Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 February 1941 — Page 10

. PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Times

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

RILEY 5551

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1941

A PROBLEM FOR THE PRESIDENT— AND YOU, AND US

HE President has raised this question: Should details * from secret sessions of Senatorial committees be withheld from the public by the press and radio even though such details are given out by Senators who themselves are members of the committees? This, with immediate reference to national defense. Mr. Roosevelt emphasized that he has no solution but is merely presenting the question as one which members of Congress, the press, the radio and the American people pught to be thinking about. Commenting, the President said he believed the correspondent’s duty was clear—namely, to pass on to his paper or his broadcasting station the information received from the committee members. Then, he asked, should it not be up to those finally in charge of news distribution to refrain from making the information public?

The question, he said, was not new, but had been an |

issue since 1776. : - ® x : ® 8 = E agree as to the knotty nature of the problem. It certainly is one to which we offer no dogmatic answer. We approach the subject with the assumption that no Representative or Senator, naval or military ‘authority, newspaper or radio man wants to damage the nation’s. defense program. But all have their points of view, and, in a democracy, are entitled to them. The problem starts with what is called a , secret session but what obviously is not secret. Otherwise there would be no problem. Since 1776 Congress has refused to guarantee secrecy for what is said in such sessions. Nearly always, as in this case, some members of a committee see fit to tell at least part of what they have heard. This, on the contention that members of Congress are direct representatives of and directly responsible to the people in a sense that Army and Navy officers, for example, are not. Therefore it is held that the people have a right to know what their elected representative has heard, if he wants to tell; that it would be a dangerous principle, impossible of enforcement, to forbid him to talk. Hence, the leaks which have been leaking since the beginning of the nation.’ bs . 4 2» Be = URTHER, Congressional members say, it is they who . appropriate public money, and only by wide public information can the voters in a democracy know whether— in this instance—a national defense program is being efficiently administered. They realize the very human tendency of the military to cover up mistakes under the guise of military secrecy. Hence, again,'the justification for the leaks. Now, the President asks, should not those. at the re-

_. ceiving end—the publishers, editors, radio broadcasters,

~ who finally pass the news on to the public—assume re- . sponsibility for suppression, even though the news comes

from duly elected representatives of the people, and is trans. |:

mitted by correspondents whose duty it is, as the President himself says, to transmit. We believe the answer should be no. For we think the ultimate of such a course would be a censorship by editors and broadcasters whose primary professional duty is to give the public the news as it comes. That would be worse than censorship at the source. We feel, however, as the President does, that this is something about which the American people should do some thinking. We should very much like to hear from our readers for, though we have expressed our opinion, we by no means contend that ours is the only possible answer.

INCIDENT AT SOFIA

OST Americans probably will find it extraordinarily easy to be calm about what their Minister to Bulgaria, George H. Earle, describes as a “regrettable” incident in a restaurant at Sofia. . Mr. Earle, dining with companions, asked the orchestra to play the English war song, “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” A German in civilian clothing became angry and threw a wine bottle at Mr. Earle, who reports that “I warded it off and retaliated by injuring his features.” In must be conceded that the circumstances under which Mr. Earle chose to make his request, in & city just occupied by the Nazis, rendered it difficult for anyone to recognize him as a diplomat. Some Americans may admire his courage but others, we think, will wish Mr. Earle were elsewhere just now than in Europe—say in Atlanta, where he could start a better fight, ‘with no risk of international complications, by asking for “Marching Through Georgia.”

OTTO ON'HIS WAY

MAXIM LITVINOV, who used to be the Soviet Foreign Commissar until Stalin got ready to make the famous pact with Hitler, has now been expelled from the Communist Central Committee, along with three others who

are also accused of “failing their duties.” Unless the once-'

mighty Litvinov is unusually lucky, he’s likely to be the central figure soon in a third-class Russian funeral. We're glad to see that among new members appointed

to the Central Committee is Otto Kuusinen, the Stalin.

stooge who headed that dummy “Finnish people’s government” during the Russian-Finnish war. As a reward for

his efforts to betray Finland, Otto is moving up. But among the Communists the way up is usually the way out, as Lit-

vinov is the latest of a long line to discover—and the out, in Russia, often takes a very permanent form.

It’s nice to see’Otto becoming more prominent, because | <

the more prominent he becomes the sooner he'll get his. We hope.

THERE'S A CATCH A PHILADELPHIA doctor says exercise will kill all germs.

