North Carolina Newspapers

The Alamance Gleaner VoL LXIX GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, MAY 6, 1943 No- 18 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS U. S. Pledges Bombs to Japan's Heart; Allies Break Axis Mountain Defenses As Drive for Tunis and Bizerte Speeds; Russ-Nazis Locked in Caucasus Battle (?DITOB'8 NOTE: When ?pinions ore expressed in these columns, they ore those of Wostorn Newspaper Union's nows analysts and rfot necessarily of this nowspaper.) ? Released by Western Newspaper Union. ????? American arms, ammunition and equipment were a potent factor in stepping np the fighting strength of French armies aiding the Allied cause in the Tunisian campaign. Above, Gen. Henri Giraud (center), French high commissioner of North Africa, is seen inspecting U. S. war equip ment sent for French army use. VENGEANCE: For Jap Executions Stern punishment for the Jap mil itary leaders responsible for the ex ecution of American fliers captured after last year's raid on Tokyo was promised by President Roosevelt, who said the United States would "hold personally and officially re sponsible" all those who partici pated in these crimes and bring them to justice. That the Japs' barbarity was a confession of their vulnerability to air attack was clear. This was un derscored by Tokyo broadcasts threatening to execute American fli ers captured on future raids over Japan. The reply to such threats was giv en by Maj. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, commander of the air forces, who told his fliers: "Let your answer to their treat ment of your comrades be the de struction of the Japanese air force, their lines of communication, and the production centers which offer them the opportunity to continue such atrocities." To this Maj. Gen. James H. Doo Bttle, who led the Tokyo raid a year ago added: "Soon our bombers will be there again, striking at the heart of Japan until the empire crumbles and they beg for mercy." RUBBER: Shotvdotvn on Oil Use Rubber continued to be a contro versial subject as William M. Jef fers. rubber director, came to grips with Robert P. Patterson, under secretary of war, and Harold L. Ickes, petroleum administrator, in a dispute over the use of gasoline in the synthetic production program. Patterson, supported by Ickes, charged in a statement that Jeffers was weakening American air strength against the Axis by reduc ing combat supplies of high octane gas for the benefit of the civilian synthetic rubber manufacturing schedule. Still at odds with Elmer Davis, OWI director, over publicity re leases on the rubber program, Jef fers briskly took on his two new op ponents declaring that their charges called for investigation to bring out the true facts to the public. PACIFIC: U. S. Fliers Busy From the Aleutians to New Guinea, American airmen continued their assaults on Jap airfields, ship ping and ground installations. Liberators, Mitchells, Lightnings and Warhawks made 15 raids on the enemy at Kiska, carrying the total of forays on this menacing Jap in stallation to more than 100 in the course of a single month. In the Solomons, Yankee fliers bat tered Jap positions in four air raids, attacking Tonei harbor and Kieta and smashing at Kahili and Munda. From Australia, Allied aircraft made 10 forays in a single day, de stroying enemy planes and straffing Jap base installations and occupied villages. Rabaul and Ubili, New Britain, the Saidor area of New Guinea and Laga on Timor island were the principal targets. TUNISIA: Nazis Counter-Attack Fighting stubbornly to delay the inevitable day of reckoning, Axis troops sought desperately to pre vent the Allied armies from further narrowing their last hold in Tunisia. On both the north and south fronts, German counter-attacks were fol lowed by successful Allied thrusts that wrested mountainous terrain from the enemy and forced the Axis armies nearer to their last-stand po sitions. In the north, the British First army pushed southeast after repel ling major enemy assaults in the Medjez-el-Bab sector, destroying more than one-third of the Nazi tanks opposing them. In the north, General Montgom ery's British Eighth army made im portant gains in the strategic hill country north and west of Enfida ville which brought it closer to Tunis. Meanwhile, bombers of the Allied tactical air force kept up constant attacks against the few remaining Axis-held airfields. RUSSIA: Caucasus Front Active Continuing to employ "strive at any cost" tactics, German armies in the Caucasus kept up full-scale attacks against the Russians in the Kuban delta despite heavy losses and lack of success in the early stages. Two objectives were included in the Nazi plans, military observers believed. One was to relieve So viet