Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 August 1941 — Page 16

PAGE 16

The Indianapolis Times

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THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 1041

A GIANT STIRS

BOUT the most important—and heartening—news you can read is a series of articles by E. T. Leech, editor of the Pittsburgh Press, now appearing in The Times. The articles describe a stirring giant—seemingly slow to wake but mighty when awakened; a vast production, accelerating now at a dizzy rate. They tell a vivid story of how the nation which invented mass production is turning that invention to defense. They don't mean that we are vet prepared, or that much training with broomsticks instead of guns and milk wagons instead of tanks isn't still going on. But they do point to the conclusion that it “won’t be long now.” 2 8 ® = = = One of the things we have always liked about Gen. Marshall is his frankness in admitting weaknesses in the Army which he heads. Starting with his testimony a vear ago last May he has been altogether realistic with the American public. A man of another temperament might have claimed or stalled. Marshall hasn't. And Secretary Stimson was realistic too when he said a few weeks ago that our Army wouldn't be in shape for at least another year. The equipment problem, as it relates to the Army, has been too little understood, we think. You can’t build a house in a day and you can’t expand and equip an army from 200,000 to 1,500,000 overnight. It took 20 months to build the Empire State Building; seven years for the Grand Central Station; over six years for the Pennsylvania Station; a year and seven months for the Waldorf-Astoria—just to mention a few of the largest structures in the nation’s metropolis. What the Leech articles describe make those jobs look, by comparison, like Chic Sale’s stuff. While Aladdin had it beat, we think Hitler will have much to learn from what's now going on in the U. S. A.

NOT CHICKEN FEED

HE other day, writing about the abuse of the franking privilege, we mentioned that free Congressional mail cost $745,992 in a year; that is, it would have required that much postage if not carried free. And while we deprecated the illegal delegating of the free-mail privilege to propaganda committees, we remarked that “hy eurrent Washington standards $745,992 is chicken feed.” A friend writes in: “The ‘fact is that $745,992 is not chicken feed. Even the $992 part of it is far from chicken feed. That is only $8 less than $1000, which is all the insurance that many an American citizen has to leave to his wife. “It will become chicken feed, of course, if we do not win this fight against inflation.” To which we certainly agree.

CONCERNING CANADA

(CANADA'S war effort has suffered sometimes from false starts and mismanagement and feuds. But in view of the confusion and backbiting that disfigure the banks of the Potomac these days, we are hardly in a position to criticize. Nevertheless, there has been a good deal of careless and uninformed talk in this country about the Canadians, ‘particularly on the matter of conscription. There has been an effort to make it appear that the Canadians are coasting, while we are being called on for increasing sacrifices. The fact is that Canada has 470,000 men under arms. In proportion to population, that would mean in this country at least 4,700,000 men under ams. Actually, we do not have half that many. Of Canada’s 470,000, some 300,000 are volunteers in the Active Service Force, and of these some 100,000 are overseas. Comparably, the United States would have to have an army of more than 3,000,000 volunteers. Canada also has conscription. At first, because of uneasiness over the reaction of French Canadians, men were drafted only for 30 days’ training. This was lengthened to four months. And now the four-month trainees have been ordered to remain in the service for the duration, although they are still exempt from overseas service. A mayor of Montreal who publicly advised resistance to the draft was sent to a concentration camp. Or take a look at taxes. The sharply higher income rates now on their way through Congress are puny things alongside the Dominion rates. A married Canadian with no dependents and an income of $1500 pays $75; with an income of $3000, he pays $1000; income of $10,000, pays $3080. : : Canada is spending on the war 40 per cent of her national income. Of course, Canada is in the war and we aren't. Even so, we are in no position to look down our noses at her great contribution to the cause which we are supporting.

a

THE TRANQUIL CONSCIENCE

HERE is nothing like a tranquil conscience. Fourteen months ago, Benito Mussolini spoke from the Palacio Venezia, declaring war on prostrate France and thundering, “We are going to war against the plutocratic and reactionary democracies of the West . . . our conscience is absolutely tranquil . . . I solemnly declare that Italy does not intend to drag other peoples who are her neighbors into this conflict. Let Switzerland, Jugoslavia, Turkey, Egypt and Greece take note of these words of mine...” Well, 14 months have passed. Italy has attacked Greece ‘and occupied it by grace of Adolf Hitler. It has bombed Alexandria, Egypt. It has been presented with a phony “kingdom” carved out of Jugoslavia by the German conqueror and passed on to Italy in lieu of the lost African empire. And now word comes that Italian boys are being gent into the shambles in Russia to fight that eminent. “plutoeratic and reactionary democracy of the West

