Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 March 1941 — Page 15

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1941

- RUSHING | V[USSOLINTS newspaper says Italian plants are rushing large-scale production of a new secret weapon “unsurpassed by any other state.” Seven-league running boots ?

SAFEGUARDING PENSIONS JNDIANA'S old-age pension system was close to disaster yesterday. So close, indeed, that except for Senator Jenner’s prompt intervention the state’s aged might be facing the prospect of receiving no pensions whatsoever for the next two years. The controversy grew out of Senate Bill 59, which started out as a simple liberalization of the old-age assistance program. It sought to increase the monthly maximum from $30 to $40, which was in line with Federal regulations permitting the Government to contribute half when granted on the basis of need up to $40 a month. In the House, however, the bill was amended to fix the minimum monthly payment at $40. Despite warnings from Federal officials that the Government would refuse to grant any matching funds on this basis and despite warnings that such minimum payments would require $24,000,000 annually in additional funds, the House passed the bill, 76 to 17. The Senate’s refusal to concur in the amendment put an end to the cheap politics which was making a mockery of the aged by falsely raising their hopes. This state should be generous in its pensions, It should ~ liberalize its program when it can do so through a sound and workable program, but not until then. Otherwise this state will find itself in the position of Colorado, which is in financial chaos because its politicians promised more than they could deliver.

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A FARM LEADER SPEAKS

FOR Federal services and benefits to farmers $1,421,000,000 should be made available in the 12 months beinning next July, the House Agriculture Committee told Congress the other day. This is nearly twice as much money as it cost to operate the entire Government 26 years earlier. The taxpayers can only hope that as much as possible of this huge sum will actually be used to help the farmers, and as little as possible wasted. On this point Edward A. -O’Neal, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, makes some illuminating remarks. So many different Government agencies are now under- . taking to deal with the farmer and his problems, says Mr. " O'Neal, that the result is “unnecessary duplication of effort, waste, extravagance and confusion.” Seven Federal agencies have direct relations with farmer committees in the states. Five agencies handle landlord-tenant problems. Seven agencies engage in landuse planning. Four agencies deal with soil conservation, and six with water conservation; at least three assist farm women with home-management problems. And so on. Most administrative costs, according to Mr. O’Neal, are deducted from funds which otherwise would go to farmers. The expenses of county agricultural associations, for in‘stance, required less than 215 per cent deduction from farmers’ benefit checks between 1933 and 1935, but rose to

Ta

814 per cent in 1937, and the figure has been above 6 per | In poker language; the kitty |

cent in succeeding. years. is eating up the game. “Unless various phases of the program are administered with efficiency and economy, and without duplication of effort and conflict among the various agencies now charged with administration of these different phases, eventually the bulk of the farmers will reject the program, which will then fall of its own weight,” Mr. O’Neal adds. The federation, one of the largest national farm organizations, has consistently supported New Deal programs for agriculture and agrees with their objectives. This fact ought to insure prompt and sympathetic attention for the suggestions Mr. O’Neal is preparing to make to Congress—that many of the present Federal agencies should be consolidated and that a five-man, non-partisan board ~ be created to co-ordinate the whole program.

IT’S NO DAY OFF

WELL-MEANT suggestion by the. Smaller Business Association of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, Inc., has been received coldly by the Treasury Department. It was that Americans take a day off on March 15 and celebrate “Democracy Day”’—think about the blessings of democracy as they pay their first income-tax installments. The Treasury thought the defense program might be slowed up. We can think of another objection. Many of us won’t have time for a day off on March 15. That's the day we'll finally get around to the Job of making out our income-tax returns.

© COUNTER-PROPOSAL

: . (CONGRESSMAN MARTIN J. KENNEDY proposes that Congress establish a special committee “to preserve and propagate democracy.” It would be composed of 20 . House members and 20 prominent Americans not officials i of the Government, and would have $5,000,000 to spend on its labors. ; Wouldn’t the noble purpose be better served by letting the 20 House members concentrate on their regular duties,

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Florida - Folk- Are Too Sensitive About Their Snakes—the Rest of Us Have 'Em, but Take 'Em in Stride

EW YORK, March 6.—Some of my native or naturalized Florida public invariably resent as a foul and almost personal aspersion any reference in these dispatches to the reptiles which abound in the swamps and plains of their fair state. They insist that one sees what one wants to see in any clime, and that I am one who just goes looking for snakes. There is something to that, because the luxuries and elegance of Florida are no novelty to one who has spent a quarter of a century in New York, whereas the back country. stirs the imagina=tion—the more so because it lies so close to the pleasure coast. Still,

it be, is no special peculiarity of mine, as may be noted in the fact that beyond the city limits of New York there is a thoughtless impression that this city is composed of just two elements—those who spend the live-long night, every night, helling around the Stork and El Morocco, and those who live in horrid slums. This picture of our city eliminates the majority of the people and their way of life, which is neither glamorous nor squalid, but New York does not protest.

