OCR Text |
Show THE LEHI SUN, LEIH, UTAH Mounting Battle Tempo Calls for More Material Big Problem Is to Route Manpower Into Critical Work; Labor Needs Vary Throughout Different Areas. By BAUKIIAGE Veuii Analyit and Commentator v. , -J, ... i - , JvaJL ' v fv J WNU Service, Union Trust Building Washington, D. C. What Is wrong with the American war effort on the home front? Why all this excitement over . new draft of manpower? Didn't War Mobillzer Byrnes say that our war production almost equalled the production of the entire world? These questions are being asked In many minds. I have asked them of the men whose Job It Is to get things done In Washington, and I want to try to P"t their answers before you. Let me quote one sentence spoken by War Mobillzer Byrnes himself: "Critical production net longer feeds pipe-lines or goes into strategic strate-gic reserves it is going right Into battle." If we compare "critical production" produc-tion" with fighting units, perhaps the recent German counter-offensive will help us see the picture. When . Von Rundstedt'i drive started, men and tanks and guns and trucks, "critical production" in other words, all had to be poured into actual battle. The result was that t)ere were just not enough of them In the right place at the right time and our line crumbled. There were no Immediate reserves to throw In and bolster the defense. Later on, when the veterans from the Third army and the First army and the British troops arrived, the tide was turned. They represented the reserves of "critical production" produc-tion" which should have been there 11 the time. For many months on that particular particu-lar front only the men in the front lines were needed. There were enough men there to take care of the normal enemy opposing them. It was a minimum force without enough reserve to take care of maximum need and they were thrown back. That is the situation In war production pro-duction today. Certain critical supplies sup-plies (airplanes, tanks, other vehicles vehi-cles and their' accessories, certain types of ordnance, certain types of ammunition) are being used so fast in battle that if an extra strain developed at a certain point there would not be any reserve to call upon. Changing Conditions Alter Planning Why are these things lacking? Why didn't we pile them up, as we do other things, until we had enough to take care of an emergency? Chiefly,' because their greatest need developed after we started our war programs. Reserves for the future can only be based on present Information Infor-mation or estimates based on previous previ-ous knowledge, or lucky guessing. When the war began nobody, not even the Japs who used amphibious warfare In the early stages to the best advantage, had any Idea of the type and number of landing-craft, landing-craft, to say nothing of the technique tech-nique of operating them, which are used in the latest Allied operations. The contrast between the Japanese landing in Lingayen bay and the American landing three years later in the same place is astounding. Byrnes used as examples of other "unpredictables," inventions and improvements over old models. Jet planes, new types of radar and the like. Today, 55 per cent of our war production does not need to rise. Some of it Is properly declining. But there are other parts of the program which are lagging that should mount because they are "critical production." Of course, Borne plants making such goods are temporarily closed while re-tooling for new models. Others are under construction. But many plants lack nothing except manpower, those, for example, making certain types of planes and tanks and ships. Tires are being ground to pieces by shell splinters in the mud of Luxembourg Luxem-bourg and Belgium. Tanks are rolling roll-ing from New Guinea to the Philippines Philip-pines to the Rhine, and bigger and better ones are demanded. There is a constant need for all kinds of ammunition, am-munition, but there is critical need for certain types of ammunition, both heavy and light. And so we come to the main problem prob-lem which Is really the only problem prob-lem today manpower. We have the raw material and will have the manufacturing facilities in time. Undersecretary of War Patterson told the house military affairs committee com-mittee that In the Srst six months of 1945, 700,000 men would be needed for war production and industry necessary to the war effort. I have talked with the War Manpower Man-power commission experts and they break down those figures something