1
EDITORIAL PAGE
La Grande Evening Observer
Frank Schiro, Publisher
iFRIDAY EVENING, JULY 27, 1945
How About a Little
EVENING OBSERVER'S
PROGRESS PROGRAM .
IRRIGATION Complete (he Grande
Ronde Valley irrigation project.
LA GRANDE A city of 10,000
Extend the city limits.
Calling the Shot
The first question put by nn English
Hpenkiiifr Jap officer to members of an
American boardinif party inspecting a
Japanese hospital ship was: "Is Babe
Ruth still alive?"
It was n natural question about an
athlete who at one time was a great
hero to the Japanese people. Kuth's
reputation preceded him to Japan when
he went there with a group of other
American ball players in 11)3-1. The
Rabe lived up to his advance notices,
and ho was trailed by cheering thou
sands wherever he went.
Tho Japs were great baseball en
thusiasts, whether for love of the game
or because of their desire to emulate
and equal American accomplishments
in every field. At any rate they prac
ticed the game with a rather amusing
seriousness. Many of their players
achieved through this diligence a con
siderable proficiency in tho mechanics
of the game. Hut it was a case of "good
field, no hit." They just didn't have the
physical power to hit for distance.
And so, to them, Babe Kuth was not
only a hero, but a symbol of that com
bination of strength, ability and auda
city which their best players could
never hope to attain. They may have
shouted "llanzai" when Kuth hit one
out of the park, but they must also have
Funny liusines?
:oH faftv uik Htvicr iK t u tw"tn po"-
"frankly, I lhlnSf you'ta ovorequipptdl"
Page Two
Contribution, Joe?
felt a deep envy. Watching him, the
more perceptive may have realized that,
in other fields besides baseball, Ameri
cans could do things better and more
easily than the Japs, for all their striv
ing. Two years bufore UutU visited Japan
he performed 'perhaps the most auda
cious feat in baseball history. In the
third world series game between the
Yankees and the Cubs, he stepped to
bat, pointed to the center field bleach
ers, deliberately took two strikes, then
poled the next pitch precisely where he
had indicated it would be into the
bleachers for a home run.
Japanese fans surely read of that
feat and marveled at It. And recent
event may have recalled it to their
minds. Kor Admiral Halsey has stolen
a page out of Ruth's book.
The Admiral pointed the guns of the
third fleet at Japan as boldly and con
fidently as the Babe pointed his bat at
the bleachers. lie told the Japs where
he was going to hit, and proceeded to
deliver, lie dared them to stop him,
and they couldn't.
So there is dismal assurance to all
Japanese ball fans that Babe Ruth and
the power and ability that he repre
sents are still alive. With nations, as
with ball players, power and ability
that he represented are still alive. With
nations, as with ball players, power and
ability don't develop fully over night.
But they are potentially there to start
with.
The Japs must know this. And even
though they still have some turns at
bat coming, they must also know what
the final score will be.
SO THEY SAY
Confessedly, the Cos pel of
Jesus Christ luis in it a saving
Ri'iteo, for wherever men have ac
cepted il and have lived in ac
cordance with it, they have real
ized the Kingdom of Heaven in
their own souls.
Marion. Iril.. Chronicle-Tribune.
Wo must stop talking about
women as a category and begin
to treat and think of them ns in
dividuals. Hop. Chase Going Woodhouse
of Connecticut.
In the past five years, the Unit
ed Stales has witnessed the devel
opment of the largest emergency
traininc nrocratn in history.
Llr.
Cicorge r ook, president,
American Council of Education.
When thousands of men are
quitting a plant, the manager
doesn't sit inside at his desk, ho
gets out and around.
U I e n n Gaffncy, fchipbiulidng
yjul manager.
Washington Merry-Go-Round
Br DREW PEAMOIt
WASHINGTON Secretary of State Jimmy ..
Byrnes already has two key men up his
sleeve for top jobs In the state department.
Unless something changes his mind before
he gets back from Potsdam, the new under
secretary ot state, replacing Joe Grew, will
be Spruille Braden, now U. S. ambassador
to Argentina; while this assistant secretary
for Latin America, replacing Nelson Rocke
feller, will be Norman Armour, now U. S.
ambassador to Spain.
