Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 November 1940 — Page 10

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«iP» RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Oion Way

| TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1940

NATURE TAKES A SLAP AT ADOLF “LIITLER weather” has suffered a sea change. The gods of the elements used to arrange for the sun to shine whenever the Fuehrer decreed a fete day or an anschluss. But of late these deities seem cross with their favorite. When the B. E. F. was driven to the sea at Dunkirk, a mercifully calm channel permitted its escape. Later, a storm was reported to have smashed whole flotillas of barges and other craft which Hitler was readying for the invasion of England. ' More recently, hard rains fell in the Grecian mountain passes just as totalitaria’s No. 2 boy was essaying a Latin blitzkrieg against the Greeks. What the rains (with notable assistance from a Greek soldiery that the world had underestimated) did to Mussolini's legions has left the Roman oracles strangely silent. | And now in Rumania, a land that Hitler “conquered by telephone,” comes an earthquake which from all accounts should make the San Francisco affair look trivial. It is no trivial thing to the Axis. Hitler had counted heavily on Rumanian oil and grain and meat. Dispatches say not only that the quake set fire to some of the oil fields, but also that it appears to have wrenched the innards of the earth in such a way as to shift some of the underground oil pools. Railroads and highways and bridges have been scrambled. Transportation facilities between Germany and Rumania were meager enough before —especially in winter when the weather impedes Danubian traffic. Details of the Rumanian disaster are only beginning to be assembled and communicated, but it is apparent that casualties and damage are tremendous. As a result, Hitler's hunger for the oil fields of the Near East may be whetted— at the same time that his ability to move troops in that direction is diminished. Americans will find it hard to resist taking comfort from this event, much as they will regret the tragic losses inflicted on the already suffering Rumanian people.

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LOYAL OPPOSITION ENDELL WILLKIE delivered some fine speeches in his campaign—buf none that equalled his address of last night. CE : There was in it no hangover of resentment for having lost, no sour grapes; but instead a hearty democratic acceptance of the majority verdict, and a pledge of loyalty to and support for the re-elected President. But it was far more than a great example of sportsmanship. It was high-grade statesmanship.: Wendell Willkie served notice that for the next four years we will have intelligent, forceful and articulate opposition. Saying “we must help to show the way,” he outlined a constructive program— Opportunity for all citizens in free enterprise; aid to the farmer; rights of labor; protection for the unemployed, the aged and the physically handicapped; strive to create productive jobs for those on relief; cut to the bone all Federal expenditures except for defense; levy taxes “to approach as nearly as possible the pay-as-you-go plan;” adjust punitive taxes and other restrictions which act as brakes on private enterprise, and thereby release new investments dnd energies to build a higher national income and business volume to carry the burden of the defense program without a cruel lowering of living standards. It is a positive, progressive program, and by hewing to it the minority party in Congress can make itself far more effective and helpful than it has been for many years.

USELESS STATISTICS GOMETHING which, it seems to us, this country can well afford to do without is any further statistical research designed to show how close Mr. Willkie came to winning the election. We mean the kind of figuring which proves that a shift of 500,000 votes in 10 statds which Mr. Roosevelt carried by narrow margins would have given the ‘Republicans an Electoral College majority. Those who were on the losing side are entitled to little comfort from that. For it is also true that a shift of 190,000 votes in the 10 states carried by Mr. Willkie would have given the Democrats a total monopoly in the Electoral College, including even Maine and Ver-

mont.

What might have been has no importance now. The thing that interests the American people is ‘what is to be.

To eo LUCK AT TACOMA ha AN extraordinarily Kind fate intervened’ to prevent loss of life—except for that of a frightened spaniel which bit a would-be rescuer—when the spectacular Tacoma Narrows Bridge came 2a in a gale. It is not nice to think about what the result might have been if traffic had been heavy. : * The chief engineer of the bridge has made a serious charge. He puts the blame on PWA, which provided much of the money for the structure. i This engineer, Clark H. Eldridge, is quotéd 'as saying: «We had a tried and true conventional bridge design but we were told we couldn’t have: the necessary money without using plans furnished by an Eastern firm of: engineers, chosen by the money-lenders.” Suse : "The New York designers, he said, made certain sacrifices “in the interests of economy and cheapness,” and “in order to obtain Governmental money ‘we had to do as we

were told.” If Mr. Eldridge was willing to do as he was told rather

than to lose out on the money, even at a sacrifice of safety, perhaps the responsibility is not altogether in Washington "or New York. But, pending a thorough and expert investigation, there is no use in laymen trying to allocate the blame.

