The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, May 31, 1944, Page 1

) = (34 VOL. XLIL, NO. 9666. TERRIFIC BATTLE FOR ROME IN Ploesti Oil Fields Plastered by U.S. Aircraft One State Has Plans To Care forMen Who (ome Back from War 3,500 YANK PLANES IN RAID TODAY Americans Sweep Out from Britain, Haly in At- facks-Wide Area | LONDON, May 31—Up to 3,500 invading American planes, striking from Britain and Italy for the third consecutive day, bombed the Ru- manian oil refinery at Ploesti, four German railyards tunnelling traf- fic to the incessantly attacked French coast, an air base on the| old French Maginot Line, and an| air base near Mulhouse, just north| of Switzerland. | Also hit were the railyards at Hamm, Osnabruck and at Schwerte, which is 10 miles southeast of| Dortmund, and at Soest, 15 miles| southwest of Hamm. | The force from Britain numbered | between 250 and 500 Fortresses and | Liberators and 1,200 fighters. From 500 to 750 United States| heavies escorted by swarms of Mus- | tangs and Lightnings, struck from Italy at Ploesti, 35 miles north of | Bucharest, and enveloped at least| one major refinery in smoke and flames visible for many miles.| Clouds obscured the full results of this first attack on Ploesti, 180 (Continued on Page Three) | The Washington Merry - Go- Round By DREW PEARSON (Lt. Col. Robert S. Allen now on active service with the Army.) WASHINGTON.—The other day, this column carried a story involv- ing Charles E. Wilson, executive vice-chairman of the War Pro- duction Board and ‘a fine public| servant—a story which I now find has done him an injustice. The story was that, over a year ago, during the heat of the War Production Board row between the Wilson-Nelson forces and the Army- Navy-Everstadt forces, Wilson pro~ bably by accident had picked up, with a new long-distance listening device, a conversation in which Bernie Baruch, Undersecretary of War Patterson, Undersecretary of the Navy Forrestal and others were critical. of the WPB and of the President. Chief point and occasion for the story was that the President was a forgiving person and had appoint- | ed Forrestal Secretary of the Navy despite the fact that he knew about this critica] conversation. This main point, however, seems to have been obscured in all the specula- tion as to whether private conver- sations can be safe in the future. 8o further elucidation is in order. First, however, the main point I want to make here is that I now find Mr. Wilson did not use any long-distance listening device or any other Wevice to listen in on the above conversation. This columnist has often paid tribute to Mr. Wil- son and is delighted to take this opportunity to do so again, and to say that, if any false impressions were given, it is deeply regretted. Mr. Wilson had absolutely nothing to do with the incident. v He informs me that his former company, General Electric, has not developed any long-distance elec- tronic listening device. Neverthe- less, other people have, so it looks as if the privacy of the nation might not be too sacrasanct in the future. One phase of the idea was first developed in Hollywood when movie companies wanted to take a long- distance angle shot and did not want the microphone to appear in the picture. So they used a direc- tional beam microphone which can pick up conversations a short dis- tance away. The radio companies developed Five American Airmen Reported Killed After Parachufingin Germany JAPS MAKING HEADWAY IN CHINA DRIVE New OffensiTe Under Way for Provincial Capital of Changsha CHUNGKING, May 31.—Throw- ing in fresh reinforcements in their drive toward Changsha, the Japs made headway against Chinese troops battling to hold off the in-| vaders from the thrice ravager pro-.| vincial capital, field dispatches re- ported. The communique said that a column is protecting the left flank of the main body which is moving down the trackless stretch of the Canton Hankow Railway and is reported to haye advanced 11 miles south of Tungcheng. In Hup,en.,mv% the Japs yes- terday captured uingan which served as one of the bases for their drive on Changteh last year, but the invaders failed in new attempts to push westward across the Sungtze River, a tributary of the| Yangtze. The Jap offensives in Honan and Hunan Provinces and others which may develop soon elsewhere have| as their aim the dividing of China into €astern and western halves, P. H. Chang, counsellor of the execu- tive council said at a press confer- ence. Situation Grave Emphasizing that the situation is| “indeed grave,” Chang said the Japfi offensives seek to control complete- ly the trunk line from Hankow to| Canton, and occupy or destroy the| newly built air bases to forestall any future American