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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1942-08-13, Page 6PAGE SIX • THE SEAFORTH NEW THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 1942 Mature of This War; 1siin this war, coucluding with the alas - o B Dingo eaterse example of France, when his g The New Strategy Fifth Column and his preparatory subversive treatment of .French bur- Every night more than 1,000,000 eaucracy quickly nullified the will to ,Americans sit around little .:cards By Brigadier G,' K. Bourne resist of the French Arm be fact placing counters on umbered Y Before we examine the strategy his ouly failure so far ina land. cam- squares: And when 'the luok� winner with whioh to win the war, it will, be paigu has bean against the Bassinets,gets five in a row—vertically, bora- zontally or diagonally—the gleeful shout is heard—l"Bingo1" In the West ib may be Lucky, in New England Beano, or perhaps its Radio, Po -Keno, or Fortune;. but whatever the name it's still the same old dressed -up parlor game of Lotto —by Gallup poll, lengths ahead of any other gambling game in popular- ity. In any game where millions of dollars change hands daily the ques- tion naturally arises: "Is the game honest?" Several months ago I was commissioned to make an investiga- tion' of the Bingo games to determine whether or not they were run hon- estly. The answer is: 70-30—with the player on the short end of the stick. One of the first Bingo games I ev- er saw was at small-town carnival which I was investigating for gambl- ing swindles, In this show the "skill" games were outright robbery. Com- pared to them Bingo was almost hon- est. Almost but not quite. The Bingo concession was the flashiest on the midway. The opera- tor, Bill Olens, did a terrific business with i4tchen utensils and huge bas- kets of groceries as his come -ones. Three free games to start the night had the housewives running from the dirty supper dishes to be on time. 100 or more players crowded the. benches, and the operator perched prominently inthe center calling the numbers. A wooden globe (or goose) before the operator held ninety num- bers and released one number at a time through a special spout, After the number was called it would be checked off on a large master card hung beside the "Goose." The take averaged from. $10 to $15 a game while the prizes were obviously worth about $5. With such a profit it seemed unlikely that the game would be dishonest.. And if that had been all it probably 'would not have been. But as a sure-fire business builder Olens had devised a further big come-on. After the last game Satur- day night a big free game was held, open to any players who had 100 re- ceipts from the week's play. And the prize here was a small fortune to carnival players, $100. On Saturday night the Bingo game would be surrounded by a sol- id wall of humanity, everybody wait- ing for the final game, usually held well after midnight. In a tense ab- mosphere the game would finally get underway, with excitement rising as the numbers were called. At long last would come a shout "Bingo," a dramatic presentation of the prize would be made, the winner escorted home, and the crowd would quickly disperse. Everybody went away sat- isfied that the game was honest. What the crowd never suspected se well to examine its nature,' First of all, it is a war of ideals just as much as it is a war to gain territory and power. Here the enemy has so far hied the advantage because his ideals are warlike whereas ours are essentially peaceful, As in the field of weapons and arms, we have a great leeway to make up, It is an essential truth that only wben we can inculcate our own populations. with a white -heat enthusiasm for our cause can we hope to beat opponents wbose very children are raised on p warlike creed. I mention this idealistic side of the struggle because it has a direct bear- ing on our strategy. If you are fight- ing an aggressor you cannot weigh up purely military factors and say we will support this ally because we atoll gain strategically, and we will not support that one because it will be a waste of miltary effort. We were forced to try to succor Norway, although it was a hopeless military proposition when we had to allow the Germans to have even a small start, We put our army along- side the French; and politically it would have been extremely difficult to refuse to advance to the help of Belgium. In all these cases we lost valuable military positions and we lost the equipment of a complete array, leav- ing us desperately short for our own self-defense and giving the Germans a tremendous advantage in the range to vital tragets in the bombing cam- paign which was to follow. The only instance so far of real strategic: gain through following this idealistic war policy has been when we went to the assistance of the gal- lant Greeks. The odds were against us—were desperately against ns—but politically it was essential to spare ]and