The Mercury from Pottstown, Pennsylvania • Page 4

Poltstowii Mercury and THE POTTSTOWN NEWS 3 morning except Sunday by pmmowo Dull? Publishing Hsnavw and K'lotf WILLIAM HIESTER. President SHANDY HiLL. Qeniral Mansger SUBSCRIPTION RATES Bv Csmar IS week 17 Mutt in Tear Six Three Mnntiu Month witHin iso nt 17 no All 9 00 -i-u- unti 4 SO II 2.25 TS st Potts in wo 'tj The AMOcitted Press entitled to tne for publication of credited to it nr not otherwise credited in paper focal DUblUhed herein. AH of dispatches herein are alto reserved WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 1944 To do anything in this world worth doing we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger hut jump in, and scramble through as well as we Smith. Day of Renewed Faith pOTTSTOWN SOLEMNLY observed day yesterday.

it was a day of prayer, rather than a day of jubilation. In homes and in churches, Pottstonians prayed for the safety of the many local boys who are spearheading the invasion in Hitler Portress Europe. While they prayed, many renewed their pledge to support the war effort through added effort, added buying of bonds, added contributions to other factors which are helping to win the war. For with loved ones in the armed services knew there still would he necessary much sweat and before Victory won. All prayed and renewed its faith a few ingrates who actually cashed in war bonfls at the Pottstown postoffice.

On such a momentous day, when every red- blooded American should have bought bonds to help save American lives, Postmaster Maurice E. Sassaman reported business at the cashing-in window. In fact, he said selling of war bonds al- way was brisk there. The postoffice cashed in 100 to 1500 percent more bonds than it iold, he said. That is accountable, because marty of the bonds are sold in local industries, few in the postoffice.

But when one it cashed in 49 bonds at one time, then there should be a reminder about patriotism or about biting the hand that feeds you. Pottstown who may have bled on the of France yesterday He pleased to read this. They rather had the idea that all Pottstown was supporting them. We are happy to report that most of Pottstown is. Only a few ingrates cash in their bonds.

The majority of true ians is doubling the bond-buying. We hope, when one of the few thinks about cashing in his bonds he wilf think about the sacrifices the men in the armed service are making. buying bonds. not cashing them in, either. SO BUY BONDS AND MORE BONDS! LET DOWN Ol POTTSTOWN BOVS! Mr.

Strange Goes to War AN THE DAY of Invasion, when all pulling for those courageous Allies, its heartening to read an item that tells of Pottstown High's football coach obtaining a leave of absence to join the Red Cross Lots of football coaches have joined the Red Cross, Lots more are in the Army and Navj and the Marines. But not all, like Pottstown High Earl R. Strange had previous war service. Not all were pushing the 44-year-old mark like Mr. Strange.

Not all already had two sons in the United States Army, like Mr. Strange. And not all still had a wife and another son at home. It takes something more than patriotism to enlist after all that. That's why it was good to read of Mr, and what it really was.

The Pottstown High school teacher has been teaching here since September, 1926. Before that he had taught in Lewistown, entering the profession after serving with the United States Army in World War I. He completed his college training after being mustered out of Army. In Pottstown High he taught commercial during school hours, taught the principles of sportsmanship, of courage, of fortitude to his athletes after school hours, Hence, it's no wonder, because of his high character, because he had two sons in the Army, he decided to give what he could to the war effort. With the Red Cross overseas he should be a valuable adjunct.

Mr. Strange may be in as much danger as the men who bear arms, He may be as close to the shooting as in the that's not far off. We hope God will spare the courageous high school coach, well known Pottstown citizen will keep him safe and whole. He's making a noble gesture at so advanced an asre but then there are those two sons, you know! READERSSAr: Americans for America; Write Your Service Pal must not moro than 25tf words of current and must not personalities. and address of writer mast tubmltted evidence of good faith hot will Ttithheld from publication on request.

Poetry and communications advocating the election of political candidates are not acceptable. By MERCURY READERS Concerned About To the Editor: Ninety percent of us Americans are interested in the United States above all else. However, there are in the United States Quislings (foreign nation sympathizers! who seem more concerned about what happens to the British, Norwegians and others than they are about our boys and girls in the armed services and the United States. The foreign policy of the present administration seems to have followed the demands of the Quisling and brainstorm idealism, which is to rescue all oppressed and invaded countries in the world. With this policy we must rescue the British, Norwegians, Poles, Greeks and French.

