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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 1944)
pacz roua The CHIGOII STATESMAN, Salem. Grecjon, Tuesday Morning, December 5, ISM Ana-Tcnk Gunner: -Can Job Medics . Anytime He Wants .AT TVJ1 FRONT! : "Afo rarer Sway Ct; No Fear Shall Awe , from First Statesman, March 23. 1831 x TOE STATESMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY CHARLES A. SPRAGUE, Editor and Publisher 1 Member of the Associated Press - j 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. State Department Reorganization . Rioting in The department of state has been in need of thorough-going reorganization for years. The ancient edifice creaked and groaned from its aged tirnber.j Secretary Hull never got around to the house-cleaning which was needed. Ed ward SteUinius, : jr., the new secretary,! uses , a' new broom within the first few days of his taking office, knowing full well that if he wait "ed very long the. cobwebs of let-well-enough- alone would soon bind him. " i But his reorganization will be met with ming led cheers and groans. There will be cheers over the firings and -groans over the appointments - .for successor?. Loudest groans will come from theleft wingers who thought they won the re cevk election, but are finding out that while ; ther did the legwork they lost the, rewards us-1 ually attendant on political victory: Discharged as assistants are Adolf A. Berle, jr., Breckinridge Long and G. Howland Shaw.; Shaw is sr career man in the department; Long! was third assistant secretary of state in Wilson's , second term,! and returned to the department in j - Roosevelt's first term, and is a man of broad knowledge of international affairs. .Berle came in as assistant in 1938 from a responsible office in the city government of rjew York City. To be of maximum value the cleansing should be con tinued into the department's sections Where , policies usually originate and where they al ways lodge for execution (one way or the oth- ef). ';. t " ' " ; 'I- ' . ..V," : . J" But what a bewildering assortment does Stet tihius draw in for his new staff! .The selection of Joseph C. Grew, former ambassador to Japan, is the best of the lot. Grew is a career man in - diplomacy, a man of character and substance. His experience will be invaluable to the young secretary. The prime mystery Ji the choice of Will L. Clayton as an assistant. He had just been relieved as surplus property administrator. Clayton is one of the world's biggest cotton mer chants, a Jesse Jones protege from Houston. He comes from the southern business hierarchy who are anathema to the true new dealers. As though business was not adequately repre sented with 'Stettinius, ex-GMC and US Steel official, trid Cottonbroker, -Clay tori, another of -the posts of assistant secretary goes to Nelson A. Rockefeller. He is to take charge of relations with other American republics. Rockefeller has been doing a great work in this field, with the customary Rockefeller devotion to duty; but the business coloration of the appointment cannot be overlooked. i Another surprise package among the new faces is Archibald MacLeish, named assistant secretary of state to direct public and cultural relations. MacLeish is a fuzzy -writing poet who is now librarian of congress. He seems ill-cast for this assignment hot because he is a poet but because of the kind of poet he is. Of the lot Grew alone is a veteran in the field f,of foreign relations. Stettinius is a tyro and ' ' -Rockefeller limited to the" Latin-American field. Clayton's appointment marks a victory for Jesse Jones over the Henry Wallace crowd, and the roars that will go up from the latter's friends will rend the sky. Jones clashed with Wallace on foreign buying, and the business was" conr solidated under the department of state. Now a Jones crony takes over, which will make the new dealers feel they have really lost the elec tion. A pinko-poet like MacLeish as propagand ; 1st is a pale offset to Clayton in the highly important-office of foreign economic affairs. There will be immediate efforts to place the responsibility, and probably Harry Hopkins who seems to be the White house fixer will get the credit (or blame) for the t choices. Hopkins is now a "tired new dealer? who has run out on his old friends. While the left-wing democrats prayed for radical changes in the state depart ment they did not expect to be sold down the river -not as far as, Houston, Texas. I Their ernBaffassmenf TS oTrnlnor" Importance however. The real fear is that the new crew will not