Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 29 August 1947 — Page 1

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VOL. 28—NO. 39.

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Removal Of OPA Hasn’t Aided Economic Outlook

Following Death of Price Control, Cost of Living In U. S. Soars—Republicans Urged Patience, Saying Prices Would Start Coming Down—Pres. Truman Does Not Believe Increase In Wages Justifies Increased Cost of Living—Americans Must Act To Rescue Country From Reactionaries and Industry From Monopolists and Pro-

fiteers.

C. L. ARRINGTON Last year at this time Senator Taft, Representative Wolcott, and the other wise heads (?) of the Republican Party were preaching the gospel of supply and demand as the panacea for all our economic ills. We were told that price control was hamstringing business and holding up production, and thereby depriving the people of the commodities which they need so badly.

IATE NEWS

TO FLY TO HOLLAND Batavia. — Lt. Gen. Hubertus Van Mook, Dutch governor general, will fly to Holland Sunday for cabinet discussions of the Indonesian conflict, it was announced today. He will broadcast from here Saturday night. o OVERELL DEFENSE PLANNED Santa Ana, Cal.—Defense attorneys will attempt to prove next week that Beulah Louise Overell, 18-year-old heiress, and her fiance, George (Bud) Gollum, were charged with murder because of a local political squabble. Defense attorneys said their last medical witness, Dr. Frank R. Webb, would finish testifying Tuesday, when the trial resumes after a weekend holiday. o MORE MANLY CLUB Boston.—The More Manly Male Club of bobbysoxers nominated Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, Crooner Jack Smith and Movie Star Burt Lancaster today as their “Swoon trip” of deep-voiced males with muscles and hairy chests. The teen-aged girls who formed the MMM Club said they were tired of “Wilting Willies” and that they were seeking to persuade “men to act like men again.” o RAIL WAGE DRIVE Providence, R. I.—The five big railroad unions are planning a drive for increased wages to “counter spiralling prices,” according to President A. F. Whitney of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen (Ind.) Whitney, here for the New England convention of his organization, said in an interview that representatives of the Brotherhoods would meet in Cleveland, “Sept. 8,'To complete plans for the concerted pay hike campaign. o DRAFT EISENHOWER LEAGUE Washington.— A “Draft Eisenhower for President League” made its appearance here today and its founders announced their intention of keeping Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s name “emblazoned before the electorate from here on in.” The three officers of the “Draft Eisenhower” League are H. D. Spalding, chairman and treasurer, Robert M. Haar, president, and Maurice B. Mumford, executive vice president. Mumford and Spalding are associated in a local export firm. Haar is an aeronautical equipment dealer. o EISENHOWER SPEAKS. New York—Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower, army chief of staff, told American Legionnaires today America “must face the hard fact that “the cooperating spirit has lost ground,” leaving the world divided into two great camps— Dictatorships and Democracies. In an address to the 29th annual Leegion’s convention, Eisenhower said that today no nation is in a position deliberately to start a glomal war with any hope of gain. But he warned that the United States, as the champion of freedom, would receive the first blow from an aggressor nation. It must prepare now for the future and for any accidental “explosion,” he said. • o DIAMOND THEFT REPORTED. Jerusalem—A band of armed Jews stole $100,000 worth of diamonds today in two raids in Tel Aviv, presumably to raise funds for underground activities. Five masked men, believed to belong to the Stern group, seized a parcel of diamonds from a Tel Aviv factory just as employees of the place were preparing to ship it to the United States on consignment. • o 40 AND 8 PARADES. New York—Officials of the “40 and 8” said today that the organization’s parade down Eighth Ave. last night was the “biggest and best” in the history of the American Legion. , Police said it was “the largest, most disorganized Et Huit Chemost idsorganized procession, that ever tied up New York trfafic. The “40 and 8” of La Souetc des Quarante Hommes Et Huit Chevaux (Society of 40 men and eight ing oragnization. It took its name from French box cars used in World War 1. o FOOD IN ROPfi. In attempting a flight to the North Pole in 1907, the dirigible “America” caried ham, bacon, butter, bread, and other provisions in a 134-foot hollow leather guide-rope. Six inches in diameter, the rope was so constructed as to move over ice floes without resistance, and float in the water.

