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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 1948)
i 4 ThVItetmaqfem, Oregon, ttfecen&er - 12, - ll! "JVo Favor Swayt Us, No Fear Shall Aw" Tnm First Statesman. March 2t. 1U1 THE STATESMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY CHARLES A- SFRAGUE, Editor and Publisher Xntcrd at tho postofrlca at Salem, Oregon, as second class inatter under act of congress March s. 1171. Publish every morning except Monday. Business office 21J S. Commercial. Salem, Oregon. Telephone 1-2441. MEMBEK OF TOS ASSOCIATED PRESS Tae Associate rresa la entitled exclusively to tke for repafclleatloa f all tke local newstsrlsuad In UUa newtpayer, m wen as aB AP news dispatches. MEMBER PACIFIC COAST DIVISION OF BUREAU OF ADVERTISING Advertising Representatives Ward-Griffith Co.. New York. Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit MEMBER AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION By Mail (In Advance) By City Carrier uregon One month Six month One year .75 4.00 . I 00 What's That $15 Billion Dollars For? ; There is a bad case of the jitters in Hawaii these days, as well there might be. Not that the Islands feel they are in imminent danger of a new attack but the undetected flights of B-36 and B-50 planes from the mainland give rise to wonder whether the military has learned much since Pearl Harbor, after all. The "day of infamy" is too fresh in the minds of most islanders to permit of a lackadaisical attitude toward such events, and the incident certainly won't go unnoticed in other vulnerable spots such as Panama and the borders of the mainland. This is no time to have our guard down. We do not believe any power is really to challenge us but too many of us didn't believe it prior to Dec 7, 1941, either. And we have our doubts that potential enemies of current times will "call their shots' as much as did the Japanese, to give us what could have been ample warning seven years ago if we had heeded it. If it is essential that we pay $15 billion dol lars a year for a military defense establishment. It certainly is essential that we do everything possible to protect that establishment from an other knock-out blow or blows. It is refreshing to have the military admit its inadequacy in detection. But it shouldn't happen again, anywhere. Politics and the Spy Chase The public should be getting a bit disgusted with the political horseplay which attends the current spy investigation. President Truman alls the house committee's work a red herring and the committee itself a "dead" one. Commit tee members rejoin in kind and criticise the at torney general for neglecting his duties and fumbling his investigations. And the state de partment comes up with the comment that it now uses mechanical codes which hardly can be broken so risks of intercepting secret communi cations are much less than 10 years ago. What ought to be a thorough search for the truth and appraisal of blame has become too much of a political football. The president is not Justified in calling the house investigation a red herring, because after all it did turn up the phy sical evidence of microfilms in a pumpkin shell. But the pulling and hauling between congress and the administration is creditable to neither party. The Ladies9 Auxiliary Any organization with a credo has to combat heresy; but we never expected it would start with the Ladies' Auxiliary. Yet that is what happened with the IWA-CIO. This union of tim ber and lumber workers has had a running fight with the commies who were led by Harold Prit chett of British Columbia. The anti-communists , got on top and stayed on top, whereupon Prit "chett and his BC group led a rebellion. This the parent organization is taking in stride though It has meant getting some of their officers rough ed up lately in a picket-line fracas at a BC mill. But the Ladies' Auxiliary of the IWA staged Pumpkin Documents of By Joseph and Stewart Alsop WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 It is high time for the affair of Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers to be placed in some sort of sensi ble perspective. The state de partment cer tainly has not helped much, by n e r v ously asking the House Commit tee on Un American Ac tivities to lock up much of the contents of Chambers microfilm- stuffed numskin. In Ml JMMplt AK fact, those who should know best say that the full texts of the Chambers documents would bore tinost people to tears. As reliably described, the pa pers fall into five categories: first, full texts sets of type written sheets containing brief summaries