Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 May 1940 — Page 14
PAGE 14 ° » ° The Indianapolis Times
(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) |
Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler
Conflicting Views of Experts Show Need for Exact Information On oN Oy we. 4 Yaa Actual State of Our Defenses
Mail subscription rates | EW YORK, May 22.—Great is the need for coih lndEna. 33 6 edt; ordination of the effort to re-arm, but only a outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month trace more pressing than the need for coherent in- > | formation on the state of things today and the capacRILEY 5551 | ity or lack thereof to do big things tomorrow. A general, at the war games in Louisiana, boasted that the Regular Army was, next to that portion of ~— | the German Army which slaughtered Poland, the toughest in the world. That was heartening, but his estimate was divided by the fact that the Regular Army is badly scattered and cannot possibly be assembled in continental United States. : Gen. George Marshall, the Chief of Staff, then reported that the numerical strength was dangerously low and that weapons for a sudden increase were non-existent, to which depressing but obviously frank statement may be added some observations in an editorial in the New York Times. This studious piece holds that the regulars get too little experience in large-scale maneuvers and the handling of modern | arms; that there are only 400 tanks in the country, or | less than the complement of one German division; that the standard anti-tank gun is “just beginning to reach the service in small quantities,” and that only a few of the World War's 75's are fit for re-condi-tioning.
ROY W. HOWARD President
MARK FERRELL |
RALPH BURKHOLDER Business Manager | | |
Editor
Price in Marion Coun- | ty, 3 cents a copy, deliv-
Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis ‘Times Publishing Co., 214 W. Maryland St.
Member ot United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulation.
Give Liwht ana the People Will Fina Thew Vwn Way
WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1940
THE NEWS FROM EUROPE
LL that has gone before, all the shocking crimes against decency and humankind that we have seen in the last year, shrink to insignificance in the glare of the colossal bonfire that Hitler's robot civilization is stoking now.
Words are too poor to express the revulsion that grips Americans as they read the news from Europe.
As for the Allies, we can only hope that they will yet rally and stop the juggernaut. As for ourselves, the task is clear. We must, and will, make America so powerful that |
even a madman will never test its impregnability. ro» =
DDIE RICKENBACKER and Maj. Al Williams agree on the weakness of the air arms and the dolefulness of the prospects, but against their opinion and those of some high aviation officers of the regu- | lar service there comes a roundup of opinion from | men engaged in the production of planes who seem | positively cheery. Col. John H. Louett, president of the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce, says there are no bottlenecks in the manufacturing department, and adds that President Roosevelt's aviation program of 50,000 planes could be produced in a year by trebling the floor space of aircraft plants, doubling the area of the engine factories, trebling the present staffs and operating fullshift. The Herald-Tribune quotes Donald Douglas, president of the Douglas Aircraft Corp. as saying, also, that the industry could expand rapidly to a production capacity of 50,000 ships a year. Tell Berna, manager of the National Machine Tool Builders’ Association, said the machine tools for a major war effort could be produced in the time it would take to gather the staff to operate them and to recruit the Army. = » » 2
TELL THEM TO GET OUT—AND STAY OUT
HE State Department, again and again, has advised, requested, even implored, Americans to get out of Europe. Yet thousands of our citizens, who have no business whatever over there, insist on sticking around.
It is all right to say, “Let them stay and get their heads blown off, if they wish.” But the fact is that every time an American is killed or injured news of the incident | brings our country emotionally one step closer to involve- | ment. And our country has enough hard realistic problems | of building defenses without needless emotional disturbances.
It is time for the State Department to use something | stronger than words—to draw the line between Americans in Europe on legitimate official or business missions and | THER authorities were equally confident, but
those there merely by idle preference, and direct the latter | Gen. Hugh Johnson, about the same moment, | was writing “we couldn't get to 50.000 a vear in time
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
| That Roman Candle!