We were assured that if OPA were removed and the law of supply and demand allowed to operate the factories, mills, mines and farms would produce abundantly and would soon have the market fully supplied with all the things we needed at reasonable prices. With the help of NAM lobbyists they succeeded in selling their phony idea to the majority of their congressional colleagues. The result was the death of OPA. Immediately following the death of OPA the cost of living began to soar. Workingmen who had managed to save a little during the war were forced to dip into their savings in order to meet the rising cost of living. Millions of those who had been banking a few dollars each week or buying a bond every month or so had to discontinue their saving, and start drawing from bank accounts and cashing their bonds. The wise headed (?) Republicans urged us to be patient promising that it would only be a few more weeks until the market was supplied and prices would start coming down. We tightened our belts and waited as prices continued to soar until last week it was announced that the cost of living in America had reached an all time high, and still rising. The perpetrators of this robbery have been busy thinking up excuses for the continued rising cost of living. They tried to make the public believe that it was caused by increased wages, but that did not work since the figures showed that prices had risen far beyond what the little increase in wages would justify. On the average the price of the finished product was raised sixteen dollars for every extra dollar put into it by increased wages. Not one of the murderers of OPA has been honest enough to come out and tell the public that the rising cost of living is due to the increased profits and dividends taken by the NAMers and their ally the U. S. C. C. They have said nothing about the 142% increased profits of the meat packers, nor about the more than 90% increased profits made by the steel industry, even before the recent increased price of steel, nor of the zooming profits of the automobile industry. Many who had been educated in the doctrine of Adam Smith began to wonder why the law of supply and demand was not working to bring the cost of living down. They failed to consider that our system of cartels and monoplies has long ago upset the law of supply and demand. Those who talk the loudest about the validity of the law of supply and demand are the very ones who have conspired together to hinder the working ‘ of the law. Some time ago Walter Ruether, president of CIO-UAW, warned of the “disaster” which would follow if the steel owners were allowed to continue their program of “planned scarcity calculated to enhance profits and fortify their monopoly hold” on the steel industry. Ruether’s warnings were confirmed by the industrialist Henry J. Kaiser who charged big steel with deliberately reducing its capacity in the face of increased need for steel. Kaiser intimated that it was General Motor’s financial interest in big steel that was preventing him and other independent automobile builders from getting steel. All along President Truman, who has been in close touch with the situation through his economic advisors, has believed that

the increase in wages did not justify the increased cost of living. On various occasions he has asked the industrialists and wholesalers to hold prices down, but his requests have gone unheeded. He intimated that the present profits of the steel industry would allow it to absorb the added cost arising from the increase in coal prices without any raise in the prices of steel, and expressed hope that the owners of big steel would not raise prices until they had given it a fair trial. The answer to the President’s hopes was an immediate increase of from $5 to $7 per ton for steel. This grab on the part of big steel shocked the whole nation. The Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation of the steel industry. The F. T. C. has charged the American Iron & Steel Institute, whose more than 100 members represent practically the entire steel industry, with illegally conspiring to fix and maintain the price of steel. Specific indictments were lodged against U. S. Steel, Bethlehem Steel, Jones & Laughlin, and 22 other smaller fry. While the F. T. C. has authority to investigate and make its findings known to the public ,it has no authority to punish. After a hearing which is set for Sept. 10th the F. T. C. can issue an order to cease and desist. If after sixty days the cease and desist order is not complied with FTC may appeal to the courts, and if its contentions are upheld by the courts it pan ask the Justice Department to start action which may result in penalties up to $5,000 for each violator. A week before the FTC announced its findings, Atty. Gen. Clark had announced a promised sweeping inquiry by the AntiTrust Division to determine whether or not “conspiracies” exist “to maintain or increase present prices in food, clothing and housing fields.” Obviously (Continued On Page Four) Demo Editors To Hear Ex-Gov. Kerr Shelbyville, Ind., Aug. 28 — Former Governor Robert S. Kerr, of Oklahoma, will address members of the Indiana Democratic Editorial Association and their guests at the annual fall outing to be held September 19 and 20 at the French Lick Springs Hotel, Marion T. Ayers, president of the association announced today. The former Oklahoma Governor will be principal speaker at the Saturday night banquet which, as in former years, will be the most important event on the two-day program arranged by the editors, Mr. Ayers said. Other association officers and Democratic party leaders will speak briefly. They will include Mr. Ayers; Frank M. McHale, Democratic national committeeman from Indiana; Mrs. Samuel Ralston, national vice-committeeman. Pleas E. Greenlee, Indiana Democratic chairman, and Mrs. Edna A. Bingham, state Democratic vice-chair-man. The former Governor of Oklahoma, one of the nation’s leading Democrats, was in Indiana last year, and made two addresses during the 1946 election campaign. Officers of the Indiana Democratic Editorial Association, in addition to Mr. Ayers are: Curtis Hostestter, Lafayette, vice-president; John A. Watkins, Bloomfield, secretary and Herbert Harris, Greenwood, treasurer.

