Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 September 1940 — Page 12

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The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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

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Give Light and the People Will Find Thetr Own Way

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1940

“NONE SO BLIND" IMPLE fairness compels us to pay this tribute to Senator Sherman Minton:

Confusion

By Maj. Al Williams Despite Support for Air Power We Seem to Be Following the Mistakes of France and England

E are getting no more real public information about our rearmament program than did the French or British during the fateful 1934-39 years. We are getting a frightful lot of generalities—such as the French and British people got—but few details. When the aircraft manufacturers were called to Mr. Morgenthau's office, the Government lacked plans and was unable to tell the manufacturers what was expected of them. The aircraft industry is run by businessmen, who need both plans and definite assurances of what is expected of them before they can proceed to enlarge factories, design machinery and hire personnel to make planes.

gation of 14 that to date has had the courage to support | conscription. All the others, including Senator VanNuys, and the | seven Republican and five Democratic members of the | House, choose to believe their constituents back home are | opposing conscription. We use the word “choose” because their attitude can | be explained in no other way. They voted billions for de- | fense only a few weeks ago. Their common sense must | now tell them that men must be drafted to man these war | machines. Their patriotism must point to the necessity of utmost preparedness in the shortest possible time. Yet all 12 are reportedly against the conscription bill. | Their mail and private polls have convinced them that it is impolitic to support it. Would that love for their country would rise above their love of office.

He is the only member of Indiana’s Congressional dele- |

AFTER 25 YEARS

HE other day the Government “mailed” a billion dollars worth of gold from New York to Ft. Knox, Ky., and | paid itself a million dollars in postage on the shipment. This brings to mind the fact that it was just 25 years o—on Aug. 16, 1915—that Uncle Sam adopted the policy | using his postal system for sending money from one part | the country to another. Before that he had given this | usiness to the express companies. Along about 1909 an Arkansas lawyer, Nathan Boone Williams, had started agitating for the change of policy. | The Government, Mr. Williams contended, ought to employ its own facilities instead of paying hundreds of thousands | of dollars a year to private carriers. He kept dinging away at that idea, and after six years the Post Office Department | and the Treasury agreed with him. Mr. Williams, now a lawyer in Washington, D. C., is ill proud of the battle he put up. But he adds, a trifle sadly, he no longer considers it | neces to fight to make the Government do things that | private business has been accustomed to doing. Nowadays, | he says, it’s more necessary to fight to keep the Government from doing everything.

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DEFENSE—THE QUICK WAY “7PIME is the essence.” And in terms of time alone, fortification of those island bases acquired in the deal with Great Britain may well prove, as President Roosevelt says, the most important national-defense action since the Louisiana Purchase.

Experts have estimated that such fortification is pos-

sible within one year. Naval construction to do a comparable defense job would take from four to five years. That might be too late. Nothing is certain, but one year as against four or five may mean the difference between disaster and safety. When the fortification job is done, the air fields laid out, the underground airdromes, hangars and machine shops constructed, and supplies laid in, a national sigh-of-relief week should be declared. May our luck hold out to the end that all those things shall be done in time. Col. H. A. Toulmin Jr., one of the experts, described picturesquely what is involved. We quote him again: “Nature has given us a whole series of aircraft carriers in No fleet of an invading enemy

to attack the United |

the form of these islands. or air corps would be in a position States if we could use this chain of primary defenses.” To Puerto Rico, Guantanamo Bay and the Virgin Islands, huddled much too closely in the Caribbean, is now added a sweep of defense territory which extends from Canada to South America. “In this tense international situation,” says Brig. Gen. | George V. Strong, Assistant Chief of Staff, United States Army, “the country cannot afford to wait until the completion of our Atlantic Navy. The equivalent of that Navy can be secured for defense purposes within a year.” The first step toward that equivalent has been taken.

= 2 n on As to the manner of its taking—as to the legality of e deal—there will be much dispute. We think the country would have liked it better had there been less legalistic retching. Since the New Deal | has been so critical of how corporation lawyers hunt for loopholes, to see Attorney General Robert Jackson have to strain the way he did made us suffer, too. He had a! rather clear-cut statute to get through, but he made it. That 1917 law looked hole-proof. But the word “intent” was, so to speak, the Achilles heel. Mr. Jackson in due time should be properly banqueted by the Philadelphia bar. | Had the war debt been used in the trade, instead of the | destroyers, the transaction might have smelled sweeter— | in view of that legality angle. The whole matter has somewhat the same whiff about it as did that don’t-worry-too- | much-about-the-constitution affair which attended the birth of the Guffey Coal Act.

