Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 5 December 1947 — Page 2

PAGE TWO

THE POST-DEMOCRAT, MUNCIE, IND., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1947.

HIE POST-DEMOCRAT l Democratic weekly newspaper representing the Oemocrats of Muucie, Delaware County and the 10th ‘ongressional District. The only Democratic Newspaper in Delaware Oountj Entered as second class matter January 15, 1921, *t the Post Office at Muncie, Indiana, under Act of March 3. 1879. PRICE 5~CENTS—$1.50 A YEAR IdRsTg¥o7 r. DALE, Publisher 916 West Main Street Muncie, Indiana, Friday, December 5, 1947. Denfeld for Nimitz In the Navy A new and heavy responsibility has recently been shouldered by a 56-year-old Annapolis graduate, Louis E. Denfeld, a native of Massachusetts. Denfeld’s name, not widely known now, will be recognized throughout the nation before many weeks have passed—for lie is Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz’s successor as Chief of Naval Operations in Washington. He will be the opposite number of Dwight I). Eisenhower’s successor, Gen. Omar N. Bradley. He will find his position a complex one, for it will be his duty to help establish a cooperative Army-Navy spirit within the Department of Defense, as well as to prepare a streamlined Navy for whatever eventualities the United States may have to face. Adm. Denfeld’s career, on paper, is that of a typical “trade school” alumnus. He has seen service afloat and ashore-— on submarines and battle wagons, and particularly aboard destroyers, commanding two of the latter on escort duty as a junior officer during World War I. He has also had high staff experience, both at sea and in the nation’s capital. Recently, he has been Chief of the Bureau of Personnel. The New York Times indicates that he is considerably better than “typical,” mind and “engaging” personality among the important assets he brings to his job. It is well that Denfeld is such a man, arid that 54-year-old Gen. Omar N. Bradley has proved himself to be similarly endowed. For few qualities should be more valuable than engaging personalities and inquiring minds, in the staff chiefs of our unified forces during the days immediately ahead. There has been altogether too great a measure of disagreement and jealousy in the rival services in the past. Now that they are no longer rivals but component parts of the same team and answerable to one Cabinet member, it behooves them to work and plan together in a spirit of efficiency and mutual esteem. Adm. Denfeld will be one of the leaders who have it in their power to inaugurate this teamwork. To a great extent, the security of the American people depends on their success.—Journal Gazette.

The Peacetime Crisis Although America is at peace, this is a time of crisis. No argument is needed to prove this fact. Everyone can feel it in his daily life. There are strange forces at work in the world and iriany of them are dangerous. The human race is divided into two segments. War could be the outcome of the division, unless human intelligence is used to the utmost to prevent it. Nowhere is human intelligence more highly developed than in the United States. We do not say this in a boastful sense for we are mindful of the fact that pride goeth before destruction. But there are several reasons why America stands high in the field of thought. We have long enjoyed the freedoms which are guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. We can discuss any subject which interests us. We may worship as we please. Our press is the best*in the world. Our radio presents a wide variety of views. No other country has so many schools, colleges and universities. Books are plentiful and low in cost. Our society encourages individualism on the one hand and co-opera-tion on the other. Our traditions are grounded in human liberty. Our national heroes are men like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. We have had a rich and successful experience in civil government, so that the fundamentals ^ of democracy are deeply imbedded in our ' consciousness. All these things ought to give us confidence in America and her ability to ride out tile present storms. We are not unfamiliar with crises, because we have had many bf them, and our people have always risen to the occasion. It is well to believe that they will do so again. Fear is the most destructive of human emotions and it does not. become men arid women schooled in democracy and liberty to be afraid. We know that we have the opportunity to make the final decisions and that we have usually made them right. This is a time of testing and learning. We do not/yet have the answers, but who is to say that we shall not find them ultimately? When 140,000,000 free citizens are working on a set of problems they are likely to come out all right. The public polls have revealed lime after time that the thinking of the average American is sound. There is no occasion to abandon faith in the future. — Journal Gazette.

