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About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 1945)
EDITORIAL PAGE La Grande Evening Observer Frank Schiro, Publisher SATURDAY HVKNJN(J, AUGUST 1, 1915 I'age Two Now For the Cleanup wE U. aOOvolt ' ANC JU5T TeU you OThEI? RjospecR That i KNOW A COOP SEE IT THOUGHT FOR TODAY A mini must get u thing before he can forget it. Holmes. Tafc o" Peace It is unlikely that the peace rumors, lind "peace feelers" arc at an end, even though the Japanese have received and rejected the American-tiritish-Chinese ultimatum. For the Jap warlords, de spite their saber-rattling, are obviously preoccupied with the idea of ending the war. ' ,To this end they have made some '. ridiculous proposals. They have sug gested peace terms which would create a status quo ante I'eaii Harbor and re store the very conditions that brought on hostilities. These proposals might be sensible in a condition of stalemate and mutual ex haustion. They might even be offered by a magnanimous victor.. Hut from the leadership of u country faced with imminent and terrible destruction, they are only ludicrous. Continuation of Japanese resistance is puzzling, and has been for a long time. The Jap leaders know the allies' strength. They know they are doomed to defeat. And they have long had a general idea of the peace terms. The ultimatum's conditions were not par ticularly new or startling. Rut the conditions were unmistak ably final: "Following are our terms. We will not deviate from them. There are no alternatives. We shall brook no delay." Why then does the Japanese govern ment invite ruin on itself and its peo ple? Has it so long divorced honesty from diplomacy that it thinks all other governments do the same? Or has it been misled by the very minority sen timent in this country that calls for an early peace with Japan, even if the terms ure moderate and favorable to the enemy? It must be conseded that the clamor here at home for a definition of "uncon ditional surrender" may have been partly responsible for the ultimatum. There was no such demand in high places for the same definition when Germany was on her last legs, Then only the most disreputable domestic fascists professed not to understand the meaning of unconditional surrender, or to ask something less drastic for the nnzis. But it does not necessarily mean, because the government has acceded to demnnds for this definition in Japan's case, that it regards Japan as either a less important enemy or less of a men ace to world pence than the Germans. 11 may be that this government and its allies feel that there is more fanatic ism in the Japanese field commands and among the common soldiers than there is in the Tokyo government. With Ger many it was somewhat different. Her army was no pushover, but troops did surrender in droves when the game was up. It was in the highest nazt circles that fanaticism was constantly preach ed and practiced. Perhaps the allies feel that the Jap anese people, whose modern history of militarism is not quite so black as the Germans', have now learned their les sons and are ready to behave once the warlords are turned out. Which leads us to wonder: Funny Business G . , o SO THEY SAY We slund for no coddling here. These men are ill Jail. We have certain : tiles, and those rules are obeyed. Col. IV C i.ndrup. commander "( ciielostirc where prominent Nilis are held. Who won the European war? . . . The more we mull over this contentious question, the more w seem likely to conclude we all won it-the bin three and the little fellows with them. Heidsville, N. C., Kview. Wo plan to furnish our delcrs as qnukly as possible with the vehicle (jeeps) which we know will be greeted by a large waiting market. Charles E. Sorensen, m o t o r company president. - . . VJ "'I ' "He ihifls to the big 6nei for cafillil tolli-rsl" Japan should have a fair chance ?0" make a decent living but (here is no load to this goal ex cept by way of complete Afi 1 - Bay City. Mich., Tim r.'o.it. Washington Merry-Go-Round Side Glances By DREW PEARSON WASHINGTON Mrs. Truman is certain ly caretul to protect her husband regarding the small niceties of life which sometimes can be important. When she and the president visited in In dependence, Mo., he w a s entertained by Mayor Roger T. Sermon. And just before entering the mayor's home, at 701 Proctor place, Truman, was met by a hundred or so old friends who had waited to see Ijim on the lawn of the Sermon home. He shook hands with everyone. Next morning, one