The promotion of Braden to be under sec
retary will be a direct slap at the Argen
tines, where crowds have been booing Bra
. den and hand-bills have been posted all over
Buenos Aires denouncing him because of an.
accident in the Braden copper mines in Chile.
Braden Is a diplomat with plenty of career
experience. He workeS on the fringes of the
old Roosevelt brain trust ;in 1932, and FDR
considered appointing him ambassador to
Chile in 1933. However, there was too much
resentment from Chilean labor because of
Braden's heavy copper .interests there and
he was given one of the hardest diplomatic
jobs in the western hemisphere instead. He
was made' a diplomatic trouble-shooter to
iron out the Chaco war between Bolivia and
Paraguay, and other troubles in the western '
hemisphere. Later, Braden became ambas
sador to Colombia and Cuba where he did
an A-l job. .
, Norman Armour, slated to succeed Nelson
Rockefeller,. is one of the outstanding career
diplomats, having been ambassador to Ar
gentina and Chile, and minister to Canada
and Haiti. When Braden leaves Argentina
as ambassador, his post will not be filled
a slap at the Argentine fascists, and also
indirectly at the state department group who
rushed us into Argentine recognition at San
Francisco.
England's Ex-King
There were half a dozen empty chairs
last week as High Fulton, formor consul for
the Truman committee, hosted a luncheon In
Washington's swank 'Hotel Statler for the
Duke of Windsor. Fulton, whose New York
WE, THE WOMEN
By RUTH MILLETT
An American service man returns to this
country and is shocked to find that some
thing has happened to American girls in his
absence. They have become in his words,
"man crazy."
He' doesn't like the way the girls have
taken over the hunt, do the telephoning in
stead of waiting to be rushed, etc. Perhap3
American girls are unbecomingly forward
these days. But why wouldn't they be?
All they hear about thj girls of foreign
countries is'how they chase American serv
icemen. And naturally they get to thinking
that if they don't want to be completely
overlooked themselves, they had better use
bold mothods of makipg themselves noticed.
In all likolihood, it just hasn't occurred
to American girls that American men might
be fed up with being chased and fought
over, and that the best method for landing
them at this point is playing hard to get.
Then, too, American girls are worried
about thc'po'ssibility of never getting a hus
Behind Scenes in Washington
By PETER EDSON. La Grands Evening Obntnr Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON, July 27 Not all the war
criminals are in Germany and Japan. Right
here at home, the records show that almost
every day for the past four years, an av
erage of one major war fraud against the
U. S. government has been caught.
An expense item in a cost-plus-fixed-fee
contract is padded. Competitors conspire
to enter fixed bids for government contracts.
A government procurement officer is brib
ed. An inspector is persuaded to pass de
fective war supplies. Raw materials furnish
ed on government priority for war produc
tion and diverted into commercial channels.
Not all these defraudcrs of the govern
ment get caught. Unlike big fish, the ones
that get away you never hear about. But
in many of the fraud cases a patriotic sec
retary with a sweetie at the front won't like
what the boss is trying to get away with and
will report what skullduggery goes on to
the FBI.
Or maybe it ill be a vindictive cuss who
gets cheated out of what he considers a fair
share of tho graft and gravy and squeals
on his pals. Or a bidder who loses a contract
will reveal how fraud beat him out. Or
somebody's conscience will bits him hard
enough to make him confess. Or army and
navy inspectors will catch crooks rcdhand
cd. Or congressional committees will uncover
dirt which is passed on to the department
of justice for prosecution.
When reports of these kinds come in, they
are first investigated by the FBI, then turn
ed over to the war frauds section of the de
partment of justice. 'Over the past four years
the department has been piling up a record
of convictions, fines and imprisonment for
U. S. war criminals. Today it is preparing
to move in on frauds uncovered in the bus
iness of winding up the war effort, cancelling
contracts and disposing of surpluses:
The war frauds section of the departmen'
of justice is small. Some 20 lawyers in
Washington and another 60 in the field. But
they have the help of t U. S. district at
torneys and the FBI investigators. Tom C.
Clark, the new attorney general, was head
of the War Frauds section when it was firs:
organized. John Darsey. who c;tmc into the
section with Clark in the spring of 1942,
heads up the work today.
