Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 November 1940 — Page 18

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The Indianapolis Times

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ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER . MARK FERREE President : Business Manager

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@ive Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1940

THE TOLL BRIDGE SUIT °®

E ARE glad to sée action taken that will block, : \etibo. rarily at least, purchase of the toll bridge across the Wabash River at New Harmony. It may be that the purchase is sound, the price fair and But serious questions have been raised about all of these matters by responsible groups, and the whole matter deserves an airing. We now have reasonable assurance that all the bridge cards will be put on the table through the medium of the taxpayers’ suit filed

yesterday.

La

WHO’S BOSS IN “OUR SEA?”

WO Italian battleships and a swarm of smaller Wartratt challenged at sea by a British naval force, were “pursued at high speed” toward their base, according to the British version. Evidently Mussolini has revised the famous militaty maxim coined by Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. The Fascist version: “Let’s get out of here fustest with the mostest.”

BETTER BUY THAN RENT

HEN President Roosevelt announced the destroyers-for-bases deal in September, he called it “the most important action in the reinforcement of our national defense> . . since the Louisiana Purchase.” But the eight insular and coastal areas involyed in the - swap are being acquired only on a 99-yeat= lease basis. Suppose the Louisiana transaction had been a lease. After 99 years, the vast territory’ Napoleon sold us for a song was worth billions. Would we have had to renew the lease in 1902 at a proper price—or fight France? : That question never arose. We got the land lock, stock and barrel, with no strings. And in 1902 St. Louis was preparing for the Louisiana Purchase exposition—a show that cost three times the $15,000,000 paid Napoleon. In 99 years those bases will have become integral parts of the defense of the Americas. Will we be willing then to give them up? 2 Will England be our friend in 2039 A. D.? Will she renew the leases for a nominal fee, or will she put the screws on us? Of course we don’t know. Anyway, our point is that we would be better off owning, rather than leasing, those areas; For one thing, then we would be under no obligation to share these “neu“tral” bases with belligerent ‘England, as we have agreed to

do’ in at least the case of Jamaica.

Even if England put ‘ the purchase price sky-high, wouldn't such an “extravagance” on our part be better than (1) letting England fall to Hitler eventually for want of dollars to buy our munitions, or (2) lending England more money that we know will never be repaid, or even (8) collecting more useless gold from British Empire mines,

instead of these very useful ramparts against unpredictable

trans-oceanic blitzkriegs of the future?

PIOUS GUFF

\ LL the advance publicity about how the A. F. of L.

was going to crack down on labor racketeers came to nothing more than the adoption by the New Orleans convention of a pious and toothless resolution. : A story used to be told of Calvin Coolidge. He had returned from church. “What did the preacher talk about ?” “Sin,” said Cal. “What did he say?” persisted Mrs. C. “He was agin’ it,” said Cal.

+ And so it is with the A. F. of L., by solemn resolve in solemn assembly.

Affiliated unions are admonished to keep their affairs clean and abgve-board, and to make constitutional provisions for ne criminals who muscle

~ into control of a union’s destiny or treasury. - But in carry-

ng out this high resolve, the A. F. of L.’s executive council is to go ng further than lending its “influence.” How comforting .it must be to dues-paying union

5 workers to be told again that they have the “autonomous”

privilege of being victimized by mobsters! And that moral “influence” of the A. F. of L. hierarchy—what an aweinspiring threat it must seem to the Georgd Scalises and Willis Eiofls! :

WHO SAID ‘CONQUERED’? OLLOWING the incursions of Fascist Italy on Albania, - it became the custom to speak of the Albanians as a “conquered” people. between Greece and Italy along the Albanian frontier suggest that “conquered” was an inaccurate word. od Albanian guerrillas are said to have harrassed Fascist

"columns in every possible wady. They have rolled rocks

' centuries of co

“down mountains. They have taken potshots from hills and crags... They have reported the movements of Italian troops to the Greeks. In ‘general, they have been bitterly land fiercely obstructive in their relations with Mussolini’ S more less invincible armies. Albanians drafted into Italian forces are likewise alJeged to have done what they could against their so-called conquerors. One entire battalion of Albanians in the Italian central forces revolted and was disarmed only after a bloody

struggle. It is rumored, too, that the Italian rout really |

‘began when Albanians in one sector seized a favorable moment, shot theiriofficers and went over to the Greeks. While these stories are not fully authenticated, they are at least in the true tradition of the stormy Albanian mountaineers. It is interesting to recall that Italy and Germany between them are nowscharged with the management and control of a great many tough little nations which have a tradition of rev ua obstruction honestly won. by many ict against invaderS. They are under control only in the sense that steam is under control when contained by something too strong for it to breaks - If any weakness develops in the container, steam takes its r Axis dominati

