Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 5 September 1941 — Page 1

VOLUME 21—NUMBER 46.

THE POST-DEMOCRAT MUNCIE, INDIANA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1941.

PRICE: FIVE CENTS

Street Department Strike Is Near Settlement Now

Failure To Collect Garbage Has Reached p^|Q |Q

Health; Workers Are Asking for Small Raise In Wages; Problem for Local Re-

publicans To Iron Out.

UNEMPLOYED

This Is July Record Of Benefits Paid In Dela-

ware Co.

Some progress has been reported toward an

agreement to end the strike of the city street depart- Dencms c , almea oy uelawilre c ment now in its third week. Sometime ago this de-jty workers in juiy amounted partment organized local 78 as an affiliate of the ' ^™ J

C.I.O. This strike i? now being felt by every householder in Muncie because of the failure to collect the trash and garbage. This condition has become acute as it is fast reaching a proportion which will be a

menace to health.

Mayor Wilson has stood adamant in his refusal to recognize the right of the labor union to strike. After all these men are asking for very little, they arfe merely asking the recognition of their union which of course carries seniority rights. They are asking a minimum wage of $30 beginning next January 1st. This amount is certainly reasonable enough. The administration has threatened to have the hauling of garbage done by contract thus eliminating many city workers from the payroll. This controversy presents a very serious political problem for the local Republicans to iron out before next election rolls around. This needless labor agitation at the city barns has resulted in the ral lying to their cause the entire C.I.O. organization of this community. There are over eight thousand active members of the C.I.O in Delaware County, plenty to carry any election. They clearly demonstrated last fall when they voted as a unit just how much weight organized labor carries. The A. F. of L. is also very much interested in the city administration’s attitude toward organized labor. If Mayor Wilson has had any intention of running for reelection, it goes without saying that in his recent refusal to recognize the street worker’s union he has practically killed off his chance for reelection and has seriously endangered the future of the whole party in Delaware county. It is reported that the practical leaders of the Republican party are so much agitated over the affair’s probable disastrous effect on their candidates next election that they have called a mass meeting at the high school building Saturday* night in an attempt to take the labor heat off their party. o 13,905 GOES TO BALL STATE

Cash unemployment insurance benefits claimed by Delaware coun- !

to ;

$6,951.00, compared with $5,767.00 j in June, and $51,184.00 in July, | 1940, Richard Haugh, manager of j the Muncie office^ of the Indiana Employment Security Division,

said today.

Unemployment compensation benefits paid in the entire state during July were $337,726.5'0, Colonel Everett L. Gardner, Division director, informed the local man-

ager.

July claims were approximately $81,000 higher than June payments, and marked the first rise in job insurance paymenTs since January of this year when $625,065 was dis-

{ bursed. July, 1940, claims totaled

! $953,232.55, almost three times the

Hard Working Executive i benefits P aid this Jul y

GOV. SCHRICKER IS 58 YEARS OLD

I Most of the July increase came in the Evansville and New Castle areas, both having large automotive factories which closed down for the usual annual model change after carrying production on 1941 models well into the month. A rise in benefit payments in other cities

doubt the most industrious gover- havin f automotive industries is

tna iqr.q h q ri expected tor August.

0 j-- I Evansville, also affected by refrigerator plant shut downs for model changes, saw benefit payments increase $57,700 to $81,219

New Castle

Is Proud Of His

Native State

Fifty-eigth years a Hoosier. That is Gov. Henry F. Schricker, the hardest working government official in the state and without

nor Indiana ever had.

Still filled with the vitality youth and fortified by the wisdom resultant from many years af pri-

vate and governmental affairs, the , . d ™ * • Governor outlined on his birthday I -luly.^Payments in

Allotment of $294,030 to the National Youth Administration for operation of student-work projects in Indiana colleges for the school year, 1941-42, was announced today by Robert S. Richey, state NYA administrator. The appropriation, based on 7.5 per cent of each college’s enrollment in November, 1940, will give aid to approximately 2,180 students, who may receive a maximum of $15 a month for student project, work during the doming school year. Ball State Teachers College will receive its share which is $13,905.