The result of all this activity, projocutyng
war frauds while tlusy'ic at ill fresh instead
of ttaitir$'9 clean hou.c after the War is
firm represents the Duke's interests in this
country, had invited a small group of high
Washington officials and the entire member
ship of the Mead committee (formerly the
Truman committee) at the Duke's special
request.
Half a dozen busy senators found time to
rush to the Statler for' the luncheon, which
they described as a pleasant affair with no
particular signifance.
High spot of the luncheon was furnished
by Wyoming's Senator Joe O'Mahoney, who
produced a letter from an Episcopalian min
ister in his state. The letter related the plight
of an Englishman who had married an
American woman and settled in Wyoming.
The Englishman now wants to be natural
ized, the minister wrote, but is running into
difficulty because his wife is determined to
press charges of assault against him.
If he didn't beat his wife, he should have,
the minister wrote O'Mahoney.
The letter was shown to the Duke, who
remarked:
"I can testify that the church of England
is peculiar about domestic life. Here is' a
minister of the church in apparent approval
of domestic disharmony. Yet when I decided
to marry, the church of England insisted
that I step down as king because my wife-to-be
had been divorced.
"The amusing thing to me," continued the
former king of England, "is that the church
of England was originally founded by Henry
VIII in order to provide clerical sanction for
his several divorces."
Soldier Slap-Down?
Another Patton soldier slap-down on a
lesser scale has just been settled by Gen
eral Eisenhower, resulting in a reprimand
for Brig. Gen. Julius Slack.
General Slack, an artillery commander in
Patton's third army, was reprimanded for
"intemperate and reprehensible actions and
language" toward 22 enlisted men in an al
leged rape case.
Slack had accused three enlisted men of
See WASHINGTON . . . Page 4
band. They know there aren't going to be
enough young men to go around.
So current idea seemst o be, "Get a man
quick and marry him while you can." That
is why so many girls are marrying at 17 or
18 girls who in ordinary times would have
gone on to school for a few more years, and
would have taken a while to pick and choose
a husband.
Then, too, there is this point that men
especially those who have been stationed
in the Pacific should understand. The girls
are fed up with dateless nights, bored to
death with the last few dull, drab years,
and so glad to see the servicemen returning
that they are in no mood to feign indiffer
ence. They probably are making a great mis
take in giving the men such a rush. But it
isn't hard to' sec why they are so "man
crazy," and under the circumstances they
should be forgiven for .their lack of reticence.
. over, js that World War Two will have a
record of less fraud and more criminals
caught than any war in U. S. histotry. In
the last war, most of the profiteers and per
petrators of war frauds got away because
no prosecutions were begun till after the
war was over. Then witnesses disappeared,
company records were lost or destroyed and
the statute of limitations ran out. In the
general public post-war apathy only 37 in
dictments against war criminals were ob
tained and only two were convicted.
The government contractor who deliber
ately tries to commit a criminal fraud is of
course the exception. Today out of the mil
lions of war contracts let and out of tho
millions of citizens now on government pay
rolls, only a mall fraction of one percent
shows evidence of fraud.
The war record to date reveals 9600 com
plaints of fraud referred to the Department
of Justice. Of these cases, 7,700 investiga
tions have been completed and in 1,160
roughly one case in seven sufficient evi
dence was found to file criminal indictments,
charging fraud. These indictments involved
1,250 individuals and 95 corporations.
In the cases disposed of, over half "of the
accused plead guilty 623 individuals and
46 corporations. In the cases that went to
trial, 153 individuals and 13 corporations
were convicted.
These being criminal indictments, nearly
all the sentences carry imprisonment and
fines. Sentences vary from three month?
to 12 years, with a year f,nd a day being a
common sentence. Fines imposed total $1,
272.000. Among the more sensational cases in which
convictions were obtained arc Anaconda
Wire and Copper, for furnishing defective
signal corps wire; Antonclli Fireworks com
pany of New York, for underloading bombs
and prcnades w ith explosives; Samuel Buck
el and company of New York, for furnishing
650.000 pounds of defective fried eggs at a
dollar a pound; Sullivan Dry Dock of Brook
lyn, for making false claims on repair of
ships. ,
The War Frauds section has a record of
better than 90 percent convictions on cases
brought to tril. And after the criminal '
guilt has been established, the Claims Di
vision of the Department of Justice moVts in
'to recover some of the money Uncle Sjni
got cheated out of. ' ' -
Side Glance
few, imhtw img wtrtru wo. .t. or. 7-tft
"Dad's crabbing because he can't get tickets to take Up to a nice
vacation resort this year. Mom is it safe to ask him to give us
the money instead?"
