The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980, September 28, 1950, Page 4, Image 4

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DI -vfifI(-jCCt.t .. tt'tl
GRIN AND BEAR IT
"by Lichty
' MWMM 1641
; "No favor Sway Us, No Fear Shall Atoe
: h i From lint Statesman. March It, 151
! - THE STATESMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY
v3- '' CHARLES A. SPRAGUE, Editor and Publisher
' FobUihed every morulas. Basinets trice 215 8. Commercial, Salem, Oregon. Telephone 2-t44L
Entered at the pestoffiet at Salem, Orexan. ai aecood class matter nnder act ox congress March 2 1S71
North of the 38th Parallel
With Seoul in the hands of American and
South Korean troops and a U.N. line thrown
from Taegu north to Seoul the doom of North
Korean army is sealed. The MacArthur strategy
has worked, the old lasso trick has caught in its
loop thousands of the enemy, with their supply
lines severed.
.The. question now before the house (meaning
the United States and United Nations) is whe
ther to stop at the 38th parallel or push on into
North Korea to unify the country, with the at
tendant risk of drawing a communist army sup
port from China or Russia. Spokesmen for U.S.
policy have made it clear that the decision is up
to United Nations. Also word has been given out
that if penetration is made north of the 38th
parallel it would be by other nationals than
those of the United States. The purpose of hold
ing VS. troops south of the border is to em
phasize to China and to Russia that;this country
has no territorial or military ambitions in North
Korea. If this proves convincing then it is anti
cipated that Russia and China would not in
tervene and precipitate a general war.
, But out of United Nations headquarters Wed
nesday came a report from "highly reliable
sources" according to United Press, that North
Korea is angling for a truce. The approach is
said to have been made through the Chinese
communist regime in Peiping and the Indian,
ambassador there. The North Korean proposal is
said to provide for: First, an armistice; second
withdrawal of North Korean forces into North
Korea and of U.S. troops to the Pusan beach
head; third, elections throughout Korea under
UN. supervision.
! Certainly there will be no withdrawal of U.S.
troops to Pusan; and no permission for North
Korean troops to return north of the 38th paral
lel they should surrender and lay down their
arms. ' '
Great Britain's Ernest Bevin has been busy at
'United Nations with a plan for settling the Ko- -rean
troubles. A resolution embracing his ideas
Ch the subject will be presented to the U.N. as
sembly Friday and is .expected to reaffirm the
U.N. decree for a united Korea and to call for
free elections under supervision of .a U.N. com
mission, to constitute a new democratic govern
ment. A U.N. commission also would work on
the problem of Korean reconstruction. U. N.
forces would remain in Korea only long enough
to stabilize the domestic situation. - . "
I This looks like a very reasonable plan, and ,
we are pleased to see some other country than 1
the United States take a lead in tackling this ,
problem. Representatives of 'the United States
are wise in not trying to run the show -after
all we've been taking the verbal rap from Rus
sia for a long time. 1 .
; Quick decisions must be taken at Lake Sue-.
cess for the allies will be standing along the 38th
parallel very soon. The U.N. police action has
proven a military success. If the invasion of
South Korea was a "trial run" for Russia and
communism, it was also a "trial run" for United
Nations. If through smart statesmanship the U.
N. can achieve a diplomatic victory and estab
lish a free, independent and democratic Korea
then the test will have been met successfully
and United Nations prestige will rise over the
World. j
"Curiouser and Curiouser"
Just as in Alice-in-Wonderland the Newbry
branch office deals grow "curiouser and curi
ouser." First the attorney general says the secretary
of state had no authority to enter into long-time
leases for such structures. Then it is disclosed
that owners of many of the structures are re
publican big-wigs, chief of whom is Sen. Rex
Ellis andor his brother Bruce, with six. Then
State Treasurer Walter Pearson who has been
threatening to refuse to pay the rental warrants
finds that his private insurance office at Port
land has written insurance policies on six of the
buildings, from Ontario to North Bend, in the
Ellis chain. And Sen. Ellis reports that the in
surance was placed by William Murray, the last
democratic candidate for attorney general who
reputedly had the support of gambling interests.
