Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 December 1940 — Page 22

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The Saasols Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER ~ “MARK FERREE President ] Editor ~ Business Manager

. Price in Marion Coun ty, 3 cents a copy; deliv+ ered by carrier, 12 cents a week. J

Owmed and published . Sally (except Sunday) by The Indiana Times

Anapolis Co. 214 W.

* Member of United Press, Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA , and Audit Bureau of Circulation.

@ive Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way THURSDAY, DECEMBER b5,-1940

WHAT'S THE IDEA, JESSE?

JESSE JONES reveals that the United States is thinking about some sort of financial aid to England.. He calls England “a good risk. » "Sas Norn Jesse’s opinion of what constitutes a good risk is entitled to respect. But, skipping that point, we would like to note that Jesse, as the Government's big lender, has usually not been quick on the drawstrings of the public purse unless he is convinced that the applicant for a loan really needs the money. : Does England need money ? > Maybe she will eventually, butrall the authorities seem - to agree that for the present she has plenty. Only yesterday Sir Frederick Phillips, Undersecretary of the British Treasury, said on arriving in New York: “Our financial position has never been stronger.” He added: “The only - technical difficulty is one of dollars and I believe that we ~will be able to arrange that.” Just what that means is not clear. The National City Bank, discussing England’s dollar position in its October bulletin, surmised that “only a comparatively small part of the $5,000,000,000 of. liquid dollar assets and gold held at the beginning of the war has been paid out,” and that “the ability of the empire to finance heavy purchases here is not yet strained.” } : J

Further, the British Empire is digging virgin gold at the rate of about $750, 000, 000 a year. And it is still selling commodities to this éountry.

So, we are curious about Jesse's Sedtite toward his purse—or rather, the Government's purse.

It seems entirely premature to talk of lending England money before she needs it. And if the time comes when she does need it, let’s not talk of loans. We got enough headache from World War lending. This time, let's see if England won't sell her Caribbean possessions for the dollars she wants. |

BUY CHRISTMAS SEALS

HRISTMAS SEALS have brightened holiday letters and decorated yuletide packages for 34 years and the cheery little stickers have become to many as symbolic of the season as holly and evergreen.

Proceeds from seal sales are used in n the cucation of the individual and the community on the modern methods of tuberculosis prevention and the provision of adequate facilities for diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation. Because of the ‘number of tuberculosis cases expected to be revealed by physical examinations of men under the Draft Act, additional funds will be needed next year, Many in Indianapolis already have received a supply of seals through the mails. A little is able to do a lot through the seal sales and remittances should be made at once by those interested in the hem against tuberculosis.

IN DEFENSE OF “OKIES”

A NEWSPAPER headline announced that the relief problem of Washington, D. C., had been complicated by an influx of “Okies.” The story was about how people back in their home towns, reading news dispatches with Washington datelines about the big boom in defense industries, had migrated to the capital thinking they would find employment. of course there are no defense jobs in Washington, except for clerical work in the bureaus. Washington’s defense: production is confined to policies and-news. The booming industrieg which get the orders are situated elsewhere. Anyway, we: started out to write about “Okies.” The point is that in the text of the story it was stated that most of the migrants referred to were from: Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. N o merition was made of any being from Oklahoma. | © An ex-Oklahoman | friend of ours was angry at the headline. “What the hell!” he said. Why should every bum who thumbs a ride on the highway or gets kicked off a boxcar by a railroad diek be referred to as an Okie? It’s not fair.” Another ex-Oklahoman friend, a well-known woman writer, was more philosophical. She said: “I think Okie is a fine new American word. I'm proud to call myself an Okie. Okies are a restless, prowling people. When they _ don’t like conditions where they are, they don’t just sit back on their haunches and grumble and wait for relief baskets; they pull stakes and go in search of opporiumizies sf the kind of life they want to live. : “They shove their way around and demand lho room, and when moving en masse the Okies are people of whom the smug, self-satisfied folks are just a little bit afraid. The same kind of people Sefilad and built this country, and are now referred to resp ctfully as Revolutionary forebears and pioneers. Okies are still settling and building the country; they are the folks i have a lot of ‘git up and go.”