Price in Marion Coun- |

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Mrs, Spelvin Gets Her Turn Before The Senators and Speaks Her Mind About Some of These 'Goings-On.'

EV/ YORK, Feb. 24. —Mrs. George Spelvin, Amer= ican, having been called to Washington to give her views on the state of the nation, testified as follows: A. (By Mrs, Spelvin)—Well, I must say you take me by surprise, asking me to come here, becaues the way things have been going these last several years, why, the idea seems to me that if you don’t spend all your time running around to lectures, well, a woman who spends her time trying to raise the chil-

things all the time, ‘like committees for this and that and, as far as I can see. it is pretty near a full-time job running a home and leave the husband take care of such things, because I have been & wornan quite a long time myself, and some of these busybody women can’t fool me just becaus¢ they are women, whereas a man thinks just because a woman is a woman you are supposed to be treated differently when it comes to politics. Q. (By Senator Nilly (Ind., Ind.)—Will you be good @#riough to clarify your last remark, Mrs. Spelvin, because 1 am sorry I perhaps didn’t pay strict attention, but it seems to me I don’t quite understand whether you mean a woman in public life, as conipared with a housewife—and we all know motherhood is God’s noblest: mission for woman-kind--gnd naturally every man with a spark of chivalry would be untrue to the holy memory of the mother who bore him if, as you say, and I heartily agree these matters call for unusual dignity, but, ‘or: thie other hand, since women have the vote, and in case of war we all know the great sacrifices made by the English women.

# o 2

(By Mrs. Spelvin)—Oh, no, Senator Nilly, that ien’t what I mean at all, because my viewpoint goes niuch further, unless, of course, we actually get into war, but until we do I always think back to the other war when I was just a mere slip of a girl and Mr. Spelvin was overseas’ in the Second Division, but

| the very day he landed back he sent me a wire

reminding me of my promise, and, of course, I was terribly excited, and we didn’t have any money to get married on, but my mother said, everything,” and I have never forgotten those words, and it. certainly makes me sick and tired, all this mollvéoddling young people, and the Government has to heip them through college until they are even 25 years old, when we all know very well a person that old ought to be ashamed to be living on their parents or the Government, unless they are sick or something or it is just impossible to find a job, and yet we have this Youth Congress and the Government youth department here in Washington and he worst of it is . @. (By Senator Nilly)—I take it, then, Mrs. Spelvin, that you seem to have in mind someéthing on the c¢rder of the great President Abraham Lincoln, who became one of the greatest men the world has

“ever known, but, inasmuch as we have progressed so

enormously, I wish you would give me a concrete example of an imaginary case where a woman hds mef her solemn responsibilities to God and country because, to face facts, today we have the electiic icebox and the vacuum cleaner, and the mother no longer bakes the bread for the whole family, as my dear old mother did, and the boys always Kept the kindling box full and a fresh pail of water from the well, and still we managed to work our way through college, but if you take the case of & college youth today . o # ” "(By Mrs. Spelvin)—There you put your finger ‘on the very thing I was trying to say in my own wey, but I am not uesd to public life, and naturally, it flusters me being here before you Senators, but the whole thing in a nutshell, Senator, boils right down to whether a woman ought to rais¢ their own children ‘and never mind the neighbors’ and not go around stirring up committees and: speeches when there is already so much disturbance that you can hardly turn on the radio without you hear some woman yelling her head off about youth or how all the women ought to join something, whereas it is true I have a vacuum and I buy store bread, but the Government has forraed so many ABC's and XYZ's and this and that until nobody knows what these various departmits that are eating up the taxes, and I don’t mind saying I am opposed to it without fear or favor. Sensztor Nilly—The committee thanks you, Mrs. Spelvin, for coming here and giving us this clear, constructive viewpoint.

Business By John T. Flynn

Big Shots Ought to Cut Out the Comedy of Defense Plant Tours.

