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Show THE PROGRESSIVE OPINION ' It's Time to Send Your Presents to Servicemen; 'Christmas Mail Month' Is Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 Whenever the presents arrive is Christmas to soldiers across the sea. Sometimes the army and navy postal services deliver the goods sooner than expected, as happened last year in Italy, when packages from home arrived late in November. The boys opened them up at once, since they didn't know what they'd be doing or where they'd be on Christmas Day. It's safest to mail early, however, because unforeseen delays can come along any time. Privilege Granted On Overseas Gifts During This Period The volume of Christmas mail going overseas to men and women in the armed forces this year will reach a new high, the office of war in-formation predicts. Approximately 33,000 uni-formed men and women in the army and navy postal serv-ices are preparing for their biggest job that of moving an estimated 70,000,000 pack-ages of Christmas presents (three times as many as last year) to the military men and women overseas. Army postal officers are prepar-ing their organization to move about twice as many Christmas parcels as were handled in 1943, when 20,000,-00- 0 holiday packages were sent abroad. The navy mail service expects nearly four times the volume of gifts handled in 1943 through fleet post offices in New York and San Fran-cisco. A total of 7,480,000 packages went through the fleet post offices last year, 3,480,000 of them to ad-vanced bases or ships at sea and 4,000,000 to ships putting in at Amer-ican ports. The service postal organizations can handle this enormous volume more easily with a little assistance from friends and relatives of sol-diers and sailors. In 1943, the army post office transmitted more than 20 million holiday packages and an ad-ditional 75 million to 100 million pieces of miscellaneous mail. The navy moved approximately 3,480,000 parcels overseas last Christmas and approximately four million packages to personnel on shore stations in the United States, and more than 80 million letters and Christmas cards during the Christmas mail period last year. The army and navy intend to make every effort to deliver every Christmas gift overseas on time and intact. But a sailor will not be cheered if the gift he receives from his mother for example: an expen-sive wristwatch proves to have been ruined because it was com-pletely buried in a box of cookies that have crumbled in transit, the navy said. Inches In length and 36 inches in length and girth combined. The army recommends that the package container be a box of metal, wood, or solid doublefaced, corrugated flberboard, reinforced with strong gummed paper tape or tied with strong, twine or both. Standardized boxes for mailing Christmas gifts to military person-nel overseas will probably be on the market by September 1, the War Production board reported. Approxi-mately 16,000,000 special applica-tions for the purchase by retailers and box jobbers of these boxes have been filed with WPB. WPB said that the standard boxes are to be manufacutured of tested corrugated paper-boar- 12 by 634 by 4 inches, in regulation slotted carton style with taped manufacturers' joints. The post office department has recom-mended that gummed flaps be sup-plied with the boxes for sealing the parcels, WPB reported. including matches and lighter fluids, are taboo and will not be accepted for mailing overseas. A navy postal officer stationed overseas wrote: "During the Christ-mas rush we kept a considerable force of men busy rewrapping par-cels and salvaging everything fit for forwarding. A very great service could be rendered to us out here if the widest possible publicity could be given to these matters. "The people should be warned not to send liquids of any kind. They should use every possible precaution in packing powder of any kind. Fruit is not only dangerous to their own mail, but it causes serious dam-age to the other fellow's mail. Warn them about candy melting, fruit, cakes and cookies crumble and de-cay. "Above all the fact should be stressed that mail sacks can be baked in the hot sun and drenched in transit, all in the same day." The navy has found that unsuit-able gifts include: leather goods (these mold in the tropics) ; choco-lates (these melt) ; cigarettes (ob-tainable more cheaply in ships' stores) ; cameras (forbidden) ; elec-trical equipment . (there may be no electricity available) ; food, unless tinned; liquor; clothing, unless re-- Blanks for address and return ad-dress will appear on the panels of the box, also the statement "this box to be used only for sending merchandise to a member of the armed forces outside the United States." 