Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989, February 04, 1942, Page 1, Image 1

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Medford
TRIBUNE
full Associated Pna
United Press
Thirty-sixth Year
MEDFORD, OREGON, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1942.
NO. 272.
J
on vam ii
News Behind
The News
by Paul MaHon
Washington, Feb. 4. The
navy raid on the Marshall and
Gilbert islands was an effort to
cut clear seaway for us
through to the
Dutch East
Indies and
A u s tralia, in
my opinion.
It does not
represent the
opening salvo
of a drive to
retake the
stepping stuiies
we have lost
or to fight our
way back
Paul Mallon
across the central Pacific. If we
were ready for that, we would
have captured the islands or
have tried to recapture Wake
or Guam.
The Japs have an Inside
track to the central Pacific
area, well protected by the Vol
cano and Marianne islands run
ning straight south from Tokyo
to Guam. We will have to wait
to crack that.
But they were sitting right
across our transport route with
large forces of scouting planes
and bombers in the Marshall
and Gilbert bases. (Their air
forces must have been large be
cause we lost 11 planes In the
attack). Those bases had to be
broken up to assure safety for
our ships moving into the
southern Pacific.
Thus, it seems to me, the
unexplained raid was neither a
foray (like the commandos
. raids on Norway) nor necessar
' lly the opening of a broad at
tack. While this is purely a
personal Interpretation, no
other seems to lit the an
nounced facts.
o o
MR. NELSON Is getting ready
for some head-rolling. His
sharp new arrangement for
keeping daily track of progress
on 300 main war items was a
preparation for it. All who do
not produce must go, and this
new daily check-up will show
(Continued on Pogo 8U)
Radio Highlights
(Time is Pacific Standard)
Tonight: CBS 8:30. Dr. Tho
mas P-irran on "Wartime At-
tack on Venereal Disease."
MBS 8. Basketball at New
York.
Thursday: The war 8, MBS;
8:15, MBS; 9 NBC, CBS, MBS;
10, Blue; 10:45 NBC; 11, MBS;
12:15 p m CBS; 1, MBS; 1:45
CBS, MBS, 3, MBS; 3:25, NBC;
3:45, CBS, Blue.
Highway Relocation
Is Military Secret
Salem, Feb. 4 (JPh-State
Highway Engineer R. H. Bal
dock refused today to give any
details regarding the relocating
of the West Side Pacific high
way, asserting such information
has been put into the "confiden
tial" class by the war depart
ment. Relocation of the road will be
necessary because of construe-
tion of the cantonment between
Corvallis and Monmouth.
SIDE GLANCES
BT
TRIBUNE REPORTERS
Educator EH Hedrick stump
ing the honorable city council
men with a letter of fa- cy words,
"appurtenances" beln one big
troublponme hurdle.
Joe Fliegel showing great re
straint in telling how good has
been the conduct of the mem
bers of the Medford Boxing Com
mish, he, as secretary, recom
mend i n g reappointments as
terms expire.
Ken Norwood forgetting his
keys and having to slide down a
sawdust chute to get in his house.
Tiny pussy willows braving
censored weather conditions and
quietly announcing trie advent of
spring. . r-, .
.v aaw I
TAKEN TO
E SUPPLY
OF
Meter Installation Expected
To Be Complete By June
1; Federal Aid Hoped For
Medford will be metered for
water In the immediate future,
Robert A. Duff, superintendent
of the city water commission,
annoui.-xd today. Installation of
the meters Is dictated by the wa
ter needs of the army canton
ment to be constructed in this
locality.
The water commission Is tak
ing this step reluctantly and on
ly because of the vital necessity
of conserving water for the
benefit of the armed forces that
will occupy the camp, Mr. Duff
said. "It must be remembered
that we are at war and must
make sacrifices," Mr. Duff said.
The cantonment will draw its
water from the Medford supply.
Ready June 1
Installation of the meters will
probably be started within a
fortnight and completed about
June 1. Mr. Duff stated, adding
that meter rates, not yet adop
ted, would not become effective
until about June 1. It will cost
about $58,000 to buy and install
the meters Mr. Duff said. It
is hoped, he added, that the fed
eral government will help pay
the cost.
If the experience of other
cities holds true here, about 20
per cent of the residents should
pay less under a meter than at
present under a flat rate of
$2.35 a month, about 80 per
cent will experience no change
and about 30 per cent will pay
more, Mr. Duff said.
