Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 August 1941 — Page 16

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The Indianapolis Times

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Wap

FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 1941

ENGLAND ATTACKS FINLAND ME CHURCHILL forecast it five weeks ago, when he said that “any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe,” but still the raid on Finland's northern port of Petsamo by the British naval air arm is bound to give Americans a twinge of pain. It is the old story of Oran, where British warships pounded the unsubmissive fleet of their former ally France; and of the sea raid against Dakar; and of Syria. Sentiment is a luxury beyond the means of strategists. Finland, for whom England had so many fine words a few months ago because she was fighting Russia, is now the foe of England because she is again fighting that same Russia —this time as an ally of Hitler. It is pointless to blame the Finns for seizing an opportunity to avenge a ruthless rape. It is equally clear that England has no choice but to turn against her former friend. This war is full of such paradoxical situations. Russia has just signed a treaty with the Polish Government-in-exile—the government of a land in whose destruction she was a collaborator—and Poles are now to fight alongside the once-hated Russians. The turning of the coat becomes a commonplace. The Finns, although by the duress of circumstance they are fighting Hitler's fight, cannot forfeit the sympathy of this country, which will not let today’s unhappy circumstances obscure the recent past.

WHY NOT A REAL TAX BILL, NOW?

HIS vear has already run seven months, yet Congress is just now starting to make the decisions in regard to what taxes the people and businesses of the country will pay on this year's earnings. It probably will be September before the new revenue measure is enacted. Then, with three-fourths of the year behind him, many a taxpayer will suddenly discover that he has already spent money he should have saved to pay taxes which he didn't know were going to be assessed. True. there have been repeated warnings that individuals and businesses would have to pay more and higher taxes. But thev haven't known how much more, or how much higher, or by what rules the new taxes would be computed and applied. They don’t know yet. They can't know until the final roll is called in each house of Congress and the new revenue act is signed by the President. After that the taxpayer will have until March 15 to beg, borrow or otherwise hustle the cash to pay the bill. This Congressional habit of passing a new tax bill every vear, and in the tag end of the year at that, has contributed more than a little to the confusion which has plagued the country’s business operations—from which the nation’s and the people's income flows. We live in a world full of uncertainties which can't be avoided. But this is one which can be avoided. It isn't necessary to have a new tax bill every year. Right now, with the revenue bill of 1941 limping its weary way along the legislative course, Congressional leaders have already started talking about another tax bill next year, They say the pending measure isn't adequate—and it isn't. But why wait until next year to do a more adequate job? Why not expand and strengthen this bill, pare exemptions to make more income subject to taxation, and stiffen the rates to obtain revenue in the amount needed? And then let the people go on with their jobs and enterprises, for one full year at least, without the threat of another sudden change in the rules.

DOUBLY WELCOME

JT is news these days when a sound non-defense industry comes to a town. Good news, in fact, for about all that most cities have been getting is defense work. The latter is fine—while it lasts. That is why we are doubly disposed to cheer the announcement that Lane Bryant, Inc, a nationally known mail order firm, has decided to move to Indianapolis. It is the kind of a firm that will be doing business here long after the need for some of our defense activities has passed.

OUT, WE HOPE, FOR ACTION

HERES a glint of light in an otherwise dark fiscal picture. H. M. Wriston, president of Brown University, announces the formation of a citizens’ committee to turn some real heat on non-essential and non-defense spending. The kind of spending from which at least a billion was to be cut, but which, at present writing, stands at about 90 millions plus instead of a billion minus. President Wriston presents a vivid case which speaks for itself. All power to him and his new organization. He says: “Secretary Morgenthau has said at least one billion should be saved. Congressman Wesley E. Disney, member of the House Ways and Means Committee, maintains that $1,800,000,000 can be stripped from Federal non-defense spending and has shown where it can be done. The National Economy League gives the detail of reductions amounting to $1,600,000,000.... “Yet despite these pleas; despite the emergency; despite immediate defense needs; despite the sacrifices which have been asked of the people, non-defense appropriations of the Federal Government were increased almost 90 million over last year. “The citizens emergency committee believes that such action represents a dangerous failure in the processes of democracy. It does not believe that the prodigal attitude of Government represents the will of the people;. it believes that economizing to afford defense now and insure internal stability after the emergency is the responsibility of the people and that Congress will reduce the inflated non-de-fense expenses of Government if so instructed by public opinion . . . upon action of the people, by the people and for the people, the economic soundness and moral structure of the country rests.”

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Entire City of New York Likely to Suffer Because of Electricians’ Fight With a Single Utility Firm.

