The Alamance Gleaner
Vol LXIX GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1944 No. 49
I WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS
Nazis Reel Under Combined Pressure
Of Heavy Air Attacks and Sea Losses;
New Air Blows Strike Japs in Pacific;
Fifth Army Steps Up Assaults in Italy
(EDITOR'S NOTE: When eplnlens ui expresses In these columns, they are these ef
Western Newspaper Unlea's news analysts and net necessarily ef this newspaper.)
_______ Released by Western Newspaper Union. _______J
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V
New Britain?Map shows points of U. S. landings on New Britain island
nt Arawe on south and Cape Gloucester on north. (See: Southwest Pacific.)
BVVASION:
Eisenhower Commands
t Hitler's high command shuttled
fzoops in western Europe as Amer
ica's tour-star Gen. Dwight D. Eis
enhower assumed command of Al
lied forces and the stage was set for
the big second front,
j Britain's Air Chief Marshal Ar
thur Tedder stood at General Eis
enhower's side as deputy command
er, with Britain's Adm. Bertram
Ramsay as the leader of naval
Jorces, and Britain's Air Marshal
Trafford Leigh-Mallory in charge of
all air forces.
1 As the Allies' supreme command
buried itself in the mass, of invasion
(detail, the tensed Germans reported
|ieavy aerial bombardment of their
channel fortifications and Comman
Bo attacks along the French coast
to test their defense. As the Ger
mans awaited the grand assault,
(Said Nazi Marshal Erwin Rommel:
Our defenses are technically cor
rect.
FORTRESS EUROPE:
JSfep Up Action
Bringing heavy artillery into play,
Lieut. Gen. Mark Clark's Fifth army
blasted the Nazis from strong points
blocking the 75-mile road to Rome,
"while farther to the east, the British
clambered past the enemy's Adri
atic bastion of Ortona, won after
more than a week of vicious street
to-street fighting.
As V. S. and British troops
punched- their way through the
Nazis' stiff mountain defenses in
Germany's Seharnborst.
southern Italy, aerial and naval war
fare in Europe stepped up.
Fleets of Allied bombers winged
their way over the English channel
to pound Nazi fortifications along
the French coast, and the RAF
rained another 2,234 tons of explo
sives on battered, hapless Berlin.
Following the British home fleet's
sinking of the 26,000-ton Nazi battle
ship Schamhorst off North Cape,
Norway, light Allied and German
naval units tangled in the Atlantic
off the French coast, with airplanes
being called into play to help sink
three enemy destroyers and a
speedy blockade runner.
RUSSIA:
Reds Advance
Delivering trip-hammer blows all
along the 800-mile Russian front,
Red armies surged forward again
in the south as Germany's harassed
high command shifted forces to
check the big push.
The Reds' heavy blows in the
south fell as German resistance stiff
ened in the north around Vitebsk.
Quickly shifting the gravity of their
attack, the Russ struck on a 110
mile front in the south, first punch
ing hard at Zhitomir, then punching
still harder above that railway hub
at Koresten.
This winter's Russian offensive
was a real slugging match, with each
side in the south primarily con
cerned with exhausting the other.
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC:
Bombings Jar Japs
Japan's great air and shipping
base of Rabaul on New Britain
came within closer
range of U. S. bomb
ing planes with the
marines' capture of
two air strips on
Cape Gloucester on
the western end of
the island.
Following up
heavy bombing
which helped crum
ple the enemy's
strong line of pill
boxes, the marines
stormed remaining
Jap positions with
Gen. Krueger
flame throwers. As the marines
advanced at Cape Gloucester, ele
ments of Lieut. Gen. Walter Krue
ger's Sixth army encountered heavy
resistance at Arawe to the south.
The Allies made increasing use of
air power to jar the Japs loose on
the wide Pacific front, dropping gas
oline tanks on enemy strong points
on Bougainville and sending fleets
of bombers to pound installations on
the Marshall islands.
AGRICULTURE:
Meat Production
Farmers received an all-time high
of four billion dollars for livestock
slaughtered under federal inspection
in 1943 as meat production also
reached an all-time high of more
than 24 billion pounds.
Fifty per cent more meat was pro
duced than during the 10-year pre
war average, but after allocations
to the government, civilian con
sumption was held to the prewar
rate of 132 pounds per person. Be
cause of rationing, however, sup
plies were more evenly distributed
than formerly.