SENATEPROBE GROUP SHAMED

Committee To Investigate War Contracts Fraud Dies In Disgrace Shortly after the outbreak of World War II the U. S. Senate appointed a Committee to investigate war contracts to determine whether or not any graft was entering into the letting and carrying out of such contracts. Then Senator Harry S. Truman was made chairman of the Committee, and under his leadership the Committee did an honorable job and gained the hearty respect of all fair minded Americans. It is estimated that this Committee saved the taxpeyers of America billions of dollars during its first few years of existence. Chairman Truman was determined that no politics or favoritism enter into the Committee’s investigations. When Truman became Vice-President, Senator Mead (D.NY.) fell heir to the chairmanship of the Committee. Mead continued the investigations on a nonpartisan basis, and investigated Democrats as well as Republicans. For instnace it was Mead who started the investigation of the then Representative May (D.Ky.) which finally ended in May’s conviction. He also laid the ground work for an investigation of Senator Bil-

bo (D.Miss.)

The Republican victory in the 1946 election took the Chairmanship of all committees from the Democrats and gave the Republicans control of all committees. The LaFollette-Monrooney bill made provision for the merging of the War Investigation Committee with other committees. When the Republicans had passed out all the chairmanships, Senator Owen Brewster (R.Ma.) who had ambitions to become Vice-President was peeved because he was not made chairman of any committee. Senator Taft, Republican boss of the Senate, who was planning to become the Presidential candidate for 1948, apparently thought Brewster would make a good running mate, and began to scheme to create a committee for Brewster. Remembering that Harry Truman had stepped from the chairmanship of the War Investigation Committee to the Vice-Presidency, he decided to continue that Committe, in non-compliance with the LaFollette -Monrooney reformation bill, and make Brewster its chair-

man.

From the very beginning of Brewster’s chairmanship of the Committee, close and impartial observers reported that he was using it as a political instrument to smear Democrats and to climb to the Vice-Presidency in 1948. Brewster had the stage all set for the big smear, and since the late President Roosevelt was the ideal of the Democrats Brewster thought his best strategy would be to smear the Roosevelt family and its friends. Elliott Roosevelt, Henry Kaiser and Howard Hughes were to be the villians of the show. The whole thing backfired and Roosevelt, Kaiser and Hughes turned out to be the (Continued On Page Four) O I. U. Housing At Charlestown Indiana University has advised inarried student veterans in this area who plan to enter the University as freshmen this fall but who have been unable to find housing in Bloomington that arrangements have been made for classes and housing at the Indiana Ordnance Plant near Charleston, Clark County. The classes will be conducted by the University’s Southeastern Extension Center at Jefferson-ville-New Albany and provide a full schedule of freshmen study. Low cost housing in single units or apartments will be available for the student veterans at the F. P. H. A. development adjacent to the Ordnance Plant. Negotiations for classroom space and housing have been concluded by the University with the War Department and F. P. H. A. Students taking their freshmen work at Charlestown will go at the end of the year to the Bloomington campus where housing will be reserved for them. Such students are asked by the University to advise immediately the Office of Dean of Students at Bloomington and to make housing applications to Eugene M. Darling, F. P. H. A. Administrator, Charlestown.

