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Wilmington Wonting £tar North Carolina’s Oldest Daily Newspaper published Daily Except Sunday Ey The Wilmington Star-New* At The Murchison Building K. B. Page, Owner and Publisher Telephone All Department* _DIAL 2-3311_ Entered as Second Class Matter >t Wilming ton. N. C., Postoffice Under Act of Congress of March 3. 1879. ___ SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY CARRIER Payable Weekly Or In Advance ' Combma Star News tion Fweek .$ f0 * Month* . 3 25 2’60 5-20 1 Yearh 13 00 10-40 20'80 New rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue of Star-News “ ” BY MAIL Payable Strictly In Advance Combine Star News tion 1 Month .$ 75 * 50 » .90 , Months . 2 00 1.50 3.75 fl Months . ®-®0 i y„r .. 8.00 6.00 10.00 News rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue m Ster-News Card of Thanks charged for at the rate of 25 cents per line. Count five words to line. * THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ftones appearing in The Wilmington Stag. News. _ FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 1943 With confidence in our armed forces — with the unbounding de termination of our people—we will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God. —Raoaavelt’o War Message Our Chief Aim To aid in every way the prosecu tion of the war to complete vie tory._ THOUGHT FOR TODAY A moment In the morning take your Bible in your hand, And catch a glimpse of glory from the peaceful Promised Land; It will linger stiU before you when yon reach the bnsy mart, And like flowers of hope will blossom into beauty in your heart. —SELECTED. -V Citation For The Enterprise The aircraft carrier Enterprise which helped protect the Hornet on the Tokyo raid and participated in most of the important battles in the Pacific, has received a citation from President Roosevelt, the equivalent of hav ing a medal pinned on its bow. How well the citation was deserved may be gathered from this partial list of its stellar perform ances in the war drama of the Far East: 1. Destruction of at least 140 Japanese warplanes in air combat, in addition to “an undetermined number” smashed on the ground. 2. Sinking of three submarines, one pa trol boat, one fuel barge, and, in con junction with squadrons from another car rier, four aircraft carriers and three de stroyers. 3. Probable sinking of one battleship, one heavy cruiser, three large tankers, one transport. 4. Damaging with direct hits one air craft carrier, one battleship, one destroy er, two light cruisers, a large transport, a tanker, a cargo ship, seven miscellane ous craft and, with teamwork with planes from another carrier, still another battle ship and two light cruisers. 5. Hits on ships and shore installations, with at least 84,100 pounds of bombs, 11 torpedo hits and one probable torpedo hit. 6. Destruction of at least three han gars, one radio station, six miscellaneous buildings, two antiaircraft batteries, one 8-inch gun shore battery, seven gasoline tanks and a number of ammunition mag azines. 7. Severe damaging of four hangars, one fuel tank, 13 buildings, a barracks, a radio station and numerous runways. In dollars and cents, it is estimated that the Enterprise caused damage to enemy equip ment amounting to eight to ten times her original cost, which was $25,000,000. •-V The New Frontier When wars are over, war-weary people seek new frontiers. After the War Between the states came the great westward trek of men and women looking for fresh opportunities and a new life. When the former World war ended the frontiers were largely industrial. When peace again returns the new frontier will center in scientific development. Research experts in the coal, metal mining and petroleum industries, now working quiet ly in laboratories surrounded by military se crecy, have lifted the veil of the future. They have seen the new frontier in all its promise. From hints that leak out. its nature is enough to stir the imaginaftons of men in the streets. The miracles of the sulfa drugs, derivatives of coal, are just one phase of the coming revolution in discovery and research. Rubber synthetics are multiplying almost by the score, along with plastics and other materials, each of which can easily mean the establishment and growth of an entire new industry. Beyond these is a vast realm of discovery of whict the public as yet knows nothing. This country has just begun to grow. Indi Vidual initiative and the capitalistic systerr are inseparable from the American type of government. They have barely begun to flex their muscles. If the way is kept clear, they will make the past seem puny by comparison with the future. The way for future achieve ments can be kept clear only by a steadfast resolution that in this country government must not be the sinister competitor of free enterprise. This