The Plain Dealer from Cleveland, Ohio (2024)

June 24, 1942

Publication:

The Plain Dealeri

Location:

Cleveland, Ohio

Issue Date:

Wednesday, June 24, 1942

Page:

8

Extracted Article Text (OCR)

THE DEALER AND DAILY LEADER Th ilin Dealer uMitied weekly 1842 hecm daily evening paper io 1H45 Morning fnd Sunday Edition founded in 1885 fry Holden PuMihed erery dav in the year by The oret Citi Co 523 to 529 Superior Ave Cleveland JOHN McCARREN'S General Manaifer PALL BELLAMY Editor Member of the Avwiated The Aaaocuted Preai II exclusively entitled to the use for publication of all news dis patches credited to it or not otherwise credited tn this paper and also to the local news published herein All rights of republication of special dispatchea herein are also reserved Daily Plain Dealer Sunday Plain Dealer 12c By i mail per sear in advance in first and second xones Dai Plain le aler $500 Sunday Plain Dealer Mail orders not accepted from territories served by delivery aSen Beyond zon? Daily Plain Dealer $700 Sunday Plain Dealer Entered as Secund Class Matter the Cleveland Postolfice Bnder the act 1S79 Net paid circulation lor twelve months ended Sepi 30 1941 as filed with the United Stales Government: Daily 228591 Sundays 405728 WEDNESDAY JUNE 24 1942 Education's Blind Spot An appalling weakness in our educational processes is revealed by the New York Times in a nation wide survey of institutions of higher learning Eighty two per cent do not require study of United States history for a degree and 72 per cent do not require it for admission Only 9 per cent of the undergraduate body was enrolled in American history courses in the second semester of the last school year The emphasis on vocational subjects in this age of specialization has been partly responsible for the neglect but technical schools stand in no worse light than the liberal arts colleges for taken as groups only 13 per cent of each require American lor an undergraduate degree The survey showed that in teachers colleges 15 per cent of the pupils last spring were studying American history against 7 per cent in the professional and technological institutions Also 48 per cent of teachers colleges require it for entrance and a like number for degree Although this is in sharp contrast to other schools the situation is still far from commend able Under prevailing regulations teachers can obtain certificates from more than half the col leges in America without ever having studied United States history in high school or college In liberal arts colleges and universities only 61 per cent require the subject ofstudents majoring in government Thus it is possible for young men and women to receive degrees as experts in government without ever having studied the his tory of their country The New York Times has rendered a national service by calling attention to this educational blind spot If we searched the entire nation we would not find a professor teaching that the earth is flat yet all the scientific accomplishments ever dreamed of will be worthless if the people who inhabit the earth are unable to find a design for living in peace and plenty The hope of freedom lies in an understanding of the successes and failures of the past If we are to profit from history we must open the book so all may learn Comparison for Thought Casualty figures announced by the Russians should give Americans a clearer perception of the enormousness of the task which confronts them in conducting and winning this global war Obviously both the Russians and the Germans are exaggerating the losses of the other side But when the Russians admit that they have lost 4500 000 men in killed wounded missing and taken prisoner in the first year of the war their assertion can be taken at its face value By the end of this year if all plans click the United States will have raised an army of 4600000 men but not all of them will be fully trained or equipped This will be the result of our military effort since the passage of the Selective Service Act of September 1940 Yet in one year the Rus sians have lost an army the size of lhe total army it will have taken the United States with all its resources of material and man power more than two years to build Those who still think that this is just another war should ponder this comparison All of us should reflect on what the history of the last 12 months might have been had Russia not been prepared to throw its enormous trained man power into the breach A German Officer Writes We must be constantly on guard so as not to be deceived by overly optimistic reports of the shattered morale of the German Army and civilian population due to winter reverses on the Rus sian front the entry of the United States into the war and failure to win a decisive victory in more than a year Nevertheless an illuminating picture of the deterioration of the fighting spirit of German soldiers and the depressed morale of German civilians is contained in a letter from a German officer to Dr Otto Strasser head of the anti Hitler "Black published in the July Amer ican Mercury This officer described the "terrific and un precedented strain of the Russian winter" and thef shattering blows to the German troops as a result of the sudden halt of their offensive against Russia and entry into the