Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (July 6, 1945)
I men. liut i thr I IncJIi the j nurf UN. EDITORIAL PAGE La Grande Evening Observer Frank Schiro, PubHeher FRIDAY EVENING, JULY 6, 1945 It Will All Depend on EVENING OBSERVER'S PROGRESS PROGRAM IRRIGATION Complete the Grande Ronde Valley irrigation project LA GRANDE A city of 10,000 Extend the city limit. TODAY'S TEXT . But avoid foolish questions, and gene alogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofit able and vain. Titus 8:9. 9 So You Want a New Car! Unpleasant reading for innumerable Americans doubtless was the recent Ktalemcnt of Col. J. Monroe Johnson, director of the office of defense trans portation, that it will be at least three years before millions of persons are able to buy new automobiles. Disliking the role of wet blanket, it would be pleasant to express the opin ion that Colonel Johnson has leaned toward the pessimistic side, so as to avoid the disappointments, and the cri ticisms, that would result from a more optimistic prediction unfulfilled. Unfortunately, anyone who examines facts and records won't be inclined to accuse the ODT chief of pessimism, On the contrary, his views smack of optim ism. It will be a production miracle indeed, even for American industry, if all who want new automobiles are able to obtain them within the next throo years. We won't go so far ns to say it is a miracle impossible of achievement, liut it doesn't seem likely, and let's ex amine some of the reasons why: Motor vehicle registrations in the Funny Business PLEA HOLOM50R OWM ten. IMI It Ml IHVIC1. 1HC ' U Jr just WHAT rve, 1 vo k ONLY ,4$ 600P AS ' JT' Ihb MAN n ThE PEiVeR's Seat ': '''T"' I St iV " "I wdi collecting for the paper lelrejel" Page Two the Human Element United States in 194 1 totaled 32,557, 954. Replacements since then have been negligible. Most cars of 1941 and prior year vintage could well be replaced now. Nearly all will be ready for the scrap heap three years hence. Thus, if they could be produced, it is entirely possible that the market could absorb within the next three years as many automobiles as were registered in 1941. That would call for more than 32,000,000 motor vehicles, with no al lowance for several million non-ownera of four years ago who expect to ride when cars are available again. What would seem to be the reason able probabilities that the motor car industry might be able to reconvert and theil produce for such a market? Let's consider past production rec ords. During 1941, American motor vehicle production reached the all-time record total of 4,838,561 units includ ing 3,744,300 passenger cars and 1,094, 261 trucks. Production during EIGHT years, 1931-41, inclusive, approximated only 31,200,000 units. Clearly, if the automobile Industry can, within three years, reconvert and produce for such a prospective market, it will represent an unparalleled recoi'd of peace"-time production. True, it might be done. American in dustry might do anything. But com mon sense would seem to emphasize further the wisdom of the advice: If you are so fortunate as to possess an automobile, you had better take care of it. If you ever find yourself afoot, you are liable to be traveling shanks' mare for a long time to come. o SO THEY SAY We think they (Russians) play the game like wo. do right out on the table. Gen. Jacob L. Di'vcrs, com mander Sixth army group. police assa The Germans are conquered people, and have no right to de mand anything. Col. Charles Keegan, military governor of Bavaria. Because of ls very immensity 1 was convinced in 1(140 that Ger many's victory was definitive, so I became a collaborator. George Claude, 75, on trial in Paris on chargv of intelligvncc with enemy. If a murder were to be commit ted in the area (southern shore of Potomac between Virginia and District of Columbia) lomwunv, there would be grave doubt that the guilty person would even be brought to trial because of the uncertainty over jurisdiction. Hep. Howard W. Smith, Vil? ginia. T H H t tAl Ml Washington Merry-Go-Rqund By DREW PEARSON WASHINGTON A significant off-the-record meeting took place between Secretary of War Stimson, one-time republican candi date for governor of New York, and demo crat Gov. Herbert Lehman, five times gov--ernor of New York, now head of UNRRA. Lehman has been greatly troubled about the danger of acute starvation in Europe next winter, and fears the United States will get the blame. Actually, there is food in Europe; but