Evening Star Newspaper, June 2, 1940, Page 9

LONDON.—NEW WAR WRECKS OLD MEMORIAL—British soldiers returning from Flanders said that this towering memorial, which Canada erected atop Vimy Ridge as a memorial to her World War dead, had been destroyed by German bombs. Several of the soldiers exhibited splinters of the monument they had picked up as souvenirs. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE 2, 1940— PART ONE. —A. P. Wirephoto. Blitzkrieg Copied From U. S. M-Day Plan To Mobilize 10,000 American Factories By JOHN LEAR. Coprright, 1940, by the: Associated Press. There is evidence in the fllesl of the Federal Government that|3S the Germans delivered in Hol- | placement of the needed machinery a substantial part of the plans foxl Adolf Hitler's blitzkrieg were “bor-J rowed” from the United States. | These plans would answer the most interesting question of the war in the Low Countries and in France: How have the Germans been able to strike such repeated sledge- hammer blows without serious in- terruption over so long a time? For these plans are America’s| plans for mobilization in event we g0 to war, and they gear up men | and machines and every other re- source of the Nation to win war as swiftly as possible. The M-day plans are plans for “total war.” They cover every con- ceivable factor in preparation for battle. Nothing approaching their efficiency had been devised any- where in the world before the organizing genius of the Uni‘ed States began drawing them up 20 years ago. No treachery—not even clever espionage—is responsible for the fact that the Nazis were aware of them. The plans were available also to the English and the French, who did not “borrow” them. Studied by Nazi Attache I cannot name the source of tne following information, but I can vouch for the fact that it is both official and reliable: (1) Within a yvear after Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, the Nazi military attache here be- gan studying the American war mobilization blueprints. The attache had the right to do so under ordi- ! nary diplomatic procedure. He spent six months making his exam- ination. (2) Not until a year after he com- ' pleted his study was the first of the Nazis' national defense laws passed =on May 21, 1935. (3) The war mobilization system Wwhich took shape in Germany after | that was a striking parallel to the American plan in all its principal characteristics. Agents from this | country, working in Germany, de- | scribed it as a “conscientious imita- | tion.” (4) The similarity was sharply | {llustrated in the Nazis' very first conquest—the “anschluss” with Aus- | tria. Immediately after occupying Vienna, the Germans made a census of Austrian industries and allo- | cated their respective share in sup- | plying war needs—in jdentically the same way as the same step is out- lined under the American plan. Resources Concentrated. (5) Then came the invasion of | the Low Countries, and the repeated | overpowering blows against the Allies which military men agree can | be explained only by highly concen- trated resources poured into the fighting front through ultra-efficient | lines of communication. | This method of “winding up” for & “haymaker” punch and following | through with all the strength the nation can muster is the very es- | sence of the American mobilization | scheme. It starts by teaming up | all the factories where munitions and machines are made, integrating the roads and railroads over which they must travel, allocating fuel | and electric power to vital points | and keeping men flowing up to the | front while putting those behind | the lines into jobs where they will do the most good. All war plans must follow this pattern, but this one operates on an exact timetable from start to finish. The first question that came to mind when I first received this in- formation was: Can this plan make that much difference in a land al- ready highly organized by a dicta- torial government? Greater Striking Power. The answer given to me was that Italy and Russia have authoritarian Why Be Nervous from LOSS OF HEARING? Relieve nervous strain. Open new roads to happiness with modern VACUUM TUBE RADIOEAR, now better than ever. All newest developments plus many exclusive features. Balanced tone range. No disturbing distortion or noise. [govemmen'.s. too, yet neither the |machine tools and test the speed of Ethiopian campaign nor the Finnish war produced such smashing blows land and Belgium. Further, it was pointed out, all news dispatches from the Flanders front stress the greater striking | power the Germans. have now as|would have first call on raw ma- | compared to the World War, when | terials. |they also had an absolute ruler, | would move essential war materials the Kaiser. The second question that arose was: If we have a plan as efficient as all that, why aren't we using it ourselves? The answer is that whereas Hitler could take advantage of his personal power to adopt the plan in peace- time and extend it to regiment a people, the Army and Navy of our democracy cannot—nor have they any desire to—use it until war threatens and Congress gives the word. The advantage to this country ifl the plan should go into effect would be that the United States has more resources than Germany to pour into it Based on World War. The mobilization plar is one of the most thorough biueprints ever drawn up for anything. It is based on three suppositions: (1) That the people of the United States, if they: must g to war, want to win that war as quickly as possible. (2) That thev want to wage war with as little disturbance as possible to our civil peacetime life. (3) That when the war is over we | can return to peacetime economy as quickly and easily as possible. These three suppositions are de- | rived from our experience in the World War. which caught us by sur- prise, disrupted our normal life and threw thousands out of employment when war factories sl.ut down and | the war demand for farm products subsided. Consequently, although the plan | (shaped during 20 years of both Re- publican and Democratic adminis- trations) as it now stands, has marked out every incustrial plant in the country for the part it can play in war, no plant is scheduled to turn more than 50 per cent of its normal output to war purposes. This would keep peacetime industry from shutting down. Factories Already Lined Up. Ten thousand factcries