Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 June 1941 — Page 20

Page PDF (11.93 MB)

Back to issue view

General Francis Biddle to succeed Mr.

PAGE of The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) i BOY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER . MAREK FERREE President Business Manager

Price in Marion County, 3 cents a copy; deliv ered by carrier, 12 cents a week,

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

Owned d lished daily lt puns by The Indiana Times

Member of United Press. Scripps-Howard Newsr Alliance, NEA , and Audit Bu-

réau of Oirculations. RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 1941

[CANADA KICKS IN : SOME 850,000 Canadians have chipped in to put over Canada’s Victory loan. The Government had asked for $600,000,000; it got $710,958,950. . That’s more than was raised by the 1918 Victory Loan, Canada’s largest of the last war. The Dominion’s population is about one-thirteenth that of the United States. Thus if Americans were to respond to a loan with the same liberality, better than nine billion dollars would be realized. Which reminds us: Have you bought a Defense Savings Bond yet?

RULING THE PRICE WAVES

ETWEEN control of prices and umeontrolied inflation there can be only one sensible choice. This country can’t afford another such price boom and bust as it experienced during and after the last war. Leon Henderson, like a modern King Canute, has been commanding the price waves not to rise—and, thus far, with ~ somewhat more success than Canute achieved. But now Mr. Henderson's Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply is running into difficulties. Voluntary co-operation by private industry is wearing thin in vital spots. And so Mr. Henderson will ask Congress for legislation specifically authorizing price-fixing and providing stiff penalties for violators. Decision to seek greater, clearer legal authority is said to have been prompted by refusal of the Chrysler Corp. to rescind price increases on new cars at Mr. Henderson's request, and by action of a number of furniture manufacturers in raising prices without seeking his approval. We believe new price legislation is necessary, and the sooner Congress gets to work on it the better, for enacting a fair and effective law will be a big job. ~ But it seems increasingly evident that the problem must be attacked, not by attempting to push back some prices as they threaten to climb out of line, but by controlling all prices. Wages are an important element in prices, but labor insists on its right to raise wages as fast and far as it can. Farmers get help in increasing their prices from the same Government which insists that non-agricultural prices must be held down. And manufacturers argue that, when faced by the necessity of paying more for labor, material and supplies, they can’t afford to wait for permission from Mr, Henderson's office before adjusting upward the prices of their products. : The difficulties and complexities of piecemeal pricefixing are obvious. So is the danger that some part of the price structure will misbehave and start a vicious spiral _ before it can be corrected. There. is no ideal method of eontrolling prices, but we think the aim of new legislation should be the method advocated by Bernard M. Baruch on the basis of his wide experience in this field during the pther war. That would be a Government-ordered ceiling over all prices, including the price of labor, which is wages. Below this ceiling prices would be free to fluctuate, but they could pot rise above it without permission of the Government agency. ' That system, we think, would be fairer, less complicated, easier to enforce and more effective than any other.

| “WE THE PEOPLE...”

WE quote from a Page-one editorial in the Daily Worker, Joe Stalin’s New York mouthpiece:

“The American people will approve and welcome (the :

President's) pledge to give all possible aid to the Soviet Union A) “The people will also be happy to note... “However, the American people, eager to aid the Soviet Union destroy the Nazi menace, cannot fail to note , .. “The American people’s feeling tells them that ..., “The people desire, on the contrary, clear and definite ~ action aes “The people note with disquiet . ,. “The people feel dissatisfied . .. “Furthermore, the American people know... “The American people sense the urgency... . “The American people’s cry, then, is for swift action, for plans, and deeds, in full support of the Soviet Union} s ~ struggle to crush Nazi fascism.” . ® = = s = @ 3 Wonder if the editor of the Daily Worker ever heard of he three tailors of Tooley Street and their petition be- : : Sinning, “We the people of England...

ATTORNEY GENERALS

H elevation of Attorney General Robert H. Jackson to the Supreme Court, and talk of promoting Solicitor Jackson—which, incidentally, would be a fine appointment—Editorial Research Reports has dug up some interesting background on the attorney-generalship.

worked o~- rt time for the Government, and practiced law on th. .e. He received a smaller salary than other members of the Cabinet. He wasn't given office quarters in Washington until 1822, when the Attorney General and his

one law clerk were permitted to occupy. a single room in the

War Department building. The Department of Justice was not created until 1870.

| Today it occupies a monumental building in the capital, has | branch offices in many cities, employs thousands of lawyers, accountants, investigators, crime experts, et al. No Attorney General has ever become President, but en have become justices of the Supreme Court. Harlan Stone is the second former Attorney General to

6), < +E

In the early days of the republic, the Attorney General

Fair Encuah

By Westbrook Pegler

Strike of Truckmen in Pittsburgh Sheds Light on How a Union May Set Aside the Rights of the Public.

