Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 May 1941 — Page 14

PAGE: 14

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TUESDAY, MAY 27, 1941 ii

WHEN THE PRESIDENT SPEAKS

HE world waits on the President’s words tonight, each nation with its own interest in mind. We Americans, too, will be thinking of our national interest, however variously we may interpret this. Though there is genuine and serious division between our interventionists and non-interventionists as to the choice of evils which confronts us, we can be united at least in understanding the difficult position the President is in—

and in-appreciating the sincerity with which hes maturing

his decision. 2

The time for rancor is past. As President he has been chosen toflead. This does not mean that in this democracy we must follow blindly; on the contrary, his judgment must be ratified by the majority will of a representative Congress before it becomes binding. But it does mean that in this critical time both factions must give more weight to his decision than in happier times, when we could afford -the luxury of extreme partisanship. Of course the necessity of rising above factionalism applies as much and more to our leader. And we believe the President has moved slowly toward a final decision precisely - because he is so conscious that this nation is divided on the war issue and because he seeks a policy that will unite us. This newspaper hopes the President is still trying to keep us “short of war,” and hopes he will succeed. But whether, his words tonight point toward peace or toward war, ofa wait-and-see policy, we believe they will be sincere and vastly important. : Because they will be sincere—and not subject to safe diseounting by any listener at home or abroad—we hope his language will be as sober as his responsibility. Dictators may rant and boast and bluff to reassure themselves, and to frighten others. But the power represented by the President of the United States is so overwhelming it needs no shrill threats to be heard. .

a

“AS IT IS AND NOW”

QOME of the soundest advice given to Americans in many months comes from M. H. Hedges, research director of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (A. F. of L.). ". Too many of us are putting our own interests, the interests of our “class,” our desire for social and economic reforms or changes, ahead of our country’s needs. Said Mr. Hedges, at a meeting-of :the Society for the Advancement of Management, in Washington: “If America is worth defending, it is worth defending as it is and now. It is my earnest belief that the stardard of life, when we include the imponderables of liberty, is higher in America than in any other country in the world. ‘America is worth defending now.

“In this crisis, the individual owes Svaryiling to organized society and we must revise the theory that organized society owes the individual much. All advantages and all hardships must be shared alike by every section of the - population. There should be no privileged classes in this hour of emergency. “The view that there is a natural right to fight it out ‘between economic groups creates opportunity for cultural invasion of democracy by an enemy. “The labor unionist who believes that the ohjeckive of his union is to follow the policy of the class struggle and fight the boss is helping Hitler, “The employer who believes that this is the time to liquidate trade unions is helping Hitler. “The bureaucrat who sees in this emergency an opportunity to widen the powers of Government, when such widening powers only produce conflict, is helping Hitler.” We have seldom heard wiser words from any spokesman for labor—or industry, or Government.

a

“COME IN FIGHTING”

AMERICANS are indebted to the influential London News Chronicle for coming clean on British pressure for the United States to start fighting. “If you will come in and come in fighting, we can whip these savages back into their caves before the end of next ‘ year,” says the News Chronicle. Britain will not lose without the United States, but “unless you come into this war and fight it with us, it’s going to take us a long time to win it.”

If we are to believe that great organ of British opinion, all those British assurances about not wanting and not . needing American fighting men were hokum:

“For many months now we, the British people, have refrained from speaking what was in our minds to the American people. We felt that what America and Americans did in the war was their business. . . .

“But now we feel the time has come for us to speak frankly to you, to tell you that now we want more from you than arms, more than knitted comforts and bandages, more than words of ‘sympathy. . . . In our view, the time for finessing and for drawing room politeness has passed; - the facts must be stated bluntly.” .. . : We most heartily agree with it that the time for propaganda half-truths and untruths is passed; that Americans * should be told that Britain wants them to Bg, so they can snswer--Yeéb or No.

LABOR PROBLEM

ARRY AMES, president of the ‘Philadelphia council of the A, F. of L. hotel and restaurant workers’ and bartenders’ unions, reports a critical state of affairs. 7% So many of the unions’ 5000 members have gone to

k in defense industries that Mr. ‘Ames can’t find enough: :

Ployed waiters nC barten sto picket several. L

' diately tq forbid strikes in defense industries.

s [Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Be Abuse of Power by Union Chiefs

more loyal to their respective

the factaries and the ‘military buil time of national the interests of these

million Americans think ‘more of’

then the fight is over and lost, and: Adolf Hitler has conquered. the.

