it r trn"
4a
VOL. LIH No. 98 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, THURSDAY, FEB. 25, 1943
PRICE FIVE CENTS
Rommel Army
Thrown into
Full Retreat
Refusal of Funds
Threatens MeNutt;
Rebuff Executive
Ration
'2'
Employment Service
Salaries Too Low,
C '
Department of Labor,
NRPB Requests Are
Held Back by House
WMC Chief Claims
By CHARLES MOLONY
Associated less Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24.-Paul V.
McNutt's future as War Manpower
Commissioner was imperiled today as
the House Appropriations Commit-
tee refused his request for $2,454,000
which he had proclaimed essential
for his agency to discharge its duties.
The turndown, coming while Mc-
Nutt was under fire in some Congres-
sional quarters, virtually challenged
him to battle for continuance in the
post he has held for ten months.
McNutt has declared his organiza-
tion needs strengthening to perform
difficult tasks just ahead. One of
these deals with the transfer of
workers from jobs aclassed as non-
essential to war work. He has decreed
that by April 1:
WMC Gives Decrees
1. Men in work called "non-defer-
rable" must have registered for war
jobs or, regardless of dependent wives
and children, risk speedy induction
into the armed forces if they are of
draft age and physically fit.
2. Employers in 32 areas of "criti-
cal labor shortage" must gear opera-
tions to a 48-hour minimum work
week so they can get along with few-
er workers and release some of their
employes for war jobs.
Because he grounded these orders
on the necessity for providing man-
power to meet the labor needs of war
industry, McNutt will be under tre-
mendous pressure to place in war
jobs all those displaced from their
old jobs as a result of his orders.
The turnownf h received from
the House Committee means that,
unless he can win a reversal, he must
face this problem with his job-place-
ment unit, the U.S. Employment Ser-
vice, in what he considers doubtful
shape to handle the task.
No Money Given
The committee refused to give the
USES any of the $2,454,000 McNutt
had told it he must have to lift salar-
ies of its personnel ,to the Federal
wage scale through next June and
stop a wave of job-quitting which,
his aides said, has sapped the unit's
morale.
It is the third time McNutt has
been rebuffed by Congress in a re-
quest of this kind, and it came in the
face of a hint McNutt gave the com-
mittee that he would blame Congress
if the USES failed in its job.
"If we are crippled and do not meet
the problem, then I will feel it in-
cumbent upon me at least to say
where I think the reason is-one of
the reasons," he said.
** *
Perkins Gets 'Frank
Talk' from House
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24.- (P)-_
Secretary of Labor Perkins, asking
the House Appropriations Committee
without success for $337,000 to com-
bat absenteeism, came in for some
frank talk, it was disclosed today,
with one member saying a great
many citizens feel she is "more con-
cerned about 'social gains' than win-
ning the war."
The Secretary's testimony a week
ago was made public today when the
Committee reported a deficiency ap-
propriation bill without including the
fund she had asked.
She said she proposed to spend the
money on "advisory services" to labor
and management in war industries
with the view particularly of curbing
absenteeism. In some cases, she said,
absenteeism is due to poor working
conditions which can be improved if
the government gives proper guid-
ance.
Bombers Blast Two Jap
Ships, Drive One Aground
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN
AUSTRALIA, Feb. 25, Thursday-(P)
-A Japanese warship, fleeing fran-
tically from attacks of American Fly-
By WILLIAM T. PEACOCK
Associated Press Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24.- The
House Appropriations Committee
sharply rebuffed the Administration
today by denying a series of request-
ed appropriations.
In reporting a $6,298,530,435 defi-
ciency appropriation bill, chiefly for
merchant ship construction, the
committee refused:
$2,454,000 which Paul V. McNutt
had proclaimed is essential if the
War Manpower Commission is to dis-
charge its duties.
$337,000 asked by Secretary of La-
bor Perkins for work in curbing ab-
senteeism in war factories and im-
proving Working conditions.
$200,000 requested by the National
Resources Planning Board, headed
by Frederic A. Delano, the President's
uncle.
