Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 December 1940 — Page 8

The: Indianapolis Times

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in Indiana, a year; ~ outside of Indiana, 65 - cents a month. * .

Wy Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1940 :

MORE MISERY ALONG THE DAN UBE

OOR Rumania. She has lost great areas of her territory to Russia and Hungary. Her king has fled. Earthquakes have ravaged her. Assassins have struck right and left. German troops have been garrisoned on her soil; more German troops, reputedly hundreds of thousands, are pouring in for some unstated mission. And now comes word that Hitler is installing one-Baron Manfred von Killinger at Bucharest as his gauleiter or viceroy for, this once fiercely independent land. Baron Manfred von Killinger i is a tough customer, widely experienced in Nazi methods of exacting loyalty. He has described in a book his career as leader of a Nazi strongarm gang, including one episode wherein he ordered the whipping of a woman. 1934, when he was arrested during the Hitler blood purge, but he was imprisoned instead of being summarily murdered like so many others, and later was reinstated. A few years ago this exalted gangster, a former premier of Saxony, served for a while as German consul general in San Francisco.. Apparently the climate of democracy was not to his taste, or possibly the unkind attentions paid him in Congress and the press damaged his usefulness as a missionary for Naziism. In Rumania, with an army and the gestapo handy, he will have a better opportunity for practicing the arts of discipline in which he is acknowledged to be so expert. God help the Rumanians.

A SENSIBLE GET-TOGETHER N Washington, Chairman Doughton of the House Ways and Means Committee is quoted as indorsing the idea of a get-together between his group and the House Appropriations Committee. "That is, the men who write the tax bills and the men who write the appropriation bills would give each other a look at their respective hands, instead of proceeding as usual to act as if taxes and appropriations were unrelated. Such a proposal had already been made by Rep. Woodrum, one of the more important members of the appropriations committee. So something may come of it. : We hope so. We hope the thing goes still further. Secretary Morgenthau has suggested that a joint committee “be set up, not just of House tax and appropriation specialists, but of Senators as well, to study the whole problem of taxing, spending and borrowing, - Too many legislators don’t let their left hand know what their right hand is doing. Which may help explain why it has been said of more than one that he “never voted against an appropriation or for a tax bill.”

SOMETHING NEW IN ALIBIS

N Iowan wants to take his year’s military training by |

mail—“because I'm allergic to beans and prunes.” What about all the guys who are allergic to sergeants, and buglers and hayfoot-strawfoot?

WAR IS DEFEAT VVILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN, a correspondent who was not fooled by the glamour, of the dictatorships even in their early days, describes what is happening in Europe as a “revolt against civilization.” Not since the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century A. D. has there been such a breakdown, says Mr. Chamberlin in the December Harper’s. A scholarly Belgian refugee in Bordeaux remarked to him, “Perhaps I can catch a boat for the Belgian Congo; there I can lead a civilized life again.” : How Europe has grown more barbarous Mr. Chamberlin shows by contrasts: “When Tsar Alexander II was killed by revolutionary terrorists in 1881 five persons, all unquestionably participants in the assassination, were executed. When the Communist Party leader in Leningrad, Sergei Kirov, was killed by another Communist in 1934, 134 persons were shot. Of these only 13 were even accused (there was no public trial) of having taken part in the killing of Kirov.” Before the World War, European newspapers were sometimes told what they might not say. Today, far worse, they are told what they must Say=—and often ordered to orint lies. This breakdown results from revolutions—Communist, ?ascist, Nazi. And the revolutions are the result of the ‘Torld War. - Says Mr. Chamberlin: “Modern war, with its total demand on manpower and tural resSurces, with its profound dislocation of normal -onomie life, with the immense psychological strain which : imposes on entire populations, is a sure forerunner of | svolution, at least in the defeated countries. Sometimes : brings revolution in the victorious countries also if the ufferings of the war outweigh the post-war gains. ... “Perhaps the greatest cause of the World War was a negative one: If the Kaiser could have foreseen Doorn, if the old Emperor of Austria could have envisaged the later splitting up of his polyglot realm, if the Tsar could Have seen the cellar in Ekaterinburg where he would perish with his family, if Poincare could have imagined the ‘tragic, broken France of 1940, one of the greatest disasters in human history would probably not have taken place.” 8 ‘sR . 8 ak 7 o » It is not too. late for foresight. Let us look ahead and see what participation in this European war would do to us. - We might not win. But if we should “win” we would lose. The United States has not recovered from the first World War; we have not even fully recovered from the Civil War. Economic depressien would follow a new war. We would unite for the period of the war, but after the war the diverse elements which ‘compose ‘this country would fly apart. Phony wartime: “idealism”. would be followed by post-war materialism ‘and ‘eynicism and, worst of all, by such SOETY “faiths” as communism, fascism, or—it is hard te