war The winter operations in Russia he said ground down the spirit of the German fighting forces with the result that soldier of today is not the fight ing man of two years ago: he has had The officer who had been sent home from the Russian front to recuperate from wounds re ports that the civilian population is imbued with a spirit of hopelessness lassitude and indifference Every man and woman works to the limit of endurance and there is an immense labor shortage in spite of millions of prisoners and foreign work ers No sane German believes anything he reads in the Nazi controlled newspapers or hears over the controlled radio There is a constant fear of bombings and a genrtral sense of insecurity If it had not been for the Japanese successes a civilian collapse might have taken place some time ago the officer wrote But the Japanese victories more whipped up the German people to brace themselves and hold out a little longer" In this officer's opinion Hitler will have to win smashing victories this summer to main tain his hold on the German people and the army Whether the observations are correct or merely reflect his hostility to the Nazis it is Clear that the United Natibns must at all cost prevent Hitler from tvinning a decisive victory CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER WEDNESDAY JUNE 24 1942 this summer and must not neglect any to hit back at him on every front where he can be reached UNIIED LEADERSHIP Every line of analysis on the debacle in Libya leads to one basic cause: The lack of unified lead ership in the military operations of the United Nations Such a disaster in the wake of Malaya Singapore Burma the Indies and all the other reverses which have studded the Allied war effort brings home the disagreeable fact that no military leader of a stature commensurate with the conduct of a global war has yet appeared Immediately after the United States became a belligerent steps were taken to bring unity The lack of army navy co ordination at Pearl Harbor had taught lessons Advances were made in various areas Responsible heads were named MacArJhur has full authority in the southwest Pacific Wavell is in command in India and Auch inleck in the Middle East But so far there is no generalissimo to direct and dispose of the forces under command of the regional heads This work has been attempted by boards and committees As Maj George ielding Eliot point ed out in his article yesterday morning: "War cannot be conducted by a committee The essence of committee leadership is discussion ending in compromise whereas the essence of individual leadership is Our enemies hold superiority in leadership There is no dissipation of direction in their ranks Of course they have the twin advantage of long preparation and interior lines This is all the more reason why the United Nations striving to over come a material handicap in war supplies and com pelled to fight from exterior lines should have unified direction of their war Looking more closely at the Libyan example be cause it is typical we find that the Eighth Army was not reinforced Some military man whose business it should have been to know that Gen outfit needed more men failed Someone in the supply department thought it more impor tant to continue sending material to other fronts One man should have been able to order reinforce ments and supplies for Ritchie because the North African war front was one of the most important strategically in the world and because it obviously was in constant danger as long as Marshal Rom mel was active In Libya too the proper co ordinatfon of the A and ground forces was lacking This ac counted for the former British retreats in the same territory The fact that this defect has not yet been mended calls for drastic thoroughgoing re organization in Britain's military structure This also sounds a warning as American forces prepare to take the field These criticisms all point back to the lack of leadership of scope and competence It is this gap in Allied war effort that has aroused the House of Commons to a new storm of protest These uproars are not without value The last one did bring a reorganization in the cabinet This one may force Prime Minister Churchill to relin quish the ministry of defense a post he has clung to many believe to show that the blood of Marlborough still courses in his veins There is no disputing Churchill's abilities as a war leader but no man can keep allthc military as well as the political details of a global war un der his control Before he returns to London from his Washington conference Churchill should reach an agreement with PresidenRoosevelt on the ap pointment of a commander chief a field soldier who can order Britons Americans Czechs Chi nese and all the other armies of the United Nations to whatever task the enemies' moves make neces sary More than that he should have the say on air power on the disposition of naval forces and naturally on the distribution of supplies to the most needed points The failure of the free nations in this direction is a hangover from the World War We have not yet grasped the necessity of fighting a war on a world scale instead of a scries of conflicts in China Africa Russia and elsewhere We are still thinking in terms of national wars) Just as we have been compelled in