Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 September 1939 — Page 16

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Give Light end the People Will Find Their Own Woy | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1939

“WE CAN'T AFFORD ONE” x HERE is widespread belief that war would mean increased profits for American industry—especially the chemical industry. Yet one of the most impressively reasoned arguments for staying out of war comes from an important’ figure in the chemical industry, Charles Belknap, executive vice president of the Monsanto Chemical Co. of’ St. Louis. LL oh Mr. Belknap, as a Navy commander in the World War, was chief of our Naval Overseas Transportation Service of 550 |ships that carried men and material to France. He knows what war does to men. But his present argument, in the current issue of Monsanto Magazine, is based on cold facts, drawn from the balance sheets of his own company, about what war does to industry. “We don’t want a war— we can’t afford one,” he says. Monsanto's average annual sales in the five years before this country entered the World War were $4,650,000; its average annual net profit, after payment of taxes, was $892,000. Average annual sales during the war period rose to $17,900,000; but, because of rising costs, the net profit increased only to $2,044,000 a year. In the peace-time period since the war, sales have continued to increase. They have averaged $21,600,000 a year. But the profit margin has never returned to anything like its pre-war level; it has averaged only $2,789,000 a year. Fak Why? |The answer is taxes—taxes made necessary because we entered the World War. Mr. Belknap asserts —and cites figures to prove his assertion—that“Monsanto has already paid back in taxes to the Government three times its excess profits from the war—and the bill is not paid yet.” : . He isn’t kicking about the taxes, either. In another war, if there should be one, he believes it would be just for the A to conscript all industry, thus insuring that there would be no profits. ’ Chemical manufacturers oppose American participation in war, says Mr. Belknap, because: 2 Like other Americans, they have sons and daughters, nieces, nephews and grandchildren of their own. But also because: “Wars. are invariably followed by business depressions, . . + War disrupts peacetime progress, substitutes temporary profits and long-term taxes for the long-term real profits of planned research and development. . , . The industry’s most important raw material—new chemical brains—is wasted as students leave colleges and universities to enlist. . .l. War necessitates Government control of industry, with the possibility that peace-time regimentation may follow,” and, “peace profits ‘are greater than war profits.” ‘Those are reasons every one of which apply with equal force to all American industry.

OUR WAY IS BETTER

ESPITE our pride in progress, we always feel the pangs “of regret when one of our landmarks is turned over to the building wreckers. Such is the case as we watch the tearing down of our neighbor, the Columbia Building at Kentucky and Capitol Aves. In| its heyday it was one of this City’s finest structures.| But it is the victim of the streamlined era in which we are living. It goes to make room for a filling station and parking lot, symbol of the changing times. - And, whether we like the transformation or not, at least we are in agreement on one thing. Our reasons and our ways of tearing down bujldings are far better than Europe's present methods.

DEPENDING ON CONGRESS : IT is something of a new experience to Congress to have the American Legion declare that Congress knows best how to write laws and draft policies to preserve the country’s neutrality and peace. In the past there has been slight reluctance on the part of the Legion or any other organized minority to lay down specific blueprints for guidance of the national Legislature. But this time the Legion’s only “demands” are that the President and Congress steer a course that will preserve the “peace, sovereignty and dignity of this nation,” and that Congress remain in session “during the present © grave crisis.” => - i There is, we think, something altogether healthy and wholesome in this epidemic of humility in the face of dangers that| threaten our national peace and security, in the general admission of deeply troubled people that they don’t know all the answers on how to keep out of Europe's war, and in their willingness to put their trust in the collective judgment, of elected lawmakers. In such an atmosphere, representative government should function at its best. In this connection, we hope every member of Congress reads the articles, starting today in The Times, by Dr. Charles A. Beard, the eminent historian, pointing out that Congress not only has the constitutional power but also the duty|to share with the President continuing. résponsibility for the conduct of foreign affairs. Dr. Beard urged that Congress remain in actual or constructive session throughout the emergency, and that it create a joint committee on foreign affairs to counsel with the President and Secretary of State and keep other members of Congress advised of developments. | = 1t isnot enough for Congress to decide present disputes such as the arms embargo and cash-and-carry, and then go home. In times like these every day ‘will bring new problems calling for new decisions, The people will feel more secure if they know their representatives are helpin;

make tho se decisions. 0 Ra

i >

THE FORUMS AT a time when free discussion has been severely cur- = 7 tailed in a large section of the world, it is refreshing to read of such programs as that offered by the Indianapolis Open Forum and other such groups in the City. We wish all forums success. The greater their success

e enlightened the community.

