Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 March 1941 — Page 13

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TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1841

RECORD FOR F. D. R.

"THE fourth of March is no longer Inauguration Day, so | Hil

there is no national observance of the fact that at noon today Franklin D. Roosevelt does what nobody else has ever done—begins a ninth year as President of the United States. : : Here is another addition to Mr. Roosevelt's long string of shattered precedents. Through eight crowded years, with hardly a dull moment, he has shouldered the burdens of office. Few men in all history have carried such trying burdens for so long a period, yet he remains eager for the tasks ahead. We have not always agreed with Mr. Roosevelt, and we may not always agree with him in the future, but we do ungrudgingly admire the courage, the mental and physical vigor, of our very remarkable President.

IT'S UP TO YOU, GOVERNOR

A WAITING Governor Schricker’s signature is the merit system bill covering some 3000 state employees in 21 State Institutions, the Health and Welfare Departments and the Library and Historical Bureau. This fine measure passed its last legislative hurdle yesterday. It was amended during the course of its travels but it remains basically a sound piece of legislation. Despite those changes, which tend to weaken rather than strengthen the bill, it may turn out to be one of the few pieces of legislation that will bring credit to the Republican majority. | We hope that when the bill reaches Governor Schricker’s desk he will show no hesitancy in signing it. Both “in the House and Senate many Democrats forgot party differences to support the measure. We believe the Governor can add to his stature by helping it on its way to become law. |

MRS. WILLIAM C. PYLE

T was almost inevitable, from the nature of his job, that - when Ernie Pyle’s mother was dying Ernie should be far from home. Too far, as it happened, for him to get back in time to Dana, Ind., for he was, of course, in England—writing of the mass tragedy of Coventry, without knowing that personal tragedy was about to strike. In Ernie’s years as a roving reporter he has arranged his itinerary so that it would take him back to Dana as often as possible. Out of those visits with his father and mother and “Aunt Mary” have come some of his best pieces for the paper. Those columns about his folk were | sometimes full of fun, sometimes touched with wistfulness, but whatever their mood they always seemed tobe of special interest to Ernie’s readers. And “fan mail” would pour in on Mrs. Pyle at Dana. If she was impressed she never let on to Ernie but we | have an idea that she was mighty proud of the boy she gave life to, and character and that the knowledge of his expanding horizons was a balm for the discomforts of her invalidism.

TIME TO WAKE UP

WO more children are dead as a result of Indianapolis traffic and official groups are busy today calling meetings to discuss this city’s progress toward reaching another disgraceful non-safety record. There have been countless meetings like these in the last few years—always with one result. That result: Indianapolis will solve its traffic problems by itself without outside help. National Safety Council methods have been openly ridiculed, nationally known traffic experts have been made unwelcome and we have refused even to consider what

\nost large American cities now regard the primary Step—t3 fst sil ihe To i, Secrsiary Morssre

a traffic engineer. The hitching posts have long since disappeared from Washington St. ‘College Ave., north of 38th, is no longer a grassy road leading lazily to Broad Ripple. This happens no more to be an easy-going banking and trading center for: a large agricultural area. Indianapolis is now a full-blown industrial community with grave traffic problems and constantly increasing traffic loads. : This is 1941.

NOTICE TO PROFITEERS AST month Leon Henderson, of the National Defense Advisory Commission, warned that while governmental price controls would be avoided {‘as a plague,” he was prepared to pin back the ears of people who might try to use the defense emergency as a get-rich-quick device. i “The Government is very serious about this business,” he sdaid. “It is going to be tough. Tougher than it was ~ under NRA. Tougher than it has ever been before.” Recently Commissioner Henderson found it necessary to start getting tough. He cracked down on what he called “profiteering” in second-hand machine tools. Cases have been reported, it was announced, of machine tools 30 years old being priced at twice their original cost. Speculating and hoarding have been practiced by “a few,” it was charged. = we = Accordingly, Mr. Henderson announced a schedule of - maximum prices for such tools. How will he enforce it? He served notice that if the schedule is disregarded he will - (a) inform Congress and the public and (b) exert “the powers of the Government” to protect the public interest. - Meaning, we suppose, that as a last resort the Government | . would commandeer the disputed equipment at fair prices | and sell or lease it to tool-hungry defense industries. Mr. Henderson appears so far to have exercised hig authority in the field of prices with wisdom. He has been content in: many instances—as in that of the lumber industry—to issue public reprimands where prices have been jacked up to take adbantage of the defense rush. And he ears to have been successful in reversing or limiting yard price trends in a number of fields. The realization nost businessmen that an upward spiral of prices would

