The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 23, 1940, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASK “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” EMPIRE VOL. LVIL, NO. 8602. JUNEAU, ALASKA, MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1940. MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENT3 AZI WARPLANES SMASH ENGLISH CITY Terrific Wind Storm IS WORST GALE FOR 20 YEARS Two Eledat—uied - Ship‘ Disabled-Power Lines Fall in Shambles TREE GOES THROUGH RURAL DANCE HALL DEATH PICKS HOLIDAY | FATAL ACCIDENT QUOTA CALIFORNIA IS TIED UP | REGISTERED (HRISTMAS‘, BY ELEMENTS | | . Hurricane Sweeps Coast | from Central Oregon fo Cape Flattery ‘ T """ e Rain, Wind, Slides, High ' Water Hampers All Transportation | SAN FRANCISCO. Cal,, Dec. 23.— ‘!‘Lfl.n. wind and slides and also high | ‘\\-mcr have hampered all forms of | tr }‘ | i ansportation California, Weather reports give little hope | of any immediate improvement. It is apparent that flood condi-! tions are not in serious proportions yet, but unless rain ceases, results' will be disastrous in many sections.| Airline schedules in all directions| are listed as either cancelled or Strikes Northwest %3 ewest lron Horse MANCHESTER AR RAIDED LAST NIGHT "Gigantic C(Tnflagralions” Are Reported from German Sources GREEKS HAVE CAPTURED " ITALIAN SUPPLY BASE ?Twenty Thousand Fascis! Forces Surrounded by British on Desert (By ASSOCIATED PRESS) doubtful. Rough riders, 1940 style, of the U. S. Army, give a demonstration of their newest unit of mecharized equip- German warplanes struck with ment. The command and reconnaissance car is show 1 flying over a ditch durivg a cross-country tryout out- SEATTLE, Dec. 23. — Western| |devasting fury on the north Eng- - Washington and Oregon cleaned - up debris today from the worst general wind storm in 20 years. Estimates of total damage are still only guesswork. The known death least two persons. Dozens of people were injured, a ship was disabled, several build- ings were smashed, three airplanes were wrecked and sands of windows were broken. Power and telephone lines top- pled and trees were uprooted. The hurricane struck Saturday night from Central Oregon to the toll includes at .coast of the Straits of Juan de|njppy cold but bright-eyed with cembet’s’ traffic it will have been on Page Four) ‘WASHINGTON—What is happen- ing in England today is a barrage of truth. Suddenly, British censors have passed a .succession of news stories which admit what U. S. mili- tary observers long ago knew, that the damage in England was terrific, that airplane production had slowed down, and that British shipping was in a more desperate predicament | than during some of the dark days of the first World War. These facts also have been admit- ted by responsible cabinet officers on the floor of Parliament. The sud- den frankness means only one thing —the British are telling us that un- less they get even greater help from | the United States, they may face defeat Actually the situation has not changed materially, except for the willingness of the British to talk about it. The odds definitely have been against’ the British from the very minute France surrendered. But thanks to the Greeks angd the fail- ures of the Italian fleet, British odds have improved consigerably, though they are not yet 50-50. The situation still is the same as frequently reported in this column, namely that one outside nation—the United States or Russia—could tip the war's balance one way or the other. FOUR MASTER MINDS Senator Joe Guffey, re-elected Pennsylvania New Dealer, is eir- culating a unique election trophy. It consists of a photostatic reproduc- tion of four checks he won betting on Roosevelt against Willkie. The checks are: Frank R. Kent, Baltimore Sun columnist, $100; Joseph Alsop, New York Herald-Tribune columnist, $50; {| G. Gould Lincoln, Washington Star | columnist, $25; Fred W. Perkins, | Scripps-Howard staff writer, $25. ! Topping Guffey's circular is this caption: “Errors in judgment of political writers.” NO BRITISH LOANS Lord Lothian's frank admission that British was nearing the end of her ready-cash rope was no sur- prise to Administration leaders. (Continued on Page Four) literally thou- “HOME FOR CHRISTMAS” | By ROBERT E. GEIGER | AP Feature Service Writer There's a tinsel-decorated this Christmas