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About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 7, 1945)
EDITORIAL PAGE La Grande Evening Observer Frank Schiro, Publisher TUESDAY HVKNINC;, AUGUST 7, 19 15 l'a(e Two 'Going My Way?" EVENING OBSERVER'S PROGRESS PROGRAM IRRIGATION Complete the Grande Ronile Valley irrigation project LA GRANDE A city of 10,000 Extend the city limit The People's Mandate The somite's ratification of tli'e united nations charter seemed to us even more significant momentous than the drafting of the charter itself. Kvery one knew that a charter would come out of San Franeisce. No one knew when, by what majority, or after what Mibterfu.ue the senate woidd approve it. The senate's debate and decision re flected the temper of the people who elected its membership. Some, out spokenly opposed to the whole idea, were not returned to Washington After last November's elections. Senators Shipstead and L tin iter, who voted against ratification, were not candidates in 1911. Other senators, perhaps fear ful of the consequences, voted for the charter alter making the,ir objections known. Thus the dyinjt prediction of Wood row Wilson, recently revealed by his daughter, Mrs. Klcitnor McAdoo, is half fulfilled. Wilson said, in substance, that only when the American people really wanted a league of nations would they .join one, and that only then would such a league succeed. The success of the new league is still to be proved. Hut the American peo ple's desire for it was unmistakable. There were differences of popular opin ion, of course. And these shades of opinion were brought out in the senate debate on the charter debate marked by urjrent action, lofty hopes, temper ale consideration, honest doubts and synical defeatism. The speed of ratification was grati fyinjf. This country's government had been thu prime force behind the new world organization. It was in this coun try that the first international discus sion of the organization took place, and where a world congress drafted its covenant. It was fitting that the United Slates should also be the first great power to approve the present results of the world's new effort toward ponce. Not even the charter's best friends, in or out of the senate, have said that the document is perfect. Obviously it isn't, l'ut after some of the too optim istic promises of the first league's American supporters 2.) years ago, the present sanity is welcome. No gardener would plant a crop in the V round and then ignore it. blindly trust ing God that it would yield a perfect harvest. And no thinking person today can behove that the seed of the united nations organization will not require solicitous care against adverse weather, woods, disease and various predatory forms of animal life. There is much to do. Hut at least the crop is in and this country lias signified its willingness to tend it. Disappoint ment and discouragement are surely ahead. Yet we know that at last a real start has lioon made toward the golden harvest of peace, without which the world world cannot survive. Funny business SO THEY SAY Those poop!,' iGt'imans mav net K-i'k so had compared with ether Europeans Hut, brother, the uo-ls and ehhlicn Kick home h.io u a,i ,nre them like a tent. - Ella Log.ui, entertainer. M E A T HV'NGHV Americans may tie s.ii prised to knew that in lie Miidsl of the (meat! short .;ile, the'e a:e ir.ore cat-tie on U. S. ranehes today than in any prewar year -Yirn.iua, Minn. Mcsabi News. The K r a n e o government (in Slum' is cieaily Fascist. It's a c'.eseti oligarchy with none of the civil liberties that are the essence ot ,v.;r democracy. Sen J. H. Ball of Minnesota. "Corporal, I IhtfiA your enlhuism is running away with youl" VUtyuij; WnuU is cm way to jmih'c ir tho boys Wd r:i!s m hv A:;rti Forcvs that we .nv Ku-k of them. Another way is to tvf;ir to patromro black marki-'s f'V.ny kX'Ml AKor.i T'a , Mirror. Washington Merry-Go-Rouhd Side Glances Br DREW PEARSON WASHINGTON Ever since Frunklin Roosevelt died, Borne of his most ardent sen ate followers have talked about organizing to carry on his left-of-center program. Fi nally, encouraged by the British elections and worried over what would happen to our domestic economy if the war ended over night, 17 Democrat senators gathered at a private luncheon last week. Practically every senator present was a personal friend nnd boostejr of President Truman. Yet behind their luncheon