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About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (April 14, 1945)
1 EDITORIAL PAGE Side Glances La Grande Evening Observer Frank Schiro, Publisher SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 14, 1915 Page Two" Yeh, He Must Feel Pretty Low Today i i rr u m mr m u K i 1 EVENING OBSERVER'S PROGRESS PROGRAM IRRIGATION Complete the Grande Ronde Valley irrigation project. LA GRANDE A city of 10,000 Extend the city limits. THOUGHT FOR TODAY For to Rive is the business of the rich. Goethe. The Peaceful Okinawans War, ns Hitler or Mussolini or some body once remarked, is the natural state of man. Homo sapiens ct belligerans is never happy for any length of time unless he is belaboring his fellow being with mace, longbow, poniard, tommy gun, or whatever the lethal weapon of the moment may be. Maybe so. l!ut the theory didn't work out for the Japs on Okinawa which must have been a bit of a dis appointment to the buck-toothed sons of heaven, who are great drum-beaters for the glorious inevitability of war. You probably have read the Amer Japs, apparently expecting the Amer ican lightning to strike elsewhere, left Okinawa's defense largely up to the home guard, reinforced and led by a comparatively small force of trained troops. It seems they gave most of the able-bodied Okinawans a rifle, and trusted in their instinctive bellicosity to repulse the invaders. Their defense was something new in the ancient annals of war, at that. Re porters on the scene tell us that though the Okinawans didn't know how to fight, they were equally ignorant of that less publicized but equally import ant branch of tactics known as surren der. So they just holed up in caves and had to be dug out. This, as we have intimated, must have surprised the Japs. And they must Funny Business have been equally disappointed in what appears to have been a complete un willingness on the part of the Okina wans to defend the Japanese way of life, or Asia for the Asiatics. But from what Americans have learned of these people's history, the unwillingness will cause no surprise over here. It appears that the Japs treated the Okinawans somewhat worse than John Steinbeck's Okies were treated in "The Grapes of Wrath." Although the Okin awans are blood brothers of the Japs, these country relations from the islands seem to have gotten a thorough kick ing around for a long time. The Japs have made the same mis take with other Asiatics. The most rep rehensible example, of course, was their treatment of the Filipinos. Hence even the most backward islander must know by now that the real slogan of the Greater Fast Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was Asia for the Japanese. We should imagine that most of the fears for the twilight of Asiatic Co Prosperity is being shed in the Jap anese home islands. Honest Adolf Honesty and nazism have so long gone their separate ways that it must almost have been a shock to the Amer ican army when they found Adolf Hon nert of Saarbruccken. For he was the first of all the thousands of German civilians that the Americans have come upon who came right out and admitted that he'd been a nazi when being a nazi was fashionable. Not only did he confess, but he re pented. And in the face of his unusual honesty, that repentance may well have been sincere. We cannot know if there was rejoic ing among the angels over Adolf's about-face. F.ut we do know that he got his reward here on earth. The Yanks made him acting burgomaster of his home citv. .lJ'' 'f ' 1 -jrr ... ,-1'f1Wr"- ' .Qri mill hhhhm itt i m no y fT Oft ,w Questions & A nswers Q Has inflation hit the Union of fauth Africa? A Living costs are up 32 per cent from 1 ;38 ; food is up 40 per cent and clothing 30 per cent. y -What ij Army's "Snake"?. A An explosive-equipped ve hicle which plows a four-foot furraw in mine fields and ex plodes mines by detonating its own charges. Q In U. S. Air Corps lance, what is a pvnguin? A A non-flying officer wears v. ings. par-who Q Was the word Nazi used before Hitler's time? A Wilholm Bosch. German .humorist, used sh !!m Inter Nazi to lscnbiine of his char ilCtvrs. Nazi also is a South Clrrman' nickname for Ignatz. "Jot'i. itlilu-j dii cxatnplo lo 'jut liim to wrj-jlc!" -nQ What Aitft) stale is more vcWistian than rttrfuVm? O OA Lebanon: 5j h r cent t its Washington Merry-Go-Round Br DREW PEARSON WASHINGTON Resentment over U. S. coddling of German prisoners of war reach ing fever pitch on Capitol Hill this week with the publication of two news pictures, one showing starved