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About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 16, 1945)
Side Glances Washington Merry-Go-Round EDITORIAL PAGE 1' I'-T-- By DREW PEARSON La Grande Evening Observer Frank Schiro, Publisher THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 16, 1945 Page Four It May Do What No thing Else Could Do A AjtAlNjI EVENING OBSERVER'S PROGRESS PROGRAM , IRRIGATION Complete the Grande Ronde Valley irrigation project. LA GRANDE A city of 10,000 Extend the city Limit. Outlawing Atomic War When peace is restored the United States government should and doubt loss will lead the way in rcnounclnff and outlawing the use of atomic-energy explosives in any future war. The atomci bomb is not a means of warfare that we would have used ex cept in tiie last extremity of necessity. It came after Japan had refused a peace offer that was just, honorable and, in view of the Japs' barbarious conduct of this war, extremely magnanimous. This government need feel no shame for having used it. If one must choose, certainly an instantaneous death by atomic bombing is more humane than the brutality of the Bala an death march, or the slow death by torture, starvation and disease of thousands of allied soldiers and civilians. In view of his past record, the en emy's shocked protests are in particu larly bad taste. Yet protests have come not only from Japan, but oven from this country and especially from Eng land. The providential circumstances which prevented Germany's development of the atomic bomb before lior defeat lias given this country not only the first possession of this weapon, but also the first responsibility for its future.' And while the world, knowing the Japanese record; has no cause to cenaure our 'ise of this weapon, it does have the'riafht to expect us to' take the 'initintjv'eVin .banning it as an instrument of war.- In :t h i s connection,' the analogous case, of poison gas might -be noted." The . nations of the world outlawed its' use after World War I. Yet they did not abandon research into its further pos sibilities, or development of defenses against it. Chinese sources claim that the. Japs have employed gas in this war. But if they have, it has not been a general practice, and there is no record of its use against Americans. The Germans did not use gasalthough they, like the Japs, would have had no moral scruples against it. ; All the belligerents had poison gas ready to use if the others started it. The evident reason why it was not add ed to the other horrors of this war was that the Axis nations knew the. allies . could boat them at the same game. Such a procedure might guide the United States in d 'e a I i n g , with the atomic bomb. Let us outlaw it. But let us not be so foolish as to abandon its research and development. No one need fear that we shall ever starf an ag gressive war. But until peace is secure and disarmament feasible, we should maintain our advantage in atomic War fare until every potential warlord would know that, however deadly a weapon he might develop, the , United States would have an even deadlier one in defense; 1 Funny Iltisinexs . . " . ' ' rt.'S, "Ha iaetata on i to ay he'a bona spick aaeVeeMua in ih army r.. long enough)" o SO THEY SAY In politics, it is easy to con fuse personalities ' und . policies. There are so many high-ranking New Deal casualties already to make thorn very happy with Mr Truman. " Alf M. Lnndon of Kansas. Air-mindodncss on the citizens' part, consistently maintained, is essential to keeping America first in peacetime and thus more se cure against attack. ...... San Antonio Tjutas, Express. Revelation ol the sertvt of na ture, (the atomic bomb) long mercifully withheld frflm man, should arouse the moat solemn rcflevtioru in the mind and con science of ewry human being capable nf cotnix-ehwroion, Wuwton Churchill. The only wy to prevent these terrible warn it to provide hajd. tough punishment for anybody starting them without' puivnco tton. Belleville, 111., Advocate. WASHINGTON Twenty-three years ago, this writer, visiting In Japan, got consider able first-hand information about the em peror from a young Japanese Quaker, Renzo Sawada, who had been picked to accompany Hirohito, then crown prince, on a trip to see the western world. Why Sawada, educated in a Quaker school in Tokyo, was chosen to accompany the young prince' on this history-making trip, I do hot know, except that the imperial council of education wanted a commoner of Hirtohito's age