Side Glances
' -EDITORIAL IAGE I
' it
Washington MerryGoRound,
r OMW PEARSON
La Grande Evening Observer
Frank Schlro, Publisher
TUESDAY EVENING, MAY 22, 1943
Page Two
Now Comes History's Grea test Buck-Passing Contest
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
Doth the eii(;le mount up at thy com
mand, and ni.'ike her nest on high?
Job 39:27.
School Taxes
Oregon taxpayers and others inter
ested in the welfare and progress of
education will do well to re-examine at
this time the entire system of finance
' of our public schools in the elementary
and secondary classifications.
This is the time to do it because prob-'
lems which may become insurmountable
" if allowed to reach a crucial static can
now be solved with best results for our
educational system and least cost to the
taxpayers.
Ileginninjr'willi the l!)l! biennium
nearly 50 per cent of the total cost of
school operiition in Oregon, or approxi
mately 13 million dollars, will be fin
anced through state income taxes, off
setting property taxes.
The important tiling is that these
funds are being derived from surplus
income taxes and are available only in
sofar as surplus funds are available
from income tax sources. If such funds
diminish or vanish entirely, then, under
the present situation, the burden will
be thrust again on property. This will
mean that nearly 7!) per cent of the
total cost of education in these brackets
in the stale will he borne by local dis
trict taxing bodies and the balance by
counties and the state.
Sources of school money at present
are as follows:
1. The so-called irreducible school
fund from which about $300,000 an
nually is now being realized.
2. The two million state elementary
tax, from which about two million dol
lars annually is now being raised.
3. The county school funds, from
which about three million dollars an
nually" is .now being realized.
A. The school support fund with
which five million dollars was set up
by the legislature in 1913 and to which
the legislature added three million dol
lars in 1915 for a total of eight million
dollars. The funds are coming from sur
plus income tax receipts.
The two million dollars realized from
the two mill elementary tax and the
three million dollars from the county
school funds are also being offset by r
surplus income tax funds.
The difference between the sum of .,
these funds and . the actual cost of
school operation, estimated at 26 mil
lion and expected to grow to 30 million,-' -.
must be and is being paid by the local-"- :
school district real property taxpayer.
Wo reiterate what was said above:
under the present situation nearly 79
per cent of the total cost will fall on
the local district taxpayers at such time
ns the surplus income tax funds are ex
hausted. Union county this year will receive
$213,097 from Oregon state income
taxes during the 1915-2916 biennium.
Of this, 539,373 will come from the state
elementary school tax (two mill prop
erty tax cancelled by state income tax
revenues). A total of $70,959 will come
from the state school support fund of
five million dollars of income tax money
diverted by the 1912 legislative meas
ure. .'mm the school support fund added
by the 1915 legislature will come $3h
078, which is distributed on a teacher
unit basis. From the additional school
support fund added by the 1915 legis
lature will come 515,392.
Set- KDITOIUAL . . . Page 4
Funny litwiness
O SO THEY SAY
II takes considerable Ingenuity
for a Jap to surrender now.
Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner,
jr., U. S. Tenth army, Okinawa.
The modrrn girl will go wilh
oul food and sleep, but not with
out makeup.
Dr. Doris Odium, provisional
national council for mental
health, London.
When the war broke out, my
sun said Germany" would lose.
When America rntered tho war
1 was sure of it. Still 1 would
nut k to say anything against
the nl- Grrma.nv.
Admiral Nicholas Horthy. Hun-
o
gjrun regent.
"It's a new tulcccpo chute in ca.j thoy ub.-.urjo before mtn
returning late from shor leava arrive!
o
Chinj cannot pardon Hirohita
and the civilized humgtw of the
world, ca.inot be lenient with
Hirotiito. He should be tried. He
should ho executed. Hirohito's
li'itly should then be on dis
play on Sun Vat Sen road near
Nanking.
-C.jr.jX;.ng, Cj, World Daily
rc s.
WASHINGTON Senator George of
Georgia certainly got his colleague. Con
gressman "Muley Bob" Doughton, blazing
mad by popping off about lowering taxes be
fore the Pacific war is over.
Congressman Doughton, who rides a white
mule through his farm in western North
Carolina and can be as stubborn as the ani
mal from whence derives ills nickname, is
Chairman of the ways and means commit
tee which initiates tax legislation. George's
finance committee in the senate can only
amend taxes after Doughton's committee has
written the first draft of the tax law.
