Friday, July 5, 1940
SOUTHERN OREGON MINER
Page 2
Their Motto Is, ‘Be Prepared’
GENERAL
HUGH S.
JOHNSON i
Jour:
IM h,—
Washington. D. C.
BRITISH WEST INDIES
AS THEY SWING THROUGH JUNE
B aseball form still
is somewhat
Within a two hour plane flight of
muddled as the major league
the Panama canal lies the British teams swing along. In the National
island of Jamaica, wich is 99 per league, the Reds and the Dodgers
cent black and 100 per cent restive. are holding up. but the Cardinals,
Intelligence reports from Jamaica heavy pennant choice in some sec
warn of the danger of a Negro up tors when the spring predictions
rising.
were under way, lag so badly that
Jamaican Negroes have never if they are not already out of the
been prosperous, but this year has race they are teetering on the verge.
been unusually bad. The cane crop
In the American league the Yan
was a failure, the banana crop was kees have come on but not rapidly
ruined by a hurricane, and on top
enough to fit in with
of this, word is being passed around
the pre-season
among the Negroes that their mis
schedule that called
ery would disappear under German
for them to be away
rule.
out in front by this
As a result. British authorities,
time. Otherwise,
practically deserted by the home
the race in that
government, are keeping a watchful
league is in accord
eye on their arsenal.
ance with the dope,
Unrest in Jamaica would create a
with the Red Sox,
double problem for the United States
Indians and Tigers
and the other American republics.
up ahead and the
Roosevelt has already warned Euro
second division held
pean dictators that he will tolerate
by the White Sox,
Grantland
no change of sovereignty in this
Senators. Athletics
Rice
hemisphere.
But the situation
and Browns.
The
would be embarrassing if the na Browns, it seems, have had their
tives of Jamaica were to revolt splurge and from now on not much
against England and invite in Hitler. ; is likely to be heard from them.
Note—Jamaica's harbor. Kings
One of the main surprises has
ton. is one of the finest in the West been offered by the Giants who, aft
Indies and just 600 miles from the er a bad start, have moved up into
Panama canal. At the beginning the running.
At the outset, the
of the war, Britain held in this har Giants didn't look any better than
bor a convoy fleet of 70 ships.
they did at the finish of the 1939
campaign. But the return of Joe
Changing Attitude.
Confidential reports cabled back Moore, the fine pitching of Carl Hub
to the state department show that bell and the batting of Harry Ban
the French people have become bit ning pulled them out of that early
ter not only toward Great Britain season slough.
They still don't look as if they
but against the United States.
Sentiment has been so vitriolic might sneak through and grab the
that it was the subject of a conver pennant. But they do loom as a
sation held by Ambassador Tony threat to the Reds and Dodgers, be
Biddle, who substituted for Bullitt tween whom the pennant seems to
in Bordeaux. Sumner Welles also lie. They can make a lot of trouble
mentioned it a little sadly to the for those teams. Unable—or so it
French ambassador in Washington. appears—to win themselves, they
The French simply cannot under can have something to say about
stand why the British and Ameri who does win.
cans did not come to their aid. Only The Reds and the Dodgers
their men were killed, their coun
The Reds naturally are favored.
try destroyed, and their prisoners They moved back briskly from their
are now seen marching behind Ger collapse against the
man guards. This has so infuriated Yankees last fall,
them that now many Frenchmen al lost little time tak
most relish the possibility that their ing over the lead
fleet may be used against the Brit and have played at
ish
a steady gait most
Another effect has been a change of the way. Again
of feeling in France toward the Ger this year two of the
Frenchmen, especially in , most important fac
mans.
Paris, are beginning to say;
tors in their play
“Well, after all we are Euro 1 have been the pitch-
peans. so let’s be Europeans. To ’ ing of Bucky Wal
• with the Anglo-Saxons. They ters and the all-
can’t be depended upon. Maybe ’ around work of Bill Bucky Wallers
the Germans are not so bad, after . Werber. Walters seems headed for
all.”
a season as brilliant as that which
This attitude has been helped by he had in 1939. Take Werber out of
the excellent behavior of the Nazis the Red infield and it would sag so
in Paris. There are almost no badly the weight of it would drag
troops on the street Nazis have the team down.
kept out of sight, and the arrests
The Dodgers have exceeded the
made by Herr Himmler's Gestapo expectations of Larry MacPhail and
have been done very quietly.
almost met those of the Brooklyn
Meanwhile, some of the French fans. Larry said in the early spring
newspapers, obviously coked up by he didn’t think the Dodgers would
Nazi subsidies, have begun a ter be as good as they were last year,
rific attack upon the British, togeth while the fans claimed the pennant.
er with a campaign to educate the And, of course, they remain the
French people regarding the better most exciting team in baseball.
qualities of the Germans.
