Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 November 1939 — Page 14

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: Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

pron

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1939,

ANOTHER PHONY PASSPORT | JARL BROWDER, we hope, will keep right on explaining *< that he didn’t advocate overthrow of the Government avhen he spoke recently of America’s ripeness for “a quick transition” to the Russian form of socialism. fnean to this country is enlightening. i ~ Opposition political parties, he said, probably would be “put out of business” as were the 13 non-Communist parties that survived the revolution in Russia. The educational system would follow Communist ideologies and be-

come “adjusted to the needs of the people . . . instead of |

capitalists.” Religion would be purged: of most of its present leaders and teachings, only those religious institu- . ions being permitted to survive which could be “shown in public debate as not a social menace.” Industry, property and’ profits would be taken over by the ‘Government and “expanded rapidly.” The press, being “a great industry,” naturally could not eontinue as it is. : Browder, having given that interview in New York, ‘was permitted to address a Communist. mass meeting last night in Madison Square Garden, and the police were there ‘fo protect him. That’s free speech, a thing we value not for the sake “of people like Browder, but for the sake of the country. For, as his interview makes clear, what Browder offers is “only a phony passport to Russia where there is no free speech, and the more he explains it the more determined “will Americans be to have none .of it.

THE RED CROSS ~ AMERICA is at peace. But for the Red Cross there is “= 7" never peace. _ Week in, week out, the Red Cross is fighting some “kind of a war in all parts of the world—a war against sickness, against plague, against the effects of sudden “disaster. Wherever disaster strikes the Red Cross is on the job with medicine and food and clothing. : = In her column, My Day, Mrs. Roosevelt points out that the needs of the Red Cross this year will be the heaviest ~ since the World War. We can and should play our part in relieving the distress and suffering caused by the greatest “of all scourges—war.

‘WAR, RUBBER—AND “US”

"THE. truth of the saying that “the world ain’t such a big |

"=" place after all” is brought into sharp focus by the Nazi

threat to the Netherlands.

. When we think of the Netherlands we first picture a

‘country~in Europe, and dikes and windmills and tulips and -wooden shoes and clean kitchens. But to pursue the subject we must mount the magic carpet and flit thousands of miles, -into the Orient, and then back to such centers as Akron and Detroit, and on over all the paved roads of America’s motor age. At last we come to realize that what is going on along the Dutch border in Europe is a threat to our rubber “supply—because we get much of it from Holland's possessions in the Far Pacific. i “Hence, a crisis for the Netherlands may mean a crisis for us. For the “dope” is that Japan would take the occasion to move in on the Dutch East Indies.-. And. what would that do to our tires? ° » » »- 2 » # © * “We are wont to cling to the idea that we are a selfsupporting nation. But those were pioneer times, before we became an industrial civilization, dependent on"payrolls. ~~ But now we run on rubber.. The automobile made rub=ber as essential to our life as is food; for, without rubber, ythere could be no automobile transportation in the modern “sense, and without automobile payrolls, and rubber pay-

. volls, the money would not be forthcoming with which to

i buy the necessities—food, fuel, clothing, shelter and light. : Further, ‘without rubber our vast investment in hardsurfaced highways would be junk. We wouldn't collect ! enough gas taxes to maintain a foot of them, and millions of : the employees, as well a3 the stockholders, of the oil business i or the steel business, just to pick examples, would be “out.”

{ The ramifications are too much for the human mind to visui alize. But you don’t have to let your imagination play very : far to see what would happen if there were no rubber. : gy 8» 8 nn % : It happens that we produce no rubber. We import it to the tune of nearly a billion pounds per’ year from: British Malaya, 547,900,000 pounds. Dutch East Indies, 245,800,000, Ceylon, 55,600,000. French Indo-China, 45,100,000. . -. : Most of those sources are potentially’ vulnerable when \ the world goes to war. And the Dutch East Indies are now

* | definitely on the spot. : : : So it is no wonder that our Government has a headache ! about Germany’s threat to Holland and that a news dis- . patch says, “President Roosevelt has been weighing the | pros and cons of a diplomatic maneuver designed to avert i the involvement of The Netherlands.” ~~

We aren't at war, and so help us, we aren’t going to be..

But, though at peace, not a man, woman or child in our : country could escape what would happen if just that one

: wholly imported commodity were cut off.

