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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 1944)
WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS _ Red Army Launches ‘Bloodiest Drive’ To Break Strong Nazi Defense Lines; Indian Tribes Aid in Arawe Offensive; Government Relinquishes Rail Control (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinion* arc «*pr«(*od In th**e tolomn*. Ih«y ar* Western Newspaper rnlsn's news analysts and nst necessarily of inis newspaper.) _ Released by Western Newspaper Union. . -- - V W fV/.v.:V *»/' MIBH1T .?» RUSSIA: Baltic Drive Massing 250,000 men along a 250 mile stretch, the Russians launched a new offensive below Leningrad in the north, 70 miles from the Latvian border. In the initial fighting, the Reds cut across a railroad supply line, and also pushed toward the big Nazi base of Novgorod. To the south, Gen. Nicholas Va tutin’s First Ukrainian army drove 40 miles within prewar Poland, while in the province of White Russia, the Reds gained in heavy fighting over the frozen wastes of the vast Pripet marshes. On the southern front, stiff German defenses pre vented a break-through to the Black sea Rumanian region. Polish Boundary Following Russia’s suggestion that discussions for settlement of the Polish boundary dispute be based upon the so-called "Curzon line” awarding the provinces of White Russia and the western Ukraine to the Soviet Union, the Polish govern ment-in-exilo answered by asking that the U. S. and Britain mediate the question. Russia took none too kindly to the idea, claiming that by asking the U. S. and Britain to intervene the Poles rejected the "Curzon line" as a basis for negotiation. Violently opposed to the present Polish gov ernment-in-exile the Russians de clared discussions with the present Polish government-in-exile were vir tually impossible unless it was re vised, with Communists included in a new setup. Peace Talks Russia's unofficial report that two prominent British statesmen had met with German Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop in Spain to discuss a separate peace were vigorously denied in London. In London, it was pointed out that the Von Ribbentrop story apparent ly was an amplification of a rumor that has been widely spread since the Churchill-Eden conferences in Egypt, but was not taken seriously by other sources. SOUTHWEST PACIFIC: Surprise Promised Made up of Indians from 20 tribes trained in jungle warfare in Pana ma, units of Lieut. Gen. Walter Krueger's Sixth army plowed for e/ard at Arawe in southwestern New Britain, as U. S. bombers continued hammering the big Jap supply base of Rabaul, to the northeast. Although U. S. advances on New Britain were slow, they were defi nitely containing Jap forces that might be employed in the more vital area to the east. Speaking from Southwest Pacific headquarters, Rear Adm. Robert B. Carney said: “Rabaul and Kavieng are next on our list, but our method of taking them won’t be in accordance with any familiar pattern . . . Just how we will do it will be something the enemy least expects . . ." Indicative of the scale of U. S. air attacks on the big base of Rabaul which acts as a feeder point for Jap barges supplying the New Britain, New Guinea and Solomons area, the Tokyo radio admitted the sinking of several ships in the harbor after a raid of 200 American planes. RAILROADS: Hark to Owners Following the termination of strike threats with the settlement of the unions' wage disputes, the war de partment returned the railroads to private ownership. The action was taken after 1,150, 000 members of the non-operating unions were granted wage boosts of from 9 to 11 cents an hour, with extra payments for time over 40 hours making up part of the in crease. Employees receiving 'less than 47 cents an hour will get the 11-cent raise, with those over 57 cents granted 9 cents. Previously, 350,000 members of the operating unions had been awarded a 9-cents-an-hour boost. EUROPE: Road to Rome From their positions on the moun tain slopes, U. S. and French troops looked down on the defenses of the Nazi stronghold of Cassino, guard ing the long road to Rome. From Cassino, the broad plain running northward lends itself to armored warfare instead of the tedious, up hill mountain fighting of recent months. As U. S. and French forces bore down on the tangled barbed wire, concrete emplacements and deep gun pits making up the Nazi defense system around Cassino, swirling rain and snow held up the British Eighth army’s advance on the other end of the front. Across the Adriatic in Jugoslavia, guerrillas of Josif ("Tito") Broz continued to harass German troop movements throughout the country, considered as a possible invasion site. POLITICS: Strange Letter Grumpy old Secretary of the In terior Harold L. Ickes was brought into the case of the mysterious let ter, produced by C. Nelson Sparks and allegedly written by Harry Hop kins, and purporting to show that the latter as the President’s No. 1 ad viser is in close contact with Re publican Wendell Willkie. Sen. William Langer <N. D.) dis