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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (March 25, 1945)
PAGE F0U2L Tb OREGON STATESMAN. Satan. Oregon, Sunday Morning. 'March 25.' IS 45 ................ , - - " -' ; , MUMM Ui I: "No Favor Sways Us; No Fear Shall Awt - From First Statesman, March 23, 1831 THE STATESMAN PUBLISHING COMPAJfY .' CHARLES A. SPRAGUE, Editor and Publisher Member of tht Associated Press I , The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for publication of all 9 newf dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this' newspaper. Massed for the Kill With synchroruzed leaps General Patton's Third army and four allied armies opposite the Buhr have crossed the Rhine. They are pro ceeding now to a general deployment on the east bank preliminary to the final cruncher blows against the German armies. Capture of Berlin and junction with the Russian armies i now standing at the Oder will be early objectives, but the real aim will be to destroy swiftly Ger many's fighting forces. All signs show that this cannot be far off. Radio Berlin, which has predicted the crossings of the lower Rhine was speechless Saturday morning after the blows fell: Finally there came the ..hollow assurance i that the German high command "adopts the su ' preme principle of continuing the battle no mat ter under what conditions. That indicates res 1 Ignation to conditions which have gone beyond . its control. j The crossing at Remagen two weeks ago was what would be called in sports a lucky break. Dashing Americans swept so fast to the crossing I that the Germans stupidly watching the clock instead of the enemy failed to set off the.demo lition charges set for destroying the bridge. General Patton's Third army made a brilliant coup in effecting .a crossing on Thursday night without the loss of a man. This was a carefully planned maneuver. Instead of depending on engineers to thr0w ponton bridges over the river on which men and machines could cross, Fatton brought along amphibs and without giv ing the Germans warning by an artillery over ture started ferrying his troops across. The bridgehead was secured before the Germans could get roused to know what was happening. On the lower Rhine which the German armies have been guarding no such surprise was pos sible. So there was an artillery prelude. Para chute troops dropped down from the skies to help secure the bridgeheads and to link up posi ; tions with the ground forces. Armies which i have crossed the! lower Rhine include the U.S. Ninth, the British Second, the allied First air borne and elements of the Canadian First army. Already ; they are stabbing at the industrial cities of the Ruhr, . This is the climax of the long years of prepa ration, and the months of careful planning by : General ! Eisenhower and associates. Every where is evidence ; of masterful strategy, the massing of ample power on the west bank so the crossings would be certain of success. This . will be followed up with a flow of military might which leaves the German armies in ut- terly hopeless confusion. ' From this point on deterioration within Ger i many is bound to be rapid, I Great blocs of sol - diers, cut off from command posts and short of j supplies,: will be j forced to surrender. iDefeat ' ism will Tun ahead of the advancing allies. Even the gestaprf and SS elements will lose ; their grip and they themselves may break to save their own skins. Soon, save for the bitter end nazis the very name of Hitler will be a : cursed byword within the reich. We cannot set . the date for V-E day; but it cannot be far off ' . now. . :,: " Tax Snoopers at Jliami Secretary Morgenthau says that his agents are going to smell around in Miami and other. fyffl fleshpots of luxury to see just wno is spending what. His object is not puritanical. He is not trying to reform the wastrels.; He is leaving tp Director Byrnes the application of such moral discipline as the country needs; like the curfew. Morgenthau is merely bunting for tax dollars. He has a suspicion that goodly portion of the spending money being passed around in the bis tros and casinos of the mgrican Rivieras right ly belongs to Uncle Sain. I j. The treasury agents' will get a line on the names of the big time: pleasure-seekers. They may inquire whether 4 month" at Palm Springs is being charged as a f business expense. They may check to see if some good time Charlies are spending on a champagne scale but reporting only a beer income for; tax purposes. They rhay pick up the scent on some black marketeeers, the boys who deal in f'ten grand" and up, (for cash; no