The Planning Board had sought
the money for expenditure between
now and next June 30 when the cur-
rent fiscal year ends. Reporting an-
other measure earlier this month, the
Committee had refused a request for
$1,400,000 to finance the board in the
new fiscal year. At the time of the
earlier fund rejection, Mr. Roosevelt
told a press conference the Board's
planning to meet post-war problems
might save billions and that legisla-
tors opposing long-range planning
might turn out to be the real spend,-
thrifts. At the capitol, there were re-
plies from some legislators that Con-
gress should do the planning.
* * *
GOP Supports
Ruml Proposal
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24.- ()-
Advocates of the Ruml Plan were
cheered today as strong Republican
support appeared to be gathering be-
hind the proposal to abate all of one
year's individual income taxes to put
taxpayers on a pay-as-you-go basis.
An informed Capitol Hill source
said that when the House Ways and
Means Committee passed on a modi-
fied form of the plan originated by
Beardsley Ruml, chairman of the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York,
all 10 Republican committeemen
voted for it.
However, the plan was put aside
for the time being when the 15 Dem-
ocrats on the committee voted
against it. The vote was taken last
Friday in a secret session but not
disclosed until today.
The committee rejected all pend-
m ing pay-as-you-go proposals, includ-
ing the modified Ruml Plan, and
turned over to a sub-committee the
job of drafting a compromise.
Rep. Carlson (Rep. - Kas) has
modified the Rumi proposal to pro-
vide that each taxpayer would remit
on the one of the two years, 1942 or
1943,bin which he had the largest
taxable income.
Gandhi Likely
To Recover
By The Associated Press
NEW DELHI, Feb. 24.-Prime Min-
ister Churchill made it clear today
that the India Government would
continue to hold in confinement
Mohandas K. Gandhi, who now is
expected by his doctors at Poona to
live through his 21-day hunger strike
against detention.
It was a matter of one eminent in-
valid dealing with the case of an-
other. Churchill's message apparently
came from his sickbed. (It was an-
nounced in London that he has been
suffering from pneumonia but is im-
proving.)
Churchill, in a message support-
ing the India Government's determ-
ination to keep the Nationalist leader
under detention during wartime,
stressed security as a prime consid-
eration and said that India "still
Registering
Ends Today
Deadline at 9 Tonight;
Only Half of Campus
Houses Have Applied
Long rows of residence hall and
boarding house students sat arm and
arm with Ann Arbor housewives yes-
terday, waiting at City schools for
War Ration Book No. 2.
Busy volunteer rationing workers
who yesterday registered more than
half of the campus independent stu-
dents at seven city schools, antici-
pate an even bigger rush today as
students crowd in to beat the dead-
line tonight at 9 o'clock.
The seven local schools near the
campus will be open today for late
registrants from 1 to 5 and 6 to 9.
Rationing headquarters warned stu-
dents to bring their No. 1 book with
them.
Only about half of the campus
sororities, fraternities and Coopera-
tives, registering under a simplified
University plan at Room 2, Univer-
sity Hall have had applications pro-
cessed, Assistant Dean of Students
Walter B. Rea said last night.
House managers and stewards have
until this afternoon to register for
their organizations by bringing to
University Hall signatures, number 1
books and numbers of the books of
all members according to Dean Rea.
Advice to the fraternity, sorority
and cooperative groups was to apply
early today to beat last minute reg-
istrants, and advice to the independ-
ents was to go to the nearest school
gt night from 6 to 9 to avoid conges-
tion with Ann Arbor townspeople.
The seven schools available to dor-
mitory and boarding house students
are: Bach, on Jefferson; Perry on
Packard; Tappan on Welles; Angell
on UniversitY; Jones on North Divi-
sion; North Side on Pontiac Road,
and Mack on Miller Avenue.
Soviets Drive
Closer to Nazi
Dnieper Line
Ukraine Rail Centers
Captured as Russians
Trap Two Battalions
By The Associated Press
LONDON, Feb. 25, Thursday- The
Red Army surging westward over a
300-mile front in a race against
spring mud was reported early today
to have toppled several more Axis
strongholds in the drive toward Pol-
tava and Konotop, Ukraine rail junc-
tions guarding the approaches to the
Nazi Dnieper River line.
