Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 May 1941 — Page 9

The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE * President Editor Business Manager

Price in Marlon Couns ty, 3 cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 12 cents a week. Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $3 a "year; outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.

> RILEY 551 : | SCRIPeS = HOWARD : . ‘Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

SATURDAY, MAY 24, 1941 \

Owned and published FEE a= daily (except Sunday) by | JI The Indianapolis Times Fi z Publishing Co, 214 W. Maryland St.

Member of United Press. Séripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA _ Service, snd Audit Buteau of Olirculations.

f Se

¢ CHURCHILL ON CRETE : ITH that power of understatement of which the British are masters, Prime Minister Churchill reports to Commons that Crete “is a battle which undoubtedly will affect the whole course of the campaign in the Mediterranean.” Its importance cannot be overstated. Not because Crete is a dress rehearsal for Nazi invasion of England, as some argue. It may or may not be, as Hitler wills. In any event, the defenses of England are much stronger than those of Crete. The British commanders who say they hope Hitler will attempt to invade England are probably sincere, they feel so certain of victory in such a battle. Hitler, however, prefers so far the less spectacular, less costly, and perhaps more deadly strategy of slow strangulation by bombers and submarines over and around England—meanwhile using direct attack on the undermanned bases of the Empire lifeline in the Middle East. Therefore, even though Crete should not prove to be a dress rehearsal for invasion across the English Channel, a Nazi victory would be devastating. It would— ; "Demonstrate Nazi air superiority in the Middle East, in cruising range as well as numbers of planes; Further weaken the British fleet in the test of air versus naval power, which will determine the fate of the ‘Mediterranean; i Give Hitler a dominating base for both prongs of his - Suez-Alexandria pincers—Cyprus, Syria, and Palestine on the East, and Libya on the West; ] Encourage spread of the dangerous anti-British revolt of the Arab states behind the British lines; Increase the encirclement of Turkey, and push Russia toward the Persian Gulf and the gates of India; Threaten the transfer from Britain to Germany of the vital Irag-Iran oil wells and lines; Facilitate Nazi advance through France and Spain in north-west Africa, which in turn would jeopardize the British South Atlantic shipping already driven from the Med‘iterranean. ie 4 No wonder Churchill promises a fight to the death™in the battle for the Mediterranean of which Crete is a fatal beginning. : :

TRAFFIC ENGINEER

R the task of unscrambling Indianapolis’ complicated “® traffic problems Mayor Sullivan has selected James E. Loer of the City Engineering Department. He will fill the _ newly created post of City Traffic Engineer and will automatically fall heir to as fine a crop of traffic headaches as can be found in the Middle West. Mr. Loer is young, enthusiastic and thoroughly familiar with Indianapolis and its streets. Although he has not had special training in traffic engineering, his experience has been of such a nature that he should readily absorb the new ‘techniques necessary to his job. ~ But whether he does the job well or badly is not alto‘gether in his hands. It depends a great deal on the kind ‘of support given him by Mayor Sullivan and his aids. If the ‘Mayor and Safety Board will give Mr. Loer the required support, we can look forward to a gradual improvement in our traffic and safety problems in the years ahead. Without that support, the finest staff of traffic engineers in America would be helpless to improve the situation in Indianapolis.

f

WHAT'S THE ANSWER? “JL NDLESS statistics can be cited to “prove” that a de- "*~ fense boom created by Government spending is not enddng the need for Government spending on relief. " The country’s industrial production is now far above the 1929 mark. But it is argued that machines have made it possible for fewer workers to produce more; that the “working population” has increased by some 600,000 each - year; and so, while only about a million persons were unemployed in 1929, there are now more than 6,500,000. There are specific situations where that argument seems very difficult to apply. For instance, the situation in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) in Pennsylvania. That .county’s total population gain, from 1930 to 1940, is shown by the Census as only 33,160. The increase of “working ~ population” must have been much less. : Yet The Pittsburgh Press reports that 50,000 more persons than in 1929 are now on private payrolls, earning $10,000,000" a month more. There would seem to be less need for relief in that county than there was in 1929. But whereas in 1929 there was practically no Governmental relief—no WPA and no other Federal relief—in early May, this year, there were 14,432 persons on WPA and 23,400 cases on local direct relief.