of cables; third, three such sum maries in what it qIIaitaH l Via I -i-" t n e handwrit. fn? of Alger Hiss; fourth, cer tain notes on naval intelligence reoorts in the handwriting of an other official whose name has not been disclosed; and, fifth and finally, original copies of completely unimportant navy technical orders on such fascina tin topics as light switches. For anyone who remembers the dark Munich period, the doc uments may have a certain nos talgis interest. From London, it . Is understood, former Ambassa dor Joseph P. Kennedy reported that the then Italian Ambassa dor Count Grandi was made very h?ppy by Neville Chamberlain's accession to power. From Berlin, the American usewnere m u .. a. . n mnnth 1.09 00 .li.se Six month . One year charge. Prentiss Gilbert, sent word that representatives of the small European neutrals wera fearful that the United States would encourage Britain not to appease Hitler, and from Paris came the report that one of the sillier French ministers, Yvon Delboe, had been much cheered up by Hitler's interest In the "humanization of warfare." Besides reams of such stuff, there are apparently one or two documents of slightly more re cent significance. A long intelli gence report from China, for in stance, shows that Colonel, later General. Joseph W. Stilwell sym pathized with the Chinese Com munists even in 1938. Add up the whole, however, and the best judges assert there is not a line, a fact or an incident which should cause a tremor in any foreign office in the world today, unless foreign offices are wise enough to tremble to see what fools eminent statesmen could be in those tragic years before the second World War. ' If the documents diclose any thing at all, in short, they prove that the security of the Ameri can government was then virtu , ally non-existent. But everyone who is reasonably well-informed has always known that this was the ca?e. Right down to and af ter Pearl Harbor, the state de partment's codes were considered to be so hopelessly insecure that President Roosevelt customarily passed his more important mes sages through the navy commu nications net. The chances are that most of these very docu ments, secured by Chambers with such toil and fear, were far more easliy obtained by the cryp tographers of half a dozen for eign nations by the simple ex pedient of decoding radio inter cepts. Furthermore, this ; absence of American security in the years up to the outbreak of war was a natural phenomenon, resulting from the obvious fact that the United States did not then have a foreign policy. We have now i t - in - 00 .ULW - - a flank attack about which the men aren't too happy. It happened during the IWA convention in October when the auxiliary adopted a resolu tion opposing the Marshall plan just after the union had approved it. The Marshall plan, it should be understood, is the acid test for com munism in CIO circles. The commies regularly denounce it, while the non-communists strong ly support it. When the IWA auxiliary expressed a view contrary to the union's line of thinking a real issue was created. Naturally the men reacted: "Are we mice or men?" "Who wears the pants around here, anyway?" The ancient instinct of the male reasserted itself, and in a referendum the member unions voted to vest authority in the executive board to suspend or revoke the charter of any ladies' auxiliary which "ceases to be of assistance."' It's all right for the ladies to make coffee and sandwiches for the boys on the picket line, to march in parades and sew the banners; but freedom of thought and speech re mains under male domination. No heresy is to be tolerated. The ladies' auxiliary is one of the singular phenomena of our time. Most male organizations have them, from the medical association to vet erans' groups and patriotic, fraternal and labor bodies. They are the product of the emancipa tion of women. When men began taking their wives to conventions something had to be found to occupy their time, so the auxiliary was creat ed. It provides an excuse for meeting, with ad dresses of welcome, badges, reports, past presi dents and political manipulations. Through the year busywork must be thought up to keep the locals alive. What a problem auxiliaries must have. The accident of marriage thrusts the women into as sociation. Their bond is not one of acquaintance ship or mutual interest, but the second-handed tie of a common interest of their husbands. When one looks over the auxiliary he is struck at once with the strange taste of males for mates, which is matched only by the impression he gets when he looks over a bunch