ews. has.eased his-task. +

“| it will be hel.

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Death of Walter O'Hara Recalls His Hectic. Rule of Race Track; He Just Loved Trouble and Get It

I EW YORK, March 4—Walter O'Hara was killed in a head-on automobile smash at Taunton, Mass., Friday. It was his love of trouble which, back in the fall of 1937, cost him a job with a fabulous in‘come as the boss of the Narragansett horse yard at Pawtucket, R. I., and revealed to the people of the state the fact

had serious designs on the state government. O'Hara flatly said .he was the boss of the state government, and calmly threatened to call the Legislature into special session and impeach Robert Quinn, the Governor, for interfering with his management of the racing plant. He said he owned twothirds of the Legislature. Quinn finally won out by calli ing troops to police the track which was placed under martial law and closed in a silly but alarming travesty on American Government. The track lost the revenue of its fall racing season, and, eventually, O'Hara was force¢d out of his job | which paid him $78,000 a year in salary and expense allowance, alone. His income was augmented by _ dividends on his stock in the plant, which enjoyed a legal rake-off of 6% per cent of the mutuel turnover, : plus breakage of penny-money, and the income from the parking and restaurant concessions and other incidental ‘business. 2 ” os

(asa needn’t have lost his job. His trouble was that he loved trouble and would leave the safe side of the road to seek it.

' He was doing very well at Narragansett, but very | well wasn’t enough. Success was dull without trouble, 80 he went into politics and began a daily newspaper in which he attacked his political enemies and boasted of his contribution to the campaign funds of publi¢ officers. Finally, one day, in print, he called Governor Quinn a swearword liar, and the Governor, apparently holding this to be les majeste, called 300 young men away from their jobs and their classes in school to take the field in a military expedition against O'Hara. The force soon was reduced to 50° men, but they held the occupied zone in a solemn fashion, and the vehicles and arms of war were arrayed on the premises while the horsemen, touts, mutuel clerks and gamblers moaned the dismal days away. Lo Up to that time, in less than four years, the track ; had handled more than $100,000,000, which meant that the owners, including O'Hara, had received as their share more than $6,500,000 on an original investment of considerably less than $2,000,000. It was the greatest gambling concession in all the world, but O'Hara found life dull without a little trouble, so he stirred up some just for fun. 8 » 2

IS revenues were so great that he could swing elections, and his patronage, in the form of jobs at the track, gave him a strong political machine in a small, compact state. He had a penthouse on the roof of the grandstand, which, to his mind, was the actual State Capitol, and the Mayor of Pawtucket, Tom McCoy, was his buddy and sat in with him during the sad days of beleaguerment, playing cribbage with the boys and telling them what he and Walter were going to do to Governor Quinn. O’Hara said he had elected Mr. Quinn, personally, and he regarded Mr. Quinn’s conduct not merely as ingratitude but as indiscipline. The whole of Pawtucket was O'Hara's in the political sense, and reporters who disparaged Walter were barred from the city hall.” The people of Rhode Island had unwittingly given (YHara this power by ratifying. racing and granting him this monopoly for the sake of a little revenue to relieve their tax burden. Thus they delivered their government into the hands of a mischievous and hilarious adventurer who then frankly threatened to throw Mr. Quinn out and replace him with a man acceptable to the track. There are going to be traffic troubles yonder when Walter O'Hara masters the gearshift of a cloud. Bishop, king or angel, he will slam right into their

| clouds and knock them-looping, because he just won't i give over for anybody.

