The Alamance Gleaner
Vol LXIX GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1944 Na 48
WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS
Red Army Drives Toward Baltic Sea;
Partisan Forces Ban Jugoslav Ruler;
Allied Heavy Bombers Smash German
Gun Installations in Northern France
(EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinion* are expressed In these column*, they are these of
Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and net necessarily of this newspaper.)
___________ Released by Western Newspaper Union.
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PACIFIC JITTERBUG: Doughboy* OB captured Makin island in the
Central Pacific watch somber little satire hula dance.
EUROPE: v
Blast Rocket Guns
While U. S. and British troops bat
tled the Nazis at close quarters in
southern Italy, waves of Allied
bombers rumbled over northern
France to smash at German rocket
gun installations.
Both on the U. S. Fifth and Brit
ish Eighth army fronts in southern
Italy, doughboys and Tommies en
gaged the Germans in hand-to-hand
fighting, Lieut, pen. Mark Clark's
men fighting for mountain peaks
flanking the road to Rome, and Gen.
Bernard Montgomery's warriors
striving to clear the path to the
highway hub of Pescara.
As reports continued to seep into
Britain and the U. S. of the Ger
* mans' new rocket gun capable of
hurling an explosive charge of from
T to 21 tons about 20 miles. Allied
bombers combed the French chan
nel coast around Calais to blast at
the installations for the new weapon.
Ban King
Charging that the war minister
of the Jugoslav government-in-exile
naa maue a lasting
deal with the Germans
and organized civil
strife against patriotic
elements, Josip (Tito)
Broz's communist
backed Partisan forces
forbade King Peter's
return to the country
until after the war.
Broz's action followed
the attachment of U.
S., British and Russian
officers to his staff, as
King Peter
a result of the Allies preference for
the Partisan forces over King Pe
ter's Chetniks because they have
been offering the Germans more re
sistance.
Further, Broz's political council
canceled all treaties and interna
tional obligations of King Peter's
government, on the supposition it no
longer was representative of the
people.
VETS:
Discharge Pay
To every vet discharged after 18
months of service overseas would go
$500 under provisions of a bill passed
by the senate and sent to the house
for consideration.
Vets serving abroad for 12 to 18
months would be paid $400 and those
less than 12 months, $300. Vets with
12 months or more service in the
U. S. would get $300, and those with
less than 12 months, $200.
In the house, 44 representatives
have organized for higher discharge
payments, favoring Rep. William
Lemke's bill providing $100 on re
lease and up to a year's pay.
RUSSIA:
Match Wits
Russian and German generals
matched wits along an 800-mile front
as winter fighting flared to major
proportions in the east.
While the Reds surged into Ger
man lines guarding the Baltic re
gion, the Nazis threw strong tank
forces against the Russians on a
400-mile stretch further to the south.
Thus did one attack act as a lever
against the other.
The Russian drive was ooncentrat
ed on reaching the shores of the Bal
tic sea: (1) to cut off Nazi armies
In the Leningrad region from those
Xthe south, and (2) to cut off ship
g at present helping supply them
ever Baltic lanes.
RAIL STRIKE:
FDR Intervenes
Seeking to avert a strike of 1,450,
000 railroad workers which threat
ened to tie up the nation's whole
transportation system, President
Roosevelt acted to bring the unions
and owners together, while orders
were drawn for U. S. operation of
the lines in case negotiations failed.
Following a suggestion of FDR,
the basis for compromise seemingly
lay in payment of overtime to the
rail workers after 40 hours, instead
of after 48 hours as has been the
case.
For the 350,000 operating employ
ees of the roads, the overtime pay
coupled with a flat four cents an
hour wage increase, would result
in an average hourly boost of eight
cents.
Besides the eight cents an hour
for which they threatened to strike,
the 1,100,000 non-operating rail em
ployees also proposed overtime pay
over 40 hours. Under their terms,
their average hourly increase would
exceed eight cents.
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC:
Things to Come
A thorn in the Allies' shipping
lanes to the Southwest Paciflc, Ja
pan's Marshall islands took heavy
poundings from U. S. army and
navy planes, while off to the New
Britain area, Yankee airmen blast
ed the enemy's supply centers of
Wewak and Cape Gloucester.
