Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 April 1941 — Page 12

PAGE 12

The Indianapolis Times

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| | | {

RILEY 5551 |

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1941

HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN

HREE seats on the New York Stock Exchange were sold | last week at $22.000 each, the lowest price since 1898.

Yet only 12 years ago the stock market seemed to be | about the most successful and powerful thing in this coun- | try. Seats on the New York Exchange sold in the summer | of 1929 for as much as $600,000. Its leaders denounced all critics, and a large part of the public was ready to lynch anyone who suggested any curb on an institution that | seemed capable of going upward forever toward peak after peak of higher prices and greater prosperity. | And look at it now! There's a lesson in it for other | institutions that acquire great power—without recognizing the responsibility which alone makes possession of great power safe. » In the early Thirties, after the market collapse had revealed some ugly crevices in the Wall Street structure, | the Scripps-Howard Newspapers suggested that the Stock Exchange had better reform itself, and be quick about it, | lest the Government move in with a sledgehammer. Eminent Wall Streeters were furious. They accused | us of “making trouble.” One of the most eminent said: | “Don’t you worry about us. The New York Stock Exchange is older than the Government, and stronger than any gang of political reformers temporarily in power. We'll handle any situation that arises.” Well, there's no need to recount what happened. And no purpose would be served by naming that once haughty man. The proverb, “pride goeth before a fall,” is one that haughty and domineering men of all eras would do well to | remember. There are on the American scene today men who think themselves as powerful and unassailable as the stock-market Pooh-Bahs thought they were a little more than a decade ago. Those who use their power as license to exact tribute from the weak, hijack the public and thwart the national interest, will find that in our democratic society the people and their Government have ways of reasserting their sovereignty. They will find that they, too, have been “small men of brief authority.”

® » n ”

THE BIG JOB HE greatest obstruction to the national-defense program, said Production Manager John D. Biggers hefore the House Military Affairs Committee yesterday, is “a lack of understanding of the magnitude of this job.” That is true in a very real sense. The problems of materials, machines and skilled manpower can be solved—if there is genuine enthusiasm for the task. And such en- | thusiasm can come only through a general realization that | the task is immense, the time is short and the penalty for failure would be national disaster. | We believe that realization is spreading in industry and labor. There are still too many stoppages of work, but . ‘more hopeful signs appear. The President's Mediation Board continues its good work by settling the 10-weeks-old Allis-Chalmers strike, which has been delaying the defense | work of 30 other plants and Government projects. The | U. S. Steel Corp. and the C. I. O. Steel Workers’ Union have agreed sensibly to continue their contract negotiations for another week, terms of any agreement reached to be retroactive to April 1. Government mediators express hope for a peaceful settlement of the Ford strike. | We trust we aren’t too optimistic when we predict that | the dictators are soon going to be deprived of the aid and comfort they have been getting out of the spectacle of in- | dustrial strife in America. That will be achieved as more | Americans realize the truth that no victory to be won by | industry fighting labor, by labor fighting industry, or by | labor faction fighting labor faction, can possibly be worth the cost of stopping work on the program that is designed to defend us all.

| other;

| job

| for

| workers,

Heroic Victory

By Ludwell Denny

Serbs, Lacking Co-Operation and Support From British and French,

Rout Germans Despite Handicap | |

(Fifth in a Series)

ASHINGTON, April 8—The Jugoslavs probably will have at last time they fought the Germans and finally licked the Kaiser after an initial defeat. >

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES It’s an Ill Wind—!

least one advantage over the |

Then they had to fight two enemies: The German |

alliance in front, and the indifference and incompetence of their

own allies in the rear, They could |

and did beat Austrian-Bulgarian

the Germanforces, re-

peatedly. But it took them almost |

four years to get co-overation from the British and French. Allied failure to send promised

munitions in 1914-15 turned bril« |

liant Serb victories into retreats.

