Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 May 1941 — Page 8

PAGE 8

The Indianapolis Times

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«> RILEY 81

Give Light and the People Wilt Fina Their Own Way

SATURDAY, MAY 3, 1941

“THE BEAVER” MOVES UP ITLER'S pet propaganda jibe is that the dry-rot democracies can't create dynamic leadership. So it was rude of old England to confound Der Fuehrer by giving command to the anti-Nazi crusader whose leaderghip he most hated and feared. The name was Churchill. Churchill put on his right hand an old political and class opponent, the labor leader Bevin, and on his left the business leader Beaverbrook. These three are as different in tradition and training as men can be. The views of the aristocrat Churchill, the laborer Bevin, and the rich Canadian immigrant, varied as widely as their origins. But they have one dominating trait in common. They are fighters. Like other leaders from the beginning of time—including Hitler—they have a super capacity of energy, of initiative, of courage. Also like Hitler and the other German leaders, Goering and Goebbels, these three Britons are held together by a force stronger than their individual differences. The triune German leadership is cemented by a fanatical faith in dictatorship, their dictatorship. The hyphen in Churchill-Revin-Beaverbrook is love of liberty, the despised democracy which Hitler et al. would destroy. n

And now “the Beaver’—as the bald little hell-raiser of Fleet Street is called—has moved up to second in command with Churchill. When the job was to get more planes fast, he produced. Now that the job is to do for all industry and the home front what Beaverbrook did for planes, he has been raised from Minister of Aircraft Production to Minister of State—a new and uncharted deputy premiership. His life is so improbable not even Horatio Alger would have dared to write it, and Hitler can’t be blamed for doubting it. Born William Maxwell Aitken in Canada, son of a poor Presbyterian parson, newsboy at 6, bottle-washer at 18, law student flop, sewing machine salesman, banker's flunky, promoter, business merger wizard, successful suitor of a major general's daughter, and before 30 a multimillionaire! The Canadian then loyally invaded a correct London, with the American drive and bluster supposedly so distasteful to the English—who loved it. In that World War, as protege of Bonar Law, he helped to make the dynamic Lloyd-George Minister for War and then Prime Minister. He became a peer and Minister of Information. After that war he bought the Daily Express, and over the years became the first press lord of England. = LJ

n This impish whirlwind of a man moves so fast, in breaking bureaucrats and cutting red-tape, he makes many enemies and more mistakes. But he almost always manages to net a success. One of his worst mistakes was the myth that Hitler would never fight Britain. Now he is making up for that by driving defense. Another mistake was his early certainty that Britain would not need large American production. But his severest critics grant that, in all the Empire, he has few equals in efficient and daring leadership. Hitler

knows it, too.

DON'T LET THAT CAT START

ETAIL merchants meeting in Washington yesterday were told by the Government's price administrator, Leon Henderson, that they are expected to avoid and resist practices that create pressure for higher prices. Such practices, said Mr. Henderson— “ _. advance the cost of living without justification, feed the demand for wage increases and force prices up further. Once that particular cat begins chasing his tail around the circle the only way to stop him is to cut his tail off.” He added that he isn’t eager to perform this operation, but that if it becomes necessary he can and will undertake to regulate retail prices as well as wholesale, difficult as the problems of administration would be. In this case, Mr. Henderson's statements could hardly be called a warning. The merchants he addressed were as aware as he is of the urgent necessity for preventing unjustifiable advances in the cost of living. The prime purpose of their meeting was to obtain, from Government sources and from leading manufacturers, accurate information for use in shaping their buying and selling policies in the present emergency to avoid another ruinous price runaway like the one during and after the last war. What the retailers learned was reassuring. The nationaldefense effort and the program of aid to Britain will demand sacrifices. But we still have surpluses of manpower, of many raw materials that go into consumer goods and of machines to produce such goods. By careful management, by far-sighted business operation, both defense and civilian needs can be supplied, now and so far as it is possible to gee into the future, without bringing on the disaster of price inflation.

HINT FOR LABOR PEACE

A LITTLE more than two years ago Toledo launched, amid widespread skepticism, a plan for a local board to mediate, conciliate and peacefully settle labor disputes. Result: Toledo has had only 15 minor strikes in the last 28 months. There is no magic in it, no “open sesame” in the simple plan of a local board from which panels try to adjust disputes. Success has come not from a technique, but from a spirit. First, Toledo had a series of strikes so disastrous that they pretty well showed both sides that there was no future in them. That brought (the hard way) a certain mutual willingness to seek a better road. ‘Then the local board gradually built up a reputation for fairness, which slowly brought about a tendency to trust it. And lo, without any magic machinery or trick laws, Toledo finds that it has something. a

v \

Indiana, 68

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

, Arizona's Boosters Are Too Modest, They May Even Take a Belittling Attitude Toward State's Beauties.

