Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 8 December 1944 — Page 3

POST-DEMOCRAT, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 194f.

WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS

Relentless Pressure by Allies Forces Steady Nazi Retreat; Weather Slows Russian Drive

.Released by Western Newspaper Union.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those ol Western Newspaper Union’s news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.)

Western Newspaper EUROPE:

Rhine the Prize

| Stiffening Nazi resistance, plus the mud, mists and. snows of a fastapproaching European winter had made the road to Berlin a bruising, bloody highway of battle. Yet with relentless pressure, Allied armies were pushing the Nazis steadily back to the Rhine on the front stretching northward from the Vosges mountains of Alsace to the riv-'er-studded stretches of Holland. At the northern end of the front, soldiers of Lieut. Gen. William H. Simpson’s U. S. Ninth army had broken into the German Roer river ^defense line, the best natural barrier before the Rhine. Cologne was the ultimate target of this drive. Lieut. Gen. George H. Patton’s bird army infantry meanwhile had made a new crossing into the Saar Jjasin—second only to the Ruhr as a source of Germany’s war mightcapturing villages close to Saar-

brucken.

t On the southern flank, Nazi forces south of the Rhone-Rhine canal in Alsace were virtually wiped out with the capture of Dannemarie and several nearby villages. The Seventh U. S. army continued to press forward in the Vosges through snow and mud, thrusting aside scattered resistance. French forces operating with this army had reported an actual crossing of the Rhine north of Strasbourg by their patrols. ! The bulk of the German forces and precious mobile reserves had been deployed on the Cologne plain where many observers believed the final showdown of the war would take place. With General Eisen-

F

STETTINIUS: Keeps Hull’s Policies Favorable reactions at home and abroad to President Roosevelt^*; appointment of Edward R. Stettinius as successor to Secretary of State Cordell Hull, made it clear that there would be no break in the continuity of the administration’s postwar peace and international cooperation program. While Secretary Hull’s resignation came suddenly, it was not unexpected. Continued ill-health had prevented his active direction of the state department’s operations. In accepting the 73-year-old statesman’s resignation, the president projected for him the future role of elder statesman, advising on foreign policy and taking as active a part in shaping a world peace organization as his health would permit. Specifically, Hull was slated to

LAND: War Demands Big Chester C. Davis, president of the Federal Reserve bank of St. Louis and former head of the Agricultural Adjustment administration, bluntly warned that present world needs for foodstuffs from American farms may cause permanent damage to our soil unless conservation practices are started on more farm acreage. Speaking before the Friends of the Land in Chicago, Davis said that high pressure wartime production of

CHESTER C. DAVIS 'A blunt warning on land. corn, wheat, oats, timber and other farm crops must be tempered by intelligent farm planning to prevent erosion. Among farm practices which he said must be encouraged are contour plowing, terracing, fertilization, subsurface tillage, growing rye and other crops after the summer grain harvests, and reforestation of farm woodlots. ‘There are two ways that we can lose our land,” he pointed out. ‘‘We can lose it if conquered by a foreign military power or by erosion, which steals the all-important farm topsoil and washes it down the flooded rivers.”

GHOST FLEET ROAMS PACIFIC

damaged—a ghost fleet which came back to haunt the enemy. o —

LEYTE

GEN. GEORGE PATTON Into the vital Saar basin. hower’s objective being the destruction of the German army, Allied forces had girded themselves for the battles that would once and for all break Nazi military power. Eastern Front ' Russian forces pushing on Budapest had been slowed down by the season’s heaviest snowfall, following a severe sleet storm. German and Hungarian troops had been occupying defense positions along a 26-mile curve from the southern limits of Budapest to the rail junction of Azzod. Meanwhile Red forces had opened a new drive into Slovakia, advancing across the Beskid mountains and cutting down behind the southern entrance to the Dukla Pass to sever a highway escape route for the Germans. LABOR: Shorter Postwar Hours? I In a move to “assure jobs for all” in the postwar period, the American Federation of Labor urged congress to pass national legislation providing for a 30-hour week, j A resolution passed by delegates attending the federation’s 64th annual convention in New Orleans declared technical advances in industry which served to speed production “have developed tensions which cause workers to burn out at an early age.” It urged that this wearing out be avoided by shorter hours, which also would serve to spread employment. ' ' Other resolutions called for amendment of the national communications act, “so that freedom of speech over the air waves will be safeguarded from actual or implied government censorship,” the establishment of a uniform federal unemployment compensation law, repeal of the Smith-Connolly anti-strike law and wage and hour improvements for postofflee and other government employees.

