Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 March 1941 — Page 18

PAGE 18

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THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1941

UP TO YOU, MR. MAYOR

HE net effect of the studies of the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Traffic Safety thus far has been encouraging. The group's findings of inefficient enforcement and lax punishment have been met with good temper on the part of the Safety Board president, the Chief of Police, the Sheriff and the Municipal Judges. There does seem, however, to be some hesitation about how quickly some parts of the suggested safety program can be placed in effect and as to how far the City intends to go. That Mayor Sullivan is sympathetic towards the gen- | eral program indorsed by the committee is taken for | granted. But the time has come for him to issue a public statement as to his opinions of public safety policy. The Board and the Police Chief are dependent to a large extent on his opinion. A few words from Mavor Sullivan can serve to brush away all the hesitancies and delays. The cause of safety demands it, Mr. Mayor.

“FOR THE WANT OF A NAIL...

IGHTY American-built bombers are grounded in Canada because each lacks one small but vital part—a part that is supposed to be produced at a plant in Staten Island, N. Y. \ strike, which began March 3 and lasted 15 days, stopped its production. A strike ties up a small die-casting plant in Los Angeles. Four great airplane factories on the Pacific Coast | depend on this plant for castings. Production of military planes will be slackened. A plant in Bridgeville, Pa., was turning out propellers

for bombers. A strike was called. For lack of propellers, new bombers will be earthbound. This plant also made a small part for bomb fuses; a Chicago factory has had to stop assembling fuses. The plant also made a small part for the turbosupercharger which enables bombers to reach great heights; for lack of this part, manufacture of the superchargers has halted. The big new powder plant at Radford, Va., can't get into full production until certain electric generators arrive —and the generators lie unfinished at the struck AllisChalmers plant in Milwaukee. Completion of another powder plant at Charlestown, Ind. is held up for the same reason. A stoppage of work at some isolated plant you've never heard of, directly involving only a few men, may seem trivial. But it can throw important defense assembly lines out of gear. In some instances perhaps management is at fault, in others perhaps labor, in some perhaps both. But wherever the blame belongs, the result is the same: England doesn’t get the material aid we promised her, and our own defense is delayed. It doesn’t matter much whether Congress appropriates seven billions or 70 billions or 70 cents—if we cannot get uninterrupted production of all the parts of all the munitions needed by our own armed services and by those abroad who are doing the fighting. “For the want of a nail the shoe was lost, For the want of a shoe the horse was lost, For the want of a horse the rider was lost, For the want of a rider the battle was lost, For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost— And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.”

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President Roosevelt has now appointed a National Defense Mediation Board to undertake the formidable task of ending these stoppages in our “horseshoe nail” factories, and of averting others. Chairman Clarence A. Dykstra and the 10 other members are nien of accomplishment in the fields of industry, labor and public service. They are given great responsibility but little statutory power. Their success depends on the co-operation they get from employers and unions The mediation-board setup has worked well on the railways, where a statute prescribes cooling-off periods and definite procedures for negotiation, conciliation, arbitration and fact-finding. It remains to be seen whether this new board can make a voluntary mediation system work in the enormously various and complex field of defense manufacture. But if the threat to our national safety is serious enough to warrant the back-breaking outlays which Congress has voted, and which the people must finance, it is also too serious for the toleration of sleazy opportunism, of the grab-it-while-the-grabbing’s-good attitude, of the refusal by a few to recognize that this national emergency imposes duties on leadership, in both industry and labor, transcending the rights they both enjoy in ordinary times. If those duties are not shouldered voluntarily, they will have to be imposed by statute.

N

BRITAIN LIQUIDATES AN INVESTMENT

ALE of the British-owned American Viscose Corp. to a syndicate of American bankers attests the willingness of Great Britain to sacrifice great segments of her overseas financial and economic empire on the altar of war. American Viscose is the biggest rayon manufacturer in this country, and is supposed to be worth $100,000,000 or more. The private British owners of the stock were required to exchange their shares for British Government securities—whose postwar value no one can foresee—and the Government in turn is now swapping the shares for American dollars. Other British-owned businesses in this country will almost certainly be placed on the block in a similar way. It is a painful course, but a necessary one. The LendLease Bill was based on the prospect that British dollar assets would soon be exhausted. England could not in good conscience now take full advantage of lend-lease while at the

same time holding tight to her properties in this country. |

By Stephen Ellis

Heath Bowman in 'Hoosier' Tells The Story of Indiana From Its Early Days Down to Modern Times

HEN the frontiersmen who were also Indiana's first traders went down the Mississippi with hogs and whisky to Natchez, the rivermen clustered on the shore and called them “Hoozers.”

