Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 May 1940 — Page 20

PAGE 20

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The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER President Editor

MARK FERREE Business Manager

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Give light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1940

IT HAS COME THE trial flights are over. The Rhineland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway—these fade into history as the ludicrous little man of eight years ago, now no lohger ludicrous, thumbs a time-table and nods to his captains. : Last September the world expected it. Now it has come, and it is the more terrible because the preliminaries have proved the speed and power of the German machine. And as the Germans move against the low countries, the Americas find that the war has reached their front door.

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Dewey Probably Wouldn'? Have Disturbed Union Convention if Leaders Had Given Co-operation

EW YORK, May 10.—There is a note of humor

in the pompeus squawk telegraphed to the American Federation of Labor in Washington by the national convention of the Building Service Employees’ Union after Tom Dewey's men had picked up three officials and the bookkeeper of the union as material witness in the case of George Scalise. Mr. Dewey wanted the testimony of some key men of the union in the Scalise prosecution, so when the union rallied in Atlantic City he grabbed his witnesses under the authority of an interstate treaty which permits extradition in such circumstances. There is no such treaty between New York and Illinois, which is the union’s home state; and Mr. Dewey had detected no eagerness on the part of the boys to co-op-erate in the task of delousing their union. “Such action has no parallel in labor circles,” said the message to the A. F. of L. in Washington. “We beiieve such activity seriously threatens labor councils, and we ask all labor to note that only in this state is such procedure possible. Future bodies should, when fixing convention locations, note the fact.” y 4 8 ’ HE warning to other unions, conducted or domi- ! nated by gorillas of the underworld, to stay out of New Jersey will be noted by those whom it may concern, but it is unnecessary in the case of the socalled Stagehands’ Union, the International Alliance

The Dutch West Indies, in the Caribbean, are closer to the Panama Canal than is any United States naval or air base excepting only those of the Canal Zone itself. Under the Monroe Doctrine—under the doctrine of selfpreservation—no matter what Germany does to the Netherlands, she cannot set foot on Dutch Guiana or Curacao. It is hardly conceivable that she will tryv—now. Presumably the Dutch will invite us, if necessary, to accept a mandate over these possessions. In any event the responsibility is one that even the most rabid isolationist could not shun. The problem of the West Indies is a simple one, com- | pared to that of the East Indies if Japan chooses to strike at that rich empire on which our industries depend to an important degree. For whatever the threat is worth, our fleet has been held in Hawaii. And Congress is completely free, thanks to the scrapping of the trade treaty last January, to impose “embargoes and boycotts against Japan. = » » ~ » » The tragic truth of Winston Churchill's warning in the | House of Commons Wednesday becomes plain now. To | have risked major units of the Allied navies in the Skag- | errak or at Trondheim, against a superior air power, might | have desperately weakened the one arm in which the democ- | racies are undeniably superior. Whether the recent fleet | diversion into the Mediterranean has compromised the Allies’ | opportunity to throw their full force into action on the new | front remains to be seen. Presumably that was the in- | tention of Mussolini.

To the Dutch, violated on a pretext that is stale with repetition, America's sympathies go. And to the Allies, still inadequately prepared against the nation they conquered so short a time ago. . But our sympathies are secondary to our own selfinterest, which requires the absolute safeguarding of the hemisphere in which we live. We have made a beginning in that direction. It has cost us billions. But it is only a beginning. We have got to arm until we are invulnerable bevond the question of a doubt, no matter what sinister alliances tomorrow may bring.

THE SILVER BILL HE Senate has passed the Townsend Silver Bill, over the | objections of silver-state Senators and 100-per-cent supporters of the Administration. The bill, which has yet to run the gauntlet of the House, | would repeal the law which requires the Treasury to keep | on buying foreign silver that we do not need. It does not | affect the subsidy to domestic silver producers, which continues, but the silver-state Senators opposed it on the general principle that any bill aimed “against silver” is necessarily bad. The Administration opposed it for fear of doing harm to Mexico, the world’s biggest producer (and the world’s biggest expropriator of Americans’ property). The House should match the the Senate’s action, and put a period to our Santa Claus act.

