Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 September 1940 — Page 8
PAGE 8 The Indianapolis Times
(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)
ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE President Business Manager
Price in Marion County, 3 cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 12 cents » week.
Mmail subscription rates in Indiana, $3 & year; outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.
ogee RILEY 5551
Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way
Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co., Maryland St.
Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulation.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1940
3
SACRIFICES ARE AHEAD
Fair Enough
‘By Westbrook Pegler
Calling Attention to Johnny Brown Who Could Solve That Machine Tool Bottleneck if Given the Chance
EW YORK, Sept. 14.—The most highly civilized man I know is a sallow young Georgian of 28 vears or so who was born in a log house chinked with mud. He quit school when he was 8 years old to help out around the poverty-stricken patch on which his family lived and, a few years later, joined out with a building contractor to earn a little cash money and learn a trade. He lives in a small Connecticut mill town. The settlemant around the mill, which manufactures wire and wire products-—-a historic industry in this particu-
NNLY the dotting of an I and the crossing of a T are | needed now to make the Selective Service Bill a law. |
Conscription was opposed by a good many people, for :
various reasons—some sincere, some bogus. We have a | hunch that the number of sincere opponents will diminish | as the Battle of Britain gains momentum. Every bomb explosion in London is a voice crying out to America: Prepare before it is too late! A weakly defended America is an invitation to imperialistic adventurers. An impregnable America is the only insurance available. And we have a long, hard row to hoe before we even approach impregnability. The Lord knows it is not pleasant to contemplate hundreds of thousands of young men being required to carve a | year out of their lives for such an unproductive business as | military training. Unfortunately it is a matter not of | preference but of necessity. And we suspect that at least 99 out of every 100 men who register for the draft will | recognize that fact and make the best of the inevitable. The bill, as it came out of the Senate-House conference, | does not measure up in every particular to our preferences. We should have preferred the age limits of the original Sen- | ate bill—21 to 64— rather than the 21-to-35 range finally agreed on. The field of selection would have been just that | much broader. The Russell-Overton amendment for the “conscription” of recalcitrant industries, if any, was wisely dropped in | favor of a substitute, which, though safeguarding private rights and civil liberties, gives the Government ample | power to commandeer any plant needed for defense produc- | tion. The Fish amendment, a pussyfooting proposition for |
deferring the draft until after election day, was properly | kicked out the window.
| man I ever have known. | cabinet maker;
lar section—depends on the mill for much of its living, but the wages are low, the work is intermittent and there is no margin, My friend has a wife and little Po boy, and he works in the mill as assistant machinist now, which means that he continues to work during layoffs in the mill, because that is the time when the machinery is tightened up and repaired.
My friend is the most reliable and resourceful He is a carpenter and he can mix plaster and concrete, build a chimney, take down and reassemble an automobile and mend an old job with parts picked up at the wreckers' yard. He is an electrician, plumber and steamfitter and a farmer, and he can butcher his own meat. 2 2 ” E can build a whole house, starting with the excavation and foundation, and if I give an impression that he is just a typical oldtime, rural handy man or tinker I have done him an injustice and mauled the story. That kind can’t do anything well, whereas my friend does everything with the expert touch. That is why I say he is the most civilized
| man I ever have known, although he never really
went to school but just dropped in for a couple of those short winter sessions in a rural seat of learning in a backward Georgia county, during which, nevertheless, he learned to read and write and to reckon up figures well enough for his purposes. My friend is honest, too, and, although he will take a dram, it doesn't come too much, and he is always on the job in the morning. When he joined out with the contractor down In
| Georgia the latter was building a house three stories
high, and my f{riend—just an immature boy at the
| time—was set to work pushing sand up to the first
story, then to the second and finally to the third in a wheelbarrow along inclined planks. u HE first few weeks he thought the work would kill him, and casual laborers on the same job would work a day or two, draw their pay and wander off. But he stuck it because the contractor had told
2 Ld
| him he would teach him all about building houses | He worked with the con- |
if he would stick around.
| tractor four or five years, sending part of his money
| home, and when he finally decided to come North he
By and large, it is a good bill. It will soon be law, and soon we shall re-live some of the davs of 1917-18 as millions of men register, as the great | lotterv determines the order of their summoning, and as the Army's formidable job of training the cream of the |
crop gets under way. This emergency—and now who can read the headlines | now and deny that it is an emergency even on this side of | the Atlantic—presents a challenge to all of us. Sacrifices are ahead.
