Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 May 1941 — Page 23

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FRIDAY, MAY 2 1841

“MR. LEWIS’ THREAT"

“TI is obvious that President Roosevelt will not be reelected for the third term, unless he has the overwhelming support of the men and women of labor. If he is, therefore, re-elected, it will mean that the Congress of | Industrial Organizations have rejected my advice and | recommendation. I will accept the result as being the | equivalent of a vote of confidence.” Thus spoke John L. Lewis on Oct. 25, 1940, in the Presidential campaign in which he predicted Franklin D. Rooses | velt would be “ignominously defeated.” The vote of “no confidence” which followed his speech ie so recent that it should be borne in mind in cohnection with his otherwise disturbing declaration at Harrisburg Wednesday night that “too much co-operation” should not be expected of labor unless it is given a great voice in Government and national defense.

» No other Administration ever went so far in behalf of labor as has that of Franklin Roosevelt, That has been the reason for much criticism of the New Deal. Today that criticism persists because Mr. Roosevelt, more than almost any other man in the nation, has been hesitant to act in the wave of strikes which have impeded the defense program. This has often been called a labor government— labor itself has so proclaimed it. Yet no industrialist has threatened that the National Administration need not expect “too much co-operation” unless business ig given a greater voice in Government and national defense. One can readily imagine the outcry such a declaration would touch off. Mr. Lewis accused William S. Knudsen, Joint Defense Director, of falsely blaming labor for defense bottlenecks, but took a companion swing at his fellow director, Sidney Hillman, a C. I. O. leader and veteran labor man, when he said that the present labor representatives in the defense organization are blindly following the lead of the industrial representatives, If Mr. Lewis actually spoke for labor, his blast against the Administration and defense authorities might well cause a shudder. Viewed as it must be against the background of national emergency and peril, it was a threat | that our first line of defense—the workers in our war | industries—will not do their full share under their present | governmental leadership. Which is a lot like the Army | saying that it won't fight its best unless it can do more commanding.

The picture would be black—save for one thing—the | “vote of no confidence” which Mr. Lewis so recently phrased | and which labor so promptly cast.

THE STAKES OF SUEZ

ONDON and Berlin are outdoing each other in telling the world the place and time of the next great battle | the Battle for Suez will start within 10 days. This ad- | vance advertising is most unusual, if accurate. Usually such official publicity is the magician's wand which draws | your eve away from the trick hand. Equally strange is the apparent desire of London officials to prepare the public for probable Mediterranean defeat, and to belittle the strategic importance of what has been récognized so long as the lifeline of the British Empire: All of which is too deep for us and, we suspect, for | the average American reader. However old-fashioned it may sound, we confess to | the belief that Suez-Alexandria-Mosul are of supreme importance to Britain, second only to the defense of England itself. London, instead of treating such a battle as a sideshow, is apt to go all-out. And all-out does not mean—to use Mr. Churchill's officia’ figures—30,000 rien as in Libya, | or 60.000 as in Greece. i Obviously Ger. Wavell has been saving men and | machines, at the price of criticism by Serbs, Greeks, Turks and even some Australians. Saving them for what—if not to defend Suez-Alexandria-Mosul? The Alexandria base, the Palestine pipeline and Iraq oil | which move the fleet, planes and tanks, are not like Libya | and Greece, points for brilliant strategic retreats. If | Britain retreats from these, she is finished in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Doubtless the experts are accurate in insisting that this would not automatically defeat England. But certainly it would eliminate almost any chance of defeating Hitler. If | Germany gets the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, with their resources including oil, the now | ineffective British blockade would be almost nothing. Maybe the much-advertised Battle for Suez and the | Middle East is near, and maybe not. But if this is it, the British Navy and Army probably will fight as they never have fought before—as the R. A. F. fought in the air last September, but as Hitler never hag been fought on land-air-sea.

PUBLIC SERVANT

| that fact will be my answer to th

| for making capitalism work.

i regulate it in the interest of profits. | ment regulates it, then the regulation will be in the

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Answering an Old Friend Whe Defends Senator R. F. Wagner He “Reviews Objections to Laber Act.

