Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 February 1938 — Page 10

PAGE 10 _ The Indianapolis Times

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SATURDAY, FEB. 12, 1938

LET LINCOLN SPEAK

THE Republicans tonight are holding dinners throughout America to celebrate the birthday of Abe Lincoln, their party’s first President, just as the Democrats now dine annually to the memory of their patron saint, Andy Jackson. Expensive banquets and florid oratory might seem strange memorials to two such raw-boned pioneers. But it is a splendid idea, for it reminds the banqueters that their parties were born not in luxurious clubs, but in the log cabins and freedom-loving hearts 6f frontiersmen. However, Lincoln's great soul cannot be appropriated by a party. He belongs to America, and we suggest that the eulogists step aside a moment and listen to his own simple and wise words. They had, as Edwin Markham said, a “strain of prophesy” and they speak to us all in these troubled days as they did 70-odd years ago. To the war-makers he would say: “Military glory— the attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood, that serpent’s eye that charms to destroy!” To the repressionists: “The only way to keep men from agitating grievances is to relieve the grievances. The seed of revolution is repression.” To employers: “Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor and should never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much higher consideration.” To labor: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” To the conservatives: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.” To the radicals: “Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world to all of us?” To the jingoes: “At what point, then, is the approach of danger? 1 answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. be our lot we ourselves must be its author and finisher. a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” To President Roosevelt: “Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories.” To the G. 0. P.: “Our Republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us purify it.”

To us all: “With malice toward none; with charity for |

all; with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in.”

QUESTION FOR LABOR LEADERS

ANY employers, willing to bargain with the chosen representatives of their employees, but caught between rival unions, have been innocent victims of labor's jurisdictional strife. But such employers are not the only victims or even, in most cases, the most tragic victims. For after all employers usually are able to eat and pay rent for a while if their plants are closed. But employees as a class live from payday to payday, and when an interunion strike forces them to skip paydays a great many of them are forced also to skip a few meals and dodge the landlord. This leads into some speculation about what may be one outcome of continued warfare between the A. F. of L. and the C. 1. O. Last week the United Mine Workers’ convention at Washington struck all mention of A. F. of L. affiliation from the union constitution. The A. F. of L. executive council retaliated by expelling the Coal Miners’, the Metal

Miners’ and the Flat Glass Workers’ Unions and announc- |

ing that the Federation would invade those fields, now

C. 1. O. fold. The Government's only instrument of intervention is .he National Labor Relations Act, a law designed to enforce majority rule in collective bargaining. The Labor Board has adequate powers—upheld by the Supreme Court—to conduct plant elections, determine a majority, and force an employer to deal with that majority. But it has no power to force the minority of employees to accept the verdict of the ballot box. ” J u = n o ERETOFORE public opinion and sportsmanship have caused most minorities to abide by the results of elections, but already, in some instances, losing factions have continued picketing and other strike activities and have resorted to boycotts in efforts to impose the minority’s will. Are these exceptions of the past to prove the rule of the future®* Will the struggle for power in labor, the clashing ambitions for leadership, drive the factions on in unrelenting combat, with no quarter asked or given, no surrenders and no compromises? Will more innocent bystanders be run over? We don’t know. But we suggest one possibility that may eventually cause the factionists to sue for peace. It is this: In recent months, in elections in plants where rival unions claim a majority, the Labor Board's policy has heen to place on the ballots not only the names of “Union A” and “Union B,” but also the designation “For neither.” In only five elections so far has the “for neither” vote affected the outcome, and in only one has it won a clear, majority. But heretofore it has been assumed that the elections have been held to settle disputes. If hereafter, because opposing leaders will accept nothing short of victory, it becomes evident that elections will not settle disputes, what then? How will employees mark their ballots in the privacy of election booths? (Remembering, of course, that employees don’t enjoy skipping paydays.) We submit this as a question for William Green and John L. Lewis to ponder. We think it has great bearing on the future of organized labor.

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Washington

By Rodney Dutcher

Certain Facts Not Brought Out by Roosevelt, Hull or Leahy Required To Understand U. S. Foreign Policy.

