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About The Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 19??-1984 | View Entire Issue (July 30, 1936)
THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1936 THE HERMISTON HERALD, HERMISTON, OREGON. OREGON STATE NEWS OF GENERAL INTEREST National Topics Interpreted by William Bruckart National Press Building Since the steel industry has its company unions, there is a con viction in many quarters that Mr. Lewis might well pause to consider whether this is the time to carry forward his program of bringing steel workers under national labor union control. There are those who believe that the company unions eventually will become units in the larger labor structure of the coun try and, if that be true, it is made to appear that Mr. Lewis has hurt labor’s cause. On the other hand, the steel in dustry already is under attack by the government. Mr. Roosevelt suddenly “cracked down” on some of the major companies recently, charging them with collusion in bids on government work. He came out with this charge at a time which undoubtedly will stiffen the backbone of the union agita tors—and it is not unlikely that by the same token he has stiffened the resistance which the steel com panies will use. Yet, it does seem that the steel companies made a fatal mistake in the pronouncement they have is sued. There are too many people who will be inclined to believe that the steel companies have taken ad vantage of an apparent assurance of collapse of federal supervision. There are few who believe that the federal compulsory collective bar gaining statute will last very long but the fact that this statute is due for the discard, it sems to me, hardly warrants the action which the steel companies nave taken. They are no more war ranted in that than union labor is warranted in taking advantage of the political situation to feather their own nest. A real danger, in addition to this, is that Communist agitators are going to use this situ ation as one vehicle for spreading their propaganda of dissatisfaction and discontent and Mr. Roosevelt’s » • • attack on massed capital unfortu For a number of years, steel nately lends itself to the nefarious companies have refused steadfastly schemes of the Reds. « • * to recognize un- Steel Bucks ion labor as rep- It long has been said that the Unions resented by the method of administering laws fre professional lead quently has creat- ers in the American Federation of -Tax Law ed more dissatis- Labor. They have attempted to Irritation faction among the defeat the inroads of that organiza citizens than the tion by forming what is known as requirements of laws themselves. company unions, groups of employ Tax laws of whatever kind furnish ees on the pay roll of each corpora a splendid example. It has always tion. They have accorded to these been true since we have had in groups the right of collective bar come tax laws that taxpayers gaining and have insisted that they have complained more about bu would deal only with the represent reaucratic regulation, indecision, atives of the company unions for lack of uniformity in administra the reason that they believe they tion and. generally speaking, slow then are dealing with the employ processes of settlement than about ees concerned with questions of pay the amount they were required to and working conditions in that par pay. The same is true about our ticular plant. If the national un customs laws despite the fact that ions were recognized, officials of a they affect fewer persons directly. given company always have had to The other day the Treasury is negotiate with the expert union ne sued a notice to customs inspectors gotiators who are paid by the na that was “effective immediately.” tional organization. The results It was a change in policy respect have not always been happy. This ing the quantity of goods an indi combination of circumstances, to vidual may bring in from foreign gether with a disposition on the shores without the payment of the part of the steel companies, I am customs tax. afraid, to be rather selfish in their Since 1798 or thereabouts, there attitude toward labor has devel oped a continuing controversy that has been a law which permitted a has raged over the last score of returning American to bring in commodities of whatever kind he years. desired, except narcotics, up to It happened that the rather inso $100 in value but that law permit lent announcement of the steel ted the Treasury to make excep companies, their challenge, came tions. The Treasury notice the oth almost simultaneously with the de er day was an announcement of livery of President Roosevelt’s an exception to this $100 exemp speech accepting the Democratic tion. It said that no inbound trav nomination for re-election. It was eler could carry more than one in this speech, it will be remem wine gallon of liquor without the bered, where Mr. Roosevelt de payment of