Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 December 1941 — Page 26

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1041

PASS THE ASPIRIN

So are the new taxes, General Sherman!

A BAD TAX—-BUT SOME of our friends in the New Deal have been urging us to join in advocating repeal of the Government's new $5 use tax on motor vehicles, which becomes effective in February. They know it will be an unpopular levy. We opposed this tax at the time it was adopted. The Administration didn’t want it. Congress approved it without giving it much thought. Representatives from the tobacco and oil districts, in order to stave off higher excises on cigarets and gasoline, dreamed up the motorvehicle tax as a substitute revenue raiser. We still think it is a lousy tax. It is unfair, because it is not proportioned to ability to pay. The tax is a flat $5, whether the vehicle be a jalopy worth a hundred dollars or a limousine worth two or three thousand. It is a direct invasion of the states’ taxation field, being a duplication of the auto license taxes. It will be difficult, cumbersome and expensive to collect. The treasury recently informed Congress it would need more than four million dollars to hire new employees to

collect the tax, . ® » r . »

UT we must admit that the tax has two: virtues: 1. It will raise about $160,000,000—quite a chunk of money. 2. It is direct, visible and painful. There are more than 30 million automobiles and motor trucks in the country. We have seen no statistics on the number of individual owners, and such a figure would be difficult to determine since there are still a number of two and three-car families, and many corporations own whole fleets of autos and trucks. But, as a guess, let us say that as many as 20 million citizens will be compelled to dig into their pockets and pay at least $5 a year each to the Federal tax collector. If our estimate is approximately accurate, that will be the largest number of citizens who ever made a direct tax payment to the Government, » » » » » r FEW years ago only two or three million citizens were paying Federal income taxes. This year the number rose to six million. Next year, because of the broadened base, there will be around 13 million income-tax payers— representing roughly the upper economic third of the population—and to a great many of them the income tax will be less than $5. If the auto use tax stays on the books—inequitable thought it is—it will have one beneficial result: greatly enlarge that now-too-small group of American voters who feel a personal, pocketbook interest in Government spending. Considering the difficulty of Senator Byrd's economy committee -in rallying public support for eliminating even the most unvssential of non-defense expenditures, this unscientific tax may be well worth preserving. Anything which, at a time like this, will promote taxconsciousness and economy sentiment cannot be wholly bad.

HELPING RELIEFERS HELP THEMSELVES

LARGE percentage of the people now on relief are unable to work. But not all of them. As the nation approaches total mobilization of its manpower and a posgible shortage of labor, it becomes desirable to help all relief clients to get jobs whenever possible. Minneapolis is one city making a scientific effort to achieve this, according to the American Public Welfare Association. More than 600 relief clients have taken tests in the vocational guidance clinic set up there through the city relief administration and WPA. And of those 600, one of every three has been placed in a steady job. That means 200 families off the relief rolls, and a saving to the city of $6000 a month. The clinic was started a year ago, and by uncovering aptitudes, has opened the way for jobtraining even for many who had been believed unemployable. For the sake of the nation, for the sake of the cities, for the sake of the relief clients themselves, this sort of work wants encouragement.

THE GOVERNOR DISAPPROVES OVERNOR TALMADGE of Georgia has refused to pardon or parole the six convicted floggers for whom his prison and parole board had refused to recommend clemency. We believe the Governor is right in this refusal, which came in spite of a brief flirtation with Pauline ethics which led some to believe the gubernatorial imprimatur was about to be placed on flogging and terrorism. After all, the only difference between ruffianism under a Hitler regime and ruffianism anywhere else in the world {and it exists in every land, including this one) is that in Germany it is the official system, and is not only protected but instigated and encouraged by public authority, In free lands these things happen, but responsible public authority is bound by oath to suppress and discourage them. In this respect, at least, Talmadge has been true to the tenets of free rather than of Hitlerian government,

WHERE YOUR TAX MONEY GOES

S Wea is spending $261,000 on landscaping for the Army’s General Hospital at New Orleans and other permanent improvements to the property of the Orleans Levee Board, ont which the hospital is situated. That's a lot of shrubbery. That amount of money would buy 1,044,000 pairs of wool socks for soldiers. It will eat up the income taxes of

18050 single persons with ncomgs of $1000 each.

