Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 May 1941 — Page 12

PAGE 12 The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE President Editor , Business Manager

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1941

TAX DEMAGOGUERY

IVE-SIXTHS of the personal incomes of the country escape Federal income taxation under the present law which exempts the first $2000 of married persons and the first $800 of single persons. If the law were changed, reducing the exemptions to $1000 for married persons and $500 for single persons, more than one-half the married couples and more than one-third of the single persons would still escape income taxation.

Yet when proposals are made to reduce the exemptions to those levels the many and loud demagogues cry out against what they call “taxing the poor.” But— If the Government is going to get revenue in the amount it requires, there is only one alternative to broadening the income tax base. That is to lay sales taxes on the things people consume. And sales taxes really pick the pockets of people who are poor—indeed, they take a much larger proportion from them than from the rich. Yet many of the same demagogues who protest against taxing more middle-class incomes in ratio to ability to pay, have no hesitancy in favoring hidden taxes which put the heaviest burden on those who are least able to pay.

REPORTER PEGLER'’S PRIZE

VV ESTBROOK PEGLER was a reporter long years before he became a columnist, and he’s never stopped being a reporter. He can put forward as many positive opinions as any other pundit, but he also has a great respect for facts and a tireless capacity for digging them up. We're proud, naturally, that Pegler has won a $1000 Pulitzer Prize. But the thing most pleasing to us—and, no doubt, to him—is that the award is “for a distinguished example of a reporter’s work.” Because we know that his articles on racketeering in labor unions, which brought him this honor, were above everything else a grand job of reporting. We know how hard he worked to copper-rivet every charge he made, before he made it. Reporter Pegler’s facts, not columnist Pegler’s opinions, exposed George Scalise’s slimy practices, and drove that ex-convict out of power over the union of scrubwomen and other building employees and landed him back in prison.

Scalise once whined that he was being “Peglerized.” It was true. Other crooks who have wormed their way into places of influence in organized labor have—and will have —reason to hate and fear Westbrook Pegler. But labor leaders who used to denounce Pegler as an enemy of their movement are becoming a little wiser, and are beginning to talk, in a few cases even to act, against those real enemies.

Many members of labor’s rank-and-file have known from the first, of course, that Pegler was not attacking unionism as such. They have recognized him as their defender, and in innumerable cases they have helped him to gather information for his articles. Much as he will value his Pulitzer Prize, we know that he values even more the confidence of these union members and their belief, which some day will be generally accepted, that he is equally entitled to recognition for a distinguished example of service to the cause of those who toil.

® 2 8 = ” ® The Scripps-Howard Newspapers are proud of Westbrook Pegler for winning this Pulitzer Prize for distinguished reporting in 1940. This same prize for 1939 was awarded to Burton Heath of Scripps-Howard’'s New York World-Telegram, for exposing the frauds perpetuated by Federal Circuit Judge Martin T. Manton. And the prize for 1938 was awarded to Thomas L. Stokes of our Washington staff for his articles uncovering political abuses of WPA in Kentucky. So we? take special pride in the fact that this high honor and recognition has gone for a third successive

year to one of our men.

GIVE THEM A CHANCE

HE many reports of shortages of skilled labor for the national defense program seem strangely inconsistent with the official statement that WPA has on its rolls, or eligible for them by reason of unemployment, 151,000 experienced mechanics and other industrial production workers. The WPA announcement adds that it also has 154,000 men with partial skills who could be quickly trained, and 31,000 more who are now being prepared for defense occupations on a nation-wide vocational training project. Industry would do well to give these men a trial. There is, unfortunately, some prejudice against hiring WPA workers, so long as it is possible to obtain workers who have not been on relief. But certainly it is unfair to blame men for staying on WPA while at the same time refusing them a chance for private employment. And certainly now, when the need for increased production is becoming more and

“more urgent, there is no good excuse for ignoring so large a group as the WPA listed.

