WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Steady Progress Marks Allied Drive In Italy; Repulse Nazi Counter Blows; Steel Producers Open Wage Parleys As CIO Asks 17c an Hour Pay Boost (EDITOR’S NOTE When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union’s news analysis and not necessarily of this newspaper.) ____________ Released by Weatern Newap.-'.per Union. CONGRESS: Surplus Funds Government agencies with un spent appropriations would have to turn their surpluses over to the U. S. treasury under an amendment adopted by the U. S. senate. Sponsored by Senator Kenneth Me Keller (Tenn.) the amendment was part of a $308,000,000 deficiency ap propriations bill later sent to a Joint senate-house committee for settle ment of differences between the two congressional branches. The amendment was directly aimed against the budget bureau, which recently took control over $13,000,000,000 saved by the army out of its $71,000,000,000 appropriation. The amendment also prohibited the army from transferring 10 per cent of appropriations to other funds. Said Senator McKeller: ", . . We (congress) don’t want to sur render our power to appropriate and designate the purpose for which . . . money shall be spent.” Remove Feed Duties To encourage additional feed Im ports for shortage areas, the house passed a resolution removing duties on wheat, corn, oats, barley, rye, flax, cottonseed and hay for a 90-day period. Although approved by a 255 to 55 vote, the resolution was bitterly contested by many middlewest ern congressmen, spearheaded by Rep resentatlve Frank Carlson (Kan.) who Frank Carlson ■aid: •*. . . It will »et a dangerous precedent by re moving tariffs. It places the Amer ican farmer In competition with farmers of every nation of the world that produces these crops.” Further more, they contended the action would not increase present imports, already hampered by shipping dif ficulties. In advocating passage of the reso lution, proponents declared current feed shortages are causing a loss of millions of pounds of milk and poultry production. LABOR: Open Steel Parley With the United States Steel com pany leading the way, more than 150 •tecl producers agreed to enter into wage negotiations with the CIO, rep resenting 500,000 workers in the in dustry. Employing 106,000 workers, the United States Steel company is the nation's greatest producer, operat ing through five subsidiaries which turned out 21,064,000 tons last year. CIO demands a 17 cents an hour pay boost to offset rises in living costs which have allegedly Increased 23 pes cent since January. 1941, while wage raises have been limited to 13 per cent. Present hiring rates are 78 cents an hour. In the meantime, the independent union of the National Steel company asked a minimum wage of $1 an hour for 20,000 employees, who thrice previously had been granted wage Increases while CIO and • ‘her steel producers haggled over terms. Senate Votes Boost An eight cents an hour raise for 1,100,000 non-operating rail workers was approved by the senate by a vote of 74 to 4 and sent on to the house for consideration. Composed of clerks, machinists, and cleaners, the unions originally asked for a 20 cent Increase. A spe cial board appointed by the Presi dent recommended an over-all eight cent raise, but Economic Stabilizer Vinson opposed it, proposing a sub stitute plan embracing a sliding scale ranging from four to ten cents more per hour. This latter schedule would cost the railroads 18 million dollars a year less than the flat eight cent raise. Opposition to the raise in congress was based on the anti-inflation policy of the administration, Vinson stating that in his opinion, the eight cent increase is a violation of the "Little Steel” formula, limiting wage in creases to 15 per cent over January, 1941, levels. Sen. Clyde Reed (Kan.) said that if the senate rejected the plan the workers would set a strike date, and then the government would have to seize the railroads “within four or five weeks.” HIGHLIGHTS • • • in the week’s news SUITOR: A 95-year-old war work er in St. Louis says that after the war he Is going to seek another wife. He has been married five times so far. DRUGS: The Red Cross has ar ranged for shipment of drugs worth $97,000 to neutral Switzerland, whence they will be trans-shipped to Holland for distribution by Red Cross units. C HEW ING GIJM: A cud of chew ing gum is credited with averting a hpmber crash over Italy. Flak punc tured the gas tank of an A-26 medi um bomber, and the crew prepared for a risky belly landing, as the precious fuel drained