Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 September 1941 — Page 14

AGE 14

The Indianapolis Times (A SCEIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) ~*~ =

ROY W. HOWARD ? RE Business, Manager

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ty, 3 cents a copy; deliv- |

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Member of United Press. ‘Scripps - Howard .Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bu..reau of Circulations.

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own. Woy.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1941

CAN'T TAKE IT, EH? THAT was true in London is true in Berlin.. The bomber ¥ raids are dealing death and misery to many helpless civilians. And to the extent that the plain people of Ger“many did not want this war—did not share the lust for conquest and destruction that motivates their Nazi masters ~ "jt is possible now to feel for them much of the same sympathy that was felt for the people of Britain, |

But what of the German warlords who ordered the

- blitz on Britain and who now shriek, through their enslaved press, that a Royal Air Force raid on Berlin was “a lout’s 8 .-trick,” “a crime,” “one of the rottenest and most disgusting “yet”? For them the contempt felt for the bully, the blustering coward who cringes and cries when his victim hits back,

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~ is much too good.

LET'S TRY IT = seems to us that there is a good deal to be said for the proposed new police system of catching speeders by the stopwatch method. : he In past years, our police have depended upon the ordinary “speed traps” and other routine methods of curbing reckless driving. We have never attempted anything like this, the most ~ “geientific method of clocking speeders we've heard anything about. It has had a salutary effect in large cities like Kansas City and Cincinnati. We're for trying it out here.

KEEPING THE TAXPAYER FIT ‘THE real “man behind the man behind the gun” is the ~~ taxpayer. No nation is strong unless it is in financial ‘health or able to get health. ; Federal taxes come mainly from corporate and individual incomes and excises. Cut volume and you cut rev_enue. When business profits decline the Government loses from 21 per cent to 31 per cent directly in corporate income “taxes, and a lot more if excess profits are involved. On ‘top of this, the Government loses still more indirectly— for, if lower dividends result, individual incomes drop off, and of these personal incomes the Government’s share runs “in the higher brackets up to more than 80 per cent. Excise “taxes also are cut because lower volume means fewer sales. Resultant unemployment further reduces both taxable in- - come and taxable sales. In turn it adds to taxes to take x ‘care of the unemployment. A vicious spiral, indeed. 2 » ® ® ® » 8 IN April, 1938, President Roosevelt told Congress that "he hoped for an increase in the national income to 80 ‘billion dollars annually within a couple of years. It was

. then 56 billions and had been as low as 38 billions in 1932. |

— He visioned 100 billions as possible within a decade. His : message emphasized what the nation might do toward re- . gaining its fiscal health by such a growth in volume. ot Estimates today indicate that we are already approachcing the 100 billion mark, in less than three and one-half “years. But things have happened and expenses have sky-

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i rocketed because of war. The principle—of volume’s rela-

: tion to revenue—stands, nevertheless.

F 2 = = Sov 8 8 8 L AS that relates to defense, priorities must prevail, in all

: respects—not only as to materials but as to plants

a

o : and labor. Nothing can be allowed to stand in the way.

But after priorities, it is likewise essential that the goose * which lays the many tax eggs be encouraged to produce— for without production to pay the bill, defense will ultimately wither, for lack of funds, or monetary inflation, the worst of all economic plagues, will set in. The best way to prevent inflation is to permit the free flow of mass-production goods, governmentally guarding : the while against hoarding and speculation. The lower the price, the broader the market. The i bigger the volume and the greater the velocity, the higher © the net income while maintaining the lowest possible profit 3 : on each individual sale. Hence, the higher the nét profit— and the wages and the salaries. Those elements in a free ; SE competitive system make up the mass production formula. & It works. There should be added, the greater the tax © 1 peceipts. : 8 8 8 8 8 = AYOR WILLIAM H. DRESS of Evansville, Ind., a repre- ; sentative industrial city, has called a meeting of the £ mayors of 600 similar cities for Sept. 12 in Chicago. It ils to consider—not business as usual, at expense of priorities and defense, but the maintenance of employment and vol- < ume that do not conflict with defense. It promises to be one of the most important and constructive of conferences. © It should bring forth much, in terms of our general economic health at this time of crisis when, more than ever before, it behooves us to keep fit that taxpayer behind the man behind the gun. :

ey 2 $n 3 a,

CAFELITE—MORE WOLF SOUP THE old story of the fellow who got tired of seeing the wolf at his door, went out, whacked him, and made wolf soup out of him, is one that has an ever-recurring moral, i. ‘Brazil is the latest country to turn a disadvantage into # an advantage. For years it has been plagued by a coffee surplus; the smoke of burning coffee has drifted across the state of Sao Paulo each season, coffee burned to be rid of surpluses. el : Now a young North American has devised a process of naking a new plastic—appropriately named cafelite—out of fee beans. Brazil is going into the production of cafelite om its surplus coffee, thus at one time reducing its surplus nd marketing one of the world’s cheapest plastics. ite will undoubtedly compete with North American

