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Show ; I ; WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Russ Trap German Army in Caucasus; March 15 Remains Tax Deadline as Congress Plans Pay-as-You-Go Later; Labor Demands Increased Wage Scale ' (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) p'l-"1 by Western Newspaper Union. 'V'. i 1 i . 1 - ' - ' ' 1 j i ' ' s I i ' - Y f V - ( 1 A'hK'"i ( -i i . 1'' I -fi si Three fighting American generals who led their forces against the Japs and were wounded in action in New Guinea are shown convalescing in an Australian hospital. Left to right are shown Brigadier Generals Han-ford Han-ford MacNider, Albert Whitney Waldron and Clovis E. Byers. AXIS STOOGES: Show Jitter Signs i Signs of political and economic : crack-up at the northern and southern south-ern extremities of Germany's European Euro-pean front were indicated in reports hinting increasing unrest in Finland and Rumania. Reports reaching neutral Stockholm, Stock-holm, related that Finland, fearing further Russian offensives in the north, was growing desperate. The Finns' situation was further complicated compli-cated because of food shortages and the inability of the Nazis to send them assistance. Public anger had been roused over a statement by Field Marshal Goering that Russia's Rus-sia's 1939 war on Finland was only a bluff. The Rumanian situation was said to be growing more critical because of heavy losses on the Russian front. Turkish sources reported that Marshal Mar-shal Ion Antonescu, Rumanian dictator, dic-tator, had begun to despair of his country's position. It was estimated that Rumania had lost 350,000 men killed in Russia and nearly 650,000 wounded and prisoners. U-BOAT BASES: Concrete Is Solid Ten feet of solid concrete separated separat-ed RAF bombs from the German submarines they were dropped to blast in Germany's super-U-boat base at Lorient on France's Bay of Biscay. But British fliers kept up their dogged attacks night after night, for submarines remained the chief menace to Allied success in Europe. British reports said that existing pens under concrete at Lorient could accommodate 20 submarines at a time, while another set of pens under construction could take 10 more. Air warfare against submarine j sources was not confined to the bases from which they embarked. Bomber Bomb-er attacks continued to be directed against cities where U-boats parts are manufactured, such as Essen, Duesseldorf and Cologne, as well as Copenhagen, Denmark, where submarine sub-marine diesel engines are made. In ' addition, RAF bombers strafed other industrial cities, including Turin, seat of Italy's airplane engine industry. in-dustry. 7.4 BILLIONS SAVED: For Farmers Says OP A ' Stung by frequent criticism of its policies by farm bloc leaders, the Office of Price Administration answered an-swered back in a statement contending contend-ing that by the end of 1943 this agency agen-cy will have saved American farmers farm-ers $7,400,000,000 or an average oi $1,213 a farm. OPA made this estimate on the basis of a computation of how much money farmers would have, been compelled to spend on things they buy and on operating expenses if there had been no government control con-trol over prices. AFRICAN CRITICISM: Ebb-tide Approaching The tide of criticism over America's Amer-ica's handling of the tricky North Africa political situation had shown signs of ebbing. Significant of this trend was the statement of Foreign Minister Anthony Eden in the house WAGES & PRICES: Labor Looks Upward Organized labor's clash with the government over wage controls drew disquietingly closer as the American Federation of Labor, the CIO and John L. Lewis' United Mine Workers made known their stand. Conferring at the White House, William Green, AFL president, and Phillip Murray, CIO chief, protested to President Roosevelt that the cost of living was "getting out of bounds" and said that there was increasing dissatisfaction among labor's rank and file. : Previously, bushy-browed Lewis had announced a demand for a $2 a day pay increase in the bituminous coal industry, effective April 1. The impending crisis in wage control con-trol was further emphasized when the War Labor board beset by increasing in-creasing demands for pay increases asked Stabilization Director James F. Byrnes whether the "Little Steel" wage ceiling formula should be revised re-vised