Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 October 1941 — Page 22

|THE FEARFUL FUSILLADE

"he ‘Indianapolis Times

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER = MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager : ; (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Owned and" publishes Price in Marion CounSally (except Sunday) by ct 21 The Indianapolis Times : sted bv carrier, 12. cents. a we

Man Sssiption © rates

in’ $3 a ; sents & mony

- RaLEY so

- Newsper Alliance, NEA. E , and Audit Bue Yeau of Circulations, *

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1941

TRANGE that in the thunderous din of the tremendous assault on Moscow, the crackle of the guns of a few

gquads of riflemen should be so clearly heard! .. «In Czechoslovakia, in J ugoslavia, in France, in Holland |

“and. Norway, the repeated dull crashes of the firing-squads ‘gome clearly to the ear with sickening repetition; heard all

~ too plainly above the din of the Russian battle. = At least

fn conquered countries, according to a. compilation of official |

1641 peoplefben been slaughtered by this fearful fusillade

‘German reports. The echoes of those shots, cutting dow helpless men. whose only crime was that they loved their native land,will be ringing in the world’s ears long, after the storm of battle has subsided.

“NOTORIOUS AND VICIOUS”

Yee is nothing novel about the. “practicing of in-

fluence” in ‘Washington by former Government em-

ployees who, though out of office, are still chummy with

their one-time colleagues in strategic Federal positions. Here is what was said six years ago by ‘George Henry Payne, a member. of the Federal Communications Com-

mission:

“Washington is overrun with legalistic lobbyists ad legislative agents and so-called ‘fixers’—and everybody

Knows it.

| “Everybody also knows that there are cliques who have entered the, Government service for a short time with the

intention of resigning and of making scandalous use of the

information they have obtained” from. the inside of the

- Government.

“These people’ shortly bob up as counsel or agents for private interests to. whom they have sold the experience

and information they gleaned from the Government. or to

on ‘whom they have sold their alleged influence: with the de-

partment in which they had served. ie “This is a notorious and vicious abuse’ of which the Government ought to be purged.” yy x 8 os . ss =» T Mr. Payne's instance,” the FCC adopted a rule forbidding former employees of that agency from practic- _ ing before it within two years after their retirement. But that doesn’t prevent them from “practicing” before other Government agencies. And it doesn't prevent

2 _ ex-eniployées of other agencies from “practicing” before

the FCC or elsewhere in the Government where they may

pd

- have complacent friends.

Lately the defense boom has produced an unusual

_ amount of activity by alumpi of the Government service—

. men who when in office basked in an aura of altruism and _ gimo-purity, but who on leaving the public’ pay roll have

suddenly found it O. K. to peddle their influence wherever the fees are fat. Senator Carl Hatch (D. N. M.) has put in a bill to bar ex-employees of the Government from appearing before any Government agency whatsoever until two years after Jeaving the service. Rep. Joseph Gavagan (D. N. Y.) hag pffered the same bill in the House, It ought to be passed.

\

UNMOURNED SHORTAGE

Government press agent, or information specialist | as he is more pompously called on the payroll records,

Is often a useful creature, even though at other times he | - 18 a special pleader for an appropriation-hungry bureaucracy.

‘Nobody, in the Government or out, knows how many blicity men there are on the Federal rolls. A few years Bgo the Civil Service ‘Commission estimated their number at 2600, but since then they have multiplied like mosquitoes. Bo has their output. A Washington correspondent’s office apt to be knee-deep in the fruit of the mimeograph maghine—speeches;s statistics, brochures, announcements, reports, orders, and what not. Most of it dull as ditchwater, and much of it trivial. | But at last a measure of relief is in sight. Although

. the Government has been buying up all the mimeograph

paper available; still there isn’t enough to keep the machines going at their: accustomed consumption—in Washington alone—of 800,000 pounds:of paper a month, We wish the conservative measure -would go further.