re

- SH a

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

NTEW YORK, Sept. 28—With spécial interest I

6 | listened the other night to. that part of an

oration by Rep. Ham Fish which dealt with propaganda and false report, because the reference brought to mind an interview with Mr. Fish about two years ago wherein he himself revealed that very careless-

| ness regarding the source and truth of information |

against which he now lectured his fellow citizens,

plush district which includes the homes of President Roosevelt and his mother, was about to return to one of the Hudson River towns for a political jollification and had a speech giving his distinguished neighbors the side of his tongue. Mr, Fish tossed across the draft of his address to

irresponsible chuckles, He had wrought some pretties, and, as Harold Ickes will allow, the effect of a speech comes not so much from the thought content as from the casual whammies placed at the end of the para-

ae =

1 are not. easily done but are the result much stall-walking, lasting sometim the night, and, in most cases, tried out the secretary. I am for such experiments and I am sure Mr. tirely unprepared for my startled interruption at the point where he accused the President's mother of receiving $35,000 from the Government for the repairs and maintenance of her home, which Mr. Roosevelt was using for his summer White House. I asked Mr. Fish where he got this information, assuming, of course, he was sure of his facts, and he replied by flipping out of a nest of papers a fan letter from a constituent signed with a name which meant , nothing to him. That was all he had to go on. Later in the same oration Mr. Fish, on no better

scandalous rumor. This one, I believe, was the report that the President’s father, in his will, had provided that Franklin should have no hand in the management of the estate because he had no appreciation of the value or meaning of money. . I think that was it, but if not it was equally unpleasant and probably equally untrue, as this one proved to be when, after receiving the same report in a dozen or more letters, I checked the i on file at Poughkeepsie. FI : R. FISH seemed surprised at my quibbles and sald he could qualify them by saying “it is said” or “it is believeds” apparently under the impression that was the way newspapers acquired information and absolved themselves of libel, I wes similarly impressed by a speech delivered under cover of his Congressional. immunity by Senator Minton of Indiana, who once offered a bill for newspaper censorship in the interests, as he said, of truth. The Senator flatly charged, but without a word of proof, that a dozen ent Americans had corruptly bargained with a Republican Commissioner of Internal Revenue to receive back millions in tax refunds in return for a few thousand in contributions to the Republican National Committee. If you will just read those dice I think you will observe that I have made my point.

Business By John T. Flynn :

Warns Nation of Risk in Changing Policy to Aid One Side in War.

ASHINGTON, Sept. 28.—While it is generally understood among those who follow public affairs that the object of changing the Neutrality Act now is to help England and France, it is said we ought not to discuss it on that basis as this gives the German Government an opportunity to classify us-as a hostile power. As long as we discuss it as just one other way to keep us out of war, the Ger- : man Government is not so free to treat it as an unriendly act. : , To amplify this point—we are asked to suppose that men in. the Senate shall rise and say that America must help the democracies, that the present act handicaps England and France and therefore we must throw our arms factories open to them. Immediately it becomes impossible to make a decision on this subject without frankly avowing to the world that we are going to put our resources on the side of England and France or that we are not. But, as a matter of fact, is there any possibilily of fooling the German Government? It is not so entirely naive as to be fooled by this strategy. There is no doubt that our people desire to remain out of the war. They will hold to a terrible responsibility anybody they think guilty -of getting us into the war. There is a terrible risk in the proposal to change our neutrality policy now in order to help one side in the war. The American people should be made aware in the clearest terms of precisely what we are doing. But if those who advocate this policy persist Bn telling the American people. that they are trying establish a policy of “true” neutrality instead of a policy of effective aid to Britain and France, then are they not fooling the American people rather than Germany?

