Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 April 1941 — Page 16

PAGE 18

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THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 1941

BALKAN BALANCE-SHEET A LLIED defeat in the Balkans was discounted in advance. But it brings no less sadness. The sacrifice of Jugoslavs, Greeks, Britons and Australians—who fought so heroically, and yet so helplessly, against such vast Nazi odds in planes and tanks—will be remembered as long as men pay homage to supreme courage. What the final balance-sheet of the Balkan campaign will show, nobody knows. But those who complain that it never should have been undertaken forget there was no real choice. The only alternative was to permit a bloodless Hitler conquest, which would have betrayed Britain no less than her Allies. If Britain was to stay in the war, military and morale requirements alike forced her to defend her last foothold on the European continent. 5 ” " She has made Hitler's victory expensive. many mén. More important to him, he has lost many planes —which otherwise would be ready for the decisive Battle of Britain. So this campaign, even though brief, has provided some of the desired “diversion” from all-out attack on England. Moreover, if the British are right in believing that their best weapon is the blockade and that Hitler's weakness is in a shortage of supplies, he has suffered heavily. Destruction of Balkan roads, rails and bridges, the failure to plant crops, the blasting of mines, have dislocated the supply of food and minerals for blockaded Germany. But, unfortunately, the cost may be even higher for Britain—as it has been already for Jugoslavia and Greece. This is not so much because of the strategic importance of the Balkans as of the nature of the defeat. For the speed of the collapse revealed anew Britain's grave weakness. After all allowances are made for Germany's interior communications compared with Britain's circuitous sea lanes, the total mechanized equipment she could spare for this campaign was tiny. = ” 5 The implications of this already are reverberating in Japan, Russia, Spain, Turkey and the Middle East. To Washington the repercussions in the explosive Far East are perhaps most important. But to Britain the danger in the Middle East is even more immediate. Turkey is a key to the Irag-Iran oil fields and Suez. Her attitude now probably depends on Britain's ability to provide her with more planes and tanks than were sent to the Balkans. The net of all this seems to be that while Britain and her Allies may have proved again their superiority, soldier for soldier and machine for machine, their tragic numerical inferiority in machines has been even more emphasized. And that forces the unwelcome question: If Britain could not defend for one month her favorable mountain positions and strong Balkan fortifications against those hordes of planes and Panzers, can she at any foreseeable future date land an invading army at any other place on a continent where Hitler has a much greater military advantage? Whatever the answer, whether Britain's hopes are now offensive or defensive, she needs more planes, tanks, ships— many more and very quickly.

LET'S HAVE PARKING METERS

HE desirability of parking meters for Indianapolis has been raised again by the latest study of the problem by 2 subcommittee of the Mayor's Traffic Advisory Committee. And it is interesting to note that while the subcommittee declined to go on record one way or the other, the larger general committee voted in favor of parking meters. The experience of American cities with the parking meters has been, with few exceptions, highly successful. Virtually 200 cities in this country have installed these devices, reducing traffic congestion, parking difficulties, aiding police enforcement and at the same time providing these cities with an attractive source of revenue. The City Corporation Counsel is insisting on a ruling from the Supreme Court before he will permit Indianapolis to go ahead with plans. This seems to be carrying caution to its limit. Like the employment of a traffic engineer, the adoption of parking meters is one move that is overdue in Indianapolis.

AND NOW, MORE TAXES HOSE loud cries of anticipatory anguish are from people who had thought the big national defense and aid-to-the-Allies program wasn’t going to cost anybody anything. They have just read the new tax proposals. Income-taxpayers, of course, are the ones who feel the pain most, for come next March 15 they will have to meet the tax collector face to face and lay their money on the line—some ‘of them five or six times as much as they paid last March 15. Yet some of the most drastic new taxes proposed are hidden excises on certain goods and services, and will come indirectly out of the pockets of all the people who buy those goods and services, regardless of whether they are fortunate enough to have incomes in the taxable brackets. This is known as “painless” taxation, because the people who pay never see the tax collector. They're just charged higher prices. In our opinion, these consumption taxes are far less justified than the levies on incomes. After all, income-taxpayers belong to a select group in this country. They number around six million now—and with their families represent about one-sixth of the population. Whatever they pay, they're still better off than the other five-sixths. What right have they to complain of higher taxes? Indeed, when our Government needs revenue so desperately, what right has any American to complain of higher taxes—any one who stays at home, enjoys a civilian life easier than the rigors of camp life, and has security provided by young men drafted into military service at $21

He has lost | | machine age than the airplane, its engine and acces-

| not true taxes.

