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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 1994)
FACE TOUR Jhm OREGON STATESMAN, Salem, Oregon, Sunday Morning-. January 13, 1946 "No Favor Sways Us; No Fear Shall Awe' . From First Statesman, March 28, 1851 THE STATESMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY j CHARLES A. SPRAGUE, Editor and Publisher j Member of the Associated Press j - i The Associated Preu is exclusively entitled to the use for publication; of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this newspaper. Th Congre, Second Senion Tomorrow the second session of the 79th con tress will convene. Members refreshed by a long Christmas recess will return to take up their labors. Staring them In the face is the critical domestic economic situation and the president's program for handling it. Also high on the agenda is the proposed loan for Britain. Advance expressions indicate no cohesion among the congress for an affirmative program , on domestic matters. The president's own pro v gram is unpopular with the country and dis liked in congress. His appeal of January 3 has evoked no-general applause. At the same time Jlhe congrefcs has, no alternative program such s the president has called for. A policy of 'drift prevails; and it will take powerful pres- sures to budge the congress out of this mood. For one thing this is election year with all house .-'members: and one-third of the senators up for 4 reelection. Election year is no time for much legislative experimenting. Current acute problems are the strife between , labor and management and the mounting tide of .inflation. The president's fact-finding for mula has already failed in the General Motors strike; steel workers are due to walk out on '" Monday. Yet the anti-strike bills in congress have as little prospect of passing as the presi ' dent's own measures. The answer for these worries may be found principally m an increase of production. This wifl defeat the pressures for inflation, will sup ply the goods the country demands, and soon will through lowered prices lift the real wages of workers. In spite of headlines over strikes the country's plant is being steadily recon verted, and production of peacetime goods will be on an accelerated scale. Congress having already moderated the tax burden, there seems little it can no.w do to open the gate for full production. The real race is with inflation. President Truman's policies have let inflationary pres sures get nearly out of hand.' If congress lets price control die on June 30 the price spiral will be hard to stop. If we can hold the trenches a few months longer the country's machinery will get in gear and production will commence to overtake demand and avert uncontrolled in flation. The most important responsibility of congresf. therefore, is to support the battle against inflation. One desperate need which the congress may help to meet is housing. The Wagner-Ellender- Taft compromise bill seems to be.,a constructive and progressive piece of legisaltion. While it is opposed in part by home private interests, the need for housing and for improved housing of low 'income groups is so greart that private interest should not be allowed tojdefeat govern ment aid of the type that is contemplated. In its first session the congress took care of foreign affairs quite adequately, ratifying the San Francisco charter, approving; machinery for its operation, and ratifying the Bretton Woods agreement. If the UNO general assembly meet ing succeeds, congress may have less cause for worry oer our relations with -other1 countries. The world, including the United States, is in period of readjustment following the terrific dislocation of the world war. We cannot expect things to smooth out readily. But the problems are such as can be solved if the people through their congress and administration will apply Intelligence and courage in tackling them. Arabian Pipeline During the war Secretary Ickes was at one time determined to construct at government expense a pipeline across Arabia to bring oil from the middle ea&t to the Mediterranean coast. The Statesman" was one of the first to condemn ' the proposal as an unwise expendi ture of government funds and involvement of our government in middle east politics. The proposal ran into so much opposition that it was dropped, j Now the oil companies themselves are! pro ceeding with plans for building a 10001-mile pipeline across Arabia and through Palestine and f have recently obtained from the fatter country a concession for the crossing. f It is far better to have the operating private companies make the investment; and they will have no trouble with the financing. The com panies interested are Standard of California and Tejtas company, which jointly own the American-Arabian Oil cowipany. Time has fully justified The Statesman's Icriticism of the Ickes plan. ' (xippled Communications The General Public gets cuffed around when strikes affect public utilities, as is the case in the crippling sympathy strike of telephone workers. Communications are a vitally , essen tial, service; and those accepting employment in , such