Meat output for 1944 was estimat
ed at 25 billion, 600 million pounds,
of which 8 billion, 500 million pounds
will be required for military and
lend-lease purposes.
CCC Program
To help stimulate production and
fulfill commitments to support crop
and livestock prices, the Commod
ity Credit corporation spent 3V4 bil
lion dollars during the 1943 fiscal
year.
As of December 18, CCC possessed
32,898,338 bushels of wheat under
1942 loan, while 96,101,516 bushels
were redeemed. CCC wheat stocks
at that date totaled 86,928,000
bushels.
Principal objective of the CCC's
1943 program was to increase the
production of vegetable oils, dairy
and poultry products and meats, and
at the same time to underwrite OPA
price ceilings.
U. S. NAVY:
42 Carriers
The U. S. finds itself well equipped
as naval operations throughout the
world quicken, with Uncle Sam's
navy boasting of 42 aircraft carriers,
including sleek destroyer-escorts for
protecting convoys. The U. S. start
ed the war with seven.
Corsair and Hellcat fighter planes
taking off from the carriers' decks
have increased their striking power,
and a deadly new dive bomber has
been put in service. During 1943,
the navy trained twice as many pi
lots as in 1942, and three times as
many combat planes were sent to
the front.
During 1943, arming of merchant
ships was speeded, 4,000 now being
outfitted with weapons.
FOOD:
Chickens, Points
As the War Food administration
requisitioned J70 million pounds of
dressed chicken and fowl for the
government, OPA slashed point
values on canned vegetables and or
deI^ frozen vegetables point-free.
WFA's action was prompted by
the government's inability to obtain
more than 20 per cent of the fowl
they required in recent months, and
the army was said to be particularly
anxious to get the poultry for Sun
day dinners at camp and hospital
diets. Civilians may be little affect
ed by WFA's order, however, since
it does not apply to stock stored
after December 30, 1943.
Because of comfortable stocks of
canned green and wax beans, zero
point values were established for
them. A 10 per cent reduction in
consumer dhmands for canned peas
and tomatoes during the last two
months led OPA to chop their point
values for No. 2 and 2V4 cans to 15.
In an attempt to move frozen vege
tables from storage to make room
for record pork stocks, all point
values were removed.
RAILROADS:
Strike Off
Seeking to avert a threatened
strike after the switchmen, conduc
tors and firemen and enginemen had
refused his offer to arbitrate their
wage demands against the carriers.
President Roosevelt quickly seized
the nation's railroads for the gov
ernment.
Representing about 150,000 men,
the three unions had balked at pres
idential intervention even after the
trainmen and engineers accepted
FDR's proposal, as a result of which
they received an overall pay in
crease of 9 cents an hour.
Also accepting FDR's offer at the
last minute were the 15 non-operat
ing railroad unions representing
1,150,000 employees, who suddenly
agreed to a former government pro
posal of pay increases ranging from
10 cents an hour for the lowest paid
to 4 cents an hour for the highest
paid, but also insisted on overtime
compensation past 40 hours.
Biggest Year
Nineteen hundred and forty-three
was the greatest year in the history
of American railroads.
(1) 725 billion ton-miles of freight
were handled, a ton-mile equaling
one ton hauled one mile.
(2) Passenger traffic totaled 85 bil
lion passenger miles.
(3) Gross earnings exceeded 9 bil
lion dollars, although net operating
income amounted to 1 billion, 385
million dollars.
LEND-LEASE:
Aid to Russia:
With many of its great industrial
cities razed and natural resources
overrun, 314 billion dollars of lend
lease assistance bolstered Soviet
Russia in its critical hours.
To the Russ, the U. S. has sent
nearly 7,000 planes, 3,500 tanks, 130,
000 sub-machine guns, 150,000 trucks,
25,000 jeeps, 225,000 field telephones,
and 750,000 miles of field telephone
wire.
In addition, the U. S. has sent
1,000,000 tons of steel, 350,000 tons
of non-ferrous metal, 400,000 tons of
chemicals, 600,000 tons of petroleum
products, and more than 18,000
metal cutting tools.
Besides sending wheat, flour,
meats, fats and oils, the U. S. also
has supplied 10,000 tons of seeds to
Russ farmers.
