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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1994)
PAGE FOUR' OREGON STATESMAN. Salem, Oryon. Tuday Morning, January 1. 134 I. mww MM "Afo Favor Sways Us; No Fear Shall Aw" From First Statesman, Marco 28, 18S1 TiiE STATESMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY ' CHARLES A. S PRAGUE, Editor and Publisher Member of the Associated Press The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for publication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this newspaper. "Ability to Pay" i A company must be able) to pay wages, what ever the level, or soon it will go out of business, jln this sense, "ability to pay" is always a factor ' in fixing wages. When business is good em i plovers generally are disposed to increase jwages; they would like to decrease them when conditions are depressed. , Union leaders who make such a noise now about" "ability to pay" will quickly change their tune when the busines cycle is reversed. Then they will resist efforts! of management to reduce wages because of "inability to pay." There have b-n times, when an employer's offer to "show his books" was contemptuously tossed aside as irrelevant. It may not be long before this CIO demand for companies to "show their books" will arise to plague its own advocates. There is in Jhe withdrawal of General Motors from the. sessions of President Truman's! fact finding committee more than appears on the surface. It is resistance to the idea which jGMC believes is involved in the proposition inj con troversy, namely that a government b o d y should limit profits or that profits become sub-, ject to capture by workers. GMG professes to ee in the current thrust of U AW the spearhead of an attack on the capitalist system, and re fuses to participate longer in the hearings. It risks public criticism by withdrawing, but evi dently fears more a concession to the clamor for j considering "ability to pay." ; , In the present instance, it would seem thai wage determination would better be left to the 'negotiation of the principals. For how can the fact-finding committee rrake an accurate forecast of earnings of a company like General . Motors inthe time at its disposal and with the - limited facilities of research Which it has? For such vital factors as cost o raw ' materials, efficiency of Jabor. selling, prices and profit . margin are not subject ready determination. At best the "finding" would be merely a guess, which a turn in the business wheel might make absurd. I Suppoe the fact -finders report the GMC's prospective profits are such that a wage in crease of 30 per cent should be made. Does that deprive the consumer of a chance at a lower price for the company's products? The consuming public has a stake in manufacturing costs as well as the employes. Again, suppose that the 30 per cent increase which is demanded as granted; that then sets the standard for the whole automotive industry. But is such is to be the effect,, ought not the fact-finding to be industry-wide? Some of the . smaller competitors of GMC might not he able to exist under such a wage scale. Finding the facts for General Motors thus involves finding . the facts about: Hudson and Studebaker and Ford. Finally, there is the matter of overall policy. The professed policy ofj the government through the jwafwas to fend (off inflation. There has beqni some measure of success, as compared ' . with past inflationary periods. Validating a series of sharp wage increases would have the effect of setting - off the inflationary spiral. "Hold the line" would become a fiction! . For 13 years government dice has been pretty wejl loaded agairist the employer. Business men rej fearful that further exactions by govern ment again! employer interest will make sterile thej enterprise of the CIO and are unwilling to get; .further under the yoke of government dic tation. Whether employers admit it or notv "ability to pav"-ii a' factor in wage determina tions; but management prefers to make its own projections of that ability. ' New Frontiers . Tfie war awakened the whole world to the new frontiers of the fckies. and the unleashing of rocket weapons and of the atom bomb gave sharfier point to the awakening. The war!; is I Over, but not the fear of war. Recognizing that ' great! exposures lie over the-roof of the globe via tie north pole, the army air force in col laboration with scientists is beginning a long range study of the polar area. Th plana contemplate use of 9-29s to make regulkr flying trips over Arcfic regions to learn 11 tlfe fliers tan about land masses, weather, 1 ocear currents. Cooperation with Canada will be obtained since most of the polar region of Norti America is adjacent to Canada. Our gov emrnfnt m ks jilso to keep flying rights from b4in Iceland and Greenland. Our own Alas ka will be the major base for much) of this The knowledge is needed from the standpoint of future security. But it should prove of great v I ue regardless of possible wars.