QF KFIRING,
You KNOW
WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1940
OF
og
either to return forthwith or surrender their passports. | to be of any use.” and that, anyway, it would be folly to make that many, because many would be obsolete | on delivery. He added that 500,000 men would be | needed to serve the ships, all in addition to the troops | of the regular corps.
PLUGGING A DEFENSE LOOPHOLE | From Detroit the A. P. reports that the motor in-
SK almost any manufacturer what he would be up dustry, now turning out 100,000 vehicles a week, could |
against if he sud Iv ims n buy tin, | double that capacity and turn to munitions within a 2 denly found himself unable to uy t week. And the Ford Dearborn plant is “understood” |
rubber, manganese, tungsten, chromium and a number of | to be ready to go into munitions as quickly as raw other commodities that the United States either does not | materials can be delivered
- Plainly the public needs information. If there is produce at all or produces inadequately.
| reason to be scared the citizens want to get good and | . . : scared, i . J 7 He would be in a jam. And so would our national de- | Ui. Wd ¥ Whore Us reason Wo We sure hey should fenses.
|
| know whom to get sore at. In the stately phrase | | which Gen. Johnson himself sometimes employs,
Columbia Club Displays a Slogan |
ARENTS who saw the moving picture version of Howard Spring's book “My Son! My Son!” left with stirred emotions. Tt rubbed a good many the wrong way, since its implications so strongly indicted us for short-sightedness. Clear indeed was the lesson it preached. “The unspanked boy becomes the worthless man. Most of us really believe that, although few act upon our beliefs. Like the father in the picture, we go on pretending that the great love we bear our children will be the means of saving them. : One must be often struck, too, by the amazingly inconsistent tone of the sermon we preach to the young. In the last part of the film the brother of Maeve. who has killed herself, grabs his gun to shoot down the cur—his chum—who worked her ruin. Said chum, of course, being the spoiled boy of the play. Fortunat:ly, our hero, his father, is on the scene, and rushes between them to prevent the crime. “Don't shoot!” he cries, or words to that effect.. “Think of your father; of the disgrace to your family. It will be murder.” The catastrophe is averted. Yet, in the next scene, we watch both boys crawling through the darkness slinging hand grenades into a nest of enemy troops. Finally comes the grand climax. The erring father is made cheerful, happy and proud when he learns that his bad boy has bscome a hero. And why? Because he killed a large number of other boys—on the battlefield. Now adult producers may not be able to understand the nonsense of such ideas, but, believe me, mogern boys and girls do. Mock heroics on the battlefield royally rewarded by medals! Is that the sort of morality and truth modern parents wish their sons to achieve? If so, we'd better begin to take lessons from our children, many of whom are beginning to see that it makes little difference how a man dies. The world is made better
$k . . | something is cockeyed here. So it is good news that President Roosevelt has just | asked Congress to vote $35,000,000 more for the purpose . . . of acquiring stock piles of such strategic materials. | Inside Indiana polis That will make a total of $60,000,000 for the next | TOD 5 9 | . fiscal year—$12,500,000 already voted, and another $12, Allison Speedup Urged by U. S.; 500,000 asked by the President recently, plus the newly sought $35,000,000. A ’ : : HERE'S not much being said about it, but some | Even this sum, large as it seems, is only a first step. | Washington officials are known to be getting & The War Department concedes that half a billion dollars | little WHY Sp the production of war plane : . . 