Strips OCD of “frills and furbelows”
Washington, Feb. 17 (AP) –
The Senate today passed a $163,794,819 deficiency appropriations bill carrying $100,000,000 for the Office of Civilian Defense after the chamber was told that the OCD appropriation had been stripped of “all frills and furbelows.”
Senator McKellar (D-TN), floor manager for the bill, advised the Senate that the bill did not provide:
…for any amusement of little children or for the amusement of anybody.
New York. Feb. 17 (AP) –
J. Lewis Luckenbach, president of the American Bureau of Shipping, tonight reported a January gain of 763 ships of 5,049,020 gross tons on order or under construction in American shipyards.
Race against time when foe brings in Singapore units
By Daniel De Luce, Associated Press staff writer
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Guerrillas battle Japs in area of burned Palembang
By Witt Hancock, Associated Press staff writer
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London, England (UP) –
Soviet dispatches said today that heavily-armed Russian warships were shelling German land positions around Sevastopol, the Crimean naval base, and Yevpatoria, 50 miles to the north.
Calcutta, India (UP) –
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and Mohandas K. Gandhi are scheduled to confer here today and some quarters predicted that the meeting would lead eventually to a Sino-Indian “People’s Alliance” against Japan.
Balboa, Panama Canal Zone (AP) – (Feb. 17)
The possibility that German submarines may be operating from a well-concealed base in the Caribbean area – within the Canal Zone’s ring of defenses – was raised by the U-boat raid off Aruba early Monday which coast the Allies at least seven tankers sunk or damaged.
Honolulu, Hawaii (AP) – (Feb. 17)
Navy officers disclosed today that the destroyer Shaw which the Japanese claimed they destroyed in the attack on Pearl Harbor last Dec. 7, has arrived safely at a West Coast port under her own power.
Belfast, Northern Ireland (AP) – (Feb. 17)
John J. Winant, U.S. Ambassador to London, arrived by plane today to inspect American Expeditionary Forces in Northern Ireland.
Highest decoration awarded for bravery
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$32 billion provided for war in addition to previous amounts
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Hamilton. NY, Feb. 17 (UP) –
33 rare volumes, including a Kelmscott Chaucer and 18 first editions of Robert Louis Stevenson, have been presented to Colgate University by James C. Colgate of New York City. The Kelmscott Chaucer, regarded as the printing masterpiece of the last century, has been valued as high as $16,000.
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The Pittsburgh Press (February 18, 1942)
By Ernie Pyle
SAN FRANCISCO – To many people it may seem almost sacrilegious to write grievedly about the death of a dog, when humans are dying violently all over the face of the earth.
If it does seem so I can only say that I am sorry, but I can’t help it. For our dog Piper is dead.
Piper was the Great Dane. He was the dog that came to be a member of our family only two months ago. Immense and ungainly and lovable, he was still really a child when he died. He was nine months old.
Piper stood as high as my waist and weighed more than 100 pounds, even though he was not fully grown. His companionship was perfect, from the very start. Thru the grotesque folds of his old-mannish face you could sense his joy at being with us.
His understanding of things was almost uncanny. He had not had a minute of training when he came to us. He had never lived in a house. Yet his instincts were so sensitive that he never even had to be housebroken.
The first day we had him I said to him, “Piper, lie down.” Then I lay down on the floor to show him what I meant. That single lesson was all it took. From that moment on, I could have told him to lie down in the traffic of Central Ave. in Albuquerque, and he would have done it.
When we walked across the mesa, he always walked close beside me, pushing against my leg. When I took off the leash, he wouldn’t go away. When I ran, he ran. When I stopped, he stopped. He wanted only to please us.
When I was home, little Cheetah the Fox slept on my bed, and Piper, because he was too big to get on a bed, slept on a blanket on the floor.
At bedtime I would get both dogs settled, then turn out the light. But Piper, even though I had known him only a week, would always get up in the dark, nose his huge funny face into mine to make sure I was still there, and then he would go to sleep.
The dog loved us
I can never forget one night, less than a week after we had him. The people who raised him came to see us, to make sure that everything was getting along air right. They are good people and their dogs have only affection for them.
When they came that night, Piper sniffed until recognition dawned on him. Then he went to each one, as if to welcome them to the hospitality of our home. And then he came directly to me, shoved his head way down between my legs, like a child hiding its face, and that’s the way he stayed. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. He was saying that he was ours. The damn dog loved us.
The dogs really came to our house to be the dogs of That Girl. And that’s what they became. Both to her, and to them. I haven’t seen her, but I know she could tell a million little incidents of affection like the few I remember so fondly. When he died, Piper was all her dog.
Piper’s illness was a strange and sudden one. It was an illness of paralytic-like seizures, and he suddenly grew terribly thin, and his jaws would not open for him to eat.
