Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 August 1941 — Page 14

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The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager

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Give Lioht and the Peoples Will Find Their Own Wap

TUESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1841

REWARD OF APPEASEMENT RUSSIA must be industriously kicking itself these days. In the 18 months just before Germany turned on the friend who had tried to appease her, Russia sent Germany a million tons of oil, including lubricants and aviation gasoline. That is a British estimate, and though Germany never got as much oil from Russia as she had hoped, there is n reason to doubt that she got that much. Now that same aviation gasoline, or its equivalent, is being used to bomb Moscow; those same lubricants, or their equivalent, smooth the way for the panzer divisions in their drive on Kiev and Leningrad. By the way, how are our own oil shipments to Japan going?

XNOX'S BOMBER

(From The Ft. Worth Press)

OX E of the Navy's biggest bombers, a four-motored flying boat which stands as high as a three-story building, stopped in Ft. Worth the other day, just as many other of the big birds in their migration from the West to the East. But there was something different about this bomber. It was announced that it has been “assigned” to Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox. : Which makes us wonder just what Bully Boy Knox is

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Maybe Hearst Did Start War of '98;

If So, Considering What We Gained, The Nation Today Is in His Debt.

Nw YORK, Aug. 11. —Ever since my earliest encounters with the cosmic bores. and bleeding hearts of the double-dome weeklies I have been reading charges, all done in a mood of high-sounding contempt and cluttered with such words as methodology and implementation, that William Randolph Hearst was personally responsible for the war between the United States and Spain. Mr. Hearst, that never to be adequately damned demagog and historic scoundrel, is alleged to have promoted this fracas as a means of boosting his circulation above the late Joe Pulitzer's though mothers cried as the two most pathetic bums in all military history, up to the time of Mussolini's invincibles, floundered through a fight so inept that a good referee would have tossed them both out of the ring. Mr. Pulitzer has always been given credit or blame for a reluctant assist on the foul play on the ground that, in the face of this indecent competition, he had to string along a little behind the incorrigible Californian like a spinster with a tea room who sells grog against her principles only because the jook across the road is dealing. I have to accept history and hearsay on this but I must admit that I long ago succumbed to a conviction that Hearst did needle his countrymen into war for mercenary reasons under patriotic and chivalrous pretenses and thought it had been rather bad of him to do this.

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A’ THE present juncture in American history, however, I find myself insisting that as Mr. Hearst did make that war then, far from scolding the old man or ignoring his feat, and without examining his motives, the United States should call him to Washington and hang a medal on him, preferably of gold and the bigger the better in his present circumstances, for the greatest single service to his country in his time. That which for all these years has been an accusation now becomes a tribute and those who have gone to the malicious pains of proving the case, all cribbing from one another in the sloppy, irresponsible manner of the libel-proof ideologists, have inadvertently heroized their villain. : For, granting that Hearst made his country fight and accepting as true the unproved but oft-quoted telegram from Hearst to Frederick Remington “You supply the pictures; I will supply the war,” it is then true beyond challenge by his worst enemy that

going to do with a four-motored bomber. The Secretary of the Navy, of course, is entitled to a plane, and a good one, | too, to get around in. But why a bomber? We have been | told that they need all the bombers we can supply Over | There. Why not send Frank Knox's bomber over, too, and | set aside a good fast passenger model for the Secretary of the Navy? The next thing we know, Secretary of War Stimson will be wanting a big tank to run errands in.

AN ANTLINFLATION STEP

WHEN an abundance of dollars meets up with a scarcity of goods, the result is inflation. The dollars need not be greenbacks in the pocket. They may exist only in the form of credit. The effect is the same. A man may have only a few dollars to his name and still be able to buy an automobile—spreading the payments over 24 months. In some places he can buy electrical equipment on a 36-month or even 48-month basis. He can buy furniture, and clothes, and tires, and almost anything under the sun, on the installment plan. And as long as easy payments at moderate interest are the rule, the toughest tax bill in the world will not curb the buying impulse that is now propelling this country toward inflation. So we are glad to see that the White House has issued an executive order, under the President's emergency powers, giving the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System control over installment buying. The chairman of that Board, Marriner S. Eccles, warns | in the current Fortune that inflation is threatening us, and | he points to installment credit as one of the influences that must be checked if inflation is to be checked. And no cooperative action by the vredit men can do it, he says. “Rather, it will be necessary to prescribe standard terms for the purchase of durable goods through regulation backed up by enforcement authority.” Mr. Eccles now has the opportunity to practice his preachment. He is liable to step on many toes in the process. But the toes of all of us are going to be bruised a good deal in the next few months and years.