last Saturday the conservation of natural resource and of youth as the most important problems confronting state and national goveernment today. The Governor fully realizes that the first 58 years of his life and the same period in the affairs of state are past history. Indiana can learn and profit from them but she cannot relive them. With her driving executive who has brought her back to an even keel after a near legislative calamity, the state must look to the future. Governor Schricicer has entrusted the conservation program for natural resources to the leadership of Hugh A. Barnhart of Rochester who in many years of service has demonstrated his ability and determination to make still greater the name of the state. The future of Indiana’s youth is in competent hands as far as education is concerned. The job, however, does not end in the schools. It extends to every phase of-life, j The home, amusements, religion, j and other activities play their part. Governor Schricker in his 58 short years of varied experience has discovered the importance that those m,any things have on youth and the future of the country. The people of the state will do well to remember his birthday advice. It shows the real wisdom of a man who has learned the necessities of his people from actual contact with them and not exclusively from reading and hearsay. To avoid collisions, sailors In Uncle Sam’s Navy ascend ladders on the starboard (right) side of the vessel and descend on the port, or left side.

LOANS HEP CIVIL CITY BALANCES With the use of a $50,000 loan for the general fund and $29,225 for the sinking fund, the civil city of Muncie ended the month of August with a total balance in all funds amounting to $107,214.64, Total receipts for the month* were $85,610.25 and disbursements from all funds amounted to $52,057.03. Expenditures were made from four of the ten separate funds while receipts were added to three of the funds during last month The grand total of receipts in all funds of the civil city during the past eight months of this year have amounted to $818,640.53. During the same period of time a total of $711,425.89 have been expended from these funds. , A year ago during the first eight months of 1940 the total disbursements were $828,642.25 of which $227,896 was from the sewage disposal construction fund and $13,479 from the flood control fund. The sewage works, bond, and interest redemption fund created this year from collections made of sewage disposal charges had receipts totalling $74,314.43 at the end of August. The collections made during last month for such charges were receipted through the fund last Tuesday, September 2nd, and amounted to $10,743.33. This has been the largest collection during any one month since the beginning of operations by the sewage disposal plant. The balances in the various funds of the civil city at the beginning of September were as follows: general fund, $48,091.17, park fund, $3,415.56, gasoline tax fund. $7,319.01, sewage disposal construction account, $1,318.08, improvement district bond fund, $13.66, city planning fund, $13.48, flood control, $4,705.67, bond special, $474.84, sewage works redemption fund, $12,638.17, and the sinking fund, $29,225.

during July rose $20,470 over June

to $22,004.

•Despite peak employment in Indiana factories, experience of the unemployment insurance fund in the past few months indicates a considerable amount of temporary unemployment. . Net claims filed by jobless workers had leveled off at about 1,000 a week for several months, but now such claims average around 2,000 a week, indicating that many individuals are becoming unemployed for short periods as lack of materials and other factors affect production. In this county, July benefits were awarded as follows: $487.00 to residents in the rural part; $159.00 to Eaton residents; $70.00 to Albany residents; $6,235.00 to Muncie residents. Payments in adjoining counties

were:

Madison county July, 1941, $5,811.00; and Henry county July, 1941, $21,533.00. INDIANA LABOR MOVES FORWARD

Labor has added to its ranks in Indiana because of the mammoth defense business that has come to the state and is looking more, than ever to the Democratic party for guidance and leadership. The great influx of workers to every defense area has brought with it the realization that the labor can maintain its rights only under Democratic administration of state and federal government Every gain that the working man has won in the last two decades can be attributed to the understanding and humanism of the little fellow’s party. Improved business conditions that have restored vitality to both capital and labor also have come about because of the foresight and wisdom of Democratic lawmakers and executives. Unemployment compensation, old age benefits, adequate housing programs, improved working conditions, industrial disease research, training in skilled trades, the right to organize and hundreds of other benefits to the worker were initiated or improved a hundredfold by Democratic legislatures and administrations both in Indiapa and the nation’s capital. Many of the new defense workers have brought Democracy with them from the South or from tlm industrial cities of the East. They know who is responsible for raising America from the depths of a great depression. They know that until the moneyed interest lost control, when the Republican party went down in defeat, their, rights as human beings were ignored. They know these things and many more, and they will not be soon to forget. in Indiana, under Governors Schricker. Townsend and McNutt, a great victory for the peaceful settlement of disputes has been won. Disorder, strikes and confusion in labor issues have been reduced to a minimum. The latest report of the state Labor Division shows one of the smallest number of disputes in the nation. Labor in Indiana is moving forward today and awaits election day in 1942 'to reaffirm its faith in Democratic leadership.

