Show weekly news analysis house votes discharge bonus reds continue baltic push EDITORS NOTE when pinions opinions art are expressed in these columns they sire are t those hose ol of western newspaper vulva union news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper DISCHARGE PAY house votes arguing that higher payments would represent a soldiers bonus which should be left for later discussion the house passed a bill providing for mustering out P pay ay ol of to disc discharged harved 0 vets with ditl 60 days service and to those released before 60 days with vets including those already discharged standing to benefit from the measure total cost of payments was estimated at 3 ari billion dollars after passage by the house the bill was sent for approval to the senate which previously enacted legislation providing for maximum payments ranging from to vets overseas for 18 months or more to to those with less than 12 months service in the U S unless the senate okayed oklyed the house bill parliamentary procedure required the two chambers to get together to work out new legislation LABOR DRAFT pro and con while secretary of war henry stimson told a senate committee that a labor draft would equalize soldier and civilian sacrifices the executive council of the american federation of labor headed 7 11 by william 4 green said that the F organization would never surrender the basic freedom of the count rys workers likening a labor draft as a shot in the arm for the nations patriotism stimson said the first flush of enterprise excited by the pearl harbor attack has worn wom off and now the stern voice voice of ALI law is needed to keep up the patriotic stimson emotion and declaring that in green freedom there is strength the council asserted that the amazing speed with which free american workers have won the battle of war production against the enemy within two years upholds the truth of that principle chance for passage of the labor draft dwindled with the houses pigeonholing pigeon holing of the measure EUROPE pound supply lines U S bombers ripped rail lines supplying german troops in southern italy as american and british forces pressed against the nazis winter line centered on cassino key to the road to rome with two of three main rail lines temporarily put out of use the enemy was forced to route supplies over bomb pocked cocked highways some of which were snarled by the wreckage of bridges As U S artillery laid down a curtain of thunderous fire over german defense em placements before cassino preparatory to the infant rys charge forward british units to the west engaged nazi troops along the garigliano river along the adriatic coast to the east canadian forces were held to short gains in hard close in fighting U US S HEMP cut production because of the improvement in imports from the caribbean and mediterranean areas the governments hemp growing program in the middle west will be cut to one third of 1943 production and only 14 of 42 processing plants will be kept in operation raised on contract to the government farmers found hemp profitable last year their net yield per acre being I 1 larger than from any other crop in the nation in some cases reaching it was said in seeking to relieve a threatened hemp shortage after the outbreak of war the government undertook construction st of processing plants in 42 communities and arranged for farmers to grow acres of the fiber in each of the districts the plants were erected at an estimated cost of each RUSSIA baltic push preceded by a thunderous barrage of heavy artillery russ infantry pushed into german lines below leningrad and cut the rail communications farther to the south 70 miles from the latvian border the reds were reported to have thrown men into the battle on a mile front and units of dussias Rus sias baltic fleet stationed near leningrad were said to have participated in the bombardment of german positions prior to the big push stiffening german resistance slowed the reds progress on other fronts with the nazis reporting continuance ti nuance of russ efforts to break through in the prewar polish area of white russia peace rumors with the allied world sti still won wondering er over dussias Rus sias semi semio semiofficial o official cial p publication li of a rumor that t two 0 former british statesmen had discussed a separate peace with german foreign minister von stalin permitted reproduction of a london newspapers story that britain had received specific peace terms from hitler under which the nazis would withdraw to their 1939 prewar boundaries although britain remained indignant over the reds implication that she was double dealing and the U S continued puzzled over why stalin should have allowed publication of the rumor dussias Rus sias man in the street was led to suspect british intentions AIRPLANE PROGRAM bigger types no 1 industry of the U S today aircraft plants will set their sights on production of more than planes of heavier weight in 1944 more than 50 per cent of production will be of combat type planes with a decrease m i 1 n output of trainer and obsolete craft facilities now being used to turn out the latter two types will be converted to manufacturing parts for other models the swing toward heavier planes marks a trend toward production of craft carrying bigger guns and bomb loads total weight of planes is expected to approximate 1 billion pounds compared with million pounds in 1943 MILK SALES bottles or containers Chi cagos big battle to determine whether milk shall be sold in paper containers as well as glass bottles s till still has not gotten out of the courts even though the state supreme court ruled that paper containers could n not ot be used u under the wording of the cites disputed dispute d ordinance governing distribution of the product at present chicago dairies will continue to package the milk in paper containers pending filing of a motion for a state supreme court rehearing of the case since th the e courts have declared no interest in the sanitary aspects of the quis question iloh of bottling but have rne merely rely c cin n fined themselves to the word wording ilig of the city ordinance a rewriting of the law would permit legal use of paper containers i new britain maines wade through swampland on new britain front see pacific front PACIFIC FRONT macarthur to stay V U S medium and heavy bombers ranged widely over the pacific blasting jap bases supplying hard pressed enemy troops and hitting installations and airfields in the strategic marshall islands As U S armies were pinning the foe back in the south pacific area secretary of war henry stimson announced in washington D C that general macarthur would not be retired when he reached the age of 64 on january 29 retired at his own request in 1937 macarthur was recalled to active duty following the outbreak of world war II 11 in new guinea U S bombers smashed at the jap base of we wak above american positions at caidor and in new britain explosives were dropped on the