El Paso Herald-Post from El Paso, Texas • 4

A EL PASO HERALD-POST Thursday March 13 1941 Pass 4 El Paso Herald-Post This Is Not Our Clapper Pegler War Child ren 14 Food For Britain Does Not Mean Wartime Farm Boom Such As In The Last War At Ft Bragg It's Simple To Decide The Union Question a scKirrs-HOWARD KtiVsrAm FDWAKD 1C POOLEY Editor Fubltshed dillr except Sunday by The Herald-Post Publishing Co at Mills and Kansas Sts El Paso Tea Entered at El Paso postoffirt ai 2nd-ciaas matter Reglstrado comb articulo 2a clase en la Admin-latracion dt Correoa ae Juarra Chlh eon fecha 22 de abrll de 1931 TELEPHONE MAIN 6800 Member of United Press Associated Press dcnpps-Hovard Newspaper Alliance Nea Service Newspaper Information Service Audit Bureau of Circulation Associated Press Is exclusively entitled te use for publication Of all nwa dispatches credited to It or not otherwise credited In this paper alio the local news published therein SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By carrier In El Paso 15e week straight outside 18c week By mall in Tessa New Mexico and Arisons 73c month 8225 three months 8425 six months 8800 year Elsewhere in United States Mexico and Canada tl 00 month 8250 three months it six months 8200 yesr Other foreign countries 8200 per month atraight Mall subscriptions payable in advance The Herald was established in 1881 The Post in 1922 Glve light sad the rtopl will find their sws teay" THURSDAY MARCH 13 1941 qEVEN billion dollars is the big round figure which the President asks of Congress to start our program of munitioning friendly nations in Europe and Asia This huge new sum added to the 32 billions already appropriated authorized or recommended in this emergency gives a total of 39 billions With the President all of us will hope that the wars may end in time for some part of this stupendous total to be saved But none of us Including the President can be sure that before it is all over the sum will hot be much larger The end is not ip sight Thirty-nlhe billions Is a figure too astronomical for the lay mind to grasp It help much to compute how many dollars a day that would be since Methuselah was born or how many times that many dollar bills end-to-end would encircle the globe But for those who like comparisons we offer a figure from the recent report of Chairman of the Temporary National Economic Committee that the total assessed valuation of the 22 states west of the Mississippi River is only $34-720000000 Who should pay? Some part of the blame no doubt attaches to generations that are gone But by no rule of conscience or reason can any portion of the responsibility be fixed upon our children or their children Yet under the present federal tax structure nearly all of these defense outlays are being charged to the future This emergency belongs to this generation While it is true -that no modern war could be entirely paid for while it was being fought we ought to do the best we can We ought to pay and pay and pay every dime we can for what we pay will be added on with interest to the debt burden which Americans of the future must carry from cradle to grave and they will have emergencies of their own to finance Congress has been quick to spend slow- to tax postponing the reckoning from one election to another for 11 long years of deficit finance Now it is said that a real revenue bill will be proposed as soon as the March 15 tax returns are tabulated In view of our enormous commitments for defense and other purposes what would be a revenue Well here Is one rule-of-thumb which suggests itself To young American draftees who are giving up a year of their lives to prepare themselves to defend their country we are paying $30 a month plus food and clothes Any American staying at home making wages or profits in excess of what the draftee earns ought to be glad to pay direct out of pocket And the fairest way to lay the assessment is by income tax on each according to his ability to pay The Prospers And Also Pinches A Penny THE Southern Pacific announces the 1 ordering of $20000000 worth of equipment 50 locomotives and 2500 freight cars to handle increased business fLie It's good to know that the Southern Pacific is so prosperous it needs all that new equipment It is also good to know that -the Southern Pacific can find $20000000 when it needs the money Looks like it could find $14000 to freshen up the old depot If it those new streamlined locomotives the last word in railroad' beauty and speed are liable to blow a cylinder for shame when they have to roll into that smutty old bam A NOTHER item about the Southern Pacific douses our enthusiasm however and reminds us that there has been no progress along another line The westbound passenger train which arrives in El Paso in the early evening passes through San Antonio at 3:30 in the morning For years a pullman has been set out for the benefit of travelers from San Antonio the Lower Rio Grande Austin and other places thereabouts A few days ago that car was taken off and now passengers have to sit up until 3:30 a for the privilege of paying their money for a ticket to El Paso or Los Angeles The faithful employes who meet the public and sell the tickets in that territory know why it was done They say there is more traffic for that train now than there has been in a long time They hope their customers wil write the management We doubt if anybody knows why it was done Probably some executive in a swivel chair figured he could save $490 By RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON Food from the United States has become important to the British but this does not mean that a wartime farm boom such as the last war caused is in prospect The American farmer on the whole will not share in the war boom which industry is enjoying This war has hit the American farmer hard and will