Show weekly news analysis moves to stabilize living costs with ultimatum to congress EDITORS NOTE when opinions are AM expressed in these ih columns they at are e abo those of western west n newspaper union news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper HALT LIVING COSTS orders congress in a forthright speech to the nation president roosevelt carried his battle against rising prices to the people demanding immediate anti if inflation lation action to avoid a serious domestic economic crisis in a message to congress he demanded legislation by october I 1 to bring farm prices under control in the event that the congress should fall fail to act and act adequately I 1 shall accept the responsibility and I 1 will act he said with farm prices stabilized he himself would act to stabilize wages he be promised he stressed the point that the control of the inflationary threat could be obtained only by control of all the factors influencing it wages and farm prices remain to be stabilized I 1 give you the sole solemn assurance that failure to solve this problem at home and to solve it now will make mole moie difficult the winning of this war 1 I cannot tell what power may have to be exercised in order to win this war the american pe people 0 ale can be sure that I 1 will use my power with a full sense of my responsibility to the constitution and to my country when the war is won the powers under which I 1 act automatically mati cally revert to the people to whom they belong he said in speaking of the world battlefields he declared that hitler still is unable to gain the smashing victory in russia which a year ago he announced had already been achieved russia he said will how hold az out in spite of any setbacks in the pacific area one major japanese offensive has been stopped but the enemy still possesses great strength to strike in the desperate battle for egypt we are well aware of our danger but are hopeful of the outcome an offensive against germany is the aim in the european area there are at least a dozen different eints from which attacks can be launched EGYPT the tide of war although his africa corps was stopped cold in its second major bid tor for the valley of the nile nazi field marshal erwin rommel was reported to have retained certain territorial gains at the southern end of the el kalamein line reports from cairo indicated that brommels Rom mels chief gain was the el demema ridge a foot observation post from which the nazis can watch british movements however the position of the then retreating german and italian troops was vas given officially as west of the british mine fields which they entered the previous week this indicates that rommel had been forced to retreat beyond his starting point poin t A blow to axis strength was revealed with the information that maj gen george von bismarck first cousin of chancellor otto von bismarck founder of the modern german empire was killed in action von bismarck was one of hit lers most able generals MANPOWER Freeze reeze 9 labor in essential war industries in 12 western states was frozen under terms of a far reaching order of the U S war manpower commission announced by paul mcnutt head of the commission the order specified that no worker in the 12 state area engaged in nonferrous metal mining milling smelling smelting sm elting and refining or in logging or lumbering could seek other employment without first obtaining a certificate of separation from a des J 11 A r i af A A granting labor a greater voice in the management of war production donald BI nelson chairman told and CIO leaders that he h would consider labor nominations for two vice chairmanships in union labor leaders had told nelson that approach to war con version curtailment and production policies was unbalanced and one sided because top administrative posts were held by industrialists pic aured here among the labor chiefs are seated second from left william green president donald nelson and phillip murray CIO president ignatee representative of the U S employment service states included in the critical area were arizona colorado idaho morita montana na utah wyoming california nevada oregon washington new mexico and texas SOUTH PACIFIC back for more the jap evidently had not learned his lesson he knew that the marines had taken important bases in the solomons he knew too that these marines had been backed up by regular army and navy detachments and that important air bases had been taken away from him and put to use for the united nations all ali this did not discourage him for despite these facts the jap came back and after heavy losses succeeded in establishing small landing parties on guadalcanal Guadal canal in the solomon group according to U S navy this was but one of several minor jap operations erat ions in the solomons these attached importance to large loss of life by the landing parties and the implication seemed to be that those japs unlucky enough to get ashore would be dealt with in typical marine fashion from new guinea the news was different official reports from melbourne australia reported that jap ground forces penetrated a gap in the owen stanley mountain range and advanced down the southern slope toward port moresby about this same time a heavy jap bombing attack on port moresby broke a three week lull in this type operation A series of frontal attacks made it possible for the jap to reach this objective As he approached port moresby the fighting grew more terrific and his losses grew higher RUSSIAN FRONT Grea greatest tesi weight russian reports that the spearhead of the nazi drive through the brozny oil fields in the caucasus had been checked tended to offset the more ominous news from stalin grad there 1500 german dive bombers led the final attack on that city it was at stalingrad Stal ingrad that the russians had admitted that they battled the greatest weight of armament ever hurled burled against a single objective before the final assault pame came this was typical of the moscow on the fighting in this sector west of stalingrad Stal ingrad our troops engaged in heavy fighting one soviet unit repulsed four attacks one after another but then was forced to retreat to new positions how the russians stood up under the pounding was baffling to many military experts nazi assault forces had aimed their heaviest blows at soviet artillery and antitank anti tank batteries thus striving to level these anchors of the centers of resistance east of the volga said german reports their fliers had raided important russian airfields russian attacks on the northwest front near leningrad rolled on stalled rolled on again conflicting reports from moscow and berlin dimmed the picture of this front germany claimed the fall of no strategic black sea naval base and military sources saw its capture as a terrific blow to russian naval action since the soviet navy had been driven from its strongest base at sevastopol fleet operations had been badly curtailed and the loss of would even more hamper these operations