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Fire Thieves
Back in the frontier days, when the theft of a horse
deprived a man of an indispensable means of transport
ation, the settler worked out a system of justice which
made short shrift of horse thieves. It involved only an
elementary form of trial —• and a rope.
To a modified degree, the severity of justice is being
stepped up in many places to deal with the modern
thieves who would rob their fellow men of irreplace
able means of transportation. Since the rubber tiro
has become one of the most valuable articles of civ
ilian and military use, there has been a widespread
tendency on the part of courts, City Councils, State
Legislatures, and even Congress itself to increase the
severity of punishment of tire thieves.
Pending in Congress is a bill by Representative Co
chran of Missouri to make the theft of automobile and
truck tires and tubes a Federal offense, punishable by
a fine of as much as $1,000. or a prison term up to one
year, or both.
The National Highway Users Conference reports
that among the State Legislatures now in session, bills
to provide penalties ranging to 10 years in the peniten
tiary are being considered in Illinois, Kentucky, Miss
issippi, Maine, New Jersey, New7 York, Rhode Island.
South Carolina and Virginia. The California Legisla
ture has petitioned Congress to enact a Federal law
on the subject.
The tire thief seems destined to be highly unpopular
in the halls of justice—and deservedly so.
Censorship
Control of the How of news affecting military and
naval operations is a job that calls for experience, cool
judgement, and tact on the part of the censors, and
it is not surprising that these qaulities have shown up
with wide variation in the opening days of the war.
For instance, the Coast Guard recently renorted the
sinking of a ship off Long Island, adding that one of
its planes had dropped food and whiskey to a boat
load of the crew survivors. But the Navy, of which
the Coast Guard is a part, denied all knowledge of the
incident for a whole week, and a week later had given
the press little beyond confirmation of the sinking.
On the West Coast, the Army public relations offic
ers incurred newspaper displeasure by conduct which
seems, at a charitable rating, stupid. A balloon broke
loose over Seattle and its dragging cable cut municipal
and private power lines, paralyzing street car traffic
tying up elevators, etc. The fact of the blackout was
evident to all, but the afternoon newspapers were for
bidden by the local censor to mention the cause. Later
in the evening, the censor allowed the facts to be dis
closed in a radio broadcast ar.d then released them for
morning paper publication,, leaving the evening paper
editors with very red faces.
We suggest that the censors be guided by one major
consideration—will publication help the enemy? Un
less that question can be clearly answered in the af
firmative, there is no reason for forbidding publication.
_ .
By the time the present war is over millions of Am
ericans will have acquired a fundamental knowledge
<’f geography, including the location of unheard of
places and the juxtaposition of strange areas.
Even those who learned the location of Crete, Sicily
and the Dodecanese island in the Mediterranean and
the locations of Syria, Iraq and Iran in relation to
Turkey and Russia have had to take something a post
graduate course to separate the Strait of Malacca from
the Molucca passage and the locate Mountmein, Pen
ang, Kuching and larger entities, like the Bismark
Archipelago and Celebes.
Before the battle is over Americans will become
world-minded, understanding the threats that arise
against this nation’s peace and security in far-distant
places. Moreover, we will begin to suspect that, after
all, there are other good peoples and fair lands out
side of continental United States.
If the fleet of the Rising Sun were to attempt a show
down with the American fleet, the Rising Sun would
begin to set.
A police surgeon in Philadelphia says one is sober
if he is able to say “Susie sat in the soup.” The one we
wonder about it Susie.—Portland Oregonian.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evi
dence of things not seen.—St. Paul.
Soviet Uses Do^s To Save Wounded
MOSCOW—(Reuter)—Dogs now have a new task
in aiding the Red Army. They are being used to drag
wounded Soviet soldiers from the battlefield on little
sledges after the soldiers have been found by first-1
aid men. Alsatians do most of this work, but airedales
have also been found capable.
Soviet war dogs have many other jobs, but none is;
more important than this new activity. In temperatur
es as low as they are at present much depends on the
speed with which wounded men are taken back to!
dressing stations. Few of the dogs are wounded, for
they move so close to the ground.
Good care is provided for the animals used in the:
Soviet Army. The army’s veterinary service includes I
preventative and prophylactic treatment.
Most of the treatment of wounded dogs or horses is
administered at or near the front, but the army has
special trucks to carry horses back to veterinary cen
ters like one that the writer visited in Moscow, which
has nine such centers.
The center visited was one devoted to surgical treat
ment, infectious cases being taken to special hospitals.
The center has an electrically controlled operating
table, invented by a Russian professor, which stands j
vertical while the horse is strapped on and then slowly
-moves down, pulling the horse with it. It also has an
Z-rav department and an. artificial sunlight section, in
which a horse was receiving rays to speed up the re
covery of what had been a shoulder sore. There also
are physiotherapy and clinical laboratories and a per
manent hospital department for nursing civilian hors
es and pets.
One horse brought in during the Moscow batte, after
having been wounded in, the field, belonged to a high
officer, who visited his mount several times. During
the period of bombings a number of horses were treat
ed for shell splinters and like injuries. No horses were
lost.
Charles S. Howard’s great horse, Mioland, reared and
broke away from his handler as he was unloaded at
! Miami after a train trip from California. Mioland and
his stablemate, Porter’s Cap, were brought to Florida
for the $50,000 Widener Race, March 7.
■■■■■ .■
PIONEER LINE
Bases At
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PASSENGER INSURANCE CARRIED
FREIGHT — EXPRESS — MAIL
WIEN ALASKA AIRLINES
Gettysburg
Vet Seeks To
Enlist In Navy
*
Phoenix, Ariz. — United
States navy recruiting of
ficials regretfully rejected
the enlistment offer of
John Mann of Phoenix, an
army war veteran.
Mann is a veteran of the
battle of Gettysburg, and
was 100 years old his last
birthday. He danced a iig
on the floor of the recruit
ing station to prove he was
in fit condition to fight
Japs.
When a recruiting officer
asked Mann if he had his
parents permission to en
list, the Gettysburg veter
an replied—
“My parents are out of
town, but I am sure I can
get permission from my
grandparents.”
Movies Aid In
Drives To Nab
Pickpockets
Mexico City (AP) — Mo
viegoers here can look over
the pictures of the city’s
most notorious pickpockets
and sneak thieves now
while they wait for seats
at a super-production.
The police force, which
posts pictures of a new cast
of characters every week
in the movie lobbies, put
this notice under the photo
graphs:
“Possibly this criminal is
beside vou now. Be care
ful!”
Flyer Makes
Miraculous Trip
London—A volunteer Am
erican flyer with the Brit
ish Royal Air Force, Oscar
Lynch of Alhambra. Calif.,
landed at his base in Eng
land, after a raid across the
channel, with a piece of a
telegraph pole jammed in
to the fuselage of his plane.
Lynch admitted that it
was a miracle that he re
turned from his flight. Said
he:
“I guess I must have
ftown a bit too low.”
BOO-O-O-M !—Dancer
Donna Dax is the new “boom
girl,” so chosen by men operat
ing film studio's sound booms.
I
HOW TO TREAT RUMOR S—Privates Herbert Liuzzo, Leonard Mikola.iczyk and James DiVineenzo. all of Cleveland an l
1 now at Camp Wellers, Tex., use (he “Speak no evil, Sec no evil, and Hear no evil” motto to show the proper attitude toward rumors.