ft . " w f 'f TyT " '"' j ' 1-ldJ. tnoj hat!ara Quiet: of. Turfy, Night 7l2i tona ISssions Jtfo Favor Sways f; No tear Shall Awe i From First Statesman, March 23, 1831 THE STATESMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY CHART A- KPRAGUi; Editor and PubUxbcr ;- Member of the Associated Press it I . . 1 .... - . - t n h Tha Associated Press Is exclusively to titled to the use far publication ef CL newt dispatches credited to It or no otherwise credited in this newspaper. Single Department for War? . x i' Senator Truman has an article fa Collier calling tor the union of the war and navy de partments. President Roosevelt says there,J is ' ' general agreement" that after the war the two - departments should be merged under a unified command. We had'understood there was rather wide discussion of the subject,; but not that there I was "general agreement' in favor of the merger. The proposal is one that sounds plausible. We . "have had instances of failure pf coordination by the two branches of the service; and in Wash ington claims have been made that there would be great economieaTif the departments were joined and unified purchasing carried out. But study will show that jmerging the two departments is not a guarantee of unity. For . some years we have had pressures f or a sep arate air force, so there are arguments for di vision as well as unification of war services. The navy fears that in the event of a consolidation it would suffer and perhaps the army feels the same way, especially if an admiral was at the top. The air force might come in with claims that it was being discriminated against both by the navy and the infantry division of the army. Even with a single department headed by a civilian you would have immediately a division of, the department into army and navy bureaus with separate chains of command. The rivalries would continue, and they would be no less 1 fierce. In the event of war it still would be ne cessary to get the separate services to coordinate their efforts. ! As far as congress is concerned such a merger would force the merger of the separate commit tees on naval and military affairs. But no one N member could absorb all the information ne cessary to pass on legislation for all branches of the service. So again ;. the general committee ' would have to be sub-divided. There is also the matter of tradition of each - fighting service. Both army and navy have an esprit de corps which is worth something. To roll both together might destroy something of .. that invaluable psychological element which is : indispensable for a good fighting outfit. In Washington in June the writer heard a ra : dio fonun discussion of this topic, in which our Congressman Mott took; part: From the own V debate we came to the conclusion that substan tial opposition will develop if; a merger bill is brought up. ; ... " ! .Victory in France : i I ; l', . " Seldom in modern military history has' any army suffered as overwhelming and sudden a defeat as the German seventh army in northwest France. To this is added a; arge part Of the 13th army which had been moved south of tha Seine to aid the seventh in making an escape. ' All now are caught in the merciless whipping of allied planes and pounding of allied armor. So confused is the rout that the flight is now re ported to be to the Rhine and not toward any intermediate line such as. the, Seine or tha Marne. If this proves true then the battle Of France will quickly come to anjend with th lib eration of France and the Low. Countries. - The carnage was evidently! so terribly that' soldiers and war correspondents turned' from the , revolting sight as the helpless - nazl col umns were riddled and as clumps of enemy for mations were caught in pocket of artillery fire. While the noose was not drawn tight enough between Falaise and ArgenUujHto capture the full remainder of the seventh 4rmy, those who escaped merely rushed ';. into! fa wider loop thrown by the allies. It is dea-that Rallied in fantrymen and airmen responded to General Eisenhower's order of the day nd grasped the 'fleeting but definite ! opportuiily for a inajor allied victory-.' It is clear too Ahat his forecast was accurate and that the realization of . this crushing victory "will mean notable progress toward the final downfall of oir enemy." , " Hitler himself may well meditate on the cap tion of the sundial: "It is later than you think. Crass Fires From various parts of the country come re- ' ports of grass fires. The casual reader is inclined to scan this news without appreciating its real v significance. While our grass fires are nothing ; like the Indians set in the open glades of this - valley to keep down forest growth and insure pasture for horses and deer, and nothing like the i old prairie fires of the plains states, these local ; fires are not without real damage. They destroy pasturage, at least for. the rest of the season; i they may reach grain fields and destroy the crops; they may ignite farm buildings and wipe . them out ; ' ; '.