'EDITORIAL PAGE
La Grande Evening Observer
Frank Schlro, Publisher
SATURDAY EVENING, AUGUST U, 1945
All the Latest Styles
A Long Road
The publication, Hiirclwiu'c Trade, has
cautioned retailers that the lifting of
WPB restrictions doesn't mean that
' merchandise will immediately start
moving toward their shelves. And since
the rest of us are watching those shel
ves, perhaps the word of caution is
worth passing along.
WPB, as Hardware Trade points out,
gave manufacturers permission to be
gin producing some 1200 individual
items in '100 types of civilian goods
when it revoked blanket order M-126,
which applied to iron and steel. But
WPB only gave manufacturers the
green light. Their job of getting out
of war production enough to give peace
time manufacturing some attention, of
gelling plants into shape and finding
material and labor, takes time.
The result of that delay will mean
annoyance rather than real hardship to
most consumers. But to millions of war
workers who will be released at the end
of the war, prolonged delay could be
much more than annoying.
i ('conversion will be difficult enough
at best without adding acute social un
rest and discontent arising from mis
information or ineptitude on the part
of cither industry or the government
agencies affected.
The history of reconversion to date
has not been a particularly shilling one.
Granting the difficulties, it is time that
those responsible summoned all their
t f foi l and efficiency to prepare for as
rapid and painless a changeover as pos
Funny Hit sin ess
"He wants to be lure ht iin't given My
(Si (Qui MM-'
Page Two
Direct From London
sible. Bickering and slipshod perform
ance could bring incalculably bad re
sults. A Burp For the Hays Office
An emphatic burp might appropri
ately describe the reaction of most
Americans to the recent announcement
that the Will H. Hays office has de
clined to approve the documentary Eu
ropean war film, "The True Glory," be
cause occasional words of pofanity al'e
on the sound track. As most readers
know, the Hays office is the censoring
agency for filmland.
Most people know, too, that "The
True Glory" represents the collective
efforts of some MOO cameramen who
followed allied armies through the mud
and blood of France and adjacent na
tions to Berlin. Many of the camera
men were killed in action in the effort
to provide, through pictures and sound,
the story of how victory was won. Our
belief is that most Americans want to
see that historic record the record
that the Hays office will keep from
them if it has its way.
This, of course, does not condone pro
fanity for profanity's sake. But cer
tainly it is silly, and insulting, to imply
that the feelings of most Americans
are so delicate that they cannot listen
and see the sound and picture record
made at the price of thousands of
American and allied fighting men. The
Mays office Is making itself ridiculous
by the stand it has taken, apparently
without the realization that neither it,
nor anything else of human content,
can survive long in the face of ridicule.
SO THEY SAY
I can see nothing but conflict
and recrimination for capitnlism
in America unless we provide a
piogram which will insure em
ployment for all Americans who
are able and willing to work.
- Sen James E. Murray, of Mon
tana. There is no change whatsover
in the fundamental policy of our
government in regard to tire pros
ecution o( the war.
Premier Kantaro Suzuki, of
Japan.
The W.WFS h at v c released
enough men for duty afloat to
completely man a major naval
task force.
Jks V. Forrostal, Secretary
of the Navy.
Up to laio, the total appropria
tions for all government purposes
never had reached a billion dol
lars a ye.ir and we had a pretty
good government.
- Butte, Mont., Tost.
ardent"
Washington Merry-Go-Round
By DREW PEARSON
WASHINGTON inside fact is that Stalin
agreed as far back as the Tehran conference
to come into the war against Japan. That
was the price he agreed to pay in return for
the second front in Normandy . . . Churchill
was opposed to the second front through
France, but Stalin insisted on it, and FDR
threw his weight with Stalin in return for
the pledge on Japan . . . More recently at
Potsdam, TrUman took the whole matter
up again with Stalin . . .' Chief thing the
Russians have been working on to prepare
for the Jap war is re-laying the Trans-Siberian
railway. Thirty thousand miles of
track has now been laid, one of the biggest,
quickest, rail-building jobs in history . . .
