WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS
Point Rationing Scheduled for March 1;
Solomons Fit Into Jap ‘Empire Plan’
But U. S. Armed Forces Will Not Agree;
1 Treasury Favors Pay-as-You-Go Tax
. ■ ■■ 1 ■ .——
(EDITOR'S NOTE: When •pinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of
Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.)
__________ Released by Western Newspaper Union._
RATIONING:
Npiv Datp Set
Office of Price Administration of
ficials have established March 1 (or
a few days later) as the beginning
of nation-wide rationing of canned
and frozen foods on a point basis.
As announced several weeks ago
these goods include canned, bottled,
and frozen fruits and vegetables,
soups, juices, chili sauce, catsup and
dried fruits.
Retail sales of these items will be
stopped on February 21 and during
the eight days following that date
a country-wide schoolhouse registra
tion will be conducted for the dis
tribution of ration book No. 2. Blue
stamps in this book will be used for
the canned goods rationing and the
red stamps for meat rationing.
(Meat rationing is at present sched
uled to begin about April 1, although
this may be changed.) Further de
tails of the registration for book two
and its use are to be announced by
local OPA offices.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Watch the
columns of this, your hometown
paper, for complete details. These
will be published as soon as they are
released.)
One member of each family may
register for the entire household for
ration book two. Book No. 1 must
OTHER RATION DATES
Feb. 20—Expiration date for Pe
riod 3 fuel-oil coupons which
became valid Dec. 23.
Feb. 28—Final date ror first in
spection of tires for "B" or “C”
passenger car card holders and
for commercial vehicles.
March 13—Period 5 fuel-oil cou
pons, good to Sept. 30, become
valid.
March 15—Last valid date for No.
11 sugar coupons, good for
three pounds.
March 31—Final date for first in
spection of passenger car tires
for "A” card holders and mo
torcycles.
April 12—Expiration date for Pe
riod 4 fuel-oil coupons.
be presented at the time of regis
tration and "excess" canned goods
on hand as of February 21 must be
declared. OPA has previously ruled
that each member of the household
may have five cans of eight ounces or
larger on hand at the time of regis
tration and still escape having cou
pons removed from the new book.
STRANGE QUESTION:
From the Nazis
"Where is the place you surren
der?"
This was a strange question in
deed for the once-proud Nazi sol
diers before Stalingrad to be asking
the Russians, but it was what the
Reds reported their enemies were
asking as they continued to flock in
—victims of the relentless Soviet
drive to free the once-besieged Vol
ga city.
Dispatches described the condi
tion of the Nazis as "cold, unshav
en, and distraught." But the citi
zens of Stalingrad wasted little pity
on their captives. Too well they
remembered the long days and
nights that the Nazis pounded and
ruined their city with bombs and
shells.
In a single day 16 generals and a
field marshal (Frederich Paulus,
chief Nazi army official in the area)
were surrendered along with hun
dreds of other smaller fry. Even
the German radio admitted that
these losses at Stalingrad were
among the most serious of the en
tire war.
Elsewhere the Russians continued
to gain ground or at least hold their
recent gains. In the Leningrad sec
tor the "escape corridor" before the
city was widened and in the Cauca
sus the drive for Rostov strength
ened as new thrusts on the middle
sector headed fresh for Kursk and
Kharkov.
WAR NEAR CLIMAX:
Says Finn President
In a statement slanted for the
United Nations, President Risto Ryti
told his Finnish parliament that “the
war is approaching a culmination
point,” and expressed hope that “the
Allies will understand Finland's posi
tion," dispatches from Helsinki re
ported. The dispatches said that
Ryti did not mention Germany,
Finland's ally in the war against
Russia.
PACIFIC TOUR:
And Jap Bombs
Returning from a 20,000-mile trip
to the Pacific front, during which
time he was twice under Japanese
air attack. Secretary of the Navy
Frank Knox told United States news
men that "I think there are dan
good prospects of an air attack or
Tokyo.” Knox was accompanied by
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, command
*r in chief of the Pacific fleet, anc
Adm. William F. Halsey Jr., com
mander in the South Pacific.
