Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 January 1941 — Page 8

PAGE 5.

The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK | PERREE President : . Business Manager fun Price in| Marion CouniE ty, 3 cents a copy; delive : ered by carrier, 13 cents a week.

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Ep 1 LEY 5651

Give Light and the People Will Fina Their Own Way SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1941

- Owned and published : id (except Sunday) by

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

HOPKINS TO LONDON Hi HE President's designation of Harry Hopkins | as his

personal emissary to London “to talk with some old |

friends” is not without precedent. During the World War, Col. House wraveled] about

<

| Europe as Woodrow Wilson’s personal representative—and

i i though the Colonel was reputedly able to “walk on dead leaves without making a sound,” he left some heavy foot- | prints on the road down which we traveled into that war.

Norman Davis went to Europe several times as Presi-

En dent Hoover's representative, and later as Mr. Roosevelt's.

i Immediately after the 1932 election William Bullitt ran

mysterious continental errands for Mr. Roosevelt, | before

3 settling down as Ambassador to Moscow. Even naw Col.

(Wild Bill) Donovan is over there, at the behest, of Secre-

f %) tary of the Navy Knox, ‘on some undisclosed miss sion for ~ | the Administration. The President makes it clear that Mr. Hopkiis will |

| have no ambassadorial powers. \ to us the picture of Mr. Hopkins dabbling in int eriiational

We think that’s fizte, for

politics recalls subconsciously a neat phrase writen re-

i: | cently about a candidate for another important post—‘‘he has no manifest experience, nor probable qualifications.” | But Mr. Hopkins does enjoy the President’s confidence, | perhaps more so than any other man, and his miss ion can

1 be a useful one.

hah iy

: of Eire.

It is a mattér for regret, ‘though, that the President

does not find our regular diplomatic channels adequate for By carrying on relations with foreign governments,

Mr. Roosevelt says he will name an ambassador to Great Britain next week.. Whoever this accredited envoy ‘is to be, we hope for his sake that he will not be required to take up his post before Mr, Hopkins’ mission is completed. For his would be an embarrassing start if he ar-

rived in London with official papers, “powers” and responsibility—and had to stand around town unnoticed while all the important British statesmen clamored for the ear and voice of the President’s personal listener and spokesnian.

Since OVER IRELAND

HE mysterious bombings of neutral Eire are stisceptible of many interpretations, including these: 1. That German pilots, off their course, dumped their ‘explosives blindly to avoid disaster in case of forced land‘ings. (Successive repetitions, in daylight as well ag dark, weakened this theory.) | 2. That English pilots, using captured or sa Ivaged German equipment, dropped the bombs in the hope of ex«citing anti-German sentiment among the Irish people (Such ‘a scheme would not be unprecedented in war, where |“all’s fair,” but it would be a reckless stratagem. Suppose a British pilot crashed, and the evidence of duplicity were laid bare?). 3. That Germany is engaged in the preliminari ies to ‘an invasn of Eire. (But would Germany announce an invasion by such relatively piddling visitations?). 4. That Germany dropped the bombs deliberately, ji prsparasory te~divulging faked “evidence” that England did it. (In view of the positive identification of one| bomb ‘and other equipment as German, this seems fanciful.) | 5. That Germany is executing another feint, secking to induce England to hold large forces in western England ‘and northern Ireland against a possible German invasion

| The answer will probably be given within the ne: of few months. In the meantime, the position of the Irish is a + delicate and potentially a desperate one. ” » » 8 Eire is to all intents and purposes undefended; even ‘though Prime Minister de Valera said in his Christmas‘night broadcast that she had increased her defense outlay fourfold. If Germany struck, Eire would have to rely on British sea and air power to defend her. And if Germany

® »

: _ R. A. F., as France's Channel ports have become,

Last November Winston Churchill, discussing British

| shipping losses, said.

“The fact that we cannot use the south and west feasts

of Ireland to refuel our flotillas and aircraft and thus protect trade by which Ireland as well as Great Britain lives, that fact is a most heavy and grievous burden and one which should never have been placed upon our shoulders,

broad though they may be.” And President Roosevelt, in his recent fireside talk,

made an indirect appeal to the Irish when he asked whether,

if the Nazis won this war, Ireland weuld be spared. “Would Irish freedom,” he asked, “be permitted as an amazing exception in an unfree world ?” lo But Mr. de Valera, and his people, seem determined to

A hold to the letter of their neutrality, declining fo permit British use of the west-coast bases that Britain relinquished

in 1938, even though this policy leaves them exposed to . If they must face the worst, Mr. de Valera has

Those are brave words from the leader of a brave People, Let us hope they will not prove to have been prophetic.

