Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 26 April 1946 — Page 1

1 r;

HELP RETRAIN

DISABLED YETS

m BONDS DURING THE

THE POST-DEMOCRAT The Only Democratic Paper In Delaware County Carrying the Union Label

NEWSPAPERS ARE THE BASIC ADVERTISING MEDIUM

VOL. 26—NO. 44.

MUNCIE, INDIANA, FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1946.

PRICE: FIVE CENTS

ACTOR ELOPES Hollywood. —Stage and Screen Star Freddie Bartholomew, 22, and his twice-divorced bride were honeymooning at Las Vegas, Nev., today after failing to “straighten things out” with the actor’s Aunt Cissy. Yesterday Freddie broke his promise to his aunt. Miss Myllicent Bartholomew, by eloping to Las Vegas with Maely Daniels, 28, Hollywood press agent. o BROWDER LEAVES U. S. New York.—Earl Browder, former general secretary of ^-the Communist party in the Upited States, departed today from La Guardia Field aboard an American overseas Airline plane for Stockholm, Sweden, but declined to say whether he would proceed from there to Russia.

Citizens Urged To Voice Protest Against OPA Bill

William Hughes Heads Phone Co.

MAY SIGN TRUCE Chungking.—Early signing of a new cease-fire agreement between the Chinese Nationalists and Communists appeared likely tonight. Gen. George C. Marshall delayed his departure for further conferences and it was said that prospects appeared brightening for a halt in the fighting in Manchuria. o IN PLEA TO FARMERS Climax, Minn. — Fiorello La Guardia, director general of UNRRA, pleaded with farmers today to release their wheat for the starving peoples of Europe and proposed a halt in the trading of wheat futures. In a radio address delivered in this Red River valley town before a crowd of 5,000 assembled farmers, La Guardia sharply criticized speculation in wheat. o ROXAS ELECTED Manila.—Manuel A. Roxas appeared assured of election today as the first President of the Philippine republic on the basis of official tabulations from 485 towns, including Manila. With 60 percent of the votes counted, the Election Commission announced these figures: Roxas 723,674, Osmena 619,107. Eulogio Rodriguez, Sergio Osmena’s vice presidential running mate, was reported leading - Elpedio Quirino, the Roxas candidate o MINISTERS OPPOSED Paris. — Great Britain has blocked any present foreign ministers’ dsicussion of Germany, and Russia doubts the conference will have time to consider Austria, it was learned today. France backs inclusion of Germany on the conference agenda and the United States wants to take up Austria. However, the British are opposing any move to add Germany to the discussion list on grounds that it must first consult the British dominions and Germany’s smallei 1 western neighbors. o MAYOR RESIGNS Mitchell, Ind. — The Mitchell City Council studied today the appointment of a successor to Mayor John II. Taylor, who resigned last night. Taylor, 70-year-old Republican who was elected to a four-year term in 1942, first quit his position as head of the municipal water works and then resigned as mayor in a surprise move.

If House Inspired OPA Bill Is Passed We Are Inviting Hunger Another Hoover Era—America Was On Verge of Revolution in 1933—Same Thing May Happen If Price Controls Are Lifted As Prices Will Soar Upward — Your Dollar’s Purchasing Power Will Be Cut Almost 50% —Write or Wire Your Senator Today To Prevent Passage of This Un-American

Legislation.

If you don’t want this to happen, write to the United States Senate today — to Senate Banking and Currency Committee, Indiana’s Senators, and as many other Senators as you can: Get the members of your families, and all your friends to write, too. This is a national emergency. It strikes directly at you and your family.

If the House version of the Price Control Bill with its murderous amendments is passed by the Senate, and OPA is thus virtually killed, then your dollar’s purchasing-power will be cut by 25 to 50 per cent—and what is more, an ever-upward spiral of prices will shrink it more and

rn< ^, e ‘ „ , , , , monopolists high-pressure the The false prophets who are , United States Senate as they did saying that all we needed to have, House of Representatives—

OUTLOOK GOOD FOR DEMOCRATS

bid that we should ever face an-

other such crisis.

Shall we invite hunger—shall we stand supinely by, doing and saying nothing, while the paid lobbyists of the Manufacturers’ Association, the real estate barons, the lumber industry, the dry goods stores and their fellow

is unlimited production, to make price controls unnecessary, will soon find that people are unable to buy what they make, and fac-

tories will begin to close. Farmers will find that work-

ers are unable to buy food, and their own false prosperity will begin to vanish, as food-stocks pile up, and farm prices drop, though the farmer finds he has to pay exorbitantly for every-

thing else.

