Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 August 1941 — Page 12

PAGE 12 <

The Indianapolis Times

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9 RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1941

WARSPITE EAST OF SUEZ? F it be true, as reported, that the British battleship War-

spite has turned up in the Gulf of Siam, Japanese naval |

men will have something to think about. The Warspite has been places and done things. When she was brand new she participated in the battle of Jutland (1916). True, her steering gear got out of commission in the heat of that great action and she went around in helpless circles for a while. But since then she has shown her mettle. : It was in April of 1940 that she led a pack of destroyers into Narvik and wiped out seven German destroyers, as well as shore batteries. And last March she had the leading role in the smashing naval victory over Italy in the Battle of Cape Matapan. The Warspite packs eight 15-inch guns, plus lesser armament, and she can travel at 25 knots or better. If she is in the Orient, it may be assumed that she is accompanied by reinforcements of cruisers and destroyers. In this connection the arrival in Australia of the American heavy cruisers Northampton and Salt Lake City will also make interesting reading for Tokyo, which can only guess what other British and American warships may be sent to these troubled waters.

WEYGAND IS THE MAN

w A UTHORIZED sources” at Vichy announce vaguely that the situation in Indo-China, where the Japanese moved in bag and baggage with the blessing of the Petain Government, is not duplicated in French Africa. This means little. It is no guarantee that Vichy will not sign over Dakar to the Nazis. The captive regime of Marshal Petain is in no position to give guarantees. It seems to us that our Government, in its various measures for the relief of French Africa, has been seeking to butter up, not the enchained Petain, but Gen. Weygand, who retains some potential independence of action by virtue of the sea water that intervenes between Europe and his sandy dominions. If Hitler demands Africa, what can Petain do about it, except to submit or be replaced by a Laval? But Weygand is another matter. An occasional shipment of American oil and other necessities to Weyvgand in Africa may be risky. But surely it is worth gambling on the chance that the cumulative effect of Axis demands—over and above the terms of the armistice to which France agreed—may some day effect such a revulsion in Weygand that he will break with Vichy and coalesce with De Gaulle’s Free France and the British.

MAKE INCOME TAXES SIMPLE

N studying plans to reduce income-tax exemptions and thereby greatly enlarge the number of citizens who make direct contributions to the Government, we hope the Senate Finance Committee will give special attention to a sensible proposal made by the President. Mr. Roosevelt suggested that the payment of taxes on low incomes should be made as simple as possible, “through a simple agency and on a simple form” —filed at the local postoffice and sworn to before the postmaster. = 5 = ” ” E think the President has placed his finger on a serious flaw in our Federal income-tax collection system. The rules and regulations which income-tax payers are required to read, and the blanks which they fill out, are needlessly complicated. It is easy to understand how that came about. The tax experts who over the years have developed these forms and instructions are inclined—like mast experts—to sacrifice simplicity in order to achieve a theoretical precision. In seeking to make the tax burden as equitable as the law allows, they have tried to take into consideration all possible combinations of income, to grant concessions for all reasonable deductions, and they have evolved toocomplex formulas of computation. That may have contributed to equity, but it has added also to complexity.

&

actually pay a tax; the net incomes of the rest are below the taxable level. Of those who do pay a tax, approximately

nine out of 10 come within the lowest bracket, and nearly | Wo everybody is ducking away from this prob-

all of these derive nearly all of their income from a straight wage or salary. form which explains exhaustively the various kinds of income, and how to treat that which is entirely exempt and that which is partially exempt, and sundry combinations and permutations. If the taxpayer happened to get married during the taxable year, he computes his tax one way if the wedding was in April and another way if in November. A similar sliding scale applies in reckoning the tax when a child is born; it makes a difference whether the birth was in February or August. The taxpayer may have had no income except his salary, no allowable deductions, no change in his marital status and no blessed event in his family and have paid no tax te a foreign country or a

U. S. possession—nevertheless he has to read all the fine | type for fear he will overlook something and run afoul |

the revenue laws. ® » » * % % NOTHER example of needless complexity is found in the 10 per cent earned-income credit, which the taxpayer deducts when he starts computing his tax, and the 10 per cent defense supertax which he adds on at the conclusion of the computation. To about 90 per cent of the taxpayers, the 10 per cent subtracted and the 10 per cent added just balance each other. If Congress would knock out both the earned-income credit and the defense supertax, the final tax paid by nine out of 10 taxpayers would be exactly the same—and arithmetical difficulties would be greatly diminished. : Yes, Congress and the Internal Revenue Bureau could do a lot ty simplify taxpaying, +

ered by carrier, 12 cents

Yet they have to file their returns on a!

