Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 September 1941 — Page 8

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‘he Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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<B> RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Woy

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

Member of United Press.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1941

WANTED: FACTS AND FIGURES _ A MORE reasonable request has never been made than £3 the one with which Mayor W. H. Dress of Evansville, Ind, opened yesterday’s Chicago conference of Midwestern officials and civil leaders on “unemployment due to pri.orities.” a ‘= What is wanted, said the message from Mayor Dress, is _ ifacts and figures from the Government so that it can be “explained to those who may become unemployed in the na- . tional switch to defense production “just why; as patriots, . it is necessary for them to endure what can’t be cured.” Certainly, when a factory is closed or throttled down . by a Washington order shutting off its supply of materials, _ those who lose their jobs are entitled to a full explanation. Certainly industries deprived of materials, and communities ~ ,..dependent on such industries, are entitled to know that _ "there is good and sufficient reason for the orders from

really adequate undertaking to compile the sort of facts and figures asked for by Mayor Dress is only now being started. “This is the over-all study of the defense, lend-lease and “civilian requirements from America’s production machinery, ‘announced this week by the new Supplies Priorities and = at, ocations Board and to be directed by Donald M. Nelson. = | 8 = # 8 8 BVIOUSLY, as the SPAB announcement points out, ~~ there must be a single authority to plan both for the “various. defense requirements and for civilian requirements. | Attempts to plan for separate needs by separate agencies, ~~ Zot too well co-ordinated if at all, no one of them having if exact knowledge of the total needs, can result only in con8 fusion. That is the brand of planning there has been thus and the confusion is evident. Out of it grows the lespread suspicion that many of the so-called material rtages are actually due to official blundering or lack of information, as a Senate committee has found to be the + case with the Ickes “gasoline shortage.” : | Better late than never. Mr. Nelson's study, if it provides an accurate picture of the total needs and an accurate achpdule of the materials, men and machines necessary to fill those needs, will go far toward producing order in the defense effort. It should enable patriotic Americans to understand the reasons for sacrifices they are asked to make. iE We hope and believe it may reveal ways and means, k= “= hitherto obscured in the confusion, for preventing much of the threatened “unemployment due to priorities” and for |, keeping many industries in operation as employers, tax-

ig wm

““payers and suppliers of civilian-goods. = -

_ LINT OVER WASHINGTON

| + TF Donald Nelson keeps on doing what he’s at now there'll

_ +." be so much lint in the air around the nation’s capital |

i that, what with the humidity, there’ll be danger of wholesale suffocation. : Me : The lint comes from the explosion of red tape caused iby applying Middle Western mail-order methods to govern‘mental procedure. Nothing has happened to compare with #=4t since the dust bowl a few years ago paid its respects to . “the Eastern seaboard. : /" The tape was torn, tattered and otherwise shredded [when the new OPM priorities head imported a crew of s, Roebuck correspondence experts. The mail order brigade descended upon a vast accumulation which bulged from the spacious lap of bureaucracy. i : ‘ ~~ Now if you have been accustomed to keeping up with all the letters that sweep in from a nationally circulated ' mail order catalog you've got to step. Answering Goveérnment correspondence has been something different, an much more leisurely. Anyway, all hands were energized. A lot of golf went unplayed. And a big bottleneck was busted into bits. Now all mail is on a 48-hour schedule. And 48 hours

is the maximum.

x 3, ¥

A breath of private industry has stirred in the musty alls of bureaucracy. . Loney

2A WITNESS FOR IMMIGRANTS - _ : 'N times of crisis, feeling against immigrants rises in the * United States. It is rising today, despite the fact that fumerically there haven't been any immigrants to amount o anything for more than 10 years. = : + Aside from the obvious examples, the.Thomas Manns, “%he Albert Einsteins, the Senator Wagners, the Claudette

Colberts, the Judge Pecoras, who come instantly to mind, it |

- worth noting that the “most heroic family of 1941,”

rge Cascino. Coming to America as a youth, Cascino reared a family of five highly successful children on a la“borer’s pay which was often only $95 a month; and. kept * them clean and respectable though he had to rear them in a blighted neighborhood. The club’s citation ofthe Cascinos ‘is a rebuke to all who harbor undue prejudice against immiants. It ‘was: : = ~ “A true American family.”