LUDLOW AND ECONOMY 3 CON GRESSMAN LUDLOW, one of the ranking members of the House Appropriations Committee, has made: many a long speech about governmental economy. How‘ever, a close examination of the Ludlow record reveals the rather startling fact that there are .two places where the Congressman is inclined to be a spendthrift, to-wit: : 1. Marion County. 2. Anywhere in Indiana. : That tendency in Mr. Ludlow’s makeup comes to light in connection with the proposed Benjamin Harrison Memorial in Indiana. Mr. Ludlow has announced that he intends . to push the $5,000,000 appropriation bill, adding that “of course, an authorization is. not an appropriation.” He ignores the fact that once a Congressman gets an scquthorization” his next and natural objective is to get an * #gppropriation.” aT : Both Senators VanNuys and Willis and 10 of his Indiana colleagues in the House are willing to postpone passage of this measure at this time and devote their efforts to defense instead. f : It seems to us that an economy-minded man such as Mr. Ludlow claims to be should follow suit.

oo.

ple, .disarranged their

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler Roosevelt Critics Have Right to Talk . But It Would Be Disastrous ‘to U. S. If His Arms Policy Should Fail

N\JEW YORK, May 24—Franklin D. Roosevelt is the President of the United States, elected by

cloud on his title to this office. He has been elected

three times, and, notwithstanding s. complete dis- | | "cussion of his faults and failures, |- those who opposed him twice |

were unable to uncover a man who could beat him at the polls.

It is true that he has a

tendency to by-pass Congress and that he tried to pack the Supreme Court one way and, when

rebuffed, was enabled hy fortuitous

too, were thoroughly discussed in the last ; campaign, and still he was elected for the third time. : =i The American people knew thoroughly well what sort of a man he was and, knowing this, elected him

in time of war, when they knew he had declared this |

nation’s sympathy for Adolf Hitler's enemies and victims and had committed this country to a program of assistance which even a rational ruler of a warring country would have regarded as hostility. : ® 8 = F the armament program fails through political “+ opposition, inefficiency, lack bf materials, greed of industrial men" or interference by labor leaders, that will be a disaster as bad for the whole American people as for the President himself. I do not believe that those who oppose the President’s war policy should be forbidden to express their opposition, but I maintain that if they should succeed in defeating his program: the disaster to the United States will be certain and terrible, whereas a united people, supporting the Government which they knowingly elected, might-avert the disaster. I insist also that those who say Hitler has no designs against the United States deliberately shut their eyes to Hitler's record and his declared determination to exterminate the American form of government. He has used the same reassuring and disarming formula time after time, and there, as here, he has been assisted by political opponents of the rulers who aggravated distrust among the peoefforts and cried “warmonger” at leaders who were only trying to defend their countries against the unprovoked ferocity of ie greuies war machine in the history of the world. As to what sort of nation -this would be even in the event of victory I have a rather somber picture. I think that if Hitler defeats Britain, then Britain, like France, will trot out of their present seclusion those British Quislings and Lavals who would be willing to bow in “collaboration” and turn against the United States. s ” ” UCH resentment is now being whipped up among the French people, although one of the reasons for their disaster was the most humiliating one of all to Frenchmen, namely, that many of their soldiers ran away. § So, I believe that if Hitler beats Britain the United - States will, at very best, go intd a spin and come out of it with an eutnight Fascist or Nazi form of government, which is the same thing as the Communism of Russia, with trivial variations. It .were better not to forget the “revisions” of national boundaries, the “restitutions” and “repatriations” that Hitler has devised in Europe and think of Spain’s “historic” claim to Florida and the “historic” claim of Nazified France to the vast territory of the Louisiana Purchase. A Nazified Mexico would bite a big gouge out of the Southwestern United States, and a Nazified Britain could put in an equally valid claim for the area of the rebellious colonies. Already, in Nazified Russia, it has been set forth that this cogntry obtained Alaska by a fraudulent transaction with a- Czar’ who; had no right to sell the territory. $0 = Victorious, I believe the United States, nevertheless, would go socialistic, but whether under the present form of government or some other it is idle to speculate. Our tendency has been that way under President Roosevelt, and, knowing that to be the case, we have elected him for the third time.

