The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-01-11

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 To protect themselves against snipers lurking in the jung-e, Marine Corps pilo.s equipped the undersides of their ships with makeshift armor guards.
 Although crude, this protection saved more than one pilots life. But beyond this start, the Army and Navy did almost nothing. And it remained for the alert Nazis to develop the idea, just as they did the Stuka dive bombers which originated with the U. s. Navy. As a result Nal planes are among the best protected in the world.
 Simultaneously, the Nazis be- gan increasing the caliber of their airplane guns in order to offset enemy armor plating. Belatedly England turned to armor protec- ton and heavier guns, but we did nothing regarding armor and very little regarding gunS-untll re- gently.
 As a result, the United States is now up against double bottle neck. One is limited technical ex- perience on how to armor planes without diminishing speed and maneuverability. Two is lack of plant facilities to produce light weight, bullet-resistant armor. U. s. MUDDLE
 In a frantic effort to make up for lost time the Army has award ed contracts to number ot safe and saw makers, such as Philadelphia's famous Henry Pis- ston & Sons, to make aircraft ar nor out of plate supplied by steel plants.
 The shortage of producing facili- ties is both in the steel indus try and among the fabricators, which also lack skilled labor for this type of work. But the newly ordered equipment, even when in stalled still will not answer the problem. It is not as simple as that.
 The European belligerents are in a furious race to improve the ar nor protection and fire-poWer of their planes, and fighting craft which are the latest models to- day may be obsolete six months hence. British and Nazi ex- perts are trying desperately to cutdo each other, and the United States is laundering years be- hind in experimentation.
 An outstanding expert summed
 it up as follows: we are in the
 position of an auto factory just tOOling up for 194O models, while
 it's competitors already are in
 production on 1942 cars and also
 have a large reserve stock of 1S41s on hand.'
 NOTE - Best airplane gun de- veloped by the British is a 20 nm. cannon, mounted on heavier ships. It has smashed the best armor the Nazis have been able to pro- duce so far. On the other hand, the German 37mm. gun is prac- tically machine gun with devas- tating firepower.
 RY-GO-ROUND
 John P. Devaney, former Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, has been entrusted by Dem- ocratic Chairman Ed Flynn with the job of bringing Minnesota Farmer-Laborites and Democrats on a joint ticket in the 1942 elec- tions That Arkansas Valley Authority bill introduced by Rep. Clyde Ellis, militant young New Dealer, to create new IVA cov- ering the Arkansas, White, Red and St. Francis rivers, is no ''pO- liticaI gesture" measure. Ellis of offered the legislation after Sev- eral conferences with President Roosevelt, who promised to give it full backing. The proposed new power project would be several times bigger than IVA If you want to read fascinating account of black widow spiders and na- tural phenomena of the south west, white the National Park Service for its newly issued Region 3, Quarterly.
 HOUSING BUNGLE
 Chester F. Palmer, whose min istrations as housing chief of the Defense Commission are one of the big busts of the defense pro- gram, is quietly trying to wangle himself new and safer roost.
 Under fire within Defense
 Commission because of the slow
 ness in building desperately
 needed housing for defense
 workers. Palmer conceived the neat scheme of getting himself