-; j - ' " - Farmers are giving more attention to the ' fighting of fires. Suburban communities and rural districts are forming fire- districts, under state law, which can levy taxes and purchase i fire-fighting equipment. In other cases individ i ual farmers or groups of neighbors buy light equipment of tank and hose which is very use ful in putting out grass and other fires. This equipment is not now available, bufwhen the war is over, farmers will do well to equip them selves so they can fight fires in fields and in buildings more successfully, j Editorial Comment MEASURING WORTH OF CITIES AH over the United States there is a demand tha t in the post-war the aim: of cities must be NOT just "bigger and better" but definitely BET TER even where the city happens to be getting bigger as is the case of Eugene. : - In the past, two factors transportation and mar kets have dominated the placement of industry. There are many indications that' in the future, LIVING CONDITIONS will be regarded 'as quite as important by the hardboiled gentlemen who di rect industry. - . , i . :. . . . Why? Because the workman who must live in a crowded slum is likely to be both inefficient and "a trouble maker" from the employer's narrow point of view. From the community's broader viewpoint, the alum impairs citizenship. I " . Recently , a distinguished scholar, Edward L. Thorndyke attempted a method of measurement for cities and the results are published in a little book, "Your City." He sets up 10 items, by which (upon application of certain - mathematical formulae ; worked out with the U. S. Census) it is possible to determine whether your city Is above or below par in "good living": 1. Infant mortality rates. . 2. Expenditures for maintenance of parks, playgrounds and recreation facilities. 3. Estimated value of schools, libraries, mu seums, parks' and recreational facilities. ' 4. Value of public property used for public service, offset by NET DEBT. ' 9. Expenditures for operation and mainten ance of schools. I . 8. Proportion of high school graduates to population for the given year. 7. Public library circulation in relation to population. - ! 8. Proportion of; persons 19 (to 18 still in school. i 9. Proportion of telephones to population. - 10. Proportion of power use. Soon as we canget tho necessary base figures and do the required arithmetic we will tell you . how Eugene stacks up. By the Thorndyke measure ment very few of America's "great cities" get even ;. a passing mark. Los Angelesi San Francisco, Port- ; land, Oakland do pretty well, but the high marks go to smaller communities .such as Springfield, Mass.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Schnectady, N.Y.; and suburban Evans ton, IU.; Newton, Mass.; Glendale, Calif.; and a few of the "swell burgs" like.Pasadena are tops. Most of our Southern cities are near the r bottom of the hesp, largely on account, of their , Unsolved Negro problems. ' j . Eugene Jlesister-Cuard. Stiffening in the East 1 1 1 i . For some weeks the Russians have made no such progress as they did during the latter part rt Tuna nnri thrnncrh mocf rf Jllfv Tn thpir Slim W ' V. .... WM.. .w" . w ' . l mer offensive they swept the efiemy out of the (Distribution remainder of Russian territory and made some penetration of the Baltic states-and of Poland. But they have been stopped before Warsaw and still stand at the borders of East Prussia. Some of the hesitation may be due toi organization of armies and communications for fresh attack, but there is reason to believe; that German resist ance has stiffened. j i fi' t J i At Warsaw there was a German attack in j force and in one sector of thefront the(Rus4 isians admitted yielding a town to the enemy; There have been varying reports of ! the dis- tances of Russians from WarsavK and front East Prussia, with little indication of recent progress except toward the latter. t s i )i j It may be anticipated that the Germans will fight with greater fury to defend) their :own soil; and the same rule applies in the:, west as In the east. Hence the great importance of destroying the German armies in the field rather