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With confidence in our armed forces—with the unbounding determination of our people— we will gain the Inevitable triumph—so help ns God.

Roosevelt’s War Message.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 30.~1945.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY If you would lift others, you must be on

higher ground. “Christian Digest.”

Credible Pledge After the OPA's cancellation of ration

stamps, we heard a lot of muttering from

people who said they had lost all faith in the

food control agency, that it had gone back on

jts pledges, and so on. Well, these people shouldn't have any further

#ause for complaint about broken faith if they saw the headline we noticed the other day:

“Less Meat Next Month Promised Civilians

by OPA.” You needn’t promise any more, boys. We

believe you. -V—-

Man-Made Earthquakes Japan is having earthquake trouble these

days, seismographs throughout the world regis- begins to shake there’s nothing to do but run

Earthquake trouble is not to be laughed off; it's bad anywhere at any time. When the world begins to shake there’s nothing to do ut run for an open place and hope it will soon end.

There's no way to learn the damage, which Tokyo naturally calls slight.

But there's worse than that going on lor Japan. It is man-made shaking. Not a day passes now but that seme part of Nippon or some part of its stolen lands doesn’t rock and shudder under the bombs of American fighters. Our airmen and warships make their own earthquakes and they are not soon ended. One blow follows another.

These are the quakes that are shaking Japan. These cannot be ignored. There are plenty more where these come from and the shaking will increase.

-V-

The Mead Report Cur government’s financial conduct of this

war has been based upon the necessary as-

sumption that (1) the primary object is to beat the enemy, not operate economically, and that (2) what the Army and Navy say they need must be produced as quickly as possible, and hang the cost.

The armed forces have admitted on occa- sion that they were overstocked with person- nel or materiel. And their explanations have been reasonable. For example, a spokesman of the Army Surgeon General said more than a year ago that the Army had more doctors than it needed, and granted that this might work a hardship upon civilians.

“But,” he added, “if men die during the invasion of Europe for want of medical care, there is going to be a bigger howl than you’re hearing now about the doctor shortage.” And of course he was right. Invasion casualties fortunately were lower than expected, but it was still essential to make preliminary prep- aration for a heavy toll.

Perhaps a similar line of reasoning led to conditions which the Senate War Investigat- ing Committee reports having found at the Norfolk Navy Yard. It may be that the Navy felt it should have an oversupply of workers there, just in case tneir lanor were needed.

But this situation is different. The idle labor which the Senate committee says it found at Norfolk is not something which simply af- fects the production or supply of civilian goods. That could be borne. But. if true, it should not be condoned when there are shortages in our military production.

The Navy Department’s reply to the com- mittee charges was testy, but not clarifying. It cited the number of ships built and re-

paired at Norfolk in 1944, and concluded that “obviously someone has been doing a job.’’

But the committee did not suggest that a

job wasn’t being done. It reported that there were more men at the Yard than were need-

ed to do this job, and that many were idle, or working on such things as ornate checker- boards, oyster tables, and model Christmas

villages. It is well that this committee is headed by

^nator James M. Mead, for he is a staunch Administration supporter whose critical find-

ings cannot be construed as political. In his

report to the Senate he not only revealed

some unsavory conditions at Norfolk, but sug-

gested that there was similar hoarding and

loafing at other Navy installations. And he

stated that Navy officials had admitted his

charges in committee hearings. We hope that the Navy’s reply to the Mead

report will not be confined to blustering and

face-saving. The situation is serious and de-

mands frankness from all concerned. It also

needs the same sort of thorough airing as

was given the scandalous conditions at the

Brewster aircraft plant — which, incidentally, was operating under Navy contract.

-V-

Never Repealed Sales tax repeal or even talk of it is being

studiously avoided by North Carolina s legis- lators. Even others admit there will be nothing done about it. Willard Dowell, secretary of the North Carolina Merchants association, is quot- ed as saying he believes there is little likeli- hood of the present General Assembly doing anything about it. The merchants for five con- secutive sessions have regularly been repre- sented by Mr. Dowell before the legislators asking for repeal or relief.

