Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 December 1941 — Page 26

‘he Indianapolis Times

DY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

Price in Marion Coun3.3 SI A Ih Times ered carrier, cents Publishing o Ne Ww. Maryland St Member of United Press. ; «Howard NewsAlliance, NEA and Audit Bu-

Give Light ond the People Will Fins Their Ous Wey

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1941

TO SOLVE THE LABOR PROBLEM 3 UNRESTRAINED power is always abused. The Govern- ~~ ment has given unrestrained power to labor unions. _ The purpose was to promote the general welfare by recognizing and protecting the rights of workers. The result has been to put the rights of workers and the general welfare at the mercy of men who control unions. We believe that is a fair statement of the problem now That problem has been allowed to grow until it endangers the defense of the nation. Leaders in‘ Congress pretend to believe that it can be solved by a law requiring “cooling off” periods during compulsory mediation of disputes in defense industries, with the Government authorized to keep such industries in operation by taking them over,

’

fixing wages and freezing relations between workers and ~~ management, : A law like that, necessary as it may be as an expedient, is not a remedy. Even as an expedient, it will not serve long unless Congress does much more to require responsi- ~ bility in the use of power by unions and their officials. We believe that the absolutely necessary reforms can be achieved without touching the real rights of any worker, | and with great benefit to the rank and file of labor. ap oy ® = = ® 8 @ lL THE first essential, we believe, is to lay down the principle that a union is entitled to the Government's protection only if it is actually controlled by its members, through democratic processes, and only if it recognizes and fulfills its obligations to the public. The second is to affirm

: _ that unions, like any other associations of human beings,

can be guilty of wrongs and will be held accountable for them. Law should require election of union officers at regular and stated intervals, by secret ballot, and regular public reports, with independent audits on unions’ receipts and The Wagner Act defends and prohibits unfair practices by employers. The act should also prohibit intimidation and coercion of workers by unions which seek its benefits. It should be made illegal to call a strike in a defense industry, except by majority vote of the workers affected, _ in an election under Government supervision. # i # ® # ® A CLEAR distinction should be drawn, in industries af; + fecting national defense, between disputes over wages, hours and working conditions and disputes over questions of union organization. The policy of President Wilson's War Labor Board— that a national emergency must not be used by an employer to destroy the closed shop or by a union to obtain it— should have been adopted long ago, and certainly should be adopted now. And, emergency or no, in all industries, labor ghould be required to settle its own jurisdictional controversies without strikes. The special privilege of unions to restrain trade for purposes having nothing to do with the legitimate objectives of labor organization should be cancelled. There is no moral excuse, and there should be no immunity under = the anti-trust laws, for unions which use their power to enforce systems of graft and extortion, to enforce illegally fixed prices, to prevent use of improved equipment and efficient methods, to compel .the hiring of unnecessary workers, or to destroy other unions.

~ SPENDING IS STILL A NEW DEAL ART . “WHEN a leatherneck comes in from a hard day on the ~ 'Y firing range or at bayonet practice, there is nothing he likes better than to stand around and gape at WPA pictures showing what heroes the Marines were in World "War One, R At least that is the way WPA officials have it figured out, and that is one of the reasons for failure to cut nondefense expenditures. The depression-born New Deal relief agencies are determined to survive the boom, even if they have to masquerade in service uniforms. The progress being made in this pseudo-patriotic field is reported at WPA headquarters in a bulletin entitled “The WPA Week in National Defense,” from which the following ~ is taken: ~ “Gallant fighting of the Marines in the battle of “Chateau Thiery in World War I is being put on canvas to inspire today’s recruits at the San Diego Marine Base with * the victorious traditions of the Marine Corps. A 15-foot

THE FORTY-NINTH STATE _ JHAWAIL has long staked out a claim that some day it would like to be the 49th state. Unless it watch out, Jefferson will get ahead of it. | : ~ - Up in the high Siskiyou Mountains of California, mining men are distributing handbills proclaiming the “independe of a group of Oregon and California border counas the “State of Jefferson.” : : Most other Californians and Oregonians don’t take seriously this “secession” from their states, and attribute to the miners’ desire to advertise the mineral wealth of region and fo get more road appropriations, ‘Hawaii, which has waited a long time, needn’t despair yet achieving the title of “49th state,” no matter how th fun they have up in the Siskiyous.

