Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 August 1941 — Page 16

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The Indianapolis Time

(A SC3IPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE President Editor ,

Price in Marion County, 3 cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 12 cents a week.

Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co, 214 W, Maryland St.

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Give Light and the Peopte Will Find Their Own Way

RILEY §551

FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 1941

YESTERDAY'S BEST SAYING

"ONE good liquor board with the weapon of license revocation can do more than a whole army of raiders.” — Sheriff Feeney.

MOBBISM IN DETROIT

ROM any angle, the transit strike in Detroit is ‘without justification. There is no issue involving wages, hours, working conditions or rights of collective bargaining. It is simply a conflict of mob strength between A. F. of L. and C. I. 0. unions, a struggle of power politics to determine which union shall collect the workers’ dues. The feeling of the Detroit public and of most of the harassed transit employees themselves must be “a plague on both your houses!” Here are the facts: Detroit's street railway system | is owned and operated by the city government. Some of its employees belong to an A. F. of L. union, some toa C. I. O. | - union. The city doesr’t care which union a worker joins. Its policy, in the street railway system as in other departments of the municipal government, is to bargain collectively, check off dues, and otherwise do business the way unions want to do it.

» » N the street railways an A. F. of L. union has had a majority and has functioned as the bargaining agency, only recently winning a million dollars in wage increases under a contract running through 1942. But lately a number of A. F. of L. members have been switching to a C. I. O. union. To stop this, which they describe as a raid on their membership, the A. F. of L. leaders called a strike, in violation | of their contract and in violation of a state law which requires 30 days’ notice of intent to strike against a public utility. The A. F. of L. leaders contend they haven't broken the law, quibbling that the statute does not specify that it refers to municipally-owned utilities. For oily cynicism, the argument that the law gives greater protection to a privately owned utility than it does to a publicly owned utility goes farther than any specious reasoning we ever expect to hear from the most reactionary power-trust attorney. : The A. F. of L. strike demands are: Recognition as the | sole bargaining agent, sole use of the system's bulletin | boards, sole privilege of the dues checkoft. | Though the A. F. of L. leaders seem to be wholly at | fault—the C. I. O. leaders seem to be no less so. They knew when they started muscling in on A. F. of L. territory that they were starting trouble, and they should have been | content to confine their organizing to the unorganized. One | result of this senseless rivalry for union members has been | to scare many of the transport workers to the point where | they carry cards in both unions and pay double dues, just | to be sure they keep their jobs no matter which union wins. |

» J =

» » ® O how much worse it is that this should happen, and at | this time, in Detroit. If America is the arsenal of democ- | racy, Detroit is the hub of the arsenal. From it must flow a major portion of the guns, tanks and planes so desperately | needed to halt conquest in England and equip and train our own soldiers in the field. Yet in Detroit the transportation | system, on which the men who make these precious weapons | travel from home to shop, is paralyzed—all because rival | union bosses are fighting for power and dues. Hitler's legions sweep across the Ukraine. at Leningrad. men in Britain, and harry the commerce of the Atlantic. In every land he has conquered, workers have suffered first and | suffered most. Our own nation has pledged its resources | and manpower to stop Hitler from reaching this hemisphere. | Down in the swamps of Louisiana, young Americans toil | away in day and night maneuvers, trying to learn with | obsolete weapons how to fight a modern war. And many | of these young men are sons of the very workers who are being goaded by union leaders to turn Detroit, the hub of | the arsenal of democracy, into a Donnybrook Fair. Before it's too late, let's heed the words of President ! Roosevelt:

Wake up, America’

