Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 25 February 1944 — Page 2

THE POST-DEMOCRAT Ji Democratic weekly newspaper representing the |5emocrats of Muncie, Delaware County and the iC+h Congressional District. The only Democratic Newspaper in Delaware County. Entered as second class matter January 15, 1921, at the Post Office at Muncie, Indiana, under Act of March 3, 1879. “ PRICE 5 CENTS—$1.50 A YEAR " MRS. GEO. R. DALE, Publisher 916 West Main Street Muncie, Indiana, Friday, February 25. 1944.

States’ Rights Come to Life To Deny Soldiers the Vote It's not a surprise to find New Jersey’s Governor Walter E. Edge orating in support of that all-time world’s worst fraud—the so-called states’ rights ballot for soldier voting. Edge is a GOP politician before all else. And the GOP conspiracy—to which he adhered as though he were on tracks—is that every trick in the book shall be trotted out to prevent the soldiers from voting this Presidential election year. It’s the Republican “party line.” Edge spoke at the National Republican Club’s Lincoln birthday dinner in New York. In honor of Lincoln, it was meant to be. But Edge and the bulk of the GOP did him only dishonor. Of course, Edge and the rest of them, the conspiring Northern Republican and reactionary Southern Democrats in Congress, pat the soldiers on the back. But it’s to find the soft spot for the knife. Overanxious to defeat President Roosevelt, should he run again, this Republican combination oozes with specious objections to a federal ballot which would give all armed men fullest opportunity to vote. That discredited States’ rights issue ! States’ rights aren’t even involved. Senator Carter Glass has made that completely clear. The way to give the soldier the vote—is to give it to him. The Federal ballot does it. That’s simple enough. And just as simple is the obvious conclusion that whoever is against the Federal ballot is against the right of soldiers to vote. ABC’s The States’ right scheme—more than 4000 different ballots from different districts and 48 sets of regulations—would be impossible to deliver and collect, would disfranchise millions by confusion. The conspirators — they see too many Roosevelt votes for comfort among our heroes—now trot out a new gag: The Federal ballots would have to have the electors of the various States printed on them! For, in election for President and Vice President, the vote technically is for the electors. Such electors are named so late in the campaign that inclusion would be virtually impossible. ‘ Here is more sophistry to support Republican prejudice and hatred. Let the ballot state that it is a vote for the Democratic or GOP electors (of any given State). The Supreme Court, conscious of the emergency and fully aware that there could be no greater vioatiOn of the Constitution than to deny even one sodier his vote, would surely uphold such a ballot—if anybody were foolish enough to challenge it. The fate of the soldier vote lies now in a joint House-Senate Committee. The members have before them the states’ rights bill the House passed and the modified GreenLucas bill, a Federal ballot measure approved by the Senate. Their duty, and subsequently the duty of both houses of Congress, is obvious. Let the soldiers vote! No buts! —Philadelphia Record. V Politics Along the Potomac Washington, D. C. — Most persons who come to Washington to live seems crestfallen when they realize that they can’t vote here. All local officers from the Mayor and Alderman down, were elected by the people of the District of Columbia for the first 75 years. An emergency condition, after the Civil War, was met when Congress assumed control of the city of Washington. But nobody ever dreamed in those days that the people had permanently lost the rights of suffrage. Nevertheless no one has been allowed to vote since Washington, D. C. was locked in the dog house 70 years ago. Newcomers to Washington who ask “why,” cannot find any good reason for this autocratic political ostracism. Three Commissioners are appointed by the President of the United States and they continue to be the rulers-of-all-the-works. But that is about all that remains as a reminder that Washington is an American community, even though all rights of self-government are denied: Over 84,000 citizens voted in an unofficial referendum a half dozen years ago, asking for their rights of suffrage and self-govern-ment. Of course they couldn’t get it without authority from Congress—-and what was the answer? “No.” Congress used the silly old alibi that it couldn’t be done without an amendment to the Constitution. As noted above, Congress took away the vote in 1874 after it had been in operation the same as in the States from the days of Adam and Jefferson down to the Grant administration. Congress did it without reference to the Constitution. Apparently “taking was keepin’s” — even though the rule is that misappropriated