Aviation By Maj. Al Williams

Overworking Men in Our Plane Factories Likely to Prove a Big Handicap as It Did in Britain.

TREMENDOUS aviation industry is being built in this country. It must be managed now and plans made for its place in the national industrial picture after the war. American rearmament programs, and problems incidental to it, parallel with starte ling closeness those of the British, with a touch here and there of what the French went through. We have faced our no-plans-for-this-kind-of-war period, with consequent shortage of materials, factory facilities and deficiency in aviation organization to handle the prospect of modern air war. We are now in our labor troubles. Our next problem, and it is imminent, is the demand for speeded aircraft production, requiring more work days and longer hours for labor. The British went through each phase. First they speeded up labor with longer hours a day and more days a week. The first jam the British ran into on this score was over Sunday labor. A period of this disclosed that prolonged spells of overtime resulted in radical cost increases, decreased production and a sharp rise in sickness among workmen. The Sunday-work program (with overtime pay) produced this statement by Minister of Labor Bevin: “All evidence goes to show that we have carried on with long hours too long and production is on the decline rather than increasing.”

= » ”

IGID standards for maintaining split thousands of an inch mean high expenditure of nervous energy. There is no more intricate sample of this

sories, One part defective or defectively assembled among all the thousands of tiny parts making up a plane, may mean the death of an airman or the loss of an air battle. Some time ago I saw a pilot leave a familiar airport in a high-powered fighting plane. He cleared the field and disappeared in the distance. Ten minutes later he returned, his engine sputtering and coughing. Y “Ignition trouble,” he explained. That took in a lot of territory. It could mean a defect anywhere from the switch on the instrument board through the coils, the breaker mechanism, the condenser, the magnetoes, the spark plugs, the ignition cable to the ignition-cable shielding. After hours of testing, it was found that some expert workman in a magneto-repair shop had put four drops of light lubricant—instead of two drops—on the felt pads in the magneto-breaker mechanism. The

excess lubricant had slopped over on the breaker- | points, causing them to arc and so shorting the flow |

of high tension current to the spark plugs. ® 5 ®

F that pilot had been in an air fight, his decreased engine performance would have laid him wide open to enemy bomber gunners or the superior performance of an enemy single-seater fighter whose engine was functiommng perfectly. There's nothing superhuman about any phase of aviation, but split thousandths of an inch necessitate split-thousandths thinking and eternal vigilance. Every experienced airman knows the hazards of flying aircraft serviced or built by overworked mechanics. What we need is more factories, more workmen, and more aviation mechanics. If we ignore the lesson the British have learned and paid for in this particular bracket, we will see the day when weekend holidays will have to be enforced. Part of Amerjcan aviation personnel has already learned this lesson the hard way. I remember recklessly healthy young airmen of another war who resented restrictions against more than seven or eight hours of flying a day, as invasions of their personal rights and as evidence that their older, more seasoned commanders were getting soft. Those pilots learned the error of their ways. That was the first deadly exposition of what fatigue could mean in the cockpit. The next step was to learn that weary mechanics could crash airplanes as well as weary, vibration-drunk pilots,

(Westbrook Pegler is on vacation)

Business

By John T. Flynn

Smaller Taxpayers May Have to Pay Brunt of Proposed Increases.

EW YORK, April 24 —Secretary Morgenthau’'s tax program calls for what he calls “one-third per cent” increase in our taxes for the coming year to cover the cost of the American defense and British war program. The Secretary figures that we must raise $12,667,000,000 by taxes in the coming year. The taxes now in effect—which include a number of increases—will produce $£9.223.000,000. And so, he says, to get the added $3,500,000000 we must have a one-third increase In our taxes. Generally this tax increase is a perfectly proper measure as a means of raising Government funds. But the taxpayer will deceive himself very much if he imagines that this added $3.500,000,000 can be raised by a mere one-third increase in the taxes. The basis of this increase is an expected tax return of $9,223,000,000. But this is made up of all sorts of items—many items called taxes which are And most, if not all of these, are incavable of increase of any Kind. For instance, in that $9,223,000,000 is included the amounts collected for Social Security—cld-age pensions and unemployment benefits—and for railroad unemployment insurance. Also it includes sums collected from customs duties. How much these will all amount to it is not possible for me to say— $1.700,000,000 at the very least.

