The Minneapolis Star from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 14

THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE MINNEAPOLIS STAR JOURNAL THE NORTHWEST'S LARGEST NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION MORE THAN 240,000 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25. 1(43 Quebec Parley Held a Failure Politically 14 Communications to this column must bear, for publication, the correct name and address of the writer. Short letters are most interesting, and the right is reserved to cut letters when space limitations require. Unused letters returned only when accompanied by stamped, addressed envelope. Published Daily Except Sunday at 427 Sixth Avenue S.

by the Minneapoli Star Journal and Tribune Company. Telephone ATlantio 3111. JOHN COWLES, President. JOHN THOMFSON, Vice President and PublUher. GARDNER COWLES, Vic President WILLIAM J.

McNALLT, Vice President. BASIL WALTERS, Vice President and Executive Editor. GIDEON SEYMOUR, Vice President and Editorial Editor. Entered at Minneapolis Postoffica as Second Class Matter. By RAYMOND CLAPPER Washington.

pWO MEN WITH the political spark of Roosevelt and Churchill once could have produced something mora electrifying than, the listless "declaration of Quebec." Something more certainly was needed. Politically the war is going stale. In England people are turning their thoughts more and more toward resumption of peacetime normal activi SUBSCRIPTION RATES, BY MAIL MINNESOTA, NORTH DAKOTA, SOUTH DAKOTA. IOWA, WISCONSIN I Tear 6 Mos. 3 Hot.

Morning Tribune $8.00 $4.40 12.20 Evening Star Journal 8.00 4.40 2.20 Sunday Tribune 00 3.60 1.7S ALL OTHER STATES Morning Tribune 9.00 8.00 2.50 Evening Star Journal 9.00 6.00 2.B0 6unday Tribune 7.00 4.00 2.00 VOLUME LXV NUMBER 233 The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited to this paper, and also the local news published herein. All rights of republication of special dispatches herein are also reserved. The Score From Netherlands News A Hollander who escaped to England reported that after an unusually heavy airraid on Cologne an unknown person wrote the following "football score" on a house in Rotterdam which had been ruined in the German aerial bombardment of May, 1940: Rotterdam, 1. Cologne, 1. ties.

Everybody was taking a vacation this year. Air raid precautions were being relaxed and a campaign, thus far unsuccessful, haS been carried on against the blackout. Here in America you find people, more every day, who think the war is almost over. Manufacturers are going to the war department asking to be relieved of war contracts so they can resume making baby buggies. Curing the Manpower Shortage To the Editor: Some of our New Deal planners are almost frantic from worry, on account of the shortage of manpower for the army, Industry and agriculture, and insist that fathers and schoolboys must be drafted very soon.

It was not long ago that Senator Byrd made a careful survey of the situation. He said that of the more than three million people on the federal payroll at least one-third of them could be dispensed with and we would have more efficient government. In other words, about a million on the federal payroll are political parasites, pure and simple. We have about 240,000 of these leeches on the agricultural department payroll, who are mostly responsible for our present food shortage. Their triple-A farm program has proven a fake and put the country at the crossroads of starvation.

They now want to continue these 240,000 political parasites on the public payroll in promoting another New Deal scheme of incentive payments and continued regimentation of the farmers. This country was never short of food until the New Deal crackpots tried to tell the farmer how to run his business. If we want plenty of food to win the war and make the peace, it is about time congress quit listening to the New Deal parasites in Washington and enacted some legislation that will give the farmers machinery, labor and a fair price instead of questionnaires, confusion and a headache. They could send to the army the one million parasites, who have as yet done nothing but tell the other fellow what to do and promote the fourth term. Sandstone, Minn.

Gus Johnson. Women war workers, their first enthusiasm gone, are dropping out. Yet Paul Mc-Nutt wants 2,000,000 more war workers by the end of the year. ww Thoughts in a Blackout SIRENS SOUND, lights go out Gradually into the darkness gray light filters through an overcast sky Maxwell Anderson, back from North Africa and after a night at an east coast airplane spotter station, said we are in no danger of air raids, that the defense setup is wasteful of time and retarding to the war effort. Standing watch hour after hour for planes that 'never come must be tedious, but our occasional blackouts in Minnesota are no hardship.

They give a sense of kinship with men who fly blacked-out bombers to the foe's factories, with sailors on unlighted ships in seas where enemy subs may wait. The co-operative discipline of a blackout makes all Americans closer neighbors. It's our own disci- pline, not a totalitarianism forced by a power-mad demagogue. Once the fighting is over, there'll be a celebrative ending of these war-imposed restraints. An end to all discipline? Let's hope not.

