Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 January 1940 — Page 10

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1940

- PLOT HERE isn’t an Aaron Burr in the lot, and we suspect that the combined mentalities of all 17—plus any others who niay have been involved with them—wouldn’t be capable of a real understanding of what it would mean to overthrow the Government of the United States. So it’s difficult to believe that the republic's foundations were seriously menaced by the alleged conspirators nabbed in New York by J. Edgar Hoover's G-Men. The plot of which they are accused has been described as fantastic. It is that. The little arsenal of stolen National Guard rifles and shells, explosives and “one long sword,” the reported plan to bomb Government buildings, liquidate Jews, assassinate Congressmen and set up a Hitler-style dictatorship—well, it all sounds like the crazy dream of a group of crackpots and fanatics, for whom some less highsounding charge might have been more appropriate. But crackpots and fanatics, even if they aren’t likely to overthrow the Government, can be deadly dangerous. There was a crackpot named Guiteau, and another named Czolgosz, and there was a group of fanatics which included John Wilkes Booth. In this case, the Federal Bureau of Investigation may have prevented some serious outrages. The fact that there are warped and misguided individuals, capable of believing in such cases as that of the so-called “Christian Front,” makes work for the G-Men. It also provides a reason why those who are tempted to preach radical and religious and "political hatreds should guard their tongues. It’s easy enough to repudiate men who take such hatreds seriously enough to express them in direct action. But a thousand repudiations could not undo the harm that one bomb or bullet might do.

TRAVEL AMERICA

RESIDENT ROOSEVELT, most appropriately, has proclaimed 1940 “Travel America Year.” He invites “our own citizens and friends of other lands (in the Western Hemisphere) to join in a great travel movement, so that our peoples may be drawn even more glosely together in sympathy and understanding.” It is amazing, in a way, that the blacking out of Europe as a vacationland for Americans has not already been re- . flected in a great rush to Latin America. One big reason _ for this has been laid at the President’s own door by some travel-agency people and ship operators. They say the President scared off the tourists by too much talk about mysterious submarines in Western Hemisphere waters. And the Graf. Spee incident probably didn’t help. Of late there ‘have been several official statements to the effect that no belligerent submarines are known to be operating in this part of the world, but the reluctance seems to persist. Personally, if we had the time to spare and the money to spend, we would like nothing better than to go “rolling down to Rio” in one of those ‘great liners white and gold” that Kipling sang of, and we don’t consider ourselves particularly reckless. Or, if Rio were too far, then to our own outposts in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Or, if time were no element, to Hawaii, or Alaska, or any of the Central American republics on which Ernie Pyle is about to give us a first-hand report. Or to Peru, or Mexico, or Buenos Aires, or Havana, or California, or New Mexico, or Miami, or Texas, or—but stop it, we're breaking our hearts.

- The President is right. To those who are used to visit- |

ing Europe (or at least to looking forward to such visits), " there should be no hardship in the ban on such travel. On our own side of the water we have any climate you may prefer; marvels both of pature and of man’s making; civilizations far older than Columbus; beauty and thrills and comforts in kaleidoscopic abundance. And don’t forget that the money we spend in Latin ~ America gives our neighbors the dollar exchange with which to buy the goods that make the wheels of our industry turn.