ONE IN 1969

F OUR sobulition of something more than 130 000,000, one person out of every 1969 is in prison. - That is based on the Bureau of the Census’ estimate of today’ 8 prison population as 66,000 persons in 108 prisons d reformatories in 46 states and 18 federal institutions.

It makes one think of the great-hearted Kugene V.

bs, who once said, “As long as a single Person Teifiains ‘prison, I am not free.” But there is this good side of it: All over the world, ores of thousands of men and women are in prison for ion, for political non-conformity, In the United States, than a handful of th.

Westbrook Pegler .

ASCAP Old timers, Wise to How New Tunes Zire ‘Borrowed,’ Not So

| f § { § i i

§ { i | { i

zW YORK, Jan. 4.-The present writing finds tis, not unhappily, ii: the grip of a general strike or geréral lockout in wh! ch the big broadcasters and the great, central copyrig if pool and collection bureau knowr| ‘as ASCAP are a. odds over the royalty rate and (ther issues. ASCAP’s music is off the air as to most of the stations, and this organization seems to think that the public will come to its rescue with a great clamcr for the particular combinatior.. of squawks, moan: to which it holds title.

I (oubt, however, that the old hand¢ in ASCAP privately entertain ¢ny such belief, because they are all practical men who know how ¢asy it is to steal a new song from an old one and must realize, thereiore, that .in a very short time ihe composers, so (alled, in the employ of the broadcasters can tinkle but acceptable imitations of their private stock.

Already, no doubt, free-lance ghouls of the music trade have put together half a dozen variations of “Threz Blind Mice,” a imple but apparently inexhaustible theme which hils been mined at great profit . by other vandals in the 'ast few years who have had he eifrontery, incidentally, to copyright their thievings i demand royaltiis on the same.

” ” # .

on if the pub ic is given a brief test from those dreadful sourds which have been called music| and hammered o1 ‘the nerves and temperament jof the American people with ever-increasing emphssis as radio grew, some benefit will come of this | brawl. Old airs from tae four-cent song book are | being revived which have a tendency to soothe rather than ilo excite, and a spel of rest from the din might cause ja revival of taste. ‘ Celtainly no other ch2ap and trashy fake in any of the arts has had the benefit of such pretentious indorsément as jazz and| since jazz, the swing music of the last 30 years. Tle louder and more revolting the nbise the more artistic or characteristic it was said tp be, when it wad obvious that these horrors were the work of boors and ignoramuses and often of common thieves. Even the so-called r »d-hot mammas have been saluted as interpreters o’ something in the spirit of the people, although it ws known for a fact that this type of singing originate | in a low and dirty brothel on W. Madison St. in Ct icago and was characteristic of that phase of life anil Ho other. The torch song began as and remains a lewd and frowsy expression of the/ lust of a back-roocn bum and has been standardized in its artless fom out of consideration for singer who cannot sing and composers who can’t compose but only hitch "ogether stock phrases. These two so-called A nerican art forms have been brayed over the air for c)untless hours, and, not content with that imposition, the music industry, including radio itself, has exploited a later offense called swing, in which the execlitioners seize on any decent work that comes to mind and disembowel it like savages torturing a missibnary.

» s #

LAGIARISM has become respectable artistic and commercial practice in that department of the trade which is called creative. Every song writer or hack tinker is familiar ‘vith the trick of stealing a few bars of seme: lovely t and surrounding it with trash, but so commcn is the practice that members of the craft stoutl! defend it and insist that stolen material should enjoy the status of an original creaticn in the name of {he thief.

No nation on earth ev:r bought as much music as the United States has. ir the last 30 years, but certainly no nation ever bought music quite as bad, for: not evén the Chinese hive produced worse. Probably it has done something to the nerves of the eople, for they are beiiten over the ears with it rom dawn to dawn, ani millions have become so numb that they can sit for hours with the most horrible sounds bouncing ibout them and not even notice them. Some peopl: can even read the funnies with this going on. It Inust be said that ASCAP owns title to some very ghod American musi, along with the horrors in its popular library, and ‘hat it would be a pity to lose this portion of. its store. But there is no way of discriminating, and if it should come to a choice between all or nothing, ¢omplete and endless silence would be the obvious cho ce.