it is unevenly distributed. Mean while, European railroads are overburdened. Lehman, therefore, went to see Stimson to point out th' U. S. army has 800,000 trucks in Europe, and he wanted to borrow 50,000 of them for food distribution. Stimson listened briefly, but turned the subject to the political situation in Europe. He seemed much more interested in whether Europ can keep the peace, apparently for getting pepple with full stomachs are more peaceful than those half-starved. Lehman got no definite answer, and still has been unable to get an answer from Stimson's gen erals. They keep saying they need trucks for "deployment." Brass Hats in Hot Water The samp subject, plus other important matters, was debated in a secret session of the Mead ;; qpmmlttee last week. Present were representatives of UNRRA, the state department; war department, foreign eco nomic administration, treasury and mari time commission. All' got in hot water dur ing the three-hour closed-door meeting ex cept the maritime commission and UNRRA. Gen. Brehon Somervell, who showed up with a' small army of 60 aides, took the worst thumping. Somervell admitted under questioning the. army has at least 90,000 surplus trucks in Europe. New York's hard-working Senator Mead then asked Governor Lehman if he had been able to pick up any. "Do you want any of these trucks?" said Mead. "Do we want them?" replied Lehman. "The trouble is we can't get them. We can't seem to get them released. I've got a tele gram from Yugoslavia here telling that one hungry Yugoslav city, Sarajevo, has only three trucks to feed thousands of people. Why, some towns are starving, while they're burning the food just a few miles away in WE, THE WOMEN By RUTH MILLETT "Peaches' 'are being fed to hogs because there isn't enough sugar for. canning," an OPA employee told women of one southern , city in .an effort to persuade 3Bose!TwJio" had received their canning certificates early to return all certificates over 10 pounds per person, the prevailing rate. That statement was enough to make con scientious .women who had been issued 15 or 20 pounds per person rush down and turn in the difference between what they had been given ,and the 10 pounds per person to which the' calming sugar ration had been cut. And then.: the OPA district director flatly denied the story. Said he: "There is enough home-canning sugar in the county to can all available fruits and vegetables. There is no record or evidence of a single complaint and I seriously doubt that anyone in the county has fed oftcj peach to hogs. It is extremely difficult in this organization to prevent ir responsible: statements as was made about the peaches being fed to hogs." Behind Scenes in Washington By PETER EDSON, La Grind Evening Observer Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON, July 6 The director of the office of war mobilization and reconver sion, which is an awful long title to hang on even Fred M. Vinson, sent the third quar terly roportjbf his outfit up to congress June " 30, as the law tells htm to. It was a handy little pocket size pamphlet, 72 pages in big type with a gray cover, printed in bright red ink. The thing had a snappy title on it, too. "The Road to Tokyo' and Beyond." If you get the idea this "beyond" is subversive and means Manchuria, Mongolia and Mos cow, you're wrong. It means the great be yond beyond VJ day. To make it still more understandable there are 17 charts which look like kindergarten art projects of hills and valleys before they get the tree, cow and the barn put in, and one of the charts has an impressionistic title on it, "Elbow Room for Reconversion." Isn't that cute? In spite of all this effort to make "The Road to Tokyo and Beyond" good, hot weather reading, it's pretty much on the heavy side. As a duty, however, this report rates a once over to see where Joe Doakcs gets off in this Great Beyond after Tokyo. The picture ooks something like this: If Joe Dtiakes and this goes for Jane Doakes, toc-has been working in a war plant and p:ts laid off, the chances are good he'll be a.UJij to get a job in another war plant or iti it laundry or restaurant, or work ing on the.uilroad. Come Christmas, there will be ten big war production renters where there may be considerable unemployment. Bu' there will still be SSKaavas, instead of the 63 areas as of today, where there will be more work than workers. Wage rpte for changed jobs in plants con verted from war production to civilian goods production 'will