Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 April 1941 — Page 16

PAGE 16 The Indianapolis Times

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THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1941

AND NOT GETTING BETTER RESIDENT ROOSEVELT has expressed his belief that existing mediation machinery should be given a fair trial before more stringent measures are taken to end strike stoppages of defense production. The country would more readily concur in this belief, we think, if there were not so many glaring evidences that the existing machinery is already proving inadequate. War Department records show this growing toll of man-days of labor lost by strikes at plants producing defense items for the Army: January .......ee... 150,211 man-days. February ........... 468,855 man-days. March ... vee..o 645,635 man-days. There, in three months, were 1,264,701 man-days of production lost forever, most of them in key plants where they have the effect of impeding every part of the defense program, at a time when the nation is constantly being told that any delay may be fatal. And the situation is not improving. Of the four strikes That appeared a few days ago to have been terminated by Bhe President's new National Defense Mediation Board, one ¥ still on, the union having rejected the agreement, and mnother seems far from permanent settlement. Violent disorders have stopped a back-to-work movement at the Allis-Chalmers plant at Milwaukee, where production of vital turbines for powder plants and special machinery for the Navy has been halted 72 days by a stubborn strike. Violence also marks the new strike at the huge Ford River Rouge plant in Michigan, where most if not all of the 86,000 workers are idle. It no longer greatly impresses the public to say that there are wrongs on both sides in such strikes as these. What does impress the public with terrible force is the grievous wrong being done to this country, the needless additions being made to this country’s dangers in a perilous world, because management and labor continue to fight out their differences at the expense of national defense.

=

o E believe public opinion would right now support legislation such as has been introduced by Rep. Vinson of Georgia, empowering the Government to take over and operate any defense plant closed by a strike. We know that many members of Congress are right now ready to vote for this or even more drastic legislation. Yet because the President seems to insist that there is still no need for Congressional action, Congress is about to start a long Easter recess. This is a mistake on the part of Congress. The strike situation is by no means the only reason why Congress should not take the veil for a couple of weeks. And if many members of Congress use the recess for visiting their home districts, from which they are already getting vehement demands for strike legislation, we predict that what they hear will send them back to Washington in a mood for action. Unless, that is, labor and industry quickly come to their senses, realize that no right claimed or no wrong charged by either side will any longer be accepted by the public as an adequate excuse for stopping defense work, and agree to maintain production while attempting to settle their differences through the existing mediation machinery. We don’t want to see the Government taking over factories and compelling labor to work on the terms it lays down. But something like that will certainly happen if existing machinery proves inadequate to stop the strikes. The American people are not going to sit patiently while warfare between workers and employers does to this country what it did to France.

”

MORE PHONING, LOWER BILLS

FEW vears ago the Federal Communications Commission conducted an exhaustive investigation of the ‘American Telegraph & Telephone Co., and as 8 result of negotiations between the company and the commission two or three sizable reductions were made in long-distance phone rates. Instead of hurting the company the rate reductions apparently helped. Anyway, the volume of long-distance calls has increased, and so have the company's revenues and profits. Now the FCC has ordered the A. T. & T. to show cause why long-distance tolls shouldn't be cut still more. Seems like a good idea. If the customers get more service for less money, and the company gets more customers, more revenue and better earnings, then everybody gains by what nobody loses.

DIVERTING IRGINIO GAYDA, the eminent Italian editor, explains all. Italy's present task in the Axis partnership, he writes, is to divert as many British troops and ships as possible from defense of the British Isles, thus performing a duty of “positive, permanent value, in the face of which the temporary loss of African territory only serves continually to weaken the enemy.” Well, Mussolini is certainly doing that duty in a big way. He's lost most of his African empire—temporarily, perhaps. He's lost most of his navy, permanently. He seems to be on the verge of losing Albania, And now, if he can only divert the British far enough to chase him out of Italy, his great strategy of weakening the enemy will be a complete triumph and Editor Gayda will be overjoyed. No doubt.