4. Address the package complete-ly and legibly. Print the address so that it will not run, streak, smudge or fade. Place an additional copy of the address and return address inside the package, so that if it comes apart, or the wrapper is torn, soiled, or lost, the additional copy may be used. Do not use gammed labels for addressing. The army and navy point out that they know what not to send over-seas for Christmas, on the basis of past experience. But what to send is another thing altogether. In gen-eral, soldiers and sailors and oth-ers like gifts that are unobtainable where they are and remind them with special significance of home. What Not to Send. The services advise generally against sending articles that may be obtained by sailors in ships' serv-ice stores, or by soldiers in post ex- - Distances, heat, cold, sand, damp-ness, fleet or combat operations, and the fortunes of war are hazards that complicate the delivery of all mail overseas, even without the Christmas rush. The only factor in Christmas gift delivery over which the sender has control is the type and condition of the parcel when it leaves his hands, the army and navy emphasized. Mail Regulations. 1. Christmas mail month will com-prise the period from Sep-tember 15 to October 15, 1944, for all those in the armed services over-seas. This period is the only time dur-ing which packages may be sent to soldiers overseas without a specific written request from the soldier or without an APO cancellation. Only one package may be sent by quested. Fragile articles and soft candies and pastries are poor gifts for ob-vious reasons, the army reported. Gifts Poorly Wrapped. The army cautioned that boxes of miscellaneous gifts should be packed carefully. Razor blades, for example, require extra wrapping. Numerous cases have been re-corded of improperly wrapped razor blades working through packages. In 1943, approximately 15 per cent of the Christmas mail handled by the navy was delayed in transit be-cause of incorrect or incomplete addressing, the navy reported. One navy postal officer wrote from the Pacific theater: "It needs no considerable stretch of your imagination to understand how mail looks after it has been shipped for thousands of miles by water, then worked and shipped again, reworked and reshipped un-til it arrives at a Fleet Post office for directory service. By this time, any of the parcel post that was at all inclined to be perishable is thor-oughly decomposed, causing dam-age to mails adjacent. "Only today we dumped up a sack containing the contents of a parcel which had come entirely apart. There were rotten apples, decayed oranges, melted candy and stale cake crumbs throughout the entire sack. This happens all too fre-quently. "A great deal of it was originally poorly wrapped. Many parcels have sticker addresses. The sacks have may become wet in transit, caus-ing the labels to come off. Fre-quently these stickers have been Vl)1,al., -- . .................... m Mnp ......... ' Al n T1 vy vf ':i - aw. -- )!.: r,! v 1 Packages get rough handling all aloiur the way, and unless they are securely wrapped and tied, they may be damaged in transit Here Is a scene in the New York postoffice, showing how busy sorters toss parcels into the hand-truck- s. The big pile in the rear consists of packages atre.rmin8: und0e-t- he strlnS working off, or the wrapping loose. your gifts have made the long trip in a mail sack thev have been subjected to a lot of bouncing around on the railroad and boat. The last stage may be made in a jeep or airplane. air siaypeu on, leaving tiny pockets beneath them. Friction in transit causes these to wear off in spots. All too often addresses are in pencil, or, if in ink, the ink has become wet and illegible." Again this year soldiers overseas will be able to select gifts for the folks back home from the mail or- der catalogue operated by the army exchange service, special services division. Listed gifts include: men's toiletries, haberdashery, leather goods, luggage, games, including playing cards, books, magazine sub-scriptions, dolls, toys, doll dishes stuffed animals, smokers' supplies' candy, perfumes, cosmetics and lingerie. or on behalf of the same person or ooncern to or for the same soldier In one week during this month. 2. Mark the package "Christmas Parcel," using a label that does not resemble a postage mark or stamp. 3. The package must weigh not more than five pounds, wrapped, and must be no longer than 15 changes. But soap, for example, which is available in most post ex-'- 1 changes, is a valued gift, particu-larly for soldiers on the move, for in advancing they sometimes out-distance for hours or days even mo-bile post exchanges. Perishable foods, intoxicants, weapons, poisons and inflammables, - WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS , I Allies Jolt Nazi Grip in France; Reds Carry War to German Soil; Summer Drouth. Hits Ohio Valley Released by Western Newspaper Union. ... ,n (EDITOR'S NOTE:: When opinions arc expressed In these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) SOLDIER READING: Ease Restrictions Irked by the army's interpretation of the political propaganda ban in the soldier's voting law, which re-sulted in exclusion of much popular reading matter in military camps, the senate moved to ease the tight administration of this provision of the act. Originally, the law stipulated that no newspapers, magazines, motion