LET'S SHUT UP OR PUT UP

N recent days we have read and heard a good deal of sarcasm about the ambassadorial business. This was touched off by the appointment of Jathes H. R. Cromwell as Minister to Canada. : . Thesubject is a perennial. The theme is that important diplomatic posts go only to the rich, with part of the deal - being not merely international but domestic—a fat contribu- ~ tion to the campaign fund of whatever party sponsors the appointment. Hence, such smart cracks as that about Anthony J. Drexel Biddle having made a grand Ambassador . to Poland—*“about 25 grand.” But we wonder how it could be different. unless the already round shouldered taxpayer wants to take on another load of bricks. - Diplomatic hot spots demand “face.” The one appointed to the Court of St. James's, for example, can’t go to London and sleep in the wagonyard; nor can he cook his own meals, do his own washing, have an occasional night out at the automat, and properly handle the job. To function effectively he must have kale and more kale. There must be champagne and caviar and butlers, shining linen, sparkling glassware, and all the innumerable other fixin’s that go along with the entertainment of supposedly good neighbors. Hamburgers and a bucket of beer make no hit with the plenipetentiaries of even the most busted of nations. | So it shakes down to this—do we, the people, want to . foot the bulging expense accounts that diplomacy calls for or do we by a process of indirection prefer to share the wealth with the Cromwells and the Dukes, the Biddles and | the Dawses, the Kennedys and the Taylors, the Davies and the Breckenridge Longs? It’s got to be one thing or the other. If we don’t like | the system by which the rich only are chosen we can change _it by appropriating from our own pockets what it takes to run the menage in the style to which, through the centuries, diplomats have become accustomed. But until we so elect, let's not squawk because the | Jimmy Cromwells and the Doris Dukes are willing in mid- _ winter to quit Waikiki for Ottawa.

| working hard on Indiana Ave. 3

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Taking Up the Problem of American Diplomats and Whether They Have to Be Wealthy Men or Not.

EW YORK, Jan. 16—We get down to cases when it is argued that only rich men can afford to accept important American diplomatic posts because | there must be champagne and caviar, shining linen and sparkling glassware for which the Government makes no appropriation, and which cannot be paid for out of the salaries provided by law. Says who? That American Ambassadors and ministers do

lowances is not denied, but that they must do so in order to perform their duties is not so readily conceded. A diplomatic representative is sent abroad to act as agent, with limited powers, of the United States Government and to engage, politely, in espionage of one kind and another. It is supposed that he will make friends in the capital in which he is posted who will invite him to dine or play a round of golf now and again, and that, in order to hold up his end, he will invite them back. However, it seems unnecessary for him to explode a banquet for them and the local aristocracy and official set every so often or to run a hotel for visiting Americans. o i” 8

HE fact that the other Ambassadors or ministers in town ‘live extravagantly on money appropriated for that purpose by their respective governments should not oblige the American to do likewise.

stitute a fairly readable hint to the representatives of those nations which owe this one money, that collections are very slow and that our men, too, would be able to swank it if certain others didn’t live beyond their means and did pay their debts. If the Russian Embassy in Washington could manage to get along with a little less champagne and fewer of those chair-leg havanas that the diplomats serve with coffee, a certain number, and perhaps only a few, but anyway, some Russian soldiers in the war to confer the boon of Stalinism on the Finns might be sent into the field with warm underwear and leather ‘boots instead of paper shoes. Diplomats never impress one another, anyway, and the money which they spend to entertain is 90 per cent waste, which is another way of saying that they could get along on about 10 per cent of their allowance for entertainment. - 8 ” »

HEY all know that all their colleagues, with the exception of the American, are expense-account sports and too stingy or too poor to buy a:bowl of chile for anyone else on their own money, and that every time a diplomat pops a bead of caviar into his whiskers the family of some poor, raggedy dope back in the home country of the one who is giving the party is going without a faceful of sausage, a yard of spaghetti or something with which to grease a piece of sawdust bread. As for the local aristocracy, they are the fancypants of the capital and not at all representative of of the people; and, taking Washington as an example, it isn’t worth the cab fare for any foreign diplomat to attend any party of their giving. If he does go he will stagger home groggy from the’fantastic babble of misinformation, worthless small-talk and malicious little lies. I have heard it argued by nobody more passionately than by New Dealers that rich men should not be allowed to use their vast fortunes to influence our solemn referenda, but find the New Deal rewarding millionaires of doubtful competence with important diplomatic posts for doing just that.

Inside Indianapolis

More Tax Trouble, Dog Trouble, Song Trouble and Numbers Trouble.