This has been an issue for 12 years: it

now appears that the sales tax is here to

stay. Like most levies when once imposed, it sticks. Emergency tax measures have a way of imbedding themselves in the tax structure and becoming permanent. A new tax says to his fellows, in effect, move over. The bed is

always wide enough, it seems, to accomodate another.

There are other emergency taxes we may

never see repealed. The Federal $5 use tax is an example. It is so easily collected, can’t be avoided. There's the car. Do you wan to use

it? Five dollars please. It could be made ten or a hundred. No listing is required, no receipt except the iitue sticker.

Death and taxes were always regarded as the most certain of all things. With the ad- vances made in medicine, taxes almost take

precedence over death. -V-

Wise Decision

Decision of General Charles de Gaulle, head man in France, to be satisfied to stay away from the Big Three conference expected to be held in Teheran, is wise. Too many cooks, you know, are often fatal to the dish, whether it’s broth, peace or war plans.

It’s rather difficult for Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin to agree on exact procedure, and the entrance of a fourth into the matter would

add to the difficulties. Besides, the primary consideration is to get on with the war, to defeat Germany, and that is matter for Ameri-

can, British and Russian forces. The Big Three should not be hampered with secondary prob- lems. The question of what will happen to France is important, but nothing is so impor- tant now as to defeat Germany and that as quickly as possible.

It should also be remembered that de Gaulle has the reputation of being very hard to please. That wouldn’t make a Big Four conference any easier. His considerations would of course be all for France, as is natural. The Big Three must think of the world as a whole, not mere- ly of their own countries. The world just now is in the hands of the Big Three. They shouldn’t have the immense duties before them hindered by having to consider anything but winning the war.

Reading Matter It appears that there will be more libraries

in North Carolina and more books in the ones

we have. The joint libraries committee of the General Assembly has reported favorably three bills to establish counties and municipalities to establish free libraries and to provide for tax- ation for libraries including grant of authority to cities and counties to levy taxes for library support without special elections.

The Advisory Budget commission recom- mended library appropriation of $175,000 for the next biennium. The libraries joint committee

isn’t satisfied with that, appointing a subcom- mittee to petition the appropriations commit- tee for an additional $50,000. It appears that people will read more or at least have more reading matter placed before them.

It’s probably a good thing, but it could be overdone. There are persons of action and

persons who like to read of others’ deeds.

A bookworm gets a lot out of life but excess

in that direction generally gives him neither inclination nor opportunity to put much into life.

T7

SO THEY SAY The business of becoming adult is the busi-

ness of discovering that the world is not or- ganized to minister to our wishes.—Dr. Ever- ett Case, president Colgate U.

* * *

The single fact that we need to remember with respect to foreign trade is that exports must be paid for by imports, else we shall give away our goods and be that much poor- er. We cannot lend-lease forever.—Sen. Ken- neth S. Wherry (R) of Nebreaska.

* * *

We must stop dodging the crucial fact that the necessary teamwork is lacking among Rus- sia, Britain, and America—that these differ- ences are well known by the enemy and are of major encouragement to them.—Alfred M. Landon.

* * *

I can assure you, so far we haven’t serious- ly unjointed the Jap war effort.—Lt.-Gen. Mil- lard F. Harmon, Strategic Air Forces chief in Pacific.

» « •

The Russian offensive has placed the Allies in a much better position, not only to counter any new urprise by the Germans, but also to stage an offensive themselves in the west .and break through to Berlin, as we hope Viifl hap- pen in the near future.—Moscow radio.

Fair Enough (Editor's note.—The Star accepts no re-

sponsibility for the personal views of Mr. Pegler, and often disagrees with them as much as many of his readers. His articles serve the good purpose of making people think.)

By WESTBROOK PEGLER (Copyright, 1945, by King Features Syndicate.

