Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • Page 28

Oakland, July, 11, 1943 Home Owned, Controlled, Edited Too Many Cooks Dp n't Get Anything Cooked UNSUNG HEROES OF MINESWEEPING FLEET DARE DEATH CONSTANTLY SAVING LIVES AND SHIPS Problems of Leadership Home Front Handicaps Given a serious and 24-hour-a-day job which is somewhat akin to "monkeying with a buzz the men on pur minesweepers fare forth constantly on dangerous quests. hunt deadly game. Trawlers, fishing boats, yachts, and other types of small craft can and have been drafted in, the work, but the experiences of the last war have produced a By Moj. Geo. Fielding Eliot JJy-Mark-S ulliyaa.

-Ittakemeernerves and stout hearts to travel special type of minesweeper running about The organization of a great Na WASHINGTON. July 10. Among home-front handicaps to our war tion for war is primarily a problem of leadership. True leadership Is 250 tons in weight and 150 feet 'In length. They are sturdy craft of shallow draft and usually they operate in pairs a quarter of a mile apart.

Between the two is dragged a sharp-edged wire cable which is supposed to sever the anchor lines of any mines encoun something more than the mere exer effort, two conspicuous and serious. Partly as a consequence" of them, the war is going to be harder to win, and is likely to last cise of the function of command seas in which high explosives lurk, y'etl. these unsung heroes accept the task An valiant routine. Sometimes an undiscovered mine explodes too near their craft and on records it is noted a minesweeper has been lost. The vigils continue through darkness, storms and fog.

These men seldom fire a shot at the foe and, as indiyiduals, are not acclaimed for heroism. Yet, as men who are always sitting The leader of free men in war must prove his risht to command, by his abjlity, his loyalty and his courage, lunger, man is uuiiuiiuiii.y hiiu ciicci -fully assumed. The situation on the military fronts abroad, both in Europe and as against Japan, is This applies to a corporal leading a squad, and it applies to the com tered on the long sweeps up and down the mine-infested channels. The cable then drags the captive mine to the surface where it can be sunk or exploded by rifle fire from the mander in yhief. A corporal who is not actually so favorable for early victory as recent events might lead the public to suppose.

The present article, however, deals only with home-front factors. The holiday last week, anniver not loyal to his men, and thus cannot inspire their loyalty; who has not the ability to lead them, and thus to inspire their confidence; and who lacks the courage to make the right decisions under every sort of trying condition, will not Jong remain a corporal. The judgment of the private sol sary of the Nation's birth, was a day 'of special dedication to win ning the war. Yet on that day on a powder keg, they serve to save lives and ships. So long as there is no way to foretell what damage each of themines thse daring men have cleared from the lanes of warships and cargo carriers would have occasioned if left undisturbed, there can be no accurate reckonings of the services they perform.

When Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty ad one out of every five coal miners sweepe-rs. when our thoughts are directed to our fleet in the Pacific, we have assurance in the fact that minesweepers precede the larger craft so as to. clear a safe passage. They journey the fenceless meadows of the sea, harrowing out the weeds; often they are the first to be under fire. Our Navy is constantly adding to its large in the United States was idle.

They were idle, not because it was a holiday, but because, they were on diers under his charge is even more inexorable than the judgment of his superiors. Those are the basic truths of leadership. The iron discipline of a Prussian army, the spiritual discipline of an emperor-worshiping Japan, may set aside the prin strike, had been for some weeks. And the four-fifths who were working were doing so under conditions dictated by their leader, John L. Lewis, including a truce which is to end on a day specified by him, October 31.

ciples in favor of blind obedience minesweeper fleet from the well, over two 10 me symeois or rank, wnn the The effect of strikes on our war armies and the peoples of Nations it will never be so. EYES OF OTHERS effort is commonly underestimated. It is underestimated by statements in the spirit of assuring propaganda. But personal leadership has long since ceased to be, enough for the dressed officers and men of the minesweepers at Grimsby, a short time ago, he estimated they had probably saved 1700 ships and destroyed enough mines to have sunk the whole of the British merchant navy" two and one-half times over. Our Navy, without putting the 'estimate -statistically is nonetheless proud of its minesweepers, considering them as a unit engaged in a task continuously dangerous, and continuously paying rich dividends.