Business | By John T. Flynn

Congress Misled on British Assets; Empire Has 7 Billions in Americas

NTEW YORK, March 4—The question of Britain’s ability to pay her bills here this year is still in

| a state of confusion. The reason for this confusion is

the failure and the continued refusal of the Secretary of the Treasury to make a plain, simple statement of the facts for Congress. The statement he made was the statement of an advocate for Britain and not the statement of an officer of the American Government reporting to Congress for its enlightenment. Questions like this involve a lot of figures and people do not like to be annoyed by figures. They do not like to read through 3 : long tables and calculations. So a Fa few facts about the British assets ; ; here may help to clear up this FE question at least a little. First of all, Secretary Morgen$1,775,000,000. He did not include some gold in varipus parts of the world and over $300,000,000 cash bal=ances in bank here. He said that these were not included because Britain would need these balances for handling current transactions. But he had no right to exclude these. When the United States Steel Corp. makes up its balance sheet it does not exclude its bank cash balance on the ground that it needs the cash for current business. Moreover in that first statement to the House Committee other items were left out, so Mr. Morgenthau had to correct that first statement. As corrected it turns out’ that the United Kingdom has here well over two billions. ” » s UT there is a neat little trick in this statement. This is a war between the British Empire and Germany. It is not just. a war between the United Kingdom and Germany, So Mr. Morgenthau just gave the assets of the United Kingdom and left out the assets of the rest of the British Empire, which I estiimate cannot possibly be less than another $2,500,000,000. Why did he do this? There is no denial of the fact that the British Empire had in this country at the beginning of the war $7,115,000,000 in dollar assets. How did they get reduced to $1,775,000,000? The answer is that they did not. It is the assets of the United Kingdom alone that got reduced not to $1,775,000,000 as the Secretary said, but to over $2,000,000,000. The facts on the rest of the Empire he left out. The impression was created that Britain had no more. As a matter of fact, the Empire has well over four

South America. Now if the United States wants to take the position that in spite of this fact we ought to pay Brit-. ain’s bills, although our Government hasn’t got the money and must borrow it, that is one thing. But it’ is indefensible to have the Secretary of the Treasury handing over to Congress a set of figures designed to make us believe that “Britain just hasn't got the dollars.”

So They Say—

BUSINESS IS seeing the development of an attitude whereby it is apt to be “damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t.”—Henry H. Heimann, executive ' manager National Association of Credit Men. » * *

I DID not gain any impression that the Ford Co. had changed its mind on unions.—President Green of the A. F. of L. after a talk with Harry Bennett, Ford's “personal manager.” . . .. : :

IT WILL HURT to pay cash for defense, but it will hurt worse, and longer, to borrow for defense. —~— Harley L. Lutz, Princeton economist.

1 SCARCELY dare to hope that the world after the war will be

that this legalized gambling joint |.

defect ?

billion in the United States and almost as much in |:

a good world if we win, but if we lose

> es

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

DRAWING THE LINE ON ANOTHER MUNICH PEACE By Dr. Frederick D. Kershner, 4257 Clarenden Rd.

I have a feeling that those responsible for bringing the “America First” Committee to this city have done so primarily because they are unable to bring themselves to face the possibility of war and have taken the position that our every move must be weighed in the light of only one consideration, namely, “are we risking anything by doing this?” I sincerely hope I do them an injustice—since able men of affars are badly needed at this juncture—but only those who know that those who deal with Hitlerism in this manner have presently nothing left to risk. We are not at war at this time, but certainly none can deny that war moves toward us from both the East and the West. So I would end by quoting the words of an old president-emeritus of Indiana University: “I hate war. No one can want peace more intensely than I do. But not another Munich peace. The first Hitler peace has brought us where we are. Another such socalled peace would mean wreck and ruin everywhere with no peace or safety for anybody anywhere on the earth.” ” ” ”

LAUDS WHEELER'S COURAGE, DEPLORES HIS ATTITUDE By Edna G. Vonnegut, 5324 N. Delaware St.

