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About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (July 18, 1945)
I DITOfelALPAGE La Grande Evening Observer Frank Schiro, WKDMJSIJAY KVIiMMJ, Jl'f.Y JS. 191." A Choice He Can 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 And Satan trembles when he .sees the weakest saint upon his knees. Cowper. The Strike Weapon Harry Iiridsfes, the powerful and un j.redietalile west .coast labor leader, is quoted as saying that the strike wea pon is no tanner effective in the United Slates. Probably Ml. I'.rid.ues is not the only high-up unionist who has reached that conclusion, though no others have ex pressed themselves with such flat fin ality. And, whether or not the Austra lian head of the longshoremen's union made his statements with mental reser vations, there is abundant evidence to support it. It was inevitable public opinion should turn against strikes and strikers in war industries. Responsibility for work stoi pages which cost time and lives was usualy fixed on local officials and local lot'iiibirshop. Most nf the top union officials condemned strikes in their own domains. Nevertheless, the whole union move ment has suffered .some loss of public esteem. And the result of these viola tions of the wartime no-strike pledge may be evident in the days of peace to come. Some weapons should le handled Funny Ilusiness - wWrfg "He' going ritiy lie (loops only on uj ol ' i : 4 : i - .. .d . ' tfui!:;?! , s , . WlhL -fowl Publiaher I'ujje Two No Longer Avoid carefully and used only on the strongest provocation. The strike is one of them. It is a legitimate weapon in the hands of responsible persons who use it as a last resort in enforcing just demands. No fair-minded person would deny labor the use of it under such circumstances. I!ut too many war-work 'stoppages ' have seemed to be strikes for strikes' sake. Too many have arisen from im patience, not from intolerable and insol uble situations. Too many have be trayed a lack of sympathy with the orderly, civilized processes of discus sion, arbitration and compromise. Too many have smacked of s enseless class war in the midst of tragic conflict. Tliero is little doubt that the strikers' .short-sighted impatience has led the foes of unionism to provoke further stoppages in an attempt to inflame pub lic indignation. This baiting and goad ing has worked, even though wise labor leaders have urged their membership to endure these provocations clamly and present them for public judgment in a dignified manner. Thus wartime strikers have not so much destroyed the weapon's effective ness as they have turned the weapon i'gainst labor itself. They have caused themselves loss of time and wages and public respect. l!y flourishing the wea pon indiscriminately they have suc ceeded in boring or angering a great many, and frightening no one. Mr. Bridges counsels labor that a newer and better weapon is political action. This advice comes from a man who has tried both violence and suavity, and has noted the results. SO THEY SAY The nmtnl nations charter is both a h'.ndint; agreement lo pre serve peace and In advance hu inan progress and constitutional machinery by which nations can co-operate tn realize these pur poses. Dr. l.i-o Pasvolsky, U. S. state department expert. Frame op,vt.-. when the dis-cu-sains begin concerning the large-- problem of the security of the Middle Kj.-t, that France's in-u-i.sts will be fully honored. - Unidentified French official. I've col kind of a sentimental feeling thai I don't want to mak-.1 a (motion) picture until the wars over. Joe E. Brown, actor. Me- .-jn't ci-t (in .T.ipan) and there is milk only in small (iviantittes for babies under 10 months. Aitur Karen, missionary repa triated from Japan. -assy lnyHdcks!" Washington Merry-Go-Round Br DREW PCAfiSON WASHINGTON Congressional hullaba loo over attempts to corner the American rye market has only scratched the surface. If congress- should ever dig deep enough, it will unearth one of the juiciest stories of rid ing the grain market the country has heard for a long tfme, including some of President Truman's close supporters, chiefly Ed Hur ley, former Treasurer of the democratic na tional committee. Other democrats uctive in rye were Sen ator "Pappy" O'Daniel of Texas, Senator "Happy" Chandler of Kentucky, Attorney General Phu. Kennedy of California, and Senator Scott Lucas of Illinois. Senator Lucas was chiefly engaged in try ing to lift transportation