Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 29 November 1946 — Page 1

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BROWNOUT SAVES COAL Indianapolis. -— The Indiana brownout has saved one-third of the coal the state’s utilities normally would have used, the governor’s Emergency Fuel Advisory Committee reported today. The extent of the fuel conservation since the brownout went into effect at 6 p. m. Monday, was based on reports from a number of power companies throughout the state. All said there was a decreased demand upon electric power and that the brownout is responsible. One utility that supplies electricity to 70 counties in Indiana told the committee that since late Monday, the company used less than two-thirds of the coal it normally would use in a similar period.

NARCOTICS AGENT FREED Indianapolis.—Bernard £>. Peterson, former Federal narcotics agent, was freed today of charges that he violated the U. S. narcotics law and defrauded the government. Federal Judge Robert C. Baltzell sustained a defense motion for a directed verdict in Peterson’s trial, after a jury failed to reach a verdict last week. Baltzell said the evidence failed to prove Peterson’s guilt. o TRAINS COLLIDE Ogden, Utah. — The Southern Pacific streamliner “City of San Francisco” collided with two freight engines on a siding at Groome, Utah, early today, but railroad officials said apparently there were no serious injuries.

JEWISH TRANSFERRAL Jerusalem.—The Palestine Supreme Court ruled today that British authorities are legally justified in transferring nearly 4,000 Jews now in Haifa harbor and other illegal immigrants from Palestine to Cyprus as a public security measure. Retaliation from the Jewish underground for the decision against the immigrants seeking to enter the Holy Land was expected quickly. Many observers believed it would come within 24 hours.

Return To Reactionary Policies Of ’20’s On Nov. 5

RENT CONTROL IS THREATENED

U. S. People Are Not Bound To Traditions As Republicans Seem To Think When They Believe a GOP President Will Be Elected in 1948—Lack of Leadership in Democratic Ranks Should Be a Warning —When Reactionary Forces Have Again Destroyed Our Economy the Masses Will Beg the Democratic Party for Succor. The night of November 5th and 6th, 1946 will go down in history as the night of shocks and surprises. For fourteen years America had set the pace for intelligent and progressive liberalism, which started in America with the Roosevelt administration and spread to other parts of the world. The general world trend was toward liberalism. Now the news of the U.S.A.’s return to the reactionary policies of the hectic 20s and early 30s was dispatched to all parts of the world. All over the world the liberals and the progressives were shocked. The reactionary

forces were happily surprised. Many had talked and written

Storm Of Price Increases Strikes Hard At All Americans

of the coming change, but very few really expected it, because none of the conditions which usually warrant a change existed. Heretofore most political changes in America had been caused by poor financial conditions. That was not the case in 1946. Tiig

change came when the living stan-^ another which I think influenced

dards of the American people were at an all time high. More

CHARGED IN ROBBERY Fort Worth, Tex.—Th«s FBI said today that a 19-year-old Texas youth charged in connection with a $5,000 bank robbery at Carlisle, Iowa, probably will be removed Monday to answer charges there. The teen-aged youngster, Joe Doyle Banning, was arrested this week at his mother’s Fort Worth home following a bus trip from Chillicothe, Mo. Another youth. Jay Earl Willis, also 19, had implicated Banning in a statement before officers at Des Moines, where he himself was apprehended following the Nov. 23 bank holdup.

WINS 4-H CLUB TROPHY Chicago — Laverne E. Hall, 20, Westby, Wis., was named today as the winner of the Presidential National 4-H Club Trophy. Hall has earned $5$,026.06 from dairy, swine, colt, . beef, field crops and soil conservation projects during eight years in 4-H work. In addition to the Presideni$al Trophy, he won a $200 college scholarship from the National Committee on Boys and Girls Club Work. He began his 4-H work eight years ago when his father gave him one Jersey calf. Today he owns a’ head of 49 purebred Jerseys, so good Hall was named the 1945 Wisconsin champibn Jersey breeder. © DELAY PUBLICATION Washington — Publication of the United Mine Workers Journal, organ of the UMW, has been delayed pending the outcome of the federal court proceedings against the union and president John L. Lewis, it was learned today. Editors of the semi-monthly magazine, which has a circulation over 400,000, said the Dec. 1 issue was being held up because there was a question whether Judge T. Alan Goldsborough’s restraining order would permit publication. Ordinarily the presses would be rolling now. Judge Goldsborough’s order included a ban on encouraging the walkout.