AND NOBODY KNOWS

EVER since long before the present war began in Europe, estimates have been tossed around relating to German airplane production. Three thousand a month. Five thousand a month, Now comes Col. John H. Jouett, president of the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce, saying: “We are very near the British and German production rates, which are estimated at about 1500 a month.” Who is right in this matter we don’t pretend to know. But we do know Col. Jouett was surprisingly close in his estimate of American plane capacity, for the April production figures, just released, showed a total of 1493 planes. Whatever else it may mean, it also means that American production is very close to the point where it is bound to

be a real factor. And the figures are going up—steadily.

a

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Giving His Annual Lecture fo the Editors on the Use of Unconfirmed Rumor by Gossip Column Writers

EW YORK, May 6.-—This is my annual lecture to the newspaper editors, delivered in the tone and spirit of a professional newspaperman who perceives that the free press of this country has developed a disgusting vice which has degraded the character of our journalism and brought discredit on one of the most impor=tant institutions of the nation. When Harold Ickes sneers at the press we know he speaks from the heart of a man who tried to be a journalist and like so many other embittered casualties of competitive life, bears malice toward an occupation in which he was unable to distinguish himself. He has contradicted himself, moreover, in holding, once, that editors wrongfully suppressed opinions favorable to the New Deal and later, that the editors could not escape responsibility for expressions by columnists hostile to the Administration by pleading that they were merely providing a form for free discussion.

» ” ”

RATHER hold with Mr. Ickes’ second thought, that editors have a responsibility to the country and to the free press, to exercise careful judgment in editing, or, if you will, censoring matter which they buy from the package-goods syndicates. Of course that applies to these dispatches, because I am a columnist, or trained seal, and work under a constant awareness that it were wrong of me to use the white paper which is ordinarily allotted to me six days a week to blackguard personal enemies or advertise the careers or other interests of personal friends. Any man or woman who has been really schooled in the newspaper business as a reporter instinctively will investigate the facts of any given case and try to give a fair report, although, of course, some are more thorough and intelligent than others. Certainly there is no excuse for the daily presentation all over the United States of canned journalism produced by individuals who are notoriously dishonest and personally vindictive in print to persons who decently despise their loathsomeness. When it has been shown beyond question and without challenge, by chapter and verse, that a syndicate feature has a high-octane rating of deliberate falsehood, unconfirmed and scurrilous rumor, scandal affecting the reputations of women and psychopathic malice, and that the author of sucn filth has none of the qualifications which a city editor would demand of the greenest cub, the editor who attempts to evade his own responsibility makes himself a party to the offense against the public and the freedom of the press. And no editor among the many who are guilty of this practice can plead that he does not know the facts. They all know exactly what they are doing.

HEY know, moreover, that any reporter on their local staffs who habitually turned into the desk false reports affecting the reputations of local eitizens would be canned for cause. The explanation commonly given by editors and publishers for the printing of such bestiality is that it makes circulation and that if they did not publish it their rivals would. That, however only aggravates their offensive against the community in general and the press in particular. This is no proposal that discussion and opinion be suppressed or that journalistic initiative and enterprise be put down. Editors know the difference between discussion and opinion based on fact and legitimate controversy and the malignant exploitation of the personal envies and resentments of easily recognizable and notorious vermin. They can tell at a glance the difference between an honest professional job of reporting and a scandal picked up in a New York saloon and disseminated with hidden intent to injure a victim through the newspapers the country over. They have a professional duty to prevent this misuse of their columns. And American patriotism has become a dirty thing if it has sunk so low as to require stimulation through so vile an agency. It will be noted, I hope, as a measure of the sincerity and morality of Mr. Ickes’ frequent admonitions of our press that, although he has found much else to criticize, he has, by his silence on this most evil and humiliating vice of American journalism, indicated a tolerance for anything, however foul, which symathizes with his Government. Class dismissed.

Business By John T. Flynn

Indorsing Plan for a Commission To Study Local Taxes on Homes

NEW YORK, May 6—Men who own real estate and build houses to rent met recently in Washington and asked the Government to create a commission to study the subject of Federal, state and local taxation. The very thought of another commission will send creeps up the spines of most people. Yet here is really something that has to be done, and ought to be done now—a perfect occupation for some of those economists who are not fitted to hold Army commissions or take part in a war effort. It is a gigantic and a terrifying subject. There are about 174,000 bodies in America imposing taxes. Everyone has proceeded to tax along the lines of least resistance until a most astounding variety of foolish and oppressive taxes has been invented and levied.

