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The Alamance gleaner - ?? ?MM MB Hi IHiH Vol LXX GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1944 No. 17 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS U.S. Employment Shows Decline; Nazis Continue Retreat in Italy; Japanese Tighten Grip on China '? Released by Western Newspaper Union. ?????? (EDITOR'S NOTE: When oplnlens are expressed In these columns, they are those ef Western Newspaper Unlen's news analysts and not necessarily ef this newspaper.) Zero Hour?Yanks await signal to attack Jap machine gun nest in Burma. EMPLOYMENT: On Decline For the first time since the war began, the nation's manpower ap peared in balance with needs, with supply of labor in critical areas the only problem, the National Indus trial Conference board said. Earlier the department of agri culture noted a 4 per cent decline in farm labor, with some of the de crease attributed to the inability to get into the fields because of un favorable weather. As a result of the delay, many farmers were ex pected to switch acreage from small grains to row crops, necessi tating additional work. Reflecting the continued drop in manufacturing industries, there were 41,800,000 non-farm workers in March, compared with the peak of 43,000,000 in July, 1943. Only in transportation was there an increase shown over last year. EUROPE: Foe Reels With soldiers from six nations fighting shoulder to shoulder in Al lied ranks, the Germans fell slowly back in Italy, their retreating col umns under heavy fire of the ad vancing host, drawing closer to the Eternal City of Rome. As the Allied blow fell in Italy, thousands of U. S. and British planes continued their heavy bombardment of Axis communications and indus try in western Europe, their explo ???? ??MM Will?I ? H'lMIHIW i sives twisting steel rails into fanci ful forms and reducing segments of factories into smouldering pyres. Preparatory to a great offensive from the east, Russian bombers hammered at Nazi supply bases. With the collapse of their Gustav line in Italy, the Germans fell back slowly toward the Anzio beachhead to the north, where their embattled troops clashed with massed Allied forces slugging for a breakthrough, which would trap the retreating army from the rear. West Wall The searching eyes of aerial photography have uncovered what lies ahead of Allied troops massed to storm Germany's formidable west wall. Under command of icy, 69-year old Field Marshal von Rundstedt, the west wall shapes up as a series of deeply entrenched steel and con crete fortifications stretching back far inland, and carefully camou flaged to prevent concentration of Allied fire on them. Dotting the scenic French land scape are innocent-looking, little houses, sheltering the muzzles ol big German field pieces whose carriages are sunk into the ground, and poking their noses from the sides of hills, are rocket guns buried in the terrain. PACIFIC: 1,000-Mile Advance With his forces taking another long jump of 125 miles to the north west in Dutch New Guinea, Gen. Douglas MacArthur advanced clos er to his cherished goal of the Philip pines, there to avenge Bataan. The latest gain drew U. S. forces nearer to the thick cluster of islands lying off Dutch New Guinea which the enemy reportedly has fortified with air bases to counter any Al lied thrust against the Indies to the south or the Philippines to the north. In advancing 125 miles westward, U. S. forces were 1,000 miles away from Milne Bay, far to the south east and from which General Mac Arthur launched the campaign that has gradually pushed the Japs out of their farthest South Pacific hold ings. TRANSPORTATION: Overhauling Asked Correction of inequalities and dis criminations in present freight rate structures to reflect the cost of service, and creation of three permanent federal agencies to keep abreast of transportation problems, were among the recommendations made by a special board of inves tigation and research organized by congressional enactment in 1940. At the same time, the board went into the south's protest against cer tain freight rate differences benefit ing the northeast, declaring that figures showed that what the south really needed was a development of her own industry to utilize her abun dant natural resources. The board called for the ship pers' freedom in the selection of reasonable joint routes and rates of the qame or different types of transportation facilities to speed commerce. CHINA: Seek Unity With the Japanese tightening their grip on China through their con trol of her seaports and productive industrial centers. Chiang Kai-Shek moved to gird the country for a final stand against the enemy by drgwing the Communists in the north fully into the battle. As Chiang met with Communist leader Lin Tso-han, Chinese regu lars continued their drive into