Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 22 February 1946 — Page 2
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THE POST DEMOCRAT & Democratic weekly newspaper representing the Ofcmocrats 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, February 22, 1946. Capehart Joins What kind ot politics is Senator Capehart playing ? And what does he think it will get him to be attached to the tail of that buzzard-like kite from Nebraska, Senator Wherry? Two or three times before, Capehart has aligned himself with the GOP Senate-whip, Wherry, in what Capehart described as a “trade of votes.”—“That’s the way we do things in the Senate,” he said. Maybe he has some kind of horse-trade pending now. At all events, what has happened is this: Recently Wherry, in what was interpreted as “zeal to please his German-American constituents” raised a great hullabaloo in the Senate over the plight of “helpless millions of women and children in Germany” who, he said, were being allowed to starve. Wherry was not concerned with the hundred million of our allies and their women &nd children who are starving; all his sympathy was spent on the Nazis who brought all the present horror upon the world, who tortured and deliberately starved thousands of our own boys in prison camps and doomed millions of innocent victims of other Countries to deaths too horrible to contemplate. j- What is more, Wherry was one of 14 Nationalists and isolationists to vote against making the United States the first member £md largest contributor to UNRRA, the international Relief Agency. Again on March p-l, last year, on second roll call, he voted - hgainst the measure and in December, he tried to wreck its efectiveness by joining its e n e m i e s in an a 11 e m p t to sivrite a so-called “free-press” rider on UNR RA extension and appropriation. , His present “crusade” stems from a visit lo the White House in company with three pther Senators to request the re-opening of knail to Germany. Apropos of a rumor that the Rusian Government was opposed to reopening the Reich mails, he ranted: “Such a refusal denies to millions of loyal Ameri - cans of German extraction the chance to send immediate relief in the form of food, medicine and clothing without expense to the government and he tried to make a double political play, by attempting to discredit the administration; to take a whack at the Russians (all the isolationists are rabidly anti-Russian, because they are at heart pronationalist, which is the same thing as proFacist); and to make a GOP bid for popu - larity with the German-American element in this country. cated article from Washington points out: “Coming at this late date the humanitarianism of Senator Wherry is not likely to make a great splash anywhere, least of all among his constituents who may feel that he has rendered them a disservice by placing the wrong emphasis on their loyalties.” That is, by appealing to them as German-Americans, with Nazi sympathies—instead of wholly loyal Americans. “Wherry seems to have a faculty for burying in the mire of politics, every now and then, something fine in the American spirit,” Robichaud ended. Following this diatribe of Wherry’s the Chicago Sun’s European reporters made an investigation and found that Germany was, in fact, being better fed than were our desperately needy allies. And official reports from General Lucious D. Clay, confirmed what these reporters said. Now along come Indiana’s Senator Capehart with a repeat performance; Playing the Wherry record on his own juke box, and charging the administration with an attempt to “destroy Germany through deliberate starvation.” However, as Gerry Robichaud in a syndiMr. Capehart’s violent language in making his charges sounds like a verbatim account of Nazi atrocities at the Nurenberg trial. Perhaps he’s forgotten that we fought the Nazis, and that they are German—not American. At all events, Senator Capehart’t guns were trained on the administration too late for much political effect for on the same day President Truman announced that to save starving hundreds of millions abroad (not excluding Germans) an “informal” rationing of food will be instituted. Now it would seem to be in order for both Senator Capehart and Senator Wherry to tighten both their mouths and their belts.
American Justice Fair Justice, American style, stands vindicated before the world. We have proved we can be just without being soft, obey the legal forms without yielding to sentimentalism. We gave Yamashita a legal trial in the Philippines. That was more than Yamashita gave any of his victims in the Philippines. We gave him a month and a half stay of execution while our Supreme Court con - sidered his appeal. That was a month and a half more grace than Yamashita gave the American and Filipinos his men tortured and killed. The court has held that the U. S. military tribunal that tried Kim was constitutional. Yamashita now will hang as the war criminal he is. Let no one raise any further delay by legal pettifogging. Associate Justice Murphy and Rutlege dissented. But we believe most Americans jvill agree with the reasoning of Chief Jus-
tice Stone, who wrote the majority opinion, overruling Yamashita on all points. Yamashita was the first Jap war leader to be tried as a war criminal. Settling of the question of jurisdiction will be a useful precedent in other cases already tried and still being tried. In the long run, the delay by the Supreme Court will save time in dealing with war criminals. Those who were disturbed by the Court’s action in December have been answered. Yamashita will be the first Jap criminal to be executed, but he won’t be the last. Others must follow him quickly to the gallows. American justice must be swift as well as just, in memory of the Americans and Filipinos who died in ghastly ways at the hands of the Japs.—Philadelphia Record.