It is saiq there are two schools of taxation. One school holds that taxes should be collected for Government revenue only, the other, that taxes may also with propriety and wisdom be levied to accomplish economic ends. To this latter theory there is the most violent opposition. But the simple truth is that there is no way to levy taxes without accomplishing economic consequences. And loosely, indiscriminately, unwisely laid taxes, though they may have no definite economic object in mind beyond collecting revenues, may accomplish the most devastating economic consequences. This is one of the things about which the tax conference that met in Washington was most concerned. A single instance is enough to reveal the basis of the concern. One of the deeply rooted causes at the bottom of our national depression—now some 12 years old—is the breakdown of the building industry. Many causes, in turn, are at the bottom of that. But local taxation is one of them. Cities assess their real estate. This is the chief source of their taxes. In the years before 1929, real

estate was rising steadily in value. City assessments |

rose to unprecedented heights. But since that time the whole price structure has been lowered, landlords cannot get the rents of 1929, real estate has declined enormously in value. But the assessments remain the same—utterly indefensible. Because assessments are so high it is next to impossible to get any sane man to invest in building operations on any important scale. Immense sums of money, immense labor and pother have been expended on subjects which are trivial beside this cne of local taxation. The real estate tax is in many respects an indefensible one as at present levied. The tax goes on, regardless of whether a man derives any revenue or income from his property. It is essentially a capital tax. A part of this can be defended, but it cannot be defended in toto and it is hard to defend it at all as an economic measure. Why not, therefore, a commission to study this and related problems and to search for means of correcting this grave condition?

So They Say—

EVERY place there is a Pole beats for liberty. —Wendell idential candidate.

* THE MA idols of America have been of

THE IN

DIANAPOLIS TIMES

| Bluebeard’s Wife

“Th

e Hoosier Forum

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

TAKING A SLAM AT MOUNTED POLICE FOR CITY

By Guy D. Sallee, R. R. 17, Box 96

Mounted Police reminds me of the pleadings of Richard III, who said “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” While the same request is now emanating from the Cross Roads of America, and in the center of the National Defense Industry. This appeal should produce a big sigh of relief from the Axis dictators that Indianapolis City Councilmen build modern airports, but just can’t give up the horse and buggy ideas—or is it another one of the politicians ways to spend the taxpayers’ money? We, who think, recall the old mule racket of politicians 25 years ago in the Street Cleaning Department, but the mule racket looks too

the Democratic Party so the City dads turn to horses—thence it becomes a horse on the taxpayers--if they are permitted to spend $16,400 from the gasoline tax fund for horses, instead of highways and street repairs. Wake up! having street sweepers’ dreams. . .

Indianapclis, you are

- & =» FEARS BRITISH DEFEAT UNLESS U. S. HELPS

By J. K., 120 S. 29th St., Lafayette

Rumor says that this country will be at war with Germany in 60 days and rumor may be right.

“ If the Western Hemisphere is to be safe, England must win against Hitlerism. But can she win alone? Already she has been shoved out of Europe, first from France, then from Holland, Denmark and Norway, now from Greece. Her final toe hold is Gibraltar, the gateway to the Mediterranean, and if Hitler marches an army through Spain and that goes, the British main line to the East will be broken. She is holding .ight like the bulldog she characterizes, but England needs help and lots of it—immediately. The supplying of military weapons to Great Britain is buf half the problem. The United States must see that the armaments reach her. To do that will involve this country so deeply that in all probability the declaration of war will be necessary, but that does not mean that an army would be sent across at once. It is not more manpower that England needs now so much as

much like the national symbol of |

(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.)

bombers and bombs, guns, ammunition, tanks, trucks, boats. She will need food and hospital supplies and above all the comforting knowledge that the United States of America will back her all the way. While it is evident that this country may enter the great contest raging so fiercely across the water in hope that the end may come more quickly with efficiency and finality, it is also obvious that if the United States remains neutral and uncertain the fire that is flaming can spread farther and faster than any man can fully realize.

# » » DENIES SAYING LINDBERGH SPOKE UNTRUTHS

By Pat Hogan. Columbus, Ind.

