The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, March 24, 1942, Page 1

- THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. LVIIL,, NO. 8990. JUNEAU, ALASKA, TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 1942 “MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS JAP BOMBERS ATTACK ALLIED QUTPOSI Enemy Positions On Batan ARTILLERY ACTIONON JAP FORCES Nippon lo;;s Believed ‘Heavy-Corregidor | Attacked WASHINGTON, March 24 — A heavy bombing attack on fortress of Corregidor and also American positions on Batan Peninsula by; 54 Japanese heavy bombers is re-| ported by the War Department in today’s communique. The communique said only sllght damage was inflicted. | Several sharp encounters oc-| curred on Batan as fighting was resumed. ‘ Three enemy bombers were | downed by anti-aircraft fire and American artillery also laid down heavy fire on enemy positions on! Batan Peninsula. The communique | said Japanese losses are believed | to have been considerable. CThe WASHINGTON—Inside fact about | the current quarrel over inflation | and the farm bill ‘is that sage old| Bernie Baruch long ago warned the President, Leon Hendérson and the inner circle that they could not| stop inflation if they put the brake only on prices. | “price-fixing is like a four-legged | chair,” Baruch warned them. “It won’t stand on two legs or even| three.” | There is no use regulating con- sumer prices, he said, unless you also regulate profits, also wages, also farm prices. If one of them gets out of hand, the others will too. Baruch, who was head of the| War Industries Board in the last war, has been harping on this| point for months, He urged Con- gress more than a year ago to| adopt a very high excess profits tax to take away all the war prof- - its from industry; and at the same time he urged the President\ to clamp down on wages as well| as prices, The President actually got a lit- | tle irritated at Baruch’s pounding away on this theme. Today, how- | ever, chief resentment of the farm; belt is not so much against Roose- velt's urging that farm prices be| kept down, but over the fact mat‘ labor’s income has skyrocketed while the farmer’s hasn't. mthennore.i the farmer complains that he has| to pay a lot more for his labor— when he can get it at all—but he | can't increase his farm prices pro- | portionately. BRITISH RED TAPE “There’ll always be an England,” | but U. S. fliers now trying to save India are wondering why. British officials in India don’t want them to enter India until 31 days after they have taken yellow fever shots. By that time the Japanese, whc| don't have to observe the 31 day rule, may obviate the need of U.| S. fliers going to India at all. Pearson and Allen say: “Young| men in the lines must not be pen-i alized by old men behind the lines.” 4 ! f Gun Crew on (_onvoy Ready for Japanese Pointing skyward this mobile anti-aircraft gun on a transpert beund for Australia was ready to go into action against the Japs. ment announced had arrived in Australia. Another ship in the convoy is in the background. Press Photo from the U. S. Navy. COTTON CUTIES_The customary shortage that permits the usual visibility of legs, etc., prevails in preview of cotton beachwear at Venice, Calif. Mona Desmond (left) and Frances Brix wear cotton prints crealed by California designers. | Governmenl Personnel Increasing; Predicted Reorganizafion Coming | | | | By JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON, March 24—For a person who tries never to predict, to make some estimate of what js going to result- from senatorial and executive surveys of governme: personnel is really taking the bit. But there are straws in the wind now too thick to be ignored First, the federal government, with a quarter of a million employes in Washington and a million more “in the field,” already has exceed- ed the wildest forecasts. Here alone it is growing at the rate of 6,000 employes a month, Senator Tyd- {ings, Maryland’s anti-administration Democrat, has described it as “an| | overgrown monstrosity from top to bottom.” Every one of the ten departments | headed by members of the cabinet CAPITAL CHAFF To rumors that Ambassador John Winant will take Miss Perkins'| have pleaded that they are all or in great part necessary to the war effort and therefore should have place as Secretary of Labor, he | priorities in appropriations and the says: “Why have all the headaches hiring of additonal personnel.. Sev- len of these have been classified as (Continued on Page Four) nrecessary in toto, three in part.