The Ludiow Amendment

There is before Congress a proposal for the Ludlow amendment—a plan to give the people the right to vote on the declaration of war. That is important. The people who must fight the war must have the di rather than the politicians in the capital, -particularly those who will not have to shed a drop of blood and may reap glory. : But the time to stop a war is not when the quarrel with another nation has proceeded to that desperate crisis when we are actually confronted with & declaration of war. The time to stop war is when the first step is being taken. Certainly the people ought to be apprised of that step. They ought not to be asked to approve an act of neutrality without being told plainly that it is not neutrality but a declaration of aid to one of the belligerents. That is what the President is asking us to do.

By Mrs. Walter. Ferguson

HIRTY-SIX years ago, two boys of Dayton, O., made themselves the laughing stock of the world. They had managed to raise themselves from the earth in a heavier than air flying machine. A universal howl of derision sounded. But this was soon changed to a vast gasp of astonishment, and then began the paeans of praise which have gone on ever since. : Ts i The eternal dream of mankind had come true. Icarus with his waxen wings was finally vindicated. At last men could lift themselves above the clouds and look upon their beautiful earth from a celestial perspective. ; : : Was it strange that they felt akin to the angels and became arrogant as gods with this new found power? Surely no sensation mortals ever experienced is so thrilling as that of soaring through space. To spurn the earth, with its fettering gravity, is a sensaYot which marked. a turning point.in human psyI was more than ever certain of it the other night as I gazed spellbound, yet bitten with pain, at the release of the March, of Time, “Soldiers With Wings,” which pictures the activity and progress of the U.

S. Army Air Corps ; we seem to have dedicated our

lo

If the Wright brothers could have looked into

: 17, hat - do you have felt? ends th

Could ; ms would

invention have

"Rep. Fish Recently Lectured on * i. , False Reports, but Not Long Ago He | Was Careless With Facts Himself]

At that time our statesman, representing the deep |

"his constituents and sat back obviously anticipating

not a good guinea pig |

authority, was going to repeat another hot but].

A Woman's Viewpoint

as far as 1939 on that wonderful day at | suppose | they have guessed for

son

| ‘Embargo Too Technical a Subject .For Layman, ‘Congress Alone Has Duty of Making Corcect Decision, (VHICAGO, Sept. 28—The American Legion has adopted a resolution demanding that “appropriate action be taken to preserve the peace, sovereignty 4nd" dignity” of ‘the United States but declining to take sides in the debate over the arms embargo. At first it seemed certain that the Legion would oppose lifting the embargo, but sentiment that such action would Jook too much like strong-arming Congress at a dan gerous moment finally prevailed. Br : That is both patriotic and wise. This subject is too technical for snap judgment urged by catchwords and moving from scanty information. It is pare ticularly a job for , if representative government really means an in this country. Popular

polls and pressure campaigns to write or telegraph Congressmen on such tricky questions are recent oute

. | growths which have no proper place in our system of

Government. We couldn't pun a nation of 130,000,000 people on a town meeting plan—and this poll-ande scheme isn’t even that. es Any well-organized ‘pressure . bloc or any emo. tional radio demagog can scare up tens of thousands of letters to legislators. But that isn’t government by

8 | majority and .neither are these random polls. An

The Hoosier Forum

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

PREFERS HOME BUILDING TO WAR BOOM ; By Reader ; John T. Flynn suggests a home

the war boom that will follow repeal of the arms embargo. War boom prosperity will be short-lived. American legs will inevitably follow American arms as we stretch hands across the sea. Only sterile minds would turn to a war boom as a way out of our domestic problems. That requires no constructive thinking. It only postpones the day of reckoning. Our domestic problem will remain on our doorstep after the war. Neither Congress nor the executive wants to know how to put our 10 million idle men to work.. What are they paid for? * tJ ” =

BLAMES NEW WAR ON VERSAILLES TREATY By Mary J. Leach A pertinent suggestion is in order to all readers who are talking or writing on the present European situation. Nobody can discuss conditions intelligently without some study of a map of Europe before— and after—the World War.