= = 8

BVIOUSLY these cannot be increased. The sums being collected for unemployment and old-age pensions now are too large and out of proportion to the benefits promised. And customs duties certainly cannot be increased.

increase are the internal revenue excise taxes and the income taxes. And these will $7,000,000.000. To increase them, therefore, by $3.500,000.000, it will necessary to Increase these taxes not 33 per cent, but 50 per cent. When the Secretary comes to do this he will find that increasing income taxes by 50 per cent Is not going to mean a straight 50 per cent increase on all taxpayers. Take the man with a million-dollar income. Under the existing law he will pay $719,000 in taxes. Increase that by 50 per cent and he would have to pay $1,170,000 out of a million—which doesn't work out. A man with $200,000 income must now pay $113,000 and a 50 per cent increase would make his tax $179,000. Of course it is worse than this, since this does not include state income taxes and the innumerable excise taxes such a man would y. The truth, therefore, is that in the h r brackets, because of existing boosts, the re might be 33 per cent; but in the lower brackets the increase would have to be from 50 to 75 and even 100 per cent to get the necessary sums.

In spite of all this, however, the taxes should be |

laid. That is the only sound way to pay these bills.

So They Say—.

I DO NOT regard the democratic way of life as the supreme end of man, but I regard it as the best

means for realizing that supreme end.—Bdwin E.

Aubrey, University of Chicago. » - * You CAN'T bore anybody for an instant in a plav. In fiction you can bore their heads off ty and nobody seems to mind.—W. Somerset Maugham, who has written plenty of both, >

If this ve true—and it is | inescapable—the only taxes that are susceptible of |

amount to |

: : TE ,

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

THURSDAY, APRIT. 24, 1041

How About It, Boys?

CARRY THE BALL=

1 wholly disagree with what you say,

The Hoosier Forum

defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

but will

VIEWS BRITAIN'S FIGHT AS OURS, TOO By H. B., Indianapolis

Britain's struggle is our struggle. Her fate is our fate. We as a people have understood that. We are gearing our entire economy to turn out war materials for Britain. Are we going to be such incredible madmen as to watch those materials go to the bottom of the At- | lantic when we have a big, Strong are at work in their own country fleet that could convoy them? ‘today. The rich owners of industry If we were to read today in ouriqo not care what form of governhistory books that some ancient na- ment we have so long as they can tion had thus thrown itself to the continue to reap their profits. dogs we would wonder what ex-| traordinary insanity had overtaken | mw them to paralyze them at their | RECALLS TEDDY'S ADVICE crucial hour. | ON THE BIG STICK Are future historians going to shake their heads and marvel at By V. G. M., Indianapolis The Nazi hordes of Hitler have

our insanity? Let us start convoying the goods at once. proven that his fast mechanized units can overwhelm the biggest and bravest armies of the world. Overwhelming German victories over the Polish, French, English, Belgian, Greek and Jugoslav armies do not prove the Germans are a superior people, but it does prove that its fast, mechanized army and large air force are the best in the] world. This is due to the fact that the Germans are able to outmaneuver their foes by lightning strokes

(Times readers are invited to express their in these columns, religious con. troversies excluded. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed.)

views

. » » » BLAMES CAPITALISTS FOR DEFENSE STRIKES By G. H., Evansville

Blame for the present strike wave rests entirely on the capitalists whose greed for war profits is limitless. The owners of industry are willing to sabotage the entire defense program to prevent the workers from getting wage increases to keep up with sharp increase in they, .: disorganize their resistance by cost of living. cutting it to pieces instead of brute The strike at International Har-| strength. vester was provoked by the com-| The only way to beat Hitler is to pany’s stubborn refusal to negotiate puild an army and air force along with the workers. This concern's the same patterns of the Germans

profits increased from less than and improve on them. Let us beat (eight million dollars in 1939 to more fire with fire. With our resources than 23 millions in 1940. jand manufacturing industries we, In the Allis Chalmers case the could build an army and air force employees agreed to accept the pro-|that would overshadow that of the posal of the OPM, but the proposal | Germans. was bluntly rejected by the com-| England, according to our leaders, pany. In the resulting lockout the|is supposed to be our first line of} Government threatened the workers defense but let us not depend on) {with forced labor under military her too much. Let us be capable jedict, entirely ignoring the-guilt of of withstanding enemies of our {the company. country by ourselves. To be dragged The Ford Co.'s defiance of the|into this war at this time is suicide. {law brought on that strike. Ford's We need at least three years tb laid, Harry Bennett, had the nerve/build our forces to equal those of |to declare the strike a Communist | Hitler's so let's follow Teddy Rooseplot threatening national defense. |velt's idea, “Speak softly and carry Certainly the shutdown of thea big stick.” coal mines canont be blamed on the #8 =n = miners. They ered to continue FEARS SLAVERY UNDEK operations pending the signing of the new contract. The operators | RULE UF. HITLER refused. | By P. B. O0., Indianapolis Working people of America know | Much has been said against sendthat the same interests who be- ing our boys to fight abroad. It is trayed the democracy of France and about time somebody said somesold out the government of Spain | thing about our girls. How about

