The midland journal., February 26, 1943, Image 2

About The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947

Image provided by: University of Maryland, College Park, MD

                
WEEKCY NEWS ANALYSIS
OES Opposes Increase in Farm Parity;
Showdown in North Africa Prelude to
United Nations Invasion of Europe;
Reds Continue Ground-Gaining Drive
(EDITOR’S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these eolnmns. they are those of
Western Newspaper Union’s news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.)
- Released by Western Newspaper Union. ■ 1 ■
Bow momentous have been the results of the Russian winter offensive
against the Nazis may be seen in the changes pictured on the above map.
From the beginning of the Red drive last fall, through the relief of
Stalingrad and the sweep of the Russian momentum westward and south,
Hitler’s forces have had to yield virtually all the land they gained in
their 1942 spring offensive. The darkly shaded area Indicates the approxi
mate extent of the Russian gains.
TUNISIA:
Ready for Zero Hour
Only a continuance of the tradi
tional African rainy season and the
necessity of waiting until stores of
supplies were sufficient, had pre
vented the long-awaited Allied of
fensive for final control of Tunisia.
Signs and portents had pointed un
mistakably toward an early show-,
down. The elevation of Dwight D.
Eisenhower to the full rank of gen-:
eral and his appointment as su
preme commander in Africa had in
dicated a centralization of command
preparatory to decisive action. At!
the same time Secretary of War
StimSon had predicted the immi
nence of full-scale fighting in Tu
nisia and had warned the American
people to prepare for heavy casual
ties.
Axis forces had been completely
cleared out of Tripolitania, and the
British Eighth army after a short
rest had resumed movement by
storming into southern Tunisia along
the coastal road over which Mar
shal Rommel’s retreating army had
passed. When Rommel turned at
last like an animal to fight back,
Montgomery’s men were ready for
him. And although the Nazi com
mander threw in tanks, infantry andj
artillery, the British pounded his po
sitions mercilessly.
RED RESURGENCE:
Regains Lost Ground
Prophetic of Rostov’s fall had
been the Russians’ capture of Novo
cherkassk, for in wars past and
present any army that took the gate
way town of Novocherkassk had al
ways succeeded in taking Rostov.
How far the Nazis’ fortunes had
receded since their peak at Stalin
grad last autumn might be seen in
the spectacular gains in territory re
corded by the Russians. From Orel
on die north to Voroshilovgrad and
Rostov on the south, the Reds had
already regained most of the terri
tory they had lost in the German
offensive last spring and summer.
Nor did the Red tide show signs of
ebbing. Ahead lay the rich granary
of the Ukraine which Hitler had
hoped to hold. To the south lay the
remains of the Nazis’ Caucasus
army trapped and facing possible
dismemberment.
The speed of the Russian penetra
tion westward caused some military
observers .to. believe that not only
the Caucasus, but the Nazi-held Cri
mea as well might be isolated.
One of the surprising phenomena
of the Russian offensive was its
frightening effect on Axis military
morale. ; From a victorious invading
host, the' Nazis and their satellite
allies had been reduced in many
areas to chapfallen detachments;
glad to surrender.
HIGHLIGHTS ••• in the week's news
LOB ANGELES: Laying aside his
movie jherfi roles for the more haz
ardous fortunes of war, Robert Tay
lor has entered the naval air forces
as a hasten ant, junior grade. Ex
perienced as a private pilot, Taylor
has been aMigtied to a training
course at Corpus Christi, Texas, as
a ferry pilot or instructor. He took
the oath under his legal name, Span
gler Arlington Brugh. '
FARM PRICES:
Parity Battle Brisk
Even as the administration threw
down its battle gage against further
advances in farm prices, the senate
agriculture committee laid the
ground for such price increases by
voting to report a measure spon
sored by Senator Bankhead of Ala
bama designed to revise the parity
formula upward.
The administration’s position was
set forth in the speech of Economic
Stabilization Director James F.
Byrnes. Declaring that a change in
the farm parity formula “would not
be in the farmers’ interest,” Mr.
Byrnes indicated that the adminis
tration would fight to preserve its
present policies on farm and food
prices and production. Recognizing
that farmers need returns greater
than parity to meet extra expenses
involved in stepping up production
of certain crops, the OES chief in
dicated that the government would
make up that extra expense.
U-BOAT REPORT:
Better Than Expected
Out of the "hush-hush” and into
the limelight came the subject of
German submarines—a subject that
has painfully worried many an Al
lied leader. Prime Minister Win
ston Churchill turned the light on
the U-boats and his examination was
optimistic: “We are more than hold
ing our own.”