J than merely forcing them to retreat: and yield ter- CentupOr' j ' I . ! I IP i . ' 1 ' ' -! " - " - Nevi s Behind the News Bvl PAUL MALLON ! ! fj H 7 ' . TTZ T . . - r - by King Features Syndicate, Inc. Reproduction in whole t jjpr tn part strictly prohibited.) tion. ritory. i Dnierpreting The War -Wgivo . By KTHKE L. SIMPSON ! ASSOCIATED PRESS WAR ANALYST L The war that Hitler made has come to German soil in the east by land as well as air this crucial - . August weekend and it was moving swiftly toward a climax in the west - i - M j Faced with possibilities of disaster, nazi home front cheer leaders preached the kltrange doctrine of a retreat to victory, seeking to lull German public, opinion against ever mounting military -reverses. Vague promises of new armies and new i i weapons rolled off the lips of nazi spokesmen. Distorted ver-. sions of battles stills-raging ; in towns and cities 1 which for days have been held byfthe Russians or. allies filled the German air. No mention was made of the internal revolt in France against the German conquerors that is ripping French soil loose; from j nazi control even before allied liberation armies ' reach the scene. ; 't 1- To German troops reeling backward in East Prussia under Russian blows, to shattered remnants of the once powerful nazl seventh larmy in north- I western France, to survivors" of stunned German garrisons in southern France, and, most of all per- I haps, to "the men of Vichy and their i satellite f WASHINGTON I Aufj ' 20 Traveling Mr. Roosevelt ! and his war publicist Elnter Davis, came back from - the PB-elfU front with promising bui indefinite a ,a'd at most wainoing reports abut . the time necessary to' crush Japan. The Common . notion that "it few, months" afUf Germany is being conjesp0ndngly 1 1 altered here at least by tficial author ities. The new notion is that ah other newljr-mouhted campaign next spring will be reqxiired and the end miy not comeunta 1 year from now. they say now. This deepening attitude is due to f new ccjnceptiop of the mili tary situation. j ; j! - jj ' . Next logical steps for us in the Pacific are the Philippines, For mosa and the southern string of islands off: the Jap mainland (Ryukyu; islands, and even Ky ushu, southernmost large Jap island contiguous to the home land group r j No secret can bf tnade of Gen eral I MacArthurY intention to move promptly upon the Phil iptpnes. He promised it. The pre sident, aftez calling jhim to Hono lulu, confin ned the! promise. We cannot go ahwhere in the Pacific without jalr Coverage. Dangers pf landing and; sustain ing troops i ubjectj to Jap air at tack 'are too great to bij consid-' eredj-vi f:.. f . From this basi Jconsideratim has frown the stregy 'pf push-' ingj our land basei for air power : steadily forward. This progress ! hai reached the Guam-Saipaa, frontier, which :Mf, IDavis prom- r controls. lish beachheads on the South . China coast jand open a sea route to Chungking. Our people may be reluctant to! do this without air bases on Formosa and in the Philippines to cover that opera- CRT WDQuQCE i) 'WITH THE AEF IN ' THE ; MEDITERRANEAN "THEATER, . Aug.. 12.-(Deliyed)-(-Som e- time th : night's Quiet around ' this fighter headquarters is bro- ken by ax Thunderbolt taking off in the moonlight ' "r Aad the men around the map and strategy boards look at one another and say: - , ?. t" , "Where's Bendy?" ." ' i The chances art pretty" good that MaJ. ; Wuliam B. Benedict, : 28, huge, redheaded pilot! from ' San Quentin, CaL; is bound on :' some lone, ' self-assigned mission. - They've iiailed him to bead Quarters temporarily and :tech nicaHy he's not supposed to ftj, '-' but after nearly 200 RAF, and' AAF missions, and after shooting down six enemy planes and hav- ring four shot out from under -; him, he can'Jt sit still. ' ; He picks the tough ones, skip bombing railroad, tunnels to seal off enemy guns inside, going through the hottest flak to knock out some enemy position, doing personal reconnaissance. When his pilots fly cover for the bomb- ers, he often files solitary top ; cover for them, just to see what happens . and : whether the boys -are on the balL r ' . . 1 ..' i "If we didn't watch him he'd fly a couple j of missions every day," the j commanding officer said. - ! 1 In June 1940, when he had only two years 'of college, the army air corps looked somewhat ask ance at Benny's educational qua lifications, so he went up to Can ada, to visit his aunt and drop ped into a! RCAF recruiting of fice "just to see what their qua lifications called for." ' - ! j ' I-.