Continuing my running commentary on the dangerous attitude of the Blue network, one of our big national radio chains, toward mis- called news broadcasters specializing in ex- citement and falsehood, here are chapter and verse on a specific incident.

On the Sunday evening after the recent election, Drew Pearson, in his program over the Blue said that Frank Sinatra had called at my room at the Waldorf Astoria on elec- tion night to take a punch at me for opposing his friend, Mr. Roosevelt, and, not finding me in, contented himself by mussing up the room.

This was an absolute fake. Sinatra undoubtedly did get tight, as later

inquiry showed, and returned from Sidney Hill- man's PAC headquarters to his own apart- ment in the same hotel where he caused large disorder and was subdued by a house detective. In all large and well-conducted ho- tels, of which the Waldorf is one, all unusual incidents are investigated promptly and re- ports are made in writing to the front office. Such reports were made in this case.

Being a Roosevelt fan, Sinatra had a right to howl and did. But he never did come near my quarters cither in my absence or after my return about 1 in the morning.

■n. lew uays aner reiueeu & uiuaucasi, began to detect the technique of the New Deal communist smear which puts an oppo- nent in an unfavorable light without libelling him. An item had appeared in one of the New Deal Gents’ room columns reporting that Sina- tra had refused to work in the Waldorf’s Wedgewood room unless I checked out. There was no libel in that, either, but, like the Pear- son broadcast, it was a smear.

So I inquired of Lucius Boomer, the man- aging director who said that of course there was no truth in it and that any time anyone hired to sing, dance or do card tricks in the saloon attempted to edit the guest list he would get rid of the performer.

It occurred to me that the Blue network had some responsibility because, in the newspaper business, a reporter who brings in fakes is fired, the paper runs a “beg pardon” and that is that.

Instead of offering any redress, however, Mark Woods, one of the Blue’s vice-presidents, suggested that I write a piece about it. He said they could use the publicity but he made no offer to right a wrong.

That made me curious as to how radio treats people who have been smeared with political or personal motivation so I called on Chester La Roche, another vice-president, whom I have known for years and Ed Noble, a New Dealer, who had served in the De- partment of Commerce, and then acquired the Bdue and became its president.

Both La Roche and Noble said Pearson was a headache to them because they thought he was malicious and unreliable but couldn’t get rid of him because, by the use of such meth. ods and material, he had acquired a large popular following.

Nole said an apology might be arranged but that if he gave one, Pearson would «on- trive it in such a manner as to make it worse than the original fake. He took a helpless at- titude. La Roche cited an item which Pearson had broadcast about the automobile trip to Washington of John Foster Dulles, Tom Dew- ey's adviser on foreign relations during the campaign to confer with Cordell Hull on solemn state business. He said Pearson had made it appear that Dulles had used the gas for this travel because he had a sore toe but that he, La Roche, knew that the trouble was much more serious, in fact a bad infection. He thought Dulles had suffered a serious injustice

O U1C tlJU Ul Li id L.

During this time I was investigating the pro-Communist thief and imposter calling him- self William Gailmor who had been employ- ed by the Blue as a news commentator on their key New York local station, and had several talks with officials of the Blue, in- cidentally, on the Sinatra-Pearson thing.

At no time did they offer an independent retraction or correction but, in the end, they said that if I brought in affidavits from the Waldorf house detectives and the manage- ment, they would make one.

My point has been that the victim should not have to go to such extremes to disprove a fake. He might not know how to go about it. He might not have time. He might be away, even overseas.

Still, La Roche and Noble now insist that they are anxious to give fair and complete retractions when their commentators are proved unfair and that they review all their scripts for “appropriate news authority.” In this case there was no “news authority” and, in answer to my own specific inquiry, Mr. Boomer says, in writing, “I have checked the files of the night manager, assistant man- agers and floor clerks and can find no record of any unusual incident in the room you oc- cupied on election night.”