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RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE

E> RILEY 5551

: Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler : Another Few Words About the Case

Of Gaston Porterie, the Huey Long Aid Now Serving on the U. S. Bench

TEW YORK, ‘Sept. 10.—I doubt that more than a NN: few citizens appreciate the enormity of the ap‘pointment and confirmation of Gaston L. Porterie, the Louisiana legal light of the Huey Long dictatorship, who is now sitting temporarily in the southern district of New York, as a member of the Federal judiciary. The facts existed before Porterie was appointed and confirmed and they were especially well known to one member of the subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee which recommended his confirmation. And there is no reason to believe that the other

members of the subcommittee or

of the full committee, or, indeed, any other member of the Senate could Have been ignorant of the facts. His career in Louisiana as the attorney general of the state government under the dictatorship ‘had been notorious and it is the solemn duty of all Senators to guard the character of the Federal courts, even though the performance of

that duty necessitate some violation of senatorial

courtesy and privilege. Courtesy and privilege require Senators to respect one another’s nominations to the Federal judiciary up to a certain, or uncertain, point. But surely Senators owe a duty to the people which senatorial courtesy and privilege should yield to. : ”

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HERE was the great liberal, George ‘Norris, :

when this man was being put over, within a period of one week, without hearings by the judiciary committee, on the recommendation of a subcommittee?. Where was Young Bob La Follette? Where were Nye and Wheeler and Wagner? And why didn’t Senator Taft take it on himself to present a statement and analysis of the facts of Porterie’s political life and associations?

I have recounted that Porterie, as attorney general under the dictatorship, failed to oppose the perpetration of the frauds which were practiced by the faction of which he was a leader in the primary which elected to the Senate the man who later became his sponsor, John H. Overton. I have recalled that when one of the state judges attempted to frustrate the fraudulent practices in one parish, or county, Porterie, as attor=

| ney general, and by virtue of his higher authority in

the law department of the state, in turn frustrated the judge. I can just stand on the fact that a special committee of the Senate which investigated Overton’s election did denounce it as “vicious and abhorrent” and did report that “a majority of the election commissioners where dummy candidates filed were favorable to the candidacy of\Overton.”™

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ERE we have a political service by Porterie in favor of Overton’s candidacy which consisted of open toleration of fraud and then we have a return of the favor by Overton to Porterie in the form of an appointment for life to the Federal court. For Tom Connally’s conduct in this case no excuse is apparent. Senator Connally of Texas was chairman of the special committee which revealed and denounced the fraud and he could not have been ignorant of Porterie’s duty as state attorney general to protect the ballot or to his failure to make any effort. Connally was the one who reported fraud to the Senate and the words “vicious and abhorrent political practice” were his language. Nevertheless, it later fell out that he was chairman of the subcommittee of the judiciary committee which passed on Porterie’s qualifications and recommended his confirmation, with no protest from him. But, of course, the device of the dummy candidate was only one atrocity among many perpetrated by the Long machine during Porterie’s term as attorney general. He was in office when, for another example, a

concession to drill and sell oil in the state oil reserve " was handed over to a group of his own, and Long’s

political henchmen, which yielded them a profit of $337,000 in the first year of its exploitation. He was, in short, an active and aggressive and not merely an acquiescent member of the Long machine and, nevertheless, we find him now sitting on the Federal bench as one of those younger and forwardlooking jurists through whom President Roosevelt, by means of his court-packing plan, intended to reanimate the Constitution and improve the character of the courts. ;

Our Statesmen By Peter Edson

ASHINGTON, Sept. 10.—It's a measly shame that all of you who have to pay next year’s Federal tax bill were not on hand for some of the final sessions of the Senate debate on this 13 billiondollar baby which will nick you for four billion more than the bill of the current year. It would have done you good to see your statesmen wrestle with the great issues involved, for no finer display of the legal mind at

its all-time low has been since:

Nero played his fiddle. Just get the picture: Here is the world going to Hades in a tank. National debt is $49,000,000,000 and the costs of the defense effort are estimated at from $50,000,000,000 to $60,000,000,00 more. So : what happens? . So the Senate : spends nearly two hours debating whether the tax on slot machines should be reduced from $200 to $50 a year, . ! : } History is indebted for, this spectacle to a statesman named Berkeley L. Bunker of Las Vegas, Nev. and his address and remarks to the Senate in opposition to raising the tax on slot machines are worthy of inscription in all fifth grade readers right along with Patrick Henry’s immortal words to the Virginia House of Burgesses, George Washington's farewell to his troops and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. Before quoting from Senator Bunker's magna charta on slots, it might be well to explain who the Senator is. He is a most moral man, a bishop in the ‘Mormon Church, and he was appointed to the Senate by his Governor to succeed the late Key Pittman.