ASHINGTON, Feb. 12.—Any understanding of American foreign policy and naval expansion proposals requires knowledge of certain facts which President Roosevelt, Secretary Hull and Admiral Leahy

aren’t talking about. So much depends on the result of the Administration’s effort to “educate” the American people out of a pacifistic, isolationist antipathy toward any monkeving in Asiatic or European affairs that this education=al effort temporarily may be considered as the chief item of such foreign policy as we have. The campaign has been going on for months through solemn official warnings of peril, persist= ent semiofficial assurances that the Far Eastern situation is “tense,” maximum ballyhoo for the Panay and many other ges-

| tures designed for the effect of

swaying public opinion. A Navy is the most powerful arm of diplomacy and the American Navy now is being used as exactly that. The State Department feels its duty is to play the old game of power politics. This means bluffing Japan and other aggressively militaristic na=tions. Also involved is a sirong desire to “salvage” the Brivish Empire, backed by the moral and emotional bitterness of Mr. Roosevelt and Secrevary Hull against

Mr. Dutcher

| “bandit” dictatorships and their fear of a distant

day when Japan, Germany and Italy might become a positive menace to the United Staves.

” u » VAILABLE signs indicate that Mr. Roosevelt and Secretary Hull, once released from the public

opinion hobble. would become very noisy and yell louder than ever at the dictatorships, probably with

| naval flourishes.

Mr. Roosevelt doesn't think the country will get into war. But he isn’t sure. As long as Congress and public opinion insist on a mere continental defense policy, he knows that Ambassadors Saito, Suvich and Dieckhoff will be cabling Tokyo, Rome and Berlin that this Government's position is nothing to worry about. The program for an $800,000 naval expansion policy—an annual 20 per cent increase in expenditure =is part of the power politics game. It doesn’t mean any new battleships: within three or four years, so it hardly can be designed to meet any possible immediate crisis. The existing Navy is more than adequate

| for protection ©f the Aslaska-Hawaii-Panama Canal

defense triangle and the Pacific coast. The Navy isn't strong enough now to make a stand anywhere west of Hawaii, and even the proposed increase wouldn't

; ” i come anywhere near being enough to take any aggresdominated by the C. 1. 0. Now C. lL. O. spokesmen declare |

their intention to lead other A. F. of L. unions into the |

sive action in that direction. n " ”

ATURALLY, Admiral Leahy was somewhat handicapped by these points in his testimony before a Congressional committee. But there is reason

| to believe that the most significant although not gen-

erally noted Leahy contribution was the admirals assertion that the country's Pacific naval line of defense now stretches out to Samoa, 2600 miles beyond Hawaii. This seems to make sense only if you tie it up with Roosevelt's secret pet idea of a joint BritishAmerican long distance blockade of Japan. No agreement or understanding with England has been put on paper, but the Navy has worked out a plan—just to be kept handy for an emergency, mind you-—by which the United States would put 15 capital ships and their auxiliaries on the Alaska-Hawaii-Samoa line to link up with six British capital ships between Singapore and Borneo.

The Hoosier Forum

I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

PEOPLE SEEM TO WANT FASCISM, READER SAYS By L. B. Hetrick, Elwood

I wish the readers of The Times would read again “Business” hy John T. Flynn about Government ownership. We have always had one kind of Government ownership. Certain big financiers and industrial interests own the U. S. Government. That is Government ownership of, for and by their own interest until they have absorbed about everything in sight and until

{ the inhabitants cannot pay inter-

est, rent, and profit on the investment on some of the industrial mechanism that has been squeezed dry. Public and private indebtedness has played havoc with purchasing power, until some industries can't pay the interest, rent and profit to their stockholders. Of course, when the juice is all squeezed out of the lemon, it’s good business policy to sell the rind to the Government at standard quality fruit prices, and draw interest on their bonds from the Government that bought it. The U. S. Government always has been a servant or a vast collecting agency for the private money monopoly and big business. They own it, why not use it for their own interest; that’s Government ownership. The Government always has been in partnership on the hunting expedition with private interests, and in order to maintain private incentive, always gave private interests the turkey and the Government the turkey buzzard. Evolution is driving capitalism out and fascism in, and the people don’t want scientific industrial democracy, so let them have fascism. There is no middle course. It's up to the people.

