9
ganize for the purpose of securing ir
rigating moisture for their crops dur
ing the dry summer months.
When the time arrives that more
electric power is needed, water stored
in the reservoirs will be available for its
generation.
N o expense will be spared to protect
fish life, the major said and men ex
perienced in that work will be in charge
of that important feature of the pro
ject.
He compared the benefits to be
gained by the 'storage of flood waters
behind the multipurpose dams with the
proposed canalization of the Willam
ette River with dikes which is being
advocated by some. It was his opinion
that canalization would not be justified
and that the present program should
be completed.
Major McKay complimented the state
employees on their Association , and
pointed out the advantages to be anti
cipated by such an organization Work
ing for the mutual welfare of em
ployees of the state.
Lt. Colonel Allen Carson, one of Ore
gon’s foremost attorneys in civil life
and a member of the House of Repre
sentatives until his election to the Senate
in 1942, recently returned from India
and Burma where he spent a year with
the Fourth Combat Cargo Group.
His talk was on his experiences in
that important, but little known area
of World War II.
Colonel Carson told of his trip from
Florida to India where his first head
quarters was established. From this base
troops and supplies were flown to the
fighting fronts in the jungles of Burma.
Then, as the front moved forward, so
did the bases from which-the combat
cargo group operated. As intelligence
officer he took part in numerous flights,
some of which passed near Jap positions
located between the base and the places
of destination.
Enemy ground fire and fighter planes
were not the only dangers encountered
on these flights. An impenatrable jungle
offered no opportunity for an emergen
cy landing and many of the hastily
constructed airstrips were narrow and
short. Each landing and each take-off
from these strips was a hazardous ad
venture of its own.
A continuous down pour during the
rainy Reason. and bugs, insects, snakes,
birds with strange crys and wild beasts
of the jungles— rainy season and dry—
all went to make an unusual and un
pleasant life for the soldiers far away
from their homes.
The natives adhere to the customes
of centuries ago in their every day life
and in their business life. Agricultural
methods are primitive and as a result
food is scarce. Sanitation is one thing
they know nothing of, but even so the
speaker observed, " I t ’s hard to under
stand how a people and a country can
get so dirty and smell so bad in only
two thousand years.”
The statistics quoted by Colonel Car-
son of the miles flown by the Fourth
Combat Group, the thousands of tons
of material and supplies carried to all
fighting fronts in Burma and the per
sonnel transported to the front lines
and return, impressed his audience with
the important part this group played in
winning the war in Burma and India
under the most trying conditions.
What I am thinking and doing day
by day is resistlessly shaping my fu-
ture— a future in which there is no ex
piation except through my own better
conduct. N o one can save me. No one
can live my life for me. If I am wise
I shall begin today to build my own
truer and better world from within.
—H. W. Dresser