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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1943)
WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS U-Bcat Warfare Takes Turn for Worse; New Wedge Driven Into Rommel Lines As Allies Continue Furious Air Attack; Outline International Currency Plan (EDITOR’S NOTE: When opinion* ore expressed In thro* columns, they are Ihoo* of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and net necessarily of this new*p»prr.) __________ Released by Western Newspaper Union. - Map shows Allied progress in the campaign to oust Axis forces from Nortli Africa. Hard on the heels of Marshal Rommel, “The Fox,” was the British Eighth army, under Gen. Bernard L. Montgomery. After a week’s pause, during which Montgomery brought up troops and sup plies, the Eighth army stormed Rommel's improvised defenses at the Wada el Akarit. The chief passes to the coast, where the Americans fought hot engagements, are in the areas of El Guettar. Maknassy and Fondouk. TUNISIA: Fight to Moot Action In Tunisia continued with ; Lieut. Gen. George Patton's Second i American Army corps ffghting for a junction with British forces at Gabes. Thousands of mines blocked the American advance. Sappers kept busy clearing the fields and later American tanks rumbled into action. In their bid to prevent an Ameri can and British junction, the Axis tanks thrust at the American ar mored columns. Americans brought up artillery to heavily shell Axis troop and motor concentrations. Slowly but surely Patton’s men ad vanced along the Gafsa road. Awaiting them at Gabes were the British, who brought up their heavy guns to shell Marshal Rommel's entrenched Afrika Korps along a narrow line in the El Akarit gulch, 15 miles north of Gabes. At Akarit, “The Fox" was expect ed to put up another short, stiff fight before falling back toward Sfax. His strategy calls for a se ries of delaying actions while the Axis completes coastal defenses in Italy. In northern Tunisia, Nazi troops fell back toward the coastal bastion of Bizerte under the pressure of British troops Native Arabian Ghouims, armed with knives, have been helping the British with guer rilla activity. Fighting lie fore Talk ‘ Gen. Charles DeGaulle's scheduled meeting with Gen. Henri Giraud in North Africa for the purpose of con solidating all anti-Axis French in the war has been postponed by re quest of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. General Eisenhower felt that po litical discussion in the midst of crit ical fighting in Tunisia could only have a disturbing effect. Prime Min ister Churchill is supposed to have persuaded DeGaulle to await An thony Eden’s report of American reaction to the complicated North African problem. U-BOAT WARFARE: Turn for the W orse Indications that the battle of the Atlantic has taken a turn for the worse were made evident when Sec retary of the Navy Knox announced that Allied ship losses were consid erably worse during the past month. Although the secretary gave no es timate of the total number of U boats the Nazis have used in their spring offensive, he said that "just as we expected and as I said it Would be, there are more German subs out there." The subs are concentrating in the middle Atlantic, along the shipping routes from the United States to England and the Mediterranean. It is predicted that the submarine cam paign will become worse before it gets better. Naval exports estimate the Axis will have 700 submarines operating in packs along supply routes this spring. To counter the U-boat offensive the United States is rushing con struction of a fleet of destroyer escort vessels, smaller than de stroyers. PROMISE: More Farm Tools Following a review of the legisla tive situation with Democratic con gressional leaders. President Roose velt has indicated that, in view of the improved war outlook, he will give more attention to domestic problems. Speaker Rayburn, follow ing the conference, said the "Presi dent is going to give his personal attention to the question of having more iron and steel allotted to the manufacture of farm machinery." RUSSIA: Sparring for Knockout In Russia, the two giants continue to spar for positions. Sloughing through marshy swamp land. hardy Russ engaged German infantry in hand to hand grappling near Novorossisk, gaining ground. Here the Nazis are backed against the Black sea coast. In the Smolensk region. Russian troops consolidated positions encir cling this vital Nazi supply base. The Germans remain active in the Kharkov district. Two hundred miles to the north, Nazis claimed advances at Orel. Seventy miles to the southeast, German attacks against Red lines