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Show f THE LEW SUN. LEW. UTAH Army Clarifies Policies ' Regarding Farm Labor Military Units May Be Employed on Crops During 'Emergency Situations'; Individual Individ-ual Furloughs Wot Contemplated. By BAUKIIACE Netci Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service. Union Trust Bulldinj, 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); "borne on a furlough" if going to mean gomething quite different now. I remember the original picture only vaguely. I didn't know what the word "furlough" meant. But I know there waa a tousle-beaded blond boy in the middle of an ad-miring ad-miring farm family, telling bis ad ventures. Today, the farm boy with a conscience, 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 Us hardest last month, went into considerable 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 bavt liked their own sons, or their own bands, 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 furloughlng 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 demonstrated dem-onstrated that auch temporary releases re-leases of individual soldiers were of little assistance to the agriculture Industry and disrupted the organization organiza-tion and training of the army. If furloughs were granted for this purpose, pur-pose, neither agriculture nor the army could be assured that the soldiers 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 critical 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 Manpower Man-power commission." Another Loophole However, there is another loophole 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 discbarge 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 plan. That's his explanation and he made it to us the other day, leaning back in his chair and obviously trying try-ing bard to get over an idea that he oelieves 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. BRIEFS Governor Ellis ArnaH of Georgia has joined the ranks of Victory Gardeners, Gar-deners, planning an extensive garden on the grounds of the executive 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 "boss gardeners" garden-ers" and predicted a bumper crop of vegetables jjJL 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. The Weather A Dead Topic As you know, mention of the weather on the radio these days is forbidden. The newspapers can describe 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 concerning con-cerning the weather were revealed by stations in enough widely separated 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. Recently Re-cently I've gotten around the difficulty 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 Censorship 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 complaints com-plaints have come in from other stations that you were violating the regulations and so many other stations have been using your comments 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 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 afternoon 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 evening, 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" by Baukhage 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. U-Boat Warfare TakesTurn for Worse; New Wedge Driven Into Rommel Lines As Allies Continue Furious Air Attack; Outline International Currency Plan Releaaed by Western "gold KASSERINEr Bordj Zoumiiy 7 .A LlQp,FAX7 SWAMP Nf p' ?ff. Map shows Allied progress In the campaign to oust Axis forces from North 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, daring which Montgomery brought np troops and supplies, 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 Meet Action in Tunisia continued with Lieut Gen. George Patton's Second American Army corps fighting 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 American Ameri-can and British junction, the Axis tanks thrust at the American armored ar-mored columns. Americans brought up artillery to heavily shell Axis troop and motor concentrations. Slowly but surely Patton's men advanced 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 expected expect-ed to put up another short stiff fight before ' falling back toward Sfax. His strategy calls for a series 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 guerrilla guer-rilla activity. Fighting Before Talk Gen. Charles DeGaulle's scheduled meeting with Gen. Henri Giraud in North Africa for the purpose of consolidating con-solidating all anti-Axis French in the war has been postponed by request re-quest of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. General Eisenhower felt that political po-litical discussion in the midst of critical crit-ical fighting in Tunisia could only have a disturbing effect. Prime Minister Min-ister Churchill is supposed to have persuaded DeGaulle to await Anthony An-thony Eden's report of American reaction to the complicated North African problem. U-BOAT WARFARE: Turn for the Worse Indications that the battle of the Atlantic has taken a turn for the worse were made evident when Secretary Sec-retary of the Navy Knox announced that Allied ship losses were considerably consid-erably worse during the past month. Although the secretary gave no estimate es-timate of the total number of U-boats 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 campaign cam-paign will become worse before it gets better. Naval experts 