have to be determined by collective bargaining, subject to war labor board approval to make sure the policy of economic stabilization or wage freezing is nt "rwLAiiy changes made by WLB will net ue"nW8c ulrbaclive. Over the long the same country because they can't move. A year from now the army will be begging us to take trucks. Then 'we won't need them. We want them now." Several senators quizzed Somervell as to why UNRRA hadn't received the trucks yet. All the general could reply was, "The war ' department's working oh it." After more discussion, Lehman, whose an- ' ger was rising, stood up from the back of the room, lobked straight at Somervell, and said: . "There's all that surplus army stuff, espe cially in Italy. Why can't we get it?" ' Somervell hesitated. "We want to co operate," he said lamely," "and we're going ' to." . , . . German Equipment for Chinese? Ohio's Bob Taft then took over the ques tioning. ., "General, . you're planning to arm thou sands of Chinese troops. They've been train ed by German officers. Why don't we use captured German equipment to arm them? You must have a lot of it by now." , "I felt the same way about it at first, sen ator," Somervell replied. "But It would only ball up our transport and create a lot of time-wasting headaches if we tried to send all that German stuff to China. In the long run it will be cheaper and faster to send new supplies from here. Besides' we'd have to retrain those Chinese who've already been taught to use our equipment, and teach them to use German weapons." Taft then moved in on Admiral Land of the maritime commission, asked him how the Russians were able to transport war ma teriel on American Liberty ships flying the Soviet flag without being attacked by Jap subs and aircraft. "Senator," he replied, "I'll be damned if I'm going to let the Japs find out the inside story on that one." Several senators then asked why our G. I. Joes were taking such a beating in France because of the unfavorable exchange rate. "Since when does the G. I. have to carry the burden of inflation in France?" asked Senator Ferguson, R., Mich. "They don't have to spend their money in France, you know," replied one of Som ervell's aides. "They can ship it home." See WASHINGTON . . . Page 4 The official who had the courage to deny a story that was working on women's con v sciences because he felt it wasn't true, ought ji Jo'-fet toe.ro.Jo American womerfc; '"', For women have had to put up with all kinds of inconveniences in wartime, and they have been pretty good sports about it. Cheerfully, they have stood in line to buy food. They have made the best of shortages that have worked real hardships on their families, like the current meat shortage. They have taken on new homemaker jobs lik gardning, canning, etc. But just because they have been good sports, they shouldn't be imposed .upon as they often are. And certainly their sympa thies shouldn't be played on by the use of untrue stories just to whip them into line. They have a right to know whethor there is any real need for their sacrifices. And it is time they quit being docile and Jooked into every demand that they sacrifice and do without to see if there is any real reason for it. haul, some general increase in wage rates is indicatd to make up for shorter work weeks, but Judge Vinson won't say now how much i or when. Unemployment compensation job insur ance rates are not considered high enough for long enough, but congress will have to change the law before anything is done about that. Re-employment rights for veterans are still cloudy and also need some additional legislation. If they can get the camel through the eye of the bottleneck or something, within the next six months the first autds, washing machines and refrigerators will again ap pear in the stores, but not enough to last long. OPA will fix prices on whatever there is to sell and determine who gets to buy it. In general ,prices will be close to 1942 levels. OPA will remove price ceilings only when there arc surpluses of supply over demand on the market rationing will be continued on the same basis. - No more gasoline in sight. There will be 20 percent less coal than last winter. The railroads will be in a tough fix for at least another year. Textiles cloth and clothing the Doakses too will continue short and so will shoes. Ditto for meats, sugar, fats and oils. Ev erybody ate too much in 1944 and will suf fer for it in 1S45, because food production will be down for the first