Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 June 1940 — Page 8
The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS. HOWARD NEWSPAPER)
ROY W. HOWARD H BURKHOLDER President x Editor
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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way
Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler
Raises Question Whether Immunity Enjoyed by Legislators Extends to the Publishing of Libelous Remarks
N= YORK, June 15.—Justice Ferdinand Pecora of the New York Supreme Court has given a timely ruling that it is not libelous to call a Communist, or anyone else, a Communist while the Communist Party enjoys legal status, with the right to a place on the ballot. That decision disposes, temporarily but perhaps not finally, of a ‘doubt which has hampered discussion of conspirators against the nation who, like
Shr JUNE 15, 1940
IT MUSTN'T HAPPEN HERE MACHINES against men. That is the tragedy of France. The superb courage of the poilus is not enough. Though they have fought for many days and nights without sleep or rest, facing the enemy when they had no weapons left, they have been forced back until their capital is captured, their strongest fortifications menaced from the rear and their country confronted by the apparent choice between * surrender or destruction. | Four years ago France might have, should have, equipped herself to avert this tragedy. Four years ago French industry, working full speed, could have matched plane for plane and tank for tank the preparations Hitler was compelling German industry and the German people to make. But four years ago France was embarking on another sort of program—a program which promised the people more wealth for less work. A Popular Front government, a coalition of left-wing groups, granted demand after demand for shorter hours and higher pay and social reforms, each gain producing new pressure, exerted through! strikes and civil disturbances, for further advances, until French industry was all but paralyzed and French factories were producing in a month no more planes than German factories were producing in a day. Two years ago France awoke to her peril, too late. Now hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen have paid with their lives for the precious time that was lost. French workers have surrendered, voluntarily, all their social gains. They face the imminent prospect of an involuntary and more terrible surrender—the surrender of their liberty and their fatherland. America, thank God, still has time. Time to appraise our own social reforms, to bulwark those which have proved their worth and justice, to remedy faults of administration and mistakes of haste, but above all to get busy and make our country secure. And that’s another crying reason why Congress should stay in session. America has no time to lose. .
PUBLIC SERVICE ‘INTERNES’
RAINING for public service as one trains for professional service ‘is an ideal much discussed but seldom achieved. For it has been a sort of tenet of government in the United States that the public service is the only kind of service that requires no special training or even aptitude of any kind. Through the colleges a way is being found to cut into this unintelligent tradition. At Wisconsin arrangements were made to take specially qualified students at the state university into state service. And in Los Angeles another experiment has now been operating for seven years. A series of “apprenticeships” by ‘student technicians” have been opened in both city and county governments, enabling students to get part-time work while studying, and usually full-time work for about a year thereafter. Qualified then both by training and experience, the graduates have usually found it easier to get permanent work in in public administration of some kind. ~ Public service will be more and more important in - the years to come, whether we like it or not. There is no reason why it should not be trained and intelligent service.
NOW IS THE TIME
NE month ago today ‘the Scripps-Howard Newspapers suggested that the United States with all other American republics that would co-operate, offer to buy at a fair price—yes, a generous price—the Western Hemisphere possessions of Britain, France and Holland. - Thereupon the Gallup Poll undertook a cross-country survey of American public opinion. The question was: “If the Allies need more money for running the war, would you be in favor of the United States and other American republics huying the British, French and Dutch possessions ,in the area of the Panama Canal?” And the response: Would favor purchase, 81 per <ent; would oppose purchase, 19. per cent. We thank the Gallup Poll for conducting the survey, and needless to say ve are gratified by the results. Holland has been conquered, France is on the ropes and Britain is besieged, but so far the Allies have failed to indicate a willingness to sell any of their territory on this side of the Atlantic. Nor, so far as we know, has the United States sounded out the Allies or the other American republics on this proposition. The holdings in question are worth much less to the Allies than to the Americas at any fime, and especially such a time as this—when the Allies would be much better off with a squadron of bombers, and the Americas need more than ever to consolidate the hemisphere’s defenses. If the Allies wait too long they may get nothing. If we wait too long, we may have to deal with the Germans. “By the terms of a resolution now before Congress, and cer‘tain of passage, our Government i is being committed irrevocably to the policy that it will “not acquiesce in” the trans--fer of any Western Hemisphere holdings from one nonAmerican power to another non-American power. It would be far better for all concerned if the transfer of sovereignty were arranged before there can be any possibility of a dispute over whether these possessions are to be considered as loot of conquest.
