Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 1944)
h. t: i.'f v. PAGE. FOUR Th OSECSOII STATESMAN. Salein Oregon Tuesday Morning, September 19, 1944 f f?r - fi J ' lih Army Speed . Brincni Problems To New Air Arnr ! - "tfo Fawn Sways f; No Fear' Shall Area" ' From First Statesman, March 28, 185 1 : . . .,- jwm teat i i : . . i ' : . -z-j - -? Ji The Associated Press Is exclusively entitled to tha use' lor publication of a& news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this newspaper.! The Bulldozer When monuments are erected following world war II,' at least one of major prominence should be devoted to the faithful bulldozer., It has carved a line across the wastes of North Amer ica in' the building pf, the Alaska highway. It , has leveled landing, strips on Pacific atolls. It has, in its modified tank-dozen style, gouged paths through (he hedgerows pf Normandy to speed the break-through. It has followed jeeps to clear streets of French towns of rubble so trucks could rumble on with supplies' to ad vancing" units. It has even dug graves for the enemy 'dead and then covered them with, soft earth. Once on Saipan it was itself a weapon, as it pushed earth and rocks to seal the entrance of a Jap-held cave. . . . F.H-eigners, from South sea island natives to French citizens and German infantrymen, stare : in amazement not unmixed with fear as young Yankee drivers (sometimes negro) manipulate 'dozer controls and show how" versatile a tool it is. Major Eric Linklater, with the British for ces in Italy pays the following tribute to the 'dozers for the part ''they are playing in the battle for Italy. He said in a recent broadcast released by the British information service; '' Bulldozers led the; advance on the Gothic line, and bulldozers and Bailey Bridges made it possible for the infantry and the guns to reach it and breach it and go through. The Germans have always been clever in de struction a mail 'easily grows expert in what gives him pleasure. And throughout the length of Italy there are rim memorials to their talent for demolition. But whatever the ob stacles whatever the enormity of 'the' gaps .that yawned in front; the troops went through with a speed that took the Germans utterly by surprise. And the impregnable Gothic line lasted no longer" than the Maginot. And the bulldozers led the advance. Three months ago, on the Sangro, there were three of them, called Gert and Daisy and Tiger Lil, that became a winter legend and were said to be the reincarnation of three of Hannibal's . elephants who, many centuries before," had vic toriously flattened their way through Italy. A bulldozer in bronze, life-size, with a Yank soldier, his shirt open, his face aglow" at the controls what a stirring war memorial that would make; and how appropriate! Or perhaps some yet undiscovered Kipling can do for the 'dozer and its driver what RK did for Gunga Din. Child Safety With the children back from summer work and camps more of them will be onrcity streets. And as the days grow shorter, and, with, cloudy weather, darker, the hazards from auto acci dents will increased Motorists will do well to' ..drive more cautiously, and pedestrians, old and young, should walk more carefully for their own safety. In days before war campaigns for paper and blood plasma and tin cans and contributions it was possible of work up much public interest in safety campaigns (you remember white slickers and everything). Special safety cam paigns would suffer from too much war com petition now, yet the need remains. At least, The Statesman has done its duty in posting this Public Warning." L Editorial Comment STOP. HAVE YOU FOBGOTTEN ANYTHING?" It has been noted in recent days, both in this column and in the news, that President Roosevelt is in Quebec holding a war conference with Prime ' Minister Winston Churchill. It is not at all unusual . that this should be. Since war days came to Ameri- ; ca, the president has ' apparently been seized by an irresistible urge to travel. The seizures have ;, come more frequently, as election time approached. Now the novelty is wearing off and. the people are becoming used to Mr. Roosevelt popping up here, there or elsewhere (ordinarily elsewhere) to put on a turn in his election role of "commander-in-chief." These disappearances and appearances have been coming often enough of late so that we had almost lost sight of the fact that the president was in Que bec doing much the same sort of thing that he is doing now only slightly more than a year ago. But hewas there, sure enough. We are reminded of it rather joltingly