only have no more imagination than the un derlings wholiave made many and seriousWun ders during the Hull regime, but that they will not prove very competent as diplomats. Right . when we need to put our best foot forward in the complex and delicate affairs which are com ing up we put in a green team? some of whom come from the wrong street. Editorial Commont . SOVIET FOREIGN STATEMENT The Soviet Union's six-point statement of for eign policy issued in this country by the Soviet em bassy is a welcome and enlightening document It rules out differences of political system as a deter rent to cooperation and friendly relations with an other nation and makes love of freedom and peace their prime requisite. If further! renounces imper ... ialistic expansion by the Soviet government at the expense of any other nation. But most Americans will probably find greatest interest in the officially announced principle of "non-intervention in the Internal affairs of other states. " ' This reaffirms the hands-off policy implicit in the Comintern's .dissolution and, for all apparent purposes; Jays the persistent ghost of a Soviet government-sponsored world revolution. These principles of foreign policy were issued, over the signature of Cot A. Calln, who identifies them as the program which the Soviet Union has consistently followed throughout Its existence. .Yk "'may concede, then, that frequent similarity between the thought and actions of the communist parties in the United States and Soviet Russia is not to be construed as an alliance between the Ameri can communists and the soviet government, of which ,the Russian communist party is the dominant politi cal body. ' We may also also conclude that those who before the 'recent elections attacked critics of American communists as persons bent on alienating our Rus- , sian ally were not completely informed. For it U clear in the Usht of the soviet Izn'zn policy state ment that these critics were no more likely to in-. Jure Russo-American relations than were the au thors of articles in the official soviet paper Ix " vestia which criticized Amcricia republicans. u r.'ne r.c".'.l:r-Ci;rri or tne masses to interest. - In Rome the the Italian flag bearing the emblem of the royal house of Savoy and ran up the communist red flag with hammer and sickle emblem. In Athens the E .AM (national liberation front) carried out a demonstration which resulted in a battle with the regular army. The Greek ' prfrne min ister charged that "leaders of the extreme left ate preparing the way to civil war.'' This is not surprising. The people have suf fered; now they want hopes fulfilled. They are deeply suspicious of old governments of any government. Moreover the communist element sees in the present confusion arf opportunity to convert the country in a collectivist state. The shadow of Russia not only as military pow er but as a social idea looms across Europe. Small i wonder then that the liberated peoples of Eu rope in their bitterness, their! zeal, their aspir ation should demand greatly enlarged powers ' for themselves.; Contrariwise, j the conservative influences, the vested interests, political and economic, are fearful lest their countries go the way of Russia, and work to prevent such an outcome.'. 1 '' .'" '''!'."'! "-''' '" Order must be preserved. The fighting allies can't be distracted from' fighting the Germans by trouble behind their front: lines. But allied control should be limited to maintaining order where the regular government fails. Eventually the' people of the several countries must work out their own plans for? the future. Probably the socialistic trend will be marked, but! it is doubtful if any of the independent countries of western Europe really go communist. ; Bus Stop Rome and Athens A riot in Athentfeost 15 lives on Sunday. On Friday at the end of an official review of Ital 1 ian troops rioting broke out in Rome. In Bel gium there has been internat strife, since the return of the government ta Brussels. , . . It is usually of a pattern: thei resistance of the guerilla elements to orders to give up their arms, or to objections of the one-time under ground to.the composition of the government. It - boils down tb this: a determination on the part conxroi me government in uieix republican rioters pulled down The work stoppage of the city bus lines Sun day morning was a great inconvenience to hund reds of church-goers, and was the worse because no notice had been given. The grievance ( dis satisfaction with the local. superintendent) seems hardly reason enough to discommode