ON AGAIN, OFF AGAIN ALY REF! Louis Ludlow should make up his mind one way or the other how he stands on the Wagner Act amendments. First, he voted against the amendments and then " he issues a statement declaring he actually is for amending the Act. What all this means is slightly confusing. Louis Ludlow’s record as a Congressman is too good a one for him to start pussyfooting. We hesitake to say it, but it looks suspiciously like that on this vital issue,
stickup men, kidnapers and the like, use false names to cover their activities and claim. to have been hurt —usually $250,000 worth—when they have been identified in print with their expressed beliefs and sympathies and known activities. With the cautious’ reservation that, on appeal, some higher court may decide that cémmunism is personally disreputable, while collectively legal, I now present another interesting problem which imperils the i name of any citizen.
n E-4 ” I SUPER to the Congressional immunity by which members of the national legislature and, I believe of the state law-making bodies as well, are given the right not only to utter the most vicious and outrageous slanders on the floor but to print them in the official records and, further, by connivance with certain newspapermen to procure their further and more harmful publication in the public press. About two years ago Senator Sherman Minton, an Indiana New Dealer, in a bit of a pet about some personal controversy with a newspaper owner, offered a resolution whereby any publisher would have to guarantee and on demand to prove the truth of any matter printed in his paper—a measure which, as someone pointed out at the time, would have forbidden| publication of the Bible. It was a frivolous and petulant bill, and Senator Minton did not “press it, but the incident called attention to the fact that at the very hour of offering a measure intended, as he said, to punish wanton defamation he himself was one of a very small group of Americans who are legally licensed fo talk about anyone who displeases them, even to the extent of the most shocking accusations without the slightest evidence to back them up. » E- 3 ”
Y question, however, is whether by quoting truly from the Congressional Record, which is ‘without doubt a public record, a newspaper or blackmail publication of the public press may clothe itself with the immunity that was intended for members of Congress for a legitimate purpose. This immunity was. intended for members of Congress alone, so that they might be free to express themselves in debate. It certainly -was not intended ‘to relieve journalists or publishers of their ordinary responsibilities under the libel law. And the fact that the Congressional Record is a public record does not wholly answer the question, because it is a fact that some documents of public record are not privileged and are to be printed only at the usual risk. To me it would seem that although the Congressional Record itself cannot be edited or suppressed, a liberty to quote slanderous matter from the Record in the public press has the effect of extending Congressional immunity to persons for whom it never was intended.
Inside Indianapolis
David Lewis Who Will Have to Get Some Clothes if He Gets Elected
ROFILE of the week: David M. Lewis, the young man who may become Governor of Indiana, and whom _few people-seem to know. Mr. Lewis is Marion County’s Prosecuting Attorney. He is 31 years of age, is married, and has three children—4- -year- -old David Jr., and those two new twin boys you may have read about. The only odd thing about Dave Lewis is that he actually has only one suit of clothes! Believe it or not! He has so little interest in clothes that his wife has to drive him downtown personally to see that he buys something. His only suit is a conservative blue ong. It is quite a problemi for Mrs. Lewis because every time it needs cleaning and pressing, the Prosecutor has to stay home. He doesn’t seem to mind a bit. Aside from that one eccentricity, Mr. Lewis is a normal, pleasant, young professional man with a lot of ambition and drive. : 2 ® ”
_ HE IS A DIRECT descendant of Meriwether Lewis, who was'a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, secretary to President Thomas Jefferson, and the first Governor of the Louisiana Territory. Dave Lewis doesn’t make much of that fact, although it conceivably might help him. Mr. Lewis was born here in Indianapolis. He went to public schools here and then his parents moved to Lawrence, Ind.,, and young Dave graduated from the Lawrehce Township High School. He then went to DePauw where he was known as an able young orator. - He helped make his way through college raising and selling’ swine. It kept him busy on his week-ends and during his summer vacations. At DePauw he majored in—of all things!—political science. . After graduating from DePauw, he. went to the University of Chicago Law School, where he did graduate work in—you guessed it!—the science of government. 4 tJ ”
BEFORE HE BECAME Prosecutor he gathered himself the reputation of being a capable young lawyer. He went into politics in Lawrence Township and moved up through the ranks to chairman of the County Election Board. A little below average height, he is a shade on the stocky side. He has a lcng face, with an arresting jaw. He has thick eyebrows and long eyelashes and he is considered quite good looking. When he talks he blinks his eyes at a mile-a-minute pace. He can change his expression from one of seriousness to jovialty in a split second. He will not ride in an automobile unless he drives it. He does not like to go fast, however, and is actually frightened of speeding autos. He is a 90 shooter in golf. He likes to play cards once in a while. And he: likes rare roast beef. If he gets to be Governor, he’ll probably have to get himself another suit.