British sabotage of their plan to | secure their eastern flank by an |

early attack on

Bulgaria—who |

was playing Britain for a sucker |

in 1914 just as she did last month—enabled Bulgaria later to cut the Vardar Valley lifeline at Stoplje. British-French delay in driving north up the

Vardar from Salonika then gave all Serbia to the |

escaped over the Albanian mountains,

u" u un

| enemy, while the powerless remnant of defenders |

FTER their miraculous midwinter retreat to the

Adriatic, the survivors around Greece to Salonika.

finally

were ferried | There they were victims |

of the worst military scandal of the World War—the |

troops of ordination or leadership: all

| jealous French and British commanders fighting each | half a dozen nations without co- | reflecting the indiffer- |

ence, indecision and political intrigues of Paris and |

London. The French chief, Sarrail, had been given the com-

| mand to get him out of Paris, where he was distrusted. | The

second in command, Cordonnier, was so incompetent he lost the West Vardar battle of September, 1916, after the Serbs had won it. The next battle was won by the Serbs, and then thrown away by Sarrail. The Serbs were left fighting alone. ‘This scandal was so bad that Sarrail sent Cordonnier home and gave the great Serbian General mand of the offensive.

Quickly Michich drove the advance into Serbia at

Monastir (November, 1916). But with the enemy in full retreat, and an opportunity for a knockout, Sarrail again ordered a halt. The Serb troops were So angry they continued to advance without support. Then Paris politics intervened again, and the Mon-astir-Vardar line established by the Serbs was not greatly changed for almost two years,

WwW

n HEN Sarrail was finally recalled, his able successor, Guillaumat, in 1918 accepted the strate-

n n

gic plan urged by the Serbian Michich since 19186. |

Later Guillaumat returned to Paris and sold the

Michich plan to Clemenceau, who authorized its use |

by the new chief, d’Esperey. In that final offensive of September, 1918, the British on the east were used for the feint, while the big in the west was left to Michich. He had six Serb and two French divisions. The objective was to take the Crna-Vardar triangle. Michich did that in Just four days. Two days later the enemy's entire West Vardar front was gone, From then on it was a rout, with the Serbs racing north in reoccupation of their homeland, while to the east the British penetrated Bulgaria Among the reasons cited by World War historians Allied failure to give Serbia adequate support during the first four years, the following stand out: The French-British divisions and conflicts. The fateful initial British reliance on Bulgaria

| Instead of Serbia,

Britain's decision to divert her strength to Gallipoli, which meant running out on Serbia. Unfortunately these memories leave the Jugoslavs somewhat distrustful of British promises even today.

(Westbrook Pegler is on vacation)

Business By John T. Flynn

Guarantee Against Runaway Prices Would Help Bring Labor Peace

EW YORK, April 8.-—One side to the strike situation is being very much overlooked. During the last war that branch of labor which had hardest time was organized labor—those workers who were organized in craft unions. This, of course, was not universal, but it was generally true. The reason is obvious. Large numbers of trade unionist Workers were employed under

contracts made before we got into |

the war. Some of these contracts were for three years. When the war effort got under way and the boom developed, workers in the factories—war material factories and other kinds—were able to sell their labor in a market where there was an immense labor scarcity and where there was plenty of bidding up of wages. But in established industries workers caught on wage and hour contracts made before the boom began had to go on working at the pre-boom wages in a world where prices were sky-rocketing. Such instead of getting better wages, actually saw their real wages disastrously reduced. This was the cause of a great deal of bitterness

| and it led to many kinds of trouble.

