The Alamance gleaner
Vol LSX GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 1944 (Mgrch ^ ) q+4 7) Na 8
WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS
Nazi Force* Retreat Toward Rumania
As Russian. Regain Rich Farm S
Allied Troops Drive New Wedge Into'
German*' Main Defense Line in Italy
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Wfcea epinlaas art i
v*""" u??IT3L S M IS., .r. u?,
? Released by Western Newspaper "Zrl'rj
Italy?Row OB row, these iittlo white crosses in Mount Soprano cemetery
?ark the graves of fallen American Donghboys in Italy.
OPA:
Renewal Sought
Claiming that OPA has held war
time price increases to half the
________ level of World War I,
Price Administrator
Chester Bowles ap
peared before the
senate banking com
mittee to testify for
continuation of the
agency for another
year.
Following early in
creases to iron out
prewar depression
prices, the cost of liv
ing has been held ab
solutely stable durine
the last 11 months. Bowles said.
Asking lor retention ol present
posers, Bowles said OPA would con
tinue with present techniques for
keeping down prices, including sub
sidies, which he called essential.
Cattle Subsidy
To bring cattle off the range and
prevent a market glut in the fall,
OPA considered increasing packers'
subsidies by 30 cents to enable them
to offer higher prices for the stock
during spring and summer.
At the same time, government of- I
Scials considered placing a floor un
der medium and lower grade cattle
whose quality may be affected by
toe tight feed situation, with floors
lor the spring and summer above
those for the fall.
While increased subsidies were be
ing considered for cattle, lower sub
sidies were being studied for hogs,
in line with government policy for
decreased pig production. Now $1.30
? hundred pounds, the hog subsidy
nay be cut by 30 cents.
SOLDIER VOTE:
President Gets Bill
Passed by congress, the compro
mise soldier vote bill, allowing use
c'_ toe short federal ballot if cer- I
fined by the governor and state bal- I
lots are unobtainable, found its way
to President Roosevelt's desk for sig
nature or veto.
Cnce outspoken in his opposition |
to-a bill limiting soldier voting to
Hate ballots alone, the President I
took up the compromise measure J
with caution before acting, wiring 1
ail 43 governors to report to him
arether they would permit use of
toe short federal ballot, which only
5 toe presidential and congres
aamal offices without including the
?air.es of the candidates,
h the governors O.K. the short
hi kai'ot, servicemen will only
* able to use it if their states have
absentee voting laws, or if they
ve applied for state ballots but
' not received them.
RUSSIA:
Lkraine
j^^ny's remaining foothold in
?un . was loosened as Rus
_tooops smashed into Nazi lines
tmJ ? Bug fiver, and as the en
? forces fell back toward Ru
t^-toe Reds regained the rich
rr ?nd mineral land.
wtossa scored its military suc
? the south, Finland in the
ft* down Moscow's armis
to? lanw base^ 00 restoration of I'
r-.rrJy "Ofders and internment of I
km.-. ,r?ops entrenched in the
j* country.
Red tiill southern drive carried
Pi**,.*?5 to within 30 miles of the
fker . "mohian border, while far
within ,?e "ofhwest, they were 1
?dn.I mi,e* of toe old Czech I
Vhgarian frontiers.
Chester
Bowles
EUROPE:
Drive Wedge in Italy
Having driven a wedge into the
German's main defense line by lev
eling Cassino with a devastating
aerial attack by heavy bombers. Al
lied forces fought hard to advance
up the road to Rome and get at the
rear of the enemy hemming in U. S.
and British troops on the Anzio
beachhead.
Although the thunderous leveling
of Cassino left that once-fortified
village standing directly on the road
to Rome a pile of jumbled mortar,
Nazi guns established in the sur
rounding hills continued to rake Al
lied troops, making progress slow.
Preliminary to the big showdown
in the west, Allied bombers contin
ued to roar over Axis Europe, rip
ping at Nazi channel defenses,
France's network of rails over which
the enemy plans to shuttle troops to
meet invasion armies, and German
industries turning out the weapons
of war. To counter the raids, the
Nazis sent up swarms of fighter
planes, and great sky battles raged.
PACIFIC:
Troubled W ar-Lords
As U. S. army and naval forces
kept up a running fire over the en
tire Pacific area, Japan's jumpy lit
tle war-lords had this to worry
about:
Continued Allied bombings of Wee
wak, New Guinea, and Rabaul, New
Britain, feeder bases for Jap troops
in those regions.
U. S. control of the Admiralty is
lands lying along the supply route
to Rabaul.
