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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS . Nazis Fall Back in Belgium As Yanks Stem Offensive Threat; Living Costs Show Small Gain Released by Western Newspaper Union. (KDITOK'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are these of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) h r ,. ' v 1 . ... .tt L M, Li.-Gcn. Mark Clark, commander of all Allied forces in Iialy, points out former German positions on Gothic line to delegation of visiting: congressmen. EUROPE: Bulge Shrinks With 26 of the U. S.' 44 divisions reported in action against the German Ger-man bulge in Belgium, Nazi Field Marshal Von Rundstedt's great winter win-ter blow appeared blunted, with field dispatches indicating that he was pulling his lines back. But four miles from the Meuse river and 23 miles from Sedan at the peak of their offensive, the German Ger-man lines shrank sharply as Lieut. Gen. George Patton's 3rd army swung up from the Saar to attack from the south and Lieut. Gen. Courtney Hodges' 1st army recovered recov-ered its balance to slash in from the north. Von Rundstedt's withdrawal movement move-ment was favored by the rugged terrain, ter-rain, for, in surprising the 1st army on December 16, he chose the rough and hilly Ardennes countryside. As Von Rundstedt tried to pull in his forces under the heavy pressure of the 3rd and 1st armies, he sent out swarms of Nazi planes to blast at airdromes air-dromes behind the lines in an attempt to prevent the superior Allied air arm from raking his moving columns. Even so, zooming U. S. fighter-bombers and bombers ripped up enemy armor and trucks. With U. S. pressure on the Saar relieved by the switch of Lieut. Gen. Patton's forces, the Germans went on the offensive against Lieut. Gen. Alexander Patch's 7th army on the southwestern end of the front, scoring scor-ing small gains against stiff Yank resistance. Ruin of a City As both sides disregarded a pfea from Pope Pius XII to withdraw from the city and spare residents the horror of bombardment, house-to-house fighting reduced the once beautiful Hungarian capital of Budapest Buda-pest to a shambles, with fanatical Axis troops resisting Russ advances. Budapest's streets reverberated reverberat-ed with gunfire, as self-propelled artillery and tanks rumbled down thoroughfares, swung sharply around corners, and oned point-blank fire on opposing oppos-ing units. Sharpshooting from cellars, Axis troops linked themselves them-selves up by breaking holes through adjoining walls. Hitler Talks Declaring V. . . in this war the German people cannot be brought to their knees by strength of arms nor will there again be a 9th of November, No-vember, 1918 ..." a subdued but defiant Adolf Hitler told a suffering Reich on New Year's day that the end of the war will not come before be-fore 1946, unless by a Nazi victory. Said the fuehrer: ". . . Except for the Jews, nobody in the Allied camp knows for what he is fighting. But the aims for which we are fighting are clear to all of us. It is the survival sur-vival of the German people, it is our fatherland, it is our 2,000 year culture, cul-ture, it is the children and grandchildren grand-children of our people . . ." Referring to the attempt on his life last summer. Hitler said: ". . . The 20lh of July brought about at the fronts sad military consequences . . . Nevertheless the day has become a turning point in Germany's destiny because the attempt to annihilate the German people's social state by a plot hatched at the most bitter struggle has failed . . and I am in a position to assure you that this was the last attempt of its kind .. . ." 'Forgotten Front' With all attention focused on the great battles being fought in western west-ern Europe, Italy, it seems, is the "forgotten front" of the present world war. Despite the overshadowing of the Italian sector, it is still one of the most bitterest of the war. with Allied gains measured in yards and at a heavy cost of men nsninst a fanatical fanat-ical foe cleverly d.;s ir.io Ihe mountainous moun-tainous terrain, and giving ground onlv nftcr painful approaches to his pnsition. FOOD STOCKS: At Pre-War Levels Although not as high as in similar periods since 1942, food stocks through the first three months of 1945 should be sufficient to provide civilians with supplies equal to the prewar levels, the U. S. department depart-ment of agriculture reported. Potatoes and butter supplies will be below prewar figures, the USDA said, with meat, lard and fresh vegetables about average, while stocks of fluid whole milk, non-fat dairy products, eggs, fish, margarine, marga-rine, cereals, dry peas and citrus fruits should assure high consumption. consump-tion. Although at prewar levels, supplies sup-plies of meat during the first three months of 1945 will be substantially below corresponding wartime periods, pe-riods, USDA said, with low inventories, inven-tories, declining production and military requirements cutting into stocks. LIVING COSTS: Small Gain Effectiveness of the nation's price control in combatting inflation is re- fleeted in the fact that although national na-tional income rose to 155 billion dollars dol-lars in 1944 and there was a sharp reduction... in the stocks of c o n-sumers n-sumers goods prices only increased 2 per cent, Secretary' of Labor Frances Perkins Per-kins declared. Frances Perkins Because of substantial sub-stantial boosts in 1941 and 1942, however, when a rising ris-ing business activity brought up the general level of depression prices, retail costs have increased 2&Vi per cent since the outbreak of war, Miss Perkins said. "Even though the price rise is less than half as great as during the First World war," Miss Perkins stated, "an advance of nearly 30 per cent is dangerous. The rise in cost to families with very low incomes in-comes has been greater . . . because be-cause