In return for Russian entry into the Jap war,
it was agreed that Russia would get all al
lied military secrets. The atomic bomb at
thaUtime was only an idea, and no one knew
whether or not it would materialize. As far
as' can be ascertained, it was not discussed
with the Russians.
Apparently the Germans were thinking
about an atomic weapon for a long time.
Twenty years ago, Louis Lehman, concert
master of the New York philharmonic or
chestra, went to Utah to invest in uranium
mines. He had been tipped off by his brother,
a physicist in Germany, who foresaw the
tremendous possibilities of pitchblende and
informed his brother in this country that ex
periments made it advisable to purchase
options on uranium deposits . . , The options
are believed to have lapsed . , . For some
unexplained reason, a staff of publicity men
from Ivy Lee's public relations office ha?
been quartered at the highly secret Oak
Ridge, Tenn., site of the atomic bomb plant
for several months . . . Ivy Lee is the man
who largely reversed American antipathy
for the elder John D. Rockefeller . . . What
he was doing for the army remains to be
seen . . . There is something awfully funny
about the sudden retraction of scientist Har
old Jacobson's statement that for 70 years
human life cannot survive in an area struck
by an atomic bomb, and that rain falling in
that are will poison neighboring areas when
carried away in streams . . . The army's
haste to deny the story, coupled with an
army statement that Dr. Jacobson was bound
to secrecy under the espionage act made a
lot of people examine facts twice. The army
was obviously worried about public reaction.
Though a lot of people deserve credit for
developing the new atomic bomb, one man
stood above them all as the greatest single
WE, THE WOMEN
By RUTH MILLETT
There ought to be a lot of uses for that 12
ounce shirt pocket radio to be manufactured
as soon as wartime restrictions arc removed.
Tillie the typist, with a radio tucked away
in the pocket of her trim business suit or in
one of the suitcasts women call hand bags,
out to be able to join housewives in the
modern American pastime of keeping up
with the soap operas. Stenographers can
trip off to the ladies' room the minute their
favorite tear-jerkers go on the air.
Guests can get even with host who insists
on hearing his favorite broadcast by saying,
"If you don't mind, I think I'll go out on the
porch and tune in on something else. Just
let me know when you're ready to talk."
That would beat what the guest goes through
now, having to listen quietly and pretend to
enjoy a broadcast he wouldn't thing of lis
tening to at home.
Husbands ought to be a little more pa
tient about waiting for their wives if they'
Behind Scenes in Washington
By PETER EDSON. La Grand Evening Observer Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON. Aug. 11 A report that
OPA had finally been forced to give up on
its plan to roll back the cost of clothing by
6 or 7 percent seems to be a bit premature.
The price administration boys arc sticking
by their guns.
But the reasons President Truman has
trouble buying white shirts, why all men
have trouble buying shorts and all women
have trouble buying inexpensive garments
are a bit complicated. The whole story pre
sents an interesting case history of what
one basic American industry is up against.
The big problem is in cotton textiles, wool
and rayon playing relatively minor parts.
Production of cotton textiles had dropped
18 percent since the record high of 1943 and
the main reason is that the number of peo
ple working in the mills has dropped about
18 percent. Textile workers have simplv
gone off to other war jobs where pay is
higher and working and living conditions
are better.
The textile industry is one of the lowest
paid in the country. Three fourths of the
mills are in the south. About 15 percent are
organized. Last February the war labor
board handed down an award efefcting 55
of the union mills. 2:t of which were in th'
south. Wl.H raised the minimum wage from
50 to 55 cents an hour with an extra nickel
an hour on the third shift and vacations
with pay. Many of the other mills have now
raised pay to this standard, but it still isn't
enough to attract as many workers as arc
needed. There is a long chance the minimum
w.iro will be put still higher.
In May the war production board launch
ed a campaign to recruit mrc Will workers.
