The Wyandotte news-herald., April 19, 1945, Page PAGE FOUR, Image 4

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

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THE WYANDOTTE NEWS-HERALD
PAGE FOUR
iSteUPganiujiie KctW'lfyralii
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
GANTZ General Manager
E. RAYMOND SAGE Advertising MARIE A. HERMAN Society Editor
-• ARTHUR ORR - Advertising PEGGY MARIETTA Classified Advertising
ELISABETH BROWN »»~News Editor ALMA BOWERS Trenton Correspondent
Death Rides
The Highway
Michigan auto casualties during our
fourth war year totaled several thousand
more than the combined casualties in six
major military campaigns. This startling
comparison, based upon factual releases
from the War Department and the Michigan
State Police was disclosed today by officials
of the Automobile Insurers Safety Associa
tion.
Casualties on Michigan highways alone
totaled 23,093 during the fourth year of war.
Military casualties for the entire campaign
In Africa, the bloody battles for Guadal
canal, Tarawa, Kwajelein, Bougainville and
Salerno (Italy) combined were 3,337 less
fchan this revealing Michigan figure.
Despite the necessary war-time curbs
tin motor driving there is an auto casualty
tor every 70 licensed vehicles in Michigan.
According to the License Bureau of the
State Department there are slightly more
than 1,600,000 licensed passenger cars, com
mercial vehicles, trailers and motorcycles.
the safety drive carried on last year by
Pthe Michigan State Police one out of every
'fceven vehicles tested by the State Troopers
[fluring the first week of the campaign was
[found to have defective brakes. During
[the first month of the safety program 756
Summonses were issued for driving with
that did not meet essential safety
jests. Furthermore, the Safety and Traffic
of the Michigan State Police report
‘that defective brakes are responsible for
40 per cent of all fatal accidents due to ve
hicle defects. Fatalities on Michigan high
ways in our fourth war year totaled 1,026.
Significance of safe brakes is seen in
the fact that for the two months following
last year’s braked campaign there were fewer
auto accidents in Michigan than in any like
period for the ten previous years.
Y-E Day Bottleneck
If Prime Minister Churchill is right in
his recent prediction that “the war in Eu
rope might well end before the summer
ends, or even sooner,” industry in the United
States must immediately check up, and
tighten up, its preparations to deal with war
contract termination in mass.
Based on a cut-back of 20 per cent of
all our resources from munitions produc
tion estimated by the outgoing Director of
War Mobilization and Reconversion, James
F. Byrnes, the first quarter after V-E Day
wil see the termination of $lB billion of war
contracts. Approximately 20,000 business
establishments will be affected. About
3,000,000 workers will have to be shifted
from wartime jobs.
The bottleneck of V-E Day reconversion
may well be the settlement of the 20,000
prime contracts and 40,000 subcontracts
which will be terminated during the first
three months. (The number will be increased
. by half as many more during the succeeding
jtiix months.) The mass of V-E Day settle
ments will be a staggering load of govern
ment accountability, out of which industry
[must recover its funds for a quick start in
Civilian production.
'The Time Is How
There have been countless schemes pro
posed to provide nationwide medical and
hospital services on a scale never before
dreamed of. Granting that the motives be
hind all such efforts are sincere, the fact
remains that neither money nor laws alone
can buy health. American doctors have been
giving our nation improved medical prac
tices at a rate not equaled elsewhere in
the world. But they now face conditions
beyond their control.
The March 10 issue of the Journal of
the American Medical Association points
Dut that “the Council on Medical Education
and Hospitals has repeatedly urged the
necessity for changes in the present policies
of governmental agencies, including the
Selective Service System, having to do with
the education of pre-medical students.” It
shows how the regulation now in force
threaten the supply of doctors.
Official notice of this threat is now
taken by Senator Allen J. Ellender of Louis
iana, who has introduced Senate Bill 637
which includes provisions for deferment of
an adequate number of pre-medical stu
dents, and for the deferment of such num
bers of medical students as will be sufficient
to supplement civilian sources of students
io assure full classes.
