on the amount of
rationed foods actually served, small
cafes and stands would get a pro
portionately larger share of canned
and processed foods than places that
serve for the most part complete
meals.
Restaurant and hotel allowances
were set at a minimum rate of 13
per cent larger than those for house
holds.
EASTERN FRONT:
Russians Roll On
All along the eastern front the
Russians had continued a series of
blasting offensives. Each offensive
was a battle unit in itself, but added
to all the others it formed a pattern
that was inexorably moving west
ward across the map toward the
Dnieper river.
Military observers were asking
whether the German defenses on the
Dnieper line were as Strong as the
anchors the Axis had lost further
east in the Don and Donets river
basins. If sufficient time had not
been available to strengthen this
secondary line, then the Nazis faced
a crisis more serious than anything
that yet confronted them.
In the upper Ukraine the Red
armies had moved steadily forward
on a wide front toward the Moscow
Kiev railway, their offensive based
on a triangle formed by recaptured
Sumy, Lebedin and Akhtyrka.
To the south the Germans had
fought violently in an effort to halt
the Russ maneuver for enveloping
the remainder of the Donets basin
from which hundreds of thousands
of Axis forces were seeking to retire
in some semblance of order.
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC:
To Have and to Hold
Three activities had continued to
occupy the attention of American 1
and other Allied forces in the Pacific
war theater. These were 1?To hold
the territorial gains they had al
ready exacted from the Japs; 2?To
destroy enemy aircraft installations,
dock facilities and ships in nearby
occupied territory; 3?To gather
strength and momentum for further
full-scale land and sea blows at the
Japs.
In unremitting "softening up" tac
tics, heavy American bombers in at
tacks on the Jap base of Rabaul in
New Britain scored hits on two Jap
anese viprships, drove a third onto
a reef and damaged a 10,000-ton
cargo vessel. U. S. planes scored
hits on a Jap barge at Rekata bay
in the northern Solomons and
strafed enemy positions at Munda.
Indications appeared that the Brit
ish drive against the Japs in Burma
was gathering steam preparatory to
a major movement to retake Burma
and open the supply road to China.
The strength of the British was indi
cated by the fact a Jap effort to raid
Assam airfield resulted in the loss of
30 planes.
TURKEY:
Watches and Waits
A watchful waiting policy based
on a determination to stay out of
the war if possible but to enter the
fight if necessary was enunciated by
President Ismet Inonu of Turkey.
Inonu pointed out that the final deci
sion might not be in Turkish hands.
Calling all Turks to intensify their
preparedness against any eventual
PRESIDENT INONU
... 'decision not Turkey's1
ities, President Inonu declared: "We
are grieved by and suffer from the
global disaster. We shall do our ut
most not to be entangled in it nor
contaminated by it, but we know
that it is not entirely within our
power to stay out of the war."
Turkey has spent more for defense
in the last four years than at any
time in her history, he declared.
4 TO 1 RECORD:
For U. S. Airmen
Americans learned with pride that
their fighting airmen had destroyed
four enemy planes for every one of
their own knocked out of the skies
in 1942.
An official tabulation covering
complete operations for the last year
showed that army, navy and marine
fliers shot down at least 2,587 of
their foes. This total did not include
hundreds of planes listed as prob
ably destroyed.
Aircraft losses by all American
armed services last year totaled 809.
Some of the fliers were shot down
by anti-aircraft fire, others simply
did not return from combat missions
for reasons unknown. A majority of
the 609 losses, however, resulted
from actual combat with enemy air
men.
V-Gardens on Home Front
?
Sufficient Vegetables Can Be Raised for
Entire Family on Small, Fertile Sites
Beginners Told to Plan Plots Before Starting Seeding
However Hitler, Hirohito and
Mussolini may be kept guessing
about Allied offensives on the
fighting fronts of the world, they
can just as well be told right
now that there is no secret
about one of America's great
drives on the home front. It's
the Victory Garden campaign,
already under way and expect
ed to set a national record for
home food production.