SOLOMONS:
Japs Try Again
The importance of the Solomon
Islands in Japan's scheme for an
expanded empire was forcibly dem
onstrated again when the navy an
nounced another major Jap effort to
retake the islands.
Even the earliest communiques
announced that American forces en
gaged the enemy in what may be
A U. S. marine looks over a hand
ful of bones—all that is left of a
Japanese warrior to whom fate had
given a one-way ticket to Guadal
canal. The new Jap drive on that
area indicates its importance to the
enemy’s grand strategy.
the greatest air-sea battle of the Pa
cific to date.
Exaggerated Japanese claims of
United States losses were spiked
early by a navy spokesman, who
added that “increased activity on the
part of the Japanese indicates a ma
jor effort to regain control of the
entire Solomons area.”
One communique, making no ref
erence to the Jap assault, said an
American destroyer had shelled a
number of barges at enemy-held
Cape Esperance, on the northern tip
of Guadalcanal. Those barges might
have been used in new landings or
in coastal troop movements by a
desperate enemy.
A week before the outbreak of the
battle Navy Secretary Frank Knox
described the American hold on
Guadalcanal as secure, predicting
that the remnants of organized Jap
resistance would be wiped out in 30
days. The United Nations were
hopeful but not all were convinced.
PAY-AS-YOU-GO:
Treasury Style
Flatly opposing the Ruml plan to
skip payment of last year’s income
tax, the U. S. treasury department
has nevertheless come out in favor
of the enactment of a pay-as-you-go
withholding tax set-up. As present
ed to the house ways and means
committee by Randolph E. Paul,
treasury general counsel, this plan
would provide for the withholding
of 19 per cent of pay checks (after
deductions). This would be in addi
Tentative Exemption Schedule
If the treasury 19 per cent with
holding tax plan is carried out
some schedule of deductions to al
low for dependency, etc., would
have to be set up to simplify com
putation of the tax. Here is a ten
tative weekly exemption schedule
which has been suggested:
Single Person .$11.00
Married Person . 26.00
Additional Dependent .. 8.00
The Victory tax of 5 per cent
would also still have to be paid.
Deductions for this are a non
dependency basis, allowing a flat
$12 per week exemption.
tion to the 5 per cent victory tax,
already in effect.
Stressing the need of prompt ac
tion by congress, Paul said that
the 19 per cent withholding tax would
be equivalent to the 1942 6 per cent
normal tax and 13 per cent surtax
on the first bracket, and would sim
plify collection and unnecessary re
funds. By the “first bracket” he
meant the first $2,000 of taxable in
come after deductions.
It was indicated that while the
treasury did not believe last year’s
income taxes should be “forgiven”
if the new plan is put into effect,
the government would admit that
these taxes should be deferred and
paid up gradually rather than dou
bling up this year.
WAR BOND SALES:
Hit /Vetr High
Last month, the treasury has an- !
nounced, war bond sales totaled
$1,240,444,000 to set an all-time
monthly record. Previous high
month was January, 1942, when
sales touched $1,060,546,000 in the
first full month of bond sales after
the beginning of the war. Total sales
since the introduction of War Bonds
1 in May, 1941, amount to $12,934,611,
■ 000. Of this amount. 98 per cent are
«till held by their purchasers.
WAR JOB OR DRAFT:
Fathers Told
Get a war job or be drafted!
With that notice the selective serv
ice bureau lifted the ban on drafting
fathers by abolishing deferments on
April 1 "regardless of dependents”
for men in a selected list of occupa
tions and trades.
The order, announced by War
Manpower Commission Chairman
Paul V. McNutt, was the first move
to draft married men with children
into the armed services.
In Washington, McNutt told the
house military affairs committee
that "by the end of this year 10
out of every 14 of the able-bodied
men between 18 and 38 will be in
the armed services.
Only the physically handicapped
and those over 37 years of age in
the jobs listed in the order to local
draft boards will be deferrable after
April 1. The jobs listed were for
men engaged in 29 occupations or
employed in 19 industries, eight
wholesale and retail trades and nine
service activities.