But quite as dangerous as motivated lies broadcast for smearing purposes over national chains, are half-truths and even wholly true statements and observations uttered with the dramatic voice. Noble, La Roche and all ra- dio men, and many other persons of intelli- gence, know that a harmless text may be an incitation to riot, delivered with certain in- flections There was one broadcaster a few years ago whose text was absolutely fault- less but whose sneering pronunciation of the phrase "this Jewish gentleman” or "Mr. Hen- ry Morgenthau” was so full of hate that decent people thought of Goebbels and shudderel. xu uxiux ixu guuu tu ucuaui xua uuyj.

It is up to radio to manage these problems. The newspapers, generally, weed out liars and fakers when they have revealed themselves and, fortunately, our type hasn’t yet been wired for sound.

What I say, by way of comparison favorable to the newspapers, is that if this fake had

been put across the desk of any paper as ethical as the Elue now pretends to be, the Managing Editor wouldn’t ask

the victim to

bring in affidavits but would send out his

own reporters to bring them in. He would

then apologize and fire the faker, however great his circulation power.

ft may be ThTT^e need some form of legislation to keep our war

workers on their iobs It seems most unlikely that this would take theS form of an overall regimenting 0f 100,000,000 Americans.—Sen. James M. Mead (D) of New York. * *

The first thing you must do in a battle is

to shaoe it to your desire. You must have

noise and balance so that no matter what the

enemy does it will not push you off balance. | —Field Marshal S’r Bernard L Montgomery.

I INAUSPICIOUS TAKEOFF_| I_____

? 4

WITH THE AEF:

Items From The Combat Zone BY ROBERT EUNSON

(Substituting for Kenneth L. Dixon) ON THE WESTERN FRONT,

Jan. 27—(Delayed) — (flV- Stretcher sleds now being used to carry the 78th Division's wounded back across the drifting snow on the Western Front have reduced the time needed to evacuate casualties over a 50-yard stretch from 40 to seven seconds and require only two men instead of four.

The device, nothing more than a stretcher attached to a sled, was designed by Sgt. Waldron Bliss of Riverhead, Long Island, N. Y.

Of all the men in the "Lightning Division” whom you would not ef- pect to meet dragging a sled around, it's Bliss. He spent 19 months in the South Pacific before coming here.

More battlefield commissions are claimed by the 102nd, awarded 45,

than any other division in the AEF. In fact, the commanding general

himself started his Army career as a private and has worn everything from corporal’s chevrons to the big silver star that now decorates each of his shoulders.

He is Brig Gen Frank A Keat- ing, a native of New York, City, who first joined up with the Fifth New Jersey Infantry in 1915. He served on the Mexican border and then came to France in 1917 with the 29th Division

When Keating's men knocked out the last German bridgehead on the Roer in front of the Ninth Army yesterday, they ran their string of captured German villages to 19 since November 5

They’re back in Germany now and they agree Paris was quite an experience

When Maj. Hugh Carey of Brook-

lvn, N. Y., and Capt. Raymond in Paris on leave the other day, Garino decided it would be nict to buy an uplift model bra to send home, and his brooklyn friend con- curred.

Surrounded by dazzling and deli- cate bits of intimate female -para- phernalia, Carey and Garino tried to explain to a salesgirl who could not speak English that they knew everything there was to know about the purchase they were going to make—except the correct size.

Faces were beginning to get red when a pretty girl went by outside. Garino bolted through the door and brought the rather startled young thing in for a model.

With only a little pointing here and there the two veterans of the 104th Division completed the trans- action and the whole situation was rounded out nicely.

Washington Calling ---By Marquis Childs-

LONDON — Fl'ime Minister

Churchill, in his speech last week, pointed to the fact that Britain was entering its sixty-fifth month of the war. That goes a long way to ex- plain the irritation and tension that have echoed in recent sharp ex- changes across the Atlantic.

London is battered and weary. Life is a struggle for almost every- one. You have to stand in line for everything. You have to fill out forms, and then you’re lucky if you get even common necessities.