and air forces, even et damaging cost to our further advance in Libya. Though the retreat through Greece and our defeat at Crete may look to some like furthe r steps on our downhill path, yet they probably postponed Hitler's attack on Russia by about six weeks, thus giving the Red Army more of that priceless war commodity, that is to say, time. Who knows but that this may not have been the turning point of this Ger- man war? This is not the first really world- wide war. The Napoleanic wars had their outlying campaigns and naval actions as far abroad as the West Indies and the Indian Ocean; but it is the first time that really weighty opponets have ben engaged in all quarters of the globe. This war has the same dual quality as the Seven Years Uar had in that it fall into two distinct parts—a continental cam- pagin and an ocean campaign. Ue, the British, are accustomed to this type of war in which, perforce, we must employ our main strength on the seas in order to preserve our very existence, and at the same time provide all the assistance we can to our continental allies. It is as well to remmeber that Brit- ish participation on the Continent has not always taken the form of a large army, and that in keeping up the blockade of Europe, in the in- creasingly heavy bombing of German industry and morale, and in sending large quantities of munitions to Rus- sia we are achieving great assistance by proved traditional methods. A Five -Navy War We have never bad the power to who were at great pains to eliminate their own Fifth. Column in their reg- ular purges before the war. We may justifiably hope that Tram this date began his certain fall. From these modern examples, it is clear that the Germans definitely driect their attacks against our mor ale. Is there a lesson for us in all this? Is the reply to this Blitzkrieg war, with its preliminary softening process another Blitzkrieg on our part? Or is this method merely suit• able to the aggressor? • , . , . Mastery of the Offensive The two great weapons in war are the airplane and the tank, These, though they were both employed in the last war, did not greatly affect its strategy. This time, however, they have altered the very nature of the campaigns and consequently our strategic methods, On land they brought back that mobility and that rapid maneuver which was character- istic of the Napoleonic campaigns and, most strikingly, of the Amerie- can Civil War, which was lost in the static war of trench lines and masses of men in 1914-18, These two new weapons, as now employed, have restored, for a per- iod at any rate, the mastery of the offensive over the defnsive on land. The Germans overcame the Low Countries and France at a mean speed of twenty-five miles per day, and in Russia, during the first month they averaged some twenty miles per day. This was by the use of high- ly trained mechanized formations supported by concentrated air power, both of which the United States and Great Britain will have in abundance before long, Both our main opponents are fight- ing outwards and thus putting the United Nations on • exterior lines—a form of strategic warfare which is invariably expensive and slow, be- cause it involves amassing greater reserves of force, and the traversing of great distances in order to con- centrate superior power at the criti- cal point. To deal first with the war on the seas. Twenty-five years ago the Bri- tish Navy gained its strategic mobil- ity through a series of defended ports chiefly strung out along the Mediter- ranean—Suez—Indian Ocean — Far East route. At only one point, and that was the Suez Canal, was this vital British life line threatened by land or sea atack. Moreover, the re- quirements of a naval base in those days were simply a combination of a good harbor, strong coast defenses and a sufficient field army to hold the beaches against landing attack. Problem of Naval Bases This time, however, no naval base is secure without a strong supporting air force and this itself postulates an area sufficient to contain several air fields. This war has given us a good example of what I mean. Our main fleet base at Alexandria re- quires a whole army and air force to defend it. The old type of naval base, such as Malta, Gibraltar and. Hong Kong, suffers severely from the new requirements and is not, in fact usable for main fleets in the face of air attack at short range. The net result has been to force battle fleets into main bases from which they can control the oceans as opposed to the narrow seas, and to force shipping routes further into mid -ocean with a consequent increased load on our gain quick decisions on the Contin- mercantile marine. ent, and Britain has never entered a Japan has, by a strong combination war witbont realizing that it will of land, sea and air warfare, advanc- probably last many years. How doled her frontiers to include every raw these bistoric methods apply to the United States requirements, and, more importantly, bow do they