northern Burma, in an effort to join up with Lieut. Gen. Joseph Stil well's troops moving eastward from India, and thus open a new supply route to China. Upon the extent of Chiang's con cession of self-rule and participation in the Chinese central government to the Communists reportedly will rest the degree of their cooperation. ntifmtrt** w-i m ? ?? umiisti fcivirittfc: Favor League Having concluded their long con ference with Prime Minister Churchill, Britain's dominion pre miers packed their bags for the trip homeward, but not before issu ing a statement favoring a world peace organization and avowing a fight to the finish against the com mon enemy. "We affirm that after the war a world organization . . . should be set up and endowed with the neces sary power and authority to pre vent aggression and violence," the premiers said. "We rejoice in the unquenchable spirit of our comrades in every country still in the grip of the enemy," the premiers declared. "We shall not turn from the conflict till they are restored to freedom. Not one who marches with us shall be abandoned." Mediterranean Commander Sir Henry Maitland Wilson (left) con fers with Lient. Gen. Mark Clark of 5th army (center) and Deputy Mediterranean Commander Jacob L. Devers on Italian front. REHABILITATION: Navy Program'' After six months of operation of the rehabilitation program for men and women at the U. S. naval hos pital at Great Lakes, exhibits told an interesting story of the success of the project under direction of Lieut. Comdr. R. E. Kinneman. On display were fancy scarves, purses and belts in yellows, whites and greens. There were such use ful articles as ash trays and bill folds, and such chippery bric-a-bracs as clay turtles and yarn dogs. Pic tures caught the charm of th$ out doors and depicted naval life. Created to stimulate the minds of patients as well as restore the mobility of injured limbs, the re habilitation program also has served to help the convalescents to uncover many talents of which they were never aware. OIL: Netc Field With the discovery of a promis ing big oil field in Mississippi which alreay has brought in two large wells, attention was focused on a whole tier of southeastern states. According to oil authorities, ap proximately 155,000 miles of terri tory at the roots of the Appalachian mountains in North Carolina, ] Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mis sissippi are underlain by sedi mentary rocks, which might bear much petroleum. Although a 130,000 mile territory in Texas and Louisiana has already given up 14 billion barrels of oil, authorities' enthusiasm for the pros pective southeastern field has been tempered by reports that its zones for accumulation of petroleum are fewer in number and the thickness of the sedimentary rocks are less, than in the Texas and Louisiana re gions. LABOR: Foremen Back Three thousand five hundred members of the Independent Fore men s association of America trooped back to their jobs in Detroit, Mich., plants after the chief of the army air forces, Gen. H. H. Arnold, de clared their strike had already cost production of 250 long-range P-51 fighter planes and could affect inva sion operations. As a result of the foremen's walkout over demands for union recognition which industry op nosed on its tradi tional grounds that Gen. Arnold foremen are a part R. H. Keyes of management, nearly 50,000 work ers had been laid off because of the lack of adequate supervision of production. Following General Arnold's testi mony, the association's national president, Robert H. Keyes, issued instructions for ending the strike, charging the government with de laying settlement of the case. REFRIGERATION: Ease Space With warehousemen and food handlers cooperating fully with the War Food administration's informa tion centers, cooler occupancy was at 82 per cent in May, with much space of this type not ordinarily used at this time well filled. At the same time, WFA an nounced that freezer occupancy stood at 85 per cent in May, with much room made available by the clearance of fruits, vegetables and poultry. With demand for cooler space ex pected to continue, WFA revealed that it would push its program for converting cooler space at 32 degrees to 50 degrees to freezer space at 31 degrees and lower, and vice-versa. JOINT COMMAND: Draws Support The touchy question of combining the different branches of the serv ices into a single command, so strongly favored by the army, drew the support of President Woodrow Wilson's secretary of the navy, Joseph us Daniels. Mincing no words, Daniels de clared that the disaster at Pear) Harbor resulted from a divided command, and asserted: "History is replete with the squsbbles be tween the army and navy which prolong wars, showing the neces sity of combination." When he was working for uni fication of the services during World