records kept; "no OPA embarrassment no income tax record. ; , These boys know there's a war on, all right; and they mean to get theirs. Morgenthaus snoopers may do the country, a good turni by putting a crimp in their operations. J 1 Khilippinea' Losses The figures on Japanese and -American losses in the Philippines' campaign are so dispropor tionate as to prompt sketictsm over their accu racy. The army communique reports Jap losses t 232,000 troops during the' five months of op erations in the Philippines. This includes the tnany thousands drowned when their trans ports were sunk off Leyte. But for Luzon alone the report is 145,000 Japanese dead and cap tured. American losses during the whole five months including the Leyte and Luzon cam paigns are given at 3813 killed, 196 missing and 1 4,750 wounded, a total of 18,579. The ratio of losses, particularly as to Luzon, 'seems incredi ble. On Luzon -the Japs fought no large-scale, U-out battles, except in Manila, but delaying actions and then retreated. We can't help but wonder how the enemy losses are computed, Whether by actual count of bodies or estimates. Citizens at Newberg are applying for a char ter for a' new state bank, with a capitalization of $85,000. Recently new-state banks were op ened at Arlington and Tillamook. Both Tilla mook and Newberg have been served with one branch bank each, while Arlington has had no bank Since the closures of the early 1930's. Without doubt the repeal of the double liability provision of the constitution' has encouraged lo cal "eapital to ernbark in bank financing. The superintendent of banks however will not "en courage starting of banks in communities where the prospects of Success are restricted. The state does not want a repetition of bank failures when periods of business reversal come. r ' ! - r. Dbtrfiwtaa kr flat Tmtarm Svriieata Vr rraarmHnt with Tha WasUiwrtM Star Goldilocks Defacing the Capitol ; - j High school itudenti who came to Salem j for the basketball tournament caused damage to the state capitol and grief to the secretary of state's office when they defaced walls of the capitot qn the stairway leading to the dome. Names of 141 persons were written on the walls with lip stick and ink and some carving was done with knives. Some of these names were of Salem students. All names have been turned ove- to the superintendent of public instruction and the officers of the high school athletic associa tion. We had thought that youth had outgrown the primitive period which produced the couplet Tools names, like fools' faces 1 Are always seen in public places, j j Evidently that is hot the; case. Some dis cipline should be meted out to. the young peppie at least to the extent of making them contribute to repairing the damage done, estimated! at $200. And next yearfthere should be advance .warning against defacement of the capitol, plus closer local surveillance when youth visit building. I If 9300003 tj"1' " j1 -- News Behind the Nevs By PAUL MALLON , (Distribution by King Features Syndicate, Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part strictly prohibited.) the When the heroes of Batain arrived in San Francisco they were treated to a beefsteak din ner at the Palace hotel. They fell to with iest, hailing the steaks as one of the prizes of Ameri can freedom. Who wouldn't? S Beefsteak remains one of the great symbols of the American stand ard nf livinff ' I fri I ' Interpreting (Continued from page 1) deals oniy With individuals whose addiction to liquor has 'gotten control of their lives. The method isinot to ; employ drugs but to use what might be called mental and moral therapy,to enable the individual! to regain control of himself apd of his habits. The success the group has had ac counts fori its growth. , ; There are different reactions to indulgence in alcoholic bev erages. Some persons seem able to do so with no temptation to over-indugerice. Others are af fected differently. It may be that their systems crave continued dosages of alcohol once they have taken a drink. Or it may be that they have some physical allergy sol that a small quantity of alcohol completelybefuddles them. Orj it may be that they lack moral discipline .to gov- v ern themsejvei. i In any event these are the p'eople wham intemperance . claims for victims to their own ruin and ; disgrace and the hu- xniliation of their friends and relatives, fit is this class! which Alcoholic! Anonymous seeks to aid in recovery of their self-control. Obvously for them there is no such thing as moderation in drinking. They should leave li quor absolutely alone. A. A. by own methods builds up