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O EXPLAIN why Senator Bunker thought a $200 .Federa] tax on slot machines was too high, it is only necessary to quote from his Euclidian arguments: : ; “A slot machine is a mechanical device,” he explained, “and can be fixed so that the customer playing the machine can get 15, 20 or even as high as 80 per cent. Slot machine gambling is legal in Nevada, and -where the machines are legalized the take is fixed at 15 per cent. We in Nevada derive a revenue in the subdivisions and in the state of $152 per slot machine. No person under age is permitted to play a slot machine, and they are carefully inspected so that the customers get back the legitimate percentage, or the 15 per cent to which he is entitled. There is that protection provided. You could not win or lose a sum of any consequence on a slot machine in our state if you played all: day . . .” To continue Senator Bunker's oration: “In the State of Nevada the $200 rate, added to the ‘$152 which we legally collect for a slot machine, would make a tax of $352 which would eliminate about 50 per cent of the machines and would therefore eliminate about 50 per cent of the revenue which we receive from such machines. It would not eliminate the vice. It would centralize the vice in certain localities.” : ‘ : Fas? Well, no one could possibly want the Senate to centralize vice in certain localities so it was on that basis that Senator Bunker's amendment was passed— yeas 40, nays 22, not voting 34. And by so voting,

they kept down the taxes on one item, at least, and

isn’t that just what you elected them for? Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists tn this newspaper are their own, They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times. : 3

So They Say—

ODY out on the ocean sure

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES __ South of the Border

"10, 194

WEDNESDAY,

Chak ae em

SE

The Hoosier Forum 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

A PLEA TO MOTORISTS FROM A NORTH SIDER By a North Sider

This is a plea to motorists who use the important streets on the

North Side. Please try not to speed

on Central Ave. and Washington Blvd. and College Ave. Please try not to come skidding up to the cross streets like 42d St. and 54th St. And it would be a good idea, too, if the street railway company tried to keep its Pennsylvania St. trolleys under 40 miles an hour. The minute more it takes isn’t worth a child's life, Please! ” ” 2

FED UP WITH BRAZEN OPERATION OF BOOKIES By. A Disgusted Taxpayer, Indianapolis

Has the gambling crusade which started out so auspiciously and effectively several weeks ago suddenly fizzled out as they have in the past? Down on S. Illinois St. is located one of Indianapolis’ notorious horse bookies. This place finally got so rotten that the police finally raided it; but they transferred their illegal activities to Maryland St. But now they evidently have been given the go sign by someone, as they are back again at their old location, taking the poor workingman’s hard earned money and diverting it from legal business. This spot even gives you curb service in order to get your money faster. Just drive up and honk your horn, and a little short man will come out and take all bets, pro=viding of course if you are known to the underworld. Yet we are told gambling is being suppressed by the authorities. ” » 2:

MEITZLER LIKENS UNION MOVES TO HITLER'S By James R. Meitzler, Attica

Labor leaders tell us a new order is dawning in these United States. So also Hitler speaks of a new order imposed by force on humanity and the world. Beneath Hitler's new order the rights of man, liberty of labor, of thought, speech, property, and religion are crushed. The labor unions in America, with Hitler's objective in view, are following Hitler’s course. With the aim of forcing free men into their unions the -labor Hitlers are calling strikes all over the country. That our money is wasted, our Army denied guns, our Navy > our air force planes, our defense, d

Side Glances=By Galbraith

(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)

layed or defeated, makes no difference to these labor dictators so that they succeed in setting up a totalitarian labor state. They demand employers deny jobs to workers who refuse to become slaves to their unions and if that demand is withstood call a strike. When the employer tries to operate his property, when free labor comes to work, the plant is besieged by union storm stroops, ingress and egress is blocked, public and private right to use the roads denied, while helpless or compliant public officials make no effort to safeguard the rights of the employer to use his property or of the rights of free men to their jobs. The gangs that rule the unions can kick out the minorities who oppose their rule. If none are allowed to work but union members that minority must bow to force or starve. Hitler rules the Nazi party by force. The Nazi party rules Germany by force and by force they aim to rule the world. The union gangsters dominate their unions by force. By force they aim to drive all labor under their rule. By force they aim to.control business and government. By force they aim to rule you and I and America.

