Page 2
Friday, Fune 21, 1940
SOUTHERN OREGON MINER
GENERAL
HUGH S.
JOHNSON
GMVriAM)
£>/CE
II
Washington. 1> U.
FIFTH COLUMN ’GUNS’ IN U. 8.
Washington, D. C.
BASES IN SOUTH AMERICA
Attorney General Bob Jackson's
plea for a federal law requiring reg­
istration of all privately owned fire­
arms had more behind it than he
disclosed. Inside fact is that this
constitutes one of the most serious
problems facing the government
in its war against fifth columns.
Following the World war. one
armament company alone disposed
of 15,000 ’’Tommy” guns to private
purchasers after trying unsuccess­
fully to sell them to the army. About
10,000 of these deadly weapons are
•'unaccounted for." How many are
in the hands of potential fifth col­
umnists the government, under ex­
isting laws, has no way of knowing.
Jackson's proposed statute would
provide the power to find out.
Another unmentioned factor trou­
bling officials is the tremendous in­
crease in the sale of guns and am­
munition in the last two years. Tax
collections by the internal revenue
bureau give the following figures on
this astounding traffic in our
•‘peaceful” country:
Total sale of taxed firearms, rifles,
shotguns, pistols, revolvers, to pri­
vate persons in 1938—$24,959.046; in
1939—$36.010,684.
In the past three years these sales
reached the amazing total of $97,-
403,730—which is almost one-fourth
of the army’s 1937 appropriation. It
is also vastly in excess of average
sales for sporting purposes and law
enforcement.
Note—The U. S. is far behind oth­
er powers in regulating firearms.
England, France. Germany, Italy,
Japan all have drastic laws on the
private possession of weapons. The
national firearms act of 1934 im­
posed a limited regulation on the
sale of machine-guns and sawed-off
shotguns by requiring manufactur­
ers, dealers and pawnbrokers to reg­
ister sales and transfers. But the
many thousands of these lethal
weapons sold before 1934 still are
unaccounted for.
It seems to be. or to have been,
a principal part of our defense pol­
icy to rely largely on the British
navy and the good will of our Good
Neighbor league with the Latin
Americas in protecting die Monroe
Doctrine. The post-World war pe­
riod of international treaty-break­
ing. debt-repudiation and double-
crossing should have been warning
enough that no nation can safely rely
on any strength but its own.
Some people now fear that the
British navy may not always be
there. It may be a good time to
question also our reliance on the
South and Central American coun-
tries.
At the very start, it must be ad­
mitted that there has been a good
deal of hokum in calling them
democracies.
In greater or less
degree they are military oligarchies.
Some, like Santo Domingo, are
dictatorships as bloody and ruthless
as anything Hitler ever dreamed.
None is a democracy in the Anglo-
Saxon sense.
Their legal sy stems stem from the
civil law of Rome and not from the
OIL TO ITALY
Italy's entrance into the war has
at least one harmful effect upon
her ally, Germany. It means the
end of U. S. oil shipments to Italian
ports for trans-shipment to Ger­
many.
These shipments, especially of lu­
bricating oils, have been heavy since
the first month of the war. With
Italy at war, however, U. S ships
are barred.
This will stimulate Axis efforts to
open up oil resources in the Near
East, and Italy is sure to make a
drive for the British and French
oil fields in Iraq. Or getting through
the Suez canal she will strike at the
oil fields of Iran, under control of
the Anglo-Iranian company.
Meanwhile British oil shipments
from these sources will be diverted
from the Mediterranean route, and
the result probably will be a heavy
increase of U. S. oil shipments to
Britain and France.
• • •
APPEASING MUSSOLINI
.4s Some See It
—By Thomas.
common law.
They have never
really understood or very much
cared about any such institutions as
self-government as ours.
In the next place, in spite of all
the declarations, treaties and diplo­
matic palaver, most of them dis­
trust us and in some cases despise
us. Mr. Roosevelt has done much
to improve this state of affairs but
you don't change national sentiment
and the thinking of generations by
a few visits and a lot of ballyhoo.
To the contrary, several of these
countries have much closer ties of
blood, education and tradition with
European countries than with us.
Their language is either Spanish or
Portuguese and their immigration
has been much more heavily Ital­
ian. Spanish or German than French
or English.
Finally, their military, naval and
air strength and aptitude is almost
negligible. All we could expect to
gain from our league with them
are defensive naval and air bases
for our own arms but with that un­
der the present plan, come the ob­
ligation and tremendous task of po­
licing and defending a continent full,
of suspicious or unfriendly, if not
outright hostile nations.
