The Detroit tribune. (Detroit, Mich.) 1935-1966, 1936-04-18

Says
G2MeD11 eALW
Italy Still Bombing

I Italy is still dropping bombs in
Ethiopia, but to what effect? Cor
respondents returning from the
battle front for a rest during the
rainy season are giving the home
folks the real inside dope on how
Mussolini's legions are faring In
the land of Halle Selassie.
One of these is Fay ellis Wells
who is back in New York from
several months reporting from the
Ethiopian side in the war. Writing
an intimate and revealing story for
her paper, the New York Herald
! Tribune, Mrs. Wells, who worked
side by side with her husband
Linton Wells says:
Apparently people are convinc-
ed that it is inevitable that Italy
supplied with the latest and dead
Hest implements of warfare, will
conquer Ethiopia, the last absolute
monarchy, with the greatest of
ease.
But faith and the elements are
on the side of the challenged and
to date they have given Premier
Benito Mussolini and his Black
shirts much more trouble than
they bargained for. Perhaps this
analysis of the situation will serve
to dispell the Illusion of Italian
+ conquest.
Last week the newspapers car
ried Boosting announcements by
Marshall Pietro Badoglio, the Ital
ian COMMUNICATIVE chief, that thirty
Italian airplanes, in mass forma-
ton with perfect flight discipline
had flown $50 miles from their
base and dropped twelve tons of
bombs on Jijiga, laying the in
portant eastern Ethiopian town
partly in ruins
have been in Jijiga. 1t is typi-
cal Ethiopian village Of mud huts,
with a market place in the center
OF the town. 1t is located on a
plain, as obvious as a center circle
on an airport. On three sides the
plain fades into the horizon, and
to the west it rises into a narrow
mountain pass which guards the
road to Harar and Diredawa and
the railroad to Adds Ababa.
why any military man should
waste precious gasoline sending
thirty airplanes 500 miles to drop
twelve tons Of bombs-also an ex-
pensve item-on defenseless col
lection of mud huts Of no strategic
value, so conspicuously situated on
barren plain that one good bomb
err could wipe it out, is beyond
comprehension.
ct has been almost six months
since the Italians entered Adowa
without resistance, as the Ethio-
plans intended they should. .....
1t has taken six months to pene-
trate less than lis miles into
Ethiopia and this was the easiest
part of the campaign in the north.
Then the lads were fresh from
Italy fired with enthusiasm and
eager to write their names on the
pages of history OF Africa Orien-
tale.
But months of heat and fever
and altitude and vermin in Fri
trea and northern Ethiopia, months
of bodybuilding, months combat
ing guerrilla attacks and hand-to-
hand warfare on poor food and
polluted water have broken their
health, their spirits and their
hearts. ...."
West Virginia Education
State Superintendent of Educa-
ton w. w. Trent, of West Virgil
mia, has replied to the query of
Calvin's Newspaper Service on the
progress in the education of Ne
groes. through the Supervisor of
Negro Schools, Mr.. I. j. X. Wells.
Mr.. Wells, the only colored state
supervisor of Negro Schools in the
country, says:
81 might state to you that the
basic salary schedule in West Vir-
ginia since 1888 has completely
been the same for both colored and
white, and is based on tenure and
certificates held. In the elementary
schools. in view Of the fact that
Negro teachers certificates are, on
the average, slightly higher than
the white teachers, Negro teachers
in the elementary system will re-
ceive slightly better salaries than
the white teachers.
Because the population OF Ne
groes in most counties Is more
sparse than that of the whites, the
cost OF secondary education for
Negroes in most counties OF the
state, is higher than for the whites.
This is true for elementary educa-
ton also.
Prospects for this year in edu-
cation are very good. We had last
year, for the grst time, nine
of school for all schools of
the state, and It seems this year
we shall have nine months again.
"I have travelled through the
state considerably and can say in
all frankness that the Negro citi-
zens fare most equitably in educa-
ton In West Virginia"