The West News (West, Tex.), Vol. 55, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, August 25, 1944 Page: 2 of 8
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Washington Di9GSt
Capital Answers Urgent
Appeal for Farm Help
- A
Political Bigwigs, War Workers, Service Folk,
Pitch In to Aid in Production of
Orchard and Field Crops.
•7^1 a
By BAUKHAGE
'•>1 inaliu end Commentator.
WOT Service, Union Trust Building
Washington, D. C.
Washington, the town of bureau-
crats, of desk-soldiers and sailors,
the place that tells you what to do
and “don't do nothin’" itself but
*‘jes’ keeps rollin' along.”
I know that's what you say about
us.
But when it comes to volunteering
for the emergency farm labor pro-
gram-how about your national
capital? v
Believe me, Washington is in there
pitching.
I use the figure of speech advised-
ly for the man who rallied a corps
of volunteer farm help which will
probably amount to fifteen thousand
citizens of the District of Columbia
by the time the peach and apple
harvest is at its height, is an old
ball-player. Not so old at that for
Johnny Jones, formerly of the Phila-
delphia Athletics, farm boy from
Coatsville, Pa., and now of the de-
partment of agriculture extension
service, is practically fresh off the
diamond. He quit baseball in 1936
and is now back as near to the call-
ing of his fathers as he could get.
Jones’ job is dealing with the
farm-help shortage and 1 interrupt-
ed him while he was in batting for a
ian help either. As elsewhere there
are the boys’ and girls’ camps which
run all summer; there are other
vacation camps where grown-ups
stay a week, get a dollar and a half
a day expenses, and earn 35 cents
an hour, or at peach-picking as much
or more than 13.50 a day at 10 cents
a basket, if they are handy. Some
earn $10 a day at that rate but
they are old hands.
■a
tiranHand Hire
Woman marine digs postholes.
missing mimeographer because of
his own private manpower shortage.
He had just rolled off several thou-
sand forms inviting government offi-
cials, war-workers, simple citizens
and others in the District, to attend
his vacation camps which are al-
ready rapidly filling.
We aren’t allowed to tell names of
the higher-ups who volunteer but
Jones has helpers who give their
Sundays, or longer periods, from
the White House staff, the offices of
cabinet members, senators and con-
gressmen. If it weren't an election
year he thinks he’d have quite a
showing of the senators themselves.
But what he takes most pride in is
the service folk. This includes the
girls, the WACs and the WAVES,
and the Marines and the SPARS]
as well as the sailors and soldiers
on duty here or convalescing.
Tells It to Marines
With Gooa Results
The other day a tobacco farmer
over the district line in Virginia
(Jones' territory doesn’t run more
than 125 miles from the White
House) wanted to clear an acre of
thick timber needed for firewood_it
takes a lot of smoke to cure the
tobacco for your smokes. He
couldn’t hire help locally. Jones
“told it to the Marines" (female)
and some 50 answered with action.
They cut the timber (trees of about
28 inches), sawed it into eight-foot
lengths, piled it up.
And soldiers and sailors seem glad
to take a week's furlough to go out
and pitch hay, get in the wheat and
tobacco crops, or turn a hand to
any other little chore. They say
they consider it a great relief from
loafing around a hospital or guard-
ing government buildings or doing
any other of the strictly military
jobs they have.
Even among the groups of girls
Jones says you'll find enough who
can run a tractor or hitch and drive
a team of horses. One group cleared
five and a half acres, cut the trees,
aawed them up, burned the brush.
And there is no shortage of civil-
Postwar German
Underground Seen
There is nothing new to Europeans
about an "underground monument"
which might be defined as a group
of persons, united by an idea, which
persists as an opposition to a partic-
ular government with the purpose of
eventually overthrowing that gov-
ernment.
With the defeat of Germany it
can be taken for granted that two
German movements will begin to
burrow, perhaps retiring to "pre-
viously prepared positions" in the
language of the communiques of a
retreating army. They are the Junk-
ers and the Nazis.
At the present writing, for the
first time in history, military con-
trol of Germany has been wrested
from the hands of the junker-gen-
erals. They did their best to act
on their ancient adage: “We as a
caste, must always live to fight
another day.” A lost war to them is
an incident and considered merely a
temporary set-back on the road to
'ventual world-domination. To that
•nd they planned a peace before
heir ranks were too greatly weak-
ned or their resources exhausted.
