The Alamance Gleaner
? ^
Vol LXX GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1944 "* NO. 46
WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS
Civil Strife Rages in Greece;
Set Vise for Japs on Leyte;
Quake Shakes Tokyo District
Released by Western Newspaper Union.
(EDITOR'8 NOTE: When eplnlens ate expressed In these eelumns, they are these of
Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and net necessarily of this newspaper.)
As train lies at bottom of Moselle river after planting through wrecked
bridge, French yoath scramble over debris to salvage food from cars.
EUROPE:
Civil Strife
Added to the Allied military bur
den in Europe was the political
problem posed by Leftist rebellion
In Greece.
Started when Leftist liberation
guerrilla forces refused to surrender
their arms on the ground that Pre
mier Papandreou's Rightist ele
ments were allowed to retain theirs,
the uprising brought British troops
into action to restore order.
Situated just north of the Suez
canal, Greece commands this vital
waterway route linking Britian's
eastern empire with its homeland;
and for this reason, London has
taken the greatest interest in condi
tions there.
To assure its position about
Suez, the British have backed
Papandreou's Rightist elements as
against the Leftists, including Com
munists. In calling British troops iq
to action to suppress the rampaging
Leftist elements, British Maj. Gen.
R. M. Scobie declared: "... I
stand firmly behind the constitution
al government and shall aid them
to the limit of my resources until
the Greek state can be reestablished
with lawful armed forces behind
it. . . . "
Nazi Strategy
In heavy fighting on both Euro
pean fronts, the Allies continued to
punch forward, with the U. S. 3rd
army taking the spotlight away from
the 1st and 9th in the west in its
drive into the vital coal-laden Saar
basin.
As a result of General Patton's
smash into the Saar, the great in
dustrial city of Saarbrucken was
brought under the muzzle of heavy
U. S. artillery fire, with many parts
aflame.
The 3rd army claimed the lime
light as the 1st and 9th U. S. armies
_ slackened their heavy pressure
east of Aachen, where the German
high command, under Field Mar
shall von Rundstedt, had concen
trated its major strength to com
bat General Eisenhower's great
drive, which carried within 22 miles
of the Rhine.
Big question in the mind of Al
lied strategists was how long could
the Nazi high command continue to
maiiipiuaie lu iorces xo warn on a
decisive break-through at any one
spot. Although the enemy was said
to have about 8,000,000 men afield
in both the east and west, only
about 1,250,000 were said to be
crack troops.
That the enemy has tew troops to
spare is evidenced by his tactics in
the Balkans, where the retreat to
ward the Austrian border promises
to draw up all of his troops
presently strung out along the Hun
garian and Yugoslav border. In addi
tion, reports from Italy indicated a
German- retirement in that country.
As the Nazis reformed their lines
in Hungary, flying Red columns ad
vanced to within 13 miles south of
Budapest, where civilians were put
to work digging entrenchments for a
???t ditch stand.
General Eisenhower (left) confers with
Field Marshal Monteomery la Holland.
PACIFIC:
Fasten Vise
Striking again with characteristic
suddenness, Gen. Douglas MacAr
thur moved the 77th division ashore
below Ormoc under the heavy pro
tective cover of U. S. naval guns,
cutting the Japanese defenders on
the northwestern shore of Leyte in
half.
The general's move came after
bad weather, coupled with stiff ene
my resistance from strong hill en
trenchments, bogged the American
drive on Ormoc from the north and
south. As the 77th secured its beach
head below Ormoc, the huge LSTs
dumped supplies ashore, the gen
eral was able to apply both frontal
and rearward pressure on Japanese
troops operating in {he sector.
Prior to the American landing be
low Ormoc, U. S. artillery opened
a heavy bombardment on enemy po
sitions to the north and south, draw
ing strong Jap reinforcements to
both areas to counter infantry move
ment. Then, as their withdrawals
weakened their positions about Or
moc, MacArthur struck.
