Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 July 1941 — Page 10

PAGE 10 memmmsmismmsnecc —— The Indianapolis Times

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<P> RILEY 5551 Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

MONDAY, JULY 14, 1941 -

DROP THAT OTHER SHOE! : ae QAYS Chairman Andrew May, of the House Military Af7 airs Committee: “Information furnished by.Gen. Mar- | © ‘shall would be enough to knock the hats off Congress if it -could be released.” : a Pe Why can’t Congress be told? Why can’t the people who elect Congress be told? We aren’t infants. We as a nation can take it. We won't gasp and fold up, or fall dead from fright. It’s the suspense more than anything else that’s eating on us—the feeling of some creeping doom that no one will define; of an unknown worst about to strike. But from where, and how? So the country is edged nearer and nearer to the jitters—to the time when we all will yammer and scream. “For God’s sake, drop the other shoe!” This isn’t right. It’s maneuvering Uncle Sam into a padded cell. The reason for the ominous atmosphere is given as the necessity for withholding vital military information. ‘Without disclosing that, says Mr. May, it will be hard to convince | Congress, : So here we all now stand, with the sword of uncertainty hanging over us. vo : 8 2 ” » s #

Realizing that there is ‘such a thing as vital military

ered by carrier, 12 cents | -

| on Military Affairs, in connection: with the incident of | the quartermaster battalion which was punished for

. bling a. three-star general. .

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler ‘Defending the Action of Gen. Lear In the Yoo-hoo Case and a Rebuff To’ Rep. Kilday for His Attitude

EW YORK, July 14—The best laugh of the week, |, albeit a bitter one, was the statement of Rep. Paul'J. Kilday of Texas, a member of the Committee

yelling - loud and probably lewd |. --remarks at some girls who were . playing golf in Memphis, attired in shorts, which is short for short . pants. | x Gen. Ben Lear, the commander of the Second Army, chanced -to- be at large on the golf course enjoying the: view, but keeping his comments to himself and he ‘ made the obstreperous: grocers and haberdashers perform a long , - march as a reminder that they : I were in the Army now. This de- © velopment’ scored on Page 1 of most of our press in rather light vein, being ideal hot-weather stuff, and Rep. Kilday, whose name has

a reminiscent smack of West Point and the military |-

politics of Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, instantly decided to become the hero of the occasion by hum-

- He has ordered the general to explain to him, with great publicity for the hitherto obscure Kilday, and, in passing, said, “the general will find that Congress | will perform its Constitutional duty,” and protect the soldiers from ‘abuse at the hands of ill-tempered officers. : If' Rep. Kilday speaks for his colleagues, and if Congress really has determined, at least, to perform its Constitutional duty, that is an item of news which far outscores the whole importance of the entire episode of the young ladies in short pants and the dashing warriors of the quartermaster battalion.

T is to be hoped that Mr. Kilday knows whereof he speaks, because if Congress really has decided so, then this is the most important development. since the first inauguration ‘of President Roosevelt, about which time Congress abdicated most of its Constitutional powers ; and responsibilities to become an assembly of yes-men for the executive branch and the lobbyists thereof, in return for hunks of red meat off the living flesh of the American republic which the members tossed to their constituents to show how important

woe) od ‘WAS BORN

WITH A

SILVER SPOON

IN HIS WAN MOUTH

information ‘which shouldn’t be disclosed, we nevertheless think that there is a way to relieve the suspense and head off the jitters. We believe further that much of the vital information is already known by the enemy while being kept a deep and awesome secret to us. If we're sitting on dynamite, it’s a cinch that the one who planted the dynamite knows where it is. But let’s pass that. : We urge that those who are “in the know,” if they can’t tell us all, at least give us as mueh of the worst as can be told without definitely endangering military pro-

cedure, ay :

AN EXTRA 130 BOMBERS JT can be done. It is being done. A single large manufacturer, Westinghouse Electric, in the past six months has saved enough aluminum to build 130 bombers. This has been done by redesigning current products with substitute materials, thus withdrawing more than 1,500,000 pounds of aluminum from 1941 requirements, more than 150,000 pounds of nickel and 100,000 pounds of zinc were also saved. : Many of the substitutes, avers President A. W. Robertson, are better than the original material, and the very search for new materials, pressed night and day with relentless force, has uncovered new processes and possibilities

undreamed of before.

