Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 January 1941 — Page 9
Scripps-Howard News-
ES
St
GE 8 I'he
OY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER President Editor Owned and published daily (except Sundaw) by lis Tim
Member of United Press, ‘paper Alliance, NEA
Service; and Audit Bureau of Circulations. .
Indianapolis
- (A ‘SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)
ty, 3 ce ts a copy; deliv-
{carrier, 12 cents
bscription rates
M in Indiana, ‘$3 -a year; outside of Indiana, 65 cents © month. i
Give Idght and the People Will Find Their Op Way
SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 1941
THE RIGHT TO STRIKE
HERE is too much talk, in Congress and around:the | ~ counfry, about passing a law to prohibi ¥ Under the Constitution of the United can’t be prohibited. That question was settled by the
strikes. tates, strikes Civil
3 War and the adoption of the 13th amendment in 1865. “In-
Yoluntary servitude” is outlawed, meaning —whether as individuals or as groups, such
hat the people s labor unions
—can’t be compelled to stay en a job if they want to quit.
And haven’t we learned that prohibition
doesn’t prohibit?
Even if strikes could be forbidden, they shouldn’t be. The right to strike is labor’s ultimate weapon against op-
pression by employers. It’s a legitimate legitimate and necessary as an employer’s
which is the right to shut up shop if ex
demands make it impossible for him to profit. ]
weapon—just as ultimate weapon, yrtionate labor operate at a fair
We hear it argued that the Government is drafting soldiers, is ready to exercise the power to draft industry if necessary, and can assume the power to|draft labor for defense industries. Maybe so. But it hasn’t yet become
necessary to draft either industry or labor, and we hope it Si | 'a sub-government land have their own courts and
won't. ;
It won’t, we believe, if industry and
heads. That means, so far as labor is
right to strike is employed sparingly,
i
concerned, if the
only as a last resort
after everything possible has been done tol settle disputes
“peaceably. And, of course, management sponsibility in this connection.
. Many unions and employers in defense contracts providing for notice before strikes or lockouts, affording time for negotiation and mediat! Department’s conciliators and -the labor
National Defense Advisory Commission
work. A great many disputes are being
stoppage of work, and the public hears too What the public always hears about
that do stop work. And these, though few by comparison | number of men and women employed, are The public is in no mood] to see defense |
with the total too numerous.
has an equal reindustries have
on. experts of the
little about them. dre the disputes
production interrupted. So there is a growing public outs: y against strikes, and a growing public tendency to resent labor’s demands, even though many of these demands are
J 1st. The effect appears in such unfortur ‘that made by a California draft board, | =o an airplane factory strike by threatening to send work: into the Army unless they stayed on
oe
The need is to prevent strikes—and
ically all strikes can be prevented if labor
ate mistakes ag which .tried to
their jobs. we believe pracand capital will,
oluntarily, accept and practice in complete good faith the
rinciples of mediation and arbitration. eptance isn’t forthcoming, let’s put all aw like the one that does prevent strikes ustry by requiring a “cooling off period’ nd mediation before work is stopped.
| But this country is still far from th eeds to even think about a law to prohibit
ever get nearer that point.
'HAT AUTO TAG DEADLINE
sible move in legalizing March 1 as
iL
One
Rov Year holiday season, when people difficult to find either the time or money
There are two distinct benefits under
action, not the least would be the fact annoying practice of extensions.
MAKE THE LEGISLATION CLEA
| President to set aside the Wagner Labo Healey Act and the Wage-Hour Act. As we read the bill, it doesn’t go as
NREDIT the Indiana Legislature with a thoroughly sen
_purchase of automobile license plates. This ‘unanimously yesterday under suspension ¢f the rules. -
is that it removes the deadline from t
|The second is that it makes Indiana confos fi followed already by a majority of states. ‘searching for additional reasons to defend
R A C. L O. leader asks whether the wide-sweeping lin-
guage of the Lend-Lease Bill would empower the r Act, the Walsh-
[f voluntary ac-
industry under &
in the railway, in’l and negotiation
5 point where it strikes. May it
the deadline for
the new deadline. he Christmas and find it especially for new licenses. 'm to the practice And, if one were
that it ends the
far as that. But
‘Congress ought to rewrite the legislation
the fact that this man—and we know him to be intelligent and sincere—does have such fears is evidence to us that
in words so plain
that there will be no doubt about their meaning.