on the western bank of the Donets river met stiff resistance, the Russ said. BOLIVIA: ‘Essential Move* Even before the Bolivian congress had a chance to formally declare war on the Axis, the nation was told that such a move was essential to American solidarity and that the country's productive facilities must be immediately expanded. When President Enrique Penaran da and his cabinet held a confer ence with United States Vice Presi dent Wallace to discuss a war de cree, Brazil was the only South American country at war with Ger many and Italy. Bolivia had bro ken off diplomatic relate >s v.i'n the Axis a year ago. MONEY: Stabilized Cun ! y ? Secretary Morgcnthau called it "tentative” and John Q. Public thought it looked complicated but everybody realized that it was mighty important — “it" being a comprehensive plan to stabilize post war world currencies and fix their values in terms of gold. Actually involved in the program were these major points for working out a system to maintain the mone tary solidarity of all the nations of the world at the end of the war: 1. Creation of an international sta bilization fund (five billion dollars). This would be set up by the United Nations and associates. 2. Value of currency in each coun try would be "fixed” in terms of gold. 3. An agreement between all na tions to the etrect that none would devalue their currencies without consulting the others. BURMA: Neiv Air Mans Strengthened British and Ameri can air forces continued to demon strate their superiority in Burma, raining bombs on Japanese supply lines with emphasis on the impor tant railway from Rangoon to Man dalay The RAF dropped 1.000 • pound bombs on the Rangoon railway sia tion. Photographs showed destruc tion of an oil relinery, fires from which were visible for 60 miles A power house, oil tanks and a distilla tion building were hit. American fliers scored hits at Mandalay. NETHERLANDS: Invasion Spadework? Reports that “scores of British agents” have been landed on the Netherlands coast and are preparing the way for an Allied invasion have made their way to Dutch circles in London. The reports added that a wave of optimism, accompanied by new outbreaks of sabotage and anti Nazi attacks was sweeping Holland. The British were said to have been landing parties of two and three bound for the interior. BANKHEAD BILL: And Parity After President Roosevelt had ve toed the Bankhead farm bill (be cause he believed it "inflationary”) supporters of the measure attempt ed to override this action by a two thirds vote in congress. First scene of action in this connection was the senate floor where a day-long lively debate resulted in farm bloc mem bers realizing that they could not muster sufficient support to bring this to pass. These senators then became con tent to force the bill back to the agri cultural committee from whence it could be resurrected whenever the farm bloc felt it had enough votes handy to defeat the President's ac tion. White House opposition to the measure on the grounds of inflation presented itself because it would prohibit deductions of benefit pay ments from parity in setting farm price ceilings. FLYING FORTRESSES: New Offensive The American air offensive in Eu rope has gotten under way. Fleets of powerful Flying For tresses have pounded the Renault motor works near Paris, with heavy hits causing great damage among the main buildings and auxiliary plants. Coming right back. Flying For tresses flew over Antwerp, bombing the Erla airplane works. These works have been repairing engines for the Nazi luftwafi'e. Buildings . were shattered and large fires started. Swinging at Europe's underbelly, 100 Flying Fortresses dumped their bombs on Naples, splattering 24 ships in the harbor. RAF bombers fol lowed up the attack with another . heavy raid. Wharves and the in- ; dustrial area were left flaming. Eight bombers and eight fighter | planes W'ere lost in the operations. RUBBER: Self Sufficiency Self sufficiency in rubber produc tion for the United States was pre dicted by William M Jeffers, rub ber director, who expressed belief that the nation will develop a syn thetic rubber industry that will free the country from dependency on out side sources in the future. “There is one very definite fore cast I want to make—we'll never again be caught the way we were at the outbreak of war.” Jeffers said. He added that he envisioned a postwar rubber economy independ ent of any sources outside the Unit ed States. He said he viewed the huge natural rubber development in South America as “insurance" against possible shortcomings of synthetic rubber plants in this coun try. LOADED DICE: In Axis' Favor? In the