HE ACTUAL DAMAGE FROM BOMBING nO read the stories of the great bombing raids on London, to see the pictures of the roaring fires and crumbling’ Walls gives an impression that most of the eity must be Seveled. Yet we know that this is not the case. . . ~ How much actual damage is being done by these feros bombings? ‘ The Economist, British financial journal, mates that damage to British property from German bings in the first two years of the war comes to $480, 000. They reached the estimate from the actual figures insurance company which found losses to its: London ings had reached 31% per cent. a: If this estimate is anywhere near correct (and of course

‘really great losses ‘of this or any other

. tary decoration.

the surprising thing about it is that it is |

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, Sept. 13—The scrap in Washington over the in-

quiry into the movie industry can

be divided into two phases. First, does the sly and dishonest

procedure by which this inquiry

moves into action, disguised as a preliminary ing to determine whether a fo , full-dress in-

vestigation should be made, con-.

sist with New Deal morals and

custom? You bet your mos life it does. t, unfortunately

It is a rotten, Hitlerian subterfuge for the Administration, and for all of us, it is solidly based on a recent precedent set by the Administration itself in the preliminary investigation of the relatonship between newspapers and radio stations under common ownership. That clever little scheme has now turned on the cunning tricksters who thought it up and fanged them good. In the radio case the Government highbinders weren't going to investigate the main proposition. No, they were only going to do a little preliminary questioning, insinuating and smearing and get over the effect of a full inquiry anyway, just in case there should be no full inquiry. Now the so-called isolationists who may not be pro-Hitler but couldn’t help Hitler half as much if they admitted that they were, have adopted the same unprincipled method of approach and, although it is still a nasty and depressing example to beset the people by an agency of their Government, the Government, itself, is in no position to denounce the trick, because the Government's own hands aren’t clean.

It's Awfully Shabby In Spots =

SECOND, SHOULD THE movie industry be investigated at all? Well, there is no rule on that. Congress just investigates on its own authority and any person or institution which goes under investigation by a hostile

committee gets a fairly good preview of hell. These

investigations are not anything like court inquiries, for the defendant has no rights and can’t defend himself. . Nevertheless, they are an established custom and there is no more reason to protect the movie industry than there was to protect those individuals who were disgracefully persecuted by Presidential order in the income tax inquiry as punishment for their political opposition to the New Deal. Everyone who has ever had any relations with the movie industry knows that in spots it is unimaginably foul. Some of its business ethics would shame a dope peddler and i% reeks of nepotism, discrimination and favoritism, ‘ A few stray hints of its relationship to the under= world came out ini the income tax trial of Joe Schenck in New York, as witness those on the employers’ side of the bargaining table who bought out the unspeakable Willie Bioff, the union racketeer. ;

A Disgrace to Journalism’

INCIDENTALLY, THE newspaper reporting which has come out of Hollywood in the last 20 years under the names of shabby sycophants, party moochers and outright grafters. has been a sad reproach to journalism. With the exception of the scandalous sex stuff which welled up out of Los Angeles and broke over the country in -a slimy wave after the Fatty Arbuckle, Desmond Taylor and Wallie Reid incidents, the real news of the moving picture trade has been smothered in cheap publicity served in the guise of gossip, mostly under subsidy in one guise or another, The Communists have burrowed into all departments except the finance management, and the retention of Jimmy Roosevelt at $33,000 a year, ostensibly by Sam Goldwyn but actually by God knows whom, when the heat was rising was typical of the brassy nerve of those who think they can buy anything and haven't been far wrong, many times. There is plenty of reason to investigate the whole industry and plenty to be learned by investigation but Wendell Willkie certainly was right when he made the point that nobody need apologize for opposing Hitler. But the investigation should look for crookedness and for the spoor of the Communist and Nazi and the chiseling politician, and not for the hidden meanings in films which speak for themselves to people