COMRADES CAN'T BE CHUMS HE Soviet Navy's Moscow newspaper, “Red Fleet,” is out with an editorial blast against “familiarity and false democratization” between officers and men. It speaks severely of the tendency of some commanders to pat their subordinates on the shoulders; to rebuke them, instead of punishing them, for violations of discipline, and even to address them “in the second person singular instead of in the plural” And it urges a “merciless struggle” against this attitude, which is held to weaken the fleet's fighting powers, One might have thought that chumminess would be considered quite the pr®per thing among the defenders of that land where all are comrades. But no. Russia's navy and Russia's army and Russia's government still have their ruling classes, and those who are ruled must not be encouraged by kindness to forget their proper place in the Soviet | scheme.

UNWORTHY SLUR PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S defense of his plan to re-

organize Government control of civil aviation is uneon- | ;514" However, a great many obscure wives, quite as

energetic as Mrs. Roosevelt, are not only discouraged | | from earning money but are actually threatened with |

vincing at best, and the President's case was not improved by his sarcastic references to the plan's opponents. It was easy for Mr. Roosevelt to say, but it would be difficult to prove, that objections are due to ignorance, gul-

libility or politics. And the remark about well-intentioned | people staking out an exclusive claim to a so-called “Lobby |

to Save Lives” was an unworthy slur on a group of men who certainly are not politicians, not gullible and not ignorant on the subject of safety in the air. The “Lobby to Save Lives” represents 1500 airline pilots. Their spokesman, Capt. David L. Behncke, president of the National Airline Pilots Assn. saves this: “One hundred and forty-six of their number met death in air crashes while the Department of Commerce had control of civil flying. There were 130 fatal accidents, and 146 pilots, 279 passengers and 48 stewardetses and other nonrevenue passengers—a total of 473 persons—were killed during this period. The pilots, the industry and, [ am sure, the air-traveling public do not want aviation put back under

control of the Government department that made this kind

. of record.” y

| ceration of that

| tator.

| institution. And how many of them there are!

| of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture

Operators, for that malodorous organization already has honored the fair city of Louisville, Ky. with its preference, and will gather there on June 3. The police of various cities and the FBI should place Louisville on their “must” list for June 3 and the four or five days ensuing, for the meeting of the

| Stagehands’ Union promises to present a congress of

grand and petty larcenists, yeges, graduate bootleggers and assorted thugs. Occasion will be taken, no doubt, to deplore as an attack on labor with a capital “L” the cruel incarnoted alumnus of a Halsted St. brothel and union racketeer, Willie Bioff, whose present address is the Cook County Jail, and to reaffirm the union's faith in Nick Circella, the Chicago stickup man. » HE building service group was a little self-con-scious at their reunion in Atlantic City, for the recent heat on their late president, Mr. Scalise, and certain other leading warriors in labor's battle has attracted more attention than ordinarily attends the deliberations of a gang. Not only that, but there is

| reason to fear that Mr. Scalise and the charming | brothers Schwartz of New York will presently have | company in their predicament, for it seems unlikely | that the hoodlums who adorn this subsidiary of the |

A. F. of L. permitted Mr. Scalise to take it all.

The protest to the A. F. of L. was correct. No |

such action has disturbed the solemn councils of a

racket operating under charter from the A PF of L|

But that is not to say that this action came an hour too soon or that the national leadership of the A. F.

of L. deserves any credit for the belated attempt to | create a distinction between the labor movement and |

the underworld. And Mr. Dewey, rather than William Green, will receive the credit for a service to the rank and file of labor and the reputation of the A. F. of L.

Inside Indianapolis

Back to Normal---And the Speedway; And About Joe La Flamme's Moose.