We are not seeking to be alarmist. Because we think. ! a lot of things stand in the way of such an event. But let’s.

not kid ourselves about our self-sufficiency. The days when | we lived off the land—those simple days of the first Thanks-Siving.-are for all practical purposes as remote as Nineveh

Pr s38n "INE

E of a new statuary group in which 19 nude figures symbolize | at the fact that the confluence of the Mississippi and the Mis-

souri is near that dity. Instead of “Wedding of the Rivers,” becomes “Meeting of the Rivers.” Many citizens had v 4 a nude “wedding,”

e Indianapolis Times

_. His further explanation of what the change would |‘

Administration circles

“in my public life’.

eyen of statues, was not.

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler “California, Plagued by Generosity,

Strives for Solution. of Problems |

~~ Which Should Be Shared by Others.

OS ANGELES, Nov. 14—Twice now California has stood off the idiotic but dangerous ham-and-eggs proposal and the sober people of the state may allow themselves a breathing spell. Not for long may they relax, however, for the more California does not

relieve want without curing it the worse her burden |

and the menace grow. : Never was any community so natural blessings, her own generosity and the disasters

of her neighbors. Not only the homeless, hungry farmers from the Dust Bowl, but hordes of querulous

plagued by her own

old men and women and, be it said, an overly big |' share of lazy whiners and deadbeats who were no |: :

good back home and never will be worth their room anywhere, have dumped themselves on California, at-

tracted by the climate, the cheapness of existence and | ~~

the relatively lavish relief rates. ea Wanigyer the skill, stamina and character of the Dust Bowl refugees they are only part of the problem, and the fact remains that no state ever has been asked to find a living for so large an immigration of

so little average usefulness.. J :

o ® » i task should not be wholly California’s, and

HE a Culbert L. Olson, who seems an earn-

est, responsible man, has proposed that all the states abandon ‘income and inheritance taxes and leave’ this field to the Federal reapers, each state then to receive back a percentage based on population. This idea readily may be faulted, but he had in mind the flight of capital from California to Nevada and the decline of California’s pickings from these important sources in 1 Divhertion to the rise of ‘her respomsibilities and needs. : He recommends, also, the sale of: tax-delinquent land to footloose farmers for bona fide use, with provisions against speculation. Carey McWilliams, Chief of the State Division of Immigration and Housing, demands collective farming, but insists that first the farm laborers must be organized and their employment regulated through hiring halls according to the practice on the waterfront. -This proposal has been attacked as’ communism, and, begging the ‘question whether it is or not, the fact remains that the C. I. O., which dominates the waterfront, in turn is dominated by the Communists, which doubtless means that California’s agriculture would be sabotaged from Moscow under McWillian’s plan, just as the shipping is sabotaged today. » " » HE communist-element in the C. I. O. supported Ham-and-Eggs with no naive illusions about ‘the feasibility of the pension scheme but with intent to demoralize the state government. McWilliams, whatever else he may have in mind, is partial to the C. 1. O.,, and the merits of his proposal therefore go appareled in a clout of communism and suffer, as many honest plans do, the instinctive hostility of equally honest patriots. x The utter poverty of ragged people, lurching across desolate stretches in feeble jallopies, miles from any town, sometimes kindling a little brush beside the road to warm the children while the weary man wheedles the engine or tapes a tire, is a sight to shame or scare the most complacent. If it is left to the Communists to exploit this misery that will be just too bad, for there is ‘still time, though apparently not much, in which to cure it decently in a land where oranges are. dumped into dry creek beds by the ton to await for rain to wash them to the sea. ~

Business By John T. Flynn

Hoover Reported Angry at Stories Linking Him to Moley-F. D. R. Feud.

ANTJEW YORK, Nov. 14—An aftermath of Ray ! Moley’s recent book, “After Seven Years,” has boiled. up in the person of Herbert Hoover, Hoover, it seems, or rather Hoover's name, got mixed up, very much to his disgust, in the propaganda that went out from Washington against Moley when he published his stinging account of his ‘intimate association with the President as No. 1 Brain Truster. And now Hoover is hot under :the collar about it. Here is the story as it comes to me from an unimpeachable source. When Moley’s book appeared, seethed with indignation. Among the stories originating in Washington and attributed to Administration sources was one which Walter Winchell, the flash-flash radio commentator, sent out in one of his weekly broadcasts. Winchell staccatoed over the air: , “The man most burned up about Moley’s expose is not F. D. R. but Herbert Hoover. Hoover communicated privately to the President that he considered it ‘the most indecent thing I have encountered He told the President t there \'were 22 inaccuracies in the part that dealt with him.” Later Drew Pearson and Bob Allen in their daily Washington column noticed the story. They enjoy unusually intimate relations with the White House. According to them “Hoover sent word to the ‘President that he hoped the President would answer Moley. He asserted that in the part of the articles pertaining to him Moley had made 22 grievous errors and that he would like to make a public statement to that effect. Roosevelt sent back word that he didn’t think it was a good idea to dignify the article with a reply.” ee

