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About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (March 24, 1945)
I : EDITORIAL PAGE' La Grande Evening Observer Frank Schlrq, Publisher SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 24, 1945 He Laughs at Locksmiths EVENING OBSERVER'S .PROGRESS PROGRAM IRRIGATION Complete the Grande Ronde Valley irrigation project. LA GRANDE A city of 10,000 Extend the city limits. , : THOUGHTS FOR TODAY The divine power moves with diffi-r- citlty, but lit the same time surely. Euripides. ' ' News From Home r We h ft v e just (finished reudintr ; throutrh a largo sheaf of letters written to the L Grande junior chamber of commerce. The letters were written by ;- former men and women members of ?, our county and area now serving T.. their country in the armed services. They are full of enthusiasm andKrati .Z tude, expressing their pkmsure at being uble to hear from home through the mnlimvi rtF ih, imiiMV nil ti i, Iwn.'a u.tr. "1 vleemmi's letter. The letter, a four page, tabloid size !T newspaper, created, mailed and direc- ted by the members of the junior clmm T. ber, sponsored by local businessmen and published by the Ia Grande lOve 1' ning Observer, is issued semi-monthly. Z, This editorial is for the purpose of commending the junior chamber on a it highly worthwhile job which is being thoroughly handled, but also to point Z out how avid our men and women in ' the service arc for news of home, of 'Z which they think constantly and to which they plan to return. o Here are a few excerpts from the o letters: "1 am writing in regard to your paper, as I feel that my appreciation should be shown for your efforts in giving us fellows the enjoyment of re ceiving news and humor from home. This news and humor is especially help ful now as I am in combat on Iwo Jima island, which by now you have no doubt heard of, and as usual the marines 'have the situation well in hand'." " Another in France says: "It really helps one's morale to get a paper from home. I have been away for three years, Keep the news com ing and we will keep the Germans and Japs running." . Another, In this country, wrote; "This is a very good, means of keep ing track of the other follows in the service from the home town. It also gives us an idea of what is going on at homo in the field of businessand pres ent and post-war planning." These letters are typical. They have been received from all pttrts of the world in which our armed forces are stationed and fighting and 'many of them carry graphic descriptions of the numerous actions in which the authors have jiarticipated. They want news from home primar ily because, wherever they may be, home is where their thoughts are; secondarily because most of them hope to get back and they are genuinely in terested in what's going on at home not only from point of view of news o their friends and neighbors, but of what they will return to as a place to live and work and enjoy the compensations of the peace they are fighting for. These facts open great field of thinking toward our obligations to them, but they also indicate that we should do everything possible to keep them informed. Contact the junior chamber or this newspaper if you know of n serviceman or woman who is not receiving the servicemen's tabloid and it will be sent, but do more than that. Write often. Nearly every letter re ceived stressed the fact that news from home and contact with familiar people and places at home is a great morale builder. If so, then let's keep their morale at the highest possible pitch. It is little enough to do. Funny Husiness Q 77 o SO THEY SAY Eight to 10 years after V-J day it is quite possible Hint 400,000 workers wit be supported direct ly or indirectly .bv civil aviation. Commerce Secretary Henry A. Wallrct. 0 We know that wo have lost the war, hut we want tn show you we are the finest fighting soldiers in the world. German officer captured on western front. The right of the peoples who suffered from nai occupation to receive from Germany material compensation for the losses in flicted by her is indisputable. Besides the agressor should know that tn future he will not remain unpunished. ' Soviet Ambassador Audrel I. Gromyko. "Pivf? w l ifitiltilylcl. "It fjlvM him ihot tired Iccllna ho can drop ilnhl olt to slccpl" We still face the danger of secret na.i-fascist infiltration in to the political and economic life of this hemisphere. Secretary of State Edward R. Stcttinius. Jr. Washington Merry-Go-Round