The French are still inclined to A Quick Comeback
look upon their conquerors as Ger
The robustness of the Dodgers’
mans. not as members of the Na spirit was emphasized by the man
tional Socialist party. Few French ner in which they threw off the ef
men seem to realize that this is a fects of the loss of those two games
revolution, not a war, and that Hit to the Giants on Memorial day.
ler is conquering Europe for Nation That, it must be remembered, was
al Socialism, which has made more more than just the loss of a double
far-reaching changes in the capital header. It was a bitter, humiliat
istic system than Russian Commu ing and total defeat suffered on the
nism.
home grounds at the hands of a hat
Hitler’s Tactics.
ed enemy and with all the fans who
It has become increasingly obvi- 1 possibly could be packed into Eb-
ous that the smartest thing Hitler bets field looking on. It was enough
did was to knock off the countries to have thrown them off their stride
of Europe one at a time instead of for a couple of weeks at least, but
permitting them to gang up on him. j they bounced right back from it as
When Hitler took Czecho-Slovakia, ! only a thoroughly game outfit could.
Once more Leo Dnrocher is dem
for instance, the Poles were en
couraged to take a small piece of onstrating his skill as manager as he
Czech territory. Then after they guides the Dodgers past bumps
had taken it, Hitler took back the ' such as that defeat by the Giants
little piece of Czecho-Slovakia plus i and the loss of Pee Wee Reese. The
Brooklyn players—and this is one
•one-half of Poland.
One reason Hitler was able to take I of their main sources of strength—
Poland was that he promised Russia think he is the greatest manager
the other half. And now Stalin, re the game ever knew. I can’t go
alizing his own peril, is frantically quite that far with them but I will
say there is no manager In base
defending his Polish-Baltic border.
One year ago, talking to Ameri ball now who is doing a better Job.
can diplomats in Berlin, Nazi lead Yankees on the Way
ers made no secret of their inten
The Yankees, though they have
tion to employ the same strategy
lagged, may be on their way at last
in the Western hemisphere; in other
—not yet with the smoothness that
words, to isolate the United States
is characteristic of them—but in a
from Britain and France, then pro
fashion that makes them still look
voke revolutions in South America '
and take those countries away two ' like a fair bet to smash precedence
and win a fifth pennant in a row.
and three ai a time. The United
They have got over their bewilder
States itself. Nazi leaders said, [
ment, brought on by early season
would be relatively easy. Social i
setbacks, and are hitting again. In |
revolution was sure to come in a
Marvin Breuer—they have the best
year or so, at which time all Ger- I
first-year pitcher in either league.
many needed to do was to aid the
They have had days recently such as
revolutionary party.
they usually have at their peak.
• • •
The Red Sox, holding first place,
MERRY-GO-ROUND
aren’t going to be overhauled eas
Erudite Senator Wagner of New
ily. Even the Yankees know that.
York is the author of most New
Cleveland, with Bob Feller swinging
Deal labor legislation, but his choice
along and a fine second-base com
diversion away from the senate is I
bination in Mack and Boudreau, and
strictly top-hat. He is the senate's
Detroit, with a lot of power, are
leading grand opera fan; buys a
dangerous, too. The White Sox are
season ticket for the Metropolitan
going to be troublesome from time
every year.
to time—as they were last week,
Senator Josh Lee of Oklahoma is
not only one of the senate's most I when they took two games out of
three from the Yankees—but they
accomplished orators, but also is a
scarcely are contenders and the rest
hot Wild West movie fan. Three j
of the clubs do not matter, either.
nights a week he takes in a ride-’em- ,
That's the way it looks as th»
cowboy thriller at a 15-cent cinema. >
teams roll through these weeks.
J
«*'
Washington. l>. C.
WHY A FRENCH ROUT?
"Something is rotten In the state
of Denmark"—and now perhaps, in
France.
Not enough facts have
come out of that stricken country to
give even a shadowy opinion of what
it is. But. regardless of the un
doubted superiority of the German
strength in guns and equipment and
giving due regard to the crushing
power of the new mechanized and
motorized equipment, the collapse of
all French resistance in so short a
time simply can’t be explained ex
cept by soft spots in the French
i
command.
The territory over which this
headlong rout took place is unlike
many areas of campaign. It has
been a path of conquest and a battle
ground since the beginning of re
corded history. Every hill and fold
of ground is known. Its military
strength or weakness proved over
and over again, its features mapped
in intimate detail, not only on pa
per but in the minds of every com
petent officer in France. In this re
Hearing posterà demanding a atrong ustionai defenae "lo prcacrvc thè frredom won (or u« by thè («und
spect it is more like a checkerboard er« of our nailon," thesc live girla, drexacd In Kcvoltitionary war aoldlera’ uniforma, rode up Flflh avrnue, New
than a battlefield. There could be
York city, In a horse-drawn vietorta, to obacrve thè IGSth annivcraary oi thè Batlle of Bunker Hill.
i no "surprises of terrain."