When a national poll late last
month reported that 54 per cent
of the citizens interviewed were
intending to grow gardens this
year, newspaper readers of the
country became aware of the
proportions of this home-front
offensive. By January, however,
it was no news to the govern
ment's garden promoters that a
1943 bumper crop of home gar
deners was in sight. They were
already swamped with popular
demands for how-to-go-about-it
information and were meeting
them?with news releases, radio
programs, photographs and a
special 1943 edition of a publica
tion called "Victory Gardens."
The garden authorities had seen
what happened in 1942 when an es
timated 15.000.000 Victory Garden
ers shouldered spades and hoes.
Since then they had seen the nation
al food situation change until by the
beginning of 1943 the department of
agriculture was saying: "The na
tion needs the help of everyone who
can grow a good garden."
Will Educate Gardeners
The department of agriculture, it
may be reported, was precise in
making its appeal to everyone who
can grow a good garden. Getting
good gardens from inexperienced
gardeners thus became one of the
department's war concerns. Fortu
nately, its bureau of plant industry,
in the agricultural research admin
istration, has been dealing with this
same problem in normal dimensions
for many years, and was all set to
meet the demands for information
as they might arise.
It is impossible, of course, to avoid
thinnings of some vegetables. Small
seeds like those of carrots, collards,
onion, parsnips, spinach, and tur
nips must be sown three or four
times as thick as the plants will
eventually grow, because many
seeds fail to grow well. Surplus
seedlings then have to be thinned
out before the plants crowd each
other.
When the inexperienced gardener
begins to worry about not planting
his seed too deep or too shallow,
too early or too late, and realizes
the many other details that have to
be kept in mind, he will appreciate
truly the helpfulness of such publi
cations as the department of agri
culture's "Victory Gardens" and
the other free bulletins that can be
obtained from the government and
from state agricultural colleges and
extension services. Most valuable of
all to him will probably be the one
published nearest to his home, for
from it he can obtain most specific
information on the times of planting
and on the varieties of vegetables
best adapted to his locality.
With such aids, 18,000,000 Amer
icans and their helpers are this
year expected to plant Victory Gar
dens?6,000,000 of them on farms, the
rest In their backyards, on vacant
lots, or in community Victory Gar
dens. With the seed sown and the
tomato and cabbage plants set out.
Run Row* Long Way
Variety for Everybody.
they will still have to face the Axis
agents known to gardeners as weeds,
insects, and diseases, but they will
know at least that their own home
front offensive is under way and
that the seeds of Victory are in the
ground.
The gist of garden fundamentals
has by now been reduced to terms
so simple that they make gardening
seem easier than it really is?so
easy in fact that a great emphasis
has been put on perseverance. No
one reading how-to-do-it garden in
structions, it is pointed out repeat
edly, should set his foot to the spade
unless he is determined to stay by
his job without wasting seed, ferti
lizer, or effort.
The first requirement that the
new gardener will find in the speci
fications written by the experts is
for a garden spot that is both sunny
and fertile. And for his help in
judging fertility he is given the
rule-of-thumb: "If the weeds grow
rank, the soil is fertile." Good soil,
moisture and sunshine are three
essentials. If they are missing, no
gardener can expect to grow enough
crops to justify his use of seed, fer
tilizer and effort.
The home gardener this year is
advised to grow just as nearly all
the fresh vegetables for his family
as he possibly can. A garden 50
feet by 100 feet tended and kept
growing all season is, for example,
expected to produce enough vege
tables to give each member of a
family of five at least three servings
a day, which comes about as close to
providing the needed four to seven
daily servings of fruits and vegeta
bles as many gardeners can come.
Smallest garden size for which a
garden plan is suggested by the de
partment of agriculture is 30 by 50
feet, but even smaller areas will
grow a worthwhile crop of tomatoes
and a few other crops, if greater
space cannot be obtained.
Clu>a.? Vegetables Yob Like
With the area located, the Victory
Gardener's next step is putting the
garden on paper, an exercise not
only interesting but also especially
helpful for the inexperienced. Ar
ranging the garden properly in
cludes attention to a few general
principles. Rows, for example,
should not run up and down hill if
the garden slopes very much, but if
the area is level the rows should
run the long way for convenience.