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Campaign Added. Emphasis to the §

Fallacious Belief That Corruption Is Inherent and Cannot Be Suppressed

EW YORK, Nov. 12.—At some risk of seeming to

_be a high-sounding, panty-waisted political fop, |

I would like to suggest that the most dangerous form

of defeatism within the nation at this moment is the rather common belief that graft and corruption are inherent evils of our system, and may only be kept within wide bounds at best, but never put down.. I have never heard such wide acceptance of this sorry fallacy as within the recent Presidential campaign when every accusation of one side was met by a counteraccusation from the other. For

example, one of the political ora- |.

tors of the New Deal informed us, as though we needed telling, that ‘the history of the utilities industry was a long and sordid record of bribery of state legislatures and city councils. It may not matter, but there has always been a question whether the financiers who promoted the original railroads, gas works and street car lines were the authors or the victims of such corruption. The other side of the story is that if the promoters had not paid graft to political bosses, legislators, councilmen and the like, these improvements would have been seriously retarded. » » »

UT however true, this orator’s’ countercharge is no answer to the problem of today when many Americans have been reduced to a belief that human beings, in office or out, in politics or business, will steal anything that is not nailed down and guarded by arms. This line of thought also raises the proposition that because knavery has existed and has gone unpunished there must always be retaliation in kind, now by one side and now by another, until, inevitably, the whole American system shall perish of its own poison. : The very suggestion at this moment that graft would end, that political machines should cease to support their politics on public money, that public officials should serve their country for their pay and not serve party, family, class or financial interests would ‘be as laughable as an old-fashioned wall motto. That is just what IT am driving at. It shows how far gone we are toward a condition, and a time when this country might have to forfeit the American form of Government and the liberties which exist only under that form and submit to Government by force.

HE form of Government which we are trying to presérve calls for the highest degree of selfdiscipline, self-respect and honesty of the individual, the official, the party and the group. It is intended to exert very little authority and to be management more than government. Conscience is supposed to take the place of authority and enforcement and as conscience fails authority and enforcement grow. Yet we do not \regard corruption as unpatriotic, although, by comparison, a fanatic is actually less dangerous than a governor who, to discharge a political debt, knowingly appoints a bad judge or a common citizen who condones corruption as inevitable. . The dead-weight financial load of the graft is enormous, but the popular resignation to a belief that dishonesty must be, that hypocrisy is clever and that government has a right to favor its political friends and punish its political enemies is as dangerous to the American system as Hitler himself. And I hate having to say that in the last few years, and particularly in the recent campaign there arose a pronounced popular and official sentiment that Wrong can be redressed by the very methods and in the very spirit of those whom it is intended to rebuke. That is revenge, but not reform.

Business

By John T. Flynn

Our National Unity Is O. K., but National Economy Needs Attention

EW YORK, Nov. 12.—As usual—probably as other people—we live by words. Now the word is “unity”’—national unity. That is a woyd, and it is a wonderful word to use at meetings, and I can conceive of no better way of advertising national disunity than to be holding meetings for national unity when there is no disunity. The national unity these people are talking about refers of course, necessarily, to unity about our loyalty to America. A Obviously they .do not mean that we shall stop discussing our problems. There are, of course, differences of opinion among citizens as to what policy to follow on this or that course — particularly about our grave domestic difficulties. There will always be differences of opin- . ion until some dictator puts an end to them. But there is no national disunity in the sense in which this. word is being used now. But of course we will use up tons of energy putting on a show about national unity, and thus advertising to the world that such a show is necessary when in fact it is not. There is something, however, that is very much more important, and that is national economic strength. When the stock market crashed 11 years ago we moved into a state of grave economic weakness. However, we were rich, We knew our strength and, properly guided, we might well have recovered that strength. Now we are somewhat weaker than we were at first because we have all the weakness we had when the depression got us, plus another weakness. We are like a man who has, let us say, some serious stomach disease, something curable but which calls for a lot of unpleasant medicine. So he insist on a doctor who, instead of curing the disease, gives him dope to ease the pain. i . » " ” FTER a few years of that, the man is somewhat worse off than at first because now he still has the old stomach trouble, plus the dope habit. This is our case. Instead of curing our disease, we eased the pain with the expenditure of vast shots of public money and debt, so that now, in addition to the

