Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 March 1941 — Page 10

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Times

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MONDAY, MARCH 24, 1941

HOW ABOUT IT, AGAIN, MR. GREEN? N Jan. 27 we published in this column an editorial titled, “How's That, Mr. Green?”, wherein we challenged certain statements of President William Green of the American Federation of Labor. Mr. Green having said that the A. F. of L. had “enlisted for the duration of the emergency,” we suggested that it was high time that he put the heat on his buildingtrades union to cut out their rotten practice of extorting unreasonable initiation fees from men who want work on defense projects. We said the unions were collecting millions of dollars from needy workers, many of whom weren't even being admitted to union membership but instead were being fired as soon as their fee installments were paid. We warned that, because of this fee-extortion racket, sentiment was rising in Congress for restrictive anti-labor legislation, and asserted that if it was enacted much of the blame would attach to Mr. Green and other labor leaders who weren't leading. As we expected, Mr. Green didn't like it. He wrote us a very strong letter, accusing us of bias against the A. F. of L., declaring that the editorial was based “on hate, not facts,” and saying that the fee-extortion charges were false. He concluded his letter (which we published) with a broad hint that A. F. of L. unions would be called upon to boycott Scripps-Howard newspapers. Immediately thereafter we began receiving letters and telegrams from officers of various A. F. of L. locals both here and over the country indicating that the threatened

boycott was being organized. ” ” » n

LOT of water has flowed under the bridges since Jan. 97: a lot of fees have been extorted on a lot of defense projects, and the rising resentment in Congress which we noted then has reached flood-tide proportions. And now Mr. Green has received a letter—written by Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska, the grand old man of Congress, a statesman of proven liberalism, honesty and courage, and one of the greatest friends of organized labor who ever sat in the Senate. Mr. Green will not be able to call him a reactionary. In this letter, published today on Page 12, Senator Norris savs that he has received many reports from laboring men who are seeking jobs on Government projects, and who tell him that to get jobs they have to join unions and pay admission fees of $50, $150 and in some instances $250. Acknowledging that some of the reports are probably exacgerated, the Senator says, “The general public is getting the idea that laboring men have to pay exhorbitant fees to join a union . . . local unions are taking advantage of the situation and of their fellow laborers to charge them admission fees . . . which are frequently perfectly outrageous.” “Of course,” Senator Norris continues, “it is not necessary for me to tell you what effect this will have on the general situation, if the country as a whole is going to get this idea. The pendulum will swing the other way, if it has not already gone quite a distance in that direction, until the general public will have the idea that labor unions themselves are holding up. the laboring man. . .. “I am wondering if you, as head of the American Federation of Labor, cannot take some action which will stop this erroneous opinion, and which will also stop the practice wherever it is applied. I am writing you as one who has always believed in the labor movement. I do not want Congress to have to pass legislation in regard to this which may be injurious to labor's cause, but if this continues. and the rumor continues to spread and to grow, I am satisfied Congress is going to be called on to take action in regard to it. I fear that action will not be what I think or what I believe you think ought to be done.”

= n n 2 = o Again, it seems appropriate to ask: How about it, Mr.

Green?

CHAMIZAL OWN on the Mexican border, within the City of El Paso, is a 600-acre tract of land—83 city blocks. Some 8000 Americans live in this area, which has an assessed valuation | of about $3,000,000. This is the Chamizal Zone, created in part by floods and the meanderings of the Rio Grande. For more than 75 years the United States and the Republic of Mexico have claimed title to this land: back in 1910 it was the subject of a long arbitration hearing that settled nothing. ; Over the years, it has been a diplomatic sore spot in our relations with Mexico. But now Rep. Ewing Thomason of El Paso has urged President Roosevelt to take action to settle this ancient border dispute, either in connection with pending negotiations for an omnibus claims treaty, or as part of the mutual defense plan being discussed with Mexico. “In these times when nations of Europe and Asia change their boundaries by force,” the El Paso Congressman wrote the President, “I urge upon you in the institution of proceedings between this Government and the Republic of Mexico which will settle the title to the Chamizal Zone and show to the world that in this hemisphere of good neighbors, international boundary disputes can be adjusted peacefully, quickly and to the satisfaction of all parties concerned.” We hope the President acts; for such an example now would hearten a weary world.