-, tive granite in storied turrets to the needle of the central spire is to Adams the symbol of unity, "an assertion of God and Man in a , bolder, stronger, closer union than ever wai expressed by any other art.; I . .' I But what M needed to annihil ate Jap fighting power in China, is hot necessarily our armies, but weapons and food for the limit less number pf Chinese who want to do the job. r The source of Jap. military power, however, is not in their .farflung armies but in the group of large islands known as the Jap malrdaxjd. If Japan proper could beconquered, the arrniee in China ; andf elsewhere roust fall r lot lack of supplies, weapons,' even food, as the whole Jap dis tribution system would be de stroyed, i - ;-.-.?;.v-j An we have 100 aircraft car riers plus th overwhelming Pa cific seapower we know we con trol, plus whatever will be re leased from Europe as Germany falls, why not create an armada sufficiently powerful to blast straight into Tokyo, carrying our auf coverage with us? It would save a lot of jchasing around and hekvy fighting for preliminary positions. . j , Jap airpower is still a little better than the German, but not much. They! have production while nazi factories , practically have been extinguished by our air bombardment Also, a consid erable army j remains . on home JapsoiL : .-7-.fv The air force would have to be; met and: defeated first, then the land i6rce, but the task is hot' beyond assured, daring planning. ' Incidentally, We have an admiral in icharge of Pacific ODerations. the only front at which the navy ? Continued tram Page brought the' Norsemen down from Norway and Denmark to overrun ' England, ravish j the coasts of France, and found set tlements from Normandy to Sici ly and North Africarhad been tamed. A century of; Christian teaching gave it a new sense of direction, and the abbey church with Its attendant dormitory and refectory and cloister hair where in 1469 constituted the; Order- of f MichaeL marks its trlimaxU and "great. Louis XI St. Of this and of the cathedral of Mon- ' reale built by Normans settled in - may, if you like, figure in it a mathematical formula of infinity the broken arch, our finite idea of space; the spire, pointing, with its converging lines, to unity be yond space; the sleepless, restless thrust of the vaults, telling the unsatisfied, incomplete, over- ' strained effort of man to rival the energy,; intelligence and pur pose of God." 1 - ises will lead now to the next ' steps ("not long were his words, but every good; democratic poli- French collaborationists these riazl outgivings must L tied here hopes MacArthur will I have brought sardonic laughter. They know, the fate awaiting them with a German flight from; France. And it was for that nazi broadcasters were pre paring the German people. It was already in pro gress west of the Seine as they spoke. It; was no less impending in the south as the allied; Riviera beachhead expanded against stul ineagre J opposi tion, and as French . underground armies! leaped from cover to pounce upon isolated; enemy detach ments. -.;::' -- -Pf i; S ,-. . ; The full scope and effect Sof Hat French up rising in response to the long 'delayed call to arms is yet to be assessed. Only snap-shot glimpses of its operation are yet revealed. 'However, it has an obvious definite relationship ' to allied grand strategy. It is a potential factor of supreme import ance in hastening a German retreat into the old battle grounds of world war one in northeastern ,. France. -. - ,2j v t American columns hammering up the Loire above Orleans on the right flank of Eisenhower's jbattle line and the nearest prongs of Patch's Mediterran ean invasion army curling swiftly about Toulon are still nearly 400 miles apart In between themj how ever, ; all through the mountains, ' that flank the t Rhone valley from the Swiss frontie to the sea, " French patriots are busy mopping up German con trol centers.-' , ' ' ; l . . Traced on the map these French! uprisings tend toward linking up allied operation theatres in the i north and south. They seem most effective and powerful in the region east of Ly ttti in the upper Rhone valley and virtually midway between the I two nearest approaching allied wing. That they are I forcing diversion of German trooj? and also ex- - posing -German communications to ground sabotage as well as allied air harrying is unquestionable. The gathering momentum of the French internal ;' : uprising bids fair to help turn the German occupa -tion in most of France into a Getrian entrapment 5 before enemy garrison forces' ill equipped for fast -movement can effect their escape.' . -j. ( ! With the final allied clean-up 'it the seventh; a army west of the Seine and it lannot be long delayed Eisenhower will be in a position to throw , tremendous power by land and air: southeastward through or around Paris to reach, de upper Rhone . and effect a junction with Patch's Franco-American! ; : troops in the south. 