Side Glances
Washington Merry-Go-Round
By DREW PEARSON
EDITORIAL PAGE
La Grande Evening Observer
Frank Schiro, Publisher
THURSDAY KVKNINU, MAY 17, 1915
Page Four
"Shake Hands Mit Mine Lat est Agvaintance, II err Nips"
'
EVENING OBSERVER'S
PROGRESS PROGRAM
IRRIGATION Complete the Gramle
Runde Valley irrigation project.
LAGUANDE A city of 10.000
Extend the city limits.
TODAY'S TEXT
Yea, and why even of yourselves
judtii! ye not what is rijrlit? Luke
12:57.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
How prone to doubt, how cautions are
the wise! Homer.
The New Wilson Story
Mrs. Eleanor Wilson iMeAdoo chose
an appropriate setting to divulge a story
that the Wilson family had kept secret
for 21 years. The time was the close of
the second world war in Europe. The
place was San Francisco, where a world
congress is attempting to forge an in
strument for lasting peace, ami where
Mis. McAdoo told to I'eler Kdsou of
NEA service a hitherto unknown story
of her father, the first world war presi
dent. The day ho fore Wnodrow Wilson died,
Mrs. McAdoo said, he told his daughters
that it was right (hat the United States
had not joined I lie league of nations in
11120. He was reconciled to (lie fact
that, though inn- entrance into the lea
gue which he had conceived would have
heen a great victory for him, it would
not have worked liecause "deep down
i their hearts the American people
didn't really holicvo in it."
Some day, he prophesied, this coun
try would join a league of nations lie
cause it really wanted to - and then
and then only would it work.
That story makes comforting read
ing, and also rather startling news. It.
if comforting for the admirers of Wil
son to know that he did not go to his
grave the embittered, heartbroken man
that history has pictured him, and that
he came to credit popular feeling rather
than a senate conspiracy for our aloof
ness. Knowing this, we can be sure that
he met deatli with more happiness and
peace of mind than has been believed.
Hut why, one wonders, did the story
remain so long untold? Why was the
country allowed to believe that a villain
ous "little group of willful men" in the
senate had denied the wishes of the peo
ple, sabotaged us into isolationism, and
helped to precipitate the second world
conflict'.'
President Wilson's stature would not
have been decreased by revealing what
Edson has called "an important new
footnote to history." Hut the record of
Lodge and the rest in the league debate,
though none too shining at best, would
not appear as black as it has now be
come. After all, if is not a light thing to ac
cuse even dead men of having hastened
such a conflict as this which, though
half finished, we are still fighting.
For it is not too certain that even
with America in the league, war could
have been averted. There is too much
evidence that there were men of other
countries who "deep down in their
hearts" did not really believe in the lea
gue. In any event, Mrs. McAdoo's belated
revelation is a good story, and a wel
come one. And her father's prophecy
which she disclosed is penetratingly
correct.
Today the American people, having
endured another and more frightful
lesson, really want a league for peace.
So do the peoples of the world. So, we
believe, do the peoples' representatives
at Sau Francisco, even though some are
not yet wholly purged of narrow self
interest. And this time, we devoutly
hope, Wilson's dream will be realized.
Funny business
J.
:-1
-1 X
m in
"All I know it that ho says ho won il in poker gaitio with the
majorl"
SO THEY SAY
We will utilie all liiml musses
nrar Jiipiin ;is f;tst as wo can
l.iki1 t!u"ii, but tin islands we
iv;.dy W.wc r;m ;lsnrl much
tnmv tf I hi aiu forces. Lark of
riiiiu'cnnn ti nips to ih vlnp
h;i' i: , critical item.
- I.t. -t.cn. Harrow M. Giles, com-tn.in.l-'!'
.it my air forces in Vt
cilte. Kml of hostilities in Kuropc
will nl solve the national coal
shoit.iKc, ami it may be nece
.v.iiy to u tsuo the "lu own-out"
vn)er sonic time during the fall
ol this year.
- .!. A. Kiuu, chairman war pro
duction hoaiM.
If there was just ific.il ion prev
iously for not spwikuvc our mimls
lively to our Kessian wllies. that
jdiriftication is now- past. 1 nm
ptoloundly convinced that the
futuie peace hinges upon a firm
pndcrstanduiH tvtwecn the l-nit-($5)
States ami the. Soviet Union.
- Senator Homer Ferguson H ,
Michigan.