HOW ABOUT SAVING $1,400,000,000? HE Government's spending budget has swollen so rapidly that Treasury Secretary Morgenthau now says he will need £5.400,000,000 in new revenues in order to achieve his objective of paying two-thirds of the cost by taxation, leaving one-third to be raised by borrowing. Senators of the Finance Committee who are working on the new revenue bill say, however, that $4,000,000,000

is the maximum they can obtain by taxation at this session. Why not bridge the difference of $1,400,000,000 by | reviving the once popular idea of reducing non-defense ex- | penditures? Mr. Morgenthau himself has testified that at least $1,000,000,000 can be slashed off non-essential appropriations. And Rep. Disney of Oklahoma has outlined a specific program for saving $1,800,000,000. But nothing has been done along that line. To the contrary, non-defense appropriations for this fiscal year are larger than they were for last year.

It isn’t too late to put into practice the sound formula

of “a dollar saved is a dollar earned” —but it's getting later

IF THE PEOP! © WROTE THE TAX BILL

SPEAKING of .. the people expect of their elected representatives, the latest Gallup Poll is illuminating. For many years, at least ever since Huey Long blew into Washington with the slogan, it has been believed in Congress that the popular thing to do about taxes is “soak the rich.” It has also been a Congressional axiom that it would be political suicide to lay a visible tax on rank-and-file citizens. So every year, in tax bill after tax bill, Congress has “soaked the rich” by higher rates on large incomes, and then has obtained the bulk of revenue by hidden excises which pick the pockets of ordinary citizens. But it seems Congress has misjudged public opinion on both counts. Although the people believe that taxes should be graded according to ability to pay, they do not favor excessive taxation of the incomes of the well-to-do, norade they think that the “little fellow” should be left out of the income-tax system. Many a demagog in Congress will be plenty startled by

| from banks.

this poll.

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william Randolph Hearst forced his fellow-citizens to acquire the Philippines and Puerto Rico and a protectorate over Cuba without which, today, the nation would be in one hell of a mess. If Hearst hadn't done as he is said to have done, then, presumably, Spain, now an Axis country, would still hold these strong points with killers hardened to war and slaughter in the terrible brawl at home. Guantanamo would be a German naval base and Puerto Rico a very solid hostile outpost and the Axis powers would be sitting in the Philippines protecting Japan and defying the United States to help either Britain or Russia by way of the Pacific.

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NDEED, this might not be our country at all by now, except in a feeble and inferior status, for Mr. Hearst's war was just what the United States needed about that time to dramatize and scandalize the fact that our Navy was awful, particularly in the important work of shooting, and our Army a disgraceful mess with only patriotism to its credit. The lessons of the naval actions were well learned and soon put into use and, if the Army continued to putter until 1817, nevertheless the Spanish war did bring home to the whole people the fact that we were not, as most Americans thought, just natural soldiers, However, what might have been is speculation only. What we know is that we shooed the Spaniard out of our yard and out of the Pacific, too, and set ourselves up in the empire business from which the United States never can withdraw without total disaster. It was not the fault of Mr. Hearst that 2,000,000 alien Negroes who know us not and speak another language were automatically naturalized in a mass in Puerto Rico to become a charge on our continental taxpayers. While it may show an economic loss on the books, the cost has been smal! even including the extravagant pensions to the veterans by comparison with the cost to wresting Puerto Rico from the same enemy in the combination of powers that exists today.

Business By John T. Flynn

Purchasing Power Based on Bank Borrowings Is Heart of Inflation.

EW YORK, Aug. 12—There is a deep concern along Park Avenue. It has been brewing for weeks. But Leon Henderson has touched it off into a bright blaze. Fellows like myself have been mumbling about it for some time. But when Mr, Henderson called out in Washington before a Congressional committee that inflation was coming and that it was just around the corner he got a real reaction in the haunts of the upper brackets. As a result, one of their most honored newspapers—which is allout for war and equally all-out against high wages and even more all-out against devaluation of the dollar—set up a howl about the way the Government is handling

the inflation-control problem. What is the use con-'

trolling prices, it asks, when it does not control wages and farm prices. This, it says, is the heart of the inflation problem. Now of course there is plenty to be troubled about in this inflation scare. I see by the bulletins today that food prices since the war started have gone up from an index number of $2.15 to $3.19. Figure that one out and you will see it means a rise of nearly 50 per cent. ‘ If you want to know what that means look' at it this way. The Government's estimate of war expenditures is roughly 40 billion dollars. If war production goes up as much as food—and who will doubt it?—that will mean a rise of 20 billions in the cost of what we have already projected. My own view

| is that this is a very modest estimate.