War I, Daniels said. Secretary of War Lindljy Harrison told him: "Joe, I don't care a damn about the navy and you don't care a damn about the army. You run your machine and I will run mine." Talk about different angles: Julie Haydon, the actress, is doing a book, which she illustrates as well. It's about her dog. The theme: One day in its life . . . She studied its every move and emotion (or a day and night. The title: "Every Dog Has Its Day" . . . The recent tribute to Eddie Cantor (by over 1,500 ad mirers) was the first sincere testi monial in a long spell on Broadway ... It commemorated his 35th ann'y in show business. Flowers to the living . . . Joan Crawford and her husband, P. Terry, are doing a Hayworth - Welles. Wearing suits made from the same material. Bigtown Vignette: On the George Washington bridge, the other Sunday afternoon, flocks of young girls in their colorful summer dresses were decorating the scene . . . Far below was a grey war-like freighter at anchor . . . The sailors on guard by the stern gun were like little toys. They were waving to the girls . . . They shouted and called back and forth but no one could hear what they were saying . . . The wind was blowing and the distance was too much . . Then a sailor came on deck ... He had a trumpet . . . And pointing to the distant span he played some beautiful horn music ' ... He must have been a profes sional in civilian life . . . One of his renditions was: "Come to Me, My Melancholy Baby" ... He looked like a little toy on the deck of the ship . . . His trumpet looked like a toy, too . . . His music came up ; through the air, thin and clear, like music from a toy horn . . . And down the Hudson you could see the bay and the open sea . . . Where the freighter would sail soon for the fighting . . . The trumpeter really "sent" the girls . . . There sure was a lot of youthful yearning 1 on the breeze. We Hadn't Heard It Before: About the fat whale and the skinny whale. The fat whale said: "My goodness, you're thin I What's wrong -with you?" Replied the skinny whale: "I've been having bad luck, been In bad waters and no food." "Tell you what," said the fat whale, "why not swim to the Eng lish channel? The Allies are ex ploding a lot of Nazis into the air there." So the skinny whale swam and swam, and six weeks later, skinnier than ever, swam back to his fat friend. "Well," puffed Fatso, "why didn't you do as I told you?" "I did," said the skinny whale, "but when those Nazis came down into the water?they all had marks an their chests saying they were supermen?and I just couldn't swal low that baloney!" Hitler was never either a house painter or a paper-hanger. (He was a very poor artist who at one time used to put his paintings in an oven to "antique" them.) ... He has had a longer life than Napoleon (52) and Alexander the Great (32), but Caesar died at 56 and Genghis Khan at 65 . . . Although Adolfs father was named Schicklgruber, der rat who became der fuehrer was never called that . . . Hitler's father was a ne'er-do-well, who died in the belief his son was a zero . . . The old man wed three times. At 27 h? married a woman 41; at 48 he married a girl 25 ... At the end of World War I Adolf trimmed his von Hindenburg-type mustache to the ridiculous lip-patch he wears today. Himmler Is the only one to get away with imitating der fuehrer's mustache, and even that is an un reasonable whacksimile . . . Robert Ley, creator of the German labor front, quaffs a pint of brandy before breakfast . . . Fritz von Papen be came military attache to Washing ton on the strength of his wife's money. He twice failed the entrance exams to the War academy, yet he wore the insignia of the General Staff . . . Von Ribbentrop got rid of Koerster and von Hoesch (German ambassadors to France and Eng land respectively) with shots in the arm which produced air embolus. Goebbels attended fix universi ties and entered Heidelberg on the strength of a scholarship from a Jewish professor named Gundolf When Hitler spent his early days in a Viennese flophouse, the only man who befriended and helped him was a Jew named Neumann . . . Nazi street fighting tactics originated at the world premiere of "All Quiet on the Western Front," the most pad fistic of all German pictures. The Hitler gang objected to Remarque's theories. i Chemists Strengthen Low Grade Lumber, Promise Profitable New Field for Farmers Treated Wood Almost Hard as Metal. By BARROW LYONS (WNU Washington Corrwpoodant.) The alchemy of modern chem istry suddenly has prepared a new field of profit for farmers. By the use of relatively inexpen sive equipment and by the ap plication of certain cheap chem icals, ordinary soft woods can be transformed into material of almost any desired hardness and color. Not only does this multiply the uses for which wood may be used in building and furniture