season with | carefree men, women and children lin it, They smile now, untouched | by tragedy. | Ruddy-faced | | | town 3.500‘ from - December’s| anticipation of good things to {come, they call cheerful greetings |to each other as they scurry along lon workaday errands. Sudden death |is in hiding, just ahead. | | At intersections red-clad Santa Clauses smile, ring their tinkling ‘belb and slap their arms about their fat stomachs, keeping warm ‘as they hover close to their money | pots. Evergreen streamers twined | with bright red, trail from wires | overhead. Christmas decorations |now; but the evergreen has to do | with death, too. | Ere Christmas these 3,500 will be dead. The town wiped out. Not European, to be ravaged by | war, but American to be blighted by tragedy that stalks streets and | highways. i This is, of course, a mythical 1town. But the people aren’t imag- |inary., They are live, active people | walking the streets of bustling cities and towns and riding the | nation’s highways. | Widely Scattered | They are scattered in a thou-| sand places, but enough to popu- late a thriving little county Seut.i They have this in common: Be-| fore Christmas they will be the victims of December's fatal traf-| | fic accidents. “That's not a pretty Christmas | picture but December’s not en- |tirely a happy holiday month, because death takes no holiday,” says W. G. Johnson, chief statis- tician for the National Safety| Council, who has analyzed De-| cember's traffic deaths. “The Christmas month is the ‘m’ the holiday season. | old many other side Baltimore, Md. Germans Filling OREEKS Rumania CAPTURE ‘ CHIMARA sands of New Troops; - 4 File in Loaded with 800 Men Taken Prisoners Full War Gear —Booty in War Stores | Is Said Great (By ASSOCIATED PRESS) | Dispatches from the Hungarian- i Rumanian frontier said today that (By ASSOCIATED PRESS) thousands of German troops in full In reporting the capture of Chim- el il b ssing Into. Ru-| .5 (oday the Greek Government Siaing g _ i reported the seizure of 800 men and The new arrivals add to the Nazi| gy orricers of the 153rd Battalion of force already there which has been | . poseist Militia. ST Y ROk 190’000' | It was also declared huge stores Two other German divisions of ¢ war materials were captured. about thirty thousand men arrived | iner Greek troops were described in Rumania earlier in the month.| ;¢ aqvancing rapidly north to the outstanding candidate for doubt- ful honors as the worst traffic death month of the year. Perhaps it is a discordant note to mention a gruesome topic just at the start But if we can save 100 lives, or 10 lives or} even ouly one life by doing so JHOU and pointing the the danger of De- worth the price. Ncrmal Toll Is 3,500 “The normal December toll is 3,500 lives. This usually is equalled | in number by October, but nnlpage; traveled in October is 10 percent greater than December’s. That makes the Christmas month the most dangerous. *The averages for the past three years show that, mile for mile, December traffic is more than one and one-half times as deadly as that of June, one of the big sum- on | | | By JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON, Dec. 23. — The United States Capitol is getting it§ face lifted—and what a mess! For the first time in 140 years, the House of Representatives is| meeting outside its own hall—in the | big, bright ways and means com-| mittee room in the new House Office Building. The Senate has turned back the calendar nearly 82 years and is holding sessions in the old Sen- ate chamber just off the well of the “little rotunda.” Into this Mark Twain once stared and prob- ably thinking of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, called it “the spittoon of America.” The reason for the face-lifting is that the roofs of the Senate | | U. 5. CAPITOL IS NOW GETTING FACE LIFTE heavy snow might bring tons glass and rubble down heads of Congress. | Plans were to do a permanent job of fitting new beams into the roofs during adjournment this summer and fall, but national de-, fense and a popular demand for! Congress to stay in session put a! stop to that. The congressman have hundreds away, mer travel months. important town of Valona, 30 miles‘ season is the most dangerous of involved in causing December ac-, are uniformly high during the [ | en Spies pies Suddenly o 32 