Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 August 1940 — Page 16

PAGE 16

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eRe FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 1940

TRE RET

SPREADING THE BURDEN HILE the Senate continues debate on the Burke-Wads-worth selective service bill, the military affairs committee of the House has approved a different—and a better —version of the same measure. The Senate bill provides for registration and drafting of men between the ages of 21 and 31. The House committee’s bill provides for the registration of men between 18 and 64, with those between 21 and 45 subject to selection draft for training. This would insure a genuinely comprehensive inventory of American manpower, it would more widely distribute the burden of national defense, and it would make possible a more generous policy of exemptions for individuals. : It is probable that comparatively few men past 31 would be drafted. Those beyond that age, as contrasted to those in the 21-31 bracket, are more likely to have dependents, or to be employed in essential industries, ‘or to have physical disabilities. But there is no reason why a man past 31 who is not disabled, who does not hold an essential job in industry, and who has no dependents, should remain at home while his younger neighbor is required to undergo military training. Efficient defense requires complete information about the manpower available to the country, and the registration of all men between 18 and 64 would supply that information. Fairness requires that selection of men for military service should be made from the widest possible group, not from any smaller group, and the 21-45 draft provision would insure that. We hope that the law finally enacted by Congress will follow the lines of the House committee's bill.

HOW THEY MUST SUFFER MEMBERS of the Ku-Klux Klan and the German-Amer-

Jersey camp in an alliance as appropriate as the affinity between flies and garbage. Klan speakers expressed sympathy for bundsmen who have been “persecuted” for their adherence to Nazi doctrines. There was not the slightest appreciation of the absurdity of that sympathy, coming from experts on the subject of persecution ot minorities. Those capable of comprehending such humor would naturally be barred as Klan speakers, anyway.

ON TRAINING THE ADAM’S APPLE

REFERRING again to that matter of Mr. Willkie's weakness as comparad with Mr. Roosevelt in the fine arts of enunciation and pronunciation, it seems that we were too laudatory of Mr. Roosevelt when we described his as the greatest epiglottis in the known world. Since expressing that opinion we have run across gn

expert, H. Noyes McKay of Berkeley, Cal, who has built | ) [try a lot of good,” opined one.

himself a Lig reputation as a critic of radio diction through keeping score on slucs, stumbles, backtracks and other slips of the larynx. He has found that the general average in an American radio speech is 45 errors per hour. The Willkie acceptance speech as clocked by Mr. MeKay registered 96 errors, gross, in 55 minutes. Not so good. Anyhow. Mr. Roosevelt by the same scoring process ins’t so near perfecticn as we thought. He rated 54 errors,

a six-minute stretch made no errors of any kind, and one newscaster cut down, through supervision, what Mr. MecKay calls dictional damage to 15 per hour for a whole week.

\

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Evidence Is Piling Up That Slurs On Willie's Fifth Ave. Address Are Only Harming the Democrats.