_% Both the taxpayers and the ‘word-jaded correspondents

yould benefit if the press agents were required to be more oncise—if they were told; as an old boss used to ih, vs, t “every word must work or Agee b pit

I0FF. AND BUY-OFF NE of the big film producers testified i in New York that _ he considered it “good husiness™ to pay $100,000 in bute to Willie Bioff, boss of the A, F of L. union of stage nloyees and movie operators. = He feared to displease Bioff, he. said, because Bioff power fo. call strikes and “close: up- the business.” It is not good business to pay. ‘blackmail. Yielding fo. extortion only encourages the ‘extortioner to demand more. It is a confession of timidity, unworthy of a great jdustry—and how much more unworthy of the Governdent of the United States! - Yet Sidney Hillman, co-director of the Office of Proon Management, has testified in Washington that s considered good Government policy to deny a defense-

contract to an employer of C. 1. 0: labor whose |

at least $200,000 lower than any other. And why? Because of fear that displeasing the powerful A, F, of

ty. 3. cents & copy: deliv |

: fe ga the, stories

atrocities were inventions of mn ;

But. Kindly peo

mar slaughter of hostages | with, A

_ in France and other’ conqu a should be. preserved

Ib will be be ‘remembered that ~propogands was oircilated for

of’ their a p.i.# | against innocent and BIE oe gaptives, It was scorni- | - fully’ denied’ that ine Germans had : $ door and tha they had even"

cified a Cana-

ple, the: a i

| babies or the breasts of Belgian |

a children on their bayonets,

But it’ Vad, E been seriously: alleged that they had" committed any of these herrors and rumors that they |' had done 50 had been investigated and repudiated long.

before:

Nevertheless, the real atrocities remained in the |’

record, but were forgotten in the confusion regarding: crimes. that never took place. It was as though a man guilty of beating a cripple to death with a /bat were to set up a hullabaloo. that he had never thrown a baby into a furnace and-thus completely divert attention from the fact that he

actually did slaughter the cripple as charged. A Horrible Method of Reprisal

IN "FRANCE, IN ONE DAY, 50 Frenchmen have

died for the shooting of a German officer, although it was not even alleged that-any the remotest -connection with: the crime. This is a horrible method of reprisal which the Germans, under the Kaiser then and now under the Fuehrer, have resorted to instintively. It is premised at the present writing that 50 more Frenchmen will be selected at random from the pens and shot unless the assassins of another German officer. are turned in. Obviously the assassins cannot be turned up by the French people or their groveling government and Marshal Petain, in a speech: that: must humiliaté all Frenchmen, has even said that the Killers were the. agents of foreign powers, presumably Britain and Russia, in which case certainly there would be no shadow of an excuse for these shocking reprisals on his innocént countrymen. Yet Petain absolves the Germans of blame in his cry to Frenchmen to “find the culprits” and save further victims from execution. He could more resonably, if he had the character, demand that the Germans, with their secret police and other means, discover and, by credible proof, convict the guilty men and spare the innocent.

No Need to Invent Atrocities

AFTER THIS WAR certainly there can be no belief in any German denials of their atrocities, nor may it be allowed that the horrors inflicted on the Jews not only in Germany but wherever else the Germans have found them. are civilized conduct. The Nazis would have it that by decree of the Fuehrer the Jews have become sub-human and that atrocities on them do not count, but if that ‘contention is sustained then any man will have a moral right to declare that anyone whom he dislikes is sub-human and subject to death at his hands or any other, cruelty that his nature decrees. This war, it will be remembered, was touched off finally after many years of whining and self-pity on the part of the Germans, as a protest against the iniquitous cruelties of the Versailles Treaty which, itself, was a gentle and forgiving peace by comparison with the plan which the Kaiser had in mind Now the nation which yowled so loud and long over the loss of some African colonies which, as Hitler has admitted, were not of much practical value, and a few mild repressions, has abolished a number of continental nations and has decreed that the Catholic Poles, like the Jews in Poland and everywhere else, are of a low order and scarcely human. /- Hundreds of helpless hostages have been :shot for crimes which, having been- in custody at the time, they could not have committed and so there is no need to invent atrocities to make the record against the’ German nation.