continue to do so Officials here advise that no one be misled by thefact that the British are in need of large quantities of certain kinds of foodstuffs and that these will be moved under the lease-lend program They don't want to see any repetition of the silly sugar panic which outbreak of this war Ifelp For Cotton THE British want to obtain quantities of certain foodstuffs here largely meat and dairy products They have been buying a little as possible in the United States primarily because they wished to save their American exchange for purchase of munitions which could be obtained nowhere else The Lease-Lend Bill removes the bottleneck of limited dollar exchange Furthermore the shipping shortage grows more acute and the British are driven to abandoning long hauls from Empire points in favor of the shortest haul which is from the United States and Canada Those two reasons bring the United Slates Ipto line as the food supplier But this demand is restricted and will not affect the bulk of American farmers in any way For instance cotton growers will get nothing out of it Their exports have practically stopped We have a whole cotton crop piled up in storage with another one coming on Britain is not in the market for cotton in any increased quantity Neither is Britain in the market for United Slates wheat Can-ada has an enormous surplus This backs up against our own huge wheat slocks and the gigantic crop which is in prospect Actually Ihere is more wheat in the world today than has ever before existed We hate more corn on hand than we ever have had Prospect For Fork A MONG those three surpluses corn alone stands to be favorably affected by th prospective exports of war food to Britairif The United State is the chief pork supplier for the world British access to Denmark and other Continental sources of pork has been cut off It is natural lhat she should turn here If Britain should seek large quantities of pork and perhaps dairy products these can be supplied without disarranging American supplies to any noticeable degree The Government has huge quantities of corn held under the loan program for instance and these would be fed out to keep prices steady Secretary of Agriculture Wickard has participated in Administration conferences over prospective British needs and has already begun activities to meet them without upsetting domestic markets This is possible because of the heavy surpluses in most commodities Official see no reason for any sharp advances in prices and every effort will be made lo prevent them Increased Durden THE net of it is that continuation of the war will result prolonging the drastic choking off of our export market for surplus crops The demand for labor in industry will drain off farm labor and increase the costs of farm production as will rising prices in farm implements and other goods used by the farmer There is no prospect of increased farm prices to offset these increased costs Officials foresee the possibility that the pgri-cultural programs ill have to bear an increased burden Last week farm members in Congress sought In expand the Government subsidy to agriculture but were unsuccessful Prcsure for this will continue The is-it food needs will help case the situation some but only slightly in the special lines already indicated THINKING OUT LOUD An Open Letter To John The Fence By WESTBROOK TEOLER FT BRAGG Fayetteville Well sir you just would be surprised to learn how simple this i tion is whether you join a union as a preliminary to catching a job on a big Govern ment building operation in a community where the people aren't a mind to join and pay If they aren't a mind to they simply don't and the money regicr which they otherwise would have paid to local un-ioneers and strangers sent in to shake them down is theirs to do 'with as they like The Army post of Ft Bragg is one of the biggest in the country and it has been an open shop job from the beginning except that in the plumbing and steamfitting contracts the unions were allowed to provide the help until they ran out of men When all their members were at work and still more men were needed non-union men were hired Quarter and service buildings such as hospitals warehouses and movie thenters shops sheds and laundries have been building to accommodate a force Of about 63-000 men The work began last September and is now 87 per cent finished and it is safe to say that the shakedown union which has been extorting money from the pick and shovel hands on most other jobs of the kind throughout the United States didn't pick up a five-dollar bill here Lucky Ilreak THE carpenters are almost all farmers living In a neighboring region embracing five counties who had time on their hands anyway during the winter and such skill as a man needs to keep his buildings mended and replace any that burn down Altogether about 45000 men have been hired and paid for more or less time at 63 different occupations having to do with the construction of buildings and roads mains sewers and all the other vork that constitute a big cantonment for soldiers and while union men have been welcome no man has been barred because he didn't belong to a union and refused to do business with the collector The work is now in the final stages so this is one big Government defense job at least which has been art almost total loss to the carpet-bagging unioneer In a way however they all had the benefit of collective bargaining because the pay was established by the United States Department of Labor Carpenters have been drawing 90 cents an hour and working 48 hours a week plumbers Sl-25 an hour and laborers 10 cents an hour That is correct 30 cents an hour for laborers mostly colored farm hands or only S1440 for a 48-hour week and the bargaining agent on their behalf was the Department of La-bor-a fact which apparently gives