- The north incubate mort of our weather. It is the move mentfof masses of air from, Arctic regions which affects temperatures and determines storm con ditions over most of the continent. Advanced weather stations should supply more knowl edge "pf northern weather and so enable fore casters to make more accurate predictions of weather changes. Meteorology, the 'science of the weather, re ceives! a big boost in wartime. It was indis pensable for the successful operations of the atr force. Wrlh new instruments and technique, meteorologists will be able to use to good advantage the information which may be as sembled in this new polar exploration by air,, and Ifender better service to the people. I .... .. .- Beginning Thursday there will be no . limit on tiie number of turkeys a housewife can; buy. But the limit has been passed On how much turkey Jer family can eat.. Korean Complaint Koreans are griping because the foreign min isters of the big three have decided oh a four power trusteeship for five years even going so far at to stone American soldiers in Seoul. The complaint is that they want independence and want it now. Outside people, however, will not be greatly impressed with - the complaint. The Koreans have had no recent experience in self-government. They were so' badly treated by the Japanese for"35 years that they seem pitifully weak as a people. Reports indicate also a great lack of harmony among the leaders of Korea. ''.' It might easily be disastrous to cut Korea adrift. Conditions speedily Imightbecome chao tic while its' people floundered about trying to organize tfor themselves a competent govern- ment. Five years is brief itvthe life of a country- If -in that time the Korean people-learn how to govern themselves! they will do well. The word of the big four nations is given that independence will come. j.That will be ful filled unless there is some later upset in world affairs. Koreans should .get busy to demon- trate their capacity for self-government, rather than to agitate against the nations which brought them liberation. - - j : Sa gift excess water. Too much of it, and dirty. lem really doesn't appreciate the holiday Of Eueene and other upriver cities of i their - v JrC 11 WE services or men ukt kxl fi'iilrv w sww proposal wiTiRSg : u D. B. Harritt Discharged From Scabees mmgmmmt with Tk WHbiwta Stae Pay .'Em or Ioge 'Era ? Hitler Documents So Goering and Himmler got fired by Der Fuehre! That is the record left in the last documents signed by Adolf Hitler the last few. days of his life. Goering got out of town and managed to escape Hitler's execution squad. Now he' is No one in the prisoners dock at Nuernberg.'Himmler, who sought to make a" peace through Count Bernadotte of Sweden, lived till he was captured, then swallowed poison to escape" the rap. Hitler diedat his own hand, first. His will and testament, so., far as bequeathing power is concerned, was impotent, though Admiral Doenitz, whom he named his successor as reichschancellor, did bring the war to an end. The documents uncovered by American in telligence officers are of interest in revealing how Hitler's power cracked and crumbled un der the pincer-pressure; of the advancing allied armies. vThe signature that once could .horrify the world had only value at the last to legiti mize his relations with Eva Braun. Even Goering got a later laugh -at the man, who fired him. . ' News Behind the News By PAUL MALLON (Distribution by' King Features Syndicate, Inc. Reproduction In whole or in part strictly prohibited.) WASHINGTON. Dec. 31 The men who know, what makes the stock market tick if they do not tick it themselves tell me the soaring heights of financial ; grandeur it has now reached in prospect of 1946 cannot be at tributed to the liormal consid erations, or to those generally advertised. Earnings of the corpora- tions have noth ing td do with the case, they say. Nor is fear of inflation an uppermost- im petus, although i J and agreement t i l .. Ml i 1. D. White OPA is said to, be revising its rules to prevent a famine of men's shirts, shorts and pajamas threatened for early 1948. Right now more men are losing their shirts. than' in the crash of 1929, so OPA had better get a move on. Interpreting ' ? The Day's News By James D. White AMocUted Pre SUM Writer SAN FRANCISCO; Dec. 31.--1948 ta likely to be a year of decision in the Pacific. When the guns died down last August, it soon became plain that a lot of things shoved aside by war would rise up and yell for action. Some of these things look and sound ao explosive that it may be doubted if another year can pass without something boiling over. The foreign ' ministers' meeting in Moscow returned Europe to the( dominance of the big three, who recognize that in this atomic age they Cannot afford another war. But the Moscow agreement did not touch many of the burning questions of the Pacific. Restating allied' interest in a strong and democratic China still leaves up to the Chinese the im portant business of settling their internal strife which continues to threaten nearly half a billion peo Pie- , China World Problem By their actions if not by their words, the two contending parties in China (the Kuomin tang and the communists) depict their problem as one of deciding which party; shall run China. But Ameri cana long resident in China believe the question is bigger than China, and that in its most important sense !it isn't one of which side or which system phall triumph but whether China shall be unified in the interest of peace in the Pacific , and the world.! ' With her independence guaranteed by treaties and statements all over the place, China Is in a unique position