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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-
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South West North East
Pass Pass 1 V Pass
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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.
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