~ -

RADIO'S COMMON DENOMINATOR

A FRIEND, who listens to the radio late at night a good deal, says he can’t see how it'll make much difference if ASCAP and the radio chains sever relations on’ Dec. 31, as threatened. ~~ . y . Sure, ‘he says, ASCAP controls the cream of ihe popular music, and the radio can’t use any of it without signing new contracts. But what difference does it make, he asks, | whether some of these so-called swing orchestras, which confuse the sophisticated with the corny, are playing “Begin | the Beguine” or playing “Chopsticks” ? The long watches of the night, he says, are infested with so-called ‘musicians | who are able to reduce the best music in the world, to the common denominator of an ordinary din, He admits that he still listens, but attributes this to the “fascination of abornination.” With all respect to the radio’s marvelous symphonies: and to its really good popular bands, we think our Yriend A got something there. :

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

EW YORK, Dec: 5—The seinsialement ‘of the New York Times correspondent in Rome, whence ‘he had been expelled for offensive interpretation of the news, has given rise to a hope that a similar adjustment may be made, between Mr, Harold Ross, editor of the New Yorker, and’ the. press

istry of the Stork Club, recently canceled Mr. Ross’ visa, pointed to the frontier and told him ‘not to come back.

questid

dered in retaliation for something which ‘the editor had published about the dean of the gents’-room corps of journalists, an elite and temperamental group. It appears that the journalists of this sensitve clan have become

social tyrant of New York 40 years ago. Mr. Lehr in his day, with an impatient toss of his head, the merest shadow of a pout or a stamp of his pretty foot, could

Since society moved into the saloons, however, this arbitrary authority gradually has been assumed by the journalists of the saloon beat, and is exercised through their power to advertise or omit from their dispatches all mention of any place whose proprietor admits persons of whom they disapprove.

8 x 8

OST proprietors believe that their economic life is iri the hands of the journalists of the gents’room corps, figuring that in return for frequent free mention in print they can well afford to subject their paying customers to intrusion at their tables and embarrassing publicity. ‘On the other hand, if they do not receive free publicity they may have to fold, up. This atitude has produced a variety of results. Some customers are so eager for personal publicity that they welcome such attention, and others are so fearful of reprisal in the press that they submit, any-

journalist of the gents’-room corps to get away from his table will be turned in to the management as an undesirable and blackballed the next time he wants to impress an out-of-town customer with his entree to the best saloons. . Thus, from the status of more or less obsequious moocher in the days of the speakeasies, to be seated at a small and rickety table near the kitchen, the journalist of this corps has now become himself a social celebrity of high degree. He commands the most prominent table, where he may be easily- pointed out, and jt would be dangerous in the extreme for a pro-

for a member“of the corps, even though cash customers were lined up 10 deep outside.

2 # td

FEW proprietors have taken the opposite view, and one of these has gone so far as to exclude practically the entire corps—by indirect methods, it is true, but?with satisfactory results The method in this case was not to keep out the members of ‘the corps but to treat them as gentlemen —which, of course, is a mortal affront to a gents’‘room journalist. Forbidden to sit in the laps of the customers, to ask them questions of an intimate, personal n ture and to spread notebooks cospicuously on ol ain table, the journalist of this special corps immediately becomes aware that his celebrity has been impugned and automatically bars himself by refusing to return to a place were such indignity

| awaits him.

The result is that in a short time the entire corps Sop away, and the proprietor is able to pass the word at his customers are free from molestation. Rather oddly, notwithstanding the publicity boycott, saloons observing this policy- have been known to prosper greatly. Holding that an “important principle is at stake Mr. Ross has refused to apply for a new visa for the Stork Club, although it is understood that the press minister has relented and would meet him half way. Indeed, Mr. Ross has said he’ is delighted to know that wherever he goes all members of the corps will sbruptly leave. He has thought some of hiring out as a social exterminator whose very presence in a saloon is guaranteed to eliminate gents’-room journalists.

Business By John T. Flynn

Report Shows Britain Has Used Up Only Trifle of Huge Assets in U. S.

EW YORK, Dec. 5.—When the WAT started, Americans were told that Great Britain had in this country all the money she needed to pay for ‘what she bought here. That yas true. She had over five billion dollars—perhaps over six billion. She had $1,235,000,000 of negotiable securities here and $940,000,000 of dollar balances. The Treasury Department now reports that in the first year, of. the war Britain withdrew $320,000,000 of funds from banks here. This does not mean that this was

