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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 1944)
Ai it rib'. TV ... , ... " . " "Wo Tavor Sways Ut; No Fear Shall Aw From First Statesman. March 28, 1331" THE STATES51AN PUBLISHING COMPANY CHARLES A. SPRAGUE, Editor and Publisher " Member oi the Associated Press The Associated Press Is exclusively entitled to the use lor publication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this newspaper.. Rail Wrecks . When rail wrecks happen the papers tell the story which often winds up with the news that an investigation of the cause is under way. Sometimes months afterwards a report of the ; investigation may be given brief mention. But the public has forgotten the event and is little interested in the post-mortem. Tor example we have had no word as to the cause of the two wrecks on the Seattle-Portland line one of which delayed and the other wrecked the Dew ey train. " ; The terrible wreck near Terre Haute, Ind., when more than a score of persons were killed, most of them men of the air forces, has had lit tle subsequent publicity as to its -cause. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, however, notes that the ac- : cident, which occurred when an engineer on the Miami train ran by a red signal in the fog, could not have occurred if the railroad had been equipped with the proper automatic safety de vice. Available is an automatic stop which stops or,slows down a train running through a stop signal. This certainly , ought to be installed on all lines of railroads. When radar enables an American warship to sink-Japanese ships ,at night, miles -away, it is tragic to think that our railroads have been so. tardy in installing " safety devices The fact is that most of them have to be forced on the roads by the interstate commerce commission, and then the individual roads beg for extension of ; time Some of them would still be operating without airbrakes, probably, if they hadn't been required to install them. The roads are in the money now. They ought to use part of it to modernize their plant and especially to install improved safety signals and stops. Prevention of wrecks is really cheaper than cleaning them up. Passing the Buck The war labor board has passed on to the pre sident the final decision on whether the little steel wage formula should be scrapped. It says it does not have sufficient information as to the . possible effects of a modification of the formula on the country's price structure. Since the ques tion is not merely one of wages, the final de cision should rest with the president who alone has converging at his own. desk the data from the various departments of government, but al so responsibility as to public policies. How soon the president will act is not announced. It is rather doubtful if he makes his decision known before the election. The question is two-fold: one, the present situation as to wages and cost of living; the oth er is the future trend of both., We like the stand taken by Erich Johnston who .recommends that no general wage increase be made at present; though he foresees the continuance of a rise in wages as the economy becomes more productive. Labor itself should profit if the line against in flation is held, because the price schedule is al most sure to take a dip when the military de mand falls off. Ballot Measures V, Fifth item on the measures ballot is a bill re ferred by the legislature. This is' designed to provide at state expense educational aid to all Oregon veterans of this , world war, who have - served a minimum of 90 days. The veteran may pursue his course of study "in any public or accredited private school or college in the state of Oregon." The aid provided is:. $75 for the first month, $50 for each of the next ensuing eight months, $35 a month for nine months in each of the ensuing three years. In short, grants ' are made to students for i four years of nine months each. The cost of the assistance is to be met by an authorized tax levy of two-tenths of a mill. If a veteran accepts federal education al aid he is barred from taking state aid in ad dition. Since this bill was passed by the legislature . for reference to the people the federal j"GI bill of rights" was passed which provides more lib eral educational aid. Under the federal act the government will pay the tuition and regular . fees of the school selected by the veteran, pro vide, books and supplies and, travel, and fur nishes subsistence, allowance of $50 month if the veteran is single or $75 a month if he has dependents. This is far more liberal and will undoubtedly be used by most' veterans. State aid is offered up to four years, while federal aid is limited to one year of schooling for each year of service to a maximum of four years. Also the state bill, has no! restriction as to age while under the federal bill aid is not of fered to those who were over 25 on entering the service unless their education , was interrupted or they desire a refresher course. , 1 The numbers who would benefit under this state bill are so few that it hardly seems neces sary for the state to enter this field. The "GI bill" seems entirely adequate. The Statesman recommends Vote 309 X No. i Chungking Gloomy Brooks Atkinson, reporting to the New York Times from Chungking, says that the, mood in the Chinese capital instead of freshening fol lowing foreign visits and domestic conferences is turning