conceive it now-—the aftermath of another war might |

produce ig: worse.

Mail. subscription rates

The violent life boomeranged. in

Fair Eriough By Westbrook Pegler

Grand Jury Testimony Read In

a strange turn in the prosecution of several: ol

B. .McLane, who was fifth viee president of the Bartenders’ Inter=

\ year, of the Chicago Local, No. 278.

Union is the same whose local in Miami, Fla., was until last spring, a private racket of Danny Coughlan, Al Capone’s brother-in-law. Coughlan was reluctantly kicked out after. publicity had traced the. association “between the union racket and . Frank Nitti, the champion criminal of the Capone mob since the retircment of Capone himself. In the Miamis, Nitti deals in mineral water for highballs and in alcoholic beverages which were “pushed” by the bartenders under Coughlan. The invasion of the Building Service Union by the Nitti mob, through: the election of George Scalise, has been proved in court, andthe penetration of the theatrical craft unions by the same mob has been shown.

tenders, is a member ot the executive council of the bh American Federation of Labor, along with George Browne, who runs the theatrical craft unions.

e.8e

N the Chicago case McLane was shoved out of his bartenders’ union job in favor of a gangster named Louis Romano, the choice of the Nitti mob. McLane then appealed to Tom Courtney, the State's Attorney, and Courtney got indictments against a .criminal named Murray Humphreys, who recently was found guilty by the Unifed States Board Tax Appeals of kidnaping an elderly union President and extorting $50,000 ransom. When the time came for McLane to testify he refused to repeat in court the statements which he had made before the grand jury lest-he incriminate himself. The prosecution then introduced the grand jury minutes by way of proving that McLane would not incriminate himself. Nevertheless, .there was a directed verdict of acquittal.

The grand jury testimony of McLane declares that in 1938 Nitti discussed with him a proposal that he (McLane) become international president of the bartenders so that the Nitti mob and other mobs elsewhere could control not merely the union but, obviously, the vast retail outlet for beer, liquor and mineral waters. McLane said that Browne was present at this discussion, along with Browne's two appointees in the theatrical union—Willie Bioff, the convicted pander, and Nick" Circella, alias "Nicolo Dean, a stickup man. Louis Romana, the mobster selected to run the Chicago bartenders, also was thee. ” ”n ” i

IOFF talked first,” said McLane to the grand jury, “and said that as far as the coast was concerned, in Seattle, he would contact the various organizations and see that the teamsters’ organization would vote for me for general president (of the bartenders). I said others would know I was being used strictly as a ‘yes’ man, their front man, and I had no alternative in it. I would wind up in the penitentiary or be put in the alley, and I. did not favor to run. They explained they had run other organizations, and all they said was two years of it. and they would see I. was elected and they would parcel out the different parts of the country. Browne was supposed to take care of the Eastern part, around Boston and through there, and Nicolo Dean was supposed to take care of some place else. I was given definite understanding" I had to run. Nitti said he made Browne, for example. Browne is here to tell you we made him.” Flore was re-elected. McLane was defeated, and on his return. from the union cenvention McLane caught hell from Nitti for drinking; because now Nitti wanted to boost McLane. to, the presidency of the Chicago Federation of Labor, and McLane had been talking too much while drunk. He was then shoved out altogether and appealed to Courtney for aid. McLane has not recanted. He just refused to repeat his grand jury testimony in open court.