| Out of 36 independent agencies and | bureaus of the government, only eight lay no claim to being ¢s- sential to all-out war. In spite of the vast expansion of government personnel, not all of| the departments have added em-| ployes in the last year. That much- | criticized fellow, Harold L. Ickes,} has cut his Interior 'department| staff about 2,500 in 18 months up to Jan. 1. However, at that time,! the trend again was up. The Lab- or department is down slightly. having lost one of its agencies (Im- migration and Naturalization) Lo; Justice. The Agriculture depart- ment also had reduced its (orceI by more than 1,000 persons at last report. All others have grown. There are two more important factors in the present picture. First, and it is principally political, prac- tically all divisons of government| now are under civil service and each state has a quota. Appli- cants from under-quota states are (Contipued on Page Two) | | the far | done, Troops of this convoy were part cf the “considerable numbers” the War Depart- Associated U.S.SUBS SINK THREE JAP SHIPS Atfack Occurs in Enemy, Waters — Other Ves- sels Damaged WASHINGTON, March 24—The navy announces that three enemy merchant vessels, totalling 18,000 tonnage, have been sunk in Jap- anese waters by United States sub- marines in addition to two freight- ers damaged and one enemy de- stroyer or anti-submarine vessel at- tacked and probably sunk. The vessels involved are not re-| previous navy an-| ported in any nouncement. The naval records now show that reaching activities of the submarines of the United States are credited with sinking 25 Japanese ships and probably 10 more have been sunk as results of damage The sinkings are all re- ported as accomplished in Japan- | ese waters. NAZIDIVE BOMBERS IN NIGHT RAID Make Desmive Attack on Dover, Other South- east English Areas | LONDON, Marcn 24 — German dive bombers struck destructively| at Dover and two other southeast English coast towns at dusk in the mightiest attack since the major raids in 1941 . Brief reports state| that possibly two score of persons| were killed. The British anti-aircraft batter-| ies and night fighters challenged |the attacker with heavy fire and; finally drove bombers back across the English Channel. Owing to severe weather on the German occupied side of the Eng-| lish Channel the RAF bomber squadrons were again inactive for the tenth successive night, ——————— BUY DEFENSE STAMPS J t | | ! | \ L AALASKA FISH REGULATIONS ¥ | ations Will Be as ., Normal | WASHINGTON, March 24—The in Bristol Bay with the n.-xcopuon of Egegik. { Herring catch quotas were cur- |tailed sharply, . but only changes were made affecting salmon fishing “industry. Because of a continued decline in ‘Therring, i quotas established as follows: Reduce Herring Catch R jrels to be taken between July 1 and October 15, with an additional 36-day closed period to be pro- ivided for during the summer sea- son. | 2! Prince William Sound—Quota in this area provides that the maximum take be cut from 250~ with the further not more than 25,000 barrels may | be taken between June 24 and Aug- fust 23. ;50,000 barrel quota in effect from \Junr 1 to October 15 last year is | reduced so that no more than 2,000 barrels may be taken during any ‘ullendar month, except with gill nets or for bait purposes. | No limitations are provided for Kodiak or Prince William sound waters outsde of quota areas. Close Egegik In the major red salmon produc- |ing area of Bristol Bay, the only changes in the regulations prohibit the fishing for commercial pur- poses in the Egegik district which normally accounts for only a small | percentage of the Bristol Bay catch, Last year, this district con- tributed only 29,000 of the 624,000 case pack for the Bristol (Continued on Page Twoi NELSON ASKS DELAY UPON LABORLAWS Requests angress fo De- | lay Legislation for at Least 30 Days WASHINGTON, March 24—War Production Chief Donald M. Nel- son has asked Congress him a 30-day time limit in which to obtain a voluntary suspension of the double-pay for overtime practice through the agreement cf leaders of organized labor before Congress enacts any legislation | matter. He has promised the House Nav- al Committee that he will ask legislation himself if he is unable to obtain that agreement. But simultaneously he entered his opposition against the suspen- | sion of the Federal Maximum Hour legisldtion and the ban against| closed shops industries handling Army and Navy contracts. Nelson said, “The men at the |bench are just as patriotic as you| and I. The present law doesn't pre- vent men from working more than| 40 hours a week. It does not set| a pattern for the length of our |work week in war industries, but | govems wages rather than hours| that the man may work.” MADE PUBLIC Indicate Bristol Bay Oper- 1942 fishing regulations for Alaskan waters were signed today by Sec- | retary of the Interior Harold L.