Debate In the UNO Council Diplomacy has come out in the open at the United Nations Organization council meeting in London. In the presence of the press gallery last week, representatives of Great Britain and Russia engaged in a sharp debate which reminded Americans of their own Congress. Vice Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vishinsky of the Soviet Union charged that British troops in Greece were a peril to the peace and British Foreign Secretary Bevin replied that it was the propaganda of the Communist Party which was the greatest peril to peace. Some people will be horrified that such an exchange took place, but it probably was all to the good. It may have helped to clear the air. Secret diplomacy has long been con - demned. Over there in London we have something different—debate proceeding in democratic fashion. The British are used to such free and open discussion in their own Parliament and if the Russians are not used to it, it is high time they were. They need to drop their isolationism and secrecy and live in the modern world. The lion roared. The bear growled. The world hasn’t come to an end yet. We do not think that a few frank hot words will destroy it. Let’s have more open debate without either side getting so excited that it picks up its marbles and goes home. There is no place today thin-skins or hot-house statesmen in diplomacy. It is so much better to settle international differences by conferences than by bombers and cannon. And, of course, conferences cannot always flow smoothly. We hope that the men and women who are entrusted with the responsibility for the peace of the world can behave like experi - enced adults rather than like peevish children. It would be a tragedy if the UNO should break up before it has really had a chance to see what it can do. But there is no reason why frank words should break it. We do not believe they will. What happened after Vishinsky and Bevin had their exchange of charges 1 They went off together to a party at the Soviet Embassy.—Journal Gazette. Mrs. Roosevelt’s Important Assignment A United Press correspondent covering the American delegation to UNO, now meeting in London, attended Mrs. Roosevelt’s first press conference in that city where Mrs. Roosevelt was so warmly greeted on her arrival, and where she continues to be the outstanding member of our delegation. He quotas Mrs. Roosevelt as saying: “Millions of women all over the world are vitally concerned with the success of the United Nations. There should be more women delegates in the United Nations Organization to speak up for world peace.” And she admitted her disappointment at the present time there are so few. Her own objective as an American dele - gate, she said, was to see the causes of war eliminated and an organization established which would find a solution to problems which might otherwise lead to war. William Philip Simms in his nationally syndicated column recently declared that “Mrs. Roosevelt in many ways and respects has the most important assignment of anyone in the American delegation. “Chapter IX of the United Nations Charter calls for “international economic and social co-operation.” The United Nations, it states, shall ‘promote universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.’ Mrs. Roosevelt is our spokesman on this committee. “Without real understanding among the members of the United Nations, all hands admit, the UNO will fail. And there can be no such understanding unless Chapter IX is made to work.”—The Union.
QUOTABLE QUOTES “Liberals and progressives within the Republican party are getting tired of the fact that the simple declaration, T am a Republican,’ at a public meeting generally gets a laugh. In the past the people did not laugh. The Republican Party had a high tradition. “Where does the Republican Party stand today? What are its policies? Can it win another national election if it continues to make the public laugh?”—Bartley C. Crum, California Republican. ’
“We all believe in democracy and the democratic form of government, but the truth is Jthat too many people tie up to the word “democracy’ with the Democratic Party. You’d be amazed to learn how many people think the Democrats stand for democracy and the Republicans for something entirely different.”—John Danaher, G.O.P. Congressional liaison officer.
POST-DEMOCRAT, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1946.
