The Mathis News (Mathis, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 27, Ed. 1 Friday, July 4, 1941 Page: 2 of 8
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THE MATHIS NEWS
WHO’S
NEWS
THIS
WEEK
By LEMUEL F. PARTON
(Consolidated Features—WNU Service.)
MEW YORK.—There are many
old-timers who won’t like this
war, when and if it comes our way.
There will be no Captain Thorne, of
He Routed Hand thfe ,^ird ac1t
of “Secret
Work in Army Service,”
' Communicationstghre0JgV
critical Morse message and no Wil-
liam Gillette about whom a drama
of communications may be built.
They scrapped the Morse, for good
and all about two years ago.
There’s no more hand work in army
communications.
These nostalgic thoughts were
prompted by the participation of
Maj. Gen. Joseph O. Mauborgne in
the big doings at Fort Monmouth,
N. J., recently, with a troop review
by the general and an amateur play,
“The Bottlenecks of 1941,” and
many other spirited goings on in
which the general was prominently
featured.
General Mauborgne, chief sig-
nal officer of the army, is the
Thomas Alva Edison of aviation
radio—in the army at any rate.
It was in October, 1912, that the
then Lieutenant Mauborgne in-
stalled the first radio set in an
airplane, at Fort Riley, Kan.
The army had 12 planes then,
and aviation meant signal corps,
with planes first conceived as
primarily useful for observation
and signalling.
Lieut. “Hap” Arnold, who
later was to become head of
the army air corps, flew one of
the planes to Fort Riley for the
installation. There was much
excitement, all over the coun-
try, when Lieutenant Mau-
borgne’s cumbersome quenched
spark radio set managed to waft
a few signals earthward. There
was still more excitement when,
in 1914, the lieutenant achieved
the first two-way communication
between an airplane and a
ground station.
1 He had started something there
and came along with it, to today’s
miracles of aerial chatter. He at-
tained his present rank September
15, 1937, having been for the pre-
vious year director of the radio lab-
oratory at Wright Field. For 29
years his work has been an un-
ceasing concentration on develop-
ment and experiment in aviation
radio. His career is one of many
recent reminders of our possibly un-
suspected high degree of prepared-
ness in varied and highly specialized
trained personnel.
CO FAR, Victor Emanuel has been
thwarted in his lifetime ambition
to win the Kentucky Derby and the
Grand National. However, he
Emanuel*s Planes scores in a
speed com-
To Hit Line First petition
If Ponies Do Fail
day up in the big history book.
After all this wistful talk about the
.United States releasing a blizzard of
airplanes if it ever could get into
mass production, Mr. Emanuel’s
company, Vultee Aircraft, Inc., an-
nounces, that it is swinging into the
straight-line, conveyor-belt output
which, in automobile production
here, made all other countries just
added starters. The system has
been proven and the Vultee com-
pany says it will quadruple its pro-
duction.
! Most war talk seems to boil down
to just about that possibility.
! Mr. Emanuel has made a shift
from finance to management,
partly under circumstances over
which he had no control, and
management would seem to be
the gainer. When, in 1926, at the
age of 28, he inherited the $95,-
000.000 National Electric Power
company from his father, the
utilities field wasn’t safe for
amateurs. The company caught
the acquisitive eye of the late
Samuel Insull. But Mr. Eman-
uel started over again, building
the United States Electric cor-
poration and thereafter protect-
ed himself nicely in the clinches.
He was born and grew up in
Dayton, Ohio, fount of aviation
genius, and was educated in the
University of Dayton and Cornell.
His father was Albert Emanuel, util-
ity financier.
Vic Emanuel’s interests have
been divided. He expatriated him-
self in England for a few years,
having a wonderful time as master
of the Woodland Pytchley hounds.
He bought the 800-year-old Rocking-
ham castle and rocked the country-
side with a party of about 1,000
guests—imported Americans and
British nobility—which made the
British generously admit they had
never seen a real party before. Now
he may show them something about
making planes in a hurry, which
probably interests them more than
parties at this moment.
WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS
By Edward C. Wayne
Clash Between Russia and Germany
Speeds Up Pace of War in Europe,
Changing Aspect of Entire Conflict;
British Register New Gains in Syria
(EDITOR’S NOTE—When opinions are expressed In these columns, they
are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.)
..(Released by Western Newspaper Union.),
ADOLF HITLER JOSEF STALIN
The ‘Best of Friends’ (?) Did Part ~
FLAME:
Hits Russia
Anxious eyes watched the begin-
ning of actual war between those
erstwhile partners of opposite polit-
ical faiths, Nazi Germany and Com-
munist Russia, and once more the
world war was making strange bed-
fellows.
Americans who wanted Britain to
win the war cheered loudly for the
Soviet, which they had been con-
demning just a short time before,
by claiming that Russia was respon-
sible for defense strikes because
Russia wanted Germany to win.
Americans who had gone into
their pockets to aid Finland, the
victim of rotten Russian aggression,
suddenly awoke to find Finland, ac-
cording to Hitler’s word, “marching
bravely hand in hand with the Nazi
soldiers against Russia.”
And some Americans figured that
in the battle between the world’s
two leading dictatorships, the
democracies, now practically boiled
down to the United States, England
and China, had everything to win
and nothing to lose.
Their memories were able to hark
back to the day when Britain, in or-
der to avoid war, had endeavored
to encircle Germany by lining up
France, Italy, the Balkans, Turkey
and Russia as allies.
It had been on August 24, 1939,
that Russia had thrown this into
the pot by the dramatic and sensa-
tional formation of an alliance with
Germany, thus breaking the encir-
clement at a vital point and en-
couraging the Nazis to move into
Poland.
But it was undeniable that when
Germany’s march brought her to
the Balkans and down into Greece
that Russia had made unfriendly
diplomatic statements and over-
tures, particularly in the case of
Jugoslavia and Bulgaria.
Observers did not forget that
Churchill had told Russia, following
the loss of the battle of Greece, “you
will be next!” The event bore out
the prediction of the British premier,
and the event was not long coming.
In the German statements accom-
panying the declaration of war on
Russia, it was stated that “we gave
Russia half of Poland.” Most ob-
servers thought then and now that
there was considerable surprise and
not a little chagrin in Nazi Germany
that Russia had leaped in and cap-
tured half of the booty.
It was regarded as one of the
“signposts” of discord that lined the
almost two years of pathway that
Russia had traveled apparently
hand in hand with Germany.
There also was no question but that
the visit of Sir Stafford Cripps as
envoy to Russia was a recognition
on the part of England that the re-
gret over the alliance between the
Reds and the Nazis was mutual.
The feeling was general that Rus-
sia, having observed, having been
inside the Nazi military machine,
having learned lessons in the Fin-
nish campaign, was beginning to feel
herself strong enbugh to refuse Ger-
man demands that it place its sup-
plies and railway facilities under
German control.
Most certain it was that Russia
was not completely ready, or it
would have been her turn to declare
the war and make the first move,
for there was no feeling that Russia
would have any scruples about
treaty breaking.
In the demands that Molotov was
supposed to have made of Germany,
with regard to Finland, Bulgaria,
and the bases on the Dardanelles
and Bosporus, provided they were
truly reported by Von Ribbentrop,
one could see that Russia had self-
WASHINGTON: Senator Andrew
Jackson Houston of Texas reached
his eighty-seventh birthday, making
him one of the oldest men ever to
serve in the senate.
NEW YORK: School janitors
from 15 states were here to attend
a five-day course in Columbia uni-
versity in rat-catching, insect con-
trol and plumbing repair and sweep-
ing technique.
confidence needed for a fight.
Also there was the angle that Ger-
many was being stymied in her ef-
fort to get aid to the Near-East, that
Germany was stalemated in North
Africa, that Germany feared, with
the Russian situation being what it
was, to start an invasion attempt
against Britain until her eastern
door was safely shut.