General MacArthur's increasing
isolation of the 30,000 Jap troops
hemmed in on Bougainville island
in the Solomons, with the U. S. fleet
and air force in control to prevent
major reinforcement or general
withdrawal.
Navy and army bombers continu
ing attacks on the Jap fleet's big
outpost of Truk, guarding the en
trance into the waters of the ene
my's South Pacific empire.
DRAFT:
Tighten Deferments
In order to meet the services' de
mands for 1,160,000 men by July to
hrin? military _
strength to 11,
300,000, local draft
boards have been
directed to tight
en up on all de
ferments, particu
larly for those in
the 18-25 age
group.
Under the new
directives issued
by Selective Serv
ice Chief Lewis B.
Hershev. onlv in
dispensable employees, regardless of
family status, are to be deferred,
and only the state draft bead or na
tional headquarters is to pass on
any deferments for the 18 to 25 year
age group.
Only farm workers producing 18
units will be eligible for deferment,
and careful consideration will be
given to the cases of 470,000 farm
workers under 26.
While Selective Service pressed for
more men. General Hershey said few
of the 3,485,000 4Fs will be found ac
ceptable for military service. Only
about 11 per cent of those with de
pendents, including fathers, have
been taken thus far, he said, and
only about 1 in 10 will pass physicals.
Gen. Hershej
IRELAND:
Faces Isolation
Traditionally strained, Ireland'*
relations with Great Britain have
again tensed, this time over Lon
don's threat to completely isolate
the Emerald Isle from the outside
world if German and Japanese offi
cials are permitted to remain in
Dublin and carry on alleged espio
nage activities detrimental to Allied
invasion forces massed in the Unit
ed Kingdom.
Anxious to maintain its neutrality,
one reason being given that its cit
ies were open to destructive bomb
ings, Ireland replied that it could
not banish Axis diplomats without
inviting war, and insisted that it had
clamped down on any suspicious
enemy activity.
As the U. S. refused to sell Ireland
ships for carrying needed imports
and Britain closed all travel be
tween the two countries, Eire grim
ly awaited events, its economy al
ready hard hit by unemployment
caused by a scarcity of imported
raw materials.
COLD STORAGE:
More Meat, Produce
With cooler space 73 per cent oc
cupied and freezer capacity 92 per
cent filled, U. S. storage holdings as
of March 1 were at record levels, !
with only apples at a low mark.
Beef stocks aggregated 276,300,000
pounds; pork, 792,700,000 pounds; |
trimmings, 151,300,000 pounds; lard
and rendered pork fat, 354,300,000, of
which War Food administration held
200,200,000.
Frozen fruit stocks were 29 pel
cent over those of a year ago, frozen
vegetables 107 per cent, creamery
butter 792 per cent, cheese 85 per
cent, frozen eggs 75 per cent, and
poultry 117 per cent.
Knitting Vet
Ninety-two-year-old Mrs. Christine
Lorenzen of Clinton, Iowa, is an old
hand at knitting for the boys, having
first made mittens for Civil war sol
diers, and other apparel for vets of
the Spanish-American and World
War I conflicts. Now, Mrs. Loren
zen knits for the Red Cross for
World War II's heroes.
Declaring that Americans are suf
fering little deprivations compared
with Civil war days, Mrs. Lorenzen
said: "We had no coffee at all, and,
sometimes, little to eat bnt corn
bread."
WAGES:
Control Attacked
Labor's efforts to revise the War
Labor board's stabilization formula
limiting wage increases to IS per
cent over January, 1941, were
thwarted by the public's and indus
try's representatives on the board,
who advised holding off considera
tion until congress goes over the
whole question of price control.
In an effort to revise the stabiliza
tion formula, labor asked that the
President be requested to modify
the wage ceiling to reflect actual
living costs, and the War Labor
board hold public hearings to bring
out facts which might justify higher
pay. Steelworkers pressed for pub
lic hearings on their demands for a
17-cents-an-hour raise.
MONEY SYSTEM:
Shaped for World
Long in consideration, the United
Nations' plan for an international
money system after the war is tak
ing shape, with gold to play an im
portant part as a result of Russia's
support
Based on a plan drawn by the
U. S. treasury's monetary expert,
Harry D. White, the new money
system would require each country
to contribute a certain percentage
of gold and its own currency to a
stabilization fund, which would then
operate to prevent any nation's ex
change from rising or falling.
White's plan differs from Brit
ain's, which considered having each
nation contribute to an international
stabilization fund on the basis of its
prewar trade, thus tending to favor
countries which had heavy foreign
commerce.
