Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 February 1941 — Page 21

4

The Indianapolis

- Publishing 'Co.,

‘paper Alliance, NEA

_ elsewhere to play the Axis’ game.

PAGE 20

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER ~MARK: FERREE | President Business Manager

Owned and. published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times

ered by carrier, 12 cents 214 W. |

a week, Maryland St.

Memlser of United Press,

Scripps-Roward News- outside of Indiana; 65

cents a month.

Service, and Audit .Bu-. reau of Crrculains

Give Light ond: the People Will Find Tate: oun Way

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1941°

ALFONSO XII

: TEN years after going into exile, and a few weeks after ;

renouncing his claim to the Spanish throne in favor of

his son Juan, Alfonso XIII is dead. History will acknowledge his personal colirage and his

_ devotion to what he considered to be the true interests of

Spain. But it must conclude that he was a failure, and on a colossal scale. ~~. He was neither wise nor Sirong enough to hold his people together. From his exile he looked on while one of the bitterest and bloodiest of civil wars—whose instiga-

“tors he supported—convulsed his country. And as he died,

the exhausted and literally hungry people of Spain did not know at what hour their unhappy land might be overrun by German troops, Gibraltar-bound,

WHAT HAPPENED TO AIR SAFETY? F it had happened some years ago, the shocking air-line tragedy near Atlanta would have been no less shocking, but it might more easily have been regarded as an unavoid-

able occurrence in a hazardous business.

* For 17 months preceding last July there was no serious accident on any United States air line. Not one passenger was even slightly injured. On July 1 the Civil Aeronautics Authority ceased to be an independent agency and was

transferred to the Department of Commerce, and the also independent Air Safety Board was abolished. These

changes, made in the name of efficiency, were opposed by many pilots and other authorities who charged that they might increase politics in commercial aviation and decrease safety. It may be mere coincidence that in eight months since these changes were made there have been five air-line disasters, killing more than 50 persons. The Eastern Air Lines’ Georgia crash i is the second in the history of that company, and its first in four years. ‘Laymen cannot now pretend to know why this chain of disasters has followed a record-breaking period of complete safety. They do know that no ordinary investigation will suffice. They want to know what factors, or combination of factors, ‘are to blame. Was the shift of bureaus at Washington a tragic mistake? Has demand for military planes deprived the commercial lines of equipment needed to carry more passengers safely? These questions must be answered, so convincingly that the correctness of the answers cannot fairly be chalJenged. , oe

. IS “UNCLE IVAN” TROUBLED?

'TALIN may have things figured out to his own satisfac- ~ tion, but we can’t help suspecting him of . pacing the Kremlin floor these winter nights. . A year ago last August, Stalin precipitated the Euro- |

- pean war when out of a blue sky, in the midst of negotia-

tions with a British and French mission, he signed up with. Hitler. The German conquest of Poland followed, with

,P==ia helping herself to the eastern half.

‘Then Stalin “liberated”—from themselves—the three altic states, and ‘after a humiliating war had his will in Finland. Later he picked up a slice of intimidated Rumania. So far so good. But what next? Hitler, having taken over Rumania by easy stages, is now sifting an army into Bulgaria. Stalin appears to be content to let Germany infiltrate the whole Balkan peninsula—to within striking distance of the Dardanelles and the Near East. In the meantime he connives at thwarting the British blockade by shipments and transshipments of war commodities to Germany, and he directs his converts and hirelings in England, America and

What is he driving at? Does he think that Hitler, who prior to their marriage of conveniénce had called the Commies everything in the ealendar of vituperation, ‘would, after beating England, gettle down to be a good neighbor of Russia, forgetting his avowed cupidity toward the Ukraine’s wheat and the Caucausus’ oil ?

Or is the truth sles Leland Stowe. suggested.

yesterday in his article in The Times—that Stalin is too weak to do anything but acquiesce as the Nags Proesed with his encirclenient ? ?

