Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 September 1939 — Page 10

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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

(

The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRTIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER President Editor

Owned and pubilshed daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co, 214 W, Maryland St. Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $3 year, | outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.

Give Light and the People Will Find Thetr Own Way

Member of United Press, Scripps « Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bue reau of Circulation,

RILEY 5551 |

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 193%

“LIMITED EMERGENCY” |

ONFESSING lack of expertness on legalities and extra- | legalities, we believe President Roosevelt could have | accomplished all the things he did do—enlarging the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and investigative units and making |

money available for Americans stranded in Europe—by the |

simple process of routine executive orders, without the dra- | matics of issuing a Proclamation of Limited National Emergency. But we are not so much interested in quibbling over | procedure as in doing everything that can be done to make | sure that the emergency remains “limited.”

WE BECOME THE SHOPPING CENTER

L 1s all very well to talk Pan-Americanism, but if we are | ever going to get anvwhere in developing a political and economic program to keep war from our shores, we'll have to do more than talk. The immediate answer to cushioning the shock of disrupted markets abroad is trade, and still more trade, among the American republics. And being the one American republic with the most money and the largest credit resources, it would seem to | be up to us to take the initiative, to start buving from our neighbors. There'll not be any question about them spend- | ing the money back with us. They'll have to. In times of peace the Latin Americans can take the dollar credits they get from sales to us and use them to buy from across the sea. But as long as the war lasts, | there will be a sharp limit on the goods they can get from Europe. The Germans, for instance, have been very active | in recent years peddling their wares in South America. Overnight the British fleet has checked that. The business won't go to Britain. Indeed, Britain won't even be able to | hold her own Latin American trade, for her industries will be too busy supplying her own war needs. By default, the | United States now becomes the preferred shopping center. But to buy more from us, they will have to have dollar credits. That means we will have to buy from them. Trade | 13 a two-way street, | The U. S.-Argentine Treaty, now being negotiated, prasents our first big opportunity. But we'll not get far if we display more of that cannedbeef mentality that was so evident a few months ago.

THE I. T. U. SHOWS THE WAY POWERFUL voice in

organized labor was raised yves- | terday in the cause of industrial peace in this country. Appealing directly to President Roosevelt, Claude M. Baker, president of the International Typographical Union, asked the President to use his influence to hring the A. I. of L. and the C. 1. O. together in the present emergency. He pointed out significantly: “Since the A. TI. of L. has recognized and accepted the policy of industrial unionism, where such will best advance | the welfare of the workers, there can no longer be any | serious contention that the interests of the two groups are in any wise opposed.” Some months ago, of course, President Roosevelt did | call such a conference as Mr. Baker proposes. The two sides met and fought and separated. Since then no progress has been made to heal the breach which is retarding recovery | and damaging the cause of orgamzed labor. If there ever was a time which calls for another attempt to reconcile the differences between these two forces, it would seem to be the present national emergency. If the country needed labor peace before, it needs it doubly so now. We hope the I. T. U. appeal becomes the opening move | in achieving it.

TEST RIME MINISTER CHAMBERLALLY began Britain's war on Adolf Hiticr with and a million “tracts” dropped on German soil from British airplanes— all designed to dissociate the German people from the acts of their leader, disclose to them the nature of his methods and directly appeal to their reason. Already, from both Britain and France, have come repeated assertions that “we are not fighting the German peopie.” These propaganda tactics are, of course, legitimate and | Woodrow Wilson made major use of them in the |

™Y. 12

Wn radid broadcasts

logical. earlier war. The present generation of Germans, however, has been subjected to a course of dictatorial mind-doctoring, with enforced censorship and isolation, far more deliberate and intensive than anything dreamt of in the former Kaiser's day. How far this has gone toward rendering the average German of today impervious to foreign argument, point of | view or even fact is going to be one of the most profoundly interesting questions of the present conflict. Can the totalitarian system permanently and completely | harden a national mind against all outside ideas and influences ?

