La Grande evening observer., March 31, 1945, Image 2

Side Glances
Washington Merry-Go-Round
EDITORIAL PAGE
By DREW PEARSON
Pi
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W'8
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o
o La Grande Evening Observer
iS-ank Schlror Publisher
SATURDAY EVENING, MAftCH 31, 1945
NowTktt the Preliminaries Are Over
Page Two
EVENING OBSERVER'S
PROGRESS PROGRAM
IRRIGATION Complete the Grande
Ronde Valley irrigation project.
LA GRANDE A city of 10,000
, Eitend.the city limit
.TODAY'S TEXT ,
It Is nlso written hi your tttw.-thnt the
testimony of' two men is true. John
8:17.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
For when one's proofs are aptly chosen,
Four are as valid as four dozen.
Prior
'Miscalculation' by High
Command
Among the loss evident contributors
to the present food crisis are Field Mar
shall von Uundsledt, the American sol
diers who diverted military gasoline to
the black market last summer, and the
Frenchmen who bought it.
This was made clear, though not in
so many words, by a member of parlia
ment in a recent speech before the
American chamber of commerce in Lon
don. Capt. IxMmard Cammans, the M.'
P., said that ships which, in the light
of present circumstances, might bo car
rying supplies for the British, French,
Dutch and Kelgians, have Imn diverted
to the Pacific. And the reason is thai
the allied high command foresaw the
end of the Kuroiean war in 194-1.
The hiirh command seems to have
liwn a.i lioieful of the breakthrough in
Fiance last summer as were the civil
ians bark homo. Obviously the loss of
preat quantities of fuel helped put th-;
brakes to that swift meclianized ad
vance. Then, after the promising con
quest of Aachen, came RundBtedt's Bel
gian bulge offensive. And so the battle
for Germany continues today.
Those were the two major disappoint
ments in an otherwise brilliantly suc
cessful year. And somewhere along the
line, either before them or despite them,
the high command evidently decided
that the war againm, Japan, the war
that had to wait, could start picking up
momentum.
Result of the consequent transfer of
many vessels to the Pacific area is ap
parent in the tightening of food ship
ments to F.uropo. And while the ship
ping crisis isn't the whole story of the
food problem, it is a big factor and a
regrettable one.
But if we can see the unhappy result
of this shift in less food for Europe's
hungry millions, we can also see its
heartening military result in the Paci
fic. And while it seems heartless to
have to make the choice, it can scarcely
bo denied that the decision which brings
victory closer is of first importance.
Stepping up of the Pacific war has
certainly hastened the day of Japan's
downfall, even though the decision that
set it in motion may have been some
thing of a miscalculation. It is scarcely
necessary to say that without the new
flow of supplies, the victories on Luzon,
Mindanao, Panay and Iwo Jinia would
not have come so soon, nor would the
raids on Japan's naval strength and war
production have been so punishing.
The high command's "miscalculation"
has put the United States in command
of Japan's air, and of her eastern sea
approaches almost to the shores of the
home islands. It. has dealt her navv an
other crippling blow, and played havoc
with her supply routes. And while the
great crucial battle with Japan's main
army has still to be fought, Japan has
already received the mortal wounds
which she must carry into that battle.
Funny Husinees
..ii-'.vf-'- M
W.-.Ktl-.-.M
' -
o SO THEY SAY
Wo todk quality out of the n7.i
cockpits and put in quantity, ol
can slate very positively that the
Herman fighter is not what lie
was.
Maj.-Gcn. Orvil A. Anderson,
Hlh AAF deputy commander.
"1 can t iletp w'.l unlnt 1 in ovtr witii"
German shipbuilding centers,
shipbuilding trusts, "harmless"
naval archives, naval museums
and leagues must be prevented
from being restored.
Ked Fleet, Russian naval pub
lication. The crux of Wiyrrrscnl mi
taiv situation lies iTf the fact that
npjv lliofo brlliR.'ientj will b:p
iMiA forriia) victory who arc first
to lose the ground und their
feet. U
Coebbels.
WheiMi-p enlarge the airfields
on IwoVye won't be restricted to
hitting Tokyo. We can hit any
part of Japan.
-l.t.-Ocn. Holland Mjn Smith,
nun mt coi..inikr TirPacrfic.
WASHINGTON - - Exciting war news
largely obscured its significance, but this
week the highest court of the land handed
down one of its most important decisions in
recent years perhaps ranking alongside the
Schechter sick chicken case invalidating the
NRA.