who' spoke English and French to travel with the future emperor. Never before had a ruler of Japan left its shores. In the past scarcely was the emperor even seen by his subjects. Some idea of his isolation can be gained from the fact that the word "Mika" means "awful;" the ,word "Do" means "place; and the name "Mikado" means "awful-place." In the old days, priests came to worship at the "awful place," but they never saw the emperor whose other name even today is "Tenno," meaning "Son of Heaven." The emperor is synonymous with the sun and from this comes the Japanese flag, with six teen spreading rays symbolic of the rising sun and the emperor. In those days the mikado was the theoret ical owner, of all the land and all the people and their possessions. He was their god and protector, i His lance and shield came from Ania, "the ancestral region." Thus arose the cult of shintoism which ucutully means "rule of the superiors" or "way of the gods." Even the,,word for government in Japan, "matusurigoto" means "shrine visiting" or "religion." , Modernising the Emperor Thus during most of Japanese history; in fact up until just after the arrival of Com mander Perry in 1852, the mikado was an ethereal spiritual being, not a ruler; and it came as a definite shock to many Japanese their emperor-to-be should sail off to Eng land and Fnmce to absorb western culture. In fact, some of the more intense patriots actually threw themselves on the railroad tracks in front of the train carrying Hiro hito to Yokohama in protest against the de parture. Naturally Hirohito may have changed a lot during the 25 years since his trip. Nat urally, also my friend Sawada was preju diced in his favor. However, the story of that voyage was one of a young man anxious to mingle with His fellowmen, astound the emperor-worshippers by wrestling on the deck with his aides, get a bloody nose, and dance democratically with the servants of the duke of Atholl in the same "barbaric" Scotland, which, according to shinto priests, is made from the mud and seafoam left over after creation of the "heavenly isles" Japan. Hirohito even managed to deliver a pub lic speecli to the lord mayor of London; and no emperor in all the history of Japan had , ever delivered a public speech before. In all Japanese history, furthermore, no emper or had purchased an article of any shape, size or form. In Paris, however, Hirohito insisted on going alone and buying a neck tie, and later a pearl for his mother. Hirohito Goes Underground His greatest ambition, however, was to ride on the Paris subway or "metro." Be fore leaving Tokyo, Hirohito's staff had been stirictly forbidden to let the heir to the throne ride on any subway; but despite this, the crown prince bolted most of his staff and ventured underground. He insisted on buy ing the tickets himself and handed them to the fat lady guarding the gate. But he handed them to her in a bunch, in stead of spreading them out fan shape, so that she could not punch them quickly. All See WASHINGTON . . . Page 6 WE, THE WOMEN By RUTH MILLETT All right, girls. You can relax now. And stop talking about your plans for taking this or that foreign language and turn your thoughts toward new curtains, and what shade would do most for ithc living room walls. It looks as though you aren't going to be following your men to Europe. Evidently President Truman is one of those men who believes, woman's place is in the home, for the army newspaper Stars and Stripes re ports that the president is opposed to send ing wives and families of United States occu pation troops to Germanyi ', . . Of course, he didn't give that as his rea son for his opposition to American women being sent to join their men abroad. According to Stars and Stripes the reason he gave was that he didn't want Americans to "settle in Europe." But it doesn't look to Mrs. G. I. Joe as though the danger of American men settling in Europe is tied up with their getting their Wives and families over there. - i From where she sits, it looks to the serv ice wife as though the American men most likely to settle in foreign countries are those who fall in love with the women of those countries. And the way to. encourage such alliances is to leave American women over here, and keep American men overseas. But Mrs. Joe will quietly give up her plans for getting to Europe, if the president comes through with his own plan. And that is to get veterans of the European campaigns back home through replacements as quick ly as possible. , What