of the disappearance of low-priced low-priced merchandise and because of the rise in food prices. ..." PACIFIC: U. S. Goals Even as U. S. aerial forces stepped up their attacks on enemy shipping and installations in the Philippine islands preparatory to the pursuit of the American offensive offen-sive in that last great bastion guarding the Asiatic mainland, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz told a Pearl Harbor press conference that it would be necessary to occupy Japan to win the war. "I think that the only safe plan is to assume we must invade their homeland and line up our forces accordingly," ac-cordingly," the admiral said. With American advances in the Pacific, Admiral Nimitz indicated, Jap war industry was faced with strangulation through increased attack at-tack on its supply lines bearing raw materials from southern Asiatic conquests and through bombardment bombard-ment of factory areas. To step up such bombardments. Admiral Nimitz repeated that one of the major U. S. objectives was a landing on the Chinese coast to establish air bases for hitting the enemy's homeland. MISCELLANY Again, shipbuilding leads all heavy industry in the earnings of its workers. The prevailing average hourly wage rate in the industry being be-ing about SI. 33, while weekly earnings earn-ings in a recent month were $63.68 on an average work week of 47.6 hours. Payrolls for the year in private pri-vate shipyards will approximate $4. 000. OOO.OHO shared by workers in almost every state. U. S. SPENDING: I At Peak With the gov-rnment spending 89 billion dollars un the war alone, total to-tal U. S. expenditures reached 97 billion dollars in 1944 to establish an all-time record, preliminary figures fig-ures showed. This compared with the outlay of less than 10 billion dollars in 1939. In addition to spending more than at any other time in the nation's history, the government also collected collect-ed more at 45 billion dollars and borrowed more at 62 billion dollars. For the first time, three war loan drives were held in one year. Deducting the amount collected from that spent, the government wound up the year with a deficit of 52 billion dollars, to bring the total national debt up to 232 billion dollars. The 1944 figure of 52 bil- lion dollars, however, was about 1"A billion dollars less than the deficit in 194. TRAIN WRECK: 48 Killed Slowed up by a freight train stalled by mechanical trouble, the Southern Pacific railroad's Pacific Limited with 300 persons aboard was creeping through the early morning over the Salt Lake marshes near Ogden, Utah, when a 20-car mail and express train roaring behind crashed into its rear, throwing coaches along the 40-foot causeway like jumbled links in a chain. Late counts showed 48 persons killed and 81 injured as rescue wdrk-ers wdrk-ers cut through the twisted wreckage wreck-age to remove the victims, many of v yA fr - " - Injured soldier lifted from train wreck. whom were service personnel en route to duty after spending holiday furloughs. Because of the shallow marshlands marsh-lands below the causeway, automobiles automo-biles could not be driven to the scene, complicating rescue operations, opera-tions, and injured were removed by train for treatment. NAZI AGENTS: Seized by FBI Trained in the use of high explosives, ex-plosives, photography and radio operation op-eration in Germany and Holland, two Nazi saboteurs were nailed by FBI agents in the New York district dis-trict before being able to do any damage. Landed by submarine off the coast of Maine with $60,000 in U. S. currency, forged birth and draft certificates cer-tificates and secret, inks, the two saboteurs were making the rounds of New York night spots in an effort ' to pick up information to radio to Germany at the time they were nabbed. According to the FBI, one of the saboteurs was a former U. S. navy seaman named William Curtis Cole-paugh, Cole-paugh, alias William C. Caldwell, who was discharged from service early in 1943 because of suspicions he held pro-German sympathies. Arrest of the two saboteurs brought to ten the number captured by FBI agents after landings from submarines, six having been caught previously after alighting in Florida, Flori-da, with six of them subsequently executed. MANPOWER BARREL: To Scrape Bottom Uncle Sam will have to scrape the bottom of the barrel for manpower to meet production and military requirements re-quirements in 1945, War Mobilization Mobiliza-tion Director James F. Byrnes told a New Year's press conference, declaring de-claring that Selective Service "work-or-fight" orders, employment ceilings ceil-ings and restrictions on civilian output out-put may not be sufficient to meet all labor needs. With the army increasing its call for replacements and thus further draining the manpower pool, Byrnes said the drafting of the nation's 4,000,000 4-F's for industry or non-combat non-combat military duty would help maintain war production and release more active servicemen for fighting. fight-ing. Because the largest remaining source of young men is in agriculture, agricul-ture, he said, the basis for farm deferments de-ferments may have to be reviewed. Terming government seizure inadequate, in-adequate, Byrnes asked for a strengthening of the War Labor board's authority to enforce its decisions deci-sions on both capital and labor, so as to prevent the loss of production through work disturbances. MEDICAL MARVEL Weighing but lVz pounds at birth, tiny Elizabeth Ann Reyman, born in San Diego, Calif., has grown to 3 pounds, 6 ounces within 65 days in one of the strangest cases in medical medi-cal annals. Confined to an incubator where physicians intend to keep her until she weighs 5 pounds, little Elizabeth Eliza-beth has been relatively strong and able to kick about freely from birth, though only. one out of a 100 babies a little over her weight have a chance of living at delivery. |