the bus riding public, i-'" ' '--r , i; j : s' i' A bus system - operates as a. public utility which means that both owners and employes acknowledge a prime duty in serving , to the public and so must subordinate what may be regarded as "rights" in other lines of enterprise. At least the drivers should have given the pub- lie notice so people; would not standi a long time on street corners waiting for buses which never came. Our Salem drivers have had! such a fine record of faithful service it was a great surprise that they failed in this instance. i Y The Vanport deputy sheriff rounded up a bunch of negro gamblers and carted' them off to the county jail. The big shot gamblers of down town Portland still enjoy their immunity, how ever. And there have been no recent reform crusades rounding up a few Chinese running lot teries. . ' I ' Efforts are now to be made to 'revitalize'! the Republican party. They will start by knif ing within the Republican national committee. Interpreting j The War Nevs K1RKE L. SIMPSON 1 ' ; ASSOCIATED PRESS WAR ANALYST j i Surprise seizure by the American third army of the Saarlauten bridge giving direct access i to the . Saar basin puts the nazi command in a dilemma. The nazis must either rush armor, and first line troop reserves to seal off the river puncture by quick; counter attack in force, or risk loss of the Saar moat on a wide front to expose the Siegfried lihe to broad based American attack. ; There were hints in front line from the Saar sec tor that enemy armor was being thrown in to limit third army exploitation of the Saarlauten break through. By every sign it could ill be spared from: the Roer-Meuse areas to the north where British; and American armies are on the verge of breaking into the Cologne, plain! . . Fron line observers estimate that the Germans have massed most of their armor and at least a third : of some 70 under-strength field divisions' behind the Roer and the Meuse to protect the Ruhr. That still is the potential scene of the most critical bat tle for the foe. i , There is indicated German intention to make a last ditch stand in the north, sacrificing the outer defenses of the Saar basin beyond German fron tiers for that reason. The American surprise punc ture of the Saar gravely threatens to disrupt that ; plan, however. It was made by seasoned troops un der command of General Patton, skilled at seizing and swiftly exploiting any tactical or strategic ad vantage. The fury of nazi artillery reaction to the Saar-' . lauten bridge seizure disclosed enemy anxiety over: the American success. - ' - The diversionary effect of that third army jump upon the 'greater battle in the north, however, Is apt to prove more important than its immediate threat to Saar basin centers. It the east bank foot hold can be ; held and quickly expanded it could prove the break that General Eisenhower is waiting for to throw in his own reserves in the north if it forces shifting of considerable nazi reserve! south ward to meet the third army threat The other and most notable change in the Europ-. 'ean war map as the first December week opened was west of the Danube below Budapest The Rus- sian tripfe-threat sweep beyond that river in west ern Hungary was moving at a pace which indi-' cated nazi-IIungarian forces confronting it either too weak to resist effectively whichever wayi red army spearheads drive, or virtual .abandonment by the nazis of divisions still retreating from the Cal- kan peninsula. i tr u '''v o The Uninvited Guest f f News Behind the News By j PAUL MALLON ! (Distribution by King Features Syndicate, Inc. Reproduction In whole I " or. in part strictly prohibited.) ! I WASHINGTON, Dec. 4-S-There is no use in trying to deny that much of business swallowed its hopes hard last . election iday. A quiet pes simism in those ranks has been evident since then. One na tionally known corporation head expressed a widespread viewpoint when he said:, accumulated re- Paul Mallon fWe have serves and if Dewey had won wt would have spent these ; in ex pectation pf post-war expansion; now we will save them for taxes and eventualities which may be imposed upon us." Openly the big record-making companies (CBS and j RCA) threw up their hands and grant ed Petrillo of the Musicians Un ion a bounty up to five cents each on the sale of every record for no good reason except that the government had failed to bring p?trfllo to terms m a lotlg strike." ; ' J ., The musicians do not need the money and Petrillo has only promised he will expend it to further the appreciation of mu sic,1' The