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Show , f . Total War Effort Demands End of Political Bickering American Industry Now Rolling at Speed Which Means Victory for Allies; Defeat Can Only Come at Home. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. km WN'U Service, 1.113 II Street, N. W., Washington, l. C. As the time grows shorter and the critical moment approaches when the Axis poises itself for a knockout knock-out blow, there is one battle which the enemy is steadily losing. The battle of France, the battle of Crete, the brittle of the Netherlands Indies are all deep scars on the Allied escutcheon. es-cutcheon. But at last, despite endless end-less delays, the selfishness and the bickering, we have begun to win the battle of America. In the laboratory, on the drawing draw-ing board and now finally in the machine shop and on Ce drill field America is forging the weapons and the organization which will win. Thai statement is based on the confidential reports of the performance perform-ance of American rifles, cannon, planes, tanks and ships tested in actual warfare. We are still behind the enemy in some weapons. Some special artillery artil-lery units of the Germans are superior. su-perior. We have not reached the perfection in training of paratroops. We have not mastered the Japanese Jap-anese art of infiltration. We have not been able to work out the synchronization syn-chronization of air forces with other forces as the Germans have done on land and the Japanese have done on the sea. But wherever our separate sep-arate units have been in action there is high praise for both performance of personnel and material. Where we have perfected that unity we have been highly successful. American big bombers lead the world. With the comparatively few now in action they have put out of commission 60 Japanese ships and destroyed as many enemy airplanes. The United States was far behind In aircraft carriers when the war ' began. But we can build them faster fast-er than Japan can. We are building them now. We are turning out "eyes of the navy." Our navy after Pearl Harbor was constantly shadowed by Japanese reconnaissance planes which have been in the air steadily. "torpecto Boats We are building an under-water surface and air combination which will probably decide the war in the Pacific. Our fast patrol torpedo boats have an enviable record in the Philippines; our new destroyers destroy-ers are tough skinned. The Kearney Kear-ney reached port after being almost cut in two with torpedoes. Our new merchant ships are tough, too. The sinkings along the Atlantic coast have been limited to ancient tankers; tank-ers; the only new tanker the subs were able to catch and hit got into port under her own power. General MacArthur reports that the new Garand rifle and the new carbines car-bines which have been substituted for the .45 revolvers give our mobile mo-bile troops superior fire power. Our light machine guns are at least equal to anything the Axis has produced. pro-duced. Our field artillery has been remade. re-made. Our light tanks have proved themselves them-selves against Europe's best in the same class; our medium tanks are being improved in the light of experience ex-perience and army men believe our armored units soon will dominate in that field. We have the men. We now have trained men to train other men and as the Axis draws on its reserves re-serves of manpower our own army swells. We are winning the battle of America before it is begun and unless the whole structure of the Allies is destroyed before we can get the ships, we will be able to carry that battle into the enemy's country. That is the optimistic side of the picture. The other side is the confusion con-fusion on the home front. Like France we are still battling each other. We still are afraid of losing our own privileges and our own profits, prof-its, group is fighting against group instead of uniting against a common enemy. Although we have gradually abolished abol-ished business as usual, we have not been able to abolish politics as usual. Until we do we will not have a total war effort, and without a total war effort we cannot wage a total war to victory. Buy Defense Bonds Golden Silence In all Washington taxicabs there are signs, placed there by order of the Public Utilities commission, which read: "Don't kill Americans by loose talk." You know Washington has or did have until the tire restriction started start-ed one of the most remarkable taxi systems in the world. You can ride miles for 30 cents. There are no meters. The cabs are all sedans, no partition between driver and passengers pas-sengers and the drivers are very sociable. That is one reason for the signs. Not that the drivers are spys but they frequently repeat what they hear. The day the signs appeared I asked a driver if he had noticed any difference in the conduct of his passengers. pas-sengers. "Oh," he said, "it makes some of the brass hats whisper some, that's all." I talked to a colored driver who had quite a contribution on the subject. sub-ject. He may have been biased for he talked like a man who was a trained personal servant. He said this: ' "Careless talk is what gave the Japs the jump on us in this war. You see when an American got real rich the first thing he did was to hire a Jap butler. A lot of those butlers turned out to be captains and generals and admirals. They heard a lot of careless talk and they learned a lot of important secrets." The opinion may have been inspired in-spired by professional jealousy, but I imagine the driver was not far wrong. Buy Defense Bonds War Program At Propaganda The President's gargantuan war program proved to be just what he probably intended it not merely a prescription for eventual victory in arms for the united nations, but a powerful propaganda weapon. We Americans don't quite realize in what high esteem our ability to make things is held abroad. I was told by officials recently returned from Europe that the thing about America's war effort (before Pearl Harbor) which most impressed Europeans Eu-ropeans was the statement by Henry Ford that he could produce a thousand thou-sand planes a day. Why? Because the name Ford means more around the world in terms of concrete experience than the name of perhaps any other living liv-ing man. Almost everybody has seen a Ford. The second thing that most impressed im-pressed Europeans (which occurred since Pearl Harbor) was the news that American pleasure car factories were to be turned over 100 per cent to defense. Why? Because few towns in Europe Eu-rope are unfamiliar with the name of some branch factory of an American Amer-ican automobile manufacturer. Polter-Geist Did you ever hear of a poltergeist? polter-geist? It is a strange kind of ghost that breaks dishes, rattles pans, upsets tables and chairs. There are plenty of records of their behavior. Well, one visited me the other day. While I was shaving I heard a crash. I thought the dog had got loose, jumped up on the dresser and knocked off the alarm clock. But I looked at the kitchen door. It was closed. The dog couldn't open it. I went into my bedroom. Sure enough the clock was sitting at a weird angle on the dresser. I picked it up. The key that sets the alarm was bent almost flat When I tried to straighten it, it broke off. Now who could have done that but a polter-geist? Twine and Japs Farmers who get binder twine must sign a statement that they will use the twine for handling farm products only. Sisal products were cut off by the war in the Far East. And the Japs have got hold of some of the best Manila hemp. Rope made from Manila hemp is especially valuable to sailormen because it is like a certain well-advertised well-advertised soap. It floats. There is, however, one satisfaction satisfac-tion about having the Japs get hold of that rope: perhaps if we give them enough they'll hang themselves. |