But the Nazis stepped in, wrecked
heir plans. As a caste they will
irobably be completely destroyed,
heir estates and therefore their
neans of livelihood removed. What
nany people do not know is that
he German high command had their
>wn private funds, voted by the
jovernment, which they toanaged
themselves for the benefit of the
army.
Whether the Nazis have obtained
this, remains to be seen. But in
any case, you may be sure the burn-
ing patriotism of those junkers who
survive will keep an underground
organization alive.
And then comes the Nazis, with a
younger but equally fanatical loyal-
ty to national socialism. Their un-
derground organizations we know
are already prepared.
Meanwhile there is a strong sus-
picion on the part of many persons
in Washington that a third breeding
place for totalitarian militarism is
being cultivated right here in the
Western hemisphere.
In the past weeks I have received
several letters and one telephone
call protesting against the action of
the state department in breaking re-
lations with Argentina. So far as I
could tell the persons who communi-
cated with me were perfectly honest.
They all stressed the known fact
that the chief characteristic of the
Argentina attitude is traditionally
"pro-Argentine,” nationalists. The
inference was that the government
was not anti-North American or pro-
nazi-fascist, and should be let alone.
As a matter of fact, aside from
Argentine’s own aims there seems
to be evidence that the German
Nazis and perhaps some of the Ger-
man Junkers are transferring their
wealth to Argentina.
There is not the slightest doubt
that the Buenos Aires government
has aided and abetted in the spread
of nazi-fascist propaganda and is
that, at this very moment looking
sympathetically on the activities of
Nazi agents within its borders. The
army has long been indoctrinated
with Prussian militarism through its
officers who have been trained in
Germany.
Unless the United States takes the
lead in applying sanctions in the
form of a strict embargo on Argen-
tina, we may find ourselves with a
full-fledged war of aggression on our
hands right here in our own hemi-
sphere.
In the case of Argentina we may
be witnessing not only the growth of
a powerful military dictatorship but
one which will be used to nourish
and sustain the very forces which
we have spent our blood and wealth
to suppress in Europe—an "over-
ground” underground.
VI UCH to the surprise and shock
of several American league
managers, plus their supporters, the
long time lowly Browns have re-
fused to crack.
They have kept coyly away from
the soapy qhute under the smart
direction of my old
j Titus, Ala., friend.
James Luther Sew-
ell. Luke's main in-
structions have
j been to "keep them
j rolling."
And the Browns
have kept rolling
for about the second
time in over forty
years, dating back
to the days of
George Sisler.
No one will stand
up and say that the Browns have
any shining set of stars. They
haven't. But they have a set of
steady going ballplayers, including
Vernon Stephens, George McQuinn,
Chester Laabs, and Al Zarilla, plus
at least a good mid-war pitching
staff.
They claim no outstanding stars,
but their average certainly matches
anything else in the American
league. In Luke Sewell they have a
smart and well-balanced manager
who has earned their liking and their
] respect.
Luke ought to know his share of
baseball. He began catching (or
Cleveland back in 1921, a matter
| of 23 years ago. Luke stuck with
: Cleveland for 12 years before he
moved on to Washington—and later
to Chicago. He was only a .259 hit-
; ter, but he always knew how to han-
dle that big glove, and direct his
pitching staff.
When he drew the job of manag-
ing the Browns it was something
like being sentenced to Siberia.
What difference did it make—who
might be managing the Browns?
I talked with Luke early this
spring and his only comment was:
“We have just as good a chance
as any team in the league. Just
at this spot there are at least five
teams that are evenly matched. It’s
the sort of race where it might be |
important to get the jump. That's J
what we are shooting for. The team
that gets the jump will have a big
advantage with so many other clubs
killing off any single challenger.”
How It Worked Out
It has worked out just as Sewell
predicted. The Browns got the jump.
Just back of them were the Red
Sox, Yankees, Indians, etc. There
was little difference.
Luke Sewell had called the turn
as far back as April showers. "Get
the jump."
