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Show WEEKLY NFJVS ANALYSIS By Farnham F. Dudgeon French Government Asks Peace After Reynaud Cabinet Resigns; England Pledges 'We'll Fight On' (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Released by Western Newspaper Union. When Italy Joined forces with Germany in the war against France and England she had a good supply of armored tanks to aid in clearing the way for troops In true blitzkrieg fashion. Here are pictured a number of Mussolini's Mus-solini's soldiers manning the best tanks Italy has been able to produce. In addition to these "regular" tanks, the Italian army is said to possess a large number of the "Dame-throwing" variety. THE WAR: Capitulation "Our race does not allow itself to be beaten down by invasion . . . Our race has always thrown back or dominated the invaders . . ." Brave words these, spoken by Premier Reynaud of France as he was telling tell-ing his people of his "last" appeal for help to President Roosevelt. But within four days following this desperate plea, Paul Reynaud resigned re-signed his post as premier of France's "war" cabinet and was replaced re-placed by 84-year-old Marshal Henri Petain, to whom fell the fateful job of arranging a "peace with honor." France, weary and tired under the constant pounding of the relentless German blitzkrieg, had decided to concede defeat in order to save what was left of the country from the invaders. in-vaders. Premier Petain's cabinet began its negotiations to end the war through Generalissimo Franco of Spain a friend of both Petain and Hitler. Even before this grave news reached London the British had pledged themselves to continue the war even if France should find it necessary to cease firing. Great Britain declared that Germany had used up her resources in too great a hurry, and unless she was able to conquer the allies within a few months all chance of a German victory vic-tory would vanish. Russia meanwhile had stepped into the picture and assumed "protection" "protec-tion" over Lithuania because, according ac-cording to the Soviet, that tiny nation na-tion was busy obtaining Russian military mil-itary secrets that were "threatening "threaten-ing peace." It was also claimed that the Liths had entered into a military mili-tary alliance with their small neighbors, neigh-bors, Estonia and Latvia. So Russian Rus-sian troops marched into these two nations, as well. Before the French decision to seek peace had been made, German troops had entered Paris and the swastika was unfurled on the streets of that historic city. The French had cleared the city of soldiers before be-fore the Germans arrived so that it could be classed as an "open city" and thus be spared destruction by bombing or shell fire. The high command com-mand explained that no worthwhile strategic aim would justify destruction destruc-tion of their beautiful capital, almost al-most sure to result in any battle to defend it. HOME FRONT: Dig Job In a machine age war world, with dive-bombers, flaming tanks, and motorized equipment of all types, industrial mobilization of national resources takes precedence over manpower mobilization. Germany's swift thrusts into enemy en-emy territory stand as evidence that while France and England idly watched, Nazi factories were working work-ing overtime turning out their mechanical me-chanical instruments of war. AGRICULTURE: Record Reserve Department of agriculture reports indicate that ever-normal granary reserve supplies of surplus farm products have reached record levels and will be increased this year. This reserve supply held by the Commodity Credit corporation under un-der loans to producers or owned outright out-right by the corporation has a total value of about $1,000,000,000. Chief crops in reserve are cotton, corn, wheat and tobacco. Smaller amounts of peanuts, figs, butter, wool, mohair, turpentine and resin are held because of loans made last year. This year, loans averaging averag-ing 64 cents per bushel on 1940 wheat, 35 cents on rye, and 30 cents on barley have already been authorized au-thorized and loans are virtually certain cer-tain on 1940 cotton (9 cents per pound) and corn (between 57 and 62 cents per bushel). While farm prices are at a low ebb because of the loss of many foreign for-eign markets due to the war there is a feeling in some quarters that it may become necessary for the Americas to eventually supply most of the foodstuffs for European nations. na-tions. It is known that generally speaking speak-ing these nations do not have huge supplies of food and will be forced to get huge stocks of grain from somewhere. But the situation is so uncertain that the farmer who takes a gamble gam-ble on getting in on some of the "extra-eventual" trade may be left holding a full grain sack. MEDICINE: New Trend Arch foe of any attempt to "federalize" "fed-eralize" or centralize authority in control of the practice of medicine, the American Medical association is now about ready to make available to the public a system or systems of statewide medical care at low cost. Details of the plan to be presented are not immediately available but it is known that prepayments to cover cov-er sickness promise to run from $1.50 to $2.50 per month per individual. indi-vidual. Opposition to any compulsory health insurance plan was expressed by leaders of the association. Meeting in