Or is this where totalitarianism breaks down when the |

forbidden ideas and influences finally break in? Here is the big, ultimate test for Hitler's Germany— also for Stalin's Russia.

BARGAIN

HE Loyal Order of Moose says it will cost its members

$50,000 to change the titles of their almost 2000 “‘dic- |

tators”’—the heads of local lodges throughout the country, who henceforth are to be “governors.” The money will go for new uniform insignia, letterheads, signs on office doors and regalia. Well, $50,000 is a lot of money, but the Moose can call | themselves lucky, considering what it's going to cost Europe | to get rid of one dictator,

| Roosevelt Afministration,

{ pires and you renew it without Government permis-

| prosperous

| must borrow more

| and

| rise more slowly than prices and that | taxes will devour a huge part of wages—50 per cent in |

| the death of her hushand, she lives on at

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

New Deal Could Strike a Really Effective Blow at Communists by Firing Members From U. S. Jobs.

EW YORK, Sept. &-—President Roosevelt's inti- | mation that it might be necessary to prevent or offset Communistic propaganda, along with other | poisons, is only an intimation, no bigger than your! hand, up to now. But it is the first evidence that the

: Rs +

a Sad

Civihization=the Last Chance—By Herblock

New Deal is disgusted with the political miscegena- | #

tion which has revolted many Americans during the last few years. The change itself, if it is t6 be a | complete breaking off of this flirtation of the radical wing of the Democratic Party, is encouraging, although the obvious motives for the jilting are not as | noble as they could be. For a long time it has been noticed that, although the New Deal hated fascism and Hitlerism with admirable fury and even went to the point of vitual

| suspension of diplomatic relations with Germany, the

Administration was cordial to Communists. The Workers’ Alliance received encouragement, and men were planted around in the Government who not only despaired of saving the American system but thought it not worth saving. Communists, if they were not acknowledged, at least were tolerated as New Dealers or fellow-travelers of the New Deal. | » » ”

HE Communists supported Mr. Roosevelt in 1038, to be sure, but he gently repudiated that support, and, on Earl Browder’s own statement, they had only 100,000 members and perhaps half a million sympathizers who, however, were not entirely reliable. The Communists, therefore, had no mandate to govern or even help govern or exeri their anti-American influence on the policies of the elected government They acknowledge, with fogey evasions, their status of a subordinate and obedient branch of the Russian

| Government, which is a dictatorship only superficially | different from that of Germany and is how a partner | of Adolf Hitler in a war against democracy

Yet under the New Deal a Communist or fellowtraveler of the Communists, doing the work of the Moscow Government in the United States, was deemed to be more American than a Republican or an orthodox Democrat of the type which first elected the

” » » UT since the conclusion of the deal between Stalin | and Hitler, whereby they mutually dropped the | pretense of resisting each other for the purpose of destroying the other's ism, the Communists have be.

| come a liability not only to their friends in Washing- | ton but even to themselves

Inasmuch as the personal sympathies of this counF

[ try lie with the Allies in this war and Russia is Hitler's

ally, the Communists find themselves suddenly in wrong with the Americans and all their patient, steaithy scheming undone bv the decision of an in-

| considerate and demanding boss

But the New Deal itself could make anti-commu-nistic provaganda if it were disposed to. The New | Deal could do it by refusing henceforth to indulge in |

| that activity which George W, Babbitt called fellow-

shipping with Communists, and, most emphatic of all measures of repudiation, could Kick out of the government in Washington ang elsewhere every known Communist and fellow-traveler., That would do for evidence of a sincere intention to hit the sawdust trail tack to the principles of the party which elected Mr. Roosevelt. That was the Democratic Party, not the Communist.

Business By John T. Flynn

France Attempts Drastic Control Of Labor and Wages in Emergency.