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UE. Chamber of Commerce, if we have one, coldly ignores movies, novels and: gossip which do our civilization less than right. However, the fact that such.a picture does persist in the public mind elsewhere suggests that out-of-towners, when they come here, instinctively seek out sights they. wish to see and divide their time between society saloons and regions where it is well to walk outboard of the sidewalks to avoid the falling bodies of innocent tots Aung from tenement windows by drink-crazed parents. Such horrors as the latter I have never seen, but I have seen reptiles in Florida, and perhaps Floridians come here to do the town, have come pon sights that elude me. But Florida people are unduly sensitive about snike publicity. People do not shun snake country, and if they had few sections of the United States ever would have been settled by the white man. It is well known that New England is infested with & type of rattler, smaller, it is true, than the balloon-tire model found somewheres in Florida, but quite poisonous, and only a few years ago a collector was struck and died on a mountain on the Jersey side almost within sight of the Empire State Building.

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NAKE stories, when they occur in these regions, 6 are duly printed in the local press and, if adorned with circumstances of unusual news value, are shoved along on the wires to the outside world without feeling one way or another. We accept such facts of life and never attempt to suppress them. By contrast, in an amusing case, a young Hoosier, sitting lon the city desk of a paper in West Palm Beach, once was sharply cautioned for giving position on Page 1 to the capture of a 12-foot alligator by. the town police in a garden on. a city street -at night. In our surburban and country regions here we pay very little mind to reptiles, but do, of course, conduct ouiselves according to the sound wishes of Josh Billings, who wrote “When I see. a rattlesnake’s head sticking out of a hole I says to myself, ‘That hole belongs to the snake.” We don’t mess with them, and the relationship mostly is 50-50, although we did have a historic case once near Winsted, Conn. in which a copperhead took the offensive without provociation and, by man’s superior cunning, was dealt a fate that served him darn well right. A man was fixing a tire beside the road when the copperhead advanced, so the man nagged the reptile with a long stick. And just as he struck, the man shoved a newly inflated inner tube in the snake’s way, with the result that the snake struck the tube, the ail’ pressure rushed through his hollow fangs and he blew up until he exploded like a toy balloon at a New Year's party.

Business

By John T. Flynn

Britain Withdraws. Cash in U. S. To Pay Bills in Her Dominions

NT YORK, March 6.—There are two points about Secretary Morgenthau’s extraordinary figures on British dollar assets here which ought to be made clearer, The first is this: bo August, 1939, the United Kingli ns dom (excluding the rest of the

in dollar assets here. How did this get reduced to two billion dollars (or a little over)? The explanation given by Secretary Morgenthau is that the United Kingdom and the other Empire countries (excluding Canada) used up $2,316,000,000 of this to meet bills here, At least that is the impression created by his statements. But that is not true, as his own figures reveal on close inspection. The United Kingdom and the Empire used only $1,541,000,000 of these assets to pay their bills here. The other $775,000,000 they withdrew to pay bills in Empire countries. The United Kingdom, leaving out all other parts of the Empire, has here now a substantial sum of tore than two billions. But Secretary Morgenthau says that this year the United Kingdom and the Empire (excluding Canada) must use up $1,464,000,000 to pay its bills here. He does not put it that way. He says these will be its dollar requirements. But this is not true. “According to his own figures the British Government will require here dollars as follows: United Kingdom ............$1,554,000,000 Empire (excluding Canada).. 338,000,000

Total .... $1,892,000,000

F UT she will not have to pay all of this, We will owe certain sums to Britain. We will owe her for merchandise bought from her—a considerable sum. In addition she will send us gold, etc. Mr. Morgenthau estimates these at $1,295,000,000. The balance that Britain will have to find to pay us will be: Due by Britain .............$1,892,000,000 Due to Britain ..,.¢c0e0e0... 1,295,000,000

Total due us ve.ceevvs...$ 597,000,000

And that is what she must find. But how does Mr. Morgenthau make this sum $1,464,000,000 instead of $597,000,000? He just throws in over 860 million dollars which Britain proposes to pay, not in America ‘with her assets here, but in her own dominions and colonies. In other words, Britain plans to withdraw more than 860 million dollars of her dollar assets here to pay cash to her own subjects, for which she asks America to take her notes, or better still, to pay the bills ourselves, although we have to borrow the money to do it. Now maybe the United States wants to do this. But why does the Secretary lump in Britain’s bills in her own Empire with the bills she will owe here in order to swell the total and tell us that this huge sum must be met out of her assets here? I think there can be only one reason. The Secretary was trying to put the best face ‘possible on the British case while he was reporting as a confidential officer of the American Government to the American Congress.

