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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 1944)
..:- ... ; ii- - - -v' '.. -V',.: j . .- - . I " - - ( - - , 4 Qu&m(&$Mtim From First Statesman, March 23, 1851 TOE STATESMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY ' r CHARLES A. SPRAGUE, Editor and Publisher ( ! J. Member ol the Associated Press y i s . ..i .' i ' - . .--i " y : r The Associated Press Is exclusively entitled to the use for publication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this newspaper.: Home on -Furlough . It is a pleasure indeed to welcome home the seven soldiers from Salem who have been serv ing with the 41st division in the Southwest Pacific. They have been gone from the home land for 29 months, but it is four years sine they went into summer maneuvers which were followed on Sept 15, 1940, by full mobilization for war. These men left as young, green soldiers; i they return as seasoned veterans. - : The 41st and 32nd dvisions were the only ' infantry troops Gen. MacArthur had for months. They landed in Australia shortly after the gen eral established his headquarters there, in early 1942. Since then they have covered themselves ; with glory. They served in various campaigns Capt., Wiedemann Again I j j . Remember Capt. Fritz Wiedemann, friend of Hitler's and one-time German consul general in ; San Francisco? He was kicked out! of the coun- try in July of 1941, later to bob up in the Ar- gentine and in Tokio. His name got back in the , news with the, report that a German! soldier captured in Normandy, identified himself as a , graduate of high school in Yakima, Wash. He : told that an agent of Wiedemann's visited him, invited him to San Francisco and that there Wiedemann recruited him for service in the German army. The youth had jbeen born in Ger-1 many, but came to this country with his parents ; .at the age of three.' He said that other young men of German antecedents were 1 likewise re- : on New Guinea, 'fighting at Buna, landing at cruited for the German army. Nassau bay and participating in the battles of Lae and Salamaua. After a rest interval in Au stralia, they took part in the landings at 'Hol landia. Some of them are now fighting around Aitape and some are 'stationed on Biak. The latter was a costly endeavor, for the Japs turned and lashed at the Americans, clawing like a mad she-bear, and the casualty reports in Ore gon towns showed that our troops had a price to pay.: ': - : :- Gen. MacArthur has publicly praised the 4 1st; and probably counts on it to spearhead the return to the Philippines, for a division sea soned to fighting the Japs is much to be pre ferred to green troops no matter how well trained.- y The men who have returned are the first under the rotating furlough system. It will take a long time for the rotation to be completed we hope the war will be over long before thaf and they can all return .home. We want those who come to know that the northwest is proud of its own 41st division and realizes the great debt owed to these men who have fought and won on so many battlefields that our Pacific coast may be secure from Japan's threat. This was just one of the activities of Capt. Wiedemann. He also tried! to "sell his line" of' Hitlerism to the people of San Francisco. A man in the diplomatic service, with his foreign ac-' cent and his title and his air, always attracts a : following in the city where he is stationed. The , Finnish minister recently handed ; his walking? papers in Washington, had made quite a social . following during his stay here. Americans heed to learn to treat foreign diplomats deferential- i ly, but not to fall for their story, and be influ- enced by their intrigue which; usually is in be-; half of their home country, not our own. 1 Word Coinage Some words are manufactured, like "kodak", which is without etymological ancestry. But others seem to spring up spontaneously, grow into common usage and survive. ? i In the first world war the Germans were called "boche" or ."Huns". This time the Ameri can soldiers have adapted a familiar word to designate the Germans "krauts." Presumably it comes from the good old edible sauer-kfaut, a popular German dish. At any rate, the Yanks took the kraut part and applied it to the Ger mans. Another familiar designation is "Heinies. American soldiers j themselves, ; who were "douehbovs" in the last war are "Yanks" in American End Run ') t f l" The bleacher fans which were; commencing- to grumble over the lack! of: yardage gain in; Normandy are on their feet cheering as Gen. .; Bradley's , men are racing around America's right end for a 65-mile .gain. The, Yanks have, carried the ball nearly to St. Nazaire. When! they reach that they have Sealed off the