EW YORK, June 27.—The teamsters have been celebrating a strike in Pittsburgh, which is, of ‘course, one of the most important centers of defense industry in the entire country. The dispute, which involves a question of wages, has been ornamented with violence and a politically indifferent local government and an incompetent police force have offered no protection to citizens who displease the union.. Acts of wanton brutality and vandalism which, done by George Spelvin, the average American, would land him in prison and disgrace his family are tolerated as ordinary behavior, and the teamsters in Pittsburgh, as elsewhere, enjoy a special privilege to deny the use of the public streets and highways to citizens who pay taxes for their maintenance and for the salaries of the cops. As a special concession to the law-abiding element of the American population the union leaders have

‘ agreed not to prevent delivery to industrial plants of

materials, required in the production of weapons and other tools and wares intended fof the defense of the nation. In so doing they have, of course, claimed and asserted a right to prevent by violence the movement through the public streets and over the highways of other goods which cannot be conscientiously certified as deferise materials. ” s ” ND the people of the community are so thoroughly subdued by a long record of such activity that they do not even question the justice of this program, or, if they do question it, they nevertheless submit to the fact that the teamsters are a law unto themselves. In Pittsburgh, as in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis and many other cities, the people have seen the power of Government slip from the hands of their elected local and state governments into those of men who enjoy recognition and approval from the Supreme Court of the United States, Congress and the executive branch of the national Government. A few days ago the W, W. Patterson Co., manufacturers of tackle blocks and related devices and gadgets, received notice that a shipment had arrived by railroad. The company, which is not involved in the teamsters’ -dispute with their employers, desired delivery of this material for use in a job undertaken for the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corp. which, in turn, is turning out national defense orders. In order to obtain the goods from the railroad yard the . Patterson company first had to call on Lieut. Richard P. Brown of the Pittsburgh Ordnance District of the War Department, who wrote an official letter to the business agent of Local 249 /of the teamsters certifying that the material “is used in the fulfillment of defense orders,” and adding that “your co-operation in securing the release of this material will be appreciated.” In other words, the War Department of the United States here is pleading with the teamsters not to indulge in lawless conduct as a special favor to the national Government. 2 » ”

HE letter was taken to the union office and there okayed by one M. Rosenthal, but W., W. Patterson Jr, who presented the request for safe conduct, was then informed that he must apply for another visa at the office of another local union. At this place, when it appeared that not all of the materials in the consignment had yet arrived, the citizen-supplicant was told to “come and see me again in ga few days,” and that was as far as he could get with Mr. Dan Tobin's invisible government. In the course of this action it has been disclosed or recalled that the honorable secretary-treasurer of Local 249, Scott Marshall, is g criminal who was sentenced to two years on probation—not two years nor even two hours in prison—in 1935 for wrecking and burning a big truck on a public highway by way of enforcing his union’s rule. The present strike apparently is coming to a close now, but the conduct of the union since June 1 has prevented the delivery of goods through the streets and over the roads, except by truckers holding union passports, and the blockade has held up not only nondefense wares legally in transit but many materials indirectly intended for defense. This is no spectacular outrage as union conduct goes but an ordinary manifestation of g policy of “the public be damned!”

Business By John T. Flynn

Nazi-Soviet Clash Brings War Back to Real Issues Which Are Economic

EW YORK, June 27.—The German-Russian episode brings the war back to the real issues around which it is being fought—economic issues. For strictly propaganda purposes, the war has been enveloped in a cloud of fictitious issues since it started. From the beginning Hitler had a definite purpose. That purpose was to grab for Germany whatever lands were lying around with those materials most needed by the Reich. The lands that had what he wanted most, by a happy chance for Hitler, were at: his very door, in Russia and the Balkans. To seize these lands would be a practicable project for Hitler. What is more, such a project would be doubly acceptable to Germans, because it would mean ar. attack on the hated Communists. ‘The Ukraine is one of the richest spots on earth. It contains most of the iron, coal and manganese of Russia, which is a great deal. It is one of the greatest granaries of the world, 'and has an immense production of vegetables, fruits, foods of all sorts, plus enormously valuable forests. It is the richest thing Russia owns. It has the largest electric-power production project in Russia. It has just what Germany needs. And, in addition to all this, it has a population which is by no means a unit in loyalty to the Soviet. The Kulaks still remember the brutal policy of starvation which the Soviet used to beat them into submission to the socialization of the farms—a policy which is said to have killed at least two million Ukrainians. 2 Hitler seized Czechoslovakia partly to repatriate

its Sudeten Germans, partly: to get its rich iron | § deposits and its fine industrial section around Praha, | }.