It will |

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, Dec. 5. — The friends of Walt Disney will be happy to learn that he is back on the beam after an alarming venture into the God-knows-what and is again the Disney of Mickey Mouse,, Donald Duck, the pigs and Snow White. The man who is the author of more gross tonnage of innocent fun, untroubled by the slightest suggestion of politics or social significance than any other human being who ever lived, including Mother Goose, returns to his people with his new film called Dumbo and I defy anyone to discern anywhere in this entertainment any trace of a me to the human race. It is pure Disney, which means that it combines beauty with gentle entertainment, but as the story unfolds on the screen there may occur in the joyous emotions of the beholder a half-felt twinge of pride that this man is an American who has achieved such soothing loveliness out of countless individual drawings strung together and that no other nation on earth, whatever its military power or its drtistic her itage, has produced his like: or even an imitator.

Sounded Like Man With a Mission

I WAS DISTURBED when Disney released Fantasia, not only because the posturing boors of the opening disturbed the night with their self-import ance and gin-mill etiquette, but because it seemed that he had fallen into the hands of those whom Red Mike Hylan used to call the art artists and had become, like Chaplin, and some of the other burlesque clowns and gag-writers of Hollywood, 2a man with a mission. It was good enough Disney to the eye in spots, but the music was pompous and it seemed that Walt, himself, didn’t know what he was driving at but had been Sold a bill of very inferior goods by the longword intellectuals of Goofeyhurst, Cal. : It started nowhere and had trouble reaching even that goal and the noisy, incoherent clamor and the dark writhings of the monsters on the screen so unnerved one emotional cosmic commentator that she thought she detected fascism lurking in the shadows and screaming along the sound-track. The lady could have been right, for the sound and shape of fascism are to each individual his own idea, as we observe when a dictatorial boss with a storm of goons under his command denounces as a Fascist everyone who stands out for individual freedom and respect for the laws against assault with intent to do great bodily harm.

'An American Did That'

BUT IF THERE was fascism in it, that was unintentional! because neither Disney, himself, nor any of the reviewers who discussed Fantasia could analyze it. It was as much vegetarian as anything else and any critic would have been justified in lifting his piece that night the old dispatch of the country correspondent at the train wreck, “All is confusion; can send nothing.” I find myself wondering whether thus Dumbo picture of a baby elephant in a circus who learns to fly with his outsize ears and does his unhappy mother proud in a great triumph was turned out during that time of bitter meanness when the unions closed in on the happy shop in Hollywood and old friends hecame enemies through the meddling of the union eers. If so, it is a marvel that the picture came through without a trace of hatred that ran along the picket line and penetrated the studio and this would be to Disney's ctedit, too, for the merest note of anger would have spoiled it and a man in a fight has a hard time keeping his rage out of his work. Americans in foreign lands always have felt a strange pride in their American passports and I think that if I were at a showing of Dumbo or any other true Disney show in, say, Buenos Aires, I might want to say, “That's ours; an American did that.”

France's Reading By Paul Ghali

SOMEWHERE IN EUROPE, Dec. 5.—France’s defeat and its consequences has marked French literature this year as much as it has marked French life. With 1,« 500,000 prisoners of the Germans, France seems to have been unable to produce any first rate ew writer. The French reader, there« fore, has returned to his classics as the only solid form of thought he can rely on in the rather involved and conflicting state of mind in the France of today. Classics, at least, evade the censors’ scissors, Any French publisher will say: “After the classics, my best sellers are translations of American and English authors such as Margaret Mitchell, Pearl Buck, Louis Bromfield, Ernest Hemingway, A. J. Cronin, and the Scandinavian, Axel Munthe.” Such books as “Gone With the Wind,” “The Good Earth’ “The Citadel,” “San Michele,” are reaching top sales in France today, all the more so as they will soon dis appear from the bookstalls. The Germans have recently prohibited the reprinting of translations of English books published prior to 1870. All English: books were printed in Paris. This means a rush on those left, as over and above their own merit, they have the added attraction of “forbidden fruit.” For the post-war Frenchman translations of English books are the only form of foreign literature available for the time being. The German writers like Feuchtwanger, Stefan Zweig, Jacob Wasserman, Thomas Mann, who were great favorites here, are now banned as being degeneraté. Approved Nazi writers—Hans Falada, Ernst Wiechert, Ernest Von Salomon, are not yet well known here, though French publishers in Paris have been asked to do their best to remedy this.