AE

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Two Bills Offered in House Which Would Repeal the Ruling Putting

Unions Above Law in Trust Cases. ]

ASHINGTON, Aug. 7—The humble working man, the employer and George Spelvin, American, may be pleased to hear that two bills have been introduced in the House to repeal Justice Felix Frankfurter's bench-made legislation holding professional unioneers to be above the anti-trust law and, further, to repeal the right of racketeers to persecute people and blackmail business at will. These two bills emanated from the hearings of the sub-commit-tee of the House Judiciary Committee on the broad and scandalous topic of union racketeering and from other disclosures of extortion, thievery, terrorism, vandalism and Muscovite sabotage. These private organizations, having no more right than the Elks, the Boy Scouts or the Detroit Purple Gang to violate American laws, have, nevertheless, acquired a privilege so to do and that privilege was recognized in a majority opinion of the Supreme Court written by Justice Frankfurter in the case of the Carpenters’ Union a few months ago. In that opinion, Justice Frankfurter undertook to say what Congress had in mind in passing certain prior legislation and the minority opinion accused him of usurping the legislative function of Congress.

NE of the pending bills was introduced by Rep. Francis Walter, a Democrat, from down in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, where wrong John Lewis would have you believe that all the miners are his loyal followers, whereas many and probably most of them are subjects of a dictator instead. The other was put in by Rep. Mike Monroney of Oklahoma City and both have been referred to the Judiciary Committee rather than to the Committee on Labor, because it is recognized that there is no chance of obtaining a favorable report from the latter group. Both bills would have the effect of discrediting the Wagner act in important particulars and of repudiating the Clayton and Norris-La Guardia act wherein they have heen construed to mean that the unioneer may jerk men out on strike where no labor controversy exists. The Clayton and Norris-La Guardia acts also have been construed to mean that even when a union is in the wrong in a jurisdictional or anschluss raid the offenders cannot be punished for circulating defamatory lies about an employer resulting in the boycott of his product and financial loss to an innocent victim of union rivalry. Rep. Walter's bill leads off with three long explanatory or whereas clauses which declare plainly the intent of Congress in adopting this remedy. The purpose of these clauses is to prevent distortion of the Congressional intent by the Supreme Court. Such explanatory matter is more or less out of style, but Rep. Walter went back to this old-fashioned procedure for one definite and undisguised purpose, namely to whereas the ears off any clique of the Supreme Court which might presume to say that Congress meant something when it meant anything else but. 2 ~ 2

E would make it unlawful for any union or its officers to conspire in restraint of trade for the purpose of forcing an employer to abandon relations with another authorized union. He would make liable to punishment any union or its officers for extorting money from an employer or for imposing unreasonable restrictions on the adoption of new and more efficient machines, equipment or materials. And he

- would forbid any combination by a union with an

employer to fix prices, allocate customers, restrict production, stifle competition or monopolize trade. All district courts would be authorized to issue injunctions where lawful labor objectives are absent and it is distinctly provided that the stoppage of any defense work shall not be regarded as a lawful labor objective, pending a hearing before the National Mediation Board. The protection of inefficient methods of production or distribution also is declared not to be a lawful objective and a 30-day cooling off period is provided under injunction during which a master or, in defence jobs, the Mediation Board, shall determine whether a legitimate labor objective is sought. And, finally, every person, whether unioneer or employer, convicted of conspiring against the act may be fined pol shore than $5000 or imprisoned for one year or th. Rep. Monroney’s bill is similar, but apparently less extensive and, moreover, lacks that declaration of Congressional intent, the lack of which might tempt Mr. Frankfurter again to conclusions such as that which his colleagues of the minority, in the carpenters’ case, declared to be a usurpation of the legislative function.

Business By John T. Flynn

Cutting Non-Defense Costs Would Do Little to Retard Inflation.

N EW YORK, Aug. 7.—The National City Bank has a plan to prevent inflation. It has three points: (1) Reduce Government non-defense spending; (2) sell more bonds to individuals instead of to banks: (3) broaden the base of taxes. These three, plus some other devices, have been i urged by this writer persistently. They may well be urged again. But they will not be enough. The reason they will not be enough is as follows: First of all, a study of non-de-fense spending will reveal that, as a practical matter, sufficient cuts cannot be made to be really effective. During the last eight years non-defense expenditures have enormously increased. Some of these expenditures can be cut. But some of them cannot be touched. For instance, we now have an item of $1,110,000,000 interest on the public debt in last year’s outlays. That is fixed. Or rather, unhappily, it is not fixed but can change only upward. For this year it will be greater and. substantially greater as the debt increases. Savings can be made on WPA, perhaps, and on various kinds of benefits. But the Government has already obligated itself to farm benefits which will be greater than last year’s. It would take a heroic Congress to cut a billion dollars out of non-defense spending. And a cut like that, while considerable, would have absolutely no effect on inflation.