TT INVESTIGATING DEFENSE DOLLARS soon or late there .is bound to be a full-fledged investi-

gation of defense spending. Contracts totaling around 15 billion dollars have already been placed, and billions more “are to come. The law of ayerages in human nature being

what it is, some waste; inefficiency and even crookedness A. are bound to be involved. And they ought to be exposed

and corrected while the trail is warm. Who should do the investigating? Both the House and the Senate have proposals pending for special committees.

J: ~The upshot is likely to be a two-ring show, with the generals and the admirals traipsing from one wing of the Capitol

LR

to the other, warming over for one group the testimony

they have served up to the other. .

It seems to us the logical procedure would be to create a joint Senate-and-House committee, including (but by no means confined to) leading members of the Military and. Naval “Affairs Committees and of the subcommittees .on military and naval appropriations. It ought also to include members who have not been associated with the standing defense committees; particularly dmembers experienced in the arts of extracting and

' collating evidence.

Such a committee, equipped with an adequate staff, could serve as a clearing house for all the complaints and

grievances and whispers arising out of defense spending.

And it ought to remain in existence for the duration of the ergency—ready to check at’ once wherever the need is

Price in Marion Couns : ty, 3 cents a copy; delivs |’

Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $3 a year; |

E

By. Westbrook ‘Pegler

Recent Chiding. of the Publishers

FASHING TON, Feb. 28. —Now that everyone else : has said a little.say about President Roosevelt's recent chiding of the newspaper ‘publishers for print-

1 .ing military information received from.statesmen who : may. ave violated a seal of confidence, I will neatly

Ah “nav sos |

dispose’ of‘ the matter as ‘follows:

Newspaper. publishers are not’

censors. but’ editors, and," with the

exception of a’ few brash ‘adven=-

turers, there: is no more patriotic group of men {in the country, nor any group with a stronger motive

for preserving the American na-| { tion as a’ republic, under capi=| talism, which is the only system | that tolerates and affords a living |'

for a free press. The publishers are, as a group, | © no less wise tar: honest than the { members of the two. professions which ' President Roosevelt himself has adorned, namely, the law, in which he operated ‘as a Wall Street atlorn:y, and politics, in which he collaborated with Hague cf Jersey City, Kelly of Chicago, Pendergast of Kansas Ctiy and the political heirs of Huey P. Long in Iouisiana, 2 8 = = PrEsmEs T ROOSEVELT has consistently indicated hostility to the American kind of press, while utilizing it for his political purposes; and the persistency of his campaign to discredit this kind oi press naturally prompts consderation. of the: ‘alternative,

We all know in our business that, in numbers the American daily press is declining as a consequence of

rising | costs, including taxes and the loss of advertis- ‘

ing revenue to the radio.

The radio is subject to strict Government control ;

and may be effectively pressed to discourage propaganda ‘platters for the Administration, but has no

editorial character and never, of its own initiative,

would dare expose Jimmy Roosevelt’s insurance connections or scrutinize Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt's political activities, Editerially, radio is a blank and a servile thing which in foreign lands has been used to enslave peo-

ple, whéreas even the worst enemies of the American’

A Defense of the American Press |- - By Way of Rejoinder to F. D. R.'s |

— THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

‘You’ 11 Have to Wait a Bit, Bud’

«ira ———

press unwittingly give the publishers credit for great} By hk moral and financial courage when they dehounce it’ | L&¥s

for oppbsing the Roosevelt Administration, -For cers: tainly, if the press were servile, the publishers would

have tried to placate the New Deal, knowing its great

power and vindictiveness, instead of antagonizing it. At this moment, too, some publishers, right: or wrong, are fteking a great risk in opposing the dictatorial kill, whose best friends admit that it is a dictatorship bill, because they are being denounced as

appeasérs and an American Cliveden set, and this is |] -

dangerous propaganda against them in sommunities where the Administration is strong.