MORE GRAIN AVAILABLE Washington — The Department of Agriculture today made more grain available for beer and whiskey. It also cancelled restrictions on domestic distribution of flour. The actions coincided with a statement by President Truman that more than enough grain is available to fill relief needs abroad, although a shortage of boxcars will nvake it difficult to meet U. S. export commitments.

an

persons were working than ever before, and were getting the best wages ever paid to workingmen. This change in the absence of all the things which usually cause a change mystified the people and set brain to whirling in an effort to find an answer. Everyone came up with an answer, but his answer seem to satisfy no one but himself, and in most cases it cftd not satisfy him. I have read more than a hundred such answers, but none of them fully satisfy my curosity. Here are some of the most satisfying and widely accepted answers: (a) ) It is an American tradition that no one party be allowed to remain in office more than sixteen years at a time. The Republicans base their chances of electing a President in 1948 on this tradition. I would advise them not bank on this too much, because in electing Roosevelt to a third and a fourth term the American people showed that they are not always bound by traditions. (b) A lack of unity and aggressive leadership in the Democratic party. That argument contains a great deal of truth, and should be a warning to the Democrats. Since the death of President Roosevelt, the Democratic party has been without unity and postive leadership, and has been unable to agree on any clear cut program. To start with, Robert Hannagan, National chairman of the Democratic party, wanted to launch a national program based on Roosevelt’s foreign and domestic policies. The reactionary southern Democrats opposed it, and the President was inclined to agree with them. This split among the party’s top men left the Democratic constituancy without any clear understanding of what kind of program they were being offered. Under the circumstances, the Democrats failed to become enthusiastic about going to the polls. I know of no national check being made to determine just what per cent of Democrats stayed away from the polls, but the indications are that a very small per cent of the 27,000.000 who voted for Roosevelt in 1944 bothered to go to the polls. A check of one factory and one precinct revealed the following; 70 per cent of the voters in the factory were registered as Democrats. Less than 30 per cent went to the polls. 30 percent were Republicans, and 98 per Cent voted. 63 per cent of the precinct voters were registered as Democrats. Less than 34 percent voted. 36 per cent were registered as Republicans and 92 per cent voted. If this holds true throughout the country, as I suspect it does, it explains the change. (c) The Red baiting program carried on by the Republicans. They played on this one string throughout the campaign. From the platform, over the radio, and through newspapers and magazines they accused all Democrats and all CIO members of being Communists. Never before In American politics was such a flagrant falsehood made the main issue of a campaign. The Republicans staked their all on the truth of Hitler’s dictum “If you tell a big lie and repeat it often enough the people will believe it. That

worked with certain groups of Americans just as it had worked with the Germans. The conservative United States News points out the fact that it was the Red baiting that swung the Irish, German and Polish vote over to the

Republican side.

