> » WEATHER Mostly cloudy and colder today, tonight partly cloudy and rather cold, followed by partly cloudy and slightly warmer Wednesday. Tshe Hhelhy Bnily Star STATE THEATRE TODAY Jon Hall — Louise Allbritton In "SAN DIEGO I LOVE YOU" Also NEWS — CARTOON CLEVELAND COUNTY’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1894 TELEPHONES 1100 VOL. XLI1I-14 ASSOCIATED PRESS NEWS SHELBY, N. C. TUESDAY, JAN. 16, 1945 TELEMAT PICTURES SINGLE COPIES—5c HOUFFALIZE TAKEN BY YANKS WITHOUT A FIGHT ,******«, * •* * * .# * * * * * * * * * * Reds Open New Offensive From Two Bridgeheads On Vistula River STRONG ENEMY DEFENSES SAID PENETRATED Germans Announce Fall Of Schlossberg Inside East Prussia DECIDING~BATTLE LONDON, Jan. 16.—(#)— Marshal Stalin announced to night the Red army had open ed an offensive from two Vis tula river bridgeheads south of Warsaw. A special order of the day broadcast by Moscow radio said the assault was led by, Marshall Gregory K. Zhukov. The Germans high command an nounced this powerful Russian drive yesterday. The order said the Russian forces Jumped off from the two bridge heads Jan. 15 with massed artillery support, but none from the Red Air Force because of bad weather. The drive, the order said, broke through "strong and deeply eche loned enemy defenses.” In the three days of offensive fighting the Russians from the two bridgeheads Joined up and advanc ed 38 miles extending the break through to 75 miles In width the order said. LONDON, Jan. 16.— UP) —The German high command announced the fall of Schloeberg, 13 miles in . side East Prussia, as Russian armies tore gaping holes today in Nazi de fenses along 600 miles of front and seriously threatened -one of the main rear communication lines of Warsaw. Nazi broadcasts said "major pene trations" had been made by the Soviets in the Vistual-Bug triangle north of Warsaw and from the Narew bridgeheads south of East Prussia and declared Premier Mar shal Stalin's winter offensive was Intended to the deciding battle of the war. WESTWARD Marshal Ivan Konev's big First Ukrainian army, pounding westward toward Krakow in Southern Po land, fought its way into the outer salients of defense of the Nazis’ Krakow-Warsaw railway line, re puted to be one of the strongest German fortified zones in south eastern Europe. This railway, connecting the Polish capital with Silesia's coal mining and munitions industries, is one of Warsaw's chief arteries of supply. Konev s steamroller already was in possession of Klelve on the War saw-Krakow line and only about 49 miles from tht border of Ger man Silesia. - Shoving westward without sup port of aviation because of fogs, sleet and snow, Konev appeared to be heading straight for the War saw-Slleslan line on a sector 30 miles wide. 14 KILLED IN CHiCAGOHRE Clark Hotel On Edge Of Loop Consumed By Spec tacular Blaze CHICAGO, Jan. 1#—)—The Japanese garrison at Wanting remained the sole obstacle to opening of the new Indla-China supply road today wi*h the fall of the twin enemy stronghold at Namkham to besieging Chinese forces. Namhkam, last Japanese bastion In north Burma, was captured by troops of the 30th division of the Chinese first army under Gen. Sun Li-jen, which slipped through the jungle and stormed the town from the rear. Fall of Namhkam climaxed six weeks of bitter fighting, during which the Japanese have clung desperately to a 25-mile stretch r. vied to complete the new over land supply route to China. CITY DIRECTORY: Enumerators See Shelby’s 1945 Population 18,000 A belief that Shelby’s 1945 popu lation will be up to 18,000 persons was expresed today by enumerators for the Southern Directory Com pany who In their checking of names for the new directory ap pearing this spring have found local houses more completely oc cupied than they have ever before seen here. A. E. Miller, superintendent of the five-man field staff gathering the new lists, said that his group hadn’t come across a habitable house that wasn’t occupied or en gaged for occupancy — and many / persons were inquiring of the enumerators for assistance if find ing quarters more suitable for their overcrowded families. That there needs to be considerable building of houses to relieve the shortage here is evident to the directory makers. ALL OVER 16 All persons 16 years or over