Yankee prisoners just liberated and the second showing the bodies of persons killed in a German prison camp. So horrible were these photos that Ken tucky's Andrew Jackson Moy, chairman of the house military affairs committee, dis played them Tuesday before a meeting of his committee. He spoke briefly and bitterly about the Nazis' inhuman treatment of prisoners. Rep resentative Sikes of Florida seconded May's sentiments, then demanded: "When are we going to do something about our own cod dling of German prisoners here? When will we get around to a sensible program of re education?" Chairman May fell back upon the old line about "adhering to the Geneva agreement." "We are going far beyond the Geneva requirements," shot back Sikes, "while our enemies are failing to live up to those re quirements." Here committee counsel Ralph Burton chimed in that the army is doing a good job of handling war prisoners, maintaining that if we treat German prisoners well, they will treat our men well. Sikes, however, attacked Burton's recent report on conditions at the Papago Park, Ariz., prison camp, and his more general report issued last December. The Florida congressman especially complained because they were issued as committee reports, when actually they were the work of a single in vestigator on the committee staff. Burton sprang to the defense of his in vestigator, but Sikes made it plain he will not be satisfied until a lull committee study is authorized. Big Oil Scramble Very quietly the big oil companies have already begun angling for one of the most coveted pieces of war property in the U. S. A. the two pipelines built to carry oil to the Atlantic seaboard. On its disposal depends the price which the people of New York and adjoining areas will pay for their cooking gas during the next decade. On their disposal also depends the future con sumption of soft coal in many eastern areas. There are two pipelines, the big inch and the big little inch, rushed to completion during the submarine menace in order to bring gasoline and oil to the eastern sea board. Altogether they total 2,729 miles of direct line and 453 miles of gathering pipeline. The company or combine which gets this prize will have one of the most important war properties in the country. At present the pipelines carry 500,000 bar rels of oil or oil products to the east coast every day. After the war, it is expected that due to the cheapness of ocean trans port, the big companies will go back to oil tankers and that the pipelines will carry natural gas from Texas to the great New York metropolitan area. Today, considerable natural gas in the southwest oil regions is wasted some burned just to get rid of it. However, its use in New York would disrupt a lost of entrenched interests, such as the artificial gas companies, plus John L. Lewis' United Mine Workers who supply coal Jo the New York gas companies. Secret Contracts The big inch pipeline, built by the govern ment for $42,670,000, is operated by the fol lowing group: Standard of New Jersey, Shell, Atlantic, Gulf, Pan-American, Texas, Consolidated, Socony and Tidewater. Natur ally the oil companies would like to got their hands on this great trans-continential artery. And here is the joker. Although congress thought it was putting all surplus property in the hands of its specially organized sur plus war property board, actually the White House can get rid of the pipelines at any time without consulting congress or the sur plus property board. This proviso was neatly tucked into the law which created the pipelines by Jesse Jones' RFC boys, nortorious for currying favor with the big oil companies. With the president away most of the time, the RFC had tremendous power in these things. And here is another joker. Even today, the contracts between the RFC and the oil companies operating the government pipe lines are kept absolutely secret. If you ask to see them, you will be told it's a war secret. Meanwhile all other government contracts are open for any taxpayer's in spection. Obviously no military security is involved. If the Nazis were going to blow up the pipelines, they would have done it long ago for their location is plainly marked and is no secret. Only the contracet between the operat ing oil companies and the RFC is secret. Meanwhile, the backstage jockeying for post-war control continues. Why Russia Cracks Swiss There is a great deal more than meets the naked eye in Russia's recent blasts against "Little Switzerland." See WASHINGTON . . . Page 6 WE, THE WOMEN By RUTH M1LLETT In a recent newspaper interview