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

Indiana Politics By Vern Boxell

RANDOM. NOTES FROM the political arena: Victcr Jose, who handled the recount suits for the Républicans in the 1940 county election, is reported in line for - the County Attorney job when the Republicans gain control of the County Commissioners Jan. 1. , .. Another change in Hoosier Republican leadership may be made

soon, Noland Wright of Ander-

son, president of Indiana Young

Republicans, will be ousted, ac-'

cording to these rumors. Robert Loring, Deputy Securities Commissioner in Secretary of State James Tucker’s office, who is Young Republican regional director for four states, probably will be asked to serve out Mr. Wright's unexpired term. Mr. Wright, who was twice clerk of the Indiana House, reportedly still is a candidate for Mr. Tucker's job next year... . Maurice Robinson, also from Anderson and reported to be Tucker's choice as his successor, wouldn't mind running for the Supreme Court instead next year, according to the grapevine. But to keep control of the auto license patronage, Mr. Tucker must nome inate and elect a successor and his Securities. Com~ missioner appears to be his best bet. . . . Which reminds us that John Campbell, Frankfort's city clerk, also is reported to have the Secretary of State bug.

A Jenner-Tucker Partnership?

BILL JENNER'S house-hunting expeditions in Indianapolis and nearby Zionsville have stirred up a world of speculation despite the Sheals attorney’s

protestations. that any change in residence in the near future will be strictly business.

The current report is that such a move may mean |

8 union of ‘the Jenner-Tucker groups. Both of them come from the same district, which means that State Senator Jenner. could not get the gubernatorial nomination and Mr.- Tucker the senatorial spot at the same time in 1944. And they both have their sights get on these spots. So those who said that Ewing Emison, the Seventh District. chairman, deserted Mr. Jenner, his 4 bernatorial choice, when he got on Mr. Tuck d wagon in ousting State Chairnian Arch bitt and collecting the age, may be forced to revise their claims.

Incidentally, although many of his friends are urg- ||

ing Bobbitt to seek the Attorney General nomination’ in the 1942 convention, the former G. O. P. chairman

2 55id_10 have id, thats ha} be not a can ¥ for any offee. is idle

Eis

t's time for hom em es i vd en ex

Rely Samp. from w an ave molaing ~ Alaska.

and teamsters might, in Mr, | Le

¢ union Vasisry) rand give “irre |

of these victims had”

the auto license branch patron. |

TE Rnur——

Jery F orward Pass! |

I I.

minting ye w¥

Gen. | Jo Shrson Says—

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2M4--If my mail and contacts and what - I hear of those Congressmen are any criterion, a very unpleasant situation is gathering speed and volume in this country—like a snowball on a mountain-side which could hecome an avalanche. It isn't so much a protest against so-called “priorities unemployment” as it is of the arbitrary and unplanned nature of the defense restrictions which, if not in some way r softened, will ‘wipe out or tragically cripple all but the greatest corporations in this country and impose burdens, not yet dimly: dreamed on the entire civil population. . This writer has been intimately familiar with most of the recent emergencies in Wash ~before World War I, while it was going on, in the immediate post-war and industrial depression, in the much greater: 1929 depression, during the formation of the New Deal, throughout the groping, fumbling approach:

to World war II—and now.

‘An Orgy of Utter Confusion’

IN EACH GREATER or lesser crisis, it tended to become a madhouse, but, compared with the situation

' today, the appropriate incidental music would have

been “calm sea and happy voyage.” Just now itis a

| madhoyse from which the roof has been taken

The Hoosier Forum

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

‘TIRED OF TRYING TO CHANGE ELECTION DATES By, Luther McShane, 430 Massachusetts

Your paper recently carried an article stating that Judge Earl R. Cox stated he believed the “Skip Election” law to be unconstitutional. I believe the Judge is right and so does every other taxpayer and citizen whom I have talked with. Both Democrats and Republicans want a City election next year. I don’t understand why anyone should want to foist the added expense of an election in 1943 upon ‘the backs of the taxpayers. The general public is .sick and tired of elected officials trying to change election - dates, especially

. |when it’ means more expense to

them in the way of extra taxes for a needless election. I hope this question is quickly settled. , ”8 sn STATE TRADE BARRIERS ‘HARM ENTIRE COUNTRY’