ably most of it remained here, but was paid out to others.’ An interesting feature of this report is that $158, 400,000 of these payments of British funds here represented liquidation of Britishowned American securities. That is, Britain in that year sold $158,400,000 of American securities held here. by her own nationals, banked the proceeds and drew against it for purchases here. If this is true we will see that Britain in the first year of the war has scarcely scratched the surface of her security holdings here. Britain has made large contracts here, but of course it takes time to make planes, ships, etc., which she mush pay for later. She has not actually yet | - made any serious reduction’ in her available assets in this country. Britain and Canada together-have sold so ‘far only $193,000,000 of their securities here. If this is true then why is it necessary now to lend money to England when she has these immense balances here with” which to pay for her purchases? What is the reason for the propaganda which has been started for these loans? i g ” ” 2 - oy X HE vnswer of course is plain. As.every American ‘knows, all the warring countries are making all sort of propaganda to gain their ends here. many and Italy, as has been shown by ‘the Dies Committee, have ‘been busy here to persuade Americans to their way of thinking. Equally the :British Government, like the German and Italian, is spending millions to gain her objectives here. Her objectives, as we all know, are not just to get our sympaphy, but to get us into the war, William H. Stoneman, London correspondent of The Chicago Daily News, writes: States can help Brits in. nore by staying out of the war than by coming'i in the opinion of responsible British leaders, just'so Fd 3 bunk.” Propaganda to that end never stops here.. And the present stage of it is to get us to advance billions a en] way In he the war. An American loan

offense against h it is now getting ,to.be a"serious sin fo indulge in any America. - England does not need the credit. be another step to war. wil plague i gor the generation after the war.

So They Say— as

7 ADMIRE Col. Lindbergh as an aviator, but

In 3 political selence in the University o of Chicago.

" NAZIISM is s political. al synicem coupled with a roman y tic view of the suprémacy of one people—Mrs. Niebuhr; wife of Prof. Reinheld Niebuhr of Union ‘The6-

logical Samar, Sddressing Student group in New

\ York,

Mussolini Forgives ‘a Whiter, And | Wouldn't It Be Nice if Stork Club| Restored Mr. Harold Ross’ Visa? |

ministry ‘of the Stork Club. - It | may be recalled that the press min= |

action involved a serious | 1 of the freedom of the | press, because the expulsion wasore.

exclude from the haunts of polite society anyone who |: -| displeased ‘him.

way. There is also a danger that a client who tells a

prietor to decline to provide the best accommodations |

taken out of the country. . Prob- |

Ger- |

“*The fond idea that the United |

and. thus implicate us to that exient in | { J to England would be a grave | | |

110 better as a pilot in political theary than I To; ne: = in‘a plane-—Charlées E. Merriam, emeritus professor"

the successor of the late Harry Lehr, who was the |- ~

Cer

Johnson Blanket Epis Urged for Police

And Firemen of New York Would Set Precedent Harmful to Draft Act

yASHINGTON, . 5.—The attempt to have ‘all New York City policemen and firemen exe

| empt from the draft, if successful, would weaken ‘I popular confidence in the fairness of . the selective

|| system.

The underlying principle of the draft is that each man's case shall be considered on its. own individual merits ahd under exactly the same rules governing the selection of - all other men. : :. If he has dependents, ‘he is not exempted. He is merely dee ferred after establishing depende .ency in his par ar case. Oce - cupation deferments are deter ‘mined in the same way. A man can be deferred for his occupae tion only if it is shown in each individual case, that he is indise. _ pensable to some necessary induse trial enterprise, Some particular fireman or some particular policeman might be shown to be indise pensable to a city police or fire department, and so deferred, though it is difficult to see how. That is exactly” the rule in New York City now, but it not what (New -York’s Mayor wants. He wants to say to the national Government: “You can’t take any fireman or policeman.” A man’s badge ousts the board from even considering his case.

"x HIS is what is called a “blanket exemption’

automatically lifting out of the seléctive service system two entire and very, numerous classes of men,

| 1t couldn’t be done without changing an established

LA BIR a

The Hoosier Forum 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

OUTLOOK IS GLOOMY TO SMALL BUSINESSMAN

By Small Businessman

The election has come and gone. It is final and there can be neither reconsideration nor repeal. Since post-election feuds continue may I contribute my bit? “Business”—slugged .and blackjacked by our political policeman— is now groggy and will find the going rough. We are going to a

by Government takings. The people—patient as always—will muddle through and will stand that drain plus the more costly methods of doing business, or will they? . Admittedly the consequences are terifying. The familiar flippancy while spending (or should I say squandering?) billions will- continue. Taxes must follow in backbreaking heaps. ; The question I would like "to pose for the many New Dealers contributing so glibly in the Hoosier Forum is: “What will syenbually happen to us?”

8 2 2 CONTENDS EMOTIONS HOLD SWAY.IN WAR By L. V.