by the story of Sgt Maj. Emile Couture. It seems that the sergeant, who was in charge of issuance of stationery for the Quebec! conference last year, found some papers in one of the hotel conference rooms after the conferees had gone home. They were memoranda on the forces which could be brought to bear in invading France and . gave the tip-off that the invasion would be in June, 1944. The sergeant picked up the papers and . turned them in at headquarters, then was hustled away to Washington In company with a commis sioned officer to be sworn to secrecy. For keeping the secret he and the officer were awarded special citations. . More power to Sgt Couture. He did what we would , expect of a good soldier. In doing so it is not unlikely that he saved the lives. of thousands of other good soldiers, 'American, British and Ca nadian. He may even have prevented a shocking defeat of our forces when D-day did come in June, 1914. What the sergeant did was important enough so that there will be no one to grudge him his ci tation, even though his act was in no sense beyond what was reasonably to have been expected of him. But how about the one who left such documents lying about? We will assume that it was not inten tional; we will also insist that it was criminally careless. Documents of such Import that the finder must be sworn to secrecy in the capital of the American government, documents which could im peril the lives of our men and the success of a ma jor phase of our war these were left for the first who entered the room to find, as one might find the work sheets which a school child leaves after completing tomorrow's arithmetic assignments. . In the past there has been considerable comment on these journeying of our president Much of it hat been unfavorable, but even then it has merely been because it was so apparently a waste of money and time, so palpably the playing of a part as the great world statesman or -"commander-in-chief" candidate. But the story of Sgt Couture apd the finding of the D-day plans makes it plain that these presidential peregrinations have in them also the element of deadly danger. Bend Bulletin. THE STATESMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY ' ' CHARLES A. SPRAGUE, Editor end Publisher Member of the Associated Press "Ein Kleiner Mann" ' ! '- " - " r marines and soldiers to the American 83rd vision at the "Well yes." 1 : "What did you do about them?' Interpreting The War News By ELTON C. FAY; ! Substituting for I ' K1RKE L. SIMPSON I . .. ASSOCIATED PRESS WAR ANALYST Any final battle to destroy the' last vestige of Japanese sea power will be brief but fierce, j Naval men, while believing that the war of at trition waged against the enemy's sea power may be brief and air power has dissipated Japan's chance of victory in any major naval clash assert sert however that the enemy fleet remains art un known but certainly dangerous factor. f Destruction of hundreds of thousands of ton! of shipping needed to fuel and supply the striking force of the Japanese fleet presumably has pinned the fleet to operations npt far from the home bases. Japan's fleet is thought to include at least 13 battleships, with as many as five of them 40-000V ton vessels mounting 8 or 9 sixteen inch guris. In addition to the capital hips, it is suspected Japan has, been experimenting with extremely heavy cruisers, of virtually battleship proportion. Japan started the war with 10 battleships, four of which have been sunk. At leas,t seven of her aircraft car riers have gone down, f ; i Curiously enough, in.; all of the American navy and air contacts with elements of the enemy fleet there have been no reports of the sighting of any of the new construction. The latest engagement was the carrier-borne plane attack- on Japanese ships and aircraft near the northern tip of the Philippines in June and dispatches mentioned no modern fighting ships gin that enemy forced The assumption, therefore, is that the enemy may be husbanding truly powerful battleships, cruisers . and aircraft carriers to make last stand near to r home. In such an engagement, the enemy would be opposing a naval force certainly -numerically su perior. Moreover, since the start Of the war, the United States has added to its fleet between 35,000 and i5,000 tons battleships of the most modern -design and of super fire power, f f This American fleet may have the support of powerful units of Britain! navy Is indicated in the recent Quebec statement of Prime Minister Chur chill that England expects to be in on the kill in the Pacific. A '-" '. I 1 Sunday Maj. Gen.: Enrich Elster surrendered his motley command of some 20,000 German Loire river in Trance. The Ger mans, had refused to surrender to the French maquis ior fear of vengeance, preferring the se curity of American prison camps. The Ger man general himself, after his surrender said he wanted to go to America "as quickly as pos sible." -,' j v J . :-:4 i . p ;; ri : Fear.of retribution haunts the minds not only of generals but of privates in the German ar mies. Undoubtedly they have a sense of guilt over their own excesses and expect' swift and harsh vengeance front their captors. Their hope of mercy seems to lie-with the Americans. In reoccupied cities of Russia and ; Poland . where some of the worst atrocities were uncov ered German soldiers' blamed the cruelties on the SS, Hitler's vaunted storm troopers; or pleaded their own lack of responsibility because j of orders of their superiors. Sgt Stefan Heym, Writing in the New York Times magazine, reports that the German pris oners in the west likewise hope to avoid any personal penalty ! because they .were merely obeying orders as "little men." To quote from his' article: ', . " 1 ' f - " j, The prisoner of war; is strictly an individual ist; his life having been saved by. what he con , siders a miracle, he is more interested in his' individual fate than in the collective fate; of ; the nation. He is not worried by the possibility of Germany's being split up into small vassal states, but he is tremendously worried about his own personal responsibility for acts commit ted during the war by the German army and . police is brought to his attention. He immed iately protests: "I always disapproved of cruel ties!" "Nothing of that kind ever happened where my unit was!1 "The regular army has I nothing to do with it that was all done ? by the SS!" , l I ; ' j- ! The interrogator interposes carefully: "But you knew of; these things!" . j P IS Now the prisoner! really gets heated, he gestures, "What could I do. I am only Ein Kleiner Mann!" j : f I am only a Little Mam This is the standard phrase, the standard escape from any and 'all responsibility. As soon as the war turns against them, as soon as the fear of retribution for all ' , the agony they spread grips them, ihe excuse is ready. They had to follow orders. S i The little men will escape, except wher di rect personal connection is established with? spe cific misdeeds, because not even the Poles would go through with a mass slaughter of all the Germans. But it s time that "little meh" he, gfvea responsibility for the Actions of their leaders. The German people, the masses of them, cheered Hitler fin the Sportspalastf and swarmed at party rallies at Nuremberg. They provided the base for his support; and :they ought to suffer! a p4nishment for their Sown correction. ! i J : ! f Paper. Drive Next Sunday j Waste paper is the prime need in salvage at the present time. War consumption added to civilian demand makes paper genuinely scarce. Not only is economy In consumption required, but prompt return of old papers, cardboard and carton board throughlsalvage collection chan nels is urged. ( i -. !; Salem , will stage a paper collection special effort next; Sunday1. Gardner Knapp, .salvage director, is anxious to have people here beat Portland's per capita record of 8H lbs. per cap ita. The paper is here, If people will only bundle it and turn it in at th many convenient collec tion boxes scattered over the cityf I v 1 The proceeds' of the paper soldi it may be ad ded, will go to the improvement of the boy icout camp, which adds a worthy local project to the patriotic reason for liberal response to this ap peal.' : . . M t .,: ' . ! - I- di- rru - .rr ... ts Dead Soldiers' The Literary Guidepost By JOHN SELBT "SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS AKE . SOLDIERS," ky Mmrtaret Halsey (Simon ii Schuster; I don't suppose that Margaret Halsey was ever a lowly gob in the Navy, but I once was that, and remember with some acute ness the sensations thereof. I re member because I had a certain j correspondent of the., feminine gender who was clever. The first few of her letters were amusing, -and led me to respond in what I fondly hoped was "kind." Then I got bored. Not merely a little bored, but abysmally, and eventually I began resenting the fact that "father" became "pro genitor" to her, and puns such as "habeas corporal dropped from her fountain pen,! more and more heavily. : So perhaps Margaret 'Halsey's "Some of My Best Friends Are Soldiers'' should never have been administered to me in the first place. It is, presumably, a series of