By Carl J. Kung, 1806 S. Talbot St. The introduction and extension of trade barriers between the states of the country and a continued maintenance of such interstate tariff walls will harm the entire country. The practice violates the Constitution and should therefore be eliminated. Profiting from the experience especially of European countries, where dissension, strife, even wars were provoked by trade barriers, the framers of our Constitution wisely incorporated in the fundamental law of the land the provision forbidding a state to levy import or duty on the products of any other state seeking entry into its domain. The rapid economic development of our country is due in no small part to ‘the wisdom of this prescription. However, within the past several years many states have surrounded ‘their domains with trade walls intended to keep out the products of their sister states. Some states have even established “ports of entry,” one commonwealth having 60 of ‘these posts situated at as many entrances as its boundaries. In cerfain instances automobile

(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.)

travelers are compelled to pay a tax on the gasoline in their tanks, and also upon such items as tobacco already in their possession. Other states impose a “use tax” on all commodities “imported” from another state, or collect a sales tax upon entry. States employing such tactics, in violation of the Constitution, are of course blind to their own real interests. In the first place, no single state is even remotely self-sufficient. Moreover, the y of all the citizens of our country is dependent upon the unfettered trade between the states. To turn back the clock 150 years and divide the country into 48 small nations instead of 48 members of a united nation would work irreparable harm. In calling attention to this condition, steps should be taken to enforce the provisions of the Constitution affecting interstate relations.

o » ® ‘SUPPRESSING FREE SPEECH MOST DANGEROUS OF ALL’ By Orval Peats, 2339 Southeastern Ave. I have read many items in the Hoosier Forum, but never before have I read any such as J. V. K. sent in and was printed Oct. 18, 1941. I presume J. V. K. claims to be a good American. Before I would write such an article, I would first go back a few years in American history and find out just what made America what it is, the greutest land on earth, Unless my memory fails ‘me, this great land of ours was founded on free speech, free press and the right to worship according to the dictates of one’s own conscience. J. V. K. according to his own words, is in favor of a radical change in the form of government under which we live. , Suppressing free speech is the

Side Glances=By Galbraith

most dangerous thing the American people could imagine. I don’t say I

do I agree with Charles Lindbergh or Senator Wheeler. All these gentlemen have their views on the various happenings in this troubled world of ours, even as you and I, but to advocate suppression of their right to make public their yiews is absolutely un-Ameri-can, » # o U. A. W. MAN ATTACKS AUTO INDUSTRY AS ‘SABOTEURSY’ By William ‘Taylor, Morgantown The membership of the United Auto Workers in the General Motors plants agreed to accept the recommendations of the mediation board last June. The only gain was increase in pay. We could have, if we so desired, forced a closed shop, and many other concessions. Realizing

that a strike would have interrupted the defense program, we walved aside our golden opportunity for organizational gain in order that the machinery and manpower would be utilized to help defeat mad Hitler and his armies, Today the answer to our patriotic sacrifice is curtailment of producfion and employment. A modern plant, with modern machinery and equipment, producing three and four days per week. Orders from Washington are to the effect 220,000 auto workers are to be laid off by Dec. 1st. General Motors holds the lion's share of contracts for national defense, and why they should build new buildings when steel and other materials are vitally needed for defense seems to' be un-American. Should not defense contracts be allocated to the auto plants and building materials be diverted to where they are most needed? The press has consistently charged that any strike (even 10 men) was a tie-up of national defense. Where is that same press now when auto manufacturers are tying up national defense? Have we forgotten the slogan labor-baiting Sloan of GM used, when he stated that an idle plant in America is no better than a bombed plant in England? We are told that a dictator would take away our rights and democracy would cease. I believe that to be. truth. However, I honestly believe that those who: want to preserve democracy here should put some dictator force upon those in industry who are now unmasked and proven to be the

- §/| real saboteurs of national defense, -| Heading that list is- the auto industry.

With modern plants and modern ent idle, the number one is to force defense work into those plants. Let«those who cast their stones at labor retrieve them and cast them where they will do

~ || the most good.