Breton -peninsula and can then work back toward Brest which they can use as a landing port, as in the 1 first world war." ... r " i :'tP f: The talk about timetable is not being heard much right now, because the allies, once theyj broke through the' nazi linej; threw the timetable away as they "advanced as high as 40 miles in; a I 'single" day a veritable Russian day's stride.' ! A few more end runs, a few heavy punches ;. .off tackle, and a few good bid American razzle- j dazzle plays and the Yanks and their British and Canadian allies will !be right up to the j Rhine river, and they won't stop there to trans- j late the fourth book of Caesar telling how he ! built bridges across the Rhine. And if the Ger- mans look over to the American sidelines they j will find we have plenty! of reserves just as good as those in the first team, and they are moving in to take part before time is called. ' i n .., ' " jagg m i i m i t j a ; r i i I i i iir t r iiir rrrrtra 1 i - i t t i w M .i. '-''f . ' I II 1 1 I I l lll II M I I . I III .1 I J AT THE FRONT! Wyoming lieutenant In Combat Despite 70-YeaOld-Heart WITH THE AEF. IN ITALY, July 29-(delayed) - (P)-Neither military nor medical men can quite figure out why-Lt. Jack Degman of Piedmont, Wyo, is still alive and still in combat af " ter going through the Tunisian and Italy campaigns, f 4 ? Platoon leader In a tank de stroyer outfit, the ex-cowboy has been wounded five times, consid erably above par for any combat corps, and it has earned him the battalion nickname, "screen- , door," indicating he is full of ' holes. v And the five 1 wounds don't count a couple of extra ones which he didn't even bother to : take to the hospital. - All this fighting was done with what is known as a 70-year old- ' heart in his 23 -year-old body. It's , a strange ' story. Jack's mother died when he was in his early teens. So be headed east, got as far as Wyoming. There -, his grandparents persuaded him to stop his .wandering, work for money vacations, and continue his schooling-in the winter.-: Four years ago, after two years , in a pre-med course in the Uni versity of Wyoming, Jack joined . . the army. It was natural that - . this lean, bronzed, sunburned . youth of medium, stature would . get in some motorized outfit Cowboys don't like to walk. How he got in with his heart - amazes the medics over here but Wanted Shatterproof Glass to the combat line and get him yourself." : ' Shortly thereafter 'Screen door" ,' Degman's papers ? came through officially reassigning him to his old outfit, ancient heart, battle scarred frame and all. s-'-l " f'.':; I .' :'' People do not like to go up to the combat lines to get other people. Since Jack had been Away; his platoon lost two lieu tenants who succeeded him in command which provides a sketchy; idea of how sizzling it was in that sector at the time. He had no difficulty getting his old job back, j ; . -: ; After the war he aims to re turn to coUege. - - -Strikes me that's the best way i to getl rehabiliUted to learn how to earn a living in ci vilian life again," he said quite seriously. "After, an, you forget how in the army, because you lead such a sheltered Hie." Thb Literary ; Guidopost By JOHN SELBY The Navy fat print The Navy continues to be the best publicized of our armed ser- -vices, on Publishers' Row. More books seem to be written about the Navy than about the Army or even the Air Force; the books he did. and he landed with th.'"-' ganization of the text and censor- -t Special to Central Press WASHINGTON In the jview of political observers, the jdeep schism in? the; Democratic: party caused by the vice presidential fight at the Chicago convention is a mistake hi political strategy which may cdst dearly k$ the polls in November. ! j 1 1 It is the considered opinion of these experts, Ithat the president has lost more Votes by permitting . an "open"! racej for the vice' pres idential nomination than would have been! the! case had he dic tated his choici to the convention as he did in I8j40..;.'; .;. . .,-v, j: '. Although the 1940 demand for Wallace by the president jijras a bitter pill: f orf the j Democratic hedgerows, known as bocage, are giving the Allied high command sleepless nights in Prance. The reason is that Gen. Erwin Rommel and his Nazis have used these small, grassy .plots as indi-' vidual fortifications to hold up the Allied advance. They make excellent anti-tank points. . , Except for the plains southeast of Caen, bocage dot virtually the entire Normandy landscape now occupied by the British-Canadian-American forces. ' All . this lends special importance to the break-through by Gen. Sir.; Ber nard L. Montgomery's' British Second. Army on to the flat plain T?mrmi-R convenUo4 ' td swallow, j it Is v country