The Yankees and Red Sox, Indi-
ans, Tigers and White Sox, all be-
gan clawing each other or one an-
other. Once in a while some Brown
■ IT ith Ernie l\le at the Front
Bombers March Across Sky as
Ci’ack Troops ‘Breakthrough’
Ernie Joins Infantry and Finds Men
Tops and General Real Leader
By Ernie Pyle
IN NORMANDY.—The great attack, when we broke out of
the Normandy beachhead, began in the bright light of midday,
not at the zero hour of a bleak and mysterious dawn as attacks
are supposed to start in books.
The attack had been delayed from day to day because of poor
flying weather, and on the final day we hadn’t known for sure till
after breakfast whether it was on or off again.
When the word came that it was
on, the various battalion staffs of
our regiment were called in from
Ernie Pyle
their command posts for a final re-
view of the battle
plan.
Each one was
given a mimeo-
graphed sketch of
the frontline area,
showing exactly
where and when
each type bomb-
er was to ham-
mer the German
lines ' ahead of
them. Another
mimeographed
page was filled with specific orders
for the grand attack to follow.
Officers stood or squatted in a
circle in a little apple orchard be-
hind a ramshackle stone farmhouse
of a poor French family who had
left before us. The stonewall in the
front yard had been knocked down
by shelling, and through the or-
chards there were shell craters and
tree limbs knocked off and trunks
sliced by bullets. Some enlisted men
sleeping the night before in the attic
of the house got the shock of their
lives when the thin floor collapsed
and they fell down into the cowshed
below.
Chickens and tame rabbits still
scampered around the farmyard.
Dead cows lay all around in the
fields.
, challenger would win four or five
I in a row, then drop the next four, j
The Red Sox and the Yankees
both kept making threatening
moves. Then the Indians cut in. But
when the dust had settled on various
fields and the smoke had blown
away, there were the Browns still
out in front, piking along and still
winning their share and protecting
that early jump that Luke Sewell
worked for.
It is a much tougher proposition
for a leading club to have only one
fast-moving pursuer on his heels.
When you have three or four they
keep taking care of the chasers and
dragging them back.
The charge has been made that
St. Louis hasn’t supported either club :
—Cardinals or Browns—that St. j
Louis is not a two club major entry. ;
This is all true. !
St. Louis, for one reason or an- !
other, is only a one club entry in i
the major leagues, and not any too j
hot as a one-club spot. There are ;
any number of cities, including LoS
Angeles, that would be a big league
gold mine in comparison.
But this has nothing to do with
the ballplayers composing the dou-
hip linp-nna Por/linnl. ___i i
A German soldier captured in
France had written the following in
his notebook: “Blessed are those
who retreat for they will see their
homeland again.”
• • •
Production of 12,782 electric
in the third Quarter of 1944
i authorized to three manu-
Without interfering with
A new simple method for detecting
slow leaks in tires of automotive
vehicles so as to minimize the possi-
bility of "flats" along the highway
is outlined in detail in a pamphlet
just issued by Office of Defense
Transportation.
• • •
German dentists have been or-
dered to restrict their care of pa-
tients “to urgent measures.”
ble line-ups of Cardinals and
Browns. But the facts are that the
ballplayers working for St. Louis
fans i.ave dominated both leagues so
far.
The Cardinals were a romp be-
fore the first ball was thrown back
in April. The Cardinals would be an
even bet against a team picked from
the other 15 clubs in both leagues.
But one might have thought that
the uprising of the Browns Would
have churned up the old town in
Missouri. In place of that the Dodg-
ers in last place in the National
league have been outdrawing the
leading Browns.
This has soured the baseball crowd
in general, taken from the map at
large, against the Browns. It has
been my belief that the two best
baseball citiaa in the country are
Brooklyn and Detroit, when you con-
sider their population.
The main point in early August
is that the Browns were supposed
to crack some time back—and they
haven't cracked yet.
And these Brown ballplayers can
still use the coming world series
money as well ss any other club,
even if their home town isn’t any
too keen about baseball.
The regimental colonel stood in
the center of the officers and went
over the orders in detail. Battalion
commanders took down notes in
little books.
The colonel said, "Ernie Pyle is
with the regiment for this attack
and will be with one of the bat-
talions, so you'll be seeing him.
