Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 June 1941 — Page 13

The Indianapolis Times

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Vun Way 3 : WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1041 CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST =. BEFORE a Senate committee in April, 1989, J. Warren Madden, then Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, declared that an employer would violate the ‘Wagner Act by stating with complete truth, but with intent to indicate his disapproval of a particular union, that the ~ union’s’ leader was a Communist. Acting on that policy, the NLRB consistently shielded

labor leaders and workers accused of being Communists.

It helped to entrench Communists within organized labor’s: ranks and ‘to create a haven for potential saboteurs within’ the plants of American industry. ‘-Now, in a national crisis, ihe chickens have come home to roost. = Atiorney General Jackson says that the North American aviation strike resembles an “insurrection.” And Associate Director Hillman of the OPM refers to that strike’s leaders as “irresponsible and subversive.” Woe to an employer who had said such things when Madden was in power! ~~ What is happening became inevitable when Labor Board decisions and court decrees elevated unions and labor bosses above. the restraints of law and the regulations of -Government which apply to other persons and organizations. Reds, racketeers, shyster-lawyers and self-seekers found within the folds of unionism a chance to operate virtually under Government protection while undermining union discipline and responsibility. : These conditions won’t be permanently corrected by opening plants with troops or by persuading men to go back to work in one plant while Communists foment new strikes in. other plants. The trouble has been Permitted to root itself too deeply. -. To cure this disease will require examination and revision of the whole field of labor laws. It will require sound ~ legislation, sanely administered, to impose reasonable safeguards on the power exercised by unions. I is a job for Cengress. = And nobody will benefit so much as the. rank and file of labor itself.

CHARLES B. SOMMERS

NDIANAPOLIS has lost a distinguished business execu- . tive and philanthropist in the death of Charles B. Sommers. Mr. Sommers was active in this city’s affairs for almost 40 years, beginning in 1900. He founded the old Sommers furniture company, headed the Empire Auto Co., and later directed the Gibson Co. During the World War, he was among the most active of all this state’s civilian workers. As chairman of the War Chest, he was instrumental in raising more than $2,000,000 for charity and it was his organizational ability that eventually led to the founding of the Community Fund. He will be remembered as one of those who contributed a great deal to Indianapolis in the decades which saw it pass from trading center to industrial metropolis.

UNITED—SERVICE—ORGANIZATIONS

HEY chose well who named a certain malady “homesickness.” It is a sickness. Many a young man, leaving his home and the friendly surroundings of his native community for the first time when he enters the Army, is really sick with the sense of ‘separation. Big, strapping sixfooters have been known to lie on their barrack bunks at ‘night and sob from the ache of it. : They don’t die of it, these soldiers, nor anybody else, gcept in fiction. But they suffer, and there is nothing unnly in that suffering. One of the ways to alleviate it, and to cure the disease, is providing places where the soldier and sailor can go hen he is off duty—a place where he can have clean © amusement, decent surroundings, little facilities for writing 10me, or reading; where he can get sympathetic advice or religious consolation when: he needs them.

That, roughly, is the purpose of the drive of the United

rvice Organizations to’ raise an initial $10, 765, 000 for np service clubs. . These centers, operated by six national pluntary welfare. organizations all experienced in such rk, will be off military reservations, giving the men a nce to relax once in a while outside military supervision. Plenty of private persons and organizations realize t, and are always ready to put diversion of a sort at the isposal of the soldier and sailor, especially on pay day. fuch of this sort of diversion is bad in itself and offered ith sheer exploitive intent. There is only one way to beat that game and protect welfare of American soldiers and sailors. That is to The USO proposes. to’ do it, and its fund drive is an portunity for every man’ ‘and woman to do something concrete and very Repestsiy A to advance the country’s ‘ense.

PR

[ | NAVY NEEDS MEN '

have been so absorbed in the vital Sobloin 4 of building the two-ocean navy, waiting and watching breathy as each new ship slides down the ways, that'we have n that it takes men to operate them. Further, we Hecome so accustomed to the idea of selective service

‘the Army that we are apt to forget that the Navy ad

ends on volunteers for its personnel. The declaration of a full emergency makes it imperathat every new ship be instantly manned by’ trained . ‘The Navy now needs 85,000 recruits, and has sent a “tecond urgent call for them. Requirements as to and height have recently been lowered somewhat, h means that thousands who were formerly. ejected n W.ie able io sstve: :

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Giving You Some Background ints the Shootings Involving the Boss

EW YORK, June 11.—Some days I shoot the sun in essays of the “whither-are-we-drifting?” type, and other days I give them the old who, what, when, where, why and :how-come? This is one of those Other days, ‘and the subject of our study is

Harry Van Arsdale, the business agent of Local 3 of the Interns- * tonal Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which is commonly said to be the biggest local, numerically, in the entire American Federation of Labor. It is a New York union and is really an industrial union of the . 1.-O. type, for the majority of its members are not electricians at all but factory workers who make fixtures and the like. They have an inferior status in the union, lacking the voting powers

“of the skilled electricians.