southeast of Caen, where this, or "GI Joes.' It is'out of the givi and take of conversation that words come into usage, and soon spread over the country. We . wonder how different the slang of those fighting the Pacific war will be from those fighting in Europe. Terms will be different, that may be expected.' Editorial Comment . From Other Papers M THE DEWEY CAMPAIGN i " In the field of domestic policy Governor Dewey will be able to say with much truth that the New Deal, after producing a series of necessary social reforms, has about spent itself; that in the tech nique of administration new ideas and new blood are needed; and that the Inability of the democratic ' party to produce a new leader after nearly 12 years in power is a proof of weakness in the party itself. His argument will be strengthened by a growing and not wholly partisan conviction- that the early presidents were wise in establishing the precedent of eight-year limitation on presidential terms. In the field Of foreign policy Governor Dewey can prove some inconsistency in the man who cam- " paigned for the League of Nations in 1920 and' against it in 1932; who proposed a quarantine of aggressor nations in 1937 and in the same year - signed the Neutrality act, which in effect quaran tined the victims of aggression; who has generally stood for international cooperation but who struck it a body blow when he torpedoed the London eco- nomic conference. Unhappily for Mr. Dewey, the record of the republican party in congress is weaker - than that of President Roosevelt, for the republi cans not only supported Mr. Roosevelt in his errors but opposed very largely such constructive mea sureson which the security of this nation how de pends as the repeal of the arms embargo, selec tive service and lend-lease. We believe that if Governor Dewey is to be suc cessful or to merit success he must do something better than rake among the chips and litter of a dozen historic years. He has emphasized his own - youth and the youth of those whom he means to associate with -him if elected. Youth looks forward, . not back. What, beyond the all-out pursuit of vic tory to which both parties are committed, does Mr. Dewey promise? What are his plans for keeping . the peace? What arc his plans for putting ten mil- lion returned soldiers to work without displacing , ten million civilians already at work? What are his Ideas about international economic cooperation? President Roosevelt has to answer these questions too, but it is Mr. Dewey's task to offer something better, not more of the same. He must be precise and he must be bold if he Is to advance the argu ment that the next four years will be better re publican led than democratic led. TIIE FARMER S JEEP Postwar planning for the jeep has. turned into quite a lively discussion. The department of com merce has come out with the flat assertion that the little war vehicle will be no good for farming that its chassis is too low and its gear ratio too high. Others have leaped to its defense as if the jeep were old faithful Dobbin instead of a buggy almost untried in agriculture. '..- -r 'r.-.-.'f'K- Now comes a' definitive word from the jeep's manufacturers. They've toned down earlier predic tions to the extent of admitting that the military jeep is not the farmer's perfect vehicle, but that there will be a postwar bantam with lower, gear ratio which ought to fill the bilL - And that probably ends the argument: For even if the present Jeeps were perfectly fitted for farm ing, most. of them will have taken an awful beating In battle. -Having leaped, bumped, slithered and waded over all sorts of terrain and under all con ditions, the . GI jeep will probably be ready for pasture, and willing to let a new rural relative take over. Albany Democrat-Herald. Art Perry, Smudge Pot columnist of the Med-: ford Mail-Tribune, is laid! up with a sprained leg and unable to - turn out his daily grist "of-, witticisms of the folk on the Rogue, the Apple- j gate and the Main stem. The M-T doesn't dis-, close what caused his accident. We imagine he tripped over a headline. I ; ; - j , interpreting p' The War News f By KIRKE L. SIMPSON I I ASSOCIATED PRESS WAR ANALYST Roaring across the base of the Breton peninsula : at express speed, American! armored forces may; bring about its isolation by the week end. j I i - it - I s That the Brittany break-through has: thrown the nazi defense organization in France into con fusion cannot be doubted. Roving almost at will, : several powerful and largely self-contained Amer ican columns including truck-borne infantry and ; self-propelled heavy field guns are loose far in the, enemy rear. They have broken into the vast Loire ' valley maneuver ground as well as virtually lop ping off the Breton