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About Eugene register-guard. (Eugene, Or.) 1930-1983 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 1941)
Page Eight EDITORIAL PAGE OF THE REGISTER-GUARD AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER Alton r. Bakar (Publldud Erwr mxu at tadaji im AND PUBUSBXB . . . . MANAGING KDITOa ...... WOllus M. Tuxmu ,KEWS SERVICE .... AjaodMM Prao. United PrMa , MEMBER ....... Audit Bureau of Circulation! Biurca at a rat Otoe at ban Oregon. aaeond turn mattar. , Tha Ragutar-Guard'a poller k) tfca eomplele and Impartial v pablleatlOD In lt new paiaa of all newa and etatemento Mi newa. Oa thle Dage the editors of Hie Rerutter-Guard . offer then- opinion on event! of the day and matter! of u Importance to the community endeavoring to be candid but fair and helpful to tha development of constructive v community policy. ' . CHRISTMAS SPIRIT INDOMITABLE There were days, after the horror of Pearl Harbor, when It seemed doubtful if . the Ji American people could recapture the joy of v the Christmas season, but the Christmas spirit is indomitable. Now that we have a better measure of air raid perils on this 'I Coast and a more accurate understanding of ' blackout problems, common sense has been j restored to command. The Christmas lights i. blaze merrily everywhere, as usual; homes ,1 are gay with holly and mistletoe and bright ijl ribbon, women and children press through J! the streets with that look of hope and ex- pectation which comes only once a year, i And we hear again: jj "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" . it Of course, it is impossible to forget that ! there is deep sorrow in many an American il home. Here in Eugene, Mrs. Patrick Goggin 1! has the sad distinction of "first gold star I' mother." There are hundreds of other wo j! men with sons in the service. There will be J, no Christmas leaves or furloughs so long as j' this war lasts. Pride fights with anxiety in many a home this year, but there is still j a place and a need for all the gay customs of the season. ' It is difficult for us to comprehend what is happening out there in the Pacific. The ! pagan enemy will not respect our most im i portant religious festival. On the contrary ; he is likely to choose that day for special surprises and bloody, stratagems. Yet no : where on the American fighting front will the day be forgotten. There is not a ship at j sea or a bullet swept trench or a lonely out i post but will have its moment of prayer, its j exchange of jokes and greetings and its i "Merry Christmas." We are being told and we should all know J that we are also in "the war zone," a very i remote sector to be sure, one that is relative ly ly very safe, but for that reason Christmas ii imposes on us some special obligations. We all have jobs to carry on. The day still calls j for acts of kindness and remembrance. It il demands courage and faith, the songs and the carols and the devotion of all who still 'r believe that "peace on earth, good will to all 5 men" will endure when the war lords of our " time have been catalogued with all the other i little tyrants of history. TWO WEEKS SINCE PEARL HARBOR There are indications that in the two f weeks since Pearl Harbor, World War II has approached the turning point. There is not 2 yet any reason for the optimistic belief that the war will be short or the cost in blood and treasure light. Nor can it be said that ii the turning point in the military sense has $ been reached. I What we mean is that in a very short time, Z we may be able to read the riddle of the Ger ' man retreat in Russia, measure the value of I the British victories in North Africa, and form something like accurate estimate of Japanese strength. i The German admissions of blundering in ; Russia (the Goebbels appeal for warm cloth- ing and supplies for hard set troops) are very J important, because they indicate that NOW j is the time for every possible blow at Ger- man morale. It may even develop that the i Japanese were led into their desperate under l taking by promises which Germany will not be able to keep. Italy has long been on verge J; of revolt and now may be the time when J thieves fall out. J. In the mean time we must face the grave ; reality that Hongkong is falling; that the sit uation at Singapore is grave, that our ability to push prompt aid to our allies has been im l paired, and that failure to capitalize on pres- ent advantage by every possible means may t: mean that we have approached but missed jj a possible turning point in the struggle. If the Germans stabilize their lines in I. Russia we may have to deal with the fact Vthat German power is far from broken, though the German -"will for victory" has , been shaken for the first time. In the end 5 we have not only Japan but Germany to de : feat. v THE GREAT AMERICAN CURIOSITY Minutes after a couple of army planes J bogged in the mud of the old Eugene air j port Friday, all roads to the airport were j choked with curiosity seekers. There was ? really very little to see. The Eugene police were promptly on the job and kept