Traffic Toll Drops
On the basis of reports for 11
months, the National Safety Conneii
estimated that America's traffic
death toil for 1943 would reach 23.MM,
13,HO below the prewar year 1941.
The north central region of the
C. S. showed the sharpest decrease
for the 11 month period, with 29 Shr
cent less fatalities than in the <1mi
lar period last year, me moonuin
region recorded a drop of 22 per
cent, the sooth central 24 per cent,
the north Atlantic 22 per cent
and the Pacific ( per cent.
Mount Vernon, N. Y., was the
largest city in the country without
a fatality in the first 11 months of
IMS, while among cities of 254,MS
population or more, St. Louis report
ed the biggest decline of 52 per cent
and Philadelphia the smallest with
1 per cent.
Thil wa* a fatal accidva t.
?????I
Who's News
This Week
By
Delot Wheeler Lovelace
Consolidated Features.?WNU Release.
XT EW YORK.?For this new year
' ol pell-mell war traffic the In
terstate Commerce commission has
elected to its chairmanship William
_ , _ .. J. Patter
Too* Railroading SOn, who
By Mail as a Call knows the
Boy; Head. ICC ?
tion system and its problems in war
or peace from the ground up. He
began studying them nearly hall a
century ago as a call boy.
Patterson became an ICC
member in 1939, but he has been
on its payroll for 30 years. He
was hired as an inspector of ap
pliances in 1914 when there was
a considerable stir abont safety.
The job expanded on til a score
of years later it turned into the
assistant directorship of the
commission's bnrean of safety.
Next Patterson went onto the ,
mechanical advisory committee
of the federal coordinator ol
transportation. Finally member
ship on the commission Itself
came from President Roosevelt.
Patterson made his first connec
tion with a railroad in Neenah, Wis.
He was born there, where the Fox
Indians used to hunt and do a lot of
fighting, only seven years after the
town was founded. A little while as
a call boy made him want a better
job. Correspondence courses were
new then, and well recommended
for kids who couldn't get other
schooling, so he studied air brake
and train operation by mail. That
started him up the railroad ladder
and finally he became a conductor.
At the peak of his rise he married,
fathered a son, a daughter. Later
he switched to the ICC. He Is 63
now.
?
U ITLER'S legions fall back and
11 the little kings whose little
countries lie just beyond the smoke
of battle turn more boldly toward
Hitler's ene
Gen. Royce Talks mies. Maj.
Of Oil, Tran*port Gen. Ralph
Kith,., mgyjg*
military commission sit down to 10
sheep served on heaped up rice by
shrewd warwise Ibn Saud, master
of the best of Arabia. The talk,
after chins are wiped, is of oil and
transport privileges. But once, at
least, the general certainly asked
about the weather. An airplane pi
lot who has flown his own ships
more than a million miles, he is
always a little worried about wind
and clouds and rain.
Koyee is American command
er in the Middle East, big, wide
jawed, with his military cap usu
ally cocked at a Beattie angle.
Be gets on with kings. A while
back Egypt's Faronk piloted
him on an aerial sightseeing
trip, though Royee could have
piloted Farouk even more skM
fnlly. He was one of the first
36 army officers to qnallfy as
fliers and in the last war led a
squadron of fighting planes in
France.
In this war he began by fighting I
the Japs in the Philippines and won '
a DSC and the DFC there to add to I
the Croix de Guerre he earned a
quarter of a century ago. Con
vinced that Germany can be beaten
from the air, he has commanded
in the Middle East since Septem
ber. Like most of the army's top
men he went to West Point.
?
A THIN, tireless Englishman
helps make the fliers of. the
Eighth air force safer than Milton's
"helmed cherubims . . . seen i
. .. . in glittering
Of a Long Line of ranks with
Tailort, This Son wings dis
Mahet Steel Vesfa Playe d"
He covers
more than the Americans' heads
with steel. They fly cap-a-pie. Well, i
nearly! If they aren't armed from
head to foot they wear, besides a
helmet, an armored vest. And it
turned blows like Lancelot's shield. I
This war makes less and less
sense. It uses every invention of
history's most mechanized age, but
the best protection for its cham
pions is copied from the days of old
when knights were bold.
A dozen years ago Leonard
Barratt of the classic Wilkinson
Swofd company tinkered np an
armored vest. Vests eame easy
to bim. His father, grand and
great grandfathers were tailors.