These men higher command of the great hundred of such craft under construction and men of America, expressing that preference for dangerous service which is volunteered by the men of the submarines, are manning them. Meet a minesweeper and you meet an unsung hero and one of a company who through all their working hours have defied death to save lives and ships. armies of today. No longer can a general survey a battlefield from -f J'-. lh.

iUL I iiywi? II. I cpmmg from both labor sources and the Administration. Statistics are given out which say that out of immense millions of work hours only tiny fraction, less than' I per are lost" by strikes. That is true, but also misleading. single hilltop, and direct the opera tions of his forces by what he sees with his own eyes.

Under modern l' Arwx A a Ill I conditions, even regimental com COAL' IS KEY MATERIAL manders can no longer do this, much a rva r-vC: 1 'Even the whole half-mil less generals of whatever urn J7 vv i.m i lion of, coal mi nersr were on strike OUr MERCHANT MARINE The higher commander must use the eyes of others, to survey his Steamship line officials declare that the United States Merchant Marine now. sur battlefield; he must receive their reports by wire or radio or messenger at central headquarters; he must make and alter his plans in accord GALLEYS PASS INSPECTION A few days ago committees of civilians, leaders in the food isdustry, paid surprise visits to ships of our Navy. TJieir coming was unheralded; they had free access to the ships; and their purpose was to see if the galleys were shipshape, well provided and clean. The passes that of Great Britain in gross tonnage ance with information he receives; and the end is not in sight. At our present and he must again depend on his network of communipations to convey his instructions to his subordi they were, only- about a half pf 1 per cent, of country's total man power of some fifty or sixty millions.

But the 'effect on the country's total production of war materials ran' into a large percentage. Coal is a key material. Because of lack of coal, steel production was reduced seriously Because of laclc of steel, war materials into which steel enters were reduced. The fact is, the jiace of our production of war materials is at this moment slowed down. Other conditions, apart from the coal strike, also operate in such a way as to slow down production in important fields.

One condition is that we are reaching the bottom nate commanders, until they get them down to the. leaders of the Navy passed the tests with flying colors. platoons and the sections who are The general conclusion of these men to the leaders in actual contact -with the fighting soldier. construction rate we shall reach if ty million tons by December 1944, less the unexpected sinkings from hazards of the sea and from enemy action. This estimate is seventy per cent of the world's total.

More than, twenty million tons, equal to the United Kingdom's entire prewar fleet, will be completed this year. England's annual building capacity is one and a half million whom Secretary Knox delegated inspection authority is: quality of the food is It is obvious that this multiplicity THE PROPAGANDA FRONT By WILLIAM L. SHIRER, Author of "Berlin Diary' of functions cannot be carried on by a single brain: the actual exercise of high. command, the power of crucial the quantity adequate and the preparation good; sanitation and cleaning are at high decision, cannot be obstructed and confused by the mass of detail which LONDON, July 10. No one can say at this critical juncture of the of the barrel of our manpower.

A levels and there is evident appreciation of the importance on morale oTgood food. Moreover, must be compared, classified. better distribution of manpower would help. Unless this is done, it war whether the great Anglo-American aiV attack on Germany can exaluated and duly considered be as in 1918, without a single German city or town being in the least molested. Immunity for the German homeland from the ravages of battle was the concept which came to be taken for granted in the German mind.

It made conquest more pleasant. may turn out that America has passed the peak of its pace of war fore the decision can be reached, or being reached, before it can be car production. OuWirerord so far has alone bring the Jteich to her knees. There are some airmen here in Britain British and American who believe that it can if every available ried into execution. In other words devastation of the German land bft a deep scar on the Reich.