Aviation By Maj. Al Williams

Our People Being: Told Good News But Not the Bad on Plane Output

OME people in this country honestly believe it is right to tell ordinary folks: only the good news about our national defense. Let's take a sample. * In 1938 a great number of American aviation experts were in Europe inspecting the design and production of military planes-and engines.. What did they say when they returned and were met at the dock by reporters? Among that group were some of our foremost engine rhen. Not one of them discussed the remarkable British Rolls-Royce or the German Daimler-Benz streamlined, liquid-cooled -motors. Not one of them had anything to say about the ominous fact that both England and Germany were equipping their fastest single-seater interceptors (by far the fastest in the world) with Rolls- -Royce and DB streamlined engines. Not one of them had anything to say about the British Supermarine Spitfire or the German Messerschmitt or the Heinkel They told the people good things they ‘wanted to hear. The ugly job of telling the truth was left. for those who knew that the truth had to be faced sometime, and who deemed that their own peace and comfortable relations with the public could not be weighed against getting the facts out quickly.

HAT I am working up to is this: Reports are becoming available to the public that our firstline fighting planes are not up fo present British and German single-seater fighter performance or armament standards, to. say nothing of mass production. Immediately there is a_ series of news releases from official and unofficial’ Washington asserting that American - plane production is: equal.or superior to that abroad.

that the Germans are turning out more than 3000

statement that our production is at least 30% below the quota of 1000 planes a month, Then more “news” explaining that the British and French were given planes which they were told were not our latest models. As a matter ‘of fact, the French took anything we had to deliver of our Douglas light bomber “before that type had been delivered to our

one of these ships and a French Air Ministry observer was found in the wreck. That's how that story broke. On the other hand, the British frankly tell us they don't like our fighting planes (P-40’s), because they are underarmed and the engines are not right yet. I believe there is no fighting squadron in this country equipped with planes that can hold their own against or alongside the British Spitfire or the German fighters. And I believe there is an seplesion Soming about our plane production. :

So They Say— : AFTER ALL, Mr. Ballard is dead, or has ascended, and it’s a cinch I can’t ascend and take the Jury with me to ask him about it.—Judge Leon Yankwich in the “I ‘Am” trial. : ‘em a. LABOR DIFFICULTIES accotht for no more than

1 per cent in the delay on cantonment construction. ~War Secretary Stimson.

NEVER BEFORE ie the Boa of ‘human conflict have so many owed so much to so few.—~Winston ' Churchill's tribute to the opal, Alr Force,

Open Court Casts Light on Way | Some Chicago Unions Are ‘Run. |} - YEW YORK, Dec. 28.~Tt i§ not often that grand [|

national Union of the A. 'F. of L. | and ‘business agent, at $10,000 a

The Bartenders’ International

* Ed Flore. the international president of the bar- |

Repeatedly we have been warned ‘by authorities

planes a month. On top of this comes Mr. Knudsen'’s |

own Air Corps—until Johnny Cable was killed testing |

—

jury testimony is revealed to the public, but, by f gr

Capone gangsters in a Chicago labor union ‘racket, {| = | | there was introduced in court recently an imteresting | |" grand jury discussion :by- George. 1

AS ONE. OF THE

pak t | PRINCIPAL FEATURES OF “ THE DEMOCRATIC SvsTEmM PLEASE BEAR WW MIND THAT

DEMOCRACY IS COUNTING

ON YOU InN THE PRESENT" © EMERGENCY.

ZHEVRT, d

Ti Ye

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

A LOUD BOO FOR THE PELLEY PRINTSHOP

By R. M. G.

Claus has given us one Christmas present that isn’t up to the standard of the grand old fellow.- I'm referring to the flight of Pelley’s printshop from Asheville to Noblesville. Now I can understand Santa's kindness to North ‘Carolina, but why does he pick-on us?