For instance, while a worker in a craft job under a wage contract couldn't strike for more, he could

| throw up his job and go into a munitions plant at

RUNNING WILD NOT satisfied with urging a $1,340,000,000 farm subsidy bill—the biggest in history—the Senate Agriculture Committee has voted unanimously for legislation to withhold the entire huge cotton surplus from the commercial | market for the duration of the European war. The defense program will increase the purchasing power of American consumers—if the cost of living stavs within reason. That will provide a better market for farm products and for at least part of the farm surpluses. But this proposal to withhold surplus cotton, which would create a precedent for withholding other surpluses, is an attempt to create an artificial scarcity and that would increase the cost of living. The consumers, as taxpayers, would suffer from a farm subsidy bill nearly half a billion dollars bigger than the President's budget estimate and nearly a third of a billion bigger than last year’s appropriations. The consumers would get it in the neck from the artificial scarcities, which might be enough to start the cost of living on another skyrocket. The Government is spending multi-billions for defense and aid to Britain, and at the same time many internal | pressure groups are demanding greatly increased Government benefits. And many members of Congress, discarding all thoughts of prudence, all efforts to control non-defense extravagance, seem entirely willing to let the country in for a riot of economic madness.

| until

SIGN OF THE TIMES THE other day, one of our Washington correspondents had occasion to make a telephone call to one of the Government departments. The operator picked up the call immediately and, before he could ask for his party, said:

maybe twice his union wages. And this made a lot of trouble in certain trades and industries. Of course the employer could voluntarily raise the union scale. But he could not do it unless his competitors did it. uo n n

¥ TNION leaders now remember that sad experience, It went a long way toward starting many unions on the downgrade which they continued to descend the depression hit

know they will be hound to their wage demands for a year or more once the demands are reduced to contract, Nothing would contribute more quickly to labor

peace than some sort of guarantee from the Gov- |

ernment that the wages of union workers under contract are not going to be reduced bv runaway prices. And the only way to do that is to bring prices under control-—as far as possible. Nothing is being done about that. The Administration continues to dally with this problem. Tt waits until some price gets out of hand and then puts a belated ceiling over it. But, by that time, that disorderly price boost has introduced an element of disorder into the prices of those products into which that commodity goes. This kind of thing comes from the stubborn refusal of responsible officials to face the responsibilities of the situation because it might make them less beloved.

So They Say—

WITHOUT IN any way trying to depreciate the preparedness of the Japanese, I still maintain that, owing to technical inferiority, she is bound te be beaten in any war Victor Sasoon, British banker in the Far East. * \ »

THE BRITISH people want a friendly, civilized | world of free peoples in which Christian virtues and | more values are not spurned as decadent and out-

moeded.—Winston Churchill, * -

“Mr. England.” -

TOO MUCH TEACHING of current problems by

| dilettantes has developed too much cynicism and distrust of our government and politics.—James K. Pol-

lock, political science professor

*

at Michigan, »

I'M SITTING on the sidelines now—and what a swell place it is to be!—Jim Farley, former Post-

“The line’s busy, will you wait2” ’

| master-Gengral.

Michich cof-

the |

bottom. Union leaders are | asking wages now at inereased pay, not merely because they think prices are going up, but because they |

with the United States.—Sir |

Av

wy so

Ta

fd Ru

/ }

The Hoosier Forum

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

URGES REASSESSMENT |OF LOCAL PROPERTY | By Mrs. S. C. Fulmer, 1806 Ruckle St,

| 1 see where the State Tax Board {is planning to reassess the property ‘here. I am heartily in favor of it | because I know the present situation {Is unfair. I hope the new assessiment will really be made without

| politics or favoritism. | 5 1 n

CLAIMS FORUM NO PLACE {TO SETTLE ARGUMENTS By Voice in the Crowd, Indianapolis i I believe the Forum is a wonder{ful spot to present opinions, but no place at all to settle arguments that cannot be settled. So to Mr, Taylor I will express my opinion and let it go at that. Mr. Taylor will stand pat on his claim that the strike is “labor's only weapon,” I will stand pat on my opinion that strikes can be avoided. One of us must be wrong, so let's

| leave the matter up to “mediation.”