The Hon. Burton' K. Wheeler is spending himself to convince America that the only threat to her peace and security comes from her own sons. He has set up a two-headed, papier-mache monster labeled, “Roosevelt - Willkie, Destroyer of Peace and Plotter of Death for American Boys.” Why this strange delusion? Is its cause a physical, a psychological Senator Wheeler is not deaf; he can hear the crash of bombs. He is not dumb; his vivid word-pictures of war-mangled bodies and blood-soaked soil have irozen the hearts of American mothers. Is he blind? Not altogether; he can see the faults of those close to him in magnified detail. But he is myopic; he needs long-distance specfacles. . . . ; To his near-sighted eyes Europe is a small, far away blot; Herr Hitler, an inoffensive manikin; and freedom-loving peoples crushed under that military heel, an undefined

(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.)

mass. He feels no kindred sympathy for the victims of this war, but he is kin to them in one respect—in hatred of war. For he is not insensitive; he feels the horror of war in every quivering nerve. But mistakenly, because the real war makers, the war-glorifiers, Herr Hitler and his crew, are beyond the focus of his poor short-sighted eyes, he blames his own and the world’s distress on those close by, whose imperfections are so glaring in his sight. . . . Is there no way. to show this stout hearted warrior against war he is advocating action which tacitly supports the apostles of war in their asasult on those who, relying implicitly on the permanence of peace, did not look to their arms until it was almost too late to save the Christian ideals upon which peace must rest? Can no one convince this brave. but blind man he is facing and fighting the wrong way, raining his blows on brother Americans with whom he should be standing shoulder to shoulder; that he is mowing down friends and leading foes through the break in the ranks? Is there no device known to optometrists, no lens that will reveal to the eyes of this splendid American the advancing, primitive, pagan force that is crushing Christian civilization with the ruthlessness of an avalanche? » » 2

DENIES PREACHING ‘SERMON OF HATE’ BY She Rev. Daniel H. Carrick, 620 Spring

I wish to defend myself against the charge that I “have just preached another sermon of hate,” as was charged by the Rev. Nelson Ally in a recent article in your paper. I never was guilty of any kind of hate. I love the American people, and I love America, and it

is imposible for me to stand idly

by and allow the country to be swallowed up in communism. ‘I say the real Communists ‘in America today are those who uphold Roosevelt and his New Deal, and I repeat again that the New Deal is communism, and 25,000,000 people did not vote for communism, but a large per cent of them voted for a meal ticket and had to vote that way to eat, which is more proof of communism" and its control over half the population. hie Mr. Ally does not wish to recognize facts. For example, he wants any kind of administration that helps him and keeps him living off the taxpayers, no matter how big the burden becomes upon the people. He is not disturbed when the poorhouses ' are overflowing and prisons and jails overcrowded, or when millions are going hungry. He does not know that that is the first step toward communism, and he does not know that is the way the New Deal works, to first make everybody miserable and then at last raise the Red flag over all of us. I believe that Mr. Ally is sincere in his attack on me, but he had better wake up and investigate all political matters before ordering me to leave the country. He is now using the same argument that “all Communists use when they want te dispose of somebody who condemns their setup. a 8 8 CLAIMS ASSEMBLY NEEDS

THAT FUMIGATING BILL

By Daniel Francis Clancy, Logansport, Ind.

“Assembly Gets Fumigating Bill” —headline. I hope it’s passed. It’s

needs. ” 2 2

A WORD OF ADVICE TO THE REPUBLICANS By Claude Braddick, Kokomo, Ind.

