Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 July 1941 — Page 16

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The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE

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reau of Circulations.

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1941

WE MUST STABILIZE PRICES HE President's message to Congress is a splendid general statement of the aims which should be sought by price-control legislation. The figures he uses dramatize the need for quick and decisive action: Bureau of Labor Statistics index of 28 basic commodities, up 50 per cent since August, 1939; up 24 per cent since January of this year. Index of 900 wholesale prices, up 171% per cent since August, 1939; up 10 per cent since January. Cost of living, up 51% per cent since August, 1939; up 315 per cent since January, and the ascending spiral gaining momentum. And nowhere have we read a more striking description of the chaos and misery to be expected unless effective controls are applied promptly. Just how the President intends specifically to deal with and overcome the present inflationary trend will presumably be disclosed today. The message itself, while stating the problem clearly, gives very few hints as to the methods he wishes to employ. It indicates, however, one crucial limitation in scope—that is, that he does not contemplate any ceiling on wages, which comprise a large share of the cost of both defense materials and civilian necessities.

STIMSON, KNOX AND WHEELER

EEP in the American temperament is the spirit of fair play. The sporting thing is admired even by those smaller souls who themselves might try “a fast one.” All you need for proof is to go to a prizefight and see how the crowd reacts when somebody hits below the belt. : To play fair in athletics requires courage. But in the field of politics, to admit you have been unfair, to acknowledge a mistake, to apologize, calls for even a higher type of courage than the purely physical. The human impulse is to defend your mistake. That is especially true when you feel deeply, as in tense times like these. So, mbdre the credit to our Secretaries of War and Navy in two incidents having to do with Senator Burton K. Wheeler, No. 1 thorn in the side of each. Secretary Stimson, on further investigation and on second thought, apologizes for having charged to Wheeler subversive activity bordering on treason. Which apology Wheeler graciously acknowledges. Secretary Knox learns that a subordinate has rebuffed Wheeler's son, who was seeking to join the Navy, only because the young man was Wheeler's son. Knox personally and promptly calls on Wheeler to assure the Senator that the subordinate acted without authority. The episodes involving these three men in high places will, we hope, set ar example for all of us.

WHY? WHY? WHY? ONE shouldn’t be content with a mere statement of fact. The statement should be followed by the question: Why? The Census Bureau credits South Bend, Ind., of having the lowest per capita cost of government of any Northern city in its class. Why? Ten years ago, a committee of South Bend men visited County Commissioners to protest a big ‘bond issue. Their pleas were ignored. And so they went out and formed a Civic Planning Commission. The next time they protested against waste and extravagance they got results. The association has accomplished many things. It insisted that a real estate valuation be made on a scientific basis. It was so fruitful that the State Board of Tax Commissioners is now working to adopt the plan throughout the state. What the people of South Bend can do the people of every city, town and county in America can do. All it takes is a grass-roots organization of taxconscious individuals who refuse to be bribed or beaten by self-seeking politicians who build their organizations at public expense.

AGAIN THE LEAGUE ACING a world of hostile aggressors, the United States is mortgaging its future to buy arms for defense. Can we afford to do that every 25 years? We cannot. This nation can find no real safety except in a world organized for peace. We have a right to hope that the weight created by our present sacrifices and effort will be used to bring that security. Therefore we were glad to hear the voice of Sumner Welles, Acting Secretary of State, raised in behalf of a League of Nations after this war. By giving way to disillusion after the first World War, the American people only let themselves in for a greater despair. We said we would let Europe alone. But Europe has not let us alone. We said we would have no League of Nations, but the result is to find nations leagued against us. Let us go back and pick up the hopes and aspirations we discarded too soon. Let us not think we were fools because we believed in 1917 and 1918 that the only recent purpose for waging war was to end war. Let us rather think we erred in 1921, when, after giving the world the hope and promise of a League of Nations, we quit on discovering that there is a lot of selfishness in the world and it would be a tough job to build a league. It did not occur to us that we, in our desire to enjoy our riches undisturbed, were a part of that selfishness.

JUDGE M’NELIS STARTS A DRIVE IS good to see Judge McNelis start a drive to assess stiff penalties against drunken drivers brought before him in Municipal Court. Not to minimize a job that has long needed doing, we

could not help wondering whether the fact that he will be

up for reappointment in about five

: months might have something todo with it, : a

ST ‘

New Books

By Stephen Ellis

Claude Buss' 'War and Diplomacy In Eastern Asia' Certain To Bring You Up to Date on Pacific Crisis.