Thousands of men affected will be
given until May 1 to shift to an occu
pation essential to the war effort—
occupations previously listed by the
WMC. The edict amounts to a
" work-in-the-right-industry-or-fight”
order, although McNutt declined to
call it that. The 30-day period of
grace (between April 1 and May 1)
given to those seeking transfers will
apply only to those who have regis
tered with the U. S. Employment
Service for war jobs.
TURKEY:
Renewed Pact
The British-Turkish military alli
ance of 1939 once again became a
document of major importance as
England’s Winston Churchill and
President Ismet Inonu of Turkey met
near Adana to agree on "positive
implementation’’ of the pact.
The alliance called for active mili
tary co-operation if the war moved
to the eastern end of the Mediter
ranean. Close observers, using more
ordinary language, indicated that the
success of the parley means Turkey’s
entrance into the war on the side of
the United Nations. The fact that
Turkey made public the details of
the two-day meeting added signifi
cance to the occasion. As a neutral
she could have insisted upon
secrecy.
The Turkish communique referred
to the fact that Churchill came to
Turkey from his meeting with Mr.
Roosevelt at Casablanca and “could
speak freely” on the President’s
views.
At the conclusion of the meeting,
Churchill said:
"It is clear that the ancient friend
ship between Great Britain and Tur
key , . . has been revived.”
I. i ■ i . ■ ' — ■
MISCELLANY:
MILKING: As part of the pro
gram to supply American farms
with badly needed labor to assure
record food production, federal au- |
thorities and the University of Wis
consin are co-operating in training
young men of 16 and 17 years of age
for work on dairy farms. The youths
are recruited from low producing
farms by the federal employment
service and the Farm Security ad
ministration and given a five-week
education in modern dairy methods.
• * •
COMPOSER: America took claim
to a great artist recently when Sergei
Rachmaninoff, famous musical com
poser and pianist, and his wife,
Natalie, were naturalized citizens.
The Rachmaninoffs have made their
home in the United States since 1918,
after departing from their native
Russia.
• • •
MINERS: Backed by 450,000 mem
bers, John L. Lewis will seek “sub
stantial" pay raises for the United
Mine Workers in the bituminous
fields when negotiations get under
way with operators in March. Al
though the government’s policy in
these matters has been established
by the War Labor Board’s formula
for increasing wages at a rate equal
to the rise in cost of livng since
1941, it is reported Lewis and the
miners will seek a “$2 a day boost."
This amount is in excess of the 15
per cent the board figures represents
the per cent of increase in cost
of living since 1941.
• • •
SACRIFICE: Speaking before a
throng of aircraft workers in Cali
fornia, Eddie Rickenbacker declared
that no effort being made at home
could begin to compare with the
heroic sacrifices of American troops
throughout the world. Rickenbacker
has also stated that the American
soldier returning from the front lines
will be the most rugged of individu
als and will not tolerate regimenta
tion.
• • •
STOPPAGES: Work stoppages in
creased by 301 in England last year
to a total of 1,281, the labor ministry
1 reported.
• • •
LAST HOUR: “Victory will go to
| the side able to hold a quarter hour
I longer than the enemy," Premier
Mussolini declared in an address to
I Italian militia.
* • •
QUALIFY: In selecting officials
for French North Africa, High Com
missioner Henri Honore Giraud will
be guided by their administrative
ability as well as their political past.
Many competent men served in
Vichy, Giraud said, without repre
senting its ideas in the generally
accepted sense.
Nazi Submarine Menace
Is Allies' Chief Problem
Pre-Fabricated U-Boats Said to Boost Ger
man Output;‘Vanishing Luftwaffe’ Puzzles
United Nations’ Military Observers.
By BAUKHAGE
New* Analyst and Commentator.
WNU Service, 1343 H Street, N.W.
Washington, D. C.
"It will be a long and bitter war."