' Doughton is definitely opposed to lower
ing taxes until the entire war is over. But
what really made him mad was that he and
Senator George plus other members of the
iwo tax committees were scheduled to meet
at 1 p. m, one day last week to decide what
the congressional tax policy should be.
And on his way to this meeting, without
waiting to see what the others thought Sen
ator . George announced to the press that
taxes should be lowered. You can Write it
down how that they won't be lowered at
this session if Muley Bob Doughton has any
thing to do with it.
President Truman didn't hesitate a min
ute about opposing tax reduction until the
entire war is over. When the question was
put to him, he made his decision immediate
ly, came out with an emphatic statement
next day against tax reduction.
, Labor at San Francisco
To those who watched suave Ed Stettin
ius operate behind closed doors at San Fran
cisco the other day, it looked as if he hp.d
taken some political lessons from Boss
Hague of Jersey City or Boss Hannegan of
St. Louis. He certainly used strong-arm po
litical tactics to run .-ough-shod over the op
position. It all started when Stettinius and Sena
tor Vandenberg learned that the confer
ence's social and economic commission had
voted 27 to 3 to invite the world trade un
ion conference into :hc United Nations as
permanent observers along with the inter
national labor office, the Hot Springs food
conference, UNRRA, and other groups. The
World trade union conference represents 60 -000,000
organized workers throughout the
world, including the CIO in this country,
but not the.AFL. ,.v
As soon as Stettinius heard about the pro
posed invitation to the world trade union,
he had secretary general of the conference
Alger Hiss call an emergency meeting of the
powerful steering committee- i . i
Stettinius also frantically phoned Anthony
Eden, asked him to appear at the, steering
committee in person and vote to reverse the
earlier action of the BHtih delegation which'
had favored admitting the trade union. Stet
tinius also phoned Canadian Prime Minister
Mackenzie King, demanded that he support
the U. S. position. Stettinius even called up
Wellington Kooi acting head of the Chinese
delegation and tried to get him to go along.
Labor Fireworks
The meeting that followed was one of the
hottest so far held by the steering commit
tee. Secretary General Hiss opened by call
ing up not the first point of the agenda, but
the second point, namely, the admission of
the trade union to the United Nations as ob
servers. Immediately t up sprang French
Foreign Minister Bidault. -- -
"Why does the secretary general propose
that point two be taken up first? asked Bi
dault. ''
. "Because we put it on the agenda," re
plied Hiss. '
"But why should point two be taken up
before point one?" Bidault persisted, . .
"Because we asked that it be taken up
first," Stettinius replied brusquely.
Hiss then called on Anthony Eden, who
made a dull three-page speech asking the
steering committee to reverse the vote of the
social and economic commission and not
seat the world trade union as observers.
Mackenzie King spoke next, echoing Eden's
view, He was followed by a Belgian dele
gate who said the same thing in different
words.
China Backfires-
For two hours the debate raged. Welling
ton Koo surprised Stettinius by speaking in
favor of letting labor sit in as an observer.
Koo was supported by Soviet Ambassador
Gromyko. Then Bidault arose said that
French labor was backing the new organiza
tion and that the action of the U. S. delega
tion was most unusual. Prime Minister Pe
ter Fraser of New Zealand shared the French
view.
Finally Stettinius rapped the gavel, called
for a vote on the Belgian resolution to re
verse the social and economic commission
and refuse labor an observer's seat in the
new United Nations organization. He called
. up the Belgian resolution though three oth
er resolutions taking the opposite view had
. . See WASHINGTON Page 4 .
WE; THE WOMEN
Br RUTH MILLET?
The point system-devised, by the army. to
determine which men shoald be released
now that war in Europe is finished, suggests
a point system by which iar wives might
See how their own length and ruggedness
of "service" stacks up with the experience
of other war wives. i
See how many points you have earned
under this feminine point system:
Ten points for every child of school age
and 15 points for every chifd, under.
Ten points for having a jaby without its
father, being present. i ......
.Five points for every war-necessitated
move. . . i
. Five points for every serious illness of a
child which you saw through alone.
. Ten points if you liyed-rwithout .suppler
rrientary Income on the pay of an enlisted
man.