the customs tax there nounced “economic royalists,” in on. A practice had sprung up since which he resorted to expressions the import duty on liquors has been bound to create class hatred and made so high of returning tourists in which he used language that is bringing in almost the full exemp certainly going to help discredit tion in liquor alone. Probably the corporations which are large practice was getting very bad and enough to attract national atten no one questions the judgment of tion. Of course, I know that Mr. the Treasury in determining poli Roosevelt did not have the steel in cy. But it is the method employed dustry particularly in mind in his in making this change that has assault on massed capital but the aroused criticism. effect is the same as though he In ordering the new regulation had been shooting directly at the “effective immediately,” the Treas steel industry because of the coinci ury forced upon hundreds of trav dence mentioned above. elers the necessity for paying duty The tragedy of the thing is that on their personal stocks of liquor the professional labor leaders are in what amounts to a surprise or going to use the steel industry’s der. They had left foreign shores challenge politically. under one regulation and arrive un • * der another. From all of the inside discussions I have no doubt at all that the that I have heard, it appears that Treasury’s reason for changing the the issue between rule while the game was being The Real the steel industry played result in a considerable Issue and its workers is amount will of revenue for the govern no longer simply But there are many who whether the steel industry shall be ment. believe, as I do, that the depart unionized. It is a question of how ment in all fairness should have it shall be unionized. In addition issued its regulation to become ef to this, Mr. Lewis has been chisel fective at some fixed date in the ing away for several years in future in order that citizens who promoting his labor union idea of must comply with it would be pre organizing all workers in one unit pared by proper notification of instead of the craft union idea that what they were expected to do and is basic in the American Federa the penalties for failure to obey. tion of Labor. That is to say, Mr. The incident to which I have re Lewis proposes to have a steel un ferred is an outstanding example ion or a shipbuilding union or a tex of inconsideration and such things tile union instead of organizing the always cause citizens to have a workers in accordance with the hurt feeling, a feeling that the gov particular jobs they do, whether ernment changed the rules without they be engineers, painters, car consulting those who must obey the penters, moulders or any one of rules. the various other crafts. • Western Newspaper Union. Washington.—The steel industry of the United States has cast for it self a role in the Labor and forthcoming cam- Politics paign—whether it intended to do so or not. The same is true of John L. Lewis and his segment of or ganized labor—and it is pretty gen erally suspected that Mr. Lewis in tended to get labor questions well mixed up in politics. It is all more important because of Presi dent Roosevelt’s attack on “eco nomic royalists’’ in his Philadel phia acceptance speech. Whatever rights the steel indus try has or whatever rights Mr. Lewis and his followers have, the fact remains that they are all knee deep in politics and there is every reason to believe that each side will suffer in public esteem as a result. It means simply this: each side is mixing up problems that are basically economic in charac ter with sordid, even unclean, po litical motives. This outburst is prompted by two things: the gigantic steel industry has taken the position that it will defend itself against encroachment of professional labor leaders like Mr. Lewis and President William Green of the American Federation of Labor and their satellites “from any source.” The steel industry thereby has thrown down the chal lenge and now that such a die is cast, the steel industry will be compelled to do a number of in defensible things if it adheres to its program. The same condition is to be ob served in the organized labor situa tion. Whether Mr. Lewis is willing to admit it or not, his declaration that he will foster, even enforce, his scheme for organizing the steel workers is likely to lead to over- zealous acts by his followers—and overzealous and foolish acts all too frequently lead to bloodshea. C WAFP O.obb s about Brief Resume of Happenings of the Week Collected for Our Readers Vernonia—This town last Monday night celebrated the opening of the Oregon-American lumber mill, idle since 1931, with a street dance and entertainment sponsored by the local chamber of commerce. The mill em ploys between 600 and 700 men, pro viding the community’s chief payroll. Lostine—Clay Boyd of Lower Val ley isn't on the boat bound for Ber lin with the