The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-09-18

There are already reports of some typhoid, though how much is not known.
 Also the production of airplanes seems to have been pretty well disrupted. This is serious, because Hitler probably is not going to start the actual transportation of troops to England until the Royal Air Force is put out of commis- sion. It is important to remem- Der that Hitler had complete mas tery of the air when he conquered France.
 NOTE = The President recently received a cable from Ambassador Joe Kennedy, containing these cryptic words: We're catching hell over here. J0e." : SMOKELESS POWDER
 SHORTAGE
 Destruction of the Kenvil, New Jersey, powder plant was a far more serious blow to national de- fense than anyone in high official circles wanted to admit.
 It now leaves the United
 States with only two smekeless
 powder plants in the entire
 country = the duPont plant at
 Carney's Point, N. J., and the
 Government owned Picatinny
 Arsenal at Dover, N.. J., not far
 from Kenvil. It produces only a
 very small amount of powder.
 REAL FACT is the powder plants are slow and cumbersome to build, requiring a series of buildings in which the powder is gradually dried. Two new plants exe being rushed to completion by the War Department, but they will not be finished until next spring.
 One of these is near Charles town, Ind, and will be operated by the duPonts, though built by the government at a cost of $25,- 100000. The other will be at Rad- ford, Va, and will be operated by the Hercules Powder company, though built by the government at the same price.
 However serious is powder situ- ation-, was illustrated by the fact that one day after the New Jer- sey explosion, the War Depart ment issued "speed-up" letters to both duPont and Hercules, where by they are ordered to increase powder production from 100000 pounds day to 300,OOO pounds a day in the Radford plant; and from 100000 day to 400, 900 a day in the Charlestown, Ind, pant. This means that the plants will be bigger, but it does not mean they will be finished earlier.
 Day after the New Jersey ex-,
 pIOsi0n, also, the War Depart
 ment sent a confidential memo
 to the White House on the seri-
 Ousness of the powder situation.
 NOTE = German intelligence agents unquestionably knew the exact capacity of American pow der factories, and how limited our present production was - namely 100000 pounds Q year. They must have known also that the destruction of one factory would throw the United States off its preparedness schedule more than any other single incident. MERRY-GO-ROUND
 The StateA Department is still trying to keep the rnuzzle on Mrs. Daisy" Hartman, fortnight min- ister to Norway Apparently Mir. Hull fears she will tell what really happened there Copies of the New Republics special edi- ton on Wendell Willkie can't be bought in Chicago and some other cities. Willkie boosters are rec ported to have bought them up. Nelson Rockefeller, young, naive member of the National De- fense Commission for Latin Amer lcan affairs. is making molasses- like prosress. is pretty green on Latin America .. It's c dizzy world in the capital. while Wayne Parrish, ardent Willkletite editor of American Aviation, ls daily alzzling the Administration and the Civil Aegonauties Authority, hle blonde wife. Frances Knight, lands herself c ob.o00 q year plIbs llolty iob In the conh.ilner's Dl. vision og the Delense Commission, lepeTal gears ago both parFiah and hln vic Were WPA woFkers, NO EXCESS PROFITS