The Indians in India being oppressed, we must rescue them. Also we must rescue the Filipinos, Australians, Malayans, Chinese, Finns, Estonians, Romanians, Bessarabians, Jews, and all other races or nations from future aggression and oppression. Sure, the world needs a big Santa Claus, but we also need Americans who are Americans and not foreign nation sympathizers. Pottstown. F.

R. G. Mail From Home: It Helps To the Editor: Lately I have met lots of soldiers and sailors and talked with them. They are happy boys everywhere. Only in some places where there is no town they feel kind of lonesome and are very glad to get mail from home.

So I urge every parent, brother and sister to write as often as they can. Or if you have a friend in the service, please write to him. Pottstown MRS. D. TERHRET hSG THE WAR NEWS WITH THE AEF Grampaw Oakley PUNK.IN CORNERS, Editor, The Mercury, June S.

Dear Sir Brother: Wal, the big invasion is on. so big that even the amateur Victory gardener worrv a little bit about the invasion nf the Japanese beetle! who been heard of much recently, said to occupy time these designing flags. Or, maybe, just square-shaped paper dolls. And say: Chinese tiaim they originated sauerkraut. Before he became too busy with the Allied that sort of thing might have caused Der Furious to declare war on Chiang air the same.

GRAMPAW NED OAKLEY. Sky Drama By KENNETH L. DIXON (Associated Press War Reporter) AN THE ITALIAN FRONT, May 29 at sunset someone shouted and we all glanced up and watched the two P40 coming back over the combat line. The one in front was a wounded duck; its motor was dead and its flight had that unsteady quality of a damaged ship. The pilot had the nose up in a desperate angle, stretching every inch out of it to reach friendly territory before the crash.

He could have bailed out safely back there when he still had that would have meant capture and a lost plane. So he had elected to bring her back and take chances on bellying on this side of no land. Behind him came hia buddy, sweeping back and forth in protective thunder, daring anyone to touch that guy in front. At that trectop altitude the odds would have been 10 to 1 against having an enemy fighter jump but he had made his choice, too. His side kick had been shot up and he was herding him home.

We watched in paralyzed fascination; like men in a dream, powerless to raise a hand to help. Three battered had made the same game attempt in the last two days and all three had crashed and burned, two on our side of the line and one on the German side. And all along that combat line doughboys forgot their own dead of the day and watched the last act of the little drama of life or death for one man. He made it over the line and then swept our heads, still stretching that glide for a landing field that wasn't there. Finally when he begged the last inch out of his sinking ship he slipped over some bushes and bellied her down on a grainfield.

We couldn't see him then. All we could do was stand there watching the cloud of dust arise, and sweat, and wait, and inwardly swear. Still no one spoke out loud. His pal circling anxiously over the dust clouds couldn't, tell yet either. He kept wheeling his Warhawk around in a tight circle and you could almost see him peering over the side trying to pierce the dust by the very intensity of his stare.

We began to hope a bit wiien no smoke blossomed up. But you tell. Sometimes they explode right at first; sometimes thev don't burn for a few minutes, and even if it burn he might have been killed in the crash. For a long moment the whole front to stop the incessant noise of its own slaughter and silently for some sign that would tell just whether or not the pilot survived. Then the sign came It came from the other P40 pilot overhead and it told the whole story in one motion.

Rolling out of his circling vigil he whipped the hawk up and out in a sharp wingover and dived down to the field, his motor howling a happy, hilarious thunder. Then he buzzed the site of the crashed plane so low he must have clipped the heads of the grain. Then he pulled out, climbing joyously up in the thickening dust, and headed back to his home field And as planlv as though we could see it we Knew what was confirmed that the pilot who brought his wounded Warhawk back was standing beside the crashed ship, his right hand high, thumb and forefinger sending the flying man circle signal meaning 'O FLOWERS roa THE LIVING For MR. AND MRS. JOSEPH BACCHI 325- King street BECAUSE they are observing their wedding anniversary today.