They All Read a Lot

THE FRENCH OF 1941 read a lot. With thousands of town dwellers now living in the country because food supplies are so much easier there, the lack of any good new films, or any other diversions, nights are long. This explains why, though there are no prominent new writers, there is practically a boom in the book industry this Christmas. Among classics, Montaigne’s “Essays” are having a tremendous sale, as also Descartes “Discours de la Method” and Pascal's “Pensees.” During September 11,000 copies of the “Essays” were sold, each copy costing 125 francs, which for the average French reader is the limit in extravagance. The Frenchman of 1941, unlike his brother of 1939, is primarily an escapist. Thus history runs the classics and the Anglo-Saxon authors a close second

in book sales. French writers are learning the trick | of neat biographies on sufficiently remote historical |

personages who lived in troubled periods similar to the present one. Third on the list of French favorites are books of nature or animals. The French seem bto have developed recently a literary sense for animals and nature, which up to now was more or less an AngloSaxon prerogative. They also favor poetry or descriptions of life in France as it was when people ate, drank and were merry.

So They Say— |

The best thing we can do today is to send the world the news that one of us is pre now to do the job, with ice and with determination.—Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Rh B.Jeally oleae that tie world shoud every years Germany. x Bermacotis Schmit, Gniversiy of Ohieago.

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may be out of style, but we're intil we were sure~Tommy Manville,

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_ THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES The U. S.-Japanese Negotiations

FRIDAY, DEC. 5, 1941

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The Hoosier Forum

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

ON HOW TO BUY HALIFAX A NEW FROCK COAT By Bryan Logsdon, Freetown * Sometime back I was reading In the newspapers where Lord Halifax was egged up at Detroit, Mich. Poor old fellow! And since that time I have learned about Indiana Welfare Department putting out invitations to take examinations for Assistant State Welfare Director at a salary of $450 or $500 per month. Now here is where I offer a solution. As Lord Halifax undoubtedly had a silk hat, white vest and a frock coat ruined by a barrage of eggs, and of course Uncle Sam is duty bound to buy him few clothes, the way to do this is to cut the assist ant’s salary down, say to $175 per month, and buy those ¢lothes, or better still, do away with Inana’s Welfare Department entirely, save the taxpayers considerable and still have money for clothes.

CE NE A CHALLENGE TO MADDOX ON NAZIISM-FASCISM By Robert Lukie, 2147 Avondale Place, Loeal 226 U. A. W. A, O. L. O. A challenge to Mr, Maddox: Your articles have a tendency to confuse me. If you are a sensible patriotic American and want to dedefend our country and work to destroy Hitler you won't mind clearing up the following matters. 1. Repudiate Naziism, Fascism as forthrightly as you have condemned Communism. 2. Condemn Nazi and Fascist aggression. 3. Repudiate as Nazi and Fascist propaganda, all theories of racial or Aryan supremacy. Mr. Maddox, if you do not see fit to clear up these matters I will take it that you do not advocate our country’s defense program for the destruction of Naziism and Fascism,

- = - ‘WHAT WE NEED IS A REVIVAL OF MR. FIXIT By H. W. Daacke, 736 S. Noble St. Attention of the Garbage Collection Department: With a street light on McCarty St. just west of the S. Noble St. intersection, another at the intersection of Wright and McCarty Sts, with cars parked

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious cone troversies Make your letters short, so all can

excluded.

have a chance. Letters must be signed.)

irregularly at the north curb on MecCarty Ct. thus casting intermittent shadows on the sidewalk, garbage cans and containers placed on the sidewalk at its outer edge are a distinct hazard to pedestrians and, regardless of any rulings of your department, should not be permitted

to be so placed, To The Times:

relief on these minor grievances. » » " SUGGESTIONS FOR FAIR AND LASTING PEACE By F. T. Let's hope after the war for a just peace, a peace for the poor man and not a peace of conquest. No punitive annexation, no indemnities. It must be a peace of

conference the terms of which are built on consent and not coercion,

There must be a will to tackle war’s economic causes. There must

be acceptance of the board procedures of democratic government. The last epoch has shown conclusively that democracies and dictatorships cannot live side by side. The sure way to preserve a long peace is by raising living standards, but to raise standards of live ing is impossible if each state is the sovereign master of its own economy. It is possible that the American immigration policy since 1920 and the high tariff were among the important things that caused the present war. May I suggest that all the colonies be put under international control after the war? Such international control will prevent in the future colonies being used for strategic advantages. If these principles are not saccepted and colo. °s remain as a

Side Glances=By Galbraith

What we need is a revival of a Mr. Fixit to get quick

source of loot there is bound to be a scramble for ownership. In the end, again, this means another great war.

