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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS , Allies Push Back Nazi Lines as Hitler Girds for Finish Fight; U. S. Plans Surplus Land Sales I Released by Western Newspaper Union. (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed in Ihese columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily o( this newspaper.) I I Pacific U. S. marines advance over enemy dead during heavy I fighting on Saipan island in inner Jap defense circle. EUROPE: Tough Going Following up earth-shaking aerial and artillery bombardments, Allied forces nudged ahead on both ends of the Normandy front in the face of continuing bitter enemy resistance. On the American end of the front, Doughboys inched ahead only after clearing the enemy from behind the rolling countryside's thick, high hedgerows, which he used as a cover cov-er for sending up heavy mortar and machine gun fire. Although the Allied Al-lied command used thousands of big, medium and fighter bombers to blast open a path, the U. S. infantry still had to root the enemy from his deep entrenchments to gain ground. On the British front, Gen. Bernard Ber-nard L. Montgomery's forces slugged ahead against increasing concentrations concentra-tions of enemy strength, with German Ger-man Marshal Erwin Rommel using heavy artillery and tanks to back up individual strong points in his defense line. Tighten Grip With the Nazi party attempting to strengthen its grip on the army through the placement of sympathetic sympa-thetic officers in key positions, and with the important elements of opposition op-position driven to cover, Adolf Hitler Hit-ler held his sway over Germany following fol-lowing the bomb attempt on his life at headquarters. Weathering the officers' revolt, Hitler called upon Marshal Hermann Her-mann Goering and Propaganda Minister Min-ister Paul Goebbels to totally mo- i. ' s.- (3 f J "l 1 k 1 Stauffenber? (left) and Hitler. bilize Germany and occupied countries coun-tries for a fight to the finish by obtaining ob-taining additional manpower and industrial in-dustrial capacity by skimming public pub-lic services and less important occupations. oc-cupations. Reportedly executed were Col.-Gen. Col.-Gen. Ludwig Beck, former chief of staff, and Col. Claus von Stauffen-berg, Stauffen-berg, who planted the bomb, both key figures in the officers' plot to overthrow Hitler and dicker for a compromise peace with the Allies in opposition to the Nazis' fanatical avowal to fight to the last man. Sivitch Attack I With German lines stiffening in the north, the powerful Red army switched its sledgehammer attacks to the central sector of the 800-mile front, tearing large holes in Nazi defenses on the Polish plains. In Italy, Allied troops came under un-der fire of heavy concentrations of German artillery situated on the approaches ap-proaches to the enemy's celebrated "Gothic line," first of the elaborate fortification systems he has set up to impede the Fifth and Eighth armies' ar-mies' steady advance up the Italian peninsula to the bustling industrial and agricultural region of the north. With Polish troops bearing the brunt of the attack on the eastern end of the front, U. S. and British forces concentrated on the tougher western sector. Although enemy lines stiffened in the north, they buckled in the center, cen-ter, where Nazi armies were compelled com-pelled to fall back toward the old Polish capital of Warsaw and German Ger-man Silesia to avoid being encircled encir-cled from the rear and wiped out completely. U.S. LAND: Disposal Policy Government disposal of surplus land acquired in connection with the war program but no longer needed will be directed toward sale of property prop-erty in family-sized tracts for individual indi-vidual cultivation, the surplus war property agency announced. With all property to be appraised by experienced and disinterested men drawn from the community, SWP said, the policy will be to sell as quickly as possible at current values without disruption of the. market; give former owners opportunity oppor-tunity to repurchase, and avoid sales to speculators. The Reconstruction Finance corporation cor-poration will handle the disposal program, WSP said, despite the National Na-tional Farmer Union's opposition on the grounds that RFC supervision would lead to control by the National Association of Real Estate Boards. PACIFIC: Fanatical Foe Supported by the booming guns of the U. S. fleet and swarms of battleplanes battle-planes rising from the decks of the aircraft carriers, American troops tightened their hold on Guam and Tinian islands in the Mariana group, about 1,500 miles from the Japanese homeland. As the U. S. stearrjroller rumbled closer to Japan, an enemy naval spokesman declared that the boasted Nipponese fleet would come out to fight only after U. S. air power had been whittled down and the foe could call upon its own land-based air force to support its operations. Although fighting was heavy on both Guam and Tinian, it did not match the bloody struggle for Saipan. Sai-pan. In one frantic counterattack on Tinian, howling Japanese charged marines' lines, brandishing flashing Samurai swords, and depending mainly upon light arms to penetrate pene-trate the withering defensive fire. MARRIAGE: Popular Again Partly because of an increase in the marriage rate since 1940, and partly becruse millions of single men are in te armed services, the number of civilian bachelors between be-tween 20 and 34 years of age has dropped from 7,100,000 to 1,700,000. Indicative of the revival in marriage, mar-riage, which always suffers a slump under depressed economic conditions, condi-tions, the U. S. census bureau reported re-ported that 63 per cent of the female fe-male