of the local papers curried a story about the reception and told how in shaking hands with the seven-year-old daughter of J. Marcus Kirtley, as sistant counselor for the Jack.'ion county court, the president had said: "I'm particularly happy to meet you." Reading this' quote in the paper next morning, Mrs. Truman went to the telephone und called up many of her friends who also had children. Knowing they had probably read what her husband had said to the Kirtley child, she told tpem: "I just wanted you to know that the pres ident was happy to meet your children too." Merry-Go-Round Every mother's son west of the Mississippi river and some east qre making moves to get the cabinet job of the toughest mem ber of the FDR cabinet Harold Ickes. Jim Patton of Denver, head of the farmers' union is one of them. Another is Gov. Bob Kerr of Oklahoma, who led the switching of dele gates to Truman during the Chicago con vention . . . However, "Harold the Ick" may fool 'em . . . Over 2,000 Spanish Loyalist families are now stranded in France, unable to return to Franco's domain, their men killed in an anti-fascist war where they never admitted defeat. Governor Lehman's UNRRA finally has decided to help them, though it will be on a small scale. Generals of the services of supply were having a special meeting at Camp Grant, 111., special training center for the medical corps. While Gen. Virgil Peterson, former inspector general now director of personnel, was speaking, he suddenly sank to his seat, victim of a stroke. Gen. Norman Kirk, sur geon general of the army, and his deputy, Gen. Raymond Bliss, were at hand and took care of him. They summoned an ambulance. But imagine their chagrin when the army ambulance supplied by the medical corps at its own chief training center contained no stretcher . . . The British embassy staff in Washington is going through its most drastic shakeup since 193D. Jack Balfour, who serv ed here 17 years ago, has been transferred back to Washington from the British em bassy in Moscow. Following him will prob ably come Sir Archibald Clark Kerr to re place Lord Halifax as ambassador. Capitol Chaff The man who most wants Senator Burton of Ohio appointed to the supreme court is Ohio's ex-Governor John Bricker. As long as Burton remains in the senate, Bricker is stymied. As a three-term governor of Ohio, he can't very well go back to that job again. He can't go backward, he must go forward, and Burton's present place in the senate is the only out . . . Ohio politicos say Bricker could beat any interim Democrat governor Lausche might appoint. Some even say Lau sche is so anxious to curry GOP favor that he might appoint Bricker himself to Bur ton's seat in the senate . . . Admiral King, Admiral Leahy, the heads of AFL and CIO have joined with the leaders of veterans' organizations and thousands of newspaper men to set up an Ernie Pyle memorial. It will be a 100-acre farm near Ernie's birth place in Indiana to serve as his last resting place . . . Best tribute of the year to the U. S. A. came from this country's genuine good neighbor, Paulo Hasslocher, Brazilian minister to Panama. Toasting the United States on July 4, he said: "Let me congrat ulate you on the second greatest date in history." U. S. officials immediately asked what the first great date in history was. Re plied Hasslocher: "December 25." WE, THE WOMEN By RUTH MILLETT A letter from a sergeant in Germany says of war wives: "Wives of servicemen over seas indeed have many problems, the largest of which is 'getting that guy back.' "Wives continually write their husbands: 'I'd do anything to get you home.' The ironic fact is that they have never used their most effective means of solving their problem. In brief, they have never let Washington know and used that great power, public opinion. "The thing that seems peculiar to us over here is that wives who have sacrificed the company of their husbands of time, as many have, never let their duly elected represent atives in Washington know what his hap pening to the young homes of America . . . "I wonder if those homes are not being destroyed at ;lhis stage of the struggle by keeping soldier husbands overseas beyond any justifiable period. There are thousands of married men who have served at least two years overseas right now and the only hope (hey huve of getting home is IF Japan is defeated soon." It is true that the wives of men overseas haven't formed a pressure group to try to influence the policies of the War Depart ment. But isn't that to their credit? There