■y To Roaring Gap the Blue Ridge gjhk 1 ■mm7?s ELKIN Hie Best Little Town In North Carolina OL. NO. XXXIII No. 9 PUBLISHED WEEKLY ELKIN. N. C., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3. 1945 $2.00 PER YEAR 12 PAGES—TWO SECTIONS NATIONAL ft WASHINGTON, Jan. 30.— I Lacking any direct word from President Roosevelt, admini stration leaders in the senate maneuvered tonight to shelve Henry Wallace’s cabinet nomi 1 nation until lending agencies are separated from the com merce department. Democratic leader Barkley, of Kentucky, was reliahly reported ready to make such a proposal to the senate when the Wallace ap pointment for secretary of commerce and a lending agency divorcement bill come before it, probably Thursday. I f this procedure is adopted — and leaders thought they could marshal enough votes to put it across — the nomination ») would be returned to senate commerce committee to lie dor mant until Congress acts on the pending legislation and President Roosevelt cither signs it or lets it become law. WASHINGTON, Jan. 30. — | President Roosevelt tonight thanked the millions of Amer icans who use his birthday to back the fight against infantile paralysis and predicted that this battle, too, will be won. His message of appreciation was broadcast to the nation by Mrs. Roosevelt just before midnight, as the climax of a nation-wide celebration of the chief execu tive’s 63rd birthday. “We will never tolerate,” he said “ a force that destroys the life, the hap piness, the free future of our \ children, any more than we will tolerate the continuance on earth of the brutalities and barbarities of the nazis or of the Japanese war lords. INTERNATIONAL PARIS, -Jon. 30.—The Amer ican First and Third armies smashed into the outer defen ses of the Siegfried line today in an attack approaching ma jor offensive scaie and gained as much as four miles on the frigid, snow-covered western front. Starting as a series of local thrusts, the assault picked up speed and, after several ad ditional divisions had been thrown in, eventually involved well over 100,000 men. It fur ther increased the pressure along a 40-mile front on Ger man military leaders who al ready are robbing their west wall defense^ ‘to bolster posi tions on tM' crumbling eastern front. ThS doughboys overran a number of Siegfried line out postsand frontline correspon ,dents said the Germans had previously evacuated the posi tions. LONDON, Jan. 30. — States men of the United States and Britain apparently were con verging on an undisclosed spot tonight for preliminary confer ences or even the “big three” F meeting itself as British and American leaflets raining on enemy lines urged the Germans to surrender. Outside of the closest offical circles nobody knew when or where President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and Premier Mar shal Stalin were to meet, and those who did know were not giving the slightest hint. Ger man and Swis* broadcasts said the “big three” meeting already was under way or about to be gin. The best guess in London was that the parley would be held in the soviet union or close to its borders. Some quarters, however, thought the meeting might be in Italy. J 0 LONDON, Jan. 30. — Adolf Hitler proclaimed to the world tonight that Germany will fighl to the finish — “fight on no matter where and no mattei under what circumstances until final victory crowns our ef forts.” The fuehrer, address ing the German nation by ra dio from what was described as his headquarters on the 12th anniversary of his ascendancy to the chancellorship, declared f Shoals Township, has been re * ported killed in action in Belgium i according to word received by hii • parents from the War Depart meat. ( - PUSH STEADILY ALONG HIGHWAY TOWARD BERLIN Steel Arc Is Being Closed Against City THREAT IS MOUNTING Germans Acknowledge That Situation Is Grave As Defenses Crumble BITTER FIGHT RAGING London, Jan. 31.—The German radio reported today that the right wing of a massive Russian battle arc closing against Berlin had swung in within 58 miles of the capital, reaching the rail junc tion of Soldin, 23 miles from the Oder River. Disaster-laden Nazi broadcasts said Marshal Gregory K. Zhukov’s First White Russian Army was driving inexorably toward Berlin from the northeast, east and southeast on a broad front. Moscow dispatches said that af ter crashing through the Obra River defenses just inside Ger many, Zhukov’s forces were rush ing westward along the main roads converging on the capital. Signi ficantly the Soviet reports which usually are well behind the events, said the Red Army vanguard was roughly 75 miles from Berlin. Bitter fighting in the areas of Soldin, Landsberg and Zielenzig was reported by Nazi broadcast ers, whose stark admissions of landslide advances by the Soviets lacked even the customary propa ganda assurances that the enemy would be stopped in due time. At Soldin the Russians were 58 miles