To the foregoing widely accepted answers I should like to add

many voters. It is this: History shows that the Democratic party is the rescue party. Whenever the masses feel insecure against the oppression of the rich they turn to the Democratic party for succor. More than once, the Democratic party has rescued the mass- i es from the clutches of greed, and set them on the rock of financial security and independence. When those who have been rescued regain their sense of security, they like to show their independence by scorning the party that rescued them. It is like a sick man calling on a doctor to help him regain his health. He will keep himself under the doctor’s care so long as he is in ill health, but as soon as he feels his health has been re-, stored he will discharge the doctors and go back to his old habits and old ways of living. When his fast living has again broken his health he will again call upon the doctor for succor. Our nation was a very sick patient in 1933 when it turned to the Democratic party for help. The treatment was long and expensive, but it finally conquered the malady and restored us to national health. The sense of National health and security was so prevalent that many thought they could afford to discharge the doctor and go back to old reactionary habits of the 1920’s. It is a great mistake to think that only sick people need a doctor. The purpose of a doctor is not only to cure the sick but to help the healthy to keep their health. When the reactionary forces have again destroyed our national health, and breadlines and soup kitchens are established throughout the land, the masses will crawl back to the Democratic party begging for succor. We Americans always learn the hard

way.

o — Ways To Prevent Another Depression If we are to avoid a serious depression with its high level of unemployment and mass starvation, it is necessary that the following action be taken as soon as possible, says Pres. Murray’s report to the CIO convention. 1. Reinstitution of controls to effect a steady, free flow of materials necessary for production. This requires an allocation and priority system. 2. Establishment of inventory controls to prevent hoarding of materials. 3. A firm price control plan to force absorption of increased costs through profits, higher production levels and rising productivity. 4. A tax program to discourage hoarding, price rises and higher profits: (a) an excess profits tax; (b) a stronger and more easily enforced capital gains tax at a higher rate than the current 25%; (c) repeal of the carry-back, carry-forward provisions of the tax law. “As a long-range program,” says the report, “we must go even further. Full production, full employment and full utilization of our economic and natural resources must be Our continuous goal.”

A storm of price increases that will strike hard at practically every American family followed the abandonment of price, wage and salary controls, except the ceilings on rent, sugar and rice. Rent control is threatened. Price rises ranged from soap which jumped from 50 to 75% at the wholesale level to all General Motors cars which will cost the public $100 more each. In announcing the decontrol President Truman said it was forced on him because of an “unworkable” price control law, which was passed by a caolition led by Republicans and polltax Democrats. He sharply criticized producers who are withholding goods from markets in the hope of obtaining higher prices and profits. “The major problem with which we have had to contend is the withholding of goods from the market,” Truman said. “As price controls are dropped one by one, many sellers naturally hold on to their goods in the hope that their turn will come next and that they can obtain higher prices. “In addition to those who are holding on to good merely in expectation of decontrol, there are others whose motive is de(Continued On Page Ponr)

79TH CONGRESS NEGLECT STORY

Last Session Had Opportunity To Serve The People But Didn’t The 79th Congress had a golden opportunity to act in the people’s interest. It failed to do so. The legislation which it killed or failed to act upon reads like a Who’s Who of the program of the late Franklin D. Roosevelt. “To meet the economic emergency in the immediate postwar months, CIO supported a number of needed measures. Virtually ever one met with violet death in Congress,” Pres. Murray reported to the CIO convention. “Just as it killed or neglected every vital measure needed to meet immediate emergoncy needs. Congress shelved or slashvirtually every- important measure needed for charting the long-range course of the country on a sound and progressive basis.” t The sections of the President’s report listing the necessary legislation which fell by the wayside is a recital of failure to meet the country’s obvious needs — a failure which will probably carry over into he 80th Congress as a result of the Republican victory at the polls. Look at the record, as cited by Pres. Murray: Kilgore-Forand bill for emergency unemployment compensation — “passed by the Senate only in a weakened and battered form, and never got beyond the Ways and Means Committee of the House.” Proposals to keen the U. S. Employment Service under federal control — ’“fought bitterly and ultimately killed.” Veterans emergency housing — “enacted only in sadly weakened form.” Price control — “The story of price control requires no exten(Continued On Page Three)