NEY YORK, Feb. 24.—As war is a very serious hing, there is one form of comedy which might well be eliminated. This is the comedy of ‘“inspectiéns” by Big Shots—inspections of factories, airplane plants, munition centers. One of the things Big Shots get out of their war work is the glorification of their egos. And that is all most inspections are for. Here is a sample: Mr. Knudsen went off on an inspection jaunt some time ago. The inspection consists in the Big Shot entering .the .factory and then, piloted by the factory bosses, marching up one aisle and down the other, pretending to be looking over production. He could do it just as well on a bicycle, get it over with much sooner, and inter- : ? fere with the workers less. Howgver, Mr. Knudsen, after these inspections, announced himself as much pleased with what he saw. Here is what he did not see in one factory. This particular plant has a large force of men but they

are having difficulty getting raw materials and certain semi-processed parts from other factories. Therefore a good deal of time is hanging heavy on the hands of these workers. The factory was informed that Mr. Knudsen would be around to inspect them the following afternoon. And promptly Mr. Knudsen arrived, marched up and down the aisles, and found everybody working industriously and work piled up in front of each man’s bench. : 9 t 4 ” ” . UT knowing that Mr. Knudsen would be around, and knowing that he would find the workers for the most part idle, the factory just slowed down elmost to the idling point the day before and all through ‘the morning of the inspection day. Work gccumulated on each bench. And when Mr. Big Shot Knudsen started his tramp around the factory, there was everybody bending over his bench struggling with the great work of defense. It looked good to Mr. Knudsen. He said so.- He assured the country that what he found was excellent and omened well for defense. Of course Mr. Knudsen was given a ride. And he passed that on’ to the country. The job of handling production is undoubtedly a big one. There can he very.little time for Mr. Knudsen to be running

Toe ipouble is in L geiiing W the Little esis to exercise.

around on inspection junkets, like Mr. Roosevelt's famous pre-election inspection junkets. It is all a pure comedy. And the chief use of it is to give the | Big Shot a chance to show himself off.

So They Say

I HOPE THE day will come when all the people of this country will understand that co-operation will bring us greater happiness.—Mrs. Roosevelt to a group of workers involved in a labor dispute. * * \a

MEN HAVE yielded to a change in tailoring only to accommodate an unhappy change in girth— Carnel Sw fashionist.

dren right instead of organizing |

“Money isn’t |,

are not getting very far with production because they 1

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

The New Light of Asia

MONDAY, FEB. 24, 1941 ,

Gen. Johnson

(Says—

Bundles : for Britain: Deing. Great Work for Bombing Victims, | But More Chapters Must Be Formed.

FEW YORK, Feb, 24.—There is one kind of aid to Britain “short of war” about which there will-be no disagreement. “Bundles for. Britain” grew out of

the unselfish ‘ effort or an American emat, Mrs, |Wales Latham, to interest a few friends and neigh-

bors in relieving the terrible sufe fering of British civillans—women, children, non - combatants, the aged and the helpless, from the ghastly slaughter of the innocents with which, Hitler's air attacks have attempted to win this war by breaking the British home Tf ion coves at artitude. He. can never do it. That breed gave us the pioneers who coh quered & howling American wile derness of continental extent. That could have been done only. by a people who could not be dautited and who dared, never hesitating, never ceasing to advance, in the face

_|of starvation, savage slaughter, incredible h hardship,

to create this nation.

Worse horrors are now. being visited on the chile dren of our forebears. They are being bombed from their homes to take nightly shelter like hunted ani mals in caves in the ground. Their children and ine

. |valids take such rest as they can on cold concrete

- jworth of clothing, manufactured and knitted

The Hoosier Forum

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

URGES READERS IGNORE MEITZLER’S “BLA BLA” By E. G. Haupt, 2541 N. Pelaware St. Meitzler deserves contempt. The readers of the Forum should treat with contempt the writings of this uneducated farmer. his chatter for a long time and several times intended answering some of his (as I suppose he thinks) witty remarks. I now come to the conclusion that the only thing that makes him write these articles is to get an argument back from someone, so Forum writers please ignore his bla bla. He learned it from a.sheep on his Attica farm.

» » 2 DEFENDS F. D. R. AGAINST COMMUNISM CHARGE By Rev. Nelson Alley, 1138 Broadway. In The Times of Feb. 20th, Pastor Carrick again attacks Americanism with another sermon of hate.

says that he is obligated to place the truth before his people. And then goes on to say that President Roosevelt is a Communist. I wonder how many of his people would agree with him. No church or denomination in America would agree with such statement and if the question was submitted to the American people I am sure that Pastor Carrick would be left out on a limb with no one to help him down. The real Communists in America today are the ones who question the Americanism of President Roosevelt, Mr. Willkie and all the great men of our country. Pastor Carrick says that New Dealism is communism. If that statement be true, then 25 million voters in the U. S. A. are surprised to know that they voted for a Communist and more than 22 million people who voted for Mr. Wilkie would: be Communists as Pastor Carrick stated in a former article that Roosevelt and Willkie were in full agreement. If I agreed with such statements I would start at once to thumb my way out of the U. S. A. and go to the country where I would feel at home. I am aware of the fact that we all have a perfect right to our opinion. But when our opinion disagrees with all that stands for Americanism and