It will take uswho ourselves are so far from the scene of war a little time to realize-what the once-so confident German people are going through these days as one. after another of thejr cities is smashed to smithereens by, the R.A.F. night bombers. Last week in London you could get an idea. The R.A.F.

bombed Cologne heavily-for the 117th time. The next night you listened to: the German domestic tons. 4 A vast armada for use in extensive global commerce will be ours after the armistice if we profit by past mistakes and do not scuttle it as we did our boats of the First World War. Even "now members of the U.S. Maritime Commission and powerful shipping interests "waste is less than in the average home or public institution where food is prepared and served whether for profit or The boys in the Navy get all they wish to eat, but they have to clean their plates, and all they get is clean -and well Informal the general who makes the decision must have a staff to boil down the information on which the decision is plane is pressed into service during GOERING PROMISE When Hitler began his war.

on the next three months. The bulk of been a wonder otthe world." But the measure ofour ability to win the war quickly is our capacity to produce war materials irt continued abundance, v. FOOD THREAT military opinion here, however, based into clear and simple form and to work out the details of carry would seem to agree with the recent statement of Generat Marshall that ing' his decision into effect after he has reached it. Moreover, he must and unexpected investigations of the kind Another serious threat is food. fire planning for its maintenance.

September 1, 1939, the people of the Reich, it is true, had some misgivings about the air war. No foreign army, they were sure, could ever penetrate the German borders. But what about the planes? It was to Food must not be thought of as "(he enemy may be hammered to his knees by bombing but a knock which -the Navy has encouraged may serve! have a staff which will see to it Axis censorship has kept the story of our merely food for our own people radio which, unfortunately, cannot be heard in America. There was one Karl Holtzhammer, introduced by a a good purpose in giving the he to rumors at hand lo do his job with and amazing achievements from its ignorant peo and forestalling the chance of later official to keep replacing these means as pie and satellites. In discussing the failure of tune from.

Wagners "Gotterdam assure them on this point that Goering made his famous statement at the beginning of the war that no they are used up. merung" The Twilight of the Gods. out blow be dealt by the ground forces." In the meantime, Anglo-American strategy in this sector appears to be following the line which Mr. Churchill explained in recent speech. He called the present air GENERAL STAFF SYSTEM.

Said Dr. Holtzhammer: enemy planes could ever break inquiries based upon misinformation. The idea could be furthered with benefits in other departments. In these lie the "The people of Cologne: have aged and for our armed forces. We have made definite commitments' to send specified quantities of food to Britain and Russia.

The amounts we. have, promised are large. To the w-ar effort of these countries, food from the United States is an indispensable war material, without which their war' effort would be reduced. There are other Allies and neutrals to whom it would be through the formidable air defenses origins of our general staff system many years in this single night'. of the Luftwaffe.

I was in Germany. The general staff of an army in at the time and was somewhat sur offensive an experiment and it will be tried until our ground forces are prised when the people accepted Words fail me to describe the horrors to those who did not live through" it. Entire quarters are transformed into debris My heart the field, and each of the larger sub-divisions of that army (such as corps and divisions) consists of four ready for the assault on the con Goering's promise as though it were FLYING FREIGHT CARS Surely it was not long ago when we were regarding stories of "flying freight cars" sections: personnel, supply, intelli tinent. If the mass bombings do bring Hitler's Reich down before that assault is begun, so much the a pure statement of fact. Their con1 fidence in immunity from bombings was utter.

German U-boats to win the battle of the 'Atlantic, the Kritisk Ugerevue, a Nazi weekly published in Denmark, naively writes: "Curiously enough the Allies seem to become stronger and stronger the more boats are sunk. This odd, mystery will hardly be solved before the history of the war is written. It seems remarkable that they transported so many vessels as they do now, when their tonnage is so greatly reduced." Apparently the dupes never heard that by the end of 1943 Uncle Sam will have two failed when I saw the damage done to our national shrine, the Cathedral gence, operations. The first two are concerned with the means by which of Cologne." better. But few hih places in this Actually, that confidence received with the same awe that was ours in youth when we.

gazed upon the colored front-page the army is to carry out its mission Incidentally, it might be said town are counting on that. The second two are concerned with CHANGED WORLD the use of these means. The per parenthetically, that the on this islanc) were not happy over the report that the Cologne Cathedral an advantage if we sent them food. And as we take our countries, or territories, such as North Africa, there is a call upon us for fgod. LARGER PRODUCTION NEEDED Add up all the uses for which American food is necessary, or desirable, and the total is a necessity for a much larger production of food than we have ever achieved before.

