Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 January 1941 — Page 10

SATURDAY, JAN. 2%, 1941 Gen. Johnson Says—

Paying a Tribute to the House

Committee for the Handling of Witnesses on the Lease-Lend Bil

ASHINGTON, Jan, 25.—This column is written in the shadow of a deadline and at the fag end of an unsought appearance before the great House Ways and Means Committee on the Lease-

Se me — vim v

Now, There's a Timely Question!

PAGE 8.

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Fair Enough y Westbrook Pegler

lt Sure |Is a Crazy World as This “Saga of the Guy Who Tried to Put $1000 ir the Bank Will Demoristrate

EW YORK, Jan. 25.--30 this fellow—well, it seems that his wife ‘was driving along nonchalantly when all of a sudden this truck made its gallant appearance and knocked her looping, and she

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RILEY 5551

@ive Light and ths People Wili Find Their Own Woy . SATURDAY, JANUARY 35, 1941

y | | "DR. HUTCHINS AND THE “DRIFT TO WAR”

ITH savage candor, President Hutchins of the Uni-

versity of Chicago has e osed the futility of the | suspec:s President Roosevelt |

~ “holy war” toward which he of leading America.

He is convinced that the . active military intervention”

resident “is reconciled to if necessary to defeat the

Axis. That is easier charged than proved, but certainly we are leaving neutrality farther ard farther behind; and as Dr. Hutchins remarked, the| phrase “short of war” is “ominously missing from the President's recent speeclies.”

Dr. Hutchins opposes American participation in the Not as an appeaser or a pacifist, for he denounces totalitarianism, and he does nof favor staying out of war

war.

just “to save our own skins.”

the Americans “are and should

fices for humanity.”

But, he declares, “we have if we do not go into this war,”

it, we have no chance at all.”

Why? Because, he says, lectually unprepared to execute

the President calls us.”

And then he reviews some

On tlie contrary, he believes be prepared to make sacri-

a chance to help humanity

we are “morally and intelthe moral mission to which |

of the shortcomings of this

democracy of ours—shortcomings that most of us find it

convenient to forget in our

enthusiasm for denouncing

whereas “if we do go into

Hitler and Mussolini as the repositories of all that is un- |

democratic.

government by pressure group

lions; one-third of a nation the sharecroppers, the okies, ers; nine million unemployed.

Even so, he concedes, we But if we go to war

advances. “for a generation, perhaps for

be able to struggle back to wher In short, Dr. Hutchins thin own morality, and our own demo before we set out once again to

And so say we. This newspaper is fully England—but short of war.

sign that the President’s recent of-war proviso is evoking such challenges as that by Dr. Hutchins.

Abuse of civil liberties, corruption in cffice,

5, disfranchisement of mil-ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-hoised;

have made some nctable “we cancel our gains” and hundred years, we shall not > we were.” ks we'd better police up our “racy, and our own economy, reform a delinquent world.

in favor of powerful aid to And we think it is a healthy sofi-pedaling of that short-

MURDER ON THE AIR

F by any chance the waves of mundane radio penctrate to other-worldly ears, the shade of Stephen Collins Foster must be having some unhappy evenings. Mr. Foster, having written America’s best-loved songs, died penniless He never heard of ASCAP, and his

some TT years ago.

melodies, being in the public

constant workout on the air. That would be all right,

if only the “entertainers” wouldn't think it necessury to

embellish Foster's works with —“hot licks” that insult our

beloved composer.