CONGRATULATIONS, WASHINGTON

NDIANA has a new high school basketball champion— Washington. And it should be said that Saturday night’s final game at the Field House here was one of the best final contests ever played—close, hard, fast and with amazingly few fouls. : It was Hoosier basketball at its best. We congratulate not only Washington, but the other 776 teams which took part in the giant tournament. They played the game the way it should be played—winning honorably and losing

‘By Westbrook Pegler

haps the farmers—particularly the cotton farmers—

honorably. 2

Fair Enough

Cleanliness, Is Next to Godliness But Army Wouldn't Get It Unless It Cracked Down on Offenders

T. BRAGG, Fayetteville, N. C., March 24.—We have

here, as in most other military cloisters, a brisk and tidy reminder of the futility of well-meant efforts

to eradicate slums and squalor merely by tearing }|

down sway-backed habitations and introducing their inmates to the gaudy beauties of the bathroom tiled in colors. Men

in barracks may be no plaster |

saints, but bathing is not merely stylish but compulsory, and cleanliness around the house and grounds is enforced by the law and highly cultivated public opinion. By contrast, the city of Fayetteville, an enterprising Southern trading center of some 18,000 souls, presents the usual pictureof frowsy indifference to order, and this contrast may be observed between camp and town in every military center in | the nation. The reason is, of course, that cleanliness is not a natural virtue of the human race but a very conscious affectation which, in military life, is maintained by compulsion. The civilian is distinctly untidy, and the low standards which suffice him are observed in the fact that when he joins the Army or Navy or Marines he is bewildered at first by the strict rules concerning the stowage of his personal boodle in his quarters, the fastidious observance of sanitary principles and the disposal of all trash and junk.

2 un 5

BROKEN-DOWN vehicle is not dragged into a | convenient lot just off the road and allowed to | rust away, nor do soldiers, like some dwellers in the | city slums, heave rinds and bones from the kitchen | lightly out the window to fester in the street. A loose clapboard is not allowed to flap, and any officer who permitted the mess of his command to decline to the

soiled and greasy state of many public eating places | _

—and Fayetteville has some conspicuous examples— would be relieved of his job and, in some way, pun- | ished. If it will comfort the local eateries, which civilians seem to find attractive or, anyway, satisfactory, I will add a note that they are no worse than most others almost everywhere else, without regard to section or the size of the community, but neither any better. As anyone will note instantly and with repugnance, after a very brief visit to any military mess, the fact is that the public restaurants which mock the appetite, flout sanitary principles and desecrate reasonably sound and honest food all over this country are, on the average, not merely untidy but by military standards dangerously unclean. Yet, it is noted that when soldiers are free to do so, and have the money, they leave their camps and head straight “for town,” no matter how squalid the town, where they will eat ill-cooked food, lathered in drugstore mayonnaise, off half-rinsed plates, with tools that have just been twizzled in cold water between Jpsings 2nd wiped on the pearl-diver's pants or apron, if at all.

zn

F course, there are grades of people, Lincoln at Gettysburg to the contrary notwithstanding, and some groups of civilians will keep reasonably neat in their persons and habitations as a result of cultivated habits. Yet it need not be said, because it is untrue, that all people would be clean if given the oppor- |

# =

tunity and new homes. For all the sneering against the fact that has been voiced by housing authorities, | it is still a fact, nevertheless, that the instinct to be | clean needs careful cultivation in people who are by | tradition and heredity filthy and will lag a consider- | able time behind the advance of housing. { For corroboration of my point I suggest that you

consult the wife of any ex-service man who learned | appeal to labor while with the colors to fold away his clothes and | his time.

never to throw things on the floor. She will make

affidavit that when the military compulsion was re-

lieved the critter reverted to his natural civilian faults | and hasn't been known to reach his own socks out | from under the bed since God joined them together. From all of which foregoing I now give the conclusion that if the Army didn’t have rules and the | means to enforce them by punishment the new, | bright military barracks, now smelling of fresh pine | and paint, within 60 days would become verminous slums and their inhabitants underprivileged victim of | a system. {