CAPITOL AIR IS NOW FRESHER

Brewster-Ferguson Smear And Run Sideshow Is Closed In Washington the air is fresher this week. The Brewster-Ferguson smear-and-run sideshow has closed for the summer. The cheapest exhibition of political demagoguery in the history of the United States Senate has ended. Brewster and Ferguson answered the question that has long worried students of political ^neebending: How low can you stoop? When the country saw the answer it was revolted. Republican leaders ran frtom the political backfire of disgust which Brewster and Ferguson turned against the Republican Party. They ordered Brewster and Ferguson to end their juggling act, drop their hot potato and head for the wings. Brewster and Ferguson failed to end their performance gracefully. They stumbled off the stage as unconvincingly as they had pranced on. Now the Republican Party is trying to pretend that the whole thing never happened. Republicans say, “It couldn’t have happened here.” It did happen here. The fiasco began as a Republican scheme to smear the memory of the late President Roosevelt by attacking the wartime activities of his son Elliott, who flew 89 combat missions during tne war, while Senator Brewster was pressing for a Government subsidized monpolistic “chosen instrument” airline. The so-called investigation was ballyhooed with the delicacy of a barker for a back-alley carnival peepshow. It was conducted with the same complete disregard for the civil rights of individuals displayed in trials held in totalitarian countries. ‘ Senator Brewster, once elected Governor of Maine as a candidate backed by the Ku Klux Klan, showed a real mastery of Klan technique in his performance at the hearings. Senator Ferguson, heralded in advance as a one-man »grand jury, turned into a one-man Donald Duck as prospective victims aroused him to squawking fury by refusing to permit him to expand his one-man grand jury activities into becoming a one-man supreme court and one-man reputation executioner. Fair play and witnesses who shouted the truth as loudly as Ferguson and Brewster shouted wild charges were not in the Republican script. The performance by Brewster and Ferguson was good for a belly laugh if you like the circus clown scene where the fellow about to pour a bucket of tar on someone else trips and smears it all over himself. Basically the revolting performance was not funny. It showed that Republicans were willing to subvert civil rights and the dignity of the Senate to the cheapest sort of party politics. Both of these acts follow the Fascist pattern. Fascists crucify their enemies by hailing them into a tribunal with none of the civil rights traditional to Anglo-Saxon courts. Fascists drag in the mud the dignity of the legislative branch of the legislative branch of the government so that people lose faith in a system of government by elected representatives of the people. The Brewster-Ferguson smear made a sorry contrast to the factpacked, honorable, dignified in'Continued On Paare Four) O Demos Act To Lower Prices While Republicans talked about prices last week the Democratic Administration ACTED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THEM! Attorney General Tom C. Clark ordered criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice of those who conspire to increase prices of food, clothing or hous-

ing.

He launched an investigation into high price conspiracies after a three-month study of the work of the anti-trust division of the Justice Department. The Attorney General emphasized the repeated statements of President Truman warning that giant monopolies arq a threat to the welfare of the country. The investigation made the National Association of Manufacturers unhappy. The NAM issued a statement blaming everything but fat profits for the high cost of living. Meantime corporate profits were running at the highest level in history. And Republican inaction in Congress had turned the high cost of living, into the high cost of existing!