Side Glances By DREW PEARSON Page Two o Between British operations in Greece, and Russian operations in Poland, patient, ide alistic ex-Governor Lehman, head of UNR RA, is having serious difficulties. Though Poland probably has suffered more than any other country, UNRRA has only just been able to start workers and relief toward that war-torn country. I It was last summer that the Lublin gpv ernment asked that UNRRA send a mission to help Poland. Governor Lehman's office immediately drafted a reply. But the U. S. office of censorship stepped in and said that the reply could not be sent to the Lublin government by uncoded radio because it Involved information regarding the move ment of supply ships and personnel. Whereupon Governor oLehmafPs office asked the state department to send the mes sage In code to the American embassy in Moscow, which in turn was to ask the Rus sian foreign office to deliver the message to the Lublin Poles. The stale department and the embassy in Moscow were glad to comply and the mes sage was passed on ?o the Soviet foreign Office. Several weeks passed and Governor Lehman assumed that the message had been delivered. Then, suddenly, the Soviet foreign office, in rather an Aggrieved manner, returned the message saying that it could not deliver it to the Lubin government. The Lublin Poles, it was explained, were a separate govern the Soviets said, Governor Lehman should ment and no part of Moscow. Therefore, communicate with them direct. This, of course, was exactly what Gov ernor Lehman had tried to do, but had been barred by the U. S. censor. In the interim, Lehman had troubles with Moscow regarding the question of sending UNRRA workers into Poland to distribute supplies. To try to iron out these difficuties, Lehman proposed going personally to Mos cow to confer with Stalin. For a time he thought this was all set. Then, suddenly, at the Montreal UNRRA conference last fall, Soviet Delegate Vasili Sergeev got up and announced bluntly and publicly that Lehman couldn't go to Mos cow. Under UNRRA rules, its own interna tional workers must distribute relief in each country and nationals of that country are not to be in charge. However the Russians have been suspicious that UNRRA workers were disguised intelligence agents and their suspicions were heightened by the way Col. L. F. R. Shepherd operated for British intel ligence in Greece under the guise of an UN RRA worker. Despite rebuffs, Governor Lehman kept on patiently pushing aid for Poland and now his efforts have succeeded. Since the Yalta conference ironed out the status of the Lub lin Poles, Russia has consented to have UN RRA workers go to Poland, and supply ships have already departed. . Who's a Liar? Senator Bushfield, South Dakota repub lican, recently rose on the senate foor and called this columnist various brands of liar because he reported that the Duponts, the Mellons and the Pews of Pennsylvania had contributed heavily to the senator's 1940 election campaign. If the senator wanted to indulge in name calling (incidentally he wasn't very original v in his epithets) he migiit also have included G. O. P. Treasurer W. H. Burke of Pierr S. D., who filed a sworn statement on cam paign contributions with the secretary of stale of South Dakota. They included: Lammot Dupont, $4000; Irenee Dupont, $2500; Alfred Sloan, $2500; Donald Brown (Dupont), $2000; Ailsa Mel lon, $5000; Sarah Mellon Scaife, $4000; Col. McCormiek of the Chicago Tribune, $5000 Mary Ethel Pew, $1000; Earle Halliburton c (Pew), $5000; Joseph Pew, $1000; Mabel Pew Myrin, $1000. Commenting on these generous gifts from folks who lived a long way from South Dakota, Senator Bushfield gratefully said (Congressional Record, page 5849, June 12, 1943): "We are tremendously inspired that we have a government in this country which permits individual Americans to accumulate and make enough money so that they can give this sort of contribution to their friends throughout the country." Wonder what is Senator Bushfield's def inition of a liar? il? o 4 If J' 3-i.d COPR. 1P4S BY WE SERVICE, INC. T. M llffi. aft) PAT 0F. "Twelve years old and I cai'i go to a boy-girl parlyl I'm glad they are fighting this war to free the world of tyrants!" The definition of a Japanese island: a body of land entirely surrounded or oc cupiedby Americans. It won't be long till we'll be wanting our garden to turn green with envy over the garden next door. Saving up for a long vacation drive which you won't be able to take is a good way