A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
ERE'S something nice I found in the morning mail: “Do you think the readers of the papers you write for care anything about your silly articles praising the pro-German, Lindbergh. You and Lindbergh should bqth be finger-printed, along with other aliens; and lined up with the Fifth Column, as you are not Americans, and all non-Americans ought to be shot. Reader of The Memphis Press-Scimitar.”
Anonymous notes, even such charming ones as this, are nothing new in the life of any newspaper writer. What this .man says is not important; except as it shows to what lengths the hysteria Colonel Lindbergh warned against can go, once it is loosed over the land. While the time are still comparatively safe, and before jail doors yawn, I think a reply to the sentiments expressed by my correspondent is in order. If his name and address were available, I should write him in these words: “Sir—The first right in a democracy is the right to disagree. Take that away and you have fascism at its worst. ' “Under our form of government the minority must obey, but it need never keep silent. America was built upon the foundation of free speech for free men. Therefore, until the United States declares war against Germany, the minority has the Constitutional privilege of voicing its disapproval of such a war. “Moreover, sir, when you and your kind take con=trol of the land and become powerful enough to shoot thoge who disagree with you, I shall consider it an honor to be among the slain. For then, indeed,
the hoot of Hitlerism wil be upan. | our necks.”
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
Suppose the Neighbors Sawed It Off!
SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 1940
WESTERN HEMISPHERE.
SOLIDARITY
. ) » | Hoosier Forum I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right te say it.—Voltaire.
CLAIMS PLEAS FOR. OIL ON 18TH ST. IGNORED By a Disgusted Taxpayer
I have been a resident of the vicinity of 4500 E. 18th St. for the last 20 years and the residents of
asked for oil on our street but the only time we received oil on the street was the day before election. \ On E. 13th St. in the same block, the street is soaked with enough oil to take care of three streets, because politicians live in that block. © We. pay taxes on these houses and we would appreciate a little consideration, :
” » ” COMPLAINS OF DUST AND CHUCKHOLES ON NORTH SIDE By’ Mrs. Earl Mikels
On Friday evening, June 7, there appeared in The Hoosier Forum an article by Mrs. Mae Leaman comrlaining of the dust on Minnesota St. My dear friends, you are greatly mistaken if ‘you thing for one minute the people of the North Side do not suffer from dust as you do on the West Side.
I have been a resident of 47th end Hillside for 14 years and in this period can only recall five times that this street has been ciled. It is graded about once a year and only enough to fill in a few of the chuckholes. In a week's time the street is as bad as it was before the grading, and speaking of dust, indeed you have nothing on us. Every time a car whizzes by the result is equal to any Kansas dust storm. Our houses are closed tighter in the summer time than in the winter. We have our house painted white and before the painters can get the ladders off the job the color changes to a drab shade of dusty clay. This is not only frue of my immediate location but the whole addition of Bellaire and Mont Rose. Right now the streets are nearly impassable because of the hundreds of chuckholes on each of these unpaved streets. Now the residents of our community have become so chuckhole conscious that only in the most dire emergencies would we dare call the police or firemen lest they should meet. the same fate of a fellow worker who was killed when his fire truck hit a chuckhole and threw him off the truck, and secondly there is the possibility of
this neighborhood have repeatedly]
(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.)
them getting lost in the dust storm caused by the cars should they be fortunate enough to survive the deadly effects of the chuckholes. There are ‘times when we have reached the depths of despair (as our faith in the Street Commis-
|sioners is weak anyway), we do venture out in our autos, riskingj
broken springs and broken axles rather than to risk our lives walking in the street (we have no sidewalks, either), because one short step into one of the bottomless pits and your earthly remains .aren’t worth a cent. I’ve voted for Democrats and I've voted for Republicans and still the condition of our unpaved North Side streets remains the same.
. 2 8 SAYS PRESSURE GROUPS PREVENT EQUAL RIGHTS By Voice in the Orowd
Norton of Sullivan claims that we would be equal “politically and economically” under socialism. Well— we are equal politically now, so what? We each have a single vote, free speech, free thought, and the courts protect our freedom to live as we choose so long as we harm no other, Socialism can’t beat that.
