- SUNDAY, JULY" 29, 1942

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

PAGE

* SUNDAY, JULY 26, 1942 PAGE


T


Foreign

- (A t r t'

While black news poured into the
press association offices from the
Rostov-Stalingrad areas of South
Russia late this week, the stout-
hearted, staunch Red Army was still
holding a trump card in the battle
for the Caucasian industrial centers.
Nearly 400 miles north of Rostov
on the Don at Voronezh, General
Timoshenko's armies had attacked
the Nazi invaders, drove them back
across the Don in various sectors and
held them there. The German pan-
zers were fighting back hard to re-
take their positions across the Don
and finally break the lines of
staunch defenders into the key city.
Retention of important and stra-
tegic Voronezh gives hope to the
picture of despair in Russia. From
there the Soviets may be able to
flank Von Bock's mighty motorized
columns and cut them off as they
drive slowly into the vital industrial
section.
But at Rostov the Nazi drive had
more success. The powerful panzers
stationed themselves in the southern
Don-Donets Basin ready to hurl their
mechanized strength at the strategic
industrial town on the west bank of
the Don. By Saturday they had taken
the town of Voroshilovgrad, only 85
miles from Rostov. They passed
through wrecked and burned coal
mines on their way, all the while
suffering prodigious losses.
The next day saw the million-man
army pushing further into the terri-
tory by driving a wedge between Ros-
tov and Stalingrad. The brave de-
fenders fell back and back, but they
succeeded in slowing the Nazi tide.
Then the Germans were reported
only 20 miles from Rostov at Novo-
cherkossk.
The Red Army, under brilliant
Timoshenko, was staging a last-ditch
fight for the much-besieged city and
was taking a terrific Nazi toll. Off i-
cial communiques admitted that the
enemy was at the "approaches" of
the city while the official German
claim was that Rostov had been
taken by storm.
The United Nations' inventory in
South Russia was anything but hope-
ful. Should the Germans take Sta-
lingrad and Rostov they would hold
the great oil center of the stout-
hearted Soviet Union as well as the
key position to the great Caucasus
industrial center. Some military
authorities found hope in the great
losses the Germans were incurring,
but the man in the street wore a long
face.
On the Moscow front there was
only slight activity. Far more omi-
nous was the suggestion that the
Nazis would attempt to close Mur-
mansk from the stream of supplies
coming from the Soviet Union's al-
lies. The military experts' predic-
tions were more credible when it be-
came known that large numbers of
troops were massing on the northern
Finland front.
On the other side of this picture
were the feelers for peace by Finnish
diplomats. The Americans were
asked to help the once-praised little
nation out of its unfortunate alli-
ance with Hitler.
The SecondFronters
The only possible relief for Russia
-the diversion front-the second
front-was still loud talk by inter-
ested newsmen in Britain and the
United States. The politicians talked
little about it and the British gov-
ernment refused to tell Commons
anything.
Cordell Hull fought his own battle
of the second front-the front of
peace proposal-with a radio speech
from Washington. His blueprint
called for a period of transition after
the peace, an international agency
to keep peace "by force if necessary."
Meanwhile, gloomy Americans won-
dered whether some of those specific
proposals would not have more ef-
fect if they dealt with the fighting
diversion front.

Chinese Action
The Chinese found things looking'
up last week after the ordeal of
bended knees some weeks ago before
the American air force was sent
there. The big U.S. bombers made
their longest raids, sweeping over the
Chinese central plains to blast Japa-
nese communications center at Kiu-j
kiang on the Yangtze River. Two
Jap transports are lying in the mud
there now.
A Chinese newspaper reported that
the Japs were taking it amidships in
Formosa Straits from the torpedoes
of Allied submarines.
But the land fronts remained fluid.
It was still nip-and-tuck in most
places with the under-equipped Chi-
nese doing a valiant job as they have
in the long years of their struggle
with the enemy from across the
China Sea.
That the Chinese had no excess of