With a comparatively small pre
war trade, Russia found the U. S.
plan more acceptable, thus swinging
the balance in its favor.
Notes of m
New Yorker
The Wirelesi: Radio historian
Harriet Van Home quotes a medico
as saying that listeners to the day
time soap operas expose themselves
to "increased blood pressure, noc
turnal frights, vasomotor instability,
vertigo, g astro ? intestinal disturb
ances, profuse perspiration, tremors
and a slight touch of tachycardia"
... Of course, that doctor is talk
ing about only those who LIKE the
programs . . . Marion Coveridge,
the minor (she's 14), packs a wallop
with her ballads Sunday ayems via
NBC . . . Too many radio jesters
really believe the studio audiences'
howls as legitimate. The result is
that the comics are getting care
less. What brings big laughter in
studios often brings yawns in the
parlors.
The Love Letter of the Week:
From Quentin Reynolds' book, "The
Curtain Rises": "Most of what I
wrote in the diary is nothing but
gossip. Still I suppose if a thou
sand years from now someone were
to dig up the Winchell columns of
the 1920s, he would get a pretty
clear picture of life here during
those hectic days. You cannot dis
miss gossip columns by saying they
discuss only trivial things. To a
great extent they reflect the age in
which we live."
Editorial Dep't Novelette: It hap
pened in the city room of one of the
Big Town gazettes . . . Two of the
boys were back to say hello . . .
One (who has never been out of the
country) wore the army oak leaf
. . . The other wore the gray-green
of the marines, with a couple of
hard-won stripes . . . Tippled and
blustering, the Major called upon
the Marine to salute . . . The kid re
sponded quickly . . . After all, he
had been only a copy-boy; the Ma
jor had been an editor, if you please
... It was a tight, tense moment
... A real editor looked up from
his work with studied puzzlement
. . . "Tell me," he said in clipped,
quiet, carrying syllables, "which one
of you was it who killed six Japs on
Guadalcanal?" . . . The Major
waddled out the door . . . The kid
was too modest.
Midtown Vignette: This is one of
those shawt-shawts that caress the
eyes and ears . . . He is a very
young member of a Fortress crew
now being rehabilitated aftdr serv
ice among the flak in Europe . . .
He has most of the campaign rib
bons but no ipedals for outstanding
heroism . . . Two of his buddies
have several . . . The lads had a
few hours leave last night and de
cided to go to one of the night spots
with their buddy and his bride . . .
And because he had no silver star
or other medals?the other two
didn't wear theirs. - - - ?
The Magic Lanterns: Hollywood,
which has too often pictured a kick
in a Jap's pants as the pay-off for
Pearl Harbor, gets down to cases
in "The Purple Heart." Here's a
flicker that brings the film colony
up to date. Its story gets inside
you and twists and burns with its re
port on the Sneakanese savagery.
The tale is told not with a ladle, but
with a typewriter of cold steel. Dana
Andrews, Sam Levene and Richard
Conte are superb as the captured
fliers . . . Nora Bayes gets her
biog sung and danced in "Shine On
Harvest Moon," a rich load of ye
old tyme nostalgia. Its typical of
the them-was-the-daysish musicals,
and you can't imagine anyone not
reveling in some of the memories at
the big town before it went soft on
crepes suzettes and laced shoes.
b (be forthcoming tlm of Nora
Bayes' life ? "Shine on Harvest
Moon," they omit this incident . . .
Nora once wired E. F. Albee, the
vaudeville magnate: "Beginning
next week my salary must be (10,
000 a week" . . . Albee replied:
"Tour salary will remain (1,000 per
week" . . . Nora opened as sched
uled, but after singing eight bars of
'Take Me Out to the Ball Gume"
she stopped the music and told the
audience: "That's $1,000 worth of
my act"?and walked off.
Tbea there's the awe a bo at the
playwright who was called upon to
make a curtain speech ... He ram
bled on and on, with words going
round and round looking for an idea
. . . When he came to the phrase:
"I am speaking for the benefit of
posterity"?a heckler in the audi
ence drove him from the stage with
the squelch: "Yea, and if you aren't
quick about it, they'll be along to
hear you."
American Seed Raisers Grow Record Crops
To Meet Unprecedented Wartime Demands1
U. S. Producers Must
Make Up for European
Imports Now Cut Off
In a remote outpost of New
Caledonia a sergeant bellows
from the door of a mess hut,
"Hey, Murphy, how about those
vegetables?"
"Coming right up, Sarge!"
And Private Murphy moves at a
fast clip from the camp garden,
laden with fresh vitamins and
minerals in the form of sweet
corn, tomatoes and string beans
for the evening meal.