It is just getting started. It has checked the
usual 10 percent summer employment slump.
By ncxt.fall it hopes to have all the 18 per
cent back at work. So much for the labor
picture. .
The mill operators say the trouble is, that
OPA price ceilings on textile are too low to
factor in its development Franklin D.
Rdosevelt.
Only a few people know the details of how
Roosevelt approached this greatest and most
fantastic weapon of international warfare.
However, when he finally decided to pour
$2,000,000,000 of the nation's resources into
hundreds of miles of government-owned fac
tories certain to consume the energies of
half a million critically needed workers at
the peak of the war, he was gambling, hot
only the nation's resources, but his own
name in history.
Had the project failed, Roosevelt would '
have been the goat. The vast plants in Ten
nessee and Washington State would have
been scoffed at as "Roosevelt's greatest white
elephant." Political opponents could have
used it to keep the Democratic porty out,
of power for a decade.
Roosevelt, however, never flinched.
Nor It is generally known that the man
who prodded Roosevelt hardest to undertake
the atomic project was another "star-gazing"
official, former Vice President Henry
Wallace. Wallace was the missionary for
the project, one of the few key men in
government who understood the theory of
the atom and who, as a friend of the world's
great scientists) spurred General Marshal
and war agency heads into speedier action.
Note Incidentally, it was Wallace's
dreamy-eyed experimentation with a new
typs of corn that will give the world 400,
000,000 more bushels of corn to feed the
hungry this year. So perhaps the "crackpot
professors" and the "starry-eyed dreamers"
Roosevelt brought to Washington were worth
while after all.
The 5 o'clock Shadow
Oregon's hard-hitting, rapid - fire - talking
Republican Senator Wayne Morse got the
reputation of being the senate's "five o'clock
shadow" during the recent debate on the
united nations charter.
Every day, promptly at 5 p. m., regardless
of what was happening, Morse arose and
delivered a firey blast against the OPA,
because of the meat situation and the prob
lems of the farmers in his native state.
Even a few minutes before the crucial
vote was taken on the charter itself, Morse
arose and delivered his daily assault. Every
time he took the floor, observers noted the
clock reached the stroke of five. So they
called Morse the senate's "five o'clock
shadow."
have a pocket radio for entertainment. They
are sure to greet the little woman with
something like: "Well, it is about time you
showed up. I've listened to 15 minutes of
dance music, a news broadcast, and the cor
rect time is now exactly 7 o'clock."
The radio corporation that is to manufac
ture the pocket radio explains that the speak
er is an ear piece of the hearing aid type.
If it looks enough ljke a hearing aid to be
taken for one, maybe we could fortify our
selves for a boring evening by tuning. in on
a program while we pretend to be listening
to the conversation going on around us. An
occasional "I didn't quite understand" or
"Would you repeat that again, please" would
be all we would have to contribute to the
talk, and then we could go back to a favor
ite program.
It sounds like a gadget with possibilities,
doesn't it?
encourage management to pay higher wages
and produce the necessary yardage.
OPA counters this with the assertion cot
ton textile mill profits are seven times pre
war earnings and the mills arc plenty pros
perous without having to raise price ceilings.
Further, under the Bankhcad amendment to
the price control act, OPA must- raise the
price on textiles as the price of raw cotton
goes up. OPA will soon announce a revision
of the cotton textile price structure.
But even with wage and price angles solv
ed, there is still the problem of getting pro
duction on the right quantities of the right
kinds of cloth. The mills naturally want to
weave the higher price fabrics on which they
make the most money. That cuts down the
supply of low price fabrics that go into low
price apparel. And even that doesn't guar
antee that the low price fabrics will go into
low price clothing.
To take care of these twin problem chil
dren, Fred M. Vinson, director of economic
stabilization, last January launched a double
barreled attack.
