Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 1945)
o EDITORIAL PAGE La Grande Evening Observer Frank Schiro, Publisher 'III DAY KVKNINC. OCTOHKK 12, l!ir (iettinq Ready for -.-...: .-.-Si BVENINtt OHSERVKW-; PROGRESS PROGRAM IRRIGATION Complete the Crundc Ronde Val'ey irrij(tition project. LA (JRANI)K A city nf lll.nnn - Extend the city liniilH., Our Stewardship of the Atom President Truman made a persuasive case for tfovernmont control of .the "business" of atomic power in his njes sane to congress, lie logically set forth the ui'sent reasons why a domestic policy must precede and govern further domestic development in this field, and why international agreement to re nounce the military use of atomic power must lie reached before any interna tional exchange of information is pos sible. A comforting corollary to the presi dent's message is the interesting back ground on the atom bomb's development which William I,. Laurence has been permitted to make known. Laurence, a science writer for the New York Times, was chosen by the war department to explain the bomb to the lay public. From 1 t:li on he was intimately associated with the experimental program. He wit nessed the test explosion in New Mex ico and the atomic bombing of Naga saki. In short, he knows his subject. And !iurencc says the "secret" of the atom bomb is not one secret, but thousands. The theoretical possibility of releasing atomic energy has been known for 'HI years, l'.ut it was a longer road from theory to the atom bomb than from the Wright brothers' lir.t plane to the l!--J!l. The "secret" was discovered. Laur ence says, liecause the scientists work ing on it had recourse to America's great sources of natural power and her great Funny business IH-H-H. V toff I S.3 lB sir, k-v, th,jJ life m "No 5 iKicunl il you care 1 I!!" Page Two the Next Round: l'.;: industrial facilities. The atom bomb would not have been1 possible in 1945, he explains, without TV A and Bonne ville dam. Neither would it have been possible then without the resourceful ness, inventiveness and accumulated wisdom of many American industries. Laurence emphasizes the "Secret" of unlocking atomic energy is no cook-book recipe. It involves thousands of new de velopments, and it has led to some revo lutionary by - discoveries and by-products, including the creation by man of a new element in the universe, called plutonium. It thus seems safe to assume "giving away the secret of the atomic bomb" is not so simple as it has sounded. I-aurence does not doubt other countries can and will discover that secret. Rut he does not believe that any of them, judging from American experience, could do it in less than five years. Few countries have our combination of power and industrial development. And, for another tiling, the world sup ply of uranium is not accurately known. Uranium is the only known source of releasable atomic energy. It yields, after a costly and complicated process, uranium 12:!."), which was used in the atom bomb. I!ut 1,000 pounds of uran ium produce only seven pounds of l'-23T. Ilefore the atom bomb, uranium was a relatively unimportant metal. There are only three large deposits of high-grade ore known, says Laurence. These are in Canada, the ISelgian Congo and Czecho slovakia, and the last was pretty tho loughly worked out by the Germans. So other countries must have uran ium and power and a tremendous indus trial setup before they can catch up with this country in the atomic-energy field. Meanwhile it would seem that we may maintain our stewardship and develop our leadership without anxiety, toward the end this awesome power may be come the benefactor and not the de stroyer of mankind. SO THEY SAY Ore of the cjoates' dangers to tile future of this country is fail ure to correct mental disorders. Mai. Gen. bonis B. llcrshcy. Selective Service Director. There is one sound rule to bo followed in making investments. Take time to investigate. Independence. Mo, Examiner. It is not possible for the United State to he prosperous if the vest of the woild is m depression. It is not possible for other countries to maintain economic balance if industry m the I'nitcd States is not oroducini" at high levels. -W.mdell Here, assistant attor ney general. Every regulation which is con tinued after V.J day should lie submitted to ilv acid test of in dustry criticism, and if the regu lations cannot he fully justified, they should he abandoned. - Huller!ii. National Association of Shoe Manufacture s. j Washington Merry-Go-Round By DREW PEAHSON WASHINGTON;A keen scrap niged be hind the