We have made them before. We must make them now.
NEW DEAL’S TAX TECHNIQUE HE Senate's Excess-Profits-Tax Bill, said Senator Vandenberg, an “imponderable mess” which will slow | down the defense program. “Only a Philadelphia lawyer, an expert public accountant and an expert crystal-gazer combined can chart the answer to this bill,” he said. “It's just $100,000,000 worth of anxiety thrown into e lap of American industry. “I know of no surer result the bill will achieve than step up the sale of aspirin.” The Senator from Michigan understates the arguments against the bill. There is not much to be said in favor of
1S
th
this measure which probably will yield more money in fees |
to tax lawvers and accountants than it ever will produce | in revenue for the Government.
|
Yet the Senate bill does deserve to be damned with | the faint praise that it is less incomprehensible than the | bill which the Treasury “experts” wrote and the House of | Representatives passed without the opportunity of even | considering an amendment. The Senate bill will yield | more revenue, and it will apply the tax burden with less | inequity. In tax matters under this Administration the country | has learned to accept resignedly the lesser of proferred evils. Every year the technique has been the same. Every year, when Congress meets, Administration spokesmen announce that no new taxes will be necessary. Then for months nothing is done. Finally in the last hectic weeks of the session “the word” goes out from the White House. Thereupon the energetic planners of the Treasury frantically shovel together their conflicting theories and run panting to Congress demanding hasty enactment. Lacking time for deliberative study, Congress fumbles the hot potato through the legislative mill as quickly as possible. It has been thus for seven years—and the Government still gets most of its revenue by hidden levies which fall heaviest on those who are least able to pay.
‘AT LEAST SOMETHING IS SAFE
HILE bombs are killing hundreds of Londoners and reducing great buildings to stoneyards, it may be poor taste to search for a consoling factor in this dreadful process. But perhaps we will be excused for calling attention to one silver lining, however slim. There is of course no way to protect the architectural treasures of London from aimless bombing. Palaces and museums, bridges and cathedrals, take their chances along with the meanest hovel. However, there is some comfort in reflecting that most of the priceless works of art with which London is heavily endowed have long since been laid away in underground vaults where explosives will not reach them. All of the millions of volumes in the British Museum could hardly he thus accommodated, but certainly the rarest books, the finest paintings, and such historic items as Magna Carta and the Rosetta Stone must have been laid away long since in perfect safety, as was done in France with the masterpieces of the Louvre and the stained glass of such cathedrals as Chartres. If worst came to worst and England fell, even Dr. Goebbels would be unlikely to use these documentary landmarks for firewood, as the conquering Arabians are supposed to have done centuries ago with the contents of the
| had all these new skills added to the others, which
he had acquired farming the patch at home. There are a lot of potential munitions plants
around our part of the country, but they say these | | places can’t produce munitions because the machinery | doesn’t exist
But I tell you what they can do. They could turn my friend loose in an automobile boneyard
| or a town dump with a fair quota of old washboilers
and baby carriages on it and he would come up with a workable anti-aircraft gun or tank in due time. And if a special kind of machine was wanted to bore the tube of a special Kind of cannon you wouldn't have to bother with blueprints. Just give him a rough idea and a couple of weeks to work on it in his spare time. Then one night he would be around at the door saving: ‘I got that machine for you to make cannon with. Where shall I put it?” Believe it or not, my friend's name is Brown. I don't know why they haven't called him down to Washington.
