The Greenwood Commonwealth from Greenwood, Mississippi • Page 1

Demand Use Of Cotton Products To Add To Delta Prosperity Greenwood Commonwealth VOLUME 25-NUMBER 15. GREENWOOD, LEFLORE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI, WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, SEPTEMBER 18, 1940. DAYLIGHT RAIDS Program of Draft Is Being Readied President Roosevelt Sets Up Machinery For Draft Bill WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 (P)- Action to clear the way for ation of the nationwide conscription program commanded first at-, tention today as President Roose- velt returned to the capital and congress made ready to resume sessions. Before the United States can launch the great peacetime under-! taking which begins with the registration of 16,500,000 men on Oct.

16, three essential preliminaries required disposition: 1. President Roosevelt must promulgate the regulations gOVerning the administration of the draft machinery, enrollment, clasH sification and selection of train-! ees, their induction into service and kindred matters. 8. The director of the selective service system must be appointed by Mr. Roosevelt and confirmed by the senate as provided in the conscription law.

3. Congress must take action on the pending $2,000,000,000 cial defense appropriation request which is to defray the expenses of registration and conscription. President Roosevelt was expected to order into effect, possibly tomorrow, the first two of six volumes of regulations already prepared to cover all phases of the draft program. These first define the nature and (administrative procedure of the national and state organizations which will handle the Oct. 16 registration, and also forth the rules for enrollment.

Mr. Roosevelt, who has been absent attending the funeral of the late Speaker Bankhead in bama, likewise was expected announce his choice in a few days for the position of draft The house of representatives, in recess for three days because of the death of Speaker Bankhead, already has the conscription financing appropriation on committee calendar, and committee consideration will start tomorrow. Washington's most talked of possibility for the draft director post is Lieut. Col. Lewis B.

shey, the executive officer of the joint Army and Navy selective service committee, which has been engaged for 14 years on draft plans, preparations and training. Two other names to figure in speculation are those of Col. Louis F. Johnson, recently resigned as assistant secretary of war, and Major General Allen W. Gullion.

The draft director will receive $10,000 a year. The joint Army and Navy tive service committee, which prepared the six volumes of regulations now being adapted for promulgation by the President, is slated to become the nucleus of the national conscription tion. This national organization would formally be called into being by the promulgation of the first two volumes of regulations. The four remaining volumes, to be made effective as needed, concern: sification and selection of men for service; delivery and induction men into the Army; finance, and physical standards for trainees. Meanwhile, in a move to enlist public support for conscription, the Army's selective service officers disclosed adoption of a fixed policy to give full publicity to every step in the draft process.

The names of men who the order in which they become liable for service in the subsequent draft lottery and the names of men whose service is deferred all will be published and broad-! cast to the fullest extent. The publie scrutiny is expected to discourage any draft abuses or "chiseling." WAUKEGAN, Ill. When Angelos Paras came to police headquarters to report that the gasoline had been siphoned from the tank of his parked car, the officers telephoned a garage to send him a supply. Soon Paras was back. While he was reporting the gasoline theft, he said, someone had stolen the car.

STAGED ON British Fleet British Planes Turn Fleet Of Nazi This Day Being Fact and Comment On Greenwood, Leflore County, and Mississippi FOR MISSISSIPPI Fair to- night, Thursday partly cloudy. The A. J. Brewerton residence on River Road, recently purchased by Mrs. Jack Forshner, is being torn down and Mrs.

Forshner will build a new home on the site. The new house will be a story and a half, colonial built of 10 inch clapboard with all rooms facing the garden on the south. On the first floor is the entrance hall with stairway, living room, sunroom, porte cochere, dining room, breakfast room, kitchen, laundry, two bed rooms and two baths. Guest rooms, bath and play rooms are on the second floor. The house was designed by M.

McD. DuBard and is being built by E. D. Ezell of Indianola. The Junior Chamber of Commerce will meet Tuesday night at 7:30 in the Chamber of merce auditorium.

Judge Sidney C. Mize in the United States district court at Meridian charged the federal grand jury to investigate fully any evidence of fifth column activity in the district. Laborers who want work at Camp Shelby are asked by the construction company to register at points designated by the Mississippi Employment Service. At its peak 10,000 men will be employed. A recruiting sergeant of the United States Marine Corps will visit the Post Office Building on September 23 for the purpose cf conducting examinations of applicants for enlistment in the United States Marine Corps.