It is evident that unless something like
this is done, not only the Army and the
Navy, but our civilian population will face
a dangerous shortage in medical men. The
profession is now being depleted by about
4,000 deaths and an unknown number of
retirements annually. 4
Competent cannot be created in
a day, and we will be showing poor grati
tude to returned veterans who are injured,
if they find a scarcity of competent doc
tors to meet their needs, not to mention
the importance of such doctors for our
civilian population.
THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1945
Without Sacrifice
Wyandotte showed its heart Sunday
when tons of clothing were given by the
men and women of the city to help clothe
destitute, war-touched fellow humans in
Europe, Asia and the South Pacific.
Homefront sacrifices have been made
before in giving up the small comforts
familiar to our way of life, dollars and
peacetime pleasures. We have worked to
give as much as wi can to aid our armed
forces, in the way of war bonds, blood dona
tions and help to the Red Cross and War
Fund.
But Sunday, Wyandotte residents made
a donation toward accomplishing a great
part of the soon-to-be-achieved victory with
out giving up a single item used by or use
ful to us now. We did this when we gave
unneeded, outgrown, out-of-fashion clothing.
Helping to clothe war-victims abroad
we are building up a feeling of brotherhood
with those men, women and children with
whom we must work and on whom we
must depend to help us build and main
tain a lasting peace.
These people, homeless, poorly clothed,
and hungry, are the ones who, with peace,
must rebuild bomb-wrecked homes, towns
and cities. A sick, shivering nation can
not fully give its whole mind to thoughts
of peace, and re-building while it suffers
from lack ‘of clothing.
From lack of clothes for them, we might
easily lose the ultimate victory over the
Axis.
The People Know Best
In referring to the repeal of the poll
tax in Georgia, Governor Ellis Arnall said,
“I am convinced that the people of the
South, and Georgia in particular, are much
more liberal in their thinking than are
many of our leaders.”
In so saying, Governor Arnall shows
himself to be a valuable leader, one who
has stayed close to his contituents. He was
born and bred in Georgia. He has never
lost touch with the people of Georgia. And
lo and behold, under his leadership, Georgia
becomes the first of the southern states
which have the poll tax to repeal it.
Do we take it that the people of Geor
gia are “more liberal in their thinking” than
the people of Mississippi, for instance . . .
or Alabama or South Carolina? Governor
Arnall thinks it possible.
* And yet, the experience of democracy
has shown that anywhere, in any state or
in any nation when the people shout loud
enough, liberal steps are taken. And when
the people are apathetic and let their lead
ers do the shouting, the clock of progress
seems to stand still.
The greatest names in our history stand
out because as leaders, they humbly con
sidered themselves servants of the people.
They kept their ears acutely attuned to what
the people are thinking and saying. If a
democracy is to work, the will of the peo
ple MUST be done. We the people are at
fault if any one of our elected leaders is
allowed to withdraw into the ivory tower
of his own convictions. It is our respon
sibility, as citizens of a democracy, to make
ourselves heard. There lies the hope of
sound and liberal government.
Still The Best System
If the American oil industry had ever
faltered in its production, what would have
happened to our war effort? In plain Eng
lish, we would have been sunk.
The total crude oil production in the
United States for 1944 was 1,678,000,000 bar
rels. That figure set anew record, but still
was not enough to meet the demands of
the military forces of the United Nations
and support our own essential economy.
Fortunately, the oil companies were pre
pared with millions of barrels of oil above
ground upon which we could draw.
Such a record is one reason why the
American people should have confidence in
free private enterprise which outstripped
the production of all the government-owned
or controlled oil properties throughout the
world, all of which can well remind us of
what Federal Judge Learned Hand of New
York once observed, “Liberty lies in the
hearts of men; when it dies, there is noth
ing can save it.” And this quotation was
echoed by a young American soldier who,
after fighting across weary miles of war
torn Europe, wrote his home folks he had
come to the conclusion that freedom is not
a right, but a privilege for which almost
any struggle and sacrifice is worth while.