The regular midnight Moscow
Communique recorded by the Soviet
Monitor said another large populated
place west of Kharkov had fallen, re-
ported fresh gains in the effort to
encircle Orel, hinge of the southern
and central fronts, and told of the
trapping of two German battalions
(approximately 1,600 men) in the
western Caucasus.
The Russians said those two bat-
talions now were being annihilated
after refusing to surrender.
Heavy German counterattacks
with tank and plane support were
acknowledged in the Donets Basin.
While claiming the repulse of most
of these, the Russians admitted Ger-
man units had driven a wedge into
their lines southwest of Kramatorsk.
This town is about 50 miles above
Stalino whence the Nazi escape rail-
way runs out of the Donets Basin.
Thirteen German tanks were de-
stroyed in the fighting, but the bulle-
tin did not tell of the final outcome.
The locality seized west of Khar-
kov was not identified. The commu-
nique said 200 German bodies were
counted, and large quantities of war
material captured. This Soviet col-
umn was within 50 miles of Poltava
on the basis of Soviet dispatches, and
another operating from Krasnograd
to the south was at least 10 miles
nearer.
Very Large 1
Campus Vote
Fills Posts
Swander, Borman,j
Seltzer Elected to
Three Board Jobs
Homer Swander, '43, former man-
aging editor of The Daily, Hoe Selt-
zer, '45M, incumbent, and Marvin
Borman, '44, Manpower Corps head,
were elected student members of the
Board in Control of Student Publi-
cations yesterday.
The balloting, which was termed
unexpectedly high in view of the evi-
dent lack of campaigning on the
part of all candidates, gave Swander
452 votes, Borman 415 and Seltzer
298.
Stan Wallace, '45. and Edna Sott,
'46, were elected co-chairmen of the
combined soph-frosh class dance.I
Wallace received a total of 86 votes
while Miss Sott polled 124.
Dance Committee Elected
Ten other students were elected to
the dance committee. They include:
literary college sophomores - Selig
Estroff, Larry Loftus and Ruth Ma-
loney; literary college freshmen-
Rosemary Klein and Elanor Mc-
Laughlin.
(The exact number of votes for
these and the majority of other can-
didates was not released by the Ju-
diciary Council.)
In the freshman class the engi-
neering school elected Harry Scott,
and Allan Daskal to the committee.
Don Granger and Joe Warner were
chosen to represent the sophomore
class in the engineering school.
Because her petition was uncon-
tested, Catherin Sauer of the archi-
tecture school was automatically de-
clared a committee member last week
by the Men's Judiciary Council.
Union Vice-Presidents Chosen
Balloting in the third of yester-
day's elections was for six men to
fill vice-president positions in the
Michigan Union. Those elected are:
literary college, George Ceithaml, '43;
engineering college, Art Geib, '44;
medical school, Robert Taylor, '43;
dental school, Howard O'Dell, '44;
law school, Bill Aigler, '43; other
schools, Robert Schwyn, '43BAd.
Bill Sessions, '43E, released the
election results last night and stated,
"The unexpectedly large turnout is
gratifying, especially concerning the
Board and Union elections. This may
mean a reawakened student interest
in campus affairs."
Eligibility cards of all candidates
may be obtained any afternoon in the
Union Student Offices.
Restaurants May Serve
Without Ration Coupons
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24.- (P)-
You can eat at restaurants without
ration coupons, the OPA said to-
day, but the restaurants will serve
only about half as much canned
and other processed foods as they
had last year.
Rationing allotments for res-
taurants will be determined by a
separate formula, but OPA intends
to restrict consumption by their
patrons "on about the same basis
that the individual is restricted on
his meals at home."
The home ration of processed
foods has been described by OPA
head Prentiss M. Brown as "less
than half" of last year.
-'50
.^M° '"FfArada ont «« du Fahsj sSTATUTE MILES
:.ArsPbKasserane
Feriana SFAX
y lt ea t .