This scene is not as fantastic as
it sounds, even in the middle of a
war, according to the War Food ad
ministration. It's a fact that Uncle
Sam is sending many hundreds of
tons of vegetable seeds to all parts
of the world with the armed forces.
Wherever a permanent camp is set
up, and other factors are favorable,
fighters who otherwise would get
none of the bulky, perishable vege
tables are themselves raising the
familiar things they know and like
with seed from home.
Seeds are so small, compared with
the vegetables they produce, that
they are an economical method of
exporting food via either steamer or
airplane. In European countries, for
example, as much as five tons of to
matoes can be raised from a single
ounce of seed. Rutabagas, another
favored vegetable there, will pro
duce as much as 500 bushels from
the seed contained in a pint jar.
The total vegetable supply, through
June, 1944, is estimated by the de
partment of agriculture at 391 mil
lion pounds. Of the allocable por
tion, (379,500,000 pounds), 73 per
cent or 277 million pounds will go
to American farmers, to Victory gar
dens?of which 22 million are
sought this year?and to other civil
ian consumption. This is a some
?"ai MU^CI ou^pij uuui was a??u
able in 1943. Some varieties to
which gardener* are accustomed
may not answer roll call this spring,
and there will be a scarcity of cab
bage seed, but no U. S. gardener,
says WFA, need be without plenty
of vegetables.
Another allocation of 9,600,000
pounds or 2.5 per cent goes to Lend
Lease outlets. About five million
pounds will be available to Russia,
and some four million pounds to the
United Kingdom. An additional 1.3
per cent, or about 4,450,000 pounds,
will be divided among the other Al
lied countries and liberated areas.
A total of 3,818,000 pounds, or 1
per cent, will be apportioned to U. S.
territories, the Red Cross, friendly
nations, etc. U. S. military and war
services will receive substantial
quantities.
All of these exports and shipments
total only 4.8 per cent of the total
seed allocation. The remainder of
; the allocable supply, 84 million
| pounds or 22.2 per cent, will go into
: what is known as "contingency re
serve," a reserve to be used as need
arises.
Seed needs during recent years
have made increasingly large de
mands on America's domestic tup
ply. Balancing available seed
against claims to bring about a fair
division among the claimant groups,
and assisting the necessary expan
sion in vegetable seed production,
has been a part of the War Food
administration's overall food pro
duction and distribution programs.
Seeds Came From Europe.
Small vegetable seeds were pro
duced almost entirely in continental '
Europe prior to 1939. When the out
break of war cut other supply lines,
it also stopped, for example, the
Importation of cabbage and cauli
flower seeds from Denmark and Hoi
land. Great Britain s growers, who
once looked to the European seed
market to answer most of their
needs, faced a serious shortage.
Seed requirements had increased in
accordance with a SO per cent acre
age increase, while the accepted
sources of supply diminished. Rus
sia suffered a dangerous domestic
seed source loss when Germany in
vaded the Ukraine. And other areas
were in similar difficulty.
As a natural result, production of
almost the entire load of vegetable
seed for world needs was assumed
by U. S. seedsmen.
What those growers accomplished
is history, and the prospect for 1944
is for a still further increase in acre
age and in yield.
The 1943 vegetable seed harvest
was the largest in United States an
nals, latest figures showing produc
tion of 355 million pounds. This is a
91 per cent increase over the three
year (1939-41) pre-Pearl Harbor
average of 186 million pounds.
Very few American farmers grow
vegetable seeds as their only cash
crop. However, many give vegeta
ble seeds first place, particularly in
the Pacific coast states. A govern
ment survey has shown that pro
duction of 29 out of 48 seeds topped
the 1942 record harvest for a total
increase of 21 million pounds over
the 334 million pounds harvested
last year.
Beans, peas and corn accounted
for 331 million pounds of seed in
1943, 6 per cent more than the 1942
production of 313 million pounds.
The figure for small or tight seeds,
such as beet, carrot and cucumber,
totaled about 24.1 million pounds last
year, 16 per cent more than the 1942
crop of 20.8 million pounds. The har
vest on these small seeds fell below
expectations due to a smaller yield
per acse for 27 of the seeds and a
total harvested acreage 16 per cent
less than was intended.
Yields Multiplied.
Phenomenal increases in acreage
yields on some seed wefe recorded.
Brussels sprouts, with an increase
of 371 per cent, led the list. Other
large increases were 228 per cent
for okra, 225 per cent for mustard,
194 per cent for kale, and 172 per
cent for salsify.