Business
By John T. Flynn
lllusion Still Persists in Capital Cash Is Lacking for Business Expansion
EW YORK, Sept. 14.—Senator O'Mahoney, chairman of the TNEC, has made a report suggesting some means of making it possible for a small businessman to get his hands on money enough to finance his expansion. In Washington the illusion persists that new business enterprises are not launched and existing ones do not grow because these small businessmen cannot get money for that purpose. And, indeed, the whole failure of the economic system to leap into dynamic life is attributed to this There is no doubt about the fact that business refuses to leap to life. But we will get nowhere in the search for the means of stimulating it as long as we persist in assuming that this lethargy is due to a lack of funds for meritorious enterprises. There is a mountain of money that would be glad to find a promising risk if promising risks were in sight. If
{ there are no propitious ventures in sight, it is not | due
to the lack of money, but to wholly different causes which Washington stubbornly refuses even to look at. That fatal citv has fallen upon the pernicious disease of money—the illusion that if there is something wrong anywhere the swift and sure cure for it is Government money, when all the time there are oceans of money and credit lying around eager for
a chance to flow.
H o u
ONEY does not flow into little business for several reasons: 1. The whole structure of the world—and more particularly of our own economic Ssociety—is set against it. Our own economic troubles, our Government policies tend to produce complete uncertainty about the fate of investment funds which might flow into enterprise—tax policies; worse still, money policies; and, still worse, loose talk. 2. To add to the uncertainties arising out of our own economic disjointments we have chosen—in our political perplexities—to identify ourselves with the even greater uncertainties of a world which we cannot affect. And. in doing that, we have plunged into a vast program of borrowing that makes the New Deal financing up to now look a little pale. Business may pick up under this pressure of Government arms spending, but investment will not—big or little. If anything was needed to kill small investment thoroughly, the war hysteria supplies that need. 3. But our whole economic system is organized against new investment in small industry. The whole aim of industry—and now with the assistance of Gov=-ernment-—is to choke off new investment. Monopolistic trade practices make it impossible almost for a man to go into a new enterprise. This runs through so many sections of our economy that a major operation is necessary to cure it. But Washington is not interested in that. It is too unpleasant. Spending money is the pleasant way.
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 Tuesday, Sept. 10, the following members of Congress put into The Record the material described below, at a cost approxi= mately as stated: Senator Guffey (D. Pa.). newspaper article on “Support of President Roosevelt by Albert H. Ladner.” $26. Rep. Hoffman (R. Mich.), newspaper article on “A Mississippian’s View of the Chicago New Deal Convention,” $20. Rep. Fulmer (D. 8S. C), pro-Roosevelt editorials, $60. Total cost to taxpayers, $106—enough to provide one year Wi food stamps for an average family on
one anti-Willkie and two
great library of Alexandria, §
relief,
rr.
Johnny |
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES .
The Take-Off! 4
SATURDAY, SEPT. 14, 1940
Mn redone»
,i4 ~~ ASN. . Vane pe Mute Proll . NTN INT
nol Sopot,
The Hoosier Forum
I wholly disagree with what you say, but will
defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
PROTESTS PEGLER'S | ARTICLE ON HOOSIERS By E. M. Collier
| T have had a great deal of respect and preference for The In|dianapolis Times for the last eight years but if any more articles appear like the one by a certain West- | brook Pegler in Sept. 5th issue about | Hoosiers there will be one subscriber JESS.