But we don’t think much of the contention that our | | | |

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defense has been weakened, net, by giving up those boats. | We believe that we will be infinitely stronger through possessing the island bases than through holding those more or less obsolete destroyers. And we only hope that, since the deal is an accomplished fact, we'll now get speedy action in the fortification program. If so, we can all enjoy that breathe-easier spell. |

WAR-IS-HELL DEPARTMENT

_“ AN epidemic of head colds spread through Berlin today, | the sufferers blaming it on British air raids which had caused the people to spend 12 hours in stuffy cellars within a week.”—United Press dispatch. ¢

{ from such

{ Was rearming.

| supplies,

| applied it to our situation?

| and

But there is more to the question. No one has yet answered the questions about a ground person-

| nel comprising far more men than the present Army | and Navy—which would surely be required if we had

the number of planes now talked about.

xn n \ HO is going to handle our air defense, if it really materializes? No answer. I suppose the planes and men would be divided between the Army and Navy, as at present; no one has explained any other plan. Mr, Willkie has advocated a separaie air force, with a Cabinet member representative of it, but this may further alienate the Administration an idea.

a ee

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Go back and look at the air rearmament records | of France and England at the time when Germany | |

Step for step, you will find us now floundering in the same fashion. Billions of francs— billions of pounds—billions of dollars. The only real

| difference, to date, is in the names of the units of

money. Money is being poured into airplane factories, but

| we have no more definite plans for real airpower

than did the French and British at the same stage. The aircraft industry knows the dissension and Jealousies between the several departments of our existing defense system. Army and Navy contracts are matters that are fairly well regulated, but in the air there has been no such regulation. = o HEREFORE, while the majority of manufacturers want to do the right thing, some may see in this

| confused situation a chance to make a financial { killing. Until our air defense policies get on a sound,

regulated basis—which isn’t possible while two services are competing against each other—confusion will continue. For years the British Parliament and the French Chamber of Deputies reverberated with pleas for co-ordination of defense policies, and a general round-up of all

business. The French Army, Navy and Air Force

were fighting among themselves, as were the British :

services.

Into such a disorganized camp rode the financiers. |

During those deadly 1934-1939 years, many courageous Frenchmen and Englishmen wrote and preached

| against the Death March, heedless of consequences.

They were smothered and suppressed.

Now switch quickly to the record of what happened | | to France, and realize how her disaster could have |

been turned aside with 10,000 war planes. Isn’t it time we took a lesson from France and

(Mr. Pegler's regular column will appear tomorrow)

Business

| By John T. Flynn

Conscription of Wealth Natural Sequence to Clamor for Defense

EW YORK, Sept. 4 —Mr. Willkie does not like conscription of wealth. Naturally. Beyond doubt he will like just as little Mr. Henry Wallace's declaration that in this campaign the choice is not between Roosevelt and Willkie but between Roosevelt Hitler, Yet all this is inextricably mixed up with those melancholy statistics and tables and charts which Wall Street brokers and bankers and businessmen ever contemplate, It would be very difficult to get the man in the street to believe that the fundamental economic situation in the United States is worse now than it has been almost anytime in the last seven years. Mr. Man -in - the - Street looks only at surface indications. He sees employment better, pro-

duction better, bank deposits bet- | [nessman” on any of these and see

ter now than in 1933. He therefore concludes that the economic machine is better. An economic machine runs on fuel—gasoline or oil, as you will. When the tank is running very low and there is no oil in sight things are bad. Tt is possible to speed up the engine with the oil low. Because the engine is running faster we must not

‘This is what has happened in our economic machine. The tank is running low. Or rather, the feed

[ from the tank to the engine is choked. The capitalist system must have plenty of available savines funds

in the tank. But they must be piped into the engine through investment. That is so choked now that very little fuel is running into the engine—it is at all time low. The car is moving along, but it is being towed by the Government, n n un OW getting that engine to run is the big question in this campaign—or ought to be. back around mid-1937 the New Deal spending-borrow-ing program tapered off. Business began to decline, Then Dec. 28, 1937, IT wrote: “I wish to make four statements. Statement No. 1: The President is about

| to launch a huge armament program as a means of

spending money. Statement No He is about to launch a series of war scares in order to make this armament program possible. Statement No. 3: He will do this in order to distract attention from the disintegrating domestic situation. Statement No. 4:

| He has in mind shifting public psychology from the

domestic economic to the patriotic motif and to build up the slogan: ‘Stand by the President in 1940.” There was no war in Europe then. Tt was two vears distant this is not precisely what has happened.