public, of course, will' pay it, as usual. A wave of strikes and greatly increased wage demands are ex pected by all after victory in Eu- rope has relieved somewhat the patriotic pressure upon the un-, ions, etc., etc. , i But there is another side to the story, not being told. This country already has run to ex- " tremes. Thirty years ago it was , dominated by selfish financial cliques without any sense of so cial responsibility or the good of .the nation or its people. ... j ' They got theirs in 1929. They got it because they became too : big, took in too much territory. Men never seem to know how ' to use power wisely. - The fascist "movement in Ger many and Italy would today be strong had it not taken In' too much territory. Napoleon com mitted the same error. History is unanimous with evident proofs that those who feed on power al ways commit suicide by their unwise 'excesses. v The unions are now at that crossroads. Obviously they must change from the Petrillo attitude (radical czarist leadership) so i 1 tlH I VFUNIr 1DHA77 liV MoSSler ! m J) I i SUrcftTOUl - ftttift iitrrfHtime: alnr I Coar. 144 ar UaH r "That's .cur neighbor's boyI talked fcia out of feaylaj tornetr prevalent among them or they . will kill themselves. Their tend ency to dominate the whole pol icy of the country in the past few years cannot continue indefinite ly without building up a : public resentment which will engulf them, and no doubt lead : to the opposite extreme. i Some wise men I know, give them another year at most on their present line. . I think the time depends on how they are led. But their bankroll is getting too big,' the messes on their hands- are increasing, their pow er is growing too great, j I think, therefore, there is more than an even chance that events will mitigate current fears in this respect a far ! better chance than the obvious one in dicating they will increase wages continuously to the point of dev astating inflation, ruin business and cause socialising which is no doubt the goal of communists in their ranks. So also with the fear of the great war debt which hangs over us. This country has the stuff with which to make good, i It has manpower, resources, production and efficiency beyond any other nation.- ' . - An individual in debt can al ways borrow money if his chan ces for successes are measured good. His chance of success Is the real guage of his worth, not the amount of debt he carries. So also with nations, i Their soundness will be measured, by their prospects. , If we do not become too soft after the war, we can become a great trading nation. If we are skillfull in developing foreign - trade routes and trade compacts in the wise exchange of our sur , pluses for what we need, we can find a new international life.. : ? The opportunity certainly ex ists as never before. Also we can salvage some of this debt if we, are careful. We have proved by this war that we are still a strong nation.! t Not soon again will any aggres- , sor count us weak. We can pay our heavy taxes, carry our heavy debt, maintain our democratic free enterprise at its current war superiority if we do not run to extremes, if we have a mind to do it but par-i itlcularly if we do just one thing hold out the hope of success and soundly maintain that prospect J DMribata4 fcr Kta Mm Brkate hj imumU with Tha Waaaiactoa Sta SQSJBOS X) (Continued from: page 1) they felt would be satisfactory. A previous study had been made of such cost factor on high ways as applied to various types of vehicles, but further informa tion was needed to base new leg islation on. These studies were made during the biennium 1941 43, and in 1943 the committee was continued another two years. Its work is now concluded and a report with definite recommen dations is made. A surprising and yet gratify ing fact about the committee's report is that it is very brief and its recommendation exceedingly -simple. It- recommends impor tant changes in the assessment of taxes on motor vehicles but does . so with a minimum of change to the present system and with a minimum of complication. Its work offers a lesson to congres sional committees on taxes on how to Simplify tax laws. In six pages it summarizes its own history, its findings and its rec ommendations. - The committee finds "inequi ties and unbalance' in the state's present motor vehicle tax struc ture due to: , 1. Exemption of a large group, of commercial vehicles ' from payment of any motor transpor tation fee. " 2. Utilization of variant bases for computation of fees. 3. Use of "light? weight as ba sis for computation of registra tion fees. .? 