upward. This yardstick which has been applied to numerous industries indus-tries allowed the WLB to grant wage increases of 15 per cent above the levels of January 1, 1941, and was j designed to match rising living costs ! between that date and May 1, 1942. This problem was dropped in Mr. Byrnes' lap, because any upward wage revision would have consumer repercussions and jeopardize the administration's ad-ministration's entire, wage stabilization stabiliza-tion and price pegging program. INCOME TAX: March 15 Still Deadline Neither the Ruml plan to "forgive" "for-give" all taxes on 1942 income, nor I the U. S. treasury department's pro- ; posal to double up collections of both 1942 and 1943 taxes will be adopted, members of the house ways and means committee definitely indicated. indicat-ed. One fact appeared certain. Forty-four Forty-four million American taxpayers will be compelled to file income tax returns by the March 15 deadline, on the basis of 1942 income. A pay-as-you-go withholding tax procedure will be set up later.' Most observers predicted July 1 as the date. This apparently would be a compromise measure embodying some but not all of the Ruml proposals pro-posals and the treasury's recommendations. recommen-dations. FARM LABOR: Army to Help? Many a Washington official has lain awake nights trying to find a solution for the critical farm labor shortage. L,atest suggestion for relieving the shortage is to apply a method used by Union and Confederate armies in the Civil war furlough soldiers with farm experience to help with harvests har-vests and other seasonal farm jobs. Qbservers believed that creation of this farm army would be undertaken jointly by the war department and the War Manpower commission and the department of agriculture. It was estimated that 500,000 soldiers 1 might be detailed for this needed I task. j Alternately under consideration by 1 top' manpower authorities was a pro- posal to utilize battalions of army 1 men still on military assignment for farm work. I : NAZI TWILIGHT: Darkened by Russ While the strains of Wagner's funereal fu-nereal Gotterdaemmerung on Berlin radios had proclaimed to the Reich the melancholy tidings of Nazi disaster dis-aster at Stalingrad, this requiem was regarded by many observers as only a prelude to more woeful news ahead. For it had become increasingly clear that the German retreat in Russia had long since passed the stage of an orderly withdrawal and had reached the proportions of a rout in many places. Relentlessly the Russians had built up their offensive's of-fensive's momentum, smashing into the Ukraine, narrowing the circle around Rostov and threatening Hitler's Hit-ler's harassed Caucasus forces with a Black sea Dunkirk at Novoros-sisk. Novoros-sisk. Matter-of-fact Soviet communiques communi-ques told the story of German reverses. re-verses. These Included the reoccu-pation reoccu-pation by Red troops of Zolotukhino, only 22 miles above Kursk on the Kursk-Orel railroad, thus cutting the main Nazi supply line to the north; the recapture of Kupyansk and with it the control of an entire rail network; net-work; and the seizure of Kuschev-skaya, Kuschev-skaya, below Rostov on the Rostov-Baku Rostov-Baku railway, the biggest system in the Caucasus. The loss of Kuschevskaya was particularly bitter to the Nazis. Russ possession of this city which commands com-mands a railroad spur leading to the Black sea, threatened to isolate huge German forces already under attack at Novorossisk, the large Nazi-held port on that sea. It had been believed Hitler would try to use Novorosissk for the evacuation of his Caucasian army if Rostov were regained by the Russians. SOLOMONS: Nipponese Persistent Only occasionally during the latest lat-est air-sea battle between American forces and their Jap enemies for control of the southern Solomons was the curtain of official secrecy raised. First American reports were necessarily nec-essarily noncommittal to keep useful use-ful information from the enemy. The Japs used a "reverse English" Eng-lish" technique in reporting the battle. This consisted of radio announcements an-nouncements telling of overwhelming overwhelm-ing American naval superiority in the Guadalcanal area, of the presence pres-ence of 10 American warships and 10 aircraft carriers. By employing such fantastic figures, observers believed be-lieved the Jap high command was preparing the public