Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 August 1940 — Page 12

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The Indianapolis Times

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

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Give Light and the People Will Find

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1940

SUMMING IT UP

E have listened to and read reams regarding the great debate on selective military training, and the best thing we have seen yet was said by Senator Lodge of Massachusetts on Aug. 9: “It may very well be that this country will not be attacked, and I hope it will not, and I am rather inclined to believe that it will not; but I have simply felt that those of us who are in a position of responsibility have got to assume the worst, and then if the worst does not happen, so much the better.”

WOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT DEBATES

SJECTING Wendell Willkie's proposal for a series of face-to-face debates on national issues, President Roosevelt said yesterday that the duties of his office in the present international situation will not permit him to make an intensive campaign. The debates, it seems to us, would have been a device admirably suited to the present situation. They would have taken little of the President's time from his duties. They would have enabled a vast number of people to hear from both candidates, under circumstances calculated to present the clearest possible contrast between opposing views. And they might have done much to keep the campaign on a plane that would have increased respect for the dignity and prestige of the presidency. The country may well regret to see the task of replying to Mr. Willkie delegated to Secretary Ickes and other sec-ond-string spokesmen for Candidate Roosevelt. For the trouble with speeches such as Secretary Ickes makes is that they invite reprisals on the same, or even a lower level, and one that tends to sink rapidly. Mr. Willkie was wiser than he may have realized when he asked that the Republican Party waste no money on radio time for a reply to Secretary Ickes by Senator Bridges. The Senator, we judge from the tone of the statement he issued in lieu of a radio speech, was preparing to outdo the Secretary in invective and bitterness. Fortunately, the country’s eardrums were spared that. Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Willkie are capable of debating with calmness, restraint and good humor. Their discussions would have enlightened the country on issues as vital as those which were debated by Lincoln and Douglas. They would have been in the finest tradition of American politics. We regret Mr. Roosevelt's decision that he will be too busy.

A BOSS IS A BOSS

JOHNSTOWN, Pa., business man, Walter R. Suppes, has notified the Senate Campaign Expenditures Committee that he is asking employees of his motor sales company to “spare a little” for the Willkie campaign. Senator Gillette, Towa Democrat and chairman of the committee, concludes that Mr. Suppes has done nothing that is not within his rights as an American. Perhaps that’s true. Yet what if a similar letter were sent by a WPA administrator to WPA project workers, asking contributions to the Roosevelt campaign? It would violate the Hatch Act. It would create a storm of protest. Willkie supporters would say, correctly, that it was terribly wrong. Mr. Suppes’ employees may have such implicit confidence in him that not one of them will contribute to the Willkie campaign unless he really wants to do it. But Mr. Suppes’ letter might be used as a model by other employers whose employees would know it, despite its protestations, for a veiled threat. The fact is that a boss is a boss, and does not cease to be one when he becomes a solicitor of campaign funds. And, regardless of legal rights, we believe no boss—in Government or in private business—should solicit funds or votes from those whose jobs depend on his good will.

FOR THE LOVE OF HONOR

S we were reading about the grand pre-draft stampede on the Marriage License Bureaus in a number of cities, we were reminded for some reason or other about a poem we had to read in high school. It was “To Lucasta, Going to the Wars,” by Richard Lovelace, who lived in 17th Century England. It would be hard to explain why we were reminded of it by the marriage license story, except that ideas are associated by opposites, as well as similarities. Anyhow, this is a piece that used to be required reading in English courses:

Tell m= not, Sweet, I am unkind, That from the nunnery Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind To war and arms I fly.

True, a new mistress now I chase, The first foe in the field; And with a stronger faith embrace A sword, a horse, a shield.

Yet this inconsistency is such As thou too shalt adore; I could not love thee, dear, so much Loved I not honor more,

A pretty old fashioned piece, that, artificial as a full |

bottomed wig, elegant, a little pompous, not at all in the modern manner. We wonder if they read old fashioned pieces like that in the schools any more.

DOUBLY WELCOME

T is pleasant for Indianapolis to play host to the 58th international convention of the Knights of Columbus, particularly since this is the first time the international convention has been held in this city. As a matter of fact, it is doubly pleasant now that we think of it, for the Knights arrived almost simultaneously with the cool weather. Come again next year, gentlemen, and just a little earlier, The really hot weather sets in here about Aug. 1.

>

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Willkie's Foreign Policy Stand Ends Last Hope U. S. Can Remain at Peace If Britain Is Defeated.