We- are reminded ‘that thanks to the courage of The Times a lot of Pelley-minded folks were exposed | * and driven out of the hate-business a few years ago. It does seem strange that the same Santa who helped you do such ga grand job of child-clothing should now give you so less desirable a task. But we're counting on The Times to keep Noblesville noble!

8 =» PUZZLED BY FAILURE TO USE IDLE PLANTS

By A Veteran ~~

We read and hear a lot about speeding up national defense pro-

proaching hysteria over the subject

part of his lifetime in automotive production and army ordnance work, I am wondering if a goodly part of this isn’t just propaganda to ease the shock of our entrance into this war. If there is really such a crying need for speed and efficiency, why hasn't the Government made use of existing plants for producing national - defense needs, instead of taking time out to build a new plant every time it needs a few stove bolts? : ‘Right here in Indianapolis there re dozens of manufacturing plant buildings idle, or used for non-pro-ductive purposes. For example, there is the Stutz Motor plant, a large part of the old National plant, the old Lovell Foundry ‘building, on W. Michigan St, the L. G. S. Manufacturing Co. plant, on Cornell Ave., and dozens of others. It may be countered 4hat these buildings are not large enough to house a complete production unit but everyone familiar with manufacturing processes, Khows that there isn't an automobile manufacturer who produces the entire automobile in one plant or in one location. . Also, why don’t these national defense: manufacturers avail themselves of the available trained man-1

Something tells me that Sonia)

duction. Our leaders seem to be ap-|

but as one who has spent a large|

(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.)

solngdih and this reduce the ranks of available fighting men? I personally know that many men with years of experience are unable to secure an interview, while the same plants import men of lesser ability and training from distant points and this applies to supervisory positions as well as factory workers. Somehow, I can’t help feeling the American people are again being “taken. for a ride” and God help our leaders, when the facts come out, during the terrible days which will follow this shot-in-the-arm called national defense. 2 ‘2 8

—

PUTS AMERICAN NEEDY AHEAD OF BRITAIN By Bryan Logsdon, Freetown, Ind.

.'1 see where England is begging hard for finances and war materjals. Now are American people sapheads or what? Perhaps Winston Churchill needs a new silk hat or a silk frock coat. . Now as American citizens we are not paying enough taxes to.pay much old-age pensions or aid any poor, needy American children. Why not have a Royal tax to keep Britain's Royal families in pomp while she is battling hard to save the world for democracy? ‘How long are people going to listen to foreign pleas? We need to be prepared at home. We need all our money to help put better clothes on our needy children. Let England take care of her own Royalty, pay her own war debts and quit calling on us every time she gets in a war. If she must have money, let her sign over her American holdings and her naval bases. If the U. S. must protect those bases, why not own them and then Uncle Sam can make the Western Hemisphere safe for democracy? After the war is over British lords and sirs cannot stand back and laugh at us for being so silly bas to give them our hard cash,

power, instead of concentrating on training a lot of irresponsible

Side Glances=By G

When a poor American citizen needs a little backing he is told he can’t

albraith

; "Ohi stop worrying where the Government i is ‘going to

billion and tell me where we're going to vet} 16.5 10 meet this tailor bill ~~

J 49 i

put up proper security and is told he is too old to work. I am’ unalterably opposed to any foreign loans to any country so long as American citizens are needy and can’t get a loan to aid themselves at home. The past has proved that British bonds are not worth the paper they are written on. They have never .aided us. Why set our own citizens aside and buy fine hats for British royalty? # = = RULES OUT SENTIMENT IN AID TO BRITISH By James R. Meitzler, Attica, Ind. In considering aid to England, whether that aid means short of war or full participation, we should not be influenced by sentiments for or prejudice against the warring nations, but by our own interests. We have, all these years while England ruled the seas, felt perfectly secure with a one-ocean navy, a miniature army, and no air force worth considering. Hitler's success. in Europe, his assault on England, has changed all this. We no longer feel safe. We are forcing our young men into training camps, spending billions for ships, guns and planes. . Our security is gone. What are we afraid of? Not of an Engilsh victory. We know if England wins, if the conquered countries are freed, if Germany is disarmed, we will again be safe. But what if Hitler triumphs and Germany and Japan rule Europe, Asia and Africa? The time to decide is short. Hitler is not scattering his strength but pounds continually at the heart of England, her factories, shipyards, docks, and ships; If it is to our interest to help England we must do it now. Tomorrow may be too late. 2." a CONTENDS SHIP SEIZURE WOULD BE ACT OF WAR By C. E. N.