# » 8

HE Administration can, and will not hesitate to throw iis support to papers which: support the bill by methods more subtle than you could imagine and a good, patriotic, ethical publisher may be placed under a boycott for the attitude which, in the long run, may prove to have been highly patriotic. But the only alternative to the free American press is the subsidized press, which Hever is honest, as may

+ be obs¢rved at a glance in the radical papers that live on secret contributions from mysterious sources; or the Hitler-Stalin-Mussolini-Franco kind of = press,

which ‘suppresses all contrary opinion and all news unfavorable to the regime. There is no other alter-

native to the American kind of press which President |

Roosevelt so heartily dislikes. So in advocating and defending, as I do, the American kind of press I am mindful of not only my job and the interests of the owner but of the freedom which must and always does vanish when conditions arise which finally make it impossible: for the press to continue as a private enterprise. The day the privately owned press disappears you will goosestep and pretend, at least, to like it or. Yanish into a’ concen-. tration camp.

Editor's Note: The views expressed by coluiiiiists in this newspaper are their own. They are not necessarily those of The Indisnapolis Times. Tl

Business

By ohn T. Flyin

Markets Already Lost, Wallace's Warning to Farmers Seems Futile

EW YORK, Feb. 28. —Henry | Wallace, now Vice President, has spoken his piece to the” farmers to bring them along in the war drive. The bogy he holds out before them is the loss of their foreign markets when the war is over and totalitarianism takes possession of the world. He put particular. emphasis on the cotton farmer, whose foreign markets he said would be destroyed. . First of all, At is a fairly safe bet that no matter what Hitler does he will never do as much to destroy the foreign markets of the American farmer as Henry Wallace has done, As a matter of fact, Mr. Wallace told the farmers, when he started in: to save them as Secretary of Agriculture that they had to make up their minds to curtail their crops on the theory that their foreign markets were gone. He did more than any other man to induce the farmers, themselves, to throw away their foreign markets, He proceeded to apply a group of policies designed to raise farm prices above the world levels in the world market. The foreign market for cotton had certainly suffered severely. Br. Mr. Wallace’ man-

TT

aged, by his price policies, to ruin most of what was"

left of it. If there is any foreign market left for the Americar, grain and cotton farmer, certainly it is not Mr. Wallace's fault. ” » ”

E dr aws a picture of how Hitler will go “to the Argentine and offer the farmers there a price for their wheat and if the Argentine isn’t satisfied he will threaten to buy from the United States. Mr.

Wallace seems to be afraid that we might be able

to sell some wheat that way.

His theory is that there will be only one buyer: for the products of South America and that will be.

Hitler. Or, at least, he insists that the dictator countries will be the only buyers for South America’s products. : Of course there are some of her products that North America buys. As for those we do not want, the dictator countries have been for a good while the only buyers. There will not be: much change there.

There has been no place for South America to sell

chvialn of her products save-to Germany, Italy and apan Mr. Wallace, having succeeded in ruining the foreign market for our own farm products, is now collaborating with British propagandists to ruin the foreign markets of South America. Does he imagine hie is rendering a service to American Hemisphere unity by this policy? isa Ba

50 They Say— I AM PROUD of my German blood. ‘But T hate aggression and tyranny.—Wendell Willkie, former

G. O. P. presidential Candidate.

WHEN WE ir and Hitler) shake hands

it is the handshake of men of honor.—Chancellor Adolf ditler of Germany.

LJ

WE CAN PREVENT inflation, but the ‘danger will {|

have fo be understood.—Prof. Irving Fisher, Yale,

emeritus, ; * . *

PIGEON FANCIERS are funny ptuple-tiey will | give us birds they wouldn't sell to’ anyone, else —Mas-

ter Sergeant C. A. Poutre, bu. S. Army Sighal THE WOR yi

Corps.

—

~The Hoosier Forum

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

DESTRUCTIVE USE OF SCIENCE DRAWS REBUKE By Charles L. Blume, 2245 Brookside Ave.

