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EDITORIAL PAGE
La Grande Evening Observer
Frank Schlro, Publisher
MONDAY EVENING, .ILLY 23, 1945
German
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
If I can't pray, 1 will not make be
lieve ! Iiongfcllow.
'Chosen Instrument' or
Competition
Prenidimt Truman says that it will
be all right for three American air lines
to operate over international routes for
the next seven years. But Senator Put
McCarran, of ' Nevada, says it ain't
necessarily so.
The senator is a champion of the
"chosen instrument" as opposed to
"controlled competition" in our interna
tional commercial flying, lie has writ
ten a bill to create a single "All-American
Flag Line" which ho is expected to
bring to the senate floor shortly, after
months of committee hearings that
wound up in a tic vote.
Nothing beyond confusion can be pre
dicted if congress should vote to create
this one-company air line. The presi
dent was signed the civil aeronautics
board certification which would permit
Pan American, TWA and American Ex
port to fly as far as Moscow, Jiombay
and Calculto. And there seems to be
considerable doubt that the McCarran
bill, if passed, could be retroactive in
the face of the Truman-signed certi
fication. Nevertheless, Senator McCarran und
others are continuing their campaign
for the "chosen instrument." They
argue that the United States can com
pete with other countries' governmenl
subsidi.ed aviation monopolies only by
creating a one-company line of its own.
It is true that our international avia
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Page Two
Measles
tion was in the hands of one company
until the war, in spite of the CAA act
of 1938 which permitted regulated com
petition to the extent of serving domes
tic and international commerce, the pos
tal system, 'and national defense.
The McCarran bill apparently would
recreate and perpetuate the monopoly.
It would permit domestic carriers to ac
quire interest in the single overseas line,
if they desired, in proportion to their
individual share of the total gross reve
nue of all commercial air lines. But it
is foreseeable that several domestic
competitors' attempt to run a harmoni
ous business might result in confusion
and eventual operation by one company.
Champions of the "chosen instru
ment" have failed to prove that elim
ination of competition in international
flying would reduce the single com
pany's costs, increase its efficiency, or
lessen the need of government subsidy.
The history of our industrial progress
suggests that competition has pro
moted, rather than retarded, low costs
and high efficiency, and that it has
stimulated research, production and em
ployment. On the other hand, the his
tory of "chosen instruments" shows
that government regulation of a single
company usually winds up in govern
ment control of it.
It seems safe to say that the United
Slates government and most of its citi
zens don't want monopoly or subsidized
control. The state, war, navy, justice
and commerce departments are on rec
ord in favor of "controlled competition"
in aviation. The president's signing of
the CAI! certification indicates that he
is of the same mind.
a
SO THEY SAY
We
whni
have reached the point
I he issue no longer is in
any doubt, und the hinder we
pour it on (the Jiips) now, the
sooner we'll nil go home.
Cien. Joseph W. Stilwell.
Annoying experiences with
bare .shelves in groceries and
meat markets, and "outrageous
pint's" for much that is avail
able, are tinning the minds of
many i vy woihcrs toward "a
plaee in Hie country. "
Klkhart, Ind., Truth.
Hiv the head and bones of a
fish or even leaves of withered
vegetables and make them into
powder (and) wc will have won
derful (oikI.
--Tokyo radio broadcast.
N.nv thai what passes for n set
tlement of the Polish question
has been effected, Russia's de
mands on Turkey for concessions
in the Dardanelles will be a new
1. 'ii to plpguc t!ir iiacuc.
- b n!iamton. N. Y.. I'tcm.
ye.itiJay;"
By DREW PEARSON
WASHINGTON Congressmen who have
sat in the cJ6sed.-d.oor sessions of the ways
and means committee listening to testimony
regarding Elliott Roosevelt now have count
ed up a total of approximately $850,000
which he borrowed over a period of about
eight years.. Most of this he did not pay
back. ' '- . :
During one of these closed sesisons, con
gressmen thought they ran across the clue
as to why Jesse Jones was always so con
fident he would not be fired by Franklin
Roosevelt. In his battle with Henry Wallace
over the board of economic warfare, and
during the, anti-Roosevelt operations of his
nephew in Texas, Jesse always seemed cock
sure that his political future was absolutely
safe. . ,
What the committee heard was the testi
mony of deputy internal revenue commis
sioner Norman Cann to the effect that Jesse
Jones apparently had never collected from
Elliott Roosevelt for the $4,0Q0 paid to settle
the $200,000 loan from John Hartford, head
of the A and P chain stores. Cann testified
that internal revenue agents who interview
ed Jesse Jones understood that Jesse had
paid the $4,000 out of his own pocket.