apply to a combined British -American strategy? The outstanding feature of this war since December 7, 1941, so far as the United States and Great Britain are concerned, is that it is a live -navy war. This is not the first time that the United States has successfully fought a naval war, but never before have the American nod British sea communications been so seriously threatened, 1t is the aim of strategy to win a war with as litle actual fighting as possible. Hitler has followed this theory to its logical conclusion by so working on the morale of his oppon- ents before attacking them as to make each campaign a rapid certain- ty from the start, Lenin put it another way when he said that "the soundest' strategy in war is to postpone operations until the moral disintegration of the enemy renders the delivery of the mortal blow both possible and easy." We have seen this theory most thoroughry put into practice by Hit- ler against his successive opponents material which she needs except wool. Militarily, ahe'has secured her- self, for the time being at any rate, from serious attack from all quarters except Siberia. There are strong arguments for ber not advancing further south again Australia and New eZaland, or west against India, until she has eliminated this one danger spot. Whether she does this or not, we are faced with formidable problems of space and time in our offensive against Japan. Your pro- fessional soldiers and sailors have necessarily planned for this very war for years past and we can trust them to take full advantage of great future superiority in the air. She's 111 ,. And "TOO TOUGH TO DIE" Hearty centarian'a explanation of why she's "young" interests seient- iste, even though their curiosity about her rules of living don't Mut- est her, it will he revealed in an ex- traordinary article by Dr. Leonard Keene Hirshberg, director -in -chief of Inatitete for Medical Research, in The American Weekly with next Sun- day's (August 16) issue of The De- troit Sunday Times. was that the same woman wen the 'prize every week, That was Mrs, Olen's job. She would tape a room in a town the night before the carnival arrived and every night she would play Bingo, By Saturday the regular' players took her for granted. Most of the time the game weld be operated honestly, Perhaps if bus- iness were dull Olens would throw a game or two her way. But this was small fry. Mrs. Olens main job was to win the big Saturday night prize. The gaff to the game was simple to the point of absurdity, No one but Bill Clens saw the ball taken from the "Goose," What was to prevent him from calling out a different num- ber? Nobhing. And that's just what he 'did whenever he wanted to throw a game to his spouse. She always sat in such a position that Bill could see the numbers on her card. That was my first experience with Bingo and until the last few years when it was more or less cleaned up I seldom saw a game operated honestly. My second venture with crooked Bingo was in a Florida resort town in boom times. Here the game was in an elaborate beach -front hotel, and I was called in by the hotel - owner, who had leased space to the concession. The game was played for a mounting pot; first game $10, second, $20, and so on up to $50. To ensure honesty the players themselves pick- ed the numbers. An assistant pass- ing around the "Goose" and each player in burn picking a number, 1 played for three nights running and was going to give the game a clean bill of health before I noticed something suspicious. Several times the person who selected the final ball was the one to call Bingo. And when this happened the pot was usually $40 or $50. Once my suspicions were aroused the rest was easy. I soon learned that three shills 'were scattered amongst the players. After a score or so of balls had been chose, the man car- rying the "Goose" would arrive in front of one of the shills. A. glance at the players cards would show what number he needed to win. When the ball had been chosen the assistant would look at it and call out—not the number actually on the ball—but the number which would cause the shill to win. This game was promptly shut down. Several years later I ran into a somewhat similar case in Atlantic City. This one looked even more fool proof. The players here picked the numbers by throwing tennis balls in- to numbered compartments. Every- thing was in full view of everybody. But shills were operating again. This time afker the cry of Bingo by the shill, the assistant would pick up his card and call off any five numbers marked off the master card. Any five would do, no one else saw the winn- ing pard. But perhaps from what I have told you so far you have gained the idea that all of the cheating at Bingo is done by the operators. Such is not the case, There are several ways by which the player can beat the game. A few years back in Brooklyn I exposed a woman cheating a Bingo game, The method was so simple that she worked the gag for mare than a