official support to the contention that living is cheap around here for Negroes as it should be considering the sort of living it is but anyway this employment has been a windfall for almost all concerned who otherwise would have been earning in round numbers nothing during the months consumed on the fort The job has been a lucky break for the whole region and it has been moving along swiftly toward day soon to come when the contractors can drag their clutter off the big military reservation and clear out so that the soldiers may really settle down to prepare to finish that war Every Dollar Earned HE speed of the work undoubtedly has been the greater for the absence of union business agents on the prowl to catch men driving too many nails per hour and hnggling over minute questions of jurisdiction such as that in Dayton where a whole job was shut down because the CIO sent in four electricians of special skill to do a specific job and they were protested by the job-trust in power The North Catalina workers and a scattering drawn from a few other Southern states just refused to have any truck with the unions reducing the question to Its simplest terms which have been fogfieri out of sight by arguments in the last few years No man's right to join a union was contested but most of the men stood on their right not to join and their right ns American citizens to work at their legitimate occupation nevertheless They are mostly of Anglo-Saxon stock and mostly native not only to the United Slates but to the region and many undoubtedly have relatives and friends in uniform living in the barracks which alrcndy are turned over to the Army Patriotism is rife among them and foreignixm and the sabotage of a defense work as a means of advancing the narrow interests of a union or the graft of a shakedown business agent would have been something on the order of treason to their way of thinking And every dollar they earned has been theirs By I)R CONNER ONE hundred co-eds of the College of Mines tomorrow at 11 a at the college will compete in a posture contest The girls will show how stately they can walk turn sit stand and loll For days they have been holding tummies in walking slowly about with books on their heads All of which makes onr wonder whether after fill education fails to keep pace with the trend of things Take boys for instance The important thing in schools now is that they learn something that they can become cogs in national defense machinery School have turned over swiftly to this new idea But vet we find the girls are still walking around with books on their heads Of what use to a man in an Army camp is a date with a book on her head? 'i most noted editor in our most-read publication just said you "committed the most cnllossal diplomatic blunder in all when you kicked out of Munich the Brar that Walks Like a Man Dr Benes ihe Czech foreign minister is here and he say the Muscovite was ready to stand by them and wanted to sit in at Munich For that John you have paid in tears ashes and blood and for that you will pay and pay and pay in tears ashes and blood and we too perhaps From lhat moment the Bear flew to his historic enemy the Hun and made alliance Another thing and in this wc too bear some guilt recall how you stood silent with a pleased smirk when the Hun and the Dago murdered democracy struggling in Spain? As an American I cnii I bdlush 'with shame when I think bow we and you allowed ours-sclves with the Hun and the Dago 1o further Fescism and repine Spain Remember you asked fur it when the Huns start marching across that land to take Gibraltcr i And about all this bombing of your civilian you complain of I know it's horrible but John isn't it true you have been for some years and are so doing today bombing wiping cut whole villages in the Northwest Provinces and in Palestine and Tran-'-Jordania? I know of my i own knowledge John end have nme photos to prove it that every lime your oil line to Haifa wa rut you bombed and minaled a village or two and murdered many innocents Yes John you asked for what you are getting but the woist part of it and what makes us sore is that we ton have to pay for what you asked for But we are ready to pay not for love of you essentially but love of our ovil way of life which is menaced as a result of thing you have done or neglected to do betraying yourself and the whole world of men of good will And ean you wonder John why men of good will Ihe world over speak of the traditional perfidy of Albion? AT FORD ROOS Vanadium Editor The Herald-Post: Dear John: Thought I'd just drop you a line and let you know how some folks over here think of things Soft of rub it in a bit over the things that got you and the rest of the folks into the sorry mess we're all in Thought it might do a bit of good Of course John many of us don't approve of your past record or your way of life with your caste system and all that but we believe vour system with all its faults is better than Adolfs And we are going to go all-out not so much to preserve your senile old carcass as to save our own hides knowing it's our turn when or if Adolf does you up You are going through a lot of misery and a lot more and worse yet to come but really now John don't you think you aked for it? What have you forgotten? Well just a very few reminders: Remember John just a few years back when the Little Yellow Men started all this grabbing business over in Manchuria and our Secretary of State Stimson pleaded with you to join up with us and stop this blooming grab-game before it got popular? Remember how you turned us down cold? Then came the China "Incident" and you never lifted a finger nor even frowned while the Little Yellow Men booled you out of China machine-gunned your ambassador and took over your property It was then you started scuttling the League of Nations when