the moral resistance of the individual so he can abstain. ; The first essential to rehabili tation is recognition by the ad dict that he has lost control of himself; and he must have a sin cere desire to redeem himself. The treatment consists in build ing up this resolution for self help and' to supplement it by encourgaging the Individual to ' call on divine help for his own strengthening. Then when he is freed of the chains i of his habit he is expected to tell his experi ence to other alcoholics to help mem to overcome their habit. This movement cannot be laughed off as just another re form. It has proven its worth in the hard tests of life. It Is no un iversal panacea. Some will not respond to its treatment The sal-. . vage of men and women from the disease of" alcoholism is ; impor tant business. The approach . of Alcoholics Anonymous is un- ' tainted by commercialism and unaccompanied by freak meth ods. - "I: jit uses j wholesome methods of applied psychology and religion to effect individual transforma- -tion. While it is regrettable that any persons de become confirm- WASHINGTON, March 24 John E. Steelman, the govern ment's labor mediator through out the new deal , and be fore, quit his post; some months back and is now an nouncing that he will I be a private labor consultant, de voting himself especially to the subject of 0' Pan! Malloa In the Gervais Star ayor Gus Moisan warns dog owners: "Your dog is running over your neighbor's garden and flower beds; loose dogs will not be tolerated this spring; so from this day keep your Idog tied or penned up." When dogs in towns the .size of Gefvais have to be tied or penned Up the phrase "a dog's life" re gains something of its old meaning. We wonder if it takes these girls as loog-io ', dress in calf-length blue denim pants with their shirt-tails hanging outside as it did their grand mothers who dressed in frills and flounces over several layers ef .pftticoats t Probably, to get the desired effect. .-- - The War News ; By KIRKE L. SIMPSON ASSOCIATED PRESS WiJt ANALYST I ; The Allies tightened lithe vise with vengeance this weekend upon Nazi Germany. . j f The crushing military pressure being exerted from both east and west should bring a quick de termination whether the Germans are offering a brittle shell or a hard core of final defense. jj With the massive new crossings of the Rhine, coupled with the Russian onslaught east of Berlin, the final strategy pattern upon which the Allies are counting to break Germany's will to fight on j is emerging from beneath the smokescreen of military security. J . ' ; . j j Soon the world should know whether the Nazi war machine, bomb torn as it has been, is capable of creaking along for aif indefinite time, or is likely to collapse suddenly in luins. j Four Allied armies "and four airforces are in volved in the-newest onslaught against Germany.. General Eisenhower Was employing apparently more than 1,250,000 trpops in an effort to bring - Germany to her knees within the shortest possible time. j Germany appeared doomed as the last March weekend dawned. : i I Mighty Red armies in! the upper Oder valley were on the move again. Knocking at the gateways; that lead into the southern end of the great central plain backed up against the Bavarian Alps where Hitier Ism and Hitler himself seemingly planned to make their last stand. - if- j Leaving a suicide Nazi garrison still holding out in Breslau to die on thf vine, Ukrainian troops had; virtually cleared the whole wide sweep of the (Oder valley to the eastern flank of the Sudeten moun tains. In the center they had set foot on approaches to the Sudeten passes! that lead over directly Ito i i ? r ? Prague. Northwards they were poised at Lauban WrpTTp YOITNC IDF A" Rv Jlnlfr to strike westward toward Dresden or wheel south- 1 rlUUilb LULaA .tJ MOSSlCr -cammu iwuuii ute jiiau gap ana converge on Prague. Southward at half encircled Ratibori they were beginning to force a passage through the Mo ravian corridor that leads either southwestward; to Vienna or northwestward to Prague.' The sweep of that 80-mile wide new Russian offensive seemed to Justify Moscow speculation that Prague might be its ultimate objective. i Five important city bastions in upper Silesia 'were obviously marked for early Russian seizure includ ing Frankenstein, guardian of the central Sudeten passes, and Ratibor... Linked 'with swift and start-, ling Allied victories across the Rhine the Red army breakthrough drive ta jSUeaaf gained added signifi cance. 