Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 January 1941 — Page 21

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Gun hy

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1941 |

“A THOUSAND TIMES AS STRONG” AID Hitler yesterday, on the eighth anniversary of his accession to power: “I cannot and will not give up one inch of the program which we have laid down for ourselves.” It would have been helpful if he had told us which program he meant. Did he mean the program of “Mein Kampf”? If so, let his pal Stalin beware. | He could hardly have meant the program of 1936, when he said after remilitarizing the Rhineland: “We have no territorial demands to make in Europe.” And surely not the program of 1937, when he told the Reichstag: “I wish to announce that the era of so-called surprises has been concluded.” Or the program of 1939, when he saif a few days before grabbing what was left of Czechoslovakia: “We Germans have no intention of doing harm ta jue rest of the world.” When Adolf screams that the Germans | are “a thousand times as strong as the strength we have already displayed,” and that the war will end in German victory within the year, and that American aid to England will bf useless, we are not completely convinced,

INSTEAD OF LOANS AND LEASES

HIS country is committed to full aid for Britain, short of war. It is committed by Administration policy, backed by majority public sentiment. Any criticism of the Lend-Lease Bill which fails to recognize this commitment will be of no avail. And whatever ultimate decision Congress makes pn this measure, the people will close Tens and support om decision with good will and vigor. Reon But in the remaining days of the debate, everyone who believes that some of the lend-lease provisions are too. sweeping and perilous has a plain duty to advocate alternative measures by which he thinks Britain cen be helped with less:danger of American involvement in war. In that spirit we return to a proposal frequently made in this column—namely that we provide | Britain with the sinews of war by a simple purchase of British possessions in this hemisphere. The United States needs naval bases strategically situated throughout the Caribbean area—on land owned by the United States, not leased. Also, it needs guarantees that no other power will construct bases in that

area. : ®

" » ” "What would be a fair price to pay? ‘Economically and militarily these holdings are of small value to Britain. But they would be of inestimable value to us, in the protection of oup shores and the Panama Canal.

‘Consider these facts: We paid $25, 000,000 for the

Ho 2

outside of Indiana, 65

Fair Enough: By Westbrook Pegler Lo

‘Upwards of $6, 000,000 Annually Collected by Hod Carriers -But Members Never Get an Accounting

EW YORK, Jan. 31.—The great pick-and-shovel shakedown department of the American Federation of Labor, which at presen) is extorting some vast sums from horny-handed American toilers of the poorest bracket, is governed by an exclusive, self-perpetuatirig group: of labor racketeers who never confide in the rank-anc-file members. * Joe Moreschi, the president of the racket, known officially as the International Flod-Carriers’ Building and Common Laborers’ Union, just eased into the presidency by vote or conspiracy of the executive board on ths death of Dominick D’Allessandro, [in 1926, and since the time of the last international convention of fhe shake, 31 years ago, no vacangy in ‘any international office lias -been filled by

from whom to cut in without Saying aye, yes or no to members. Possibly no such decision was submitted to the members of any elected representatives of the members for some years before that, but a span of 31 years without elections, conventions or reports to the membership surely is enough| to prove the character of the racket which controls 250,000 in all parts of the country and bleeds out pf their small and

“intermittent earnings upward of $6,000,000 a year.

# ”» & J this enormous shake the |[nternational gets a little over a million dollars ¢ year in per capita taxes at the rate of 35 cents p¢r head per month, plus $5 out of each initiation fee--provided, of course, that the men who have charge of some of the locals don’t forget to kick in. It is unlikely that the hoodlums would be so foolish as to hold out. however, because, the boys in charge of the international may easi ily cancel the charter of an unethical gorilla. This year, with the locals shaking down ex-meme=

bers of the WPA, farmers and | casual laborers for permission to work on cantonments and other rearmament projects, the international should collect at least 50,000 and perhaps twice that many $5 dividends on the initiation fees. So the total receipts of Moreschi’s office should run well over $1,250,000. They just don’t bother to tell the rank and file what they do with all this money. They don’t like to worry the poor rank and file with big figures. - But they do pay a modest office expense, including the cost of charters, or racketeering licenses, for enter prising gorillas starting new locals, and there is a theory that they sometimes pay a death benefit of from $50 to $200, although in Chicago, when that subject was mentioned to members of the mob, they offered no book figures but just smiled.

