The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19??, June 02, 1945, Page 7, Image 7
EDITORIAL- COMMENT Omaha, Nebraska, Saturday, June 2, 1945 -—- - Troop Shift to the Pacific Big Job With Human Side Need to Finish the Fight Against Japanese Prevents Wholesale Release of Vets; Move Will Tax U. S. Shipping. By BAUKHAGE Hews Analyst and Commentator. WNC Service, Inion Trust Building, Washington, I). C. The American vocabulary has been enriched by a new word which has burdened the notebooks of war department stenographers in Wash ington for a long time. When I was in San Francisco I saw its meaning graphically illustrated. The word is "redeployment.” No, I didn’t make a typographical er ror. Reemployment we have heard about before. ReDeployment is dif ferent. And in that word, as in Hauptmann's "tear," can sparkle "all the joy and all the sorrow of the world.” This new word isn't in any dic tionary. And in all the echoing acres of the Pentagon I could find no of ficial definition of it but in its cur rent applicat.on it simply means shifting a lot of American boys out of the European theater of war where the curtain has gone down. That process is causing many a headache in the Pentagon. It will cause many a heartache at home and abroad. It will cause some hap piness, too. For the boys and the families of the soldiers and sailors who are cast for the second act in the tragedy of World War II (and that is most of them) redeployment means heart aches. For the others it means hap piness. But whether they go back to Main street and take up the plow share or the pen. the hammer or the school book, or whether they go on to fresh battlefields, it is a head ache as well as a heartache for the high command. Heartache, Headache For Officert Before writing this article I had a long conversation with one of the highest of the high command and I can tell you redeployment is both headache and heartache for him. He and all his officer comrades who have sons and grandsons of their own fighting at the front want them back as much as any rear rank pri vate’s mother, dad, sweetheart or wife, wants him. But few outside those more or less Intimately concerned realize the me- 5 chanical implications of managing this major migration of history in the moving of more than three mil lion men. Have you any idea how long the mere physical process of simply loading soldiers, one after another, on ships and sending them back to America would take? I do not have official figures al though they should be released shortly, but I have an estimate on good authority, of the time which would be required to transfer three million men now in Europe across the Atlantic to east coast ports. As suming that the transport facilities available were devoted exclusively to this mission, perhaps three hun dred thousand men a month could be carried home. That would mean that 10 months would be required' to transfer them all. And, of course, that is a fantastic supposition, since ships as well as men, are needed in the Pacific and so are ships to carry the endless supplies which the army of the Pacific will require to carry on all-out warfare. Redeployment, materially and morally, is a tremendous task and, as a result of personal conversations with the top men upon whom its twin burdens rest. I can assure you that the question of morale is, if anything, the greater of the two in their consideration. There is no question that the suf fering and the repercussions of the lengthy separation of young men from their normal life will become greater, now that V-E Day has come and gone. The army high command knows this and that is why so much time has been spent on taking every possible step to minimize the suffer ing which this slash that cuts across the heartstrings of America’s social life, will cause. I happen to know that busy with the terrific burden of bringing Eu rope’s war to a successful termina tion and beginning the final portion of chapter two. General Marshall himself for many long months has spent hour after hour of his crowd ed days and interrupted nights working on this problem. Everybody Must Play the Game There are some phases of this shift of our main war effort from one side of the world to the other which many do not realize but for which they must be prepared. In the first place, it will be no easy task for those who have fought the good fight in Europe to be trans ferred to the Pacific without a chance of furlough in between. Some will have that privilege but not all. And even for the lucky ones the sec ond parting will be hard unless the families play the game. There is another group who will see America's shore but will not be allowed even to touch American soil. They are the ones who will pass through the Panama canal on a non stop trip to points in the East. That will be a tough experience to see Old Glory waving from fiagstaffs in