Workers will find their pay envelopeps shrinking and shrinking, compared to the price of everything they have to buy; and in desperation they will make new drives for higher wa-

ges-

White-collar workers, * smallsalaried people, men and women of fixed income, soldiers and widows of soldiers with pensions, all will find their out-go pyramiding at a despairing rate, while their income remains the same— but as far as buying-power goes, seems to be headed toward the

vanishing point.

Insurance policies, savings— even government bonds—will hit the downward toboggan, as pri-

ces shoot upward.

And in the end no one will be benefitted. The big industrialists, Wall Street, the speculators, all will be caught and crushed in this final debacle of their own

making.

The end can only be breadlines, soup kitchens, hunger stalking in our own land. Another Hoover era—with no FDR to

save us.

The only threat to this country —and our real American way of life—is the threat of just that thing, happening. This country came periously near to revolution, back in 1933. People were desperate. God for-

Now Is The Time To Protest A stubborn reactionary House of Representatives has slapped the face of every American housewife, worker and small businessman by passing the extremely dangerous and inflationary bill to extend OPA while insuring higher profits, and fa^' higher prices to every citizen. While the situation in Washington is bad, it is not hopeless . . . not unless the average American is willing to sit back quietly and take it without complaint. The hopeful side is predicated on the face that the Senate must act on the bill. If the Senate can be made to see the real danger ahead, and pass a really honest measure ignoring the protests of the National Association of Manufacturers and other corporate interests, an honest compromise is possible. When the House comes to name its conferees on the disagreement with the Senate, the House leadership will select its members from those who believe in OPA. But that is not enough. Unless the rank and file, the public itself, demonstrates by letter and telegram that it is troubled and worried about the House version, the House members will be obliged by custom to follow the vote of the membership. Therefore a large and loud outcry from the masses of the people back home is vital to keeping OPA controls over prices. It is decidedly up to every reader and the members of his family to write letters to individual senators and representatives demanding real OPA controls, without the House-approved amea^lments, in order to save the United States from the disaster of inflation. Letters.should av^id set formulas. They should express the ideas of the individual writing them. State your opinions against the House amendments clearly and forcefully. Demand action to keep minimum prices without price increases. But do it in your own words and in your own hand. Keep the personal note ... as a voter in the congressional district or state concerned. The important matter is to get the letters and wires moving. Do it immediately ... do it now. Inflation is coming if you don’t act.—The Union.

killing OPA because that’s what these billion-dollar profiteers and high-class racketeers are demanding. Does the fact that 80 per cent of the American people are clamoring for continuation of price control mean nothing td Con-

gj»0Ss?

Then God help -The American people and democracy. NAM-SLUSit GUSH AND HUSH NAIVTs Appeal To Housewives In Smashing OPA Gets A Laugh New York — It was easy for the National Association of Manufacturers to convince Congress of the need for ditching OPA price ceilings and guaranteeing business “reasonable profits,” but in its approach to housewives NAM buries its profits message in acres of lush, gushy prose. A folder sent as “a personal service” to program chairmen of women’s clubs by the NAM begins soulfully: “Dear Program Planner: Easter morning dawns in my mempry, sparking with sunshine and aglow with the urge to hurry-to-church (hoping it won’t rain!). Always this Holy Day seems a tapestry woven of the gossamer mist of organ music, of tall, white lilies rising stilly pristine by the altar, the rustle of silk, the smell of perfume and the brave sight of perky Easter bonnets. “Through its radiant pattern threads the silent something that lives only in the hearts of people, the wistful yearning for hope, for the promise of a better tomorrow, for a revelation of the true meaning of life.” Not until the fourth paragraph does the NAM reveal what it considers the true meaning of life! “Even in books centuries old, says Henry J. Taylor, noted economist, (Continued on Page Four) Or

Chairman Hannegan Pledges All His Energies For Campaign Robert E. Hannegan, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has addressed a letter to all Democratic County Chairmen emphasizing the importance of registering all Democrats—and then seeing that they vote in the forthcoming elections. The Chairman’s letter follows:; “Dear Fellow Democrat: “I am writing to let you knovy that bur Party’s prosepcts for th^ coming election are definitely looking up. The response to our Jackson Day dinners went far beyond our best expectations. We have the organizational strength to win, we have the only program for America, we have the people

behind us. Register All

“We need one thing more—the assurance that those who are eligible to vote go to the polls next November. Therefore we need— NOW—the assurance that every one of such persons in your coun-

ty is registered.