LKING ABOUT ALTITUDE

ealth aid says Uncle Sam may have to ration food. |

a a

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

of Johnstown, Pa., Southern industrial plants and the oil Oklahoma and Louisiana by mobs ¢ of local talent and in part of im by Communists from New York dalism, rioting and, in one stou surrection against.the legal government. The Southern states have a peculiar temperament and react vigorously to action by carpet-

baggers, § if Mr. Murray means what he said, and if it may

be assumed that the C. I. O. adheres to its old, tried methods, the organizing campaign should provide many hours of excitement.

It's an Inviting Field

THERE ARE FEW Southerners living who personally. recall the disorders occasioned by the last descent. of the carpet-bagger, but most of them have inherited an attitude which will become instantly and painfully apparent. The field is most inviting, for unionism in the South is negligible to date and the reason is, largely, that it has been impossible to persuade the white American down there that Jesus Christ never drew the color line. He will have none of this equality business even in a union and will fight efforts to unionize him on a common footing with a Negro of similar skill and similar human necessities. Yet, if the whites be unionized and the colored men be excluded, there goes the white man’s collective bargaining power, thwarted by the cheap labor of the dark man. Then, too, the C. I. O, has proclaimed that the Negro ic welcome and this can only mean that when the organizing campaign gets underway the C. I. O. will have to face the question and give an answer which can only annoy the white population.

It's a Touchy Situation

ALREADY THE C. I O. has announced that Edwin S. Smith, late of the National Labor Relations Board, is to have charge of the organization campaign ip the oil fields and The Tribune of Austin, Tex., announces that the A. F. of L., alert to the rivalry, has allocated the oil workers to its own union

of Operating Engineers and will try to gather them in. The Operating Engineers of the A. F. of L., however, is ne attractive alternative, for this is the union of Hoodlum Joe Fay of Newark, now under indictment in Syracuse for assault on a dissenting subofficer, and of William E. Maloney, president, who maintains a stable of racing horses. And the union, itself, is clearly allied and in many ways similar to the Hod Carriers’ Union, which is notoriously infested with underworld criminals and recently held its first convention in 30 years during which time the toilers were shaken down for millions of dollars. So the situation in the Sduth is very complex, racially and politically, and the implied promise of a march of, say, 40,000 “outsiders” into any Southern community to overawe the cops, the sheriff and the mayer with a threat of bloodshed, as happened at Johnstown, would be likely to produce far different results. In the Johnstown case the governor closed the mills to prevent insurrection, but the Southern temperament must be reckoned with in this. new field of exploitation and the touchy unwillingness of the Southern man to be told by any stranger in town that if he goes to his job he will be slugged with a fare -Jron and his wife and children terrorized mn their omes. Mr. Murray has issued & highly interesting announcement and it was unfertunate that John L. Lewis was making so much noise that the South couldn’t hear it plain.

Editor’s Note: The views expressed by columnists in this newspaper are their own. They are mot necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times.

New Books By Stephen Ellis

THE RECENCY and detail of American history have blanketed the myths and legends which grew about the early settlers, but folklore is an irrepressible expression of a strong, vigorous people. Many modern American writers are so steeped in contemporary realism that they have forgotten the rich, legendary background of the pioneers and the early settlers. But not all. Mark Van Doren, the 1940 Pulitzer prize-winner, has brought us a legend out of Illinois in book-length, free verse—"“The Mayfield r.” . It is no wild, nor hearty myth like Johnny Appleseed or Paul Bunyan, but a story of simple folklife in the Illinois wilderness a century ago. Its factual basis is an Illinois county history which the author

saw several 0. ) hunter, searching for his tame,

ag In 1841, an old pet doe, came to the settlement at Mayfield where the settlers asked whether she might not have been shot. The hunter replied that the doe wore a red flannel neckband and a brass bell to show that she was tame. He added angrily that he would shoot the man who shot the deer, if it. took Seven years to find him. The settlers knew that a boy in the neighborhood had shot the deer. He had hidden the red :flannel neckband and the bell in his cabin as trinkets for a girl .

