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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS 1 Fire Bombs Raze Jap Cities; Unemployment Expected to Rise Soon as War Production Tapers - Released by Western Newspaper Union. -I (FIllTOK'H NOTE: Whrn opinions are expressrd In these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) SUGAR: Press Conservation Declaring that the present sugar shortage had been aggravated by Illegal Il-legal use of supplies originally obtained ob-tained for home canning, the OPA took steps to tighten allocations for such purposes and prevent further drainage of shrinking stocks. In addition to having special investigators in-vestigators check into the diversion of home canning sugar into bootleg liquor or illicit bottling, OPA announced an-nounced that pledges must now be signed assuring that use of home canning rations will not be used for other purposes and reports made later lat-er as to food put up; district offices will suspend allocations until fruits and vegetables become available for preservation, and review all applications appli-cations so as to spread supplies over coming months. Partly because of over-issuance of sugar for food preservation last year, OPA said, average table rations ra-tions have been cut 37 per cent an housewives' allocations for home canning have been trimmed 40 per cent. In addition, the short sugar stocks have resulted in a squeeze on bakers and industrial users, with further reductions in their allotments allot-ments threatening to seriously hamper ham-per continued operations. CONGRESS: Fistic Debate Well In the tradition of the good old days when the U. S. took its politics poli-tics hot nnd heavv. r ' J 1 l ' 'V -J '-'. ' ,i ' , ' i v ' v i u: "": - - 4 ' J ' ft,..'--- 7 - I J I , n m' V" ' f -f F ' sv ' I i" ' " , i i- ' s ' v'', J i Lit Battle-weary, sixth division marines recline behind protecting wall near Naha after bitter fight for city on Okinawa. Ipiillill I tl"'T " Reps. John Taber (N. Y.) and Clarence Clar-ence Cannon (Mo.) engaged In the second sec-ond fistic engagement engage-ment of the present session following heated debate over the proposed tax free $2,500 a year expense account for congressmen in addition ad-dition to their $10,-000 $10,-000 salaries. Previously, Reps. John Rankin (Miss.) and Frank .Hook (Mich.) went to it hammers and tongs on the floor of the house after Hook had called Rankin a PACIFIC: Cities Burn One by one, Japan's great Industrial Indus-trial centers are being razed by huge fleets of Flying Superfortresses, with the firing of Osaka and Yokohama cutting further into the enemy's potential po-tential to produce weapons needed for the expanding Pacific front. Considered the Orient's greatest Industrial center, Osaka smouldered after heavy Super-Fort strikes at Its iron, steel, copper, cotton, hemp and wire plants. Japan's second biggest port, Yokohama Yoko-hama was left In flames by hundreds of B-29s, with strong winds helping to spread the destruction block by block. Approximately 60,000 houses were said to have been wiped out after the first assault, leaving 250,000 homeless, and communication and transportation lines disrupted. In explaining strategy in laying lay-ing down the greatest number of bombs in the shortest time over Japanese targets, 21st Bomber Commander Curtis Le May declared: de-clared: "If you lay them down like that the city burns down. If you don't, they put it out." With B-29s raising havoc with Japanese Jap-anese industrial centers, the enemy continued to chiefly center his aerial opposition against American naval vessels in the Ryukyus, with Kamikaze Kami-kaze (suicide) pilots continuing to score hits on light units. Indicative of the ferocity of the Japanese attacks, at-tacks, the navy reported the greatest great-est casualty toll In all the Pacific fighting off of Okinawa. On land, U. S. forces herded the enemy onto the southern corner of Okinawa following the collapse of his Shuri line after some of the bitterest ground fighting in the war, with troops compelled to dig the Japs from deep cave positions in rugged terrain. UNEMPLOYMENT : To Rise With another large "stepdown" in military orders anticipated. War Production Board Chairman J. A. Krug predicted 4,800,000 persons will no longer be needed for war production produc-tion six months from now and unemployment un-employment can be expected to reach 1,300,000 by then. During the next three months alone, Krug said, an estimated 2,900,-000 2,900,-000 war workers will be released, with unemployment jumping 1,100,-000 1,100,-000 from the present level of 800,000 to 1,900,000. Because of withdrawals withdraw-als from the labor force and the reemployment of 4,100,000 persons by the rapidly expanding civilian economy, however, the total of unemployed un-employed will drop about 600,000 a half year from now. Though unemployment promises to mount in comparison with present conditions, such low-paying industries indus-tries as lumber and textiles may experience ex-perience difficulty obtaining workers, work-ers, Krug said. Wage increases within the bounds of stabilization policy pol-icy would probably help remedy such a situation, Krug indicated. Shipyard Problem In the face of rising layoffs in war production industries, West coast shipyards are experiencing a shortage short-age of help at a time when the demand de-mand for repairs is increasing as a result of the damage to U. S. ves- j sels in the quickened Pacific naval j warfare. Twenty thousand workers below their labor ceilings, three West coast shipyards lost an average of 600 employees last month. In an effort to solve the problem, selective service serv-ice announced blanket deferments for such skilled help as electricians, sheet metal workers and machinists, and the War Manpower commission gave the yards No. 1 priority in hiring. hir-ing. Transportation and housing also were guaranteed East coast workers