‘Whe. are highly. intelligent unless our enrollment of

almost two million students in nearly fourteen hun-

‘dred colleges is just an idle boast,

Russia Digs In By A. T. Steele

MOSCOW, Sept. 13.—All signs along Russfa’s industrial front demonstrate very clearly that it is the Soviet Government's will to make this war a long, long war in the confident belief that time is an ally and will prove Hitler's undoing in the end. One evidence of this is the transplantation of as much vital machinery as circumstances permit from war areas to points deep in the interior. Another is the energetic steps being taken to expand production and raw materials in the Urals and Siberia with the aim

of partially offsetting losses in West Russia and

the Tuisine, course to accomplish these oses the - sians need time and material a: aL ® hls especially in the way of tools and certain essential materials like aluminum, rubber and tin. Newspapers here are devoting much space to the necessity of developing unexploited mineral and oil areas in the central regions of the U. 8. 8. R. and

apparently preliminary steps have been taken in .this direction. However, so far the greatest emphasis

is being put on the necessity for squeezing the maxi-

‘mum possible production from existing facilities,

Producer Being Publicized

UNDER THE STRESS of war, by appealing to the workers’ patriotism and offering rewards for extra production ‘and by other means the state seems to be obtaining impressive results. Stakhanovites who have doubled and trebled production and are putting in from 12 to 15 hours labor daily are no longer un

{ common. They are being publicized as heroes no

less. than those who are fighting at the front. ' For example, reports from Baku on the Caspian Sea announce with pride that 290 new producing wells have been completed this year. Through speedup methods some of the wells were brought in twice as rapidly as before the war. For economy’s sake, old pipe was used and old - wells were rebored in

: : / this and other fields. cked by the Chicago Union League Club, was that of |

All factories are affected by the state speedup. program, but none more than those producing military aircraft. On the day of the Soviet victory at -Yelnia, in the Smolensk area, the newspapers gave

greater prominence to the award of the title of

“hero of socialist labor” to Aviation Commissar Shakurin and two assistants than to the sensational war news. This title corresponds to the highest mili-

At the same time, scores of medals have been granted to workers in the aviation industry and a leading plant has been given tke name of Stalin in recognition of its achiévements in ‘simplifying

‘operations, fovising new designs and machinery, and | Speeding up production. An announcement says that | ‘anything in our country bearitig the name of Lenin | | ‘or ‘Stalin: must-be. beautiful, ‘most distinguished and

most loyal.”

So They Say— THOSE who ‘seek a life of boisterous galety and attach importance.to bodily comfort have at present little reason to come to Iceland.—G ‘book sold to American troops here. aon Tok : : WISBORAURS may Create acco : - : Juup am Se Byrd, Vir : . [ We are the world’s greatest wasters.—Robert E. McConnell, chief of Conservation Se fon, OPM. .

I' WOULD just as soon

amusement but do not |

- Meeting

. : : + 8 The Hoosier Forum - 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

SUGGESTS WHIPPING POST FOR DRUNKEN DRIVERS

By Mrs. J. H. A, Indianapolis

In regard to the drunken drivers,

I suggest having a whipping post. When arrested and found to be drunken, whip them so the public can see them, both men and women. |. Maybe that would stop so many accidents. them and fine them or spend a few days in jail together with the graft in . the .city and state. Wake up, taxpayers, and see what it is all about.

