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Show I WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS . Yanks Clash with Japanese in Major Battle of Philippines; Act to Solve Manpower Problem by Western Newspaper Union. . ' (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions ara expressed In these columns, they are those of Western NewsDOoer Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Captured enemy film shows Adolf Hitler, surrounded by his party officials, trodding ruins of German village devastated by war. PACIFIC: Decisive Battle Three years before, Gen. Douglas MacArthur had left Luzon in a small torpedo boat in the dead of night, with the Japanese breaking the last shred of U. S. resistance in the t Philippines. But he returned in a brilliant comeback, puffing hard on his corn cob pipe at the rail of an American warship, one of 800 vessels in a 70-mile-long convoy which poured thousands thou-sands of troops and tons of supplies on the sandy beaches of Lingayen gulf in northeastern Luzon, 120 miles from Manila. Coming shortly after the U. S. conquest of Leyte island to the southeast. General MacArthur' s latest invasion was a bold stroke, setting the stage for the decisive battle of the Philippines, Japan's last great defensive bastion before the Asiatic mainland, a battle in which the enemy was expected to commit 200,000 troops. Fleet Aids Preceding the Yanks landings, U. S. warships subjected the crescent-shaped Lingayen beach to a murderous three-day barrage, and mine sweepers ploughed in to brush away surface obstructions. Lack of heavy enemy resistance to the landings, and the absence of any formidable beach defenses, indicated in-dicated that the Japanese command resolved to reserve its forces for concentrated onslaughts inland instead in-stead of spreading them along the shores. Heavily reduced by previous sustained sus-tained U. S. army and navy air force raids, a pared Japanese aerial fleet offered desperate resistance to the spearhead of the huge American Ameri-can convoy steaming toward Lingayen, Ling-ayen, with preliminary reports indicating in-dicating 79 enemy planes shot down by fighters and anti-aircraft fire. MANPOWER: Act on Shortage Its efforts to solve the nation's critical manpower problem brought to a head by the President's appeal for a national labor draft in his 12th annual message to prrm congress, the gov- jZLi ernment moved ; f? , v swiftly to channel 'fr''' workers into essen- tjf &p tial war plants and , fyty J provide additional " Jfc2S ( men for the serv- ' jhA ICGS. : iv.; yvfi ? I Although asking ff for a national labor Lii ,11 il draft to "... as- F D R Asks sure that we have Labor Draft the right number of workers in the right places at the right times. . . ." the President specifically spe-cifically recommended action to route 4,000.000 4-Fs into war work and induct nurses into the services. Although generally opposed to a national service act, but at the same time anxious to solve the manpower man-power problem by less drastic means, congress considered legislation legisla-tion to compel 4-Fs to go into essential work or face induction into labor battalions without servicemen's service-men's benefits. With 20.000 nurses needed now and recruitment drives having failed to enlist sufficient numbers, the lawmakers also reluctantly re-luctantly backed the drafting of nurses. While congressional machinery ground into action, selective service sought to keep registrants in essential essen-tial work by asking local boards to induct anyone leaving a deferred position without their consent, and lowering physical standards to provide pro-vide for the drafting of such individuals. indi-viduals. Meanwhile, selective service's order or-der for the review of the deferments defer-ments of approximately 365,000 Including authorization of 73 billion dollars for war purposes, the President asked for an 87 billion bil-lion dollar budget for the 12 months ending June 30, 1946, 13 billion dollars below his request for the present fiscal year. Expecting Ex-pecting that smaller war expenditure expendi-ture will result in decreased tax payments by individuals and corporations cor-porations and bring revenues down to less than 41 billion dollars, dol-lars, the president said the national na-tional debt will reach 292 billion dollars by 194G. young farmers between 18 and 25 years of age was attacked by agricultural agri-cultural leaders, who said that induction in-duction of substantial numbers of this group would seriously impair food production, particularly of pork, beef and dairy products. EUROPE: Nazis Pull Back Making use of swirling blizzards and ghostly battle-fields piled high with snowdrifts, German Field Marshall Mar-shall Von Rundstedt slowly pulled his recent onrushing Nazi legions from the big Belgium bulge under the unrelenting pressure of Allied armies slashing in from the north, the west and the south. Once but 4 miles from the Meuse and 29 miles from the historic his-toric gateway to France, the German Ger-man forces, originally said to number num-ber 200,000 men, gradually gave ground as the Allied armies, under Montgomery in the north and Bradley Brad-ley in the south, cut into their lines, severing important supply roads and threatening to entrap the enemy's ene-my's armored divisions in the western west-ern portion of the bulge. As the Allies delivered their triphammer trip-hammer blows against them, the Germans, who frequently counterattacked counter-attacked to relieve pressure on their lines, were looked upon to withdraw to a new defense arc around St. Vith, but four miles from the German Ger-man border. Reacting quickly to the Germans' diversionary thrust in Alsace, the U. S. Seventh army fought valiantly to nip the enemy's attempt to isolate iso-late its left from its right wing, and reinforcements from the French First army rushed to the defense of the Strasbourg