It meant someone who was tall and green and Tas ; . gawky, and ripped his side of meat FRR apart instead of using a knife, From these men, Heath Bowman in “Hoosier,” published today by Bobbs-Merrill, has built a book about Indianans. His story is one of the original rudeness and uncouthness, the politics and learning and the culture and love of talk that has made “Hoosier” a respected trade‘mark instead of an epithet SH. When the raw-boned traders came back home, they boasted Mr. Bowman about their fights, and forgot their whippings. They called themselves “Hushers.” “We can hush any rip-tail, screaming scrouger in this hyar country,” they said. “We're half-men, halfalligator. We're Hushers.” Mr. Bowman, with an easily-detected admiration for Indiana and Hoosiers, has written’ a composite biography of all the men who lived in the country above the Ohio River. He talks of Samuel Merrill, who came from the East; of Solon Robinson, who wanted to develop the south of Indiana; of Vevay, where the Swiss grew grapes on Ohio slopes; of culture, exemplified by bathrooms in the Bates House—and by Jenny Lind.

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laana was settled by all kind of people. The neighbor from the East says, ‘“‘calc’late,” and is answered by a southern “reckon.” But the neighbor offers to help build a house, “Why, that's mighty friendly of you,” newcomer, Thus the Hoosier finds a bond

The only silver money in the new country is the cents, and the Mexican dollar. |

‘bit piece.” worth 121. They cut the dollar inte quarters for change. But the Hoosier isn't too honest; he cuts it into fifths and they have to circulate a diagram to go by to be sure & piece of silver is actually one-quarter. The first railroad” in Indiana? It was operated by Levi Coffin of Newport in Wayne County, It was the Underground Railway. Solon Robinson had a constant cough. But he believed in the country. He fought to keep the tide of settlement in the southern part of the state, He rejoiced when a driver from the north wrote in his inn register: “The roads are impassable—hardly jackassable.” Culture came to Indiana when Jenny Lind stopped at Madison midway between the two great river ports of Cincinnati and Louisville, But Berry Sulgrove, early newspaperman, wrote back that ‘even though they whitewashed the walls and papered the stage, there was no mistaking the odor of the place— it had been a slaughterhouse!”

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[Eu started to grow up when the Union Depot was built in Indianapolis, even though it was outside the City limits. Colonel Eli Lilly came back from the Civil War to start a drug mill with an engine salvaged from a boat that had tried te navigate the White River. The state began to recognize its charm as painted by James Whitcomb Riley, who had been a signpainter before he started to use words. Mr. Bowman will tell you of the poet's “glorious happiness” because of the mural he had done—complete from ox-cart to the latest handsome buckboard—extolling the virtues of the Studebaker brothers wagons. And when young Booth Tarkington was riding in his dashing red runabout and black horses, the New York Store had put in an elevator and the When Store had a band concert from its upstairs balcony each Saturday. “Hoosier” is the story of that Indiana, right up te the full-grown days when the Klan rode and introduced itself as a branch of the Horse Thieves Detectives Association, legalized years before by a forgotten Legislature,

Business By John T. Flynn Payroll

Tax for Defense Would

Hit Small Wage Earner Hardest. |

| we

EW YORK, March 20.—The tax hunters are now searching around for new sources of income to tax. And it is strange that one of the first victims some Washington revenue-seekers light on is the pay-check. The suggestion has been made that payrolls should be subjected to a tax to meet defense costs. Certainly every person should he made to pay for the defense effort. And the best way to reach everybody's pocketbook is through an income tax collected from everyone, no matter how small his income. That means the man who earns wages should pay on his income, But the worst way to tax that man—who is the smallest income earner—is by a tax on the payroll. First of all, the payroll is the worst possible point at which te levy a tax. Second, a payroll tax is a gross income tax. And a gross income tax, unjust as it may he to others, is most unjust to the small income man. Everybody else is allowed to deduct certain exemptions—exemptions for children, wives, state taxes, for bad debts, for interest, for all sorts of things. But the tax on the payroll, which is an income tax, is a taX not on net income but on gross income, with no deductions allowed.

In the next place, there is plenty of tax on the payroll now. There is the old-age insurance fund and the unemployment trust fund. For instance. this year there has been collected from the payrolls of workers and their bosses for old-age pensions half a billion dollars. But only 41 million dollars in benefits has been paid out.

