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About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 24, 1945)
t i ps I rr" 1 i EDITORIAL PAGE Sde Glances La Grande Evening Observer Frank Schiro, Publisher FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 21, 1945 Page Two "So Sorry!" EVENING OBSERVER'S PROGRESS PROGRAM IRRIGATION Complete the Grande Konde Valley irrigation project. LA GRANDE A city of 10,001) Extend the city limits. THOUGHT FOR TODAY Hut now I am punt all comforts hero, but prayers. Shakespeare's llenVy VIII. The Bigger Task Ahead The first 'hysteria of jubilation na tural, inevitable ami spontaneous se quence, to Japanese surrender lias beyun to subside. And returninir once more to the fore most position in the consciousness of the American and Allied peoples is their solemn realization, which was crowded into the background momentarily, of the responsibilities a n d problems im posed by the restoration of peace. The collapse of Japan placed the fi nal official stamp of triumph upon the most difficult and dangerous problem of war ever to be faced by free peoples of the earth. The issue 1 o n n was in doubt. For months and years' it look highest courage even to hope that hu man liberty could survive the throat to its existence. Hut it has survived alter the greatest victory in the greatest war record in history. Democratic peoples now have crossed the threshold of another era. And the are confronted with problems and dif ficulties of peace no less in magnitude than the problems of war which have just been mastered. Must thinking peo- Funny linsincss pie are filled with the realization that to sain victory in peace likely will be fully as difficult and may prove more difficult I hail victory in war. To attempt to enumerate any consid erable number of those problems would be an impossible undertaking. But everyone must ajfrco upon the one prob lem which overshadows all others. That problem finds expression in the deter mination reiterated times without num ber that horrors like those visited upon mankind during the past six years must never be allowed to happen again. If they are allowed to happen, then the very best that can be said will be that the sacrifices made during World War 11 will have been made in vain. Victory in war will be worse than nullified if free men fail to see to it that they win the peace. No one can set the pattern which will insure the winning of the peace. No one can know just how it will be done. I Hit common sense must tell us that, just as victory in war required its sac lifices, victory in peace will exact its sacrifices, too. We don't pretend to know what these may be. I Hit logic should tell everyone that he will have to give, perhaps a great deal, in return lor the blessings he expects to receive for himself and his posterity. .There si ill is a job an enormous job for individuals as well as for nations. Ilul there is bright hope in the belief thai, if individuals as a whole accept llicir part of that job with the same enthusiasm and determination they ac cepted their duties in war, then free mankind will gain a greater victory in peace than he did in war. to'l iti'V lKt,mC T m U u m 0" "V..,. . An iMnim-nt physician hns stat ed that sn;ikc wnom becomes 'I hop your vacation has filled you wiih pep nnd vigor, Mr. Joncsl" violet hhl. O BARBS Now thai the war is ever wc are afc in trusting tlie Japs about as f;,r as we can sec Ihem. Soap may he more plentiful about the tune school starts. That's what we call rubbing it in on little Johnnv! Japan's new premier is Gen. Prince Nanihiko lligashi-Kunc -and '.lie press writers are in for a bad spell. Pcef won't be as plentiful us pork for some lime. The wurst is t:ll to come. Auto owners went wild when as was maile ration free and that'., how it affected the driving ol a gic.it many. Company is what you cin't take your shoes off before. Washington Merry-Go-Round Br DREW PEARSON (Ed. Note Drew Pearson Is on vacation. Ellis Ainalli governor of Georgia who re cently led the fight abolishing the poll tax, contributes today as Pearson's guest writ er.) By ELLIS ARNALL ATLANTA, Ga. The reconversion period will place exceptional strains upon state gov ernments. It will test the efficiency and foresight with which state agencies have pre pared for peace. It will determine whether political decentralization, which is almost as essential to security as economic decen tralization, is to be retained or abandoned. The magnitude of the problems facing the federal government will be increased enor mously unless state agencies are alert and effective. In the next three or four years there will be the eventual test of whether "states rights" mean anything. Unless "states rights" are coupled with the assumption of responsibilities, they will be about as useful as an arquebus. During the past four years, public services have been limited to minimum needs for education, public health and public assist ance. The physical plants of all units of government highways, public buildings, sanitary facilities, hospitals are in poor con dition throughout the nation. This presents a challenge to state govern ments to meet needs within their spheres promptly If they do not do sp, they will create a vacuum into which the federal gov ernment must inevitably move in response to urgent public demand. Decentralization is not an excuse for a static inaction. It will not be accepted as an excuse. The public has strong objections to centralization, but it has an even stronger antipathy for sloth ful neglect. Georgia's R, R, Battle There has been determined propaganda In America for 30 years to the effect state gov-. ernments were important. As a southern governor, I was supposed to be righteously indignant on all public occasions about the freight rate discrimination that is one of the main causes of that poverty which is the root of all the south's economic and social ills. But it