EW YORK, Aug. 23.—There have been several cracks from editorial and political spokesmen of the Social-Democratic Party about the fact that Wendell Willkie's home address is 1010 Fifth Ave, New York. That is the fact, and it is their privilege to make what they can of it, but, of course, it is understood that this address is mentioned not to let people know where Willkie lives, but to suggest that he is a predatory dude and no bargain for the common people. It is just too bad thdt the Americans have to make such a cheap and pathetic spectacle of themselves with dirty insinuations of this kind at this time, but the Social-Democrats are making the rules and they can’t expect to be allowed to drop in low punches without any return. Naturally, the Willkie people will pop them back, and Mr. Willkie himself already has mentioned that his small apartment on Fifth Ave. is not far from the private home of President Roosevelt, which, in=cidentally, is not a small apartment, but a house, and which, also, was given to him by his mother and not bought out of his own earnings. = = u ND Harold Ickes, who made the most recent mention of Willkie’s private address, thereby certainly courted the observation that he himself has not only one home, but two—one in Winnetka, Ill, on a street called Private Road, and the other in Maryland, just outside Washington, which is pretty good housing ‘for a professional bleeding-heart, bu in either case a disadvantageous position from which to pull supercilious snoots at the snobbishness of a man residing at 1010 Fifth Ave. Of late Ickes has been extremely sensitive on the subject of personal asperations and smears, forgetting, no doubt, that back in 1932 the Social-Democrats had the public rolling in the aisles with their unconventional belts at poor old Alexander Throttlebottom Hoover.” Mr. Ickes himself doesn’t like them down there, but when he is doing the punching he draws the foul line down around the kneecaps, and when he is éatching anything south of the Adam's apple he terms it a deliberate and dastardly foul and likely to debase the solemn referendum. The Social-Democrats can decide what kind of campaign this is to pe, but if the insist on a repetition of the Michelson smear of 1932, which they enjoved so hilariously at the expense of the stuffy and awkward Mr. Hoover, they will have to be prepared to take more than they can give. " sn s ND if Ickes will insist on smearing at the significance of Willkie's home address and the manner in which he arrived at that address it will do him no good to yell “Keep them punches up!” when people make note of his two home addresses. The bleeding-heart business obviously is a pretty good business if Harold Ickes can be used as an example. Willkie already. has expressed his enthusiastic desire to file a schedule of all his property and, no doubt, would be willing to explain in detail also how he came by every nickel, and anyone whatries to fault him on

the score of his home address or holdings, inciuding |

Mr. Ickes, had better be prepared for a challenge to do the same The Social-Democrats had better change the subject, because if they insist on Smearing it through this time their smear and the counter-smear will make

ican Bund mingled last Sunday at the Bund’s New |an awful spectacle of the Democratic process before

the neighbors, including Hitler, and badly impair, if not destroy. public confidence in the next President of the United States, whoever he may be.

Inside Indianapolis

What a Good Political Scrap Can Do And Headaches at the State House

HE folks here apparently are feeling the Will-kie-Roosevelt tussle sort of strongly. They've been flocking to the Vote Registration office at the Court House in droves and Harry Gasper over there says that he's had applications from people who havan't voted in years. If the present pace keeps up, the total is pretty sure to exceed the ali-time high mark of 286,000, on the books in '36. There's nothing like a good scrap to pull a crowd. el AND TALKING ABOUT politics reminds us of the two mail carriers riding the streetcar the other night “A change of administration will do this coun“That's just the way I feel.” replied his companion The man in the next seat looked up from his paper, glowering “What's your number?” he said to the carrier nearest him. “I'm going to report you to Adolph.” (The Postmaster) “Go right ahead,” grinned the postman. And then they changed the subject to how lucky they were they were on civil service and didn't have

| to go kowtowing to politicos.

gross, in his last fireside chat, whereas Mrs. Roosevelt on | | probably did tell Adolph, too.

| to supplant

Which might argue for a vote for Mrs. Roosevelt for Presi- |

dent, or Lowell Thomas, or somebody other than either of the nominees.

apologize to Mr. Willkie for handing too much of a bouquet to his opponent as having the best-dressed vocal cords in captivity. Still, we think Mr. Willkie would do well to take some lessons in radio spezking. He is much better at the ad lib than he is on the radio, and we have a hunch that he is too mike and manuscript conscious. There is something in not being 100 per cent glib. Some of the radio announcers are just that. But, as a general proposition, when one is sounding off his organs of speech

for the purpose of cerralling votes it’s a good idea to keep |

one’s syllables on straight.

ARE HIGH SCHOOLS FAILING?

T seems to us a fine thing for educators to be critical of |

the educational system. Therefore, we welcome the report which a committee appointed by the American Council on Education has prepared for the American Youth Commission. This country’s high schools, it asserts, are not meet-

ing the important needs of most of the 6,500,000 boys and | Some four million young people |

girls who attend them. betwe-n the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed. Yet the * great majority of high school pupils are being led by their studies to hope for careers in “white collar” jobs, and most of them are sure to be disappointed.

