Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 August 1941 — Page 10
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The Indianapolis Times
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Give Light and the People Will Find Ther Own Way
SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1941
IT'S SHOWDOWN NOW HE Tutuila incident is closed, with the acceptance of Japan's quick apology. But the larger controversy shows no sign of abating. It is reported from London that the Japanese have made demands on Thailand. Whether these reputed demands emanate from the Tokyo Cabinet or from Japanese militarists in the field, acting on their own, makes little practical difference. The net result of a move against Thailand would be the same in either case—a confrontation of Japanese and British troops at the Malayan and Burmese borders. And when that happens, peace in the Pacific will be a delicate thing indeed. If the Thailand threats were a Japanese trial balloon, the response was prompt—President Roosevelt's order shutting off Japan from further shipments of American aviation gas and oil, and cutting other petroleum exports. The long period of bluff and counter-bluff in the Pacific is turning into a game of showdown.
CALLING ALL HOUSEWIVES
OR many years the farm bloc in Congress has been saying that if the farmers could get “parity” prices they would be happy, and the whole country would be prosperous. Now these “friends of the farmer” are insisting that “parity” never was the goal; no, indeed, it was only a middle-ground objective. They didn’t like President Roosevelt's bill to prevent a runaway price inflation. In its original version, the bill authorized the President to fix a ceiling on farm prices, along with other prices, but the farm price ceiling was not to be lower than “parity.” Before the measure was intro-
Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler
Wherein He Gives You a Glimpse Of the Lavish Social Security Voted For Tom Girdler and His Able Aids.
ASHINGTON, Aug. 2. — These right-thinking, spade-calling, straight-from-the-shoulder dispatches have revealed, from time to time, certain unsuspected facts of life in the upper brackets of the unions to the neglect, it must be admitted, of equally charming practices of some of our giants of industry or living monuments along the wonderful American way. The neglect was not intentional, however, being due to your correspondent's preoccupation with a more or less single-handed discovery that there was pay dirt in the peaks of leadership and to dumb, honest ignorance of big business and a proper awe of corporate structure, language and reasoning. But, during the last Gi few days, your correspondent has sunk his pick into a patch on the other side of the divide and turned up a nugget of such purity and size as can be discussed only in the editorial tone of “My God, can such things be!” It appears—well, no, it doesn’t merely appear—it veritably is a fact that Tom M. Girdler, the chairman of the Board of Republic Steel, who gets a salary of $176,000 a year, and a few other nobles of the corporation have prepaid lavish social security for themselves in their declining years and/or before, at the expense of the stockholders in manner much the same as that employed by certain of the more prosperous and audacious unioneers, but in larger measure, n ” 2
NE elderly indispensable of the union business, Mr. Joe Weber, late president of the musicians, on being eased up and out by his pushful colleague, Jimmy Petrillo, was granted $20.000 for the rest of his life. payable out of dues and tributes wrung from those who desecrate the very name of music on the air and in the dance joints. His status is that of adviser and the $20,000 a year which he gets for yielding gracefully to the ambition of Mr. Petrillo, plus other pay and perquisites, make Mr. Weber a subject of vast envy and little less resentment among the rank and file. Sulky malcontents among the lower orders in the unions have argued that out of the large salaries which Mr. Weber and other wise union politicians received during their active years they should have been able to squirrel away their own social security. And, as one who has supported the argument, your correspondent is prepared to agree further that Mr. Girdler and his colleagues in Republic Steel, at their rates of pay, also should have rolled their own. Mr. Girdler is to get $36,000 a year for life when he is 65. which is next year, under a contract which recognized without quibble or stint the superb qualdties of what-a-man Girdler and provided, furthermore, that even had he been fired prior to his 65th year he should have received the same pension, nevertheless. You ought to hear what this lawyers’ mash note
duced the rural legislators started stretching it. They | inserted a provision that the ceiling on farm prices could | not be lower than 10 per cent above parity. To take care | of commodities already selling at higher priges, they stipulated that the ceiling on any farm commodity could not be lower than it was on July 29—the date of the President's message.
says about Mr. Girdler, bearing in mind that the wonder-man himself, was a party to this praiseful writ. It says that he is the “most responsibie, most valuable and most irreplaceable” of Republic's employees and adds that Republic “desires, in its own interest” not his, to keep him throughout his active working years. = » n HE other supermen, none of whom, of course, is conceded to be quite as super as upper-case Tom, are R. J. Wysor, president, and Myron A. Wick, N. J.
