Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 April 1941 — Page 12

PAGE 12

The Indianapolis Times

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1941

THE STAKES ARE HIGH

HE war news, though not unmixed, is predominantly discouraging. It was to be expected that the defenders of the Balkans would choose to yield ground, fighting only a rear-guard action while retiring to the best strategic positions. But however much it was discounted in advance, the actual event is dismaying—the swastika planted on the Aegean shore, separating Greece from friendly Turkey; a Jugoslav retreat exposing the Greek left flank; Belgrade and Sarajevo and other cities devastated, and, across the Mediterranean in Libya, the German armored columns rolling the British swiftly backward, along their recent path of victory, toward the Nile and Suez. It is too early to see the outcome. Gen. Wavell, whose coolness and sagacity have been brilliantly affirmed in Africa, may vet prove that Hitler is not invincible on land. After Dunkirk, in England’s darkest hour, Winston Churchill took the enormous gamble of stripping his island's own defenses so that Gen. Wavell could defend Suez. It may be that this time he has prompted the delivery to Greece of more men and equipment than the world suspects. But it may turn out that the German armies are literally invincible, however inhospitable the terrain and the people. And that would mean another Dunkirk, or worse. It would mean the disappearance of the last beachhead in Europe for an eventual British invasion. It would bring an almost final desolation among the now still hopeful peoples of the conquered continent. What it would mean to England herself, and to America with her pledge that Hitler will be whipped, is something that we would just as soon not speculate about until and unless the worst occurs.

IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

HE decision of this city’s officials to install a full-time traffic engineer is a step that will be applauded by every thinking safety worker in the community. A traffic engineer has long been overdue in this community. But right here we would like to raise a caution light. The ordinance prepared by the city calls for a traffic engineer at $3600 a year with a secretary at $1300. Before this ordinance is passed hy City Council, some effort should be made to determine if a competent traffic engineer can be obtained for that salary. This newspaper has repeatedly urged the employment of a traffic engineer. But we need one with specific training in traffic engineering, in traffic education, in enforcement practices, and with a solid groundwork of police work. Alinost all of the large cities in this country have employed traffic engineers and we can very well benefit from their experience. The job is a big one and it takes a big man. Mayor Sullivan and his aids deserve commendation for moving in the right direction. We suggest a little further study of the situation so that a highly important step may result in complete success.

WE’D BETTER START PAYING NOW

HEN we started pouring our national wealth into the World War, we had a public debt of only a billion dollars and very low Federal taxes. We ended up with a debt of 25 billions and very high taxes. This time we are starting with a debt of 47 billions and a tax structure that in most respects is as high as, and in some higher than, those old wartime schedules. It's not going to be easy to find additional billions of revenue. But find them we must, or else the whole cost of our defense preparations and material aid to friendly powers abroad will be passed on—with interest—to our taxpayers of the future. Current Federal revenues are not quite enough to pay the Government's peacetime costs. Yet in the last year Congress has appropriated or authorized approximately 40 billion dollars for military purposes—and the end is not in sight. Britain's new budget tells the painful story of what happens in a nation which gets into war with a large debt and heavy taxes: The debt grows larger, and the taxes heavier. Under the new schedules, just announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the incomes of British subjects are to be taxed at a base rate of 50 per cent, beginning with incomes which we in this country call the lower brackets. We hope we'll never have to pay taxes as steep as the British are paying. But the best precaution we can take against getting ourselves into that fix is to start now paying more and borrowing less. Some members of Congress are talking about hiking the special excises, or applying a general manufacturers’ sales tax. We hope Congress will reject that pocket-picking approach. Invisible taxation is cowardly taxation. And tribute levied on the things people consume is mfair, because a disproportionately large share is taken from those who are least able to contribute. All taxes have to be paid anyway out of the wealth and income of the people. The fair and honest way to tax is by direct assessment on incomes. Lower the exemptions to increase the number of income-tax payers. Stiffen the rates to take in more revenue. Take from each according to his ability to pay.

STRIKES ARE NEWS PPOSED as we are to legislation which would attempt to suspend the right to strike, we don’t agree with those who think the newspapers would do labor a service by saying less about strikes in defense industries. Strike mews is essential because an informed public opinion is the one force which, more surely and more fairly than restrictive laws, can induce labor and management to realize their responsibilities to the country and to settle their controversies peaceably by Yoluntary, co-operation.

»

No Sth Column

By Ludwell Denny

Croats, Who Had Reason to Distrust Serbs, Were Moving Toward Better Understanding When War Came.

