The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, November 15, 1944, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. LXIV., NO. 9809 JUNEAU, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1944 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS —————————=3 JAP SHIPS, PLANES SENT DOWN IN RAID etz Defenses Crumble As Allies Approach | I THIRD ARMY IS CLOSING IN ON FORTRESS Suicide Stand at Fortress| Believed Improbable —Resistance Spotty BULLETIN — LONDON, Nov. 15—The American Third Army doughboys, battling through snow and sleet, have captured three more forts guarding Metz, bypassing two others and have reached points less than two miles from Metz. LONDON, Nov. 15—Three more of the vaunted forts guarding Metz | fell as the American Third Ax'my‘; offensive closed to within one mile and three quarters of the citadel city from the south. Forts Hubert and Jussy, west of | Metz, fell to the Ninty-fourth In-| fantry which now reaches to aj point two miles south of Thionville. | Fort Illange, south of Metz, and its garrison also surrendered. Ameri-| can troops captured Forts Laisne and Lyser and met stiffening Ger- . MOTHER LOVE-- MAXWELL IS KILLED IN ACTION 'Well Known Juneau Man| Pays Supreme Sacrifice in Present War Harry G. Maxwell, Jr., 26, ‘known Juneau young man, |killed in action October 24. IN A LITTLE GIRL > well was Many Government Deparime SOVIETS SAY JAPS LOSING | This was the brief announcement |from the War Department received in Juneau, and immediately radio- |grammed to Sybil Maxwell, his | wife, now at Anchorage, adding that full particulars would be sent later. | Presumably Maxwell, a Marine gunner, was killed during the naval action of Admiral Kincaid's fleet, (which intercepted a Japanese fleet | trying to batter Gen. Douglas Mae- | Arthur’s forces on Leyte, October 124, with the enemy fleet suffering bitter defeat at the hands of the United States task force. Maxwell, a Marine, was an ex- pert anti-aircraft gunner on cruiser, and is believed to have been in charge of the crew of one 2 PACIFICWAR Speaker Reminds Aud- ience Also that Nips Attacked Russia MOSCOW, Nov, 15.—Col. Ivan Tolchenov, Soviet military author- ity, said the war in the Pacific is developing unfavorably for Japan |and recalled to his lecture audience |that the Japanese “attacked and |raided the Soviet Union several times.” | His correspondents and Red Army men. | listeners included Japanese man opposition on a high ridge|| MorpEr LOVE in its embryonic stage is displayed by little Mary Jane |0f the batteries charged with de-|Tpe address came nine days after at the |fending the cruiser from air at- declared Japan an “aggressive beyond captured Pouilly. East of | Donnelly of Rockville Center, L. L, as she weeps bitterly this point other Americans sized ) “loss” of her doll, accidentally run over by an auto. (. International), : tact Peltre, two end half miles southeast of Metz. The German radio said Generalf George S. Patton’s troops opened | an assault on two more great Metz forts, Driant, which the enemy suc- Thé" Wl‘l S‘hi‘ngt;m Merry - Go-Round cessfully defended two months ago.} and Jeanne D’Arc, Some 150 miles to the north, Brit- ish troops smashed across the Noord | and Wessem canals, west of Roer-| mond and established a firm bridge- | WASH.INGTO —A lot of people head. Flame throwers and more have tried their hand at predicting than 400 heavy guns made the as- [the war’s end, including this col- sault. Two German counterattacks umnist. Some were high-up offi- were repulsed by the Americans cials, some private prognosticators. southeast of Metz; one in the Peltre- |Some were pretty good, some pretty Pouilly sector and another in thc‘bad_ Here is a cross-sectipn: vicinity of Arriance, where units of | Representative Earl Wilson, the Sixth Armored Divislon, spear- | giana Republican, in June, headed the attacks beyond the Nied g5t an average compilation from River. 