Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 December 1940 — Page 8

7

BAD NEWS, INDIANA

- But through this reorganization he has created an agency

. are going to be off the air.

"The ordinary cold may easily develop into more serious in-

that sniffle, rn

PAGE 8

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1840

E are usually more than happy to welcome new industries and new enterprises to Indiana. Not so in the case of William Dudley Pelley, leader of the notorious Silver Shirt fascist organization, who is reported moving all his furniture, files and equipment from Asheville, N. C. to Noblesville, Ind.

THE NEW DEFENSE AGENCY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S new defense setup is one which should achieve the maximum results possible at this stage of the-rearmament program. No other organizational form or procedure that we have heard suggested could, ,in our opinion, offer promise of going farther or faster toward the objective of producing defense weapons at the highest speed and in the greatest volume attainable. _ Later on it may b€ desirable to shift to some other ‘formula. The President’s approach is one that aims at results rather than forms. The new line-up should make better use than is now being made of the fine talents of the men who have given up their private careers to serve the nation in this emergency. They are men who, by training, can be expected to function most effectively where responsibility and authority are centralized and defined. : ‘The office for production management—of which William S. Knudsen will be the director, Sidney Hillman the associate director and Secretaries Knox and Stimson the other members—will have broad powers. The President says it will have all the powers which he can constitutionally give it. He also says—and this is important—that the decisions of this four-man agency will not require White House approval. Mr. Roosevelt is still President and Commander=inChief of the Army and Navy and boss of the whole works.

to which he can say: “It's up to you to produce the weapons.”

IT WON'T BE LONG NOW VEN our best friend wouldn't call us a jitterbug, or a connoisseur of chamber music, but we do like to catch a little music on the radio now and again. In common with most people, we prefer familiar tunes. We don’t often take a fancy to a new song until we've heard it several times, but after that it may be a favorite for years. - And now it looks as if most of the old favorites

The broadcasters and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) have each showered us with pamphlets, statistics, arguments, claims and counter-claims until we're as dizzy as the music that went round and around, or as some people feel after hearing Maurice Ravel's “Bolero.” (Both that unlamented ‘Round and Around” number and the “Bolero” will apparently be off the air if this feud isn’t settled by the deadline, Jan. 1). The argument boils down to this: ASCAP wants a lot more money for the use by radio of the music. it controls on behalf of its membership. Radio has refused, and has

set up a rival to ASCAP, called Broadcast Music, Inc. ‘But ASCAP still has the great contemporary composers, and | the vast bulk of the tunes we all love—together with many madcap numbers we could joyfully live without. If no settlement is made, radio listeners will have to get accustomed to something else. To which we say, plaintively, as we have said before: Can’t you boys get together? :

ABOUT THAT “REAL ESTATE”

EVERAL newspapers have scolded us for talking up a “real estate deal” in the Caribbean—namely, the pur chase of British possessions.’ They emphasize that these British outposts are economic liabilities, shot through with unemployment and unsalable farm surpluses and downright misery. All of which is true. They argue also that it would be a sad departure from our fine doctrine of the self-determination of peoples if British subjects were transferred willy-nilly to American sovereignty. Granted. But—the fact remains that the Panama Canal is the keystone of our defenses, that w2 need more Caribbean islands to guard the avenues by which the canal might be attacked, and that the present 99-year-lease arrangement for our use of British sites for bases is an improvisation that almost inevitably will cause Anglo-American friction in future years. ‘ It occurs to us that if the plight of these British subjects is so debased, they might not be reluctant to take a - chance on the Stars and Stripes. : ‘The annual cost to us of a program for economic and sociological rehabilitation in the islands would be trivial in comparison with the investments we are about to make in bases on the leased areas.