' Thousands of manufacturers and millions of individuals +. are facing the same problem in greater or less degree. And - we'll bet many of them will find the same thing—that the things they thought were necessary weren't necessary at all, or that sometihng else will do not only as well, but better.

THE BRITISH-RUSSIAN PACT RITAIN and Russia have now formalized their military association by.a treaty. They pledge mutual support of all kinds against the common Nazi enemy. Each agrees not to make a separate peace. : ; Of course, treaties are a dime a dozen these.days. The public can be pardoned for remembering that non-aggres-sion treaties have proved invitations to aggression, that | peace pacts have been torn up right and left since Japan . and Italy started the fashion, and that friends of today are enemies tomorrow—Germany and Russia: versus Britain and France becomes Germany and France versus Britain

and Russia.

Will this newest piece of paper flutter down to the same overflowing wastebasket of forgotten friendships and Only propagandists and fortune-tellers will attempt a flat answer. But this latest marriage of convenience is at least less unnatural than the Berlin-Moscow wedding which preceded it. ; For generations Germany has dreamed of expanding at the expense of Britain and Russia, and that basic factor has usually been more powerful in pulling the two intended victims together than their clashing ideologies kept them apart. Whether Russian dictatorship was Czarist or Com--_munist, it did not threaten the British Empire as ‘much as ‘a Pan-Germany in the eyes of London.

broken pledges?

2 = s

And likewise, in Russia’s views, her outlying ambitions

themselves. . . Only Thursday, about the very: time that Kilday was resounding across ‘fhe country against a :professional officer and discrediting the command of officers generally in an Army not long out of civilian clothes and not yet out civilian habits, another representative, Howard Smith of Virginia, was charging on the floor thet his: colleagues had surrendered miserably to a threatening band of the C. I. O. in tearing to tatters a bill which would have provided penalties for anyone‘ who: forcibly prevents a worker from entering a plant where a strike is in progress. But, of course, it is not only top this that Congress has defaulted the Constitutional duty of which Mr. Kilday spoke so aggressively to an officer who cannot answer politicians or defend himself against their political showmanship.

2 8 8

ONGRESS surrendered to Jimmy Roosevelt and Tommy the Cork long ago when a phone call from the White House was either a flattering promise or a threat, and topped the performance with the passage of a law which yielded to the President and those who influence his mind, the most important and tragic power which the Constitution specifically reServe to Congress—the power to send the country into war. . :

Without knowing Mr. Kilday’s record on the issues in which Congress did shirk its Constitutional responsibility, one may say, nevertheless, that the body for -| which he purports to speak so boldly against a man in no position even to argue with him has been much less watchful of its duty in many matters much more solemn, and that no protest from him against such resignation ever sounded the same indignant, conscientious note. And it is the fault of Congress that such patriots as Gen. Lear today are struggling to make up for lost time with token weapons, tools and vehicles and men without professional experience.

The incident of the loud and probably lewd remarks to the girls in the short pants is trifling in itself, and would have been allowed to end with the punishment but for Mr. Kilday’s sudden realization that he has a solemn Constitutional duty and his eye to publicity. But now that an issue is to be made, by all means there. should be a sworn verbatim report of the remarks of the dashing quartemasters, in which case it undoubtedly will be learned that the euphemistic yoo-hoo was the least of their boyish witticisms.

Business By John T. Flynn

Questioning the Wisdom of Always Piling New Taxes on Auto Industry

EW YORK, July 14—Whenever a public official | is casting about for somebody or something to “soak” for taxes, the automobile immediately pops: into his head. Last yéar when the Government wanted more money for defense it hiked the Federal gasoline tax 50 per cent. ‘Now another 65 per cent boost is in prospect. . The object of this, of course, is to get more money for the Government to spend. But at the same time the Government, or at least one of its talkiest members, is threatening various curtailments of automobile use. - . He wants gasless Sundays and he proposes various other attacks on the use of gas in cars. It isalso proposed to curtail the production of cars. After the Government has decreased the number of cars in use, after it has curtailed the use of the cars already in existence, a question must be asked—how much additional taxes will it get out of a tax: boost? Boost. the taxes.on gas 60 per cent—and then reduce the use of gas (1) by a gasless Sunday which will curtail automobile gasoline consumption 30 per . cent, and (2) by discouraging the use of the car because of the increased price of the gas, and then ask yourself whether the increased tax may not turn out

they were in Washington, D. C, and so re-elect

KYa SoM ~ WITHA BEER CAN

C SMELTE

ALLIS NOT . TRAF GUTTER

The Hoosier Forum Lod - I wholly disagree with what you say, but will » ‘defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

QUOTES BIBLE IN DEFENDING ROOSEVELT By Mrs. Sallie A. Myers, 4436 Vandalia St.