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Now That Russia Fights on Side of Britain It's More Essential Than Ever That We Watch U. S. Boles

ASHINGTON, Aug. 6.—It should not be necessary for Americans to view with the cold eye of the fly-cop any action or attitude of the American Government, but a combination of past performances and present circumstances makes it advisable to watch more closely now than ever before the relationship between this Administration and the Com‘munists and their fellow-travelers. Never hostile to Muscovites, the Roosevelt Presidency has even fought for them at home to the extent of attempting to discredit the Dies Committee in its persistent if sometimes bunglesome revelations, and the wife of the President has flatly declared a tolerance for their mischievous younger set which Harold Ickes 4 certainly would forbid as treason if the brats were Hitlerites, instead. But it has been not only the noisy adolescents, schooled in the perfidy of the Kremlin and practiced in the arts of obstreperous political and social action, who have encountered sympathy and understanding in Washington and in the web of Federal outposts which the New Deal has woven through the country. Adult Bolos have crept into the Federal employ in the guise of liberals in such numbers and positions as would bring Mr. Ickes shrieking to his microphones if they were Nazis ang it cannot be forgotten that each disclosure of individual taint has been denounced as reaction, Red-baiting and servility to the moneychangers.

2 E 2

HAT established condition was bad enough and seemed likely to be abated if not wholly cured when the Moscow dictatorship threw in with Hitler in a treaty which was the actual] signal of the start of the war. Some American party members and fellow-travelers lost their balance and fell off the sled as it whipped around this abrupt turn in the party line and, for the first time since comrade Stalin gave his solemn and worthless promise not to mess in the internal business of this nation, in return for recognition by the American Government, the national Administration seemed disillusioned.

The Communists at last appeared to be the low and callous crooks that our Red-baiters haq always said they were. But since Hitler attacked Russia and we have found ourselves on the same squad, so to speak, the United States being not yet a full member of the varsity in the game against Adolf, there has been a sharp change. By the generous permission of the Communists, we are to be spared further Communist interference with defense construction and production— a decision taken in the interests of Russia primarily and only incidentally in the interests of the American republic. The same anti-Americans who were sabotaging the defense of the Uniteq States, none of whom, incidentally, has been or ever will be punished for this treason, instantly perceived that this was no longer an important war on Britain’s behalf but democracy’s own struggle to ‘exist and the motto “The Yanks are not coming” was amended to read “The Yanks are not coming too late.” % 2 %

TT new situation obviously takes much heat off the Communists and, remembering how very welcome they had been before the slight chill that set in with the start of the war, it must be suspected that they will now be more welcome than ever. It is idle to hope that with so many Communists and sympathizers with ‘communism already emplaced in agencles of the Federal Government, and with co-operation warming into something like alliance between Washington and Moscow, there will be a housecleaning or delousing. But the resistance should be maintained out in the country and the Dies Committee's disclosures, however, sensational they may be, should not be ignored or discounted on the mere ground that they are sensational. This committe is, after all a committee of Congress and the Administration's opposition te the inquiry must be regarded as its reaction to the committee’s prodding in sensitive areas. Tt surely will have been noticed that there has been no hostility to the committee's revelations of Nazi and Fascist activity which, on the contrary, have been exploited as cause for anger and alarm, as in-

| deed they are.

Business By John T. Flynn

Of Course Price Bill Is ‘Enabling Act,’ So Are Laws Against Crime.

TEW YORK, Aug. 6—Pressure to pass a pricecontrol bill is meeting plenty of resistance. And one of the arguments to overcome that resistance is that this Is an enabling act—an act to empower the President to act if business will not act voluntarily to hold prices down. Of course it is an enabling act, just as the statutes against murder are enabling acts—enabling the district attorney to send you to jail if you refuse to refrain from murder. But this argument is being used as a sugar-coated one, as a kird of assurance to busiiess that while the President has the power to act he will not do so at once, but will allow business to deal with the subject itself. This is a very dangerous argument, because it is essentially dishonest to begin with and is doomed to trouble in the end. The man who votes for a price control bill under the impression that it is merely a big stick in the cupboard which need never be used is fooling

| himself. After all, only about half the people who file returns |

It is true, perhaps, that the President is still flirt-

control ¢an be handled by voluntary agreements among businessmen. This merely means another postponement. And more postponement means trouble. ” = ”

lem for fear of losing some votes, the situation is becoming @aily more serious. Heavy buying is going on, and in the wholesale business it is 33 per cent higher than it was last year. The upward movement is being held in check for the moment by two causes First, by the delay in establishing priorities; second, by various adjustments going on, among which are the suspensions and curtailments in those industries hit rather than helped by the defense movement—the silk dustry, for instance, where it is believed as many as 175,000 people may find themselves out of work soon. But both these forces will have spent themselves soon. And the upward flight will come in earnest. Industry is not going to go in for price declines or checks voluntarily. There are too many industries which, like farmers and workers, have been clamoring for higher prices for years. The Presidents old high price theories are coming home to roost now. How is he going to get producers to agree to curtailing prices when he was telling them only a few years i rR Oh ato Ze) Joices up) oh when many of those prices have not yet the indefensible level he fixed for them?