(Last in a Series)

ASHINGTON, April 9.—Hitler's pet policy of first paralyzing an enemy with a fifth column, so the invading army can have easy pickings, should have worked better in Jugoslavia than elsewhere—in theory. Whether the new Croat-Serb truce is strong enough to hold together the divided South Slav nation is the only question, of friend or foe, regarding Jugoslavia's fighting ability. Obviously here is fertile field for the deadly tactics of disunity by which Hitler helped destroy the North Slav nation, Czechoslovakia. For the division between Serbs and Croats is older and deeper than that which separated Czechs and Slovaks. In both Slavic nations born of the World War the larger branch of the family dominated the weaker, until the Croats wondered whether they had merely traded AustroHungarian lordship for Serb rule—as the Slovaks had escaped it for Czech rule. On the eve of the present war both Czechs and Serbs were rapidly correcting this fatal weakness. But the cure came too late for Czecheslovakia. with that example before them, the Serbs relaxed somewhat their dictatorship of Jugoslavia and granted autonomy to the Croats. Croatia has between 25 and 30 per cent of the total territory and population.

5 u u

SECOND advantage of Jugoslavia is that her German minority is much smaller than the Sudetens, who constituted such a perfect fifth column. Also the Sudetens geographically adjoined the Nazi Fatherland, while between the fewer, scattered Ger-

| mans of Jugoslavia and Germany are usually Slavs

and Magyars. The third advantage is that Jugoslavia has learned something from the tragic experience of fifth column victims from Norway to Bulgaria, But these may be outweighed by worse weaknesses. Croats and Serbs have little in common except blood, language, and agrarian economy. Through eight centuries until our own day they lived apart; one under Western civilization, the other Eastern, one European, the other Oriental. While in Czechoslovakia the dominant Czechs were the most westernized; in Jugoslavia the Croats, who consider themselves the more cultured and progressive, have been under the Turkicized Serbs. Jugoslavia as a whole is 50 per cent illiterate and 80 per cent peasant, most in poverty. The Croats are Roman Catholics; the Serbs are Orthodox. There are also Moslems. The Croats in temperament are generally more calm and orderly, like the Czechs, while the Serbs are apt to be fiery. The Croats have been superior in peaceful pursuits,

the Serbs in war.

n on

IDE as are these differences, it is inaccurate and unfair to dub the Croats pro-Nazi. Because these peasants hate centralized authority in Belgrade, they hate super-centralized dictatorship in Berlin even more. There is a definite Fascist-Nazi Party, but it is probably smaller in Croatia (and Jugoslavia as a whole) than in any other European region, Croats were for peace because their land, unlike the Serb mountains, is almost impossible to defend. Although they are aot as good soldiers as the Serbs, in their stubborn, clever way it is believed they probably would carry on more effective sabotage of a Nazi Army of occupation than have other Hitler victims. That would be of military value if, as planned, Jugoslavia's Army early in the war withdraws southward to a stronger defense line. The surprise to date is not that the Croats and Serbs are so far apart, but that they are so close together, considering that historic separation. Nobody is more surprised than Hitler, who staked his Balkan strategy on the ability of his fifth column to split and immobile Jugoslavia.

"

(Westbrook Pegler is on vacation)

Business

By John T. Flynn

There's Much Talk of Price Control | But Very Little Is Being Done.

EW YORK, April 9.—Something has to be done to hold prices down—that's getting to be the almost dailv murmur in New York and Washington. Price control, checks on runaway prices, curbs on inflation—one hears these phrases everywhere, In a single recent issue of a business paper I located nine separate news articles about the necessity of doing something about keeping prices down. There was a 10th article. It told how the President had held a conference about the price of a single commodity—hogs. And the conference decided something must be done to “raise the price of hogs.” The reason given was to coax farmers to raise more hogs to supply the British. The one thing done was to plan a “boost” in at least one price and a curb on none. There was a report that a separate price control bureau would be established separate from the National Defense Commission. But the President has denied this. Meantime prices rise, although there is nothing serious as yet about the price level as a whole, The average of wholesale prices, according to one index, shows a rise in the level of wholesale prices from 97.7 a year ago to 102.7 now. That is not yet severe. More serious is that these prices rose from 1004 to 102.9 in a single month—from February to March. Worse yet, speculation in commodity prices keeps jumping up by leaps and bounds, the volume of commodity speculation having increased 70 per cent over last month. This is to be found in cotton, cottonseed, .oil, lard, cocoa, soy beans and that ancient subject of speculation, pepper. # B =» TILL more serious is the fact that while the average price level has not risen more than 5 per cent in a year, and half of that rise in the last month, this is due to the fact that some prices have risen while others have fallen, others not having moved at all. In other words, the rise has been due largely to