closed door? of the senate com merce committee before the committee fi nally voted 10-7 to reject the first federal . job appointment sent up by President Tru man. Subject of the debate was former Congressman R a y; McKeough of Chicago, named by the president as a member of the maritime commission. (He was confirmed Thursday. Ed.'s note.) Republican Senator Owen Brewster of Maine led the fight against McKeough's ap proval, on the grounds naming a CIO man to the commission would appear to be fa voring the CIO over the AFL. McKeough was Illinois director of the CIO political ac tion committee during the last election. Democrat Senator Warren Magnuson of Washington, who served in the house with McKeough and knows him well, argued to turn down the appointment because Mc Keough was connected with the CIO. would mean no labor man could be appointed to the commission. "Any labor man you get will be a mem ber of one or the other labor groups," Mag nuson said. "Will this committee tell organ ized labor its members are not eligible for federal jobs?" To this, Senator Guy Cordon, Oregon re publican, replied: "What we have here is, as the late Pres ident Cleveland said, a condition and not , n theory. McKeough happens to have been an especially active representative of one of the labor groups, I think labor doesn't generally object to a man in another labor group who has not actively participated in partisan questions." Magnuson pointed out that McKeough, rather than being a member of CIO, had simply been hired by CIO to do a job in the 1 944 campaign. At this point, Maine's Brewster came through with the argument which repub lican members say settled the issue. "It wouldn't be fair to put McKeough in that sort of a job," Brewster argued. "As soon as we do that, everything he does is in danger of misinterpretation. If a decision he might make favors the CIO maritime union, the AFL can holler favoritism. On the other hand, there is the danger he will be so anxious to avoid any charges of favorit ism he might be unfair to the CIO groups." Committee republicans agree this argu ment is the reason they decided against ap proving the nomination. While southern democrats Bailey of North Carolina chair man of the committee and Bilbo of Mis sissippi voted for McKeough and even spoke WE, THE WOMEN By RUTH MILLETT Department stores report that they are having a terrific run on exotic lingerie, that black nightgowns nre selling faster than hot cakes and the girls are rioting over any kind of undcrthings that are "sugar and spice and everything nice." The story is that wives of returning sol diers are putting together a "second honey moon trousseau' 'to welcome their men. We suspect, however, that a good bit of this buying is being done by the hard-working young things who have spent most of the war years in slacks and sweaters or similar un-feminine garb. Now, with sav ings from their war jobs, they are splurg ing on the frilly things they've wanted all Behind Scenes in Washington By PETER EDSON. La Grande Evening Observer Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON When President Truman stood up as best man at Bennett Clark's wedding to actress Violet Heming. it wasn't just a gesture .of friendship between two ex-senators from the same state. It was also the culmination of a friendship begun in the first world war when the two men serv ed as officers in the 35th division of Mis souri and Kansas national guard. Right after Truman became president, another of their ex-buddies came to Washington and corner ed Clark at the Mayflower hotel. "Look!." he said, "I want you to go see Harry Tru man and tell him I want a commission. I don't want one of these Pentagon commis sions, and I don't want to go to the Pacific, either. But I can do em a lot of good in France, and I want Truman to get me made a brigadier general." Clark was himself a former senator out of a job at that time, so this large order floored him. When he recovered, he came back with this: "Look," he said. "When this war started Harry Tru man and I both held reserve commissions as colonels. We both went out to see General Marshall and told him we wanted to resign our seats in the senate and be called to ac tive service. Marshall turned us both down. So how in the world do you expect Harry Truman to get you made a brigadier general when he couldn't even get himself made a colonel?" Dr. Vannevar Bush, who is head of the of fice of scientific research and development and likes to In- though! of as an engineer, has invented a 'new doodling game to help him while away dull