That is not in siht for a shock on the night of August 25, 1940 a date little marked by the outside world at. the time. As Joseph Harsch, who was in Berlin that night, wrote: "If Nazi ever, On one aspect of the Allied bomb sonnel section deals with manpower. The supply section deals fantasies of the old Popular Mechanics Flying freight cars, indeed! Airplanes towing gliders from supply depots to the battle lines! orie of the wonders of Gothic archi- ings of Germany there is little room for doubt. They have revolutionized the very world in which the Ger tectiire-might havie been damaged disintegrates internally history willj but it might' be added, too, so The other day, a flying freight car took off mans, in their arrogance and in far as your correspondent who trace that disintegration back to tge nighfof August 25, 1940." That was the night that the R.A.F.

bombed their ignorance, have been thousand three hundred newly conditioned craft. in Germany at the time could' see, the present crop year, and the time KThey have brought the war home neither Dr. Holtzhammer norj any with ammunition, food, clothing and transportation. The intelligence section deals with information of the enemy. The operations section deals with the movements and operation of the Army, "based on that information, and making use of the manpower and equipment available.

The whole are co-ordinated and made to work is too late to jnake any material Berlin for the first time, the night from Montreal and by the way of Newfoundland and Labrador, reached England in 23 hours with a cargo of vaccines for Russia and other'. German experienced th to the German people for the first time since the Napoleonic invasions mcrease. Our problem is to achieve an unprecedented goal in 1944. HOSPITALITY HOUSE slightest heart failure when the war, as one German commentator Stukas were smashing the churches Our real food problem is not Within the p'hilosophy of the cultured, it; with motor and aircraft partsfor our own in describing a bombing the other of Warsaw, Coventry or night put it, "in all its hideousness." they shattered a few houses and killed some Germans. It wasn't much of a bombing as I remember, but what it did to the minds of the Gerrnahs was tremendous.

Goering had Tied Th'e century-old imr munity from enemy attack had ended. And the Germans, who are behooves no man, or city, to boast-of his own Canterbury. price, nor distribution, nor the things associated with Yet these are the factors upon which and the British flying men. The capacity -of this glider was a ton and a half.xIt was' towed The last time the German people IN OTHER DAYS hospitality, smoothly together by a chief of-staff, who is the right hand man and chief assistant to the general in command. saw this aspect of the war was in 1813.

The memory of it had become It is not said that a citv should frown when by a twin-engined Douglas C-47 transport, Heinz von German radio reporter, was, if my memory errs not. completely unmoved by the The personal qualities of the genr erased from their minds a fact most of the current commotion is focused. It was price of food that was njrbst conspicuous in the con-trovj-between the Presidentnd Cortgress. But the real problem ie miontilu mnra frtnA even, worse wishful thinkers than we which contributed to the pjculiar also carrying a loa(fe Here we have a giant elider DhoDhetic of times to come. Some dav.

eral are still of vital importance. No matter how good his staff, his is are, knew it. sadistic destruction of Warsaw in December, 1939. He was in Cologne the other night and the effect on I the responsibility for the major de REPEATED JOLTS say engineers, gnaers oi -inis Kina may De His are the qualities which They know it much better today There were several reasons for compliments and tributes come from outside. The Commonwealth Club has been conducting a survey among service men asking their opinions of the entertainment provided by various communities and' seeking suggestions that cities might do better.

him somehow was. different. Next light-heartedness with which they sent their armies icross the borders into Austria, France, Poland and Russia in the brief interval between 1866 and. today. War was fipe if it could always be fought on the other fellow's land.

It could even be lost, In fact, in the past couple of months our food production this year being night you could hear him wailing less than it should be. One reason the people of western Germany on the radio. He said, in part: will inspire his subordinates to do their best, or which'wilMail to do so. If he is undertain and vacillating, his indecision will communicate itself right down the line to the have been jolted back to the days of was over-optimism. A large reason towed in-multiple.

Transportation of troops by gliders in tow of airplanes is -no longer a novelty. With such TTipans thp arp rpinfnri-ing thpir "It was an hour of satanic horror. must be described as poor manage- Thirty Years War, whose terrible land mines, high explosive bombs ment. tu: incendiary buinbs ralrred downt ltjutlm uf the smallest units. the fact that we have had three food administrators in less than If he lacks moral courage and for an hour.