GIVE CLOTHING
FOR WAR BELIEF
NON-SECRET WEAPONI • • By collier
ill WjBSHH (jj if m >7 >
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IN MEMORIAM
Once before, on June 6. 1944, I
found It impossible to turn my
thoughts from the events of the
day to literary subjects. Today, as
then, the sun is shining brightly
and the garden here at Bacon Li
brary is wearing the same beautiful
mantle of spring. Its fresh garment
of green gives evidence of nature’s
growth which continues despite any
momentous occurence which may
befall man.
Now, on the Monday after Amer
ica's tragic week-end, I find myself
feeling strangely empty, as I am
sure many of you do. It is difficult
to feel enthusiasm for customary
routine. Man is slow to accept the
thing he doesn’t want to be true —
unwilling to leave his sorrow and
accept again the vagaries of daily
life. Whenever I experience this
feeling, and the happenings of my
personal life have caused it all too
frequently these past few years,
I remember the closing sentence of
Ruth Suchow's story EXPERI
ENCE: “She squeezed her hands
tightly together, clinging to her
suffering ... as if. when its fresh
ness was gone, it would be the one
thing lost forever.”
As I listened to the memorial
broadcasts these past few days from
the various networks in America
and the tributes from many distant
and remote countries of the world,
I was impressed by the sincerity
of emotion and trust which so many
countless millions of people felt for
our late President Roosevelt. I was
shocked and, I must admit, offend
ed to read these words by “Iffy,
the Dopester”: “Os course, people
are not really ‘stunned’ as they
always say in the papers. Very few
people are really stunned by the
passing of a man they never met.
. . . Grief is not an abstract thing.
It has to be deeply personal.”
As the memorial programs and
services came over the air from the
Negro choruses, the Jewish syna-
Dk e new motor law .
HIS MB
The new motor law is tough and is mandatory. • *
it says the Secretary of State SHALL take away
the driver’s license and car license plates of the
motorist who hurts anyone unless the motorist
within 30 days pays the claims or proves his
ability to pay the claims by an insurance policv,
bond, or cash deposit up to SIO,OOO.
It is unthinkable that any motorist today would
drive without insurance • • • if you do not yet have
it, get it from someone. If you are a good driver and
belong to the Automobile Club of Michigan you may
get it at cost from this Exchange.
%
Detroit Automobile
liter-lDiaraiee Bzekaagc
Attorneyt-in-facti Chat. B. Van Duscn,
Thos. P. Henry, Ralph Thomas
John J. Ramsey, General M onager
at Automobile Clab of Mieblgaa
Open 2913 BIDDLE AVE. Open
Evenings WYANDOTTE. MICH. Evenings
Catt M IS> divines m ptees 147*. s ev 4 ter mm lafeneettw
Notes from
Bacon Memorial
Library
By Helen M. Boothe
gogues, the actors’ groups it was
obvious that President Roosevelt
has been loved by the minority
groups as no other man except
Lincoln ever has been before —as
probably no other man of our cen
tury ever will be again. Can any
one doubt that these people and
millions of others here and abroad
were “stunned”, that their sorrow’
and ours was sincere? Could even
“Iffy” fail to recognize the stark
reality of grief felt by the little old
Frenchwoman who said, “I shall
mourn him as a son.”
I was puzzled by the intensity
of my own reaction. Why should
I, a person who, as “Iffy” said,
had never met Franklin Roosevelt,
care so deeply about his death?
That I did there is no doubt. I
have had the crushing weight of
sudden personal loss fall on me
several times in the recent past
and I recognize the feeling beyond
question. Fortunately, the inten
sity of sorrow can not last so long
as with a personal loss, but It is
nonetheless real.
Why did I—why did most of you
—feel like this? Such a feeling is
difficult to analyze. During his long
term In office we had acquired a
firm belief in Franklin Delano
Roosevelt and in his compassion
for all mankind. Under his leader
ship we felt secure—our morale was
high. We had faith in his courage
and his strength—trust in his wis
dom and his vision. He inspired in
us the hope and conviction that
he would lead us through the tribu
lations of war to victory and a just
and lasting peace.