» n 5 READER RECALLS STORY OF MULES By Jacob Benesteel

Legislation to halt the encroachments of big business and the petulant resolutions of the little businessman, in protest thereof, puts me in mind of the time Carse Welker was feeding a bunch of mules for market and undertook some disciplinary measures as to some of the big rogue mules and found himself in an, argument and controversy with every little mule in the bunch. Carse was a great hand with mules. He knew just how to feed the old skates to put layers of fat on ‘em. This time, Carse was feeding about 25 head. There was a lot of weanlings and a bunch of little miner mules and to round out the drove he added two big rogue mules that he bought off of old Jed Parknson. Now, Carse always named every mule he bought. It helped the sale to call em by such endearing names as “Kate” and “Queen” or “Pet” and “Jane.” So when he took over the Parkinson mules and seeing their size, he named ‘em “Big” and “Business.” It sounded like a pair for a big contractor's job. But these Parkinson mules were sure outlaws, They would Kick their way out of any barn, go over

Raymond Clapper Says—

Pressure on the White House From Mayors Who Have a Strong Lobby And From Labor Unions Is Likely to Force More Relief Appropriations.

ASHINGTON, Feb. 12.—~The rapid increase in unemployment make President Roosevelt's request for more relief money inevitable, Pressure on the White House has been intense, especially from mayors who have a strong lobby, and from the C.I1.0. unions. The $250,000,000 now asked is not likely to be the last if unemployment continues. Local communities will insist that the Federal Government carry a good share of the increased load. That is not unreasonable uncer the circumstances, as unemployment in one community often is directly attributable to conditions in another state. This particularly true in cities which are satellites of the automobile industry. Unemployment increases in Toledo and Akron, for instance, are almost entirely attributable to the decline of automobile production in Michigan. When Detroit stops making automobiles, Toledo stops making glass and Akron stops making tires. Pittsburgh steel mills shut down. Many plants in Cleveland close. Whether they have work depends almost entirely on whether Detroit and other Michigan automobile centers are working. » - - A" exceptional interest in relief is being taken by the ©. I. O. With many members dropping out as they lose their jobs, some C. I. O. unions are going into the business of obtaining relief for their members. When a union member, losing his job, drops out of the union or threatens to, he is worked on with the persuasive argument that the union is in positon to exert pressure on relief authorities in his

»

(Times readers are invited to express their these columns, religious controversies excluded. Make your letter short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

views in

or through any fence and trample down more garden stuff than they would eat. Following their second foray over the neighborhood, Carse put yokes on ‘em, but to these big mules a yoke was an added feature in prying down a fence. On the day they. ran amuck through Mrs. Fenstler's washing on the line, Carse rounded 'em up and put ‘em in leg-irons. And from then on, these big bellyachers just stood and brayed

| and bawled like calves fresh weaned.

They brayed and bawled until every little mule on the place took it up. Carse’s farm was like bedlam for noise. “What's the matter ov ye?” yelled Carse as he walked over to the feed pen where a bunch of the little mules were exercising their lungs. “We want freedom,” braved the little mules, “we want ye to take yer foot off our necks. Why pick on us, anyhow?” The chorus continued “Down with yokes! Down with restricting hobbles.” “Well, it looks like Big and Business had beat me to the draw,” said Carse as he walked sadly away from the little fellows at the feed pens, “them big mules have spread their propaganda while I slept, and the little fellers are apt pupils. Without a hobble and no surplus, wearin’ neither a yoke nor no undistributed profits, they can out-foghorn the pair that taught em how.”

» ” » CLAIMS RAILROADS HELPED CREATE CONDITION TODAY By Frank Walton, Campbellsburg

In reply to Kenneth Van Cleave and Edwin P. Bolknap in the

SONG OF VALENTINE By MARY P. DENNY

Sing a song of Valentine Valentine and happy time,

| Shining out in one bright line,

Fashioned of the smiles of old.

Smiling out on radio, Coming over miles of snow, Shining out from skies of blue In a song of joy to you.

DAILY THOUGHT

But if ye say unto me, We trust in the Lord our God: is not that he, whose. high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before us altar in Jerusalem?—II Kings 18:22.