This column thoroughly agrees
that, for the sake of our own hides,
we have to get naval and air bases to
prevent enemy lodgments—at least
to the bulge of South America, lt
notes with alarm that we are not
getting them.
It doubts whether we are ever go
ing to get them or buy for ourselves
anything more than a mare's nest
of dangers and trouble if we don’t
put the pressure on to get them and
recognize that we are doing it as an
absolute necessity for our own de­
fense and without much, if any, re­
liance on the loyalty, strength or
friendship of any country south of
the Rio Grande.
\ I Y OLD Purdue college pal,
*■ ’ * George Ade, once introduced
one of the finest of all slogans,
was called. “Flowers for the
ing.” The dead neither know
care.
If any living ball player is
titled to flowers at this stage of
career the name Is Melvin Thomas
Ott of the Giants.
Ott has at least one record that
no other ball player carries today,
as far as I can
locate the vital
statistics, Born
in Gretna, La.,
in 1 90 9, this
young prodigy
suddenly showed
up with M c-
Graw's Giants
in 1925 at the
age of 16. For 16
years there has
been no other
city
marked
Mrl ()tt
againsthis name
—only New York.
Julius Caesar's ’’phalanx'* of close-pack.'d Rom in legions who formed an armored root with shields cov­
Mel came from the Bayou dis­
trict straight to the big town. He ering their advance, is improved upon by the modern ''Caesar.'' Here are today's Roman "phalanx** armored
has never played in a minor league. legions that comprise part of Italy's war machine. These tanks are ultra-modern, many being equipped
He was a bat boy in size and years with flame projectors.
when McGraw saw him—and never
let him go.
"This kid was a big leaguer the
day he was born." McGraw once
told me.
"He doesn't need
minor league schooling.”
When the young spring of
came riding through gales, sleet,
snow and weather blown from the
Barren Lands, they said Ott was
about through.
He was only 31
years old, but he had been around
a long time. He was starting slow­
ly under killing weather conditions,
but he was still out there, hanging
around.
When the season opened Mel Ott
was still on the job and as time
moves on, Mel is still up around the
.300 class with the old punch.
Ott’s Career
Ott, at his physical peak, is five
feet nine inches in height, weighing
from 155 to 160 pounds, He was
never a Babe Ruth, a Jimmy Foxx,
a Hank Greenberg, a Hack Wilson
or a Lou Gehrig in physical make-
up.
He always had a queer habit of
lifting his foot from the ground as
he started his swing—his right foot
—and then swinging from his left
as his right foot promptly settled
back »to place. It was his own
foot action. It wasn't supposed to
be "form,” but it was the way Ott
wanted to play. And it was "form,”
after all, the "form" of shifting
weight It must be "form.”
For in his 15 years with the
Giants, up through 1939, Ott had
mauled out 369 home runs and 359
doubles. He had lashed out 2,061
hits, and 791 of these blows had been
for extended extra bases.
As far back as 1928 Mel plastered
42 home runs. He had hit 25 or
more home runs through 10 or 11
years. He had hit over 30 home
runs through seven seasons, With
the bulk of Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx or
Greenberg, Ott would have broken
all records.
He is anywhere from 50 to 80
pounds shy in weight while compet­
ing with the major siege guns. But
be won't be far from the 400 home-
run mark when 1940 turns in Its set
of records. He is still something
back of Jimmy Foxx and Lou Geh­
rig, but don’t forget that Mel had to
spot them more than 50 pounds,
which means a lot in long-range hit­
ting.
>
Past the pyramids, ages old symbols of Egypt and the Pharaohs, ro*r these British Blenheim bombers,
The feared ''eventuality,'* of course, was
the long-expected Italian entry into the great war, with a drive at Egypt from Libya as the first move.
as the British and Egyptian forces prepare for any ''eventuality.'*
Uncle Sam Gets Biffircr Battle Wairon
Allied and Roosevelt diplomacy
struggled behind the scenes until
almost the last minute to keep Mus-
solini out of war.
It was on a Monday that the Ital-
ian dictator shouted his hoarse-
voiced proclamation of war. And
as late as the preceding Saturday,
the French were still dickering with
him. At that time they offered him
the island of Corsica, birthplace of
Napoleon, as well as the important
African colony of Tunisia, plus
French Somaliland with its Red Sea
port of Djibuti.
But Mussolini wanted more.
The Bayou Entry
Real fact probably was that he
Mel Ott has never been interested
could not afford to antagonize Hit­
in trying for so-called color. He
ler by failing to declare war. A
never pops off. He hbs never tried
Nazi victory looked too certain, in
to make a headline by some eccen­
which case Mussolini would have
tric action. He gets into no brawls
been left facing the triumphant and
with umpires. He has no interest in
resentful hordes of Nazi Germany
being a showman.
just across the Brenner pass.