” ” 2

NCIDENTALLY, although $200 is the maximum theoretical death benefit, after a man passes his 60th birthday, though he may have been a member all his working life, the maximum drops to $50. As degth becomes more probable tha racket, with its vast take from the earnings of the sucker, shies away from him. Of course, it will he discovered that William Green,

‘the president of the American Federation of labor,

has been utterly unaware of the nature of this activity all this time, Mr. Green being a man who likes to think good thoughts of his associates in the ose of labor. But in May, 1931, Mr. Green was one of those Invited to a testimonial dinnet in Boston in honor

.of Moreschi as that great crusader for the rights,

and dues, of the pick-and-shcvel man prepared to shove off for Bristol, England, gs a fraternal delegate of the A. F. of L. to the British Trades Union Congress. Mr. Green did not attend, but Frank H. McCarthy, New. England organize; of the A. F. of 1L., officially represented him at a feast adorned by the presence of Army and Navy officers, the Italian consul and other persons of rank'and note. Mr, Moreschi was praised ss “a man and leader of men,” and sailed away for| England to view the quaintly scrupulous financial and electoral customs of unionism there, bearing in his pocket “a substantial check” from his devoted followers.

Virgin Islands—area, 133 square miles. Af the same squaremile rate, the price of all the British Western Hemisphere | holdings north of the equator and south of Canada would be, in a round figure, $20,000,000,000. Whew! But let's

suppost Britain kept, for her subjects to live on, enough | square miles to cut the price down to $15,000, 000,000. And. Britain still owes that old World War debf, a round figure of |

$6,000,000,000; knock that off and the cash price is $10,000,000,000. Figures are large or ral] by comparison. | If the LendLease Bill passes as is, we will have virtually underwritten Britain’s war. We will have pledged all our resources and credit to supply all the planes, tanks, ships and guns that Britain needs to achieve victory, Whether the war lasts one year or 10, © And even if we Kesh out, which we | four! is an absurd hope under the lend-lease, victory-guarantee program, the cost is likely to be much more than 10 illions, or ever: 16 or 20 billions. ' Let’s think it over, while there's time left!

THE MERIT BILL WE hope the merit bill introduced in yesterday Ss session ‘ of the Legislature by Senator Jenner ig approved in substantially its present form. It appears tp be a sound measure, although dependent for its best results on the caliber of individuals named to the Tol-sah, bi-partisan

« Supervisory board. It is to be héped that Senator Soriner, | heretorore a foe of such legislation, doesn’t regard this single piece of legislation as a whitewash for the rest of the Republican “disorganization program.” |

Tous ON GROWING OLDER

HIS country’s pbpulation is steadily growing older, says . a Census Bureau report. The median age of all Americans has risen from about 26 years and | 3 months in 1930 to nearly 30 years. The proportion of persons under age 20 has decreased more than 4 per cent, while the num- . ber of those aged 65 or more has grown in 10 years from 6,633,805 to 8,956,206. ‘That average Americans are living longer lives is all to the good, although it magnifies such problems as old-age insurance and assistance. The continjed decrease of the birth-rate is a matter for grave concern. To provide properly for our elders and our country Ss future we need more youngsters. But we could face the fact that the country is growing older with reasonably good cheer, if only we could see a little more ‘evidence that it is also growing wiser.

THE MARCH OF SCIENCE |

(OTHER important matters should not crowd out mention |

of the report just made to the American Institute of

Electrical Engineers, meeting in Philadelphia, by two lifornia. Hav- |

learned professors from the University of Ca ing conducted exhaustive laboratory [tests on 120 volun

teers—described as “human light rags Ami proved that

“ the electric current used in the average American home is

“too strong for the human body, to take,

“Mr. Moreschi,” said a news| story of the following morning, “has been similarly feted by members of unions of his organization throughout the country

| in recognition of his services end of the honor paid {| him by the A. TF. of L. in selecting him as its dele-

gate.”