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 construction con-struction of a fleet of destroyer-escort destroyer-escort vessels, smaller than destroyers. de-stroyers. PROMISE: More Farm Tools Following a review of the legislative legisla-tive situation with Democratic congressional con-gressional leaders. President Roosevelt Roose-velt has indicated that in view of the improved war outlook, he will give more attention to domestic problems. Speaker Rayburn, following follow-ing the conference, said the "Presi-dent "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." Newspaper Union. J. m jsb sci riAMA m M I ekjm. lt f f -"" 1 IMARETHa Medinind RUSSIA: Sparring for Knockout In Russia, the two giants continue to spar for positions. Sloughing through marshy swampland, 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 encircling 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 Penaran-da and his cabinet held a conference confer-ence with United States Vice President Presi-dent Wallace to discuss a war decree, de-cree, Brazil was the only South American country at war with Germany Ger-many and Italy. Bolivia had broken bro-ken off diplomatic relations with the Axis a year ago. MONEY: Stabilized Currency? Secretary Morgenthau 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 postwar 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 monetary mone-tary solidarity of all the nations of the world at the end of the war: 1. Creation of an international stabilization sta-bilization fund (five billion dollars). This would be set up by the United Nations and associates. 2. Value of currency in each country coun-try would be "fixed" in terms of gold. 3. An agreement between all nations na-tions to the effect that none would devalue their currencies without consulting the others. BURMA: New Air Bloivs Strengthened British and American Ameri-can air forces continued to demonstrate demon-strate their superiority in Burma, raining bombs on Japanese supply lines with emphasis on the important impor-tant railway from Rangoon to Man-dalay. Man-dalay. The RAF dropped 1,000 -pound bombs on the Rangoon railway station. sta-tion. Photographs showed destruc tion oi an oil refinery, fires from which were visible for 60 miles. A power house, oil tanks and a distillation distilla-tion building were hit American fliers scored hits at Mandalay. NETHERLANDS: Invasion Spadeivork? 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 anti-Nazi attacks was sweeping Holland. The British were said to have been landing parties of two and three bound for the interior. BANKIIEAD BILL: And Parity After President Roosevelt had ve toed the Bankhead farm bill (because (be-cause he believed it "inflationary ) supporters of the measure attempt-ed attempt-ed to override this action by a two-thirds 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 members mem-bers realizing that they could not muster sufficient support to bring this to pass. These senators then became content con-tent to force the bill back to the agricultural agri-cultural committee from whence it could be resurrected whenever the farm bloc felt it had enough votes handy to defeat the President's action. ac-tion. White House opposition to tne measure on the grounds of inflation presented itself because it would prohibit deductions of benefit payments pay-ments from parity in setting farm price ceilings. FLYING FORTRESSES: Neiv Offensive The American air offensive in Europe Eu-rope has gotten under way. Fleets of powerful Flying Fortresses 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 Fortresses For-tresses flew over Antwerp, bombing the Erla airplane works. These works ftave been repairing engines for the Nazi luftwaffe. 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 followed fol-lowed up the attack' with another heavy raid. Wharves and the industrial in-dustrial area were left flaming. Eight bombers and eight fighter planes were lost In the operations. RUBBER: Self Sufficiency Self sufficiency in rubber production produc-tion for the United States was predicted pre-dicted by William M. Jeffers, rubber rub-ber director, who expressed belief that the nation will develop a synthetic syn-thetic rubber industry that will free the country from dependency on outside out-side sources in the future. "There is one very definite forecast 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 independent independ-ent of any sources outside the United 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 country. coun-try. LOADED DICE: In Axis Favor? In the opinion of Adm. William James, British chief of naval information, infor-mation, the "dice are loaded heavily" heav-ily" in favor of the Axis in any Allied attempt to land on the continent 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 operation." op-eration." Predicting that there will be no new startling invention to deal with the U-boat problem, he said the submarine sub-marine menace eventually would be beaten "by the hard unremitting work of all those engaged in protecting pro-tecting our trade." NATIONAL APATHY: 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 national na-tional apathy and lack of aggressiveness aggressive-ness in many phases of American life. He called for the end of internal 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 situation situ-ation is not confined to industry. By mis ne meant tnat unless every citizen citi-zen did his or her part, whatever the job, they were defeating the war effort and were therefore absentees. 