Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 September 1940 — Page 16
PAGE 16
EE —at
The Indianapolis Times
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ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE President Business Manager
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Give Light and the People Will Find Thetr Own Way
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1940
THE NEW DEAL’S LABOR RECORD RESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S speech before the convention of the teamsters’ union was, as one punster expressed it, a proper vehicle wherein to dwell upon the in-| advisability of changing horses in midstream. And since it was frankly labeled a “political” speech, and the radio time was paid for by the Democratic Party— just as all radio time used by Mr. Willkie is bought by the | Republican Party—it was altogether appropriate that Mr. Roosevelt should lay claim to all the credit that is due his Administration for its labor program. And plenty of credit is due—the right of collective bargaining written into the Federal statutes; a ceiling on hours and a floor under wages; unemployment compensation and old-age insurance. Yet behind the glossy picture he painted are shadows and substance which men who work for a living can hardly | contemplate with complete serenity. Collective bargaining has become a statutory guaran: | tee, it is true. But the Administration of the law has been | in the hands of men and women who have little under- | standing of or sympathy with American industrial life, men and women who neither have met a payroll nor raised a callous on their hands. These small-bore administrators | have enjoyed so much self-exaltation in functioning at cne and the same time as judge, jury and prosecutor, and have gloried so much in the power to set off employees against employers, and unions against unions, that they have at | times lost sight of the real purposes of the law they administer. Among the results have been sit-downs, jurisdictional strife and interruptions in pay days to men and women who could ill afford interruptions. And there is a point to be borne painfully in mind in | regard to what the President called the “shelter of social security” which government has created for American workers who toil for wages. That point is that the social | security insurance premiums which workers pay are all being spent—and that social security itself is still “on | order.” |
GOEBBELS SAYS IT ISN'T CRICKET ERR DOKTOR GOEBBELS, to whom German opinion is | just a pipe-organ to be played on, has a marvelously | convenient sense of proportion. His Nazi press is denouncing as “a particularly detestable, lowdown British weapon” the tiny incendiary cards | which British bombers have been scattering over Germany. | These “low-down” devices, according to Dr. Goebbels’ organ-pumpers, are “obviously directed against the German youth, the German harvest and the hard-earned property | of the German people.” As near as we can figure it out, Dr. Goebbels’ com- | plaint is that the British missiles are so small. For on the | same day that we read of the complaints, we also read— “Nazi bomb buries 500 refugees in London school- | house.” “London museums and hospitals struck by bombs.” “Many London homes and shops wrecked by 500-ton bombs.” Dr. Goebbels’ trouble is nostalgia. He is yearning for | the good old days when England's raiding airmen dropped nothing but pamphlets.
GOOD WORK, MR. OVERLEY
HE Better Business Bureau and its vigorous manager, Toner M. Overley, deserve the community's thanks for their effort to rid this area of unscrupulous medical prac- | titioners. Except for the Bureau's drive these calloused individu- | als might continue to harvest quick fortunes from the gullible hundreds thronging to their waiting rooms in the | of quick and miraculous cures. | Sick people deserve every protection possible against We hope the Bureau continues
; practitioners.
MR. ASHURST BOWS OUT
*ALLANT as ever, Henry Fountain Ashurst stood on the floor of the U. S. Senate and paid tribute to the processes of democracy which have relegated him to retirement: “A man only moderately versed in statesmanship, and with only a small degree of sportsmanship, is bound to admit that in a free republic, in a government such as ours, it is the undoubted right of the people to change their servants, and to remove one and displace him with another at anv time they choose, for a good reason, for a bad reason, for no reason at all. “It is the duty of the public servants not grumpily and sourly to accept the verdict of the majority but joyously to accept the verdict of the majoriy if we are to have a free | people. . . . I should be disingenuous if I failed to say that they (the people of Arizona) probably had some reasons for displacing me.” Toward those who had voted him out of office, he displayed not bitterness, but gratitude -— gratitude because “they allowed me, during my entire service, to do as 1 pleased and to say what I pleased.” Thousands of editorial columns will be written of the eloquence, the erudition, the statecraft, the brilliance, the humor, the punctiliousness of the gentleman from Arizona. | And in all those deserved tributes we wish to join. | But the one fine human characteristic of Senator Ashurst to which we would now address ourselves is this: He can take it. In a country where today so many have grown soft and petulant, here is a man who meets vicissitude with high heart and gay smile. Where so many “small men of brief authority” are crying that they alone are fit to rule, Henry Ashurst bows gracefully out of public life. He served in the Senate 28 years. He served with disdinction and he won wide acclaim. But his shirt was never stuffed. - ¢
v !