Newbry and Ellis are republicans, Pearson and
Murray democrats. Pearson of course promptly
(and properly) announced he had kicked out
this piece of insurance business to prevent any
suspicion pointing at him.
Curiouser and curiouser. , If Alice were still
alive she might blandly ask how Ellis can bob
up as a real estate capitalist his investment
must run around $100,000; and how Murray
happens to be his attorney; and why insurance
on buildings over the state would lodge in a
Portland insurance office that happened to be
run by the state treasurer. But Alice is no long
er living; and only the pesky democrats are get
ting nosey.
;'- . -.... '
i- Ask 04w
"It's certainly aa aa-to-the-mlnnte product! ... I had no Idea
war-time stuff could be put on the market so quickly . . .
The Peninsula ,
San Franciscans are in a dither because the
U.S. board of geographic names stole their Pen
insula and gave it to Santa Cruz. They made
such a protest that the board pulled leather and
said it would review the matter. Its excuse for
the christening was that the northern extension
of the Santa Cruz mountains forms the rib of
the Peninsula, so they would just call it the
Santa Cruz peninsula. Thus they ignored the
place names of the city, county and bay of San
Francisco.
Always in our recollection it was just "the.
Peninsula." San Franciscans who didn't' live
across the bay or over in Marin county or in
the city lived down or is it up?- the Penin
sula. No one ever gave it the long-handled "San
Francisco Peninsula." No matter what the geo
graphers may say or the mapmakers print, we
venture it will still be just "The Peninsula" just
as it is "the Bay" or "the City," not San Fran
cisco and surely not (horror horrors!) "Frisco."
SLA
The old Pacific showed its temper in the first
storm of the season. The waves battered a US
naval training ship, the destroyer escort Gilli
gan, off Coos Bay and swept two crewmen to
watery graves. They stove in a coffer dam at
Depoe Bay as though in spite for man's inter
ference with nature's topography. Inland the
storm brought abundant compensation. It dous
ed the Mill City forest fire, watered fields for
fall seeding and freshened the spirits of man.
Wonder if any "South Korea" musical will
come out of the present war, to match "South
Pacific" Thus far we haven't heard of much
comedy in Korea.
Fighting Alongside U. S. Marines Brings into
Focus the Pettiness of the Pentagon Snake Pit
By Joseph AImp
; WITH THE MARINES ON
THE SEOUL FRONT, Sept, 27 -As
these words are written, the
i city of Seoul lies spread out be
I neath the marine positions on the
! heights. The battle for the Korean
capital has begun with hard fight-
! ing against vio-
' lent resistance.
i From Inchon
,jto Seoul's out
skirts, this re-
; Dorter n s
marched with I
! t h e marine :-
company max
'most often
3 headed the at
tacking column.
The experience.
ipSTto-any-,
one in softjtondition, has-been
stirring, almost exhilarating. Now ".
that Easy Company is being sent
Alor a short time into reserve, it
" may be worth while to try to -
I explain why this experience has
had so much of meaning and so
much of goodness. .
I ; The basic reasons, of course,
; were the company itself and the
men who compose it. This little
. band of Americans, whose aver
fage age is not much above 20,
f. was plunged into . the i Korean .
fighting in. early August. Few ,
T had seen combat before. Hardly
one possessed the kind of un
i derstanding , of what they were-,
v fighting for" . that academic
. minded people at home are at-1
ways saying soldiers " ought " to J
t have. As far as one can make
;' out the company's view of the
t matter, then at the cruel begin-:
: ning and now ' when victory is
in sight, they have' been' fight-
ing for their country. And this
I simplesentiment, reinforced by ;
powerful sense of being a team,
has been quite good enough. ;
-1-
.: In . their first ' combat on the -,
Chinju approaches, this report-'
j er saw the companay almost :
l light-heartedly set out on a ten-
mile nighf march after holding;
:- a naked mountain peak for forty
eight hours under continuous
shell fire. At No Name Ridge,
the company led the assault, and
of the forty-two men of the for
ward platoon, only a few reached
the crest. And at Yongsan, it was
again the company that stormed
its way into the little village.