Paul B. Rynning, chairman of
the water commission, could not
be reached for a statement re
garding the legal aspects of me
ter instillation. In his absence
other board members declined
to be quoted. Counsel, Frank P.,
Farrell, said he was authorized
to give legal opinions only to
the commission.
The cantonment has been al
located 5,000.000 gallons of wa
iter a day. Mr. Duff stated, this
being slightly more than the av
erage daily consumption in Med
ford last year but far below the
daily peak consumption of 9,-
450.000 consumed in this city
last July 14. If serious trouble
is to be averted, the peaks and
not the averages must be pro
vided for, he emphasized.
New Line Hoped
It Is hoped that the army or
some other federal agency will
build or help substantially in fi
nancing another pipe line to the
source of water supply but ev
en if this project should be ap
proved it could not be construc
ted in time now to avoid use of
meters, Mr. Duff said.
While no meter rates have
been adopted yet, for compari
son purposes Mr. Duff pointed
to the present meter rates paid
Dy commercial users: (1.75 a
month minimum for 5 000 gal
Ions, 15 cents a thousand for
the next 95,000 gallons and 12
cents a thousand for the next
200,000. He added that the wa
ter commission figures that 5.
000 gallons a month would be
ample tor family's domestic
(Continued on Ptgo Bonn)
Sugar Stamps Will
Under System of Rationing
Washington, Feb. 4. WP)
Special "sugar stamps" to be
ismed by the government to reg
istered consumers, will be re
quired before purchases can be
made under the pending sugar
rationing program, it was learn
ed today.
Each stamp will permit an
Individual to buy 12 ounces of
sugar his weekly ration.
A spokesman for the office of
price administration disclosed
that booklets containing enough
stamps to '.ast three months or
more would be printed and that
the time required for the print
ing would delay operation of
British Rain Shells on Japs
Massed in Singapore Siege
war Bulletins t
Rangoon. Feb. 4. (API
British aircraft today bombed
Japanese invaders in the Mir
taban sector, where strong
enemy forces have been try
ing to cross the Salween river
on their westward thrust into
Burma.
Canberra. Australia. Feb. 4
(AP) Australian fliers scored
a direct hit on a large Jap
anese vessel in a raid last night
on the occupied New Britain
harbor of Rabaul, an air com
munique Indicated today.
L
THROUGH SEWERS
The city council last night ap
proved an ordinance providing
for the Installation of grease
traps in restaurants and like
places of business and regulat
ing the disposal into the public
sewer of grease, oil, cannery
waste and certain industrial
waste. '
It was indicated that the ordi
nance was necessary because
grease and cannery waste enter
ing the sewer lines hinder oper
ation of the sewage disposal
plant. A report filed last night
by Fred W. Scheffel, city super
intendent, showed that the dis
posal plant was closed during
the entire month of Decen r
while circulating pipes in the
digester were repaired and the
tanks cleaned.
The ordinance requires eating
places to install grease traps of
adequate capacity approved by
the plumbing Inspector.
The ordinance also provides
that it shall be unlawful "to
dispose of into the public sewer
of the city of Medford oil,
grease, cannery waste or any
industrial waste of a kind, quan
tity or nature that shall be detri
mental to or retard or interfere
with the normal operation of
the sewage disposal system . . ."
The council approved the sale
of lots 7 and 8, block 15, Imper
ial addition, to A. L. McHenry
for the appraised price of $450.
The lots are on Willamette
avenue near East Ninth street.
Eugene Thorndike was reap
pointed to the water commis
sion. Councilman Harold Frye
suggested that it was mutually
advantageous to have a city
councilman on the water com
mission.
The civil service commission
certified three men for the posi
tion of hoseman in the fire de
partment and the council ap
proved appointment of the top
man, W. W. Coleman. Mr. Cole
man will replace Hiram Martin
who has resigned.
Mayor H. S. Deuel was a few
minutes late .ind M. N. Hogan,
vice chairman, presided.
the rationing machinery for at
least another month.
It was reported that the plan
contemplates registration of con
sumers families, with stamp
booklets to be issued to each
member of the family regardless
of age. However, no more than
one stamp per person may be
used each week. This would al
low a family of three, for ex
ample, weekly ration of 38
ounces of sugar.
The OPA spokesman said de
tails of the registration require
ments had not yet been worked
out but that the registration
would not be bandied by local
BUSINESS LICENSE
STUDIED FOR CITY
Council Receives Petition
Downtown Business Men
Requesting Meter Use.
The city council last night
Initiated a study of licensing
every business and profession in
town and of meters as a means
of solving the parking problem
in the downtown district.