In both cases the destructive aeri
al bombardment presaged ground
action. As a springboard for future
ground operations, U. S. troops stood
on the Gilberts, to the south of the
Marshalls, and in New Britain,
doughboys recently landed at Arawe
consolidated their positions and
poised to the north, looking toward
the Cape Gloucester region from
which the enemy has been supply
ing its embattled troops on New
Guinea to the east.
To meet the Allies' challenge to
their whole defensive system in the
Southwest Paciflc, the Japs strength
ened their air forces throughout the
area, and poured in supplies for
their troops.
Stays on Job
"MacArthur for President!"
A rallying cry for some politicians,
a popular topic for the man on the
street, these three big
- woras nave tended to
color the 1944 presiden
tial picture.
Recently MacArthur
talk received two strong
stimulants:
First, there was the
war department's rul
ing that there was no
bar to any officer ac
cepting a political nom
ination,
r Second, the rumor
General
MncArthni
ga incu V.U11C11V./ Mia I
the cocksure chieftain of the South
west Pacific was preparing to return
to the U. S. for conferences in Wash
ington, D. C.
It was pointed out that Mac Ar
thur's reigning goal is to lead Allied
armies bade into the Philippines.
However, from General MacAr
thur's advanced headquarters in
New Guinea's jungles, a spokesman
for the general said: "There is no
foundation whatsoever for the state
ment that General MacArthur ex
pects to go to Washington in the near
future for conferences."
BOLIVIA:
New Government
First order of business on the new
Bolivian revolutionary government's
calendar was compensating survi
vors of the 19 striking tin miners
shot by troops under direction of
the ousted Gen. Enrique Penaranda
last December.
As calm was restored in the coun
try, U. S. withheld recognition of
the new government, to determine
whether it was a successful pro-Axis
coup in view of the fact that the
guiding light of the movement, Paz 1
Estenssoro, was once locked up in j
connection with pro-Nazi activities.
U. S. interest in Bolivia centers '
around its rich tin and quinine re- ]
sources, among the last left to the '
Allies following Japan's occupation .
of Malaya and the Indies. The revo- '
lutionists have expressed a desire
to continue favorable business rela- 1
tions with the Allies, a matter on 1
which General Penaranda himself 1
had hedged.
STORAGE:
Seek to Ease Glut j
With U. S. food storage facilities
crammed, many meat packers have |
been selling pork products below ,
ceiling prices or in carload lots at a .
discount. At the same time, it was ]
revealed that the War Food admin- .
istration prepared an order restrict
ing storage of such meat special
ties as hogs' heads, bones, ox tails,
tripe, hearts and liver to 10 days
without permit.
Meanwhile, WFA extended its
price support of $13.75 per hundred
weight to 270 to 300 pound hogs,
because, (1) packers have been buy
ing bargains outside of the 200 to
270 pound support range and guar
anteed weights have been piling up
in the yards; (2) farmers have been
sending 200 to 270 pounders off to
market to get the $13.75 top.
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CORN BORER:
New Treatment
Irked by the corn borer's dam
age, 29-year-old John Bell of Wat
seka. 111., hit on the idea of curbing
the pests by making the stalk of the
plant distasteful.
A soil expert for a fertilizer con
cern, Bell worked for three years on
his project, reaching the point where
he planned to submit his product to
the University of Illinois' agrono
mists for testing.
Mixing commercial fertilizer with
combinations of minor plant food es
sentials, Bell spread his product over
1V4 acres of a 42-acre corn plot in
fested by borers. Shortly after. It
was seen that the borers began leav
ing the treated tract, which yielded
22 bushels more than the other acres.
Although the compound absorbed
by the stalk is unpalatable to the
borers, it is not toxic to livestock,
tests showed.
GREAT BRITAIN:
Migrations Planned
Actual contacts of many Britons
with the many parts of the king
dom's far-flung empire have aroused
their interest to resettle in Australia,
Canada, New Zealand and South Af
rica after the war.
Circulating among the population,
numbers of soldiers from the domin
ions have acquainted Britons with
opportunities existent in their coun
tries, and British youth now being
trained in South Africa have inter
ested folks about its wealth and cli
mate in letters home.