First the war production board was di
rected to put in a priority system to control
the output of the textile mills. It hasn't
worked to perfection because the mills ware
supposed to put ratings on their own out
put and there seems to have been a little
inflation of ratings, to put it politely. At any
rate there's still not enough low-priced goods
being turned out. OPA's job was then to
see that the textiles were made into low
priced apparel. T6 do this, it put out its
highly controversial maximum average price,
or MAP order which rcquicrs clothing man
ufacturers to produce apparel lines that will
average out in price with their 104:i outpu.
MAP brought an outcry from the apparel
industry. The whole thing was called im
practical and, unworkable. The smart guys
who figured it out, however, say that it will
work if the apparel makers can just get the
fabrics they need from the mills.
Side Glances
. - t
aw.miiiaaiiiiiM.ai t. y. am. M. t. mt. r. . , 1
"Everything turns out for the best after all, dear if we had been
able to get Pullman reservations for a vacation trip we wouldn't
have this money to lend poor Uncle Charley!"
O McKENNEY ON BRIDGE
By WILLIAM E. McKENNEY America's Card Authority
READING PARTNER'S
BID ALL-IMPORTANT
Today's hand came up lit the
Adirondack Tournament, which
is held each year at the Adiron
dack Inn, Sacandaga Park, N. Y.
Can you imagine picking up the
four-odd against you? When West
and North passed, Peter Levon
tritt (East) went into a long hud-
partner must have an honor in
spades in order to dare bid six
no trump, and that that honor
practically had to be the king of
spades.
Of course, after the opening
lead, seven clubs were ice cold.
I thought his reasoning and bid
ding were very good.
O IN FORMER
YEARS
Lcventrltt
A A Q J 7
3
None
5
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Thirty Years Ago
J. C. Ghormley is coming to the
Christian church to talk on the
vital subject of "Will England
Hold India?"
A good many farmers of Union
county have become interested in
silos. At the present time there
are no silos in Union county.
For Rent Housekeeping and
bedrooms. Fine, clean; $8, $10
and $12.
K104
VKQJ7
52
A7
N
W E
S
Dealer
495
.10 7 4
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:
Duplicate Neither vul.
South West North East
4 Pass Pass 6 A
Pass 6 N T Pass . 7
13
Fifteen Years Ago '
Six men were fined $10 and
another forfeited $2.50 in munic
ipal court last night on charges
of parking their cars too close to
a fire.
At a jolly swimming party and
picnic, women employes of Falk's
store and a few friends drove to
Cove last evening soon after 6
o'clock.
The Lions club at its luncheon
in the Sacajawea today, went on
record as standing ready to as
sist the chamber of commerce in
whatever way it can in the pro
motion of the La Grande - Mt.
Emily road, which would become
a link of the skyline drive and
would connect La Grande with
Dayton, Wash., via a highway
over the Blue mountains.
die and finally decided to bid six
clubs. That was nothing like the
problem he had when his partner
bid six no trump.
When I asked him about it later,
Lcvcntritt told me that he bid
seven clubs, because the six no
trump bid indicated to him that
his partner held the ace of dia
monds. If his partner had no dia
monds, he said, and that was very
possible, undoubtedly his bid over
six clubs would have been six
diamonds to show the short suit.
Leventritt also thought that his
o BARBS
It's county fair time around the
country. Don't miss the chance
to see some beefl
Ten Years Ago
The new Cove school building,
a handsome brick structure erect
ed by the district with the aid
of PWA loan and grant, has been
completed and was acepted as of
Aug. 1, according to announce
ment today.
Approximately 200 men still
remain at the front in the battle
against the Catherine creek for
est fire, although the fire was
brought under control by a much
larger crew.
Henry Stevens, of La Grande,
defeated Shrimp, Reynolds in the
finals of the eastern Oregon ten
nis tournament.
One of the worst shortages re
ported is in heavy underwear.
The very thing we'll be itching
to wear when winter comes.
All of the reports indicate that
coal is going to be mighty short
this coming winter and no fueling!
People who don't know when
they're licked, can't be!
An optimist believes that times
arc ripe the pessimist thinks
they are rotten.
This Curious World
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