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-partisan support was seen for a compromise compro-mise reciprocal trade treaty act which would allow American producers pro-ducers the right to seek modification of any agreement with a foreign country. AIR LINER: Henry J. Kaiser, the shipbuilding wizard, proposes to 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 Her-shey Her-shey says. FIRE OIL: Allied bombers hit the Japanese oil refinery below Rangoon in continuing attacks upon enemy installations in Burma. The Mytinge bridge area of the Burma Road also was raided. Concerto for Two-Finger Typewriter: The most eagerly awaited mail in more than 200 Army and Navy bases from Australia to North Africa is the semi-monthly copy of The Grimy Gazette ... the editor is a Chicago girl named Maggie O' Flaherty Fla-herty . . . Her brother, in the army, sometime ago sent her . this plea: "What we need here more than any-thing any-thing are new jokes. We're telling the same ones to each other 20 times! Fergoodnessakes, sis, dig up some for us!" So Maggie started collecting them slightly i-isgay or pure puns. When they were too naughty she laundered them as best she could and left it to the boys to decode them into unexpurgated literature. Her gag-scouts are friends who travel in parlor cars, and her girl friends bring those they hear in beauty parlors and cafes . . . Twice a month Maggie puts them in the mails for all over the fighting fronts . . . One compliment came from Capt. Tom Griffin In N. Africa. He said: "Thanks for the Gazettes. Laughs are few and far between out here" ... A Camp Polk, La., Sgt. wrote that her Gazettes solved the problem of getting the men to read the bulletin boards. Oh, yes. Maggie O'Flaherty has a regular occupation. , She writes radio shows for kiddies. She is one of the lovelier actresses . . Her young actor-groom enlisted on that December 7th and he's been on active duty abroad for over a year . . . Last night she was at a girl friend's apartment playing gin-rummy gin-rummy with a foursome of gals . . . When she left the room to answer the phone, one of the girls observed: "Hasn't she the loveliest figure? Amazing how she's kept it so trim since he left." "And why not?" said Tallulah. "Nobody's been able to make an appointment ap-pointment with her for over a year-except year-except Elizabeth Arden!" Billy Bryant, the famed Showboat man, was in a Broadway producer's office where a group were panning a dramatic critic, whose review that morning lambasted their new play . . The producer sent the critic a telegram which said: "You are selling your comedy at 2c per copy!" . . To which the reviewer replied: "And you are selling your 2c production pro-duction at $4.40!!!" That recalls the time George Bernard Ber-nard Shaw tried to sell a dated manuscript to a weekly magazine, which rejected it with this note: "Our editors see no reason why it should be published by us." Shaw answered: "Am forwarding a copy in Braille." Earle Stanley Gardner, the mystery mys-tery master, was discussing the cooking in New Orleans. He bemoaned be-moaned the fact that the cuisine there was so good and the variety of rich dishes so tempting, that on his last visit he nearly ate himself to death . . . "Then you don't like New Orleans?" asked his listener ... . "Like it!" he ejaculated. "I love it It's Gout's own country!" The editors of the Mirror consider this one of their favorite war gags: A Berlin worker asked a bank clerk how to invest his life savings of 1,000 marks . . . "Buy State bonds," he was advised . . . "But" he butted, but-ted, "supposing the State goes broke?" . . "You forget the Nazi Party will see that it doesn't!" . . . "But," persisted the man, "supposing "suppos-ing the Nazi Party collapses?" . . . "Well," was the answer, "isn't that worth 1,000 marks?" Notes of an Innocent Bystander: The Intelligentsia: The March of Time editors edited out the last two stanzas of the ditty, "Stalin Wasn't Stallin " (rendered by the Golden Gate Quartet), which have to do with the American Eagle and British Bulldog helping the Russian Bear . Tom O'Connor's deft piece in PM, which castigated E. James Smythe, the Bund and Klan supporter, support-er, was the week's tops in lowdown reporting . . . Roger Butterfleld of Life says the piece on Al Schmid, the marine hero, couldn't have been done sans the help of the Philadelphia Philadel-phia reporters who dug it up originally origi-nally , . . Time has its own intelligence intelli-gence bureau off-the-record statements state-ments and background on stories and people, which are distributed for the personal observation of Time editors only . . . Quentin Reynolds probably is in Russia, having flown there longer than a fortnight ago . . . 93 newspapers suspended publication pub-lication in 1942. Those who plan giving parties In their homes for servicemen might follow the policy of the Stage Door Canteen in New York. The Canteen workers have learned the songs the servicemen do not want to hear. They include: "Miss You," "Dear Mom," "We Did It Before," "Remember Pearl Harbor." Har-bor." "White Cliffs of Dover," "Let-ter "Let-ter From Home," "God Bless America," Amer-ica," "This Is Worth Fighting For" and "My Buddy." 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