DISPELLING THE FOG BY CHARLES MICHELSON

That mid-ocean conference between the President of the United States and the Premier of Great Britain will be an historical channel buoy. Through the duration of the war many things that may come to pass will be attributed to what transpired on the American cruiser Augusta and on the British battleship Prince of Wales, though none but the two principals in the momentous conversations will know just what was said—until that time in the probable far distant future when a White Book will attempt to recount the story. Even then there may be two versions—not necessarily contradictory—for there certainly can be no stenographic record of what passed between the two great figures when they sat alone and planned a future for the world. i j p . They must have told each other, each from his own point of view—what should be done, what could be done and what steps were necessary to accomplish the first enterprise—the destruction of the bandit system that aims at world subjection to the will of a Nazi tyranny. Doubtless we will hear in the immediate future circumstantial reports of these intimate conversations, although nobody but the actual participants knows anything more than is revealed by the program signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston S. Churchill. That program is the simplest recital possible of the elements that insure a permanent peace. Its terms are almost axiomatic: disclaiming aggrandizement territorial or otherwise; asserting the right of .all countries to choose their own form of government; access on equal terms to the world raw material markets by all nations, victor or vanquished; freedom of the seas; disarmament of aggressor nations pending the establishment of a general system of international security, etc. “Ha! another League of Nations,” exclaim the isolationists. What difference does it make, what they call the expedient that is to bring and maintain peace that would definitely prevent the advent of another Hitler twenty years hence bent on world conquest and the imposition of the rule of force? Now for the Columnists’ Guesses We did not have to wait even for the hypothetical stories purporting to give us the hidden details. Right off the bat one of the leading isolationists announced that “It is a commitment that goes far beyond the constitutional powers of the President and one that no other President in our history even presumed to assume.” Now how does Senator Walsh know what commitments—if any—were made by the President to Premier Churchill? Woodrow Wilson announced his fourteen points, and Congress rejected the Versailles Treaty and we made our individual peace with Germany. A good many people think today that Congress blundered two decades ago—but that is another field of speculation. We did not go into the League of Nations and now find ourselves confronted by a greater menace than we faced in 1917. Whether we would be any better off if we had taken the other track is anybody’s guess. The Wilson points were, at most, a statement of the aims of America. The program outlined the other day, was the utterance of the chief of the declared enemies of the Nazis in addition to obr own. * Presumably the conversations at rea roamed all over the field—convoys, Japan, Russia, ships, oil, Free France, Dakar, and Vichy; where we would be most efficient if we went into the war; where most useful if we stayed out of the war; everything in fact from bomb-sights to butter fat that had anything to do with the situation that brought these two heads of nations together on the Atlantic. Else, why the presence of the military and economic experts of both coun-

tries ?

What May Have Been Urged Conceivably, Churchill urged that we shorifen the war by jumping in speedily. When has any embattled nation failed to seek allies ? We gained our independence by getting Louis XVI to join us—when he did—not because of any interest in England’s revolting colonies, but because it was a flank attack on his enemy. Our President could have made no commitment on that subject for only Congress can declare war. If there ever is such a declaration it will not be because of Wilston Churchill’s arguments, any more than it was British propaganda that hypnotized us in .1917—fond as the isolationists are of making that charge. We went in thenljecause the Kaiser’s forces sank our ships, and tried to bribe Mexico, with an offer to give her our Western border states, to join her in war against us. So this time, even should we take the plunge ultimately, it will be only because we deem that necessary for our own safety. This is not the first time that a British cabinet chief and an American President have conferred. Ramsay MacDonald and Herbert Hoover\sat on a log on the Rapidan and talked things over. I have forgotten, if I ever knew, what that was about, but the earth did not tremble as a result. Doubtless, President Roosevelt now knows j ust what are the conditions of the British forces, and the depth of her resources, and whatever the British have been able to learn of Hitler’s plans; probably he even knows the secret of Herr Hess’s flying to Scotland. Perhaps Premier Churchill now has a clear idea of what he may expect from this country. All told, whatever developed at the dramatic sessions aboard ship is to the advantage of both nations. Presently we will have from England as well as from our domestic commentators recitals of the particulars of the agreements—if there were any, or controversies, if there were any. Some of the guesses may be pretty good; most of them, in all probability, will be awry, based as they must be on what somebody whispered to somebody else. The usual intimate of an unnamed member of the group that participated in the ship-board conferences will doubtless be invoked frequently to hang the story on. The lesson of it all is that a grain of salt will add much to the digestibility of the secrets so disclosed.

Why the Army prefers blondes. The Navy and Weather Bureau need them too, but only 7 strands of their hair to send 46,700 feet in the air in weather forecasting instruments. An interesting and instructive popular science feature with illustrations in The American Weekly, the magazine distributed with next week’s Sunday Chicago Herald-American.