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OW, the first step in that process is to recognize what is the heart of inflation. High labor costs, high farm prices, high prices of anything are not inflation. These are not the heart of inflation. The heart of inflation is the artificial creation of purchasing power. If a dam is overflowing with water and the boats on it are floating at a level higher than the dikes, you cannot say the upsurging boats are the heart of that problem. You cannot save the situation by chaining the boats to the bottom while the water continues to pour into the dam. There is only one real problem—to check the flow into the dam.

But, you say, we do not wish to do that. Very well, but do not kid yourself. Just keep on pouring, but, like a sensible person, make up your mind that the water is going to rise—the inflation is going to come —and quit kicking about it and blaming it on laborers and farmers. Those responsble for the inflation are not the farmers and the workers or the merchants and manufacturers, but the men who want to spend billions on war and insist on borrowing those billions

So They Say—

THIS IS a revolt of mankind against the divisions and disorders of the past—H. G. Wells. ’ - * % ® IT TAKES ENERGY to be an artist. And freedom.

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INDIANAPOLIS The Crowded

Capital

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1041

TUESDAY, AUG. 12,

ITEMS HENDERSON ASKS WASHINGTON HOYEL MEN TO CANCEL CoV ve Eo wir

TION WWGS BECAUSE THEY WTERNTRE CVI. ESSIVESS™ ACTIVITES,

rm SX wr A Servic, Joo

The Hoosier Forum

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

FINDS HACKETT'S ANALYSIS VALUABLE By 1. B

As a reader of Adolf Hitlers “Mein Kampf” who was both horrified and confused by the Nazi master’s throaty babbling, often incoherent, I want to compliment The Times for making available such a sane, intellectual analysis of the book as begun in yesterday's issue. Mein Kampf, as pointed out by Mr. Hackett, constituted a warning te democracy which many persons overlooked because of the book's immensity, bulkness and impenetrable dullness. Mr. Hackett’'s incisive analysis of these psychological and physiological content of Naziism and its relation te the world’s future, is a rare contribution to American defense. I trust that the future chapters of Mr. Hackett’s work will maintain the excellence of the first.

4 4 8 EXPLAINS PATTERN OF U. S. ARMY

By J. R. 8S. The American credo has been, roughly, to have a good Navy, and depend on the two oceans, a weak nation on the south and a friendly one north, for defense. The Army has been satisfactory to police and to fix rivers and harbors. We weren't going to attack anybody; and we didn’t believe anyone could attack us. The Army, therefore, has been shaped in its military policy—in its organization and materiel and equipment and size and efficiency— by that tradition. It has been built on the principle that it would be called upon to defend only the Mexican border. War involving the Philippines would be a naval war. Nobody took the Russians seriously in a military way, hence Alaska wasn't considered a possible theater of land warfare. It does not seem fair, and certainly it is not intelligent, merely to criticize the Army for not having the kind of an army Hitler has— with the wealth of equipment Hitler's army has—when everything in the way of American policy indicated that the American Army would never be called upon to fight the kind of war Hitler's armies are fighting. Even now, it is not certain that we should build the same sort of army Hitler has built, with emphasis on tanks and mechanized equipment, unless we feel certain we

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

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are going to have to fight on terrain that calls for such organization. Our Army is obsolete, in terms of Hitler's. But for the assignment which the Army has previously been given—an assignment implicit in national policy—our Army hasn't been as obsolete, and as dumb, and as indifferent as many have implied. At any rate, I think that before any critic can presume authority, he should be made to announce his premise, i. e.,, where he thinks our Army is going to fight, and what kind of war it is going to fight. Unless that fundamental thing is established, no criticism of the Army or its organization is really valid, or worth-while, or effective. If an army is going to fight only in the tropics, it's silly to equip it with bearskin coats and shakos.

4 5 = WRITE TO BOYS IN CAMP, DRAFTEE URGES

By Pvt. Vernon W. Cooper, H. Co.. 40th A. R. (M), Camp Polk, HSS

As one of the Selectees in this man’s army, I feel qualified to state the fact that we, as a majority, like it. I was in the group that left June 12, at the start of the summer season, and actually, it wasn't pleasant to think of going. We left our jobs, our homes, our friends. But we found new homes, new jobs, and made new friends.

