Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 March 1941 — Page 21

PAGE 20.

The Indianapolis Times

. (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAUVER) ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHCLDER MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager

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RILEY 5551

Give Light and the Pcople Will Find Their Own Way

FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1941

WATCHED POT HE simmering Balkan caldron is one watched pot that mav soon boil violently, although there are those who think Hitler will Jet well enouch alone in that quarter and | try instead a grab at Gibraltar. "In the absence of official statements, the Balkan situ- | ation is a marvel of obscurity—particularly as to YugoOne dav it is said the Yugoslavs are going to sign

slavia. up with the Axis; another day they are reported talking | tough to Hitler and declining to sign anything except maybe a nonaggression pact; and now they are declared to be ready for a compromise whereby German munitions but not troops would be permitted to traverse Yugoslavia, But other dispatches say the temper of the Yugoslav people themselves is so anti-Nazi and so pro-British that Orince Paul. the Regent, would be unable to carry them along with him in any deal with the Axis. The continued debarkation of British troops in Greece, the abysmal flop of Mussolini's personally exhorted counter-offensive in Albania, the parlev at Cyprus between Anthony Eden and Saracoglu of Turkey, the Lend-Lease Act tivity of U, S. Minister Lane in Bel- | should tend to stiffen Yugoslav re- |

Foreign Minister and the grade—all these sistance to the Rumanian-Bulgarian pattern of capitulation |

excej tional a

things

by telephone. But give us

hing 1s still in flux. The next few days may

CANNED-BEEF MENTALITY HAT shall we say of the lawmakers who lend millions

Ww fers who ond: of our taxpavers’ dollars to Latin American neighbors, and then turn around and try to make it impossible for to repay the money? Yesterday that perennial ¢anned-heef issue was up again in the U. S. Senate. Under present law the Navy is | forbidden to buy foreign beef—which means that American | American beef available ! tyme and place the purchase is made, at what- | vails. In with its enlightened Good- | the Administration sponsored an amendrestriction and permitting the Navy to | beef when better meat could thereby -a break for the sailors and the

those neighbors

S

sailors have to eat whatever 1s at whatever ever price pre line Neighbot ment lifting this buy be had at : Price taxpa But by wardly : expecle

a minority, the

yer. 2 tie vole (the Vice President being awk- | e amendment failed. As might have been | pa which has worked so hard to remain | Republicans voted solidly against it. A few months aco our Government lent $60,000,000 to | Argentina. That a necessary ioan, because the war | had disrupted her European markets, and Argentina, which | always dollar credits. loan

q | rt

OL

was buys more from us than we from her, was short on | We shall expect Argentina to repay that | and no doubt she will if she can get the | dollars. But can obtain dollar credits only by selling her product 1e American market. Argentina's chief

insolent

some day.

sne is beef. By an unfair and | law, Congress maintains an embargo | again Argentina beef—the same beef which the British buy in great quantities. And we levy a high tariff on canned-beef imports, but some of that comes. in anyway for the simple reason that Americans like to eat canned beef and American packers don’t provide it. They don’t provide it because they have no surplus to can; they have a ready market for the sale as fresh meat of all cuts of the steer, good, bad and indifferent, with the leftovers ground up for hot dogs. You could ransack the pantries of a thousand ranch houses in our Western states and never find a can of American beef. The truth is we have a shortage of beef in this country. If you don’t believe it, ask your butcher why his prices are | so high—so high that year in and year out millions of poor |

export

fresh or frozen

American families never know the luxury of sinking teeth |

into a juicy sirloin or a prime rib roast. Some day we hope | Congress will show as much consideration for meat eaters | as it does for meat packers.