The sacred cows of America. Even the holy bossies of India don’t lead the luxurious lives of our scientifically bred' and cared for milk-giving cows. Read about them and see pictures of their daily lives in The American Weekly, the magazine distributed with next week’s Sunday Chicago Her-ald-American.

Tax Adjustment Board Next Hurdle For Levies

SEC. PERKINSHINTS SCANDAL IN HER STORY

Tells Of Eight Stormy Years In Labor Department

Reviewing Board Meets Monday To Seek Further Reductions in 1942 Budgets and Tax Rates; City Proposd Lew Now Stands At $3.74f Which Is 424 Cents Above Present Mark; School City Asks 34 Cents More On Each $100 of Assessed Valuation While County Needs Ten Cents Additional.

Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, the nation’s first woman cabinet officer, this week unfolded a remarkably frank story of her eight stormy years in the office. Her narrative ,which tells many facts not heretofore brought to light, is carried as an interview in the September issue of “Fortune,” the dollar-a-copy magazine. “Fortune” makes it clear it is publishing the article because it thinks that Secretary Perkins— despite all the brickbats thrown at her by her foes—has done an unusually good job and “has been more instrumental than most persons realize in the development of the President’s social and economic program.” Most dramatic in the story is Secretary Perkins’ first public disclosure of the condition in which she found the department when she took oyer the reins in March, 1933, after her appointment by “F.

D. R.”

She succeeded the late William Doak, who served in the latter part of the Hoover administration. She recalls that Doak gave only “perfunctory cooneration” in helping her assuing, the new job and that he spent afflare hour introducing her to bureau chiefs. What she unearthed after that was “shocking,” Secretary Perkins discloses. “As the bureau chiefs came up to shake hands the first day,I remember that seven men said, ‘I am i i charge of immigration’,” she revealed. “The only one who didn’t say it was the gentleman who bor - the title of ‘commissioner of immigration’. That gave me an idea of how the department had been op-

erated.

“The whole department was slipshod. The offices were dirty, files and papers were missing, there was no program or plan of work, there was an internal spy system and everyone was scared of everyone else and trying to get into my good graces by telling tales about the others.” The worst mess, she said, existed in the Immigration Service. “About the only functions of the service the public knew about were charges of case fixing and terrorization of aliens through the activities of a notorious secret raiding squad,” Secretary Perkins ex plained. “One of the fiirst things I did was to abolish the squad. We were lucky, to secure a commissioner general the late Colonel Daniel McCormack, a man of broad social and administrative experience. He acted with great effectiveness. “There was no fixing of cases no illegal raiding. He broke up gangs of immigrant runners in Havana and Porto Rico * * * We realized that we held tremendous power over the lives and freedom of human beings and we tried not to use our power arbitrarily.” Many other bureaus, she said, were conducted in scandalous fashion, and she spent most of her early months trying to bring order out of chaos. Secretary Perkins admits she made many mistakes during her tenure, and she lists some of them. One of these, she explains, is that she didn't handle newspaper reporters in friendly enough fashion, and wasn’t “cozy and revealing” with the “boys.” The result was reflected in the hostile way the press treated her. Miss Perkins is particularly indignaqt at the claim that she has “coddled labor.” She points oqi i that, under the law, her job is to [ promote the interests of the working people, and says she will continue to do so.—Labor. WEATHER MAXIM HOLDS FROM 3D CENTURY B. C.

Philadelphia.^—At leastr one archaic weather maxim seems to stand up fairly well under modern atmospheric records, according to a survey made by State CoiTege geophysicist Dr. Hans Neuberger. For instance, advised Dr. Neuberger, the thesis that a ring around the moon foretells rain appears in poetry of the 3d century, B. C. He said that in winter the odds are 7 to 1 that a halo will be I followed by rain or snow within 48 hours. In summer, the scientist found, rain follows a halo a little more often than two times to one, and in spring and fall the ratio is three times to one. o Baby buggies are being rationed

in England.

The Delaware county tax adjustment board will meet and begin its review of the various tax levies that have been approved by the taxing unit boards but subject to final approval by the adjustment board and the state tax commission. As usual the adjustment board faces the problems of making further reductions in the budgets and tax rates in order to keep local taxation from sky-rocketing. So far the proposed total rate for the city of Muncie is set at $3.74 >4 on each $100 of assessed valuation which i& an increase over the present rate of 42^ cents.