the Canal Zone and to watch its colors fade in the distance. It sim ply cannot be helped. But perhaps, temporarily at least, the hardest test of patience and self discipline will fall upon those who know that they are to be dis charged, but who, because war takes the priority and the fighters must go first, can only sit and wait in Europe. Aside from the personal anguish which this delay will mean, it Is bound to raise a clamor from mo tives natural enough but nonethe less selfish, of those whose economic situation is suffering from the neces sary delay in reinforcing our civil ian manpower with the soldiers whose services are no longer needed but who cannot be moved back home immediately. Before General Gregory, in charge of the great housekeeping depart ment of the army, the quartermas ter corps, left for France in antici pation of V-E Day, I had a long talk with this gray-haired, fatherly man who is loved by his comrades with a warmth of affection that outglows the well-earned stars on his shoul der-straps. When I talked to him about re deployment, although he is respon sible for the physical rather than the moral welfare of the soldier, it was of the latter of which he spoke first. How are the folks at home going to take it? That was the question on his tongue, just as it had been in the minds of the high officers and officials with whom I had talked be fore. I learned a lot from General Greg ory and his aides about the tremen dous industrial effort which it takes to produce what the army wears and eats and with which it is shaved and laved and sheltered. As long as there is a man in uniform he must be fed and clothed and furnished supplies from helmets and raincoats to socks and shorts to say nothing of a thousand odds and ends including writing paper, soap (they have a kind that will serve to wash clothes as well as bodies, and shave with too, and lather in salt water), tobac co, bug-powder, cigarettes, band ages, shoelaces, razor blades, matches ... ad infinitum. Thousands of men clad in woolens required by European weather will have to be supplied with cotton for the tropics. Thousands moving from the tropics toward the more north erly latitudes of the Japanese is- I lands and China must have woolens to replace their cottons. Meanwhile, they will have to con tinue to wear and to wear out what they now have on. Another factor is the length of the Pacific “pipe-lines”—the great dis tances from base to front. The “turn-around” time of the voyage i of ships is longer than the voyage ] to Europe and there must be enough I supplies at hand for the troops to cover the period between each de livery. Aft this will require continued manufacture by private industry for military use for a long time which means that much longer to wait for final conversion to civilian produc tion. This is why this new word "re deployment” is not a happy one and why it holds within it so many head aches and so many heartaches which will try the coolest heads and strain the stoutest hearts. BARBS . . . by Baukh age Congress is going to look into the question of sugar being diverted into the manufacture of bootleg whiskey. Meanwhile tipplers say that a lot of sugar is being diverted into alcohol to dilute good whiskey. • • • The conservative is a man who has something to conserve to which he isn't too sure he has a legal title. A radical is a guy who hopes so. Ely Culbertson, former bridge ex pert, attended the San Francisco conference and gave suggestions. (Not bad ones, either.) He also ob jected to lack of leadership by the Americans. He didn’t like the veto of aggressive action by the security council. • • • A woman is known by the enemies she makes (for her husband). * I-WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSiS Heavy 8-29 Raids on Nagoya Pattern for Victory in Pacific; Set Up Army Rule Over Germany . ——————— Released by Western Newspaper Union. -— (EDITOR’S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union’s news analysts and not necessarily of t&t* newspaper.) Burrowing into “Little Siegfried Line” on Okinawa, marines advance cautiously toward building set afire to dislodge Jap snipers. PACIFIC: Victory Pattern Though the Tarawa, Iwo Jima and Okinawa fighting has proved the Jap no set-up, America’s tremendous material resources and Japan’s comparative skimpy means prom ises to bring about the enemy’s col lapse much in the manner of Ger many's. Flying 500 at a time, B-29 Super forts were setting the pattern for Japan’s defeat even as U. S. army and marine forces rooted the enemy from his heavily fortified “Little Siegfried line” on Okinawa, with the big bombers showering thousands of tons of gasoline-jelly incendi aries on the big industrial center of Nagoya. Extent of the destruction of Na goya was all the greater because of the establishment of shops in small buildings and homes for the production of