Bsness By John T. Flynn

War Destroys Cotton Markets Yet War Policies are Popular in South

EW YORK, Jan. 31.—A |[arge part of the very active support for what I consider the war policies of the Government comes from Representatives and Senators from the Southern states. The Southern states are the cotton states. Cotton has been in trouble for a long time. And the entrance of Amaerica into this war will just about ruin the potton business of the South. War has its costs. And this is one of them which Southern cotton planteis are weighing. The plight of cotton has come from the [slow disintegration of ‘foreign markets. The pegging of prices went a long way toward still further injuring the foreign markets ot the cotton growers. , But the | war has just about polished off this once great American business. This year will probably see the smallest export of cotton from Southern wharves since| the Civil War, The great cotton-consuming countries lie one way or another within the circle ¢f war. The interruption of sea traffic, the breakdown in exchange facilities, the tying up of ports, the isolation of many cottonconsuming countries and the economic ruin of others has just about cracked up foreign markets. - Of course the defense program in this country has stimulated the demand for cotton in America itself. ‘And of course this will help the cotton textile mills, and mitigate a little the farmer’s plight. But in the end it means a continued piling up of destructive unsaleable surpluses. I: megns a continued piling up of Government subsidies in {he way of cotton loans. 4 28 UT the immediate point is that the war has now been added to the other troubles of the cotton planter. The longer the war lasts the worse will be -his plight. All sorts of predictions are made as to the length of this war if America goes into it. Everybody seems to think it will last for years. Some say five; some 10. William Allen White says it will be a 30 years’ war. That seems a good deal of an exaggeration. The world cannot stand such a strain. It cannot last that long, because fhe countries of the world would be exhausted long belbre that. ' But. it can last long enough to put the finishing touches on the cotton farmer and that part of the | South which depends on cotton. And yet there are perhaps no parts of the country where the sentiment for war is more highly Whig ped up than in these une happy areas. The surplus of cotton in the world is now at an all-time high. The outlook is for a large increase in that surplus. Yet the cojton farms of the world go on pumping out cottoa—cotton that no one can use because those who grow the cotton destroy themselves

work with equal industry % destroy the markets for that cotton.

So They Soyo

WE MUST originate now the products and processes which will keep our assembly lines busy after this emergency. —Dr, Karl Compton, president, Massachusetts Tech, a

THE MACHINE-700L indus mechanic grown grest.—Jchn D. vision of Produc orm % x. y Ru ¥ Sik 3

iggers, director Di-

popular vote. The bosses just get together and decide.

with surpluses on one hand, while on the other they.

is but the Yankee |

The Hoosier Forum

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

RESENTING PASTOR'S CRITICISM OF F. D. R. By Mrs. Emily J. Pendegraft

In answer to the Rev. Daniel Carrick’s criticism of our President I wish to say you are wrong about Mr. F. D. R. . .. If you will try to obey your “calling” you will forget your disappointments and can help people much’ more with good advice than driving them away from you. «00 ” o FJ

LAUDING THE MERITS OF FLUORESCENT LAMPS By the Rev. A. L. Swarens, Greenwood, Ind.

I believe if the general public were to be informed as to the economy and efficiency of fluorescent lamps, this form of lighting would be used almost exclusively in the future, not only for stores, factories and offices, but also for homes.

Can it be that the public utility companies, in co-operation with the lamp bulb manufacturers are keeping us in the dark? It is reasonable to believe that the lamp and bulb manufacturers (two companies make approximately 80 per cent of the bulbs) desire the good will of the utilities, since the utilities are good customers for all types of electrical equipment. Perhaps this is the reason we look in vain for any advertising in which there is a direct statement that fluorescent lighting will reduce our electric bill. A few weeks ago I was visited by a pleasant young man from the power and light company. He learned that I was interested in fluorescent lighting. His attitude seemed to.be that my fluorescent lamp was most interesting and would be excellent for a minor lighting job in another room, but that it was not practical for my living room where I and my family spend most of our time. He made it clear that he was not a salesman but that he was interested in helping the company’s customers in their lighting problems. He suggested that I resume the use of my 200-watt indirect lamp which I have replaced by a lamp with two 15-watt fluorescent tubular bulbs. He did an artful job of damning, with faint praise. Could

(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.)

it be that his talk was the product of the big brains of the industry? I was left only to draw my own conclusions. I was not reminded that an incandescent indirect lamp requires expensive reflecting and diffusing fixtures, and that much useful light is lost through this necessary protection against glare, while my fluorescent light may be exposed to the eye without discomfort. I was told that with the fluorescent lamp there is a “stroboscopic effect” or flicker due to variations in current, but it was not emphasized that this is avoided when tubes are installed properly in pairs. I was not told that an ordinary 15-watt filament light bulb puts out only 141 lumens of light, while a daylight fluorescent tube taking the same amount of current will put out from 495 to 541 lumens. The tubes have twice the useful life of incandescent lights, and produce less than half the amount of heat. This revolutionary form of lighting will not be stopped, and cannot be held back much longer. The people are finding out about fluorescent lights, and eventually all will have them. And the loss will not be to us who have to pay the light bill. ” ” ” WANTS ACTION NOW ON