Some months ago Mrs. Roosevelt appeared at a strike meeting of some of these factory workers in

‘New York and saide among other things, that she

thought all workers ought to join unjons. It is possible that the lady didn’t know the background of the union, but if she didn’t she should have, and if he did her advice was presumptuous from one in<her tion. Mr. Van Arsdale was at that very time under in-

| dictment on a charge of rioting in” connection with

that very strike, and he has since been convicted and sentenced to serve from one to two years in 8ing Sing. This is not his first conviction but his second, and, although his conviction in the previous case was reversed and the complaint finally was dismissed, the ‘history of that job will give you an idea. ”n ® ”

N Feb. 24, 1933, William Sorensen and Frank Dooner, members of Local 3, were shot in a factional fracas at the headquarters of Local 3. Sorensen was hit twice, in the shoulder and stomach, and Dooner once, in the head. Within an hour after the shooting Sorensen, in a statement, said: “Van Arsdale pulled a gun. He fired at me, and the first bullet hit me in the stomach. He fired another shot at me.” At Bellevue Hospital, Dooner said Van Arsdale had no gun, but he later said someone had threatened him if he did not keep his mouth shut. One Henry Godell, also a union member, who entered the hall with Sorensen, Dooner and their faction, was not available to testify in the subsequent trial. He was waylaid and killed near his home by a party of gunmen four months after the gunplay. No arrests. During the trial Sorensen said Godell helped him to his feet when he fell. “Is he dead or alive?” the prosecutor asked. “He is dead,” Sorensen replied. “He was murdered right afterward. This question and the answer were protested and stricken out. A preliminary hearing of the charge against Van Arsdale of shooting Sorensen and Dooner was held during the morning of May 27, 1933, at which Adelbert Letscher, another member of the opposition, gave testimony: A few hours later, as he was walking along the street, he was attacked from behind by a man who threw acid in his face. He later testified as to this, and this testimony, too, was stricken out. Indeed, the reversal of the conviction wag based, in part, on the fact that the prosecutor, nevertheless, referred to this testimony in summing up. ® &@ » AN ARSDALE'S sentence was from six to 12 years in Sing Sing, but the case was sent back on Dec. 7, 1934, for retrial. It was dismissed on May 1, 1935, on the recommendation of Robert Santangelo, a an assistant District Attorney, who wrote for the record that the injured men “have stated that they are no longer desirous of appearing against the defendants.” - “The undersigned has also learned,” Mr. Santangelo informed the court, “that because of the injuries which they sufféered the union, on account of an action brought by them against it, settled their claims for the injuries suffered by them in the amount of $1 5 15,000. ”» Could it have been, then, that $15,000 of the workers’ money was handed over to the two injured brothers to persuade them to abandon the people’s case against a man: accused of a serious crime? ‘That would be a most. unpleasant suggestion, involving the compounding of a felony, and it was anticipated and forefended by the brothers. “They stated to the undersigned,” Mr. Santangelo informed the court, “that they are not indicating their desire to withdraw: this complaint because of this consideration but because the best Interests of the union warrant that attitude.” Breathes there a soul so evil as to think otherwise?

Business By John T. Flynn

Take I+ From Mr. Baruch, U. S. Will Outsell Hitler After the. War

EW YORK, June 11.—Bernard Baruch throws his powerful voice on the side of sanity. Not only does he say that America need not fear Hitler in the world’s markets when the war is over, but he declares that it is Qertisny herself who would be on the spot, even if she won control of the European continent. What Mr. Baruch says, of course, is no more than most businessmen and most economists know. Running a military machine is one thing. Carrying on international trade is quite another. Germany will be able to sell in other countries only if she has for sale the - things those countries want and can sell on better terms than her competitors—that is, bet- ' ter price, better quality, better credit. The United States cannot ask for better trading conditions than that.. We met the Germans in the world markets from 1935 to 1938—the year preceding the war. Mr, Hitler, who scares sd many people, had his great totalitarian economy. He had his barter system. He had his propaganda agencies. Yet he did not do so well in the world’s trade against our poor old, halting, limiting system of free international exchange,

