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About The Plattsmouth journal. (Plattsmouth, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 25, 1944)
THE JOURNAL, PLATTSMOUTH. NEBRASKA MONDAY. DECEMBER 25, 19 .SHE'S 'HE' : : : this : : : PLATTSMOUTH DAILY JOURNAL .miWSmm arun.E., DLy.-1M5; SEM,.wEEKLv. im . mmsmsmmMmmmsms The n, P.MM., ,,,. KSSfV LESTER A. WALKER, PUBLISHER ' M' MK , . $&?Xc- .X?888w Entered at the Postoffice at Plattsmouth, Nebraska, as second class mail matter in - W$0m&i4MMSSk WCXL United Press leased Wire Semce MB!MWM$00!0M& :LrS A NEA Telephoto .Newspictnres and Features 'Sltl V"2 fJOXUgg&n Daily Subscription Rates: Delivered by carrier in the tity of Plattsmouth, 15 cents l IpS'' J per week, or $6.00 per year cash in advance; 55 per year by mail in the state of V 'I I''f''''feW -til It f S Nebraska, elsewhere $7 per year cash in advance. - .- CyfC if J r tt-tP "'"'""j Semi-Weekly: $2 per year cash in advance by mail In the state of Nebraska: fSaSTS jfe fjACSQ V fJJ elsewhere. $3.00 per year. - 0- IT'S CHRISTMAS For the fourth year since Pearl Harbor, a Christmas mes sage of good cheer goes from this newspaper beyond the boundaries of its trade territory and spans oceans to battle fronts over a war-torn world. It is a sobering thought es pecially since we expected many of our loved one3 home by now but certainly not a futile one. Not futile, because the sacred tenets of Christendom promise, through the very anniversary of Christ's birth being observed, a deliverance from the trials and heartaches of our troubles. Monday, perhaps, we cannot muster. the gaiety and ex uberance of a peacetime, "Merry : Christmas". Vacant places for stockings on mantles, missinb persons about the Christmas trees and empty chairs at the dinner table, will awaken dreams and memories in American hearts of loved ones now gone. Gone to far-off places where stockings are filled with only tired, tramping feet, where dugouts ,have no lighted trees where the turkey may not arrive ! But amid the solemnity of the occasion and the distress ing evidence that the sustaining thought behind Christmas "On Earth Peace. . .Good Will To Men" -is being violated by our enemies, there still remains hope. And hope' is the flame kindling the skill and determination of our fighting men; encouraging them to prove and protect Christendom's promise of the ages so there always will be a Christmas. And Christmas to them is a merry one, a homey one, a day to sit around the house and display love and devotion with memories' and remembrances. They would still have it merry in their absence. Hand in hand with hope must go faith and it is'with this abiding outlook to the future this dependence upon the stability of Americans, that The Plattsmouth Daily Journal attempts to reach our fighting men with greetings today. Many of them were our friends, our neighbors our readers and customers and we look forward confidently to the day when many of them will be again. With our greetings goes the devout pledge that Christmas will renew the efforts of those at home to speed the day of victory. Members of the staff of The Plattsmouth Daily Journal and the territory correspondents and carrier boys in Platts mouth extend a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to each and every one of you. .j55T Santet, Km. 1 Hollywood's manpower shortage was a break for actress Virginia Engels. She's pictured at left, above, as her blond, blue-eyed, dimple-cheeked self, and at right as she appears playing the part of the long-haired, bewhiskered old gent who bounces down a flight of stairs during a hot battle scene in the new western "San Antonio." ' . . . Grate Stuff qkeDAILYjSTOH MERRY TRADE ' MARK REGISTERED (On Earth, Peace9 Throughout the world today Americans once more are celebrating Christmas, in our own homes and churches, before the altars of strange churches in strange lands, on tropic beach es and snowy battlefields, in barracks and hospitals and prison camps. . For a time their immediate feelings of anxiety or pain or loneliness will be crowded out by emotions of love and fellow ship which Christmas always kindles. Wherever they are there will be the old carols, and the old familiar story with its triumphant hymn of the angelic host, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Slowly, through defeat and despair and cynicism, the Christian world has struggled over the centuries to transmute those words into reality. And two thousand years of failure, made bitter by this present and most tragic failure, cannot erase the hope that those words arouse. Today the struggle is not symbolical but fiercely literal The war is in a real sense a crusade. For the Christian world is battling cruel and pagan enemies whose goal has been the des truction of peace and good will and the substitution of a slav ery of body and spirit masquerading as something called Co Prosperity and the New Order. That enemy threat is being averted, and peace will be won. With it must come good will, for the one cannot exist wihout the other. Never in the history of Christendom has that fact been more apparent than now, and never have the people of Christendom been more actively, acutely determined that peace shall be built upon an enduring foundation of good will. It is a task as hard as war itself, in which men's good will must overcome their fallibility. It will need leaders as wise and courageous as those who have led our armies.' "On earth