Business By John T. Flynn

U. S. Would Be In Same Fix As Europe If We Had 20 Countries

AnTEW YORK, May 24.—Secretary Hull added his word to-that of Secretary Knox and the President that this country is in some way in some dire and immediate peril on its trade front. The peril, of course, is a Nazi victory. But in explaining this peril and what we should do .about it, Mr. Hull succeeded in leaving the subject pretty well confused. He did recognize that the distribution of raw materials is one of the things at the ‘bottom of much of our world trouble. It is possible for a nation small in territory—like England, Holland, Belgium or Czechoslovakia—to develop great efficiency in machine production. But it can never have the raw materials to supply the machines out of its own soil. It must buy that raw material from other nations or it must go out and conquer it by force through colonial adventure, as Tngland did. How this is to be ccrrected when the war is over Mr, Hull does not tell us. But we can at least state the problem for ourselves. Stuart Chase has explained it in simple terms. Take a look at the United States. Suppose that, instead of a single country, we had 20 countries here. None of these countries would have the raw materials essential to an.,industrial society. Each one of these countries would have to import from some other in America. Around ‘each of these countries would be a wall—a wall of tariffs, laws, regulations, embargoes, quotas, etc. But almost as serious, each of these countries would have its own currency and the problems of international exchange would limit transactions between them. . ™ s

. o

NSTEAD, we have one country. The resources of -

every part-of it are available to every other part.

Just as important, there is one currency and sales.

can take place in every part of this country with a single currency’ unit. Go : The trouble with Europe, from an economic viewpoint, is that it has too many countries. It is in the fix that the United States would be in if it had 20 countries. If Europe were a single country or two countries, or if its nations were united in & single country without tariff barriers or differing currencies, it could boast of resources almost as rich as the United States. : Instead, we think of it, and rightly, as a pcor continent—poor because its inhabitants cannot get at its resources. gt ‘Now, how does Mr. Hull propose to correct this? With some reciprocity ‘treaties making pin-holes in

. the walls. Inadequate as that would be, it still would -

leave the differing currencies and

the exchange problems untouched. :

So They Say— STN 1 SYSTEM of ven lade Secunte; Sem

and recurrent economic collapse. There will never be |:

peace in any real sense of the term.—Secretary of State Cordell Hull. J :

1 COME AS A dove of p

, bearing an olive

branch. I assure you, you can all spend this summer | pleasantly at the beaches.—Franz von ambassador returning to Turkey,

Papen, German

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

YEP, IT'S SPEEDWAY AND STREET REPAIR TIME

By James Swarner, 554 8. Division St. Reminder: The date of the 500mile race approaches. Now is the time for all street and road repairmen to follow their usual procedure of tearing up all streets and roads leading to the Speedway and to get their barricades and detours estab. lished so that it will be almost impossible to reach the track all in one day. pion ® » ”

PLEADS FOR UNITY IN DEFENSE EFFORT

By A. J. Schneider, 504 West Drive, Woodruff Place '

Quite a tempest in the teapot has been stirred up, and much space in newspapers filled by the Lindbergh speeches and public reception’ of

them. But this is exactly what the Axis powers want to happen here —so what? it This is a free country, yet. And Mr. Lindbergh is entitled to voice his opinions when and as he chooses —however popular or unpopular his views may be. Likewise, President Roosevelt, voted into office by a huge majority of feeders at the public trough, is authorized to conduct himself as he sees fit. And it is our

and interpret the words or acts of either, as .we elect. Too many have lost sight of this constitutional fact, and have so busied themselves fighting each other, that irrespective of what point-of-view may be taken, sound defense, active participation in the war, or mere aid to England, are all doomed to failure. Only unity on some program can assure its success. And while we have balky industry, sabotaging lakor unions, and prominent individuals at each others ‘necks, we are far from the unity that will assure success in any undertaking. | The folly of all this sort of thing is that we are too often tempted to color words and acts of prominent individuals by thoughts of our own, giving them distorted importance. In this light, while President 1 Roosevelt's action in the Lindbergh matter was. certainly unbecoming the dignity of his high office, it was

(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.)

a mere nothing compared to the tremendous strain under which he is working—this, notwithstanding I opposed him at the polls fast,

November. :

Regarding Mr. Lindbergh, I recall not so many years ago, when he abandoned this country and said some very nasty things: about this

tault with its leaders and helping Hitler sow seeds of doubt and unbelief. ; Last Saturday night I listened to his speechoand what impressed me more than anything was that he failed to denounce Hitler once but continually found fault with this government and was madly applauded. When he said “I have never wanted Germany to win,” he got” a feeble applause but later] what he added that it would, his audience again wildly cheered. It made me wonder who many of his crowd were. If Mrs. Ferguson will. be honest she will admit that she is against Dorothy Thompson because she is on the side of the Administration ‘and for Lindbergh because he is

| Gen. Johnson

1941

Says—

A Democracy Must Be United In Order to Fight Which Is Why F.D.R. Hasn't 'Kicked' U. S. Into War