DISASTER:
In Air, on Sea
While the war swept into its net
new millions of combatants, there
were two disasters which, while they
involved only small numbers, caused
considerable comment and hit the
front pages with a crash.
One was the dramatic sinking of
the submarine 0-9 off Portsmouth,
N. H., with some 30-odd navy lads
aboard.
The other was the crash of a Mar-
tin bomber at Baltimore after what
eyewitnesses called an “explosion in
mid-air.” Two died in this disaster.
Relatives of victims of the 0-9 dis-
aster fired verbal guns at the navy
department for sending to sea for
deep diving tests in 400 feet of water
a submarine, the oldest in the j/iavy,
which had been shown to be, around
and poor condition when ^sm^ftaas™ 000,000
given her first undersea tests after
being recommissioned.
While salvage crews worked, ap-
parently vainly, to bring the ship to
the surface as the Squalus was
brought up not so long ago, once
more the public - wondered if per-
haps sabotage might not have had
a hand in the sinking.
It was the same with the huge
bomber, of the latest type. It had
been test-flown for two hours one
day, for half an hour the next, and
then the army pilots, both qualified
experts, who had flown several of
the same ships before, took off.
The speedy bomber sailed into the
air in a normal climb, both engines
working perfectly. Suddenly there
was a series of backfires, a huge
cloud of black smoke poured from
the ship, and she nose-dived into a
woods, killing both men, one an army
officer-test-pilot, the other a civilian
army inspector-test-pilot.
DAMASCUS:
Oft-Conquered
The fall of Damascus, believed
the world’s oldest city, opened the
British road to Aleppo, and thus
forecast the near end of Vichy
troops’ resistance in Syria.
Whether the British occupation,
timed happily for them with Ger-
many’s severe occupation with the
Russians, would be in such force
that Syria could be held and or-
ganized for capable defense in case
the Soviet gave up was a question.
Many believed, however, that if
Russia put up a good defense, and
held the Germans at bay somewhat
after the Chinese fashion of dealing
with the Japanese, that the British
move to a union with Turkey’s south-
ern frontier, might enable Britain to
give Russia some aerial support in
the Ukrainian district.
The Syrian campaign, plus the
holding situation in Northern Africa,
was giving the British a slightly
more favorable outlook on the prog-
ress of the war—provided Russia
was able to do anything more than
France did in the way of defending
herself against the Nazis.
The fall of Damascus saw a city
of 4,000 years’ history, a city about
which wars had raged for centuries,
once more conquered by an invader.
The city was rich with Biblical
tradition, for it was on the road
from Jerusalem to Damascus that
St. Paul had his vision and was
converted to Christianity.
In those days the city belonged to
Egypt, to Israel, to Rome, in suc-
cession. In 635 it was captured by
the Moslems,' and the Crusaders
tried in vain to wrest it from them.
Alexander the Great conquered it.
The Mongolians got it in 1260 A. D.
The Egyptians captured it back
again.
The Turks had their turn at it in
1516, and there it remained until the
World war No. 1, when Lord Al-
lenby captured it for Britain.
The League of Nations gave it and
all of Syria to France under man-
date.
Washington, D. C.
NEW LEND-LEASE SUM
The new Lend-lease appropriation
that has been tentatively agreed on
by inner advisers is $5,000,000,000.
With the $7,000,000,000 voted by
congress several months ago, this
would make a total of $12,000,000,000
for aid to the democracies. Yet this
stupendous sum is still considerably
short of what was originally pro-
posed, also of what probably will be
ultimately required.
It’s a White House secret, but the
first lend-lease program submitted
added up to $19,000,000,000. This
was slashed to $9,000,000,000 by the
army and navy and then still further
cut to $7,000,000,000 by the budget
bureau. The last figure was ap-
proved by the President and sent
to congress.
One reason for the new appropri-
ation is that many of the original
price estimates have been found to
be far too low, particularly in the
case of planes, ships and guns. Ris-
ing costs, due to changes in con-
struction, more expensive new mod-
els, and increased production
charges, made it impossible to con-
tract for these items at the original
estimates; and more money is need-
ed to fulfill the program.