but more than all that to open up the road to the Ukraine. He seized Poland chiefly for the same reason. 2 J 8 o AD Britain and France not intervened, he would. have carried out his plan to take: over the Ukraine. And no one can doubt now by this time, he would have succeeded. Later he might have made war on France. Or he might not. That is a chance France might have taken. As it was, she preferred to take no chance of making war. She reduced it to a certainty and made war in September, 1939, to avoid taking it in some future day. The same was true of Britain, Having disposed of France and Britain so far as the continent is concerned, Hitler was ready to undertake his original and most important objective— the seizure of the Ukraine and of Baku, which produces a fifth of all the oil in the world. While Russia holds these, she could shut off Germany's supplies and destroy her. This is what the war was about from the beginning and what it is about now. The other issues, irrelevant, were thrust into it by Britain's and France's entry. They served to confuse the real issues. Two great

So They Say—

THE FORD COMPANY never goes half way.—I. A. Capizzi, Detroit lawyer representing Ford at signing of a union contract. a.

NOT YET HAS the age of Biol

3. Ruthven, pre

economic systems are now at war—Bolshevism and” aziism,

' THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Same Old Story?

FRIDAY, JUNE 27; 1941

~The Hoosier

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

Forum

CONTENDS IRISH WANT BRITISH TO WIN By W. G. Green, 402 N. Meridian St.

For the sake of improved racial and religious tolerance, which is one blessing this war has endowed us with, I would like to make a timely comment upon the act of vandalism perpetrated upon “Bundles for Britain” headquarters the other night. Having closely studied Nazi propaganda and sabotage practiced in various countries, including our own, I would like to'state that although the nature of the act was meant to imply that it was the work of an Irishman, I do not believe anyone should allow themselves to be misled by the subterfuge. It was undoubtedly meant to cause dissension. And, we cannot afford that at this time. It might be of interest to some people to know the present attitude of the péople in Eire toward the British as recounted to me by an Irish friend lately returned from Eire. He says that with the exception of a few of the most ignorant malcontents, the Irish now realize that a British victory is much to Eire’s advantage and their sympathy is all for Britain but they just don’t want to get bombed.

. ® » FAVORS SENDING HELP TO BOTH DICTATORS By L. S., Indianapolis.

Your editorial “Plague on Both Houses,” which gives the American viewpoint on the war between Schicklgruber and Djugashvili — otherwise known as Hitler and Stalin, should be reprinted and distributed in the United States to millions of people, who, I feel confident, will feel as I do—i. e., thank God for a bit of healing ointment. Two rats fighting two rats—one perhaps less foul than the other, if that ean ever be said of rats— digging in and beginning to pay for past ravages upon the helpless. So the day finally has come when we might enjoy the spectacle of watching Schickelgruber consume Djugashvili or vice versa. The Lord is good. When you say, “Let us in America also make the most of our opportunity,” then you found the vital spot, Daily Worker notwithstanding. The less in number, Nazis or Communists, will become the greater chance for decent, peace-loving peoples on earth to live in peace. So let us send not only aid to Soviet

(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.)

Russia but also to Nazi Germany. I mean aid that will make it possible for them to destroy each other—rat poison. ” » ”

AGREES WITH EDITORIAL ON FINNISH ‘DILEMMA By R. A. L., Indianapolis I write to express my appreciation for your editorial “Finland's Dilemma. ” When Finland gained her independence she made great strides as a ‘democracy, and as nothing else. Her politicians, businessmen and citizens were all shining examples of honesty and truthfulness. This trait began to be first recognized and then admired and then applauded, as year after year the evidence of it began to appear to the world at large, and to us in particular. Add to this an unsurpassed heroism and you begin to get an idea of the quafity of these people, As your editorial says, forced by

-|eircumstances beyond her control,

presently facing starvation, this grim, determined little nation, the easternmost true democracy to survive, “at heart Finland has no more gone Nazi than Churchill has gone Bolshevik.” » EJ n CONTENDS PACIFISTS REMAIN CONSISTENT By T. 0. M., Indianapolis One annoying thing about the pacificist is that he does not shift his ground. In the astounding right-about toward a hitherto detested Communism we war resisters stand exactly where we have stood since 1914— four-square against any and every war, for any and every purpose, no matter what the specious alliances. To use it is war itself which is the enemy. To us it is humanity itself which is the victim. Some day sanity will return to a world gone mad. Some day men will see that one cannot cure war with war,

nor dictatorship with dictatorship.