In a petition signed by 56
downtown business men, the
council was asked to make ar
rangements for installation of
parking meters, it being under
stood that the petitioners were
looking forward to the time
when the traffic would be in
creased greatly by construction
of a cantonment here. Council
man M. N. Hogan, presiding,
said the matter was so import
ant that a special meeting of the
council should be called as soon
as a report became available.
Mr. Hogan referred the peti
tion to the public safety com
mittee and suggested that the
committee meet with a group of
business men to thresh out a
solution.
Barbers Request
On motion of J. C. Collins
the license committee was in
structed to study and report at
the next council meeting on the
advisability of licensing every
business and profession in Med
ford. This question was brought
up by a. petition from barbers
asking that an ordinance be
adopted licensing barber shops,
the initial fee to be $200 a year
and the renewal fee $10. The
barbers asked that barber shops
in operation at the time the or
dinance became effective be re
quired to pay only the renewal
fee.
Mr. Collins said that what the
barbers wanted was a protective
tax and declared that while the
petition had its humorous as
pects it also had a serious side.
Pointing out that at the request
of electrical contractors the
council had doubled the licens
ing fees. Mr. Collins said others
were entitled to the same con
slderatioh. City Attorney Frank
P. Farrell said the case of the
electrical contractors was a lit
tle different as the fee was In
tended to cover the cost of the
examination they must pass be
fore they may engage in busi
ness. Mr. Collins insisted, how
-fever, that fundamentally the fee
was a protective tax and there
seemed to be general agreement.
The council adopted an ordi
nance doubling the license fee
of electrical contractors. In
creasing the original fee to $100
a year and the renewal fee to
$50 The action was approved
at me previous council meet
ing. Barber shops do not pay a
license fee, Mr. Farrell said.
Be Issued
postofflces. Stamp books will be
issued at the time ol reg:stra
tion.
OPA said the rationing would
be supervised by local boards,
probably the same boards now
handling tire rationing but aug
mented by a member or mem
bers drawn from the food in
dustry. It was understood that retail
ers accepting the sugar stamps
would pane them on "sugar
cards." When a card Is filled,
the retailer then can present it
to his wholesaler as authority to
purchase the exact amount of
sugar represented by the stamps
jon the card-
DEFENDERS TOLD
ON SCENE S
Heartening Word Given By
Gen. Wavell Japs Blast
Anew At Great Citadel
By Rogor D. Greene
Associated Press War Editor
Gen. Sir Archibald P. Wavell.
allied generalissimo, announced
today that the United States and
Great Britain were sending
"great reinforcements" to the
far Pacific battle theater, while
in the five-day-old siege of
Singapore, British guns rained
shells into Japanese troops
massed across the mile-wide
Johore strait.
Gen. Wavell's heartening mes
sage was the second official
word in 24 hours that mighty
counter-blows against Japan are
soon to be struck by the united
nations.
Australia's army minister,
Francis M. Forde announced
yesterday, without elaboration.
that "a big allied movement ' is
underway.
Flanking Foiled
Gen. Wavell, hero of the first
British offensive into north Af
fica and one of the world's
shrewdest military strategists,
also declared that the Japanese
have now reached an area
where we cannot be constantly
out-flanked and where the en
emy cannot exploit superior
mobility."
Japanese bombers blasted
anew at the beleaguered Singa
pore defenders, inflicting some
damage but few military casual
ties, British headquarters re
ported. Embers still smouldered in
the wreckage from yesterday's
aerial assaults, in which the toll
was listed officially as 22 killed
and 90 wounded. By nightfall,
all but two fires were reported
under control.
Today's communique tersely
reported that there was "no
change" in the five-day-old siege
as reinforced British, Australian
and imperial Indian troops
worked steadily to install and
camouflage, new machine-gun
nests, rifle pits and gun em
placements in the tangled man
grove swamps facing the enemy.
On other fronts in the far Pa
cific conflict:
Dutch East Indies Dutch and
l Continued on Poso Seven)
Washington, Feb. 4. (IP)
Attorney General Biddle today
designated as an area of sharp
ly restricted movements for
German, Japanese and Italian
nationals, the California coast
from the Oregon border south
to a point fifty miles above Los
Angeles and running Inland
from 30 to 150 miles.
The order is effective Febru
ary 24. After that date, enemy
aliens in that area must remain
in their residences from 9 cm
to 8 a.m., and at all other times
they must be at their homes or
heir places of employment or
cn route between the two, or In
any case within five miles of
their residences.
