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Show WEEKLY MEWS AMALYS1S Nazis' Drive Into Don River Sector Endangers Rich Caucasus Oil Fields; Jones Warns U. S. of Inflation Peril; FDR Says Tire Seizure Is Possible (EDITOR'S VOTE When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of the news analyse and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Pe'eased by Wpstern Newspaper Union I i r W kr 1 , : ; s-fm ... 4 I ?1 C TV 1 1 i Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (left), receives report from General Navarini, commander of Italian forces supporting the Nazi armies in Egypt. The picture, made after the German victories in Libya, was received re-ceived from a neutral source. RUSSIA: Nazi Menace Breaking through the Russian front east of Kursk and Kharkov, a Nazi armored assault had driven 100 miles into the upper basin of the Don river and given Adolf Hitler his first significant success in his summer sum-mer offensive against the Reds. With both sides throwing in all available manpower and equipment, the greatest armored battle in history his-tory raged. To hard-pressed Marshal Timo-shenko Timo-shenko it must have seemed that he faced more disastrous threats than he could meet. Although counterattacking coun-terattacking gallantly and fighting grimly, the Red forces had been forced steadily back. Violent combat com-bat had centered around Voronezh, key link between Russia's central and southern armies. And the goal, as before, was the rich oil fields of the Caucasus to the southeast. Possession of this prize would mean unlimited fuel for Hitler's Hit-ler's mechanized legions. Two immediate targets of the Nazi offensive were the Don river, one of Russia's chief transportation arteries, and the Moscow-Rostov railway which parallels the Don and feeds much of the Soviet's industrial indus-trial and military machine. Meanwhile in Egypt, Marshal Rommel's headlong drive had been stopped by the British under General Gen-eral Auchinleck. Refusing to be bottled bot-tled up in stationery fortresses, the "Auk" had chosen his own battleground battle-ground when he turned on the Nazi army. The site was a narrow funnel-shaped front between El Alemein on the seacoast and the Quattera marshes 40 miles inland. Here, aided aid-ed by reinforcements, fresh equipment equip-ment and slashing blows by the RAF and their American flying Allies, he had brought to a halt the Nazi steamroller headed for . Alexandria and the Suez canal. INFLATION: Perils Revealed Like a stern pedagogue pounding the three R's into the skulls of his scholars, gray-haired Jesse Jones, secretary of commerce, read the American people a lecture on the ABC's of economics. His theme: The dangers of inflation. in-flation. Mr. Jones said that the American people will have "over $30,000,000 more income in 1943 than the value of the things for which the money will be spent" and termed this "a potential 'inflationary gap' greater than any the world has ever known." The secretary's remarks followed hard on press conference warning by President Roosevelt that it would be necessary for Americans to adopt a national economic policy which would control inflation. Among maxims Mr. Jones laid down were: "No business man or industrialist can expect higher prices for his products without paying higher prices for having them made." AIR TRANSPORT: Saga of Service The answer to .what had become of civilian luxury airliners taken over by the army after Pearl Harbor Har-bor came when it was announced that these planes were among craft that had flown 5,000.000 miles during dur-ing the past five months rushing war equipment and personnel to strategic strate-gic points in the Pacific. The saga of this bold aerial venture ven-ture included chapters highlighting the hero'sm of hundreds of pilots. RUBBER: Tire Confiscation? The administration's nation-wide rubber hunt had produced disappointing disap-pointing results. Only a portion of the hoped-for scrap rubber stock pile had been turned in and meanwhile mean-while 30,000,000 American motorists continued to roll along on steadily thinning tires. Hence it was not a surprise when President Roosevelt declared at a press conference that if war conditions condi-tions grew worse, the government might be forced to confiscate every automobile tire in the country. The President tempered his warning warn-ing with the cautious hope that nation-wide gasoline rationing could be avoided. But, he emphasized, he was trying to save the nation, not gasoline and rubber. , Mr. Roosevelt's review of the situation situ-ation came after the army, the navy and Petroleum Co-ordinator Ickes' office had appealed to East coast motorists to discontinue immediately immediate-ly all unnecessary use of gasoline, regardless of what their ration cards entitled them to. A joint statement said joyriding in the gas rationed area was preventing war workers from getting enough motor fifel to get to work and back and was threatening to hamper seriously the I war production program. Fortunate were congressmen, members of state legislatures, other government officials and candidates for public office. For under regulations regu-lations promulgated by the OPA for permanent East coast rationing, such persons were given "preferred" "pre-ferred" mileage