Invasion Creates Great Surprise for Germans By KIRKE L. SIMPSON Associated War Analyst HIDING the ships of the mightiest air armada ever known, the ABC Allies, and Canadians from the new world and Britons from the war weary old, are back in Nazi prostrated France at last, fighting shoulder to shoulder beyond the beaches of Normandy from which William the Conqueror led his invasion of the British isles. Coastal outposts of the boasted German Atlantic Wall were shattered on a wide front. From the Cherbourg tip of the Normandy peninsula all around the curving shore of the great French bay to the mouth of the Seine, Allied troops are still pouring ashore from landing craft. Deep inland air-borne comrades were reported waging battle in the streets of French cities and towns.

Allied leaders report initial losses smaller than expected. There was little by which to measure the early successes of the great invasion except the indication that, against all military logic, it apparently had attained tactical surprise. Striking out boldly in day light under cover of overwhelming air power and a mighty naval bombardment, thousands of big and little sea Craft laden with men and guns and tanks made the channel passage to come to grips with the foe. The coast of Normandy obviously is not the short and direct road to Berlin, That lies farther to the north and east across the Low Countries. The German may anticipate that an Allied follow-up of even greater proportions acrass the channel narrows between Dover and Calais is also impending.

The Luftwaffe, which did not show up in strength yesterday, may be being held back for that. There is some justification for a possible Nazi conception that the invasion site selected for the first bold stroke may be a covering operation, that an attack much closer to the heart of Germany is to be expected. Paris is an unquestionable Allied objective. The Normandy beaches over which they are driving, are a natural bridgehead to Paris; but it is Berlin not Paris, that is the goal of the Allies. The threat alnng the arc of the bay of the Seine both to Paria and to the Nasi coastal defenses north and east is distinct.

It calls for committing more than German local reserves to the battle if the Allies continue to gain ground. The main strategic reserves, concentrated for use in any sector, would have to be tapped now that Allied beachheads apparently have been firmly established. That would draw the Germans into major action along a front away from the main military routes to Berlin, thinning out their available reserves to meet a secondary invasion wave. It could account for the apparent relative weakness in German support of coastal defenses along the Normandy beaches, and for the non-appearance at the start of the invasion of the reputedly still powerful Luftwaffe fighter fieet. Berlin may be waiting to iearn whether this is the main invasion attack before playing that last, der.perate trump cird.

AH EST PROBLEMS Youth Centers Have Great Possibilities GAKKV C. MYEKS, Ph. D. OVER THE country there have sprung up scores of youth centers, but in my judgement, not nearly enough of them. The main idea of a youth center is a place for teenage boys and girls to gather for recreation of their own choice and making, equipped with a jukebox, soft drink anfi hot dog counter, games and a dancing floor.

Youth centers have great possibilities, especially for the youths of the 9th to 12th grade levels. They need to be initiated and conducted by youths themselves, with standards approved by the high school authorities and leading civic clubs, sponsored by these clubs and subsidized by them. Obviously the youth center should supplement the recreational and scholastic programs of the school rather than conflict with them. They should not be open when the high school has a public recreation function, nor during regular school hours by day, nor on nights before school days. Therefore they should be open on Friday and Saturday nights, and afternoons and evenings or holidays, as a rule A good youth center can't be wholly self-supporting.

must be subsidized. It should have a hostess to maintain the standards and enforce the rules drawn up by the youths themselves with the approval of the sponsoring adult counselors. For Summer vacation, the youth center in many places should be open several more nights a week than during the school year. Children from 10 to 14 need recreation under trained leaderghip, with meetings by day, and occasionally in the early evening. Thanks to the modern way of bringing up children, a good many youths of today insist that they are wholly self-sufficient and that even the presence of adults should not be allowed.

If these were a bit wiser, they would welcome the counsel of adults, and for the success of their ow-n enterprise, A very few youngsters with low standards of behavior can without the backing and counsel of adults, W'reck the center. Then self-respecting youths with fairly high ideals will themselves soon desert any center which lacks a certain level of decorum, and parents and civic organizations which have subsidized and backed it will withdraw their financial and moral support. At best, few youth centers can meet the recreation needs of nearly all youths. Schools, churches and other organizations should do more rather than less to provide wholesome ways for adolescent bows and girls to have good times together. POISON -N usi EYE-WITNESS Pilots Keyed to Strict Schedule By GLADWIN HILL (Associated Press War Writer) A MARAUDER BASE IN ENGLAND.