We in America, with our security and relative plenty, can hardly un- derstand what the long, dreary con- tinuity of war means to the Brit- ish people. Small irritations pile on top of gnawing fears and uncertain- ties.

Even to those of us who have

beeh here before in wartime, such small details as dried eggs come as an unpleasant surprise. They have the consistency of wet saw- dust, yet seem always to taste somewhat dry. The British diet, al- ways monotonous, now has fallen to a dead level of stale weariness. Only in half a dozen luxury hotels, mostly inhabited by foreign dig- nitaries, is there anything ap- proaching the variety the aver- age American takes for granted.

Hospitals are painfully over- crowded. I just visited a large pub- lic hospital in southern England which has many victims of blitz and V-bombs. The narrow cots are crowded so closely together that it is difficult to move between them. Some patients have been in t h e same ward for four years, ever since receiving injuries sustained in the battle of Britain.

It was against this background that the conviction the war would be ended before Christmas took a deep hold among people generally. It came not so much out of what any official source said, or even in the optimism engendered by the sweep across France, as in the profound longing and hope that had 1 its origin in the heart and in the pit of the stomach.

True, some official encourage- ment was given this view, just as in America optimistic statements about the future helped spread the false belief that the war was near- ly ended. Here, plans for demobili- zation were well advanced and : wives who had not seen their hus- bands for three or four years be-

gan to iook iorwara to me perioa of reunion.

Then came von Rundstedt’s of- fensive. It was a bitter blow. It shattered all the hopes that had begun to grow. The end of the war seemed farther off than ever.

The Greek mess, on top of all this, seemed like the last straw. A great many Britishers, probably more proportionately than in Amer- ica, were aroused by what at the time seemed like an effort to sup- press the forces of liberation and democracy. But scoldings from America, as cabled across the At- lantic, served chiefly to stir irrita- tion and annoyance.

It seemed that Americans were falling into the familiar pre war role of uttering noble preachments while sitting aloofly 3000 miles away from all the trouble. That was indeed the straw that broke the back of the British camel.

I have always marveled at the patience of the ordinary Britisher, the man in the street. More than ever I marvel at it today.

As early darkness closes in, you see long lines standing in the rain, snow and damp gray cold, waiting for homeward busses. The present dimout, with street lights permit- ted to shine faintly, is not quite so oppressive as the five year black- out, yet. its far from the cheerful- ness anticipated in the song about 'When lights go on again.” There have been many complaints that the dimout makes for more street accidents than in the blackout, when pedestrians and motorists ex- ercised utmost caution.

At the very time when most Brit- ishers had thought they would be celebrating the end of the war, new rationing restrictions are being ap- plied. An announcement was made recently that clothing coupons would be greatly reduced in value ior the coming year, and potatoes -nay soon be rationed.

Sometimes it seems that small hings count for more than the arge. One of the bitterest disap ^ointments before Christmas was hat toys were exorbitantly priced, since they had not come under mice control; and they were so limsy as to be almost worthless. 1 whole generation of British chil- iren has grown up without the amiliar tricycles and bicycles.

The mood today seems to be one lot so much cj irritation as of H

LETTER BOX WAR PRISONERS AID

To The Editor: Residents of Wilmington and

New Hanover ciunty who contribut- ed a total of $189,226 to the 1945 Community War Chest campaign and who may have sons among prisoners of war in Germany will probably be interested to learn how their dollars are bringing comfort and diversion to hapless men in Nazi prison camps.

A cabled report just received from a representative of War Pris- oners Aid of the YMCA whose work is financed by the National War Fund through contributions to community war funds, gives a re- vealing account of conditions in German camps.

On a visit to the Stalag III-C, the representative reported that despite snow and a terrific wind, 800 war prisoners attended an outdoor boxing match lasting an hour and a half, followed in the evening by a jazz concert by the camp orchestra playing instru- ments sent by War Prisoners Aid. Health conditions, he said, were fine, with only a few men in the hospital. Morale there was also good, and American prisoners pop- ular with those of other nationali- ties.