{Public opinion which has a vas leross section of thought and the gentlemen in Washington will be the “mediators.” and however it is set{tle I am going to take it for granted that it is settled right. It {will be settled. Having labored all my life, and still at it, and with all of my friends ang acquaintances earning their bread the “hard way,” it is not my intention to insult labor |In a day and age when we are all “nuts” I don't believe we should have our “intelligence” offended so easily. ‘When 1 mentioned “labor that works only with its hands” I did not mean all labor. Anyone who has worked for nearly 50 years has seen a lot of people .that haven't used their heads at any | job, I am one of those who believe that we are at war. Regardless of how we are getting into it. or why, we are right in the middle of it |and the vital thing now is to win lit. Strikes will not win strikes, and | they certainly will not win the war. The war economy is a tax dollar economy. It is not the dollar of newly created wealth. I believe that we should be careful of the tax doliars that we are compelled to spend. I don't believe that anyone (should get too many of them and |I believe that more of them can be recovered by taxes on industry than can be recovered from inflated small incomes, I don't believe that

industry should make too much, I sincere in his conviction to beat

to express their views in

| (Times readers are invited | these columns, religious conMake all Letters must

troversies excluded.

vour letters short, so

can | have a chance.

be signed)

don't believe that labor should be paid too much; and I don't believe that the union coffers should be filled without taxation. I don't be{lieve that the majority of working men want the present day strikes, and I do not believe that the present strikes relate entirely to wages, hours and conditions, There may be a struggle for power behind them that can mean the end of freedom as we have known it in America, The mediators that are going to settle whether Mr. Taylor or I am wrong can doubtless learn the “why” of the strikes. T believe thev will decide that the strike is not the best thing for labor or our national wellbeing. ” SEEKS OGLE'S STAND ON ANOTHER A. E. F. | By G. K. Smith, 218 S. Audubon Rd

For the last few months Kenneth Ogle has been beating around the bush, trving to get up courage enough to come out and tell us that we ought to get into the shooting part of the European war As vet, he lacks the necessary callousness to flout the intelligence and convictions of an overwhelming body of public opinion which recalls the results of our efforts fo “save democracy” in the first World War. If Mr. Ogle secretly nurses a desire to see another United States expeditionary force sent across the water, then we who oppose his proposal as conducive to national suicide and a strangulation of civil liberties have a right to demand of Mr. Ogle a statement showing what part, if any, he intends to take in such an expeditionary force. Any man who is so eager to see others sent into Europe's holocaust could not possibly be one of these “armchair” or “parlor patriots” who, having beaten the war drums so vigorously, is content to stay at home and read about our boys being mowed down, like wheat before the reaper, in the comfort of his warm home! No, 1 expect that Mr. Ogle is too

” un

1

La.

Side Glances=By Galbraith 0

N SET—— ~~

"I hope the Government will be reasonable about drafting you,

Albert—surely ladies with importang to the

beautiful coifures must be country's morale!"

| cent must

”

Hitler to want to do a shoddy trick! |like shirking his own share of the |risk of getting killed on a European battlefield. . . . The writer

| happens to be a

draftee who will soon be shipped |

off to camp to become one of the |mob. Perhaps I shall have the [pleasure of seeing Mr. Ogle down there, in uniform of course, | n un ” VIEWC TSOLATIONISTS AS THE WORST IMPERIALISTS By B. W. Frazier

[t is a very curious thing that our isolationists are our worst imperialists. Have you noticed that the interventionists, much maligned

isms, do not tion of any isolationists often suggest taking over territory in this hemisphere? Col. Lindbergh says, in all seriousness, that we should take over Canada. He never thinks to find out how Canada feels about Henry Ford says we should aid both sides in this war "until they |both collapse, at which time we can |pick up the pieces. John T. Flynn, [the New York chairman of America [First Committee, says we should take this golden opportunity to pick up the European nations’ colonies on this side of the ocean (without asking the colonies if they like the idea). The Japanese way to perfection. These remarks certainly have all {he ear-marks of imperialism. Fur-

it

thermore, as to meddling in foreign |

nation affairs, just picture to vour-

self how the foreign nations would | # feel if we started to walk off with |

territory which had been in their |

possession for centuries. Exactly as | §

if took this golden oppor-|

tunity

Japan to annex

”

