No Fooling This Time! About No Silk Stockings

Associated Press Feature Service.

You've heard all about making plowshares into swords, turning tractors into tanks and aluminum pots and pans into airplanes.

Now the war comes closer home and takes Miss America's beloved sheer stockings for soldiers' parachutes.

Not only silk, but nylon is on the current war casualty list.

There's no fooling about it this time. Manufacturers announce that within a short time the present supply of silk stockings will be exhausted, and when that's gone there won't be any more.

When the Government froze the Nation's supplies of raw silk last August, there still wasn't enough to make the 160,000 parachutes needed by the Army Air Corps. So the nylon supply for civilian use has been cut 20 per cent.

Next year all parachutes will be made of nylon.

American women still have several alternatives. They may wear stockings of cotton mesh or sheer lisle, they may turn to rayon hose, or they may simply go barelegged and paint their stockings on, as English girls have done.

Even the supply of the long-staple cotton needed for fine lisle stockings is limited, manufacturers say, and there probably won't be enough rayon to go around.

It is predicted that the entire 1942 stocking output in the United States -- cotton, nylon, rayon or what have you -- will be only about 75 per cent of the 1941 volume. So it looks as if that stocking shortage scare of last fall is approaching grim reality now.

We'll bet, however, that American girls will wear cotton and like it. After all, didn't their ancestors of the Revolutionary War tear up their petticoats to bandage the wounds of soldiers?

Who'll cry for a pair of sheer stockings, demands Miss America, if it will help to make an Army parachute?

Clark Okays Jap Farm Work Plan

JEROME, July 22 -- Gov. Chase A. Clark today had attached his signature of approval to an agreement drawn up between the county officials of Jerome county and the war relocation authority to open this county for use of Jap farm labor.

The meeting was held in the Jerome county court rooms yesterday at 4 p.m., called by county representatives, including the commissioners, sheriff's office force, the prosecuting attorney, war board members, and officials of employment agencies. Representatives were in attendance from Gooding and Lincoln counties.

Former summary of steps necessary before approval of the labor request could be granted by the war relocation authority was read and explained in detail by George R. Gochnour, state farm placement supervisor, Boise.

Appeals Made

In view of the fact that Jerome county and its adjoining counties, including Gooding, Lincoln, Camas and Blaine, as well as other surrounding areas are faced this year with an acute labor shortage, farmers have made appeal for assistance to their respective county officials. These in turn have appealed to representatives of government.

Gochnour pointed out that sponsoring units are necessary. He explained that such sponsoring agents might be similar to the Utah-Idaho Sugar Co., or the Amalgamated Sugar Co. Gochnour also stated it was probably that some of the Jap labor already imported by the companies could be utilized at the present time and are still available.

He also explained to the group that the war relocation board demands the protection and safety of the Japanese laborers by state and county police during the time such laborers might be traveling to and from their place of work. He declared the Japs could not be utilized to displace any local labor. Further, the farm labor Japs must be paid the "going wages of the day."

Their placements in various kinds of labor work must, Gochnour said, be handled by the United States employment service offices. They must be housed in suitable quarters, and if at any time the Japs become dissatisfied and request to be returned to their respective reception centers, the request must be granted immediately.

Must Be Requested

"We must be assured also first," Gochnour said in closing, "that you people here in the farming sections want the Jap labor."

Following his explanation of the procedure to follow, a number of farmers in the audience arose to state that many of them are in dire need of farm help immediately. Some stated that their onion crops would be wasted if care is not given to the field "right now." It was explained by a number of farmers also that there would be continued need for extra help in the fields. After the onion crops are attended to, there will be work in the wheat, beans, and potatoes.

Clark Agrees

Gove Clark concurred with representatives and farmers at the meeting, and offered his full cooperation in seeking a quick method of alleviating the labor shortage through bringing in the Japanese laborers similar to those who are being utilized in Twin Falls and at the Paul camp.