Five points If you managed a way of liv
ing alone (or with another War wife) in
stead of going back to your husband's peo
ple or your own. ' , .,
One point for every month your husband
has been in the service.
One additional point for every month he
has been overseas. . i .j
Five points for every period when you
went for a month or more without mail.
Scoring yourself on those points ought to
give you a fairly good idea of how your own
"service record'.' compares with the records
of the other, war. Aviyes you know,. ...
Behind Scenes in Washington
By PETER EDSON, La Grand Evening Observer Washington Correspondent
' SACRAMENTO; Calif. Moves Jo effect
closer relationships between federal and
state governments on reconversion and post
war planning are expected to develop soon
in the three Pacific coast states of Califor
nia, Oregon and Washington.
State officials who have been working
quietly for the past month or so to bring
about closer local and national government
cooperation are still reluctant to have their
names associated with the idea, fearing their
plans may be upset through political jeal
ousies. But a closer tie-up of this sort would
set a valuable pattern which could well be
followed In other sections of .the country
and might go far towards overcoming the
hardships of post-war unemployment, popu
lation shifts, public works planning and the
reconversion of industry to civilian goods
production.
This west coast federal-state cooperation
movement stems from two different things.
First the somewhat loose working ar
rangement which the thjree Pacific state
governors have had with federal war agen
cies during the past four years. This was
carried on through the office of civilian
defense set-up. While the war effort is
still going full blast on the west coast, CCD
lias become a bit of casualty here as rise
where and that emphasircs the need for
working council of federal and state offi
cials to meet post-war problems.
Second buijd-iip for this idea comes
through .the recent confidence of eleven
western state tovernors meeting in Carson
City, Nev. They pasni a resolution calling
for inter-state cooperation to avoid unem
ployment of returning service men and
women.
Problems of the post-wjr period arc so
muchotggcr and broader than throne Issue,
however, and it is for this reason that lead
ers in the western states (irnt to bring !!
their pi(pram and planning into a better
cdodinatcd, business opcrenVon.
Cnllfornl,)ffers rxivTient example of
the opportunity for this kind of federal
state joint action on a regional b:Cs) The
Golden states has its reconversion andre
emfloyr.Kr.t commission which hiir.Adi' a
number of good reports to the state legisla
ture. But neither -this state nor any other
state has a complete post-war program. .
This is equally true of the federal agen
cies. In fact, their situation seems to be
even worse. Agriculture's forestry service,
interior's bureau of reclamation, army's
corps of engineers, the housing administra
tion, war manpower commission and other
federal departments which will have con
tinuing jobs to do when the war is over,
just aren't pulling together as effectively as
they did on the war effort. They may all
have their headquarters in Washington, but
when their branch offices filter out in the
big western states, they sometimes know
less of what the others are doing than do
their bosses in Washington. Congress doesn't
seem to have a well focusscd picture of
what goes on, either.
Classic example is the cross - purpose
working and planning of the army engineers
and the bureau of reclamation. In the big
western semi-arid areas where water re
sources mean' everything, the conflicting
viewpoints of these two agencies don't make
sense even to an easterner. First interests
of the army engineers are navigation and
flood control. Reclamation, however, has
the added interests of electric power de
velopment and irrigation.
Congress having given both agencies
authority and money to operate in their
respective fields,. an almost hopeless muddle
has been created in which wallow opposing
factions within the state,
c There is further riling because the slate
governments themselves have no clear-cut
water policies. California's legislature now
has before it a couple of bills to create state
water authorities which could gradually ac
ouire federal, investments in water resources.
But the battle over any such claniicaticn cf
the issue is splattered by proponents of pri
vatc(v public electric power. These people
never do sCcm altfe, to gt together.'
Issus of this kind have tbvir counterparts
in other areas of the country and they all
point up the need for more national and
local Cooperation if there is to be any domes
tic order brought to this bright new world
after the fall cf Japan.
com iw rt ta a u met . mc i. m. reo. u. s. pat. orf.
"I wanted to poke him' all winter but he helped me. with my
homework and now thai vacation's coming, he's got ihe only
decent ball and bat in the neighborhood 1" .l ,: .
O McKENNEY ON BRIDGE
By WM. E. McKENNEY, America's Card Authority
CHOICE OF OPENER
CUES N. T. DEFENSE
(This is one of a series of
hands from the recent world's
championship master's individ
ual tournament.)