Seizure of German or Italian ships in our ports for transfer to Britain would be an act of war against Germany or Italy; seizure of the ships of other. nations would be an unjustifiable violation of their rights. If, in consequence of such seizure, war should be declared against the United States the United States would be the aggressor. Any hypocritical attempt to shift the blame would not prevent the American people from realizing that they had been betrayed by those who had promised to keep them out of war. If honestly interpreted, “aid short of war” means aid short of acts which lead to war, : And what ‘would the American people say of the Senators and Representatives who, by tolerating the usurpation of their war powers, had failed to protect us against the dis-

“faster of further involvement in the

European war? # ‘8 8 LAUDS PLAIN SPEAKING AT THIS CRUCIAL TIME By A. H. C.

Your editorial William Allen White Speaks and the contributions of Westbrook Pegler and Gen. Hugh Johnson were splendid. Such plain speaking is much to be preferred to the hysterical radio addresses one hears and to those columnists and others who cater during this serious time to the passing and changeable emotional feelings of the hour.

GROWTH By ELEEZA HADIAN

Life’s great seesaw Does not operate so: One end wished lower Does not elevate the other, Heaping abusive weight On the object of hate Does not send a. fellow higher But merely indicate | He has not yet learned better: That life’s seesaw Rig Does not operate so!

attitudes toward life than modern man is.

he said: “She'll have to take care of me now. x guess we -serves her right.” ..

Gen. Johnson

Says— Mass Production the Great Need,

Yet as Murray Points Out, Many Skilled Tool Makers Lack Jobs.

ASHINGTON, Dec. 28. ~The more I hear about it, the surer'I am that Phil Murray is right—at least in part. There is a tremendous reservoir of. machine tool capacity and skilled tool and pattern makers idle in this country at a time when mass pro-_ duction is our greatest need, and it isn’t coming. In talking with a considerable : variety of people, as it is part of my job to do, I find much cone - fusion about what machine tools. really are. I have a fair idea bes cause: in my varied career of jacke of-all-trades-and-master-of-noneg:; ‘I was once responsible for a forge - shop, # machine shap, an engine: 80d an automobile | factory—sucll: as they were. 3 Many people seem to have an 3 idea that machine tools are like a’, carpenter's box of tools—saws, planers, chisels, sq and maybe, plumb-bob and a ball of blue chalk. They aren’t like that at all; volumes ‘have ween written on what they are like: and it is nof my purposa’s to try to reproduce those volumes here, further thant ¥ to say that machine tools are the instruments of Ameri«can mass production. They have enabled us,to produce an automobile for, say, $700, that in another country, with other methods, would cost $7000—and to produce. them by thousands a day where, in another method, , we should do well to produce 10 a day.

#2 » 8

T= are giant stamping machines that produce - a whole automobile frame, for example, in one . operation. They are batteries of machines that receive raw iron at one end of the production line and , turn out completed butt-welded and painted steel pipe at the other on a flat car, with scarcely. a human hand intervening. They are forging machines that will do on a single trip what it would take a battery. of blacksmiths three months to do. There are drills. presses, lathes and automatic screw machines that,

set. to the proper gauges, will turn out in a few mo=-.

tions. hundreds of perfected parts of this or that complicated piece of michinery or instruments of

modern mechanized warfare, with more _accuracy than -

al] the ancients ever drearned. ut these things do go in batteries. Their operas tions have to be planned months, if necessary, in ade vance. When Henry Ford canned his old tin lizzie, it took him more than a year to gear his factories to the new models. The story is that, becoming dissatisfied with a relatively unimportant part of one design, he kicked the whole machinery plan out the window and delayed new production 10 months at a cost of millions. Old Ford dealers know all about this, :