140 Congressmen that the war There are signs that the Germans | o4 1o over in October, 1944. do not plan to stage a suicide stand Admiral William F. Halsey, who at Metz. Resistance has been spotty predicted “complete, absolute de- iong, hejentiver febnh |feat for the Axis in 1943 was The elaborate forts captured {IOM |, 4 44qin on December 13, 1943, the Germans were stripped of their | Al S5 ard GhEn the war big guns the Berlin radio said and |8nd “wasnt o st 2 i S en | Would be over the population of Bilian has bcu)‘ s LA O ordered evacuated. 0. TSHeR- ATROI, LAl O e Air Forces, on February 14, 1943, | predicted “the German war will be u“'TED AIR over by February 14, 1944.” | | Raymond Moley, November 8, 1943, predicted end of the war CHICAGO, Nov. 15—Officials 0f.eq ier than envisioned by%he Ad- United Airlines announce that ef-| . ;i oiion » fective immediately flights between Seattle and Anchorage, Alaska, will be terminated at the request of the Air Transport Command. The move is being made, company officials said, so that United Air- By DREW PEARSON Col. Robert S. Allen now on active service with the Army.) (Lt In- 1943 Jim Farley, on January 20, 1943, “The war will be over this year.” Gen. Levin Campbell, January 15, 1943—“The war will be over in about two years. Artillery wna gain as a factor in the war.” Herbert Hoover, November 6, 1943—"Certainly we are now in the last stages of the war.” O'Mahoney, Wyoming Democrat, January 2, 1944: “The most conservative Swedish ob- servers do not believe that Ger- Imany can endure beyond next Senator |feated six months afterwards” |p | Ger-Montgeeny, July 17, 1944 {“If we do our stuff properly, we |shall have Germany out of the wa. R this year.” Anchorage, where she had gone to Congressman Cannon, Democrat,| gecept a position with the ATS, Missouri, June 17, 1944 — “There|jy Force Division. is general belief that the Gorman} In Alaska In 1940 | Armies will collapse not later than| waxwell, a big, handsome, ath- the first or second week of Sep-|jetic young man, came to Alaska tember.” lin 1940 from his home in Fullerton, Winston Churchill, June 19, 1944| calitornia, where his parents, Mr. —“The months of this summer|ang Mrs, Harry G. Maxwell now may, by the victorles of this Al eside. Maxwell joined the staff of lied campaign, bring full success| to the cause of freedom.” Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, bid- ding farewell to Algiers, December 27, 1943, predicted that the Allies would win the European war in i1944. (Continued on Page Siz) GEMMILL IS BOUNDOVER, GRAND JURY Court Permifs Him o Go fo, | Former Wenatchee Home ~Then Come North | SEATTLE, Nov. 15—After a final | hearing before United States Com- rmissioner Harry M. Westfall, the Commissioner found probable cause ito bind Lynn James Gemmill, United States Attorney for the First Division of Alaska, with |headquarters at Juneau, over to the Grand Jury for action. Gemmill is charged in the com- |plaint, filed a week ago last Sat- furday, with the alleged soliciting KETCHIKAN, Alaska, Nov. 15— ang gccepting of money as a bribe Despite a downpour, property own- j, the case of an Alaskan woman WILLKIE'S POSTSCRIPT One of the last things Wendell | Willkie wrote, shortly before he |died, resulted ixz a friendly debate |with his old friend, Josephus Dan- iels, Woodrow Wilson's Secretary tof the Navy. Writing a guest column for John Temple Graves, Willkie told how, having been an ardent Democrat ;uud booster for the League of Na- | (Continued on Page Four) KETCHIKAN | | { Istalin tom” Pueeia and Japan are at rression pact. officers said he first stage ed offensive & the second |stage ot e awieu counter-offen- | sive. They declared the Japanese sea and air forces were inferior but “the Japanese fleet has not suffered blows sufficient to paralyze its ac- tivity, but its losses will greatly of- fect its possibilities for resistance.” >oe REQUEST CHANGES IN FISHING LAWS SEATTLE, Nov. 15—Members of the Alaska Salmon Fishing In- dustry are inwited to send written statements concerning changes they consider desirable in regulations for the 1945 season, to the office of Dr. Ira Gabrielson, Director of U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, at Chicago, before January 1. New regulations closing the sea- son in Southeast Alaska from De- cember 1 until March 15, have been announced by the Fish and Wild- life Service. —— - —— Fletchers