O be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.—J. MacDonald.

Forum, the railroads and like con- |

cerns helped to create the deplorable conditions of our country. Four men on a freight train possibly would transfer as much tonnage as 1000 men with trucks. The truck is giving better service and better rates, 1000 to four—better living conditions, more labor employment, more accommodation. Just as soon as we eke out enough tax from gasoline and oil sales to build a concrete road, the railroads charter the road. With the official help of our Government, the railroads take the constitutional and birth rights from the American people. Mr. Van Cleave says the railroad is the backbone of the nation. The railroads have no backbone. When they get on relief they lose their backbone. Before we had parcel post, I paid $1.10 for the delivery of an eight-ounce package from Chicago. I believe that if the Government does not stop backing-up the railroads, darkness and famine will come to our people by the turn-over route, sponsored by the railroads, the present Administration and the chain stores. Yes, I own a truck. We should restore our country to a self-sup-porting basis, running what business we have as economically as possible ” ” ”

BETTER HOUSING FOR NEGROES IS URGED By Mrs. D. F. Lewis

If some realtors could see more | of the houses now being rented to | Negro people of this city, they could | better understand the dire need of | 700 families needing housing. According to the wages a Negro laborer makes and the rent he has to pay for a house unfit for living, we need more Lockefield Gardens. The private owner or the real estate agent will not make the necessary repairs on many homes that are being rented now, Just ask one if he would like to live in one. More apartments and better houses for Negro families! =» » ” SMALL BUSINESS’ ADVICE WAS SELFISH, READER SAYS By D. D. Fertig In your editorial Wasn't Wasted,” regarding the conference of small businessmen in Washington, you may have over= looked one thing. At least you didn't mention it. In the five or six suggestions to the President not a single one was unselfish; every businessman wanted something for himself. And what did they offer in return to the Presi. dent? Did they offer employment to the idle? Did they offer to feed the hungry mouths and relieve the President of that burden? No, and they never will. They were thinking of themselves. I found that out during NRA. The President is right. Business should pay and be thankful for the protection of a democracy while they yet have one.

—

“Their Time |

Gen. Johnson Says—

Commerce Department Hasn't Led

Business as Its Sister Agencies Have Led Agriculture and Labor,

EW YORK, Feb. 12.—This recent business of agreeing with my expalsiewalsie, Donny Ronny Richberg, is getting to be a saccharine sort of “sticky-moufy-kiss” habit with me and here I have to go and do it again—or rather, point out that he agrees with me because I think I said it first and more frequently. Mr. Richberg points out that, even if business were panting to co-operate with Gove ernment, businessmen would first have to co-operate with each other. There is no such unit as “business.” Business is just a big bunch of individuals. They can't co-operate with each other withe= out being in danger of the jaile house. They can't co-operate with Government both because they can’t co-operate with each other and there isn't any place to co=operate in or any machinery with which to do it. Mr. Richberg points to the res markable co-operation of farmers with the Department of Agriculture and to the Bureau of Agricultural Economics as a place where agricule tural policy actually can be planned. This is scattering the shots close to another bulls= eye. The Department of Agriculture has to do with 6,000,000 individual farmers. Somehow it manages to get them to an astonishing degree of co-operation, It really represents them. It fights for them. Its voice is heard and respected at both ends of Penne svlvania Ave.

Hugh Johnson

” ” ” HE Department of Labor can’t keep all ils little charges from chewing each other’s ears but, in representation of several million workers and many unions, it is out in front. It fights the battles of labor, Its voice also is powerful in Congress and in the Administration. These two are planning and pressure bureaus—and they really plan and press. But the Department of Commerce—oh, alas! alack! aday! It plans not, neither does it press—for business, It isn’t even a good excusing bureau. If this department had been organized and, above all, manned to maintain the contacts with, assume

the leadership of, and champion the cause of busi ness as the Departments of Labor and Agriculture have done in their fields, is it conceivable that any such rift as now exists between government and

business could ever have developed? ” " ” HE answer is “No.” This Administration and business started out in 1933 in the closest co= operation ever known in this country. That perhaps could not have continued at its then extreme warmth, But it was the business of the Department of Come merce to keep it as warm as possible and with proper organization and leadership it could have at least been prevented from freezing. It wasn't up to the President to make it his prine cipal business to watch this pot. He has too many other duties. That is the job of the Secretary of

Commerce. I don't say that it could have been done perfectly without some such changes in law and organization as Mr. Richberg proposes, but with all the law and or ganization in the world, it couldn't he done without proper leadership. With proper leadership a lot could have been done without any change in either law or organization,

According to Heywood Broun

The Depression Has Not Yet Caught Up With the Visitors in Miami; Oddly Enough Many Californians Are Included Among Florida's Guests.