HE town is starting to get over its election hang-

T

week-end, Being back to normal this time of year

simply means getting ready for the Speedway Race. | There probably will be plenty of driving action |

at the big track starting next week. Up to now, there have been a bare dozen machines at the track. Most of the drivers have been driving the midgets lately and they are trying to make as much money as they

| can before gettting here. But with qualification trials | set

for a week hence (Saturday, the 18th), you'll see a lot of speed next week. Right now, Mays is the favorite to win the pole position. Kelly Petillo savs he absolutely and positively isn't after the pole, that he’s going to set a “conservative” pace and save his car. Yet, it's significant that Kelly romped around the track yesterday at the “conservative” glit of 133 miles an hour. Just count him in on that pole race, too. ” ~ »

THERE IS A LITTLE GOSSIP that there will

| be no Sportsman's Show here next year, mostly be- | cause the show held recently made less than $200.

The reason it did not draw so well was mostly due

| to bad booking. Next year, the Home Show already | has the week scheduled that the Sportsman's Show

people want, so now they're talking about Louisville. Business must have been pretty bad as a whole, though. all over the country because when Joe La Flamme, the chap who had the two moose, got to

| Buffalo he sold them to the Buffalo zoo. It wasn’t

until later that Joe discovered he still had two more

| payments to make on one of his moose.

= ” ”

ONE OF OUR READERS chides us for saying on the day before election that you had a perfect right to vote whatever party ballot you wanted to. We can only repeat what was said then: That we are registered as voters and NOT as partisans. . . . After all, this is America, isn't it?. . . Another reader wants to know why we haven't mentioned the sign on the truck which says: “A Blind Man Drives This Truck” . . . It's literally true, says our informant, since the truck belongs to a window blind concern . . .

The only person we saw at Central Count headquar- |

ters who seemed absolutely unconcerned and unperturbed was Sheriff Feeney. . . . Mavbe the reason was that the first precinct in showed that his rivals had split six votes.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

N her first radio broadcast for her new sponsor, the | President's wife explained why she likes the life |

of a professional lecturer, columnist and air commen-

Primarily, she fears the she wants the experiences outside work offers her, and she desires to earn money so she can contribute to her pet charities. ; Excellent reasons. And all of them can just as logically be used by every other married woman in the

laws to prevent them doing so.

Yet the average American wife has a tender heart. |

Invariably, too, she has a pet charity if she can afford one. less energy. These fine urges to help the unfortunate are not confined to First Ladies, as we know; but throb in the hearts of most women. In every community one sees them actively engaged in some sort of welfare work—begging, giving church suppers or home talent plays or silver teas, in order to keep on its feet some struggling charitable Boys’ Homes, Day Nurseries, Salvation Army Havens, Orplanages, Crippled Children’s Retreats, and scores of other public and private charities, many of them kept up only through the gallant work of women. With the President's wife setting the example of a useful middle-aged earning career, I do not see how any group of legislators will have the temerity to deny

a commoners wife the rights which are given to the | First Lady of the Land. Whether or not we approve | of Mrs. Roosevelt's manifold activities, her leadership | | will prove a valuable aid to those who, if signs are |! right, will soon be called upon to fight for freedom on

the feminine economic front. Privileged to be a White House wife, Fleanor Roosevelt enjoys her inalienable constitutional right— the right to work for money. Shall that right be denied to other American women because they dwell in humbler homes?

EN

over today and we ought to be back to normal by |

the situation seems to be that Rex |

“featherbed existence” | which First Ladies can so easily be tempted to lead;

Into it she puts her extra cash and her bound- |

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Little Dutch Boy!

FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1940

The Hoosier Forum

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

| FAVORS CONVERT'NG | PUBLIC BONDS INTO CASH | By George O. Davis, Brazil V. I. T. C. is right again. I agree {with him in what he said about U. S. wealth, especially one state(ment: “There is only one form of

'debt that is slavery and that is (public debt. Public debt must be

| paid at a sacrifice of individual lib- |

erty, property rights and purchasing power. It is now the millstone on the neck of the consumer who should be buying goods and real wealth and real. jobs.” V. 1. T. OC. has told what is gradually applying the brakes to business, increasing unemployment and raising the rate of our taxes. Why didn't V. I. T. C. tell how to get rid of this evil.

logically seems better. So now I say convert all outstanding public bonds into cash. Prohibit any more being issued and | finance all public affairs with cash {from the U. S. Treasury through {local branches of Government. The {money will be used in private enter- | prise making prosperity and lower taxes for all.”

sg 2 =» CITES PYLE ARTICE IN

BOOSTING MONOPOLY 'By L. B. Hetrick, Elwood

|

problem written from Clewiston, Fla. April 29 pertaining to the U. S. Sugar Corp. which is further proof

nomical method of production and distribution, All sociologists concur in this fact. Monopolies if they will are in an {economic pesition to furnish a | better standard of living to their {employees than the unorganized | producing class. Especially | who produce fruits and vegetables

+ + lor things perishable, produced and

{sold at random in a poor market land not a definite co-operative process because of too many in the | business which altogether means | poor pay for those that work at it jand of course a lower standard of [living or no work at all. | They may get all the vegetables they can eat but can't buy much sugar or anything. I wish Mr. Pyle had told us whether the U. S { Sugar Corp. contemplated going|

I make a habit | of never showing the wrong of any- | thing unless I tell something that!

they,

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

into the vegetable growing business. iSugar can be kept indefinitely. So can molasses. It's a good business to stick with because doesn't make sugar but millions of people produce vegetables and other perishable goods. However production, processing and distribution by corporations or monopoly is the evolutionary trend of human society. It is sometimes called by sociologists “co-operation” or socialized industry. The most inconsistent thing any Government can do is to try to break

monopolies which some only a pretext where private mo-

nopoly owns the Government and] | uses it to deprive the inhabitants of | their purchasing power so they can't |

buy sugar or anything else. | But while under matter what we say someone will call us a liar and prove it. |to universal co-operation if people do it.

that monopoly is the most eco-| just as intolerable as the pamper-

ling of the poor, |

everybody |

up think 18 pehind the Republican Party. There

capitalism no NOISE IN WASHINGTON

Yet Ernie Pyle gives us an interesting private monopoly points out the way | the D. C would only learn how they|would be the Hatch Bill, popping in Pampering of the rich is/and out of congressional pigeon-

CLAIMS G. O. P. IS RICH MAN'S PARTY By Mr. B. Frank

The Republican Party has always been a party by.the rich, for the rich, and of the rich. It will never be anything else. It is practically an organization for individualistic interest to protect themselves from Government interference and organized labor interference. It has | been bossed and backed by wealth lin the interest of the welfare of the

Gen. Johnson Says—

Supreme Court Decision on Oil Cases Confusing and Apparently At Variance With: Its Own Rulings

ITTSBURGH, May 10.—The decision of the Supreme Court condemning part of the oil industry for a combination in restraint of trade, even though it was in the public interest, is not law but dogma. It teversed what was thought to be the law as recently handed down by that Court itself. The “combination” here was for the pupose of preventing the dumping of’