to: "gloomy resentment and reti cence." The government seems resolute against making "concessions to foreign criticisms and is less inclined to deal with the communists. The west had counted on China's holding to gether and keeping up the fight. The internal situation Is so grave that the urgency of gain ing a foothold on China's east coast is appar ent ;'C -V -; . - We are in the "r' months again, only to learn that oysters this year will be ''small, scarce and expensive." Little chance then for bobsled .rides to the 'country for oyster suppers if we had the snow. - At Bend the city jail was closed for lack of fuel; at Coquille the county jail was closed for lack of customers. War shortages seem to work two ways. , Editorial Comment WAYNE MORSE We believe that our congress is desperately in need of a fine type of representative government representation which represents in the broad rather than the narrow sense; that a congressman should consider both the needs of his country and of his Immediate constituency; and this if his country's welfare calls louder than his district's, he should vote for the country's welfare. Otherwise we will have developed and we have been developing a very dangerous bloc system which is 'the absolute opposite of what is demanded of truly representative government. The case of Wayne Morse, former member of the war labor board, recently nominated by the republicans of Oregon for the United States senate, gives rise to these thoughts. Though claimed by the CIO. PAC, he apparently Is by no means wearing the CIO's or anybody else's collar. He is friendly to labor in the over-all sense, yet he would correct by legislation the evils within organized labor that are bedeviling the rank and' file of union members. He would amend the Wag ner act, correct its inequities, eliminate its squeaks and make it really workable.'' He would clean out the overlapping of governmental agencies which deal with labor and industry. He would by law abolish jurisdictional disputes- unless labor r itself quickly provides machinery for such abolition. He would reinstitute a government by law and head, off the trend toward government by men. In short, he is doing his own thinking and not letting labor or any other lobby do his thinUng for him. We need desperately, we repeat more .of his sort. Houston (Texas) Press. ?! . v v V ,s3? All ii -s Doughboys LougH At Mcteaxln Pics Of n?hn4 Msa Indian Summer i KtnnetA L. JDtxon WITH TH2 AEP IN FRANCE, Oct. 6 -(Delayed)-(ff)-A bat-, tered. three - months old mag azine just showed up in this rifle ' company , . ' command post 7' boys now ' are gazing at illus trations sup posed to repre sent front line I fighting, men. It is a scene I I have watched ! many times in f Africa, - Italy.f; and France. ByN now, most com bat soldiers long since have giv en up hope that the folks at home ever will understand, i - But still they make bitter re marks. And a ? few still hope that some day maybe the folks will know what it's like. So here is one more attempt: .. . v Bight now the commander of this company looks worse than any drunk who has slept three night in the gutter. He is'dirty. bearded and bleary," - eyed, coughing badly and probably running a high temperature. His tangled and twisted hair sticks up from bis head at crazy an gles. He doesn't look like the of ficer in the magazine. - ; There Is nothing handsome or romantic about the sergeant who Just came back from patrol. He literally stumbled down the steps to this basement under a shell shattered house because he is punchdrunk - with sleeplessness. His four-day old beard is flecked with mud and food and hairs from a wet and dirty blanket in which he . wrapped himself f or two hours of rest between pa trols. His shaking hands spilled the coffee he tried to drink a few moments ago, drooling muddy rivers down his chin. He's a good soldier, but he looks more like a scared, cold and dirty invalid. The private who came with him looks even worse.' His body, whipped into stringy flesh, is crumbled slackly into wet and shapeless clothes. One pant leg - Is tucked Into a combat boot The other trails on the ground, frayed and mudcaked. ' ; 'Waiting, huddled against the wall, he trembles constantly and almost uncontrollably. You cant tell whether It's from the cold or from the sound of the mortar shells that have been falling near the command post all morning. He and the sergeant both are sick with fright and long since wrung out by fear. But in a few more minutes, they will leave the comparative safety of the com mand post to return to foxholes , (Continued oi page 10) The Literary Guidepbst By JOHN SELBT WAK CRIMINALS Sir Walter Layton, a British economist who gen erally thinks things through, is oufwith a proposal - t.Q send leading nazis and members of the gestapo . to a '"Devil's Island" for war criminals. Conceding that this might be even worse pun ishment than execution to force these atrocious criminals together for life, with no leaven in the association, such a program would lack exemplary effect The world is concerned not alone with retri butionsimagination cannot devise punishment that would balance the cruelty they have inflicted but to give dramatic proof that crime does not pay. There are soft-hearted persons who argue that to execute Hitler and the rest of his criminal gang would be to make martyrs and sow the seed for a new crop of the same kind. That Is something we