“From the off-year elections of recent years, our Party has learned a lesson. It has been a very expensive lesson. We learned that without an. alert, active, bus-iness-like organization at the County and Precinct levels, no matter how many other factors were in our favor we could and did lose those Congressional elections by default—that is, by the failure to get out a full vote.

First Real Test

“I am resolved to do everything in my power to prevent our Party from making that mistake again. The election of 1946 will offer the first real test of our new organizational strength—strength which the Party has built up, through your work and that of your fellow workers throughout the nation, during the past two years. “With so much in our favor, let’s not miss this opportunity! Let’s start now by seeing that ail our people are registered so they can vote in the primary. It is also very important that the name of

Wm. A. Hughes William A. Hughes was elected president of the Indiana Bell Telephone Company by the board of directors following the annual stockholders’ meeting held in Indianapolis this morning. Mr. Hughes will succeed James F. Carroll on June 1 at which time Mr. Carroll will retire from active service after nearly 40 years in the Bell System. Mr. Carroll was re-elected to the board of directors. Mr. Harry S. Hanna, vice president and general manager, was elected to the

board.

Mr. Hughes, from January 26, 1944, until April 1, 1946, was vice president and general manager of the Indiana Bell. On the latter date he was named executive vice

president, his present title.

He is a midwesterner, born in Kansas, and most of his telephone service, beginning in 1917, was spent with the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. His first telephone job was with the Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company on outside construction work, immediately following his graduation from the College of

Emporia, Emporia, Kans.

v^^Mr. Hughes entered the Army a short time later and was a member of the 117th Field Signal Battalion, which unit later became a part of the 42nd (Rainbow) Division. He went overseas in the fall of 1917, and was master signal electrician with the 117th Bat-

talion.

Returning to civilian life in August, 1919, he went to work for the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company at Topeka, Kans. Working his way up in the organization, he became general traffic manager in 1937. Mr. Hughes held that position

Aspirant For Congress In His Political Debut

GOV. GATES IS A BIT CONFUSED

Never Throw Stones When Your House Is Glass Is Good Thought

^ y jr e £„^ h0 at^ Sourwes g ,rn ra — S v °at sf

registration and voting is placed on your registration books. The time for attending to these matters is NOW. Then we shall be able to give our full energies in driving through to the victory

that our Party deserves.

“Sincerely yours

“Robert E. Hannegan.” Chairman Hannegan has always relied upon a fundamental principle: that campaigns are won between elections and elections are won in the precincts. His letter points up this belief.

Congress Give Wall St. a Boom

New York—Satisfied smiles and well-bred whoops of glee blossomed out on Wall Street April 17 when the House gave its ktss of death to OPA. News of each successive crippling amendment — decision to kill OPA in nine months, guarantee a “reasonable profit” on every item of trade, end subsidies — sent the stock market higher and higher. By mid-afternoon the ticker on the New York Stock Exchange reached a new high of 209.36. Then trading dropped a little. Maybe the magnates began to feel sheepish when the amendmentcrazy House almost adopted that final sorrowful clause slipped in by a price control supporter — “We express our sympathy to the American people.” — The Union.

JOHN BRICKER BACK IN RING

Bumbling Bricker Of Ohio To Be A Candidate Again

John Bricker is back in the ring again warming up the old act. He’s hoping time and events will play into his favor this time. He hasn’t forgotten his old friends,

eithel*.

And he’s hoping they haven’t forgotten him. It takes a lot of money to run for the U. S. Sen(Continued On Page Four)

Company at

Louis until May, 1941, when he went to the A. T. & T. Co. as an assistant vice president, handling

personnel matters.

Mr. Carroll, who is retiring, has been president of the Indiana Bell for 16 years, coming to the Indiana Company on May 1, 1930.

o

Indiana Busses To Operate On DST Indiana Railroad busses will start operating on Dalight Saving Time, starting at 12:01 a. m. Sun-

day, April 28.

According to John T. Martin, company vice-president and general manager, the change was an nounced for its three inter-city divisions, as well as the city operations in Muncie and Anderson, when most of the cities served by the compar^y voted to adopt “fast”

time.

o Ibn Sand’s Troublesome Taboo. It was a real problem for the king when he visited Cairo and discovered that thousands of women were strolling with their faces uncovered. Warren Hall tells how the potentate solved the difficulty. His story appears in The American Weekly, the magazine distributed with next week’s CHICAGO SUNDAY HERALDAMERICAN.

