Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 August 1941 — Page 10

PAGE 10 The Indianapolis Times

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«<> RILEY 5551

@ive Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 1941

CHURCHILL—AND FATE THE world Sunday listened again to the greatest orator of our time—and perhaps of all time. The common wisecrack these days is that you can’t win a war with words. Maybe so. But if anyone can, it’s Winston Churchill. And when we look back over history, words, spokan as Churchill speaks them, have counted; have often lived longer than deeds. The Gettysburg address carried, and still carries, more weight than any battle. Oratory of that kind molds the minds of man through all the ages. So

Churchill, while he added not much to the factual detail of the Atlantic conference, implanted, through the power of

his voice and his prose, a something that will last, among | the English speaking peoples, long after the end of the | struggle against what he describes as the “Universal Goosestep.” We think the England of our generation has developed no other man who could have done the job as well as Churchill. Which recalls to us an old theme, dealt with as long as all literature—fate; the theme of “Tess of the D'Urbervilles,” of O. Henry's “Roads of Destiny,” of “The Bridge of San Luis Rey.” = 2 =

» =

ATE narrowly spared Winston Churchill on a December day in 1931 on Fifth Avenue, New York. His number wasn't up. A few inches farther into the street, another traffic death would have been recorded, and the whole course of history would have been changed. Someone else today

would be leading Britain. Churchill was in America for a lecture tour. story of the accident referred to him as a “British statesman,” who had arrived “last Friday.” He suffered a sprained right shoulder and lacerations of the forehead and

The news

nose. He was in the hospital a week. The police reported he had tried to cross the Avenue against the lights. He “had emerged,” said the news account, “from a taxicab . . . paid his fare, tipped the driver, and started to walk north te 76th St. After going a few paces he apparently changed his mind and decided to take | advantage of the momentary break in the traffic to cross the Avenue.” A northbound automobile struck him and he was knocked to the pavement. Traffic was tied up for several minutes. At the hospital he “gave his age as 57.” He exonerated the driver, who went with Churchill to the hospital. Churchill “freely admitted, the police said, that he | was entirely to blame.”

1

- x ® » 5 HE jobless driver haunted the hospital to inquire of | Churchill heard of it and in-| One of the Churchill party | offered a check. It was declined. So Churchill then offered |

an autographed copy of his book, “The Unknown War.” |

Churchill's condition. vited the voung man to call.

It was accepted. Churchill expressed to the authorities |

great concern lest the driver's part in the accident might | hinder him in obtaining work. Without extending the story further, we have again— fate: another chapter in the unending chronicle of what-might-have-been.

GASOLINE AND DEMOCRACY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT having doesn’t obhject—provided none of the information brought out is used to injure the cause of the democracies —we hope there will be a prompt and thorough Senate investigation of the oil and gasoline situation on the East

indicated that he |

Coast. “Confused” is much too weak a word for that situation, | as the nublic has thus far been permitted to see it. There are all sorts of conflicting pronouncements. | Now, to confound the previous confusion, the acting | petroleum co-ordinator, Ralph K. Davies, announces that | Eastern motorists may buy all the gas they want next Saturday and Sunday, for Labor Day trips, such purchases on the last two days of August reducing the supply for September—a supply which, according to Mr. Davies, will be dangerously low. So we hope the Senate will authorize an able committee to explore this whole subject and give the public all the facts, including those about tankers sent to Britain. That won't injure the cause of any democracy. Americans, pouring out biilions of dollars to aid the British, certainly aren't going to balk at using a little less gasoline, if they are given an adequate explanation of the reasons for it and the necessity of it. On the other hand, nothing could do much more harm to the cause of the democracies than to let the suspicion grow unchecked that Americans in a large and important area of this democracy are being kidded or misinformed about the sacrifices asked of them.

THE COST AX collections by Federal, State and local governments for the fiscal year 1940-41 will be the highest in the country’s history, well above the $14.800,000,000 of the previous year, the Federation of Tax Administrators estimates. We usually think most consciously of Federal taxes. Yet despite a 40 per cent increase in these taxes to $7,754.000,000 up to June 30, it is clear that Federal taxation in spite of the defense burden is not yet much more than half | of the taxes Americans pay. A tax burden of $15,000,000,000 a year begins to approach 20 per cent of the national income, but it is not even then comparable to the percentages of national income being burned up by nations at war on war expenses alone.

| on wings.