pictures or literature paid for or sponsored by the government, and containing political propaganda, could be distributed to the armed forces. Much of the trouble lay in the army's rigid interpretation of the word "sponsored," which it took to mean permitting the sale of popu-lar reading matter containing polit-ical material at service posts, or use of company funds to subscribe to newspapers. WHEAT: Perennial Brand Agricultural pioneers even back to the days of the Czars, when they de-veloped artificial insemination at royal stables, the Russians claim to have developed an edible perennial wheat with a gluten content of 60 per cent. According to the Soviet's ace agronomist, Prof. N. V. Tsitsin, the perennial evolved from cross polli-nation of wild grasses of the agropy-ru-family with wheat, produced satisfactory initial harvests, with real tests to come next season. Although plant breeders in the U. S. have long worked on develop-ment of a perennial wheat, they have met little practical success thus far, with one hybrid composed of wild grasses and the grain lack-ing regular qualities. No Fun f ihcHERBOUROT JFC AUisL P7J"1 A fklo ROCHELLE J fell .onn," 4 (CoblesA rl TOUlOUSE A SPAIN iCsEiiu wcS S?4s With landings in southern France and sweeping advances in the north, the Allies are forming a huge pincers to squeeze German forces in that country, as arrows in picture show. CIVILIAN GOODS: Reconversion Step Although the War Production board has allowed the use of sur-plus labor and factory facilities in the manufacture of civilian goods, no appreciable increase in the out-put of such material can be looked forward to until Germany is, de-feated, when it should jump 39 per cent to prewar levels, WPB Czar Donald Nelson declared. WPB'S order permitting limited manufacture of civilian goods con-stituted the fourth and final step in its program for gradual reconver-sion, previous provisions allowing use of aluminum and magnesium; construction of postwar working models of products, and immediate ordering of machine tools. Under the WPB's latest ruling, manufacturers able to employ sur-plus labor will receive priority as-sistance for producing such items as FRANCE: Form Pincer With Allied forces everywhere on the move, the Nazi hold on France loosened, and German troops fell back to escape the death traps that lightning U. S. armored thrusts were forging. In the north, U. S. columns that drove on Paris- - threw out a long arm around the left flank of the Ger-man army that wriggled out of the Falaise-Argenta- n pocket in Norman-dy, threatening the retreating ene-my with still another entrapment. While these U. S. columns under leadership of Lieut. Gen. George S. Patton pressed the Germans around Paris, British and Canadian forces hammered at the enemy in the re-gion extending to the English chan-nel to the north, pushing him back on A continuous front. Swift Allied advances in the north were matched by equally success- - r7'-V'V- " L j,r j ful gains in the new invasion area of southern France, where liberation troops spearheaded by Maj.-Ge- Alex-ander M. Patch's American Seventh army thrust far in-land before encoun-tering stiffening electric ranges, heating stoves, pails and buckets, electric flat irons, farm machinery except tractors, and wa-ter storage tanks for agricultural use. PACIFIC: Step Up Bombing With U. S. bombers operating west of New Guinea and pounding the enemy's shipping plying beyond the Philippines and Celebes islands, the position of 150,000 Japanese troops trapped within American lines in the South Pacific continued to deteriorate. As U. S. bombers continued to range to the west of New Guinea, other U. S. aircraft hammered at Japanese bastions in the Bonin islands, guarding the southern ap-proaches to the Nipponese home-land, 600 miles away. While U. S. bombers continued No different than a million other young men but not as lucky George Danhires, 2, of Pittsburgh, Pa., crawled half-way through the opening of an eight inch areaway between the walls of his home before he got stuck. Firemen were com-pelled to chop part of the liv-ing room wall to free him. If the picture's any indication, it was no fun, fellas! COTTON: Seek Parity In an effort to raise cotton prices to parity, which is from $6 to $8 per bale above 1944 loan rates, Sen. John H. Bankhead (Ala.) urged growers to keep the commodity off the market. Senator Bankhead's action came in the midst of his conferences with ' enemy opposition in ' Maj.