DOUBLE OFFENSIVE in china strong chinese offensives in central and southern china have succeeded in recapturing a number of important points the chinese high command has announced the drive in the central province of liberated 25 villages in 20 days while the thrust in the south resulted in the recapture of a number of places near Sam shui shul terminus of the canton railway 25 miles west of canton the chinese have recaptured the three most important air bases taken by the japanese in their summer offensive they are shuhsien Chu Chuh hsien slen and lishua in the coastal Che kiang province and bushan in Kia ngsi in addition they have recaptured approximately miles of the kianos railway and more than square miles of territory chinese sources acknowledge that advances have been due in part to voluntary japanese withdrawals these withdrawals are looked upon as the prelude to a major attack against either india or siberia the successful chinese advances have largely nullified the effects of the jap drive which has been described as the greatest since the beginning of the china incident JAPS JAPSON ON KISKA must be thrown out A stern warning that the japanese must be thrown off the aleutian island of kiska was delivered by sen A B chandler ky chairman of a senate military affairs subcommittee which recently investigated alaskan and west coast defenses the continued presence of the japanese in the island of kiska constitutes a continued menace and threat to the safety of the people of the united states and they must be removed at the earliest possible mo ment chandler declared he expressed the hope that the high command has been awakened to the necessity of holding alaska at all costs chandler anahis committee upon its return from the mile investigational trip recommended immediate improvement of the alaskan military establish establishments establishment meni s including airplane ferry routes to asia he pointed out that a jap offensive would be much more likely to succeed if we failed to recognize the possibility of their coming up through the aleutians Aleut ians to the american mainland SCRAP urgent need every home has scrap we need it that was the message delivered to the nation by donald nelson chairman of the war production board as he discussed the critical scrap iron situation with newspaper publishers at a conference in washington nelson had called the meeting to show these newspaper men how serious this problem really was scrap iron is urgently needed if the count rys steel mills are to be kept running estimating that there are more than four million tons of scrap steel around the homes and farms of the nation nelson asserted that junk today is as important as any single problem we have NAVY cut in half approximately 50 per cent of it alys glorious navy now lies at the bottom of the mediterranean and more than two thirds of italis merchant fleet has been sunk or damaged those figures after 26 months of war with england are based on confirmed sin kings and damage inflicted on enemy ships by british forces at the start of the war italis merchant fleet was estimated at little more than tons according to british figures tons have been sunk since june 1940 total sunk or damaged is placed at tons the british list as sunk four 8 inch gun cruisers of an original seven five 6 inch gun cruisers of a possible original dozen 50 destroyers including some torpedo boats and other small of a known bo 80 in 1940 and one of six battleships sunk at taranto PEACEFUL because the law abiding city of old ripley ill pop had no use for its jail six tons of scrap metal from the cells have gone to the scrap metal drive LIMIT because the volume is exceeding facilities for distributing it air mail addressed for points outside the continental U S has been limited by weight to two ounces per piece PRAISE As dr hu shih retiring chinese ambassador made his leave of washington he was lauded by secretary of state cordell hull who called him one of the ablest and most efficient public servants to SPAIN complications many reliable foreign sources viewed the shake up in political setup set up as pretty much a domestic matter and forecast no general change in the pro axis axisa ings of gen francis francisco fras government though one of hit lers best friends in spain foreign minister serrano had been ousted it appeared that the main point of difficulty was discord between the spanish army and the falange political organization however there was an international complication as well as the domestic dissension which had some effect on the change was reported to have lost diplomatic face because of the swing to the side of united nations by many of the latin american countries he was replaced by count gen francisco gomez de jordana and it R g IM YI f M 19 T NA GEN FRANCISCO FRANCO no change in pro axis leanings was expected that both this new official and franco would now be less inclined to issue anti united nations declarations even though their sympathies must continue to lean toward the axis this point of view appe appeared arid to be rather well based on logic for francos power in great part is dependent upon help given him by hitler and mussolini yet as latin amer ica tended to draw away from the axis he would be forced to take account of this attitude for the tie between his country and central and south america is close H highlights I 1 G H L I 1 G H TS in the weeks news have served in the washington diplomatic corps SPEEDUP SPEED UP because of war conditions the army will inaugurate a speedup speed up system at west point under which men will be graduated and commissioned after three years of study instead of the usual four the naval academy at annapolis already is on a three year basis BOUNCED they rode hard was the unfavorable comment of mayor laguardia of new york after riding in a seven ton sanitation truck with wooden tires he added that they might do in a pinch for light trucks COMMANDOS it was announced in ottawa that canadian soldiers lost their lives in the commando raid on dieppe france fingerprints fingerprinting of every man woman and child in the united states as a war measure is being urged by rep S sam a n hou ala who is drafting be legis g is la lal 04 to that effect it would also be a boon to law enforcement agencies MANPOWER WO paul V mcnutt head of the nations manpower commission has issued a call for an increase in the number of women at work in war industries and estimated that by the end of this apar will be so employed by the end of 1943 he thinks this number will have grown to FAREWELL prime minister peter fraser of new zealand completed his official washington visit headed holew homeward a rd HOLD TIGHT U S citizens who have been buying war bonds hold on to them according to figures released by the treasury department department only per cent of all war bonds purchased in the last fiscal yc were cashed in most of bond 4 cl ver version S ion into ca cash sh occurs at income tax payment periods released by western newspaper union |