American submarines sinking three
destroyers in the Kiska region.
Another affectionate pat was de-
livered on the Kiska harbor by Amer-,
ican long-range bombers. No results
of this raid were made available, but
it was said to have added materially
to the increasing destruction Japan
was suffering there.
Much-bombed New Guinea felt the
sting of more Allied bombs in raids
by Allied planes based in Australia.
Fires were left in towns held by the
Japs as the Allies attempt to hinder
the supply.
Terrible tales by newsmen just es-
caping from Japan came to the
United States last week. Prison con-
ditions so bad that pounds of flesh
rolled off the correspondents were
reported. The food was enough to
choke the most callous pig and tor-
tures that left the Western World
scene years ago were revived. This
was a first-hand report of the hon-
orable enemy.
* * *
Armies In Sand
Hitler's jaw-boned orderly, Musso-
lini, was reported through intricate
news-channels to be in Nazi held
Matruh. Presumably he is observing
what his armies might have done be-
fore the German Panzers under
Rommel made their clean-up.
That §ame city of Matruh where
Mussolini was reported in his latest
world-wide wall-flowering was the
object of fierce Allied attacks by air.
Naval dive-bombers took Hitler's les-
son and blew up munitions dumps in
the city and made oil drums explode
like huge fire-crackers. Then the
British Navy carried the insult fur-
ther by bombarding the town.

'heWeek_ I
The Staunch Defenders
A national day of prayer was not the bombing of Bremen.
declared in Italy. The bombs that the B
The whole front in Libya was in were an interesting type t]
better shape for the Allies. They only in densely popula
counterattacked intermittently and They weighed two-tons eac
made small gains which reinforced stroyed blocks of the great
their precarious position. From the Spitfires swept over thec
sea at El Alamein to the Qattara De- unload their lighter bomb
pression in the south they hit back occupied territory just to
at the Germans in polite sparring buildings burning. The
blows, raids were becoming co
The romantic name of a crucial for the English flyers as
area-the Hill of Jesus-apeared of- trolled the occupied lands
ten in the shuttling battles. The sea.
British had decisively recaptured it. The Russian air force ca
The Axis had been driven back from its shell of business in th
the ridges and El Alamein was in the battles to vent its spleen o
clear. berg in East Prussia.Z
In conspicuous absence was the some of the Nazi munitio
Luftwaffe. The English controlled and caused heavy explosio
the air as they had once been ru- * * *
mored to have controlled the sea.
They knocked Rommel's trucks Davy Jones' Locke
around the desert without so much The Battle of the Atlan
as a mild Messerschmitt protest. Ap- ued on its wearisome w
parently the Nazi's reserve strength sinkings last week. With
had been well-used in the push to- building going on, the Wa
ward dancing Cairo. Administration in Wash
To top off the good news was a ported that the number
heavy raid on Tobruk. This city was Nations' vessels being lo
once home to many of the British exceeded new construction
troops during the siege and now they But the ever-resourcef
said hello again to their old resi- ties had a new suggestion.
dence. Their high-explosive calling port.
cards were definitely on the encour- The Army saw possil
aging side. created an Air Transport
* * * Henry J. Kaiser, a spee
London's Heavyweights builder, wants to build1
transports - huge flyin
The RAF showed its face in Eur- which could transport 3
ope again with a big load of bombs of freight to Englande
for Germany's Duisburg. Huge Lan- day. This airy plan may b
casters and Stirlings-300 of them- tion to the U-boat troub
went deep into Germany to show the oil - glossed the Atlan
Nazis the quality of British explo- months.
sives. It was the largest raid since -Leon G


In

Review -
Domestic

British left
hat is used,
ted areas.
ch and de-
river port.
channel to
s on Nazi-
o keep the{
day-time
rmmonplac
s they pa-
along the
ame out of
e southern
n Koenigs-
They fired
n factories
ons.
r
ntic contin-
ay of ship
all of the
ar Shipping
.ington re-
of United
st "greatly
n."
ul authori-
Air trans-
bilities and
Command.
d-up ship-
5,000 Mars
g boats -
50,000 tons
every other
be the solu-
le that has
ntic these
Gordenker

No More Steel?

