Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 May 1941 — Page 14
PAGE 4
The Indianapolis Times
(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager
Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co, 214 W. Maryland St.
. Member of United Press, Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alitance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations.
cents a month.
> RILEY 851
Give Light and the People Will Find Thew Own Way a
WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1941
IT MEANS WAR RESIDENT ROOSEVELT said convoys mean shooting and shooting means war. His Se¢retary of War Stimson declares for convoys— now. The Constitution of the United States says: “The Congress shall have power to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water.” Obviously therefore, since the issue of war has been laid down by the Secretary of War, it should go to Congress which under the Constitution has the final responsibility and is under constitutional mandate to say Yes or No. The decision will be the most important since the one made by Congress on April 6, 1917.
PEPPER AND ASPHALT
LAUDE PEPPER, the Florida flame-thrower, made quite a speech in the U. S. Senate yesterday. The American people, he proclaimed, are ready to “spill their blood” in “as Holy a cause as that of the knight who sought the Holy Grail.” He was prepared to go beyond convoying and “hunt the submarines down as the hounds hunt the hare.” He wanted collaboration with Britain in occupying Dakar, the Azores, the Canaries, the Cape Verdes, Greenland, Iceland, Singapore and way points. He also wanted American pilots made available to China, and he thought it might be a lesson to the Japanese if “50 moders bombing planes with Americans at the throttles,” dropping bombs in “an inadvertent way,” happened to “make a shambles out of Tokyo.” : - Yep, Senator Pepper really warmed up. And there are other causes—hardly so holy—in which this torrid Tallahasseean can get plenty hot. For instance, asphalt. The Government took bids on 3,600,000 gallons of asphalt for the Army Air Corps’ Eglin Field, being built by the WPA in Florida. Work on this particular defense project was delayed for four weeks while Senator Pepper used his political influence—and, since he’s also red hot for the New Deal, that influence is great—in an effort to have the business withheld from the low bidder and given to Pan-American Oil Co., which had asked $55,000 more. Pan-American is represented by a member of the Senator's old law firm. Reporter Thomas L. Stokes has described the details of this curious matter, and we'll not dwell on them here. Our sentiments were expressed by an officer from the Army
Corps of Engineers who, having looked into the facts by |
order of Assistant Secretary of War Patterson, commented: “It stinks.”
SPEAKING OF SACRIFICES XCERPT from the statement of Assistant Secretary of
the Treasury John L. Sullivan, explaining the Admin- |
istration’s new tax increase proposals: “During the past few months hundreds of thousands of young men have been inducted into the armed services of the United States and have entered training camps. In doing so they have foregone earnings in civilian occupations and now receive a basic pay of $30 per month. Whether these men came from farms, factories, banks or professional offices, they have surrendered a far greater part of their potential earnings than will be called for from anyone under this bill. The (unmarried) man who earns a net income of $2500 outside the armed services has $2230 left after payment of the proposed income tax. If he is in the armed service his income will be $360. The man who earns $5000 in civilian life will have $4252 left, as contrasted to the €360. Or if lie earns $10,000 he will have $8042 left. The taxes called for by these proposals are light indeed as compared to the sacrifices which large numbers are undergoing in entering military services.”
POLITICS IN A TEPEE
EING strong supporters of the Hatch Law, maybe we ought to be indignant about the latest scandal disclosed by Republican House Leader Joe Martin. If Europe and Asia weren't on fire and the flames licking toward us, if the parties involved had such prosaic names as John Jones and Joe Smith, perhaps we could work up a proper show of indignation. But the allegations are that Robert Yellowtail, superintendent of the Crow Indian Reservation, on the night of July 3 last, entered a tepee at the Blackfeet Indian encampment at Browning, Mont., and, addressing various assembled Red Men, spoke as follows: “The particular purpose of my coming here is to remind you people of Roy E. Ayres and to be sure to vote for him, and another person I want you people to vote for is President Roosevelt, be sure to vote for him. And I don’t want you people to miss voting for another man, B. K. Wheeler, and last I want you to vote for James F. O'Connor. These four people I want you to vote for and re-elect, this is the particular purpose of my visit. I don’t want you people to make this public that I am electioneering for these candidates as it is against the rules and regulations of my office. I am leaving soon for the National Democratic Convention in Chicago.” The affidavit is sworn to by Pete Red Horn and Black Weasel. Middle Rider and Juniper Old Person are also declared to have been present at the time and place of this alleged breach of the Hatch Law. Conditions being what they are at home and abroad, the best thing we can think of to do with this sensational disclosure is to file it for the record. If another election year rolls around and we feel we can again indulge the luxury of getting mad about politics, we'll pull this case out of the files and check up to see whether Robert Yellow-
tail is still pursuing pale
in outside of Indiana, 6
Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler
Lindbergh and Wheeler May Be Wrong, But Have Right to Speak; Indecent Name Calling Is No Reply
EW YORK, May 7.—There has been a note like the growl of a mob forming in a dark street in the controversy over the beliefs and activities of Charles A. Lindbergh and Burt Wheeler. To make matters worse, the loudest voices are those of individuals who discredit and embarrass any cause to which they attach themselves. Lindbergh and Wheeler, opposing participation in the war on patriotic grounds, were bound to discover in their following all the conspirators of the antiAmerican bund and the equally traitorous though less effective fascist Italian groups. The mission of these people is to aggravate quarrels between Americans and to prevent the delivery of effective help to Britain. Whether Lindbergh and Wheeler like such company or not, they cannot elude them. But the attacks on these men for their beliefs have been outrageous and are growing more indecent day by day. The United States is not at war, and anyone who believes Britain can’t win, with or without our help, and we couldn't win a fight with Germany and Japan certainly has a right to say so.