‘of an organized minority - of the *. people. : ‘However, the picture is not as dark as that, because most of these workers are normal American citizens, loyal to their country and,the elected government and willing to work for reasonable pay under fair trea ote Many of them have relatives in the Army and. and many union members are in fact now serving the colors. : 8 = NEVERTHELESS, strikes against the national defense continue, even though many individual workers who go on strike would prefer to stay at their Jobs, so we find that the real trouble is an abuse of power by union leaders who ‘were given that power in the first place by President Roosevelt. Some -of the big leaders can’t control théir own unions. The various states, of course, still have the legislative authority to outlaw strikes in defense industries, but the teamsters union, for example, has a greater power to blockade any state which should undertake to do this. The teamsters easily could throw a picket line around a whole state of the Federal union by ordering its members not to'cross the state line with shipments and calling out. its members within that state. And, if a recent decision of Felix Frankfurter,the de facto Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, may be taken as a guide, the court would protect the union officials from any punishment under the law. » 8 2 v ir to now, the national Government has’ refused to consider any proposal to curb the power of the leaders, and it is still assumed, in the face of evidence to the contrary, that the American citizens in the unions approve this condition. But no effort ever has been made to ascertain what the union members think of this or whether they are satisfied with an unforeseen development which now makes it necessary for them to throw down their country in the presence of an enemy on the decision of a few union representatives. Nevertheless, the fact is that if the strikes are to continue, then the men who are off

their stuff and go home now, because the strikes will surely defeat the rearmament program and, without the weapons, then men in the services would be barnyard ducks for the well-armed Germans. This ‘seems to be the point at which to suggest that regardless of whether the union members indorse this condition, the ‘law be amended mimes is need not mean that the workers would lose the points of contention in such disputes. They could be arbitrated by some Federal authority with final power, and it may be assumed that under the Roosevelt Government such an authority would shade all decisions in the interests of the workers. The danger is in the strike, not in the disputes or the terms of settlement: The strikes -are not necessary, and they are as great a menace to the safety of the United States as Adolf

. Hitler himself.

Everyone knows that most of the workers in the unions are loyal Americans who would lose nothing by submitting issues to the Government for final decision. The picket line on these jobs can well become Hitler's advance Hine in the war on the U. S. A

Business

By John T. Flynn fe

Study of Inflation Now Under. Way Should Yield Some Valuable Data

EW YORK, May 217. 11 1 were: a wealthy man

would establish a foundation or bureau. or research project of some sort to watch the developing Pre nomenon of inflation in the very act of coming to lf Not enough is known about’ the course of inflation—the details’ _ through which. it develops. , But here we have, under our very ‘eyes . each day, the varying forces coming into play. A staff sufficiently eqitipped could observe them, chart their course, mark the incidents of infiation at the points at which it " becomes dynamic, and tends to spark into more or less lawless growth. Prices are, of course, rising. ‘The question which concerns so many is, how are we to tell when that point arises when the movement tends to get out of hand and defies control. I have been watching the course of retail sales. To be sure, inflation does not begin there, but that is the point at which the rise of inflationary. energies begins to express itself with real force. Retail sales have shown a very marked increase over. last year. Retail prices also show some increase. But neither volume nor prices here is yet at the point. which signals danger. That may well come ty fall, if some measures are not taken to deal with this situation. I might add that, up to now, nothing has been really done save to treat the public to a lot of big talk. Whether this is the fat of ‘Mr. Henderson, or is due to his inability to get approval from his political chiefs for necessary a tion, is not: possitle to say. ” ” » OLITICS will always get in the way of effective control of an economic force like this. The rise || in ‘commodity prices is not yet so great’ as to be alarming, but the unbalance in prices is.

but this has been very unevenly distributed. . Tin has increased only about: 8 per cent. Cotton

115 per cent and shellac 151: per cent. This is merely a sample of the exceptionally wide variety in the percentages of increase. . The reason why the whole phenomenon has not yet arrived at the danger point is that the war-

recovery movement.

1937 level, and from there the in balances will produce that kind of. may well spark the efletionary movement. -

plus the un-

So They Say—

than you earn. If is

those savings: you should buy Defense Bonds—W.

Elbridge Brown, president, Pennsylvania Bankers'Association.

Association.

