ped 6 Wood has entered active service, and has become a vital war material. That, and the acute labor and transportation shortage partly explains the fuel wood shortage. Its use in aircraft propellers is only one of the many forms in which it is serving as a war material. Why Hitler Came Out Of Hiding By ILYA EHRENBURG MOSCOW.—When the German Army was rolling back, Hit- ler went into hiding, and people began to talk about Hitler’s mental malady. As if a madman can go mad a second time. ... But it was impossible to keep silent any longer. When the states, owes its strength mainly side by side. The largest industrial unions are the railway ‘workers, the miners, the waterside workers Gongshoremen), the iron workers and the growing munition work- ers’ union, The most important craft unions are the Amalgamated engineering Union, the Australian Society of Engineers, the Boiler- makers, and the Locomotive Drivers and Firemen. Add the Australian Workers’ Union, a general workers’ union, and you have a picture of the main divisions. “The future of unionism in Aus- tralia does not depend on the vic- tory of one form over another. It depends on the building of agree- ments and the achievement of har- monious cooperation within the framework of the state Labor Coun- cils and the Australian Council of Trade Union,” Ross states. Another reason for the strength of Australia’s trade unions — which by the end of last year had 1,100,000 members out of a total population of 7,137,221 — is their democratic ; character. “Australians judge union policies and government policies not so much by their effect on the success- ful men at the top of the labor scale, as by their effect on the masses below,” Ross writes. Union | dues and salaries are much smaller | than in the US, he says. “The dues German sky cleared, Hitler took his chance. The Fuehrer de-|jn my own union are $8.00 a year, eided to put in an appearance. He chose neither but a requiem for this. Hitler delivered the speech in his life. time when he wasn't chary of words. On March 21 he spoke 10 minutes in all—in a low, toneless patter. The official report assures that parade nor festivity, | after looking at all the cripples, the | Fuehrer jbaring its shortest | wounded stood the dead. They too There was alinsisted on being greeted by the | Fuehrer It was death Behind the “smiled.” teeth. — after all, it was a requiem. . Among them were the ghosts of The lunatic was subdued. He ap-| the Sixth Army, Germans who per- parently remembered his last speech jished in in September. That was the time when he promised the Germans that Stalingrad would be taken. Ghosts of the Sixth Army hover- ed over the gloomy armory where the lunatic spoke. Racing over his words, Hitler told those present that in Russia “the German Army escaped the danger threatening it.” Where are the laurels of conquer- ors? Where is the campaign on two hemispheres? The “master na- tion?” The sceptre of the world? After his speech the Fuehrer viewed an exhibition on Stalingrad. Unfortunately we don’t know what exhibits this exhibition of German shame can boast of. Do they con- sist of models of underwear, hand- kerchiefs and towels hung up in good time by the generals of the Sixth Army? Is Hitler’s speech, “Stalingrad will be taken within the next few weeks” displayed there in a gold frame? Incidentally, the Fuehrer didn’t examine the “trophies” exhibited. He was busy doing something else—shaking the bands of wounded Fritzes. There were 300 of them. Hitler asked each one of them, “Where were you wounded?” and after each of the Fritzes, Hitler repeated: “Kalinin . wukhonov =) Orel... Sebastopol. -... -Tactfully, nobody mentioned the name Stalingrad. The requiem in the armory re- minded one of a lesson in Russian geography. The Fuehrer looked at {he wounded as his last hope. Ger- many’s youth lies buried in ,Rus- sian soil, “Kessel,” at Kastorny, Fritzes killed on the Terek, on the Don, on the Volga, on the Weva, young soldiers from Kharkov, Donets, Zhizdra, Smolensk region. “Tie. Fuehrer smiled’ — the smile of the professional. That's how the grave-digger smiles over a grave, and a butcher over meat. We see how death is straining itself. We mourn the return of the plague in Kharkov, in Belgorod. But after reading about the requiem in the Berlin Armory, we can’t help but smile: Whose fun- eral service did the Berlin sexton read? That of his own victory — his own end. Latin-Slay Relations Urged PANAMA CITY.