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The Alamance Gleaner ? Vol LXX GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1944 NO. 44 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Nazi Defenses Crack in West; Batter Japs' Industrial Belt; OP A to Tighten Price Control ? i i Released by Western Newspaper Union. ?i?? (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions nre expressed In these eolamns, they nro those ed Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and net necessarily el this newspaper.) Waving white flag, German troope surrender to doughboys on Aachen front during Allied offensive. PACIFIC: Hit Jap Heart As U. S. troops punched forward on Leyte island in the Philippines, with a driving rainstorm slapping them in the face, huge B-29 super fortresses blasted the great indus trial district in Tokyo feeding enemy armies all along the far-flung Pacific front. Flying from newly established bases in the recently conquered Marianas, 1,500 miles to the south east, the B-29s took the first crack at Tokyo since Lieutenant General Doolittle's carrier - based medium bombers raided the Japanese capital In the spring of 1942. Successful de velopment of the B-29 attacks would imperil the major portion of enemy industry, concentrated in the Tokyo district. Speaking of the operation, U. S. air chieftain, General H. H. Arnold, declared: "The battle for Japan has been joined . . . (it) will be carried on relentlessly . . . until the day of land-sea invasion. . . Although enemy resistance on Leyte continued stiff, D. S. forces continued their encircling advances, with General Mac Arthnr stating that onr snperior artillery and Infantry firepower was cutting deeply into Japanese strength, which had been fever ishly reinforced in an effort to hold up the Yank drive. As a result of persistent U. S. at tacks, the enemy has been unable to concentrate his forces on Leyte for counter-attacks. General MacArthur said, rather being compelled to throw in his troops here and there in an effort to check the V. S. of fensive. STABILIZATION: To Hold Prices, Wages I With living costs already estimat ed at 30 per cent above January, 1941, levels, OPAdministrator Ches ter Bowles moved to check recent small price increases, especially in clothing and textiles. Vigorous action to halt further advances was seen as part of the government's indicated policy of re taining the disputed "Little Steel" wage formula, under which pay boosts have been kept within 15 per cent of January, 1941, levels. Because of the permissible 15 per cent wage raises, plus large over time earnings, it has been felt that workers' weekly incomes have bal anced price increases. But with further rises in living costs threat ening that balance, the government was expected to press hard to main tain present price levels. Although the National War La bor board's recent findings that living costs have gone up 3? per cent since January, 1M1, was expected to bolster the CIO and AFL's campaign for wage in creases over the 15 per cent limit of the "Little Steel" for mula, the government has shown no inclination to give In to their demands. On the other hand, it has been suggested, with the President's fa vor, that as long as overtime earn ings are being paid, current wage rates be retained. With a trim-off to the 40-hour week, however, it has been proposed that wages be boost ed to allow workers to "take home the same average income as they now do. Under such a plan, workers would get about a 30 per cent raise in pay, thus assuring a continued high pur chasing power with a resultant stim ulation of employment. As part of its progTam to main tain the present cost level, OPA was expected to take a firmer stand j^^jmanufacturers' requests for high prices EUROPE: Big Crack First German lines to crumble during the Allies' big tall offensive along a 460-mile front in the west were on the southern end, where the Nazi 19th army, under steady U. S. and French pressure, was told to abandon equipment, break into small groups and beat it back, as best it could, to the Reich border. Indicative of the crack In the enemy's lines was the French 1st army's break through the Belfort Gap, and its swing northward up the Rhine in a maneuver designed to trap some 70,000 Germans who had been holding the Vosges moun tain passes to the west. The rapid French dash was fol lowed by the U. S. 7th army's smash through the Saverne pass In the Vosges 50 miles to the north, which had the effect of forming a nut cracker squeeze on enemy forces caught between the two pincers. Only enemy rearguards retarded the U. S, and French maneuver, but the Germans profited from the murky weather, which prevented the superior Allied air force from rising in full strength to smash the knots of Nazi troops beating their way eastward to the Rhine. In an effort to extricate the bulk of his 19th army, Col. Gen. Johannes Hetnrich ^Hlmmler (foreground) Inspects (anntte&l IS troops on western front. Blaskowitz assembled all kinds of boats and barges to transport troops unable to move across tha Rhine on stationary bridges. Although less