Ls use their
The Labor
wre doing good settled without
action was taken:
the Legislature's |
‘They see in the
“attitudes that have aided labor. . oh
Fair Enough
By: Westbrook Pegler
’ Hitlerism ls Our Enemy and Yet
Some Phases of Nazi Philosophy
Are Already in Evidence in U. S. YORK, Jan. 18.—It must be Perfectly clear
TEW LW to most Americans now that, although the
gi1emy is, in a word, Hitlerism, somie phases of Hit-
‘} lerism are abhorrent; but others are either in operaRILEY 5551°
t:on here or in proceis of adoption. There are points i oi “resemblance. For one thing, our Governmen), which has had tiie indorsemen’ of two re-elec~ tions, believes in a strong nation- ' al;and nationalistic authority at the top, supporied down through tiie political and social grades by groups and indjviduals dependent
. érmmment. ® * | We have had our local and state political organizations draw= ing sustenance from.the national ' capital in the form of relief and i. > grants which enabled the minor leaders to hold their people in line. Congressmen were given to understand that fzvors for their resoective communities would be weighed in the scales against their co-operation—a pracyice which was in-
tended to and did rake tin cup mendicants of many of them. i 1
al a =» ; A PPOINTEES sglected for administrative jobs 4 have been picked not for their ability alone, al-
though some have been, incidentally, able men, but
for their ideological regularity. It was not enough
{hat a man be a godd citizen. He has also to sympa-
thize with the New Deal, which is a philosophy that never has been f¢rmulated and | therefore may be anything that the {Administratiori happens to favor at a given time. P It is not enough {that a man administer a law, such as the Wagner Acti as written, and with a conscien-
| tious regard for the rights of the citizen who is an + employer and stockholder.
He must give his interpretation of the law a twist’ to the left, possibly with lan honest intention: to help “the worker but with the probable political ¢fect of tying into the New Deal the two big organizations which claim the status of
punishing powers and the power fo tax the workers. In the attitude] of the National Government to-
/ward private indusiry the resemblance appears again.
It is not exactly : parallel, but the resemblance is there, and it must/ be remembered that our Government has not, yet! gone as far as it intends to go.
L Otherwise Presideri Roosevelt would have been con- | tent to retire after his second term, satisfied that
his New Deal had been completed at last and leave the operation of i} to other hands. {on » | OW the emergency of war intervenes to hasten the program pr trend of the New Deal, but even had there been nc¢ war the intention plainly was to bring industry more and more under Government control and bring (Government more openly into the role of labor’s boss! with the power/to give orders. In the war emergency, now, industry will be commandeered, with the jownership and management both subdued, and labo? will be employed in fact by the Government, although nominally by private interests. Hitlerism is-all {these things, nlus the personal denunciation of reluctant individuals from on high, and the evasion of laws by twisted and cunning argument, with wilich we are familiar and which is less hygienic fron. the moral standpoint than open
-violation, because |it sets the people an example cf
shysterism and corifuses them in their everyday problems of right and wreng. It is not a happy thought; but if Uncle Sam should take an honest look in the mirror he would discover on his upper iip faint sprigs of a Chaplin
mustache.
Business By John T. Fignn
Pleas Grow for Action to Control Labor Under Arinament Speedup
EW YORK, Jan. 18.—The (demand for some kind of action tol control labor lis growing in business circles in New York. This demand is coming from two groups and: i inspired by two objectives. There are buginess corporgtions that are being hounded by the Government to move faster, They complain that they are being hampered in doing this by two considerations. One is that moving faster is impossible in many cases because of their reliance on - overtime, which is costly, and by the threats of strikes for higher pay and by the labor practices in effect. The other is the fear that they will be curbed by the Government when they attempt to translate the higher costs into higher prices on their " peacetime | products. Many of these are what inight be called, from a lahor point of view, “good employers.” ‘They do not wish to disturb their reljtions with their workers, but see in the pressure fori speed inevitable clashes which will disturb, in some ‘cases, long-standing good relations. They are hoping, therefore, that the job of controlling labor will be taken over by thie Government in order to relieve them of the inevitzble clashes. The other grup is moved hy entirely different motives. It is made of the employers who are generally known in labor circles to be gzither unfriendly to organized labor, ur at least lukewarm in their love. crisis which has been created an opportunity to deil a blow to some things they have long opposed. | One, of couyse, is the National Labor Relations Board; the -othier is the Wage and Hour Law and generally the wiiole complex of recent conditions and
i 8 2” |B §oME of thes: men are in powerful positions. And .) part of their plan is to give as much publicity as possible to the dangers of delay inherent in the labor protective devices. The danger! from this group, so far as labor is concerned, woud not be so great were it not for the rapidly developing attitude cf the first group, which has always been counted among the friends of labor. The conditicn seems more or less inherent in the war crisis whic!i has been whipped up here. You cannot have war or near-war without having all the’ things that go! with war. When you take one man
cn the favor of the National Gov=t
The Boy Who Started Life on
SURE
a Shoestring!