In these and many other fights,
in hardly more than six weeks
time, this company has lost by
wounds or death almost: two
thirds of those who were ' its
original members. Yet with these
heavy losses, the company has'
never failed, either to hold a
position it was asked to hold, or
to take a position it was asked
to take. And with all this behind
them, the men of the company
rushed Inchon's Red Beach and
drove their way to Seoul with
no seeming thought of what had
passed or -what might come.
What is so stirring about the
company, however, is not that
it is a great fighting outfit.
Fighting is the company job,
and the company does it superla
, tively well, being as careful to
take cover, to dispose itself for
mutual support, to dig its fox
holes deep after every march, as
it is careless of danger and death
when carelessness is needful,
i What is stirring, rather, is to see
1" how the men of the company, as
individuals, have withstood the
harsh tests of this fighting. It
is only after you have marched
with the company a while that
the individuals begin to stand out
from the team the humorist, a
soldier of the second platoon with
a sharp, hard bitten wit; the
hunter, a young, red bearded
corporal who is always pleading
for permission to take his fire
party out to stalk the enemy
alone; the scrounger, whose pride
it is to "steal the infantry blind-;
the Don , Juan, who ran away
from home when he was twelve
and besides fighting, thinks only
of. new conquests; the family
man, whose whole life isa little
California cottage where a young
wife and two children await him.
- -And after you have marched
with them awhile you also learn
' how cheerfully the: men depend
upon their chiefs tl:e Polish-descended
lieutenant, tall and lan
ky, who is such a fighter he needs
holding back a little the big,
bearded gunnery sergeant, whoso
' rasping chant is heard all day,
"keep down, take cover, get off
the skyline,' yet who always vol
unteers for the night patrols;
the captain with a name from the
Ukraine, whose brothers still
work in the mill in Connecticut,
who got his education and made
his way in the marines by sheer
- intelligence -and "guts, who Tikes
to talk about his little boy and
the new baby on the way when
he is going into battle. Far from
transforming the men of the com
pany into the sarcastic or self
pitying cardboard cutouts of the
war novelists, their harsh experi
ence seems almost to have en
larged and amplified them. '
They must, surely, have their
share of selfishness, meanness,
greediness and calculation. But on
the march and in a fight, you do
not see these qualities. What lit
tle, there is of food or shelter is
generously shared. Whatever the
discomfort or the danger, it is
met with salty humor or calm
determination. Whatever the
problem it is tackled shrewdly
and coolly. This is a human at
mosphere, indeed, that makes you
believe in the essential value, the .
often hidden yet always present
. virtue, of your own people.
And here, perhaps, is the moral
of this experience, which must
forcibly. . strike anyone who
knows the very different atmos
phere of the snake pit that is '
Washington. These men of the
company, after all, are quite or
dinary Americans, who have had
a rather less than average share
of the conventional good things
of our luxurious society. If they
are brave and generous hearted,
curiously wise and genially in
domitable, it is because quite or
dinary Americans respond in
these ways to the right sort of
challenge. And when you observe
this, and in the same breath re-
, member the pettiness, cowardice,
cheapness and self-seeking of so
' many of those to whom the des-
' tinies of these men are confided,
you grow impotently angry at
the unwprthiness of the leaders
of the country that they lead.
- Copyrtsht 1950.
New York Herald Tribune Inc.
Little Known,
Sought after,
Anecdotes
By Henry McLemoro
NEW YORK, Sept 27 If you
are as constant a reader of mag
azines as I am, then you surely
must have no- :
ticed that most
editors have de
veloped a man
ia. The mania Is
a mania for
publishing long
and short true
life anecdotes in
which the name
of the person
1 n v a r i a bly a
prominent per
son u not
mentioned until the final sent
ence. The reader is supposed to all
but fall dead with shock when
the name of the person is reveal-
i ed. But, unless the reader has
spent most of his life in a ther
mos bottle, he has guessed the
identity of the man or woman,
about whom the ancedote is
spun in the first paragraph, and
r can't help but wonder why the
author is spending so much time
warming up in the bull pen and
doesn't get in there and start
pitching.
Being as I want some extra
money to buy a swarm of bees I
have had my eye on for a long
time, I am going to write a few
of these surprising anecdotes that
don't surprise in the hope that
editors will buy them from me.
