The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 10

41 NATION At WHIRLIGIG 10 BROOKLYN EAGLE, FRIDAY, FEB. 5, 1943 Shift in Nazi Navy Command Stresses Reliance on U-Boats RAY TUCKER'S LETTER FROM WASHINGTON Almost the first invitation Barry R. Shep-pard received after he was named chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee handling navy funds earn from Frank Knox. It was for luncheon in the Secretary' swanky new dining; room, where the California Representative found himself surrounded by so much gold braid that his eyes blinked. "What have I done to deserve this honor?" queried Harry with seeming naivete.

"Ohl" beamed the erstwhile Chicago publisher. "We Just wanted to get acquainted. That's all, Mister Congressman. Just wanted to get acquainted." "Well," grinned the veteran legislator, "that's nice of you, especially since I have been a member of this committee for almost six years. We may as well be frank and start right.

I don't go in for the social stuff. I came to Congress with a clean shirt. I still have it and I'm going home with it. You folks will get every penny from me that you can justify, but not a cent "That's spoke up Rear Admiral John S. McCain, Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics.

But a few moments later he whispered to Vice Admiral F. J. Hofhe, Vice Chief of Naval Operations, "This boy Is going to be tough. We're going to have trouble with him." A few nights later Admiral Home assembled a few friends, including Californians, at the Army-Navy Club. Even before cocktails, he asked, "Do any of you fellows know this i Nobody pleaded guilty, but a guest Inquired, nitz, who is better qualified than any other man, even the merciless Von Tirpitz, to carry it on effectively.

The new commander leaves no doubt as to what the future holds. "The entire German Navy," he has declared, "will henceforth be put into the service of inexorable U-boat warfare." The "wolf packs" will be larger, ranging far across the Atlantic, infesting the Mediterranean, stalking the lanes that lead to North Africa, to England and to Russia, bringing peril to every ship on the sea. This may be one of Hitler's last cards. He has lost control of the air, where he was once supreme, and his armies have been crushed and routed in Russia and North Africa. Now there is to be a concentration upon submarine warfare which brought Germany so close to victory a quarter of a century ago and which, under Admiral Doenitz, will be intensified and refined as never before.

Any substantial measure of success will prolong the war. This new challenge, accordingly, must be met with resourcefulness, skill and determination. It cannot be regarded as merely an incidental aspect of the war, one to be dealt with at some later date when other responsibilities are not so pressing. Such a course would be attended quickly by a rising toll of sinkings, by the loss of men and equipment and supplies before they could be thrown into battle and possibly by the loss of that favorable balance now held by the United Nations. The war against the U-boat has become the most pressing of United Nations' responsibilities.

It must be fought with all of the energy and skill at our command if the present progress toward victory is to continue 1 4 "Whv? What about him?" 'M One of the explanations offered for the retirement of Grand Admiral Rae-'der as supreme commander of the German Navy is a contemptuous comment on German military operations at Stalingrad which has been interpreted as a reflection on the Fuehrer. Even if Raeder spoke freely concerning reverses on the Russian front, which is questionable, there was undoubtedly a more substantial reason for the change in the sea command. The reason lies in the fact that Hitler regards the U-boat as his last hope of achieving victory and that Admiral Raeder's successor, Admiral Karl Doe-nltz, is a master of submarine warfare. The explanation of the change in sea command is, in fact, clearly given in the boast of Hitler's newspaper, the Voelkischer Beobachter, that in consequence of the U-boat's toll of precious ships, cargoes and men, "one day the collapse of the enemy will be unavoidable." In London, the First Lord of the Admiralty, A. V.

Alexander, has issued a statement, which, while intended to be reassuring, is, in fact, ominous. He said that while there have been "periods of the most heartening success'" in the fight against Axis submarines, it is not possible to say whether they are being sunk faster than are being built. On the basis of the evidence, it seems, success in the submarine warfare must be conceded to the Germans. They are operating with undiminished effectiveness. Losses of the United Nations are greater than is generally realized, due to the policy of secrecy which the United Nations have followed with respect to ship sinkings.