rest of the Olympic team, but possibly his time for a race he recently ran can stand com parison with theirs. Boyd, while go ing for wood, sighted a half-grown coyote pup and took after it. He caught it. Corvallis—First post-summer ses sion to be scheduled at Oregon State college will open August 3 and con tinue four weeks. Most of the courses offered will be in education and sci ence, and are arranged to permit graduate students especially to earn at least 15 credits of advanced work in a summer. Crater Lake — The discovery ot crisobalite, a rare mineral, in the Crater Lake area is subject matter for a paper prepared by Carl E. Dut ton, ranger naturalist, who found the mineral in the region of Union peak. The unusual specimen, a talus frag ment, has a pitted surface covered with small white crystals. Enterprise—Frank Sizemore spot ted a large cougar in a tree and shot it. When he saw how emaciated the cat was, he investigated more thor oughly and learned that at some fairly recent date the animal had picked a porcupine for its lunch— and got nothing more substantial than quills for his efforts. LaGrande—Work on two federal projects here is rapidly nearing com pletion. The new $95,000 under grade crossing has only the finishing touches lacking and will soon be open for traffic. The new gymnas ium-auditorium for the LaGrande high school is being all enclosed and the interior finish virtually done. The Dalles—A delegation of busi ness men returned from Prairie City last week with the report that pos sibly a large deposit of Dixie granite near there would be utilized in con struction of the new state capitol. The deposit, according to Colonel James B. Small, retired rock expert of the United States reclamation serv ice, will be of proper quality and suf ficient quantity for the work. Albany—Cost of educating Linn county non-high school district stud ents in the several high schools which they attended during the last school year was approximately the same as during the 1934-35 year, J. M. Ben nett, county school superintendent, has announced. With Brownsville, Jefferson and Portland claims lack ing, the total, $35,246.65, is little more than $1200 lower than the fig ures of the previous year. Klamath Falls—Giant bull-frogs have been "planted” on the banks of Lost river and the tule marshes of Lower Klamath lake as a starter to ward the establishments of a new at traction for outdoorsmen—bull-frog hunting. S. J. Coull and Howard Strode brought the amphibians here from the Sacramento district. Some of the frogs measure 18 inches. They passed inspection by Charles Riley, game commissioner, who believes they will help materially in cleaning the region of flies and insects. MINIATURE GALLOWS RECEIVED Klamath Falls—A miniature gal- lows, believed a replica of the scaf fold on which Captain Jack, Modoc chieftain, and his aides were hung after the Modoc war, has been re ceived to be placed in the Modoc lava beds monument museum here. Gen eral W. C. Brown, U. S. A., retired, of Denver, gave the gallows to Rang er Don C. Fisher, General Brown received the gal lows, made from wood from the or iginal structure, when he was a lieu tenant stationed at Fort Klamath in 1873. HOP CONTRACTS SIGNED Salem—A three-year hop contract calling for prices of 35, 25 and 20 cents per pound had been written here last week, the first agreement made since a recent rise in prices re sulting from extensive damage done by downy mildew. Also reported were sales of 86 bales of 1935 clns- ters and 68 bales of fuggles at 30 cents. Reports Indicate that Willam ette valiey yards are Improving dally, thanks to the warm weather. Dealers who signed 12-cent con tracts before the price jump are con sidering advancing the figure volun tarily to 15 cents to insure clean picking, it was said here. Newport—Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Compton of West Salem, who have several acres of tobacco growing on their farm in Alsea valley. are hav ing a large dryer built to accommo date the large crop, now nearly ready to harvest. Salem — Business-« ras Ing agents who camped on the trail of J. W. Ferguson, state forester, now enter his office at their own risk. Tired of combing them out of his hair, Fer guson posted this sign: "We shoot every tenth agent. Page Three Club An Immortal Oration everly hills , CALIF — future has a rotten trick B of The mussing up the judgments of the present. What a pity it is that we can’t wear our hind-sights in front. When I read where some pon derous performing pachyderm of the literary elephant quadrille says, “This story will live forever,” I get to thinking about a time-yel lowed copy of a metropolitan news paper I saw once, a paper that was print ed on November 20, 1863. It devoted great gobs of praise and nine solid columns very soli d—to the eloquence of the Hon. Edward Ever ett of Massachusetts, who, on the day be fore, after months of Irvin 8. Cobb preparation had, on a