call such a person a Fifth Columnist, which means traitor and nothing else, is to abandon intelligent discussion and resort to name-calling. This, as President Roosevelt, paradoxically, pointed out in one of his big speeches, is sure proof that the offender has run out of legitimate arguments. Moreover, the patriotic records of these two men compare very well with that of any individual in the war party. The counter-blast of “war-monger” is just as bad. I am convinced that Lindbergh and Wheeler are wrong in «believing this nation could live free and prosperous in the same world with a victorious Hitler. But I agree that after we have fought in the war, as I believe we will, we will have neither freedom nor prosperity even though we should win. It is idle and baffling to try to foresee the future, but it is just as futile to believe that, after this war, either Britain or this country will resume the familiar ways of freedom for which we think the British are fighting. before the war began, we were inching along toward compulsion and restrictions on the people and confiscation of property. What, then, would be the sense of fighting at all? The answer is that Hitler's treatment of the Poles has shown what we could expect from a victorious Germany, whereas if he is put down we make our own future, whatever that may be. And I don't forget that Hitler and the German nation made this war, and that their ambition to rule the world is the challenge which makes it necessary for relatively free peoples to fight. = 2 ”
UT, like the bridge which rocked itself down at Tacoma, we are losing our equilibrium in this debate over the position of Lindbergh and Wheeler. The intelligegnt phase of the discussion apparently has left most of the people convinced that Lindbergh and Wheeler are sincerely mistaken. But a few loud members of what might now reasonably be called the war party have been dealing in dirty personalities and aspersions on the courage of men whose bravery is permanently established. And the principal source of this hysterical abuse is a spring or sewer from which pollution has been flowing into our journalism and radio entertainment, and thus into our national character, in a steady stream for years. That contamination now is apparent on almost
| every page and in the most casual conversations and
in the Government, too. It will be a sad day for American freedom when honest, intelligent discussion is howled down by mere clamor not unlike the voice of Dr. Goebbels.
Business By John T. Flynn
Stamp Plan for Paying Taxes in Advance Has Good Points; Also Bad
EW YORK, May 7.—The Treasury is considering a plan to make tax payments easier for income taxpayers. Anybody who can do that can probably get a dukedom. But the plan proposed is not without its advantages. The Government is spending vast suns of money. It is spending that money this year. The taxes imposed to pay for it will be laid next year and collected next year in four installments. In other words, the money derived from the taxes will be collected for from a year to a year and a half atter the Government has spent the money. - This is a serious flaw. Because, as the Government will not collect these new taxes until next year, it will have to get the money it spends this year from borrowings. These borrowings will have an inflationary effect— a very heavy inflationary effect. The neutralizing taxes will come along after the effect has been produced—too late to do any neutralizing. Now the Treasury proposes a plan which may very well offset this flaw. It has in mind a program by which a person may this year buy stamps. These stamps, of varying denominations, can be used next year to pay income taxes. Next year when these income taxes fall due, the Government will get the stamps in payment of the taxes. It will get cash this year and not stamps. But this will not be so bad, provided there are some safeguards. = EJ 2 WEEN the citizen buys the stamps he will pay for them in cash. This cash will be immediately available to the Government. The Government will therefore have the cash now to pay the bills which fall due now. And this will tend to check the inflationary effect which would result if the Government had to borrow these funds. owever, one thing must be understood. This kin of thing must be rigidly controlled and it ng cause it would not do to have taxes collected next year in stamps on too large a scale. Then the Government would be getting stamps instead of cash, and the Government could not pay its bills with stamps. At least one feature of this and other Government financial activities ought to be noted. Whether this is a good thing or not, it is a neat little device borrowed from Mr. Hitler. Indeed, one of the interesting features of our whole present financial system is that one by one the cute devices used in Fascist Germany to keep its shaky financial system afloat are being copied in the United States by men who continually prate about their hatred of fascism. At the rate we are going there will be very soon but few of the Fascist schemes of Germany, from compulsory camps for girls to stamp loans for tax payments, which we will not have adopted here. While .the stamp plan has the virtue I outlined above, it is nevertheless tolerable only as a scheme for making a bad type of financing a little less obJectionable.