is as true of the natural re source industries as of the smallest popcorn stand. -V Saying A Mouthful Representative Ditter of Pennsylvania said, as the inelegant but pungent expression put it, a mouthful, when in a recent address he declared: "It cannot be gainsaid that there exists among the people of this nation a pro found distrust in the competence and even in the sincerity of a large portion of the bureaucracy of Washington . . There is, indeed, profound public distrust of the whole bureaucratic regime, so profound that even the competent heads of certain bureaus and hard-headed experts working in them are un der a cloud because of the inefficiency of the system as a whole. A notable example of the harmful effect of bureaucratic bungling is the discouragement of private productive enterprise. In this war period the government needs every dollar it can obtain by taxes and by loans and bond selling. To a great extent it is private en terpnse that pays taxes, people in private business who buy bonds. Yet, instead of en couraging this strong element in the nation’s economy the bureaucrats have been driving it to the wall. The little fellow in business and industry is literally persecuted by the theorists at Washington until he folds up. Needing money as never before, the govern ment through its bureaucrats is destroying the foundation of tax revenues. Mr. Ditter drives home a solid argument against the state of insecurity which has sprung up in Washington when he adds: “There is a deap-seated belief that with a fanatical zeal many officials place the vic tory over our enemies in a minor place in comparison with their ambition for control and power and the promotion of ideolgical objectives, both of which hinder rather than help the prosecution of the war.” -V New Housing Project The new housing project, to consist of 500 apartments and representing an investment of $2,000,000, which is to be in the Sunset Park area within easy walking distance of the shipyard, will provide homes for more defense workers and at the same time open an equivalent number of rooms and apart ments in the heart of the city for non-defense workers who, in all reason, deserve roofs over their heads, too. Wilmington is overruning -with non-indus trial workers who are nevertheless essential cogs in the city’s economic machinery and who are crowded into the inadequate housing avavilable to them. If families of industrial workers now living in town move to this new project their present homes will be available for occupancy by these other workers and their families, and so relieve the shortage to that extent. Meanwhile, a little more speed in the pro gram which has as its objective the conver sion of homes into small apartments would afford additional relief. -V Wage Comparisons The War Labor Board reports that it has so handled wage increases that these have not appreciably affected the cost of living. The Bulletin of the National Association of Purchasing Agents finds that average wages in all manufacturing industries rose from $23.19 in January, 1939, to $40.58 in Janu ary, 1943. Specifically, in that period the average wage in the automobile industry mounted from $31.59 to $55.85, or 77 per cent; in bituminous coal from $23.25 to $37.55, or 61 per cent; in textiles from $16.72 to $26.80, or 60 per cent. Civilians no longer buy the products of au tomobile plants, so this rise is reflected only in taxes, present and future. Civilians buy little bituminous coal, but this is a cost factor in all manufactured articles. Civilians do buy textiles, and wages have much to do with cost. It would be interesting to know how the WLB reached its conclusion that it has kept wage raises from affecting materially the cost of living. -V Let’s Do Better Wilmington’s traffic situation is so much better than two years ago, in spite of the great increase in both motor vehicles and pedestrians, that only a word of caution should be necessary to correct one persistent infraction of the law. This is the practice of some motorists to take precedence over pedestrians at downtown intersections. The traffic ordinance specifically says that persons afoot in intersections have right-of-way over vehicles. Drivers, therefore, who do not give them right-of-way are law violators. At the same time all pedestrians are not doing their full part in assisting the smooth flow of traffic and in reducing accident haz ards. Many daudle in crossing a street, thus placing a brake on traffic. Assuming that they are a chosen people they exceed theii just rights. A little more consideration of others, a little less indifference of the law, by pedes trians and drivers alike, and the traffic situ ation will undergo further improvement Fire Control We have had occasion in the past to com mend the general efficiency of the Wilmington Fire Department, headed by Chief Luddie