POST-DEMOCRAT, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1944.

property can be—should be—returned to the rightful owners. Congress is in a jam over this “vote seizure.” Washington has grown like a fertilized mushroom patch until it has a larger population than exists in a dozen states. Over 80,000 D. C. servicemen and women are part of the “soldier-voters.” How can Congress let them vote and continue to keep several hundred thousand local residents in the political dog-house? A big fight on that important question is “just around the corner.” V We Must Trust the People In Wartime Elections Should democracy adjourn for the duration? That question is raised, again, by the Buffalo Courier Express, in an editorial urging a pact by which both major parties would nominate Mr. Roosevelt for President, a Republican for Vice President. The pact would provide that when the war in Europe ends Mr. Roosevelt would resign, to head our delegation to the peace conference, and the Republican Vice President would thus succeed him. This, says the Courier Express, would provide a “holiday from party politics.” Similar proposals in the past have had the same motive. It was the idea behind the resolution of the Mississippi House of Representatives that both parties nominate Roosevelt and MeNary. Pass over the political impracticality of the proposal. Chances are 1000 to 1 against approval by the national conventions, both Democrats and Republican. Yet we’d oppose the plan even if both parties were for it— . Because it contains one fatal flaw; it is based upon distrust of the American people. xxx We prefer to trust the people. Their intelligence, courage and loyalty must win our victory. Are those same qualities inadequate to settle an election? The strength of Franklin Roosevelt is not his alone. No more than Abraham Lincoln’s was. The greatness of such men as wartime leaders lies in the faith they have in the people—and in the reciprocal faith the people have in them. Such faith in itself is a potent source of national power. It is that faith which has made the totalitarians eat the words they once shouted so loudly about the decay of democracies. We would rather see President Roosevelt defeated for re-election in 1944, assuming he decided to run, than see him kept in power by any such too-clever scheme for shoTt-cir-cuiting our democratic processes. We think he would fefuse to run such a fixed race. xxx History gives no warrant for distrusting the people. In Britain, though we seldom think of it, Parliament could oust Mr. Churchill tomorrow if it chose. Mr. Churchill remains in power because the British people believe in him. His predecessor, Neville Chamberlain, was forced out—in the midst of war—because the people wanted to “change horses” and get a better horse. Australia had an election last August. It was bitterly contested. But the Australian people kept their heads, and re-elected the Curtain Administration. We believe, as we said the other day, that the slogan “don’t change horses in the middle of a stream” is a false slogan. If a nation needs a new horse, as Britain did in 1940, the people should choose one. We don’t think America needs or wants a “new horse.” It has the best in sight. We believe that if President Roosevelt runs again he will be the choice of our fellow-citizens. If he isn’t, then the man who gets the majority ought to succeed him. The President’s record, in peace, in war, and in the hearts of his countrymen speaks for itself. xxx The Axis way of life is to silence the people. Our way is to trust the people, Let’s hold fast to our way. —Philadelphia Record. ^ y It Gives Us Creeps, Too Some years ago—quite a few, we fear — George Kaufman and Marc Connelly wrote a satirical play, “Beggar on Horseback.” It forecast §i day when writers would be little more than robots, working in platoons, chained in cages, all grinding out the ideas of a monopolistic master. Perhaps that day crawls closer than anyone has suspected. In refusing to permit Reader’s Digest to reprint further material, The New Yorker magazine files two complaints against that publication: 1. That “nowadays a large proportion of its contents is frankly original, and not presented as reprint material”; 2. That of the stuff presented as reprint material “much actually originates in the office of the Digest and is farmed out to some other magazine for first publication.” Of this second development, The New Yorker editors add: “The effect of this . . . is that The Digest is beginning to generate a considerable fraction of the contents of American magazines. This gives us the creeps, as does any centralization of Genius. The fact seems to be that some publications are already as good as subsidized by the Digest.” Worse, the Digest, while having no open and above-board editorial policy of its own, has been loading its contents against the New Deal and the President, so the net effect