THE PINBALL MACHINES By A City Crusader

The crusade against pinball machine operations in drug stores, and in other gambling places may be unfinished business, but the readers, can continue to object until the proper authorities take actions 40] do away with these machines. I'm wondering, though, when the authorities are going to start tak-

1941 BY NEX SE AN

Side Glances=By Galbraith

EQ. U. 8. PAT. Of

"He's impossible! 1. gave him my b

ing actions against the operation of pinball machines located where school children waste their lunch money on them. Our present authorities may be independent now, but they will be remembered at our next election in 1942. Let’s not wait until 1942 to do something about these machines. Let's do it now, and not let the cleaning up of our city of gambling become a political show to gain votes for the next election campaign. ” ” 2 CLAIMS PEOPLE DECEIVED ON BRITISH ASSETS By Lester Gaylor . In his column for Jan. 25, John T. Flynn makes some searching analyses. He calls attention to Morgenthau’s “story” that Britain can scrape together only $1,775,000,000 to pay its bills this year. He then proceeded to point out that the Federal Reserve Board's official bulletin declared Britain to have had in the United States, as of Sept. 1, 1939, property convertible into dollars amounting to $7,115,000,000! Since that time the Federal Reserve computes that Britain has sent further shipments of gold totaling $5,054,767,000! He suggests that of these sums at least 20 per cent must surely belong to Britain. He arrives at the conclusion that if the Redcoats paid us $1,500,000,000 on their debt to us, she would still have assets with us amounting to $6,000,000,000! Of course Mr. Morgenthau’s figures are not to be accepted because the purpose of the Treasury is to deceive: the people as to the real financial condition of the nation. Two or three budgets and other deceptive practices are used to cover up the red billions of our deficits. Therefore we cannot accept their) reports. I have reason to believe that Mr. Flynn's figures on Britain’s indebtedness to us is not more than 20 25 per cent of the actual figure.

8 ¥ =» RESENTS BRITISH AID AT EXPENSE OF WPA

By Ernest Morton, Gen. Secy., Indianapolis Workers’ Alliance

Since the World War Great Britain has been indebted to us to the

20 years have gone by and the bill

is still unpaid. Last fiscal year an BE mpa) of $1,500,000,000 for WPA and, relief was too much and would have made the tax rate too high. WPA work will soon be severely curtailed or may be completely scuttled. Many WPA workers will be drafted that they may fight for democracy, not as captains, but as foot soldiers and laborers. They will be told to fight for their homes. Does - that mean the homes from which they have been evicted during the last 10 years? Now Great Britain has asked for, and will get, countless billions of American dollars without even promising to pay it back. Sometimes we wonder just what is the true meaning of Americanism and democracy.

KEYS By MARY WARD

Jas. mnt unlocks the treasury of

extent of $5,000,000,000. More than|

Gor. Thich Says—

Canadian Industry Expects fo Be Paid By Britain and Is Uneasy Over The Terms of Our Lease-Lend Bill

ASHINGTON, Jan, 31.~The proponents of the Morgenthau Lease-Lend Bill are eertainly talking themselves into a position of self-comtradic-tion which it may take their Iifetime to explain. The explanation required may not be merely, ‘lack of logic—it may be of why they helped to ruin -their country by using their official positions to dignity statements that, from a private citizen, : wouldn't stand two. minutes cross-examination before a justice of the peace. Secretary Morgenthau, . who began by trying, without consult ing public opinion at all, to die vert our war supplies .to France, where Hitler got them, says that if we do not pass that bill, Britain will have to stop fighting. Secretary Stimson, also urging this particular bill, says that it must pass at once, because if Britain stops fighting, we are subject to attack. Mr. Morgenthau’s argument is that “they haven't any dollars left.” That may or, may not be so, and probably isn’t, but if the Secretary means that they have nothing which they can pledge as collateral it certainly is not so—not by billions. ‘There is considerable apprehension in Canada that, if we begin giving our manufactures away to Britain, Canada will lose a lot of business.