We're reminded of the wo quarters to report a horrible ci asked the desk sergeant. “In

woman. “Some soprano jus Light Brown Hair.”

domain, are now getting a

and maybe an improvement,

ears and the memory of a

man who called police headime. “Where did it happen?” a radio station,” replied the

t murdered Jeanie With the

LECTURE BY A GREAT REIGN MINISTER MATSUQKA of Japan, addiessing

the Diet the other day,

attitude toward “the establishment of a sphere of common prosperity throughout Greater East Asia,” and scolded us

for our embargoes. He warn Europe's war, and if Japan ticipate,” the result might civilization.” (His concern f

the recent history of China, is touching.) { And then he predicted that a new world order will he accomplished under the Three-Power Pact—"if only time

be given.” Sure. ‘If Germany and power before the productive

and America can equalize th

Pacific Fleet has to be calle Atlantic Coast; if in the m

eight giant battleships she is supposed to have on the ways —then it may be that Japar throughout the Orient, at lezst

which borders on blue water. But as long as England’ "our own Navy lies in Pearl | - Red bear crouches within sp: enemy, near-bankrupt Japan civilizing missions even in he in Western waters.

CIVILIZER

lamented our unco-operative

d tnat if we got mixed up-in as then “compelled to pare ‘the downfall of Inodern civilization, in the light of

[taly wear down British seamight of the British Empire > conflict; if the bulk of our 1 in for sentry duty on the pantime Japan can finish the

vill impose her ‘mew order in that part of the Orient 4 fleet exists, and the bulk of Harbor, and the noncommittal ringing distance of its ancient ig in poor shape for further » own claimed sphere, let alone

She may try something. | at the Dutch East Indies wij

‘h a German all-out afitack on

She may synchronize a thrust

mocern touches of their own |

| | | |

thoughtful and courageous °

Is certainly 48 years old, to give her all the best of it, . {and eighi Kids already, but they {have a doctor friend who said { wasn’t it too bad, because now she | could never have another baby on | account cf the shock. | So their lawyer took it up, and | this day I am speaking about the | truck company settled out of court, {and here this fellow was with | $1000 all in cash. He never had | $1000 before, and naturally a fel{low like that doesn’t go around | tearing up money for fun, like a | glamour boy, so his wife said he | should fake it down to the bank and open a savings account--like, you know, you used to do for a rainy day. So that was how he happened to be in the bank this day, and of course he wasn’t the type to be hanging around banks all tha time, so he didn’t know anything about thir social ways but figured a bank tis where you take your morey for storage when you get some. So he walked up to the window with the $1000 in his hand #nd started to say something when this monkey in the cage grabbed up his pistol and said, “get away from here with that money, you dirty rat, or I will blow you through!” Well, so you cin imagine his astonishment, because he didn’t know you are only allowed to put $500 in a savings account every three months nowadays and how strict thejy are about it, so he started to give the guy an argumént in a [polite way. | ” 2 2 HY,” he says, “you dirty monkey! How dast you talk that way to a customer, and if you don’t put that gun down I will report you.” | But the guy in the cage| kept the gun on him and said: “Get away from here with that money, and one false move ouf of you and I will leave you have it, and no jesting, [because if is a strict rule that you can’t deposit mori than $500, and even then you have to get a lettel’ from your Congressman and your district leader and at least two respectable citizens.” So one word lec to another, and this guy thought the monkey must be leaping, because he never heard of such a thing, ahd here he is with $1000 and they are treating him like a bum. So, like I say, he starts to give the monkey an argument, so that dummy loses his head completely because it seems like these days the banks are terribly strict about taking any more money, becatse they have to hire watchmen to

| guard it at night, and this runs up. their expenses.

Well, finally, the poor guy shoved the money through the window, and the dope with the pistol he

the Ne groes the slum dw ell- | lets one fly at the ceiling to attract the guard’s atten- + AN ’ =