A newcomer to eastern tourna
ments is David Clarren of St.
Paul, Minn. He held a unique
position in the recent world's
championship masters' individual.
At the end of tho first session,
A 73
Q6
K974
4 1087 4 3
A K 10 8 6 I N I QJ 2
54 UJ PVKJ109
2 s 5
Q83 Dealer A106
852 Dealer x AQ
Clarren
A9
VA 8 7 4 3
4 J 5 2
KJ8
Duplicate Neither vul.
Sooth West Ncrtli East
IV 1 Pass 3 N T.
; Opening J: t ' 23
he was third and he held that
position straight through the five
sessions, thereby finishing third
in the tournament.
Hs opening lead on today's
hand was most unique and prov
ed to be the killer, of course.
West's 3pade bid told him the
spade lead was no good. East's
jump to three no trump eliminat
ed the heart lead.
Questions & A nswen
Q What percentage of the
world's ' ocean shipping is con
trolled by the United States?
A The U. S. now has two
thirds, more than the rest of the
world combined; in 1939 U. S.
controlled about one-seventh.
The question was whether to
lead a diamond or a club. He
correctly analyzed that, East, in
all probability, held, the ace and
queen of clubs but you can see
what happens: . ,."
East wins the opening lead
with the queen and then. plays a
spade which Clarren wins. Clar
ren plays the king of clubs but
before East can cash nine tricks,
he has to let Clarren in with a
heart and now a small club to his
partner defeats the contract.
O IN FORMER
YEARS
30 Years Ago
' C. C. Pennington and Charles
McCrary returned from.ta busi
ness trip to Walla Walla.
Ladd creek was very ('high as
a result of the hard rains for sev
eral days. Farmers were jubilant
over the alfalfa growirigVfter the
cut worms had threatened to des
troy the crops. .'I"'n'.' , "
. Friends of Joseph Ingle' receivf-1'
ed announcement of his prospec
tive graduation from the Los An
geles School of Osteopathy. He
is the son of Mrs. Stella Ingle,
and a graduate of LraGrande
u:u '
Dr.
IS Years And
C. W. Erwin pi(foto .En-.
gene to attend a sirte.ricntal con
vention. . .
Mrs. L. C. .Morehead was in
Portland attending a Rcbekah as
sembly. Mr. and Mrs. W. -M." -Pierson
and their three sons rcftifhed af
ter spending a few d.iyitfin FascO
Wash, where they wiWesed the
air mccfc -siit
Q What is- the status of an
American merchant seaman?
A Ha is a civilian, serving
voluntarily, and though often un
der enemy action, has no mili
tary status.
Q What members of the cler
gy were excluded from Hitler's
home guard army?
A The Jesuits. Nazis were
said to be afraid the latter might
seek to spread religious faith
among Nazi youth taught to be
godless.
10 Years Ago
The La Grande board of educa
tion reached an agreement with
the LDS c.iurch for full-tjme use
of the LDS rocreatiqnahall for
the ensuing school oaT. .Prev
iously the hall has been shared
with the normal school, but with
the building of a gymnasium on
the campus this was no longer
necessary. t '
Ira C. Woodie, coa'cnVat La
Grande high school, spoke at the
weekly luncheon Of the Rotary
club on the state trackInert in
Eugene in which La Grande high
athletes placed seventh,'" "
BEEFSTEAK
MUSHROOM
6ETS IT NAME
BECAUSE OF ITS
RESEMBLANCE TO
A PIECE OF
This Curious World
.COnutMS iY MCA SCR, ICC INC.
V v ( OF THE
A S LAMINSO'
r I IS NOT DUE TO AN EXTRA
Ljt J NUMBER OF VERTEBRAE, )
I BUT TO THE EXCESSIVE
) LEN&TH OF EACH BONE.. C
"A RAK8EB 6IVES A MAN A SHAVE ,
"Them aukis mu dav to ,r - ta..
CAU U AIAHUIIIA
1
IK
FLAMINGOES"
ARE ONLY RARE VISITORS TO THE
U.S., AND WO LONC-ER BPEEOON
THE WAiNLANO. THOSE LIVING IN
FLORIDA ARE IMPORTS.
T.M.ftCG.U.S.MT.O?F.
NEXT: . Woman suifrdge oa Okinawa.