Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 June 1942 — Page 1

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VOLUME 53—NUMBER 83

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TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 1942

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Class Matter at Postoffice, Issued daily except Sunday.

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WORLD FIGHTING HITS NEW PEA

WILLKIE-TAFT ROW LOOMS IN INDIANA

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‘Backers of Hoosier Insist G. 0. P. Session Support Anti-Isolationism;

Ohio

Forces Ask Post-War Silence.

By EARL RICHERT : Another bitter struggle between Willkie and Taft forces in Indiana seemed to be developing today over the issue of

isolationism.

The Willkie supporters are determined that the state G. 0. P. convention here Thursday shall indorse the antiisolationist stand taken recently by the G. O. P. national

committee in Chicago placing the party on record as favoring U. S. participation in a brotherhood of nations after

the war. And the supporters or U. S. Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, who failed to bar the passage of the anti-iso-lationist resolution at the Chicago meeting, are reported to be just as determined that the Republican party in the state make no mention whatsoever of post-war policies.

Democrats Watch Battle

A victory by the Taft forces would make the state convention definitely national news because it would place the Indiana Republican party back where it was before Pearl Harbor—in the ranks of the isolationists. wh Watching the struggle gleefully from the sidelines and hoping for a Taft victory are the state Democrats. “It would be just too good to be true for the Republicans to flount the stand taken by the national committee,” commented one Democratic leader today.

Committee Studies Issue

“By failing to endorse the Chicago action, the Republicans would simply write an isolationist plank ‘between the lines’ in their platform. And you see what happened to the Republican isolationist congressman in Maine who was defeated for renomination by a proadministration Republican,” he added. The question, it is understood, was to be discussed at a meeting of the platform advisory committee at the Claypool hotel today. Whatever action is taken by the committee is to be kept secret. The recommendations of the advisory committee will be passed on to the resolutions committee which will be chosen at district caucuses tomorrow night.

Platform Ready Thursday

The resolutions committee will work all night tomorrow to whip a platform into shape and will have it ready for presentation to the convention shortly after it opens at 10 a. m. Thursday at the Coliseum. If the Willkie forces win in the committee, it is believed that the Taft group will drop the issue and not attempt a fight on the convention floor. But if the Taft forces win, the Willkie supporters are sure to try to get an indorsement of the Chicago resolution written in from the floor of the convention.

15 KILLED ON VESSEL TORPEDOED IN GULF

A GULF PORT, June 16 (U.P). — Fifteen men were killed when an enemy submarine torpedoed and sank a medium-sized cargo vessel in the Gulf of Mexico Friday, the eighth naval district announced today. Thirty-one men were saved. The sinking, second disclosed in several hours, brought to 16 the number of lives lost in the gulf since last Thursday. One man died in the sinking of a Panamanian ship June 11.

TIMES FEATURES ON INSIDE PAGES

Ash .... 14 wesses 9 17 16 10 10 10 6 . 16 18 «- 10 k 9 .. 1% 13 15 7 9

In Services... $8 Jane Jordan.. 13 Movies .veeeee ¢ Obituaries .... 7 Pattern .....s 13 Pegler ..

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Senator Taft . . . . involved in G. O. P. dispute.

RECREATION JOB CUT PROTESTED

Mayor’s Committee Praises Rooney’s Work; Budget Trimmed $36,000.

The city park board's “job elimination” program met opposition today from Mayor Sullivan's advisory committee on recreation. In cutting $36,000 from its proposed 1943 budget, the board cut out several jobs including that of J. Patrick Rooney, assistant recreational director. Jackiel W. Joseph, park board president, said the reductions were made because of fewer park department activities next year. “War conditions have made it necessary and advisable to eliminate many activities, especially (Continued on Page Five)

CHAPMAN-PRICE C0. T0 CLOSE ITS MILL

400 to Lose Steel Jobs; Raw Materials Lacking.

The Chapman-Price Steel Co. expects to close its mill here a week from Friday “for the duration” because its raw materials are being diverted by the government to England. About 400 workers will lose their jobs. Chapman-Price is a subsidiary of the Continental Steel Corp. ¢f Kokomo. Steel ingots and bars made at Kokomo are rolled at the Chap-man-Price mill, 3000 Shelby st., into sheet steel. Because of the critical shipping shortage, the government is allocating through lend-lease, steel ingots directly to England where factories will fabricate them into tanks, guns and other ordnance, according to Fred T. Lawrence, Chapman-Price manager. This explanation was given also by Peter Ransdell, president of local 1105, United Steel Workers of America, who said “You can ship a lot of steel in the space that a finished tank would take, just to use one example.” Mr. Ransdell was concerned about

] jobs?