Mail subscription rates :

_ things: to the old man that she wouldn't let any

“reply; “You bet your sweet life I meant it, you ouse- |

Reports sifting back from the battles.

own violent course, and so will jhese “conquered” peoples ;

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

* 'Dear Paw i in the White House; All Us Freckle Faces Are Ready to Call lt Quits, But What About Ickes?”

, New York, Nov. 28. To the Great White Father, . Big White House, Washington, D. C. Dear Paw: SUE election a lot of people have been saying how they are sorry they said some of the things they said or, anyway, regret the way they said them, and we ought to close in now and prepare to defend the old home place against the you-knows who really hate the whole lot of us. ~ Now, I am not taking back anything ‘I said any more than you are taking back anything you - said, but you have had a lot of

kids and “in-laws, and you know |’

how it is in a family when one member starts needling. another and pretty soon they are all calling names. Like, for instance, a man may say things to his own ever-loving when he is sore that if any other man was to say them to her he would belt him with a chair, or .the little woman says

other woman say. These things just flare up in the best regulated

families, but generally they burn out in no time. |

Some of the members. may sulk a few days and refuse to help with the dishes or carry out the ashes, but if some yegg starts coming in the window they all rally ‘round. After these scraps there is always a little spell of nasty-nice politeness while the members are trying to get back into the old way, and the worst thing anyone can do then is to say to another one, “Yes, but did you mean it when you called me an ‘ouse-lay?” Because that one is a sure thing to

lay,”* And there you'go again. Ta 8 ” 8

JACK years ago when I knew a saloonkeeper who + closed up the old store when prohibition hit and stacked about a thousand cases of nutritious pre-war in his house, but presently the kids went off to college and then he made a couple of passes in the stock market, so he and the wife moved into a swell country club to live, where they didn’t have any room to store the provisions. So her sister was married and had a house in Jersey, so one night the sister said they could hide the goods in her attic, and they did. And then the next Christmas they were all rejoicing at my friend’s swell country club, and the sister’s husband. got comical and b ed my friend into the swimming pool, clothes and , in his tux. Well, my frignd crawled out and pasted the bfother-in-law into the pool, and the next thing you know they were all in the water, yelling and squawkin like a shipwreck. For about 10 years I guess that they didn’t speak, and my friend would drink that housepaint that they were selling for McCoy in those days, and he would spend many sad hours thinking about that beautiful pile of goods in his brother-in-law’s attic and none of them on speaking terms. Until finally another Christmas they decided to get together again and let bygones go and say: absolutely nothing about the events of that other Christmas night. 3} ” 82 8 i TELL you my friend was very happy when his brother-in-law put his arm around his shoulder about midnight and said, “Jimmy, you know I still have a lot of your old pre-war merchandise in my attic,” and James said, “Well, well! I had forgotten all about that, and please forgive me for not taking it ‘off your hands; so I will send over for it first thing tomorrow with a truck.” But just then from the other end of the table he hears his wife in a scrap with her sister, and the sister was ‘saying, “I beg your pardon; it was not my Mike that heaved your Jim into the drink first. That big drunk of yours started it. He heaved Mike in first.” In about two minutes there wasn’t a whole window. in the house, and the in-laws went off in a 16passenger huff, and my friend never saw another drop of his supplies as long as he lived. It gets you nowhere to keep on needling people when the riot is over, and if you really want unity how about slipping the word to that Ickes of yours? Because I have been very dignified and patient. since election, but that mug won’t let it: die, and if he calls me freckleface just once more whatever happens is his fault, and there are 22 million frecklefaces in this country who won’t take any more lip from him today than they would take before election, and what I said alput him still goes. The best of health and luck to you, Paw. Affectionately, GEORGE SPELVIN,’