EW YORK, Aug. 21.—Wendell Willkie's acceptance speech extinguished the last hope that the United States would be able to keep out of the war should Britain fall. Assuming that Britain cannot beat Germany, I proceed to examine Mr. Willkie's remarks. He denounced the President for “attacks on foreign powers” and for courting “a war for which the country is hopelessly unprepared.” He said, also, that “the country has been placed in the false position of shouting insults and not even beginning to prepare to tak® the consequences.” But the man who is the only alternative to Mr. Roosevelt himself acknowledged that “if the British fleet were lost the Atlantic might be dominated by Germany, a power hostile to our way of life, controlling, in that event, most of the ships and the shipbuilding facilities of Europe.” The word “might” is a

weak word here.

= = 2

- HAT,” he said, “would be calamity for us. Our defense would be weakened until we could build a navy and air force strong enough to defend both coasts. Also our foreign trade would be profoundly affected. That trade is vital to our prosperity. But if we had to trade with a Europe dominated by the present German trade policies we might have to change our method to some totalitarian form.” Mr. Willkie spoke of the “barbarous and worse than medieval persecutions” inflicted by the German government. He said, “we must face a brutal but terrible fact. Our way of life is in competition with Hitler's way of life.” And, again naming the enemy, he said, “I promise . . . to out-distance Hitler in any contest he chooses in 1940 or thereafter.” Thus Willkie went at least as far as the President ever has gone in recognizing the enemy and the conflict of our way of life with Hitler's. The German way is imposed on others by war. And there is no escape from the conclusion that if Willkie is elected he must resist by war the inevitable attempt of the chosen people of Hitler to reduce the Americans, like the peoples of eight European countries, to the status of subhuman slaves. Here it is still assumed that the British cannot win and that Hitler will put them to work for him, using their labor in their own shipyards to build more power for an assault on the United States. 2 E-4 ” ONSIDERING the vigor of Willkie's own compliments to. Hitler, his objection to Mr. Roosevelt's utterances on the same subject is unfair and inconsistent. True, Mr. Roosevelt is President and Willkie is not vet, but if Willkie be elected he will be committed by these phrases. Does this mean, then, that the next President,

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

whether Roosevelt or Willkie, will lead the United |

It means rather

States into war? Not that exactly. that the next President will lead us in war, but not

into war. because. with Britain beaten, Hitler would | By A Mother

and will bring the war to us.

The question then is not one of avoiding War. jiqor as any human being on earth. | I have been married 27 years and | until prohibition was in my husband | {never drank any at all | started, and he is an ideal man to

Hitler will decide that. It is a question of choosing the man who will do the better job of arming and training for war, leading the country in war and preserving or. after a period of suspension, restoring the liberties for which that war would be fought.

Inside Indianapolis

The Split-Ballot Business, Politics And a Simple Railroading Problem

HE Republicans, by and large. are pretty unhappy

about all this business about splitting the Presi-

dential and State ballots in two and they probably will |

remain so until the whole affair is settled. You can't blame them for being so upset about the

dell Willkie's name is on. That's just good, plain | horse sense. At this particular minute, they believe the Willkie name has Indiana in the hip pocket. Take Willkie out of the picture and the State race |

Willis against Minton, Hillis against Schricker, and the Army, Navy | during peacetime is only the fore- |

so on—is touch-and-go. The way the G. O. P. looks at it, it’s another New Deal plot. = = 2 TALKING ABOUT POLITICS, those old, bewhiskered rumors about President Roosevelt's health are being passed around again, . .. And that is dirty politics. . . . One of our readers has become alarmed by all the talk about dictatorship in the U. S. and called us to ask: “Suppose the country went to war before November. Would we have an election?” . . . He seemed genuinely relieved with the assurance that we'd probably have the election just the same.

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THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION is a little sad about the way things are going, too. It's all about the Monon Railroad which Saturday abandoned two passenger trains without an order from the Commission. Perry McCart, chairman of the PSC, would like to do something about it but he recalls ruefully that several years ago in a similar case all that happened was that the railroad (the Southern) got a restraining order in Federal Court and that ended that. Like as not, this ends this.