different parts for main assembly. With a one-time population of 1,328,083, the city was the site of the famed Mitsibushi air craft factory and railway, ma chinery and metal works. Leveling of Nagoya suggested the same treatment of other great Japa nese cities within the same area in the effort to paralyze the enemy’s industrial capability and thus bring his formidable land army to its knees. With her vital industries packed in the Tokyo, Kobe Osaka and Nagoya districts in a total area less than that of Nebraska, and with 14,000,000 of her 73,000,000 population crowd ed in those vicinities, Japan’s whole war - making potential stands as a particularly vulner able target for the great fleets of U. S. bombers which will oper ate with increasing force now that the European war has ended. Furthermore, U. S. mastery of the sea threatens to virtually isolate the enemy from the Asiatic main land and Pacific islands upon which he has depended for substantial quantities of food, raw material and supplies. Against this bright picture, how ever, stands the record of fanatical Japanese resistance against impos sible odds wherever he has fought in the Pacific. Best recent ex amples are Iwo Jima ahd Okinawa, where Nipponese garrisons have withstood the most grueling pre ponderance of U. S. material and troop superiority to hold out to the last dying gasp from strongly forti fied subterranean positions hewed from rugged terrain. With Jap engineers showing sur prising skill in preparing such de fenses, U. S. infantrymen, supported by tanks and flame throwers, have been compelled to move in close to root out the entrenched enemy after heavy air, sea and ground bombardment failed to wholly wipe out various strong points. Just 325 miles from Tokyo, Okinawa has been bitterly de fended by the enemy seeking to prevent another island air base from falling into the hands of U. S. forces. Victory in the Marianas furnished a site for B-29 stations for the increasing raids on the enemy mainland, and Iwo Jima also yielded strategic air strips. Thus, the Japs have stood bitterly on Okinawa, inflicting over 28,000 casualties on American land, sea and air forces at a cost of over 48,000 dead to themselves. Secondary though potentially im portant aspect of the whole Pacific picture is the part China might play FAIR EMPLOYMENT Laws designed to prevent discrim ination in employment because of race, color, creed, or national origin have been passed in New York, New Jersey and Indiana recently. New Jersey and Utah also enact ed more general anti-discriminatory legislation. New Jersey banning racial and religious discrimination in schools, municipal hospitals, hotels and places of entertainment. OMAHA COMMUNITY CHEST KEELECTS REPRESENTATIVES MAYOR C. W. LEEMAN REPLACES BUTLER At its meeting Friday, ite Board of Governors of the Om .ha Comm unity Chest reelected for a term of one year all its representatives on the Board of Trustees of the United! War and Community Fund, with Mayor-elect Charles W. Leeman re-1 in the enemy’s strategy, with the comparatively undeveloped state of the country and the vulnerability of any positions to attack from Rus sia on the north and the U. S. and Britain on the south, tempering the possibility the enemy might de cide to make a major stand on the Asiatic mainland EUROPE: Army Rules Declaring “the Allied government of Germany is going to be military. Gen. Clay and the Germans are going to know it is military,” Lt. Gen. Lucius D. Clay undertook deputy rule of the U. S. oc cupation zone under Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. General Clay as sumed his task as Allied authorities stated that all Ger man industry, trade and services first would be used to support U. S. and British occupying forces before civilians, and Germans would be allowed to hold office only on the local level. Having announced former con gressman and budget director Lewis W. Douglas as his assistant and diplomat Robert Murphy as head of the political division of the military government. General Clay said that all that is left of Germany’s war in dustry would be destroyed, all traces of Naziism rooted out and war crim inals sought and punished. At the same time, Allied authori ties declared that Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz’s government was a tem porary stopgap presently being used to carry on the disarmament of the German military and naval forces. Despite Doenitz’s government’s statements that a .central German regime was necessary to prevent a breakdown in the country’s econom ic life and the threat of communism, the Allies are proceeding along their own lines. Meanwhile, the Allies pushed plans for the trial of war criminals even as U. 3. congressmen, return ing from an inspection of notorious Nazi concentration camps, flatly blamed the Hitler regime for their existence. CIVILIAN ECONOMY: More Goods