of ungraded males and sees what women, from choice, agree to put upj with. It is a wonder that auxiliaries are able to stick together and prove as successful as they do in keeping out of each other's hair and off the toes of their masculine counterpart. So a toast to the Ladies' Auxiliary for what it does and for what it endures. But let's not hear of any resolutions from the auxiliary that conflict with the policies of the master males! Last week we commented on Christmas being tod commercialized and that the true meaning of Christmas was lost. Our point was illustrated perfectly this week when we overheard two men talking as they passed a Salvation Army lass shivering by her kettle on a Salem street. One of the men exclaimed to the other: "It beats hell when they have to bring religion into Christ mas!" Wonder Why he's missed hearing of the Star over Bethlehem, the lowly Manger cradling the Christ child whose birth puts the true mean ing into Christ-mas? Jefferson Review. Little Import acquired a foreign policy, and with it we have acquired an elaborate security system, wide ly admired and envied abroad. Wbat the present proceedings thus boil down to is simply an attempt to prove whether the in dividuals accused by Chambers, such as Hiss and the late Harry White, are or are not guilty as charged. The trial of individuals is surely a matter for the courts, and not for committees of con gress. .In the present instance, it is true that if the accused plead thn statute of limitations (which Hiss emphaticaly has not done) the case against them will collapse. Chambers asserts that he began to be alienated from the com munist party in 1937, which was why he began to keep the docu ments transmitted to him by his contacts. He says further that he left the party, and ceased to receive documents, in the spring of 1938. His story really ends over ten years ago. At the same time, the shock ing unfairness of such heroes of the House Un-American Activi ties committee as the un-mourned J. Pamell Thomas, has tended to obscure the sober service ren dered by Rep. Richard Nixon. Nixon's shrewd persistence led to the current disclosures. It is valuable to have our past lack of security brought home to us. It is valuable ' also to have it brought home, once again, that the communist party is, in es sence, a party of espionage agents. But in order to capitalize on these values, it is time to stop the sound and fury, and to be gin the more serious business of considering whether legislative or other remedies are still need ed. In the existing atmosphere, this task can be best assigned to an independent commission of distinguished men, commanding the same general confidence as the Royal Commission that did such good work in Canada. (Copyright. 1948. Nw York Herald Tribun. Inc.) 111 e&Kk s W 'It tA v mmsm i' v' i S m i SEGODOB Tprommii (Continued from page 1) signatory nations. Under it the signers would agree to imposi tion of sanctions to enforce the rights. An international tribunal would have authority to give binding decisions in enforcing the covenant, and the U. N. assembly would be the policeman to enforce the court's decisions. Viewed as a documentation of individual rights the new char ter undoubtedly has merit. As Mrs. Roosevelt says, news about it will seep through iron cur tains and penetrate all parts of the world. But when one con templates enforcement of all the rights promised in the document he is quite appalled. Our own laration of independence made the then bold statement that "all men are created equal." Yet only now are we getting around to legislation to enforce the rights implied in that declaration. The United States will presumably be one of the first nations to sign the Covenant Will it then permit a U. N. police force to end discrimination in housing in Harlem or race discrimination in the theatres of the national capital and in the DAR Consti tution hall? The right to a lob is guaran teed or protection against un employment. But how would such promises be made good in over-populated Haiti or Italy? If Spain becomes a member of U. N. and a signer of the Cove nant how will full religious lib erty be maintained there? What we call rights are mat ters of growth and development. They are related to economic status, to the level of education and intelligence, to concepts of social organization and the estab lishment of forms of government and legal procedures. No char ter and no covenant will release persons from their environment, from their history and from their personal limitations. True, there are many obsta cles to attainment of civil rights which