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

He Wonders Why It Is That G. O. P. Tax Violaters Are Given Stiffer Penalties Than Erring Democrats

ASHINGTON, Aug. 25.—Henry Morgenthau has

commended Elmer Irey, the chief of the Treas- |

ury intelligence unit, and several of his subordinates for sending to prison for 10 years Enoch Johnson, the crooked Republican boss of Atlantic City. Johnson also was fined $20,000 which amount, if and when paid, will stand off the salaries and per diem wages of a few of the personal parasites who have been planted on Government payrolls by influential patrons who are the very soul of generosity with other people's money. The fact that Mr. Johnson was a Republican boss and not allied with Ickes, Kelly and Hague in the party of humanity doubtless will trouble his nights with vain regrets, for Tom Pendergast of Kansas City, a deserving Democrat, withheld much more tax and got off with a year. Trifling though his cheating was, compared with that of Moe Annenberg, who held out $8,000,000, Mr. Johnson, nevertheless, got three times Annenberg's sentence and is runner-up to Al Capone, the champion and horrible example in this event. ‘ Annenberg, too, was actively and perniciously Republican, but he is paying a tremendous restitution in regular cash installments now. These tax fraud sentences follow no fixed rule except that as between Republicans and Democrats, the Republicans seem to be much more guilty per foot pound.

= = =

N interesting case was to have come up in New | Orleans recently involving an old disciple of | Huey Long, but was abruptly postponed. thus arousing |

suspicion of a third Louisiana purchase.

The manipu- |

lations there touch the political interests of those |

two sterling statesmen, Senators Ellender and Overton, which latter patriot’s seat, you: may recall, was obtained by a fraudulent election. It is my hope to be able to keep you amused by occasional reports, but, for the moment, I say no more than keep your eye on Louisiana and your hand on your watch This Mr. Irey receives little publicity and desires less and I would not intrude on his privacy but for the fact that Mr. Morgenthau seemed to think a little public recognition would be good for the morale of his group. The others who were singled out for mention are special agent William E. Frank, Paul F. Snyder, Edward A. Hill and John C. Cheasty and revenue agents Walter Boxon Jr, and John F. Williams. Hill and Cheasty have recently been called for military duty, but these two and Frank and Snyder were awarded promotions. The intelligence unit is just naturally demure, as detectives should be, and I doubt that Morgenthau would have fetched the men out to take a bow except that he wanted to impress on all citizens the Trea-

sury’s urgent need of what it takes to buy soldier suits |

and tools, and, of course, to pay genteel salaries and wages to really nice and needy political queeries who are met at weenie roasts, youth conferences and taffy-pulls on one’s travels around and about.

” 2 ”

REY and his men worked four years rounding up not only Nocky Johnson but, on various charges, 37 other lesser Johnson crooks, all of whom have been convicted. A much larger staff worked almost as long on Annenberg and got him just as he was on the point of turning square and respectabilizing himself, like Carnegie and Rockefeller, as a philanthropist. In their day he would have got away with it and a matter of timing was all that made the difference between a mellow old warrior and an ungrateful corruptioner. They seem to have absolutely no politics, for they turn up Democrats in the most embarrassing places, notably in Louisiana, where, once, you may remember, a whole batch of their indictments against the Long mob were nolleyed out, as the saying goes, by Homer Cummings, following a “change of atmosphere.” The current dilemma involving the interests of Senators Ellender and Overton is a case against a full-grown tom-Democrat of the old Loong machine but, of course. they have no say about the selection of a judge nor can they protest if a district attorney, sensitive to politics, decides to accept a compromise. The unit, now much enlarged, faces from this time on the most exciting period in its history, for the gravy train is rolling and larceny has become a household word. For years and years the boys will be running down grafters who forget to kick back to Old Sam an honest share of the money they are gyping him of today.

Aviation

By Maj. Al Williams

Urging the Formation of Gun Clubs Among Civilians as Defense Step

E should be organizing lots of trapshooting clubs—skeet clubs. Unless we try to invade Furope or Asia, our part in this and any other war will be shooting at enemies Some time ago. when the invasion of England appeared imminent, we donated all the shotguns we could collect and shipped them to England. Prior to the war, farsighted Englishmen had urged on their Government the necessity for encouraging shotgun hunting and skeet shooting. But the Government didn’t act What are the British thinking about now as regards an armed citizenry? Well, here's a clipping I found in a rifle magazine: a “The American Committee for the Defense of British Homes—10 Warren St, N. Y. C.—wants any quantity of the fol-

| lowing cartridges. No soft-pointed cartridges. Rifles—

22 dong). 280 Ross—303 Br. 30-086, 30-40, 30-30, 38-40, 38-55, 45-70. Automatics (revolvers—25.30, 9mm. Luger, 30 Mauser, 32, 380 38.45.—Usable guns, steel helmets, stop watches, binoculars. Ship prepaid to above address.” The answer to enemies attacking from the air is not gunfire, as we know it today, from the ground. But since anti-aircraft gunnery is one form of air iefense, and we are buying the equipment and training thousands of men to use it, our best move would be to encourage our people in marksmanship. We urgently need a sensible program which will make people gun and rifle-conscious. We need gun clubs and national competitions--not the Park Ave. style. but competition where anyone with or without two vears of college or its equivalent can enter and compete.