A Tale to Be Remembered

THAT WAS THE END of the recorded story. Impressed by the possibilities. of the theme, Mr. 1 poem. Telling thus how he happened to record the legend in verse, the author explains: “Sitting

Maulick, was telling me the story of and ‘his deer of the red band )ppened

he poem, Mr. Van Doren has garbed the hunter archaic, 18th Century costume which bewilders and terrifies the Mayfield settlers. The hunter pursues his vengeance and the vengeance which follows is

This tale and its people—the doctor, the old hunter, the Gollidays and the Buells will be remembered. “The Mayfield Deer” is a poem ftp be read slowly on+a winter Sunday afternoon.

s—

Holt & Go. New ¥ark City, 212 Po. Price shs0 wr Henry

So They Say—

Let them get licenses, but don’t make it as hard to get a license as to get a Phi Beta Kappa key. Cook, representing New York peddlers. A

The public is still in-the majority, and will not hold “him who plays fast and loose with its

AY wanted ot the time was to have my

guiltless peace and its security —Dean Chester Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland. ’ 3 :

Gen. Johnson

Says—

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

‘FISCAL PROBLEMS SECOND ONLY TO THE WAR’ By Dan W. Flickinger, 1222 Circle Tower. That was a great editorial The Times had on Noy. 28th entitled “Casey Jones Had Nothing On Us.” Congratulations on the similar courageous stand you have taken along these lines for the past several months, More power to you in “fighting it out along this line.” No question in my mind but what the fiscal problems facing the country are second in importance only to the war situation itself, a" 2 2 ‘WHAT FINER TOOL AVAILABLE

TO GERMAN AGENTS?

By Clyde P. Miller, 108 E. Washington St. To Mr. Floyd L. Hoffman: I wish to thank you for your very published in ‘The Times. Of course I realize that many sincere citizens like yourself are affiliated with the “America First” organization, but I am just as firmly convinced that it has been the foeal point for influence most subversive to our national interest. What better tool could be available to German propaganda agents, for instance, and what more worthy of their finaneial backing than an organization that consistently seeks to hamstring every move made by Congress and by the administration to thwart the obvious menace of Nagiism to us and to the rest of the world, of which we are an integral part? Certainly nothing over here could be better calculated to please and encourage Hitler than the activities of “America First.” To me it seems a strange way to foster American democracy, its traditions and ideals, by participating in a movement that is cheered and endorsed by the greatest enemy of democracy that has ever stalked this earth. I regret to differ with you concerning our entry into the first World War. I do not think it was a mistake. The tragedy of it was our coming out rather than our

Indianapolis

courteous reply to my recent letter|,,

{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.)

going in. We and the allies should have stayed in Germany and garrisoned it for years afterward and we should have joined -the League of Nations and should have become a bulwark of strength to it, not only in thus preventing later wars, but in establishing economic justice and destroying trade barriers between nations and thus dissipate the most fruitful “cause of

ar. : As to Washington’s Farewell Address, the advice was undoubtedly appropriate to the situation of our struggling young republic, but under complex modern conditions and in the present emergency I doubt if Washington would give the same advice today. National policy must keep pace with ever changing conditions. Besides we are not proposing “entangling alliances” with any nation. We are voluntarily and without other commitment, giving aid vo such countries as we deem thereby enabled to keep Hitler out of our hemisphere and we are now following the Washington policy of permitting our ships. to sail where they please.