Cfjc Ulorb of p oilier for a Jpotoer Ugf

WORLDWIDE BIBLE READING THANKSGIVING TO CHRISTMAS The Worldwide Bible Reading Program, to be observed between Thanksgiving and Christmas, is a plan to get people all over the world to read the same Bible selections daily between those two days, November 28th to December 25th. This special effort is sponsored again this year by the American Bible Society and has as its central day Universal Bible Sunday, December 8th. The theme, selected for the 1946 program is “The Word of Power for a Power Age,” and the daily readings feature some of the “Spiritual Pioneers” of the Bible who found the “Word of Power” for the age in which they were called to live. Last year people in over 20 nations shared in the reading. The program, inaugurated by the Bible Society in 1944, was the outcome of a letter sent by a lonely young marine in Guadalcanal, asking his mother to join him in reading each day, at the same time, a similar passage of Scripture. A Laymen’s National Sponsoring Committee assists the Bible Society in the promotion of the program. Members of the committee this year include Norman Corwin, Joseph E. Davies, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harvey S. Firestone, Jr., Miss Helen Keller, Admiral C. W. Nimitz, Drew Pearson, the Hon. Francis B. Sayre and Channing H. Tobias. Thanksgiving, Nov. 28 Genesis 8:20—9:17 (Noah) Friday Genesis 12:1-9; 17:1-8 (Abraham) Saturday Genesis 32 (Jacob) Sunday, Dec. 1 Genesis 37 (Joseph) Monday Exodus’S (Moses) Tuesday Ruth 1 (Ruth) Wednesday i Samuel 3 (Samuel) Thursday I Samuel 16; Psalms 139 (David) Friday I Kings 19:9-18 (Elijah) Saturday j Nehemiah 6 (Nehemiah) Sunday, Dec. 8 Zechariah 4 ■ (Zerubbabel) Monday Isiah 1:1-20; 6 (Isiah) Tuesday Isiah 52:13—53-12 (God’s Servant) Wednesday ’. Jeremiah 1:1—2:13 (Jeremiah) Thursday Daniel 6 (Daniel) Friday Luke 1:26-56 (Mary) Saturday — Matthew 3:1-17 (John the Baptist) Sunday, Dec. 15 John 3:1-17 (Nicodemus) Monday Luke 10:30-42 —(Good Samaritan: Mary of Bethany) Tuesday —Luke 15:11-24 (Prodigal Son) Wednesday - John 13:1*17 (Jesus) Thursday ----- John 17 (Jesus) Friday . 1—Acts 2 (Peter) Saturday Acts 6:8-15; 7:44-60 (Stephen) Sunday, Dec. 22 Acts 9:1*9; 13:14*43 (Paul) Monday — —- II Timothy 1:1*18 (Timothy) Tuesday Hebrews 11-24—12:2 (Heroes of The Faith) Christmas, Dec. 25 -« Matthew 2 (Jes)is)

Mann Says GOP Victory Is Rise Oi New Isolationism LEWIS GREATEST Novelist Claims That If Roosevelt Had ReDH77I C Ihl II C niained Alive It Would Have Been PossirUiLLC m U. 0. b | e To Avoid World Dissension—Reaf-

firms Byrnes’ Statement On Foreign Policy—Thomas Mann Is One of Signers of a Petition Asking for World Constitutional

Internal Situation Is Most Explosive Since The

Civil War

BY C. L. ARRINGTON The perennial John L. is again in the spotlight. Everybody talks or writes about his shaggy eyebrows and his bulldog jaws, but very little of what one reads or hears about him makes sense. Very few are able to write or speak objectively about Lewis. Most of what one reads or hears about him is extremely biased one way or the other. To some he is a hero; to others he is a demagog. Here is an example of what I have heard about him within the last two days: “He is the only leader that labor has left.” “He has done more for the working man than any other leader.’ “He is a Fascist. Just another Hitler started out to rule the world.” “He wants to be both a political and a labor dictator,” “He should be tried for treason against the government.” “He should be put in jail.” “Truman should appoint Lewis Secretary of State and then resign and let Lewis become President. He would show them how to run the country. He would have the guts to tell Joe Stalin where to head

in at.”