That was the remark of the Aus
tralian minister of defense in a re
cent interview. Two days later,
I heard a general, who had visited
many fronts, make a similar state
ment. You have heard the same
prediction made from dozens of offi
cials. And the strange thing is, it
is usually preceded with an account
of Allied successes. Nothing but a
"but" stands between the enumera
tion of victories achieved and the
prediction of the long, hard road
ahead.
Since this perplexed me, I tried
to get a concrete answer from vari
ous persons as to just what lies on
the long, hard road. Out of the an
swers, two obstacles stand out, the
submarine and the story of the "van
ishing Luftwaffe.” Only recently has
it been definitely revealed that the
enemy’s greatest and most effective
weapon is the submarine. For a
long time, the British permitted only
the most general statements regard
ing the sinking of Allied or even
neutral ships by U-boats. Lately,
because it was realized that the peo
ple were in ignorance of the extent
of this menace, more detailed state
ments have been made, although
still no figures are given out.
We know that America is building
ships faster than American ships
are being sunk. We know that the
margin between launchings and
sinkings is very narrow. And we
know that launchings alone do not
really balance sinkings hull for hull
because the enemy sinks loaded
ships—valuable cargoes are de
stroyed—trained men not easily or
immediately replaceable are killed
or at least taken out of action for
long periods—gaps are left in the
war effort with each lost cargo.
When I was in Berlin covering the
outbreak of the European war in
1939, I heard a great deal of talk
about Germany’s counter-blockade,
how the Nazis could fill seas with
their U-boats. There was much talk
of the great numbers which could
be produced by the American meth
od of the assembly line. I had no
idea how much truth there was in
those statements. Then in the
months that followed, not much was
said about the U-boats. For a pe
riod when they were operating on
our coasts, America was conscious
of their presence but when they
were driven out of sight of our
shores, they were driven out of mind
as well.
• • •
Nazi Boasts
Largely Confirmed
Now we learn how great their dep
redations are on the shipping lanes
where they converge in the eastern
Atlantic, confirming to some degree
the German boasts which are sound
ing again. It is stated by British
naval observers that the Germans
are pre-fabricating the subs, mak
ing the parts in factories scattered
all over the Reich and assembling
them in great underground caverns
hewn out of the rock or covered
with concrete on the shores of the
Bay of Biscay in France.
Therein lies a clear and simple
explanation of the Allies’ greatest
problem, the chief obstacle on the
“long, hard road."
The second obstacle may be a
fancied one but it is real in the
minds of many. The unknown is
usually more terrible than the
known and perhaps this one is at
least partly a myth but no hard
headed realist can afford to under
estimate the enemy’s potentialities.
Those who believe this “obstacle"
exists, say it is hidden behind the
mystery of “the vanishing Luft
waffe."
According to military men, there
are at present very few German
planes on the Russian front. I heard
a recent estimate of one-seventh as
many as a year ago.
There are not many German
planes over Africa—the Allies have
at least achieved parity in air pow
er. Where Is the German Luftwaffe?
Its presence darkened the skies of
Europe once—has it really van
ished? Been used up? Worn out?
The factories which turn out re
placements all destroyed by Allied
bombers? Is its necessary fuel and
lubrication exhausted? Some people
t '■ ——.
think that this, at least to a large
degree, is true. But that explana.
tion does not seem reasonable.
• • •
German Advances
In Synthetic Gas
We know that Germany has made
remarkable advances in the manu
facture of synthetic gasoline and
oils. We know that some oil has
been retrieved from the Maikop oil
fields in Russia, new ones developed
in Austria.
If Germany is not yet starved of
gasoline and lubricants, if the Luft
waffe has not really disappeared
from the earth, its absence from the
air may have another meaning. We
know that in spite of the heavy Ger
man losses in men and material in
Russia, Germany still has a large
and powerful army. Possibly over
300 fully equipped divisions—trained
men.
It is estimated that aside from
soldiers engaged in Russia and
North Africa, the garrisons in the
occupied countries, there must be a
striking mobile army of a million
men and more. Of course, these
are estimates but they are not over
estimates. And besides this army
there is the "vanished Luftwaffe.”