WE LIKE FLOWERS, BUT— AR back in the big book that presents Mr. Roosevelt's | new budget we find this small explanatory note: “The botanic garden estimate of $194,787 reflects an | increase of $90,000 over 1911 because of provision for the zonstruction of additional greenhouses.” Now, we know that the beautiful botanic garden at Washington is under the jurisdiction of Congress, not the | President. We know that $90,000 is only a fraction of a | drop in that 17!5-billion dollar budget bucket. And we like | flowers. But we can’t help wondering whether it is as impossible as Mr. Roosevelt's message says to reduce “the regular | operating costs of Government.” For instance, couldn’t | those new greenhouses wait a while, and the $90,000 be | applied toward the cost of national defense? And couldn't | the Washington Monument stand, a few years more, with- | out the new $11,826 staircase for which bids have just been | asked? Another thing we notice in the new budget is that the “salaries and expense” item has been increased in an awful lot of cases. Again, we wonder. Are all those increases necessary ? Will they contribute to national defense or really better | government? Or do they only reflect bureaucracy’s deadly ! tendency to grow bigger and cost more? Somebody, the President or Congress—or better yet, the President and Congress—ought to start that job now. | It wouldn't lessen the efliciency of government, and it wouldn't impede defense. Indeed, a determined move to | effect rigorous economies in the regular operating costs, proving that the Government hasn’t lost all respect for the value of the people's dollars, would be one of the finest of all national-defense projects.

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

New Army Differs Greatly From Organization of World War Days; Everyone Should Study New Setup

NT. BRAGG, FAYETCEVILLE, N. C., March 21.— | This is going to hurt me more than you, because | I have to study it out and write it, whereas you don't | It is a sort of lesson. on the |

even have to read it. composition of the new American Army, which is very unlike the World War model. An easy topic, says you, but you wait, Of course, we know the War Department is the boss of the whole institution, with the Secretary of War representing the stockholders and with Gen. George Marshall, the Chief of Staff, serving as the superintendent of the plant.

Then there are the large corps |

areas into which the whole country is divided, and I mention them

only to get them out of the way, |

because for the purpose of the lesson, they are a nuisance. The corps area, in its relatoin to the training and fighting army, can be compared with a hotel. It is an administrative and housekeeping organization, and the armies which are concerned with the

| fighting can be moved from one corps area to another

as a ball club on the road moves from one hotel to another, leaving their laundry to be sent on, you might say and not having to pick up after them. - ” ”

N the combat department there are four field armies now making, and a field army may be composed of as many as three Army corps, which in turn, are composed of three or more divisions each, The commanders of the field armies are Gen. Hugh Drum at Governors Island, New York; Ben Lear at Memphis, Herbert Brees at San Antonio and John L. De Witt at San Francisco, It would seem avisable to read up on these men, only one of whom, Hugh Drum, is fairly well known, and he only by name, because the next generation may be putting up monuments to one or more or all of them or wishing they had never been heard of.

I said the Army corps—and, for the last time, now, |

don’t get the Army corps mixed up with the corps

areas—are composed of three or more divisions each, |

but, like some beautiful, stately hvmn in the vandal | { hands of a hopped-up swing band, this plan is sub-

ject to variations which throw it out of symmetry. Some if the corps have only two divisions, one has four, and Gen. Lear's field army has only one organs ized corps and has two additional divisions of infantry, one of horse cavalry and an armored division scattered over the central part of the country,

The | armored division, which is expanding into a corps of |

its own, will be a separate outfit under Gen, Adna |

Chaffee, the best man we have in this line of work,

subject to the direct orders of the high command in |

Washington.

Our new infantry division, called a triangular division, has three regiments and has about 12.000 sol-

diers, as compared with the ponderous, heavy-hitting main-strength divisions of the World War, which had about 27.000 men. The new idea is to eliminate the artillery regiment and brigade entirely and attach a battalion of artillery to each regiment of infantry, » n »n