” 2 2

SOUNDER way to state this point as a barrier against inflation would be to reduce public expenditures. This would mean two things: (1) Cutting non-defense expenditures and (2) an intelligent appraisal of the defense expenditures to bring them within reasonable bounds. There has been a joyous abandon about the manner in which billions are being appropriated for national defense. There is not the slightest doubt that several billions could be saved on that if there were a steady, intelligent, realistic mind directing it. Between the two probably three or four billions could be cut from the outlays. But any man who thinks this will be done is kidding himself. They are going to be increased. As for selling bonds to individuals instead of banks, and a vast increase in taxes—disagreeable as this may be—there is no doubt about their absolute necessity. But even all these together would not he enough to do more than mitigate the evil. The trouble lies in this, that we are committed to a course which insures infiation.

So They Say—

THIS WORLD disaster . . . cries out that unless we ts ethic pu are

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

THURSDAY, AUG. 7, 1941

Such a Nice Way to Commit Hara-Kiri!

WW Co THEY'RE JUST

BLUFFING!

THEY DON'T” KNOW WHAT WE'VE GOT UP OUR SLefvs

The Hoosier Forum

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

FINDS DOGS MORE POPULAR THAN CHILDREN By Anthony J. Wapelhorst, 2837 N. Olney St. Some time ago there was an arrest made of a mother who had more respect and love for her child than a neighbor's dog. This is a great place when dogs are given preference over children. I suppose our “dear dogs” are going to grow up, be citizens of tomorrow. The children will have to run the

streets. Boy, what a great place to|

have children! You can't even rent a house if you have a child. The reply is, “I'm sorry but we just can't have children.” Maybe all our people were always big, I don't know. Could anyone advise me correctly? The first line of our defense is the decent American home. However, I don't believe in being cruel to animals, ” ” 2

TAKING A SLAM AT UNION NOW By Jasper Douglas, Indianapolis Union now is being proposed and there are some who are urging that we give our country back to Eng-

land and place ourselves under the rule of Britain's king, giving up the independence our fathers fought and died to win. It is enough to make Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Henry, Paine and the rest of the pioneer patriots turn in their graves. Of course, we would like to see Hitler stopped, but he is a menace to all of Europe and if we arm our own country, though he should gain control over the whole Eastern hemisphere, this country could defy attack and make it impossible for him to land a force here or get through our coastal defenses to bomb our cities. Our menace is not Hitler, it is the present Administration that is seeking in some way to provoke an attack so we may have an excuse to get into war, and going round the world to do it. = » 2

OUTLINES EFFECT OF INVENTIONS ON PEOPLE By Willis M. Rexford, 2107 N. Delaware St.

An artificial production is one that has been designed and made by a human being. This is in contrast to

natural productions which are the|

creations of God or nature. We should keep this difference in mind constantly because many inventions of persons are accepted by the masses as though they had been placed on earth by God, and this enslavement to man-made machines, and inventions other than machines,

(Times readers 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.)

causes mankind no end of trouble and misery. For example, the hour and the week are man-made, and the day and the year are natural time divisions. An invention is simply something that has not existed previously. This includes a great deal. It may be something that is very noticeable, like the automobile, or it may be a great book, like “Gulliver's Travels.” Each of these inventions that I have named has had a tremendous impact on people everywhere. Those who have not ridden in an automobile and those who have not read “Gulliver's Travels,” have been affected by them, nevertheless, because they are .in the world, and anything that is in the world affects anyone who is in the world. This is demonstrated by the use of the airplane as a means of dropping high explosives at a great distance from its base of operations. It is unnecessary to write much about the numerous important inventions and their results, because everyone can see them if his attention is directed to them. The radio, the typewriter, the camera, the electric iron, are prominent.

¥y & a DISAGREES WITH PLEA FOR BROADER TAX BASE By Mrs. H. P,, Indianapolis Why is it that you are continually trying to get the burden of the defense taxes shifted on the underdogs? About once a week, you take time out to gripe because the Government hasn't, as yet, lowered the exemptions to the, point where some who | are already unable to enjoy hare necessities of life might be brought in. Your latest article, “Would Be

Proud to Chip In,” is just too much. You even had the nerve to ask that

|exemptions be lowered to $500 for

single persons and $1000 for married couples. You state you wish it wasn't true (I doubt that), but it is a fact that most Americans have to live on less. For your information, these people do not live,‘ but merely exist, without adequate food, heat, clothes, housing facilities,

medical and dental care, and many

Side Glances = By Galbraith

~~ a I Pee »!