This week's case, that of Georgia vs. the .
railroads, was largely a tribute to one man,
Governor Ellis Arnall of Georgia, who is
fast becoming the south's greatest leader
since the Cbyil war. Arnall conceived the
case and came to Washington to argue it
personally before the supreme court.
His victory this week means several
things. From now on, when one ot the 4d
, states suffers because of monopoly, it can
come to the U. S. supreme court direct, with-
out waiting to climb up through the district
and appeals courts. Perhaps even more im
portant, it means that neither the army nor
the navy nor the president can stop enforce
ment of the Sherman anti-trust act if one
of the 48 states wants to appeal over their
heads to the supreme court.
For years the south has been beefing
about freight rates fixed by Wall Street
bankers and the railroads they control,
which discriminated against the south. For
years the south has been claiming it could
not industrialize as long as it had to pay
rates on what it manufactured higher than
the east and midwest. For years, the on
ference of southeast governors and variouB
U, S. senators have mado this their chief
campaign slogan.
But finally an unassuming little man from
Georgia cut right to the heart of the whole
matter, and without any palaver or politick
ing took the case to the supreme court
and won it.
Arnall Abolishes Poll Tax
In all the foregoing years of beefing, no
one had ever thought of doing this. But,
also, no one had ever thought of doing a lot
of other things with which Ellis Arnall hos '
given Georgia the most progressive clean
cut government in decades.
No one, for instance, ever thought of abol
ishing the poll tax. Northern members of
congress have been shouting about it for
years. Southern senators, in turn, had been
filibustering against it. It was a sore spot
in the federal body politic. But Governor
Arnall decided that the south should put
its own house in order, not be reformed by
others. So last month he quietly abolished
the poll tax.
Arnall accomplished this miracle by a
vote of 151 to 41 in the Georgia house and
a vote of 41 to 3 in the senate. Sentiment
against the poll tax was overwhelming. Of
course, the gislatorsnew that Arnatl had
uneartcd a 100-year-old law giving thfjgov
ernor the right to remove certain measures
from the statute books. But he ner really
used this threat. Perhaps one secret of "his
success is that Arnall spent a large slice of
his young life in the legislature or in state
government. He knows its members and
they know him. He uses friendship rather
than threats.
Reduces Georgia Debt
Born 37 years ago at Newman, Ga., Arnall
was the son of well-to-do parents. "My
granddaddy," he says, "got rich by working
negroes for 25 cents a day." Since then,
the grandson has maintained thut "the ne
gro problem is mostly economic; the balance
political. It is not a social problem at all."
After leaving college, Arnall entered the
legislature at the age of 25, became attorney
general of the state at 30 and governor st 33.
Revamps Constitution
But perhaps the biggest local accomplish
ment of Governor Arnall was streamlining
the Georgia constitution. Most people out
side the south don't realize that, after the
Civil war, the south adopted iron-clad con
stitutions to protect them against carpet
baggers. The constitution of Georgia, for instance,
had been amended 301 times. It was un
wieldy and impossible. It just wouldn't
work under modern, streamlined conditions.
So Arnall persuaded the legislature that
Georgia couldn't go forward if it depended
oh the past. The constitution has now been
completely rewritten and passed by a unan
imous vote in the Georgia house.
Supreme Court Victory
Arnall won his recent supreme court vic
tory after he began studying the problem of
returned veterans. He decided the state
couldn't attract its returned veterans un
less it had something to offer them in the
way of industrial opportunity, and that the
state couldn't industrialize as long f.s freight
rates were against it.
In winning his decision before the su
preme court, Arnall actually has won a vic
tory for all the other states and for free
competition throughout the nation.
Now, however, regardless of the army and
navy, the supreme court has ruled that any
state which is discriminated against as a
result of monopoly can step in over the
head of the federal government and be
heard all thanks to the fighting little 37-year-old
governor of Georgia.
WE, THE WOMEN
By RUTH MILLETT
The townspeople of Kenncbunkport, Me.,
are riled up over the mural in their local
post office, done at a time when WPA art
ists were busy on such projects, and arc try
ing to get rid of it.
The mural shows a group of bulgy bath
ers "cavorting on a beach." The townspeo
ple evidently don't like to look at fat women
in brief bathing suits every time they go to
post a letter.