| scared and starts to run for the door with the $1000

tion, and with that, why.| this fellow naturally gets

in his hand. And, of course, the guard over by the front door he doesn’t hear what is going on but only sees a fellow running out|of the place with a lot of money in his hand, so you can just see how his mind worked, because he is an old-timer with old-fashioned ideas. | | EJ » ” E didn’t stop to think maybe this guy was just trying to push money into the bank and was getting brushed off on account of the new rules.. He just figured it was a stickup, although, the way these banks act nowadays abou; taking your money for deposit, you would! think they would pay guys to back vp a wagon and carry it away to relieve the congesion. So, anyway, like I say, the guard outs with his gun, and in all the excitement he lets the guy have one in the leg, anil down hie goes and the cops come running and they hop all over him and pound him like he was a round steak or something, until finally he comes to in the hospital and his wife is there and they explain all." | So Roy he is suing the hank for $200,000 for getting shot and false arrest and contusion and abrasions, and the bank is willing to settle for a crowd of dough, because, after all they are just lousy with all this money, but I don’t know what he will do with it even if he gets it. Becfuse if he goes to try to put $100,000 or $200,000 in a bank for| a rainy day, why, this time they probably will use a machine gun and shoot to kill, and, after alll what good is the money if you lose your life? i I don’t know how to figure things these days, the world is so crazy.

Business By John T. Flynn

New Estimate of British Assets Billions) Below Bank Board's Figures

EW YORK, Jan. 25.—Since Secretary Morgenthau told the couniry that Great Britain could scrape together only $1,775,000,000 to pay its bills this year, I have been trying to find some check on these figures. | “The British Empire had in the United States gold or property that could be converted into dollars amounting to | $7,115,000,000 when the war started, | Sept. 1, 1939. The figures in cor- |

recteq form were printed in the January issue of the Federal Reserve Board's official bulletin two weeks ago. This consisted of gold, bank balances, securities and properties (plants, mines, oil wells, etc.) owned by Britain and her dominions and colonies here. These assets were available to | pay British bills in this country up to now. But in addition to this, Britain has sent a great deal of {old into the United States since that time. According to the Reserve Board's official data it has totalled $5,054,767,000. Of course a.l this| does not belong to Britain. Great sums deposited in Britain or shipped through her and Canadé for other foreign countries are included in this. | How ‘much this huge gold shipment belonged {o her must befa guess. But certainly 20 per cent of it was hers. at would be a billion dollars. This wbuld make the total of assets available here this last year $8,115,000,000. With this sun Britain would have to pay not only for the war products she bought here but also for her peacetime purchases here. But she would have additional dollar credits for this purpose. She would

things bought from her. ” ” # / EFORE we dan determine how much Britain had to pay us-this year, we have to find out how much she owed us on her war and peacetime purchases and how much we owed her. She would owe us merely the difference. | The final figures on this are not yet available. But there is excellent ground for assuming that the balance ai her to be paid in dollars did not exceed $1,500,000,000. I have adopted a - figure larger than any estimate I have seen. In other words, ou of the $8,115,000,000 which we have estimated she had, she was obliged to pay out in dollars to iis $1,500,000,000. This must be subtracted from the $8,115,000,000. On this basis there would be roughly $6,600,000,000 of assets—gold, stocks, bonds, plants, (oil properties, mines, etc.—which can be converted into dollars. But the Secretary says there is only $1,775,000,000.

have also the sims due her in this country on those

The Hoosier Forum

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

DEFENDING WOMEN’S RIGHT TO SMOKE By Another Vagabond : For the information of the little lady who so nobly searched in her mirror for a trace of lady nicotine’s mark of the “hound dog” on the countenance, I would love to advise her that I live in a small hamlet that boasts most highly of this canine tribe and really ' they are most attractive, much more, I should say than the old fox who hasn’t the sporting blopd in him to hunt something closer to the neighborhood of his own business to gripe about. It isn’t unlawful for ladies to smoke, so what? The Forum is deviating from clean criticism to a gripers’ column.

” ” E J DEMANDING THE REPEAL OF STATE'S FOSSILIZED LAWS

By C. Stevens, Rushville, Ind.