battlefield down in Pennsylvania, spoken two hours and turned loose enough oratory to fill about nine gas balloons. But of the subsequent and incidental remarks of another man, an awkward, shy man from Illinois, who had spoken just two minutes, it said, "The President was also heard briefly. The applause was formal and scat tering.” Prejudices of Critics. FTEN, ‘twould seem, the pro fessional reviewer makes up his mind beforehand that he doesn’t like you and behaves ac cordingly. A friend sent me a clipping from a small city—it dealt with the open ing of the picture, "Everybody’s Old Man.” The writer was quite severe in his analysis. He didn’t like the film. Passionately, he didn’t care for me. The joke was that the theater where the picture was to have been shown burned down just about the time the paper went to press, and the picture wasn’t ever shown in that town. The next best illustration of the point I’m making dates back years ago. I was discussing various nov elists with that gentle wit, the late Oliver Herford. “Ollie,” I said, “what do you think of So-and-So’s books?” “My dear Cobb,” he softly murmured, “something I once wrote about him —in a critical way—so prejudiced me against the man I could never bear to read any of his books.” O Self-Anointed Dukes. UT here we’re waiting for that Spanish baron and that French count back in New York to form the mother branch of their Noble men’s club for the protection of holders of genuine titles in Amer ica and, presumably, as a guar antee to our own home-grown heir esses that, when they marry, for eign princelings or what not, the goods will be as described. There’s been a lot of title-legging, you know. As soon as the organization gets started we’re going to open the Hol lywood division. Since only the au thentic nobility may qualify, it’s figured that the active roster will be confined to a very limited group. O • « • The State of the Nation. AR be it from me to turn alarm ist right on the heels of the hot wave, but I feel it my duty to warn my fellow-Americans that this frag ile and crumbling republic is doomed. That is, it’s doomed if you can believe what comes out of our sainted political leaders in the way of predictions. Hark to the quavering chorus which already has started up: A crisis exists. Every professional crisis-breeder in the land openly admits it. I can't remember when a crisis wasn’t existing. But they come larger in campaign years. We are facing a dread emergency which has had no parallel since the last occasion when we faced a dread emergency. This very hour the nation totters on the brink of an abyss. F Miracles and Misdemeanors. ()NCE upon an early time there — was a man so holy that even the wild creatures would not harm him. He drew a thorn from the paw of a tame lion and the grate ful beast followed after him. So he became a saint. Only the other day in a court in Tanganyka, which is in Africa, a black man—a savage by our defi nitions—was on trial. It seemed the lions were raiding the stock, so the native authorities set traps for them. The accused found a lion in one of these traps and made a lad der and went down and helped the great brute to escape. Being arrested, he explained sim ply that the lion was his friend. So they fined him $12.50. In the olden times it was a miracle. Nowadays it’s a misdemeanor. IRVIN 8. COBB •— WNU Service. "Too !\luch Courage’ By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter. SOMETIMES it’s a fine thing, boys and girls, to have one of those — cast-iron, copper-plated nervous systems that don’t get all in a jitter the minute something happens. Steeplejacks have them—and so have structural ironworkers who spend most of their working day twenty stories above the street, bal anced on a ten-inch iron beam, playing baseball with red hot rivets. I ve always sort of envied birds like that for their courage. And again, at times, I’ve been glad I don’t have nerves like theirs. After all, our nerves are about the best warning sig nals we have—and you know what usually happens to the guy who doesn’t pay any attention to the signs. Take the case of Bill Woods, for instance—William H. Woods of Brooklyn, N. Y. Bill isn’t an ironworker, but he’s got an ironworker’s nerve. Put him in a burning building, and my guess is that he wouldn’t begin to get excited about it until the fire actually began creeping up his coat-tails. I’m judging him now from the way he acted in that restaurant in Brooklyn on April 30, 1934. This Adventure Starts With a Cup of Coffee. It’s quite a story, boys and girls—a story that starts out with a walk ing tour through the streets of Brooklyn. Bill and his friend, Charley Young, had been taking an evening, stroll, and eleven o’clock found them at Boro Hall park. Charley suggested that they drop into a cafeteria for a cup of coffee before they hit the hay. Bill agreed, and they crossed the street. They went into the cafeteria, took their checks from the ma