Another reason for the lend-lease
boost is heavy outlays for repairs
on battle-damaged British warships,
of which a number are now in U. S.
yards. This type of aid is running
into big money.
Most important, however, is the
urgent need for expansion of the
whole aid-democracies prpgram.
Britain, China and the other Axis
foes require increased assistance
to meet the greatly enlarged re-
sources of the Nazis brought by
their conquest of Europe.
Today they must stand off not only
the industrial power of Germany,
but also that of France, Belgium,
Holland, Rumania, Hungary, and
other Nazi victims. So if Britain is
to continue fighting she must secure
much more help from the United
States. Without such aid she wil]
quickly be overwhelmed.
Red Tape-itis.
While most of the $7,000,000,000
lend-lease money has been allocat-
ed, some $500,000,000 earmarked for
new armaments plants is still lying
around idle. And close to $4,000,-
of other defense appropria-
tions for new plants also is twid-
dling its thumbs while army supply
brasshats and OPM chiefs, en-
meshed in coils of red tape, are
stalling around.
It takes from 8 to 15 months to
erect these plants, so this delay in
getting construction started . means
a serious crimp in the defense pro-
gram.
Chiefly to blame are army supply
brasshats, who are inadequate to
handle the colossal task thrust on
them, but so jealous of their bureau-
cratic powers that they won’t let
anyone else tackle it. OPM heads
are champing at the precious time
being wasted, but lack authority to
override the army and haven’t the
gumption to raise a row.
WILL DAVIS
The country doesn’t like strikes
any more than it likes, war, but the
war has brought out many men of
stature, and the strikes have brought
out William H. Davis, new chairman
of the National Defense Mediation
board.
Actually Davis is no “war baby,”
but a veteran who has been working
at labor mediation for many years.
Still it was settlement of the Allis-
Chalmers strike that first won him
national attention.
By profession Davis is a patent
lawyer, with offices in New York
city. On the very next day after
the Allis-Chaimers triumph, he ap-
peared before the U. S. Supreme
court, his hair no more unruly than
usual, to argue a patent case. He
makes his living from big-money
firms, but he has a strong liberal
viewpoint toward labor.
When a committee of congress
asked him what he thought of a bill
to outlaw strikes, he said, “When
you pass compulsory legislation, you
make the working man a slave, and
there is no use producing defense
materials for a nation of slaves.”
There are a lot of odd pieces in
D'avis’ life. He was born in Bangor,
Maine, schooled in Washington,
D. C., is a member of New York’s
swanky Downtown Athletic club, a
labor sympathizer, founder of the
Grand Central Art galleries, father-
in-law of Argentine diplomat Alonzo
Irigoyen, and careless with his
clothes.
One phrase-maker says Davis has
“the face of a kindly bulldog.” An-
other “the face of a tired trombone
player.” Not many faces would an-
swer to that. Davis is easy to spot
in a crowd.
* * •
MERRY-GO-ROUND
C. Employees of the British Purchas-
ing mission leaving the elevator at
their offices are confronted with this
sign: “The existence of the British
Empire depends on YOUR effort.
Chins up—There Will Always Be an
England.”
C. Since checking booths were in-
stalled at Capitol entrances, police
daily turn up some fresh oddity. One
day a sea captain’s wife, accompa-
nied by six wide-eyed youngsters,
left a large bundle of sailors’ hard-
tack biscuit.
Topics
FERTILE SOILS
AID LIVESTOCK
Crops Rich in Minerals Are
Valuable as Feed.
By W. H. PIERRE
(Head of Agronomy Department,
Iowa State College of Agriculture.)
When we think of fertile soils we
usually think of high crop yields.
Soils, however, not only affect the
yield of crops but they also affect
crop quality composition.
From the standpoint of animal
feeding the three elements often
found in too low quantities in crops
are nitrogen, calcium, and phos-
phorus. For this reason they are
often added to animal rations as
supplements, nitrogen as protein
concentrates, and calcium and phos-
phorus as mineral supplements.
