Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 September 1941 — Page 10

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The Indianapolis Times

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER President

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MARK FERREE Editor

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«EP RILEY 5551

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1041

JAPAN, AND ATLANTIC SHOOTING PEFORE the U. S. Government is maneuvered into an Atlantic shooting war, it must decide how much it is willing to risk in the Pacific. Every major decision in for- | eign policy is a gamble, of course, but the uncertainty in the Pacific today is far greater than any ordinary hazard. While the American public is divided in honest disagreement, about foreign policy, upon two things there is wide agreement. One is that the threat of a Pacific war “is more real than it ever has been; and that the immediate danger to the United States is closer in the Pacific than in the Atlantic—if for no other reason, because Russia and Britain are holding Hitler, for the moment at least.

The other is that Hitler has been trying to precipitate

an American-Japanese war. no loss: for

That would be all profit and rmany because it would force us to use for

our own immediate defense most of the supplies now going _ to Britain and Russia for use against Hitler. To these two generally accepted facts—the danger of Pacific war, and Hitler’s effort to force it—must be added

old rule Num

er One in diplomatic and military policy:

Never get caught in two wars (or on two fronts) at the

” i os 2 2 N who totals up those factors can consider lity of an Atlantic shooting war at this time ‘misgivings. Only those who forget or ignore

n the Atlantic involves no great risk to us; 1d meet only a few isolated Nazi submarines

and raiders, while Russia and Britain kept Hitler busy.

fought in the

of Japan pouncing from behind, while we tlantic, is so black that many persons are

trying to wish it away. As part of this wishful thinking,

it is said: Japan woul

not dare fight the Anglo-American alliance,

Japan would break her pledge to fight with: Germany, or interpret it away. : : Japan has reversed her policy and is now pro-peace, as witness the Konoye overtures to the President and the fact that the Emperor personally has taken over control ifrom the war lords.

HE answer to all this is a great big maybe. It is true that Japan has made these gestures and wants us to believe them. But it is also true that if Hitler were dictating Tokyo moves, presumably he would follow precisely this lull-the-suckers-to-sleep strategy which tricked - his European victims. We don’t charge that this is Japanese trickery. As the State Department has observed of Japanese promises: Words no longer count, only actions. 5

If Japan wants peace and is preparing for peace, why

has she concentrated the largest forces in her history in |.

“offensive positions to attack Siberia, Singapore and Manila? ‘Why does she continue her China ‘aggression? The President and Secretary Hull, in our opinion, have handled Japanese policy wisely and well, moving cautiously from conciliation to firm resistance. And we share the hope that success will crown their present sincere efforts for a Japanese agreement. ca But until there is such a settlement, confirmed by acts, the United States cannot be drawn into an Atlantic shooting war without risking or even inviting an Axis attack in the

~ Pacific.

COURAGEOUS COSTA RICA

OSTA RICA is one of the smallest countries of Central ; America. You can’t help admiring the bantam rooster courage with which it recently refused to withdraw its con-

suls from occupied cotntries in Europe.

Said Costa Rica:

These representatives were accredited to certain governments. The fact that those governments happen not to be functioning ‘at the moment because Nazi bayonets have overrun their lands simply has nothing to do with the case. They are still the legal governments, and as far as Costa Rica is concerned, they still exist. Germany may kick out those Costa Rican consuls, but Costa Rica isn’t withdrawing

them. :

Even the United

States didn’t have the courage to take

this eminently proper stand. It remained for a tiny Central American country, whose belief in, and practice of, democracy stands out in all the Americas despite its large percentage of German-Costa Rican citizens, to say flatly that it does not and will not admit either the justice, the validity, or the permanency of the Nazi conquests:

‘THE PRESIDENT’S REQUEST... THERE was -a sentence in the statement of Floyd B. ~~ Odlum in becoming Director of Contract Distribution, OPM, which deserves repeating. : Asked to assume the thankless task of trying to spread vital Government work in the defense drive among small firms threatened with shutdown, Odlum said: : “The President’s request that I organize this division and get its work moving forward left me no choice as a matter of public duty.” ) When Odlum undertook this thankless task, he did a

Oo

VE IN GHOSTS?

§

Business Manager (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

outside of Indiana, 65

Fair Enough

‘the preliminary gusts in the in-

thies of the movie industry now proceeding in Washington, it appears that the magnates, most of whom are Jewish, are to be charged with the rather serious offense of supportids a policy of the national Gove ent, assist ing in the national defense to the extent of warning the. people of : ‘ the enemy’s character and methods and depicting recorded history. If the dominant sumably they, too, would be disqualified oh the ground

persecuted by the Nazi Government and therefore cannot be innocent of bias.