spectacular, news from other sectors of the winding battle-front was good, with Gen eral Patton's 3rd army probing into the coal-laden Saar basin east of Metz, and the U. S. 1st and 9th and the British 2nd armies maintaining their terrific pressure on German defenses east of Aachen. Even though the Allies were throwing masses of men and material at them all along the 480-mile front, the Germans expected still another drive, this one in northeastern Hol land, where they said the British planned to drive around the anchor of the Siegfried line at Kleve down into the Ruhr valley. Best description of the fighting about Aachen was provided by this Thanksgiving report from the battle front: ? "For Lieutenant General Hodges' 1st and Lieutenant General Simp son's 9th and the British 2nd armies, knee-deep in mud in heavy battles, this day at the approaches to the Ruhr and Rhineland was hard and bitter slugging, yard by yard." German plan was to slow up the big Allied drive by wearing down U. S. and British strength, and to ward this end, the enemy launched repeated counter-attacks with his new King Tiger tanks. As the Allied troops advanced, they found Nazis in the forward de fense positions of inferior quality, the German plan apparently being to save their best for a last des perate fight along the main line. In the east, bad weather inter fered with the Russians drive upon Budapest, and the broad Hungarian plains leading to the gateway to Austria. MEAT: 1945 Prospects More veal, about the same amount of beef, but 15 per cent less pork? that's the meat prospect for IMS, the War Food administration re vealed. The continued stringency in beef will continue because 31 per cent of the supply will go to the armed forces, it was said. Increased supplies of better grade beef were in prospect for domestic consumers, with re ports that mldwestern farmers were aggressive buyers of stock ers for fattening, what with feed stocks at high levels. Much of the beef on sale this year was of the utility type coming from grass-fed range cattle. Meanwhile, cattle slaughter 1, - mained heavy during October, vi h an all-time record of 1,450,572 bt animals put on the block, along wt 919,599 calves. The total of 4,223,1 hogs butchered was 1 per cent 1 low the 5 year average. Farm. Income U. S. farm Income has continued its rise in 1944, with the department of agriculture now figuring that the total return for the year will run to over 20% billion dollars for the na tion's 6,000,000 operators. The USDA's estimates wero based on cash marketing and government benefit income of 14% billion dol lars for the first nine months of this year, a little less than a billion dollars more than for the corre sponding period in 1943. Combined with steady debt reduc tion, wise utilization of the farm plant without undue expansion and the accumulation of large liquid re sources, the continued high income further strengthened the farmers' position for the uncertain postwar period. Thieving Craze Latest of the wartime juvenile prob lems to plague authorities was a shop lifting spree among 'teen-aged ubobby socW girls in Portland, Ore. Carried on by girls stealing for per sonal use rather than resale; the spree reached alarming proporlionst with losses so heavy in one big department store that auditors first thought there must have been a bookkeeping error in the amount of merchandise originally listed. One 12-year-old was caught with $ISO worth of sweaters, beads and bracelets. A 17-year-old said she had stolen $700 worth of goods in seven months for her sailor sweetheart. Sobbed one tearful culprit: ul guess it is stealingt only I didn't think of it that way. It was an adventure sort of. The other girls were doing it" CHINA: Japs' Progress Even as Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek shook up his government to revitalize the Chinese war effort, and Donald Nelson arrived in Chung king with a group of steel and alco hol experts to build up war produc tion, the Japanese tightened their hold on the whole eastern coastal section of the country. Object of the Japanese drive, which covered 750 miles in six months, was to eliminate the bases of the 14th American air force, whose planes had harried enemy ground forces, shot up communica tions and ranged a-sea to blast coast al shipping. The shift in Chiang's government followed the row over giving Gen. Joe Stilwell command of Chinese forces to stimulate their prosecu tion of the war after it was hinted that the Generalissimo was using much of the army for the preser vation of his own political party against the encroachment of the Communists. Nelson's return to Chungking fol lowed a previous visit during which studies were undertaken as to what kind of industrial development would fit into Allied aid to help the Chinese war effort. SAVINGS: Well Heeled What with total savings estimated at $100,000,000,000. Americans should find themselves able to meet a short period of adversity in the postwar world. Of the bage amount of sav ings, SM,*S3,N?,MW are la war bends, It was revealed. About people, or M per eeat ef the population, beM these se curities la comparison with about U per cent la World War I. Next to war bonds, bank and pos tal savings deposits constitute the largest source of savings at over $36,000,000,000. Of this amount, over $34,000,000,000 were in bank deposits held by about 33 per cent of the people. Life insurance forms the third , largest source of savings, what with 90 per cent of the people paying In , over $33,000,000,000 on their policies, It was revealed. Musicians Are the Funniest People: Adelina Patti asked flM.OO* (or a certain three-month tour. 