Even as the 77th was hitting the
beaches below Ormoc, U. S. fliers
wiped out a Japanese convoy, bear
ing 4,000 troops, which was headed
for Leyte.
EARTHQUAKE:
Rocks Japan
Centering in the Sea of Enshu,
100 miles southeast of Tokyo, an
earthquake, so powerful that its
tremors threw a recording ma
chine in London out of gear,
struck Japan, causing serious
loss.
Without immediately reveal
ing the exact extent of damage,
the Japanese reported that the
tremors caused landslides, cav
ing-ln houses and streets along
a ISO-mile belt aeross the main
Island of Honahu. Huge tidal
waves rolling in from the Sea
of Enshu flooded coastal dis
tricts below Tokyo, deluging
homes.
Although the Japanese claimed
that the quake did not damage
their war industry centered
around the Tokyo district, they
remained silent about the effect
that the mounting tidal wave
had upon their all-important
shipping, a-sea and at port.
HELP WANTED:
Seek Arms Speed-Up
Once deeply concerned with re
conversion, government officials
have once again swung their prin
cipal attention back to war produc
tion, what with munitions shortages
on the battlefronts threatening de
velopment of mounting Allied at
tacks.
With 300,000 workers needed in
munitions plants, labor became the
No. 1 consideration of officials, with
War Manpower Commissioner Paul
V. McNutt calling for intensive re
cruiting of women; transfer of em
ployees within a plant to more es
sential jobs; channelling of workers
to more important industries; dis
couragement of labor turnover, and
suspension of manpower authoriza
tions for civilian production.
Of the 300,000 people peeded, Mc
Nutt said, 130,000 were for heavy
and small arms munitions. Indus
tries requiring the remainder in
clude air - borne radar; assault,
transport and cargo ships; tank ma
terials; cotton duck for tenting;
heavy artillery, trucks and tires,
and B-29 Superfortresses.
SENATE:
Hit Appointments
Plana to hurry through the ap
pointments of Joseph C. Grew as
Undersecretary of State and Wil
liam L. Clayton, Nelson Rockefeller
and Archibald MacLeish as assist
ant secretaries in the department
struck a snog in the senate, where
a rebellious contingent forced hear
ings to be held on the principals'
fitness for the offices.
Leading the attack was Ken
tucky's "Happy" Chandler, who, in
referring to the appointments of
Businessmen Clayton and Rockefel
ler, declared: "... I was told
that the poor folks "would be given
opportunities as a result of the elec
tion. . . . Instead of the poor peo
ple obtaining the jobs, the Wall
Street boys are getting them. . . ."
In pressing for confirmation of the
appointments, Texas' Tom Connally
decried the allegation that business
interests would use their position to
influence policy, declaring: '*. . . j
Every senator who knows the Pres
ident knows that he is going to dom
inate the foreign policy of this gov
ernment. . . ."
Stiffen Policy
First official act of Secretary of
State Edward Stettinius was to blast
at Britain's and Russia's maneuver
ing in liberated European countries
to establish governments favorable
to their interests.
Declaring ". . We expect the
Italians to work out their problems
of government along democratic
lines without influence from out
side . . ." Stettinius aimed his
blast at Britain's objections to the
naming of Count Carlo Sforza as
foreign minister in a new Italian
administration. Britain's attitude, it
was said, was the result of Sforza's
anti-monarchical tendencies.
Although not specifically men
tioned, Russia could get no comfort
from Stettinius' statement, which in
directly hit at Moscow's political ac
tivities in reoccupled countries by
declaring: "... This policy would
apply to an even more pronounced
degree with regard to governments
of the United Nations in their lib
erated territories . . ."
FARM YOUTH:
Win Honors *??.?*>
In events at Chicago, 111., atten
tion was focused on the nation's out
standing young
iarmers: 10 - year -
old Donald Mowery,
Terre Haute, Ind.,
4 - H achievement
winner, and 17-year
old Ben Greve, Bry
ant, Iowa, raiser of
the Chicago Mar
ket Fat Stock grand
champion.