Are Hosts At Small Gathering Mr. and Mrs, Jack Fletcher en- tertained at a dinner party given last night in the Gold Room of the Baranof Hotel. The dinner was honoring the Right Rev. John B. Bentley, Bishop of Alaska, and Mrs. Bentley, from Nenana, Alaska. Other guests at- tending were the Rev. Robert Webb and Mrs. Webb of Juneau. lines may transfer its personnel from that route to trans-Pacific op-| | June. Sun Fo, president of the legis- ers went to the polls Tuesday and voted 398 to 266 for approval of the $150,000 bond issue to help finance who is a defendant in a pending theft case. He is free on a $5000 erations which it helps to C"nd““;lati\'e Yuan of China, January 2, for the Army Transport Command. |yg44 “Germany will be knocked bond. | |the $400,000 Beaver Falls power de- Immediately after the hearing, velopment project as a supplement! STOCK QUOTATIONS NEW YORK, Nov. 15. — Closing quotation of Alaska Juneau mine the city’s present electricity Airline officials said they have ;. yatween the spring and sumer | of of this year compiled statistics more than 5,200,000 miles have been showing that| |source of the Ketchikan Public Utilities. Federal Judge Bowen grant«di Gemmill permission to leave the jurisdiction of the court and go to stock today is 6, American Can 87%, Anaconda 26%, Beech Aircraft 14,/ Bethlehem Steel 61, Curtiss- flown by the company on the| Seattle-Anchorage route” with 16,- dicted war would be over in two 500,000 pounds of men and supphes‘mo“ms, since 1942. Senator McKellar of Tennessee, Henry Ford, March 20, 1944, ]n'(‘«y The Federal Works,Agency }ms'Wenatchee, ‘Washington, his former | Wright 6%, International Harvester | granted $150,000 and the remainder home, then to Alaska. T7%, Kennecott 34!, North Ameri- |of the amount will be paid out of Mrs. Cleo Patricia Wilkins is|can Aviation 9%, New York Central 18%, Northern Pacific 15%, U. 8. profits of the utilities. 'SMITH BROOKHART DIES IN HOSPITAL 15 — old died July 21, 1944—“The Red Army will RAF plA"ES H"‘ be in Berlin in 60 days. The war will be over on all fronts in six { months.” Senator Thomas, Democrat, Ok- (lahoma, July 28, 1844—°1 don’t LONDON, Nov. 15—A force of Royal Air Force Lancasters at- takced a synthetic oil plant at Dort- mund, in the Ruhr today. This is 'sce how Germany can last through i the first operation of heavy bomb- PRESCOTT, Ariz, Nov. Smith Brookhart 57 year former Senator from Iowa, ans’ Hospital, where he has been confined since the first of the year. |the rest of this year.” | Congressman May, Democrat, Kentucky, July 28, 1944—“Germany | = : will capitulate by December 1.” :arf]kf:.:;l TB;::::‘ Ssu:xggy t;eonl‘ij:: Under Secretary of War Patter- American bombers remained |SO%: July 29, 1944—We are now aground in Britain, but unescorted entering the beginning of the last | — . forces of Libertors and Fortresses Phase of the war in Europe.” FROM ANCHORAGE from Italy bombed targets in the| Gen. Chennault, July 21, 1944—| Mrs. Paul Gagnon is in town region of Linz and Innsbruck, in|“I think Germany will be defeated and is registered at the Baranof Austria, !within this year. Japan will be de- Hotel from. Anchorage, today in the United States Veter-l {named in the complaint as the woman from whom Gemmill is accused of accepting a bribe. She testified at the hearing that she met Gemmill on November 1 in the Gowan Hotel, where “he told me that for $2,000 or $3,000 he would assure me of a suspended sen- tence.” | On November 4, |gave him $1,500. | When arrested, Gemmi!l said he took the money from the woman when the woman offered to make partial restitution of tle theft. FBI agents testified criminal she said, she a | follows: Steel 56%, Pound $4.04. Dow, Jones averages today are as Industrials, 145.64; rails, 41.30; utilities, 25.11, PRICES TUESDAY Alaska Juneau mine stock closed Tuesday at 6, American Can 87%, Anaconda 26%, Beech Aircraft 12%, Bethlehem Steel 61%, Tommon- wealth and Southern %, Curtiss- Wright 6%, International Harvester 70%, Kennecott 34';, North Ameri- can Aviation 11%, New York Central 18%, Northern Pacific 12%, United States Steel 16%, Pound $4.04. icase is pending in