In Detroit one of the vice presidents of the United Autrmobile Workers has been a member of the relief board, and an arrangement has been made whereby union members seeking relief must be approved by the union before their applications will be considered by relief authorities. The Mayor of Detroit has protested this action. The union's answer is that the city is saved thousands of dollars in administrative expense by allowing the union to investigate and okay relief applications of union members, ” ” ” S times goes on it is likely that this union pressure will be one of the strongest forces in the drive for more relief, It is one of the best methods by ‘which they can survive the devastating effect of a protracted period of unemployment, Most of the C. I. O, unions are new, composed of low-paid members with no long experience in paying dues. The first thing they do when they lose their job is to stop paying union dues. This has become so prevalent in the Pittsburgh district that union agents took to standing at the plant gates on paydays, refusing to permit members to go to work unless they paid their dues. This dues picketing has been a source of trouble in Pittsburgh. Protests have stopped most of it. Workers have been urged by their union officials to bombard Congress with union resolutions and postcards from members in behalf of larger relief appropriations. In some localities C. I. ©. unions have teamed up with the Workers’ Alliance and even A. F. of L. unions, to obtain relief for unemployed union members. All authorities, from local relief boards on up to , are feeling the pressure.

oS

MA Fla. Feb. 12.—For 40 years America has accepted the theory that Wall Street is the sole barometer of business. It would be silly to argue that stock market prices do not have an important relationship to the prosperity of the nation. But the big board is not the only index. Florida is an excellent index, because during the winter months the resort cities are the most cosmopolitan centers of the nation. In February, at any rate, the Cracker constitutes a meager majority in his own home town. And 1 am speaking not only of tourists, but residents as well. On the basis of conversations with 10 taxi drivers, 30 bartenders and LL men at the mutuel windows I gather the impréssion that Iowa is the most migratory State in the Union. Kansas is a good bet for place, and even though the native sons may deny it with indignation, California stands third among the states which contribute their citizens to Florida. But to proceed with my argument, I contend that Miami offers a very useful cross-section of America, and as yet the depression has not caught up with the men and women hereabouts. That isn't true of the hig hotels. They are suffering, but this is not a private playground of the millionaires. Twn can live as cheaply here as two in any other section of America. » » os AM tuite ready to grant that none of the towns of Florida reflects in any vital way the state of employment in the mass production industries. But the State is a true index of the spiritual and material state of the small businessman. This group is holler-

ing a great deal less than the Wall Street boys.

Moreover, Florida is overridden by the retired. This is the laboratory in which a great experiment is being conducted in the potentialities of leisure. Under our economic system some are born to leisure, others achieve it and many millions have leisure thrust upon them, But whether the push comes from the bottom or the top, work is no longer worshipped as it was a couple of generations ago. We are beginning to accept the conception that honest toil is a means to an end and not man’s whole objective, There are better spots to die than in the harness. » " LJ M* father went to work when he was 11 and kept at it until he died, at 81. In his generation the man who didn't go to business every day was either a sissy or a loafer. In my father's day the man who retired, whether he could afford it or not, was practically writing his last will and testament, I didn't go into gainful occupation until I was 17, and my son has almost reached his majority without bringing any dough into the family coffers. Personally, I have no desire whatsoever to retire, although I must admit that my choice in the matter is wholly academic. Even if there were sufficient hickory nuts buried in convenient places I would still insist on working, But I could get by and retain spiritual satisfaction on a very small amount of labor. I'm no glutton in the matter of toil. , And so I salute Florida, and I look forward to the bright day when leisure will be possible for everybody of more than 50.