Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 June 1940 — Page 12

PAGE 12

The olis Tines

(A igianap NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE President Editor ‘Business Manager

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

RILEY 5551

MONDAY, JUNE 10, 1940

| NEW-—-AND HOPEFUL

E like the way the new Defense Advisory Commission is swinging into action, and we think President Roosevelt deserves high praise for giving this group plenty of elbow room to do the job it has to do. In the first place, the President did some excellent picking. He must have made a strong appeal to patriotism to persuade such men as Messrs. Stettinius and Knudsen to give up their important and lucrative positions in private industry to devote full time to industrial mobilization for defense. Nor could he have found a better man for agriculture than Mr. Davis, a better one for labor than Mr. Hillman or a better one for transportation than Mr. Budd. -The two other members, Mr. Henderson (raw material prices) ‘and Miss Elliott (consumer prices), are thus ‘far engaged only in statistical tasks. ~ Right now the principal jobs are those of Mr. Stettinius and Mr. Knudsen, who are charged with regularizing Government procurement methods, assuring a steady flow of materials to industry and opening up production bottlenecks. Legally their function is only that of advisors. Actually they are taking on administrative authority and ‘responsibility because the President has been wise enough to notify his politicai subordinates that they must co-oper-ate in every way with the defense commission. Having been given their head, Messrs. Stettinius and Knudsen have surrounded themselves with several highgrade executives from private industry. These businessmen have been at their task for several days now, and as vet, so far as is noticeable, not a single Tommy Corcoran, Abe Fortas or other palace guardsman has been allowed to get into their hair. That is something new under the New Deal. We congratulate the President, land the country.

EXCLUSIVE DOCUMENT | . AST August President Roosevelt drafted some of the nation’s leading industrialists las a War Resources Board. They went to Washington, studied the problem of mobilizing the country’s industrial resources for national defense and submitted a report to the President. Surely this report would be helpful now in guiding Congress and the War and Navy Departments and the newly created Advisory Committee on National Defense in formulating the best sort of defense program. But the program is a dark secret. Congressmen who have tried to get the report published, or submitted to committees confidentially, so that they might have its benefit in preparing a defense program, have received only the blankest and rudest of stares. : Now comes further evidence of how really exclusive the report is. Admiral Harold D. Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, testified before a House sub-committee that he had never seen it. To members of the’ sub-committee this seemed strange, considering Admiral Stark's key position

in national defense.

b

When Rep. Ditter (R. Pa.) discovered this amazing

fact he asked Chairman Scrugham (D. Nev.) to inquire - about the report at the Navy Department. Rep. Scrugham wrote to Secretary Edison, but is still waiting for the report. Perhaps some rainy afternoon Mr. Stettinius, chairman of the old War Resources Board and who is now on the new Advisory Committee on National Defense, will gather his colleagues about him, lock the doors, stuff the . windows, plug the keyhole and let them look at the report. Even that might help.

MEMO TO THE TAXERS E had a telephone call from a reader.. He had noted one ‘of our editorials about the new plan before Cengress to broaden the income tax base to raise more revenue for national defense. He said his income was less than the proposed $800 exemption for single persons, and so lre would not be called upon to pay any income tax under the new bill. But, he said, he wanted to be called upon. So, he believed, did millions of other citizens of low incomes. “We are just as troubled about the Government's credit as richer citizens are,” he said. ‘And we are just as eager to do our part to help.” ’ ‘He said that while riding home on the streetcar be had been thinking about the defense emergency and all

the money the Government would have to spend for re-

armament, and how all patriotic citizens should be given an opportunity to do their share. He had hit upon an idea which he wanted to offer for whatever it was worth. “We all have some income—or else we are in the breadline,” he said. Millions of citizens who are not in the breadline will, at the same time, not be on the new Federal income tax rolls—because they are single persons earning less than $800 or married couples earning less than $2000. "Why, then, he asked, shouldn't Congress write into the new revenue bill a separate section levying a small special fax against the group of citizens who “have some-income,” though not enough to pay regular income taxes? , He suggested that such a special tax could be fixed at 1 per cent of the citizens income for any specified 90-day : period. . | The Government, he said, should not be put to heavy administrative expense to collect those taxes. So, instead