among the people of the western Pacific she can afford, in that sense, to continue the internal bickering for which there Is plenty of history -rooted reason but in which there isn't much future. Philippines Hafe , Only the Philippines, with ' their independence guaranteed by the United States, are in a similar position. Otherwise the southwest Pacific is in the process of being taken back under the Imperial istic systems of Britain. France and. Holland. - (And some critics lump with this the American insistence on certain exclusive bases in the Pa cific and Russia's Increased influence In Kast Asia). In the colonies the gunfire has not died. Most 'Japanese guns have been silenced, but the guns of earlier masters have come back, and are met by native guns barking demands for freedom. The peoples ' of Indonesia. Burma. Malaya and French Indo-China still wonder whether the At lantic, charter's principles of self-determination ap ply to them, dK Just to the western world. Today Jawaharlal Nehru of India warned that "the countries of Asia will not -submit willingly to 'any empire of domination, and will revolt against it. It will be a continuing revolt of millions, with passion behind it which even an atom bomb won't suppress, and from that revolt will develop that terrible thing the third, world war" - - Pain Mallua stocks afford a place for depreciating money to keep up with advancing prices in value. . If stocks go up as money goes down, then, theoretically t any rate, you save the loss from money depreciation due to ad vancing prices by buying stocks and I say "theoretically" be cause it al depends on for what you ultimately sell the stocks. Capital Hard U Invest The buying of stocks is due, they assert, to the fact itjis practically impossible for ,any one to start a new big business today. Capital is easy enough to get, but then your troubles start. . You must acquire plant and if this requires new building, it is practically impossible. Materials are not available. But if you get your plant built, you must have workers iand to day there is a shortage in all lines of employment. If, by your superior! ability, you get both plant and workers, then you can start into competi tion with those who already have both. ' Housing Retarded as Key Thus, the corporation:: or the man already in business, has a leg-up on the postwar era, which fresh competition is finding it difficult to match. These condi tions should," in all reasonable expectations, prevail nearly if not entirely through the coming year. The key to this locked ques tion is a subject Mr. Truman re cently has been doing something about -housing. The labor end of new business should be solved, to whatever extent . it can be solved, by de mobilization of the armed force manpower. But plants cannot be furnished until materials are available. The wartime square footage of manufacturing -floor space can not become productive in fresh com pet i five enterprise until both resources become available in cluding housing for workers. Scarcity te Continue A New York financial genius tells me residential housing is behind 15 years, Instead of 'S'-j .years as officially! decreed. Un less a gigantic building program . is undertaken, he Jsays, the situ- ation cannot be ; met, : and he means the situation on: rents, home and office l scarcity. . But frankly, I do not under stand this matter entirely. You can see, new housing has been restrained for 15 yearsf 'We have feared building be cause we (1920-29) overbuilt for a depression era. We tore down structures during the Roosevelt era and made parking lots be cause the buildings could not be rented. Demands Are Moved Up The war era did not bring an increase in the population need ing housing, beyond the hew housing we provided in most of ' the large cities through houking projects. But people moved vp a few notches in their housing 5 de ma ndsrequii ed and demanded more and better residences iand offices. , j The crises in housing due to this abnormal demand still per sists, and if national income fon- - tinues to hold this level oi gr higher, the demand for .houkinf. certainly should continue atf the present rate. x ' j In a word then, if Mr. "ru man fulfills his other economic promises, he must have a gigan tic housing program. But if prices become stabilized at a lowerjvel. normal expansion of .housing should ease the crisis by ' lessening the demand. So I can not bring myself to accept either the 5 or 13 year stories. ; - Delay Appears Advantageous In any event, the business ac- GRIN AND BEAR IT By Lichty cent on this phase will be a pri mary factor of 1948. For the greater economic advantage of the nation, gigantic building pro grams should wait until an econ omic need develops (when na tional income is declining, when prices are faltering, etc.). But the government couldholtf' back its own building programs (spending for public works) for that eventuality, -and contrive an orderly,' long-term stimulation program for private building, definitely restricted so as not to accentuate the current inflation, caused by shortage of materials. Upon this problem, Mr. Truman has only begun. The Literary Guidepost By W. O. Sogers AN ANTHOLOGY Or FAMOUS ENGLISH AND AMERICAN PO ETRY, edited by William Rot Baiiet sad Conrad Aiken (Random House. Modern I.lbiary Giant; More than 100 poets