Mrs. , Joe really wants is not a trip. to Europe though that would be an experi ence that would make her feel less like a little stay-at-home compared with her trav elled husband. Whati she wants is a chance to resume her marriage again. And if she can do that she will be perfectly happy to stay right on in Podunk. But if her husband has been in Europe two years or more you can't blame her for thinking Uncle Sam ought to start considering her marriage and what is happening to it. Behind Scenes in Washington By PETER EDSON, La Grand ETening Observer Washington Correspondent . WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 Rep. Claire Boothe Luce of Connecticut is among the latest of the rrfore than 100 members of the house who have now endorsed the Murray Patman full employment bill, and behind that is one of those strange coincidence stor ies. Mrs. Luce's husband, Henry, is of course, publisher of the Time-Life-Fortune group. Life magazine has come out in favor of the full employment bill, while Fortune has opposed it. When this inconsistency was called to Editor Luce's attention, there was a big luncheon pow-wow of the two conflicting editorial boards. Shortly after that Mi's. Luce asked to be included as a supporter of .'..he full employment idea. J. Monroe Johnson, office of defense trans portation director, found out the war de partment wis speeding up its schedule to bring the',, soldiers home from Europe through an accidental telephone conversa tion. Johnson says he had called up Maj. Gen. Charles P. Gross, commander of the army transportation corps, to ask him about something else. jThey chatted, pleasantly till General Gross nuntional casually that the speedup in the redeployment program was going well. Johnson asked what speed up and Gross told him the speedup that was to bring the boys back home in 10 months instead of 18. That was the first Johnson had heard of it. He immediately started chopping off Pullman service and the trans portation crisis started from there. Interesting detail of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee report on the San Francisco United Natioris Chanter, which Senator Tom Connnlly of Texas presented with such fine oratory and pride, is that it wasn't written by any one of the senators nor by any member of th committee staff, which consist of one clerk and a couple of sevreUnea. This staff obviously isn't ade quate to do the job and the senators didn't have time. So the report was written in the department of state at the senators' request, after the foreign relations committee had held its hearings and heard oil the fnvorabl? evidence presented by state department spokesmen. As the charter was the depart ment's pet fluid, P. s., the department sur prised no one by writing a favorable re port, Members of the senate war 'Investigating committee who held hearings in the Euro pean theater of operations earlier in the summer. itv just" now netting the last of their records back in Washington. The six senators under Harley M. Kilgore of West Virginia split up into three subcommittees. Three shorthand reporters went with them to take testimony, but when the load got too great extra stenographic help had to be borrowed from the Army. The Senators then wanted to bring the stenographers back to Washington so the testimony could be transcribed at once. Army said the help couldn't be spared, so the Senators came home with no record of what they had gone after. Gradually the record got typewritten. Army gave the copy to American embassy for transportation home in secret diplomatic pouch. The records then lay in the embassy for two weeks waiting for Army transport. After they got to Washington, Army again delivered the records to state department where they lay a few days more waiting for delivery to the Mead committee. Now the senate is adjourning and there will be further delay in publicizing all the red hot stuff '.he committee uncovered. Department of state administrators have been trying to get out a new directory of the organization for over a year, so that everybody could tell where everybody else belonged. But everytime thing gats set, somebody comes along with new ideas for reorganization. The department got its first big reorganization in January 1944 and an other in December. Copy fur a directory was completed in April but was held up. One thing it could have shown was that the office of Secretary Stctinius had a staff of over 80. Secretary Hull used to run it with a staff of six. But now the new sec