“hot” oil on the market. If “hot” oil is not stolen oil in the strict legal

sense, it is nevertheless oil extracted and expgrted in violation of state or national laws. Those laws are in the interest of conservation of a great natural re=source, a prime New Deal policy. Our anti-trust laws condemn combinations in re= straint of trade—without any further definition. The laws of other intelligent industrial countries condemn such combinations which are not in the public interest. But since there is not a contract in commerce that is not in some measure a combination in restraint of trade, our law had to have some judicial interpretation if it were to speak at,all n ” » HE effect of the many decisions that only “une reasonable” restraints were condemned meant just about the same thing as the more workable standard of other countries—thie public interest. This new decision practically says that if an agreement affects price it is unlawful. That is a legislative rather than a judicial result, It follows fourth New Deal dogma in one of its two highly contradictory branches. It thus seems to he in accord with the Nazi formula that the judges must make no decisions which do not follow the political dictates of Der Fuehrer, . . 1t is dogma but it leaves the eager student at the New Deal fount of learning woozy with bewilderment. Prices in this field must be left to the unhampered effect of the law of supply and demand, or what the New Deal out of the other corner of the mouth calls “savage wolfish competition.” » ” ” T the same time, the New Deal is the world's greatest advocate and practitioner of combina= tions in restraint of trade and price-fixing. The President said he was going to raise prices and boasted that if he could not do it in.one way he would do it in another. The oil companies were not only permitted, they were urged by Government itself in NRA to make this very combination for this very purpose. Invalidation of NRA by the Court on the ground that it delegated too much power, certainly neither

| argued for nor forced any such change of Adminis=

tration policy or Court reversal as this. Heaven knows where it leaves the law. In the indefinitness caused by the broad wording of the statutes, a long process of judicial exclusion and inclusion was slowly giving us, case by case, some idea of what can and cannot be done. There must be some

| such definition because a strict reading of the statute

would paralyze all commerce. Now the slate is wiped clean by Mr. Roosevelt's brash young amateur judges and business must start all over again to have the Court tell it what they do or do not think it would be nice for it to do.

Business

By John T. Flynn

Business Declines Sharply but Our Leaders Think Only of the War

| wealthy without any sympathy | whatsoever for the poor and work-| |ing class. Why a working man or a poor | man will go to the polls this year| {to vote for the Republican Party is| beyond my comprehension. When | Dewey was in town and Republican group pictures were published, who | 'stood in the background of those| ‘pictures? The answer is that the] |anti-labor ex-Senator James Watson | |stood in the background of those | | pictures. He also stands in the back- | {ground of the Indiana G. O. P. to boss the party, or to be one of the | bosses. | He is not the only anti<labor man

‘are many more. No, we do not want | the return of the Republican Party. . * 2

| ACCOUNTS FOR STRANGE

By Hatch Bill Friend That shuttling sound you hear in {the vicinity of Washington, D. C,

|holes, subject to House committee | whims.

|

|

New Books at the Library

| ¥N his recent volume “The American Stakes” (Carrick) we find

find himself close to the heart of many readers who have pondered

EW YORK, May 10.—The Republican convention is less than seven weeks distant—the D2mocratis a little further away. Everybody is talking about candidates. Those who talk ahout issues wonder what the war will do to the coming campaign. No one seems very much concerned about what the domestie economic situation may do to it. As 1932 dawned and the conventions of that year approached, the curve of business activity was moving cown. It was 77 in January, it was 67 in June when the conventions met, This year since January the curve of business activity has actually descended lower and faster than it did in 1932. There is a difference, of course, ih this —that then it went from 77 to 67, while now it has gone from 107 to 93. It is a 14-point drop now against a 10-point one then; but, on the other hand, the rate from which it dropped this year was much higher. But what if it continues to go down? It has never continued down so long or so far in any other year. It may taper off now a bit, but even if it does the drop will be a record one for the first half of the year. Now if you take these two periods—the first half of 1932 and the first half of 1940, and either add to the 1932 picture 300 million dollars a month of Federal spending or take this Federal spending away from the situation now, you have no other important difference. Then the business cycle was going down without any Government spending; now, in the face of huge Government spending, it is going down faster and further. If the decline continues until the conventions meet it is difficult to see how the consideration of this important fact can be kept out of our reckoning. And if it continues after the conventions meet, nothing can prevent it from overshadowing the war.