Some were sold, in the Battle
of Britain, to wives and sweet
hearts wanting extra protection
for their airmen. Nearly two
years ago Brig. Gen. Malcolm
Grow, Eighth air force surgeon,
heard of the dandy device. Scot
land Yard helped him run down
the maker and shortly Barratt
was working nntil all boars.
Farmers Get Set to Achieve Still Higher
Food Production as 1944 Planting Begins
WFA Calls for a 6%
Increase Over 1943's
Food Crop Acreage
Farmers all over America are
busy with preparations for their
1944 production battle. They
have set a goal of 380,000,000
planted acres, from which?in
cluding meat, poultry and eggs
?they expect to produce 4 to 6
per cent more than the 1943 food
record and enough vegetable
oils and fibers to meet essential
war needs.
That is an ambitious program, but
the War Food administration points
out that America's farmers have
reason for their confident outlook.
They've just closed the seventh suc
cessive year in which their intention
to produce more food than the year
before was fulfilled. Food produc
tion, at the beginning of 1944, has
reached a point 32 per cent higher
than before Pearl Harbor and 5 per
cent more than the 1942 record,
which many believed could not be
duplicated.
Acreages on most food crops will
be Increased in 1944, according to
planting goals set at fall meetings
of farm leaders in the agricultural
areas. National needs for farm
products, previously determined by
the War Food administration, were
presented at these sessions. Upon
the basis of these needs, the goals
were set.
Whether they are met or not will
depend upon many factors, the chief
one being the yield the farmer
gets from his land.
That yield, in turn, is influenced
first by weather. A farmer may have
the finest of soil, plus all the labor,
machinery and supplies he needs,
but if the weather is bad his crops
will not be up to expectations. On
the other hand, excellent growing
weather can do much to mitigate the
problems involved in labor and sup
ply shortages, and even low fer
tility of land. The past few years,
when records have been broken right
and left under conditions far from
fdeal except as to weather, make
this very clear.
Conservation Cps Yields.
It should be pointed out. however,
that conservation practices have
played an Important role in bringing
the productivity of United States
farms to its present all-time high.
Yields per acre have averaged 20
per cent more during the past five
years than during the previous 20,
and on some crops the increase
has been phenomenal.
The total acreage increase need
ed to meet the 1944 goal, most of
which will be devoted to food crops,
will be about 16,000,000 acres. Av
erage yields would result in ths
hoped for upping of production over
last year.
Chief increases in acreage planned
by U. S. farmers are SO per cent
more sugar beets, 24 per cent more
wheat, 23 per cent more peanuts, 21
per cent more dry peas, 19 per cent
more soybeans, 14 per cent more
sweet potatoes, 11 per cent more
fresh vegetables, and 9 per cent
more dry beans. Small increases
are set up for potatoes, sugar cane,
and vegetables for processing.
The farm goals also recommend a
2 per cent raise in total milk and
egg output, with a similar increase
in the number of dairy cows. A
slight decrease will be sought in
Amateur (armbands will be avail
able afatn this year, particularly
during the summer vacation period
when many city boys and girls are
willing to help raise food. This Long
Island, N. Y., high school girl
learned to milk during a four-week
course.
chickens and turkeys raised, totfeth- 1
er with a sufficient volume of live
stock slaughter to reduce the num
ber of meat animals on farms from
the record high reached in 1943. Such
a volume of slaughter would bring
an increase in total meat production
this year of 8 to 10 per cent, and
a 4 to 6 per cent increase over the
all-time high reached in 1943 for the
combined output of poultry, dairy
and meat products.
The number of milk cows on
farms on January 1, 1944, will be
large enough to permit realization
of the 121 billion pounds of milk set
as the year's goal, according to fig
ures from the Bureau of Agricultural
Economics. However, it is pointed <
out that the level of milk production i
during the year will depend to a
considerable extent upon the quan- i
tity of feed concentrates available i
to dairy producers. The feed situ
ation is expected to become tighter
as locally grown crops are used up
in areas where supplies are short.
Livestock feed will be one of the
chief problems in the northeastern
dairy states and in the southern
states where dairy farming is g
comparatively new enterprise. It
will enter into calculations every
where, however, and in some areas
maintenance of milk supplies may
necessitate cutting in on other crops
in order to provide sufficient feed.