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HE Government, despite the reform in rates forced on it, 1s still forcing the workers to pay too much for their old-age benefits. The same thing is true of unemployment insurance. If workers are to be made to pay income taxes— and they should—it may be necessary to collect these taxes at the source. But some system will have to be devised by which the worker on a small wage is not actually charged a much higher rate than men getting twice as much in some other way. Some means must be devised for making the same allowances made to others in computing the income. This may be difficult, and may invelve such complicated hookkeeping for the Government, and so many claims for adjustments that the taxes would be consumed in collection and administration. But in any case to levy a tax on the laborer's wages as an income tax, and not give him the benefit of the deductions given everyone else, would be sure to produce a grievous complaint from the victims of such

| unfair taxation.

The fact is that those who impose taxes should face the tax problem honestly and with courage and levy taxes so that the people who pay can see what they are paying. They will then be more diligent in safeguarding the expenditure of the money.

So They Say—

I AM NOT sure that this is the proper occasion for a long speech—if, indeed, there ever is such an occasion. —Chester C. Davis, National Defense Ad-

visory Commission. -

The world crisis today is not an old man's affair; it was brought on by youth and must be settled by youth.—President James L. McConaughy of Wesleyan

University,

POPULAR music can be a beautiful and serious thing if it is done seriously. —Dimitri Mitropoulos, Minneapolis Symphony conductor,

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES The Bear That Walks Like a Mouse |

says the |

THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1941

SOVIE) [A:1%;

Gen. Johnson Says—

Of Course, We're in the War, Buf

Not the Shooting Part, Because We're Far From Ready for That.

ASHINGTON, March 20.—Of course we are in this war. We haven't reached the shooting stage but that is because it is not vet good policy te reach it. If Japan lives up to her treaty obligations with Germany and Italy then for us to begin shooting would give us a “two-ocean war with a one-ocean Navy.” 1% isn't good policy to start that he fore it is necessary. That is one reason why we haven't gone further, Another reason is that Russia also is still on the fence While that is not so immediately impor» tant, we can better use whatever influence or persuasion we have with her while we are technically at peace Finally, except for our Navy, we are a long way from being sready to start a shooting war. With

| the powers now at the President's command, he can

make us just as effective, at this state of the game,

{ without shooting.

I wholly defend to

The Hoosier Forum

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

GRATEFUL FOR RIGHT TO EXPRESS OPINIONS By Louis Eugene Tepn There are two things that have me perplexed: 1. Why all this fuss over the “lend -lease bill” when it means aid-

ling Britain, which happens to be

our first line of defense and which may mean keeping our boys out of war should she overcome the cruel aggressors? 2. Why are many of the hovs about to Ye inducted into the Army sent back for some slight physical disability when it might be better for the individual as well as the country if his defect were remedied or, if that is impossible, could not the individual be used in some noncombatant position and thereby re-

lease men who are physically fit to “carry on.” I do not want to appear to be critical. It is only my opinion, but I am thankful to Almighty God that we live in a country where one can give his opinion. » »n » BLAMES HUMAN ELEMENT FOR TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS By Paul Gary, 150 N. Franklin Rd. In the newspapers and other mediums of news transmission, of late, have heard so much about SAFETY, that I wonder if the public is ready to admit where the fault lies. The law enforcement officers have blamed the accident-wave on each other and themselves, and shown how by having more men and cars,

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drive carefully, and that has been proved by statistics. As I heard Todd Stoops say several years ago: “Show me any accident and I will show you where some human was at fault.” probably longer than any other man in the city, in cutting down accidents, involving motor cars. One question is, why do vou and I need a car that will make a speed of 50, 80 or 100 miles an hour. My car doesn’t have to go that fast, does yours? About 20 years ago, Ohio voted on

speed controls on all cars in or pass-

(done a swell job, as far as they can fp. ia dinner

the toll may be lowered, but is this

The public can not be trusted to

He has heen interested |Put by no means a new one. Wood-

a proposition to put governors or [nomic stresses in Germany made

ing through the state, but it was defeated, and I think that was as close |much less that they justify it as any state ever came to really

reducing the accident rate. Cars have been improved. made safer by the shatterproof glass, all metal top

Side Glances=By Ga

F v

since he took in those

German militarism.