| Ickes and indications are that nor- | mal operations will be carried out‘ minor | the | the major production areas will have reductions in catch | Kodiak Area—Quota reduced | from 258,000 barrels to 160,000 bar- | 1000_to 75,000 barrels to be taken {between June 24 and October 15,} provision that | 3. Southeastern Alaska Area—The | Bay | to give! Are Under Fire MacArthurs in Melbourne SECOND BIG ASSAULTON PT.MORESBY Two Waves of Planes Are Sent Over N. E. Aus- fralian Defenses MELBOURNE, Australia, March 24—Japanese airmen have made their second big attack in two days on FPort Moresby, the outer island outpost of Australia’s north- eastern defenses on New Guinea, ‘The Japanese sent over two waves of bombers protected by fighter planes. ‘The bombers first centered their attack on the airdrome at Port Moresby in a persistent effort (o rub out the combined American and Australian air forces there which have made the Japanese po- sitions in the area so costly to maintain, The bombers then staged a see- ond attack on targets near the port as the Japanese Navy zero planes sought to drive off any at- empt at defense, but in which they were unsuccessful. Prime Minister John Curtin said little damage was done and ' no casudlties are so far reported as the result of the two raids. (EASE[ESS OFFENSIVE, ~ JAKS URGE All-Out Aftack Must Con- ! tinue for Key Victory, ' Says Nippon Captain | BERLIN, March 24—The Japan- {ese Naval spokesman is quoted in !a German radio station broadcast | as advocating a ceaseless offensive | for a key victory, naming Australia and the Indian Ocean areas which must be seized “as strongholds of | big future military operations.” | The Japanese spokesman quoted | the writing of Capt. Hiraide in | the Tokyo newspaper Yomiuri. Capt. Hiraide argues against pro- | longing Japan's pause in an all- out attack, a pause in the mm- i lude since the conquest of Java by 1wmch he said, “Japan is now on | the defensive and the Anglo- | American forces on the offensive. | Defensive lines do not lead to vic« | tory” | Welcomed by the deafening cheers of an admiring crowd, General Dougias MacArther, his wife and young son, Arthur, arrived in Mel- - bourne last Saturday, March 21 from Adelaide. This picture, radioed from Melbeurne to Londen and from London Lo New York is the first picture of the MacArthurs in Australia to reach the United States. The picture was telemated and airmailed to The Empire, Wlih Hls Alde (Gruening May Get An Aufo WASHINGON, March 24—Qov. Ernest Gruening may have a new |auto to meet official guests and show them about Juneau if Con- gress follows the recommendation of the House Appropriations Com- mittee. The Committee has recommend- ¢d an appropriation not to ex- ceed $1,800 to purchase a car. ORDER ALIEN |BERLIN CLAIMS SEAMENHERE |13 SHIPS SUNK, ROUNDED UP BERLIN, March 24—A German| [distant, to meet incoming_vsitors communique declares that U-boats and the taxi fare was $3. He | operating off the coast of North | testified that he used his own but |that it was desirable that the NEW XORK, Mnrch 24—The New | )00t ships v.utallmg 80,000 tons. | ‘Governor of the Territory have a | York Times says in a dispatch from _ RPHEE i xlarze car.” Washington that a nation- wide‘ ; | Last year's budget included $1,750 roundup of some 8,000 alien seamen| A plant in British Columbia now for a car for the Governor but |who have hampered shipments of |provides more than sufficient an-|¢he committee eliminated this item. | supplies to the Allies by deserting’ timony to meet Canadian needs, MR SRS their ships, has been ordered by !almost entirely imported prior to 1Alwrnev General Francis Biddle, '1638, \ | Gen. Douglas MacArthur (tenter), arriving in Melbourne last Satur- day from Adelaide left the railroad station with his Deputy Supreme Commander, Lieut. Gen. George H. Brett (right). This picture was radioed from Melbourne to London and from London to New York, then airmailed to The Empire. BUY UEFENSE STAMPS