'But," ob jected an impresario, "that's mora than the President gets!" . . . "Well," shrugged the diva, "then get the President." . . . Liszt was a character who wore the same kind of clothes whether the weather was rainy or fair. ... "I never," he declared, "take notice of that which takes no notice of me." . . . Handel composed so fast, they say, that the ink on the top of the page of his manuscript had not dried by the time he reached the bottom. . . . Another gag of the day: "Do you like Brahms?" ... "I don't know. What are they?" . . . "After Strauss?what?" an English jour nalist once queried. "For one thing," music oracle Leonard Leib ling noted, "the critics." A journalist objected to the 7 a. m. piano playing in the room next to his in a Milan hotel. "Do you always allow that?" he asked. . . . "Not as a rule," they told him, "but we make an exception with Mr. Verdi." ... It was the late Alexander Woollcott who deflated a famous soprano boasting of her ex ecution of an aria she described as "difficult." . . . "Difficult!" groaned Woollcott. "I wish it had been im possible!" . . . At a Peabody con cert President Grant once observed: "I know only two tunes. One is 'Yankee Doodle' and the other isn't." When Rossini heard Wagner's "Lohengrin" for the first time, he said: "One cannot Judge a work upon a single hearing? and I have no intention of hear ing this a second time." ... A German critic once wrote that "Wagner was a good musician, but he left behind the Wagner ites, which w(s most unkind of him." . . . "In order to com pose," said 8ehumann, "it is just enough to remember a tune which nobody else has thought of." . . . When Albert Spaulding toured through the West one Winter, he told a theater man ager that his violin was 2M years old. . . . "Don't say any thing about it," replied the im presario, "and maybe the audi ence won't know the difference." Paderewski, when (till quite un known, went to London armed with letters of introduction to influential Britishers. "Dear Prince," one said." "the bearer, Ignace Paderewski, is a fiery young Pole and rather charming when he doesn't play the piano, for which he has little tal ent." . . . Paderewski, unless a press agent of the day is fooling us, once accosted a polo player with the question: "What is the differ ence between us?" The other shrugged. "You," grinned Ignace, "are a good soul who plays polo. I am a good Pole who plays solo." . . . Grunfeld was caught by the father of one of his pupils kissing the girl. "Is this," stormed the par ent, "what I am paying for?" . . . "No," replied the famous tutor, "I do this free." A young man approached Me sart and asked him bow to write a symphony. "You're a very young fellow," the composer told him, "why not begin with a ballad?" . . . "But," pouted the youth, "you composed sympho nies when you were ten." . . . "Yes," smiled Mosart, "but I didn't ask bow." . . . Dr. Samuel Johnson admitted once he did not care for music. "But of all noises," he added, "1 think mu sic Is the least disagreeable." ... A young lady auditioned en the piano for Rubinstein. "What," she asked him at the end of the selection, "should 1 do now?" Snapped Rubinstein: "Get married!" Chopin, whose life Coiumbla brings to the screen in "A Song to Remember," could give more than the piano "the finger." He was a dinner guest In a Parisian home one night and, after the meal, was asked by the hostess to play some of his compositions. "But, madame," said Chopin, "I have eaten so lit tie!" ... He once cracked tc Liszt: "I prefer not to play in pub lie; it unnerves me. You, if yw, cannot charm the audience, can at least astonish them." . . . When DePachman mislaid his false teeth someone appropriately observed: "His Bach is better than his bite." ... To a young pianist, Nellie Melba remarked: "You have talent, presence, charm. All you need now to make a success Is a nice hot scandal." When War Came to the United States I By ELMO SCOTT WATSON IT WAS on a Sunday morning three years ago that war came again to the United States. The story of that "day of in famy," when Japan made her sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, is too fresh in the minds of all Americans to need retelling here. But how many of us know of those other tragic days when were made the fateful decisions which meant that more Ameri can lives were to be sacrificed on the altar of Mars? This article is a page from the past which tells how war came to America in other years before 1941. The first war which we, as a na tion, waged was an "undeclared war," that is to say, there was never any formal declaration