They pound

SOUR GRAPES ARDON the shop talk, but— The newspapers spend a great deal of effort and money on the gathering of governmental news in Washington. They do what we modestly believe is, by and large, a good job, although they are often scolded by various | personages—including of course the court growler, Mr. Ickes—for alleged errors of fact or judgment. Every day they plow through mountains of mimeo- | graphed trivia. They tramp miles of marble corridors to | ask questions of often. pompous bureaucrats. Their left ears are calloused from telephoning. They wade in rivers of Congressional bombast. In the end, they usually get | their stories, but it is an expensive and arduous operation. To come to the point, we recall that last May rumors sprouted all over the country that the G-men were fearful of a nation-wide sabotage attempt on Memorial Day. Re- | porgers tried to get something out of J. Edgar Hoover's office. All they got was pooh-poohs and “no comment.” Then. months later, J. Edgar (or his ghost writer) told the

whole story in a monthly* magazine, with approptiate self- |

pats-on-the-back.

And Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, he who is | constantly calling on the press to co-operate, recently held |

out a hot news story—the fact that an American observer

was aboard the British plane which flushed the battleship |

Bismarck—and keeps it dark until it can be told first in a magazine article by—guess who?—Frank Knox. Which,

G ; sider Mr. K : : . isher | when you consider that Mr. Knox is a newspaper publisher | GUTEronCe DeLee ore Se wee ord Be ret |

Dr. Clarence Hill Frank, secretary |

himself in ordinary times, strikes us as downright unfriendly. Granting that we are afflicted with sour grapes, we just don’t like Ja sort of handling of information which belongs

to all the people-sand todas Bok mouth aver Baxi,

Business Manager |

| tion to union persecution.

| Mr. | didn’t cry that | ple were ready to go along with him.

I know,

| developed | when they

His bombers blast the homes of working- | .

| curtailing installment sales?

| power, ! as he gets his $50 weekly income, he can spend only In the year he can spend only $2600— | But if he can buy a car | | on the installment plan and a sewing- machine and | | a new parlor suite,

| | | | ! | |

Fair En Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Labor Leaders Making the Same Mistake Prohibition Chiefs Did and Sharp Reaction Is Sure to Follow.

ASHINGTON, Aug. 22.—These notes about the crookedness of some who command various sectors of the union front against the liberties of the American people have been so frequent and factual that they may have lost their power to impress. In a way, the situation is comparable to prohibition. We all knew the whole thing reeked, but political opinion didn't ripen until the corruption had poisoned the very flesh of the nation. The church people, such as Bishop Cannon, obstinately insisted on their law and threatened destruction to any politician who defied them and so it went until at last Franklin D. Roosevelt, arising before the convention in Chicago which had nominated him for his first term, declared resoundingly that from that hour on prohibition was doomed. Mr. Roosevelt's timing and psychology were absoldtely perfect, for the people were so sick of prohibition and of the power of the preachers over President Coolidge and Hoover and Congress that they went for him, whooping. That issue, more than any other, elected Mr. Roosevelt the first time, with the result that this other outrageous scourge was inflicted on the people under Presidential patronage. 8 = 8 OOVER spoke of prohibition as an experiment noble in purpose and President Roosevelt's Administration mockingly refers to this new situation s “labor's gains,” but the time will come when the people will adopt as a courageous and opportune savior, some man who will rear back in meeting and promise to clean up the rackets, just as Mr. Rooseveit cleaned up prohibition. The hero needn't have a clean record of opposiHe may be one who has walked softly waiting for opinion to get hot, just as Roosevelt did. Mr. Roosevelt, vou may remember, prohibition was doomed until the peoHe was very ves-and-no and other-handed about this dangerous issue until the hour struck. But just as those hot-eyved, thin-lipped fanatics of the prohibition cause ruined temperance and brought back the corner saloon hy insisting too long and ignoring the vicious conditions which they had created, the professional unioneers who, like Bishop Cannon, think so highly of their own power and political judgment. are provoking a revolt against the good in unions as weil as the bad. The Bishop Cannons, Wayne Wheelers, Clarence True Wilsons and Ella Booles were responsible for this total defeat of their cause and the Jimmy Petrillos, the Bill Hutchesons and Wrong John Lewises of the unions are persisting in a parallel folly today Because prohibition was linked to religion and church the prohibitionists thought the people never would repudiate it utterly and the truth probably the people would not have done so if tremists had known anything about moderation or the temper of the American people, » x x