So They Say—
FORESIGHT now can determine whether we are only intensifying the ills and maladjustments we all know have existed, or whether we are looking beyond an emergency to build a better, safer, happier, more prosperous nation.—M. Clifford Townsend, OPM. * * *
WE CANNOT turn our industrial machine largely to making the things of war rather than the things of peace and have a higher standard of living.—Marriner Eccles, Federal Reserve Board chairman. » * *
BRITISH domination of the air and the oceans will deStroy Hitler, and production of those instruments that give that domination is our answer.—Wendell Willkie, former G. O. P. Presidential candidate. * * * s WE HAVE SCARCELY begun to live when we bein to die—Dr¢ William W. Greulich, Brush Founda-
abi
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES | That's No Way to Go on the Water Wagon, Pal
In fact, in this country, long |
| for the past eight years have been |
"LE ML? < o -
0) -
EE WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1941 -,
\
The Hoosier Forum
1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
CHARGES NEW DEAL SOFTENED OUR PEOPLE By G. K. Smith, 218 S. Audubon Rd. One fundamental reason why the pro-war minority is experiencing such sad results in its efforts to enlighten the great “unwashed” mass {of us unenlightened non-interven- | tionists is that they are attempting |
(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Lefters must be signed.)
to impose a foreign policy involving attempt to purge those Senators and |
because he did something very spectacular and showy. Mr. Lindbergh may know how to fly an airplane superbly well, he may know even more about the mechanics and operation of modern aircrafts, and he may be particu{larly adept in the planning of fu- | ture routes for progressive air-
transport companies. But when he | speaks out of this field, he is no
sacrifice of blood and money UPON, peyresentatives who disagreed With| none of an authority on the subject
‘a body of people whose thoughts, . .c.. open book.
. b d litici It's a terrbile thing to lead a OO ar ans peace-loving people into a bloody the paths of self-indulgence, class War that’s none of our affair and warfare, and the philosophy of without the slightest provocation nn “the world owes me a living.” |the part of Hitler or anyone else. If our President had spent his And te think that it would be done first two terms conditioning the after his solemn pledges that it national mind towards equal sacri-| would not be done. All that the fice by all for the common good, peace-loving and true Americans as Hitler has done, he would not are asking of our President is that now find himself the head of the he keep those solemn pledges. most defenseless powerful nation |
on earth. , , . | 8 = . i | AN OBJECTION TO OUR
| CLAIMS F. D. R. IMITATES | STREET SIGNS
HITLER'S ACTS {By J. W. T., Lafayette By F. L. D., 1228 Shepard St., Liitiakapons) I would like to pass this informa-
It seems as though “All-Out” aid tion on to whoever is responsible to Britain is one of the chief topics, for the street signs in Indianapolis. of the day. I have long since I get to your city about once a
learned that it doesn’t pay to trust | month and I never fail to be con-
a man who refuses to pay his debts, fused by the way your street signs
and the same would apply to a na-|2re erected. You have to drive com-
tion. We went to Great Britain’s| pletely past an interseciion to see rescue once, they .accepted our what street it is and if it happens money in good faith with a promise to be the one you are looking for, to repay it. She would have alyou have to back up and make a great many more friends in America contortionist’'s turn into the street. today had she not welched on her| It seems to me that a city as honest obligations. large as Indianapolis could well I am willing to be taxed whatever afford to install some proper street is necessary for the purpose of true markers. defense, but I'll never willingly let| $ =. % loose of a penny in taxes for the TERMS LINDBERGH AFFAIR | purpose of provocation. Our Presi- | | dent and some of the other teaders| REAL, FARCE in Washington have committed re- By “A Spectator,” 38777 N. Meridian St. peated acts of provocation against| Just a word shout the recent Hitler ever since the war started. |1indbergh comedy. The whole affair Our resident has committed i; some of the same acts that he has vas Wterly absurd, 4 feel :Iafce, condemned in Hitler—intolerance | the Kind of which, if taken accumulatively, could and would" seriously
and purge. Thank God our Constitution is still intact, but it seem- jeopardize the security of our country. How easy it is to confuse the
ingly doesn't mean much to our President, oth i y » Drherise ils oun real issues and to befuddle the public mind with a few misleading,
have called Lindbergh a Copperhead for expressing his views and vague utterances of someone who once upon a time was a public hero
exercising his right of free speech. The President's record regarding his
Side Glances=By Galbraith
"And he told
to make a |5-minute appointment!”
