| Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS by edward C wayne scorched earth and guerrilla fighting Is soviet answer to german thrust revenue bill for defense spending provides many additional new taxes EDITORS Eni TORS NOTE aben opinions are expressed in these columns they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper released by western newspaper union ac s this is the scene in the brooklyn N X Y federal court as 25 members of the huge spy ring were arraigned by the government called one of the most active extensive and vicious spy rings in the nations history 26 men and 3 women were arrested throughout the country most of them were of german descent they were charged with transmitting vital defense information to a foreign government three men in foreground are lawyers ORDEAL by following the first couple of weeks of the russo german war some wag of the airwaves air waves referred to the conflict as an ordeal for the public by in the absence of any possible direct war correspondence that is exactly what it developed into ever lengthening by both sides so much at variance that the public could do little but guess As the german columns advanced premier josef stalin urged upon his people a policy of scorched earth to be coupled with universal guerrilla warfare he warned of the grave danger of the nazi successes and acknowledged the forward movement of german troops he asked his people to destroy everything ery thing that might be of value to germany if it could not be saved behind the retreating soviet columns only at certain points did the reports of the two high commands coincide and these were so exceptional that they were more to be honored by their absence than their presence speaking of an important town on the southern front the germans said we captured lwow and the russians said we left lwow and even in that point of coincidence there was a variance which left much to guesswork yet from the very names of places it was possible to take a map and see a picture of the german plan emerging though it was impossible by the same token to picture the russian defense the picture was that of a giant clutching hand with the wrist to the north and the fingers outstretched though which way the joints of the fingers would flex themselves could not be foreseen three fingers were stretching toward moscow and leningrad and two were extending southward into the rich ukraine two or three of these five shafts showed signs that they might form pincer movements snipping oft off and surrounding bodies of red troops here and there along the battlefront already the germans had claimed one such success east of stating that russian soldiers had participated in a mass surrender and that everywhere the russians were on the run the red stated that their lines were holding intact and that at some points the russians were fighting far behind the most outstretched german points and that some of these actions might work out badly for the invaders apt military observers pointed out such occurrences were of the very nature of the nazi blitz technique and that in france in greece and on other fronts including the town of bobruk in northern africa groups of defending troops often were left behind in the swift advance later to be encircled the greek army of the east was trapped in just such a way and though it held out and fought for considerable time it was forced to surrender in the end it was impossible however to see just what the russians were accomplishing shing in their defense for the town name reports showed continued german advances and the capture en route of important points TAXES and spending za the tax structure by which the congress intends to raise additional revenue to the tune of during the coming fiscal year was practically complete in addition to the huie huge amount expected from the new income tax structure the congress tax makers had agreed that business would have to yield about more than the it is now raising excise taxes were to be increased by a 10 per cent tax on electric fans cooking appliances and simi similar articles a 10 per cent tax on rubber products not including footwear and auto tires or tubes which are on other tax schedules 10 per cent on electrical and belfil signs 10 yer per cent on washing machines for commercial laundries one sixth of a cent a bottle on soft drinks 4 cents a case 10 per cent on retail furs another 10 on toilet pre preparations parati ons a use tax on vending machines that pay off in tokens 5 for vending machines which dispense articles 10 per cent on optical instruments other than eyeglasses 10 per cent on office and store machines thus the boil down of the tax structure was this excise taxes like the above income levies including excess profits estate and gift taxes giving a total of close to the sought this enabled the public to get a generalized sort of picture of what is coming to the american way of life at least from a tax standpoint during the next tax year SHOCK to british scarcely less shocking to the british than the arrival of hess on scottish soil was the news that gen sir archibald wavell had been relieved of his command in africa and the middle east general wavell had been britaina Brit ains number one hero the only man who had won for the british an important victory and one which challenged the imagination wavelle Wavel ls men had driven through Cyrena ica and had taken it away from the italians capturing more than prisoners on the way true the nazis had corne cone across the mediterranean and had taken all this territory away from him including the trapping of a number of thousand of the wavell troops it also was true that there had been a good deal of criticism of wavell at this time it also was being remembered that he had been given at least a part of the responsibility for the disaster in greece and crete although the war ministry simply recounted that wavell had been transferred to the high command in india and that his place had been taken by gen sir claude auchinleck a scotsman the general feeling in britain was that it was a shocking demotion this notwithstanding the war ministry let out the rumor that perhaps wavell was being given a more important task the preparation of the defense of india should the russian resistance collapse and find the nazis blitzing klitzing blit zing in that direction army tour to milt no shot is too tough lough for the veteran billiard champion willie hoppe right who is setting up a difficult arrangement on the if ing of a giant bomber when lie he and welker cochran visited a san diego calif plane plant hoppe is starting a tour of army camps soon as a part of the war department recreation program PLAN PLANES ES A slowdown observers on the economic and defense production fronts in this country seemed skeptical of the outlook that grand mass production of medium and heavy bombers would be un under der way early in 1942 the plan calls for the auto makers to build airplanes in a number of small sections like wings fuselages and tails etc and ship these sections to large assembly plants in omaha kansas city and fort worth and tulsa where they will be put together in assembly line fashion that was the motor indu answer to large scale production of bombers now those who feel that this objective will not be reached until some time in 1943 point out how the aluminum shortage can possibly play hob with the best laid plans they say that when a plane weighs pounds it actually takes pounds of ingot aluminum to do the job because of the weight loss through scraps these scraps cannot be melted down into airplane metal again because of the number of different alloys required the observers who feel that is being too optimistic also point out that the scrap losses under the automotive plan of plane building are likely to be more than in regular plane factories where the workers have more experience and will make fewer mistakes they also feel it is going to be a huge problem for the big plane manufacturers to operate in cities as tar far distant from each other as baltimore and omaha for instance and still maintain a cohesive and clever organization however present plane production gloomy as this outlook might be took a step upward when north american aviation got back to its scheduled 10 planes a day and the 1500 soldiers who had been stationed near the plant were sent away to more distant points the wage structure finally decided upon turned out to be 60 cents for beginners for the first three months and then 75 cents minimum after that point and on up to an hour for more skilled workers KNOX and his speech secretary of navy knox in his boston address stirred up an outbreak on congress which threatened to bring out an impeachment resolution and found administration supporters reportedly working under cover to prevent this outcome in the address the navy secretary hinted that the time had come for the navy actively to sweep the german menace from the seas and spoke of the russo german war occupying nazi attention as a go god d given opportunity to insure the arrival of lease lend aid to britain leading non interventionists headed by senator wheeler of montana leaped on this speech with all their power declaring that the navy secretary was stepping beyond his powers and seeking to get president roosevelt to order a shooting war between the navy and the german submarines and surface raiders the question when immediately put to president roosevelt brought from him a denial that he thought american participation was necessary at this time and holding out continued hope that this country could remain out of the war |