O now. because unionism for so long a time has

been identified with the fight of the workingman

in the square-cap tor a decent living, these unioneers |

are making the same mistake. ‘But they will learn one day when they find themselves tangled up in the wreckage. The danger, indeed the almost certain probability, is that when the reaction comes it will go just as far as the reaction against prohibition, but that will not be the fault of the workingman whose need of honest unionism is no more to be denied than the need of honest temperance. President Roosevelt is fooling nobody. The people just as they knew Hoover was not honest with them in ignoring the vicious conditions which had under the Eighteenth Amendment and get just exactly enough abuse they react in the usual extreme manner of Americans when thev are good and sore.

The crooks in the unions no more represent the | | workers of the United States than the thieves of the | enforcement service represented the honest temper-

the exalted political powers of Bill Green, Curran and

ance sentiment and the unions, such as Lewis,

| Quill, no more truly represent the honest, loyal com-

mon: man of the country than Cannon and Wheeler represented the truly religious abstainer or moderationist. Don't ask me to set But npthing can stop it

the date for this reaction. That is the American way.

Business

By John T. Flynn

Installment Selling Action Feeble | according to Raymond Clapper, is

Gesture Toward Curbing Inflation. |

EW YORK, AugiR2. —The Reserve Board proposes a ban on all installment credit and the use of a larger down pavment to check inflation. This is certainly not going very far. What is the object of Is it to prevent people from spending the money they have or is it for the purpose of | preventing the creation of additional artificial purchasing | power? Installment sales have the effect of diverting the purchasing | power of the people into channels which they would not follow but for the installment inducement. But we cannot check spending of existing purchasing power by limiting installment sales. The man with nice fresh spend will spend it whether there is installment inducement or not. If he can buy a car on the installment plan he will do so, but. cut out the | installment plan for the car and he will spend the | money on something else. The whole object of now is to prevent the creation of new purchasing If Smith must pay cash for what he buys

$50 a week his total annual income.

he may spend not only his $2600 income, but also another $2600. And in spending that

| he creates a demand for those goods and stimulates !

| production of things which the Government wants

{ to hold down.

” ” 2

OW, this being true, how far will the curtailment |

of mstallment sales to periods of less than 18 power? area. tainly will not in any substantial degree. is full of dvnamite in times like this.

end one day.

power, of people tied up in installment contracts.

eral Reserve rule is, thus far, just a feeble gesture in dealing with this subject.

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

So They Say— WE CAN GO on living because there is an eternal

shall prevail.—Rev. Detroit Council of Churches. * THERE 1S ENOUGH op lying uncultivated and | fallow to sup all the human beings on the earth, if they could forget their hatreds, put down their

is that | these ex- |

will |

income to |

installment-sales regulation |

months limit creation of fresh artificial purchasing ! We may say confidently that the great bulk | of installment sales will fall within this permitted | The down-payment increase will tend to limit | this type of buying, but the 18-month limitation cer- |

- THE_INDIANAPOLIS TIMES °

Another 8-Point Program, Mr.

I- SPEED LP DEFENSE! Z2- SPEED UP DEFENSE!

3- SPEED UP DEFENSE! 4= SPEED UP DEFENSE !

s-SPEED UP DEFENSE! 6- SPEED UP DEFENSE? -SPEED UP DEFENSE? |

o-PEED LP FFENSE | '

President)

FRIDAY, AUG. 22, 1941"

Gen. Johnson Says—

Army Morale Is Low But Could Easily Be Corrected By Giving the Boys Proper Weapons to Drill With.