UCSON, Ariz, May 3.—As I was

saying, Arizona is a fascinating state, and it is literally true that been blooming wi

on Park Ave, New York, in winter —and with a startling display of cactus flowers, including the hedgehog, which looks like a porcupine, but puts out a blossom the size and shape of a tulip and the color of an orchid, All this is very beautiful, but the beauty is no more than the candor of the residents, relatively few of whom are natives, who give frank warning that the desert may not bloom like this again for a dozen or 20 years because rain makes flowers and the rains of this winter were uncommonly heavy. Even men with land for sale as home sites have said, in heretical violation of the canons of the real estate business, that next winter may produce no such loveliness. And, unlike the Florida breed of acreage huckster, they speak very matter-of-factly about the rattlers which abound in spring, summer and fall and command the earnest respect of one and all. The gila monster, now, though common and hideous and venomous, is despised rather than feared, and people don’t even bother to kill him, whereas the

rattler is done to death on sight if a rock to ‘throw

is handy or a spade or pick or gun. = = =

ILL JOHNSON, the local editor, says he found a coral snake under his bedroom rug. In Florida an editor would be ridden out of town for saying that, But beauty is emphasized by contrast, and the glories of the desert now are not superior to those of the New York and New England countryside in summer or in the fall, when the paint is on the trees. The people who most appreciate the desert flowers have come abruptly from snow, sleet and fog, and so they gasp and babble and torment themselves with mental pictures of an existence away from it all where food, land and housing are cheap and the war is only a momentary fret, morning and evening, when the papers come out with faint echoes of a distant storm.

There are several varieties of away-from-it-alls, the two most pathetic being the wretched invalids who close in from all directions knowing, most of them, that even if they check the ravages of disease they must star here, and the social and economic neurotics who come out a from it all and yet bring it all with them, inclubling servants and the responsibilities, vain snobberies and tax fears of the Eastern suburbs and resorts. The war is far away, to be sure, but very day Army planes rise from the flat beyond Tucson and whip away over the mountains on training missions which are meaningless to the civilians who turn to look. And down at Ft. Huschuca, an old cavalry post, commanding the approaches to the Mexican border, two regiments of Negro infantry are training in a wild and desolate region where the last Apache scouts in the American Army are serving in the status of enlisted men as guides in the mountains,

[ERE are eight of them living in a little ’dobe settlement of their own on the post under command of an Indian sergeant named Riley who turns them out in war bonnets, paint and circus regalia for occasional ceremonies. Corporal Major is second in command, and another of the braves has no name but a number. Having completed an appearance for the newsreels or other special dress occasions, Sergt. Riley casually removes his headdress and, with it, a horsetail wig held together by a hair net, tucks it under his arm and returns to his ‘dobe to resume his Army uniform. The feathers seem to be strictly scenery of each man’s devising, for Sergt. Riley says the Apaches never did wear bonnets or other frippery. The garrison regiment, so to speak, is the 25th Infantry, organized of colored freemen in New Orleans in 1866, which fought at San Juan Hill and in the Philippines. And Col. Lee Davis, the post commander, is forming another, the 368th, and filling the 25th with recruits to replace experienced men lost in raids on his regular strength to serve as sergeants and corporals in other new regiments in other parts of the land. His morale problem seems unusually hard, for Tombstone is far away and nothing when you get there, and Bisbee and Nogales, which straddles the border, are a long way, too, and offer no entertainment that is good for any soldier.