Outranking in interest his predic
tion of an Allied invasion of Europe
within nine months and his report
that 500,000 British and American
troops are now in Africa, was his
survey of the submarine situation
in a report to the parliament.
In the last six months, he pointed
out, Anglo-American and Canadian
shipbuilding exceeded all losses of
the United Nations by over 1,250,000
tons. The rate of Allied destruction
of U-boats has also improved.
DIES COMMITTEE:
New Lease on Life
The American people indicated
clearly that they wanted the work
of the Dies committee continued,
even though some of them did not
always agree with its methods of in
vestigating un-American activities.
This was evident in the over
whelming congressional vote of 302
to 94 to extend the committee’s
work for another two years. In re
porting on its achievements, Con
gressman Dies pointed out that the
army, navy, Federal Bureau of In
vestigation and other government
agencies had made 138,000 requests
for information about subversive el
ements and that 1,600 federal agents
had consulted the committee’s files.
LONDON: Intensification of “of
fensive plans" against the Japanese
were agreed upon when Marshal Sir
John Dill, representing Prime Min
ister Churchill, and Lieut. Gen. Hen
ry H. Arnold, representing Presi
dent Roosevelt, held meetings with
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in
Chungking and Field Marshal Sir
Archibald P. Wavell in India, ac
cording to an official announcement.
MIDLAND JOURNAL, RISING SUN, MD.
JAP REVERSES:
Spur U. S. Offensive
With Guadalcanal completely
cleared of Japs, U. S. forces in the
southwest Pacific had prepared for
new offensive action.
How costly had been the Nippon
ese effort to hold this key island
and their foothold in the Buna-Gona
area of New Guinea was disclosed
in estimates of enemy casualties.
These estimates indicated that Ja
pan had lost 90,000 men killed, 200
ships sunk or damaged and 2,000
planes destroyed in these defeats.
More than two-thirds of these losses
were sustained in the southern Solo
mons.
Allied air raid activity, strafed
Jap-held positions on Kolombangara
and Munda. Meanwhile in New
Guinea American and Australian
troops opened up a long-awaited
drive on Salamaua. First activity
had consisted of skirmishes in which
enemy forces were pushed back in
the Wau-Mubo area, 35 miles south
west of Salamaua. While this at
tack was on a minor scale, the
tempo was being increased with the
Allies definitely taking the offensive.
DEFERRED DRAFTEES:
Face Early Summons
As plans moved forward swiftly
for enlarging the size of Uncle
Sam’s fighting forces, selective serv
ice made public estimates that
1,000,000 single men of draft age
are now deferred on occupational
grounds. This number would be suf
ficient to fill more than one-fourth
of the requirements of the armed
services for the remainder of the
year if they are physically fit.
That many of these men would
soon land in the army or navy
was indicated by instructions to lo
cal boards to review deferments
within six months after granting
them and eliminate unnecessary
ones so that their industrial places
could be taken by women or other
men.
Of the draft age deferees, 370,000
are in class 2-A which covers oc
cupants of essential civilian jobs;
570,000 are in class 2-B covering
those holding essential industrial
jobs; and 150,000 are in class 2-C,
necessary men in agricultural pur
suits.
PACIFIC BASES:
For Peace Insurance
Victory over Japan in the Pacific
would not solve the problem of fu
ture aggression. Some other insur
ance was needed. And it became
increasingly clear that such insur
ance must be the acquisition and
maintenance by the United States of
a chain of air and naval bases across
the Pacific.
Immediate steps to implement
this movement were taken when
the house naval affairs committee
mm '
SEC. OF NAVY FRANK KNOX
appointed a subcommittee to inves
tigate ways and means of acquir
ing these bases. Secretary of Navy
Knox had previously recommended
such a program, indicating that
lend-lease aid might be the basis for
negotiations for the bases. He said
it probably would be necessary to
locate some of the bases in terri
torial possessions of France, Hol
land and Japan.
SENATE PROBE:
To Study Food
As the threat of a possible food
shortage loomed more ominously,
the senate agriculture committee
ordered an investigation into the
production, transportation and dis
tribution of foodstuffs.
Stating that such a threatened
shortage had been aggravated by
executive department policies “di
rectly contrary to the will of the
people,” the committee authorized
an investigation of “all policies of
government which appeared to im
peril the production and distribution
of adequate food supplies for armed
forces, our civilian population and
our Aliles.”
Chairman Smith of South Carolina
said the committee intended to “ac
quaint the American people with the
food situation,” depending on pub
lic opinion to correct any inequi
ties.
COAL & RAIL PAY:
OES Dooms Raises
Rejection of demands by John L.
