The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, February 14, 1944, Page 1

s T — THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. XLL, NO. 5975. JUNEAU, ALASKA, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1944 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENT!! BATTLE IS SEESAWING AT BEACHHEAD Allies Stepping Up Drive Toward Tokyo RABAUL IS RAIDED FOR 12TH TIME Japan’s Bo—m—b-Pocked Base Denfed Again- Other Areas Strafed ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC, Feb. 14.—Smoking and bomb-pocked Ra- baul, to Allied drives Tokyoward, got another hot scorching, the twelfth in 14 days as the Allied Air force stepped up the attack in the aerial offensive and dropped 134 tons of bombs on three airdromes. Allied bombers also hit a 3,000 ton cargo ship at Wewak and dur-| ing the bombing and strafing struck | also at Kendari, Dutch Celebes, and Buka Island, off the northern tip| of Bougainville Island. Great stores of equlpment were left by the retreating Japanese at (Continued on Page Two) The Washingioni Merry - Go-Round By DREW PEARSON (Major Robert 8. Allen on sctive duty.) ‘WASHINGTON—Louisiana, which likes its politics red and raw, is in the middle of another election cam- paign rivaling anything ever staged during the free-for-all fighting days of Huey Long. In fact the battle rages partly over Huey Long. For though his bullet-torn body has lain buried for eight years, his mem- ory, his cohorts, and his brother | still are strong. During the first years of Gover-| nor Sam Jones' anti-Long admin- istration, the spotlight which shone down on Huey Long's grave in/ front of the capitol in Baton Rouge was never extinguished—in defer-| ence to the Fhousands who still thought of the Kingfish as king. And no matter what happens in the current cut-throat primaries to be held February 29, Louisiana will} still be blessed, or cursed, with a considerable amount of Longism, for his brother Earl is sure to come out as lieutenant governor. And if singing, sunshining Jimmy Davis; the radio crooner who took| his eue from radio actor Senator Pappy O’Daniel in Texas, is finally elected governor, he '(Jimmy) will probably go to Hollywood to make dance records, leaving Earl Long in virtual control. Davis won the state’s first Democratic primary held on January 18. The other gubernatorial candi- date, ex-Congressman William Morgan, was Huey's counsel at the Kingfish impeachment proceedings. So either way, though Huey Long’s body may be. moldering in the grave, his work, for better or worse, goes marching on. Earl Long is candidate for lieutenant governor on Morgan’s ticket. Louisiana, however, does not be- lieve in pallid substitutions. It wants its Kingfish rip-roaring in the flesh or else not at all. This was the explanation of the pricked- balloon fizzle in the January pri- mary of Congressman James Mor- rison, whom the Saturday Evening Post described as the “minnow who could be kingfish.” The article was a masterpiece of, scathing criticism. But illustrative of “Minnow” Morrison and the at- titude of the Louisiana electorate is the fact that he advertised the| article over the radio and had ter- sheets pasted all over*the doors and windows of his campaign headquar-' ters. “Anyone who is written up in the| Satutdty Evening Post,” he bellow , “is important. That's what they thlnk of Jimmy Morrison up North.” MYSTERIOUS MONEY Biggest mystery about the"Louis- iana campaign is where Jimmy Morrison got the thousands he: (Continued oo Page Four) Japan’s badly dented shield‘ NUISANCE - RAID MADE - ONLONDON |Affack of No Great Force { Highly Touted by Berlin Radio ! LONDON, Feb. 14.—United States | Thunderbolt fighter bombers pounded the German fighter base at Gilze Rijen, Holland without loss after German night raiders scat- ;Lered incendiaries over London in |an attack touted by Berlin as made by “several hundred planes.” The Nazi planes dived low under |bombs on parts of London, the a heavy barrage to lay incendiary |Berlin radio, seeking to salve the bomb buffeted home front declared, jand said that London was sowed with large fires “in another con- centrated attack on the central ]capltal." | London crowds, milling along the ! blackened walks and streets in the usual after theater throngs, watch- ed the aerial fireworks, which were mostly well off into the suburban areas. They found the attack of no greater force than last month, when the enemy sent some 80 bombers against London and parts of southeast England. The British estimated the total lraldmg force to be 50 or 60 planes, lof which only some 15 reached Lon- idon. Six were downed during the attack. e SRS s WILLKIE MAKES CHARGE AGAINST ADMINISTRATION Dedlares Democratic Party Is Fostering Disunity on Home Front TACOMA, Wash., Feb. 14—Wen- dell L. Willkie in an address here on Lincoln’s birthday charged the Democratic Alsninistration is foster- |ing disunity on the home front and |warned “we cannot survive as a nation divided against itself, and the pénalty for disunity is as heavy today as in Lincoln’s time. Indeed, it may be greater.” In an extemporaneous talk, he said “if the Republican Party is elected in 1944 and if again in 1952, the head of that Party will get the illusions of his indispensability thrown out, I don't care who he is. ‘We must not entrust too much power {to one man too long.” In the address at the banquet, Willkie said: “We need a new leader who doesn’t hold in his mind, bitter or triumphant memories, a leader who does not think the na- tion is made up of groups of people who can be played against each |other to insure his continuing in |power, a leader who recognizes all groups as an essential part of America, a leader with malice to-| ward none.” i | NOW OR NEVER FOR GOP PORTLAND. Cre., Feb. 14.