ORE tax trouble is in the air. Yessir. Take the County and its new electrical machinery which was bought to streamline the tax billing, collection and distribution setup. Cost $60,000, it did. The County Treasurer’s office used to have a score of girls typing out the tax bills (the duplicates) and it ran into quite a sum of money every year. Well this year they did away with that method and just knocked off the treasurer’s budget the amount calling for that kind of payroll. But the $60,000 machinery, which was expected to be streamlining already in anticipation of the March push, hasn't started to percolate ‘yet. = The men trying to put it up are running into one set of problems after the other. It may be that they can’t get it done in time to do this year’s job. And if that happens you will have tax troubles. Because for everybody who comes in, somebody in the Treasurer's office will have to look the record up and make out a duplicate by hand. The machine age certainly is taxing the Treasurer's patience. » # ”

IT SEEMS THAT a member of Bidu Sayao’s audience at English’s last week was particularly anxious that the diva sing a particular song as an encore. . . . So the patron (a lady) wrote her request on a slip of paper and gave it to an usher, together with a 50-cent tip. . . . The usher dutifully went backstage and gave not only the request but the fourbits to. Mme. Sayao. . . . At last reports, the usher got to keep the 50 cents, but we haven't heard whether Mme. Sayao sang the song. . . . There is a gentleman who nonchalantly walks into the County Auditor’s office every once in ‘a while with a 120pound Great Dane”in tow. , . . The gentleman might be glad to know that his “Mrs. Blue” (yes, that’s the dog’s name) had three stenos huddled in a .corner yesterday afraid to answer their phones.

.» o ”

EFFORTS ARE BEING made to promole another version of the “numbers” game here. . The payoff is based on the total stocks sold on "the New York Exchange during the day. . Promoters here are . Nice part is how the promoters are always trying ‘to get an “inside source” on a newspaper to give them advance information. . . . Good, clean honest fun, you understand. . Which somehow reminds us of the moAorist coming down N. Meridian St. this morning and ‘who tooted his horn: “Boomp-diddy-oomp.”.

forth with: “Boomp-boomp.”

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

IT most nations where war is accepted as a political policy, women have little real authority in politics. Yet it is on them that war's heaviest burdens fall. Reports from England, France, Germany, Italy and others tell the same story—the story of women driven From. their homes by fellow patriots as well as enemy mbs. When the generals don their uniforms, the bedtime story changes. You know how it goes. The tale is tiresomely familiar. First, girls must realize they are too frail to do men’s work, except maybe a little plowing in rush seasons or milking a dozen cows night and morning. It's far better to be queen of some man’s home, to be content with love and babies and work without wages. Isn't our rightful destiny the comforting of men and the cradling of their children? What a glorious privilege it is to be a mother! How men honor and revere motherhood! How generous they are with their medals and phrases (as for pensions, they go to the generals, of course). And isn’t it true that all

tion of homes and families? Oh, yeah? But just wait until a few bosses can scrape up enough armaments to start the fighting again, and then how goes the story? Hep, hep, hep! Don’t dawdle, girls! the home!” snarls Hitler, great champion of feminine humility. “Carramba, scat!” yells Mussolini. “For Dear England’s sake.” plead Chamberlain, Eden and Sir John Simon. “C’est la guerre!” cry Daladier and 50 million other Frenchmen,

suffer and to die. Yet in the making of wars and in plans for peace, they have no voice. Surely the most. dominating dictator could ask for no more

jsubmissive obedience than this

spend much more than they receive in pay and al-

On the contrary, simplicity and frugality would con-.

Whereupon two score horns immediately blasted ?

masculine effort has for. its real purpose the protec- |

“Get out of |.

And out go the women. To do men’s work, to |

I

The Hoosier Forum I wholly disagree with what you say, but will ; defend tothe death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

SUGGESTS MR. MEITZLER MOVE TO FINLAND

By Walter S. Troutman

I would like to express my view of J. R. Meitzler, of Attica, Ind. He seems to have more sympathy for the Finns than he does for this country. To my way of thinking he does not even deserve the protection of our flag and what if represents.

