-'- PUMW MS
M faror Stoevt Vt; No Fear Shall Aire
From Krst Statesman, March 2 U3I ';
THE STATESMAN PUBLISHING CO JIPANY
CHABXJE3 A. SPRAGUZ, Editor and Publisher
Member of the Associated Press
The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the tue for publication of ai
news oispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this newspaper.
Dividing the Road Fund
Instinctively when editors and others inter
ested in highways received the table of alloca
tions of the highway jackpot for postwar con
struction they checked to see how their favorite
routes fared. Some will view the distribution
with supreme satisfaction; others with disap
pointment; some perhaps with resentment. But
dividing up $33,600,000 of the total of $38,000,
000 expected to be available is no small job. To
"balance all the factors of need, of road impor
tance, of geographical considerations calls for
the wisdom of Solomon and the strength of
Samson to withstand pressures.
Marion county for instance might emit a
squawk when it sees that it gets only $123,000
for a new Pudding river bridge at Aurora out of
the $21,413,000 set aside for primary federal aid
highways. But we have only one primary high
way in the county eligible for such aid, 99E;
and there is $1,500,000 in a federal strategic
network fund set aside for completing the work
on this road south to Albany. There is regret
however that only $200,000 is set up for pro
ceeding with the Wilsonville cut-off to Portland,
on the section, West Portland-Boone's Ferry.
As to secondary highways $233,000 is set aside
for the Woodburn-Sandy road. No. 211, most of
which is in Clackamas county; $305,000 is pro
vided for the Salem-Silverton road; and $370,
000 is allocated to the North Santiam highway
above Mill City. The latter is in addition to
$303,000 previously guaranteed to federal au
thorities for work on the North Santiam within
the national forest. On this road the federal
government will spend several million dollars
building a road through the gorge above the
proposed dam. Of local interest is the amount
for the Dallas-Coast highway, $160,000. The
Dallas-Kings Valley road is given $16,000.
The big chunks in the primary highway pro
jects go as follows: Front avenue, Portland, $3,
079,000; Columbia river highway from Sundial
(Troutdale) to Dodson, $2,41,000; Johns-Wolf
creek section of Pacific highway 99, $1,710,000;
Wolf creek highway Davies to Sylvan, $2,270,
000; Beaver Marsh-Chiloquin on The Dalles
California highway, $1,630,000; Miner creek -newport
on Oregon Coast highway, $946,0000.
In general the program is merely an exten
sion of that which has been lined out for many
years, with priorities in about the same order.'
The reconstruction of the Pacific highway south
from Roseburg to Grants Pass is continued. Al
ready completed is the section over Sexton mt.;
ready for bids now is the section from Graves '
creek to Wolf creek; and the present allocation
takes cares of the next section. Also given a
large sum is the urgently needed new highway
up the Columbia river. Then provision is made
to complete the link in the Wolf creek highway
west of Portland so the travel, will no longer
need to make the loop by Forest.Grove.
For other work the allotments are for com
pletion of jobs which the war interrupted and
for continuing reconstruction, as on the Oregon ,(
coast highway which gets a total of $3,554,000
of primary highway expenditure.
With demands reaching up to $300,000,000
and only about a tenth of that sum in hand the
commission has done a pretty good job of ap
portionment. This fact must be remembered:
road building will never be completed. We now
have a network of good year-round roads cover
ing the state. We must be patient as the task of
modernizing our highways proceeds. The com
mission has wisely held back over $2,000,000
for emergency allocation; and when the pres
ent three-year program is completed more
money will be in hand for road work.
We certainly can look forward to a marked
Improvement in our highway system when the
work thus provided for is completed. A person
likes a good road close at home but he also
likes to have a good road when he goes to far
places on hunting trip or is taking a vacation
tour over the state. He will find good roads in
these distant places as a result of past and im
pending expenditure.
China is catching, up with the rest of the
world, after having been one hour late for sev
eral years. It introduces daylight saving time
on May 4 for the first time. Some Americans
wul call that a backward step!
Editorial Comment
SPRINGTLMX IN THE V ALLEY
Springtime in the Willamette valley is as near
heaven as mortals can expect
This season in this valley does something to al
most all of us, but it affect some more than others.