$ & » WE'RE UNFAIR, UNTRUTHFUL, UNJUST, SAYS MR. TAYLOR By William Taylor, Morgantown,

It is a pitiful situation when the people of this great nation are unable to find a newspaper that will devote part of its pages, or a small part of the editorial page even, to presenting both sides of an issue on a truthful or honest basis. We read of the war and its relation to us. Red baiting, labor baiting and legislation needed to curb the rights of workers under unions fill the prominent columns. To date, I have never read one article condemning those who weasel the men in being forced to strike, nor have I read where those who ignore national defense production have been criticized. “ae y As a means of fully acquainting your readers with iron clad facts, I propose the following: Devote a part of one page to one of your reporters, This reporter will visit union meetings, interview the workers, the leaders, plant managers and gather his articles at random. Inform the readers why the workers are fed up with management's weasling tactics. Give all the facts in relation to labor’s troubles. Give facts on what plants are producing for oefense and why others refuse. Point out the lost days from labor strikes and the lost days from managament’s strikes against the Government. I am sure this would be embarrassing to some plant managers but I doubt if you would publish the truth.

® » = THE BILL OF RIGHTS AND OUR FUTURE

By Charles L. Blume, 2442 Coyner Ave. Dee. 15th is “Bill of Rights Day.” Powerful words the foundation of the greatest republic the world has ever known. A stewardship to all posterity to keep unblemished. It means faith in God, strength to rise above wantonness around us and willingness to serve the spirit of those rights by guarding them jealously from those who give lip service to them to further their own selfish political ends. We need not worry over foreign potentates for they shall destroy themselves of their own folly but we must fight our own public indifference to public office. . It is here that wanton extravagance and disregard of our Constitution and its Bill of Rights threatens to undermine public confidence in our system of government. We need a revival of our faith in God. and realization that we must give more than lip service, that we must put our stewardship before our own personal fears and ambitions for it is greater than anyone of us. It has to be so if this great republic is to live for posterity.

LAST INVOCATION

At the last, tenderly, From the walls of the powerful fortress'd house, From the clasp of the knitted locks, from the keep of the well-closed T'S,

Let me be wafted.

Let me glide noiselessly forth: With the key of softness unlock the a

Set ope the doors O soul.

Tenderly-—be not impatient, (Strong is your hold O mortal flesh, Strong is your hold O love.) —Walt Whitman (1819-1892). A ——————— ———

DAILY THOUGHT If any man be in Christ, he is a new Feature: old Shits are Lecote new.—II Corinthians

5:17.

HE FROM the mighty doubter

the great bellever makes—R, W. Qilden, |

|

Gen. Johnson Says—

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5.—~Some time ago, mews reports were to

the effect that the America Wirst Committee intended to start a new political party advocating a nowar policy. When this writer! joined that committee he under stood, as had been frequently ane nounced, that its purposes were not those of partisan politics. The very basis of its. activities was supposed to be argument in the best American and democratio sense against any unnecessary involvement in over= seas war and both unnecessary and unprecedented delegations of constitutional power from the Legisla= ture to the single person of the President, The former standing was designed to preserve the economic and fiscal structure of the United States against bankruptcy. The latter was intended to pre: serve the political system against the universal curse of totalitarianism and especially of fascism.

column has not wavered one hair's breadth. The trend within the America First Committee, however, has been constantly away from them, or at least toward a distinctly political movement. There nate urally gravitated in the direction of that committee & curious hodge-podge of Communists, pacifists and exponents of various other “isms” too numerous to mention. The word of some of its principal speakers began. to take on a tone of religious or racial intolerance in which this writer can have no part. 4