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THE MAN STALKED into the Piggly Wiggly store at 1305 N. Pennsylvania St. with a bar of soap in his hand. He nearly upset an onion rack in his anger and haste as he hurried through the self-service counters. He snatched up a sack of sugar and banged the soap and the sugar on the cashier’s counter. “I'm returning the soap and I owe you a nickel,” he barked at the clerk. “What?” said the startled clerk. “Aw, my wife says you can't put soap in coffee!” growled the customer and nearly upset the onion rack again on his way out.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

T is discouraging to note that the hecklers of Charles Lindbergh do their heckling in the name of patriotism. Because, like his persecuted father, he does not wish to see his country embroiled in a foreign war, and because he takes the sensible view that eventually we shall be forced to deal with the world as it is, and not as we might wish it to be, he is named by many as head of the “Fifth Column.” I may be wrong, but it seems to me that this wholesale belittling of one who has been a hero to a generation of young people can do more to tear down our ideals and traditions than a regiment of petty traitors. In our country the one inflexible privilege is the right to disagree. So far, it has not been a major offense to oppose Congressmen or even Presidents. And nothing so strongly points to what a military censorship could be as the abuses that have been heaped upon the head of an American who happens to oppose the policies of the party in power and who possesses the courage to express those opinions. Moreover, it is hardly becoming to men who have themselves showed no higher bravery than that required to write editorials or campaign for votes, to malign a man who had the physical and spiritual valor to fly the Atlantic alone. Yet many of our politicians of late have sneered openly at that feat, forgetting, I suppose, that it is upon just such courage of spirit and body that our own future defense depends. This general nosethumbing at one who has been already set down in history as the greatest of aviators, must make our student fliers wonder what is wrong with the nation’s appreciation of service. Surely this is no time to strip from any hero his flimsy glory. Can't we hear differing opinions without invoking the stocks and the thumbscrew? We may not agree with the political views of Charles Lindberg. but let us disagree at least like gentlemen and statesmen, for every man today who destroys one boy's here has killed a little bit of America's spirit.

| UNDER DRAFT BILL

situation. They want everything on the ballot Wen- | By M. L. Thompson

| Where is your home?

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WEDNESDAY, AUG. 21, 1940

We See by the Funny Papers—

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The Hoosier Forum:

I wholly disagree with what you say,

but wilt,

defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

THINKS EDUCATION BEST WAY TO FIGHT LIQUOR

(Times readers are invited

to express their views in these columns, religious con excluded. Make

your letters short, so all can

Mr. X: I am as disgusted with

troversies

Then he| have a chance. Letters must

me and my family every way but be signed, but names will be that drinking. And you talk of our withheld on request.) young people, they also started their | —

drinking when it began to be made | : in the homes. . . | what our peacetime Army, Navy and

I would be the first to cast my Marine Corps are for. Proper schoolvote against it if that would solve |in8 of our present Army, Navy ana the liquor question and abolish it Marine Corps will take care of the

forever but we know it won't so we So-called emergency defense. There |

will just have to try to raise our are hundreds of thousands of World children to see what a ridiculous War veterans in their forties who thing liquor is. |have made the statement that the Army or Navy would never get them except at the point of a bayonet or gun. Then you have heard them say they would go and do what they were called upon to do should in- ; {vasion of our nation be threatened. The declaration by Congress that 1n such a fight you would not be

$ oH oH SEES LIBERTIES LOST

chases in some other country but you would be defending our own {home sweet home. , . My husband is a disabled World runner of internal strife and the | War veteran and we have three loss of patriotism which we now children whom we are teaching have. {patriotism and respect to the U.S. A. The next step would be the post- |It is my sincere wish that my chiling of soldiers at our polling places | dren may never have to be drafted. on election day. About 90 billion|If necessary I know they will go dollars have been spent in the past | without waiting to be drafted. seven and one-half years that could have been used for defense and at . the same time taken care of the re-| WANTS CAMPAIGN lief in a more efficient manner. {CONFINED TO ISSUES That, however, is water over the! i" 8 dam; our Congress should benefit by |» M: ©, French, Edwardsport, Ind. past mistakes. It seems that now is| I read in the people's column the time for the taxpayers to ob-|Where a Robert Pennington is goject. . . [ing to form a “little pig burner” You of the voting age have a duty | club. I wonder why he stops there? to send the proper citizens to our He should form a “plow under” seat of Government as Congress-| club. a “spend everything” club and men. That does not end your re-|a “change everything” club, invitsponsibility, however, as these Con-|ing all who believe in these pringressmen are our servants and it is ciples to join up and help the New our duty to instruct them of the|Deal home need. A slacker is our worst| He should also organize a “soup” enemy. You do not wish to be club to take care of all relief accalled a slacker. You will not only |tivities. An “apple” club to take be called one but will be one if ajcare of the blind and aged. A

and Marine Corps

|draft bill is passed by our Congress ‘crowbar” club to open any bank | without vour

protest. [that fails under the G. O. P,, and a Just ask yourself, “Do I have to be | “hiker’s” club to march on Washdrafted to protect my own home?” | ington and get acquainted with the The answer | arms industry, inviting all to join is that no draft is needed to protect up who believe in these principles, our nation in peacetime. with the old deal. Necessary instructions in mecha-| Mr. Willkie asks us to return to nized implements of warfare arelthe good old American way of liv-

