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

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Times a SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERRER President Editor Business Manager

Price in Marion County, 3 cents a copy; delive ered by carrier, 12 cents a week.

Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $3 a year; outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.

oP» RILEY 8551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

Owned and published dally (except Sunday) by e Indianapolis Times b Co, 214 W, Maryland St.

Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newse paper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bue reau of Circulation.

MONDAY, MAY 20, 1040

INDIANAPOLIS AND AVIATION HEN President Roosevelt talks of our needing 50,000 planes a year he is talking about a subject which vitally interests Indianapolis. When he calls attention to the dangers of concentrating major aircraft manufacturing plants on vulnerable seacoast centers he is again talking about a matter which vitally affects Indianapolis. For this city has economic, geographic and strategic advantages which fit the requirements of the Government ideally in connection with the proposed aircraft expansion program, This can and should be a great aircraft center. Its geographical advantages are obvious. Yet it is in the heart of a great industrial area, close to the machine tool centers and to a fine body of skilled labor. It has a magnificent Municipal Airport capable of further expansion with a minimum of effort. The surrounding area would be ideal for aircraft plant sites. Beyond all these natural advantages is the obvious fact that it is already the center of important aircraft activity, The Allison Engineering Co.,, the only manufacturer of large liquid-cooled motors in the United States, is already located here and expanding. This is likewise the center for research in blind-flying. And it is no secret the Government is considering Indianapolis for its proposed new motor experimental laboratory. So much for that, There can no longer be any question that the Government wants aircraft production stepped up — fast. And in locations less dangerous than our seacoast towns. That brings the advantages of Indianapolis as a center for some of this expansion into sharp focus. Fortunately something is already being done to call the attention of authorities in Washington to Indianapolis. The city and the Chamber of Commerce have representatives there. And an Indianapolis store, the L. Strauss & Co., bought two full pages in a Washington newspaper to state the city’s case in dramatic form. They deserve the thanks of the city for their enterprise and civic spirit. For this is an opportunity which may never again come to Indianapolis—an opportunity to bring a new industry to the city.

ENGLAND HEARS THE TRUTH

“JT is coming . .. the battle for our islands—for all that Britain is and all that Britain holds dear.” Hearing Winston Churchill's words on the radio yesterday afternoon, we were impressed most of all by their frankness. The Prime Minister made no attempt to minimize the desperate position of the Allied armies, or to conceal this knowledge that frightful suffering is in store for the people of England. Churchill spoke as a faithful servant, reporting to those who are entitled to know the truth, warning them of what they must endure rather than surrender themselves to “servitude and shame.” This is one of the highest privileges of freedom—this right of the people to have truth from their servants rather than lies from their masters. This is one of the things that Britain holds dear. We, too, must hold it dearer than ever, now that we see it fighting for life in its last strongholds across the Atlantic.

TOO LONG

ROM one to two years is the time that will be required to modernize and equip our Army—after Congress provides the money. That is what the Army's Chief of Staff, Gen. George C. Marshall, told the Senate committee which is handling the appropriations. Nor is that a sudden discovery of the Chief of Staff. He has given precisely the same testimony before. But events have endowed the problem with a new urgency. Look at England. In the face of Winston Churchill's somber warnings, she neglected rearmament until 14 months ago, when the illusions of Munich were finally trampied by the heavy boots of German soidiers marching into Praha. And then it was too late for adequate preparations; too late to forestall what has just happened in the Low Countries and northeastern France, or what is about to be in inflicted, according to Mr. Churchill's own warning yesterday, on England herself. One or two years, to equip the modest little army that is envisaged for our defense! Is that the best American industry can do? Have we that much time to spare? In ordinary times, we tolerate the ordinary delays incident to red-tape routines. But these are extraordinary times. Col. Lindbergh condemns as “hysterical chatter” all talk of a possible invasion, but there are a great many sober-minded Americans who will not feel serene about the extent of Hitler's ambitions until we have made invasion of the Americas a synonym for suicide. We note that among President Roosevelt's visitors Saturday was Bernard M. Baruch, the man Woodrow Wilson called in to mobilize American industry after we entered the World War and found ourselves confronted by the same problem of war production. Few men have even undertaken a more difficult task—and none has better acquitted himself. Mr. Baruch probably knows more than any other American about the pressing rearmament problem that confronts Mr. Roosevelt. He knows how to slash through military bureaucracy to place the orders for weapons and supplies—and then how to get industry to cut corners and speed deliveries. Now that emergency has caught us again flat-footed, we hope Mr. Baruch’s visit to the White House means that he is again being summoned to the colors. And that other men with his understanding of industry’s methods will be called in. And that these men who “know how” will be appointed to some sort of defense—industries planning and production board. This is not going to be a comfortable country to live in if we have to wait “one or two years” for

needed weapons to roll off the assembly lines.