Ww wu BLAMES NEWSPAPERS | FOR WAR EXCITEMENT | By John H. Ver Hulst, Greenfield
I have read with much interest | vour editorial of today “We Are (Straying Toward War.” I believe that you voice the opinion of a good many Americans in this timely editorial. We, Americans, are helpless to step this drift toward war except through our frantic apepals to our representatives in Congress. A good deal of the blame for the present critical situation of this | country can be placed in the news| land editorial rooms of our metropolitan dailies. The newspapers of today instead of interpreting the peace loving sentiments of the com- | mon people are busily molding pub-~ | | lic opinion in favor of war. | Mr. Roosevelt has taken every op- | portunity since the beginning of the | European war of every crisis in Eu-| | rope to create fake panics and crises (here and to stimulate mass war hysteria. . . . The truth of the matter is that this country is being (rapidly transformed into a huge] British arsenal at the expense of} |the American public and taxpayer. + « | ” » ” |RESENTS INVECTIVE IN [POLITICAL CAMPAIGN | By E. B. Altogether too frequently tor com- | fort IT come upon some psychological | | case of political hysteria approacii-| ling a state of delirium. It seems to] Ibe a mental disease wiich occurs in | virulant epidemic form every tour) | years, but in this quadrennial period it seems to be more bitter than ever. Actually and without the slightest exaggeration, this election has let loose a flood of vituperation | against Roosevelt which exceeds that made against Hitler by ropeans whose countries have been laid in ashes and ravaged by him.
questions
that,
Eu-|
(Times readers are invited to express their these columns, religious cone troversies Make your letters short, so all can Letters must
views in
excluded. have a chance.
be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)
it is a sad commentary on the standards of our civilization and education. Its chief harm is in setting apart in separate hostile camps citizens whose greatest need is in con-opera-tion for reconstruction of a badly warped society. I call for the exercise of the amenities « The poison has got into the blood stream of our people and vhey no longer discuss and judge public with calmness and logis but by political bias and prejudice.
» STILL, SEEKS REASON TO SUPPORT WILLKIE
o i”.
By Mike Mattingly
Since my appeal for a reason why man Willkie should Kick up such a rumpus I've received several replies. But alas, alack, and afoo! All I've gotten is a set of condemnations of Roosevelt — one claiming that he drained his reputation from the fame of old Teddy, another even denouncing F. D. R. because of his wealthy birth! 5 The only tangible “reason” given for backing Willkie is his “proven executive powers” and his ‘success in big business.” Gentlemen, 1 should blush to admit affiliation with such disreputable rackets as
“We Want Willkie.” The pronoun we” in America should mean all | the people Either the sign “We Want eee" [implies that there are two classes in | America or else it is dragging me into a statement without my sent and in which [I want no part w wu =
DISAPPOINTED BY |WILLKIE'S DRAFT STAND | By Charles W. Hunter | On Aug. 17 Wendell L stated in his acceptance speech. that he favored a form of selective, com= pulsory military training. With that jong awaited announcement fell the
Gen. Johnson Says—
Draft Law Would Operate More Fairly and Impose Less Hardships If Wider Age Group Were Affected
ASHINGTON, Sept. 14 —Perhaps—and I hope and pray-this will be my last twang on n single-stringed jew's harp—the Selective Service Bill I get just as tired of a single subject as the long suffering customers and maybe more so, but with nn
boasting and hard fact, I happen to know more about this subject than any living man--by intense and successful experience,
I have some sour letters saying that the reason I am so repetitious and emphatic is that TI want to be “director of selective service,” as I was deputy director before. I don't, and even if I did, Mr. Roosevelt would rather an eve-tooth than call me to tl duty. I don't blame him in the least. In his shoes IT would take the same view myself, I have served him as loyally as anybody around him when I agreed with him. Since I have disagreeri, I have criticized him and some of his associates as hard as anybody. In that job, I would be an embarassment to him and to many of his lieutenants, On this bill, as on all other measures on national defense, I have supported him as constantly, strongly and effectively as any of his friends.
lose
EN in the War Department charged with plan= ning this effort have also had everything I could give them from my experience in the way of both support and advice, and both they and the President know that no matter who is finally charged with the execution of this law, they can rely on me for any unofficial help and support I can give, This should be obvious because it is a vital matter of national defense which, on all the experience of our race. could so easily fail if blundered., But which, on the experience of 1917, if wisely administered, could so easily succeed, and by success, do as much for national unity and confidence as any major effort, It should he obvious also because, in a manner of speak« ing, it is my baby and I am intensely jealous of its SUceess., All of which is a wind-up to pitch for a provision
register | sketchy.
this bill together.”