TIME’S A-WASTING

BOUT 10 billion years hence the sun will have burned up its entire supply of hydrogen, the fuel that keeps it going, according to Prof. Augustus H. Fox of Union College, Schenectady, N. Y. This alarming prediction creates grave doubt whether the world will have time to clean up the mess it’s now iw before the sun goes outs

Jugoslavia By Ludwell Denny

Her Brave Sons Have Defended Their Mountain Homes for Centuries Against Armies of Many Invaders

(First of a Series)

ASHINGTON, April 3.—Soon the poppies will bloom again on Blackbird Field. Kossovo Polje, the Jugoslavs call their holy field, guarded by the icecapped peaks of Macedonia. Across the Bulgarian frontier is Hitler's army. In the mountains men » watch—and repeat the old tale. For 500 years and more it has been heard high on the crags and down through the georges. And always when the invader threatened. It is an epic of battle, A strange ©ne—not of victory, but of defeat and revenge. From the blood of slaughtered Serbs on Blackbird’s Field in 1389 the scarlet poppies grew, to remind the sons of heroes that the people’s blood was pledged forever against invaders. At least that is the Kossovo epic. So the most sacred Jugoslav holiday is the Kossovo anniversary of that June 28 so long ago. And on this holy day in 1914 the schoolboy, Princip, shot to death the Hapsburg heir in defiance of Germanic rule. In the World War which followed, little Jugoslavian Montenegro was the first, with Britain, to declare war on Germany. ” ” s HE invader in 1389 was the Sultan Murad. Like so many conquerors before and after him, this Turk coveted the Balkans as the link between Europe and Asia, His forefathers had come far in conquest. Two centuries before Christ, the Chinese had built the great wall against them. But in the next 800 years these Mongolian raiders spread over all northern Asia. In the 11th Century they took Asia Minor from the weak Byzantine rulers, and then defended their conquest against the Crusaders. Their military might was built on a superior order, a party of the “elite’—like the Nazis. Their Hitler in the 13th Century was Othman, ‘who established the Ottoman Empire that lasted until our time, In 1363 they swept across the Dardanelles and defeated the Serb-Bulgar allies on the same bloody Maritza which Hitler's troops crossed this month without opposition. Later the Sultan Murad drove against Serbia (now Jugoslavia). As the Serbian defenders drew up on Blackbird’s Field for the great battle, one of their leaders was

accused of dealing with the invader-—even as today |

they have ousted some of their leaders for compromising with Hitler, The accused man was Milosh Kobilich (son of a Mare). Angered by the unjust charge, Milosh left for the enemy camp. Passing as a traitor, he was admitted to the commander's tent. Then, after a ceremonial bow, he calmly disemboweled the Sultan Murad. o o on HEN the enraged Turks pressed the battle, the’ outnumbered defenders did not surrender. Even when their Prince Lazarus was seized and beheaded by the enemy, they stayed and gave their blood in sacred vendetta against the invader and all invaders to come. So goes the Kossovo epic. So say the tall men of the mountains today, they and their wives and their sons. And of the deposed regent Prince Paul, who dealt with Hitler, they say: “Too long he has been away from the mountains—he forgot the blood-red poppies of Kossovo Polje.” Often their own rulers have forgotten the fighting faith, but never the fierce mountaineers. Even before Kossovo Polje, for a thousand vears these peoples have known more of war than of peace. Always they have been in the carnage path of conquest—from north, east, south and west, But even during the centuries when most of them were ruled by the foreigner, many back in the high mountains preserved their wild freedom. During 500 years the men of Black Mountain (Montenegro) withstood the longest siege in history. They were never conquered. Man and boy, from generation to generation, they fought their vendetta against the Turks. And then against the Austria of Corporal Hitler. On the Black Mountain, whence came the forefathers of the boy King Peter II of Jugoslavia, they chant another old war poem: “None but God could conquer it, and even he might weary.” Next—“Black George.”

(Westbrook Pegler is on vacation)

Business By John T. Flynn |

Nations at War are Proving Fallacy | Of the Spend-Borrow-Tax Theorists.