At this point in the testimony, one mem
ber of the committee remarked: "Good for
Elliott! That'-the first time. I ever heard of
Jesse getting trimmed."
Ariay-Navy Wast
The army-navy procurement policy of
continued buying for a two-front war when
we are only fighting on one front is being
subjected to some quiet and elective scrut
iny on capitot hill. Senators fear his polio
may throw our entire economy out of whack:
in case of sudden peace with Japan.
What senators have found is that after
V-E day, the army refused' to make more
than a 20 percent cut in military purchases,
though 50 percent of the war was over. Re
tiring war mabilizer Fred Vinson tried to
curtail purchases but was only able to force
an additional 13 percent cutback by Decem
WE, THE WOMEN
By RUTH MfLLETT
"What's the Matter Witji the Family?"
asks Margaret Mead, the noted anthropolo-.
gist, in a recent article in Harper's maga
zine. She answers the question by saying: "The
family, American style, 1945, lacks the old
familiar props and properties upon which
we have all been depending. Those who live
within it are suddenly faced with no design
for living." . j. r
And she suggests that young folks will be
better able to work out all (he new adjust
ments they face if the symqol makers help
them if novels and moviei, radio broad
casts, magazine stories and comic strips il
luminate it for them. ;
But, perhaps, there isn't tocj much to worry
about after all. Perhaps, npw that young
folks can no longer follow the family pat
terns set up by their own mdthers and fath
ers (and they can't in wartime) they will
work out, by trial and error,j far better pat
terns for marriage in these .times than the
old ones they have had to discard.
True, they don't have the safe, steady
place in society and the pressure of local
customs to make their marriages follow a set
form.
But because they don't they may very
well work out a way of living and a form
Behind Scenes in Washington
By PETER EDSON, La Grand Evening Observer Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON, July 23 Principal argu
ment being used by the water lobby in
Washington is to build up a lease that TVA,
the Tennessee valley authority, is not the
promised land and the beautiful success it
is usually portrayed.
In trying to tear down TVA, the water
lobby has a job on its hand. ', Anyone daring
to criticize TVA profanes bacred dogma,
according to popular notion. Yet, F. O. Hagie
of the National Reclamation association went
thrugh the Tennessee valley recently and
came back to report there are plenty of peo
ple in the valley who don't like the TVA way
of life. And-Will H. Webb, executive vice
president of tha. National Rivers and Harbors
congress, who xomcs from Tennessee him
self, accuses TVA of all sorts of dreadful
things, including even the opening up of
the TVA power dams In flood time, to drown
poor people down stream.
Hagie and Webb are two of the prime
movers on the fire-member coordinating
committee which manages the campaign of
the 31 organizations making up the water
lobby. If the lobby can convince enough con
gressmen TVA isn't the unmitigated good it
is supposed to be, then there Is a good chance
of stopping extension of the ''authority" idea
to the Missouri, Columbia (ind other river
basins where such planning goes on.
Basis for the water lobby case against
TVA is complex. The point that, ."TVA rep
resents a change in the American form of
government" has been mentioned previously
in these dispatches. Hagie maintains that the
thtce-man TVA board has nver used all the
political iind economic powor granted in Un
original legislation creating a government
corporation to develp resources of the re
gion. Il igie savs these powers might easily
he abused, and points to thlsi danger.
Judge Clifford II. Stone of Denver, n Na
tional Reclamation association, director says
TVA has beeituf ranted many powers which
were never surrendered to the fedral gov
ernment by the sovereign states. He makes a
strong "suites' right mgiment" against the
TVA idea.
JudtCe Stone also ol jvets to tht-tost of
ber 1.
Meanwhile some experts believe we can
safely cut back. 80 percent on army-navy
buying right now, and by using existing
stockpiles and surpluses still provide the
Pacific war with every single need.