Ibraith

"Old Berkley has been guzzling tea and dropping his aitches ever

world in many things. She had everything she now claims she wants. But unfortunately she could | not renounce her pride and faith in Prussian militarism, whose ruthlessness arrayed against her the whole Western world. The proud Prussians could strike shocking blows; but the resources arrayed

(Times readers are invited to express their views these columns, religious con. troversies excluded. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Letters must

in

against them, both material and moral, were practically inexhaustible. They heat her down in

be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

end. Just as they will again. The Germans have a right to be! (proud of their race. They are a| [strong and resourceful people. The | driver on earth, and know my rest of the world is not “picking” on| rights, and will have those rights, |Germany. She could take her right- | even if I have to tear a fender off (ul place in the world, perhaps lead your car to prove it.” As long as|it again, if she would only unshacpeople have this idea and iast cars kle herself from Prussian militar- | are made faster and faster, how can ism; rid herself of the hideous an-| the accident rate go down? lachronism of Bismarck’s “blood and | Another thing, with the defense iron.” Otherwise I'm afraid she! program on, with larger pay rolls will drag herself down to even lower | and boom timeston us, more people depths, and the rest of the world] have cars, crowding Yhe highways, {With her, and driving greater distances to ? 2% work and play. This will also in- | DEFENDS TESTIMONIAL crease the accident rate, and still |g ae the State Police, City Police, and| OF MR. YORES Sherfi's men are looking for some Be eth Leslie, Editor Protestant way to curb the driving peril, and "e vidbd . ; even taking part of the blame them-| We Were happy to have the Secselves. retary of the Interior, Harold Ickes,

As I see it, these officers have | speak at our Protestantism Answers

and body, ete, but, the driver is the same stubborn, impudent person who says to himself: “I am the best

go, but, until speed is reduced in the . car itself, there will be no let-up,| We have been astonished since

and the black flag will continue to|the dinner to hear it asserted that wave on the steps of the Court |Mr. Ickes is an intolerant man. It House, denoting traffic deaths in the|has been suggested that we had County and City . (tongue in cheek when we invited “ Mr. Ickes to speak on this subject

and that we further cited him as CONTENDS GERMANY

one who has been a sincere SHACKLED BY MILITARISM By Claude Rraddick, 505 N. Main st. and greed and hate, both here in Kokomo, Ind. [this country and in the world at The contention that economic large. rivalries play a major part in the Let me clear this up. An honest lorigin of wars is a sound doctrine man is intolerant of dishonesty. A faithful trustee is intolerant of! waste. A Christian man is intoler-| ant of hate. Mr. Ickes, in our opinion, is an honest, faithful, Christian man. We honored our- | selven in honoring him. We con[sider it of extreme good omen for the vitality of our democracy that it still breeds men of the fibre and stature of Secretary Ickes.

row Wilson touched upon it in a speech at St, Louis after the World War. His remarks were misinterpreted by many as a frank admission that wars are made fo order (by international bankers and munitions makers for their own selfish ends—an ever popular fallacy.

I agree with Mrs. Levan that eco-

» ASSAILS APATHY TOWARD WAR PERIL By A. F.

One of the greatest dangers that the United States will become involved in the war is the fact that millions of people are anathetic about the whole situation. They believe that their small voices can never he heard and they are therefore drifting along with the rousers of fear, the warmongers, the America-last patriots. It is therefore refreshing to learn that a group called College Men for Defense First has just been formed, with headquarters in New York. It is to be organized throughout the nation and is to make vocal the desire of the great majority of us to keep out of war,

PROMISE

By OVA E. LUNSFORD

There is laughter in the high March wind, As it screams and tears along. Tossing and swirling in a mighty din, Or howling down the chimney in a mournful song. The tall pines sway, as if in tuneful assent— To the bleakness of the grey skies; While all the world is lost— In the swirling snow that flies . . . But be of good cheer-—tomorrow the sun will bring— The tiny blades of green grass and buds, To keep the eternal promise of spring!

DAILY THOUGHT

Behold T will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.—II Kings 19:7,

LET THOSE WHO have deserved their punishment, bear it patiently. =e Qvid,

possible the rise of Hitler. But "

I do not agree they account for it, Eco(nomic distress in Germany was not [the cause, but rather the result, of

Prior t& 1914 Germany led the

little British refugees,"

and | id effective moral force against waste |

{ all the books ever made, the Bible is the best

There are many other reasons but those are enough. The point is that Administration policy is clearly to do whatever it takes to save not merely England, but the British Empire. Thus far there has been presented to the country no proposal of engage= ment in all-out war, but what was presented, and approved in the Lease-Lend Bill was an engagement in war which, at the present moment, is perhaps at least as effective and certainly wiser than an oute right declaration of war.