opinion of Adm. William James, British chief of naval infor mation, the "dice are loaded heav ily” in favor of the Axis in any Allied attempt to land on the conti nent of Europe. But, said Admiral James, ways and means could be found “when the time comes." "We saw at Dieppe, which was a most carefully planned enterprise, how a few well-situated guns on shore can wreck an amphibious op eration.” Predicting that there will be no new startling invention to deal with the U-boat problem, he said the sub marine menace eventually would be beaten "by the hard unremitting work of all those engaged in pro tecting our trade.” NATIONAL APATIIY: General Speaks Army day this year was passed over with little official celebration for the nation's fighting men were too hard at work to stop for festivi ties. However, one commanding general—Ben Lear of the Second army—took the occasion to score na tional apathy and lack of aggressive ness in many phases of American life. He called for the end of in ternal bickering and urged that Americans apply themselves to crushing the enemy. Speaking of the popular dislike of "absenteeism” General Lear declared that this situ ation is not confined to industry By this he meant that unless every citi zen did his or her part, whatever the job, they were defeating the war effort and were therefore—ab sentees. BRIEFS CUBAN DRAFT: Eight thousand Cubans between the ages of 20 and 25 will shortly be drafted for army service. TRADE COMPROMISE: Bi parti san support was seen for a compio mise reciprocal trade treaty act which would allow American pro ducers the right to seek modification of any agreement with a foreign country. AIR LINER: Henry J Kaiser, the shipbuilding wizard, proposes tc build a metal plane that will fly 17.000 miles without stopping. DAD’S DRAFT: Drafting of dads might be delayed if public opinion forces unmarried youths between 18 and 25 years out of deferred war jobs. Selective Service Director H^r shey says. FIRE OIL: Allied bombers hit the Japanese oil refinery below Rangoon In continuing attacks upon enemy Installations in Burma. The My tinge bridge area of the Burma Road also was raided. Army Clarifies Policies Regarding Farm Labor Military Units May Be Employed on Crops During 'Emergency Situations’; Individ ual Furloughs Not Contemplated. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, Union Trust Bniiding, Washington. D. C. "Home on a furlough.” I wonder how many of my read ers remember that very popular print of two (or maybe more) gen erations ago. Well, never mind if you don’t (though I would appreciate a letter from any who do); “home on a furlough” is going to mean something quite different now. I remember the original picture only vaguely. I didn't know what the word "furlough” meant. But I know there was a tousle-headed blond boy ih the middle of an ad miring farm family, telling his ad ventures. Today, the farm boy with a con science, and the farm family with a farm, are looking forward to the “furlough” that will bring the boy home for work, not the telling of his tales of adventure. It isn’t going to be quite that way. The President, when the farm bloc was riding the administration its hardest last month, went into con siderable detail as to what was to be done to solve the farm labor question. Since then some concrete steps have been taken but not the ones the farmers, or some of them, would have liked. They would have liked their own sons, or their own hands, who enlisted because they simply couldn’t stay “out of the show,” back doing the old chores they used to do. But this is what the army said: "The army does not contemplate furloughing individual soldiers to work on farms," the war department announced in a statement clarifying policies and procedures by which soldiers may be used to alleviate the farm labor shortage. “World War I experience dem onstrated that such temporary re leases of individual soldiers were of little assistance to the agriculture industry and disrupted the organiza tion and training of the army. If furloughs were granted for this pur pose, neither agriculture nor the army could be assured that the sol diers thus furloughed actually would be engaged in agricultural activities. “Certain emergency situations may develop in which vital crops may be endangered because of crit ical shortages in local agricultural labor. In such cases, military units may be employed under command of their own officers to supplement the local farm labor until the crisis is over. “Troops so employed will be housed and fed by the army and will be subject to military control at all times. "Requests for use of military units for emergency farm