was a veiled threat If Truman became too much influenced by the reactionary wing of the Democrat party, he would have trouble. The luncheon was called by Senators Pep per of Florida and Kilgore of West Virginia. They brought with them a mimeographed five-page document labeled "full employ mentobjective of domestic policy." In this carefully written document, they proceeded to point out that: "American economy has never provided stable full employment under modern con ditions of high labor productivity and mass production. A review of economic conditions between world war I and world war. TI makes this clear ... In 1939, though we reached the production level of 1U29, there were 7,000,000 more unemployed. "There are some of short memory," the survey continued, "who today urge on the federal government a 'do nothing' policy to ward insuring full employment . . . We be lieve extensive federal action is esential at, this time." 12-Point Program The "federal action" proposed by Senators Kilgore and Pepper was outlined to the othe! 15 senators immediately after the luncheon in the form of a 12-point program. "I am tired," said the West Virginia sen ator, "of seeing the opposition use us as a chopping block. The time has come for some action and now." Each senator then discussed the program. The comment was deadly serious, most of them worried over what will happen in. our economy after the war. If Jap War Ends Suddenly One of the most interesting interchanges took place between Maryland's Senator Rad cliffe and Connecticut's Senator Brien Mc Mahon. Radcliffe expressed general approval of the program but added he knows of no unemployment problem in the nation. Where upon, McMahon interrupted to say that there was a growing unemployment' prob lem in Connecticut. "We're in for a bad time if the war in the Pacific should end during the summer, before adequate legislation has been passed to provide for additional employment," Mc Mahon continued. "It seems to me," he added, "the admin istration is on the horns of a dilemma. If we don't spend to provide employment, we'll be in a bad way; if we do spend, our huge public debt will continue to pile up." "There is no problem there," interposed Rhode Island's agile 77-year-old Senator Green, himself a millionaire. "There is only one course. If we do have a high level of employment and general well-being among the people of the country, then we are head ed for bankruptcy anyhow. Army-Navy Hog-Piling New York's Senator Mead, who succeeded Truman as chairman of the senate war in vestigating committee, remarked: "It's about time this country began to shift from a two-war economy to a one-war economy. The army and navy have got to stop sitting on billions of dollars' worth of materials they don't need ard which indus try does need. "Not only materials," continued Mead. 'They've got to release manpower we need in the coal mines, the steel mills, the rail roads. We can't keep our civilian economy going ... At least the army and navy can release 100,000 key, men for these industries. We've got to speed up for the reconversion process." WE, THE WOMEN ' By RUTH MILLETT Perhaps she just has a smarter press agent than the rest of the Hollywood stars. But Anne Baxter has crashed through with a sound idea. She has asked Gen. Omar Brad ley to book her a,head for one tour a year for 10 years after V-day to entertain wound ed veterans. It is a rewarding project for entertainers to sing or dance for servicemen today. It gives them more and better publicity than they can get in any other way. But it will be a different thing in five or 10 years. Nobody much will hear of the performers who entertain the servicemen who are shut off from the world in veterans' hospitals. That won't be big news. So any star who is making plans now for the future entertainment of servicemen ought to be en couraged. And what about the rest of us? Shouldn't we be thinking of what we will do as indi viduals and as communities for the service men who will be in hospitals for years, or even for the rest of their lives? Now is the time to make our pledges. The sicks and wounded servicemen of the last yar were pretty much forgotten by all but members of their families. That shouldn't happen again. Somehow we should hang on to the feeling we now have for the service men who are being carried from hospital ships. Right now we know how much we owe them, how awed we are by the sacrifices they