1 1 - ? I - - M election day). -jr r The bulk of the Jap armies are ' strewn over thej thousands of j' miles of Asia fratn Mahchukuo "', toi Burma, (hoonget India, from which they now have been : chased);j j :Ar j l Conceivably, we could : estab- Sicily, Adams wrote: "No art either Greek of By zantine, Italian or Arab has ev er created two religious types so beautiful, so serious, so impres sive, and yet so different, as Mont-Saint-Michel watching ov er its northern ocean, land Mon reale, looking down over its for ests of orange and lemon, on1 Pa lermo and the Sicilian! seasff The Mont rising from the ina- T. : 1 r n they may try to organize a win ter campaign westward to go into Chungking by the back door but this seems an undertaking! be yond their ability. ; f v The; monsoon has been on in Burma since mid-May, They; said we could never fight during" the rains. But General Stflwell first showed them how and Mountbat ten planed similarly, so we have accomplished limited, lyet unbe- ! lievable successes. The rains will be over in three or four weeks. Then jthere ! will be more action. . ! Mont-Saint-Michel and Char tres have been spared the fate of Monte Cassino. Are they only relics of medieval art and re ligion? Adams, skeptic that he was, left the Virgin at Chartres "looking down from a deserted heaven, into an' empty church, on a dead faith." (But in the midst of war when Citadels are de stroyed in avalanches of metal and human 'flesh is seared and broken, do not these spires point ing heavenward carry a message of hope, which is the core of faith, without j which warfare would seem toi be the ultimate and inevitable catastrophe? J If we could: do it. at Saipan. we can do it Inlthe Jap center at home or on' a China beachhead. In case we head straight in, the war should not require another year. . I? ; r As for the land fighting in Chi na 1 and Burma, we are only marking time, as far as grand strategy goes; Nothing pleasant can; be reported about the Jap successes on the Yellow river (Hengyang). Talk survives that The Literary Guidepost ! fTHE ydUNG IDEA" By Mossier ! I j ' j t j" ij . 'j,"Maj 1 eut-mr 1 ! By JOHN SEL8T "FINAL SCORE.- by Warren Beck (Knopf; LN)j Warren IBeck's "Firial Score" is pretty wonderfuL jit is true that he gets himself 'needlessly involved in one of those fictional devices so popular with novelists, but even that cannot do too much harm. ' .The device is; that ;Mr. Becki insists on telling his story in the form of a conversation be tween two men, one a featured player in v the drama itself, and the Other an outsider. ( This does not obscure the story too much; it does, however, have-the effect of straining it through a gauze at times, and it makes for oblique rather than straight narration. But although these wings , are true, it is also true they do 'not dim Mr. Beck's little aegory He has written a wholly accurate and often brilliant study of. a man who made a greatjsuccess on a fluke, and never could escape the pattern of the success. if In "Final Score," Bill Hutten was football player at iMonroe," which appears to be; another name for Madison, Jis. He had no brains, he was sullen, egotis tical,' deadpan, resentful of peo ple with more polish jand man ners,; a boor. It happened that Bill was lucky in making a won derful run, one day, and that the coach saw a chance to 'build up a star by providing interference. ' Bill became a living legend, acid the crystallization of the mind of the "South Side" of Monroe. This was a heavy and dull mind, the material from which fascists are made. j Mr. Beck makes it; clear that his pattern would have worked just as well if Bill had, for ex ample,' made si v spectacular air plane flight, of -stumbled along Pennsylvania avenue just in time to save the President from assas sination, or something else spec tacular.'The only requirement is that Bill be stupid; in Mr. Beck's book, he is first fiven money by a group of men who capitalize his reputation and then his preju dices are played upon until he becomes the spearhead of a po litical movement whose purposes are sinister, to say the least. ! This pattern has worked . in Europe, and it has been tried in this country. . Mr. Beck closes