Nor will they be content with this. They have already started plugging for a brand-new method of computing | parity, one that would put prices much higher than the | present formula. But you can count on it that they won't even be satisfied with super-parity plus 10 per cent. They don’t want any ceiling whatever. And they probably will get what they want—unless consumers rise up and raise cain. What this country needs is a good “housewives bloc” in Congress. Any “price control” legislation which fails to stabilize the prices of bread, butter, eggs, milk, meat, etc., will be of little value to about 90 per cent of the population—to whom the cost of food is the major portion of the cost of living.
THE EFFECTIVE PHASE
ATCH the needle flicker across the face of the arms production gauge. Now it reads “More than 1500 new-model rifles and submachine guns are coming off the. production lines every day.” Now, “The thousandth Hudson bomber is already on its way to England.” : Now “Shells will begin to roll off the production line of the Army's $20,000,000 munitions plant at Milan, Tenn, on Aug. 10. Six months ago this plant was a hayfield.” Now “Every naval ship under construction is far ahead of schedule.” Now “Three tank plants are simultaneously getting into actual production on medium tanks, the type the Army has needed most urgently, since light tanks are already in quantity production, and are good enough to have been most helpful to the British in Libya.” = ” 5 8 » ACH of these is only a small flick of the needle, but to- | gether they show how the defense effort is entering the productive stage. With actual tangible guns, tanks and planes in sight, it should be easier to redouble the effort that will keep them coming in an ever increasing stream. In that lies the best
hope for the American future.
THE GASOLINE PINCH
ASOLINE, lubricants, fuel oil, etc., are plentiful everywhere in the United States except along the Eastern seaboard. Indeed, there is no present scarcity in the East. But deliveries are dropping off rapidly because a great many tankers once employed in transporting petroleum products to the Atlantic ,coast have been diverted te the British “lifeline.” So a serious shortage is threatened in the populous East. And unless consumption is drastically curtailed, many a home will be cold and many a motor idle next winter. - Desiring to forestall the more extreme hardships, U. S. Petroleum Administrator Ickes has been trying to persuade Easterners to reduce voluntarily their use of oil and gasoline, and the oil industry has laid out an unusual quarter-million-dollar advertising campaign urging customers to buy less of its products. But consumption has not declined, and now Mr. Ickes and the industry have announced another step—the closing of all filling stations between 7 p. m. and 7 a. m., which will put the pinch on nighttime consumers and force many station employees to look for other jobs. These employees will certainly not regard this as an “easy solution” of the problem. And it is questionable how much consumption can be pared down merely by making the purchase of gasoline less convenient. Mr. Ickes and the industry are depending upon automobile drivers to be patriotic enough to refrain, or neglectful enough to forget, to fill their tanks before driving home at night. We hope the people of the East will co-operate. If they don’t, Mr. Ickes will probably have to resort to
| Clarke and C. M. White, vice presidents in charge of
this and that. All receiving $75,000 a year except
| Mr. Wysor, who is 33!3 per cent more super and so
gets $100,000. Their terms vary somewhat, but the notice to stockholders of the meeting at which their social security was voted distinguished between mere employees and supermen, who are desighated as “certain principal executive officers.” There are pension arrangements for employees, too, but they have to contribute 40 per cent to the fund, whereas the supermen, meaning those best able to buy their own annuities, contribute nothing. The stockholders pay it all, in addition to their salaries of from $75,000 to $176,000 a year. : It certainly does appear that the supermen got their heads together in advance of that stockholders’ meeting which was held in Jersey City on April 14, 1937, and decided just how super they were, respectively. For the ink was hardly dry, as they say, on the stockholders’ ratification of the bright and generous proposal, before the contracts which obviously required deep thought and legal preparation, were Whipped out, signed and thus made binding on the company, its heirs and assigns, forever. The contracts were sighed the next day. This is about the end, but don’t go until you read the kicker. The kicker is that the proxy form named Mr. Girdler and Mr. Wick as two of three proposed proxies, that the amounts and terms of the pensions were not stated, and that the form explicitly authorized the proxies to vote the plan, but contained no provision for a vote against it.
Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists in this newspaper are their own. They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times.
Business By John T. Flynn
Speculation Against Inflation Is One Of Most Difficult of all Games.
EW YORK, Alig. 2—The financial journals are full of advertisements about your prospects in the market. “Did you get in before the rise?” they ask. If you didn’t it was, of course, your own fault. With the right dope and the infallible dopester at your side you could have shared in the rewards of the expanding market. That is their message. The facts are alluring. If you had put $100 in the right stock, say back in the first week of May, you could now cash in for $112. On some stocks you could have done vastly better. There has been an average hoist of 12 per cent in the price of the active stocks in these last three months. All this is merely the prelude to even more alluring tempters
the bewildered investor these days.
threat of inflation is very great. cautious and hesitant.
event of inflation. Therefore. the man with cash gets
himself around to putting it in speculations.