: : are they. wh whigh in

WINTER

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DAILY THOUGHT

But os on an wt oun |

BEESSF

believe all the things these men you] " {mentioned has to say, but neither

| cestors so that we may acquire a sense

and all the witches and their familiars have invited in to celebrate Walpurgis Night. in an orgy

"of utter confusion.

The hotels are crowded with frantic or dispirited people, eager to co-operate, but unable to find out what they can or can't d® or what is expected of them. In general they get one continuous run-around there and learn from home of one ruinous restriction after another, either lately applied or in immediate prospect. .Rising prices, confiscatory taxes, with no end in sight, ‘they can understand and expect. But the increasing denials to them of materials, transportation,

‘power with which to conduct their business, even

on a skeleton basis, threaten a sentence of economic

death—to them and many of their employees. This

is much harder for anybody to understand, and the stern necessity for it, if it exists, has simply not. been “sold” to them.

A Long and Difficult Task .

BELATEDLY MR. ODLUM has been called in to “preserve the small businessman” by spreading defense orders. Anybody who knows anything about war production ‘is aware that this is a werthy, but almost worthless gesture. So little sub-contracting can produce efficient results. So many—by far the bulk—of these people can’t take defense business. They are not equippedsor it. It is a long and difficult task to change over a plant from one type of production to something entirely different. Neither can employees trained in one specialty be easily adapted to another. In addition, by far the majority, such as retailers, wholesalers and non-metal-working shops can’t take this kind of work at all. Mr. Odlum, while being one of our ablest promoters in finance, especially of public utilities, has no experience in this type of industry or administration. No comfort has been found there. He seems to be as bewildered as the dazed people who look to him rather hopelessly for help. How long can you do this sort of thing and how far can you go? I don’t know.’ But people who talk about 50 billions of war production annually and have no answer to the necessitous requirements of our civilian populaticn except “let them do without” would do well to pay some heed te this situation. Our country wants to do its part. But somewhere there is a limit to what we can do. Isn't anybody in Government paying any attention to that? Not up to the present writing.

A Woman's Viwocind By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

BECAUSE WE ANE all search ing for something to fortify i faith, a new book just uals by Harper and Brothers must be recommended. The author of . “Brave Enough for Life” is aro W. Overstreet—and that Over- - street couple can certainly wre. Even if you handle books ~ the time, and open each fresh o with “cynical digdain, since such a vast number aren’t worth opening, you can see instantly glancing at the first page that ‘this is a differeht kind of book. Your mind will fasten fiercely the words for there is a terrible hunger abroad our land—a hunger for something more desirahle than bread—food for the soul. And here, in simple language is sustenance. Mrs. Overstreet wanted something to build up her own flagging courage. She looked about her, and,

spirit, said to herself, “I must prepare for it by gathering together and keeping everything in my "own experience and in history that will give me: confidence in people.” The result is her book,

Choose Spiritual Ancestors . GREAT PEOPLE HAVE always been alive In the

world and they live among us today. Because the are never in the majority, the generation vo whi they belong seldom sees them. They are r :

only when. they have become a part of the past.

Mrs. Overstreet advised us to choose spiritual anfellowship. She names. those she has chosen—Euripides, Aristotle, and Socrates, who really died for freedom of speech when he drank the hemlock rather than cease speaking what he believed to be th th, Epictetus, St. Francis, Erasmus, George Foxe and John. i Coming down to our own time, she reminds he of the few great ones she has et~Einste in, Gan Bdward Arlington Robinson, Father Jimmy Tompkins ; and others. Besides, there are all the lil He great people who never get their names in the papers or history books. You know many of them an fo do I.' And so long as one of them is left alive, there is ope 3 for the The author's creed is is summed up in these

“In order to have a. sense of of felowibip I do not have to visualize myself in the majority. I have only to yay that among my econtemporaries there are men and women speaking in defense of the same values that have been | defendeg by the great of all ages.”

i

Questions and Answers

race. words:

St oe

: Q-Is Connle’ Boswell crippled? Does she use 4 '| wheel chair when she broadcasts?

A--Blie crippled since hildhood. When | Ate baa dios a. high whee onl, apd a1 . tie

other times a -folding whee} chair, =

Se i the Sia wore spud a

seeing signs of & hard winter ahead for the human . .