UCSON, Ariz, May 2—Raymond Carroll, a rerter who worked in some of the crusades of the old New York Evening World for little reforms on the local front, has written a letter in defense of Senator Robert Wagner, whom he knew a long time ago as a neighborhood politi cian. He reviews Senator Wagner's early career in New York City and

in the Legislature and says, “I am |

not claiming his legislation is perfect or near-perfect, but I do say it is the sincere effort of an honest man.” : : And that is exactly what I say the legislation isn't—nor Senator Wagner, neither. I say the Labor Relations Act was a subtle conspiracy against the right of free s 8 American citizens to work at their DY lawful occupations unmolested. I insist that it was and remains an insincere act and that Senator Wagner has been honest neither in the debate which preceded passage nor in his refusal

| since to rescue his victims from the iniquities that

his legislation put upon them. I have no patience with the explanation that Senator Wagner is stolid by temperament and a plodder. That has heen overdone on nis behalf. ee & 4 : I the debate on May 13, 1935, Senator Tydings of Maryland offered an amendment providing that employees should be free from coercion or intimidation “from anv source.” He offered another for the same purpose, declaring it should be unfair labor practice for “any person” to coerce employees in the exercise of their right not to join any union. Senator Borah said that seemed to him te state a fundamental principle, and Senator Couzens threw ina reminder that “in every big industrial community there is competition between one union and another,” attended by “fight” and “force.” Nevertheless, Senator Wagner insisted (iat for protection against brutality and terror the individual. unorganized victims, frightened though they might be, ignorant of their legal rights and without money to hire lawyers, should have to go to their local courts for injunctions. He said this although strong unions had adopted constitutional provisions intended to deter victimized members from appealing to the public courts. And he held that, although his act would construe as coercion and intimidation the slightest mention of unionism by an employer to an employee, nevertheless the professional unioneer and the nightprowling organizer should be free to use peaceful persuasion. \ The fact that such persuasion might consist of threats and persecution could not have been unknown to the author of labors Magna Charta. who never. theless refused to consider any phrase to shield the unorganized from the organizers. = » ~ ENATOR WAGNER didn't much care for sincere debate and insisted on imputing to Senator Tydings a hidden intention to promote company

unions. And S:nator David I. Walsh, another states- | Wagner, |

man no more honest and sincere than mocked all past experience and well-known truth and dared the future by saving “The employer is the only person who effectively can coerce an empioyee.” The whole Administration bloc ganged up on the non-union American citizen who didn't want to join a union or pay tribute and sent him wandering among the gritty corridors of local courts where judges and, prosecutors beholden to unicn politicians would give him the run-around, if thev wouldn't quite boot him downstairs as a traitor to

| his class and kind. Powerful unions had become wary

of the courts not for the old. given reason that they

feared unfairness: they shunned the courts only for fet that in open proceedings public attention will fiityered on their shocking oporession of the little people ch racketeering at the expense of the Senator Wagner and Senator Walsh both well knew the character of the unioneer and the true nature of the peaceful persuasion which had thrown SO many thousands out of jobs and robbed helpless workmen of millions of dollars in fees and dues But even if it be granted. as it never will be by me, that Senator Wagner honestly and sincerely

| didn’t then realize the consequences of his refusal.

it can’t be said that he doesn't appreciat s 1 et - sequences now. Yet he still has X on

nor voice to mend the act which bears his name, and

e plea i by our mutual friend Ray Carroll. DR Oy 23S Wehr

Business By John T. Flynn

Business Errs Thinking ''Self-Rule" |

Is the Way to Save U. S. Capitalism.

EW YORK, May 2 —One of the things which war aoes to a social order is to make cracks in the cement that holds it together. Into those cracks parasitic growths insert themselves, iater expand and

| presently crack up the very body of the structure itself.

One of the most important movement do not, of course, intend that. They have espoused this movements of the last 25 years is the one known as self-rule in business. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this movement. Many men believe it to be the last phase of the capitalist system in decline. The men who have fostered this movment do not, of course, intend that. They have espoused this movement as a means of saving the capitalist system. Nevertheless it has appeared in its fullest vigor in those countries in which the capitalist systema is either on its

| war out or is already practically dead.

On its face this is a very plausible plan ! It is founded on the mistaken notion that. the deadliest foe of capitalism is over-production. Over-production is supposed to be the child of too much competition. Therefore the WAY to save capitalism from this enemy is to curb competition and end over-production. This can be attained only by submitting the productive machine to rigid regulatich. And who is so well equipped to submit it to that regulation as the men who operate the machine?

The machine must be regulated. in the interest of

| restrained production, either by its operators—the | It

owners of the machine—or by the Government. the owners of the machine regulate it they will If the Govern-

interest of politicians or of cettain powerful pressure groups. But whoever regulates it. the motor power

| of capitalist enterprise will be stified. »

= » 3

HIS is a long story and is brought up here merely |

to recall an old story and record & new one.