occupations are under a moral obliga tion to maintain the serviced Ordinarily they do. even to the hazard of life 'and limb. Come flood or fire, eatbquake or tornado operators stick to their posts ; to the very last minute, to give out warnings and to guide the work of rescuers. It seems most unfortunate then for telephone workers to leave their place of duty because of wage disputes, especially when they therruielves are not principals to the dispute. It is Western Eelectric workers who are striking now. Western Electric is an affiliate of the Bell system: and handles particular me chanical work for the telephone company. Em ployes of the latter company in some cities have gone out in .sympathy; and that ties up senutly the communication service of the whle country, Salem workers, we are glad to. hote. have shown commendable loyalty to their responsibilities by remaining on the job. The Western Eelectric strike however holdi up manufacture of equipment f and so postpone phone installations here and elsewhere, The country gets tired of these work stop pages which eventuate in takeover! by gov ernment. It is more or less a fiction anyhow, because the same officials actually remain in charge; and eventually the: dispute has to be settled by agreement. The settlement ought to be worked out without any striking. The public interest in this instance transcends the interest or the parties who at best are quarrelling oyer minor differences in wage fates. If this inter ference with essential services continues and expands government may take a hand and im pose compulsory arbitration of such disputes. Freedoms hardly extend to the point of wreck ing the functioning of the whole communica tions system of the. country. Norblad to Washington Walter Norblad goes to ashtogton with tht confidence that should come from the splendid vote he received in the old first district on Saturday. To be elected congressman is a great honor and a real responsibility. Norblad has met the first test of popular approval by win ning the election. Now he rrjust meet the stern er test of performance in the national legisla tive body. J Young and naturally aggressive, he will need to develop in maturity ot. judgment, to season his principles and avoid the temptations of political opportunism which beset anyone in politics. If he makes good' from the start he will be able to retain the position over a long term of years, growing in strength and in fluence in national councils and in ability to serve his district. The Statesman wishes him well as he shoves off for Washington.: The VFW is first to come up with a bonus bill, on to pay veterans $3 a day for their service and $4 for each day overseas. The total cost would run from $25 to $50 billion. Recall ing the bonus battles which followed the first world war one can predict that political powers of resistance will be very feeble. Probably few presidents would veto a bonus bill now, al though every president front Harding to Roose velt did before. Money talks, but not very loud these days. Cooperation Vital Need for Peace (Charles Fjlx. who covered the old league of na tion for several year and who spent the war years fan Korooe. outline her the inxredMnU by which the new United Nations organization, now meeting In London, may outdo : its predecessor.) fab tip rf'm Are They Trying to Nickname Itim Charlie McCarthy? Tho Litorary Guidcpost i By raal Frlggens THI FABULOUS rHOMTIXR by Wil , liam A. Keleher (Rydal Preaa; S3). If you are interested in the increasing flow of regional lit erature you may wish to dip into this book, an excellent piece of research on southeastern New Mexico covering the lusty per iod from 1170 to statehood in 1912. Through its pages move cattleman and gunman, the pio neer merchant and editor and : the inevitable landboom pro moter. There are good sketches of John S. Chi sum, the cattle king who ran 80,000 head on Lincoln county's 17,000,000 acres; Pat rick Floyd Garrett, frontier - sheriff and slayer of Billy the Kid; Thomas Benton Catron, the state's first senator, and Albert B. Fall of Teapot Dome fame, among many others. Fall, the writer concludes interestingly, "was not proved guilty of wrong ! doing beyond a reasonable doubt." MERCHANT SHIPS 144, edited by i E. C. Talbot-Booth. ft. D. R N V ft. aaeisted by K. B. ft. Sargent. It N -v V.R., (Maemtllaa: Sit). The world's merchant ships as of 1944 are listed In this stan i dard reference work, which also , contains all available informa- tion about sinkings and new construction. There are more than 900 photograph and near I ly 5000 line drawings. Among ; other incidental information, the volume contains airplane sil :. houettes. r THE COMPLETE CARD PLAYER, by Albert A. Oetrow (Whittlesey House; S3.TS). ; This tells you how to paly I about everything, from accord I ion, the game of course, to Zion ; check, including such variations of poker as whisky, poker, cold ; hands, lame brain, cross wid- ow, snookie, butcher boy and lazy Edna. PETER HUNTS WORKBOOK (Ztff Davis; 4. Hunt is a very ingenious . guide if you like peasant-style - decoration, which means bright color and surfaces loaded with ; design; if