-Ge- the mountainous A. M. Patch country. As the regular army formations drove inland, they joined hands with scores of para-troopers, who had been dropped far back of the beachhead areas to sever enemy communication lines and hamper his forward movements to the fighting zones. As was the case in Normandy, many Czechs, Poles and Russians were included in the German units which manned the coastal defenses, and as the fighting raged further inland from Toulon to Nice, the Al-lies bucked up against a better cali-ber of enemy troops. Encouraged by the Allied suc-cesses the French underground in-tensified their sabotage of Nazi com-munications and installations. EASTERN FRONT: Enter Prussia In the face of heavy Nazi resist-ance and repeated counter-attac-supported by rocket fire, Russian troops under Gen. Ivan Cherniakhovsky crossed the East Prussian border to carry a war to German soil for the first time in 30 their softening up campaign of the enemy's strategic island defense system, American ground forces dug into newly won positions in the Marianas, Adm. Chester Nimitz de-clared that it might not be neces-sary to invade Japan to win a last-ing peace. DROUTH: Crops Periled With only half a month of the June-Augu- summer season re-maining, the Ohio valley anxiously hoped that showers east of the Mis-sissippi would develop into substan-tial rainfalls and break a two and a half month drouth, during which Tennessee had only about 45 per cent normal precipitation, Illinois 50 Der cent. Indiana 52 Der cent. Ken- - governmeni omciais ana couon manufacturers over elevation of the price level in conformance with his congressional act calling for at-tainment of parity of agricultural crops. During the conferences, Senator Bankhead said, it was agreed that early OPA revision of textile prices to reflect parity would help boost the market. As a last resort, he said, 97V4 to 100 per cent parity loans were considered. DEMOBILIZATION: Study Discharges The but compli-cated problem of how to release servicemen and women from the armed forces after the war is re-ceiving the consideration of both As the Germans savagely coun-tered the Russian invasion of East Prussia with continuing counter-attacks, the Nazis were reportedly throwing fresh reserves into the bat-tle from Himmler's home guard. On other sectors of the 1,000-mil- e front, German resistance was equal-ly bitter, with the Nazis yielding ground grudgingly in the Baltic states and employing tank and in-fantry forces to slow the Red drive on Warsaw. To the south, the enemy also brought his mechanized units into counterattack to impede the Russian advance on the central German bor-der, 75 miles away from the front. tucky 44 per cent and Ohio 61 per cent. Besides inflicting damage ranging from 10 to 70 per cent on corn crops in some areas, and threaten-ing soybeans and gardens, the heat and drouth seared pasturage, com-pelling farmers to dip into dwindling feed supplies, and inducing many to hold back on purchases of stock-er- s for future fattening. Although the Ohio valley re-mained hardest hit by the drouth continued dry weather threatened crops and pasturage in a wide re-gion, including the North Atlantic coast area, the Northwest and I Texas and Oklahoma. President Roosevelt and the high command, it was reported. Under a reported proposal, per-sonnel would be discharged under a point system, with so many points granted for service abroad, length of service and number of cam-paigns, and marital status and de-pendency. Personnel with the largest number of points would be the first released. At the same time, the President was said to be considering use of some camps and training facilities in this country for vocational study and rehabilitation of vets, and mod-ernization of others for future de-fense forces. EGGS The War Food administration holds a huge stock of eggs, purchased at a cost of between 100 and 150 million dollars to maintain prices at 90 per cent of parity. Col. Ralph Olmstead of WFA testified before a senate committee that some five mil-lion cases have been bought. Colonel Olmstead stated that he was uncertain what disposition would be made of the eggs, although he said that probably a large part can be sent to Britain and liberated coun-tries in a dried state. Released by Western Newspaper Union When I wa's but a small boy jsl arriving at the question age hom was a house near the railroad dep of a small town in southern I0Wl Each time I could escape the watch ful eye of Mother and run away m destination was the depot. With a, timidity of a child of that period I would get as near as possible to the table to which the telegraph in strument was fastened. I was curt ous to know what made it "click" Before I had' solved that mystery came the telephone, first shown at the Centennial exposition in I8;s It was hailed as a world marvel then while today it is a common, place providing instant communica. tion from house to house or from coast to coast. To me its operation is still a mystery. It was well past the turn t rf,e century, and I was well into the 30s, when another communication ma-rvel appeared. It was a wireless tele, phone, the forerunner of radio. With a telephone instrument of that time attached only to a wire hoop, i talked from within the walls of the Chicago Press Club building to on board a ship ten miles out ia Lake Michigan. That was only some 40 years ago and today radio U providing information, entertain, ment, instruction in some 90 per ceni of the homes of the cities towns and farms. Now comes television. Soon It will be a commonplace to sit in our homes and see pictures of evend as they happen. We will watch thi gestures of a speaker as we listen to