4 Heppner Gazette Times, February 5, 1942
Heppner
Gazette Times
THE HEPPNER GAZETTE.
Established March 30, 1883;
THE HEPPNER TIMES.
Established November 18. 1897;
CONSOLIDATED FEBRUARY 15, 19U
Published every Thursday morning: by
CBAWFOBD PUBLISHING COMFAMT
and entered at the Post Office at Hepp
ner, Oregon, as second-class matter.
JASPER V. CRAWFORD, Editor
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Official Paper for Morrow County
Curfews
It won't be long now until an old
favorite poem will come into its own
again -"The Curfew Shall Not Ring
Tonight."
Once curfews were for Little
Johnny. Now, from reports of what
has happened on a long stretch of
the Pacific coast, and forebodings
of Portland's woeful mayor it ap
pears probable that a large portion
of the Pacific slope war area will
sound curfews for! all members of
the family, be they enemy aliens.
And so the word comes that de
spite Mr. John Q. Public's willing
ness to buy defense bonds and pay
his income tax, he does not yet fully
realize the country is at war. A
move is deemed essential by the
defense heads, so it seems, to make
him stay home and ponder it.
The while those in defense indus
tries are taking oh seven-day-a-week
shifts. There's little time off
for play.
It may be, as one man was heard
to remark, that Mr. John Q. Public
is not such a poor sport after all.
This man happened to be one of
the unfortunate mortals whose duty
it is to apply at the grass roots the
imponderable mass of rulings and
restrictions handed down through
the maze of over-lord officials. After
wading through a large sheaf of in
structions on "must" emergency
procedure he came to the sign-off,
which read, "there are at present
no funds for this purpose."
There must, of course, be lieuten
ants to do the bidding of the commander-in-chief,
but there must,
too, be room for conjecture if many
thirty-second secretaries today
couldn't serve their country better
by shouldering a gun instead of
thinking up unworkable ideas to
keep the man who is doing the work
from doing a good job.
If there is any doubt of the pa
triotism of the man we heard speak,
it can be said that he has four sons
in the armed services of his country.
It could be that all "Pearl Harbors"
are not in Honolulu,
Red Tape
Governmental agencies are lay
ing on with a heavy hand today
with rationing and priorities, taxes
and promise of more taxes. But, it
seems, one of the short cuts to effi
ciency and speedy procedure has
been sadly neglected: That of cut
ting the maze of red tape.
As for us give us fewer bosses,
and more definite instructions. We
believe John Q. Public is anxious
and willing to do his part when
told distinctly and with reason what
his part is.
And now that the "fag" tax has
fagged out, J. Q. P. in Oregon may
light up a little more light-heartedly
and, in the glow of the tip of his fav
orite brand prepare to set his clock
back an hour before retiring the
night of February 8, so that he may
arise a full hour early the morn of
February 9 with renewed ambition
to show the world the stuff of which
America is made.
MacArthur's boys on Bataan pen
insula are doing alright, as are the
armed forces of Uncle Sam wher
ever they may be. And they're not
going to be let down at home.
What the Japs started In Pearl
Harbor they'll rue in Tokyo,
PAVE THE WAY
"!" nil mJ .
I?;' AT ifTHE
Washington, D. C, Feb. 5. Stub
born Commissioner Vickery of the
maritime commission has had to back
up on his invitation for bids for hun
dreds of barges for the Tigris river.
The war department engineer now
at Basra preparing an American base
requested that the barges be ship
ped 'knocked down," to be assem
bled on the Persian gulf. Mr. Vick
ery called for bids that the barges
should be built complete and deliv
ered at one or two ports in the south.
This shut out bidders from Oregon
and Washington, who could not get
the barges floated through the Pan
ama canal nor shipped by rail.
Mr. Vickery's idea was to load the
barges on decks of freighters going
to the Persian gulf, but the barges
are so large that it might be a year
before all had been unloaded. Re
advertising for bids, Mr. Vickery
now follows the request of the en
gineer at Basra, wants them in
knocked-down condition, and this
gives builders in the northwest a
chance to connect with a contract.
About 25,000,000 feet of lumber will
be required to fill the order, ap
proximately five shiploads, as the
lumber can be stored in the hold as
well as on deck. Cut and numbered,
the lumber will be assembled by key
men and probably native labor at the
destination.
General Hershey, chief of selec
tive service, says that the boys in
Oregon have not been taken from
farms in any large, numbers. Farm
ers engaged in raising canning peas,
many operating 800 to 1200 acres, are
worried about the labor situation
and their troubles have been placed
on the desk of General Hershey.