So the report holds that the country should return to “the realistic educational views of early colonial settlers” —the training of young people to do productive labor. It says that in many cases the present methods of teaching such subjects as algebra, geometry, English composition and foreign languages “cannot be defended in the light of modern conditions.” And it recommends high school courses in improved methods of reading and in actual work experience, expanded courses in the social studies and instruction in personal proktiems. In short, we take it that the committee wants the high ‘schools to prepare their pupils for the kind of world in which they will have to live—a reasonable want, surely.

| dark all get-out. .

Sara: 3 . . { our little scripti i , day Anyway, in all fairness as the saying goes, we want to | DUR ne Vesitros’

{ they're just trying to keep the thing quiet so that

| of ward-heelers looking for jobs. .

The man in the next seat sat and suffered. He

u u 4

ONE GASOLINE STATION in town is planning its male attendants with girl gasoline clerks. . . . Business must be falling off. . . . Chief Morrissey has been touring the town under cover of lately and says that things are as quiet as . . The State House was all upset about They deny all. . What they say now is that they can build up a good service without a bunch . « Yes, the State House said that. > ®

\ 2 STATE FAIR NOTES: The big tents already are

{ up at the Fair Grounds and the exhibits are being

moved in. The Dodge Stables’ string of 28 horses is due in today from Frisco Alex Templeton, the blind pianist, who gets married in Los Angeles on Sunday, will arrive with his bride just in time for the barn dance on the 31st.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Y official proclamation, President Roosevelt sets aside Sunday, Sept. 8, as a day of prayer “when Americans of every creed and denomination should ask God to grant to this land and to the troubled world a righteous and enduring peace.” We can only hope God does not have a sense of humor and will lend a gracious ear to the plea. We

| could hardly feel slighted, however, if He remained

deaf. Men have been praying for peace while they made ready for war ever since Noah built the Ark. To be sure, the “prayers of the righteous man availeth much,” but at the same time, “prayer without works is dead,” according to the Scriptures. Who, then, is worthy to send up supplications for an enduring peace? Only those whe believe “in

| it with all their hearts and all their strength and all their souls. Only those who practice, as well as

| |

| | { |

| wills

preach, tolerance. Only those who in private and political life try to turn men’s minds away from war, and who have faith that ultimately Peace must come, even as God's will must some day rule the earth. All others are Pharisees crying loudly in the temples while they go daily about their business of stirring up strife and making ready for war. Most of us believe in the power of prayer. But how many honest Christian men and women can feel that prayer will bring peace to any land while the whole population is being trained to think war and the entire energy of the nation is turned toward. martial business. God would respect us more, I think, if we were sincere about the question, and left Him out of our political and trade dissensions. Wars continue, not because some higher power it, but because somewhere men are always arming to fight. In spite of prayer, can peace ever be realized on earth unless national leaders are as interested in promoting it as they are now concerned with creating armies? Yes, let us pray, but let us work, also, for the attainment of the dream in which we believe. -

A ~

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES ____ ——" We Stand at the Crossroads—and Stand!

LESSEE

NOW = WE COULD &O THIS WAY= NO! TRAT ROAD GHT BE

WAY DONT WE PARK * RIGHT HERE UNTIL JANVARY AN' THEN MEBBE

C— —t R—

I wholly

The Hoosier Forum

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

disagree with what you say, but wilt

ICKES STRENGTHENS HIS FAITH IN WILLKIE

By A Times Reader

On the evening of Aug. 20 Mr. Ickes hobbled up to the microphone with his old wornout New Deal smear bucket to do a little smearing on Mr. Willkie. After ranting around awhile he ended up by trying to connect Mr. Willkie with Wall Street. | After Mr. Willkie was through I