order to survive to copy the enemies' technique in conducting war we must follow his use of the unified command Only then will it be possible to obtain "the earliest maximum concentration of Allied war power upon the ene as the American president and the British prime minister promised in their communique yesterday Transfer Now It will make no difference to the taxpayers whether the city or the county wins a suit brought by the city to collect nearly $2000000 in allegedly unpaid bills for welfare services rendered the county in the last few years But if the transfer of Sunn' Acres Sanatorium from the city to the county must wait for the final disposition of such a suit the taxpayers will lose not only money but patience The county commissioners are right in demand ing an immediate decision on'Sunny Acres Nego tiations for the transfer of this tuberculosis insti tution to the county which pays the bills for its operation have been dragging on far too long already The move has been urged by every investigating committee which has dealt with the subject as a means of cutting down the cost of caring for TB patients and of opening the way for a more comprehensive preventive program which in turn also will reduce tuberculosis costs in terms both of money and human misery There seem to be good grounds for suspecting that the city's reluctance to let the sanatorium go is caused by the fact that the city has been operat ing it at a profit The own operating figures for 1939 and 1940 bear out this suspicion In 1939 the city charged the county $51259850 for care' of patients at Sunny Acres but operating costs for the year were $46913108 including $3952294 for depreciation and $5870726 for interest on the investment These two items should not be charged to the county because the city maintains no re placement account and because it collects interest on the investment from the taxpayers In 1940 the operating cost of the sanatorium including interest and depreciation was $47564768 but the city billed the county for $51120875 The interests of the public demand that Sunny Acres be turned over to the county at once Then if the commissioners and the officials want to haggle about old debts let that be decided later The British command in Libya was given plenty of tank power man power and air power but apparently too little attention was given to brain power The navy has drawn a tight veil over events in the Aleutians Not we hope to conceal a red face News Behind the National News Retail Inventory Control Seen: as Next Step to Stop Inflation By PAUL MALLON WASHINGTON June 23 Cheers are rising because Leon sieve like price control measures have stopped price but wait Economists agreed long ago that the generalized Henderson measures would stop prices at first because we had surpluses of prac tically everything os least enough to go around They also agreed the inflationary trend of prices would be resumed as scarcities de veloped This they now calculate is likely to start this fall or win ter Cheering is therefore prema ture Until scarcities develop no up ward pressure ordinarily is felt against prices unless artificial pres sure is created by hoarders This time even that pressure evaporated a few weeks back under interesting circ*mstances A retail trade news paper announced the War Produc tion Board was considering a plan to requisition retail inventories Some larger merchandise chain food drug and clothing stores were overstocking The story scared re tail interests so that Dohald Nelson issued a denial that seizure was con templated Apparently what happened wns that WPB Economic Adviser Ernest Tupper prepared a report on in ventories and their relations to prices pointing toward stronger government controls This leaked to the trade paper calmed retailers but stocking up stopped The impression prevails thatwhile the leak was premature strong gov ernment controls over retail inven tories are in the offing The World's Capital Mr Roosevelt must have a big ger mousetrap because the statesmen certainly are beating a path to the White House door Churchill Molotoff Queen Wilhel mina King Peter King George II all risked their lives to cross the ocean the past two weeks Earlier camo Soong Chinese foreign minister Australian oreign Min ister Evatt now visiting home Prime Minister of Poland tn Exile Sikorsky and even Princess Martha of Norway Officially most of these came be cause they wanted something po sitions on Allied councils Jend lease aid or to present their cases Possi bility that they talked post war problems or signed anything with Mr Roosevelt along that line has been denied The last was in the Harry Hopkins speech who said Churchill had but one business here "The offensive strategy of the The joint Churchill Roose velt statement also was an infer ential denial Only safe interpretation of this influx is that Washington has be come the capital of the world in fact as well as theory New Challenge New York New bcalcrs in the government arc talking of getting the American Labor party the young Democrats and the Willkie Republicans into a convention about a week before the coming guber natorial convention to throw down to Democrats and Republicans a threat against the nominations of Dewey or Bennett whom they con sider If the two are to be