The Republican Big-Wigs Have Come And Departed

PRESS AGENTS MISLAY FUNDS

O’Mahoney Lays Bare The Whole Republican Fiscal Policy Republican press agents have mislaid four and one-half billioh dollars. Even though these mislaid biU lions are phony, paper savings claimed by Republican press agents in their campaign handouts, it shows a distressing carelessness with funds. Senator Joseph C. O’Mahoney (D., Wyoming), whose sharp eye is constantly catching Republican financial shenanigans, disclosed the missing Republican billions in a radio address debunking a talk by Senator Brewster. Senator Brewster, in a free-and-easy style reminiscent of the old movie, “Brewster’s Millions,” came up with the claim that Republicans in the 80th Congress had accomplished federal savings of nine billion dollars. Senator O’Mahoney quoted in rebuttal the official statement of the Republican party which found that the highest total it could reach in fake paper savings was only four and one-half billion dollars Then Senator O’Mahoney showed that even this phony total was achieved “only by postponing the payment of known obligations, by authorizing contracts to be paid for in the future instead of making direct appropriations, and by creating conditions that will inevitably make large deficiency approprations necessary when Congress next assembles.” Mercilessly, O’Mahoney laid bare the Republican fiscal policy of not only NOT saving for a rainy day, but of throwing away the umbrella in the middle of a rainstorm. Instead of Republican double talk about high taxes, O’Mahoney’s listeners heard the tax question answered in a simple, forthright Democratic way. Said O’Mahoney: “If you want to know why taxes are high, the answer is to be found in the bald facts that we are still paying for the war, and that there is no possible way of going back to the prewar rate of expenditure. Any member of Congress who pretends to compare the present cost of government with that of 1939 or any other prewar year cannot escape indicting himself as incompetent to comprehend plain facts.” Concluded O’Mahoney: “If we are to have tax reduction it can only be obtained by tax reform, not, by reckless slashes. If we are to provide economic benefits for the low-income groups we cannot do it by offering them a puny reduction in taxes at the same time that we are authorizing an increase of the rents they have to pay. “The Republican leaders know now that it takes more than campaign oratory to run the Congress.” o Young Democrats To National Meet Young Democrats of Indiana, newly reorganized, are turning their attention to the national convention of Young Democratic Clubs to be held in Cleveland, October 3 and 4. The Indiana delegation will offer as a candidate for national office, Miss Helen Warvel of Indianapolis. Miss Warvel was elected National Committeewoman from Indiana at the recent convention of Young Democrats in Indianapolis. She has been largely responsible for reorganizing Young Democratic groups in Indiana, and her efforts have attracted attention of the national organization. The Cleveland meeting will be attended by a large group of Indiana Young Democrats. Heading the delegation will be John Walsh of Anderson, new national committeeman for Indiana, Miss Warvel, national committeewoman, Arthur Nordhoff, until recently national committeeman for Indiana, Marshall E. Hanley of New Albany, recently elected President of Indiana Young Democrats, Mrs. Mary Ochtum, East Chicago, vicepresident, Jerome O’Dowd, Fort Wayne, Secretary, and Curtis Kimmell, Vincennes, Treasurer. The Indiana delegation -is expected to show considerable strength in the convention whidlt will be the first since 1941. o Indelible ink usually can be removed from silk or nylon parachutes by frequent washing in warm water.

Governor Gates Confers With Local Leaders — Big Chiefs Fix Everything for the Voters In Few Hours Time and Then Leave City—Muncie Citizens and Voters Can Remember How GOP Politicians Fought the Federal Government’s Program To Restrict High Prices and Curb Inflation.

The “big-wigs” of the state Republican political organization took over the Muncie city campaign last Tuesday evening when Governor Ralph Gates, G.O.P. State Chairman Clark Springer, and Tenth District Chairman John Nigh came to town and told the party workers that they must elect Republicans or else. The “else” of course referred to keeping the doors open for the “palace guards” at the stfatehouse when the state election comes up next year.