Here goes:
Some eighty years ago I, a
drummer in snuff, stepped off
the train in a snow-bound New
England village. A little girl in
a pinafore was the only person
on the platform, but with the
poise of a Grandma she offered
to show me the way to the only
hotel. - .
Picking up the tiny canvas on
which she had been painting the
winter scene,, the little girl led
me to the hotel, stopping only
now and then .to ask me if I knew
anything about pigments.
When we reached the snug
hostel I could see the child was
very cold, and I bought her a
few rounds of hot buttered pab
lum. Grateful, the little girl I had
now started calling "Grandma,"
gave me half a dozen or so of
the pictures she had painted
while knocking off the hot but
tered pablum.
I stuck the pictures in my brief
case and forgot all about them.
Forgot about them, that is, un
til yesterday, when an art dealer
bought them for $100,000.
They were signed Grandma
Moses III.
- Two years ago I was an im
migrant Two years later I still am.
.But something that happened
a year ago made me irant to be
an American citizen sa much that
-111 forge my papers if necessary.
I was walking in the neighbor
hood of Momingside Heights,
where Columbia university is sit
uated, wondering where my next
dub sandwich would come from.
when a handsome, balding man
witn a mid-western smile, stop
ped me.
"I'm Ike,? he said. "Is there
anything I can do for you?"-
We went to the home of the
president of Columbia university
and the gentleman who had in
troduced himself simply as "Ike"
told me all about the Normandy
invasion and showed me his sold
ier's suit It had five stars on
the shoulders.
: A month later I was looking
at a newspaper in the Stork club
and a man's face leapt out at me.
It was my kindly benefactor.
; The man was General Ike
Eisenhower If!
' This is a confession.
I am a burglar.
Two weeks ago I attempted to
rob a great big White House on
Pennsylvania avenue in Wash
ington, D. C -
Just as I was about to cut an
authentic "old crony out of its
frame, I heard a voice boom from
upstairs:
"ir you're just a burglar, a
registered Democratic burglar,
OKay. nut it you're a marine
get out!"
I jumped through the window
and got away.
It was not until I listened to a
radio speech from Washington
mat i neard that selfsame voice.
It was the voice of Harry S.
lruman in
Any buyers among you edi
tors 7
(Distributed by
McNauxht Syndicate. Inc.)
(Continued from page 1)
president he flew down to Quan
tico and boarded the yacht Then
he writes:
"After I had reported to the
president on what had happened
at the conference, he expressed
wholehearted approval of my
action. He asked me to remain
for dinner: ... While we were at
dinner the president asked me to
repeat what I had said to him
about the conference, and I did
so. From time to time the pres
ident Interrupted to express his
approval. There was no express
ion of disapproval or approval by
any other except Admiral Leahy,
who said my report made him
feel much better about the situa
tion but that he did not approve
of the agreement on Rumania
and Bulgaria. . . . Immediately
after dinner I asked to be ex
cused. ... The president invited
me to come back New Year's eve
and spend the night on the ship
and I promised to return.
Byrnes then quotes a congrat
ulatory telegram he found await
ing him on his arrival home,
from Cordell Hull, his predeces
sor in office. He made his radio
report to the people the following
night and when he returned to
the yacht Mr. Truman "congrat
ulated me on the report '
Byrnes goes on to say that
""one or two newspaper corres
pondents reported that the pres
ident had "expressed strong dis
approval of my agreements' and
that there was ill feeling be-
y m4:- yiV'.XtoQg
! tye.netetre'ewi
tween the president and Xh sec
retary of state, and goes on to
"The fact is the president did
not on that occasion nor at any
other express to me disapproval ",
of any position I took at the ;
meeting of the council of foreign
ministers or any other meetings.
Nor did he ever express to me
disapproval of any statement I
made on our foreign policy." ,
Now whom are we to believe:
Byrnes and his book or Daniels
quoting Truman?
