Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 May 1941 — Page 6

e Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) : DY W. HOWARD x RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERR resident : Editor Business Manager

Price in Marion County, 3 cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 12 cents a week.

Mail subscription rates iri - Indiana, $3 a year; outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.

(except Sunday) by ; Indianapolis Times Publishing Co., 214 W. land ‘St.

Member ot United Press.

a Owned and published The

aper Alliance, NEA vice, and Audit Bu-

geau of Circulations. RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Will Fina Their Own Way

THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1941

DON’T BE A STATISTIC

F you drive today, tomorrow or over the week-end, keep in mind these statistics that insurance actuaries have

There are likely to be 407 deaths in the United States. i There are likely to be 15,333 injured on streets and highways. : There are likely to be at least 10 traffic deaths in

There are likely to be more than 100 injured. So drive carefully during the next few days. It's up - fo you to see that you aren’t a statistic.

TOO LATE FOR WORDS

“HERE seems to be complete disagreement in Congress and the country over the meaning of the President’s speech. Is he going to start an undeclared war, or is he frying to keep his pledge to stay out? We still believe the latter, and we think his press-conference statements yesterday threw more cold water on interventionist hopes. : It is unfortunate, ofcourse, that the speech should have added to the already dangerous confusion regarding policy. But more threats can’t hurt Hitler and more words can’t add a single ship to our one-ocean Navy or add one more plane to the R. A. F.—and nothing the President could say would change those hard facts. . Naturally the British—underneath the polite official reactions—are reported “rather disappointed” by more warnings and words. They were similarly disappointed in March when passage of the Lend-Lease Law seemed so decisive to Americans. They have learned that speeches can’t speed production, that more appropriations don’t expand plant capacity, that “on order” is months or years distant from “on the front,” that battles are not won by cussing Hitler but are lost by bottlenecks. It is too late for words. What we would like to do to Hitler, what we would like to do for the British and for hemisphere defense, has no meaning whatever except as measured by increased production. v #® » =» ” go THIS may sound too obvious even to require statement. A But if it is understood by the President, then— Why has he failed to utilize more than a fraction of the y giant automotive industry, which is still at record “business as usual” production. : Why are 40 per cent of Army contracts still unlet? ey Why has he ignored the experience of Britain, and the £ overwhelming demand of the American people, for a defense director with full responsibility and power ? * Above all, why has he failed to handle the disgraceful and dangerous stoppages of defense production, caused by pital-labor disputes, by inter-corporation conflicts, by jurisdictional strikes? , rh Why hasn’t he cracked down on labor bosses, greedy * business leaders, red-tape bureaucrats, on fuddyduddy generals and admirals jealous of panzers and planes, on party

-air Enoug By Westbrook Pegler

British, Americans Err in Thinking That Their Enemies Have the Same High Regard for Sportsmanship

EW YORK, May 29.—Would it be un-American, do you suppose, to take down from the mantel one of our dearest and most. cluttersome items of bric-a-brac, a sort of spiritual china dog, and bust

ual ana national safery and common sense? I refer to the precious but idiotic fetish of sportsmanship as applied to situations from which sport obviously is absent, notably fights, whether informal fracases in saloons or wars between nations. The rules of sportsmanship were devised to govern contests between pairs or teams of players in games, and they impose artificial restraints and are admirable in their proper sphere. Thus, in a boxing contest, whether between ‘amateurs or mercenaries, it is prescribed that neither man shall intentionally poke the other fellow below the plimsoll or butt, heel, bite or use the knee. These are the refinements of civilization and are of comparatively recent origin, ) ago when spikes were worn and used to rip the legs of the adversary and tripping and gouging were allowed. : But a fight is a struggle for no mere moral advantage but for victory, and, it may be, for life itself. Starting impromptu between strangers over an issue of manners at the bar of a conflict of opinion, it is guarded by no guarantees of proper behavior on either side, and he who, through chivalry, disarms himself of certain weapons assumes a handicap which may be rejected by the other. ~ £3

® td

OW is one man to know that if he should be H knocked down the other will not stamp on his countenance or jump up ond down with emphasis on his abdomen? And if he feels that his cause is just, .why should he restrict his action to a code prescribed for an utterly different sort of situation? Is he not wiser to conk the other quickly with seidel, bottle or gobboon—to end the matter quickly and victoriously? Animals are primitive fighters and, when fighting to live “or to love, fight all-out, as the British say, and to conquer by any use of the weapons nature gave them. We have endowed the rattlesnake with a sporting character, because he gives warning ere he strikes, but there, again, we are romancing at the expense of our intelligence, for we know that he rattles his buttons only because he is alarmed, alert and trembling. In war we, mere than any other people, except the British, from whom we derive our code, are likely to assume that the enemy will not do this or that in certain situations, because such conduct would be unchivalrous, and to feel unhappy when he does just that. But we are still thinking in terms of sport, and the reason is, I suppose that for a long time sport has been one of our main interests.

