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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (March 13, 1946)
PAGE FOUH The OKGON STATESMAN. Bolem, Oregon, Wednesday Morning, March .3. 1948 NyitMi MM "No Favor Sway$ U$; No Fear Shall Axatf From First Statesman, March 2. 1851 THE STATESMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY CHAR I JS A. SPRAGUE, Editor and Publisher . Member of the Associated Prat The Asaociated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for publication of ail newt dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited In this newspaper. Let's Quit Wasting Food The president's famine emergency committee ha made a plea to help tide a hungry world over "a terrible four months" until the next harvest, and the appeal should not fall on deaf ears. It is entirely consistent with the demo cratic spirit and should not be confused with less dire and widespread needs to which there understandably is a tendency to apply the atti tudf of "let them lie in the bed of their own making." The need, too, by no means is applicable only to our erstwhile riemies. It applies to many allied nations or nations which might have been our allies had they been given a chance. And regardless of their being considered friend or enemy, there is no excuse to let the children of the world starve while we throw away "the richest garbage in the world." The caloric content of the average American diet is so far above minimum needs that there is no question of affecting health in this country even if thjp suggested reduction in consumption was followed to the letter which it won't be. We are asked to eat open-faced sandwiches, buckwheat cakes, broiled instead of fried fish, fruit instead of pastries, potatoes, fish, eggs, poultry and seasonal vegetables. ; It can only be imagined what a luscious meal such foods would make for those to whom a crust of bread means life or death. It cannot be said in truth that an urge to. help feed the starving is entirely selfless, either. A helping hand can do" more to win friends and influence people than all the prating about ideologies ever printed. It can mitigate against anarchy; provide the hope of a better world, without which the future is dark. It is far from true that the hand which feeds always gets bit. Our own sacrifices regarding food actually have been infinitessimal, our bleating notwith standing. It isJ not too much to ask us to quit wasting food and that, after all, is the crux of the entire presentation." (iontrol of Atomic Energy A bitter, close-in fight has been in progress for months in Washington over who is to boss the atomic energy show. The fight has been between cientists and civilian groups on one side and the war department and its friends orr the other. Scientists rebel against putting scientific knowledge under the lock and key of military control. They complain that now, months after the dropping of the atom bomb, u.ef ul information respecting the biological ef fect of radioactive materials used is being with held on the ground of military security. The military people however regard atomic energy a7 a military weapon to be concealed from other nations as long as possible and kept in themerican arsenal for our own me if re quired. Foes of the military paint a lurid picture of the possibilities of fascism if the army is to have exclusive control of this new knowledge.' The atom bomb would be an ideal tool for a dictator who had the army's hacking. Scientists accustomed to the principle of freedom in scien tific research are alarmed over the inhibitions that would be put on their work under the terms of proposed control. Yet the senate committee, evidently gripped by fears over the International situation, voted Tuesday to vest brood control powers in a military board. Senator Vandenberg offered the motion which was adopted six to one. the chairman, Senator McMahon of Connecticut being the lone dissenter. It is understood the committee favors having a civilian commission of five for control of atomic research and ma terials. bt its action would be subject to re view by a military board. The Statesman is disponed to favor the stand taken by MacMahon who has devoted much time to study of the question. A mixed board on which the military would be represented but not be in a -majority would seem a better agency -for this control. Surely civilians can be found who are not lacking in patriotism or sound judgment who could be trusted with authority in this field. We have little fear of an army-inspired dictatorship: but we do fear a paralysis of atomic research under the heavy hand of the military and a failure to make readily available for peaeetime use the results of this research. The senate as a whole ought to consider the question very carefully before it gives final authority in this. field to the army. That dream home the wartime advertise ments portrayed has become a nightmare. Editorial Comment NO PROFIT tV STARVING NATIONS In the prnblrm of reeding the hungry peoples of Europe Germany has its place no less than the others. Starvation is predicted there, too, this summer unless more food-is shipped in. The point " that the German. m guilty parties in this world situation, do not deserve to be fed does not control here. There is -a much more important considera tion. Starvation in