a suc cessful New York woman banker gave busi ness women some advice that is about as sound as any they'll ever get. It didn't have to do with "getting ahead" though indirectly it might help, in mak ing a business woman more of a person. It had to do with after-dark hours. Said the lady banker: "people tell me they don't see how I work all day and step out at night. But I have a theory on that. I think that is what's wrong with most business wo men. They go wearily home and think they're tired. And they give in to it and just sit there and coddle themselves." She is righ in saying that most career women don't have full enough lives outside of their work. And that is where men get the better of them. Men have their wives to drag them out in the evening whether they protest that they're tired or not. And so they have their business and a social life, too. But the career woman without a husband can easily make her work her whole life often does. And then is when she becomes a CAREER WOMAN in capitals and not just an in teresting, happy woman who hup;.e:.s to have a good job that keeps her busy dur ing the day. Behind Scenes in Washington By PETER EDSON, Lb Grande Evening Observer Washington Correspondent &tib ate Clm-li-ii., WASHINGTON End of the war in Ger many will raise some intriguing problems on the handling of German prisoners of war in the United States. There will be nearly 500,000 prisoners of war in this country before the crops are in this fall, according to the Office of the Provost Marshal, General, Maj.-Gon. Archer L. Lerch. Over 400,000 will be Germans. Half of them will be employed on U. S. Army posts, relieving that many service troops for other duties. Perhaps 150,000 will be employed as contract labor, largely on farms and in factories, relieving U. S. manpower shortage. The remainder, less than 50,000, will be officers and non-commissioned officers who by the terms of the Geneva Convention cannot be given work unless they as kfor it, plus the service pris oners who keep camp for the other prison ers, and the disciplinary cases and irrecon cilable troublemakers kept behind barbed wire. The Geneva Convention, governing the treatment of prisoners of war by the captor country and accepted by the U. S. in 1032, provides that all captives shall bo returned to their countries "after the conclusion of peace." That doesn't mean as soon as the fighting stops, but when the peace treaty is signed, which might be a year or morj later. The 60,000 to 65.000 U. S. soldiers held prisoner in Germany will be brought back home immediately, but shipping to take German prisoners back to Europe may n'jt be available. The U. S. Army in Europe has to be moved to the Pacific first, the war has to be won thiiir, and then the Army has to be moved back home. Those things get tip priority, so tjiv PW's will tx) around fur some time. i O Vhere is no danger that German prisoner of War labor Wmld be used ii competition with U. S. labor temporarily '-unemployed by production cutbacks after .V-F. day. Be fore any prisoner of war latxSican be iwJ in this country. Manpower ComnrSftion cials niUit entity thi.lL u no civuiau labor ten. iwYt stnvice. me. t. m. pre, u. . pat, off. "I'm glad our boys are knocking off the Japs if it wasn't for those sneaks, I'd be married now and have a family, instead of being a spinster1 20 years old!" ' O McKENNEY ON BRIDGE By WM. E. McKENNEY, America's Card Authority A 'GIVE' ASSURES 9 TRICKS IN N. T. Bob Hawk, radio quizmaster of "Thanks to the Yanks," won a warm spot in the heartsf New York bridge players when he re cently acted as auctioneer at the Whist club tournament, a benefit A 98 53 y 652 None A AKQ732 AA1076 I N I A Q 4 2 97 VV E QJI03 K108 e 4J9742 Jl0!l6 Dealer I8 Hawk A K J V AK84 AQ653 54 Rubber N Soiith West 1 ' Pass 2 Pass 3 N. T Pass Opening A 6. -S vul North 2 A 3 A Pass East Pass Pass Pass 18 of the A. C. B. L. Children's fund. He sold the pairs at more than double what they sold for last year with the result that the children's fund benefited to the extent of more than S3000. Q SO THEY SAY Although our air offensive is still only in its early phases, the citizen of Tokyo or Nagaya has already begun to have an inkling of the cost and destructiveness of modern war. In the not-too-distant future he will be im pressed with its full meaning. AAF Gen. Henry H. Arnold. Bob played in the tournament with B. Jay Becker and handled the play of today's hand pretty well. Hawk won the opening lead with the king of spades af ter east went up with the queen. He now led the five of cubs and did not