pressure on the enemy's bridge head at Novorossisk. The other was to build up the momentum of a drive that might be the prelude to a new Axis spring offensive. As the fighting increased in in tensity, the activity of the opposing air forces was stepped up. German communiques reported that the luft waffe was straffing Red supply bases on the Black sea coast. So viet communiques revealed that while Red airmen had broken up one enemy effort to ferry reinforce ments across the Black sea to Novo rossisk, the Germans had succeeded later in providing substantial rein forcements for their army in the Caucasus bridgehead. POSTWAR FINANCE: Congress Holds Reins Voting to extend for two years the President's authority over the $2,000,000,000 currency stabilization fund, the house adopted an amend ment designed to prevent the use of this money in the $5,000,000,000 in ternational banking fund proposed by Treasury Secretary Morgenthau for a postwar world bank. The senate had previously with drawn the President's power to de value the dollar while approving continuance of his power of the sta bilization fund. In effect, the house amendment introduced by Representative Reed of Illinois gave congress control over the $2,000,000,000 stabilization fund and the proposed postwar bank ing fund. House leaders indicated that congress would provide funds for the latter, in the event it was set up. U-BOAT DAMAGE: More Ships the Remedy Calling submarine losses of United Nations' shipping "heavy but not disastrous," the Truman senate committee revealed that approxi mately 1,000,000 tons a month were sunk last year?or more than the total tonnage built by the United States and Britain combined in 1942. Adding that losses were reduced in the latter months of the year, the report declared: "The submarine menace can and will be effectively met." Most effective answer to the U-boat threat will be increases in new construction of merchant ships and escort vessels this year, the committee said. The report esti mated that between 18 and 19 mil lion deadweight tons will be built in 1943, compared with 8,000,000 tons last year. Increased speed for newly con structed ships was promised through the building of new Victory models and the redesigning of Liberty ships to permit speeds of 15 to 17 knots compared with 11 knots for the pres ent design. VACATIONS: Public Must Co-operate Summer vacations by train tor Americans remained a probability in spite of a ruling by the Office of Defense Transportation that no ad ditional summer train service re quiring the use of Pullman sleep ing car equipment would be author ized. Rail officials expressed the belief that regular services would be sufficient to accommodate vaca tionists if the public is willing to accept inconveniences and co-oper ate by spreading travel throughout the week. umy exception to tne curtailment policy, the ODT stated, will be "coach trains operated in the pe riod between Saturday noon and Sunday midnight utilizing primarily commuter equipment otherwise idle in that period and additional trains of semi-commuter type operated on other days, of the week within a , radius of approximately 50 miles of : a terminus." All other requests for extra coach or parlor-car train service for daily, tri-weekly or week-end summer op erations will be denied, the ODT in dicated. DRAFT: Payrollers on Call Probability that many of the 840, 000 draft-eligible men on govern ment payrolls would be inducted into the armed forces was seen in the selective service's ruling that federal workers could not be de ferred for occupational reasons ex cept through examination of individ ual cases by a special presidential committee. Up to the present, thousands of government workers had been given deferred classification as essential. Selective service announced that effective May 15, the 8,500 local boards must submit monthly to Ma jor General Hershey, for transmis sion to congress, the names and numbers of federal employees clas sified as 2-A or 2-B, the classes of deferment for occupational reasons. POISON GAS: British Ready Prime Minister Churchill hao warned the Nazis several times pre viously that the use of poison gas on any front would result in imme diate retaliation by the British. Now he cautioned the enemy again, add WINSTON CHURCHILL ing that he had received report* that "Hitler is making preparations tor using poison gas against the Rus sian front." Munitions centers, seaports and other military objectives throughout the whole expanse of Germany, he said, would be the target of British gas attacks should the Nazis use this weapon against the Russians. Increasing Allied mastery of the air plus the fact that Britain had stepped up its chemical warfare preparations in the last year