chine at the door and went over to the long counter. They or dered coffee, and the counterman turned to get it. But no sooner had he turned than he swung back toward the door and said: “What's the matter over there?” That’s the first intimation Bill and Charley had that anything was wrong. They looked in the direction in which the counterman was star ing. Several men were scuffling over near the door. Then, suddenly from the center of that milling group came the sound of a shot! Bedlam Breaks Loose in Cafeteria Following Shots. "In the moment that immediately followed,” says Bill, “no one stirred. Everyone in the place had stopped eating and all eyes were turned toward the door. That moment of indecision didn’t last long, how- ere da The Man Fell Over Backwards and Was Still. ever, for suddenly another shot rang out, loud and deafening in that en closed space. No one knew what had happened, but you couldn’t mistake that sound.” At that second shot, bedlam broke loose in the cafeteria. Women screamed. Men jumped up from their seats. Tables were overturned. Everyone thought of just one thing, and that was getting under cover. Everyone was running about in frantic haste to get a door between them and that revolver—everyone, that is, but Bill Woods. In all the hullabaloo he alone kept his head. And it nearly cost him his life. Bill looked around for Charley. He was gone—evidently into a mill ing crowd of people who had run toward the back of the cafeteria and were trying to crowd into the washrooms. Those who weren't there were crawling on their hands and knees, trying to get under a table. Bill no ticed that and decided to get under cover himself. There was a radiator with a screened grill in front of him and he dropped down behind that. There followed a brief silence punctuated only by the sounds of struggling men, then another shot reverberated through the room. That was when Bill’s curiosity and his nerve got the better of his common sense. He stood up to take a look. Bill Made a Fine Target for the Man With the Gun. Over by the door, a man, gun in hand, was standing, back up against the cashier’s counter, while half a dozen younger men tried to wrestle the gun away from him. “One of the younger men,” says Bill, “picked up a heavy sugar container and hit the older man over the head. I saw the glass break and the sugar scatter over the floor, but the man with the gun seemed invincible. They couldn’t beat him down. They were too, many for him in the end, though, and finally he fell behind the cash ier’s desk. And then, thinking all danger was past, I walked over to the counter.” Bill walked over until he was within ten feet of the fallen man when, to his amazement, the man started to sit up. The gun, still in his hand, rose until it pointed straight at Bill’s midriff. Too late. Bill began to wish he’d been one of those nervous individu als who had taken refuge in the washroom. He stood petrified—afraid to move. He drew in a deep breath and waited to feel the bullet bite into his flesh. At that distance, the man on the floor couldn't miss. Timely Arrival of Copper Saves Bill’s Life. Then, the only thing that could save Bill’s life happened. Through the restaurant door came a police sergeant with a drawn pistol. He got the situation at a glance, took deliberate aim at the man with the gun, and shot him through the stomach. That was the end. The man fell over backwards and was still. A red circle of blood slowly widened beneath him. More policemen came. They began asking questions. The cashier of the restauran! had been creased over one ear by a ! bullet, and one young man, shot through the shoulder, was lean ing against the counter, trying to staunch the flow of blood. They told the story. The man with the gun, they said, had been drunk. He had walked over to a table and accused another man of laughing at him. An argument started and the drunk drew a gun. That was when Old Lady Adventure stepped in and started shaking up thrill cocktails—one for everybody in the house, and a deadly one for the man with the gun. ©—WNU Service. Women Wore Men’s Shoes During Ohio’s yesteryears the forests were so swampy that women could scarcely walk to church or to other gatherings in their pretty footwear. So instead they wore the rough heavy shoes used by the menfolk. Close to their destination they would deposit the rough shoes in a fence corner or some other near-by place and put on their dainty shoes to wear in side. Thus their Sunday footwear lasted years and veara. Montreal’s Historic Crosses Many of the historic crosses in Montreal were raised by the pioneer inhabitants to commemo rate being spared from the St. Lawrence River’s ravages before it finally was brought under control. Founded by the man who erected its first and most famous cross, Paul de Chomedy, le Sieur da Maisonneuve, Montreal is frequent ly called the “City of Crosses.” Maisonneuve’ cross was erected almost 300 years ago.