"a very heavy rise in some goods, producing unbalance

in the price structure—which is the prelude to a general upward movement. The truth about the matter is that this subject of controlling prices is not a simple one. It is not a question of controlling a few prices, of tackling the price level one commodity at a time. It is not even a matter of proclaiming a halt on all prices, though that is part of the job. The problem has got to be attacked from several angles. There must be at least four devices: (1) De=liberate and direct price control, (2) limitations on Government borrowing, (3) tax control to liquidate excess purchasing power, (4) scientific priority control. One of these devices without the use of the other will not accomplish much. The first requisite is to check the power which produces price boosts at the seat of the trouble: the creation of inflationary purchasing power by borrowing,

So They Say—

IF THE WORLD of modern science is too new for us to understand its potentialities, the movement for international peace as a part of practical politics is newer still.—Prof. James T. Shotwell, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. » * »

THE OPPORTUNITY of America today ... is to set in motion forces that will help to distribute the abundance that is present in this country.—Murray D. Lincoln, new president of the Co-operative League. > »

MISSIONARIES are under the dogmatic delusion that the holy war Japan is waging in China is a war of imperialistic aggression. — Governor of Korea, quoted in the Tokio Asahi,

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Look Out, Samson!

The Hoosier Forum

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

A LETTER FROM MR. TOBIN AND THE EDITOR'S REPLY

By Daniel J. Tobin, general president, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Indianapolis.

I noticed an editorial in the April 2 issue of The Indianapolis Times, again expressing disapproval of Labor, especially in the Building) Trades Department. In substance said, “Its determination and fearthe editorial endeavored to convey |lessness in stating facts.”

. . Many of us in the labor movement the impression that the declarations who have gone through the last war made by the men of Labor are

and are now going through this simply meaningless. very near war, are wondering what The New York Times of last Sun- is the reason for the unfair attitude day published a lengthy letter in|of the Scripps-Howard papers tofull which I wrote to Senator Nor- | ward organized labor. Some of the ris, explaining the position of the trade unionists of America are volInternational Brotherhood of Team-|unteering many explanations. sters and all International Unions| I have many friends amongst the affiliated with the American Federa- [leadership and membership of the tion of Labor, as to initiation fees|C. I. O. There is no feeling of bitand the limited power of Mr. Green |terness on my part toward those and the Executive Council (of which |men. I regret the fact that there is

I am a member) in regulating the|@ division in the labor movement, affairs of labor unions. but eventually this will be settled.

I am enclosing a copy of a tele- It is noticeable, however, that The

gram which I sent on April 1, 1941, Indianapolis Times and : other to the representatives of our In-|Scripps-Howard papers refrain from

ternational Union in Baltimore, Md., | mentioning the fact that 97 per relative to the strike of the Roofers|Cent Of the strikes now obtaining

Sved a Ct duds are amongst C. I. O. unions, and J i Your ko Sov that 85 per cent of those strikes and

sent before your editorial in The SWpares OI York De ovimining

$ ) rs h n Indianapolis Times appeared. When SIN mers (ha, hive ee

‘ > SB organized in recent years, in indusyou wrote your editorial all building tries that prevented or crushed any tradesmen were working on the job form of labor organization until the referred to, including the teamsters,

. laws changed this condition. who had quit the day before. If| Ag stated to David Lawrence, on you are interested, I might also ad-|hjs request for information, the vise that on Tuesday, April 2, I|older unions that have been estabcalled on the long distance phone lished for years have no serious the representative of our union in trouble whatever with their employCamden, N. J, and ordered him to ers. You could refer to the printing order trucks to go through certain trades, to the transport workers, picket lines where a refusal on their ship building and machinists’ part would intgrfere with construc-|trades, also to the International tion work that was going on several | Brotherhood of Teamsters and miles away from the point at issue.|Chauffeurs, which has the largest The name of the representative to|paid up membership of any organiwhom I gave these orders is John |zation in this country and in the O'Neal of Local Union 676, Chauf-|world. We have less than 300 men feurs, Teamsters and Helpers of on strike at this time throughout Camden, N. J. : the nation, and those few men have Might I add that while the New |been newly organized, and the emYork Times, one of the great news- |Ployers as well as the members lack paper's of America and of the world, | {raining in the necessity of dispublished in full the letter handed Passionately discussing questions them from the office of Senator and disagreements. . . , Norris, which I had written to him, the New York World-Telegram in an editorial severely and unjustly criticised the letter to Senator Norris, which he and several others in Washington praised for its clearness of explanation and, as some of them

Side Glances=By Galbraith

(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.)