WITH JAPAN KEEPING everyone on tenterhooks these days, Claude A. Buss’ “War and Diplomacy in Eastern Asia” comes very near being required reading for anyone who wants to understand the whys and wherefores of what may very well be a Sa shooting war in the Pacific. Dr. Buss is not only a professor, but a former member of the American diplomatic service, who writes from first-hand knowledge of the situation. His book is easily one of the most valuable over-all studies we've seen on the Far East. And, probably, the best way to tell you how well he has done his job is to say simply: It is so fair, so lacking in bias, so mature that it is undoubtedly acceptable to h Japanese, Chinese, Americans, Mr. Buss British—any national group con- > cerned in the Far East's complex politics. : It is a far-reaching book and one that really ought to be in the hands of every person who wants to understand completely what the shooting is all about over there, . J ® »

UT OF THE WAR has come another outstanding book. This one is “Two Survived,” the story of two British seamen who managed to stay alive in an open boat for 70 days after their ship had been blown to bits by a German raider. This tale of Robert Tapscott and Wilbert Widdicombe proves once more that even the most imaginative fiction writer cannot match truth. Seven men were in the tiny boat originally, with little food and water and no medical supplies whatever. One by one, five of the seven died or commited suicide, leaving only these two boys—one 19, the other 21—to suffer alone in a burning tropical sun with no food or water. It is a truly remarkable story.

5 = 2

HE University of Oklahoma Press has added another to its already notable collection of American Exploration and Travel. The new book is “The Diary and Letters of Josiah Gregg,” a person we never paid much attention to before, but whose diary now contributes greatly to the known history of the West.

.

Gregg wrote “Commerce of the Prairies.” a tale of the Sante Fe trade between 1821 2nd 1843, a volume which never caught on somehow, but which may as a result of this comprehensive study of his writings— incidentally, the first of two volumes. If you like the pioneer days of the West and you want some fascinating and previously unearthed information, here is your book.

WAR _AND DIPLOMACY IN EASTERN ASIA, By Claude A. Buss. 570 pages, indexed, illustrated with maps. e MacMillan Co., $5. TWO SURVIVED, By Guy Pearce Jones, duction by William McFee. 210 pages. graphs and a map. Random House, $2.

DIARY AND LETTERS OF JOSIAH GREGG: Southwestern Enterprises, 1840-47. Edited by Maurice Garland Fulton, with an introduction by Paul Horgan. 413 pages, illustrated. University of Oklahoma Press, $3.50.

with an introIllustrated from photo-

Business By John T. Flynn

Peace Unlikely as Long as Arms Plants Figure in Economic Life.

EW YORK, July 31.—Sumner Welles is again fooling with the idea of international disarmament by agreement. We will whip Hitler, then civilized governments everywhere will put aside their arms and all will be well with the world. No sane man can be opposed to the principle involved in this dream. But no sane man ought to omit from his calculations certain factors which make the dream quite impossible. The thing that makes this dream unrealizable now does not lie in the inherent wickedness of manor in the accursed ambition of what might be called “fighting men.” It lies far deeper than that, and until this basic fact is recognized and dealt with all talk about disarmagent becomes a futile dream. A former Congressman, William S. Bennett, has just reminded us that in 1910 Congress passed a resolution looking toward international disarmament but that it was defeated by the Kaiser. That is true. He does not mention a most revealing incident of that episode. When that proposal reached the German ministers they asked: “But what will become of Krupp’s business if Germany disarms?”’ When the proposal went to thé Kaiser he wrote on the margin (the document was found after the war): “How will Krupp pay his men?” Now the usual recorder of such facts sees in this a wicked alliance between the government and the munition maker. But this is only a small part of the truth. It was not so much that arms making had become essential to Krupp as that Krupp had become essential to Germany economy.

. 8 » =» ERE we are in America. Since 1931 men have - been saying that what America needs is a new industry. Why did we not produce it? Well, at all

events, we now have one—but it is not a new one. It is a very old one. We created an armament industry, and if tomorrow we were to send our million and a half soldiers and all the workers in the arms plants out into the world looking for jobs, what would become of this Administration and our economy? Every ruler in Europe will ask himself the question which the Kaiser asked his ministers and which they asked themselves. In 1937 or 1938, our President, talking to a group of church visitors, told them to lock at Germany, Italy, Russia—nobody idle. - Why? The great industry for national defense. Now we are abolishing idleness that way here—for the moment. The abolition of armaments is a problem in polit-ical-economic organization—the solution of the profound problem which bedevils the capitalist system now here and everywhere, the question we have tried to solve by government subsidies on peacetime projects and which Hitler has tried to solve with government expenditures on war adventures.