Business / By John T. Flynn

Unbalanced Budgets Gontinue With Defense, Not Relief, on Red. Ink Side

EW YORK, Nov. 28.—From Washington come promises of balancing the “normal” budget. By this is meant the budget that includes everything but defense. It should be easy. The Government has been running in the red for “recovery and relief.” _ The deficit has been all for that ‘up to now. Now the Government plans no . change in the policy of deficits. _ It still plans to cling to deficits for recovery and relief. But in- . stead of spending the deficits on peacetime projects it will spend them on wartime projects. Then it indicates that it will balance the budget save for defense. This, of course, is doing exactly what it has been doing all along. It has been balancing the budget on everything except the “projects,” ‘which it has financed with red ink. It is going to continue to balance the budget save for those projects which it plans to finance with red ink. It is merely changing the type of projects. In ‘other words, all this talk about balancing the budget for “normal purposes” comes down merely to saying that it is going to go right’ ahead in the future as in the past unbalancing the budget. There is one difference. It is going to unbalance the budget greater than ever. Whereas it unbalanced the budget to the extent of three or four billions it Js Boing to unbalance it to the extent. of 10 or more illions.

S

- ” » ” ; : HE. Government will not spend so much on “recovery and relief” as such. It: will not have to. The defense program will be not merely a defense program but it will accomplish the same result as PWA and WPA. If will put people to work. It will put them to work in private arms plants. They will be paid by private companies. And they will be paid high wages instead of moderate sums on WPA. But the money will be provided by the Government and the Government will get it by ‘borrowing. - But there is another feature of this. The Government, we are told, will balance the “normal” budget— that is, everything but. defense. But it will have several billions more in taxation to do this, because of ‘the excess-profits"xes and the increased superaxes. You may agree with the defense program or not.

You may think it is’ too little or too big. But this |

has nothing to do with the proposition that the Government is going to reform its financing plans. It is not. It is going to intensify the evils in them, making both the taxation burden greater d the borrowing burden greater. There is a conscious effort in all this to fool the American people with words.

So They Say—

WE CANNOT BE military friends and economic enemies of Latin America at the same time.—Chester C. Davis, head of the farm products division of the National Defense Advisory. Commission,

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES Blocking the Kick!

The Hoosier Forum

1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—V oltaire.

A FEW NICE WORDS"® FOR BUTLER U. By Butler Friend I am glad to see that Butler soon will start construction on its new school of religion. Here is really a fine institution, a credit to our city and state, but I sometimes doubt that it receives the community support it deserves.

Let’s all resolve henceforth that

Butler University is worthy of a little more attention. Let's boost it every chance we get. « + o

# a =n PULL TOGETHER, HE TELLS SCHRICKER AND G. 0. P. By K. J. T.

Like most Hoosiers I'm pretty well fed up on this talk over whether the Governor or the Republicans are to be chief patronage dispensers next year.

Let the Republicans remember

that Mr. Schricker was elected at the same election and that a majority of the voters want him to be their Governor. Mr. Schricker, we think, has indicated that he is willing to co-operate with the opposite party. A Democratic Governor and Republican Governor need not work at Cross-purposes. Let each perform their duties within the constitutional limits and the result is likely to be good government instead of bad. . .. ; # gn HE HAS A GOOD CRY

FOR WPA WORRERS By James Van Zandt = Please, will you stand still Jong enough for" me to ery on your shoulder? Our crying room is jammed to the doors with politicians, big business and misers. ® My crying question is, why does the press convict WPA workers for misdemeanors’ or felonies before they are indicted? Our judges and jurists read the press consistently, and formulate their opinions when they read about John Doe, WPA worker, married, father. of three

(Times® readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Make your letters short, so all can have a chahce. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.) |

coal; or a bridge, built by WPA

| workers, collapses.

That plopaganda in a newsy way leads the average American, to class

{the WPA worker as the scum of

the earth, wherefore the WPA workers and the so-called reliefers are the cream of the earth, as far

as big business is concerned. And the thinking American knows that the WPA-ers, reliefers and the oldagers, really spent their money to make big business and stuffed tin cans and mattresses for the misers, so why not class them as ‘good American citizens. . . That's my cry, let's smile. You can laugh if you like, but I'm sincere. Let’s have a good old fashioned election in slinging, use democracy, be social, be united as friendly: enemies, Let's nominate Louis Ludlow and Wendell Willkie as friendly enemies for the Presidency. Their ideas are our ideas for democracy and Americanism. We won’t have a headache if we lose our vote. Let’s hear from you, E. ¢. T. I'll nominate Ludlow if yowll nominate Willkie!