The old story is that the first important effort to put |

into effect this “self-rule in industry”—which is the

economic system of Italy and Germanyv—was in the |

war under the guise of national defense and war production.

| industry.

RNO B. CAMMERER, who died the other day at his | home near Washington, had earned the gratitude of | the American people. For 22 years he was a high official | of the National Park Service, for another eight, he was its director. Many other men attracted more public attention, but few have been more enthusiastically faithful to a public trust. It was Director Cammerer’s good fortune to serve ! under an Administration which fully shared his vision: of | what the National Parks should be. During his directorship | the long-established reservations in the West were greatly | developed, and new areas, nearer to Eastern population | centers, were added, so that the visitors to the National Parke increased from about 3,000,000 to 18,000,000 a year. Te make the natural beauties and wonders of our country accessible to an ever-growing number of its people —that myst have peen a rarely satisfying careen

It is entirely possible that such a thing is inevitable |

under war conditions. But I believe it is also true that, when the war passes this time, the system will have so embodied itself in our national economy that it will never disappear again. In other words, what I am trying to say is that one almost inevitable effect of the war in this country is going to be a determined effort to introduce the system of corporatives, of the regulation of produce tion by organizations of producers under the direction of the Government—the Government's part growing stronger and stronger each year,

So They Say—

IN THE philosophy of the conquerors, an attack {8 justified whenever ahd wherever it looks easy and convenient and serves their purposes.—Secretary of State Cordell Hull,

WE DON'T know whether we will be demobilized Stephen J. Chamberlin,

in five er

.

.. THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

ifted neither hand i

Now we are informed that an attempt will be made to do the same thing in the motor |

Woe (OW wig

Bundles for America!

: 4 ertse /A

0

a F A F) yy t ‘ i;

I wholly disagree with what you say,

The Hoosier Forum

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

but will

UPHOLDING LINDBERGH'S RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH By Charles L. Pout, Indianapolis

Answering Pat Hogan who brags jof out-jackassing the jackass. If you are unable to understand or to agree with Col. Lindbergh or anyone | else. be careful about silencing them for that smacks of dictatorship. . . 1 be signed.)

Our right to disagee and express! i our opinions is the most cherished | | possession. It is liberty. Do you Axis without waiting for guns to] | not know that to silence him means|that of the fellow who does not beito silence you also? Take a tipi lieve we have a chance. It also in-| from Voltaire whose quotation heads cludes those who believe that we! | this Forum. If this country and its should arm to the teeth and stay out institutions are not governed by the of foreign wars. All of that opinion people who inhabit it then the js honorable, loyal and sincere. | ‘country of, by and for the people Somewhere between the two ends of | has perished from the earth. |the gamut good leadership finds its! $ 4 # ground on which it can unite the|

$ . people to work and to sacrifice for| DEFLORES ROUSEY ELT'S their common good. Both ends of] SLAM AT LINDBERGH that public thinking are a check] | By Voice in the Crowd, Indianapolis against erratic leadership, and that It is not well for America that|iS how our founders have set up our American citizens with minority | Protection. views be condemned for their think- | As one of the 22 million who voted | ing. The very foundation of a free against him, I am in sincere sym- | people is freedom to think and to|pathy with Mr. Roosevelt in his express their thoughts without fear hour of stress. I believe that every of oppression. Whether Lindbergh American should help him sincerely, lis right or wrong in his views, he is/he is our leader by will of the malan American citizen, he is entitled jority. I always feel badly, how-| ‘to his thoughts and the right to ex-|ever, when he becomes vindictive, | |press them, and irréspective of his because that does not lead him to| fame he is carrying exactly the same the common ground where all of our| | fight that his father carried on 25 differences can be forged into a | years ago. No one can prove yet that, united and voluntary effort. this father was wrong in his fight] against our involvement in the first! | World War,

| Taking into full account the ter-| : jrible nervous strain that Mr. Roose- By Logan H. Miller, Bloomington | velt must be working under, it seems Propaganda has been recognized below the dignity of his office that/as a dangerous weapon in both war he should condemn an individual | time and peace time, but how often | citizen as he has condemned Lind-| have our opinions on this or that {bergh, and so far as that is con-| phase of the. present conflict been| fcerned, many others who oppose colored by what can be identified] lonly as a misunderstanding of wnat

him. | If Lindbergh is right then a lot of | propaganda really is? Public opinion has

us are wrong. If he is wrong he {cannot possibly be more than 50% to such twisting that it has become] wrong. He certainly has had a betIter opportunity to inform himself ness that makes it effective, + On by intimate contact with all of the every hand somebody is called a | European countries, and to form a|“fifth columnist” or a Nazi; other) {better opinion than most of us ¢an | groups ban to eliminate a subversive | | form. | element that allegedly is prevalent) Public opinion includes every view-|in that vicinity. Many accusations) {point between that of the fellow of indifference to our own governwho believes that we can beat the ment are misplaced and often are