like this: One hundred and fifty thousand men needed immediately for critical war production. One hundred and fifty thousand more for other war production to take care of the normal turn-over, expected replacements, etc. The remaining 400,009 must be retained In civilian production and services which have to be continued in order to maintain the total war effort The situation Is summed up in general terms this way: The manpower man-power mobilization problem is not as large as it was in 1942 and 1943 but it is more acute in certain lines. Two things contribute to making mak-ing it more acute. One is the fact that we haven't the pool of either civilian production or the unemployed unem-ployed from which to draw as we had at the start. Second, because the needs are "critical" (battle needs) they must be satisfied immediately im-mediately or the actual front-line activities may be Immediately affected. af-fected. One thing which must be considered consid-ered is the geographical shift of the American labor, force, a point which affects the general situation for it Involves moving a worker from place to place. And in the present pres-ent need, although the West coast (where labor Is concentrated) is still the most critical area, the building of new factories to meet new needs and the change in the type of needs from one established factory In one place to one in another an-other place involves the question of suasion or force on the worker. For instance, there Is a great need In Utah and Wyoming for workers work-ers in coal mines. The scattered foundry sections from Michigan and Ohio, through Pennsylvania and New York to New England are critical areas. Even plane production, produc-tion, concentrated in the West has its problems, for, although some airplane air-plane factories on the Pacific coast have closed down, many of the new factories for the flying fortresses and other new models are in areas other than the West coast. We have the man and woman-power woman-power in the nation to take care of the need. It is a question of getting the right man in the right place. Overoptimism Causes Letdown There are several reasons why the right man (and woman) is not in the right place now. One Is due to an error in Judgment which may, or may not, be blameworthy. Germany's Ger-many's "come-back" power, for which I attempted to set forth certain cer-tain reasons in two preceding columns, col-umns, was underestimated. This caused a shortage in certain types of weapons. Superabundance in others. The latter put men out of work and caused them to seek non-war Jobs. We bad counted on a more mobile type of warfare. We did not think we needed the heavy artillery to blast Germany out of powerful defenses. We counted too heavily on enemy vulnerability to the bombing of German cities. That was both a psychological and strategical stra-tegical error. Underestimating the length of the European war also had a bad psychological psy-chological effect. It caused many workers to quit war work for what they thought would be more permanent per-manent employment. It caused great pressure on Washington to begin be-gin reconversion, as War Mobilizer Byrnes admits was wrong. He said: ". . . we could not do two things at once . . could not pursue an all-out war production effort while simultaneously releasing materials, facilities and manpower tor civilian production." The man and his Job were separated, sepa-rated, too, by the improvement of models and creation of new equipment equip-ment No one can be blamed for this. But frequently, as I have shown, it tended to place the job and the man miles apart BARBS by Baukhage There is a report that Hitler can't even hear himself properly any more. Lucky Adolph. They say a girl gave the answer. "The telephone rirgs," when asked by the professor as to what happens when a body is immersed in water. But I doubt if she felt that it would put a wet blanket on her conversation. An American soldier made such a hit conducting a Berlioz symphony in Rome that the Italians requested a repeat He couldn't because his three-day pass had expired. i Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that "Good is a good doctor but Bad Is sometimes a better." But what difference does it make? They're probably both in the army now. WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS- Germans Fall Back Behind Oder River as Red Tide Rolls On; Act for More Essential Apparel ft ' ' (lUi 1 1 'J I F . 