Business By John T. Flynn

Sailors Now Happy in Shipyards Herald New Phase of Labor Troubles

EW YORK, May 3.—In scores of spots, along scores of levels, the ancient laws of human nature and of economics are at work. And from these one may see how the unsettling of the price level at any one point tends to communicate its unbalance to others and finally to touch off the whole series of disturbances which ends in real trouble. Take the business of ships. America is building ships on a gigantic scale. Soon these ships will be coming off the ways. As they do they will need men—seamen, marine engineers, etc. The supply of seamen in America has been kept down by the limited amount of ships we operate. Hence, now when there is an immense expansion of shipping, there are not enough seamen. The Martime Commission has been wrestling with this problem, and here is what tums up. Samuel Hogan, of the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association, informed the commission—and he was confirmed by the representative of the Seamen’s Union—that the marine engineers and the seamen have gone to work in the shipyards. = EJ = OW, then, are men to be attracted back from the profitable shipyard jobs at high wages and plenty of overtime to the modest wages of sea-going workers? The Government cannot very well draft these men. It cannot say to workman getting $45 or $60 a week that he must quit that job in civil employment and go to another job in civil employment at $25 a week or less. So what is the remedy? Of course, needing the men, the ship companies will have to offer higher wages. Thus we see the first signs of shat vicious circle which soon wili grow more vigorous and wider —the industries in the war effort bidding against each other for men. The next phase will not be long delayed. The immense sums being spent for producing war materials is finally finding its way into retail trade. And soon we will see retail merchants clamoring for goods from the manufacturers of peacetime goods and these manufacturers going out into the market for labor —and having to bid against the war and semi-war industries. This is the point IT have been warning 8 So many are worried about demands for wage increases by labor unions that they overlook this far more serious force. This will be in the voluntary offers of wage increases by producers in order to attract workers, The first force has already begun. It will run, as surely as life, through all its phases.

So They Say—

A TRAINED man is certainly more important than a new machine, Machines can be created by trained men and only by them, but they become obsolete, whereas engineers continue their creative ability. —Wilfred Sykes, Inland Steel Co.

INTENSIFY your will, oppose Greek pride to force and enemy temptations. Have courage days will come again. Long live the nation.— § George's farewell to Greece. '

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The Hoosier Forum

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

DESERTS F. D. R. OVER LINDBERGH INCIDENT

By M. P. Crowe, Hotel ‘Haute. Being a native of the Deep South, very naturally in the past I have been a “shirt tearer” for Roosevelt. No longer am I a dupe.

To me it is utterly incredible that we could have elected a man so small to such a high office. To think of a man we elected to such a high office calling Lindbergh a Copperhead for an expressed opinion. It appears to me that Mr. Roosevelt isn't a Copperhead, he belongs to the same type that Benedict Arnold portrayed many years ago. The latter was piqued because of a lack of recognition. The former taking office the same year that Hitler came to power in Germany, seeing the attention of the world centered on him, is indicating the same traits, “Selling his nation to the British.” I charge Mr. Roosevelt with gross incompetence. His election a huge joke. He has the crust to appoint Madame Perkins Secretary of Labor, He sires a family of headline hunters. Instead of giving them fundamentally sound training so that they could be worthy citizens of a great nation, he and Mrs. Roosevelt turn them loose as Eleanor, Elliot and James, characterless individuals that can't even abide their most sacred vows. ...

Deming, Terre

8 8 RESENTS ‘SMEAR’ AGAINST LINDBERGH By Mary J. Hayes, 101 N. Drexel Ave.

That famous “purge”—now Lindbergh! “Oh, so he doesn’t agree with us. Well, off goes his head.” That's what it would be in Russia; but here with our Administration leaders, it's the well known famous “smear campaign” and “purge” for those who oppose the things being said and done to misrepresent the people in America today. Because real patriots and real Americans speak the truth; truth which is not pleasant, either to read or to hear, they are “smeared” in the most cunning and diabolical and cowardlike manner. Years before, Lindbergh demonstrated his remarkable and outstanding courage and rightfully was called “The Lone Eagle” and now because he is exercising that same characteristic which we all so much admired, and legions of us still do,

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

are used to “smear” him by the mis-representatives of the American

people. Like father, like son. Lindbergh's father was crucified along with others who tried to maintain peace in this country in the last world war. The greatest promoter of peace who ever walked this earth was also unjustly crucified. History surely repeats itself many, many times. Each one should stop and ssk himself before criticizing Lindbergh if the truth is any less true because it is not what we want to hear. It is a sad day indeed for America when men of Lindbergh's caliber are not appreciated for their real worth, and when men who would inflict untold misery, war, bloodshed, and all companion evils, and who would bring such chaos to this country, are believed before real Americans and real Christians such as Lindbergh. May God bless him and his efforts.

2 = ” TERMS LINDBERGH EDITORIAL INSULT TO AMERICANS By Carl Dawson Spencer, 57 E. Maple Rd. Breathes there an American with soul so miasmic as to write that editorial of today glorifying Lindbergh.

Why do you not, at this time, ensconce the portrait of Der Fuehrer at your masthead? When, in the history of American journalism, has such maudlin rot been permitted to make the editorial page of any metropolitan daily as that reference to the 30,000 prize fight fans, standing silent, praying for the safety of the boy Lindbergh—on his craftily planned publicity stunt flight, which, as every newspaper man in America knows—stole the show from a man who had announced his intention of attempting such a flight within the next few days. Would it not be timely for the sons and daughters of that 80,000 to pray for the soul—today—of the man who could lower himself to write such an editorial? Sir, your Lindbergh editorial is an

every means—not fair, “but foul—

insult to every loyal American.