There are at least two fossilized laws which should be relegated to the junk pile of discarded absurdities in Indiana. : Although hard liquor is for sale all over the state it seems the law makes it practically impossible to buy ethel alcohol locally for legitimate purposes. It . seems that drugstores do not sell it and doctors are handicapped without it. Next to water, alcohol is the best solvent known, yet it seems chemists are supposed to get along without. it. It seems also, that one can hardly transact any business with the state without appearing before a public notary. And how long will it be before we find out which state official has authority to do what? Is the state government to be torn to pieces and rendered impotent for two or three months after every election until the courts find out the prerogatives of the Governor and other officaials. In this country state officials are quite generally either appointed or elected. How about an amendment to the state Constitution saying specifically which state officials are appointive and which elective?

¥ 28» FINDS THERE'S A METHOD IN HITLER'S MADNESS By Claude Braddick, Kokomo, Ind,’

Not long ago someone remarked in these columns that Hitler was certainly showing “wonderful pa-

| tience and self-restraint” in not de-

claring war on the United States for her numerous unneutral acts.

(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.)

Would you call that “patience and self-restraint,” or just good judgment?

There is method in Hitler's madness. It flares into fanatical fury at opportune times and against designated nations which possess something he wants or perhaps only stand in his way. But behind that fanatical fury is cold calculation. From his own acts and expressed philosophy I should say he will make war on the. United States if and when it suits his purpose to do so, with or without provocation on our part. What other conclusion is possible?

Our obvious course, then, is to build up our own defenses so that Hitler will find it increasingly advisable to exercise “patience” toward us, and meanwhile help England keep him engaged in Europe. Wanton insults and expressions of animosity in high places .are of course inexcusable, but we cannot allow a slavish regard for international amenities to defeat our purpose when Hitler has broken such amenities in a thousand fragments.

s ” » A PLEA FOR KEEPING OUR RICHES AT HOME By Walker Hull, Freetown, Ind.

I have been reading about a play called “Riches and Rags.” Now it seems to me that this play is based on reality as we have both riches and rags. We have one class of people far in minority who have the riches and we Lave another class consisting of mill.ons who have the rags. Some of our rich when they get so much money it becomes a burden and they give millions of dollars to foreign nations and pay no attention to those millions who have the rags. When a man is past work age, which usually is 40, he is turned out to go without a job or an opportunity to support himself or his

family, nothing to pay house rent or grocery bills, buy clothes with or

Side Glances=By Galbraith

already

pay fuel bills so right here in the day of starvation in a land of plenty he is started on the road to possession of rags. If our billions of dollars that have been spent in foreign countries had been kept here ‘and used to help our needy people, business conditions would nave been far better than they have been and we would have all had more riches and less rags. So do away with rags, keep our riches at home and have better economic conditions. !

. » ” » CHARGES BRITISH THINK ONLY OF THEMSELVES By Lester Gaylor On Dec. 15th, last, Britain defaulted on her World War debt to us, amounting to $5,651,892,208! The Roosevelt « Willkie = Hopkins - Lord

our national treasury pocketbooks wrong side out to help the worst crew of exploiters the world has ever known! This despite Britain's world-wide empire that touches and feeds like a parasite on every part of the world! Since when have the Redcoats called in a session of their cabinet

lions of dollars to we Americans? In what European fracas have the British packed up their “home defense” and sent it away from their hame shores to help protect any one else? Remember Belgium in the last war and France in the present war? No, Britain is coldly logical, and thinks first and last in terms of Britain. There can. be no greater unAmericanism than the un-Amer-icanism of robbing our people of their own home defenses which they pay for and construct in order to help a viciously corrupt war-aggres-sor empire. I do not hesitate to question © such vicious reasoning whether it comes from the White House or from a former Rushville, Ind., political candidate! 8 ” ” FIRING A BLAST AT THE NIGHT PARKERS By “Bud”

We don’t need new laws. What we need is the old ones enforced. Take no night parking on streets. The people across the street park in front of my house. The man next door comes home, some one had parked in front of his house. So he parks next door. And so on. By the time the man in the middle of the block gets home, he parks his car in front of someone else’s house about half ‘block down street.

to put the car up. Talk about “safety” with cars parked all night on both sides of the street, and without lights. What sort of “safety” do you call that? It's the cause of many wrecks. And in case of fire the firemen couldn't get within a block of a house. They park mostly on heavy traveled streets which makes it worse. How about this, Safety Board, Police or whatever department it belongs? At least make people park all night in front of their own houses, if they have to park—and with lights. Yours for safety.