make the mistake of playing the queen from dummy, but let west hold the trick. A careless payer woud have figured the clubs would have to break three two, but of course you are not paid off on bad guesses. Now, there is nothing the op ponents can do to prevent Hawk from winding up with five clubs, the ace of diamonds, two hearts and a spade. O IN FORMER YEARS 30 Years Ago One of Union county's best equipped stock ranches has been traded for a concern in the north end of Wallowa county. The W. H. Bohnenkamp stock ranch on Little Catherine, about three, miles from Union, belter known as the Alexander La Buff place, has been traded for the Golden Rule general merchandise store at Flora. Robert Blumenste.n became postmaster at Elgin. The boss may be an eccentric fossil, the company rules may reek with age, but if "they" pay you a salary, it's your job to ad just yourself. "Retool Your Thinking." Labor Department Women's Bureau pamphlet. 15 Years Ago Mr. and Mrs. Walter Router and son, Bobby, returned from Portland where they visited Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Bowen, formerly of La Grande. Dr. and Mrs. F. L. Ralston and son, John, returned from a com bined business and pleasure trip. A. E. Hug, finished planting 250 apricot trees this week at his farm in Pumpkin Ridge. available to do the job. There will be no backsliding by this gov ernment on the terms of the Geneva Con vention, even after Germany collapses. There has been considerable pressure from some irresponsible quarters to have the United States' treat all prisoners of war rough and tough, and the War Departmeni has been criticized for "mollycoddling" its prisoners, feeding them too well and not stamping out Nazism as the Nazis them selves stamped out this opposition. But from a standpoint of miiltary strategy, it can be proved that abiding by the Genevi Convention has been good tactics. First, it is evidence that when this country makes an agreement, it will live up to it. .If there is to be peace in the world, there must be sanctity of international obligations. Second, following the doctrine of Stone wall Jackson that "It is cheaper to feed them than to fight them," the U. S. Army Psychological Warfare division has done everything it could to encourage the Ger mans to surrender. "Hogcaller" loud-speakers in the front lines have invited the Nazis to come on over for breakfast, and given them the menu, it has worked, as proved by the million prisoners taken since last June. The promises of good food and fair treatment must be kept. Third, this has been a safeguard against reprisals on U. S. soldiers captured by tho Germans. They number less than 65,000 one for every 15 Germans captured by U. S. troops. The Germans appeared to be living up to the Geneva Convention and treating them well, sometime giving them more food than Gorman civilians got. There have been exceptions the mas-sacre of 150 U. S. soldiers captured in the bulge, near-starvation in Bad Orb camp, mistreatment of the wounded in Heppenheun hospital, vripropii atioti of Red Cross supplies. It is ns'ural to wart fo get eve'n 1 for such atrocities, but' J think this one (nrHigh and j.oiwler on what f i iiaypt'iieu 10 me American ffi-'prisoners if this country! .ad tr:e4-.)o out Upi'lidl till, auijj) Economic warfare, depressions, hunger, poverty and despair these are the conditions that un dermine democracy and block its development, that breed ty rants and aggressors and that turn nations against one another. These arc the conditions that we must fight to master if any in ternational organization is to suc ceed in preserving the peace. Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius Jr. 10 Years Ago John Hacker, farmer of the Summerville section, excelled lo cal trapshooters at Lone Tree, winning possession of the George Walker trophy, at an event spon sored by the La Grande Gun club. Twenty-two shooters par ticipated, and Floyd Lanning and Andy Alstott lied for second. Arnold L. Gralapp, superinten dent of La Grande schools, at tended a conference on guidance held under the auspices of the school of education and Chi chap ter of Phi Delta Kappa, while he was on a trip with the La Grande high school band. This Curious World WESE LEGALIZED CURRENCY ' llJ tAs 'vj CAJA34 TWO CENTURIES ASCV A0 A GOOD PELT WOULD PURCHASE ANY UK 1ME fCLLOWlMS ITEMS! 2 A GALLONS OF MOLASSES, if .-UUNUS CF PORK, JO POUN3S CF FLOUR.. - - t - ONE PERSON POISON INV wiTW t- i Q ANr ILL. EFFECTS O IILXT: Ws ihuuWu'l WHEN SCHOOL IS OPEN, THE DOORS CL4ISIEEM At'CLAlN, k ) -naK j uiliiuc Hit di.:o.dur