ASHINGTON, Aug. 22.—It is no exaggerated rumor to say that the morale of our half-formed Army is not high. Apart from other evidence, of which there is an abundance, the unusual spectacle

| of a Secretary of War haranguing the troops over

LATO, TAHA Sy

EO re

The Hoosier Forum

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

[SHIDING CRITIC OF (OIL FOR RUSSIA

Be B. H. F. (Beat Hitler First), | Indianapolis | Some of us at a lunch table just |read a letter in your Hoosier Forum isigned by “E. F. M.” That protester seems concerned that Russians will ride around in “their cars” with {gasoline we send them in four {barges (his figures) while Americans | (deprived of the four barges-full} {will have to walk. Now that really [is something to worry about. | Since “E.F.M.” seemed to imply |mhen.

(that he is among those “so dumb as ns \ I {not to have been sold on ‘America | 20! ie cah'i change it soon,

Third’ ” we did not long speculate | things make us suspicious and re-|

on the sour stomach or the ar- | Sentful. rested development that could ac{count for such ° ‘down with the Adwriters. But H.R. MS”

(Times readers are invited their these columns, religious controversies excluded. your letters short, so all can have a chance. Letters must

to express views in

fake

be signed.)

time. Americans are not so dumb! If Churchill needed and wanted he should have said so. He

{the people, and that is sadly lack

ing in the United States right now!! | ministration”

| wonder what the {stand for. | One suggested “Essentially Fum{bling Mentality” and another thought “Everything For Me” might | views hit the spot. Could you publish a helpful hint?

could | (out we need strong. able, nonest

|men in key posts in our govern-| | ment, 2 ” ”

RUSSIAN HELP AIDING U. S. DEFENSE By N. G,, Frankfort

It has always been Hitler's plan to confuse and divide his opponents in order to soften them for the coming blow. Then while they wrangle, 4. ‘he picks them off one at a time. In this program, he has been very suc\cessful. Therefore, the lack of | greatly disappointed because the union within each state. and be- | Roosevelt-Churchill conference did tween all democratic states has been not result in an immediate declara- the greatest weakness. tion of war by the United States. | Remember long ago the Nazis said Mr. lapper says: “The Britisih!that we Americans spent 50 per cent public has had a wishful idea that of our energy fighting each other; (we were on the way into war.” I and to seek advantage is our favorwonder what and who gave them ite political game without the worry that idea? labout any effect upon our country. | Lets look the record. Mr. At present, America faces a sin- | Churchill has broadcast to the'ister future, embracing either war, world, and I suppose the English or an enormous annual defense sum. people heard him state plainly that| a majority should agree upon a { England did not need nor expect; |policy and all of us agree to carry the United States actively to en- [it through the emergency. How | ter the war with men. He 3aid well are we doing this? 2 | plainly for both English and Caught Wit py Sn. : : ght with almost no land de | Americans to hear: “Give us the qc. our political minded Con- | tools and we will do the job.” W ell, | oe I : : |we take men at their word over|Sress legislate by one vote to con- | |tinue building an army, after play-

| here! . .. ‘ : : We are sick and tired of sopnis- ing short-sighted politics when the Nye,

| try and guile and misleading propa- | first draft law was passed. ganda. Whoever wants the united Taft, Fish. Wheeler and others play | effort and the confidence of Amer-| directly into Hitler's hands and are lican citizens will have to tell .them|worth legions to him. And of our the truth first, last and all the!Hoosier Congressmen, only one had

9 5 &

CHURCHILL SPEECH ON OUR MANPOWER RECALLED By Edward F. Maddox, 959% W. 28th St. Let us face the facts! Englan

Side Glances=By Galbraith

| i

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

‘I'm dummy and I'm hiding wntii | see how your mother comes out : on my five Roirump bid!"