ratings providing them with gasoline for transportation transporta-tion needs "in pursuit of legislative business." SABOTEURS: History Recalled Once before a military commission commis-sion had sat in Washington deliberating delib-erating over evidence that was to send a band of conspirators to their death. That was 77 years ago when eight defendants were tried in the dingy old penitentiary building for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Lin-coln. Now again, a military commission commis-sion sat in Washington. This time it was to pass sentence on eight Nazi saboteurs who had landed on the East coast to launch a campaign of destruction against American arms plants. The trial this time was held in the new department of justice building. In proceedings marked with the same secrecy that characterized the former trial, the prisoners learned whether they were to meet a firing squad or go to the gallows for death was the penalty they faced. Observers who noted the coincidence coinci-dence between the two famous trials eight defendants in each case remembered that only five of the Lincoln conspirators, including a woman, Mary Surratt, were put to death. i TIRPITZ: Reds Foil Plans On the loose again from her Norwegian Nor-wegian fjord refuge, the powerful Nazi battleship Tirpitz had harried Allied convoys on the U. S. -British supply route to northern Russia, until un-til two well-aimed torpedoes from a Soviet submarine damaged the raider and drove her to cover. A Red communique revealed that the action saved a big Allied convoy and let the merchantmen through to Russia intact. The communique reported that a German naval squadron in which three heavy cruisers and eight destroyers accompanied ac-companied the Tirpitz had aimed to intercept the convoy carrying arms to Russia. The crippling attack at-tack on the Tirpitz, however, was said to have disrupted their operation op-eration and permitted all ships to reach the safety of a north Russian port MANPOWER: 19,900,000 Needed One out of every six Americans faced the prospect of being inducted into war activities military and industrialduring in-dustrialduring 1942 and 1943. At least that was the forecast of Brig. Gen. Frank J. McSherry of the War Manpower commission, who declared de-clared that 19,900,000 persons would be required. Of this "staggering" total, he said, 10,500,000 men and women must be put to work in war industries indus-tries this year and 2,500,000 more in 1943. Of the remaining 6,900,000, McSherry estimated, 3,400,000 will be inducted into the armed forces during 1942 and 3,500,000 next year. WAR PRODUCTION: Nelson 'Realigns' With the headache of an organization organi-zation shakeup happily out of the way, War Production Chief Donald M. Nelson turned with obvious relief to a contemplation of the WPB's future activities. The chairman said that the WPB had now reached the end of the tooling tool-ing up period and was going ahead with the task of conversion, especially espe-cially of the nation's smaller plants. He said there was little "fat" in the civilian economy, but stressed the fact that vital civilian needs must be taken care of because the economy econo-my although "thin" must be kept healthy. Forecast for some time, the WPB's "realignment" program brought William L. Batt in as vice chairman, or "chief of staff," leaving leav-ing Nelson free to devote his time to essential policies. Batt had previously pre-viously been chairman of the requirements re-quirements committee. James S. Knowlson, present director of industry indus-try operation, became the other vice chairman. CHINA WAR: Sad Anniversary As China's war with Japan entered en-tered its sixth year, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek bravely assured his 450,000,000 countrymen that "Japan's collapse was only a question ques-tion of time." Chiang declared that the United States "is bound to deal with her first and most threatening enemy, Japan" and "is beginning to &,. ....,.,.., -,.J?t .. , 1. ..... CHIANG KAI-SHEK "Matter of Time." discharge her supremely important duty in the Pacific." Meanwhile Chiang's peasant army was heartened by the triphammer blows struck recently by United States air forces against the Jap invaders. Summing up the price Nippon has already paid for its attempt to swallow swal-low China, an army spokesman reported re-ported that 1,000,000 Japs had been killed and 1,500,000 wounded in five years of war. In spite of brave words, the stark fact remained that China's position was desperately grave. Japan was steadily severing her communications. communica-tions. With all but air-borne supplies sup-plies from her allies cut off, China hyad to depend on her own slender material resources and her under-armed under-armed peasant army to carry on the fight against the Mikado's strong forces. CANADA: War Transformation From a placid agricultural country, coun-try, Canada has been transformed into a giant war factory from which men, planes, tanks, guns and foodstuffs food-stuffs are pouring across the Atlantic Atlan-tic to Britain and the other fighting fronts. This picture of the war's impact on our neighbor of the north was painted in an official report which told a vivid tale of the Dominion's industrial progress. |