It is my belief that no political party is ever dead, however low its fortunes may run, so long as it maintains an efficient organization in every precinct. But, unless the Republican Party wishes to accept a definitely minor status for many years to come, it must learn one thing and that quickly—how to conduct itself with dignity and effectiveness while out of power. That it lacks this understanding is no discredit. It has lacked the experience to gain it. But it might have learned from the long-suffer-ing: Democrats that sometimes it is better to be right than President;

Side Glances=By Galbraith

1

Bh : - * AY Kat

to tell me | had a lot

; to learn | didn't believe

that the setting of political sails in every Congressional district to catch the prevailing pressure-group winds —however repugnant they may be to each other and to the high command—cannot but result-in eventual discredit to the party as a whole. You will note, though, that the high command never rebukes these catch-penny efforts — unless they fail. That is the unpardonable sin. With their eyes wide open they nominated Wendell Willkie to be their Presidential candidate. They knew he wasn’t a Republican. He never concealed his status as an independent Democrat. But outweighing all these was the fact that he, more than anyone else, could focus the anti-Roosevelt vote. That was the deciding factor. Mr. Willkie did just that—to the tune. of 22,000,000. But it wasn’t enough. ‘And .today some of them are castigating: bitterly the man they so lately praised, for remaining true to his own convictions at the risk of political ruin—a procedur utterly beyond. their ken! :

PEACE

BY MARY WARD While the clock chimes the hour into the night, : And the lengthening shadows appear .more

‘turn ‘unto Him. ‘ DAILY THOUGHT ‘And when ye will offer a sacri-

fice of thanksgiving unto the Lord, offer it at your own will. ticus 22:29. .

—Levi | AM GLAD Tak be thanks Goa

HATER rr

if temporary, prosperity by engagement in war. |

certainly just what the Assembly]:

“when they are old.

grim ash peace descends in an aura) | With the knowledge that one may

Gen. Johnson | Says— y

Loyalty to President Roosevelt May,

Account for the Excess War Sp Prevailing Just Now in Dixie

EORGETOWN, §. C., March 4.—It is a matter $

LY KS SD.

common remark. that in this crisis the , is the most war-minded section of the.country. is a curious condition. considering that the B86 stands to lose heavily in export markets for twe ; prindipal staples—cotion and toacco. course, it. is gaining just now in the spread of war. ih= dustries, if that. Temporary shot. in,

the arm can.be ¢ : it is gaining less relatively. several other sections which. not so belligerent, I an In a short hunting trip in Sauth Carolina, there was an ops: . portunity to. discuss this phes nomenon with citizens of one of the principal war states of oug, past history. In the Middlewesk a common remark is: “Oh ; region has always been hell-bent for battle, It got us into most of our wars.” Even here in South Ca lina there is some talk of the “hot-blooded Southe spirits.” i ; ; But it isn't true that the South took the lead) toward every war. It wanted the war of 1812 w. eT England didn’t. It was the tom-tom beater foi the Mexican war. It precipitated the “War Betweers the States,” as they insist on calling it in these p But there are understandable reasons for all these. The Mexican War was expected to add a territory to the slave-holding South and it was only part of a very old scheme that haunted all.our e: : history—to create a great cotton American empirg: south far into Mexico. ih

LL the southern communities were vitally ine" terested in a sea-borne commerce, and th new ones in the West, like Kentucky and Tennesse simply had to keep open their access to the Gulf of Mexico through the mouth of the Mississippi. Thos&' incentives are enough to explain Southern interest ind our only war against Mexico and our second war wi England. ; Tr The Civil War speaks for itself. It started with & Declaration of Independence as sincerely utte against the North as was the one of 1776 against George. Almost nobody now. reproaches the Sou for what it considered its war for liberty. But the South was not responsible for our Wap with Spain and, as to our entrance into World War: 1{., the Southern position was almost a complete reversal* of its belligerence today. Both the Seuth and the - Middle West entered that war reluctantly, notwith4 standing that the economic conditions were very d ferent and then both of these predominantly agriss cultural areas were promised an almost boundlessy’