GREATER THE GAIN By ELEEZA HADIAN I thank Thee, Lord, for the winter's Ice-sharp fury, unleashed, to make The miracle of spring More glorious, triumphant to wake.

I thank Thee, Lord, for merciless,

Beaverbrooks would have us turn

to advocate emergency help of bil-|

People have garages but they are J too la

Lend Bill. It isn’t going to be pretty good. As

Dorothy Thompson says, a columnist who pontificates daily has no business taking up the time of a vital Congressional committee on a critical bill to re peat opinions that he has been broadcasting for years and as often as the patience of his customers permits. I tried to escape on that ground, but the Chairman, . Rep. Sol Bloom, who doesn’t agree with me on this bill, insisted. He said he wanted all points of view ; and it was plain that there was some obligation of sportsmanship to submit to cross-examination by proponents of the bill, who are in an obvious majority of the committee,

It has been my fate to appear before a good many of these congressional, inquisitions. It puts you in the spot and I always get jittery, but I have never been treated with more kindly courtesy or earnest sincerity and intelligence by any committee.

HIS isn’t said in any mutual back-scratching, The whole incident is a matter of national importance. The way: that bill, which turns a great part of the war powers of Congress over to the executive, was sent down from the Treasury was reminiscent of the old bum’s-rush “must” legislation of 1933. The way this committee is handling it is reminiscent -of nothing but the best and finest traditions of constitutional American debate. The witness who preceded me was Col. Lindbergh, and I have never seen a better witness anywhere. In view of the perfectly obscene panning that this cleareyed and courageous American /hero has received on his obviously sincere views of neutrality and American defense, there was a considerable crowd there that expected to see an exhibition of political witchburning and Iroquois, gantlet-running with Lindy’s bruised and mutilated remains at the end of it. He was treated with the utmost respect. There were some very few police court lawyer's efforts to crowd him into corners, confuse his testimony and put him .in bed with Hitler. They were frowned upon by Sol Bloom, but it wasn’t necessary. Lindy can take care of himself in any company. He came out of that inquisition with nothing but honors and almost unanimous approval—if not for all his opinions, -then surely for his courage, sincerity and patriotism.

THINK the bill is dangerous to the point of ine iquity but according to all present signs it is going to pass without important amendment. It is. going to pass because of the overwhelming sentiment for keeping out of war and for aid to Britain so far

to navigate to passage a bill which has been successfully ballyhooed as a measure which will accom« plish these aims, without sufficient clarification of the fact that it frustrates them. It is a tragedy, but that obscuration certainly cane not be laid to any conduct of the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives, which has invited and given full opportunity for full and free debate. It is due to the best organized and best financed propaganda of our time, and the divided opinion and disorganization of the opposition. Whatever happens, we shall muddle through and, after this demonstration of the fidelity of at least this committee to American forms, I am encouraged to believe that we shall do so without too much loss of what we are all trying to save. '

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

“yg DON'T suppose he would ever even dimly suspect it,” writes a Houston reader, “but Joe, rotund and genial black boy who presides over the dining end of a modern streamliner plying daily between northy and south Texas, is doing more to ‘defend’ democracy than a dozen platoons of armed