All true Americans are glad to give the Finns our moral support. He seems so well posted in regard to Finnish life and peculiarities that he should be there among them as no doubt he could bé of much help to them. It is very plain to be seen that the U. S. A. is not the place for him. . .. I wonder how this world would move along and even exist if it were not for such illuminating stars as the Gentleman from Attica. . . «

# 8 = DOUBTS MEITZLER KNOWS MEANING OF HUNGER

By Mrs. Helen M. E.

Open letter to Mr. Attica, Ind.: Have you ever been hungry, Mr. Meitzler?. Have you ever been so situated that shivering, half-starved children suffering with rickets looked up at you for help which you were unable to give? And in your crying need, went out and stole food, returning happy, though guilty; but, when you opened the packages and spread the feast you found your famished brood was unable to eat this food (not because you stole it, but because they had been starved so long the very sight of food meant nothing to them?) You think people can’t get that hungry? Wailter Duranty, in his book “I Write As I Please” says that hordes of famished people, within sight of government food, starved after the war. He offered a tiny, spindly thing (it didn’t look human) a bit of chocolate but it just stared with unseeing eyes. If you had ever experienced this soul - torturing predicament you could not have written as you did regarding our poor relief people who, through no fault of their own, are at the mercy of a charitable syséem which with one hand doles out a bare subsistence and with the other extracts its pound of flesh (if there is any) or, lacking that, of soul. . ..

Meitzler,

Mr. Meitzler, we all know the

Finns are courageous and needy, but why in your great humanity do you (as well as the rest. of us) shut your heart as you read the news

Side Glances—By Galbraith

(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.)

dealing with the lifeless struggles and tragic deaths of the friendless, half-clad Russians (without shoes,

even), voiceless, soulless, and at last graveless, freezing in that ice-bound country? The Finnish soldier has a cause, and above all, the sympathy of the right¢people (the people who can and do withhold the merest scrap of bread and sup of water). The Russian’s is a lost cause and it seems has no one’s sympathy, not even his own government’s. How can a Christian world gloat over such human misery? And, Mr. Meitzler, please don’t call these pitiful derelicts “lice.” I readily see that you, in your wellfed, well-clothed, well-housed condition, do not know whereof you speak. The truth is that lice, in their smug complacency, resemble someone else to a nicety. They, too, are certainly well-fed, well-clothed and well-housed! |

yy 5 8 WE'RE ALL IN SAME BOAT, V. I. C. SAYS By Voice in the Crowd’ - “Let's be consistent.” The money that saved the banks in 1932 was not to- save the bankers’ skins, but

the savings of thousands of thrifty folks, young and old. That was one

form of relief that returned to the treasury and it is too bad it was not extended further. That, by the way, was pre-New Deal relief. I don’t believe it is “nebulous” to say that people should do more for themselves. A large percentage of the people can if ‘they would try. All people cannot. Some naturally lack initiative and depend on someone else to lead them. That is not a discredit but a fact. A lot of people have succeeded -in helping themselves; a lot that could, won't. One thing that we should think of is that we are all in the same boat. No one is more secure than that boat, and if too many holes are bored in the bottom, it won’t make any difference if you are a banker or a pauper; what happens to the boat affects us all. I ‘am keenly interested in that boat, not only for my own skin but for yours and your children’s. You just cannot keep politics out of things that the Government does, especially in emergency. You have seen politics in relief—the highest ideal of all. Some people have been elected by it; some people have gotten rich on it; many people who did not need it tock advantage of it; and many poor helpless folks remained cold and hungry. Now about the “human scrap pile.” One reason why I love tive, is that no one is down and out until he himself gives up. Remember also there may have been three or four million self-appointed to that heap in our most prosperous days and that much adjustment should be made in the figures. People will find more jobs when we forget class and pull on the oars together,

New Books at the Library

UBLISHED several months ago, but of renewed interest to Indianapolis readers because of the imminent appearance of one of the authors on the platform of Town Hall, is “Escape to Life” (Houghton) written by Thomas Mann's two eldest children, Erika and Klaus. Here is the viewpoint of two young people whose background and environment consist of the best German tradition, heightened by per-

sonal contact with the great, not

COPR.1940 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T. M. REG. U1. 8. PAT. OFF.

