La Grande evening observer., October 05, 1945, Image 2

Side Glances
Washington Merry-Go-Round
EDITORIAL PAGE
By DREW PEJUtBOM
La Grande Evening Observer
Frank Schlro, Publisher
FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 5, 1945
Page Two
They Always Make It Sound So Wonderful
cL
73
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m
77ie Rebellious Annamites
It ia a tragic misfortune tnat violence
has broken.out nguin in East Asia where
peace was restored so recently, and that
lives have been lost, including that of
an American officer. Hut perhaps it
would be wise to curb the impulse to
condemn the rioting Annamitos of In-do-China.
For it may be that they are
slightly confused by recent events.
Four years ago the Japs moved in to
replace the French as overlords of An
nanv and the other Indo-Chinese col
onies. This was done with the conniv
ance of France which, being then ft
colony of iinssi Germany, had no choice
in the matter.
Now France, having been rescued '
only recently from, her degrading col
onial status, has moved in to resume
her former place as ruler of lntlo-Chiiui.
Perhaps the Annamites had been so
carried away by wartime talk of free
dom and democracy and liberation that
they forgot they are supposed to be nu
inferior people incapable of self-rule.
Perhaps I hey even remembered the
words of two former heads of slate wh
met in mid-ocean (luring the darkest
days of nazi tyranny and wrote such
words as these:
"They (the heads of state) desire to
bee no territorial enanges Uiat do not
accord with the freely expressed wishes
of the peoplcH concerned . . . They re
spect the right of all peoples to choose
the form of government under which
they will live: and they wish to see
sovereign rights and self-government
restored to those who have been forcibly
deprived of them."
Funny Husiness
Perhaps the Annamites recalled that,
in January of 1912, all governments
then at war with the axis had sub
scribed to this "common program of
purposes and principles embodied in the
joint declaration of the president of the
United States and the prime minister of
the United Kingdom . . . known as the
Atlantic charter."
The Annamites may have noticed
that the heads of a good many civilized
governments are full of repentance, lov
ing kindness and political morality when
confronted with disaster, but that they
have a way of reverting to their old
ways of thinking and doing once peril
is past.
And the Annamites, being less sophis
dieated and self-deceiving than some of
the world's tribes, may have decided
that the only way to independence lay
in strong action even if that Imcant
fighting a coalition of the French, the
liritish, and the recent common enemy
of all concerned, the Japanese.
Courtesy to Rats
A New York magistrate fined a man
$o for letting his dog kill some rats that
U had caught. "Kvcn a rat is entitled
to certain courtesies," the magistrate
said. "If you want to rid the neighbor
hood of rats, trap t h c m and drown
them.'
We agree with his honor. If the nazi
and .lap war lords, and the murderous
butchers of the nazi and Jap torture
torture camps are assured of a trial and,
at most, a swift, clean hanging or shoot-'
ing, certainly a four-legged rat merits
ciiu.-il courtesies. In fact, probablv more.
, O JUL
MS i. . 0 l.'i.'V
o SO THEY SAY
Whatever opinion we may have
hint of Germany and Japan, it's
going to lie hard fur us to stay
angry enough to maintain in those
countries the occupation forces
we have considered necessary.
Fort Smith. A r k., Southwest
American.
.1. -r :T7-T
Wo heard of a Itcidsville girl
who lost her new hat and didn't
find it til she combed her hair
the next day.
lloidsville. N. C, Review.
You can't do that (centralize
power in Washington) and have
a people's government, and a
people's government is needed to
make certain we w ield our pow
er for the benefit of mankind.
Charles P. Tiift of Ohio.
"frcnkly, I think ono of lho polo guard of honor wai a rlvall"
Carrier task forces are a unique
creation of the United States and
are one ot the m o s t powerful
forces in exittence in the world
today.
--James V. Forrestal, secretary
of the navy. '
WASHINGTON Now President Truman
is having his troubles wilh General Mac
Arthur, he probably looks back on an off-the-rccord
session of his Truman committee
where MacArthur was a topic of discussion.
The question was whether MacArthur
should bo publicly spanked in a Truman
committee report for his negligence in los
ing 300 planes on the ground in Manila, after
the Pearl Harbor attack had warned him to
be prepared.