The more articulate with pen or spoken word wax
rhapsodical in this Willamette valley springtime.
In fact,. the essence of this spring is apt to be in
toxicating and influence scriveners to get out of
band or they let their typers become truant and
report some unseasonal matters.
Doubtless overcome by this heavenly season, an
Oregon Journal editorial writer, attempting not 'to
slight nearby neighbors in his eulogy of blossom
day in the Salem vicinity last Sunday, reached out
and plucked himself a bit of immortality by includ
ing the filbert orchards of Washington and Yamhill
counties in his rhapsody. , '
He said: "In Washington and Yamhill counties,
filbert and walnut trees joined the spring parade
dressed in the less frivolous but charming catkins."
Catkins indeed! Doesnt this fellow, addled by
the season, know better? , .:- -
CaUdnvwe are constrained to Inform him, are
long since gone from the filbert trees. That green
lacery he sees In his mind's eye, without troubling ;
to stop by and inspect a filbert tree in late April, is
composed of leaves, The catkins, which set on while
pickers were st21 searching under the trees for the
tasty nuts, have long since gone from the -trees. .
They hung as testimonials to the filberts constant
endeavor (it has no off season; does the filbert,
being busy at something throughout all the year),
were frost-nipped, and, with the coming of the
leaves, disappeared to allow the burgeoning nuts
their place in the filbert tree's annual span. ' Y
As for the walnut catkins they were, last Sun
day, tight green buds. Walnut trees, unless closely
examined, appeared as gaunt and sere as they did
in mid-January. . -
Janitor, turn on the heat! Oregon City Banner-
Historic Union
One of the great events of history occurred
Thursday when the armies of Soviet Russia and
of the United States made firm contact along
the Elbe river sear Leipzig. The union severed
the German reich. It was the culmination of
years of effort and of driving the battle lines
from the Volga on the east and the beaches of
Normandy on the west to the heart of Germany.
Attended as it is by the piercing of Hitler's em
pire in nearly all its parts it is really the day of
Germany's downfall. After this there is no pos
sible hope even in the mouths of the masters of
German propaganda.
The junction of the soldiers of the two armies
was marked with high jubilation and great cor
diality. Friendly greetings, salutes, singing,
formal addresses and toasts: there could be no
doubt of the sincerity on both sides. And well
should there be warmth for these were the men
who had wrought the victory, who knew the toil
and cost that lay along the road behind.
The news of the union of the two armies on
the fighting lines, ought to put zeal into the
diplomats who are gathered at San Francisco.
The infection of this event should fire their
hearts to make them fuse a peace organization
that will save the fruits of the victory now jubi
lantly hailed on the banks of the Elbe in the
center of the enemy territory.
Truman Makes a Call
The other day President Truman visited the
war department offices in the Pentagon build
ing, which stirred the rumor pot immediately.
During, the civil war President Lincoln spent
considerable time over in the war department
which then was hard by the White house. The
telegraph wires came in there and he could read
them and get the latest war news. Having
grown accustomed to infrequent trips by Presi
dent Roosevelt the reporters are surprised that
Truman gets out and makes calls. He prob
ably relishes the opportunity to get out of his
office and visit other departments. At any rate
his trip to the Pentagon building apparently did
not relate to any earth-shaking emergency, be
cause nothing has since been announced there.
We shall probably see that the new president
makes a good many trips around Washington.
Experts in London figure that the gold horde
captured in the Merkers salt mine is only a fifth
of the German store. It was about alLGermany
had before the war but she stole $48 million
from Austria, $52 million from Czecfeo-SIovakia
and Danzig, $440 million from France, Holland
and Hungary and $100 million from Italy. They
estimate she spent $230 millions in buying goods
abroad so there remains over $440 million un
accounted for. This should provide a treasure
hunt for all the United Nations.
Goer in g has resigned as commander of the
luftwaffe because of heart trouble. His heart
just sagged under the weight of so many breast
medals. Then there may have been a neat boot
in the pants by Himmler, to say nothing of a
purge or a suicide.
Interpreting
The War News
By J. M. ROBERTS, Jr.
However portentious the final link-up of Allied
and Russian armies in the heart of Germany on the
Elbe seems, an even more important similar june-tie-n
farther south impends.