UT we still maintain a lot of square divisions made up of National Guard troops, which are not as large as World War divisions but retain most of the very defects of organization which the triangular division is intended to smooth away. Why we are keeping this clumsy form I haven't been able to learn, except that it is said, in a rather sneering way, that the idea is to provide the rank of brigadier for a lot of civilian soldiers, But that still doesn't explain it, because at Ft. Bragg we have a triangular streamlined division, the Ninth, which, nevertheless, has two brigadiers—Edwin Harding and R. E. D. Hoyle—under Maj. Gen. Jacob IL, Devers, the division commander, supervising the infantry and artillery, respectively, But they are brigadiers just the same, and the triangular form hasn't eliminated their jobs. So, if the idea is simplicity, how come we to maintain the most complicated form in the National Guard outfits whose generals, it stands to reason, will be less skillful than the professionals? This is complex, I know, and there is a lot more of it. But we all have a fair working knowledge of our form of Government from the White House down to the town hall, and we had better do some cramming on the parallel form of the Army. It is going to be important to all of us from now on.

Business

By John T. Flynn

There's Much Talk of Taxing for Defense but Very Little Will Be Done

EW YORK, March 21.—There is a lot of talk about taxes. Much of it should be reduced to pictures and run in the funny section, Every sane economist knows that the only way to protect this country from the evil after-effects of the war is to pay the costs of the war effort by taxes. Every sane politician knows that if he tries to do this he will be thrown out of office. Therefore the tax program will be prepared by sane politicains instead of by sane economists. If the costs of national defense are raised by taxes the costs can be kept to a minimum. If they are not raised by taxes no man can tell what the cost wili be. All the blather in Washington about how the strong-armed Mr. Henderson is going to control the cost by controlling prices is just a lot of baloney. The cost of national defense for this year and next, plus Britain's cut—if we spend it—will be around $39.060,000,000. Of course nobody has any idea of trying to get that much in taxes out of the American people plus all of the other costs of Government, However, politicians, who are very seldom crazy, say that we must “pay as much of the national defense bill as possible.” Then there is a delicate little

| suggestion that the rich, who are going to get richer

bv the national defense pogram, will be forced to disgorge most of this cost. That: makes the poor man feel better. However, the poor man can put this in his pipe for an afternoon's smoke—that if the total income cf the rich, by which I mean those with incomes of $50,000 a year and over, were to be taken—all of it—it wouldn't be a drop in the bucket toward paying this bill, n ” = S a matter of fact, if any attempt is made to

pay the bill by taxes it will have to come out of | the pockets of people with incomes between $1000 and | Now I am in favor of paying the bill | But I am also in favor of telling | the people honestly—the $1000 to $25,000 a year man | —that the bulk of the bill is going to fall on their |

$25,000 a year. by means of taxes.

necks.

But these gentlemen are not figuring on taking on that load. On the contrary, most of them are figur- |

ing on the improved income they are going to get out of this prosperous war effort.

Up to now, only the farmers have seemed a little |

discouraged by it. But they needn't be. The seven-billion-dollar appropriation for Britain includes one item which our farmers I am sure will not be permitted to overlook.

That is a little item of $1,350,000,000 for food and

commodities.

It looks like a chance to get rid of the terrible |

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Anything Can

Happen

Hoosier Forum

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

LAUDS MAN WHO PAID TAX THOUGH EXEMPT By Isabella V, Freeland Every reader of The Times who is a real American must have heen thrilled to read about the 100 per cent American citizen, Samugl Sher,

[who didn’t have to pay a Federal

{ |

| |

|

tax but made Uncle Sam a contribution anyway. Three. cheers for Samuel Sher! 5 = 8 URGES LEND-LEASE BILL TO HELP OUR SOLDIERS By Mrs. Walter Mayer I hereby propose another LendLease Bill. As long as our Congress is working overtime, this one is for our own men in our camps; a to award these men their transportation home at holiday intervals. A fellow working for the defense of his country, who makes less than

la dollar a day, must save from this

| |

i |

| Johnson in his expression of the FINDS IT HARD TO ENVY

fare amounting to $30 or more, This may be quite a boomerang, but the foreign nations now warring, during their pre-war conscription, transported their training men home without. charge.