1 il',",w"9lC? i Released by Western Newspaper Union. (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are exorcised In th. olomn, they rt those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily sf this newspaper.) lysts and not necessarily 1mt iiffl ..jBJ-i. frirrij- ' -1 . i .mtfnmitl Driving southward to Manila, Yank infantrymen trod gingerly over crude Irrigated landscape on Luzon. Premier Stalin EUROPE: Red Tide Long in the making, when Germany Ger-many first envisioned the necessity of fighting by her- 1 self, the Reich's 1 Oder rfver line was put to its first real test as Marshal Konev's 1st Ukraine army rolled to its ramparts ram-parts on a broad front in Silesia, the "little Ruhr" of the east. As Konev'i forces moved on the Oder line, Marshal Zhu-kov's Zhu-kov's 1st White Russian army pushed on the rich agricultural province prov-ince of Pomerania farther to the north, while Marshal Rokossovsky's 2nd and General Cherniakovsky's 3rd White Russian armies ' were snapping their huge pincer on East Prussia, traditional home of the Junkers. In sweeping on Silesia, the Russians Rus-sians threatened Germany's second great industrial belt, rich in mineral resources and once distantly removed re-moved from heavy Allied bombardment. bombard-ment. As the Red tide rolled on, Nazi commentators frankly admitted that loss of Silesia would seriously Impair their ability to carry on the war, and it was here that the enemy offered some of his first sizable resistance. re-sistance. While Premier Stalin announced an-nounced the fall of one stronghold strong-hold after another, and .declared .de-clared that the great Russian winter offensive had licked up . the cream of the German army, Nazi circles began to take a calmer view of the situation after aft-er their first frantic reaction, claiming that effective counter-measures counter-measures could be made only in time because of the gigantio scope of the attack. , Renew Threat As the last remnants of the German Ger-man forces which punched deep into Belgium streamed back into the Siegfried Line under a hail of Allied aerial fire, British forces to the north maintained their heavy pressure against the Roer river line guarding the plain to Cologne. With their Belgium bubble burst, the Germans stepped up the intensity inten-sity of their nuisance attack in Alsace, Al-sace, where the U. S. 7th army, forced to bear the full weight of the Nazi pressure in this area following the retirement of units to meet the enemy's earlier threat in the north, fought off savage tahk,-led attacks on a broad front Temporarily relieved by Von Rundstedt's daring thrust into Belgium, Bel-gium, Germany's vital Rhineland again was seriously endangered by the British operations above Aachen, and the U. S. 1st and 3rd armies' regaining of the initiative. Terms for Hungary Return of territory to Czechoslovakia, Czechoslo-vakia, Romania and Yugoslavia, payment of $300,000,000 in reparations repara-tions and provision of at least eight infantry divisions to help fight Germany Ger-many marked the Allies' armistice terms to Hungary accepted in Moscow. Mos-cow. No sooner had Hungary returned Ruthenia to Czechoslovakia than the latter ceded the mountainous province prov-ince to Russia, which sought it as a natural defense barrier to the newly new-ly enlarged Soviet Ukraine. Payment of the $300,000,000 in reparations rep-arations will be made in goods over a six-year period, it was revealed, with Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia sharing in $100,000,000. DROUTH With their fields 'and pastures scorched, drouths were said to have played havoc with Australia and Argentina's field crops, and, in the case of the former, taken a heavy toll of stock. From a normal 156.000.000 bushels bush-els of wheat Australia's production produc-tion was estimated to have dropped to a mere 50.000.000 bushels, while 2.000.000 of 137.000,000 sheep and thousands of head of cattle and were said to have been lost. Only a carryover of 75.000.000 bush- PACIFIC: Yanks Wary Virtually without opposition during dur-ing the earlier stages of their drive down the broad plains to Manila on Luzon, General MacArthur's all-con quering American forces began to run Into stiffer opposition as their drive fully developed. Even so, enemy opposition was chiefly concentrated far behind on the Yanks' left flank, where Gen eral MacArthur was forced to bring up strong artillery batteries to pound Japs entrenched in the mountainous terrain, guarding the approaches to the northeastern end of the island. Although the speed of their ad vance southward waited only on