We'll still need self-discipline and co-operative discipline. With the Immediate enemy gone, It could be easy to give way to irritation, to let racial and industrial problems get out of hand, to deal high-handedly with other nations. An end to discipline Is anarchy. It could black out all the ideals we have fought to maintain. We may have forgotten it for the present, but peace carries restraints more tedious ones perhaps than war.

Draft director Hershey wants 446,000 fathers for draftees by Dec. 1 and people of America are about to be asked for for the third war loan. If we are go From a Soldier Down Under To the Editor: I've been overseas now nearly 18 months, serving in Australia and New Guinea. In that time, I've seen only one USO show. It was good.

I'm not complaining, but we boys would like to see more of them. We get to see the newest movies, but stage shows are what we want. I hope we're not the forgotten men of New Guinea. We're here to do a job and not to see shows, but they do bring up our morale. I just chased a 15-foot python out of my bed.

Somewhere in New Guinea. Pvt. John Svac. Southern Europe Ready to Revolt, Throw Off Nazi Yoke, Pearson Says alive to the meaning and intentions of the democratic Allies, so they can help us. At Quebec Churchill and Roosevelt said it would be a long, hard war.

A long, hard war for what? Day after day we delay recognizing the only group of French men who are ready and able to help rescue and restore France. The declaration of Quebec might have rallied them and other occupied peoples whose liberation may come within the next few months. The declaration might have given us some idea of what we hoped to see come out of victory. Are we to continue to butter the miserable little king of Italy, or will we encourage democrat! in Italy? Are we ready to make way for those who have throughout been enemies of the Axis and not its puppets? Or are we going to protect the Fascist dictator Franco? 1 His friends and defenders seem to be on top in our state department now, a rather sorry, moth-eaten crew hovering around Secretary Hull, the whole place beset by feuds and small-minded prejudices at a time when vision, teamwork and skill were never more needed. Sumner Welles has been pushed out of the state department and the services of an exceptionally able diplomatic technician are lost at a time when they can least be spared.

This administration may have wasted billions of dollars, but when you look back on so many who have gone, the waste and abuse of fine brains has run into large figures, also. All in all a frightening suggestion of political bankruptcy comes out of the stale air here. Quebec might have reinvigorated all of us and our tired friends abroad, but it was an opportunity lost By DREW PEARSON The Washington Merry-Go-Round DECAUSE collapse of southern Europe caused the kaiser to fold up with such speed in the last war, the United States official microscope is now fixed on these countries more intently than ever. In September, 1918, Bulgaria, Turkey, Austro-Hungary one by one made separate peace with fall of Mussolini and the capture of Sicily have caused both Serbs and Croats to jump on the Allied bandwagon. Albania Italian rule in Albania is at the point of collapse, with guerrilla bands operating freely.

Greece Open rebellion among the Greeks is being put down by the Germans. They are ousting the Italians from Greece and are strengthening the Greek isles. Sirens The minutes of the blackout pass sound All clear! Monocled Knave ing to raise Clapper that much money, if those fathers are to be taken from their families without leaving a trail of burning resentment, if the 2,000,000 war workers volunteer to do hard manual work after leaving well-paid easier jobs, everybody has to feel deeply that a hard war is yet to be finished and that victory and a new automobile are not just around the corner. They won't do it eagerly for a cause that has gone stale. War requires not only military leadership but.

political leadership. The men who are fighting this war have not gone stale. Military direction of the Allied side is skillful and successful. But in political direction, in that essential art of inspiring a whole people to fight for a purpose that will live beyond victory and give permanence to the victory, the declaration of Quebec offers us nothing. I This point has to do with the support of the war here at home.

It has to do with the drop in war production, the slacking off in heavy bombers at a time when we are losing 30 to 40 of them in single raids over Europe, It has to do with keeping the population as much on its toes as General Eisenhower's divisions must be. And it has to do with keeping the people of occupied countries TN AN office in the Place Royale in Brussels sits a crisp, monocled German by the name of General Von Falkenhausen. He has seen a lot of the world. He was at one time Chiang Kai-Shek's drill master. He was formerly governor of Dresden, where he was commonly referred to as "the king." The "von" in his name Is real, hot ersatz like German Foreign Minister Rib-bentrop's.

He is a Prussian militarist of the old school. the Allies, leaving Germany fighting alone. Since history may repeat, here is a survey of how United States experts find conditions in the key occupied countries: Rumania Most likely of similar to that of Germany in 1918. The country is swept with rumors, particularly about the bombings of the Ruhr and Berlin. Because Goebbels has clamped down a strict censorship, rumors have increased, and whispered stories of the destruction of the Ruhr probably have been exaggerated.