Now this mode of warfare is to have a new emphasis- under Admiral Doe- Going Up! Every indication in Washington points to increasing pressure on the War Labor Board to abandon the "Little Steel" formula limiting wage increases to 15 percent. No one can deny that the cost of living has increased markedly in recent months and still is rising. But will a simple tilt in the wage ceilings meet the problem? If wage levels are boosted there will be slight chance to withstand farm pressure for higher food prices. The higher prices will absorb the wage increase and another wage rise will be needed. The spiral of inflation will increase in speed and everybody employer, employe, farmer and housewifewill go to hell in a handbasket, as the rural phrase has it.

It is too late now to say what should have been a year ago. The only thing left is to prevent further damage. That requires stern, immediate and unyielding action by the Government. BUY WAR BONDS AND STAMPS BITTER MEDICINE and not a Government by directives. Another indication of the way the wind Is blowing is the latest speech by Representative Martin Dies, protesting against the retention in remunerative offices of persons who lost their original soft Jobs by reason of reports formerly made by the Dies Committee.

No doubt, the President's daring and highly dramatized visit to Casablanca, and the probably very useful results of the plans formulated at his conferences there momentarily heightened the President's personal prestige-it has been a strange thing that no matter what complaints have been made in the past, they have not im pared the President's popularity. But that affair will be of momentary effect only. That the ball which started rolling in November is still on its way, the President's second effort at conciliation his war conferences with selected leaders of the Senate and House further indicates. My own opinion is that Mr. Roosevelt la wise in making concessions.

At this critical period of the war, when the tide of victory is turning against the Axis in the European field, and we have stalled, at least, the Japanese in Asia, it will be well if abuses in the administrative field can be checked by Congress with the least possible damage to the speedy defeat of Hitler in the theater of combat chosen by Mr. Roosevelt, Extra Station Entrances Needed A strong case was made at a hearing before the City Council's city affairs committee for the opening of additional entrances and exits at two stations on the Fulton St. subway line of the Independent system. So we were glad to see the Council bring the matter to a by passing a resolution calling upon the Board of Transportation to arrange for these needed facilities. The proposals concerned entrances at the Classon Ave.

end of the Franklin Ave. station and those at the Bedford Ave. end of the Nos.trand Ave. station, which are now closed. In the former case there are nearby a number of large business and factory buildings with many employes as well as other places to which the public goes in large numbers.

The need for an entrance at Bedford an extremely busy business thoroughfare, seems equally pressing. The convenience of the public should be a determining factor in such rases. "Well," explained Home, "the chief had him in for lunch the other day. And right away he begins to clip us. I'm afraid that the young man will get us Into deep water on Capitol Hill." Handsome Albert A.

Gore recently delivered eloquent address on the floor of the House, defending the war record of President Roosevelt's sons. Like a modern Cicero, he heaped scorn on Representative William P. Lambert-son of Kansas for suggesting that the boys had been given safe and cushy assignments. Late that same afternoon a few playful colleagues accosted the ebullient Tennesseean In the cloakroom and congatulated him on his performance. "Al," they said, "that was a fine speech you made for the Roosevelt kids.

It made a hit at the White House. The President is very happy about it. But their mother, naturally, is thrilled and grateful." The orator's brown eyes sparkled. His chest swelled. He murmured, modestly enough, a few words of thanks.

"Yes, sir, Al," they continued, "the First Lady appreciated it so much she told the glrlr at her press conference that she will go into your district and campaign for you the next time you run." The youngster's face fell. Recalling Mrs. Roosevelt's unpopularity with many below the Mason and Dixon line, he groaned, "Oh, my Lord!" War Department procurement officers have made rough calculations of the time it took Hitler's industrial plant to manufacture the booty captured by the Russians at Stalingrad. The loot Included 744 planes, 1,517 tanks. 77,000 rifles, three armored trains, 600 railroad cars, forty-eight locomotives, etc.

