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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS ' Congress Studies National Service Act; Russia Asks Creation of New Frontiers; Tighten Deferments to Ease Dad Draft; Senate Votes to Freeze Security Tax (EDITOR'S NOTE : When opinions arc expressed In these eolamns, they are these of Western Newspaper Imon'i news analysts ana not necessarily this newspaper.) ' Released by Western Newspaper Union. 1 TEiEFACT HOW PRE-PEARL HARBOR FATHERS WILL BE CLASSIFIED ESSENTIAL FOR PHrSICAUr HARDSHIP INDUSTRIES & FARMS UNFIT CASES DRAFT: Tighten Deferments In an effort to ease the dads' draft, Selective Service officials called a halt to the granting of occupational oc-cupational deferments to youths be-' tween 18 and 21, except those engaged en-gaged in agriculture. As a result of the order, at least 115,000 non-fathers are expected to become eligible for induction, although al-though 11,000 dads between 18 and 21 will fall under the new regulation. regula-tion. High school students are to be allowed al-lowed to complete their education, but college deferments will be suspended sus-pended except for critical courses like medicine, dentistry or veterinary, veteri-nary, and the number of youths permitted per-mitted to major in scientific fields after graduation will be restricted to 10,000. Although 446,000 fathers were expected ex-pected to be ealled by January 1, only 90,000 actually were inducted. RUSSIA: Polish Boundaries Declaring that it does not consider prewar Poland's 1939 borders unchangeable, un-changeable, Russia proposed the creation of new frontiers along lines suggested by Great Britain in 1919, which would place White Russia and the western Ukraine in the Soviet union. Brought to the fore by the Red armies' advance into the disputed territory of prewar Poland, the boundary question has found the Poles' government-in-exile in London Lon-don insisting on restoration of the prewar frontiers. In its latest proposal, pro-posal, Russia suggested that the Poles annex other territory inhabited inhab-ited by its people, like East Prussia, to lay the foundation for a postwar state. Reds Surge On As argument over the Polish eastern east-ern boundary went on, Russian forces surged forward in eastern prewar Poland and gradually hammered ham-mered down the German front in the great Dnieper bend. With one eye peeled on Allied movements in western Europe where invasion preparations were underway, the German high command com-mand fought a defensive war, refusing re-fusing to throw in its mobile reserves re-serves into a large scale action in the east. Instead, the German policy appeared ap-peared to be maximum resistance to the Russian steamroller until superior su-perior forces necessitated a withdrawal, with-drawal, and repeated troop movements move-ments along the wide front to prevent pre-vent a complete Russian breakthrough break-through to their rear, where encirclement encir-clement might trap their entire forces. EUROPE: Pound Balkans As the invasion hour drew near, huge Allied forces were being massed in Britain, with the Germans saying reconnaissance showed that the attack might take the form of a pincers movement against the continent. con-tinent. As both sides girded for the showdown show-down in the west, U. S. fliers struck hard at German supply and communication com-munication centers in the Balkans, particularly pounding the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, hub for railroads radiating to Rumania and Jugoslavia. Jugo-slavia. In Italy, U. S. troops continued their advance, beating through tangled tan-gled German defenses with machine gun and mortar fire, after heavy artillery ar-tillery preparation. LABOR DRAFT ; Urged by FDR To hasten the war's end, President Presi-dent Roosevelt urged enactment of a labor draft as part of a broad wartime war-time legislative program, which also included: 1. A bill to tax all unreasonable individual and corporate profit; 2. Continuation of the present law to rewrite war contracts to remove excessive costs; 3. A law placing minimum prices on farm products and ceilings on consumer prices through subsidies. 4. Continuation of the price and wage fixing law, expiring June 30. Of the labor draft, FDR said: ". . .1 recommend ... a national service act which for the duration of the war will prevent strikes, and, with certain appropriate exceptions, will make available for war production produc-tion or for any other essential services serv-ices every able-bodied adult in this nation." Freeze Security Tax With the social security reserve fund for 1944 estimated at five times the amount of payments due in any of the next five years, the senate cast a 48 to 17 vote to keep the social so-cial security payroll tax at 1 per cent each for employee and employ- er. Although Senator Barkley (Ky.) declared extension of the low rate now would only mean increase of the rate later on to meet cost of disbursements, Senator George (Ga.) said the present 1 per cent rate would "completely protect the solvency sol-vency of the old age and survivors benefit fund." Retention