the movement of their supply columns, the Yanks pushed forward warily, cognizant that the enemy command had not yet committed the major portion of his forces to the fight. As they swept on, however, the Yanks seized a half dozen air strips for use of the numerically superior U. S. air forces. CLOTHING: Plan Controls Seeking to increase the output of essential low and medium priced clothing, and also check the rising cost of apparel, the government mapped a double- . edged program. -- First, the War Production board planned to give priority preferment for fabrics to manufacturers manu-facturers of work clothing, children's chil-dren's apparel and underwear, with the government controlling quality to assure maximum serviceability serv-iceability of the garments and limiting the trimmings. Second, the Office of Price Administration, Ad-ministration, describing rising clothing costs as the greatest single threat to the anti-inflation program, planned to fix maximum maxi-mum prices at the average level of the first half of 1943. a reduction re-duction of about 6 fir 7 per cent Although most so-called luxury lux-ury items will disappear from the market under the new regulations, regu-lations, WPB said, better grade clothing will continue to be available, avail-able, and the overall supply, should remain about the same. CABINET SHIFT: Wallace Named With business generally looking askance at ex-Vice Pres. Henry A. Wallace's appointment as secretary of commerce, the senate sought to soften the opposition to the selection by considering the transfer of the huge lending functions from the department de-partment to a federal ldan agency. Such a move would serve to quiet apprehensions over Wallace's experience expe-rience in the handling of huge sums, and the concern that he might use the department's tremendous resources re-sources for the active entrance of government in business to provide postwar employment On being apprized ap-prized of his appointment Wallace declared: "The department of commerce com-merce and federal loan agency provide pro-vide an opportunity . . . for intelligent intelli-gent work in behalf of the producing and consuming public. Roughly, the job is to promote a maximum of national employment by private business. Government must accept the duty of seeing that all men in health have jobs. . . . " Wallace's appointment was not made smoother by the displacement of incumbent Sec. Jesse Jones, the big Texas business mogul who handled the multi-billion dollar lending lend-ing activities of the Reconstruction Finance corporation with small loss even before the RFC was made part of the department of commerce in 1942. els of wheat from the previous year curbed the stock fatalities and . enabled en-abled the country to meet its domestic domes-tic and foreign commitments. In Argentina the prolonged drouths and excessive heat is seriously seri-ously endangering field crops, with prospects for corn 80 per cent below be-low last year's harvest and for wheat down 50 per cent. Flax and rye production also is expected to suffer heavily. Seared pastures and small forage for-age reserves cloud the country's stock situation. POLITICS: Plans r.irrfinif for the 1946 congressional and 1948 presidential elections, the Republican national commiuee, meeting in Indianapolis, Ind., adopted adopt-ed a program looking toward the active revitalization of the party. Promised hv Chairman Herbert Rrnwru.il who was reelected to the position, the program calls for the establishment of a full time organization organ-ization with an enlarged staff, which, in addition to maintaining contact with state units, would work closely with GOP representatives ana senators sena-tors and help them prepare legislation. legis-lation. Originally a Dewey man, Brownell faced some opposition to his reelection reelec-tion as chairman chiefly because of discontent with the last campaign and the feeling that his retention might strengthen the New York governor's gov-ernor's position in 1948, but he set fears at rest by declaring that he would work for no man's candidacy but would merely interest himself in operating the party machinery. On the other side of the fence, the Democratic national committee, with $400,000 in the kitty, revealed plans to have each state raise a certain cer-tain quota of money to help defray the expenses of the party's between-election between-election publicity and educational drives. At the same time, Chairman Han-negan Han-negan announced that the Jefferson Day birthday banquets to