you want to change ..; an old organ into, a desk, old lamps into ash trays; and if : you think a marbleized finish ? is better than plain honest wood. ; For me, these decorations are too fussy and ornate. News Behind the News By PAUL MALLON (Distribution by King Features Syndicate, Inc. Reproduction la whole or In part strictly prohibited.) WASHINGTON. Jan. 12 An editorial surveyor hat reported 72 per cent of the newspapers ap proved Mr. Truman's fact-finding solution tor labor claims at first, but suddenly turned around and in one week during Decem ber (22 to 29) 65 per cent at tacked the plan. This he considered a strange and inexplicable turnover of public opinion, or press opin ion, and he crit icized it. He said the change came about when the Tru ro a n fact-finding board for General Motors was confronted with the union proposition oi p,i MaUea going into the company profits to set future wages on this basis. My analyst friend has simply been confused, as have most readers of the current labor news, by the tmotion of oppos ing factions. The truth behind the matter is evident. By Charles Felts AuocUtfa Pre Foreign Staff The United Nations, second great world org an l zation in our time to Undertake the task of keeping .the peace,' hopes to profit from the errors of its predcessor. Like the league of nations, the UN is by no means as perfect as the wartime peace planners once hoped for, but it is an instrument through which world opinion can find the means to keep the peace. f Behind the high-flying hopes of the UN founders, behind their public expressions of optimism, lies the conviction that the UN's main strength lies in the support of the UJ S. and Britain. In both of these countries public opinion can be expressed freely. In both countless organizations are striving to activate public interest in the only existing defense between them and the "last war." for since the development j and use of the atom bomb, few doubt that the next 'one would be the last. UN's Machinery Is Superior In three of the great powers which quit the league of their own volition: to continue the way of the aggressor -Germany, Italy and Japan pub lic opinion could not be freely expressed. What the common man though made little or no difference to his government. ' The machinery of the UN, it is generally agreed, is superior in many respects to the machinery of the league. The world may have found the league fDIJV A IV O RF A R IT little help in keeping the peace, but has now found svramj. VLl J JJaa.iA a x some profit in knowing the league's weaknesses. The great absentees of 1820 the U. S. and Rus- sia are in the UN and have undertaken to uee ' force "If necessary to maintain or restore inter- ) national peace and security.? ... Concessions to Distract Unanimity of all members of the league was 5 necessary to action vital to the maintenance of f world peace. In the UN only the five states with permanent seat on the security council have a - veto power: This was a concession to the fact that even after another great war the big powers did not have I sufficient trust in each other to abandon that part I of their national sovereignty necessary ! to make the world organization all-powerful in international j disputes. UN, like the league, Is a compromise, but is generally agreed to be a better compromise, i ' Both Truman and Attlee have made various I public statements in recent months indicating their t willingness to abandon the big three talks like f those at Yalta and Potsdam, taking such discus-1 ions into the security council within tho UN., I UN More Flexible Thao Leacwe The United Nations is far more flexible than the. league, whose machinery ground slowly even f noramlly and still more slowly when certain mem- bers desired to impede its progress, which was : frequently! the case. : j i Members of the new security council have wide - discretionary powers to determiner what constitutes -; any "threat to the peace, breach 'of the peace, or i act of aggression." There are now no halr-splittimg ' efforts to define aggression such as those famous ' in th league. In the -final analysis, however, the success or ' failure of Sihe UN now and in the future depends ! on the sajne factor which failed the league the 1. interest and active cooperation of the peoples of ' the world. ' ! f Used by Rail Unless Mr. Truman advocated the fact-finding solution out of tho experience of the railroad union brotherhoods, who have enjoyed its operation for more than 15 years. Tho Idea of establishing a public concept of the facts, with 30 days' cooling down before strikes, in tho case of tho broth erhoods, never entered the ques tion of how much tho railroads were making The idea of going into company profits of the past for a wage scale for the future was devel oped by the union in the General Motors case, merely because tho company had war profits and the union wanted bigger wages. .In the every-way similar steel case, the same CIO unions have taken an opposite stand because there were no steel profits. Mr. Truman is now moving to increase the price of steel through Mr. Bowles in order to create money by which the steel