ASHINGTON, Aug. 1.—A people dazed by the professional unioneers and the subtle activities of the Presidential team of Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt may be unable to answer the bell with a proper show of fight in the general strike of the electri cians’ union in, New York. The fact that works of national defense in the Navy Yard at Brooklyn and elsewhere in the area are hampered by this raid of a predatory political organization of the Moscow pattern may be made a special issue, but it really has nothing to do with the case. The interference with the national defense by a man who went to Russia to study the Muscovite way and who has applied his lessons in New York and, by extension, to the whole country which depends on those defense works, will be emphasized, of course. (Since this was written the electricians have been ordergd to resume work in the Navy vard). And the national defense issue may be exploited by the union for a mock show of patriotic sacrifice if it appears that by exempting the Navy Yard the union can win over some confused public opinion to its side. But the fact remains that this union of 18.000 members has undertaken to cripple the entire City of New York as a means of compelling the Consolidated Edison Co. to violate its agreement with an independent union of its own emplovees.

is agreement was forced on the company under the Labor Relations Act after the employees had freely decided that they would not permit the electricians’ union to represent them. The electricians’ union then demanded for its own members the jobs which belonged to the independents and

failing to get them, struck not only the Consolidated isa: but all other construction in its wide jurisdicion. The head of the union who went to Russia and brought back knowledge of the Communist method of crushing the small dealer and dominating the surviving big monopolists of a given industry is Harry Van Arsdale. Van Arsdale was convicted in 1933 of shooting two fellow members of his local and was sentenced to serve from six to 12 years in Sing Sing, but was granted a new trial and finally was released when the two men who indubftably kad been shot received $15000 from the union treasury, This was not van Arsdale’'s money. It belonged to the workers, but, nevertheless, it was paid over to two men whose testimony might send Van Arsdale to prison and only then did the injured men experience such a surge of union solidarity that they withdrew their charges, insisting that the money was no bribe but merely compensation for damages. Van Arsdale, now under another convittion and sentence to Sing Sing on a charge of rioting against the peace of New York in a strike last winter is not the only man with a record in the higher councils of this union. William A. Hogan, the treasurer, matriculated at Sing Sing long before the shooting and served a sentence for thieving from the death

benefits of the members. 8 8 »

EVERTHELESS, Van Arsdale, Hogan and Joe Fay, who slugged David Dubinsky for proposing that racketeers be excluded from union leadership, now participate in the negotiations whereby the biggest city in the world pleads for the right to work and live. It was even while Van Arsdale was under indictment for rioting that Mrs. Roosevelt addressed a strike meeting of his subjects last winter, not knowing perhaps of his conviction for shooting and the strange recantation, nor knowing that one witness to the shooting was sprayed in the face with acid and another shot dead on a dark street by unidentified men. The Presidential team of Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt works hnth sides of the street. The President swears to uphold the Constitution and protect the rights of the people and Mrs. Roosevelt gives aid and comfort to unions indiscriminately, even to a union whose members have attacked the police. This, furthermore, is the same union, the Brotherhood of Electricians, which barred a destitute American migratory worker from employment because he couldn't pay $300 for a license to earn a living for his wife and children, of which routine, though outrageous offense, Ars. Roosevelt glibly remarked to a committee of Congress last winter that it must be a very unusual case,

Business By John T. Flynn

New Deal Built on Spending So It's Foolish to Talk of Economies Now.

EW YORK, Aug. 1 —The Republican minority makes a report on the Government's tax bill in which it calls for economy, The present budget calls for spending 22 billion dollars this year. This will probably mount to nearer 30 billions. Of course it is a pious idea to try to save a couple of hundrsd million of this or even a billion, but what, actually, will such saving mean when we plan upon expenditures so vast and even incomprehensible? It is as if one gangster proposed to hit his victim on the head with a 20-pound hammer and another suggested in the interest of mercy that he be hit with only a 19pound hammer, Either hammer will knock the man out. And the big point about these vast expenditures is that they will knock us out whether we increase them a few billions or cut them down a few billions. But we will not cut them down, never fear— we will increase them. The figures as things now stand are staggering. The budget up to now proposes spending 22 billion dollars this fiscal year. But there is pending a bill for another seven billion dollars for national defense which is sure to pass, and any number of more billions are in the offing and will be provided, with all the economizers voting for them because they are for “national defense.” The tax bill now in effect will yield $98,200,000,000. The new tax bill just reported will yield $3,500,000,000, a total of $12.700,000,000—maybe. We may therefore look for a deficit somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 or 16 billion dollars and more if prices get really out of hand as they threaten to do.

