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