WASHINGTON. Watching our diplomat
ic relations close-up, both in S;in Francisco
and Washington, leads to the unmistakable
conclusion that the most important problem
this country faces more important than any
domestic or war problem is our relations
with Russia.
Russia is now on the road to becoming the
most powerful nation in Europe and Asia,
and there is nothing wc can do to prevent
it. Half a billion Chinese, plus one-third bil
lion Indians restless under British rule, are
certain to gravitate to Russia; also the middle-European
countries of Czechoslovakia,
Austria, Poland and the Balkans.
The United States, meHnwhile, is bound to
become the rallying nation for western civil
ization Great Britain, Latin America,
France, Holland, the Scandinavian countries.
There will be two powerful blocks. The
question is: will they drift into war 10 or 20
years from now? If the toboggan once
starts, no power on earth can prevent war.
The time to stop it is now. And already our
relations with Russia have reached the low
level of diplomatic nose-thumbing and caus
tic note-writing which augurs ill for the fu
ture. With this alarming situation in mind, this
columnist proposes to diagnose the entire
Tangled skein of our Russian relations. Some
of what follows will be considered very crit
ical of Russia. Some may be considered
critical of the United States. It is suggested
that no conclusions bo drawn until both sides
arc presented.
Keep Out of Berlin
Relations with Russia began their nose
dive just a few days before President Roose
velt died, when Stalin sent his note accus
ing us of a deal with the Germans in order
that wc might Ret to Berlin ahead of the Red
army.
Of course there was no deal. But there
had been a conference of American and Ger
man officers in Switzerland to arrange for
an armistice in Italy, and the manner in
which the Germans were surrendering
wholesale to the Americans in the west,
while fighting to the last ditch against the
Russians in the cast, made the Russian gen
erals suspiciou.
The Russians are a suspicious people any
way, and long years of isolation have not
made them less so. Also, in view of the fact
that 700,000 Germans have already been
shipped off to Russia by the Red army, it is
easy to sec why the German army hastened
to surrender on one front, while fighting
fiercely on the other.
To allay Rusian suspicions, the American
army stopped its advance on the river Elbe,
carefully kept out of Berlin.
Keep Out of Prague
Almost simultaneously, however, another
unfortunate incident occurred. The Ameri
can ambassador to Czechoslovakia, Laurence
Steinhardt, was all set to go back to Czecho
slovakia with the invading Russian armies.
So also was a British diplomatic mission.
Presdent Benes was returnng and was anx
ious to have American and British diplomats
go with him.
But the Russians said no. Their excuse
was that no housing facilities were available
in Czechoslovakia. And up until this writ
ing, Ambassador Steinhardt is still cooling
his heels, unable to enter the country to
which he is accredited.
Shortly thereafter occurred another un
fortunate incident. At Yalta it was agreed
that both the British and American armies
would send troops into Vienna, and would
also occupy certain Austrian provinces. But
suddenly the Russians set up a government
in Vienna under the old socialistic leader,
Dr. Karl Renncr. Also they seized the Vien
nese airfields.
So now, British and American token
forces, which expected to fly into Vienna,
cannot land. Also no American or British
ambassadors can enter the city until we rec
ognize the Renncr government.
Trouble in Bulgaria
Little has been published on the Bulgar
ian situation, but more Bulgarian leaders
have been executed by the Russians than in
any other allied-occupied country. Prob
ably they are all Nazis of the type who
would eventually have faced trial for war
crimes. Therefore, IT. S. officials do not ob
ject to this so much as to the fact that Amer
icans arc not permuted to be free agents
in Bulgaria. '.
On top of all this came the arrest of the
1G Polish leaders who were to negotiate with
Moscow for the broadening of the Lublin
government. With this climax, Churchill and
Truman wrote similar notes to Marshal Sta
lin, setting forth all the broken Yalta prom
ises Austria, Poland, failure to consult re
garding a new government in Roumania,
failure to carry out certain political pledges
in Yugoslavia. They asked Stalin for an ex
planation. Stalin's reply, which will be outlined in
an early column, left a great deal to be de
sired. It was one day after its receipt that
President Truman stopped lend-lease ship
ments to European Russia, continuing, how
ever, Seattle shipments of equipment for the
.trans-Siberian railroad. Some U. S. gen
Sec WASHINGTON . . . Page 6
WE, THE WOMEN
By RUTH MILLETT
If you live in Danville, III., and want your
lawn mowed, your garden spaded, or your
basement cleaned, you just call Youth Em
ployment Center at the local YMCA and
there is a school boy for the job.