of enlarging the army of tax-collectors, he suggested,

Congress should direct citizens to pay this special tax at

their postoffices. We relay this idea to Congress “for whatever it ia worth. ” We:don’t know whether it is administratively feasible. At least it should be welcome evidence of how sin-

cerely: rank-and-file citizens want to help.”

NO COLUMNS HERE HE investigators can pass up the bathing beaches in their quest of fifth columnists. Swim suits being what they are, there is no place where the aqua spy could stuff secret pers and still keep them a secre te

¥ | Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

. Garment Workers. Take Lead in

z Dmsnding Ouster of Racketeers as

Condition to Returning to A.F.of L.

EW YORK, June 10.—The underworld - gorillas of the labor movement took a defiant stand last week in the Louisville: ‘convention of the Stagehands and Movie Employees’. “Union, but their challenge was taken up in: New York by the Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union as one of the conditions of their return to the American Pederation of Labor. - The garment workers thus have begun a fight against the reorganized Capone ‘and Nitti mob and other criminals in organized labor, and David Dubin= sky, their president, will deserve credit for the eventual victory. The victory will be won probably at this year’s convention of the A. F. of L. And it will be an easy victory, for rank-and-file opinion in the unions is bitterly and violently rebellious against the brutality and larceny of such men as received the indorsement of the union in

Louisville. . It is unfortunate that William Green played the

role of a Lord Jim in this shameful situation, for just | _

a little courage would have carried him through with great credit. It really takes no great bravery .in a man in Green’s position to fight the racketeers.

8 8 =

R. GREEN still hedged in a letter to Dubinsky, granting the othér conditions on which the garment workers insisted, for in that letter he avoided mention of the issue of the criminal invasion of the unions Finally, however, he did say that labor can invite public support only when it is honest in its dealings. But even then he modified his declaration by observing that there are racketeers in other fields, which has nothing to do with the case. The truth is that Mr. Green’s own hands are not clean. He played ball with the crooked unioneers and, in return for their support in the internal politics of the A. F. of 1. and in the fight with the C, I. O, became an apologist for men who are a disgrace to the labor movement. The garment workers will map their own campaign to clean up the A. F. of L., but one of the men Who are unfit and must be thrown out is George Browne, the president of the stagehands and movie employees,

who are 35,000 strong. Browne was picked up out

of obscurity and a speakeasy milieu by a Chicago mob and placed in the union Presidency as a dummy for the racket.

J

” » » HE proved this by appointing’ Willie Bioff and a stickup man, Nick Circella, to positions of greater power than his own, and he continued to serve his criminal bosses this week in Louisville when he repeated again his apology for his criminal associates to the effect they erred briefly as adolescents but have gone straight ever since. Browne knows that Bioff was not a boy but a mature man and a confirmed gangster when he was sentenced for pandering. He knows, too, that Bioff continued to be a gangster until as recently as 1929, his last of many recorded arrests. He knows that Circella has a long and uncommonly nasty police record; that neither of these crooks ever was elected to any position in the labor movement, and that their only function in the union is to represent themselves and the criminal mob. But Browne will not stand up against Dubinsky and the clean men of the A. F. of L. if they carry the fight to him. He will quit and run. And Bioff and Circella and all the rest of the grafters and thieves, the panders and holdup men and union puppets of the underworld will be easily eliminated if Dubinsky really fights, as apparently he will.