—Wen- |dell L. Willkie announces it is his| _ | belief that it is now or never for the | Republicans. He said he will enter| the Oregon primarv election in May seeking the Presicential nomina- tion. ————— RED CROSS MAN HERE Tommy A. Noonon, with the Am- erican Red Cross, is here from An- chorage and is at the Baranof. American Nurses Killed ' By German Shells Hitfing . Marked Red Cross Hospifal By RE\’\OLD& PACI(ARI) Associated Press War Correspondent AT ANZIO BEACHHEAD, Italy, Feb. 11.—(Delayed)—Two Red Cross nurses were killed last night when four German shells hit on a care- fully marked American Field Hos- pital, increasing to six the number of American women who have met death in this beachhead campaign. Four died as the result of Mon- day’s air bombing of a hospital, two nurses being killed outright, one nurse and a Red Cross worker suc- cumbing later to wounds. Four shells struck between 5:35 and 5:45 in the afternoon. The first landed on the road before the re- ceiving tent, the second hit the re- ceiving tent and the final two plunged through the ward tents. Red Cross flags flew from the tents and a large one was spread on the ground. TWwO nurses were preparing supper in their own tent and sharpnel killed them. No other deaths resulted but four medical officers and three enlisted men were wounded. e e = T0 BREAK JAPANESE BLOCKADE Americanst—oiBe Llanded on China Mainland in Due Time CHUNGKING, Feb. 14—An ag- offensive to support the American thrust across the Pacific to land ground and air forces on the Chin- Joseph W. Stilwell, Commander of the United States forces in India, China and Burma. Stilwell’s statement took note of the recent declaration by Admiral the Pacfic Fieet, the Navy intends anese blockade and land American forces on the mainland of China. — ., SOURDOUGH OF ALASKA PASSES ON : Criss Tremp—er Survh)or of Chilkoot Pass Slide, Prospector, Dies KINGSBURY, Calif., Feb.- 14— | Criss W. Tremper, 76, sourdough of ) Alaska during the gold rush days, and one of Fresno County’s leading vineyardists and member of the Co- operative Winery Operators, died here last Friday night after three weeks illness. Tremper was a man of gigantic the men who helped to retrieve the bodies of over 70 victims of the | Chilkoot Pass snow slide in the | spring of '98. Tremper discovered gold on a member of the band of prospectors ers furnished Rex Beach with ma- | terial for “The Spoilers.” - ! FROM WHITEHORSE Margaret Higgins is here from ‘Whitehorse and is a guest at the Baranof. > CALIFORNIAN HERE From San Francisco, W. D. Dur- han is a guest at the Gastineau. gressive China-based land and air | ese mainland is pledged by Lt. Gen. | Chester W. Nimitz, Commander of | to make a drive to break the Jap- | frame and strength. He was one of | glacier hill near Nome and was a | whose battle against claim jump- | & ture pool. | FIRST PHOTO OF MARSHAI.I. A United States Marine, foreground, digs a foxhole en Namur Island in the Marshalls. Dead Japs Lifter Beach al Namur - Dead Japs litter the beach on Namur Island in the Marchalls near a pillbox as Marines move through ihe | wreckage. Smoke in he background is from fires started by heavy American land, sea and air bombard- ment preceding our invasion. This putm:e was made by Frank Filan, Associated Press photographer on :sslgnmcnt with the wartime still picture pool. | JACK STINNETT ‘WASHINGTON, Feb. 14.—Over at |the Office of the Coordinator of | Inter-American Affairs, they are piling up a file on one of the amaz ing industrial stories of this war {Much of it is a military secret, but |some of it can be told now. Its | the search for tantalite in the scorched mountains of northeastern Brazil. { Few people ever heard of tanta- lite. It was virtually unknown in {1927, when it was commercially |mined for the first time. It wasn’t until 1940 that it became a vital war mineral, sought by every na- tion. However, since our enemies don't know to what use we ar putting it, very little can be said. Industrial Sfories Regarding Warfime Searches Given Qut Tantalite is well named, havingi he same root as the word tantalize. t is an acid-proof member of the /anadium family and although it is ometimes referred to as black gold, t’s more precious. 