There are many expenditures at| of | Must these volun-|

camp, some sending their pay home,

teers for service wait till their year

portions

is up before they get to see the folks own families as they will for their

and the old home town?

»n ”n n AGREES WITH HOOVER ON FEEDING STARVING By Robert Amory Riley The exemplary courage of Gen.

growing concern of countless Ameri-

(Times reade to express th these columns, troversies exc have a chance. be signed, but

our letters short, so all can y

withheld on request.)

fense order, directly or indirectly, at the present time? Too, you may be charged with giving aid and comfort to the Axis when you print the news of our labor troubles, for Cecil Brown from Rome tells radio listeners that “All reports of United States industrial strife find an important place in Italian papers.” So0-0-0, you are damned if you do, damned if you don’t, I find it hard

rs are invited eir views in religious con

luded. Make

Letters must names will be

and his associates their people. Walled in on a

necessity of supplies, it is incor

| seemingly

pied territories.

| policy designed to afford stupendous | °¢:

{ physical and mora

[fighting democracies, going to con{demn all the small democracies to starvation merely because they were to overwhelming

forced to bow | force?

challenge of Darla and that men wil

| country,

| Surely there can be no harm In| ynited States Senators permitting Herbert

[egrity in such |

| 1. =

| EDITOR'S JOB

{cans toward the food situation in By Richard Taylor

{ican people, whose hearts are torn men to task for printing Gen. Mar-

|

the occupied countries should be appreciated by every American. It is inconceivable that the Amer-

by the problem, will complacently accept the attitude of the British government that the sending of food to the occupied territories is “false humanitarianism.”

That the situation is desperate, or competing paper blithely publishes! rapidly approaching such a state, is the disclosures of our Chief-of-Staff.| The only great state able to|

clear. challenge the completeness of the British blockade is France, and Admiral Darlan has stated he will resort to force to prevent the starvation of his people. Thus we see the Vichy govern-

prisingly large degree of freedom of

of a matter which Marshal Petain

| Many of us reali

{ job you editors have these days.

| the one hand FDR

|shall’s supposedly *

before a Senate committee;

(other hand, if you the wire services |you're left holding

Take these

dustries for instance.

{kins told The New {week that *. | 1940,

| Miss ‘Perkins have

what factory does

for years has never been free of the importing vital

ot ruthless a bill the British blockade could arouse other than resentment in the occu-

Are we in this country, which has It is ithe Tor hveteria o . just witnessed the enactment of a "1S NO time for hysteria or coward-

The British should realize that the

question, to at least prove the work-| | ability or unfeasibility of his plan.

itrikes in defense in-|

through January, [number of man-days of idleness be{cause of strikes has been 27 per cent iment, which has maintained a sur-|less than the year before.” admits, |action, swinging voluntarily toward |that strikes in plants with defense |

| co-operation with the Reich because! contracts news

to envy you.

consider vital to 2»

CLAIMS IT'S NO TIME FOR {HYSTERIA OR COWARDICE food | By Elbert H. Clarke

continent which

cool heads

1ceivable that the| These are times for application of land brave hearts. The safety and prosperity of our | country for generations ahead may Ibe decided in the next few months,

Most of us have a little streak of yellow in our makeup. It may be {almost invisible, but it is usually! there and can be cultivated by those who are wicked enough to play upon our fears and anxieties. The most deadly injury one can do our country is the paralyzing of jour national will by hysterical appeals to the baser side of our natures. It is an ominous thing that a few instead of | Hoover, whose sticking to a cool and clear-headed | things is beyond | critical analysis of defense measures | —and nobody denies that critical] analysis is needed -— deliberately | 2 jchoose an appeal to a spirit of] | cowardly hysteria in a deluded effort | (to gain popular support. To gain |