FINITO!
: The Hoosier Forum 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
THOSE BUSY ‘BIRD DOGS’ AND HENRY WALLACE By Prof. Paul J. Fay
Your editorial, “A Real Job for Henry,” in last Saturday's issue of The Times was a jewel. Please accept my most abject obeisance. If your descriptiori of the *Nazis and Fascists and Phalangists” in the Latin America is ar accurate one, then your headline i5 a masterpiece of understatement. The Nazis, etc., you say, are “busy as bird-dogs,” “fixing their own fences,” “maligning Uncle Sam,” and “waving the bloody shirt . . in the face of the fact’ Quite a trick for bird-dogs! . . .
# 2 8 WASTES NO SYMPATHY ON STEPHENSON By Daily Reader
As usual some seem to think that D. C. Stephenson siiould have been released because tliere are others just as guilty who have not been punished. This is in line with the sympathy extended to the Hoosier gift to gangsterdom, John Diilinger. However, pursuing this line of thought to its logical conclusion, we might as well release or parole all dangerous criminals because there are so many others like them who are still free. t 4 2 ” DENIES ROOSEVELTS HAVE CORNER ON PATRIOTISM By Veteran of 1917-18
Mrs. Roosevelt. seems to think that her husband gnd his followers have a corner on all the patriotism. She also seerns to think that if you stand for peace and against war, your Americanism and patriotism are questionable.
I have a son who'll soon be 21. I am quite willing that he go and defend the flag and country against all comers, but I am not willing that he should go and back up a foreign policy that calls for our intervention every time Great Britain sees fit to declare war -on somebody. It’s surprising the number of people whd weren't taught anything by the last war. As for me; I prefer to follow a man who is talking peace—Wheeler—instead of a man who is talking
(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.)
war—Roosevelt. Everybody who believes. in ‘strict neutrality is being
.|branded as an isolationist and ap-
peaser. Barnum most certainly was right when he said that the American people are the biggest fools on
lthe face of the globe.
Democracy is a very much overworked word, just as it was during the last war. Let's take a look at England and their democracy. What did they do to their King when he went out and mingled with the poor and the hungry? They kicked him out. What have we seen in our own country? We have seen the nation’s defenders shot down in cold blood on the streets of Washington, seen them robbed of their pensions and kicked out of the hospitals, seen food and clothing (cotton) destroyed in a country where the President himself admits &hat one-third of the people are ill-fed and ill-clothed. All of that in the name of democracy. Before we start out to save democracy for the rest of the world, we had better make it click at home.
a2 4 8 FAVORS THE AX FOR ALL PIN BALL MACHINES
By a City Crusader Since the war on pinball machine operations has been opened it should be carried on with relentless fervor until the ax has descended on every pinball machine that can be found. : Judge Cox says: “Chief Morrissey tells me the machines are in a lot of drug stores.” I say: “What drug store doesn’t have one?” Alliof these machines located in drug stores are of easy access to school children and other minors. They should be removed regard-
Side Glances=By Galbraith
less of whether they are being used for gambling purposes or not. I wish to extend my sympathy to all honest. police officers who would like to enforce the laws— especially the gambling laws—but are afraid to do so for fear of doing something that certain “higherups” don’t want to happen. I also wish to cheer = the new prosecutor, Sherwood Blue, for fearlessly opening this war against gambling. More power to him.
8 8 = DEMANDS SEIZURE OF SHIPS TO AID BRITAIN By 8. F. C.
Thoughts on a subject: (1) We have to help England at once with the kind of help she needs, not what is most convenient for us. : (2) England must have tonnage now.