2 . | motors at the Allison plant here. They would like would not be too much to spend in this way. to see the powerful 12-cylinder, liquid-cooled motors Our bins of gold at Ft. Knox would be trash compared | TONE ou jus yn Lute. ge ot. oh i. . . . | ars ort 0 J. SS. to tin and manganese if war ever cut us off from the sources | Army contracts. The new plant has been operating of these vital minerals. | night and day. But it hasn't neared peak production | | yet, and these Washington officials are urging more speed. T'here are two other war plane engine plants in WHERE CONGRESS BELONGS | the country functioning at full capacity. According | to experts, the only bottleneck in producing the (CONGRESS will do much less than its duty if it rushes | 50.000 planes annually urged by the President is he . ile - bie | manufacture of motors. Faster production at Allison through the Administration's defense appropriations, would help break this bottleneck, they say. Seg . a bn . . . ol ”; = gives a little lick and promise attention to a few other mat | THAT AIRPLANE in the Packard of Indianapolis ters and then adjourns. display room is no accident. It belongs to James . " " Mannix, North Side garage operator, serviceman for There is enough unfinished business on hand, and packard and agent for Luscombe passenger planes. enough new business in sight, to command the best efforts | Ns UREA un), Sve fy Bld to show the ship. J . i . e ackard people heard about it, invited him to of Congress on the job for several months instead of a pring it in, Mr. M. took the plane apart, moved | few weeks. JA in, Yu hg gC again and there it ts. Both : : ; | Mr. . and the Packard pecple think it's pretty If this country is to gear itself for defense on the scale | swell. -. . . , a ” ” ”n indicated by the President's 50,000-planes-a-year figure— DOWNTOWN VISITORS will have little chance and what is happening in Europe indicates that this coun- w Rigu this 1s in Sesion Yeas: The Columbix Club 4 . ans as xen care o at. A huge gold American Eagle try has no other safe choice—the billion-dollar new appro- (almost two floors tall), resplendent with a shield of | priation will be only a small start. The ultimate cost will | rea idl waite Serpe Sra a blue field, was placed ngs : : _— . : 1 | on the Circle side of the club yesterday. Below 1s a he many billions a year. Such spending will require careful blue sign. lettered in white: “Life Begins In 40! planning, a thoroughly considered program and an efficient | That's the Rapudiean bitty cry. At night, 1t screams | . . . . + ; out at you in neon lights. . . . Across the Circle, co-ordination of industry, all tasks in which Congress should 0.70 0 giving their store front a new coat of | carry its full share of responsibility. white paint. . . . - - - - > 1 . 1 » " Financial preparation is equally vital. There must STROLLING LEISURELY to his office, the news- . : x is paperman stopped momentarily in front of the be heavier taxation. The full cost of attaining national Indiana Women's Prison. ‘The prisoners ‘were in the security cannot be charged up to future generations, even | garden, singing lustily as they worked. He | £ . : . T continued a few more blocks, and again he heard if this generation were spineless enough to do that. : New singing, this time by a group of WPA Workes atop tax legislation is needed. It is a primary responsibility of | School 14. . . . And it cheered up the newspaperman : " srinil 34 13 ; no little for the rest of his day's job—handling the Congress. And the time to start work on it is now, not ghm., tragic Stories from over therc. next winter. ini isan Much pending legislation, delayed and almost forgotten | ’ . : in our preoccupation with fateful events abroad, is in A Woman S Viewpoint danger of being shelved or passed without adequate con- | By Mrs. Walter Fer sideration in an adjournment stampede. Measures such as | Y : 8 rerduson the new Hatch Bill and the Walter-Logan Bill, important to safeguard democracy in normal times, are even more important for the abnormal times that may be coming, It is the duty of Congress to clear its calendar of necessary legislation, and to do that job carefully. This is an election year, and some Senators and Representatives feel that they must give personal attention to their political fences. But this also is a year when the best politics will be, not speech-making, not hand-shaking and baby-kissing, but close attention in Washington to the nation’s business. Mr. Roosevelt's promise to call Congress back in special session, if he feels that the national defense situation requires that, is not enough. Congress should remain in regular session, taking at most brief recesses and retaining power to reconvene on its own motion, so long as it has work to do and so long as conditions abroad threaten to make necessary prompt American decisions in which the people have a right to expect that their voices shall be heard through their legislators.
ANNIVERSARY
NE anniversary we hope Mussolini doesn't decide to cele-
brate in reverse: Tomorrow will be just 25 vears from the date when Italy entered the World War on the
Allies’ side.
“
The Hoosier
1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.— Voltaire.