Clinchy, director, National Conference of

and Jews. » ¥ * »

pression that labor and industry can be Pope, president, First Boston Corp. A % Tow, 1

YES, IT is is a bit better (in Italy). ey had illusi and lost them. Here

Rank and File of Labor Loyal fo |! U. S. and Defense Strikes Seem to |

groups. “F If it is true that these nine | their unions than of their country,

with the Army and Navy might just as well pack |

looking for a place to spend some money, I |

‘For in- || stance, the general gain in commodity prices since | the beginning of the war has been about 12 per cent, |

has increased 40 .per cent, cocoa 84 per cent, burlap |

defense expenditures were - begun in a’ period of rel cession. : Prices are not yet, on the whole, at: the.| " point which was reached in 1937 ab the peak of the

But the upward movement of prices from this | | point on will carry the general-price level above the

bance: which |

IT 1S NO langer proper to spend just a little more | now proper to save, and ‘with ||

a : INVESTIGATE the libels, untruths, sad. eral isolations which. make otherwise fine a nd, genial the breeding grounds of intolerance.—Dr. E.R. | briscar |

IN SPITE of outward appearances, I have the im- | led’ | and can be loyal to the same leadership.—Allan M.| |

In ’ : : Es Lo 3

EW YORK, May 21~The people bf tae United | who ‘are members. of the two big rival unions are| -

organizations than to’) | Wer country and willingly. clesert a or fe

great free republic of the Wi x. world by the passive. ® Jesarnl Ga

Bar | open 55 cl NER Tr Ss

The Hoosier Forum |

1 wholly disagree with what you say, -but will aid to the death your right to say it. —Voliaie,

URGES WAR BACKERS VISIT VETERANS’ HOSPITAL By C. W., 2956 N. Pennsylvania St.

{It would be interesting to test the reactions of the rocking chair soldiers and coupon clippers who urge entry into [the war, with a trip through the United States Veterans Hospital here.

After 25 years the ‘most pitiful and horrible cases are still dragging through the misefable minutes of a shattered life. Some patients are kept from the public eye because of their condition. © I have an idea that these people would change their views if they thought their sons would come to the same

"end. And. all’ to profit giant cor-

erations, and ‘protect the business nterests of. American firs in Europe... Our slogan, for Memorial Dey and

every. day.should be “never sgain, » . = ”

URGES FORUM WRITERS T0 WEIGH WORDS By, Ge Geor~s’ RB. Brown, 3609 N. Keystone

When Weshington was at Valley Forge ‘and the fortunes of his army

and. the Continental Congress were at the lowest point, a great patriot ‘wrote these stirring words: | “These are the times that try nien’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, .shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the ‘love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph. What w& ob-

lightly; ‘tis dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to set a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if celestial an article as should not. be highly

can be little doubt that

lay Forge. There can be no Sant -if Britain goes down our future, for many years, will be dark. Let me suggest to some of the correspondents of The Hopsier

| Forum that you check up on your-

selves, ‘before writing a letler for publication. If it will not Belp do

tain too cheaply, we esteem too]

(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.)

fiot write it.. Be sure that you are not “summer soldiers” or “sunshine patriots.” If there is any other reason than patriotism which impels you to write, don’t write. If dislike for the President, hatred of the New Deal or any other motive than love of country is in your heart — be careful. In these times, as in those Revolutionary days, we should all be pulling together. cigs. URGES U. S. HELP IN KILLING “MAD DOG” By D. A Sommer, 918 Congress Ave. A mad dog is in our community. It is biting every one it meets. Instead of joining with the neighbors

with clubs &nd stones and guns to stop the mad dog, we cry for our

stumbling upstairs with ‘arms full, we throw stones and clubs to our neighbors for them -to kill the dog. But when they are not able to do it, and ‘he gets on our premises and bites some of our children "who failed to get inside, we ery, “O, why don’t some of our sgood neighbors ‘help us kill that terrible dog,” when they have already been bitten and} put out of commission. Hitler has bitten and devoured a good part of Europe, and is now barking at the United States and snapping at South America; and Wheeler and Lindbergh cry: “Wait till he gets to Bermuda and Key West and El Paso.” Then when we alone try to do what the rest of the world could not do, we shall long for some help fo protect us

|against the Mad Dog of the World.

But: it will be ‘too late. United we stand for ‘the British and American “way of life;” but divided we fall. This writer ‘is ‘not’ a prejudiced Democrat: trying to defend his favorite candidate, for he rand his family with in-laws, cast ten votes (100 per cent) against Roosevelt's

domestic policy; but perhaps every

|Side Glances a By. Galbraith

-|in stopping at any cost this Mad .|Dog of the World before he reaches

children to run into our house, and,

there I can see him teeter on his

. |swer his remarks:

: {dent does not.represent the Amer}ican people? If ‘he and Wendell

{cause he prostitutes his high office

“| strikes ‘and other obstacles. to.de-

country but dear America pays ter-

. |Among the quaint spring -iflowers. -

EL in | scented presse watts through the | at 1ast May nas begun |

one now is. for Jollowing, Roosevelt

2 8 ® RECALLING F. D. R.S PLEDGE ON WAR . By H. C. Wilson, 308 N. DeQuiney ‘St.