The boys, from 14 to 18, work after school
and on Saturdays while school is in ses
sion, and all day during the summer months.
It would certainly make any commun
ity a better place to live if boys that age
were encouraged to help with odd jobs and
were organized so as to be easily located.
If there are more jobs than boys, then
there ought to be a priority list. Women
living alone and households in which the
man of the family isn't able to work should
have highest priority. And at the bottom
of the list should be placed the calls from
homes where there is a strong, healthy man
member of the family, who could do the
work around the place if he would.
That way the high school kids would get
the idea that their work is really important.
For even a 14-year-old would certainly get
more satisfaction out of mowing a lawn for
a war wife than in pushing a lawn mower
all afternoon so that the man of the family
could go out to the golf club to get fun out
nl exercise.
Behind Scenes in Washington
By PETER EDSON. La Grande Evening Observer Washington Correspondent
SAN FRANCISCO With Foreign Com
missar V. M. Moliitnv gone from the San
Francisco conference, the Soviet amba::salnr
to Washington, Alexander A. Gromyko
pronounced Gro-mee-ko. with the accent on
the Mee becomes Mr. Big for the Russian
delegation at the United Nations charier
writing and spelling bee.
Gromyko smiles a little more readily than
the others in this stolid, impassive anil al
most impassable group. Hut, aside from the
smile, he is prclty much the presonifieation
of mystery wrapped in enigma tall, dark
and taciturn.
He is younger than nearly all the otlvr
heads of missions here, being only H7. That
would make him only nine years old at the
time of the Bolshevik revolution in I !M 7.
so he has grown up under communism. Hi
is a career diplomat and apparently a good
one in Russian eyes, for he has been award
ed the Order of Lenin highest civilian ilic
oration given by the Moscow government
for the job he has done in Washington m
the past six years.
Gromyko's public uttv.anccs since he be
came ambassador, succeeding Maxim Lit
vinov, have been noteworthy only for lb -ir
extreme caution, couehi d in the customary
polite but dull diplomatic phrasing. About
as far as he oes in rnmmitting himself is
lo say that the people of the Soviet Union
fee I friendship and deep ivspoct for the I'. S,
people, and are grateful for receiving from
us not only moral but also substantial mate
ria! support.
As far as Washington society is concerned,
his greatest material display of fnend.4iip
romcs nt the annual Octotior revolution an
niversary rodnptions in the big limestone
embassy formerly occupied by carist diplo
mats, fnur-aml-a-half blocks uullHh street
from the White House. On these iKC.i.-ions,
Gromyko dons gold braid and shakes hands
with from 1500 to 2U00 members of official
Washmi;on, who put on a somewhat die?
graceful grab' for the vodka and caviar. It's
enough to nuil, a recline of even the most
gregarious of nosLs.
Gromyko was born" in Minsk, White Rus
sia, some 400 miles west of Moscow and ncai
what used to be the pre-war, pre-Curzon-l.ine
Polish border. Minsk was of course '
ovi rrun by the Gel mans early in the war.
Hut at San Francisco Gromyko has the
satisfaction of seeing White Russia admit
ted as a sovereign slate in the United Na
tinns. He was educated as an economist and for
a time ieelured at the Institute of Economics
and the Academy of Science. Entering the
government, at 31) he was in charge of the
Amciic.m section of the forefgn office. After
a year in that position he was ordered to
Washington in l!).tn as counselor to Ambas
sador Conslantin Oumansky. In the three
months between Ounuinsky's recall and the
arrival of Ambassador Litvinov in Decern
Nr I'.Hl, Gromyko was in charge of the
embassy and conducted early nogtiations for
Soviet purchases and lend-lease supplies
fiom the U. S.
He knew practically no English when he
arrived but has studied the language dili
gently, along with all the reports on manu
facturing, economics, history and politics .
the usual things expected of any career dip
lomat. Today Gromyko has a goinl working
knowledge of English and he gets about in
ihi- diplomatic set a bit more. But the
ambassador and Madam Gromyko are not,
perhaps, as clubby with the White House
and stale depaitment officials as were Max
im and Ivy Litvinov.
Recall of Litvinov at the time of the first
Quebec conference in i 943 was at first gos
siped about as a slap at the United States
for failure to develop a second front. The
slate department was quick to ctrny that,
howevi r, and any ideas that Gromyko is
a seeondrater have been completely re
moved. He was head of the Soviet delegation 'that ,
hilprd draft Dun-barton Oaks proposals last
fall and he has handled his government's
tffaus in Washington all through the diffi
cult periods when sceo.dNfront. Polish. Fin
nish, Ronvjrtjia. Yugoslav and GWrtian occu
pation and reparations questions have bvin
the big issues.