FIX MAXIMUM OF 10 MILLIONS

Administration Expected to Ask Draft Age Lowered To 18 Early in 43.

WASHINGTON, June 16 (U. BP).

and estimated that the United states would need 20,000,000 workers in war production and transportation and 12,000,000 in agriculture.

in the forces was 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 by the end of 1943, and “eventually” might be 10,000,000. Other questions answered by the WMC: Q—Will women be needed in war

A—Women must fill the gap created by the departure of men for

ready doing war work and 4,000,000 more will be needed in the next two years. ‘Labor Draft’ Not Planned

Q—What are the WMC's funetions? A—The WMC will mobilize our manpower for duty at the lathe and punchpress in much the same way that the selective service system

{marshals our youth for combat duty;

the U. S. employment service, with 1500 offices, will register applicants and place them in jobs. Q—Does. that mean a draft?” A—No; this is a voluntary movement to place every man and woman in the job for which he or she is best fitted, and most needed. Meanwhile, the administration, barring change in plans, expects to ask congress early in 1943 to lower the minimum draft age from 20 to 18, a congressional source reported.

Dependency Bill Action Near

President Roosevelt was understood to have told congressional leaders there would be no further revision of the selective service law this year, as far as he is concerned, after congress completes action on the dependency allotment bill. Only house approval of the conference report is needed to send that measure to Mr. Roosevelt. By providing subsistence allotments for dependents, the bill will facilitate drafting of some men who otherwise might be deferred because of dependency needs. On the other hand, the measure contains a clause granting specific authority to defer any men with legitimate home ties. Maj. Francis V. Keesling Jr., of selective service headquarters, explained that national headquarters might instruct local boards to defer au married men until further noice.

“labor

Mercury Climb, Rain's End Due

LOCAL TEMPERATURES

. 5Y .. 56 “36 . 5

10 a.m. ... 1l1a.m ... 12 (Neon .. 1pm ...

A SLIGHT upturn in the mercury was predicted today by the weather bureau, which added that occasional rains would end this afternoon. Last night the temperature dipped to 59 at midnight and was Still in the 50s early today. Intermittent showers totaling .03 of an inch started at 8:41 o'clock last night and continueg until 7:05 o'clock this morning.

APPROVE FUND FOR AIRCRAFT CARRIERS

WASHINGTON, June 16 (U. Pp). —The house naval affairs commit

tee today unanimously approved an $8,500,000,000 naval

Ga.) said the measure would provide for an “immediate” start in construction craft carriers. G The committee approved the

Ralph O. Brewster (R. Me) had

INU. 5. FORCES]

—The war manpower commission |} today virtually set a maximum of]: 10,000,000 men in the armed forces, ! :

the fighting fronts; 1,500,000 areal-|

of 500,000 tons of air-

measure a few hours after Senator

The WMC said the goal for men| i

SUPERTAX PLAN BELIEVED DEAD

House Group Shelves Idea Of Limiting Incomes to $25,000 and $50,000.

WASHINGTON, June 16 (U. P.). —The house ways and means committee today shelved the adminis tration’s proposal to limit the annual income of single Americans to $25,000 and of married couples to $50,000. The committee adopted a motion to “defer the proposal for further

study.” Members interpreted the action as killing the proposal so far as original house action on the tax bill is concerned. They explained that the postponement came at a time when except for disposal of the sales tax issue, the new tax bill is about ready to go to the floor. “The committee,” announced Chairman Robert L. Doughton (D. N. C.), “felt it could not take the responsibility of passing the proposal at this time. “I felt the same way.” The limitation originally was proposed by President Roosevelt. Yesterday . the treasury submitted to the committee a recommendation for carrying it out, im modified form, through a 100 per cent war ‘“supertax.” If the taxpayer is not in debt he could apply his 15 per cent debt liquidation allowance to payment of insurance premiums or purchase of government securities, such as war bonds. Only current income taxes would be deductible. Meantime, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr, by implication withdrew from his campaign to push the new tax bill up to the administration's figure of $8,700,000,000 without adoption of a sales tax.

OIL LEADER NAMED FOR RUBBER DRIVE

Phil T. Williams Chosen as County Chairman.

Phil T. Williams, co-owner of Gaseteria, Inc, today was named Marion county chairman of the petroleum industry’s participation in the scrap rubber campaign. Officials estimated that there are more than 800 filling stations in the

leounty, at which scrap rubber is {being bought for 1 cent a pound.