very good I order. Mahlon Sweet did some Paul Rever .ing to get work traffic stopped at the new airport so additional planes could land on good runways. The incident is unimportant except as it reveals our un-disciplined habits which might get us into a peck of trouble WHEN Jap raiders do take some pot shots at us. Somebody said the other day that when that happens about half the population will head for the hills, but the other half will be mov ing the other way to try to get ringside seats for the show. That's almost a prophecy. But if we can't learn self-discipline we may have discipline thrust upon us. Coor dinator Merriam tells about the impatient lady who drove across a street the other night in front of a heavy truck which was preceded by a police escort with sirens blowing. The truck happened to be "high tailing" with a rush order of high explosives, and a crackup could have caused quite a dis turbance, not only to the impatient lady but to all the neighbors and the army. We seem to have reached a period in American history when we must believe in signs and obey signals, pull to the curb, keep out of the line of traffic when anything happens, because in emergency the roads and highways are NEEDED! A good many folks have inquired: "Is there any real danger that we will ever be attacked here in Oregon?" If by "attack" you mean landings in force, the danger is small, so long as we hold our own in the Battle of the Pacific. If you mean sporadic raids by Japanese planes com ing in from off shore carriers or other war craft, we submit the answer of Col. Stromme, commanding Portland Air Base: "Not only possible, but probable!" So! Keep your shirt on! Ajax McGurk says the whole defense effort so far looks a bit like an Elks picnic, hard to tell who is supposed to give orders. But it is straighten ing out. Meantime, unless assigned to some duty, keep out of the line of trouble! i EUGENE AND "POWER EMPIRE" Leading he effort to gain attention for a cheap and sensible and non-political plan for wartime hookup of all the Northwest's vast power resources is Walter P. Fell, for many years president of the Eugene Water Board, a man entirely friendly to public ownership, but stubborn in his belief that public power must be under HOME RULE and conducted on a strictly businesslike basis. The specific program which is offered in opposition to the extravagant $250,000,000 "rule or ruin" Power Empire of Ickes and Raver bears the sponsorship of two other Eugeneans, E. G. Boehnke and James A. Rodman, but it has gained wide support all through, the Northwest, particularly in those sections where farmers depend on irrigation and fear bureaucratic control of water sour ces and farm economy. The plan itself is very simple: 1. Let engineers, not politicians lay out the physical interconnection of all existing plants and lines public or private. 2. Estimated cost is only $1,000,000 instead of the astronomical sums which Ickes and Raver are asking of a war burdened public. 3. Estimated addition to present power sup ply runs in excess of 100,000 kw (almost as much as the big Bonneville plant so far has been able to develop). 4. Put this hookup under a board in which federal, municipal and private operations will have fair representation. , 5. Postpone till after the war the political Issues Involved in the Ickes-Raver program and the drain on war effort. If-Eugene seems to be unsympathetic to Ickes and Raver and those uplif ters from dis tant places who claim to bring us salvation, it is because with 30 years of successful and honest public ownership we claim to know a few things and hold it a patriotic duty to resist political squandering at a time like this. More good gals are needed for Lt. Siegen thaler's filter station which protects us against air raids, because some drop out as novelty wears off and it all simmers down to work. Suggestion some snappy uniforms as smart as those devised for the girls in the Women's Motor Transport. McGurk, who learned a lot in the last war, has another bright idea to make war work more attractive to women army Regs for the uniform placement of eyebrows and lip stick. "Good old spit and polish in place of spat and apple-polish", says McGurk, Adrian Fuddle, Sr. says it is time to real ize that the Japs are still several thousand miles away (we hope) but it is only 3 days, 9 hours, 14 minutes and 29.3 seconds till Christmas. . The Last Republican still has faith that Herbert Hoover will be justified by time. He points to the new restrictions on tires and motor cars and says that "two can In (almost) every garage" will yet come to pass. All males from 18 to 64 must register, but only those between 20 and 45 may be called for the army.the lucky stiffs. Nobody has had time to shed a tear for the taxpayers left behind the front. IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG THE PUGENE (To agnostic in UNKNOWN QUALITY the Editor) An a person who doesn't know whether there is a God or not; doesn't know if he has a soul or not; doesn't know if there is a future life or not; doesn't be lieve that anyone else knows more about