The estimated feed-grain produc
tion for 1943 was 116 million tons,
7 per cent less than the record out
put of 1642, but 16 per cent higher
than the preceding five-year aver
age. While supplies of both wheat
and rye available for livestock feed
ing and by-product feeds may be
larger in the coming months, the
number of grain-consuming animal
units currently on farms is much
above normal and considerably larg
er than a year ago.
Cattle-feeding operations are ex
pected to be on a smaller scale than
last season as to the number of cattle
on feed, with shorter feeding periods
also indicated.
Double-Cropping Emphasised.
Another problem of national scope
is the continued need for double
cropping to make possible the plant
ing of some 15 million more acres
to crops than there is good growing
land to be planted. In 1M3 fanners
put 350,457,000 acres in crops on an
actual acreage of some 340 million
acres. This was accomplished by
the planting of two or more succes
sive crops on a given piece of land
which otherwise would have lain idle
after a single harvest for the year.
It is expected that inroads will
have to be made in 1944 on summer
fallow land, and that much idle land
of low productivity may have to be
brought into use if it does not seem
feasible to continue double-cropping
on certain farms or to Increase suf
ficient of the permanent crop acre
age to take care of the planting
goals. Pressure for cropland is go
ing to be heavy everywhere, says
WFA, but especially in the West.
Machinery problems are not ex
pected to be as severe in 1944 as
last year, although machinery for
harvest will still be less in quantity
than would be desirable. Some
planting equipment will be at a pre
mium, also. Relaxation of specified
restrictions by the War Production
board, and continued efficient appli
cation of the time-honored sharing
of equipment always a part of neigh
borly farming, will help alleviate
those shortages that must be over
come.
Labor, while it will be scarce
again in 1944, is not expected to pre
sent any unusual problems except
In specific areas. The main difficul
ty will probably be to get the work
ers where they are needed when
they are needed. As in 1943, farm
ers will have to rely in the peak
harvesting periods on voluntary help
from the urban centers.
Assembling and marketing of
crops, especially in the South, will
need some attention to make the best
possible use of the abundant har
vests to be sought during the year.
Marketing problems may be expect
ed to remain largely local in char
acter, and their solutions also local.
Conservation practices will re
ceive further emphasis in 1944, with
attention focused on those practices
which will increase production this
year and in 1945. The need is to
keep a cover on the land, prevent
immediate danger of erosion and ap
ply vitalizing material to the soil in
such forms as lime, superphosphate,
slag and other fertilizers, green
maftur? ''turn under" and legume
planting. These are all calculated
to aid in increasing yields as well
as in preserving the productivity of
the soil. j
Conservation problems vary with
the different regions, depending upon
topography, soil, climate and con
servation needs of each state. Four
points must he considered, say's
WFA, in determining the necessity
for any specific practices. They are:
1. Will it contribute to increased
production?
2. Will its returns be immediate
and substantial?
3. Is it easily understood, and. is
its performance practical for the
farmer? JX
4. Can it be easily and effective
ly administered?
For example, the use of more fer
tilizer is recognized as a major
method of increasing food produc
tion on the proposed acreage of crop
land, without increasing labor and
farm machinery requirements. The
use of fertilizer is estimated as prob
aDiy accounting for a minimum 20
to 23 per cent of total food produc
tion in 1644, if supplies are avail
able as anticipated.
Assistance Available.
Government aids to assist farmers
are available for the most part
through the County Farmer Commit
teemen of the Agricultural Adjust
ment agency and the County War
boards. These include help in pro
curing essential machinery and sup
plies, labor, information on market
ing and transportation, necessary
CTedit, and technical assistance of
various kinds. Certain types of
loans are expected to be available
which will aid food producers.
Overall objective of the 1944 farm
program, with its record-breaking
goals on acreage and production, is
to supply the largest amounts pos
sible for food, feed and fiber for war
without destroying future productiv
ity.
Emphasis will be on production of
crops with high food value for direct
human consumption. War demands
call for the right amounts of food,
the right kinds of food, and food in
the right places at the right time.
That is why producers are plan
ning to grow the things that will
stretch the food supply to the ut
most.
v'f?)
1944 GOALS
(PCfUENTACrE OVIft 1443 AcaiA&r AMP UNITS)
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