away. But tw'o gunners patched the hole with chewing gum, adhesive tape, and gauze bandages, and the plane land ed safely at its home port. Battleship Wisconsin As more than 30,000 cheered, the navy's 52,600 ton super-battleship, Wisconsin, was launched at Phila delphia, Pa. In the making for 33 months, the Wisconsin cost $00,000,000, With a speed of 33 knots, the huge war horse will pack nine 16-inch guns, and carry as many antiaircraft fighters in an area less than one tenth the else of an average city block as an entire antiaircraft regiment. With a bow towering higher than a five-story building, the Wisconsin is one of the navy’s three super battleships, the others being the New Jersey and the Iowa. ITALY: Overlook Rome Rond Having fought their way to the crest of mountain ridges overlooking the road to Rome, doughboys from Lieut. Gen. Mark Clark’s Fifth army slowly pushed down the slopes toward the flatlands around the en emy’s key bastion of Cassino. But in this sector, as well as the British sector along the Adriatic coast to the east, the Nazis bitterly counter-attacked, throwing in strong armored forces against Gen. Ber nard Montgomery’s men in an ef fort to slow his march toward the important center of Pescara, with its highway leading eastward to Rome. As General Clark’s doughboys edged forward, they left scattered points of resistance behind them, necessitating further action to re move these hot-beds and secure their lines. Continuing action, the Allies* air force pounded Nazi supply de pots above Rome, which were be ing used to stock the enemy in his winter line. Mihnilovitch vs. Broz While it was reported that Jugo slavia’s Chetnik leader Gen. Draca Mihailovltch in L tended to throw r his forces against | his fellow - coun tryman Gen. Tito Broz’s Partisan ^ guerrillas for set ' ting up a state In opposition to King Peter’s govern ment-in-exile, it was revealed that I the British were favoring Broz be .... .. . cause he alleged Mlhallovltch ly wng offering greater resistance to the Germans. Thus did the garbled Jugoslav , situation take a / new twist. Brit- | ain's support of r the communist- L backed Brozcame | after its formal | recognition of King Peter’s gov ernment, but in A explaining its fl about-face, Brit- I ain said its policy Bro* was to let the people of occupied countries select their own leadership, and late re ports indicated Broz had 300,000 be hind him compared with Mihailo vitch’s 30,000. SOUTHWEST PACIFIC: Pound Marshalls With Old Glory fluttering over the Gilbert islands, the U. S. navy went to work on the Marshalls, lying to the west along our communications lines to Australasia. Taking off from aircraft carriers, planes roared over the Marshalls to drop explosives, while warships hov ered 15 miles offshore to pump heavy shells into the islands' strongholds. Primarily air bases, the Gilberts and Marshalls not only were a thorn in the U. S. supply lines, but they also flanked any Allied movement toward the South Pacific war thea ter. Their presence posed a double threat to our forces. As U. S. airmen softened up the Marshalls, the country was saddened by the navy’s announcement that one of its No. 1 aces, Lieut. Comdr. Edward O’Hare, was missing in action. During the battle of the Coral sea, O’Hare singly covered an aircraft carrier menaced by a Jap aerial squadron, shooting down five enemy planes. MEAT SUPPLIES: More to Civilians Civilians as well as the services will share the increased meat supply under a plan outlined by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. The BAE also predicted a smaller spring pig crop In 1944, with great est reductions outside of the corn belt because of feed shortages. While western cattle inventories have not been cut sharply, BAE said, there will be fewer long range stock in the next eight months, and less ani mals will be fed near beet factories because of the cut in sugar beet feed production. As a step toward increasing civil ian meat supplies, the OPA recent ly slashed ration point values on veal and lamb, mutton and pork shoulder and loins, and War Food administration lifted restrictions on deliveries of farm slaughtered pork. The services will get a big chunk of Increased beef production, partly through acceptance of utility grade*. PRODUCTION: Sees Long War Declaring 1944 munitions output should rise to a peak of 30 per cent over tms year, war Production board’s executive vice chair man Charles E. Wi! son said the nation would have to make full use of its eco nomic muscle to beat Germany and Japan. A long, hard strug gle lies ahead