It is about the sleaziest argument yet advanced,
to register a wider age group than the Senate bill to register men from 21 to 31 only, A contrary argument appeared in the New York Daily News, It wants to only men from 21 to 24, Its reasons are It wants only vounger men to fight—"men with perfect eyesight, perfect hearing, excellent health and ample height and weight.” Also “it would make quite a hit politically with this group (31 to 44) if the conferees would just forget about them in putting
” » u
OY, that last one is a honey. It was included in an editorial excoriating “politics and the draft.” Take the kids—they haven't any political comeback. for the wider age limits are,
The main reasons
| first, that vou get a wider range of choice and, sec=
| ond, con- |
[ army require physical perfection.
and more important, with a bigger pool, vou can apply the exemption rules less harshly and arbi=trarily and execute the draft with far more justice, sympathy and common sense—and hence with far more public support and enthusiasm It 1s not true either that all the tasks of a modern It is absurd to put
| a voung Hercules to filling capsules in a medical sup~
| ply depot,
There is a vast field of special and limited
| service for men who are not physically perfect,
| Willkie
|
hopes of many real Americans that |
Willkie, the self-made man, would
stand up for the rights of the indi- |
vidual. rights which he himself said he had regarded important even as
‘la young man.
His support of that measure had no little to do with its passage in
the Senate on Aug. 28. He was held |
be above party lines. However, on [that same Aug. 28 an amendmen’ lwas attached to the Burke-"Vads-worth bill. It provided for the conscription of, not only the men of the United States, but also the wealth and industry of our country. That changed the complexion of things | Wendell Willkie attacks this lamendment as a dictatorial step. 1 agree with him—it is—but is the right of free enterprise in business
1hiigh for his support—it was said to]
more important, more sacred than the right of free enterprise in the
pursuits of the individual? | y # =
DOUBTS WILLKIE'S RIGHT
the Wall St. gang run--and who TO TACKLE CHAMP
wouldn't? Furthermore, if as William Lemon asserts, Willkie and his backers were leading the Wall St gang at the time of the stock market crash in "29, let them withdraw gracefully from the campaign before this becomes generally known and it is too late. P. S. I'm still looking for a reason to back Willkie! " ww
RESENTS WORDING OF WILLKIE AUTO SIGNS By Norean Tarter As a citizen and a voter I resent
Viewed scientifically and soberly [the use of the auto plates that read, |’
Side Glances—By Galbraith
COPR. 1940 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T. M. REC. U. 8. PAT, OFF, Ar
-
"What bright little intellectuals! I'm sure they'd love to pore over our complete little encyclopedial’
By C. G. L. | Who is this “Amateur” demandling that he have a “crack” at the Webster said a champion has reached the high
champ? [is one that |pinnacle of perfection by having defeated all rivals, by first taking on the Amateur” then the professional, then the semi champlons, thus progressing according to his ability to give and take; after hav= [ing defeated all those he [to demand a try at the “Champ. Tt is too bad that Samuel Insull lis not available for this “Champ” challenger, for I am sure that in | Mr. Insull he would find a cham{pion in his own chosen field; for las vou will remember this lenger” is the self same man (hat |gladly went before a Senate inquiry and said and did everything he (could to defeat the TVA!! But NOW HE IS FOR IT! One wonders {why the sudden change. . . . Is this | “Amateur” another political chameleon?