Side Glances — By Galbraith

When that time comes we shall help rebuild—if aught but ruins is left. Meantime, we think of fresh millions doomed to horror and death. And we pray God to keep our own country out of this intolerably cruel war, ” ”

OPPOSES SENDING HELP TO RUSSIA

By R. M., Indianapolis

The following is a copy of a telegram I have sent to my two Senators and my Representatives: “I and millions of Christian Americans are opposed to the sending of lend-lease material paid for by the sweat of American taxpayers to Russia. “Churchill may be willing to prostitute himself with the man who conquered parts of Poland, Rumania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland, but we Americans will not.” Christians want no part of Stalin as an ally. If we were once determined to stay out of this war we are now more so. Churchill's speech showed that this war certainly is not being fought to make the world safe for democracy.

# nn 8 PRAISES U. S.-BRITISH STAND TOWARD RUSSIA By R. G., 626 N. Hamilton Ave.

The attitude taken by the United States and Great Britain toward the German invasion of Russia has indeed restored my faith in humanity. It is greatly to my satisfaction to

foe towers above existing political differences. Although Communism,

decided to help the Russian people instead of seeing their form of government probably wiped out for good. This goes to show that at least in a few nations there is still left the {eeling of “good will toward men.”

a, 8 8» SEES DECEPTIONS LEADING TO DOORSTEP OF COMMUNISM

By George H. Healey, English Hotel

“Good morning, Communism!” That seems to be a clever and considerate salutation for our new bed fellow. All of the clever deceptions we have experienced have led us to the threshold of Communism. We are now about to go all-out for Russia and for the most hated of all ideologies and to embrace the most sinister, most ruthless, most murderous of all dictators, Joseph Stalin. The cloak that concealed the motives of .the advocates of this destructive concept of government has fallen from the shoulders of our deceivers and they stand naked and profane in their treachery. Is there any real patriotism, any desire to save America from the outrage of surrender to the most dangerous of all totalitarian methods? What shall we do, where shall we assemble, or shall we sit idly by and let deception ruin the country that we love so much?

INDIANA SINGS

By BARBARA GREENFIELD GRIFFITH

The waving cornflelds hum with rip'ning grain— Tall sycamores take up the soft refrain. Until their music with the Wabash flows On through White River, brightly

rippling grows, 7 Like some light welts from old Vienna rings The Home Sweet Home that Indiana sings. DAILY THOUGHT

The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish ~Psalms 1:6.

ENOW FROM t the Vounteots heavens all riches flow; and what

learn that the. thought of human] suffering at the hands of a brutal| j

Gen. Johnson Says—

Nazi-Russ War Puts Japan in a Hole And the Time Seems Ripe to Wean Her Away From the Axis Setup

ASHINGTON, June 27.—~When Andrew Jack son was getting ready to" meet at New Orleans