Side Glances—By Galbraith

COPR. 1540 BY NE T.M. REG. U. 8. PAT. OFF, e-

"We've been admiring that lone tomato for two weeks now—

when? are we going to eat it?"

ing. As I have known the good old American way of living these past 50 years, it has been whocpee, graft and hard times in cycles. 1 have my doubts that Mr. Willkie can pick spots like the Coolidge era and maintain them. . . . We will soon sce whether a gallery packed G. O. P. convention or a floor-packed Democrat convention will furnish the ruler of the roost for the next four years. It doesn't matter whether each is a real Republican or Democrat or how many terms they may ask for providing they do a good job or can do a good job. . If the G. O. P. thinks they will get votes by panning Roosevelt and

| the Democrats think they can get

votes by panning Mr. Willkie's business ability, they both had better forget it. Constructive criticism is needed in |a democracy. But verbal brickbats which produce nothing but satire, will help neither side. We independ{ent voters respect any man who is

| such an emergency exists as is nec-|protecting millionaires in their pur-|liberal in thought and action. , . . | essary to draft our young men in

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' DOUBTS RELIEF GROUP | MAKES GOOD SOLDIERS

By B. L.

| I have read several letters in the

[local papers contributed by readers [who advocate raising an Army by | drafting the WPA worker and the | CCC boys. Did these people ever stop to consider what the morale of an Army made up of these men would be like? These men are already discouraged, dissatisfied and in most cases thoroughly disgusted with a country as rich as this one is, but with an economic setup that will not allow them to make a decent living, They are the victims of an unjust discrimination by the politicians and the industrialists. . The Democrats think they are sure of the WPA vote this fall but the Democrats don't realize that the average WPA worker has grown weary of our pick and shovel President and his wheelbarrow prosperity. Much has been said about the good things the WPA has accomplished. Their greatest accomplishment has been the making of good Republicans out of thousands of former stanch Democrats.

yy a 3 ASKS WHERE WILLKIE IS TO GET FUNDS

By J. C. B. Print this if we still have a free press. We note Mr. Willkie has started his cracks about Democratic campaign funds. May we ask where Mr, Willkie's funds come from? Since 90 per cent of our press is controlled by big moneyed interests (free press?) and Wall Street and the power trusts are backing Willkie, IT presume he thinks he can scare people into voting for him by making them think everything the Democrats do is crooked. “Let he that is without sin toss the first stone.” I have been a reader of The Times for many years and am very disappointed that you have become a Wall Street paper. If free press is to survive, you newspapermen must wake up.

MY PRAYER By VELMA M. FRAME Dear Lord, please hear my prayer I send today to Thee For every kind of fleeing refugee, Please heal their heart-sick souls and weary feet, Give them food and strength and restful sleep; Please give them rest from ruthless cannons’ roar And keep them in Thy care forevermore.

DAILY THOUGHT

And the children of Israel said unto the Lord, We have sinned; do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.— Judges 10:15.

WHAT IS human sin but the abuse of human appetites, of human passions, of human faculties,

in themselves all innocent?—R. D.4

Gen. Johnson Says—

Chrysler an Industrial Genius; Had Reputation as ''Tough Trooper," but Actually Was Gentle and Kind.

ASHINGTON, Aug. 21.-—-“Wherever Gregor sits is the head of the table.” During his prime that could well have been said of Walter Chrysler by the whole automobile industry-— excepting Henry Ford. Now Walter Chrysler is gone, Ha was one of the industrial giants of the magis period of expansion beginning with the World War. Industry isn't producing men of that type today. : Maybe the new crop is a better type. It certainly is a more polished type but it lacks the sturdiness. initiative and drive of the generation that started working with its hands and knew—in addition to business strategy and tactics acquired later—every operation in the shop. I have worked with or across the table from him on many occasions in the past 22 years. His going wrenches me, as I think it does everyone who knew him well.