letters from a sister to her brother ; in Fort Bragg. Miss Halsey actually is writing what she truthfully calls " a kind of novel," however, complete with love affair, with sidelights on the character of the relatives, with; introduction, conflict and de nouement. It has the advantage of the letter form, which is that literally anything can be drag ged in without apology. It has the great!, disadvantage, too, that none of the characters ever 'act ually! enters the stage. They can not (because the text is presum- ably a set of letters) ever get closer to the reader than once-1 removed. They must be strained through Miss Halsey's mind, and when Miss Halsey's mind takes up a serious problem, it is a bit on the opaque side. She once did a quite delightful and neatly satirical book on the English Ail ed "With Malice Toward Some." The same method does not work for the so-called "minority prob lems" which means for the Ne gro problem and the Jewish problem.! i Miss Halsey takes up the latter through an incident at a service man's canteen; it does not occur to her that this incident should have been solved on the spot by a neatly directed slap. The "Ne gro problem" she gets at through the brother in Carolina she lec- tures him on his reaction toward .Illl-l T a rlCWCtMLM 1 VJ-- " . , ,7.&.LJ-Jt HE YOUNG IDEA? By Mossier ''1- , ' 1 n 3 - ' 'fmi fmmrt lr. Te "It Tm the generation that's going te 'take over, you onght te . 1 get me ased te mandlin money I" . J U J WAREtlDS News Behind the News '(j. By PAUL MALLON ; . (Distribution by King Features Syndicate, Inc. Reproduction In whole I j or in part strictly prohibited.) WASHINGTON, Sept 18 In this spot Sunday I began the presentation of facts to dem onstrate j that compulsory mili- tary training is undemocra tic and the pro posed legisla tion to take 17 year old youths into the army for a year would not pro vide an effici ent, sufficient army because Pul Mallon most fighting lines j today are highly skilled techniques which require con stant I practice by more mature persons, i This youth nucleus discharged at 18 could not keep up with the scientific developments of war, but must become another na tional; guard, taking inadequate refresher courses by, mail. The training therefore could be not much ' more than a physical cul ture year taken out of the life of every citizen. If physical culture and minor preparatory training is what the army wants, why does it not put the facilities for these into our existing ,! educational structure? Why take a year out of a boy's life. Delaying his college educa tion or his start in work, delay ing the contribution of every ' one to me Productivity of the country, wnen it will not give us wnai we must have a capa ble army? Why waste money training the unusuables and unadaptable boys, as the army proposes un der the pretense of thus main taining democracy? Many boys have no talent or desire for plane-piloting, gun nery, tank operation. And mon ey spent training them for a year at 17 to be soldiers would be thrown away. Would you not get a better southern thought on the subject, which strikes me as being much like a little boy trying to kill a bird by throwing a stone around the corner of a barn. At the end Of Miss Halsey's book all I had was a few snickers, i ; . r - gi J 1 army source pool by offering inaucements of pay and free technical education to those who like mechanical arts and intend to go further with their tech-, nical training in college or busi ness? Why not do this by multiply ing tne size of West Point and Annapolis and injecting the pre paratory courses for these schools in. our existing educa tional system? The aemocratic way is always the best, if only it is intelligent ly led. It is founded on the theo ry that a willing worker is better than a forced worker. We should, therefore, try inducement before resorting to compulsion. Compulsory military training has never proved a guarantee of security or even a preparation for a good army in Europe. A disarmed Germany, which was supposed to have no military training, nearly overran the world, and did crush all the na tions with their compulsory camps. These brought larger but not better armies (to wit, France). A lieutenant overseas has written me what seems to be the initial fault with our thinking on this subject. He says a sufficient army, or a large West Point and Annapolis, will create military cliques which will rule us into wars as in Germany and Japan. This is the historical error of our nation. Never have we been prepared for a war, or adequate ly for our own defense, because of this