June rode in one of thousands of planes which rained explosives on the French coast in support of the Allied landings pilot having the knowledge that a slight miscalculation would add the fire of Allied batteries to that of the German guns already blasting away at us. Allied airmen supporting the landings were given precise courses to and from the invasion area and it was explained to them that any deviation from these in the unfortunate case of an ailing plane turning likely to draw Allied fire. Although all kinds of shooting was going on out shelling the shore, the shore shelling warships and heavy and medium bombers exploding in the air at is a tribute to the airplane In Retrospect 50 Years Ago June 7, 1894 BOY IS Hiltebeitel, 11, son of Liveryman Frank Hiltebeitel, 518 King street, was shocked by an electric current and thrown to the ground from an awning at 447 High street. He was picked up senseless and bleeding. WOMAN FALLS Mrs.

George Seyfert, South Pottstown, fell down a stairway at her home and fractured her left forearm. She was bruised badly. HOME H. Royer, son of the late Henry Royer and former attache of the United States Internal Revenue department in Washington, returned to Pottstown after a long stay in Oklahoma. 25 Years Ago June 7, 1919 WELCOME BACK Sixteen soldiers, discharged at Ft.

Dix, were met at the Reading station by a welcoming committee and taken to Quicksells restaurant for a banquet. Chairman of the committee was William F. Lamb. JAMES DELEGATE William James, sales manager of the Philadelphia Suburban Gas and Electric company, was named delegate of the local Rotary club to a convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. ENTERTAINMENT At the Hippodrome: Gladys Brockwell in "The Call of the At the Lyric; Bessie Barriscale in "All of a Sudden At the Grand Opera House: Violet Palmer in "Ginger." At Ringing Rocks; Frank Keenan in "Todd of the Times." 10 Years Ago June 7, 1934 TWO L.

Eck, 19, 521 Spruce street, and Lester Leh, 16, 537 Spruce street, were killed Instantly when their motorcycle collided head-on with a loaded coal truck one mile west of Stow'e. TRUCK STOLEN The ice truck of Eugene C. Shirey, 70 South Evans street, was stolen near Shireys home and wrecked on Poole hill, near Glasgow. Police said they were without clues. BOY IS Robert Coon, son of Mr.

and Mrs. Elmer Coon, Limerick, died in the Homeopathic hospital after being struck by an automobile at Lakeside inn. ALL A HOL SU THE TOWS Wants to End Veteran A such Correspondent Gladwin Hill rode in over the invasion lines yesterday drops 100-pound bombs on German installations in France. manufacturers, the air force and the co-ordination of Allied forces that not. a plane nor a man was lost to our own ground fire, in contrast to the Sicilian landing, where our own ground guns shot up troop carrier planes, gliders and parachutists.

Extraordinary precautions were taken in great landing plans to prevent bombardment of anything but enemy facilities Gen. Dwight D. invasion message placed strong emphasis on the point that nothing should be done to jeopardise the safety or the friendship of the French people. The air orders stressed that bombing must be and that no errors, such as might be accepted as inevitable in occasional ordinary operations, would be tolerated. Finally, to avoid hitting our own troops, a deadline of 6:30 a.

half after set on any bombing of installations close to our lauding points. Over the shore I saw the tremendous naval and shore engagement developing, and a few miles inland I could see fields strewn with hundreds of where the Allied Forces had dropped. The fields were dotted, too, with the distinctive Allied invasion zebra-like stripe which hurriedly was slapped on all aircraft yesterday. In the channel, on every hand, there were great forces of ships, battering the coast or bringing up reinforcements to support the initial invasion thrust. The Luftwaffe was not in evidence, but from the ground the Germans put up a tremendous flak barrage against a sky full of coursing planes, running the gamut from single-engined Thunderbolt fighters to British four-engined Halifax bombers.

To our right as we dropped bombs on coastline defenses, a Liberator hit by a burst of flak exploded in a great burst of flame, and a few seconds later a Marauder from a formation ahead similarly was blasted to pieces. But the parachutes blossomed forth from the smoke, and other formations managed to dodge most of the flak. Inland, hundreds of parachutists plopped neatly into fields without a sign of other life around, and one concentration of made a model landing, cheering evidence of the smoothness with which the operation was coming off. The opening of D-day, despite the fact that all fell It was imminent, had brought a tremor of excitement through our base. After our 11th hour orders the rumor spread through the squadron of a briefing in just a few earliest briefing In their whole year of operations.