given us a wrong impression These ing it a holy war

Leadership to get co-op-| | America like E. F. M. | eration must have the confidence of under his bed for a Red every night

we did whether we get in the war or stay

the nerve to vote for an army. Why are we Hoosiers so out of step in all things with the nation as a whole? Some might think Indiana was pro-German, but that is not true. Hoosiers are just ultra | political minded and have been so consistently led to hate the Ton ministration that they oppose any- | thing the White House approves re- | gardless of national welfare. However, Hitler's latest has not- been so successful. When | England proved toe stubborn, he | sought to divide the opposition by | turning on his ally Russia and callon communism. we do have many in who looks

scheme |

| Although

- before retiring, the world in general 'has not swallowed the bait. Should we aid Russia? Our ‘“‘greybeard” Lindbergh sounds a great call that no help should go to Russia even though aid may mean defeat of Hitler, the saving of ¥£ngland and her principles, and possibly the lives of many American soldiers. Let us admit that we are not helping England due to love of England, and that aid to Russia does not mean we (embrace Soviet beliefs, but by aiding them we aid ourselves and possibly keep war away from America.

politics last. o {PRAISES ARTICLE {BY LUDWELL DENNY By Helen F. Bennett, 2320 N. Meridian St. Justifiable appreciation of ably presented facts concerning the part America ‘must play in the world chaos of today leads me to write that appreciation of the presentation as contained in the columns under the signature of Ludwell Denny, issue of Aug. 19. A close reader of our three Indianapolis newspapers, not much of patriotic value escapes my notice. I do not often admit that I need {the judgment of others to form my fown opinion. However, in this instance, all angles of our situation in the present crisis are so ably presented that I feel more competent to form judgment as to the present and future course America may be obliged to pursue. I also feel that there would not be so much inane argument in press correspondence and a more constructive unity might be attained if our citizens would read, then reread, then study the points at issue, then call a spade a spade and intelligently go about the business of | meeting the emergencies as they | present themselves, by supporting |the Government that’ we ourselves have created in the American way. When it comes to defending the land to which we have fallen heir, we can always trust American officers America has placed in charge.

INDIANA By JOSEPHINE DUKE MOTLEY

In Indiana, life is good, It bears a regal parenthood To sons of industry and soil, To all who would in justice toil. In Indiana, life is good. In Indiana, life is free: There reigns but one nobility— The lofty thought of mind and soul Where culture forms the highest goal. In Indiana, life is free. In Indiana, life is true. It means a world to me and you. Outsiders may not understand What makes a Hoosier love his land. In Indiana, life is true. In Indiana, life's most sure, Its hills and fields and lakes secure; And barring foes who might betray, It will continue thus for aye. In Indiana, life's most sure.

DAILY THOUGHT

Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord.—Jeremiah 23:1.

WHEN constabulary duty's to be done, a policeman’s lot is not al happy one.—W. 8S. Gilbert. :

2 8

| better equipment and more experienced officers.

America should come first, profits | 3 and business as usual second, and |i

the radip on the danger to the country and the necessity for their service is a sufficient indication, The wisdom of that speech could be questioned. Grandfatherly lectures of that kind don’t fit in very well with the lusty diet of American youth. The principal gripe is, of course, the forced extension ofa term of service that, somehow, they came to understand would be only for a year and only for training. They know that, for the most part, they have not had the kind of training modern war demands and that this has been largely due to lack of modern equipment. I know an artillery regiment that is receiving its anti-aircraft training battery by battery and with only one gun with modern sound-ranging and searchlight equipe ment. In the meantime, the rest of the men are being trained in other fundamentals—which is all right and necessary—but don’t for a moment think that soldiers can't tell what all this spells out. » 2 SIDE from the grumbling, which has always been the soldier's privilege and practice, to an exe perienced military eye the appearance of some of these troops is an indication of something lacking, There is a good deal of slouchiness and precious little snappiness. The War Department must know all about this. If there were no other indication, the high percentage of partially trained reserve officers and the reluctancs to use, during this training period at least, more of our still rich reservoir of World War veterans would be one tip-off. There is some disposition of regular officers to sneer at Reserve officers and a natural resentment on the part of the latter. I think there is no doubt of the correctness of these observations. On the other hand and “strange as it may seem,” I do not regard the condition as

”

| nearly as serious as some commentators seem to see it,

On the gripe about extended .service, practically every conscript with whom I have talked accepts it as necessary. “We don't like it but we can see it had to be so —only why didn’t they tell us in the beginning?’ — that ‘is about the consensus of my mail and cone versations. This will wear off because, in spite of the grume bling, there is better fundamental material here than I have seen in the Army in years of service, mentally, morally and physically.