Domestic Issues Unpleasant This fact will make it quite plain why the Govern-

|seems to him to be the native demo- |

John Chamberlain as a liberal|the questions of unemploviaent, “middle-of-the-roader,” making a|farm prices, national defense, mosurvey of America, her government, |nopoly, wages and hours, the naher foreign policy, her economic! tional debt, over-productior and unproblems, and pointing out what | der-consumption, planned versus unplanned economy, state control of cratic American solutions to the | industry — questions which many questions which are facing us and governments have answered in a more and more urgently demanding | Way not acceptable to the mass of an answer, | Americans, but to which we have Mr. Chamberlain will no doubt not yet found a definite and consistent solution. Mr, Chamberlain's reply to those who seek an all-inclusive theory

|

i

i | |

, 1840 BY NEA SERVICE,

| modern life is that the outstanding | characteristic of a democratic society is that it is free to range, as need be, among five different economies and to employ all five simultaneously as they are found appropriate to varying kinds of activities. Individual ownership, giant corporaions, utility monopolies, government collectivism, and private collectivism—all these, he says, may exist side by side in one society, forming a flexible structure designed, not to carry out a theory, but to provide a practical mode of living. This is a volume to hearten® the reader who believes in that intangible thing called “the American way.” but who, also, believes that the ideal American way has not vet

to him who seeks a reasonable, practical road toward a better America.

‘ONCE’ By RUTH E. STEFFEY

I saw Love once She was fragile yet strong and calm. She paused so near, And her presence was psalm. | But she went on-—-And in passing has left no balm. | So bleak my life— | Like a desert without a palm,

like a

DAILY THOUGHT

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.—Matthew 5:5.

S-10

"Come on, Grandma! | bet Grandpa you could walk the tence better than he did yesterday when he skinned his nose!"

HUMILITY, like darkness, revaals the heavenly lights.—Thoreau.

which applies to the diversities of |

been found. It is a fruitful volume

ment is so anxious to keep the war issue to the front; to keep the war on people's minds. The President, himself, is of course fascinated by the war, What is more, it must be unpleasant to think about domestic issues in the presence of this serious decline | in business. It becomes imperative, therefore, to keep other | people from thinking of domestic issues. So all the | propaganda and publicity power of the Federal Gove | ernment is turned loose on the war subject. Would it not be an excellent thing if the President | and his Cabinet and his opponents would stir them- | selves to thinking about a domestic issue which may | be stated thus: After seven years of spending of borrowed funds amounting to more than 25 billion dollars, we still have 10 million unemployed and the business index of the first four months of the year has gone down further and faster than in any year in the last 15. What can we do to change this? Staying out of war is not so difficult. The people do not want to get in. The only way they can get in is by being led in. But this other problem is more difficult. What are we going to do about it?

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford

ULFANILAMIDE and sufapyridine and the other related chemicals which have saved the lives of tnousands of civilians in the past two or three years are going to play an important part in the European war, English medical journals and lay journals, too, are heralding these chemical remedies for the aid they will give in fighting war infections. . Sulfanilamide is expected to cut the frightful toll of life and limb from gas gangrene following war injuries. This infection is caused by a group of gasforming germs, and the gas which fills the muscles and tissues gives the condition its name, Authorities helieve that the condition can be prevented if sulfanilamide is. given to patients with wounds of the type likely to lead to gas gangrene. Meningitis, especially among recruits, was another disease hazard of the last war which doctors can fight successfully today with sulfanilamide and sulfapyridine. An increased number of cases of meningitis has already been noted in England since the beginning of the war. Prompt treatment with sulfanilamide and sulfapyridine, it is said, will reduce deaths from mene ingitis to less than five out of every 100 patients. No one who lived through the epidemic of inflaenza which swept the world at the close of the World War has forgotten the havoe it caused. Neither sulfanila« mide nor any of its chemical relations so far has proved effective against influenza, but there is hope that these chemicals can lessen the toll by reducing deaths from pneumonia which may follow an influenza attack.

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