incursion along China's southern coast. A communique from General Stil- well's headquarters said the 14th Air Force fighters attacked. enemy concentrations yesterday in all of China’s battle areas. MUSICAL PROGRAM ENJOYED TUESDAY BY ROTARY CLUB The regular meeting of the Ro-| tary Club was held yesterday noon | in the Gold Room of the Baranof Hotel. On the musical program Maxine | Nostrand presented two piano se- | lections, and Buddy Hunter and Doug Gregg obliged with trombone | and guitar duets. Buddy also gavei his interpretation of a classical piano number gradually turning into boogie-woogie. Guests at yesterday’s meeting in- | cluded Mary McCormack, USO, hostess, who was introduced by Zack | Gordon; Chris Wyller, and J. P. Anderson. STOCK QUOTATIONS NEW YORK, May 31. — Closing quotation of Alaska Juneau mine| stock today is 5%, American Can 89%, Anaconda 26%, Beech Aircraft| 8%, Bethlehem Steel 58%, Curtissi Wright 5%, International Harvester; 74%, Kennecott 31%, North Ameri-| can Aviation 7%, New York Central 18%, Northern Pacific 16%, United States Steel 5212, Pound $4.04. ¢ Dow, Jones averages today arq% as follows: industrials 142.24, rails) 40.53, utilities 23.20. \ — e —— ON FIELD TRIP Dr. H. O. K. Bauer and Cather- the idea further for baseball games. 7 (Continued on Page Four) ine V. Uhl, both with the Office f | Indian Affairs, left for southeast Alaska ports on a short field trip. STOCKHOLM, May 31.—Amer- ican airmen who parachuted at three unnamed places in Germany on Monday were “killed by agitated people,” the Berlin correspondent of the newspaper Aftonbladets writes In a dispatch and passed by the German censorship office. The dispatch gave no details but the corregpondent said he received reports from a “traveler from Leip- zig” to whom he talked with in' Berlin. A later report said five American airmen were Kkilled as the “German police were unable to save them from the storm of rage among Ger- man civilians” when American | fighter pilots allegedly shot women {and children during sweeps over | Germany. - THIRTY PASSENGERS ARRIVE FROM SOUTH port yesterday, bringing the follow- ing persons from Seattle: Maurice Butler, Mrs. Violet But- |ler, Miss Kathleen Butler, Earl C. Finch, Charles E. Finch, Alvin Bloomquist, Eric Penttila. Horace H. Lisby, Mrs. Jessie G. Lrsen Mrs: Ursies D. Walker, Fran- [cis L. Neal, Mrs. Charles F. McKiv- er. ter Shuros. From Wrangell came M. King, M. H. Sides, D. Haas, Miss M. Kirk- patrick, L. Wand, Thomas Williams, M. Joseph, D. Perrin. Passengers from Petersburg were Mrs. Marcia Hungerford, Miss Win- ifred Bush, Gordon James and John McCormack. Boarding the vessel here from Sitka were Mr. and Mrs. M. L. Miles and daughter Joy, R. M. Griffin, C. P. Kirtland, 8. Einstos. Mrs. (_)Ié Westby, *Infant Daughter Leave St. Ann's Mrs. Ole Westby and infant daughter, Darlene Loree left St. Ann’s Hospital for their home on West Eleventh Street on Memorial The little girl was born at 11:51 |pm. on May 18 and weighed seven pounds. She joins Shirley, Jimmy and Sharon, who have been eagerly| awaiting her arrival at the fam- ily home. ¢ Mr. Westby is a well known Ju- neau fisherman, and is owner of the halibut boat Oceanic. Townsend Club to Picnic Next Sunday It was announced at the meeting of the Juneau Townsend Club last night in' the CIO Hall that the an- nual picnic of the organization will | be held next Sunday at Albert Pet- erson’s country place en the Loop Road, 13 miles from Juneau. A special bus will leave the bus station at 10:30 a. m. next Sunday -1 to convey the picnickers to and from the grounds. Anyone desiring .to enjoy a day’s outing in the country is invited to attend. RESERVATIONS 10 "END FOR: MOTHER- DAUGHTER LUNCH According to an announcement today, that unless all reservations are made by Thursday evening for the Rainbow Girls Mother-Daughter luncheon, scheduled for Saturday, the affair will be postponed. Reservations may be made by calling Mrs. Dora Sweeney, Miss Beverly Leivers or Miss Irene Wil- liams. | | . | | A northbound steamer came into! jApS' FIRSI i Mrs. Mabel Morgan, Andrew Er-| icksen, Roger A. Boyd, Robert G.: Norberg, Kenneth E. Harbert, Wal- | “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” UNEAU, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1944 INCOME TAX ' RETURNS TO {President Approves Streamlined Measure Passed by Congress _ WASHINGTON, May 31.—Presi= dent Roosevelt has approved the streamlined income tax laws de+ signed to simplify the annual chore of making income tax returns by ,millions of taxpayers. - | The bill was hurried through Con- gress on the heels of demands for simpler income tax procedure. | The streamlined measure elim? inates the formal filing of returns of low income taxpayers and also makes the task easier for those in | the upper brackets. ; - YANKS TAKE ~ TANKFIGHT :Medium, B;flTberg Sweei | in o Support Drive | for Biak Airdrome | ADVANCED ALLIED HEAD- QUARTERS IN NEW GUINEA, |May 31.