Alaska against Mrs. Wilkins, also involving two men and another woma:. Dow, Jones averages Tuesday were | as follows: Industrials, 145.60; rails, 41.31; utilities, 25.19, nis Begin Cutting Personnel By JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON, Nov. 15—One in- dication that war production and government war controls have reached their zenith is the number of cutbacks in government per- sonnel ordered or already taken. | Selective Service, for example, will drop nearly 15 per cent of its approximately 21,600 employees. The Office of War Information al- ready is making cuts of nearly the same percentage, mostly in its overseas branch, from which Di- rector Robert Sherwood recently re- signed Incidentally, Selective Service is reported to have plans for a per- manent postwar organization pro- vided Congress votes compulsory |military service for peacetime. But it won't take much of a staff, com- |pared to wartime demands. The Office of Defense Transpor- itation soon wiil be shaved about 130 per cent. The Office of Cen- sorship already has made some substantial reductions, and will make additional ones, but nothing very much can be done there until V-E Day actually arrives. { Among other war agencies that are. . slicng . thglr ustaffc. are Petroleum Administration for War; the War Manpower Commission {the War Production Board. How- ever, some agencies are going to! increase personnel, notably the| Veterans' Administration, which |has @ temific job ahead; the Smaller War Plants Corporation and the labor agencies concerned with postwar rehabilitation and " (Continued on Page Thiree) EIGHTH ARMY SPANS RIVER Attempt Stand Along Cosina Canals ROME, Nov. 15.— Eighth Army forces today crossed the Montone River, more than two miles north- Bologna, Allied Headquarters said. In the Apenine foothills, to the south, the Germans made a slight withdrawal. It is believed they will attempt to hold positions along the canalized River Cosina, which the highway crosses just west of the Montone River. NO CHANGE, TAX RATES WASHINGTON, No. 15.— Chair- man Doughton of the tax initiating House Ways and Means Committee, said he sees no prospects now for revising taxes on 1945 income, and thus echoed Chairman George of the Senate Finance Committee. Both declared the prospects for any substantial change in the 1945 tax rates is “very remote.” | Doughton said the need for rev-: enue for the war is unchanged. (affery Nominated Ambassador, France | WASHINGTON, Nov. 15. — The President has sent to the Senate the nomination of Jefferson Caffery to be United States Ambassador to France, i ‘E Caffery is already functioning that capacity. UNION HEAD RAPS (LAIMS OF INDIANS Also Says Doubt Exists as to Desire of Indians for Control SEATTLE, Nov. 15.—A union of- ficial today asserted, as the Alaska Indian land claims hearings re- sumed, there is “a serious question”| as to the desire of Alaska natives to claim exclusive use of the Alaska | fisheries area now being sought. J. F. Jurich, President of the In- ternational and Fishermen and Al-| lied Workers’ Union, said, in a letter admitted as an exhibit, the question | arose when union representatives! made their own investigations in the | Southeast part of the Territory. Extensive hearings on the claims| were held by the Department of the Interior in Alaska two months ago. Claiming he represented 22,000 union members, Jurich's letter| stated he believed “this was sort of | a discrimination and would create TASK FORCE MAKES RAID MANILA AREA 14 Nip Vessels, Floating Dock, Many Planes De- stroyed in New Attack By CHARLES H. McMURTRY (A, P. War Correspondent) UNITED STATES PACIFIC FLEET HEADQUARTERS, PEARL HARBOR, Nov. 15 American Third Fleet carrier planes sank or damaged 14 Japanese ships, one floating drydock, downed 28 planes, and strafed 130 more in renewed raids on the Manila area, Sunday The enemy counter-attacked the ‘curricr task group and one Ameri can ship was damaged, Admir. Chester W. Nimitz reported. (Both the Tokyo radio and the Japanese-controlled Manila radio announced earlier that 800 Ameri- can planes struck Manila Bay shipping, hitting the Cavite Navy yard and Clark Airfield. Tokyo racial prejudice, and would con- stitute a serious threat to the econ- | omy of Alaska.” 