The New Ulm Enterprise (New Ulm, Tex.), Vol. 33, No. 5, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 12, 1942 Page: 2 of 8
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THE NEW ULM ENTERPRISE. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1942
WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS._____________________
Rommel Rout Lifts Middle East Menace,
Paves Way for Drive in Mediterranean;
WPB ‘Budget’ Plan Speeds War Output;
Allies Drive Japs Back in New Guinea
Rslcaawl to Wsstsns Nswapapsr Unkm.
With Allied forces in New Guinea steadily pushing the Japs back to
their seaport bases, Gen. Douglas MacArthur's recent tour of inspection
was a happy occasion. The Pacific commander in chief is shown riding
in the front seat of a jeep, while in the rear seat, scrutinising the troops
is Gen. Thomas Blarney, commander of Australian land forces.
NORTH AFRICA:
1 Rommel Routed
Wily Marshal Rommel’s North
.Africa corps had been driven back
on previous occasions. But never
before had its reverses reached the
proportions of a disastrous rout.
Yet rout it was as Lt. General
Montgomery's British Eighth army
climaxed a 13-day slashing drive by
shattering Rommel's Egyptian de-
fense line and pursuing his fleeing
armies back along the coastal road
toward Libya.
The decisive nature of the Nazi's
defeat was indicated by General
Montgomery's statement that the Al-
lied desert offensive had resulted in
a “complete and absolute victory”
and that the Axis was “completely
finished” in North Africa. Such a
victory would mean a freeing of the
Mediterranean and the chance to
strike at the Axis soft spot—Italy.
Military experts pronounced the
defeat the worst the Axis had yet
suffered. Unofficial estimates placed
Axis losses at 40,000 troops killed,
wounded or captured. A Cairo com-
munique reported the capture of
•,000 Axis troops.
The extent of the Allied victory
was further indicated by the fact
that 260 Axis tanks were knocked
out, 270 heavy guns destroyed, 600
Axis planes downed and 100,000 tons
of shipping crippled. A communi-
que reported that Italian troops had
suffered so severely in one sector
they had asked for a truce to bury
their dead.
Yanks Keep Coming
While Allied planes had harrassed
the retreating Axis forces and land
units pushed forward, it was offi-
cially revealed that 7,000 fresh
American troops had arrived in
Egypt. These units comprised
ground crews for the air forces,
technicians, engineers and members
of the quartermaster’s corps.
Thus had the Axis threat to the
Alexandria naval base and the Suez
canal been removed Gone, too,
was the menace of a junction of
Rommel’s armies with the Nazi
forces threatening the Middle East
via Trans-Caucasia.
NEW GUINEA:
Japs in Reverse
Three key points remained in Jap
hands in northern New Guinea. Only
by their capture would the Allied
forces claim control of the area.
These were Buna, Lae, and Sala-
mau—all seaports.
Allied troops had made a good
start by recapturing the inland base
of Kokoda only 50 miles from Buna,
after a hard-fought drive over the
crest of the Owen Stanley moun-
tains. This latest Allied success un-
derscored the quick-change charac-
ter of the war, for only five weeks
before the Japs had been within 32
miles of Port Moresby.
That the Japs did not underesti-
mate the dangers of their present
position was shown by their attempt
to land two transports with 7,000
soldiers at Buna to bolster their re-
treating forces. Allied heavy and
medium bombers prevented the
landing and drove the convoys off.
AXIS SPY-HUNT f
Latin America Acts
As a far-reaching cleanup of Axis
espionage in Latin America was un-
der way with the deportation by the
Chilean government of 12 German
and Italian agents, a report detail-
ing the operations of the spy ring
responsible for the torpedoing of
United Nations ships was made
public by the Advisory Committee
for the Political Defense of the
American Nations. The report was
issued in Montevideo, Uruguay.