I am afraid I can’t agree with one of my fellow countrymen that Mr. Roosevelt should tell the whole world all his plans. (Proverbs 18, 7. A fool's mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul.) I think we should trust our President. . We don’t have enought secrecy. In our Government too many things are broadcast that tips the enemy. The Bible says be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove. Better listen to the old book, keep a tight upper lip, the goblins might get us. It is our property. Yes, Mr. Roosevelt elected the third term so I think he and his smart set could do better without the knocks of the stupid public. . ..

2 2 8 CHIDES CONGRESSMAN ON LEAR EPISODE By Clara Cheadle, 620 Divison St.

Congressmen who make an issue of the Gen. Lear case are acting as juvenile as the soldier boys they are defending. The soldiers, I am sure would agree: They had it coming to them; they took their punishment like men; it won't happen on the next trek. We are proud: of our soldiers but we would be indignant if our community were invaded by smart alecks in uniform. Congressmen might profit by the suggestion of good manners in a strange town. s 2 8 CRITICISM ANSWERED BY A MOTORCYCLIST By J. Howard Hunt, 845 Lincoln St. A reply to the disgruntled taxpayer who does not like motorcycles. I am a member of the American Motorcycle Association and the Indianapolis Motorcyele Club. Our club has been awarded a safety banner each year for the past four years for not having a reportable accident. On club rides we ride at a maximum speed of 50 miles per hour. If we exceed that speed we are fined. We ride two abreast with the distance of a city block separating the riders so as to allow plenty

. erly.” |

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies exciuded. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed.)

of room for passing cars to move in and out of traffic safely. “ In fact we show a lot more consideration for automobile drivers than they show for us. If the mo-

torists would be a little more considerate and signal properly there would be very few motorcycle accidents. I will grant that motorcycles make some noise but far less than the big trucks moving about the city streets and the state law requires that all motorcycles be equipped with mufflers. If there is sickness in the disgruntled taxpayer’s family, I am sure that if he would explain to the motorcyclists in "his neighbdrhood they would show him every consideration. \ The following are a few articles he might think over: 1. The insurance companies would rather insure a motorcycle than a car. 2..It is a good clean healthful sport. : p 3. There are very few accidents, compared to automobile accidents based on a percentage basis. 4. The American Safety Council says, “The motorcycle is the safest vehicle on the road if ridden prop-

» ” # A LOUD BLAST AT THE HORN-TOOTING GENTRY By Mrs. W. E. G.; Indianapolis

Can’t the taxpayers and citizens find anything else disgusting in. this fair city of ours but motorcycles? Some of our City fathers claim to have put a stop to the horn tooting. How about those people who think they have been blessed with some great musical talent, and ride up and down the streets, blowing the same few notes over and over? Or those who use their horn for a doorbell?

Sick people and tired businessmen aren't the only ones who would

might conflict with Britain’s in the Near East or the Orient but the major threat fo Russian territory was Germany. Geography encouraged Britain and Russia to stand together (against the expanding power between them, Historically, therefore, this new alignment is not a

to be a delusion. ” 8 2 o HE whole subject is far from simple. It is a complete mistake to suppose that the car is an in-

strument of recreation. It is very much more an in-| strument of transportation. mn -

The motor bus which carries people around towns’

complete reversal as was the 1939 Berlin-Moscow pact. Once Hitler attacked Russia, the London-Moscow asso-

and between towns, costs around $15,000 to $25,000. Put a 20 per cent tax on the sale of busses and see what that will do to the cost of transportation. ' And what of trucks? I have not at hand the percentage

|their citizenship and democracy

like to rest. There are also those who work night after night, with never any day off for rest. They must get their sleep in cat naps, between the blasts of a neighbor's horn, who thinks he has to blow it every time he starts and stops his car. Yes, Sunday is the day of worship and also of rest for some. But there are also those who must try to get their rest on other days, and who is the leading hornblower of the neighborhood? None but the neighborhood minister who thinks he must also have his car radio just a little louder than his hom.