Why this sudden revulsion for a mural
several years old? Can it be that the lus
cious pin-up girls that the war brought forth
have made the country more critical of the
feminine figure?
If so, isn't there a hint for women in Ken
ncbunkpnrt's revolt against the feminine
form that is less than divine? With summer
on its way, maybe women should stop and
ponder the question.
If fat women in bathing suits painted on
a mural are so repulsive to a pin-up girl con
scious public, maybe women had better look
a long time into their mirrors before they
venture forth to sun themselves on public
beaches.
It may be that with the pin-up girl's pro
portions in everybody's mind, the woman
with a lose than perfect figure will cone in
for a lot of unfair criticism and comparison
this summer.
And, if she doesn't want to car.se raised
eyebrows and disdainful looks she had bet
ter do her sun bathing in her own tack yard,
until the pin-up portrait sinks into oblivion.
Behind Scenes in Washington
By PETER EDSON, La Grande Evening Observer Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON Possibility that the gov
ernment may again be able to proceed
against certain so-called monopolistic prac
tices of labor unions under the Sherman
anti-trust laws is at stake in two highly im
portant cases now under consideration by
the U. S. supreme court.
Legal action against labor union practices
alleged to be in restraint of trade has been
practically non-existent since the supremo
court handed down its famous Hutehcson
case decision In February, 1941. In this
opinion, written by Justice Felix Frankfur
ter, labor leaders and the public in general
were led to believe that union members can
not be prosecuted for any conspiracy to re
strain interstate commerce under the Sher
man act. Rather quietly, however, two cases
have come up through the lower courts, one
in New York City and one in San Francisco,
which may challenge this broad interpreta
tion and limit its application.
The San Francisco case grows out of a
union agreement made between the A. F.
of L. united brotherhood of carpenters and
joiners and the building contractor and
Qlumber mills in the San Fr.meijeo bay area,
in Which it was stipulated that mill work
the making of doors,i windows mantels, and
such trim ANould bo boycotted if made un
der wage scales lower than those in effect
in the bay area contract. Vj (-
Btfcre this agreement vfa put into effect,
80 per efctit of all tbv mill wi"k used, in (hv
bay area hadbj-onfrnade by lumber milk in
Washington and Oregon .liv.i (shipped inl-.i
San Krt)cisco tfrfil(r)i'atod. Pay Miles' f?i
the northwest were Iow'pjMImii iO'an Fi
Cisco, and 11. u IhucMri 11 null wimL w .L
therefore ,.,r.,jV-r. O O
After the contract went in'jylfiVi. -inly'i
per cent of the null work) was dofie) 111 ine
northwest, the othoivrO per cent having to
bo done under the h??rier wage irilll in the
bay area. r
Indirectly this was in the nature of 7
jurisdictional dtsputcrtecause the northwest
ern mill worki bnonged to CIO unioos.
and by putting restrictions on the San Knlfi
cioco mill production, the A. K. of L. union
was getting at its rivals. But the whole af
fair was a good example of union make
work policies, and U. S. attorneys, taking
action against this practice as a conspiracy
to restrain competition from other areas, won
a conviction which was upheld in the U. S.
court of appeals. Counsel for the carpenters
then appealed the case to the supreme court.
The New York case grows out of a con
tract between A. F. of L. electrical workers
and contractors, under which the electricians
in Now York City will not install equipment
that has boon wired outside the city. If a
switchboard made in Schenectady, for in
stance, should be shipped to New York City
for installation already wired, the New York.
City unions will install it only after they
have ripped out the original wiring put in
by other A. F. of L. electricians up-state and
ro-wired the thing themselves. Again, a
beautiful example of union make-work pol
icy if thorf1 ever was one. In this case an
injunction was granted against enforcement
of a union boycott on work done outside the
city, but the injunction was upset in conn
of appeals, giving lalmr a victory. Govern
ment tiled the appeal to the supreme court
in this instance.
The two cases taken together have an ob
vious postwar significance in view of the
tremendous possibilities of pro-fabricated
housing development. If jthe Hutclntson
case decision is given a broad interpretation.