2 ® ”

E were shocked that the Germans should turn the smiling face of friendship on the Norwegians, Dutch and Belgians and suddenly, without warning or declaring war, blast to ruin cities in which they had been more or less trustfully received as guests. We were disturbed, too, by the contrast between the size and the arms of these flyweights and that of the Nazi giant, but if we study the ¥egion coldly it should teach us that the Nazi is an e y from whom it is best always to expect the worst and, if possible, to beat him to it and, if necessary, to outfrightful him, The Nazis now have a great advantage over the British in the matter of hostages, and they are very quick to threaten reprisals at.the rate of ten to one for executions or other ill-treatment of their people by the enemy. But in the event of this nation going to war against Adolf Hitler there would be a better balance, and the only question would be one of our willingness to employ Hitler’s own method on Hitler’s own people who could be rounded up here. In that situation the Americans, no doubt, would hesitate to proceed against Germans in the United States in a manner like to that of the Nazis in Poland, for example, and Praha, where high school pupils were executed for “demonstrating” against the invader. But after a few factory explosions and train wrecks involving American soldiers American sports= manship might yield to practical considerations, for pressure on his Germans here, applied in Hitler's own blunt way, surely would tend to humanize him. Hostages are. very valuable in time of war, and we would start, at least, with an advantage over Hitler of thousands to one.

the same against the wall in the interests of individ- |

for time was not so very long.

The Hoosier Forum

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

CONTENDS EVERYONE NOW LIVES OFF GOVERNMENT By William Murphy, 1038 W. Morris St.

Your recent editorial condemning the WPA and governmental expenditures would leave one to believe that citizen Meitzler of Attica has taken you over hook, line and sinker. For both of your benefits let it be known that the government 1s supporting the entire populace now, including yourselves, and will continue -to support you if you aim on staying with us for any great length of time. Farm. subsidies which no doubt are contributing to the support of Mr. Meitzler and increased governmental handouts to business which enable them to buy more advertising space in you: paper which enables you to inhale the fresh air of increased prosperity are not to be passed over in any man’s land. After all, a handout is a handout whether it enables business to acquire new factories and fat war contracts, or the farmer increased prices through a benevolent government agency forcing prices up and stabilizing them at a high level and also the swme source shelling out

‘|with parity payments, and in your

case increasing thé volume of business to the extent that it reflects in

: (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.)

have stopped the spiraling of wages, which was the beginning of infla‘tion, but not a word was spoken— in fact, his inefficient Secretary of Labor has used every means in her power to further the disturbance in labor ranks rather than to maintain what were their just rights. We now see the President surrounded by a bunch of warmongers, the loudest of whom are Secretaries

policy, but both, since the election have gone far afield from their pre-

election promises.

Mr. Roosevelt himself stated a few days ago in a radio address that we ought to be thankful that we still have free speech, a free in this country. However, he did not refer to the fact that he himself was elected for a second term and also a’ third term by the WPA, CCC, NYA and millions on the public payroll and all of the rotten political machines of the United States, headed by the sewer gang at the

press and free elections

Chicago convention.

'1 agree with Mr. Pegler that national socialism has been on the The deterioration of our political system

march in this country.

began with the repudiation of the Democratic platform of 1932, and

Knox and Stimson. They should devote their time to building up an impregnable defense in this country instead of being rabble-rousers to get this country into a/ war which we did not start and for which we

passed.

Says— Disputing Saturday Evening Post's

Claim That Time Is Past When U. S. + Trend Toward War Can Be Debated.