8 8 2 “i ANOTHER DEFENSE OF THE FOREIGN BORN By J. M., Indianapolis * At a time when unity among Americans is of“such paramount importance it is distressing to note the persistent efforts of Westbrook Pegler to create differences between native-born and naturalized Americans. May I remind Mr. Pegler that the traitor Benedict Arnold was a na-tive-born American and that Alexander Hamilton was a naturalized citizen? i 2 » »

ENLARGING SCOPE OF ALLEGIANCE PLEDGE By B. G., Indianapolis The deep-felt recital of the oath of allegiance to the Flag, throughout the country on July 4, brought

true feeling, be recited here and around the world: “I pledge allegiance to a Common _ Brotherhood and the highest ideals for which it stands—one human society indivisible, with liberty ani justice for ALL.

ASSAILING PEGLER'S STAND ON NEW CITIZENS

By E. V., Indianapolis

Attention of Mr. Pegler: The mere fact that one is fortunate enough to have been born in the good old U. S. A. doesn't make one*a better American. Native - horn Americans take

for granted, whereas the foreignborn, having tasted of persecution and lack of freedom, know how to appreciate the blessings whieh is their privilege to enjoy in America. Most of them have proven themselves worthy of the opportunities which America affords them, and| their loyalty to this country is sincere and heyond question. “1 These foreigners (aren't we all?) whom Pegler would. relegate as ‘secondary Americans are the backbone of the nation, for they stand ready to make any sacrifice this country may ask of them, whether it be of their talents, their money or their very lives, to the end that freedom be preserved in the one land which treasures that above all else. The abuses on the part of for-

* |eigners to which Pegler refers nol doubt exist, but it is my opinion| 4.

i

MONDAY, JOLY 1941 Gen. Johnson Says Suggesting an Effort to Stimulafe

Enlistments by Men in Army “Before Enacting Compulsory Law

'ASHINGTON, July 14.—This business of keeping in service indefinitely National Guardsmen and drafted men, called under statutory authority for only one year of training, is very serious. This col An« ticipated its ¢oming long ago and in two other es, stressed its aspect as a breach of faith, admitted the very weighty considerations favoring it and sug~ . gested not too confidently, that there might be a way to avoid that breach of faith. That way is Svie. Bile passing a law com g service “in extension and violation of the previous statute. the situation could well be canvassed to determine how many of these men al« * ready in uniform and training Me would volunteer for the duration ap of the. war or until the Govern ment, in its own discretion and for its own conveni« ence, desires to transfer them to the reserve as adequately trained and to make room for the training of other men. Nobody can say in advance how this would turn out but the persuasions would be very strong—much stronger than those impelling a civilian to volunteer, These men have already broken their ties with civilian life. If their military education has been reasonably effective, they must already have a strong sense of morale and loyalty to their particular organizations. Men insisting on their release just now will not be very popular at home. They know that. They know also, that if the military situation becomes more acute, they will, by the terms of .their original induction, be immediately yanked back into service, '

\ » » » . INALLY (and I say this with great reluctance and some shame) the necessity to prevent a whole sale demoralization and disorganization of our rapidly forming Army is so great that if the response to some appeal of the President for re-enlistment is not suffi«

cient to prevent stultification of national defense by wholesale discharges, the lack of voluntary patriotic action is bound to be followed by the whip-lash of a compulsory statute, . "The doubt is the immemorial and #imost universal urge of the soldiers of America and their forbears, as Gen. Edmonds puts it in the’book “Fighting Fools,” to do their little bit and then, before the job is fine ished, “wanta go home.” : This was responsible for the Norman conquest of England. The Saxons rallied bravely behind Harold to enable him to bestow the Norse threat at Stamford Bridge, but they wouldn't go south with him to bea# off William at the Battle of Hastings. He had to recruit a new army. : The same tendency, coupled with short enlistments —six months to a year—prolonged the Revolution and almost defeated Washington. After the brilliant action of the New England militia at Bunker Hill, so many of them went home that the Continental Army was disorganized and had to be recruited anew. The American Army around Boston was 14,600 against the British 7000 effectives but when the British changed their base to New York, Washington had only 8000 to face Howe's 15,000 British regulars. Even that Ameri can force disintegrated by termination of short ene listments so that at the beginning of the New Jersey campaigns, Washington had less than 3000 facing 20,« 000 regular enemy troops.