UNIVERSAL TRAINING
“I just happen to like baseball,"
Note—A lot of people think Mus-
In charge of
As an illustration of snap judg­ he tells you. “If I'm anything at
solini will face an aggressive Nazi ments in the highest places is the
Ohio's gasoline revenues, has de­
all, write me down as a ball player."
army anyway.
Bedecked with flags and bunting, the V. 8. S. Washington, 35,000-ton posited $540,316,659 to the state's
President’s approval after having
If Ott isn’t a ball player, there are
• • »
read "only the first paragraph” of no ball players. Shy, retiring, he battleship Just completed at the Philadelphia navy yard, is shown sliding credit since 1926. This great sum
down the ways to the Delaware river. The 750-foot ship cost *60,000,000 was collected in dimes, nickels and
ROOSEVELT’S MOVES
a New York Times editorial, saying: ducks the spotlight.
President Roosevelt came to real-
“The time has come when, in the
But the main answer is that Mel and is the biggest warship ever built on this continent. It is the first pennlrs. It took a lol of 'em—but
Mrs. Ept didn’t mind.
ize that nothing counted with Musso­ interest of self-protection, the Amer­ has batted In more than 1,400 runs completed unit of 68 warships under construction.
lini except (1) what he was going to ican people should at once adopt a from something over 2,000 hits, with
get in return for keeping the peace; national system of universal com­ a 15-year average, up to this season,
and (2) whether he was going to pulsory military training.”
of .315.
be on the winning side.
Later on the editorial said:
I don’t believe the fan crowd, at
Accordingly, the last week's an­
“We believe that it should be so large, appreciates Mel Ott This
nouncements from the White House drafted as to provide training not goes for New York, especially.
that the United States was selling only for young men but for older They take him for granted. They
army and navy planes direct to men as welL”
take him for granted because he
the allies, plus surplus army equip­
So do I, but in 1918, we had regis­ never breaks training, never folds
ment, was calculated to have a dou­ tered for. or actually in military up on the Job, always plays his
ble effect. One was the actual help service, 25,348,000 men between the game to the limit
it would give the allies. The other ages of 18 and 45. Since then our
It is always “Good old Mel. He’s
was the hope that Mussolini would population has increased 30 per cent. always there.’* But not being a nut
be influenced by the fact that the Presumably we now have at least or a headline seeker, never caring to
United States was talking in deeds. 33.000,000 in that class.
be a showman, the mob forgets how
not mere words, and that these
Setting out to train 33,000,000 men long “good old Mel” had always
deeds might turn an allied victory. would be absurd and preposterous. been there.
'
Of course, many of these would be
They forget that he has lambasted
POLITICAL CHAFF
exempted by reason of physical dis­ over 20 home runs a year for 12
One of Alf Landon’s hardest jobs ability, or dependency of others, or consecutive years—that he has
is scotching booms for himself. by reason of industrial necessity. passed the 30 home-run mark for
Practically every day, by long dis­ The number is impossible to com­ seven years. Even big Hank Green­
tance phone or telegraph, he has to pute until we know the liberality or berg has passed the 30-homer mark
nip the plan of some admirer to start strictness of the exemption rules. only five years.
a drive for him.
If we decided to train all the classes
In addition to all this, Mr. Mel Ott
Following reports that Communist that were in 1918 classified as fit and is quite an outfielder. He can cover
and Nazi agents are working along eventually liable to military service, his full share of terrain under fire.
the Mexican-U. S. border. Senator the total would be more than 10,000,-
Thirty-one isn't old. Lefty Grove
During a recent inspection tour of a gun factory that Is operating
Josh Lee of Oklahoma proposed con­ 000.
Irving g. Olds, elected chairman
is 40. But Ott is in his sixteenth
night and day under war pressure, King George tried out a Bren of the board of the U. 8. Steel corpo­
struction of a series of forts, each
Obviously, the writer of that edi­ ' major
league
campaign,
and
within sight of the next, to shoot torial did not mean "universal com­ through all these years he has given machine gun. He put 60 bullets in or close to the bulls-eyc at 20 yards, ration, to succeed Edward K. Htet-
sny foreign agent seen sneaking into pulsory military training.” It would everything he had to give, with and remarked: “I had no Idea the gun was so steady.** The king has made tinlus Jr., who resigned to serve
• number of personal inspections in factories lately.
the U. S.
be destructive, Impracticable.
with national defense commission.
nothing like a loafing moment
'
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