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
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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
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