Most serious domestic news of the
week was that while U.S. mass pro-
duction methods were now turning1
out goods in increasingly sufficient
quantities, the ' materials which go
into essential munitions and supply
carriers are becoming so scarce as to
create a real and dangerous shortage.
Two much-publicized war plant
projects threw into dismaying relief
the fact that there is not enough
steel in this country to meet any-
where near capacity production re-
quirements. The two plants were
Andrew Jackson Higgins' revolution-
ary wayless shipbuilding company in
New Orleans and Henry Ford's
"world's largest airplane factory."
Higgins, whose activities are ap-
proved by Henry Kaiser-most suc-
cessful mass shipbuilder in history-
had received a contract for new vic-
tory-type ships which would furnish
him with six months work. He or-
ganized his producing unit and was
about ready to begin when the Mari-
time Commission canceled his con-
tract. He howled to high heaven and
the Maritime Commission merely in-
formed him that there wasn't enough
steel, passing the word on from WPB
authority. Meanwhile, Mr. Higgins
wondered out loud about several
things. Why couldn't he get steel
when slower shipbuilders in the East
could? Why couldn't the WPB have
refused him materials to produce a
plant to which no supplies would be
allocated? Why was there steel on
the 'black market' and none avail-
able to him? And why wasn't ship-
building everywhere placed high
enough on the priority list so that
the terrific number of sinkings on
the coasts could be equalized? Mr.
Higgins went to Washington, but so

far he hasn't found n doors open.
The steel shortage is still official,
but nobody can be sure it's actual.
Illustrative of the same point is
the situation at Ypsilanti where Hen-
ry Ford said lack of mat erials would
keep his bomber plant from operat-
ing at capacity. Whether or not he
Howls To Iheaven

have are uncertain, but if he is given
enough leeway, most observers agree
that he is the man for the job. This
is not the first time he has been
placed in a highly important posi-
tion. When Roosevelt needed a
trouble-shooter who could be tough
and smooth at the same time with
the Vichy government, he sent this
same Leahy. In addition to this,
Leahy knows his warfare. He has
spent 22 years of his life in actual
sea command and 24 other years in
the top ranks of the U.S. Navy.
He has commanded the battle force
of the U.S. Fleet and served as Chief
of Naval Operations.
Through all of this he has nain=
tained a clearer head than the ra-
jority of professional fighters and
thus probably has less chance of be-
coming bogged down in a maze of
Army-Navy jealousies.
Morale-Smashers

Mse k wt ._- Archawould HREATENED with a second font, what the Germans
THRAT O ing their immediate aims. Such a lire, many experts be-
i= =GATEWAYS Qf Ld A hRi
=1--ii ' U_'Main supply port at Arch- lieve, runs from Leningrad to Astrakhan to Rostov. It 
21=-- angel is ice-bound in winter; Q 0 would hamstring Soviet internal communications, put
Murmansk, further north Russia's only western supply ports within bombing reach
and ice-free year around, and give Nazis jump-off point for attacking Caucasus.
now reported bomb-blitzed.D
Luke' Q "
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l. - P rm
^^ ......Lentri rad Vologda UE
Tin4Sverdlovsk
ESTONIc _ - D RAIL HUB ENDANGERED Ekaterinburg)
-- Capture of Moscow would break
Pskov spokes of "military wheel" of 500-MILE
==rayZ radiating railroads, complicate BOMBER
Ri a,:i: LATVIA Russa Yaroslav Red supply problem.,RANGE
i.et° R''lazcxn , Ufa GONE
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nes, rU* So Ss " R -
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Michurinsk Penza
rest r ansk "
Gvs lUralsk /
Gomel Saratov Aktyubinsk i
A PPROXIMATE o- a> t
PRESENT oneh
POLAND FRONT= THREE-SEA LINE,
KievHITLER'S STRA-
Lwow TEGIC SUMMER
Khar ov GOA
Stalingfrad j
inprperos tovk Gur oshchaqil

