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About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 1945)
it:-; EDITORIAL- PAGE Side Glances La Grande Evening Observer Frank Schiro, Publisher WEDNESDAY EVENINC, SEPTEMBER 5, 1915 Page Two A Lift Along the Road mv. TODAY'S TEXT And David .said unto God, I am in a great strait: let mo fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man. Chronicles 21:1!5. Living With the A torn It is already evident that Americana are not going to be scared to death by the atomic bomb. Maybe we ought to be sitting in anguished uneasiness on this earth which has suddenly become a powder Ueg. Maybe we should shud der at the thought that no good which may come from the controlled creation of atomic fission can remove the threat of worse destruction than was dealt the Japs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But Americans, by and large, are taking the atomic age in their stride. We seem to be accepting it as we ac cepted Coueism, technocracy, nuih jong, Mae West and thle Dionne quintuplets. We are beginning to make jokes about it and exploit its commercial possibili ties. Puns are putting in an appearance puns of such a nature as to make any self - respecting electron break loose from iU orbit and run for cover: up and atom, Kve the first Atom-smasher, and so on, to the point where one lias atomic ache. The atom will inevtiably appear in n popular song, if it hasn't already. Equally inevitable will be a lot of pic tures of bathing beauties, pin-up girls and other curvy creatures, captioned "Anatomic Bombs." At least one cafe has brought out the atomic bomb cocktail, price 75 cents, and positively only one to a customer. The sober fact that one atomic bomb is more than sufficient for 50,000 cus tomers is beside the point. For today the atom bomb is a catchword as well as a terrifying, mystifying result of man's wisdom. It has caught the pub lic fancy, and so long as it holds that fancy it will help sell murchandi.se, from cocktails to adventure stories. So what? It isn't that Americans, even the punsters and the promoters, don't realize that the harnessing of atomic power is no joke. It isn't tlat we are completely irresponsible and senseless. Bather it may be that we are showing realistic courage. The bombing of Hiroshima was one of the stiffesl, most sobering jolts that the world of thinking men eyer re ceived. Yet a couplo of weeks later we Americans were making jokes about it. And perhaps that is just as well. Atomic power is hero to stay, for bet ter or worse, and has got to lie lived with. At its worst, it is only another threat of death. And men live with that threat every day, as they have since the beginning of time. Men stand today on the threshold of what, they hope will bo a better world. To achieve it they need hope and cour age as well as wisdom. And while wise cracks and promotion may not be the ideal means of achieving those quali ties, they are certainly preferable to utter discouragement and paralyzing tear. Funny Business SO THEY SAY We certainly do not want to maintain expensive ships (in the navy) if their usefulness has been brought to an oiut by the atomic bomb. Sen. Iliien McMahon, of Connecticut. I am strongly in favor of intur Amciican co-operation. I believe that this is the only way for our hemisphere to overcome its dif ficulties. Haul llaya dp la Torre, polit ical leader in Peru. We owe it to the world to con duct oursvlvcs as a victorious na tion resolved to maintain a peace ful world and end forever any chance of there being a World War 111. Alton. 111., Telegraph. "Qeorga got 10 used to hearing water dripping through a leaky roof at our lummar cottage that now he can't ilecp without ill" The intertvt shown in the new models indicates sales will soar to new peaks when the general public can obtain automobiles. I.. L. l.inehan, automobile sales executive. Washington Merry-Go-Round lr PHEW PEARSON WASHINGTON If congress really looks into the Pear) Harbor disaster carefully it will uncover one of the most amazing de tective stories in international diplomatic and military history, Top officers who worked on the investi gation stute privately that despite all the polite eyewash about responsibility in Wash ington, there Is uncontrovertible testimony that Admiral Husband Kimmel had con crete evidence seven days before Pearl Har bor that four Jap carriers were unaccounted for. These turned out to be four of the Jap ships which attacked Pearl Harbor. The fact that they couldn't be located was so serious that Kimmel indicated to his in telligence officer, Capt. Edwin D. Layton, that ho was aware of the possibility that the Jap carriers might be in sight of Pearl Har bor. Yet Kimmel did nothing to check up, and ordered shore leave on Saturday, Dec. 0, just as in normal times. Pari of Fleet 'Lost' Capt. Layton had done an outstanding job of intelligence against great obstacles. More recently he has directed intelligence for the entire Pacific fleet with equal effi ciency. Layton called on Kimmel on the morning of Dee. 1, 1941, and told him the Japs had taken an unusual step. He told Kimmel the Japs had changed all their na val radio calls. Kimmel ordered Layton to analyze immediately the whereabouts of the Jap fleet. Layton put together all his secret infor mation and reported back on Dec. 2 that he didn't know where two Jap carrier divisions yvere. "What! You don't know where carrier division I and carrier division II are?" Kim mel asked. "No, sir, I do not," Capt. Layton replied. "I think they are In home waters, but I do pot know where they ore. The rest of the units I feel pretty confident of their loca tion." Testifying before the secret naval board of inquiry, Capt. Layton continued: "Then Admiral Kimmel