|in question than you or I. The fact that he will speak publicly with such confidence on a subject of such proportion as international | affairs, which is more complicated | today perhaps than at any other |time in the history of the world, is lin itself a revelation as to the limit |of his knowledge and wisdom. - | The country has committed itself to a policy of all-out-aid to Great | Britain. The immediate question | now seems to be just how this aid can be administered in the quickest, safest and most effective way without actual involvement—with{out sending an expeditionary force | abroad and without jeopardizing {our immediate domestic - defense | needs. The principle of the lease-lend {bill has had the approval of the majority of Congress, of President
| Roosevelt, Secretary Hull, the Army | § {and Navy, of Mr. Willkie, of the |
country’s reliable and important newspapers, of responsible domestic and foreign news correspondents, and a host of other wise and intelligent citizens. Then Mr. Lindbergh has the audacity to pit his judgment against all these sources of information and |to speak boldly and knowingly. An {airplane mechanic speaking with |authority as a statesman on international affairs and throwing the entire country into a twitter, at a most crucial period when unity, as never before perhaps, is so essential to the we!fare of our country-— at a time when clear thinking is of |primary importance. Another com-, jedy of human affairs which could very well end disastrously.
” » ”
CONTENDS WE'RE ALREADY IN THE WAR {By A. B. C.,, Columbus, Inf.
Why all the uproar about convoys or no convoys. As nearly as I can figure out, the United States is already a participant in the war on Germany. We made that step a long time ago when we started giving the British priorities on our airplane production, when we gave the British 50 of our destroyers and by any number of other steps, What's the use of kidding ourselves? We're fighting Germany right now. The only difference between us and England is that England is using her manpower and we're not. . . . Shush on all these “this means war” calamity howlers. Let them tell us what were in if not a war. ,
2 ” ”
SOME CHEERS FOR OUR MR. W. PEGLER By 8. E.,, Central Ave, Indianapolis Here's my hat off to Westbrook Pegler and The Indianapolis Times for his award of the Pulitzer Prize for the year’s greatest job of re-
porting. .
I think it's well earned.
SPRING By JOSEPHINE DUKE MOTLEY
How young is the grass, And tender With the rain and the sun Its defender; But housed where the shadows Lie deeper In the barn awaits The reaper.
DAILY THOUGHT
Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand.—Psalms 149:6. : as 8 =» : HE DESERVES praise who does
our husbandy he would be too busy this afternoon “| ny what he may, but what he
Gen. Johnson Says—
We Are Learning That Industry Must Be Mobilized Like an Army If Our Defense Effort Is to Succeed
A 7ASHINGTON, May T7.—Late as it is, we are finally aware that the industrial side of war is
‘just as important as the military side—more impor-
tant just now. At last we know that the battle of production is more vital to us at this stage than any battle in the Balkans ever was. We should have known all this long ago. We learned and led the world in the lesson in 1918. But we forgot to remember it—forgot, note withstanding the constant warne ings of such veterans of that elder effort as B. M. Baruch and, with becoming modesty, the constant yammering of this column for six years past. : Yes, we now recognize that our, industry must be organized and aR mobilized for war as an army is tid organized and mobilized. But’ what are we doing about that? It is sad to report that we are footing and “galloping in place.” : The outstanding lesson of the World War was that, in order to get full war effort out of industry, it must be marshalled as a regiment is marshalled. In peace, our rule is “competition is the life of trade.” - In war, the industrial rule must be “co-operation to the utter< most—co-operation without stint or limit.” Competitors must become co-operators and under the leader= ship of Government, each great competitive industry, within itself and in respect of all others, must be=‘come ‘a team fighting toward a common goal and not a battle royal by a ringful of blindfold sluggers.
» # » hm.