Business By John T. Flynn

Farmers Seem Justified in Joining | Grab for Share of Defense Funds |

EW YORK, March 24.—It is interesting to hear | a United States Senator suggesting that per-

ought to go on a strike. Senator Bankhead and Senator Smith, in a little colloquy in the Senate Agriculture Committee, seemed to agree that the farmer might find it necessary to go on a strike to “get his share of the defense money.” The defense money has been voted, of course, to make the world safe for democracy. But it is natural that the working man should think it is to make the world safe for the pay envelope and the farmer to make it safe for wheat and cotton. Senator Bankhead feels that ; the farmer is faced with a very ungrateful Government. The farmer, he says, has done everything his Government has asked. He has. cut his acreage. He has smilingly and patriotically accepted the Government's checks. He has sacrified himself by letting the Government lend him money on the cotton and wheat he couldn't sell. | Now, instead of getting rid of the cotton and wheat surpluses which were ruining the farmer. the surpluses are larger than ever. And the ungateful Government refuses to come to his aid by increasing Ihe amount of the loans the farmer would like to ave. Why not? What are all these billions for? These defense billions? Shouldn't the farmer get some of them? This scramble to get in on the defense money is one of the bright spots in an otherwise selfdriven world. The little businessmen are organized to find out why they are not getting as much of the money as the big businessmen. a ” 2 VERY train that rolls into Washington brings batches of businessmen with little portfolios | representing this town and that, this trade association ant that, and many representing themselves alone. And they all want to know who is getting all these billions that have been voted for defense. The workers demand higher wages. The scrap and aluminum men demand higher prices. Therefore, why should not the farmer get his cut? Almost while Senator Bankhead was talking, the Defense Commission was authorizing the expenditure of $100,000,000 to buy cotton to furnish the British armies with lint for bandages and $50,000,000 to buy tobacco. Fhe sum of $1,350,000,000 is provided to buy all sorts of commodities for the British. This offers an excellent opportunity for the Government to get rid of a lot of its surplus cotton and wheat. But unfortunately our cottow farm Senators hear that Canada—"our ally”"—is buying its cotton from Brazil. Is that nice? Of course, they can get it cheaper there. Therefore, why should not a subsidy be paid to American cotton growers to enable them to sell their cotton at a loss. And so on. Thus the great programs rolls along driven by the unselfish patriotism of all our people.

So They Say—

WHILE MILLIONS of armed young men have hardly hear a shot fired,

tralned and heavily-

| might land in the same boat with

great heroism is being carried out {in a Miami luxury hotel. The com-

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Mussolini

MONDAY, MARCH 24, 1941

The Hoosier Forum

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

ASSAILS LABOR FOR DEFENSE STRIKES By Andrew Oakley

I should like to know why labor is always on a strike, when it is

| so important that each individual

in the United States prepare to defend our nation? I am for union | labor at heart, but I cannot approve of all these strikes at such | a crucial time in our history. The people as a whole should] not to strike at] If they refuse, then, force the issue through law. In other words, make it a law that one either works or is assigned | to the Army or Navy. If we are not very careful we|

France. Poland and the Low Countries. Who could we then blame but ourseives?

* # 4 CLAIM LEADERS LACK CAPACITY FOR BRAVE DEEDS

By E. R. West

The public's attention is being focused now during these exciting times on utterances from men high in our governmental system, that are perfect from a classical literary standpoint, but are the most sickeningly cheap bits of propaganda ever put out to influence a supposedly intelligent people. A great Administration news commentator screeches in a high nasal bleat that “I am ready to lay down my life to preserve democracies from aggression.” The

mentator is definitely past military age and when the crisis comes, will no doubt still answer at the present address. Great Administration leaders in their speeches stating their desire to guarantee all democracies against aggression are so heroic at | times that they openly state they | are willing to go to war for that | cause immediately. These same | men have proved their capacity for brave deeds during the past eight years by their recorded stand | on domestic affairs. A group of] men who are so cowardly that they

the day by day domestic expenditures, and avoid this sacred

an indebtedness that yet unborn]

Side Glances=By Galbraith

(Times readers are invited to express their in these columns, religious conMake your letters short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

views

troversies excluded.

generations will not be able to pay, are not the brave leaders needed to carry a nation through a war crisis. The men who are actually to carry the guns are of necessity silent but watchful. The Administration’s feeble attempt to rationalize the present emergency has been taken in but not digested. The draftee who has been taken abruptly from business, at the cost of financial ruin, to serve a year in the Army can listen to the great patriots and see them in their true

| colors.

The practice of penalizing industry in favor of the various New Deal alphabet soup employees who are essential in the defense measures and are rarely on call for military duty, succeeds in making this emergency bungled endeavor. When this defense from aggression army is completed the country will be completely disarmed because the ranks are going to be so full of men who were ruined in favor of New Deal theorisms, that they cannot conscientiously defend that government. 8 ” ”

A WORD OF PRAISE FOR THE AMERICAN LEGION

By An American Woman

One of the finest and most farreaching suggestions made by any organization in the country is the one started by the national director of the league of the Legion's Americanization Committee, who insists that the textbooks and all other material used in our schools must be checked. He informs us that the American Legion has a research executive already engaged in the

|haven't even the courage to face| rk.