A brief reference to this was contained
. in the Truman committee report scheduled
for release March 4, 1044. Copies of the re
port were in type and circulated confiden
tially to all committee members. The criti
cism of MacArthur read as follows:
"Censorship is an insult to the patriotism
and intelligence of the American people. In
the past, it has led to many unwise acts,
such as the concealing of facts known to the
enemy, and even the dissemination of dis
torted information. For example, the Jap
anese knew perfectly well the destruction
' they had wreaked upon our airplanes in the
Philippines, but for two years the war de
partment requested that it be kept secret
from the public 300 planes were destroyed
on Philippine airfields a number of hours
after the attack on Pearl Harbor was known.
"The loss was only recently made public,
and there is at least a suspicion part of the
reason for requesting the committee to con
sider the information 'secret' was the desire
to avoid resentment by the public of the
loss of 300 planes which would have been
so valuable, to defense.
When this came before the full Truman
committee, however, two democrats, Hatch
of Now Mexico and Connally of Texas, ob
jected, with one republican, Ball of Minne
sota. They did not believe the committee
should criticize MacArthur.
Truman, on the other hand, felt MacAr
thur's being caught with his planes on the
ground at Manila was even more serious
than at Pearl Harbor, since he too had had
advance warning.
However, in deference to the three rebel
lious senators and following his principle of
courting committee unity, he yielded.
Note The .'.Pearl Harbor report now
shows that General Marshall telephoned
Manila on the morning of Dec. 7, to beware
of a Jap attack, though he only warned
Pearl Harbor by slow commeitial cable. In
other words, all the fears of the general
staff were Manila would be bombed first.
Thus, MacArthur had two warnings, Gen
eral Marshall's and when the Japs hit .Pearl
Harbor ahead of the Philippines. ....
C. I. Chaff : ; '
One naval station where they really grease
the discharge skids is Wildwood, N. J., car
rier aircraft service unit. Twelve percerit of
the navy men at that station were discharged
in a single month. Men who have almost
enough points for discharge are given medi
cal examinations in advance, thcri 'sent home
immediately when they get sufficient points.
... Joe O'Connell joined the 413th infantry
just outside' Aachen.' He fought all the way
across Germany. Luck was with him. His
wife and two children rejoiced that he never
got hit. But the other day at "Camp San
Luis Obispo, Calif.,' his outfit was ordered
to fire mortars in other words to repeal
' their basic training all over again with live
ammunition. Mortars are treacherous. A
shell burst just after leaving the muzzle
and now Joe O'Connell is dead. He bled to
death, as there was no ambulance or doctor
on the range. Two others died with him, plus
15 injured. In a few more weeks, they would
have been dscharged ... Down at Fort
Jackson, S. C, Lt. Col' E. V.' H,' Bell, com
mander of a mortar battalion, opposed the
unnecessary risk of having 'his -.men fire
mortars. They had fired 39,000 .rounds in
combat and he felt had earned a rest. But
Bri. Gen. George Van W. Pope, inspector
for the second army, Was furious. Many
men are getting apathetic, wish- they could
spend their time in education if they must
remain in the army.
King Carol of Rumania no longer plays
bridge in Mexico City, now cools his heels
in Rio Dc Janeiro, the pawn in the quercst
internaional tug-of-war.
The Russians, believe it or not, want him
back in Rumania. The British and Amer
icans don't.
Sec WASHINGTON . . . Page 4
.4 yJ&vUxU-
cow, mi iy nta sfwer, wtc t. . nu. v. s. nr:6rr:
''Well, we lived through the first world war and now the "second
is all over, but we've still got the same old range and icebox it
; makes me wonder sometimes what wo were fighting' fori"
McKENNEY ON BRIDGE
: By WILLIAM E. McKENNEY
America's Card Authority
THREE-ONE BREAK
NEEDS THIS PLAY
In Atlantic City recently I saw
the genial co-chairmen of last
year's fall national tournament,
WE, THE WOMEN
By RUTH MILLETT
J63
43
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A A K 9 4
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Duplicate Both vul.