C. M. Hutton admits the bald stark truth that I am right in stressing the need for a jackass silencer; in fact Mr. Hutton agreed

unwittingly with all my views and contradicted his own logic. I did not accuse Mr. Lindbergh of stating untruths, but said: He is a victim of misinformation, halftruths, and political misfits who are using his past popularity as a front for their ill-advised schemes. Regardless of what Lindbergh saw in Germany and England, his opinions are not as reliable as the facts gathered by the thousands of specialists in the intelligence, consular and diplomatic service, and the American Legion. Certainly a million Legionnaires can’t be wrong. These boys are not little tin soldiers; they have faced fire at the front; they are living monuments to the eternal fact that Right is Might. Although Mr. Lindbergh may be covered with decorations, I cannot recall an instance when he was under fire, or even serving in war time. The American Legion’s five-point program published in The Times today should convince Lindbergh & Co. that the advertiser was right

Side Glances=By Galbraith

corn. sous BY NEA SERVICE, INC. ¥. M. REG. 4. 8. PAT. OFF,

"If you know how to rig a baby up, I'll buy whatever

1 you're selling!"

| unwarranted '|lupon our peoples by the Commu- | |nist invaders with the connivance

wher: he said: “You can teach a parrot to say ‘just as good’ but he doesn't know what he is talking about.” I suggest that all my critics clip that Legion program from The Times (May 3) and pin it in their hats. Even though they cannot understand invaluable opinions bred from heroism under fire at the front, some of it will surely percolate into their skulls.

">. a BALTIC AMERICANS BACK BRITAIN'S FIGHT

By Hardy President American Society,

Mr. William Philip Simms quotes in his article “Hitler's Plans” of April 24th, 1941, the information from Foreign Correspondence about the Estonian General Johannes Laidoner’'s alleged organization in | Eastern Prussia of a Baltic corps of volunteers to fight Soviet Russia under the direction of Hitler's Germany. As people who are well acquainted with the gruesome cruelties of the bolshevic terror in the Baltic countries during the first Russian invasion of 1919, we can realize that in their hate for bolshevism and its figly terror some people may forget all other considerations and in their short-sightedness embrace any opportunity to fight the Russians. During the first World War we saw analogous instances, when some people who had experienced the full measure of Russian brutality believed that their first object was to defeat the Cazarist tyranny of Russia. Although the information about Gen. Laidoner’s activities in Germany remains unconfirmed, I wish to state that the Baltic American Society, Inc., and the overwhelming majority of the Baltic peoples in America and at home repudiate and conderan any co-operation with Nazi Cermany, even against Russia. This is simply a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea, and either choice holds nothing but slavery and eventual extermination of Baltic peoples of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in store for them... We hold that in this titanic struggle of the forces of freedom and justice against the dark forces of totalitarianism no compromise, no appeasement is possible—all forces of tyranny must be eradicated and destroyed, lest Christian civilization, all human values, all liberty, honor and virtue shall vanish from our earth. In this dark hour of brutal and sufferings inflicted

Nurmsen, Baltic

Inc.

and support of Hitler, the Baltic peoples base their future hopes solely and squarely upon the inevitable

‘land final victory of the British Em-

pire and the forces allied with the British Empire in their heroic and magnificent struggle against the evil forces of tyranny and oppression, in their fight for freedom and justice for all people.

MAY MOVING PICTURE

By MARY P. DENNY

There is a picture of the May Shining ia spring day. On screen of brush and tree Shining in a glory free. Glint of robin in the light. Flash of cardinal shining bright. Flower of lilac and crocus Beaming over bed of moss. Flash of lightning in the air Thunder crashing everywhere. Sway of violet and blue bell In the far deep forest dell, Call afar of whippoorwill Dogwood blossoming on the hill, All the lights and sounds of spring. Everything that hath a wing Joins the pageant of May.

DAILY THOUGHT

The Lord is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.—Proverhs 15:29. 1 ” d » DO NOT PRAY for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers requal to your tasks.—Phillips

Cen. Johnson

Says— War May End in a Deadlock and

Our Position Will Be Weakened If We Continue Giving Away Arms,

ASHINGTON, May 6.—This “defeatist” idea of which the First Lady and others accuse Col. Lindbergh (maybe I should now say Mr. Lindbergh) requires a lot of definition. Who is going to be defeated? The Copperheads said the North was and we (the Federals, I speak for my grandfather on whose sword is engraved “Stand by the Union”) were at actual war. The only question is not at this moment where Amer= ica is to be “defeated.” It is whether the British Empire is te be defeated. Is a man a “Copperhead” to America because he expresses an opinion on that? As I undere stand Lindbergh, he doesn’t think that America can be defeated if it is promptly. and properly ree armed. Unless our allegiance has already been trans ferred to an alien nation, as many in Washington seem to think, to call a man a “Copperhead” because he believes and says that Britain may be defeated, is just about the limit of cockeyed un-American sen= timentalism. Defeated? What does that mean? If it means that England and all for which she stands is to he no more, I don’t know anybedy who believes that.

