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Show GAS CRISIS: Middle West Next? As the gasoline supply crisis mounted along the Atlantic seaboard. sea-board. Price Administrator Prentiss II. Brown decreed a complete ban on pleasure driving in 12 eastern states, part of another and in the District of Columbia. The states affected by the ruling were Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Ver-mont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Jer-sey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland Mary-land and Virginia. In addition eight eastern counties in West Virginia were affected. Previously the OPA had sought to curb nonessential driving through a voluntary "honor system." That additional restrictions loomed ahead was indicated by Petroleum Administrator Harold L. Ickes, who said that the East would have to cut its gasoline consumption still further and that new restrictions may be put into effect in the Middle West so that some gasoline may be diverted from there to the seaboard area. WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Attu Victory Brings U. S. Nearer Tokyo; Flood Damage Menaces Food Output; Labor Stirred by Lewis Bid to AFL; Churchill: 'Bomb Jap Cities to Ashes' (DO IT OK'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed in these eolumns. they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysis and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Released by Western Newspaper Union. ' ' i ; ; i tit " ' ' if, ' ' ' f i f ' LJlIi-e2i J Feted from one end of the country to the other for his exploits In shooting down the record number of 26 Jap planes, Marine Capt. Joseph Foss received from President Koosevelt the Congressional Medal of Honor for "outstanding heroism and courage above and beyond the call of duty." Photo shows, left to right: President Roosevelt; Mrs. Mary Foss, mother moth-er of the air hero; Captain Foss and his wife, June, adjusting the medal around his neck. FOOD CONFERENCE: Postwar Goals Outlined Continuance of food rationing after aft-er the war, the creation of a global agricultural commission and the assurance as-surance that the people of the world will be better fed in the postwar period were among goals agreed upon by delegates representing the "big four" of the United Nations the United States, Great Britain, China and Soviet Russia attending the food conference at Hot Springs, Va. In addition the delegates were said to be in agreement on declarations declara-tions advocating continued agricultural agricul-tural expansion throughout the period pe-riod of post-war relief, on a statement state-ment favoring the reduction of world tariffs and on educational measures to promote better nutritional goals. Although no binding agreements linked the delegates, Paul H. Appleby, Ap-pleby, undersecretary of agriculture and acting chairman of the American Ameri-can delegation, said that representatives represen-tatives of 44 governments attending the conference had come forward with offers of co-operation. ALEUTIANS: Tokyo Gets Nearer The Japanese government had prepared the civilian population of Nippon for the fall of Attu through the medium of a report indicating that the last defenders of the Aleutian Aleu-tian Islands outpost were making a death stand against attacking American Amer-ican troops. While the Japs were singing their Attu swan song, reports from Washington Wash-ington had disclosed the strategic moves that had succeeded in bottling bot-tling the enemy up. Two American columns, landed on opposite sides of the island, had joined and trapped the Japs on a narrow front on the northwestern end of Attu. FLOODS: Peril Farm Output Ruined crops, inundated cities, damaged homes and casualties from drownings resulted .from the disastrous disas-trous flood that started in Midwestern Midwest-ern farm states and spilled south from rivers and streams flowing into the Mississippi river. As emergency crews and troops had toiled to check the rise of flood waters and hold down damage from breaks in Mississippi river levees, protecting rich farm lands and war plants, weather bureau officials attributed at-tributed the flood to unprecedented May rains. In Illinois alone the continuous rains had destroyed 100,000 acres of j corn, wheat and oats. Other states reporting serious crop destruction were: Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma. The flood losses represented a critical threat to the nation's epochal wartime food production crusade. The damage resulted not only from crops already in, but from serious delays in planting plant-ing corn and other vital cereal crops. FARM IMPLEMENTS: Bigger Output Ahead Production of farm machinery in 1944 at an estimated rate of 80 per cent of the average annual output in the 1940-41 period, and unlimited production of repair parts was approved ap-proved by the War Production board. Release of the official order awaited await-ed completion of a farm-to-farm check being made by the War Food administration to determine specific machinery items needed by 6,000,000 Japs Warn Reds As American air power thus moved closer to Tokyo, the Japs showed their unrest. Apparently the success of Allied bombings of Germany Ger-many had stirred the Japanese gov-, gov-, ernment to the dangers ahead should the United Nations be permitted