So They Say—

THE EFFORT is enormous and the good wil] very striking. It is now only a matter of time, and there economist, on the U. S. Defense effort. . - * * WE SHALL be and continue to be in great danger as Jong as the Hitler idea rules. Our best hope is to get it over with—without war. , Our next best hope is

novelist

* * *

WE PROTECT Justice Stanley Reed, U. 8. A IF SPAIN is a traitor to democracy, then we must (Sa 0Ma Soley Guell, Costa, Rios, on Spain's plea for a > agolmt Russ, ©

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 6, 1941 ,

Gasless Nights

SOME WON'T MIND

1 wholly defend to

The Hoosier Forum

disagree with what yon say, but will the death your right to say vt.—Voltaire.

WHEELER'S CARDS COSTLY TO PUBLIC By E. W. B., Indianapolis. Those million postcards franked by Senator Wheeler, may not amount to treason but they do tally up to $10,000 of the taxpayers’ money. 2 2 2 CONTENDS NATIONALISM SWAYS U. §. POLICY By Robin Adair, Indianapolis. America’s stand in the present world conflict is a little difficult for the idealist to understand. America has decided that Britain is fighting on the side of freedom and justice and that Nazi tyranny and avarice must be destroyed. Yet, America is willing to give only of] her wealth to these ends. “Let Britain do the dirty work, we will pay the bill,” fairly well sums up our attitude. It is reminiscent of Civil War days when for $200 a man could hire a substitute to fight to preserve the Union in his stead. This attitude is symptomatic of that brand of nationalism which has cursed the world since groups

to send back his decoration because

the President, Secretary Ickes and others, perhaps it is just as well to ask hundreds of less conspicuous people to get rid of the embarrassment of possessing a decoration from one of the Axis powers.

TERMS ISOLATIONIST SENATORS SHORT-SIGHTED

By V. S., Indianapolis.

of our short-sighted senators who are opposed to all-out aid for the

self with the war-mongering group. I do resent his statement that “men in the service forego a number of privileges” and “they must forego agitation regarding political ques= tions.” I understand that obedience and discipline are requisites of a good army, but has it occurred to Clapper that if this wasn't such a phony war, insofar as we are concerned, the Administration would get that kind of discipline. As for me, I cannot see why any human being, even a soldier, hasn't the right to state his views on a penny postal regarding his future, to say nothing of his life. Whether I live or die is more important to me than “politics” or some moth= eaten rule to keep us walking to the slaughter pen like a lot of sheep. 2 os 2 FAVORS EXTENSION OF DRAFTEES’ TERMS By E. L. F., Indianapolis. To disband our armies now is to invite Hitler to move in on the Western Hemisphere while the United States are at their weakest. ‘That a state of emergency

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

or Japan provided Col. Lindbergh returns his German Eagle? If it is fair to ask Col. Lindbergh

it has been made so conspicuous by

8 ” 2

I think it is high time that some

last great powerful nation on earth be put to task for their miserly attitudes in trying to gain their points by tramping over common sense and even their own slight sense of judgment. I think the glass slipper will pinch quite a few flat feet when they try to explain away the fact that in the event of a British victory where will we stand if we are not wise now and give all possible assistance to see that the democracies are not subjugated further by the new ordér called “conquest.” We are almost led to believe by some that Hitler already has it in the bag and that we should be careful and not arouse him too much by helping England anymore. That is exactly what the idea is in back of the whole “isolationist” theory. However, they should have added the old theory, “Holler enough now and you will not get hit anymore.” This attitude is just what the Nazis want for it is only when you are

of men organized themselves into the first nations—a brand of nationalism which must disappear before the peoples of the earth may live in peace. It is the kind of nationalism that prevented the democracies of Europe from allying themselves against the aggressor. They learned too late that a nation and its ideals are not sufficient unto themselves. But America has not learned it. Britain and her cause are belittled and berated by the isolationists. “Sell them arms and let them fight their European war,” they ery. I say, if their cause is not our cause, then we traffic in blood when we sell them arms. 2 ® @»