American Third army elements plunging down
the Danube valley virtually unopposed were report
ed in tank-radio touch with Red army armor plow
ing northwestward up the same stream. That would
indicate patrols were within less than 30 miles of
each other when the incident was reported many
hours ago.
A junction on the Danube would split the Nazi .
Bavarian Alps last-stand citadel off from both Ger
many and Czechoslovakia, expose it and its Berch
tesgaden nerve center to immediate attack. The
mere fact that a Russian tank-radio was heard in
American lines indicates that the Red forces are
far beyond their last officially Moscow reported
positions. ;
That chaos and disillusionment are spreading fast
even among the Hitlerized youth of Germany and
Nazi army elements as well as German regular for
ces is vividly indicated in front line dispatches de
scribing the first Russian-American contact scene
at Torgau on the Elbe. .To effect that touch with
Vf Trmngwwn with Th WathUstaa SUf
Mission From Moscow
ATTHE FRONT! m
... . . .. ..
- .."V"'
Captured German
Generals Tell Some
Interesting Stories
By Wes Gallagher
(Subbing for Kenneth L. Dixon)
WITH THE U. S. NINTH
ARMY ON THE ELBE-iP-Ger-
many generals who have been
flowing into American' prison
cages like commuters in the f
o'clock subway crush, have given
some interesting sidelights on life
behind the scenes in Germany.
One, whose father was execut
ed among scores of smaller fry
In the Hitler bomb plot purge,
said that Reichmarshal Hermann
Goering knew of the attempt on
the life of Adolf Hitler and, al
though he took no active part
in it, made no attempt to halt
It
He said explosives was smug
gled into Hitler's war room in
two types of experimental knap
sacks. Hitler was known to have
a weakness for inspecting all
new equipment and had ordered
them brought in. This allowed
the conspirators to get them past "
Hitler's watchful guards but the
time device for the explosion
went off just as Hitler stepped
.behind the door into an adjoin
ing room.
Another general closely con
nected with Field Marshal von
Runstedt said that von Rundstedt
wanted to give up after the fail
ure of the Ardennes offensive
but was kept by doing so by the
knowledge that he never would
be able to complete the peace
negotiations under the eye- of
the SS.
This officer said that Hitler
called all divisional generals in
volved in the Ardennes attack to
his headquarters December 12.
All their weapons were taken
from them and they were then
led into r room and were har
angued by Hitler. At the con
clusion the fuehrer said the drive
was aimed at putting von Rund
stedt in Antwerp In 14 days but
warned that if the- offensive
failed "the reich would be in
a bad situation." .
Another German general who
served on the staff of the late
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in
the desert campaign, and escaped
from Tunisia the day before the
Allies took Tunis had high praise
for General Eisenhower's tactics
which wound up the African
campaign.
Up to mat time, he said, the
Afrika Korps had suffered only
50,000 casualties itself, although
it had lost great numbers pf
Italians. .? v?,-.;:,v
This general, who commended
the famous Lehr division, said
it was the most powerful armor
ed force in the German army at
the time of the Normandy land
ings with 220 tanks and 700 self
propelled guns but that it was
so pummel ed In the Normandy
fighting that it never recovered
and was never a crack fighting
unit again although it fought
xrom France back into Germany,
What's more, 'she writes subtly.
him down.
IS One. AT rtnej e. ioftr e1w.
Al
Uldll UUL UiTI nillXM fcl il
" w wul u ems. uic iiui una
Naval Training Station.
Tho Literary
Guidepost
By W. G. ROGERS
THX GHOSTLY LOVESL- V EUu
Mt Hartwtek (Huctwt, Brace
Love is the subject of this nov
eL Miss Hard wick may pretend
to write about Marian Coleman
and Bruce, or the senior Cole
mans, or the inscrutable Hattie,
or Gertrude, or Florence and Jes
se, but her real subject la love,
love like an immense longing, an
enormous and insatiable appe
tite, sometimes very proper and
sometimes reprehensible, often
mysterious, always present from
the girl of IS to the dying grand
mother, from the right side of
the railroad tracks, the white
side, to the wrong side, where
'the Negroes live.
But if this is about love, there
Is no actual love in all the SCO
page. Love doesn't quite mate
rialize, it stumbles, it hides, it
evades, and finally it is renounc
ed bravely, almost in the grand
manner.