LJ] = 2
EYOND a doubt the market rise has been in large measure due to this reasoning. But for the benefit of such men, let me make two observations. First, speculation is one of the most highly professional games in the world. To speculate successfully you have to know the game, have access to the necessary information and have plenty of time to watch it. Second, speculation in inflation is a far more difficult game than under ordinary circumstances and mighty few, even of those who are masters at speculation, understand how to profit by it. It is the most whimsical and unpredictable game in the world. You have to know how to speculate against the inflation and then against the end of the inflation. Hugo Stinnes was the greatest master of inflation speculation in Germany and he made one of the most gigantic fortunes in history by it. But when the inflation endeq his fortune was swept away.
So They Say—
THE WORLD is learning tolerance as never before. It is beginning to see that there is a need on
ration cards—and the people will like that even less.
-
78th birthday.
w
THE
{act and every thought has been di-
INDIANAPOLIS TIM
ES
More Work for the Ground Crew!
The Hoosier Forum
I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
ASKING SOME QUESTIONS ON THE MILK INCREASE By E. A. Means, The milk producers, or farmers, received 25 cents per cwt. raise in price. Mr. John I. Public pays 50 cents per cwt., or raise of 1 cent per quart. Can you tell me why it was necessary to give the distributor twice as much raise in price as you gave the producer. If you wished to aid the producer, why not give him an increase of 50 cents per cwt. same as you allowed the distributor? I was under the impression .that the Milk Control Board's duty was| to stabilize prices and enhance the
Muncie
(Times readers ars invited their these columns, religious controversies Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed.)
to express views in
excluded.
say—your President and youn great Secretary of State are following the road to peace. We are arming ourselves not for any foreign war. We are arming ourselves not for any purpose of conquest or intervention in foreign disputes. “I repeat again that I stand on
chances of the producer to make enough profit to improve his milk] by securing better production ani-| mals. It seems that the Production! Control Board acts, and then the] Distributors Board goes into action and doubles the action of the first Board. Why not enlighten the public on these actions?
8 » o INSISTS PEACE PLEDGE MUST BE KEPT By Edward F. Maddox, 959 W. 28th St.
If the following promises were not mere ‘campaign oratory,” we the people of the United States have a right tec expect faithful pursuit of ‘the policies and pledges made to us: At Philadelphia, Oct. 24, 1940, President Roosevelt made the following campaign pledge to the people of the United States: “Tonight there is one more false charge—one outrageously false charge—made to strike terror into the hearts of our citizens. It is a charge that offends every political and religious conviction that I hold dear. It is the charge that this Administration wishes to lead this country into war. This charge is contrary to every fact, every purpose of the last eight years. Throughout these years my every
rected to the end of preserving the peace of the world, and more par-| ticularly, the peace of the United | States—the peace of the Western | Hemisphere. . To Republicans and Democrats, to every man, woman and child in the nation I
Ihave labored, and it is for peace
the platform of our party. We will not participate in foreign wars and we will not send our Army, naval or air forces to fight in foreign lands outside of the Americas. except in case of attack. It is for peace that
I shall labor all the days of my life.” “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Many things have happened since that solemn pledge was made to the people of this nation. But we should religiously adhere firmly to the solemn pledges made to consistently labor and strive to bring peace and to pursue a defensive and not an interventionist or offensive policy in foreign affairs. Hot-headed radicals and fellowtravelers will maneuver the President into the war unless the Congress and the people insist on peace.
oe 5 4 FAVORS LONGER PERIOD TO TRAIN SOLDIERS
By, Frank Massey, M. D., 3207 Winthrop ve,
I would like to point out a few things to those who would wreck United States chances of speedily building a worthwhile Army. No one, not even the Isolationists, has the nerve to say “NO” to such an Army. How long does it take to
his country? Do some steady thinking and make your own estimate. In the meantime give this thought a once-over: Every selectee is making the equivalent of $75 a month, as follows: (1) Careful training of his mind and body. (2) Free feeding—in 95 per cent of the cases better than he ever has had. (3) Free rent—not luxurious but eminently safe. (4) Free medical, dental and sanitary care of the best the U. S. can supply. No nation in the world can beat that. (5) Free movies, concerts, recreation rooms and playgrounds for all popular sports. How about adding three or four dollars a month (money saved is
. ETCRDAY AUG. 2 1941 Gen. Johnson Says
The Right Men. in the Right Jobs Is What Counts and Churchill is Correct in His Production Stand.