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Defense Business Gets Personal; Million Americans Must Give Up Peaceful Lives and Go Soldiering.

ASHINGTON, May 20--Now wait a minute— just a minute, It is all very well to talk of preparedness for defense in a general way, but this thing is beginning to get personal. It is getting personal to everybody. Glen. Peyton ©. March, who was Chief of Staff in the first World War, is saying that the problem calis for an army of a million men, which is a fine figure. But what men? Which men? At this point the discussion gets intimate. Does he mean to say that a man has got to throw up his job, which was so hard to get, pack away his civilian clothes, swear away his right to smoke and drink when he likes, stay out as late as he likes and go off somewhere to live in a wooden shed, dig holes all day and wear a suit that is practically nothing but brown overalls, and never speak out of turn and always say, “sir,” to the boss? Does he mean that a young fellow in college who has been running a temperature about a dream number whose picture is on his dresser has got to drop out and join the fellow who has quit the job, in the same restricted conditions? Are these million men to be actual individuals or just theoretical men without identity or personality or private plans and ambitions? ” ” ”

begins to seem that the million men are to be actual individuals with personality and all that, and not just “they.” And because you won't get a million fit volunteers just by blowing bugles, they will be subpenaed, not invited. But this is nonsense. They cant do that. This is a free country and not at war. Free, in a way, and not at war, either in a way, but getting ready to fight a war if the Germans and the Italians smash the Allies, and after pausing a while to pull themselves together, start messing around on this side of the Atlantic. It all seems so unnecessary. This country wants no part of Germany or Italy. Couldn't the Government just send them a written guarantee that this country positively will never attempt to take any part of Germany or Italy or attack either of them, and just wants to rock along? ” ” »

T is a man named Hitler who decided when other people must abandon their homes, their hopes and their lives for war. Hitler and an ex-Communist named Mussolini. They are the ones who have decided that a million personal, individual Americans will have to drop everything pretty soon and go soldiering. Their decision gets personal in other ways, too. It makes it practically useless for Americans here in their own homeland and bothering nobody to make plans for their personal future. Their earnings and savings will be skimmed and skimmed to pay taxes or buy bonds to pay for uniforms and guns, airplanes and tanks, ships and shells and great military camps just at a point when it seems that the old system can't stand another ounce of strain. There are some, not many, who think it would be better to do nothing at a)]l about it, and send Hitler and Mussolini a note saying we will hold them responsible before the public opinion of the world and before God if they kill unarmed, defenseless Americans and conquer the United States. It might work, but it seems a chancy way of dealing with the problem, because it has been tried before without success. Hitler and Mussolini say they are world opinion, and they say there ain't no God.

Inside Indianapolis

The Hillis Drive, the Willkie Boom, New Roofs, Marbles and Drinks.

ITH the big Republican state pow-wow coming up Friday, we thought you ought to know that Hillis-for-Governor backers are rusing up and down the state ballyhooing that Mr. Glenn Hillis is going over on the first ballot. Some of the boys in the know, however, will tell you that the reason they're doing this is because they're afraid Mr. Hillis won't go over at all unless it's on that first ballot. They fear a deadlock.

” o os

WENDELL WILLKIE isn't running for President, he says, but. . . . Immediately after the Elwood boy's speech here the other night, the local mails were swamped with Willkie literature. . . . Mostly his Fortune magazine piece and the magazine's editorial about Wendell. . . . Workmen were clamoring around on the roof of the Catholic Chancery on downtown Georgia St. the other day. . . . “No, we aren't tearing the old place down,” said the Rev. Fr. Sheridan, “We are just putting on a new roof. But if the new roof looks very good, we might be forced to build a new building to match it.”. . . He said he didn’t know how old the building is, but a couple of years ago workmen found newspapers dated 1876 stuffed in the chimneys. The parish, once known as Holy Cross, will celébrate its 100th anniversary this year.