| them
{| about it | gold can be spent is, of course, a little naive.
| the Government-controlled Reserve Board, reserve certificates for countless billions. ! several possible methods of doing this.
Fair Enough x
By Westbrook Pegler
Member of Musicians’ Union Needs A High Class Lawyer to Interpret Contents of Wordy Constitution
EW YORK, Sept. 12.—By way of trying to under- | stand the problems of the poor, innocent, ill- | paid pucker-face who “shoves sweet wind through al horn in a band you should realize that he is not | only subject to the rules of a union dictator whose |
powers are defined as “absolute,” | but cabined, cribbea, confined bv |
regulations ‘and penalties of so | large and devious meaning that the printing of them, in small! type, occupies 285 pages. They | are so complicated that the key, or Index, to the constitution, which is comparatively terse, occupving only 112 pages, is 4!2 | pages long, and the index to the by-laws covers 83 pages. Properly to understand the | conditions to which he subjects X himself in joining the American Federation of Musicians the victim would require a | legal mind and plenty of time for studious concen- | tration. But, actually, all he needs to understand is tnat the president, at present Jimmy Petrillo, a Chicago politician who runs with Ed Kelly's crowd | and calls himself a dictator, has authority to amend | the constitution and by-laws at will.
Se
u OT that such powers could be supplemented, it |
is of gruesome interest to observe the similarity of one further constitutional provision to that law |
of the Nazi Government which permits the court to improvise crimes and penaities in the event a defendant's conduct has not been specifically or gen- | erally anticipated in the other laws. Section E of thie preamble to Article XI of the by-laws say that | if a fine is nol provided for any violation then the xXecutive board may inflict a fine of $5000 and expel | the member, thus revoking his power to earn and his rignt to artistic expression. Of course, the union {ries to enforce its wage standards, which are good but unfortunately too goed to be true, and I say for Petrillo that he derives much of his influence from a sincere belief of many members that he is always in there trying to get a | dollar for them But the union scale is so high that |
| in many cases it cannot be met, and the result has | i been that union members often play for substandard |
wages and sign receipts for the full scale.
" # ”
THEN playing on the road they are compelled
to turn over 10 per cent of the standard rate of pay to the national union treasury on the theory
| that if they are plaving substandard, which is a seri-
ous offense, they will be so miserably poor that they will simply chuck it However, even saxophonists must eat, however badly. so the boys do play for little wages and do contribute to the union 10 per cent of the wages which they are supposed to be getting. That is much more than 10 per cent of their actual pay. In addition to this, they must hold the union's traveling card, which costs $2 a month and permits to play in the territory of locals other than their own, but only on condition that they pay any | existing differential in local dues and any taxes or assessments peculiar to the local in whose territory they ave playing for peanuts. But these are only intimations of the man-trap rature of the laws by which the tootlers live and the price tney pay. The poor ones probably would be a little better without a union. There is need for a union ail right, but this is a union that is run by big
| shots who long ago forgot that they were the servants
of the rank and file and set themselves up as their masters. It tyrannizes and grinds their bones. |
|
Business .