these matters than he does; and thinks it a waste of time to find out! Doesn t even believe h has a conscience. .' So when I read in the Portland Journal about certain senators condemning the navy and army for being taken by surprise by the Japs. I can only say it hurt my iatui in mankind. I have several good reasons for not being in any branch of the U. S. navy or army. or other services. The first is I am hard of hearing and alwavs have been, the second I have a weak voice, now I am too old, and have a rupture besides, and could not stand up to a hard day's march or fight But if there is anything I can do for Uncle Sam that I can do with out sacrificing my living as I am only a gardener, I will gladly do so, but not under such rank hypo crites as said senators. I wonder who save them the far seeing eye of some fake crystal gazer that they knew the Japs were going to attack. When the intelligence of the army and navy officials had no idea of it. I thank God we are not led by such fools. If I know my history, and I think I know most of it, I can remember at no time in the history of the world has any na tion of the world, taken entirely by surprise, recuperated and sunn at least four battleships and other damage to enemy when less than a week has gone by. But I am think ing that surprise has boomerangea. So I will finish with a little essay of my own. In Russia Hitler has a pain In the neck. In U. S. Japan has one in the lower deck, In Africa, Mussolini has one too low to check. But even those three stood by their kind which Is above certain U. S. senators who condemn with out trial, a chance to show their metal. And they are of the same hypocrites, hiding behind their lights of dark ages, that refuse to iook lor tne future of the old peo ple and refuse them a decent pen sion. My motto is with God's helo will this war wake us upl A Gardener, BRUCE HOOD. ELECTRIC Fast Simple LYONS & RANGE Economical Safe PETERS . WAS PROPHET PUGENE, Ore. (To the Editor) Please let me Introduce my self as just a citizen. I have worked at several occupations; written several articles for news papers. Some years ago I wrote an article on 75 years hence. It seems to be In my system, some how, and how to explain it is another problem. This summer I predicted the invasion of Hawaiian Islands, so days ago I predicted the war would break with' Japan on the 7th, even to the exact hour. That prediction was to my family, as I was afraid to say or explain such thoughts in our times and state of affairs to anyone. Now I predict Hitler will try to take Gibraltar straits around the last of this month, sometime between the 26th and 30th. I also predict the attempt on the life of the premier of Japan around the 2nd of January. I do not make predictions Of Mother Nature's affairs, such as earthquakes, floods, etc. I do not believe In fortune-telling, or the For Electric Toasters Waffle Irons- and Other Appliances Visit LIGHTNING'S U51 Willamette Phone 1316 stars, or such. I believe the war will last about five years. At the end, every na tion will be Involved with no deci sive victory. The nation with the wealth, education, and free peo ple will still exist, in fact the free people Idea will spread over the entire world. With our government as their leader, all people and nations will operate independently of each other. But with the democratic way of life, Russia will defeat Hitler, and also Japan, and fi nally turn on us, as our enemy No. 1, at the end. i predict our . complete and ! decisive victory. After the Ger mans are defeated by Russia next summer I predict Hitler will be- COme VIolntly Imane If you .. "70 Pear?AS" LOANS WANTED . Construction Loans Remodeling Loans Purchase Loans Eugene' FIRST FEDERAL SAVINGS A LOAN ASSN. 18 Miner Bldg. Phune 1217 fete HomekeeperDoejThH4Ti ! Pan lunik ,u. J. (wj monthly tae r I. Pm i un ,Tr. nw1, 4.M taSKWsJSa-J 0- E. FOSTER Miner Building Furniture for Lasting Pleasure !W!(t(!t(!Ctt:!(IC!ttft GIFT Suggestions End Tables ' Occasional Tables Dining Room Suites Bed Room Suites -wcABir-izewt. A Luxurious Biltwell DAVENPORT and CHAIR GIFT Suggestions; Philco Radios Electric Irons : Waffle Irons Electric Toasters Electric Ironers L&H Electric Ranges L&H Water Heaters Here's the finest Christmas gift we know of for the home. This elegant Biltwell Living Room Suite will Instantly ap peal to every member of the family. Biltwell Is not only beautiful and restful to the eye, but Its famous construc tion assures years of comfort and luxury. Available in a choice of coverings and latest colors, including rust, wine, green, blue, cherry, wood-rose, garnet and taupe. A Distinctive Gift for the Home . . . A New SECRETARY A beautiful, durable secretary of walnut or maple finish. It's an ideal gift, combining real beauty and utility, for the home. LAMPS Pin-up, boudoir, desk and floor lamps In every wanted type. Choose one or more cow for Christmas gifts. W m - HASSOCKS, 'A gift you'll get a W g out of giving and on iW l comion iu T-.-neist fori rinff and duck hassocKi children. .i 649 Willamette Street JolhiDDSoin) FMiriraoiaiiire o. ...MX TelephoM
