Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (July 28, 1945)
Side Glance Washington Merry-Go-Round EDITORIAL PAGE By DREW PEARSON La Grande Evening Observer Frank Schiro, Publisher SATURDAY EVENING, JULY, 28, 1945 Page Two Is This Trip Necessary? i i EVENING OBSERVER'S PROGRESS PROGRAM IRRIGATION Complete the Grande Ronde Valley irrigation project LA GRANDE A city of 10,000 Extend the city limits. TODAY'S TEXT As one whom his mother comfortcth, so will I comfort you. Imiiali 66:13. THOUGHT FOR TODAY All pluces are filled with fools. Cicero. Luck Stays With Winston Churchill Winston Churchill litis always been a fortunate man. His "luck" was never more manifest than it has been in the last four or five years, during' which a series of events, coupled with his huge ability, magnified his already great stature. Consider Churchill's assumption of office, with the fall of France and the loss of most of Hritain's heavy war equipment. He offered his people noth ing but "blood and toil, tears and sweat." Certainly, there was nothing else to offer and Churchill was big enough to see it. He knew, unless the country was appraised of its desperate situation, and eiiheaitened and encour aged thereby, paradoxically enough, all was lost. He, the old bulldog spirit per sonified, was the best man to lead Urit ain out of despair and the almost hope less situation in which she found her self. During the next two years or so, up to the time United States entered the war, Churchill managed to bluff the (Ioniums sufficiently with a busted flush to keep them from attempting to invade the islands, an undertaking which might have been successful, al though there is considerable doubt about that." The Germans would have themselves fighting not against Frenchmen worn out and discouraged by betrayal, but against a stubborn, headstrong, tenacious people led by a tenacious, stubborn, and obstinate old scrapper. Now the European war is over, and there may be some who will say Great Britain, ungrateful like all other democracies (which is what keeps them democracies), has been pretty mean to the erstwhile prime minister. ! Nothing of the sort. When the post war disillusionment, inevitable under any circumstances, either in Britain, America or Russia, sets in and the Attlee government finds itself attempting to provide work and good wages and bettor living condition and unprecedented prosperity and lower (axes, and heaven alone knows what else has been promised including en larged social security, there will be times when Attlee will wish himself dashed well out of it, providing he lasts that long. Defeat takes nothing from the sta ture of Winston Churchill. In fact, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who died at the height of his success as did Lincoln, instead of lingering on and seeing his political character torn in shreds, Chur chill is getting out from under at pre cisely the psychological moment. If the whole fantastic structure conies tumbling down around Attlee's ears as soon as the war is over and he finds it is far easier to promise than to deliver, no one can blame Churchill and it may he said "if we had just loft Chur chill in there when things were going well " And on the other hand if Att lee s government is successful in putting into effect the wide sweeping socialism contemplated, even then no one can take from Churchill the undisputed fact that he had the honor to lead a Great Britain and empire out of a desperate situation into victory. Funny Business boo!!' A I i o SO THEY SAY In a tree country, everyone has a perfect right lo cheer and boo as much us lie likes. Winston Churchill. Every effort will be made to gear war manpower to the urgent military needs. Robert C. Goodwin, Notional War Manpower official. We are public servants and we have the responsibility of pro moling the welfare of all of labor. Lewis B. Schwtlleobach, new Secretory of Labor. Today ballet lias become, with big Companies, a kind of musical comedy. Loonide Massinc, ballet director. 