T. LOUIS, Mo., May 24.—Those who are impatient to get us into war, either through a Constitutional declaration by Congress or an extra Constitutional “declaration of a’ war emergency” by the President

complain that the President is to blame for not leading the people rather than letting the people lead him. That i8 not an accurate diagnosis of their true cause for com- ~ plaint.. The fact is that a great majority of our people are not convincegk of any sufficient reason for our try into shooting war. They are convinced that, however it may turn out, it would surely bring national disaster, In such a state of affairs, the President * wouldn’t be “leading” them “into war. He would be kicking them ‘on, in true Hitleresque fashion and against their will. There is a further little matter that should not be overlooked, unless such matters as honesty and faith have passed completely into the limho of forgotten virtues. He has repeatedly promised them that he would do no such thing. One of the arguments used is that this war is one of industrial war-production, that this™§. proceeding too slowly and that the only way to spee ul to go to outright war. Considering its late, panicky and unplanned start, and the recalcitrance of a few selfish labor leaders, there is nothing slow about war production so far as industry is concerned. It is miraculously rapid. In this whole history of swift and revolutionary change, if there is one single, solitary case of, holding back of all-out effort by any industry or any group or unit of industry, I have yet to hear of it.

2 8 = ; OR the labor situation, this Administration has only itself to blame. It.has never demanded the kind of sacrifice and co-operation from labor that it has asked of industry. It is complacent now, to

strike in defense industries. The whole situation has been timorcusly, weakly and miserably handled. For every other indecision, bungling, delay and bad overhead planning and administration, the Government itself is almost exclusively to blame. Industry can’t act in a great’ co-operative scheme of nation-wide production until each unit is told what to do and how and when fo do it. There is no reported case of any such unit having been given any such instruction and failed to comply with the usual verve, imagination and drive of American business. The delays have been in placing orders, in changing orders and specifications, in failing to support orders with priorities and materials or in Governmentimposed uncertainties about necessary capital invest-: ment to do the job. : . 4 nn 8 OW would this situation be improved by going to war? What it needs is less hysteria—not more. A war, declared on this urging might. serve to make industry a scape-goat for the errors and omissions of Government, but that is an evil, sinful argument when the true facts are as they are. It is exactly the argument that tossed France, all unready, into a declaration of war, turned Hitler's face from East to West and resulted in the crugifixion of all the free governments in western Europe. ! No; the reason why the President is not kicking this country into war against the popular will is the reason why Washington didn’t kick it into the Napoleonic wars, the reason why Lincoln didn’t kick it, before it was convinced, into the Civil War, the reason why Wilson didn’t kick it into the World War until he had no other alternative. The reason is that this is still a democracy. It can be marched willingly to any sacrifice when the people decide. It can’t be slaughtered on the butcher’s block at any man’s will or at the urging cf any alien-minded bloc. A dictator can take a servile-minded people into war against its will. But no President can take an unwilling democracy there without risking its destruction.

nation which he now holds so dear. against ii,

Then he sought the hospitality of that England which he so:-bountiful-ly maligns now. But just as soon as a few bombs started exploding near him, he scuwgries back to the haven of this country which was not good enough for him not so long since. His utterances should be con-

8 8 8 RAY OF HOPE SEEN IN MR. HULL'S PLAN By R. G. L., East Chicago, Ind. 2 Secretary Hull's peace aims represent the kind of statemanship we've been pleading for. It is really

privilege as a free people to accept:

sidered in the lights of his acts..

Of course, I should probably have hurried away from -the bombing area myself—but I believe I should

have kept my yellow streak pretty well shrouded in the cloak of obscurity. . . . Mr. Lindbergh, Mr. Wheeler, and those others cluttering up the ether, should permit the Congress and our Chief Executive, whom we elected for better or for worse, to chart a course—then every man-jack of us put our shoulders to the wheel whether we like it or not. 2 ”® ”

A FORMER ADMIRE DESERTS LINDBERGH By Mrs. M. Moore, 1704 E. 10th St.

In her column, Mrs. Walter Ferguson criticizes Dorothy Thompson and praises Charles Lindbergh who she says a short time ago was a hero to our sons. I am one of those mothers who held him up as an example to young manhood, but.no more. ; I can no longer admire a man that works to split this country when what we need is a strong united country. If he was a redblooded American, he would do everything in his power to make his country victorious instead of finding

Side Glances = By Galbraith

almost the first constructive idea offered in our foreign policy which we can unreservedly = applaud, around which we can rally.

and I fervently hope we continue in

dicates that we are striking out internationally with more independence, understandng and justice, not just slavishly truckling to the wishes

serve their interests. Their interests are not identical with ours even while they parallel them in some ways. ET It is perhaps needless to add that Mr. Churchill is not going to like it. .Mr. Hull’s peace aims means an end to British colonial exploitation even while it opposes Hitler's version of the same idea And it’s just that for which Churchill, by all accounts, is holding out to defend. One can be more hopeful of & just peace now; this is only a step but it's a large one in the right direction.