2 » »

DON'T want to make any invidious comparisons among my contemporary commentators but, with some little knowledge of the relative qualifications of the new and marvelous crop of so-called “experts” who have capitalized on the public's thirst for milie tary and naval advice, not even the best and most reliable believes that England can be invaded now. So far as I can gather from their writings, there is none who thinks that British catastrophes in the Mediterranean area, which now seem very likely, will mean the end of the empire. I believe also that this opinion of the best independents that we have is also the conviction of both our Army and our Navy high commands. This is not to argue against American aid to Britain insofar as it strengthens obstacles between us and Gerinany or Japan. It is intended merely to presenti a realistic view of what our own proper course should be. ” » ” T= war is likely to end in a stalemate—a balance of power with the whele world in an armed camp. To deny that possibility is not defeatism or to be a “Copperhead.” It is simply to lie. ,To overe look what our position must be in such an outcome is to stick our heads in the sand. We must be as strong as any other contestants. There is going to be a settlement of the world’s affairs at the point of the sword. We must be in an armed and armored position to say: ““We accept this; we refuse that.” We are in no such position now. We are not going to get in any such position by giving away our armae ment and arms as fast as we make them. We are not going to get that way by lying to the American people about (1) What we are actually doing abroad: (2): What our actual performance in rearmament is at home: (3) What is our intention and engagement with other powers before actual action, We are being lied to on all three scores as every informed observer in Washington knows. When peo ple begin to talk about defeatism and improper conduct of the press, it would be a swell idea for them first to wash their own hands—to inform the people honestly, in the first place, what they mean by ‘'‘de= feat” and, in the second, what they are doing in private that any press is misinterpreting in public.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

ELL, thank goodness, we now have statistics on a commonly accepted fact—that daughters are a good investment. The woman’s Bureau of the Department of Labor says figures prove it. In Utah and Ohio, where investigations have been carried on, it was found that one-third of the girls and only one-fifth of the boys gave two-thirds or more of what they earn to their families. Figures are dull things, and statistics usually leave me cold, yet behind this report can be sensed loyalty, nobility, and self« sacrifice, and they are always beautiful. You've known them—certain fine, conscientious women, some married, many other single—who Sid spend their lives doing for and giving to others. The business world is filled with girls faced with the sudden responsibility of keeping bread upon the tables of old or sick parents. They are kicked and cuffed around by persons who resent their intrusion. They are forced to meet difficult competition and unfair business practices and all sorts of hardships for which they are not con« ditioned. Some have been reared in the tradition tha¥§ woman's’ place is always in the home even if the cupboard is bare. Perhaps they have seen their mothers living a comparatively sheltered life. Some may have looked on while those protected woraen lost their protecto:'s and had to meet the emergency of earning a livelihood, unequipped with anything save their own courage. Yes, each of us, every day, rubs shoulders with heroines. They jostle us in crowds; they serve us in shops and stores and restaurants. They wash our clothes and scrub our floors and make our beds in hotels. Often they are as unaware of their heroia qualities as we are, but that makes them none the less real. \ It seems a greaty pity that we spend so little time looking at obscure people who are truly great, Instead, we chase notables for autographs, worship notoriety seekers and bow humbly before the shoddy, the false, the selfish and the rapacious. The art of giving is the noblest of attributes, And somehow women have developed this art to a greater degree than men. Daughters have always been a good investment even when, as babies, they were drowned because there were too many of them, I think they always will be, and in more than a material sense.

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

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information, not Involving extensive tee .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—Would a thermometer exposed to the sky on a clear, calm night show the temperature of the sure rounding air? A—Under these conditions, the thermometer would lose heat by radiation to the sky and would show a temperature lower than the actual temperature of the surrounding air. In other words, the exposed thermometer merely indicates its own temperature, which may be 1, 2 or even 3 degrees lower than the temperature of the air, depending on the humidity and type of thermometer. Q—Does the Secretary of the Interior have authority to close the oil fields? : A—He does not have authority to control production on private lands, but can shut down the fields operating on public lands. Q—Is “than whom” correct in the following exe pression: “Than whom no one knows better.” A—-This combination appears to violate grammatical construction; nevertheless it is generally accepted and it seems impossible to suggest a substitute. only alternative appears to be to recast the sentence. a RR er way) Shera e ‘ ‘ : : A—The plural is rights of way,