The. explosions could be heard in the depth of our shelters Letters to the Foru three months. One who was ap and in the morning we saw the pointed on March. 25, Chester C. Davis, was out of office by June flames.

It is impossible to; describe tality flouse ranks "tops" with the men in uniform. It also shows and we should take note lest we become complacent that service men would appreciate it if more drivers offered them rides, if they could have, more lines on the Russian front and not finding the job too easy. Men in Soviet fighter planes find the bulky tow-craft good targets, and the experts say that command of the skies is imperative if armies are to be supported by freight lines in the'air. With our air and naval the destruction and the grimness 25 under circumstances which in verses: "I am black, but comely, ye daughters Jerusalem, as the cluded reproach by him in his let the ghastliness of the scene. We cannot give you a picture of the tents of Kedar, as the, curtains of leans on his staff for devisions he ought to make, that fact is soon known even to the private soldiers, and their confidence soon vanishes.

If on the other hand he fails to allow his subordinates sufficient freedom of action within the scope of their proper responsibilities, if he wastes his time in supervising every little detail, his subordinate commanders soon become nervous and hesitant because the loyalty ter accepting by the President in his letter accepting the resignation. NEXT YEAR'S CROP bolomon. Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun wholesome 'opportunities to meet if The editor of The Tribune fi'. claims responsibility for opinions and statements expressed in this column. Contributions should be held to 150 words.

No contributions will be acceptable unless accompanied by the name and address of the writer, which, if desired, will be withheld from the public. BURY The' HATCHET hath looked upon me: My mother's children were angry with me; they Nevertheless, July, 1943, is ample damage because entire streets are not passable. The voices of the people are hardly audible. Their throats are, raw bersause the smoke. They are sitting in the streets, some on suit cases, staring at the few belongings they were made me the keeper of the vine yards: but mine pwn vineyards time to take the steps necessary for maximum production of food in 1944.

The indispensable step is more acres planted. Mr. Davis saw they give their leader is not given have I not kept. Our great liberator; Abraham Lin to them in Confusion and un able to salvage." this, and his plans, before he re coin, was a man who loved his fellow certainty soon prevail throughout It is obvious, then, that the bomb supremacy we can cross the Atlantic With cargo-laden gliders and use them to advantage on many fronts. We may also-and no one can stop us fashion dreams of the future.

After the-'war when victory is won we may see things which no Jules Verne has fancied. We may sec "freight trains in the sky" carrying, high above the ships of the sea, those special car signed- included the planting of land now idle. From the acres ings have certainly not increased the appetite of Germans for war. the command. GOOD ASSISTANTS they could find quarters their furloughs, and if there were more chances to relax and visit homes of civilians.

Don't believe these men are complaining. Not a bit. Generally speaking they say California's hospitality is of the best The very best wilI be the least we ca offer. VACATION CAS A first in rigidgasoline rules is announced, by Price Administrator Prentiss planted this year, as much is being To the. Editor: As a Negro who has had the privilege to be born and reared in this wonderful land of ours.

I ask these questions for myself and my people: Why then, is there so much hatred in your hearts for us, your real loyal In facl, use of the greatest and produced as is practicable. Every most important qualities of leader As one Cologne newspaper remarked the other day: "Anyone who lives in, a district threatened by air raids experiences a feeling men. We will take part of the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men-are created equal; that they are-endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights: that among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." That paragraph does not designate any one farmer is doing his best. Sq. far as more intensive cultivation might ship is the ability to choose good subordinates, to train them in their of physical disgust.

whenhe meets produce' more, that calls for more manpower. And so far as more acres are brought into cultivation. and faithful friends as well as comrade who today, still glorifies goes whose values are predicated upon or en hanced by tjppid delivery. war." servants! Since the days when "your fore jobs, and to make them work together as a team. A poor general can ruin a good staff; but poor staff cannot ruin a good general, for he will either make them meas particular people who shall enjoy calls for more An expert estimate of the number of additional workers TURNING POINT the fruits of the land; but all men jjX UWU WIlU 111 Jjm xi in, invtuiiow in i.