It does no good to arrest

= ” 2 EIGHT OTHER REASONS FROM ‘ANOTHER E. C. B. By Another E. B. C., Indisnapolis In answer to Carey Weaver's re-

print letter from the Chicago Tribune, which ‘ obviously exactly ex-] presses his own sentiments, I too, should like to present my eight reasons, “Why I DON'T Want War”:

1. Every excess dollar I can scrape together I'll get to contribute to

‘the Nazi hierarchy to fatten the purses of the already fatuous fatheaded leaders. :

2. I just love the movies, too. But

they are all so different that I can't seem to find the one I think most enjoyable. But with Herr Goebbels seeing to it that all pictures are cut from the identical pattern, I'll find little difficulty in seeing the same entertainment (?) over that eventually I'll understand its meaning. :

0 much

3. I despise budgets. And so Herr

Schacht (or has he been purged and is it now Goering) will relieve me of that chore and I shall be very appleased. °

4. I have friends on the Atlantic

seaboard and I want them to see a new international airplane bridge of Nazi planes landing every day from “Shermany” on our country’s soil. It should be so educational.

5. I have long been violently op-

posed to the administration’s de-

fense and war aims and after all I don’t want to end up in a Con-

scientious Objectors Camp. No, sir! I love my freedom too much. But I don’t want to catch a hangnail fighting for it. It might hurt.

6. My father is of German par-

entage and my mother English. I hate my father because he is so

insane as to want to fight the noble Nazis. You see my grandfather actually left the wondrous fatherland because he objected to harmless little discourtesies like drunken officers bumping him off the curb and slapping his wife if she dared

(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.)

to resent such ungentlemanly conduct and their being treated like scum. CI) 5 ; 7. I'll get a great bang out of watching the world’s super-duper Aryans doing the goosestep everywhere I look. And instead of listening to our ‘lousy national anthem, we'll all leap to attention at the playing of the Horst Wessel soung, the one -you: know that deifies a Berlin sewer rat and makes of him an international hero. 8. I have many close friends and relatives who have men of draft age and nothing would be more pleasifig to me than to see every one of them doing hard, back-breaking labor from sunup to sundown and never having a moment’s pleasure because they are such clean, happy, independent, carefree young men. . . It is also a most pleasant prospect to have our daughters breeding supermen whose legitimacy will always be in question,

‘ 2.8 8 ANOTHER PROTEST ON “RED LIGHT” CHARGE By Mrs. L. KE. 8., Indianapolis I want to ask G. C. D. of Southport what he or she meant about N. Illinois St. being a red light district

especially since the city was overrun with soldiers. Was that a slam against the boys who gave up good positions, comfortable homes and friends to help protect what is supposed to be G. C. D.’s as well as every other true American? I resent deeply anything connecting our boys with a red light district. What is our Army comprised of? The very cream of young American manhood. I frequently have occasion to go up N. Illinois St. and I. have never noticed soldiers loitering any place along there, and as for the boys coming to town, aren't they supposed to have any recreation or are they merely dogs to be kept to the confines of an Army camp. Every true American should feel humble in the presence of these boys (who willing or not) are faithfully doing their job and instead of criticizing

ed do everything in their power to show respect and encourage

Side Glances=By Galbraith

these boys and if possible entertain them as much as you conveniently can. ai Si I happen to know the civilian population around the ‘southern camp treat our boys with every consideration and all respect but around our fair city they offer criticism... I wonder how many boys G. C. D. has in service. Let every one: look into their hearts and ask, am I doing my bit for the ones who are doing their duty. : ” 8 2

A FEW RANDOM THOUGHTS ON AMERICAN JUSTICE By J. B, Lawrence, Whiteland | .I havé frequently had the urge to publicly express myself on cer= tain ‘subjects, but presume the urge

the subject of this letter, and since I am addressing you anyhow, I will clear my mental slate of two previous impulses. The first is for the benefit of Mr. Westbrook Pegler, whose writings I love to read because he appears to have character founded on strength and decency. His unfortunate error seems to be a willingness to, at times, ‘recom-