A Career Man Rises In America, the humblest man can rise to the most exalted position. We are accustomed to that standard, yet ye are also accustomed to certain exceptions which everybody takes for granted. Nobody supposed, for example, that a postman could become postmaster genefal, be-

cause none ever did until this week. That job heretofore has been reserved for a politician, usually the chairman of the party in power. But the new postmaster general, Jesse M. Donaldson of Illinois, has had 42 years in the postal service, and began as a letter carrier in Shelbyville. We congratulate him most heartily. Score another victory for equal opportunity.—Chicago Sun. The Movies Cave In In deciding to fire 10 alleged Communists who refused to discuss their political views with the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the leaders of the movie industry have injured the cause of civil liberties. The plain truth is that the film moguls caved in to the intimidation and hysteria against which they themselves weakly protest. They handed J. Parnell Thomas a victory and a vindication for the tactics of his committee. In the same statement which announced a blacklist of the 10 accused Communists the movie moguls said: “Nothing subversive or un-American has appeared on the screen.” If that is true, as we believe, then it must also be true that no Communist in the industry poisoned the films with subversive propaganda. In other words, the 10 alleged Communists are being fired not for anything they did, but for the political opinions they are believed to hold. The pretext that they are being punished for contempt of Congress will not stand up, either. There used to be a principle that a man is considered innocent until proved guilty. These 10 have been accused of contempt, but they have not yet been tried. Whether these particular employees keep their jobs is a matter of relative indifference. If they are in fact Communists, they are riot ' true believers in civil liberties themselves. Yet that does not dispose of the big question. The big question is: “Shall an American citizen have the. right to hold what political opinions he pleases so long as he presents no clear and present danger of substantive evil to society?” Such is the classic doctrine of civil liberties developed by Justices Holmes and Brandeis. The movie industry, like the Thomas committee, is violating that doctrine when it invokes economic reprisals against these employees. It is inviting the Thomas committee to make other invasions in the realm of ideas since this one succeeded so well. Freedom to think as you please and to say what you think is basic to the American meritage. As Holmes and Brandeis always emphasized, that means freedom for the ideas we hate as well as for those we accept. The film leaders have now limited this freedom for people employed in their industry. And in narrowing the area^of liberty in one corner of American life, they have invited further limitations on the liberty of everybody.—Chicago Sun.

only the third of seven -“accidental Presidents” to be honored thus in all the.annals bf America. Neither John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, nor Chester A. Arthur—who entered the White House because of their predecessors’ deaths—was nominated for a* full tenn by a major party when serving as President. Only Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge have received this recognition, and both incidentally were elected in their own right to succeed themselves. T. R. defeated Judge Alton B. Parker in NoVember, 1904, and Coolidge ran like a scared deer against John W. Devis and Robert M. LaFollette, Sr., in a three-way race in 1924. Their experience provides a marked contrast with what happenecl to Arthur, who actively sought the Republican nomination in ’84, but bowed to Jam§s C. Blaine, and Fillmore, who was defeated by Gen. Winfield Scott in a three-cornered Scott-Fillmore-Webster contest at the Whig convention of ’52. It is also a far cry from what happened to Tyler and Johnson, the Democrats who were advanced to the vice-presidency on the Whig and Republican tickets respectively, and consequently were “Presidents without parties” when their next election year rolled around. Mr. Truman, like the late Calvin Coolidge and the late Theodore Roosevelt at a comparable time, is very much a President witt a party as he approaches the campaign year. If some of the more radical followers of Franklin D. Roosevelt have swung away from him, many conservative Americans have rallied to the Truman standard — and have admired the way he has handled himself in his responsible position. Included in this number are Republican and independent voters, but Democrats of course compose the vast majority. The organization of the Demoratic party is safely controlled by Mi/. Truman and his colleagues. National Chairman J. Howard McGrath of Rhode Island is a longtime admirer. And the man from Missouri numbers among the state chairman and national committeemen many a firm and enthusiastic friend.—Journal Gazette.