Side Glances = By Galbraith

(Times readers are invited their these columns, religious controversies Make your letters short, so all can |

to express views in

|

excluded.

have a chance. Letters must

g 4 & ATTEMPTS DEFINITION

OF PROPAGANDA

detrimental to all whose names are connected with it. Hence, a failure to definie terms involved becomes a major problem. It might rationally be said that “propaganda” is a term used to denote any opinion which might differ even slightly from that of the listener. A movie, a speech by :a man of note, a piece of literature, or

even a work of art might fall into]

this category. The gutteral cry of a disgruntled factory worker or that of a street cleaner might, under such an open acceptance, be called “propaganda.” This is a weakness in the American people—a weakness that is not considered in our educational system. A systematized program ot teaching which would separate in the mind of the student, or even in the mind of the citizenry, the true nature of propaganda in both its constructive and destructive aspects would go far in eliminating the chief fallacy in American thinking.

” ” ” AGREES WITH WILLIAMS ON WORKING HOURS By C. 0. T., East Chicago Maj. Al Williams is correct in his analysis of fatigue among me-

chanics and airmen. In my study of the physiology of exercise and

industrial fatigue I find an experi- |

¥

FRIDAY, MAY 2,

Gen. Johnson Says—

Our Boys May Be Willing to Fight as

Army Chiefs Say, but First They Should Have Modern Weapons.

ASHINGTON, May 2.—Gen. Twaddle is reported WwW to have told » Congressional committee that our new Army could fight tomorrow if it had te fight. That is probably, though not certainly, true. It may not be true because even the bravest new soldiers, if not expertly led and with a good basic training sometimes suffer panic—as our raw militiamen in the unsuccessful defense of Wash= ington in the ‘War of 1812 did and as happened to the Union Army at the first Battle of Manasses or Bull Run. Gen. Marshall says that the morale of these new levies is very high, which confirms nearly all other observations. That means that they are eager, obey regulae “tions well and complain little. NN. ii Gen. Marshall might have added that, because of the vigorous standards of examina=tions. this Army is the very cream skimmed off the top of American youth. These men are a joy to observe. : On the necessity for basic training, methods of

1941 |

XS

giving that have been speeded up greatly by the exe

periences of the World War. These boys are learn= ing fast. As to troop leadership in companies and flatoons, it would be a kind of miracle if this is as yet very good. Younger Reserve and National Guard officers usually do not have a proper chance to get more than a smattering or get-rich-quick course of training and a good Army officer's job is as much a profession as a doctor's

8 o .

EVERTHELESS, in this case also, methods of ine tensive instruction have been speeded and streamlined. Furthermore the raw material here, in physique, education, appearance and outlook is by far the best I have ever seen, But after considering all these pros and cons and trying to give each its fair relative weight, it is a little hard to see how Gen. Twaddle can say that this Army could fight tomorrow if occasion required. Sure it could fight and doubtless would even if it had nothing more than baseball bats and Irish confetti. But if there is one outstanding lesson of this war, it is that patriotism, bravery and physical condition alone are not enough. As this column has repeated probably ad nauseam, it is as cruel to send brave men, not similarly equipped up against modern motorized, mechanized, armored land and aerial equipment as it would be to send naked bow-and-arrow savages in canoes out against a battleship. On this score, it is grossly misleading to tell the American people that this Army could fight tomorrow if it had to do so. Recently in the New York Times there appeared an apparently inspired news release on American artillery. If you read that piece, it would be hard to escape the belief that careful long-term planning had kept our Army abreast of developments—for example in the necessity, now proved. for substituting 106 mm. howitzers for World War 75 mm. rifles,

T just isn't true. At the beginning of the present rearmament program, the War Department, ade monished by Congressional action and attitude not to expect substantial appropriations, recorded the facts of the proved superiority of the 106 mm. Howitzers but contented itself with a very modest request for money to recondition old World War M. M. S.,, many of which were sent abroad both be= fore and after Dunkerque and some of which were doubtless lost to Hitler. I doubt if this Army has more than a sample or two—maybe five—106 mm. Howitzers. I know that it hasn't more than a few samples of such 37-ton tanks as were reported from Greece as having, in: German hands, “crushed British lighter tanks like egg shells.” Troops have to be trained in the use of such weapons and you can't train them without the weapons. Whether in the air, on the ground, or in respect of guns back of the front, our Army has no more than samples—much less than enough to train these splendid specimens of young manhood—far more than much less to enable them “to fight if they have to do so.” With all our industrial resources, to send our American boys into battle with less than the best weapons that the science of armament has developed would be an unforgiveable crime. I can't agree with much that Col. Lindbergh says, but 1 do agree with him on our unreadiness to get into this bloody mess now. Those who overlook that truth are going to have a terrible accusation to answer if we do get in.