BALL STATE HAS NEW CLASS PLAN Plan Limited Group Of Course For Sat-

urday

Ball State Teachers College is scheduling a limited group of courses for those people who are free to come to the campus on Saturdays. ' One period of instruction is from September 13 to January 17, inclusive. Each class will meet on ; each Saturday during this period except on October 25, November 22 and December 27. The offerings are as follows: 9:00 to 11:30 h. m. 525 Ed, M6ntal Hygiene. Business Education 409, Taxation Problems. English 302, Composition. Science 300, General Science. Science 323, Introduction to Biological Sciences. Science 324, Civic Biology. Social Science 342, Social Prob-

lems.

12:30 to 3:00 p. m. 598Ed, Seminar in Elementary Education. 541Ed, The Extra-Class Life of the High School. 550E, American Literature—to

1870.’

Education 255, Primary Industrial Arts. Education 326, Industrial Arts for Intermediate-Gramar Grades. Science 359, Geographic Interpretations of World Relations. Science 376, Child Hygiene. Social Science 380, Economic and Social Development of the Modern World. The second period of instruction is from January 24 to April 18, inclusive. Each class will meet for three hours every Saturday, except that the meeting on April 18 will last four hours. The offerings are as follows: Morning, starting at 9:00 a. m. 550SS, Recent Economic and Social Changes. Afternoon, starting at 12:30 p. m. 500Ed, An Introduction to Graduate Study in Education. Other offerings for this period may -be scheduled later. One course, 5S2Ed, Business Management of the Public School, will meet from 9:00 to 12:00 a. m. for the period of September 13 to March 28, inclusive, and from 9:00 to 11:00 a. m. on April 4. This is (Continued On Page Four)

The city council met a week ago tonight to authorize a budget and tax levy for the civil city which would be the same as the present rate. The proposed levy as first j submitted would have provided for a $1.40 rate but this was reduced | to $1.19 1-2 which is the present ! levy. Five dollar per month inJ creases for salaries to police and I firemen were allowed in the budget

approved by the council.

The county council finished its review of the county budget Wednesday night and adopted a 57 cent late which is a nine cent reduction from the proposed levy but ten cents higher than the present rate. Five dollar per month increases were allowed for deputy aides in the courthouse. Welfare department costs and provisions for the 1941 election were largely responsible for the increased coun-

ty levy.

The city school board met and approved without much discussion the $1.56 tax levy tor the school city which is a 34 cent boost over fhe present rate. It is quite probable that this budget and tax levywill receive the greatest attention by the adjustment board members since it provides for the major part of the next year increased ratd proposal. The library levy in the city will be increased one-half cent next year if the proposed rate is adopted by the adjustment board members. That part of the Center township tax levy which is paid by city of Muncie taxpayers will have at least a two cent reduction from the present rate if no further adjustment is made. Members of the county tax adjustment board are Moses Black, president of the county council who has served each year on this board since its creation. Mayor Ira Wilson representing the civil city, Joseph H. Davis, school board member, William Connolly and Fred Jones, appointees by Judge Clarence Higi, J. Monroe Fitch, and Ward Marshall, who were named by Judge Claude Ball. Following approval of the various budgets and tax rates by the tax adjustment board next week, the next step will be a hearing conducted on the same by the state tax board. Completing this course^ the total budgets and tax levies for 1941, collectible during 1942, will be fixed according to law. It is estimated that the final tax raffe for Muncie taxpayers will rest near the $3.50 per $100 mark which would be an 18-cent increase over the present rate. o The U. S. Army and Navy training program calls for training 40,000 air pilots a year.

PETITIONS BEING CIRCULATED The Delaware County chapter of the Indiana Committee for National Defense held a business session at the City Hall Wednesday night. Petitions are being circulated in Muncie by this organization for the purpose of getting the government to recognize Muncie as a defense area. It is the aim of this non-partisan group to obtain the signatures of every adult citizen of this community. No patriotic citizen of this city, irrespective of politics, religion or financial status should hesitate to put his name on one of these petitions. It will be to the advantage of every man, woman and child in Muncie to be included in a national defense area. We have already lost too much valuable time in neglecting to do this.' Attempt will be made to contact every individual. The next meeting of this* organization will be held next Tuesday evening at the City Hall at eight o’clock. The aims and purpose of the Delaware County chapter of the Indiana Committee for National Defense will be explained in a radio talk over WLBC this evening at 7:15 by the chairman, Mr. Hayden Hancock, and Mrs. Ann Walterhouse. The radio time for this broadcast is being furnished by the Federated Clubs of Delaware County.