China appealed to it as a member But you really finished the scuttling and incidentally probably signed your own death warrant when you did in the Ethiopians also a fellow-member of the League Due to your encouragement the game of grab really became popular when you put Italy on the grab in that secret treaty your manager made with the manager of the Frogs telling Mussolini to go ahead and carve up and take over the inheritance of the Queen of Sheba Of course John you sort of repudiated your managers then after It came out and your treachery made your sons the world over blush with shame to own they were Englishmen Of course no' one was fooled when you made that silly futile gesture with the sanctions against the Dago but Hitler Grubs For Gold I iITLER and his stooges have been telling us for years that they do not want gold the capitalist monetary metal and they are going to destroy capitalism They do not need gold So herewith a slip of the pen of the German propaganda agency at 11 West 57th street New York the item being contained in the March 8 release of Flashes for which arrived in El Paso yesterday: Prague March 8 In its efforts to advance the economic situation of the Protectorate the government has caused the reopening after extensive repairs of an ancient gold mine at Eule near Prague The mine had been worked rather extensively in times as far back as the Middle Ages Operations are already being carried on to a depth of more than 4900 feet So Hitler need or want gold -eh? La Guardia Speaks Out pULLHEADED obstinate and said Mayor La Guardia of the union leaders who called the bus strike in New York City The mayor was angry and no wonder He had reason to feel that the union leaders had taken advantage of his friendship for organized labor and organized labor has no firmer friend In Congress he helped to write -one of the great charters of labor liberty the Norris-La Guardia Act Throughout his career he has fought to protect the rights of unions But when he thought first of the people of his city as is his duty and urged the transport union chiefs to wait for mediation of their controversy with the bus companies they disregarded him called the strike and deprived nearly million New Yorkers of the use of buses Well the way it's going in too many cases in this country with labor leaders using their power to make' trouble for the friends who have helped labor to become powerful The New York bus strike Is bad but strikes In the defense industries called without permitting a chance for peaceful settlement are worse And to a friend of labor who is an Ernie's Mother you probably scaled your death warrant when you didn't go through with those sanctions and everyone now is quite sure you practically committed suicide when you stopped the Frogs frnm stopping the Huns fortifving the Rhine also when you double-crossed the Frogs by telling the Huns to go ahead and build up their navy U-boats planes etc you finished yourself Remember how you turned coldly away only three years ago when Emperor llallie Selassie made his historic and eloquent plea as a Inember of the League? At that moment you sunk the League without a trace! Not even a stray spar afloat thereafter And didn't you sell the Czechs down the river? Ah how welcome today would be those 40 superb Czech divisions with all their tanks plnnrs and guns manned by the best fighting men in Europe you treacherously betrayed at Munich! Speaking of Munich America' honest public official the time comes when he must remember that his first duty is to the public when he must speak out as Mayor La Guardia did against obstinate and labor leadership Side-Bar Remarks By Pooloy In Old El Paso i Side Glances By MRS WALTER FERGUSON IT will be hard tor Ernie Pyle to come back to that Indiana farm and not find his mother there And each time such a woman passes from life a little bit of the old Amer-i icm spirit departs too I Ernie's mot net was not a modern woman in any sense of the word: she was a farm I housewife and proud of it What she didn't hold with she held with You couid lake it or leave it and her also But she knew the true meaning of the word "home" because she had helped lo make one and had dedicated her life to keeping it a haven of peace and happiness Her feet were rooted in the good earth and she was wise with the wisdom that comes-A to those who hold fust to the eternal varieties To such women 'lungs are either good or hod and there is no compromise with evil Yet they possess it kind of innocence which is the usual endowment or minds that ean distinguish between true and false values and how- few of us ean do Hint in these dvs! Such characters stand like rocks in a weary land eternally true to themselves and eternally loyal to others Now when so many of our women strain themselves to "keep up with things" when every wind cf opinion can sway their thinking and when most of them know Roberts" Rules of Order much 1 better than they do their Bibles lie Mrs Pyles of ihe land grow in our esteem Although it has given us many benefits the New Freedom seems to have deprived us of poise We are victims of some inner tumult and not so sure of ourselves as women used tii be Economic changes of course are pertly responsible but we cannot escape the conviction that great characters do not emei gi from a society where initiation and bootlicking are so widespread Ernie's mol her probably would be surprised to find herseir praised for her naturalness but in a country when so many women would rather be fashionable than right just hearing about her kind renew our faith in the old simplicities for which even while we refuse to admit it most of us yearn I have known football players to take because It was a and the strong-muscle boys who couldn't get by in English could pass it Philosopher Woods and others of his school would have