Croom. It has just come to our attention that the department is again due for praise. In the new schedule of rating dwellings, issued last month by the North Carolina In spection and Rating Bureau, Wilmington home owners are relieved of any "exposure charge” which, it is estimated by competent under writers, will save up to 20 per cent to pre mium payers. This schedule, we are confident, could not apply here if the fire department were not capable of keeping the hazard of fire spread ing beyond the building in which it originates at a minimum. Inasmuch as the bulk of Wilmington’s dwellings are of frame construc tion and in some neighborhoods have little open space between, this speaks well for de partment. Fair Enough (Editor's Note.—The Star and the Newe accepts no responsibility for the personal views of Mr. Pegler, and often disagree with them as much as many of his readers. His articles serve the good purpose of making people think. By WESTBROOK PEGLER SAN FRANCISCO.—Of all the unions of the sea, that organization of the unlicensed sail ors, mostly West coast men, bossed by a bucko swede named Harry Lundeberg, seems to me to be the most honest and the least devious. Jhe Sailors’ Union of the Pacific is anti-communist and Lundeberg hates Joe Cur ran, the president of the widely publicized and glamorized National Maritime Union, the communist party-line organization, and fights him and Harry Bridges all the time. Curran has been trying to muscle his union into the West coast with Bridges’ help and as a re turn favor has been trying to establish Bridges’ longshoremen’s union on the East coast. Curran is cunning In the sly and slippery manner of the communist or fellow-traveler and a bit of a moocher and glory-hunter. Lundeberg is a tough guy who wants none of your united seamen’s service and welfare work for his sailormen. He wants pay, more of it all the time, and let the men buy their own grog and flop where they want to and promote their own girls of their own social set if they want to cut a rug. Lundeberg doesn’t try to pretend that merchant sailors don’t get drunk, jump ship and break disci pline. He is always giving them hell for it in his union paper which any enemy can read. Curran pretends that such things cannot be and takes unto himself much of the credit for the supreme sacrifice of the sailors who have been lost in this war. Lundeberg calls Curran Moosejaw and Ham-head in editorials reminiscent of Huey P. Long’s happier mo ments on the platform and the air and he is no less diligent to establish Joe Ryan’s AFL lo’ngshoremen back on the West coast and to drive Bridges right into the sea than Bridges is to give Curran’s communists a beachhead here. It is a great brawl and Lundeberg has the appeal of Popeye the Sailor and a loyal personal following which Curran can never enjoy. Lundeberg wouldn’t fool you about sailors. In a page one box in his paper he warned his men that anyone who quit his ship with out relief would be tried on charges by the union. “This action was taken," the article said, “as a result of the manner in which the crew of the President Fillmore left the vessel in Seattle without getting replacements. Only thinking of themselves. Due to short notice about crew replacements, the ship was man ned by an Army transport crew. Through the efforts and agreements of the union the men who made the trip to Alaska made a great big pay day. But they did not think of the union, but only of their own selfish interests so they scrammed, leaving the ship wide open for the Army to move in on them. They prevented the S. U. P. man from mak ing a good pay day.” Lundeberg doesn’t talk patriotism or rant against the Axis as Curran does. To him the union is everything. Any man who shirks duty or breaks the union’s contracts embar rasses the union. That he jeopardizes soldier lives and the allied cause, seems secondary. Again, Lundeberg, openly and for his enemies to read, denounced men aboard the Matensia for going to town leaving only one man on the security watch, “not once but a couple of times.” His union is the only one that gets overtime pay for security watches in port. He regards this as a personal achieve ment and he has warned all his men that the next one who does it will be tried on union charges. If convicted by the commit tee the offender might be set on the beach, and if fit, might be drafted as a $50 a month punk. A terrible punishment for men who make “big pay” for runs to Alaska and en joy the right to talk back to their officers. An item from Los Angeles reports that some members or a crew who drew a travel allowance of $21 each from union headquar ters in San Francisco to man a ship in San Pedro got drunk and stayed drunk for days. “After the mates stood for this a few days,” the paper says, “they fired the drunks and left us short of able seamen. We finally man