Whose pie-crust. promises are the easiest to break—Hitler’s, or his Royal Highness F. D. R.2?

Mothers, do you remember President Roosevelt," on Oct. 30, 1940, speaking to fathers and mothers on the Selective, Service Act: “And while I am talking to you mathers and fathers, I give you one more asbe |Suraince. '“I have said this before, but I shall say it again.and again. . Your boys are not going to be sent into foreign wars. “They are going" into training to form a force so strong that, by its very existence, * if ‘will keep the threat of war far away {rom our shores. “The purpose of our defense is defense.” When this great leader of ours tells us England’s .fight is our fight, did he just forget the above promsise. to the fathers and mothers of the United States? If Lindbergh is. a Copperhead. our great peace loving President must be two Copperheads. . . . I| would suggest that this great

his’ shoulder, keep his Europe’s . troubles.

nose out of

not power insane politicians. ; . 8, = N TAKING A SLAM AT SENATOR WHEELER By Mrs. Nell B. Purky, 2808 N. Talbott

er in his Madison Square Garden radio address. Though: I'm not

toes and swell with. pride in hisown

crowd. - . I have heard his vicious tongue many - times, but I have never felt he was more despicable than in this address. He is despicable to me because I believe he is a traitor to this country. He is a slinking German agent who has the audacity to dancd® at arm’s ‘length about the President, Cabinet and such Americans as Wendell Willkie, shaking his fist, calling names and spitting venom at them, and they have too much nobility of chieacter. to an-

Why does he, say: that our Presi-| m

Willkie do -not represent the American people nobody does. We all voted for one or the other of them. He assumes that the 45 per cent of us who have expressed no opinions about entering this war have the same views as he does. . . I despise Burton K. Wheeler be-

to propagate Hitler-Germanic ideas. His talks cannot help but. encourage

fense. He -slurs our; President and there in Washington: at work. No

mites to eat away the. Toundzitons of its institutions. ah

- — I

MAY = . By VERNE 8. MOORE A hint of blue is breaking through showers.

April's. sunny - : A bumblebee dips suddenly = 2

DAILY THOUGHT

The face of the Lord is against - them that do, evil, to cut off the

LE

fighter F. D, R. take that chip off | gg

‘Because | after| all it takes soldiers ‘to “fight wars,|&

‘I'in listening to Burton K. Wheel- |

oratory as he stands’ before ‘that :

Government authority while ac-| |cepting. $10,000 a year for being

sian,

Gen. Johnson ©

|Says—

Clamor for Freedom of Seas Likely Jo Lead Us Into War Despite Fact 80% of Our People Oppose Entry

FASHINGTON, May 27. —We passed the Neue trality Act to keep us out of foreign wars. Now,, signs fail, we are going to repeal or evade Obviously for the reverse of the purpose’ its passage; amely, to get into foreign wars. As

not yet spoken, but the two more strident endmen of the Washington minstrel show have spoken plenty—War Ministers Stimson. and Knox. It is an astonishing situation - ple so clearly opposed to war,. there can be such complacency, about every governmental step. that makes war inevitable. Is it public ignorance about what is going on, or a sort of national fatalism that contents Htself with Beticving that our President has gathered to himself so. many of the powers of government that no wish. of the people can stop him? In traveling

‘up-and down and around this country irying to ges

the “feel” of this intangible thing called public opine

ion, one gathers an impression that it is partly both,

. This is very strange even in this strange new world

‘because neither .ignorance nor resignation are any

part of the American character. When the principle of the Neutrality Act was first suggested, though not urged, by B. M. Baruch, this column said, “something about the sea helped to get us into every one of our foreign wars except the war

with Mexico.” -

f J ®2 8 CONOMIC causes are responsible for most wars, Qur revolution was partly against the force of British sea power to dominate and exploit these - colonies—Boston tea-party, etcetera. We engaged in an undeclared naval war with France and a second naval war with Britain in protest against interference with our shipping. During the Civil War, England came within inches of declaring war on us for doing what she has always claimed the right to do.

federate enemies of the United States. That war was

coln said, “One war at a time is enough.” . Our war with Spain was made’ possible by publio