said it for effect no one except the
WPB could say, and it wouldn't say.
At any rate, the statement helped
out Mr. Ford in his fight against the
Willow Run housing project, which
many suspect is just what Mr. Ford
wanted.
There is no question that there is
a steel shortage, but there is no as-
surance that there is not enough
steel for Higgins and Ford. If there
is so drastic a shortage as to prevent
manufacture at capacity for these
two, there is trouble ahead for Amer-
ican production, trouble of which as
yet the American people have no
conception.
The Inflation Blues
Americans lie to talk about al-
most anything; for the past year or
two they have liked especially to
talk about halting inflation. But they
have done little else. The President's
seven-point program is nearly as far
from accomplishment as it was the
day he offered it. So this week he
decided once more to take matters
into his own hands. A majority of
the public thought it was about time.
He began by announcing that he
would in a few days send a message
to Congress urging them to do less
talking, more acting on the inflation
problem. And le told the nation
what it should have known long ago
-that the cost of living issue is the
most important domestic issue of the
war.
This announcement was followed
almost immediately by a constant
round of White House conferences,
interviews and visits with everyone
and anyone connected with the gen-
eral inflation problem. Visitors in-
cluded congressmen, representatives
of the United States Chamber of
Commerce, the National Association
of Manufacturers, the CIO and the
AFL.
Most interesting information to
leak out of the conferences was:
1. The President would definitely
not ask that wage; be frozen. He ap-
nears to agree with the recently an-
nounced War Labor Board policy of
stabilization.
2. Union leadersboth CIO and
AFL--asked the President to forbid
"interference" with wage policy on
the part of the Offic of Price Ad-
ministration. They claimed that Hen-
derson's agency was the only federal
body which was guilty of unwanted
interference. A large share of the
American public, however, disagreed
that such interference was unwanted
-in fact, they felt there had been
too little of it to date.
3. Roosevelt may attempt to solve
cost of living problems via Executive
order rather than through Congress
and additional price legislation. This
new slant on the inflation fight came
from Speaker Rayburn, who inti-
mated that the President's war pow-
ers may be broad enough to solve the
problem 'Without the questionable
help of Congress. One can scarcely
blame the President if he tries to
avoid months of wearisome legisla-
tive debate which would allow the
inflation to get completely out of
control.
** *
Sailor-DipI amat

In a large-scale roundup of all
the petty, pro-Fascist publishers in
the country, a Federal Grand Jury
this week indicted 28 persons, charg-
ing them with intent to impair the
loyalty, morale and discipline of the
armed forces.
The accusations ended a nine-
month investigation of Axis sym-
pathizers all over the country. The
grand jury named 28 organizations
and 30 publications as having taken
part in the large-scale attempt to
promote revolt in the Army and the
Navy.
Among the persons indicted were
Elizabeth Dilling of "Red Network"
fame, Gerald Winrod, George Syl-
vester Viereck and William Dudley
Pelley. Their trial is scheduled to
begin some time in September and
they may receive sentences up to 20
years in prison and $10,000' fine.
Please, Senate, Please
A sadly disappointed Treasury De-
partment, which could get no coop-
eration from the House of Repre-
sentatives, this week pleaded with
the United States Senate for a tax
program which would more nearly
approach the standards set in the
President's seven-point anti-infla-
tion program.
Principal protest concerned the
failure of the tax bill as approved
by the House to come within two
billion dollars of the figure set by
the Treasury as necessary to prevent
inflationary tendencies.
Others concerned the failure of
the House to follow President Roose-
velt's suggestions that incomes be
limited to $25,000. As far as "ny
Washington correspondent could find
out, this provision received the most
complete and silent knifing of any
Roosevelt proposal in the last several
years. Little public capital was made
of this hot-to-handle subject, so
congressmen very conveniently for-
got about the whole thing.
*p * *
Rubber Mess
Completely disregarding the pleas
and threats of the Administration
this week, the Senate and House
majority rode roughshod over all
opposition to authorize a new inde-
pendent synthetic rubber agency.
The bill, backed largely by the
farm bloc but representing the feel-
ings of a good share of the American
people, sought to do something about
the utterly confused rubber situation
in the United States.
Under the present setup the Rub-
ber Reserve Corporation plans to use
petroleum as a base for the manu-
facture of synthetic rubber. The new
measure is designed to use grain
alcohol in place of petroleum. It has
been argued by the farm bloc and by
many scientists that such, produc-
tion is cheaper 'than the type sup-
ported by administration forces.
Undersecretary of War Patterson
argues that the new ageney will only
tend to confuse the rubber situa-
tion. Both Congress and the public
wondered what he thought it was
now. - Hale Champion,
Homer Swander