disease of the depression, we have another disease,

namely the national debt habit which throughout history has weakened one nation after another. Now we are playing with another dangerous expedient—war. And if we go into the war, we will of course still have our old stomach trouble, plus the dope habit, plus the war. Anybody interested in following the history of disease can finish out this picture for himself, 3 Of course a lot of people who do not like to look too closely at ugly diseases will get a good deal of satisfaction out of holding unity meetings. Indeed these same people and all the rest of us are perfectly willing, if war should come, to sacrifice to the limit, even to dying. But while we are willing to die for our country, we seem to be unwilling to make smaller sacrifices. Apparently we must either die or do nothing We are not willing to take the bitter medicine that is necessary to make this country economically strong. Yet that is the first and supreme need of this hour,

So They Say—

NOW BRITAIN HAS conscripted industry and has demonstrated that it is possible to go over into a form of semi-socialism and still remain a de-

mocracy.—Max Lerner,

professor of government, Williams College. > )

I DON'T THINK anyone can get-rich out of the national defense program. In the end we are all going to have to pay for it.—William 8. Knudsen, National Defense Commission. * LJ .

LIFE IS BOUND to be more exacting and less agreeable than it has been.—Alf M. Landon, 1936 Presidential candidate.

The Hoosier Forum

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

4 DEMANDS CLEANUP OF LAW-BREAKING TAVERNS By Clarence F. Lafferty

I agree with “A Disgusted Citizen” when he claims that the tavern conditions have become deplorable. I prefer the saloon to the present day tavern, and strongly advocate the return of the saloon restrictions. In several letters to the Forum a “Mister X” suggested legislation which would prohibit women and minors — including the minor accompanied by a parent, relative or friend — from cafes and taverns where intoxicating beverages and liquors are sold. I believe that such a law would improve the tavern conditions to some extent. In the past there were newspaper reports of Sheriff Al Feeney cracking down on this tavern or that

but that was the last that was ever heard from the reports. His arrests and actions were for a good purpose, but never fully prosecuted. I wish to laud Sherwood Blue for making a certain downtown shooting scrape into a political issue in a pre-election radio speech of his, and sincerely hope that he will co-oper-ate with Al Feeney in prosecuting all tavern offenses in the future to the full extent and requirements of the law. 2 » ® TAKES A SLAM AT UNITY OF THE WILLKIE TYPE By Clyde P.” Miller

In lauding national unity it is well to maintain an awareness of the fact that it has been the Willkieites that have said and done all that has been said and done to disrupt national unity. ‘They are the ones who have made the attacks on practically every method of applying all foreign and domestic policies of the Administration, if not all of the policies themselves. The trouble with these fellows is that they consider unity fine, but it must be a unity of their own ideas and methods and policies and they themselves must do the originating and administering. Even now they are saying that the fight must go on. Does that sound like devotion to unity? Unity is desirable only if

tavern for certain law violations,

(Times readers are invited to express their views in 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.)

it involves a unification of the best plans and purposes for America. On that basis let Democrats fight too, and harder than ever—first, to purge the party of the renegades like those in Indiana who sold Indiana down. the river in the last election; let’s fight till the last vestige of abominable Willkieism is dead forever. i" t J EJ DEPUTY COUNTY CLERK

PROTESTS EDITORIAL By Harry J. Gasper, Deputy County Clerk Just a word of protest in regards to your unfair and uncalled for and

untruthful editorial concerning the County Clerk, Charles R. Ettinger. I believe if you had investigated the facts concerned instead of taking the word of partisan Republican politicians, I feel certain you would not have printed such an artice. The facts are, Mr. Ettinger when speaking to 341 election inspectors Sunday, Nov. 3, stated to them: “Bach voting machine would vote 999 persons, and as soon as the machine reached 900 to call the election commissioners and sufficient paper ballots would be sent to them.” Now this particular precinct called early in the morning before they could possibly have voted more than 600 voters, requesting paper ballots, when as a matter of fact all precincts were busy at that time in the morning. Should favoritism be shown to one precinct when 340

other precincts were laboring under|

the same conditions? This particular precinct voted 1266 persons with a total registration of 1400 using paper ballots and a machine. Would you say that any

nar

| Side Glances—By Galbraith

DPR. 1940 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. ¥. M. REO. U. 8. PAT. OPP.