Governor Gates—or his ghost-

writer—frequently gets as wound I up in words, as a kitten with a j

ball of yarn, and if anybody were I to suggest that he try to extri- I

cate himself, would probably |

have as much trouble doing so. A case in point was his speech i to the recent meeting in Indianapolis of newspaper executives of the state, when he asked the editors and publishers present to ’cooperate in “the big job ahead,” to ’’buck the trend, to turn from wonderful nonsense and alluring theories to Hoosier sense ... It is the only way to end the confusion that besets us. It is the only way to check the creeping paralysis of bureaucracy and bring order out of present chaos.” The Governor perhaps is not

aware that his own state ad- ,. , A , ministration, while so vocal in tion and disgust at the manner in its denunciation of “government i W “ 1C }} . e 9*. 10us ^ n S situation by bureauracy,” far from doing wa ®.^ )ein S rnis l l andled by the Reaway with those which existed Pelican Congressmen and Senin this state when he took office 1 , UUf’ \ps e ther with their powerhas created 21 new ones—all a f- l°kkyists now at work in the fording fat salaries which have [Nations Capitol. This group has added to the drain on state funds, | succ eeded in delaying any emerand are one reason why the state i £ency ^jjfislation that would do tax rate is the highest in the tape and allow

state’s history.

1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Precincts Hold Enthusiastic Meeting With Oscar Shively Acting As Toastmaster—Frank Unger, Candidate for Congress, Introduced By Lester Holloway As Main Speaker — Promises To Give Rep. Springer a Real Run for His Money—Unger Prominently Known Over State—Promises If Elected To Serve His

Constituients Impartially.

The Democrats of the 1, 2, 3, and 4th precincts held an enthusiastic meeting at the Jefferson School building, Wednesday evening. Practically all the candidates and their wives attended. The meeting was organized by John Morgan, 1st precinct committee-

man.

Oppie Reed acted as toastmaster for the occasion. Oscar Shively County Chairman, made an interesting talk and in no uncertain terms expressed his dissatisfac-

Also, speaking of “present chaos,” how about the beer scandle, Governor? Is that your idea

of Hoosier sense?

SEEK PROBE OF KKK IN FLORIDA

IS 0. P. A. NECESSARY Do you remember the N.R.A.? The same group who fought the N.R.A.is now fighting O.P.A. Remember, after the last war, you stood in line for sugar at 35c a pound? Ask Mom, she knows! Without price control we can expect uncontrolled inflation. With price control we can expect a prosperous America for a long, long time. Fight now for your price control, and it will fight for your future. Contact your representative in Congress at once!

Rally Citizens In Every Walk Of Life To Smash The Group Florida CIO unions this week were rallying citizens in every walk of life to smash the reviving Ku Klux Klan after Miami FBI headquarters had in effect given the hooded order of the millionaire citrus bosses the green light to go ahead with its program of lynching and union-busting. Steps toward federal prosecution of the masked night riders were taken by the state CIO council as soon as it learned that the Klan had chosen Florida as one concentration center in a southwide “campaign” to head off the CIO’s great organizing drive in

Dixie.

Charles N. Smolikoff, director of the state council, answered an announcement of Miami FBI Chief Joseph E. Thornton that his office would not act “unless there were a violation of civil rights” with a strongly worded letter to national FBI headquarters in Washington demanding that the Klan, closely identified with the German-American Bund before Pearl Harbor, be investigated and prosecuted. Smolikoff pointed out that “the report by local FBI personnel that the ‘FBI can take no action unless the hooded members begin interstate activity’ is adopting a close-your-eyes passivity that can only lend encouragement to these hooded native fascists and hate mongers.” ■. Smolikoff said that “the CIO at its recent state convention in Tampa authorized formation of a (Continued On Page Four) o Another Increase For Muncie Teachers

Important business was transacted at the meeting of the Muncie School Board Thursday evening. They named Kenneth Petro, a Wilson Junior High teacher, as principal of Roosevelt Elementary School, to succeed Earl Peckinpaugh, who was recently promoted to the position of principal of Central High. The much discussed question of wage increases for all city teachers was finally acted upon but the amount of increase has not been definitely decided upon. This raise in salary will be in addition to the regular salary increase. At this meeting the teachers were hired for next year. The present staff was all re-hired for another year. There are a few 1 vacancies to be filled.

immediate construction of homes for veterans, so desperately need-

ed at this time.