I support to the

1 is no idle threat 1 fight for their

| their miserable personal ends they ||

{ would corrupt the fearless, freedom ze what a tough | loving spirit which made Americ On | ae | God knows there are hundreds of | |sincere and noble pacifists in Amer- | ica, who with open eyes would pre- | fer living as slaves to fighting for freedom; but God also knows there are thousands who use pacifism as a cloak to hide the broad yellow] streaks running up and down their spines. | America was not built by cowards,

takes newspaper-

secret” testimony on the don't print what send out then the bag when a

Frances Per-| nor will it be made great by the York Times last| type of politician who cultivates from September hysteria and a spirit of fear when 1941 the coid, calm and calculated courage : is the need of the nation, ” ” on THINKS AID BILL MEANS GREATER DISUNITY By Mrs. F. W, Doty We can not agree with your edi- |

however,

value. And not have a de-

Side Glances=By Galbraith

farm surpluses, and this is why the Fresident says |

he is now not in favor of any other farm program this year. This is farm program enough. It is going to be good while it lasts.

So They Say—

WE SHOULD face the realities, not dreams and hopes.--Milo J, Warner, national commander, Ameri-

can Legion, .

THERE will be many centuries after Hitler.—Prof. James T. Shotwell, Carnegie Peace Foundation,

» *

COPR. 1941 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T. M. REG. U. ———

a

ae, PAY. OFF.

torial, An End to Disunity. We feel] the passage of this bill will result in| greater disunity. Because the bill is passed is no] reason why we must change our convictions that it was an unnecessary and dangerous piece of legislation, We hope that Senator Wheeler and all other Senators who voted against it will continue their fight to inform the people and to keep this country from committing acts of war.

MARCH WIND

By NELLIE Gg OWENS In rollicking, wild abandon He danced his way down street, Whirling and swirling little leaves, And papers that lay at his feet. Then over the courndry side he sped, This wild, gay devil-may care, Rattling the doors of the country folk, And wrestling with trees, brown and bare.

the

Quite playfully he stole a Kiss, From a maiden hanging clothes. He swept and dusted the meadow, Where the first spring beauty grows. Then over the hill and away he went, Happy, go-lucky and gay, Leaving everything along his path, In a topsy-turvy way.

DAILY THOUGHT

The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and T will pay thee all—Matthew 18:26,

EVERYONE'S true worship was

"Donald, may | borrow that sweater of yours? I'd like the full attention of my feminine students just once!"

that which he found in use in the place where he chanced to he.— Montaigne,

:

FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1941

Gen. Johnson Says—

United States Savings Bonds a

Swell Form of Investment and

He and Friends Will Buy Some

ASHINGTON, March 21.—A prospectus for an investment security—as neat a bit of selling argument as any I have ever seen after several years’ close experience with such literature—came to my desk yesterday. It was signed by Henry Morgen= thau Jr. and is issued by the United States Treasury, It tells all about United States savings bonds and is complete with a selfaddressed order blank, All you have to do is sign, inclose a check, seal and mail. These bonds aren't new, they were first tried in 1935. The attractive blurb says “Already they have become the most widely held single security in America.” They are said to be for “small investors.” Corporations and business associa« tions can’t have them but any individual can buy $10,000 worth, or less down to $18.73 —which is not so small in my book. They don't render much income—and the tract doesn’t say they do. In barnyard figuring it is 1% per cent per annum, but $18.75 invested now will be $25 ten years from now, which is a gain of $6.25, and, while the following isn’t the way bankers figure interest, that roughly is 3'4 per cent per annum on your $18.75. That is so because interest on vour $18.75 is not paid to you. It is compounded semi-annually, "a on

HERE are not many gilt-edge investments available so flexible as to figure, so high a rate, If you don't need the income in the meantime and can afford to put these securities in the box and forget them—or let the Government hold them for vou--while it is theoretically a low rate of interest, it is practically as good as you can get, considering all the other advantages of this remarkably flexible securitw, —the income from which, by the way, is exempt from state and local taxes to the extent of other U.S. bonds, The danger of buying the average long-term fixed income bond in a market threatened with inflation is that the buying-power of the small fixed income may go down tragically as the cost of living rises and with it will go down the price of the bond, You can then escape far greater loss only by selling at much less than you paid. Not many bonds could offer you an escape from this, but these Treasury bonds do, The Governmenf, will redeem them at any time for what you paid for them plus interest, after one year, at 1'42 per cent or, if the redemption is after 7'2 vears, at interests of 225 per cent for the later years. That is as good a protection against inflation as you could have in a bond.