i fathers sailed to the distant shores created by God. NOW UNANIMOUS of Africa and enticed my poor, igno rant, but God-fearing and God-lov ure up to the standards he requires or he will replace them with others who can and will attain these We quote from an editorial of a few days ago which We are fighting side by side with you today. Fighting and dying for the things which we both want. ing people from their homes and admonishes all members of the United Mine Workers mistreated them, and the only con standards. to return to work because "there is nothing to be solation they had was to sing of Democracy! So why not let us bury that age gained by continued striking" and "the war cannot be our heavely Father and pray.

necueu lur iuuu pivaui-tfuii ia tint--, quaters of a million. Where are they to be got? It will be necessary to re-survey the uses made of our total manpower. Some must be diverted from factories. The Army may find it necessary to leave more men on the farm, or even to restore to the farms some who have been drafted. CorrtiM, IMS, In Th Trlbw won without an adequate supply of coal.

Northeastern States one vacation trip this Summer. These motorists may take their trips only if they have saved enough coupons. It occurs to many that a sane agreement upon procedure and practice might make the vacation season one for the saving of gasoline and rubber. The man who would drive from 300 to 300 miles distant and agree to park his car at a resort for two or three weeks the But so long, as his standards are met. the good general does not try to tell his staff officers how lD do their work.

One of the, results he old hatchet, race hatred, and live as God, our Father, would have us to The editorial added: "By returning to work the Thank God for that heritage! When thing don't go right, we can always lift our eyes upward and just breathe mine workers are not forfeiting collective bargaining But it was the glorification of war by the Germans which made it so easy for Hitler to plunge the whole world into war. Jf, aside from. the damage to German war industries and transport, the Allies- bombings shattered the German glorification of war, then not only will the end of the conflict be brought nearer, but one of the conditions for a lasting peace will have been found. For as long as war remained a glorious adventure in the German mind and soul it was very certain that the adventure would be indulged in whenever Germany felt herself strong enough to carry it requires-of them is the saving of or the right to- negotiate a wage agreement. We live, as true brothers? GERALD INE E.

INMAN, Oakland, July 8. words, and. a certain something in are at war. We must win the war. The war cannot our hearts tells us that by our faith.

his time strength lor the malting Of major decisions. That is what be won without an adequate supply of coal. American everything will be all right. Do you remember, my" white broth the staff is there lor. miners don't want to strike.

They don want to impede THE OLD ARMY GAME A GOOD REASON "I've just met your nd the war effort." The sentiments expressed therein are not particu- On a tour through the iersey UNKIND WORDS ers, even when God our Father was carrying His cross to the mount where He was to be crucified, that he had a pinched look." City Quartermaster Depot, news fiarly novel. They cover points that have been stressed The merits of the WAVES head repeatedly in the "capitalistic press" and which; for I wonder why?" "He was between two military it was a Negro who helped Him gear are debatable, but certainly paper reporters learned that the Army had bought 229,500 pairs of that reason have been branded just as repeatedly by nothing more unbecoming than the policemen." Sourdough Sentinel. some labor leaders as evidence of "anti-labor" bias. new blue "bonnet for male naval resort, in the end, will be an agent of conser- vation. The trouble is, he cannot get enough gas to depart from his limited scene of urban driv-ing for those not too distant -wildernesses where he, his family, his tires and his gas might rest.

through successfully. The air war as propaganda, as an influence on the German mind and character, may turn out to have But the excerpt above is not from any capitalistic along the wayj Do you remefaber that it was God Who chose a mbn.of the dark race to be king, and that man's name was Solomon! He was a wise and a good officers has. come to light since A1-' THE CLASS IN ENG. COM. transparent dice to be sold at post exchanges as a "comfort" item for morale.

A depot officer explained: "The dice are for parcheesi. Men in the Army play a lot of parcheesi." Newsweek. editorial. IV is from the leading editorial of a recent issue of the United Mine Wotkers Journal. The ladies discussed theevente marked an important.

turning. point bert, consort of Victoria, invented for the British Army a hat that almost precisely imitated a coal scut-Ue. Washington Star, of the week, neighbor by neighbor. That seems to make It unanimous. Palto Alto Times.

in history. CutTrtrht, IMS, fr Tht Trtkaa man. Take now, tne nrst enapter ni Solomon, and the fifth and sixth Reader's Digest..