10 ItOW IMHTHI.IlWCt IHC T M IIP tfl Hi pi "My budd Ihoujht h nu a Jap wauhip ajain'i" . Japan's most vulnerable spot as an island empire is the exposed position of so many of its key urvas. Canton. Ohio, Repository. WASHINGTON President Truman, who has a well-earned reputation as a champion of clean government, faces another Dawes loan scandal when he gets back. While former Vice President Charley Dawes was president of the reconstruction finance corporation, the RFC loaned his own bank in Chicago $90,000,000. There were howles of protest. A similar situation exists in Washington where Democrat Warren Lee Pierson, when president of the export-import bank, loaned the International Telephone and Telegraph company and its subsidiaries 14 percent of the export-import bank's capital. Following this, Pierson stepped out to accept a fat salary as president of an international tel. and tel. subsidiary all America cables. Furthermore, just before he resigned, Pier son tried to get another $23,000,000 from the export-Import bank by which I. T. & T. could buy out a telephone line in Mexico. All of this has caused one of the hottest lnter-cabinct fights of the Truman adminis tration, with Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace and Secretary of the Treasury Mor genthau (until he resigned) raising cain with some of their cabinet colleagues. I. T. It T. Gets Gravy The charter of the export-import bank provides that not more than 10 percent shall be loaned to any one company. Despite this fact, however, 10 percent of all the bank's loans have gone to the aluminum corpora tion of America, and 14 percent to I. T. & T. and its subsidiaries. ' These wore issued under the presidency of Warren Lee Pierson, who retired this spring to work for the company his bank had be friended. Just as he retired, a new loan to I. T. & T. was proposed to buy out the Erickson telephone lines in Mexico. Wallace, Morgcnthau and Biddle all opposed, largely on the ground that I. T. & T. already owned 35 per cent of Swedish Erickson and dic tated its financial policy; that it didn't need U. S. government money to float the deal; and that the merger meant higher telephone rates for Mexico. The final showdown came in a secret ses sion of the export-import bank directors at which Henry Wallace proposed that the bank ask Chairman Paul Porter of the federal communications commissions to examine the whole question. The directors knew that porter growned on the deal. So the vote went 9 to 2 against Wallace. Wallace Raises Cain Then as the bank directors were about to cast the final vote on the $23,000,000 loan to I. T. it T., Wallace issued this savage warn ing. "I want it noted for the record that I reserve the right to take this up with Pres ident Truman and alsb with my friend the president of Mexico as a steal not only against the American taxpayer, but against the telephone users of Mexico. I want it further noted that I consider this a damned outrage." Morgcnthau was not present personally, but was represented by his assistant, V. Frank Coe, who, knowing his chiefs views, said: "I want it also noted that the secretary of the treasury makes the same reservation that he will protest to the President of the United States and the president of Mexico." Stumped at this flat edict from two cab inet members with a reputation for meaning what they say, the other bank directors decided to skip the vote on the I. T. Si T. loan. They postponed action. But, in the in terim, here is what they did. Leo Crowley, head of the foreign eco nomic administration and chairman of the export-import bank, immediately rushed a bill through congress providing for 250, 000,000 more dollars to be loaned abroad. In doing so, Leo Adroitly left the names of both this secretary of commerce (Wallace) and the secretary of the treasury (Morgen thau) off the bank's directorship. These were the only two men who opposed the I. T. & T. loan. (Now that Morgcnthau has resigned, Crow ley has let it be known he would be de lighted to have Secretary Fred Vinson on the bank as a director.) WE, THE WOMEN By RUTH MILLETT When a city reporter asked the father of an Arkansas farm boy whose bravery earn ed him the congressional medal of honor if the family, with eight children still at home wanted to tidy up before posing for a news paper picture he said: "Naw, We're jest what we are and that's all. Just farm folks." So the family of the hero stood up to have their pictures taken just as they came from work in their rented farm home and in the fields. How right that father was to decide that he and his wife and kids didn't have to dress up in their Sunday best to impress folks with what kind of people they are. Their soldier son has already proved to the world what kind of home he comes from, and what kind of folks his parents are. No Visible Pattern It was not an educated home for the medal of honor winner, himself, has only a fourth grade education. This was the kind of home that can send a farm boy into battle with great courage. As the lone survivor of his company, he destroyed two 88 mm. gun po sitions, took the crews as prisoners, wiped