1948 and ‘Dark Horse’ Candidates Increasingly, it looks as if 1948 might be a “dark horse” year insofar as the Republican presidential nomination is concerned. With Dewey, Taft, Warren, and Stassen very much in the picture—Eisenhower and MacArthur on the edge of it, and such figures as Speaker Martin by no means eliminated from consideration, there is a real chance that the GOP standard-bearer’s identity may be determined in the proverbial “smoke-fili-ed room,” much as Warren G. Harding was picked in 1920. Harding was a. dark horse, if ever there was one. He ran hard and fast in the convention stretch, after Gen. Leonard Wood, Gov. Frank O. Lowden of Illinois, and Sen; Hiram Johnson of California had led most of the way. Wendell Willkie was more or less, of a dark horse selection, too, althonigh he had demonstrated more popular backing earlier in the convention—and was by no means as strictly hand-picked as Harding was. There liaise been many dark horses in American, history, the first of them being James K. Polk, who broke up a Van Buren-Cass-Buchanan deadlock in 1844, and that autumn defeated Henry Clay. Franklin Pierce was another jet-black pony. James A. Garfield, in 1880, was a third. John W. Davis, iri 1924, was the compromise candidate of the Democratic party after William G. McAdoo and Alfred F. Smith fought through more than 100 ballots at Madison Square Garden in New York. Because of the probability that neither Gov. Dewey, Sen. Taft, Gov. Warren, nor exGov. Stassen commands a majority of the ! delegates, it seems likely that the candidates ! and their backers will go to Philadelphia ; with the hope of figuring significantly in a 1 big deal. What they would be smarter to do is to i realize the responsibility incumbent upon I them and their party, in the event that the | GOP should win next November. The times are not such that any old politician is qualified for the mantle of Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, or Lincoln—none of whom, incidentally, was a dark horse. There is a terrific burden that goes with the presidency. Strong men have withered, dmoped, and sagged when faced by the White House challenge. We need our very best in such a place, ai^l this is something the bosses had better bear in mind.—Journal Gazette.

Truman Prospective Nominee The widespread assumption that Harry S. Truman will be the Democratic presidential nominee in 1948 is suggestive of the chief executive’s success in convincing his party that he has done a good job. It he does receive the nomination (which now seems a virtual certainty), he will he

May God In His Mercy Enlighten the Minds of the Statesmen of the World. Men in high places—politicians, journalists, diplomats, financiers, militarists—are talking lightly of the “inevitability” of another World War. Before they plunge hundreds of millions of helpless human beings into such a catastrophic conflict, is it too much to suggest that they pause for a few minutes to read the stark facts of history? Stephen Bonsai, famous war correspondent, is still living in a suburb of Washington. More than a year after the close of the First World War, he was in uniform, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Intelhgence Service. The Paris Peace Conference had adjourned and a democratic government was struggling for existence in Germany. Bonsai was dispatched to Berlin to see how things were going. On his return trip to Paris, he stopped at Valmy, scene of a famous battle. There in 1792 French revolutionists, many of them lacking in military training, routed the crack troops of the King of Prussia and his associates. But that was a “little war.”. Why, in World War I the defense of Verdun alone cost the loves of 400,000 Frenchmen! Bonsai noted that fact and continued: “My hours in Valmy, and those that immediately followed, will mark a period in my own war memories. “The train I ultimately caught was crowded, jammed, with the wreckage of war; it had been chartered, apparently, to carry the ciippled and the crushed survivors of battle to'Verdun, where they were to celebrate the anniversary of some great feat of arms which was, I think, the recapture by the French of Douaumont, and now the train was carrying them back to darkened homes. “This train, crowded with those who survived, was a more horrible sight than any of the many ghastlv battlefields I have witnessed in so many lands. “It was clear to me that those who had died in a moment of exaltation and of inspiration were the lucky ones; to many of these death had been merciful, often it had come instantaneously, but the overcrowded train in which I now stood up for hours was filled with men and women who were dying slowly, Jhe long-drawn-out death of conscious | agony. ; “All about me were groups of men who I had fought heroically, many with grotesque | distorted faces which even their loved ones ! could not look- upon save with a feeling of | repulsion that must have been difficult to ! conceal. “Very much alone were the groups of war widows left to struggle for existence in a pitiless world, with perhaps a child, wearing as its only heritage the Medaille Militaire as substitute for the guiding hand of a father. “As I traveled with this cavalcade om misery and of suffering, I realized more fully than ever before the terrible price our generation has paid for its victory. Is it riot possible that we have lea fried our lesson? Can we not see to it that such a crime shall never happen again? Is not the panorama of calamity and distress by which we are surrounded a sufficiently crushing indictment of the military epoch out of which no one has emerged victorious ? “How I wish all who called upon to shape world policies in the next decade could have been exposed to this heart-rending spectacle. “Out of such an experience might come something more substantial than our halting Covenant for peace and non-aggression, Adtli reservations, signed by men well be-

yond the fighting age; perhaps might be reached even a universal decision not merely to disarm but to beat our swords into plowshares and to join in the forgotten prayer, ‘Peace! Peace unto Jerusalem. They shall prosper who love Thee.’ ” We fought World War I to “Make the world safe for democracy.” In World War II we sacrificed thousands of our sons and billions of our treasure to give the world the Atlantic Charter, and now, two years after Hiroshima, we are stumbling toward World War III. May God in His mercy soften the hearts and enlighten the minds of the “statesmen” of the world.