EW YORK, Aug. 2—Mr. Churchill, like Mr, Roosevelt, shuns a production Pooh-Bah. Both are right. After all the extreme statutory delegations of emergency authority, the startling assumption of authority in surprise executive orders and the nice refinements of carefully drawn organizational charts nothing really eounts but the caliber of the men on the particular jobs, their, ability,’ their unselfishness and their willingness to work together under a common leader for a common national purpose. You can have the best paper plan that could be devised. With out the proper men, it won't work, You can have the worst plan and, with the proper men, it will work. The answer, after all, isn’t any _ super prima-donna dominatingy secondary prima-donnae in separate cages. As Mr. . Churchill says, God rarely, if ever, makes such a man This isn’t to say that clear assignments of authority and responsibility within particular fields are not necessary, or that prevention of conflicts and overlapping authority isn’t indispensable. It is simply to say that the selection of the proper men and some plan to integrate their efforts is supremely necessary, I don’t know whether that has been done in Britain, as Mr. Churchill so passionately insists that it has been done. I only know that beyond the peradventure of doubt it has not been done here. ot
s 8
HE spectre of an industrial Pooh-Bah over= shadowing both their positions seems to haunt both of these gentlemen. In this country the example of B. M. Baruch as the assumed American Pooh-Bah seems to worry them both. Baruch never was a Poch-Bah. Hoover had food. Garfield had fuel. McAdoo had transportation and finance and so forth. Price fixing, while it was housed with Baruch’'s War Industries Board and the chief of that board, Brookings, also sat with the War Industries Board, was always an independent agency. The secret throughout that great success was ine terlocking boards with every war agency represented on all the boards of other war agencies, but with each chairman in complete command subject only to appeal -in case of conflict to the next higher board and a final appeal to the President. This sifted out 99 odd per cent of complaints before they ever reached the President, prevented all absurd conflicts of action and centered and solidified the whole effort, This column, with whatever reluctance, has antici pated and supported most of the authorities the President has asked. Many of the arguments for them were first advanced here—vast appropriations for mechanization, modernization and motorization of the Army, selective service, extension of service, full authority for priorities and price ceilings.
”
UT it was not and cannot support the almost complete failure of a reasonable and rational co-ordination of effort and it is beginning to be convinced that the most of the whole sprawling organization of industrial effort has not produced and does not contain enough men of sufficient caliber to do their jobs and make the necessary combined effort. This is not to advance any Pooh-Bah. To repeat, both Mr. Churchill and Mr. Roosevelt are right. God didin’'t make any selv-evident Pooh-Bah for such a job as this. But American industry in the main has found means by organization and administration to get along without Pooh-Bahs and it is about time that American Government snapped out of its political paralysis and applied proved American methods to a very similar problem, As it is, through inadequate inflation controls, all our people are threatened with great and unnecessary hardship, through inadequate conservation controls °
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/
money earned) to the $75 previously mentioned? And the principal item is that if he does his work willingly and well, he's fit for any
when he's through with the Army— and he adds at least five years te his expectation of life because he has been thoroughly taught to care for himself mentally and physically. ”n ” A LOUD BOO FOR SENATOR WHEELER By Clyde P. Miller, 108 E. Washington St. Why coddle a skunk? It will just drive all particular people away from you and the skunk will be the only friend you will have. Why temporize. with Wheeler? He will just imagine that his odor is not offensive. Let's tell him what his best friends should have told him long ago! There is one contribution that Wheeler makes to red-blooded Americans and that is to make them glory in the difference between him and themselves. Feeding only on personal spite and motiveless malignity against the President, Wheeler's public usefulness, like his pa-
triotism, has contracted pernicious anemia.