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"You children better run outside and play a while—Father is having : another fight with the ice cubes] 4

|

one was disfranchised with that average? : Incidentally Mr. Ettinger's black eye in the primary was in support of one of the few Democratic candidates who was elected this fall, and by the way one of the candidates you also supported. That black eye was a minor scratch compared to the one you received in your support of “Windy Willkie.” : » » » ‘QUIET PLEASE, BEGS BOLTING DEMOCRAT BY J.T. W. As a bolting Democrat in the last election, I want to ask that people stop talking politics for a few months at any rate. And that goes for Mr. Willkie, too, although I still think he is the biggest man in the country. The Treliefers, the Government employees, the labor union people and the chap who draws a salary, all agreed that Mr. Roosevelt is President for another four years. What we small businessmen (and large), etc., think is of no account now. We can squeal all we want to, but the fact remains that the New Deal has been re-elected and is going to be on top for at least four more years. What we all have to do now is to buckle down and see what the situation is and live up to it as best

we can. Maybe it won't work out,

but what of it? It can’t if we keep on quibbling and yapping like a bunch of Mexican chihuahas. At least, maybe a little concentration on state and muncipal government problems will help a little. In a nutshell: We put up, we lost and now we've got to shut up.

¥ 8 =» TAKING A FALL OUT OF ‘THE G.O.P. DIEHARDS BY 8 0. G.

I notice in your Forum .a letter from E.C.T., a brilliant mastermind if ever I ran ‘into one. Mr. T. is convinced the Republicans would have won if they'd nominated Mealy Mouth Taft or Pretty Boy Dewey instead of Willkie, ? Well, well, well. So the old unreconstructed elephant is still kicking, eh? I was sure that pachyderm had foundered for good in 193% and

that Wendell Willkie was the spirit |

of a brand new type of Republicanism—of progressive foresight, of desire to serve honestly, etc. But, no, the Old Guard was just hanging on for the ride and now that they lost the race by a whisker, they're in at .the trough bleating and pleading for Taft or Dewey. I say give them Taft and Dewey and let Willkie and the rest of the coun=try go back to the Democratic Party, which, after all, seems to be about the only one with any feeling for the people. I wonder if Mr. E.C.T.’s last initial stands for Taft?

AUTUMN TRIOLET

By VERNE 8. MOORE Autumn, you're a lovely sprite With maple wreaths around you flung In gay festoons of color bright!

‘| Autumn, you're a lovely sprite!

To artists’ eyes your charms invite With purple grapes in garlands hung. . : Autumn, you're a lively sprite With maple wreaths around you flung!

DAILY THOUGHT And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.—Matthew 23:12.

IF THOU wouldst find much favor and peace with God and man, be very low in thine own eyes. Forgive thyself little and others much. —Lejghton,

sick,” Dr. Preston states.

Gen. Johnson Says—

Greatest Peril We Face Is Inflation, (or High Prices) and History Shows Burden Is Heaviest on the Poor’

VL AsHiaTON, Nov. 12.—The greatest danger before us now is “inflation.” In barnyard American all that means is high prices. Since they are not as spectacular as the bombing of workers’ homes, they usually don’t get attention before it is too late. War inflation is about the deadliest bearing of war upon the poor. Wages in war never have advanced as fast as the cost of living. The price of anything is mostly the cost of laber to produce it. ‘The higher they go, the higher the cost of living. War inflation (high prices) is the worst bearing of war upon the helpless, Germany is bombing the homes of England’s poor noncombatants and seeking to cut off the supply of milk to babies and food to adults. Fngland is hellbent on the same process—to blockade Europe and starve into submission even her most gallant defenders, France, Finland, Poland, I do not counsel otherwise. We, ourselves, invented war frightfulness in our blockade of Southern ports and our destruction of food supplies in Georgia and the Shenandoah, It must make the wounds of Christ bleed again, but so it is and we must accept it.