will take a chance on. It did not make a martyr of - Dillinger to shoot him down. Drumhead courts martial should be the rule for the chief war crim inals, no matter who captures them. There should be an r -reemect between te allies tn tU effect Can Franciico Chronicle. r . Important indices of business, car loadings and electric consumption, show that business has reached! a levelling off point Comparative statistics no longer show the sharp increases over previous years. This is only1 natural as the productive machine reaches its peak and catch-' es up with military demand. We can expect,re cessions too in the transition to peace. It may even take some years to build back to wartime peaks; but we should not go into; a tailspin of panic when some minus signs replace pluses in our statistics. Skyrockets don't keep going till ; they hit the' moon. .' I Interpreting The War News ! K1RKE L. SIMPSON ASSOCIATED PRESS WAR ANALYST " . Japanese reports of a massive American carrier-. based plane raid along the west coast of Formosa, , within a scant 100 miles of the Chinese mainland, touched off Tokyo predictions of follow-up land ing operations, although they : went unconfirmed from any American source. .v 1 There seemed no reason to doubt that Formosa, a capstone of the. Nipponese China Sea conquest arch, had been brought under fire for the first time ; by American, bomber fleets, whether the enemy es- . timate of 1000 planes involved is accurate or not The figure used? sufficiently, shows -Japanese re- , cognition of the tremendous American air-sea -power concentrated in the far. Pacific now! Unwillingness of the American task force com mander Jo reveal the position of his fleet by break ing radio silence could account for delay in an of ficial report on the action to Pearl Harbor. head- , Quarters. The striking fact about the incident, how ever, is-that it represents an American advance not only across the Pacific but also .virtually within sight of the Chinese coast months ahead of sche dule. i".-, ,.". V : , ' L : - , V' , .'-f ' ; -: . ' ;- , - In clear weather pilots of American . bombers closing, on Formosan targets probably would have seen the loom of islands off. the China coast from their-bombing altitude. They were that "close to the reputed ultimate goal of the American drive through the central Pacific, apparently without tormenting j the elusive Nipponese home fleet to' action. It is a fair deduction that whatever else the bomb ing of the whole sweep of the Ryuku chain, stretch ing from the southern tip jof Japan proper- to For mosa, and then Formosa Itself was designed to ac complish, hope of locating the main Japanese fleet and bringing it to decisive action went far to in-. spire the move. Planes of the cooperating commands of Admiral Nimitz and General MacArthur ob viously have been probing all the way from the' : Sulu archipelago and the waters of Borneo in the' south, through island waters in the central Philip pines and now among the Byukus and over For- mosa harbors, for that pdrpose. If any substantial ? part of enemy naval strength has been distantly sighted or its hideouts located, however, there has been no word of it in American official reports or press advices from Pacific areas. In view of authoritative disclosure that the Pa cific offensive has outpaced most optimistic allied hopes by many weeks or months, it is doubtful that the far-ranging operations in the east Chinasea imply any immediate move to follow through "with landings. Distances are still to great for that They - seem more like diversions in force designed to pull Japanese air. and sea power away from probable . landing. sites in the Philippines. ,'r ' t , f Among other objectives at which the roving air-1 sea attack in the east China theater might be aimed Is the boost it would give Chinese civilian and ar my morale. A stiffening of Chinese resistance to the Japanese effort to slice China apart would warrant bold American ventures even if larger tactical or strategic conceptions are involved. ' -INVASION JO CRN AL- tjr Rkharl U Tokla (Dattoa; S2). i The . finest writing about the invasion of western Europe I have seen is contained in a med ium sized book by Richard II Tobln, called "Invasion Journal." Mr. Tobin's book Is a very per sonal one, and certainly he will not convince all his readers that all his statements are true, which ' is unimportant Some people, in addition, will feel that a 60-page Introduction , in which such fa miliar staples as a convoy trip to England and English food are described once again is-a little too much of a curtain-raiser. But , for me, even these well-chewed ideas and well - known' scenes were pleasant in Mr. Tobin's re markably fluent and controlled prose. When he at last gets down to business the effect is first rate. - "By the-end jof 1M2," writes Mr. Tobin, whose home paper is . the New York Herald Tribune, "the combined chiefs of staff had a good picture of what could hap pen in ue west and how it could be made to happen. It was a work of imagination. It was a combin ed operation on a scale without ,. precedent in the history of wars, an invasion against an enemy that had been fortified for years.' It demanded : special' Invasion ships, and boats, and amphib ians, and water-proofed steeLIt demanded specialized training. Above all, it demanded imagi nation, and In Roosevelt and Churchill it got ' imaginative treatment ... Stalin called the invasion . . . 