” ” »

HIZONNER THE MAYOR, admits he was quite a marble-shooter as a boy... . He's going to play an important role in the City Marble tournament. . . . His only trouble as a mibster, he confides off the record, is that he usually went home with empty pockets when he played for keeps. . + + + Just to bolster our wavery pride in the U. S. Army—in terminology, it's years ahead. For years the doughboys have used a favorite brand of polishing cloth for brass buttons. . . . The trade name-—"blitzcloth.” ¥ 4 4 EVERYONE HAS HEARD of a “horse's neck.” The drink, we mean. : club carries the following list on its menu. Goats Delight (we wonder why); Blue Moon, Full House (an almost sure winner), Peacock Alley, September Morn (remember her?), and Honey Moon. Then there’s the Speedway—Irish Whisky, orange bit ters, absinthe and maraschino—an almost sure pole winner unless you go over the wall. At the bottom of the list is the French 75. We agree with Marshal Petain. If that doesn’t blast you, nothing will.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

EZxrr 3 Sov periods, every civilization has ceepte vorce. Through chan and cultures, men andy women have Boe rR dons vise en 0 um that sometimes two people ive together without imposi ispeter posing intolerable mis Consequently certain laws are arran Sch husbands and wives can be ret Ne hat Ss. That being so, idealists of our time a much perturbed by America’s divorce tee : oe I do beiieve they are concerned—and rightly—over the mogern sppluach to divorce. e most callous realist, the bitterest c find it hard to accept the numerous pi A ng Ri tions which are now in vogue among the publicized part of our population, And the friendship marriage has been dissolved—just what does that make us— sophishieated or shallow-souled? en we read that certain moving-pictur have decided to part—without ap. T ars that a famous divorced pair is often seen dining and dancing together and consider themselves the best of pals, we only wonder that love can have ,degenerated into such a pale anemic thing. To me, being an idealist, it appears a sorry figure, a paltry ghost lacking substance and meaning. In fact, the sort of love often described in modern newspapers and magazines seems strangely unexciting and too worthless to bother about. Better the cruelty of pagan passion than the pinktea tremors which today pass for the grand emotion. If I were young enough to dream of Romance I'd rather be a Desdemona smothered to quick death by my jealous Moor than a modern ex-wife whose urbane shane her a lanquid farewell becaus:

'& | |

Pha

| with lies.

land take any steps necessary to de-

{living in hog-houses! Well, one of our leading |

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

O’er the Ramparts We Failed to Watch!

MONDAY, MAY 20, 1940

The Hoosier Forum

1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will

defend to the death your right to say it.—V oltaire.

PUTS NAZIS IN SAME CLASS WITH COMMUNISTS

By Voice in the Crowd There should be no reason to wonder why Homer Chaillaux attacks communism without striking out at naziism or national socialism. There is not enough difference in the isms to draw a line. You will note that they run together as readily as the waters from several streams. The ruthless, unmoral, un-Godly

manner in which they override the weak and peaceful neutrals certainly classes them equal without distinction. Their actions prove without room for dispute that they offer no haven for the weak and the lowly, nor fairness and equality to the common man. They promise it

We are necessarily and belatedly going to spend a lot of real Americans’ money to defend our birthright. It seems that one measure of that defense would be to classify Americanism and un-Americanism

fend Americanism. There should be no remaining foothold here for those of the “fifth column.” n on » DOUBTS 407% LIVE IN ‘HOG HOUSES’ HERE By James R. Meitzler Everyone has friends, even Hitler, and some authorities would assert the Germans were living better now than ever. A certain brand of political thought has been holding Russia as a shining example while a different type sees the contrary. No doubt if you belong to the right gang in Russia you are better off,

otherwise not so good. If ballots tell | anything not even the alleged

chance on Russianizing country. But 40 per cent of Indianapolis So states Morton of the Workers Alliance. After all the big advertisements of the newspapers, Chamber of Com-

merce and businessmen to draw

factories and trade to Indianapolis| Socialism.

| even those critics were pleased at

(Times readers are invited to express their views 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.)