Only a person who has endured
and conquered great personal suf
fering can feel the depth of com
passion for others which President
Roosevelt did. If it is true, as said,
that part of Lincoln’s greatness
came from his grief at the death
of Anne Rutledge, it is equally
true that Roosevelt’s greatness
existed, not in spite of his afflic
(Continued on Page 14)
The “little red school house,”
traditional recipient of rural affec
tion and a target of modern edu
cators, is rapidly becoming one of
the Michigan casualties of WorlS
War 11.
The reason is economic. Teachers
are being lured to other occupa
tions where compensation is more
attractive.
“The shortage of teachers in
Michigan this year is estimated to
be 3,500,” said Dr. Eugene B. El
liott, state superintendent of pub
lic instruction. “Next year it will
increase, we estimate, to around
5,000. The average salary of a
teacher in Michigan is $1,641 a
year. This means that many teach
ers receive less than the medium
sum.
“Approximately 100 communities
in Michigan are now reorganizing
their school districts. Parents are
demanding better programs for
their children, and only the larger
schools can afford such courses as
music, art, domestic science, and
manual training, and can pay sal
Ernie Pyle With the Navy:
Marines Land On Okinawa
Without Battle Casualties
Leathernecks Shotv Nervous
Tension as Zero Hour Nears
By Ernie Pyle
OFF THE OKINAWA BEACHHEAD—(By navy radio.)—
This is the last column before the invasion. It is written
aboard a troop transport the evening before we storm onto
Okinawa.
We are nervous. Anybody with any sense is nervous on
the night before D-Day. You feel weak and you try to think
of things, but your mind stubbornly drifts back to the awful
image of tomorrow. It drags on your soul and you have night-
mares.
But those fears do not mean any
lack of confidence. We will take
Okinawa. Nobody has any doubt
abuot that. But we know we will
have to pay for it. Some on this
ship will not be alive 24 hours
from now.
• • •
We are in convoy. Many, many
big ships are lined up in columns
f®Sg
many days. We are the biggest,
strongest force ever to sail in the
Pacific. We are going into what
we expect to be the biggest battle
so far in the Pacific.
Our ship is an APA, or assault
transport. The ship itself is a war
veteran. She w*ears five stars on
her service ribbon—Africa, Sicily,
Italy, Normandy and Southern
France. She wears the Purple
Heart, Bronze Star and Legion of
Merit Silver Star. She has fared
well on the other side. We hope
her luck holds out in the Pacific.
We are carrying marines. Some
of them are going into combat for
the first time. Others are veterans
from as far back as Guadalcanal.
They are a rough, unshaven, com
petent bunch of Americans. I am
landing with them. I feel I am in
good hands.
• • •
I’ve shared a cabin with Marine
Maj. Reed Taylor of Kensington.
358
Michigan Mirror . . by Gene AUeman
with our war
ships escort on
the outsides. We
are an impres
sive sight yet
we are only one
of many similar
convoys.
We left from
many different
places. We have
been on our way
Ernie Pyle
■ Mil
“ When you think of the sacrifices our fight
ing men are making in this war, it’s hard to
figure out bow wc’U ever repay them, isn’t
it, Judge?”
“Yes, it really is, Tom. There are only
certain things we can da Such as...write
them cheerful letters often. Send them
favorite gifts from time to time. Work
harder than ever to provide them with
everything they need to finish their job
quickly. Buy more and more War Bonds...
especially during the current drive...to
aries adequate for skilled teach
ers”.
• • •
The house of representatives has
approved a bill which would permit
school districts to create a study
commission to investigate the ad
visability of school consolidations.
The bill, if enacted by the legisla
ture, would legalize a voluntary pro
cedure and would not compel a
school consolidation where taxpay
ers did not want it.
Dr. Elliott said the bill was pat
terned closely after a measure en
acted by Washington state where
school districts have been widely
reorganized.
“We do not advocate the closing
of all one-room schools in Mich
igan,” he added. “Consolidation is
not practical in all cases, and it
should be effected only where ben
efits can be realized by the tax
payers in behalf of their children.
It is our hope that the one-room
school, even if abandoned, may
continue to serve as a rural com
munity center to meet the social
needs of the rural community.”
Md. He is a Guadal vet and he
jokingly belittles newcomers who
weren’t through “Green Hell.” The
major and I are sort of tw’o of a
stripe and we get along fine.
