Newspaper Page Text
Washington, D. C.
GUNPOWDER EMERGENCY
In the public mind America’s Na
tional Defense Problem No. 1 is pro
duction of airplanes. Actually, how
ever, it isn’t.
War department chiefs haven’t
been advertising it, but their great
est worry is gunpowder. You can’t
fight a war without powder. And
up until recently the annual powder
production of all U. S. factories was
only 12,000,000 pounds, which would
last us a few short weeks in war
time.
In comparison, the United States
produced 500,000,000 pounds of pow
der at the end of the last war, and
had partially built factories which
would have produced another 500,-
000,000 pounds a few months after
the Armistice.
It happens that nitrate is the key
to gunpowder production. Manufac
ture of powder is a simple and
speedy process. But it is made from
explosive nitrate, and nitrate pro
duction is far more difficult.
There are two kinds of nitrates,
natural and synthetic. Major source
of the natural is Chile. But it has
two big drawbacks: (1) the desper
ate shipping shortage; (2) the prod
uct’s inferiority to synthetic nitrate
for powder purposes, although good
enough for fertilizer. Use of syn
thetic nitrate for explosives is far
more efficient, less expensive and
militarily more desirable.
In the United States there are only
two big producers of synthetic ex
plosive nitrate—Allied Chemical and
Dye corporation, at its giant Hope
well, Va., plant; and duPont.
First hitch was objection to the
government’s plan of importing Chil
ean nitrate, thus permitting Allied
Chemical’s Hopewell plant to stop
making fertilizer and devote its en
tire capacity to explosive nitrates, if
necessary.
The chemical industry fell on this
plan like a ton of brick. Backed by
certain army officials, it hotly de
nied that the nation faced a nitrate
shortage. Hopewell’s full facilities,
it was argued, would not be needed
for powder purposes.
The defense commission then
turned to developing new plant fa
cilities. Here good fortune seemed
to smile. TVA still had its World
war nitrate plant at Muscle Shoals.
When the defense commission
moved to use this government-owned
plant, it again ran into powerful op
position from big business, particu
larly from the duPonts, tactitly en
couraged by the army. However,
weeks later, the defense commis
sion finally had its way and the plan
was approved. Defeated, the du-
Ponts did the sporting thing and of
fered to sell TVA latest types of
oxidizers, thus expediting renova
tion of the Muscle Shoals plant.
TVA and defense commission
heads were delighted. But their
pleasure—and duPont’s willingness
—was short-lived. When it came to
installing the machinery, duPont de
manded a guarantee that it would be
used only to produce explosive ni
trate and never fertilizer, in which
duPont is heavily interested.
This was rejected flatly by TVA,
which pointed out that even if it
wanted to, it couldn’t accept such a
restriction under the law. Further
more, it didn’t want to.
DuPont remained adamant, re
fused to lend its machinery without
the guarantee. So TVA had to go
into the market, order new ma
chinery for the government.
* • *
NO MORE HARDTACK
Hard tack, that celebrated butt of
doughboy jibes, will be largely elim
inated from army field rations if
Donald M. Nelson, energetic co
ordinator of defense purchases, has
his way.
Nelson has worked out a novel
scheme to make U. S. army field
rations the best in the world.
The defense purchasing chief and
his aides have discovered a substi
tute canned, irradiated bread.
Large quantities of this have been
ordered for the army. Hermet
ically sealed in small tins, suitable
for carrying in a knapsack, the
bread will remain fresh indefinitely.
In addition, every soldier in the
field will carry a second tin of a meat
and vegetable mixture containing all
the essential vitamins. The two
cans together will give him a bal
anced diet away from camp.
• ♦ *
EAST INDIES OIL
The Dutch Shell Oil company has
secretely planted with “sleeper”
mines, which can be detonated at a
moment’s notice if the Japanese
set foot on the island. In that case
millions of dollars worth of hold
ings will be blown up or fired.
• * •
MERRY-GO-ROUND
The new TVA picture, “Power for
Defense,” will have a wider distri
bution than any film ever produced
by the government. It will be shown
in more theaters than “The Plow”
and “The River” combined.
Brig. Gen, Raymond Lee, keen
U. S. military attache in London,
is now home on leave and jumps
every time a plane zooms over
Washington airport.
Tobacco-chewing Sen. Bill Bulow
of South Dakota, sports the biggest
hats on Capitol Hill.
S^GENERAL
HUGH S.
JOHNSON
I Jays':
HHBkHH United Featurrt W WNUSmkA
Washington, D. C.