iw . Aviation | By Maj. Al Willigms | Defense Manager With Full Powers

Needed to S»eed Up Plane Output

We are 30% off in our monthly production of warplanes from tle estimated quota of 1000

| planes: Without a boss, without a master plan for

our air defense, without any move toward accomodating the existing Ariny and Navy services to handle; 50,000 planes, I think our Defenie Advisory Commission has accomplished wonders. Advisory is the word. That commission, composed ‘of the inevitab!2 brain trusters — four of them, against only three industrialists — has been saddled with the responsibility for gearing our aircrait industry fo turn’ out 50,000 pli.nes a year but has not been given authoi ity to run the show. Botileneck 3? The real boitleneck rom here to the finish is the political eyedropper through which our air defense m ust run, The British went through this very same sun dance. The British public pleaded for a co-ordinstor of national defense—a boss fi pr their rearamameit program. When did they iy Not until Engiand’s back was against the wa. Responsibility for the known deficiencies of our plane-engine production program is being skillfully saddled on the Defense .\dvisory Commission. They are holding the bag, ii. the mind of the public. Slowly the scenery and 'he smoke screen shift. Industry is now being appealed to for co-operation. That implies that indusiry has not been doing its best Yo help America riarm, espécially in the air. That fis not founded on fact. FJ tJ

role a few. months since industry was given {ts first intimations as tc what kind of program was in the offing and what it was supposed to do. What's the next stej]? Industry is unpatriotic, fails {0 co-operate, or is .inable to meet the demands of air rearmament. Ste] by step then, the Government sets up some kind of shadow aircraft industry. The Government builds huge factories and equips them with machine tools. That puts the Government in business in a big wa, bidding for labor, setting wage | scales dictatorially, and completely upsetting the applecart. The Briiish did just this after the politi¢ians had fumbled themselves into an inextricable | mess. The solution is so s ‘mple. Appoint a national defense manager—an exicutive—someone who knows how fo run a business. Give him the defense job full and adequate autho ity to get on with the job. Responsibility for air defense must be vitalized by whhampered authorily. This is a fundamental law Of business and c¢mmon sense. And only a

effort, under a half-dozen bosses, each advising the other, and all advising. tle Government about things for whish plans were ne'er made.

Sc They Say—

POPULAR ELECTIONS éxpréss the will of the people, but back of that will must be the true demosratic spirit which alone (an save us from the éxcesses of the rule of force. =OChis f Justice. Charles E. Hughes.

POLICY of aid io whic we are comm: earrled to the

Confident of Winning Radio Fight

squeals and.

government would dare 'o launch a major industrial

“INDIANAPOLIS

F amous Marching Unit N ow Mechanized

The Hoosier Forum

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

PLEADS FOR RETURN OF CHRISTIAN MORALITY By Frank J. Critney, Edinburg, Ind.

America needs not only increased military defense to stem the tide of hate and dictatorial tyranny which has engulfed the world but a return of Christian morality or spiritual awakening such as our forefathers who founded her left us in equity, but seemingly we have forgotten. For the material things America needs more work and less talk. Téam' work will pull us through. This is no time for petty jealousies or partisan feuds.

URGING BETTER PAY FOR THEATER EMPLOYEES By Ex-Student Help The other day there appeared in the papers, the cry by the “exhibitors” of motion pictures, that they are being done a great injustice. Their complaint is that the distributors, under the “percentage” system, pay the gross income tax, and they also have to pay it . . . in other words, they both pay thel!] same tax. . .. Truly, this is an injustice. . . . But . . . ean a man come into court with dirty hands? .. . No, he cannot, because equity decrees he must have clean hands. It is known that the motion picture industry is a lucrative one. Even the operators of the machines in the lowest, cheapest, “movie house” gets at least $60 a week salary. . . . But, the cashiers, the ushers, even the assistant managers, get from $7 a week to $15. The week is made up of seven days, 54 to' 60 hours a week, no days off, holidays and week-ends mean more hours, not more rest as in other industries. Now a few of the better houses will claim better conditions. The ushers’ pay in these is $12 a week, instead of $7. But . . . for seasonal layoffs, sickness, etc. they make no compensation or provision. These houses say that the majority of the help is composed of schoolboys, merely making spending money. Oh, yes! there are a few, but for every student, you will find 10 who aren’t students. . . . Many try to support a wife on $12 a week. . . The Federal Government has decreed that 40 hours is the regular working week, 30 cents an hour is the minimum wage. The exhibitors

(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.)

late business not engaged in mterstate commerce. But if the interstate distributors are in the exhibitors housés on

‘|percentage basis and are doing

business in these houses and paying the gross income tax for these houses, then the ushers, cashiers, assistant managers, etc., are working for people’ directly engaged in interstate commerce. . They do come under the Federal wage hour law. . He who raises the biggest cry is not really hurt. Let the exhibitors clean their hands first.

