The Wyandotte news-herald., February 15, 1945, Page PAGE FOUR, Image 4

About The Wyandotte news-herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1943-1963

Image provided by: Central Michigan University, Clark Historical Library

                
THE WYANDOTTE NEWS-HERALD
PAGE FOUR
STRAUSS GANTZ
E. RAYMOND SAGE ___Adverti*ing
W. ARTHUR ORR Advertising
ELISABETH BROWN News Editor
There Is No
Benevolent Despotism
The chances of getting our labor laws
amended at present so as to make them
fair to labor, industry and the public, seem
very remote. Instead of creating labor h&r
mony, our laws have pitted labor against
industry, when as a matter of fact, labor
and industry are as dependent on each
other as the heart and the stomach.
So-called “labor laws” are as much a
misnomer as would be the term “industry
laws.” Law is law, and it should apply to
all alike. One of the menaces to future
democracy in this nation are pressure
groups which claim to control blocs of votes
and, with this as a club, intimidate law
makers into passing class legislation.
Members of Congress are interested in
preserving the liberty of all labor and all
the people, rather than in building up lead
ers who have shown their defiance of gov
ernment and our armed forces by their re
peated disregard of no-strike pledges, and
the earnest pleas of the President for un
interrupted production.
The American working man is now
controlled by what may at first seem to
be a benevolent labor despotism, which per
haps temporarily gives special groups ad
vantages. But this despotism is becoming
an tvil force that is destroying the inde
pendence of American labor. As the Rev
erend Norman Vincent Peale, D.D., says,
wage earners are being used to “furnish
subservient backs upon which ambitious
men may climb to power over their fellow's.”
More Earnings For All
The Senate War Contracts sub-commit
tee. headed by Sen. James E. Murray, has
prepared legislation w’hich, in Senator Mur
ray’s words, is “a bill to guarantee full em
ployment.” It is important that all Ameri
cans know now’ the full implications of the
Murray bill, and vigorous discussion of its
aims and procedures are called for both in
Congress and out, if w'e are to have peace
time prosperity.
Both right and left-w'ing economists
agree that a high degree of prosperity can
not be achieved in the country without a
high rate of production. They also agree
that the problem now’ facing us is not one
of learning how to produce but, rather, of
seeing to it that there is sufficient consump
tion—for without sufficient consumption,
the things we make will gather dust and rot
in warehouses.
This, then, is the key to postwar pros
perity—maintaining a high rate of produc
tion by stimulating a high rate of consump
tion.
Right now' we have the greatest pro
ductive capacity in all history. Some of »it
w r as built for war and will have to be re
built for peace. That can and W’ill be done
—in the shortest possible space of time.
In rebuilding it, however, steps must
somehow be taken to make sure we shall
be able to buy the things our farms and
our factories produce.
Some people feel that this can be done
through government spending—and the fact
is, that it can be, temporarily. The trouble
is that such spending would only lead us
further into debt —at a time when further
debt would put the most severe strain on
our economy.
Such spending can only be accom
plished through further borrowing and bor
rowed money has to be paid back through
taxes—taxes that eventually would eat in
to every pay enevlope and so actually re
duce purchasingpporer.w r er. As President Roose
velt has said, “Taxes are paid in the sweat
of everyone who labors.”
Obviously, therefore, it must be done
on a more practical basis—and can be done
on a basis of far-sighted business policy.
It can be done by using our productive
capacity to provide us with more for our
money in the things we buy, so that we can
buy more—and so create more jobs and
more earnings for all.
Under such a policy, continuing pros
perity and a constantly increased standard
of living can be achieved and maintained
for everyone in our economy.
It Makes Wires Hum
In accord with a WPB directive issued
the early part of this month, Wyandotte
business places have extinguished outdoor
advertising and display lights as their part
in the nation-wide effort to conserve elec
tric power.