+imend the taking of the law in the| hands of those not authorized to:

enforce it, as per the time (many, months ago) when he stated what! he would do to the collection of gangsters that annually infest the region of Miami. like clubbing gangsters, and those who sell them ‘‘justice,” but it does not become you, Westbrook, to even | hint that you would do what you

venting the law. ; My number two complaint is against the employment man who! promises, with every positive assurance, that the applicant will hear favorably from him “within a week. or ten days,” then never makes good his word. Scores of men have been promised work “within a week or ten days,” but after waiting in good faith, and assuring their creditors that they will soon have employment, they finally awake to the realization that the employment manager was only foolin’ as he tied their hands while giving them the old brush off. That is more unfair to the unemployed than anything I know of. . . . . The third complaint—the real holy one—is against the system that permits authorities to arrest and fingerprint, oni top of the humiliation of a. patrol ride and detention in a “bull pen,” six men and three women who had committed absolutely no crime, as crime is understood. mh Good God, am I in America? I refer, of course, to “The folks who inhabit the slums . . .” and whose treatment, as reported in your paper of today (Sept. 11), should inflame every gospel minister who reads it.

| |But it won't. | Nor will the item on

the same front page, headed: “Police Accused of Beating Prisoners.” Aw! Justice! ‘How beautiful it is for those who can afford it! ‘“Thé folks who inhabit the slums . ..” Let's crowd it among the Beatitudes and make it read:. “Blessed are the folks who inhabit the slums; for

‘| theirs is the justice that is free.” | SEPTEMBER TRANSFER

_.By MARY P. DENNY

Get a transfer to September” On the daily-road of life, Get a transfer to bright autumn In the soft September light.

1: | Reaching onward to the height. 1 Live and breathe in bright

temve an Septem-

| Looking. to the. cool October JAnd the harvest of the year.

Get a transfer to September

| To the days-of hope and cheer.

Get a transfer to September ‘month of all the year. Get 4 transfer to the glory

-|Of the bright September story.

DAILY THOUGHT The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he shall

reward evéry man according to his. works.—Matthew 16:27,

GOD GIVES to every man the

virtu e, temper ; taste, "that b THA niche

E certainly a “in the“right direction. Mr. B. M. Baruch called it

tation, didn’t

'| tion, who.should know. all about tank agree and it was made apparent that-he hadn

was. not. ‘holy’ enough, This time} it is; however,’ befors. mentioning |

One may feel!

oppose in others, namely, circum-|

; campaign be:

3 yO 1941 War Industries Board. . My _excuses are: Pirst, that from "close personal war experience and years of study I know more:about ' that subject than any other and (with becoming modesty) ‘More than most people; . second that,

existence of the American economic system ds that. board

1 as much on the ‘success or failure of

as on any other principal government body-—includ-ing the Army and the Navy. ~~ Eom The recent reorganization was . step

“gy, faltering stp,” but I know that he agrées with me that, in practical administration, it could’ prove to be effective. > reid IER Ol I want to talk about unquestionable ‘evidence of

1 one of its faults upon which. I have touched briefly

before. The evidence is much ‘clearer now. ' I réfer to the shameful kilkenny cat-fight about the eastern gasoline ‘“shortage” or, more accurately, the alleged yrensporisuon, shortage to the east: from the oil elds: t PL yea

Who Consulted Whom?’ oe

WITHOUT WARNING, Mr.. Ickes made the startling announcement that it existed, insisted on a flat 10 per cent cut in consumer use, and strongarmed the oil companies into agreeing ‘to - i a new pipe line to the East. He said the shortage was due to transferring tank-ships to the British. Apparently ‘Admiral ‘Land, who Is “in charge of and supposed to know all about maritime -transporagree, * Apparently - he had not been consulted. Ta : ‘ Fol i Mr. Pelley, head of the American Railway -AssociaCATS, didn’t

: ; t been consulted either. “iy Ria PRES Te Mr. Leon Henderson, who is supposed to: sit in the central clearing house on all such matters, also didn’t agree in so many words. Diplomatically he didn’t disagree, but a strict analysis of his testimony shows what amounts to disagreement. Whether it did or not, when the request for ‘priority for the pipe came in SPAB wouldn't grant it on steel plates from which pipes are usually made. Apparently SPAB (including Leon) had nof been consulted either. Finally, all this had to be éhurned out in public in a Senate fact-finding committee, which seems about to reach a conclusion that Mr. Ickes was wrong

| —or -at least headlong.

