Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 1 September 1944 — Page 2

POST-DEMOCRAT, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1944

THE POST-DEMOCRAT £ Democratic weekly newspaper representing the Democrats of Muncie, Delaware County and the 10th 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, September 1, 1944. The Nationalist Flight from Reality The ultranationalists lived in a dream world before the war and they still immure themselves in fantasy. At the moment of our greatest military victories in Europe, the Chicago Tribune lectures its readers to the effect that President Roosevelt brought on the war by failing to meet Prince Konoye in the summer of 1941. While Patton’s armor plunges behind Paris, Representative Ralph Church (who blocked the fortification of Guam) rises on the floor of Congress to blame the President for Pearl Harbor. American Firsters from ’way back turn their thoughts away from victory at Guam, Saipan and Tinian to dwell fondly on might-have-beens : the British got us. into this war . . . we should have isolated Japan ... we should have reached an understanding with Japan ... if Baldwin had not appeased Hitler , . . if, if, if. It is a strange flight from reality, which can be explained only by the nationalists’ profound liatred of President Roosevelt. If they rejoice with the rest of us in the Victories of today, they* must rejoice in the leadership which made victory possible. Anything but that! So they turn longingly back to the past, and weave an elaborate fabric of myth and fiction to substitute for history. But history is made, not invented. ; Ger-r. many in Europe and Japan in Asia had set out in the 30’s on parallel careers of conquest. Our security was involved from the beginning. Either a Nazi-dominated Europe or a Jap-dominated Asia meant a pistol pointed at our heads. Rightly we chose to arm and, while arming, to support nations fighting the Axis. . The Axis struck its counter-blow at Pearl Harbor. No amount of quibbling as to why the blow temporarily succeeded can alter the fact that it was struck. The mighty and overawing fact is that we recovered quickly, stemmed the enemy tide within a year, reversed it within two years, and are today marching toward final triumph. To the dreamy ultranationalists (all of Whom, be it noted, support Gov. Dewey) we commend a recent editorial in the Saturday Evening Post, anti-Roosevelt and formerly isolationist. Condemning “dishonest arguments,” the Post admits now what it wouldn’t admit in 1940: “The truth is we were at waf from the day of the fall of France. ... We couldn’t have escaped this war except by the most humiliating surrender in history . . . Mr. Roosevelt did what any President of the United States, confronted by such a critical threat to our national existence, would have had to do.” No, President Roosevelt didn’t bomb Pearl Harbor. But he did magnificently lead a nation which is now bombing Berlin, bombing Honshu, and driving its enemies to unconditional surrender.—Chicago Sun. _V Why ‘Surprise’ Mr. Gates We note that a group of Republicans have announced their intention of having a big “notification” rally at Columbia City in September, the avowed purpose of the state-wide rally being to notify Mr. Gates that he has been nominated the Republican candidate for governor. We don’t know whose idea this may be, but it is either that of someone friendly to Mr. Gates or someone unfamiliar with present day circumstances and the general temper of the people of Indiana. To notify Mr. Gates that he is the party’s candidate for governor is a palpable fraud. Mr. Gates has known this fact for some time. In fact, he knew it a year ago when he completed his state organization to secure that nomination. At least he was in Indianapolis a short time ago at the time of the Republican state convention and he must have heard the news at that time. To “notify” him now is ridiculous. Secondly—such a meeting would be so organized as to bring politicians from all parts of the state as a respectful tribute to the candidate for this high office. Mr. Gates deserves such a tribute—in more normal times. In these critical times, such meetings as these cannot appeal to the good will of the general public, and in our humble opinion, the proposed shindig at Columbia City in September .would be better left “unfinished business.” -—Legionier Leader (Republican). V Not Made To Be Destroyed Mayor La Guardia’s proposal for the destruction of government surpluses reflects the same fear of abundance which during the early years of the depression caused our thinking to revolve around ways of limiting production, instead of ways to increase consumption. Official estimates place the amount of surplus supplies to be disposed of in this country at around six billion dollars. That is less than two months’ normal retail sales. Clearly such an amount can be absorbed without dislocation of the economy, as a whole if the job is done right. The essential points are to provide for speedy distribution before industry gets into full production; to erect