_ the irreconcilable conflict between his German state and the American nation, it follows that no American whatever ‘should be allowed to portray: the incredible bestialities of the evil force which brought upon the world the worst war in all history and the entire sub-

ject would be placed under a great taboo.

Between the Devil and the Sea

YET IT MUST BE PLAIN that if the movie industry under the ownership of the men who: foresaw its possibilities and created it from crude and flickering beginnings had taken" this "attitude toward the. nation’s enemy they would have been doubly damned

of suppressing and falsifying history so as to spare themselves the very dangerous embarrassment which is put upon them now, and some other group of United States Senators would be holding them up to hatred’

hands of Adolf Hitler and Japan. : yd Unquestionably the movies have turned out antiNazi propaganda films but no more dreadful antiNazi propaganda could be. created out of man’s im-

this war, because Hitler, himself, has thought of everything. : aE The most morbid fictioneer on earth would have been laughed off the lot as recently as 15 years ago if he had shown up with a script predicting the horrors of the brown shirt maraudings and-the coldblooded brutalities of the Gestapo. :

Too Strong for Fiction

FICTION MUST RESPECT the possibilities or probabilities and nobody would have believed that any nation which pretended to be civilized could give itself over to such wanton ferocity and such contempt for christian principles. The dreadful future existed then only in the dark mind of a shrewish fanatic in a greasy raincoat and the German people, who had only. then begun. to purge themselves of the crimes committed in their name by their fallen Kaiser would have been protected from so slanderous a blow by public incredulity everywhere. . No fictioneer invented ¢he horrors of the concentration camps, the anti-christian regime imposed on the German people themselves in their daily life at home, the conspiracy with Communist Russia which touched off the war, or the recent persecution of French families as a means of compelling their fugitive sons in the unoccupied zone to surrender for death by torture. The betrayal of Norway's christian hospitality to starving German post-war children who returned as unsuspected friends in civilian clothes and slaughtered a nation which had saved their lives is a chapter which the movies and the publishers of books and magazines would have rejected on the ground of silly improbability until this very horror came to pass.

What Do They Want?

I SAW CHARLIE CHAPLIN’S pretentious and clumsy master-effort, *The Great Dictator,” and thought it was one of the worst films of all time, but only because the little poseur had gone arty and, personally, had turned in a miserable job. It wasn't that he had exaggerated the evil of Hitlerism because the mind of man could think of no beastliness that is not in the record. The other so-called propaganda films I did not see but I can discuss them at least as freely as those Senators who haven't seen them, either, and I will just take the position that whatever they depicted, they could not have exceeded the horrors that have been recorded in the news and verified and not merely, admitted by the Nazi government but defended. There is no dark, mysterious reason why we have no pro-Nazi films. The reason is that in all the record of Hitlerism tHWere isn't enough favorable material to make a short. . If that is the type of entertainment that these Senators. want Hollywood to produce, then it is they who are asking for false and misleading propaganda, because any such work would flout history.

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

Wanted: A Shah

By Wm. H. Stoneman

LONDON, Sept. 15—“Wanted:. One Shah, must be Persian, speak language, content with something less than 3,000,000 pounds ($12,000,000) of graft yearly and at least fairly popular in Iran (Persia). Applications from Crown Prince not accepted.” According to all the latest communications from Tehran, capital of Iran, the situation in that coun- : try still leaves almost everything : to be desired from the Allied viewpoint and the Shah, despite his frequent protestations of good will, is one of the principal causes. . His son ‘and heir apparently is not far behind him. Last week the Shah’s Government gave the British and Russians new cause for complaint when they failed to produce the first consignment of 250 German males whom they had promised to deliver to the two Allied Governments Friday morning. Two special

| trains, which were scheduled to leave for Russian

headquarters at Kasbin and British : headquarters at Ahwaz, just north of Shahpur on the Persian Gulf, failed to depart with their unwilling passengers. An immediate protest followed and the Iranians finally surrendered 72 Germans.