time since the start of the war. There should be more milk, fish and some vegetables; wheat is about the same. No relief on the housing shortage in sigh'.. No tax reductions 'till after Japan is defeat ed, if then. The pressures to up prices and up wages are terrific, but the controls will be kept on, even after VJ day so as to try to smooth the Shift fiOrti war to peac) without deflation, which comes when there isn't enough spend ing, or inflation which comes when there is too much. Side Glances. ..:.. . IkI .. Kit "Can I walk around with him, ma'am? I've got a baby at home I've never seen, and I'd like to practice up so I won't drop himl" O McKENNEY ON BRIDGE By WM. E. McKENNEY, America's Card Authority hearts, and when the hand went down East said: "Couldn't you bid four hearts and take the strain off me?" Of 'cburse, in a few minutes, East wanted to bet five to one that he was a-ight, but he was absolutely wiring he al most has a free bid 9 j two hearts. ' O IN FORMER YEARS 10 Years Ago Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hazer left this morning for Portland where they will remain until the first of the week. They will sail Tues day on the Dorothy Alexander for San Francisco. They plan to be gone a week or 10 days. Miss Vera Case, of hear Alicel, accompanied by Miss Cecil Small of Weston and Miss Doris Lieu alien of Adams, left by automo bile for Philadelphia, where they will attend the National Christian Endeaver convention. They also plan to visit New York City and to return by the northern route in "about five weeks. 1. THREE OR 4 HEARTS THATS THE QUESTION "Get yourself a partner and I'll play you for all you have, or I'll bet you five to one you are wrong." Wherever bridge play ers assemble you will hear one of the above remarks before long and, of course, that is where I rush, because I know there is a good bridge hand in the argu ment. I have only given you the East and West hands today, but before you check the bidding, I m , s; A A 7 3 ' ! N I 8 VAKQJ W E 842 6 e AQB5 109 3 10986 A4 I Pealer I 2 Rubber E.-W vul. South West North East 1 A Double 2 V Pass 2 2N T Pass ..3 , Pass Pas Pass-Pass 15 Years Ago . Miss Dorothy Eberhard has re- turned home from Seabeck, -where she attended the Y. W. C. A. conference, and from Aber deen and Seattle where she has been visiting friends.' Miss Mabel Doty has1 returned home from Los Angeles where she attended the meeting of the American Library association. More than 2,000 librarians from all of the states were in attend ance, r E. D. Towler, principal of La Grande high school, and Mrs. Towler are taking a month's va cation in Portland, Eugene and other west coast points... would like to have you cover up the East hand. Let's just look at the West hand. South had opened the bidding with a spade, and I think you will agree that the double by West is the best declaration. Most of the-xperts agree on that. Of course, that two heart bid by North was certainly a surprise to West. When South bid two spades, what should West do? He can't bid three hearts because he is vulnerable and may go for the works. Once again most of the experts agreed that the two no trump bid was good. The question is: What should West do after East's three club bid? I am frank to tell you that most of the good players say that West should pass. He has done enough; he has doubled and then bid two no trump. However, you will notice that West has bid three , Questions & A nswers Q What prize fight drew the largest gate? A The Dempscy-Tunncy fight in 1927 in' Chicago $2,650,000. 30 Years Ago W. B. Sargent of La Grande has returned from a business trip to Portland. j.-. Charles Playlo and son of Ali cel were La Grande visitors to day. t Rain today of short duration, but slow and soaking, delayed for a few days the crisis in ithe wheat situation. The storrrt was gen eral over the state and did much good, though not enough to en tirely remove danger of drought. This Curious World Only about 25 per cbut OP A PBLLBO TRtE BECOA1B6 USA3LE LUMBER. IT 4i 1 'ltfiK'"Lj A PROPELLER ), JB. ('Hit I- iii'SS IS AN As s&eew," I ' 'IliraSli 'II H A BATTERY IS AN &R f 1 ''II' I ll-'illl "ACCUMttiATOe" K I tlS AA WRENCH IS ( V Jul lY S 1 M WILL THE NSXT TOTAL V KLIWS OF THB SUN OCCUR L?7mPW. IWBfflft KWYICtW. ANSWER; Monday. July 9. Patii of totality starts in Idaho and extends northeast through Canada, to Europe and Asia. Outfjide this path, if will be seen as a partial eclipse. ... v -. - . NEXT: Mushrooma and garlic.