retary. Justice James F. Byrnes wants an other reorganization. The directory editors have about given up. This constant reorganisation of govern ment departments is what drives crazy most of the specialists in federal administration. For instance, the new 1945 edition of U. S. Government Manual came out recently. It's supposed to be the last ord on who's who and what's vvht in Washington. Every is sue gets thicker. The current number it over 700 pages. It went to press just after President Roosevelt died. That gave the edi tors a choice pf scrapping the whole thing or letting It rWe. In the Interests of saving paper, they let it ride, with a note on the fly lead admitting that Harry Truman was now president. They'll got out a second edi tion when things get organized, if they ever do.. '. com iMUvwJi smvict. wc. t. m. mo. u. a. mt. orr. 6-7 "We're so glad you've moved into the neighborhood we'd like to have our little boy get used to playing nice with little girls!" o McKENNEY ON BRIDGE By WILLIAM E. McKENNEY America's Card Authority IT'S A ROUGH DEAL. BUT RUFFING WINSI Today's hand came from Law rence Held of Coral Gables, Flor ida. Bridge plays an important parti in the recration of the peo ple of Florida. They have some very interesting rubber games. The declarer was certainly dis appointed when the dummy went 95 Ate QJ985J A7 A V KJ85 3 None KQJ6 432 W ' E S Dealer kj '2 VQ 10 7 42 10 4 1085 Q 107643 V None AK7642 9 . Rubber Neither vul. South Wert Nwlh East 1 4 V , 4 Pi 6 . Pus Pass Pass Opening - 10. , ' 17 or heart to return. . North dis carded his other spade and ruffed in dummy. O IN FORMER YEARS 30 Years Ago - The interstate comrrerce com mission yesterday settled one of the most important passenger rate controversies which it has ever been called upon to review when it handed down its decision in the Ogden gateway case. As a consequence, La Glanders can't buy tickets over the D&RG any more. While there were some that were foiled, the general reports from grouse fields yesterday have a tone of plenty. The spring was evidently propitious for young grouse, ' and the consequence is that the feeding grounds, are well stocked up. Mr A down, but there is a lesson in it never give up on a hand of this type. North won the opening lead with the ace of clubs, and imme diately ruffed a club. Returning to his hand with a small trump, he cashed the ace of hearts and 1 ruffed a heart. Another trump was led back and the nine of hearts ruffed. Realizing that his only chance was to find a single ton ace or king in the West hand, he led a small spade from dum my. West had to win with the ace and had nothing but a club o BARBS If we had just thought to drop the first atomic bomb on Tokyo, the Hirohito question might nev er have come up. The Navy is figuring on put ting more room in the seat of sailors' pants. .We don't know when just sit tight, boys! 15 Years Ago" In La Grande, in .about half an hour yesterday, seventy-one huhr. dredths of an inch of rain fell,' one of the heaviest downpours in recent years. Storm sewers were in several cases inadequate to' take off the flood water for sev-j eral minutes. In the women's country club golf championship tournament, now being played, Mrs. L. K. Kin zel defeated Mrs. C. M. Bohnen kamp four and three,, Mrs. W. C. Perkins won from Mrs. C. H. Reynolds, one up, and Mrs. R. V. Murphy beat Mrs. John Thiesen six and four. . . , The new fall hats are on dis play in the store windows. At least that's what we think they are; It doesn't seem fair to make discharged war heroes go to ban quets just after their other hard ships are over. 10 Years Ago La Granders were shocked to day to hear of the deaths of Will Rogers and Wiley post,, killed in a plane crash 15 miles from Point Barrow, Alaska. Colon R. Eberhard was elected to the board of governors of the new Oregon state bar' organiza tion last night. ' That the three-way agreement between the city, state highway commission, and the Union Pacif ic railroad on the $90,000 under grade crossing re-routing the La Grande-Wallowa lake highway from its present location to Spruce street, has been executed by all three parties was learned today during the public service commissioner's hearing at the courthouse. ; s . This Curious World I ! NEAR. LAMA TEMPLE, etfoao-eiLLEo sparrow I OP ARIZONA I MIGRATES MMtTfmneO 1 in the Autumn to california. h earn w an tunc, m i JOB, VOirCi MaAWCr PROOOC-riON,-.fly KEITH R. WALKER, 8-.tr, T. WO. U. . MT. Off. J NEXT: How tablecloth doodlera get that wayf ''
