Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 June 1941 — Page 12

“he Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSEAPEE)

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER . MARK. eumne ~ President : Business Manager

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oN RILEY B81

Give Light and the People win Find Thetr dun Way TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 1941

. Owned and. published daily (except Sunday) ‘by The Indianapolis Times E Publishing Co, 214 W. Maryland St. :

Member of United Press. Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA" Service, and Audit Bu- EE reau -of Circulations.

LABOR TODAY—A JOB FOR CONGRESS ~ GENERATION ago labor was weak. Its struggle was

uphill on a rocky road, made harder by many a boulder | :

pushed onto the pathway by the employers of those days. The very right to bargain for better hours, wages and = working conditions was challenged at every turn of that road. Remember the time when steel said it couldn’t operate on less than a. 12-hour day? You will recall, if you’, re middle-aged. So, to. make labor’s course easier, exemptions were al-

Howed in laws which were designed to hold in line other |

and more powerful groups—Ilaws such as the Sherman and Clayton acts. As the years rolled on, labor grew stronger. And, as happens with those who get powerful, abuses developed. "Certain labor leaders started throwing their weight around. Racketeering, jurisdictional strikes, outlaw strikes, sitdown strikes, slowdown strikes, Communist-inspired strikes — those were a few of the abuses resulting from labor’s new “feel”: of strength. Now, in the defense crisis, we see labor, the fair-haired child of the lawmakers, the strongest force in the natiop— next to the United States Government. So a short cut is taken. The Army is called out. A great aviation plant, vital to defense, is opened upi And an executive order goes out from Washington—directing the nation’s military draft boards to reclassify “all who have ceased to perform the jobs for which they were deferred.” Thus are strikers bluntly reminded that the union of the states has a higher call on them than their own labor unions. : 2 = - : ® UT that isn’t the complete answer. For labor has demonstrated that it has been a long time weaned. It was the same story with the banks, the railways, the utilities, the Stock Exchange, the investment trusts. They were all weak once, in the early days of this country —and unregulated. Then they attained power. With the coming of that power came regulation. - Such regulatory commissions as the ICC and the SEC were evolutions, growing out of the trend to power. Labor today possesses its power without responsibility to the Government. It has arrived at the same spot as had the railways, some 50 years ago. Labor reports to nobody, governmentally. It is unincorporated. It is unrestrained - except by persuasion or, as happened yesterday, by the sudden use of force. While other institutions turn in their re- ~ ceipts and expenditures, and otherwise show their tonsils in triplicate, the unions enjoy immunity from such irri- ~ tations. So, looking at the problem in the large. it’s a job for the lawmakers, not for the Army. The time has come to deal with this power as the others were dealt with. During our life at newspapering we supported labor in its efforts to gain strength. Likewise we supported the ‘Government in its policy of regulating those who had gottoo strong——the railroads, the Stock Exchange, the utilities, etc. By the same formula we support the principle that labor is now due for the same diagnosis and the same treatment. :

) ® 2 2 2 ® ® NATURALLY certain labor bosses oppose regulation— that is- human nature. And they distort the issue by confusing it with the absolute outlawing of strikes, which experience shows is not practicable—and which, certainly, this newspaper will not advocate. We believe it is possible, and desirable, to regulate unions without destroying any legitimate right of the worker as an individual or as a member of a collective-bargaining association. Such reforms as compulsory mediation and cooling-off periods, public accounting of funds, limitation on political contributions, curbs on minority dictatorship and racketeering, and the withdrawal of special legal immunities from union factions which grossly abuse those privileges, are as necessary for the protection of the labor rank and file as for the nation. For the union minority and certain bosses today are

not only blocking defense—the Government can and will |

take care of that. They are also provoking public demands for extreme anti-labor measures under which the innocent union majority would be the chief victims.