hemisphere are many idle foreign ships. The newspapers say 37 Danish alone in our harbors. (4) This idle tonnage belongs to nations that owe Uncle Sam money —money which will never be repaid in any form of legal tender. (5) We can take these idle foreign ships in exchange for those war debts, German included, if they have any ships in the Western Hemisphere. Uncle Sam would then be a good trader. : (6) If any debtor nation refuses to trade with us, then Uncle Sam may emulate his near relative Queen Victoria and take those idle ships in a similar fashion, as she did when she collected money owed to Britain which Kaiser Wilhelm wrote his grandmather he never intended to pay, soon after he mounted the throne. Such action by Uncle Sam would be a salutary and timely lesson to nations other than the debtor ones right now. . (7) In regard to England's ‘iar debt, that has been paid long ago. Without the security of the English navy, we, 6 would have been forced ages ago to have built and maintained a much larger navy. (8) After acquiring these idle foreign ships, we can furnish England the tonnage she needs. . (9) “The Lord moves in a mysterious way His wonders to .perform.” Who is there among you that can say, that these debtornations have not been kept so by Him, that He has not been conserving these war debts for our Lady of the Harbor, that she might have them to use.when she needed them to acquire tonnage now, ” ” ”
| and Mr. Roosevelt felt that it would reduce pressure
(3) Tied up at harbors in this
Says oiinshid Mr. Hull Made a Good Argument
For All Help to Britain, but None, . At All for the Lend-Lease Measure
ASHINGTON, Jan. 18.—The official testimony"
,
ih of the “Lease-Lend” Bill before the House com-:
mittee, especially the earnest candor and. sincerity. of the noble Cordell Hull, put the case for aid to
Britain regardless of cost to. America in its very
strongest light.. Some critics may properly question thé military, - naval and even financial dogmas": of some of these witnesses, but none can question their patriotism or singleness of ‘purpose. 4 Yes, they were good arguments- . for aid to Britain but there was’ not one single logical or factual argument for the actual question: , before the committee—the. Leases # Lend Bill itself. That is a bill for+* aid to Britain only incidentally s and inferentially. ~~. : 1 It is a bill to give the President unlimited authority to give away ar otherwise © dispose of the military, naval or other resources of ' the United States (except maybe men) to help any other nation fight its war if he, the President, shall. . decide that such fight “is vital” to the defense of the. United States—which means precisely nothing ‘definite? since there is no limit to the exercise ‘of a Presis dential discretion once granted. ’ ” # ”
TALIN, for example, is a dictator as bloody and ! ruthless as Hitler. At least at this stage it would be to the advantage of Britain for Moscow to begin gnawing at Hitler's leg ‘and to threaten Japan im + Asia. Britain is certainly seeking to play footie-footie '; under the table with jittering Joe. oe
Under this .bill, if Mr. Stalin went down that British line, and didn’t have enough naval tonnage % on the British Empire, we could be sending guns and ships and planes to the Communists in Vladi~ vostok—presumably to insure freedom of speech and. § worship, and from want and fear “everywhere in the world.” ®* We could do so and next year find them '% turned against us. ; There is one point that seems to be blindly overs ° looked about this bill. It practically authorizes execu=tive military alliances not confirmed by ‘the Senate : “anywhere in the worpld.” It ties our policy to British policy, which we to not control. . If Britain wants to support a particular regime— let us say in a Latin-Agerican republic, for example the Argentine—which is far closer to Britain than # to us, then, under this bill, we could be sending J armament needed for our defense down to Buenos 3 Aires. Next month, under a new regime, we could find our guns pointing at us. if
» ” s
UCH is particularly the case in Brazil, not a de- ' mocracy but a dictatorship, heavily infiltrated with Axis people, both native and imported. So the Presi= : dent, in his joint role of international war lord and good neighbor Santa Claus, and encouraged by Britain, . arms Brazil at the expense of not only our treasury but of our Army and Navy. Tomororw the Brazilian government changes and we have armed an enemy in the Western Hemisphere. E We aided the Allies against Germany in the World War. That aid won that war for them. We did not find it necessary to go to any such abdication of - popular government and legislative function as these and yet, that our aid never came too slowly or too scantily— with due consideration for our own defense. Furthermore, we never got into. a position of underwriting the interests and .policies .. of any nation except where it was to our own ine. terest to do so. Aid Britain? Yes, to the full extent consistent. with our own interest, but it is not to our interest to do so by permitting any such preposterous abdication of our own interest and eur own form of gove ernment as this particular bill. Something more may.
‘come but, as yet, there hasn’t been a single intelligent
argument for this particular form of bill except the Administration’s wish to be put in dictatorial charge ° of all ‘the wealth and the precise destiny of the: American people.