1 1t loomed as the beginning ta the east of a concerted Russian-Allied plan to: drive to a June- ture somewhere in the heart of south central Ger- . many to match a similar junction drive from the lower Rhine and; Oder that; would split rrH"m -apart in the north. ; ; : j . ; k There, is no reasonable doubt that in the 'joint ' Russian-Allied strategic directivea drawn up at Yalta and now being put into execution, weight was -given to the unchallenged conclusion that bitteri as au oefense of bomb smashed Berlin might be, it "real wages' in short the pur chasing power of the dollar you earn, its real value in bread and butter, and not just the number of dollars paid. " More and more people : are getting interested in this over looked subject. It seems to me Mr. Steehnan is practically saying that after many-years of fixing wage rates as a Rational arbiter and he fixed more of them than any living person he has become convinced that the actual rate does not mean as much as its economic value. A friend of mine has pro duced some striking evidence on this avoided matter. Paying out his money for food at his A & P store in New York City, he was struck with wonder about how much tha same food : cost when Mr. Roosevelt first came into office with the new deal. He went back into newspaper files and photostated the ad vertisements of the A & P mar kets for March 2, 20, 27 and 30, 1933, around the time Mr. R first took the oath of office, and compared the prices with the very same quality in the :very same A t P markets this; past March 15. He found out exactly how much his food dollar; had been deflated. , ! Butter had more than doubled in price, from 21 cents to 48 cents a pound. Frying chickens were up from 21 cents to 47 cents a pound; sliced bacon from 19 cents to 41 cents. Potatoes had more than tri pled from 15 pounds for 19 cents to 5 pounds for 24 cents. Quaker oats cost 12 cents in stead of S cents (20 ounces in each case.) Canned salmon was up from 6 cents to 22 cents for ed alcoholics, it is indeed of great social value to have some organization like Alcoholics An onymous take as its special con cern the rehabilitating of : such persons for normal, healthy liv- ' fng. ; a tall pink can, from 15 cents to 39 cents for red. Rye bread cost 11 cents In stead of 5 cents (a sale price.) Evaporated milk likewise had doubled from two cans for 9 cents, to a single can for the same price. Roast loin of pork had more than tripled from 10 cents to 35 ceqts a pound. Sirloin steak sold or rather was priced at 40 cents, up 11; porterhouse at 47 cents, up 14, top round 40 ' cents, up 13, chuck at 27 cents, up: 10, lamb chops 55 cents, up 26 boneless chuck pot roast 35 cents, up 16. Cigarettes incidentally sold at 10 cents a pack in those bad old days, $1 for a carton which now costs $1.44 (on the price list anyway.) My friend's grocery bill has consequently just, about dou bled in the Roosevelt adminis trations, government statistics to the contrary notwithstand ing. I do not believe my friend's salary has increased; it may have gone down some; at least his income after taxes has dropped a great deal. Most people have been more fortunate. Their Incomes may have increased 10, 20 or even 50 j per cent, but there are very few people in the country whose income has kept up with a 100 pet cent price increase. The official figures show av erage weekly . earnings for -New York state had risen from $24.33 to $42.01 from 1932 to 1944, but this includes, I believe, only factory workers. At any rate I have good rea sons to doubt such economic statistics, which can be pushed any way the economists desire by; including some factors and excluding others. For example the official gov ernment figures on food claims a jprice increase of -only 44 per cent between 1932 and 1945 and we have seen by my friend's proof that this simply Is not true, but that the cost of food has just about doubled. What profiteth a new deal which increases wages even say 50; per cent and prices 100 per cent? What profiteth even a un- i:i : AT the FRoirri New U. S. 15th Amy's Commanding General likes te Move Fast to do things fast," quick gesture. the pursuit phase now entering, and orders as much as By Tens Tarbroogh . (Substitutingijfor. Kenneth L. '" :v,"'-s - : Dixon) ' -ijv.