played photostatic copies of letters allegedly written by one of Ickes' Left to right: Ickes and Hopkins deputies to Sparks, claiming that the secretary of the interior wns in possession of Hopkins’ original let ter to a prospective Democratic sen atorial candidate in Texas, promis ing him support from Willkie forces in the primary election. Ickes’ alleged involvement in the case came as a government attorney branded the Hopkins letter a forgery. Following Senator Langer's action, Ickes suspended his deputy and said: "I don’t know who will ultimately turn out to be the villain . . . but it will not be I.” PEOPLE IN THE NEWS . . . Good Reader Somewhere in the South Pacific, a native kept one ear cocked while marines argued over the height of the Empire State building. Finally, the native piped up: “No one right,’’ he said. “Empire State building 1,250 feet high.” “How do you know?” the marines asked. "Just good reader," the native an swered. X-Ray Tells Secret When 3 playmates brought 10 year-old Johnny Wilm of Springfield, 111., home with a wound in his ab domen. they said he had fallen on a pile of cinders. But when little Johnny’s fever had failed to subside X-^ays showed a bullet lodged near his spine. Then, he confessed having been shot by one of his playmates during a "Com mando" raid. CONGRESS: Shun Labor Draft Legislation for a labor draft, re quested by President Roosevelt in his annual message to congress, was given the cold shoulder by the house military committee, which pigeon holed the bill despite the senate’s consideration of the measure. Had the request for a labor draft been made after Pearl Harbor or in the midst of walkouts which prompted enactment of the Smith Connally antistrike law, congression al circles say it might have passed. With war production at a record high, however, only serious strike threats could force enactment of the legislation, it was added. Discharge Pay Declaring that with the possible enrollment of 15 to 20 million men and women in the services discharge pay amounting to $1,000 per person would cost the government from 15 to 20 billion dollars, Representative Dewey Short (Mo.) argued for house acceptance of its military affairs committee’s bill providing muster ing-out payments of $300. In one effort to boost payments to discharged vets, Representative Wil liam Lemke (N. D.) proposed in creasing the maximum disburse ment to $700. Previously, the senate had passed a bill providing muster ing-out payments ranging from $500 for vets with 18 months’ or more service overseas, to $200 for less than a year’s service at home. WHEAT MOVEMENT: Cars for Canada War Food Administrator Marvin Jones’ order to the Office of Defense m_a _ a i A * OHOJ7U1 IUUU1I VV | furnish 200 freight cars daily to bring in Canadian wheat was sharply criti cized by Sen. Clyde Reed (Kan.), who contended the roll ing stock was need ed to move domes tic grain from clogged elevators. Sen. Reed countering sena tor Reeds criti cism, Jones said he was merely act ing to relieve the tight feed situation in the U. S„ what with grain inven tories as of January 1 about 500, 000,000 bushels be low last year. By diverting 200 cars daily to Canadian shipments, the WFA : expects to import i 40,000,000 bushels of wheat by May 1, and a total of 95, 000,000 bushels in the first 6 months of lim. —— Although Senator Marvin Jones Reed said the diver sion of 200 cars would actually rep resent 25,000 cars, Jones disputed the figure, placing it at 6,000 cars. EARTHQUAKE: City Ruined Famous for its fruits and wines, the picturesque city of San Juan, situated high up in the Andes mour\* tains of Argentina, lay in ruins fol lowing 4 earthquakes inside of 12 hours. Panicked as the earth rumbled and shook, thousands of people rushed screaming from swaying buildings, only to be struck by chunks of falling masonry. Esti mates of the dead were placed as high as 5,000, and of the injured at about 13.000. Although the quakes were felt across the whole continent from Chile on the Pacific to Argentina on the Atlantic, San Juan with its 30,000 population was the most important city hit. Bravely, its survivors tele graphed Argentine President Gen. Pedro Ramirez for a $37,500,000 loan for reconstruction, and conscription of 50,000 workers to help harvest the district's fruit crop. SOLDIERS’ FARE: Stocks Needed If cold-storage warehouses throughout the U. S. are bulging with food, it’s because the army must have record supplies on hand for troops, Brig. Gen. J. E. Bar zynski of the quartermaster depart ment said. For every soldier overseas, the army must hold 272 days of food in reserve, General Barzynski de clared. There must be 15 days’ sup ply in transit to depots; 65 days’ supply in ports and depots; 30 days’ supply afloat; 92 days' minimum overseas supply; 45 days’ overseas operating stocks, and 25 days’ ex tra supply to cover losses from en emy action. In addition, General Barzynski said, the arm) must have 90 days’ food supply on hand for U. S. camps. Because a whole year's supply of such non-perishable foods as canned corn, etc., must be bought during the short period of production, stocks on hand will be large at completion of the harvest. AIR LINE RECORDS With the completion of the 50,000th coust-to-coast flight. United Air lines planes have established what is believed to be a new record for long distance air transport operation. The company pioneered in transconti nental flying, the first trip being made in a two-passenger Boeing 40-A mail plane July 2. 