That official has caused a survey
to be made in sample counties, such
as Umatilla, Deschutes, etc., and dis
covered that the loss of agricultural
labor is due to other causes than
the selective service. The young men
have voluntarily enlisted or have
been attracted by high wages in war
industries. For example, of 110 men
inducted in Deschutes county only
12 were associated with some form
of agriculture. County by county,
WUlard Combos cartoon eourtwy of Clland Pri,
Hershey revealed figures on the
number of farm boys inducted, us
ually about 10 percent of the total.
The general sums up with the de
claration that there is sufficient farm
labor in Oregon but that the work
ers must receive at least $50 a
month, plus board and lodging.
Since office of civilian defense was
given $100,000,000 with which to buy
fire equipment, gas masks, asbestos
. suits and steel helmets there has
been a rush of applicants for fire
apparatus, many towns believing
they saw an opportunity to acquire
new fire engines without cost. OCD,
however, has already made a sur
vey and has decided where it will
distribute the apparatus. A ques
tionnaire was sent to every city in
the United States of more han 5000
population, and the equipment is to
be scattered among them. Towns and
hamlets of less than 5000 are ignored
although many are in as much dan
ger as any metropolitan area which
has its paid fire department. For
example, a very small town next
to one of the big munitions dumps is
not considered eligible by OCD, and
no consideration is given towns
along the coast which are adjacent to
forests. All these of less than 5000
have just one protection: they can
collect damages to property from
RFC war risk insurance if a bomb
drops on them. The insurance is for
property damage, not the snuffing
of life unless it is a cow, horse or
sheep.
Any member of congress who has
served five or more years and has
reached the age of 65 years may now
retire on an annuity if he so elects;
the longer the member has served
the higher the annuity. To be eli
gible for immediate retirement the
member must pay his contribution
under the civil service law for the
entire preceding five years, and all
others who wish to come under the
provisions of the law must so de
clare and begin making their mon
thly contribution on the basis of
five percent of their annual salary.
Just as the war department an
nounced a cantonment at Medford
where 32,500 men will be assembled
and trained, the Southern Pacific
railroad announced the discontinu
ance of one passenger train into that
metropolis of the Rogue river valley.
The interstate commerce commis
sion says it has no control over pas
senger trains, only service and
freight. The problem at Medford is
how to get that army of men into
and out of town, with passenger,
busses out of the question, for al
ways there will be hundreds of sol
diers on leave wanting to dash to
San Francisco, to Portland, to Puget
Sound cities and other towns of the
region.
A WEEK OF THE WAR . . .
("A Week of the. War" summar
izes information on the important
developments of the week made
available by official sources through
and including Friday, January 30.)
President Roosevelt and Prime
Minister Churchill created three
Anglo-American boards to pool Am
erican and British munitions, ship
ping and raw materials. The boards
will confer with representatives of
the Soviet Union, China and others
of the 26 United Nations, as neces
sary "to attain common purposes."
U. S. representatives are:' Harry
Hopkins, Munitions Board; Rear
Admiral Emoi-y S. Land, Shipping
Board; and William L. Batt, Raw
Materials Board.
The President told his press con
ference great progress has been
made in unification of American
Army and Navy commands. He said
such unification has been going on
for the past two months and does
not result from the Pearl Harbor
inquiry board re)?ort. Mr. Roosevelt
said he is still studying this report,
which placed the blame for lack of
American alertness at Hawaii on
Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and
Lt Gen. Walter C. Short, but Pres
idential Secretary Early indicated
further action in regard to the com
manders will rest with Navy Sec
retary Knox and War Secretary
Stimson.
Price Control Legislation Signed
President Roosevelt signed the
Price Control Bill which provides
for a license system to enforce price
regulations, calls for a single ad
ministrator and contains provisions
to permit farm prices to rise as high
as 110 percent of parity. The Presi
dent said, however, he may ask
Congress to correct certain gaps in
the bill, particularly the agriculture
provisions. He said the prohibition
against farm price ceilings at less
than 110 ercent of parity is a direct
threat to the cost of living, although
the licensing, rent control and other
provisions are useful weapons against
inflation. The Department of Ag
riculture reported the average of
farm product prices on January 15
was 102 percent of parity.
The War Front
The Army reported the Japanese
were making heavy reinforcements
in the Philippines preparatory to
resumption of a large scale offen
sive against Gen. MacArthur's forces
which were continuing to hold strong
positions in the Bataan Peninsula.
In the Philippine area U. S. forces
destroyed a 5,000-ton enemy vessel
and at least five enemy planes, while
in the Macassar Straits, Army and
Navy forces sank three large enemy
transports, set two more afire, tor
pedoed an aircraft carrier, blew up
another large ship and scored hits
which probably sank others. The
Army announced United States Ar
my forces arrived in Northern Ire
land, and Maj. Gen. James E. Cha
ney took over command of all U. S.