South West North East
2 Pass 2 Pass
2 Pass 4 Pobs
7 4b Pass Pass Pass
Opening 3. 8
"It may appear glamorous to marry a
wounded soldier,' but it will be unpleasant
to become the breadwinner of the family
and be denied the social enjoyment of mar
nied life."
So decided mombcrs of two Catholic wom
en's organizations which recently met for a
state convention in Rochester, N. Y., and
voted to warn women to wait a year before
marrying servicemen who are "shellshock
ed, maimed, or In nervous condition."
What are they trying to make out of
American girls a bunch of selfish softies?
Certainly marriage with a man on whom
the war has left its mark won't be all smooth
sailing. But because of that, are such men
to go through life without a wife and chil
dren? So a girl says to a wounded or ill service
man: "No, I won't many you now. I'd like
to wait a year to make sure you won't ever
be a burden to me."
And what is that going to do to him?
Has any group of untrained persons any
business telling girls what to do about mar-'
rying shell-shocked and maimed men?
Isn't that rather a job for the trained
psychiatrist? And shouldn't any girl who
isn't sure whether such a marriage has any
chance of success go to a psychiatrist to find
out what he says about it?
Certainly it is not fair to the servicemen
who carry the mental and physical scars of
war, for a group of women to lump them all
together as bad marriage risks and warn
girls of the dangers of marrying them. .
They arc individuals and so arc the girls
with whom they arc in love.
Mrs. Helcne Kelly and David
Bayless. Once again they will act
as co-chairmen when the tourna
ment returns to Atlantic City,
week of Dec. 2 at Hotel Chelsea.
O BARBS-
In these days of high prices it's
nice to know that awnings and
screens are coming down. .
Nothing will ruin an old auto
mobile quicker than the ncxtdoor
neighbor getting a new one. ,
Shortage of wigs' is going to cut
down the number of -dolls this
Behind Scenes in Washington
By PETER EDSON. La Grand Evening Observer Washington Correspondent
Mrs. Kelly is doing fine work
among the wounded soldiers at
England General hospital, and she
promifes that several of her pu
pils will participate in the forth
coming national tournament .If
they play as well as one of them
did with today's hand, they
should make a good showing.
Declarer won lho ofi;mng lead
with the ace of diamonds in dum
my, and took two rounds of
trumps, only to discover the
three-one break. He realized then
that, in order to have-ia three
three break in spades. lie led the
third trump, cashed three rounds
of hearts, discarding a spade
from dummy, cashed the ace and
king of spades and ruffed a spade.
If he had attempted to ruff both
spades, he would have lost the
contract, as the third heart would
have been trumped.
O IN FORMER
YEARS
Thirty Years Ago
Considerable more than 50
babies are now entered '' for the
eugenics' contest which"begins
promptly at 1 p. m. at the fair
grounds Oct. 8. and for'which a
suitable prize either in the way of
a loving cup or medal will be
-awarded.
The final plans for the YMCA
membership campaign have been
perfected and all indications arc
that when the results arc count
ed on the last day it will be found
that the desired number of mem
bers have been secured.
Out of the 45 Bulgarians lo
cated in lumber camps. 'about La
Grande, it is not expected there
will be anv material reply or re
sponse to the expected call to
colors of reservists by "King Fer
dinand, tsar of all Bulgarians.
WASHINGTON Economic pioneering
Senator James E. Murray of Montana has
just tossed into the hopper another planning
bill. This one is intended to stabilize the
U. S. construction industry. It is offered as
a first practical step to .supplement Senator
Murray's full employment bill, just passed
by the senate, and make it a working law.
In addition to that, this proposed con
struction stabilization bill is important he
cause it strikes out in new directions by put
ting public works construction in its proper
place. The bill abandons completely the old
idea that the entire national economy can
be supported by public works spending
alone. That was one of the great fallacies
of the depression era. It has now been
openly thrown in the ash can and this fad
refutes the ofctn-heard criticism that the
bill was merely a plan to provide 60,000,000
jobs by unlimited spending on public works
projects. It is now admitted that the most
public works can do is stabilize the construc
tion industry and that is what this bill pro
poses. To understand how this construction stab
ilization bill would work, you first have to
gel a picture of the U. S. building industry.