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8 4 8 HE first time I met him was in the old industrial relation days of the World War. These were not unlike those of NRA, in which we were very close. In hoth cases, the Government was calling on industry for unusual effort, leadership and sacrifice. That was Mr. Chrysler's tender side. It was only necessary to strike the patriotic chord to get anything or any con=cession he had to give, With a reputation for being about the toughest trooper in the industry, he was really a complete softy on the sentimental side. One evening when the going was toughest in NRA—literally working 18 to 20 hours a day—he asked me to go to dinner with the heads of his industry. When I complained that I didn’t have the time he carried me off almost bodily on a compromise that it would only be an hour, With the coffee, he pushed his chair back and said: “I want to take a minute to tell you about an experience of my early youth.” Tt started off innocently enough about a prospecting trip in the Rocky Mountains with an old sourdough named Deadeyed Dick. In about five minutes he had that bunch of hard-shells either rocking with laughter or dizzy with astonishment. It was a masterpiece of old-time frontier lying that would have made Mark Twain green with envy. It went on and on with never a flagging of interest, a pause for breath, or a failure of each succeeded whopper to top the earlier ones with fantastic imagery. When he stopped, I suddenly awoke to the fact that it was after midnight and I swore fluently in the language we both understood so well. 8 ¥ “ WwW SHUT UP,” he said gently, “you needed that letting-down to keep from blowing up. That was the only way I could think of to get you to take it.” It was an exquisite art of purely extemporaneous mimicry and invention that very few of even his old associates knew he had. But he never learned to take his own medicine. Tike Franklin Roosevelt and like Wendell Willkie—I fear—he insisted, until recent years, on doing everything important himself, delegating little or no responsibility and driving himself without mercy, I sadly believe that if Walter Chrysler had himself done more letting down to keep from blowing up, I wouldn't be writing this piece for many years and his country would have had the services in this crisis of one of the greatest masters of industrial production the world has seen. He was only 65.

Business

By John T. Flynn

Mr. Arnold, Unless Called Off, Seems Ready to Probe Oil Industry.

EW YORK, Aug. 21.—The Department of Justice 4 is all ready to go after the big oil companies for alleged violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Laws. Powerful interests insist the department should not do this as it will prevent the oil companies from doing their bit in national defense. And now Senator Gillette jumps on the department a little for not proceeding. It is certainly a little early to criticize the department. ‘After a long slumber it has waked up to its responsibilities as an enforcement agent of the anti-trust laws as well as all others. If it did nothing for nearly six out of its eight years that was probably not the fault of the department but rather of the President whose Administration began by sterilizing the anti-trust laws. But during the last 18 months Thurman Arnold has proceeded with vigor on as broad a front as his limited resources permit. If there is a law violation among the big oil companies it is difficult to believe that the department will shrink from action. Of course it is natural that the oil men themselves should use every influence they can command to block a legal attack. And of course now national defense is the favorite cloak for everybody who has an ax to grind or a position to maintain. What the nation wants in its effort for national defense is production—and more production. The one contribution the oil industry can make to national defense is to produce all the oil the Army and Navy need. If the oil companies. have violated the anti-trust laws it is not through combination to increase production. Their combinations are Ine variably to limit production, to keep down the flow of crude and refined oil in order to keep the price up,

Injurious to Defense

If the Department of Justice has a case against the oil companies it must be on the ground that they are in illegal combination to make gasoline more scarce and prices higher. Nothing could be more injurious to national defense than this. he way to aid national defense is to compel these gentlemen to compete with each other—to increase the flow of oil, to keep the price down, to enable the Government to buy ii abundantly and cheaper, while at the same time enabling the citizen to buy it more cheaply, which will increase national gas taxes. In most other industries involved in national defense the great effort is to push production up as quickly as possible. That's what all the industries are attempting—seeking funds for new plants, bate{ling for more machinery, etc. But in the oil indus« try the big companies have got all the plant capacity needed and all the oil needed—and more—is there. They by agreement keep it down, is the charge. If the Department of Justice does not push this prosecution it will not be its fault. The pressure will come from some higher force, we may be sure.

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford

HEN Junior starts off to school this fall, he should have bright eyes, rosy cheeks, firm muscles and an erect posture. These are signs of good health for which the doctor will look when you take Junior to him for a pre-school check-up. Poor posture may be due to fatigue or to malnutrition. Whatever the cause, it should be corrected as early as possible for health as well as for appear=ance. When posture is poor, the stomach and other organs get out of place and their normal functions may be interfered with. Joints may be put under abnormal strain and in time this may cause serious trouble. In a young child plenty of sleep, nourishing food and exercise, to strengthen muscles and teach him how they should be used, will generally correct the defect in posture. When the doctor examines Junior he will advise about these matters. He will also see whether the child's nose and throat are in healthy condition, Removal of tonsils and adenoids is not practiced quite so widely as it once was, but the doctor may consider it necessary in some cases. At the pre-school health check-up, the doctor will weigh and measure Junior, examine his heart and lungs, and will ask whether he has been gaining steadily in weight and growing in height. Junior may be smaller or bigger than other boys of his age and still be perfectly healthy. There is a great dif ference between children in this respect, but it is important that the child show a steady gain. in

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