” » #”

CAUTION URGED IN REPEAL OF POLL TAX

By East Chicagoan It is quite likely the poll tax in Indiana will be repealed. It doesn’t seem to have a friend in the nation since it was revealed that because of this tax two-thirds of the population in the South are disfranchised. It should be remembered, however, that the poll tax in Indiana is not a prerequiiste to voting. If you meet the residence and age requirements you can vote whether or not you paid your poll tax. This tax is a left-over from the days when a citizen either had to contribute his money or his time to build or maintain the roads of the state. The poor feature of the poll tax in Indiana is that it varies with localities and the financial needs of governmental units. In some places the tax amounts to $6. But legislators in their haste to repeal the tax should not overlook the problem its repeal poses. The poll tax is collected together with. the personal property tax and this latter is heavily depended upon by local units charged with the support of city and school maintenance. If the poll tax is repealed our tax gatherers are frankly worried about how to collect the personal property tax. And in case the one is repealed,

have “avoided” this ruling since the Federal Government cannot regu-

definite provisions for collecting the other should be made.

Side Glances=8y Galbraith

ASSERTS WE'RE ALREADY AT WAR—UNOFFICIALLY By Lester Gaylor The United States is as war—unofficially of course—but there is no such. thing as “aid short of war.” Such representations are outright fairy stories put out to bait the extremely gullible. It is a “come on” .slogan coined in the dark halls of the international war makers, intended to deceive the people and to intrigue them into a new holocaust of red-flowing hate. Did we learn nothing trom the blood and dollar siphoning of 191719? Are we still in the primary department in our national progress, and are we to follow any Pied Piper of war propaganda that leads us on with a patriotic melody and an allday sucker? Must we always be children and allow the present-day White House “poppycock factory” to turn out all our decisions simply because we are too lazy, weak, and .indifferent to demand a voice in our great government, dedicated to us, and forgotten and downtrodden people? Why has our Government degenerated into one that thrives and perpetuates itself by bribes, emergencies, and voluminous propaganda? We pose as a people bitterly opposéd to dictatorship, yet we actually promote and defend a dic-

and laden with censorships as any in the world except that of godless Russia. It can be characterized by the following words: Deceive, smear, hate, persecute, destroy, bully, plunder, spend, waste, experiment,

to continue only because the New Deal Propagandacrats have deceived us into believing that we can do nothing about it. . .. ” » ” SEEKS WILLKIE COMMENT ON FIRESIDE CHAT By a Reader + + » Come on, Willkie, be a good Hoosier. We are waiting for a comment from you about Roosevelt's fireside chat. And don't be disagreeable. ” ” ”n OFFERING A SUGGESTION ON THE LIQUOR QUESTION By C. F. L otis To satisfy the demands of the United Dry Forces Association’s local option legislative appeal, why not close all taverns throughout the state for a temporary period, then reopen them under the old-time saloon restrictions. However, in the meantime allow the sale of liquor at liquor stores, and the distribution of beer to homeés by béverage distributors?

Maybe that will appease the dry forces. . . .

THESE TWO

By ELEEZA HADIAN

So long I questioned fate, I selected and rejected: To be scientist And help, heal the world? To be conomist And make rich the world? To be minister And lead them in prayer? To be a teacher, : Enlighten the world? Long, so long, fate, I deliberated But now I know, I know.

tatorship as definitely controlled |

defeatism and we allow these trends | |

Con Johnson

Says—

Complaints From Veterans Show Army Not Making the Best Use of Its Trained. Officer Personnel ASHINGTON, Jan. 4—The Army is not making

the best use of its trained officer personnel. | The late Admiral Carey Grayson’s pet story is in