T is a little amusing to hear men talk about saving a few pennies on peactime Government operations with one hand and ladling it out by the billion on war projects with the other and calling the process economy. Some of the editors who are most vocal about economy are also most vocal about unlimited war outlays, and some go so far as to call on the President to take the lead in economy. These géntlemen might as well make up their minds that this Government is not only uninterested in economy—it is opposed to it in principle. Spending is its on indispensable rabbit. Kill the rabbit and the regime dies. Anybody who has any notion that what we are now doing is temporary, that it is somethnig to get us through the present “crisis,” that when the war is over we will settle down to rational bookkeeping, is crazy.

So They Say—

THE MAJOR events of our time are so essentially anti-Christian that against their terrific background Christian faith seems to many to be mere wishful , & pleasant fairyland. —The Rev. Harry EmFosdick, pastor New York's Riverside Church.

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The Hoosier Forum

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

URGING SOME ACTION AGAINST HIGH WEEDS

By Mrs, George Roessle, 5714 N. Temple Aye. With hay fever season coming on, why not start a weed-cutting campaign? Seeing so many vacant lots grown high with weeds, makes me write to you. The Times seems to be the only paper to get things like that done. We have a vacant lot too, but no weeds are on it. I am not a hay fever sufferer but [ am sorry for anyone who is. Why not show pictures in your paper of well kept lots and lots overgrown with weeds? Can't the owners be made to cut them? os 8 o

WANTS CITY CLEANED SO HE CAN COME HOME By Clarence I. Baker, Corpus Christi, Tex. We want to come home to live! Ten years ago I was practically banished from home, because I had contracted a sinus and bronchial infection. The doctors advised me to go away for eight months every year. world, to South and Central America, and am still fairly convinced that your ‘no mean city” is the place to live. Frequently I have visited the service clubs in various cities, and always find men who have left Indianapolis on account of the smoke. What does this mean to you and to our merchants? I used to operate a good, solvent business, but was forced to close it out last year because of my health. All of the advertising mediums, the newspapers in particular, received much of my money over a period of 47 yeaas. Of each of the past nine years I have spent eight months in California and the Southwest and want to come home. Last May and June were spent on the 14th floor of a downtown hotel. I had driven 26,000 miles in the past year with seldom any occasion to use my horn, but the din of horns from cars and trackless trolleys drove me wandering again, this time to Corpus Christi, Tex. While discussing shortcomings consider condition of the streets. They are the dirtiest of any city I have visited. The stench at W. Washington and the river is abominable. And we might even clean and paint the dark viaducts we so generously gave the railroads Of course, the first argument

Indianapolis’ the dirty

1 have traveled around the]

(Times readers are invited to express their these columns, religious controversies excluded. Make your letters short, so all can Letters must

views in

have a chance. be signed.)

against action is the expense in« volved, so let's consider a few available assets. The $800 dollars I used to pay each year in taxes on my business are how discontinued, but I still pay the city $2000, some of which might be used to rectify the trouble. This little town of Corpus Christi finds its income helped out by $50,000 a year from the use of parking meters on downtown streets, and motorists are able to park when they want to. Think what Indianapolis could recover in similar revenue! While my family was intact thousands of dollars were spent annually with the Indianapolis merchants. Now this money goes elsewhere, for I have been forced to leave the city. and my two daughters have taken up their residence in California. There are many others who have left Indianapolis because of the dirty condition. Can't something be done about it?

4 4 8 REBUKES WRITER WHO DEFENDED WHEELER By Robert Brune, Indianapolis.

Well, Mr. Jasper Douglas is at it again, blowing the same old horn and the same old tune—isolation in the same old ostrich manner. I quote Mr. Douglas: “My heart aches for poor old Senator Wheeler.” That statement stands alone, and about all that one may say concerning it, is to invoke Voltaire's famous remark which heads this section of The Times. I might add that while observing the Senate in session this summer, I saw Senator Wheeler enter the chamber alone, waik to his seat without speaking to or shaking hands with any of his colleagues, and leaving shortly afterwards alone after finding that none of his pet peeves were to be discussed. Senator Wheeler is what he is because of the guiding efforts of Mrs. Wheeler, who: happens to hate the President and is determined to embarrass him in every way possible, Mr. Douglas says that he has read Mein Kampf and that he is con-

vinced that Hitler has not the slight-

Side Glances — By jSwlbcaijth

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"If I'm curt and rude in any of those letters, suppose you imagine it's a nice cool day and make them sweet and politel"

est idea of ever attacking America! Well informed persons have long since given up the practice of helieving in any of Hitler's promises or prophecies, hut Mr. Douglas goes right on believing that if we do not