region. Eastern Front Long dormant, the Polish front bestirred, with the Nazis reporting Russian movements on the road to German Silesia, 120 miles below Warsaw, but claiming to have set back Moscow's winter ofTensive plans by going onto the attack themselves them-selves in Latvia and East Prussia. Principal action on the eastern front, however, continued to center in the Hungarian theater, where strong German armored forces struck at Russian lines northwest of Budapest, and the Reds tended to offset this heavy pressure by pushing push-ing forward just above the border in Czechoslovakia. In bitter fighting in encircled Budapest, the Russians continued their block-by-block conquest of the once beautiful but now smouldering Hungarian capital, with tanks and self - propelled guns rumbling through the battered streets and troops firing from jumbled debris. Murky Weather Few observers back home realize how short the days and how long the nights are in west central Europe at this season of the year. Aachen, largest German city yet taken by American forces, and typical typi-cal battle line marker, lies near the 51st degree of north latitude. Although Al-though in that zone in late December Decem-ber and early January about eight hours elapse between sunrise and sunset, effective daylight usually is. cut sharply at both ends of the day by heavy fog. POSTWAR AUTOS: Buyers' Plans Long statisticians for the automobile auto-mobile industry, R. L. Polk and company, polling 50,000 represents tive car owners in an effort to get a slant on the postwar market, found 63 per cent of them intended to buy a new vehicle within two years after the war if there was no price increase. Interviewing 10,000 auto dealers at the same' time, Polk learned that most of them intended to greatly expand their service departments after the war to take care of demand de-mand for repairs before a complete peacetime adjustment permits new car purchases. 1 In conducting Its poll, Polk also learned that 49 per cent of the car owners Intended to buy the same make, while 40 per cent were undecided un-decided and 11 per cent planned to buy other machines. AGGRESSORS: Future Treatment Postwar treatment of Germany and Japan .will be complicated by the important part these nations have played in the peacetime economy econ-omy of their respective regions, discussions dis-cussions of experts indicate. Once called to attention by Secretary Secre-tary of War Stimson at the time Secretary of the Treasury Morgen-thau Morgen-thau proposed the deindustrialization of the reich, Germany's industrial importance to Europe was reempha-sized reempha-sized by Eugene P. Thomas, president presi-dent of the National Foreign Trade council, who said that the country's productive machine should be used toward the rehabilitation of her neighbors as reparations. Pointing out that as the Industrial hub of Asia Japan supplied much of the region's goods, Chinese representatives repre-sentatives at a conference on Far Eastern affairs at Hot Springs, Va., stated that continued existence of the enemy's productive capacity might be necessary to help restore peace- 1 time economy. SHIPS: U. S. Production With emphasis on the nation's shipbuilding in the last six months of the year placed on the faster Victory Vic-tory cargo model and construction of special military types for the army and navy, 16,313,436 deadweight dead-weight tons were produced for the 12 months ending in December. Special types delivered included transports and cargo ships essential for Pacific operations, small cargo tfr WEST COAST LEADS IN SHIP MtOOOCDON k ""' C8UT lams V.iiY-v last 'coast! fwFST COAST Q 1 V CU1F COAST LJ vessels of 3,840 deadweight tons, aircraft air-craft carriers and frigates for convoy con-voy escort. During the year, the Maritime commission reported, the shipyards concluded the wooden vessel program, pro-gram, including deck and hold scows, large barges and tugs. Near-ing Near-ing completion is the concrete ship program, with these vessels having proven their worth as tankers, floating float-ing warehouses and refrigerator units. STORE SALES: At Peak Reflecting retailers' ability to shift lines to meet wartime conditions, and people's propensity to spend with money in their pockets, department de-partment store sales in the U. S. bounded up 11 per cent in 1944 over the previous year, the Federal Reserve Re-serve board reported. Most of the increase took place in the last six months. It was said, with sales in the November-December Christmas shopping season mounting 17 per cent. . Increases were largest in the deep south, stretching from the Atlantic to Arizona, with the Atlanta district showing a 21 per cent rise and Dallas, Dal-las, 17 per cent. GREECE: Hunger Stalks With Athens' streets cleared of murderous civil warfare, its hungry people lined up at military soup kitchens for emergency rations or walked about, dragging tattered knapsacks, in search of food. With inflation having run rampant during the German occupation, Allied Al-lied liberation has brought no relief, re-lief, with eggs costing CO cents each: beef $3 a pound; black bread $2 a pound; oranges 40 cents each; beans 80 cents a pound, and cheese $10 a pound. Serving only the richest, restaurants restau-rants were charging sky-high prices, with one U. S. correspondent dining din-ing In a cafe paying $8.70 for three fried eggs, French fried potatoes, two pieces of white bread without butter, and one cup of coffee. French Cold In France, Paris shivered from lack of coal caused by the disruption disrup-tion of transportation. Patrolmen guarding the city's picturesque public pub-lic parks were doubled to prevent residents from chopping down trees for fuel. Because subway stations and post offices recently were the only heated places, women and children and the aged crowded in, huddling in corners all day. Mothers brought along their darning while others played cards or read |