his novel with a suicide, which he may intend as a prophecy and a warning to little Hitlers. I. i i i ' i . ; ' Mont-Samt-Michel is dedicat ed to Saint Michael, the archan gel militant, but the cathedral of Chartres belongs to the .Virgin Mary. For her glory, architects and artists; and workers labored to conceive and buQd this cathe dral which still stands as monu ment, to their vision and skill. Quoting Adams again:. . j : " i "Like, all great churches, that are not mere storehouses of the ology, Chartres expressed, be sides whatever else it meant, an emotion, toe deepest "man ever flt-the struggle' of his own lit tleness to grasp the Infinites You They ; shoved blanks under his huge freckled hand and Benny began' siriging. He hasn't been back to1 San Quentin. . la August,; 1941, he went to England, " waa adopted, by the RAF and flew at dozen combat missions, Then they sent him to Cairo just as Rommel was start ing kia Wg drive, and Benny spent the next year mostly help ing cover a'retreat, ;,Y - In Deceniber, 1942, he trans ferred to the US air force with visions of going home for more training; but iwhen he walked into AAF headquarters in Cairo and laid his log book on the desk they took jone look at it and said: "You're ; just the guy we need. There's a P-40 waiting fori you. You're a second lieuten ant Here's your orders, here's your money-for uniforms, good bye and goodluck. ' Just like thaL".:-;-. ::,;,f ;K...;v.- l;1--i Benny, had never seen a P-40. So he went out to the airport and asked the crew; chief to give him a cockpit check. Hurricanes and Spitfires, had been simple just, turn a couple of switches and take off, .The'. P-40 had nine separate gadgets you had to tin ker with first! But JBenny solved them the first time and flew to Tunisia. In six days from com bat with the RAF; he was back in combat with the AAF. Since then he's flown more than 100 additional 1 missions. When stuck on the ground he storms and swears' at thefsoft life" he says the boy lead. He says "They're! all sto on-fed, good guys, and have got what it takes, but not trained right Then he beats on jthe table, roaring about how they should be trained. Benn, you're I nuts," some ranking officer, will tell him good-natiu-edly.! "You can't run an air force that way." r Then, in an aside not intended for Benny's ears, the officer us ually will ( add: But what I would give for a I squadron of guys just like! him.f 'Benny I doesn't' want to go home I now j until the European war is oyer. -After that: "HI go home and stay there. None of this Pacific war for me, I get malaria too easy. Those guys seem to be handling the sit uation all right by- themselves." . Then" a! speculative look comes into his eyes; III "But that's quite a little war they've got; out there in the Pa cific, at that isn't it?" Then you know he chances are that on some- tolght the stillness over, some Pacific atoll .will be shattered the men by a Thunderbolt and around the maps will look up an ask "Where's Benny?" War ft r - nsoner I f i i O L i if Investia "Is ated WASHINGTON Aug. lM)- Report of 'ccddling' of axis war . prisoners and "unwOrthy" treat ment of wounded United States service mer are being investigated by the house military committee, Chairman May (D-Ky.) disclosed today. j j .; Committee! investigators, 'May told reporters, have been sent to prison camps in Kentucky and Pennsylvania to inquire into com plaints "that axis . prisoners of war are being coddled and treated like- heroes. jl : j- i, " "We have 'received many com plaints," thf Kentuckian said, "and according to reports some of these prisoners! are being treated like guests,! being transported to moyies and' held up as great he roes. It is one thing to treat them decently, biitf it is something else to give them a lot of privileges just. because Jthey happened to be captured while trying to .kill a lot of our boysJ J j May alsoj said the! committee's criticism ... of conditions at the nearby Boiling; field (station hospital-was "just the beginning of an : investigation of conditions in all these army hospitals." Boiling field's hospital was de scribed as ;"a firetrap" and its discontinuance was recommended after an investigation headed by Representative Fen ton . (R-Pa.), physician member of May's com mittee, i- ;L j:;'--;-."-! ,'i f: ! aw " . ... . , , .-, . . at --. . .v. .-- . ; i . x. -. s m mr r i 4 1 ..I U.'jM'J p SS rsr! mr a m j ssr w w 9 rs- 4 Credit . If Desired O. Each beautiful "jewel i. i personality of its Choose, yours with care a n a connaence from our select collec tion of fine stones.