The protein content of all grass or
non-leguminous crops is determined
by the available nitrogen in the soil.
If the available nitrogen is low,
crops make poor growth and con-
tain low amounts of nitrogen and of
protein.- Therefore, the use of
manure or nitrogen fertilizers on
such soil often increases both the
yield and feeding value of the crop
grown.
Legume hays are, of course, much
higher in nitrogen and protein than
grass hays. Moreover, legumes
when well inoculated, get their ni-
trogen from the air. They, can also
furnish nitrogen to non-legume
crops grown in association.
Liming, by promoting the inocula-
tion and growth of legumes, often
results in an increased nitrogen con-
tent in the crops.
Of the elements found in low
amounts in crops which are impor-
tant in animal nutrition, phosphor-
us is found in all parts of the animal
body, and together with lime forms
the chief constituent of bone.
Animals fed a ration deficient in
phosphorus have been found to de-
velop bone diseases. One of the
early symptoms of such a disease
is bone chewing or the gnawing of
wood. This is usually followed by
poor physical appearance, poor ap-
petite, stiffness in the joints and
sometimes fragile bones.
Deficiency of phosphorus in the
ration often exists, however, long
before symptoms of extreme phos-
phorus deficiency are obtained; and
in balancing a ration for farm ani-
mals, phosphorus in the mineral
form is often needed in order to pro-
vide the necessary amount of this
element.
Livestock Find Comfort
In Brush-Off Fly Traps
Farm animals soon learn to make
frequent use of a device for brush-
ing off and trapping horn flies that
are such a pest to livestock in sum-
mer. It is a cagelike structure that
fly-pestered animals pass through,
leaving their tormentors behind in
traps to be destroyed.
The framework of the cage is a
structure 7 feet wide, 6 feet high,
and 10 feet long with a fly-tight roof.
Canvas flaps within the cage brush
flies off animals walking through.
The device is usually set up at
some strategic spot through which
the animals must pass several times
a day—in a lane to the pasture, in
the entry to a dairy barn, or on the
way to the water tank or pond.
Livestock soon learn to make for the
“brusher-offer” when flies torment
them.
Any handy man can make such a
trap at small expense with the aid
of plans and illustrations that the
Bureau of Entomology and Plant
Quarantine, Washington, D. C., of-
fers to send in response to a post
card request.
Some Weed Plants
Color, Flavor Eggs
Keeping laying hens away from
certain plants, and limiting .the
cottonseed meal in their diet, will
prevent off colors and flavors in
eggs. Poultry specialists of the
bureau of animal industry report
that if there is more than 5 per
cent cottonseed meal in hens’
diet, the yolks of the eggs tend
to become mottled after the eggs
have been stored several months.
The whites may take on a pink
tinge. Cheese weed has a simi-
lar effect on egg white. Shep-
herds-purse and field pennycress
may produce a green color in
both the white and the yolk.
If chickens eat freely of strong-
ly flavored feedstuff, it may
cause an undesirable flavor in
the eggs. Turnips, onions, gar-
lic and leeks are among the
worst offenders.
Poultry Houses
Dirt floors are a distinct menace
to the welfare of the poultry indus-
try, says Roy S. Dearstyne, head
of the North Carolina State college
poultry department. If conditions
actually necessitate houses with
such floors, these should be scraped
once each month. Four to six inches
of dirt should be removed and re-
placed with sand or soil from un-
polluted sources. The material re-
moved should be taken to some
place where chickens do not range.
JSy ¥ ¥ ^ 9 h<
WNU Servlet United Tetturt*
Eleanor Roosevelt
INDIAN AFFAIRS
I asked Mr. John Collier, of the
office of Indian affairs, to come in
to tell me something about the Nav-
ajo situation.
It appears that the land on the
reservation, in 81 years, has com-
pletely changed because of over-
grazing. What was once meadow
land with plenty of water and beau-
tiful grass, is now practically des-
ert. The wooded slopes have dis-
appeared, floods wash away the top
soil and the grass no longer exists.
