The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

VOICE OF THE PRESS COST TREMENDOUS If yon have ever stood and look- Ad at the two big bridges built hi recent years at S.in Krauclsco, and then iron* on further south nil east to look at Bourtler Dam, you mv*t have been struck by the tremrndotn cost of these struc- tures built for the use of. man. The rost WRH tremendous, too. It totalled S27000.onn. Rut thit Is J24.000.000 le*s than toe ttOO.OOO.OflO cost of the 98-day Pacific Coast maritime strike In 193H which resulted In practically putting San Franelco out of busl- ne us a shlpnlng port. So when you are wondering How we are going to pay for some of the bir projects on this continent, Jnst remember that If peple will go to work the cost can soon be made up. Lethbridg* Herald. WORLD'S WORST CHEATERS In Canadian sentiment, there 1 no hatred of the Japanese aa a nation. There is opprobrium e-ven now, and for a lone time past They are. just little gangsters alongside their Htm friends and bnlltea. Ac a nation they are also the reatet cheaters this Earth has ever been encumbered with. The story must be recalled at this writing, how they ordered war- iWi>K from a Scottish ahliiyard of world renown. How they got a first delivery and then cancelled the order, because they thought they had the- blueprints of design. They had blueprints, and when they hullt their own ships on what they rot, thow ships turn- ed trortle. It was certainly retri- bution for the cheaters, the am- ateur Imitator*, which t)ie Jap are known to be. St. Catharine* Standard. v MILADY'S LOCKS MUST GO1 Si* thousand, hairdressers can't Be wrong. And 8,000 of them In convention assembled recently In New York passed a decree which means that milady will have to ee the beauty parlor she patron- ize* strewn with long clippings from her cherished tresses. She may have taken months to let b*r hair grow to the right length. She may have p*nf many hnoleon* to have an expert give her JtMt the right Ion* halr-<lo covering her ears. But now the Inexorable 6,000 have given this form of hair dressing its d^ath warrant. They have heaped scorn upon tfels style. It Is "Hollywood shrub- bery." It Is "like wet spaniel ears." It gives a woman a "drippy look." No woman could brave those ep- ttheta. The locks will have to go. Tlmmlns Dally Pi-en*. v CHEERS FOR CUCUJU It's a nuisance for many of us. Bvery month we get one of those pesky bills for electric current. Al- most makes a fellow want to move down to the balmy shores of -Mexi- co facing the big gulf. For wo are reliably Informed that electric light Mils are totally unknown down there. All. the lucky folks have to do Is go out In their gar- den and capture a handful of cu- njl. Never heard of them? Well, they are a sort of greenish- black beetle that produces a phos- phorescent light. Put half a dozen of them in a little bamboo ('age and they will give as much light as a 15-watt electric bulb. Ho, hum, let's turn out the cur ciiji beetles and go to sleep. Kitchener Record. v NAPLES' FIFTH COLUMN The great Italian seaport and eommorclal city of Naples is In danger. The menace is a firth column more damaging than any Italy's ally, Hitler, ever planted. Night after night It guides Bri- tish bombers to the city. With brazen 'openness It flaunt* a light the quentlng British alrmt'n can- not fall to see. Mussolini knows all about It. HVs firemen are helpless. Ttiey eannot put the light out. Ills sec- ret police are beaten by It. No handcuffs and shackles were ever made that can curb It. Naples' fifth column happens to be Mt. Vesuvius. Quclph Mercury. A VALUABLE CONTRIBUTION No fewer than 23,000 farimv- !< and young men put In a total of ton million hours of work In Ontario this year Harvesting the crops of farnu and orch irds. They havo made a valuable con- tribution to the country's war ef- fort and are deserving of the tri- butes paid to them. --Hamilton Spectator. - v A GOOD SIGN Britain In not claiming to liavo won the Untile of th(! Atlantic. but It may >>c ftlgnlflrunt Hint United States marine Insura-in* rates (HI Itm li inn! Allied still, merits have been rcihuvd. Own Sound Sun Times. MINERS LEARN STRIKE IS OVER Smiles greet the news as these miners learn from their newspaper that the United Mine Workers accepted President Roosevelt's plan, for arbitration of the closed shop dispute and would go back to work pending settlement. This scene, repeated all over the east's coalfields, is at U. S. Coal & Coke Co. mine at Gary, W. Va. OR THEIR SHIRTS Trouser cuffs may be done away with in Italy as a "waste of good material." Italians will be lucky tf they don't lose their pants. Kitchener Record. v RUMOR EXPLANATION Japanese typewriters have 8,000 keys, which explains some of the conflicting rumors coming out of the Land of the Rising Sun these Stratford Beacon-Herald. v AND SO ON This winter folk will plan to ave money next Summer the Mime money they planned last smrnmpr to save this winter. Guelph Me. cm >. Tempo of Business Bewildering Soeed Canadian production in 1!)41 may exceed the level reached in 1929 by as much as 40 percent., according to estimates of the Royal Bank of Canada released In the bank's November letter. Although 1940 production also surpassed the 1920 figure, it has Increased so rapidly this year