SUGGESTS OTHERS ALSO RETURN DECORATIONS By LL. C., Indianapolis. There has been so much talk about

By Jane Decker, 108 E. 18th St.

exists, warranting the retention of draftees beyond the first year of service as provided in the conscription law, is tragically obvious. Citizens should urge their repre sentatives in Congress to declare this state of emergency, so that, unlike all the other would-be neutrals now conquered by or in a death grip with Hitler, America may not commit suicide » ” ” HOW SOME PROMINENT

SONS SERVE IN ARMY

Below is a list of sons of some

training : James Roosevelt (eldest son of Presient); Oantaie, Marines; former ine

iene Shes man. a 3 .*S, Hw (grandson o nstice Hughes); Buck vate; 10 years business {raining Elliott Roosevelt (vecond son of Presicent); Captain, Aviation; former ra-

prominent American families now in | § the armed service, together with the | post they occupy and their previous

ing with the fatal illusion that this problem of price |

can be only one result. —John Maynard Keynes, British |

to get it over with, even if we have to go to War— |

what we ourselves have created.— |. Supreme Court.

f= boy needs a

Colonel Lindbergh's decoration of the German Eagle that I believe it desirable to evolve a solution to the question that will save Col. Lindbergh's face and at the same time please the “100 per cent” Americans that object to decorations. The proposition is as follows: Will all officers of the United States Navy, Army and Diplomatic Corps return the decorations received by them within the last five years from Germany, Italy, France

down and unprepared that they thrive at their inhuman best.

RIGHT OF PETITION FOR SOLDIERS DEFENDED By L. M,,

beating the war drums for so long I don’t know why lre should annoy me any more. I decided during the campaign that he had aligned him-

we PEO rRaeh: oh:% 3: Porth jarren Pershing (son . J teh= 3 Ben ate graduate of mil. school. F. D. Roosevelt Jr. (third son of Presi- ; Captain, Naval Reserve; fore mer playboy. Henry Ford 3d (von of Fdsel Ford): nee.

= ” »

ianapolis,

Your Raymond Clapper has been

Is this the Democracy we are asked to die for? Is this the reason the boys who were promised

Side Glances = By Galbraith

one year’s training in the Army are to spend not only one, but two or three or perhaps four? ” ” ”

SPEAKING OF NOISE

dog, so |

brought this puppy for Junior Yo up WAY :

WHAT ABOUT THESE? | By R. W. Weber, Indianapolis

Somebody nominated the motors cycles in Indianapolis the other ‘day as the worst noisemakers in Indianapolis. Let me nominate the fire engines, the police and fire cars with their blaring sirens for that henor. It almost seems at times they cruise the streets deliberately just to turn on their sirens.

WHY? By DOROTHY LEE HALE

{ Why didn’t you tell me, Dad, the day I came home from the college dorm, Proud of my brand new uniform Why didn’t you tell me It would be This way?

I saw a strange look in your eye When I boasted of what I'd do That hero stuff, it’s always new: But I know now This is how Men die.

Blood and mud and horrible death! Who could believe it would happen

again? et | But you saw the carnage of murdered men. Dad, I ask you WHY With my Last breath.

DAILY THOUGHT

Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.—James 1:19,

RE ee one. | I

Gen. Johnson Says—

New Economics Defense Board Headed by Wallace Not the Same As. 1918 War Industries Board.

ASHINGTON, Aug. 6.—A good deal of nonsense has been written about the new Economic De= fense Board, headed by Vice President Wallace, In the first place, it has been-asserted that this is . the long-awaited industrial mabilization centra] aus thority comparable with the War Industries Board. It is nothing of the kind. It is an agency to use : the overseas bearing of American economic: forces to strangle po= tential enemies and help potential friends. As such it is very essen= tial and is long, long overdue. But it does not remotely compare with the still unfulfilled and indispensi=« ble War Industries Board the pur= pose of which is (1) to accelerate . war production and (2) to con- . serve supplies for ‘the civilian population. To this latter necessity we have given only a lick and a promise——a lazy lick, and a poor promise, J An aol far indicates but a blundering effort to accelerate war production and no effort at all to conserve civilian supply and morale. As for the Wale lace board, it compares with the World War Trade Board, but not with the World War Industries Board. To the proper functioning of the latter it is, or should be, merely an auxiliary. = 8 8 HE truth of this criticism about domestic chaos was dramatized last week in the “hellzapoppin™ show that was put on—paralyzing the silk industry, threatening to paralyze automotive transportation in the East, cutting off a principal export market for cotton and petroleum, suggestion of a general price stabilization by fiat, but leaving the principal elements of costs, food and wages to rise at will, bungling of the Conscription Act. and a tax bill whose inequities add