aged to get the ships manned and they sailed with, a full crew.” “Ir you get gassed up, don’t do your job, the union will unload you in the first U. S. port,” says another warning, "and you will not be allowed to sail in S. U. P. ships out of S. U. P. halls. So it is up to you.” Still another candid note admitted that in San Pedro “some of the fellows refused to stand their security watches, some disappeared for a couple of days and others got drunk and passed out on the job. "Most of them came back for another chance but it’s no dice.” Nor does Lundeberg exploit as though it were an international feat of bravery by his union as such, the number of merchant sailors who have died in the war of Curran’s per sonalized propaganda. In this respect he wrote: “It is ghoulish to use the killing of our members to gain cheap publicity for the organization or any individual.” QUOTATIONS If the American people will mass solidly behind the war, their strength will reinforce the spirit of the men in the armed forces. It will fortify the enthusiasm of labor for gigantic war production and influence man agement to back labor in its effort.—Edward L. Bernays of New York, public relations expert. * * * Our might must grow even more than that of the phenomenal growth of the last 12 months, until we can strike crushingly any where on the globe.—Maj.-Gen. James H. Doo little “RED LETTER” DAY IN WORLD HISTORY Raymond Clapper Says : Needless Barriers Bar Way To Finnish Peace By RAYMOND CLAPPER STOCKHOLM.—There has been no lighting on the Kussian-Finnish front for months. Out of that tacit armistice Finland could become the first nation to break away from the Axis and resume its former place in the hearts of United Na tions peoples, but unfortunately, needless obstacles stand in the way. One obstacle is that Russia gives no indication of terms or even of an interest in ending her war with Finland. Relatively small Russian forces are immobilized on the Fin nish front, hence this inactive war is costing Russia practically noth ing. At the same time, by leaving the Finnish question open, Mos cow can use Finland as a pawn in trading for other settlements after the war. Some here think that is the main consideration on the Russian side, and if this is so then nothing can be done. On the Finnish side, the chief obstacle is a deep fear of Russia. True, the Finns lived under the Russians for a hundred years, up to the end of the last war, though with considerable autonomy. But the Finns know that the present Russian regime would be com pletely intolerant of Finnish dissi dents in any territory under Mos cow rule, and that deportations would soon break up the Finnish people who were inside Russian boundaries. Therefore even Finns who are the most tolerant toward Russia, and the most anti-Nazi Finns, would rather take a chance on a German victory than on hav ing Russia rule any of their people. That is the deepest reality in the Finnish trouble, I think, and although it may go to an irrational extreme it is a political fact which hitherto has frustrated such ef forts as may have been made to find a way to bring about peace and reclaim Finland to the Allied fold. That is not the whole story, for when the United States recently tried to find a basis for bringing both sides together the Finnish For eign Minister, Henrik Ramsay, made an ill-advised flight to Berlin to consult with the Nazis about it. Obviously the Allies find it diffi cult to have any confidence in a government of that kind, and little can be hoped for until there are changes in the Finnish government. Apparently we were on the point of breaking relations with Finland four weeks ago when the staff of the American Legation was moved from Helsinki to Stockholm. Per haps it is just as well that the thread was not broken at that time. Events may make a final step necessary, but several circum stances suggest that it may be worth playing it the other way for the time being. In the first place, there has been some loosening up internally, and more freedom of discussion, so that the possible strength of Axis collaborationists in Finland may decline, particularly a Marshal Mannerheim has no love for the Nazis and as the war is clearly going against the Axis now. In the second place, Finland has never signed the Axis pact. One can imagine that the Nazis brought heavy pressure in an effort to force such public adherence to their New Order. Third, one can also assume that «he Nazis jnust have pressed the Finns to resume their offensive against Russia, because the inac tivity of the Finn enabled tljp Russians to withdraw some of their forces from the north. There has been some houseclean ing in Finland, but more is need ed, especially in the political police force, which continues to be run by a little imitation Himmler. Stalin apparently gained a large increase in good will