be fore Germany will fall, Wilson said. Charles E. adding: "If anyone Wilson still clings to the silly delusion that the Japanese will be a pushover for us . . . let him talk to some of the officers and men who have come back from the Pacific theater ..." In 1944, aircraft production should reach a rate of 100 per cent above 1943, Wilson said. Naval construc tion should hold around this year's level of 75 per cent over 1942. Mer chant ship construction should rise slightly. Reductions are planned in ordnance, signal equipment and tank output. DADS’ DRAFT: Million to Go Because the services will require 2.009.000 men to build up the armed forces to 11,300,000 by July, 1944, approximately 1,000,000 fathers face induction. Selective Service Director Lewis B. Hershey declared. The other 1,000,000 men will be obtained by recruiting 100,000 17 year-olds for the navy or marines, and drafting 400,000 18-year-olds, 300.000 formerly deferred because of occupations, and 200,000 reclassified 4F’s and farm-exempts. Deferments will be more difficult to obtain and older workers will be favored, Hershey said. Once the services have attained their goal, only about 100,000 men will be draft ed a month, he added. For the home front, the War Man power commission trimmed esti mates for new workers by 900,000 to 1,100,000. RUSSIA: See-Saw Fighting see sawed in Russia, with the two giants clawing at each other along 600 miles of snowy, wintry front. To the west of the Ukraine’s capi tal of Kiev, the Russ fell back under the heavy pressure of the Germans, while farther to the south, the Reds chewed deep into Nazi lines above the iron center of Krivoi Rog. Russian positions along the front disrupted German use of north-south railways. In the Kiev region, the Reds blocked the line to Leningrad and the north, while in the Krivoi Rog area they snapped a railroad running along the whole German de fense system. METAL SALVAGE Stock piles of strategic metals are now considered sufficient for any foreseeable needs, apparently, as the Steel Recovery corporation has Just been dissolved, its task ful filled. Only a week earlier, the Cop per Recovery corporation began dis solution. Similar action has been taken by the aluminum organization. There are huge supplies in the hands of thousands of dealers, job bers, retailers and customers, it is stated. The metal stocks were un covered by questionnaires. 'Victory Volunteers' Are Satisfactory Farm-Hands Most of 700,000 Young People Made Good, Quickly Learning Agricultural Skills, And Working Hard and Long. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C. World War II has taught the world that it is one thing to raise an army and another thing to feed it—feed its mouths and feed its guns. It didn’t take the United States long after Pearl Harbor to realize that it was easy enough to find enough sailors and soldiers if you didn’t have to worry about finding the civilians to take care of them. At present 10 men out of every 100 are deferred from military serv ice because Industry needs them; 18 out of every 100 because the farmers have to have them. Thirty six out of every 100 men now in the armed forces were working in shops or factories in 1940. Twenty-three out of every 100 were on farms three years ago. Industry has charged that con gress has been kindlier to the farm ers when it came to deferring their help than it has been to them. How ever that may be, you won’t hear any farmers complaining about hav ing too much help. One thing, how ever, according to the reports that have come into the department of agriculture, the farmers are not complaining on one score that a lot of them thought they were going to have to complain about—that is. the help they get from the Victory Farm Volunteers of the U. S. Crop corps. Many farmers who came to scoff remained to pray for more of the same. Not all of the young folks who 1 worked on farms this summer were perfect. It is estimated that there may have been some 700,000 of these young people, half were provided through the Federal Extension serv ice of the War Food administration, as many more probably found jobs for themselves. Under the leader ship of the State Extension service and with the active support of the schools, the youth-serving agencies, civic organizations and farm lead ers, these Victory Farm Volunteers were assembffed. Most of them made good. Their story makes an interesting chapter in the history of American youth. A Huge Task It was no little job to launch the project, Forty-three state farm la- i bor supervisors and some 5,000 county farm labor