one more area of bitter American resentment to the

many others certain to result from the other head= long, unstudied and inept action just recited. : aa Much of the desired result of all this is necessary and unavoidable, but the means to reach those results have been demonstrably headlong, grotesque and ime possible. As for the Wallace Economic Defense Board, it is said on the one hand that the purpose of its personnel is to enlarge the stature of Mr. Wallace as Presidential timber and on the other hand that his selection was due to his great knowledge of world economies and his popularity in South America because he has recently learned to speak Spanish. : : If the former is the reason, it is an almost obscene reason. This is no time tp put incompetents in key positions for political reasons of a possible bearing three years hence. » 5 2

Ar Mr, Wallace learning to speak Spanish in middle age, I wouldn't know. It is the easiest of the Romance languages in which to become superficially glib. Two weeks after classes began in the old West Point courses the cadets used to do a snake dance to the tune of the “Farmer in the Dell” “Yo hablo espagnol! Yo hablo espagnol! Hoy es miercoles, yo hablo espagnol!”-—which boasted that they now spoke Spanish and proved it by naming one day in the Spanish week. No, it’s not hard to make a prepared speech in Spanish. I've done it myself. But that is a long way from converting an Towa farm boy into an expert on Latin America in language, economics ot politics, espe« cially language which is as full of tricks as a mae gician’s kit. ° ’ No Cabinet board under the present overwhelming duties of the departments can be a working board and as for Mr. Wallace being an expert on our export trade, all ‘he has done so far is to push a price-pegging policy which has practically destroyed, in favor of other countries, our export market for farm products. Furthermore, if that board is to be superior to and not merely co-ordinate with some central agency for domestic mobilization it means that the needs of other countries are to take precedence over Our OWN needs—e about which, at this stage, nobody seems to care. Well, somebody had better care. To repeat, “civilian morale Is as important as military morale”

Editor's Note: The views expressed by oolu mnists in this ewspaper are their own, They are not necessarily thowe of The Indianapolis Times,

J

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

TT; chief complaint made about girls in business is that. they use.their jobs as a stopgap pending Sel Da, They don’t rush wholeheartedly into Ty because they're palpitati i i meet the Dream Man. 0p ig Wik desire Wn And what, pray. is wrong with that? Nothing, as I see it. In the first place business isn't so important that it should be used to frustrate na= ture’s highest law. And in the second place, every boy worth his salt is also moved by a desire to find his Dream Girl. It only hape pens that going into business has always been expected of him, while it is still an innovation in the feminine curriculum. Fo There's something else to live ing besides making a liviag, or am I crazy? Instead of criticizing ¥ the girls we should take off our hats to the many who manage to make the stopgap period such a useful one, and who haven't let it spoil them for wife and motherhood. A country whose women were all functioning as an industrial machine, all seeking for so-called success, all able to kill their primordial desire to capture a man, iS a picture to make us cringe. Yet it’s the kind of scenery we are continually sketching for the girls. They mustn't expect to succeed in business or have careers of any sort if they let their thoughts drift to romance--so runs the admonition. Happily for society they pay little attention to such silly advice. I hope the time will soon come when we can work together without indulging in the ridiculous notion that labor of any sort should stop plans for love and wholesome living. Business should have one purpose only—to make existence better for men and women.

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-—=Was Senator Josh Lee in the Army during the first World War, A=He was » private in the 135th Infantry, 34th Division, U. S. Army, for 14 months (10 months in France) during the World War. Why do some married couples file separate Federal income tax returns? : A--Usually to reduce their surtaxes. Q=Is the salary of the Governor-General of Cane ada paid by the British or Dominion government? A=-It is paid by the Dominion government. Q-—Can you give an illustration of how much ene ergy physicists ' 2lieve is locked up within the atoms of substances, as compared with common sources of energy? A-It has been stated that if uranium atoms could be used as an energy source in the same mane ner that coal is burned, their fission energy would be about 50,000,000 times greater than the combinae tion of coal and oxy en, atom for atom. Q-—How did the American Federation of Labor's unemployment estima‘*> for April, 1941, compare with April, 1940? A--In April, 1940, it was 9,953,000, compared with 6,900,000 (preliminary estimate) in April, 1941, Q—What is relationship between the late, former President eodore Roosevelt, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, A--Theodore . Roosevelt was the uncle of Mrs, Eleanor Roosevelt ang fifth cousin to Franklin D\ Roosevelt. The President and Mrs, Roosevelt are