. » 8a 2 ‘DON’T WE HAVE A STREET CLEANING DEPARTMENT? By N. S., Indianapelis A mention in “Inside Indianapolis” about broken glass on the streets has stirred my attention to a series of similar incidents all over this city and I rise to ask the question: Why don’t we have any decent system of keeping our streets clean like other large cities? Last week, there was some kind of

mixup at 43d and Washington Blvd.

Side Glances—By Galbraith

-jone to two inches to each plate and

not even use, of just that much

breast,

And the hills sre all coverd with

I had to swerve to keep out of the way of the smear of broken glass. That glass stayed there! It was there for days and then presumably was broken up and crushed by passing automobiles. Many of our downtown streets are continually littered with dirty paper and scraps and litter of all kinds. There seems to be no agency in our municipal government interested. Don’t we have a street. cleaning department? What does it do? ” 2 2

‘SHOCKED BY PATENT ON V-FOR-VICTORY SYMBOL’ - 8 By W. T., Shelbyville

It has just come fo my attention that a patent has been granted to some chap in Oklahoma on the “V-for-victory” symbol and I. am shocked beyond words. I always thought the patent laws were to guarantee the inventors their proper share of what they invented, so that people would be encouraged to keep on inventing and making progress. : But here's a situation that’s so different. Some unknown hero in Europe, suffering Heaven knows what kind of torture from Hitler's mobs, creeps to a wall in the middle of the night and chalks a “V” on the wall to bolsfer up his fellow sufferers. He risks prison and death for it. And now somebody comes along and gets a patent on it. I don't know, and I guess nobody does know, how much he intends to limit the use of the symbol or how much money he expects to make from it but I hate to think of “V-for-vic-tory” being turned into a private gold mine for anybody. The patent office ought to be skinned for this one.

2 8 » ‘NEW LICENSE PLATES WASTE OF § By Hal J. Wilson, 2630 Southeastern Ave. We hear much today about the conservation of steel. Why not begin with our State government? Our Governnor eliminates all numbers on our auto license plates up to 10,000, thereby adding from

two plates to each car. Multiply this by 10,000 and you have a waste,

steel. : This is just one of the most flagrant violations of conservation.

NURSE'S SONG

When the voices of children are heard on the green, And laughing is heard on the hill, My heart is at rest within my

‘Then come home, my children; the sun is gone down, i And the dews of night arise; Come, come, leave off play, and let _ US: away . | 1 the morning appears in the

And we cannot go to sleep; Besides, in the sky the little birds

Blake (1757-1827).

in peace, and sleep , Lord, Duly Suakest me iwell in safety ~

‘No, no, let us play, for it is yet day, |

ce, from time to time with more or

less emphasis, and without any

back-tracking, that we can do this defense job without losing any economic gains. : < The latest of these is a foree = word by Mr. Sidney Hillman to a od publication of the labor division on Ships for Freedom: “The preservation of our free system of life is the aim of our defense efforts which are based on the idea that we can produce more than Hitler can destroy without losing our economic gains and our freedom.”

. Of course this could not possibly mean that we could produce all that Hitler can destroy without losing the freedom of our economic system, its ine dividual management or its profits, in confisca

tory taXes and regimentation. It could not possibly mean %

that when we contemplate mortgaging our future up to a 100,000,000,000 of dollars, at the very minimum, we are not giving up the economic gains: of wealth and freedom from taxation of an onerous nature that our forefathers have accumulated here over the centuries. . ;

It's a Cruel Deception

IT DOES CLEARLY mean that while searching

with a fine sieve for any economic gains that supe posedly will not be given up, the two that are obviouse ly intended are those designed to appeal to working people—farmers and the like, but, even here, regarde

| ing the most important ones of these, (less work and

a higher standard of living) the idea that we can escape definitely giving these up in great quantities if our effort is to be “all-out” in fact as well as in slogans, the statement is a cruel deception.