upon millions of readers is more potent than would be an honest statement of opinion. We have commented upon the Digests publication x)f Louis Bromfield’s prediction of a “February Famine” for 1944, a famine now conspicuously absent, and upon its printing of Sen. Butler’s misinformed and statistically inaccurate story of the U. S. Good Neighbor program in South America. There have been others. The pen not only is mightier than the Sword. It can be used with equal facility for stabbing in the dark—Or in the back. — Philadelphia Record. V Speaks a Mouthful Economic Stabilizer Vinson, appearing before a Senate committee hearing on the sub-sidy-inflation question, spoke a mouthful of words the other day when Senator Danaher (R. Conn.) asked if some compromise couldn’t be worked out. “What I’m trying to do is carry out the program you gentlemen passed in Congress,” Vinson said. “You voted for stabilization. If you have stabilization, you don’t have it for some and not for others. There is no such thing as halfway stabilization. You can’t compromise. Either you keep the cost of living down—which is stabilization—or you let it go up—which is inflation.” Senator Ball (R. Minn.) had proposed giving food stamps, similar to those used in the WPA relief program, to persons with fixed incomes, and allowing those not receiving fixed incomes to pay higher prices. “Do you want me to put every wife of a soldier or Army officer in the category of a pauper?” Vinson asked. “They all have fixed incomes. So do school teachers, policemen, firemen and all city and government officials . But they are not paupers. I’m sure you would be the last to have them declared so.” Judging from the types of proposals being made, and the source, it would seem the Republicans are very much in favor of inflation. V Bertie Can’t Throw Stones Colonel Robert R. (Bertie) McCormick, stupormah of the American political scene, has been entered in the Illinois primary for the GOP Presidential nomination—with an anchor around his neck. The hunk of iron is the organization which named him—the Republican Nationalist Revival Committee. Its nominal chairman is Edward James Smythe. Smythe, a pipsqueak Fascist, is under indictment with 20 others, including Mrs. Elizabeth Billing, particular pet Of McCormick and his Chicago Tribune, on charges of fomenting a Nazi conspiracy in America. That kind of indorsement is the smackeroo of death for the publisher with the polysyllabic tongue and monosyllabic brain. But McCormick can hardly disown his friends. He wept his black tears of printers’ ink when the 30 were indicted last month. And he himself peddles a merchandise wKich he calls Americanism but which is admired in Berlin and Tokio. Disowm his friends as dangerous to the national welfare? Who is McCormick to throw the first stone ?—Philadelphia Record. V Institutional Employes Gov. Henry F. Schricker’s plan to place state prison guards on eight-hour shifts is a commendable idea and recalls that Indiana lags behind industry in its conception of what should constitute good working conditions. If the state budget is sufficiently elastic to justify the employment of 40 additional guards for the Michigan City Prison they will be recruited and the work day decreased from 12 to eight hours on March 1. The shorter day, it is believed, w r ill attract abler men to the guard jobs. These men are chiefly responsible for the enforcement of prison discipline. Their mental attitude toward prisoners is important. The morale of an institution’s inmates depends to a large extent upon the outlook and conduct of the men with whom they come in constant contact. If a shorter working shift is possible for the state prison, a similar schedule for all of Indiana’s penal, correctional and benevolent institutions ought to be established as quickly as the mon-power situation and state finances permit. The state may as well realize that it can no tenlist qualified personnel unless it provides suitable working conditions.—Indianapolis News. V—Soldiers Getting Distorted View A warning of the danger to the country of the campaign under way for some time to infuriate and inflame the men in our armed services against the workers at home is sounded by the “Cooperative B u i 1 d e r,” spokesman for consumers’ cooperative groups. Back of the propaganda is seen a deliberate effor t to discredit the workers’ organizations, in wKich many newspaper editorial writers and columnists and radio commentators are lending a helping hand. It would be surprising, indeed, in the face of this misrepresentation, werQ our fighting men not confused and alarmed, the “Cooperative Builder” says. “No one has bothered to point out to them,” it adds, “that the big majority of men in the ranks, and even a good many of the wartime officers, are of the laboring class themselves, and that those much-maligned labor organizations will help them, too, when it’s all over and they return to the mines and the mills.