Forum
URGES GEN. JOHNSON RETURN TO THE ARMY By a Reader Since Huzh Johnson carries the title of “general” may 1 offer the humble suggestion that he retire from column conducting and return
to the Army since he seems to know so much about the military needs of this country. I love people who come forth two years after an event has occurred
done, I love back seat drivers like | Hugh Johnson. People are not such gullible fools
as Gen. Johnson apparently thinks | lems, he gives comfort to those of |
they are, and I, for one, can well] imagine the howl of derision that would have greeted President Roose- | velt had he asked for a billion dol-| lar defense program two years, or, | even one year ago. = ” ”
LAUDS REP. HARNESS’ | STAND ON DEFENSE
| of its program; ali the more because | he is a member of the House Com- |quate old
| By Mrs. Fe x Vonnegut It is heartening that the HON. nittee charged with the duty of A@Way with red tape in the Welfare
Forest A. Harness, Congressman from Indiana, is forcefully warning |
against “the risks” of allowing the - RUTHLESS AS NAZIS
“grave international situation . to become the tool of politicians.”
He stresses the fact that Holland | and Belgium observed “strictest neutrality . . . took every possible |
means of avoiding involvement and | the latest war news from Europe. that is not what pension funds are |of preserving peace,” and points to) We believe that America should provided for. ‘that as proof “that peaceful desires,| have been at war 10 years ago, not
no matter how sincere, or how earnestly pursued, are no guaranty against aggression.” He expresses the hope that “this will convince us that if and when Amer- | ican interests interfere with the | course of the dictators, we may €x-| pect no better treatment unless we) are prepared to defend ourselves.” | To those of us who have been pointing out the menace to the United States of a Nazi victory in| Europe, this eloquent support from | a man who voted to retain the arms embargo comes as a welcome sur-
prise.
(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.)
ish Navy is no longer confining hos-
land say what should have been | tile forces in Europe ”
Furthermore, when he urges “cool, ning” in meeting our defense prob-
us who have smarted for years under the scornful epithet “emotionalists” whenever we attempted to call attention to the looming Nazi danger, or to focus attention on the essentials of defense. The Indiana Committee for Na-
tional Defense is grateful to Mrz. | County Welfare Boards. He says do|
Harness for his forceful advocacy
national defense. | |
helping to provide » » ” CLAIMS DEPRESSION AS
By Ernest Morton, Secretary of Workers’ | Alliance |
Any time we look at a newspaper |
due to malnutrition (starvation), lack of proper clothing, fuel and shelter, than there were American soldiers killed in action during our entire period in the World War. The depression has been just as vicious and ruthless as any Nazi army could possibly be. We strongly urge that America stay out of Europe's troubles at least till our home affairs are in proper order. We fail to see any point in sending goods and money to Europe that are so sadly needed here. Foreign | countries owe us a 20-year old war |debt which if paid, would be suffi-
| hard-thinking and long-range plan- | cient money to keep relief work
| going for many years to come, » » ” | TOO MUCH RED TAPE
IN WELFARE, IS CLAIM By Walker Hull, Courtland
I read in The Times a piece by Mr. Thomas of Madison about our |
away with County Welfare Boards.
I say so, too, but I favor an ade-|
-age pension law by doing
offices. Also do away with the Welfare | crowd and keep only enough help] which is absolutely necessary to run,
tit. The Welfare Board was created [for the purpose of aiding and not million dollars is just the first bite.