1t is hard to find, deposits of it »eing buried with other minerals in the sun-scorched rocky ridges or ub-surface alluvial deposits of Jrazil's tree-barren “sertao” (inter- or). Once found, it is tantalizing ———— o+ | s 0 mine. What seem to be bonanzas eter out before they produced a on and often deposits, that hardly seem worth mining, develop into (Continued un sage Two) ISLANDS INVASION o In background are blasted Jap mechanized equipment and shattered blockhouse. This picture was made by Associated Press Photographer Frank Filan on assignment with the wartime still pic- PSKOV NEXT OBJECTIVE, | RED ARMIES |Would Givc; k:ssians Good | | Position to Clear Nazis | from Baltic Area MOSCOW, Feb. 14—Pskov, gate- way to Latvia and Lithuania, felt |the pressure of two Russign armies, one driving southward from the {lower end of Lake Peipus toward | Pskov Lake, and the other south- westward down the Leningrad high- | |way and rallway, a portion of which is in Soviet hands south of |captured Luga. Pskov is an important railway and highway junction point where Czar Nicholas abdicated at the rail- way station there in 1917. Four main highways run in and out of Pskov, and the Russians are 40 \miles away at the closest point. Should they be able to reach the city in great numbers, the Ger- mans would be cut off from retreat through Lake Ilmen and the Star- aya Russa sector | The possession of Pskov would |give the Russians an extremely ad- |vantageous position from which to {launch operations to clear the Ger- | mans from the Baltic republics and Estonia, and can virtually cut off |Germany by a drive westward from | szkov l It is only 85 miles from Pskov to| Valk Juncuun which controls every | 'highway dnd railway into Estonia, then it is just 90 more miles to| Riga, Latvia. | It is expected that an all-out| battle at Pskov would prove one of the war’s most important. A dis- SNOW HITS WIDE AREA patch from Pravda said the Ger- CHICAGO, Feb. 14. — The most mans are mining Pskov and the| ered much of the Nation today and pridges. additional fall of three to four tinols, Indiana, and lower Michi- STOCK QUOTATIONS gan within the next twelve hours. % Lander, Wyoming, to four inches guotation of Alaska Juneau mine| in Des Moines, Iowa. stock today is 6, American Can 83, tana, Wyoming and Colorada across Bethlehem Steel 58%, . Curtiss| the country to the New England Wright 5%, International Harvester der to Northern Kansas, Missouri can Aviation 9, New York Central and Kentucky and also the Appal- 17':, Northern Pacific 15%, United extensive snow of the winter cov- Lyga highway and blowing up the inches is predicted in Northern Il- Reports varied from 15 inches in! NEW * YoRK_ ;‘:b 14.—Closing Snow extended to eastern Mon- Anaconda 25, Beach Aircraft 97%, States and from the Canadian bor- 70%, Kennecott 30%, North Ameri- achian region including Pennsyl- States Steel 52, Pound $4.04. | vania. Dow, Jones averages today arc No severe temperatures are re- as follows: industrials 135.39, rails’ ported. ,37.55, utilities 22.65. ALLIES IN INITIATIVE, ANZI0-AREA Invading Forces Weather Tough Weekend-Air Force in Action' TERRIFIC BATTLING EAST OF CARROCETO Americans Ewiih Blood and Sweat for 200-Yard Advance at Cassino ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN ALGIERS, Feb. 14—Fighting of a seesaw character, but lessened in intensity, marked the Allied peri- meter at Anzio during the past 2¢ hours, Allied headquarters announc- ed, after weathering the weekend crisis and regaining the initiative, in part, after blanketing of Allied air support by bad weather. This condition gave the German armored units an edge but the Brit- ish troops have driven forward and recaptured the bottleneck bridge over the rallway west of Carroceto, 10 miles north of Anzio. With the support of tanks, em- phasizing the indef nature of the battle, the Germans, how- ever, again occupied a factory sec- tion half a mile east of Carroceto, uter 10 days of fierce fighting in which packing houses and silo-like structures of Mussolini’s agricultural enterprise changed hands four times. During a break in the weather, Allied air forces struck the German ring about the bridgehead and other cbjectives. Many sorties were made by the airmen. American troops have paid with blood and sweat for & 200-yard ad- vance in Cassino, 60 miles east, bat- tering down each German strong- hold in a house-to-house struggle. The Germans still hold the anclent towers and buildings of the Bene- dictine Monastery'atop of a hill west of Cassino. CHURCHILL CONFIDENT OF BATTLE Says His Mfihry Leaders Cerfain Allied Forces Will Capfure Rome LONDON, Feb. 14—British Prime Minister Winston Churchill an- nounced in a statement last Satur- day night that he had been assur- ed by Gen. Sir Henry Maitland Wil- son and Gen. Sir Harold Alexander they have “confidence the great battle now proceeding for the cap- ture of Rome will be won.” The statement of Saturday night continued: “In the bridgehead it- celf, the Allies have now a very strong army with superiority in both artillery and tanks, and although spells of bad weather interrupt time and time, delivery of supplies land- d at the bridgehead, substantially exceeds the schedule prescribed be- fore the operation was begun, owing to reserves built up in the fair weather peri Representalive Schuefz Found Dead,Apartment WASHNGTON, Feb. 14.—Repre- |sentative Leonard Schuetz, 59, vet- eran Polish born Democratic mem- ber of Congress from Illinoils, was found dead in his Washington apartment late last night. Death is attributed to natural causes.