- VJS- ISta ARMY HEADQTJAR-TERS-vSThf new 15th army's makeup, mission : and wherea bouts on the western front re main secrets, but it's command ing general's name is on record and it is no secret that he Is a man who likes to move fast He is Virginia-born Lt Gen. Leonard TowiUend Gerow, who has been in the army 33 of his SS years. The famous Fifth corps which h; commanded from July, 1943, until he won his third star and command of . the 15th army lasf "January, was the corps that liberated Paris. The Fifth Corps went many places in brilliant form, from the Normandy beaches to Germany, gaining a growing reputation for its dashing spirit Gerow says he would have liked to have stayed with the corps all the way to Berlin. j Personally, Gerow is an in tense man w 10 talks fast but easily and wit x warm feeling. He has the soft speech of Virginia, and a ready amiability, but his force and incisiveness cut straight to the heart of the subject at hand. f "We have he says, with "especially inj which we are avoid Written! possible." j Gerow was iwarded the Legion of Merit for his work on the war plans and with the 29th in fantry, the citation speaking of his "invaluable contribution to our military jef fort through his , foresight anq sound planning" and "his exceptional qualities of leadership in conducting the training of his division despite serious shortages in personnel and equipment. ' - Gerow recently received the British awarcjjof commander of. . the Order of N2he Bath in recog nition of outstanding work be fore and after the Normandy landings. He . was commanding general of U.S. field forces in Europe for It months 'before the invasion. j I He was the first 1 American corps commander ashore on D day and he was the first into Paris. jj The Fifth corps most spectac ular job was.; closing the Falaise gap last August and forming the Chambois pocket where thous ands of Germjans were slaughter ed or captured. - , , . ... Gerow worj the Silver Star-at Paris, with a Icitation which said, "although mj a n y intersections were blocked with- barricades manned by German troops, he proceeded unhesitatingly through dangerous streets to effect an important conference with the commanding general of French forces withiri the city." That wasnH the first time in Paris for Gerow. He was there Ion factory fworker whose in creases in wages can never keep up with the prising price era we have been in and which is to continue ! (he administration promises; ior me postwar pe riod? But he is the most favored of all, while the average man of the country in the office, store. school, even government Itself must get along on what is rela tively his old established salary. It has long seemed to me that Mr. Roosevelt's figurers had better drop j their pencils and their political statistizing and go into the A & P for a better judge of what has happened. If they did government policy might soon jbe readjusted for the greater good of the greater number of people. The Literary Guidepost The Astorian Budget' quotes a Washington correspondent as saying 'the absence of cheap, has already been written off by the Nazis as no practical clothes reached a point that is almost at scandal" Summers past we have had the same near scandal from absence of. clothes, though dealers' stocks .were ample, " ' ; more man a delaying action. That is based an the mner defense conception with -the central German Plain and particularly" the Alpine backed southern end of that plain as the final citadeL j " i The obvious answeriis to split Germany apart in the south and the north simultaneously. The tact Mie u Diea wrute for manpower makes it. all The GOP Dublicitr chief at Washington is missing, but his clothes were found on a bridge the more desirable to mount multiple offensives on across the Potomac. . VAght have been a de- ali active fronts rathef than to mass either east or layed action repercussion of November 7 last, wesi ior suigie break-through drives. i sl. . . .. a piiiv Mother's at the Red Cress, so I caade supper all by myself tonlghtr , I " By W. G. Xegers "Act or TBoicDsaK." r riere frekMea (Harper; flight preoccupies many of us, flight from the thought of war, from the scene of war, from its great dangers. Perhaps novelists " don't mind; they benefit directly from the worldwide conflict, for it makes escape plots timely. But we benefit, too, when a capable and sensitive writer (and poet) like Prokosch uses the theme. In his new novel, an' Al lied soldier, Jean-Nicolas Martin, half American and half French, is parachuted into the country near Annecy and joins a band of six escaping over the Alps to Switzerland. The underground route has de veloped some breaks; men whom the Allies want to save have nev er reached their haven. Martin's perilous mission is to find out what's wrong, and do it In five nights. At the very start Prokosch cre ates suspense; whether . out In the open country "br in the French inn, the air is heavy with mystery; every gesture is omi nous, every eye is i bright with menace or dull with terror. Lives are at stake. One