One can readily see that all

Convention.

Thomas Mann, famed novelist, considers the Republican victory at the polls this month “indicates the rise of a new isolationism which is not better but worse than the old isolationism because it has imperialistic traits.”

Mann’s statement was made in an essay distributed Thursday at a Thanksgiving Day peace rally at the Civic Opera House, Chicago, sponsored by various organizations interested in world government and attended by 2,000

persons.

The United States, in Mann’s opinion, has been with a profound paralysis of moral energy after tremendous accomplishments in a struggle against world

fascism.

A spiritual distemper compels the country to renounce leadership, he believes, and to assitne the function of a gigantic brake on the wheel of progress. F. D. R. Influence Missed “If Mr. Roosevelt had remained alive it would have been possible

to avoid the world dissension

these expressions are biased, and which now menaces peace, civili

spring from the emotions and not '

from any understanding of Lewis, and the issues that confront the

government, the miners, and the operators in dealing with him. John L. Lewis is the one man who no one understands. For ten years, I have been trying to understand him. but I am compelled to confess that I still do not understand him. One day I find myself inclined to join those who worship him, and the very next day I am ready to take sides with those who call him a Fascist and a- would be dictator, To me he is the world’s greatest

zation, and the very future of the human race,” Mann declared. “Mr. Byrnes (the Secretary of State) is quite within his rights when he assures us that the pax’ty change* made no difference in America’s foreign policy,” he saidi “This foreign policy had long been contrary to .he democratic spirit and the result of the election has now, apparently at least, given it the stump of national ap-

proval.”

Mann complimentea Students for World Government, one of the sponsoring organizations, in its fight for a world government

conundrum. I never know where interdependence Cited

to find him. He is first in the frying pan and then in the fire. One day he is working hard and courageously to build up something, and the next day he will work just as hard and courageously to tear down what he has

built.

In 1935, we find Lewis literally swinging his fist into the jaws of some A.F.L. leaders. He damns William Green and his craftsmen to the nether regions, and insinuates that they are the enemies of the workingman. He works hard and does a good job of building up industrial unions. In 1936, he praises Roosevelt and his administration to high heaven. In 1940, he turns against Roosevelt, and resigns from his leadership in the C.I.O. From 1935 to 1940 Lewis was determined to build up the Roosevelt administration and the C.I.O. From 1940 to date, he has been hellbent, on discrediting Roosevelt and the whole Democratic party and tearing down the C.I.O., which he worked so hard to build. No one has been able to understand what caused Lewis to do the right-about-face in double time. The John Rogge report indicates that it might have been the doings of Hitler and Goering through a Mr. Davis, whom they sent to contact Lewis. If Rogge’s report is true, and I know of no one, not even Lewis, who has denied it, it certainly leaves Lewis in a bad light. It would make him a Hitler stooge. Those who take this line, point to the strikes which Lewis pulled during the war as being evidence that Lewis was not too much concerned about the outcome of the war against Hitler. Lewis recently buried the hatchet which he weilded against the A.F.L. for eleven years, and swallowed all the bitter words he had spoken against Green and his craftsmen and crept back into the A.F.L. fold with his eye on Green’s job. It now looks as though Lewis has his heart set on wrecking the C.I.O. and discrediting the Truman administration. On various occasions Lewis has seemed ready to join with big business, big industry and any other reactionary forces to achieve his objective. For instance, last year Eric Johnston, the President of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, Murray, President of the CXO. and Green, President of A.F.L. all agreed to cooperate in reconversion. Neither the N.A.M.. nor John L. would take any part in that cooperative effort At thfe Labor - Industry conference which met in Washington last winter, Lewis showed his colors when he joined with the NAM against the C.I.O. and brought the conference to a stale(Contlhned On Par* Three)

Youth, he said, feels and sees the days of the sovereign national state and its free enterprise are done; that not a single problem can any longer be solved from a purely national point of view and the time has come for a realization of the new truth, the truth of mutual interdependence. Mann’s message ended on thi§

optimistic note:

