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 -JAN JAN FEB MAR APRIL MAY JUNE JULY r S~r tiraai M. wi wiF wt .atyra, wb wab is fr ar "AV Nr w w.ar '* _i 'r.S ._.S.r.o r Sr.w . m r a i. Qiv .W NOV .Sr ar S . ... . ._ ra.wa,. .rar Wair ar air .dr w, .t A .a . a.ira S i r ar SAaWr. . air ir - . .air ra AW i .r.. . . i Si r.f .air. .SrS W.air wa F air SA Str arar ar al . Sr e . air a M Sar Stir r si wain SAir Sir .ar fir .Star air SW awai a r ada A ir a A sr air air %dwa d, Sair r Sraiir ~. 7 * . .. ~. _Akair air'ml SrUA ti A .air mA . i rMr a A ir' a AWi r. air %AV "Aairir ~ .] r air .asr tgsarirA .w ar %W.a rd Bierfir Netwi .werSAir s.ir Sea SAr ' .'wtr air air .a . .arair air w air Sir air 3 21 2? 50 4. 102 104 24g. -irS- Sa-ai 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 - - -. - I .............. .......... ............ SKYWYS FR U.S. ICTOY FRIGH I ................. : GREENLAND tn. Arctic Ocean AlPr _-- ALASKA CANADA an. _____R _______Atlanti -E-~ - 2 OF MONGOLIA - - APAN~ AtanicCHINA - U.S. - Oc--- - ~~ _ - '" :::.>."--Ocean -- :'::;?: PHILIPPINES_ - -- - ... ....- I ~~E'E::&AMI.H p ra: 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 N -MX M J Qf PF d e