1 Dr, E. D. Clark, Secretary of the| claimed that one American battle- ship was sunk by sulcide piiots on East Luzon Island.) Admiral Nimitz summed up the e | Alaska Salmon Cannery Association, damage Inflicted by Hellcats, said more than a million dollars in Avengers and Helldivers as one taxes are collg ly by the|light cruiser damaged, two de- mwn’mm industry. |stroyers exploded, an euum:bed#n DeWitt Gilbert, Editor of Pacific cargo ships and oilers sunk or left Fisherman, gave comparative’ fig-|ablaze, floating dock torpedoed, |ures on the Alaska canned salmon and many docks in the Manila Bay f { NEAR FORLI Believed Germans Will west of Forli, on the highway t0, The Supervisors' output over a number of years. Strikers Defy WLB Order fo Gofo Work BULLETIN—WASHINGTON, Nov. 15—Prodded by WLB of- ficers, the Supervisors of the Wright Aeronautical Corpora- tion, late today agreed to call off the strike at the New Jersey plants and will vote to return tomorrow. | PATERSON, N. J,, Nov. 15. — | Striking Supervisors of the Wright Aeronautical Corporation’s five |plants in this area have voted to \dlsregard the War Labor Board's jreturn to work order and remain out until the Amy takes over. Production in all plants is at a | standstill. walkout kept from 32,000 to 35,000 employees idle. Wright manufactures Cyclone en- gines for Superforts. —_———e—— CORPORATIONS INDICTED FOR PRICE FIXING WASHINGTON, Nov, 15 — At~ torney General Biddle announces that 18 steel corporations and six l | area and Cavite Navy yard struck. | There is no indication whether |any of these ships were previously |damaged in the October naval ac- {ucn in the Philippines or carrier |strikes, or whether they were newly arrived in Luzon and thus may be added to the previous high toll of Japanese shipping. D YANKS TRAP JAP FORCES ~ INBIG MOVE Nips on Ormoc Corridor Threatened with An- nihilation or Refreat By MURLIN SPENCER (Associated Press War Correspondent) MacARTHUR'S HEADQUART- ERS IN THE PHILIPPINES, Nov 15.—SBuccessful enveloping move- | ments by veteran Americans of the 24th Infantry and dismounted First Cavalry Divisions fashioned a new trap today which threatened to an- nihilate Japanese forces on the north end of Leyte’s bloody Ormoc corridor. Twenty-fourth Infantrymen drove a spearhead through the rugged mountain country southwest of Pin- amapoan, threatening the Yama- + shita line below Limon. Gen. Mac- ‘of their officers have been indicted | Arthur reported the strategy was in Trenton, New Jersey, on charges Wwell executed. of conspiring to fix prices on stain- less steel. Biddle said the Grand Jury in- dictment charged that beginning in 1934 and continuously until the present time, the defendants were | While units of the 24th, fighting along Ormoc road, maintained pres- sure on the Japanese, other elements of the division swung through the mountains to the southwest and cut back toward the Ormoc road. At |co-conspirators engaged in unlaw- ful conspiracy to arbitrarily fix and maintain uniform non-competitive prices, terms and conditions for the sale of stainless steel and finished products sold in the United States. the same time, the First Cavalry | swung toward the road from the ° east and southeast, placing the | Japanese in a position of having |to retire or face probable an- nihilation. Conviction will involve a maxi- | mum penalty of a $5,000 fine and one year imprisonment on each of the two anti-trust charges, Biddle said. . WELL BABY CONFERENCE The regular weekly Well Baby Conference will be held Thursday afternoon at 1 o'clock in the Ju-| J neau Health Center, room 108 of the Territorial Building, On the southern end of the west- lern Leyte battlefield, a small scale | Japanese attempt to bring rein- forcements was repulsed by troops |of the American Seventh Division | which caught the enemy moving forward in small barges toward Dumalaan, 14 miles south of Ormoe. This is the first mention in more than a week of the Seventh Divi- sion, driving from the south toward Ormoe, the only remaining rein- forcement port for the enemy,