are already too many pressure groups in the country today. Isn't it to the credit of war wives that they have been good soldiers, too and have taken the attitude that their men would be returned home when they could be spared. Proof that the army is keeping faith with the patient wives is the fact that in one day (the very day the sergeant's letter arrived from Germany) 35,000 troops were returned to this country. Further proof is this recent news item: "A war department order to ground, service and air forces said that all qualified officers and men who have not had at least six months of foreign duty are to be given overseas assignments as fast as returning veterans can replace them." So it looks as if, even though they have acted with the patience and unquestioning attitude of good soldiers, the war wives haven't been forgotten. The war department knows that the young homes of America are not only worth fighting for, but entitled to normal family life as soon as husbands and fathers can be spared. Behind Scenes in Washington By PETER EDSON, La Grand Erening Observer Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 The story goes that Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes and Undersecretary of War Robert Patterson and their aides were conferring on the apparent shortage of coal lo keep the United States and Europe warm next winter. "Do you want more coal?" asked Ickes. When the army nodded assent, Ickes said, "It's out there in the hills. Go dig it." After the crack Judge Patterson rose and wadled over to a wall map of the Pacific. "Do you want to win the war in a hurry?" he asked. "Well, there it is out in the Pa cific. Go win it." This story gets right at the heart of the argument over the next winter's coal shortage. August is a terrible season to have to worry about February's frostbites and Washington officials aren't supposed to have feuds. But somebody in charge around here had better start worrying about this, hard and fast, or there will be a lot freezing and a lot of agonizing six months hence. Dispute today over how to get more coal out of the ground narrows down to nthing nue than a questin shaping a manpower policy for the period of reconversion and demobilization What seems to be needed is some kind of organizad reverse selective service, that is, a way to draft men out of the armed serv ices and out of cut-back war industries, placing these men where they are most need ed and where they will find jobs waiting. Today Ickes says 90,000 more miners are needed if the mines are tq get enough coal out of the ground. Lst April Ickes wanted only 5,000 more. Army turned him down then and turns him down now. On April 1. bmiimrj of the 1945 coal year, there were 45:1,000 people working in hard and soft coal mines combined. On April I. IN I. there were 545.000. The drop is 92. 000 miners. Of the pre-war mine labor force an esti mated M.H0O enlisted and 40.000 were draft-0 ed. An additional 75,000 to 100.000 pre-wav0 miners left the mines Hi work in other war industries where the jobs were pleasanter and thi)jpay higher q Arnly spokesmen say why not hire those pewltli' to go back to the (ft)ncs or why not hire people from the 200,000 already released from the army or the 4,000 now being dis charged daily. Well, the mine operators and the U. S. em ployment service have put on numerous drives and they have succeeded in recruit ing over 100,000 less efficient new workers and old retired miners. But most of the peo ple who left the coal country don't want to go back and the veterans don't want to go into the mines either, and there is no way to make them. Ickes therefore proposes that the army release 30,000 of the ex-miners now in service. Army refuses. Not only that, but on June 30 the war department requested the selective service to cancel the defer ments for some 2,000 of the 26,000 coal miners previously declared essential workers. In the course of the war the army has granted temporary furloughs to skilled work ers. That is the precedent Ickes builds his case on. But today the war department says it would be a mistake to release men from the army just because they have a special skill and a job is waiting for them. Reason given is that the army lias com mited itself to a policy of discharging men on the point system. Soldiers with most points for active service and men with fam ilies, regardless of their pre-war occupation are designated for first release. The men m the army were polled on this question and thi sis the way they wanted