per-mitted by Russia to use Siberian bases. The result was a Tokyo broadcast reported by the British warning Russia Rus-sia that "if in the future she ever put her Siberian bases at the disposal dis-posal of the United States, the Japanese Japa-nese army will resort to a blitzkrieg and will deal upon her the heaviest blows Russia has ever known." CLOTHES: May Avoid Rationing Rationing of clothing and other textiles may be avoided as a result of plans worked out between officials offi-cials of the War Production board and retail clothing dealers, it was announced in Washington. Under the new plan the WPB will make possible increased production of more essential types of clothing and textiles. At the same time retailers re-tailers have promised to -revise certain cer-tain practices and develop new methods designed to relieve pressure pres-sure on the industry. "We believe we can avoid clothes rationing and other textiles this winter win-ter and perhaps indefinitely, if we get adequate support from the public," pub-lic," said an official statement. DONALD NELSON . . . Concentration a "dead duck." farmers, Paul Henry, head . of the WFA's production equipment branch, revealed. Concentration of the farm equipment equip-ment industry previously ordered in a WPB directive, is to be eliminated. eliminat-ed. Donald Nelson, WPB chairman, announced that "concentration is a dead duck." Thus large farm equipment equip-ment manufacturers whose sales are over $10,000,000 are permitted to come back into production. AFL TO LEWIS: 'Come Back Home' Unpredictable John L. Lewis knocked at the door of the American Amer-ican Federation of Labor carrying in his hand an application for the re-admission re-admission of his United Mine Workers. Work-ers. Just eight years before he had torn the parent union asunder in the greatest labor schism in history. That the door would be opened wide to the errant Mine Workers was evident from AFL President William Green's announcement that the federation's executive council was considering Lewis' application in an "orderly and sympathetic way." Green said he personally welcomed the miners and reminded the public that for seven or eight years he had said the latch string was aut and he wanted the miners "to come back home." What effect Lewis' move would have on the present peace negotiations negotia-tions between the AFL and the CIO which Lewis founded and later quit, was not immediately evident. CHURCHILL: 'Hitler First; Japs Next' War to the death on Japan, but defeat of Hitler first was the recipe for complete United Nations' victory prescribed by Prime Minister Winston Wins-ton Churchill in his historic speech before congress. Answering congressional critics who predicted that Britain would leave the burden of defeating Japan to America, Mr. Churchill pledged the empire to war side by side with the United States "while there is still breath in our bodies and while blood flows through our veins." He promised, prom-ised, further, that British air power will join with American to bomb Jap cities and war industries, adding: "In ashes they must surely lie before be-fore peace comes to the world." He defended present United Nations Na-tions strategy founded on the judgment judg-ment of President Roosevelt, himself him-self and their military advisers that "while defeat of Japan would not mean the defeat of Germany, the defeat de-feat of Germany would infallibly mean the ruin of Japan." Greater aid for both China and I Russia were promised by ChurchilL RUSSIANS: Reds Press Hard Even as former Ambassador Joseph Jos-eph E. Davies was engaged in conferences con-ferences with Russ Premier Joseph Stalin in furtherance of his second and historic mission to Moscow, Red armies were reported by the Germans Ger-mans to have launched major attacks at-tacks on four points along a 1,100-mile 1,100-mile section of the Eastern front from the Volkhov sector to the Kuban Ku-ban valley in the Caucasus. In the Caucasus campaign Red army troops shattered two Nazi attacks, at-tacks, according to a Soviet report, and blasted 14 boatloads of Nazis attempting at-tempting to retreat over the Kuban river. In the vicinity of Novorossisk, -last remaining Axis bridgehead in the Caucasus, Russian forces continued their pressure, breaking up Nazi tank assaults and tightening their offensive of-fensive ring around the key city. EUROPE: Air Blasts Continue In the wake of ebbing flood waters that had swept disastrously through Germany's industrial Ruhr valleys from the Eder and Moehne dams, shattered by RAF bombs, American Flying Fortresses inflicted further punishment on the Nazis in attacks on submarine and shipbuilding yards at Kiel and Flensburg, 40 miles away. Air Force communiques said the unescorted bombers had left both targets in flames and shot down many enemy fighter planes that had tried to ward them off. CANNED FOODS: More for Civilians Civilian supplies of canned fruits and vegetables will be increased by approximately 30,000,000 cases from the 1943 pack because of reduced military demands for these commodities, commod-ities, the War Food administration announced. Whether the new allocation would result in a lowering of point values for canned goods was not known. Officials said this would depend on the size of the 1943 fruit and vegetable vege-table pack. |