EW YORK, Sept 9 —In the bureaucrats’ paradise now going on in Europe, a regulation which will be of interest to some of those who think America ought to get mixed up in this row has just been decreed by France The«French Cabinet has put all labor between the ages of 18 and 40 under control of the Ministry of Labor, If you want a skilled worker and try to get one by advertising, vou will be rushed off to the hoosegow, If vou have an employee and his contract ex

sion you will find yourself in jail. Jobs will he filled by the Ministry. If you are a worker vou will be told | where to work and it will tell you what vou will work for One of the first comes to a country, for capital and labo:

things that havpens when war 1s & vast and violent competition between the wartime industries

| and the peacetime industries

Wartime industries want workers—armies of them They use up all the emploved workers and then demand more. Thus they put great numbers of people td work. These reople now get wages and want to spend them. This makes customers for all the peace-

| time industries—for food and suits and clothes and

other things. This makes the peacetime industries So they want workers. Hence vou have the peacetime and the wartime industries bidding against each other for workers and the result is that

wages soar Bankruptcy Is Inevitable

As wages go up the cost of producing war goods goes up, the cost of the war goes up; the government As the Government borrows more and produces more purchasing power. prices go up and wages go up still more. After a while the war is | costing sO much that the bankruptey of the nation is guaranteed when it is over Governments try te keep prices down bv pricefixing. That can be done for a while. But the time | comes when it gets out of hand. Then profits go up and the whele system is thrown out of gear France therefore decided to prevent any competition between employers for labor. The Government will decide whether an emplover nesds an employee and how badly and whether it is in the public interest, what the employee should get Peacetime industries are going to find they cannot get labor. There is going to be a heavy mortality of | such industries, Labor is going to find that wages will | in addition |

Germany. This is war on the economic front.

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

HAD one of my too-rare visits with Will Rogers’ sister. Mrs. Sallie MeSpadden, the other day. Since the old family home in Chelsea, Okla | Although now in her 708, she gives the impression of sturdy middle age reminiscent mood and she told me this story: “Will was always so thoughtful of us. One sum-

mer Tom and I went out to visit him and Betty after | He took us to

they built their Beverley Hills home, the top of a mesa to show us the view

valley down there I ever laid eves on.’ “That's right, Sallie, and if vou and Tom will move

there.’ “I'm ‘easy to crv, Mrs. Ferguson, fairly drenched Will's coat. 1 thought it was the sweetest thing for him to think of us that way, but I couldn't accept. I couldn't leave Chelsea, I couldn't | leave Oklahoma. “*“When you move plants,’ I told Will, ‘vou select young slips. You can't move gnarled old trees.’

“But a year later, after our home burned, I re-

| minded him of the incident and ne saw that I was

right. Evervbody in Chelsea opened their doors to us. | Our friends brought us everything we needed and, before night, the neighbors had fixed a place for us te stay until we could rebuild. “Then, after we lost Will and Tom had gone, I was really thankful I had stayed on here at the old home place. I would have been a lonely alien in a strange land out theis.”

Our conversation fell into a

“*Brother Will, T said, ‘that's the loveliest little |

| out here, I'll buy that five acres and build vou a house |

That morning I

“ ‘We can, out here in California,’ he flashed back. |

a a ate et seaman

The Hoosier Forum

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

CLAIMS POOF CHIEF VICTIMS OF HOARDING By Bob Lewis . + » I am not hiding behind a hoard of sugar; I only purchase 5 | to 10 pounds as needed-but the object of this letter is based on ob-| servation of the past few days, listening to that army of selfish sugar hoarders who haven't gray matter enough to know that to make a run on any commodity is plaving precisely the kind of game the big wholesaler and jobber wants

They don't even give a thought

[or a care what happens to the very

poor who will be unable to meet the advanced prices Now here happens to be a mind picture of hoarders of anything with their neighbors possibly starving: They probably have been steadily employed; no doubt wifey tarns A gOOH salary A&iso. They have never faced a real crisis of any kind, they have an automobile, perhaps a home, have dogs but children are prohibited; they are the loud speakers but would claim all Kinds of exemptions in case of war and no doubt would look and feel better in & Mother Hubbard drass than in a uniform. Yes, T am a veteran and TI have had some hard times before the