NN /ASHINGTON, May 29.—One by one they falter, “die down and drone and cease”—the voices which have protested or unfavorably analyzed the long series of British and American blunders in getting into this war before we were ready, in ercourag- : ing European nations to their destruction by promises of aid we could not possibly fulfill, ia tardy, blundering, inefficient preparation to defend ourselves. ; Recently one of the most cogent, disinterested and poweriul of these voices has declared itself out of this argument: “If for anything you could do about it, your country nevertheless becomes in= volved in war, where are you go0= ing to stand? . .. We have said ‘that if war comes we should be . found supporting the Government that got us into it.” This column has also said that. It says it again. On every single proposal to make this country invincible—recognition and condemnation of the German menace, total land, naval and aerial rearmament, complete and efficient industrial and manpower mobilization, establishment of outlying bases and preparation for hemisphere defense—it has not merely followed this Administration, it nas been years and years ahead of it. Even as to such decisions as the Lease-Lend Bill in the form in which it. passed, it has debated them but accepted end supported them when o

” #"

r has criticized the blind moves of war and diplo-

macy in which we dabbled in European power politics—every one new proved on the record to have been a tragic blunder. It has protested the equally blundering and ill-informed administration of industrial mobilization. The cogent voice first mentioned, which is the editorial page of the Saturday Evening Post, has a somewhat similar record and philosophy but now, as I understand it, it feeis that the die is cast for all-out American engagement in a foreign war to reconquer the continent of Europe and it can no longer protest or argue against it. : Considering its past sincerity and courage no one can question its sincerity and courage now, but there is room to debate its reasoning, as I think there is room to debate any Government reasoning along the same line. The Post reasoning is that the American Govern ment has written that goal on the “American ban=ner’—committed this country to that herculean task ——that small European countries have relied upon it and that there can be no halting or turning back from it, because American honor is so engaged. Who engaged it? Ambassador Bullitt, encouraging France to declare war? This Government never. acknowledged that. Was it roving unofficial Wild Bill Donovan or our Balkan Ambassadors encouraging Greece and Jugoslavia to their fall? It if was, they and the world were on notice of ‘what the Administration had repeatedly promised the American people about engaging in foreign wars. : 2 nn 8 ; N top of that, they and the world were on notice, O by a conspicuos example, that no such ambassadors, official or unofficial, not even a President, could commit the American people to such things without their consent through their representatives in Congress. President Wilson’s heart-breaking failure to commit his country even after a victorious war and his own signature on the protocol for the League shows that and the whole world knows it. There are no such words inscribed on “The American panner” because the only hands thxorized to do it have not written. > In the surge and sway of th great contest in

are not only ill prepared to defend cient aid to anyone else.

we have ‘until Mr. Roosevelt becomes the President of all the people and until our duly elected representatives in Congress carry out the wishes of their constituents in a constitutional way. In my opinion Mr. Pegler should look further into this thing and give us more of the truth.

#88 DENIES NYA ASKED FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDS

By Herbert Little, Director of Information, National Youth Administration,

ourselves but to give any very effi-| We do! not have a united pecple, nor can |

Europe, it becomes less and less~likely that we could ever engage there with any nope of its reconquest | and without futile and insane slaughter and frustration. Our Government would never permit that. Even the most fervent interventionist would not urge that. I believe that every step of the Administration, however much in error, was taken with only one purpose—to defend this country and not to destroy it. In this view I do not believe that any die has been cast or anything written on any “American banner,

that forecloses debate of any further blundering steps down that pathway to destruction.

‘A Woman's Viewpoint

Washington, D C. Your reference to the National Youth Administration .in the editorial captioned “The Way to Save Is to Save,” is inaccurate and misleading.

since that repudiation no confidence can be placed in the fulfillment of promises made by our present elected President. Business has been hammered for eight years mercilessly and without reason, regardless of the fact that 90 per cent or

increased advertising which is the very core of newspaper. success. According to the philosophy as expounded by Mr. Meitzler and yourselves it is merely a matter of who receives what and why. What is 0. k. for Tweedle-Dee is not so

hacks and New Deal careerists? It is no answer to say that all this is expecting too much of any one man. Obviously he cannot do everything himself, and nobody expects him to. But unlike Churchill —or Hitler—he has been unable or unwilling to pick and

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

I

quieting to mothers. Congressional behavior doesn’t gibe with Con-

DON'T Know how the men feel about it, but much of the news now coming out of Washington is dis-

Business By John T. Flynn

gressional oratory. The people are called upon to

empower a few strong men to help him do the job. The test of his speech and his emergency proclamation is how much more comes off the production line—how much and how soon.