CORDELL HULL ‘Stetf would follow his lead. be presiding officer of the United Nation’s first peace conference. Observers viewed the Stettinius appointment as a highly satisfactory solution. As under secretary of state, 44-year-old Stettinius was closely familiar with department procedure. He had two other prime assets. His former experience as lend-lease administrator had won him the respect and friendship of congress. His dealings with Britian and Russia had demonstrated that he could work in successful cooperation with other leaders of the United Nations. Above all, Stettinius has seen eye-to-eye with Secretary Hull on world problems and worked closely with him. PACIFIC: Air Warfare Increases Attacks by two big fleets of B-29 Superfortresses on Tokyo’s waterfront and on rail yards and repair facilities in Bangkok on the southwestern fringe of the Japanese war empire, underscored the fact that air warfare against Nippon would be increased in intensity. The American planes returned to their bases in. the Marianas islands and India without combat losses. Revised estimates of damage in the latest U. S. carrier raid on Luzon in the Philippines showed 20 Japanese ships sunk, 28 damaged and 119 planes either destroyed or damaged. While heavy rains had brought ground operations on Leyte to a virtual standstill, American bombers based on the island struck at Jap targets over a wide area of the southwest Pacific, attacking airdromes at Ceby and Negros. The continued bombings of Tokyo ai^d favorable progress elsewhere hjelped balance the grim news that continued to flow from China. Here the Jap armies continued their victorious operations, forcing abandonment of effective U. S. air bases on the Chinese mainland. Hope for a strengthening of Chiang Kai-shek’s forces was seen in the appointment of Maj. Gen. Patrick J. Hurley to be U. S. ambassador to China. Hurley was already in China, having gone there last summer with Donald M. Nelson, former war production chief, to help revamp the Chinese war effort. DRAFT TROUBLE: In Canada As the Canadian parliament moved toward its decision on a previous government order to conscript home defense forces for overseas duty trouble broke out among troops in the Pacific Coast area. Heavily armed, a group of troops prevented another regiment from boarding a train scheduled to take them to a new post. This trouble was quickly dealt with but other demonstrations by troops against the new ruling were reported.

HIGHLIGHTS

in the week's news

; Rear Adm. John H. Cassady, assistant deputy chief of naval operations for air, predicted that in the not too distant future American carriers would be sending 2,000 planes in one strike against the Japs. “Today, 1,000-plane attacks from our carriers are not uncommon,” he said, “I can foresee the day when jWe will be sending 1,500—yes 2,000— felanes.”

Farm machinery has been distributed in liberated areas in France and Belgium which have already started to produce a portion of their food needs. Serge G. Troubetzkoy of the United States Foreign Economic administration reported. He said that the supply of machinery made through a combined Allied board would be extended to other areas as they were freed.

SHIPS:

Build More, Sink Less Steadily dwindling shipping losses of the Allies due to enemy action and the phenomenal merchant ship construction record of the United States were highlighted in a British government report released through the office of war information. Total losses from the war’s beginning through 1943 were 5,758 vessels aggregating 22,121,000 gross tons. During this time the United States constructed about 30,000,000 dead-

weight tons.

While no 1944 figures on losses were disclosed, the ratio of construction to sinkings is known to be overwhelmingly favorable. Losses were severest during 1942, and 1,859 ships totaling 8,338,000 tons were sunk. These losses far outstripped American construction. The picture changed in 1943, with losses aggregating 3,646,000 tons and new construction totaling 19,238,000 tons. CIGARETTES: Worse Shortage? Even as Pres. Eric Calamia of the National Retail Tobacco Merchants association predicted that the cigarette shortage would be worse in the next six months than in the past two, house and senate committees began investigations of the scarcity. Chairman Flanagan of the House agriculture committee branded as “untrue propaganda” the charge that the shortage stems back to a shortage in leaf tobacco. Senator Ferguson of the senate committee said there probably are a number of explanations for the shortage, including increased consumption here and abroad, "but until we find the causes, it will be difficult to find a

remedy.”