Was Germany unreasonable in requesting a roadway into East Prussia (belonging to Germany) through the corridor? Has Herr Hitler been an aggressor when he has annexed no territory that was not a part of the old Germany, or was the peace treaty of Versailles imposed on Germany (which did not surrender but only signed an armistice) by England and France the real aggression. Those of us who lived back in 1914-18 recall that we are seeing the propaganda of the English duplicated. “We have nothing against the German people—the Kaiser's Government must go.” Today it is Hitlerism must go.” : - But, mark well, when the penalties of Versailles were imposed it was not the Kaiser’s government but the German people who were to pay, and pay. The government had fled. Those penalties were not arrived at by negotiation but by the dictation of Great Britain and France. America refused to sign the unjust document, thanks to American patriots ‘in Congress during that critical period.” The revenge of Great Britain and France dictated the terms of a treaty that produced a Hitler. Let Great Britain and

building boom as a substitute for|

traces the movements of the tribes,

(Times readers are invited to express their views in 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.)

France reap the reward of revenge. It is not our affair. Those: who permit hatred in their hearts to dominate their reason must never be permitted to’ direct American policy in any crisis. Those who wan{ Berlin, London or Paris or any city bombed are unworthy of a hearing. Our nation was founded and built on Christian principles—not by pagans. Let us ever be guided by Christian charity taught by the New Testament, “Whatsoever you do the least of these, my little ones, you do unto me.” America must preserve Christian neutrality—the only real program for any Christian is to sell arms and ammunition to ‘no nation engaged in war. , # ”» 2

SEES LABOR DISPUTE HURTING WAGNER ACT By Citizen 4 The Times editorial titled “Saving the Wagner Act” is timely and to the point. However, the first and necessary requisite for saving the Wagner Act is unity in labor's

ranks; in other words, peace between the C. I. O. and A. F. of L. What chance is there of peace

when, for instanee, union leaders

resort to name-calling of other

union leaders and compare.them tof

Hitler and Stalin? Perhaps if some

of these.leaders had their wives or sons taken off the same fat payroll they would calm down a little

and be ready to seek peace. 2 = = FEARS FOR FREEDOM IF WE ENTER WAR By Frank J. Critney, Edinburg, Ind.

Apparently we have been on. the| verge of dictatorship on two or| three occasions the last few years.| That democracy leaves when war enters is a well-known fact. What

assurance have we that it will ever return if and when this country

ends its next war? It is far easier to retain democracy as we now have it than to regain it if ever lost. All the greater powers of the world, our country excepted, exist under some form or

another of dictatorship — call it

whatever you wish. ‘ Where else today do the common people enjoy the rights and privileges we hold under our democracy? Make America strong, be prepared, yet peace loving, hold no fears or grudges and to the last man and dollar defend our shores against any foreign invasion and

stay clear of all foreign entanglements,

New Books at the Library

: 1 eminent Negro writer and spokesman, W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, makes in “Black Fork, Then and Now” (Holt) a comprehensive statement of the condition of the Negro, past and present, and in all parts of the world where the problem of the race exists. This volume falls into three parts. In the first, Dr. Du Bois goes back to the early history of that troubled continent, Africa, before the white missionaries, soldiers, slave traders, and colonists came to disturb the natural development of the native cultures of these black peoples. He

Side Glances—By Galb

tells of their mingling with one an-

raith

A card or i deep compassion in the heart. 1 Nor does the broken word reveal

other and with other races with which they come in contact, and: describes their gradual stabilization

and the development of the societies |

and customs which formed their culture. : From here the author proceeds to the story of the black man’s tragedy —the coming of the white races with their mixture of missionary =. greed and political rivalries. e tells of the ruthless trade in slaves and, later the economic slavery to which the intruders and conquerors subjected these black men in their own land? The saddest part of the book is that in ‘which Dr. Du Bois presents today’s scene: The natives crowded from their native territories and exploited in mines and plantations; the color bar everywhere, which means not only social inequality but economic discrimination; the wunthinking disruption of native modes

| | of life which has left the black men | | without roots in this new civiliza-

tion. The writer, however, is not pessimistic. © For he sees a growing realization on the part of the ruling classes of what their thoughtless exploitation has done to the Negro races, and an und ding that the welfare of the ker everywhere is linked with that of the

. | Negro worker and that “the rise of | | these people . . . is the rise of the ' | world.”