So They Say—

IF THE American people have contributed anything to the English language, it is the quality of terseness and vividness represented by “ain’t.”—Prof. E. C. Beck, Central State Teachers’ College of Michigan. - . . THE VOICES of the millions of people who demand peace and justice on earth cannot be stilled by physical for¢ee and instruments of Ras Soywour

|i Jucklin, treasurer of the League of Nations,

this sort of over-emphasis, if such

British Empire) had $4,860,000,000 [gy

. THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES =< Rumania and Bulgaria

THURSDAY, MARCH § 1

' . ® : < : The Hoosier Forum lI wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voliaire.

TAKING ISSUE WITH THE OGLE COMMITTEE By Patrick J. Fisher, 129 E. Market Bldg.

The Indiana Committee for National Defense runs true to form in that it follows the pattern of all other groups that would get us into war. Through its chairman, Kenneth Ogle, it attempts to create a suspicion that the America First Committee, and any other group of Americans who disagree with it, is allied with Bundists and Communists. If you can’t see it their way you are unpatriotic.

Mr. Ogle has finally stated his true position. First he was for throwing out the Neutrality Act; next he was for “aid short of war”; then it was 50 destroyers. Now he says, “The debate narrows to a single question: Can the United States afford to have Hitler win?” In other words, we Americans should do everything to stop him— even to sending troops. May God |s prevent us from doing that.

Since Mr. Ogle has become so voluble of late let us give him an opportunity to elaborate. Let him tell us about the resignations from his committee. Let him tell us how some of his committee suddenly discovered that it: was merely an agency created to “educate” the masses and lead them step by step to war. Let him tell how many members of his committee are subject to the draft.

8 2 = A PLEA FOR PASSAGE OF THE LEND-LEASE BILL

Mrs. John D. Tomlinson, Chairman, Internation Relations Group, American Association of University Women, Crawfordsville, Ind. It was indeed gratifying to read your analysis of the Lease-Lend Bill, in the March 3 issue of The Times. My one disappointment was that it was not stronger and more in favor of the H. R. 1776 Bill.

I am wondering how long it will take the American People to realize that this bill is being opposed largely by Nazi sympathizers from over the country? They are stacking the mails with letters to the Congressmen and Senators, and continuing to keep an avalanche of correspondence flowing to Washington. Can’t people see that it is a moral victory to Hitler if this is defeated, and not merely a victory for isolationism and short-sightedness? We of Indiana are proud of Senator VanNuys for his coming out in favor of the Lease-Lend Bill, and it shows the Senator does read his mail, and does represent his people

(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.)

in the home state. We wish we might say as much for Senator Raymond Willis. . . . . The passing of H. R. 1776 Bill would be a moral “lift” to those people fighting a battle to preserve many of the ideals in which we believe. They are fighting to maintain their homes, a chance to live, opportunity to work and not be in concentration camps (as depicted in “Out of the Night”), send their children to school, breathe free air, as we are fortunate in doing just now. Why should there be any question about sending them all we have, letting industry go full steam ahead in production, and let us go on recotd for standing for a decent way of life—the “American way” if you will, and help make it a world way. I believe it is our great opportunity to take the lead. It is this country which holds the balance of power, not for manpower, but moral aid, munitions, food, planes, everything, and if we believe what we say—there is only one answer. Pass H. R. 1776 LeaseLend Bill immediately—and stay out

of war. ” ” ”

A BIT OF DRAMA, ALSO SOME COMEDY By Claude Braddick, Kokomo, Ind. Scene: Candidates going up and down the fair Indiana landscape. Free textbooks. Repeal of obnoxious taxes. No new taxes. Economy. Bigger and better old-age pensions— Indiana Legislature. (First week): Free textbooks? Out of the question. Too much money. Tire weight tax repeal Sure. Soon as we figure another scheme to put the same bite on the truckers. Or maybe a mite more. Relief for retailers. Hm! Well, we promised too many things to too many people. You know how it is in a campaign. But the people won't mind. What they really want is economy—tax reduction. We'll give ’em that. Legislature. (Second week): I love the old folks. I like to see their

Side Glances=—By Galbraith

"| want to buy a Bp

QOPR. 1941 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T.M. REG. U. 8. PAT. OFF:

— one with a light Handle

at won't hurt!"