Mr. Wallace poses the issue of the campaign from |

the Roosevelt angle: “Roosevelt or Hitler.” As for conseripting wealth—that is a natural consequence of all the rest, inevitable sequence which Mr. Willkie actually assists: Economic disintegration—inereased spending necessary—“national defense as a reason for spending —huge armaments, armies, two-ocean navies, conscription—conscription of wealth—dictatorship—war. But the economic situation is not mentioned.

Words of Gold

RINTING The Congressional Record costs the taxpayers about $50 a page. Many pages these days are filled with purely political material having nothing to do with business before Congress. On Thursday, Aug. 29, the following members of congress put into The Record the material described below

| at a cost approximately as stated:

Senator Johnson (D. Colo.), a newspaper column

| paying tribute to the Adams family of Colorado, of

which Senator Adams (D. Colo.) is a member, $42.50. Rep. Culkin (R. N. Y.), a speech by himself charg-

| ing that the Milk Trust is trying to prevent his re-

election, $85. Rep. Boland (D. Pa), a speech by himself criticizing the McNary acceptance speech, $52. Rep. Coffee (D. Ore.), an anti-Willkie editorial, $70. Senator Mead (D. N. Y.), more than 19 pages of newspaper editorials paying tribute to James A. Farley, $960. Rep. Brewster (R. Me.), a speech by himself predicting that Maine will lead the nation to a Republican victory, $137.50. Total cost to taxpayers, $1347—enough to pay the President’s salary for nearly a week.

procurement of | defense |

But |

I leave it to any fair mind whether |

It goes with the farm: it is part of the |

oon

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WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 4, 1940

i SHOULD HAVE ASKED YOU=

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Gen. Johnson Says—

Mobilization Plan Not Old as F. D. R. Says, but Very Modern, the Result Of Years of Study by Our Experts

ASHINGTON, Sept. 4 — “With some severity, the President refused to make public the industrial mobilization plan that has been drafted since the World War. . . . In answer to a question about the plan. the President asked why he should make it public any more than publishing the plan of the Civili War. ‘We are working in 1940, he said sharply, adding that he was not interested in any old plans.” So the Washington Post reported this noteworthy Presidential testiness. The so-called mobilization plan is the result of years of work and study in the Army War College, the Army Industrial College and the General Staff. It started with a long research for getting indusfry ready to equip armies and navies quickly, cheaply and efficiently. Its bases were both the successes and failures of our own industrial mobilization of 1917 and 1918. Countless hearings or studies were conducted to comb out all the errors of that effort. Comparisons were made with similar experience in other countries. Since 1933, it has been increasingly plain that the startling Nazi success in rearmament was que to their adoption of our mobilization plan both in principle and detail. At frequent intervals, our plan has been revised to keep it abreast of all changes that could affect it. ” n

HIS constant scientific work was not done in any eager volunteer brainstorming by ambitious Army enthusiasts, It was done in compliance with a specific statutory mandate of Congress, laid down in the law establishing the office and duties of the As= sistant Secretary of War. It was again specifically revised in 1939 by a civilian board specifically appointed by the President to do so. It is in no sensa an “old” plan. It is not only a fine, new plan, but it is the only plan there is. The present industrial mobilization in the sense of relative comparison with our own pasty experience or the present experience of other nations is a miserable failure—a complete flop. The reason for that is not that it follows in any “old” plan or any kind of “new” plan either—it just doesn’t follow any plan at all. The mistakes of bewildered painless 1917 are being fol lowed and repeated with nauseating regularity—and consequent hopeless delay, They are being repeated because the President and his administrative family were so fascinated with their habit of “brilliant ex=

1 wholly

The Hoosier Forum

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

| ‘OPPOSES DRAFT, SAYS BRAINS CAN LICK SWORD IBy 'E. 'F. 8.

letter. - We are perilously near the eve of war and I only hope that this | letter accomplishes a little toward preventing that murder, that eradi-

rating of the most precious assets— |

human lives. The conscription is absolutely unnecessary. . . If this letter may sound traitorous

to some of the “militant” I can say |

that I will gladly go on record as | willing to be the first to give my life "if the enemy comes over here. {sure that if we went on record to the world that we would fight only in defense, Hitler would have a futile {Job in convineing his armies that {they are right in invading our country. { » #” ” INSISTS BUSINESSMEN FAIL AS PRESIDENTS By C. Graham