EMEMBER when this colunin was complaining that the strategists of Washington hadn't

planned the use of substitute materials for aluminum |

in the fabrication of airplanes—that is, wood and plastics? Well, read this by Henry Ford! “Although

we have been working with the idea of a ‘plastic’ ear |

for 12 years, the defense emergency and the shortage

cf steel and other materials has speeded our program.” | Thousands and thousands of training planes have |

been built and will be built—all aluminum. Aluminum props for trainers, too, when all these planes and their props coud so easily and so sensibly—and more cheaply—have been built of wood along with such of the plastics as are proven.

So They Say—

IN THE YEARS that' lie ahead you will hold your reads high in the thought that you gave honest and faithful service as soldiers when your country called

| you.—Secretary of War Stimson in an address to the

Army, % * * INFLATION is an invitation to social disaster. It spares a few but punishes the many —Harriet Elliott, consumer division, OPM. * THE SOLDIER must also find that the Sommuniny which he visitg on leave is worth defending.—Paul V. McNutt, Security Administra!

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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES ee

Sherman Was Right!

The Hoosier Forum

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

QUESTIONS NAVY'S FAR EAST STRATEGY By A. M. W., Indianapolis It seems to me just one thing should be considered about the movements of our fleet in the Far Fast—that thing is strategy. The {time for playing politics with warships in that area is past Sending two of our eight-inch {gun cruisers to Australia may be {good politics, but it is bad strategy. | | We should either send all the im-| | portant units of our fleet to the Far East or none. | When and if the Japanese strike they will strike without and with their whole force.

8 ” ”

{NO COMPROMISE WITH NAZI MIGHT

By M. L. E.,, Indianapolis

It is discouraging and revolting to, read the daily wailing and sobbing of those who cry out against President and the draft law. Has everyone lost his sense of proportion? Instead of befuddling our aims and our thinking, why not work against the real cause of our woes. No, it was neither Roosevelt nor Congress who instigated the preparedness acts. With the American | policy what it is (as indicated by the | polls and ballot boxes), these acts were inevitable regardless of the President. We have expressed the will to defend the whole Western Hemisphere, to aid Britain, and to defeat the| German menace. To carry out this policy. recognized certain needs, among which is a large welltrained. well-equipped Army.

» ‘MR. HACKETT'S VIEWS | TERMED PRO-ENGLISH By G. V. P. : Anyone who has read Mr. Hack-! ‘ett’s works knows they are saturated with pro-English sentiments. | This, of course, is no reason to con|demn, since there is much that is very fine in English history. How-

2 2

warning they are not interested

accused

condemning Communism

|ever, when Mr. Hackett in a series lof propaganda articles attempts to {feed thinking

Americans the idea]

{Times readers are invited

to express their views in these columns, religious controversies Make your letters short, so ali can

have a chance. Letters must

excluded.

be signed.)

ways will make a bedfellow of any-

one, no matter what his record may | be, provided he will not upset Eng-

land's imperial apple cart. They have shown time and again that in democracy as a principle but as a good sales slogan. It is for thing that the English of hypocrisy. Witness Churchill's statement that if he were an Italian he would be a Fascist. Or his speeches denouncing Communism made in 1940. Now the “splendid Russians” are the defend-

have been

the jers of civilization.