"| proposed marriage to her and still she wouldn't let me see old

J. 8," : Len Edy su P. Sidney,

only in literature, but also in science. By its title one may infer its underlying philosophy: that life, that is, real life, freedom and happiness—is not possible in Germany; that only those Germans who have left the country have escaped to “life” in foreign countries, there to build again their future.

It is a powerful tale, simply told, of a trusting public who left politics to politicans until it was too late. There were those who sensed turmoil before it was in evidence, and fled; there were those who, naively hoping that a compromise might be obtained, remained; there were those who stayed because they could not bear to leave their beloved Germany. It is the story of a country dismantled of her choicest. men through death or exile, stripped of her finest literature and art, robbed of her science when she most needed it, and now manned by a crew of despots who the authors feel will eventually destroy themselves. It touches with deepest sympathy the pitiful adjustment of the great and the small in their courageous struggle for a new life under the handicaps of a new language, of lost ideals, wealth and friends. But it ends with a firm assertion the old Germany's spirit somehow will survive and rise again to old glories, watched by her scattered people waging a war without weapons on foreign shores.

THE STORM

By VERNE S. MOORE

I watched the wild storm nearing Across the wide terrain, The buffer clouds were rearing Before the wind and rain,

I saw huge trees uprooted near Oaks snapped from sudden strain My heart beat wild with fear, You came—calm ruled again.

DAILY THOUGHT

Neither shall ye profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the Lord which hallow you. —Leviticus 22:32.

BLASPHEMOUS words betray

the vain foolishness of the Speaker.

i

Says—

Russia's Army Looks to Him Like So Much Mush What With Joe Stalin Handling Things the Way He. ls.

ASHINGTON, Jan. 16.—As this column’ suggested some weeks before the Finnish campaign and as that campaign more than suggests, the Russian Army has a mush-like quality which offsets some of the weight of its overwhelming numbers. A government can’t expect its soldiers to respect and have confidence in their generals and other officers

| if it has no confidence in them itself. That Mr. Stalin '

has no such confidence, he has dramatically proved

by liquidating one army leader after another and other generals by platoons. It is reported that 30,000 subordinate officers have been executed or dismissed. All important commands are accompanied by political commissars put there to watch the officers and even to veto their orders. All staff and troop units are ine fested with political spies. You can’t operate an army on such a plan. Come rades can’t be permitted to debate whether they will attack, stand fast, or run. | » » ” F Russia has first class equipment for so large an army as she has on paper it would be a miracle. To equip and operate huge modern motorized and mechanized armies, you must have, or have access to, an efficient industry—especially in chemicals and metals, Russia has neither—and she is sprawled all over eastern Europe and ‘northern Asia, with possible enemies on every frontier, and that doesn’t exclude

‘Nazi Germany.

Considering everything, Joe Stalin’s military outlook is not so hot. Nevertheless, we should not fool

‘| ourselves about the gallant and masterful defense of

Finland. As more facts become available, it appears to have been, on the part of Marshal Mannerheim, as brilliant a campaign as there is on record. But, in the very nature of things military, that kind of thing can’t go on forever. Lee and Jackson made monkeys out of the Union generals for three years, but, except for the possibility of outside intervention, the end was certain. Overwhelming numbers and weight of metal’ are very likely to decide the issue in any long pull. ® 8&8 NURTHERMORE, brilliant as was the Finnish dee fense in this campaign, the day-to-day news of it was misleading. It sounds as though the Finns were completely destroying a new Russian division daily. They did mop up one and handled others roughly, but so much annihilation simply isn’t possible in that kind of war. Some of the exaggeration was due to overlapping stories, but it is a safe bet that the good néws did not suffer any at Finnish hands. The wisdom of that kind of publicity is questione able. It could get to be a joke. The truth is enough to raise sympathy for Finland to the highest point— if it needed any raising. Exaggeration will not do that advantage for Finland any good. If it were not true that anything might happen under the dictators, you could say, on all the prec edents, that Russia will simply have to tune up a real steam roller and crash through any resistance that the Finns can raise. But these gorillas don’{ seem to know what is written in the book of rules, Comrade Stalin might settle with Finland for some face-saving sop, or he might just dig in and sit. It would be no more strange or unprecedented than the sit-down war in the West.