Side Glances=By Galbraith

a.34

"if we.are down to the money you keep in your shoe, maybe

we should cut Suc trip short and go home."

*

them? Judging by what Hitler does to those he conquers—Poland for example—a Hitlerized America would be a horrible place for our our girls to live in. And do not let us deceive ourselves. If Great Britain falls, our fall probably will not be far off. For is it likely that we can successfully fight the rest of the world? And that is what a Hitler victory over Great Britain means. I have a daughter and a son, both of whom I love dearly. If by his fighting abroad my son can help to defeat Hitler and save my daughter and the daughters of others from living as slaves under Hitler, I am willing that he should fight even though he lose his life in so doing. Better so than a life of slavery for both daughter and son and all the rest of us, too.

8 2 =» RECALLS ROOSEVELT'S PLEDGE ON WAR By J. L. F.

It is unforturate that so many Americans are cynical enough to believe that the President will break his pledges.

On Oct. 30, 1940, in Boston, he said: “I have said this before, but |

shall say it again and again: Our boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.” And four days later in Cleveland he reiterated: “To the Republicans and Democrats, to every man, woman ana child in the nation, I say—your President and your great Secretary of State are following the road to peace. . . . I repeat that I stand on the platform of our party: ‘We will not participate in foreign wars, Army, Naval or Air Forces to fight in foreign wars, and we will not send our Army, Naval or Air Forces to fight in foreign lands outside of

[the Americas, except in case of at-

tack.” 4-9

HOLDS SOME STRIKERS ARE SHORT-SIGHTED

By G' S. H., Indianapolis

These mass strikes are unreasonable, selfish and short-sighted. Suppose strikers are justified in asking more money and management is entirely to blame. Do you think it is wise to stop and quarrel in midstream? The stream I'm thinking about is this world crisis. We have got to keep going however irrational some things appear to us. We must have action and plenty of it. Britain is “bleeding badly.” She fights almost alone on all fronts. No one can deny that here is a great nation, like the Greeks, bearing up nobly under severe punishment. This fine breed of men, women and children deserve higher treatment than strikes and delayed deliveries of war essentials. ” 8 2

RETAINS FAITH IN F. D. R’S PROMISE

By a Reader “Fathers and mothers, I give you one more assurance, I have said this before and I shall say it again and again: “Your boys are not going to be sent to any foreign wars.” This promise ought to be printed daily on the front pages of all the newspapers. Posters all over town ought to remind people of it. Buttons can be printed and sold and the amount thus cbllected be given to the President's Infantile Paralysis Fund as a token of the nation’s faith in the President's promise.

PERFUME By JOSEPHINE DUKE MOTLEY

No one can steal the sweet perfume of thought Which lingers like a flower in my

soul; Net ill wind chill the ardor of our ove Which lasts like rose leaves in an earthen bowl.

DAILY THOUGHT

Let the people praise thee, O God; let ail the people praise thee. —Psalms 67:3.

OUR PRAISES are our wages.—

and we will not send our| 3

Gen. Johnson Says—

It's Time the Warring Powers Reached a Mutual Agreement to Stop Bombing Women and Children

ASHINGTON, April 24.—Of all the diabolic ine sanity of this war the bombing and counterbombe ing of metropolitan civilian populations is the ghastliest and most sterile. It is destroying the most cherished relics and monuments of centuries of a common culture, for in the prejudiced madness of this crazed explosion, a little remaining sanity will not forget that both Germans and Englishmen are, in part at least, of a single racial strain and the folk-lore and tribal traditions of one are, in some degree, aga replica of the other—and so are many of the monuments of the common race now being so hearte lessly destroyed by each. The truth'is that the courage, aggressiveness and stubbornness of this conflict are largely due to the fact that the common warrior blood on both sides is the haughtiest, most dauntless and forceful that the world has ever seen. There is no use deny ing that, especially by an American. :

The fratricidal strife of our Civil War was the deadliest on record, up to that time. We are of the same breed. It is not licked until its strength is destroyed. But couldn't there be some engagement —even at the hot point of the war—-to stop this senseless shedding of civilian blood and berserk dee struction of the footprints of both peoples along the path of decency over 2000 years?