Left fatherless at
16, Mowery took
over operation of
the family's 58
acres, and through
purchase of modern
equipment, rented
and shared an addi
tional 112 acres, be
sides doing custom ,
work. When bad
weather set him
back a week last
summer, he toiled 130 hours the
next, making it up. In nine years
of farming, Mowery has earned
nearly $14,000.
Equally enterprising, Greve
paid $91 for a 650 pound Hereford
calf in New Mexico, and fattened
it up to 1,170 pounds at 20 cents a
pound before toting it to the Chi
cago show. There, the steer won the
junior and grand championships,
brining Greve $585 in prize money,
before being bought at auction by
the Firetone Tire and Rubber com
pany for $5265.
Dan Mower?
ud Ben Greve
SEAWAY:
Back Again
Rejected as a treaty requiring a
two-third vote by the senate in 1934,
the 3421,000,000 St. Lawrence Sea
way project, providing a complete
waterway link from the Great Lakes
to the Atlantic ocean, bobbed up
again in the upper house, this time
in the form of an agreement re
quiring a simple majority.
Calling for construction of dams,
canals and water-works at an ex
pense of $277,000,000 to the U. S.
and $144,000,000 to Canada, the proj
ect was to be introduced as an
amendment to the rivers and har
bor bill by Sen. George Aiken (Vt.).
One of President Roosevelt's pet
projects, the St. Lawrence Seaway
has been the subject of lively dis
cussion, with advocates charging
private power interests with block
ing its passage, and opponents claim
ing that only Canada stood to benefit
from it. Aiken's attempt to pass
the project as an agreement rather
than a treaty further fanned the
flames, with opponents stressing
that anything as vital to our inter
national relations properly deserved
the extended support of the country
as a whole, as exemplified in a two
third senate vote.
mm
H I fli
Notes of an
Innocent Bystandert
The Magic Lanterns: "Meet Me
in St. Louis" bulges with enough
pleasant amusement to provide a
month of daydreams. Set in the 23
skidoo era, the warm humor and
infectious ditties inspire the spirit
to show its dimples. Delightful Mar
garet O'Brien steals the picture and
your heart. ... A song-and-dan
cinema, "Something for the Boys,"
comes in on a buck-and-wing and
lands gently on the eyes and ears.
As in all musicals, the plot plays
second fiddle?sometimes it seems
that it isn't even in the orchestra.
. . . The March of Time's latest
concerns China?a nation of great
tragedies, great heroism, great
hopes. . . . The script of "Blonde
Fever" gets lost in a jungle of
cliches?and no one misses it. . . .
Those who dreamed up a dullo
drama like "The Last Ride" should
be in the Hall of Fame?sweeping it.
The Paragraph of the Week:
L. H. R.'s colyum in the N. Y.
Times previewed history with
this dialogue: "One more ques
tion, Daddy. What finally be
came of this terrible Hitler?"
. . . "For a long time, my child,
nobody knew. There were sto
ries. He was hiding in Spain,
Japan, Argentina, Eire. Ton
took yonr ehoiee. Then, in 1960,
a rng collector named Donner
blits died of Indigestion In Chi
cago. That was Hitler. He had
been living there sixteen years."
. . . "Bat didn't anyone guess.
Daddy?" . . . "No, you see, ex
cept for changing his name and
shaving off his mustache, he
went right on being himself,
damning Russia, England, de
mocracy, the Gov't at Washing
ton, and the C.8.A. In general.
So the neighbors took him for
just an ordinary crackpot and
never gave him a second
thought."
The book store* will shortly re
ceive an extraordinary book called
"Axis Rule in Occupied Europe."
It is by Raphael Lemkin. It is
published by the Carnegie Endow
ment (or International Peace. . . .
Book oracles state it is really the
last word on what the Nazis have
done to The Old Country. The Writ
ers' War Board (staffed with intel
lectuals, authors, editors, et al) is
unable to name a "more important
volume in its field." . . . The au
thor o( the book has created a word
?"genocide" to define the calculat
ed destruction by the Germans of
national and racial groups. . . . Buy
two copies. One to read over and
over again and the other to bang on
the head of any supporter of a Nazi
soft-peace.