Provision of more cars and more tires for essential civilian use along with loosening of controls on the manufacture of many peacetime items heralded the gradual recon version of industry following read justment to a one-front war. Though the huge needs of the Pa cific wTar will still rate No. 1, re lease of manpower and material as a result of lessened demands after V-E Day will permit a limited re sumption of civilian production, as already reflected in permission to automobile manufacturers to turn out 200.000 passenger cars this year, and the increase in tire rations for essential motorists by 500,000 for May. Though another 400,000 cars are scheduled to be produced in the first quarter of 1946 with the rate rising to 2,000,000 annually by 1947, trucks will be given preference in manu facture, with emphasis on light weight models, officials declared. Relaxation of controls on produc tion of coat hangers, bathtubs, ice cream freezers, pie plates, mop wringers and hundreds of others of such items paved the way for their substantial output when steel, cop per and aluminum become avail able in increased amounts in mid summer. PATTON’S PRIZE Fixed to the rostrum of Luitpold arena in Nuremberg where Adolf Hitler stirred Ger many in his hey day, a huge bronze swastika fell prize to General Patton’s third army in its capture of the Nazi shrine city and will be shipped to the U. S. for display. placing Dan B Butler. Those reelected were; George F Ashby. Leo B Bozell, A. L. Coa.l, Ferald E. Collins, Frank Cronin. S. L. Cooper. Walter Cozad, Her bert S. Daniel, anies E. Davidson, Mrs. Paul Gallagher, J. M. Hard ing. Harry A Koch, Ray R. Ridge, and H A. Wolf. V J Skutt was appointed to the Community Chest Board of Cover EIRE: Praise for Britain Although resenting Prime Minis ter Churchill’s criticism of Eire for remaining neutral in the European conflict when her participation would have furnished the Allies with important sea bases. Prime Minis ter de Valera complimented the British chieftain for not violating the i .cuntry’s neutrality by force to obtain such advantages. Declaring that Churchill’s re straint “advanced the cause of inter national morality,” De Valera said. “It is indeed fortunate that Brit ain’s necessity did not reach the point when Mr. Churchill would have acted. All credit to him that he successfully resisted the tempta tion.” But if De Valera had praise for Churchill, he had censure, too. An swering Churchill’s declaration that only North Ireland’s furnishing of bases prevented British action against Eire itself, De Valera re gretted that the Briton had turned to “abusing a people who have done him no wrong, trying to find in a crisis like the present excuse for continuing the injustice of the sepa ration (of the north and south) of our country.” SAVINGS: Over 122 Billion Standing at over 122 billion dol lars, accumulated savings at the end of 1944 showed almost a 150 per cent increase over the yearly to tals before 1938 and indicated finan cial strength to tide many people over any reconversion stress. Headed up by an increase of 13 billion dollars in 1944, war bond holdings reached well over 40 bil lion to represent one-third of the accumulated savings, contrasting with but one-twentieth in 1940. In rising 23 billion dollars in 1944. substantial accumulations were ef fected in policy holders’ funds be hind life insurance, and in accounts in mutual savings and commercial banks, postal savings and savings and loan associations. Insurance Payments Approximating 47 per cent of total payments of life insurance compa nies in 1944, death benefits amount ed to $1,360,972,674 for a new high, the National Underwriter reported. With total payments reaching $2, 916,720,689, highs were also recorded for matured endowments at $447, 828,401 and annuities at $198,308,377. Low since 1929, accidental death benefit claims for the U. S. and Can ada in 1944 declined to $20,356,949. -— Rips Hospital Ship Standing three decks below point where a Jap suicide pilot crash-dived on navy hospital ship “Comfort" Army Nurse Lt. Mary Jensen of San Diego, Calif., views twisted wreckage. Lt. Jen sen had stepped from surgery supply room less than minute before it was de molished by explosion. FARM MACHINERY: Behind, Schedule With production of farm machin ery approximately 22 per cent be hind schedule farm operators can continue to look forward to tight sup plies this year, the Federal Re serve Bank of Chicago reported. Because of increased demand for military material last winter and manpower shortages, farm machin ery output for 1944-45 dropped 25 per cent behind schedule in the first quarter of July-August-September; 22 per cent behind in the second, and about 20 per cent in the third. Labor shortages principally have affected production of such neces sary parts of equipment as mal leable and gray castings, engines, transmissions