By John T. Flynn |
Gold Hoard Causes Concern Again; And Many Want Something Done
TEW YORK, Sept. 12.—In financial circles talk is heard again about doing something about our gold hoard. It is beginning to dawn on a lot of people in the business world that this vast hoard has in it an explosive force that may do more injury to their property accumulations than one of Mr. Hitler's big guns. It has been difficult to get people excited about this gold. After | all, there is something glamorous about gold. It is such a symbol of | wealth, such an evidence of power, | that men say to themselves: “After | all, what harm does it do us to get more of what everybody wants?” But there is nne danger in it which men of property and wealth are only beginning to sense, though those who know the history of gold and governments have warned from the beginning. The notion that this 3 The gold | 13 in the possession of the Government. But against that gold are outstanding many billions of gold certificates, The Governgnent can, however, make this gold a basis for spending in two wavs. One way is by enabling the Reserve Banks, through to issue There are The other way of using this gold hoard to support Government spending is to spend what is called the gold profit, The Government still has ahout two billion dollars of the original gold profit which it has not spent. It | could create another gold profit only by devaluing-the dollar further. That is, if the Government were to take another 10 cents of gold out of the content of the dollar it would | have a gold profit of another $2,100,000.000. It could go further and cut the gold content in half as it did— | almost—once before. This would give it a gold profit of over 10 billions.
|
n HE Government will not do this, of course, until it gets into financial difficulties. But it can get into financial difficulties, first, as a result of the end-
u "
ing of the war and a currency crisis in Europe for |
lack of the gold we have taken from the Europeans; | second, as a result of finding that spending is no longer possible because of a decline in Government credit. | Then it will have to take whatever is the easiest | way to continue spending. And the easiest way is | devaluation. The Government knows that. It did that once bhefore—in 1933—and got away with it with | very little difficulty. It eould do that again, in a hurry, and have billions to spend without taxing, without borrowing. But the effect would be to wipe untold billions from | the vaiue of the people of the United States who own | bonds. savings accounts, insurance policies. This is | one consequence of the present Administration's | financial policies which no one worries about and no | one, perhaps, will worry about until the blow falls.
‘Words of Gold
RINTING The Congressional Record costs the taxpayers about $50 a page. Many pages these days are filled with political material having nothing to do with business before Congress. On Saturday, Sept. 7, the following members of Congress put inte The Record the material described below, at a cost approximately as stated: Rep. Oliver (R. Me.), a pro-Willkie article by Wil-
- a
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
Unshaken
lis A. Overholser of Libertyville, Ill., $38. Rep. Fernandez
Rep. Mason (R. Ill), statement by Author Clar-
| ence Buddington Kelland on “Why .Kelland is for
Willkie,” $18.
Rep. Thill (R. Wis.), newspaper article on “War |
if Roosevelt Wins,” $20. Total cost to” taxpayers, $10l—three and one-third months’ pay for a CCC boy, :
(D. La), letter to voters of his || district, asking them to vote for his re-election, $25.
CRD ST TEL Rn Wa SR ee
THURSDAY, SEPT. 12, 1940
Gen. Johnson Says—
Taking Property for Public Use an Ancient Right and Inclusion in Draft Law Is Just Pure Political Hokum
ASHINGTON, Sept. 12.—This column has been so busy kibitzing about the consaription of men under the Selective Service Bill that it hasn't had much space for kibitzing about the so-called “conscription of industry” or wealth—the “commandeering power” added to the BurkeWadsworth Bill. Of course, the whole idea of tacking this provision on a Selective Service Bill is pure political hokum. It was put there to enable Congressional candidates for re-election to say to their constituents: “I wouldn't vote for conscripting men’s lives until I had insisted on voting to conscript men’s dollars.” The power to take over private property for public use 1s as old as English law. It was called the law of eminent domain. It is practiced almost every day in peace time and is called the process of “condemnation.” The only real difference in war is that it is called “commandeering.” : Any important difference in the proposed legisla-
| tion is only in the method for determining whether
the need is for “public use.” In both cases a court
| must determine what must be paid the owner for his
property.
u H »
IY peace time condemnatign the court must adjudge both that the proposed use is “public” and what the compensation shall be. In this proposed
legislation, whether the property is to be taken on a
rental or ownership basis, the Secretaries of War or’ Navy can determine whether the use is “public,” but it is—as it must be—Ileft to the courts to determine
| just compensation.
| every | there
In time of war or times like these, where nearly use in connection with armament is public, isn't much to that distinction. The law is
| faulty, however, in vesting the commandeering power
| in the two secretaries.