Inside Indianapolis Summer Activity Slips Into High, a Young Musician and Some Poetry

HE week-end scene: Anti-fireworks laws notwithstanding, you could hear firecrackers popping in various parts of town yesterday. . . . Notably, 38th and Pennsylvania. . . . White River muddy but populated heavily. . Swimmers and motorboats at Ravenswood, canoes and rowboats down south toward 30th St. . . . Thousands at Municipal Airport, gasping in admiration at the big airliners coming and going (22 flights a day now). ‘Thousands more moving in and out of Hoosier ‘Airport watching the putt-putts and others. . . . On the way to Highland, two young gentleman in an Overland (vintage of about ’15) with the gear shift on the outside, percolating along just as nicely as you or L

o ” ”

THEY WERE HAVING a little party at the home of one of Barbara Easterday's young friends Saturday night. So Barbara, who will be 15 in August, and who is going to be a sophomore at Shortridge next fall, went over home to 128:E. 50th St., and brought her accordian. All of which is leading up to the point that the Henry R. Easterday’s pretty young daughter is virtually a professional when it comes to handling an accordian. . She’s been playing it now for about four years ‘and she can take it all the way from swing to Tschaikowsky.

» ” »

“I NEVER WROTE a piece of poetry in my life,” said Wallace O. Lee, “but for Chief Belzer I will.” He did. He read it when hs Wesenieg Mr. Belzer with the diamond medal. Here\it is: “Our Chief,” he is a most wonderful man, Who, not for sake of gold or fame, Has established service on a plan That causes youth to higher aim.

“Our Chief” is the most useful man on earth, Serving with purposé our Boy Scout cause, Always doing some labor of worth, Giving no thought to praise or applause, Thinking less of money and fame Than the joys and the thrills of the Boy Scout game.

So although medals their brightness may lose, And words of praise may be forgotten or fade, And any reward that we may choose, Leaves our account with him still greatly unpaid, I present for our Council, in these words all too brief This token of love and esteem to “Our Chief.”

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Today I have spent eight hours reading comments about the war—comments by military experts, foreign correspondents, columnists, editors. Boiled down, they leave a. malordorous residue. Hitler is a super-man. Indeed, several frenzied exhorters almost persuade us he is almighty. “If Hitler wins,” so they say, “he will be complete master of Europe. He will set up protectorates over the Lowlands, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. He will take England and France tightly under his thumb and divide Africa and. the Near East with Mussolini. He will then turn his attention to Latin America and jointly with Japan start war against the United States (the implication being that he is sure to win). But at once, and even before he moves his legions in here, he will cut down and eventually prohibit American trade with Europe.” One editor goes so far as to write: “This hell on earth is not going to be settled by high-minded religious thinking and by loving our brothers. God generally: seems to be'on the side at has the strongest battalions.” ‘If he is right, we must take it that God now marches with Hitler since us forces appear the superior ones.

Such a wild flying of yellow flags has seldom been |-

seen in our country!

Our intellectual group seems to lead in putting on’

the white feather. They scared us into the other war, and are up to the same tricks now. If their attitude is American, then God help America, for Hitler already has us paralyzed with fright. This is not to say we should be unaware of danger. But isn’t it time for the rabbit hearted to pipe down? Surely democracy is not- made of such defeatist stuff!

‘Hitler may win this war, but he won’t win the world, and while we are stiffening our material defenses, how about putting some starch into our morale

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES __ Time and the River

as

Ra

© MONDAY, TUNE 1, 1040;

Gon Johnson

EW

Says— -

‘Good Neighbor Talk : Overilonsy Stern Stand Is Needed to Get ‘Defense Bases Below Rio Grande

(CHioago, June 10.—It seems to: be, or to have been, a ‘principal part -of -our defense policy to

rely. largely on the British Navy and the good will of

our good. neighbor league with the Latin Americas in

: protecting the Monroe Doctrine. *

The post-World War period of international treaty-

- breaking, debt-repudiation and double-crossing should

have been warning ‘enough that no nation can rely

off any strength but its own. Some people now fear ‘that the British Navy may ‘not always be there. ‘may be a good time to question also our reliance on: the South and Central American countries. :

