SUNDAY, AUGUST 2, 1942
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
The
Week
In
Review
Domestic
Tough-talking Henry J. Kaiser,
West Coast shipbuilder, last week Al
dropped a bombshell in the laps of
two Senate committees. He predicted D
that, given the materials and a go-
ahead signal from President Roose-
velt, he could turn out in ten months
a 70-ton cargo plane capable of fly-
ing a 20-ton load to Honolulu and in
fourteen months a 200-ton giant plane w.
carrying a proportionately increased
load capacity. He promised that (
steady production after the first Su
planes had been completed would be De
strictly "a matter of routine." Jan
"We're going into the air to beat
the submarine menace," Kaiser said.
"We've got to stop our ship sinkings."
WPB and War Department officials
believed him enough to endorse a pro-
gram of accelerated cargo plane pro-
duction-but with reservations. They
warned that available supplies of crit-
ical materials and engines shouldn't
be diverted from combat and train-
ing planes for the building of air
freighters.
Undaunted, Kaiser backed up his
blunt prediction. He said the coun-
try could do anything it made up its
mind to do. He sparred the mater-
ials-shortage stumble-bum silly by
reporting that he was building his
own steel mill of 600,000 tons capaci-
ty per year, and was preparing mines
and mills for production of nickel and
other, scarce alloys. Then he aston-
ished his listeners by telling them heI
would soon be digging chrome from
the ground of California.
Kaiser said that the automobile in- 2
dustry could be converted into a
large- scale industry for his giant car-
go-planes.
"If the American automobile Indus-
try could make 85 per cent of the
world's automobiles," he said, "it can
produce my aircraft engines and it
won't say it can't. The motor indus-
try is big enough to produce the en-
gines. Suppose we don't get them for
six months. You've got to start some-
time."
This was tough talk. But Kaiser is
a man who gets things done. Until
1940 he had never seen a ship launch-
ed, but since then his yards have built
more than 100 ten-thousand ton
ships, have reduced the building time
to 46 days. And the shipbuilding wiz-
ard says he will cut that time down to
30 days before long.
War Production Chief Donald M.
Nelson showed he was willing to give
Kaiser the gg-ahead signal he wants
for a fleet of giant cargo and troop-
carrying planes if there are enough
engines and other materials to be
spared. Surprising many of the pes-
simistic officials, Nelson said "he
(Kaiser) will get plenty of action if
we swing such a program."
Thus, jnerica woke up to her dan-
ger. Ever since the Japanese bomb-
ers made Pearl Harbor their target
on Dec. 7, 1941, the United States and
her Allies have taken a bad whipping
on the high seas. Ship sinkings be-
gan to mount up in March and Ap-
ril. but in the following two months
they have more than doubled until
the total loss by July has been esti-
mated at 400 ships. (See Associated
Press chart on this page.)
* e x
High Court Makes History
The Supreme Court briskly made
history last week in the case of eight
Nazi saboteurs who petitioned to file
writs of habeus corpus with the high-
est tribunal in a precedent-shatter-
ing move that had the whole country "WE
talking. The astonishing move came6
without warning. Shortly after the Th
Army colonels appointed by Presi-
dent Roosevelt to present the case wa
for the eight Nazis had rested their Air T
defense, newspaper men were sum- pand
moned to the Supreme CourtBuild- the w
ing and the announcement by Chief Al
Justice Harlan Stone that the Su- Europ
preme Court would meet in special ment.
session was handed to them. every
It turned out that seven of the by ou
eight Nazi saboteurs .had attacked -
the legality of the President's orders
barring them from the civil courts. Tax I
Attorney General Francis Biddle rep- The1
resented the government and Colonel
Royall, an easy-going deep-voiced being c
gentleman from the South, did his nance
best for the Nazis. The Supreme both la
Court convened on Wednesday. On PhilipA
Friday it had its verdict-no dice for demand,
the men who came to this country eliruinat
to wreck it if they could and who the wea
tried to hide their faces in the skirts the nal
of democratic justice when they were bill fol
caught. througs
It took the Supreme Court just because
four minutes :Friday to uphold Presi- asked b~
dent Roosevelt's orders that the sab- Morgen
oteurs be tried by a military commis- "The
sion and to refuse to let them go free lar defi
by issuing a writ of habeus corpus. genthau
The Court did insist, however, that it willing
had authority to pass on the extent "would
of the& President's war-time power. sales t
This was interpreted in Washington renewin
to mean that the high court was tak- agitatio
ing time to insure the protection of elimina
- -0- Cargo Planes. Now?
lied and Neutral Ship Losses in West Atlantic
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Foreign
Newspaper banners across the
country pulled long faces this week,
and well they might. City editors
used the old clichaic phrases that
so often predict the end, and plas-
tered them in railroad type across the
front pages. They did all this because
it looked to them as if the Russian
bear was dying. as if he was about
ready to call it quits.