Army Was Strong.
The French army, except in the
air and as to some classes of equip
ment, was very strong In its com
plement of highly trained profes
sional soldiers, many with war ex
perience. it was much stronger than
the German army.
Some of our amateur military
commentators say that the key to
the puzzje is mistaken French re
liance on the fixed fortifications of
the Maginot line and that the cam
paign proves such lines worthless.
That is wrong. There was no as
sault here until that line was out
flanked and taken from the rear.
The Germans built and successfully
relied on the somewhat different
fortifications of the Siegfried line. It
is true that this aspect of the case
shows a terrible blunder. But the
blunder was solely in relying on Bel
gium and other nations to the north
and leaving the left flank of that
line bare to assault as the “paunch
of the purser's sow.”
Then here is an added lesson for
us—among dozens of others in this
war. In this double-crossing, treaty
breaking, lying world, no nation can
risk its existence on any other or
on anything but the strength of its
own right arm and the courage, uni
ty. loyalty and devotion of its own
people.
War Planes Stalled by French Peace
Why the Collapse?
But, even with all that said, we
are left still groping for the cause
of this complete collapse. For one
thing, it shows the weakness of any
democracy not based on a two-party
system. There were more than 20
parties in the Reichstag—and in
came Hitler. There were several
in France — and in came Hitler
through another and bloodier door.
That is a lesson for us. We still
retain two parties, but one of them
has degenerated into a group of
gimme pressure groups.
The principal cause of French
weakness is beginning to seem to
be its half-and-half division in both
its army and its legislature between
men with Communist and men with
Fascist leanings. There is as yet
no news of outright treachery but it
is hard to explain the mushiness of
French defense on any other basis.
Columnar Poison.
There is a third and false conclu
sion for us that is being preached
by some of my columnar colleagues,
and it is pure poison. It is that
this war proves that democracies
won't work in war, with an implica
tion that we should forget this elec
tion, give autocratic authority to the
power-seeking group of incompe
tents in Washington and perpetuate
Hopkins, Morgenthau, Perkins, and
Ickes to stumble, fumble and blun
der us into war and they to run it
tor us.
We proved in 1918 that our de
mocracy could out-Hitler any Ger
man in war efficiency, but you've
got to have competent leaders to
do it.
There is much also to be learned
from the astonishing, almost mi
raculous, German teamwork as be
tween fifth columns, air, armored
and mechanized land battleships and
close following masses of old fash
ioned infantry. But to swallow tha'
whole for our defense would be ai
stupid as to return to the World wai
for all our lessons.
FARIS BELONGS TO WORLD
In a sense Paris belongs to th«
world and nobody wanted to see it a
mass of smoking ruins.
In cold military science, neithei
the capture nor retention of a city
is of primary importance excep'
as that city may be of strong de
fensive or economic value.
Failure to see this point clearly
has cost more lives and lost more
campaigns than any other single
hoary blunder. For the first two
years of our Civil war in the East,
both the Federal and Confederate
governments seemed to think that
all that was necessary to win the
war was to capture Richmond or
Washington.
In the West Grant
saw the matter much more clearly.
The reason he insisted on ram
shackle Vicksburg was because its
site controlled the Mississippi and
its fall would cut the Confederacy
in two.
These formpr U. 8. army Northrup A-I7-A fighting planes, destined for Canada, Io be shipped to Europe,
are shown at Mitchell field, L. I., where they are held pending word from the British government. The planes
were for France, but the British may take them over.
Another Notch for a Nazi Flyer
More Airplanes
Like the gunmen of America’s wild west pioneer days who notched
their guns for every killing, the pilot of this German fighting ship has a
white stripe painted on the tall of his plane for every enemy shot down. The
stripe Is topped with the colors of the nationality of the vanquished pilots.
This Nasi now has a "score" of eight.
A worker al the Wright Aeronauti
cal factory In Faterson, N. J., uses
a J-fl cylinder head for a hat and
comes to a salute to "mass produo.
tlon," as vast new plane-motor man
ufacturlng unit Is opened.
President Visits 4-H Boys and Girls
Heads Committee
President Franklin D. Roosevelt is here shown visiting with one hun
dred and seventy boys and girls from forty-threu states encamped at the
fourteenth annua* parley of the 4-H clubs. The 4-H club members are,
evidently, keenly enjoying this visit with the Chief. Josephus Daniels,
United States ambassador to Mexico, is sitting in the car with the President’
Dr. Vannevar Bush, president of
the Carnegie Institution of Washing
ton, has been named to head a na
tional defense resources committea
of eight members.