But while dominion representa
tives in London have been besieged
by inquiries as to taxes, education
and resettlement financing in their
countries, the dominion governments
themselves were said to be chiefly
concerned with reemployment of re
turning war vets before immigra
tion.
Washington, D. C.
FARM LAND BOOM
Secretary of Agriculture Wlckard
will soon trot up to Capitol Hill with
t proposed bill in his pocket to put
in end to the farm land boom. He
is keenly worried about speculation
In farm properties, has made a cou
ple of speeches on that subject, but
has not disclosed the full extent of
the penalties he will propose to stop
land speculation.
His bill carries a tax of 90 per
cent on profits from the sale of
[arms held less than two years. In
ether words, if a farm is bought and
then sold again in a few months,
the deal is obviously for speculation,
not for farm production, and the
profit would be practically confiscat
ed by the proposed tax.
Farm sales are so heavy that, if
the present trend continues, they
will surpass those of 1919-20, which
was a record year. Iowa farm
land, for example, in bringing $225 .
an acre.
Wickard has evidence indicating
that the men engaged in this specu
lative buying are not farmers, and
most of them are not even residents
of farm areas. They are investment
houses and insurance companies,
who have money lying around loose
and think they can make a killing,
as they did in World War I.
The record of their speculation in
that period is still written black on
the pages of farm history. It is seen
every time AAA makes benefit pay
ments, for the largest checks in
many states go, no? to individual
farmers, but to insurance companies
and banks which have bought land
or taken it over by foreclosing
mortgages.
Wickard is prepared for opposi
tion to his bill. However, the oppo
sition will come, not from farm ele
ments, but froni'IhaJfceculators, and
also from Wall street brokers who
fear that the next move might be a
capital-gains tax on stock-market op
erations.
? ? ?
ELK HILLS BOILS
Latest developments in the Elk
Hills oil controversy are known only
to those who can see the inner work
ings of the' cabinet.
Attorney General Biddle was ex
pected to denounce the navy's con
tract with Standard Oil of California
as illegal. The reason he didn't is
that two cabinet colleagues got next
to him and changed his tune.
Experts in the justice department
have declared the contract definite
ly illegal, and passed their findings
along to Biddle. Biddle, in turn, was
expected to tell the house naval af
fairs committee the same thing, with
the result that congress would un
doubtedly recommend condemna
tion. Thus, Standard of California
would relinquish all the property to
the government.
But when Biddle appeared before
the committee, he pulled his
punches. Instead of declaring the
contract illegal, he merely stated
that he had "grave doubts" about it.
The committee was expecting a
forthright statement. Even its
chairman, Congressman Vinson of
Georgia, who is very close to navy
officials, privately favors condemna
tion.
Secret of what happened is this.
Two cabinet colleagues got hold of
Biddle's coattails. One was Secre
tary of the Navy Knox, who was
responsible for the contract in the
first place; the other was Harold
Ickes, whose Petroleum administra
tion is headed by a Standard Oil of
California executive. A
The fight is not over. I Look for
fireworks in public hearings before
the committee next month.
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SUBSIDY ISSUE POSTPONED
The 9-8 vote by which the Bank
head anti-subsidy bill was defeated
in the senate banking and currency
committee came as a surprise to in
siders.
When they first took it up behind
closed doors, most members of the
committee figured that the bill would
be reported out favorably and that
Roosevelt would suffer a resounding
defeat on subsidies. As it turned
out, the deciding vote for subsidies
was cast by Republican Senator Jo
seph Ball of Minnesota, whom Bank
head supporters considered in their
sati-subsidy camp.
Terrific pressure had been exerted
on Ball by some of the big dairy
interests in his state. However, the
young Minnesotan is a fearless
statesman who believes in putting
the interests of the nation and of the
majority of the people over special
or state interests. He not only voted
against the inflationary Bankhead
MIL but also against the Taft com
promise which was licked by a lop
sided vote.
Master Mentalist' Finds Thought Reading
Easier Than Addition; Challenges Skeptics!