EL] ” "

HIS column supported aid to England “az far as it shall contribute to the defense of the United States and shall not involve this country in bloody war-—and not one inch further.” The Leace-lLend Act contains nothing of either restriction but neither iz it an authority for bloody war As matters now stand, at least, this column does not believe that it would be any part of either wisdom or prudence for us te engage in outright combat, It has been years ahead of this Administration in urging all-out rearmament and preparation for hoth industrial and manpower mobilization but not for frittering away our strength in warlike foreign adventures. Tt is convinced, however, that it is the duty of everybody to unite in support of policies duly taken by the executive and Congress, as was the Lease-Lend Bill, after the orderly American processes of demos cratic debate and decision. I believe that questions not yet so decided, such as further steps toward out right war, are still debatable especially in view of the many assurances given by this Administration to the country. However, as for the vast powers and authors ities granted to the President in House Bill 1776 and in earlier measures for our own rearmament, the thing for everybody to do is to unite to make them effective,

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T, has been said that too much eritical emphasis has been laid on the blunders and bottlenecks in the production program but can too much emphasis be placed until they are corrected? There is still no proper responsible organization in charge of it. Thera Is still no adequate organization of priorities and price controls. There is still ho prevention of hottles neck strikes holding up important production of ahsos lutely vital “defense articles.” There is practically no organization for conservation, substitution, and the prevention of waste. There still is no “commodity committee” system of integrating supply with demand —the Government organization with the industrial ote ganization. There still has been no inspirational sparking of this effort to put the enthusiastic support of the whole country behind it. Many things proved by war=-practice, hoth here and abroad, have been neglected—an easily accessible exe hibit of the kinds of things which have to be manus

”

| Tactured so that all small fabricators can learn what

they can do—some swift and simple way of receiving people with ideas and offers of help and putting them without red-tape or buck-passing to where they can get prompt decisions, Because of the lack of some of these things there has heen too great a concentration of orders in foo few large corporations—which merely means headaches vet to come,

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

NOTHER record broken! Biggest Bible order in the history of Christianity, is the news put out by the Gideon Society of Chicago. Five million copies of the Good Bock will soon be distributed by the Army and Navy to members of the fighting forces, This is strictly in line with the rest of our cockeyed activities, bee Ing a most fantastically incons sistent move from the standpoint of Christian ethics. But what, of all we are now doing, actually makes sense? Nothing, except perhaps the old simple routines of everyday living, and even they seem 16 go haywire now and then, Strictly speaking, no one could possibly object to this expenditure of money. We want our fighting men to have Bible, and we cers tainly hope they will read them, We hope it for our sakes as well as their own Of Even if it did not contain the Gospels, which constitute a ecord of the life, times, and teachings of Jesus, it would still present the sanest philosophies for living that humankind has discovered on this planet Each of those five million Bibles will include the Gospels, of course. which means that it will require some mental gymnastics when they become required reading in Army camps. They will give solace and consolation te individual soldiers and, if consciens tiously studied, what happens after this war is over may make a happier and healthier world, We'll have another batch of veterans then, and. if memory serves, the other crowd did not display many evidences of Biblical influence after they were demobilized. They were darned good fighting men, but their post-war efforts were not all directed toward creating a peaceful world. We can only hope those of today’s military men will be. For, in the last analysis, splendid civilizations are not ereated by soldiers—but by good citizens, Probably we would all be better ones if we read our Bibles more often.

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

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Burean will answer any question of fact or information, not tnvolving extensive ves search. Write your questions clearly, sign name and address, inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal advice cannot be given. Address The Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 Thirteenth St, Washington, D. C.).

Q What proportion of the eligible voters cast their ballots in the 1940 presidential election? A ~The Bureau of the Census estimated 80,528,000 potential voters, native-born and naturalized citizens of eligible age, and of these 62 per cent voted; the estimated number of voters who had qualified by rege istration was 60,576,979, and of these 82 per cent cast their ballots. Q—Is a retired worker, drawing monthly behefits under the Social Security Act, allowed to earn any money to supplement his retirement benefit? A—He is free to engage in any business or emse ployment he chooses without impairing his right te continue to receive monthly benefits, as long as his earnings in an employment “covered” by the Social Security Act are less than $15 a month, He is free to earn any amount, without loss of benefits, in ems« ployment that is regarded as “excluded” employment within the meaning of the Social Security Act. Q-—What proportion of the area of Australia is uninhabited? A—Approximately 40 per cent of the continent is unoccupied by owners or lease-holders, Q-—How is “Il Trovatore” pronounced? A=Rel Troh'-vah-toh”-reh,