Why the usually optimistic Ameri-
can press took this attitude nobody
could say. Certainly t.he situation was
and is bad, but it's by no means so
bad as last week's headlines would
have us believe.
True the Russian bear was stagger-
ing, but at no time did he appear
prepared to roll over on his back.
True the Russians had lost Rostov-
on-the-Don, the so-called key to the
Caucasus, but the door was still bar-
ricaded on the inside with the Nazis
nudging it open only by small degrees.
True Stalingrad was in danger and
seemed doomed, but behind Stalin-
grad lay a new Russian line already
prepared with hundreds of thousands
of fresh reserves. True the Germans
still made somewhat slower progress
in the South, but the Russians still
held the offensive in the Voronezh
sector.
Thus all was not lost. Russian
backs were not yet pinned to the
wall, and there were no cracks in
the Russian lines or morale. There
was yet plenty to be of good cheer
about. There was plenty to be re-
gretted, but to become pessimistic
about it was and still is foolish. Rome
wasn't built in a day, and this war
won't be won in a year.
The Russians are fighting the good
- - - - - Is The Big Russian Bear Dying?
fight and they know how to do it, with
a serious purpose and a light heart,
with confidence and poise. Let the
Russians be an example for hysteri-
cal Allies who fighting the same good
fight do it without dignity and quiet
courage, who laud heroes before their
work is done and act with amazing in-
consistency. Let Russia be an ex-
ample for a nation which raises its
money for Army and Navy relief by
organizing football teams from able-
bodied men fitted to be combat
leaders.
No, as long as the cheerful, in-
domitable Russians stay that way,
territorial losses won't mean as much
as the Germans would have us be-
lieve. There is no percentage in de-
featism so long as Russian morale
is intact.
* * *
Why Talk About It?
Talk about a second front began
losing its point last week. No longer
was there any doubt about the pop-
ular appeal of the idea, no longer
could the public do anything about
it. It became a matter of secret
strategy which no longer could be
an Allied bluff, but must become an
Allied action. Talk only kept the
Nazis on the alert but publicity-wise
politicians continued to yell what
everybody already knew. The people
knew that no politician could tell
them the zero hour, and as civilians,
they knew that all they could do was
to wait for the hour without missing
any chance to prepare for the suc-
cess of the diversion front.
Axis Second Front
Meanwhile it looked like the Axis
might start a second front all its
own. Japanese troops poured into
Manchuoko. and every troop move-
ment of the little yellow men pointed
towards the Siberian frontier. Yam-
ashita, the Jap MacArthur who per-
formed the military miracle of sweep-
ing the Malay peninsula to catch
Singapore from behind, joined an
eminent staff now running a rapidly
strengthening army in that northern
outpost. Yamashita is Tojo's ace
hatchet man, and his presence any-
where is a danger signal.
Moreover, a careful study of all
Jap moves for the last two months
leads but to one inevitable conclus-
ion: If Hitler breaks through or wins
an overwhelming victory in the West,
the stab in the East will not be long
in the coming.
The Japs hope to cut off possible
American aid by strong positions in
the Aleutians, but that they can pre-
vent it is still dubious. At any rate
a Jap assault on Siberia would bring
increased American participation in
the conflict.
China Moves On
Because of the Japanese concen-
tration in Manchuoko things went a
lot better in China. The Chinese, en-
couraged by the lack of resistance,
and aided by U. S. planes, pushed the
Japanese back along the Hangkow
railroad, and in general were for the
second consecutive week the most
successful thorn in the Axis' side.
- - ~ - -! - - - S - - -. -
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Wide World ,feat:::e-
ARMY AIR TRANSPORT SERVICE is by-passing the U-boat blockade
Awith submarine-proof cargo ships carrying American-made materiel
.rontward at more than 200 miles an hour. The-routes shown here to U. S.
and Allied front line troops give only general directions of America's flying
freight Iines.Refueling stops,way stations,flight details are military secrets.