AIR POWER’S INNING : IR power has given a brilliant account of itself in recent days against sea power. The mighty Bismarck, though “finally sunk by a cruiser, had been tracked down and maimed by aircraft. Off Crete, swarming Stukas and high- ~ level bombers exacted a heavy toll from. the British navy. Is our Navy’s great battle line, and its greater twin now builling, doomed to the boneyard by these winged upstarts? Hardly. Even if it were conceivable that eventually planes

~ safety in the Navy’s hands. It must keep potential enemies far from our shores. But as goon as possible America must have not only the ‘erushing preponderance of seapower that her blueprints now envisage, but also parity with Axis air power—and parity plus. We are a long, long way from getting it. Whether we will get it in time either in the Navy or Army, and whether we will know how best to handle it if and when we do get it, is a question. In that connection we ‘quote Rep. Ross A. Collins of Mississippi, who by. reason of long and intelligent service on the committee handling Army appropriations knows the War Department backward d forward and doesn’t think much of it: “For every good reason of European experience and of common sense, the President should establish a separate air ‘department at once, to be directed by men who know avition. “They are, as surely as the job makes the man, a breed as different from old-line infantry officers as the-eagle from e pack mule.” :

Tire & Rubber Co., the American people can tail or stop many non-essential uses of rubber. can do without white sidewall tires, each of which in additional two pounds of rubber. They can s recapped. They can use reasonably satisfor innumerable rubber gadgets. They additional mileage from their tires by ich they travel.” 1y not adopt that last suggestion , It would save gasoline, It would even save a

Steel Is an Illustration of How Big Figures Are Used to Scare Hitler

EW YORK, May 29.—There seems to be a notion that the United States can whip the Germans with big figures. All the patriotic statesmen are yelling for more production. ' Steel men have been meeting in New York to look over their industry, and have been hearing that America must produce .more steel. The steel industry will produce about 75 million tons of steel this year, but the boys in Washington keep calling for more capacity. Some of them say the demands on. the industry will run as high as 100 million tons, while one occasionally hears that next year we ought to have at least 120 million tons. : It is just a year ago that the President announced that we must have 50,000 airplanes a year capacity. I note, however, that in the year that has elapsed since then the Navy .has received about 1800 planes. Yet I hear talk that we must have 80,000 planes, while some of the strategists estimate that we must have 120,000 planes to defeat Hitler. Some of .the arguments advanced for this enormous increase in steel capacity are, to say the least, disturbing. They come from certain of those starryeyed economists who vitalize the New Deal with their economic discoveries; 2 8 a2 =n UR war effort, they say, is going to produce a splendid boom. The income of the United States next year will be at least 100 billion dollars, maybe more. Taking the established ratio of steel production to income, this means we should produce 110 million tons of steel. This argument is pressed with great earnestness. The relationships between the needs of defense and , steel seem to be subordinate to the relationship between the boom and steel. : The steel men here, knowing their industry and its capacity, say that it can produce now all the steel that the nation can use for its own defense, for the British orders and for the normal needs of industry. The amount of steel which must be produced must bear some relation to the capacity of the nation to produce the other things that have to be used with steel. : : Certainly any attempt to expand the steel industry in order to expand the peace-time use of steel would be a dangerous procedure. : The whele thing gets down to the gestion of the

run. basis and with consideration for all the interests of our whole society, or is it to be run by the starry-eyed spending boys with their “guns and cake” theories?

So They Say—

I HAVE NEVER yet met an Englishman who didn’t think first about England.—Sena isolationist leader. Eland.-Senaior Wheeler,

. *

TO BE pro-American it is not DeCessary ‘to be

| P. Nye,

principle ‘upon which the defense program is to be Is it to be run by sane men upon an orderly |

hot for Tweedle-Dum. Your entire outlook: on the situation reeks very strongly of herring.

2 8 8 PRAISE FOR PEGLER, A RAP AT ROOSEVELT By Dr. Cbarles R. Sowder, 2146 College Ave.

Your paper is to be congratulated on the outspoken articles on various subjects of national importance by Westbrook Pegler. The general public needs to know the truth

no doubt but that he has aroused public opinion a great deal by his fearless expose of labor racketeering and other kindred subjects.