They added that the county prob(Continurd on Page Five)

REPORT ISTANBUL QUAKE

BERLIN, June 16 (German Broadcast by United Press in New York).—An official

This view forward from the after deckhouse of a U. S. destroyer at sea shows the machine-gun nest (center) and torpedo tubes and single depth-charge projectors at right. The blimp in the background is one of the Atlantic patrol co-operating with destroyers in the protection of coastal convoys.

Nazis Brought to Dead Halt In Kharkov, Crimea Drives

MOSCOW, June 18 (U. P.).—The Russian army has brought the Germans to a dead halt on the Kharkov and Sevastopol fronts where “the enemy is shedding rivers of blood” in massive but suicidal assaults, the official government newspaper Izvestia said today. “Hitler's - offensive has become a meat-grinder for his German reserves,” said Izvestia’s front-line dispatches describing the hurling

back of furious onslaughts by Nazi tank reserves rushed into the Kharkov batle and the 13-day-old siege of Sevastopol fortress. The Germans attempted for three days to cross an important river in the Kharkov area and storm a Russian hilltop position, but the battle ended with huge Nazi losses and the

| Red army in firm possession of the

height, Izvestia said. (The Germans claimed to have forced an important crossing of the Donets river east of Kharkov yesterday). . Nazis Use “Big Berthas”

The Germans were said to be pounding Sevastopol with big siege guns, similar to the “Big Berthas” of the world war, and a force of 100,000 troops after abandoning massed tank assaults because o heavy losses. : (Advices reaching Stockholm from Helsinki said axis forces were preparing to storm Leningrad after a three-day siege by land, sea and air of the defenses of the former czarist capital and nearby Kronstadt fortress.) Describing the huge battle on the Kharkov-Donets front where the Germans were said to be holding at least 500,000 troops for a big onslaught, the Tass agency said: “The enemy is sustaining heavy losses without gaining any success. Our tank forces by bold maneuvers compelled the enemy tanks to halt.”

Fight on Kalinin Front

Advices from the Crimea said the Germans were blasting at the central Sevastopol defense line with artillery of higher caliber than that which shelled Paris from long range during the first world war. Dispatches emphasized that the situation around the key Black Sea naval base rapidly was approaching a climax and that the Germans were bringing reinforcements from other fronts.

MacArthur Cited As No. 1 Father

NEW YORK, June 16 (U. P.) — Gen. Douglas MacArthur has been named the “outstanding American father of 1942” by the national father’s day committee, it was announced today. Gen. MacArthur's name headed a list of 10 fathers chosen by the committee. Other notable fathers of 1942 included Vice President Henry A. Wallace; Brig. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, commander of the air raid on Tokyo; Joseph E. Davies, former ambassador to Russia; Donald M. Nelson, war production board head; Commdr. James J. (Gene) Tunney; Wendell L. Willkie; William I. Shirer, former foreign

»

YANKS POUND ITALIAN FLEET

Army Air Units Fight in|

Great 4-Day Battle in

Mediterranean.

CAIRO, June 16 (U. P.).—American army air corps units took part in a four-day battle between allied and axis air-naval forces in the Mediterranean, scoring hits in operations that resulted in sinking of a 10,000-ton Italian cruiser and damaging another cruiser and two destroyers. It was said that in one engagement in the Mediterranean a number of hits were made on an Italian battleship, one cruiser of the 10,000ton Trento class was sunk by aerial torpedoes, one six-inch gun cruiser and one destroyer also were known to have been hit. This toll of four enemy ships sunk or damaged was boosted to five or six in a second engagement with another Italian naval force near the Fascist island base of Pantalleria, where one enemy cruiser was hit and set afire and one destroyer was probably hit. The British preliminary reports (Continued on Page Five)

BRITISH ADMIT LOSS OF TOBRUK OUTPOST

Form Small Arc of Defense

At Town’s Doorstep.

CAIRO, June 16 (U. P.), — The British today acknowledged the loss of El Gazala, most advanced point of their Libyan desert defense line, after “a magnificent fight by our troops,” who eluded an axis trap and fell back for a do-or-die defense of Tobruk. Gen. Neil M, Ritchie’s eighth imperial army forces around El Gazala on the coast 40 miles west of Tobruk, including South African infantrymen and British troops, fell back to a small arc of defense almost on Tobruk’s doorstep. Although El Gazala was lost, Gen. Erwin Rommel’s hopes of splitting and inflicting disaster upon the British imperials by means of a slashing drive to the Mediterranean coast between Tobruk and El

U.S. PRESSING FIERCE BATTLE OF ALEUTIANS

Axis

Forces Are Stemmed in Russia, but

Hold Initiative in Libya, Mediterranean and China.

