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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.