to accumulate money for war bonds. WE, THE WOMEN By RUTH MILLETT c Under the newspaper picture of the young and beautiful wife of an engineer-gunner on a Flying Fortress was the announcement that she had been voted most beautiful wife in her husband's unit, a heavy bombardment group In Italy. Their dangerous jobs must have made those men completely reckless. Else why would they everjoluntarily have taken on a job as full of dynamite as voting on which one of them had the best looking wife at home. Surely, being married men, they must know that while a woman may not expect even her best fyends to go around describ ing her as beautiful, she believes it is her husband's duty to regard her as thg most beautiful woman in the world. So each wife naturally would expect to get her husband's vote if not the vote of any of the other husbands who might be prejudiced, naturally, in favor of their own wives. And that would make the contest some thing of a farce unless unmarried members of the unit were allowed to cast their honest ballots. It looks as though men whose lives are just one bombing mission after another, have enough troubles without getting '.hgm solves into a jam where they, have to .'igure out what to say in a letter o pacify '.!iwife who was an also-ran in a "most I r; .ttiful wife" contest. But then maybe living dangerously has "Become a habit with them. n Behind Scenes in Washington By PETER EOSON, La Grande Evening Observer Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON The accepted rule in this grabby and power-hungry capital is that every indijrjdual or group seeking to exert its will on congress has some selfish motive behind its efforts. There is a notable excep tion to (his rule, however, in the background of thPcurrent movement for congressional reform now (lying studied by a non-partisan, joint committee headed lv Sen. Bob LaFol lette of Wisconsin and Congressman Mike Monroney of Oklahoma. This example of clisintere?ted public serv ice is wort knowing about because it show:; that enlighlgned public opinion, intelligently directed, can exert a wholesome influence to right the wrongs of government in a de mocracy, even in time of war. And it is a good case history to show what it takes to (Tjiake the wheels go round in Washington. The study of congressional organization now begun in open hearings before the La-Follette-Monroney committee is really the result of fou years of behind-lhe-sconos preparation by a number of indivkYuals. con gressmen as well as private citizens. Spear heading many of thesv efforts has been the American Political Science association, which in 1941 set up a committee on con gress to see what might be done about cor recting the growing disivspect into which the legislative branch of the federal govern ment was rapidly falling. Committee Tries New Tack Instead of doing the usual job of research, and writing another book which would soon be forgotten, the Political Science associa tion committee on congress decided orj an unique experiment. It would seek to stimu late congressional interest in self-government and to arouse public interest in legis lative reform nt the same time. Dr. George B. Galloway was named chair man of the committee of 10 well-known political scientists. Galloway, after a short business career with American Telephone and Telegraph' company, had been connected with the bureau of municipal ivicarch, the O 6 Twentieth Century Fund, National Planning association, and Brookings Institution. For two years he had been in the national recov ery administration, so he knew his way around Washington. Hc9)cgan his congres sional reform activities with a series of small informal dinner meetings wi congressmen from both political parties, at which the problems and practices of congress were sympathetically Oexplored and discussed. These dinner meetings were held on the av erage of once a month over the past four yeaQ. and covered perhaps 20 per cent of the congress. caiisiea fudiic Support The Galloway committee also stimulated forum discussions and radio round-table de bates, magazine articles and books. Lale in 1944 they organized a national commission on the organization of congress to enlist public support for modernizing congression al machinery and methods. National Plan ning association had an indipendent study of congress made by the Cleveland engineer ing firm of Robert Heller and associates. League of women voters put congressional reorganization on its "must" list. Gallo way's committee