I think Mr. Hackett would do well to write a series of articles just as strongly as he does Naziism. Then we might feel his belief in the principle of democracy is sincere. & 8 8 ASKS WHY STRIKES ARE TOLERATED By F. J. D.. Indianapolis If America is in a crisis, as our President and heads of Government departments are trying to make us believe, why do they allow deferred men to go on strike for days and weeks and not make the things the Army and Navy needs. As a result, our soldiers, at $21 a month, just go through the motions of handling guns and tanks. Also up to a short time ago Japan still was buying cil and iron from big business in America and probably is bootlegging it now. It doesn’t make sense. » » ” DISPUTES WHITAKER ON BRITISH DEFEAT By F. A. H.. Indianapolis

England wishes it was as sure of evervthing for the balance of

; | perate condition this very

{that the destruction of Hitler will|its life as it is sure that John T.!

mean the complete salvation of the| Whitaker,

| world the word that comes to mind {is “fiddlesticks.” The English always have and al-

foreign correspondent, is wrong. Mr. Whitaker's comment “Britain hasn't a chance to win” is the

Side Glances=By Galbraith

"You wait on her, Sam, and I'll

¥

personally responjible because the price of food is going upl"

duck—she insists on holding me

{

word and thought of a man so close to a situation that he cannot see bevond arm’s length. His judgment becomes warped and his thinking must of necessity follow only along the lines that have enveloped his train of thought during the last two years in Germany. He has been unable to read any news except as German newspapers print. Under such circumstances and under such restrictions he is likely thinking along the lines of German propaganda. Plainly. Mr. Whitaker connot be

posted on events as of today. Germany's present forced march into the Ukraine shows the des- | that faces that country in the supply of the necessities for existence. At the best, should Germany win this territory, the Ukraine, it will win but wasteland when the Russians leave, Mr. Whitaker's article should

read “Germany Hasn't Chance to

Win.” ”

-y? URGES ARBITRATION IN SOLVING LABOR TROUBLES

By S. P. J., Indianapolis

It cannot be easy for peaceful and law abiding citizens to get used to ;

picketing and violence. Our Government is endeavoring to secure just and lawful adjustments of disputes between employers and employees. A government founded to establish freedom and justice to all as expressed in our Bill of Rights, must endeavor to make the: rights of all people paramount to the rights of any individual or any group of individuals. No one, and no organization can have any right to take the law into his own hands, or to try to gain his purposes by violence and crime. If the rights of the working people can be maintained only by picket lines with provocatidn, intimidation and violence, there is little hope of peaceful adjustment, Once Elbert Hubbard wrote: “We went to war with Spain to save the starving Cubans. We won the war, but the army ate most of the food, and after it was all over the surviving Cubans found that they were not free, and never would be, but

had just exchanged one set of rulers for another.” I fear that all of the workers, and most of us that have to be workers in order to live, would find out if we exchanged our government with all its faults and shortcomings for a dictatership, nominally in behalf of labor, that our latter condition would he worse than the former. Let us co-operate with the Government for the peaceful adjustment by means of an arbitration law. The continuance of private warfare leads toward the dangerous path of revolution and dictatorship.

AUGUST ECHO By MARY P. DENNY

Echo, echo, echo, echo Through the green wood Far away, far away All the day, all the day, Echo of the elm leaves As with the wind they play Through the morning way. Echo of the bird that cleaves To the beech tree all the day. Soft sweet song of the thrush Sounding from the berry brush. Echo of the tiny stream Flowing where the sunbeams gleam. Soft and clear, soft and clear Sounds the echoes of the year. Praising God in woodland song All the joys of day prolong. -

DAILY THOUGHT

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the 4&rue worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.— John 4:23.

THe that hath no cross deserves

no crown.~Quarles, ~

= wd * »

MONDAY, AUG. 25, 1941

Gen. Johnson Says—

Morale Can't Be Forced on Army, But Given Real Leadership They'll Respond as Americans Always Do

ASHINGTON, Aug. 25.—People must be tired of having rehashed this question of morale—both in the Army and the civil population. But the various alibis in some official comment makes it hard to keep still. President Roosevelt, quoting Lincoln speaking in very different circumstances, blames the American people. Gen. Marshall blames the debate over the draft act. Mr. Knudsen exe claims, it seems almost regretfully, that “Main Street hasn't been bombed yet.” That is like Winston Churchill in World War One advocating the spilling of “a little American blood.” Other auth orities blame the families of sole diers for their sloppiness. This isn’t a very creditable ex<3 hibition—to put it mildly. The responsiblity for morale, either cf an army or a people, is on their leadership. For that leadership to blame its followership is just like the father of a large family of worthless children blaming them for their lack of discipline and high principle. It is like a school master whose classes are far below par blaming them and not himself. What is leader= ship for if not to inspire high purpose and principle in the people entrusted to it?