'the most imagina tive, heroic military step In all historyV . ! This paragraph is the key. Mr. Tobin's narrative supports at all times bis belief that what ac tually won the beachheads and later France was properly imp lemented Imagination. : We had, . the book indicates, better mater iel and more of it, but we had also more flexible minds which Is only another name for imagi nation, after alt : .' . - 1 ". Mr. Tobin's important service is . to align the various invasion factors rin proper order and per-' spective. The--: ; temptation ; to' smother the whole thing In the plentiful "color" of the operation was doubtless great But the book is sane, balanced and clear. . News Behind the News By PAUL MALLON (Distribution by King Features Syndicate, Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part strictly prohibited.) fim nmrs Ml WASHINGTON, Oct 12 Sparse and softly agreeable com ment In congress on the postwar world formula of. Dumbarton Oaks does not mean the pro ject is being taken lightly. It is being subjected to se vere study here as elsewhere. Yet there is ev ery present prospect that uon . the unfinished proposal will be approved not only by a majority , but a safe two-thirds of the sen ate on the iollowmg grouiiis: The. formula is based oa the league of nations theory of run ning the world, j Some technical changes do not alter the basic theme, that a world council will investigate aggressors ' and im pose sanctions (economic and so cial as 'well as military) to deter the pugnacious, i : i . . The language has the same ring as the league , covenant which directed its r council to Take action deemed wise and ef fectual to safeguard the peace of nations,? and In article .X said: "The members of the league undertake to respect and pre serve against external aggression the territorial integrity and ex isting political independence of all members of the league. . . The assembly may from time to time advise . . . the considera tion of international conditions whose continuance might en dan- 1 ger the peace of the world." , . This proposal is the league plus the Kellogg-Briand pact renoun cing war, the world court of Jus tice and the disarmament con ference with really only one critical difference. This time the United States Is to undertake . leadership of the all-rolled-into-' one world program along, with Russia and Britain particularly. , This leadership is . to replace , Anglo-French leadership of the old league in which Russia was a I trivial -Influence. The cast ' changes but the I ' al of the play is not altered materially and the script only pointed up. j This theory of peace has be- ' come popular because of a pre vailing notion that the reason the league failed was because the United States did not join its in fluence. ': ; I C Canvassing the opinions of congressional parties and fac tions, I judge an overwhelming official bi-partisan sentiment ex ists behind this endeavor. There Will not be much serious arguing about it unless a completed text ' infringes upon national rights or raises a question of our Interests. ' It is not my purpose to take a position on the matter, only to report how it proposes to work. The incomplete agreement is like the charter of a club, a world dub pledged to peace. This club . is to be controlled largely by an ' executive committee, called "the . security. counciL' . . ; . . The composition of the com mittee does not suggest that any one, either the U.S. or Russia will wield greater influence. Five permanent members are to be the big five united nations, but in ' the voting six r more rotating members from smaller nations will furnish the numerical ma jority on whichever side they go. The an-important details ' of the voting have not been agreed, ; (whether, unanimity is necessary for action) but as the agreement - , . now stands, the complexion of ; , the ' council will depend on the hue of the smaller nations chos-; en for the one, two and three v year terms.. .' ; , ' r: - This council cannot itself wage war, hut can call upon the united nations to wage practically any- t thing from social isolation of a , nation to Invasion. (Cost of these . wars or actions are apparently to be borne by the nations fur nishing, the armies or taking the steps.) . t- The council is to be always . ready for action, atlhough no provisions for housing- It are mentioned. ; I would think it would be established In Wash ington forthis reason: The league was largely a Eu- (Continued from page 1 ) foreigners and ''persons not qualified to become citizens" are in keeping however with other portions of our original consti tution. ' . i . We must remember the time In which the : organic law : was written J857, before the Civil war, when slavery issuer were agitating the whole country. The history of that ' period in Ore gon shows that while the peo ple did not want slavery here, neither did they want the ne-. groes. They wanted to be a cul tural island, free from the con tention which was splitting the country east of the Rockies. When the constitution was submitted to the voters for: rati fication two separate sections w e r e submitted independently. One-would have permitted the bringing . in and holding of slaves. It was voted down by a vote of 7727 to 2645. The I other prohibited any free negro or mulatto, except those resid ing In' the state at the time of the adoption of the constitution, - to come, reside or be within the state. This was approved by a vote of 8040 to 1081. The ap- parent inconsistency in the two votes Is . explained by the fact ' that the people of Oregon who - had left the settled portion of the country far behind wanted to be shed of its worries, both slavery and the negroes. It may be said that this atti tude has . persisted. There's the . sign over at the stage terminal ropean device. This Is to be. a world device. To choose some' small neutral " place such as Switzerland, or to use the old league buildings there,- would subject it to the old unsatisfac tory surroundings In which It was unsuccessful. Washington is the natural background for its newtone and intent (To- be continued In a subse quent column.) ' '."'