real safeguards against profiteering and monopoly; to make sure that the goods go at fair prices to those who will use them. These are the aims of the bill just passed by the House, but in some respects the bill before the Senate offers greater hope of attaining them. While the House has done well to center responsibility in a single administrator rather than a board, the Senate bill contains stronger definitions of the policy to be followed. Whatever the final form of the bill, it must rest on the proposition that surplus property belongs to the people and must be returned to the people—not destroyed. An orderly liquidation can avoid the dangers of dumping supplies in such fashion as to demoralize normal markets. But there is no need to go to the other extreme of withholding these goods from use. If surplus shoes exceed what the normal market can absorb, the answer may lie in making them available to low-income groups which are not a large factor in the normal market. We shall confess a shameful intellectual bankruptcy if we wind up by dumping the shoes in the ocean.—Chicago Sun. y Repeal the Taft Censorship! The War Department’s decision to ban the motion pictures, “Wilson” and “Heavenly Days,” from exhibit to troops at home or abroad is one more result of Senator Taft’s slick little censorship section in the soldiervote law. In feverish suspicion of Secretary Stimson and the late Secretary Knox, Mr. Taft wrote criminal penalties into his prohibition against “political” books and movies, and the War Department is driven to ridiculous extremes. The fault is Mr. Taft’s. The Republican senator from Ohio openly admitted, when criticized because of an earlier censorship of such, books as Beard’s “The Republic” and a biography of Mr. Justice Holmes, that he didn’t think servicemen should vote. He confessed as his reason the fear that 75 per cent of them would vote for Mr. Roosevelt. To justify this fantastic argument, he pleaded that servicemen were remote from home and the issues. But his censorship actually barred them from one of the normal avenues of political education—books, magazines and motion pictures freely available to civilians —which makes his position all the more offensive. The censorship should be repealed. Servicemen are not children. The only protection they need against political “propaganda” is their own good sense and self-respect.—Chi-cago Sun. V Another View The Des Moines Register does not agree with the Chicago Tribune in its estimate of John Foster Dulles. It says that Gov. Dewey did not exaggerate when he told Mr. Hull that Dulles was “one of the very ablest of American authorities on international relations” and had spent “a lifetime of study and constructive action in the field of foreign affairs.” And it concludes by saying: “Secretary Hull has long been maneuvering for bi-partisan collaboration on the peace settlement. The job is much too big for one party. The Republican Mackinac resolution, the bi-partisan passage of the Connally resolution in the senate and the Fulbright resolution in the house, were brave steps toward this goal. But there was grave danger that ground would be lost in the heat of the campaign. “Gov. Dewey’s designation of Dulles |to consult with Secretary Hull is assurance of his determination to put permanent welfare of the country and world above political scrapping for the sake of a scrap.” The Register is right in saying that the job is too big for one pafty, yet there are still those who put partisan politics ahead of the cause of enduring peace.—Journal Gazette. V Stambaugh To Run Sen. Gerald >P. Nye, the North Dakota isolationist, who won renomination by a narrow margin in the recent primary election will have at least two opponents in the fall balloting. ■ . Gov. John Moses is the Democratic nominee. Lynn U. Stambaugh of Fargo, who ran against Nye in the Republican primary, has announced that he will be an independent candidate in the general election. Stambaugh is a lawyer by profession and is former national commander of the American Legion. If Nye is beaten in November it will remove from the senate one of the most bitter and consistent of the.isolationists.—JournalGazette. V Easy Up to a Point Some respectable Republicans who slumbered all through the congressional debate over soldier voting now tell themselves that it is perfectly simple for an Illinois serviceman to vote: why, all he has to do is send a postcard, receive a ballot, and mail it! Yes, that’s all. But what if, through a transfer of station or mail delays, the soldier doesn’t get his ballot in time? When this happens to a serviceman from, say Pennsylvania, he is permitted to cast a special war ballot. When it happens to a serviceman from Illinois he is just out of luck. Gov. Green and the Republican minority in Congress saw to that. It is “easy” for an Illinois soldier to vote if he can get his hands on an Illinois ballot in time; if not, he’s disfranchised.—Chicago Sun.