are being listed for the directory, and that includes men and women who are away in the armed services but who are listed Just the same. See ENUMERATORS rage l CAPT. MULL SAYS HE BETS ON YOUTH Calls For Self-Faith And Small Beginnings in Jaycee Address Young mgn face now the chal lenge to carry Shelby forward and make It the growing progressive city it will have to be to retain its unusual position of leadership, the Junior Chamber of Commerce was told by O. M. Mull, chairman of the Shelby and Cleveland County Foun dation, In an address which fea tured the group’s annual Distin guished Service award meeting last night. “I'm betting on youth,” Mr. Moll declared as he urged his hearers not to be afraid of small beginnings. “I don’t care how small you start or how Mg you grow—the sky is the limit —but above all else, be willing to work, have faith in yourself and your community will show its faith in you.” Declaring that it men and not money thatfgLnefided to make the city grow, tfiempeajter vited humble beginning of ^otjpps who have achieved success' Imre. He, said that the late John R. Dover, with the help of fiends, got together $100, 000 and started the present Ella mill, sold it for $500,000 and launched the Dover group which is an outstanding unit of the textile industry; he told how Frank Sher rill came out of the Army and with the Webbers started the S. &. W. cafeterias with a veritable hole in the wall in Charlotte that since the See MULL Page 2 CHURCHILL AND FDR AGREED ON CHARTER AIMS Says War Will Be Contin ued For "Uncondition al Surrender" SCOBIE PRAISED By The Associated Press LONDON, Jan. 16.—Prime Minister Churchill indorsed today President Roosevelt’s declaration that the objectiv es of the Atlantic Charter re main valid, though not all could be achieved immed iately. He told the newly reconvened House of Commons he did not be lieve the Allied slogan of uncondi tional surrender had great politi cal value for Hitler and he insist ed: “The war will be prolonged until unconditional surrender has been obtained.” The work of Lt. Gen. Ronald N. Scobie, British commander in troubled Greece, drew praise from the prime minister under critical questioning. Churchill said: “I think he has done ad mirably.” The Prime Minister spoke ex temporaneously. He plans a full scale war statement Thursday Laborites and the one Com munist member of the house, Wil liam Gallagher, asked the question which drew out Churchill. The house, in which Churchill’s con servative party is dominant, See CHURCHILL Page 2 Fag, Distributors Have Voluntary Rationing Plan CHICAGO, Jan. 16.—(A*)—Cigar ettes, which since last fall have been one of the nation’s wartime hard-to-get commodities, will be available at the rate of about 15 daily to civilians under a voluntary rationing system planned by the National Association of Tobacco Distributors. The Association esti mated the average daily civilian consumption last year was slightly more than 17 cigarettes. The association, with a member ship of 2,800 which controls distri bution of cigarettes to the coun try’s 1,260,000 retail outlets, said last night that a card system of issuing smokes will be inaugurated within two weeks. The plan, des cribed as designed to achieve order ly allotment, would mark the first time an industry attempted to ra tion in wartime a scarce commo The association’s action ionowea a stand taken by the Office of Price Administration that it would not attempt to ration cigarettes because of the uncertainty of de termining the number of smokers. The NATO system did not meet with any immediate objection by the OPA. RATION CARDS Under the system numbered ra tion cards will be issued by re tailers to consumers who will be required to sign a declaration that they have not obtained cards else where. The rationing will not be attempted at outlets for transient trade—hotels, railroad and bus sta tions—or at chain stores. About 13 per cent of the available cigar ettes are sold at these places, the association estimated. There is no immediate prospect for any “substantial" improvement in supplies this year, the associa tion said, stating that in 1944 33 million packs of tax paid cigarettes were produced daily for domestic consumption. CRITICISM The system was described by dis tributors at a wartime