Our editorial of April 2, to which Mr. Tobin refers, expressed our disappointment that, within 24 hours after it had been ‘solemnly pledged” in Washington that there would be no stoppage of work on defense

4-9

yellpatbne s ~~ ge) SOFR, 1941 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. L M REGU. $. PAL OFF,

"Hello, dear, I'm staying out another half hour—Sport needs

phenty of exercise!”

projects because of jurisdictional disputes between A. F. of L. build-ing-trades unions, the business agent of an A, F, of L. roofers’ union called his men off two Army camp housing projects in nearby Maryland because of a jurisdictional dispute with an A. F. of L, carpenters’ union. It is true, and to their credit, that Mr. Tobin and some building trades officials instructed members of their unions to continue working and thus blocked an attempt to turn the roofers’ walkout into a general strike on these two defense projects. It remains a fact that the roofers did strike and thus, in our opinion, did [reflect on the effectiveness of the “solemn pledge” against work stoppages. The Scripps-Howard Newspapers earnestly desire not to be unfair to organized labor. We have criticized | certain practices within the A. F. {of L.—exorbitant “initiation fees” | demanded from men seeking jobs on | defense projects and interference {with the defense program by juris|dictional strikes. The repeated promises to curb these practices seem to us evidence that our criticisms have been justified. We hope the promises will be kept. For, as we have been trying to warn in a spirit of complete friendliness to organized labor's rank and file, failure to curb these practices has cost the A. F. of L. dearly in public confidence and Congressional support, at a time when it had one of its greatest opportunities to win friends for its cause.—The Editor,

» n {ASKS A QUESTION ‘OF JOHN T. FLYNN By A. C. E. Gillander, Greenshurg, Ind, At the mass meeting the other night at which Columnist John T.

»

|Flynir was the principal speaker,

time gave me no opportunity to ask him a few questions. Here is one: Since only the President of the United States and the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies has tried to deceive the American people, why did you play some of the oratorical tricks you did, Mr. Flynn? Was there no broad hint intended that because 83 per cent of our peaceful population |is opposed to war, and America First is opposed to war, you spoke as the champion of both? That that vast percentage of Americans are one with you and the America First Committee? Why did you avoid mentioning another large percentage, Mr. Flynn? The overwhelming percentage of Americans who know by observation and intuition that all Hitler stands for must be crushed? The percentage of Americans who back the Government's policy of all aid to England? With most people I know, I belong in both large percentages. I am with the 83 per cent who hope never to see American blood spilt on any battlefields, at home or abroad. And I am with the large per cent who favors all aid to the “democracies” at which you sneer, including Greece and China. Therefore, we cannot intelligently join the America First Committee,

LITTLE FOUNTAIN By DANIEL B. STRALEY

Play on, play on, little fountain, Play on your tinkling bells A sonata or a vesper, Or a ditty of the dells. Play as your fancy guides you, In measure sweet and low, Or in the sprightlier rhythm Let your liquid carols flow. Ah, you choose a merry movement, A captivating lay, With sharps and trills and trebles That drives dull care away, The cadence of your music Joys and thrills my heart. Play on, play on, little fountain, I love your dainty art.

DAILY THOUGHT

But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.—I Samuel 12:25,

THERE IS A method in man’s wickedness, it grows up by degrees. «Beaumont and Fletcher,

. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1941

Gen. Johnson Says—

C. 1. O. and A. F. of L. Unions Get

Along Swell on West Coast and Set A Good Example for Rest of U. S,

AN FRANCISCO, April 9.—Just a few days in an industrial area like the Pacific Coast gives not enough time for a carefully checked survey of even one segment of a thing of so much national ime portance as labor unrest. But it isn’t hard to get a pretty good general impression, a sort of composite “smell” in which any important unpleasant odor would surely be apparent. Speaking relatively only and comparing the tenseness in the East and Middle West with the comparative calm on the Coast, this general situation is the best in the country. Comparing it from another, angle with the fer= ment of the threatened San Francisco general strike and whole West Coast condition six-and-a-half years ago, it is a para«

The Pacific Coast ship-building and ship-operate ing industries are key points in national defense, In the former and, to some extent, in the latter, a kind of consortium has been reached out here on a coaste wise basis. In this labor, industry and government all seem to be in agreement. Most remarkable of all both C. I. O. and A. F. of L. unions are co-operating in fairly cordial relations. Too much generalization is a mistake because the situation is far from simple. Part of the coastal ship-building labor is C. I. O.,, part is A. F. of L.. In A. F. of L.,, at least, two very important separate unions are involved. un ” 8

ARGO-HANDLING unions and many shipe operating unions are C. I. O, Yet there seems to he a sufficient understanding among all these jarring elements to create something that looks to me, at first glance, at least, to be not merely industrywide unionism but unionism covering one whole integrated industrial area. In view of the fact that the heart of the whole C.1.0. vs. A.F. of 1,. row is craft vs. industrial unionism, this is a harbinger of great hope. This writer has always insisted that there need be no irreconciliable difference here. On our West Coast this opinion seems to be now confirmed.

