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Show I -G0f UNO AVashington, U. C. U. S. MOUNTAIN WARFARE The army is buying pitons, kara- biners, ice axes, skis, sleeping bags I and parkas, to be used not in an ! expedition to the North pole but in preparation for warfare on snow-clad snow-clad mountain sides. , If you ask what mountain sides the reply is: "We are preparing for ' any emergency." Army chiefs have carefully noted what has been done in Europe in mountain and win-j win-j ter warfare, and they intend that U. S. troops be trained In the same j I tactics. I Today, in the Railroad Retire-: Retire-: ment building (headquarters of the t j quartermaster corps) you can find ! a group of men known as "the Cold i : Climate Clothing and Equipment ; unit." They are ski experts and ( J mountain climbers, who know by , j rigorous experience what is needed i ' for life in the cold latitudes and high altitudes. j They are Bestor Robinson of the National Ski association; Robert H. Bates, editor of "Five Miles High"; and William House, a famed climber climb-er and explorer. Working Indoors ten hours a day, they are preparing specifications for the best military skis, the best goggles, boots, and high-pressure stoves that can be carried in a knapsack. Note: Germany's expert in moun-tain moun-tain warfare, Paul Bauer, carried out his last peacetime mountain climbing exploit in the Nanga Par- j bat expedition in India in 1938 with i the consent and .'lo-operation of the British government. Buy Defense Bonds MRS. WOODROW WILSON Mrs. Woorlrow Wilson sewed for soldiers 25 years ogo, and now she's doing it again. Every Wednesday morning, she meets at the swank Sulgrave Club J for Red Cross sewing with Mrs. Jesse Jones, and Mrs. D. Buchanan Bu-chanan Merriman, better known as the duchess of Windsor's "Aunt Bessie." Bes-sie." After the sewing, they lunch at the club, then adjourn to Mrs. Jesse Jones' apartment at the Shoreham hotel, or to Mrs. Wilson's home on S street, for bridge. The lady who, as "the beautiful widow Gall," set all the town talking talk-ing during World War I. still sets the town talking' wherever she appears ap-pears today. She gives her name freely to Democratic party and patriotic pa-triotic causes, but her most regular activity is providing floral decorations decora-tions for the Wilson shrine at the National Cathedral. She has made a study of floral arrangements, personally per-sonally supervises the decoration every ev-ery few days. Measured by the code of the cave dwellers, Mrs. Wondrow Wilson is an active woman, but she stares in amazement at the activity of the First Lady of World War II. SUGAR SHORTAGE If there is an investigation of the sugar shortage, certain agriculture department masterminds will have to do a lot of explaining. Few know that these masterminds, master-minds, over the protests of domestic beet - sugar producers, last year forced a reduction of sugar-beet acreage of from 17 to 20 per cent; also that cane which would have yielded 300,000 tons of sugar was left to rot in Puerto Rican fields because processing was prohibited. Sugar producers on the other hand, vigorously urged that domestic domes-tic quotas be lifted to permit maximum maxi-mum output. But the agriculture moguls refused to heed these warn' ings. Led by Secretary Claude Wickard, they insisted the United States had ample sugar supplies for all needs and they kept on chorusing chorus-ing this refrain right up to a few weeks ago when Wickard, as a guest speaker on Mrs. Roosevelt's Sunday night radio program, completely changed his tune and broke the news that sugar would have to be rationed. Wickard bases the shortage on two grounds: (1) heavy demands from our Allies, particularly Russia, whose sugar producing region has been devastated by the Nazis; (2) greatly reduced imports from the Philippines and Hawaii. The Philippines are out, but not Hawaii. Large munitions shipments are constantly going to these islands, and sugar is coming back. Agriculture department tycoons are making a big ado about how essential es-sential their activities are to the war efTort. One essential might be less bungling in unrestricting farm production. pro-duction. Note: Puerto Rico now has on hand, and waiting to be ground, more sugar-cane than it is allowed to process under the production quota quo-ta set by the agriculture department. NAZI RAIL SHORTAGE The United States government has difficulty getting accurate reports of conditions in Germany these days. But from a neutral listening post comes the following: Germany is suffering an acute shortage of rail equipment. Civilians Civil-ians have been instructed not to travel anywhere on the railroads, except on the most urgent business. Penalties for violation of this rule are severe. About 130,000 freight cars are be-lieved be-lieved to be In use in Russia or in the Russian campaign. |