“TAXES THE HARD WAY

INEanLy every year since the depression started the Ways and Means Committee has had to draft a new: tax bill. Last year it wrote two. Now the committee is ‘working on another one, the largest of all, for three and one-half billions in added levies, knowing full well that the revenue raised will still be many billions short of the money spent. For the first time the committee is seriously considering a real broadening of the income-tax base, to require several million more citizens to pay taxes direct to the Government. This has to come sooner or later. Middle(Glass incomes remain one of the few scarcely tapped sources f large potential revenue. z A healthy by-product of a substantial reduction in the income-tax exemptions would be an increase in public suport for economy in non-essential, non-defense expenditures. he fact that some 13,000,000 voters receive non-defense joney direct from the Government—in salaries, pensions, payments, etc.—while only about 7,000,000 pay taxes t to the Treasury, goes a long way toward explaining hy economy proposals get nowhere. Secretary Morgenthau said at least one billion dollars’ could be shaved off non-defense spending. But nothing | ppened. Rep. Disney of Oklahoma went further. He: ew up an itemized plan for saving $1,800,000,000. Still | othing happened. But if we ever get an income-tax base so broad that or t 20 million voters are paying taxes the hard way, such

By John T. Flynn

as those of Messrs. Morgenthau and Disney won't. th

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

lt Would Be Nice to Bring the Four Freedoms to Rest of World But the Fact Is They Don't Do So Well Here

EW YORK, June 10.—I hate to seem intelligent and reasonable, and perhaps you will vindicate

me of any such seeming when you have read this, but it: does strike me that we have put too many bricks

‘in the hod in promisife to establish all those beauti-

ul’ freedoms, forever, everywhere

a the ‘world. That is a terrible overload which we.never an tote up the ladder. “can never. be established in .this ‘world until’ all the nations and peoples: are; united in one great brotherhood of the human race, and one of ‘the most reliable ways to start a fight. in our own country is to propose that. Accompanying the instinctive star-spangled pop on the nose which would greet this suggestion

you would hear something old and .

familiar about a Popish plot -or something newer just as angry, and probably from me, about the dirty ‘Communists. Christianity, logically, is nothing but this great, loving brotherhood of all the peoples. of our little world, but.the human breed is far from the day when national and racial boundaries will be obliterated and a man will be a man among his brothers wherever he finds ‘himself on earth, living strictly by the word of Jesus Christ. And, even if comm were good, .the Americans with their faces worn nude and their habit of washing and bathing, wouldn't like it if only for the final reason that it has been brought to us by a lot of hairy Russians who smell pretty high, tell lies about everything and say the most scandalous things about God whom we profess to love but whose teaching we follow at a distance measurable only in light years. # /a =» OBODY believes that we have any intention or even a popular desire to say nothing of the ability, to establish all those freedoms everywhere, and the worst of it is that we don't even believe it ourselves. We know in our hearts that we have no more right to inflict freedom on the German people that they have to impose Hitlerism on ‘us, and that if we should go to war under that device Hitler would only have to yell, “To arms, boys! Those goofy Americans are coming to liberate us again.” I just don’t believe the Germans or the Russians,

.and they take in a great deal of territory and popula-

tion which we would undertake to emancipate, have any appetite for freedom, and it would be perfectly all right with me if they should continue to belt each other over the head with wagonspokes and solemnize their massacres and famines within their own territory until they get bloody well: sick of it and try some other way.

And while it certainly makes a fellow sore to see |

what the Germans have been doing to their other captives, a recent peek into an old Congressional document giving the minority report on the investigation of the original Ku-Klux Klan reminds me that only 65 years ago and a few years before, we Americans of the Northern tier were doing pretty much the same to the people of the ‘defeated and destitute South. 2» 8 8 E sent among them some of the dirtiest grafters and common thieves that the human race ever has produced to its shame, and Hitler himself couldn’t outclever some of the nasty and remorseless ingenuities by which we taxed their property away and sneered their human and civic rights out of existence. The wonder is not that the Southern politician and the patriot waved the bloody shirt as long as they did but that the Southern people ever did have the bigness of soul to forgive, forget and cooperate again. Well, so what? Well, so at least this: That our task is to defeat a military ‘and economic national ‘enemy solely for selfish nationalistic reasons of security and prosperity just as we would undertake to lick another great free republic for the same reasons if it ever came to at. Beyond that, they can worship Hitler if they want to worship Hitler or kiss a pig if they want to kiss a

- pig, which would be all one to me.