It should be in the President.
| That is another lesson of 1918. "Both War and Navy | Departments frequently commandeered the same sup-
The Hoosier Forum
1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will
defend to the death your right to say it.— Voltaire.
PEGLER'S NECKTIE NOT SO HOT, IS REJOINDER By A Hoosier
What a nice necktie story West-
brook Pegler gave the Hoosiers.
anyone could of guessed that he did his own tying of neckties. We had the pleasure of seeing how neat his tie was, but being a Hoosier I was more interested in wondering if what wore the tie was as good a quality as the tie. We Hoosiers have a simple belief that all is not gold that glitters... .. Be careful, Mr. Pegler, doen't come too close for Hoosier hospitality rubs off, and: it might be vour gain but our loss, for some of the local girls might get crippled or Killed in the rush trying to get to the man with the pretty necktie. ,
n Fl WE TAKE A BOW FOR WAR EDITORIAL By Arthur S, Mellinger
The editorial that appeared Sept 5 headed “We are straying toward war,” was timely, clear and concise. It reflected my thoughts exactly upon the war situation. The present Administration is using the war hysteria to further political prestige and cover the mistakes in social reform ideas. We know not what is before us, but I believe in being prepared, but not to the extent of compulsory con-
u
scription, as I don’t think the crisis
warrants this step. ... ®. = =» LAUDS WILLKIE'S ATTACK ON VICIOUS MINORITIES By R. B. M., Crawfordsville, Ind. As the campaign proceeds the lines of battle are becoming clearer and clearer. One of the foremost issues is whether common ordinary public decency is to be supreme over an assorted collection of gangsters and crackpots of the lunatic fringe. Contrast Mr. Willkie's straightforward denunciation of proferred support from dangerous minority groups with the actions of the leaders of the “reform party.” As some have called them, the professional bleeding hearts, not only accept but welcome support from such groups as the Frank Hague gangsters of New Jersey, the Kelly-Nash ma-
chine of the city of virtue, Chicago, |
the old Huey Long gestapo of the “second Louisiana purchase” fame and the Pendergast gang which has misruled Missouri for many years. So the issue seems to be clear cut
If his photo had not been in the paper |
(Times readers are invited their i
these columns, religi
to express Vi
troversies excluded.
rt Exe
your letters sho have a chance.
Ould
be signed, withheld on request.) and there seems to be no equivocation either on Mr. Willkie's part or on Mr. Roosevelt's The former won't have Bundists, Communists and other gangsters and the latter accepts the support of anyone and everyone, n | SEEK EXPLANATION OF {OUR STAND ON F. D. R. FP. Miller
un 8
By Clyde | When a person newspaper, has supported President and his major objectives and valiantly fought for his re-election after a first term and thereafter continued to support him during most of his second term and then that person, or newspaper, does a right-about-face and starts to denounce and repudiate this President and all his works and goes over bag and baggage to his enemies, just what is the explanation? It must be that either that per- [ son, or newspaper, has changed or {that the President has changed. Now, in reference to The Times on the one hand and Roosevelt on the other, I ask in all sincerity which has changed? . .. If you do not approve of a third term it is all right to say so. If you did not like the Supreme Court bill it is all right to say so. If vou do not believe in aiding labor and in spending to provide work for the unemployed to the extent that this Administration has done so, it is all right to say so; but you are now urging a liquidation of the whole New Deal and are supporting a man that has promised to overthrow it Why?
or a
vigorously a
» o
LIKES WALLACE BUT CRITICIZES ROOSEVELT By James R. Meitzler, Attica, Ind.
| Henry Wallace as Secretary of Agriculture has done more for the farmers than all his predecessors |combined.