lent an ominous note to the British statesman's warning. South American Jungles Throb With New Rubber Boom; Scientific Methods Are Used to Protect Native Harvesters * Old Industry Revived in Neighboring Tropics; Transportation Biggest Problem as Countries Lack Rails and Roads; V. S. Grows Rubber in Miami. In this crucial year of 1943, Latin America will have contrib uted more than 50,000 tons of natural rubber to the United States war industry stockpile, according to estimates compiled from official sources. In 1944, natural rubber production south of the Rio Grande will have doubled, or perhaps exceed 100,000 tons. At the same time U. S. horticulturists'announced success in growing the Hevea rubber tree in the experimental station at Miami, Fla. Fourteen American republics, besides British Guiana and Trin idad, have signed agreements with the United States, calling for a substantial increase in the cultivation and collection of natural rubber. These nations are Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nic aragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. In Brazil alone, about 50,000 workers have been recruited for the purpose of extracting the milky sap from wild rubber trees. in order to get natural rubber out*' of trackless jungles and remote places, new transportation systems making use of donkeys, canoes, steamboats, airplanes, human car riers, etc., have been organized. Medical stations along the routes have lessened, but not eliminated, the hazards which threaten every man who works in the jungles. The natural rubber needed by United States tanks, airplanes, jeeps, artillery, etc., must be ex tracted from wild and cultivated trees scattered over an area en compassing hundreds of thousands of square miles. In order to protect rubber har vesters against feveri, animals, and insects, the Latin American coun tries, aided by United States govern ment health officials, have created modern sanitary centers, where pre ventive medicine is taught and treat ment given to rubber collectors and their families. Once Rubber Center. Brazil forests, of course, yield most of this hemisphere's present supply of natural rubber. There, in the Amazon valley, natives first found the gummy substance that plays such an important part in modern war. Before seedlings of "Hevea Braziliensis" had been ex ported from Brazil and exploited commercially in the Dutch East In dies and the British Malay Straits Settlements, the Brazilian industry enjoyed a heyday. In order to mar ket their natural rubber, Brazilian piomoters had built the costliest railroad in the world. When rubber was a Brazilian monopoly, it fetched as high as three dollars per pound. However, not even in its balmy days did Brazil produce as much rubber (42,400 tons) as it is con tributing in 1943 to a United Na tions victory. According to the co ordinator of Brazilian economy, Joao Alberto Lins de Barros, Brazil in 1943 will produce 45,000 tons of natural rubber; and 1944 s estimates call for 75,000 tons. The future holds even greater promise for rubber from South America's largest country. That is because commercial plantations, similar to those in tbe Orient, are well on their way to production, and it is anticipated that by 1945 these plantations will yield more rubber than the millions of wild rubber trees in the Amazon valley produce at present. Some Brazilian rubber is trans ported by airplane from jungle de pots to the Atlantic port of Belem, whence it is shipped northward. With the exception of eight or ten thousand tons which Brazil requires for domestic industry, the entire production is exported to the United States. Among South American rubber producing nations, Ecuador ranks second. The figures of 1942 pro duction have not been announced, but in 1941, when Brazil produced 17,500 tons, Ecuador yielded 1,500 tons. Indians Want Beads. The Yum bo Indians, a source of rubber workers in the Ecuadorian forest, are not attracted by money j in any form. On the other hand, they covet colored beads and ma chetes. The Ecuadorean Develop ment corporation understands native tastes and is now supplying the Yum bos with trinkets and useful ar ticles, like scissors, razors, salt, mir rors, and even, rifles. Colombian forests are already yielding two tons of rubber daily, all trans-shipped by the same air planes which supply the workers with their needs. In Colombia, rubber exploitation is supervised by a committee made up of representatives of the Colom bian government, the United States embassy, and the Rubber Reserve corporation. A service of floating hospitals and dispensaries has been organized to look after the rubber workers in the / Colombian Jungles. This Is in co operation with the Institute of Inter American Affairs