popular fear. This time we nearly sacrificed our nation to the fear. They nearly got us before we could get ready. In the swiftness of these new war methods and the possibili ties for great devastation of ci-. vilian populations, it seems to me clear that if we are not ready next time this nation will ad " joura. ; The practical way to keep away from military clique is by practicing democracy, not sacri- firing your -fief ens to the fear of an avoidable! possibility; Pre vent the military minority from ' becoming ruling civil authorities x as has been done with our ad mirals cliques. Avoid such totalitarian prac tices as this , proposed youth . draft. Raise . your army in a democratic way, keep it demo cratic, and j away from political Influence and control. An Oakland California editor sees more clearly thl fundamen tal truths of the situation. He says the country must face the necessity of maintaining a large , enough standing army and pay ing for it. He guesses we ; will . need 500,000 men, ten times what we had before. Well, we have always handled the navy that way. Whys not the army? Land fighting Is as high ly technical now as naval fight ing. It requires constantly keep- ' ing ahead of an always improv ing game. ! If we are going to assume any i obligations as the-top power of i the postwar world along with Russia, we will have to have It ; The nayy is no longer an assur . ance of security in an air world. I do not like the idea essen , tially. Sufficient armies require heavy public expense. But there Is: no certainty in security. We must do what is necessary. . I believe the ' Oakland editor Is right The objective -analysis In these tw o columns, on the ! subject, ' herewith" concluding, show, we had.be tt t ciace .thej WITH THE AEF IN FRANCE, Sept 12 -(DeUyed)r(A1)-Com-' munications proMems caused by . the speed of the seventh army's v drive has brought plenty of. work, trouble and danger to. a new- branch .of the army . air forces, which Is,, seeing jts first action in south ern France. - - Although at tached, to the ground forces. the air corps H- f 1XU aison scniaaron commanded -byKnnto - Maj. J. Mess Percy, of New Or leans, La, reminds all comers somewhat grimly That it belongs to the ranks of the flyboys. Of ten it Is mistaken for an artil lery observation ! outfit which as much respect as liaison pilots ' have for cub pilots angers them even more. . The reason is they? are not flying cuba but Stinson ' L-5s which have about three times the power' of artillery's "flying jeeps" which they resemble at a distance. - v i "We have been getting a good workout right off the bat .what with radio - telephone commun ications not being able to keep pace "with the troops or -else be ing subjected to some other 'in terference, said ! Lt- Joseph- W. Kenny, Cleveland, O an . ob server with the outfit which on ly left the states last June. As far as we know we are the first air. corps liaison outfit flying Stinsons to see combat in any theater." j In addition to running mes sages between army headquar ters and various front line un its, the squadron serves as , a reconnaissance Outfit "in Its spare time." . ; Besides, that It came to the rescue of correspondents during the early days as the beachheads (Continued from Page 1) a guaranteed annual wage and certain other union demands.' William H. Davis, chairman of WLB which now must review the panel's findings, gave out a state ment last week that a "change in the pay stabilization policy Is in evitable" and said WLB would start work on the problem Oc- tober 9 and make its decision known "before the ' November, elections." The timing there is not without political importance! In fact, the politics of the' move is plain as a pikestaff, but I want to discuss the proposition on its economic aspects. ' If we look directly at the prob lem faced. by WLB the conclusion is forced that upward wage ad justments are justified on the basis of the increase in cost of living. OPA simply, hasn't done its job, and the great reason it. hasn't is the pressure St pro ducers for price increases and readiness of consumers : with money, in their pockets to pay the increase. But looking ahead just a little the wisdom of further wage increases is put in grave doubt For. the War in Europe is siftly drawing to a close, and with it the demand for war goods will fall sharply, men will be de mobilized and the whole country forced to reconvert to peace. The early effect will be a reduction in prices under the force of compe tition. Food prices will decline in spite of government support to agriculture. If then the wage structure is on a high plateau the ' facta of world life and quit play ing around with false notions such as the currently popular one that a year in the army for 17 year olds will solve the de fense problem or be any less ex p e n s i v e than intelligently, democratically producing the army we need. : I . .'