Germany, as anywhere else, will create chaos. When people are falling down In the street from hunger they are bereft of hope and of their fen. et. Anything can happen and most likely everything will happen that nobody wants. The United Stat, no less than the rest of the W(.rldi cannot afford that some tens of millions of people ill Central Europe shall take leave of their seses. Thf restoration of Central Europe to its place in world economy is essential. II Germany is per mitted to laps a into despair, con fusion end social rh4M, trie effects will enat th United States ten, twenty, forty times as much as to prevent this by food enough to keep Germans above the-atam' tii. line. AiJ accounts coming from Europe indicate that a crUia is approaching rapidly. Prompt action is necessary. San Francisco Chronicle. The Expense .Account If one travels he is ant to wonder who all the people are who put up at the ' fine hotels, eat at the swanky restaurants, take in a nite club or two of an evening, entertain parties at the theatre. And where do they get all the money? One answer is the '"expense account." Mr. Gallup might take a poll of the people riding on the Broadway limited for a week or stop ping at the Palmer house and see how many of them are paying their own way, and how many are traveling on expense account. Tha proportion whose trip is financed by govern ment, association, corporation, j labor union or cooperative would turn up to be very large. Marvellous is the - expense account. Even though in these times it be not stretched to cover overcoats and nylon hosiery jit still has remarkable expansive qualities. This is not to imply that it j is universally a swindle sheet, which is its "trade" name. But a large portion of the travel is done at the expense of organiza tions, business, governmental, church, etc. In wartime most of the travel was on Uncle Sam: soldiers, sailors,! marines, officers' fam ilies on travel allowances, alphabetical experts hurrying from place to palace to help the war get won, industrialists going : to Washington on war contracts or back horned The war over, more commercial salesmen are on the go. And business men who do not travel have to do a lot of entertaining of visiting customers and out-of-town vige presidents. (That'i where the nite clubs and theatre parties come in). Abolish the expense account and travel would shrink one-third and so might-; business Though comptroller's frown and presidents gripe the expense account rolls on as relent lessly as GT Man River, to the delight and .profit of hotelkeeper and passenger agent, wait ress and cab-driver. ; Behind the! Hows By PAUL MALLON j ; 1 (Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc. Re production in whole or in part strictly prohibited.) WASHINGTON. March 12 Now let me explain the latest Truman Bowles wage-price policy issued Monday: Bars to wage Increases are to be removed and patterns established with "if" and 'ands" and "but." I ' One of the "ifs" provides an 18a cents an hour increase if the local pattern permits, but not neces-: sary. In case this provision does not apply, the cost of living pattern -will i become a "but," although not automatically. The cost-of-liv ing pattern is charmed from and here I quote the official ; explana tion "an increase in straight time hourly earnings in the appropriate unit to the -extent" that increases had .fallen short of a 33 per cent increase since January 1, 1941. That is the old, old pattern since February 14. It is to be changed to I quota again "Increases in haaic waves if hourly wages of the appropriate unit have not ris- : r"' " en 33 per cent since January 1, 1941." This is the different wage policy as the official handouts present it. Different, tsnt it? , Firmly Against Price Rise The price policy is explained with equal sim plicity. The new policy I quote again "will not mean a new higher level of prices. There are no "ifs," 'ands" or ''buts" about this, Upon this Mr. Bowles is firm. His OPA.I however simultaneously provided a "but,! if not a butt or butte. At the very moment of the Bowles announcement, it made public a general increase in the prices of men's and boys' clothing in order to induce manufacturers to release their stores to the public, f Twenty-four hours earlier OPA authorized what it called "substantial rises; in cotton textile prices," to spur production of shifts and dresses, just be fore that, a general rise of 10 cents a barrel in the price of oil had been j authorized by the same official agency under Mr.f Bowles. Steel had been sent up by the government t to $12 a ton. Build ing material increases had been directed by OPA on lumber specifically and an announcement was issued bragging about the tremendous Increases, which, the government said, no longer justified the weak production of such materials.; Too num erous for this terse column were other additional price buts, butts or buttes. I Now do you understand? If not I wilt put it in a nut shell, where it seems to be anyhow. The recent wage increase formula is to be liberalized, tremendously, but not too much, greatly, a little, maybe and maybe not, bujthe price formula is not to be liberalized one finch in the struggle to hold the bulge against inflation; that Is, not for anything, and by this I mean not anything so far except steel, building materials, fuel, clothing, shirts, dresses, sugar, butter and other foods and other materials. : f This is the way they tell it officially. Yet they wonder why there is confusion. 