Hobgobblins and Pumpkin If there is anything funnier than a Republican party platform, including the latest version so hastily buried amid such gales of laughter, it is a G.O.P. nabob trying to be a man of the people and beating his breast for “moral principles.” It may be hard to believe, but you can take the Republicans’ word for it—if you want to —that the American people are sadly in want of such principles today. We have had none since 1932, it appears. The country got off the beam then, and we must now hit the saw-dust trail back to the 1920’s when Republican “morality” was in full flower. That is “the road to hope,” according to one of the GOP Big Brains, Congressman Joe Martin, speaking over a nation-wide network on January 19th. Here is Republican gospel according to Congressman Joe, and he should know, for with Senator Taft, he really runs the party—for Joe Pdw and the boys in the back room. “Let us recognize there are farmers in America,” says Martin magnanimously, “and they have a right to get along ” How? no answer. “There are working men and women in America,” he adds, evidently somewhat surprised, “and they have a right to get along.” How?——no answer. The Congressman recognizes with equal generosity the existance of whitecollar workers and then remarks, really warming up, “Let us recognize there is such a thing as management—and a highly skilled calling it is—and managers have a right to live.” Not just the right to get along, but the right to live, mind you. And what can be done to help management solve its problems during readjustment and reconversion?—• silence. “We want more people to have more money.” Excellent, but how?—evidently by opposing higher wages and fighting price support for farmers, to judge from Republican votes in the Congress. “We want that money to buy more of the good things of life.” How?^—by knocking off price ceilings and allowing a wild inflation, which is the Republican line when these matters come to a vote in the House and Senate. “And finally,” says Congressman Joe, “let us come right out and recognize that there are some things that are right, some things that are wrong and there is such a force as moral principle.” And the moral principle they want, believe it or not, is that of the good old days of Harding, Coolidge and Hoover—of the Teapot Dome scandal and the brazen looting of the Veterans’ Administration, of the stockmarket jobbers and plungers in, the Chicago , wheat pit, of famine in theTinid'st of plenty, » of Ham Fish and the Bonus March, of bank ’ runs and broken homes and Hoovervilles, of Mellon’s tax schedules for the relief of the rich while millions of returning veterans of World War I were forced to sell apples at street corners. No wonder, as Joe Martin says, “even little children are worried.” All of us would be if there was any danger that the people would fall for that kind of malarkey. Republican leaders are slick enough in their own way, but they simply can’t get it through their heads that the American voter is a responsible, intelligent and rational being, just as smart as they are and not in the market for gold bricks. Making no headway down the years, morally and politically bankrupt, the Republicans are reduced to the final extremity of the desperate—name-calling, character assassination, and the old “Red” hobgoblin. “Communistic!” they shout at every progressive measure that is proposed to make life a little easier and happier for all Americans, including President Truman’s specific 21-point peace-and-prosperity program. But their cries scare no one but themselves.
In the final draft of the Roberts report, there were nineteen paragraphs of findings of fact. Originally there had been seventy. These were reparagraphed into twenty, with no deletions. Aha! Into twenty. But in the published report there were only nineteen! More Republication. Alas! Where was paragraph twenty ? On the scent at last The missing stink! The secret of Roosevelt’s c r im e! Where was paragraph twenty? Mr. Justice Roberts explained to the panting investigators that paragraph twenty had been telescoped into another paragraph and now appears at the bottom of page 6 of the report. And so the scent is lost again. And so they go on violating the sensibilities of millions of Americans with one of the most ghoulish exhibitions of bad taste that has ever soiled the dignity of the United States Congress. But gentlemen! Senators Brewster and Ferguson, Congressman Gearhart and Keefe, we, the editors of the Democrat, do not think you ought to be without that previous paragraph twenty. After all this anticipation, we thing there ought to be a paragraph 20 in the report of the causes of the disaster at Pearl Harbor. How would it be gentlemen, if we supply you with paragraph tweqty ? Already made for you, and every word true. Here, gentlemen, is your paragraph 20: In the years that led up to Pearl Harbor, Republican Congressman Keefe voted against fortifying the naval base at Guam, against repeal of the arms embargo, against revision of the neutrality act, against expansion of the air force, against military conscription, against lend-lease, against extending the draft, against arming merchant ships, against naval appropriations. In the same years, Republican Congressman Gearhart voted against revision of the neutrality act, against repeal of the arms embaro, against a larger air force and against lendlease.