Tense fliers who packed the room gave low whistles when their commander announced: 4 May I have your attention, please? This is what we have been waiting (or. This is invasion morning. Thin is the invasion. I can't tell yon all about it. but your general picture is to support landing operations of the ground Gault McGowan, New York Sun correspondent who also made a flight representing the combined American press, told of an impressive in the dawn sky over the invasion area.

"It was just an ordinary rainbow which girt the invasion area at dawn with brilliant he wrote. "As an insicnia for, supreme headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force it was a heartening sign for the attacking infantry. The rainbow streaked right across the combat zone, only fading from sight after thousands of men had seen it. Our airplane in the bombing spearhead flew straight through the middle of it." Pottstown Skel cl IPS BU PHILLIPS (K? magastne doesn't think my article would aid the war etfort. Lorratne Richards, but they feel the paper I typed it on Voice of Broadway My DOROTHY KILCiALLEN Gotham Gossip Pat Di Cicco aud Gloria Vanderbilt will move to a Western State until he regains his health Dorothy Lamour is trying to sell her Holmby Hills home, because although she is married happily to someone place has tja many memories of the late Herbie Kay, her first husband, including a block of concrete in which they imprinted their names ana a lovir.g message in the happy davs of th.nr honeymoon Lili Damita and Lt.

Joe Kernell are a heart toddy Milton Berle is slimmer by 20 pounds. A new diet designed to make him look like Gary Cooper Lt. Lex Thompson is slated for a major operation A famous ballplayer is in trouble with his manager lor making a big Broadway night spot his camping ground. He's mad for a chorine there. The Zeppo Marxes, who recently adopted a babv boy, will ditto a baby girl Gene Sheldon is the surprise hit of a Bow." Got raves in Philly The Charles Mouses the theater are a little Moss Can you imagine? A customer at Jack stoie a whole table top 'with the champ's life-sized picture on from the restaurant the other night during the dinner hour Billie Holiday, who chants at Le Ruban Bleu, is desolate.

Her wire-haired fox terrier, "Besame disappeared at 106th and Central Park West yesterday. Will finder plea.se return. I guess the 1944 version of a wallflower must be a girl who has never been chosen by any group of as the girl most like to do. This or that, with or for When you see pictures of Cmdr. Jack Dempsey in the papers, it seem incredible that come July 4 it will be a quarter of a century since he won the heavyweight championship from Je.ss Willard in Toledo? Of all the atrocious things on view locally.

I think those life-sized mannequins made of multi-colored speckled papier-mache without lips or eyes, which are used to display frocks in some of the very smart shoppes, are by far the mast gruesome. Do you know that Victor Borge, who came here penniless three years ago, is now in the 90 percent bracket, poor fellow? What's happened to the flowers-in- fad? Are Frankie and his cigaret sponsor chilling? Have you tried to buy any prewar golf balls, and did you faint when you were asked four bucks each for them? Don't you think fighter Lee Savold and a singer Kennv Baker are look-alikes? Don't you get a little frightened when you hear the scientists talking about pilotless planes for the post-war era? Is Charles Boyer really going to play a Jap villain in his next film? Do you know that Lt. Goeffrey Jones, of the younger set, is now in England on an important mission? Do you know that strictly speaking a WAC enlisted woman must obtain" permission to go out with her husband if he's an Army officer? Did you know that four marriages have resulted from the blind dates arranged by the "Blind radio program, and that Sherman Billingsley of the Stork was asked to be best man at two of them? that a riot at Camp Kilmer when Gertrude Niesen, wowed by the enthusiastic response of the soldiers, forgot the words to Wanna Get which she sings in "Follow The Isn't it true that Groucho Marx and Kay Keyser will work harder than ever during their vacations from go all out in entertaining service men? Have you heard Maybelle Mercer at croon "Love At Second Do you know that three local niteriex are battling over the of Harry Cool, the networks singer? THISA TH AT A Unlike most of us, she did something about it! Eleanor Slaby, Stowe gal who a few days ago in this corner predicted the end for November 13, 1944, enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Women's Reserva the other day! Margaretta M. Ried, glamour girl of Pottstown High school, who has been named to wield the baton for the Senior High musicians, also has her own dance orchestra. She'll play a Summer stand in Atlantic City, where she will demonstrate her talents on seven different instruments! What are they doing with it? Mrs.