Ap- plicants who are accepted for enlistment will be transferred to San Diego, California, for a six week period of training prior 1,0 being assigned to duty with the regular units of the Marine Corps. The Greenwood Housing Authority, composed of F. R. MeGeoy, H. T.

Odom, E. H. Blackstone, S. H. Curtis and J.

B. Hinton has been invited to participate in a statewide meeting of housing officials which will be held in Laurel, September 24. Construction work at Camp Shelby will employ a great number of men, and the Illinois Central railroad will operate trains from the Camp to Hattiesburg to carry men to and from work. The railroad and the Jones Construction Company who have the contract for the Shelby work will build three miles of track to serve the camp. Rabbi G.

J. Feigon, of St. Louis, Missouri, has been elected as rabbi of the Clarksdale gregation of Beth Israel Temple and immediately assumed the pastorate. He succeeds Rabbi J. Gerson Tolochko, who resigned after eight years of distinguished service to the Clarksdale congregation.

Governors of five southern states, including Governor Paul B. Johnson of Mississippi, have been enjoying sea breezes on a yacht in the Gulf of Mexico and attending to the business of the Southern Governors' Conference. Mississippi's portable electric chair will be on display in Jackson Thursday. So far as is known Mississippi is the only state in the union with a portable chair for inflicting the death penalty. The few death penalties ever inflicted in Mississippi make the chair seem like a useless expense.

Clarksdale is planning for a great display this year in the Twelfth Annual Staple Cotton Festival which will be held on October 10. Greenwood's annual Band Festival will be held on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and the largest array of bands yet to be seen in Greenwood is expected to attend the festival this year. The Boys 4H clubs of Sunflower County are planning to be prepared to defend their nation, and are organizing rifle teams this year as part of the club work. LONDON, Sept. 18 (AP)- Air Minister Sir Archibald Sinclair announced today that Col.

Charles Sweeney, American vet-eran of the World war Lafayette Escadrille, was organizing an "Eagle Squadron" which will be composed of American fliers who volunteer to fight for Britain. THE WEATHER TEMPERATURE Maximum 95 degrees. Minimum 62 degrees. Rainfall 0:00. River gauge 7.37.

FIVE CENTS LONDON Flood Control Program Halted Whittington Won't Attempt To Have Bill Passed WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 (P) A new flood control authorization program apparently has been shelved for this congress, informi ed persons said today. They reported that at the gestion of President Roosevelt, Chairman Whittington (D-Miss), of the house flood control committee would not attempt to obtain passage of the legislation (HR 9640). Mr. Roosevelt has vetoed a rivers-and-harbors authorization measure and requested congress to withhold consideration of similar bills national not defense.

connected directly with. Whittington and other flood control advocates had said ously that they would seek age of the bill on the grounds that flood protection was an es-! sential part of national defense. House members said, however, that the deluge of defense measures had caused Whittington stead to concentrate on consideration separately of works that might be needed for defense. Such a course, these members recalled, was suggested the President when he vetoed tie the riv-4ers and harbors bill. The flood control authorization included works to cost 000.

If authorized the works would be in line for construction by the Army engineers as funds became available. Expenditures proposed included $15,000,000 in the lower Mississippi; $13,000,000 in the White River basin (Missouri and sas); $37,000,000 in the Arkansas River basin; $13,500,000 in the Tennessee River basin and in the Missouri River basin. James Lauderdale Dies In Jackson Assistant State Attorney General Passes Away JACKSON, Sept. 18 (AP) -James A. Lauderdale, assis-; tant attorney general of Missis(sippi, died at a local hospital early today following a heart attack suffered Sunday.

He was 54. A native of Lafayette County, Lauderdale had been connected with the state attorney general's! office for more than 14 years. A graduate of the Millsaps Law School here, he practiced in New Albany prior to coming to Jackson and also served a term as county attorney. He was a deacon of the First Presbyterian Church, here and a member of the State Bar Association. Funeral services were scheduled here at 10 a.m.

tomorrow. Survivors included his wife and I three sons, James A. Lauderdale, medical student at Tulane University; William M. dale, member of the New Orleans Times-Picayune editorial staff, land Richard Lauderdale of Jackson. Britain Tries Plane Defenses LONDON, Sept.