” ”

HERE are same other atfractive features. You can use the bonds to purchase a kind of annuity on an installment plan. For example, if vou invest $75 a month in these bonds for 10 vears and don’t redeem, you are entitled to $100 a month for the next 10 years. Your $8000 investment over 20 vears at $75 a month becomes $12,000, or increases 50 per cent in 20 years, Lesser monthly investments return the same percentages of benefit. The actuarial calcula=tion of the interest rate in this is too complex to discuss here, but it is a good sound deal backed by the credit of the United States, There are many variations and differing options on this and other features of these bonds that make excellent insurance against old age or provision for the future education of children or care of invalids, They can be registered in the name of two people to be the property of the survivor and thus become a modified kind of insurance policy—probably free from death duties, although this is not certain, It isn’t the business of any column to turn itself into an investment sales-plugging advertisement but I had never studied these bonds before and their ingenuity fascinated me. There are two good reasons why this column is perfectly kosher on this score, One is that the security here is the nation, The other is that this is part of the Government's war-financing plan—a vital element of national defense. In the protection which these bonds offer the investor, they are far better than any Liberty Loan, War Savings Stamp, or other financing of World War one, The best recommendation I can write for them is that I am going to buy as many as, under their income restriction, I can prudently afford myself and so are some of my friends,

”

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

N open letter by Dorothy Thompsen to Ann Lindbergh is now on the newstands. It is fine read= ing, but some paragraphs make no more sense than certain parts of Mrs. Lindbergh's “Wave of the Future.” In both there is too much ideology and not enough emphasis on everyday human nature. Mrs. Lindbergn struggles through honest mental confusions—and surely no sensibie person need be ashamed of them these days—to tell us we should be thinking about reformations at home rather than crusades abroad. Miss Thompson, on the other hand, is for an aggressive foreign policy. Since a majority of Americans seem to agree with her, it is probable we shall soon be meeting the results of her leadership. Miss Thompson's pet theory is this; we cannof keep a non-Nazi United States in a Nazi dominated world. Yet we have seen a strong Nazi order created in a world dominated wholly by the democracies. We have iooked on while a small conquered country, stripped of wealth, emasculated of power, drained of the resources of its colonies, and suffering the after math of the worst financial panic of modern times, created’ this horrible Nazi beast of whom we are all

{ so frightened.

To contend, as many Americans do, that our own svstem cannot survive on the same planet with any new order, is to me a statement of utter defeat, a deep-seated doubt of democracy and everything it represents. Anne Lindbergh, I think, faces the honestly. Hitler built his system mainly because the democracies failed to settle their own most pressing social and economic problems. War itself is always the result of such failure. And however pious we may feel, we ton have failed in many respects. Men and women, wherever they live, are interested primarily in decent living. Therefore our approach to a good many political problems is too theoretical, The working man wants freedom of speech and assembly and worship, but regardless of ideologies, he wants most to eat when he is hungry. Unless we are perfectly sure a foreign crusade will enable our own people to maintain their present standard of living, we can expect it to react against democracy as the other one did,

issue more

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 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, 1013 Thirteenth St., Washington, D. C.).

Q—Are assessments against local benefits, such as streets, sidewalks, drainage, and other like improvements deductible on the Federal income tax return? A—No. They are to be capitalized, as tending to increase the value of the property and thus constitute cost of a permanent improvmeent., Q—When did President Theodore Roosevelt's daughter, Alice, marry Nicholas Longworth, and has she any children? . C—They were married in the White House, Feb, 17, 1906, and a daughter, Paulina Longworth, was born Feb, 14, 1925, Nicholas Longworth died April 9, 1931,