Nogrine 7' ed
Redeyef T saU N S IA
- ~ ,
STozeur - ht
Neft Pass---=s's 'd;
German drives in Tunisia (black arrows) were sharply turned yes-
terday as the Allies put Rommel's armies into full retreat after a three-
day battle. Broken line is approximate point of furthest Nazi advance
against American, British and French troops.
Ruthren Conan Arcss
Rede . fsa T UN 1 I
*k *
* * *
Kumnven peaKs ior
Preservation of Values
Special to The Daily
LANSING, Feb. 24.-President Al-
exander G. Ruthven, speaking at the
dedication of J. W. Sexton High
School here, pointed out the conflict
between vocational and traditional
education in time of war and called
on educators to avoid both extremes
to preserve human values.
. . . our educators may reason-
ably be expected to show us how to
maintain an industrial society and
at the same time win a war which
calls for the services of many special-
ists, without permanently sacrificing
for any generation all of the train-
ing which makes possible our way of
life," President Ruthven said.
Must Face Realty
". . . While we do not know the
formula for success in providing a
sound education, it is the business of
our teachers to find it. The responsi-
bi~ty is a very heavy one, but it can-
not be shirked if our instructors
really believe in education as the sure
foundation of the democratic state,"
President Ruthven said.
President Ruthven also renewed his
attack on "those who, in the spirit
of defeatism, advocate deferment of
the study of the humanities until
later life," declaring: "These propo-
nents of so-called cpractical educa-
tion'-a curious phrase-should be
reminded that 'man shall not live by
bread alone'; that old dogs are not
likely to learn new tricks, and old
brains tend to become schlerotic.
Dangers Need Recognition
"At the same time, the danger in
rearing even one generation without
opportunities for free and well-in-
formed thought upon the great issues
-religious, political, social and eco-
nomic-should be fully appreciated.
The men and women who must fight
the battles will lose all for which they
are fighting unless they are broadly
enough educated to understand the
background and issues of the war and
to attack intelligently the problems
of the post-war world," he said.
President Ruthven called liberal
education as important a factor in
winning the world's conflicts as tech-
nical education, because the liberal
arts define the issues which must be
settled in the post-war period. But
the conflicting views are "a dilemma
which has disaster at the tips of
both horns," he said.
Survival After War
Foreseen by Conant
President James B. Conant of
Hardvard University has decisively
taken issue with educators who fear
that the radical dislocation of aca-
demic life now under way jeopardizes
the future of the liberal arts.
. "Personally," he wrote in a
special article in The New York
Times, "I have not the slightest
doubt that the study of the liberal
arts will not only survive this war
but prosper in the days of peace. I
cannot imagine that this repub-
lie could reject the tradition of the
liberal arts."
Asserting that the problem cen-
ters around a "long overdue" adap-
tation of a "venerable tradition in
education to our modern age," Dr.
Conant said the period of stress
which we are now entering "may
well prove to be beneficial.
Institutions Need Jolt
"Academic institutions are among
the most conservative in human his-
tory," he said. "An occasional jolt
may be wholesome; it forces adjust-
ment to meet new needs of society."
Dr. Conant predicted that the
present fighting generation and the
boys in school-"tired of even hear-
ing the names of science and technol-
ogy"-will "inevitably" react toward
studies of a different type, and he
foresaw a resurgence of "deep in-
terest" in the liberal arts among stu-
dents themselves.
Selected Leadership Criticized
Human and emotional factors fig-
ured prominently also in Dr. Conant's
criticism of the suggestion that cer-
tain groups of students, carefully se-
lected for their intelligence and char-
acter, should be reserved for the
study of the liberal arts and educated
" 'for leadership in the post-war
world.'"
He flatly declared that such
schemes, fostered by persons who
fear "the stripping of our colleges of
young men for the armed forces and
the necessary emphasis on science
and engineering, fail to take into
account the emotional situation cre-
ated by the war and goes to pieces"
Turn to Page 6, Col. 4
Danes Report
Parachutists
LONDON, Feb. 25, Thursday.-(JP)
The Danish Radio reported early to-
day that "a number of parachutists"
had been dropped in Denmark, but
gave no indication of their national-
ity or whether they had been cap-
tured or interned.