The move w r as necessitated when the
country’s coal stockpile hit an all-time low
due to lack of available transportation facil
ities and recent strikes by miners. Few peo
ple realize the part coal plays in producing
the electric light and power. In October
1944, according to the Federal Power Com
mission* fuel burning electric generating
plants produced 13,450,394,000 kilowatt hours
Df electricity; water power plants produced
less than half that amount.
Fifty-five percent of all electric energy
is generated from bituminous coal. Last
year, for electric utilities, railroads, fac
tories, homes and farms, over 600,000,000
tons of coal were produced.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, IM3
afoSDgantolte
Published Semi-Weekly by
THE WYANDOTTE NEWS COMPANY
3042 First Street, Wyandotte, Michigan
Phones Wyandotte 1166 - 1167 - 1168
Politically Independent Owned and Printed in Wyandotte
Member National Editorial Association
Genera) Manager
MARIE A. HERMAN Society Editor
PEGGY MARIETTA Classified Advertising
ALMA BOWERS Trenton Correspondent
Pass Ammunition
Not Law!
A fact-finding survey conducted by the
National Association of Manufacturers,
whose 12,000 members are turning out more
than 85 per cent of American arms and
equipment for victory, shows that stiff war
production schedules are being met.
They are being met by concerted action
among management, labor, and local War
Manpower Commission officials on a com
munity-by-community, plant-by-plant basis
—by voluntary means, not by a labor draft.
Latest WPB figures report production
gains of from 20 per cent in tires and trucks
to 150 per cent in aircraft, and more than
200 per cent in rockets, in the face of con
stantly mounting schedules.
These gains demonstrate that manage
ment and labor both, knowing the need, will
meet the requirements of the armed forces.
The Army and Navy need stuff to fight with
—not legislation!
Business Speaks Up
“Race and group tensions are increas
ing to an alarming degree. Men and women
who should know better —who do know bet
ter—allow themselves to mouth the catch
phrases of anti-Semitism and anti-foreign
ism, of anti-business, or anti-labor, anti
farm. Most of them are not themselves
aware that they have been infected by the
virus of intolerance which already has the
whole world writing in the fatal fever of
war . . .
“Viewed from the narrowest vantage
point of the nation's well-being, quite aside
from human and moral considerations, the
growth of doctrines of race and group
hatreds represent a major economic
threat . . . .”
“There are some in our country—indus
trialists, white collar workers, laboring peo
ple—who hold to the myth that economic
progress can be attained on the principle of
an unbalanced see-saw. They think that if
some groups can be forever held down, the
others will forever enjoy economic priv
ileges and prosperity at the end which is
up.”
“Fortunately it does not work that way.
Any advantage thus gained must be paid
for out of the fruits of the productive plant.
The withholding of jobs and business oppor
tunities from some people does not make
more jobs and business opportunities for
others. Such a policy merely tends to drag
down the whole economic level. Perpetuat
ing poverty for some merely guarantees
stagnation for all. True economic progress
demands that the whole nation move for
ward at the same time. It demands that all
artificial barriers erected by ignorance and
intolerance be removed. To put it in the
simplest terms, we are all in business to
gether. Intolerance is a species of boycott
and any business or job boycott is a cancer
in the economic body of the nation. Intol
erance is destructive. Prejudice doesn’t pay.
Discrimination is a fool’s economy.”
These forceful words are from a recent
speech of Eric Johnston, President of the
United States Chamber of Commerce. So
business adds its voice to those who warn
us about the rising tide of intolerance. But
no speeches, no written word can save us.
Our own attitudes must change.
Spreading The Net
The stage is being set to put the gov
ernment into the telephone business with
an appropriation of $100,000,000, after the
pattern of the Rural Electrification Admin
istration. Public officials are attacking the
telephone industry, including thousands of
small independent companies, for alleged
failure to sufficiently increase the number
of rural telephones. In a nation that has
more telephones than all the rest of the
world put together, it seems a bit ridiculous
to start blackening the industry that made
this record.
