| Show W R washington D C recruiting SHOWS pHI PHYSICAL deficiencies the army campaign for or new recruits Is showing up all too vividly how the years of depression have left their mark on american youth greatest difficulty in securing r recruits e Is not the reluctance of yo young ung men to enlist but their inability to pass physical examinations in peacetime the arme armed A services get most of their recruits from 10 low W er bracket families because of economic conditions it is now the lower bracket farni families lies with the mo most st chi children which I 1 lack ack sufficient nour nourishment h fresh air and exercise this has been a particularly serious drabb drawback ck to recruiting in the larger cities bitle s during one recent drive to bring the marine corps up to full strength recruiting officers left the cities and combed the smaller towns in farming communities there they found a much huskier type of recruit but many were rejected because of poor teeth in the cities the biggest drawbacks are bad eyesight and underweight WAR DOOMS CROP anop CONTROL henry wallaces program of crop curtailment and soil conservation is about to face its toughest year reason is the certain food shortage in E europe drope and the demand that american farmers use th their air surpluses to feed war torn europe there are two causes for the food shortage one is the fact that many countries have been too busy fighting to plant sufficient crops and their fields have been fought over second reason is lack of sufficient merchant shipping four countries norway holland denmark and belgium have a total of gross tons of merchant vessels which are immobilized so far as supplying the home ports is r concerned n either they are bottled up at home or they are in foreign po ports arts unable to reach home vessels which a year ago were carrying U S fodder to denmark to feed danish cattle today are diverted to other trade or riding at anchor meantime the cattle are eating up the existing supplies of fodder when these are gone the cattle will have to be killed and the killing will be done by the germans who will consume the cattle this is just one simplified illustration no such constriction was known in ta ane early days of the W world 0 rid war because the united states still neutral insisted on maintaining its shipping to the neutral countries of europe but now its shipping is barred by the neutrality act from belligerent ports and combat zones all of this is sure to bring heavy demands on the U S farmer also on congress to appropriate relief money to help Eu ropes starving populations and this in turn is sure to upset crop control for it was high food prices during the world war which increased acreage and also sent many farmers heavily nto into debt to buy new land DIPLOMATS MAKE WARS john Q public thinks the diplomats make the wars and could stop them hem argentina Argent me ambassador espil has a letter etter saying your country should submit itself to becoming a part of the united states no latin amer ican can country is prouder of its independence pen dence than argentina less lively to 0 become part of the U S A uruguayan minister gets so many letters he is working overtime to answer them the tenor is you must get rid of the dangerous germans FRENCH FLEET the white house is not advertis ing ng it but the disposition of the french drench fleet was one vital point which came up in secret discussion with the french just before their ca capitulation pitula tion roosevelt wanted to make sure that hat the french navy would not fall into nazi hands for frances warships could just about tip the valance balance of naval power and give the he nazis a powerful striking arm in n the south atlantic against latin america the french have two brand new ton battleships the strasbourg and the dunkerque Dunker que probably the ie fastest in the world also two new ton battleships the richelieu and ana the jean bart the latter atter not quite completed these added to the german fleet would give hitler 10 battleships against 15 for the united states all much older and slower when you consider that 12 U S battleships are kept in the pacific with only three in the atlantic you get a rough idea of how difficult it would be tor for this country to defend the monroe doctrine t hitler got the french fleet another thing hing he might get which would add to our monroe doctrine problem is the french naval base at dakar on the bulge of africa jutting out toward brazil note the united states recently has launched two aft 0 new war monsters but it will take several months to complete them |