' prosecution of l.ibor unions for monoplistic
practices in 'restxaint of trtidc will be inipos
MM Under Ui'.s interpretation, arythinc;
;i union does i'f-ifs orn, self-interest is with-
Cfi Hie anti-tm.T law.b'
I'(fi')if tin ll'iMn-.-'.n op't'i-n ir. given a
restrict ?d interprc-iten. protecting the un
ions from anti-tr law prosecution only in
'''.he case of a jurisdictional disjtc between
two unions, then the wry yill be opened to
'Qi' action in cases such as those outlined
fivo m New York and San Francisco,
where the issue is an agreement made not
between two unions, but between a union
and a party A the tccond (vut '(lY h ij not
d uhmn.
yfe ! m lip
COPft. 1W BY NEA SERVICE. INC. T. M. BEG. U. 8. PAT. OFF.
"When I gave orders to the men they respected me as a sergeant,
but when I frown and growl at these kids they just laughl"
O McKENNEY ON BRIDGE
By WM. E. McKENNEY, America's Card Authority
EKES OUT 4 HEARTS
BY FORCING TRUMP
The mixed pair championship
in the recent eastern states tourn
ament was won by Amby Casner
and Mrs. Barbara Collier Cook.
The just nosed out Walter Malo-
Casner
A43
VQJ 10 8 5 4
9
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A 1076 N AKQ985
VA963 VV E 2
842 c K2
K64 Dealer j6 3
A A J
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A A Q 9 5
Duplicate E.-W. vul.
South West North East
1 Pass IV 1 A
3 A Pass 3 Pass
3N.T. Pass t Pass
Opening A K. t
wan and Mrs. Louise Wainwright.
Casner has been playing good
bridge, as demonstrated in to
day's hand. He won the opening
lead with the ace of spades, cash
ed the ace and king of diamonds
Questions & A nswers
Q How many automobiles
were damaged so badly in acci
dents in 1944 that they had to be
scrapped?
A More than 250,000.
Q Have the British copied
our pipeline methods in their
war effort?
A They built a 1000-mile
pipe-line on the home island at
a cost of $35,000,000, equipped
with underground storage tanks,
for supplying allied planes based
in Britain.
and discarded his losing spade.
Seven of hearts was led from
dummy, West played low and
Casner put on the ten. Now, it
is true that if ho had finessed the
eight, there would have been no
problem, but that would be a
double dummy play. A
East won and led the queen of '
spades, which Casner trumped
with a heart. The queen of
hearts was then led, West won
with the ace. The ten of spades
was returned, declarer trumping
with the five of hearts. Now the
jack of clubs was finessed and
lost to the king.
West returned a club, which
was won in dummy, and now dia
monds were led until West was
forced to trump. This allowed
the declarer to over-trump with
the eight spot and pick up the
nine with the queen.
O IN FORMED
YEARS
30 Years Ago
A $1500 corporation known as
the La Grande Tennis club, has. .
. been formed and title to a tract
of land suitable for court pur
poses, passed into its hands. Two
cemented courts were to be built.
Sherwood Williams returned to
his home in Imbler after being
an overnight visitor in the city.
George T. Cochran, water su
perintendent for eastern Oregon,
returned from a business trip to
Pendleton.
Q How much has the air at
tack on Germany increased since
1941?
A Fifty fold, says British Air
Secretary Sir Archibald Sinclair.
15 Years Ago
Mr. and Mrs. Ira Koontz, Miss
Doris Warner and Charles Spaeth
drove to Wallowa lake.
Miss Kato Houx of the Acker
man training school returned
from a speaking tour in John '
Day, Dayvillo and Monument.
Mrs. R. J. Kitchen returned
from Portland where she visited
her two daughters.
Q What was the nature of
the founding of Cologne, Ger
many? A Roman Emperor Claudius
established it as a colony for war
veterans, 50 A. D., naming it Co
lonia Agrippina for his wife.
Q What is the only pre-Pearl
Harbor possession of the U. S.
still wholly in Jap hands?
A Wake island.
10 Years Ago
In honor of her ninth birthday
anniversary, Miss Harriott Avery
was hostess to a dozen young
friends at a theater party. After
the matinee, the group returned
to the Avery home for refresh
ments. Bill Bohnenkamp went to Port
land to spend spring vacation vis
iting his grandmother.
Billy Gunn, senior at La
Grande high school, went to Los
Angeles for the spring vacation.
This Curious World
( PARACHUTE EXPeRr AirO ! twil . V.I
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PRESIDENT OF THE ) SPKVH J BPL
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ASSOCIATION!, HAS N?w I
MADE NEARLY ) '
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DEAD RECKONING"
CCVES mOO--0 AM
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