foreland to convert if into! a death trap for. the indicated small force of German! garrison troops caught there., -j f i Given fuel and ammunition to keep going, that ' ' American force could o far . to bring the battle of "., France itself to a quick issue, i j ! " i It Is not impossible that sea-borne convoys of' reinforcements and supplies are already I waiting . somewhere off the mouth of the Loire' to pour their : cargoes ashore. London dispatches hint that such ' is the case of the St. Malo i estuary on the north Brittany shore as one American column closes in ; from Din an on that ancient town. ) There is no authoritative intimation of allied: plans to exploit the glittering opportunity presented j to throw the enemy back behind the Seine by a fast surge up the Loire. What is clear is that the foe has been desperately moving forces from south of Caen in the Ornea Vire sector 'westward, in hope of stemming the allied tide. F j : j ' . - .1 . i That is reported by front line observers; but tit j is too late. The onlj German alternative short of throwing into action in France heavy forces that obviously are not available to the nazi high com-: mand there is a sweeping retreat Over night, vir-; tually, the invaders' grip on the whole Seine-Loire : bounded segment of northwestern France, his hold on Paris itself, has been badly shaken. ' The blow fell in the west for Hitler, tod, before his effort to purge his own military house at home and in the field of disaffected high-ranking com- manders at whose hands he narrowly escaped death was complete. There can be small doubt that east, west and south alike, German field forces are seeth ing internally with, suspicion and recriminations,5 almost as much in fear of nazi vengeance as of Russian and allied power strokes they have no- where been able to beat back o evade, l 5 Typical of those strokes was the Russian break through to the Baltic below Riga. i i ; There Is evidence that the Russians utterly out-'' guessed as well as out-fought the foe to complete that Baltic trap. It is clear now that just enough pressure was kept up against the Narva isthmus . and below Pskov to pin the German northern flank forces in place while the drive to the Baltic below, them went through.' ..- j T - i : If Gen. Lindemann falls into nazi hands his head' probably would pay the price of defeat, whatever his actual role. That is a warning to other German field commanders and a hint of near1 panic at nazi supreme headquarters. It is a ghastly situation in which German field commanders appear to find themselves with catastrophe rolling in upon them from without and vengeance stalking them at home to make them the scapegoats for defeat. ? ; pointed out that the result of this course left no jdeep scars, as the 1944 procedure undoubtedly I has done. ; ; - JLj . President Roosevelt in loliow- 1 ing the cdursej he did, mndbubt- : edly had ih mind the fact that his control over j the Democratic party is nowhere near asj jcom plete as it was four years; ago, and his action jwas motivated by an attempt' toi assuage the fac tions which, have fallen I away from him during his; third, term In office.., i, j - "..;) . jl.l -. However, it Is apparent that he has failed! in this objective, land the "openf xae for the nomina tion has served to accentuate the many breaches in j the jiparty " ranks rattier than to heal , them. v I'M If It is now believed that t WiU take four jmonlhs more to! com plete the j government's csise in Washington's mass sedition; trial. Prosecution jo. John togge confided tb reporters as the 13th week closed that, on the basis of the originil "timetable,' he had submitted twos weeks' evidence. . About two months had been'de- ' voted to , When the trial ! op ened, Rogge had predicted that his evidence would take I about six weeks J ; "' f" :i-7-""'""-- The trial; now in I its fourth month, has ! moved along! j with virtually ho Covert act"! I testi mony to djite. 'Seven of the gov- : ' ernment's; 200i witnesses! have v been on the stand. Only a frac tion of thai list Of some 4,000 doc uments have been introduced. Three defendants have been sev- : ered from ithe case, and one died. Small flumps of tr - ' I: grass or tanks and other mobile units can :: deploy to considerable advan tage. : : . ; " " .7 . Reports f rom the Dutch under ground reaching Washington dis close an ever increasing number of professors are refusing to con tinue teaching in ; Holland and are going into hiding. Eleven more professors, ac 'cording to the reports, recently joined those who refuse to work ; under the Nazi yoke. v Three of the 11 professors were from the University of Utrecht, five from Amsterdam university .and three from Wageningen Agricultural college. j . I ; Military , men returning from the Central Pacific: say that the numerous atols spread over the tropic sea look like Holland be cause of the countless windmills that can be seen ton the flat , patches of coral sand. Returning Marine officers say the crude windmills have been constructed from spare parts and : scrap material and the power ; provided by the turning blades is being used by ingenious Yanks to wash their clothes. ; . - Most of the "washing ma chines" consist of a steel drum and a plunger with the latter at tached by gears to the rod on the windmill. The trade winds whirl the blades, to provide power for the crude but useful machines. These officers say that crews of bombing planes operating In that area dump clothes, soap suds and water into the tanks; go off on bombing missions, and return to find their clothes clean. "THE: YOUNi IDEA" By Mossier siU!;- i- jh- ' V 1 1 - a : ' "Here Tin t eating or sleeping since I broke np with lYilbv, and , you g and have SrHAV.TUISY SHOHTCASLCr (Continued mm -iage 1) What are the facts regarding job prospects . for the . immediate , postwar period? . i . As good a discussion of this as I' have seen appears in the re port of the hearings of Sen. George's committee on postwar . economic policy and planning, in - the testimony of Dr. Harold G. Moulton of Brookings Institu tion. According to his estimate the present total labor force is 50 million persons or a little . more in the busy season of the year. In , addition there j are around 11 million persons in the armed forces. Supposing the war in Europe ends this year, and in ' Japan a year later. Dr. Moulton" estimates that within two and one-half years from the end of the war in Europe there will be demobilized from ' the service and from war industry about 17,800,000 persons. This will take . place gradually, not all at once. The army will remain much larger man before this war, pro bably ar ound-1 million for, ' some time to come. What: are the employment prospects for . these 17,80000? Dr. Moulton estimates there will be about 57 million employ ables for the postwar period, which excludes those aged per sons, children,' women who are working now largely for patri otic reasons as substitutes' for those gone to war. He considers that a safe ; margin of unem ployment is three million ' per sons. By that he means that al ways there is shifting of men in jobs, but they are taken care of in the interval of unemployment by their own savings jor by; un employment compensation, j . ""When unemployment rises above the three million mark then there may be trouble. So he sets as a postwar goal for employment 54,000,000. -Those . are the situations in jobs or self -employment whichare re " quired to sustain our popula tion. The attainment in 1940 was : ' 45 million, which leaves a ; gap of 8,000,000 addiUonal situations which' must be provided in the : period right . after demobiliza tion. -;;: S:H;::.a' - X ': . It lav Dr. , Moulton's opinion that the-demand for goods j and ' services in the immediate pos t- war period will be so large, in : view of the stoppage of much civilian production, that the pro vision of employment for eight million persons is not at all im-. possible. To quote:- . ; What I am trying to empha size here is that, as : we have analyzed this problem, without having in advance any assump tion in our own minds as to where we would come out on - this, we have reached the con- - elusion that the magnitude of this unemployment problem; has - been very greatly exaggerated by virtue of the Inclusion of a lot of people who aren't going to be discharged from their jobs at all, but will continue to work where they; are, and secondly, that the ' volume of j industrial production, assuming f a fairly healthy climate, is very likely to be large enough to make ; our unemployment problem in this transition period much less se rious than it has ,been during . most of the; thirties. ; There will be pinches in given areas, Dr. Moulton admits, as in - shipyard - communities; and he makes- no forecast for the period four or five years hence when invasion in : North. Africa. . . He started accumulating his wounds . in the Tunisian campaign, but the boys were busy and nobody happened to check his heart while patching him up. It was only a few months ago during the heat of the Cassino, campaign that he got shot up again and was evacuated back to Naples. There the doc checked his heart and -bunked his. eyes. ' . "What's the matter Doc?" asked Jack. "Haven't I got a good beart?" i ; "If you were a 70-year old man," replied the-doc, "I'd say . you had a fair heart just fair." Then he proceeded to order him out of combat, told. him' t$ take it easy , and not work too hard and above all not to get ex cited." He was