—The Americans defeated |the Japs in the first tank battle of the Pacific war in the bloody fight for Biak airdrome, General Mac-| Arthur announced today. The Japs cpened up with tanks| in an effort to stop the advancing| Yanks at Mokmer airdrome and| eight Jap tanks were destroyed, -and heavy losses were inflicted on other Jap units. Meanwhile another Jap counter- attack was repulsed 200 miles to the southeast where the Americans are still fighting to gain the uncomplet-| ed Maffin airfield near Sarmi. In the Hollandia area the Yanks went, ashore 10 miles west of Tan- |ahmerah Bay to cut off the coastal| escape routes for isolated groups of | the enemy. | Arfly Mitchells and Bostons swept in low in support of ground troops| around Biak, cannoning tanks and Jap gun positions. FIRST PRACTICE ON OUTDOOR RANGE FOR . GUARD THURSDAY The first outdoor practice on the rifle range at Mendenhall for the Juneau unit of the Territorial Guard is scheduled for Thursday evening at - 7:30 o'clock. All members are to report to the A. B. Hall between the hours of 6 and 7 and should be equipped with 30-06 rifles and ammunition belts, and should be dressed in coveralls. Every member should try to make arrangements for transportation requested to stop at the A. B. Hall to pick up those who do not have means of transportation. A No. 2 shovel with a solid han- dle will be another good weapon to take along, according to Capt. Hen- ry Harmon, as there is some gravel near the pits that will need a litt!e manhandling. SEVEN PASSENGER: FOR FAIRBANKS ON ~ PAN AMERICAN TRIP A Pan American plane left for Fairbanks today, -earrying as pas- sengers the following persons: C. ¥. McKinnon, Kenneth Harbert, L. J. Palmer, Robert G. Norberg, J. Sid- ney Rood, R. R. Gebo and Ray Shinn, vice president of the Morr!- son-Knudsen Company. BESIMPLER _{members could recommend but not and those who are driving cars are| MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS BIG FOURTO CONFER HERE, PEACE PLANS U. 5. fo Put Forth Plan for | International Post- war Security WASHINGTON, May 31. — The United States is prepared to put forth at the forthcoming Big Four meeting here a plan for an inter- national security organization pat- terned after the Legaue of Nations and providing a consultative for- {mula for the use of force to sup- press war. By this formula each nation will retain final authority over its own troops, planes and ships and as- sign no direct power over them to an international agency. The agen- cy, after consultations among its order a member nation to use its troops for international police duty. The only binding commitment on ithis vttal point is to be one which, in effect, was already made by the four point declaration at Moscow that no participating country will use its forces on foreign territory except, in accordance with decisions of the international agency to maintain peace. Five Point Progr: ‘The - program, covering. ~main (points, will go before the represen- tatives of Russia, Britdin and China here this summer at the start of the informal discussion to which those governments were invited yes- |terday by Secretary of State Cor-| |dell Hull. | | The conferees will probably bel |the higher Foreign Secretaries of | |the four powers, Eden, Molotov, T.| V. Soong, and Hull or the Under-| secretaries. I President Roosevelt discussed the | American proposal briefly at his news conference yesterday, and |called it the first draft on the sub- |ject. It fits in, he said, with- the | |American aim to work with the; |rest of the world without in any |way detracting from U. S. inde- | pendence. The president also made plain in the course of the talks here the |three powers may be modified or merged into a single conference plan, if it can be agreed upon, in order to provide a satisfactory basis for further international action to- ward the creation of a league. The intention of the White House is not to make the plan public until after the Big Four meeting. —eee | ALASKA AIRLINER IN; “OUT T0 WESTWARD An Alaska Airliner, piloted by Roy Dugan and Terry McDonald, came in from Fairbanks with the, following passengers; Mrs. John Clark, Kathlesn Clark, - William| Clark, Patricia Clark, Mrs. Milton| |Alm, Marilyn Alm, Barbara Alm,; |Mrs. Bud Crollard, Martha Walker, | Mrs. H, Van Ellen and two chik |ren, Monico Tugadi, Ralph O'Neil!, ! Bailey Covey, James Boyle and L C. Peters. After discharging passengers here | {the plane left for Anchorage with |W. W. Stoll, William