British Blame Shah Himself

Fifth Columnists and do not .include persons with diplomatic status. Women and children may accompany them, ‘if they wish, or otherwise will be repatriated to Germany. : It is still not known how many German internees there are altogether; no mention is made of other Axis nations who, it is assumed, will also be interned when and if the Iranians meet their commitments. The British show no hesitation in blaming theShah himself, who, they point out, improverished his country by some of the biggest-time grafting ever known, even in the East. The difficulty is nobody seems to know who might be acceptable as his successor, if and when he is ousted. It is hoped that the Iranians themselves will settle this little problem but if they don’t somebody else will. : The Crown Prince is held directly responsibfe for the article appearing in Tehran newspaper, Ettelaat, which criticized the British and stated that Iran would continue to maintain diplomatic relations with the Axis.+ Reports indicate that he wrote the piece himself, In any case, the paper has now been suppressed and the British have announced that Iran’srelations with the Axis are at an end no matter what the Shah, or the Crown Prince, or anybody else may

Copyright, 1941, by The Iudisnapolls Sines snd ‘The Chicago

So They Say— There is not an industrial dispute worth mentioning in Britain. Yet, not only are the great trade unions intact, but they are stronger than ever—

[ Ernest Bevin, labor minister in Britain,

Still Time to By Westbrook Pegler | fia WW

NEW" YORK, Sept. 15~From | ~~

families of the trade were Masons or Catholics pre- | that Masons and Catholics as well as Jews have been |

In fact, inasmuch as Adolf Hitler has proclaimed |

‘as stealthy traitors. They would have been accused | for using the monopoly to betray the nation into the |

agination than lies at hand in the record of Hitler's | rise and the international treacheries.which made |.

THE GERMANS IN QUESTION are described as |

11

Pull in Your Neck, Boys!

Pe by nol rr

quiry into . the - political sympa- i ,

5, 1941

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

MR. TAYLOR JABS BACK AGAIN AT MR. MEITZLER By William Taylor, Morgantown

Mr. Meitzler is far from consistent in his labor baiting role. First, he accused union labor of wanting something for nothing and dwelled on the foolish idea of accusing them of that age-old silliness—“the world owes us a living.” Second, he came up with the old reactionary manufacturers’ - association scare of “fomented by communists, fellow travelers or nearly 50.” Now that the communists have taken the flip flop road, he also has done a flip fllop, that would: put a hand spring artist to shame, and comes up in another labor baiting role, charging labor leaders as being agents of Hitler. 5 2

souri type of show me the proof, I suggest he contact the FBI and give proof that will guarantee results or cease his poison pen propaganda. 8 8 8 INSINUATES POLICE ARE PROTECTING PUNCHBOARDS By C. M., Indianapolis : I have this day learned .of something new in law enforcement or rather should I say salesmanship? My brother-in-law operates a small restaurant in the city. Sometime ago he was approached by a man placing punchboards on a share basis in various stores in the city. He was told that the boards would not be bothered if only minors were not permitted to play. The boards helped business which was none too flourishing and all was well for awhile, Last week a police officer came in and told my brother-in-law to take the board off of display which he did. He contacted the owner of the board who instructed him to put it back on the counter which he did. A few days later a sergeant came in and picked up the board and took it with him. There was no arrests made, Two days later a rival operator came in and told my brother-in-law that he had been advised that he was wanting a board and had been ‘doing business with the wrong people.” This man told my brother that if an officer came in to show him a small sticker of a race -car which was posted on the back of the board and the police would know to let it alone. My brother-in-law decided to forget the punchboard idea, however some of his competitors operate boards which have the race car stamp and

Since Meitzler is of the old Mis-

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

police go in and out and no complaints are made. Again I ask. Is this law enforcement or salesmanship? » 2 ” G. C. D. ANSWERS CRITICS, REPEATS HIS CHARGE By G. C. D., Southport I am astonished to learn that Indianapolis has so many people who seem to be unaware of actual conditions and to actually distort what some person has said. I said that since the soldiers have been in Indianapolis, parts of N. Illinois St. look like a red light district. It’s true. I was not and I am not casting aspersions on the soldiers. My own

brother is a draftee. What I would |

like people . . . to get through their heads is the fact that parts of the town are teeming with prostitutes. I said the military police are doing nothing about it and that the city police should.