Inside reason for the terrific stockpiles,
vast purchases and tremendous installations,
according to senate probers, is that both the
army and navy are afraid congress won't
give them anything after the war, so they
are heaping up a huge post-war program '
now. ; - ..
Although our fleet is now more than 14
times the size of the Japanese fleet at the
start of the war and more than 40 times
the size of the Jap fleet today, the navy is
still building ships which will not be com
'pleted before 1947 and 1948. .,
Also the navy's plane program next year
calls for an even larger number of aircraft
than the army has ordered. Both have well
over 100,000 first-line planes now and they
are still buying more, although no one can
figure out how more than 30,000 first-line
planes can be used in the final sta(.va of the
war with Japan.
Meanwhile, both the army and the navy
have so many pilots, they don't know what
to do with them. The army is, keeping up a
2,000,000-man air corps at a time when man- .
power is still short on the home front. Be
sides wasting bililons of the,, taxpayers'
money, the army-navy purchasing program
is paralyzing all efforts to set the army-navy
purchasing program is paralyzing all efforts
to set up an orderly reconversion program
and so prevent a sudden, brutal depresison
three months after lV-J day.
Truman Gets Sore
Shortly before he left for Europe, Pres
ident Truman was informed of what the
army-navy were doing and became so in
censed that he slipped three of his friend3
into key spots in the war department. They
have orders to watch for any waste in pro
curement or graft, and report directly to the
White House. . . ,
for marriage that is more nearly what they
want and need, and therefore actually
stronger, than if they had been able to fol
low a form set'for them by past generations.
Joe and Helen (and there are thousands
like them) didn't start out with a house in
their home town, a steady job with a chance
at advancement for Joe, an established plec
in their community because theip parents
' were, so-and-so. ".O'i ?.?;
They started; out their married life by
making a home wherever they were sent,
by making friends of whatever crowd they
were thrown with, by realizing that both
had to cooperate and make sacrifices if they
were to have any marriage at all. And then
came separation, when they both had a
chance to evaluate tehir life together and
to give some thought to where they wanted
to go.
Sure, they made mistakes. But they learn
ed a lot, too. And it isn't too much to ex
pect that they who have made their mar
riages stick in war time can make them
slick in peace time conditions they may
have to face.
Perhpps, instead of the symbol-nia'kers
teaching them new patterns, they are teach
ing and will teach the symbol makers;
TVA. He mentions $800,000,000 expenditures
over the past 12 years and declares another
$200,000,000 have to be spent to complete the
project. None of this has been returned to
the federal treasury. ' ' . -,
It is the contention of the water lobby that
while this billion dollars is being spent, pro
viding jobs for 20,000 or more people, every
one in the valley is naturally happy. When
this flow of funds stops, it is predicted TVA
won't be so popular. ,
Over half of HVA's expenditures have
been for the development of public power
projects. The water lobby claims" this is
nothing but a government subsidy enabling
TVA to sell electricity at rates far below
what private power producers would have
to charge. - I
Cheap power has of course been one of
TVA's great talking points. The TVA ex
periment was intended to provide a yard
stick for measuring rates in other parts of
the country. But the water lobby claims i'
is a rubber yardstick riot applicable to other
parts of the country. The Tennessee river Is
700 miles long against the Missouri's 2,500.
The Tennessee valley covers less than 3 per
cent of the U. S. while the Missouri valley
covrs 18 prcent, While TVA may be easy
to administer because it is small, adminis
tration of the Missouri basin by a single au
thority would not be feasible:
TVA's flood control has been critcized as
worthless to the lower Ohio and Mississippi
by Rep. Will Whittingtn, of Mississippi, who
is also a director of the National Rivers anl
Harbors congress, ppsing the MVA plan.
Whittngtn further charges that reservoirs
behind dams in the Tennessee valley now
cover permanently six-sevenths of the bot
I'Un lands that used to be covered with a
ter only In flood times and prdurrd crops
the rest of the lime. Now, he says, they don't
produce anything.
Finally, the water lobby claims that TVA
is merely a duplication of bureaucracy. For
the corps of engineers or the bureau of recla
mation could better plan the dams, and the
dtpartmeut.ot agriculture .ha; In FU!1 the-. .
penmcntsrvn TirtilnAr ni Mi 'SrWhr'
Lwt iwitiw ttuvict. we. t. m. tq o. t. f at. err.
