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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Meat Ceilings to Check Black Market; Bismarck Sea Triumph Forecasts U. S. Drive to Sweep Japs From New Guinea; Small Firms Get Billions for War Work (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of We iter ii Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) i Released by Western Newspaper Union. r : P. i ft- v ?v ' - i i r'i t 41 v-i Even the most advanced air base in Tunisia gets its mail, as pictured pic-tured above. This photo of the mailman arriving and being welcomed at an advanced U. S. air base of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower's army, should be an incentive to those on the home front to write and keep writing to loved ones no matter how far away on Uncle Sam's service they may be. NORTH AFRICA: Rommel in Reverse : As Allied troops continued their drive in Tunisia, it became increasingly increas-ingly clear that Marshal Rommel's short-lived Kasserine Pass offensive had been a gamble. If he' succeeded, succeed-ed, he would follow it up. If he failed, he would waste no time in retiring. re-tiring. This was emphasized by the rapidity with which American and British forces had regained the ground lost in Rommel's first push. Reports disclosed that some units of the British Eighth army had made contact with American troops in the Gafsa area of central Tunisia after circling the Mareth line from the south and advancing through the Chott Djerid marshes which had hitherto been regarded as impassable. impassa-ble. American forces pressing Rommel's Rom-mel's retreat from the Kasserine pass were reported well beyond Sbeitla on the way to the Faid Pass, the key to German north-south communications. com-munications. In the northern mountains west of Axis-held Bizerte heavy Nazi attacks at-tacks had bent the British lines back. The Allied air arm remained dominant over North Africa, however, how-ever, and in the Mediterranean, sharp enemy losses to British submarines sub-marines were reported. Seven Axis ships were sunk and nine others damaged. ABSENTEEISM: Wage Docking Urged "Hit them in the pocketbook,- If you dock their wages you are hitting hit-ting them where it hurts." This was the prescription for curing cur-ing the problem of persistent absenteeism absen-teeism by war plant workers proposed pro-posed by Secretary of Navy Frank Knox. Testifying before the house naval affairs committee, Knox advocated ad-vocated remedial legislations covering cover-ing both draft-age and non-draft-age workers. A large share of the absenteeism is caused by men safe from the draft, he told the committee . which, was studying measures to require periodic reports to local draft boards, on absentees of military age. Best results in curing absenteeism would be to deprive such workers of earnings earn-ings for part of the time they were actually at work, he added. - DRAFT: Fathers Go Soon Draft boards will begin inducting" fathers into the armed forces in many areas of the United . States about May 1, informed officials in Washington indicated. These offl' ' cials added that they expected drafting draft-ing of married men with children , to be general throughout the coun- ' try by early summer. '. ' Acknowledging that some married men with children have already been ' inducted, selective service officials declared that most of these. had acquired ac-quired their dependents after December De-cember 8, 1941. Other fathers, .it was said, may not be inducted without with-out authorization from selective service headquarters. It was predicted, pre-dicted, however, that such authorization authori-zation would be forthcoming this, spring. 1 PIPELINES: Relief for East Blunt-spoken Harold L. Ickes, petroleum pe-troleum administrator, served notice that he had decided to build a 20-inch 20-inch pipeline from Texas to the Middle Mid-dle West, despite the objection of BLACK MARKET: t Action on Meat Action rather than words was the keystone of a program sponsored by the OPA and the department of agriculture ag-riculture to smash the black markets mar-kets in meat. First barrage laid down in this offensive was Price Administrator, Prentiss M. Brown's order imposing specific retail price ceilings on meat, beginning with pork products. Second Sec-ond attack came in the announcement announce-ment by Secretary of Agriculture Wickard of orders licensing livestock slaughterers as well as those who buy and sell livestock for slaughter. Effective April 1, the meat ceilings were expected to check black markets mar-kets and end an "unjust squeeze" on packers. Mr. Brown said they would also lay the groundwork for the start of meat rationing about April 15. Pork ceilings were to be followed by uniform regulations, on beef and lamb. When red meat rationing is undertaken, un-dertaken, the order will include bacon, ba-con, butter, cheese, lard and other cooking fats. With prices uniform throughout a community on all cuts of meat, Brown said, it would be difficult for dealers to get rid of illicit meat at higher prices. RUSSIANS: Repeat Old History Back over the snowy Russian , steppes where Napoleon's army per ished long ago reeled the retreating German legions. While the collapse of Nazi resistance resist-ance at Rzhev had been of high immediate im-mediate strategic importance to the Red command it was prophetic of further Nazi reverses, for with the whole German salient west of Moscow Mos-cow unhinged, the fate of Orel and Vyazma to the east