ITALY’S ‘POWER’
Before his sudden foray by his
right flank on western Europe and
when there was still some specula
tion as to whether he would not
team up with Italy and strike
France by his left flank, Hitler is
reported to have said that he didn’t
even want Mussolini to enter the
war—that with Benito neutral he
didn’t need to worry about that sec
tor, but if 11 Duce came in he would
have to detach 30 German divisions
to protect him.
There was good sense in that. The
French general staff had somewhat
the same idea about Benito. The
only offensive they had planned
against Hitler was to strike Musso
lini and they expected it to be a
joyride. Before that could develop,
Adolf had sideswiped them on the
other side and Benito took what he
thought was his opportunity.
The world knows the result. Hit
ler was right the first time. Re
j ports make it clearer daily that he
has simply had to appoint himself
receiver in bankruptcy for busted
Benito, with all the risks and re
! sponsibilities that the job implies.
Italy has become a vassal state to
Germany and, for however long it
I may last, it is a fact worth remark
that Hitler has thereby restored ap
proximately the boundaries of the
j Empire of Charlemagne in which
j the inclusion of Italy according to
\ the great world historian Dupuy
I “lost thereby its independence for
j 10 centuries.”
As a modern war power, Italy
simply doesn’t exist and, in compar
ison with the rest, hasn’t existed
| in our time. No nation can really
be formidable in modern war with
| out owning or having access to three
great industries—chemical, mctal-
I lurgical and manufacturing. Italy
has had none of these. She is just
a long salient stuck out into the
Mediterranean where she is as vul
nerable and uncomfortable as a sore
thumb.
Once, as a great sea power as
well as a great land power, she
ruled the world, but that was when
it was principally a Mediterranean
world and when armies meant little
more than massed muscular man
power. Even then she was depend
ent on the rest of the world for
nearly all her metal and most of her
food. Her principal value to Hitler
was her threat to North Africa, a
bottle neck in the Mediterranean,
and such naval and military ma
terials and munitions as she had ac
cumulated through the years.
Her equipment has been proved
obsolete, the threat to North Africa
is over and, so far as she is con
cerned, the bottleneck has been bro
ken. Benito was the worst bargain
that Adolf ever bought. Now that
bargain is his baby and the care
and policing of it is going to take a
considerable part of his military,
naval and air power that he may
need desperately elsewhere.
♦ A A
PRIORITIES
There is a report in Washington
that we are going to have to stop
making electric washing machines
and later electrical refrigerators be
cause of the aluminum shortage.
This is said to be because of the
priorities of delivery that will have
to be given to certain munitions in
dustries. O. K., they must not be
held up for lack of anything, if, as,
and when they need it. But in grant
ing a priority the OPM or the pri
ority board has a much greater ob
ligation than just channeling the en
tire outflow of a strategic material
to Factory A or Factory B at its
demand—especially if the effect is
to close up a normal industry em
ploying many people,
A priority order should govern
not only total quantity of delivery
but time of delivery. It is up to
the government control to get the
strategic material to the user ex
actly as it is needed. But it is also
up to that control in rationing a
scant supply to see to it that there
is no hoarding and no ordering far in
advance of time of use.
The very first thing that should
be done in the application of drastic
rationing is to explore every stock
pile in this country. Nothing of
this sort has been done. It could
be worked on a rough random check
through the insurance companies.
It could be done more thoroughly
and accurately by a questionnaire
dragnet. Leon Henderson would
know how to do it better than any
body 1 know—and get the answer
in the quickest way.
Another activity for which govern
ment control is responsible before it
moves to unnecessary upsets and
deprivations, is to set up a unit to
explore the possibilities of conserva
tion and substitution.
AAA
Practically nothing has been done
along these lines. Simple dogmatic
priority is very effective but, with
out assuming full responsibility for
these other safeguards, it is a sort
of “easiest way” that may lead to
some very unpleasant aftermaths of
recrimination and bitter resentment.
I have been so roundly criticized
for even referring to World war ex
perience on these matters that I
am getting gun shy. I don’t know
to what 1 could better refer, but
since it irritates the customers I am
trying to restrain myself.
HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL. PERRY, GEORGIA
Kathleen Norris Says:
How Much Money Is Enough
To Marry On?
(Bell Syndicate—WNU Service.)
ANY steady salary is enough for the right wife, and that no salary—
no matter how large, is enough for the wrong one.