The Private Papers
0/ a Cub Reporter:
Sufferers from the cigarette short
age would like to know Just why it
is that night clubs are enjoying near
ly all the ciggis biz. This is how
com*. . . . The night clubs are in
this enviable position because
they've always charged a dime to
15 cents over the retail shop prices,
and, of course, they still are permit
ted (by the OPA) to charge the same
tariff as before the "ceilings" went
into effect. . . . Then, besides get
ting 10c and 15c more per pack, the
cigarette gals are invariably tipped
an average of 25c for each pack.
This, too, goes to the concessionaire.
... As a result, getting 50c per
pack for cigarettes (for which re
tail stores charge 17c) the conces
sionaires are able to pay a good
deal more for cigs tt\an the retail
ers. That explains why all the night
spots are doing a terrific ciggie biz.
Oor Macon editor rtUfithii let
ter from Dr. W. B. Burke, liis son
James is with our State Dep't. Jim
auth'd "My Father in China." . . .
Dr. Burke spent SO years in China.
. . . The letter in part: "The whis
pering campaign in China against
the Generalissimo and his wife Is
largely the work of pro-Jap Sth col
umnists. Unfortunately some of our
correspondents over there have got
ten some of the reports in the papers
over here. ... At first the Gen
eralissimo thought he would ignore
them. Then he realized the rumors
were directed more against China
than against himself. Therefore he
felt that he bad to bring these sto
ries into the light. As to the report
he had been unfaithful to his wife
be declared his relations with his
wife had been without stain, abso
lutely pure. I can understand the
object of the Japanese, but it Is hard
to get the workings of our American
correspondents' mind. This Is for
publication."
*
Home Front Isn't So Safe Either-. Here Are Oddest \
Of 1944's Freak Accidents and Narrow Escapes
?
Caprices of Fate Injure
Some, Leave Others
Wholly Unscathed
Br PAUL JONES
As you may have begun to sus
pect, wartime days are wacky
days.
People stand patiently in line
for two hours to get a pack of
cigarettes, and then blow their
tops if they miss one section of a
revolving door on the way back
to work. Guys who never could
stand bananas now howl their
heads off because they can't get
them. The laundry eventually
sends back the right buttons, but
the shirts are missing. Maids
who used to have one night out
now allow the lady of the house
to have one night in. A customer
is publicly commended for slug
ging a waitress who said, "Don
cha know^here's a war on?"
You would think, then, that the
annual crop of wacky accidents
would have been even wackier in
the wartime year of 1944. And you
would be right. They were. A round
up by the National Safety council
proves that an amazing number of
people still patronize the Whack
market in accidents. To wit:
As two-year-old Margaret Morton
of Groton, Conn., l^y sleeping in
her home one October night, a navy
plane plowed through her bedroom
and whisked the blanket off her bed
without touching her. The plane
zoomed through the other wall ot
the house and eventually crashed
into a schoolhouse. Lieut. W. J.
McCarthy o( Toledo, Ohio, pilot ot
the fighter plane, was injured only
?lightly. The blanket, undamaged,
was found In the wreckage of the
plane.
?
As aa enthusiastic Jitterbugger,
Pfe. Ernest Olivier of MeCeek,
Neb., often had been "sent" by a
bet tune. But never as literally as
the evening he span in a super
maneuver, grabbed ter his pretty
I living partner's hand, missed ? and
plunged through the seeend-stery
window of the dance hall.
Nine persons riding cozily in an
automobile driven by Mrs. Adaline
Clasby of Winslow, Ariz., were in
jured slightly when the car crashed
into the rear of a bus that had
stopped to discharge a passenger.
Mrs. Clasby readily explained the
accident. "I failed to see the bus in
time to stop," she Said, "because I
was nursing my baby."
'Shot' by Lawnmewer.