Meanwhile match manufacturers were also predicting a severe shortage of their product in the coming months. Industry sources revealed that raw material supplies had been materially reduced in the past two years and thus the usual amounts of book matches would be limited. WAR WORKERS: Face Job Problem America’s chief job problem will be concerned with war workers rather than w^r veterans immediately after Germany’s collapse, ac cording to William Muirhead, president of the Associated General Contractors of America. Speaking before the association’s governing and advisory boards in Chicago, Muirhead said that if the war ends in two stages, with a year or more between the collapse of Germany and the defeat of Japan, “it has been estimated 2,500,000 men will be released from the armed forces during the year. “War production is expected to be cut from 30 to 50 per cent. An estimate of the number of war workers to be thrown onto the labor market during the interval is between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000.” HOMES: Britons Lose Third One out of every three houses in Britain has been destroyed or damaged in five years of World War II, a statistical White Paper revealed. War casualties have totaled 733,030. The White Paper disclosed that 35 per cent of all British males between the ages of 14 and 64 are in the. armed forces and that nearly half of the country’s women between the ages of 14 and 59 are in uniform

ia&ustry.

Pearl Harbor Ships Bolstered By Greatest Navy Fights Japs Pearl Harbor, Dec. 8. —A ghost fleet of the ships sunk or damaged by the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor three years ago roamed the Pacific today bolstered by the greatest naval forces ever built. Since that tragic day in 1941 the tables have turned. Everyone from Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, whose steely blue eyes are focused on the Japanese empire, down to the lowliest GI at this world’s busiest naval base knows that the enemy is on the run as the United States begins its fourth year of the

war.

The tension which was so evident in the early days of the war is gone. The war has moved 4,000 'miles west to the Philippines and

to Tokyo itself.

The results of the last three years comprise a glory-filled chapter of American history. The American fleet that was beaten in two hours Dec. 7, 1941 has risen from Pearl Harbor’s muddy bottom and, with the aid of new construction, has carried the battle back to the enemy. Today Pearl Harbor observed the occasion with solemnity, dig-

nity, and work.

Admiral Nimitz planned to address navy yard workers at noon on the progress of the war and five memorials were scheduled, including one at Halawa cemetery where the dead of the Pearl Harbor attack are buried. At 7:55' a. m. three years ago today the Japanese planes swooped in from their carriers. When they left the battleships Oklahoma, Arizona, Nevada, California, Tennessee, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania as well as the targetship Utah, the cruisers Helena, Honolulu, and Raleigh, the destroyers Cassin, Downes, and Shaw, the minelayer Oglala, the tender Curtis, and the repair ship Vestal were stricken in the har-

bor.

Only the Arizoim, Oklahoma, Utah, Oglala, Cassin, and Downes failed to survive totally.

(Continued from Page One) an American destroyer and a small transport. The Superfortress raids on Tokyo reported by the Japanese apparently were on a small scale, partly for reconnaisance and partly to drop incendiary bombs, but they kept the enemy capital tense. The latest attacks were the third and fourth in 30 hours, and a broadcast heard by FClC monitors indicated there might have been a fifth today. It seemed possible that a severe earthquake added to Tokyo’s troubles, although Japanese broadcasts did not admit severe damage in the capital itself. The Domei News Agency reported tidal waves and landslides in coastal areas extending up to the Tokyo-YokOhama district.

Sedition Case Ends In Mistrial

Washington, Dec. 8.—The mass sedition case ended in a mistrial

today.

Federal District Judge James M. Proctor formally declared a mistrial of the seven month old proceeding after a poll of defendants revealed that they would not consent to continuing with another judge presiding. The special session was held to determine disposition of the case as the result of the death of Judge Edward C. Eicher a week ago. The jury was called in after the poll of the defendants and told that “in view of the death of Chief Justice Eicher in the midst of the

Iceland Faces Economic Crisis United Press Staff Correspondent Reykjavik, Iceland-^This little nation of some 130,000 people is going through wartime economic stresses which on the surface at least seem almost identical with those of the United States, with some 130,000,000 people. Presence of large numbers of British and American troops here, far greater in proportion to the population than the military establishment in the United States, demanded vast amounts of construction and services. Axel Thorsteinson, an editor and commentato for the Iceland radio station, and former United Press correspondent here for many years, sketched the following outline of Iceland economy, comparing so 'closely with conditions in the United States, for the United

Press.

Many persons have left the farms to obtain employment Avith the military installations. Yet the farms are producing more than ever before because of increased

use of machinery. Severe Housing Lack

This migration has resulted in a serious housing shortage in Reykjavik, similar to shortages in in dustrial areas in America. There is corresponding rent control. The cost of living has mounted proportionately greater than in the United States. The index is now 2.71, as compared with 100 in 1939. This has not been too much a burden, however, because everyone is employed. Moreover, union workers mostly have advantage of automatic wage adjustments, provided by contract, proportionate to the rise in the cost of living. There is a shortage of building materials, which are almost en-

Norway used to buy salt mutton, spite high duty.