by his recent move abolishing the Comintern. If he now made possible an ending of the Finnish war it would be a great psychological blow to the Axis. The Finns in turn have an opportunity to do it now when it would mean something, instead of waiting until the Axis sinks in de feat. -V You’re Telling Me Whale meat, we are told, is de licious. Unfortunately, this news comes some 4,000 years too late to do Jonah any good. ; i i The Nazi mayor of Liege, Belgium, is so batty he thinks he is a geranium when what he really is, is a jimson weed. ! ! ! Italian naval cadets cheered their king but ignored the Duce because, no doubt, he reminds them of the navy they no longer have. ! ! ! Grandpappy Jenkins says his next door neighbor is plen ty smart. Foreseeing May’s moisture he planted his Vic tory garden with rice which has to be drowned before it' will grow. ! ! ! A mocking bird can sing sev eral dozen tunes in a minute. Sounds like a juke box manufac turer’s dream come true. ; i i However, when it comes to changing one’s tune fast the mocking bird has nothing on Franco of Spain. Daily Prayer FOR A SENSE OF GOD In humble and reverent wor ship, we bow low before Thee, O Infinite and Eternal Creator and Ruler of the universe. We acknowledge Thee and adore Thee as the only Supreme Sovereign of our souls. Our prayer today is for a clearer God-consciousness. We would be more and more aware of Thy reality and of Thy near ness. Give us a full sense, we pray, of Thy Father nature. In all the on-goings of our lives may we know that Thou art within us and all about us. May we medi tate, consciously and often, upon 'Thy nature, Thy will, Thy word. Teach us to see Thee in the lives all about us, and in Thy provi dences and in the works of Thy hand. Thus increase our own fel lowship with Thee until it be comes the great reality of our life, giving us a peace of spirit' which war cannot disturb. This prayer we offer in the name ol Christ, whose ways were troubled but who walked in the quietness and consciousness of fellowship with Thee. Amen.—W.T.E. -V Civilian Defense Timetable BASIC TRAINING COURSES .New Hanover High School, Room 109, At 8 P. M. FIRE DEFENSE A Monday, June 14, and every two weeks thereafter. GENERAL COURSE Tuesday, June 15, and every two weeks thereafter. GAS DEFENSE B Wednesday, June 16, and every two weeks thereafter. Negroes GENERAL COURSE On Thursday night at U.S.O., Ninth and Nixon streets. Starting at 8:30 P. M. -V It would be nice if being snowed under with work would keep us cool during the hot days. * * * Churchill advises the Italians to get out of the war now—and our airmen are furnishing the reasons why. The Literary Guidepost By JOHN SELBY “THEY ALSO RAN,” by Irving Stone (Doubleday, Doran; $3.50) Irving Stone’s “They Also Ran” is the most consistently interest ing book on politics and politicians I have read in years. It is also the only original book I ever saw in that field—he is writing about the 19 men who have been defeat ed for the presidency after being nominated and making a cam paign. He wonders whether the elec torate has chosen wisely in the majority of its rejections, and he concludes that it is a tie score. Before Lincoln, he believes the people were stupid (or deceived) five times, sagacious three times. From Lincoln to the present, he feels the people have chosen wisely five times, badly three times, and that the Smith-Hoover contest was one between two men who at the time of the election were about on a par. In other words, “not even by the meager est margin has democracy been able to prove that it has the dis cernment to choose the best pnan available for the most important office in the land.” Mr. Stone’s exhibits are in the | nature of brief biographies, among which those of A1 Smith and Alf Landon are particularly good Mixed with the biographical data is a political history of the period, and scattered through both de partments are Mr. Stone’s own comments. The reader should know that Mr. Stone is a liberal —no standpatter will have much comfort out of the author, al though I doubt that even a stand patter will be able to prove un fairness on the author’s part. And there is a curious quality of aliveness about the whole af fair. Most of us remember the Landon fiasco, for example, and yet I for one-got my first accu rate picture of the man himself from “They Also Ran.” Similarly, Mr. Stone has been successful with the only two men in our his tory ever defeated three times for the presidency—Hehry Clay and William Jennings Bryan. It is amusing to see that of the 19 de feated men, four each were gen erals, governors and plain poli ticians, and that the majority of those elected were likewise in these three categories. In fact, the book as a whole is amusing, a close to perfect job of exhuma tion and restoration. Interpreting The War By GLENN BABB The Italian Navy, which Mu, Lim declined to risk in al Us!» tempt to rescue the Ax it ai' of North Africa, still is Dla?.rmie' safe. Having abandoned th» 11 ters off Tunisia long befnr. <5' land battle was ove- it Te now to be under orders ^Peat| also the Mediterranean n ,H| leaving to the British seas which wash the foot l ?! Italian boot. 01 Admiral Cunningham’s sh;ns pear to have established a d inance in those waters whi matches the American - p-'"1 command of the skies The "'1 parently are able to bombard'/'" 1 tellena, outermost of Italv' • | land outposts, at will and V/ ' little risk of damage. Two hew shellings this week brought /;/ i light reaction from the shore „ ? 