ES the army of 13,000 that so brilliantly destroyed Johnny Burgoyne at Saratoga disintegrated and couldn't be moved south except in driblets. Altogether nearly 400,000 American troops (including many “repeaters”) were mustered in the Revolution but, due to the short term enlistments and other causes not more than 50,000 were ever in service at any one time. The British never had more, But if half that great number of Continentals had remained in serve ice, the Revolution could have been won much earlier ere is no purpose in multiplying these figures, Our whole history until 1917 shows the same incredie ble blunder of short-term enlistments—1812, Indian Wars, Mexican War, early Civili War—the same absurdly Increased cost, temporary defeats and risk of disaster. Now, when the. mechanical intricacies of modern war. and our own insufficiency in new and complex equipment makes the task of training a soldier so much more difficult and more extended in jaeme) we Simply Sannot Juris a similar result. We ecimate these new ons of mi selactives sud Naticual Guard. ed Fegan, u ’s not move at first hand to destroy fai promises of Government to correct it. Let's at [oh try first to get voluntary acceptance of extended serve ice. In the meantime, it is pertinent to inquire whe Is responsible for a repetition at this late date of this hoary, ghastly, dumbbell boner of short enlistments, Many of us called' attention to it at the time.

: ’ . ot 8 A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

"THERE'S heen so much talk about sanctity of. the home that I'm glad to see that a few lawyers are and are lending’ support to its preservation. In Pittsburgh recently, “the other woman” in a domestic triangle: was given a rousing lecture on be- . + havior and morals by the presiding judge. Too bad we don't have more of that sort of preaching the courtrooms ‘of the. country, For the woman who deliberately puts herself into the way of temptation by letting herself slip into tove with 8 married man, invites . the ters which fi PO ely ppily, however, those dis asters are also visited upon the innocent being in the case—the wife. Sure, she may

may not understand her husband. She may be shift less, slovenly and stupid—but that doesn’t exonerate the te tioper: e law protects every othér kind of Jog says that individuals who walk intd eo tory and leave with the family silver are lable doesn’t encourage guests to make off’ other valuablés—yet it" hasn't raided fi “the 'sneakthief steals the husband. of Modern mas 'tiey si some people nowad hp ) far as to in legal business. If that is true, then first to-shout for its defense on that The rest of us who regard it as a. a sécular bond have contended regulated by lawyers. Nevertheless, mot tiality toward the victims: of this kind’ of . would be most welcome. . ~~ “oc Yet here, too, the law is usually h : the sanction of society. And society . lenient by far. Even women who stand to suffe m-the fair

(8 have laughed them off, cause ‘It-is- no jonger the: vogue to regard Husbande stealing as an offense. . * a

| Instead, in . vated and enviable art and we visit fam By VERNE S. MOORE upon the la who display talent in Upon the rose-strewn ‘watercourse | No Eh ey wl Beneath the vivid flowers that wave | of The Indianapolis ! Jogo White drifts like sriow. dee

that their number is small though their noise may be great. *

SERENADE *

‘ciation was automatic and inevitable, as Prime Minister Churchill was quick to proclaim. Nobody who understood the history of British alliances could have mage the mistake Hitler made—if indeed he ever believed it; himself—that British dislike of Communism, or any other creed, would ‘keep the London government from joining with Stalin or the devil against a common enemy. Churchill is not trusting Stalin, he is trusting the primal instinct -for survival—Stalin’s and Russia's. So Stalin’s pledge not to: make a separate peace is a good bet long as he has the wherewithal to fight. Russia’s continuance in the war until the end will deend largely on Britain’s ability to engage enough of Hit’s forces elsewhere to prevent concentrated destruction the Red army. As long as Britain and Russia can keep ‘armed forces in being and engage Hitler, they need fall like France and others; because, if necessary, Russia

of freight carried in trucks. Increase the cost of the | truck and of gas, and what will happen to truck transportation? Consider for a moment the part played by the small car and the small truck in farm transportatio;

n. : Of course it may be’ said that this will divert transportation from the car to thé railroad. But the railroad faces a shortage of cars. - ; In other words, at’ the very moment when the | | *§ transportation problem becomes the Govern- |. | ment looks around for some clever of making it more acute by curtailing the production of transportation units and increasing the cost of transportation at the same time that it is threatening to crack ei down on people who increase the cost of things that | | # have to be transported. - 2h

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So They Say— | DAILY THOUGHT I HAVE announced frequently and irrevocably that I would never ; accept public office. —Herbert Hoover, former P; lent. ow : a

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