It

At the very start, it must bé admitted that thers! has been a good deal “of hokum in calling them de

a -mocracies. In greater or less degree they are milie

"The ‘Hoosier Forum

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

FEARS EFFORT TO BRING WAR TO THIS SIDE By R. L..

a lot of the Americas. He would bring the war to our peaceful hemisphere. Why does he think of Canada as a refuge? Well, anything to save the neck of the British rule,

British people? Oh, no. He will leave them there at the mercy of the other war monger—Hitler, the other dictator. Let’s not fool ourselves about the British rule. How does a little nation such as England get to rule most of the world—by the same methods that Hitler is trying. England put us over the coals. She tried to rule us. They both are land grabbers. I believe we Americans should have something to say about England ‘bringing the war to our shores. Let’s keep both of those murderers over there. Let’s not choose between two evils. : 2 = = ASKS MORE PATRIOTISM IN DEFENSE PROGRAM

By Edward F. Maddox

Let’s have more patriotic action and less politics in our national defense program. To defend this hemisphere against an invading expeditionary force our first line of defense is armored bombing planes, submarines and our fleet of battleships, in the order named. So let’s stop the argument and build the bombers and submarines and complete the shipbuilding program. Let’s get busy. The dive bomber is the most effective weapon of modern warfare. With 5000 dive Durer of the latest design, 5000 inary bombers and 5000 modern pork fast fighters together with plenty of subs and our present Navy we can defy and sink any expeditionary force Which can be sent against us. Let Henry Ford build the bomb- |

experienced ' men to do [the job. General Motors can build the fighting planes, and the subs and ships can soon be completed if we get busy. It is the duty of Congress to order the construction of these necessary military machines for national defense. So why argue who is to do the job. The Constitution

{gives this power and authority to

Congress, not to the President of his Cabinet. We don’t want any

Mr. Churchill surely must think|

but does Mr. Churchill think of the

ers. He has the machinery and the

(Times readers are invited to express ‘their 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.)

views

boondoggling with national defense appropriations. : 2 x = SEES PRIVATE OWNERSHIP AS CIVILIZATION TEST By Voice in the Crowd

History will record whether. it ‘is capitalism or civilization that is being consumed today, and it will no doubt record, as it has during all history of man, that no system can survive except one that allows men to own outright those things that are the reward for their enterprise. . It would seem that it will not be long now that with a widened tax base and more people paying visible taxes, most men will be able to see for themselves that the differential between production costs and retail prices is not excessive profits but the tax costs that are necessarily included in the selling prices. It has been figured that ‘it takes all of the value that is- produced west of the Mississippi River each year to operate the Federal Government. This. production includes all of the farm products, grain and livestock, all of the :gold, silver, iron, oil ‘and the vast timber production, and it would only support the Fed= eral Government. People who advocate Socialism merely advocate more Federal Government, What in

heaven’s hame would be left for the common man if the Government still took more than it now takes! Some of you ‘fellows who believe it is so profitable to employ labor, and meet competition and pay high taxes should try it some time and learn something of the tremendous service that American business performs at an extremely low. cost. .You would certainly be surprised..

= » o THINKS TECHNOCRACY DESERVES A TRIAL By L. C. Hinchman

Under the present system, pro-|

ductive ‘enterprises: are geared to purchases, which in turn is dependent upon the ‘man-hours worked in all enterprises, With more efficient

equipment being installed, business will decline unless the deferred payment methods are continued. Big business . finds it’ profitable ‘to finance only certain classes of consumers and therefore passes the lemons on to the Government. However, if productive enterprises are to serve the people, then they should operate to supply the demands of :the -entire population. To maintain a steady flow of goods, purchasing power must be commensurate with the goods produced. . As energy is mecessary to turn the wheels of. industry, it: follows that energy: ginits should be used in the distribution of these products. This problem of production and distribution. can be solved ‘but we must approach it with some degree of sanity. The political methods of Hoover and Roosevelt have failed so I am willing for Howard Scott to” try his scientific plan— Tecnnocracy.,