18 (AP)- Britain is experimenting with a new method of bringing down German aircraft which already has proved successful in defending small vital areas, informed sources said tonight. The nature of the device remains secret, but the informants said it was not a gun, not a ray and had nothing to do with balloons. It was said it had not yet. been used in the London barrage. The informants said that if the device could be developed it would add great strength to Britain's general 1 defense.

They asserted it was comparatively easy to manufacture and required only a small force to operate because of its simple principals. Italian Troops Continue Advance Hard Fought Battle Rages On Edge of Egyptian Desert CAIRO, Sept. 18 (AP)- Italian invaders, storming along the Mediterranean coastline of Egypt's western desert, moved closer today toward an impending major battle with British defenders on the vital roadway to Alexandria. Where the British would make a stand remained a military secret. British operations thus far, it was said, have been designed to harass rather than halt the two motorized Italian columns leading the eastward drive.

Despite sandstorms and temperatures ranging up to 120, the Italians in four days have advanced from the Libyan bordering to positions beyond Sidi Barrani, 60 miles inside Egypt, reaching the start of an asphalt road leading 350 miles to the Suez canal, vital link of Britain's empire lifeline. The next objective presumably is Matruh, 100 miles further along the coastal road and site of a British air base. Between Sidi Barrani and Alexandria lie 250 miles of rough going for an invader, and the British command--while conceding that the Italians have, moved swiftly and efficiently so far--does not regard their present position as a serious menace. British tank units have retired before the Italian sweep after inflicting heavy casualties, British headquarters announced, with relatively few losses among the defenders. Harassing operations have included charges by tank patrols, artillery fire and aerial bombardment, it was announced.

One apparent reason why the British are biding their time before joining in a decisive battle is the expectation that the Italians' supply diffciulties will increase as they move further from their bases through a desert which offers no food and little water. Water supply presents the invaders greatest problems, although 12 old Roman wells at Sidi Barrani will permit the Italians to replenish their supplies. They apparently are using a great number of enormous tank trucks and also are resorting to apparatus for distillation of sea water. George F. Wilson Of Philipp Dies George Franklin Wilson died this morning at 8 o'clock at the home of his niece, Mrs.

N. T. Caldwell, at Philipp. Funeral services will be held Thursday ing, September 19th, at 10 at the home of Mrs. Caldwell in Philipp, with the Rev.

W. S. McAllily conducting the services. Interment will be made in the Macel cemetery. Mr.

Wilson is survived by one brother, J. B. Ray of Philipp; six nieces, Mrs. N. T.

Caldwell, Miss Willie Mae Wilson, and Mrs. George Buchanan, all of Philipp; Mrs. W. D. Swift of Goodletsville, Mrs.

Travis McHann of Greenville, Mrs. Webster Buchanan of Charleston; and three nephews, J. B. Ray, and Woodrow Wilson of Philipp, and Norman Ray of Collinswood, Tenn. Mr.

Wilson, who was 73 years of age at the time of his death, had lived at Philipp his entire life where he had planting interests. At the funeral tomorrow the following will serve as pall bearers: George Buchanan, Webster anan, John Ray, Spencer Lee, J. P. Tollie Sivley, B. D.

McLellan, L. M. McMahan. Lee Funeral Home of Greenwood is in charge of arrangements. Back Warplanes; London Has 'Night Of Hell' British RAF fighters clashed with 300 German warplanes in a terrific battle over the Thames Estuary today and reportedly scattered the raiders to save London from one of the greatest mass assaults of the war.

Flying at 15,000 feet in three waves, the German bombers and fighters thundered across the Dover coast, plunged through a barrage of anti-aircraft fire and headed for London to rain fresh chaos on the smoke-hazed capital. An Associated Press observer on the channel coast said the sky seemed "full of planes" as the Germans passed overhead. A few miles from London, RAF defense planes knifed into the three formation and broke them up into a series of whirling dogfights. The battle came as London's millions underwent their fifth daylight air-raid alarm and capped "night of hell" markthe longest raid of the war--nine hours and 54 minutes of terror from the skies. LONDON, Sept.