1 "Ray of Ugh." Detected f Seriously, I do not think they are as confused as they say. I think I can detect: a ray of light behind the flimsy curtain of words; namely this: The government tried to increase wages without increasing prices and found this could not be done. Goods were backed up in some lines because these could not be sold at a profit. These were being kept in storage. Production was discouraged in other lines because it could not be attempted profitably. i f A readjustment was necessary in order to get distribution as well as .production. This was further advisable as a discouragement to black markets. Indeed, some black -markets. had become bigger than the white (for further explanation look back upon my columns! of tha past two weeks). From a political standpoint, also, the relaxations wert advisable in order; to encourage congress fto-renew presidential authority over economics In the war .powers acts. -expiring June 30. j ; This maneuver is being covered by s confusing a curtain of "explanations" as ever emanated from a government mimeograph: machine, and this is saying something as these machines have seldom been geared for frankness, -, ) - 1 ' t T;4svy ! ! DWtrftmtos , Eh, Tmtmtm SrxilaaU f arraacaawat with The Waaaiastoa Star For Posterity Only I Dtp hoodcb Tho Literary Guidepost Br W. G. Rovers j (Continued from page 1) executive head; and the board itself should recognize its chief executive and not bypass him with assigning administrative duties to a subordinate, building him up to the embarrassment of the chief, Added to the board's worries was the request of a committee from the several institutions for an increase in salaries of faculty and staff members. They pointed out the rise in living costs and the sharply rising level of sal aries in industry and govern ment employment. As a result the institutions stand to lose able men and women and to have quality of work deteriorate through lowered morale of staff members. The committee statement is one which should go out over the state, because it exposes the problem which Oregon faces through Its governmental struc ture. The state has gotten on with modest salaries for many years. During the depression the heaviest cuts were taken by those in the upper brackets. After the depression these per sons were the last to have their pay restored and later got the smallest percentage of Increase. We cannot expect to hold In. public service men and women of : distinguished talents whom wejwant, particularly in our in stitutions of higher learning, if we; pinch down their compensa tion. The laborer is worthy of his hire, and so is the college professor. The state is prosperous enough to Increase the compensation of those in positions of responsi bility and leadership throughout governmental departments and state institutions. What holds it back is the rigidity of our Us ing; system. The time has come when the state should break some of the thongs which bind it. The designing of the battleship Missouri required 530,000 man days, and the building 3,300,000 man-days. AMERICA IS IN THg HEART, ky Carlos Bulosaa (Harrourt, Rrarr; 1). "I knew that nr man could destroy my faith in America . . . ever," this Filipino writeei de clares earnestly in the last sen tence of a book that amounts In sum and substance to an ap palling indictment of this coun try. Bulosan was born into a fam ily which aspired to the bright, happy world of tomorrow. For the sake of one brother's educa tion, the peasant father sacri ficed bit by bit all the land which supported him, his wife and chil dren, yet even that wasn't enough. One after another the boys, Amando, Mareario, Carlos, tame to America with their fond dreams. They lived precariously up and down the west coast, where they encountered the most virulent kind of prejudice. This was the land of freedom and opportunity to work for starvation wages picking peas and grapes to live In cities In sections where pimps, gamblers and prostitutes didn't object to their darker skins, to steal for food, to vie with Mexi cans, Japanese and Chinese for the jobs which paid the least, to be beaten up by white vigi lantes. Carlos is self-educated, which by iUelf made it difficult to be come a writer, snd yet the ex tent of his success Is proved by the fact that this volume, "a personal history." is his fifth. But how he could have sur mounted the suffering he en dured is incomprehensible; and it is doubly incomprehensible that he should have produced even one such charming book as "The Laughter of My Father." "America Is in the Heart" is the other side of the picture. It is dark and tragic. It lacks, too, It should be added, the literary appeal of earlier woks. But it Is so stupendous a catalogue of injustice and deprivation and misery that I don't see how he retained the vision and the hero ic detachment that leave him confident of our country. He cherishes a deeper love for America than a lot of Americans feel; we may wonder how many of us would love our native land If we had this stranger's reasons for hating it. GRIN AND BEAR IT By Licflity P. 1 . k i I i ' "The waiters went eat on strike a couple of hours ago most of the customers haven't