” o s LAUDS REP. LUDLOW ON PEACE STAND By Dr. Frank J. Wright, 6061 W. Washington St.

To Congressman Louis Ludlow: Be assured folks back home appreciate ‘your stand on staying out ‘of war. You are diplomatic in your statement that you believe © Mr. Roosevelt will not get this great nation into war -- but you are not whistling to keep your courage up— you don’t believe in his promises, you couldn’t do that. You have seen him break so many in the past. Promises are just things—of no consequence in the mind of Mr. Roosevelt. We are glad you are —please keep us out of this awful mess—it. is not of our doings—leaders make war, not we common people. More power to you, the people’s friend. > 3

REMINDER By JANE SIGLER

I keep forgetting there is war abroad, a For in my garden peace and beauty

reign. The air is sweet with honeysuckle

vines, And from the leafy boughs some old refrain = - Is trilled from dawn to dusk. Here, far removed . From bloody strife, my own small world is gay; /. And it is hard to vision battlefields Any dying men-~with spring in bloom today. .

_ DAILY THOUGHT

Therefore say I unte you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from ‘you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. —Matthew 21:43, : LET THE punishment be equal with the se~-Ciceros

Aad

It seems to indicate that we are | § taking a slightly different tack now | j

the direction it points. To me it in- |}

of the British ruling class, to pre- ||

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

SOMETIMES find myself wishing we could hear more often from Podunk’s fair sex, and less frequently from metropolitan smart sets. Feminine news is heavy with the scent of cocktails and cigarets, and so far as I can gather American women seem to be pre-occupied only with fashions, diets, manhunts, society and keeping up with the Jones. “Seem to be is a ‘safe phrase. Actually we are busy with a multitude of more worth-while things. A large part of Podunk’s population is now settled in urban areas. It has left the hick country to occupy those rows of FHA houses which fringe every big city. | In its women lingers some bit of the old-fashioned feminine philosophy which helped to make this a great nation. It is pioneer stuff, and folks still like it. 0 : Parisian mannikin theories don't set so well in the little kitchens where farm women bake and can and iron, or even in the smaller cubby-holes where city housewives stir the stew while they await the return of husbands, sons and daughters from the day’s work. . That pioneer stuff was what my Grandma used to call gumption. And, according to her theory, gumption was a gift of God. Either you had it or you didn’t. Every time a new family moved into the community Grandma would give herself time to get well acquainted with the mother of the household. But her verdict, when it came, had the authoritative tone of a Papal bull. If the woman had gumption all was well; if not, we knew the neighbors would turn out witless or shiftless, or both. ; Grandma was usually right, too. I wish she were here now to pass judgment on certain questions of our time. : I believe she would say there was no gumption in the notion that, while we face a desperate national emergency, the women must go right on telling the men how wonderful they are. For Grandma was never an appeaser of male vanity, and when a common danger threatened she expected both sexes to pack their feelings in mothballs and behave like adults. Women left off their primpings and men put the liquor jug away for the duration. I believe a great many women who used to. live in Podunk, or whose ancestors came from there, would like to.see Grandma's gumption restored to popular favor in our time. : :

Editor's Note: The views expressed be columnists in this newspaper are their own. They are uot necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times. . i

Questions and Answers (The indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer say question of fact or information, ndt invelving extensive research. Write your questions clearly, sign name and address, tnclose a three-cont postage stamp Medical er legal advice cannot be given. Address The Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 Thirteenth St. Washington, D. C.).

Q—How can an ink stain be removed from bare, ed wood? Lid Ta - A—Put a few drops of spirits of niter (nitric acid) in a teaspoonful of water, touch the spot with a feather dipped in the mixture, and when the ink disappears, rub the spot immediately. with a cloth wet with cold water; otherwise the acid will leave a ‘ white mark. : : Q—Describe: the device which will keep land airplanes afloat in the event of forced landing on water? A—In each wing of a monoplane is a-pop-out ‘door, inside of which are two deflated rubberized ‘ C essed . carbon dioxide gas, controlled by. automatic valves, inflates. the bags which keep the airplane afloat. * : ; : ; ". Q=-Which country ‘lumber? Le

produces the largest ¢ amount of