his address delivered many milej away. Such are a few of the means ol communication invented or deve-loped by American genius. Their a-dvantages are available to all, rich or poor, in city or on the farm, b-ecause of America's ability to pr-oduce and develop. An ability born of the American system of compet-itiv- e free enterprise. The incentive to the producer is a profit Wuld government ownership and operation of our productive facilities, would the planned economy of state socialism, have done as much to make life easier or more enjoyable, or at an equally low cost? We know It could not have been done. In the United States there are 130 million people. Of that number the census bureau tells as more than 88 million are qualified to vote. That 88 million are responsible for wha-tever government we may have. Of the 88 million 5 million are me-mbers of the CIO. Less than of the voting population propose to direct the governmental policies of the nation. The strange part of it is that those responsible for partisan political action seem fearful of antagonizing that minor-ity. That, it would seem, is what our government "of the people, for the people, by the people" has b-ecome. RUSSIA'S PLACE IN FAMILY OF NATIONS PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S e-xpressed wish is that, with the co-ming of peace, Russia will again join the family of nations. He will rea-lize that wish. Russia, thanks to Stalin's realism, will be the largest aijd the mightiest of the family o! nations. It will have territory, people and natural resources that will make of it the big boy of the family. Under the guiding hand of Stalin the resources will be rapidly developed. For possibly a generation Russia will be busy at home. Stalin has no real understudy being prepared for his job of dictatorship. What ml happen following his passing is big, unanswerable question, but it possible that Russia may be the Germany for the next generation to fight. She will be more powerful than Germany has been. Englacd is fearful of such a Russia. GREAT VALUE IN SMALL PACKAGES IN NEWSPAPER back shop parlance the short, philosophical item of two to a doien lines, a "blurb." They are appreciate" by the printer because of their convenience in filling he s"j1' spaces in a newspaper form. T "blurbs" ha printer's been more effective in moi-ling world civilization than W long - winded presentation' great minds. Ten of what in printer would consider "blus represent the basis of the of the civilized world and provi our conception of morals Great v ten commandments. can come in small packages THE TOWN BOYS, THOSE OF to 16 years of age. too young for armed services, can do tnei r in the war effort during ' summer and fall. Without food soldiers and sailors cannot on. Without help the farmers can produce all the food that is n for the armed services anu people at home In our own an Allied countries. The boys cai v vide a portion of that need production help. It offers tne portunity to do their part, body will welcome their help. First Railroad Post Office CarrieTManloidie Eighty years ago the first perma- world adopted the idea nent railroad post office was estab-lished to speed up mail for soldiers. On August 28, 1864, George B. Arm-strong, then assistant postmaster of Chicago, sent his first railway post office on its way over the Chicago and North Western railway from Chicago to Clinton, Iowa. Within a few years the new system of ex-pediting the mails spread to include the principal trunk lines of the na-tion. Practically every nation in the eventually. Armstrong instituted the service with approval of the postmaster general as a means of facilitating distribution of mail, particularly to men in the army. From the first Armstrong envisioned a national system and lived to see his plan become a success, despite public doubts and ridicule when he first announced his plan. On the first trip 80 years ago prominent Chicago newspapermen, bankers and civic leaders went along to witness the initial opera- tion. One banker refused to be d of the plan's practicability remarking that "all the mail would blow out of the car." Although Armstrong is generally credited with the first permanent railway post office, others preceded him by a few years with similar Plans. All, however, were devised to meet local emergencies and no plan operated more than a year j I ! HIGHLIGHTS . . . in th week' new, ! L RADIO PICTURES: A British ra-dio and television expert recently disclosed plans to set up wireless y stations that can flash complete typewritten or printed pages at the rate of 25 pages per second. At present the rate of transmission is six minutes for one page or picture. It is possible to speed up as much as 15,000 times, the inventor states. WANTED CHEWING GUM: A burglar who broke into a filling sta-tion in New Haven, Conn., took gasoline coupons for 300 gallons, and then set to work to get what he really wanted chewing gum. He smashed a vending machine, grabbed 100 sticks of gum and hastened away. He ignored the pen-nies in the machine and the money in the cash register. |