Dunninger Denies
'Supernatural' Aid,
Credits Telepathy
By ALBERT J. PUGNER
Reiautd by Wtatarn Newspaper Union.
Arithmetic was tough for Joe
Dunninger. So he found an easy
way to get the answers. He just
read them from the minds of his
teacher and classmates.
This was fun, so after school Joe
tried reading others' minds. He soon
found out, says he, that If a person
would concentrate upon any simple
question for a second, he could tell
exactly what that person was think
ing. Today, 35 years later, Joseph
Dunninger is still reading others'
thoughts on the radio, over the tele
phone, and, previously, on the
stages of America and most foreign
countries.
After relating how he discovered
his thought-reading ability, Dunnin
ger, a tall, solid man with receding
hair and searching eyes, empha
sized:
"There is nothing supernatural
about my work, and I am not a for
tune teller."
Those are the words with which
he usually opens his weekly per
formance before a visible and radio
audience. A few seconds later ha
calls from his desk on the stage:
"Someone is thinking of Harriet.
Will that person please riseT"
A woman in the audience rises.
Dunnlnger asks her: "Have we ever
met before, madame?"
"No," she answers.
"Very well." continues Dun
nlnger. "You are thinking of a Har
riet Davis. Her address is 8217
South Campbell street. Is that cor
rect?"
"Absolutely," gasps the woman.
Dunnlnger calls out, "I seem to
get a word that looks like Baylor, j
It seems to be a university."
A military officer stands up.
"Is that your thought, sir?"
The officer nods and Dunnlnger
calls out with great emphasis: "Do
you swear that I have prearranged
nothing with you and that you have
not revealed this information to any
one in the audience?"
"I do, sir," answers the officer.
"Very well," says Dunnlnger.
"You are thinking of Baylor Uni
versity In Waco, Texas. You stud
ied there, and now you are thinking
of the course you took. Chemistry
and pre-medical. Is that right?"
"It certainly is," answers the of
ficer
Judges Check Show.
Carefully watching these strange
proceedings are three Judges seated
near Dunninger. They are usually
famous persons such as U. S. Sen.
Hattie W. Caraway, Paul Whiteman,
Judge Edward R. Koch of the New
York Supreme court, and John A.
Zellers, president of the Advertising
Club of New York, all of whom have
acted as observers on the program.
Recently, Maj. Lenox Riley Lohr,
president of the Museum of Science
and Industry, former general man
ager of the National Broadcasting
company, acted as a Judge and as
sisted Dunnlnger in what was de
scribed as "the greatest long dis
tance mental telepathy experiment
ever attempted."
Major Lohr, seated next to Dun
ninger in Chicago, 111., telephoned
Congressman William A. Rowan in
Washington, D. C. He asked Rowan
to select any volume of the Con
gressional Record, and then select
any three words on any page of
that volume.
"Tell Mr. Rowan to put his finger
on a word?any word," Instructed
Dunninger. Major Lohr relayed the
message. Dunninger quickly wrote
something on a large white sheet of
paper. "Now the second," he con
tinued, and immediately wrote
again. "And the third," he con
cluded.
"Now," announced Dunnlnger, "I
ask the Judges to initial this paper
I have*written on so they can iden
tify it, and then to place it in an en
velope and seal it."
Then Major Lohr asked Rowan
by telephone to reveal the words.
They were "Thanksgiving," "unani
mous," and "eonaent." The enve
lope was' opened. One of the judges
read Dunninger's words. They were
"Thanksgiving," "unanimous," and
"consent."
The paradoxical Dunninger con
stantly insists that his work is not
related to the supernatural and in
the same breath relates that he has
asked the United States navy to let
him make our battleships invisible
to the enemy. He's a magician, too.
When he gets bored reading
minds, he might be found on a stage
making an elephant or two disap
pear, sawing a woman into eight
pieces, or, if the sawing makes her
nervous, he'll just let her float in
midair.
But thought reading occupies most
of his time these days. According
to Dunninger, this is how it's done:
"The sender must concentrate
upon his thought. The receiver does
not try to form a preconceived idea
of what the thought will be, but
keeps his mind open and then ac
cepts the first impression without
question.