(war, during the war, and after

UW SEES NO NEED FOR U. 8S. ENTRY INTO WAR By Edward F., Maddox

While IT was one of those who made the mistake of predicting that there would be no war over Danzig. basing my opinion on the folly of throwing millions into bloody carnage over so small an issue, and assuming that Chamberlain, Daladier, Polish officials and Hitler would have common sense enough to compromise and settle the question without war, T now admit my apinfon of these gentlemen was wrong Any nation whose destiny is held in the hands of one man, or even of a dozen men, is in deadly danger Now since Hitler and Chamberlain have plunged their nations, as well as Poland and France, into war, does it follow that the people of the United States shall be sucked into the war and he forced to suffer for the follies of Hitler and Chamberlain? No! ... Tf Germany, Poland, Bngland and France cannot abide by reason, justice, common sense and peaceable adjustment of their diss putes, il they must bluff, bluster and sacrifice their people to save their dignity, if they must blindly follow

the dictates and political blunders of |

| 4

| stroke"? | availed | equipment by many nations. | was the testing ground for the na-

{evils

(Times readers are invited

to express their views in these columns, religious conexcluded, Make your letter short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be

withheld on request.)

troversies

reason why the American people should be slaughtered because of the blunders, follies and pride of foreign statesmen The voice of the people cries for peace. If our President calls a special session of Congress the first bill passed thould be a law to prevent conscription of any citizen of this nation to fight on foreign soil except when in danger of invasion. ”n ” » DOUBTS WARPLANES DECISIVE FACTOR By A. LM Why are nations so concerned with the power of airplanes to settle aA war with “one lightning stroke"? History of the past modern wars

fails to produce any foundation for 1

such thinking. Were Ethiopia, China and Spain finished with “one lightning Spain, for instance, was the very latest in air Spain

of the the and

tions of Europe The victory Franco was accomplished by foot soldier and not through super-efficiency of German Italian air equipment. An air force has its points but

| make no mistake, minor in any major war. Bomb- | [ing raids will be efficient methods | [of attack only when the enemy [15 taken by surprise. It would be | safe to assume that the air forces| [of the powers involved would reach | a stalemate after a few aerial com(bats. Planes will be shot down | quicker than they will be produced. | To my mind the airplane is vastly {over-rated as an implement of war. | | True enough, the plane can level | [Off a city, but the loss of cities does! not conclude a war, Until such a| time as the airplane is able to hold | that which it attacks, wars will be [won or lost by the infantrvmen That which he conquers he holds because of his mobility

| #

its points are

” DENIED WPA JOB, RELIEFER CLAIMS By A. KX. 1 recently read an article in The Times that anyone who wanted a [Job on WPA and was on relief would be put on immediately, T am mar- | | ried and have an 1l1-month-old| baby, My wife and I have heen on direct relief for 19 months and have never peen able to get on the WPA, Why is it that some people can get on and off a WPA job any time | they please and others can't even got on? When the men who had been on WPA for more than 18 months were laid off 30 days, the ones who had never been on WPA | were supposed to have a chance, | Yet these men are going back to [work and I and others in the same fix are still on relief

”n

New Books at

the Library

MONG major American novelists John Dos Passos 18 outstanding for his preoccupation with the adversities of the working classes under the capitalistic system, His sympathy with the underprivileged and his radical disapprobation of social and political have resulted in his being frequently as “comrade” hy communists, But in “The Adventures of a Young Man” (Harcourt) his arraignment of the Communist party and similar organizations reveal his disappointment in their inadequacies and weaknesses, G'en Spotswood, the hero, is an

hailed

their leaders, there is no sound! idealistic vouth motivated by an un-

Side Glances—By Galbraith

"Old Pop over there might know the road to Midvale=he's such a fibber, though, | wouldn't believe him!"

