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About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 18, 1945)
EDITORIAL PAGE La Grande Evening Observer Frank Schlro, Publisher SATURDAY EVENING. AUfJUST IS, 1945 I'age Two Into Whose Hands? i EVENING OBSERVER'S PROGRESS PROGRAM IRRIGATION Complete the Grande Ronde Valley irrigation project. LA GRANDE A city of 10,000 Extend the city limits. TODAY'S TEXT - ? 'trouble me! iimny nre lliny Hint rise up njfiiin.st me. Psalms 3:1. Lord, how nre they increased that THOUGHT IX)K TODAY lie who talks much' cannot always talk well. Coldoni. This Shrinking World President Tinman took coKtii.ance of this small and interdependent world when he announced, in his latest re port to the nation, that wo shall main tain and acquire such military bases as are necessary for our future defense. Following and clarifying as it did the president's disavowal of territorial am bition, this statement also served notice that America has learned at least one Croat lesson from this war, and that the false security that dominated our thinkimt in the lilliOs has been dispelled. We can never ncain thin k of our oceans as impregnable bastions against invasion. And we can never again feel safe if any potential warmaker, how ever remote, finds inadequate foreign defenses along his borders. It seemed of no immediate concern to the ordinary American of lt)"(i when Hitler marched his troops into the lihinelaiul. Kut if the invading Her mans had been met there by French (runs and determined French courage, there might have been no European war and possibly no Pearl Harbor at tack. To many American of 19"9 it was a source of positive pride that our armed forces were inadequate and our air ,force. infinitesimal. We were determin- ed not to be dragged into any Kuropean war which was a blameless, though hopeless, -determination. l!ut we some how thought that we could discourage attack by being ill-armed and ill-defended, and that by strengthening ourselves we should invite aggression. The rocket, the jet plane, and now the atomic bomb have changed all that. Own and Owinawa have become first lines of defense, not only for the Amer ican mainland, but for the peace of the world. The decision to maintain these and other islands as military bases is the first step toward future military se curity. The second is to maintain them adequately. And that step is up to congress. That is where congress stumbled badly in the years between the wars. With their heas burrowed comfort ably in the topsoil of Capitol Hill, suc ceeding generations of congressment cut and withheld military appropriations until, in spite of pleas from the Army, and Navy, our farthest Pacific outposts became feeble and impotent. This is not likely to happen again. I o r advancing science can scarcely have failed to convince even the most isolation-minded legislator that distance no longer means safely in this shrink ing world. Funny liusincss - .... .,-y . m. M, f-ij!, v " Z- : 'Tha wheelsman's got a Isitor Irom his girl atjmol" SO THEY SAY I don't think ;my university in this country rah w ..vulval us .:v as religion is conwrncd. Dr. Sultu'V l.ovi'tt. i-hapijin, Y;U university. It is imh ii heal tt'ninn sin for Ihr futuic of world-wide aviation when thousands of trans Atlantic flights can he made at inos'. as uneventfully as going to work i nthe morning and, on the average, piobahly a good bit more s.ifely. - lJihee. Aiu., Kovirw. Man is at last well on the way to masteiy of ;i means of destroy ing himself utterly twith the atomie homh. Mam-hot or, Kiiglanri, Guard ian, The "fe-Kl shortage" is tike the panic of ':' We have everything to m. ike us pio.:peious except the sense to use it. -Ci.iHd Kapids, Mu'h., .vss. Washington Merry-Go-Round Side Glances By DREW PEARSON WASHINGTON Notes on two armistices "The tumult and the shouting dies, the captains and the kings depart . . ." Vivid memories of people rejoicing; happy people, delirious people, dizzy people . . . telephone books and ticker tape . . .- horns and more horns ... the White House, stately, aloof, majestic, glowing with lights ... the state department dark . . . the coded messages have all been sent . . . sailors kissing pretty girls, strange girls . . . Back on my desk s letter from an old classmate, his boy lost in action. Philadelphia in 1018 dim memories of people milling around . , . the armistice came early in the morning giving us all day to mill . . '. People got a little tired of mill ing .. . The whistles blowing while we were out drilling. People came up to tell us the war was over . . . Seemed funny not to have anything more to drill for. Like the bottom had dropped out of things . . . The fellows who had been selected for officer's training school at Camp Lee, Va., were sore. It was a dirty trick, the war ending when it did . . . Everybody else was happy. No more wars . . . The war to end ware. The war to save democracy. If we could make certain that this would end all wars, that would be at least soma consolation . . . Can't seem to forget Alfred Noyes' words in the last war: "We who lie here have nothing left to pray. To all your praises we are deaf and blind. We may not even know if you betray our hopes to make earth better for mankind." Pennsylvania avenue Military police al most crushed by Ihe crowds ... A sailor taking down "no parking" signs ... A sol dier wearing a WAVE'S hat ... A war de partment stenog singing: "I'm going back to Topeka, to sleepy, good old Topeka. I 1-o-v-e Washington, big, bod wicked Wash ington, but the war's over and I'm going back home" . . . Jimmy Byrnes, immaculate, spotless, sprightly, coming out of the state department ... A million pairs of eyes watching Jimmy Byrnes. Does he know they're watching him? . . . When he goes to London for the meeting of the foreign min isters ,when he goes to Rio de Janeiro to sit with Latin American leaders, they