need to be brushed aside: prejudice, as in the case of race or color; bigotry, as with reli gion; privilege, in respect to economic opportunity. Some of these may be erased by law. Others call for education, a pain fully slow process. The U. N. bill of rights will do much toward defining human rights in the civilized society To enforce it with a policeman's club is a task the world is not ready for. The Safety Valve END STREAM POLLUTION To the Editor: According to newspaper re ports, the Oregon Game Com mission contemplates raising the price on hunting and fislJng li censes more than 100 per cent. The reason, or should we say ex cuse, is that fish and game is be coming scarce, and the commis sion seems to think that higher li cense fees are the cure. In a sense, yes. It would be entirely proper for out-of-state hunters and fisher men to pay an added fee, since they pay no taxes or help in pay ing reforestation and conserva tion bills. On the other hand, why should residents pay extra for the highly modernized and expensive methods of artificial propogation of wild life, when at least part of the answer is simple. For example, for years we have 1 ; ; i t . .. CLUTCH TROUBLE talked about stream pollution, but very little has been done about it. Industries have been warned against polluting our creeks and rivers, but nobody even tries to enforce even the most sanitary regulations. During the summer of 1947 boy was drowned in the Willam ette river near the inter-county bridge. I was told by a policeman that all members of the rescue squad got sick, except the attend ants in the first aid car. The stench coming from the river was nauseating. Raw sewage and off fall from industrial plants up and down the Willamette valley sim ply poison the water to such an extent that even to swim in the river is dangerous. It is nearly impossible for fish to live in this filth. The small fry trout must often run or fight for their lives when the larger fish try to make meal of them. Often they lose some of their scales, in which case the polluted die. Clear, clean water is a na tural healing agent. When salmon enter our rivers they are doomed. When in the nrocesM of buildina their nests they scrape off some scales, the polluted water infects this raw spot, and a fungus growth starts which often kills the fish even before they reach their spawing ground. Higher license fee would only give more game and fish to those who can afford to buy up duck ponds and shorelines along favorite streams, while those who are held at their jobs during the week, would in a great many cases be forced to give up their already slim chances of getting a little relaxaUon with rod or gun. Why not DO something about stream pollution and restoring na tural cover for game, instead of just talking about it? J. L Prange. Mail Packages Now or They'll Be Late, Gragg Warns Immediate mailing of Christmas gifts is beyond the "good idea' stage now; it's a necessity if par cels are to arrive for the tree, ac cording to Salem Postmaster Al bert C. Gragg. The urgency is caused by the fact that the postoffice is experi encing the most acute congestion in its history. The "normal" vol ume of recent months is nearly as high as during the 1947 Christmas rush period, said Gragg. This year Salem postoffice has sufficient trained personnel that it is hoped to avoid long queues of customers, and all windows will be open when needed, the post master said. Early mailing of Christmas cards is also urged. Those who need only a few stamps are re minded that the stamp vending machine in the lobby will save their waiting in line. Thieves Strip Wrecked Car Two wrecked cars at the Otto J. Wilson lot, 388 N. Commercial St., were stripped of parts by thieves Friday night, it was re ported to city police Saturday. One car, owned by R. S. Mason, Scio route 2. was looted of a car radio, clock, ash trays, map light, gear shift, rear view mirror, cig arette lighter and radio control panel. The other, registered to Gurnee Flesher, 720 Hollywood avf., was missing a defroster fan and clock. Newell Williams, 346 S. 23rd st. reported to city police Satur day that a rear view mirror, gas cap and windshield wiper blade were taken from his auto parked near the underpass Friday night , ' . 