‘lon this Lend and Lease Bill.

eyes light up when you dangle a real pension before them. Got to be careful though, they don’t steal the bait. Trick is to dangle it right before their eyes until the last moment, then make it look as if our opponents snatched it away. Trouble is, our opponents are trying it, too. Makes me so mad sometimes. Trying to take the old folks vote away from us, when that’s about all we've got left! Legislature. (Third week): I hear a roaring in my ears. Must be something I et. I'm afraid not. It's farmers, laborers, merchants— almost everybody—protesting the 3 per cent sales tax. Mumble, mumble. I don’t understand it. The people want the earth with a fence around it, but they don’t want to pay any taxes. Well, I can't stand that racket. We'll have to try again. (They go in a huddle.) Eureka! I have it. Why didn’t I think of it before. Some people | prefer the gross income tax. (Chorus of ayes.) And some prefer a sales tax. (Aye.) Well, we'll give ’em both. (Wild cheers.) It goes to show you that even the knottiest problem has a solution if you just buckle down and find it. (More cheers.) Curtain. ” u ” A NAVY MAN RETURNS

MR. PEGLER’S FIRE BY 0. dardy, C. R. M,, U. 8. Navy, 1035 As an old Navy man, I could not lay aside Wednesday’s issue without registering a protest. The column by Pegler which appears therein. is —to put it mildly—a lot of bunk! Laxity in wearing the uniform no doubt exists at this time, but the

reason therefor is to be found else- | 3 where. than put forward by your|j

columnist. . . . That part about the soup and chop suey “effect” is the rankest fabrication, worthy of the courtesy of a contradiction. It stinks! 8 un FORESEES DOOM OF PEST EXTERMINATOR BILL

By Daniel Francis Clancy, Logansport, Ind.

“Assembly Gets Pest Exterminator Bill”—headline. They'll never pass that bill. Why, if they did there wouldn't be enough legislators left to continue the session. EJ tJ ”

FAVORS A CRACK-DOWN ON LEND-LEASE FOES By C. A. Williams, Avon; Ind.

Seems to me that it’s getting about time the public cracked down All of the highlights of the nation have been interviewed; with a windstorm from Montana, a small shower of sun-flowers from .Kansas, a sand-storm from Michigan, and a case of jitters from Indiana. Now the bill is being held up by a few dried-in-the-wool Senators, who are afraid the President wants to be a Dictator. If any of these gents was to get a bomb in their back yard, they would be willing to make our President anything, if he would only stop it. When this nation was going to the dogs in ’32, these gents never raised a hand to do anything about it. So why listen—to them now. ...

SLIGHTLY MIXED

By ANNA E. YOUNG

A pound of milk, a dozen cheese A quart of bread, let's see, There really were some other things Dear, dear, what could they be? Oh yes, now I remember, Some cabbages, mom said, A yard of eggs to trim a dress And a spool of graham bread, Some pepper and some vinegar Are two more things she said, What say Mr. Grocer? You ask how much? Why—I think—about—a head! A pound of lace to bake a cake and A yard of creamery butter, Do you wonder why our Grocer Hates to wait on Frankie Flutter!

DAILY THOUGHT

Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things He hath done for you. —Samuel 12:24.

4 AS SOON AS I have begun to

‘man of OPM has another which is very. active.

hardly |

Con Johnson

Says— Knudsen and Patterson Proposals May Not Help if They Only Add to

Groups Now Dealing With Labor.

ASHINGTON, March 6.—There are two impore tant proposals to check the threatened succession of strikes which could paralyze defense production. One is Mr. Knudsen’s proposal to extend the principles of the Railway Mediation Act, which Yenuires a “cooling off” period before any strike can begin. The other is that of Ase sistant Secretary of War Patter son, which would reconstitute the World War Taft-Walsh Board which relied upon distinguished mediation and impartial determi= nation of issues backed up by public opinion and indirect use of other governmental war powers. .. ‘Both plans have been remarke ably successful. Secretary Patter= son’s worked almost perfectly in the last war. Mr. Knudsen’s idea would require a new statute and a new kind of labor board to add to the rest—as would Mr. Patterson’s. But the Secretary’s plan .could be put into effect immediately by an executive order. Would either or both work? Nobody knows. What is needed is not so much more new schemes and bureaus as better men. One reason why the Taft board worked so well was that its chief was a former Presi dent of the United States who even earlier had been “internationally known and highly respected as Sece retary of War and Governor General of the Philip= pines. Moréover, he had been a great Federal Judge of most liberal principles, noted for a record of absolute justice. ” ” ”