Total crop production for 1943 ex
ceeded 1942 by 27 times for brussels
sprouts, 370 per cent for mustard,
358 per cent for dill, 343 per cent
for mangelwurzel, 213' per cent for
okra, 202 per cent for kale, 195 per
cent for looseleaf lettuce, 181 per
cent tor Chinese cabbage, 178 per
cent for chicory, 165 per cent for
carrot, 153 per cent for onion, and
156 per cent for leek seed. Greatest
decline in total production probably
will be recorded for broccoli, cab
bage, romaine lettuce, pepper, kohl
rabi and parsnip seed.
Larger acreages of most kinds of
vegetable seed, 30 out of 48, helped
offset decreased yield per acre of a
majority of the crops. Biggest re
ductions in acre yield were reported
for cabbage, 40 per cent less than
1942; broccoli, 56 per cent; pepper,
70 per cent; parsnip, 73 per cent;
kohlrabi, pumpkin, chicory and cau
liflower, each 76 per cent less.
Total land in seeds harvested in
1943 was 423,391 acres, with 80,824
acres covering the small or light
seeds and the remainder in garden
beans, peas and com. These figures
compare with 397,234 total acreage
in 1942, and 77,900 acres in the light
seeds.
Production of certified seed pota
toes last year set a new record, 42
per cent higher than the 1942 record
crop. The harvest totaled 39,044,888
bushels. Compared with 20,491,817 in
'42. This represents more than 8
per cent hf the U. S. production of
all potatoes, and is nearly 2% times
the 10-year average (1932-41) of
12,619,399 bushels.
Hay and Cover Crop Seeds.
Seed for forage and cover crops
is receiving more attention than usu
al this year. The 1944 conservation
program emphasizes cover crops to
help increase production, with a con
sequent need for more seed.
Harvest of legume and grass
seeds will be encouraged in 1944 un
der the provisions of the Conserva
tion Practices Program of the Ag
ricultural Adjustment agency. Pay
ment of 33.S0 for each harvested
acre will be allowed up to a maxi
mum of 25 acres on any farm. Seeds
included are legume and grass seeds
with the exception of timothy, red
top, Austrian' peas, Kentucky blue
grass, cowpeas and soybeans.
The clover seed harvest, taken as
a whole, did not fare so well. Red
clover seed acreage was expanded
15 per cent, with an estimated pro
duction of 1,142,900 bushels, 11 per
cent more than the 1942 crop of
1,028,100 bushels. Acres harvested
were upped to 1,279,600, an increase
of 169,300 acres over 1942. Yield
dropped from .92 of a bushel per
acre to .89 of a bushel. Acreage
increase was largely in Wisconsin
and Michigan.
Timothy seed, with an estimated
1,499,000 bushels, dropped 11 per
cent below the 1942 harvest of 1,678,
500 bushels of seed. The decrease
is reported due to a smaller acreage
(394,000), since yield per were of
3.81 bushels is only slightly less than
the 3.84 bushels for 1942 and is more
than the 1932-41 average of 3.21 bush
els. Harvested acreage for seeds
was smaller in all important states
except Wisconsin and Pennsylvania
but acreage cut for hay eras larger
than the previous year, apparently
because of a greater need for tim
othy hay than for the seed.
More Lespedesa.
Lespedeza seed production totaled
159,920,000 pounds, a 67 per cent in
crease over the 1932-41 average of
95,564,000 pounds, but 6 per cent
smaller than the 1943 crop of 170,
500,000 pounds. A 9 per cent re
duction in yield per acre more than
offset a 3 per cent increase in plant
ed acres. Yield was only 196.3
| pounds, due to summer and fall
drouth, as compared with 216.6
pounds in 1942. Total acres were
estimated at 814,000.
The harvest during the coming
season of increased amounts of
grass and legume seeds, vegetable
seeds and of seed crape In general
is highly advisable, aays the War
Food administration. It will raise
the national seed supply and pro
vide for increased domestic farm
production to meet expanding war
requirements for food and liber. And
it will provide seeds to help meet
the needs of the Allies and of the
liberated countries as they are freed
from Axis control. Making as much
seed as possible available to Euro
pean farmers when that phase sf the
war ends, will aid them to rehabili
tate their land so that they can grow
more food and liber fob themselves,
thereby lowering their mall annuls
for farm commodities from the Unit
ed States
Enough seed (or fire tons of tomatoes is in the little pile m the scales.
According to the department at agriculture, one ounce at aeed can grow
into that much, if carefully cultivated, as la the practice In Europe.
1X4, prcscat HttautM itar.