northeast of Berlin, 38 southeast of Stettin, and 20 northwest of Landsberg. Lands berg is on the north bank of the Warthe River and a major junc tion on the Danzig-Berlin Rail road, 68 miles northeast of the capital. Zielenzig, 20 miles south of Landsberg, is 65 miles almost due east of Berlin, 25 northeast of Frankfurt and 30 miles inside of Germany. Russian and German reports agreed that the threat to Berlin was mounting steadiy. Zhukov’s forces already were within easy reach of the Oder, which winds about 35 miles east of the capital, and it was there that the Nazis must check the invaders if the siege or capitulation of Berlin was to be averted. The German Transocean Agen cy acknowledged that a frontal assault had crumpled the Meseritz and Schwiebus - Zullichau defense line only 45 miles east of Frank furton-Oder, 80 miles east of Berlin and nearly 20 miles inside the capital’s home province of Brandenburg. “Advance detachments are driv ing forward beyond the line to ward the lower course of the War the River and the region between Frankfurt and Kustrin, Trans ocean said. Pfc. J. W. Day Is Wounded In Action Rev. and Mrs. Richard Day of Pleasant Hill, have been notified that their son, Pfc. Johnny W. Day, has been wounded in action in Belgium. He went overseas in October 1944 and has been in England, France and Belgium. Just recently he was awarded the Infantryman’s Combat Medal for gallantry in actiop. He took his basic training at Camp Hood, Texas. THEY still die! — Will YOU buy? Lions To M For Waste ' A town-wide canvass .of Elkin for the collection of waste fats will be made Sunday afternoon, • beginning at 2:00 o’clock, by the Elkin Lion’s club. ! Everyone who has been saving ! waste fats, which are desperately • needed in the war effort for the , manufacture of medicines and > munitions, is urged to place theii • fats in a convenient place for col lection, preferably on the front IS WOUNDED—Staff Sergeant Bill Harris, son of .Mr. and Mrs. Grady Harris, was .wounded ii» Belgium on January .6, it was learned by a War Department telegram Sunday. He has been overseas since last August, and served in both England and France before going to Belgium. He is stationed with an Airborne Division. JOHNSON NAMED ON COMMITTEE Bank Credit Group Is Formed To Make Loans To Sipall Businesses Garland Johnson, vice - presi dent of The Bank of Elkin, has been named a member of the loan committee of the newly formed bank credit group which has un derwritten a fund of $10,000,000 for postwar loans to small bus iness. Representatives of fourteen banks, including The Bank of Elkin, met in Greensboro January 12, and arranged to form the $10, 000,000 fund, and in addition to the loan committee, named other officers as follows: N. S. Calhoun, president of the Security Nation al Bank, Greensboro, chairman; and Duncan P. Tillet, president of the Union National Bank of Char lotte, vice-chaifman. other mem bers of the loan committee in ad dition to Mr. Johnson are: A. K. Davis, vice-president of the Wa chovia Bank & Trust Co., Win ston-Salem, and L. J. Blakey, president of the National Bank of Burlington. Word H. Wood, of Charlotte, chairman of the board of the Am erican Trust Company, of that city, and general chairman of the Postwar Small Business Credit Commission for North Carolina said that the formation of the loan group is a sincere effort on the part of the North Carolina banks to give every possible as sistance to competent individuals, partnerships, large and small cor porations, businessmen and farm ers, during the time when private enterprises must convert from wartime to a peacetime basis. All worthy borrowers will be able to get bank credit if they desire it. Pair consideration will be given to all applications for loans and these applications should be made through the local banks, Mr. Wood added. Mrs. Woodruff Passes At Home of Daughter As the Tribune goes to press, word Is received that Mrs. Achsah Angeline Bink ley Woodruff, 94, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. J. P. Ipock on North Bridge street. Mrs. Woodruff was one of the oldest residents of Elkin and had a host of friends. She was bom September 17, 1851. Her husband was A. P. Woodruff who preceded her in death in 1922. She is survived by three daughters, Mrs. J. P. Ipock, of this city, Mrs. Grover Wil liams and Mrs. T. V Shore, of Boonville, and c.~ son, W. W. Woodruff, of •xington; Seventeen grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held today (Thursday) at 3:0$ p. m. at the home on Bridge street. The family requests no flowers. ake Canvass Fats Sunday walk near the curb, or on the porch or steps. It is asked that fats not be placed in glass con tainers due to the danger of breakage. In the first drive of this nature made by the Lions, over 300 pounds were collected. It is hoped that Sunday's collection will far exceed this figure, and that housewives will continue to save for future