Lester E. Holloway introduced the main speaker of the evening, Frank Unger of Farmland who has been drafted by the farmers of the 10th District as the Democratic candidate for Congress to oppose the veteran incumbent, Raymond E. Springer, and promising to give Springer a real run for it in this district predominantly made up of farmers and factory workers. Mr. Unger is well known not only over the 10th district, but over the entire state, as an active Democrat. He was a' precinct committeeman in Gredn Township for six years, County Chairman of Randolph County for twelve years, and has been a member of the Democratic State Central Committee for five years, being unanimously elected every

time.

“The only college I ever attended,’ he says, “was the college of hard knocks, but that school ;has taught me the problems of the working man and the common man. I’ve been a farmer all my life, and by practical experience I know the problems of the farmer. Politics have been my life and I have for ma'ny years been a close student of local and nationel issues, giving my time and strength to the support of the principles which the Democratic party stands for, in the interest of the common man, for the betterment of the nation, and the furtherance of world peace. “If I am elected to Congress, the people who live across the river and across the railroad track and on the farm will have the priority to see their Congressman, whether I’m in the district or in Washington, and it will be their interests which I shall have

primarily at heart.” Mr. Unger is fifty-six years old. He was born in Middlefork, Clinton County. He moved to Randolph County in the spring of 1918 and has resided there ever since. He married Fern Vencill of Forest, Ind., and they have one son, Luellen, a doctor who is a lieutenant in the Navy, stationed at the Naval Hospital at Great Lakes, where he is personal physician to all the officers and their families. Mr. Unger is owner of a 250acre farm in Green township, Randolph County, and is also farm-manager for Dr. Byron Nixon, who owns 700 acres in that county. He is a member of the Masonic Order, and of the Lions

Club.

REECE WEIGHED FOOND WANTING

GOP Regulars Stand Pat With Standpatters Says Writer The selection of Carroll Reece as national GOP chairman to succeed reactionary Herbert Brownell, Jr., has given the country a clear idea of things present and to come, with the Republican party. “The significance of the meeting of the national committee could hardly be plainer,” commented the Baltimore Sun. “The regulars are standing pat with the standpatters. Again (as after World War I) “they wait for weariness to elect them.” The same newspaper commented that “Reece served the House for 25 years without fame.” Reece’s complete record, as a matter of fact, shows that he voted against the farmer on farm measures, against labor on labor measures, against national defense before Pearl Harber and against international coopei'ation since the end of World War II— proving that, in spite of his feeble - protestations to the contrary, he is an isolationist as well as a (Continued on Page Four)

Caugh In “Meshes”

Another flagrant instance of how beer and patronage have been used by the present state administration, under the state chairmanship of William E. Jenner—beer and patronage being employed to wield a political juggernaut in which all state offices should be held by Republicans, and all Republican party officials and patronage-re-cipients would be cogs and wheels—is criticized editorially by the Republican Indianapolis News. This is the appointment of Lisle Wallace of Sheridan as patronage secretary of the Republican state committee to succeed Mr. Springer, and of Leo M. Kinman to be Jenner’s campaign manager. Through these two appointments, the octopus-tentacles of state GOP control through patronage is shown reaching into even such governmental departments as conservation and public welfare—two divisions which should surely be free, and away from politics. It is no wonder that the returning veterans are unable to get state jobs. Time and again it has happened, in the past several months, that a former state employe with an enviable record for efficiency and seniority as to term of office, has returned from the armed service expecting to receive his former job—only to be kicked out with the curt word that “only good Republicans”—men useful to the machine—are now eligible. Add to the following truths cited in a recent editorial from the Republican Indianapolis NeWs, the significant fact that Leo Kinman, Jenner’s newly appointed campaign manager, was one of the very first to organize a beer setup. The natural question follows—has that anything to do with Jenner? Politics and Official Duties “Lisle Wallace, Sheridan, has been appointed patronge secretary of the Republican state committee. Leo M. Kinman, Shelbyville, has been named campaign manager for William E. Jenner, who seeks the Republican nomination for United States Senator. Mr. Wallace is a member of the Indiana Conservation Commission. Mr. Kinman is a member of the State Board of Public Welfare. It becomes Mr. Wallace’s task to apportion the patronage that the present state administration has to distribute. Mr. Kinman, naturally, will be concerned chiefly with nominating his candidate.

(