T t
I94S 8T WrA StBVlCf. IMC. T. M. II EC. 0. g. PAT. OFF.
S-6
"They're having sotne kind of bean clew without meat, Henry,
and don't you dare make a face when you taste it, and hurt their
feelings!"
o McKENNEY ON BRIDGE
By WM. E. McKENNEY, America's Card Authority '
BE CAREFUL. DON'T
OVERDO CONVENTIONS
Most bidding conventions are
overdone. Too many players use
them as a substitute for thinking.
However, there are times when
a convention is ideally suited to
a nand, and today's hand is an
example.
While a one-spade bid by
4 A Q 7 0 5
f K3
A Q J 8
KJ98 N 432
V98 W c "JC2
92 478543
10 9 76 4 Dealer J8
10
VAQ 107 5 4
K 10
A532
Duplicate Neither vul.
South Weet
IV Pass
3 Pass
5 V Pass
6 . Pans
North
2
4 N.T.
5 N. T
7N. T.
East
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
18
North would have been forcing,
two spades was the correct bid,
. indicating not only a game de
mand, but a slam invitation also.
Now if South wanted to tell
his partner that he Was on a bare
minimum, and not interested in
a slam from his own point of
Questions & A miners
Q What has caused the delay
of the trial of Marshal Petain for
crimes against the French state
by reason of cellLi.eration with
Nazis?
A No leati.r.g lawyer is will
ing to defend him.
view, he would have responded
with three hearts. But the bid in
another suit, three clubs, accept
ed the slam invitation.
North employed the Black
wood convention in the bid of
four no trump, and South's re
sponse, five hearts, showed two
' aces. North then bid five no
trump, asking for kings, and
South, with one king, responded
correctly with six diamonds.
This of course was all the in
formation North needed to bid a
reasonably safe grand slam.
e IN FORMER
YEARS
30 Years Ago
J. W. Spencer of Union, W. T.
Case of .'reel, and W. B. Hind
inan of El?m were elecied direc
tors of inn Eastern Oregon Tele
phone company. '
Early Purples, grown in the
Frecwater-Milton orchards, were
the first cherries to appear on
the La Grande markets.
L. H. Howland, county survey
or, returned from a week's visit
in Wallowa county on business.
Flora and Chrystnl Davis left
for Joseph, Mo.
Q In what region of Europe
was there the greatest diversity
of troops?
A Italy, where there
Americans, British, Indians
Zealanders, South Africa1-
zilians, Japanese of A;:i ican
birth, an all-Jewish bri- ule, an
American Negro diva-1 and
Free Italians..
.ew
Q Has industry foi
lary supply of vilamin.
production?
A A gain in effieien
per cent was achieved b
heed Aircraft m one year
. adopting this procedure.
olun
. c -1 - to
of 4.6
Lock-
by
15 Years Ago ,
Workmen were tearing down
the Garity blacksmith building
and that formerly occupied by
the Mother's lunch, to provide a
site .for a new structure to be
come a part of the Larison ga
rage. About 20 carloads of seniors
left on the annual class picnic of
the La Grande high school. They
went to Radium springs to spend
the day swimming.and picnicing.
10 Years Ago
One hundred sixteen students
wer-.' graduated from La Grande
high rrhool. Of that number 52
are beys and 64 girls.
Four-tenths of an inch of rain
fell in I n Grande, bringing need
ed moisture to both city and val
ley. It was the first rain of con
sequence since late April and
soil conditions were getting very
c'ry. i
Starting with a three-hit spree
in the first inning of the base
ball game, La Grande defeated
North Powtler Tuesday with a
score of 11 to 7.
This Curious World
vA I A k contain about triI'lfB i
I 7 ON-FOUKTH Wg
? BISOAAAE fEIllj
I WUEkJ A UAu -A.vm . .n . A , T
MAm.NS' ccms PILOT,
POLL qooo er
ISTO THE PACIFIC CCEiN
WHEN HIS PARACHUTE
.FAILEDiTO OPE...
Vj AND
Cow. m hu timer me
WJIN A MAN TAKIS UP lfe
HE LAYS IF COWN,"4(l"
AoeuNB HALfc,
isu in ii ii yjg fri i
(?)
NEXT: An early idea o! Ught.iing.