” " ”

HERE is absolutely no military value in much of this destruction. As an impairment of civilian morale (which might, among other peoples, be a military asset) the record is clear that in both Berlin and London the destruction of their homes and the “altars of their sires” just makes these peoples angrier and more bellicose.

It Is easy to see the counter argument. A true military object like a bridge or an airplane factory is bombed. Some civilians are killed. It is unavoide able. The other side immediately says: “You killed our women and children and now we are going to kill some of yours.” There is another angle: “They use the towers of their cathedrals for observation posts which help to kill our soldiers.” or, “if we did not bomb that area, they would use our humanity to our disadvantage. They would move into it at least auxiliary work on munitions.” And so the monuments of ages of their and our own culture are smashed to dust. Now there is a threat to destroy the relics of antiquity in Athens, Rome and Egypt. The lives and limbs of inoffensive women and . children, the aged and the sick and helpless in hospitals are snuffed out like candles or torn to bloody tatters among unbearable suffering and shrieks of intolerable anguish. It has no mili tary effect whatever except to kindle an intermine able hate, stiffen a determination to unshakable resistance and create an almost bestial resentment on both sides so bitter that it will keep alive the germs of revengeful wars for generations,

” » ”

IF IS axiom number one that no third party should intervene gratuitously to stop the main current of these wars to a knock-out. But is there nowhere on earth any disciple of the Prince of Compassion sufficiently impartial to be accepted with confidence on both sides as a mediator in this kind of prehistoric slaughter of innocent non-combatants? Couldn't both sides agree not to attack none military objectives and not to take any military advantage of the restraint of the other? And couldn't some neutral arbiter, the Pope for instance, be accepted as an observer and guarantor of the good faith of both? With liberal allowance for the marginal unavoidable destruction of non-combatant lives in justified bombing attacks on authentic military objectives— bridges, munitions plants and the like—couldn’$ something of this slaughter of the innocents in this vicious circle of retaliatory bombing of nop-comba-tant civilian populations be mollified? Yes, if there is a spark of sanity left in this Saturnalia of blood, but, since that is doubtful, ap~ parently no. Anyway it is. a suggestion with a thought. It is respectfully submitted to the Holy See—for whatever it is worth,

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

5 GREAT majority of the American people are standing by our President and are willing to accept his decisions without question, knowing that he will use his best judgment in the interests ot the country.” This quotation is lifted from the letter of a Texas reader, who failed to ‘sign her name, which doesn’t indicate that she is stand ing by anything, even her own convictions. What she says may sound patriotic to some, but if enough people ever become inoculated with the feelings expressed we shall be well on our way to some=thing which in spirit at least, is not. democracy. I am not trying to cast any slurs upon our President, either, because he is an intelligent person and therefore must desire a thinking rather than an unthinking electorate. And this job of running our country is too big for one man. It's too big for any small group of men. It requires the attention of every individual who holds to the dream of the Found-

‘ing Fathers,

The worship of a President is just as dangerous to American principles as the worship of a Fuehrer was dangerous to democracy in Germany. And I, for one, pay Mr. Roosevelt the compliment of believing he does not want any such supine sube servience. If he is the being we think he is, possessing those qualities of leadership which every republia demands of its great men, then he prefers to meet differences of opinions and wishes to hear the desires of the people. In order to retain the vitality of a living republic, the United States needs more dissenters and fewer bootlickers. We cannot afford to leave the settlement of all national and international issues to the President or even to our elected representa tives, because it is our fate and welfare they have in their hands. The fact that we have elected them proves our trust, but they are just as human as the rest of us and we can't expect miracles from them. . The average politician is no worse and no better than those who put him into office, which surely does not mean that he is endowed with divine quale ities, When the great majority of Americans are willing to accept the decisions of one man without question, what do you have? Not a democracy certainly. .

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

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Q—How is neon gas manufactured? A-—It is a chemical element, not a manufactured product, and is found in the atmosphere in the prog portion of one part of neon to 66,000 parts of air’ | It is obtained as an industrial product by the lique~ faction of air. . Q—Where was the first railway tunnel in the United States? A-It was four miles east of Johnstown, Pa. constructed {n 1833 for the Allegheny Portage Railroad, now & of the Pennsylvania Railroad, 3

t