out two German machine gun nests and car ried three wounded Americans to safety. . One thing we should by now have learned from the war is that there is no visible " pattern for "a good American home." The heroes of this war have come from all kinds of homes, large, small, crowded city apart ments, rented farms. In many of the homes of heroes there wa too little money and too many children for the parents to give them "the chance" we hear so much about meaning an easy childhood, a good education, a start in life. But certainly all those homes from which our heroes have come have been "good homes" and all our heroes have had "a chance." Because you can't do much better by a kid than to give him the kind of cour age and resourcefulness that brings him out of war with honor. Behind Scenes in Washington By PETER EDSON. La Grande Evening Obserrer Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON, July 28 When your Uncle Sam's government gets defrauded by crooked war contractors, he has a tough time getting his money back. Recovery of $8,780,000 in war frauds false claims suits decided in the past year has just been announced by the Department of Jus tice. That isn't much, when compared to the seven billion dollars recovered by di rect renegotiation of war contracts. It's only one dollar out of every 300 million dollars in the 250 billion dollar cost of the war. But $8,780,000 isn't to be sneezed at either, and it's just a start. It represents the kick back on only the first 89 cases, making the average case recovery a little under $100, 000. Of these 89 cases, 74 were settled with out U. S. attorneys having to go to court, so good was the evidence of fraud. Seventy-five additional cases arc now ponding in court and 200 more are under in vestigation, some of which will go to trial and some won't. Actions of this kind will be going through the courts for three ycais or more after the end of hostilities, hwever, so it's entirely possible that the war frauds civil section in the department of justice claims division now operating under Joseph M. Friedman will eventually get back the equivalent cost of a battleship with maybe a couple of destroyers to boot. How the department of justice has had to go about recovering this mney makes better leading than the stories of the frauds them selves. Basic legislation for this kind of ac tion was the false claims statute enacted during the Civil war. In those days patriotic Yankee contractors didn't hesitate to sell the northern at my bullets stuffed w ith sawdust, maggoty beef, weevily flour, shoddy wool and to charge all the traffic would bear. The scandals of those days bent anything dux up by Truman and Mead committees in this war They ended in prober that put even General Grant and the original Corneuous Vanderbilt on the sUnd. To correct the Civil war frauds, congress passed a complicated law which provided for court martial of defraudrrs in the army, tuw or imprisonment of civilian defraudeis ami civil action to i"i-nit the government to ucovtr d.inwt.a. In clditfon, any private individual might bring suit in the name of the U. S. government to get half of the money recovered. The big idea in these in former suits was that rogues would be set to catch rogues and the government would profit because the law said the government could recover double the amount of the fraud plus $2,000. Informer suits were not much used, how ever, until 1940 when one Marcus, smart New York businessman filed an informer suit to collect from a group of contractors who had defrauded the government through collusive bidding on a PWA job. This Mar cus had no direct link to the case. He simply took information from a criminal indictment previously filed by' government attorneys and attempted to cash in on the old Civil war law. The case finally went to the supreme court which in 1943 upheld Marcus's right to his gravy. To date he has collected $130, 000. or half of the $260,000 recovered from a $315,000 judgment against 40 contractors. The Marcus case put the claims division of the department of justice in hot water up to its eyebrows. Using newspaper clip pings, factory rumors or scraps of informa tion picked up from reports of congressinal investigations into wasteful practices of war contractors, sharpers from all over rushed into court to file claims to collect a piece of this easy fraud money. For a time U. S. attorneys spent more effort fighting off these informer suits than they did in prosecuting their own war fraud claims. Late in 1S43, congress had to change the law. Today, private claims for