4. Advantage of diesel-operat-ed vehicles on basis of present rates. 5. Failure of fuel consumption to rise in direct proportion to gross load, making the fuel tax inequitable. The recommendations of the committee are: 1. Retain the present fuel tax without modification. 2. A small flat fee to apply to all motor vehicles (in other words apply the present $5 regis tration fee to all vehicles), This Is designed to coyer the adminis trative charges and certain other ' "non-weight" road costs; in brief what might be called the "overhead.- 3. Apply a graduated mileage tax to commercial vehicles using the highways. These vehicles would beclassified into 12 groups, by gross weight. Ve hicle owners would report their mileage and pay the amount per . mile which is chari mile which is charged for the class in ' which their vehicles would fall. Th. rate varies from 3.75 mills per mile for vehicles under 4000 lbs. gross weight (which Includes load) to 17.68 mills per mile for.; vehicles of over 24,000 lbs.' gross weight ' 1 Owners ; who pay this tax would then be entitled to a re fund of the amount "they pay to the state of Oregon for fuel tax. The only exemptions allowed are for federal (including rural mail '. route operators), state, county- and- municipal vehicles and school buses. Special favors previously granted to farmers, gravel and log trucks and trucks operating in cities and within three-mile limit are withdrawn. The idea of the report is to as sess the cost of highway con struction and maintenance strict ly on the basis of amount of wear given the roads; and that is determined by weight the heav ier the axle load, the greater the wear on roads and bridges re gardless of whether the load con sists of logs; gravel, sheep or ce ment ' - One virtue of the report Is that the scale of fees may be altered from time to time as conditions warrant without, any need for tearing down the whole struc- ON THE WESTERN FRONT,' Nov. ; 24-(Delayed)-(ff)- SSgt Norman ZL Hlavac is an anti tank gunner, but If he wants to Join the medics they'll be glad , German shells hit his compa ny's ammuni tion pit, wound ing two men. One of them had a . broken leg. - :V.-'"'" No medics HiAV were handy and i'AV , the i G e r m a BKenntth u s Dion shellfire was in- ' j tense, so Hlavac got busy and set the man's leg, using, a cou ple of carbines' as splints. De spite the conditions under which the amateur medic worked, when the wounded map was taken; to an aid station professional, Ihe was so pleased with the splint that he left it untouched until the patient reached the clear ing station. There medics sent back the word that Norman could go to work with them, aiiy time. ' Speaking of medics, do you remember Pfc. Donald Wood ward of Ottaway, Kan, the aim- The Literary j Guidcpost By John Selhy ..') 1 ' THK 8HAPI OF . BOOKS 0 COMB," ky J. DtMll Adam (Vlk . tec; SSJS). ! i .1 : ! f . Once a person admits the use fulness of writing about writing, there is no limit to what can! be done. J. Donald Adams does Ad mit this usefulness, and now ;he is publishing a book based on some of the thoughts and atti tudes that have "distinguished the inside front . cover of the New York Times book review section since Mr. Adams took to writing that page instead of editing the whole. . j . i Mr. Adams Is a most conven tional man in real life, but hejls not conventional in the sense that he cannot disagree with common opinion. There Is, for example, a legend among writ ers that popularity means cheap ness, and to this Mr. Adams never has subscribed. He is, i pn the other hand, not sure that the historical novel as produced bn these shores will last This proves that he does subscribe to the strange idea that it is the pur pose of books to last rather than to form the mulch out of which better ideas may grow. Paren thetically, there are a good many who will strenuously object to some of the practitioners Mr. Adams approves. His list includes Kenneth Roberts, Walter Ed monds, Esther Forbes,' James Boyd, Le Grand Cannon ' and Howard Fast The first and last of these names may seem out of place to some: . j Mr. Adams' book is called "The Shape of Books "to Come." By this he means the shape of fic tion to come, since hardly any consideration is given the rest pf the literary field except poetry, and that briefly. Mr. Adams holds a very high opinion of Elizabeth Madox Roberts and of FJln Glasgow, which is not remark able. His opinion of Steinbeck is, perhaps, a little higher than some. He has caught Hemingway perfectly, and especially