The officers looked at me and
smiled and I felt embarrassed.
Then Maj. Gen. Raymond O.
Barton, Fourth division com-
mander, arrived. The colonel
called. "Attention!" and ev-
erybody stood rigid until the
General gave them, "Carry on.”
An enlisted man ran to the
mess truck and got a folding
canvas stool for the General to
sit on. He sat listening intently
while the colonel wound up his
instructions.
Then the General stepped into
the center of the circle. He stood
at a slouch on one foot with the
other leg far out like a brace. He
looked all around him as he talked.
He didn’t talk long. He said some-
thing like this—
"This is one of the finest regi-
ments in the American army. It was
the last regiment out of France in
the last war. It was the first regi-
ment into France in this war. It has
spearheaded every one of the divi-
sion's attacks in Normandy. It will
spearhead this one. For many
years this was my regiment and I
feel very close to you, and very
proud.”
The General's lined face was a
study in emotion. Sincerity and deep
sentiment were in every contour and
they shone from his eyes. General
Barton is a man of deep affections.
The tragedy of war, both personal
an4 impersonal, hurts him. At the
end his voice almost broke, and I
for one had a lump in my throat.
He ended:
“That’s all. God bless you and
good luck."
Then we broke up and I went with
one of the battalion commanders.
Word was passed down by field
phone, radio and liaison men to the
very smallest unit of troops that the
attack was on.
There was still an hour before the
bombers, and three hours before the
infantry were to move. There was
nothing for the infantry to do but dig
a liUle deeper and wait. A cessa-
tion of motion seemed to come over
the countryside and all its brown-
clad inhabitants — a sense of last
They were to bomb only on the
far side of that road.
Our kickoff infantry had been
pulled back a few hundred
yards this side of the road. Ev-
eryone In the area had been
given the strictest orders to be
in foxholes, for high-level bomb-
ers can, and do quite excusably,
make mistakes.
We were still in country so level
and with hedgerows so tall there
simply was no high spot—either hill
or building—from where you could
get a grandstand view of the bomb-
ing as we used to in Sicily and
Italy. So one place was as good as
another unless you went right up and
sat on the bomb line.
Having been caught too close to
these things before, I compromised
and picked a farmyard about 800
yards back of the kickoff line.
And before the next two hours
had passed I would have given every
penny, every desire, every hope I’ve
ever had to have been just another
800 yards further back.
• • •
Our frontlines were marked by
long strips of colored cloth laid on
the ground, and with colored smoke
to guide our airmen during the mass
bombing that preceded our bicak-
out from the German ring that held
us to the Normandy beachhead.
Dive bombers hit it just right.
We stood in the barnyard of a
h rcnch farm and watched them bar-
rel nearly straight down out of the
sky. They were bombing about half
a mile ahead of where we stood.
They came in groups, diving from
every direction, perfectly limed, one
right after another. Everywhere you
looked separate groups of planes
were on the way down, or on the
way back up, or slanting over for a
dive, or circling, circling, circling
over our heads, waiting for their
turn.
The air was full of sharp and dis- I
tinct sounds of cracking bombs and
the heavy rips of the planes’ ma-
chine guns and the splitting screams
of diving wings. It was all fast and
furious, but yet distinct, as m a
musical show in which you could
distinguish throaty tunes and words.
holocaust.
The first planes of the mass
onslanght came over a little be-
fore 10 a. m. They were the
fighters and dive bombers. The
main road running crosswise in
front of us was their bomb line.
And then a new sound gradually
droned into our ears, a sound deep
and all encompassing with no notes
in it—just a gigantic faraway surge
of doom-like sound. It was the
heavies. They came from directly
behind us. At first they were the
merest dots in the sky. You could
see clots of them against the far
heavens, too tiny to count indi-
vidually. They came on with a ter-
rible slowness.
They came in flights of 12,
three flights to a group and in
groups stretched out across the
sky. They came in “families" of
•bout 70 planes each.
Maybe these gigantic waves
were two miles apart, mayba
they were 10 miles, I don’t know.
But I do know they came in •
constant procession and I
thought it would never end.
What the Germans must have
thought is beyond comprehen-
sion.