Aviation By Maj. Al Williams
OVERNMENT control of the American aircraft industry is in the cards. The industry knows it, because it knows what happened in France as a consequence of billions appropriated with no master § plan and no centralized direction. From all evidence, the industry is going to resist and’ and tell its story to the public. The sooner this is done, the better for the nation. b ; Leon Blum and his Air Minister; * Pierre Cot, wrecked the French aircraft industry by nationalization. : : . The first step toward Govern.’ ~ ment operation of the American. aircraft industry has already been: taken. In the Middle West I heard loud outcries against the! manner in which that section had been neglected’ in the. air expane*: sion and production program. That is the natural and logical location for aircraft and engine factories = as far as possible from each coast. £3 As a result, ‘the Government plans “assembly plants” at Omaha, Tulsa, Kansas City and. other points in that section, These plants are virtually.s Government projects. Equipment and materials for these projects will (and the evidence is already ap=" pearing) take precedence over orders placed by prie vately owned plants. «153 This happened in England, where thé Government’ even refused to accept the donation by :Lord Nufe i: field of a personally built and equipped engine mans. ufacturing plant. : Another problem of the industry-is the manner in which the Government will man these plants, many key men in privately owned and operated fac tories have received Government que naire They form the essential step in lly sonnel in case the production programs in" ment plants break down. ' . pe "This again is exactly what LDappened when fhe bg hulls aifer fa then discevered t green r ‘were: no men at all. The American Governm British, will find itself in business in
as
if
A x1 PE is
ay
| ANOTHER GOOD WILL ENVOY
i ali x ding for labor and inevitably ‘settix fl THE other day we rejoiced editorially
The end of this flat spin will be Gov trol. of the entire aircraft industry, b
yo
EXPRESSING INDIFFERENCE
away from his 350 a week job, put him in the Army at TO WILLKIE'S PLANS
$30 a month, you weaken thie position of the worker who is not taken and who wants to hold on to rules
at Henry Wallace's
*" “announcement that he was planning in Latin America. We neglected to me important and amiable American is also
extensive travels
ntion that another heading South. |
Jim Farley, in his new role as ann for Coca Cola,
has sailed for. a two-month visit to S if the United States ever produced a man
uth America. And
capable of radiat-
and conditions [that make for higher pay for him. Labor itself is feeling pretty jittery about this. It feels that it is not represented in Washington. There is a widespread feeling that the man who represents labor—an unpgpular figure in both labor camps, by the way—is nit so much representing labor in the (Government a: representing the Government in labor. The whole situation is full of possible trouble unless some formula is found to meet it.
By “One Who Saw Through It” I am unable to figure out just why anyone should worry about Wendell Willkie going to Europe or anything else he might do. No one. but Al Landon asked him to run for President, and he was foolish enough to go blustering into
' |the convention, breaking all tradi-
spin becomes wilder and more confuse will fall, and then the Government wil cellent excuse for taking over the ' This happen ny J years immediately eran war, while both nations were t work and at the same’ time tak ducing aircraft by thousands o
ing good will, Jim is it. Whether he’s dealing out post-' masterships or the “pause that refreshes,” he leaves behind him a trail of friendship. We can foresee a hew stream of those familiar letters, signed as of old in green ik, but this time addressed to “My Dea Manuel” and ‘My ‘Dear Juap.” ei y Te ub Gi 4 ~~ Go it Jim, go it Henry. There's Boingo the friend- er Col A ship we need in the republics to the South. TIE Yiu fallwe sf vy BR a £5 8 ; Ly = ® * ‘ } pose] NO COUNTRY can extend a citizenship that is all
privilege and no duty.—Atiorney General Robert H. Jackson. :
tions, and get himself nominated by a surprjse move. And then most of the people who voted for him were sore-head Democrats who could not |get over the third-term idea and Republicans and first. voters who liked sensational stuff. : If I should choose to do the same thing, would I have any right to expect eternal laudation?
Questions an
(The Indianapolis Times Service Bur question of fact or mati ' search. Write your questions ‘postage
So They Say—
* WE MAY BE the last generation to enjoy the principles of free government. But if such . things come to pass, the failure will not be the failure of democratic priaciples; it will be the failure of men—
Sie
inclose a.
ADVICE TO CONGRESS By DANIEL FRANCIS CLANCY Better that the House should won-
er, Why you don't talk out,
* » * THE ONLY birthday wish I have is that before another birthday rolls around, we shall have peace in the world.—Carrie Chapman Catt on her 82d birthday. Said Disraeli, than wonder
WE HAVE set our hearts against fear.—President A 5 pA ; 4 dora os. Rooseve. | | : NL 0 a ¥ se 1 LK UE 1a DAILY THOUGHT NO RACE OR class cin be assured of fair play TW ; 4 ¥ 0, For the Lord will’ judge his
“30 long as we continue to freat any group unfairly.— peop epent himself Dr. Edwin R. Embree, president Rosenwald Fund. : ie; apg HE | £ } i» i “ : 135:14, ws Si bara PL
CONGRESS GETS A CLOCK Ly ar tori A ME A large and handsome clock has been installed in the ; a way a memorial to the late Rep. George N. ieger e to be placed where legislators passing through the s of Congress might see it easily.) .
lobby of the House Office Building at ‘Washington ‘New Jersey, who had long argued the need for a fimeIt would be appropriate, in these
momentous days,