be held April 13 would replace the former Jackson Day dinners for the raising of funds for future election campaigns. cam-paigns. CANNED VEGETABLES: Guard Supplies Because uncontrolled demand would have resulted in the disappearance disap-pearance of short stocks of canned vegetables three to five months before be-fore the new pack, rationing of these items was restored in December, it was revealed. Originally, OPA had removed canned vegetables from rationing in September because of the indication indi-cation of an early end to the European Euro-pean war and OPA's wish to avoid the accumulation of a surplus of stocks. , At the time rationing was restored, re-stored, it was said, only 31 per cent of the year's supply of peas remained re-mained for distribution in the next eight months; 60 per cent of the year's supply of corn for ten months, and 46 per cent of the year's supply of snap . beans for eight months. It was a burdened but firm Franklin Frank-lin D. Roosevelt, who, laying his left hand upon an old family bible and raising his right, was sworn in to a fourth term as President of the United States on the south portico of the White House, as 7,000 selected guests stood in the chill air to witness wit-ness the event. In the briefest of his four inaugural inaugu-ral addresses, the President called for total victory, then asked for perseverance per-severance in the achievement of a just peace. Said he: "We shall' strive for perfection. We shall not achieve it immediately but we shall strive. We may make mistakes but they must never be mistakes which result frtm faint-ness faint-ness of heart or abandonment of moral principle. . . ." WAR PRODUCTION: Further Boosts Reflecting the government's inten sive efforts to speed up output, production pro-duction of critical war material showed a sharp increase in the last half of 1944, ranging from 20 per cent for tires and trucks to over 200 per cent for rockets. Despite the substantial boosts. however, plans call for even great er production in succeeding months, with further increases for rockets, tires and trucks, planes, .light artillery artil-lery field pieces and batteries. In addition to these items, it was revealed, the government's program calls for greater output of artillery ammunition, navy high capacity ammunition, cotton duck, communi cations wire and tanks. AUSSIES: Mop-Up To Australia's half-million men between 18 and 35, who have volunteered volun-teered for overseas service hn fn. en the task of cleaning out the Jap pocicets of resistance in the Smith Pacific, left far behind, the front lines by General MacArthur's leap- irogging tactics. Left to wither away. 100.000 Jan. supplied by submarine, have man aged to maintain their positions in a great arc extending from the Solomons Solo-mons to New Guinea. By planting troops behind these Jap garrisons to cood them un uh,i superior U. S. aerial and naval forces reduced their communica tions to a minimum. General m. Arthur avoided the necessity of com-mitting com-mitting large units in long and costly cost-ly all-out battle to storm them one oy one. tnus delaying his whole of tensive schedule. RAIL TRAFFIC Railroads in 1944 handled the greatest volume of freight traffic measured in ton-miles of revenue freight for any year on record. Total traffic amounted to approximately approxi-mately 737.000.000,000 revenue ton mues. accoraing to preliminary esti u" reports irom Class I railroads. 14 per cent above the previous recora. The volume of freieht ifn ... ried by" the railroads in 1944 was an increase of 121 ner . Lint From a Blue Serge Suit: - i non-man (the New York branch of the Hollywood Reporter) recalled the most costly comma in U. S.' history Many years ago a tariff bill listed articles that were to be admitted free. One item was "all foreign fruit-plants." But a careless clerk replaced the hyphen with a comma. ..." "u " anges, lemons, bananas, grapes and other imported fruits to be admitted admit-ted to the U. S. free of duty. . It cost the government an estimated esti-mated million dollars plus. nla of Journalis tic jiu-jitsu (being thrown for the count) was the siory wmcu u Dick Merrill, the famed rjansauan-;... rjansauan-;... hat VirrJfpn another rec- ord-flying from Seattle to Wash ington in six nours ana minutes. ... The story was wired from the Capital by one of the news services. ... One night later we grabbed Dick's paw and shook it hard as we congratulated him. . . . "I don't know what it's about," he said. "I just came in from Africa. How could such