companies can raise' the union wages. By Lichty Mj ML $ Jil 'Junior just now got heme! He spent months la the ecrapeUea el Germany, Japan and San Franciseot "Reasonlns' Is FeUU Tho simple truth is thus shown to be that the unions want a wage increase for whatever reasons they can concoct, for the reason of profits in the General Motors case, for the opposite rea son necessitating a price increase in the steel case. This Is the essence of the mat ter, and anyone who indulges himself in any economic reason ing about the matter is wasting his time. Thus the newspaper editorial ists are proven by the facta to bo right in changing their stand. The Truman fact-finding solu tion has been headed by union pressure into ascertaining com pany profits in tho General Mot ors case. These are past profits, based on war business, and tho manufacture of different prod ucts. Inoo latency Feinted Oet The union would be entirely logical if it demanded a distri bution of these profits to the workers. That Would make sense, but it is entirely illogical in con tending that these peat -profits should measure the future wage scale, because the same profit is not guaranteed for the future. Indeed, the profits of General Motors henceforth will bo meas ured by entirely different con siderations the volume of pro duction, the future cost of ma terials, the extent of sales, the effects of advertising, efficiency, and a thousand other factors. Past profits on Wr business have absolutely nothing to do with the case. When the Truman fact-finding was turned into that illogical vein, naturally its advocates turned against it. They could not. in justice to simple reasoning, do otherwise. Falsity Seems Conceded Indeed, the unions themselves concede the falsity of the prof Jts basis of establishing future wages by repudiating their own motors doctrine in the case of steel. A straight-forward, just appli cation of fact-finding would have followed the principal of tho brotherhoods example in the case of motors, steel, electrical workers and all other, comput ing the increase in living costs, measuring what- increases in wages had been granted, sub tracting these, and proclaiming a just, sound wage increase. The solving could be done by simple -arithmetic. A principle - could have been established which would be a yardstick for all cases. The trouble with the union case and the sympathetic admin istration handling of it is that no principle has been established. Two Opposite Claims In one case the unions make one economic claim; in the other they make the opposite; and the administration tries to do their bidding in both instances. How then, could there possibly be anything else but confusion and strife? What the situation requires is the establishment of a just prin ciple, a common yardstick based on simple truths. The war ad ministration had one in the Little Steel formula. The trouble then was a polit ically minded government, bold ly sympathetic to any union, cause, whatever it might be, cor rupted the . formula by secretly allowing wage increases in the guise of regrading portal-to-portal, vacations with pay, and sim ilar devices to defeat iks own for mula. Comics More Interesting Everyone knows what this strike campaign is a drive of Utf 63330000 (Continued From Page 1) exception. He served for a time as secretary of tho navy under Polk, and later made this com ment; "One of the very foremost of our public men and one of the very best and most honest apd most successful presidents the country ever had." Justin H. Smith, however, who wrote extensively on the history of the period, says of Polk's term: "There was nothing large about the administration. 'The confine of mediocrity hemmed it in." Polk's latest biographer, Mc Mormir, gives a more just con clusion: "He was a constructive states man, an unusually able execu tive, and a sound patriot. No other president took his task more seriously, nor spent his energies more freely for his country; and few, indeed, have done more to increase the power and prestige of the nation." Another cause for the shadow over Polk was tht rise of tht slavery question. Emerging into controversy during his term, that question was- magnified in bit terness in the ensuing dozen years until it split the country into armed camps. As a result, events of major importance dur- u.s ro.at s ierm nave not re- Seven Added Classes to Be Started Soon Seven classes in addition to the course in radio speech and production, are to be established by the general extension division of - the Oregon system of higher education In Salem for the win ter term starting the week of January 21, it was announced Saturday. These include natural hiatory of Oregon, teaching of elemen tary school science, art education, Oregon hUtory, small house plan ning, twentied century literature and first year Spanish. The class in natural history of Oregon, given by Miss Ruth Hop son, will be held from 2 to 4 each Monday at the senior high school. AH other rlassea are In the morn ing. Mb Waasoa Teacher The course in small house plan ning is being taught by Miss Jose phine Wasson of the school of architecture at OSC. The class in twentieh