assistants, under the guidance of the county extension agents, worked out the plans and procedure based on the local needs. They worked with state, county and often local labor committees. Of course, training was necessary. The boys and girls were carefully selected and many specially trained and supervised, and the farmers themselves learned that they could train better if they had a little train ing in the art of teaching themselves. This was provided. Most of the young workers lived at home and were transported to the farms. This was done in school buses, trucks or cars. Teachers, ministers, youth leaders, acting as supervisors, often accompanied the workers right into the fields. In some places, boys lived in camps, but 50,000 boys and girls lived right with the families where they worked and many soon became a part of the family, joining its activ ities, church, grange meetings, dances, picnics. Some liked the life so well, especially those from the big cities, that they stayed right through the winter, attending the lo cal schools. Of course it was natural that the farmers were skeptical at first at the idea of letting these strange kids overrun their places. But the majority changed their minds when they found how well the experiment worked. The young folks couldn’t rival a trained farm worker, but some were able to do much of the work as well, and in some cases, even better. Many farmers ar ranged to keep the same workers the next year. I talked to one farmer who took on an utterly green city boy. It was late summer when I saw them both. They were going to part and I can tell you both were pretty blue. School time had come and the boy’s parents thought he better come home. He told me that he was going to be a farmer when he grew up and I be lieve nothing will stop him. I saw a letter from a Crop corps city girl, very able at expressing her self. I want to quote one paragraph: ‘‘I have felt,” she wrote, "unutter able satisfaction pervade this new ‘me’ as I squeezed, pulled and ca joled the last squirt of rich white milk from a reluctant mountain of a Guernsey cow ... I am learning to love this new life and am surer than ever that I have chosen well in deciding to make it my own.” The Mia fit a One of the great troubles of the world are the misfits, the folks who are in the wrong job. There are a lot of newspaper men who ought to be barbers and a lot of barbers who might have been better sailors, a lot of farmers who ought to be in business. There are many people who have an inborn love of the coun try that never gets a chance to come out—they don't even recog nize they have it. This summer, many of these young folks discov ered themselves—realized that the country was where they belonged! I can well understand the remark of one of these vr unteers, who prob ably in his no mal lifetime would never have had a chance ta acquire the self-confidence behind a desk or at a bench, that he felt when he learned to drive a team of horses. "I felt that I was the most capable person in the world,” he said, "when I could finally drive a tedder through the hay.” It will be hard to keep him and a lot of his ilk down at the shop after he’s seen the farm. • * * Winter Traffic Hazards The war department is concerned over the annual December peak in auto accidents, and Robert P. Pat terson, undersecretary of war, and Lieut. Robert E. Raleigh, director of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, have teamed up to try to stop them. Seven valuable tips, based on Na tional Safety council research, on how to escape traffic tieups, skid wrecks, lost time and road block ades have been offered: (1) Reduce speeds on snow and ice. It takes 3 to 11 times normal distance to stop on snow or ice. Repair old tire chains. (2) Protect visibility. Check de froster, windshield wipers, head lights and keep windshield clean. You must see a hazard to avoid it. (3) Use anti-skid chains. Tire chains reduce braking distances 40 to 50 per cent and provide traction on snow or ice. (4) Don’t crowd traffic. When roads are slippery, allow three to six car lengths for every 10 m.p.h. because snow and ice increase brak ing distances 3 to 11 times over those required on dry pavement. Slipperi ness varies, glare ice at thawing temperatures being twice as slip pery as dry ice near zero. (5) Anticipate mistakes. Drive so that you are prepared for any emer gency under prevailing conditions. Anticipate mistakes of pedestrians and other drivers. (6) Signal your intentions. In turn ing or stopping on hard-packed snow or ice, remember other drivers need