well jln the period when Hemingway was in love with his love of blood! ; , Mr. Adams states his likes and dislikes much better than I can restate them. 1 do not think his conclusion that the fiction of the future, meaning postwar fiction, will be more "affirmative1 Is necessarily valid, but I do think that Mr. Adams' wishful think ing along that line is an impor-f tant straw in the wind.' 1 1 j ture. Of course the original idea of collecting something for sup port of general government out of operations of commercial us ers of highways is out, because the people (foolishly in my Judg ment) passed a . constitutional amendment capturing for high way uses every penny that may be collected from motor vehicles or for use of highways. But it will be a step forward if the bur den of this support may be more honestly apportioned. ii Diamonds - Watches Jewelry Are Yoa a Pauled Santa OaosT see the many beauti- ; fill anH Ittlin slfta a i Stevens St Son which : Include: Diamonds. Watches, Rings,- Sllj: Jewelry and Class- A ware! . I VE DJGHAVE GIFTS CI 0U3 STOSE Credit If I ( ' Desired cfV bulance driver who talked the Germans into releasing him af ter he was captured one day?, Well, everything seems to hap pen to him. Although he's get- ting to be an old hand at duck ing enemy shells and sweating out barrages, he says this was the most nerve wracking or deal of all. He was evacuating a French woman from a front line vil lage when moans emanating , from the Back of the ambulance Y indicated he was losing the race He halted the ambulance and investigated. , A short time later, white and : slightly shaken, the Pfc. crawled behind the wheel and continued down the road. In the back of the ambulance the low moans had been succeeded by lusty squalls, -indicating that both mother and the new baby boy, Donald, were doing okay, ; ' The service company of the A 60th combat engineers now claims a strictly cosmopolitan field kitchen, specializing in It alian, German and Chinese dishes- ' t Sgt. Ben Juliano of Hunting ton, LI, NY, whose ancestors ,: once served spaghetti in its na tive haunts, handles the Italian cooking. Pfc. Bert Seigat a New . Yorker - who lived in Germany until Hitler seized power there, supervises the . frankfurter and ' sauerkraut menus. Pfc. Sang Yip, once of China, now of Brooklyn, supplies oriental receipts. ( Boss melting pot messman is Staff Sgt Bernard Waterbury of Broken Bow, Neb., who thinks his crack kitchen crew can han dle almost any food problem but i one. "In any language," he says sadly, "a powdered egg is still a powdered egg." -. f New Industries! Being Created By Chemurgy The "rapid substitution of new wood by-products for steel and other metals already can be fore seen! for post-war years, and new wood and cellulose chemistry is creating tremendous new indus tries, Willard i Mayberry, country editor and high; plains Kansas far mer, told the Salem Knife and Fork club Tuesday night The owner and publisher of the Elkhart (Kan.) , Tri-State News said that "chemurgy is the real hope of the lumber industry as well as all other phases of Amer ican agriculture. In no other field has the science of chemurgy made greater strides than in the field of tree products. I f "The use of lignins, formerly washed down the sewers of paper mills and now saved by exploding wood fibres, has opened a great field of synthetic and pressed wood, while the uses of wood wastes for both alcohol and. su gars is in its infancy." The midwest rancher said the farmer and stockman also had turned to farm chemurgy which he described as "the use of farm surpluses grain, fibre and animal through chemical process, for finished products other than food." i The club's session, at the Marion hotel, was the" third of Its initial season. Scout Awards Given at Camp . Twenty-three members of Scout troop 3, led by Scoutmaster Bob Batdorf and accompanied by Paul Deuber, spent the week end at the Smith Creek camp. A camp fire revue was held Friday night; hikes, and an investure service and award ceremony constituted Saturday's program, and a church service, hiking, tracking and na ture service were held Sunday Patrol leader certificates were awarded Oren du Chein, Darrell Glrod, Martin Knittel and Jerry Boyer. Den chief certificates went to Glen Kleen, Art Jess, Gennett Elerly and Bob Miller, and paper drive lapel pins were given Clif ford Girod, Oren du Chein, Bob Miller Jerry Boyer, Bob Dye", Kenneth Dresner, Richard Magur en, Gilbert Woods and Martin Knittel. 'j I J- tvMlj I .cfXX: Fin Mk m a m v r . . 1 sr ssa - Z v rv.i Credit If a