This splendid organization believes first, last and all the time in

‘duty by bonding their country with|the American definition of freedom

as expressed in 1776. They believed

\

short-sighted, middle-aged men with a perpetual

cough and flat feet earn medals for valor—J. B. |

Priestly, British man-of-letters, on this peculiar war,

§ 4 8 THERE NEVER HAS BEEN, there isn't now, and there never will be, any race of people fit to serve as

masters over their fellowmen.—President Roosevelt.

off my pant i

XT gin wr Tes amon. "Look at him posing as though he owned the town! | remember when | used to have to tan his hide for snitching doughnuts

3-24

ry window!"

measure another well

if Americanism or freedom mean anything at all—it means something very definite right now, . In the name of common sense, why should the state want the right to control education? It has the right to require that a child be educated but why does it want the right to dictate education? Doesn't

it mean political power? How can state education be kept out of politics? The American Legion with their great American spirit and liberty of mind, in politics, in religion, in brotherhood, are keeping our country strong and hopeful. In Russia between four and five million children are each year receiving a massed, compulsory, standardized education. Shall Indiana follow suit? " 5 ”

OPPOSES DAYLIGHT TIME FOR CHILDREN'S SAKE By K. T. J.. Indianapolis “A Worker” is talking througn his hat if he thinks only certain labor unions are opposed to daylight saving time for Indianapolis. All railroaders and all farmers oppose it. Of course, the latter, not

living here probably don’t count in “Worker's” estimation. All they do is slave to keep us in food and then spend their money here. But I have in mind a larger class and certainly their interests should be considered. I refer to the parents of small children and especially the children themselves. Those who have lived under daylight time know how difficult it is to get children to bed at a reasonable time. They want to run and play until the last minute and of course they are more excited and don't get their proper rest. I think saving children is more important than saving daylight.

" s

CHIDES CHIEF AND KEACH ON TRAFFIC REPORT By S. B. T., Fountain Square, Indianapolis

Nobody who knows members of our City Administration could hav: been surprised by the story that Mr. Keach and Chief Morrissey haven't even read Sergt. Dickinson's report. The crew we have in office isn’t interested in anything except their own ideas. The Mayor's Committee is just a laugh. Those fellows are babies in arms when it comes to dealing with our City officials. You've got to have years of experience in dealing them under the table.

u

BROTHERHOOD

By WILLIAM H. CHITWOOD So many of us look on Brotherhood As something just confined to Man alone, Forgetting that the Giver of all Good Extends His love to every creature known, Created by the Father of us all, And nourished by the earth, our common mother, Each living creature, either large or small, Deserves kind treatment from its human brother. The greatest gifts are not bequeathed through wills Drawn up in legal documents by Man; Born heir to Nature's wealth, each creature fills Some special place in God's creative plan. Each thing He forms for use; and places where, If unmolested, it may have its share.

DAILY THOUGHT

Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you; ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.—~Deuteronomy 5:32,

THROUGH obedience learn to command.—Plato, ¥

hard-earned | ;

Gen. Johnson

Adniinistration Should Exert [fs

Efforts Toward Keeping Prices Down Rather Than Levy Heavy Taxes

ASHINGTON, March 24.—Debate among our planners of economic war policy wages warm over the twin subjects of taxes and prices. Both are hot potatoes because both touch every pocketbook in America and pocketbooks are the prize political squawk boxes. One prescription is: “Pay as you go. The best way tp prevent inflation or high war prices is high taxes” The contrary argument is that high taxes help to make, not to prevent, high prices, that taxes too high dry up their own sources and that, at a time when political unity and public morale are all-important, confiscatory taxes are the worst possible medicine—especially where the time has come when high taxes must be paid by everybody— and not the rich alone. This late ter conclusion seems to be admitted by everybody. According to the Brookings Institution’s study of ine comes, all family incomes above $100,000 a year are only about 11 per cent of the total income of the nation—probably not exceeding eight billion dollars. We expect soon to be at a rate of spending of more than 30 billions a year, » 8 ”