You Can’t Use a Substitute In This Game, Governor The Dumbarton Oaks conference on postwar security has struck a keynote of international unity of purpose—a unity without which nothing can be achieved. We have made a hopeful start “toward establishing a lasting system of organized and peaceful relations among nations.” That unity must be preserved in the months after these exploratory beginnings. In addition to the essential that there must be a world organization to keep world peace, Secretary Hull, Ambassador Gromyko, for Russia, and Sir Alexander Cadogan, for England, agree: The organization must include all peaceloving nations,'big and little; there must be machinery for peaceful settlement of international disputes; there must be joint use of force, if necessary, to prevent aggression. This concert of international opinion is auspiciously set upon a background of national unity, at least in principle, in the United States. There is no fundamental dispute between the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties on postwar security. The Roosevelt Administration has made every effort to obtain the opinion and advice of the GOP leadership. Thus it has avoided the mistake of President Wilson, who failed to seek the co-operation of his political opposition for his League of Nations program. One unfortunate aspect of the current picture is the reluctance of GOP Presidential Candidate Dewey to state forthrightly his stand on postwar international co-operation. He has preferred to have others speak for him. First Governor Edge, of New Jersey, and now John Foster Dulles, Wall Street attorney and student of international affairs, is another Harding, who spoke for a world peace organization in the 1920 campaign, but who knifed it after he was elected. We would rather believe that the reason be has used Edge and Dulles as his spokesmen is that he knows they are far better informed on foreign affairs than he; that he has delegated this important phase of his campaign to them. But a candidate for President of the United States must be more than a manipulator of mouthpieces if he is to avoid suspicion. Whatever doubts exist among the American people as to the Republican stand on a postwar world could easily be cleared up by Dewey in a forthright declaration of his stand. In his own words over hisi own name. Dewey did cast doubt on the Dumbarton Oaks conference last week by expressing fear that the big powers planned to dominate the smaller nations. Wendell Willkie, who was equally concerned for the small nations gave Dewey a proper rebuke. Willkie made inquiry in Washington, he said, and was given assurance that the conference would seek protection of the rights of small countries. Dewey could have done that, too, before he made a public statement which raised an issue where no issue existed. Albeit, Willkie acceptd Dewey’s invitation and shared his views with Dulles. The latter, at the invitation of Hull, will confer with the State Secretary on the progress of the Dumbarton Oaks conference. We are sitting down together, nationally and internationally, to work out the best possible postwar guarantees for a durable peace. We hope Gov. Dewey has learned a lesson: That the future peace of the world is vastly too important for it to become a vehicle for sly political innuendoes. That it is not a minor subject to be delegated to subordinates, but must be met forthrightly, by the candidate, in person. Mouthpieces won’t do Governor.—Philadelphia Record. V Republicans Raised Taxes Although Governor Schricker and all in the state who have had a part in reducing the state tax levy 4 cents are thankful for the reduction the Democrats do not attempt to make a political point of this as did the Republican state convention and the Republican platform. The Republican platform does not say a word about the State Board of Education requiring township trustees to raise the local special school tax levy from 50 cents to 75 cents on the $100 before they could receive state aid. When the Democrats were in control of the Board of Education they only required a local levy of 50 cents in order to be granted state school aid. The G. O. P. was not concerned about the local taxpayer. Remember how it was in 1929-30-31 and 32? Taxes were high and income low. The Democrats relieved the tax on property when they passed the Gross Income Tax Law. Now the Republican legislature has raised the local tax 25 cents.—Corydon Democrat. V Earl Wilson’s Defense Republican Congressman Earl Wilson, Ninth district isolationist, fearful of the results of a strong non-partisan organization seeking his defeat in November as a Congressman dangerous to postwar peace planning, has gone on the defensive. But in his defensive campaign he makes the pitiful mistake of ignoring his own past record of votes and public utterances which have given aid to the Axis and makes new false and sordid charges against the Democratic administration. Speaking at a seventh ward meeting in Indianapolis, Wilson tried to make his small and disinterested audience believe that the Roosevelt Administration had “armed the Japs.” He went so far as to say: “Our pots, pans and stoves collected in scrap drives are flying back at our own boys.” Wilson surely doesn’t believe that himself.