HoweveY, I cannot agree with his] article in The Times of Saturday, May 24, concerning the election of President Roosevelt for a third

term. The two candidates for election at that time were practically of the same views on our foreign

more of our businessmen are loyal

and patriotic. - ; | The present administration knew from the very beginning of Hitler’s

rearmament of Germany, and also

knew that it could not be for defense purposes but for war, and despite this fact no effort was made to prepare our own country or even

‘to modernize our own army, pitiably |

small and inefficient as it was. No effort was made to warn the people, although he began to threaten

di ly as 1937 in his about many of the subjects boul S osators as early

which he has written and there is|

Chicago speech. Neither was his voice raised toward the dangers in this country until his Charlottesville speech, which was timed in the middle of a campaign year. Through all these years he has condoned and contributed to the very things in labor which Westbrook Pegler has so forthrightly disclosed. Meh : Last fall when the opportunity was ripe a word to the labot leaders from President Roosevelt would

anti-anything or to be pro-British.—Senator Gerald

Side Glances - By Galbraith

rt for my husband-—one that will make a good dustcloth when it gets old" a

The NYA is not asking for an additional appropriation beyond the original budget request. The Presi

dent and the Budget Bureau, after a rather complete investigation of what we are doing in the defense field, are asking for the additional appropriation. The President’s budget message in January informed the Congress tha the recommendations then submitted had not covered the full requirements of the civilian training program and advised Congress that “surveys are under way which will provide a basis for transmitting an estimate of funds needed for the extension of this essential defense activity.” The President on May 13 transmitted to Congress a report by the Budget Bureau outlining a supplemental request which will provide for three-shift-a-day use of our facilities. In this report, House Document 211, Harold D. Smith, director of the budget, said: “The funds requested for workexperience training in NYA fac ties contemplate the employment bf a maximum of 100,000 youth at 32,735 selected work stations by the use of which, on the basis of three

| shifts per day and three months’

work experience per youth, it is expected that approximately 368,000 youth will be given work-experience training during the course of the year which will qualify them for employment in defense industry. Funds are also requested for the administration of this program.” I hope that you will use this information to correct the impression that the NYA is operating ‘“apparently on the theory that the best defense against proposed economies is an offense for more money.”

MEMORIAL DAY By MARY P. DENNY

Soldiers of May, Soldiers of May, Living again, Living again. ! Valiant and brave, Cilosious they gave. Eleroes: of yesterday Living today. Living in glory, Beyond all story. Shining and true Above skies of blue. Soldiers. of May, Soldiers of May.

DAILY THOUGHT

If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink. —Proverbs 25:31, virtue of the heart, —Addison,

y

arise and defend democracy. Thefe’s a lot of talk about selfsacrifice. More and more often the words, “a cause worth fighting and dying for,” creep into speeches. Noble language is flung about with reckless abandon. At the same time, there seems to be no ardent effort on the part of our representatives to practice what they preach. Instead the majority act as if they. were waiting to see which way the cat jumps. Apparently all are reluctant to jiggle the sensibilities of constituents by taking away Government, gratuities, no matter how desperately the national defense program may need the money. Labor dissenters are handled with kid-glove technique. A little slap on the wrist is deemed sufficient. In short and ugly words—it’s politics, as usual. According to’ recently published figures, 7,000,000 Americans are paying income taxes into the Treasury, while 13,000,060 are faking money out. And this, mind you, doesn’t include Army or Navy expenses, The report applies onl to civilian Federal employees, WPA workers, farmers ‘and other recipients of payments, pensions and what not. So far nothing real has been done to cut nondefense spending in order to speed defense. Surely no one is so naive as to ask why? The politicians are as scared as s bevy of pet rabbits about re-elec-tion. They're all for The Great Ideal—so long as it doesn’t interfere with their campaign plans. So, while they ask our boys to die for'a principle, mighty few seém willing to sacrifice either votes or prestige for the same cause. They urge sons and mothers to sacrifice for democracy. Very, well, sirs, we are ready when you are. All we ask is that ‘you put the national destiny above your petty political ambitions; that you stand firm for principles no matter what the consequences may be for you in the next election; that you act as if you were willing to sacrifice a $10,000 salary for the welfare of your country. :

Eaitor’s Note: The views expressed bv columnists in this newspaper are their own. They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis: Times.

”

Questions and Answers

(The Indisnapoils Times Service Buresu will answer ny question of fact or information, mot involving extensive ve search. Write your questions clearly, sign name and address, inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal advice esnnot be given: Address The Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 Thirteenth 8t., Washington, D. C.). Q—What are telluric lines? A—This term is used in astrophysics and refers to atmospheric lines, which are variable lines seen in the solar spectrum and are caused by aqueous vapor in the earth's atmosphere. Q-=-What is the greatest distance that a steel ship will attract a highly magnetized compass in an air-

plane? ai A—It does not depend upon the degree of mag‘netization of the compass, but upon the -magnetiza- + tion of the ship and the direction from the ship at which the compass is located. The field from a magnetized body falls off approximately as the cube of the distance, so that an airplane would have

to be fairly close to a ship to have its compass af fected. No definite Cy can be stated. =