selfich desire to help the laboring people. Working as a migratory arm hand during college vacation and later involved in a strike of Mexican field workers in Texas, he learns from experience the hard: | ships of ‘‘the little people.” As an| active C. P. member and union or-| ganizer, he is beaten and jailed by a mob and enlogized as a hero by the party which later expels him as a traitor to the ‘cause.’ The “cause,” he 1sarns, in trv] ing to help two miners falsely acs cused of murder, is more concerned with getting favorable publicity for [itself than with the fate of the in(dividual, He is amazed and disil- | lusioned to learn of the hostile (rivalry among the various parties | and among the workers, Nothing —neither friends, casual love affairs | (nor social diversions—can distract him from his zeal to better the | world, eventually he goes to Spain | [as a volunteer in the civil war. ( There he finds his party divided [into bitter, vengeful factions. Iron=-| | feally, his comrades suspect him of | (being a spy, and he is ruthlessly | Hquidatea " Therein, Dos Passhs| | implies, les the futility of such [movements as the C. P. and the Spanish Civil War, So long Aas hatred and doubt prevail within [the ranks, workers like Glen Spotswood must live, dream, labor, and ce in vain,

AUTUMN REVERIE

By WANDA MITCHELL The golden leaves are dropping, Dropping, slowly on the grass. | While the autumn sun is shining Down upon them, in a mass. |

How nice it is to lie and watch The leaves come tumbling down. | They go in circles through the air— | At last, fall to the ground.

The trees will soon be barren, But the sun will shine on through Those branches, stretching upward Where the leaves once grew,

DAILY THOUGHT

| Government, and hence ought

| always

| included.

| .

VERON A ARR SRN RN Sf TR

"SATURDAY, SEPT. 9, 1939

Gen. Johnson Says —

Large Surpluses of Food and Fiber Exist and So There Is No Excuse For Skyrocketing Prices in U. S$.

EW YORK, Sept. f.—Aren't we already going a little haywire on this war business? Why should food prices skyrocket and charges of hoarding be heard? Why should the Stock Market soar? Months ago this column began to insist that, if the situation that now exists should occur, thers would be no reason for either stock or commodity markets to crash as has happened in all earlier wars. But that was no reason for them to start toward the stratosphere,

As to food and fibers, we have no shortage but a large surplus. If this turns out to be a long war, demands on us will be very great, especially if Cer

| many can raid the sea with submarines or airplanes

But there are too many ifs in that statement to back

[ it with money,

Within the last few days, IT heard the head of AAA talking to farmers on the radio. We are now in the planting season for winter wheat, He waz telling them to reduce-—not fnherease—their acreage. His argument was that the wheat surplus is still un manageable, A worse condition exists in cotton. > » Ww JARM prices are still much too low, Present ine fluences should make them rise moderately. They ought to rise. Moderate rises in raw materials should not greatly increase the prices of food and clothing,

| They are too small a percentage of retail price,

Fantastical World War prices for farm products are simply not in prospect. With our modern agrie cultural methods, we could supply the world by in creased production and still suffer ne shortage at home, Much of the same thing is true of industrial prod. ucts. Some, but not all, of industry has been limping along at half-time, War will increase demands npon all of it. But no shortage of capacity that we can't

| handle is in sight

Finally, speculative buying in anticipation of swollen war profits anywhere is unwise, The World

| War experience will not be repeated, Nobody is going

| | |

to be permitted to make exaggerated war profits today. The Government already has ample and varied powers to check that. Our greatest danger is that we will g0 too far in the reverse direction-—confiscate even

| reasonable profits and paralyze production.