GUARD AGAINST ‘FLU’

#THERE is no reason to be panicky about the epidemic of influenza reported in the West. Reports indicate that _it is not the severe type the country has known in the past. Nevertheless any such epidemic is serious enough to “demand the co-operation of every man, woman and child.

fluenza, and therefore should not be regarded lightly, but immediately treated. The open air, warm clothing and shoes, exercise, and general sensible living without excesses of food or drink are all factors in helping to dodge “flu.” We look to doctors and public health physicians to check these epidemics. But without co-operation from ‘everybody their task is magnified. Now is the time to swat

»

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Green Promises Co-operation on Defense, Yet Some Unions Demand Big Fees From Those Seeking Jobs

EW YORK, Dec. 21.—In his speech promising co-operation in works for national defense delivered by air last Sunday, Willjam Green, president of the American Federation of “We have no lift wing or right w ican Federation of\Labor. We have no Communists, Nazis or Fascists in positions of influence in our movement.” 72 That is almost 100 per cent right, but, unfortunately, it must be said again that Mr. Green's movement is infested with a number of incorrigible crooks and already has been guilty of exploiting the national emergency to extort a vast amount of money from American citizens engaged in this vital job. : i Now, is this a charge that can be dismissed as the hateful ranting of a labor baiter or union buster without investigation? Is jt unimportant, if true? I have tried to find some justification, some excuse, for the greedy, cynical conduct of Mr. Green’s organization. I have even given consideration to the idea that it might be better to say nothing about it for the time being, so that the work might get done somehow. But this is wrong.

2 = 8

F these unions are allowed to get away with this now as the price of the co-operation of a few

leaders, we shall concede them an established and

recognized right to prey on the national emergency at the expense of the workmen. This tribute does not return to the men in the form of old-age pensions, sick benefits or unemployment allowances. It goes into the union treasuries, and the victims soon finish their temporary tasks and disappear.

The Boston Herald prints a letter, similar to many which I have received, bearing the: name of a man who represents himself as a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Applying for work. at Camp Edwards, he was required to pay an initiation fee of $75 to the New Bedford Carpenters’ Union —$25 down and the balance in 30 days. Soon after he had finished paying this tribute to a private organization for the privilege of working on a Government defense project he was fired. That made room for another sucker. “There was no question asked whether or not the applicant had ever had any previous experience as a carpenter,” the letter said, “merely a terse question whether he cared to risk paying his money.” “The last two and one-half weeks we all enjoyed a beautiful vacation for which you taxpayers were paying us a cool $60 a week. Oh, yes, should any

casual reporter happen along he would discern plenty |

of activity. Somebody was always sawing a board, driving a nail or shouldering a plank. I had several talks with other foremen and they likewise reported that they did not know what to do with their men except to advise them to appear busy. The attic made a very convenient habitat for unknown hundreds of men. $ 2 2 2

o HE pathetic waste of time and money went hand in hand with the waste of materials. Lumber and nails were treated as though worthless. In spite of the deplorably evident loss no reprimand or caution or threat was audibly uttered. “A short time after I Nad paid my union fee in full I was handed -a pink slip stating no cause for discharge. Was it only a cdincidence that the majority of the pink slip receivers: were handed theirs after they had paid in full?” Do I believe this? Of course I do, knowing, as I do, that the A. F. of L. re-elected to its executive council only a short time ago a notorious Chicago gangster; that Joseph Padway, the attorney general of the organization, retained his job in spite of his collaboration with criminals, which he will not dare deny, and that the Federation itself betrayed the rank and file by refusing to lift a finger to protect

-| them.

My question and challenge to Green is how dare he presume to assure the American nation that, granted certain conditions, his group will handsomely refrain from sabotaging the national defense?

Business By John T. Flynn

Labor and Business Begin to Have Serious Misgivings About Defense

EW YORK, Dec. 21.—There seems to be no limit J to the number and size of the complications into which the defense program js moving by reason of the proposal for: dictatorial powers in the executive.

Business executives express themselves as pro-

foundly moved—ranging all the way from great annoyance to downright panic at the idea of having the Government put their plants under a war regimenta- - tion. On the other hand they MN would like to see something done about labor, They do not like the five-day week nor the various limitations on production nor the threat of wage incpeases and behind that the reat /of strikes. hey i ought to e

Na

~sOomet, ne about that. | Labor, on the other hand, sees with dismay the possible loss of the five-day week or even the 40-hour week, the whole benefit of the National Labor Relations Boa even the Wage and Hour. Law, plus the rise’ of a generally repressive labor pelicy. Hence it i$ frightened at the prospect of a war regime moved by war-production motives rather than labor-service motives. However, it would like to see some kindof heavy hand pressed down on the employers. bp Executives here feel that the—employers cannot and will not move for any attempt at restrictions on labor. They would like to see the first steps for that originate with’ labor itself—the leaders of the C. I. O. and A. F. of L. Failing that, they think the Labor Department should take up the subject. In other words, the employers want ‘the restrictions but they do not want the odium that may go with pressing for them and, perhaps, the reprisals that will attend them. Moreover they think somebody else can do the job better than they can.