century literature is to be offered by Dr. H. E. Child of Oregon State English department The first class of the radio speech and production course will begin on tht evening- of January 17, four days before the rest of the extension, classes, and unlike the others, it will bo held in tho Salem city library. Teacher Classes Set Three classes are being offered to teachers in the Salem area for those desiring either to complete ceived their due weight in our ! thir Mortification requirements or ..... i : . I . : : , i nauon s nistory. For the west these events were vital: settle ment of the Oregon question and acquistion of California. In west ern history the civil war was re mote, while the decisions of 1846 were determining. The west, therefore, owes a great debt to the statesmanship of James K. Polk, a debt which hardly Is 'recognized even though one of our fine counties In Oregon is named after him. Still another cause for lack of recognition of Polk was his own personality. He was secret ive, unspectacular, an intense worker, driven with an .almost for special training in their par ticular fields of teaching The class in teaching of elementary school science will be given by Miss Ruth Hopson. Oregon his tory will be taught by H. E. Inlow of the College of Education at Monmouth. The course in art edu cation will be given by Miss Con stance Fowler of Willamette unir versity. Spanish by the conversational method again will be offered by Miss Jenette Roberts of the sen ior high school. Registration for any of the ex tension courses will be conducted at th tlnw of tho firs clasa Calvinist conception of duty. As , meetin a result he had few friends, and even his close associates thought him distant Clay and Webster, with more colorful personalities, absorbed most of the popular en thusiasm of the period. Polk, de spite his great labors and achievements, is little appreci ated by Americans, and even westerners who live in th land he brought under the flag scarce ly know him. The 150th anni versary of his birth last Novem ber 2 passed without even a ref erence in Oregon and California, the region he added to th union. I transports were moored or an- In this centennial anniversary j chored in the sound from Pott of the settlement of the Oregon i Townsend to Tacoma. question and of the conquest of ; Most of th ships had brought California, historical societies t troops and naval personnel horn and public bodies in tho west j for re-deployment. Nearly 500.000 might very wail honor the mem- have paaaeri through Puget Sound Concentration Of Naval Craft In Puget Sound SEATTLE, Jan. IX -P)- Tho greatest concentration of naval craft in Puget Sound history jammed- Seattle's harbor, Brem erton and nearby anchorages to day and naval authorities esti mated 176 merchant ships and ory of James K. Polk, with ap propriate ceremonies. Tuesday I shall devote my column to a re port on the accomplishments of President Polk during his four years in office. Practical Religion by Rev. John L Knight, Jr Counselor on ReligKft Life. WillametUi inivernty. Modern preaching has some times neglected to emphasize th results of wrong-doing or the in evitability of judgment. Hence many people have a "get away with it" attitude toward life. The more closely one looks at life, however, the more certain one becomes tbwt he cannot es cape the consequences of any act. It has become a part of his life, to add or detract The "get away with it" philosophy Is mere self-deception. As Emerson put it: - "Whoever fights, whoever falls. Justice conquers evermore " ports in tho past five months. The peak is passed and the army port of embarkation headquar ters announced yesterday only 6782 men were here, at Tacoma and Vancouver barracks awaiting transportation home. Many of th vessels have been withdrawn from transport duty. Fighting craft in Puget Sound today included six battleships, six cruisers, the carrier Essex and a dozen escort carriers, and 163 smaller craft including 36 sub chasers, 37 patrol craft and 40 LSTs. The population of Afghanistan is estimated at between seven and ten millions. l . . : - increase for any reason imagin able or unimaginable, valid or otherwise. Frankly I think the comic strips and sports pages are more interesting these days. Do you think the new football league will be better than the old one? Brownsville Tavern j S) ar-K 2 a s ' uwner Slugge1, liobhed BROWNSVILLE, Jan. It -(JP) Gus Davidson, tavern owner here, was- severely injured when slug ged and robbed of $200 cash and his watch after closing his busi ness early today. City Marshal Clarence Keith reported. State Police Sgt. Earl Houston said Davidson was struck by a blunt instrument and was unable to describe his assailant or wheth er there was more than one per son assaulting him. EGYPTIAN MOTHER DIES CAIRO, Jan. 12 - (F) - Safia Zaghloul, 69, termed "the mother of Egyptians" by her followers be cause of her long campaign for national independence, died today. STEVENS Give ber -on of these perfect little golcl watches, beautiful as jewelry in their exquisite cases, bat with fine mechan isms on which she can rely. Kxtestded Payments 11 Court Street