His Patience Exhausted The part of Mboley’s articles—later published in book form—referred to related to the conferences between Roosevelt and Hoover before Roosevelt's inauguration, in which Roosvelt was made to look pretty helpless in the presence of Hoover's superior knowledge of the subjects discussed. Where these stories came from has not been dis= closed. Up to now Mr. Hoover has remained silent. But in its issue of Nov. 6, Life ‘Magazine repeated the Winchell-Pearson-Allen accounts, saying Hoover had written a letter to the .President. This, apparently, broke Hoover's patience and ‘he is understood to have written a ‘letter to Life denying the whole story and demanding that his letter be published. To others Hoover has characterized the whole story as a pure invention made up out of whole cloth. In view of the ‘wide publicity given the incident a good many people ‘will want to know how this story originated in the first place. Rui :

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson . ink

“TF we are forced into the war . ..” Here is a current phase we ought to examine carefully. It implies that we are not capable of marshaling our emotions—and (once we are committed to that notion, we are lost.| Who is going to force us? The behavior of Hitler land Stalin, of course. One of these days, so the argument runs, we shall become so put out with those two barbarians that we can do nothing save mobilize for freedom and thus pay the berserks the great compliment of imitating them. Such ah opinion should be challenged daily and from the housetops. For human nature. is not wholly evil—no matter what the current scene’discloses. Man has shown himself capable of sane behavior and can easily do so again if he puts his mind to it: The

only sure way to obtain peace is to have the will to |

preserve it. ‘ ; on { : And quite the biggest lie ever dumped upon us is the oft repeated theory that humanity is so inherently evil it cannot escape the fate of war. When

we accept that statement, we are sayfg in effect that | improvement is not possible in any earthly state, that | -

there are no such qualities as. nobility of heart, alnh Rar HILY ol.

and a multiplicity , too, that i

a fi

The Hoosier Forum I wholly disagree with what you say, but will : + defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire. %

MORE TOLERANCE TOWARD CHILDREN URGED By Friend of All Children

After reading the articles in The Times regarding two boys being s0 badly hurt, I. feel that it is- high time that we elders cultivate a more kindly attitude toward our boys and girls. ‘I find that kindness goes a long way. : Let us use more tact in dealing with these youngsters and not let our tempers get the best of us. , » ” ® :

LAUDS EFFORTS OF . HONEST POLITICIANS By Voice in the Crowd n

In the belief that it was I whi offended “Politician” I hasten to assure the gentleman that an honest man in the servitude of the public is as good as any honest man. He is also as necessary. There are men in public life, and always have been, who are ' self-sacrificing, humane and well-intentioned as in any field of endeavor. ' There are’ likewise men in business and industry and in the professions, who have the same admirable characteristics. As human beings we are not all bad nor all good. No one can find fault with the honest public servant. As in all walks of life, politicians are not all honest. do not’ have “guts and brains.” Political leadership that continually places a greater burden on the economy to make jobs for party spoils seekers is -not “gearing society to a higher level.” Local leadership in every community in the land which has protected the racket builders for “a share” is not honest. Men who will promise to the old, to the taxpayers, to the farmer, to business and to the worker, things that they cannot bring about do not make for a higher level of society. . The profession of public service which should represent the best in all humdn attributes is unfortunately infested with opportunists and seekers for special privilege who will work for the party election for an unfair consideration. I am not a “pedantic soul,” but I see no reason why people should not voice their objection to too much politics, too many public employees, 2 per cent clubs ‘and economic tampering to perpetuate

and the abdication of community trust in the interest of centralized politics. : iy hy I assure “Politician” that no man

All politicians.

power, misuse of relief agencies

(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.)

in public service who is honest in his efforts to serve is ever included

‘lin my remarks. In politics as. in

any walk of life there is both hon-

esty of purpose, and as in all walks of life some good may be mistakenly classified as evil. Ra I say to you that with perhaps 10 million people in public service, there 1s a dearth of real leadership for the people. I note with sadness that even in the highest places in public life, men hark back to Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln. and Cleveland to describe ideal leadership. This is necessary in no other profession. : ®

‘CITES GREAT STRIDES

MADE BY AVIATION By Aero :

- The progress of aviation can be written. between two wars. Before the first World War, aviation was

little more than a swaddling infant, enveloped with the promise of a

|rosy future. Today, it is part of}

everyday life. The usefulness of the airplane is not confined to war. During the past seven months, commercial - airplanes have flown 500,000 passengers and have traveled 50,000,000 miles without one fatality.