Himmler, apparently deciding that the home front was more and more threatening, has stationed loyal young thugs with artillery and machine gun nests in the main squares and streets throughout Germany. There is every determination to prevent a a repetition of 1918. The German people remain jittery. They look apprehensively at the great numbers of foreign workers in their midst and fear they will cut German throats when disorders begin. They are beginning to be reconciled to Allied victory.

However, they still feel that Germany can keep all her own territory and prevent an army of occupation. Russian troops are what they dread most. There is no evidence of German troop collapses yet. They are well-fed, well-equipped, well-treated and will fight until the situation is comparatively hopeless. Then, as in 1918, they will probably quit.

Antonescu Jehovah's Witnesses Convention To the Editor: Our country is in the midst of a great war. Millions of our boys Protestants, Catholics and Jews are in uniform giving or ready to give their lives that we may maintain our freedom from the vilest cancer the world has ever known. We need every ounce of energy and co-operation that every man, woman and child can muster to win this war, and yet last week our street corners were bannered by a religious group known as Jehovah's Witnesses, who openly not only oppose and refuse to aid the war effort but are actually retarding the war effort. We are told by the OPA that there is a serious shortage of gasoline and rubber. Our soldier boys on leave are allowed a few measly gallons of gasoline for their driving while on furlough, but I have seen cars from many hundred miles away carrying these banners.

One large sedan, from the District of Columbua, had and stickers on the windshield. Does this make sense, boys willing to give their lives for their country getting this shabby treatment when people who admittedly refuse to' help in the time of necessity get all the gasoline they need to teach more people how to slow up the war effort? Minneapolis. George E. Murphy. To the Editor: Two months ago there was a knock at the door and a pleasing voice said, "This is the Watchtower.

We are looking for rooms for our members who are coming to a convention Aug. 19. Have you any that you could spare over that week-end?" My last son having left the Fort, I consented to let them have the empty room. Last Friday morning the convention arrived a man, wife and three fine girls. They were here until Sunday night.

Never in my life have I met finer people. They, were quiet, courteous, soft spoken. And for people who believe as ardently as they do in their faith they were self contained and Other conventions of said type could learn much in manners, good behavior and possibly a bit of religion from this honest sect. I think Minneapolis would do well to investigate the out of town cars that came to the Aquatennial and other conventions that are held in our city. Minneapolis.

J. c. Carlisle. To the Editor: We are continually reminded of the severe manpower shortage in this country. As I sit in my office window at 11 o'clock in the morning of this Aug.

20, I can see four healthy looking males ranging from probably 20 years of age to 35 standing on the street corner holding up for the attention of and sale to the public a magazine to advertise a talk here on the subject of "Freedom in the New World." There are prob-ably dozens and dozens of them scattered over the city, besides numerous women, doing the same thing. Just why aren't these men in the armed forces or in essential jobs? Minneapolis. e. H. Broughton.

Czechs Weak Czechoslovakia The Czech underground has been pretty well broken up by brutal reprisals and by shipping male Czechs to Germany to work. The Czechs are in a position to do very little against the Axis. Poland Poland and occupied Russia are the testing-ground for the worst inventions of the Gestapo. There is a pro-Communist underground, but not much can be expected until the Nazis are in actual rout. Austria The Austrians are now more openly anti-Nazi.

However, there does not seem to be any organized plan of resistance. Denmark This is the Nazi showcase. The Danes are treated better than any other conquered peoples. But they are also contemptuous of the Nazis, Norway Because of the continued resistance of Norwegians of all ranks, that country is suffering more than any other except Greece. Finland The Finnish government and people continue to believe that the United States will rescue them from Russia.

Their bitterness against Russia obscures their judgment. Holland The Dutch are in a state of passive resistance with sabotage practiced by the underground. There is almost no support for the Dutch Quisling, F.D.R. Opened the Betting With Promises to Service Men-Pegler all countries to throw off its pro-Nazi leaders. Dictator Antones-cu has gone so far as to inform the Allies through neutrals that he has rebuffed Nazi calls for new Rumanian troops and that he would be open to Allied overtures.

Bulgaria Is close behind Rumania in its anxiety to escape Nazi clutches. The Bulgarian underground has almost come out into the open and is "executing" more and 'more pro-Nazi Bulgarians. King Boris hag turned down German requests that Bulgarian troops be used on the eastern front, warning that Bulgarians would desert to the Russians. He is reported so worried that he has packed his bags and is ready to flee at the first sign of uprising. Hungary Premier Kallay has ordered the return of all Hungarian troops from the Russian front, explaining that they are needed at home to protect against an Allied invasion.