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ov of it all emerges a strong current of opposition to any attempt to set in motion the regimenting functions of Government. No one knows where they will lead or end. Labor at the moment likes the defense program. It is giving labor lots of jobs, good wages, and a touch of prosperity with even better days ahead. Business is certainly not averse to it though now it begins to fear all sorts of things from taxes to Government control. - But if labor and business ever get around to taking the defense program seriously, if they ever get around to believing

what the orators are saying, then the defense program

is going to lose a lot of its popularity. It is a question whether the program is actually lagging. . It is most certainly not coming up to the promises that were made by certain Government orators. But business units did not make those promises. The promises were fantastic from the beginning. The program is not going along faster because the production asked was impossible. The fault must be looked for in those who made the silly predictions of fantastic output. Business, however, will now be

made the scapegoat and labor along with it.

So They Say—

THERE IS SO FAR no political directing group anywhere which has been selected chiefly on a basis of intelligence.—Prof. F. C. Bartlett, Cambridge psychologist. . : >

. * § EVEN NOW, and much more so six months hence, it will be suicide for a European power to send a ostile ship into the Carribbean.. It would never get out.—Navy Secretary Knox, = : llth

4

You, and Who

Else, Adolf?

1 wholly

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

URGES CHRISTMAS SHOPPERS TO BUY AMERICAN : By G. 8S.

We-arefhearing a great deal about why we should light up for Christmas this year more than ever before. I am all tor that, but what puzzles me is why merchants should sell, and Americans buy, decorations hostile to democracy. . While we are celebrating Christmas in the American way let us buy American to support the American workers.

8 u 8 RECALLS CRUELTIES OF BRITISH HISTORY By a Thinker and Reader of The Times

In this.country we are faced with a great question, not a question of the survival of the fittest, but of sober collective thinking that will be right and just. Who in this world-wide game of hide and seek shall we root for? Not Adolf of course. We mustn't condone the brutal slaughter that he enjoys so gleefully. The next comes England with her pomp and -ceremony. Virtue so strong as to wreck the: life of one of their statesmen just because he loved one of our own people so dearly he would and did abdicate the throne. Yet they think we in America should strain our purses and industries to the breaking point to save their beloved country.

Go back to the times referred to in Henry W. Longfellow’s “Evangeline” when the British ships stood at anchor and waited to smash the poor, peaceful God fearing French, by the way, like Mr. Hitler is trying to annihilate’ the British today. Those Acadians at Grand Pre died, were separated from loved ones and their homes burned because they were supposed to be ruled by the crown. : Then there is the story of “Mutiny on the Bounty,” the English sailors were beaten and starved into submission because the crown said so. It looks as though England has just as much cruelty in their past as the other warring nations, We Americans, it appears, are compelled now to lend help in every form to England, for self-preserva-tion is the first. law of ‘nature. To give to England in the present crisis will be only returning good for evil,

(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.)

rather goes against-the grain, to say the; least. Personally, the English are a pain. Crowns, traditions, lords and all

bologna is silly. I am glad I am an American, and as a loyal American:

I will advocate almost anything to keep our beioved country from being torn up by war. So at this point I hope Mr. Voltaire doesn’t desert me, for maybe some folks won't agree with me. # ” ”

FOOD FOR THOUGHT IN THE GALLUP POLL By Claude Braddick, Kokomo, Ind.

George Gallup reports that a growing number of voters are coming ‘to the opinion that our entry into World War was no mistake. Some of us have been saying for years that— mistake or not—our entry was justified. : If the present trend continues, soon a majority will come to that opinion, and that which was “wrong” in the 20's and 30's will automatically become “right.” Let the 22,000,000 Willkie fans ponder that for a moment! = ” 2

TAKING A SLAM AT FLYNN AND JOHNSON By a Reader

I'm getting pretty well fed up on the way your columnists, Flynn and Johnson, are quibbling about our extending help to England. What would they have us do, sit back and do nothing while Hitler knocks out England and then prepares to run the whole world? It sounds silly to me. I have yet to hear a sound argument against the contention that to help England is to help defend America. . . . Phooey with such narrow-minded

which is-as it should be. But it

Side Glances—By

critics. :