The assumption is that this great
army like the airforce is resting,
conserving and building up its
strength for one of two things: ei
ther a long, last stand defense of
the borders of the Reich or one
more powerful offensive.
Meanwhile, we know that every
day that Japan is allowed to occupy
the rich possessions of her stolen
empire, she is nearer to the ex
ploitation of their resources, the de
velopment of which will make her
stronger. And every day she is left
undisturbed by a major attack, she
is able to increase her fortifications,
wear down the Chinese and spread
her "silver bullets” among the less
loyal war-lord followers on the
fringe of Chiang Kai-shek’s central
army.
There are two factors which make
the road ahead a hard one—the pres
ent successful operation and the
rapid replacement of the German
submarine flotilla and the probabili
ty that Germany is holding back a
powerful army and air force either
for another telling blow or to de
fend its strongly fortified terrain.
• • •
Ideologies—
Put Them on Ice?
As I go wandering round the town
taking a look in every quarter—with
apologies to Wan - Eyed Reilly — I
have acquired data in the last few
days that have convinced me that
we will have to expunge the word
ideology from the bright lexicon of
war, if we are going to win.
I have observed three places
where the ideologies have gotten in
and done more damage than a buf
falo moth in an overstaffed sofa.
Of course in North Africa—it may
be the climate or the rainy season
—ideologies have done some of their
most devastating work. I have con
versed with an army officer, an offi
cial, who knows that terrain and
also what it produces, a newspaper
philosopher and a radical—all of
them look at the situation on the
shores of the Mediterranean a lit
tle differently. The official explains
that the politics are very impor
tant—the radical, happy over the
success against all Fascists, but in
furiated over using them even to
help defeat themselves, shouts—
"We should have shot Darlan the
day after he served his purpose.”
•‘Well,” remarks the official, "some
body did, didn’t they?” The army
officer calls the whole controversy
a backyard row that will be forgot
ten as ground dries up and the Al
lies get a few victories.
But the correspondent philosopher
paused to analyze.
He said: "You have heard that
one thing that greatly improved the
morale in the Russian army was
making the officers supreme and re
moving the authority of the com
missars which were originally
placed at their elbows. You know
the Russian officers could make no
move without the okay of the com
missar and yet the officer was re
sponsible if anything went wrong.
Now, the officer has the final word
many of the former commissars who
had military training have become
officers.
——-■ ■ 1 ■" -.. i
B R I E F S • • • by Baukhage
The Swedish Labor federation re
ports that the number of strikes, and
workers involved, during 1942, was
the lowest ever recorded. Only 34
s'trikes, with some 1,922 workers in
volved, were reported. The number
of lost working days totaled 94,000.
Only three times before in the his
tory of Sweden’* labor, have there
been a less number of working days
lost through strikes.
Feed grain supplies are 12 per
cent larger, hay supplies are 9 per
cent larger, and supplies of grain
and hay per animal on farms are
somewhat larger than they were this
time last year.
• • •
This year, civilians will probably
eat more peanut butter than ever
before, because peanut butter is high
in both protein and fat.
Soybean* Deplete
Land’s Nitrogen
Fertilizing, Rotation
Counteracts Losses
j How to fertilize soybeans is a ques
tion that faces hundreds of thousands
of farmers since the war’s demands
have so greatly increased the pro
duction of this crop.
When soybeans are grown for
hay or grain, they are definitely
a soil-depleting crop, according
to R. E. Yoder, chief agronomist,
Ohio Agricultural Experiment
station.
Results of tests covering 22 years
at the Ohio Agricultural Experiment
Hereford cattle In a Midland, Tex
as, corral waiting for shipment to
eastern packing houses.
station revealed that a 25-bushel-per
acre soybean crop removed 25
pounds of phosphorus and 30 pounds
of potash per acre from the soil.
In other words, soybean grain re
moved 1% times as much phosphorus
and twice as much potash as did
corn grain from the soil.
In spite of the fact that the
soybean is a legume, it breaks
down soil organic matter and de
pletes the land's nitrogen sup
ply even in generously fertilized
rotations at rates almost iden
tical with those caused by clean
cultivated row crops.