By KATHLEEN NORRIS
yTY DAUGHTER is en
\ /I gaged to a very fine
young man,” writes a
Massachusetts mother. “She
has been teaching for two years
but would give up work if she
married. I have trained her
well as a housekeeper and she
is not extravagant. But John’s
salary is only $l,BOO a year, and
both her father and I feel that is
not enough for a young couple
who hope for children and who
have certain social obligations
to sustain. What, in your opin
ion, is the minimum sum upon
which a girl is safe to marry in
these days? There is no imme
diate prospect of a raise for
John, and it is hard to condemn
them to an indefinite wait. At
the same time my husband and
I are most unwilling to see Mar
garet trapped by drudgery and
poverty. As we live in an edu
cational institution ourselves,
and most of my husband’s sal
ary is paid in free board, free
rent, and perquisites like laun
dry, telephone and transporta
tion allowance, we cannot prom
ise much help.”
The answer to this is that ANY
steady salary is enough for the right
wife, and that no salary—no matter
how large, is enough for the wrong
one. If Margaret is intelligent
enough, and strong enough, to mar
ry her John on his $l,BOO, she will
discover that she can live comforta
bly, keep free of debt, and even save
on that sum. If she is going to
make her one object in married life
the keeping up with more affluent
friends, pretending eternally that
she can afford what she cannot af
ford, straining to entertain on their
terms rather than her own, then she
has lost the fight before she ever
began it.
Bank One-Third of Income.
To begin with, she must find quar
ters for not more than $25 a month.
Some budgets say that rent may be
as much as one-third of the income,
especially if rent includes garage,
light, hall service, furnace heat. But
I don’t. I say that rent should never
be more than one-sixth of the in
come, because when I suggest a
budget for young husbands and
wives I plan that ONE-THIRD of it
shall always go into the bank.
That seems high; indeed it IS
high. But there is no safety for
married happiness like the safety
that financial co-operation gives. To
have $6OO in the bank at the end
of the first year is far better than to
have the bills for the arm-chair, Ve
netian blinds, shampoos, daffodils,
gasoline and confectioners ice cream
that Margaret ordered because dar
ling Johnnie loved comfort and
beauty at home, or the higher rent,
new car, top coat, club member
ship, downtown luncheons that John
felt were necessary to impress his
business associates.
In other words, if you marry on
$l,BOO a year, live on $1,200. It can
be done; it can be done with dignity
and comfort. It means that your
market bill, including soap and
vegetables, never runs over a dollar
a day. Rent and food thus come to
$55 a month, and $lO a week re
mains for other things, with $5 over.
No scrap of food must be wasted, no
expensive foods, chicken and cream,
olive oil and steak, bottled drinks
and cocktails, may be bought at all;
and such everyday luxuries as tele-
MONEY TROUBLES?
“His” salary is small; there’s no im
mediate prospect of a raise; parents
cant help; then, what of the future?
Should you marry? ANY steady sal
ary is enough to establish the small
home in which husband and wife can
build for the future, says Kathleen
Norris. Read her sound advice to
young moderns who hesitate about
matrimony.
phone, refrigerator, club, car, beau
ty parlor must be given up for
awhile at least.
Successful Families Save.
But that still leaves the soup ket
tle and the radio and the small
home in which a man and a woman
are building for a sound future.
Ninety-nine out of every hundred
successful American lives began
that way. I don’t mean multi-mil
lionaires, although such fortunes as
the Ford and the Woolworth for
tunes started with the saving of
nickels and dimes. But I mean the
hundreds of thousands of prosperous
folk who live in the handsome homes
we all drive past on Sunday; the
big rooms and the big fires, the nice
little maid coming to the door, the
boys off in college, the girls having
glorious times at dances and ski
ing parties.
And believe me, there’s a great
relish to life lived on the terms of
love in a cottage. There’s a great
thrill in stretching those seven pre
cious dollars every week to spread
over butter and eggs, cornstarch
and carrots, apples and bacon. No
partnership in life is quite as heart
filling as the partnership of the man
and woman who have the courage
to withdraw for awhile from the
competition of card-parties and din
ners, new frocks and new cars, and
look ahead to a bigger future. It
isn’t always easy to do. The im
pulse to take the car on long extrav
agant trips, to send just a few flow
ers to Betty in the hospital, to wire
the Browns on their anniversary, or
to spend as much for Christmas
wrappings as for the gifts within the
wrappings, is a very natural one.
Road to Wealth.