In simple words, I am more friend

to the soldier than his so-called backers in the Forum. . You can’t protect a soldier’s health and morals by subjecting him to the sort of thing so many in Indianapolis seem to be proud of. . : : ‘e880 MR. EDWARDS GIVES HIS ‘DEFINITIONS’ By W. H. Edwards, Spencer Some Definitions, Tories: Those Colonials who opposed the move of the Revolutionary Patriots to free the colonies from the British ~erown and who tried in every possible way to hamper Washington's. army. The Knights of the Golden Circle: Generally called Copperheads; those active sympathizers with the South who banded themselves together in several of the Northern states to sabotage the Union Army in every way possible. So strong and troublesome did they become that Union soldiers had to be withdrawn from the front lines and brought north to put down an incipient rebellion. Draft riots occurred in New York City, engendered by those who

Side Glances=By Galbraith

hated Lincoln and all of his works. Lincoln was bemeaned and called all kinds of dirty names by those who sought to overthrow his administration. : Present day Isolationists-Obstruc-tionists: Those citizens who ‘through egoism, personal hatred, ultra partisanship, or those who seek to serve their personal ambition, use false

efforts of constitutionally elected leaders to preserve national safety and national welfare; or those who through ignorance of fundamental facts seek to divide the public in times of national crisis, thereby destroying unity in the face of national danger. : 2 2 o AN ANTI-LINDBERGH VOICE RAISES ITSELF By Tee Hee Hee, Indianapolis

Now, who’s laughing last? The Lindbergh bubble has finally broken. The ex-colonel has been smoked out and, as Steve Early points out, the similarity between what he believes in and what the Germans believe in themselves is so marked you can’t dodge it. But I suppose there are still a good many Roosevelt haters who will find some way to rationalize this latest flasco involving the excolonel and will go around explaining carefully that Herr Lindbergh really loves the British, the Jews and Mr. Roosevelt, but disagrees sincerely with their viewpoints. Nuts. I've read a good many of Father Coughlin’s issues of that sheet he prints and I've compared them with Mister Lindbergh’s speeches and, so help me, I can’t detect any difference. ! Let me tell the America Firsters that in the opinion of a good many thousands of American citizens it all adds up to one thing, regardless of their local statements. » » ”

A LANDLORD GIVES HIS SIDE OF THE STORY By A Landlord, Indianapolis

For certain obvious reasons, I request your aid in keeping my identity anonymous. I would like to present, however, a rebuttal, in effect, to the general impression that a good many landlords are “sticking the public.”

cases, the landlords are not gouging the tenants. The owner of a property has always these things to consider: 1. Taxes. (That's a large item, payable in two semi-annual installments. All you have to do is to figure out the assessed value of any

|| piece of property and apply our | County tax rate to it.” That item

alone would frighten thousands of

| tenants!)

2. Upkeep. (It depends on the

| house, of course, but how can you || expect to get a decent rental if the

paint isn’t good, or if the roof isn't attended to, or if the furnace doesn’t work, or if the plumbing is faulty? Believe you me, added all together, a year’s upkeep of a house is no picayune figure.) 3. Interest. (Now, after all, a good many landlords are still paying: off on the property they are receiving rentals for. The sum these

‘landlords pay is not all on the

principal. Part is interest.) - Tack all these up together and what have you? Surely no bed of roses for the average = property owner,

A FRIEND By FRANCES RICHMOND

A friend is one who is faithful all : down through the years, Who shares your joy and laughter, your sorrow and tears, Altho there may come a time when your paths lay apart, Their memory is forever engraved on your heart. Sg

DAILY THOUGHT

God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked

| | every day —Psalms 7:11. y ; 2 a nnn > :

logic to hamper and sabotage the}

I assure you that in a good many|

Gen. Johnson Says—

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15.—From a military viewpoint it is still too early to make even a stab at a guess on the outcome of the gigantic battle of Russia, Based upon the great distances, the lack of transportation and the numbers involved, this column was one of the few that did not predict a short campaign. = The question now seems to be one of supply. It is an axiom of modern war that no nation can long support it without access to very large steel and chemical industries; No nation without these facilities can engage in it at all unless she has piled up a tremendous reserve of weapons and munitions of all kinds. STarnni® Russia certainly never had an adequate industry and the principal centers of what she had are either in Nazi hands or, as in the case of Leningrad, beleaguered. Disclosure by the ordeal of battle of the great reserves of munitions she had piled up has astonished military observers. But what is her military supply situation now? Maybe Mr. Hopkins and his competent military staff know after their visit to Comrade Stalin, but few others know enough to make a good guess. My own is that it isn’t so hot, and I can’t see much chance of bettering it greatly. The bottlenecks in the flow of British or American aid are too narrow ° and the distance and requirements are too great to suppose that we can be a very effective arsenal to the Russian democracy (?).

