Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 July 1941 — Page 16

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The Indianapolis Times

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FRIDAY, JULY 25, 1841

“POINT OF ORDER” HE Ways and Means Committee worked hard for months, boosting old taxes and inventing new ones, and wound up with a bill to extract $3,529,000,000 additional revenue each vear hereafter from the pockets of the people. At the conclusion of these great deliberations a member of the Committee, Rep. Disney of Oklahoma, proposed an amendment as a sort of capstone for this epochal revenue measure. Since citizens were to be asked to dig deeper into their pockets because of defense needs, he argued persuasively, then Congress should give some positive assurance that these extra exactions would not be frittered away on nonessential, peacetime enterprises. His amendment stipulated that $750,000,000 should be sliced oft non-defense expenditures—a quarter of a billion dollars less than the Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau had said could be saved without causing hardships or im: pairing necessary Government services. Rut it was explained to Mr. Disney that his amendment could not be accepted. - Indeed, it could not even be considered in connection with the tax bill. It would be ruled out on a “point of order.” So the amendment went by the boards. Mavbe that “point of order” seems logical to the parliamentary mind. But our guess is that ordinary taxpaying lavmen will think it strange indeed that economy is not germane to taxation, saving is not germane to spending.

THE LIFEGUARDS RAISE A POINT EVERAL things emerged from yesterday's Park Board hearing that ought to interest parents of the several thousand youngsters who use the city’s pools and bathing beaches daily. One reassuring fact we discover is that the guards, by and large, are capable young men, all of whom passed the American Red Cross life-saving tests before being selected. Another not so reassuring fact—and this on the testimony of the lifeguards themselves—is that they are woefully short of adequate equipment at some of the pools. They pointed out that the city does not furnish first-aid . equipment for anything more than the most minor of in- © juries, They said that one of the larger pools lacked adequate cleaning equipment, a fact which undoubtedly handicapped them in recovering the body of one young boy who was drowned. The water was too murky for them to see more than a foot helow the surface. They emphasized that they are an overworked and underpaid group, drawing $70 a month for working in some cases as much as 8 hours a week. They called the attention of the Park Board to other matters which obviously deserve immediate attention. Their plea for an improvement of these conditions deserves consideration. They will be better lifeguards if they work shorter hours. It ig, after all, no easy task to concentrate on the activities of several hundred youngsters hour after hour for 10 or 12 or 14 hours a day. As for the lack of adequate cleaning equipment, it ought to be provided at once or the pools closed. Parents have a right to clean pools as well as safe pools «for their children,

THE WAY TO END RIVALRY

HE Navy's No. 1 airman—Rear Admiral John H. Towers, Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics—tells a Congressional committee of his “grave concern” over the priority given Army bombers in the defense production program. And vou may be sure that the Army's airmen will be equally concerned the next time the pendulum swings and the Navy gets the edge on deliveries. They would both be better off, and the country’s defenses would be hetter off, if the Army and Navy air services were merged into an independent air force, whose leaders would then be free to decide which types of aircraft were needed fastest—without reference to ArmyNavy predilections and rivalries. In that connection, we commend to your attention a resolution announced today by the directors of the National Aeronautic Association, which says: “The present war has revolutionized methods of warfare and shown the vital necessity for the closest co-opera-tion and unity of command between all fighting forces, with emphasis upon air power. : “NAA therefore recommends that the President of "the United States promptly call upon the proper executive * officers and members of Congress te make a study looking * to reorganization of the War and Navy Departments with . a view to gonsolidation into one denartment of national . defense, headed by a cabinet officer and subdivided into “three divisions of land, sea, and air, each headed by an i Undersecretary. : “Such a single department of national defense, we believe, will best serve the country by insuring the development of an Army and Navy of highest efficiency together with an invincible air force, all properly co-ordinated.”

.. SWEDEN'S FORESTS REPAY

: Cv ILIZED Sweden always took excellent care of her forests. They contributed greatly to her prosperity in peace time. They are a life-saver now. i Sweden, though neutral, finds her imports of oil and * gasoline cut off. Today her motor vehicles run fairly well : with gas made from charcoal from her forests, says a corre- ¢ gpondent of the Christian Science Monitor. Lubricating oil © is being made from wood tar. Cloth is being made from ~ cellulose, another forest product. Sweden's famous pulp . mills cannot make paper, for there is no foreign market, 2 but they ean and do make feed out of moss, leaves and even , pine needles, i It ia fortunate that the United States at last is giving adequate attention to reforestation, and protection of its forest lands from fire. They are useful now, and their poten- - tility seems unlimited. +