Export Ban By Bruce Catton

lllegal Searches by British Navy May Raise Storm in Congress.

ASHINGTON, Jan. 16.—Resentment over Great Britain’s blockade tactics against American shipping is coming to the surface in ‘Congress, 4 and will boil over soon, Here’s why: A lot of non-British vessels carrying American goods have been taken into British ports to be ex= amined for contraband. Some fly the American flag, some don’t. Often they are found free of contraband and allowed to proceed; even so, a delay of two or three weeks takes place, a delay costly to the American shipper. British shipping interests keep tabs on American exporters who have goods aboard such vessels, and after each delay circularize them to point out advantages of shipping in British ships—no delay, prompt clearance, and so on, according to Washington re= ports. Coming on the heels of an expensive and irritating hold-up, such sales talk is apt to be effective. + Congressman Melvin, Maas, Minnesota Republican, is about to introduce a bill which would stop export of war materials from the United States to any nation that indulged in illegal seizure or unreasonable holding of American ships, interfered with American mails or did anything at all to American imports. That, of course, wouldn't jibe with the Adminis tration’s help-the-Allies policy, and the bill will probably get frowned on. But the temper of Congress is such that it is likely bo gt serious, consideration.

» Melting Pot at Work

Nervous main-landers who worry because so many people in Hawaii are of Japanese descent—and hence, presumably, bad material for the American melting pot—ought to talk to Samuel King, Hawaii's delegate to Congress. King likes to tell how completely Amer~ icanized the Hawaii-born Japaness are. Here is one of his anecdotes: “One Japanese woman who was born and grew up near Honolulu went to Japan to visit relatives not long ago,” says Kin. ‘When she came back she was completely disillusioned. She said: ‘At home 1 cook with gas; in Japan I cooked over a charcoal brazier. At home I ride in my own car; in Japan I had.to walk. At home I have my electric washing machine; in Japan I had to take clothes down to the creck nad scrub them by hand. At home I go to the movies twice a week; in Japan I couldn’t even do that!” Concludes Delegates King: “No one need worry about possible disloyalty on the part of Japanesedescent citizens in Hawaii. Theyie thoroughly Amere icanized.” |

Waiching Your Health

By Jane Stafford

OST people think of old-age retirement plans exclusively in terms.of money. There are other items which should be included in such plans: Health and hobbies. You must start early to accumulate reserves of these, as well as of money, for your-old age. You may build up your account in the health bank bye followin e general rules of hygiene all your life,

with such special additions as your physician. advises.

Hobbies will contribute to your happiness and to your health of mind, body and personality. The man grinding away at a steady job, the woman struggling with cooking, cleaning and a houseful of children, may long for the day when they can retire to a chair in the sun and complete inactivity. - But. when that day comes, they are likely to feel utterly lost without regular duties or activities of some sort. To guard against the crushing effect on mind: and body of such an inactive, aimless existence, middleaged men and women should cultivate some hobby that can be carried on even when physical strepgth wanes. The word hobby, in this sense, covers a: Targe variety of activities, from stamp collecting to golf or knitting, Many a middle-aged man has taken up painting or drawing with great satisfaction, or has

| found pleasure in learning to‘play some musical in-

strument. One can hardly expect to become a virtuoso at such an age, but that is not necessary to the enJoyment of playing fer yourself your favorite. ‘musie, If you have never learned to enjoy re , try. now to cultivate this pleasure which can make the fireside chair of your old age a magic carpet to “you around the world. - ! Whatever activity you pick now for your od age, it should be something that holds your interest, ‘that can be followed without too much physical strength or exertion, and that gives you a feeling. of accomplishing something, of being useful, even if you: are no longer Spry or husky, fo Ba