peace, good will toward men." The wonder of it is not that the Christian world nas. failed of achieving that blessing, but that it is still bravely trying to fulfill that promise through blood and toil and faith. . BY DREW PEARSON (Lt. Col. Robert S. Allen now on active service with the army.) By DREW PEARSON (Lt. Col. Robert S. Allen now on active service with the army.) WASHINGTON It is no secret that both sides on the western front know prettv much what the other side is doing behind each I other's lines. Observation planes fly back and forth, the nazis having jet-propelled planes which go well over 400 miles an hour so fast that no fighter plane can catch tke'm, but not too fast' -to take ictuitfs of al lied operations .below.; s fi '. ' tJ. S. observation planes, ' while not so fast, undoubtedly must have been good enough to note the mass ing of the German army opposite the First army for what was pro bably about a week ahead of the big nazi counter-offensive. However, it it admitted that the Firft army was taken off guard, so no steps had been taken to prepare for the Ger man drive. U. S. commanders ap parently figured that the Germans were massing to defend against an American attack. Also U. S. troops noted the weak ening of nazi forces in the Vosges mountains to the south, which meant that the Germans left this rough snowy mountain area relatively un defended and risked everything. It was a desperate eamble similar to the 1918 Marne offensive. Here are some of the reasons for the initial success of tht H - t nazi move: . 1. Marshal von Rundstedt, the ablest German general, is now in complete command. He is the man who argued that the German army should withdraw from France at the time of the Normanrfv invac; Erwin Rommel, close friend of Hit t fi:u mm ix, Cost tne nazis the British would furnish only 30 per cent of the western invasion army, with an even lower percent age , of replacements. American troops wee to furnish 70 per sent. This is about the ratio followed. However, it was not contemplat ed that the fed army, after reaching the Vistula river and Warsaw, would stop and detour through Budapest to. Vienna. While the Gemans pro bably haven't been able to Bhift many troops from the Polish front, they o BARBS CHRISTMAS day is when the vmA v,nnA .Ann kn n IXVlilTZ UiUUU 1CQUJF U(U Ct EVV-Xl. ! Loofc at the bright side: a jammed street car at least is . . warmer. I I Bong! And America's top ranking ace rings up another Jap plane! i ! One thing that really is a mat- ' ' ter of life and death is the Ar-. ; my's call for more nurses! j 'i The way to keep the enemy off ,our toes is to keep on them our 1 selves. ally he shifts them to another job or promotes them. Capital Chaff Inside fact is that it was self- have been able to use for less muni- effacing brain-buster Ben Cohen tions; in other words, if the nazis had been fighting heavily on two fronts, their supply and production problems Would have been terrific. As it is, they can how Concentrate the major portion of their supplies on the western front. Last, fall when the red army eas ed up on the Polish front, highest U. S. war chiefs had their experts make a study of that front and re port whether the Russians were easing up on purpose. The report was that the red army had actually tried to cross the Vistula, that Ger man fortifications were extremely strong, and that the red army need-, ed more supplies. At least two months have dragged on since then. Kegaraiess oi me factors, it is no secret that U. S. military men are bitterly disappoint ed at the Russian delay. They have been hopeful recently, however, that with the ground frozen the Polish offensive will soon start. It is the biggest factor to watch in the entire war. Battle of State Department Senators Pepper, Guffey, and Chandler had an interesting ' con versation with the president when they called him on the phone to ask whether the Stetinius-Hopkins state; department appointments really rep resented his own personal choice. fti 1 1 a : t a . aK-ii4. onn AAn ,. 1 iney especially menwoiieu 10 nun about 800,000 men. Rommel's death T. ..j t..-.,-... luaiuts vj. jjunn gnu ciik vjtcii. uunua Holmes, the latter known as a Murray Exceeds Quota In War Bond Drive The Murray community tradition ally sustained their reputation of supporting the war bond drives by going over the top on the sixth war loan drive. Dr. 6. H. Silmore 'was thfe chair Jfaan for the drire and repofts that Thursday the community passed thejr goal " in fine shape and are certainly to be congratulated on their stfecess. ; .The quota for Murray was set at $14,000 and Thursday the amount of $14,362.50 had been subscribed and placed the town in the forefront of the -communities - of the county that have fully met their allotment undoubtedly is a blessine- to Opr. many, for it leaves Von Rundstedt, a disciple of Von Mackensen in the last war in complete control. 2. The nazis have tanks superior to ours their latest Tiger tank being almost impossible to put out of commission. Even their older tanks have been reinforced with bulkhead in the nose behind which pourea concrete. This makes it almost impossible for sViolla -f; xj j vu head on. to knork thorn VUk, 3. The nazi3 also have developed new type of mortar, also have been saving their planes and put about 1,200! into battle last week end, also are using more and more robot bombs. 