A SONNET By DOROTHY BEST
'1 have a dwelling-place where T|
| retreat Fre life's battles too close around | me press | When waves of pity on my heart’ | door beat Or threatened with emotional distress,
gate, Although these walls protect me irom the foe, It’s cold within for there is lack of sun Nor has my solitude brought naught but woe So high the walls, my prisoner I've hecome. Forlorn the soul who in indifference lives And holds from him the beauty suffering gives.
DAILY THOUGHT
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this litle child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven —Matthew 18:4.
MAN, A DUNCE uncouth, errs in age and youth: Babies know the truth.—Swinburne,
!
As a swan song suggestion, how about Judge Advo= cate General Gullion for this job? He had a major division of it in the World War, did it perfectly and knows it thoroughly.
A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
HOULD mothers look as voung as their daughters? A favorite fellow columnist, who writes beauty hints for the papers, thinks so. She says the sight of us walking out with our girls is enough to drive her distracted. Beside them we look mottled, wattled and lumpy. We have no verve, no spring, no streamlines, This makes her sad and mad, since she believes and maintains that 1t is possible for middle age to retain the contours and colors of youth This notion is now pretty well grounded in the feminine mind, although casual observation proves it is a dream. And if dreams could come true, what then? Well, it seems to me it would be mighty hard on the girls, Their feelings ought to be considered, too, and I've never met one vet who really hankered to have her mother look like her twin. Frankly, 1 think the debutantes would hotly resent the idea—and would be entirely within their rights. For the best screen to display daughter's loveliness is a presentable but slightly faded mamma. Our bulges are useful in showing off her streamlines. Our de-
| caving charms deflect, the masculine eye to her fresn
is in line |
“Chal-
"Tis then I go within and close the
loveliness. We are a credit to our girls by being well preserved--oh, hateful words!--but anything more than that makes us a petty rival The suitor is dazzled by daughter's beauty and soothed by the thought that when she has ripened she won't look any worse than her mother does, and if mother appears tolerably attractive the proposal is practically in the bag. If, on the other hand, mother is a knockout and a honey, distracting te gentlemen callers, then complications arise which may resuit in strained relations. Some of the worst complexes known to psy= chologists were built out of this material. Homely | girls with glamorous mothers are among the most tragic figures of our time, and beautiful girls with beautiful mothers must get mighty tired of having strangers exclaim how like sisters they look. One can easily imagine that any maid would develop an active dislike for a mother who retained a perene nial ingenue.
|
‘Watching Your Health
' By Jane Stafford
INKEYE and stys have nothing to do with each other except that each is a fairly common and distressing eye affliction caused by germs. A sty is nothing more nor less than an old-fashioned boil on the eyelid, If vou get one after another of these | painful stys, it would be wise to have your eyes | examined by an eye physician, because eyestrain 18 | frequently a contributing cause of the trouble. Proper
| eyeglasses, in such cases, will correct the condition,
If the eye itself is not at fault, the frequent stys | may mean that you are not in the best of health | generally. Perhaps you have been overworking with vour eyes, losing sleep, neglecting outdoor exercise or failing to select a well-balanced diet. These coadie | tions may lead to more serious troubles than stys, | so if the stys are not coming from eyestrain, by all | means see your physician for advice about your gens | eral health, Bathing the eyelid for 15 minutes every hour a hot boric acid solution is generally recommended for the sty itself, but your doctor may want you to use something else, so ask him about fit, Pinkeye is an acute contagious inflammation of the membrane lining the eyeball and eyelids. It is a form of conjunctivitis. Some forms of conjunctivitis are highly dangerous and may lead to blindness, In
to consult an eye doctor at once in cases of pinkeye, so proper treatment can be started before eyesight is endangered. it must be very careful not to let the discharge get
the means of transferring the disease to
prescribed by a
as a simple, cold, ’
their early stages they might appear to the layman . as simple pinkeye. Consequently it is most important«
Because pinkeye is contagious, the person who has onto towels, napkins or other articles which might besomeone ; Eye drops or eye ae aes to someon Sli physician, :
a
Tio
‘