The Question is: “Shall Rich or Poor Benefit from Tax Cuts!

A battle over taxes is shaping up in Congress. For the present it is confined to hearings before the House Ways and Means Committee. The real shooting will take place when the regular session meets in January. The main problem engaging the attention of lawmakers remains unchanged. It is: “Shall the major relief be given to the rich or shall the poor be relieved of heavy tax burdens?” The only influential voice so far raised in behalf of the “little fellow” is that of Randolph Paul, formerly connected with the Treasury and now a New York tax consultant. Paul insists that when tax reductions are niade the chief benefits should go to those in the lower income brackets, many of whom now find it impossible to stretch their incomes over soaring prices. Both the Republicans and the administration have agreed that the so-called “community property” provision shall be a part of any tax legislation. This would be a great Christmas gift to the very rich, but unless something unexpected happens, the “little fellow” will come out at the small end of the horn. Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder told a Congressional committee that tax legislation should be kept in storage until “we find out how much will be needed for foreign aid; something has been paid on the national debt, and revisions are made in the basic tax structure.” The Republicans are not disposed to follow Snyder’s advice about postponing action. They intend to pass some kind of tax legislation.

SEN. TAFT AND (Continued From Page One) strident cries of disapprove. That’s an old trick. The senator knows that public sentiment demands action. And he makes the motions of going along with public sentiment while actually he thwarts it. This is exactly what he did with his housing bill. The senator sponsored a good bill, thereby winning the indorsement of labor and veterans desperately seeking a solution of the housing crisis. But Senator Taft let his bill die, therby winning the support of the real estate interests. The senator played both ends against

the middle.

That is precisely what he is doing in the current session of Congress. He says he is for relief to Europe while he tries to scuttle the appropriations neces-

sary to achieve it.

And he also says he wants to do something about inflation while he opposes the measures necessary to cope with it. How long does he think he can

fool the voters?

As the dominant national leader of his party, Senator Taft is responsible for the present Republican campaign of confusion

over runaway prices.

mands in a patriotic effort to avoid further pressure on prices. And in the hope that Congress would demonstrate the statesmanship to solves the problem without political partisanship. But wage demands cannot be delayed much longer if prices continue to rise, bringing huge profits to industry. The workers are becoming restive and resentful. They cannot be held in check much longer. Soon their emotions will explode in demands for wage increases that will restore the buying power of the dollar. If industry rebels, there will be strikes—long, bitter strikesProduction will fall. If industry grants the demands, industry will immediately nullify the benefit by jacking up prices again. Then there will be more wage demands and eventually our currency will bd worthless. Where will our “freedom” be + hen? We will be in a savage depression that will require “police state methods.” We will have regimentation along European

lines.

It is to avoid a lot of regimentation later that we urge a little regimentation now. There must be federal action to eqnrol inflaion. Otherwise inflation will

The Republicans are now say- wreck our domestic economy and ing that the Democrats killed the j prevent us from exerting any

OPA. That is too silly to merit refutation. Everybody remembers -what Taft did to kill the OPA and how he promised that it would not mean inflation. They remember what Taft’s chief lieutenant, Senator Wherry, the Nebraska undertaker, said

beneficial influence whatever on

the rest of the world.