in

40 per cent of the town is tumbling down. How can they hide if from visitors? Who would have believed it possible? To tell the truth, and with all due respect to Mr. Morton, I do not believe it. Those dark glasses he wears give him an exaggerated and lopsided view of things. We have quite a bunch of WPA in this county and their houses, clothes and automobiles average up with their neighbors, and no doubt their eats also as the grocery business seems thriving. » n » URGES REREADING OF THE DECLARATION By “For Good Government" An excerpt from the Declaration of Independence states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that

among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to

are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, ete. . . . With our income declining, our taxes increasing, our freedom impaired and our security gone, it is time our citizens read this document —The Declaration of Independence —the second time. ” ” » WANTS COKE SOLD DIRECT TO CONSUMER By Arthur B, Jones The Citizens Gas & Coke Utiltiy is now offering coke at $8.10—the summer rate, This is bought through a coal dealer, overhead for tocat middleman’s cut being, I am informed, $2.50 per ton. That coke be more widely distributed and that the City be made less smoky next winter, can’t the Citizens Gas & Coke Utility offer that coke direct to the consumer at a still lowered price, permitting the

consumer to haul it? There are trucks available for that purpose; in fact, the coal dealer usually hires his coal hauled to his own bin. Under those circumstances I could use at least 40 tons of coke; at the present price, I must use

secure these rights, governments

coal,

New Books at the Library

Wha Clare Boothe’s “Margin for Error” (Random

in the act of terrorizing Poland. It | was a fitting time for this satirical | melodrama. While it provoked some | criticism for being propagandistic,

the spectacle it presented of democratic America against National

Side Glances—By Galbraith

play |

Democracy is championed in the play by Jewish Officer Moe Finkel-

starving are willing to take a| House) opened in New York last Séin, stationed to protect the

this| year, the Great German Reich was G¢rman embassy in New York.

Karl Baumer, German Consul General to the United States, was said to be “the most satisfying likeness of official German ferocity that we have yet had on the stage.” The play changes from an explosion of inter-Nazi rivalries and fears to a murder melodrama, humorous and witty, when Hitler's highest diplomatic representative is poisoned, stabbed and shot. There is motive for murder in the heart of each person who deals with him that last day of his life. At the moment of _Baumer’s death five enemies are in the room and hundreds are outside ready to mob any Nazi making an appearance. He has misused public funds, looked into the heritage of his loyal friend to find Jewish blood, threatened his wife through her Czechoslovakian father. The audience is left with a satisfled feeling justifying the murderous acts of the Consul’s innocent victims. The play had great success because of its reflection of ‘Freedom and Kindness and Justice and Truth” as opposed to “Brutality, Dictatorship, Regimentation and Untruth.”

SPRING FANTASIES By VERNE S. MOORE

I count the white clouds scudding swiftly by Supinely resting on the earth Face lifted to the sky.

I watch strange fantasies each other vie While gossamer ships that give them birth Weave ancient patterns high.

DAILY THOUGHT

But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; into smoke shall they

Gen. Johnson Says—

F. D. R. Ignored Advice and May Be Too Late With Defense Program But All Must Help Repair Blunder,

ASHINGTON, May 20.—~This column should be and will be the last to oppose the President's object in recommending a vast outlay for motoriza= tion, mechanization and other mechanical equipment for defense. It was the first and most strident to insist on it. Even as a member of the first New Deal family seven years ago, I thought I had sold the idea to the President. He asked for and got $3,300,000,000 to do it with—in 1933! He used only a little of it.

The very first issue of this column, five years ago, said: “Modern war on land requires a big and efficient industry. The Germans have a much better one than the French. Today I think the French Army with its Allies could march from one end of Europe to the other—but not after the Germans rearm with modern equipment. Fully equipped they would be a military nation far superior to the French and on the slightest provocation or no provocation at all, could bring down on the world a new 1914 or worse . . . he (Hitler) stops at nothing—ethics, mercy or humanity —and he certainly would not be stopped at a political boundary by so slight a thing as the peace of the world.” That was March 15, 1935.

nu » »