Republican and Democratic candidates they want to nominate an independent or plump for Dewey to wreck the Democratic machine Bennett's candidacy they attribute to a promise Jim arley made in bygone days Jim they say wants to control the delegation to the presidential nomination con vention in 1944 and they are out tq give him a licking They want as Democratic gubernatorial nominee any liberal internationalist Strange how liberalism changes The Japs are viciously holding us back on shipment of food choco late and cigarets to imprisoned soldiers of Bataan and the Philip pines The San rancisco Press Club is undertaking leadership for collections It cannot accomplish its purpose until the Japs allow some neutral Swiss in Manila to take charge of distribution The International Red Cross in Geneva and the American Red Cross have been working to find some such neutral but without success The Swedish liner Gripsholm is taking some material along with Jap diplo mats to Tokyo to be distributed to our prisoners at Shanghai Hong Kong and in Japan She has 20000 packages of food $50000 of Red Cross medical supplies a million cigarets and 10000 tins of smoking tobacco None will go to the Phil ippines until the missing Swiss is found The Japs will regret their procrastination before war ends (Distributed hy King eatures Syndicate Inc Reproduction In whole or In part strictly prohibited) An Outdoors Diary June 23 Noticing a dense mat of vegetation covering some newly made land bordering the lake east of 9th Street I stopped to learn what plants thrived so happily on what was so lately a tin can dump The plant that was most abundant I found that I had never seen be fore rom the shape of its four petaled yellow flowers and its long narrow seed pods I recognized it as a member of the mustard family and after consulting a reference book decided that it must be the tall sisymbrium described as orig inating from Europe and as being a bad weed in the northwest rom the way it grew on the tops of the banks by the lake I could easily believe that it could become a pest here also There were a good many May flies resting among the weeds and flying about Their lacy wings and upward curving bodies and forked tails are known to most people who frequent the lake shore and to many who or often the May flies are so numerous that they die by the millions in city streets So far this year I have not seen a great many of them downtown a W' ja That's What We Need a New General! The Inside of the News in Cleveland No Imagination It has often been remarked both here and elsewhere that political organizations are almost completely unimaginative slow to sense changes in public opinion and im pervious to new methods This has been true for many years but never more obvious than it is to day Like the dinosaur which couldn't adjust quickly enough to survive in a changing world the organizations for the most part have lost the ability to swing the public and to a large extent the ability to swing even their own party members Rapidly changing economic con ditions in the early Roosevelt era then the war which has changed all perspective have just about completed the job of turning the organizations into nonentities The evidence is everywhere that com petent and respected individuals who stand for something or take an independent position against parly bosses get ahead faster than those who play by the old rules Just consider a few cases around here: Harold Burton openly fought Ed Schorr the state boss who tried to defeat him for senator and gained much general support thereby Burton had previously made the Cuyahoga Republican or ganization cotne to him when he was mayor rather than going to them rank Lausche was not the Dem ocratic organization's first choice for mayor but he practically forced the boys to support him Now he is independent to a degree never before seen in a Democratic mayor John McSweeney stuck in the race for governor despite the at tempt of downstatc bosses to mouse trap him and he seems likely to win the nomination and write his own ticket as a result Practically all the Democratic county office holders who have been re elected several times have owed it either to President' Roose velt's popularity manifesting tseif through straight tickets or their own prestige built up through good personal performance The organ ization owes them more than they owe it to death since the war began is piping faintly for unity Any Demo crat who opposed Roosevelt should be regarded as untrustworthy per sc considering what a battle the president had with fatheaded iso lationist Republicans The local Democrats certainly know that They know that the voters know it too But they have been hesi tating simply because they lack imagination to see the picture clearly Udder Bender Has Steadily Deteriorated Simple self interest should like wise impel the Republican organi zation to heave out George Bender as chairman When a business goes downhill steadily for years pay ing no dividends losing sales the officers are usually forced to re sign and let someone else have a crack at it Since Bender has been chairman the Republicans have steadily detcrioriated and lost one office after another They have lost all county offices the entire City Hall and have nothing now except state highway