was presumed, likewise, that action about the matter would be limited to the filing of polite complaints with the drowsy interstate commerce commission and to the assumption in public of a suitable lachrymose attitude. The state of Georgia, it was assumed, could do nothing about the matter. Reports from the Tennessee valley author ity, the president's committee, the southeast ern regional planning board and scores of other agencies disclosed the acute need for smashing the transportation cartel. That in dustrialization, to balance agriculture, was a prime need for the southern and western states was strikingly obvious. That delay until the termination of the war, permitting the junking of every newly developetl indus trial facility in these sections, would be sui cidal was clearly apparent. So Georgia sued in the United States su preme court, seeking to break up the intri cate unofficial bureaucracy that was impos ing outrageous transportation rates on the section. It could not be done, it was insisted. The supreme court would never entertain such an action Georgia would be the laughing stock of the country. The preliminary opin ion of the supreme court, accepting jurisdic tion in the case in one of the most far-reaching decisions ever handed down by ttyit tri bunal, gave Georgia the last laugh. Lazy Stale Governments This illustrate the fadt that state govern ments are not ineffective instruments of the public if they are put to use. They possess enormous powers. They con protect the interests of their citizens, if they set out to do so. Laziness has been their curse. State governments can exercise a whole some influence in safeguarding against mo nopolies, in encouraging decentralization of industry, and in protecting the natural re sources of America from exploitation. As this country endeavors to organize for reconversion, it is becoming evident two bad tangles in our domestic affairs must be straightened. Prosperity must be better dis tributed through decentralization of indus try. Cartels and monopolies must be elim inated. Monopoly vs. Democrasy Monopolies have no place within a democ racy. They are the implements of the ideol ogies that have just cost America a million casualties and three hundred billion dollars to suppress. No program of decentraliza tion of industry, with the wisdom of a uni formly prosperous nation, can be realized unless conspiracies in restraint of trade are suppressed. WE, THE WOMEN By RUTH MILLETT One thing we've got to get busy doing right away is to get a new set of alibies and excuses. So many of the old ones aren't good even now, und more and more of them are going to be outdated as the months go by. Look what the end of gasoline rationing has done. Wc can't stall around any longer saying the reason we don't visit the Whosits in the country or spend a weekend with rela tives in a nearby city is because we just can't stretch our gas that far. And we are going to have to do something one of these days about the living room sofa we weren't going to replace until the end of the war, or think up en entirely new reason for hanging on to the old wreck And we can't put off entertaining any longer on the grounds that it isn't patriotic in war time, and soon we'll have to quit say ing that we can't get food. Remember all those wonderful things we are going to do just as soon as the war was over? Well, somebody may call our hand on those, especially the small fry who have good memories for such wild promises. And we individuals aren't the only ones who will have to quit using the old alibies and excuses. Firms and businesses that have blamed the war for all their slipups, poor service, and mistakes are either going to have to do better from now on or think up other reasons for giving inferior service. But don't worry too much about it. Maybe for a while we can get by with blaming the reconversion period for all the things we don't get done. And maybe that will give us an interlude in which we can again start doing instead of talking, producing instead of promising. But it won't be easy. Not nearly as easy .is having the war to blame for everything. Still we used to manage without the war and maybe we can again. Behind Scenes in Washington By DOUGLAS LARSEN NEA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 Many new men are arriving in town to lake jobs of varying importance in the government as a result of recent cabinet changes. One of the first things they must learn is how to determine the salary and rank of the bureaucrats around them by their office furnishings. There is no uniform to wear in the government with identifying insignia to mark a first assistant from a second assist ant so a man's office must serve that pur pose. In the course of years this means of signifying importance has become as rigid in government offices as any set of military regulations governing uniforms. This is how it goes: A man doesn't become an "official" until he gets a secretary If his salary' is around $4,500 the secretary usually has a desk in his office. There's no rug on the floor, fil ing cases are all around. A picture of hi:: wife and kids is permitted on the desk, but not on the walls. You have to make at least $7,500 before you can hang anything but bureau pictures on your office wall. If he's a "comer" with a lot of drive he'll have an ash tray with a fountain pen set. He'll have one telephone with extensions. The next bracket is around the S6.500 sal ary. He gets a green rug on the floor. His secretary is in an adjoining office with the file cabinets and he has two phone exten sions. According to his own taste he can put a leather davenport in the outer office or in his own. p. depends on whether he wants to impress visitors before or after they see him. Infallible clue to this position is a chromium plated water pitcher set. He wouldn't be caught dead without this pitch er in plain view. The man moves up. He's getting around SS.IW0 a year now. This takes two secretar ies, a green rug for the outer office, a red rug for the inner office and an inter-off i.