It would be interesting to know whether
any of the gentlemen fostering this further
step toward socialism, lives on a farm and
has tried to get a telephone during the last
several years. If he has, he knows that he
could not get a phone because of the various
war restrictions. He knows that he couldn’t
buy telephone wire, and he couldn’t buy a
telephone. He knows that the local tele
phone companies are prohibited from allow
ing him any material or making a connec
tion for him unless he happens to be a gov
ernment official, or doing certain war work.
Given the material, there is no doubt
that thousands of farm telephones would
be installed within a short time without any
hundred-million-dollar appropriation of tax
payers’ funds. Just how installation of tele
phones with public funds would be any
less damaging to the war effort than private
installation, is not made clear. But, as Fran
cis X. Welch, writing from Washington,
says: “At least we have a right to expect
that responsible Federal agencies should
present the picture fairly with all relevant
facts in the true perspective. If that is done,
the telephone industry will surely not
shrink from its responsibility, whatever that
may be in the future.”
Wll SPEED AHEAD
* c •)■*** * 'I I
Ernie Pyle’s Slant on the War:
Hedgerow Fighting Made
New Type of War Heroes
Barriers Used Successfully by
Nazi War Machine on Western Front
By Ernie Pyle
(Editor’s Note): This dispatch was written and first published
when Pyle was with the G.l.s at the Western front. He is now on
his way to cover the boys in the Pacific war zones.
ON THE WESTERN FRONT—I know that all of us cor
respondents have tried time and again to describe to you
what this weird hedgerow fighting in northwestern France
has been like.
But I'm going to go over it once more, for we've been in it
two months and some of us feel that this is the two months
that broke the Germany army in the West.
This type of fighting is always in
small groups, so let’s take as an
example one company of men. Let's
H
H^ r \Wm
Ernie Pyle
the company’s understrength from
casualties, you might have no more
than 25 or 30 men in a field.
Over here the fields are usually
not more than 50 yards across and
a couple of hundred yards long.
They may have grain in them, or
apple trees, but mostly they are
just pastures of green grass, full of
beautiful cows.
The fields are surrounded on all
sides by immense hedgerows which
consist of an ancient earthen bank,
waist high, all matted with roots,
and out of which grow weeds,
bushes and trees up to 20 feet high.
The Germans have used these bar
riers w'ell. They put snipers in the
trees. They dig deep trenches be
hind the hedegrows and cover them
with timber, so that it is almost
impossible for artillery to get at
them.
Sometimes they will prop up ma
chine guns with strings attached,
so they can fire over the hedge with
out getting out of their holes. They
even cut out a section of the hedge
row and hide a big gun or a tank
in it. covering it with brush.
Also they tunnel under the hedge
rows from the back and make the
opening on the forward side just
large enough to stick a machine
gun through.
But mostly the hedgerow pat
tern is this: a heavy machine
gun hidden at each end of the
field and infantrymen hidden all
along the hedgerow with rifles
and machine pistols.
• • •
Now it's up to us to dig them out
of there. It's a slow and cautious
business, and there is nothing very
dashing about it. Our men don’t go
across the open fields in dramatic
charges such as you see in the mov
ies. TTiey did at first, but they
learned better.
They go in tiny groups, a squad
or less, moving yards apart and
sticking close to the hedgerows on
either end of the field. They creep a
few yards, squat, wait, then creep
again.
If you could be right up there be
tween the Germans and the Ameri
cans you wouldn’t see very many
men at any one time—just a few
here and there, always trying to
keep hidden. But you would hear an
awful lot of noise.
Our men were taught in training
not to fire until they saw some
thing to fire at. But that hasn't
worked In this county, because you
see so little. So the alternative is to
keep shooting constantly at the
hedgerows. That pins the Germans
in their holes while we sneak up
cm them.