In the more sober. pages of history we find all the facts of war

' | present but little or none of human

emotions taking so vital a part in armed conflict. After all history is not made by facts but by emotions which give facts motion, meaning, and direction, Strange, men will: not die for

however, true or false - they may later prove to‘he. In war. men struggle, suffer, and die. The present European conflict is more than a pressure of forces, more than a struggle to preserve civilization; it’s the collapse of civilization and the birth of barbarism. — In this blood bath . .. something is happening historians can néver record. Men do not die on the pages of history, only the facts of their death are recorded. Men die in battle one by one, in the loneliness of their hearts, suffering as an individual must in an isolated insane anguish, helpless as a young lamb in the hands of a butcher and yet conscious to the point of madness as no animal can be to the meaning of every movement, glafice, gesture, or whatnot leading to the inevitable, act

market stripped of its buying power |

facts, but they. will die for beliefs, |

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

This war is not made up of generals in fine motorcars, drawn to thrill spectators, nor young aviators racing to battle as if eager to die. Such pictures are for poets, songwriters, etec., who never see actual warfare but stay at home to write fiction on the glory of war; and in so doing stir up an egotistical emotional desire for all of us to.become killers. Thus this clique misses the bitter ruthless reality that brings human beings, as alike "as you and I, to death grips. Where they bleed and die amid hunger, filth, vermin, pestilence, and despair. It is.the emotions of men, their agony of body, and terrorized mind, that one should recognize as more real than all’ the orders issued, all the cities and nations taken along. with | the rigamarole of flash and fanfare of a victorious nation of people. | When we view war thusly, | we shall pity those taking part in war from the top flight generals to the smallest man in the rear rank of an infantry regiment—as emotionally immature. ~~ ” 8 »

PLEADS TOLERANCE FOR I JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES = | By C. Kendall I think it is high time for| the American people to wake up. | * We came to this country because we had freedom to worship. We

| were to worship God in any| way

that we chose. But I ask you, are we? If so, why are the Jehovah's Witnesses driven out of towns by certain groups of people, when the only thing they are doing is preaching the Gospel? It seems tosme that the old sinners don’t like to be stepped on by vreachers that have nerve enough to tell them the truth, The truth turts too much. We need preachers in America

‘Side Glances—By Galbraith

that will preach iid to wake up America.

"You said you'd: marry me when | got piomeiod toa sacwhoel ~~ druck—now you say it has to

be: an sight-wheeler

|purpose for

|rights uhder the law would have no

.| delays. and purposely get

+ | Back to

CONTENDS U. S. SHOULD ADMINISTER PENSIONS

By Wm. Lemon

I believe. if the “Old Ads Assistance” or pension plan were administered direct by the Federal Government we would get better results. As it is now these pensions vary from $10 to $25 a month. It would reduce the overhead expense, for each’ district would have a Federal pension investigator.

problem. A strong centralized government has always equalized the rights of free trade among: the various states and no government is worth preserving that does not give its people the right to work and earn an honest living and if private capital refuses to co-operate confiscate it and put it under government supervision. La Prior to 1933 we were a capitalistic democracy, but the tide has turned. Today we have the rights to organize; your meager savings account is safe from the Wall Street gamblers and we are sailing toward a new Jeffersonian era “with special priveee to none and equality toward all.” 2 8 ® INDORSES SCHRICKER’S REMARKS ON LIQUOR By an Indianapolis Mother

Governor = elect Schricker

Purdue football game.

told us would bring prosperity!

16 are learning to be drunkards! Ours boys and girls listen to advertisements of praise for whisky and beer over radio every day. Most restaurants sell it, all drug stores, then we have the regular liquor stores, and last but not least the awful tavern! I wish more of our leaders hig speak out against this dri curse as Me. Sclizigkes. has os

TAKING A PIG AT THE | LOGAN-WALTER BILL. : By Oscar Houston, Elletisville, Ind. After counting noses in the Senate last Wednesday and fin hd only 52 members present, 17 Republicans. and 35 Democrats, the enemies of the Wagner Labor Board called up the’ Logan-Walter bill This bill would allow eyary decision rendered by ‘the board ‘to be 'appealed to fhe courts and set: ide if the courts saw fit. It would | tually take all. authority from the board to make decisions, the: very which the board was crea Any decision the ‘board would make to safeguard labor’s|

force or effect if the employer appealed it to the courts and of course that is what they would do. The whole thing was hatched up to kill the Labor Board and compel | labor to meet them on their own grounds, the courts with their highpowered lawyers to manipulate the] proceedings to get delays:and: more delays and take appeals with more tHe whole question enveloped in ‘a maze of technicalities and thus set aside the as to function \ of the law.