“The boys haven’t had a chance to reason out that if the forces of reaction succeed in smashing the unions during the war, they, too, will be helpess pawns of Big Business that is leaving no stone unturned to emerge from the war more powerful and better organized than ever.” The “Cooperative Builder” contrasts the vindictive and malicious attitude of the press and radio toward labor with the tender treatment they gave “unconscionable profiteering, shameless war production fraud, and scheming for post-war control of the world by Big Business.” “Outside of a few courageous journals and | the labor papers themselves,” it declares, “this Big Business finagling gets no publicity. The overwhelming majority of the nation’s papers, to say nothing of the radio, simply ooze with capital’s praise of its own patriotism. “DuPonts, Standard Oil and the rest of the profiteering trusts—yeah, even companies of the stripe of Anaconda Copper and Wright Aircraft—that have been indicted for conspiring to produce faulty equipment for our armed forces—they all keep telling the home front and the boys ‘over there’ how unstintingly, unselfishly, patriotically they sacrifice for Uncle Sam’s cause.” What do the conspirators hope to gain by their campaign to fool the fighting men? They are trying to divert attention from their misconduct during the war and to pave the way for an even greater foray against the public welfare after the shooting stops, this brave spokesman for consumers declares. V Dewey Knocking Himself Out Gov. Dewey grievously out-smarted himself politically when he rallied behind the reactionary Republicans and Southern Democrats in Congress to cheat our fighting men out of their opportunity to vote. Now he finds himself bracketed with men who will cynically admit their fear that most of the soldiers and sailors would vote for President Roosevelt, and rather than permit that to happen would deny the men in the armed forces their fundamental democratic right. By now it is obvious to the soldiers and their families at home that these men put their political ambitions ahead of every consideration of justice and decency in public affairs. And Gov. Dewey has placed himself in their company. Regardless of the outcome of the battle over the phony issue of “states’ rights” these men are tagged as politicians whose sole interest in the democratic process to which they give so much lip service, is how to make it work their way. The Republicans are now deeply disturbed over the boomerang political effect of the almost unanimous Republican effort in Congress to kill soldier voting. We don’t know what influence this will have on Gov. Dewey’s chances of winning the G. O. P. Presidential nomination. But we do know that Gov. Dewey’s recent course will have an effect on his chances of winning the presidency, if he does get the nomination. We think it will reduce those chances to the vanishing point.—New York Post.

y Where’s the Bungling? It is so easy to charge Washington with “bungling,” and the average person can’t check up to see if it’s so. There is a continuaf lament over “unnecessary spend,” and an unthinking person might be led to believe that President Roosevelt is standing on top of the White House indulging in an orgy of throwing public funds into the Potomac just to hear it “go chug” in the water. When one considers that 90 cents out of every dollar received by the federal government goes for war purposes, it will be seen there are some so politically narrow they stoop to a level of trying to make the people believe much of the money that goes to carry on the war is really going for some sinister purpose. But with all this “useless spending,” the people of the United States are better off financially than they ever were previously. This despite the fact the financial structure collapsed before this “useless spending” started and that at the .present time two wars are being fought. So where is this “bungling” and why are we supposed to resent that kind?—Danville Gazette.

This Is the Record—Don’t Forget It Shall We Trade All This for “Free Enterprise?” For those who may have lost confidence in the President as champion of the common man, we list below 27 important social, economic and governmental reforms sponsored by the Roosevelt Administration since 1933. We print the list merely as a reminder for those who may bave forgotten. J E^ablishment of a sound banking system. 2 Creation, of a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to guarantee bank deposits. 3 Organization of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation to save g» homes from foreclosure. 4 Saving farms from foreclosure by establishment of the Far m Credit Administration. 5 Rescuing agriculture from disaster through the AAA and the Soil Conservation Act. 6 Providing truth in the sale of securities and protecting the security of investors through the Securities and Exchange Commission. 7 Slum clearance. 8 Reduction of farm tenancy. 9 Old age insurance. 10 Unemployent insurance. 11 Federal aid to the crippled and blind. 12 Public works projects, carried on to provide work and to build thousands of permanent improvements. 13 Distribution of funds through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration to save starving people who had reached the end of their resources. 14 Enactment of minimum wage and maximum hour laws. 15 The Civilian Conservation Corps and Reforestation. 16 The National Youth Administration, aiding thousands of underprivileged young people. 17 Legislation abolishing child labor. 18 Reciprocal trade agreements. 19 Stimulation of private home building through the Federal Housing Administration. 20 Resettlement of farmers from marginal lands that cannot be cultivated profitably. 21 Getting electricity out to the farmers through the Rural Electrification Administration. 22 Water conservation programs. 23 Drought control and drought relief. 24 Crop insurance and the ever normal granary. 25 Assistance to farm cooperatives. 26 Conservation of natural resources. 27 The National Labor Relations Act. The records speaks for itself.