. Norton claims that we could individually rise from the ranks by “proving our worth to the nation.” That is just and fair, those who deserve reward should have it. With few exceptoins rewards are 50 earned now. It is strange that none of you Socialists realize how close our Constitutional form of government conforms to socialism. Our form of government is socialism with impractical idealism properly left out. We are born with equal rights and freedom of opportunity, in theory just as under theoretical socialism. In practice the only denial of these rights is from the pressure groups, and the fraternizing of these groups with politics. Groups that are orgaxized to get their share get too
Side Glances=By C Galbraith
| eon Torr 1939 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T. M. REG. U. 8. PAT. OFF, "They have some nerve whistling at us!—The curly headed one is isn't he?
6-15
‘|to work as independents, restrict
secret diplomacy.
: foreign affairs expert!
Where riddled bodies - “had been
|The Red Sea then was parted wide,
much when their ofganizations are recognized by the politicians for their voting or donating power. Business groups that organize for the purpose of fixing prices and to close off competition restrict basic rights. Labor groups that deny the right of any young man to learn any trade or deny other men the right
basic rights. Organizations of men who have made economical mistakes by draining lakes, clearing land and speculating in land values during the World War price regime and now clamor for too much aid from the taxpayers, restrict basic rights. Political bureaucracy that yields to these groups in order that it may live on the backs of the taxpayers restricts basic rights. There are two important bills an a few amendments before Congress now that may go far to break up the politico-pressure group alliances. If some of you idealists would vote and fight to clear the barnacles from the Ship of State, you might be surprised at how proudly and smoothly she sails without any changes. ! But bear this in mind, if we are ever economically equal it will be at the level established by the slowest thinker and the most inefficient worker. You can cut off a tall man’s legs, but you cannot put them on the little man, ” ” 2
WANTS EMPHASIS PUT ON ANTI-AIRCRAFT WEAPONS
By Liberty One thing this war and. fre couple of clecades of its a has demonstrated and that is there is no more political glamour about Thus Mussolini can stick his neck out and reaffirm his decision to stand by his fellow conspirators, but the moment he does it he seals himself in the Mediterranean. A little dynamite in a couple of
strategic places and the trick is|.
turned and since Henry Ford can turn out as many planes as required, he can have a free hand and Hitler is done for. The first. thing to inspire confidence and call Hitler’s fifth column activities is anti-aircraft which
every community should acquire—|
general armament, and one more atrocity of war and his world domination bluff is called. » 8 ”
URGES FORUM WRITERS KEEP FEET ON GROUND
By Claude Braddick Now is the time for us Forum writers to keep our feet on the ground—the ground right under us. A reasonably sound opinion on foreign affairs today may be quite obsolete tomorrow. If it isn’t positively silly before a week has elapsed, then the writer is extremely lucky. If it can still be read without laughter at the end of another week, then the fortunate writer is fully qualified as a
ESCAPE By MAUD COURTNEY WADDELL
On Flanders’ shore the heavens wept And spread a veil of heavy mist
One day. Men weary stood—hope| fad
spent. War’s bombing planes with ceaseless fr :
e Were prisoned fast by rolling fog. These soldiers waited on the sand For ships that saved them from defeat. Their comrades’ blood, cried from the ground
hurled By ruthless madmen in the sky. This fog performed a miracle As great as in the Bible-Time—
And fleeing men were saved by God.
DAILY THOUGHT
Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that ‘it may go well with thee, in fhe land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.—Deuteronomy 5:16.
‘| more - Jeisurely and - sedate f
Gen. ohnson Says-
‘Evacuation of Paris Does Not ' Mean Loss of War for French, Greater Peril Lying in Loss of Ports
ASHINGTON, June 15.—In a sense Paris belongs to the world and nobody wants to see it a mass of smoking ruins. Its surrender may have a depressing effect on Allied morale but, of itself, it should not. In cold military science, neither the capture nor retention of a city is of primary importance except as that city may be of strong defensive or economic value —and this depends on the configuration of the surrounding country and its fortifications and factories more than on [its character as a city. The real military objective is the enemy army in the fel and its sources of supply. Failure to see this point cleatly has cost more lives and lost more campaigns than any other single hoary blunder. For the first two years of our Civil War in the East, both the Federal and Confederate Governments seemed to think that all that was necessary to win the war was to capture Richmond or Washington, In the West, (Grant saw things much more clearly, He confined his efforts to strategic military objectives.