and forgings, thus re ducing over-all output. While some important manufacturers are up to schedule, others are far behind. Citing the great importance of farm machinery to record-breaking war food production, the reserve bank pointed out that use of mech anized equipment on two and three shifts daily permitted heavy plant ings during the last two springs aft er wet weather delayed normal op erations. RISING INCOME Prices received by farmers in the United States for agricultural prod ucts rose in April to the highest average for the war period, with the price index based on the 1909-1914 standard of 100, at 203 as compared with the prewar figure of 89 in August, 1939. The price index in April this year was close to the level reached at the end of the last war while the per centage increase since the present war started was much greater than during the last war. __ nors to replace S. L. Cooper who resigned. SUBSCRIBE NOW! ^ Invest In Your Country—Buy A War Bond ^ Pai^c 7 The Omaha Guide , + A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ^ Published Every Saturday at 2^20 Grant Street 1 OMAHA, NEBRASKA—PHONE HA. 0800 I Entered as Second Class Matter March 15. 1027 at the Post Office at Omaha. Nebraska, under l Act of Congress of Match 3, 1879. I C■ C. Galloway,.Publisher and Acting Editor * All News Copy of Churches and all organiz- j ations must be in our office not later than 1:00 j p. m. Monday for current issue. All Advertising j ! Copy on Paid Articles, not later than Wednesday j noon, preceeding date of issue, to insure public- j , ation. SUBSCRIPTION RATE IN OMAHA ' ONE YEAR . $3.00 SIX MONTHS . $1.75 THREE MONTHS . $1-25 ( SUBSCRIPTION RATE OUT OF TOWN j ONE YEAR . $3.50 SIX MONTHS . $2 00 \ National Advertising Representatives— INTERSTATE UNITED NEWSPAPERS, Inc | 545 Fifth Avenue, New York City, Phone:— MUrray Hill 2-5452, Ray Peck, Manager The HOME TOWN REPORTER In Washington By WALTER A. SHEAD WNV Staff Correspondent Those Absentee Lawmakers WNU Washington Bureau 621 Union Trust Building IF YOU had been with me on a 1 recent visit at the Capitol build ing, you would have noted several significant circumstances which would have given you cause to won der. As a matter of fact this particular day was a routine day at the capi Walter Shead tol. Most legislative' days are routine, nothing spectacular, but when visitors from over the na tion become dis turbed over an un spectacular day in the national legisla tive halls, folks out in the country and the small towns of this land of ours may well shake a speculative head. On this day you would have watched from the galleries in the house of representatives as the members voted themselves a $2,500 a-year-tax-free salary increase un der the guise of an expense allow ance. Over on the senate side of the beautiful old building, you would have noted tier upon tier of emp ty seats and watched a half dozen members of “the most august body in the world” fiddle around for more than an hour attempting to get a quorum of its membership into their seats so business could go on. And if you had stepped with me into a senate subcommittee hearing you would have blushed with shame at the spectacle. For there you would have watched a witness be fore this subcommittee heckled, taunted and derided . . . assailed with sarcasm, his motives impugned, bullied, even as a trial lawyer seeks to confuse and befuddle a defend ant in a court of law. You would have wondered, "with what crime is this man charged?” . “can things like this happen here in the capital of the world’s greatest de mocracy?” For that witness was not there of his own accord ... he was subpenaed ... he was a busi ness man from a small town and ne came to his capital at the instance of the senate subcommittee to give of his knowledge of the matter. Not all senate or house commit tees are like that, of course. But many are, even though they are sup posed to be fact-finding hearings pertaining to some measure up for consideration . . to ratification of some presidential nomination. Many committee hearings, say a full-press hearing of the senate agricultural committee, are conducted in a dig nified atmosphere of democracy. Then you would have remembered that the government is doing every thing in its power to “hold-the-line“ against inflation and to prevent wage increases and higher prices for all our citizens and yet these congress men, our lawmakers, voted to in crease their own pay, tax free. And you would have heard one congress man say that his taxes and ex penses took all but $3,000 of his salary . . . and another one say that “we voted those taxes ourselves, didn't we, and we oughtn’t be grant ing ourselves any allowance or spe cial privilege to take care of our taxes.’’ And you would have left the house chamber with wonderment on your face at this example. And in the senate your expecta tions were dashed, too. All those empty seats. You expected some thing different here, but you were disheartened as the monotonous roll call went on and only a few an swered and finally as time passed ... 53 senators answered roll call, 4 more than the legal quorum of the 96 members. Of course some senators are necessarily absept for committee hearings and other legiti mate reasons, but the majority are in the cloak rooms, their offices, or elsewhere. Some come running when the signal bells announce lack of a quorum, and remain Ibng enough to vote, then dash out again. Others pay little attention to the signals ex cept upon repeated rings. This sig nal system is so arranged that upon pressing a button the bells ring in the corridors and cloak rooms, com mittee rooms,'''the senate dining room and in each senator’s office in the senate office building a long block away. They could be in their seats with in a few minutes if they answered the bells promptly but day-in and day-out hours are wasted merely getting enough senators in their seats to do business. Some newspaper men have figured out that time wasted in the senate alone in obtaining a quorum in one year, at the senate rate of pay, would almost pay the salary of two sena tors. These are routine and unspec tacular things you admit, the vot ing of salary increases totaling $1,640,000 annually in the house un der present-day circumstances, the lolling attitude of the senate and the undemocratic procedure in the sub committee hearings, but still, you wonder if they are not misuses of power . . . unrepresentative of their constituents. NEBRASKA’S INDUSTRY FINDS INCREASED VOLUME OF OUT LETS ABROAD WITH ADOPTION OF RECIPROCAL TRADE AGREEMENT Products of major importance to Nebraska’s industry found outlets a broad in greatly increased volume following adoption of the reciprocal trade agreements program in 1 f»pd. according to a study Just released by the Committee on Internationa! Economic Policy througli Clark H Minor> chairman of its executive committee and president of Interna tional General Electric Co. The Study, made in connection with the Doughton Bill now before Congress to extend and strengthen the Trade Agreements Act wh'ch otherwise will expire June 12 com pares exports of important farm and factory products of the United S'al es in a pre-agreement year with those in 193S. Pointing out that the subsequent war years have necessarily dislocat ed normal international commerce, the study finds that the benefits ac cruing to American busisess in the initial period of the trade agreement program have established the use fulness of this policy for postwar economic rehabilitation, and that the continuance of the program un interruptedly during the war years has been a positive force in binding friendly nations more closely to us and assuring such nations of our continued faith in such cooperation. Among the American products of special interest to Nebraska, which showed substantial increases in ex port sales during the period under study, are meat and meat products; wheat, and wheat flour. Typical cases of cause and effect are cited as follows; The Canadian duty on meat and meat products was reduced, and A merican sales of these products to Canada Increased from $125 417 in 1935 to $3,089,724 in 1938 The aCnadian duty on wheat was reduced, and American sales -i this product to Canada increased from $13,695 in 1935 to $5,565,219 in 1938. The Cuban duty on wheat flour was reduced, and American sales of this product to Cuba Increased from $2,935,000 in 1935 to $5,383,000 in 1938. The benefits reflected in these these increased sales abroad are by no means restricted to the man ufacturers whose export snles compose these totals", the study points out. "Factories which sold solely in the domestic market were directly help by the disposal in for eign markets of competitive prod ucts which otherwise would have built up surplus production here at home. The sale in Athens, Cape town, Havana, or Calcutta of a pro duct made in America represents just as many man hours of employ ment wages as a similar sale in Middletown, USA. The more we can induce foreign nations to ToTT er trade barriers against our goods in the postwar reconstruction per iod, the broader will lie our markets and the greater will Pe the returns to our farm and factory labor. "Important as this trade agree ments program has proved to 1 e to Nebraska, the benefits are well dis tributed throughout til 4i states. A study Of our exports to Havana through a single steamship line dur ing the first nine mtonths of 15*39 showed that these exports had or iginated in no less than 3s* stales. Hence, the opportunity for a truly national participation in postwar foreign markets will l»e there if we continue an enlightened policy of cooperation with other nations.’' BUY UNITED STATES SAVINGS IONDS D STAMPS Samson and Delilah