war fraud money basod on information collected by the FBI or other government agencies are outlawed. And whenever real informer files a suit. Hie government ha. 60 days in which to take over prosecutitoti. In a suit begun by an informer mid taken over by the government, the maximum which the informer can col lect is 10 percent of the artiount recovered. In a suit in which the government doesn't tJkc action and the informer carri s through his own prosecution, the most he can collect is 25 percent of the sum recovered. It's still a nice piece of business fur any mloimcr who can crash in on it. -i' ""r -JO w. ml v tA miwici. me. t. m. mil u. t. wt. off. "Look, mother! John and I can go ahead and make plans for our marriage now as soon as he earns his points I actually was able to buy an electric iron!" o McKENNEY ON BRIDGE By WILLIAM E. McKENNEY America's Cud Authority SIMPLE 'IF' PLAYS BIG PART IN HAND Here is an interesting hand that came in for a lot of discussion in one of our recent important tour naments. Dave Clarrcn of St. Paul, in jumping to six no trump, said he felt that, as long as South had opened the bidding and then AK105 VQJ102 K 10 4KQ33 AJS43 FT I 72 V8S5 W E VK93 65 c QJ7 AJ7 Dealer 108542 A AQ8 V A74 A98432 49 Duplicate Neither vul. South West North East 1 Pass 1 V Pass 3 Pass . . 6 N. T. Pass Opening 4. 50 jumped to three diamonds, be ought to have a pretty good play for it. West won the opening lead with the ace of clubs and returned a club. Now, you can see Clarren's problem. Should he play for a heart break or hope to drop the diamond queen and jack? Well, he decided there was a better chance for the heart break so he let go of a diamond in dummy. The heart finesse worked and they broke three-three. As a re sult, East was squeezed, as he could not protect the queen of diamonds and the ten of clubs. However, von Zedtwitz quick ly points out that, if West had not gone up with his ace of clubs, but simply put on the jack, the contract would have been de feated. O IN FORMER YEARS 30 Years Ago, July 28 Dr. W. D. . McMillan is home from an extended trip through the northwest, a visit to the Shriners' Convention and later at Portland. His family remain ed in Portland for a short visit with relatives. The volunteer fire department was called out this afternoon to quell a fire' inr a- Wtain in the Home bakery between iourtn and Third on Adams avenue. A bucket of water did the work. BARBS There's so much talk about meat, it's a shame we can't eat our words. About the time we learn to pick out a ripe cantaloupe the season will be over. The difference between a Pull man and a day coach has turned out to be the difference between a vitally necessary trip and an unimportant one. 15 Years Ago, July 28 Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Hoyt and son, Harold, and Henry Conner, spent Saturday and Sunday camping on the South Forks. The huckleberry crop around Kamela is a complete failur-3 this year according to residents of that section. The late heavy frosts this spring ruined the ber ries and left their marks on the leaves as well. Eugene Becker of Valeria dis trict, spent several days at the home of his aunt, Mrs. Harry Fisher, at Cove. While there he becam-3 the owner of a shepherd puppy, his first possession of this kind. "Figures Reveal More People Eat in Restaurants" headline. Goodness, girls, you want to watch that! The cook book tells how, the bank book tells what, and the ration book puts the kibosh on the whole idea. A wealthy alumnus gave his college 500 volumes of humor. And there'll be lots of freshmen on the campus, too. 10 Years Ago, July 28 Mr. and Mrs. L. D. McCoy and Miss Blanche Herzinger return ed Saturday from a vacation spent on the Washington coast. They visited in Victoria, Sidney, Seattle and Seaside before re turning home. Kathleen and Wayne William son, daughter and son of Mr. and Mrs. Lowell Williamson, left re cently for Portland where they will visit their aunt, Mrs. Arthur Ogilvio. Roy Skccn returned Saturday from Portland where he has spent the past two weeks. This Curious World SANDSTONE SLABS Are to be seen in avjseums today showing. "fossll"impi?essons of wow that fell moke. , r-, niiuv YAS AGO. HAVE SPREAD FROM ISLAND LdZrXV"" AuTOlSS TO ISLAND IN THE PACIFIC Br W jhiT "VftV FLOATING ON OCEAN M LtjV CLIENTS, PROTECTED FSOw t f SALTY SZ A WATER BY THEIR ll ' V HARD SHELLS. M ' com is 8 in stsvtce. ic A 1 Pi V T "'A batter; runs when he 3 w.Alks td first base,.W VKTv- r JOHN PLICHTA, J m Wesr AAs, W,j-a"s. f,., ULXT: llie Indun, pioneer of Ainriin hoipitalily.