that it Is expected to advance far be- yond even the 1940 total, the bank said. The letter commcntod that all business activity is ex- panding with "bewildering speed," and the official index of the physical volume of business dur- ing the first eipht months of 1911 averaged 12.6 percent, higher than in the corresponding period of 1940. Canada's manufacturing capa- city is now largely occupied with the production of war materials with one-half of all manufac- turing workers directly engaged THE WAR - WEEK Commentary on Current Events Britain S** ;l *:es In South Africa: Roosevelt Moves In South America Great Britain has launched her greatest offensive of the war and her tanks are rolling across the deserts of Italian Lybla. A second front long and Impatlentlv nwait ed has been opened against the Axis. Tills Is not a hurried at- tempt to assist Russia by estab- lishing a second front but rather a carefully weighed plan. It was designed (1) to relieve the Oer- man military pressure on Russia by diverting Axis man power and material; (2) to erase the Axis menace to the cotton and wheat resources of the Nile, to the Suez- Red Sea waterway on which em- pire communications in Mie Middle Kast depend; (3) to provide bases. If It over-ran Libya, for an intensified attack perhaps an ul- timate land invasion against Italy, the weak tenant In the Axis house; (4) to demonstrate a strength that might give pause to the men of Vichy, who were moving toward closer collabora- tion with Adolf Hitler, a collabor- ation that threatened profoundly the arenas of the Mediterranean and the. Atlantic. The shock of battle flarrd sud- denly and yet It has been known that the British and Axis powers were girding for a decisive trial In Libya after a military Ftnlwnate that has existed for six months. The Libyan battlefield was des- cribed ae a vast triangle enclosing more than 2,000 square miles, with Its bane a 60-inlle linn south from nanlln. on the Medlt<>ranean GOOD OMEN FOR THE ARMY Great things are in store for men in the Canadian Army in only few weeks. The women in this picture are only two of many re- f nil Is in the C.W.A.C. They arc taking the Canadian Women's Army Corps cooking course at the Central Technical School, Toronto. At the conclusion of their course their jobs will be to feed the fighting wen. Recruit Rhen Truckel, RIGHT, is giving Recruit May Kullick a taste of her product. Both women are from Hamilton. coast, to Maddalena and Its upex at besieged Tobruk, 80 miles west of Bardla. A year ago Egypt and the Suez had been in peril, says the New York Times. Premier Mussolini's legions motored along the coastal highway built for a thousand miles from Tripoli to the Eorvntlan bor- der. Perhans a quarter of a million men marche<1 toward the land of the Pharaohs. Oi'tnumherel Brl- tteh forces retired, stalled the Italian drive In the desert. The Italians, definite their num- erical array and their confidence they brought marble monuments along to celebrate anticipated triumphs showed glens of weak- ness. In December, the Army of the. Nile led by General 8!" Archi- bald Wavell. probed the Fascist line In a tentative- surprise assault. Resistance crumbled, ami the British commander. In a sweep ranking as one of the war's most brilliant, raced across Cyrenaica. Libya's eastern province, to Ben- gazl, some 400 miles from the point of attack. All Libya might have fallen, save for two factors; (1) the Army of the Nile was de- pleted In order to reinforce the Greek Balkan front for an Impend- ing German thrust; (2) the Ital- ians were stiffened by German armored forces hurriedly sent through Italy and across the Med- iterranean to Libya. The Germans under General Rrwln Rommel, Panzer exnert and veteran desert warrior, took full advantage of the skeletonized British. The Army of the Nile wns rolled back from Bengali to Kgypt In shorter time than it" had ad- vanced. Onlv at Tobruk. the bat- tered port SO miles from Libya's eastern frontier, did a garrison of empire toons hold on. Like tlm eir'ler IMl-Mi drive, the German push came to a halt in Western Egypt at the e.ml of a nrecarlously long line of co!""umlcntions. Months of Stalemite From late Sprint; until last week Axis and empire armies faced each otlier In a st'i'pmnte. Those months embraced the season of almost unbearable heat and arid- ity, of fierce wiiuNtorms, In the sand and limestone wastes of Libya. Military oper.itlons on a large scale wore ris'cy. Roth sides used the pr-rlod to ln-IW up re serves for a future test. Tre Axis had the advantage of shorter sunnly lines from their arsennl In E'-.rope. the dlsadvan tage of being espose:! to British rival an:l aerial power In the Mediterranean. Th-> rtoval Navy and the U.A.F. pounded at the overf.ens line from Naples to TrI poll, chief unlading port In Libya. Hundreds of thoitsrMids of tons Of Axis shipping s,'ii>k beneath the Inland sea: with the vessels went men, equipment, foodstuffs, planes tanks, oil. Nevertheless, enough Axis shipping pot through to make It annear that In the race to achieve preponderance the Ger- mans might win. The British depended In part on supplies from the United States arsenal particularly tanks and planes and from India. Their sea lines were tremendously long, but from the Red Sea ports, where