. The Safety Valve ' txter from SUtemww Wertf "THE YOUNG IDEA" By Mossier v7 I ! XX X XXI X. o S- ' Els' shavL-.g Ln't a CCITIXTE waste of time the lather gets DEFENDS BRITAIN AND ESiratE - 615 North 14th street To the Editor:- It Is of interest to notice that , of all the British dailleSj only the 'Herald' has paid any atten--i tion to the frequent slurs of our own 'dailies' on British foreign policy.. ;;-The British Empire fa our ally " and such propagihdais playing right into the hands of Hitler and ! Hirohito, which 1 Is obviously Germanic In its source and to ' right thinking Americans has little or no weight . ; ' Just what would be our atti tude toward the British Empire ' were they to concoct supposedly historic films in which America might be pictured as being In the war until the last Russian' was killed. We would naturally resent It In no 'uncertain voice, 1 yet we so often circulate dms depicting the British Empire as being in this or that war until the last Frenchman Is dead. ' - f British foreign policy may not r always have been to our liking any more than our own Negro situation is to British public . opinion, yet they can proudly - present Canada, the eommon- - wealth- of Australia, the Union of South Africa, even to what was once-German East Africa as memorials to successful col onization.. We are today determined to maintain a two-ocean navy and to build up a chain of airports that will extend Into the seven seas, yet it is questionable If you will find any British 'dailies' impute any" imperialistic aims. ' The administration Is said to be too 'communistic, the British Empire fostering 'imperialism but to the intelligent reader, one wonders Just what the' argument is really about or b there an argument or Is it just that 'peo ple . who r live '' in ": glass houses should not throw stones. ' Cordially E. G. K2NGWELL. in Salem announcing to all travelers that the city is 98 per cent- white American! . The4 section prohibiting the entrance of negroes became null with the adoption of the 14th amendment to the national con stitution in 1868 but it hung on in the constitution , until its re peal in 1928. Other provisions In the old constitution restricting fights of certain classes Included the fol lowing: . Suffrage was limited to "white male citizens." This sec tion has been amended six , times, and now suffrage Is uni versal to citizens over 21 able to read and write the English . language. , f There , was a special section denying the right of suffrage to any negro, Chinaman or mu latio. This was repealed in 1927, though Invalid because of the 15th amendment to 4he fed eral constitution since 1870. -Sec 8, Art XV read that "no Chinaman, not a resident of the state at the adoption of this constitution, shall ever hold any ; real estate or mining claim, or : work any . mining claim there in." This Is still in the constitu tion, but is labeled Inoperative under, a decision of the supreme court intimating that it Is in conflict with a I treaty with : China. I s- -What we see in the minds of the founding fathers was not the possible ' menace Of , the Japs whose island kingdom had-been unlocked by Commodore Perry only a few years before, but the fear of ."Chinamen who were already coming to this c o a s t taking jobs, and working mining claims, and dislike of negroes. The Japanese issue did not get into our legislation, until 1923 following the first World . war, when .the legislature passed an act directed at the Japs, forbid ding aliens not eligible to be come citizens from i owning or leasing real property. : Those eligible for citizenship under federal laws are "free white . persons' or "aliens of . . African nativity and persons of ; African descent" land under a recent statute, the Chinese. I do not have the exact text of the' latter law, but presume the bar still extends to other orientals. The prohibition has been in large degree avoided by the vesting of titles to property in . tiie names - of American-born ilescendants of ineligible races. ' Thlsi is ; merely a historical sketch tracing in our constitu tion and law the views of Ore gon ians on questions of race. It omits the Klan-inspired initia- five of 1922 banning private . schools, the issue there being religious, rather than racial, and the act was later Invalidated by supreme court decision. What V the futures expression of ' our - people will be only time will: tell. Fears and hates developing from this war may seek to raise fresh barricades against the Japanese. ' gpSil S te veil spi A fcj " v-ll As featured in Vogue r ! V Xl end Mademoiselle! . . . tc , . V V A Pins with the new rtftV t2rC . f l X "light" touch to add M 2- t. vCDv glitter and glamour to . 2fc?