HERE is a widely held belief that this Government can raise the national income by spending money, borrow the money that is spent, and then collect back in taxes enough to pay the loans. It sounds easy, but it doesn't work in practice, For instance, these economic evangelists say that the Government can increase the national income to 100 billion dollars by borrowing about 10 billions, then out of the increased income recover the 10 billions and pay off the debt. Basically the notion is that the national income, whatever it is, can be reached by taxes to any extent that the Government wishes. If the peaple earn a hundred billions there is nothing to step the Government from imposing taxes that will take a half or any part of that hundred billions, provided the Government wishes. But in practice this does not work. And the experience of the Governments at war seems to prove this. For, under the impact of the war, they are doing all that these evangelical economists advocate for us. They are spending a huge part of the national incomes. They are borrowing. And, with the support which war psychology gives their nations, they are taxing as much as they dare, Yet see what happens. » 5 ” T present Hitler is spending roughly 70 per cent of the national income on his war, He is both borrowing and taxing. He is borrowing in huge quantities, and the expenditure of this borrowed money expands the national income enormously. And he spends 70 cents out of every dollar of national income on the war. But how does he succeed in collecting back in taxes the income that he creates? Up to now, notwithstanding the most severe taxes on individual incomes, the actual share of the national income he gets in taxes is only 34 per cent. And since he is spending 70 per cent and getting only 34 per cent in taxes, it is to be seen that at least 36 per cent of this is borrowed and never collected back. Thus each year produces a vast deficit piled on top of the last one, and the possibility of ever collecting these immense sums from future taxes is hopeless. Moreover, the continued existence of this large income is dependent on continued borrowing by the Government, since that is what produces the income, so that Hitler must go on, under his system, borrowing forever and collecting only a part of what he spends in taxes. England, where tax resistance is easier for the people, does far worse than this. She is spending 55 per cent of her national income oh war. She is collecting only 19 per cent in taxes, thus paying the balance with borrowed funds. . . This is the glorious system of borrowing-spending-taxing which is offered to us now as a cure for our economic troubles and as a road to ahundance.

So They Say—

THE FIRST LESSON that an Army officer must learn is not to over-estimate his own strength, or to underestimate the strength of his enemy —Brig. Gen. Russell L, Maxwell, Export Control office. »

THE COUNTRY wants to defend itself, aid Britain, and stay out of the war.—President Hutchins of Chi-

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

That’s the Way With Timetables, Adolf!

The

Hoosier Forum

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

CHALLENGE AMERICA FIRST TO STATE VIEWS ON NAZIS

By Dr. Ernest R. Smith of DePauw University, Dr. Robert E. Barton Allen of Indiana University, Mrs, Felix Vonnegut, Col. Robert 1. Moorehead, Wendell Sherk, Warrack Wal. lace, Dr. Irvine H. Page, James Noel and Kenneth Ogle, Indianapolis.

The Indiana Committee for National Defense has from its inception pointed out the overwhelming necessities of the present crisis based on knowledge of what a victorious Hitler would CONTINUE doing in

this hemisphere, namely the compelling of others to join the Nazi political system through pressure on economic nerve centers. Our committee in the main is composed of people who have knowledge of the hemispheric situations referred to, but since these situations are not obscure or complicated, it is to be presumed that most well informed people also know about them. Be that as it may, we have challenged the isolationists and “America First” committee in the past and we challenge them currentlv to meet the argument. The challenge is this: “Come out and state what you think will happen in the Americas if Hitler wins his war with England, being in control

Coen Plerson and Dr,

thereafter of Europe, Britain and Africa.” Let the “America First” Committee deny if they can that pressure will be applied to the Argentine and Chile, to Brazil and Venezuela, to Mexico and even Canada, to say nothing of vulnerable areas in the United States. Let them deny that if the Nazis are on top they will fail to say: “trade with us on our own terms or else, and the main term is that you hoist the swastika.’ And finally if they are unable to enter a denial and provided they think it important to prevent this from happening (and on this we have our grave doubt) let them say what they would do and when and where. This challenge has been made repeatedly. And it goes unanswered or is side-stepped by talking of the difficulties of a military attack or countered by shouting “war mongers,’ or thinking of themselves, they accuse us of hysteria! Therefore, and since time is of the essence in this matter, our Committee demands that the isolationists and the “America First” Committee now make a plain statement as to their attitude towards the Nazis and if they are ingmical to them, just

the |

(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.)

what they would do to keep them out of the Americas,

” o n

COMPLAINS OF WALKS AS THREAT TO SAFETY By E. E. DeWitt, 2828 Ruckle St, I pick up the paper to read of so many deaths by auto and part of them pedestrians and I wonder if {part of them are from causes that lcould be corrected so easily. TI just (returned from a trip te the drug store at corner of 28th and Central and on the way had to jump from a car. TI had stepped into the street [to get out of the mud as there are unpaved stretches of sidewalk. This is a neighborhood entirely built up and with much traffic. Can’t something be done about these walks? These are north side 28th west from Ruckle, south side 2t8h |east from Central and south side 29th east from Ruckle. If you would advise proper steps to be taken to remedy this condition I would appreciate.

” 5 n CLAIMS DECEPTION IN DRAFT LAW PROVISION By James J. Cullings, 20 E. 9th St.