- the erack British army just released by the peninsular

campaign, Jackson was hard up for artillery and gunners. At Barretaria Bay, not far away, reigned ‘ the pirate, Jean Laffite, over a private army and navy of buccaneers who, as the old song put it “had hairy ears” and various ade ditional qualities of toughness— among which were that they were the best gunners on this continent. They were enemies of society and Andy Jackson had sworn to hang Laffite at the first opportunity. He usually kept his word in such matters. But when the Brite ish offered |the pirate Kking a princely bribe for his allegiance, the rover boys turned it down and sent the papers to Jackson, asserting that, being American, regardless of profession, Andy could come mand their services for nothing. For once Old Hickory weakened and the pirates had an important, perhaps the deciding part in the ' ; great American victory at New Orleans. ot The moral of that story may be that when you are beset by one gang, of gas-house ruffians and ane other big gorilla engages them on the flank you don’t turn him down just because you don’t like the way he acts and smells, The case of American aid to Russia is far from being as simple as that and the analogy of Jackson and Laffite is not come plete, but that is the argument that is being made, It seems to me far from sufficient, but the point is hardly worth argument because the aid we could give Russia in time to swing the balance in this crisis is notning. She is toc far away. There are too many barriers between # #" ” HE thing in Russia is of the utmost importance to us, but not as to anything effective we could do there. The hot point to watch at this stage is its effect on Japan and, boy, does this present a problem to her? If we team up with Russia, it' could give us Vladivostock as an advanced base, threatening the whole Japanese archipelago. Offsetting that in a precisely reverse direction, Russia, engaged in Europe, can hardly send any more aid to China. Returning to the other side of the ledger, German engagement in Russia may for some considerable time release English forces to "guard Singapore and the route of conquest to the East "Indies. In addition, for the present, Japan is completely cut off from her gangster playmates, Hit and Muss. There will surely be no route through Russia, India, the Red Sea, the Americas and only very long and wholly impractical ones around the Cape of Good Hope, or Cape Horn. As allies, those two international hoods are just now about as useful to Japan as Al Capone, all buttoned up in Alcatraz, was to John Dillinger. ” » 8 N the treaty side, she.is in another mess. She has a neutrality pact with Russia and a mutual assistance agreement with the Axis. But the Axis attacked first, which lets Japan out of a duty of ase sistance even if she could render any—which she ,couldn’'t except by attacking Siberia in violation of her recent neutrality treaty. She wouldn't care about the treaty, but, if she attacked Russia, who is fight= ing Germany, we would be bound now to choke off her supplies entirely, and that, taken with her vast unfinished business in China plus a considerable military job in Siberia, isn't very encouraging. Altogether it seems a wonderful time for Britain, the United States and Russia to compose their rela« tions with Japan—not to “appease” her, but to save her face, let her live, help her get back on her feet and, above dll, to strike the deadliest blow that Hitler could suffer just now. If we could safely take a larger part of our fleet out of the Pacific that little rodent would be driven deeper and deeper into his Brzopesn hole and farther from any possible threat 0 us.

Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists In this newspaper ‘are their own, They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times,

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

I= IN favor of a two-week vacation for Congress, Right now, and with no fishing privileges. This vacation would be an innovation in holidays— a conscription of the Government by the people. Fol it seems imperative that law-makers should find out what goes on in those lands lying west of the District of Columbia— the places they are supposed to represent,

Of course, the outlying taxe payers are not so bright and ene tertalning as the diplomats the Congressmen meet in Washington, but—we do pay their salaries. It is our own evil fortune that many of us are overawed by the glory we have conferred upon these men. According to public opinion, Congressional powers ene hance the wits of the most come monplace individual. Platitudes, when mouthed by a Senator, become pure wisdom, and the Capitol’s long shadow casts glamor upon our duly elected ploughboys and law students. Perhaps that accounts for the fact that men who found it hard to get enough cornbread to sustain them in civil life can talk in terms of billions when they become representatives of the people, “clothed with a little brief authority.” All of them ought to make tracks, pronto, for the cornbread areas and relax. Strange to say, this action might give them a better perspective on world affairs than conferences with English lords. Let Roosevelt, Knudsen, Stettinius, Frankfurter, Lubin and Ickes look after larger problems for a spell. I want Elmer Thomas and Josh Lee and the boys who went to Congress from the forks of the creek in Oklahoma to come out and see the home folks. Furthermore, we'll allow no speeches at this time, They can sit around incognito if possible, listening to the cone stituents talk. Probably this will not change the course of his« § tory. It would only help to dispel fog and hysteria from the Congressional brain. One, and perhaps the gravest, danger to democracy lies in the fact that too many elected representatives become drugged by their own oratory, The lawe makers must get their feet off Washington pavee ments now and then, and back on the good earth of the United States. Contact with the soil strengthens the backbone as well as the wits,

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information, not ‘involving extensive ree search. Write vour questions clearly. sign name and address, inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal advice cannot be given, Address The Times Washington Service Bureau. 1013 Thirteenth St. Washington D, C.) rv does an apostrophe sometimes precede the An tt the Arabic the vowel long “e” is expressed by two different letters. One by the first letter of the alphabet elif, and the second by the letter ayn which is more gutteral and has no equivalent among the Latin characters. For example, Iman which means faith, is spelled with elif, and Ibad which means servants, is spelled with ayn. It has been a custom among foreign scholars to mark the letter ayn in a word by an he. In current use in English = language ln di the apostrophe is usually

hove are King Leopold and his Xing Lao J + A—The Belgian’ Embassy says that RY and his family are prisoners of war and

in the Royal House at Laeken, a suburb of Belgium When did Salle Oou _ who