So They Say—

I WANT a new world order which will devote its first efforts to the organization of the post-war world for the enforcement of international peace and order. —Dr. Hu Shih, Chinese Ambassador to the U. S. *® *

THE UNITED STATES is going to be the best armed, the best equipped, and the best defended of any nation in the whole of God's world when we get through —Navy Secretary Knox, *

THE DEMOCRATIC form of government assumes that its people are smart enough, are wise enough and patriotic enough in the aggregate to sustain that form of government.—Senator George Norris, Nebraska. : * * . MANY mental and nervous cases have passed through the local draft boards because the average medical examiner is not psychiatrically trained to detect them —Report of National Committee for ‘Mental Hygiene,

* * *

WE HAVE at least the advantage of profiting by the experience of the British, or, in other words, we start where the English now find themselves, and not at scratch. —Mayor LaGuardia of New York on civilian

defense.

* *

I DO NOT want to live in a country in which I do not know but that every other man I pass on the street may be a secret officer listening to everything I say, or breaking into my office or home to look over eve I may have.—Senator Norris, Nebraska, proposal for a Navy secret police

EN ay ;

THE INDIANAPOLIS

I wholly

The Hoosier Forum

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

DEFENDS MOTHER FINED IN DOG CASE By Mrs. Luther, Indianapolis.

About two weeks ago there was an article in one of the papers concerning a mother, who, in protecting her child, threw water on a neighbor’'s dog. The owner of the dog had the mother arrested, taken to jail, finger printed and finally the case was set for a future hearing. At the hearing the mother of the child was fined. The question is: Whose life is of more importance, the baby's or the dog's? From the reading of the article, it would appear in this case the dog was of more importance, the protection of the baby wasn't considered. 2 ” o

FAILED TO SEE ARTICLE ON BISHOP'S TALK By J. B. D.,, Indianapolis.

I bought a Times today with the hope of reading the radio address of the Bishop from Iowa who spoke over the radio last night, and was disappointed that you didn't have the guts to even mention. it, What is the matter, have you already got your orders from the dictator in Washington, or from Mr. Churchill? You gave a lot of space to Pegler’s tirade of hate against Wheeler, and “Hopkins Vows to Aid Russia.” Have you too turned Communistic? It looks like that! Shame—a newspaper that used to use a slogan of old Voltaire about defending your right to say something. I see you don't carry that any more either, Shame?

(Editor's Note: The Times carried a story on Page 9 of the July 28 issue concerning the Archbishop's speech; the Voltaire quotation continues to appear in The Forum heading as always.) = 2 » SURPRISED WHEELER AGREED WITH F. D. R. By M. B. L., Ihdianapolis. Well, well, well—Senator Wheeler says he agrees with the President for the first time. Now isn't that wonderful? I could hardly believe my eyes. What on earth could have made the noisy Senator be frightened about Japan? How could he have kept still long enough t# have heard any opinions? Maybe his constituents have heard

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

views

of Japan. What a pity they can’t look at ‘he world map and realize the seriousness of the Battle of the Atlantic. But we poor ignorant mortals must be thankful for small gains among the great.

® 2 @ FINDS BIBLE JUSTIFIES WAR AGAINST HITLER

By D. A. Sommer, Indianapolis.

All intelligent beings in the universe are created free, and yet under authority, ana must respect the rights of others. We all hate war, and so does God. But when Beelzebub became lifted with pride and ambition, and tried to establish “a new order” in heaven with himself as fuehrer, God ordered “Michael and his angels” te mave against him, and Satan was cast down to hell to await the final judgment. (See II Peter 2:4; Jude 6. I Timothy 3:6.) When Hitler will not stay in the place God has put him, but is lifted with pride and ambition, and tramples beneath his feet human rights in his own and weaker nations, and tries to rule with a rod of iron all Burope and the world— are we more righteous than God that we will not make war on such a pervert of the rights of others?