more time and distance to adjust themselves to your moves. Give them a chance. Some may have neglected chains and have insuf ficient traction. (7) Mechanics are scarce and your vehicle may have to last for the duration. Essential transportation is vital to victory. An ounce of pre vention is now worth ten pounds of cure. • • • Better Rural Roads The National Highway Users con ference calls my attention to a bill to create within the Federal Works agency a Rural Local Roads ad ministration, independent of the Pub lic Roads administration, to co-op erate with the states and their local subdivisions in the construction of rural local roads. It is proposed in S. 1498 by Senator Stewart of Tennessee. The bill would authorize appropri ations of $1,125,000,000 by the federal government to be made available at the rate of $375,000,000 a year for each of the three years immediately following the end of the war for con struction of all-weather rural local roads. B R I E F S . • . by Bciukhage ..■ -i ■ ... Doctors have been able to set up a health dispensary to serve workers in the promising rubber-prbducing Madre de Dios region of Peru as a | result of flight service over the Andes. Cargo planes of the United States Rubber Development corpora tion are flying me.Ucal supplies, sanitation engineers, and doctors into the remote country east of the Andes. The Cuna Indian tribe of Panama has been persuaded to declare war i on the Axis and has gone to work gathering wild castilloa rubber to | help the United Nations defeat the enemy. • • • Fifty million gallons of gasoline, fuel oils, lubricants and other petro leum products are now going direct ly to the fight'eg forces every day. Poultry Records Aid In Cost Control Data on Expense,Income Assist Manager _ Poultrymen will find that keeping j records on the flock as to production and costs of feed and other supplies will give much valuable information to the grower, says C. J. Maupin, Extension poultry specialist at N. C. State college. He points out that this is particularly necessary at this time because of the high cost of feed. Contrary to the prevailing opinion, demonstration flock records show that the highest average returns above feeding costs are secured on these flocks in the spring of the year when egg prices are often the lowest. Many growers ask about the feed cost of producing a dozen eggs. The records show that this was lowest in March, April and May, when egg production was highest. The highest cost of producing eggs came in Oc tober, November and December when the average production was low and egg prices were high. The average feed cost was 21 cents per dozen during the winter as com- 1 pared with 12 cents in the spring. According to Maupin, the records clearly show that good breeding and proper flock management pay excel lent dividends. High production per bird means low cost of production per dozen eggs. Cull hens have no place in the laying flock, especially when feed costs are high. Li managing the flock, many growers And it good practice to keep two-thirds pullets and one-third hens. Other poultrymen prefer all of the flock to consist of pullets. Maupin suggests that every poul tryman buy a note book and keep a record of the number of eggs he produces per month and the money he takes in, and compare this with the money he spends on his flock. Graded Eggs Sell Higher. Another smart practice to get the highest possible return from your flock is to grade your eggs. Under OPA ceilings, a poultry farmer can get about 15 cents a dozen more for graded eggs. This can easily be done on the farm. Eggs which are well handled will almost always measure up to the Grade A standard for interior qual ity. You can grade and sell your own eggs as Grade A without a permit, provided you will gather them from your nests twice a day and keep them in a cool place. The eggs must be candled so that the poor quality ones can be removed. In candling, the large ends of the eggs should be placed against the hole in the box with the small end tilted down. Twirl the egg before the light and then quickly shift it so as to bring the small end before the light. Any blood spots will usu ally show up plainly as the inside moves about from the quick turn. After the eggs have been candled, they should then be divided into sizes. A pair of small egg scales will be helpful in doing this job. England Uses Tractors TE1EFACT ftSJTAIN MECHANIZES HER WARTIME AGRICULTURE tractors BEFORE THE WAR C/O0O 40.000 AREA PLOUGHS) 12 MILLION ACRES NQW .„c,„,fn /e&-box/ifeeded/ , uSuSI i fjsrwwm I3gw/| E1 "MBtaif H j