Havana Harbor. In the World War, we had as much legal cause for fighting England as for fighting Germany over interferences by both governments with our “freedom of the seas.” The British practically blockaded our Atlantic coast, intercepted our mails, interfered with our commerce and violated all our concepts’ of inter national law. The deciding difference was that Gere

- man submarine interference destroyed American lives,

The British only destroyed American commerce. 8 8 2 :

E said thdt we went to war to vindicate our “freedom of the seas.” That was a principle one of Mr. Wilson's “fourteen points.” It ‘was dropped overboard and, without explanation until later, sunk without trace at his first contact with the British architects of the Treaty of Versailles. The “freedom: of the seas” slogan fooled us into one war. Now it is fooling us: into another.

write an air-mail lefter. to Venezuela via Bermuda that will not be opened and censored—and we stand for it. “Freedom of the seas” i a phantom—an echo of the real word, which is, and also has been, “Britannia rules the waves.” O. K. This is not even protesting that. It is only protesting .a second eagle-screaming misuse of “free dom of the seas” to get us into war. The Neutrality Act does need revision, but, if the purpose. of . the revisions is to force American vessels through actual. blockades. and to make war for us inevitable if one is sunk—in vindication of a right never before claimed by any non-belligerent nation— then, it would be far more forthright now to present to. Congress the issue of a war declaration and stop fooling our people with any such legalistic skulldug.gery or sloganeering them with any such false phan« tom as “freedom of the seas.”

‘A Woman's Viewpoint By Mis. Walter Ferguson

OMEN are used to being Blamed yo bad cone ditions, and so will not be surptised to hear that a research big shot finds that young men shy, away from overall jobs because their girl friends prefer them in white collars. ‘ That sounds like: the girls, all

other reason why there is a lack of skilled labor in ‘the country. The. fact that men" also prefer white-collar positions has some © thing-to do with it.. And if the girls don't like their boy friends in overalls, the men , are crackpots, too, for statistics - show they won’t date girls who are -in domestic service. "As a matter of fact, we've all gone Park Avenue, Mahogany of- ~ fices are the masculine rage, and everybody kriows that dishwashing is ‘hard on red firigernails. It's interesting to figure: ‘out Just ‘what ‘men and ‘women will do in “rder to keep from working. The brain turnover that goes into schemes. ‘to get money. without producing #nything, on‘ gambiing devices, on slicing profits, on petty rt would, it rightly used, solve half the problems of society 1t is now clear that we are Tacs’ to ‘face. with our greatest misconception—the notion that work: with one’s hands is dishonorable and h But before the gentlemen press the point of overs alls versus white collars, lei them complete a: study and find how the overall boys. themselves gravitate to the scented, owing soto 3 dolls. who. Pile themselves on knowing no about kitchen Let them listen to the walls £ the “domestic help~ ers” who can’t-get dates; ‘and who as & consequence are in a constant stew about finding some other and more fashionable employment.: “The whole thing is crazy. While we're buying our new hats and automobile tires, how about getting our= selves a new set of ideals on the: working question?

' gditer’s Notet The views expressed py volumnists in this ‘ newspaper are. their own. They are not mecessarily those of The ‘Indianapolis Times, ‘

Questions ny Answers

" (The indianapolis Times: Service Bureau will answer ~- question of fact or information, not involving extensive vee | .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 |

. Bureas, 1018 Thirteenth st. Washington, D. C.). {

..Q-Please give a brief sketch of Maj. Edward Bowes, and state whether or not he has ever beem ‘married, and also what the title “Major” signifies? A—He was born in San Francisco, in 1874, of Trish parents. . He became prominent in civic reform

‘and was successful in real estate. In 1908 he married

the late Margaret Illington. They went to New York, where he entered the: theatrical business. He as been: aden his weekly “Family” series since 1932, and his Amateur” hour began in 1935. Bowes, was & Major and staf s t in the Officers’ Boserve Qos, aftached to the Adjutant ‘General's

Q—In aluminum produced in Soviet Russia? A—It has been a comparatively recent develop~ ‘ment, but has expanded rapidly. In 1839, the Soviets production was estimated at 50,000 metric. tons, about one-thirteenth of the world’s total. - Bauxite, chief Spmertial suis vf sluminya, is produced iu the and on the eastern sloped

of the Ure. Tout mish of the ore is low BA FW. slo pee

this is written the President oe

when, with 80 per éent of bur peoe_

We stopped a British ship and took off two Cone averted by our apology and restitution because Line -

indignation over sinking the battleship Maine in

We have no freedom of the seas today where Brite: ist interests are involved. You can’t, for. example,*

right. But we can think of an- §