warr/sm camiw facts
The Mountain Labored
The Republican Indianapolis News said it; “First at Chicago and again last week at the conference of midwpstern state chair - men in Detroit, Republican leaders had an
AS MAN/ AMERICANS PAID AN INCOME TAX AFTER THE WAR BEGAN AS BEFORE THE NUMBER ROSE FROM 4 MILLION TO OYER 4-0 MILLION
'W'
TH£ TWENT/STH eewrmvruND says that THE UNITED STATES HAS 6 PERCENT OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION LIVING ON 7 PERCENT OF THE WORLD’S LAND AREA.
MONEY IN CIRCULATION INCREASED TROM 7 BILLION DOLLARS IN JULY >939 TO 26 BILLION DOLLARS IN APRIL I9GS
Hitler Claimed a Barbarous Race Nuernberg, Feb. 21 — A Soviet prosecutor told the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal today that Adolf Hitler boasted at the height of his military power that the Germans were a race of
opportunity to develop a dynamic, construe-j “barbarians tive program for the reconstruction of Am- rrK ''
erica.. On both occasions the mountain la - bored and brought forth a mouse.” So far, the News editorial continues, ’‘The Republican Party Organization has only offered . . . formless declarations so carefully couched that even their framers seem in
The Missing Paragraph MR. JUSTICE ROBERTS: . . . The Commission found that they (the commanding officers at Pearl Harbor) had had ample warning and that they had orders from Headquarters. Now, they could have been sent more, of course. They could have been sent a message every two hours. SENATOR FERGUSON: . . . Well, now, wait . . If there was a message coming in every two hours and that information would have given them more warning, wouldn’t there have been neglect on those here who did not send it? The above is a sample of what the people of the United States are getting for their money—and for their exceeding forebearance—from the Republican members of the Pearl Harbor Investigating Committee. It is not quite accurate to say that the four Republican members of the Committee have made themselves the laughing stock of the country through their failure of their brazen attempt to discredit the memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The violation of the reverence in which millions of Americans hold the memory of FDR is not a laughing matter. The bold abuse of a Congressional investigation for the purpose of smearing that memory, the resort to improper questioning, the bitter resolve to go on long after every shred of the mythical case against Roosevelt has been removed—these, to the millions of people who loved the late President, are not laughing matters. Prior to the appearance a week ago of Mr. Justice Owen J. Roberts, one of the remaining myths to which the Republican members . had been clinging was the charge that parts 1 of the Roberts Report on Pearl Harbor had been suppressed.
some doubt as to exactly what they mean. .. the vital questioiTTs wmat do mey propose
to do.’?
“Give a place to live to every returning service man.” But how? “Pass legislation to re-establish labor relations.” What Legislation?” (If the answer to that question is the Republican-authored and Republican-backed Case bill, which the Republican leaders declare is an embodiment of the Party’s labor policy as enunciated at Chicago, then one -should also add—“What labor relations?” Because nothing but labor war can come from adoption of the Case bill. A war under which labor, disarmed and discriminated against by the bill, can only fight for its very life). “ ‘Balance the Budget?’ (The editorial continues). “By increasing taxation? or by reducing expenditures? If so, how? “ ‘Get rid of artificial restrictions on pro - duction, including OPA.’ How soon? And how is it proposed to restrain prices and in - flation until the balance between production and demand is restored? “These are only a few of the questions that Americans are asking as it faces problem^ that cannot be solved by phrases. It expects answers, concrete and specific an-
swers.
“The Republican Party—can not win . . with a campaign of negation. The Party must stand or fall, in 1946 and 1948, on a definite program backed by a congressional record.” There, of course, is the rub: for no matter how high-sounding a platform the Republicans might eventually evolve (though we do not expect them to even do that) they have no congressional record to stand on— except a record of negation—or, as in the Case bill, of positive obstructionism.