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Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Conduct of Officials Prompts Him Te Reject Conclusion Huey Long Was Slain by Mild-Mannered Doctor

EW YORK, Juiy 25 —My reason for rejecting the conclusion that Huey Long was assassinated by Dr. Carl Austin Weiss is that almost from the day of the shooting I have been sceptical of the conduct of the officials who, with all the power of a brutal . dictatorship comparing to Hitler's, and with the strongest of motives, failed to conduct an intelligent, thorough investigation. As matters stand, a man who was known in his home community as a decent American citizen and who was conspicuously aloof from the villainy of Louisiana politics, has been branded as a murderer. He has been so recorded in an important incident in American history on the word of men who, in the circumstances of the case, might themselves be vindicated of error or crime by an easy assumption that Dr. Weiss shot Long. Two of the biographies of Long, published after his death, casually, but flatly accuse Weiss of murdering the Kingfish, as though a fact had been positively established, when the truth is that no such finding ever was recorded. Forrest Davis, in a book entitled “Huey Long: A Candid Biography,” made the unqualified and unsupported assertion that Weiss shot Long, but in the next paragraph undermined his own assumption by admitting that the “assassination” was “improbable” and seemed “to lack plautiblity.” Nevertheless, he declares that Huey was “vanquished by a will more ruthless, more destructive even than his own.”

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N all the career of Dr. Weiss there is nothing to justify a statement that he wag a man of “ruthless” and “destructive” will. On the contrary, he was known as an earnest, studious, nonpolitical man of science. Carleton Beals, in “The Story of Huey P. Long” is equally positive that Weiss shot the Kingfish, declaring that Weiss “pressed a gun into the Senator's side and fired a bullet,” but seems, himself, to doubt the motive ascribed to Weiss. This motive ,was revenge for the cancellation of a political job held by Weiss’ father-in-law. “Whether this or deeper motives were involved,” says Beals, “may never be cleared up.” But before the question of Weiss’ motive is cleared up, it obviously is necessary to establish that Weiss shot Long. If Long was shot in treachery by any of the armed men with whom he surrounded himself, or if he was hit accidentally in the general gunplay, then the surviving terrorists of the dictatorship would have had an obvious motive for concealing and confusing the facts. The caliber of the bullet which killed Huey was never established and the excited first statements of .men who were on the scene, indicate that Weiss did not shoot first if. indeed. he fired at all. It is not known that he fired even the one shot which was said to have been discharged from his pistol for Weiss carried the pistol in the front pocket of his automobile, as many citizens customarily do in Louisiana.

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HE police might have fired that shot after discovering the weapon in the car, or after removing it from his clothing as he lay dead. And it must be remembered that the police who gave testimony were not “available” for the inquest until eight days had passed. That lapse would have given them plenty of time to perfect and accommodate their stories, but, nevertheless, the Coroner's jury was unable to say who shot Long and pointedly refrained from saying that Weiss shot him, If history is to be written from hearsay and old clippings, then historians must give weight to the fact that Long's gunmen riddled and silenced the only man who could have told the story if the truth was that Huey died of treachery or by a misdirected shot intended for a man who only slapped his face. Huey's police are commonly supposed to have been very tough and so they were in the blood-thirsty way of the Brown Shirts of Germany. But they were not tough in the way of brave men, for a whole bunch of them were afraid to take their man alive as singlehanded New York policemen do every week in the year. Instead, they chewed a puny little runt to tatters with their 44s and 45s while he lay helpless and probably dead at their feet. :

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Fditor’s Note: The views expressed by eolumnitts in thie newspaper are their own, Ther are net necessarily thoss of The Indianapolis Timex

Business By John T. Flynn

Price Control Tried in England but It Hasn't Worked Any Miracles.

EW YORK, July 25—The men toying with the subject of a price-control bill in Washington are, apparently, very much influenced by the British Act. There should be no illusions about the British Act. It has not producéd any wonders. When the war started the general commodity price index in Britain was 103. It is now 151. It might be well to say that the British war effort had already