the teacher take only technical training forgetting learning and culture without Which no teacher can be great In all other professions the trend is the other way Even a lawyer has to be educated nowadays to graduate from the best law schools He must know something about Thackeray as -well as torts In journalism which has much in common with teaching the universities have steadily cut down on the technical training In the best schools it requires about one-third of the time The remainder is devoted' to literature economics history civics and such subjects as will help a newspaperman to intelligently evaluate news The Nieman Fellowships for newspapermen at Harvard do not teach typography or editorial writing They give post-graduate courses in subjects that appear daily in the papers This year the most popular courses are economics and European history BUT when a school teacher takes postgraduate course the "philosophers" expect her to study "Education" So she gets her A and then her Ph and when she is finished by virtue of those magic letters she gets a pay raise but she has added little to her store of learning and learned nothing that a roomful of kids would not have taught her in less time For a Ph in "Education" is the "crip" amohg degrees There's nothing wrong with the American school teacher She's better than she has ever been What's wrong with the -schools is the administrators They try to be "philosophers" when they should be executives people who are able to cut down waste and save some money so that the teachers cart get better pay and the taxpayeis get more for their money Whenever the administrators equal the teachers in loyalty and efficiency we will have far better schools STATE SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT A WOODS says he has enlarged his of He not only wants to teach our children men- tally but also emotionally spiritually and physically Well I wouldn't know about all that I'd much rather my wife would take care of the emotional and spiritual education of nur child than have it done by a succession of strangers but I argue about it Another phase of Dr "philosophy" which follows from his four-sided idea of education strikes me as wacky though He is quoted as saying "any teacher today who is not prepared to teach her own pupils physical education and health as well as music lacks some -of the qUiilificatiohs she should To which I beg leave to dissent Such a as that and such as Dr Woods are what's wrung with the schools today Such ideas as that make it impossible for the colleges to produce the best teachers Such ideas as that make teaching a vocation instead of a profession Such ideas as that train teachers but fail to educate them if PHILOSOPHER WOODS' idea would require that the woman of 40 the backbone of any school system with 20 years' experience get out on the playground and "kick up her heels teaching physical tion It would require her to teach the youngsters how to play the piano though she might be tone deaf It ignores the fact that though she might be unable to do gymnastics or impart music she is an expert in history 'or physics or arithmetic who can put Into young minds a lasting knowledge of her speciality Philosopher Woods would spread the learning thin and make Jills of all trades and mistresses of none out of our school teachers They would go to college and return for 'an A or a Ph and all they would 'study would be a subject which FORTY YEARS AGO ilrnm TH Herald of Mareti IIUlll The hose house on Mesa avenue will lint contain a fire bell after all The committee appointed to inspect the building decided it was not strong enough to hold the heavy bell Mrs Kolilberg yesterday was elected vice president of the Woman's Club to fill the vacancy caused bv resignation of Mrs While TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO 1 1 rum 'J'hr Hrralil of March 1:1 mill) Three El Pasoan drove off Mexican bandits thought to be Villista i Hi gunfire when they atiemptfri to rob them npar Lanai The El Pa-nans were It secret agent for the El Paso Southwestern aiul II Hausen and Hartley -V- As a precaution to pi event an outbreak in the city dining ihe night the police strength of El Paso has been doubled by the chief of police and 100 men are patrolling the city T1IE WORLD WARS 25 YEARS AGO: Losses of Brit- ish war forces in Mesopotamia in the recent battle near Felnhie arc estimated ly the Turkish War Office as III least 5(10(1 1 YEAR AGO: Sweden and Norway have agreed to a drfense alliance with Finland mul expect to start negotiations after final ratification of the llussu -Finish treaty Washington Small Talk Your Questions Bv PETER ED 5 ON UNCLE SAM'S travel bill for 1940 was S10-COOOPO First sign of spring in Washington is shad roe on the restaurant menus The rush for gallrry seats at the Senate ended as soon as the senators look lip lease-lend amendment Department of Agriculture savs the hog census was 52-981000 on January 1 a drop of 7000000 from a year ago You don't call 'em "sergeant majors" in the Army any more They're "master sergeants" College graduate C'omanehe Indians whose language is still spoken but bus never been written are to give Hie Army a new secret code that can't be deciphered Our tVaahington Service Bureau will (jiswer by personal letter any qncMion nf frc or Information If you will mail your question to The El Paw Herald -Port Servic" Bureau 11)13 Thirteen Street Washington rn-rlnaing three eenu in Ump for reply The Bureau cannot give medical or legal advice Is it neepssary to send a model when applying for a patent on an nventinn A Only when Ihe primary examiner In the PHlent Ofrice rinds II nerensary or netful In undertlanriln the invention otherwise model are not r-eepted The applicant will be notified model to required ate my friends Pop they just happened to be toalking ust".