WAR MATERIALS:
New Allotment Plan
The United States moved closer to
total war economy with civilian pro-
duction cut to the vanishing point
when War Production Chief Donald
M. Nelson announced the genesis of
a “Controlled Materials Plan.”
Under the plan's operation, scarce
materials will be strictly budgeted
to uses that will harm the Axis the
most. Production generally will
be limited to military needs, shut-
downs will be prevented, the output
of war commodities stepped up and
nonessentials eliminated.
So drastic will the control be that
allotments of steel for civilian use
in 1943 may represent only 1V4 per
cent of the nation's total steel pro-
duction, according to Leon Hender-
son, director of the Office of Civilian
Supply. The civilian share of cop-
per will be less than three-quarters
of 1 per cent.
WPB Chief Nelson said war pro-
duction would reach its peak by
July, 1943.
ELECTIONS:
All Eyes on 1944
Politicos turned their eyes toward
1944 as they pondered the results
of the wartime national elections.
To Republicans the results were
far above their highest expectations.
Not only did the GOP capture four
governorships and nine senate seats
from the Democrats, but they gained
43 seats in the house of representa-
tives in an upsurge that rolled from
coast to coast.
The result was that the Demo-
crats controlled the house by the
precarious margin of 8 votes—a
margin so slim that any coalition
could upset it. The lineup was:
Democrats, 220 seats; Republicans,
208; Progressive, 2; and Farmer-
Labor and American-Labor, 1 each.
In the senate the Democrats re-
tained a majority of 18, holding 56
seats to the Republican's 38.
Significant among Republican vic-
tories was the election of Thomas
E. Dewey as governor of New York.
It marked the first time in 20 years
the opposition party had carried the
state. Gone from the senate after
January 1, would be the veteran in-
dependent, George Norris of Ne-
braska, as well as Democratic Sena-
tors Brown of Michigan, Herring of
Iowa, Lee of Oklahoma, Smathers
of New Jersey and Schwartz of
Wyoming.
SOLOMONS:
Tailspins for Japs
Heartening was Vice Admiral
William F. Halsey’s report that 520
Japanese planes had been shot
down thus far in the Solomons by
navy, army and marine pilots.
American losses, the commander
reported, had been comparatively
light.
Meanwhile, with Jap naval con-
centrations withdrawn from the
Guadalcanal area after air and sea
engagements with the American
fleet, ground fighting was compara-
tively light.
Marines and U. S. army units did,
however, push the Jap invaders
several miles back from strategic
Henderson air field. Big guns of
naval vessels subjected Jap moun-
tain strongholds to heavy bombard-
ment.
Although Round 1 of the crucial
engagements for the Solomons' con-
trol was settled in favor of the
American defenders, Secretary of
Navy Frank Knox warned the na-
tion not to be overoptimistic, pre-
dicting that the Japs would come
back for more.
HULL:
Backs Vichy Policy
More verbal brickbats have been
hurled at the state department for
its handling of relations with Vichy
France'than for any other diplomat-
ic policy. But through thick and
thin, grave-faced Secretary of State
Cordell Hull has stuck to his guns
in continuing recognition of Marshal
Petain’s regime.
Latest evidence that Mr. Hull in-
tended to continue that policy and
had President Roosevelt's backing
came in the form of an assertion
that the “State department and the
administration are entirely satisfied
with the government’s policy
toward Vichy France and the way
that policy has been pursued."
Mr. Hull's remark was in reply
to a request that he comment on
Wendell L. Willkie’s recent state-
ment that the administration's
“lack of courageous leadership . . .
nowhere is more plainly illustrated
than by its continued recognition of
the vicious and subversive Vichy
government.”
RUSSIAN FRONT:
Trans-Caucasia Next?