If Taft wants to stop Communism, he must first stop some ol the industrialists who are encouraging it by their greed. And if Taft wants to be President, he had better have some-

in echoing the policies of his [| ;hine . more to offer than a houschief. And they remember every i bill that failed, an anti-labot time they buy anything what' bil1 that Passed and a record ol happened when Taft let Wherry I complete subservience to the bn embalm the OPA. ' > terests of big business.—Inter-

America Covets a Century of Peace

Taft killed the OPA and Wherry buried it. And the Republican party sang boisterously at the funeral. Of course the Republicans had help from the southern Democats and President Truman set the statgc by his hasty repeal ol wartime regulations. But the murder of the OPA was primarily a Republican crime despite all the frenzied alibis. The present session of Congress can atone if it will. It can re-enact the excess profits tax and remove one of the principal motives for larcenous prices. It can re-enact the controls on contract buying and remove one of the greatest pressures on pi’ices. It can extend rent control and re-enact the authority for.federal control of prices affecting the national economy and the | rationing of scarce goods. This is not .a restoration of the | wartime OPA. Far from it. The I President’s recommendations do not contemplate the return of complete pr?ce regulation and rationing. They merely ask the weapons necessary to fight infla-

tion.

And unless inflation is con-

national Teamster.

Will Direct ’48 Demo Convention

useless to talk of controlling Communism in Europe. i+ sim-

ply can’t be done.

What alternative does Senator Taft pi’opose? He babbles of “freedom*’ and tax reduction. How much longer does he think he can preserve freedom under

existing conditions?

Unless Congress does some-

lt is impossible to imagine what changes will come about in the United States in the next 100 years, if only we can escape the destruction of war. ' Foreseeing the golden future that a century of peace can bring, our people naturally covet peace. Never before were so many laboratories at work on the secrets of nature and there is every reason to believe that the search will be doubled and trebled as the years go by. In spite of all the inventions and gadgets which we have today, the surface has only been scratched. We stand nearer the beginning than the end of research and dis-

covery.

We no longer stumble onto new facts, we seek them out with deliberate aim and pur-

pose. t

It is true that only a small fraction of the population is engaged in this useful advance upon the unknown, whether if deals with atomic energy or the causes and cure of cancer. But not to be overlooked are the American genius for business, financial and industrial management and the skill of American labor. Both render their important contrbutions to progress. They prepare and bring to popular consumption the wonders which come out of the laboratories. We hear a lot of pessimistic talk from people who pretend to believe that America is about played out and is standing on its last kgs. We do not think that they mean it. The fact is that the ideals of most Americans are so high that nothing in the world of

reality quite satisfies them.

Foreign visitors are able to' see clearly that the great mass of the population of the United States is bursting with energy and vision. There has never been another country like our own in the whole history of civiliza-i

tion.

Even though at times we are inclined to take the very opposite stand from pessimism and indulge in a bit of boasTing, few o£ us believe that America is a finished product. We expect to get much better as we go along. The United States is still a young country by any reasonable standard of .measurement. 'It still has growing pains, which may sometimes be confused with the pains of age. But give us another century of peace and the transformation will be little short of mar-1 velous.—Journal Gazette.

Senator J. Howard McGrath, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, today announced the appointment of Wiiilam N. Roach, 35, of Silver Spring, Maryland, as Managing Director of the Democratic National Convention in 1948. In making the announcement Senator McGrath said: “This is the first steu in our planning for the National Convention. It is essential that the planning for the 1948 Convention be coordinated in such a way as to assure success.” Mr. Roach has been associated with the Democi’atic Committee since 1929 and most recently held the oosition of Assistant to the Treasurer. Previously Mr. Roach had been assistant director of the National Convention in 1944.' which was held in Chicago, and held.office as assistant vice chairman. The Democratic Convention will be held in Philadelphia the week of July 11 with delegates being welcomed on Sunday, July 11, and the business sessions opening on Monday, July 12. The decision to meet in Philadelphia was made at a meeting of the National Committee on October 29.

The desiign ot tactical bridging by the Engineers Corps of the*

thing 1 m%nchorD°rices^we aTe'on ' Army may set the Pattern for* the way to wild and unconh-olled | emcrgency hiEh '™> r bridging,

inflation. 1

Labor has withheld wage do- tlO TO CHURCH SUNDAY

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730 W. Jackson St.

Phone 7714

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Now the Third Round The formal decision of the C. I. O. to seek | a third round of wage increases confirms i what, had been generally expected. The A. F. L. “Monthly Survey” demanded the third round in October, and some unions have already obtained it. The process is as relentless as the succession of day and night. Workers who have seen the cost of food go ; .up 40 per cewt since the end of OPA are not/ likely to be impressed by appeals for restraint. The unfortunate fact is that few elements in the national economy have shown, the restraint that will now be asked of labor.

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Charles At Kilgore

Phone 2-3266