The illness grew worse with a shocking violence. For days and nights on end, both That Girl and the doctor were with him constantly. We had the good fortune to have a young doctor who truly loves animals. He doctored as devotedly as if he had been trying to save a son.
All hope abandoned
The illness was diagnosed as a brain infection. They don’t know what caused it. The doctor abandoned all hope three days before he died. And then there suddenly came a rally. After 24 hours under opiates, Piper struggled to his feet. He tried to walk around the south lot where he always played, leaning his huge gaunt body against the fence for support. It was a sad night. But it was no use. They had to go help him back.
For the last 24 hours they gave him frequent injections of glucose and saline solution, and rubbed his throat and legs to ease the rigors of each new seizure. They would have put him to sleep for good, but even the doctor could not bring himself to do it. Piper did not suffer pain, only a great weakness.
All this came to me in a letter from That Girl. In it she said:
“I wish I could spare you the shock and sorrow this will be to you… you loved him so, and were so proud of him.
“There was nothing really outstanding about him that words can identify; but there was a feeling of complete accord between us. He seemed to understand, without teaching, everything I said to him.
“On the last morning, about 5 a.m., I tried to get him to some milk… he tried to raise his head, but he couldn’t make it… I held his head and rubbed his legs… I was still rubbing him when he sighed a great sigh, and was gone.”
And so ends in tragedy the short life and history of our Piper.
U.S. Navy Department (February 19, 1942)
Far East.
A U.S. submarine has sunk a 5,000-ton cargo ship in the East China Sea.
There is nothing to report from other areas.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (February 19, 1942)
Nipponese airpower strikes important Allied naval base; refuge for American wounded
Sydney, Feb. 19 (AP) –
Port Darwin on the northern Australian coast has been bombed, Prime Minister John Curtin announced today.
Japanese planes have been reported in the Darwin area before but this was the first bombing attack.
Darwin is about 675 miles south of the Japanese-captured Dutch island base of Amboina, and is one of the few naval bases in the Pacific war region left to the United Nations.
Haven for American wounded
Australians working in record time had laid a road through the middle desert wastes of this continent to link Darwin with southern Australia.
An American hospital ship evacuating wounded from the Philippines recently arrived there.
Australia has garrisoned the area and erected a network of defenses extending inland to repulse landing attempts.
Tiffin, Ohio, Feb. 18 (AP) –
An Army pursuit plane crashed on a farm near here during a heavy snowstorm today, killing its pilot who was identified tentatively as Lt. Tom F. Almon of Detroit, attached to the Army Air Corps.
Coroner William H. Benner said papers in the plane wreckage indicated he had left Port Niagara, Buffalo, at 10 a.m. (EWT) en route to Selfridge Field, Mich.
Speedy final passage of $100,000,000 appropriations certain; Miss Chaney out
Washington, Feb. 18 (UP) –
Congressional conferees today speedily approved legislation appropriating $100,000,000 for the Office of Civilian Defense after Mayris Chaney, dancing protégé of Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, had resigned her $4,600-a-year job in the agency.
The money grant – approved by both houses only after limitations had been imposed on future use of funds for what Congressional critics described as “fan dancers, movie lovers and boondoggling” – is part of a $163,789,819 deficiency bill.
Only for vital equipment
In its present form, the measure specifies that the OCD fund can be spent only for vital civilian defense equipment, and requires Senate confirmation of officials of the agency receiving $4,500 a year or more.
The action of the conferees assured quick final approval by both chambers, probably tomorrow or Friday.
Under the bill, $57,217,271 will be spent for firefighting equipment and training; $7,998,545 for protective clothing, steel helmets, etc.; $4,890,290 for emergency medical supplies and equipment, and $29,893,894 for gas masks and facilities for their manufacture.
The resignation was accepted “without comment” by OCD Director James Landis. It was different in Congress where her departure was hailed as a triumph over “boondoggling.” There was speculation also about the date of the probably retirement from the agency of Mrs. Roosevelt and movie actor-director Melvyn Douglas whose association with the OCD has been under legislative fire.
Set for Feb. 23, blanks awaited
Washington, Feb. 18 (AP) –
The Office of Price Administration issued last minute orders today delaying the start of retreaded tire rationing until Feb. 23.
Price Administrator Leon Henderson said the delay was necessary because required rationing forms had not yet been distributed to all local rationing boards. The retread rationing program was to have begun tomorrow.
All provisions of the rationing program, other than the actual distribution of retreaded tires, will take effect at midnight tonight, however. After that hour, no further sales or deliveries or retreaded or recapped tires can be made to consumers without rationing certificates.
Despite the four-day delay, Henderson said, eligible truck operators may continue to obtain new tires through local ration boards until midnight Feb. 22.
Committee votes approval; measure to be reported to Senate today
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World War I hero eager to get snipers
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