| Show weekly news analysis Cat catania anias s capture marked beginning of axis last stand in sicily EDITORS NOTE when opinions ar are expressed in these cocu columns n they 1 are those of western newspaper union U 0 news analysts analysis and not necessarily of this newspaper SICILY last stand forty thousand axis troops were all that were left to stand between the allies and complete conquest of sicily as the last phase of the battle developed of 01 the it was estimated that were german and the rest italian although heavily outnumbered by the 10 allied divisions reported in action the axis relied on strong natural entrenchments hewed into the rugged mountains to hold up the british american drive the advance against these positions was difficult with the infantry slowly picking its way up the craggy but barren slopes in the face of stiff mortar and machine gun nests which had held their ground even after fierce allied artillery barrage after being stalled for two weeks in front of catania the british ath army spilled into the city after overcoming strong axis positions set up along the several rivers rivers winding through the country and in the tall fields of grain aided by the navys bombardment of the coastal positions along the sea the U S ath ardys drive pointed eastward to messina the axis last communication link with the italian mainland MINERS for travel pay pride might cometh before the tall fall but in john L lewis case it was his interest in drawing underground pay for his united mine workers AP that accounted for his appearance before the war labor board which he had so 10 often berated in the past Occasion was 9 the hearing on the illinois coal operators john L lewis agreement for payment of a day to the miners for the time spent in traveling underground der ground from the mines entrance to the diggings lewis told the that american coal miners are the only miners in any civilized country who receive no compensation for underground der ground travel the agreement also calls for an eight instead of a seven hour day and a six day work week which with the underground travel pay would increase miners daily checks by 3 stating that 1482 miners died from risks in the pits last year and were seriously injured lewis said the extra working hours would increase the mens exposure to such accidents furthermore he declared the miners received just 37 more a year than the lowest classification of government clerical workers GRAIN going fast six hundred million bushels of corn were used during the second quarter of 1943 the department of agriculture reported with supplies as of july 1 totaling million bushels of this amount million bushels remained on farms As of july 1 the department stated that there was a supply of million bushels of oats over million bushels of barley and 46 million bushels of rye approximately million bushels of wheat were found available tor for feed in relation to livestock feed supply is reported to be 20 per cent smaller than last year and 14 per cent below average T E L E 1 FACT A C T WHERE THE TH E AVERAGE A VERA GE CIVILIAN C IVIL IAN INCOME ME WENT WEI na 1578 PER CAPITA 3 1941 B 1942 81 7 CB 1 1 15 33 94 1 B a 8 69 9 S ie 3 4 S 1941 1942 1941 1942 1941 1942 1941 iua w a CLIO jl f 1 r ta ea I 1 PERSONAL TAXES SAVINGS GIFTS consumption RUSSIA offensive Ogen sive climax the height of the Rus Russi sAis Ais summer offensive was reached with the fall of orel after a month ot of hard fighting marshal S forces swept into the city even as the bulk of germans was bei ing withdrawn to new positions to the west held by the gen germans since october 1941 orel stood in in ruin as the russians moved in with nazi rear guards tackling the reds in hand to hand fighting in delaying action in the streets of the city all military and industrial installations were stripped and like stalingrad Stal ingrad rubble from the scarred and battered buildings lay in the once busy streets in taking orel the reds threw the full weight of their artillery planes tanks and infantry into the battle slowly they ground down german resistance on the north south and east sides of the city overpowered the nazis resisted stubbornly but as the russian army surged to the suburbs the german troops were seen to be streaming out of the city westward SOUTHWEST PACIFIC at munda the american attack on munda in the solomons stands out as a classic of military strategy in the final stages of the battle against a fanatical enemy resisting to the death american forces drew a tight noose around the japs with one column moving to theowest th the ewest west of the defenders line while two other columns hammered in from two ends on the east when american planes failed to sufficiently reduce the japs hidden pill boxes hewed in the jungle brush 13 ton tanks were called into the fray and these crackled through the dense foliage to advance on the en well concealed positions and draw their fire their gunfire gun fire guided the tanks to their entrenchments and these were quickly subdued with point blank barrages with strong jap points overrun on the east american warships and airplanes then moved in along the coast to the west and laid down a thunderous volley into the enemy 9 s positions As this combined barrage shook up the japs in their pillboxes pill boxes and caves american troops picked their way northward to ring the enemy from the west STRIKE under law in the first test of the smith con nally law 1005 employees of two plants of the allis chalmers company in springfield ill voted to strike in protest of the national labor relations boards refusal to grant district 50 of the united mine workers an election to determine its claim as collective bargaining agent 1 A total of voted against a strike the ballot read do you wish to permit an interruption in war production in wartime as a result of this dispute asserting that the vote indicated the employees desire for recognition of district 50 as bargaining agent union officials appealed to the NLRB for an immediate election in washington an NLRB spokesman said it was the boards policy not to hold such an election until expiration of the contract of the current bargaining agent in this case the CIO U united nit farm equipment and metal workers of america the CIO contract terminates in april 1944 the fight over jurisdiction came as new workers were granted a 5 cent hourly raise faster than sound to lt col cass S hough of pa plymouth yin mich alich fell the rare distinction of traveling faster than sound or more than miles per hour while undertaking two experimental flights for the V U S army air force last september col houghs P 38 lightning climbed up to feet then he cooly nosed the plane into a power dive and she zoomed downward at the record speed before being leveled off at feet last february col hough took a P 47 thunderbolt to feet and repeated the previous ous performance according to the 