A — in AE

IN SORROW By VIRGINIA VAE

'| When sorrow on a home descends

There isn’t much to do for friends. flower cannot impart

The The tender sympathy you feel,

| infinitesimal fraction of the people are talking and few of them have enough information or have heard

enough argument to know what they are talking about. . . : . #

QOMETHING of the same thing is true about reso lutions in a convention which seem to speak the opinion of a group as great as the American Legion, It takes much study or experience to decide whether it woud be better for this country to lift the embargo or not. * As 8 member of the War Industries Board in 1018, I lived with these questions in actual war.and I know I am not sure. So I can’t think that a slap-dash Legion resolution or 10,000 scared-up letters would make me any surer if I were a Congressman. Straw polls impress me even less, - ; Most of the lay argument on the Neutrality Act proceeds from a most astonishing misinformation— that subs sinking American ships got us into the war, that our industry furnished great quantities of guns and shells and’ airplanes to our associates in the war, that our sales on credit got us into the war—and so forth, » , ® ® =»: - S this column has pointed out, subs sank only one American ship before we declared war. We didn’t furnish the Allies any important amount of ery and ammunition before we got into the war. After that the reverse was the case. Except for naval guns, all our World War artillery and ammunition were bought in Europe. We delivered only 10,000 rounds of shra for our own guns—and no aire planes. The wir cost us $40,000,000,000. Private sales on credit were nearly all collateral | ized by American securities. They apparently amount- | ed to less than $2,000,000,000. Of $12,000,000,000 that we advanced after we declared war, only 2.4 billions went for “munitions”—and that included horses and mules and many other things that were not weapons. Finally, in view of our own armament program, we have few if any weapons to sell now. These are only a few of the considerations in decid ing on the Neutrality Act. I doubt whether Bill Spivans and Jack Robinson know or can find out enough about them to decide. But Congress can and should. That is what it is there ‘nr.

Ickes and War

By Bruce Catton 3

ir

~

Secretary Alert Lest Heavy Demands :

‘Upset Our Conservation Policies.

V\/ ASHINGTON, Sept. 28—If the European war | generates a runaway demand for such Amers ican raw materials as are protected by the Governe | ment’s conservation. policy it is going to collide heade on with Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes. Ickes suspects that there presently will be a cone | certed attack on conservation, due to the fact that Europe will be wanting extra-large quantities of oil, beef, timber and so on; and as long as the United States remains neutral he proposes to see to it that the policy of protecting resources from undue exploitae tion is upheld without the slightest relaxation. - “I am apprehensive that there will be the usual effort, in the name of patriotism, to rape our natural resources for the sake of profit,” he says. :

| resources for ourselves and our children.” ° Oil probably will give Ickes his biggest problem, In: the last war (before the United States got in) demand | 4 for fuel oil for the Allied navies shot the price of midcontinent crude up to around $3 a barrel; the demand is likely to be greater this time, and Ickes forsees a: campaign to boost oil production to a wasteful extent. The Federal nent has no direct.control over ofl production, but can control indirectly through the “hot oil” act,: which enables the Government to deny interstate commerce oil produced in deflance of | state laws based on conservation practices, |

Grazing Regions Suffered k

Yi The last war, Ickes remarks, damaged America's timber and grazing es extensively.” In 1916 the demand for Sitka spruce became so heavy that pende ing legislation to establish Olympic National Parkin the Puget Sound area defeated, and timber was cut wastefully. 2% a go As to grazing: war-time demand for beef cattle led to the issuance of grazing permits in Yosemite, | Sequoia, Mt. Rainier, Crater Lake, Glacier and Wind Cave national parks, and the National Park: Service asserts that it took 20 years to restore the mountain meadows there, Je : : chim Ra The Alaskan salmon fisheries also suffered. from World War demands, | : Fr All of this, of course, applies to policies to be fol= lowed while this country remains at peace. If Amere

allowed to

stand in needs ; :

. | | | |

he way of her own war-time Watching Your Health ‘By Jane Stafford | i sy

HRONIC pulmonary tuberculosis can be detected two or three years before the appearance of symptoms which take the patient to his physician This early stage can be detected by careful X-ray examination of the chest. |

“I think true neutrality means keeping our natural | | |

iea gets into a war, conservation policies would not be. & .