was more than ever convinced that |T would rather have Mr. Willkie and Wall Street running this country] {than Mr. Roosevelt and the 2300 Communists he has on the Federal] |payroll in Washington. > @ = CLAIMS ROOSEVELT MUFFED BIG CHANCE By Voice in the Crowd We all have a right to our opin-| lions and to express them. It seems, however, that too many | opinions are spontaneous and pre-| mature. It will take between five] and 20 vears of history to prove that a lot of folks are wrong. It is no time now to say that) “Roosevelt is the greatest President ever elected here or anywhere.” | | There is no proof to back it up and] no evidence that history will so record it. If we ever again become] a free people as we once were, and be a people of unified vet individual |ideals, it will be because we have |elected the greatest President that! we have ever had, and it will not {be Roosevelt. Mr. Roosevelt had (his chance for that title and failed to earn it. We need leadership that will | frankly state the problem and dare {to tell the people how we can pull {together and build a national fu(ture. That leader will not sur-| round himself with “yes men,” he| will not purge the “no men,” he|

. (will be big enough to know that at|

least half the time those that say| “no” are right. The leader we need must have come up from the lowly by hard work and must have been tempered | by adversity and have won battles] in his own struggle to rise. He will {be extremely sympathetic but he| {will teach us not to nourish. self] | pity.

{not be accused of political axes to |County.

He will be work-minded and is a very ugly and serious word for

Side Glances—By Galbraith

this with the punishment very certain in time of peril. Gen. Pershing again assures that there is no necessity for American troops abroad. So let us have the sense to act at the right time. Political consistency, gentlemen. ” EJ on

HOPES WILLKIE GETS ALL ‘BACKSLIDERS’

(Times readers are invited to express their 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 in

By J. T. Cofer, Known as the Mule King

of Indiana

lead us in the philosophy that work| When Mr. Roosevelt was nomialone will save us. He will point nated in 1932 he flew to Chicago out the folly of an idealism that to accept the nomination and that we can work less and spend our was all there was to it. He also grandchildren Se fies a ead : flew over Al Smith's train when he more abundant life. e will lead commenced his walk. Mr. Willkie, | us to encourage the conversion of you have said so many things un- | dollars into hours of toil for the pecoming a candidate for President. benefit of us who labor without | you talk of your farms. Please tell | discouraging the turn of capital. the public how many of those farms TL Jomler be by ike vs were sold on account of foreclosure | nearly eight years egative| of mortgage. . . . leadership proves that Mr. Roose- Now, Mr. Willkie, vou brag about velt cannot do it. the Democrats you have supporting | rr you. They are what the churches WANTS DESTROYERS use to call backsliders after the | SOLD TO ENGLAND church had turned them out. Now, By Liberty Mr. Willkie, you have the most of | ; our backsliders and I do hope that | Just why anyone no matter how |you will get them all isolationist would not have the typ-| Mr. Willkie, please tell what corn | ical Yankee sense for a bargain to | was worth the last ‘three months | sell or give ante-dated. out-moded |of the Hoover Administration. Also

boats when they can still be of use | What hogs brought at the same time |

to England at this time, is not quite |Off your farm or anyone else's. I]

clear, does not make sense, in any (Dad a farm in an adjoining county

language at any time. to Mr. Willkie's county at that] Gen. Pershing in a broadcast de- [lime. It was so cheap in the fall clares we have many of them, and |I kept mine until March and sold | he warns of the possibility of it be- |it for 14 cents a bushel delivered at |

ing good business besides. He can- |the elevator in Westport, Decatur | I sold my hogs for 3%

grind, and his experience entitles cents. him to the respect and authority | » # =» his position inspires. DENIES DRAFT SAME It will be a very foolish, not toas DECLARING WAR say disastrous policy, to play politics | with easy going Americans even be- Clarence F. Goodyear fore election, and delays look very | I cannot understand why so many much like naive aspirants for po- persons have the fixed idea that the litical honors had been giving ear [selective service conscription bill Is |