When Pfe Charles Smith came
home to Claudell, Kan., to re
cuperate from, wounds received in
three south Pacific invasions, he fig
ured he would get some rest from
dodging shrapnel. But as he
watched a power lawnmower at
work in his front yard, the darn
thing picked up an old spoon and
hurled It with such power and ac
curacy that it penetrated the calf of
Private Smith's leg and had to be
removed by an operation. "It's the
same wherever you go," Private
Smith remarked glumly at the hos
pital.
Pvt. Barley Paul Collins ef Kan
sas City, Kan-, knows exactly how
Private Smith felt. For Private Col
lins, heme en furlough, was show
ing Ids wtfe bow the beys make
booby traps ever there. Be hooked
up a shell, a beard, a nail and a '
piece ef wire. Then he tripped, and
the homemade contraption went off
and shot him In the leg.
> ?
Paul Lewchick of Coaldale, Pa.,
knows that prudent people lay in a
supply ef coal every year. But he
believes few of them do it as liter
ally as be did. He lay in?and under
?13 tons of it when he and his car
were buried beneath the contents of
a coal truck that upset in a near
collisMm with Lewchick's cur. Dug
out after hard work, Lewchick
nursed only minor cuts and bruises,
and refrained manfully from ex
plaining that it was soft coal.
At least three persona in tha
United States now take seriously the
expression, "I'd break my neck to
do that." One is Gregory Stingel, 13,
of Chicago, who put his football Jer
sey on backwards in his haste to
dress for a game, tugged fiercely to
get it oft?and broke his neck. Anne
Haldeman, 10, of Doylestown, Pa.,
snapped a vertebra in her neck
while skipping rope. And Mrs.
Pauline Strother of Indianapolis,
topped them both by dislocating a
vertebra in her neck while vigor
ously brushing her teeth I All re
covered.
Closely akin to the neck-breakers
was Mrs. James Gallagher of West
Hazelton, Pa., who arose so hur
riedly to shut off an Insistent alarm
clock that she dislocated her spine.
?
By Remote Control.
The Wood row Andersons of the St.
Louis Andersons are careful folk.
So when Mr. Anderson got back
from a hunting trip, ha placed his
rifle on a kitchen shelf, out of reach
of the Anderson children. Equally
cautious, Mrs. Anderson took all the
arrows away from eight-year-old
Donald before leaving the house to
visit a neighbor. But Don still had
the bow. So he merely substituted
a yardstick for an arrow and let
It fly from the back porch toward the
kitchen. The yardstick went through
a hole In the screen door and struck
the trigger of the rifle. The rifle
went off, and the bullet struck Don's
little sister, Darlene.
?
A good time was had by all bat
the driver when a grocery truck up
set In Bloomlngtoa, Calif., setting
up aa Informal but popular self
service grocery In the middle of the
street. Eager customers hurried
from all sides to fill their needs,
their pockets and, In some eases,
the trunks of their ears. It was a
boon for budgets and ration books.
?
Then there was the strange case of
the disappearing woman. It hap
pened in Los Angeles as Mrs. Jan
iel Reesse gossiped of this and of
that with three neighbors. In the
middle of a sentence?whoosh! Mrs.
Reesse disappeared. Firemen came
on the run, extricated her from a
forgotten excavation 12 feet deep.
Mrs. Reesse's fence-side weight Is
325 pounds.
?
If men bite dogs to make news,
why .shouldn't a horse smack an
auto? That's what two Norwich,
Kan., horses figured one afternoon
when they were scared silly by a
girl on roller skates. They ran and
ran until they encountered a parked
car. Then they got their signals
mixed. Horse No. 1 went on one side
of the car, horse No. 2 on the other.
That left only one place for tha
wagon tongue to go?right through
the car. Nobody was hurt.
Auto 'Picks Dp' Boy.
The driver of an auto in Chicago
wondered why people were point
ing and yelling at him one day
last August. He stopped the car and
round, of all things, ? bewildered
four-year-old boy?Timothy Ochall
by name?oo the front bumper. The
car had struck Timmy and carried
him two full blocks. Tim got a bump
on the head, a few bruises and a
flattering amount of attention.