“I regard the present eclipse of the moral temper of this country as transitory and I do not doubt that it will very soon find the way back to its normal frame of mind, pioneering confident in the future and deeply alien to all reactionary melancholy.” Mann is one of the first signers of a petition asking national governments or the United Nations to call a world constitutional convention. The petitions are to be circulated all over the world. o Russian Furs On U. S. Market A few days ago a New York columnist predicted that there would be a drastic reduction in the price of furs, very soon. He said that furs from the overstocked Russian supply would glut the American supply would near future. Russian furs are of the best quality obtainable. Judging from the advertising already appearing in large city newspapers, this predicted slump in fur prices, is already here. There will undoubtedly be a very drastic drop in local prices soon, so, if you have been intending to buy yourself a new fur coat this winter but were waiting for the after Christmas sales, you are indeed lucky. You will likely be able to buy it for about half the

previous cost.

INFORMATION ON SURPLUS ITEMS

Many Important And Hard-To-Get Items Are Offered For Sale

The following digest highlights WAA’s activities in its surplus disposal program for the past week. A special sale of new and used surplus tents will start on December 2, it was announced by WAA. These tents, WAA pointed out, should alleviate farmers’ storage problems caused by shortages of protective coverings for their stocks of grain and feed, and should also be of interest to contractors and builders for covering materials. * * <t Veterans who desire to purchase surplus property by mail order need not send funds until they are informed that the items ordered are available, WAA emphasized recently. This procedure has been established to avoid tying up funds of veterans and to eliminate delays in refunds when orders cannot be filled. * ❖ sj: ij: WAA is offering for sale 6,500,000 pounds of Dinitrotulene. “DNT”, used in the production of TNT during the war, can be converted to nitroluidine, an intermediate in the production of certain dyes. Chicago x’egion has an inventoxy of 4,200,000 potmds t packed in barrels and fibex drums. ’ * * * * Credit letters up to $50,000 can be obtained by financially responsible concei’ns that have established credit with the administration, WAA revealed.. Regional offices will approve lines of credit up to $50,000, but amounts in excess of that figure must be approved by Washington. * * * £ Postponement for at least 30 days of the sale of war surplus at Camp Grant, Illinois, scheduled for November 18, was announced by WAA. It was pointed but by WAA that the sale has not been cancelled and will definitely be held at the later date. $ * * * Plans to make the DodgeChrysler plant the Chicago WAA headquarters, have been definitely postponed. It was explained that the plant would not px-ovide enought space for regional office needs and that the move would hamper and delay WAA’s accel(Continned On Pace Three) O Meeting Sunday There will be a meeting of the Delaware County Democratic Organization, Sunday afternoon, Dec. 1 at 2:00 p. m. in the Circuit Court Room in the Court House, Oscar M. Shively, chairman, Delaware County Democratic Central Committee announced today.

A Mistake, Mr. Duke A wrong was committed in an Atlanta courtroom the other day. There is no moral doubt it was wx-ong. An Assistant Attorxxey General of Geoi’gia, standing before the bar of justice, struck the defendant with his fist. It was clearly an illegal and improper act s The court was hearing the case which woxild decide “whether or not the charter of the anti-Negro, anti-Jewish Columbians, Inc., should be withdrawn. Chief defendant was the Columbian president, Emory C. Burke. Prosecuting was Assistant Attorney General Dan Duke. Burke was insulting. He continued to be insulting. Finally Duke could stand it no longer. He hauled off and smashed Burke in the face. No question that .for an Assistant Attoraey General td handle a defendant in that way is wrong. Completely wrong. And there’s a sad ending to the story, tob; Coluxxxbian Burke, though knocked to the floor, was hurt only slightly. (Say, Mr. Duke, if you make another mistake, hit a little harder, will ypu?)—Philadelphia Record.

Mi