Army forces in the United Kingdom.
President Roosevelt told his press
conference this force is one of six,
eight or 10 American expeditionary
forces outside the U. S. in various
parts of the world. U-boat activity
resulted in the sinking off the At
lantic coast of two American ships
and a Norwegian tanker. The U. S.
garrison at Midway Island sank an
enemy submarine attempting to at
tack the island.
Army
The President signed the Fourth
Supplemental National Defense Bill
carrying a $12,600,000,000 appropria
tion for 33,000 Army planes and
equipment. War Secretary Stimson
announced plans to speed training of
30,000 pilots, observers, navigators
and other personnel to match air
plane production. War Secretary
Stimson announced 20,000 men have
been released for duty with combat
troops since the Army began re
placement of enlisted men engaged
in clerical and housekeeping activ
ities by civilian employees, some of
them women. He said entrance re
quirements for officer candidate
schools have been changed to allow
qualified enlisted men from 18 to 45
to win commissions within six mon
ths.
Navy
The House passed and sent to the
Senate a record naval appropriation
bill of $18 billion in cash and an ad
ditional $4 billion in contract auth
orizations to build the Navy to un
precedented strength. The Senate
Appropriations Committee, at the
request of President Roosevelt, add
ed another $6 billion to the bill to
strengthen the naval air arm. The
Marine Corps announced regulations
for enlistment of 6,000 men 30 to 50
for guard duty at naval shore sta
tions. The Corps revsied require
. ments to permit only college juniors
and seniors and qualified enlisted
men to enroll in its reserve officers'
candidate class. The Navy waived
minimum age requirement of 25
years for leaders, leadingmen and
quartermen in Navy yards and
plants under Navy jurisdiction. The
Navy is recruiting skilled construc
tion workers for work at naval bases
outside continental United States.
Production
The Army Ordnance Department
estimated it has been spending $21
million a day for the past five weeks
for 1,200 various types of items in
cluding ammunition, small arms, ar
tillery, tanks, etc. The Army an
nounced its new 105 mm. howitzer
is now in mass production. War
Production Chairman Nelson told a
meeting in New York City the job
facing businessmen . is to rush war
contracts through to completion
"without stopping to count the cost."
The War Production Board an
nounced a simplified production re
quirements plan to speed conversion
of small manufacturers doing less
than $100,000 business a year. The
Board also set up a special section
to collect information on all vacant
industrial buildings so the Army
and Nvy procurement branches can
award contracts in such a way as to
utilize these buildings.
Conversion of Automobile Industry
Ernest Kanzler, WPB official in
charge of converting the automobile
industry to war production, said the
industry up to January 16 had or
ders for $8 billion worth of guns,
tanks, planes and other war material.-
He said the industry's present
employment of 500,000 workers may
be doubled when peak war produc
tion is reached late this year. He
said lack of machine tools is the
present bottleneck in the conversion
effort but labor supply may be the
next big problem.
Aliens
Attorney General Biddle ordered
all German, Japanese and Italian na
tionals to leave specified vital areas
in San Francisco and Los Angeles
by February 24. Mr. Biddle said 27
additional prohibited .areas recom
mended by the War Department
would be published later.
Priorities and Allocations
The Senate passed and sent to the
House a second War Powers Bill ex
tending the Government's requisi
tioning power and carrying criminal
penalties for violations of the prior
ities system. The WPB cut radio
production by 40 percent, prohibited
use of aluminum except on war con
tracts, and restricted consumption
of nickel, brass and copper for ad
vertising and decorative purposes to
50 percent of last year. The Board
also announced it will withhold a
percentage of canned goods in 1942
to insure ample supplies of certain
foods for the armed forces.
War Production Chairman Nelson
placed full authority in the Office
of Price Administration to ration
all goods and commodities sold on
the retail market and for goods to
satisfy personal needs. Price Ad
ministrator Henderson said initial
sugar sales under the rationing plan
to be inaugurated next month pro
bably will be restricted to 12 ounces
a week for each individual. The De
partment of Justice announced the
Antitrust Division is investigating
practice of requiring customers to
purchase designated amounts of
groceries in order to obtain limited
amounts of sugar.
Labor
Labor Secretary Perkins said la
bor shortages require temporary
"relaxation in accepted standards,"
and asked labor and management to
place war production on a 24-hour,
7-day basis immediately. WPB La
bor Director Hillman announced
ratification by unions and owners
of an agreement for continuous
shipbuilding operations on the Pa
cific coast. The agreement will be
extended to the Atlantic, Gulf and
Great Lake zones, Mr. Hillman said.
The National Resources Planning
Board outlined in a 19-page pamph
let a plan for full employment fol
lowing the war.