meddle in Hitler's affairs that he will not bother us! Recently in the Forum, Mr. A. C. Ayers gave very good reasons why isolationists and the members of the America First Committee are called ostriches, emotionalists, and wishful thinkers, and why they are giving strong comfort to Nazi agents by their continual strivings to make Americans believe that we can stand alone in a hostile world. Bxpert modern economists are almost unanimous in the belief that America could not do a dollar's worth of business with a Nazi Europe, and that inconceivable poverty would rule in our once prosperous country. Mr. Douglas laments the idea that the President and the “interventionists” are involved in ‘name- -calling” and “dirty smearing,” but at the same time he takes pride in calling others “war mongers, " “international bankers,” and unpatriotic because they happen to be farsighted enough to see their country shackled and impotent after it had followed the childish and weakhearted avice given by the isolationists. Other countries compromised with totalitarianism and have gone down the hill to an inglorious grave; let us hope that America does not do likewise,

# x» WHY HE OPPOSES WAR REFERENDUM

By Robin Adair, Indianapolis.

Louis Ludlow has done much to be proud of during his years in Congress. But I fear he fell a little short when he created the war referendum bill. I am certain his intentions were of the best, as are those who come out in.support of his bill from time to time. However, this bill is at variance with our form of Government, Ours is a republican government —a rule by representatives of the people. We choose able men, versed in domestic and foreign affairs, who in turn govern our nation. If one feels, as the Ludlow amendment seems to indicate, that there are certain issues on which Congress lacks the wisdom to pass judgment, then one admits . the failure of our form of government. If Congress is so inept as to be

(unable to decide wisely on perhaps

the gravest issues, peace or war, how can they be depended upon to decide wisely on anything? The Constitution intended each Congressman to represent a certain number of people. His actions and votes were to refiect the desires of those he represented. If, as the Ludlow amendment suggests, Congress ceases to reflect the sentiment of the people, then the American system of government has failed. But Americans know {t has not failed. Congress will never vote for war against the wishes of the people, The workings of the democracies are cumbersome enough against the dictators. What nonsense to talk of slowing their movements still further with a popular referendum!

AUGUST SUNSET By MARY P. DENNY

There's a glory in the evening When the winds are breathing, Soft frankincense everywhere And the breath of lily and violet Through the shining crystal air. When in glory far the sunset Paints a picture in the sky, Shades of red and gold and azure In a glory far on high, The bright gates of Paradise Open wide within the skies. Gold and pearl and amethyst Amber, old rose and scarlet Lie within the evening mist. Glory shines in the far sunset, Of the lovely summer skies;

DAILY THOUGHT

None of us liveth to himself. —Romans 14:7.

NAME me no names for my dis-

ease, I am none of these, but home= | sick unto death.—Witter Bynner,

.

\ But

FRIDAY, ‘AUG. 1, 1941;

Gen. Johnson Says—

Excellence, Rather Than Quantity, Of Equipment May Yet Prove the Turning Point Against Nazis in War,

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EW YORK, Aug. 1.—In this puzzling war which, dfter all, is a’ war of production, one uncertain and apparently unpredictable factor is the state of opposing equipment. No matter how Hitler is progressing in Russia, as - this column predicted when he started, it is no three-week gushes over. He must have expended, even through ordinary wear and tear, if not through loss-and de struetion, a mountainous supply of munitions and equipment— gasoline, fuel oil, lubricants, ex- : plosives. shells, airplanes, tanks and guns.’ ) "The guhtubes, especially of the largest cannon, have avery limited life in action. In addition to ‘battle-losses, mechanized and motorized land ships—tanks and .

armored ears moving over tough terrain with few

good roads—suffer an astonishing loss, out ever firing a shot. These modern armies can never be self-contained. They have to have life-lines for repairs, supplies and small parts running clear back to the home-front factories and these are extremely vulnerable. If they

break down importantly it is as bad as a checkmate

on the fighting front. The Germans lost the First Marne because their infantry outran their artillery and supply trains. If the Armistice hadn't come

Nov. 11, 1918, our advance through the Argonne would | have been stopped becsuse of failure of our motor.

transport systems behind the forward movement.