care at banquets or conferences whete the speakers get. partic ulaiiy boring. Most people in this predica ment either go to sleep or pull out a pencil and draw crazy designs on the white linen tablecloths. Bush's mind is too alert for the former and not destructive enough for the latter. So, he takes a piece of paper, tears it up into 100 or inoie itlle half-inch squaics. and spends the evening arranging them in engineering designs. ,.l the while he hears cvry word and never misses a trick. in his t'nvor during the meeting, two of their colleagues who see red whenever CIO is mentioned joined the republicans in voting against confirmation. They were John Over ton of Louisiana and W. Lee "Pappy" O'Dan- iel of Texas. Army v. Navy Hugh Delacy. scrappy frpshman represent ative from Seattle, asked the $64 question at a recent session of the naval affairs com mittee. "Admiral Denfeld," he asked the new chief of naval personnel, "in view of the fact that it was the navy and the marine corps who really did the major part of the fighting in the Pacific, don't you think it would have been proper to make a naval officer supreme commander in Japan?" Ad miral Denfield grinned but did not answer . . . Mfembets of the officers' club at Fort Meyer, Va., were upset because, when Pres ident Truman visited there recently, he did not stop in the club-house. They had had all the slot machines removed . . . Cmdr. Gene Tunney is planning to make a stab at the Connecticut senate seat now held by Adm. Tommy Hart, who was appointed to suc ceed the late Francis Maloney . . . Eric Johnson, who has taken over the movie job formerly held by Will Hays, is planning the construction of a huge motion picture indus try building here in Washington. It would house offices of the picture companies, as well as work space for camera crews shoot ing Washington and facilities for theater men, actors, studio workers and anyone else connected with the industry. Atom Expert Disappears Expert on Atomic energy, Werner Heisen berg, has disappeared. His whereabouts re mains a complete mystery. The war depart ment won't say whether he was captured by the allies or escaped. Heisenberg is rec ognized as the world's leading nuclear physicist. He may be hiding in Spain or Argentina. Both of these countries have suf ficient resources to develop atomic bombs ... A secret nazi file linking every impor tant German industrialist with the nazi party even before Hitler came into power in 1933 has just been discovered by the American army. Watch for developments on this when the war trials open ... On November 1, the army will stop microfilming V-mail after doing the stupendous job of carrying 1.750, 000,000 V-mail letters. Families with V-mail forms on their hands, however, can still use them. The army will see that they're deliv ered as regular mail without microfilming . . . Secretary Fred Vinson is by all odds the most statesman-like negotiator in the Brit ish conferences for postwar help. this time. And there probably are WACs and WAVEs represented in the crowds around those lingerie counters. Who has missed the fe minine things any more than our girls in uniform? More power to them all. The war wives and war workers and serv ice girls deserve the best. And if they shell out forty-nine of sixty-five dollars for a sheer, lacy, practically transparent bit of fluff, can we really criticize it as unneces sary extravagance? Let's just put it down as morale-building and indicative of our American characteristic of going after what we want. Ira Mosher, president of the National As sociation of Manufacturers, is entitled to un employment compensation under the Mas sachusetts state law. Some of his advisers have tried to get him to apply for it, with still photographers and the newsreels pres ent, just to show up some of the weaknesses of existing jobless insurance laws, but the N. A. M. head says he isn't interested in that kind of publicity. Mosher had to give up his salary-paying business connections some months ago, to devote his full time to N. A. M. work. The law says anyone who can't find work in the same locality and at ap parently the same rate of pay is entitled to unemployment benefits. There was only one job of the kind he had head of an op tical instrument company in the South bridge, Mass.. town where he lives. And," as the N. A. M. job carries no salary with it, Mosher would legally be entitled to relief. The new, life-size oil painting of Frances Perkins, former secretary of labor, hung in the labor building third floor elevator lobby along with portraits of other