! When Roosevelt called Congress |
Side Glances—By Galbraith
A
hoe J 7. ‘5 COPR. 1940 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T. M. REC. U, §. PAT. OFF.
y/
"Qh, no, let's not name him that, Millie—they'd call us 'Old Bill and Young Bill." "
| {
Good
|
in special session to consider the |
{banking crisis, Wallace called fifty |
jout a farm program.
farm leaders to Washington to work That was the To the farm organi-
first A. A. A.
| zations, particularly the Farm Bu-
{ Roosevelt | field
| sorrv
[reau, and Wallace, the farmers owe such prosperity as they have today. would not know an oats a wheat field. We are Wallace is a flop as a
from
to say
| speech-maker candidate
[MUCH AUTHORITY, IS CLAIM
The Times editor noted that he mentioned in his acceptance speech Roosevelt 28 times, Hitler 23, WillKie not once. Seemingly Hitler is the opposition candidate and none but the third termite can stop him. Look at Roosevelt's two-term record. He nas written to and spoken against the Mikado, Stalin, Musso(lini and Hitler. He cajoled and threatened for vears. The totalitarian powers have gone on their predatory way unmoved by his efforts. They paid no more attention to his diplomacy than to the buzzing of a gnat Is seven vears of international failure a guarantee of success?
#
o o ”
ASKS SOME QUESTIONS CONCERNING WILLKIE Crothersville,
By Gerald B. Fultz Ind, you
Would be kind have one of your political explain the following? (1) If Willkie so soil why hasn't he been living on it, as, for example, these last 10 years? (What's his New York address?) 2) If
enough to experts
loves Indiana
Willkie loves to eat in restaurants on the South Indianapolis, why did it take a Presidential campaign for this love to flower? (Are there many Democrats en the South Side of Indianapolis?) (3) If, as Willkie says, Wallace's acceptance speech was 100 per cent wrong, does that make MecNary's speech, in Willkie's estimation, 100 per cent right? (Does McNary favor the TVA?) (4) If Willkie favors much of the legislation of the New Deal, thinks he can do a better job of administration, how do we know he can do this {What is his nationa. and international experience?) (5) If Willkie favors conscription of men, among whom the majority will be poor men's sons, why does {he oppose conscription of recalatrant rich men’s dollar machines? (What are the assets of the concern which Willkie headed before [the Philadelphia convention?)
n
| WILLKIE ASSUMES TOO
” "
| By Edna Wakefield
I disapprove of Willkie because he’s taking too much authority be-| fore his time. He demands views of | the President and expresses com-| mands that ordinary citizens can't undertake. Roosevelt has shouldered national
responsibility for eight years and, I |
believe, proved he's capable of caring for the future affairs better than any inexperienced ex-Democrat ean do. The defense problem is enough| without taking on a debate just to pacify Willkie's curiosity. He's more of a dictator now than Roosevelt. Daily he belittles Roosevelt for doing things he doesn't approve first. Let's call on a smart man’s Knowledge to preserve our)
| country.
|
GOOD-BY, DEAR DAY By RUTH KISSEL
Each night as you softly fold Today | And store it away in the past; Stop and think it was better than Yesterday But Tomorrow will it surpass. The good that was donegovershadows dark spots And only the bright can shine through. by, dear Day, I loved you so, But I will love Tomorrow too.
DAILY THOUGHT
I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God; incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech.—Psalms 17:6.
GOD BE PRAISED, who, to believing souls, gives light ire darkness,
| the ecommandeering amendment is good.
| dollar 1s a dollar.
has pleaded, | seven |
1
| students must be “patriotic” or get out of sehool
| blowing—and we face a gale of censorship
Side of §
but |
| aster. | ities be?
| terials to Britain?
comfort in despair.—Shakespeare.