The statement, broadcast from
German-occupied Copenhagen an
recorded here by the British Ministry
of Information, said that some Dan-
ish residents had sheltered the para-
chutists, provided facilities for erect-
ing radio transmitters, and supplied
money and information to the
agents.
The radio linked Christmas Moel-
ler, former Danish Commerce Minis-
ter who escaped to Britain last year
Receiving
First Loss
In Tunisia
Axis Positions near
Kasserine Pass Hit
By Tons of Bombs
From Allied Planes
By WES GALLAGHER
Associated Press Correspondent
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN
NORTH AFRICA, Feb. 24.-Com-
bined British and American forces
threw Field Marshal Rommel's tank
columns into full retreat from the
outskirts of Thala today, handing
them their first defeat in Tunisia,
and tonight Allied artillery lobbed
tons of explosive steel into German
positions in the narrow Kasserine
Pass and on the beaten rear-guard
columns withdrawing through it.
The big guns were giving the Ger-
man tank columns, twisting through
the pass, no chance to rest and re-
form, and hundreds of Allied planes
racing overhead left a trail of smok-
ing Axis transport and dying German
soldiers all the way from Thala's ap-
proaches todFeriana far south of the
opposite end of Kasserine Pass.
Retreat Through Pass
(Reuters reported in London that
latest information indicated the
bulk of enemy forces were retreating
through the Pass, with only a rear-
guard left to hold the mouth of the
gap against furious continuing Al-
lied attacks.
The British News Agency also said
increasing numbers of fighting units
were now reaching the British Eighth
Army before the Mareth defenses in
southern Tunisia, and that supply
was. the main preoccupation at the
moment.)
Hundreds of Allied planes Mnd
Allied ground forces began hitting
Marshal Rommel yesterday morn-
ing, inflicting the first major set-
back on the Axis troops since they
lashed out on their offensive 11 days
ago.
Artillery Hits Running Mazes
The American-British aerial smash
far overwhelmed the initial German
Stuka efforts in the recent fight at
Faid, and was continuing.
Rommel's retreat-and it was by
field accounts a full retreat-began
yesterday and by today at least 300
Axis prisoners and large quantities of
German material had fallen into
Allied hands.
This, however, was believed to rep-
resent only a small part of the Nazi
casualties and losses of equipment
inflicted when almost every Allied
bomber and fighter on the front
splashed tons of high explosives on
Turn to Page 6, Col. 5
AFRAID?
Hitler Hints
At Long Whar,
Final Victory
LONDON, Feb. 24.-(P)-Reassert-
ing his confidence in victory, Adolf
Hitler today promised a "mobiliza-
tion of the spiritual and material val-
ues of Europe" such as never before
witnessed for war, but hinted that
the struggle might continue for years
and that there still were difficulties
on the home front.
He asserted that "the gigantic mass
of the German people is standing be-
hind the new Reich and the national
socialist world of thought which is
inspiring it," but indicated that all
was not well within Nazi Germany
and occupied Europe, that the Nazi
party must "break terror with ten-
fold terror.
The Fuehrer addressed a 1,000-
word proclamation to a Munich meet-
ing of party followers. It was read
for him for he was still "with the
German soldiers fighting in the east
because it is there that the fate of
Germany and Europe will be decided
-a decision which must and will end
in our victory."
Hitler asserted that "the German
people will mobilize and use their
forces to an extent exceeding that
Alec Templeton Will Appear in
Musical Society Concert Today
4
Long noted for his mastery of im-
provisations and mimicking, Alec
Templeton will be presented for his
second concert in Ann Arbor by the
University Musical Society at 8:30
p.m. today in Hill Auditorium.
Templeton will open his concert
with a group of classical numbers..
This group will include such selec-
tions as the "Sonata in F-sharp maj-
or" of Beethoven, "Warum-Aufsch-
wung" by Schumann and the "Inter-
mezzo in E-flat" of Brahms. Compo-
sitions by Bach, Liadov, Chasins and
-~ d'