Do we want a businessman? The

{candidacy of Wendell L. Willkie is | being promoted principally on his [record as a business man. . .. | Mr. Willkie in his Elwood speech ‘named the “Presidential Giants” in our history, Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Cleveland, Theo'dore Roosevelt son. I am sure we can all. agree {with him in his selections. Now try to stick the label “busi-

how it fits. In 1920 we elected a businessman, a newspaper publishér Warren | Harding. President Harding appointed as Secretary of Treasury a man very prominent in banking, oil {and aluminum, Andrew Mellon, {whose influence in governmental affairs for the next 12 vears was (tremendous. By the end of the [Coolidge Administration the catas-

| [trophe of 1928 was almost upon us|

but no one in this business Admin{istration seemed able to foresee the [calamity unless it was President Coolidge who was not a businessman but the author of the famous, “I do not choosé to run.” Late in 1928 we elected another businessman, a great engineer and (financier, who was pathetically unable to do anything about our troubles. He led us right up to 1933, {one of the blackest years in our history.

No, we do not want a business-

As a confirmed pacifist and there-{ fore a firm believer that brains can “lick” the sword, I am writing this|

I'm}

and Woodrow Wil-

(Times readers are invited to express their these columns, religious conexcluded. Make

your letters short, so all can

views in

troversies have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

we the

office, in

the President's a man trained

man in must elect “Presidential Giants” on Mr. Willkie's list. ”

” un

CHARGES F. D. R. USES WAR AS THIRD-TERM ALIBI

WwW. ML What has happened to Mr. American Citizen? What has come over those people of this country who | feel that American democracy will be best served by a Roosevelt third term? =, .. How can they tolerate a politician using a European war in which this country has not yet become a bhelligerent as a panic producer, nysteria maker and third-term alibi when their last great statesman, Wilson, with our country actually at war with an aiien enemy had the wisdom to ‘‘adjourn politics for the duration of the war?” How can they ask for a man who states at time in his country’s even more critical by brushing aside of the third-term tradition—that he doesn’t care to indulge in “purely political debate” when their last great statesman, Wilson, though sick in body it not in spirit, took the critical issue of our membership in the League of Nations straight to the people in a eountry-wide speaking tour Statesman have never been (busy, in America, through crisis lafter crisis, to take their issues to the people and to discuss them In person with their opponents before | the people. ,

three a critical life—made his own

| yr W PEGLER DISTORTS FACTS, IS CHARGE my Arthur S. Mellinger

On Tuesday, Aug. 27, Westbrook Pegler had a column in your paper that was most disgusting, distorting

| Side Glances—By Galbraith

COPR. 1940

’ oh 4 4 od BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T.

9-¢

"Sorry, | can't find ‘that post card now, mam, but | know it said your boy was or wash't coming home next week."

| terms |

too

repeal our cities

| with beautiful saloon

[delight the eye, our bars are with- |

{out question among the loveliest features of the American scene, and

the drunkest man or woman 1s the |

most patriotic. It has been n~ticed

Science of Government as were the that unemployment has practically |

disappeared since the American people sensibly decided to drink | their way out of the slough.” | That statement in itself proves [to my mind that Mr. Pegler surely was “plastered” himself when he wrote the column I den’t think that the average American would be flattered by having a drunk pointed out as an

example of patriotism. ..

LINKS WILLKIE TO

n ”

By One Whn Is Getting Wise Raymond Clapper states in The Times of Aug. 29 that he feels Wendell I. Willkie used courage | when he supported conscription | against the wishes of many of his (own party. According speech to

Holts | 6, he

to Senator

the Senate Aug.

gave the background in full of con-| con- |

scription, in that, he stated, scription was incubated on Wall Street for their own selfish interests. Since Mr, “Willkie is friendly with Wall Street, isn’t it possible that's the reason he supports conscription? Mr. Holt writes me that many in Washington want to declare war right now! And we are getting war forced on us as fast as we will accept it! I am not in favor of sacrificting our boys’ welfare in order that rich men will become richer. Let us not be scared Hitler will get on a

spring-board some dark night and] 1"ear of |

{spring across in our midst. Hitler attacking us is not the real reason of conscription at all. The real reason is it will make mill%ons |of dollars for rich men. | by W WORK RELIEF SIMILAR TO FARM RELIEF, IS CLAIM What's The In a recent local newspaper there was a story stating Wendell WillIt has only been a few davs ago President, had made application, and was going to receive from the U. S. Treasury the sum of approximately $5000 relief) under the guise of farm relief. It has only been a few days ago the same Mr. Wilkie in New York was condemning relief to WPA workers stating there were too many on the rolls Why, at the same time he was awaiting his $5000 check from the Government for relief is one called poor relief and the other called farm relief? Can anyone show what's the difference? , . .