I The records show where that scrap went. | Every ounce of it went direct to the smelters and came out in sheets and tubes of metal from which our own planes, tanks, guns, ships and bullets were made. But this is true. The private enterprise boys, over whose welfare Mr. Wilson and his Old Guard GOP machine colleagues have spilled many a synthetic tear, did help arm the Japs. Any informed person knows that it was the private enterprise boys who have and who still bitterly complain of “government regulation and government interference with private business” who sold scrap metal—but not that collected in salvage drives—to the Japanese government and Jap industries. It was NOT the Democratic administration. Almost until the attack on Pearl Harbor, big business, private enterprise, was shipping iron and steel to Japan. Congress had not given the President power to halt such shipments. Isolationist Wilson had not even raised his voice in Congress to protest such shipments. And his voting record shows that his isolationist and anti-administration votes gave aid to the enemy. The record shows that the anti-Roosevelt coalition in Congress, of which Wilson was and is certainly a part—although an insignificant part—objected until the last minute against the government interfering with private enterprise selling iron, steel aluminum or anything else to anyone, anywhere. -—V Welcome, Mr. Governor When Henry F. Schricker was sworn in as Governor of Indiana, in January, 1941, he said in his inaugural address: “From this hour, you (his fellow state officials) and I share a joint responsibility, a responsibility that runs directly to the people first, and then to the party to which we owe allegiance ... As your governor, it shall be my high purpose to transact impartially all the constitutional duties vested in that office ... I entertain no selfish desire for unwarranted power, neither do I wish to write my record in terms of petty political advantage.” As governor, Mr. Schricker has held to the “high purpose” he thus outlined. For example, he established the policy of appointing Republicans to vacancies in state office created when Republican incumbents resigned to enter the armed forces. Governor Schricker was under pressure from the Democratic organization to fill these vacancies with Democrats, but he replied that the people had elected Republicans and it was his duty therefore to appoint Republicans. He did so even in filling the high office of secretary of state, when James M. Tucker resigned to join the Navy. In another and more recent display of good judgment, Governor Schricker declined to play politics in order to have his name placed at the head of the state ballot in the forthcoming election rather than at the end of the national ballot. He had the power to do this but declined to use it. For these and other reasons, the people of Elkhart should be proud and happy that Governor Schricker has accepted their invitation to come here, to attend and to speak at the opening of our Elkhart county 4-H Fair. —The Elkhart Truth, Independent-Republi-

can.

-V-

Gates Missed the Boat Ralph Gates made a sorry figure when he swallowed the insulting command from James L. Brandford, 11th District Chairman, “to go back home and practice law.” That was the psychological moment for Gates to assert himself as the party’s leader. It was a moment he should have prayed for and taken advantage of instantly. His stock would have arisen 100 per cent in the estimation of his party had he rebuked the blatant politician who ordered him to “go home.” But Gates “missed the boat” and again showed his true colors. Already spoken of by about fifty percent of his followers as weak-kneed, he has not lost all of their respect. He didn’t promise to ‘/go home,” but he did promise politician Bradford, that if elected, Marion county would be well taken care

of.

And this is the man the Republicans nominated for Governor. Bah!—Paoli News.