36 year old daredevil he made his first flight on impulse As his plane went screaming downward q he said it felt as though a ton of bricks lay on his back and he could barely lift his arms to write down the recordings of his instruments when he leveled off at everything went gray he declared but he never lost consciousness an executive in private life col hough is married and has two children ile he was awarded the distinguished flying cross cros s for his two flights CARGO PLANES back to metal new developments prompted the ardys cancellation of contracts for all wooden transport airplanes and the return to metallic construction the wooden craft were designed to operate from small unimproved landing fields and carry pounds of cargo at medium range but partly b because because of allied air dominance good airports have been put in use in distant combat zones and the demand has shifted to faster longer range planes furthermore it was reported aluminum production has increased in a volume sufficient to take care of additional plane building while certain woods suitable for the type of transport designed are growing scarce all told only about 15 of the wooden planes were built contracts tor for construction were supposed to have amounted to million dollars FARM FARMLAND LAND value alue rising with the value of all farm land now above world war I 1 level government officials were becoming anxious over the possibility of another realty boom which would col lapse with a disastrous drop in prices as in the twenties between betge en march and july of this year farm real estate rose another 3 per cent the increase occurred throughout all of the geographical regions and in two thirds of the states in indiana farm property sold 40 per cent above the 1935 39 average with commodity prices up one fourth within the last 12 months and farm income for 1943 expected to exceed record levels farmers were said to be active buyers in the market what mat with high commodity prices prevailing speculators also were supposed to be purchasing property for resale TAXES corporations 9 share what is the corporations share of the nations tax burden secretary of the treasury henry revealed that preliminary statistics show that corporations filed returns for 1941 except for which were inactive with no income data these corporations paid over seven billion dollars in normal surtaxes sur taxes and excess profit taxes the government collected nearly 13 billion dollars henry in i revenue for 1941 which would indicate that corporations po rations accounted for almost 60 per cent of receipts reported that of the corporations reporting for 1941 showed profits with net income of 18 billion dollars approximately more corporations made money during the year than in 1940 highlights in the s news WAR PRISONERS one out of every ten american soldiers in japanese prison camps has died of disease since the philippines fell the war department reveals I 1 WOUNDED seventy per cent of wounded russian soldiers recover and return to the battlefield report british army surgeons who have been on a mission to the soviet union REVOLT an anti fascist revolt has convulsed the tiny republic of san marino the pro fascist government is reported to have been replaced following demonstrations 0 ECONOMICS dr john bovingdon former principal economic analyst of the office of economic warfare has been dismissed congressman dies has charged that he had communistic leanings SHIPS during the first seven months of 1943 1046 new merchant vessels have been put into service according to a report by the maritime commission 0 MEAT last year production of meat in the country rose to 21 bil lion pounds or an increase of per cent over the average for the last ten years according to fitch investors ve service 0 0 DEBT the british government has paid 74 million dollars to be applied on a loan of millions made in 1941 jesse jones secretary of commerce announced GAS use wasteful production of gasoline and othel petroleum derivatives can be increased by recovering oil now left in wells and by processing na nafi gas oil sands and dr q gu n tal egloff renowned scientist tolar i joint congressional committee he urged governmental aid in developing ve synthetic gasoline methods but added that he did not think that making gasoline from coal was advisable immediately he said that eight million men would be needed to manufacture a years supply american use of natural gas Is wasteful continued dr egloff last year an amount of gas was consumed that would have yielded 40 billion gallons of gasoline or 14 billion more gallons than were actually used he said the nation has a known supply of natural gas sufficient to last 56 years at the present rate of consumption according to dr egloff poor extraction meth methods 0 ds le lepf from 70 to 80 per cent of ig in the ground the doctor estimates better pumping would inar increase ease production WAR ARSENAL 80 pet complete of the governments planned construction st of 14 wt billion dollars of war plant facilities approximately 12 billion dollars has been completed chairman donald nelson of the war production board announced that represents a completion S of 80 per cent of the program compared with 61 cent per p donald nelson ison at the start of the year and 34 per cent at this time last summer greatest gains in the program were in the construction of plants for guns combat vehicles aircraft and ammunition facilities for producing ammunition are 95 per cent complete according to nelson the records for other programs showed synthetic rubber 61 per cent finished octane gas 39 per cent iron and steel 75 per cent and chemical products 90 per cent nelson also announced that the privately financed program for expanding octane gas production is 63 per cent completed production lags production of armaments and other goods needed by the army is lagging seriously gen brehon B somervell chief of army supply services warned he said that million dollars worth of supplies have not been delivered according to schedule in the last three months output of factories has been going down steadily he continued wi wit july figures decidedly worse 1 th those of june at the same time the treasury reported that actual war spending during july was half a billion dollars less than in june this being the first month in which war costs have turned downward commentators say this decline is another indication of lower production rather than smaller needs urging all contractors to fulfill their contracts general somervell said if as a manufacturer you are scheduled to produce a certain quantity of war material by a specific date you have undertaken a specific military obligation supplies and materials must ve made available at an accelerated rate to permit the full exploitation of each victory to bring about the tufit wk earliest possible conclusion of t war released by western newspaper union |