_ |

CHARGES DEMOCRATS SCORN WAR PLANK By G. S. K. Last summer the Democralic | Party wrote a strong anti-war | plank in its platform; President Roosevelt's election campaign was full of great promises to keep us| out of war: two weeks ago the Gallup poll listed 83 per cent of] our people still opposed to war, But now the anti-war plank is | abandoned. President Roosevelt's actions apparently don’t jibe with | his promises and a helpless 83 per watch him push then into what he terms a war U0

| destroy dictators. | n

TERMS DEFENSE STRIKES SABOTAGE OF LIBERTY

By C. pb. M. Are we, the public, blind to what is going on in this country today? They say the pen is mightier than the sword. I think it is high time that a few million of us should cet busy using this form of armor, and ask the unions just what form lof government they wish to have in these United States. It's time | someone is getting excited enough to let these so-called citizens of a free democracy know that we, the general public, will demand the government, to stop the sabotage of American liberty. It is well to sing my country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty. Doing something about it may keep the land sweet for liberty. Let's write to Washington that they may know | | the song in our hearts.

APPRAISAL

By JOSEPHINE DUKE MOTLEY | She wouldn't take a fortune, so she said, | For a silly pup; but she was only ten : | With awkward air, a brownish touzled head, | And a heart about the size of twenty men.

DAILY THOUGHT

And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.—Deuteronomy 11:22.

OBEDIENCE decks the Christian

| Job was a separate event—like building a house.

| units of such complex design.

as | meddlers in a war of rival imperial- | advocate the acquisiterritory, whereas the |

apparently |

the Philippines. | % Just one more proof that the isola- | fk fionists arguments don't make sense. | §

. TUESDAY, APRIL 8 1941

Gen. Johnson Says—

Despite Haughty Airs of Army

Intelligence Officer He Learns Some Good News on Plane Production

OS ANGELES, April 8.—One object of this trip to the Pacific Coast was to see at first hand the progress of the very vital war program of aircraft production in the most modern fighting planes, I saw all right but at the hour I arrived so did our new amateur military Gestapo in the person of a “Little Sir” in Holly= wood-effect civilian clothing with the imposing title of colonel of “military intelligence.” Some harmless pictures of an airplane production line had been taken and published at the request of a top-flight Army air general, Military intelligence was fit to be tied. There is an old law left over from the World War statutes, that makes it an offense punishable by 20 years hard labor to publish anys thing that may give military ine formation to a possible enemy. I was duly lectured on this point by “Little Sir” and told t if T should write any column affecting military intelligence «(if any) it must first be submitted to Washington for censorship. I was refused any information as to rates of plant production. At that Bill Knudsen was on the air broadcasting world precise rates of plane production foi Furthermore anybody who knows anvthing “line” production could walk through an airplane plant from the point where production starts to where it comes off the moving line, observe the speed and tell the rate with accuracy. Finally, I knew the exact rate of production in these plants before

I ever left Washington. » AS an experienced soldier, I know what informas tion would help an enemy and, as a reserve officer, would lean over backward to prevent its die closure. There was an element of gratuitous insult in “Little Sir's” lecture but such the manner of “Little Sirs” in military intelligence and. as our war effort progresses, we shall have to put up with a lot more of it. Technical detail was not the kind of stuff I came to see or which customers of t column would have an interest. 1 had just two ohjects. One was to learn whether airplane manufacture really is swinging into the methods and tempo of mas: Dro duction. The other was to inquire whether this vital effort on the coast is threatened with kind of labor stoppage that is tying up production elsewhere, I was agreeably surprised on both points. When last I went through these plants several vears ago, the production method was about that of a dressmaker on Sister Susie's graduation

