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.
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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
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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