18 -German air raiders subjected London to four quick daylight alarms before noon today on the heels of a record nightlong attack in which famous West End stores were struck by bombs. The government said it feared casualties from the night assault "may be heavier than in recent nights" as Nazi bombers battered all sections of the city. Direct hits were scored on the stores of D. H. Evans and general drapers; John Lewis and noted for its silks, and Bourne and Hollingsworth, women's and children's wear, all in Oxford street of London's ionable Mayfair.

Weather cleared over the English Channel and large numbers of German planes took advantage of the calmer skies to raid the southeast coast in wide formations of three and four planes each. RAF fighters rose to meet the attackers and aerial fighting ensued. Heavy damage was inflicted on one of the London stores by fire and the bomb explosion. A time bomb fell near the United States embassy, but did not explode. Sunshine replaced mist and rain over the Straits of Dover as a gale which held Adolf Hitler's invasion fleet in Continental ports blew itself out.

A fresh breeze kept the Channel seas rough, however, and weatherwise fishermen forecast more havy winds before long. The first German planes which appeared over London by daylight apparently sought to survey damage left by the night raiders, but were driven away by British fighters and anti-aircraft guns. During succeeding alarms Londoners heard renewed gunfire and the drone of planes overhead. The four morning daylight raids totaled 98 minutes. It was disclosed that the famous Lambeth Walk market place had been struck three times in a recent raid.

Two bombs fell in a narrow street behind the shopping center and the third hit a shop in the market place itself. Londoners were kept in their shelters for nine hours and 54 minutes until the all clear signal at 6 a.m. (1 a.m. EST). The longest previous raid lasted nine hours and 40 minutes Sept.

8-9. As in recent days, the bombers gave the city little respite before renewing the assault. After a rest period of only one hour and 12 minutes, the first alarm of the day sounded at 7:12 a.m. (1:12 a.m., EST), ending 20 minutes later. The second alarm came at 8:18 a.m.

and lasted 23 minutes. Renewal of daylight raids today marked the start of the fourth month of daily air attacks on England which official reports indicate have caused almost 13,000 civilian casualties, (Continued on Page Eight) By The Associated Press German warplanes stormed London in a "night of hell" marking the longest raid of the war--nine hours and 54 minutes of terror from the skies--and capped the assault today. with a series of five daylight raids in five hours. An official British communique said it was feared "casualties may be heavier than in recent nights." A delayed-action bomb fell near the United States embassy in the heart of Mayfair, remaining still unexploded after daybreak, and a member of the embassy staff said wryly: "We certainly had a hell of a night-they were popping ail around us." Nazi quarters in Berlin, describing the raids as aimed at London's aerial defense bases, said seven out of the British capital's 10 remaining airports have been badly damaged in the pst 24 hours--some beyond possibility of immediate Women-Children Feel Fury Of Nazi Bombings By W. T.

YARBROUGH Sept. 18 is feared that casualties may be heavier than in recent said the calm, prosaic official communique. Not SO calm, I saw rescue workers bring the still forms of a baby and five women from the basement of a flaming, bombshattered home in Northeastern London- on just one ambulance ride to gather up the dead and injured from this moonlight raid. Then I watched a woman ambulance driver pump faint signs of life into two of the woman victims, while bombs still thundered around us and anti-aircraft guns boomed in answer. Several hourz earlier, as we waited at an ambulance station for the night's first call, a bomb demolished an open air school building just 100 yards away.

A telephoned call of a street address sent an ambulance to a three-story building, already in flames. One ambulance which reached the scene first was just leaving. "Two--badly hurt," a policeman said. "One of those oil bombs." Two men with a pick and spade dug frantically at the foundation, hacking through solid ancrete. "There's five down there," one of the workers said.

Then somewhere below a man's voice said over and over: "All dead. All dead." The man came up the basement steps holding the body of a baby about six months old. The child's plump legs dangled limply. Other men in blue uniforms were coming up from the basement. One of them said, "Six altogether--not five.

There's five and one child." One by one, five women were brought up and stretched on blankets. Some bystanders turned away. The woman ambulance driver and a fireman worked over the victims, trying artificial respiration. When doctors arrived they found the baby and two women dead, but detected life in the others and sent them away in the ambulance. The woman driver told us: "That's one bomb.