duty must be transmitted to the war department by the chairman of the War Man power commission.” Another Loophole However, there is another loop hole which all of the farmers or the farm men in service may not know about. A soldier over 38 years of age who is on active duty in the continental United States can get his discharge right now if he can get a statement from his local farm agent to the effect that he is needed. But the application has to get in by May 1. The same thing applies to men overseas and they have until June. (Better tell them by V-Mail.) The President explained to us twice, why a batch of young men couldn’t be pulled out of a division and sent home. You can take 10 or 20 soldiers out of an outfit that has just started training and it doesn’t make much difference. But you can’t take that many men out of an outfit already trained and booked for overseas. Not without crippling the outfit so badly that it really interferes with battle plans. That’s his explanation and he made it to us the other day, leaning back in his chair and obviously try ing hard to get over an idea that he believes is right. There is going to be a "land army ” He said he didn’t like the term because it made the farmers think they were going to have a lot of green city folks descend on them He knows what the farmers think about folks who will scare the horses, sprain their ankles, try to milk a cow and when she doesn’t give, say: “The valves are stuck." One farmer wrote me he’d rather have grasshoppers than city folks on his place. England's Method The President said to us that In England they have increased food production 60 per cent. And they did it with the help of a land army, mostly women with no previous training. They got the training. A lot depends on the training. I talked with a farmer near here who took on a city boy, green as grass. The boy probably thought shorts were something you wore and probably would have looked in the toolbox for a boar. Maybe you heard him talk on the Farm and Home Hour. Well, I met him and the farmer, too. The kid is crazy to get back this summer and the farmer told me he was sick when he had to let him go back to school. City folks are dumb in a lot of ways. But so are farmers. It’s true you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. Also, a lot of horses have got the sense to drink if you’ve got sense to lead them to the water. In spite of dumb help or none at all, in spite of lack of machines and a lot of red tape, the farmers of the country have signed up to raise a bigger crop than they’ve ever raised. I believe with a little horse sense and patience, they are going to pull through. No team pulled together until they were in harness. If they don’t, God help us and the army at meal time. ~ m W The Weather— A Dead Topic As you know, mention of the weather on the radio these days is forbidden. The newspapers can de scribe a snow storm or a hot spell but the radio commentators cannot. There is a good reason for this. A lurking submarine could pick up a newscast, and if enough facts con cerning the weather were revealed by stations in enough widely sep arated localities, even an amateur meteorologist—and the Germans are no amateurs—could make a pretty good weather forecast by putting two and two together. But being unable to describe the manifestations of nature that I see on my way to work in the morning is a terrible handicap to me. Re cently I’ve gotten around the diffi culty by talking about last week’s weather, and before going on the air, reading what I was going to say to the censorship officials and getting their O. K. In no case did they restrict me. The other day, however, I forgot to call up the Cen sorship office but the Blue Network didn’t forget. I got this message: “Censorship says you have to cut out all references to weather from now on. They say that there was nothing actually censorable in what you have said or what you have written today but so many com plaints have come in from other stations that you were violating the regulations and so many other stations have been using your com ments on the weather as an excuse for violating the rule, that we will have to ask you to stop discussing the subject entirely.” The following is what censorship didn’t let me say but what it has no objection to my printing: “It was pretty hard the past week not to mention the swiftly changing scene which nature provided Wash ingtonians—one day, not so long ago a top coat was far too heavy for comfort and in the park, the dark patches were beginning to be studded with jeweled buds and the sunlight seemed to turn into solid gold on the bursting forsythia. On that balmy day I remarked—'Well, we must be due for a blizzard.’ "Twenty-four hours later the fine snow began to fall and late that aft ernoon and the following morning, the tree limbs and trunks were wrapped in great soft blankets of down—even the high branches were wide bands of white—but when we went home from work in the eve ning, the streets were dry and clean again and only here and there in the shadow of a hedge or in the sheltering cups of the brown ivy leaves was a dust of snow-like a meager sprinkling of precious sugar on the rim of a doughnut." B R I E F S . . . fry Baukhage Governor Ellis Arnal) of Georgia has joined the ranks of Victory Gar | deners, planning an extensive garden on the grounds of the execu tive mansion An old bam. once used to house cows, will be razed to provide additional garden space. The governor indicated that his wife and son would be the “buss garden ers’* and predicted a bumper crop of vegetables. Cotton fabrics for women’s work clothing have been cut from 14 types to five. Government purchase orders, specifying that canners pack fruits, vegetables and juices in large No. 10 size cans, instead of smaller ones, may save as much as 57,000 tons of steel, 1,000 tons of tin, 43 tons of rubber and 5,500,000 man-hours of cannery labor in 1943. » Released by Western Newspaper Union, GOITER _ Perhaps you or one of your family has been found to have the severe type of goiter or Grave's disease, in which there is rapid heart beat, _ trembling of limbs. failure of eyelids to move together with the eyeball, lack of appetite, and sleep lessness. Your phy sician may advise operation whereas in a case of the same type of goiter in an other patient you know that he has ad vised X-ray treat Dr. Barton ment and m anoUler rest and medical treatment. Why should there be three meth ods of treatment for the same ail ment? One reason is that for the average individual surgery is considered best because the patient can withstand the operation and can be back at his work sometimes within three weeks after operation. I have spo ken of a physician friend who before operation had a pulse rate of 110 to the minute, who walked into my office three weeks after operation and I found his pulse rate 72. Why, then, should treatment by X-ray be given which may take months to get the results obtained by surgery? There are two reasons. First, some patients naturally object to surgical operations, and second, some patients would not likely with stand operation well. Treatment by rest and medicine is used in early or mild cases only. It is not many years ago that pa tients w'ith Grave's disease traveled hundreds of miles to have a noted surgeon operate for removal of thy roid gland-goiter. Today practically every hospital has one or several surgeons who perform this opera tion. Thus the Lahey Clinic, Boston, in Annals of Surgery, reports 19,700 thyroid operations with a death rate less than one in every 100 op- j erations. When we remember that the great majority of these cases are of the severe type of goiter and many may enter hospital in late stages of this disease, it can be j seen how “safe” this operation has become. Dr. Lahey does not advise opera tion on cases that can be treated by rest and medicine even though op eration would bring about a cure in much less time. He points out that as there is no fear of death in the patient’s present condition, awaiting the result of rest and medical treat ment involves no danger. • * * Treatment of Stomach Ulcers Ulcer of the stomach (gastric ul cer) is due to the same causes as duodenal ulcer which is ulcer of the first part of small intestine into W’hich stomach empties the food aft er the stomach has done its part of digestion. In fact, a duodenanl ul cer can be located just a fraction of an inch from the stomach. Both the stomach ulcer and the intestinal ulcer are called peptic ulcer and are treated in about the same manner by diet, medicine and surgery. It so happens, however, that while stomach ulcer is not so common as duodenal or intestinal ulcer, un fortunately stomach ulcer turns into cancer more often; about 10 to 20 per cent of stomach ulcers develop into cancers. In the Post Medical Journal Dr. Rodney Maingot, London, England, states that as far as symptoms are concerned the stomach ulcer cannot be distinguished from an early stom- | ach cancer, therefore, the chances taken with a patient with ulcer of duodenum cannot be taken with a patient with a stomach ulcer. For this reason he suggests that patients with chronic stomach ulcer should enter hospital instead of undergoing home treatment. If by special diet and medical treatment in hospital the ulcer does not heal they should undergo surgical treatment, because early operation saves lives. The medical treatment of stomach ulcer in hospital is bed rest, test meal examinations, tests for “hid den” blood in stools, complete ex amination of the blood, examination of stomach by gastroscope which by means of a mi-ror enables the phy sician to see the lining of the stom ach, the barium X-ray examination. In addition to removing any infec tion (teeth, tonsils, gall bladder) present, the size, shape and position of the stomach are drawn on a spe cial chart • • • QUESTION BOX Q.