I have read}|

He|,

(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 withheid on request.)

is contrary to the opinion of 99 per cent of real Americans, then it would be better to remain quiet. Jesus Christ taught the people to love and respect their rulers. But

it seems that we still have a very

few people, including Earl Browder, and a few ministers who cannot get away from a gospel of hate. If these apostles of hate would lay aside the robe of the Levite and put on the robe of the Good Samaritan they could do more i in the world. . . . ” ” ” HIS SUPPER SPOILED BY CRITICISM OF WORKERS By Norman E. Steele, 1111 Udell St. « « « I had just finished my evening meal, when I picked up The Times and turned to the Forum. There the very first letter contributed by E. S. Brown caught my eye and right then my supper turned sour. We have been residents of this city a good many years, and taxpayers for the most of them, in fact from 1917 till 1922 we owned and paid taxes on an eight-apt. flat on College Ave. We have also owned other property here, too, but after the depression were left penniless and property-less too. I mention this only to let Mr. Brown realize that I know what taxes are. - In spite of the unemployment and| suffering, he and others begrudge a handful of men their inadetuate pay for the very needed repair of our city streets. He says there were too many men employed and they took too long a time to do the job. I should like to see men of his type forced to live on the pay a City employee of that type gets. Believe me, Mr. Brown, it wouldn't be funny, and I am not a City employee either. Mr. Brown is lucky I am rot Mayor of Indianapolis, for if I were there would have been 16 men on

Side Glances=By Galbraith

COPR. 1941 BY NEA S|

€, INC. 7. M. REG. U. 8. PAT. 6FF.

. 2-24

“I've worked all my lite so | could sit down and take things ! like fhis~and after #hree weeks | wish | had: | to.

those jobs at not less than 60 cents an hour. In fact, all city streets that are in bad condition would be paved, and all streets would be cleaned regularly. In fact I would not tolerate any unemployment, and would enforce the vagrancy laws strictly and to the dickens with taxes. : I believe if the gamling laws were amended to allow a City sponsored lottery it would take care of most of the expense.

» n ” CONTENDS WILLKIE ADMITS DUPING HIS FOLLOWERS By James .E. Hawkins, 3720. N. Pennsylvania St,, No. 31 A great many people in this country, who, during the late Presidential campaign, ate and breathed

by Wendell Willkie, must be greatly chagrined by Mr. Willkie's own admission that his campaign attacks on Roosevelt's foreign policy were merely “campaign oratory.”- . “How much else has been ‘campaign oratory’?” they must wonder privately. “We believed him, we immortalized his every word, we loved his sincerity; now we find that we were duped.” Mr. Willkie’s confession, made during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee testimony, should serve as an eye opener to many Roosevelt haters who have assumed that anti-New Dealers can do no wrong, that Franklin Rcosevelt can do no right. It proves that Democratic campaign accusations of Republican “fear campaigning” were not “campaign oratory’—they were the truth. “How much else of Democratic ‘campaign oratory’ and New Deal

‘lies’ has been the truth?” opposi- J

tion die-hards will wonder, Not, by no means, that New Dealers have never been guilty ot campaign oratory,” but the Willkie admission, together with the Republican split on his general political stand, should make a great block of our population—millions of heretofore blind oppositicnists— take a more honest viewpoint of the situation, as do the thinking progressive Republicans, who now support Mr. Willkie’'s approval of New Deal policies. ” ” » SPEAKS A WORD FOR THE OPERATING ENGINEER By Herbert Gossa, 4031 Eastern Ave. ’

This is not a criticism but for information on two articles, one on ceiling zero, Jan. 21 and Wednes~ day, Feb. 19. I am the operating engineer (not stationary) and your article of Feb. 19 said three or four steel workers have given up the job. The jobs on the hoist on the gas holder are named by operating engineers and I have been on the job all the way since it started. This has been a bad job and I think the operating engineers should have the credit they deserve. Operating engineering on any job is a very important class of work, but we never get any credit for it.

NOTHING EASY By ROBERT O. LEUELL There's nothing easy that’s worth while, It’s many steps before a mile.