Our experts estimate that it required at least 1 six monins to turn out tnis mass oi material. So measured, the defeat becomes more impressive than when translated into loss of men and territory. It Is easier to replace soldiers than machinery. BROKEN RESOLUTIONS By EDGAR A. GUEST Those resolutions which I made Just five short weeks ago Lie, tattered, and frayed; The reason well I know.

I think I could have coped with me, But there my triumph ends, For what I lacked was strength to be Victorious over friends. Had I but had myself to fight The goal I might have won. HEFFERNAN says Is the New Deal On the Way Out? a The Constitution of the United States provides for a republican form of government, and guarantees to every State a republican form of government. The base on which that structure was erected was In a large degree democratic, although by no means entirely ao. There were limitations on the franchise, which have diminished with the progress of the years.

Nevertheless, the sound instinct of the American people resents a departure from the traditional American way of progress. For that reason I think the New Deal as it has been conceived by many who gathered around the seats of the mighty, is moving toward dissolution, and no one has been quicker to recognize that fact than the consummate political genius who might have been the first Caesar Augustus of the neo-American order had the American social and pollticial climate been favorabla to any sort of benevolent despotism. The Gallups, the Wallaces, and others may have misinterpreted the election returns of last November, but President Roosevelt did not. His address on the State of the Union at the opening of the Seventy-Eighth Congress indicated that he sensed a new situation, and on the other hand candid utterances by members of the new Congress not Republicans nor yet those who belonged to the non-interventionist group show a revival of the old American spirit which speaks, as one Representative said the other day, for a Government by law GRIN AND BEAR IT By Lichty Ji i REPORT FROM WASHINGTON Banning Cutting of Bread Meat Raises Serious Question LETTERS TO THE EAGLE Lattort must bear sifnotvras and ao'a'ratsas of writers but pen names will ba parmittad at the discretion of Hie editor, who reserves tha right to cut any latter down to meet requirements of specs. Cots Seen at Enemy Of Victory Garden Idea To the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle: All the metropolitan newspapers have, been giving publicity to the campaign for victory gardens.

Practically every backyard and vacant lot is infested with alley cats. If we are to have victory gardens we must first have a campaign to exterminate the cats. Plant life and cats do not mix. Brooklyn, Jan. 29.

JOHN F. KNUBEL. Hoi Plan to Purge Germany Of Addiction to Nasi Principlei To the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle: What shall be done with the brutal, sinning Nazis of Germany and elsewhere? Key Nazis should be segregated upon an international Alcatraz, strictly governed by laws of their own making, with the iron-rule guidance of international police. Restored Germans, from exile and concentration camps, should rule over the rest of the adult population under the liberal guidance of international organisations. German children ahould be given an education on the fundamental principles of humanity and democracy, practiced dally and hourly, will supplant the virus of Nazism and eventually purge it completely.

Any other plan will only perpetuate force and hatred not in the Germans alone but in the masses of mankind. Even Jehovah vowed never again to destroy wholesale. He did leave Noah- to rule with his followers. Democratic principles of Jehovah exist. These become the new ABC for society.

HERMAN J. GREENBERG. Brooklyn, Feb. 1. Sabbatical Leave Cottt Said to Total $2,500,000 To the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle: In writing of the differences between the Mayor and teachers' "pressure groups," Mr.

Heffernan repeats an error which has cropped up In the Eagle before that "each teacher who takes such a leave (a sabbatical) pays tha salary of the substitute teacher who takes her place." Up to October, 1941, that was true, but since then it has been only partly true. The sabbaticals were Inaugurated on condition that they would cost the city nothing, and for 15 years the promise was kept by the Board of Education. The absent teacher received full pay, less the pay of a substitute, which usually was around 11,330 for a year. Then, in 1941, when the board found Itself with a large number of 'excess teachers on hand, it began to uae these to fill the place of teachers on sabbatical leave, but Instead of paying them the substitutes' rate of $1,330 It paid them full salary, too. The deduction from the absent teachers' pay, however, still remained at the old substitutes' level.

The board consequently was paying two full salaries, less 11,330, to fill one teaching Job. This extra cost ranged up to $2,060 for elementary school teachers and up to $2,800 for high school teachers. For 1942 this policy is estimated to have cost tha taxpayers an extra 12,500,000. Brooklyn, Feb. I.