First plantings are generally best
placed along the south or east side
of the garden, with later crops being
sown progressively across the area,
and whenever possible the tall grow
ing plants should be on the west or
north side of the garden so they
will not shade other plants.
The main item in planning a gar
den is, of course, choosing what to
plant. One thing is certain. There
is little to be gained in growing
vegetables that the family does not
like, but within the family taste
there are many garden products
from which to choose. Green leafy
vegetables?leaf lettuce, cabbage,
spinach, chard, collards, kale, and
turnip greens?should be well rep
resented in every garden. Toma
toes and beans are also likely to be
grown generally. All these are rich
in vitamins. Potatoes and corn are
among the best energy foods, but
they require considerable space and
are thus not recommended for very
small gardens, which should special
ize on the valuable vitamin, or pro
tective, vegetables.
No garden plan, of course, is suit
able for all tastes or all localities,
but an example of one balanced gar
den is provided by Dr. Victor H.
Boswell in his "Victory Gardens."
For the 30 by 50 "very small gar
den," Dr. Boswell suggests lg vege
tables planted in 14 rows. Those
planted in spring include two 50-foot
row* of pole snap beans, two rows of
pole lima beans, two rows of toma
toes, half a row of lettuce, half a
row of chard, and one row each of
beets, carrots, turnips, cabbage, on
ions, radishes, and spinach. When
these are harvested, the "succes
sion" crops include two rows of col
lards as well as later plantings of
the other vegetables.
Need Only Four Tools
Inevitably, gardening on paper
leads to the real thing, and that
means tools. Fortunately, however,
at a time when metal is scarce,
nothing elaborate is needed. There
are many garden Implements, but
four of them will serve all purposes
very well?a spade or spading fork,
a steel rake, a common hoe, and a
strong cord.
Spading can start as soon as the
land is sufficiently dry in spring and
the garden has been cleared at de
bris. Eight to ten inches is a good
depth for spading If the top soil is
deep. On thin layers of top soil ex
perienced gardeners are careful not
to turn up too much of the infertile
subsoil. To increase the soil's fer
tility, the spader should mix in some
well-rotted leafmold, manure, or oth
er decayed organic matter if these
fertilizers are available. Every 25
square feet of the garden can well
take as much as a bushel. Commer
cial fertilizer will also be needed on
most gardens, but its application
can best be delayed until after the
spaded clods have been broken up
and the whole garden worked up
with the rake and smoothed out for
planting. Then the fertilizer is ap
plied in bands along the planted
rows.
This year Victory Gardeners will
have a special fertilizer with 3 per
cent nitrogen (about 85 per cent of
it organic), together with 8 per cent
of phosphoric acid and 7 per cent
potash. Described as the best for
mula that can be made available to
victory gardeners during the war
time emergency, when war calls for
so much chemical nitrogen, this 3-8
7 mixture comes in packages of 5,
10, 25, 50, and 100 pounds net weight,
labeled "Victory Gardener Fertiliz
er?for Food Production Only."
This fertilizer is best applied along
the garden rows in a band about
three or four inches wide, about two
inches from the line where the seeds
will be sown or the plants set. A
wide furrow about two inches deep
is scooped out with the hoe. The
fertilizer is spread uniformly along
this furrow, at the rate of 1 pound
per 24 or 25 feet or row, mixed with
the soil, and covered about two
inches deep. It should not touch
the seed. Broadcasting fertilizer is
easier than applying it in bands, but
unless the rows are very close the
broadcasting brings less efficient re
sults. If the Victory Garden fer
tilizer is broadcast, it should be used
at the rate of three or four pounds
par 100 square feet and then mixed
thoroughly with the soil.
Dea't Saw Too Tkicfc
Common to all gardeners at plant
ing time Is the danger of sowing
seed too thickly?a mistake that is
wasteful not only of precious seed
but also of time. For seed that is
sown wastefully produces seedlings
that must later be thinned at the ex
pense of time and sometimes back
aches.
Bean and pea seeds should be
spaced as the plants are expected
to stapd, for these vegetables should
never be thinned in the rows. Beet
and chard "seeds" are really fruits
containing several seeds and should
thus be sown no thicker than the
plants are to stand, although some
thinning will be needed. Cabbage
ami tomato and onion plants and
onion sets are also placed where
they will remain.