2 ” 2 BELIEVES RIGHT OF FREE SPEECH IS MISUSD By A Young Democrat, Indianapolis Isolationists or “Roosevelt Haters”? It is remarkable the change that has taken place between those of Civil War period and the modern times. I mean in reference to criticism of Presidential policy of action in times of national crises, then from internal disunity and now from both

internal and external strife. In each there was a school of thought which vehemently opposed war or any trend which would even suggest it. : I am reminded that many Republicans of that day managed to snuff out remarks of opposition directed

toward President Lincoln and his

advisers by threats to lynch. (Purges aren't a-new invention.) I would that those stanch, intolerant, hot-headed supporters of national unity in the 1860’s could be here today to lay down the law to their grandsons of like political faith, many of whom are “Roosevelt

| Haters” who would rather go by the

more honorable name “Isolationist”; many in this class belong to it as a means of turning their anger, intolerance and hate against the authority now in power for three times longer than they wished. What we need is more sportsmanship and a cultivation of ability to accept petty political defeats gracefully and go about our business preparting for victory later. The Hon. Mr. Willkie is an example of a man that has learned this and doesn’t allow national politics to interfere with our plans for an ‘international victory in which freedom of action will be guaranteed. When we speak let us not misuse our constitutional right of free ex-

pression.

WE HAVE AN IDEA POLICE ARE BEING KIDDED

By V. F., Indianapolis, I see that the Indianapolis police department has a new trick catch speeders. fm ily ; I never knew they needed modern devices. I watch drivers go past my house every night at 50 miles an hour and I always figured any old cop could catch ’em if he only wanted to be around. But, I guess this is an age of science. . . . .

os 2” ” OTTO AUTO, WHO USED TO BE AN ARCHDUKE |, By W. T., Indianapolis. I suppose most of your readers don’t: remember a comic strip called “Otto Auto.” There used to be one, once long ago, and you could be excused for assuming that Otto Auto was dead. Imagine my surprise to learn he isn’t. He’s alive and I read where he has just had his license revoked at Royalston, Mass. This Otto Auto seems to be better known as Otto of Hapsburg, who, I suppose, would be an archduke if there was any nobility left in Austria. It seems he was doing 60 miles an hour and the license commissioner suspended his license. I just can’t figure out what Otto could have been doing that made it necessary for him to dash along at 60 miles an hour. To tell the truth, I can’t figure out what he’s doing here at all since American interest in the restoration of any House of Hapsburg would be just about zero, Fahrenlieit.

FAIR TIME By M: E. CLARK

Last year I said the same old thing, I've walked all over that ground; Next year I know I won't be there, When State Fair time comes ‘round. :

My back is tired my feet are sore, I've wiped my face of sweat; I've saw the same things and o'er. That crowd I see it yet.

We brought a yard stick home last year, We loved that little token:

o'er

| Somehow or other ‘twas plain and

clear, That yard stick had got broken.

What day will we go to the Fair, Mom said to me on Sunday;

Well! says I, if you don’t care,

I guess we'll go on Monday.

DAILY THOUGHT

| . Country Now Needs Board for Each ’ (\_ Separate Effort With a Chairman Who Is Given the Final Decision

YY 2 SIRCTOR. Sept. 10.—There is a reasonable explanation of the confusion arising out of press reports of B. M. Baruch’s White House statement, following luncheon with the President, that the