ws Wil

8 8 2 : Hl VERY wise Southern Carolinian, whose fam 9. relationships link him closely with the whole history of American war as they have concerned they: South, contributed what seems to be the true answers “In the South you cannot oppose the policies of ge: Democratic President and Administration and cons tinue in the high regard of your neighbors. . It isn’§. any slavish knuckling to any individual. It is asd community remembrance of ancient wrongs and a. community of mutual interest in present rights.” : 5 Woodrow Wilso and his Democratic Party had conditioned Southern Democratic opinion to neu= trality and suddenly switched. It eventually followed his war efforts as ardently as any section and mora ardently than most, but it took more time, Franklin Roosevelt, throughout the development of this crisis}« has conditioned that opinion to belligerence. Most of: the South feels that it has gained greatly under ‘the President. It is willing to overlook any harm it. ha, taken because of benefits received. It iS more loyal * to him than ever, and since it has always been & community of hero-worshippers, perhaps the question-® of its war-mindedness is completely answered. &3h : “3 8Q Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists in this >

newspaper are their own. They are not necessarily thoss 5% of The Indianapolis Times; iy thay

TR 4 4

My Tg nt: Rs 0] ed. | i oor

after o

A Woman's Viewpoi By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

1 to og it for the college boy are given a recent study by an education The successful youth, it is said; Rl teenth ) Safeguards his health: Participates in athletics, even if he never makes a varsity team; LR Has Sotasionsl dates; - FR nds -a friend: whom he trust with confidences; Sas Keep up a satisfactory refs: glous worship not inconsisten§~ with his science and philosophy, Keeps up fellowship with hig parents and old friends; ee Lives on the campus; - 4 Srulies & many hours daily as are require finish assigns. ments; ry Learns to make and keep a schedule of work, reading, recress's tion, exercise and rest; : ar Makes his own Decisions promptly; Chie eeks competent advice without becoming overly dependent upon it; adh Keeps track of his money; ; Rrlarges his reading interests, particularly in hooks; : » Learns to appreciate English literature for its lightg on the real life of man: : 3 Takes part in occasional bull sessions; ; | Rides a hobby without letting it ride him; rl Participates moderately in club work and . us, associations; : Concerns himself with the larger community outa” side jhe Satnpus, : : These rules, if followed, would assure college student the foundation for a certain ny of suce cess. The changes which will be face by today’s and girl when school days are over will be revoluti 5 ary, and nobody can guess what the world will be

ot LE

Being young now, they can welcome change, and | if fortified with good health, normal intelligence, knowledge and social vision, they need fear nothing, The emphasis on religion and concern with the outs 4 side world, is gratifying too. eo School boys of an earlier day were preoccupied™ largely with moral concepts, but considered the worlds beyond academic walls hardly worth their notice. Later generations forgot both the world and religiop. Future students, we hope, wlil study both, for theg-. are truly the creators of tomorrow’s civilization. ..,.

Hn

Questions and Answers:

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any i question of fact or information, not involving extensive reais search. Write your questions clearly, sign name and address; inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal alvieas" cannot be given. Address The Times Washington Serviesie Bureau, 1013 Thirteenth St., Washington, D. C.). Tile a rey Q—Please name the grandchildren of President: and Mrs. Roosevelt. LL AA A—There are 10. Anna Eleanor and Curtis Dall} children of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (Mrs. John ! tiger) by her first husband; John Boettiger Jr., som of Anna Eleanor by her second husband; Sara Delano

| and Kate Roosevelt, daughters of James Roosevelt;

William Donner Roosevelt, son of Elliott Roosevelt his first wife; Ruth Chandler and Elliott Ir. Shildren of Elliott Roosevelt by his second wife; - D, Roosevelt III, son of Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr.; Haven

Roosevelt, son of John A. Roosevelt. EE Q—Are spirit rations issued in the United Stateg ater Navy? : : o

. A—They were abolished in 1861 and 1882." Congress forbade such ratioas to mi warrant officers, and in 1862 it was ena

| “spirit ration in the Navy of the United Stat

forever cease.” Se Jeu in Q—How: many. radio broadcast stations in United States? ; wa 3 A—The Federal Communications Commi

that there were 8382 stations as of Jan. 1, | + Lh, i

G-Which is the wealthiest state in A—Ntw York.

bay

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