19 Million In Jriviot 10 lU.IIilOIl in oO lCl T f sT 11800 tampS! n i 11" T IXOVilll lSlIlliateS NEW YORK, Dec. 11 (-Secretary olj the Army Royal 1 said the best estimates are that Russia has 1 3,000,600 persons "confined in death (dealing concentre tion camps.t He tised that figure in discuss ing th recent Berlin government balloting. In that election. Rovall said, 11,300,000 German voters. ! "although living virtually within a stone's throw of ruthless soviet I troops land soviet controlled police j marched boldly to the polls and cast tlieir ballots in favor of a chancel for democratic freedom, cast them against a cruel and op pressive regime." Tuinff Appointed tO National Committee i Appointment of Aubrey Tussina of Salem as a member of the ap peals committee of the interstate conference of employment secur ity agencies was received Satur day. Tjussing is chief referee for the Oregon state unemployment compensation commission. The appointment is one of eight throughout the United States, ac cording to the notice from M. O. Loysenj, president of the confer ence, i TEVENS & 1 BttgK Birthstone For Everyone Sterling Silver Gorham Towle Reed Jk Barton International Frank Smith Heirloom Whiting Alvin TEVENS & Streets Pose Problems in School Area , Rival contentions of the Salem district school board and proDer ty owners near Leslie school over part of a never-opened street on tne site or Leslie field's track pro bably will come to a head Monday nigni. A public hearing is set for 7:30 p. tn. before the regular city coun cil meeting in city hall to air the school board s request for vaca tion of several streets and alleys, all never opened but never vaca ted officially when the Leslie school property was developed. The school board has initiated a similar legislation recently which successfully vacated old "streets" which existed on paper only and actually were "covert d" by scnoois and playgrounds in re cent years. At the Leslie site, however, one of the streets is in question -Raynor street formerly named Al aer street - -oeciuie ol new homes and new property devel opment near the school. Property owners Myrl G. and Ruth Clark in that area will bring a request before the council for the opening of this street "to bet ter serve residents in the vicin ity of South Capitol, Oxford and Howard streets, just east of Les lie junior high school." The street in question would be between Oxford and Rural streets. 800 feet west of Berry street. Clark has offered to sell the school district enough property, for $1,600, to place an alternate street to serve the area, but the school board has not acted on the offer. The world's first cos! railway. begun in 186!. still operates to the 6,283 - foot summit of ML Washington in New Hampshire. aniWDBamMHasesajsa FOR HIM . , FOR HER . . . FOR THE FAMILY . . We are quite sure to have just the thing for the 'Just Beginner," the "Intermediate" or the "Skilled Hobbyist." Come in . . . look around ... and select a gift from our nearly complete stocks. Remember ... a gift of on of America's most popular year around, in door and outdoor, hobbies, is sure to be a gift appreciated. Burke's Camera Shop 179 N. Commercial Christmas Headquarters for Beautiful Diamonds Walches Rings IUIC.;.71il 4K nHwri or whit oM. Domud trytttA. 4f af PsyaaaaU Watches Hamilton Elgin U'altham Tissot ' Itarvel Longlnes Wittnauer Gothic You Can Budget All Your Gifts Without Interest or Carrying- Charges JEWELERS & SILVERSMITHS 339 Court Street - Salem Oregon Silvcrton Hills Dispute Aired i :! : Controversy over two Silvirton Hills roads was aired again Satur day in the Marion county court. The complainants were Robert A. Banks ton and William Brice, owners of property In the area. Bankston alleged that Trif on Op ris, who lives in the district. 'has closed a road- on his property, shutting the two men off from the Bridge Creek road. The other road is the Silver Falla logging grade, which the county recently took over. Bankston said the road is in a state of disrepair and that it is Impossible for him and his neighbor to use the route. The court said the county en gineer would investigate the prob lem, t Loans Available For Improvement Of Small Farms Loans for improvement of under-developed, family-size farms are available through the farmers home administration of fice at 460 N. High st, for Mar ion and Polk counties, accordinc to Bartty W. McVeigh, county su pervisor. ' j -,1 With a maximum loan of $12.- 000, the funds may be used to clear, level or drain land, to gife basic soil treatments or to con struct or repair; buildings. Repay ment period is 40 years. : t McVeigh said an applicant should have livestock and equip ment, or cash with which to buy them, adequate for a full-time ec onomic unit. Farms . in the two counties which; met administra tion requirements for approval during the past 10 years had an -average gross Income for 1947 of $7,000. ! I V! i if Phone 2-1891 ill! Bon it Bon 1 I . '.'": 'I ' ' ! '