patronage They are even likely to lose the county this fall for Bricker some thing which happen before because of anti Davey feeling here Bender's own office has been full and his own stooges have been quite busy especially in campaign times But the organization as a whole has gone completely to pot since the days of Maurice Maschke Maschke at least had imagination to see that you had to keep in tune with public opinion He supported Theodore Burton and Herbert Hoo ver at times when it seemed to be a rash thing to do Whenever some local official would get in wrong with the public Maschke would come up with a sure shot replace ment who couldn't be criticized This community is strongly p'ro Roosevelt and strongly anti isola tionist Yet Bender has the nerve not only to offer himself tor chair man again but also with his ob structionist record to offer himself as congressman A man with less gall would have retired gracefully when he saw he had lost favor with the public By PHILIP PORTER On the Republican side the or ganization's performance particu larly since George Bender became chairman has been pitiful Two years ago it even able to nominate a slate and the candi dates it presented thm and pre sents now are way below par It lost the mayoralty last fall by a phenomenal vote Ward Meetings Completely Useless The way in which the organiza tions stick to the old campaign cus toms which arc completely obso lete is typical They continue to troop the candidates around to in significant little ward meetings which seldom more than a dozen people attend other than the can didates themselves They waste thousands of bucks in tiresome pamphlets and cards stuck in the mail Instead of getting the candi dates out where the voters are they try to get the voters to listen to the candidates A campaign of radio speeches visits to movie houses house to house calling and a few well placed newspaper ads in the closing days of the campaign would change many more votes than a tour of ward clubs The voters do not even read the nightly reports of speeches hi the newspapers The politicians do but the voters don't Democrats Should Quickly Oust Sweeney The principal reason for the in ability to change in addition to general simple lack of imagination is that practically everyone in an organization thinks in terms of self interest instead of the public inter est Thty are used to the old scratch my back system and even when some member is caught be hind the eight ball and thereby has lost favor with the public they hesitate to throw him out They think that it might happen to them selves There is no other explanation for the Democratic lack of speed in kicking out Martin Sweeney who did everything he could to oppose President Roosevelt on preparedness but now scared 0i tin In summer planes land A ars or a I remote inert Worth Strategy Added to Ric Vi and Varied The air route from rancisco via Alasfo' lands is 1700 miies way of Hawaii That States soldiers are now holes in the frozen young American sweating cussing and motor highway through wilds in order to deliver military equipment to oum men uur Heretofore Alaska a native word meaning lar has been virtually A accessible from the only by boat or aV three days for a up the sheltered Inaide from Puget Sound fo capital and largest city war Pan American I1" this trip in seven week Alaska was airports for this country Tu Hying per canity sectinn nf 8 woodsmen 1 i in oiuv ixmnr Planes to transport their streams to zations bank vaults dX winged their stranded Eskimos on mercy society folk in sailed through the air to parties Landing ields Mdis ui one or the small more often on pontoons many lakes and rivers they land on' skis airblJ central Alaska where Wife and Howard Hughes used was the best located field Now the United Statu established strong bases at Harbor Sitka and Anchorage Dutch Harbor nort of rn isiana rne Aleutians 3 enough to accommodate posedly by a Dutch schom was settled by a Russian i 1779 It still shelters old fa Orthodox Catholic churches weather beaten minarets andfca On Japonski Island so called Russia when a shipload dj sailors were wrecked there a is Sitka This strategic dominated by snow cappd Edgecumbe was the Russian By Sej It takes eight days of ocesla to reach our chief dels post at Anchorage or ya motor highway was conteapM now it is rapidly becoming a red and by end trucks of hs equipment will be roaring Richardson in 60 hours theta airbanks Mushy tundra and a like muskeg 12 feet deep have limited only 490 miles and her motor a to 2000 miles are being up and ripped away by 20 toth dozers giant caterpillar trucks! the brawn of our young sta Night and day work goes through lowest teqe ture and summer's swaraisgs quitoes The moose and cri which have weathered tion threats and restocking government look on in srf perhaps Alaska's brown ii largest carnivorous animal ti world grumbles that his haft being invaded At the Matanuska Colws Anchorage repatriated farit from the dust bowl o' and Minnesota are laboring' duce eggs vegetables andM satisfy hungry Yanks It job for even with the j3 agriculturists only 2000 dAhs 73000 population are famK In spite of popular beiidi three per cent of Alaska issrfl under ice and snow 65W miles are suitable for for temperature the United Weather Bureau