* 2 2 Fo. EXPRESSING DISSENT TO WHEELER EDITORIAL By Paul B. Sallee, Holton. :

Your Stimson and Wheeler editorial is so muddled in its lack of co-ordinated reasoning, ¢long with Pegler's diatribe on hate Wheeler that both are so far from being literature or logic that we in the backwoods refer to such as political hog calling. The same methods used in Germany are referred to as newspaper goose stepping of a controlled propaganda press. But to Pegler, the crusading columnist, our deepest sympathy goes out. No doubt he was groggy from shadow boxing with New Deal Louisiana political corruption so as

Side Glances = By Galbraith

Jthe United States.

to purify it. For some months the old Powder Puff has been slaphappy and walking on his intellectual heels trying to purify the A. F. of L. Dough Getters by shaking them loose from their high paying jobs. So it is easy to understand that either of you would prefer to slip over an intellectual sneak punch or an intellectual foul blow to an honest, first-rate fighting man like Senator Wheeler, after Stimson and all the rest of the New Dealers have ganged up on him in his effort to fight for the security of his nation. ” ” 2

OBJECTS TO CRITICISM OF THE PRESIDENT By John Baldwin, Terre Haute To Mr. Shepler: As you have probably heard, the Devil can quote Scriptures. Your criticism of our President is not founded and as a real American I

object to it.

2 2 2

SEES NAZI WAR OF ECONOMY ON U. 8S.

By A. G. D., Indianapolis At no time in their campaign for hindering the American people's determination to work for the defeat of the Fascist International, the mainspring of which is Nazi Germany, have the spokesmen of the appeasement and isolationist organizations beenn frank regarding one of the chief and most assiduously used Nazi weapons—the economie, The Nazis, more intensely than the Germany of the . Kaiser, use trade as a political weapon. The Nazis have plans for dealing with Invasion of this country with military and naval forces is not contemplated. The attack upon this hemisphere is to be economie, not military. The Nazis, no doubt, appreciate activities of American demagogues of appeasement and isolationism. Most likely they look for these activities to lull this nation into a false feeling of security. It is clear the Nazis intend to use the labor of the conquered nations to produce goods to sell at a far lower price than would be possible for this nation’s industry. And who can say there are no statesmen in the Latin-American countries who are not willing to listen very cordially to the Nazis’ inducements for making of them rabble-acclaimed knights against the “Colossus of the North”? ” ” ”

CONTENDS WE'RE JUST A NATION OF SISSIES By H. W. A, Cincinnati

Back in the nat so long ago boys played baseball, old men played golf; eligibles who avoided military service were slackers and foreign agents were called spies and dealt with accordingly. But all that is changed now. Boys play softball, young men play golf; he who avoids military service is a smart guy, while foreign agents are labéled fifth columnists and prosecuted for embezzlement or illegal entry. Incidentally, it seems we have become a nation of sissies.

COUNTRY PATHWAYS By OLIVE INEZ DOWNING We sped along the ribbon road In streaming sunlight bright; By way was new mown hay in load Its scent a sweet delight.

The cattle drowsed ‘neath cooling shade By gurgling brook and stream: Deep charm was seen on hill and glade, And wheat flelds’ golden gleam.

We passed the scopes of rustling corn, And felt the pure air’s kiss:

The woodlands with inviting form— All spoke of country bliss.

DAILY THOUGHT

Turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually. —Hosea 12:6.

YHUMAN life consist in mutual Gilman.

THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1941,

‘Gen. Johnson Says.

Some Words of Tribute to 3 Men— Mayor LaGuardia and Bob Moses And Classmate Douglas MacArthur

EW YORK, July 31.—This is a column about three guys—very important guys just now. If it is gaga and sentimental it has no business to be, Within the hour I have had two teeth out. But I have enough close personal experience with these men to write about them at first hand and not on remote control, They are Fiorello LaGuardia and Bob Moses—and I couple them for a good reason—and Douglas MacArthur, who has just been appointed our military pro-consul in the Orient. With these gents I have both tangled and embraced — agreed and disagreed, cuddled like kittens and fought like cats. But, whether it was a fight or a frolic, I always came away with a wholesome ree spect for their ability, courage and value as American leaders. Let me speak first of Gen. MacArthur, He was my classmate at West Point in the days when the academy was so small that classmates knew each other better than many brothers—a circumstance which decided many cam paigns of the Civil War because opposing West Point commanders knew each other so well, or their staff officers did, that each commander knew what ‘the other would do in a given set of circumstances bee cause he was so well aware of his character,