noticed it yet!" Klamath Would Attract Many, Snell Predicts No difficulty would be expert enced in obtaining enrollment for the Klamath Falls Marine bar racks, if the state operates it as a veterans college. Gov. Earl Snell, said in a radio address Sunday night. "With S000 veterans alone seek ing higher education and with all the other institutions filled to the utmost of their capacity, it is my opinion that the veterans would welcome with open arms the priv ilege of enrolling for their (fresh man and sophomore) work at the very modern, well-e quipped Klamath plant," the governor said. The governor emphasized that no veteran would be forced to go to the school, which would handle about 1500 students. He said the state either can tell the veterans they ran go to school through the acquiring of the bar racks, or the state can say. "sorry, buddy, the. doors are closed. Come back in two or three years " Governor Snell said the plans are being drafted In Washington, after which the state board of higher education will decide whe ther to take over the barracks. He said it would cost $100,000 to con vert parts of the buildings Into class rooms, and that the annual cost of operation would, be $400, 000. There would be tuition re ceipts of $150,000 a year, leaving a net operating cost of $250,000. Japan Following Logical Plan In Trying to Stir Up Quarrels Among Allies for Own Benefit (folleelat Is tat fearta ef a series ef seven articles ea Japaa today by 0n LaMamrt, M f America' for mt aatatarlU Oh Far Raat, atar f Uia kMt-seUtns "Solution la Ala," aaa slrecter ef the Walter Hints Pas School ef International Affairs. Ini tiator baa nt rotaraoa from ftrot haa4 aarvor ef caadWaai ta Japan aa special asvtser to tha atato avpart mtM's reparation mission.) By Owen LatUmore WASHINGTON, March 12. (ONA)-The fact that the Japanese would like to get America, Rus sia, Britain, and China all quar relling with' each other is no proof of any special Machiavellianism in the Japanese mentality. It is the logical and sen sible thing for the Old Gang in Japan to try to do. The most ob vious thing to do is to keep the Americans who advocate build ing up Japan as a bastion against Russia. Bastions are now highly on Uantmora thought of, in place of the cordon sanitaire which was so popular, and so disastrous, at the end of the last war. Other Americans however, poiifHide Behind Shidehara out that Japan just doesn't have what it takes to' make a bastion. To make Japan a satisfactory bas tion you would have to return to Japan's Old Gang, as an absolute minimum, not only strategic con trol but economic, political, and social control of Manchuria and Korea. Since that is out, for other reasons, bastion ideas about Ja pan are pure nostalgia. KnllcemenU Are Meld Out Then there is another idea, po pular in influential British circles. that instead of going ahead too and the conservative wing of the Kuomintang in China. The Chinese Government did not fall for the argument then, because Japan was too powerful and too dangerous. But now, China is the winner, so wouldn't it be safe? Bids Made te Chlneae ,To implement this line, there have been open Japanese bids for the Chinese Government to take over Japanese personnel in Japa nese development enterprises, es pecially in North Chltur. None of the devices for setting Americans, Russians, British and Chinese against each other is mu tually exclusive. The Japanese can play tag in and out among them, using them singly or in combina tion. And there are some hard bitten Japanese who are sure they know Just how to do it. In the days when the Hitler gang were still just a lot of schemers and plotters, they had no trouble in hiding behind Hindenburg, that supposedly nice old man. Tha Japanese, who figure themselves as future and." they hope, mora successful Coerings. Goebbels and Ribbentrops. hope that they will be able to do without an actual Hitler. In the meantime, they are as unobstrusively as possible hiding behind that supposedly nice old man, Shidehara, the one-cylinder premier. It Is for such Japanese reasons as these, a nd not only -for inter Allied reasons, that the recent step Of setting up an Allied Council in conjunction with General Mac Arthur's Headquarters was a good move. Some fear that ita partial power of veto may hamper effec tive action. On the other hand, the mere existence of such an fast with the Industrialization of Allied Council sets a premium on China, we should maintain Japan! pre-veio agreement, and agree- Speech Contest Set for College High school students from 15 Oregon high schools will meet Friday and Saturday on the Wil amette campus in the 12th annual speech tournament. Judged and timed by Willamette forensic stu dents under Dr. Herbert E Rahe, the contest will include debate, oratory, extemporaneous and seri ous and humorous interpretation. Schools participating will be Salem. Washington (Portland). Dallas, Roseburg. Springfield, Grants Pass, Sheridan. Medford. Eugene, Corvallis, Hillsboro, Ore gon City, McMinnville, Vemonia, and Beaverton. The contest will begin in , the Willamette music hall auditorium Friday at 8 a.m., with semi-finals on Saturday from 8 to 10 a.m. Re sults will ' be announced at 1:30 Saturday afternoon. Stunt Dav Held as Kiwanig Tribute To Frank Bennett Simulated hair-growing, stiff fines for a variety of "offenses," specialty musical numbers and generally disparaging remarks highlighted the Kiwanis club stunt day Tuesday at a program de signed to honor Supt. of Schools Frank Bennett. Bennettt, now Kiwanis lieuten ant governor, was paid serious tribute for m4ny years of faith ful service" to the club. The pro gram was under thV direction of Chris Seeley. The hair-growing contest was won by William J. Braun (who donned the fanciest wig) in com petition with Dr. Charles Durden, Dr. Lloyd Sanders, Mayor I. M. Doughton, Lee Clark, Roy Rice and W. W. Chadwlck. Numbers on the doozy phone and clarenspiegel were given by Francis Allen and Walter Weath ers. Special guest was Judge Artie Walker of McMinnville, Kiwanis district governor. as the principal Asiatlf industrial nation. A successful China would enormously increase the pressure on the British to withdraw from India, because the Indians would say that if the Chinese can do it, the Indians can too. Better play along with Japan, whose Old Gang at least has the right gentle manly Ideas about monarchy. Of course, It is difficult to sell the Americans on a policy of hold ing back the development of China but an industrially strong Japan would keep two jmps ahead of China and make the Chinese look inept. Therefore, since some of the Americans are anti-Russian, maybe the thing to do would be for some of the British and some of the Americans to get together on something that could be launch ed as a stop Russia policy but would work out as a stop-China policy. . " , Defeat Similar te Kaiser's Then there is the strategic chess move which may be called the Weimar - to Hitler, or Japanese Knight's move. Japan's defeat in this war, by an act of surrender, resemble the defeat of the Kaiser in the last war more than the defeat of Hitler in this war. There are Implications In this which the Japanese have not missed. Many Japanese are slightly red-eyed in tha morning, from having sat up all night reading. about Germany in the 1920's, looking for persua sive lines to try out on the Amer icana. Under the Weimar Republic, the German Wehrmacht helped to keep up not only its officer forma tions but its technical progress in aviation and tanks by helping Rus sia to build up Industry and the Red Army, and. through Marshal Tukhachevsky and others, infil trated German influence right Into the Red Army's top command. Why shouldn't Japan do the same thing in China? Perhaps the op portunity might come, in time, to form a joint Sino-Japanene front against Russia. Invitation Undisguised Perhaps they might even get backing from the countries which couldn't quite bring themselves to back Hitler against Russia. Such thinking largely explains why some Japanese have hardly bothered to disguise their invita tions to the Chinese to ponder the possibility that America is not necessarily their only friend. They put one twist on the invitation which they hope will be especial ly persuasive. They recall that the original Konoye policy was one of an ti Red "cooperation" be tween the industrial and financial conservatives (but not the most rnent of that kind is the best way to spoil the Japanese game of tag (Tomorrow Democratic Japan?) Brazilians Talk To Local Group On Thursday l Presbyterians in Salem will have an opportunity to hear the Brazilian point of view from three Brazilian church leaders at at no host dinner at the church Thurs day, March 14, at 6:30 p. m. Mem bers of neighboring Presbyterian churches' In this area are expected to attend. The speakers are the Rev. Mi guel Riito, Jr., who Is the tireless pastor of one of largest churches in Brazil. In addition to his regu lar duties as pastor of the Igreja Unida (United Church) of Sao Paulo, he is a prolific writer, pop ular speaker, editor of a religious magazine and executive secretary of the "Institute of Religious Cul-tia-p." Dona Cecilia Siqueira, wife of a well known pastor. Is the pro fessor In a secondary school, lead er in women's church organiza tions, poeteas and mother of a large family. The Rev. Israel Gue iros, M. D , is a member of an ex traordinary family living in north Brazil, a family of 12, seven sons and five daughters, all' ac tively engaged In Christian ser vice. He is at present moderator of the Northern Synod of the Presbyterian church in. Brazil. These three leaders are mak ing a tour across the United States speaking In many Presby terian churches and they are ac companied by Dr. Peter Baker, a Presbyterian missionary. feverish saber-rattlers) in Japan dam. Engineer Society Names Hathaway Gail A. Hathaway, of the office of Chief of Engineers, U. S. War Department, took over the position of Vice president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, oldest national engineering organization in :the United States, today, suc ceeding A. C. Polk of Birmingham, Ala,, who died In office last week. Hathaway, an officer In World war I, Is a graduate of Oregon State college, and from 1924 to 1928 was assistant to the state en gineer of Oregon. He was associ ated with the U. S. Engineer De partment in Kansas City from 192 to 1937. His work there in cluded, among other things, the hydraulic design of Fort Peck STEVENS Diamond Watches - Jewelry EXCLUSIVE LASTING TREASURES Distinctively styled diamond rings now available In nlatlnuna or gold. rhene: Sill Extended Payments gTaams SggS 11$ Court It
