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
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tt Ufuif ySJP PERIODICALLY (SUCH ASTHEONE
WXA l' WE'LL SEE ISI NOVEjWSER)
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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
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