. 8 ERMAN world trade just about kept pace with Britain’s on the export side. German sales insed 11 per cent in 1936 over 1935, and 20 per cent in 937 over 1036, while it dropped 10 per cent in 1938. Britain increased her exports 5 per cent in 1936 over 1935 and 19 per cent in 1937 over 1936, but declined only 6 per cent in 1038 as against Germany's 10 per cent. The United States increased her exports about 4 per cent if 1036 over 1935, but nearly 40 per cent in 1937 over 3936, or twice as great a many, while we declined about 10 per cent the next year, 1938. In other words in 1038 we were about 30 per cent above 1935, while in 1838 Germany was about 21 per cent ahead of 1935, and we were selling a billion dollars a year more than Under proper economic policy the United States,

- says Mr. Baruch, should be able to drive. Germany out

of any desired neutral market. He 3 cited the case of a -large American-owned factory in Germany now which, despite lower wages and long hours, is turning out its products at a higher cost than factories of the same Sompany in America.

8 They Say —

EVERY MAN and woman in America wants to have ‘a share in defending the nation. Contributing to the U. 8. O. is one President Roosevelt,

3 ALL, THIS TALI about. the cholcs for woman

of Electricians’ Union in New York. ;

profits.

tage as Ger- |

ations.” the fund drive of the United Service Organ . ot

INDIANAPOLIS TIMES “Spring Homing

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

SUGGESTS $21 A MONTH PAY FOR EVERYBODY

-By Mrs. A. Shupp, Attica, Ind.

Tell me—do U. S. Government employees and state employees pay income tax? I've heard that they

great injustice. Some years ago a great Senator from Michigan died; he left $40,000,000 in U. S. tax exempt bonds. Had never been taxed, while my husband is worn to a shadow trying to keep this place clear and pay taxes, gross income: tax, etc. With all these boys confined in camp at $21 per month, who is to shoulder the taxes that they should have paid? What percentage are on relief, drawing old-age pension, WPA, etc? Strikes all over the Union and the draftees dare not strike. If it is the American way for Allis-Chalmers to lay idle over two months, why cannot the draftees strike? All you hear is “Hurry, hurry, England is sinking,” and A. C. does not turn a wheel for more than three months and our Government and Madame Perkins sit complacently and wish they'd go back to work. There was to be no profit in this war; well all I see is profit.

men at $350 per month. If 1 were a Congressman I'd introduce a bill that every one from President down work for $21 per month. If they want and we must have war, let the people sacrifice and not be rolling in. immense I do not write this for argument. I am & thinker and this all worries me. ;

= 2 =» AIRING A GRIEVANCE ABOUT THE SPEEDWAY By H. D. Coffee, Russellville, Ark.

Indianapolis needs to do something about its races! This writer and wife spent nearly a hundred dollars to realize a dream of years standing to see the races this year. Arriving by train the station was crowded by throngs on race-day morning getting to the shuttle trains running to the Speedway. After getting breakfast and rushing out we found that our tickets ($2.75 each) entitled us to see no more than the rear of the grand-

do not and if I think it's a very|:

An ad in our Lafayette paper for

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.) .

stands and the barkers and that grandstand seats had all been sold the day before. Bleachers nearly a mile away were full.

first one foot and then the other and get a glimpse (sometimes) of a passing speedster at a distance of a hundred yards or more. We never got ‘close enough to the tracks to see the wheels of the cars and could not tell whether the track was paved with bricks or gold bricks. 2x6s across trucks, we tried to find a scalper and even asked permission to stand on the truck of a bottled water company, which iv lege was denied us. What use did we have for the rubber “Speedway Souvenir” when we had no seat to put it on? We proudly packed it in our bag and brought home as a “souvenir” of the 1941 races which we paid for.but could not see. Yes, Indianapolis needs to do something about its races. A big event it is and an activity any city could well afford to get behind. But is it fair for.the fellow living hundreds of. miles away to permit him to pay his fare right up to the grandstands and then find that he cannot even get a place to sit down, nor to even stand and see the races in anything like a decent manner? . Sitting by the radio would give one a better picture of the event then we had and certainly .at less

CO anks for listening. ® » =»