of those who flee by night and hide by day Is a traitor. Is it Quivar, the Ne gro? Is it MniiQuet, the man in black? " . ,;r '? - But your- attention is thrown quickly upon other dubious char acters. You see .a cross-section of the blood soaked but beautiful hills where the maquis fights ior its. existence, . where everyone t yxi meet may be a deadly en emy, where he only safety is to shoot first, yet where love still may be found. The picture broad ens just when the interest height ens. This is all the borderlands of suffering. Europe, this is the crudest part fbt the war, the war in which father is pitted against son, in which the weapons are not only gunf and bomb but also .the most dreadful instruments of torture. ' . ' : .' 7 . ' ' - - ," Prooksch as a story to tell and also some convictions to ex press. There s a skillful balance: opinions nev4r get in the way of the fast-moving tale. You can't help but listen to bits of philoso phizing by men who, you fear, are about to die. with the signal corprin the first World war, when he rose to tem porary lieutenant 'colonel and directed procurement and distri bution of signal corps equipment. "His permanent rank now is col onel. .'"!-' In the battle of; the Ardennes bulge last December and Janu ary,. Gerow's Fifth j corps held the north , shoulder strongly against repeated I German J at tacks. The significance of that stand was little recognized at t the time 'amid the dramas of Bastogne and St j Vith, but Its importance is clearer now. Always Gerow's headquarters " are well up toward the front and he keeps in tents until well into the winter. He Is a general who likes to get out Into the open with his men, who call him "Gen eral Gee - Practical ion " by Rev. John L Knight. tr counselor 00 Keugitps un, Willamette mWwitT Sad afterthoughts are often the results of poor forethought After a thief has once ramsacked the house, one will take care to lock the doors and windows of his home. After spending an evening in darkness because of the lack of a replacement one is sure to keep a supply of fuses on hand. After the brakes on his car have once failed and caused disaster, one will make a conscious effort ' to keep those brakes in good running order. How" far more practical it would be to use a little more fore thought! So it is with character and ' faith. Many a person becomes serious about the deeper matters -of life only after some unfortu nate experience has found him lacking in inner resources. How far more practical it would be to use a little more forethought! Legion Works Out Program For Vet Jobs WASHINGTON, March 24 -() The American Legion made pub lic today what it called "a sim ple, clear-cut program" for the employment of returning war veterans. Its four-point proposal was built around these basic elements: 1. "Welcome them back as men with a 'sincere greeting, an hon est assurance that a job Is await ing them, fitted to their abilities. 2. "Make a realistic analysis of the jobs available, and of the vet erans' aptitude, interests, ambi tions, tastes and training. 3. "Fit jobs and veterans togeth er as the result of such realistic appraisal. ... 1 4. "Cooperate intelligently with the veteran after he is placed in a job; with a ready willingness to make adjustments as actual ex perience on -the job makes those adjustments advisable." The program , was prepared by the Legion's national employment committee. The job of carrying it out was assigned to Ralph H. Lavers, the organization's nation al employment director. It was made public by Edward N. Schei berllng, national commander, who declared it was based on "sound business efficiency and necessity" and not on "sentiment" "These are the i veterans, the cream of America's " human re sources," a foreword read. "They are the men we must employ first, not because of duty, not out of sentiment but because we cannot do without their courage, skill and initiative. ... We cannot let their fresh leadership become em bittered and disillusioned." ' Navy Accepts New Vessel PORTLAND, March 24-ff)-The navy today received the first of mx vessels to be built at Willam ette Iron , and Steel Yards here Which shipbuilders describe as a combination hotel, hospital, and recreation center. The 285-foot barges will provide barracks for 800 men at "advance Pacific bases and will eliminate the necessity of navy shore con struction along the island route to Tokyo. The nay, which calls the ship n APL auxiliary personnel, says it will serve as hospital, rest camp, troop carrier or supply ( vessel ""cicvrr 11 is towed. K lops r FOR ENDURING BEAUTY. I Jim -:r,-r; i.t , ... ....