Station WLW Personality Curly Fox Competing against three other district winners, Curly Fox, one of Station WLW’s famed staff oi radio entertainers, recently won a national old-time fiddling c o ntest, conducted in Cincinnati under the auspices of the National Fiddlers Association. Gray sville, Tennessee, was the starting point for Curly, who learned his fiddlin’ from neighborhood old-time masters of the musical art. He got his start on an Atlanta radio station in 1933, has been heard on numerous other stations as fiddler, player of other instruments, singer and emcee, and has established himself as one of the best known old-time fiddlers in radio. He came to WLW in 1941. Curly holds many other distinctions, one of which is the fact that he is the only hillbilly fiddler ever to appear with the noted violinist, Dave Rubinoff. Together on the same program, they compared and demonstrated classic violin playing with mountain fiddlin’.

WAR NEWS IS “STRAIGHT,” NAVY. LT. WRITES FOLKS Holdenville, Okla.,—Praise for the boys covering the war fronts is contained in a letter from Lt. Robert O. Bailey to his parents here, Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Bailey. From his overseas post, he wrote: “You’re getting the straight dope about the war back home—you’re getting the news just about as it is.” , Bailey is a naval lieutenant and his wife and two sons live in Oklahoma City. The Mohammedan religion forbids the eating of pork.

| NAME AIR-MINDED PROFESSOR j Austin, Tex.—When Austin business men looked around for a 1944 president of their Chamber of Commerce, they chose a college professor, Dr. John H. Frederick, air minded professor of transportation, at the University of Texas, was selected. He is author of a nationally recognized textbook on air transportation. BOW TO UNCLE SAM. South Portland, Me.—The British Ministry of War Shipping has its own method of choosing a name for cargo vessels built for them in the United States. The firse letters of the name are in deference to “Uncle Sam,” the remaining letters are for a lake, river or prominent area in England as—SAMannan. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE SERVICES “Christ Jesus” is the subject of the Lesson-Sermon in all Churches of Christ, Scientist, on Sunday, February 27. The Golden Text is: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). Among the citations which comprise the Lesson-Sermon is the following from the Bible: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee ? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son ? Thou hast Ibved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the (Hebrews 1:1, 2, 5, 9). The Lesson-Sermon also includes oil of gladness above thy fellows” the following passages from the Christian Science tejctbook,“Science and Health with. Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy: “Jesus was the highest human concept of the perfect man. He was inseparable from Christ, the Messiah,—the divine idea of God outside the flesh. This enabled Jesus to demonstrate his control over matter. Angels announced to the Wisemen of old this dual appearing, and angels whisper it, through faith, to the hungering heart in every aee” (p. 482).

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y Soldier Vote Raymond Clapper, who died the other day in the Marshall islands in the line of duty, was one of the most careful and forthright of correspondents. Shortly before his plane crashed, killing him, he sounded out the feelings of the soldiers toward President Roosevelt regarding his continuing as President at the end of his present term. Clapper reported the sentiment strongly pro-Roosevelt. Now, there you have the principal reason why the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly the other day denying the soldiers the right to vote. The Roosevelt haters refused to allow him to have this advantage. They are out to beat the President at any cost, even to the extent that such action prolongs the war and costs the lives of hundreds of thousands of our boys. The men in the armed services must not be given the opportunity to vote to uphold the hands of their commander-in-chief. If that isn’t dirty politics of the lowest grade, we would like to hear of something worse. — Charleston Gazette.

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