Britain was a potential customer for refrigerated mutton, but refrigerated ships and plants available lacked the capacity for the huge fish catch which goes to Britain,.plus all the mutton,,too._ Iceland has turned to new sources for many products formerly purchased in Europe. The United States supplies women’s garments, men’s suits, such amounts of machinery as can be obtained, cereals and numerous other items. Canada supplies lum-

ber, and Britain cement.

American suits and garments are proving popular and are considered reasonable compared with tailored garments. A good readymade man’s suit from America cost around $55 or $60. U. S., de-

American articles are usually advertised as such, since their origin is accepted as assurance of

good quality.

o DOGHOUSE JOINS CHASE

Arlington, Mass.—They are not making chains strong enough to bind or doghouses sturdy enough to contain “Berengarius,” a mammoth St. Bernard belonging to Charles Folsom. The chained Berengarius gave chase the other day when a squirrel started making faces at him. The squirrel bolted, the dog after the rodent, and the two followed by the doghouse to which the animal had been chained. —o —BUY MORE BONDS—

OPEN AT NEW STATION

Today the U. S. Fleet’s fire power in the Pacific includes the guns of most of those ships sunk or

trial of this case and the circum-

stances that have been developed tirely imported. The United States here, the court feels compelled to under the terms of the invitation discontinue the trial and formally to occupy Iceland for the duration, declare a mistrial of this case.” agreed to provide Iceland’s necesOnly one of the 26 remaining sary imports. So Iceland gets its defendants was willing to continue, building materials on a priority He was Prescott F. Dennett, whose arrangement comparable to that attorney Frank Kelly announced in the United States, his answer. Two attorneys de- Icelanders talk about the shortclined to answer and one defend- age of housemaids as if they were ant, Peter Stahrenberg, withheld New Yorkers. Before the war his reply because his attorney maid’s pay was 75 to 100 kronur,

or about $12 to $16 per month. Now they are virtually unobtainable at 350 to 550 kronur, or $55 to

$85.

Subsidy Paid Farmer When Iceland was cut off from her Norwegian market she had a surplus of mutton, so the government paid the farmer a subsidy.

was not in court.

o-

CHRISCTMASES ADD JOY.

Superior, Wis.—Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Christmas recently added Joy to their happy family. Two elder daughters were named Merry

and 'Carol.

Glen Butts wishes to notify all his patrons that he is now moved and ready to serve them as usual at his new Gull Service Station at the corner of Charles and Kil- . gore Ave. He will continue to render the same efficient and expert service that he has given in the past seven years.

another

TWIN BRANCH’ STATION / home of the world’s most efficient steam electric generating unit

LECTRICITY has not been too little or too late in America during this war because the electric-service companies for years past have JL/ steadily expanded and modernized their facilities to provide abundant power. An outstanding example of this progressive, foresighted policy is provided by Indiana & Michigan Electric Company which, with its affiliate, the Indiana General Service Company, serves one of the most important war industry areas in the United States. In 1937 another General Electric turbine-generator was ordered for the Twin Branch power station near South Bend. The engineers who planned this plant have always been forward-thinking, and thus conscious of the need of using our natural resources carefully. Therefore, the turbine-generator was designed for the highest steam pressure and temperature ever employed, so that the greatest possible amount of energy would be obtained from the fuel burned and give Twin Branch the worldly most efficient steam electric generating unit. No sooner was the new tuibitfe-generator installed, in 1941, when gathering war clouds made it evident that still more generating capacity would be needed to serve growing war industries in the area. Consequently, a new and still bigger G-E turbine-generator was ordered. It has recently “gone on the line” in the Twin Branch plant. This new turbine-generator, with its 120,000 horsepower, brings the Twin Branch capacity up to its present 335,000 horsepower, or three times what it was in 1940, Put despite the problems or operating such

enormous equipment at unprecedented pressure and temperature, this unusual power station supplies hundreds of industries and communities with a continuous flow of vitally needed electric power. Your section of the country can feel proud that it has at its service an outstanding leader in one of the most important fields of American industry. In peace as in war, your local utility assures you of an adequate supply of electric power, produced as economically as the most advanced knowledge can provide. General Electric salutes the achievement at Twin Branch. This station stands as an expression of faith in the future of your section — a promise that your homes and industries will continue to have all the advantages that electricity can bring.

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254-26

ELECTRICITV HAS NOT BEEN RATIONED BUT IT IS A VITAL WAR NECESSITY AND MUST NOT BE WASTED. PLEASE USE IT CAREFULLY