INALLY, he was big Bill Taft, a great humanist, who could frequently just chuckle and laugh the belligerence out of angry contestants. That kind of man could make almost any plan work today, but where are we going to find him? The great men of that generation seemed to regard no job as being beneath their dignity if the country needed to have it done, and there were more such men in those days, One reason why the draft worked so well in 1917 was that in the relatively minor job of president of -its New York City district board, was Charles Evans Hughes, who had just come within a hair of being President of the United States. Our labor mediation organization now is an une planned and chaotic mess. Twelve states have their own labor boards and conciliators, They insist on acting each within its own state. The Department of Labor has a similar service. It doesn’t. like to be left out. The National Labor Relations Board has another which horns in when possible. Sidney Hills a War Department has been urged to engage in setw« tling strikes. Now if we adopt Mr. Knudsen’s or Mr, Patterson’s suggestion—or both—there could be five, six or seven separate Governmental horners-in on any threatened dispute.

HAT isn’t a very attractive or reasonable picture. The truth is that neither OPM nor the War nor Navy Departments should have anything to do with labor disputes in industry. Their business is to get production, Settlement of a labor dispute is partly a judicial and partly a conciliatory service, It should be in absolutely impartial hands which, like thosg of William H. Taft, could command the utmost resp and confidence from everybody. It is absurd to have in control of industrial ‘moe bilization and engaged in settling labor controversies, even on a two-headed basis, an active head of a pare ticularly efficient union who is at the same time ga principal officer in C. I. O.—a new federation aggressively engaged in industry-wide organizational effort ang, also engaged in a bitter fight with another great federation, the A. F. of L. Mr. Hillman is one of the ablest men in Government but, in this role, he is obviously miscast. Nobody has proposed a promising remedy and this department doesn’t presume to do so. But surely there are some clear principles that are being nege lected or at least some obvious ends to attain. Power and better boards, bigger and better men, a minin of confusion and duplication, a more even-ha. ed justice, and a great increase in courage and frankness with the public about this whole dangerous situation.

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

USINESSMEN now have two little helpers—the wife and the secretary. It’s a draw as to which one does the better job of creating our Big Shots. But it all adds up to one interesting fact: The men get a lot of coddling. Just glance over the women’s pages of your favdrite newspaper and you'll see what is expected of wifie. In order to make father happy she has to be on the job 24 hours a day. Beauty, treatments, good meals, comforte able rooms, make-up on by dinner time, a face wreathed in smiles and a merry spirit. Thus the weary head of thé house, who has: spent the ; working the office help, can relax and bask in the little woman's worship. Advice to the secreataries on how to hold their bosses follow exactly the same lines. The smart businesswoman should never let her employer see her in the dumps. ' She must not offend his sensibilities with lock-straggling, run down at heel appearance. No matter how inadequate her pay, ox how many dependents she supports, it’s a major crime, according to the coddling experts, to appear in public without her make-up and: disposition on straight. Thus the gentlemen seem: to have the best things coming and going. No rasping domestic or business details are allowed to take their minds off the really big jobs. They are guarded fore and aft by solicitous females, who would rather die in their tracks than fail the head man, and whose faithful devotion would often do credit to the noble American dog. .. No doubt the recipients of all this solicitude ape preciate it. But why doesn’t somebody advise the Boss to practice reciprocity? He ought to leave his, grouches in the golf locker and hand out at leasy half as much praise as he takes in. a Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists in: this newspaper are their own. They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times, i

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Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information, not involving extensive ree . 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 Service Bureau, 1018 Thirteenth S§t., Washington, D. C.).

Q—How many songs are controlled by ASCAPY How many by BMI? A—The repertoire of ASCAP (American Society: of Composers, Authors and Publishers) includes 500,s, 000 or more separate compositions. BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) reportedly owns 140,000, but has access to other licensing agencies, bringing the total to ap~

* proximately 250,000 tunes.

Q—What is a lyke wake? : A—Lyke or liche is from the Anglo-Saxon and means a corpse. The old custom of friends and relas’ tives remaining up all night with the corpse arose from fear that rats or evil spirits would the body. As one did not wish to sit alone with the dead, friends were invited in, and the event became more or less festive. Q—What proportion of United States rubber me. ports comes from Latin America? A—More than 90 per cent of the rubber imports in recent years has come from regions outside this hemisphere, and less than 2 per cent has come from Latin America. Imports from the East Indies amouny, to nearly one billion pounds annually. Q—Who was Charles Frohman? When did ‘hie die? A—An American theatrical manager. He opened’

agers to uce American successes on ihe.

ear I have ceased to fear.—Schiller. stage. He

Sgers to rod London and was one of the first man.

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