By

{to the propagandist who cut his tantamount to declaring war and

No more sending troops abroad. Soldiering is] like |and must be considered as a trade|

eye teeth on the last war. brash suggestions. this time, fighting Europe's. battles, when it is and, as such, must have thoroughly apparent England is fighting ours [trained men to produce the results| in her own defense, and denying [expected of them. her what we will not use looks like | No industry can or will employ an giving aid to the enemy and there untrained man on a skilled job where the fate of one small part of that industry is at stake. How can we, intelligent and educated human beings expect. in the event of an | emergency, to place in the keeping of an inadequately trained, hetero-

"Old John billed us 50 cents extra for taking care of the children the last time he mowed the lawn."

geneous mass of men the very life |of our Republic? A good example of the hasty reasoning of the general public is in the contribution to the Hoosier Forum of Aug. 15 by Mrs. B. B. wherein she asks, “Don't implant the desire to fight in our boys by teaching them how to kill.” Be honest with yourselves. Doesn't that sound just as -reasonable as saying, “Don't give our boys the chance to be drowned by teaching them how to swim?”

AUGUST BROADCASTS

By MARY P. DENNY

August broadcasts day and night Through an aerial shining bright. Pathway of the earth and star Sounds of life in wonder far. Sound of bird at great high noon Ringing far one living tune. Sounds of thunder and of hail All along the forest trail. Songs of driving rain and wind Far above the city din. March of storm and cyclone All along the summer zone. All the sounds of August time Blend in sound in song sublime.

DAILY THOUGHT

O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.—Jeremiah 14:7.

I COULD not live in peace if I put the shadow of a wilful sin be-

tween myself and God. —George Eliot. >

FRIDAY, AUG. 23, 1940 |

Gen. Johnson Says—

He Urges Passage Now of a Simple Bill Calling Only for Registration Of All Men Between Ages of 18-60,

ASHINGTON, Aug. 23~Full and open debate on the Selective Service Bill is a good thing, but what we are seeing now is hardly debate. It is a political wrangling and jockeying for election posi« tions and we are no nearer a scientific selection bill applying the lessons of our great 1917 success than we were when we started. Two particular lessons of that war might be good to remember. The same kind of political shadow boxing on a Selective Service Bill went on then. It lasted six weeks although we were already at war, Anticipating the outcome, when the law finally passed, we had the volunteer nation-wide organization for registration completely organized, equipped with millions of forms and .instructed. The registration could have been conducted the day after the bill passed. That action saved 60 days in American speed in raising an army. As the autumn of 1917 came on, two things be« came apparent. The first was that Allied policy of our sending only a “token” army to France would not meet the growing German superiority. The sec« ond was that the early system of selection which failed to classify the whole pool of registrants in the order of their availability could never produce more than 100,000 men a month. So, on Dec. 1, we shifted and reorganized the entire system and in 60 days classified nearly 10,000,000 men. That saved another 60 days in getting off the great spring drafts of 1918 —running as high as 400,000 men a month. " ” n ERE is the lesson. Translate those two periods of 60 saved days each—four months—from relatively deliberate 1917 to desperate 1918 when the Crown Prince of Bavaria broke through. when the British backs were “at the wall,” and you hawe pre« cisely the difference between complete” victory and absolutely certain Allied defeat. That's the lesson. How can we know what four months may now mean in 1941? I think, from that experience that I know a way to apply that lesson now and avoid most of the prickly questions in the current attempt to delay any decisive action until after the election—to avoid them and yet not lose an effective day, The basis of any successful system of equitable selection is the universal registration and classification of our whole manpower into about seven groups in accordance with their relative ability for military training and service with the least’ possible interfer ence with desirable domestic, educational, industrial and agricultural relations. ”

’ ‘

” »

OU can't do anything intelligently and scien= tifically in the way of gletermining quotas, exe emption and deferments or final selection until you have that information. To debate further steps before we have it is ignorant and futile. That essential process if started now will overlap the election and leave us infinitely better prepared to decide. The solution is easy. Quickly pass a simple bill authorizing the registration and classification of all men between 18 and 60. Leave out everything about compulsory service, training, exemption, ministers. divinity students or what-not. Let's use a patriotic common sense, Let's make a start. I will guarantee, that the process will have two effects. It will speed up volunteering to a pace as fast as the Army can accommodate now. It will do more to educate and convince our people of the necessity and fairness of the system than oceans of orators.