3, B. MILGRAM. L- 25 YEARS AGO IN BROOKLYN February 5, J9J The Gravesend Beach Board of Trade has protested against the B. M. policy of hiring women conductors.

Attending the annual ball of the 12th A. D. Republican Club in Prospect Hall were County Judge Mitchell May, Surrogate Selah B. Strong and John MacCrate. in the ma I weuftf I By CLIFFORD PREVOST This column Is devoted to women nd, mar we state it the beginning, that thf are usually more objective than the male of the specie.

They ask us questions about the cutting of bread, the cutting of meat. We haven't the answer. Neither has Administrator Brown, now in charge of the OPA. Brown knows that the order wan rather stupid in most instances and, we assume, he will do something about it in the near future. He has only been on the Job two seeks and ha spent that time trying to find out what has gone before.

It isn't humanly passible for him to catch up on the thousands of orders in that space of time. The women who are writing in do not complain about the amount of work involved in slicing their own bread. But they want to know why the machine remain In grocery stores unused, and how this order contributed to the war effort. In many localities grocers are permitting customers to operate the machines themselves, and a lot of fingers are being cut as a result. As far as wa can learn the intent of the original order was to sava manpower, and rot primarily to save the machines.

For months the WPB has forbidden the manufacture of these machines, through Its priority division. When Leon Henderson, Brown's predecessor, issued the order it was assumed that the machines would be gathered up and srrapped for the metals they contain, and would add to the pile for tanks, and ships and aircraft. But nothing like that has happened. The order may have saved manpower in the large bakeries, although Brown even doubts that, as some of them are demanding new machinery to take the place of the; cutting equip ment now out of operation. There Is also the matter of slicing bacon, always done by ma.

Order And chinery, id this has caused a run on the knife market in most large cities. In Washington, particularly, housewives are buying entise sides of bacon and cutting It none too thin as they learn the technique. A lot of girls living in small apartments are complaining about the order operating in the East which forbids the sale of milk in pint bottles. Here is a typical letter: "I can't drink a quart of milk a day and keep my figure, and I can't keep it overnight without spoiling as I have no electric refrigerator. When I tried keeping the remainder of the quart on the window ledge the landlord informed me that this was against the law, as it might fall and bean some one below.

But I'm on a court and no one is down there, Why can't they suspend that law?" This milk situation is not serious up North but may well become so by next Summer, Why? Well, a lot of refrigerators are wearing out and they cannot be replaced. Thus, it becomes apparent that every care should be taken to keep the machinery working. Milk deliveries will be more drastically curtailed. In some areas they are being made but every other day now. Deliveries of three times a weelc mav be in the offing as the Office of Defense Transportation further restricts the use of trucks.

The "carry your own bundles" rampaign Is getting underway and will be applied to all stores within the near future. This Chonqing World! I From tb Chrtttian Seienca Monitor Of course, you can always tell If the lady sable Is unused to riding in street cars if ahe looks around for the speaking tube when approaching her atop. But there were those by day and night Who whispered: "Oh, come en I "You have but one brief life to live. '3 Eat, drink and merry be I Come take what Joys Time has to give While you to take are free." I might have triumphed though attacked By all the tempter sends. I'd strength enough tor that, but lacked (.

The strength to cope with friends. 3 4 BROOKLYN EAGir (Trad lUrk Bail Xealittrad) (Pound4 br Itaaa Via Andwt In 11411 THB BROOKLYN DAILY ZAOLB PRANK D. aCHROTH. Prnldoit and Publlihar W. F.

CROW ELL, gMrtttrr and Trtaiurcr Bail Building. Johnton and Adams BtrMtj Brooklyn, New York TBLBPHONB MAtn 4-a3O0 iubaeriation rata br mill far the Brooklyn (silt In tha United Ititu, ant ar, si 1. 00 Bnttrtd at the Brooklyn Pottoftlot si Second CUm Mali Matter "Only 20 minutes to get home, dress and get myself proper ladylike frame of mind for my dinner date!".