But what you learn in the lean
years, what you gain from books and
walks and plans when you decide to
live within—not your income, but
two-thirdg of it, will be of priceless
value to you all the rest of your
life. For saving even a little and
keeping out of debt is the INEVITA
BLE road to wealth. You don’t un
derstand that truth, and neither do
I, But the truth remains. Families
that keep absolutely out of debt and
that save even a few dollars a month
are as inevitably pushed toward
prosperity as families, who follow
the other course, sink steadily to
ward habitual financial trouble and
incompetence and discomfort.
And the strange thing is that If
the thrifty family has to face an
expensive illness, a reduction in sal
ary the rule works just the same.
A few months, a few years, and they
are steadily on the up grade again. !
Whereas the spendthrift family may
inherit $lO,OOO, may inherit 10 times
that sum, and within a few years il
will be deep in money trouble again.
A couple I knew lived carelessly
and casually in debt for some 10
years. Then the man received a j
legacy of some $40,000.
Penalty of Extravagance.
“We're going to pay something on
the bills,” he told me, as they ex
panded joyfully to a new car, a
new home, a trip abroad.
But to come back to Margaret
and her John. Yes, I’d marry on
$l,BOO a year and glory in the ad
venture. I’d marry on two-thirds of
that sum. Thirty-three years aga
that’s exactly what I did.
SSS 2
{J'HI PhiHipr §r
THE PAPERS OF PRIVATE
PURKEY
Dear Ma—
Everything is about the same here
in camp, especially the weather
which has been of two kinds all win
ter bad and worsen and anybody
who gets drafted this spring instead
of in midwinter like I did is getting
a great brake. My feet have taken
so much abuse they are unconscious,
and don’t beleve that stuff about this
being a machine war as I have nev
er seen so much walking done in
peace or war. From my experience
I think I have been drafted in a
bunions derby.
• • •
Nothing makes the boys so sore
up hear as when they get a paper
and read about
all them strikes
anc * walkouts
flaround the coun
try. Every time I
./jhere a k° u * those
guys with nice
'^ 9 j warm jobs who
go home every
night to home-cooked chow and yet
squawk about the hours and the pay
it gives me a pain you know where.
Beleve me if I was out of the army
and had a job where I could quit
every night and not saloot nobody I
would mow down anybody who tried
to sell me the idea I was not get
ting a square dele.
* • *
Well, I am getting used to spend
ing all my time in a uniform now
but it is no cinch after being used
to having three soots in different
colors, one with patched pockets and
one with cuffs on the pants all my
life. Gee, ma, it would feel swell to
get into a white shirt, striped neck
! tie and Sunday soot once in a while.
In the army you have to ware the
same soot Sunday you wore all week.
• * *
I can be transferred to a tank
corpse if I want to but I don’t know
whether I would ______
like it much. The ffpT.
work looks too jbr 1
confining and
while I would like J
to get into a serv- [
iss that would be
easier on my feet
a tank aint my ”
idea of no pleasure kar. A friend of
mine was in the tanks and he says
it is like going to war in a safe.
A tank is like a taxi with no springs
and with all the upholstering done
by a scrap iron man. I guess I
would be safer from stray bullets in
a tank but I do not think I will sign
up unless •! thumb a ride and see for
myself how it is. Before a soldier
joins a tank corpse the least the gov
ernment should do is give him a
demonstrayshun.
* * «
How is the defense program com
ing on back home? I see where some
Washington witnesses say the coun
try is short of planes, guns, tanks
and everything. As the old gag
goes, this is a fine time to tell me,
heh, ma?
• • •
I wish the government wood turn
the whole thing over to Henry Ford.
He is the father of quantity produck
shun and the mother too, I guess.
All you have to give him is a mon
key rench a few nuts and a gen
eral idea what the war needs and
he will turn it out so fast that Uncle
Sam will not only have enough
planes, tanks and guns for 1941 and
1942 but will be giving previews of
the 1943 moddells.
• • •
Do not worry about me as my
flew is a little better and I am get
ting ased to chilblains. After all I
was lucky not to get send with them
boys to New Fundlind.
Love,
Oscar.
* • *
APPEAL TO REASON
Driver, driver, spare that horn!
Particularly when
You fear eight seconds of delay,
Or, at the outside, TEN!
* * •
Italy seems to have developed to
a high point the quick-detachable
general.
** * \
Add similes: as dull as ice hockey
to a visitor from London.
. * •
LAMENT IN BAD RHYME
I do not know the reason, t
But the fact is r
When hubby looks at me he
Talks of taxes.
—R. P.
* • •
! Money may be the root of all evil,
says R. Roelofs Jr., but it is still
the main basis of a good defense.