Zook, Ruth Ellison, Lydia Fohn-Hanson , V. McVicker, Nora McKinnon, Blanche | |Teed, Laura Teed, F. B. Lenzie, Gustav Hansen, and R. J. Sommers. —— e — MANLIES CITY; | WILL LOCATE HERE ! H. M. Main, who hails from Mon- itana, has arrived in Juneau and likes the city so much he is going to remain. He denies that Main |street was named after him. | Main has been safety inspector between - White River anc White- horse for the past four months and will now be employed at the Juneau By JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON, May 31. — Fre- quently, the States show the Fed- eral government the way. There has been a lot of fussing and fuming lately about what should be done to take care of the boys in the armed services when they come back from the wars. North Dakota decided to try to find out. The Greater North Dakota Association undertook the job. Sen. Gerald P. Nye has recently brought back from his State the preliminary reports on that under- |taking. As a State enterprise the methods used and the results ob- tained are fascinating. North Dakota, being primarily a farm State, keyed its questionnaire in that direction. Through the G. M. D. A, it went into every one of | the State’s 53 counties and already has received more or less complete reports from 42 of them. What' they did was to contact more than 6,000 North Dakota service men. No effort was made to do it directly, but answers were obtained through the families of these men. Exactly 5053 of those reporuing were on the farms when they were called to the armed services. But the number expressing a desire to take up farming when they come home is 5,523, Of the first number only 187 were working their own | farms when they went into service, and only 676 actually owned the land they were working; but 3,393 THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE PRICE TEN CENTS CREASES would like to buy land. The other 2,130 would be willing to rent or work on shares. To me the most enlightening fig- ure in the report was that the aver- age resources per man (in either cash, bonds or real estate) amount- ed to $1,050. That means that on the average, there won't be one of them coming back who couldn't make a down payment on a farm—' or perhaps buy a car outright. It's a phase of immecdiate postwar spending (which coupled with de- mobilization pay would be consid- erable) that I haven't seen dis- cussed by either industrialists or the Federal and State lawmakers. If the boys in other States com- pare with the average in North Dakota, that means well over 11 billion dollars in the armed forces savings backlog alone at present and a good deal more than that when demobilization starts. If similar surveys in other States bear out the trends established by the G. N. D. A. (of course the trends would be entirely different in industrial States, but savings, de- sires and so forth might establish similar averages) really intelligent legislation might be drawn to fit in | with what G. I, Joe really wants in a postwar world. North Dakota already has acted on its surveéy, It has passed a law holding State owned or State con- (Continued on Page Twol ALASKA COASTAL ON MANY FLIGHTS A return flight yesterday from Ketchikan brought Alfreda Fleek, Earl Bomgle, M. Bodrian and A. Shimon back to Juneau. A trip to Skagway yesterday after- noon carried Archie Klaney, Tom [Dyer and Larry Hagen to that city and returned with Betty Johnson, Ralph Mize, W. B. Beatty, Harold M. Ohm, John E. Hulberg, “James McDaniel and 8. 8. Wilson to Ju- neau. A eharter trip on the same day was made to Angoon to bring back M. M. Bauer and Catherine Uhl Today’s Ketchikan trip took Bob- ble .Doole§ to that city and W. Beatty, G. Dale, L. C. Berg, Miss { Uhl andd Dr. Boner to Wrangell. 4-H BAKING CLUB TO Boys and girls interested in join- ing a 4-H Baking Club are lnv\r,ed‘ to meet at the home of Mrs. Bur- rass Smith at 306 Seventh Street on Thursday evening, June 1. Mae Stephenson, district exten- tion agent, will organize the club and Mrs. Smith will be the local leader. Thé 4-H Garden Club will meet this evening in the City Hall at 7 ‘clock. Howard F. Barkley is the |local leader of this branch of 4-H Club activities. INDIAN AFFAIRS MEN ENROUTE TO NOME Leaving today by PAA plane, J. S. Rood, Reindeer Supervisor from Nome, is enroutz to the Westward town after completing reindeer con- ferences here. Accompanying Mr. Rood, Lawr- ence Palmer, Reindeer Examiner for the Indian Service, is making the trip for the purpose of starting a range survey in the reindeer coun- try, particularly on Nunivak Island. SR ol CHILD HEALTH CONFERENCE SCHEDULED FOR TOMORROW The regular weekly Child Health Conference will be held tomorrow afternoon between 1 and 4 o'clock in the Health Center of the Ter- Lumber Mills, —— e - Mrs. E. Kohlhase is registered at the Juneau Hotel from Harbor Is- land. ritorial Building. ————— John C. Paddock, of Haines, is in town and a guest at the Juneau Hotel. " " BE ORGANIZED HERE| BRITISH PILOTS DOUSE PLANES IN | TORRID WEATHER LONDON, May 31.