dling crowds, of launching stranger and friend alike, Appears to me to spread the] very gospel of brother« hood. / en . “The ( basis of democracy, as opposed \to Hitlerism or Fascism, is volunt fellowship and friendly relations between all classes and divisions of/society; and this some- . how, aided \by fine food, dispensed in a masterly style, creates a general feeling of good will and makes those whom we call our servants the best democrats of all. So I say, ‘A salute to Joe, defender of democ= racy.’ ” Knowing many others of his occupation and kind, I am sure Joe deserves this praise. ' After all, who are the true champions of the Amer« ican way of life? Certainly not the high and mighty in their ermined splendor; not the armed and belted: soldiers who use their uniforms to domineer others; not the fine ladies who sign checks for charity and treat their social inferiors with haughty disdain; not the captains of industry who think more of their corporations than they do of the workers who sustain them; not, the union leaders who sacrifice the individual to power for ‘the group; not the politicians who profess to love their country, yet do not love it enough to forfeit their jobs to speak the truth as they see it; not the writers who, in order to be popular, move willingly with the majority and so increase the dangers of thoughtlessness and ignorance to which we are ever exposed. / In truth, are not some of these people Fascists at heart? How much do they sacrifice for Freedom? How much friendliness and good cheer do they dise pense? What service do they render to others? Like my Houston friend, I feel that we fail to give enough praise to men like Joe, who merely by living and serving in a humble capacity may, after all, be the best defenders of democracy.

Questions and Answers

(The _(ndianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information, mot involving extensive ree search. Write vour questions clearly, sign name and address, inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal advice - cannot be given. Address The Times Washington Service Bureau. 1018 Thirteenth St. Washington, D, C.), Q—Which are more costly, round cut or emerald cut diamonds? ; ! A—Emerald cut diamonds are more costly than ‘round cut of equal weight and color. Sa Q—What is a letter of marque and reprisal? "A—Originally it was a letter granted by a sove ereign authorizing a subject to seize the subjects of a foreign state, or their goods, by way of retaliation or reprisal for injuries; later, specifically, a license or extraordinary commission granted by a ‘government to a private person to fit out an armed vessel to cruise as a privateer or corsair at sea and made prize of the enemy's ships and merchandise. ‘Letters of marque and reprisal were abolished by the Declaration of Paris in 1856. * Q—How much is spent annually for public educae tion in the United States? . A—According to the last biennial survey of educa« tion by the United States Office of Education (1937

as it will serve to keep us out of war, has been used |

, England. But, like Italy in igypt, she will be taking enormous risks. om Admiral Nomura, one of Mr. Matsuoka’s predécesso:rs

Unrelenting workshop of night That releases renovated day to me; For rain that laves the sunlight

This figure he got from a British Treasury official. If this is so, what became of all the billions listed by the Reserve Board? | Was someone kidding the Re-

38), the amount was $3,014,074,083, exclusive of Alaska, where expenditures amounted to $1,366,897.

in the Foreign Office, is now on his way from Japan to

Washington, where he is t

_ welcome, as an old friend of America and an old personal friend of President Roosevelt. But if he brings nothing

more interesting than stale future circumstances he wil

be Ambassador. He will he

threats based on sp:culative serve no useful purpose.

“HE world is tired,” ann

unces Nicholas Murray Butler.

serve Board? | Was it handing out phony figures? Or is the British government handing out phony figures? : gree olight to demand a clear check on all

So They Say—

NOTHING is! impracticable which the world’s in-

world’s courage, and the world’s ideal- | to undertake.—Nicholas Murray Butler, president Columbia University. :

telligence, the/ isnt are united

Clean, from mist and grit of land.

I thank Thee, Lord, for pain : That comes to restore faith to me; And for anguish that Terminates, into eternity!

DAILY THOUGHT

Repent ye therefore, and be con"verted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of reshall come from the

Q—What is the difference in mutual and stock ite insu tual Sompanies? : u ? ce com are ; policy holders who receive all ompanics a ned | 4 from the business. Stock companies, are owned by shareholders to whom the profits are paid in the form of dividends. : ele 1 sue Hal sine petstns whe registered as ens e recen en regis are actual citizens of the United States? 3 : believed themselves

£7)

freshing presence of the Lord.—Acts 3:19. 1