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About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1945)
I : EDITORIAL PAGE . i i La Grande Evening Observer Frank Schiro, Publisher SATURDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 1, 1945 Page Two Out of the Ashes of Death MM hilMi IP r!n' v..i Lw Wr:? f . -1 , t I a. mx 'jfmmm EVENING OBSERVER'S PROGRESS PROGRAM IRRIGATION Complete the Grande Ronde Valley irrigation project. LA GRANDE A city of 10,000 Extend the city limits. THOUGHT FOR TODAY Woman, I tell you, i.s a microcosm; and rightly to rule her, requires as f great talents as to govern a state. Samuel Foole. Labor's Day American labor, the (treat production army of our long war, deserves more than usual praise and encouragement on this, the day set aside for recogni tion of the working man. Praise for the manner in which, with unprecedented efforts, it transformed our cumbersome industrial machinery into the greatest, speediest production line ever known. Old men and young boys, war wives, mothers, sweethearts and daughters went into the mills and shipyards and factories. And with the exception of a few mis guided, hotheaded strikers, American labor staged a historic exhibition of teamwork and unselfishness. l'ecause there was a war to be won. Their success amazed and confused, and ultimately defeated, the enemy. The war is over, the equipment that made our victory possible is no longer needed, so the industry which produced that equipment has come to a standstill. Now there i.s a peace to be won. And labor has probably as big a job in winning that peace as have the ad mirals and generals and stutemen at the conference tables. For there are prob lems in , the reconversion to peacetime economy that only labor can solve. .Only labor can decide whether the changeover to new production lines, and the unavoidable interim of idleness, shall be marked by oderliness or strife. Only labor can work out rehiring provi sions equitable both to the job-hunting war veteran who deserves the best this nation can supply, and to the worker who stuck to his job for the duration just as faithfully as the soldier stuck to his gun. For no arrangement establish ed by industry or legislators can be workable if it is unacceptable to labor. This is labor's day, and If the great army of working men and women pitch into their new problems with as much practical sense and enthusiasm as they pitched into the war problems, and if they exhibit the same spirit of co-operation and teamwork that they have ex hibited during the war, labor can look forward to a new day, brighter than any vet seen. Aftermath We already are beginning to feel the i fleets of postwar readjustment in Eu rope. For instance, the Poles have seized the former Gorman city of Stettin, and now American radio announcers will have to learn to pronounce the city's i ew name Szczecina. Funny Hit sin ess . ' l O SO THEY SAY I inn never afraid of the future of America. I h a v e boundless faith in Americans taking care of themselves if they are told what to do and why. Bernard Baruch. It w o u 1 d appear curtain that some Argentine leaders are get ting too big for their breeches. Like some other countries, they are inclined to regard American patience as equivalent to Amer ican support, or even American weakness. Piqua. Ohio, Call. We strongly urge everyone con nected with the salvage program to stay nn the job. J. A. King, chairman, War Pro duction board. "Just doin' bit of small talk, tirl" Among t h e world's nations, Franco's Spain is a moral outcast. That fact cannot bo lost upon Franco. Yet . . . he remains ar togant and confident. N.ltcliei, Miss., Democrat. Washington Merry-Go-Round Side Glances By DREW PEAMOH (NOTE Drew Pearson Is on vacation. In his absence, Bart Crura, west coast campaign .manager for Wendell Willkie and an independent republican, contrib utes a guest column.) By BART CHUM Chairman, Independent Republican! For Roosevelt. SAN FRANCISCO How I wish Wendell Wlllkle could be alive today to watch his realistic dream of one world -now emerging on the stage of history! No man cherished greater hopes and ideals for the peace of the world; and no man, in my opinion, would have had greater capac ity to help carry them out. I have been thinking back over some of the days I spent with Wendell Willkie. And in this hour of victory, which as much as anyone's is also Willkie's hour. I take ad vantage of Drew Pearson's invitation. Those of us who traveled with Willkie will always remember what a good listener he was, how seldom and how briefly he dominated the conversation. His idea of a good dinner was thick steak, baked potatoes, apple pie and cheese set in a framework of challenging and interesting talk. His honesty went beyond words into the realm of deeds. In 1940, the then governor of Kansas warned Willkie he had been pho tographed smoking a cigaret and the prairie grapevine shuddered with the rumor he oc casionally enjoyed a highball. Such a wast rel could never hope to win pious Kansan votes, the governor said. Months later, W'"' kie commented, "and the strange part of it was that the good governor was voted out of office on the same day Kansas gave me a majority." On the campaign train, no one managed Wendell Willkie. He listened to advice, weighed the evidence, and made his own de cisions. When other men grew tense, when tempers flared and personality defenses wore thin, his trenchant humor, often earthy and always in sharp focus, brought harmony out of approaching chaos. Many people have now forgotten Willkie's support of Great Britain, standing alone in defense of civil ization. At that time it was not a popular move. How the isolationists hated him for it! How the "wise" politicians tut-tutted his outspoken support of decency and democ racy, when evasion would have been so much more "adroit." And