But we do sometimes talk the most sentimental: bushwah to open our pores and lather ourselves up for situations that are nothing more nor less than practical questions of life by fighting or death by surrender, and I hope: this ninds you well this lovely summer day. .

Business Confiscation Unpopular But Mild To What Happens If We Go to War.

EW YORK, Jurie 10.—The confiscation bill to give the President power to seize plants and property for defense purposes is bringing groans from the people who own seizable property. They do not like it and with good reason. But what they like is not going to govern our public gondues in this war—if we go into 1 * x The Chancellor of the Exchequer in England tells the people there that spending is no longer to be determined by financial considerations. The object, he says, is not to keep expenditures down but to spend and spend without too much thought to what spending means. Of course the conservative Briton who ewns property and has income doesn’t like that, but he has very little to say about it. When you go into a 1941 war you set in motion a certain series of energies and forces, and thereafter you become the victim of those forces. They rule you; you do not rule them. Businessmen may not like confiscation, but they will get it whether they like it or not.

Of. course, they may defeat it for the present.

Certainly there will be a bitter fight on it. But

sooner or later—if we ge into the war—that will come, |

and plenty more will come with it.

For instance, at the moment . those. who oppose.

the confiscation bill insist that it must be amended te limit the power of confiscation and the duration of seizure to the emergency.

UT, once the confiscation takes place, no man can tell when the emergency will end. In Eng- - land, Oliver Lyttleton, Board of Trade president, asserted recently that England is now and must be subjected to the most rigorous controls. will be regimented, harnessed, and ruled by the Government. But, he added, Englishmen must not expect that these controls will en face some grave difficulties then. There will be plenty of emergency left when the fighting stops. She will be a debtor country, frightfully depleted of essential consumer goods. To meet this serious shift in ‘her economic position the controls will have to continue for some time. It will be so here. We are now in the stage of the emergency before the war. That necessitates rising controls. If we are pdshed into the war, we will have the war emergency. Then, after the war,

| will come the greatest emergency of all, and new

kinds of controls will be needed. For during the war most people will submit in silence, but after the war there will be grumbling, muttering, reluctance, so that psychological and spiritual controls vill be added to the physical ones.

To safeguard the inviolable sphere. of the rights of the human person . . . should the 9tfice of every public authority.~Pope Pius X11.

IT'S VERY difficult to become ‘morally. dominant.

over the very selfish and criminal types, make :good, |

: These freedoms iE

Business"

with the war. England will |

essentiay |

; : ° : : The Hoosier Forum I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say dx — Voltaire.

OFFERING A SUGGESTION ON “GIFTS” FOR GERMANY By Tit For Tat, Indianapolis - Since Pearl Janis of Martinsville seems to see more danger in smallscale, localized, unorganized, feistlike racial snapping in Florida than in the large-scale, continent-wide, highly organized depredations of the mad dogs of Berlin; and since . |she started the jocund game of deportation by wrapping Walter Winchell, Senator Pepper, D. A. Sommer, et al, into Bundles for Britain, the obvious retort would seem to be that she herself would make a suitable gift for Germany. For her ideas point her out as a German “gift” in America. Furthermore, her sympathies make it reasonable to assume she knows the meaning of the German word, “gift.” » ” STRIKING A BLOW FOR A NOISY CITY By Mrs. L. A. Allen, 634 N. Hamilton Ave. I see where someone wants to make Indianapolis a noiseless city. I am not in favor of it. Who wants to live in a ghost town, or a graveyard? Let the police blow _their whistles, let the newshoys sell their | co papers. Why not bring back the “town pump, mounted policemen and hacks for funerals? I like to see the smoke roll out of factory smokestacks, hear their whistles blow. Hear carpenters’ hammers nailing on new homes. I like to hear and see the hustle and bustle of the people of being alert and alive. Who wants to live in a dead city, who would care to visit us? I am not in favor of killing our beautiful city of homes and turning it into a cemetery. There is one thing I am in favor of and that is getting rid of soot and smoke during winter. They claim it can be done. What are they waiting for? 2 ”n ” TERMS ISOLATIONIST VIEWPOINT DEFEATIST By Sam T. Roberts, 518 N. New Jersey St. The broader issue of the hour is whether we are on our way to the reign of universal peace or the reign of ‘universal war. For the real background of the isolationist attitude is th? assumption or contention that ‘war is a necessary and unavoidable affliction of the human family. And which defeatist attitude is about as justifiable as the one-time impression that yellow fever and smallpox