‘|Such a record is an impressive tribute to progress in the air. -

But there is still a great deal to be done. Laboratories are still try-

ing to make landings as foolproof

as possible, blind flying must be improved, stratosphere flying is in its infancy, simplification of controls is being studied.’ Man's present. knowledge of the air and of flying craft is a long way from being exhaustive. While a war goes on in Europe, aeronautic experts in this country carry on their work—the job of making the airplane a safe and’ swift instrument of transportation for peaceful purposes. : \ 8 = 8 THINKS WALLACE - WANTS TO KEEP JOB By ‘Observer ; Li Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace says he is not sorry for

‘saying he wants Mr. Roosevelt for a

third term. One could hardly expect the secretary to. apologize for saying he would like to. keep his job for another four years. ’

New Books at the Library

Eoone the question on the lips of nearly every American, “Can America Stay Neutral?” (Harper) went to press just as President Roosevelt was convening Congress in special session to consider this matter. “The authors, Allen W. Dulles and Hamilton Fish Armstrong, do not attempt to give a categorical answer. Nor are they inclined to pin’ their faith upon any one factor or expedient to “keep us out of war.” The history of American neutrality, they point out, has shown us that we have tried many approaches to

the question, have had to modify

our legislation and ideas frequently in order to meet changing situations. Si LE : They trace the different attempts to establish our neutrality, by legislation or by executive proclamation,

fe 22 NE gh AN

Side Glances—By Galbraith Vid

fo {i RS y

from the beginning of our republic to the present. And in the light of these experiences they analyze the various. programs which have been propounded to insure our remaining at peace. ’ Our policy in the future necessary to preserve our national ‘security and maintain what we consider vital national interests is unpredictable. Emotions change, economic factors exert increasing pressure, international alignments shift. Legislation, they feel, has in the past failed to allow for the contingencies of the future and has thus often defeated its own purpose. Embargoes on shipments to belligerents, they believe, constitute an unrealistic approach to the problem. Unless Congress is prepared to meet each situation as it arises: Congressional * action. is not sufficiently elastic; ¢* the executive branch of the government needs freedom to deal with continually shifting and unprecedented conditions. +o. Sah As the text upon which they base their book, the authors, in a series

‘| of 18. appendices, ‘present the im-

portant pronouncements oconcern-: ing America’s international position,

from Aug. 4, 1914, to Sept. 21, 1939. 4 ———— v

ELEMENTS OF LIFE By ANNA E. YOUNG It isn’t that some folk are gifted "Tis by suffering they learned to : live . : : That is why, my dear, they’ are 4 edi . ™ .

dedicated To the happiness they can give. | They have learned to battle the

elements :

4 And have found in all of the bad

Theré was always a mite of good

"| That they might never have had. Je

their ship had not sailed the

with ‘waves a_bit wild | Trust a cour-

| American drama. | process of mixing two strains. The thing might be as

"| able today, are

“TUESD

Savi

‘Unfair Attacks on Ship Transfer Traced to General Fear of Some ‘Schemes’ to Drag Us Into: War. TASHINGTON, Nov. 14.—In defending the stand : of the Maritime Commission in permitting the

| transfer of American ships to a foreign flag, I find

- myself almost alone among some of the men whose ‘opinion I most value. This is naturally distressing, but I don’t find much argument on the merits of the case. . i x y ! oa in 3 The principal complaint is that it involves some kind of trick—that Congress and the country were fooled into believing that, under the Pittman Act, while any other “article” in commerce—including absolute contraband of war—could be relieved from the ban on shipping by (being transferred to foreign ownership—ships couldn't. sn 3] * If anybody in Congress was fooled, there was no excuse for it and no proper charge against anybody of practicing deception. There was warrant in exist~ ing law for making such transfers. They were becoming a practice. Presumably the statutes were searched to find which would be amended or affected or repealed by the new law. ; i The Senate Committee held exhaustive hearings. The debate was long and free. That this point didn’t come up was not for lack of opportunity. I doubt if

anybody on the “transfer” side of this argument ever

. | realized that the right was in question.