y » % ONSIDERING the ability, coolness and sanity A with which this Administration fs approaching this problem, I do not fear that supreme folly, But I feel equally certain that profiteering hy anybody 1s go ing to be about as popular as smallpox. The apparent fitters about the price of Government hones alse seems to be short-sighted. Some istuan were too high, but this Government simply can't afford to let Government honds take a nosedive below par. Banks have so many of them that it would create the worst panie in our history, The (Yoverne ment would simply make them convertible on demand at par. You would then have the choice between an interest-hearing promise to pay in paper money (honds) and a promise to pay without interast—alzo in paper monev, Nobody would convert except to invest in private bonds and securities. In short, we are in for a mild, moderate and grad. ual improvement on all fronts here considerad. but witha nothing about which to get either excited on tha one hand, or panicky on the other,

Agile’ Browder By Bruce Catton

Dies Group Certain Communist Party 1s U. S. Agent of Russia,

ASHINGTON, Sept. 0 -—Whatever else Cieneral Secretary Farl Browder of the American Come munist Party did in his appearance before the Dies Committee, he left that group pretty well convinced that the party is actually an agent of the Russian to register with the State Department as a foreign propaganda outfit, Whether the Committee will he able to make that conviction bear fruit is another question. The Justice Department is willing to act if it can be given proof-—-but it wants real proof, not just a general conviction that Comrade Browder was doing’ his best to handle an assignment hanced him against, his wishes,

The foulness of the trick plaved on Comrades Browder by Comrade Stalin in signing the pact with

| Hitler was well illustrated by Browder's testimony.

Head of the American Communists, Browder was a remarkably shrewd and agile witness. He got by with little trouble on the first day: told about the party organization in the U. 8, fenced dia. lectically with Committee members, sprang his story about the “Republican plot” of 1038, told how and where the party gets its money, and went to some lengths to emphasize that the American party is come pletely independent, takes no orders from abroad, and shapes its own course as its own home-grown mems ers see fit,

He Didn't Enjoy It

But on the second day, the committees got around to the Russian-German treaty, and gave Browder some highly uncomfortable moments Bo the CPA was totally independent, eh? derided the notion that Hitler and Stalin would ever sign aA treaty, hadn't it? Tt was pledged to an undying war against Hitler, wasn't it? Well then, if that was the case, how could it pers form such a speedy back-flip and hail this treaty as x move toward world peace and against naziism? Wasn't the change ordered by Moscow and swallowed hers grudgingly? Browder satd in effect that he could explain all, and proceeded to do so voluminously, But performs ing the rites of explanation before an unsympathetia anc openly skeptical committee couldn't have been any fun

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford

HE beginning of September is like the beginning of a few year for many people. Vacations are over and it is time to settle down for the long grind of school, work, and household duties. If the vacation has been a healthful one, it is a good idea to keep up its benefits—make a few New Year's resolutions about your health, if vou like You have probably been getting more sleep than usual, indulging yourself in lazy mornings, daviims naps or going to bed early. That is probably one rea son why you feel so fine and peppy now. The idea is to keep that feeling of vigorous health by sticking as closely as possible to your vacation sleep schedule, especially the early bedtime, Summer meals are apt to be long on fresh fruits, vegetables, milk, cheese and similar foods rich in vitamins and minerals. Colder weather will make vou want more than a vegetable salad for dinner, but, for good health, the vegetables and fruits and milk should never be neglected. Tn most localities fresh

Tt had

| fruits and vegetables are available all year around,

and modern canning methods preserve the vitamina and minerals in these foods, if fresh ones are not available, Most people go in for more outdoor exercise om theft vacations than at any other time, You may play golf or swim for fun, but such exercise is good

| for your health, too, and you should plan your win-

ter schedule so that regular outdoor exercise will be If you cannot do anything else, you can always walk to Work or school, or at least part of the way, Another health benefit of the vacation hay have been the freedom from rush and strain and worry, You probably took your meals in a leisurely fashion, instead of rushing through them to get to the next engagement. If you ean continue this during the busy winter months ahead, your health should cons tinue to benefit from it.