FEARS DEMOCRACY MAY DEFEAT ITSELF By Norman Glenn, Clinton County. ‘Today American democracy is testing itself to see if it has not become soft, decadent, to see if Americans retain those virtues that carried the state through crises in its “growing period. There is no

guarantee of results, but recent

. What could] we do? Just mill around, stand on

We offered to buy seats on

Side Glances et By Galbraith

events give food. for thought. Let| us consider them. In a great national crisis the greatest necessity is: national unity, with all people striving to achieve a common goal. They must want to do this, not be made to do it. Ours is a Government of majority rule wherein it is not expected that all shall agree, but when the majority decides on a question the dissenting minority is expected to co-operate on the decided action. Our majority has definitely spoken and what is our minority doing? John L. Lewjs bluntly tells our Government to go hang, to expect little co-operation from him unless it is to his liking. Burton Wheeler raves that 80 per cent of the people opposes what: the government -is doing, ‘even though the Gallup Poll shows the opposite to be. true.. Just now, when unity in. thought and action is so vital, our stripling Lindberg tells the people and the world that our government does not represent the people, that we need a new gavernment. After our President’s special plea for ‘unity, our own Hoosier, Rep. Harness, adroitly said to the press |. that he had received several suggestions about impeachment of the President. Was that a potriotic, wise remark for today? Certainly not, but it was a typical bit of Hoosier political sniping that illustrates the most vital weakness of democracy. Willkie was right when he said, although the election is over, some people still want to have an off-year election of their own.

2 = - ASKS WHY WHEELER REJECTED DEBATE By Mrs. Nell B. Purky, 2808 N. Talbot Ave.

It was reported that in Texas the |}

Dallas County Association for Aid to the Blind conceived the idea of

inviting Senator Burton K. Wheel- |} ed to debate the war issues with |}

their fellow townsman, the well known foreign war correspondent, Mr. H. R. Knickerbocker. ' They proposed to hire a hall “in Dallas with seating capacity of 15,000 persons, believing this would be a splendid opportunity to * the fund for the Dallas County. blind. I wonder why Mr. Wheeler 'rejected | this opportunity to aid a worthy cause and at the same time ound his cherished gospel to a thering such as this: promi Jo be with the bland statement he could not appear under ~

other auspices except the America First Committee :

|" Why is his altruism so circumscribed? Possibly & contract with

the America Firsts claims all his time and pays him better. After all the Texans offered: him only $500.

Or was it that he might be not a ‘|little chagrined at the way a foreign

correspondent with a first-hahd in-

| formation about Europe might show

him up? Could he take the punches ‘Mr. Knickerbocker might hand out? How would he fare in a rough and tumble? Could it :be he fears to depart from the set routine to which | he is accustomed? fa

LITTLE SMILES By VERNE S. MOORE God bless each little smile that breaks

In unexpected. place— God bless each little smile. that

makes Happy a tired, sad face. God bless: each little smile of gladAlong the weary. mils’

There is 50 much of sadness We need each little smile.

DAILY THOUGHT

For God so ve the world; that he gave His

— WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1041 |

Gen. Johnson Says.

FE.D.R Lacks Authority i in Law fo Seize Plants and, Anyway, Such Acts Usually Punish fhe Wrong Culprit.

T. LOUIS, Mo., June 11.—This country is- almost + unanimously up in arms against: strike-stoppages” in national defense works. It wants action. But does it want any kind of action, regardless of sense, laws and Constititiona) guarantees? There is not yet a shadow of legal™ right for. the Administration to. " “take over” a great - industrial” plant which has itself never faltered in its: energy and duty of . national defense, but merely bes: cause its employees refuse to work,~ That punishes the wrong culprit. There is no doubt that Congress. should give the President author: ity to commandeer—with due ree. gard for the Constitutional oblie~ gation to pay just compensation—.. but not in this way, nor for this: purpose. The point here is .thatCongress hasn't acted. The lawyers who seek to vindicate arbitrary seizure don’t attemipt to find statutory authority. They talk-of the: :“war-powers

<¥

‘of the President” as Commander-in-Chief.

There is hardly enough justification in law, logie or precedent in that even to argue it. There is no" doubt that the war-powers of this: Government, like the doctrine of self-defense in homicide cases, are. as broad as the necessity for defense. But, except: as to the armed; forces or as to martial law or milie. tary law in the field of military operations or in oce= cupied territory, those “war-powers" of Government" do not reside in the Commander-in-Chief. They are: the property of Congress, and, until it :delegates:

them, any Presidential appropriation of them is an

act of usurpation. : ” » # r

World War precedent, set by Woodrow Wile son in the famous case of the Danbury hatters:

‘and the Colt Company, seems to have been completely"

misread. At about the same time, a labor union in one case and a manufacturer in the other, refusedto comply with reasonable directions of this Govern<ment under unquestioned authority of law. Under similar unquestioned authority, President Wilson on a single day “took over” the plant of the recalci- . trant owner and practically black-listed the members of the recalcitrant union. Only the culpable pay was punished for its own offense in each. case. . . A seizure to cure a strike is different, - A union obstructs defense and so we confiscate itsemployer. There is no doubt in the aviation case ‘that leaders of the extreme left-wing in the labor movement—outright Reds—engineered the strike. A local census showed that 99 per cent of the pickets

| were not employees and that the bulk of them were.-.

longshoremen under the Red influence of Harry. Bridges. But even that did: not. justify action as Commander-in-Chief. . -: The object of the Communists is to socialize industry. If, by bulldozing a strong-arm strike, theycan invoke confiscation of a great property, that is: the beginning of the end of private property in Amer--ica. -It can't be justified on the argument: that in-a crisis the President: can do anything. &

IN addition, the whole theory is wrong. After the: Government “takes over” a plant, how is its essential relation to labor and the right not to work: changed? Suppose, which is not true, that a majority of workers really do not want to: work. Because of some paper change in ownership and the substitution" of some stuffed-shirt little sir in a colonel’s ‘uniform, ignorant of industrial method, for the competent and” experienced manager—does that wave some magic wand that changes our American doctrine that enforced labor, not in punishment for crime, is human slavery or :involuntary: servitude—prohibited by the XIII Amendment to the Constitution? Tommyrot! The place to move against this subversion and sabotage is where its authors reside.’ I have recently returned from the Pacific Coast. The* rank seid file of workers in the airplane industry are among the cleanest, most intelligent and most patriotic workers I have seen—and I have seen plenty. in labor among both leaders and followers. What is needed here is no usurpation of illegal powers to. punish employers, not for their own acts, but for. a. Communistic conspiracy by others. What is needed is a bold and courageous crack-down on the leading: ‘conspirators themselves. : These defense strikes have got to stop, but let’sstop them at their source and not by any fentigling: around the edges. |

Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists in this =~

newspaper are their own. They are aot Becessarily those of The Indianapolis Times.

J

A Womaly S Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

OME SOLD!” Those’ words staring at me in. the. er local newspaper stabbed like a.swaord. at. myear A familiar picture rose. vividly in my mind-—a . serene, lovely, wide-halled house, where so many times friends had gathered, where : midnight often found us talking, where we had looked at books and pictures together and where mu tual interests held us entranced while the hours raced by. |The forceful quiet man who was once its master and the gracious woman who was its mistress: have passed into the long shadows. which Time throws over the earth. But, for all who knew and loved” them, their presence lingers and oR the house>had been a kind of : shrine for their .memory. .Each time we passed it we visualized the past. It came . back, clear as a camep, beautiful as a child’s dream. Now that home has been sold to strangers. I felt® resentful at this sort of intrusion, and a little sick: inside, which I suppose is a natural reaction, although selfish and foolish. | For the house too has its rights. And then T began to see its'point of view. Poor, empty, deserted place: —how hollow and desplate it must feell. Probably if - houses have souls—ang I'm sure the ones which have been lived in a long time do—this one longs for. a resurrection of its spirit.

And so. I console myself by saying that other people y /

will now enjoy its cool porches and its pleasant rooms, Perhaps other friendships will be created there, and - laughier will once more resound within its hospitable walls! a The main thing, I suppose, is that it will again be" : lived: in. And since there has been. distilled within

it a subtle spiritual atmosphere, a silent -blessing will - .

rest upon those who occupy it from this time forth. “In the past it has given rest and welcome. to- many » people, and the sweet ghosts. of those who once: tended and loved it sb well must walk there still in the fragrant summer twiligh

those things which give life meaning ~Joy, Laughter, Friendship, Love and Death. :

Questions and Answers:

(The Tatianaselis Times Servios Bureau will Answer any” question of fact or information, met involving extensive ree search. Write your questions clearly. sizn name and address, incloss a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or texal advice = cannot be given, Address The Times Washington ‘Sarvien « Bureau. 1013 Thirteenth St. ee Washington. DC so

* Q—How old is the King of Ttaly? sow it 2

he Leigned? Whom did he marry? Victor Emmanuel IIT of Italy was-born’

or 11, 1869, in the Palace of pediment at . | tne ‘x and of

‘21, 1896, to Elena, daughter ot

‘Nicholas, S, of Mon 'Q=Was N LE oo Russia, va: dee 3 scendan 3

b of Ivan the Terrible? :- 0; lie wa ber of

ts. It is a blessed house <because it has enfolded within its sheltering arms all.

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