Winter And the Channel

NEVERTHELESS, THE RUSSIAN resistance has been and will for some time, remain the greatest aid for which Britain could have hoped. It is scarcely possible gow for Hitler to expect any such Russian collapse this year as would enable him to call it a day on the eastern front. A large part of his strength is sure to be engaged there for months. . This brings up the real point of this piece—~the recent repeated suggestions of many military come mentators that he will now turn to the invasion of Britain. : Even on that the available information is sketchy, but one thing is certain. Winter is the worst time to try to cross the English Channel, just as, generally speaking, it is the worst. time for a western European force to get tangled up in Russia. It is true that Hitler's air attack on Britain lasted to October. It is true "also that the only successful invasion of Britain in 875 years first touched her shores late in September. But the parallels are imperfect. It takes time to mount and prepare such a modern major effort and there is not enough time between now and the days when the English channel will be much more difficult to cross and the British Isles much more easy to defend.

" Where Are the Italians?

IT SEEMS VERY DOUBTFUL to me that Hitler, unless driven by crazy desperation, will make any such gamble this year. cos That he will strike on some new front there can hardly be a doubt unless affairs within his hi-jacked empire, including his home front, are much .more mushy than they seem. In this connection, one wonders what is happening to the all-valiant armies: of Il Duce. They are cone siderable. One would suppose that they could at least do garrison duty in the “conquered provinces” to relieve a few army corps of Nazi “supermen.” The military scene is rendered conspicuous by their absence in most fields. It is well known that Hitler and his generals have a contempt for them, but may their present inactivity not be at least a straw in the wind to show where the next blow will fall, Perhaps at one end or the other of the Mediterranean, but, almost inconceivably directly at the British Isles,

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

THE MORNING MAIL brings a letter from a woman who wants a few questions answered—with no platitudes, please, She asks for the straight goods or nothing, and anyone who feels qualified to provide it can have the courtesy of this column, Here is the list: “Why does Ireland remain neue tral in this brawl? “Why should America covet foreign trade or export business when we never get any pay for the goods? Srila : “What is foreign business worth when our Gove ernment has to give the goods way at the expense of the American taxpayer? ; bs “What will America do with the ‘hundreds of millions of foreigners after we whip and corral them, if we ever do? “How much less than three or four million young Americans and fifty billions of dollars will it cost to ‘fix up’ Europe? : “Will we be compelled to police, manage and feed the millions after we subdue them? “How many individuals or nations ever received a thank you or later good will for Laving push themselves into the brawls of others?” A

Let's Use Our Heads Now

SHE SAYS SHE'LL be much obliged for answers, and so will I, although it is now considered near treason in some quarters to let your thoughts wander into the “after the war” future. The main idea is to lick Hitler; after that, if public opinion is correct, the world will automatically right itself. .

It won't, of course. What we face then will make this all-out aid business look -like an ice-cream-soda treat—unless we use our heads on the question now, Some people are doing so. An excellent series by William Philip Simms, this newspaper’s foreign editor, reminds us that British wealth and power are definitely on the wane, and that, having put ourselves into this war for better or worse, we shall have to take on the responsibility of policing the world from this time on, : : The crusade to save Christiandom has its grandiose aspects, but a little close study of what happens after a crusade might also be worth while. i

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information, not involving extensive res search, Write your questions clearly, sign name and raion inclose a three-cent ‘postage stamp. Medical or legal advi Address The Times Washington Service

cannot be given. of

Bureau, 1013 Thirteenth St., Washington, D. C.) i Q—Can a fire started by lightning be extinguished with water? : : ¢ A—A fire produced by lightning has the same physical properties as any other fire and can be exe tinguished in the same manner. 5 "Q—Would a cottonwood tree near my well cause the water supply to diminish? 3 A—TIt is doubtful if the cottonwood would have any considerable effect on a well. Farmers in many sec tions of the United States are complaining about ‘a diminishing water supply. This is caused somewhat by bad forestry practices, drought, increased popula tion and other reasons. The water table in the vicinity may have lowered during a period of years. Write to the State Geologist at the State Capital, or consult the County Agent for advice -about how to increase the water supply. Na : vi Q—Was Gen. Custer, of Indian massacre fame, & graduate of West Point? : > & A—Gen. George Armstrong Custer was graduate from West Point in 1861, and cot ed lieutenant. His first day at the front in the Wi Between the States, was at Bull Run, on K staff. va 4 I alae GHow. much linen stock does a Pullman: slee

carry 3 4 Ro fi mati ve fay XR A—For a round trip of one night in each direce tion, the supply for a standard Pullman sleeper cons sists of about 160 sheets, 120 pillow slips, 200 towels five porters 3 cots and six laundry also and | =