will be watching him, praying for him, hoping for his success . . . John McCrae's words still ringing from the last war: "If ye break faith with us who die we shall not sleep . . ." Telephone books and ticker itape . . . Paper, paper, ankle deep . . . Hectic crowds, hilar ious crowds, happy crowds . . . Military po lice forced to retreat behind White House gates . . . the dark and gloomy state depart ment . . . Majestic, stalely White House .. . . A radio blaring forth: "Hirohito broadcasts to people: 'We declared war on America and Britain out of our sincere desire to ensure Japan's self-preservation and the stabiliza tion of East Asia, it being far from our thought either to infringe upon the, sover eignty of other nations or to embark upon territorial aggrandizement" . . . Sounds dif ferent frero Hirohito's speech right after Pearl Harbor. BujX what a job for our mili tpry governor?!',' What a job for our state department! . . . How can we reach down to the very to'i'3 of Japanese psychology? . . . There are some good people in Japan. Some of the more fearless spent the war in jail. They opposed the war lords . . . Some followed the war lords into battle because that was their religion, their whole training. They knew no better . . . How can we change that? . . . How can we undo that training? . . . Will we spend the money? Will we pick the men? . . . Alfred Noyes' words from the last war still ringing: "We have heard men say when we were living that some small dream of good would cost too much; but when the foe struck we have watched you giving and seen you move the mountains with one touch." Little children in the crowds along the avenue . . . Some carried in the arms of sol diers and sai!or3 . . . Sleepy children, not interested, not knowing what the shouting is all about . . . May you never know! May you never have to go off to war! May your fathers never have to sit waiting, hoping, not complaining, just anxious, weary from hoping, but still hoping . . . "Missing in action." The sermon on the mount! What would happen if we tried it in our foreign rela tions? Hitherto other nations have been only too glad to watch another nation try it out. But when we've tried it with Latin American notions it's usually worked. We've made ithem pretty good neighbors . . . And if we don't get along with each other in this day of atomic bombs, we're finished anyway, so we can afford to be revolutionary. We can afford to try what no one has ever really dared try since the days of Christ ... If we fail now ... If Jimmy Byrnes fails in Lon don, in the state department, in Japan . . . A million pairs of hands are stretched out to help him . . . "And while you deck our graves you shall not know how many scorn ful legions pass you by" . . . "When the foe struck we have watched you giving and seen you move the mountains with one touch." . . . "Short days ago, we lived, felt dawn and sunset glow." . . . "What can be done we know. But have no fear! If you fail now, we shall not see nor hear." "The tumult and the shouting dies, .the captains and the kings depart. . ." A great war is won. A greater opportunity lies ahead. WE, THE WOMEN By RUTH MILLETT Okay, American women, it looks as though you've got a fight on your hands. You don't approve of American service men choosing brides from among the women of other coun tries, huh? Well, judging from my mail the foreign wives and some of them are so burned up they write foreign in quotation marks don't have too high an opinion of American women and the reception wo have given thorn. They say American women ask such ques tions as "Did you buy that coat or that hat in Ireland?" And then squeal, "Oh, look, Mrs. So-and-So, they wear clothes like ours over there." And American women, they say, take the altitude that foreign girls are grabbing oif American soldiers because they "are so poor in their countries America seems a kind of paradise to them." You can bet the foreign wives with or without quotes see red when they meet that attitude. Says one from the British empire: "Our own standard of living is akin fo the Amer ican standard. True we did without many things in the last five and a half years, but that was war ..." One foreign bride living in a southern city says: "Wherever did that phrase 'southern hospitality' originate?" And adds, "Thank heavens, we won't be here long." There is still another ithing that gets them, and that is in the words of one: "I was taught in school that Americans, by that I mean those in the U. S. A., were a mixture, mostly of different European nations. But now it seems if a family has been here for two generations .they forget where their grandfather came from. This is particularly true of women." Says another, without prettying up her sentiments a bit: "I believe that most for eign brides will, like myself, be keenly dis appointed in America's womenfolks." So the fight is on . And though the for eign brides are outnumbered, they are not taking what they consider the superior atti tude of American women without talking back. Behind Scenes in Washington By PETER EDSON, La Grand Erening Obtarnr Washington Corraspondani WASHINGTON Several days ago the top army medical men from every theater of operation gathered here to swap experiences, bring each other up to date on the latest tricks they had discovered and lay plans for the Pacific campaign. Most of what thoy discussed and decided is top secret but many interesting things came to light. Incomplete figures announced to the as sembled medical men revealed ithat for the first time in the history of war in Europe the American army had more men admitted to its theater hospitals for battle wounds than for disease For this record the army medicos are justly proud. It's part of that record which is the basis for llv standard gag umong combat soldiers: "If you can take two breaths after you get to the hospital they can save you." Among