Keeping Us Guessing The Republican National Chairman is quoted in the daily press as saying that we would be kept guessing until election day. That is just what Hoover did for four years, he kept the whole country guessing how it would eat. And it was former president Hoover who dictated the Republican national party platform and the ticket, although the decoration committee did not have the temerity to display its only living former president’s picture nor refer to his “accomplishments” during his miserable four years as president, but merely introduced him as the “only living ex-president.” It is hardly probable the American public will want to guess another' four years as it did under the last Republican administration.—Winslow Dispatch.

We Wonder, Too— We wonder if the following “hog market :onditions” is one of the reasons why “the didwest Farmer” is out to beat the Demoiratic ticket this fall: A Spencer county ’armer took 26 hogs to the Evansville marcet this week. He was paid $14.65 per hunIred, the truck load bringing nearly $1,100.)0. At Hoover prices they would have Drought about $224. Which do you prefer, ;he price paid today or a Republican “promse” to pay more?—Rockport Democrat.

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 have forgotten.

7 8 9 10 11 12

14 15 16 17 18 19

22 23 24 25 26 27

Establishment of a sound banking system. Creation of a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to guarantee bank deposits. Organization of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation to save homes from foreclosure. Saving farms from foreclosure by establishment of the Farm Credit Administration. Rescuing agriculture from disaster through the AAA and the Soil Conservation Act. Providing truth in the *ale of securities and protecting the security of investors through the Securities and Exchange Com-

mission.

Slum clearance. Reduction of farm tenancy. Old age insurance. Unemployent insurance. Federal aid to the crippled and blind. Public works projects, carried on to provide work and to build thousands of permanent improvements. Distribution of funds through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration to save starving people who had reached the end of their resources. Enactment of minimum wage and maximum hour laws. The Civilian Conservation Corps and Reforestation. The National Youth Administration, aiding thousands of underprivileged young people. Legislation abolishing child labor. Reciprocal trade agreements. Stimulation of private home building through the Federal Housing Administration. Resettlement of farmers from marginal lands that cannot be cultivated profitably. Getting electricity out to the farmers through the Rural Electrification Administration. Water conservation programs. Drought control and drought relief. Crop insurance and the ever normal granary. Assistance to farm cooperatives. Conservation of natural resources. The National Labor Relations Act. The records speaks for itself.

Legal Notice

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS Notice is hereby given that The Board of Commissioners of the County, cf Delaware, State of Indiana, will re‘ceive sealed bids and proposals until the hour of ten o’clock in the forenoon (Central War Time) on Thursday the 14th day of September, 1944, at the Office of the Auditor of Delaware County, in the Court House in the City of Muncie, Indiana, for the furnishing of all materials, labor and machinery necessary for the erection and construction of the Sub-Structor of the Gale Bridge number 935W-200N over Kilbuck Creek on the South line of the Southeast quarter (1-4) of Section. Thirty-six (36), Township Twenty-one (21) North, Range Eight (8) East, according to the plans and specifications as prepared by the Surveyor of Delaware County, in the State of Indiana, on file in the office of the Auditor of Delaware County, in the State of Indiana. Each bidder shall accompany his bid with a Non-collusion Affidavit as provided by law, together with a Bidder’s Bond or a certified check payable to the Treasurer of Delaware County, in the State of Indiana, which bond or check sail be in the amount of not less than ten (10%) per cent of the total amount of such bid, guaranteeing the good faith of such bidder that said bidder will enter into a contract to do the work, if said bid be accepted by said Board, together with a bond guaranteeing the execution of said contract as provided by law. The Board reserves the right to reject any and all bids. Dated, this 24th day of August. 1944. SAMUEL L. CUNNINGTON, Auditor of Delaware County, Indiana Jacob N. Bennington County Attorney Aug. 25—Sept. 1—PD Legal Notice NOTICE TO NON-RESIDENTS' State of Indiana, Delaware County, ss: James A. Castelou

vs.