A few weeks ago, I believe on Wednesday, March 6, 1941, The Times published a statement the President could issue a proclamation causing all male persons who have become 21 years of age since Oct. 16, 1940, or draft day, to register for military service. When the conscription bill was passed The Times and all other papers published the law and it stated that all male persons who have reachad their 21st birthday and have not reached their 36th birthday shall register for military service on the day the President proclaims*draft day, which was Oct. 18, 1940. Neither The Times nor any other paper published the Ethiopian in the woodpile in that law. The law as given the people by the press did not say or give the right to the President or anyone else to cause or compel any male person who became 21 years of age after

- COPR, 1941 BY

A

we

cago University.

"Here she comes now—just for

tA SERVICE, INC. YT. M. REG. U. 8, PAT. OFF.

Side Glances=By Galbraith

excitement, let's shub her cold!™

Oct. 16, 1940, to register for military service, Now this section was either inserted in the law after it was passed or the officials did not let the people know what the law contained. The law was passed for one given draft law and day. Now Secfion 2 of an act and Section 3 of an act considers the Government has that right. . . . As this law is written now it is a matter of betrayal of the people and a premeditated method of accomplishing a permanent military machine. I have written my Representative and he has furnished me with these sections of law and it is my intention to find out and see where this authority was received and how, I take the law as it was given me by the press, for the press received [the law and its contents from the [Government and although I am far [above military age I consider the Government has no authority over {male persons who have become 21 vears of age since October draft day. In other words, another law is necessary to conscript them. T am also calling the attention of this law to our Senator and the Senators of other states,

y wv w WANTS CHANCE TO VOTE ON SENDING TROOPS ABROAD By A. H. Walerman A very small and apparently unimportant item from Washington appeared recently stating that Administration leaders turned thumbs down on a proposal that the country hold an “advisory” referendum before Congress could vote to send troops abroad.

This proposal, submitted by Senators Nye, Wheeler, Ia Follette, Clark and Shipstead, further provided that the result of such referendum would not be binding on Congress,

The “reason” given hy the Administration for the turndown was that such procedure merely gives gratification tn the Axis powers. (I am hoping that you have installed a set of fog lamps in that Scripps-Howard beacon and ean throw a pencil of clean light on a few troublesome items of minor importance such as the following: In my poor dumb way the only interpretation that I can put on the Administration's turndown of the referendum is that we must guess at or remain in ignorance of the will of the majority of 130,000,000 United States citizens regarding the sending of our troops across the ocean in order that we may avoid “gratifying” the Axis powers, What is honesty? What is statesman?

a

WORKER'S REPLY

By CECTL MOUNT

We've made a lot of lovely things, Just leaning on a shovel. Parks with flowers and sparkling springs, Just leaning on a shovel. The winding roads and highways straight, The wonderful buildings that house the great, We built them all at our lazy gait, Just leaning on a shovel,

We've built sewage plants public schools, Just leaning on a shovel. Beautiful bath houses and swimming pools, Just leaning on a shovel. well, critics can howl and scoffers poke fun,

and

|But let us change places and soon

everyone Would find our work simply couldn't be done Just leaning on a shovel,

DAILY THOUGHT

And David did ‘so, as the Lord had commanded him; and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gazer.—IT Samuel 5:25,

OBEDIENCE Is the. key to every

THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1941 Geen. Johnson

Says—

With Tiny Neighbors Defying Hitler It Looks as if He May Meet His Match Without Our Pitching In

ASHINGTON, April 3.—The apparent rapid rush of events to embarrass if not to stop Hitler in the opening of the 1941 spring offensive in World War IT is very encouraging. Perhaps it is too early to begin drawing any conclusions about them. War is a good deal like a football game, Regardless of spectacular plays and advances either way, there is no pay-off until the final figures are flashed on the scqreboard and we can really see whose number is up. But there is one thought arise ing from all these world-shaping events ypon which this column has always insisted and which seems to be emphasized by every= thing that is happening now. It is that in the whole history of the world the rise of any great and menacing power has invariably begotten and inspired a counter power which, in the end, has always in one way or another checked and frequently destroyed it— Carthage was stopped by Rome, Rome by barbarian resistance, the barbarian kingdoms by several spiritual and military risings; for example, those of Chris tianity, the religion of Mohammed and the remarkabls interlude of Ghengis Khan. Spain, which threatened to gobble the globe, stubbed her toe on the rising sea-power of England, Napoleon over-reached in Russia and William Hohen« zollern took in too much territory,