AEN

COPR. 1941 BY NEA SERVICE, INC, T.M. REG. U. 8. PAT, OFF.

other things necessary to live a healthy, normal life. Of course, where there might be several in a family all living under one roof and all being employed to share the expenses, they might be

Gen. Johnson Says—

FDR Needs a Rest and the Nation Should Be Glad He Is Taking This

Cruise to Ponder Certain Problems.

ASHINGTON, Aug. 7.—The people of this coune try have cause to rejoice that their President has the opportunity now to cruise in privacy for 10 days, cut off from all contacts he does not desire and the good sense to use that opportunity. In the Kile kenny cat-fight going on in Washe ington in the vast unco-ordinated defense organization it would be a marvel if a man with the cone sideration of the President for his personal friends and his hatred of family wrangles could get any repose of mind or body in the midst of the banshee wailings and the swift and lethal clawing of the cats. In one manner of approach, ** is his own fault. He simply has to be on terms of a good deal of personal intimacy—a first-name basis—with the people with whom he works. Tom, Dick and Harry are all Tom, Dick and Harry to him even in the most critical official conferences. That may be in part what is the matter with things.

Too many people come personally to the President with one side of controversies that ought to be ironed out in the organizational wringer in twoesided face-to-face debate long before they reach the President's desk. b The most encouraging thing I know to write about today is the certainty that the President himself has recognized that this is public problem No. 1, that it must be solved and solved quickly and efficiently, that it is a terrible stickler, prickling with personalities, and that to solve it he has to get clear away from the area of personal conflict and reach a decision—a selection among the many conflicting ideas that have been advanced to him and to reach that decision alone after quiet consideration with none but his most loyal and sympathetic and selfless friends at his side,

# » 2

KNOW of no better occasion for the whole country to pray for him daily for divine guidance in the hour of trial. Too many evidences of silly conflict have come recently to minimize the gravity of all this. In charity one should assume that surprise decisions to cut off all Japanese silk overnight and throw 179,000 breadwinners for about 750,000 people out of work had been reached in common council with all affected agencies—State, War, Navy, Agriculture, OPM, OPACS, Jesse Jones and so forth. One perhaps should assume the same of the similar shock decisions to cut automobile production 50 per cent and Eastern gas consumption 33% per cent at a single slash and throw millions more of workers and dependents back into despair.

apparent that no such cohesion existed as between OPACS and OPM in the automobile case. It is equally apparent in the four-way clash of opinion on the tax bill among the President, the Ways and Means Committee of the House, ths

One can't assume too far, because it is perfectly .

able to live adequately. But where a single person or a married couple have rent, food, clothing, insurance, doctor bills and various other expenses to meet with such a meager salary, they usually wind up short at the end of each year. These do their bit by paying Federal taxes and hidden taxes on various things they buy. It is predicted that milk might be 14 cents a quart this winter, eggs are 35 and 40 cents a dozen, rents have gone up and probably will go higher, butter is around 40 cents a pound, meats are sky high and we have just begun. And still you want the Government to shove the defense tax burden on the low income group for whom eggs, milk, butter, bacon and steaks arz luxuries. There are other more justifiable ways to encourage larger taxes, namely: Greater excise profit taxes, joint income taxes, and taxes on gambling, bookies, etc. The joint income tax must have hit home. . . . In my opinion there should be a joint income tax law. A family (husband and wife) are a single unit. If, as some complained, it would encourage divorces, then those marriages were not founded on love, which is the basis for a happy marriage, and will not last, any way.

chairman thereof and the Treasury. Finally, it is apparent that nobody in this shindy of slashing is representing the interests of the little fellow in busi< ness, the civilian population or the real and essential

interest of labor. ” ” ”

HESE are just symptoms of a disease almost unie Of the silk decree it is usually said “Oh, So But as a result of this unplanned, une predicted action, rayon is too scarce to serve as a substitute, nylon production has not been sufficiently advanced and of this and other policies fhe price of cotton stockings is soaring toward the stratosphere

versal. American women can go without silk stockings.” they can.

and will go still higher.