Lillie B. Castelou In the Delaware Superior Court April Term, 1944. Complaint: Divorce No. 8293-S Notice is hereby given the said defendant Lillie B. Castelou that the plaintiff has filed his complaint herein, for divorce together with an affidavit that the said defendant Lillie B'. Castelou is not a resident of the State of Indiana, and that unless she be and appear on Friday the 13th day of October, 1944, the 29th day the next term of said Court, to. be holden on the second Monday in Sept., A. D., 1944 at the Court House in the City of Muncie in said County and State, the said cause will be heard and determined in her absence. WITNESS, the Clerk and the Seal of said Court, affixed at the City of Muncie this 11th day of August A. D., 1944. JESSE E. GREENE, Clerk Ogle & Ogle, Plaintiff’s Attorney. Aug. 18-25, Sept. 1—PD

Legal Notice

Center Township Delaware County, Indiana. Will accept sealed bids on following: One playground slide, one 500 lb. hopper for Stokol stoker, 50 wooden folding chairs, one sewing machine, 12 straight chairs. CHESTER C. CLARK Trustee Center Township Aug. 18-25, Sept. 1—PD'

Although chewing gam is an international commodity, its chief uigredient is chicle, which comes only from the Middle-American countries of Mexico, Honduras, and parts of Guatemala. Chicle is resin taken from the chicle tree.

Legal Notice

NOTICE TO BIDDERS Notice is hereby given that The Board of Commissioners of the County of Delaware, State of Indiana, will receive sealed bids and proposals until the hour of ten o’clock in the forenoon (Central War Time) on Thursday, the 14th clay of September, 1944, at the Office of the Auditor of Delaware County, in the Court House, in the City of Muncie, Indiana, for the furnishing of the following equipment for the County Highway Department of said County, as follows, to-wit: TRACTOR ’ One (1) Industrial tractor, not less than fifty (50) horse power, spring mounted front axle, single rear wheels. Tires not less 12-75, not less than eight (8) ply, ten (10) ply preferred. Equipped with starter, generator, head and tail lights, pintle hook, steel or wood cab, to meet the approval of the Board of County Commissioners and the County Highway Superintendent. MAIN RAINERS One (1) Heavy duty pull type Maintainer suitable for the maintenance of the Highways of Delaware County, Indiana. To he equipped with proper fitting to fit tractor to he purchased by the Delaware County, Indiana. TRUCKS Two (2), one and one-half (1%). two (2) or three (3) ton trucks, dump beds, hydraulic lift," '‘•dual wheels. ' Requirements and specifications for said equipment are on file in the Office cf the Auditor of Delaware County, State of Indiana. Each bidder shall accompanv his bid with a Non-collusion Affidavit as required by law; and any bid in excess of Five Hundred ($500.00) Dollars shall be accompanied by a Bidder’s Bond or a certified check payable to the Treasurer of Delaware County, State of Indiana, which bond or check shall be in amount not less than ten (10%) pel cent of the total amount of such bid. The Board reserves the right to reject any and all bids. Dated, this 24th day of August, 1944. SAMUEL L. CUNNINGTON, Auditor of Delaware County, Indiana Jacob N. Lennington County Attorney Aug. 25—Sept. 1—PD

Democrat Women To Observe Sept. 27 The women’s division of the Indiana Democratic State Central Committee, headed by Mrs. Edna A. Bingham, state vice-chairman, is co-operating with the women's division of the Democratic National Committee to make Sept. 27, Democratic Women’s Day, an outstanding event on the Indiana political calendar. Mrs. Bingham has written ail couaty vice-chairmen and asked that they hold a meeting of the women of their counties on this day. Material is being sent to them' for use in discussion pro grains. The state vice-chairman asks that all women’s clubs in each county unite to give the county organization every cooperation in this celebration. o The banana industry is the most highly specialized of all major agricultures. The crop requires the installation and management of at least two tons of mechanical equipment per producing acre.

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