restrictions so the Chicago boys could unload their tremendous quantities of rye, Chandler and Kenny were let in on the deal through their friend, Ed Pauley. Their profits were relatively small, Chandler making less than $100. They were stowaways compared with the really big operators, General Foods, owned in part by Mrs. Joe Da vies, wife of Roose velt's former ambassador to Belgium and to Russia. General Foods, after buying 8D percent of all the deliverable supply of rye and being stuck with it, then performed a beautiful salesmanship job in persuading the Belgian government to take a million bush els off its hand paid for by U. S. taxpay ers through lend-lease. The department of agriculture has now ordered a hearing on the earlier rye gyra tions of General Foods. However, no hear ing has yet been ordered on more recent de velopments, including the operations of democratic bigwig Ed Pauley and the glam orous salesmanship by which a million bush els of rye were unloaded on the Belgians. One other interesting point is why the war production board ordered distillers to use 10 percent rye in making grain alcohol. Obvi ously this helped the General Food boys. No Ceiling on Rye The story begins in the winter of 1942, when ceiling prices were put on all grains WE, THE WOMEN By RUTH MILLETT In case you haven't noticed, summer is really here officially, that is. You can't always rely on the calendar to tell you when summer has finally arrived. But you can count definitely on its being summer when newspapers begin to carry stories that shorts have been banned on the streets of this or that city by a convention al minded" mayor or police chief, and that the womep (are being sent; home to put on more clothes. , j - Only the story I'm looking at right now ';has a happier ending than most. ; It says that the women of Decatur, 111., are defying the police ban against the wearing of shorts in public and, .making the most of American freedom, are wearing shorts whenever and wherever'they like. It looks as though the police chief p;f Decatur is going to have quito a law enforcement problem on his hands, if he carries out his threat to issue warrants for all women who fail to "fully clothe themselves" before appearing on the streets. Good fur "the women of Decatur, who have Behind Scenes in Washington By PETER EDSON, La Grande Evening Observer Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON, July 18 A "water lob by" to fight the creation of more U. S. river valley "authorities" like TVA the Tennes see valley authority is now emerging as a potent pressure group on the Washington scene. Most of the 31 national land and water or ganizations making up this lobby are not new-. But their banding together for the avowed purpose of stopping the spread of valley authority idea is highly significant. It marks the beginning of what may be a long Slid bitter fight aver the post-war de velopment of every section of the United States. Motives underlying this fight are deep and difficult to fathom. While it would be natural to think any opposition to the development of more TVAs would come from the old private electric power utilities lobby, connection between the power lobby and the water lobby does not appear on the surface. F. O. Hagie, secretary-manager of the na tional reclamation, one of the five organiza tions whose Washington representatives make up the coordinating committee of the unofficial and unnamed water lobby, has a simple explanation of its existence. He says the 31 organizations are simply fighting against a change in the American form of government..- Hagie contends that dividing the United States into nine regional author ities of three men each, as proposed by Mis sissippi Rep. John Rankin's bill, would give these 27 men more political power than all the 48 governors and state legislatures and federal government tee. He is against that. But, the issue may not be that simple, either. For a better insight of what's behind this fight, you have to appreciate what water is and what it docs to keep the United States a going concern. Water isn't just stuff to drink and bathe in; water is billions and bil lions of dollars. To the farmer, it is neces saiy feed for livestock and crops. It is nur sed in irrigation, fought m soil erosion. It is drainage; it is tun ye navigation in rivers and canals: deeper, it is barbers for ocean .O r.s -.,iis. In flood t c. it must he con-'!";-.l; behind, dams 1; generates electric power. It is the lite