® = 5

TT British have to pay Canadian industry, also British industry, not to mention all the othe nations of the British cpmmonwealth and the whole of the rest of the world Only Uncle Sap is rushing § out again to give away ’his—well, let's call them ine nards—when even the association of British nations give not thejrs, O. K,, failing a franker and more credible states ment of "this financial problem, most of us are wille

‘| ing to give England money outright to buy our Just

share of aid to her and to the precise extent—and not one inch further—than it really contributes to American defense. We want Congress to control these appropriations for the defense of Britain just as it must control appropriations for the defense of America. The Lease-Lend bill doesn’t do that. It authorizes the President alone to make, buy and give Britain unlimited billions worth of our ree sources without copsulting Congress. If, therefore, as Secretary Morgenthau has said, it is only a question of dollars for Britain, no argue ment at all is left for the much wider ‘powers of the

| Lease-Lend Bill.

Some days ago all the argument was that if the

[fLease-Lend Bill were not jammed through Congress,

we could not aid Britain in her crisis in the next 60 to 90 days. When it was testified by all informed - authorities that our industry could not deliver anye thing more in 60 to 90 days, except from existing equipment, the reaction from the country agains giving away part of our admittedly inadequate naval, air and land equipment wa§ too powerful to ignore. As to naval equipment, the President was reported as saying that any suspicion of such an intent was “cow=-jump-over-the-moon” stuff.

» »

HEN Gen, Marshall, who supported the Leases Lend Bill—strangely in view of his own milie tary convictions—was asked whether, with that authority, we could not transfer to Britain surplus stores of Army equipment, he said: “Stores We have no stores. It will be a happy day when we can speak about stores of Army equipment . we have a. need for all the modern-equipment delivered 0 us.” So that the whole end of the argument for rushe ing the bill to permit aid to Britain crumbled and Secretary Morgenthau had to invent a new ona something like this: “I is solely a matter of dollars. If Great Britain has no dollars, she can’t order more supplies for her 1942 offensive.” But that argument is completely atiswered by “O. .K. Give her the dollars” against which, with even reasonable Congressional control, as much as we use on our own defense, there is no important opposition, Other official “opinions” that Great Britain can lick Germany on the continent with our aid, that if Great Britain doesn’t, Germany will lick us et cet., et cet.; aren’t worth the paper on which they are write ten or the breath with which they are spoken. Mods ern war is too unpredictable. There is only one rule for us—a burning lesson of this terrible age. “Arm for imprenable American defense. Rely on no other nation—on nothing. but the strength of our own resources and the courage, ingenuity, patriotism and devotion of our own people.”

! . . of A Woman's Viewpointy" By Mrs. Walter Ferguson Y OD help the United States when the voice of the

minority is hushed! Yet, from much of the present clamor, one might believe that is what the majority of Americans want. The insults hurled at those who express honest opinions in a time of great crisis is a disgraceful evidence of our derangement. The other day reason and ine telligence spoke to us in the words of Col. Lindbergh and Dr, Robert Hutchins of Chicago University, The one told us we were un= prepared to fight a major war abroad because of lack of weapons; the other warned us we were uns prepared on intellectual and moral fronts. The question of our agreement; or disagreement with the speakers is of little consequence beside one beautiful shining fact: This dissenting testimony against ‘the might and power of political pressure and ' public opinion proves that democracy lives. It proves that brave men are in our: midst and that they are still unafraid. Col. Lindbergh has already sufféred enough at the hands of erstwhile worshippers to make him impervious to the catcalls of his inferiors and equals, Our Lady with the Torch is no more firm than he, and no more easily moved by the jeers of enemies. Dr. Hutchins is also to be admired for his courage, At the very moment he was preparing his radio address, 125 of his own professors wired Washington urging immediate passage of the Lend-Lease Bill, And his assistant, cohort and friend, Dr. Mortimer Adler, it is reported, is at breaking point with his president after unsuccessful attempts to dissuade him from airing his views. Dr. Hutchins’ speech was. cogent, logical, eloquent, It was an inspiration and a warning. The leaders of this country know very well that wars require intellectual and moral preparation before they can be successfuly concluded. And they must know that men like Lindbergh and Hutchins do not speak forth because of a whim to be contentious—to smear them with the German spy charge is to belittle the demo= cratic processes we profess to love. Who can be sure about the right or wrong of the question? I only know that my heart sings a Magnificat because there are yet men in this Republic who refuse to be moved by majority opinion and who possess the moral courage to stand firm against the hysteria of the multitudes.

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer ‘ny question of facet or information, mot involving extensive ves search. Write your questions clearly, sign name and address, inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal advice cannot be given, Address The Times Washington Bervice Bureau, 1018 Thirteenth Sts Wash Washington, D. C.).

_ Q—Did German Subpmres Jantic Coast after the U.

appear on the Ate