By JOE ALEX MORRIS United Press Foreign Editor Fighting on land, on sea and in the air reached perhaps the greatest peak of the war on world-wide battlefronts to= day as American armed forces pressed their battle to break a Japanese hold on the distant Aleutian islands. The United States operations, which already had cost the enemy at least six or seven ships sunk or damaged off the Aleutians, were continued in fog that still clouded the outcome of action hundreds of miles west of our base at

JAPS HARD HIT OFF ALEUTIANS

Powerful U. S. Air Blows Sink Cruiser, Smash

Five Other Ships.

WASHINGTON, June 16 (U. P,). —Army and navy reports agreed today that the United States had struck powerful air blows at a Japanese naval concentration in the Aleutian area in the third great naval-air battle of the Pacific. It was not certain whether these blows had been enough to send the

Japanese retreating, but the battle is continuing. Anthony J. Dimond, Alaskan delegate to congress, urged that the army and navy dislodge Japanese troops from their footholds oy two of the Aleutian islands—Attu and Kiska. He said he was still worried lest the enemy esablish airfields on the isles to broaden their offensive action against Alaska.

Hits on Seven Ships

Although the situation was still obscure, conflicting army and navy reports of the battle gave American airmen credit for scoring hits on at least three cruisers, one aircraft carrier, one destroyer, one gun-boat, and a transport. The army reported that one enemy cruiser had been sunk, but it was not immediately clear whether the cruicer was cne of the three reported.-merely as hit by the navy. Mr. Dimond said he had no reports on the operations, other than those made public by the navy. But he added that he was “terribly alarmed” cver the occupation of Attu, westernmost island of the Aleutian chain, and the recent presence of Japanese ships in Kiska harbor.

WASHINGTON, June 16 (U, P.). ~Secretary of Interior Harold L. Ickes today directed Gov. Ernest Gruening of Alaska td organize the Alaska war council for immediate mobilization of manpower and defense of the territory.

Dutch Harbor. The blows struck at the Japanese in the north in ade dition to more than 50 enemy ship casualties in the Midway, and Coral sea battles may prove of tremendous importance in turning the tide of the Pacific war, but a realistic appraisal of the results cannot be attempted until the trend of the Aleutian fighting is more definite. Le There was major fighting on other fronts throughout the world, howe

in Russia but holding the initiative in Libya, the Mediterranean and China. Developments on the main fronts included:

Soviet dispatches indicated that the Germans are being held on the vital Kharkov and Sevastopol sectors after suffering heavy losses, but the battles continued. Berlin reported German air attack on Mose cow’s defenses.

In Libya, the British were driven from the El Gazala stronghold west of Tobruk, but broke through an axis trap and established a strong defense around Tobruk. Axis claims that a latge British force was trapped are denied;

Axis communiques claimed three-day battle of air and naval forces in the Mediterranean against two British convoys en route to Malta resulted in sinking or dams aging of from 20 to 30 allied ware ships, but acknowledged the loss of an Italian heavy cruiser and heavy damage to two destroyers. Axis dise patches said American warships “probably” were involved. The Brite ish admiralty withheld comment, Cairo reports said U.S. bombers took part in the Mediterranean fighting, 4 In China, the Japanese, using more than 150,000 troops, bate tled to complete the capture of the wrecked Chekiang-Kiangsi railroad in eastern China in an effort to proe tect communications lines to the South Seas against future allied ate tacks. The Chinese still hold an 80« mile stretch of railroad.

In Australia, allied planes sho down six or more Japanese craft making 11 downed in three

assaults on Port Darwin.

—

Today's War Moves

By LOUIS F. KEEMLE United Press War Analyst

A revolutionary change

in methods of naval

warfare is being wrought as the battle of the Pacifig proceeds over the vast stretches of the world’s large

est ocean.

The navy of the future will be far different from

the navy of the

past, and it will operate in a far

different way from the navies that fought at Juts land; or even in the earlier stages of this war. New methods are being developed in the Pacific, and the experience gained there will shape the

groundwork pattern of the future.

change, and it looks as though the long controversy over the effectiveness of battleships is about to take place. It is significant that Senator Ralph Brewster of the naval affairs committee and of the special senate committee investigating the war program, said today that the navy has abandoned plans to build

Aircraft have brought about the

500,000 tons would be devoted to aircraft carriers. Not a single bate tleship is provided for. in Of the remaining tonnage, 500.0 would be devoted to light heavy cruisers and 900,000 to stroyers and escort vessels. Depending on the size of © chosen by the navy, the prog should provide between 20 and of the vessels. The United States entered the with seven carriers and 11 up construction. Since then, an (Continued on Page Five)

ever, with the axis forces stemmed