Interment is the penalty for
violations.
EKWALL FAVORED
Washington, Feb. 4. Ph
Senate Judiciary committee of
ficials said today the commit
tee probably would report fav
orably Monday on the nomina
tion of William A. Ekwall,
Portland, Ore., to be Judje of
the United States customs
coin
J. S. Striking
!" few-
! Wit
United States Navy scout bombers fly In formation (above) over Teasels of the fleet on an offen
sive patrol somewhere In the Pacific. Closely packed planes lined up on the deck ol aa aircraft
carrier (bolow), are ready for a quick take-off during patrol in the Pacific.
Axis Submarine Sinks
United Fruit Freighter
Lewes. Del., Feb 4. VPt The freighter San Gil. owned by
the United Fruit company, was torpedoed and shelled jy aa
enemy submarine off the Maryland const at 11:50 o'clock last
night with the loss of two lives, it was disclosed with the
landing of survivors here today.
Thirty nine other members of i
the crew and on passenger,
Stewart Wlnslow Condon, 26, of
Rosllndale, Mass., an accountant
for the fruit lines, were saved.
Four of the crew were injured.
The ship was struck first by
a torpedo on the port side, a
navy spokesman said. The two
missing numbers of the crew
apparently were killed by an
engine-room explosion. They
were Beaumont Barge, 26, of
Antwerp, Belgium, and Secon
dino Castro, 36, of Honduras. .
The crew launched two life
boats and the submarine then
shelled the ship. All but about
four of 15 shells hit the Urget,
Captain Walter W. Koch, 44, of
Canasuta, N. reported.
A second torpedo struck the
ship as it rank by the stern. A
coast guard cutter picked up
the survivors after they had
spent seven hours in the life
boats.
Clergy Not Eligible
For Tire Purchase
Portland, Feb. 4 fflV-O. L.
Price, state rationing adminis
trator, said yesterday the office
of price administration had ad
vised him that clergy members
are not eligible for tires under
present rationing regulations.
Detailed regulations will be
sent from Washington, D. C, in
t week or ten days, be added.
Power In Air
I
1
rr
PAWNEE BILL OF
WILD WESI DIES
Pawr.ae, Okla.. Feb. 4. (IP)
Major Gordon W. "Pawnee
Bill" Llllle, frontiersman, wild
west showman and last surviv
ing leader of the Oklahoma
boomers, 1 dead.
The stocky, white-haired old
veteran died last night at his
Buffalo ranch.
He would have celebrated his
82nd birthday on Valentine's
day.
He had been an Invalid since
1918, when he was injured In
an automobile accident near
Cleveland, Okla. His wife, May
Llllle, was killed.
Pawnee Bill was eaptain of
the boomer movement which
had for Its purpose the colon
ization of Oklahoma territory.
OLCOTT'S SON HELD
BY JAPS IS BELIEF
Portland, Feb. 4. m For
mer Gov. Ben W. Olcott said
yesterday the navy had advised
him that his son. Ensign Chet
W. Olcott, probably is a Japan
ese prisoner.
Olcott was on duty at Wake
Island at the time of the Ja
lanese attack. - -
and On Sea
-Ve.
FIERCE BATTLES
FOR KEY TOWNS
NEAR SMOLENSK
By the Associated Presa
Soviet front-line dispatches re
ported heavy battles were raging
today near several key towns in
the Smolensk sector, 230 miles
west of Moscow, with the Ger
mans falling back under the as
sault of a powerful Russian
counter-offensive.
While none of the "key towns"
was specified, the Russians have
been driving close upon Yelna,
only 35 miles southeast of Smo
lensk, in a thrust to cut oft the
escape of German armies retreat
ing along the old Napoleonic
road from Moscow.
, Fierce fighting also waa re
ported on the Leningrad front,
where a British broadcast said
the Germans had been thrown
back 18 miles south of the one
time czarist capital by heavy
Russian attacks.
On the North African front,
the sweep of Field Marshal Gen.
Erwln Rommel's axis forces en
croached upon Derna, only 05
miles west of Tobruk, after driv
ing the British 160 miles north
east of Bengasi.
London quartet;, however, de
clared flatly that the main Brit
ish force had cot yet clashed
with Gen. Rommel's army and
that only patrol and rearguard
actions had been fought
There was still no official ex
planation for the sudden British
retreat after hurling the Ger
mane back more than 350 miles
from the Egyptian-Libyan fron
tier last month, -