Because the labor situation is so serious now, some at the meeting urged that the Japs be brought here now from evacuation areas. One rancher said: "Many of them are to be placed here in Eden, at the completion of the Jap relocation center for the duration, and why not send them in a vanguard now?"

Japanese Labor Signup Starting

Recruiting of Japanese labor in the Sacramento area for work in sugar beet fields of Idaho was underway today, Reed Lewis, agriculturalist for the Amalgamated Sugar company, announced today.

Lewis said he received a telegram from Harry Elcock, Idaho manager of the company who is now in Sacramento, to the effect "clearance papers are now signed" and "recruiting started yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon."

Lewis said he was not informed how the recruiting was progressing but expressed the opinion that at least some Japanese would be accept the employment and would immediately be transported to this section by the Amalgamated company.

Evacuees Becoming Adjusted

Plenty to Keep Them Busy

By Ann Marcotte

Nicely as can be expected -- and much better than anticipated.

Such is the attitude of the majority of the approximately 3500 inhabitants of the North Portland Japanese assembly center, operated by the wartime civil control administration.

In the seven weeks since moving to the center, most families have adjusted themselves to life under an 11-acre roof, and, if not blissfully happy, they are contented and are making the best of an awkward situation.

Happiest place in the center, probably, is the office of the Evacuzette, semi-weekly mimeographed paper of which Yuji Hiromura is editor. Most of the young people working on the paper have had high school or college journalism training, and they consider their jobs "fun and interesting."

Chiseo Shoji, art editor, keeps them laughing with his watercolor sketches and cartoons -- he formerly worked for Walt Disney studios. And the general atmosphere is similar to that in any high school newspaper office. Two days before publication the reporters see heads of departments at the center for news and gossip. Writers and editors, rated as professional workers, are paid $16 monthly, the two typists, the mimeograph operator and little Hisako Takehara, make-up girl, as skilled workers, are paid $12 per month.

Library Well Patronized

Contenders for the busiest places in the center are the library, a branch of the Portland public library, and the laundry. Head Librarian Yasuko Tsuboi, formerly employed at the Portland library, talked center heads and library authorities into the library at the center. She, assisted by her sisters, Haruko and Kujoko, figure that the 809 books at the center have had total circulation over 2500 since May 15.

"The children come in two and three times daily, to return the books they've just finished and get another. Adults prefer light reading -- there's too much seriousness, anyway. And there's nothing like books to reduce boredom," said the head librarian.

Chief difficulty in the laundry -- which is busy from dawn till dusk -- has been shortage of hot water. A new 250-gallon hot water tank will stop much of this trouble. Wives aren't alone in the laundry. Howard Nomura, one of the center administration leaders, helps out his wife, who stays in her apartment with their two small children, by doing the daily washing. He can't master the knack of scrubbing with the palms of his hands -- and feels that housemaid's knees is nothing compared to laundress' knuckles!

Time Doesn't Drag

There's plenty for families to do out there -- time doesn't drag, for when household tasks are finished the recreation program takes care of spare time. The huge arena is always noisy with shouts of basketball playing youngsters, tennis enthusiasts and other sports lovers. And it's worth your life to be in the way when one of the children whooshes across the dining room floor on roller skates.

The food, prepared by Japanese cooks under WCCA advisers, is very good -- better than most "institution" food. For dinner recently the menu included pot roast of beef, spaghetti, spinach, bread and butter, jelly, coffee or tea and lemon pie.

Children between the ages of two and ten years have a special diet. And babies' formulas are prepared under the supervision of hospital authorities.

Incidentally, when the center opened, everyone sat at the long dining hall tables on benches, children and adults alike. But the children couldn't sit down and eat. Now each child has a built-up-high-backed chair on the bench, improving table manners and appetites.

"The adjustment was hard at first. I lost several pounds in the excitement of moving and in getting straightened out here," said one of the women, adding that she had gained back two pounds and that life at the center "is just like living in a college dormitory -- only more so."