population 14 years old or over are wedded, in contrast to 60 per cent in 1940. If the experience of World War I is any criterion, there will be a large increase in marriages following follow-ing the end of the present conflict, the bureau said. OIL: Record Output Despite a record production of crude oil during the first six months of 1944, the industry looked forward to an increased output for the last half of the year to take care of new refining capacity to be put into operation op-eration to help meet expanded war demands. With the U. S. reportedly supplying supply-ing 70 per cent of the oil for the United Nations during the present conflict, U. S. production of crude averaged 4,461,000 a day during the first six months of 1944, as against 3,919,000 last year. Although the industry felt it could produce the additional oil needed during the last half of 1944, it declared de-clared prompt allocation of heavy, duty tires to tank trucks was necessary neces-sary to assure delivery of essential essen-tial fuel. POLAND: A pic Government The live question of the character of the Polish government after the war flared anew with the announcement announce-ment of the organization of ihe National Na-tional Council of Poland in liberated eastern territory under Russian auspices. aus-pices. While the National Council accused ac-cused the Allied-recognized Polish government in exile in London of having set itself up through the "unlawful "un-lawful fascist constitution of . . . 1935," the latter assailed the new organization or-ganization as consisting of "mostly completely unknown persons, who represent nobody except a small communist group without any influence in-fluence ..." In conceding Ukrainian, White Russian and Lithuanian portions of prewar Poland to the Soviets, the National Council called for compensation compen-sation through annexation of parts of eastern Germany and East Prussia. Prus-sia. In one of its first decrees, the National Council called for the unification uni-fication of all Polish fighting forces, which would remain under Russian control. LORD'S WHEAT: Yield Grou s 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." John 12:24. Thus inspired by the scriptural text, Perry Hayden of Tecumseh, Mich., planted a cubic inch of wheat on a patch of ground four feet by six in 1940, with the Friend's church receiving one-tenth of the yield and the other nine-tenths going back into seed on land provided by Henry Ford. Tecumseh's miller and known as the "Tithing Quaker," Hayden continues con-tinues this practice each year, with his yield expected to reach 90,000 bushels from 3,000 acres in 1946 with the entire crop going to the church. Harvest of the 1944 crop was a "gala event, with Henry Ford himself on hand to help with an assembly of old threshing equipment, which graphically depicted the evolution of such machinery through the years. For months, Mr. and Mrs. R. R. Maxwell's hen laid standard-sized standard-sized eggs for the couple in Oregon Ore-gon City, Ore. Then, of a sudden, the hen started laying real whoppers, 9H inches around lengthwise and 8 inches around crosswise. After seven days of super-production, the hen died. POSTWAR PLANS: Tax Reform With his celebrated pay-as-you-go income tax system in force. Beards-ley Beards-ley Ruml came out for further tax simplification and reform in the postwar world in a report . to the privately operated National Planning Plan-ning association. In collaboration with H. Christian Sonne of a New York business concern, con-cern, Ruml, himself treasurer of the big Macy department store, proposed pro-posed abolition of corporate income taxes to lower prices, increase wages and remove the double taxation taxa-tion ensuing from levies on company com-pany profits and then shareholders' income. Principal source of federal income, in-come, they said, should be a graduated gradu-ated income tax, ranging from 16 per cent on net income under $3,000 to 50 per cent on $250,000 or more. Recognizing the need for government govern-ment assistance during depression periods, Ruml and associate called for a balanced budget and retirement retire-ment of public debt only after a restoration of high business activity, activ-ity, which might see 55,000,000 people peo-ple working and drawing around the 1943 level of $140,000,000,000 in incomes. CATTLE: Less Primes U. S. department of agriculture statistics disclosed the tendency toward to-ward the marketing of cheaper grades of cattle, with the big Chicago Chi-cago yards handling 43 per cent fewer few-er choice and prime steers during the first half of July than in the same period last year. At the same time, USDA figures showed that the Chicago yards received re-ceived 1.9 per cent more of the good grades during the recent July period, pe-riod, 75 per cent more mediums and 133 per cent more commons. Chicago trade specialists attributed attribut-ed the jdecline of the choice and prime receipts to the activities of black market operators taking advantage ad-vantage of the production cut of -these grades because OPA ceiling regulations allegedly have cut profit margins. Short-feds providing provid-ing medium quality beef are returning re-turning the most money the specialists special-ists reported. RUBBER PROGRAM Satisfied that his task was accomplished. accom-plished. Rubber Director Bradley Dewey tendered his resignation with the recommendation that his office be discontinued, and that its functions func-tions be turned over to the War Production Pro-duction board. Synthetic plants are now producing produc-ing at the rate of 836.000 tons a year, sufficient to make the 22,000,000 new tires that are on the schedule for 1944. About 6.000 experienced tire makers are needed to meet the goal, Dewey concluded. |