A Woman's Viewpoint

ment that was carried out in the| By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Zeiss lens works in Jena, Germany, | after 1870. |

The workmen there had worked 12 hours a day for many years, then | their work day was reduced to 8) hours. The result was more precision and greater quality in the lenses made and they actually produced more in eight hours than in the former 12-hour day because the workers had more time for re-| cuperation ana recreation and | culture of their lives, A

slave may pick cotton or a|

indefinite and has lost all the exact- man may shovel coal from sun up|

to sun down but if a machinist looks at “mikes” or calipers for| much more than five hours a day or 30 hours a week the job is not going to be A-1.° And the wages] must be $2 or more an hour. Take it or leave it.

. » » WANTS ALLEY OOP KEPT ON FUNNY PAGE By H. F. Scotten, 4116 E. 36th St.

These are serious times, and we have no time for fooling around. Why don’t you consistently keep Alley Oop on the funny page where he belongs? And by the way this might apply to Lester Gaylor, James

R. Meitzler, E. F. Maddox and Voice in the Crowd, et al. $

FROM OUR HOME TOWN By HARRY G. BURNS

In the strange land, Far and near, A familiar voice Is good to hear; And often times, Wherever we go, We chance upon Some frien® we know.

But North or South, 4 East or West; The one we always Greet the best, Is the fellow who Just happens down, From way back up In our own home town.

DAILY THOUGHT

But shun profane and vain babblings; for they will increase unto more ungodliness. — II Timothy 2:18.

SWEARING is properly a supers fluity of naughtiness, and can only be considered as a sort of peppercorn sent in acknowledgment of the

"| don't want to see it if it's one of those wat and thunder picturss—l gel enough of thet at hemel"

deyil’s right of superiority Robert

i ¥ %

They of | Y been subjected course got higher wages too. | §

{ |

HREE cheers for Mrs. Mary Ellis, dean of women at Cleveland College, who says modern students are too busy and too smart to be bad. I think she is right on both counts. You'll usually find the people who work with young people standing up for them, And one who spends a day or two in any high school or on any col lege campus ‘cannot but feel amazement at the tremendous amount of activity, It's like step= ping into a strange world which hums with energy und hope. And there's no ¢oubt about the kids being smarter. They know so much more at their age than their fathers and mothers did that it must cause some embarrassment to many elderly groups. Their advantages have been greater, of ©. course, but it seems to me their brains turn over twice as fast. At any rate, we are convinced that the badness of youth can always be traced to the mistakes of age— sometimes it seems as if the children get along. in spite of us, rather than because of us—which may be hard on our egos, but is bound to be good for our souls. The young wives show surprising good sense about homes and babies. They stand clear eyed against a hostile world, and because there are so many b problems to be faced they are not bothering abou the trivialities which upset their mothérs. They don't

particularly care whether their rooms have been done © by an interior decorator, or whether they can afford

service plates and oyster forks, but they do insist upon the proper formulas for the babies, The desire for “things.” which was such a fetish in the Twenties, no longer obsesses them. Therefore their attitudes are saner, and they have a better sense of life's values. I wish we could hear more often from women like Mrs. Ellis, who have faith in youth and are not afraid to express it. Marked and steady improvement is shown in high school groups when compared with those of a decade ago. And, given a decent break, tomorrow's children probably will be superior to those of today. In fact, IT wouldn't be surprised to find them adopting some of our abandoned mid- Victorian codes,

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

Questions and Answers

(The indianapolis Times Serviee Burenn wili answer any question of fact or (nformation, not involving extensive tee search. Write your questions cletrly, sign name and address, inclose a three-cent posiage stamp. Medical or legal advica eannet be given. Address The Times Washington Service Bureau, 1018 Thirteenth St, Washington. D. C.). Q—What is an estate in fee simple? A—An inherited estate belonging to the owner, heir and assigns forever. This is the most complet: and exclusive interest that the possessor of lands ca; have, J Q What railway statistics are widely used as A-—Many business analysts regard car-loading one of the best current indicators of business aetivity,

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