Marian's mother has run all
over the country with Marian's
father in the effort to keep him
to herself. Marian's brother Al
bert gets married, much as
man get a cold, and there's some
love in it. Gertrude yields irre
vocably. Bruce pays for Marian's
education, and that's all he pays
for and all he gets.
Marian herself is the central
problem. We stay with her for
some five years, out of high
school and through , college, or
out of the yard where she first
met her divorced neighbor Bruce
and into New York where she
finds Leo.
The problem of the girl becom
ing conscious of desire Intrigues
many writers, but few of them
are adequate to handle it We
men are interested, definitely,
but Ignorant; you women are in
formed, but inclined to be reti
cent
Miss Hardwick has the infor-
wrough horded YOUNG IDEA" By Mossier
- '- w Buvikci wiuua American 11
lines. Freed Allied war prisoners, marching beside
informal columns of German troops vainly seeking
to surrender, added to the utterly fantastic scene
as pictured by front line correspondents.
Obviously, nowhere from the lower Elbe to the
Sudeten, mountains is there anything approaching
organized resistance.
- If there is any semblance of a fight-to-the-deata
attitude anywhere in Germany except in Russian
beset Berlin, it is around the falling North sea and
Baltic ports in the fast shriveling northern pocket.
Southward in Austria and Bavaria predictions that
a stubborn last defense of the national redoubt
would be encountered have so far gone unfulfilled.
Press men at the front have dubbed it instead the
"redoubt of doubt" in token of that
The situation in Italy no less shows military dis
integration at work. American troops on General
Clarke's left of line leaped into Genoa at a bound.
His center in captured Verona closed the Brenner
Pass escape gate on the main body of the foe flee
ing before him. He had to effect split northern
Italy apart to the Alps, penning up most of its Nazi
garrison in the west
French troops are moving into Italy from the
west along the Mediterranean coast with no indica
tion of opposition. The situation lends full credence
to Italian anti-Nazi radio reports that the Germans
are negotiating wtih partisans for a general sur
render. : - y vvi-i. -.-
This may not be victory day for the" United Na
tions fellowship in Germany; but it U so close to it
that a reordering of effort for the mopping-up and
a post-victory formula of cooperation probably fig
ure more largely in first face-to-face Russian-Allied
staff talks than military strategy or tactical de-.ploymeiljurrangsments.-
-
eri . . . -- mK 1 "'"esj
W l" 7 . -V .1
"Twe faudred sad f erty thossand miles away, huh? Very Inter-
- . - .-.jw-suas Belard..lea mt saeSar
Recruits for
Radar Slump
During April
" vc.x cc uui uiK Apiu
avs wm
no Wsi hfeh Ai. a.
ST v UMUslCUI
miliar in rrtmr at the
val facility. For the first time di
mg iwo years oi recruiting acti-
aMaww WV - " - - - - 1
radar quota obligations, ft
mh m tiui au MBk uiuiiui m uiai ii
II VS A Imam w ai a
ritory has contributed qualified
rung ox the Oregon state, and na
tional enlistment ladder.
urtek a a jii ?
..M a e .
Tina ix imnnsxinisi tA var a
in ma ereiieMTi si ma hMAeai
uu wuv u iiub caiytujra in id
xor inauraon mnn win rm, tFivem s
lis"t- m nirwrrswi iBnonrnanr miA
the navy.
S At a a a
nn i naa aain mil fwwiw i am
volunteers has exceeded all ex-
- w ww 9 win - - ......
weir ixm hlrthrlaw anf mm wia
said.
. aaiai Km &m KUUU1J um gajj
m ' v MU SHUUUS M ejW
Del." -
The recruiter suggests that men
auMicatcu sxa u&isi uruvriiiii eziut si s.
am lain tr m Arae rnir miaiif'vfntv
Name Stars
To Be Called
nitn icnsM - sin m mmm rm .
ST , t a. - wtMI -
Tniirf Bnnfninrr1 f Maw fver eanTl
M eA rttMAa aS S Ik .
goes to a Jury. -"
Among these will be Al C3au-
def ense attorneys said. :
on uiruuia uie im seven
months of 1943.
w m a v v wv aK Jal MMM
July, 1822.
pie than, any other tongue, , v