O McKENNEY ON BRIDGE
By WILLIAM E. McKENNEY America's Card Authority
LETTING FOES MAKE
MISTAKES WINS HANDS
Quite often you will get your
self into a hopeless contract, but
occasionally, if you will give
your opponents a chance to make
a mistake, you may swinde them
out of a trick. Now, believe it
oi' not, I actually saw one pair
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Opening 9. it
get into seven hearts with this
,hand. .Ot course, it, , was doubled
and well beaten. However, I saw
one pair get into four spades and
handle the play very well. The
opening lead was won by East
with the ace and a diamond re
. turned. Declarer went right up
with the king and led the jack of
spades which was allowed to
hold. So now a small spade was
played, and West reluctantly
O BARBS
It's strange how little kids like
to eat green apples. Their tum
mies just ache for them.
Too many reformers who set
out to right the world's wrongs
wind up wronging the world's
rights. '.
Oh for the good old days when
the neighbors' chickens used to
stray into our garden!
We're more interested in what
our bombers are spreading in Ja
pan than in the peace rumors
others arc spreading.
One of the hardest, yet best,
things to remember is to forget
your troubles!
Butter has been dropped eight
points. Whee now maybe we
can have it on Sunday!
nome in La Grande until
middle of August.
This Curious World
STUDY OP THE AIR,,. AND ADAPT
ING HIMSELF TO IT. ADAPT
ff! com. wigTir srtwcf . me.
H'HAT TWO COUNTRIES SHARE 1
THE LONGEST COMMON 6OUNQAI0H
LAS, YEAR PAILED TO HIT ATLE4Sf
WCHUNDBED HOMK RUNS
i- -- - -asst. I
OtJTHEPlRsr TIME IN
, ANSWER: Russia and China.
NEXT: The world's olden tain reccrdln3.
went in with the ace. A dia
mond was returned, and this was
trumped in dummy. Declarer
than cashed dummy's ace of
hearts and, when West's ten spot
dropped, he decided that the four
missing hearts were in the East
hand. At this point he led the
jack of hearts from dummy, hop
ing East would make the mistake
of not covering. That is exactly
what East did. He. played a
small heart, so declarer discard
ed a small club. , West trumped,
but now you can see that the de
clarer will be able to ruff one of
his losing clubs and discard the
other on the king of hearts.
O IN FORMER
YEARS
30 Years Ago, July 28
A party consisting of Senator
George E. Chamberlain, Mrs. C. B.
Shelton, his secretary, and Mr.
and Mrs. Nolan Skiff, motored
from Hot Lake to the head of
Wallowa Lake, returning to La
, Grande later. Senator, Chamber
lain departed for-Portland the
evening of his return.
, W. A. Barrett, state deputy of
the Knights of Columbus, today
gave out the appointment of J. H.
Peare of La Grande as district i
deputy of that order for Eastern
Oregon country. This makes the
fourth successive appointment of
Peare to this office. The district
comprises all of the state of Ore
gon east of The Dalles.
15 Years Ago, .July 28
The La Grande U. P. Athletic
club took three of the most im
portant plaoes in the junior track
elimination events at the O.-W.
Bonneville picnic yesterday, at
tended by around 3,000 people.
Fifty railroad employes went
from La Grande, Corwyn Berry
won first place in the 100-yard
dash -with Willie Torrence sec
ond. Paul Walker won the high
jump.
10 Years Ago. July 28
The La Grande Tennis club,
victor over Pendleton and Boise
recently, added another scalp to
its collection this summer when
it defeated the Baker team on
the local courts 10 matches to two.
Dr. and Mrs. C. E. Branner left
on a vacation tour of Alaska.
They plan to be away from their
the
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