8 » ” ! : TAKING A DIG AT THOSE ‘CHILDISH’ REPUBLICANS By Mrs. E, J. O.

I'm very, very tired of having to handle disgruntled Republicans like a dozen fresh eggs.

Their bad manners and poor

sportsmanshipy at least of so many that I and others have met is something next to unpalatable. They) even have to explain away why thei side lost. I've heard it was the | million on the Federal payroll, th the,

children, being caught stealing

Side

Glances—By Galbraith

TEE © 5 of 1900 wre the trustees ot

1944—no mud |’

trash, riffraff of America, WPA and ete. You daren’t (in the interests of peace) bat an eye in their airection, you must studiously avoid mention that there even was an election, you must don a patient, chastined manner and accept their ultimatum that those 26: million were not Americans and that F. D. R.’s

{victory was but a defeat and won

but by a hairline. . . . A8 to some of these disgruntled Republicans, would you really believe them grown men and women of voting age or wouldn’t you really put them on a par with just plain spoilt brats? I've no doubt they {would be horrified if their children were to develop such traits. . .. ” ” 2 FEARS THE WORST UNDER ROOSEVELT By Sideline Sittin’ Lil ~~ a To “Good Loser”: Perhaps you may be a bit previous with that signature, wait until you really begin to lose; the value of your-dollar, your insurance policies, a few more personal liberties; you may then decide to delete the “Good”! I must accept Mr. Roosevelt as my. President, but surely you do not expect me to accord him my respect! © The unsavory, un-American method of forcing his renomination

the poor through fear of their jobs, creating a vast subsidized vote, brazenly enlisting all the dirty politicians in the country—the flagrant nepotism of his entire family, the revolting spectacule of the Democratic Convention (with the Supt.

lof Sewers’ obligato!) .

I find, I cannot accord a feeling of good. fellowship to a man who

keep my self respect! , So I shall keep my banners at half mast during Mr. Roosevelt's Administration for I feel America is going to have many things to mourn under his leadership,

2 9% =» 8 THEY'RE HARD TO TAKE STANDING UP!

| By Claude Braddick, Kokomo, Ind.

A Fascist Party authority in Rome has ruled: that radio listeners must 'stand while* listening to broadcasts lof ‘Ttalian war communiques. Seems to me it would be safer to listen to some of the more ‘recent ones while

lying down, with a bottle of smellre salts handy.

WE ARE THANKFUL

By OLIVE INEZ DOWNING

For all things we are thankful, Lord, For love and home and eountzy free, A nation stable, undefiled— For which we give deep praise to Thee. .

We thank Thee for this harvest-tide, For boundless gifts snd garnered grain, Our Wii our blessings, peace of

a with Thy help we can maine tain,

So on this gracious day of thanks, Throughout our land we bow to

Thee, And for Thy hounties far and wide, We give Thee praise on bended + Knee,

DAILY THOUGHT

But if from thence thou shalt seek. the Lord thy God, thou shalt | find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy Zul Deute: ‘onomy 4:29. |

' GOD 18 GREAT AT, and therefore & he . sought: is

-as to how best to

on a reluctant party. exploitation of |

attains success in such manner, and |-

— THURSDAY, NOV. 3 1940 Gen. Johnson

Says— |

Defense Cost to-Be Staggering, But It Would Be Fatal fo Make Taxe So High as to Discourage Capital.

w

UR national capital is humming these days ‘with two great discussions. They are not related in the talk but are in fact. One is the question of our finanging British armament. The other is of the very great increases in taxes to finance fully at least the regular expenses of our Government— perhaps nine billions a year. . The cost of our defense program, if our World War expe‘rience means anything, has not. even yet been dimly imagined. Gen. Marshall once estimated that to parallel the German land armament alone would cost 100 billion d s. Fortunately, we do not have to do that if we stiek to our idea of hemisphere defense. But, in addition to a very great land armament, we have undertaken the most ambitious sea program ever aitempted. It is profitless to try to foresee all these costs. No one has ever had enough facts or taken enough trouble to make an accurate statistical comparison