the- freighters unloaded, the land lines were comparatively short, well organized and protected. It was believed that last week the British had several, hundred thous- and men available drawn from all corners of the empire and an air force exceeding that defending the home Isles in 1940's Battle of Britain. Pressure on Vichy Vichy is being pressed Into closer collaboration with Germany. General Wegnnd, commander of the French Africa forces, has been retired "at the express -demand of Hitler" Although disliking the British, Wegand has always hated the Nazis. With him out of the way, Vichy may be preparing to bow to the following German demands: (1) Use of the French fleet, stlU the strongest in the Mediterran- ean after Britain's, to convoy Axis supplies to North Africa; (2) use of bases and transit facilities In French Tunisia, Algeria and Mor- occo for Axis troops and material; (3) a pledge by Vichy to protect Its African Atlantic bases from a possible "attack" by Britain or the United States. From now on, unless evidence Is forthcoming to the contrary. France must be looked upon as a potential. If not yet an open an*l active, partner of Germany. Her fleet and her great naval and air bases In Africa may at any moment be placed at the dlsnosal of the Nazis. But until Blzerte. Cas-.i- blanca and Dakar are taken over by the Axis there will remain ground for hope that this second surrendered of France may not prove such a catastrophe for the democratic cause as her first one. That Is why the British offensive- in Libya Is of such great import- ance, not only to Britain but to the- United States. British Morale A quotation from "Mein Kampf," printed on placards In big black letters, appears everywhere In the- Middle East and India, from the bomb-haken dugouts of To- bruk, through the crowded hotel lobbies of Cairo to Baghdad bar- racks and the bazaars of Teheran. The Fuehrer's comment on British morale reids: "The spirit of the British nation enables It to carry through to vic- tory any struggle It once enters upon no matter how long the strug- gle may last or however great the sacrifice that may be necessary or whatever the means which have to be employed; and all this though the actual equipment at hand may be utterly Inadequate when compared with that of any other nation." President Roosevelt Acts President Roosevelt has beaten Hitler to the draw again, says the Windsor Dally Star. This time the American troops are to occupy Dutch Guiana. The action la M great a blow to Hitler In the Sourt Atlantic as the American occt* patlon of Iceland was in the -Norro Atlantic. There are British, Dutch and French Guiana all side by side OB the edge of Brazil and faclnf Dakar in Africa. The Nazis hai au eye on French Guiana with view to gaining a foothold ther*. But with the Americans co-operafc Ing with the Dutch to protect DntP'h Guiana- from aTresslori, Hitler's plan IB forestalled. . There are bauxite mines In Putch Guiana. . . Th* mineral ) needed to assure- a supnlv of alu- minum for war production In the United States. Airplanes eat up tons of aluminum and the meta) Is required for other wnr purposes. It Is not only the b"iiritp that needs the gnardlansMn of th United States. It Is the teritory Itself. If the Nazis had made * thrust across. tUe South Atlantla from Dakar, which is t*e Frenca base on the bulge on the Atlantlo coast of Africa. It would hav meant a German threat not only to Dutch Guiana, but also to Bri- tish and French Guiana, as well as Brazil And It would hav brought the Nazis within striking distance of the Panama Canal Aid To Greece Left I :u " Gen. Sir Archibald Wnvell, com mander-in-chlef In India, ha* shouldered reanonslbiHtv for tn British setback last spring IB T.ibva by acknowledging that th Germans counter-attacked J least a month earlier than he had exnected. Gen. Wavell, who wns corn. mander-in-cn!ef in the Mi-Mle East at the time of the Libvan cam. paien and has since erehangeij positions with Gen. Sir Claud* Auchlnleck, reviewed the African operations in a council of eta{ here. He said that after an appeal from the Greek eovernmemX which was under attack by botB Germany and Italy, practically all the trained and eauippeo troops in the Middle East were ordered to Greece. "Our conquests In Cyrenaica were left to be held by a garri- son of partly-trained and oartly. eouipped troops," he said. "t made a miscalculation there. "I did not expect the enemy to counter-attack before the fl3 of April at the earliest by whicl^ time I had hoped to have back al least part of a seasoned Indian division from Italian West Afric* and to have completed the equip- ment of troops left in Cvrenaica which consisted of a British arv mored brigade, an Australian dfc visU-n and an Indian motor bri- gade. "All these were short of equip- ment, transport and training. Un fortunately, the enemy attacked at least a month before I had ex- pected it to be possible." LIFE'S LIKE THAT By Fred Neher "I'm reiigning. Chief. . , . Tim *uipene waiting for larrai t getting me down! !" By GENE BYRNES REG'LAR FELLERS- A Big Loss SHE DID SO, TOO ' SKE LOST HER BOX NAMED ELMER.' I MY BIG SISTER WAS ON A DIET ONCET AN' LOST A HUNERD 'M' EKSHTV - SEVEN POUN'S.' MX AUNT WAS ON A DIET ONCET AN' LOST NINE POUN'S/ MOM IS ON A DIET AN' SHE LOST TWO POUN'S/