a story that never happened get staMed?" The terrible crash of the old China Clipper at Trinidad reminded us of the flight we made from Natal to the U. S. . . . The Boeing circled over Port of Spain for more than an hour waiting, we learned, for the man in charge of the field lights to wake up and turn them on. . . . The law there at the time, it appears, prohibited pro-hibited plane landings at night. . . . When the China Clipper crashed it was the first time Trinidad permitted permit-ted planes to land at night. The author of "Argentine Diary" (Ray Josephs) has an exciting report re-port in Cosmopolitan. It is the first full-length article on Evita (Little Eva) Duarte, the girl "behind the Colonels' clique in Argentina." . . . We wrote about her activities here last June the first story to appear in the U. S. about her influence in Argentina. . . . Little Eva, we said, a one-time playboys' gal-pal, worked herself up, colonel by colonel, to a top spot in the leading Fascist regime re-gime in the Americas. . . . Josephs' Cosmo piece is called "Under Cover Cov-er Girl," and you'll know why when you read it . . . His story, he tells us, was inspired by the item here about her, and that is why the editors edi-tors bought it. . . . Two major movie studios are Interested, too, reports the author. . . . Thus a columnar item has bloomed. Things like this are making Sec'y of State tinlus a very respected re-spected gent around Washington. ... The other day he Invited Sec'y of Interior Ickes and his' staff to meet with the State Dep't at a private dinner. ... Mr. Ickes was asked to make a complete criticism of the State Dep't. . . . The idea was to achieve better teamwork. . . . Ickes let them have a blistering attack, end plenty of State Dep't ears sizzled. . .' . But the confab achieved its unique purpose. . . . It put the State Dep't lads on friendly, human relations with the Ickes bunch for the first time in a dozen years. Add fine screen playing: Mark Daniels in the "Winged Victory" hit. ... In mid-December the col'm pre-dieted pre-dieted that another strike would break out at Wright's in New Jersey. Jer-sey. The workers there wish it emphasized that they won't strike and intend to vote for the continuation continua-tion of the no-strike pledge. A Broadway playgirl was tipped to a sure-thing four days before Tropical Park shuttered. She plunged on the horse for a $10 000 killing But the bookie, with' no future in racetrack gambling, welshed to the coast. Her boy friend happens to be one of the East'a toughest sportsmen. Not a new way of committing suicide, at all. A Gilmore hatcheck gal got a $100 tip from a fellow, who returned two hours later and said it was a mis-take mis-take demanding it back. He gave her $1 instead. Not a bad tip at that . . . Havana is "dead"-prac-tically no tourists. But Cuba has great prosperity, wages are higher than ever. The Cuban capital is guarded by machine gunners ditto the Pres.dential Palace. . . . Groaned one wealthy Cuban planter: "Jou muk and ice cream! They hate it-" . Xsnt it true you are richer Uianever?" he was asked.. "No" heC.r;Sta,8T Jle which radio blUedcau':: of its poetry-and which. !. Quently. was never "donelo by the song-plugger,. . . The L Teantny!8"reVenEAe Bost- the Draft-But 1A in Blood Z tions!" . phi, Rru. od ""a-ofaphonv ""a-ofaphonv S.8"4? '.Ption you, .ucce;rrrLTore failure." y bjl n , 7m; tenner,1 Millions use P & p give their throat a 15 minS' mg, comforting treatment reaches oU the cghs.throatimtioJ' ness resulting from coldsorafS WHEN CONSTIPATION make,, J upset, sour taste, gassy diJli take Dr. Caldwell's famo tn miirklv null th. W . ?K1 j ,ii , , , "'sect on un nards" and help you fed bmfi chipper again. DR. CALDWELL'S is the wonderfo ua iuiuvo tuuuunea in good old sj Pepsin to make it so easj to W want doctors use pepsin pmJ tions in prescriptions to make tie J cine more .palatable and agree,!,,, take. So be sure your laiativeiia INSIST ON DR. CALDWELL'S-., vorite of millions for cn . ' that wholesome relief from con J CAUTION i Use only as directet DR. CA1D1II SENNA LAXATIVE Contained m SYRUP FEE I 1 mi a R V MARTIH 7-fnrmed Hor . TOOT" CALOX 3 7m When raw winds cut like a knife.., Z CHAPPED LIFS SOOTHED QUICKLY! Cracked Bps so cruel, d Caused when raw, bitter dries skin cells, leaves them "tW Skin may crack, bleed. MeBthoW acts medicinally: (1) StimuWa blood supply. (2) Helps thirsty cells so they can retta . ed moisture. For sore, chappy lips Mentholatum. Jars, tub, iwi By aye J rs s' or pi Be ! u r I |