4. The nazis have brought up a lot of fresh troops, while our men have been fighting for six long months ever since Normandy. Russians Go Slow 5. Most important and inescapable factor, however, is the let-up of the red army on the Polish fn plus the stalemate of the two Brit on armies. It was known in strong anti-Roosevelt man, and both of them linked with the pro-Vichy, anti-De Gaulle group which snarl ed things up in North Africa. Roosevelt replied that Dunn was Secretary Hull's personal choice as assistant secretary of state, and implied that a request for ' Dunn's promotion had been made when Hull resigned. ' Regarding Holmes, the president replied that he . should be given a trial, and if he didn't work out he would be removed. Roosevelt added that he was glad the liberal senators had made the fight against the state department new executives. "It was a very healthy thing and will put them on guard for the fut ure," he remarked. Note Those who have watched Roosevelt operate over the years all agree that if there is one thing he is famous for it is failure-to remove an official who doesn't function. In all his twelve years of of f ice there have been only three known cases who first sold Senator Joe Ball of Minnesota the idea of having a talk with Roosevelt regarding foreign policy before elections. Cohen met Ball in New York and planted the first seeds which led to Ball's fam ous switch to Roosevelt. . .but when Cohen passed word along to Harry Hopkins and the meeting with Roose velt took place, Ben was left out in the cold. Harry, not Ben, sat in on the conference which made history . . .The only senator who voted against the confirmation of Ed Stet- tinius as secretary of state was Bill Langer of North Dakota. Since then seven senators have told him he was absolutely right. . .Senators Pepper of Florida and Guffey of Pennsyl vania alwavs have been ahead of their time when it comes to foreign policy, always have been proved right in the end. . .in May, 1940, before France fell, Tepper proposed! a resolution by which France andk Britain could buy U. S. army planes immediately. Other senators snort ed, said it was an insult to the for egn relations committee, demanded that it be rejected in 24 hours. It was . . .the only senator who joined with Pepper in voting for his reso-f lution was Guffey of Pennsylvania ... at that time, as now, Pepper ' got - no . support from the White , Houfe. But a few weeks later, Roose velt dipped into tf. S. arsenals with out permission from congress and rushed all sorts of munitions to Bri tain. This was or.e factor which pro bibly tipped the scales in England's favor in the battle of Britain. r (Copyright, 1314, by the Bell Syndicate, Inc.) I I 'Sri- f ' 1 ' : :& ' it' '"'' Don Grate, Ohio State forward, makes himself at home in the j .basket where he hopes to put many a goal m hoisting the Buckeyes v; to the Big"Ten basketball championship... OUT OUR WAY By J. R. Williams CURLING HORNS GIVEAWAY MT. VERNON, 111., (U.R) Mt. Vernon farmers have been warned that if any of their sheep have sud denly sprouted heavy horns which curl their backs, they aren't sheep. They're aoudads, native to North Africa, which crashed the fence at the Mt. Vernon park zoo last Aug ust and which have been living on the country ever since. The two ani mals, a male and a female, have been seen on farms within a wide range of Mt. Vernon. SHORT AND SNAPPY MAQUOKETA, IA., (U.R) Gar field Harker had planned to hunt all dav ' recently. But luck, or his marksmanship, spoiled his day. He shot twice into a flock of approxi- where Roosevelt has removed out- mately 200 ducks -' and bagged 15 ad vance, though 6ff icially denied, that tight a relatively high official. Usu- mallards his day's limit i!iitliilllliii'.! OH. WHY OH, WHY THM'S O.K. BY ME.' IT5 ! - 'iplllUlllt-l' 1 DOESHEDOTHW ( BETTER. THA.M HAVIWG - ; " ) JUST BECAUSE (I HIM BLABBlM" "TO "TH'I '2 f THERE ARE SOME OWES HE DOES LIKE v f; OF YOUR FRIENDS I TELLIMC3 ALL MY AMD - V HETJOESM'7 LIKE? J V THE FAMILY'S ' J?Z . rBUSlMESSVrr 1 1 ! g , 1 'WHY MOTHERS GET 5RWVC&f -h . I? j By Dr. LEONARD FITCH F Eyes Start Early to Dim 1 Human eyes no sooner develop their fullest power and strength than they begin to run down. Illustrative of the rapid changes in eyes that take place early in adult life, is the loss of accommoda tionthe flexing of the crystalline lens to bring into focus objects at various distances. In the 'teens, the average boy or girl can make accommodations in vision over a range of about 14 diopters. But in the early twenties the flex ibility of the eye's lens has been so reduced that it often will have an accommodation range of only ten diopters. It is apparent that during this period , of early adulthood, eye sight should be carefully watched and be given the benefits of pro fessional care. Latent weaknesses of the eyes may show up as defects during the twenties. This is evi denced by statistics of visual de fects. At the age of 20 years, 23 have defective vision; but at 30 years, 39 almost twice as many have visual defects. Occupation, as well as advanc ing years, changes our eyesight. Office workers, textile hands and others engaged in tasks requiring close focusing of the eyes, develop more vision defects than do po licemen, farmers, and others whose work does not require great con centration of vision. ' Young men and women enter ing occupations entailing difficult visual tasks should take care that they give their vision adequate protection so that it may not be come prematurely dimmed. r