(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.)

were also “invincible” scourges of the race. : The isolationists are therefore wrong from every basic standpoint. They apprehend and forecast the downfall or the fading of democracy but ignore and defy the fact that the form and machinery of democratic government cannot long survive unless the spirit of democracy also survives as the essential foundation. And this spirit of democracy happens to be a matter of cooperation not only between individuals but also as between nations:

A matter of sharing in both wealth |

and effort on occasions of distress as caused by storms, earthquakes, famine and even the menace of international bandits. Moreover, a due respect and compliance with the spirit of democracy would seem to require a unity of co-operation toward the program as formulated by our duly elected representatives (in lieu of an out-of-the-season campaign for new policies and a new leadership). “Hard facts” thus justify the staiement that thos: who now voice a feverish concern for the fate -of democracy are guilty of both acis and words clearly adapted to the destruction of democracy by the promotion of disunity at home and also (it musi be said) by the giving of “aid and comfort” to the recently declared enemies of this democracy. In brief: Are we on our way to the further planting of democratic institutions throughout the world: Schools, churches, unrestricted printing presses, trial by jury—all to the end of the realization of the four freedoms, the opportunity to live the normal happy life? Or are we on our way to witness the triumph of a tyrant whose practice and avowed intention is the actual destruction of all democratic ways and institutions, including the imposition of his own will by way of the firing squad?

® ” ® CONTENDS F. D. R. SPOKE AS A DICTATOR . By Glen D. Barr, Riley Hotel, Indianapolis Mr. Roosevelt's bad timing which

twice postponed his labored speech overtook him again on the night

Side Glances — By Galbraith

3 rs NG 3

188

iy “Flere at school he can recite the but at home it's all «

we can do to.g

whole

etn Gettysbirg spe

: quired him .to tell the American

“| war.”

. | bate.

1 he it is that he hath

when he at last put it on the air. The powerful German battleship, the Bismarck, had just been sent to the bottom —thus demonstrating that a Navy now inferior to the American, controls the approaches to these shores. And against this demonstration of a fact, Mr. Roosevelt found that his time table re-

people that they were about to be attacked by the ruthless forces of Nazi Germany. His talk was full of perils and absurdities. The perils were found in the announcement of his intentions. The absurdities were in the reasons he gave for them, To meet the imminent danger of attack upon the United States in some other continent (‘several thousand miles from Boston”), Mr. Roosevelt has proclaimed what he calls an unlimited national emergency. = In that he gives the people a full view of their peril. He is assuming, unrestrained control over them. He washes out his promises. The Fuehrer government is: much closer to these shores than is war. Mr. Roosevelt spoke as the su-

preme authority in the country. He.