It is the poor gal who is going to pay for this— and not get the stockings she needs either—just as it is the little business fellow who is going bankrupt and the employees of both big and little fellows who are

going to be hit. Economic blockade works both ways. dangerous operation and no’ job for amateurs.

market will be gone.

ruined world commerce from 1918 onward. Some of it is necessary, but I think the President at last is aware that it can’t be entrusted to separate prima donnas of the amateur variety with no sufficient organization. Thank God. Amen,

i is a When all this is over our mills will not be able to handle silk. It takes different machinery. Our export cotton Many substitutes will appear and the world and its commerce will be still further locked in water-tight trade compartments such as

By taxing gambling and bookies, the Government could vastly increase the tax revenue. Their incomes are largely concealed and are, in most instances, enormous. I have one more suggestion to make. . . , You might get statistical figures to show just what percent-

age of the manpower for Uncle Sam's Army and Navy is furnished by these low income groups as compared to that furnished by those of the higher income. While. the

smaller per cent of higher income 3

furnish the dollars, the larger per cent of lower income furnish the men. give? 5 » 8 SEES SELFISHNESS AT BASE OF ALL WARS

By V. S., Indianapolis

Peace and freedom cannot be ac-

quired by revenge on the so-called enemy, neither by talk nor legislation. Peace, like favorable answers to prayers, is conditional. Neither dying nor fighting for a country is taught in Scripture. The Jews, given a special territory under the law, did not have instructions to fight in order to gain control. This appears to be a symbol against aggression with arms as practiced by other nations. We hear much about dying for countries. This is war psychology, common throughout every nation, without which there could not be aroused a war spirit. Man, according to the Bible, is

the highest order of God's creation, | | over all animals, and even the earth

itself. Why should he die for the earth? It shall stand forever, we learn. It would be more logical to live for it. However, the Bible teaches us neither. Americans extol their greatness and worthiness to be defended. Germans, English and all the other nations are the same. It is universal, this indulgence of selfishness, instead of the fact that all the earth is good, for everything that God created was created good. If it does not remain so, it is because the spirit of good has yielded to the spirit of evil.

TIME

By JAMES D. ROTH They never come back to you— Those days you idled through. But more days in the future will come : That may add to a prosperous sum.

Keep the value of a minute, And of every second in it. For each precious day has cost The hours and minutes you have

DAILY THOUGHT

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares, — Hebrews 13:2.

"After she's knocked out everyone in the place with her paralyzing ¥ ybe shel deign fo pe ai

SLD AND YOUNG, we are all on

Eo

Which would you rather ||

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

DON'T know why we're always trying to keep up with the Joneses, because nobody likes them very much. Punny how the habit got started. One of the most uncomfortable sensations is envy, and that's what Mrs. Jones usually stirs in her followers. Ths woman who begins her married life trying to imitate the commu nity’s Mrs. Jones is in for some bad moments, and during the ef« fort Mrs. Jones herself will never become endeared to the aspiring copycat. That’s one reason why it seems stupid to dedicate ourselves to the task of impressing our come panions. It's wasted work so far as genuine results are concerned, The woman who wears the most expensive clothes, or throws the swankiest party, or lives in the most palatial house, or drives the biggest car, may have the sorry satisfaction of exciting envy, but she never inspires admiration or affection. Look over your list of acquaintances. Whom do you like best? It's an easy guess. You prefer the ones who have no more than you do, or perhaps just a little less—because you're a chunk of human nature yourself and enjoy feeling more fortunate than the other fellow, Impressing people is a delightful pastime, and women get a kick out of it. But let's ditch the idea that it can ever bring us sincere esteem. Many a poor soul has lost her means to impress and watched coldness creep into the eyes of those whom she once patronized and entertained, She has seen sycophants and fakes depart. At such a moment she stands on the solid ground of reality, and only then does a woman understand how futile is wealth in the creation of true friendship. Although she is much run after, Mrs. Jones is really not an enviable person. Of all women alive she is the least loved.

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

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information, not involving extensive research. 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, 1018 Thirteenth St., Washington. D, C.)

Q—How tall is Helen O'Connell, vocalist with Jimmy Dorsey's orchestra? A—PFive feet six and one-quarter inches. Q—How many lynchings occurred in the United ates in 1939? A—Three—one white man ---+ two negroes. Q—How many persons are receiving State old-age assistance? A—As of March, 1941, slightly more than 2,100,000, @—Does shaving increase the growth of hair? «Could a man with a tendency to baldness be helped by shaving his head? : A—Tests have been made and it was found that shaving does not-make the hair grow faster, thicker, or coarser. Hair cannot be made to grow on a bald head by shaving. ei Q—What is the distance from Yokohama te Singapore, and from Yokohama to Hong Kong? A—To Singapore is 3328 statute miles and to Hong

t satute miles,

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