Lewis’ United Mine Workers for a
$2-a-day raise for bituminous coal
miners; of demands by the rail
road brotherhoods for 30 per cent
pay increases for rail workers and
all other wage requests beyond the
Little Steel formula of 15 per cent
ceiling was clearly indicated in an
anti-inflation statement by Econom
ic Stabilization Director James F.
Byrnes. '
John L. Lewis Leading Q
Anti-Wage Ceiling Fight jBL
‘Man Who Came Back’ Is Responsible for A
Battle Against Little Steel Formula
Of Increases.
By BAUKHAGE
News Analyst and Commentator.
WNU Service, Union Trust Building,
Washington, D. C.
There is a new candidate in Wash
ington for the title of the "man who
came back.”
He has come back before so it is
probably no great thrill for him but
it is a terrific pain in the neck for a
number of people who hoped this
tall, dark ghost had been laid away
for the duration, if not for longer.
1 am speaking of John Lewis,
stripped of his robes as head of the
CIO which he hewed out of the rock
of AF of L opposition. But if his head
is bloody, it is bowed in no humility
whatever.
Lewis may not be all the way
back but it seems very much as if
Messrs. Green and Murray are going
through some preliminary shuffles
that may be a dance to Piper Lewis’
tune.
Lewis loudly sounded the keynote
for what he hopes to be the death
march for the Little Steel formula
which held wage raises down to a
15 per cent maximum. When Murray
and Green heard of Lewis’ press con
ference, on the day he sounded his
threat, they hurried to the White
House where the President, who isn’t
seeing just anybody, permitted the
visit and let the CIO and the AF of L
talk to reporters on the White House
steps—but they had nothing to say
which could drown the Lewis roar.
I talked with a man who has
fought labor’s cause for many a year
without affiliation with any group.
He said to me:
“There are only two things that
will keep from blowing the whole
price control system into the high
heavens. Either Murray and Green
can turn their backs on Lewis, put
aside their fears that he will win the
plaudits of labor away from them
by being the sole champion of wage
raises and say boldly to their fol
lowers :
“ ‘We’ll do what is best for you
and everybody. Inflation will be
worse in the end than the squeeze
you feel you are getting now.’
“If they don’t, Lewis will have his
way.
“The alternative,” he went on, “is
to have the President call in both
the farm and the labor leaders and
say: ‘All right. How much of an in
crease do you want? Twenty per
cent? Thirty? But then prices will
go up by just that much. You and
everybody else will be that much
worse off.’ ”
Of course, there is another alterna
tive—a cast-iron ceiling on prices
but the metal to withstand the up
ward pressure has not been found.
With this situation before him, al
most anyone would rather be right
—or left of center—than President.
• * *
Different Problem
Recently, to add to the troubles of
the labor leaders themselves as well
as the government, there was evi
dence of a different type of problem
in scattered hot-spots in the labor
world—undisciplined groups which
one man described as made up of
men "who wouldn’t even take orders
from Stalin.”
Some 300 workers in a zinc smelt
er in Moundsville, W. Va., gave
notice that they weren’t going to
work Saturday or Sunday without
overtime pay. This, in spite of the
fact that they worked only 36 hours
a week. The orders are clear that
double-time is only paid for a sev
enth day of consecutive work. But
these men said "orders or no or
ders” they weren’t going to work
Saturdays or Sundays without that
overtime. Zinc is one of the bottle
necks. The War Production board
was frantic.
These are only pin pricks and not
typical but they cause a near-crisis
every time they occur in industries
producing essential materials.
• • •
Quick Comeback
To McNutt Edict
There has seldom been a quicker
comeback in a Washington bout than
the smart jab to the chin that fol
lowed Paul McNutt’s haymaker de
livered at the boys in non-essential
industry.
The echoes of the “work or fight”
ukase of the Manpower commission
were still reverberating up and down
the corridors of the long list of in
dustries from bootblacking to win
dow-curtain manufacturing when the
house military committee arose with
its “no, no, a thousand times, no!”
HIGHLIGHTS . • • * week’s news
Horse meat on sale in Washington
is being received very well. So did
the muskrat served to Secretary
Wickard and Vice President Wal
lace. Soon the order will be: “One
Porterhorse steak, well broken.”
• • •
Someone suggested "Marinette*”
for the marine corps girls auxiliary.
It didn’t take. Even a she-devil dog
won’t be a puppet.
• • •
Representative Kilday of Texas ob
tained a promise from Chairman
May of the Military Affairs commit
tee for immediate hearings on his
amendment to the Selective Service
act and the "block McNutt” move
was soon heavily under way.