-.', - . i. itvnn OVERSEAS CHRISTMAS S t e Gifts Purchased from Stevens and Son will be wrapped and without charge. ' mailed. OtT I ianned out and bigger courier, plants were-unable te land any where near the fast moving press' camp. Then such giiyi " M..Techy Sgt ; Sidney W. Dale, : Norfolkj. Ya, would seta tiny plane down in any available cow ' pasture ' which had a'-eotf feetk runway,' pick. up .our copy .and , fly ' back Ho a bigger field where regular courier planes were able to land. .The ..outfit , differs from most air corps units in many .ways. For one thing most of its pilots' are enlisted men rather than of-' ficers. Out of 140. men" in the squadron there, are only. 14 of-, ficers. Enlisted pilots' who - are mostly sergeants of various grades often have considerable ' civilian flying time behind them. Thirty-two year old Tech Sgt - James" Wall, Riverside, Wash; ' for instance, had a' student li--cense for a long time back In the days before he joined the army . and was running a service sta tion. So did Staff .Sgt- William . A.. Storms, Harrisburg, Pa., who did his first army flying as a glider pllojt and' then transferred to' this squadrdhi ' " '' 1 : . . . "Sometimes we .serve, as aer ial taxicabs to .the. big boys can." get around fast to , see . .what's going on at all fronts,'' grinned Lt Robert S. Dinger of Wash ington, DC, - a flight leader. Some "big boys" they have hauled here and there on the French fronts are Lt Gen.; A1- exander M. Patch and Lt Gen. Jacob S. Devers. Air Corps' Gen- i eral Gordon Saville sometimes borrows one of their Stinsons to fly' around. v. , When anything important i happens, Squadron Corpi, Ralph j . Clifford,1 former Boston, Mass., newspaperman, parks his Stin son long enough to write a story about it and send it "through channels" hoping it gets td the boys' hometown papers.' As yet they haven't' seen any clippings. Industrial readjustment ' may be made more difficult Take new construction. Thou sands of people are planning new homes but when they hear what little jobs cost now, both for material and for labor they will be frightened away.at ' house-building. Lift the wage scales some more (followed by increases in material costs)' and what will this do to the program of construction which the coun try is relying on to take up much of the slack in war orders? Labor . may say, if we don't get our in- - . crease now we certainly can't get it when the war is over. But if higher wages are a bar to full employment then ; labor (as a -body) 'will suffer because of the increase. . ' We should recall too that the worst phase of inflation growing out of the first world war was in - the period which followed the war, 1919-1920. That can hap pen again, for a temporary pe riod, and wage advances will help to touch it off. .. . L - In this war the . workers have proved themselves fully as patri otic as any other group. Their occasional . strikes have been widely publicised, but measured ' in. terms of ships, tanks, guns, r planes produced the losses' in production from strikes have been infinitesimal. It was labor's wholehearted support (which for certain , segments did not come until after Hitler attacked Bus- , sia) .which made possible the production of the materiel which is literally scaring the. pants off the Germans and the Japs. Their Increases in base pay have been moderate in comparison - with . farm and business profits and for large classes 'of workers (white collar workers), often al most negligible. ; One cannot, in the face of the record, say that labor does' not 'merit an increase in its base rates of pay. But look ing to the future, with its threat of short'-iived inflation and subv sequent drastic deflation, which would. be increased by; general raises in the wage structure, it1 would seem better for the coun try as a whore tincluding labor) t to adhere to present schedules and so effect an easier transition to a peace-economy, when real wages will increase through in creased production and ' lowered prices. ; . ' r Gift Canteen' GIFT SUGGESTIONS FOE WAVES. WACS. MARINES AND NUKSES r 1 1 n r silver i identinntiJ bracelet Link i chain. And : out genuine leather billfold to slip into her shoulder bag, precisely tailored. Colors: black, blue And brown. i CredU U Desired