Ironical that the mind of man en‘dowed by Deity’ with so much, can develop creative science toward prolonging life with added comforts, should turn that science toward destruction ana miseries—then brag of being "civilized" when referring to savages who do their killing more directly but on a less wholesale scale. - When minds blindly follow a dominating mind perverted with visions of false grandeur into an orgy of destruction they destroy themselves. For we see the ruins of dead civilizations all through this world that never learned that God is only with those who use His gifts to create. A : ne 8 = CONTENDS ‘FAIR TRADE’ BILLS RAISE PRICES By Rose Gordon Levan I.notice in The Times that Dr. Wicks, pastor emeritus of the First Unitarian Church, indorses a bill designed :to. prevent unfair liquor trade practices as a “temperance measure.” His argument is that cut

prices of liquor stimulate consump-

tion. I wish to point out, however, that temperance .measures should come from other .measures or sources. This bill, although called “fair trade legislation” is a thinly disguised attempt to fix prices legally. In hear-

ings on the liquor industry before the Temporary National Economic

Committee it. was shown that such “fair trade” legislation not only kept dealers from . cutting prices and fairly competing with other dealers,

what. they would have been normally. By doing so the liquor dealers and the liquor industry piled up dividends far beyond what businessmen in other lines make with a comparable amount of energy expended. It seems people will drink anyway. (The profits on liquor are enormous.) \ Now I have no quarrel with persons or organizations’ working for temperance measures, but in addition to raising prices artificially for liquor, this bill would pave the way for other such attempts. We already have “fair trade” acts for the drug industry—and I know that prices for drug items have been increased for consumers. The Federal Trade Commission is now conducting a study of the effect of these “fair trade” laws. The results have not been released yet, but

{Side Glances=By Galbraith

but artificially raised prices beyond,

(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.) =

the indications are that consumers have been getting a very short end of these “fair trade” acts. Now if this bill for controlling prices of liquor is passed, the Grocers and Meat Dealers Association of Indiana will have -a better chance for passing their pet—a bill to eliminate the “loss leader advertising,” a plan for fixing prices for groceries and meats. And that will

hit: us despite that lovely bit of

propaganda they have been dishing out to the effect that “it will make no difference: to the consumer.” Those of us who have watched the effect of these measures in other fields and in other states can cite prooi to the contrary. And who knows how many other dealer associations will try to do the same? If it is right for: the liquor industry, it ought to be right for others. One would wish that Dr. Wicks were also something of an economist—for he'd never have indorsed it-then. : 8.8 9

DEFENDS TEXTBOOKS USED IN OUR SCHOOLS

By Warren A. Benedict Jr., 2919 Madison According to an item in your Feb. 24 issue, the National Association of Manufacturers hired some educators who" studied our textbooks and accordingly reported that the social science texts are generally “on a very low level,” “give a critical attitude that is destructive in its influence” and: “play down what this country has. accomplished and placed the emphasis on defects.” * The N. A. M. is noted for its Tory viewpoint. Its business is, frankly, to fight most of our social reforms, which it of ‘course has a constitutional right to do. When, however, it invades our field of education.and attempts to tell us what texts we must or must not use, it's time to call its hand. A text, in order to be adopted in our schools, must be written by a recognized authority in his field, and passed on by various boards of education expert at passing judgment on suitable text matter. Our

school system is generally recog-

D WAR ase everything but our 06! QO BD JV. Il 0€] \

_|lacking

nized as the best in the world. To so criticize our texts is to attack our whole educational system. Let the N. A. M. squawk to its heart's content about our social reforms, but let it keep its hands off our textbooks. In company with most Americans, I'm trusting our educational system generally for its fairness, intelligence and Americanism. ”» ” ” THINKS HITLER PLEASED