new War Industries Board (SPAB) is only a “falter-

| ing step” and the Presidents later statement to the effect that this view did not reflect the discussion at luncheon. The explanation could be that the discussion at luncheon didn't ex- _ plore details of the new organi- . zation at all. This would seem rather strange in view of the fact that much of the organization did follow Mr. Baruch’s idea ‘and specific plan. Yet, strange as it may seem, it is pretty close to the truth. . As this column has frequently pointed out, the plan and chart are not half so im=portant as the men and principles which are to gove ern action. Mr. Baruch himself has said, as has been suggested here also, that Mr. Donald Nelson himself could save the situation if he is given proper authority .and support and, it must be added, if he has the stuff on the ball as an administrator and leader. Has he? I don’t know. His reputation in industry and in Sears Roebuck, whence he came, was that, as a second man, he was tops, but that, as a team leader, he left a good deal to be desired. Maybe he has outgrown that. Good men have a way of rising to greater responsibilities to uncover unsuspected strength, #8 nN UT, right off the bat, one thing is clear. He can’t B possibly become the spark-plug and co-ordinator of that mighty effort and at the same time run the detail of the priorities system. The latter alone is a full-time job. I'm not just guessing. I know because I saw this system working at full stress in World War I. If that point is not recognized and that fault cured at once the whole scheme will collapse. To those who urge appointment of the “best man in the country” as an absolute one-man czar of all defense mobilization and who do not yet know that there was no such thing in the World War I, a very embarrassing question is “what man?” I have asked and been asked that question frequently. I have never yet heard a satisfactory answer or even, I might add, any answer at all. The best answer I know is: “For each major head of effort, (transportation, ship-building, fuel, food, industry, etc.) one man, as chairman of a board but with his decision final. All such chairmen to co= operate on a board or overall war-cabinet with the President’s decision final in case of disagreement. That was the plan of World War I. But it depends upon two things. First, final decision in each great department must really rest in the chairman of its board. :

Second, each chairman must have the unqualified J

support of the President. With those two things and that form of organization, almost any good and experienced men can do those jobs. Without those two things no man walks the earth who can do any of those jobs. : #2 8 8 HE addition of a small industries division, under T Mr. Odlum. to spread defense contracts to little fellows was a belated but excellent move. Yet this must be said with several qualifications to temper possible widespread disappointments. It will not speed defense production. It will delay it, increesse its cost, reduce its quality and immobilize gre: quantities of scarce materials. It had to be done to help preserve the body © business structure from destruction. But, ev that score, a word of caution is necessary. D production is largely in metals and metal w and In chemicals. I doubt if 20 per cent of the ° fellows in manufacture can take any of it. U the priorities policy is changed to withhold & scnable amount of raw materials for the civ. population, all the rest, including the whole “l%& business” of retail distribution, are going to be c& pletely folded up or seriously impaired. 5 You can’t do that and preserve civilian mor The havoc, in immediate prospect, resulting fr present unplanned and headlong priority policies not been foreseen, dimly realized, or provided agai by this Administration. Neither the Odlum divisio. organization nor its marching orders even remotel recognized the problem. 5

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

“/~NOMING back to Washington just at this moment when everyone seems so busy makes me realize that living away from the center of Government activity does dull one’s sense of the greatness of the struggle which is going on in the world. Reading it in the papers or hearing it over the radio is not quite the same as actually seeing people at work carrying a heavy burden on ' their minds and hearts all the time.” I have lifted the above paragraph from Mrs. Roosevelt's news paper column, because, in expressing the sentiment, she proves herself aware of the confusion which is the unhappy lot of those who live outside of Washington. I hope she sensed also the great need for clarification of purpose and definite information about what goes on there. Nobody can make me believe that the American people would not rise to any emergency if they were , convinced of its reality in relation to themselves.

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HE recent vote on the draft extension bill added to their bewilderment. They find it hard to credit the news that the country is endangered by . an aggressor when so many Senators and Representatives seemed not to think so according to their ballots. These men all stay in Washington, too, and are in a position to understand fully the menace to our security. And they have been elected to lead us. The labor union leaders also have access to the facts. If not residents, at least many of them are frequent visitors to the national capital and in close touch with foreign events. Yet strikes in many industries still go on, evidently with the labor leaders’ approval. : ; We little Ameri who live away from Washing« ton are thus hopelessly‘puzzled by events there—and, perhaps to our shame, it must be said that we often suspect the slogan to be, “Politics as usual.” From the top down we would like leadership that is willing to risk its political neck to save democracy. Since we cannot. know the truth, and nobody seems willing to give it to us, we bespeak patience from the Washingtonians. Maybe it’s not stubbornness, but only ignorance, that ails us. : ;

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Buresu will answer any question of fact or information, not involving extensive res

cannot be given. : Bureau. 1013 Thirteenth St. Washington, D, C.) atn—— ¥ : Q—How large are the total aircraft plant facilities in the United States? el : Pan ; A—As of July 1, 1941, American aircraft factories contained more than 38,000,000 square feet of floor space. S / Q~Whas dots the tame Jaisq xian? em oR a Hebrew name “descendant.” The name of the River Jordan from the same) root, and means “descending.” [3 Q—When and where was Mozart's opera “Th di Marriage of Figaro” first produced? Laoad TAY A—In Vienna at the Burg Theater May /, 17 \

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