been under way for a couple of |

vears and that even at 103 the price was up quite a few points from the 1937 level. But the price-control problem in Britain is perhaps not so grave a one as it is here. First of all, the British turned to heavy taxation early in the game. In the second place, while the English have borrowed much and raised large sums by taxation, they have not been spending it all in Britain. In the end this will be an unfavorable factor, but at the moment, as a part of the price-control situation, the fact that a large part of the purchasing power being produced by government loans was being drained off to foreign countries where Britain was making large purchases and paving cash has had its effect. Here huge sums are being pumped into the market by the Government war loans and are being spent right in this country. The result, thérefore, is to create a far heavier pressure upon prices than in England. 8 ££ 8 UT bevond all this, the job of controlling prices will be in this country a gigantic one. In England a basic price of all commodities is fixed as of a certain date. Then individual industries and producers may appeal to the proper ministry for an adjustment based on any increases in price of production. In this country we have delayed putting our ceiling over prices so long that now an immense number of disturbances have taken place.. To freeze them now will freeze a large number of disturbances. The problem of correcting maladjustments resulting from freezing will be gigantic and will result in the setting up in Washington of a bureau which will stagger the imagination by its size and the complexity of its problems. There is only one way to reduce this problem and that is to deal with the price problem at its source. And that source is the point at which the Government itself gets its money. If the Government will have the courage to tax and tax and then borrow from individuals instead of banks and then ration the essentials it will escape the deluge. got the courage to do this now it will face the inevitable disaster, humiliation and rejection which will come later.

So They Say—

INSTEAD OF waiting until the age of 35 to have her last child, a mother should figure on having the last one ready for high school by the time she is 40.— Prof. Carle C. Zimmerman of Harvard. * - -

For every saloon of 1011 there are now at least three similar, or worse, places of liquor sale, There is work for us to do.—Daniel A. Poling, president World's

THE INDIA

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APOLIS TIMES _ The Opium Smoker!

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The Hoosier Forum

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

QUOTES THE RIBLE IN CRITICISM OF F. D. R. By Dan M. Shenler, Maxwell, Ind.

I was quite amused at Mrs. Sallie Meyers’ letter where she referred to the Bible in defense of Mr. Rooosevelt. I want to ask her to read Matthew, 15:14: “If the blind lead the blind both fall in the ditch.” Pro-

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

verbs 6:17: “A proud look, a lying | tongue and hands that shed in- boxing but it seems that nocent blood.” Job 16:52: “I was at Harold cannot open his ease but he had broken me asund-| without sending the aforementioned er; he hath taken me by my neck and alleged “columnist” and shaken me to pieces and set tailspin. me up for his mark.” | And

” 2 DEMANDS REASON FOR RETAINING SOLDIERS By A. B. C, Indianapolis,

Lindbergh (I use limpid

anguish rise to the Heavens.

Why doesn’t Marshall or

Army why it is needed to keep the to death. boys and they would most all vol- s = =»

unteer for the duration. i KES 'EMAN But as Mr. Roosevelt often said! REBURES FOLICEM

he would not send our boys to for-| FOR PASSING RED LIGHT eign wars and to no place outside By H. H, a Woman Driver. the Western Hemisphere and only| Time: Sunday took them for one year. Now they tween 1:30 and 2 o'clock, July 20. want them longer without telling| place: Corner the public why they are needed. jgth St. Why not come out in the open and| North and South traffic was stopall work together. {ping for a red light when a police You can't blame the soldier for | patrol car going south slowed alnot wanting to stay longer when most to a stop. then seeing the east {you can’t trust him with the Yea- ang west coast was clear. he easily son. After all a soldier gives his glided southward, casting glances life and the parents give their sons.| around to see if he was getting [Now why can't the Government through unobserved. give us the reason. There was only one young man & 4 » |in the car at the time and I know ; | he was not going to a fire or a hold- | BORED BY PEGLER'S ‘up. Just a little prestige of uniform ATTACKS ON ICKES and it's not fair. It would have cost Br E. W., Indianapolis,

me five or ten dollars, I am thoroughly convinced at | ® = = last that Mr. Pegler does not like | PROTESTS PAY SCALE

Mr. Ickes. In fact I'll go Pegler) | FOR ARMY OFFICERS

I truly believe that he (Mr. Pegler) thinks that he (Mr. Ickes) is every- By Anonymous. thing from an old-time horse thief | I, as an Army wife, know that down to a modern gangster com- the regular Army officers are displete with machine guns and satisfied with the rank and pay sawed-off shotguns. So what! isituation. At every social gatherWestbrook defends the old Amer- ing conversation turns te that subican custom of freedom of speech |ject. Regular Army officers would with some of his fiercest shadow |like to do something about the sit-

Side Glances = By Galbraith

|__COPR 1841 BY NEA SERVICE, NC. TY. ML REQ, U. 8. PAT. OFF. "Funny thing . . . we feel sorry for Pop . . . he just told me he

felt sorry for us——said he wouldn't coop himself up in the city, for twjce the salary I'm making."