didn’t even speak as ‘the chief executive in a government of checks and balances. . He didn’t speak as the administrator in a government of three independent branches. He spoke as one who could dictate and was dictating. He didn’t mention Congress. He spoke of great decisions which had been made and which were to be made, without reference to the national legislature. The speech was made over the heads of Congress to a people who were. told what was going to happen to them and told that they must drop their own personal opinions and give him

the loyalty which is required by the|

dictatorship principles. War or no war, we move closer to the form of government we are urged to fight and overcome as a menace to society. » 2 8 ALARMED BY CLAPPER’S FREE SPEECH SUGGESTION By H. C. Wallace, M. D., Crawfordsville We note with alarm Raymond Clapper’s advocacy of ‘the Fascist principle of suppression of free speech. He is of course committed to intervention, and apparently forgets that the National Policy has been decided in exactly the opposiie direction. Both Republican and Democratic platforms promised non-interven-tion im no uncertain terms. Let us recall President Roosevelt's strong pre-election promises. The aid to be given Britain was all “short of This was the policy for which the American people voted. Both The Indianapolis News and The South Bend Tribune have recently conducted ;polls. They were both about 95 per cent opposed to intervention. Now the interventions realize that the common people cannot ‘be driven to war as long as there is free debate. So although they profess to despise Hitler they propose to adopt his methods and stop deWhat we need is a new dedication to Thomas Jefferson's words, “The first object of my heart is my own Souniry.” :

ONE YET ALL By ELEEZA HADIAN The sea—

So much greatness Given me!

The skies— Oh, miracle Of my eyes!

A hE. ‘DAILY THOUGHT One man of shall chase a thousand: for the Lord your God, teth for you, as ‘hath promised you.—Joshua 43:10. a

Fel RD ne

God

|Gen. Johnson

Says—

U. S. First to Experiment Wh Parachute Troops and Boys in That Branch Today Are Doing All Right ASHINGTON, June 10.—Most ‘of our officers “that our Army was the first to experiment with

and develop at least the principles of parachute ate tacks. The story of .some line officers is that i

proved, the tactics, including. the transportation of.

light cannon and ‘cars, that ac- | credited German observers. watched it, took it homie, improved | it, gave it also to the Russians—=' and that our general. staff filed it6for reference. There is something of: this his= tory in nearly all American de- ~ velopment of new weapons—the submarine, : repeating rifles, :the' -‘airplane, armored ships, the caterpillar-tread making possible. the tank, smokeless powder and several less conspicuous instances Well, we are catching up fast and in some things going ahead, While it is just getting a good:

in

start our organization, training and equipment of.

parachute troops are very encouraging. In the first place the*men are chaesen as a football team is selected. The physical requirements are far. above those for any other troops. The men must have .completed at least one enlistment—trajned sol« diers at the outset. Even after this rigorous selection, there is a preliminary period of 90 days and a further Wweeding-out in practice. .

TE go into a period of physical conditiong as severe #% that of apy professional boxer—no liquor, not even cigarets .or tobacco except at long inter vals, and then for only a day and that is merely to! offset the danger of being trained too.fine. The idea is that each one of these armed athletes’ must be at least the equal of an infantry squad. ~~* They carry tommy sub-machine guns and a small’ armory of auxiliary weapons. They are accomplished’ grenadiers, educated not only to expert marksmane ship but also trained and equipped :for all the artd’ of demolition by explosives—to destroy bridges, rails, roads and military obstacles. They also must. have’ an officer's’ background knowledge of at least minor tactics to recognize key points at a glance and know: what to do about them. It is a dangerous service contributing more than- : its share of crippled ankles and broken legs. This, E am told, is not because of anything especially hazards: ous in the ordinary “bailing out” from the usual high elevations which is fairly safe, except for mise, adventures. But these boys don’t jump from the’ “usual high elevations.” Their object is to shove off’ from as close to the ground as possible. A man dangling from a parachute slowly. floating: down from a great height is about as helpless as a caterpillar in a cocoon. His coming is advertised: He makes a lovely ‘swinging target for enemy airs planes and almost as good a one for handy winge shots on the ground. Also, to be most effective, these - boys must be spotted, as'a surprise, on the map at: just the points where they are niost needed and: not sprinkled all over the landscape. For these. reasons the idea is to drop them as close to the ground: as possible—as low as 200 feet or, it is hoped, even: lower. 2 ‘ ® a2 8° : HIS atttainment is in an experimental or develope’ ment stage which probably accounts for the ine’ juries. These parachutes are different in that they have nod rip-cords for the trooper to pull. There:is na time at low altitudes to count “1-2-3.” The parachute is opened immediately. by an attachment to the plane and sometimes conditions are not right to break and cushion the fall enough to prevent g disastrous bump. - These new troops are becoming a prized, proud. corps d’elite—like aviation aces or submarine suicide crews. The ‘service is voluntary and eagerly: sought, It is about the highest. individual responsibility to be’ attained by an enlisted man. The daring.that would seek this service and fight to stay in at the end of 90 days’ experience is a - ty good guaranty of the daring that will make these boys effective when. they have to deal with something more offensive than a dummy target.