"I didn't dream you'd miss a fw dollars for facials and a perman
ent. Dad you're always harping how you want me to look neat!'
o McKENNEY ON BRIDGE
Br WM. B. McKENNEY, America's Card Authority
BRIDGE, MATHEMATICS
MIX FOR EXPERTS
While in Washington recently
I had the pleasure of having din
ner with Major Russell Baldwin,
the former national tournament
manager of the American Bridge
league. This mathematical gen
ius is now employing his skill in
the ballistic deaprtment of our
government Everything, of
course, is percentage of possibil
ity with Baldwin.
Here's an interesting percent
age hand he gave me.
West was probably correct in
opening the heart suit rather
than spades even though his
A74
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4 108 6 33
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A A K J 9 5
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Dealer
4
Baldwin
A Q 10 3 2
VK4
, . . 4W8S2 ..
AKQ
Duplicate Both vul.
South West North East
1 Pass 2 2 A
2N.T. Pass 3N.T. Pass
Pass Pass
Opening V J. t4
partner had bid them. Baldwin
won the trick with dummy's ace
and led a club. West showed out
on the second round. The ace of
diamonds was then cashed, East
dropping the ten. Now Baldwin
had a count on the East hand;
he knows that East must hold
five spades to make a vulnerable
overcall. He has shown up with
four clubs, therefore he held cith
er three hearts with a singleton
diamond, or two hearts and two
diamonds. So now Baldwin came
over to his hand with the ace of
clubs and led the jack of dia-
Questions & Answers
Q How much meat did Can
ada produce last year?
A Total production during
1944 reached the record figure
of 2,737,000,000 pounds. The 1945
total is expected to be smaller.
Q How many states have only
one1- representative in the lower
house of congress?
A Four: Delaware, Nevada,
Vermont and Wyoming.
This Curious World
.COPS, mS BV MCA SERVICE. INC
AAILKIMG A COW
THREE TIMES DAILY, INSTEAD
OF TWOi INCREASES HER MUX
production rmewrr TO
...
r. m. Mo. u. i mt. on.
7-1
ANSWER: In Rome.
NEXT: A plant that eat meat.
nAuTTHE' r ' )
l rAWS ( - t i '
( OF THE EARTH COULD BE ( JbmmTk
LEVELED TO ONE HEI6HT, &m& ' '"
) WE WOULD ALL LIVE AT )
) AN ALTITUDE OF ABOUT )
' I
r-xt
monds. When West failed to cov
er, he took the finesse. The bal.
ance of the diamonds were
cashed and East was allowed to
make the club jack, but now all
he could do was to cash the ace
and king of spades. The major
thus made four odd.
O IN FORMER
, YEARS
30 Years Ago
Miss Mary Fitzgerald, daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. D. Fitzgerald,
has gone to Elgin to visit with
friends for a few days.
Ray Couch returned last night
from Eugene, where he has been
attending the university.
J. A. Russell, president of the
city of La Grande, went to Port
land last night on business matters.
IS Years Ago
Numerous inquiries about
farms in the Grande Ronde val
ley are being received 'at the
chamber of commerce, the secre
tary announced today. Most of
these come from the middle west
and several are received each
week.
J. J. Handsaker, associate sec
retary of the National Council
for the Prevention of War, left
last night after spending several
days in La Grande during which
he spoke at the Eastern Oregon
Normal school and at several of
the churches, explaining the work
of the organization in its efforts
for world peace.
10 Years Ago
Saturday, with a temperature
of 89 above, was the first day in
nine that saw the high in La
Grande less than 90 degrees but
no one could figure from that
that any appreciable break in the
current heat wave had resulted.
Sunday the mercury didn't quit
climbing until it reached 91 and
today another 90-above or more
was indicated. The sky remained
clear. The highest temperature
recorded during this period is 108
degrees.
Farms of Union county cur
rently are valued at $12,183,345,
according to the final report on
the farm census recently taken in
Oregon. The average acrage is
347 acres. Wiallowa county
shows an average acreage of 549,
with a total value of $8,001,465.