I wonder if the president's own
' memory may not be at fault He
is bitter against Jimmy Byrnes,
ever . since the latter made a
speech down south in June, 1949,
expressing his fear that the na
tion was being led down the road
to socialism; and the president
is not one to bury a grudge
quickly. "
As for appeasement of Russia
Mr. Truman himself had express
ed his approval, one year later,
of Henry Wallace's famous
speech in Madison Square Gar
den, calling for conciliation with
Russia and calling the Byrnes
policy toward Russia "too harsh."
Mr. Truman composed that crisis
by firing Wallace and retaining
Byrnes. Could it be that Mr.
Truman has let his bitterness
toward Byrnes, whom he sum
moned soon after taking office to
become his secretary of state,
warp his memory?
In looking up this material in
the Byrnes book I found also
references to our policy in Kor
ea. For instance he reports (p.
.221) "At the time of the Japanese
surrender the military leaders
agreed that all Japanese troops
north o fthe 38th parallel would
surrender to the Red (Russian)
army and all troops south of that
line would surrender to our
army." Apparently It wasnt a
plot of the state department to
divide Korea, after an.
. Byrnes reports the agreement
on mechanics for the establish
ment of a free and independent
Korea which never was fulfilled,
and thought it might be possible
to eliminate the contemplated -period
of trusteeship: ;
"But the Soviet Union may
have another purpose In mind.
In the Soviet Zone the Red army, .
has trained an army of Koreans
estimated to number from 100,-'
000 to 400,000 men. The with-,
drawal of the Joint Commission
and Soviet-American occupation
forces would leave the Soviet
trained army the only effective
military force in Korea. Un
doubtedly, this army would at
tempt to take charge of whatever
government then existed. There
fore as a condition to the with
drawal of the commission we
must require that this army be
disbanded.'
Byrnes showed good foresight
there, though of course the allied
commission never functioned, and
the 38th parallel became the
boundary between two artificial
countries.
Regardless of what the Daniels
book says, Jimmy Byrnes wasnt
a "miserable failure" as secretary
of state.
Bottor English
1. What is wrong with this
sentence? "Mrs. Brown called
upon me yesterday." ,
2. What is the correct pronun
ciation of "trough"?
3. Which one of these words Is
i misspelled? Articulate, Artie, ar
tificer, arrogance. .
ANSWERS
, 2. Say, "Mrs. Brown called era
.me," or, "called te see me." 2.
Pronounce trof, as in soft 2.
Arctic
New teletype sending machine in the state capitol pressroom
has the newsmen up in arms. The machine has no colon, semi
colon, apostrophe, question mark, parenthesis or dash-mark. It
has,, however, a dandy (and almost useless) set
of fraction keys like , , etc. To a vet
eran newsman who can make a colon take the
place of an entire sentence and a question mark
stand for nearly anything, this is almost dis
astrous. - ,
The newspapermen are wondering if the
new keyboard was installed so that the
coming political tears may be reported in
fractions or so that no parenthetical re-
" mark may be reported during the next
legislature.
A giant black walnut tree, 90 years old was cut down this
week on the Will Mumper farm near Lake Labish. The trees,
almost as old as. Salem, was planted by Mumper's father,, the
late Michael Mumper ... Willamette university students, who
park on S. 12th st, just off State st, are returning to their cars
after a hard day at the books to be greeted by overtime parking
tags . . . Parking situation is getting worse each year for WU
students with the annual fall parking battle of students vs state
employes shaping up nicely again.
State employes in the neio service building complain they
haven't had a minute free from noise since they moved into
their new quarters five months ago. All the racket is caused
by construction of the state highway dept. building next
door. When the service building was constructed a wide ce-'
ment driveway was put in on the north side. Now after only
x a few months of use the drive is being torn up to permit
. building of a tunnel connecting the highway building with
the state service building, which is in turnconnected un
derground with the capitol building. Everyone is wondering
' how the highway department is going to regulate two-way
traffic in its tunnel.
o
Marion county clerk's office shows that recent registration of
voters still leans to the republican ranks although not quite as
lopsidedly as before. In May primaries the republicans led in
this county about 2 to 1. Question is how many of current reg
istrations are new and how many retreads. . v .
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checks, glens, Saxonies .
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416 Stale St.
The Store of Style, Quality and Value
Moxley end Huntington
Salem