Surely the homes were not as fine or pleasant as those we left, nor the jobs as well paying. But the friendships are those of mer engaged in a common purpose, and we are making a personal daily gain. Of what does this gain consist? We gain in self-respect, for could not many of us have claimed exemption because of marriage, and there are many married men in my outfit. We all know of many men who were married just to escape the draft, fearing a loss. We can only believe they were honest and hope this will wake up others who may make the same mistake and

Side Glances — By Galbraith

"You get out of my green apples, or there won't be any ripe ones for your mother to borrow when she wants to make pies!”

miss the thrill of knowing you have served. We also gain because we learn. We learn to become clerks, radio men, mechanics and most of all, we learn the privilege it is to serve our country and become, in full meaning of the phrase, a true American citizen. Homesick? Naturally, for I miss my parents, the truck I drove, the folks I knew. I miss the lazy sounds of Lake Michigan against the shore, the voices I knew, the smells and sounds that were Sheboygan, lazy sounds all. In their place, however, we notice a new tenor, a rumbling of tanks, a stamp of marching feet and we realize that we are a vitdl part, every Tom, Dick and Harry of us, of the defense of our land. As vital as Knudsen, Ford and the rest, if you please. Yes, even the Commander-in-Chief, Mr. Roosevelt, is lost without us. We only wish to know that our efforts are appreciated, so why not show your appreciation and thanks by writing to some soldier of your acquaintance today? Let him know you are thankful for the part he is playing. Send him, perhaps, a magazine, some smokes, a few words of news about the old town. We are making what seems like a great sacrifice, but we recognize it as our duty, so do yours by writing your son, friend or sweetheart often, and long letters are best.

Editor's note: Private Cooper was born in Indianapolis, moved to Sheboygan, Wis, with his family when a small boy. He is a grandson of Frank Cooper, 5115 Hardegan St., R. R. 240. 4 8 8 THINKS WHEELER OWES SOME APOLOGIES By C. E. Cassel, New York City

Perhaps it was “decent” of Senator Wheeler to say it was ‘‘decent” of the Secretary of War to apologize for stating that Senator Wheeler's actions were “near treason,” in connection with the mailing of those postcards to draftees. But why shouldn’t the Senator apologize to the Secretary of War for his remarks—the “too old” and “ga-ga” flippancies? In fact, it would seem that the Senator also should apologize to the President, who presented Mr. Stimson’s name to the Senate for confirmation, for isn't it a totally unfounded reflection upon the wisdom of the President, also upon the wisdom of the Senate for having approved the name; also upon the voters for having elected these men to represent them?

In short, an apology from the

. | Senator to all the American people

would be in order. Not only for his flippancies in regard to the Secretary of War and the “carelessness” in mailing those postcards to soldiers, but also because of his re-

| | marks about the possibility of the

soldiers not obeying the President if asked to fight, and his overworking of his franking privilege.

IN HIS NAME By FRANCES RICHMOND Did someone come to your door today, Who was old and feeble, and had lost his way? And did you ask him to rest awhile? Perhaps he'd traveled many a weary mile. Did you give him food you could well afford, Or a drink of water in the name of the Lord? Or did you turn him away from your door, Because he was old and ragged and poor? Did you sear your soul with an unkind deed

‘ Rather than help someone sadly in need? For whosoever giveth a cup of water

ay Shall have his reward at the judgment day.

DAILY THOUGHT

The poor shall never cease out of the land.—Deuteronomy 15:11.

WEALTH and poverty are merely uden.,

mental pictures.—W. H. A A

|Gen. Johnson

Says—

Army No Substitute for Jail Term, Yet Ex-Convicts Who Have Made Good Should Have Right to Serve

ASHINGTON, Aug. 12—Too frequently these days the press reports some judge offering probation to a convicted criminal if he will enlist in the Army or Navy. The most recent case Which the local recruiting officer protested vigorcusly was in Los Angeles where the prospective probationer was rejected at the recruiting office for moral unfitness. This touches an important and many-angled subject of national interest. At the outset, it is plain that this judicial practice is altogether vicious. The moral character of this new draft army is the highest ever known. It is an affront to the Army and to every selectee to have this call to serve ice placed by a judge on a level only a little less low than a jail sentence. It could be just cause for apprehension of families and friends to think that these boys wers being taken into an association composed, in part at least, of jail-sweepings or something very close to it. Such action may not produce an effect, but it is in the direction of an effect, to destroy the institue tion of selective service in America as it did in Enge land during the reign of the Stuarts. !