PATER, facilities and shortage inventories must be pooled and trade secrets shared. Regardless of primary contracts, the manufacture of component parts must be farmed out until every wheel in the nation is turning in a common concert of action. This isn't any theoretical essay. This is the neces= sary key principle of industrial war effort. What are: we doing about that? From time to time for several years this column has pointed out that we can’t do anything effective about it and still enforce to the letter the anti-trust act and that the first step in industrial mobilization is the creation of “war-service committees” of bellwethers in each industry to receive the directions of government and get co-operatidn in carrying them out. i? That should have been the very first step of tha Knudsen-Hillman OPM. It is turning out to be about the last one. It is going forward now and the President’s letter about pooling machine-tool facilities, is one of the outward and visible signs. ” * &
WHE wasn't it done before? Because the Shere man and Clayton Acts forbid it. Now both Attorney General Jackson and his anti-trust assistant specialist, Thurman Arnold, are on record as saying that such “combinations in restraint of trade,” if made at the request of Government and under Government supervision, will not be prosecuted. That is highly commendable patriotic common-sense on their part. It could have been done much earlier had OPM sensed the principles of its problem and requested it. But is it enough? The last time an industry tried that was when the petroleum industry at Mr. Ickes" request or with his blessing attempted to “take distress oil off the market.” Government request ard super= vision didn’t save those co-operators. Many were in: dicted and some were convicted. Industrialists can ly forget that. . a” Pov officials have no right to amend or repeal laws. Too much of that is being either done or considered. It is said that the statutory draft age=limits are to be changed without recourse to Cone gress because debate might hurt the project and that convoy legislation mustn’t be debated because it would be misunderstood abroad. That tendency tos. ward Government by decree is had medicine. Needed . changes in the defense laws should be made openly and the greatest need just now is statutory clarifica= tion of the anti-trust acts.
A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
HE other day Dorothy Thompson came to our town to make a speech. It was a good speech, as hers always are, although I thought it more per= suasive than convincing. : ; dems Miss Thompson related the following incident: . “Recently I had a letter from a woman who wrote, ‘I did notbring up my son to die upon ths. battlefield.’ 2 «I replied to that woman,” said: Miss Thompson with contemp=tuous vigor, in these words, “Andy Madam, how do you plan for your son to die? With infantile paeralysis, perhaps, or would it suib~ you better if he were carried off: by tuberculosis or cancer? For he must die sometime, and the mane: ner of our death is relatively une important.” : This logic may impress many people, but I am sure it will not satisfy mothers. For Miss Thompson . evades the real issue. Every woman knows that death is some day inevitable for her children, and she une derstands, with her mind at least, that the manne of death is of no particular consequence. But she also knows that when her boy goes to & battlefield his only purpose is not to die—his purposs is to kill. And no matter how clever the argumenis presented to her may be, her instincts rebel, because" he is asked to participate in actions which, from the cradle, she has taught him are evil. Thus both are? caught in a moral dilemma wholly incompatible. with: their accepted ccdes of conduct. Pun Mothers know, too, and are outraged, that while society does everything in its power to eliminate other # death dealing scourges, protecting their children from ~ infantile paralysis, tuberculosis and cancer, it has so far done very little even in placid intervals to destroy the plague of war. : 4-4 As we look along the years we see clearly that this . country refused to share the responsibility for setting: up international peace machinery although many of us are eager to leap unprepared into international conflicts. Our sons may have to die upon the battlefield. We - may face an emergency which calls for the sacrifice, But make no mistake about this: The mothers of the United States will respond to their patriotic duty realizing full well that this war, like every other, was caused by the blundering of diplomats and the lust . of greedy men. ; . Therefore they will continue to regard it as the : foe of everything they believe in:=decency, dignity,. morality and Christianity-—and as a criminal waste of -, that which they produce—human life.
Editor's Note: The views expressed bv columnists in this newspaper are their own. They are net ndcessarily those of The Indianapolis Times. ath
Questions and Answers.
(The indianapolis Times Service Bureas will answer sny question of fact er Information, not Involving extensive tes: search. Write your questions clearly, sign name and address, inclose a three-gent postage stamp. Medica) or legal advices ... eannot be given. Address The Times Washington Bervice Bureau. (013 Thirteenth 8t., Washington. D. O.).
Q—When was the Morse telegraph code devi An 1837, by gre Vail. grap priseds = as Disraeli a Jew and also a me r -- Church of England? per of 418 A—Disraeli was born in London, England, the son of Isaac D’Israeli, litterateur. Both of his parents = were Jews. He was baptized at St. Andrew’s Church; - Holburn, London, in 1817, and thereby was admitted . into the Church of England. This occurred after the--death of his father in 1816. om Q-—Please give a rule for using “shall” and “will? in the first person. A—Plain future or conditional statements and .: questions in the first person should have “shall”; as, . “I shall jee you next week”; emphatic determination
1“)
“will”;
“I will go, ; on.” bw