looked at me, as sometimes he would with a somewhat stern countenance pnd yet partially with a twinkle in his eye and said, 'Do you mean that they could be rounding Diamond Head and you wouldn't know it?' or words to that effect.' My reply was, 'I hope they would be sighted before now.' " Carriers on Prowl The officers who questioned Layton didn't understand what he meant by referring to the twinkle in Kimmel's eye, and they asked him if he felt the discussion had been seri ous. Layton replied that the question was absolutely serious and that failure to locate the four carriers was most important. Later on, every day up to the Pearl Har bor attack, Layton sent reports to Kimmel pointing out that there was no knowledge of where the missing Jap carirers were. Layton also told Kimmel that 200 Jap naval calls had been partially identified and that not a single one was from a carrier. When ships are on a combat mission they maintain radio silence. Thus it was known that the carriers were up to something. But Kimmel did nothing about the warn ings. He never sent out a single plane from any fleet headquarters to look for the miss ing Japs. This was despite the fact that Washington had warned oi a sneak attack from "Orange" (the secret code name for Japan), which had never declared war in her entire history. SMALL ECONOMY Reporters assigned to the treasury depart ment in Washington have asked for a new press-room adding machine with more fig ures. The old one only computes in mil lions. To taxpayers with a national debt in the billions, the cost of one new adding ma chine is infinitesimal. But we've got to start cutting down somewhere, so why not here? Let the boys keep the old machine and add the three ciphers for billions in pencil. That will be occasionally inaccurate, to be sure, but it won't hurt to take the last three figures in round numbers for a while. It'll be time enough to worry about expendi tures and incomes under a thousand when we get the public debt back into the millions. WE, THE WOMEN By RUTH MILLETT There is one group of Americans who have a reconversion problem facing them in the near future and perhaps don't even realize it. The group? America's housewives. Thousands and thousands of them soon will find themselves with more time to spend intelligently or to waste than they have had since the start of the war. Many of them who have held down jobs while employers have been begging for help, or because keeping house with a husband overseas wasn't a full time job, are going back to being full time housewives. And many women who have been full time housewives throughout the war are going to find themselves with time on their hands once their work is eased by such small but important time-savers as having the ear for running errands, being able to shop with out tiring searches for scarce articles, being able once again to get marketing done by one daily telephone call, and no longer be ing needed for volunteer war jobs. Well, what are they going to do with the time? Are they going back to killing it with long sessions in beauty salons, afternoon long bridge parties, ineffectual women's clubs? Or will they be too smart now that they know how capable they are, how much satisfaction there is in using time instead of killing it, to go back to the old boring ways? Now is the right moment for them to look ahead and make up thi'ir minds what they want to make of themselves and what they want to do with their lives. If they can honestly say they want to go back to playing bridge four or five times a week, spending a whole afternoon finding just the right pair of gloves, listening to book reviews instead of reading books then okay, it is what they like and what they want and that is their business. But it would be a crime for them to drift aimlessly into that kind of life again, just because they don't see that now is the time for them to decide where they'll go from here. Behind Scenes in Washington By PETER EOSON. L Grande Erening Observer Washington Correipondanl WASHINGTON Anyone who has the time and takes the trouble to read the 400 pages of army and navy Pearl Harbor in vestigation will come up more confused than when he began. Experienced officers who have carefully read every word come to the same conclusion the reports settle noth ing. And if the line of President Truman is to be followed, nothing is going to be done at this late date about the whole business. Court Martial could go on for ever, for ev ery responsible big shot has his alibis and can put the blame on his subordinates. The only value of the Pearl Harbor reports, there fore, may be to serve as a warning so that the same mistakes a,ie never made again. One fundamental mistake in the Pearl Harbor record seems to have been an in ability on the part of responsible officials properly to appraise such information as they had. Even worse than that was a complete lack of any coordinated intelligence service. Generals, admirals, and diplomats made the mistakes they made because each lacked full information as to what the other was duing. Reading the record carefully will indicate that everyone of the departments of gov ernment involved at Pearl Harbor had sources of information adequate for its own purposes. The army has hung medals on its G-2 officers for the jobs they did in organ izing intelligence and counter-intelligence work in Hawaii. Office of naval intelligence and federal bureau of investigation played their parts. There was no meani of putting them oil together to make on complete picture clear enough to determine a course uf action. Actually, it was not until six months after Pearl Harbor that anything like a coordi nated U. S. intelligence service was organ ized That was when the office of strategic services was created