The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1945-04-12
COMMENT ON WORLD
EVENTS

American war production, by
bringing victory to the United Ma
tions, is world news, if anything is
Here's an example of it's far-reachine
effects, as disclosed by the Army's
Office of the Chief Signal Officer
which tells how fast production jot
at home, largely by union workers
helped outwit the Nazis on at least
one occasion in France.
When the Germans withdrew from
France they left almost intact the
auxiliary telephone equipment which
had been installed to supplement
existing civilian systems. But they
took pains to remove or smash the
vacuum tubes which are essential to
the telephone repeaters, tubes needed
to overcome the weakening of the
voice currents as they pass over wire.
The German intention was obvious.
They believe that we could not re-
place these tubes, which were of a
German type different from ours, and
that we could not use their equip
ment.
One of these German tubes, how
ever, fell into the hands of Signal
Corps officer and was rushed to the
United States, where it was turned
over to the National Defense Re-
search Committee. Shortly after,
NDRC placed contracts with differ
ent firms for copies of the sample,
some of them approximate copies
made from parts and materials al
ready on hand, the others exact
replicas duplicating all the separate
metal and glass parts that were in
the German tube.
The firm manufacturing approx
nations of the German tube rushed
through the first s tubes in 3 days;
and delivered an entire lot of 1000
in 3 weeks. The firm which made
exact replicas constructed 1000 in 5
weeks, a feat which called for ex-
treme technical care.
The perfect copies, as fast as they
were produced, were shipped to Sig
nal Corps representatives in France.
They worked as we'll as the original
could have, worked, and the telephone
system functioned efficiently.
Patriotic workers at home were
thus responsible for foiling the Nazi
plans and putting back into opera
tion telephone communications sorely
needed by our combat forces.
Plenty of nonsense is being talked
about the punishment of war Grimm
ais. Labor, organ of the railroad
unions, takes a crack at the one idea
sprouted by people who ought to
know better. 1--WE Must Not Lose Our
Heads" Labor warns, saying:
"Of course, war criminals should
be punished, but it is possible to
carry that idea too far. Congressman
Cecil r. King (Dem., Calif.) suggests
that the world is waiting for the
United States Congress to use strong
words on the subject Mr.. King would
have Uncle Sam use force, if neces-
sary, to compel neutral countries to
war criminals to tribunals
set up by the Allies. Only the most
arrogant dictators in human history
nave ever done anything like that.
"After all, there is such thing as
national sovereignty The smallest
state possesses it, and the strongest
state should respect it. 1t would be
much better to permit some war
criminals to escape than to have
Uncle Sam make war on little ma
ion like Switzerland because it dared
% grant asylum to someone.
"Mr King should remember that |
We did good deal of that sort of
hing when we were young, and the
lation which attempted to take a
'efugee off American soil would have
ound itself in quite a pickle +"