New Books at the Library

¥ wonder, in these days of savage fighting in Europe, how the German nation: has succeeded in preparing itself so well, in building up the powerful military instrument which seems c¢apable of smashing everyihing which lies n its path. ~ Guenter Reimann’s “The Vampire Economy” (Vanguard Press) helps to , make the reasons clear. Mr. Reimann shows us the working of the German economy which has set so many nations speculat-

Side Glances—By Galbraith

ing and which has served-to hasten the effort toward national self-suf-ficiency and has done so much 'to upset international trade as we have known it in the past. He tells of the ‘relations of business men, industrialists, bankers, and workers to the government. He shows how the many restrictions upon private business have given rise to a vast and increasingly intricate bureaucracy which more and more controls the lives of ‘German c¢itizens. He. treats of the way in which the distribution of raw materials. is handled, of the development of substitute materials; ‘of the lack of. resources Which has sent Germany successively -in. : the neighboring small countries. The German‘ economy, Says “the author, has been. planned with only one aim in view—preparation for a successful war. The interests -of the individual,” his. security, A his comfort, have been, when necessary, sacrificed to.the task of equipping a great military machine’ If war does mot comé—Mr. Reimann] *

this great effort will have been wasted. If it does come, he believes, the Germans must win it swiftly, if “at all; along war, with accompanying strain on the already overburdened economic structure, would mean the end of Nazi power., Thus the. author has explained, before the event, the fury. of the German invasion of the lowlands.

“MOODS ‘By ANNA E. YOUNG Sometimes ‘we feel quite satisfied’ . "With life-when all is gay

Then maybe in no time at all : ‘Blue skies—are morbid: gray:

"Tis then we seek a solitude Where quiet reigns as Queen . And thus we gain our rest and ; power. . - ‘To battle—moods—supreme! v4

DAILY THOUGHT | ' And Jesus answered him, say-

ing, It is writteh, that man shall not live by bread .alone, but by “gvery word “of. God.- Eto Luke 44, N

works: ts Like

writes prior to . last September— |-

tary oligarchies. Noné is a democracy in the Anglo-'

.Saxon sense. Their legal systems stem from the civil! ‘law of ‘Rome and not from. the common law. They .have never really’ understood or every inuch cared ‘about any such institutions of self-government ‘as ours.

? on n the next * placs, in ‘spite-of all the deinsations. treaties and diplomatic palaver, most of them dis«: trust us ‘and ‘in some cases despise us. Mr.- Roosevelt. has done ‘much, to imprave -this state of affairs: buf ‘you don’t change national sentiment and the thinking: of generations by a. few state : Visits and alot. of. ballyhoo. . % ap To the contrary, several of these countries have: much. closer ties of blood, education and tradition with. European countries than with us. Their language is - either Spanish or Portuguese and their immigration has been much ‘more heavily Italian, Spanish or Gere ‘man than French or English. Finally, their military,: naval and air strength and aptitude is almost neglis. gible. All we could expect to gain from our leagug. ‘with them are defensive naval and air bases for oe own arms. These peoples did not invent the Monroe Doctrine.

.—and neither did we,. It: was-a British doctrine that.

suited our purposes partly but theirs quite-as much,

It must not be forgotten that the Mo#roe Doctring.

‘was a two-way street. One side was an: assurance,

that we shall not meddle in the quarrels of Europe.