1927. The passengers rode in a box-like com partment in those days. Crossing the country took 34 hours, at about 105 miles per hour, compared with present 200-mile-per-hour speed. —- ■ - ■■ .. ■' National Service Act Is Answer to War Disputes' ‘Too Many Cooks’ Root of Labor Disputes; ' Pressure Groups, Individuals Unwilling To Lay Aside Financial Desires. By BAUKHAGE Neii* Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, I). C. Why did the President order the army to take over the railroads? You can get seven reasons from seven different presidential advisors. I won't repeat them. I will name three. First, the epitome of those the po litically minded probably gave; it will be a good thing for 1944. That is the sum total of a number of con clusions of the master minds who are advising concerning the political campaign which is ahead of us. There are two other reasons which some of the time-hardened officials in Washington offer (aside from the threat, real or fancied, to the war ef fort). These officials let the political stream flow over them. They are more interested in getting the par ticular job assigned to them done than figuring out its political effects. Needless to say, they belong to that large, conscientious army which most people outside of Washington forget exists, an army of people wise or unwise in their judgments but beholden to no political party for their positions. These are the two probable rea sons they offered; first: The roads were seized as a threat against other industrialists who might make trouble in accepting terms of future labor wage deci sions, such demands for increases which can't be easily dodged (per haps just demands, perhaps not, depending on who holds the scales). The second reason offered is this: Simply because many of the Pres ident’s present labor advisors have had little or no experience in labor relations, in the methods of labor leaders. Misunderstanding There are a number of signs which might point to reason one as the one which turned the scales, but, like most of the other motivating forces in many of the recent labor deci sions, they spring from the same soil as does reason two: misunder standing of the methods of labor leaders. You will recall that William Green, A. F. of L. chieftain, when he made what since seems to have been an ill-starred attack on the Marshall statement that threats of strikes might prolong the war, stat ed flatly that the railroad unions had never intended to strike. That statement isn’t questioned in spite of the angry denials of the railroad union leaders. It is what you heard in every railroad office from every old time councilor and advisor in Washington before the roads were taken over. Unfortunately, the whole situation is reminiscent of the conversation concerning the dog. The dog growled. The owner said, ‘‘Don’t be frightened, I know he won’t bite you.” "But,” replied his friend, "does the dog know it?" You see the friend had no under standing of dogs. If you had slipped into the White House on a certain day not long before the deadline for the strike call of the so-called recalcitrant un ions (enginemen and firemen, and conductors) had been reached, you too might have been alarmed. The union representatives <1 am told) were making a noise very much like a dog that is going to bite. Now the old timers were used to the noise. But the two gentlemen upon whom the President leans for advice in matters of stabilization involving wage and price boosts, Messrs. Byrnes and Vinson, were not accustomed to the sound. They j did not know that a labor leader’s bark is often worse than his bite. ("There never was the faintest possibility of an actual walkout on the nation’s railroads.” — William Green.) Messrs. Byrnes and Vinson be ieved what they heard and it was Plenty. That experience, I think I can I '.ay. ts authentic The labor lead- j ers emphatically and enthusiastical- j 'y threatened. Messrs Vinson and J Byrnes took the warning growl for « real threat. Others of the Presi- ! : 'ent's council were convinced that : •here was excuse enough to do I something which they thought would | ! ",e advantageous for political rea- | | tons. I_ And so finally, the man with the long cigarette holder, just back from the world battlefronts where “so much-per-hour-per-day” wasn’t the argument, but “so-many-lives-per hour’’ was, where world maps were being re-drawn, where America's at titude and action was about to re write history, became a little im patient. The Action Date “We have come to the action date,” said the President, “we have been talking here since Sunday. If you can’t take action by agreement, I will have to take action