year without being caught, At the club where this woman, a Mrs. Duval played, the players were furnished with individual cards for each game. The numbers in play were crossed off with pencil or cray- on. A close inspection of one of Mrs, Duval's discarded winning cards gave away her secret. A little scraping with my thumbnail and one of her numbers was transformed, The orig- inal number on the card had been 43 but a few strokes with a heavy black crayon had expertly changed the three into an eight. This isn't the only way, by which a player can cheat a Bingo game, nor is it the only time I have caught them. Just a year ago, in Chicago, I exposed a whole ring of swindlers who were taking the Bingo games for plenty. At this game, held in a club, I had just one evening to catch the crooks. There wasn't time to study every in- dividual, so I turned my attention to the winners of each game, scrutiniz- ing them as they resumed their play in the next game. All methods of cheating have a flaw,and that im- perfection usually involves some unnatural move on the part of the crooked player. Finally my attention was riveted on a well dressed youth who had won twice. I noticed he had a habit of licking his thumb every time he placed a counter on his Bingo card. I felt cer- tain there was something untoward in his finger -wetting actions. When I was certain of his guilt I waited till he called Bingo, then bad him and his cards taken to the manager's office. A quick look at his cards and a search of his clothes confirmed my suspicions. The player had in his pocket little, loose-leaf pochettes containing sheets of numbered slips like postage stamps. The stamp numbers were of the same color pa- per and printing as the Bingo cards. With them it was a cinch to win. The cheat realized he was caught red handed and when I offered to turn him loose he readily gave us all the information we wanted. Last seen he said he was going West. Who knows—perhaps he's go- ing to play Bingo at your club to- night. A teacher was impressing upon her class the fact that you cannot sub- tract one thing from others unless they are of the same denomination. "For instance," she. said, "we cannot take two apples from three oranges." Then a bright boy said: "But teacher, can't we take four apples from two trees?" Want end For Sade Ads,. 3 weeks SOc Thin Out Woodlot For Best Returns A woodlot on a farm is one of the most valuable assets on the whole Property, As a source of supply for fuel and lumber it should, if, . well Looked after, never fail. Fuel and lumber while the war continues are not going to get any cheaper, nor probably for a long time afterwards: What is the most satisfacory kind of.woodloo to have? D. Roy Cameron, Dominion Forester, gives the answer, He says it is one on which there is a stand of trees of neven age, ,small, young trees, half grown trees and old' trees mixed indiscriminately through the lot. The reason for this is that there is a supply of full grown trees to be cut each year to be replaced by seedlings. Young stands of trees will not pro- vide a full crop of wood each year until the trees have become fully grown. However, on many ofthese young stands the trees may be too, thick and when from 3 to 5 inches in diameter many may die from suppres- sion, Thin them out, urges Mr, Cam 'eron, by cutting a few of the slower growing trees every year or so. This: will give a supply of wood each, year until the stand has become fully grown. There are owners of woodlots' who may boast that not a stick of woodhas been remived for perhaps 50 years, Such a stand of trees can- not grow properly and the owners get no returns from it. Just as it is neces- sary eces sary to thin carrots- or other vege- tables to get the best crop, so it is just as necessary to thin out trees in the woodlot. One of the first steps in the im- provement of rough untillable pas- tures 3s to remove shrub and brush growth, and this may be done most satisfactorily in the late summer or fall. A Mayfair bomb fell on a mews, demolishing garages and small flats above them. One small bedroom alone escaped. Wardens and police rushed up. They saw a figure moving about in the one surviving room. "Are you all right?" they shouted.' "Yes," came the reply, "but I can't find my collar and tie." Want and For Sale Ads, 3 weeks 50c AUCTIONEER F. W. AHRENS, Licensed Auction- eer for Perth and Heron Counties. Sales Solicited. Terms on Application, Farm Stock, chattels and real estate prope"ty, R. R. No. 4, Mitchell, Phone 634 r 6. Apply at this office, HAROLD JACKSON • Licensed in Huron and Perth coun- ties. Prices reasonable; satisfaction guaranteed. For information, write or phone Harold Jackson, phone 14 on 661; R.R. 4, Seaforth, Counter Check Books We Are Selling Quality Books Books are Well Made, Carbon is Clean and Copies Readily. All styles, Carbon Leaf and Black Back. Prices as Low as You Can Get Anywhere. Get our Quotation on Your Next Order. The Seaforth News SEAFORTH, ONTARIO,