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About Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980 | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1951)
i tVl ..i-v t rare Limited De fense Effort Overloads U.S. Industry (Editor's Note: This is the second of a four-part series sur veying the V. S. mobiliztion scene.) By RELMAN MORIN (Special Correspondent) For all its size and strength, American industry is groaning and straining today like an over-loaded elephant under the massive weight of the new re-armament program. Actually, that program has limited objectives. It is not an all-out effort. The master plan is to create 4 j Wounded Marine Treated Medics complete first aid treat ment of wounded marine as they await stretcher bearers : : fatter moving down the slope from hilltop where he was hit j 4by machinegun fire. Action took place north of Hoengsong. '' Leathernecks in background rest after heavy fire forced t withdrawal. This is one of a series by John Randolph, Asso . "ciated Press correspondent. (AP Wirephoto) REPORT TO THE HOME-FOLKS 7 I Dave Hoss Finds Getting ( Things Done in Korea Hard i By DAVE HOSS . :1 (Special Correspondent) Somewhere in Korea, Feb. 24 (Delayed) After leaving Tokyo the other day for the field installation here in Korea, an old military custom was vividly brought again to mind, namely, " "chain of command and the attendant waiting for clearance, transportation, and getting things done generally. jj Albeit the cooperation oi tne various public information of ficers has been excellent, there Just seems to be a certain leth 'argy of action and ability to do 'things in a normal "corner-cut-,ting" manner associated with - civilians. i ' The contrast in geography and ' 'environment between here and ' ! modern Tokyo is like the differ ence between night and day. i When you realize the main .fighting lines are little more ' ."than a hundred miles away and ?that potential danger from guer rillas lurks in the mountains and Ifipld not less than 8 or 9 miles jaway, it's easy "to understand iwhy everyone goes about armed $ at all times and that the normal I Korean life is still upset by a v 'great number of refugees, wan- '"'idering aimlessly about, unde i Aided whether to brave the '. 8 nhvsicnllv exhausting trip to- 3 1 tv,a nnrth nnH home. waiu ms. Near Record Report On Korean Casualties Washington, March 8 (U.R) The defense department today identified 416 more casualties in the Korean war. One of the largest daily cas ualty reports made in recent weeks, the 245th list included 11 dead, 255 wounded, 29 in jured and 121 missing. Peiping, also often called Peking, has been the capital of China off and on for more than 2,000 years. Strangely enough, those who seem to be regular residents of the town are cheerful and seem well-fed although their manner of living beggars adequate de scription. Classed as clean, modern and advanced by Oriental standards, the Koreans offer a strange con trast of old and new. Korean "momma-sans" flail tirelessly at all manner of clothes in filthy trickles of sewage-impregnated water coursing down the streets everywnere. On the other hand, "Singer1 sewing machines are in evidence throuehout. and electricity is generally distributed. The fluc tuations in voltage however, are most extreme, and a voltage regulator is almost standard eauipment in most buildings occupied by UN forces. facilities for tremendous pro duction of war weapons, but not to produce all the weapons themselves unless a war should make them necessary. F.vpn so. production engineers generally agree that the task of re-arming is tougher this time than it was in 1941. Some are rtmihtful about the ability of industry to meet present targets Others say the situation, poor until recently, is now improv ing. Still others take the point of view: "You either re-arm completely, or you don't. This business of trvina to carry water on both shoulders won't work. In some important respects. the United States is much better able to meet the challenge of defense today than it was in 1941. Industry is much bigger, meaning that many more lac tones have expanded or come into existence, with millions of additional square feet of pro duction facilities. The National Association of Manufacturers estimates that industry, over-all, has grown about 60 per cent in these ten years. There is more "know-now" than in 1941. Many of the same engineers are in the same top positions. The hard experience of World War II, the false'starts, trials and