in Washington which aids local authorities in the work of hygiene and sanitation. The same procedure has been followed in other countries. Last February an agreement be tween the United States and Peru provided that South American re public with an airway system for transporting rubber from the forests to river and seaports. By the end of 1944 it is expected that Haiti will be producing 10,000 tons of natural rubber per annum, which will be marketed by SHADA (Societe Haitiano-Amerlcaine de De veloppement Agricole), an organiza tion set up by the governments of the United States and Haiti. One hundred thousand acres have been sown with "cryptostegia," a rubber producing plant that grows very rapidly. Thousands of Haitians have Workers Up the Hesea rubber tree at the U. 8. agricultural experi menUl station at Miami, Fla. The U. 8. has experimented with tJM species, and satisfactory results have been obtained. been engaged to attend the planta tions. "Cryptostegia" originated in Mad agascar and reached Haiti ia 1912 as a decorative plant. Since then it has spread without assistance over many parts of the island. Combat Leal Blight. Dr. E. W. Brandes of the U. S. department of agriculture is enthu siastic about the progress made by the Americas in combating rubber plant diseases. The South American leaf blight, he said, is being con quered by development of disease resistant trees. These hardy trees in turn are being crossed by hand pollination with high-yielding Orien tal rubber trees further to improve yields. Victory over the leaf disease is a great forward step in the hemi sphere's rubber expansion program, said Dr. Brandes. On one of the Ford plantations In Brazil, a million trees fell victim to its ravages, but it was observed that a few full, leafy canopies of healthy trees stood out sharply against a background of pest-ridden neighbors. This meant that the blight, carried from tree to tree by wind-blown spores, had not infected them. They were immune. Scientists then bud-grafted the im mune tops to other trunks and pro duced a high-yielding, disease-resist ant plant. The work of developing the resistant tree by the system of cross pollination is an arduous task, but it is ultimately the best solution to the problem. It is being done on a large scale in Brazil, where lies the hemisphere's greatest potential supply of latex. Meanwhile horticulturists at the Federal Plant Introduction Garden, Miami, Fla., have been experiment ing with "home grown" rubber trees. Proof that progress has been made was demonstrated recently by the Bureau of Standards in Washing ton, D. C., which produced a pair of rubber heels from the latex ol "Hevea Brasiliensis" trees growing in Florida. The experiment cost the department of agriculture 17 years of research and thousands of dollars but government chemists re ported the quality of the latex com pared favorably with East Indian. In this promising test-tube rubber plantation are growing more than 2,000 Hevea from Haiti, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the East Indies. It is the only rubber project on planta tion scale ever attempted outside the tropics. Some of the trees are 33 feet high and ten inches in di ameter. Tree Survives Florida Chine. For a tree whose natural habitat is in the region of the equator, the Hevea's endurance and adaptabili ty to temperate climate has amazed scientists. Periodic measurements have shown that its early growth has been as rapid in Miami as in Haiti and Mexico. Its resistance to cold weather has been incredible, sur viving temperatures as low as 28 degrees. Like many northern trees it has been found to shed its leaves in winter, reducing frost danger and making it particularly well-suited to Florida cultivation. The entire rubber reserve has sprung from seeds, many of which were sown nearly two decades ago. After sprouting from seedbeds the young trees were transplanted into deep depressions near the water-ta ble so the tap roots could find per manent moisture. Hie creamy. white latex tapped recently was a welcome light to the botanists who had cared for them so long. Experts have found that treei grown from selected East Indian seeds in the Florida garden has pro duced a higher yield of latex in general than miscellaneous Hevea from other tropical lands. Experi ments in hand pollination have been tried with marked success to deter mine its possibilities. Two methods of tapping have been tried?the half spiral every other day, and the full spiral, every three or four days. The half spiral has proved most desirable, enabling workers to re tap over the old scars every seventh year. As in most rubber trees a purer and slightly in creased flow of latex is found to ward the lower trunk. Technicians do the