gone and for gotten secretaries, shows Madame Perkins with hat off. This in spite of the tact she never took her hat off in all the 12 years she was in office, and her Income got to be more a trade mark than George Wash ington's. Only major change which Secre tary Lewis B. Schwellenbach made in the secretary's office was to order in a big brass spittoon. It seems the former occupant didn't use one. But now that there are more labor leaders coming into the department to do business, all the soft, fawn colored carpets are taking a lot more punishment from shoes and burnt matches than they used to. New York and Chicago ad-man William Benton was in Washington for two weeks, hiding out in a Statler hotel suite, before he was confirmed and, swot n in as assistant secretary of labor in charge of public in formation policies. Hvospent this time bon- See BEHIND THE SCENES . . . Page 4 Side Glances ! . M?"' N)?ii eo.mirmASivici.iNCT.M.au.t.AT.o. ' io-t) "It's like a dream, Ethel little did we suspect last year at this time we could drive down to the football games and spend the fall weekends with youl" j- McKENNEY ON BRIDGE By WILLIAM E. McKENNEY America's Card Authority WHEN IN RUBBER, PLAY RUBBER BRIDGE There is a difference in the play of the cards in duplicate and rubber bridge. A duplicate player might easily lose today's hand, because he would figure on mak- AAKQB02 3 A 4 3 A 10S Duplicate N.-S. vul. South West North East 1 A Pass 2 V Pass 3 A Pass 4 Pass 4N.T. Pass 6N.T. Pass Opening 10. 13 ing the maximum in order to win a good score. He would look at the hand and say, "If either the spade or heart suit breaks, I can make 13 tricks." And it is not unreas.onab.le tg think, that one of the two suits should break.' O BARBS Hamburger is celebrating be ing removed from the ration list by getting a bun on. Don't start bragging about coming from good people until those people can start bragging about you. When nylon hose are available, women will have to take their store-by-store chance of getting them, says the WPB. Another war so soon? Congress has chosen the fourth Thursday in November for Thanksgiving, but some slates may stick to tradition and name the fifth. There should be plenty of thanks this year for both days. There will be less clothing for the rest of the year than OPA had hoped. Some of the gals are likely to get pinched. This Curious World Af IS THE HAWe OP A SA XKRX A 104 V AKQ904 K 7 K87 Flshbeln I N AJ97S3 W E None VJ 108 7 0 c V2 4 Dealer A0.1r.532 I aiI that the earth encounters tt Ufuif ySJP PERIODICALLY (SUCH ASTHEONE WXA l' WE'LL SEE ISI NOVEjWSER) -f J IK 4"' ARE THE REAAINS OF ANSWER: 8aweed. NEXT: The versatile jaguar. The hand was played in a du plicate game at the May fair Bridge Club in New York against our good fiiend Harry Fishbein. South, the declarer, was a very fine rubber bridge player who did not quite realize that, al though his contract was six, it was important to make seven in duplicate. When he won the first trick with the ace of diamonds, he simply led the deuce of spades. Fishbein won with the jack and knocked out the king of diamonds, but South cashed the ten of spades and claimed the balance of the tricks for top score at both rubber bridge and duplicate; e IN FORMER YEARS Thirty Years Ago That more Union county peo ple should grow popcorn is the contention of those who have given the subjoct study. A La Grande man yesterday exhibited popcorn of magnificent quality, increased in standard by his own ' attention;' and it isMikely some nt this particular garden .wiH go to the land show. " Several extensive potato grow-r ers are digging their crops. While" the estimates say there will be" insufficient, or at least not more than enough to meet the home Ir, tv,; imiinlv it ill apparent that several crops will yield nicely. 'A i I Fifteen Years Ago In the ball sweepstakes at the country club golf course Sunday, C. H. Reynolds was first with an 83 and was 0 down on par. J. C Batchelder was second with a 93, seven down on par, and John Theisen was third with a 95, seven down on par. Ten Years Ago Allotment committees of gov enment corn-hog control asso ciations of Umatilla, Wallowa, Union, Baker, Malheur, Grant, and Harney counties met at the city hall here today, to make plans for holding a referendum vote on whether or not the corn hog contract should be continued during 1936. With county trucks available for use next week, it, is planned to put a surfacing of good, black dirt on the L. H. S. athletic field. Always produce ouACtJPi.E'2i AND THE BABS AR ALWAYS BiTHER. AIO. A4A4MS 1013 SO