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HE idea of absolute liability to military service is intrinsic in Anglo-Saxon law. The methods ap= plied during the Stuart fight with parliament de= graded and destroyed it. Jails and even asylums were emptied to recruit armies. The press gangs took the poor and friendless by force just as later, under the Georges, American seamen were impressed. The idea of conscription became so hateful in Eng land that it has not even yet been as completely accepted either there or in Canada as it has here, We can’t countenance even a start in that direction,

About the present automatic exclusion, on the ground of “moral unfitness” of men who have erred, served their punishment and are no longer charged with crime is a more difficult question. If such a man who can show a subsequent record of good cone duct can't serve his country there is little merit in the supposed corrective value of our penal system. Some of these ex-bad-boys have done marvelous military exploits. There are plenty of examples in the French Foreign Legion where “no questions are asked.” It is tradition, at least, that a goodly nume ber of the sailors of Columbus on the first discovery voyage were ex-convicts, if not worse. With, perhaps, some idea of the presence of such characters in both the Legion and the crews of the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, the discipline was brutal. It is no condition to be encouraged at any time, but there is a real cause to question the automatic exclusion of any and all ex-convicts on the ground of moral unfitness.

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N the hope of not being misunderstood, let me ree peat that these considerations do not apply to the apparently growing practice of judicial offerings to suspend or withold punishment for crime if the convict will promptly enlist. In addition to the other reasons here given, that practice could actually encourage the commission of minor crimes to escape the draft. That.is not fare fetched. There are authenticated cases of men have ing their principal teeth extracted or otherwise maiming themselves to be rendered physically unfit, It is not hard to imagine a mind with that kind of fear or abhorrence of military service practicing a mild larceny, robbery or arson, expecting a short sentence for the first offense in place of an indeterminate hitch in the Army or Navy. I have actually seen that happen, too, in slightly different circumstances. An otherwise model soldier who felt, for some private reason, that he must have his discharge and couldn't purchase it, committed about the worst military offense—direct disobedience of orders—expecting a light sentence and discharge, He got 10 years. This is a very serious subject.

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

/ o & A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

°

FRIENDLY reader puts me on a spot. She wants me to name the feminine organization which in my opinion is doing the best group job in defense of democracy. Because the times call for moral courage, I shall do so and duck. The Home Demonstration Clubs. As you know, this group is composed wholly of farm women, The average city dweller, house= wife or business woman is entirely out of touch with it. I know any number of intelligent club leaders who know nothing whatever about what it has done or what it is doing.

Well, take it from me, those women are doing plenty. All their activity is based on common sense, on actual community needs, and their sim is the preservation and defense of the American home; therefore, as defenders of democracy I think they are tops. They waste no time on abstractions. Theories which absorb so much of our club attention give way to hard facts, and facts with which their membership is familiar. In short these women are not busy improving other people, either on the opposite side of the continent or the opposite side of the earth—they are trying to improve themselves. Their meetings are an exchange of practical ideas about practical subjects, subjects which women must master if they expect to function as good citizens—child training, sewing, nutrition, the prepara« tion and preservation of foodstuffs, religious standards in the home, recreation poverty and crime problems in their neighborhoods. Maybe because most of them do their own cooking, they seldom eat at meetings. Also they take their children with them, which is bound to inspire in the youngsters a desire to imitate their elders—and isnt that the best way of teaching? It seems to me this group of farmers’ wives and daughters is working wonders in the interest of the national economy. and because it represents the roots of that economy—the stable, self-respecting, indus trious American family—I believe it deserves to be named the most useful and promising of our many feminine organizations.

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Buream will answer any question of fact or information, not involving extensive vee 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 Bervice Bureau. 1013 Thirteepth St. Washington. D, C.)

Q—How can an employer protect himself from ems’ ploying a child under the legal age specified by the Fair Labor Standards Act? A—By requiring a Certificate of Age issued in ace cordance with regulations of the Children’s Bureau of the United States Department of Labor, showing that the child is above the legal age for employment in the occupation in which he is engaged. He should keep this certificate on file. . Q—Will you please give the names of the mem bers of the cabinet of Jefferson Davis when he first took office as President of the Confederate States? A—Robert Toombs, Secretary of State; L. Pope Walker, Secretary of War; C. J. Memminger, Secre= tary of the Treasury; John H. Reagan, Postmaster General; Stephen R. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy; ° Judah P. Benjamin, Attorney General. Q—On the command “Eyes Right!” does the man on the extreme right of a line turn his head to the right or continue to look straight ahead? A—He looks straight ahead. : Q-Did the singer Henry Burr die recently? A—Yes, April 6, 1941, after a long illness. :