back home for bad news. MERCHANT SEAMEN: Heroism Unparalleled The heroic part America's 70,000 merchant seamen have played in the front line of combat on the high seas was dramatized by a report issued by Rear Admiral Emory S. Land of the War Shipping administration which disclosed that the percentage of losses in personnel due to Axis U-boats and bombers was three times as great as that of the U. S. armed forces in the first year of the war. Numerically, losses of merchant sailors totaled 3,200 including dead and missing, or 3.8 per cent of the total during the war's first year. U. S. armed forces' losses were 1 per cent in this period. i ' ' HIGHLIGHTS . . . in the week's news I FOREIGN SECRETARY EDEN . . cooperation beginning." of commons that a "start has been made for reconciliation between Frenchmen and readjustment of internal in-ternal conditions in North Africa." Eden placed full responsibility for settling North African controversies upon Frenchmen themselves. That , the French intended to follow this advice was indicated by the creation of a five-man commission by the imperial council in Algiers to undertake under-take internal reforms. One of these ,was the restoration to their posts of officials ousted because they were Masons. Another was the release by General Giraud of 27 Communist members of the former French chamber of deputies. A further step toward unity was a blunt memorandum by Lieut. Gen. Dwight H. Eisenhower warning American officers against unwarranted unwar-ranted criticism of "any ally." COFFEE AND BUTTER: Rations Are Slimmer Less coffee in their morning cups and butter on their bread faced Americans for the remainder of 1943, as the OPA and the Food Distribution Distribu-tion administration made known their newest rationing plans. Coffee rations were reduced from one pound per person every five weeks to one every six weeks. This worked out to about 8.7 pounds per year per civilian. Approximately 13 pounds of butter will be available for each civilian. TOJO BOASTS: Of Jap Resources Hard-bitten Hideki Tojo, Jap prime minister, boasted that Nippon Nip-pon was now a "have" country with resources far superior to those of Britain and the United States. I Characteristically, he did not elaborate elabo-rate on what the superior resources consisted of. Tojo told the house of represents- ' tives in Tokyo that "Japan will fight to the end to crush America so long as she persists in obstructing Japanese Japa-nese war aims." n CHICAGO: Paying its quarterly s dividends in war bonds, stamps or cash is the novel method the Belden Manufacturing company is following c to help promote the treasury depart- tl ment's drive. Since Whipple Jacobs, n president of the company, intro- ir duced the plan last August, stock- VS holders have invested 9Vi per cent of S: their dividends in war bonds. This is well ahead of the national average. OTTAWA: The Canadian army B will start immediately to enlist a lim- pc ited number of boys 17 and 18 years c; of age. National Defense headquar- bl ters announced here. It was stipu- su lated that the youths could not be fa sent overseas until they are 19. The cr boys will be enlisted to give them preliminary training in skilled trades in a course lasting 10 months. 3c The boys will be trained as instru ct ment mechanics, motor vehicle fit- 3a ters, electricians, radio mechanics, hi topographical draftsmen, surveyors :r; and clerks. The first quota will com prise about 400 youths. WASHINGTON : Planes of the 12th U. S. air force sank or damaged 54 Axis ships in North African waters, ranging from light cruisers to freighters between November 8 and February 1, it was announced here in a report received from Allied headquarters in North Africa. The report disclosed that 13 ships had been sunk, seven severely damaged, and 34 others damaged. BETHESDA, MD.: A treadmill on which fighting men in the United States canfiguratively march through the deserts of Libya, the jungles of Guadalcanal or the frozen wastes of the Arctic is being used at the navy's medical research institute here. The treadmill is situated in a window-less window-less room insulated with cork walls. Apparatus provides temperatures ranging from the tropics to the North Pole. Other apparatus will simulate simu-late humidity conditions in various places where men are fighting or may fight. The treadmill will orient them to all battle situations. |