‘Recalling a Warning

NEVERTHELESS, having nailed a banner to that masthead, it seemed a part of timid cowardice to resign or otherwise repudiate the original position, taken by the committee notwithstanding that this. writer felt that it was continually departing from him and not he from it, i When the news reports referred to above were pube, lished, this columnist felt it a duty to warn that, if any political aspect should be given to this movew ment, he would fee] duty bound to split blankets. with it, regardless of the continued presence of soma. very old and well beloved friends, like Gen. Wood, Whose patriotic motive will ever remain above ree, proach, Now the meeting at which this policy was expected to be decided upon has taken place. It is some come fort to know that the idea of starting a third party, on this issue has been abandoned. But the intention has been announced to use the committee to oppose candidates in the mid-term election for both the House and the Senate who have voted against the original principles of the committee. : This seems hardly less reprehensible than the third party threat. When Mr. Wendell Willkie, from his highly dubious and certainly expedient and tempdrary position as’ Republican “leader,” made a similar threat against’ all who did not vote for the extension of Presidential powers and indiscriminate involvement all over the ‘earth’s surface and without regard to costs in billions, this column regarded it as singularly arrogant and offensive almost, to the point of political obscenity, and’ frankly said so. It can’t see much difference in this second and similar case, -

No Choice Is Left :

IT I8 TOO FAR ahead for anybody to t : position which would bind him, at all poh Bea lightning-like changes of the international situation, Whether you approve it or not, every step that is taken in further involvement puts American soldiers: ang Sellors 84 peel spd leaves in the minds of a soldier, at least, no choic \ Support and Props them. SHgies HL io uy te hep! r example, this column has never bee : Justify our involvement in Eastern Asia wi for the protection of the British empire. But since we are involved, it must in all candor and sincerity” speak only in loyalty and admiration of the President's’ conduct, his statesmanship, and naval and military’ strategy in supporting our people there to meet the’ dangers into which they have been thrust. 3 As has been repeatedly pointed out, this does not’ mean that this column has abandoned its right andits duty of independent personal comment on its own responsibility, But it does mean, ladies and gene tlemen, that you here behold an ex-member of Amer= ica First and one who in no future set of circumew. A Sou any other pressure group nst any particular war - of the United States, r OF BvuNal Pony

Editor's Not; 2h views expressed by columnists in this newspaper are their own. They are not necessarily t of The Indianapolis Times. y Ye:

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

THESE ARE TIMES when s nostalgia for quiet places afflicts us. We live in such ferment, in a

world: of such turmoil, and we need momentary escape from its many conflicts. I found just such escape the other night in a book by Randolph Leigh with tke ene chanting title, “Forgotten Wa ters.” It's about the peninsula and gulf of Lower California. I had a faint remembrance of both from school days, when we had to stand up in geography class and “bound” the region, but since that day I've never given them thought. Mr. Leigh re-introduces ‘them with his enticing story of their allure; of the minerals which enrich the soil and the fruitful waters surrounding it; of the birds and animal life abounding there, and the few natives and visitors who grub and fish and laze

in peaceful solitudes. .

It's a Reluctant Return

BUT PERHAPS YOU are not addicted, as I am, to vicarious adventure. I love gallivanting in a rocke ing chair. With a book for a galleén, it’s easy to sail up and down the Seven Seas, indulging in all the “play-like” fancies of your ckildhood. So, if you are fed up en current events and mure der mysteries, I recommend Mr. Leigh's book, for it will make.you long to get into a boat, as he and his wife did, and journey to distant ports, if only to Sekape the hideous present of our more civilized eas. It’s eozy. and comfortable to laze along a golden beach, help capture a giant ray, inspect old missions and gather useful facts, without leaving your cushe ions. Mr. Leigh's data about the whale’s maternal habits and the love life of the seal, are. thoroughly amusing and will fascinate any landlubber, I returned most reluctantly from my trip into ‘Forgotten Waters,” as I'm sure you will,

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information, net involving extensive ree search. Write your question clearly, sign name and address, inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal advice cannot be given. Address The Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 Thirteenth St,, Washington, D, ©.)

Q—When and where was John L. Lewis bornf' What is his nationality? . A—He was born in Lucas, Iowa, Feb. 12, 1880, the: son of Thomas and Louisa (Watkins) Lewis. Both his parents were born in Wales. He is, therefore, an American of Welsh descent. A

Q-—What is the total number of military aircraft delivered by American plants in 1941? . : A—According to figures released by the Office of ’ Production Management for the first six months of ® 1041, a total of 7423 were delivered.

Q—When a new medicine is widely advertised, is it possible to get reliable information about it? A—Write to the Bureau of Invgstigation, Amerie can Medical Association, 535. N. Wearborn. St. Chie

From these ideas, staffdards and positions, this:

AY w