so we come to Willkie's last year, his tentative re-entry into the political field and his crusade to save the GOP from the blind oligarchy of its entrenched leadership, to his defeat in Wisconsin, his withdrawal as a candidate, and his cavalier exclusion from the 1944 GOP convention, a body whose . leadership welcomed Herbert Hoover on their platform. Where others deprecated mildly, Wendell Willkie moved boldly In his radio "open letter" on the Detroit race riots. He looked with puzzled contempt on the political type which struggles furiously in a vain effort to press both ears to the earth in futile hope of riding not leading the waves of public opinion. Who of our days has more tersely and accurately diagnosed the morass of re ligious prejudice than this forthright warrior when he said: "Anti-semitism is not a germ which ban be isolated or confined to any one group in our society. The total destruction which it works can be prevented only when a suf ficient immunity against it exists through out the community. This Immunity can be created through continuous education and constant use of democratic practices. The man, repudiated by the GOP high command, was opposed to communism in principle but could not see that doctrine as a threat to an enlightened and self-disciplined free enterprise system. I heard his talk his eyes alight, his huge frame tense with conviction on the future cooperative world, with the United States and soviet Russia, especially, working to gether to make it. He admired Russia "in its vigor, its vast dreams, its energy, its te nacity of purpose." What has happened to the heritage Wen del Willkie left to the republican party? It is small wonder thousands are finding it in creasingly difficult to give unswerving yet thoughtful allegiance to a republican party whose senators provided 14 of the 16 votes cast against the Bretlon Woods agreements, and whose only living ex-president has re cently attacked the victorious British labor party. The dinosaurs have left us only their skel etons as mute reminders of total defeat. The republican party is in dire danger of shar ing their fate. WE, THE WOMEN By RUTH MILLETT Papa was as over-joyed as. the rest of the family when rationing went off gasoline. The minute he heard the news he gave the kids some money and said' lq the 17ryear old: "For the first time since you've been old enough to drive the car you can pull into a filling station and get all the gas you want. So go to it. And then drive all over town, just for the fun of driving." Oh yes Papa was tickled pink. But now he's beginning to wonder if he isn't the old boy who is going .to pay in more ways than one for the family's being able to get all the gas they want. Mama takes him to work now and keeps the car. And instead of being able to leave for home the minute his day's work is done, he has to wait for Mama or one of the kids to pick him up. The kids take the car at night, too. And there is the worry about 1helr having an accident, and the concern because they don't get home as early as they did in gasoline less days. Then, too, Mama is already getting let ters from relatives who say .they are com ing for a visit. They haven't .traveled in so long, they say, they simply aren't going to put it off another month.' So home isn't the cozy, private place it used to be. Now it has the feel of a hotel, with people coining and going and worst of all, often staying. Behind Scenes in Washington By PETER EDSON. La Grand ETenlng Obsarrar Wuhlngioa Corrwpoadant WASHINGTON In any consideration of President Truman's request that congress continue selective service inductions of 18-to-25-year-old men, there is one important bit of background which should not be over looked. This is a directive which George C. Mar shall, general of the army, issued as basic policy for his general staff committees work ing on plans for the permanent postwar U. S. army. It was made public as an army cir cular almost exactly a year ago. It has been generally forgotten. Brought into focus now, however, it will explain perfectly what lies behind President Truman's letter on draft continuance, sent to chairman of house and senate committees on military affairs. General Marshal's directive set forth two important plans.' First, it warned that the "wartime a r m y" meaning a big army may be needed long after the defeat of the axis powers in order to establish the peace time conditions imposed by the allies. Second, General Marshall declared that after this period, the U. S. army must con sist of the smallest possible professional or ganization because a large standing army has no place among the institutions of modern democratic state. When these statements of policy were made a year ago, with Germany and Japan both very much in the running, it was the idea of the small, peacetime standing army that caught all the headlines and won all the praise from congressional leaders. It was then considered unusual that any regular army officer, even a statesman of the cal iber of General Marshall, should openly de clare in time of war that the U. S. army should be small. But in all the praise heap ed on General Marshall for this utterance, his qualification completely ignored was that the wartime army might still be needed for some time after the defeat of the axis. What General Marshall apparently fore saw clearly a year ago has now come to pass. In the interim, of course. Germany and Japan have been defeated and the U. S. public is in a different frame of mind.' So, while President Truman's request that congress continue the draft may now appear like something new and staggering a re versal of General Marshall's year-old sug gestion for a small peacetime army it is in reality nothing of the sort. There is a third point in General Mar shall's directive which must not be over looked. It is a statement