the doctors at the conference wus Brig. Gen. Earl Maxwell, with the current title of chief surgeon of Okinawa island. He has been chief army medical officer on prc tically every Pacific nupaign sine Guadal canal . Young, tall and broadshouldereJ. he looks moie like u footlwill player than a doc tor. At Guadalcanal, he tells, eitht out of ev ery nine soldiers admitted to the hospital needed treatment of some disease rather than for wminds. This rate has liven going down steadily. He gives much cidtt for this decline to the use of the insect spray. DDT. Two days after landing at Ok'nw he asked the navy for the loan of two planes. They were loaded with DDT and for two days flew up and down the island spraying it with insecticide. As a result, he says, Oki nawa had less loss of men from disease than almost any other Pacific campaign. The army medical corps in its advance planning for the invasion made one small mistake. Their studies showed that there, were many poisonous snakes on the island. The invasion revealed there were only a few snakes, and they weren't poisonous. For the first time in fighting against the Japs most of the wounds suffered by the men were from artillery and mortar shells. This meant the average man was wounded more, seriously and a bigger percent of am putations resulted. It is this sort of thing that is taken into consideration in planning the rest of the war in the Pacific. In spite of the more serious nature of the wounds suffered by the men, only a little more than three percent of the men who were gotten to hospitals died. Field hospitals were kept close behind the linv'S, usually three or four miles behind the artillery and in several instances, in front of the arullery." General Maxwell was outspoken in his praise of the way whole blood was kept available. He said its use saved the lives of untold numbers of men. Never, during the entire campaign did they run short. A total of 40,000 pints of it were used. Also high on his list to receive praise were the medical aid men no such brave work in bringing the wounded back to hospitals. '- OOWCWM IT MA tnMKr. MC.T.M. Ma U. Wg.Bff. 8-JO "This book tells parents how to raise children without using force, Johnny put it where they can read it and you can even play hookey without a licking!" ' o McKENNEY ON BRIDGE By WILLIAM E. McKENNEY America's Card Authority TRUMP PLAY FORCES KEY KING TO FALL I don't suppose I will ever see the king of diamonds without thinking of the card drive put on for us by B ob Hawk on his "Thanks to the Yanks" program. I told Bob how badly we needed cards for our wounded boys in hospitals, and his appeal brought in more than a million decks! The Red Cross sorted and distri buted the cards. One day when we had about 200,000 decks piled up, a letter A KQJ 1086 U 5 3 J 5 52 A 74 3 V A K Q K 10 9 QJ 64 N W E S Dealer A 2 V J 1097 870 4 AB873 A A 9 5 842 AQ32 A AK JO Duplicate N-S vul. South West North East 1 Double 2 A Pass 4 A Pass Pass Pass Opening V J. .20 came enclosing the king of dia monds and reading: "Dear Mr. Hawk: I sent you a deck of cards and forgot the king of diamonds. Here it is. Will you please put it in the deck for me?" The king of diamonds might just as well have been missing in today's hand, too, for all the good it was. West cashed three heart tricks and returned a trump, which was won in dummy with the ace. Remembering West's show of strength by his double, North cashed the diamond ace,, then continued' with five more rounds of trumps, discarding all the diamonds in the South hand. . At the 10th trick, holding the diamond king and queen-jack-six of clubs, West discarded the king, hoping that East might have the diamond jack. Bui North then cashed the jack of diamonds and fulfilled his contradt wfth Ithe ace and king of clubs in dummy. o IN FORMER YEARS 30 Years Ago : Five business men of La Grande will, during the next six days draft a traffic ordinance govern ing .11 details of street traffic and will then submit it to the auto owners who will then in turn pass it up for the inspection and action of the city commission. This is the outcome of a meeting of 35 or 40 automobile owners, city manager and city commis sioners last evening. La Grande shippers will learn with interest that dismissing the complaint of the Columbia Gold Mining company of Sumpter against the interstate commerce commission reiterated its ruling that "originating lines generally are entitled to the longest haul they can perform where the transportation can be performed upon equal terms with reasonable dispatch and without undue dis- i-f. crimination." o BARBS The Japs found out that there is a heap of difference between "all over but the shouting" and "all over but the shooting." 15 Years Ago The building permit total for the city of La Grande totaled $414,135 with the issuance of eight permits by City Recorder J. E. Stearns during the week. The corn grows high this year so high it hits our wallet! War time on our clocks is ex pected to be an early casualty of peace with the nation set back an hour. Think how- far Japan has been set back! A movie centering around the atomic bomb soon will be re leased. We've already seen some that were a terrific bust. 10 Years Ago Contrary to some press reports following the state board of high er education's meeting in Port land yesterday, there will be no delay in completing the training school and gymnasium on the Eastern Oregon Normal school campus. These two projects will be completed as soon as possible, it was announced today. Greenwood's soft ball team, by virtue of two straight wins over the P. D. Q. club, today is city champion. The A division cham pions walked roughshod over the B division title holder at the L. H. S. stadium last night 8 to 1. This Curious World NAMED FCti THE FUSKCH PtCftffV MAWOL. tcwL y vicr nc. FIRE, IT IS OVER FiRE.".W J. P. CASPER, NEXT: Why baseball dopesters get headaches.