certifies tist banks 100 miles south o' Circle has had 99 depas shade As the ScandtnsviB tries are warmed by tej Stream so Alaska is warn Japan Current Long hours with the summer hind the horizon only produce quick crops PlsrjJ overtime The largest Stra in the world ripen (This is the second of 1 vuWubk vv cuxuiimivaaie Oft Mi Pacific fleet irst entered nnsprllv Tv 1 The Question Box By LORA MacARLAND Orphan Creator Will you please give me some information about Harold Gray the creator of Orphan Who is he? Where does he live? What is his age? Atwater MA Harold Gray is a newspaper art ist born at Kankakee Ill Jan 20 1894 He graduated from high school at West Lafayette Ind in 1912 and received a degree from Purdue University in 1917 He entered the United States Army in May 1918 as a corporal and was honorably discharged at the close of the war as second lieutenant of the infan try He began the comic strip tie Orphan in 1924 His home is at Westport Conn Banana Oil Please settle this question for us: Is banana oil made from the banana fruit or banana tree? East Cleveland Strangely enough this trans parent colorless liquid has no connection with bananas other than the fact that it has a banana like odor It is isoamyl acetate pro duced by the union of certain acetic acids with amyl alcohol Tower of Bahr! Do any remains of the Tower of Babel exist today? Cleveland READER The site of the Tower of Babel has never been determined abso lutely although it was built ac cording to the Bible somewhere in Babylon Excavations have been made in three different localities that might have been its site but the ruins have never been discov ered John Walworth and His amily What would Cleveland be without its harbor its river mouth its wind ing Cuyahoga up which mammoth steamers carrying thousands of tons of ore make their way? What would the city be without long years of lake commerce fleets of forgotten schooners high masted brigs side wheel steamers and pro pellers that for a century made Cleveland the rival of a great ocean port? or 30 years after Moses Cleaveland laid out thq town the river mouth was sand choked by northwest winds and half closed by a bar piled up by eastern gales or entire seasons it was closed except to the smallest schooners or when high water cleared the channel To Ashbel Walworth collector of customs from 1812 to 1829 goes credit for the first effort to per manently clear the river and make the Cuyahoga a real port deserving the name In his first years as collector larger sailing vessels anchored off shore a mile or more reight was unloaded in flat boats and conveyed to small warehouses a quarter mile up the river Later steamers would anchor off the river mouth fire a small cannon and discharge passengers in skiffs Thev would at Cleveland and when a vessel left it was said that it the harbor" which meant the anchor was raised from the lake The early steamer Superior ex pected to at this port was often seen when a slight blow was on scudding alone 15 miles out to safer harbors at Buffalo or Detroit leaving passengers and freight on By KELLY the beach to make the most of it No mail was consigned to the steam er owing to the uncertainty of her schedules Commerce wag leaving Cleveland reight from Buffalo to Cleveland was $1 a barrel The fare on the one or two steamers was $10 and slightly less on sailing vessels owing to their inability to reach the few wharves and slips along the river at the foot of Light house Street (Main Street hill) and Superior Hill Demand In 1824 the lack of a real harbor at Cleveland was declared intoler able The movement to reach in terior of the state with the Ohio Canal was under way Early in 1825 Congress voted $5000 for the harbor and Walworth was appointed to superintend its construction He was also empowered to disburse $1000 in improving the mouth of the Grand River his boyhood home and to oversee the building of a lighthouse at airport The river mouth was 200 vards west of its present outlet As it ap proached the lake the river swung I west in a wide bend of 400 feet I Pointing northwest it emptied into the lake through a narrow channel not 200 feet wide This narrow out let closed by sand and bars was impassable except to small craft Even rowboats at times found it hard to cross the bar Plan A long sand spit separated the last bend of the Cuyahoga from the lake Walworth built a pier of two rows of white oak piles tied across the top with 12 foot timbers I II I and filled with near the river mouth it spit and projected the lake 600 feet present west pier east of the river it to stop the sand arift it was finished a tenffl beached four large schocac at anchor Two put rode out the gale was beached 100 miks to The pier was so following winter that al practical value On 9 AM a mass meeting was Academy railed by worth Dr Long Na Kelley Philo Merwin A memorial Congress asking for tion for the construct bor easy of access at providing a Pcrm to the river Washington that with opposition he weeks at the 1827 Congress to carry out the made agent for the in the work (This is the ninth Dried supplied to the Hampton Court 1 171 years old I 80 inches in crcunM New varieties tained by eitluvatirJ I the potato flow er a 41 three new type of potato 1.

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