bleed of commerce, and all the Hade associations Spending on water, have a stake in this idea of river valley do vcloptnont. except rye. Official explanation for this ex ception is that rye was way below parity around 52 cents a bushel and the ceiling price was left off for the benefit of the farm er who deserved to get parity, which is over a dollar a bushel. However, this ieft rye sticking up like a sore thumb as the one grain in which specu lators could trade, and General Foods im mediately went into the market, working through a well-known Chicago grain oper ator Dan Rice. General Foods' excuse is that they were hedging against inflation. At any rate, they began to buy rye in tremen dous quantities until, by Nov. 29, 1943, they had so much jammed into Chicago elevators that Charles Metcalf, vice president of Gen eral Foods, was called on the carpet by the business conduct committee of the Chicago board of trade and warned he had so many relatives and friends buying rye for him through disguised brokerage accounts he was barred from buying any more Decem ber rye futures. Finally, in May, 1944, the General Foods rye corner reached the stupendous total of 13,262,000 bushels or 89 percent of the entire rye crop. It was for trading through this period 1942-44 that the agricultural department cracked down on General Foods. Elevators Jammed However, it is since Mayr 1944, that some of the interesting things happened. During the summer of 1944 there was so much rye heaped up in Chicago elevators the war food administration instructed the WPB to order grain distillers to use 10 per cent in making alcohol. Naturally this was a boon to General Foods. It hoiped get rid of its accumulated :ye. Ordinarily, alcohol distillers don't use rye. Whether someone pulled political wires to get rye used during the summer of 1944 is' not known. Anyway, WPB issued the order on instructions from the war food adminis tration and on the excuse that room had to be made in the Chicago elevators for wheat. decided not to let any man tell them how to dress! If men want to swelter through the sum mer heat in the get-up of a cocoon, that is okay by women. They're polite enough so that they don't even wonder out-loud about the quality of the masculine mind that hasn't figured out anything more sensible for sum mer wear than heavy suits, long-sleeved shirts, and neckties. If men are such slaves to the conventions that they cling to that kind of costume when the thermometer moves up to 90 and over, ' that is their business. Women are willing to be broadminded about it. But as for themselves, that is a different story. Women like cool clothes in summer, and if some of them like comfort so well they aren't hesitant abut wearing shorts on the street, that is, or rather should be, a mat ter between themselves and their mirrors. After all the feminine mind should be just as capable as the masculine mind in the mat ter of deciding when a woman has "fully clothed herself." In almost all of the United States west of Omaha, water rights for irrigation are mare valuable than land rights. This is hard for most easterners to understand, but it is so. And, any time anyone comes along to disturb water rights, proposing to turn them over to some new authority that doesn't con trol them now, he has a war on his hands. More people have been killed in the west over water rights than for cattle and sheep rustling or highway robbery. Now the im portance of this water fight begins to regis ter. The disposition of billions of dollars worth of lush "pork barrel" congressional appro priations is at stake in contracts for river and harbor improvement, flood control pro jects, dam and canal construction, irrigation and reclamation, soil erosion and. drainage. Control over the goverment agencies now administering these matters is another factor not to be overlooked in this battle. War de partment's corps of engineers, interior's bureau of reclamation and public power sales, federal power commission, and depart ment of agriculture today share these re sponsibilities. While it is now claimed that the conflicts between these agencies were largely resolved by the flood control act of 1044. rivalry still exists and each agenvy has its backers who do riot want present policies changed or given to new authorities. These are some of the reasons why the w ater lobby has been able to bring together such divrse interests as the New York State Water association, Ohio Valley Improvement association, Florida