4
plies. President Wilson finally straightened that out by requiring all commandeering orders to be signed by the chairman of the War Industries Board. Apart from that, the Smith or Senate version of The objec= tionable circumstance is the nature of the debate
| There is no measure of “just compensation,” for a
human life deliberately drafted into military service 1s not the donation of anything to the public. Tt is the performance of an obligation to the public. “Just compensation,” as required by the Constitution, for a On no sustainable theory do the two relationships stand on the same ground. Neither condemnation nor commandeering are, as the politicos
like to say, conscription of wealth. » Dir gy as our World War experience proved while “commandeering” of some facilities like land, docks, warehouses and supplies generally will frequently be necessary as a convenient method of determining price, the “taking” of manuiacturing plants for Government operation verv rarely happens —only once by the Army at least in 1918. The power to do so is useful for what President Wilson called “a club behind the door” in negotiation. The practice of doing so on a rental or feesimple basis is useless and unnecessary. The Government has neither the personnel nor the ability to move in and operate a private plant. If Government has, as it did have in 1918, priority powers over power, fuel, supply and transportation, it has no need to take over a man's plant. If he doesn't behave, it can choke his operation to death in two weeks' time—as we threatened to do a few times in the old War Industries Board. That threat was always sufficient.
n ”
A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
WAS not surprised to read that President Sproul of the University of California has announced that
Every little straw shows which way the wind is The patriotic cudgel is being disinterred. Any dissenter from majority opinion can instantly be classified as an obstructor of national defense, and the jig is up. Those who make the most noise about liberty will he found regularly taking it away from others who disagree with them, and champions of democracy will put on, one by one, the garments of Naziism. By screaming “Fascist” at every opponent, they themselves will eventually set up a state of fascism in our country. For that's the way the thing always works. This is bad enough in other groups, but in educational circles it is a death blow to that freedom of thought and speech which is the cornerstone of the American way of life, It seems to me that conscription of an army by a nation still at peace calls for no such arbitrary rulings by heads of institutions, especially when those heads have the power to declare what 1s and what is not patriotic. The undergraduates in our colleges are aware of the tremendous issues they face in life. They still believe, and have reason to hope, that college will clarify some of these issues for them, and most of them approach their teachers and professors with profound faith in their mental honesty. But it would be.a mis= take to assume that these boys and girls are nitwits, willing to accept platitudes for patriotism and slogans for logic. On the face of it, President Sproul’s statement sounds grandiose, since most. of us would resent the activities of those who willfully obstructed national defense, but, within, it holds the seeds of a vast disFor what would those obstructionist active
Opposing the sending of destroyers and war maTalking against the third term? Critieizing Lhe war policies and the preparation plans of military leaders? We need more specific language and less academic oratory here. For what will it profit us to preserve the form of democracy if we lose its soul?
Watching Your Health
By Jane Stafford
EJAYFEVER sufferers, at least those who get their A & nayiever trom ragweed and oiher common pollens, can find relief by escaping to parts ot the country where there are none of the offending pollens. There is, however, no place in our country, no matter how ideal the climate, where sinusitis does not exist. Change of climate, on the other hand, particularly for child sufferers, is advised by Dr. John’ J. Shea, of Memphis, Tenn. In a report to the American Medical Association he suggested that those who live
| In the mountains should go to the seashore or the
plains. Those who live on the plains or near the sea will be benefited, he said, by a change te: higher altitudes. During the winter, a warm climate with modarate. changes and a minimum of rainfall, is best suited for sinus sufferers. ‘ Do not expect, however, to get rid of long-standing’ sinus trouble by going South for a week or two in the. winter. In Dr. Shea's opinion a short change of climate does not do enough good. Even a month is not enough in cases of chronic sinus disease. Patients who have the disease in chronic form, especially children, should spend a full winter and spring in the new climate, Very disappointing recurrences of the trouble follow the early return of a patient to his
| native city before the break of bad weather at home.
If a child with chronic sinus disease has been improved by one winter away from home, he should be sent away for a second winter, Dr. Shea advises, to escape If possible the colds of childhood which may interrupt the normal development of the sinuses, leav~ ing an arrested condition throughout life,
dL