Balked at Stalingrad and on the
defensive in the northwest as the
bitter Russian winter swirled down
from the steppes of the Don, the
Nazi command had shifted its main
operations southward to the Cau-
casus. Here Hitler's generals re-
lied on a strategic device that had
served them well in the past—that
of concentrating overwhelming force
at one single objective. That ob-
jective was Ordzhonikidze on the
Georgian military road leading
south through the Caucasus moun-
tains. Russian defenses stiffened
and slowed down.
The Nazi thrust first forced a Rus-
sian withdrawal from Nalchik, 60
miles northwest of Ordzhonikidze.
It was estimated that 50,000 Ger-
man and Rumanian mountain infan-
try, armored troops and tank de-
tachments had then edged toward
the snow-sheathed Caucasus moun-
tains.
The Nazis’ goal of the strategic
Georgian highway from Ordzhon-
ikidze to Tiflis would give them a
rapid entry to the oil fields of Trans-
Caucasia and bring them menacing-
ly close to the Turkish border and
the Middle East.
Elsewhere in the Caucasus the
Nazis were reported on the defen-
sive. Pravda, the Communist party
newspaper estimated that 38,000
Germans had been killed, wounded
or captured in September and Octo-
ber during their vain effort to break
through the Mozdok region—an of-
fensive succeeded by the flanking
drive toward the Georgian military
highway.
DOCTOR SHORTAGE:
Senate Seeks Remedy
Even as senate leaders sought a
solution to the war-depleted supply
of doctors, Paul De Kruif, author
and scientist warned that the na-
tion's health might be threatened
by the indiscriminate draining of
medical men from private practice
into the armed forces.
Under consideration was a plan
to create a federal agency empow-
ered to freeze doctors in their civil-
Surgcon General Thomas Parran
. . . Not ready to freeze.
ian status, qrder them to areas
where shortages exist or draft them
for military service.
Rural areas face the most acute
shortage because so many doctors
in these regions are entering mili-
tary service, according to Dr. Frank
Leahy, national chairman of the
Central Board of Procurement and
Assignment.
Surgeon General Thomas Parran
of the United States Public Health
service went on record as opposed
to compulsory assignment of doc-
tors at present. “We may have to
come to it eventually to alleviate
the serious depletion of doctors in
many areas,” he said, “but I am
not now prepared to recommend it.”
MISCELLANY:
WASHINGTON: The five-cent ci-
gar was added to the list df war
victims with the announcement by
the Office of Price Administration
that the ceiling price on nickel sto-
gies would be six cents hereafter.
Increases averaging 20 per cent in
retail prices of all cigars were al-
lowed by OPA to cover higher war-
time excise taxes and increased
costs of labor and production.
Through the tenant-purchase pro-
gram of the department of agricul-
ture, during the past five years
29,000 small farmers have been able
to buy and improve farms big
enough to support their families.
• • •
Ten million surgical dressings are
on their way to the defenders of
Stalingrad, according to the Amer-
ican Red Cross.
Washington Di9est>
War Man Power Problem
Is Still Far From Solution
National Service Act Held Back; McNutt*
Hershey Conflict Complicates Situation;
Competition Keen as Ever.
By BAUKHAGE
News Analyst and Commentator.
WNU Service, 1343 H Street, N-W,
Washington, D. C.
“Sorry, sir,” said the waiter on
the dining car, “we can only serve
you one cup of coffee.”
“Sorry, sir,” said a somewhat
weary voice of the hotel room serv-
ice, “we can't serve you ham with
your eggs, this is a meatless day.”
And so a simple, wandering Wash-
ingtonian, who had stepped outside
of the capital for a brief interlude,
found out there was a war going on.
Back in the shadow of the Capitol
dome, I began to wonder whether,
before long, when Uncle Sam passed
his plate for a second helping the
farmer would say: “Sorry, sir,
this is helpless day on the farm,
we aren't furnishing food any
more.”
When that happens, perhaps we'U
get that national service act.