that his policy of keeping a large wartime army to establish peace and then reducing to a small peace time army was based on the assumption con gress would approve a system of universal military training under which every able bodied American should be trained to de fend his country. A year ago, that statement caused no great consternation. In the bright and shining light of peacetime reality however, the thing looks different. It will unquestionably be unpopular and be met with stiff opposition. Yet, continuation of the draft is practically the same as compulsory military training. Inducting young men through the selective service system is merely the stop-gap until congress works out permanent policies for compulsory military training. Proposals for compulsory military train ing have of course, been before congress since early in the war. Before Virginia Rep. Clifton A. Woodrum'f select committee on postwar military policy, Secretaries Stim son and Patterson, Generals Marshal, Eisen hower and others have testified consistently in favor of the need for compulsory service. Afraid of the political implications, however, congress has shied away. If such legislation had been passed dur ing the war, it might have been easier to accept. Today, such legislation will have much harder going. This is merely a sign of the time. Gone is the enthusiasm for war, sentiment is now unquestionably in favor or returning as rapidly as possible to what General Marshall has so ably recognized as the traditional American way a small peacetime standing army backed by a citizen army reserve. All President Truman's request to con gress does it indicate that in the opinion of his military advisors, the time for return to that system has not yet arrived, and credit must be given to General Marshall for hav ing spelled out the whole situation candidly and consistently in his planning of a year ago. tout. ut y a mwet, im. t. m. m u. . t. off. 9-3 "If your wife won't give you a coupon for a new pair of shoes; I'd rather give you one of mine than try to repair these old wrecks!" O McKENNEY ON BRIDGE By WILLIAM E. McKENNEY America's Card Authority.', FOUR-CLUB BID SHOW YOUR ACES The world championship Mas ters pair event had the closest finish this year in the history of the game. At the end of the four sessions of play, only four points Separated the first three pairs. Llfhtman AKJ75 V AKJ67S A 10 3 Q 10 1 3 VNone Q864 QJ952 N W E S Dealer A None VQ943 J9532 A864 Appleyard A9862 V1062 K7 K107 Duplicate N.-S. vul. South West North East Pass Pass 1 V Pass 1 Pass 3 A Pass 4 Pass 4 4 Pass Opening Q. 2 The championship went to M. A. Lightman of Memphis, Tenn., and Pfc. Robert Appleyard of Ran dolph Field, Tex. Appleyard also won this event in 1939 with Har ry "Fishbein; ; As a result of his victory this year, Appleyard be- O BARBS ' As far as the kids are concern ed, the famous old song should read, "School daze, school daze, dreary golden rule days," As the outlook for new cars grows better the "look out' 'for pedestrians grows more important. came Life Master No. 46. ., In today's hand, the four-club bid is the Garber convention ask ing partner to show aces. While North did show two aces by his response of four spades, Apple yard decided his hand was too empty to try for the slam. ' The opening lead was won by East with the ace of clubs, and a diamond was returned, dummy winning with the ace. Appleyard led a spade to his ace, then pick ed up the whole spade suit. After casliing the ace of hearts, he led a small heart to his ten-spot, thus assuring himself the maximum number of tricks and top spore on the board. O IN FORMER YEARS Thirty Years Ago C. A. Phillips, the station help er at North Powder, was struck over the head with a heavy piece of wood about 9 o'clock last eve ning and while he was still in an unconscious state, robbers, be lieved to be two in , number, quickly cleaned the 0;W,.ationM till of all moneys in it and escaped. ,-, . Union's volunteer fire depart ment is now completely organiz ed and the hose companies, were appointed last night at a public meeting held in the city hall. Fifteen Years Ago . The judges in the rock garden and lawn contests, preliminary to the annual Neighborhood club flower show to be held Sept. 5, started their task of selecting the best displays in four districts of La Grande this moraine. The Chinese have asked for the Jap navy. Where are they going to get all the deep sea divers? As long as there are such things as neighbors, the age -old and original lend-lease will go on and on and on! Now comes one more mighty important reason for driving care fully: the youngsters are going back to school. FOUND BURIED CITIES Heinrich Schliemann discov ered the buried cities in the great mound of Troy. The mound it self was about 125 feet high, but all nine buried cities were found after digging only 50 feet. Ten Years Ago A 50-acre fire in second growth timber back of Hilgard was start ed yesterday by sparks from a U. P. locomotive, but before the day was over it had been con trolled. Application for a 45 percent grant and a 55 percent loan for an $80,000 women's dormitory at the Eastern Oregon normal school was filed by the state board of higher education yesterday with the public works administration in Portland. Charles Reynolds, with a 36 hole net of 146, won the Sacaja wea trophy golf tournament at the La Grande Country clui) dur ing the weekend. This Curious World WHAT'S IN A NAME P. IS Aor A FIR... and the trees scient1ftc name doesnt tell what the tree is but what it sast THE NAME, .MEANS "IMITATION HEMLOCK WITH YEW LEAVES." ... IT IS ALSO COMMONLY CALLED . DOU6LAS Stuce; and MANY LUMBERMEN SELL IT AS OREBOH COPR. 1941 BY NEA SERVICE. INC T. m. B1 u. & PAT. Of P. Peoevs HLHrLurii tvey ViKJCSNT . TDRTCWA, NANO oGb . IS KVIOWH AS A NEXT: Babe Ruth's high altitude hit.