You have to crawl before you walk, And learn to sound before you

It takes so much of staying put, To gain a single inch or foot.

To stick and stay at what you do will bring he. thing. desired by

St i i artis ne Wien. Jou have werked for wha

_ you win, DAILY THOUGHT

without adequate covering and warmth. They emerge next morning sometimes to find their homes charred ruins, their clothing gone, their relatives wan or

: dead. a

RS. LATHAM’'S modest beginning in “Bundles for Britain” was to collect such good serviceable clothing as her friends could spare, such services:in knitting and sewing as they were willing to donate, and such funds as people who had them would give to relieve this terrible primitive suffering.

Spontaneously, and with no organized effort, her little mother ¢ hap of Bundles for Britain in New York is now paralleled by 730 chapters in many parts of our country. In about a year nearly $1,700,000 gare ments, hospital and medical supplies had been sent abroad. It isn’t enough. There are more than 3000 counties in the United States. In addition to counties and including city population groups of about 30,000—as we do in organizing America for selective service boards—there are nearly 5000 such areas. If this kind of aid to Britain, in which no true American can be reluctant, is to be really effective, there should be between four and five thousand chapters of the nae tional organization for Bundles for Britain.

Somebody has to take the initiative in evéry come munity and group. Doubtless there are thousands of able and respected women and men who could start this organization in their own community. Many may hesitate through either inertia or modesty. Neither should prevail against action where so much mass anguish and suffering canbe relieved. It is estimated that, through the present chapters nearly 800,000 Americans are giving part or all of their time to this necessary effort. There should be at least five times that number of chapters and, pre= sumably, 4,000,000 people engaged or interested in this crusade of humanity.

HE two things most needed now are cots for aire raid shelters: to keep tender limbs off cold, damp underground floors and replacements for blasted hospital equipment. A $10 donation will provide g cot completely equipped. What is needed most in this period of organization . is local leadership in the creation of thousands rather ° than hundreds of these chapters—to keep this effort and this pressure constantly alive until the need for it is past. Any man or woman in a town where there is no organization could tomorrow call a few friends and neighbors together and organize one of these chapters, They could get in touch by letter or telegram with national headquarters of Bundles for Britain, New York City, and insure active, conti co-ordinated effort within a few days’ time. :

In this new all-out war, it is just as necessary to keep up the courage and determination of women and children, as to encourage, the soldiers on the battle lines. That British home front must hold if the cradle of our race is to be preserved. It will hold only if the resistance of the common people of Eng land holds—as it has held so magnificently until now, Bundles for Britain is helping to hold it.

Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists in this newspaper are their own. They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times, '

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

OLLAR-A-YEAR men are now very much in the limelight. They show up in national emergen= cles and deserve all the gratitude they get. But, while we're on the subject, how about giving a hand also to our less than dollar-a-year women who work all the time and whose hardest task is rearranging social pate terns after the war games are finished ? Volunteer workers, we call them, and they are to found in every community, from Maine to Calle fornia. In s manner of speaking, they are Uncle Sam's housekeep< ers, for while the gentlemen are busy about vast outside matters they sweep the dirty corners as usual, tidy up after the spending orgies and gather up the scraps for the kids’ dinner ‘when the financial feasts are over. This, at least, is the way I see all these fine, intelligent women citizens whose middle years are devoted to humanitarian causes and whose energy and ingenuity seem limitless. It is' conceded by trained social workers that, with out the home volunteers, a good many worthy causes would have hard sledding. Through the snow and slush of November they tramp the streets getting cone tributions for Community Fund budgets. They give the last ounce of their strength because they know so well that, lacking the money, hundreds of men, women and children may go hungry in spite of Uncle Sam’s generosity. They maintain scores of charities—feeding home« less babies, helping delinquent boys and girls, tending the infirm and old. In fact, they “mother” thousands and by doing so strengthen the ramparts of Americas They are real patriots because they are willing to serve without expectation of reward save that id stowed by an easy conscience. And when national emergencies arise, they simply redouble their efforts: With them it's always “busie ness as usual,” because they realize that their sort of business cannot be overlooked even while a nae tion gets ready for war. So, while tolling for the momentary need, they never neglect the everyday tasks which are important too This volunteer woman worker is such a common sight we scarcely notice her at all. But she’s on the job long after all the dollar-a-year men have returned to their sumptuous offices. :

Questions and Answers

. (The indianapolis Times Sorvice Bureas will answer any