Where Is the Unity?

THE GOVERNMENT properly asks for unity in the country when apparently unity does not exist within its own house. La “ Now this hapepns to be a question of organization and administration within SPAB itself. Quite properly, the head of our merchant marine and our oil administrator, not to mention our great finance director. Jesse Jones, and several Ofer heads of. our principal economic efforts, are not’ regular memeh RAB, There are two good reasons for this —one is that their interests are occasional and “collateral, a second is that the board is big enough now. More members would make it unwieldy and unnecessarily interfere with men of great responsibility unduly pressed for time. But one great and successful principle of World War I that is proved here to have been completely overlooked in this new shuffle is that these great wielders of separate powers ought to undertake no action importantly invading the field of SPAB and SPAB could take no action invading their flelds without first going into a huddle —sitting together. with all principal government interests represented. If they can’t agree, Which should be rarely, the final decision should go to the President or his selected delegate. % : This kind of shindy adds nothing to and’ subtracts much from good administration, unity in gov ment, unity among the people and, eveh more important, confidence of the people in the war making agencies of their government. go :

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

‘HERE COMES PERTINENT - comment from Mrs, George Run‘kle of New Rochelle, N. Y. Give heed, sisters! It's about your business. : “The stocking situation is nothing to worry about. What ~ American women should study now is the risé in grocery prices. We're so upset about our hose, wondering whether we'll wear cotton of paint our legs, thinking : about the kind of uniforms we'll get when we actually go to work for defense, that we overlook the main issue. : aa «I ean understand that certain foods will necessarily increase in price as Government buying decreases

“the supply, but just to mention one item—why a raise

of 20 per cent on cottage cheese imposed by my-milk company? Do you suppose American women will stand for profiteering on food stuffs again?” © Alas, I fear so. But I'm willing to join Mis. Runkle in her cries of protest. Women should put up such a howl right now that Government officials: and wholesalers will shake in their shoes, or mend their

. ways. 5

There's No Sense To It

LAST YEAR the first thing on grocery shelves to be marked up was-of all things—baby foods. They're . not feeding that to the soldiers, are they? And the prices are still rising. Condensed milk, strained fruits and vegetables, the most pre-emptory necessities in millions of homes, are now almost out of reach of the working man’s pocketbook, If it keeps on, poor babies won’t eat ab all. J a or en Since then, nearly every week hag seen increased prices in food establishments. Milk, bread, cheap meats, butter, eggs, beans and potatoes, all are on: the up and up. Housewives should demand a clear explanation. ee There’s simply no sense in a good many of the explanations we get. The price of food is the house~ wife's business. Let's look: into it, and keep on Ipoking. die Ph een Editor's Note: The views expressed by coltimnists in this

newspaper are thelr own. "They are tof necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times.

Questions and Answers

inclose a thres-cent postage stamp, cannot be given, Address The Times W Buresu: 1013 Thirteenth 6t.. Washington. D. 0) Q-How will aluminum collected in the recent A—Although not all of the collected aluminum will be’ used directly in defénse products, donations of used aluminum release an equal amount of virgin aluminum for use in airéraft manufacture and other defense. production. A fighter plane co “7000

pounds of aluminum can be

freed by the donation of 5000

coffee percolaters, or 2000 boilers of avérage weight. : Q—Why do large steamships have to be towed in and out of hashors? Vd of Sena —Becalse e difficulty of maneuvering them under Hheir o power in onifiied ‘waters, The tig boats have large engines great he s. AN several of them may .be used to berth a DOW. 6 Q—Name the first movie actor and actress. Who was the first star? = - Wy A—J. Stuart Blackton was reputed to be the first man to stand before a motion picture camera, and his wife, Paula -Blackton, was the first woman. The first real star is said to have been Florence Turner,