tapping here. Two grooves are cut into the tree with a regulation tapping knife?an oblique cut to start the flow of la tex and a vertical channel cut to guide it to the spout which empties into a glass receptacle held to the tree by a wire holder. In the well equipped laboratory of the Introduc tion Garden the chemist coagulates the latex with ascetic acid. It is then rolled, washed and dried, and the samples sent to Washington for study. Operation of the station at Miami has been generally overshadowed by other steps taken to relieve the rub ber shortage in the United States. Much publicity has been given to the effort to bring the guayule shrub into cultivation in the Southwest. A variety of chemical compositions have been exploited for their rub bery characteristics. And, of course, there is the government's vast syn thetic rubber program, utilising oil and grain. Who's News This Week By Delos Wheeler Lovelace Consolidated Features.?WNU HhIhhm. M EW YORK. ? Tremendous old 1 ~ Phineas Taylor Barnum (P. T. to historians) swung to the bead of the circus parade alter Jenny Lind it i L o ? u h>d trilled Unlike P. T., New one Circus Chief Can hundred and Do Own Warbling nights tor his $1,000 per night performance. The new president of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey's swings in front alter lifting his own baritone voice in sang tor many years. Robert Ringling was an op eratic star, too. And good! "Why not?" his mother said when he start ed in the family business a few years ago. "He can't go any far ther in opera." Taking the presidency of his fam ily show, Ringling preserves a fam ily tradition sixty years old and over. The seven Rhig'lmg brothers, of whom his father was fifth, roiled their first little acts out of Bar a boo. Wis., in 1883. In an era of trusts they got the idea quickly, bought Barnum and Bailey's and finally merged it with their own. Robert Singling, Ut upwards of thirty years, watched their performances with ne totcrcst at all. Barring fear years spent to hobbles after atetog a high schsai football game at the price a# broken hip banes, he went right an becomtog a Sanger. Be made his be bat at twenty-firs to Tampa, Fla. He sang aH ever Germany, and then with toe Chs cago Civic Opera. He had a rep ertoire, const 'em, st 194 rales, toe best of them Wagnerian. Since 1939 he has been chiefly with the circus. Age will hardly stop him. He is only 46, stocky, be spectacled, gray-haired and quiet. And certainly he isn't likely to find a bigger job. He heads up the vast est amalgamation at marvels, mas todons and muscularity man has ever seen. Tarquin the Younger would pop his eyes to see what has grown out of a few simple tricks he thf ighc up 2200 years ago to make a Roman holiday. m? r\R HERBERT VERE EVATT. ^ in Washington now from Aus tralia to talk a few wrinkles out at the troubled state cf affairs in the P? Perhap, He Cone ^'0 Our Boya Idea of some first Mixed Marriage, *"d evi dence about the mixed marriages that American soldiers down under seem to look upon with such high favor. His wife was Miss Mary Alice Shoffar of Ot tumwa, Iowa. Evatt was a brilhaat member of tbe Aastraliaa High Cewrt beach oatil the war eaeae aa aad be gatt to help mere dbeetly ia the good Igbt. Bo had riaibid the beach at 3C, the yaaagost man eves appointed to sack a coart in ah the British empire. Forty-aine now. bo Is nngaisii drst scholars, Ustoriaaa aad Je rists. These last three years he baa been a member of Prime Minister Car tin's Labor government, and it is as minister of external affairs that ha comes to the United States. This is not his first visit. A lecturer hi philosophy and English, he has spo ken often at various American uni versities. ?? V OW that Sir Richard T. D. Ac A ' land's Common Wealth party has elected its first man to parlia ment England's older parties may To~ed Hi, W?Uth Te Let, Favored They' have Felloai EnglUhmen bee. doing so through the four previous by elections in each of which a Common Wealther ran. All four lost, but even so the vote was too close for comfort. Tall, spectacled, baldish at J7, Ac land talks about his new party as though it combined the ripe virtues of the Townsend plan and Louisi ana Long's Every-Man-a-MIHonaire chib plus some choice Russian cut tings. "We want," he says, "to amalgamate Russia's economy with our own political system." One of his notions is that old school millionaires are finished. In proof be un-millionaired himself last February, gave his total interest in 17,000 acres of the storied Loma Doone country to the National Trust. A cozy $30,000 inherited from his fa ther went into the hopper, too. He proposes to support his wifo and two sons on his pay as a member at parliament and his earnings aa ? writer.