virtually sealed. The rapidity of the Russian advance ad-vance was indicated by the capture soon afterward of Olenino 35 miles west of Rzhev giving control of the railway running from Moscow to Ve-r Ve-r likie Luki. ! While German spokesmen described de-scribed the Rzhev defeat as a, stra- , tegic withdrawal to shorten Nazi lines, Allied military observers saw in it a threat to all Axis defenses from Smolensk to the Baltic sea. In the South the Russians had moved forward more slowly, impeded imped-ed by the first thaws of oncoming spring. But Red forces were reported re-ported driving forward from recaptured recap-tured Lgov, important railroad center cen-ter west of Kursk. WAR COST: Exceeds 43 Billion ; More than $43,830,452,651 was spent for war purposes in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, it was disclosed by the treasury treas-ury department. The war department spent the most for war $27,303,243,684. The navy spent $11,502,653,956, the maritime mari-time commission $1,685,143,236 and the war shipping administration $733,211,740. Expenditures by the government for all purposes during the eight-month eight-month period totaled $47,600,944,727, while net revenue totaled $9,512,808,-497. $9,512,808,-497. The government's deficit for the eight months was $38,084,682,608. SMALL BUSINESS: Good Neivs Ahead Good news for small business concerns con-cerns was forthcoming from Charles E. Wilson, executive vice chairman of the War Production board when he announced that war bontracts placed with smaller companies "will run into billions of dollars by the end of the year." Wilson said that more than $30,-000,000 $30,-000,000 of work a week is being placed now with small business firms through the efforts of the Smaller War Plants corporation. The WPB's program for small business, Wilson said, includes: 1 An increase, in the number of prime contracts placed with small plants; 2 Widening of WPB's lending policy poli-cy to make loans to small business easier; 3 Certification of more small plants to handle war contracts. con-tracts. BISMARCK SEA: Disaster for Japs , j Three facts of major significance to the future of the war in the Pacific Pa-cific emerged from the stunning victory vic-tory of General MacArthur's bombers bomb-ers over the 22-ship Jap armada in the Bismarck sea, approaching New Guinea. Fact No. 1 was that in sinking the 22 enemy ships and bagging 82 Jap planes, MacArthur's . airmen proved that a force, of land-based bombers manned by skilled pilots is more than a match for a seaborne sea-borne invasion force. Fact No. 2 was that the victory removed the danger of invasion to the Australian mainland for the time being at least. Fact No. 3 was that the enemy garrisons at Lae and Sala-maua, Sala-maua, New Guinea, would not nowbe reinforced, for it was estimated that 15,000 Jap troops perished when Yankee bombs sank their transports-Military transports-Military observers believed that one of the immediate results of the Jap disaster would be an increase in pressure by General MacArthur's MacAr-thur's armies besieging Lae and Sal-amaua Sal-amaua with the object of driving the Japs entirely from New Guinea. The clean-sweep character of the American triumph was summarized in General MacArthur's terse communique: com-munique: "We have achieved a victory vic-tory of such completeness as to assume as-sume the proportions of a major disaster dis-aster to the enemy." NAVY: Predict 10 Losses A navy "big enough to dominate all seas over the world" was envisioned envi-sioned by Secretary Frank Knox, who added a warning that the American Amer-ican people must be prepared to expect ex-pect a 10 per cent casualty rate in navy personnel before the war's end. Secretary Knox and ranking naval officials unfolded a program for building up personnel strength to 2,250,000 by July, 1944, in testimony before the house subcommittee on naval appropriations. Appropriations Appropria-tions totaling $3,816,000,000 to implement imple-ment this program were approved by the subcommittee. The navy had 3,205 ships in commission com-mission on January 1, 1943, according accord-ing to Rear Admiral Randal Jacobs, Ja-cobs, chief of the bureau of personnel. person-nel. This number will be increased to approximately 4.100 by the end of the year, be added. " T f'!'" y fl PETROLEUM BOSS ICKES Midwest senators who had urged that any new pipeline construction should be instead, from the Middle West to the East Coast shortage area. This will be in addition to the recently completed 24-inch line. Mr. Ickes assured the Middle West senators in testimony before a committee com-mittee in Washington that he also hopes 'to complete a 20-inch pipeline from the Midwest to the East coast this year. Meanwhile, te insisted, building the western end of the second pipeline pipe-line first would speed the job and increase deliveries to the East coast of from 3,000,000 to 5,000,000 barrels during the most critical period of the shortage. This would provide the most effective method. CHILD LABOR: 2,780,000 Employed Reflecting the war's impact on the nation's labor supply, a report by the National Child Labor commission commis-sion revealed lhat 2,780,000 youngsters young-sters of less than 18. years of age are employed either full or part time in industry and agriculture. Citing a noticeable increase in illegal il-legal child labor, especially in night work, the report said that 580,000 of the group were in the 14 to 15-year 15-year age class and the remainder ' 16 and 17. |