Side Glances=By Galbraith

"| probably would have amounted to something if | had gone to

college and studied—but somehow | could never

-—

spere the time,"

OFFERS A SUGGESTION ON ‘JACKASS SILENCER’ By Charles M. Hutton, Greenfield.

I would like to answer a letter of a Mr. Pat Hogan of April 29. Mr. Hogan, your first statement saying we need a jackass silencer is very good. You could call it a donkey if you wanted to be Hide Park, Mr. Hogan. You say Mr. Lindbergh is mis< informed and relates untruths. May I ask which one of Messrs. Hull, Knox, Stimson, or their boss has seen and been shown one-tenth of what Mr. Lindbergh has and was in Germany, England, etc.? And would he do it deliberately, Mr. Hogan? What for? He's a wealthy man; he’s covered with decorations already. And do you suppose that the ambassadors and intelligence departments of the English Government in which Messrs. Hull, Knox, Stimson dwell and with whom they are so chummy, would tell them if they were losing? Did the French tell them? If so, why didn’t they tell us? We are the Government, Mr. Hogan, not they. And who asked Lindbergh for his views? No one, Mr. Hogan. Mr. R. asked his opinion. Did he expect to be told they were wonderful, but not so when compared with Germany’s The reaction of a five-year-old, Mr. Hogan. You ask if Lindbergh thinks the lone eagle stunt is still a good drawing card. Not he. But Mr. R. has for the last nine years, and it has been, for there have been too many like you to kneel to him. You are correct when you say there is need of unity in the U. S. Granted, Mr. Hogan. But there never will be. For there will always be those who think as you, and there will always be those like me

nothing to do with you. & #4 & CITES RAISES GRANTED BY FORD AND WEIR By James R. Meitzler, Attica That staunch upholder of organizrd labor and all its works, right or wrong, Mr, Taylor of Morgantown, makes two points. He advances that moth eaten and unproved claim, used to rouse the rabble by street corner windbags, that 4 per cent of the people control the country’s wealth. Only usually they claim it is one-half of one per cent. He says if it were not for labor unions the daily wage would be a dollar. More than 20 years ago that stiff necked foe of labor organizations, Henry Ford, voluntarily and before any other large employer, paid his lowest priced workers $5 a day. Last week, while “big steel” and the unions were deadlocked on the 10e¢ per hour increase demand, Ernest T. Weir announced a 10c per hour wage raise in his non-union plant. The facts are that the men who have been sabotaging the country’s defense industries are the: best paid workers in the world. And as long as they commit acts for which the ordinary citizens would be jailed they are going to be condemned by the great majority. There are too many people who do not believe being on a strike or a union card justifies or gives the right to commit criminal acts.

ONE KNEW By MARY JOSEPHINE CAREY

Three stood gazing at the sky— One saw the moon blaze forth, as a cloud sailed by; One caught the drift of an uttered prayer; One clasped fondly a sweetheart there; And pledged a troth forever true; Only One knew the things that the others knew.

DAILY THOUGHT

For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.—Mark 3:35. IF WE LOOK closely at this world, where God seems to be utterly for-

gotten, we shall find that it is He, who, after all, commands the most fidelity and the most love.—~Madame Swetchine,

and Mr. Lindbergh who will have] §

Says— “'l Ain't Mad at Nobody,' He Says,

In Giving His Side of Roosevelt's Refusal to Renew Commission.

ASHINGTON, May 3.—In a very flattering fashion, requests are piling up that I write a column roaring about the President's refusal to renew my commission as a general officer in the regular Army Reserve. This I cannot do for several reasons. A first and, standing alone, a sufficient one is that conducting a column of comment on current events is a high privilege and a kind of public trust. A man may properly use it to express his pri vate opinion on other matters but has no business to use it to ade vance his private interests. A second reason, equally sufficient, is that this minor matter was treated with remarkable fairness and more extensively than it : deserves by all the press with no lise exception of which I am aware.. Apart from these, “I ain't mad at nobody.” I: didn't seek or want any publicity on this affair. - The story broke and a press conference, not sought by me, was unavoidable. I felt a deep hurt at heazt, but that was simply because I have been part of and devoted to the Army since I was 16—or if you: count National Guard service—14 (42 or 44 years), But in view of the ocean of far more poignant heartaches, mine is nothing,