reclassified for limited service only and sent to. a replacement depot, which is where another amazing factor enters. But after a week there he found loophole In the law and left a Red tape followed him to the 'front where' his battalion commanding officer, a blunt ma - ' Jor with T ar short temper, sent word back that hv they wanted Lt Degman they would have, to come and get him. ' - "Furthermore, he told the re placement depot! people, "you won't find him here at the bat talion CP because I won't send a runner up there where he is now on anything but essential business. If you want him go up the pent-up demand f or con sumer goods is filled. It should be added that A. F. Hinrichs, acting j commissioner, ' bureau of labor statistics, who' followed Dr. Moulton, was more ' conservative than Moulton. He expressed the view that . there might be as many as 59,000,000 persons in the total labor force, or two million more than Moul ton estimated; 4 and f u rt h er thought that the safe margin for unemployed was' ' around two million persons, instead of three. ship, seem to be less bothersome. What's more, most of the books sell very weU. ' ; One of them was called "The Navy Reader, and was pub lished last year by Lt William Harrison Fetridge, USNR. Lieu tenant Fetridge's "Reader" was popular enough to cause his pub lisher to demand another vol ume; this the; Lieutenant calls chastely, "The Second Navy Reader." Like the first of these books, it serves a double purpose. It is tly sort of book a Navy man .could, read with great profit in his first weeks of service, and it is unquestionably one of the best sources of information about the Navy the general public could find. The material is assembled from every type of source ser vice manuals to the slick maga zines. It has ! been chosen for readability, but not altogether. Its accuracy has been checked carefully, illustrations really il lustrate, and there are a good many diagrams as well as a lot of exciting prose.' (Bobbs-Mer-rill;3.75).;:,-,: . .. The Marines have a share in Lieutenant Fetridge's book; they also have a book of their own called "The Marine Corps Read- , er." The title; may make the good lieutenant chuckle a bit too. "The Marine Corps Reader" is also an assembly" job, taken from publications of the corps, from magazines and from the work of, correspondents who have served with the corps. I It looks like a small book, but it rims to exactly 600 pages, and Col. Clyde H: Metcalf of the corps, its editor, has thought fully provided a good (and brief) history j of his organiza tion. (Putnam; $3). And there is a handsome book called f "Navy Yearbook" which is not unlike Jane's fam ous manual, except that it in cludes naval aircraft and does not go into such elaborate de tail. Phillip Andrews and Leo- W 1 . -1 ,n But both agreed that success de- -Tin 8 . eauors. iu- nended on how nromntlr nri-. Oioaa i-earce; .ou. ar r K z . vate employment was - made available as demobilization from war and industries occurs. Labor groups favor the Kil gore bill which provides unem ployment compensation at the rate of $35 a we e k for war workers and for their retrain ing. But that rate is higher than the GI bill provides ($20 a week) for service men. It would seem that the huge sums ac . crued (Oregon has $50 billion) in the regular unemployment compensation funds would be adequate to care for workers during the transition period from war to peace industry. . While these grants or compen sation will help bridge the gap they provide only temporary relief. The : real solution lies In real jobs at living wages. Mak ing the change will provide a real test of the flexibility of our whole economic system, but I believe it can be done provided there Is intelligent legislation in Washington and full cooperation in industry, trade and. agricul ture. ' Demos Urge Snell to Call Special Meet i PORTLAND, Ore, Aug. 4-()-Goy. Snell was tasked today py Democratic groups to call a special legislative session to amend the absent voters' law to make cer tain our servicemen and women will have opportunity to vote." State Sen. Lew Wallace also re leased copies of; a resolution ap proved by the Portland Elks lodge asking Snell to f immediately call a session to enact legislation to change the independent filing date from September j 23 to August 5, to give soldiers additional time to receive and return November bal lots." .V,;;:;s--f - ' - Snell has approved use of the Federal ballots by absent Oregon servicemen, and he indicated a be lief these will be adequate. Stevens W . r w 1 Fashions 1 ForEarsl - Make everything you wear : look smarter; add these ac-l , cessory earrings stunning in - design, dramatic, com-! fortable. Hundreds to choose i irom. t Credit If Desired- mm. jam