of war. As a matter of fact, we weren't even a nation when it started. The American Revolution began as a rebellion?the revolt of the Eng lish colonies in America against their mother country, England. It continued as a rebellion and as a civil war ? Patriots against the Loyalists and the regularly consti tuted authorities ? for nearly a year before we became a nation. For the United States of America did not come into existence until July 4, 1776, when the Declaration Of Inde pendence was adopted. In the meantime there had been fighting and bloodshed?at Lexing ton on April 19, 1775; at Concord, where was "fired the shot heard 'round the world," on the same day; at Bunker Hill on June 17 and at Quebec in December. For six years this "undeclared war" dragged on until, at last, the sur render of Cornwallis at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, meant that the in dependence, declared five years earlier, was an accomplished fact. However, this didn't mean the end of the war, which was destined to last for nearly two years more. It wasn't until November 30, 1782, that the preliminary articles of peace between Great Britain and the united states were signed In Paris; two more months were to elapse before articles proclaiming the cessation of hostilities between the two nations were signed on Janu ary 20, 1783; and It wasn't until September 3, 1783, that the definitive treaty of peace was signed in Paris. Thus this "undeclared war" had lasted for eight years, four months and fifteen days, making it the long est in our history. During the next 20 years we were involved in two more "undeclared wars," both of which brought fight ing and bloodshed. The first was with our former ally. France, and was the result of the humiliation and insults which our envoys in Paris ' had suffered at the hands of the Directory and the attempt of Talley , rand to blackmail us into buying France's friendship. Although there was no formal declaration of war. Pres. John Adams ordered com merce with France stopped in 1798 and our treaties with her abrogated. Then our infant navy put to sea to prey upon French shipping and for the next 18 months there was con siderable naval warfare, marked by the victories of the frigate "Con stellation" over French men-of-war. When Napoleon Bonaparte came to power, he immediately took steps to stop the conflict and in Septem ber, 1800, a convention was signed in Paris which ended this "war." Meanwhile American shipping, like that of other nations, had been suffering from the raids of the Bar bery pirates in the Mediterranean and, despite tribute paid to the bey of Algiers, the pasha of Tripoli and the bey of Tunis, American ves sels were being seized and Ameri can seamen held prisoners until ransomed. When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801 he resolved to put an end to this early-day racket. The first two naval expeditions against the pirates failed but in 1803 when Commodore Edward Preble sailed against the corsairs it was a different story. His expedition against Tangiers, the daring attack of Lieut. Stephen Decatur on Tripoli the next year and the combined na val and military expedition ? the latter led by Gen. William Eaton? which captured Dema in 1809 broke the power of the Barbary states and resulted in treaties which guar anteed the future safety of Ameri can shipping in the Mediterranean. The remainder ?f Jefferson's ad ministration was peaceful but by the time James Madison entered the White House, the second war with England was brewing. For the first time in our history there was a for mal declaration of war?on June 18, 1812. For the first time. too. our shores were invaded by a hostile force, and on August 24, 1814, Americans suffered the humiliation of seeing the capital of their cation in the hands of the enemy and the home of their president in flames. Despite this disaster which came as the climax of other defeats on land?offset, however, by many a brilliant victory at sea ? America continued the struggle which ended on December 24 of that year when the treaty of peace was signed in Ghent, Belgium, by representatives of the two belligerents. This war had lasted two years, six months and six days. The next war with a foreign power was even shorter than the War of 1812. When the United States an nexed Texas in 1845, Mexico (from whom Texas had won her independ ence nine years earlier) regarded this as a hostile act. There was a series of "incidents" down on the Rio Grande and Pres. James K. APRIL I, 1*17 ? Pre*. Wood row Wilson reads his war message to congress. Polk asked congress for a dec laration of war. It came on May 13, 1M6, and 10 days later Mexico declared war on the United States. Hostilities began soon afterwards, our armies under General Taylor and General Scott invaded Mexico and within a little more than a year (September 14, 1847) they had cap tured the Mexican capital. The war ended with the signing of a treaty of ; peace on February 2, 1848 ? one | year, eight months and twenty days after it began. The next war in which we en gaged was another "undeclared war" for, like its predecessor, it