have made for us. And while we know, we ought to make some vows that they won't be forgotten when the war is over and the lucky ones among us are picking up our lives and going on with them. What we don't decide to do now we will probably never do. For it is so easy to forget. Behind Scenes in Washington By PETER EDSON, La Grand Evening Observer Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 Banker John W. Snyder of St. Louis, the new assistant pres ident in charge of the home front, has just had a needle stuck into his backside, right up to the eye of the needle. So far he hasn't said much and probably won't. He has a reputation for being tough skinned and able to take it. The hypodermic applied to Snyder through' the needle was the fourth annual report of Senator James M. Mead's war investigating committee. The leport found that "reconver sion has not proceeded as swiftly as it should have," and that "the office of war mobili zation and reconversion, acting too often as a conciliator rather than an executive, fails to fill the need. The jab wasn't aimed primarily or per sonally at Snyder but at the two gents who haw preceded him in office. Justice James F. Byrnes w ho is now secretary of state, and Judge Fred M. Vinson who is now secretary of ttie treasury. Kicking this job around so that three men have held it in the last four months has ob viously done the country no good. Also it is always u healthy thing for a senate com mittee to stir up the authorities and keep them awake to their responsibilities. At the same tinw it is dirty politics to belabor a new official for the sms of ommission of his predecessors. And the Mead report may be a had thing if it kids the public into be lieving it will be easy for U.S. industry to go: immediately back on the job of making ail the tilings civilians need in a hurry. End of the war in Europe was just a start er. Unless me war against Japan folds faster than anyone now thinks possible, a year after VE day the army will still number svven m;'.iion and the navy four million. Peak strength ofi the two was a little over 12 million With only a 10 percent net re duction m the strength of the armed forces, mere can't be much cut-back in military prod.ktior.. one of the things the Mead report complains about. As of Afig i. military production has been cut hack 15 percent. It wili.b cut back -3 percent by September and 53 percent by, the end of lUt5. ; Yet 'ewn with a third of the military pro duction Mopped, there aren't going to he enough raw materials to supply all the civil ian requirements. Just maintaining an army and navy of 11 million for the war against Japan takes nearly all the steel, textiles, copper, lumber and rubber available, plus sizeable quantities of coal, oil, food, can't be much reconversion while that goes on. Mr. Snyder's needling is inconsistent in other respects. Complaint is made thot gov ernment owned war plants haven't been re leased for civilian production fast enough. Yet the policy has been to keep government plants going on war production so that privately-owned plants could be freed for re conversion. Complaints is made that surpluses have not been declared fast enough. How can sur pluses be declared till the war is over? The army is criticized for slow release of its great reservoir of manpower, thus retard ing industry's reconversion. On the next page is a pious declaration that the FIR's respon sibility is to win the war and "for that reason there should be no diversion of production capacity or manpower." Finally the office ot war mobilization is criticized because it has been too much of a policy and conciliation organization and not enough of a direct operating agency. That's one OWM drector Snyder may puz zle over. He has been on this new big job of his for only two weeks, and if he doesn't know what it's all about neither does any one else. He doesn't have a full organiza tion. He must name two top deputies to re place J. B. Hutson who became assistant sec retary of agriculture and Donald Russell who will join his old boss Justice Byrnes in the de partment of state. Then Snyder must per fect his organization and decide how he wants it to function. In his previous job, as federal loan admin istrator succeeding J e s s c Jones. Snyder showed a flair for simplification of organ ization by consolidating a lot of subsidiary corporations into the parent reconstruction finance corporation. He can go that