” n ” ITLER in Russia is moving on much longer lines through much more sterile and forbidding coune try. It wasn’t hard to beat the gun in predicting the slowness of this campaign. The error of the “swiftdecision” experts was in comparing the short-dise tances, the excellent road systems, the dense popula= tions, the rich concentrations of supply in westérn Europe with the Nebraska-like terrain of Russia, and Poland. The French catastrophe was due to two causes the weakly held defense of the keystone of resistance, the Forest of Ardennes, and even more to the congestion of all roads by a dense and fleeing population, These canditions do not subsist on the Eastern front where operations of the blitzkrieg variety take much longer and are far more difficult.

even with ~

Furthermore, for years, there had heen a consider-

able and constant exchange of student and observer -

officers hetween the Russian and German armies, Blitzkrieg was a kind of joint invention and, as has been ohserved here earlier, you can’t make our younger officers believe that both didn’t get its principles from studies and experiments at our infantry schdol at Ft. Benning which our general staff ignored.

” ” ” F course, offsetting Hitler's losses in equipment and material are his tremendous captures of such stuff and similar Russian losses plus the fact that the Nazis have an efficient replacement manufacturing industry and the Reds haven't. That is a vital matter, It means that if Russia can't get new supplies she may crumple from that alone. It is hard to see where she will get them. She is too far away for us to give much aid. There is one bright spot in the equipment problem to which not enough attention has been paid, It is that so-and-so-many airplanes isn’t the answer,

The question s how many can be kept in the air and

how good they are up there. If one airplane can be - kept aloft without stopping, for repairs twice as long . as its counterpart it is almost equivalent to doubling the production of that type. The excellence and precision of our mechanical manufacture has always been bettér than German, French, or British and certainly of Russia. According to most reports this is showing up marvelously in . competing types of planes in this war. Maybe we shouldn’t be too much discouraged at not getting out more planes. Maybe 15,000 of our planes is the . equivalent of 25,000 of some of the wobblers they may meet. Both our manufacturers and our airmen believe that,

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

UTTING motherhood on a purely patriotic basis is a screwy idea that runs counter to the come mon sense of the ages. Women have children fo¥ one main reason—because they want them,

Right now it seems to me a woman of any ine .

telligence will not accept pleasant theory that motherhood is a noble enterprise no matter what goes on in the world. Actu= § ally it puts her in a class with * the munition makers—and fine as those gentlemen may be, there is some difference in the sort of goods manufactured. Yes, I know the pioneer moth-

the: .

ers hore their babies in precarious

times. Yet those women lived in an era of great expansion. Todav, for them, was hard, but their

tomorrows were rosy with hope. I

imagine they never gave a thought to the populating. :

of a continent, bur they dreamed of the wide acres

they could bequeath to their sons and daughters and: of the grand ‘free nation they were building. Be= sides, to the pioneers, children wete an economio asset, They were almost a necessity in that rural ° culture—the farmer who couldn't afford hired men" could get his laborers by fatherhood. Women of our time feel the same emotional need for babies that was felt by Abraham’s wife. The feminine nature will never be free of maternal yearning, and it is everlastingly true that a woman's real ° wealth can be measured only*by the babies she has mothered, although she may not have given them life,

Yet the good people who talk to us about mothere

hood in abstract. terms—or even in patriotic phrases: —miss the point. And the point is this: It is not hardship, nor self-sacrifice, nor even disaster and death - that modern women fear for their children, Our hearts rage and rebel because we are asked te provide and let loose over the globe a new horde of murderers.

"Editor's Nnté: The views expressed bv eolumnists in thie newspaper are their own. They are not necessarily those

of The Indianapolis Times. : i

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any auestion of faét or: information, not involving exfensive re=search. Write vour auestions olearlv. sign name and address, inclose a three-cent nnstage stamp. Medical or legal advice eannot be given. Address The Times Washington Service Burean. 1013 Thirteenth St. Washington. D.C)

Q@—How many aliens were admitted from Canads te the United States for permanent residence in 19402 A—10,806. Q—How much money was distributed by the NBC'S * Pot 0’ Gold program? How long was it on the air?

A—In the course of 89 weeks existence, the spon<

sors distributed $89.00¢ in cash. No answer was received on its final call, and it donated the remaining * $1800 to the American Red Cross. @Q—In how many ways has the word aluminum been spelled? A—The word aluminum wag first proposed hy

Davy, but was changed to aluminium, the Britis _

spelling, to conform with sodium, potassium, ete. The = American spelling is aluminum. Q—When were tanks first used in warfare? A—In 1016, by the British. Q—Is ail cdded to wool during manufacture in yarn to waterproof the fibers? A—No, it is to lubricate the fibers so that they can be properly handled during the spinning and" drawing operations. The oil must be easily and eem~ - pletely removable by the scouring process. Olive oil < and peanut ofl are used for fine and expensive woo! stock, Mineral oils, olive oil, lard oil, red-oil, and tea-seed oil also are used.

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20 Questions and Answers

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