NEW
ZEALAND 5
I
---
AIR FREIGHT ROUTES
TO FIGHTING FRONTS
POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE
ROUTE
WORLD
FRONTS
AXIS-HELD
TERRITORY
A
E will not have any forces overseas which we cannot
supply by air."
hat statement, momentous as anything in this war,
made by Maj.-Gen. Harold George, head of the Army
ransport Command, in announcing a program to ex-
military supply service over the air freightways of
orld.
R the fighting fronts-Russia, China, Australia, Egypt,
pe-were included in Gen. George's sweeping state-
The service is already under way. Planes are flying
day, with the flyable warstuffs most critically needed
r troops on foreign service and by our allies. What is
a healthy trickle now will be a stream when the program
is expanded.
* * * *
MOST of the routes currently flown by the Transport
Command are out of range of enemy fighter planes.
Our own fighter planes are their protection elsewhere.
That lack of capacity is being remedied. The Navy's
"Mars" and the Army's B-19 have been successfully test-
flown. Cargo planes building or soon to be build are con-
stantly larger than their predecessors. Their speed and
ability to carry many loads while a ship is slowly slogging
---- his
along with its far heavier cargo make forty 70-ton flying
boats equal to a 10,000-ton Liberty ship in carrying capac- A
ity. A slow freighter makes three round trips to Australia
in a year. A cargo plane can make 26 round trips in the
same time. tin
* * * *the
It's obvious that military air freight is the next big de- ca.
nu
velopment in the war program. The Air Transport Com- M
wand's announcement leaves no doubt of that. The fly-
,away movement of critical goods foreshadows the increas- pr
ing movement of heavier goods in the near future. bo
- John Grover, Associated Press Staff Writer
_ a i e
Bill Under Fire,
House-approved tax bill now
onsidered by the Senate Fi-
Committee drew the fire of
bor and industry last week.
Murray, president of the CIO,
ed that the Senate committee
te the loopholes which "allow
althy to evade their duties to
tion." He charged that the
lowed a "soak-the-poor line
tout" and condemned it also]
it fell short of the mark
by Secretary of the Treasury
thau.
two billion and one-half dol-
icit between what Mr. Mor-
u asks and what the House is
to give him," Murray said,
give advocates of a general
ax an excellent opening for
ag this anti-labor, anti-victory
n." Loopholes Murray wants
ted are the exemption of in-
posed a ten per cent sales tax and a
gradual increase in the withholding
tax until it reached a flat ten per
cent level on earned incomes and a
20 per cent level on unearned in-
comes by the end of 1943.
Charging that it would "seriously
jeopardize the war effort," Little op-
posed an increase in corporation
taxes. He advocated the substitution
of a 50 per cent tax on corporation
net profits with a 95 per cent rate on
corporation excess profits to be ap-
plied if they were invested in liquid
assets instead of "business as usual"
methods.
Later in the week, Senator Walter
F. George, chairman of the Senate
Finance Committee, hinted of darker
things ,to come. He admitted that
the tax burden would fall on corpora-
tions and i ldividuals so hard next
year that Congress would be forced
to provide partial exemptions on
money spent repaying debts and
on record as saying, "At this moment
there is no change." Twenty-four
hours later there was still no change
-and Petrillo's ban went into effect.
Petrillo defended himself in writ-
ing. He wrote Lawrence Fly, chair-
man of the Federal Communications
Commission, that 95 per cent of the
music in the United States and Can-
ada is "canned music," a fact which
would surprise most people. "Only
five per cent is left for the poor pro-
fessional musician who studied all
his life so that he might make a liv-
ing for his family. This is not a
question of being a czar or a dicta-
tor. It is a question of a large group
of men fighting for their very exist-
ence."
Tearfully sobbing out this tale of
underprivileged art, Petrillo snapped
out a defiant argument for cutting
Interlochen from the a i r. He
charged that the National Music
Camp was a "commercial proposi-
tion" because it charged $275 for an
eight-week instruction course.
Robert Mantho
II.
ASYMBOL
rich in promise
for the future . -
SundayL~ at the Wolverine
209 SOUTH STATE
Chicken Okra Soup Tomato Juice Grapefruit Juice
Radishes Celery Olives Pickles
FRIED ENTOINTED CHICKEN AU SUPREME
/A
of quality from
the past .. .
11
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