failures, is well known to key men in government, At the same time, thousands of skilled and semi-skilled work ers notably women are re turning to the assembly lines, But against these assets here are the main liabilities: 1. The defense plants are cry ing for engineers. The very growth of industry, since 1941 has outstripped the flow of trained engineers. The Republic aviation plant on Long Island, for instance, is looking for 300 of these men. ' Capital Journal, Salem, Ore., Thursday, March 8, 1951 21 Aids Wounded Comrade A wounded Marine lies near crest of a hill north of Hoengsong, Korea, moments after re ceiving a head wound from Chinese Red machinegun fire which swept the ridge. A buddy attends him after pulling the wounded man back about eight feet from where he had been wounded. This is one of a series by John Randolph, Associated Press staff correspondent. (AP Wirephoto) s A legitimate complaint of the Korean government ana strangely enough, one voiced by several military personnel I talked with, is the fact that the UN forces are occupying manv school buildings and forc ing the educators to improvise school facilities. A recent issue of the Korean Times made quite an issue of the situation and an effort is be ing made to return many schools to use of the Koreans, at least on a part-time basis. With seeming logic, several G.I's said if we would confine the logistical and tactical opera tion of military forces to tents and unpleasant field conditions, maybe things would move fast er. Purely a supposition pernaps. but the underlying observation provides food for thought. Certainly the military judg ment of "top brass" in the field cannot be questioned as long as evident success materializes, but "empire-building" is a well known operation from Pfc's to three-star ranks, and the greater the success the greater the build ing" ... After several days here, I felt fortunate in locating several former Salem residents whose in terviews are not enroute through censorship, and its' time to move on to another location. Shore Patrol Helping Marines San Francisco, March 8 (U.B Shore patrolmen said today they've had a couple of "busy nights" making sure First divis ion marines get back to their Treasure island base in time for morning muster. But they said they hadn't had to make any arrests. The marine corps gave orders to "take it easy" on the combat veterans en joying their first stateside leave after six months of fighting in Korea. The marines, 1,000 strong, re turned Monday aboard the trans port General Breckenridge While awaiting the marine corps to process them for 30 days leave, they were allowed over night liberty. Many, if not most of them took advantage of it to see the sights of San Francisco. ton-Salem, N. C, said he spent his first night back home "hav ing a few drinks of real whisky, seeing a show and eating a big steak supper." SSgt. Donald R. Rust, 22, Rockford, 111., said he "just walked around San Francisco. "I wanted to see the lights of a clean American city again,' he said. Cpl. John Beeler, 22, Bedford, Ind., did the unexpected. He stayed at the barracks and turned in early." Bedford is mar ried and will leave for home "as soon as I can." 2. The new weapons and eauipment arc different and more destructive and much harder to make with exisiting facilities. The assembly line that turned out Shermans and Persh- ings needs extensive re-tooling to produce the more ague but heavier modern tank. (Chrysler is building a totally new plant to handle its orders for tanks.) The only similarity between these land battleships and the olders models is that they still have hulls and bogey wheels. Soldier, did you ever drive a truck in the last war? You would hardly recognize the new ones. At the Dodge plant in Detroit, they are turning out a weapons carrier equipped with a "breath- and so water-proofed that the motor keeps right on purring when the windshield is three feet under water. It has a heater for quick starting at sub-zero temperatures, a gadget that will keep a flat tire clinging neatly to the rim, and a bolting assem bly all painted yellow that permits you to tear out the whole motor and install another in 20 minutes. The seats and back cushions are foam rubber; they won't flatten into sheer cast iron on a rocky road, as the kapok filling did. 3. In the effort to fill defense orders and at the same time go on producing for civilian con sumption, some serious short ages have already appeared. As a result, thousands of fac tories even those with defense orders are competing with each other for these facilities. As a rubber executive put it: "A de fense order is nothing but a hunting license. You still have to go out and find the material." 