Russell Frankum, who's in charge of sugar rationing at the Pottstown ration board, is handing out to private families requisitions calling for 16 tons of sugar a week! ODD to the Potts- tow-n school district administration building at Beech and Penn streets are met with this sign over the lounge; "No parking to the Although none has guessed who imported the sign, thoughtful visitors are casting suspicious glances at the stenographer twins, Augusta and I net Collins TURN ABO ITS: The Rev. John B. FranU, pastor of Trinity Reformed church, had to ring his own churchbell the other day when the sexton didn't show up. And O. C.

Reacraft, auto club manager, had to drive the Salvation Army canteen down to the Valley Forge general hospital when the regular driver, his wife, turned up indisposed! ELEBRATION Bud Milligan, the CIO laboi man, Russ Feather, local soda pop entrepreneur, still are observing the 25th anniversary of the landing of their troopship, the USS Texas, in the first World War. The boat docked the day before Memorial Day, 1919, at Philadelphia, bringing home the 316th Infantry, of which both boys were a part. Milligan, who Feather snvs was the "flatfooted bugler," tells this story: When mother learned he was a member of the 316th Infantry, she took the service star out of her window, figuring her boy was a non-combatant! That's enough. Feather figures, to start a feud equal to the Hatfield-McCoy fracas. GIVE AWAY DEPT a small terrier awaiting the first ealler at 1040 South street THINGS TO COME Your postwar toothpaste and shaving cream tube will be of a thermoplastic sheet and the tubes will be transparent When peace came in 1918, too many persons forgot the soldiers and sailors and who still were in hospitals.

To prevent a recurrence, postwar entertainment corps has been organized which will the task of bringing entertainment to convalescents. The same brand of entertainment the canteens and have been enjoying is promised fer hospitals after the war. VIP Pottstown young matron the only advantage of having your husband in the service Is that you can eat all the garlic or onions you want to Something to remember: Food is just as hot whether boiling fast or slowly, and fast boiling uses more fuel PROBLEM Almost everything comes to a newspaper office, including praying mantis, corn borers, two pound tomatoes and egg-size strawberries. But Mrs. Luther Rife, Gay and Logan streets, has this corner stumped.

She brought in a bottle of glycerin, us that proper persons making explosives get it. If someone will inform this corner what to do with it pronto, that will bt done! HEALTH COLUMN Two Major Causes For Palpitation By DR. LOGAN CLENDENTNG LONE CORRESPONDENT wants to are the chances that my palpitation of the heart is something serious and what are the chances that it amount to anything? And what are those chances put dow-n in cold statistical figures not based on guesswork? And the answer to that is what I do not find in the medical textbooks and which I find very scarce in medical literature. But the other day I found one such report on this very subject of palpitation of the heart. I wrote on the subject in answer to a query recently, but I was not satisfied with the answer and by instituting a search in the medical literature I ran across two reports that give ua exact information on the relative frequency of the causes of palpitation.

One is from the National Hospital for Diseases of the Heart in London. Another is from an American hospital. The first Impression these studies make on one is that palpitation is not due to heart trouble but to stomach trouble. Those with organic heart disease were remarkably free of any sensation or consciousness of the heart at all. And palpitation is nothing but consciousness of the heart.

But 45 percent of all who suffered from palpitation had dyspepsia, some form of gas on the stomach or bowel, or other trouble with digestion. Aside from this group, the largest group was of goiter or thyroid trouble. One of the most frequent signs of thyroid gland disturbance is rapid and strong! heart beats so the association of that with palpitation is natural. High blood pressure was found present in about 15 percent the patients who complained of palpitation over of with high blood pressure are not conscious of the heart's action at all). A peculiar condition in which the hesrt has spells of racing called paroxysmal cardia is behind another 10 percent of cases of palpitation.

The functional causes of palpitation were put down as indigestion, overweight. debility in convalescence from some prolonged illness, the menopause, anxiety and fatigue..