That won the war. M 'S peninsula campaign failed largely because| Secretary of War Stanton seemed to think that the Confederate cause depended on capturing him, or at least Washington, and withheld or withdrew troo s counted on by McClellan in his orig-
2 % 2
Because wily old Joe Johnston knew that the Confederate Arm real defense Georgia—the breadbasket of the Confederacy—he was withdrawn from the command in favor of the headlong Hood, who threw it away against Thomas at Nashville. This permitted Sherman to march to th Georgia—which . was the real death-blow to the lost cause. So the loss of Paris alone must not be regarded as the loss of the wa@¥ The real danger is the steady German occupation the ports of the French west coast and of| the industrial areas on which France relies for military supplies. #2 £8
N 1918, the loss of the channel ports would have ended the war. They were so congested that we had to rebuild the southern ports before we could supply the A. E. F. After we and the British got 4,000,000 men’ to France the loss of the north channel ports alone would have starved into submission the British Army| and the French Army and civilian population. The Germans did not see that quickly enough, This time|they seem to have profited by that les« son. The p supply problem today is not so great, for the sad reason that there are not so many Allies in France, but it is great enough to make German Susvess on the coast the deadliest factor of the present peril. The evacuation of Paris standing alone, would save one of the landmarks of human progress and strengthen rather than weaken the battle force of France. The great and perhaps. deciding danger lies elsewhere.
| Business By John T. Flynn Vargas Points to Real Peril for u. Sh A Tendency Toward Fascist Society EW YORK June 15.—Americans are a little taken aback at the statement of Brazil's president,
Getulio Vargas, with reference to the European war. It had all the marks of an approval of the regimes
least its President, might tolerate the coming of these Faseist dictators.
Unfortunately its meaning is far more serious than that and our special danger in America is our refusal to see that peril.
The central idea in the Vargas statement is that a nation must have a “balanced economy” and for that reason the state.” The object of this direction is to “assume responsibility to assure adequate national production.” The “rights| of business must be respected” and the “state must help bona fide business” but “would mot guarantee exaggerated profits” or “permit business to exploit the great majority.” This ought to sound very familiar to American ears. We have heard it here. | Our economy is out of balance. Business needs ald from the state. The day of individualism is over,
rights of the honest businessmen must be protected. The lawless| businessman must be curbed and all this must be done under the direction of the state. : All the sentences in the paragraph above are taken verbatim from statements made at different times by
merce of the United. States and the President of the United States. What Mr. Vargas said, and what Mr. Roosevelt has said, and what great trade leaders say, is based upon the theory that our economic system is out of balance,
must be carried on under supervision of the state. ‘The Real Enemy
All this sounds very plausible when we say it, but it sounds very unpleasant when Mr. Vargas says it under today’s circumstances. But, however it sounds, this is the| core of fascism. All the rest of fascism is perely the instrumentalities to achieve the central
Wold hing Your Health By Jane Stafford :
HE wave of enthusiasm for square dancing, or folk dancing as some prefer to call it, which is sweeping the country should prove to be a healthful
. * Dancing in itself is good exercise, though probably few who dance for pleasure think of it in the light of its health-giving benefits. The value of dancing, as of all forms of exercise, is increased when it is done|out of doors where there is plenty of fresh air to ventilate the dancers’ lungs. Here is one point on which [square dancing scores, because, while hundreds have been having fun with these old-fashioned dances in clubs .and gymnasiums during the past winter and spring, the long summer evenings are likely to find more and more of them dancing on the village green or equivalent in public parks. Square dancing scores also on the point of the numbers whom it can benefit. For the young and healthy it can be a form of extremely vigorous exercise, calling for strong muscles and sound heart and lungs. Square dancing, however, can be done in ion, slowed to the’ tempo of the. elderly or of those of any age who are unaccustomed to any exercise except that of getting in and © to and from work. These persons, even if they begin by walking through the Virginia Reel, will in time fing their muscles growing stronger, their circulation better, and their appetite and digestion improved. All of these benefits to health can, of course,
NEXT TO GOD, thy parents.—
obtained from many kinds of exercise suited to individ and
sea, destroying the rich resources of °
of Mussolini and Hitler, and for this reason it is promptly interpreted as evidence that Brazil, or at:
there must be an “economy directed by.
leaders .of American business, the Chamber of Com-=:
disordered, must be controlled, and that the control.
of the bus or automobile which takes them
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