it. To break away from this system of discharge now, says the army, would ruin the morale of the troops for the final war effort. The war department make a further point that it coal miners are now discharged, rail road workers and skilled labor from every other industry clamoring fof men will have to be let out. Requests have lrJy been made for discharge of a million men vii'i special skills. That is half the number of men Ihc army plar to release, by June 1. l!:tS, leaving it with fore of seven mil lion with which to w)up Jaan, Sghc aj jie:it Mjpinst thittj is, Ibat the Aiysn't going to niet seven million, men and 'hasn't any way (j (jjyt them to (Jpan if it did. Also. t)(t if the coal(an)l (abroad incijljitjjls break down for lack of i(je)i, the army will feel it most. Q Q far' ": ' 'AyJjSy AwuHaun' W WMO BH). IMt. T. M. WO. U. . MT. Off. 8-t "It was a mistake trying to impress that soldier next door by hanging out the wash, mother he said he wished his mother could find a maid like met" . O McKENNEY ON BRIDGE T" By WILLIAM E. McKENNEY America's Card Authority HAND ILLUSTRATES DEFENSIVE PLAY I have shown all four of to day's hands, but before reading K 1088 3 j Ncfie K8 8 4 2 4964 6 V76532 85 AQ105 3 N W E 8 Dealer AS 108 A Q J 7 3 K J72 S)J742 V AKQJ94 10 8 Rubber Neither vul South West North East 1 22 3 4 Pass Poss Double Pass S 6 A Double Pass Pass Redouble Puss Opening A further, I suggest that you cover up the South and West cards. The hand came from Harry J. Fishbein of the Mayfair Bridge O BARBS Reseraeh shows the family as an institution is 500,000 years bid. That Seems to fix the age of that joke. ".' A zoo keeper says chimpanzees can be taught to sing. Having heard grand opera we thought only hippos could warble. Some juries could be hung and they'd never be missed. One thing to be learned in col lege is that you have to make a touchdown before you've got a kick coming. club in New York, and ,is purely a defensive one. We were both surprised at the number of play ers who put up the wrong defense. The opening lead held and a club was continued, which South ruffed. South then led a trump and East won with the aee. Now what should East lead? Surpris ingly enough, a number of play ers said they would return a trump, others would lead a club. No one wanted to lay down the ace of diamonds, with the king staring them in the face. Bt East should stop and analyze the bid ding. South freely put himself into four spades, and when five spades was doubled, he promptly redoubled. He has shown up with a singleton club. The whole danger of the hand is that he may have a solid heart suit, and if East does not cash the ace of diamonds, South may be able to discard all his diamonds on the good hearts. Looking at all four hands, you will see that is what happened. IN FORMER' YEARS 30 Years Ago : New fall fashions have brought back the buttoned gown, and mere man has returned to his old-time job of buttoning up wife's clothes. One model fea tures 40 buttons 40 reasons why a man should not bless dress de signers! Saxon roadsters are being of fered for sale for $395. The road ster requires no groom, it never has to be harnessed, and it does n't eat except when running. On the war effort, our rail roads are agreed that civilians need coaching. London has turned her own lights on again. We've turned them on for Japan flaming lights! 15 Years Ago With the addition of two train ing teachers and new equipment, the J. H. Ackerman training school of the Eastern Oregon Normal school will be enlarged for the ensuing year to include six rooms. Cherries in the Cove district are at last all harvested. Think of the war bonds you could buy with the money you wish you had saved for the out-of-town vacation you can't take. A French writer says Ameri can girls are just dolls. Try tak ing one out to dine and stuffing her with sawdust! 10 Years Ago The La Grande tennis club scored a decisive seven to three victory over the Walla Walla tennis team on the Walla Walla clay court yesterday. Shirey Temple dresses in sizes from three to six are being fea turd at local stores. This Curious World '. . A SLOW ON THE HEAD RESULTING IM A SEVERE INJURY IS AN EFFECTIVE. CURE FOR. SrVTCldJH....ACCOKOIM6 TO STUOIES OF HEAVY DRINKERS WHO HAVE SUSTAINED SUCH INJURIES. copg iw gT Htfc srwvicf. inc. A JU06 OCCUPY! . . IS KMCM ti $tn o m A ftaw CM AlMS ML II I 1 I I IP V aVi it m M ' 1 a m M. I .A. M A m I . v r q NEXT: Whea'cross- HEjRON nests WE FCVND IN SIN6t!(j7EI A SIANT HS.WLOCK. o 0 efs were an asset;" & 0 Q O 0