manufacture, but opens possibilities for' its use under conditions of pressure, humidity and moisture that fotynerly only metals and plastics could satisfy. Also, the decorative value of many woods can be vastly en hanced. And fast growing species of trees, use of which was formerly limited, can now be grown like crops to replace the slower growing vari eties. , These facts were revealed re cently by Dr. J. F. T. Berliner of the ammonia department of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and company, who recently told a group of scientists and writers about the development of the chemical called methylolurea, the reagent which transforms the inner structure of wood into new substances. The chemicals used In this process cost only 3V4 cents to iVi cents per board foot treated, although the coat of equipment and labor will add to that figure in producing the new product. For the average veneer the cost of chemicals used amounts to less than two-tenths of a cent per square foot. This development assumes un usual significance in view of recent efforts of the department of agricul ture to bring about a new realiza tion of the potential importance of the woodlot to the farmer. John F. Preston, U. S. soil conservation service, estimated a few weeks ago that the income to farmers from farm woodlands could be increased to (500,000,000 a year, or more. The discovery of the Du Pont chemists may considerably raise this esti mate. Income from Woodlot. "Farmers are interested in wood lands not only as sources of income with which to pay taxes, buy seed, Top?Compressed treated wood become* very hard and dense. The three balsa blocks la the picture were all orifinally the same stse, bat the second and third from the left hare been subjected to heavy pressure. The thinnest, at the right. Is now harder than any known wood, and !? times as heavy as the erigl nal balsa. Balsa is one oI the soft est and lightest woods known. Below?Remarkable resistance of treated wood to warping to shown by this test, the result of which to pictured. Two strips at veneer, one treated and one untreated, were placed on wet towel. The untreated strip curled up, while the impreg nated remained 1st. shoes, clothe* and put up building*," Mr. PrettoD Mid, "but a Lao aa mean* of building up wood re serves to create an income balance wheel. We might call it an ever normal wood bin. Farm forestry ha* long aerved auch a purpoee in Euro pean coon trie*. "Originally there were 913 million acre* of foreet land In thla country, but 90 per cent of thla waa converted into farm*, and farm* now occupy fully half of the land area of the United State*. The move now i* to reconvert much of this cleared land to farm woodland*. "On farms today, 13,900,000 acres ?mostly abandoned fields and gul lies ? are suitable only for reforea tation. Of this large acreage, only 15 per cent is in the south. Sixty per cent is in the central region letween Iowa and Missouri an the ? west, and New Jersey, Pennyslvania and New York on the east. Three and one-half million acres are con aldarad desirable for shelter belts." The soil conservation district pro gram, under which the farmers themselves decide what lands are suitable for woodlands, today offers a practical opportunity for giving the Du Pont process a real tryout. By means of the process, wood can be made for the manufacture of doors, windows and drawers that will not swell and stick, or contract and become loose. Wood can be made strong enough, to substitute for even steel in certain machinery parts. In a few days woods harder than ebony, which take a century to grow, can be made at small expense. Poplar becomes harder than hard maple, which in turn can be made harder than the hardest tropical woods. The compressive strength of wood is so increased, and other properties imparted, that in tact a new material is created, which can be called "transmuted" wood. By this process, "Htar-at-hand species of woods that grow on your own woodlot can be made as useful as the costlier, scarcer varieties, many of which are imported from distant lands. Won't Warp or Shrink. Furniture made from the trans muted wood can be shipped through out the world to humid tropics or dry areas with assurance that it will not warp, swell or shrink. A built-in finish is imparted so that scratches may be removed by simply smooth ing and rubbing. By mixing dyes with the impregnating chemicals, light-colored pine may be given the color of cherry, mahogany or ebony; or the wood may be made green, purple or any bright color throughout. Veneers sufficiently treated be come self-bonding, requiring no adhesive to be formed into ply woods, since heat and pressure fuse the product into a hard, dense sub stance. Even sawdust, shavings and similar woodwastes may be moulded into articles with dyes incorporated. : Methylolurea ? pronounced