As the San Francisco Examiner remarked in an editorial, “If industry and labor here can sit down and work out their problems on a long range basis, making whatever sacrifices of selfish interest that may be necessary in the recognition of a general obli~ gation, why cannot this be done elsewhere, in all industries, all over the country?” Why indeed? “Both houses of labor, the craft unionists of A. F. of L. and the industrial unionists of the C. I, O. are in full agreement.”

This latter remark applied only to the ship-build-ing industry but I believe that about the same cone clusion applies to the ship operating industry, Mane agement and labor on this Coast are agreed that, in the paramount, interest of national defense, there shall be neither strikes nor lock-outs.

”

HE editorial continues: “The conference. hows ever, did not stop here. It has taken up such basic matters as over-all wage scales, overtime pro= visions, shift work-differential and related matters. What is being done today by shipyard management and labor in San Francisco, should have a telling nation-wide effect”

: The flesh of the extremely complex organizational situation out here may be weak but, as this column reported from Los Angeles, the spirit seems to be so willing that it should stand as an example to the threatening small-time bickering in other parts of the country. This is not to say that all is sweetness and light, Some wage scales and other concessions, squeezed out by Government pressure, leave a question of their economic justification. All companies have not ace cepted the closed shop provisions of some of these understandings. But generally speaking and w@nder to tell the Pacific Coast labor condition is the best in the country,

Ld ”

Fditor’s Note: The views expressed by columnists (n this newspaper are their own, They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times,

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

N editorial in a paper of wide circulation records the following remarks of a Boy Scout: “I'm going to work hard to get all the training I can so I can help beat Hitler—the heel. He is to blame for our losing Mr. H. (the high school band instructor)” “It's a typical boy reaction,” says the editorial, “but loaded with eloquent wisdom.” I hope you won't agree. It seems to me to be loaded with dynamite for juvenile minds. It is the philosophy from which all wars have been made—the igno= rant approach which keeps the world in confusion and misery. “Hitler is a heel.” That's what we think, and that's what we are encouraging our boys to think, And we're getting ready to put on our spurs and go out and elimienate one heel from the universe, naively trusting that his destruction will settle all our woes. How remiss we are to subject our children to such bosh! Hitler, like all dictators and scoundrels, didn’s spring fully accoutered with wickedness from the German earth, He is a creature born of an evil so cial condition, an excrescence upon a festering polite ical body, the personification of something dark and dreadful in the soul of a people.

And we shall not get rid of that dark and dreadful thing merely by destroying Hitler, although his power would not doubt disintegrate with him. But when he goes, the churning cauldron of Europe will still boil and bubble with its old hates and its ancient struggles. That's what we had better be teaching the Boy Scouts to understand, All abhorrence of Hitler will accomplish no more than former abhorrence of the Kaiser did. But if we learn to see straight, and to talk straight ours selves, we can teach our boys. to despise all those principles Hitler and his gang stand for. And it must be against those principles that we wage war, Otherwise, our fighting will be of no avail. For we shall only get rid of one tyrant by setting up another in his place. It makes you want to weep for all the little boys of the United States and the world—the way their parents and teachers have deluded them into believing that hate can overcome hate, and that anything less than improvement in intelligence and the building of good will among men will ever rid the earth of dictators.

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information, net 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—Can the President send American troops oute side the territory of the United States without getting authority from Congress, or without a declaration of war? A—Yes. Over the protest of the Mexican Governe ment, President Wilson sent an expeditionary force into Mexico under Gen. Pershing to punish the MexXi« can bandit leader, Pancho Villa, after he had attacked Columbus, N. M. There have been other occasions when Presidents used the armed forces of the United States in foreign territory without declaration of war or special sanction by Congress. Q—Is bituminous coal mined east of Harrisburg in Pennsylvania? A—An insignificant amount is mined in Bradford and Lycoming Countise, east of Harrisburg. Q—What is the meaning of the surname Purcell? A—“Little Pig,” originating as a nickname. It is

! British fsom the French,