conference by Joseph Kolodny, association exe cutive secretary, who said he be lieved the plan will prevent “raids” on dealers’ stocks by hoarders. To bacconists, he said, “do not want to conduct their establishments like speakeasies." The rationing attempt was cri ticized by John W. Dargavel, exe cutive secretary of the National Association of Retail Druggists, who said few retail druggists have had any difficulty in rationing to their regular customers. “If we were getting the 70 per cent of normal we’re supposed to get from distributors, every one would be happy, including the cus tomers,” he said. "Wholesalers are giving us less all the time.’’ MR. BOWMAN BOWMAN NAMED HEAD OF BANK Believed Oldest Bank President In U. S.; Others Elevated When J. T. Bowman, who will be 91 years on March 12, assumed the presidency of the Union TVust Company following the election of officers by directors after the an nual stockholders meeting of the institution this morning, he be came, his associates believe, the na tion’s oldest bank president in the active service. Mr. Bowman succeeds the late Charles C. Blanton, with whom he was associated in the formation of the Union Trust Company, which took over the old Shelby National Bank of which Mr. Bowman was an organizer and president early in the century. He has been actively enj^gea m'BanH'ftg for the past 70 years, from the time shortly after he finished Washington and Lee University where as a student he came under tutelage of General Robert E. Lee as president of that school. ELEVATED J. Worth Morgan, formerly ca shier of the ForestJCity branch, and MR. MORGAN N. O. Goforth, formerly cashier of the Rutherfordton branch, were elevated to vice-presidents, A. V. Hamrick of Shelby being re-elected first vice-president. Jesse E. Bridges, who rendered See BOWMAN Page 2 WHAT’S WING TODAY 7:30 pjn.—C. A. P. members meet at armory. 7:30 p.m. — Cleveland Lodge 203 A. P. & A. M. meets for work in third degree. German Stand On Salm River Cracks Under Blows From 3 Divisions By JAMES M. LONG PARIS, Jan. 16.—(fP)—The Belgian road center of Houf falize, once at the heart of the vanishing Belgian bulge, was captured today without a fight by the “Hell on Wheels” Sec ond Armored division of the American First Army. Behind Houffalize, the German stand on the Salm river cracked as a three-division American assault team beat slowly down the last six miles to St. Vith, a door for Nazi withdrawal to the Siegfried line forts. The capture ox Houffahze nar rowed the bulge to 15 miles west of the German frontier. The penetra tion, started a month ago, had ex tended to 40 miles almost to the Meuse and overran about 2,000 square miles. Only about 400 re mained today in Field Marshal von Rundstedt’s grasp. It seemed at best that the Germans would be able to hold only a buffer bump a few miles in front of their thick fortress line. When the Germans at tacked, Hitler told his generals that the offensive might knock one of the Allies—presumably Great Britain—out of the war. Armored scouts of old “Gravel Voice”, Maj. Gen. Ernest N. Har mon, entered Houffalize at 10 p.m. last night. The Germans apparently had abandoned the strategic town at the crossroads nine miles north east of Bastogne and 18 southwest of St. Vith. Formal occupation was slowed by burned out wreckage of German equipment cluttering roads around the outskirts. (The British radio said the U. S. 7th army had attacked powerfully north of Strasbourg in an effort to erase a German bridgehead across the Rhine.) HIGH HOPES Statements from prisoners dis closed the high hopes Hitler had for the offensive into which he sent 20 divisions making up three armies. The fuehrer was said to have ad dressed a select gathering of army and divisional commanders in Ber lin just before the drive opened. He asserted that the Meuse would be reached in two days and that Antwerp, major allied supply port, would be taken in three weeks. The Germans got within three miles of the Meuse before the tide turned. Hitler was represented as saying the capture of Antwerp would pin down 38 Allied divisions for anoth er “Dunkerque”, at best, however, the offensive had interrupted Gen. Eisenhower’s winter offensive and See GERMAN Page t Jan. lf^^LMacARTHUR®S*HEAn L east flanl wi^trenched ?fln forces are in " a?,