Dies Suddenly | winter. About 2,500 of the usual “Among persons under 24 years| Sen'en(ed fo P”SO" over 25 the month of December of| (umbs 'o Ailment of age groups 15 years and over. | women, is revealed in smashing an ther, light itions d 4 ot . wencher, . Ughl, ot en [might be related to a damaging|affectionately known by his hun-| |~ Auerilo Cocozza, described as an}Ann's Hospital from an ailment| i | officer, were shot by a firing squad|among his many friends here who }any official announcement was| hospital scarcely 48 hours previ-| shops, was born in Milwaukee, Wis- | Bernhofer was elght years of age, OFF DEFENSE}’and his mother came. north with| L | John and her little daughter Caro- | Commission has delayed threat of i, the Gateway City. stay on the job." A degand that|Line. “Aunty" now 1 pend operations that it now is pos-| first. [ College Education | | “The records of the few states — >, that we studied analytically dis- |up the Adriatic sea coast. | a y s | TItalian forces are reportedly in “di ht."” all the year.” | | | “disorderly flig! Johnson said many factors are cidents. “Accidents rural highways last four months of the year, but| city deaths rise sharply to a De-| “Night Accidents Soar” | — | “Night accidents soar in the L] g Twenty-two Other Persons.‘sa'urd ay ngh' 3500 December deaths occur dur- ™ e o 0c Egcam, Two of Them Women- | : R s (b Well Known Resident Suc- larger traffic toll, but for all ages, Tty | or L. i £ ROME, Dec. 23—Execution is the most severe. It is the peak ‘WO men spies and imprisonment month for pedestrian deaths in all|°f 22 other persons, two of them, Long Standing | w | alleged “network of informers.” | | t bin s . | #ic apoensa. St 4/ sprpbitation Some observers thought thisi John B, Bernhofer, familiarly and Christmas season travel is the » cause of the holiday. death toll.” !Brmsh raid on Taranto, the Ital-|dreds of friends as “Dutch,” passed 3 " lian Naval base on November 11. jaway last Saturday evening at St. imposter traveling salesman at Tar-|which he had suffered for years. anto, and Frenceszo Ghezzi, naval His sudden death cast gloom “at dawn yesterday, only a few| were unaware of the seriousness of | {hours after condemned and before|his ililness when he entered the {made of the trial. ous to his passing. | i - — Bernhofer, who for years was 1 (] | of | the | consin, years old this coming | !line, and located at Skagway. Pre- CLEVELAND, Dec. 23.—Inter- yiously two other children, Mary of letters which say: “Even if the 8 bus drivers' strike for the Cen-| ‘while still in hei teens, Mrs | Bernhofer passed ‘away strong couldnt be ignored, but it/ The commission stepped in t.odayia patient_in St. Ann’s Hospital in has contributed to the mess, for before the scheduled walkout and|juneau, became the “mother” to sible even the temporary job can- e Y | Bernhofer received his training‘ not be completed by January 3 and| The first shipment by air ex-/a; Columbia College, in Portland closed that the actual Christmas | AL ] | xecuting f manager of the Harri Machine STRIKE HELD % o6 Wi vention by the National Defense and Herman, had preceded them Capitol comes down on your heads, tral New York-Illinois Greyhound‘ and Bernhofer, who is so reluctant was Congress to sus-|Said “talk it over and try to settle the four children. the 77th Congress will have to|Press was a package containing and during his- college years met | Grueber, and would have been 47|Protegtant world for his efforts in January. Pehalf of non-Aryan Christians, has Pclice and taken to the Saschsen- hausen - Orenienburg concentration camp where the Rev. Martin Nei- imoller is imprisoned. The four-wheel-drive car seats ‘hres men 3 Injured, Ketchikan Auto (rash Skidding Car Collides with Another-Occupants in Serious Condition KETCHIKAN, Alaska, Dec. 23— A car driven by Wallace Peterson former University of Washington student, attending the University of Hawaii last year, son of Dr. W E. Peterson, skidded on the wet surface of a waterfront street at 4 o'clock Sunday morning and collided with a coupe driven by Charles Patching, a bartender. Peterson and his passenger, Clif- ford Phillips, former student at the Franklin High School in Se- attle, partially regained conscious- ness late Sunday morning Peterson has a fractured skull and perhaps internal injuries. son of E. C. Phillips, fish