to collect and analyze strategic information required by the U. S. anny-navy joint chief of staff. Once the armed services get going on this pooling of intelligence services, they func tioned effectively. At one time, for instance, the anti-trust division of the department of justice was combing its voluminous records of German cartel agreements to find the lo cation of strategic war plants for army air forces to bomb. And, the post Pearl Harbor analysis of all machine tool orders placed by Japanese firms in this country before December 1341 showed exactly where Jap anese war plants wore located. Other government agencies developed in formation sources of value in their own spe cial fields. Commerce knew trade and treas ury knew fiscal affairs. Foreign economics administration knew more about the war production operations of the German gen eral staff than did the army's own G-2 ex perls on Germany. Demobilization of army and navy to peace time strength and liquidation of many war agencies will of course, mean curtailment of the office of strategic services organization built up by Maj. Gen. William J. Donovan. It was largely an organization of civilians who want to get back to civilian life. Many of its operations have been under the raps of military security and aura of cloak and dagger mystery still surrounds it war record. The important work of these lay not so much in romantic games of spy and counter spy however, but in the dull grind of schol arly analysis and appraisal of every scrap of information available. It was not the work in any one field of army or navy espionage, state department politics and diplomacy, for eign commercial, and industrial intelligence it had to cover them all and fit them all together. If the United States is not to be caught short again in some international disaster, it must know what goes on in the world and lie alert to its significances. It needs an information gathering service so good that it will not permit responsible heads of gowrnmcnt to be caught off base as they were at Pearl Harbor. COM. 1W BY MU SEBVICE INC. T. M. P.E0. U. 8. PAT. OFF. . . "In a way I'm glad I can't go visit my cousin Effie this year I won't have to think of all the dishes piled in the sink when I get home!" " o McKENNEY ON BRIDGE By WILLIAM E. McKENNEY America's Card Authority OPENING LEAD TIPS OFF MANY A HAND The war took many fine play ers away from tournaments and into the armed forces. However, at the recent summer session of the national championships at the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn, sev- A A 4 VAQ10 7 8 5 4 2 A65 A J 10 7 0 V 92 A97 J873 N W E S Dealer A K 3 V J805 4 3 QJ6 Q2 Von Zedtwitz AQ9852 K K 10 3 A K 10 9 4 Duplicate E.-W. vul. South West North East Pass Pass 1 V Pass I A Pass 2 Pass 3N.T Pass Pass Pass Opening V 9. 5 eral ot the bpysworeback from the European ' theate'r'"of opera tions. Our servicemen are well represented on the list of cham pions this year. Pfc. John R. Crawlord ot Philadelphia won the championship with Mrs. Wilkin son Wagar of Atlanta, Ga., and Miss Ruth Sherman and Walde- O BARBS man von Zedtwitz of New York. Here is one of the hands play ed by von Zedtwitz. Limited space prevents me from giving complete details on the hand, but you will see that there is a good deal of strategy in it. Von Zedt witz covered the opening lead with the ten, and East went up with the jack. The opening lead indicated to the declarer that West had four spades, and that West did not have the queen and jack of clubs. Von Zedtwitz's next play was a small spade to the ace, a small spade was returned, East won with the king and led back the queen of clubs. Dummy's ace ' won, and a small club was led which West was allowed 'to win. After crashing his two clubs and the spade queen, declarer threw West in the lead with a spade, forcing him to lead up to the king of diamonds. O IN FORMER YEARS - . . xo. . Thirty Years Ago Creation of a league' kn'6wn as the Union County Taxpayers' league, with the announced pui pose of promoting econqtriy in all public affairs, is taking pljice this afternoon in the city halj. For Rent: A five-roorrt mod ern house; $10 per montlljanclud ing water. . .. President Truman is moving to abolish the various war agencies. The best place for them to go is right back into the alphabet. With the removal of leather restrictions coming right on top of the ousting of blue points and the reduction in red points now for a belt that we can loosen up. Butter drops from 1G to 12 points. That's four more points toward the kind of a steak you wish your butcher had. The Japanese should get to know Americans better, says a Tokyo newspaper. We are about to prove that we agree. The usual forest fires have been with us this summer. If they con tinue we may soon be out of the woods. Fifteen Years Ago' With hundreds of cojorful flowers, varying from delicate roses to ruddy, glowing, zinnias and brilliant gladioli Massed in huge display, the annual La Grande Neighborhood clt?jp flow er show was successfully laun ched this afternoon at 2:84 in the La Grande hotel. : ; V Ten Years Ago, A 20-year franchise, fcthe E. O. L. & P. company, wHrfch pro vides for a 3 percent fee on gross earnings for the city, has been agreed upon by the city of Cove and the power company, accord ing to Karl Stackland, mayor of Cove. Clayton Fox, Union, county 4 H club member, added to his laurels at the Oregon state fair today when he took a large num ber of prizes in the sheep division. This Curious World COPS. 1946 BY NKA SERVICE. INC. , 7fa- WORD "HIEAtAL." REFERS TO WHAT .SEASON ? J;4 ' ' ORDER. YOU'RE SPEAKIN6 OF THE SAME STAR. WITHER YOU CALL IT" A'C77V SZX, STAR, T. H. UC U. t, PAT. OFF. ANSWER: Winter. NEXT: There' been some changes made in army plane. it i