into a came | if Mr. Ickes dares raise his Who have been promoted to first mortal eves to the immortal limpid | lieutenants, are receiving the pay in the of their rank. sense of being transparent—easily [reserve officers are fme, and we seen through) Mr. Pegler's cries of (could not build our new Army with{out them. Let's call it a day! I'm sick unto are the backbone of our Army and About the extension of the draft.!qeath of Pegler and Lindbergh and Should at least receive the same Mr. [they don't care for Ickes or the treatment accorded to reserve ofRoosevelt come out and tell the jikes of me but we'll quit if they |ficers. parents of the selectees and the will before the public is bored quite

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but Lom, of receiving the pay of his mouth | rank.

uation. However, as Gen. Johnson so aptly put it, they have no political backing and are taught not to complain. My husband, who has had four vears of training at West Point, is a temporary first lieutenant, receiving the pay of a second lieutenant, He is considered capable enough to hold his present responsible position of regimental adjutant, apparently not considered

However, reserve officers who into the service after my husband, as second lieutenants, and

We agree that the

But our regular officers

y 89 URGING MORE PAY FOR PARK EMPLOYEES

By Wife of a Park Board Employee, Indianapolis. With reference to the “excuses” which have been presented in con-

afternoon be= | nection with the two recent drown-

ings in Indianapolis——one in Ellen-

Delaware and perger Pool, I wish to make a com-

ment on the statement made by William F, Merrill, Director of Red Cross life saving activities, regarding the salary of life guards. One of the daily papers carried the statement of Mr. Merrill to the

effect that it was difficult to obtain

an adequate supply of life guards due to the low remuneration for the job—namely about $17.50 per week, from which the life guard must pay for his own transportation, meals, swimming suit, etc. I should lik2 to offer a comparison between the salary of the life guards and some of the other Park Board employees—the men who work in the parks. Most of this latter group have families dependent on them for support and work for 40 and 45 cents an hour for a five-day week, thus earning $16 or $18 a week. However, this is not a steady salary. If the weather is inclement, or if they are forced to lose a day because of other reasons, that time is deducted. Some times their check is for $10 or $12 a week, or even less. As I said above, most of these men have families dependent upon them while the life guards for the most part are young high school or college students, and would suffer very little if deprived of their $17.50 a week. In fact, from observation, this $17.50 is mostly spending money, as the majority of them drive to the pools in nice automobiles. I am not criticizing Mr. Merrill's attempt to uphold the life guards and absolve them from blame in connection with the two drownings —but I do think if salary adjustments are to be made, that some other employees of the Park Board —namely the laborers in the parks —should be considered for an increase before these young life guards are.

WHY DON'T YOU TRY By FRANCES RICHMOND Want to do something, then why don’t you try? Don't sit down and mope And think the world's ‘a joke Because fortune is passing you by.

Want to be somebody, then why do you wait? Every day someone loses the race You might take his place; Don't Je.a failure and blame it on ate,

DAILY THOUGHT

The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.— Mark 2:27.

I ALWAYS like to begin a journey on Sunday because 1 shall. have the prayers of the church. —Switt,

NN #1 ope 8} A Pata er

FRIDAY, JULY

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25, 1941 Johnson Says—

He Suspects Opposition to Baruch Price Ceiling Plan Issue Mostly to the Fact That It Is Not Understood

EW YORK, July 25.—Very gloomy is the prospect for price-control, which means inflation-control which means minimizing or reducing by 50 to 75 per cent the terrible impending burdens of this war. Leon Henderson, who is charged with this subject has labored valiantly to make these bricks without the straw of either sufficient authority or supe ort. Pp About the only Congressional encouragement he has had was a nice Senatorial luncheon to confer with him at which his host started off with an introduction which went all around him like a cooper round a barrel, hammering him from every angle. It wound up by leaving him in about the condition of the big shot in a boxing battles © royal, after all contestants have ganged up on him to put him out of the way before they start on each other. The only feasible method is the “price-ceiling plan” of B. M. Baruch but it is fading out of the picture. This is largely because it is generally not understood. At least half the comment is that it is a “price-freezing” plan to fix firmly at their existing levels all prices, wages, rents and returns as of a given day. That is enough to Kill 1t,