already have been told what they are to do, and all of them have agreed to do it. The Government has given them educational orders to buy dies and CHANGE TO A MODERN GAS RANGE . .. Change to a MAJEST'G snw Now Super-1 MAJESTIC gas ranges are the result of studying 900,000 records of gas customers cover inherent defects average stove. Below is one such defect and the tion by MAJESTIC. iproduction. The floor plans.of these plants have been marked out for when the time comes. | The plan sets up a system of pri- | | orities so that war necessities always | would come first. War factories Freight trains and trucks | first. Men would be encouraged, by | higher wages and by deferments | from draft for military service, to | work in plants where their output | | would mean most in winning the | | war. Money would be regulated in | the ‘same way. Profits and wages would be con- | trolled so that no worker would suffer and no capitalist wax fat on the war effort. Labor would be | called upon to put its shoulder to | the wheel, but it would be protected from excess demands by a labor ad- ministration functioning with other | | wartime agencies. | ! Subject to Congress. { Necessarily, as in all warring countries, individual liberties would | have to be subjugated to the national | But the basic democracy of | the procedure would be guaranteed | by the faet that the plan is always | subject to Congress. | Congress, in fact, would have to | adopt legis)-tion to put the plan into effect. The President would | have to sign that legislation. Right there is a point that has military | men in Washington wérried. They | are asking “Would he -ign it?” | Some months ago the Pres:-ent | | appointed a “War Resources Board,"” headed by Steelman Edward J.| Stettinius, jr., to study the plan. The | board did so. and is reliably re- ported to have approved it with ex- pressions of surprise at how com- plete it was. The President did not | make the board’s report public. Fear Plan May Be ~-rapped. Last week, amid widespread talk that the defense p::parations were to be handled by existing New Deal agencies, the White House ane nounced a “Naiional Defense Emer- gency Co-orcimating Group” of busi= ness leaders for the purpose of di- recting the effort. The President said that these leaders, although | legally subordinate to the cabinet, would be : esponsible directly to him in carrying out their work. Some war office experts feel that the President might be intending to scrap the existing mobilization plan and build a new one of his own. If he should, they contend, nsulated %9. service to dise ... including $10 of the for your old range. ey GE’: PLAN . BUD OTEE $115 A WEEK . . . COOKS THE COOK INSTEAD OF THE FOOD LeFEVREW |l‘l(‘:‘. K 5t 1 RE W it would be & hurried job and might run he risk of repeating what has happened in England. England, they assert, hurried plans to completion between the omnl of t;\e“v;;: in September and January 1, , for man power conscription, price control,’ trans- port and power utilization, and priorities for industry. . But these plans weren't sufficiently integrated, the needs weren't allocated in ad- vance and the resulting tardiness of production, with other things, fiinally forced the country into a virtual dictatorship under Winston Churchill. Last Word Is President’s. By sticking to a mobilization plan developed over two peacetime dec- ades, advocates of the existing plan say, the President could avoid the risk of too highly centralized war government. The war agencies would work side by side with the civil government and would go out of existence at war’s end. But, these advocates continue, if war agencies should be incorporated into the normal machinery of civil government, the whole gigantic set- up would remain at the close of the war and it might be too powerful to dismantle. The President has the last word. Slip Covers For 2-piece Suite. Tailored to your furniture with pre- cision and care. Choose from florals, stripes or $97.50 plain tones 27 Cricket Chair Solid Maple Chair with loose reversible seat and back cushions. Covered in glazed cot- 54»49 ton chintz __ Colonial Rocker A high-back rocker with solid mahog- any frame. Neatly covered in colonial cotton tap- S|7.75 estry Porch Rocker Large, comfortable rocker of solid maple and woven fibre 52.49 seat X Spring Chair Extra heavy steel tubing with seat and back of auto body steel. Choice of col- 5209 ors Steamer Chair Comfortable fold- ing chair of hard- wood and gaily cov- ered canvas. Nat- ural wood finish _____ 950 If war should develop, he might adopt the existing plan, or essential parts of it, or seek further develop- ment of it, with his new advisers, or others, in key positions. He hasn't said yet what he would do in such an event. Meanwhile, however, the plan as revised in 1939 was approved jointly by Louis Johnson and Charles Edison, who at that time were Acting Secretary of War and Navy, respectively, in the President’s cabinet. Balkan Economists Face Troubles in Trade Pacts By the Associated Press. BELGRADE, June 1.—Balkan en- tente economists assembled here to- day for an eight-day conference to seek means of stimulating interen- tente trade—but not at the risk of impairing contracts with Europe's i1 ers. "&h}% of Yugoslavia, Rumania, Greece and Turkey were empow- ered only to make suggestions to their government for possible ap- proval later. Yugoslavia, having big commit- ments with Germany, Italy and Sov- fet Russia, wanted to exchange her copper for Rumanian oil and'her cattle for Turkish cotton. Yet the Yugoslavia Ministry of Commerce declared that . “nothing’ will be done which would reduce our promised exports to other coun- tries.” Rumania, whose ofl is demanded both by Germany snd the Allies, was understood. to have little mar- gin left for bargaining with her entente partners. German refugees are giving teas for East London families. DICKENS ROOM 4 pm. to 2 250 BURLINGTON HOTEL 1122 VERMONT AVE. Leading Brands and all Mixed Drinks Pennsylvania Linoleum Co. 734 9th St. N.W. FREE PARKING DI. 5674 ARMSTRONG'S Inlaid. & NAIRN Inkid Linoleum Reg. $1.59 to $1.75 Sq. Yd. kg | $1.29 SQ. YD. Loid & Cemented Free Laid and cemented fra brass at doors, when you cover a room 10 square yards or more (bathrooms ex- cepted), Phone or come in! Large selection of colors and patterns suitable for all rooms. 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