Behind the delay in settling the
farm-labor problem and the other
problems which have arisen because
the government hasn't had the nerve
to tell anybody but the soldiers
where to go, what to do and when to
do it, is a lot of honest uncertainty,
some inter-departmental friction but
chiefly plain fear of stepping on the
public’s toes.
Many believed that the public
aren't afraid of their toes and are
only waiting to be told what to do
and the real solution may be the one
offered by Wendell Willkie when he
said in his report to the nation that
“it is up to us to make our leaders
give us more to do.”
Distribution Problem
We have plenty of people to “do,”
but we are not distributing them
properly, not giving the right people
the right jobs. We are still letting
people decide themselves what they
are going to do, not telling them
what is the thing they must do to
win the war. When I reported last
on the man-power problem I felt
sure that by this time a national
service act would be before con-
gress. Congress has drawn up sev-
eral of these acts but administra-
tion spokesmen have told them “not
yet”; meanwhile piecemeal meas-
ures are offered.
The story behind the conflict be-
tween Paul McNutt’s Man-Power
commission and General Hershey’s
Selective Service system is an ex-
ample of how sand gets into the
gear-box when the President doesn't
clamp down the lid and give orders.
Some of the New Dealers began
to worry about the danger that Mc-
Nutt might grow too big politically
and it might be a harder job to side-
track him at the 1944 Democratic
national convention than it was last
time. And goodness knows it was a
painful process then. So they con-
trived to hand him the hottest po-
tato, the job that would make more
enemies than any other, head of the
Man-Power commission. The pre-
sumption, according to these not al-
together nonpartisan friends of Mc-
Nutt, was that he would either fall
down on the job or do it so well no-
body would like him.
Meanwhile the theory was that he
was bound to come into conflict with
General Hershey. One or the other
had to select the men for service:
either McNutt would be given the
power to tell Hershey whom he
couldn’t take for the army or Her-
shey would be given power to tell
his draft boards whom they could
take. So the battle was on.
No Separate Systems
Since then McNutt has come out
and stated that he did not believe it
was necessary to set up a separate
system of selection—one for mili-
tary, which already exists in the
draft boards, and another to classify
civilian service. But, under White
House orders, he made it plain that
he had no bill to submit to congress.
His labor-management committee
submitted its report directly to the
President.
While all this has been going on
the Selective Service system has
been pacing the floor outside the
Man-Power commission's door. The
commission is supposed to advise
Selective Service but for many
months it refused to say aye, yes
or no.
According to Selective Service of-
ficials the moment they had the op-
portunity they submitted a plan to
take care of the one sore thumb of
the man-power problem that threat-
ens to interfere with our eating,
farm labor. The plan would:
1. Tell the farmer boys their pa-
triotic duty is on the farm, that they
must stay there. If they leave they
would immediately be drafted.
2. Stop all voluntary recruiting.
That, according to General Her-
shey, would at least stop the drain
of farm labor and save the boys
from the stigma of remaining in
civilian clothes when other boys in
non-essential jobs were joining up.
According to the Selective Serv-
ice officials that proposal was sat on
for six months while the cries ol
the farmer rose higher and higher.
Complaints to Hershey
Most of the complaints were di-
rected at General Hershey. But his
aides point out that Selective Serv-
ice has taken far less men from the
farms than the other two sirens that
lure the men away from their pro-
saic jobs: One is the recruiting ser-
geant and the other is industry. The
recruiting sergeant offers adventure
with a patriotic background. Indus-
try offers big .pay and bright lights.
And to show how the competition
for manpower still goes on among
government agencies itself. Selec-
tive Service officials charge that the
United States Employment service,
which recruits men and women for
industry, has been just as energetic
as those handsome army, navy and
marine sergeants, in recruiting the
boys on the farm.
When, just before the elections,
both Man-Power Commissioner Mc-
Nutt and Selective Service Director
Hershey both testified that there was
no immediate need for a man-power
bill they were probably glad that
they could do so—which meant that
it had probably been strongly indi-
cated from higher up that they had
better do so. For neither gentle-
man would care to make a blanket
recommendation for a measure
which might give the other the real
authority in administering.