On this was quite logically: built the other and, to. uss, the more important half—that therefore European

powers should not meddle in the Americas,

# = »

E Tarew the first. half of the Monroe Doctrine’ out of the window in 1917 when’ we did meddle. inithe quarrels: of Europe. Some of our great mili-" tary strategists and statesmen like Col. Frank Knox and Senator Pittman now want us to bury it deeper by mixing in again. This column : ‘thoroughly agrees that, for the sake. of our own hides, we haye to get nayal and air bases, to [prevent enemy lodgments—at least to the bulge of South America.: It notes with alarm that. we: are not’ getting them. - It doubts whether we are ever going to |get them or. buy for ourselves anything more than a mare's nest of dangers and trouble if we don’t put’ the pressure onto get them and recognize-that we’ are doing it as an absolute. necessity. for our own de= fense and without much, if any, reliance on the loyalty, strength or friendship of any country south of the Rio Grande, iy

or “ Le

Business By John T. Flynn

Buying Foreign Possessions Would. Help: Keep: Peace in Our Hemisphere

EW YORK, June 10 ~The greatest threat to the peace of the United States for many years has’ been the presence in this Hemisphere of colonies or dominions belonging to European powers, They will, be a greater threat in the future, Z Every time England or France. has become involved . in war, their lands in this hemisphere have been of a necessity at war. ‘No other countries in the Americas . haye had any serious threats of war with Europe or Asia save these European colonies and dominions. One of the most desirable objectives-for our peacewould be, not merely to prevent Germany or Italy or: Japan from, coming into:this hemisphere, but to get - England and France and Holland out of it. Get them all, with their imperial possessions—France and Eng- . land and Holland with their existing plans,and. Gers many and Japan’ with their hopes, if they have Alyy clean out of the Western Hemisphere, ‘

© These lands are not vasf. They are chiefly in the. West. Indies, in Central America, in northern South America and in Canada. Canada, obviously, we can. do [nothing about. She is. a large, strong, ‘powerful, . country. . But the others are different. - here is now a fear that Germany may insist that,” haying conquered Denmark, she can take Greenland, . having conquered Holland she can. take the Dutch , West Indies, and if she conquers England and France, can take Bermuda, British Guiana, British Honduras, French Guiana and other British and French possess sions here.| . : ie

Then Give Them Freedom 14

Tey Those . places could never be taken by Germany, 4000 miles from her base, against ‘our resistance. But there is no need :to. provoke. an attempt. | And, what is guite as: important, there, is the excellent opportunity offered to see a complete end:of European imperial domination of lands in the Americas. The proposal is wisely made that we should ape: proach England, Holland. and France on the subject of relinquishing their hold on these lands. We, might well pay for them out of the sums owed by these coun -. tries. We would lose nothing that way, since they have no intention of ever paying us. We would gain’ the elimination of European Jroubiie-jrakers from our side of the ocean. » The question is—what should we do with the possessions? We could take them under our sove: ‘ereignty. Or we could have: them held in common by.~ all the Americas: Or we, could make them free. ‘The European way would be to take them under. our wing ag colonies of our. own. The American way: would be. to make them free under a protection which - would ‘Safeguard our. ii

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford > :

EPORTS of the success of the new. ‘treatment for \ syphilis which takes only five days have aroused” great ‘hope not only among syphilis sufferers but | among all people who- hope that this dangerous ° . malady can be driven from our land. as yellow fever and cholera and other deadly. plagues have been. : Two dangers exist because of the wide enthusiasm '* over the new treatment. One is that the treatment : may not live up to jts first promise and that, consequently; - many persons may be keenly disappointed, The other danger is that syphilis sufferers, hearing of the quick treatment, may abandon the slow but method their doctors are using and follow the

not be for some time, So far it is ps a jiven in a-few medical centers where; all precautions can;

‘be takén for the patient's; safety during trea and Where there are > favilitfes for: following his

“was successful.

‘The new five-day. ‘treatment is only given, hospital,

of 20. to 30 drops per minute. Ars End atd were obtained in 83 per ¢ent of thé patients treat, far by the group of New York physicians. : “x Syphilis, however, is a treacherous disease. Te patient can appear to be well for many years, suffer later one of the serious late effects of syphilis, Only a very small group of patients treated "by the’ five-day. method ‘have been followed for more than five years” ‘Until many mdre ha en followed: at