» ” » URTHERMORE, the President was completely within his rights. Some of my telegrams express indignation that I was “dismissed from the service.” That is not true. A Reserve commission expires every five years. My commission expired and the President simply failed to renew it. This is the cus= tom and the law in many kinds of public office, and never before did I hear such a hullabaloo about the President's exercise of that discretion. Cries that mine is another “Lindbergh case’” are equally mistaken, The President never called me, by implication, a Copperhead. So far as I know, he has never published about me an unkind word although he has had provocation—and may have it again. Furthermore, I didn't resign, On the contrary, I applied to be reappointed. In my unavoidable press conference, the only thing I criticized was Mr, Early's statements, as reported to me, of reasons for the rejection—that I am physically unfit, have had no contact with the Army for the many years of my Reserve commission, and that the Army did not want me. I had to answer all three of these published statements because none is true. I tried to check up with Steve Early before comment but couldn’t reach him on the telephone, although I dodged contact with the press until 4:30 p. m, after being besieged for a statement from 4 a. m. Steve had taken a much needed day off.

ATER, Mr. Early called me and said that he had not made some of these statements and that others had been misinterpreted. He offered to send me an official transcript of exactly what he did say. I declined. Steve is one of the most forthright, honest and courageous officials in Washington. His word is good enough for me on anything any time. As far as I can learn, by both Mr. Early, and Maj. Gen, (Pa) Watson (the President's other aid) this matter was handled with great fairness and sympathy for me. So, to repeat, “I ain't mad at nobody.” I have criticized and will continue to criticize what I think is wrong but I can’t be laying down any personalized barrage when I think that the only wrong thing is that my own toes have been stepped on. A Reserve commission is a matter of no importance. It just means that you are subject to call for service in an emergency. Commission or no commission, I owe too much to this country not to consider myself subject ta call for any duty any time. The only thing that sticks in my craw and that maybe I can be forgiven for correcting is the published impression that I have not kept in touch with the Army and the military profession. I have repeatedly been called back, year after year, to lecture at West Point and the Army War and Industrial Colleges. I have participated in Army planning. B. M. Baruch and this writer in association have devoted nearly all of our spare time for 20 years to studies of our problem of military supply. But what the hell? It's all water over the dam. Sere are too many more important things to think about.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

HE high school auditorium vibrated with that buzzing made by a large crowd settling itself for entertainment. To me it is the pleasantest of all’ sounds—Ilike the happy humming of overgrown bees. The hall was filled with thousands of parents and relatives who had come osténsibly to see the show, but in reality to be in at the public triumph of “Our Child.” Here and there a face would light up, and one knew that person's Johnny or Peter or Peggy or Sue had stepped onto the stage, On heard little catches of breath, light laughs, smothered giggles, but underneath could be felt the swell and surge of pride— the enormous, exhilarating, throbbing pride of parenthood. : There's literally nothing like it. Nothing so fatuous—or so sweet. Other people's children may be cute or talented or lovely, but, by George, yours are wonderful. You know that every youngster making an entrance is followed by loving eyes, for while your own son or daughter is on the stage it might as well be empty of everyone else, so far as you are concerned. “There’s the Smith girl,” you babble. “She's pretty, isn’t she?” But all the time you are thinking, “Just wait until Janet comes—our Janet.” And a lump hurts your throat because you love her so much. Women's glances caught and held for a moment the proud look of fathers. Once or twice a midfleaged couple would surreptitiously squeeze hands in a gesture which repays men and women for every trouble and sacrifice of life. A high school entertainment cannot be called a world-shaking event. But to parents it may be something quite as important. I'm as bad as the rest, and not ashamed to confess it. When Tom's red head appeared, my heart did a flip-flop and sang its own secret hossannahs. I knew every other mother in the vast auditorium was enjoying the same sensation. Something strong and sweet bound the group together—parental love and pride in the young of our community. In a manner of speaking, we were caught up into clouds of glory—and I know that isn’t as silly as it sounds. Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists in "this newspaper are their own, They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times

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 legal advice eannot be given. Address The Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 Thirteenth St, Washington, D. C.). Q—When did the railway era begin in America? A—In 1830, when the first common-carrier raile roads were opened. By the end of the year twentythree miles of railroad were in operation in the United States. Q—Was President Wilson a poor man at the time of his death? A—Former President Woodrow Wilson left an estate valued at more than $600,000. Q—-Did Stephen Collins Foster write most of his songs in the last four years of his life? ¥ A~From July, 1860, until his death in 1864, he wrote 105 songs, more than half his total production, = » i