are rep resented here by almost 700 poems in about 950 pages. To the best of my knowledge, this re vised edition is the largest selec tion of fine poetry for the money. Benet, in his introduction to the English section, bemoans the times: maybe the Machine Age After three years' service with the Seabees, D. B. Harritt, CEM, has received his discharge. Wear er of the American theatre and Asiatic - Pacific , theatre ribbons, the Philippine Liberation ribbon and the Good Conduct and Vic tory medals. Harritt was commu nications chief of the 102nd naval construction battalion.. He served at New Caledonia and Finch Ha ven. At Hoi land ia he was de tached from his outfit and loaned to the army and went to Talalosa. Leyte, thence to San Feonando. Luzon. At Subric bay, he rejoined his battalion. Harritt is a graduate of Hill Military academy in Portland and a former student at 1 Willamette university. The navy man had seen three years of service with has corrupted the-, poetic voice and ear; we distrust poetry if it's popular; poets sound too many "harsh discords;" anyway, they ' no longer enjoy public respect. But it's not surprising, I think. that they don't enjoy public re spect when they don't even enjoy the respect of publishers. In the American section a note (page 7 88) recalls that Aiken original ly included 12 poem by Ezra Pound. They are omitted here against Aiken s wishes but at the insistence of "the publishers, who flatly refuse at this time to include a single line by Ezra Pound." I The note does not explain the omission, but presumably the reason is not poetry but patriot ism. In broadcasts from Italy during the war, Pound is report ed to have -defended Fascism, attacked Jews, condemned de mocracy . . . attitudes which you and I abominate. He is now a U. S. prisoner on a charge of treason. If the reason for the omission is that Pound's poetry wasn't worthy, there wouldn't have been serious objection. If the reason is Pound's broadcasts from Italy, the omission is an unpardonable error, and especi ally . disturbing since Random House generally shows surpass ingly dependable editorial judg ment. To drop Pound is to bur 6 books in Hitler fashion. A man isn't a bad poet just because he favors Fascism, or a good pne just be cause he opposes it. An able general may be a bad psychia trist, a singer may! be a bad democrat. History is full of great writers, painters, conjiposers who were cowards, thieves, fornica tors, turncoats and rogues. To quote the French poet of the Resistance, Louis Aragon:. "Poetry means more than wis dom." the armed forces in Hawaii, sta tioned at Schofield 'barracks after leaving " the university. Prior to refuting for navy duty, be was an employe of the West Coast Telephone company at Forest Grove. He has rejoined the com pany -.as assistant supervisor at . Coos Bay. Harritt is the son of Mr. anj Mrs. K. W. Harritt of rte. 1, Sa lem. After visiting friends and relatives in Washington, Oregon and California, he and his wife have gone to California. Elect Officers At Boy Scout Lodge Meeting At the annual lodge meeting of Order of the Arrow, a unit of the Boy Scouts of America, at Camp Meriwether, Hebo, election of lodge officers for 194(1 took place. Alvin Adolphe, troop. 24. Dal las, was elected lodge chief. John Thompson, Explorer troop 17, Sa lem, was named secretary with ElmeY Klionke,' troop 1, Salem, voted treasurer. The new board of directors con sists of Frank Deckebach and Richard Easton, both Seascout ship it, Salem, and RoberCScha chtsiek, troop 50, Stayton. Promoted to brotherhood honor at a special ceremony were Rich ard Eason, John Thompson. Glen . Kleen. all of Salem. Lawrence , Hobart, Silverton, Ted Roake, jr., Salem, and D. L. St John, scout master of the Gervais troop. It was decided at the meet that a regional meeUng pf the 15 Ar row lodges of the northwest would meet atYakima, Wash., on February 22. rThe lodge also voted to hold lodge meetings in May and September 1946 in addi tion to the regular annual meet ing. , , , Slate Department to Issue Pilot licenses The state department, tomorrow will start actual issuance of air craft licenses for 1946. The fee is $10 a year, Pilots are registered by. the state aeronautics board. Officials estimated that approxim ately 50 aircraft licenses would bo issued during months. the first three Iate-Comers line Car license Window A long line of automobile regis trants was in front of the state automobile license department when it opened at 8 a. m. Monday and the congestion continued un til late in the afternoon. Persons not having 1946 plates on their cars today are Subject to arrant under the Oregon motor, vehicle laws. "It waa an eventfnl year! the total destruction of German industry. he collapse of Japan and finally UUr j Bright . m &f ' Bew Year (& mpi . ' Jewels W W iTlJ ? IP Bright lies the new year ahead. In it rHTn -i rrr ... for you there will be happy days TVv fexfitr AJH birthdays,- anniversaries, weddings, .jr Gjp-kiW nCr perhaps times when youll want to - f e" if x $mH. select fine gifts. Remember, we are " iVv trr& Myf here to 8erve yu with collections fM aS rri nat grow ever bigger and more klTA fji' a glorious, and with a steadfast re puts- Jfk .J tion for fair dealing. We wish you a k. Jt if&VJr r $fl hPPy. jewel-bright New Year and 1 you -r- whenever a gifti on ' 1 ' . , 1