The attacking squads sneak up
the sides of the hedgerows while the
rest of the platoon stay back in their
own hedgerow and keep the forward
hedgerow saturated with bullets.
Tliey shoot rifle grenades too, and
say they are
working forward
on both side of a
country lane, and
this company is
responsible for
clearing the two
fields on either
side of the road
as it advances.
That means you
have only about
one platoon to a
field. And with
a mortar squad a little farther back
keeps lobbing motar shells over onto
the Germans.
The little advance groups get
up to the far ends of the hedge
rows at the corners of the field.
They first try to knock out the
machine guns at each corner.
They do this with hand gre
nades. rifle grenades and ma
chine guns.
• • •
RETREAT TO NEW LINE
Usually, when the pressure gets
on. the German defenders of the
hedgerow start pulling back. They’ll
take their heavier guns and most of
the men back a couple of fields and
start digging in for anew line.
They leave about two machine
guns and a few riflemen scattered
through the hedge, to do a lot of
shooting and hold up the Ameri
cans as long as they can.
Our men now sneak along the
front side of the hedgerow, throwing
grenades over onto the other side
and spraying the hedges with their
guns. The fighting is very close—
only a few yards apart—but it is
seldom actual hand-to-hand stuff.
Sometimes the remaining Ger
mans come out of their holes with
their hands up. Sometimes they try
to run for it and are mowed down.
Sometimes they won’t come out at
all. and a hand grenade, thrown
into their hole, finishes them off.
And so we’ve taken another hedge
row and are trying to start on the
one beyond.
This hedgerow business is x a series
of little skirmishes like that clear
across the front, thousands and
thousands of little skirmishes. No
single one of them is very big. But
add them all up over the days and
weeks and you’ve got a man-sized
war. with thousands on both sides
being killed.
• • •
NX) SET PATTERN
If you were to come over here
and pick out some hedge-enclosed
field at random, the fighting there
probably wouldn’t be following the
general pattern at all. For each one
Is a little separate war. fought under
different circumstanes.
For Instance, you’ll come to a
woods instead of an open field. The
Germans will be dug in all over the
woods, in little groups, and it’s real
ly tough’ to get them out. Often
in cases like that we will Just go
around the woods and keep going
and let later units take care of those
surrounded and doomed fellows.
Or we’ll go through the woods and
clean it out, and another company,
coming through a couple of hours
later, will find it full of Germans
again. In a war like this one every
thing is in such confusion. I don’t
see how either side ever gets any
where.
Sometimes you don’t know
where the enemy is and don’t
know where your own troops
are. As somebody said the other
day, no battalion commander
can give you the exact location
of his various units five minutes
after they’ve Jumped off.
We will by-pass whole pockets of
Germans, and they will be there
fighting or following waves when
our attacking companies are a
couple of miles on beyond. Gradual
ly the front gets all mixed up. There
will be Germans behind you and at
the side. They 11 be shooting at
Continued on
PACIFIC IMPRESSIONS
by WM. H. LITTLEWOOD
Special Correspondent of the Wyandotte News-Herald Now Serving in the South Peciftc
THE BIG ISLAND
At the easternmost end of tjie
Hawaiian chain of islands lies Ha
waii, the biggest, yet the youngest
of the islands. It is here that Pele,
the ancient volcano goddess, makes
'her last stand against the inroads
of civilization. And it is here that
the traveler can see Pele’s handi
work at remarkably close quarters.
The whole island centers around
two towering peaks, each nearly
14,000 feet high. Perhaps that does
not sound very high, but when you
stand at sea level and gaze upon
their gentle slopes, you’ll gasp at
their majestic loftiness. And at
the very top of Mauna Kea you can
usually see a snow cap rather a
remarkable sight for a tropic isle.