Obviously the nitrogen fixed by the
plant is transformed into protein in
the beans removed from the soil.
Soybeans leave behind in the soil
i only half as much root residue as
corn grown on the same land. The
haulm is likewise high in a carbon
residue similar to that of any other
straw.
Farmers should offset the degrad
ing effects of the bean’s on the
soil’s fertility by means of soil build
ing practices.
Soybeans should be fertilized. Ex
periments thus far have failed to
!
Ill iwihiww •> i
That’s chicken from U. S. farms,
7,000 pounds of it for one meal, these
seamen of the galley crew are pre
paring.
show that soybeans respond to direct
! fertilization.
The first step in fertilizing soy
beans is to be sure the land is gen
l erously supplied with active calcium
and lime. Next increase the rate of
fertilizer application to wheat, corn
and other crops grown in rotation.
| Soybeans should be confined to the
most fertile fields on the farm, so
that production goals may be at
! tained on the smallest possible acre
age of land. They should be planted
! on the most level fields to minimize
erosion and wherever possible on the
contour.
In fitting soybeans into a rotation
system, it is always best to substi
tute this crop for one of the other
row crops or small grains. Soybeans
should never be substituted for soil
building sod crops.
Up in Smoke
Burning of pastures and meadows
1 costs farmers milbons of dollars
| each year in soil losses and decreased
| yields of grasses. Experiments in
Kansas show that the yield of blue
I stem grasses was cut 48 to 88 per
cent depending on the time of burn
ing. Fall burning was most injuri
ous. Oklahoma tests show that
where wooded pasture was burned
the runoff was 28 times as great
and soil loss 12 times as great as
for areas not burned.
T 5 > 5" T
, 2 2 5 v/j S
>/ w >
Duplicates
Teacher—Why, Mary, that’s a
queer pair of stockings you have
on, one green and one brown.
Mary—Yes, and I have got an
other pair just like those at home.
That’s Adam
Freddie (who had finished his apple)
—Let's play “Adam and Eve."
Millie—How do we do that?
Freddie—You tempt me to eat your
apple and I give in.
Then again a pessimist is just
someone who has to work along*
side an optimist.
First Come—
“Here, waiter, give me my hat.”
“Yes, sir. What sort was it,
sir?”
“A brand-new one.”
“Sorry, sir, all the new hats have
been gone more than half an hour.”
Classified
“I have a pain in my abdomen,”
the recruit told the army doctor.
“Young man,” said the doc, “of
ficers have abdomens, sergeants
have stomachs. You have a belly
ache.”
PENETRO
aTxauy u™ra »ay urst use is
a revelation.” Has a base of
old fashioned mutton suet.
Grandma's favorite. Gener
ous jar 26f!, double supply 35|!.
Demand stainless Penetro.
COLDS
COUGHING.
SNIFFLES.
MUSCLE*
ACHES
Noble Actions
Good actions ennoble us, and we
are the sons of our own deeds.—.
Cervantes.
^YOU WOMEN WHO SUFFER FROM-*
NOT HASHES
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Plnkham's Compound has helped
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en to relieve such annoying symp
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Humanity First
Above all nations is humanity.—
Plato.
SNAPPY FACTS
ABOUT
RUBBER
-o
Reclaimed rubber Is the product
resulting from tho processing of
•crap rubbor. It Is prepared frej
used rubber articles that o“
cleaned, purified and made plas
tic for re-use In rubber manu
facturing.
Crude rubber In 1899 was selling at
$2,200 a ton. At the 1925 high was
selling at $2,755.20 per long ton.
engineers have designed the
tires for one of the army's leaps
to rosemblo the camel's tread,
nature's provision for support
on shifting sand.
A commercial user ol tires reported
that an Ameripol synthetic rubber
tire used on a light truck returned
over 35,300 miles before it was re
capped. This tire, with 51 others,
was placed la test service early in
1941.
A 33,0O0-ton battleship required
148,000 pounds of rubber.
p For Over
60 Years
Recommended
kfr.
Many Doctors!
TRY
JCOTft
EMULSION