—At a press conference here Vice-President Henry A. Wallace urged Latin American governments to estab- lish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. “Tt would be a better world in- deed,” said Wallace, “if a better understanding were reached be- tween Latin and Slavie peoples.” Already Mexico and Cuba have established such relations, and the vice-president’s statement comes at a time when Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile are dis- cussing such action. Vice-President Wallace’s sug- _gestion is expected to strengthen Latin American friendship for the United States. with no initiation fee. Some dues are as high as $10.00, but few are higher unless there are extra bene- fits in the form of funeral or sick funds. Salaries of union executives average about $1,200 a year. In most unions the president is a rank-and-filer elected for a short term, who is regarded as a watch- dog to see that the union rules are observed by the paid officials.” Tracing the history of the Aus- tralian labor movement since. its origin one hundred years ago, Ross points out that unions were first formed among the unskilled work- ers. “Here you~see an important difference between Australia and America,” he says. “At an early stage in Australian history, migra- tory workers, farm laborers and unskilled workers were organized into a union which was to become the mighty Australian Workers’ Union — 110,000 strong — today the largest union in Australia, and one which has exercised the most political influence. The present Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin, is a member of the AWU.” Unskilled workers organized early in Australia, the writer explains, because “unlike the United States, we had no long frontier period. Instead of fertile plains to which our settlers could move when op- portunities for economic better- ment began to dwindle on the eastern coast, we faced a desert— the vast, dry, uninhabitable inter- ior of the Australian continent.” Declaring that “there is a deep strain of international working class solidarity in the Australian labor movement,” Ross describes how in the nineties of the last century Australian unionists sent $100,000 to aid striking English longshoremen; how they “fought for the Spanish Loyalists in a long and bitter struggle’ during the Civil War, “carried on an extensive campaign to assist China by boy- cotting Japanese goods,” and “tried Labor In Austraha : Demoecracy’s Weapo) By Allied Labor News Australian labor, which today controls the Federal govern- ment and the governments of four of the Commonwealth’s six to unity, Lloyd Ross, secretary of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Railways Union, declares in his pamphlet, “Labor in Australia.” There is no division in labor’s ranks comparable to that be- tween the AFL and the CIO. Craft and industrial unions exist to stop the visit to Australia of Baron von Luckner, who is now recognized to have been a Nazi agent.” “Avstralian trade unions are rightly proud of the fact that we were aware of the menace of } ism before any other group ii’) country, and that we were inf j tial in converting public of j to the need for collective 4)! against aggressors,’ he ~ Stressing the value of internat) trade union unity, Ross conc] ‘We look forward to close operation between the Aust: | labor movement and that oj United States. The best euar that the promises of the At] Charter will be fulfilled Me world-like working class and ¢ cratic solidarity.” : : Union Conducts Test C Apprenticeship Act Test case to find whether the provincial government in| to enforce the BC “Apprentice Act is being held this week tween Jewelry Workers’ Union, Local 42, and A. P. Tray The company, charges the union, committed an of against the Act by employing a young girl as an apprentice without notifying the Apprentice Board. When this was brought to the board’s attention by the union, only action was taken to make the girl legally an apprentice. No fine was levelled on the company, although the girl had been employed for one year, and the Act provides for a maximum fine of $500. “This case will prove to us whether or not the board intends to stick by the act,” stated Carl Zuker, union secretary. “Iwo years ago deputy minister of labor Adam Bell told the provincial House that the jewelry trade was the best ex- ample of how well the act works. We intend now to see that it does work.” “Our reason for pressing point is to protect our memb the armed forces,” he adder the trade is crowded with ne prentices after the war, experi men will be unable to find Some time ago we agreed th new apprentice should be tak for the duration.” 4 4,621 On Board OTTAWA.—At the end of uary the total staff of the | Board numbered 4,621 perso was stated in a return tabi the House of Commons. ' payroll for the year endec January 31 was $5,081,591. The return said the totai of the board for the fiscal ended last March 31 was $14 ey ood Yy *Hey, Mis. Worthington—we CONCEDE that women have a place on the production line!”