We have the nicest cabin either
of us ever had at sea. And we’ve
taken advantage of it by sleeping
away almost the whole trip. We’ve
slept day and night. So have many
others.
There is a daily argument on ship
whether or not you can store up
sleep and energy for the ordeal
ahead. The doctor says it’s non
sense—that you can’t store up sleep.
LIFE ON SHIP FOUND
RATHER DULL EN ROUTE
Our trip has been fairly smooth
and not many of the troops were
seasick. Down in the holds the
marines sleep on racks four tiers
high. It isn't a nice way to travel.
But I've never heard anybody com
plain. They come up on deck on
nice days to sun and to rest and
to wash clothes, or lie and read or
play cards.
We don’t have movies. The ship
is darkened at sunset and after that
there are only dim lights. The food
is good. We get news every morn
ing in a mimeographed paper and
once or twice a day the ship’s of
ficers broadcast the latest news
over the loudspeaker.
They’ve kept us informed daily
of the progress of the Okinawa
bombardment that preceded our
landing. Every little bit of good
news cheers us.
Meetings are held daily among
the officers to iron out last minute
details of the landing. Day by day,
the marine troops are fully briefed
on what they are to do.
Everything we read about Okina
(Continued on Page 15)
pay for the ammunition and fighting equip
ment they must have.”
“All that still seems kind of small com
pared with what they’re doing for us. Judge."
“True, but it’s about all we older folks
back home can do, Tom. Except one more
thing. And that is to be sure our fighting men
come home to the same kind of country they
left behind. The kind of country their letters
tell us they want Nothing changed that
they don't want changed while they’re away
and unable to express their wishes.**
JUL IJI irrrff fj'‘nf 1* * r /■*
Modern transport whereby a bus
has replaced the horse and bugg>
in rural school districts is one of
the economic changes which has
favored consolidation of school dis
tricts.
The state public education com
mission submitted recommendations
two years ago for reorganization cf
Michigan 6,000-plus school districts.
Summary: That no elemental >
school child shall walk more than
one and one-half miles; that no
secondary school student shall walk
more than two miles; that districts
if reorganized, shall permit bua
transportation whereby an elemen
tary school child would not be on
a bus more than 30 minutes and ?.
secondary school student more than
45 minutes.
The commission recommended
that each consolidated district
should have at least $3 millions in
equalized state property valuation
'‘except in those cases where the
population density if relatively low
and the percentage of first class
land for general agriculture is less
than 20 per cent.”
Letter Box
Lincoln Park,, Mich.
April 11, 1945
To the Editor
Wyandotte News-Herald
Dear Sir:
I would like to take this oppor
tunity to thank you and the Wyan
dotte News for your help in our re
cent campaign to collect scrap pa
per.
By bringing it to the attention
of the public, you undoubtedly
greatly increased the coverage a
lot. We feel this aid in the war
effort is appreciated by everyone
and the money earned will go a
long way toward camping for our
boys.
Again I thank you on behalf of
Boy Scout troop Wy-6.
Wendell R. Tats, SM
25 YEARS AGO
IN WYANDOTTE
A vote to raise the salary of the
clerk and treasurer was voted on at
the last council meeting.
The Arlington hotel was remod
eled into a store.
Recent wrestling match held at
the Marx opera house was pro
nounced a tremendous success. Re
ceipts of the total number of ad
missions total well in the six hun
dred dollar bracket.
The members of the Michigan Al
kali club journeyed down to Toledo
and were the guests of the Edward
Ford Plate Glass athletic club. En
tertainment consisted of bowling
matches, basketball, boxing matches,
and was climaxed by a supper.
A dancing party was held at the
Arbeiter hall by the Amiot AU-star
baseball team. Music will be by
the Wyandotte City orchestra. All
were invited.
The congregation of the First
Presbyterian church met for their
annual meeting. The turnout was
one of the largest in the history of
the church. In the annual report
it was stated that despite the fact
that the church was without a pas
tor for a few months, the member
ship had steadily grown. The bal
ance in the treasury has also been
reported as being on the increase.
He who would arrive at the ap
pointed end must follow a single
road and not wander through many
ways. —Seneca