meth U-ol-urea ? is compounded by add ing urea to dimethylolurea. Both ma terials are white and soluble in water. They are produced from am- I monia, carbon dioxide and meth anol, which are synthesized from coal, air and water. Urea results from the reaction of ammonia and carbon dioxide. Formaldehyde, which is derived from methanol, condenses with urea to form dimethylolurea. These chemicals are being pro duced cheaply on a large scale, but are under allocation by the war pro duction board. Small quantities for investigation and preliminary tests, however, can be obtained without formal allocation. After the war large quantities can be obtained. The equipment required may be quite simple. In fact, most of the apparatus now used in Impregnating wood with various substances, such as creosote and flameproofing chemicals, can bo adapted with minor alterations. Because of shorter treating pe riods, however, smaller scale equip ment can be used. An ingenious mechanic who understood the prin ciples of the new process could rig up equipment from elements on hand in most plants, the chemists declare. All that is required is a chamber capable of withstanding the neces sary vacuum and pressure in which the wood is placed. A steam jet ejector is an effective, simple means of producing the vacuum. The cham ber should be equipped with a pres sure door or removable head, and with a source of vacuum and of pressure. A tank for preparing the solution, an auxiliary overflow tank, and means for drying the wood are also needed. Mild steel equipment may be used. The chemicals are no more cor rosive than water, and are neither flammable nor poisonous. To pre vent rusting, it is desirable to apply a waterproof finish to the exposed surfaces of the equipment. This type of equipment could be set up and operated ill almost any lumber handling concern throughout the country. A chemical change takes place in - the actual fibers of the wood under treatment. Methylolurea in solution enters the wood structure. In the course of drying it gradually reacts with itself and with the components of the wood, first to form insoluble but fusible products. Given sufficient time or heat, the reaction is com pleted and an infusible product re sults. If the wood is subjected to sufficient heat and pressure while the resin is still in the fusible stage, the resin will melt, flow and allow the wood to compress. This treat ment converts the resin to the final infusible form, maintaining the wood ill the dimension resulting from the press. 5^ Thus, treated wood may be com pressed to produce a stable, ex tremely hard, dense product with a consolidated closed surface requir ing no filling, sanding or polishing. It is possible to apply moderate pressures sufficient to compress and consolidate only the surface or outer zone of the treated wood to produce a hard finish. If polished or em bossed platens are used, these finishes can be reproduced on the surface of the wood. As far as is now known, the treatment does not have any adverse effect on the gluing and finishing characteristics of the wood. Flame resistance is improved, and the wood is also more resistant to fungi, rot and pest in festation. But from experiments made in Du Pont laboratories, it appears certain that a process has been developed which will give new value to the trees standing on every farm wood lot. That shoujd give an impetus to reforestation of many marginal farms, bringing back a woodland Treated weed doesn't swell while wet, ar shrink when dry. In this test, two dowels el exactly the sane diameter were fitted with brass rings that weald Jost slip oM. Then the dowels were soaked tor a boat U boars. It was food that the rim on the treated dowel weald sUp of as easily as before, hot the no treated dowel was so swollen that the ring could net be removed. cover to the soil that aril] conserve rainfall and lessen the danger of floods. The scientists who perfected this process say there are in the United States some fifty species of tree now used for industrial purposes, ana nearly 1,006 types for which no prac tical use has been found, largely be cause of their softness. With this new magic applied to the very soft woods, all can now be added to the resources which will help to make a victorious postwar America some thing like the dream whictf the tech nicians have envisaged. _ '1 "x Impregnating apparatus in the Dii Pont experimental laboratories io rather simple. The wood is placed in the horiiontal cylinder. The over head tank contains the solution gf methylolurea, which Sows down and impregnates the fibers of the wood. A vscunm Is first created in the cylinder, then pressure.
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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June 1, 1944, edition 1
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