has head injuries, cut un- r the eye and perhaps internal injuries. Patching has two broken caps and cuts on his face The two cars were badly smashed. There were only the three in the smash-up. knee -+ Dr. Grueber Under Arrest InNaziland Well Known Clerayman in Protestant World Taken fo Concentration Camp BERLIN, Dec. 23. — Dr. Henric known throughout the been arrested by the Secret of Dr. Grueber’s ar- divuiged but observers is for some connection anti-Semitic Government The cause is not prasume with the policies, Fifth Child Born fo Frau von Ribbentrop —A boy, rest, BERLIN, Dec their | fifth child, has been born to Frau David Lyna, Capitol architect, has been warning for years that a (Contiaued on Pege Six) and House wings are sagging | cgnvenq in the present make- | five bolts of silk. It was sent from| nis future wife, Helen Gould. Bern- Dayton to Columbus, Ohio, 30 years| 880, | S5 TTA SR R, (Continued on Page Five) | J Joachim Von Ribbentrop, wife of the German Foreign Minister. |land industrial city of Manchester — last night, leaving, according to Berlin dispatches “gigantic con- MANNHE'M | tlagrations.” London said many were killed and | wounded ‘n the city of 766,000 popu- | lation. BLASTED IH | In the Balkan war, Greece's con- | quering legions today reported the | |capture of Chimara, Italian supply |basa on the Albanlan coast. On the African battlefront, a steady stream of British troop re- i)n(m-cement:, is reported swelling 3 ey | the siege Iine around 20,000 Itallan St soldiers trapped in Bardia. British Bombers Seek to Libyan, observers on the fighting | front sald the Fascist defenders of S'em HOW Of Saar the desert post apparently have | been assigned in the role of a "sac- Coal to |Ia|y rifice garrison” to stall the British b0 counter invasion of Egypt. (By ASSOCIATED PRESE) Stalling the advance would give RAF bombers carried the war of Marshal Graziani'time to rally his the air deep into Germany last|defenses in the west. nzht, blasting the industrial, From the flat arid wastes around center of Mannheim. Bardia, British artillery lobbed Mannheim is the major river and|shells today into the strongly de- rail junction in the upper Rhein-|fended town. fanit’ An TItallan communique said: Bembing of Mannheim represents| “While our defense preparations are renewed effort to smash the main | Progressing” a mass assault is ex- rail link between Germany's vastPected soon. * Valley ccal fields and north-| British General headquarters an- 0 It war foundries. ‘nounced a total of 35949 Italians Italy der! almost all of her|have been taken prisoners, includ- coal from Germany. |Ing 1,700 officers, all actually re- Last night's raid was the sixth|moved from the battle zone, and on Mannheim within the week. |that “several thousand more” still e jare awaiting return from forward camps. RAFMAKES poMRS TAK 5,000THAR ' gGagat Top1 RAID ONFOE ' NEW YORK, Dec. 23.—A British radio broadcast heard here said (By ASSOCIATED PRESS) Gu"mal;\‘ i ané A occu‘l l;repcm strong formations of heavy r Y, Pled | combat planes attacked Manches- territory during the past eight|ter with “great success” in an over- menths, night raid and also bombed Lon- T B gt i don, Bristol, Liverpool, Southamp- TRIplETS DRAw ton and other cities. The Nazi planes started the as- sault on Manchester early in the | 'I'RlplE voluME evening when the streets were jcrowded with Christmas shoppers. MONTESANO, Wash., Dec. 23.— Roaring over the city, wave after ¢ |wave of war planes dropped bombs. Triplets, two girls and a boy, lead The British communique said yells for Montesano High School. |nearly 500 persons in a public shel= The yell king is Jim Lougheed.| ter, were hit by heavy bombs. A | His duchesses are his sisters, Mar- motion picture theatre and another jorie and Pats; he triplets were bublic shelter were hit, inflicting born June 9, 1922, an undisclosed number of casual- ¢ RO ties. | Sixty persons were trapped in one AN I [of two hotels blasted. AMERI( Fires set by the night raiders | cast a red glow visible for miles and SEIZED FROM | thick smoke still palled the city SHOPPING D TILL CHRISTAMAS | this forenoon. \Y BERMUDA, Dec. 23.—British au- thorities have removed an Ameri- can citizen, Oscar Stabler, from a| ship bound for New York. The authorities did not disclose charges against Stabler, who was born in Germany.