1 from the sea. Wednesday the fv? H ish fleet darted in clo'se to • ' I Italian mainland to smash a I voy off Capo Spartivento Tbic I dicates that British surface for/ I are able to deny use of the M, I sina channel, through which shin I must pass from one Italian cow I to the other. I A comparable situation would s. one in which an enem* surfv fleet, daring the United S t a to. Navy and air focres to do tie worst, was able to shell our Carib bean bases with impunity and m/ vent ship movements trom the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic be. tween Florida and Cuba. Such is the seeming helple;,. ness of the navy which il Duce used to boast would make ’■/„ Mediterranean Italy's Mare X0 trum, as it was in the days ol Rome’s real power. Presum,iV because of the decision of U D :re and his master beyond the Ah . it must hug its harbors and i?n0;t * the almost daily contemn;-, challenges of the Allies to com; out and do battle. This continued inactivity rhse; the question of what ultimate mi/ sion may be reserved for il Dm-. : fleet. His country lies unde: shadow of imminent invasion. Ti® Italian people, hearing of o;g Al lied flotillas moving eastward from Gibraltar and heavy concentred of shipping in African ports, are braced for the shock which may come any day. Roundabout French-Spanish reports published in London say the Italian navy is “prepared to steam into battle at an hour’s notice.’’ But this is not convincing. The situation is not sj simple. There is reason to doubt whether Mussolini will hazard his navy perhaps three or four sound bat tleships and a handful of light cruisers—until the very last mo ment, when no further withdrawal is possible. Allied landings Pa telleria, Sicily, Sardinia, even the southern mainland may no: be suf ficient to bring it into combat. One reason for such conjee'.'' is the fact that nothing would;, the Allies’ purposes better vn for the Italians to come out and fight. There is no doubt that Ad miral Cunningham disposes of suf ficient power to destroy whatever I force comes within range of his I guns. A naval battle that would It settle definitely the command of y the mid-Mediterranean would ziv.: j the United Nations far ■ reaching J strategical advantages. The Italian fleet, even wh V: it skulks in its northern bases. :>-s far more value than a fleet at the bottom of the sea. It is that important naval factor, a fleet in being. As long as it exists, even hidden away in Leghorn. Spez.a or even Trieste or Marseille, the British and their Allies must main tain still larger forces in Italian waters. If it were smashed a great part of those forces, battleships, cruisers, aircraft carriers, would be freed for operations elsewhe: They might move into the east ern Mediterranean to support an invasion of Europe by the Bsli.i. route. They might be sent still further east to begin the clean-; of the Bay of Bengal, a job which must be done this summer ana fall if the Allies are to oem year the reconquest of Bur ■ > ‘ to the rescue of China. Italians can avoid that sh 'Vtlou. sea battle for a few months r- - it might seriously affect In. plans in the Asiatic theat'.’i- j Whether that can be done «• j mains to be seen. Obviou.-nv I southern Italian bases are usable for the main f < 1 The two principal bases ori ■ _ west coast already have bashed by Allied heavy h( ' Spezia by the RAF from and Leghorn by General D'- •; Flying Fortresses from N;;; rica. Trieste, at the heao - Adriatic, has not yet been but already it is withir. ^ theoretical range of the big ican planes. Of course there may be rears other than strategical consia tions for the self effacernent ■■ the Italian sea forces. Man. the best ships have taken - punishment since 1940 ai< many are fit for action is a ^ tion. There may be a sbor>»-1 fuel. There also may be a - age of fighting spirit in ■rP.< ' the stiffening of German and men which, accord.m - merous reports, has been 1 many crews. It is suggested that Victory gardenerers be c- . backyardeners. Now, 7.a( ■ fr kopf who does the rri0V !;,P ... tie at his place wonders "nt- ,,s. is a grasstician or just a man. Our main interest in h-c nant races is, will Peaal until the season is ovei