Soh COUNTRY i “By H. D. SWIGGETT |

pine, Of lakes and streams and all, the land of the open of God’s Country one and all.

State rights have never solved any |:

“It is indeed a shame that boys of |§

national policy of the draff. If it is permitted in New York, it must be permitted everywhere throughout the nation—in some . cases with grotesquely absurd

| results.

This is old stuff. The first six months of the 1917 draft were “a continuous battle to prevent the sys tem from being diseredited and impaired-with “blank et” exemptions pressed for by some of the most powe erful influences. This case of policemen and firemen came up first. Equally strong pressure was brought. to exempt locomotive “engineers and firemen, brakemen and finally all railroad employees as a class, for reae sons here stated and, for another reason, we successe fully . resisted. The other reason was that we feared that the creation of blanket exemptions would create loop holes as broad as boulevards for wholesale draft evasion. And so it proved, for finally we gave in on one case—a blanket exemption for the emergency fleet corporation: Those old enough to remember, know what a stench that caused, it was one of the two major blunders of that draft. # 8 = hey T= fleet corporation was a stupendous war ate tempt to “build a bridge of boats to France.” Its success was early threatened by an existing shortage of workers. We were persuaded to agree that all workers there would have an automatic or blankef exemption, It was wrohg, first, because it was an ine direct draft of labor and, second, thousands who didn’t want, to train flocked to work in the fleet core poration. Among them were some actors, professional pugilists, adagio dancers and stumble-bums of a rich and assorted variety. It didn’t help the fleet COr'e poration but it did discredit the draft. The case of policemen and firemen -is somewhat different, but the principle’ of Pisin the draft is the same, It is even doubtful” ‘whether, ‘ander his law there can be any blanket exemption that Congress itsell did not create. - Certainly it can’t:be considered on the New York argument that “firemen are more valuable than soldiers”—not if we'are to maintain military morale and the present’ ‘yery, high: torte and gpirit hof this draft. Let’s use proved principles w keep selective sevice fair and shove, re 3

A Woman s Viewpoint By Mrs. W alter Ferguson

SHE was both sprightly and: elegant—a difficult feat for the best of us—so- when my neighbor at the meeting leaned across to whisper; “That's Mrs. Marie K. Brown, founder and president of the National

| Grandmothers Club,” I took a closer look. Later, Mrs.

Brown and-I wedged in a couple of brief conversations. She looks about as much like the traditional grandma—the kind artists still paint for Saturday “Evening-Post covers—as I look like ‘Hedy Lamarr. She's thoroughly streamlined; every time I saw her . she appeared to have just come from the simonizjng room. But she is also perky and cute and very, - very enthusiastic about her four grandchildren, whose names are engraved on the gold emblem of the order she originated. Needless to say, each member thus advertises her own darlings, -. Grangmotherhood, for Mrs. Brown, is big business, and she approaches its duties with the same zeal a Chamber of Commerce secretary throws: into the weekly ‘luncheon meetings. . She knits—as ‘most of us do these days—but what a different sort of knitting it is from: the kind once done by elderly women in chimney corners! Modern knitters attack the job with a do-or-die determination, and you remember, \I'm sure, how your Grandma's fiingers seemed to stroll through the yarn, as she hery self strolled through her rose garden in the cool of the day. But we're off the subject. ! According to the National Grandmothers Club, Inc, there's no sense in feeling aged because fate has pree sented you with one or more grandsons and daughters, It frowns on the mushiness which motivated the elders of a past generation and which, so it has been said, resulted in so many spoiled brats. It holds that grande motherhood is an honarable state and that those who reach it should be filled with a sense of jmportance. - In fact, there is such an atmosphere of artificial cheer pervading the organization that you have the feeling now and then that behind all these modern Songs may lurk the same old grandmotherish sen« sations. For streamlining and simonizing doesn’t altar the fact’ that a spare tire is grand for emergencies, bit between flats is sometimes in. the way: |

" Waiching Your Health

‘By Jane Stafford

pares generally: judge the growth and develop ment of their children by comparison with neighs bor’s children or bythe rate at which olothey are oute grown. None. of these is ff : determinin whether . Junior .or Susie is growi properly. But parents are’ not al Find Snding a Yang ie dna by.

/ \

bem Dat can ol

2 | ment,” says Dr. Nat Back to the land of the spruce and of California Ins

Where Hivhows leap | ang: nd moses | teens of

la ofa pimp Bide ince b= of Dr. 2S Sones, directo of the Tosi