Mauna Loa stands only a couple
of hundred feet lower than Mauna
Kea, but unlike her taller and elder
sister, Mauna Loa is the stage
where Pele produces the last of her
magnificent spectacles that brought
these islands into being. Perhaps
you remember the last time Mauna
Loa overflowed, only three years
ago. The flow threatened the town
of Hilo and army planes bombed
the lava stream in an attempt to
divert it. Fortunately the flow
ceased before any damage was done.
About two-thirds of the way down
LETTER BOX
10244 Nardin.
Detroit, 4, Michigan.
To the Editor:
The war souvenir show in Detroit
is creating a great deal of interest.
Thousands of people are willing to
lend their souvenirs for the public’s
inspection and the people showed
their appreciation by packing the
auditorium.
Soon the souvenirs will be re
turned to their owners and most of
them will be laid away to gather
dust.
The thought occurred to me that
most war souvenir owners would
like to share their gifts with others.
They are proud to have others know
the story’ behind their possessions,
and would gladly give them to the
public if they were properly dis
played and cared for.
Inasmuch as Wyandotte has no
historical museum but must depend
on nearby communities for culture
of this kind. I offer the following
thought for consideration.
Propose to the Wyandotte resi
dents who have war souvenirs that
a war shrine be erected in the vi
cinity of the public library to be
financed by popular subscription
that the shrine be a museum to
house these souvenirs.
I feel that if the people knew that
their gifts would be forever cared
for. that they would be of interest
to students of history, they would
be proud to help establish such an
institution in Wyandotte.
Incidentally this could be a me
morial to all Wyandotte boys and
girls who served their country.
C. L. Moorehead.
25 YEARS AGO
IN WYANDOTTE
Laying them in the aisles were
the boys from the Edward Headman
Post No. 217 of the American Legion
who presented a Minstrel show at
the Marx Theater. Every seat in
the house was filled with the excep
tion of a few of the cheaper ones
in the balcony. Proceeds went
toward a fund for a suitable memor
ial for the boys who gave up their
lives for democracy.
P • •
SOLID SENDINGS:
Throwing a sharp affair were the
members of the Arbeiter Society
who staged their annual Masque
carnival. Music was by the favorite
Finzel s orchestra. Costumes could
be rented at the hall. Prizes were
awarded to the best dressed.
• * »
PENCIL SHAVINGS:
When in doubt listen to your wife.
• • •
Hash is the ghost of a square
meal.
• • •
Some engagements end happily—
others end in marriage.
• * *
An enraged man tears his hair;
but an enraged woman tears her
hdsband.
• ’ • •
Philosophy way back then re
sembled the following. Recognize
any?
Food for thought—Thick tongues
are responsible for a lot of thin
ideas.
It takes a “grass" widow to cap
ture the “hayseed” batchelor.
To a dressmaker, fitting a dress
is a mere matter of form.
Lots of people come to grief by
meeting trouble halfway.
• • •
The Communists are still trying
to overthrow the country!
As stated by an editorial printed
along with a song entitled “what the
Reds would like us to sing.”
Old crop carrots require longer
cooking than fresh young carrots.
The latter cook tender in 15 to 20
minutes, while carrots that have
been stored for weeks or months
may require 30 to 80 minutes.
The sentiment of Justice is so
natural and so universally acquired
by all mankind, that it seems to be
independent of all law, all party,
all religion. —Voltaire.
the slopes of Mauna Loa is the
largest active crater in the workl.
called Kiluea. Within this crater is
another deep hole called Halemau
mau. It is within H&lemaumau that
the most recent Kiluean action oc
curred back in 1934. But in the
last few months here has been a
series of earthquakes beneath Kiluea
that promises surface activity in the
near future. What I wouldn’t five
to see that sight!
It is easy to descend into Kiluea,
either by one of the several trails
or by driving around to where the
rim drops to the floor level. It is
near this point that Halemaumau
is located. This “crater within a
crater” is inaccessible although back
around 1936 some native was let
down into the crater to remove the
bodies of two suicides. Perhaps the
“oddest walk in the world” ia across
the hardened lava floor of Kiluea.