was a "rebellion" and a "civil" war. Just when the War Between the States began is a matter of defini tion. The usual view is that it was April 12, 1861, when Confederate bat teries in Charleston, S. C., fired on Fort Sumter and the Union troopa in that fortification fired back. At any rate, it was this act which prompted President Lincoln three days later to call for volunteers to "suppress the insurrection" and which resulted in four years of the hardest and bloodiest fighting the world had ever known up to that time. Just as this war had no "offi cial" beginning, so K had no "offi cial" ending. But the surrender of Lee on April 9, 1868, sounded the death knell of the Confederacy and organized resistance by the men in gray ended. From Sumter to Appo mattox it was four years ? minus three days. Shortest of all our wars with a foreign power was the "lOO-Days War" with Scats in 1116. It had its origin in American sympathy fart the Cuban patriots who (or several years had been trying to throw off Spanish rule but it is doubtful ft there would have been a war had it not been (or the event which took place in Havana Harbor on Febru ary 15, 1898. That event was the en plosion and sinking of the U. S. SL Maine. The excitement over thin resulted in diplomatic relations be tween Spain and the United States being broken on April 21 and the declaration o( a blockade of Cuba the next day. Her "national honor? thus assailed, Spain declared war am April 24 and our declaration fol lowed the next day. The overwhelming victories wow by our navy?at Manila and at San tiago?and by our army?in the land lighting in Cuba?soon demon strated what the inevitable out come of the war would be. So on August 12 a peace protocol was signed and hostilities ceased after 100 days of fighting. The war, how ever, did not end officially until December 10 when the peace treaty was signed in Paris. Although the period of actual com bat by our fighting men was rela tively short (one year and 15 days). World War I was our second long est war with a foreign power. Hera is the sequence of events to validsta that statement: On February 1, 1917, Germany began unrestricted submarine war fare and as a result we broke diplo matic relations with her two days later. On April < congress declared war on Germany and on June 26 tha first American troops landed ia France. However, it was not until October 27, 1917, that American sol diers fired their first shots at tha enemy. Hostilities ended on Novem ber 11, 1918?one year and fifteen days after they had begun on Octo ber 27 of the previous year. The cessation of hostilities en Armistice Day did not mean the of ficial end of the war. The treaty aft Versailles was signed on June 2ft, 1919, but when it came up for ratifi cation by the senate on November 19 it was rejected. That meant that, officially, we were still at war with Germany. It was not until July 2. 1921, that President Harding signed a joint resolution of congress (passed by the house on June 3ft and by the senate on July 1) de claring peace with Germany. Ob August 25 a peace treaty was signed in Berlin by representatives of tho United States and Germany. This was ratified by the German national council on September 17 and by the United States senate on October lft. Then, and not until then, was the ' war between these two countries of ficially ended ? four years, sfts months and twelve days after the American declaration of war back in 1917. As for World War n, it begaa officially for the United States am December T, 1941, when Japan de clared war against the United States and Great Britain and before the declaration reached Washington by air or cable, made an attack as Hawaii, the Philippines and olW American possessions In the Pacific, Our declaration of war followed tha next day. Four days later Germany and Italy declared war en the Unttsd States and on the same day con gress, in joint session, issued oar declaration of war against these tan nations. ... . A"-' ... ? ..4 fruPuriP impm **r Wrf %*n 4 lariat ? K/WMIa 4nHJ?ry.naU il^h^dMiw JOINT RESOLUTION Ikriiridf that i Mr 4 par nU? Mwn Hp laiprrtal flariraniBt ?f J spaa ami IW IWnram aad Hp psapfe W Hp Uaslad ami aphint ptarMipn h? pravrp Hp wan. Whaaaam Up Iaqpdal fliwimal af Japaa Imp namitlif aapn vakid acta af war yiiat Hp Qi nnuanl ami Hp praplr af Hp I'ailnl Ftmtm af Aasrrira: Tlpcs tors ktk Rrmtr+J kg tka frpM md Emma mf Bagfamladhm af tU VmMmd fi'atra 0/ AmaHrm 4m Cam gram mialU, That tfca stats af par hstwrra tip CiM Statss aad lha Inpahal On napial af Japaa which has 1 Has km tkraat apaa Up Uaitsd fltataa la hsnbp ? formally drrlarrd; aad Hp Pnaiiat la hrrrhy aatHoiwd aaf dirwtad la mpiojr Hp ratin aaral aad ailitarj farm af tbr Uahad Stain and Hp raaoawaa af tha Otmaainl to cany aa par faint Hp layrrtal Oarsmasat af Japaav aad. p Hnag Hp aaathi *a a aarcsnful taminaliaa, aO af tha mam af Hp camfry an Wnfep rW<H k, tW Ctefrte W IW Dated SUM. ^ i PT3/V/ <Tdl tuam^l a^mmZSZ /y/ a G~L-LJ n Start. KJTK_.1T%?'/f*7 ^d.Ja . J?~.S. 7.
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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