-e communicating system with red and green lights If he's got anything on the ball at all he'll have a mysterious little phone hanging on an obscure part of the desk. The implica tion of this is that he has direct communi cation with the "secretary." A sharp gal in the outer office will know enough to ring this phone once or twice when a visitor is in the office to set the stage for a low-voiced aside conversation presumably with the "secretary." At this stage of the game you can eat lunch a couple of times a week in the office. A tray with a half-finished meal is considered very impressive. But at $8,000 a year the "must" is a con ference table. Like the water pitcher set for his assistant, this is it. The option is to have this tabic running down from the other side of your desk or at the other end of the room with an overstuffed swivel chair at one end, which, naturally, is for you. Depending on whether he took his promotion in stride he might have three water pitcer sets strewn around. When a bureaucrat gets anything over $8,000 he can be more flexible in selecting his furnishings. Such variations as a young messenger boy at a desk outside the outside door is consid ered in especially good taste. Current maga zines on a table in the waiting room for vis itors builds up good will with the public. Several of the big timers who have come in to the government from private business have refi igeralors in their second inner of fices hidd'n behind a screen. Nobody knows what's in them but the effect on the visitor is astonishing. Aside from bureaucratic furnishings there are a couple of other clues to a man's im portance in the federal system. The most damaging faux pas a man. can make is to answer his own phone If the secretary doesn't ask who is calling and the nature of (he business before connecting someone -with him on the telephone you can make up your mind he gets less than SC. 000. If he does his own calling rather than have his secretary get the desired person on the phone you can make up your mind he's small pota toes, too. COPft. 1W BY HKA BCHVICE. IXC T. M. WEG. U. S. PAT. Off. ' "It's been an awfully dull summer the men I've rescued have been of such an age as to cause me to wonder whether it mattered!" 0 McKENNEY ON BRIPGE By WILLIAM E. McKENNEY America's Card Authority MAKES 4 REDOUBLED AGAINST 5 TRUMPS Lyman R. Brown of New York, who is kept quite busy seeing that there is plenty of high octane gas available for our flyers, finds 1.0 7 S V None KQ87 KQ 109 87 AKQ9B2 V K.10 8 0 A2 53 FT W El S Dealer A J 5 3 V J5432 654 AO Brown A A 4 V AQ97 J 10 9 3 J42 Duplicate N-S vul. Sualh West North East 1 1 1 A Pass 2 V 3 ( Double Redouble Pass Pass Pass Opening K. 25 time occasionally for a duplicate game. The odds were very much against him on today's hand, with East holding five trumps. O SO THEY SAY The Big Three have given al most one-quarter of Germany to Poland If history means any thing, that is not the road to peace, but to future wars. New York World-Telegram. East overlook West's opening lead of the club king with the ace, and returned the six of club3, West winning with the ten. West returned a club which Brown did not make the mistake ot trump ' ing in dummy. Instead he dis corded the deuce of diamonds, a loser anyway. A diamond was returned, Brown won wiih the ace in dum my, led a small trump and won with the queen. This gave him the bad news on the trump break. He now cashed three rounds of spades and won the balance of his tricks by cross-ruffing. East with his five trumps was helpless. O IN FORMER YEARS 30 Years Ago Automobile owners appointed a week ago to act as gleaners of feasible suggestions to make in revision of La Grande traffic ordi nance, held an important meeting last evening, and recommenda tions will be put before the auto mobile owners in a general meet ing this evening at which time the various recommendations will be acted upon and the finished product put up to the city com mission for ratification by them. It is downright stupid to keep a whole lot of divisions here (in Germany) when a few bombers and some atomic bombs would keep the Germans in line. Unidentified U. S. army cor poral, stationed in Germany. It is to be hoped there is noth ing trivial about Hermann Goer ing's reported heart attacks. Ironton, O., Tribune. The Russians took better care of our boys than of their own. Lt.-Col. Hurry Mcdlainj sur geon for a detachment seeking American pilots reported miss ing in the Balkans. 15 Years Ago The test block of oiling, au thorized by the city commission about 10 days ago in response to a request from north side resi dents that their streets be oiled, has been completed. Mrs. L, K. Kinzel won the wo men's club championship at the La Grande country club course yesterday, defeating Mrs. A W. Nelson three and two in the fi nals. The match was interesting and well played, with the out come in doubt until the last few holes. The leadership of the world has passed to the United States. We must not let it be destroyed by alien ideologies. Rep. John E. Rankin of Mississippi. 10 Years Ago Already fully accredited by the Northwest Association of Colleges and Secondary schools, the Eastern Oregon Normal school will, upon completion of the new and modern training school and gymnasium for occupancy this fall, fully meet the requirements of the American Association of Teachers colleges. This Curious World H.H.WATRCV, I HOW MUCH IS A O j) BILLION DOLLARS J ITS AS MANY TICKS AS A CLOCK WOULD MAKE IP JX ( IT TICKED ONCE EACH W J- :, SSCOAD, Sgr - VV& 1; ,24 HOURS A DAY, . ' flSSBs, l 3S5 DAYS A YEAR, AT 11311? N FOR NEARLY t SlB. 1 s - What is a carrousel ? SOMETIMES M4DE POULTICES Cf POSON VfK TKKCT) 5 riL CfNT ANSWER: A merry-go-round. NEXT: A creature that outgrows five skeletons.