Actually, Hungary is much more afraid of a Russian break-through and would prefer to do business with the British and Americans. Yugoslavia Although the Chetniks and Partisans still are rowing between themselves, this feud is being calmed. The down There are two interesting things to think about in connection with General Von Falkenhausen. The first is his present job, which, when he took it over, he thought was strictly a blind. He Is gauleiter for Belgium.

But the real reason for his being there, it is said, is that he was just a motorboat ride for the real job coming up gauleiter for England. (He speaks fluent Eng. glish.) For three years he has been waiting in Belgium for that to open up. The second is a line of speculation which is going to figure vitally in United Nations treatment of conquered Germany: is Von Falkenhausen responsible for Nazi atrocities committed in Belgium? To Belgians he is the visible final authority for deeds committed by Germans in their occupied country. Some of those deeds parallel the most savage acts debited to the Germans In Russia and Poland.

Yet Von Falkenhausen's aides, when asked to stop them, inveriably Insist that a vague Nazi figure named Kammerstein is the real offender. Kammerstein, they say, is the real boss of Belgium, Von Falkenhausen a front. They point to the general's acts of courtliness even kindness especially during the early part of his Belgian reign, before he became irritated by the stubborness of his subjects against accepting the new order. I All of this may be of real interest to the psychologist, trying to split Von Falkenhausen's personality. But to Belgians and all their sympathizers, one fact remains indestructible: The plight of Belgium was brought about by the activities of fine, polished Prussian gentlemen like Von Falkenhausen.

There can only be one sure way to resolve any doubt as to whether Von Falkenhausen or Kammerstein should be punished: hang them both. By WESTBROOK FEGLER New York. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT re- cently gave assurances to the men and women of the armed forces and the men of the merchant marine about the preferences and benefits which they will receive when they come home. This was just a white chip to open the pot, and as the boys begin to raise around the table, the betting will get brisker and rougher. By this time next year, the candidates will be tossing IOU's into the middle, all drawn against the future, including the future of the very peo- Inside Germany Germany Travellers coming out of Germany Into neutral countries report that morale is War Makes Austin's Spam World Famous But- nna Season pie who are on the receiving end of the promises.

This is all pretty thin, because when the lads and ladies come home, they will not be in a mood to ask or receive. They will just take it because this time there are so many of them that no candidate or party will be able to stand them off. A discharge bounty or bonus of $1,000 for all hands will be easy promising because, after all, that would run to only 10 billion dollars, which isn't much now by comparison with the bill for the war and the war on want which preceded it. If we are going to send groceries and food and machinery to the hundreds of millions of ex-enemies and ex-subjects of the ex-enemies, 10 billions or even 50 billions more added onto the bill to provide a bounty or bonus will not intimidate people who will then be asking "what about me?" The really honest candidate, if we have one next year, will speak to the veterans in the same mood and vein in which Winston Churchill laid it down to the people of Britain when he took over and the Nazi was just across the channel. The honest candidate would say that from war the veterans must expect to turn to steady work and a standard of living considerably below our old one, because when it is over this country will be just about stripped of things that people need.

He would say that a fellow would rate a little layoff and some parades and ceremonies but that the recovery and rebuilding will call for hard work, starting almost Immediately and continuing without prospect of any letup for years and years. And he would promise them years of extremely heavy taxes, too, and point out that because there will be so many veterans this time, the rest of the people, most of whom will be either def By GEORGE L. PETERSON Austin, Minn. pROM the South Pacific to George A. Hormel Co.

here recently arrived a picture of an army camp with a big sign: "Spamville." From Africa, Australia, Alaska, and other outposts have come letters from service men saying initely old or within a few birthdays of the downhill slope, will be unable to tote the load and won't be here to tote it more than a few years, anyway. THAT WOULD BE A HELL OF A WAY FOR A CANDIDATE TO SPEAK TO A BLOCK OF VOTES WHICH WILL RUN THIS COUNTRY AFTER THE WAR. SO PROBABLY NO CANDIDATE WILL TAKE THIS LINE. I have no confidence that the veterans will want to reclaim entirely the old freedoms at home and break ranks and have done with regimentation in their civilian life. True, they will not be very patient about questionnaires and forms but if it is put to them that by filling out the blanks and complying with certain restrictive regulations saved over from the war, they stand to get benefits in money or tax-exemption or preferential status in government jobs, they will be strongly tempted to go along and to root for more and more government jobs.