The Governor expressed praise for the local G. O. P. candidates although he perhaps met them for a first time and knew nothing of their qualifications except they were Republicans which apparently was enough for him but certainly not enough for the voters of Muncie. This parade of high officials in Hoosier government coming to Muncie to launch the local city campaign can only mean that the Republican politicians feel themselves slipping and fear defeat at the polls this fall. The local boys must have hollered for help. Photograph bulbs flashed, oratory rumbled and predictions of success were made at the Roberts hotel. The local newspaper gave prominence and editorialized on the big event “which prompted our Governor to ascend on Muncie and advise the people that no one but a Republican was fit to hold a public office. Conferences were held and bubbles were blown by the big chiefs who drove into Muncie and arranged everything for the voters within a few hours and then drove away The occasion was highly seas oned with importance, but they perhaps overlooked one thing— the people of Muncie are quite capable of thinking for themselves and do not need outside influence to tell them who they shall select to administer their city government. The voters of Muncie as elsewhere, can remember well how the Republican politicians fought the federal government program to restrict high prices and curb inflation over a year ago and succeeded in abolishing the OPA on the promise that competition would equalize high costs of living and everyone would be happy thereafter. Months have passed since these promises were made to the public and costs of living have kept raising until today only the wealthy can afford to enjoy the land of plenty. The masses of people are forced to accept more “meatless” and “butterless” days than they were subjected to during the war because the Republicans chose to provide only for the “special privilaged” classes. The gospel preached by the G. O. P. bosses last Tuesday night, would lead us all to believe that no matter which candidate might conscientiously advocate a program for better government in Muncie, be sure you vote Republican. The taxes may continue to be increased, the streets and alleys can remain unclean, the city parks may remain unclean as so many acres of ground with

the youth, and law enforcement can still be only something to bother about but the all important message brought to Muncie !by the state political leaders was to continue Republican rule at any cost.

CGNSERVATION EMPLOYEES OUT

10 Ousted For Political Reasons Is Indicated In Move

The dismissal of 10 employees at the Indiana Department of Conservation’s Wells County game farm has been disclosed, but a difference of opinion existed as to why they had been fired. Don Hughes, director of the fish and game division of the Conservation Dejartment, said this morning that they had been “fired because they are Democrats.” Lewis B. Smith, Wells County G. O. P. chairman who was ousted Tuesday as director of the Indiana Motor Vehicles Bureau’s financial responsibility division, for alleged contact with an Indianapolis gambler, said that he had recommended their dismissal to John N. Nigh, Conservation Department director, because they were Democrats. Mr. Nigh said he didn’t- know whether all were Democrats or not, but that their dismissal was partly a question of cutting expenses at the game farm and partly a question of a personal problem there. “Some of them were agitators,” Mr. Nigh said. The men dismissed, some of them long-time employees, were Quentin Booker, William Duncan, Harold Enocks, Garth Fausnaugh, James Knoble, Vaughn Lutes, Floyd Monroe, Ed Risser, Kent Risser and James Rush. The resignation of Carl W. Dahlstrom, superintendent of the game farm, also was revealed. Mr. Nigh said he had resigned to enter private business. Copies of the letters of dismissal were stn to H. Clark Springer, state G. O. P. chairman. It was learned that three of the jobs, which pay from $5 to $6 daily, had been filled, but that the three new workers had quit. (Continued On Page Four)

Homely Homilies By J. C. ROBERTS, B. D. “THE WONDER OF SPEECH” By watching bees in a glass hive, it has been found they have a definitely developed sign language, which each worker bee must know. That language includes the ability to communicate exactly the location of sources of nectar, in terms of distance and direction. There are many other wonders of instinct in the bee colony, but only recently was it known that language was one of them. It is believed the same is true among ants, and indeed among all other insects and creatures of whatever kind. But no being except the human being has the power of speech as we think of it. A few birds, like parrots, may be taught to repeat words. And others, like dogs, may be taught to know the meaning of scores of words and phrases. But only man has the power to express thought in word symbols. Yet how careless and thoughtless is the average conversation. One of the favorite Psalms, the 19th, states, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.’ The thought of the little girl seems literally true. Seeing a bird drink from dew drops on a leaf, throwing back his head with each drink, she said: “See, mamma, the little bird says ‘thank you’ to God after each little drink!” Many of the world’s problems would be solved if there were less back-biting; less mud-slinging; less cursing. If we would use our voices to honor and praise our Maker, life would be happier and safer for us all. Let us: “Praise God from Whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below.”