Ed Cloud and Earl Thomas ef
Knoxrllle, Tetrn., didn't knew for a
minute whether they were eomlng
er going the day that a train hit
their truck. The engine tossed the
truck ante the pUet at another loco
es eti is going the ether way. A
scratch en Cloud's head was the auly
In Chicago, Mr*. Rita Hatfield ran
to answer the phone, stumbled over
the dog, fell through a glass-topped
coffee table, suffered bad cuts on
her arms and legs. Doggedly an
swering the phone, Mrs. Hatfield
found the call was from an accident
insurance company making a sur
vey. Was she, they wanted to know,
covered against accidents in her
home? She wasn't.
?
C. C. Hardy stepped out of his
truck in Sidney, Texas, was strode
by a passing car and tossed high
into the air. Just before his head
struck the concrete pavement, his
pocket caught on the high truck door
handle and held him suspended in
the air. . - . -
m
Ob the way borne from the Bronx
soo in New York, Henry Carrnmlt,
II, sought to Imitate the monkeys
he bad seen. He leaped np and down
on the snbway seat, scratching and
grimacing. On ,u especially high
jump an electric fan nipped Ms
scalp. No more monkey business for
Henry.
In Washington Court Hous^, Ohio,
hot words must have been ex
changed over the phone one day. In
any event. Superintendent Fred Root
of the phone company reported that
too much talking had overloaded
eight switches and set the phone ex
change on fire.
?
Louis Boardman halted his auto
mobile in Cleveland to watch the
huge gas plant fire there last Octo
ber. He stepped out for a better view
?and fell through an open manhole,
the cover of which had been blown
off by the gas blast. '
Clarence Brown Jr. of St. Louis
knows just how a baseball fan feds
when he is really burned up. Watch
ing a- sandlot game this summer,
Clarence was struck by a line dxhro
and promptly burst into flames. The
batter had scored a bull's-eye on n
pocketful of stick matches. Both the
blaze and the batter were soon put
out.
Travelling Bun Saws.
As Henry Butler ate breakfast In
Jacksonville, Fla., a buzz saw ripped
through the kitchen wall, sliced tha
breakfast table neatly in two and
whirled out the other side of thn
house. It hsd broken loose from ?
saw mill nearby.
Not so spectacular but Just as ss>
prising was the feat of another buzs
saw that went A W. O. L Thin
one broke loose In Florence, & C.,
sailed through the air for a mile and
ripped through the roof of a parked
car whose owner had Just alighted.
0
Six-year-old Robert Julian of Chi
cago was shooting a dart gun at a
target on the wall. The dart had n
rubber suction cup on the end to
hold when It struck a flat surface.
Often it hit glancingly, and didn't
cling, so Robert fastened a needle
In the suction cup so that the point
would stick into the wall.
An elder brother, Frank, It, en
tered the room Just as Robert shot.
The dart struck Frank in the chest.
He felt a slight pain but thought
nothing of it at the time. Later he
collapsed, and was rushed to the hos
pital.
Surgeons discovered, after con
siderable hunting around, that there
was a needle imbedded near Frank's
heart. Little Robert had forgotten
about that sharp point on the end of
his dart, but It waa there all the
same, and it came near killing his
brother. As it was, a skillful opera
tion removed the needle, and Frank
was as well as ever after a few
days.
?
Top honors In the freak fall de
partment for 1944 go to four-year
old Raymond Davis Jr. of Chicago,
who fell three stories from a back
porch and suffered only a bruise on
the head. A neighbor's clothes lino
caught him as he fell, bounced-hio
gently a couple of times and then let
him fall the few remaining feet to
the ground.
?i
And in Hollywood, Strip Teaser
Betty Rowland put so much heart
Into her work that she bumped oas
of her swivel-hips against a wall
and took off for tha hospital. Buffer
ing from partial paralysis.