Waterways congress, Texas Water Conservation association, Cal ifornia Water council, American Power Boat association, Propeller club, American Mer chant Marine Institute, Pittsburgh Coal ex change and a score more. The coordination committee now manag ing the affairs of the 31 organizations in cludes besides F. A. Hagie of the Reclama tion association, William H. Webb of the Na tional Rivers and Harbors congress. Roy Miller of the Intracoastal Canal association "f Louisiana and Texas, E. W. Rising of the water conservation conference, and Lachlan Macleay of the Mississippi Valley association. Further .look at the authority issue and the water lobby activities will be given in the next issue. Side Glances 1, 1 1 1 1 I 1 ' j 1' H 1; i-p cent iwiriit Kavicg. wc. t. m. o. v. t. pat, off. "How soon will I gat the bomb?" O McKENNEY ON BRIDGE Br WM. E. McKENNEY. Amarica'i Cud Authority GEN. MARK CLARK BRIDGE ACE, TOO I certainly enjoyed seeing Gen. Mark W. Clark, during his re cent visit to New York, and he reaffirmed the fact to me that when things settled down he would be glad to visit one of our victory tournaments to help me the other night at six and I made seven and then he insisted I should have bid the seven." Well, even though seven can be made you will admit it is a tough hand to bid. The opening lead was won with the ace and one round of trumps taken. The ace and king of spades wfere then cashed, dis carding two hearts from dummy. Now the ace and king of hearts were cashed and a low heart ruffed in dummy, droppling Gruenther's queen. Declarer-returned to his hand with a trump, led his now established heart, dis carding dummy's losing club for the overtrick. O IN FORMEK YEARS 30 Years Ago Prof. J. B. Horner, who with the late Mr. Grimmett helped build the first brick building in La Grande, is in La Grande from Corvallis where he now occupie3 the chair of history. Miss Susanna Deal, Hanna Ro gers and Austin Sloan went to Union Saturday to visit friends, Mrs. William Ash and daugh ter, Mina, are leaving tonight for San Francisco to visit relatives and see the fair. IS Years Ago Harley Richardson returned to La Grande after a 10 day trip to San Francisco. While there he visited an art and gift exhibit, and displays of American and imported merchandise. Miss Florence Houston, Miss La Grande in the state wide beauty contest held in Portland, was rated high among the 11 con testants, to represent Oregon at the International Pageant of Pul chritude at Galveston, Tex., next month. A None. VK542 A J 108654 A4 Gruenther J 1088 S QJ7 2 KQ53 A09742 V 108 3 4 J 10 8 7 6 N w e s Dialer Cm. Clark A A K3 V A963 KQ97 82 Rubber N.-S. Soulli West North vul. East Pass Pass Double I 3 5 V Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass 3 4 NT 6 Pass Opening J raise funr. for war orphans' scholarships. He told me he mr naged. to. get in a bridge gan with Major General Gruenther, his chief of staff, just before he returned to this country. He said: "Gruen ther is a good bridge player, but he doubles too often he doubled Questions & A nswers Q How does salvage paper help toward victory? A The war department re ports that more than 700,000 dif ferent war items are made, wrapped, packaged, labeled or tied with paper. Q What operating schedules are likely in postwar air travel? A Experts say that no place in the U. S. will be more than 60 hours' travel time from any spot on earth. 10 Years Ago J. L. Hedden and his son, Louis Hedden, accompanied by George Balch of Baker have gone to Los Angeles where they will attend the buyers convention. They ex pect to be away about two weeks and will attend the San Diego International exposition while in California. Mr. and Mrs. Hal' Bohnenkamp have returned from Wallowa lake where they spent several days vacationing. Q Who holds the record for the running broad jump? A Jesse Owens, 26 feet, S'A inches, set in 1935. Q In addition to the Aurora Borealis wiat other similar heavenly phenomenon is there? A The Aurora Australis,, dis played in the border regions of the south pole. This Curious World HAVE SEEN DRILLED IN THE UNITED STATES... J I with ovfii? 200, 000 of the.w cuter states;' ctPR. mi IV NC4 wwicc. IN. WHICH ONE OF THtSl ISLANDS 15 NOT TOUCH fO BY THE EOUATOI 9 A NORTH DAKOTA KILLER WOL.5 WAS ESTIMATED TDHAV DESrSJtD SO. OOO WCRTH OP LIVESTOCK BEFORE ITS CAPTURE iNisas. 7-is ANSWER: Java, which lies south of it, Sumatra and Borneo are bisected by the equator. NEXTi Dringing wcrats. 7-f
