| OCR Text |
Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Anti-Nazi Unity in Norway, Denmark Brings New War Threat to Sweden; Advent of Spring Weather Heralded By Increased Battlefront Activity (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) F (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) HARMONY: And Discord All had not been too harmonious in this country, though in general the nation was moving swiftly enough along the path of production for the war to meet the goals and schedules set by President Roosevelt. Roose-velt. But there were manifold bickerings bicker-ings along the pathway. News stories sto-ries said that there was to be a sugar rationing beginning in May. Then other dispatches cited that the h t V- - -1 ""SI ; L 1 iiiJ TOLL: .. Of U. S.-Jap War News, some good, some bad, continued con-tinued from the various battlefronts on which American troops and sailors sail-ors were meeting the might of Nippon. Nip-pon. . The navy had admitted the loss of three warships, the aircraft tender tend-er and former carrier Langley, the navy tanker Pecos and the destroyer destroy-er Peary, with the loss of some 700 lives. This had been a bitter, tragedy of the waters off Java, adding to the awful toll of the Battle of Java Sea. First the Langley, spotted by Jap planes, had been "smothered in bombs." Her crew, all but about a dozen men, got safely off, swam about, clinging to debris, until picked up by destroyers, later transferred to the Pecos. The latter, trying to escape to Australia, was caught by flights of Jap dive bombers, evaded the first run but was smashed in the sec-. sec-. ond. With two crews aboard one boat, the loss of life was heavy. The Peary was done to death in the Aussies' port of Darwin, but went to the- bottom with all guns blazing, her commander dying at his post. Not all was to be defeat, however, how-ever, for our naval forces. American Ameri-can submarines had taken a heavy toll of .Japanese shipping in the neighborhood of Bali and south of Java, and in the Christmas island region. Following these disclosures, the navy reported that since the start of the war 47 Japanese ships of war had certainly been sent to the bottom bot-tom against 24 for the American navy. More than 200 ships of all types had been sunk, many of them by plane action, many by submarines, many by army planes and shore guns. This rate of loss was deemed certain cer-tain to be more than the Japs could stand, while America was increasing her production average of more than two ships of war daily going into the water, and more than this number num-ber of merchant vessels. With the attack on Australia definitely def-initely turned back, at least for the time being, military leaders were taking a more optimistic tone as to the chances for a 1942 offensive in the South Pacific. UNREST: , In Norway, Denmark Observers, still writing frankly and against the Nazis in the Stockholm Stock-holm press, saw , the spring season bringing even more anti-German -unity to the Danes and the Norwegians. SEN. WALTER F. GEORGE "Victory Day11 for labor. War Production board and the Office Of-fice of Price Administration were at odds on the sugar situation, and the whole thing might be called oft that there really was plenty of sugar. This was hotly and instantly denied de-nied by Donald Nelson, who said not only was there no friction, but that the sugar rationing was necessary and would be carried out. There also was a terrific argument in progress over the time and a half overtime paid war workers for the 48-hour week, under the law that the work week at straight time should not exceed 40 hours. The President had maintained his position as squarely behind the 40-hour 40-hour week, and while some senators sena-tors and congressmen fought against excess profits by employers, others were busy going after labor's overtime. over-time. Senator George of Georgia was a leader in the battle, suggesting that the 48-hour week be adopted and the sixth day of work be called a "victory "vic-tory day," the workers passing up their overtime, but to be paid it if the seventh day were worked. THAW: Russian for Slush Just what the great Russian thaw had meant was vividly described in dispatches from Kuibyshev. They called it "more formidable than a aola nations were finally realizing realiz-ing that all German promises of post-war freedom were obviously false, and that occupation and puppet pup-pet government meant simply conquest. con-quest. The Danes were united behind two national heroes, the king and the minister to the United States. Hen- 'faff i o j! ji. mm n. n mcM inr i vkk. A--.,. moated citadel." One writer said: "Imagine all the swamps you ever saw. Imagine all the muddy ditches your automobile had whizzed past. Imagine millions and millions of mudbaths. Into : all this dump billions of tons of grayish snow and stir thoroughly." That's a thaw in Russia. The Russian Rus-sian mud clings to feet and to tanks. One correspondent said he saw a trackwalker on the railroad jump off the track to let a train pass. The man was 'buried to his waist in muddy mud-dy slush. His comrades had to pull him out with a rope. CRITICAL YEAR: War Tempo Speeded The World could feel, with the quickening of life in springtime fields and trees, the speeding of the tempo of the war on half a dozen fronts, and the vigorous battering of nation against nation that was to make 1942 the critical year of the World war. In the "land down under" the seasons were reversed, with Australia Aus-tralia moving into the fall season, but as the threat was to the tropical north of the continent, weather made little difference. But in Russia, in occupied Europe, Eu-rope, and on the embattled oceans the changing weather was bringing faster reports of action afloat and in the air. ' Across the English channel had been moving huge flights of bombing bomb-ing planes, of late more often than not accompanied by high and low squadrons of fighter planes, giving the "big berthas" protection from the defending Nazi ships, and they were dropping death and destruction over a widening area. The Japs were ripping at full speed into India's flanks, the Nazis on the eastern front were redoubling their pressure against the Soviet, and were said to be rushing 4,000,000 new troops into action. The Euss were countering, so it was reported, with upward of 7;000,000 men, many of them fresh troops. Temperatures had gone above freezing on much of the Russian front, and the torrential rains of springtime had been falling. The battle of the central and southern fronts in Russia were expected to be the most bitter of the war. PRODUCTION: Donald M. Nelson, WPB chieftain, had placed his official OK on the war effort of American industry, saying "the war plant of this country coun-try is now really beginning to roll." As to airplanes, he said "schedules "sched-ules for January, February and March had been met or exceeded. It was recalled that the President was shooting for 185,000 planes. Tanks were ahead of schedule. Merchant shipping, he added, was "rising rapidly, and this year's schedule should be met." HENRIK DE KAUFFMANN Number one Danish hero. rik de KaufTman, the latter, one German Ger-man had been angrily quoted, was the No. 1 Danish Hero in the eyes of the people. As to the Norwegians, their resistance re-sistance to the Quisling government had solidified until no risk was too great for the people to impede the puppet leaders. Evidence was that Germany plans on giving Quisling enough rope to hang himself. - Sweden was not inclined to view these developments with joy, but rather with fear, seeing the day not far distant when she, too, would be drawn into the war. PROFITS: Agreement by a senate committee on the principle of limitation of war profits by industry had brought to light reported profits running as high as 4,000 per cent on invested capital. While, with the government pouring pour-ing capital into essential industry, such profits always would be great, the senators felt that a sliding scale of maximum permissible profits might be the answer. Some companies had returned excess ex-cess profits, one check to the government gov-ernment amounting to $40,000,000. The house already had approved a limitation of 6 per cent on contract con-tract amounts, but the senate felt a sliding scale might be better. Nelson had offered 10 per cent when the administration had balked at the house's limitation of six. The senate committee then had agreed on a scale which would be 10 per cent on contracts of $100,000 or less, then downward on a sliding scale until at $50,000,000 the profits would be only 2 per cent. Senators McKellar and Thomas were extremely active in behalf of this proposal. |