At Stalag Luft 4. visited on Christmas Day, the representa- tive reported that since his pre- vious visit, when the men were playing football with an improvis- ed ball made of old shoes, and when they had no musical instru- ments or books, supplies were now pouring in—all kinds of sports equipment, three pianos, two har- moniums, gramaphones. records, games, books, painting supplies, etc. Seasonal sports were daily attractions, and rinks were then being readied for ice hockey.

In every barracks in this camp on Christmas Eve, orchestras were playing swing music and the men were singing carols. At midnight all the prisoners assembled on the sports ground as “Silent Night Holy Night” and “God Save Am- erica” were sung, followed by two minutes silence, after which the men returned to their barracks. Christmas Day was marked by services, concerts and shows, and i the men generally expressed ap- stubborn, dogged determination. ! The British are going to see this j through no matter how long it j takes. The Germans have no illu- sions about that. (Copyright 1945 By United Feature ■ Syndicate. Inc.)

--—j

Interpretin'! ThejVVar* BY KIRKE L. SIMPSOV Assocciated Press War

German military corr.m".lysl Elects the conclusion tha- •*’ in the Russian end-the-war Cr:i'* is now at hand and th the next ten days or less nr-" r:a the fate of Berlin, but of organb ed Nazi resistance m *he Fa\, be decided.

There seems sound reason « that view. The tremendous B sian sweep acr-.ss F»v-d i the Vistula already has exceeds in scope, power and rate o' vance anything in military tory to bring the flare of ruJTs' guns within sight at i dents of Berlin's eastern sub--'*' Now, however, Red armies « beginning to feel fuUy the eftwT 9i the Hitler ordered ’!

scorching earth efiort to stem-^1 tide as well as of the r extension of their own conmu, cation lines. It remains to be mm whether tney still have the power to break through into the pi,';/ of north central Germany befor! early spring thaws do more -a check them than staggering Ce-. man armies have vet been able

Normally the first of the sprr, thaws in western Poland and ear. ern Germany could be expected within about six weeks. Weather conditions have been abnorna' p nearly all European battle thea. ters this winter, however. The worst blizzards and snows in years if not decades nave handicapped Allied attacks in Italy and on the Western Front. The hard freeze in all central Poland played a vital part in the Russian success.

By the same token, the thaws on all fronts may come early year. In Poland thawing weather would complicate the Russia problem of supplying forces over a span of 200 miles and more. And strict German application of the scorched-earth policy meats that the vast Red armies can not hope to live off the country as they press on. They must be fed and munitioned from the rear.

That is the Nazi hope of bring, ing the Russians to a stand. That it would only delay for weeks or months at most an inevitable Red Army crash to the gates of Ber- lin must be well known to every professional soldier of the Reich.

There is some indication that the Russian attack is slowing both on the Order or in the wide val- ley through which the stream runs west of Breslau, and also west of outflanked Poznan. It re- mains to be seen, however, wheth- er that may not be due more !o a behind-the-line Russian regroup- ing to mass forces for the final attempt to burst tnrougn to ter- | lin than to exhaustion or outran I communications. |

Assuming that the great Rasa g v.'inter offensive was carefully v,"„ ed in Moscow with an eye on nor- mal weather probabilities, as it must have been, there remain sev- eral weeks at least before major thaw's are to be expected in Po- land or in northeastern Germany, It follows that the Russian gen- eral staff is prepared and now ii moving to make the most of that time.

The situation warrants the con- clusion that the freshest division! in all Russian armies within th»

great westward bulge are heir? concentrated for break-throon blow's, with or without the benefit cf a matching Allied major offen- sive in the w'est.

-V———-

Daily Prayer -*—-

FOR VISION Bevond the roar of bombs and

guns, and all the clash of bio d

and battle, may we be permitted to see, O infinite God ana loyjr.g Father, Thy great objectives in a cleansed and remade human -•>

ciety. We pray for the visor that looks beyond the days