annual conclave in New York, the A. M. A. house of delegates dele-gates heard reports on the results of experiments by 300 county societies all over the country in joining with relief authorities to provide medical service to the indigent. The new plan, which will be an outgrowth of these experiments, does not limit its service to the indigent but will be available for all to whom low cost is essential. At least 14 states already have a statewide plan in some stage of de-' velopment. EAST SIDE: Accord and Discord On the world's troublesome east side where eyes of the western world are cast in never-ending vigilance vig-ilance there are some signs of accord ac-cord . . . and added signs of the usual discord. For from Tokyo comes word that Japan and Thailand (Siam) have concluded a treaty of friendship, which a foreign office spokesman described as "unmistakable evidence evi-dence of Japan's peaceable intentions inten-tions in the South Pacific." And in London the British reported report-ed a non-aggression pact between Thailand, Japan and Great Britain as well as a partial settlement of an old dispute with Japan on the matter of money circulation in China and the prolonged silver dispute dis-pute in the city of Tientsin. If all this sounded as if Great Britain's campaign to woo Japan's friendship was bearing fruit, there were more ominous sounds droning from the motors of Japanese bombers bomb-ers over China's provisional capital, Chungking. For the Japanese air force has been concentrating its at. tacks these past weeks in an effort to destroy that city and force tin: government officials to surrender. Outside of China the Japanese seem to be in a mellow mood for even from Moscow came news ot accord with Russia in the SovieV Mongolian border dispute. Allied leaders themselves are admitting ad-mitting these days that it was this lack of a unified industrial production produc-tion program that left them so far behind Germany when the war began. be-gan. Evidently the United States does not intend to be caught napping in a similar fashion, should this nation be called upon to defend its shores against invasion. For the $5,000,-000,000 $5,000,-000,000 preparedness program is moving along with increasing smoothness and speed. The President's defense commission, commis-sion, co-operating with government agencies, has increased the tempo of its program to aid in this mobilization. mobili-zation. From Detroit, likely to be the key point for the mass production of war planes, came news that after Henry Ford and his engineers had inspected two planes sent them by the war department, he announced that his statement of being able to produce 1,000 ships a day, still stood. It was further stated that given giv-en six months notice Ford could turn out this many planes without interruption to normal output of automobiles. Ford emphasized in an interview that any planes he produced pro-duced would be "for defense only." Paying the Bill Secretary of the Treasury Mor-genthau Mor-genthau believes that the public is "willing and ready" to accept additional ad-ditional taxes to support the defense de-fense program. Most tax experts agreed with him but many cautioned that a hurried revenue bill rushed through congress would have to be reviewed and studied later to see that the tax was distributed fairly among all income groups. POLITICS: Noiv Is the Time Opening their national convention in Philadelphia the Republican party par-ty faces a difficult task indeed. From its ranks it must pick a presidential pres-idential candidate that will first of all be able in some manner to match the experience in international affairs af-fairs that the Democratic party can present to the U. S. voting population popula-tion in its candidate. For war or peace, preparedness or lack of it, the foreign situation is to be the biggest factor in the 1940 political campaign. Both major political po-litical parties realize this and many domestic issues, truly important ones, may be neglected because of it. And with knowing this they are concentrating on choosing a standard bearer that will give the American public full confidence that if elected he will be successful in pursuing a wise foreign policy. INDUSTRY: Upturn Since last December, American business has been following a downward down-ward trend but now the picture is changing and according to recent reports of the federal reserve board this trend has been suddenly reversed. re-versed. Government economists and Secretary Sec-retary of Commerce Harry L. Hopkins Hop-kins believe that domestic business busi-ness activity will increase enough (due to the multi-billion dollar defense de-fense program) to more than offset losses in international trade due to invasion of many of Uncle Sam's good customers in Europe. Not only have the so-called war industries in-dustries (machinery, aircraft, shipbuilding ship-building and chemicals) evidenced nice gains recently, but other industrial in-dustrial fields not directly related to armed conflict have increased their activity. Outstanding among these other industries are: meatpacking, meat-packing, rayon production, petroleum petrole-um output and coal production. Eut the greatest increase in volume vol-ume of business is in production of steel. Marked increase in orders for foreign buyers and domestic manufacturing plants are pushing steel plants up to capacity. |