2 8 =

VEN if the point had come up, it is pure conjecture that the right would not have been confirmed.. Certainly a denial of it, in view of all other provisions of the bill, would have: been utterly inconsistent. tof ; - 3 Yet it is perfectly apparent why the hue and cry was raised. It is because “some clever little scheme” to circumvent the act was so universally feared that anything that superficially - looked like’ one was immediately denounced. That suspicion is understandable. In 1937, the President wanted to join with the “peace-loving nations” to “quarantine the aggressors.” In April, 1939, he hinted that we couldn’t stay out, and promptly approved a Washington Post editorial which so. interpreted him and openly said that when he insisted at Warm: Springs, “If we don’t have war"— he meant by “we,” to include this country. : # » »

oY oe open utterances tie in with others which were denied, paraphrased or not confirmed like “Our frontier is in France”—Amenicans generally will realize soon that they have a direct and tangible stake in the outcome—the submarines reported “sighted” off our shores and the subsequent prompt denial of harboring to subs. To these add the holding up of the Bremen, the close accord between Ambassadors Kennedy and Bullitt and the British and French Governments, the occasional revelations of secret military and naval missions and finally the late, but open, admission of Administration Senators that lifting the arms embargo was not really intended as a neutrality move but as an effort to help England and France. These hints do not gibe with assurances that we will stay out. Couple these inconsistencies with many other departures from announced policies and it is not hard at all to understand the cry of ‘“ship-trick.” Nobody realizes such a possibility more than I. I just don’t believe it happened here and I have to “call ‘em as I see ’em.” To :

It Seems to Me. By Heywood Broun |

Our Native Drama Lustier Than Ever; _Saroyan One of the Leading Voices.

EW YORK, Nov. 14—T've seen a lot of them come and go in the American theater, and my impression is that our native drama is far more lusty than it was around the turn of the century. My first reviewing was done in days when Clyde Fitch was still con‘sidered the greatest of the home-grown crop. Today he is deader than 20 doorknobs, and deservedly. His only gift was a facility, which is not enough in any art form. Eon ’ I sat and watched the rise of Eugene O'Neill. Whether or not I have also seen his decline I cannot say until he returns with another play. At the mo--ment I would nominate Robert E. Sherwood as’the finest of American dramatists and George S. Kaufman ‘as by all odds the most adroit of technicians, .And if I were a theatrical tycoon I am confident that it would be no trouble:at all to contrive the great It could be done by the simple

easy as saying, “Mr, Kaufman, I want you to meet William Saroyan.” So : Eh Saroyan’s present play, “The Time of Your Life,” seems to me just about the most exciting thing which our theater has to offer. But both his critical enemies and his idolaters err when they begin to debate the -formlessness of his dramatic venture. People who would throw “The Time of Your Life” out of the window on the ground that it has practically no plot are silly, ;

Burnishing Old Lamps :

And yet I think it is also a mistake to applaud Saroyan on the ground that he has very small comprehension of structure. There can be no question ‘that here is viable material from a man who has not been . spoiled ‘by copying all the cheap and: shoddy tricks which sometimes make for success on Broadway. . There is no getting away from the fact the key stories have all been charted out already. In the creative arts there is no lane fcr any Christopher Columbus to come charging in upon new continents. Accordingly, in the case of Saroyan it is stuff and nonsense ‘to maintain that the young Armenian is peddling abstruse and deep stuff which is too deep for the comprehension of the ordinary mortal. He sells old lamps which have ‘been newly burnished. Indeed, the fundamental theme which he has set forth twice in the theater is so simple that it can be reduced to the statement “People in general are pretty good.” This is hardly a complicated creed: The importance of the utterance lies in the twin fact that William Saroyan knows what he is talking about and also believes it.

Watching Your Health By Jane Stafford ad i )

: Chemist recently declared “No sane man would want more for breakfast than fruit juice, coffee and toast, and perhaps the occasional egg.” : Nutritionists I have consulted would say this is a light breakfast, suitable for the sedentary worker, but that it might not provide enough energy for the person. who does physical work. They agree, however, that it is fortunate the old-fashioned, meat-potatoes-and-pie type of bresktas; has one Dut of Breakfast, though generally informal ‘social, is an important meal and should not be nor burried. When you arise in the mo: have been on a 12-hour fast, unless yo midnight snacks. Just because you have ing through part of this fast with the banked does not mean that you 4 the ing stoking. You need fuel to give you ent the day's work. For an adult wha rises ea eats a light lunch, breakfast should furnis fourth to one-thixd of the day's food peeds. . latest of the nearly 200 cereal fast foods gopd, cheap source of ene : it is made from c

nd unomitted

a bread, since