denying aged needy people a pen-
sion but instead they offer a few | alibis, suggest that certain relatives |
Gen. Johnson Says—
Proposal To Name Three Republicans To the Cabinet Termed Political Plot To Keep New Deal in Power
ASHINGTON, May 22.—Our problem is in prose duction and not in politics. There is a crisis in national defense. It is a need for immediate rearmament. It is a problem of industrial pros duction and it is that alone. The record nt this Administration and the published programs ot both the Army and Navy are absolute proof that it 1s moving to a solution far too slowly to be otf any use. It can be made to move much more rapidly. Ours is the most efficient industrial production machine in the world. It has the best production managers, men amply able to get this vitally neces sary increased speed for the Government. But this Government has no such men. The screamingly obviously necessary first step 1s to get them—right now. They don't have to hold office. They will come on request. They will get their fellows in .industry to co-operate voluntarily, Are we doing that? We are doing Just the reverse of that. It is well known In Washington that the President is planning to put three Republicans in his Cabinet in the vital posts of War, Navy, and Commerce. Names mentioned are Frank Knox, Alf Landon and Fiorello La Guardia. Is that a production measure or a defense measure? It is not. It is pure politics. It is third-term politics. » “unify the country on the rearmament program.” The country doesn't need any unification on that. It is almost unanimous on that. The real purpose is plainly to *break down our two-party system using this as an excuse—and to regiment the election, With the trend toward dictatorship the greatest threat in the world, this is the last thing the head of a Democratic Party should be trying to do. The two-party system is the essence of our democracy and the American way of life. This is a blow at its heart. Mr. Roosevelt pleaded for the adjournment of politics. He, himself, is the hottest political issue, If he wanted to adjourn politics, he would announce himself in public, as he has to some people in private, as not available for a third term. His failure to do so establishes clearly enough that the only politics he wants adjourned is politics opposing him.
”
is said to be to
" "
OBODY can believe even Mr, Roosevelt's assure ances, except in writing and in public, that he is not a third-term candidate. Yet, no self-respecting Republican could accept a place in this Cabinet with out believing that.
| President, after the party ol | suppressed, and after he, himself. had been Kicked
If any did, he would be exposing himself to sucker stultification after a third election of Roosevelt, after the powers of a dictator had been granted the opposition had been
heels-over-head into the gutter to the raucous razz=berries and laughter of the White House Janissariat, which is already gloating over what they regard as the steady progress of this strategy. This barefaced use of a national crisis for the purpose of a partisan political attempt to perpetuate a particular President and increase his powers, 1s the blackest mark with which this Administration has yet smirched its own record.
Business
By John T. Flynn
Plant Capacity, Machine Tools Bar Quick Access To "50,000 Planes”
EW YORK, May 22.—There is nothing like big figures to exercise and heat up the imagination of the American people. Fifty thousand planes cer= tainly takes our breath away-—and pleases us ime mensely. It would be interesting to know when these planes are to be built. And it would also be interesting to know what they are going to cost, The President named another big figure in his message—=$1,170,000.000. There is nothing delights our American eyes since the depression began so much as the word *billion.” But big as the President's figure is—it does not begin to describe the cost of this program. Of this sum the President suggested 890 million dollars for Army and Navy planes. T. P. Wright, foremost aviation
| engineer. writing in Aviation says that the average
cost of Army planes is $64,000 and of Navy planes $56,000. Taking an average of $60,000 per plane, then we may assume that 50,000 planes will cost not 890 million dollars, but three billion dollars, This 890
This is the little sum which the President says he regards as a “minor detail.” He is not interested, he tells us, in how it is to be raised. While these huge
or turn on a radio we are given should assist said applicant. Now| figures please us and give us a sense of might, the
in Europe but at home fighting
| against poverty and destitution. In pension without strings tied to it or further | each of the last 10 years there have | having to sign away their last little | been more deaths in this country' home or policy.
Yes, again I say clean out the gang and give needy aged people a
New Books at the Library
HE romance of the sea, the lure of white sails flying briskly in| the breeze or flapping wildly in tive | gales, the tales of a captain's life | aboard the bounding main, beckon |
based upon the diaries kept by Cap-
tain John Pennell and his wife Abby. It is an interesting rocord of | their life at sea with all its gaieties
Moreover, Mr. Harness gives sur- to us from the pages of Robert P. and tragedies, its labor and fun.
| prising evidence that he is aware | Tristram Coffin's ‘of the enormous difficulties of “ac- and Captain John” | | tive enforcement of the Monroe This is a story of a Maine sailing | Doctrine in a world where the Brit- | clan in the day of clipper ships, |, usband for the first time, went to Just takes time to plan and put up buildings.