As you know, Representative Kil
day’s bill is aimed to make depend
ency the basic cause of deferment
while McNutt’s move was to estab
lish participation in the war effort
in field, factory or the armed forces
as the principle governing the order
of induction.
McNutt’s order set the boys in the
non-essential businesses hammering
at the doors of the United States
Employment offices all over the
country and consternation and con
fusion reigned.
Then up spoke Mr. Kilday. The
attitude of those favoring the meas
ure to draft the single men first, ev
erywhere, before the married men
and the others with dependents go,
is this: They say they do not want
the Selective Service act made a
weapon to force men into essential
jobs. They claim the act was never
so intended.
Legislation, they say, must be
passed after careful study which will
lay down a manpower program;
military service is an honor as well
as a duty. It must not be used as a
threat.
Kilday’ t Views
I talked with Representative Kil
day before the hearings began.
He was optimistic over quick com
mittee acceptance of his bill though
he said he didn’t want to hurry the
hearings and he realized all sorts of
opposition might develop. He point
ed out that his measure would not
alter the present deferments, that it
doesn’t mean, as some seemed to
think, that single men, now deferred
under the present deferment rules,
will be yanked out of their jobs and
thrown into the army. Opponents
say, however, in some cases, this
will be the actual effect.
Whatever the effects on agricul
ture and industry may be if the bill
passes, it will sink the present Man
power commission program without
a trace and with all hands on board.
There is plenty of public appeal in
the Kilday measure—the argument
that it is more important to keep the
family together than to fill quotas
for industry or the army and the
navy, the argument that there is no
authority in the Selective Service act
to do what the Manpower commis
sion order is aimed to achieve,
namely, to state what job a man is
to hold. And that side of the argu
ment has particular appeal in a con
gress exceedingly jealous of its pre
rogatives, sworn to prevent usurpa
tion of its powers by the adminis
trative branch.
A Prediction
Last week, I reported the predic
tion by a keen observer of this whole
problem to the effect that one more
desperate measure would be at
tempted by the Manpower commis
sion before it would be forced to step
aside for some other agency. McNutt
acted, and within 24 hours of that
prediction, the military affairs com
mittee announced hearings on the
Kilday bill, looks very much like a
bird of ill omen echoing the second
part of the dire prediction—the end
of tiie Manpower commission as an
agency with any power of initiative
left. To many high army officials,
there is grim satisfaction in what is
happening. Long ago, it was inti
mated that sooner or later the mili
tary would have to take over the
whip hand and settle the manpower
question in its own way. Some mili
tary men would be quite happy to
have the Kilday measure pass,
sweep everyone draftable into the
armed forces and then do its own re
allocation, screening out the men
necessary to industry and agricul
ture and furlough them back as mili
tary needs, first, and the industry’s,
second, demanded.
One can imagine, however, how
union labor would like to see khaki
and navy blue manning the stamp
ing machines and the lathes beside
the workingmen in civvies. Labor’s
.objection to the bill was expected
from the first.
And so we have a four-way clash:
Legislators, Manpower commission,
Military, Labor.
Once more, a labor draft “looms”
as the headlines say.
Until it was announced that Gen
eral Eisenhower was to continue to
have full command in North Africa,
a string of stories kept coming out
of London to the effect that it might
go to a British general. It was con
sidered anti-Eisenhower propaganda.
• • •
Newsmen returned from North
Africa are not enthusiastic over the
harems they claim they saw.
• • •
CLASSIFIED
DEPARTMENT
PERSONAL
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part. 1-leg, men, women. Advisor, instr., 36
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Texas —and Four States
The treaty by which Texas en
tered the Union contains provi
sions for creating out of its terri
tory four other states "in addi
tion to said State of Texas”—if
the Texans so desire.
Beware Coughs
from common colds
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SNAPPY FACTS
ABOUT
RUBBER
m —-
In Zambesi, Africa, certs used by
the natives hinge tires mode of
elephant hide, which serves fbe
purpose of rubber.
In Bulgaria natives paint picture* of
thaix enemies ontheir tires so they
can ibe regularly splattered with
mud, as e gesture oi contempt I
Cars end trucks for fronsporte
tlon account for 56 per cent of
the Army’s rubber requirements.
Cord tire construction, the type com
mon today, first made rapid inroads
on the cord-woven fabric tire in
1915. Low pressure balloon tires
made their appearance in 1924.
Cryptectepie is e new ward far
the rubber lexicon, fe Floridians
It to the technical noma for the
Mexican morning glory, which
has been recognised one d
the most promising rubber-pro
ducing plentSi
iKEGooirichl