—Is drilling of the teeth neces sarily painful? A.—Drilling is not painful in most cases. In cases where it is neces sary dentists can anaesthetize the jaw and no pain is felt. Your den tist will explain this to you. Q.—Are pork and oysters health ful food? A.—Pork is a good food, rich In fat. Too much can upset liver and gall bladder. Oysters are a good food, also rich in fat. Pasturing Cows for First Time in Sudden Change in Diet May Lower Milk Output Although luscious, green grass is one of the best dairy feeds, milk production may drop when cows ar* first turned out to pasture unless special care is taken to prevent it, says W. B. Nevens, professor of dairy cattle feeding, University of Illinois college of agriculture. It is best not to turn cows to pas ture for the first day until after they have been well fed in the barn, and then to limit the number of hours at pasture for the first two or three days. A sudden change from the1 feeding of hay, silage and grain mix ture to pasture feeding only may cause a sudden drop in milk flow and digestive disturbances. Fresh, green grass is so palatable In early spring that cows will fill up on it if given the opportunity, but, because of the high water con tent of the grass, they fail to re ceive enough nutrients from gras* alone to maintain high milk produc tion. A grain mixture should be fed to higher-producing cows throughout the pasture season, Nevens points out. Holsteins, Swiss and Ayrshire* need about one pound of grain mix ture for each three pounds of milk produced over and above 30 pounds daily, while Jerseys and Guernseys need about one pound of grain mix ture for each 2.5 pounds of milk a day over and above 20 pounds daily. If cow's do not care for grain mix ture when pastures are luxuriant, it may prove advantageous to take them from pasture one or two hours before feeding time so that they will consume the mixture more readily. The use of 1% to 2 per cent of salt in the grain mixture is also helpful. As soon as pasture grasses begin to ripen or become scanty in amount, the rate of feeding may need to be increased. It may not be a zoot suit but it’s the style for smart high school students tills season. Agriculture in Industry P,y FLORENCE C. WEED SHEEP One industry where there is never a surplus is wool growing. The United States has 472.000 wool pro ducers and 46,000,000 sheep, yet 4® per cent of the nation’s require ments must be imported. Two thirds of our output comes from the Rocky mountain and West coast states. Chief producers are Texas, California, Wyoming. Montana, South Dakota and Ohio. We also produce each year, about 330,000,00® pounds of shorn wool and 60,000.00® pounds of pulled wool from slaugh tered sheep. After the fleece is removed from, slaughtered sheep, the slat goes into glove leather, lining for shoes, sweat bands for hats, and college diplo mas. The wool grease or Lanolin is used as a basis for medicinal oint ments. Sheep fat has wide uses m tallow, soap, stearine or oleo oil. As glyc erine, it goes into anti-freeze liquids and finds uses’in paints, cellophane, cosmetics and bases for polish. Blood is used in serums, medicines, weather-proof glue and animal feed and as a retardant for plaster. It requires the glands of 100.000 lambs to make one pound of adren aline, the powerful heart stimulant which has been known to cause a heart once stopped to resume its beating Sheep intestines become strings for violins, cellos, harps and ukuleles and many other musical in struments. They are much used for surgical ligatures to tie blood vessels and sew wounds during operations. They are much favored because na ture absorbs them while the wound is healing. The best quality of casings can be used for strings for tennis rackets. Farm Notes Agricultural insecticides and fun gicides will be available in suffi cient quantities this year for all farm and urban victory gardens. • • • The churning of sour cream is easier than the churning of sweet cream. You can sour, or ripen cream by keeping it at a tempera ture of about 70 degrees the day be fore churning.