of what it costs us, as compared with England or

Germany, to provide and maintain military and naval defense, including care of participants in former wars. It probably runs double as to the British and surely triple as to the Nazis. We properly spare no costs on our defenders, but even we can’t escape the fact that the fiscal factor

|| itself is important in national defense. It is doubtful

whether we can prepare to defend the Western Hemisphere at a cost of less than 50 billions. Nobody

can tell what will be added to that if the present

trend of Administration sentiment continues and we also undertake to finance a part of the British . effort. : Sy * 2 8 HOSE who advocate this policy estimate that the British reserve of funds to buy in this market has ebbed to about a billion dollars. If that, is true, at their present rate of spending, it will scarcely last four months and, since that rate is accelerating and nobody can foresee. the trend of war, it might rise to figures at least half as fantastic as.our own prospective bill for notional defense. Let's be conserative and say 20 billions. There are two schools of thought in Washington eet these astronomical figures without impairing or destroying our economic struc ture by the time-proved (if rot time-honored) explosion called inflation. . One says the way to it is to “pay-as-we-go.” That means taxes higher than we have ever dreamed of in our philosophy, even by a disguised levy on present capital. The theory there is that, by making it practically impossible to gain profits nobody will speculate and, therefore, prices will remain stable. -

# a 8 i HE other idea is that there are plenty of other

ways to control runaway prices—such as priorities. to govern supply rather than frantic counter=

| bidding, confiscatory- taxes on profits due to specu-

lative buying of commodities or common stocks and, if necessary, a legislative “ceiling” over prices with sufficient flexibility to prevent absurd results. This country would do well to give its prayerful atlention to this discussion. The inevitable war activity gives us the first chance since 1929 to escape thé horrors of our long depression. If we adopt the course of taxing private enterprise in non-war production out of its incentive, the hope of gain which is the gas that makes our economic engine go, we shall create here an unbalanced war industry which will collapse with peace in the worst depression we have ever known and restrict our people unnecessarily .and unconscionably in the meantime. Inflation, runaway prices, must be prevented at any cost. But it is a lot better to do it by methods proved in World War I, than to tax the American capitalist and profits system out of existence, which

|: i§ threatened now. Down that path lies collapse and

‘cornmunism ond, i we are not cater], we shall soon be on our way. 4

A ‘Woman’ S Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

OLD onto. your chairs, clubwomen. This may be a shock. An important topic at'the Women’s Cen=tennial Congress in New York City is: “What, if any, are the arguments for the continuance of women’s organizations in the United States in view of the growing practice of men and women working together on community *and national projects? Here is a real challenge to the club. member. She is asked - to state specifically ‘the reasons for the existence of her organization, and she ought to have a logical answer. In effect she is confronted with several vital questions: “Does its good work justify the expense of your group upkeep? Are you gefting anywhere? (If so, let x mark the spot). How mich do you benefit your community and your nation? Is the feminine character of your group a handicap in a world which recognizes the need for co-operation between men and women?”

\ It is to be hoped we shall not allow this discussion to be confined to the Women’s Centennial Congress. Every organization that collects membership dues ought to give it thought. And while the world is in the revolutionany process 5 an excellent time for doing so.

It is significant that most of the new movements

since the start of Europe's war include both men and women as promoters, directors and workers, There is a strong tendency toward eo-operative activity. Women’s clubs function by means of their influence upon men, singly or in groups. Their success depends upon whether they can move politicians, commissioners, state officials or other leaders to their will. Before they get anything done they have to work through men. Why not then work with them? There are arguments on both ‘sides, but whatever our convictions may be, I believe all conscientious club members should take an ‘organization inven= tory and be willing to look squarely at ol liabil= ities as well as their Saseis. oa Eroupe are ineffectual, not for 1a but because they - ‘have no practical objec oy a i flounder in the clouds fol Dhjee Ve | ught to be ul ya a path through earthen mite SD : s lagging ‘feet.

Watching Your

By Jane Stafford VEN in this age of grat mph pearance men a, get nt without,

they look. What is more im : ey I ie core SooUeR

Lod

eight, The heart, as works every te o cot you live to keep and veins of your these arteries nd ve vei spreading throu ng and Jeaching every ar

which have sprung into life in the United States