of the present rate would save employees and employers alike Vi billion dollars a year over the proposed doubling of contributions, Senator Vandenberg (Mich.) said. The senate's action marked the third time it blocked a rise in the rate. SOLDIER VOTE I -1 - v ' Gov.' Ellis Arnall (seated) signs soldier vote bill. First state to pass legislation on soldier voting, Georgia's bill calls for ballots to be sent servicemen overseas after they have registered through applications mailed to them by request of themselves or friends. Servicemen will return the registration regis-tration applications and then the ballots by mail. Designed to simplify balloting by the state's 250,000 servicemen, Georgia's Geor-gia's soldiers' vote bill was passed after five days' debate, then speedily speed-ily signed by 35-year-old Governor Ellis Arnall. Second state to shape a soldiers' vote bill was West Virginia, which permits a serviceman's family to register for him, with ballots re-tamable re-tamable up to election day. I AGRICULTURE: )T heat Loans Completion of loans on 127.277.698 bushels of wheat by the Commodity Credit Corporation during 1943 showed a sharp drop from the 3S6,-297.684 3S6,-297.684 total of 1942. During 1943, farm stored wheat was estimated at 43,585,791 bushels, and that in warehouses at 83,641,907. Feed for Southicest To help relieve feed conditions in storm areas of the Southwest where wheat pastures have been covered by snow. Commodity Credit corporation corpo-ration has made an emergency allocation allo-cation of 20,000 tons of soybean meal. Southern cottonseed mills are processing this cake, with extra al- lotments being made from the gov- i ernment's share of a special crush of 13,000,000 bushels of soybean. Hog Embargo A steady stream of trucks, sometimes some-times forming a waiting line two blocks long, delivered 57,000 hogs to Chicago's sprawling stockyards on the opening day of last week's marketing, mar-keting, and when the first two hours of buying had filled packers' needs, there was a holdover of 77,000 pigs. Many receipts were credited to loads received from other crowded crowd-ed markets, the farmers again were asked to curtail shipments as the War Food administration considered consid-ered imposing an embargo on deliveries. de-liveries. As a result of the glut, Chicago yards paid an average of $13.20, compared with $14.60 last year. MODERN OPERA: Executes Son-in-Law In action as melodramatic as any Italian operatic tragedy, Benito Mussolini's reorganized Republican Fascist government executed the Duce's former foreign minister and son-in-law, Count Galeazzo Ciano, to death for plotting to overthrow the old regime. Also executed were four other members of the Fascist grand council, coun-cil, which voted to overthrow Mussolini Mus-solini during the early hours of July Count Ciano in palmier days. 25 after a full night of stormy debate. de-bate. Thirteen others were sentenced sen-tenced to death in absentia, among them being Count Dino Grandi, who helped sell Fascism abroad in the 1920s. Dark, dapper and ambitious, Ciano was known as the "personality "personal-ity diplomat," holding a position of influence in the Duce's government after his marriage to Mussolini's daughter, Edda, who bore him two children. At the end, neither the' Duce nor Edda intervened in his behalf. SOUTHWEST PACIFIC: Tanks Lead Way Pressed back by fighting IT. S. marines on Cape Gloucester, New Britain, Jap troops gave ground only after vicious combat, in which both sides used artillery to batter at defense de-fense positions through heavy jungle foliage. To the west, Australian units continued con-tinued their march up the coast to join up with U. S. forces, which landed land-ed at Saidor 60 miles to the north! Jap machine gun and mortar fire slowed the Aussie drive to a walk, but the enemy were scattered when tanks were brought up to lumber through the rugged defenses. With part of the naval personnel getting a long-needed rest, the remainder re-mainder were working double-time supplying Allied ground forces in the Southwest Pacific area, with many at their posts since last April. YOUNGEST MOTHER: JO Years Old Reputed to be the youngest mother ever to give birth to a child in the U. S., a 10-year-old Negro girl bore an 8 pound 8 ounce girl in Mona-hans, Mona-hans, Texas, through natural delivery. de-livery. "The child never did know what was happening," said her physician, Dr. J. E. Cook. "She had been to;d she was going to have a baby, but she wanted to get right up and go out and play with the other children." chil-dren." Even for a 10-year-old girl, the young mother is small, Dr. Cook said. CAN'T FIGHT Members of congress are barred from the armed forces, the President Presi-dent ordered following a conference 1 with the attorney-general. It was decided that the Constitution forbids a man from serving as a legislator and a soldier or sailor at the same j time. Apparently only two representa- ' tives would be affected: Henry Jackson of Washington state, now a private in a tank destroyer unit, and Albert Gore of Tennessee, stationed sta-tioned at CamD Shelbv. |