oF + » URGES PARENTS SUPPORT JUDGE BRADSHAW
make a good, reliable soldier out of] a greenhorn? Ask any intelligent| person what training he considers| necessary to fit a boy or girl to fight] for his own at majority. ‘The an-| swer—four years high school and two to four years college—six or eight years. Then how long will it take to make an untrained into a capable fighting man, fit to defend
Side Glances = By G
albraith
who will ‘be found on the path of | The difficulty of | finding a sound investment in the presence of the | This makes men |
On the other hand, most people with idle money | | in the bank reason that cash itself is the worst possible form in which to hold one's savings, because it is | cash which is most certain to lose its value in the |
worried, first about putting his cash into an invest- | ment, and second, even more worried about leaving it | in cash. Hence, by slow stages he gradually brings
earth for every race.—Henry Ford, in interview on his |
COPR. 1941 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T. M. REG. U. 8. PAT. OFF,
"| don't know how lll be able to | think Mother could use and, tell her
get along without your help, but a little assistance—go in
By Mrs. Opal Thompson 1534 Lee Street It has been with great interest that I have noticed the work of Judge Bradshaw since he has been in office. And it has been a fine work he is trying with all his power to accomplish. What puzzles me is the fact that people who make their homes in Indianapolis will let such conditions exist. I would like to see the Judge have the proper facilities to work with. How can he do his job properly, impress parents with the need for proper environment, when he has to work in quarters that are a disgrace to the community. It seems to me that it is about time that we mothers and fathers woke up to the fact that our children are just about what we teach them to be. Sometimes it isn't the fault of the parents, but more times it is. I think, too, it is about time we started reading our Bibles, teaching our children the Word, living it, training our children, and having the rod alongside of the Bible, just in case.
OLD FARM HOUSE
By HARRY G. BURNS
The old farm house deserted, Back from the main highway, Seems to sit and listen For folks who's gone away. How long now it seems, Where brightness glow, When filled with laughter By those it used to know.
I wonder if some day again, To the farm house yet, Some will come to visit it, Or. will they all forget? But if they do, or if they don't. Back from the main highway, It seems to sit and listen For folks who've gone away.
DAILY THOUGHT
Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Psalms 34:13. '
and ill-considered promises of supplies to other nations, little business is threatened with virtual extinction and through many other aspects of gross politie cal mismanagement a great and growing resentment
kind of job he may care to tackle and unrest which threatens national unity is threate
ening our military solidarity and efficiency.
A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson }
ELP yourself today to a big slice of human intere est lifted from a letter to this column. It wili make you proud to be a woman:
“I must say a word for ‘husband stealers,’ and beg your sympathy. Not sympathy for the sophisticate to whom stealing is a sport, nor
for the trashy woman who doesn’t care, but for some of us who want to do the right thing but are so shaken with conflicting emotions we find the way too dark to see. : “There must be many women like me, women chained all their lives to a desk, who support not only themselves but a mother, a sister, sometimes a whole family, “Did you ever hear of a daughter who went off to enjoy herself, blandly ignoring the needs of her family the way some sons have a habit of doing? I have not had a vacation for 23 years. Every time one is due, the home needs extras. And there are others like me—thousands and thousands. We know nothing but work, We have no social life. You'd think, reading the papers, that everyone rushes around to dinner parties, although most poor people never attended one. Girls can't go to dances alone. So we stay home. “Many women preparing themselves for a business life believe the job will get then a social life too, and that the office is a grand place to meet eligible men. Tell them for me it’s grand only to meet mar= ried men. Single ones are in college preparing for specialized work, or looking for a job, or in the Army, If a girl wants to have a life of her own and love, she must mingle with young people when she is young.. “I started to work at 17. Years later I met the man who was different. We had many interests in common, so much to laugh and joke about. He wos the first man I had ever known who knew how to dream and to appreciate the beauty of a white star, We were in our 30s but had rediscovered youth. We were a man and a woman in love. Knowing what must be done we did it, but it wasn’t easy. He was a good man, never once suggesting our running away from things, for he had a wife and children. When we were parting he said if he were ever free he would come back and get me. “My family did not have the habit of taking things ¥ that did not belong to them, so I came away to this town and all is now a closed incident. Except on a moonlit night when all the world seems to be in pairs except me, except on a winter evening sitting alone before my fire, no one would ever dream here in this little town that Miss M—is not satisfied with her nice position. “So keep on telling the girls that the losingest game a girl can play is having an affair with a mare ried man. But save a little sympathy for women like me who resisted the temptation to be husband stealers.”
Questions and Answers:
(The indianapolis Times Service Burean will answer any question of faet or information, not involving extensive 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 meant by bdellium in the Bible? A—The identity of the Hebrew word is not known; It may refer to a precious stone, a resin or a pearl, . _Q-»What is a lobbyist and what is the origin of the term? A—The lobby is named from the passages sure rounding and adjacent to the legislative chambers, In general the term lobbyist means the persons who frequent the legislative halls ‘>r the purpose of iniuencing legisiation. More r-ecifically it denotes a
O MISCHIEF, thou art swift to
I sent you."
jen.—Shakespeare.
distinct class of adjunct lawmakers, in the pay of
enter in the thoughts of desperate persons, societies or corporatior- interested in secur-
ing -ecigl legislation for their own. benefit,