I spent several hours one morning
in making this interesting hike of
three or four miles. The path led
down the verdant and ateep crater
wall for a depth of about 800 feet,
and then became lost among the
barren lava. The rough rock played
havoc with the tough rubber soles
of my army shoes, and when I
reached the other side I was startled
by two earth tremors beneath my
■■
BOSTON ADVENTURE—
FEB. 12. 1945.
At last it appears as though legal
steps were actually going to be taken
in Massachusetts to rectify a cen
sorship statute termed by Bernard
De Voto in “Harper's Magazine”
“rather more idiotic than most such
laws.” Under the present law book
sellers are subject to criminal pros
ecution for selling an allegedly
“impure” book. I say allegedly, be
cause they may be prosecuted even
before the book in question is legal
ly Judged immoral.
For generations back there has
been a “gentleman’s agreement” be
tween the old Watch and Ward So
ciety and the police department that
I WHEN OUT EOR NEW RECORDS LOOK ]
EOC THE NEAREST DEALER IN
PWONO&RARU RECORDS IN THE
PAGES Or TVIE TELEPHONE DICECTOPV j
nun
that paid
This Insurance Exchange at the Automobile Club
of Michigan paid to and for insured members of
the Club during the third war year of 1944 the
following astonishing amounts:
$1,156,504 to insured Club members as re*
turned unused premium deposits.
$2,016,362 to insured Club members for
repairing their damaged cars.
$730,390 for insured Club members for
property damage caused by them.
$613,828 to protect the insured Club mem
bers for claims of injured people.
$449,260 to insured Club members for their
losses by fire and theft (Comprehensive).
This ia the most money ever paid for the protection
of motorists of any one state by any other automo
bile insurance organization in the history of America.
Detrait AataHtblle
Inter-Immrance Exchange
Attorney*-in-fact: Chas. B. Van Dusen,
Thos. P. Henry, Ralph Thomas
John J. Ramsey, General Manager
at Antamohile Clah af Michigan
i
Open 2913 BIDDLE AVE. Open
Evenings WYANDOTTE. MICH. Evenings
C»D st tks SiTtslss sfftos m pksac 147?. lit I Ur am InUrmatUp
feet. Was Pele mad at me for des
ecrating her home with my erratic
wanderings?
Adjacent to Kiluea crater are sev
eral interesting sights, all included
in the Hawaii National Park of
which Kiluea is a part. These sights
include a chain of small craters,
a tube of ten feet diameter formed
in solid lava, a forest of giant ferns,
and a “valley of a thousand smokes ’
which is simply a group of fumar
oles emitting superheated steam and
volcanic gases.
Although the volcanos are Ha
waii’s main attraction the island
does not lack in other points of In
terest On the leeward side of the
Kona Coast where coffee is an im
portant product Parther around the
island is the Parker Ranch, one of
the largest ranches in the world.
There is a black sand beach, the
sand being minute particles of lavs.
And some of the loveliest waterfall*
I've ever seen cascade over sheer
cliffs leading directly into the set.
Hile, the major city of the island
settles gracefully in a natural har
bor.
Despite the intrusions of civiliza
tion, Hawaii remains steeped in an
cient lore and rich in natural beauty.
It Is a miniature “continent’’; an
island of oontrasts.
Notes from
Bacon Memorial
Library
By Helen M. Boothe
the police would request the book
sellers to remove from their shelves
any book called “questionable” by
the Bociety. Bennett Oerf in the
“Saturday Review of Literature
asks: “Exactly who and what IS
the Watch and Ward Society?
Where does it get its power? There
is something ironic in our carrying
the torch of freedom to the far
comers of the earth when groups
of this descrlpton are allowed to go
on unchallenged at the very scene
of the Boston Tea Party."
Bernard De Voto, and many other
writers and periodicals have at
tacked vociferously both the citizens
and the booksellers of Boston and
(Continued on Page 16>
m