UT let's not be blind to a similar war of starvation against our own people—high prices. If they go too high they will destroy the practical living value of every insurance policy, social security benefit, wage, salary or pension in the United States. This is not because they will reduce those payments. They won't. But those payments will buy so little in a high-price structure that they will become chaff. I hear that Wall Street pundits say that it will be only a “mild inflation.’ I honor the sincerity of their opinions but I suspect their knowledge, Once you start this deadly process it is like a snowball rolling down hill. You can no more suffer it “gradually” than you can fire a gun gradually. It is a progress that esos upon itself. The time to stop it is before 1t starts. > With much actual experience in war inflation, I have made a study of this thing for years—from the beginning of history. War price inflation always grinds the face of the poor, not only during hostilities, but for years thereafter. It lowers the buying power of their wages. It also doubles or multiplies the cost of war, not merely while it is going on, but for years thereafter:in the toil, sweat and taxes in which workers and their children must pay for the vastly ine creased cost. " » »

O far, we have only the symptoms of war inflation, But the germs are so plain that it takes no microscope to see them—terrific, governmental spending and increased debt and deficit, capacity production, a sellers market and a desperate disposition for counterbidding in a congested market with expense no object. It has been said that high taxes will stop it. I shall write another column on that. It is crazy nonsense. Do high taxes of as much as 10 cents a gallon prevent the price of gasoline from going up as high as 18 cents in some states when it should be 6 cents? High taxes are not the answer, Mad as it may seem, I am for deficit financing of this war and not for higher taxes. This may come strangly from me, who hates personalized power, but I am also for giving the President a complete: power of priorities to stop competitive bidding and to ration production not to the longest purse, but to the most necessitous use. The latter can only mean sky-rocketing prices. If necessary, I am for giving him complete authority over the price structure to prevent its rising above reasonable levels, Byelybady knows it is high enough now for reasonable profit. . 1 And now prepare for a real shock. I have complete confidence that Leon Henderson of the advisory commission in conference with his present associates, is completely competent to handle this greatest of our present problems. His experience in NRA was unique, As I said then: “Keep prices down—for God's sake, keep prices down!”

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

HEN I was a child one of my favorite hooks was “The Little Lame Prince.” Does anyone ever read it now? It was the story of a lonely crippled boy whose fairy godmother gave him a magic bit of carpet. He traveled all over the world ’ sitting comfortably in its lap, and the sights he saw were related in detail to children who never dreamed they would one day grow up to ride in airplanes. Yet here am I—hardly the same little girl who loved the Lame Prince, and yet that girl is certainly a part of me—bhoarding the big ship which provides me with experiences more marvelous than any the author of the old book ever imagined. As I stepped into the American Airlines flagship bound for Columbus, the Little Girl I Used to Be went along teo. Whenever this sometimes stodgy adult showed signs of settling down to a calm acceptance of all the wonders, she dug me with a sharp elbow. She looked over my shoulder, she whispered in my ear, she reminded me constantly of those almost forgotten moments when her travels with the Prince were the last word in high adventure. How meager were his delights, how tame the wonders he viewed, compared to those cur eyes now seel The monstrous shiny ship, purring with power, beautie ful, frightening, yet tame to man’s touch. The breath less take-off moment when you leave the ground and feel the pride of the eagle. The clean sweep through the blue, the sensation of riding among clouds, the sight of your beautiful earth, far, far below, patterned like a coverlet made up of a thousand strips of magic carpet colored as a kaleidoscope, curved in beauty, swimming in ime measurable space—did the Little Lame Prince ever experience anything like this? For most of us the airplane is still a miracle. Ak every stop the faces of men and women and children, looking -up spellbound, attest the fact, May they never cease to marvel! ie

Watching Your Health By Jane Stafford |

E have grown accustomed today to the idea of building defenses by ships and planes, against other people grouped as nations. Probably few of. us however, are aware that we have, each of us, built up for daily use personal weapons for defense against the people with whom we are in contact. Hearts and stomachs, for example, usually are not rated as defensive weapons. But they are used that’ way. So are headaches—both real ones that hurt and the kind you say you have when you use it as an excuse for not going to a party. : : The how and why of these personal defenses are explained by Dr. George H. Preston, oner ¢ Mental Hygiene for the State of Maryland, in his new book, “Psychiatry for the Curious.” The book is well worth your reading not only because it will help you fo understand such terms as phobia and neurasthenia but also, and more important, because it will help you understand why you and people do the things you do, : Sl Stomachs and hearts get used for defense, Preston explains, because we have all been ne to regard physical illness as a misfortune, ed “We don't blame a person or him for being “If a doesn’t work and support his family we put him Jail for non support; but if he can prove that he ‘is sick, then of us !

we don’t put him in jail and the r and take care of his family.” | The man is not just faking Hines a headache as excuse for failing to ge He has fooled himself by the trick as the world, and he needs help not on stomach or nervous heart but for 3