i rt

- Nikolaev Ta anr
.nostov-

ff

Krncnntl rrr

I)-

WOULD LOSE OIL
If Nazis attain goal line,
Red armies will be denied
Caucasus oil except over
circuitous routes.

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RUSSIA'S MAIN A POSSIBLE ALTERNATE
SUPPLY PORTS SUPPLY PORTS ALTERNATE
®0O PRESENT ALLIED SUPPLY ROUTES SUPPLY ROUTES

DIRECTION OF .POSSIBLE MOVE AFTER d 100 200 300
GERMAN GOAL LINE a 309J
OFFENSIVES . REACHED MIles MUN'

HITLER'S SUMMER AIMS, in the minds of many leading military stu- {value of the "wheel" of railway lines radiating from the Russian capital.

- - - --

- dents. are based on deployment of a "three-sea army" to tie the Baltic,
Black and Caspian seas into an easily defended line that at the same time
cripple Russian communications.
It's a military axiom that the shortest line, all other factors being
equal, is easiest defended. Hitler's gu. 1c think of defense, too, these days,
what with the burgeoning might of the L ..and Britain in the west.
The shortest line from the Baltic to the t , nian seas runs from Lenin-
grad to Astrakhan and includes Moscow. That "g,.' line" is without salients
for pinching off, is most easily defended, includes ci. ' s of size to shelter
9 i,,,. tr,,ih via, 'srrimd-,,,. rvnA n* 'nI imnnrtam.r rinnles or cuts

E

Nearly all Russian railways run into Moscow, and the re-routing necessary
to supply the front in case Moscow was taken would be a nightmare in
logistics for the Red services of supply.
HITLER hasn't attained his goal by a long shot. The Russian armies,
destruction of which the Nazis admit is their goal, rather than terri-
tory, are still very much in the fight. In places, notably in the Boguchar
salient and at Voronezh, the Axis is uncomfortably close to the goal line.
Confirmation of the strategists' guess that the Nazis do not intend to go
beyond the "goal line" comes from within Germany. Correspondents in

Flashlight Bulbs
In the current issue of The At-
lantic Monthly, Assistant Attorney
General Thurman Arnold makes an
extremely serious charge against the
General Electric Company. GE man-
ufactures flashlight bulbs and in the
past one such bulb has ordinarily
outlived about three successive bat-
teries. Mr. Arnold quotes corre-
spondence from the GE files seeming
to indicate that the company was
trying to produce an inferior product
which would last only as long as a
battery. On the face of the record,
this seems an extraordinary aban-
donment of the principles of public
service so often espoused by GE.
Moreover, flashlights are an impor-
+oaf. w-i't nr militarv eainment we

Admiral William Daniel Leahy,
hard-bitten sailor-diplomat, became
this week the most powerful military
man in the nation. His appointment
| ' b iCm nf 5o taff to Comminrdr-

a