Galbraith

BOP. 1941 87 MEA SERRE. 7 M. REEL 0. PAT, SPEC

"And | thought I'd get out of running a tractor on my old ‘man's 4 : on by joining the army!” LA

SUSPECTS SABOTAGE IN PLANT EXPLOSIONS By an American Fires and explosions in munitions plants are too frequent to be purely -aceidental. Losses of lives and' of property are appalling, but even more disastrous are the delays in our rearming and our rush to aid Britain. Isn’t it time to [take active notice of the many subversive agencies working to hamper our own defense program and that being done for Britain? a Why not add fo our safeguards by employing as watehers in our danger spots in production or transportation more of the men of known loyalty, many of them veterans of the last war, now unemployed? They may not be fit to run machines nor able to stand up under manual labor, but they can provide the vigilance and devotion to duty that may preserve younger lives and much valuable fime and property. They will welcome the opportunity again to serve their country.

2 #8. = FAVORS ELIMINATION OF POLL TAX By L. M.

Our attention has been drawn to the bill H.. R. 7634 and the commendable efforts made to eliminate the poll tax existing in several states, disfranchising a great pro-

states. Rep. Geyer, the author of this

ties.” ar The requirements in many states that a poll tax be paid as a pre-

for Federal offices has frequently resulted in the pernicious political activity of inducing voters to vote for a certain candidate by paying their poll tax for them. Another evil attendant to the tax is the fact that in many districts the payment of even such a small amount as a poll tax imposes a hardship on the voter, with the result that no vote is cast. We might as well stand at the polls and collect a certain amount of money for the privilege of voting. How much longer will we put up with this definitely undemocratic and reactionary remnant of another century? z ” 8 ” CONTENDS REFUI/GEES WOULD FIGHT NAZISM By J. R.

The bottleneck in the defense program is the State Department. We are spending billions for machine guns and planes and tanks. We are considering lending hundreds of millions to an ally and agent of the Axis, but we will not lift one finger to strengthen our anti-Nazi manpower by admitting to the country proved fighters against Nazism. | In France are thousands of men and women wha have actually fought Nazism. They are the refugees from Spain, Germany and Austria. We are coolly letting them starve and freeze to death, allowing the Gestapo to collect*and destroy them. We could save these precious lives for our own use in the defense of demicracy. We could give them a haveri in our country or in the Virgin Iglands. But the State Department says, No. :

ETERN Al SIGHT By MARY ROS; HIDINGER 1 knelt beside hij cradle And prayed to lim abo ve, To give him back his eyesight But little did I realize My little lad of three Had sight to see :ternal

portion of the citizens in these 8 bill, states that it is designed to|}

prevent pernicious political activi-|§

requisite for voting at the elections |

So he might se: and love. |

SATURDAY, DEC. 21

(Geen. Johnson °

Says— | Terrible Urgency’ Seems to Be the

Threat of Invasion of England, but * There's Little We Can Do About It

YORK, Dec. 21.—No official explanation has been given as yet of Mr. Knudsen’s “terrible urgency,” but it is unofficially said to be a full force Nazi attempt to invade Britain in the next 90 to 120 days. From a military point of view it is more than likely. ¢ A : Considering her vast superior ‘ ity in the air and on land, Gere many has made no all-out effort and suffered no great loss. If she waits until we are in the European war to the hilt which, considering our present headlong crazy course, we are sure to be, she will considerably reduce her chances. Yes, an attack on England in the open ocean and across the Channel, flercer than anything yet imagined,"is probable. But where does that ‘terrible urgency” tie in with our proposed garden hose threebillion dollar “mortgage loan” of military equipment? The latter proposal was said to have nothing to do with existing Brit supply orders—only with further orders. But onj existing procurement sched-

ules, due to difficulties in, tooling and converting

factories to war production, deliveries on even existing orders, whether for our own defense or England’s are not expected in great quantity in these critical 90 to 120 days. L : It is difficult to find any connection between this admitted “terrible urgency” of the immediate British’ defense problem and this new proposed authority to “lend” our arms, unless the garden hose we are really going to “lend” immediately is thé bulk of all our pitifully inadequate modern defensive equipment whether “on hand or on order.” : » » #