BY FILIBUSTER THREAT By Edw. E. Conway, Seymour, Ind. As a liberty loving and long-suf-fering American. we wish to enter a protest against the un-American filibuster in Congress against the Lend and Lease Bill that is being threatened by Wheeler, Nye & Co. If Wheeler has anything new to say, for land sakes let him say it, for it seems the votes are getting fewer all the time. He has said and done enough now if Hitler doesn’t see that he is rewarded he (Hitler) must be a “cheap skate.” It might be well to test, quite frequently, the prospect for a vote so as not to waste too much in time and salaries of those who have to listen to stuff that is not free and only by extreme liberality could be called an argument. Harangue is better. Why would it not be appropriate —and cheaper too—to gather up a few self-chosen but disappointed

and grouchy ex-candidates for the|3 Presidency along with some very] ungrateful columnists who have|$ been shown high honor by the Ad-|§

ministration, then throw in a few conceited aviators drunk with their own importance and let the expedition spend the next few weeks in an enforced “vacation” in the neighborhood of Salonika. In this way they might get a first-hand taste of Hitler's methods and might learn to appreciate to some extent at least the blessing of living in the land of the free. They might see something to admire in the Greeks who have not suffered from the jitters lest they offend Adolf Hitler.

a o ” DISPUTES PASTOR ON COMMUNISM CHARGE By Lettie Sawyer, Greencastle, Ind. If the Rev. D. H. Carrick hasn't a better understanding of his Bible than he has of communism, I pity his congregation. The man or woman who accuses the Roosevelts of communism is in good common sense. Without F. D. R. we might have drifted into it, for soup kitchens are the fostering places of communism. If the New Deal under F. D. R. is communism, how is it thén that you can say what you have and get away with it? You don’t know what communism is. People here preach about it, try to enlist others to aid in fostering it but you don’t see them wanting to go live it. When their agents are about to be deported they do everything in their power to keep from ‘leaving the freedom of the good old U. S. A. So Mr. Preacher, you'd do better to tend to your preaching if you have a congregation. For if it was

communism you were living under, you wouldn't have either.

GRICKET By MARY WARD

When I have grown oid, I shall place my chair In a corner where The sun keeps out the cold.

And songs that are sung Year after year . Will re-echo here, And you will still be young.

When I am old, chagrin. Shall play no part with me, -Attuned to peace I'll be And the cricket’s violin.

DAILY THOUGHT Blessed are ye that hunger now:

for ye shall be filled. —Luke 6:21.

UNG]

aL DE A i

trom the study of 8 frogs leg

rine Priorities Board He Duty to Explore Other Possibil

Vassar Feb. 28.—There is a. re i Washington that we are going to have’ to ster making electric: washing machines and later le:

cal refrigerators because of the aluminum -s

This is sald to be because of the pritrities of del ery that will have to be giv certain munitions industrie They must not be held lack of: anything, ‘if, as ard. they need ‘it. But in gran ie priority the OPM or. the -Priors ity Board has a ‘much greater. obs ligation than just shangeitg ae | entire outflow ‘of -a:strategic me terial to Factory A or Factory B: at its demand—especially Af- the effect is to close up-a normal ins, 3 ‘dustry employing many: people. «:: A priority order shomid govern not only quantity of: deli time of delivery. It is up to the Government: ‘contrel to get the strategic material to the user Sxacilyins it is needed. But it is also up to that control th tioning a scant supply to see to it that there is: hoarding and no ordering far in advance of time ‘of use. B/E | The very first thing that should be deme: in the application of drastic rationing is to explore every: stock pile in this country. Nothing of this’ sort thas been done. It could he worked on a rough,” check through the insurance companies. It’ coild bs’ done more thoroughly and accurately by &- qu naire dragnet. Leon Henderson would kriow' io do it better than anybody I know—and get’ the ane swer in the quickest way.