It has two main divisions. New construction
and repair. There are no known data on the
repair and modernization business, so the
only thing to stabilize is new construction.
Over the 20 year period from 1020 to 193!)
all the new construction was divided into
approximately even thirds one third pri
vate home construction, one third commer
cial and Industrial building of new factories,
office buildings, stores and railroad con
struction, one third publicly financed con
struction. Bear in mind that these are the
averages which would have been reported
if the building industry h id bon stabilizfd
over the 20 year period. Actually, it shom ed
no such pattern for the fluctuations in the
building industry have always been notori
ously irregular. Some yejrl showed build
ing booms and other years there was prac
tically no new building.
The amazing part of this record of fluc
tuation is Ihnt public works constructions
has usually gone up In period when there
was a lot of private construction. Converse
ly, public works have been curtailed when
the private building industry was in the
dumps.
What the new Murray bill proposes is
simply that the public works third of the
construction be timed so that it would level
off the ups and downs of the private indus
try. When financed building was in a boom
and doing more than its usual two thirds
of the business, public works projects would
be held up. In reverse, whenever the pri
vately financed building business hit the
skids, the idea would be to cut loose on pub
lic financed construction projects so that
these public works would take up the slack
in the industry, keep the lumber and brick
yards people going, keep the carpenters,
electricians, masons and other building
trades steadily employed.
If the idea behind the Murray bill is
sound and if this neat trick of stabilizing the
building industry can be pulled off, the 11
percent of the national economy represented
by the industry may be levelled off and
cured of its extreme peaks and valleys. But,
at best, it will stabilize only 11 percent of
U.S. business. There is no Idea it is a mir
acle bill to stabilize all business.
Spade work on this new bill was done by
the senate small business committee, of
which Senator Murray is chairman. The
committee has been investigating the con
struction industry since last May, when it
held public hearings. The committee's own
staff has been aided by experts loaned by
trade associations in the industry. So, it is
a business-backed proposal that has the en
dorsement of working contractors and build
ers, not just a pretty theory.
If the industry can be stabilized in any
(kcaree. small business will be benefitted
immeasurably. At times, there have been
as many as 500.000 firms in the contracting
buisncss. In 1939 the number dropped to
215.000 and of these, less than half did more
than $5,000 worth of business a year.
If the industry took care of Its 11 per cent
of 60.000.000 jobs it would account for some
thing over six an,d.eialf million works.
Christmas. With textiles scarce,
maybe it's just as well they
won't have anything to wear.
Manufacturers arc expected to
turn out 36,000,000 pairs of nylon
hosiery by December. Mcrlry
Christmas, girls!
Fifteen Years Ago , A'
W. C. Perkins won his way into
the finals of the country club
golf championship tournament
this weekend by defeating Chase
Bohncnkamp 2 and i'. Perkins
will play Charles H. .Reynolds
for the championship. !,
A great deal of Ilic high cost of
living can be blamed on the cost
of high living.
It's odd how quick people can
reduce expenses when merchants
refuse credit.
Ton Years Ago
A reduction in the tax reoiiire
menls for the 1(136 Union county
budget of $47,552 was made by
the budget committee at its an
nual meeting in Judge U. G.
Couch's office yesterday..
This Curious World
FLY1N& IN -V" PORMATION
DO NOT HAVE ONE LEAPFD
) CONSTANTLY AT THE HEAD
l THE LPAflPPHIO PrVTATCC
4fcV!SJt AMON& THE Pt;p.siijrE
stlSw3; THAT cv-xirmw AAI icroi.rn.
I COME MORE WIND RESISTANCE.
IN'DR.JEKYU. AND MR. HYDE," 1
WHICH WAS THE EVIL CHARACTER 9
5 v
IS THE eREATESTCOPPEE DRINN6
NATION ON EAI?TH, BUT TESTS SH2W
THATc.0 P CENT OC ALL H A6E
WIVES MAKE POtMt 0T.
ANSWER: Hr. Hvde.
-'9XTt.'Why is lha thermometer misnamed? .a