4. Some factories are resisting defense orders. Even though ma terials shortages may have cut them down to low production or none at all, they are retaining their manpower and postponing conversion. They argue that, in the last war, the conscientious owner who converted early, at his own expense and at the loss of his customers, sent those customers to competitors who waited 18 months or two years and then got defense contracts at higher rates as well. So hun dreds of plants are waiting, watchfully. During World War II, Chrys ler, one of the great tank-pro ducing firms, employed more than 4,000 sub-contractors to supply various individual parts, assembling and gadgets. Republic Aviation, making the rugged Thunderjet fighters, al ready has more than 1,100 pro ducers in its "source files." There are 165,000 parts in a con ventional jet, and many of them are made by small plants that specialize. . Consequently, with shortages! in engineers, equipment, ma chine tools, critical materials and the will to cooperate the whole vast industrial machine is affected. The gears clash and the motor splutters. In 1941, an actual state of war cut back production for civilian use and released men, machines and materials for war work. In 1951 the ob is harder for the very reason that, in many minds, no emergency exists. i x$fcw2Si' t Bidding Their Time A United Nations column of tanks takes a breather on barren road near the Han River just south of Seoul. The Reds, well dug in on the north banks of the Han, have so far prevented the allies from making a crossing. Photo by staff photographer Walter Lea. (Acme Telephoto) Sunny Future Seems Sure For Pfc. Robert L Smith By FRANK TRAGLE Washington, March 8 W) There's a future for Pfc. Robert L. Smith just about as sunny as it can be for a young man who lost both hands and both feet. It's a future peopled with pretty girls who have written pro posals of marriage to him; secured financially with a $100,000 trust fund, and warmed by the of Defer Spring Fete Albany Albany merchants, after cleaning snow from the sidewalks in front of their busi- were "quite ness esiaonsnments jvl o n a a y morning, decided that snow was not a harbinger of spring and appealed to the sponsoring Chamber of Commerce to post pone the annual Spring Festival for a week. The retail merchants division of the Chamber announ ced Monday that the spring opening festivities will be held March 15, and the style show of the Albany high school audi torium will be held March 13. Spring was to have come to Albany this Wednesday. Mt. Angel Courts Mt. Angel Arrests and fines were given to the following in February: Leo G. Hamling, vio lating the basic speed law, fined $7.50 and costs; William J. Gaul, Woodburn, failure to stop at stop sign, $7.50 and costs; James Hoffer and Francis Purdy, both Mt. Angel, failure to stop at sign, each $7.50 and costs; Frank Broncc, Hubbard, double park ing and no lights, $2.50 and costs; John Gorman, Woodburn failure to stop at sign, $7.50: Charles Raid, Mt. Angel, basic speed, $2.50 and costs; Lowell Hobblit, Silverton, basic speed law, $5.00 and costs. thought of a little business his own with his brother. Perhaps best of all, 20-year- old Bob Smith of Middleburg, Pa., can confidently look for ward to doing for himself al most all the things people with their own hands and feet can do. And, very important for his future is something the hell-cold of Korea did not take from him along with his limbs the good cheer with which he looks out on life. It was last November when Bob, downed by a wound, lay in an icy ditch of a North Korean village until his hands and feet froze past saving. The army flew him here late in December. Since then a world of friendly people have come to him, in person or by letter, at the army medical center. And Bob, a thin black-haired boy, has travelled far on the road back to the world of normal people. Mixed in with the thousands of letters, post cards and tele grams addressed to him, he dis closed shyly in an interview, few" proposals Some of the girls included pho tographs. Some were right pretty," said Pfc. Smith, "but you know how girls are. They said in the letters the pictures didn't do them justice ... it might be fun to look them up after I get out and see how nice they are." The proposals came "from