2.8.8, 1 nal a

ANOTHER activity for which Government: control is responsible before it moves to urine p

aim ue ; WA

upsets and deprivations is to set up a unit to explore the possibilities of conservation and substitution, : Chromium steel cooking utensils beat’ aluminu a mile. Maybe there is a shortage there, but I hay 1't heard of it. Glass, of ‘which there is no can be used in place of tin, and some of the glass substitutes even for metal kitchenware, Red paint can be used for zinc, and so on through a long list. Manufacturers, themselves, will do some of ‘but since Government is soon to begin calling’ his, bus for this dance, it is distinctly up to Government €o' move into this “priority” business’ on all fronts. It must be a true administration of priority" in time as” well as quantity, regarding preservation of our civil structure in regulating the flow of materials; ‘price’ control to any extent necessary, prevention-of Jndus. trial as well as governmental hoarding, insur ‘that conservation of existing supplies and sources of, supply is applied to reasonable limits, eliminating and exposing all possibility of substitution in the use. of materials and the discovery of new sources of material, ie + ” ” » . 3 on PRACTICALLY nothing has been done eng ; : tid lines. Simple dogmatic priority is very effective, but, without assuming full responsibility for -these other safeguards, it is a sort of “easiest: way”. that: may lead to some very unpleasant aftermaths of res crimination and bitter resentment. I have been so roundly criticized for even referring to World War expcrience in these matters that: I am getting gun shy. I don’t know to what I could better refer, but since it irritates the customers I; am, trying to restrain myself. Excuse it, please, but when I hear this ‘sho hullabaloo and recall that in the World War we supplying not only England and also France, : and the rest with about half our present ie an active war on all fronts that was daily co! ¢ multiples of the supplies. we are now asking for, as at the same time expanding our shipbuilding” capa 10 times in less than a year till it was greater that of all the world combined, some of .these ill-. considered statements about shortage and . cBaltAY. measures give me a slight migraine. ail AES

ie

EYL

» 3»

A Woman’ S Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson ryt Sim

£2 pr DVOCATES of the Lease-Lend Bill have done, democracy no good by accusing their epponents of obstructing national defense. This has :gene. on, both by open charges and by innuendo. .: :.« s%:; Yet I believe time will prove the antis were true patriots. The notion of giving the President carte blanche :with. ‘all ‘our supplies seems to me: alien to. the democratic: ideal, ang -w hate ever happens in the a shall probably realize that: the de- dog bate over this important. measure" has ‘been as healthy. as: At at vigorous. “ At least one fact is ap A . very large number of Sppurenta approved of the bill in its form. Their disapproval-has openly and boldly expressed, and’ for courage in speaking: their minds, they have been insulted and berated 'by many men whose past records have already proved: nerve. f be rubber stamps. The dangers surrounding the bill have been: out. Congress and the President, as well as statesmen, know that the people of the United do not want to become involved int the Europa wer | The fact is plain and blunt, even though to may be distasteful. Does anybody imagine we might not have already if these so-called “obstructors” h silent? Knowing human nature as we do, cially political human nature, we can be stire bate has acted as a restraint upon the tend hotheads to act first and think afterward. Everyone, even those Senators who now h possible declarations of war, realize that we Sl the brink of serious dangers and that a st wrong direction may lose us all the berients, 1 and social, which it has taken us centuries to The forces of the Administration enough to do as they please, but I thine dh will not please them to drag us over the’! for this one reason—that the opponelits D! have insisted upon having théir say about The real patriots of this day are 4 women who think first of America, and’ 1 know where they are going When thet to move.

Questions od Ar

(The Indianapolis Times “Service. 8 question of fact or information, . ass .search. Write your questions. clearly, inclose a three-cent postage stamp. lea cannot be given. Address The Fimes Bureau, 1013 Thirteenth St. Washington; D. |

a

the eyes of his draft board?” A—No; the classification of 3 entirely on the decisions of What t

led to Luigi Galvans discoy is a chemical method for y rent. The modernsd ; ment’ from this disco

eR FARE Sat EE

lieutenant oe three and fi Q—How many 3 6 : have been used by A—Only one. - The design of the coin are ment has not

cried t intend to do.

Again Na aes