By |

Difference

(or

SEPTEMBER BROADCAST By MARY P. DENNY

| September rings in autumn air Through shining line everywhere, Echoes of the song of June | A glorious tune at high noon. | The corn is rustling in the field | And from the walnut groves The wild grape vines yield The fruitage of the autumn time. The pigeons call from farm house eaves And over all drift the red leaves. The winds ring on the harp of trees | And sound afar September's chime. A gloria of the autumn time.

DAILY THOUGHT

The Lord knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be forever. —Psalms 37:18.

A MAN has generally the good or ill qualities which he attributes to mankind. —Shenstone,

WALL STREET ON DRAFT |

perimentation” that they didn’t want anything to interfere with it. ” ” ” BOVE all, they didn’t want to have any other in= fluences in Government, The President wanted to be exclusively the central figure in any war effort,

| The various spending agencies wanted to roll their | ewn. The only outside aid they would suffer had to be

completely without authority working in merely an “advisory” capacity. The statement has been made more than once that the New Deal has within itself all the talent and organization needed for any war effort. The plain truth is that it has no such thing. Our defensive preparations ought to be going forward une der inspiring leadership with great popular enthusiasm and perfect teamwork and unity among labor, industry and Government. Industrial skill and experience and a well-formed plan are necessary for that. This Ade | ministration scorns all these things, Professing to have known the danger for vears, it has neglected to prepare for it until it could only be | done in an atmosphere of hysterical emergency, Now that the country has demanded action, it is unwilling to take action except in its invariable method of heedless, headlong, high-pressure stampede,

‘A Woman's Viewpoint

| By Mrs. Walter Ferguson | S T sit by my radio I sometimes wonder that such a miraculous instrument should have been contrived in order to bring to listeners such bare barous news. Not the least horror of present events is the fact that people on the other side of the world can listen in upon the bombings that are taking place, and that we should get from them the same vicarious thrill we feel by viewing fictitious theatrical adventures

Civilized man is about to bas swallowed up by the machines he has made. They have disrupted his economy, slaughtered his chil dren on the highways, taken away his job, and now they rain death upon him from the skies, Because human intelligence has not kept pace with human ingenuity, it looks as if another momentous change is about to take place in the affairs of the human race It is likely to be a change for the better. Does that surprise you? It shouldn't, because although the betterment may not be revealed ‘to any of us now alive, out of similar orgies of economic waste and moral destruction have come all progress. Through tears and blood, mankind crawls upstairs.

The human animal is not only an ingenious but a stubborn creature. He has to have his ears slapped down before he will admit his errors—and since every event is preceded by its cause, we must assume that what is now going on is the result, nct only of the | misbehavior of a few men, but of social movements over which masses of people have no control, This is the only sane view to be taken by those who watch the destruction of everything that has been painfully built during preceding centuries. All over the earth culture and decency are bowing themselves out, while cruelty, bloodshed, war and death make their entrance. Because of circumstances which we cannot alter, we too are forced to turn our thoughts to this busie | ness of slaughter. The same fear that made Peter deny his God rises within us. Our leadérs tell us we must arm and prepare for invading conquerors While a few are not specific enough to suit our taste, we cannot believe they would willfully deceive us. But it is also to be hoped we shall not be pere suaded to put too much faith in machines. They kill the flesh and the spirit of man by many and devious methods. Whatever eomes, may God help us to hold fast to that which is good-—our democratic ideals.

x 5 5;

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford

RISP, cool mornings that stimulate the appetite, A the children starting back to school and the man of the house off to work again after a summer holiday bring the breakfast problem to the fore in many a household. It is up to the housewife to sea that breakfast is both adequate and tempting and that the family takes time to eat it An adequate breakfast is one that satisfies the appetite at the time it is eaten and “stays by” the eater until lunch time, For an adult who is up early { and is going to have a light lunch, breakfast should furnish from one-fourth to one-third of the day's food needs. For children, it is considered best usually to divide the food requirements of the day fairly evenly among the three meals. A cereal dish can well be the maintay of most breakfasts. Cereals satisfy the appetite and supply energy at low cost. For this reason, dietitians advise the housewife with a limited budget to serve at least

| one and sometimes more cereal dishes a day in addi. tion to bread at every meal,

Cereals to many persons mean breakfast porridge or mush or one of the ready-prepared breakfast foods that are generally eaten with sugar and cream or milk. These can be made more interesting by adding to them fresh or stewed dried fruits ‘or chopped raisins, figs or dates, Macaroni and spaghetti are also cereals, in the sense that they come from grains, though not many American families serve these for breakfast. Cereal may come to the breakfast table, however, in the form of waffles, griddle cakes, cornbread or ordinary bread or French toast, one nutrition authority points out.