hat

very to the March, ahout

un un

18

that

NS

th vie

village Fach as The astonishing transformation to line-production is as complete as it could possibly be with such large f The erection of many other line production assembly plants is proceeding rapidly,

gown

on un

RESENT over-all performance is nothing io write home about and the mass-production methods of the automobile industry can never be applied to these big ships. There is no space here to describe in detail the new shortcut, speed-up methods but it is plain enough that, by the end of this vear, American aircraft will be dropping off these production lines as wheat from an elevator snout The labor situation, at least in these Southern | California plants, is as good as one could wish I never saw more intelligent looking production crews. It is a new game and they are all young and mostly well educated. The matter of training of skills has been tremendously speeded up by intense specialization. After a few early Communist attempts, the | radical elements have been squeezed out by the worke ers themselves. It all looks very good. The only presently threatened bottle-necks are (he “Little Sirs,” not only in military intelligence but on the Army production side also. There is toon much stoppage through arbitrary change of design and too much military meddling with the highly specialized art of manufacture—but that is another column, ;

un

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

A Woman's Viewpoint ' By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

| | AT5ores of women cooks versus men cooks, Mary Anderson of Spencer House, Beaver Psa. | Writes to sav she is disappointed in home economics graduates. In her experience, thev are slightly worse cooks than the more practical domestic variety, Maybe this is sticking both our necks out too far, but it seems to me she has hit upon an obvious truth. In justice to home ecoe nomics departments, we must ree peat that good cooks are horn, not educated. Anybody with an ounce of brains can learn to prepare palatable food by following recipes, but only an artist can make it taste like ambrosia and these artists, like other kinds of geniuses, spring up in unexpected places. In spite of many vociferous

| protests from male readers, I still contend that most

of the greatest culinary artists are women. A boost for the opinion comes from the manager of the Summit Hotel near Uniontown, also in Pennsylvania, who says he has always had women in his establishe ment because he invariably finds them more capable, The trouble is they are not always obtainable, Maybe you'd like a direct quotation from his letter: “There is room in the United States for multitudes of additional GOOD women cooks at top salaries. Meanwhile, we sail merrily along and pay out millions for unemployment and relief with no effort or plan made to relieve the situation and ine cidentally help a hundred million people to obtain better food in public eating places. “Fortunately or unfortunately good women cooks are doing their work in some husband's kitchen; as for male cooks, 95 per cent ought to be loaded on ships, convoyed to Ethiopia and compelled to do the cooking for one of the armies, and I feel sure that the side they feed would lose the war.” You may disagree, of course, although there can be no denial that the most awful waste in this coun« trv is achieved in kitchens. 1 do not exonerate the’ housewife entirely, but on the whole she is less cule pable than restaurant, hotel or eating-joint ema plovees. Another thing-—women prepare food to pleasa men, and as the average man, whether Congressman, carpenter or cook, doesn't give a tinker's dam about pleasing women, it stands to reason the nation's cooking ought to be in feminine hands, because more men than women eat away from home.

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 legnl advice eannot be given. Address The Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 Thirteenth $t., Washington, D. C.).

Q—During a hurricane the glass in a window ape peared to bend when the wind was at its peax. Was it an illusion? A—Glass can be bent slightly without breaking, and such a condition can occur under great wind pressure. Q—Where is the highest lighthouse maintained by the U. S. Coast Guard? yg ; A—On top of the Island of Lehuna, Hawaiian Is lands, 707 feet above sea level Q—Please name the Governors of the outlying pose sessions of the United States. 3 A-—Hawaii, Joseph P. Poindexter; Puerto Rico, Guy J. Swope; Alaska, Ernest Gruening; Virgin Islands, L. W. Cramer: Panama Canal Zone, Brig. Gen. Glen E. Edgerton; Guam, Capt. George J. McMillen, USN; American Samoa, Capt. Lawrence Wild, USN, and in

Jnost.—Schillen, -

the Philippines, Francis B., Sayre is the High Commissioner,

moment @

A