We've had worse. "We've had absolute hell." In the grey dawn we had tea and waited for an all clear signal. As it sounded, swelling to a din, the woman driver said simply: "There's always hope with the dawn." WAR BULLETINS BERLIN, Sept. 18 (P)- The German press, quoting a Nazi pilot who flew over England today, said London looked like a "vast hot glowing spot in the gray English countryside." The pilot, Josef Rieder, said: "The conflagations looked like yawning wounds in the earth. They were scattered over the whole city and flared up from more than a hundred vital 'spots in the metropolis." The pilot was quoted as saying that grain warehouses and docks which had been burning three days ago seemed to have burned out, while more recently attacked warehouses and oil tanks were burning furiously.

LONDON, Sept. 18 (P) -Royal air force bombers attacked Ostend and Zeebrugge on the German-held Belgian coast yesterday afternoon, scoring direct hits on harbor installations at Ostend, the Air Ministry announced today. LONDON, Sept. 18 (AP)-A time bomb fell in the neighborhood of United States embassy last night. It still was unexploded after daybreak today, the embassy staff reported.

All persons in the building took refuge on the first floor during the night. One member of the staff said: "We certainly had a BERLIN, Sept, 18 -The German High Command reported to, day geared-up attacks in the battle of London which Nazi airmen said had wiped out ent tire blocks in some eastern districts of the British capital and apparently smashed through to the city's subway system. Daylight reconnaissance showed a yawning, smoking crater which was believed to be the result of a tremendous direct hit on an underground railway, according to official German news agency. (London uses underground railway stations for bomb shelters.) The High Command announced an all-caliber bombardment, within the past 24 hours of day and night action, of the West India, London and Victoria docks, water and gas works, railway stations and Croydon airdrome, among "war-essential objectives." (The Bow railway station and the Thursten road junction were bombed last night and a number of British planes destroyed at Tilburg and Gravesend, according to the German radio.) The British were said to have lost nine planes yesterday against the Germans' four. "New extensive fires resulted everywhere," said the daily military communique.

Airports and war-essential objectives were bombed on the southeast coast and "Liverpool was attacked repeatedly day and night" the High Command reported. "An airplane plant at Liverpool-Speke suffered heavy blows." hell of a night-they were pop ping all around us." Sept. famous stores-D. H. Evans, John Lewis, and Bourne and Hollingsworth--in the world-renowned Ox ford Street in London's West End were all hit in last night's raids on London, the Ministry of Information said today.

The ministry also announced that the Lambeth Walk market had been damaged in a recens raid. LONDON, 18 (AP) -Three FOLKESTONE, Sept. 18 (AP) Large numbers of German planes crossed the coast in the region of the Straits of Dover this morning, flying high and in wide formations of threes and fours. VALLETTA, Malta, Sept. 17- (Delayed)- (A) Italian bombraided the British island of Malta twice today, causing damers, age to government property.

Three of the raiders were reported shot down in a morning raid. In the afternoon British fighter planes flew out over the Mediterranean to meet another formation of Italian planes and drove them off. LONDON, Sept. 18 (P) -A bomb fell on the lawn of Westminster (Continued on Page Seven) The Nazi raiders also reached into Scotland with an attack on Glasgow harbor. A British steamer was reported "heavily damaged" north of Ireland.

British planes broke through to bomb Northern and Western Germany, the High Command acknowledged, insisting that "residential quarters and settlements" were hit. Authorized German sources said London's Tilbury docks were "A veritable hell of flames." Airmen on observation assignments said that at places in East London "Entire blocks which yesterday still existed had vanished," according to DNB. Germany's bombers concentrated on the destruction of the English air force bases, Nazis said. German sources claimed that seven of the only ten remaining airports in the London area have been damaged badly in the past 24 hours--some of them beyond hope of immediate repair. Only a small squadron of British planes was reported to have actaully penetrated over Western Germany.

Fighter planes forced this squadron back and one British plane was reported shot down. There were no immediate reports of overnight air attacks elsewhere in Germany German-held territory. Adolf Hitler's own newspaper, (Continued on Page Eight).