—Flying weath- er was so hot that the British tac- tical air force ground crews poured water on the metal plane bodies to handle them, and pilots flying with | a minimum of clothing were burned when they came in contact with metal fittings in the planes. — et RADIO STATIONS GET ORDER CEASE BROADCASTING LOS' ANGELES, Calif., May 31— In the Los Angeles area radio sta- tions were ordered off the air for a brief time last night due to what | {the Fourth Interceptor Command | spokesman said was the approach |of an unidentified target. Broadcasting was resumed soon | after the stations had been ordered | to keep quiet. MICHAEL O'HERN PASSES AWAY ON ; TUESDAY MORNING Michael O’Hern, 55, died at 10:20 o'clock yesterday morning at St. | Ann’s Hospital, following an illness ! of several months. He was born in Chicago on August 5, 1888 and came |to Alaska in 1942 as an employee |of the Seims Drake Company at Sitka. | The deceased was unmarried and | |is survived by a nephew and a| niece in Chicago. The remains are at the Charles W. Carter Mortuary, | and arrangements for the funeral | | are to be announced later. LY G | POLICE COURT FINES ! The following were fined in City | | Police Court this morning: Charley }Henw. $25 and 30 days (time sus-| pended on good bgmvion, charged with being drunk and disorderly and | resisting arrest; Tommy Weaver, | $25, drunk. e — b FROM PETERSBURG | Arriving here yesterday were Muriel- Kirkpatrick and Winifred Bush of Petersburg. They are stay- ing at the Gastineau while in town, ————— STIFF FIGHT CONTINUING, IIAl!_FRONI Allies Make Advances in Face of Intense Ger- man Resistance ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NAPLES, May 31. — British troops have advanced to a point just south of coastal Pescaralle Nuova, 14 miles south of Rome, and the Ger- man radio says dramatic street fighting is in progress inside Velle~ tri on the Alban Hills road, the junction city 18 miles from Rome. Along the meandering 75 mile front from Valmontone to the Atina region north of Cassino, the Eighth Army has advanced swiftly against the withdrawing German rear guards, taking half a dozen or more towns, but in the critical area of the Rome line, generally 16" to 20 miles south of the Capital, the enemy defenses are stubbornly fighting along the 25 mile battle zone stretching from Valmontone, |around the southern slopes of the Alban Hills to Campo Iemini on the sea. At some points west of Velletri, the Allles are within six miles of the Pope’s summer home at Castel Gondolfo. The Germans have massed infan- try, QGM\M flamethrowers and scattered mines in - profusion in a do or dle attempt to check the Allied break-through of long established steel and stone for- tifications. The din of the approaching ‘battle grew louder as the Fifth. Army ai- dcked without pause the Provincial Capital Frosinone on the Casilina road 43 miles southeast of Rome. The line of the Germans is totter- ing as the Allies moved up four miles. ; The Berlin radio said German trops have taken .positions north a city of 20,000, and the increased fire shows the in- tent of the Germans is to hoid off the Allies until the bulk of their troops can be extricated from diffi- cult positions in the mountains be- tween Frosinone and Valmontone, FBI REVEALS BIG RACKET; 100 ARRESTED BOSTON, May 31.—Federal Bu- reau of Investigation Agents and Deputy United States Marshals to- day took 100 Bethlehem-Bingham shipyard piece work welders and counters in custody on charges of conspiring to defraud the governe ment. E. A. Soucy. Boston FBI Chief, said the arrests followed an ex- tensive FBI investigation of the most extensive war fraud racket of its type uncovered by the FBI dur- ing the current national emergency. It is alleged the counters agreed to give the welders a record of false credits on extra production and in return for the dishonest services of the counter the welders agreed | to kick back with a share of the weekly salary checks to include the amounts fraudulently obtained for work not done. In some cases it is said the individual counters re- ceived as high as $75 weekly in | extra pay. —— BERNARD BADRIAN, AL SHYMAN HERE Bernard Badrian, of the Hiram | Walker Company, and Al Shyman, of the Alaska Distributors, arrived in Juneau yesterday by plane on a business trip and are staying at the Baranof Hotel. o P Ralph O'Neill, registered from Iowa is at the Baranof Hotel.