F we taxed away all that lush take it would be a long way from paying as we go. Furthermore, as invariable experience has shown, when you tax away the whole, or even a very large part of any source of revenue, that source disappears. People don't work or invest for a return of zero, If we confiscated all in= come in excess of $10,000 a year the revenue, suppos= ing that the source did not dry up (as it surely would), would not be two-thirds of the anticipated rate of spending. There have been at least five studies of the bear= ing of hidden and open taxes on the lower income classes including the very lowest and those on relief. Although each approached the problem from a differ ent angle, the results were remarkably similar—a showing that taxes already take about 21 per cent in these lowest brackets. Considering the astronomical figures of proposed spending, it is very apparent that sources of addie tional revenue are skimpy and hard to find. Considering that half the total income of the country is earned by families with less than $4000 a year and 40 per cent of it by families with less than $3000, it is very apparent that, if there is to be any increase in the rate of revenue, even to a fraction of the increase in the rate of spending, the ‘little fellow” who has hardly heretofore felt the pinch of Federal income taxes is in for a cleaning,

8 ” Ld

OF course the worst that could probably happen by increased taxes would be nothing to the catastrophe of any such run-away inflationarv rise in prices as happened in the World War when the purchasing power of the wage-earners’ dollar declined 50 per cent. That is a 50 per cent tax on income that produces no revenue and no useful result what ever—no result except to double the burden of debt and halve the consuming power of the public, What is the answer? I don’t know but I have never been able to understand how high taxes can produce lower prices. Tax is an element of the cost of things and cost is an element of the price of things. The higher the tax, the higher the cost and also the higher the price—or so it has always seemed to me. If that is so and the prudent sources of greatly ine creased revenue are as thin as they seem to be, we should be giving a lot more study to methods of keeping prices down than to ways of getting taxes up. Untii the last war, efforts by law to stop price increases were not successful but much was accomse plished then in that direction and more seems to be working now—not only in Germany and Germandominated territory but in England. The quicker we put a flexible statutory ceiling over prices the better chance we shall have of surviving this war,

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

"Baier up your home with chintz this Spring,” carols an interior decorator. : And it’s mighty good advice, to my way of thinke ing. Only it doesn’t go far enough. After we've put on the new slip covers and rehung the laundered curtains and mended the front room rug and rearranged the furniture, how about concentrate ing on the old disposition and doe ing something to freshen it up? With this new popular fluores cent lighting we could use more smiles. Cheerfulness brightens up the home even more effectively than electricity, and sometimes the glow lasts longer. New resolutions for noble live ing are sadly needed these days in a good many American homes, and there's no better time for ate tending to them than during Spring house cleaning, While we wash our windows couldn't we wash our hearts clean of the small secret envies that make us unhappy and are therefore a source of unhappiness to our husbands and children? What are some of those envies? You know as well as I, since we all suffer from them.

They are the petty gnawing regrets about material matters. Why is our income not as large as that of the next-door neighbqr? Why can’t John be promoted? Mr. Smith was. Why is our Susan such a plain little thing while Mrs. Brown's daughter looks like Shirley Temple? If only we could have a new car like the one Sadie’s husband gave her last week! Sadie and Florence and Agnes and Jill always seem to have the best of things. And so on. . While the sun streams into the kitchen windows and the voices of those we love make music in our ears, we often go grumblingly about our work, thinking only of chintz and floor polish and new bathroom fixtures and fertilizer for the garden. How about the temples of our spirits? Are they not also badly in need of renovation? Our frayed souls, what of them? They must be repaired with a new armor of faith ang a fresh supply of hope. Rearrange the furniture, yes, but even more neces~ sary for the American housewife is a rearrangement. of life’s values. Somehow, we've got them all mixed up. Far too often we cherish ugly, shoddy things while we let the beautiful and priceless virtues es cape us. Our treasures do not consist of household goods alone, but of those spiritual belongings—contentment, gaiety, courage, love—which must always be included in the furnishings of a real Home.

Fditor’'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 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 Riven. Address The Times Washington Service Bureau, 1018 Thirteenth Si., Washington, k. C.).

Q—~—What are the license numbers on the White House autos, and which number does the President's auto have? A.—The fleet has license plates numbered from 99 to 110, inclusive. The President’s closed car is numbered 100 and his open car is 101. Those numbered 104 and 110 are Secret Service autos. Q—Which Vice Presidents of the United States have died in office? A—Elbridge Gerry, William H. King, Henry Wilson, Thomas A. Hendricks, Garrett A. Hobart and James S. Sherman. Q.—Can light be seen? A.—~Whether or not light can be seen probably is a matter of definition. The Optical Society of America and the Illuminating Engineering Society define light in effect as “radiant energy evaluated according to its capacity to produce visual sensation.” In this

| case light can certainly be seen.