VER and over again that year and many times every year since, this column has insisted on

what the President’s speech now so tardily and dramatically advocates. He is late. He may be too late. Nobody can tell him anything, nobody could move him from his stubborn, ill-informed and inept in= action but a world-shaking catastrophe. Okay, the past is past. His seven years’ blundering in this regard may prove fatal, but it is water over

the dam. We must all move in and help him repair his blunders—if he makes that possible. But it is a little sickening to see this sheeplike rush to swallow: whole his bid for heroic acclaim for being finally jolted by an earthquake into action so obviously vital to our security, which he had neither the ability to forsee nor the will to take. Some comment insists that it vindicates his appraisal of Europe and his interventionist policy te date. It does nothing of the kind. It does the reverse of that. If he had correctly appraised the Euro= pean military situation we should have begun arma= ment years ago. a Bn For THOUSAND airplanes in a fleet! Fifty thousand a year production soon! Thirty thou= . sand production now! It reminds one of our World War threat to “darken the sky with airplanes,” Af : the present rate of war change in airplane design, a fleet of 50,000 airplanes would be folly. We are at a rate of nowhere near 30,000 a year now and we couldn't get to 50,000 a year in time to be of any use. It takes much longer to train pilots than it does to build airplanes. We are training at no such rate and it will take a long time to reach that rate. To keep 50,000 planes in the air would require an air force of 500,000—and we are nowhere near in sight of proper balanced equipment for 500,000 men in our whole Army. Let's do this job. It won’t be done by passing an | appropriation bill and a lot of boasting and big talk, It will be done by prompt action and intelligent guid= ance, and just in this phase almost wholly on the ine dustrial front. There is no sign yet that we are going to get either the guidance or the action.

Business By John T. Flynn

Congress Should Prevent Defense Spending With Borrowed Money.

NEW YORK, May 20—In 1938 I was in Okla homa. Various gentlemen were running for Gove ernor and promising the old folks all the way from $30 to $60 a week. The state wasn't able to pay half of $30 a week and had gone $20,000,000 in debt at that. So I asked old former Governor Alfalfa Bill Murray, who was urging the $30 pension for all old folks over 60, where the state was going to get the money. “That,” he replied, “is a minor detail to be set tled after election.” Now Washington has gone frantic over the question of national defense. Because Hitler has overrun Belgium and Holland, just across the German border, which everyone knew would be done sooner or later, it is now assumed that he will do the same thing to us—3500 miles away. At all events, everybody is in a spasm of patriotic energy to spend money on the national defense. Of course, the President, who has been the biggest of all spenders for this purpose, leads the attack and asks for nearly a billion dollars in addition to all he has already asked. To date we are $3,243,000,000 in the red this year. We will be more than that next year as matters stand. So when the President first announced that he would make this request, the reporters asked him where he proposed to get the additional billion. That, said the President, is completely 8 minor detail. He added that he was not frightfully ine terested in which way the money was raised, either by taxes or borrowing.

Apparently Nothing Matters !

Of course, it doesn’t matter to Mr. Roosevelt. The awful effects of plunging this great free country into debt in the manner in which we have been doing it may not have to be faced this year or next. But it will have to be faced as surely as Mr. Roosevelt sits in Washington. Apparently nothing matters. It doesn’t matter how the money is raised. It doesn’t matter how the

“money is spent. All we have to do is leave it to the

President. No laws have any validity. The President boasted when he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy that he threw money around as if it had no value. Certainly somebody in those years threw money around as if it had no value and we had the terrible war inflation, the terrible war debt which still oppresses us, the maladjustment of our economic syse tem from which the country has never recovered. If the President doesn’t care, maybe Congress will care. If it has any respect for the interests of the people it protects, it will not permit this President to start it off on a spree of war-time spending of borrowed money.

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford

WAT the fly, by all means. He is a potential spreader of typhoid fever and other serious ailments, including a “summer complaint,” that old arch enemy of babies. Swatting, however, is not enough. The big fight against the fly must be made by wiping out his breeding ground. Disappearance of flies from large cities is not due solely to the disappearance of horses from city streets. Not many horses are found in small towns, these days, but flies may be abundant. The difference in fly populations of cities and towns is probably due to difference in methods of garbage disposal and other civic housekeeping methods. Flies can breed and multiply even if there are no horses around, because manure is only one of the wastes that flies use. “Garbage is tops for flies,” says Dr. George A. Skinner, Col. U. 8. Army Medical Corps, Retired. Piles of fermenting grass, damp newspapers, and rubbish heaps of any kind, he reminds us, will afford food for millions of larval flies. Swat the flies, screen the house to keep them out, protect the baby from them, but remember also to clean up the backyard, burn the grass you have cut and raked instead of letting it lie in a pile, and keep garbage in a tightly closed receptacle that gets emptied and washed frequently. Keep an eye out for

flies in the stores where you purchase food. If thers buzzing around, it is. & sign that the