We are rapidly approaching a limit to total dee fense production with the facilities available. Theree fore, if defense production is to continue.to increase, civilian production, and therefore consumption will 5 have to be curtailed. We say very glibly: “There can be no business as usual.” But if there be no business as usual for the big fellow—and there will be plenty of business for him—it is a certainty that the fellow for whom there will be no bysiness is the little fellow, His standards of living are as important to be preserved and his economic gains and freedom are as dear to him as that of any other class or as to. all people. There is no other way of increasing ‘milie tary production except by using resources. that are presently engaged in maintaining our high standards of living, economjc gains and freedoms. os

Unworthy Even of a Hitler

THERE WILL SOON be a tremendous “priorities unemployment.” It will hit every class of the populae: tion. There will soon be higher taxes for every class, There is already such shortage among certain skills of labor that it is impossible—if we are to have “all out” production—not to work longer hours and to restrict the indiscriminative right to strike in jurise dictional disputes and controversies that have nothe

ing whatever to do with the employer-employee res S. EL

and each evening on my way home lation:

How can one class of our leaders ask all people: to change their whole method of life, giving up buying of automobiles, refrigerators, stop building:

‘houses and hence, in future, live in much more res _

stricted, if not more degraded conditions, while ane’ other class of leadership is telling them: “No loss of economic freedom?” ‘ He Pn Ro There is no question of the truth and accuracy of the allegation of this column. These statements are being uttered every day and have been uttered for a long, long time. boy : " Taken altogether and compared, they constitute ‘one of the most blatant pieces of buncombe ever ate tempted to be fostered on this country with a straight

face and no excuse. Hitler himself has barely fallen

to such depths.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

IN HER RECENT BOOK, “Women in Crime,” Florence Mons ahan presents us with a fine social

document. Her mature life has

been spent caring for feminine delinquents—20 years with the State: Reformatory at Shakopee, Minn, and later at the State School for Delinquent Girls a Geneva, Ill, and the State Prison for Women at Tehachapi, Cal. It should be conceded that people of Miss Monahan’s expe rience know something about the causes of crime and so are in a better position than most of us te suggest cures. Like Warden Lawes—undeniably a great man of our generation—Miss Monahan contends that crime is the direct offshoot of improper environs . ment, so that, when an offender has reached reformae tory gates, one of our social institutions—the howe, the school or the church—has failed in its job : making him a law-abiding eitizen.

What [It Boils Down To

And when these institutions fail, we, the people, must pay a big price for that failure. We pay :

staggering prices to ute, convict and care for criminals, to say nothing of our tragic loss in good

citizenship. And when we consider that a great nume

ber of the lost could have been saved, if their feet had been guided in the right direction, the fact seems more deplorable.

I once heard this said of a man who had become

a noted local flier, in the days when fliers were = scarcer: “He was headed straight for trouble. He had all the makings of a stick-up artist, but some= ) him started on airplanes and he simply - went nuts about ‘em. And now look at him! {F ero to all the little boys in town, I tell you,

have bet a plugged rN : That idea is prominent in Miss Monahan’s book.

Many women could have been saved from a life of

crime, she thinks, if they had had a chance to talk

things out with a sympathetic person before making

the first mistake. She says all prostitutes are fun- : § damentally lagy and backs me up in a favorite cone &

tention—that a vast

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information. not involving ‘extensive ree search. Write your question clearly, sikm name and address, inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal advice cannot be given. Address The Times Washington Service Bureau, 1018 Thirteenth St. Washington D. 0.) &

Q—What is meant by the gauge of a railroad :

_ A—It is the space, in feet and two parallel rails in a track, the “being % of an inch below the top of the rail. In the U. 8. and many foreign countries, the standard gauge is 4 feet 8% inches. : ; wri > Q-What proportion of the human body consists of water? . 1 A—About two-thirds; approximately T8 cent ol TE pe a Lo the teeth, and one-sixth of the bones.

Q-—-Where does the United States obtain chromite ore

A—In recent years most of it has come from Africa, the Philippines and Turkey. - 3 of the Semele 0 succeed the late Senator’ Pat Harrie.

B a ey ?

one-tenth of . 0