It is quite evident that, in order to
bring it back, there must be a dras-
tic curtailment of cattle, wild
horses, goats and sheep.
This means that a people, whose
average cash income is only about
$120 a year, must either go on re-
lief, which they want at all costs to
avoid, or starve to death. The only
other solution seems to be the possi-
bility of carrying through an irriga-
tion project which will allow them
to irrigate enough land so they can
raise crops to feed their cattle at
certain times, and also to grow some
cash crop if the difficulty of trans-
portation can be overcome.
The decision on the irrigation is,
of course, up to congress. At the
present time, I can quite under-
stand the argument against putting
money into anything which can be
set aside to be done when the defense
period is over. Still, if congress de-
cides that this is necessary, it seems
to me that they have a joint re-
sponsibility with the office of Indian
affairs to devise some means by
which these naturally independent
American citizens can earn their
living and not feel dependent upon
the government for a chance mere-
ly to survive.
AMUSING LUNCH
We had an amusing lunch one
day. Dr. Floyd Reeves and Mr.
Mark McCloskey were our only
guests. We sat on the south portico
looking across the White House lawn
to the Jefferson Memorial. In pass-
ing, I should like to say that I hope
in time the gleaming white dome of
that memorial will weather to a lit-
tle softer color.
At a little before six o’clock,
Prince Bernhard and Princess Ju-
liana arrived. He is as friendly
and simple as she proved to be when
she came on her first visit. I me|
them on the front portico and took
them up to the President’s study,
where the President was waiting for
them.
We had a small dinner and movie
in the evening. The President had
given me strict instructions that I
was not to put over anything educa-
tional on them, that it was to be an
evening of entertainment! In other
words, he did not want me to use
the occasion to show any of the
government films. Therefore, our
dinner guests are none the wiser as
to our farm security program, our
soil conservation work, the CCC, or
any of the things which they might
otherwise have seen!
When our dinner guests had left,
the President sat and talked to our
two young royal guests on European
conditions until late in the night.
It was a joyful surprise just be-
fore dinner to get word from Bolling
field that Elliott had flown in from
one of our outpost camps now being
built. He telephoned his wife and
made the distressing discovery that
his small son had had an accident
to his eye.
Elliott told me something about
this camp on which these regular
army boys are working 18 hours a
day to transform it into an airfield.
The weather has been very trying
and the boys who came up from
Miami are finding it very difficult to
adjust to it. Even letters take a
long while to get there. Elliott
says it is easy to think you have
been forgotten by your family and
friends as well as your government.
* * *
TO NEW ENGLAND
We spent one night in cabins just
beyond Portsmouth, N. H., by-pass.
Several detours, roads in the proc-
ess of being mended, heavy traffic
in and around Boston, and occa-
sional showers of rain, made our
trip really longer than it should have
been.
It is a lovely drive though, along
winding Connecticut roads with
many glimpses of small lakes and
running brooks. Finally, when we
were nearing Newburyport, I had
my first good smell of the sea, which
is always exhilarating.
I thought we would spend the
night in Portsmouth at the old Rock-
ingham hotel. My first surprise,
however, was to find myself on the
by-pass, which I do not remember
having seen before. It is a good
many years since I have taken this
drive and it may not have been in
existence when I came up last.
In any case, I missed the first
road into Portsmouth, and then was
lost after turning off further on. I
finally reached the hotel, only to find
that they had no room. They direct-
ed us elsewhere, but we decided to
go on a little further and look for
some attractive cabins.
As a matter of fact, I think I
could almost have reached Portland,
Maine, in the time I wandered
around the outskirts of Portsmouth.
But these little mistakes are all
“luck of the road” and, if you like
occasionally to wander, you must
count on making mistakes.
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Coltrin, George W. The Mathis News (Mathis, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 27, Ed. 1 Friday, July 4, 1941, newspaper, July 4, 1941; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1039141/m1/2/?q=+date%3A1941-1945: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Mathis Public Library.