2 8 =

OME consideration of this brief sketch will sug«

gest how important &re tool makers to swift mass production. It isn’t just that they make the working. tools for the machines that .produce these miracles. They also make the tools that make the tools that do the job. There are no words adequate to express the importance of these men to-any production program, What Phil Murray says is that there are about 10,000 of them unemployed, or: only part-time employed, That's a considerable percentage of the total. Here is our real bottle-neck. Part of this is due to the habits of our industry., .These men are paid very high wages because they.don’t expect to be emploved more than a few months, .

"a year. Now we need them all the months,

The habits aren’t important. - What this situation needs is a spark-plug anc he hasn't yet appeared. In World War 1, the slogan was: “It can’t be done— but here it is.” ‘Today, the slogan seems to bef * “It can't be done—.” Where is the man, can’t we

. get some action without declaring war?

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson 2 .

LESS me, here go the courts, turning sian * women! - Down in Mississippi it has been decided that a husband has the legal right to choose and establish the matrimonial domicile’ and that it is the duty of’

the wife to abide in it.’ Although * the honorable justices did not so state, we imagine she is expected to do so without beefing. Many a good rman has been persuaded to move his residence by the per- , sistent mplaints of a dissatisfied: mate. These women are the exception, however. | The average wife is res ' signed to [the custom of transplante - ing herself. It will probably ree | quire ‘many more centuries to’ * breed this submissiveness out of our sex, because the iradition goes back so deep into our primitive past. Husbands ree’

main in the majority as breadwinners, dnd common

sense tells us that the breadwinner must follow the job. Along with him goes his wife. And we forget what tremendous adjustments she is often called | upon to make. Feminine human nature has been remarkably af<

| fected by this custom. It accounts for oumability to

vary our manners and ‘moods. It helps us to accept’ the ever-changing fashions which are foisted upon us, and may explain the ease with which we can * change our minds. We've been practicing the art for a good many thousand years. When the caveman fell in love with the daughter of an enemy tribe, there was no back talk. He simply dragged her by the hair to his dwn hole in the rocks and there she remained, taking on the ways of his people, and praying to his god. | ‘ Every good wife since has done the same; she.; aller Por speech, her flag, her loyalties, her beliefs, to conform to the will of her man. Now, even when she has won freedom in the United States of Amere ica, she doesnt find the ancient custom irksome, And, as always, out of resignation comes virtue. Per= - haps because of the ability to. adjust herself’ to the unexpected, modern woman is more civilized in her: “To her, - change is not only a law of nature but a law of love’ —and she accepts it with the wisdom of a Philosophen, .

Watching Your Health”

By Jane Stafford

HEALTHY mind is more jonportant than Sy persons realize. Everyone can appreciate the. tragedy of mental illness of the type popularly called" insanity, and can understand the importance of mental health in contrast to such mental ‘ill health, Poor mental health, however, can be responsible for ailments generally considered purely physical, ranging from stomach ulcers to skin rashes and even bro bones. Broken bones due to’ accidents. that ‘result. ‘from an unsuspected state of mental ill health may ‘seem’ an unbelievable exaggeration ‘of the relation ‘of’L mind to body. Dr. Flanders Dunbar, a New Re psychiatrist, however, found that it is not.” In: a; group of so-called normal persons brought to the hospital witn broken bonés following accidents, she" found that there were as many mental conflicts con= nected with the accidents as in groups of patients in whose illness a mental conflict cause was suspected, One patient was a 31-year-old married man: who.

hurt his back while workirig. He had been a “moths; | :

er's hoy” before his marriage and could not reconcile « himself to the fact that his wife seemed to take ledy * care of him ‘than his mother had. After his acciden

nviitrious about the rela

: “There is tione and physical Soritions Dr, . the

petween ment

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