The prosecutor, Mark Julievich Raginsky, outlining German’s wanton destruction of art and culture in Eastern Europe, quot-
ed Hitler as saying:
“We are barbarians and we wish to be barbarians. That is an hon-
orable title.”
Raginsky also said Hans Frank, former Nazi governor-general of Poland and one of the top^ Nuernberg defendants, closed all higher educational institutions in j Czechoslovakia in 1939 for three years. That, he said, “was merely the first step toward complete suppression of the whole Czech
scientific life.”
Dr. Parran’s Warning Who’s threatening whom? The question arises from an exchange of correspondence between Surgeon Gen. Thomas Parran and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Members of the association have agreed, through their bylaws, not to participate in any government-sponsored health insurance plan. Dr. Parran de dared that this notice of “boycott” would be condemned by the people and certainly rejected by many physicians “if they understood the significance” of what they were doing. Is this a “veiled threat,” as the physicians’ group says, of forced participation in compulsory health insurance? Not at all. Dr. Parran has told the doctors, in plain terms, what any man on the street could have told them: that if, in the fuj’y of their fight against health insurance, they threaten to boycott duly adopted welfare legislation, they will be making the mistake of their lives in public relations. The American people do not like to be pushed around. They cheerfully grant any doctor the right to oppose health insurance in conscience and in debate. But they will not stand for being told, in effect: “If you pass this bill, we won’t play.” That is not debate It is a threat.—Chicago Sun.
Veterans Request Immigration Bar Washington, Feb. 21. — Representatives, of two veterans organizations today urged Congress to reduce drastically or bar altogether immigration into the United States for the next 10 years, and to ban all Communists as well as Nazis from entrance into the country. Officials of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars testified at the opening of hearings before the house immigration committee on a bill to deny admission to Nazis and Fascists and to cut all immigration quotas in half for the next 10 years. Jeremiah J. Toomey, chairman of the Legion’s Americanization committee, endorsed the bill but said he wouldn’t want to cut immigration so drastically as to exclude deserving orphan children from abroad. Toomey said he favored the portion of the bill which would exclude Nazis or Fascists.
Wealth Bubble Bursts For G. I. South Bend, hnd., Feb. 21 — A Notice Dame University student adjusted his thinking today in terms of GI allotment checks instead of a $1,000,000 inheritance. Jack E. Love, 22-year-old army veteran, believed for days that he had fallen heir to an uncle’s $1,000,000 to $1,500,000 fortune. Today, his wealth bubble gone, Love circled a date on the calendar in his dormitory room, It was the date he expected his next check — in two figures — from Washington.
“It’s all I’ve got to keep me in school,” Love - said, sadly, as he returned to the routine of classes. Love admitted yesterday that his vision of being a millionaire by the terms of a will left by a great uncle was all a joke — on him. The denouncement followed Love’s announcement that his uncle, Claude Love, bequeathed him an oil and lumber fortune. Later, Love said, he learned that, a letter purporting to inform him of his new wealth was the work of a prankster. The . mild-mannered student said he guessed he wouldn’t need to answer a telegram which arrived yesterday, asking him to finance a “floating university.” The joke’s on me,” Love satrtr It’s all I can do to finance my own education.” o Judge To Rule On Stephenson Case Noblesville, Ind., Feb. 21 - Special Judge Cleon Mount, Tipton, said today that he would rule March 1 on D. C. Stephenson’s appeal for a new murder trial. Mount announced at the conclusion of a hearing in Hamilton Circuit Court yesterday that he would take the case under Jidvisement. Stephenson, former Indiana Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, asked a new trial. It was his 39th effort to gain freedom from a first-degree murder conviction imposed in 1925 in the slaying of Miss Madge Oberholtzer, Indianapolis. He is serving a life sentence. The former Klansman’s latest move for freedom was a petition for a writ of error coram nobis If granted, he would receive a new trial. The hearing lasted five days Stephenson charged he was “franfied” in the original trial and that he was prevented from testifying in his own behalf because of fears of mob violence. Deputy Attorney General Frank E. Coughlin, seeking to block a new trial for Stephenson, argued yesterday that the original trial was fair.
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