The measure will probably remain
something to do tomorrow until it
becomes clear that tomorrow’s ham
and eggs may depend on action to
day.
• • •
OWl Proves Boon
To Capital Writers
A stranger coming to Washington
and watching the men and women
filing into the White House execu-
tive offices for the semi-weekly
press and radio conference with the
President; or visiting the senate or
the house of representatives on a
day when important news is break-
ing when the press and radio gal-
leries above the respective rostrums
are filled, would think that Washing-
ton is pretty well covered for news.
There are more than 600 mem-
bers of the press and radio gal-
leries. There are many, many more
reporters and broadcasters whose
duties do not make them eligible for
these groups.
But in addition to these men and
women whose job it is to write about
what is happening in your capital,
4,000 people who are spending be-
tween a million and two million dol-
lars a month are hired by the gov-
ernment to disseminate information.
The Office of War Information has
3,500 employees.
There are some 200 persons in the
army public relations bureau and a
hundred or so in the navy public
relations. The Office of the Co-
ordinator of Inter-American Affairs,
Nelson Rockefeller, has more than a
hundred members in its public rela-
tions department. The persons doing
similar work for the War Production
board and the Office of Price Ad-
ministration have a hundred and
fifty more.
Of course, the old line agencies
have their public relations staffs but
we are just talking about the war
news agencies.
As far as my own contact with
the Office of War Information goes
I must say its members have been a
great help to me. If I run into a
snarl of official dispatches, question-
able rumors, I do what other news
men do, call up the OWI and I
usually get a very straight ard sat-
isfactory story.
But nursing us newsmen along is
only half their job—the rest is dis-
seminating information abroad—
where it will do the most good—and
don't ask who and when and where
—that's not for publication.
BRIEFS . .
Mott t.res in homes come from de-
fective flues and stovepipe connec-
tions than from any other single
cause.
—Buy War Bonds-
Some neighborly Nebraska farm-
ers pin a note on the gate post list-
ing the things they want from town.
The first neighbor driving to town
picks up the note and brings back
the items listed.
by Baukhafte
'VOU can’t set a wave or even
* comb a smart new hair-do with-
out seeing the back of your head.
A deep curve in the front of •
dressing Cable will allow you to get
close encaigh to a triple mirror.
Here are the dimensions for such
a table to be built into a corner.
The stool top is pink cotton ma-
terial; the skirts for it and the
table, and the drape for the top
shelf, are of light weight white
muslin edged in old-fashioned em-
broidery panty ruffling.
Pink ribbon holds the drape and
edges the table. The top frill
and center part of the table skirt
are snapped to a . strip of muslin
tacked around the front of the
table under the ribbon.
• • •
NOTE: Mr«. Spears' Book 1 shows you
exactly how to drape dressing tables with
drawers. Also directions for slip covers;
bedspreads and aU types of curtains.
Readers may secure copy of Book 1 by
sending name and address with It
cents to:
MRS. RUTH WYETH SPEARS
Bedford Hills New York
Drawer It
Enclose 10 cents tor Book 1.
Name................................
Address..............................
Gas on Stomach
rttemll.f-awduL.Uk.thm. In H.II JZ
kJ— 1—_ aa-ll___a__.
Chris—I am sorry. I didn't mean
it. I was just scared. Read Yes-
terday's Romance in November
Personal Romances and you'll
know what I mean.—It’s on sale
now.—Adv.
DEAF!
Investigate
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bite. U.« powder on
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COOLING
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DRESSING
James F. Ballard, Inc. • St. Lovis, Mo
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The New Ulm Enterprise (New Ulm, Tex.), Vol. 33, No. 5, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 12, 1942, newspaper, November 12, 1942; New Ulm, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1207951/m1/2/?q=music: accessed June 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.