HESE boys will round into shape with surprising speed which would increase rapidly if they had This latter fault also is one that time can cure and is curing. Both Northern and Southern Armies at the beginning of our Civil War were, except for a few general officers, almost entirely inexperienced amateurs. As for morale, read Gen. Grant's memoirs of his first regimental command. Compared with these boys they were a mob. For the most part, in a couple of years both armies had the best soldiers dn earth, All this situation requires is time and patience, But never forget for a moment that it requires a full measure of both. Today's column would not be written at all if it were not in a hope that it could do its mite to impress this truth. To send this Army into battle in its present state would be to send it to slaughter and suicide. The ardent souls who want to rush somebody else into armed conflict right now, would do well to ponder that point long and well. There is no place for us to fight effectively and we are not ready to fight if there were. Let's forge our weapon before we throw it away,

o n

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Y this war, women aren't left out of the fighting, Not only are they being bombed. but reporters inform us our own War Department thinks of using feminine pilots to fly Army planes to Britain, There are 2733 licensed women pilots in the U. S. A, and officials believe 263 of these could qualify for that topnotch job. Now if that isn't equality I don't know what you call it. The right to participate in war should make us feel like full-fledged citizens, and maybe it will. If we except Gold Star mothe ers, and the nurses and other work ers who took off for Europe during the previous fray, American women at home had quite a lark out of it. They served as food administrators, helped with patriotic «drives, concocted cakes

without sugar, and knitted l!ike machines. But only

| those who watched their own sons or sweethearts

embark felt the real sting of the event. The rest of us cheered and palpitated on the sidelines. It was a magnificent show, and with every dollar we gave we felt the thrill of a noble gesture. We could but faintly imagine what it meant to some of Europe's women—women who starved and slaved and watched their babies die and said goodby forever to their husbands and sons. But we could never really guess how deeply they suffered. This time the bombs fall closer. And women beome more and more involved in the realities of war, One by one they relinquish feminine exemptions, to play a man’s part. What effect do you suppose this fact will have upon the future of the world? It is a question offering infinite inducement for speculation, Will women come to desire war for the kick they get out of it, as we are told men do? Will they feel the need of its excitement? Or will they, feeling themselves true equals of men, demand recognition at interna« tional conferences and around peace tables?

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Burean will answer any question of fact or information, not involving extensive ree search. Write vonr 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—I recently saw a report that the Garland Fund was dissolved. What was it? A—The fund was established in 1923 by Charles Garland of Massachusetts, after he had inherited a fortune. Being .a Socialist with scruples regarding the ownership of weaith, he created the “American Fund for Public Service.” The money was to be used for the benefit of the minority political and social groups in the country in such matters as the employment of legal counsel to defend their members in the courts: for educational and research work in connection with those groups, and to render any other needed help. @—Can the ancient problems, the duplication of a cube, the squaring of a circle, and the trisection of an angle, be solved? A—All three have been solved by conic sections and higher plane curves but are insoluble by plane geometry. Q—What gliders? A—TIt is 263 miles, held by Woodbridge P. Brown, who flew from Witchita Falls, Tex. to Witchita, Kans., June 6, 1939. Q—Is Vice President Wallace related to Henry C. Wallace, a Republican who was once Secretary of Agriculture? A—The Vice President is the son of Henry C. Wallace, who was Secretary of Agriculture under Presidents Harding and Coolidge. Q—What is the composition of United States fivecent pieces? A Seven'y-iive per cent copper and 25 per cent

is the ‘American distance record foe

2 SG