Planu Should Bo Spaced. 1
* * '*.*
Who'# New#
This Week
By
Deloe Wheeler Lorelace
CooeoUfetad rutuni.-WWW SUItmm.
EDITOR'S NOT* ? Witt (to tall W
Lemuel F. Partem, DtJos W. Levelece, a
journalist ot maaj y Bars' sxperieace, will tM>
duet the WHO'S MEWS cJmaam.
"VTEW YORK.?Maj. Ruth Cheney,
^ Streeter, new Marine Corp#
Women's Reserve director, has been
an airplane pilot since 1940. Dates
More Reason for
Adding 'in the Alt' Mrs. Street
To Marine* Hymn '
born in 1895. That would make her
45 when she began to fly. Not
many women do that at that age.
There isn't another, probably, be
tween the Halls of Montezuma and
the shores of Tripoli; a fact doubt
less pleasing to the marines as the
major scouts the country seeking
19,000 recruits for her command.
A year or so after her first les
son the major had a commercial
license, too, and a little time back
the 128th squadron, army air fanes,
made her honorary pilot. She is
also the only woman on New Jer
sey's defense council's committee os
aviation.
Major Streeter'? heme is at
Mosiistowa, N. J. Bliss s the
war there were few tees
schemes aad stratagems to
which she dife't have a hand.
She betaags to six etohs. to toe
i aator League aad to toe New
Hampshire Society af Cilisdsl
Dames. Whea the war began
she expaaded her arWt to to
ehide most af the datogs at
Camp Dii aearby. Now to Dix
she adds the marine corps. Her
children, happily, are all aid
enoagh to gs their own gait . . .
daughter Lillian aad seas Frank
aad Heary, who are ensigns,
and Thomas W. Jr., who is to
the army reserve.
The senior Thomas W. is a law
yer and retired public utilities ex
pert now collecting funds for the
Red Cross.
?
QNE college, three universities,
ten years in the law and three
with the United States attorney gen
eral hare helped make Norman
^ ii ? , M. Littell
Keeps Uncle Sam f wj?er
From Being Rooked man. A
In Big Land Deals fdder ??*
too, con
sidering the fummy-diddles he has
lately uncovered.
Mr. Littell is assistant attor
ney general in charge el the
government's wartime real co
lor shipyards, turning and al
the army's great glowing phi
When the beys eeme marching
home the government wfl own
M.MC.Mi acres, doe times as
many as there are in the state
el Maine, la a v en tare so oast.
Undo Sam coald be reeked te a
fire-ye-well. If he isat, Mr. Lit
tell wil] have earned a D.S.C.
Forty-four now, he joined the at
torney general's staff in 1S3> Ear
lier be had practiced law in Seattle
after studying at Wabash college,
Oxford, Harvard and Washington
university. At Oxford he was a
Rhodes scholar. He was born at
Indianapolis, Ind., and has been
married 12 years. Two children.
Already his canny double-check on
real estate deals has saved the price
of a few Flying Fortresses, maybe
of a battleship. He eet one $128,000
fee in half, cut a couple of com
missions from 64 per cent to 34
per cent, persuaded one land agent
to take a flat $90 fee on emdtt of
000 deals although original claims
had run as high as $820.
D UDGET DIRECTOR Harold Dew
u ey Smith will compile the record
of the administrative history of the
war; and he was handpicked by a
To Compile Record jl
Of Administrative dent on the
History of the War
ic Supreme court justice. Neverthe
less Republicans borrow trouble if
they wonder whether the record will
be on the level. Fifty years from
now undoubtedly anybody will be
able to travel the budget director's
miles of memos and learn the truth
about everybody's sins. Mr. Smith
loves documents and data too well
to finagle them even for his party.
Wbea Associate Justice Frank
Murphy add President Roose
velt an Mr. Smith he was bndgct I
director of Michigan. That was
three years back. He had get
to Michigan'! state capital after
righting the problems of cities
in both Michigan and Kansas. >
J a was bora in Kansas, 4S years '
f*. He get a degree in engi
sertng from the University of