ITH these invariable examples in mind, it has always seemed to me that before committing our country headlong to the terrible hazards, costs and sacrifices of war, our obvious common-sense course was to make ourselves as strong as our res sources would permit as fast as our genius for unity, production, organization and action would take us— and then keep out in what strategists call “a position in readiness” to watch the ranging of forces in an alien world in which our material interest is not great and our political interest is next to nothing. That began to be advocated in this space, not just in 1940, but six years ago. It was urged to the contrary that the Axis was about to dominate the earth and that urging was by people who didn’t say in public but made no hones in private about their thought that the fate of humanity depends on our all-out engagement in bloody war. It was up to us to become the counter-power which would redress the wrongs of all the world. Yet the essential interests and known ambitions of Hitler can never be composed with those of Japan or even, in the end, could the original Axis partners, hit and miss, have followed their territorial aspirations without clashing. We had and have no territorial aspirations colliding with any of these. Why should we plunge unthriftily into bloody war among these great opposing forces in Europe, Africa and Asia? Why should we assume financial and more sacrificial responsibilities for the remaking of the world?

” » »

E were told that it is an absolute necessity to save ourselves, It surely does not seem s0 now, If such slight powers as Jugoslavia and Greece can give Hitler even momentary pause on his very borders, why should so great a power as ours, behind 3000 miles of sea water, get into a panic of fear and ill-considered action? This is not to criticize any defensive steps taken or policies (so far as they have been revealed) by our Government in the last two years. Except for the terrible delay and blundering in American rearmament and certain questions of method rather than of principle those things have t been opposed here With constantly descending emphasis, we are still told that we are not rushing into war, If that is true, the action and policy of this Administration in foreign affairs has been masterful, But that announced Administration reservation about entering shooting war is not the philosophy of the very vocal and highly publicized minority who have been trying to push public opinion to the pitch of outright combat, It is the arguments of these extrmists rather than anything Mr. Roosevelt has done, which seem te be shaded, if not discredited, by the headlong sweep of recent military and diplomatic events.

————— Fditor's Noto: The views expressed By columnists in thie newspaper are their own, They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times,

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

OME of the bills proposed to regulate feachers are more tragic than funny. Tn Pennsylvania the lawmakers have introduced a measure which would force all city téachers to live within the municipal limits of their school territory. Now there may be very good reasons for this particular measure, But generally speak= ing it looks as if the teaching group had become the nation’s No, 1 Goat, Life, liberty and the purs« suit of happiness is not for it. It takes no seer to discover that the teacher enjoys fewer democratic privileges than any other citizen, Oh, yes, we prate about freedom of speech, but who lets the school teacher say what he thinks? Only rarely does a voice arise from the educational arena, and then it comes from a Hutchins, a Butler or an Adler, men who have established themseives too firmly in their profession to be dislodged by polis ticians., The average teacher is browbeaten, mistreated, underpaid and unappreciated. Those in the elementary grades suffer from constant contact with juvenile minds, which, over a long period, is bound to alter their attitudes, Now and then we hear it saig that the person who is used to imposing her opinions on children will soon find it impossible to tolerate opposition in other groups. This makes sense, I think, although it doesn’t re« leasen the patron from his obligation of regarding the teacher of his children as an individual who deserves the same rights as he enjoys. Parents of course are queer ahout this; they don’t worry over the exampies they set to their own and other people's children, but they do expect the teach« ers to put all moral precepts into practice, While forced to obey every ordinary law, the school group is harassed b#sides with innumerable petty regulations which never bother the rest of us. In fact, the teachers are so restricted by legal mandates, so subjected to bigoted hombardments, so plucked by grafters, so suppressed by patriots, that they are in danger of becoming the real white slaves of America,

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Burean will answer any question of fact or Information, not invelving 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 Bervice Burean, 1013 Thirteenth St, Washington, D. ©).

Q-—-TIs William L. Shirer, radio war correspondent, a native American? A—He was born in Chicago, Ill, Feb. 23, 1004, the son of Seward Smith and Bessie Josephine (Tan ner) Shirer, Q—Why did the United States Government refuse for many years to recognize the Soviet Government of Russia? A—Prior to recognition by the United States on Nov. 17, 1933, Soviet repudiation of foreign financial obligations and confiscation of foreign property constittued the principal obstacle to amicable relations, Next to the debt issue, the greatest obstacle was the widespread official and popular indignation over Come munist propaganda aimed at the United States, and also a belief that religious freedom was denied in Soviet Russia. Q--Is a first class letter marked ‘Please Rush® handled more expeditiously than other letters? A~-No, When speed in delivery is important, the

letter should be sent by Special Delivery.

i