... |
SONG FROM THE SIDELINES I
I’m lost in admiration
Of virile folks like these
I Who leap from snowy mountaintops
Upon a pair of skis; i
Who skate with zest on icy ponds
And have a tibia cracked
But ’ll just stand upon my feet—
I like myself intact!
—Frances M. Miller.
• * •
Gene Tunney is now in service
at Pensacola. Speaking of de
fense, nobody ever knew more
about it than Gene.
I
Pot Holders to Make
F ° r Spring Ba zaar
By RUTH WYETH SPEARS
T H ? S E moody you ng l adies
A with their sun-tanned face-,
gay bandannas and sparkling but
ton eyes will stand out among
holders with less personality Also
you can have fun making them’
You won’t need a stamping Pat ‘
tern. Just follow the directions m
the sketch to change the faces
from gloom to joy by easy stages.
Baste the tan piece for the face
to a cotton flannel interlining with
a line of basting exactly through
[USE A6"SAUCER ASA
FOR CUTTING
AND INTERLINING-FACE ffck
BINDING \ __ V WHITE
RED , V /buttons Vk ) I
l-^NDBLACK/ffiV*
/fjti® DRAW A HEART
tfgf rhP AND EMBROIDER
{ W tp vg —rr IN RED
A Pappuoue
\h -dSv J a CRESCENT OpC— J
\.^>^W H | T E-OUTLINE TEETH
IN BLACK THREAD
the center up and down and an
other crosswise through the cen
ter. The two pieces for the ban
danna lap one inch below the top
of the up-and-down line. Their
lower ends come one-half inch be
low the ends of the crosswise line.
Stitch these in place. The one
inch buttons for the eyes are
spaced two inches apart and the
tops are one-fourth inch above the
crosswise line of basting. The top
of each mouth is \\k inches below
this crosswise line.
* * *
NOTE: There are many other illustrated
Ideas for gifts and bazaar items in num
bers 2 and 4 of the series of 32-page book
lets which Mrs. Spears has prepared ior
our readers. She will mail copies to read
ers who will send name and address wilh
10c in coin for each booklet ordered. Just
address:
MRS. RUTH WYETH SPEARS
Drawer 10
Bedford Hills New York
Enclose 10 cents for each book
ordered.
Name
Address
QUINTUPLETS
use MUSTEROLE for
CHEST COLDS
Mother—Give Your CHILD
This Same Expert Care!
At the first sign of the Dionne Quin
tuplets catching cold—their chests and
throats are rubbed with Children's
Mild Musterole —a product made to
promptly relieve the DISTRESS of
children’s colds and resulting coughs.
The Quints have always had the
best of care, so mother—you may he
assured of using just about the BEST
product made when you use Musterole.
MORE than an ordinary “salve”—
warming, soothing Musterole helps
break up local congestion. Also made
in Regular and Extra Strength for
those preferring a stronger product
True Kindness
To friend and e’en to foes true
kindness show: no kindly heart
unkindly deeds will do.
'
Nothing From Nothing
Nothing can be born of nothing,
nothing can be resolved into noth
ing.—Persius.
GRAY HAIRS
Do you like them? If not, get a bottle of
Lea’s Hair Preparation, it is guaranteed
to make your gray hairs a color so close
to the natural color; the color they were
before turning gray, or the color of your
hair that has not turned gray that you or
your friends can’t tell the difference or
your money refunded. It doesn’t maKe
any difference what color your hair Is ana
It Is so simple to use—Just massage a few
drops upon the scalp for a few days po*
directions like thousands are doing.
Your druggist has Lea’s Hair Prepara
tion. or can secure a bottle for you, or a
regular dollar bottle of Lea’s Hair Prep
aration will be sent you, postage paid Dy
Us, upon receipt of one dollar cash. P. O.
money order or stamps. (Sent COD uc
extra.).
LEA’S TONIO CO., INC.
Box *065 • - Tampa, Fla-
Lips a Door
Lips are no part of the head,
only made for a double-leaf door
for the mouth.—Lyly.
CONSTIPATION
and acid indigestion, headaches, belching,
bloating, dizzy spells, sour stomach, bad breath,
when due to constipation, should be corrected
immediately with B-LAX. These conditions
often cause lack of appetite, energy and pep.
If you don’t feel relieved after the first dose ot
B-LAX—your druggist will refund your money.
|| BARG AIMS
r . t
jl —that will save you many a >
dollar will escape you if *
|[ you fail to read carefully and £
<; regularly the advertising of £
j; local merchants » » ■ J
IN THIS PAPER