way on OWMR keeping his staff down, to about 25 technicial experts on food, manpower, pro duction and so on a tight little organiza t or. to make policy and run the w orks from the top. Or he can start to build up another )big government agency with thousands of employes, in t h c traditional Washington bureaucratic method. How would the Mead committee like that? 1 ! iMiLASrS I .'tOnJ&iWT'r . in I'-' :rrm . . ' III. I v !l VnurT " ii .i i mi IIWItllllllll, lt T. M. Ullli 1. PAT. OW. "My goodness! It's time to be thinking about a new fur coat that old one of mine will never stand another winierl" o McKENNEY ON BRIDGE By WILLIAM E. McKENNEY America's Card Authority AWAITING OPPONENT ERRORS WINS HAND You are not always going to get into a perfect contract. When you do get into a bad one, keep your wits about you and give the op ponents a chance to make a mis take. Wars are won that way so are bridge contracts. North's opening two -diamond bid was a little optimistic, espe cially since both his suits were minors. The three-heart response is an ace-showing convention. With the king of hearts open ing, the declarer's contract seem ed unquestionably doomed to de feat. However, after winning the first trick, North did not make the mistake of leading a spade and hoping the opponents would not return a heart. He Immedi ately cashed the ace and king of clubsi and realized that there Questions & Answers Q What hospital facilities were available for American troops in England? A Five giant convalescent centers and 90 hospitals took care of nearly half a million Ameri can soldiers during war in Europe. were four clubs in one hand against him. He led the king of diamonds then quickly! pushed out the ten of clubs. Sure enough, East made the mistake of cover- K V 10 2 AKQJ8 AK 10 8 4 A A 8 7 5 4 3 053 63 Q5 N W E S Dealer J2 VKQS7 4 10 9 J632 AQ1096 AJ9 7 5 4 2 97 Duplicate Neither vul. South West North Eut Pass Pass 2 Pass 2 Pass 3 Pass 3 Pass 6 Pass Opening K. 8 Q What percentage of Bur ma's 18,000,000 acres under culti vation is devoted to growing of rice? A Two-thirds of 12,000,000 acres. More than 70 per cent of that country's population is en gaged in agriculture. Q How many ships are re quired to transport one division of troops? A Thirty ships, including 12 troop transpors and 18 cargo ves sels, for a division of 15,000 men. ing, and declarer ruffed with the seven of diamonds, not one of the smaller ones. West could not over-ruff. Declarer returned to his hand with a diamond, cashed the eight and four of clubs, dis carded the two hearts, and ruf fed his losing heart. , O IN FORMER YEARS Thirty Years Ago Chiffon hats in autumn colors, yellow, purple, red and brown are being featured this season. The postoffice department has sent out an order forbidding stamp sellers to place the stamp mucilage side down on the coun ter when pushing stamps through to customers. Q W hat nation honored its principal poet with a series of 31 postage stamps, illustrating his life? A Portugal thus paid tribute to Luis Vaz de Camoens in 1924, the 400th anniversary of his birth. Q How .much did Borneo'3 rubber production industry suf fer during Japanese occupation? A Reports still are indefinite, but those available indicate that the Japs have destroyed no more than two out of 10 trees since they seized the island. The ene my, it appears, has been too busy retreating to destroy them. Fifteen Years Ago Surveying of the road from Owsley land to the summit of Mt. Emily is to be done during part of this month and during Sept ember, previous to the making of a lane through the trees and burning and piling the brush. The new gymnasium at Cove is rapidly nearing completion, with shingles and paint being put on now. Ten Years Ago Funds donated for the Amos Helm fiost aid car have reached the $876.25 mark. Plans are being made for a doll show, with prizes to be given for the largest, oldest, smallest, homeliest, most beautiful, and best diessed dolls. , This Curious World when you're dealt ll i I A HAND IN POKER BKvJSj' I X 1 THAT YOU WONT GET" A ' v jT I I S IT'S HARD 60IN& IN SOFT CASEY LEWARSKI, COFR. IHI IY NCA URVKC WC -40 KINDS v' ORCHIDS IN EVERTSTATE PROM U.MQI1 TO A&i.AM0 ewe ' SOW'S. OP THE AOSTCS.ON; LAWS slipper, cachet nx?"1 GRASS PINK, CJRAL 0O,U RATTLESNAKE PLANTAIN ASV i THAfrSLADE. T. M. MO. JL . MT. Off. NEXT: That heavy afe before a storm. D4 LjIKC ll r i i ii -l i 58 Symbol for in tny mei Iridium