desiring to shift to the west. As an example of the critical labor la-bor shortage in the West coast yards, the famed aircraft carrier Franklin had to be hauled all the way to the Brooklyn navy yard for repairs. NEAR EAST: Oil Oasis Behind all the trouble in the Near East lies the specter of oil the great natural resource indispensable to a modern machine economy. While fighting flared in Syria, the French charged that what appeared to be a mixup between them and the natives really was an incident cooked up by British agents to jeopardize jeop-ardize the French pipeline carrying oil across the embattled country from the Mosul fields In Iraq. At the same time, French commentators com-mentators sharply pointed out that any Arab uprising in Syria could very well lead to similar disturbances disturb-ances throughout the whole Arabic bloc of states, where both Britain and the U. S. have substantial oil concessions. Oddly located nearby the Suez canal, ca-nal, providing Britain with a convenient con-venient gateway to her oriental empire, em-pire, the Arabic states are said to possess oil deposits the equal of those in the U. S., with the English holding 40 per cent of all concessions conces-sions in the area and America 60 per cent. V. S. interest in the near eastern east-ern oil situation was pointed up by the government's proposal to erect a $150,000,000 pipeline across Arabia and join in a partnership part-nership with the Arabian-American Oil company and Gulf Exploration Ex-ploration company for its operation. opera-tion. Shelved in the face of bitter bit-ter opposition, the plan called for the private companies creation of a billion barrel petroleum pool for the army and navy, and repayment for the pipeline over a 25-year period. Oil also prominently figures in relations re-lations between the U. S. and Britain and Russia, what with the Arabic states situated virtually at the Reds' back door and Moscow having already al-ready put in a bid for development of the Persian fields, monopolized by the English. EUROPE: Displaced Persons One of the most difficult of postwar post-war problems in Europe, the return of displaced nationals to their homeland home-land has become even harder with the reluctance of many to leave the Anglo-American occupied zone of Germany, it was revealed. Though some 600,000 Poles are showing the greatest antipathy to being be-ing sent east, Latvians and Lithuanians Lithu-anians also are not eager to return. Even substantial numbers of the 1,500,000 Russians in the Anglo-American Anglo-American zone do not wish to be repatriated, but though the other nationals na-tionals cannot be forced to go against their wishes, an agreement reached at Yalta makes the return of the i Russians compulsory, j Besides the nationals mentioned above, there still are 1,200,000 French in the U. S. -British area along with 350,000 Italians, 200,000 Belgians, Bel-gians, 200,000 Dutch, 100,000 Yugoslavs, Yugo-slavs, 60,000 Czechs, 10,000 Greeks, 10,000 Danes, 10,000 Norwegians and 10,000 from Luxembourg. iidl. Keps. Taber According to and Cannon husky, white-haired Taber's story, he had called upon Cannon at the latter' lat-ter' s request, only to move to leave the room when the latter became abusive over remarks he had made during the course of debate on the proposed expense account. Returning Return-ing when Cannon asked him if he was running away, Taber said he stopped a left or a right to the upper up-per lip, and then pinned his opponent oppo-nent to a couch until he cooled down. Claiming on his own account that Taber had hied it to his office when the going got hot, the slight-of-build Cannon declared that the fracas resulted re-sulted from Taber's insulting remarks re-marks on the floor of the house. APPAREL: Pinch to Persist With military requirements at a high level and labor short because of the attraction of workers to higher high-er paying industries, textiles will remain re-main in tight supply through 1945, the War Production board revealed. Declaring that a substantial amount of clothing materials will be needed to provide a continuous flow of apparel for adaptability to the varying climatic conditions of the Pacific, WPB said the military will take 85 per cent of the cotton duck supply in July-August-September, along with 20 per cent of carded and 50 per cent of combed goods. In addition, WPB said, the military mili-tary will take 60 per cent of the supply of wool woven goods during the same period, and virtually all worsteds, along with substantial stocks of knit goods. As a result, it may be necessary to restrict civilian civil-ian sales of heavy underwear to such outdoor workers as loggers and farmers. CATTLE: For Europe In a program designed to replaci 1 per cent of the 5,000,000 animals destroyed during the war in Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Poland, UNRRA (United Nations Na-tions Relief and Rehabilitation administration) ad-ministration) will ship about 50,000 dairy and draft animals to those countries in the next 18 months. With funds for the project to come from UNRRA, about half of the stock will come from the U. S. and the remainder from other nations in the Western hemisphere. The U. S. subscribes to two-thirds of UNRRA's cost. Because of her extreme need, Greece will receive the first shipment ship-ment of 300 dairy heifers and 900 draft animals, it was announced. In addition, another 300 bred heifers and 300 mares are scheduled for early ear-ly delivery to Yugoslavia. FOOD PRICES In World Wars I and II wholesale food prices showed less of a rise than prices received by farmers while retail food prices showed the smallest rise of all, surveys revealed. re-vealed. As compared with the respective prewar levels, wholesale food prices in 1944 showed an increase of 42.5 per cent as against an increase of 85.5 per cent in 1918; retail food prices in 1944 were up 39.2 per cent as against 68.2 per cent in 1918. |