"I usually vision a black slate
and my impressions usually come
in the form of white writing or
Images upon this slate."
Sometimes Dunninger uses real
slates, as he did in Chicago when
entertaining a group of 4-H youths
at their 22nd annual congress. The
"Master Mentalist" called a young
farmer to the stage, handed him a
piece of chalk and a large slate,
then told the youth to leave the
room and draw any symbol upon
the slate.
This Time It's a Real Slate.
Dunninger picked up another
slate. Almost as soon as the youth
had left the room the "Master Men
talist" drew a large dollar sign
which he displayed to the audience.
The youth returned and held up
his slate. On it was a dollar sign.
Dunninger hopes to try a varia
tion of this feat with Walt Disney
of Hollywood soon. He will ask Dis
ney to draw Mickey Mouse, Donald
Duck, or any other famous animat
ed cartoon character. Dunninger,
seated in another room, or possi
bly ' another city, will try to read
Disney's mind and reproduce the
character.
"I am not an artist, but I believe
I can reproduce a fairly clear like
ness," he ventures. He probably
will succeed. For although he says
he is not a musician, he succeeded
in reproducing a bar of music writ
ten by Paul Whiteman while the
two men were separated by the
thick walls of different broadcasting
studios.
"Of course," explains Dunninger.
"1 go out on a limb when I read
single minds. Naturally, the mora
minds concentrated on the same sub
ject, the easier it is to receive that
subject. Therefore, in practicing
thought reading, it is best to start
out with a group of minds concen
trating on the same thought."
Some of the famous minds Dun
ninger has read are those of Theo
dore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge,
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor
Roosevelt, the duke of Windsor,
Thomas Edison and Pope Pius XII.
The "Master Mentalist" discusses
his strange art quite freely. He be
lieves it could be developed for use
in such fields as criminology, psy
chology and psychiatry, but he
thinks the time is a long way off,
because so little is known as to the
nature of thought reading. He be
lieves the reception is in the sub
conscious mind and "possibly may
operate as a radio receiving set."
A Mental Radio.
His theory is that he figuratively
twists dials until he hits wave
lengths on which he receives mes
sages or images.
Before a broadcast, he tunes up
by walking through the audience aq
he distributes slips of paper on
which they are to write theixj
thoughts. These slips stay in the
possession of the writers and every
one is urged not to show his slip td
anyone in the studio.
"Those slips are the explanation
of your mind reading act," wroto
one person to Dunninger. "Some
how or other you manage to read
them, probably when you walk down
in the audience." Another skeptic
wrote: "You take the slips away
from the people, read them, and re
turn them without the audience real
izing it"
He disposed of the slip theories
by reading several thoughts which
had not been written down. "I ask
people to write their thoughts," ex
plains Dunninger, "because it usu
ally makes those thoughts clearer in
their minds." As for walking in the
audience, Dunninger says he does
that "to become acquainted with
my subjects. It seems to make the
impressions come clearer and fast
er."
Skeptics Amuse Him.
Skeptics are constantly trying to
explain Dunninger's work in terms
other than telepathy. Sometimes
this is a source of amusement, says
he.
"Two or three men investigating
my work apparently were passing
notes to each other in the studio
during one Sunday afternoon broad
cast," Dunninger relates. "I kept
receiving impressions of these notes.
One note read: 'Dunninger walks
down in the audience.' Another eras:
'I'm a criminologist I don't get
this.' Some day I'm afraid I'll em
barrass one of these investigators
by reading his note over a nation
wide hookup.
"My work cannot be explained ex
cept as telepathy, and my after of
$10,000 to anyone who cut prays
that I use confederates, employees#
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THREE FAMOUS Kmum ?km taahm bu uystiM. Thon
u A. EStoaa. tka (rut tnristor, Barbara Bittea, tfca hetreai, aat MaJ.
i taw Lafcr, actaatM aad raJta axaeattra, wha rntetW la a startling ax
JOSEPH DCNNINGEB, who bills himself as the "Master Mentalist,"
tits at a desk before the studio audience during much of his program.
Sometimes he writes on a slate, or draws symbols that come to Mm from
his subjects' minds. The "Blue" on microphone refers to Bine network.
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