big feeder center of and on barges carrying supplies along the island coasts waves of bombers accompanied by fighter planes raided the marshall islands lying along the supply route to the west airdromes Aird romes and defenses of the tarawa carawa type in the gilberts to the south were hit bit STRONG U S A after war proposing a realistic point of view that the tendency to war is inevitable just as the human tendency to disease is inevitable war production board vice chairman charles E wilson called on government and industry to cooperate in promoting a strong armament program after the present conflict said wilson 1 I am convinced that we must begin now to set the machinery in motion while it is still possible for us to measure the cost of any other course wilson suggested 1 the program should be the governments responsibility lity 2 congress must support it 3 indu role should be to cooperate 4 some government owned plants should be held in reserve with equipment kept to date BURMA allies attack with U S bombers blasting a 2 path american trained chinese troops under gen joseph stilwell gained ground in mountainous western burma while farther to the south units of the british fourteenth army fought jap counter attacks to stall their own offensive the chinese were fighting to clear the way for engineers constructing a new supply route to china since jip jap conquest had closed off the burma road to hamper enemy operations U S bambers dropped 20 tons of explosives on a jap troop encampment camp ment in the rear of the battlefront WEDDING RINGS growing scarce jewelers supplies are dwindling so fast that wedding and engagement rings may soon be unobtainable new york trade experts say government restrictions on precious metals scarcity of diamonds and shortage of skilled workmen have combined to reduce the supply less than half the usual quantity of gold and palladium is being allocated to manufacturers and platinum is banned entirely it is said diamonds are now advanced about carat higher than the last three years average engagement rings in the to class are the best sellers while wedding rings costing 10 to 12 are most popular agriculture hog permits with thousands of hogs remaining unsold after a permit system for shipments was imposed at the chicago stockyards stock yards under the procedure commission firms were allotted weekly quotas based on a percentage of the total volume they handled during the first 11 months of 1943 and farmers were to be advised when to sell through the permit system already in operation in other centers it is hoped to limit shipments to packers capacities cut feed bills and reduce shrinkage bruises and death losses drouth producer of winter wheat the great plains area of the midwest has been suffering from an unheard of seasonal drouth centered in nebraska the drouth has extended to the rocky mountain and western states where the storage of snowfall for spring and summer irrigation is much less promising than at this time last year good rains in the late winter and early spring could largely offset the effects of the drouth outwits hoodlums when four 17 year old hoodlums attempted to rob seaman fred stark of saginaw alich of his bis money he talked them into handing over their gun and letting him join the gang fang in holding up a tavern but after they had entered the tavern seaman stark held the hoodlums at bay with the pistol and ordered the bartender to call police to arrest the jang gang DRIED MILK new process army quartermaster corps laboratories ra have developed a method of drying and preserving whole milk so that it will keep tor for a year even under tropical conditions dried milk apa made de by methods now in use will become rancid in the tropics in the army formula the water content of the milk is reduced to per cent and an inert gas is introduced into the airtight container as a preservative the new method could become a profitable industry it is said miscellany SPRINGS now that the government has released a quantity of steel wire for springs it Is expected that furniture with coils can be coming out of the factories within two or three months 1 DEBT na national dional debt of great grea l britain amounted to 77 billion d dol o 0 s lars on december 31 the chancellor of the exchequer has reported to the house of commons DOGS wild dogs running in packs are taking a heavy toll of livestock in northern illinois in lake county alone alon e sheep have been killed and 29 injured other losses reported were four cows and a call calf and three turkeys PERILS so far in this war the home front is the more perilous place to be the national safety council states that since pearl harbor persons have been killed and injured in the united states compared with casualties of all sorts among the expeditionary forces C i fl PLASMA use s of blood plasma has reduced deaths among wounded men to three tenths of 1 per cent in the pacific area a naval surgeon recently returned from the front said HOUSING war ravaged europe will require construction of at least million homes it is said in the united states from 15 to 20 million new housing units will be needed in the next 10 years lumberjacks LUMBER JACKS deferments for loggers and other workers in the pulpwood industry are being urged by representative philbin of massachusetts chu he contends that the supply of paper will be endangered it if these men are called to the armed forces 0 0 SHOES leather shortages are becoming so serious that the war production board is considering the use of pigskin in making civilian shoes A decline in hide production coupled with the tremendous demand for military footwear Is given as the cause of the acute situation 0 0 0 MAIL V since V mail service was instituted in june of 1942 50 million letters have been sent home by american servicemen in europe in V mau mail the letters are photographed on microfilm micro film and sent by airplane or other fast conveyance 0 0 PENNIES new one cent coins containing enough copper to make them look like old fashioned pennies are being put into circulation the steel and zinc one cent coir t that causes considerable annoyance anno yanc because it resembles a dime will remain in circulation indefinitely because of the scarcity of small coins BOMBS the royal air force dropped tons of bombs on germany during 1943 the air minister reported to the house of commons in retaliation the nazis were able to drop only 2400 tons on great britain last year he said 0 RECON VERIN the war production board intends to make a laboratory test of to peacetime activities donald nelson chairman announced recently three areas the regions with headquarters at cleveland philadelphia phia aland and kansas city mo respectively have been tentatively chose chos for the e experiment small elal within these areas would be to use metals without restriction in civi civilian i lian goods production MILK SALES in 1943 dairy companies sold to million paper containers of milk in the chicago district 1161 d hv r union |