” » a

ACARTHUR was the perfect choice for the Orie ent. Like his father, he is almost too brave for high command. There is no room here to tell of his exploits—which are those of a d’Artagnan. He can’t resist going over the top with his men. As an ex-Chief of Staff, he knows the Oriental and especially the Philippine problem better than any other officer. As an intimate of “Casey” Quezon he knows the Philippine problem better. And he is bril= liant—almost beyond belief. A little spectacular and theatrical perhaps, but that is a detail. The Philip« pine army is his own creation. You couldn’t have sifted the whole Army and made a better selection than the President's. Apart from wise fiscal management, utter cleanliness in politics, proved courage of an extraordinary degree, unexampled effort and complete contempt for his own financial interests, it is trite to say that Fiorello LaGuardia is the best Mayor New York ever had. New Yorkers probably do not realize as emphati= cally as familiars revisiting the city at intervals what has been done to better it but you can’t drive all around it as I have done after a considerable absence and not simply marvel at what, to me at least, seems a literal miracle in municipal improvement.

#”

OR the actual work, of course, my other some= time opponent, Bob Moses, deserves the unlimited praise and respect that he seems justly to be getting, But Fiorello supported him regardless of politics and, above all, got the dough out of the Federal kitty to do it. That has sometimes been criticized because the Little Flower’s dough-getting accomplishments have not been equalled elsewhere in the United States, But people who say that frequently forget that New York contributes an even larger “put” in taxes than the ratio she “takes” out of the colossal Federal jacke pot. If he didn't insist on a proportionate share in return, Mr. LaGuardia would be failing on his job. Mr. LaGuardia is up for re-election. In the second or third most important job in the United States he has written a record of faithful and efficient service which isan example for the world. It is of immediate and intense national interest that such service should be recognized and rewarded. I would as soon think complacently of General Motors firing Alfred Sloan, as of the rejection by New York City of the most valuable public servant in recent political history.

» 2

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

NCLE SAM, along with all his other jobs, is con« ducting a National Survey of Household Employ ment. Even with a war on, this is a big problem, In fact, it's worse. It’s a pain in the neck, because it involves all the basic controversies of the capitale and-labor question. If you want the lowdown, lise ten in at an afternoon party. There you will hear the employer's side, presented with dramatic fervor. Then go to your local Y. W. C. A. or some other employment bureau and visit with the employees; they can give you some shocking reports about Mrs. Rich's manners. After your private survey has been concluded you won't feel any too happy about feminine human nature, rich or poor. You wil} have a powerful yearning to hobnob with masculine groups who are less devious in their ruthlessness.

Of course I hate to wish anything bad on our more affluent housewives, but if the war emergency should happen to demand that every lady do her own work for a year or two—I believe society would emerge the better for it. There wouldn't be so many rounds of cocktails before dinner, nor such emphasis on finger bowls and service plates, nor so many napkins in the laundry,

As a matter of fact, it might be a happy solution of a difficult situation for all our domestic workers to take up factory jobs, as many are doing. Probably the majority would be right glad to get back into the kitchen afterward, and I'm dead sure that mistresses with a grand-duchess complex would welcome the return of that admirable but extinct type—the hired girl. Yes, the hired girl of rural America was a nice person. Her place in the community was socially see cure; sometimes she even married the master’s son, and even if she didn’t, her worth as an individaul equaled that of the master’s daughter. She disappeared, you will recall, when the migration to cities began. Having replaced her ancient cognomen with the more aristocratic title of “maid,” she’s been in hog water, figuratively and literally, ever since,

Editor’s Note: The views expressed by columnists in this newspaper are their own. They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times. J

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information, not involving extemsive ree search, Write your 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—What is the date of the earliest known Egype tian inscription? A—Very primitive inscriptions in Egypt go back to the first dynasty, not later than 3300 B. C. Q—What was the total new auto registration im the United States in 1940? A—3,415,905. Q—On what railroad did the “De Witt Clinton" make its Initial run? A—On the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad—now a part of the New York Central—from Albany to Schee nectady, Aug. 9, 1831. Q—What is the distance by ship from Pernambuco, Brazil, to the Cape Verde Islands? A—From Pernambuco to Porto Grande, Sao Vicente, in the windward group is 1609 nautical (1853 statute) miles. Q@—Why was Vice President Henry A. Wallace called the “Ouija Board Candidate” when he was campaigning for the office? A—The words “mystic” and “spiritual” have fre quently been uséd to describe Henry A. Wallace. Many of his early utterances were mystical in quality, The Bible is his favorite reading. Everything he writes and even his conversation is sprinkled with quotations from it or references to it. His favorite poet is Robert