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S a matter of fact, it is no such thing. It proe poses to say of all prices et cetera, as of a given day, today for example: “You can go no higher without Government approval. Under this ceiling you can fluctuate downward as economic forces activate you in that direction. Above this ceiling you will be permitted to go on any showing of necessity to prevent hardship, do justice, and preserve a reasonable profit on return on all investment and effort.” The distinction between this and ‘‘price-freezing” is profound. You can’t “freeze” a price structure, The purpose of the ceiling is to take the situation in hand before skyrocketing tendencies in this or that special price-field stampede the whole price-herd into irretrievable and uncontrollable inflation. The Congressional opposition to any effective action arises from fear of the two most powerful voting-groups in the country—labor and agriculture, Farmers say: “We were promised ‘price-parity.’ We do not have it. Clamp this ceiling down and wa never will get it.” “Price-parity” is approximately the pre-war relationship or ratio between farm and other prices. It is just a theoretical formula which has never worked. Just the same, the promise has been made and, on that basis, the farm argument is correct. But that argument has been considered ever since the price-ceiling idea was advanced. The initial ceiling on farm prices should be parity as of the day it is declared.

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F course that “parity” can be reached only if the usual economic forces of supply and demand do it. But it has a much better chance of being reached under a ceiling than if the whole structure of none farm prices is permitted to skyrocket into the eco= nomic stratosphere. Forces are working which can easily do that. No forces are visible which will do that to farm prices to the same extent. Farmers should be the first to ask for a price-ceiling on this prescription. Much the same thing is true of labor. It bitterly is true of salaried workers. They will be the first to be crucified by an upward spiral of inflation—and so will the great bulk of all workers. But the ceiling does not stop advances in labor wages in step with rising costs of living. That ceiling over wages will have to be adjusted and regulated upward as living costs go up. But if we can't get hold of the situation we can neither regulate nor adjust it. Perhaps this discussion is hopeless, The tempep of Congress seems to be against any effective price control whatever. It is a dreadful danger,

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

RECENT Reader's Digest carried an article proving that the automobile repair man is likely to gyp you, especially if you are a woman, Of course you can prove anything, even by the Bible, which is one reason why I'm not going to distrust every garageman, yet. I've had my gyps, but I've also met some gallant gentlemen in the business and expect to see others. And certainly nobody could be more ignorant about carburetors, spark plugs, differentials and manifolds than I am. In fact, I'm so dumb there's only one thing for me to do—throw myself upon masculine chivalry, If it doesn't exist, that's my hard luck. The article in question is dis« turbing, not because it indicts one set of workers but because it leaves us wondering how honest the rest of us are, I have a pet theory about that, too. It seems to me integrity went out when suspicion came in an we had to hire lawyers to protect ourselves from our best friends. Trust is dead and so ‘we cheat and gouge and knife one another. The world lies stricken under a mass of broken treaties—and treaties are broken because, long before they were made, men stopped keeping their verbal promises to their nextdoor neighbors when money was involved. The letter of the law holds us but its spirit is gone. “Getting the best of the deal,” amounts to honor= able mention, and men who get by with it go to the head of the class. Distrust becomes the common attitude, and in its turn breeds ever more evils. I've talked with scores of salespeople, from the grand-duchess type in swanky shops to peanut vendors, and the tale is the same. The notion that the customer is always right has put a lot of bad ideas into the customers’ head. The milkman says it this way: “There's plenty of women on my route who arg so catty and suspi= cious you hanker to cheat 'em. They're expecting it all the time, so finally you get to feeling like, “Well, Lady, you asked for it and you get it.’ ”

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.)

Q—When did Alexander Graham Bell become a citizen of the United States? A—He took out his first papers for citizenship at Lawrence, Mass., Oct. 27, 1874, and received his final papers from the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia on Nov. 10, 1882. Q—Is Madame Chiang Kai-Shek a graduate of an American university? A—She is a graduate of Wellesley College, Welles= ley, Mass., class of 1917. Q—How much water should an average person drink in a day during the hot summer days? . A—From six to eight glasses a day. If fruit juices are taken less water is needed. Avoid drinking large amounts of sweetened drinks. Q—Is saltpeter ‘used in making beer? A—The United Brewers Industrial Foundation says that saltpeter is never used in beer; brewers avoid all nitrates at any stage of the brewing process because of their harmful effect on yeast. Q—-Did the photoplay, “Kitty Foyle,” end with Ginger Rogers choosing for a husband Dennis Morgan or the young doctor? \ A—Miss Rogers, the heroine, passed up Morgan, the boy with the aristocratic Main Line background, for James Craig, the personable and attractive young doctor, Q-—-How many children did Lord Nelson have? A—By his wife he had no issue. By Lady Hamil ton he had two daughters, Horatia who married Rev. Philip Ward, later vicar of Tenterden, Kent; and Emma, who lived only a few weeks.