Side Glances—By
“Captain Abby | (Macmillan). |
Galbraith
TT
or worse by |.
“Don't let your fingers get too
COPR. 1940 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T. WM, REC 'U. 8. PAT. OFF.
- Galan” ty
On March 22, 1858, Abby made |
her first entry: “I leave my home| this morning to go away with my |
Portland and took boat to Boston. Was seasick on the Boston Boat.” An inauspicious beginning and a taste of what she was to face off and on for the next 15 years. Later she wrote, “Sea captains’ wives never knew, It might be Java; it might be Potts Point, Harpwell. It might be 3500 fathems of ocean. Life was so uncertain.” Captain John's entries, not so lengthy as those of his wife, dealt with the more realistic side of life at sea. He gave accounts of the stores on board, the weather conditions, the sailing speed, and their positions at sea.
One day appears in Abby's diary: “A darling little son was born to us.” In John's we read: “New baby fine and stout; calm and light airs.” The next entry is written in very black ink: “At 6 o'clock a. m. this morning our dear little boy died.” These diaries form the nucleus of Mr. Coffin’s “Around-the-world biography” of these two lovable characters. It is his “loyal wreath to the memory of the kindly, homey folks who sailed down East.”
TELL ME Ry RUTH E. STEFFEY Oh where is a home? -And whose may it be? And could there be one Por you and for me?
| |
DAILY THOUGHT
Thou shalt not hate they brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not, suffer sin upon him.— Leviticus 19:17.
close to his mouth-~he bites!”
ah
ATE NO ONE; hate their vices, themselves.—~J. G. C. Brainard. |
question keeps bobbing up—where are these planes to be built and when? According to Mr. Wright we have a capacity now, using our aviation plants in two shifts, to turn out roughly 500 million dollars of planes in a year. This much would use about 75 per cent of our plane face tories but 95 per cent of our propellor and engine factories.
Where the Bottleneck Lies
In these we are now manufacturing the existing orders for the U. 8. the orders for England and France, the orders for the transport companies and for various commercial and private uses. It is perfectly obvious, that even after we have gone to a third shift in operation, we will still be very far from having the plants or machines to produce 50,00C planes in the next 12 months, or for that mat« ter in the next 24, The first need is to build new plants and equip them with machines. Obviously it will take some time to put what amounts to a duplication of our existing plant if not a triplication of it into use. It But most important it takes time to get the tools, This is the bottleneck in the whole problem, Machine tool plants are working overtime. Old plants are being rushed into production. Orders for machine tools will be accepted now only for delivery many months ahead, as much as a year in some cases. This problem of plane production will call for the building of structures and the manufacture of ma=chine tools involving hundreds of millions of dollars. That will take time,
Watching Your Health
By Jane Stafford
OW is the time for the health check-up of chile dren who will start to school next fall. This may seem a little early to some parents, but if the child is taken to his doctor for examination now, there will be time during the summer to correct any defects or below par condition that may be found, so that the child will be ready by next September to start school without any handicaps. What parents may expect from such a health exe amination of their children was outlined at a recent meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics by its president, Dr. Joseph B. Bilderback, of Porte land, Ore. “No child should begin school,” he says, “until he has had a thorough physical examination to ascertain if he has good posture, if he has good muscle tone, if his feet are flat, a normal heart or a beginning of tuberculosis. “While there is a wide difference in the appearance of children—some are short, some tall, heavy or thin, depending on the parents and the racial stock—a child should not be greatly over or under weight.” Eyesight and hearing must also be checked in the physical examination before the child starts to school, Thousands of children, Dr. Bilderback points out, have impaired hearing and vision but have never had a proper examination of their eyes and ears, Partial deafness or defective vision may keep a child from doing well in school, and bring him severe criticism from teachers and parents, even though he tried his ‘hardest to keep up with his class. -