made a report of its own. Newspapers supportecQtho idea from the very beginning. Gradually, the ball began to rl. It was the congressmen themselves, however, who carried the ball for the big gains. Nearly 100 congressmen have been asked to give the joint committee their ideas on how congressional procedure might be im proved. Then other government officials will be heard and representatives of civic groups and private individuals interested in government reform. The hearings will run over several months. A mass of suggestions for strengthening congress is piling up. The committee will make its tirst report April 1. Dr. Galloway, uho inspired much of this activity, is the joint committee'., chief of s-laff. 9 McKENNEY ON BRIDGE By WM. E. McKENNEY, America's Card Authority "WRONG" DEFENSE STYMIES SIX CLUBS Have you ever met Sylvia nt the bridge table? Sylvia is the girl who does the wrong thing but it always works out right. You might say that you can make six clubs on this hand if you know where all the cards are. Therefore I want you to play the hand knowing that the kinc of clubs is doubleton. Where do you win the first A 10 8 3 V AJ8642 None . 9742 AKQ95 I N I A, J 6 53 W f Q 10 9 7 KQ109 c 87543 2 Dealer 65 K3 I uealer I A A 7 4 2 V K AJ0 AQJ 108 Rubber Neither vul South West North 1 A 2 IV 3 A Pass 3 4 Pass . 8 C ' Puss Pass Opening K. East Pass Pass diamond trick? Well, if you frump it, you cannot make the hand. You must win it with the ace. Your next play is the k;ng of hearts and now you must lead the queen of clubi. West wins this with the king and supposing he returns a club. You win iP witlt1 the? nine spot in dummy, lead a small heart and ruff it, ruff a diamond in dummy, lead another small heart and trump it. Now you can still get into the dummy by rufRng another dia- Questions & Answers Q Are t)iP- nazis still using Norway as a naval base? A Some 300 U-boats as wcl as surface vessels are reported based in the fjords, mostly at Bergen, Trondheim, Narvik and Oslo. monc? and all the hearts are good. Looks simple, but Sylvia did not take the king of clubs when the queen was led. She played q! small club. Now try and make it. Sure, you can pick up Syl via's king of clubs with, your ace but you have not enough entries into dummy to establish that heart suit. IN FORMER" YEARS o 30 Years Ago Mac Wood, manager of the Golden Rule, went to Flora to day on ibusiness. Pat Foley, L. M. Hoyt, Fred o Henning and S. D. Crowe went to Baker on business. Winfield Eckley, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Eckley of this ciy, ranks high in academic work' at O. A. C. Recently he was elect ed to an honorary engineering so ciety on his merits as a student. Gaining his objective, through competitive examinations, Fred Kiddle-, La Grande high school graduate and a junior at the University of Oregon, was elect ed one of four university guides in the Oregon building in the exposition in San Francisco. 1 15 Years Ago The La Grande municipal band which ranked high among or ganizations of its kind in the northwest, was invited to enter the northwest amateur band con. test in Portland in July. The band was directed by Andrew Loney. O Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Evans and daughter, Norma, returned home from a three-week visit in Colo rado. Frank Cullen, Leslie Keffer and Gene Anderson spent the weekend in Portland. QHavo any governments-in-exile left London for t heir lioer atcd nStive lands? O A The Greek, Belgian, Yugo slav, Czech and Luxembourg governments have gone home. Police seized .$10,000 from own ers (6X an Illinois gambling spot. Customers likely laughed up their sleeves ifcthev hvA, agjiirt left. 10 Years Ago With Eastern Oregon Normal school auditorium siage packed to capacity with young vocalists from nearly a dozen high schools) in this section of the state, the fifth annual .music festival came to a close, with two massed chor us numbers directed by Paul PiQ.-i, guest critic from Oregon StaiiOcollegc. Ed Pratt, farmer east of Im bler, started a new business. He q received a shipment of 12 bull frogs from the south. He plan ned to sell the bullfrogs raised to a cannery. This Curious World DIAMETER WESE I4D AMLES LESS THAN 17 IS. A TOTAL. eCLPSE Or THE SUN COULD NOT OCCUR. COPfi 195 BY NE StRVKE. INC t ut ore. u s pt off ACE AVsr c GECRGE GUESS, C-'tKEE -NOlAS CHtETAiN, gETT? KNOWN 15 SfGUOTAH, AN iWENTca Cc thE ALPKASST "when a b:ro coe sets, ir L. DALE THSASH, Asev'e. A Cfc NfXT: The hijh iutrrMivj fpon.