by my self.” He took it and he took the rail roads. To say that Washington was not surprised would be to misjudge Washington. The root of the whole trouble in this and all the labor disputes has i been that there were too many I cooks. The trouble with the confus- 1 ing statements which come out of Washington is that there are too many cooks. And yet, we have that paradox that when there are too j many people handling war prob lems, the only cure so far has been J to substitute too few—to pass the buck to one man—the President. The answer to that is that one man simply cannot do it all. The war is too far away from us. We cannot lay aside our personal and natural desire to make as much money out of it as the next fellow. This has gone on from the begin ning—employer, making his profits, essential labor demanding and get ting his high wages, the farmer, his incentive, and then those who fol low after, shouting, “you did it for them, do it for me!” Not one group is blameless, only those who have been unable to bring pressure, hesitated to do so. And, for the most part, each group sin cerely believing that it was getting no more than its just due, the rest were the profiteers, the chiselers. The solution? At this writing, a National Service Act that will order who does what and for how much—just as it is in the army. An Abiding Peace— Common Sense Treatment Books on the postwar world can almost be described as the only | commodity of which there is now surplus production, but this is one 1 —“Towards an Abiding Peace”—that | can be taken seriously. R. M. Mac- j Iver, professor in Columbia univer- I sity, for one thing writes a clear, j simple unprofessorial language, say ing what he means directly and with out qualifications. He is for a world order but is too practical to believe you can have it by just writing a world constitu tion. He wants a temporary peace which in a way carries on from the war alliance, and then a second stage in which we move to real in ternational control. Furthermore, he thinks that sooner or later our present enemies must be taken in unless we are going to let the third World war slowly fester. An international order is an inter national order to Mr. Maclver. There are no weasel words. Mr. Maclver has worked out his ! plans in some detail. There is a lot of common sense in “Towards an Abiding Peace"—on a subject on j which a good deal of pretentious philosophizing is being done. Bond-Selling Plan Rep. Richard P. Gale of Minne sota has a plan for increasing bond sales to individual citizens—the sales which it is most important to make. He thinks it is a cheap and easy way for the government to increase sales and interest in sales on the Dart of the average man. Senator Guffey offered a similar plan. Periodically, at intervals not greater than three months, he would have the treasury make a drawing. And the person holding the winning number—he would be a bondholder, of course, would get a prize of from a hundred to 25 thousand dollars. j It wouldn’t be a lottery because nobody could lose—you would have your bond for the money you invest ed and your bond would be your ticket. BRIEFS • . . bv Baukhage I __ Nicaragua and Costa Rica are rapidly expanding their balsa crops to keep up with current war de mands and in anticipation of wood's important role in postwar aviation. • • • TN« of tin to preserve food saic.y in metal containers was first exploited by Napoleon’s engineers preparatory to his invasion of Rus- ; I Stamp out turnover—stay on the job—and finish the Job! That should be every American's creed. • • • All honorably discharged mem bers of the armed forces—both men and women—will be assisted in ev ery way possible to find a job to their liking, according to Paul V. McNutt, chairman of the War Man power commission. Navy Armed Guard Battles Gangsters of the Sea I German U-boat warfare, once dreaded by Allied sea men. is now being crushed. But in those critical davs when our merchant ships were sunk daily by the under water menace, the navy armed guard crews were our major defense. Today escort ships, planes and dirigibles help. But when the wolf pack strikes at night or in foggy weather, the armed guard is our first defense. A huge gun sends its projectile sailing through the air as an armed guard crew practices to make our sea lanes safe. ——■——— Front view of the same drill. Weeks of this training result in instant accurate fire when a U~ boat is spotted. j IMKSS9KM Neatness and efficiency are g apparent in this crew as they 1 report for duty aboard a mer- l chant ship. Right: Men are 1 quickly assigned to their posts 1 and this lookout is soon scan- fj ning the sea for signs of an ene- i my periscope. 8 Above: Every round of am‘ munition must be accounted for by the crew's commander. Left: He charts his position. A gunner pours a stream of lead from his antiaircraft gun. Steps around the gun enable him to elevate and depress it easily. Tubes on outside of steel guard are spare gun barrels. ‘ :■i: .'.r'; ’„'«. "' Constant drill and gun train ing precede an assignment to a merchant ship. t