all over." " ' 1 l ilEilWWI II llir K IMp,,,,,.! lllft Here's How Re-armament Rates to Actual War Cost He hasn't had his steel-hook mechanical hands long, and his artificial legs are yet to come, but Bob was eager to demon strate what he can already do for himself. He took a cigaret from a pack, put it in his lips, accepted a light, tapped the ashes off in a tray and stumped the smoked cigaret out. He is convinced he will be able to do almost anything later. "I'm sure 1 11 be able to handle a deer ri fle," and shoot pool and drive a car. The Pennsylvania department of the American Legion has es tablished a trust fund for him expected to total $100,000. The Legion, a silk mill and a radio cabinet maker have offered him jobs. His brother Howard has been released from the army- in Korea to be with Bob and his widowed mother. Bob is thinking of some kind of small business with his brother as a partner. .His natural cheerfulness has already put the horror of what he endured far behind him. It Italians Hunt For Privateer Rome, March 8 UP) Italian ships and planes resumed their search in stormy weather today for a U.S. navy privateer (PB 4Y2) plane missing since yester day with 14 persons aboard. Three U.S. air force rescue planes from Wiesbaden, Germa ny, and three from Tripoli were en route to join in the search. In addition to the navy crew, the four-engine transport carried military personnel on leave from Trieste to Rome. Coming from Athens, it had stopped at Udine, Italy, about 30 miles, northwest of Trieste. The search was concentrated on the rough coastal waters of the Tyrrhenian sea. The last mes sage from the plane said it was over the coastal area, about 18 miles northwest of Rome, with one engine on fire and would try to land. A storm was raging at the time. Coastal craft searched the Tyrrhenian from Civitavecchia, the port of Rome, to Sardinia un til early midnight last night but found no trace. The U.S. navy public informa tion office in London said the aircraft was a mail plane. The state flower of Montana is the bitter root. is the future, rich with the care and rehabilitation his nation as sures him and brightened by his own good spirits to which Bob Smith, quadruple amputee, has turned. 1 Chile produces 75 per cent ef the world's supply of iodine. Furlough With a Kick Fresh from the Korean fighting front, these Marines take their first night back in the U. S. with a helpful kick from chorines Beau Lemes (left) and Pat Terry in a San Francisco night club. Marines are, left to right: Sgt. Mike Bowers of Bakersfield, Calif., Pfc. Tom Kilcoyne of Boston and Sgt. Lou Parson of Los Angeles. (Acme Telephoto) In his budget message last Jan. 15 for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1951, Presi dent Truman estimated V. S. military and related expendi tures at nearly $41,500,000, 000 to provide among other items for 3,500,000 men in the U.S. armed forces, a build up of the air forces to more than 84 groups and the opera tion of approximately 500 warships. For World War II, U.S. ex penditures for armaments reached an actual peak of $80,000,000,000 In 1945. The aggregate personnel of the armed forces exceeded 12, 000,000, and ship production was over 18,000,000 tons. For the five-year period from July, 1940, to July, 1945 midway between VE and VJ day the nation's munitions record showed these figures: Military planes 297,000 of which 97,000 were bombers. Ships 76,485, including 64,500 landing crafts, 6,500 other navy ships and 5,425 cargo vessels. Weapons 17,400,000 rifles, carbines' and sidearms; 315, 000 pieces of field artillery and mortars; 165,525 naval guns. Ammunition 41,400,00, 000 rounds of small arms am munitions; 4,200,000 tons of artillery shells. Vehicles 86,338 tanks and 2,434,553 trucks. These were the figures an nounced by the far produc tion board in Sept. 1945. "Old at 40, 50, 60?" Man, You're Crazy Fontet your ufl Thoniandii r peppy It 70. Try "(WPDlna up" with Oairex. contains tonic (or weak, rundown fwlln duo toltly to hody'i lck of iron whlrh miny mn and women tall "old." Try Oitres Tonics Tablet for pep. vim, vlor. younr feellni, this vwy day. Gt Introductory or "g-aeqiialntd ' alH today, at peclaiiy reduced orlot. only At lit drug Morea everywhere. In Salem, at Fred Meyr and Owl Drug. t Prompt ReM una? Rectal? Get 1 mot relief from 1 irntatwowith Cutocura , Ointment. Contains i Oxyquinoiine and Sul phurated Petrolatum. Often recommended by doctor and nnrwm. 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