| point——that of the old Negro who was preparing a

| barbeque to which Carey arrived early. The colored

~ man said he was the “barbecuinist” cook in Kentucky. Carey asked who lived on various neighboring farms. Each one was a Colonel. When Carey asked how come, he was told: “Some get to be kunnels from fightin’ in de wah. Some get a piece of papeh from de Governah informin’ dem dey is kunnels, and some,” the old Negro leered, “get to be called kunnels by strangers at a barbecue by jes’ givin’ an old niggah like me two dollars—in advance.” But just pinning tin eagles on a man’s shoulders and calling him by a title doesn’t make him a colonel. It is a grade, that in our Army takes the better part of a lifetime of study and experience to acquiré. It takes 10 years of service in the regular army and four more years at West Point just to be a captain. An officer’ 8 job is a learned pro-fession--not a gift. » » » a HE War Department quite properly and neces sarily encouraged tens of thousands of civilians to take appointments as reserve officers. Naturally, some of them were rank amateurs as soldiers and the bulk of them held lieutenant’s commissions. Now: we are calling thousands of them to active duty. When they join for duty with troops they have to earn their advancement, but when they come in on staff assignments, it is becoming a very different matter. A little personality plus, sometimes, a political drag, works for many of these neophytes, what many years of service don't work for a regular. New captains, majors and lieutenant colonels are being created out of reserve subalterns who haven't a year of active duty. In the Army, rank, rather than ability, is nine points of the law. They are assigned to command. regulars who have to tell them what to do. At the same time, men with complete military experience and education, who have resigned or retired or are World War veterans returned to civil life,

get a deaf ear when they volunteer to be recommis-

sioned and recalled to active duty. The War Department Seems to prefer shoe clerks and soda jerkers. My mail is full of complaints of this kind from frustrated veterans. i 8 nn ‘ bb is demoralizing to officers on the active list of the regular army. It is the stupidest and most slipshod ki of administrative inefficiency. Every relative or well-wisher of a young man now entering service as a soldier has an interest to see that this policy is reversed. They have a right to insist on the very maximum of fitness for command or administra tion among the officers on whose acts and decisions the welfare, if not the lives, of these boys may depend. We should as readily condemn the selection of an amateur officer to look after their welfare as an amateur doctor to look after their health, especially if there is a reputable specialist available. Exactly the same thing happened at thé beginning of the World War, until Gen. Pershing got his independent command in France and began to sénd the misfits -wholesale to the. reclassification, center at Blois—or “blooey” as the soldiers called it. But why do we have to wait until the guns begin to roll! to correct such an obvious blunder as this? Every American in shoulder straps is entitled to advancement to any grade when in some stérn test he has shown his superior fitness. This goes whether he is a regular, national guard or reserve officer. But there Has been no opportunity for any such test of any amateurs as yet, and regular and national guard officers’ have at least their records of long service. They have the records, but the amateurs are getting the rank. It is an easily correctable error.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

PHASE of relief work about which we hear too little comes in a letter to this column. It is written by a woman who.has no way of hélping herself’ and it discloses one of the foulest evils of our age —the tyranny of poverty over the human spirit. “What is the matter with Americans,” she writes, “or to be more blunt, what is the matter with the relief investigators? In stead of trying to éncouragé unfortunate peoplé they are trying to break our morale. Why is the public not informed as to how the people on public assistance aré subjected to questionings and in- - sults that make your -self-réspect rebel? “I am a deserted woman with two children, trying my d ést to keep them healthy and d te ly clothed. Last summer my boy had to have medical treatment and a kind neighbor paid the doctor bill. Once in a while I help her with her houséwork for her kindness. I get 2 a month from the Relief Bureau! for the three of Well, like a vulture, a male relief investigator comes and questions me over and over, as if he thought I should be given the third degree. Do I work for this lady? How munch does, she pay? How long have I worked for her? Ete. On and on it goes. I sometimes feel like slapping his face. He makes me feel as if I were robbing him. + “Maybe I did wrong to take money from the neigh bor when I needed help so much, but why should I

I can’t complain, because I am on relief. “I wish the public knew how rotten many of the investigators are and how we poor folks are made to feel like the dirt under their feet. If this goes much longer we will not have any pride Jette and yet we have to take it because we can’t bear to children starve. No wonder the people on relief have a despairing look on their faces. No wonder they seem to be without spirit or without hope. § “I don’t know why I am writing all is to you unless it is because you ar e a woman and a he willing to give some publicity to. the reliefér’s

of life.”

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford Yi %

HEN you sit down to eat, banish your worries and stop’ thinking about things angered you. The family dinner table is not ph Wis in odo roid hg 4 lems. Wise x ne experiment ;

recently scientific digestion can Jove upset

evidence of how one’s one’s feelings upset Ville 8 Satins.

The X-rays the 1 containing

see our