The views expressed by columnists in: this They are " ‘mecessarily those

Editor's: Note? newspaper are their own, of The Indianapolis Times.

aN

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

TEx No. 1 playgirl, Elsa Maxwell, is out with some anti-party propaganda. In the interest of‘ national defense, she is reported to have said, “wa~ women must quit being manicured and powdered,’ iis Ten oniing, . bridge-playing, country-clubbing*® and ‘backgammoning.. “And mays" be,” says Elsa, “we’ll. even have to” go back to scrubbing’—adding™ frankly that she doesn’t care for~ it herself. : Well, sisters, it will be no harde ship for us to give up fox-hunting, will it? T've always preferred cate fishing, myself; and, when it. comes to scrubbing, most of us won't have to bother about that, . either, because, figuratively speake . ing, we've been at it all this time ‘+a fact perhaps unknown to Miss . Maxwell's set. Only a small hand« ful of us belong: 0. country clubs, so this sort of pube licity in the interest of defense is unadulterated bunk, The real women of this country work like troopers, year in and year out, whether there's a war on or not, . And they don't really need the playgirls to exhort them to sacrifice. While the glamour groups ‘disport themselves on the golf courses and night club dance floors, the less | socially prominent are practicing upon this self-denial ¢

‘business. They know, already, exactly how it is done,

They've stinted themselves so their children can | get an education; they've helped to support old and ailing relatives, and saved their pennies to pay off * the mortgage. Yet, in spite of all that, they manage to get to the beauty parlor now and then-and, cone sidering everything, their looks do them credit, The folks who are asking us to get back to simple living are talking to. themselves. Two-thirds’ of the . nation’s population has never known any other kind, | For that reason, we'd be awfully proud to see the country club sets do a little scrubbing for defense, if that is what it's going to take. However, the way

. they are urging it on us makes me feel they may be

getting ready fo put on another big Tom Sawyer act,

Questions and ‘Answers :

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any’ question of fact or information, net involving extensive ree. search. Write vour questions clearly. sign .name and address, : inclese a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal advice cannot be given. Address The Times ‘Washington Service Bureau. 1018 Thirteenth St... Washington D. C.).

@ How much is thes Federal tax on a package of

ia Backage of 20 tigaiels of the standard |

| small size, retailing at 15 cents, the tax is 6% cents,

Q—When did i Via Ametican frome, first Sh iang rar 3 can War A—Gen.. Lelangs dusing the the first detachment are rived in Manila Bay June 20, 1898. They encamped at Cavite, an arsenal which had been captured by , Commodore (later Admiral) George Dewey. Q—What voltage is n to an electrie

-gurrent to flow between two wires one-eighth of an

inch apart in water? al ont will How ab aay. voltage. The * current becomes decidedly larger at voltages above 18. - Q—Is it possible to find out whether an individual to whom I sent a money order has cashed jt? : A—Yes, consult the postmaster or carrier’ from whom you ‘bought the money order. «i'd a I am an alien resident of the United States with all my . Will -T" have any dif ficulty in re the United States if I spend

within thef

A