ERHAPS we could make a considerable contribue tion by stripping our Army of about all that has been delivered to it to date—which is precious little . —of planes, guns, rifles, tanks and ammunition. We could also, if we dared (in view of the dangerous situation we have gone out of our way to create in the west Pacific) thus give away a very formidable force of naval aircraft, battleships, cruisers, dee stroyers, sub-chasers, naval artillery and ammunition, . Would all that swing the balance and prevent. an invasion of Britain?. Nobody knows. Even our Gove ernment seems to be rt- on its own facts and public opinion: is operating in a complete vacuum, Suppose that the sole important contribution we could not make is, at least partially, to disarm our gwn defenses and suppose first, that it would prevent an invasion of Britain. What then? Obviously, either a negotiated peace in | Europe, or an interminable war. Apparently there could be a negotiated peace without that gamble and perhaps none much more favorable if the gamble wins. The present military situation would remain—England not invaded. If the result should be a war of extermihation in Europe, you can write it in your hat that no such thing can or will be attempted without our full participation in total overseas war on land or sea—surely in Europe and probably in Asia, at least at sea—and our paying for most of it. |

s EJ s il Wis that in prospect, what would you call a present partial disarmament or delay in armament of our own Army and Navy? Our unarmed " Army is mush today. | Consider the other horn of that gamble, We postpone or dissipate our own armament and it does not prevent an invasion of England. Much of our equip=ment is captured or destroyed. The Bri Navy retires to base in other parts of the Bri Empire —it is folly to suppose that ‘it will be surrendered. Where do we stand then? More defenseless than ever. More than ever dependent on some other strength than our own; more than ever tied to a military and diplomatic policy of another nation that we do not, cannot and do not want to control. Wouldn't it be better to cease depending on offers for our defense and encouraging them to depend on us? Wouldn't it be better to make our own country impregnable on land, sea and in the air? People who say so are being called “fifth columnists” and “appeasers,” and the people who call them that are getting medals for patriotism. Is it patriotism for | America or some other country? J |

op A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson fi

T long last the Protestant brethren have taken a A. good look at themselves. The result is nervous agitation, and we hope for something even more laudable in the near future. For the men discover alarme ing symptoms in the male religious body. ‘The head i : is badly swelled, the ego inflated, _ the lungs distended from overuse and the brain alarmingly shriveled, In short, the Federal Council of Churches has just finished a study of woman's place in the Protestant picture and it makes a sorry sight for Christian gentle« men to contemplate, i But better late than never, Perhaps with all their converting, the men can now begin on them= selves. For many decades Protest« Fis ant pulpits have resounded with > masculine self-praise. The preach« ers declared that Christianity was the force which re leased women from barbarian bondage. The brethren believed in God and equality and therefore bestowed “freedom” upon the female, it was said. In a good many instances, as you know, this freedom nly gave women the right to believe in the superiority of God's male representatives. It bestowed upon us the privie lege of organizing societies to raise money jor parish expenses. The sisters merely moved from their own pia ® we shuren basement, where they cooked and washed dishes and fed the men as w cheerfully as they did at home. in and a3 But never, in the 2000 years of Christian culture, have feminine members enjoyed that equality in the church which the religious bill of rights d s. In fact, the opposite is now conceded. The church is the most backward of all groups in its treatment of Woigne¥en the politicians are more considerate and just. 2 Discrimination begins with the local church boards —and if you don’t believe it, investigate your own,

Today's Science

By P. L. RICKER il President, Wild Flower Preservation Society HRISTMAS trees and Christmas ” are. very much in evidence once more. | ; It seems too bad to spoil even a little of this prelude to Yuletide jollity by & note of caution. Yet the sad fact is that much of this Christmas greenery was garnered in total disregard of good conservation practice. And some of it was just plain stolen from its rightful owners. Not very appropriate for the great feast of peace and good-will, that kind of thing! Some of the raids which market gatherers cone duct are on such a large scale that a movement is spreading to require market material to be tagged, indicating its source and stating that it was collected by approved conservation met! In some states, highway police have been authorized to stop loads of Christmas greens and : the . showing of a permit from the owner of th ty from which it came. : 24 . Worst of tree losses at Christmas { comes from the commercialization of the native American holly, which grows more or less abundantly wali of a8

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