Their march across the sky was
slow- and studied. I’ve never known
a storm, or a machine, or any
resolve of man that had about it the
aura of such a ghastly relentless-
ness. You had the feeling that even
had God appeared beseechingly be-
fore them in the sky with palms out-
ward to persuade them back* they
would not have had within them the
power to turn from their irresistible
course.
I stood with a little group of men,
ranging from colonels to privates]
back of the stone farmhouse. Slit
trenches were all around the edges
of the farmyard and a dugout with
a tin roof was nearby. But we were
so fascinated by the spectacle over-
head that it never occurred to us
that we might need the foxholes.
minute sitting in silence before the J h foxholes-
holocaust. ! Tlie first hu8e flight passed di-
rectly over our farmyard and others
followed. We spread our feet and
leaned far back trying to look
straight up, until our steel helmets
fell off. We’d cup our fingers around
our eyes like field glasses for a clear-
er view.
Some of Brave Fliers Crash With Planes
Someone shouted that one of the
planes was smoking. Yes, we could
all see it A long faint line of black
smoke stretched straight for a mile
behind one of them.
And as we watched there was a
gigantic sweep of flame over the
plane. From nose to tail it disap-
peared in flame, and it slanted
slowly down and banked around the
sky in great wide curves, this way
and that way. as rhythmically and
gracefully as in a slow motion
waltz.
Then suddenly it seemed to change
its mind and it swept upward, steep-
er and steeper and ev€r slower until
finally it seemed poised motionless
on its own black pillar of smoke.
And then just as slowly turned over
and dived for the earth. Nothing
deviated them by the slightest
Monument to Qiampion
Swapper of This Age
The International Exchange in
Granville, 111., is a monument to
the unparalleled swapping ability
of one man—"Trader” Redshaw.
says Collier’s. In the past 24 yearffi
he has run a dozen 25 cent foun-
tain pens into a warehouse full of
such articles as furs, gems, paint-
ings, statuary and Oriental rugs.
In one “sight unseen" deal, Red-
shaw traded a houseboat in India
for a banana plantation in Central
America which, in turn, he
swapped for a block of real estate
in Detroit.
RHEUMATIC PAM
tS^firTJss^&vi
lleve pain of muscular rheumatism
and other rheumatic pains Caution:
Use only as directed. First bottle
purchase price back if not satisfied.
60c aad *100. Today, buy C-22U
Upset Stomach
----------------J Mis...... >i*
Wh«o orid i»hm. ntloren-
EfsttiraaS “
£0
lyr jwwll US-..
FOR QUICK RCLICF
CARBOIL
“t"™ salve
Utcd by thouunda with utiitsctory fo.
•u,<* hr « Tilusbl. Inpadl-
£"**•, G*,k.c"b»il •tj'vt »tore« or write
Spurlock-Ncal Co., Huh*111., Teon.
TO CHECK
w Liquid foi
y>Rr!£
take 666
Liquid for Malarial Symptom*.
what a difference
a few cents worth
of
II —I - ™ I—
It costs only about 15c and takes only a
tew minutes to inoculate an acre of
vetch, winter pets, clover, other
legumes with NITRAGIN; yet it ire-
quently doubles profits. You get hie err
yields, richer feed. Get NITRAGIN
from your scad supplier. Write today
for free legume booklets.
nttirTMtMeo,mti M0Tutr.Miaruat.vtt
FLIES 7 V Y
AR£ STUCK ON IT
AN ENLARGED
PARTIAL VIEW
OF AFiy’UEG
HAIR/,
NASTY
carrier, of
TILTH AND
6ERM5
A
MENACE
TO HUMAN
HEALTH
TanglefooT
• FLYPAPER I
l»’» tbo old rrli.bW tbot oo.or (tilt. _
Economic!, not retioood. For solo <« ”
hordooro, droy ood «ro«ory iterei.
tote HU THE CfcMM
A$ WELL Al THE FLY,
nsHters2^W,‘&
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Vanzura, Albert T. The West News (West, Tex.), Vol. 55, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, August 25, 1944, newspaper, August 25, 1944; West, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth589818/m1/2/?q=waco+tornado: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting West Public Library.