Business By John T. Flynn

Willkie's Warning Nation Faces Sacrifices Badly Needed Saying,

EW YORK, Aug. 23.—~What follows is no indorsee ment of the candidacy of Wendell Willkie. That is not the business of this writer. It is merely to call attention to one brief paragraph of Mr. Willkie's speech. Several times this writer has called attention to what is the reigning curse of the world. It is a child of our economic troubles. It may be described as the tendency of the people to follow the leadership of promisers. This is the age of the promisers. We are and have been in an economic jam. Our great problem is to make the economic system work to give jobs, to produce goods, to create income. But it has not been doing that. Hence millions are idle, busi nessmen see no profits, and workers—millions of them —draw wages below the level of decent subsistence. Hence they grow desperate. And im that state the siren song of the gentleman who promises plenty sounds sweet in their ears. On2 man promises pensions of $60 a month and draws hundreds of thousands to his banner. Another promises $200. Another promises $2500 a year.« Mr, Hoover promised the people the abolition of poverty which really outdoes Dr. Townsend. Mr. Roosevelt promised abundance and the good life. Others, ine ciuding Mr. Roosevelt, promise to spend and spend-— pay subsidies to farmers, workers, banks, railroads. AR this is the easy way.

The Way to Disaster

Now this writer has suggested that this is the way to disaster and that the country had need of a leader who would say honestly that we are in trouble; that we are a nation with a sick economy which got sick hy years of bad economic habits; that to get well we must make sacrifices, instead of asking to be coddled and hand-fed. Now Mr. Willkie has said that very thing. “I will not lead you down the easy road,” he said at Elwood. “I shall lead you down the road of sacrie fice and service to your country. ... When Winston Churchilt became Prime Minister of England he said: ‘I have nothing to offer you but blood and sweat.’ Those are harsh words, brave words. Yet if England lives it will be because her people were told the truth and accepted it. “In America we, are not reduced to blood and tears. But we shall not be able to avoid the toil and the sweat. In the months ahead of us every man will have to work a little harder. Every housewife will have to plan a little more carefully. I speak plainly because vou must not be deceived about the difficulties of the future. You will have to be hard of muscle, clear of head and brave of heart.” That desperately needed saying. It was the finest sentiment in the speech.

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford

UNTOR has been to the doctor and had his eyes, oJ teeth and hearing examined. He has been weighed ahd measured and immunized against dise eases like smallpox and diphtheria. He is ready for school, with no serious physical defects to handicap him. Or is he? Does he lisp or stammer, or does he speak easily and clearly? Baby talk may sound very “cute” to parental ears, but it will make the child an object of ridicule among his schoolmates. He may quickly learn to overcome this way of talking, but more serious speech defects, such as stammering, are not likely to be outgrown. Unless special steps are taken to correct them, they will handicap the child throughout his life, Speech is the most valuable of accomplishments, yet until recent years, the U. S. Public Health Service points out, it has been the most neglected of all hampering defects observed among children, Speech is controlled by certain centers in the brain, In normal persons, it is produced by harmonious ace tion of the breathing apparatus, which forces air through ‘the larynx or voice box, the voice box itself, the vocal cords, the muscles of the tongue and mouth, and the two sounding boards, the nasal and oral cavities, The normal baby learns to talk through imitation, usually starting to form words by the time he is 18 months old. Deaf mutes are mute or dumb bécause they have not heard speech, but they van be taught to speak by imitating the movements of the mouth and throat and to understand speech by lip-reading.

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