A man may think he is tired of regimentation when he is only tired of discipline and routine but unconsciously dependent" on" the government as a result of years in the service. That life does develop a feeling that "they," meaning the government, will be sending along the food and clothing in time if not on time. There will be many persuasive talkers to promise "security" without men-tioning that the price of "security" provided by the state i obedience to the state in phases of civilian life in which Americans always before were free. To be sure, the veterans will want work because work is the human way of life. But what chance has a candidate who says, "I promise you only work and taxes to pay for the shells you shot away" against one who promises cash awards, tax exemption and security? they eat Spam morning, noon and night.

The 1,300 Hormel people in uniform write home that Spam has replaced the "bully beef" of the last war. The only thing wrong with all these stories is that they don't mean Spam. Hormel has sold almost no Spam to the army and navy. What the soldiers and sailors get is an unnamed pork loaf, packed in six-pound oblong tins, that resembles Spam. The loaf is made accordinz to was visiting the big packing plant here.

A new pork loaf was being prepared and a contest was under way to select a name for it. Suggestions weren't so good. The actor dropped in with a relative who worked for Hormel. Told of the contest, he proposed Spam. Jay Hormel, president, knew at once that the loaf was named.

Spam caught on immediately. Soon after the start of the lease-lend program, the government shipped a large quantity of Spam to England. The British had known about the exchange of 50 destroyers for defense bases in Britain's colonies, and about promised planes and guns, but arrival of the canned meat was first definite evidence to the masses of Englishmen of United States deliveries under lease-lend. Naturally the British were grateful after many meatless days. Their gratitude made Spam a household word in England.

Hundreds of letters came to Spam headquarters expressing appreciation. There is plenty of pork here tor making Spam, but beef is another story. Is the black market getting the beef? It could be, Hormel men sag. More and more cattle go to the Chicago market and not all of them are bought by legitimate packers and butchers. Hogs come to the plant heavier than usual, because the ratio of corn-hog prices has been favorable for continued feeding.

This year hogs have been averaging about 305 pounds, 15 pounds heavier than a year ago. Animals that ordinarily would have come to the factory in the spring, came in all through the summer," keeping the place busy during the usual slump period. The government last year urged farmers to raise larger hogs, because feed was plentiful. With feedstuffs growing scarce, government policy has been reversed and 250-pound hogs are beginning to show up for slaughter. Together with the farmers of surrounding Mower county, the Hormel plant is loaded with work and short of help.

On the farms a record number of hogs are being raised, chickens are up 20 per cent, but there is no increase in cattle. To feed the hogs there may be close to a record crop of corn. Several farmers bringing livestock to the plant said they seldom had seen better corn prospects in these parts. Soybeans, too, are well along to maturity and a big yield. Last year frost nipped the soybeans and many fields did not ripen.

Frost does not hurt ripe soybeans, but the quality of oil from green ones is Impaired by freezing. Grain this year was reasonably good. Hay and pasture are excellent. Farmers hereabout claim never to have known a real crop failure. It's rich, good country that the Hormel plant serves in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa, land that Las made the farmers prosperous and made busy the pleasant city of Austin.

Even if the world appropriates the name Spam, Austin people are sure it won't make any great difference to industry and agriculture here. yOU MUST have noticed the cannas in public places huge flambouyant blooms of vivid col-ors. Thousands of them stand brilliant guard at Loring, Minnehaha and Elliott parks. Dozens of other spots have lesser, displays. Massed at Loring are yellow King Humbert, red Minneapolis a new variety developed in the parks here and rare white Eureka.

Out at Minnehaha a rich pink canna, Rosia Gigantea, is set off by white begonias. At the armory gardens on Ken-; wood parkway a hundred kinds of flowers run riot with the cannas. In Pioneer Square, facing the postoffice, there are no cannas, but 10,000 bedding plants make rich display. A careful gardener watches over the cannas. 0.

Hedlund has been tending them for years. Born In park board greenhouses, the plants are set out the week of Decoration day. They start blooming early in August and continue until frost, New stems spring up, and new flowers on them, so a well-tended plant will keep blossoming at ever Increasing height through three crops. As summer starts to take leave, trees and shrubs have a tired, ragged look. Then the eye wanders gratefully to fresh, glorious cannas which lead a triumphant way to the delights of autumn.

government specifications by packers all over the country, including Hormel. Soldiers everywhere took to calling it Spam, and the name sticks. Some Hormel officials are delighted to find the trade name so universally known. But others shake their heads in doubt. They wonder if Spam isn't becoming a generic term, like kodak and a lot of others that were appropriated from industry.

They wonder if they are gradually losing their rights to Spam. The name Spam originated with an actor who.