s ” #

F the President doesn’t think the American peopls ? are straining sufficiently at the leash to enter? war abroad he should not forget that he repeated. jq has assured them that no such thing would be nec, essary. Zr If he wants them to take him more seriously he’ should ease up on the Hollywood hokum and Potemkin sideshows that he so dramatically stages at every opportunity. He should tell them some cold hard facts, dinstead of so many glittering generalities. Keeping ‘their attention distracted all the time from the dark side of the stage by juggling glass balls in the spot-light would be a good thing to avoid rather than practice. Paying a little attention to domestic problems without so much concentration on regue lating the world’s most distant scenes would also help, Mr. Knudsen has been in there battling a full nine innings. It was his show. If it was a flop for lack of authority, he is to blame for not demanding what authority he needed—or getting out. He has not been frank enough with the American people to blame them. They don’t need to be bombed to get into action. They only need to be convinced,

» ®

T was not very long ago that Gen. Marshall was telling the public that the morale of the Army was very high. He is responsible for keeping it high, If he thinks public debate is the cause of its fall, what is the answer? Abolish debate? Surely such an inbred American as Gen, Marshall thinks no such thing / No sir. As stated here recently there is cause for the present undoubted dissatisfactions. But the cure is not to blame the complainants. The cure is competent, vigorous, honest and just leadership and or= ganization. These chieftains need not worry about young American soldiers or the rank and file of American people. They can be forced to nothing, They can be led to do almost anything if they are openly and honestly convinced and inspiringly led. No, these leaders are wasting their worry on the soldiers and the people. They should do a little soul= searching and worry about themselves.

”

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson !

HE eight-point-post-war program outlined by Roosevelt and Churchill is a dream ‘set to words. It could come true, I believe, if all decent men everywhere willed that it should. But it doesn’t have a ghost of a chance for realization unless Point No. 1 is rewritten. You remémber it says, “The United States and Britain seek no aggrandizement, territorial or otherwise.” For a world peace movement this doesn’t go half far enough. The people who work for social justice and freedom must be more generous than that. Let's look a= figures for a minute. Today the three allied nations—the British Empire, the United States of America, and Russia, own and occupy more than 24 million of the 52%; million square miles of the earth’s land surface. And the bulk of those posses= sions lie in the temperate zone, whose climate is more kind to the white and aggressive races. Before this war began, 80 million Germans lived in an area not so large as Texas. And prior to China's invasion, Japan occupied a mere fragment of soil considering how vast is her pcpulation. Much as we may despise the peoples of those countr'es, our sense of fairness cannot ignore farts—e and the facts are that the big nations have alrcady hogged most of the globe. Obviously then the next step toward economic juse tice, which we know must be established before peacs is possible, is a more equitable distribution of tillable soil as well ‘as raw materials. How much are the democracies willing to give up for the sake of peace? That is the vital question, We give and give and give for war—will our genere osity continue after the fighting ends? I sincerely, hope so. If it doesn’t, then all our words are mean= ingless and all our sacrifices vain—we may build ane. other empire but we can not make a better world order.

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

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information, not involving extensive re~ search. Write vour questions clearly, sien 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.)

@—Please name the members of President Roosee velt’s cabinet who have died or resigned. A—Secretary of the Treasury, William H. Woodin, resigned and later died; Secretary of War, George H, Dern, died and Harry H. Woodring, resigned; Poste master General, James A. Farley, resigned; Attorney General, Homer S. Cummings, resigned and Frank Murphy and Robert H. Jackson, appointed to U. 8. Supreme Court; Secretary of the Navy, Claude Swanson died and Charles Edison, resigned; Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace, elected Vice President,

Q—Do opals lose their brilliance and surface polish? A—Yes, especially when not properly cared for, They are softer than mest precious stones and evapo= ration of an excess amount of water may also cause them to crack. ‘Q—How many persons are enrolled in elementary and secondary schools and colleges in the United States? A—Approximately 22,770,000 pupils are in elementary schools including kindergartens; 6,436,000 are in high schools, and about 1,208,000 in colleges and other institutions of nigher education. Q—Which animal ranks next to man in intelli gence? A—Dr. William T. Hornaday, former director of the New York Zoological Park, in his book, “The Mind$ and Manners of Wild Animals,” says: “The chimpanzee is the most intelligent of all animals bedi low man. He can learn more by training and more®. easily than any other animal.” Q—What is dust? A—Fine particles of matter which float on currents of air or settle on surrounding objects, consisting of sand, soot, cotton fibre, pollen, fine hair, pulverized excreta, parts of seeds, bacteria, molds, etc. Frequnetly the atmosphere becomes widely and densely charged with volcanic particles of varied minuteness, the smallest and lightest of which must take months, even years, to settle, ~ ’

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