Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 December 1941 — Page 16

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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1941

HOW NOT TO WIN A WAR

WHAT can we do? Those millions of us who stay at home, how can we serve in this hour of national peril? The President told us last night what we can do—all of us, big and little. And if we don’t do this one thing, our other help—our regular work, our bond buying, our saving, our air wardening, our blacking-out, our knitting, our first-aid training, our longer hours, our tighter belts, and all the other essentials—will not save us. Above all else, we must keep our heads. That is the appeal of our President. That is the order of the day to every civilian from the commander-in-chief: “Most earnestly I urge my countrymen to reject all

rumors. These ugly little hints of complete disaster fly.

thick and fast in wartime . .. many rumors and reports which we now hear originate with enemy sources. For instance, today the Japanese are claiming that as a result of their one action against Hawaii they have gained naval supremacy in the Pacific. This is an old trick of propaganda which has been used innumerable times by the Nazis. “The purposes of such fantastic claims are, of course, to spread fear and confusion among us, and to goad us into revealing military information which our military enemies are desperately anxious to obtain. “Our Government will not be caught in this obvious trap—and neither will our people.” » » » » . F we the people are not to be caught in that enemy trap of our own making, we shall have to do better than we have done during the past 36 hours. Too many nervous Nellies of both sexes, in home and offices and on the streets, have been on a rumor jag. Unless this timorous minority sober up they are going to give others their heebeejeebies. Those of us who would be most shocked by the idea that an enemy spy was around, may be doing more to injure our country than an army of Fifth Columnists could do. Our neighbors, who would not be taken in by a strange agent, may become propaganda panic carriers because we have rushed from the radio with a terrifying “fact,” which a careless announcer. merely called a “report,” but which actually started as a wild rumor or an enemy lie. “You have no right to deal out unconfirmed reports in such a way as to make people believe they are gospel truth,” says the President. And he warns that not only the radio and press, but “every citizen, in every walk of life, shares this same responsibility.” » » » 8 » = E makes a bargain with us. He says the Government will trust our stamina and give out the facts just as rapidly as they can be officially confirmed, all the facts— with the obvious exception that no information will be given that is of value to the enemy. But this is with the understanding that we are adults, not children; that we can be treated as responsible citizens and not as weaklings, who will throw a fit every time a battle is lost or a practice siren sounds. We are old enough to know—even the children over gix —that the chief danger of fire in a school or a theater is not of the flame itself but of a panicky crowd that jams the exits, We all know that the hysterical innocent, who yells fire and rung, murders many while the criminal murders one. Hitler's major technique, now used by the Japanese, ie to spread terror among troops and civilians. Bombs are supposed to shatter nerves even more than buildings. And fear and confusion, caused by rumors of raids that are exaggerated or imaginary, destroy even more morale. » = » ® 2 Our jitters this week have done no real damage—not yet. Indeed, they have cured us of a delusion which amounted almost to a mental illness in America: The fixed idea that “we can lick the Japs easily,” and the whole world for that matter. We didn’t so much underestimate the Japanese as posgible adversaries—that would have been too much of a compliment. We simply pitied the poor little devils for being so puny they were funny. Well, they have licked us one round. “We may acknowledge that our enemies have performed a brilliant feat of deception, perfectly timed and executed with great gkill,” as the President says. And they doubtless will win other battles. But we will defeat them in the end. Because on the first day we learned that we must fight ‘with everything we've got. And on the second and third days we learned that hysteria on the home front won't do. Now, if the surprise and the handwriting and the ghakes are out of our system, we can get on with the job of winning the war. The long job, the hard job, the sober job, the deadly calm job of winning the war.

HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS!

INCE the war started, the cost of living in the United States has gone up 11 per cent. It is rising about 11% per cent a month, and by spring it will have risen 20 per cent. That's Leon Henderson, Federal Price Administrator, gpeaking. He ought to know. Prices are his business. Putting the statement in reverse, it means that people whose income is fixed will have suffered a virtual 20 per ent cut in income by spring, because their fixed income will then buy just that much less. The cut will probably be even greater because next year taxes are almost certain to increase. No clearer demonstration could be given of the nécesity that Congress grab hold of this problem with firm and put every curb on inflation that ingenuity can and firmness enforce,

ands

Fair Enoug By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, Dee. 10-—-No American has more angrily de-

tested and suspected most of the

internal operations of the New Deal, but no American more admires now the tenacious bravery of President Roosevelt in his war policy thah this author of many criticisms of the Roosevelt Administration. Long before the war began with the sneak-punch invasion of Poland, the President had made his own decision that Adolf Hitler vas determined to set the German nation loose, armed beyond the poor, dumb power of Britain's military men or the best of ours to imagine, in a campaign to enslave Europe and conquer the United States. Having made up his mind on the basis of plain evidence, Mr. Roosevelt determined that this country must fight for its life against Hitler and Japan and set about creating a war psychology in the American people so that we would not be caught entirely une prepared spirit or entirely unarmed. In the earlier phases of his preparations he fought almost alone and it may be remembered that his dramatic Chicago speech about a quarantine for aggressors was savagely denounced as a deliberate attempt to divert attention from the pressing embarrassment of a domestic error and even to put us into war for some purpose of his own.

Accused of War Mongering

BECAUSE HITLER had identified Jewishness with Communism and had devised a program of hideous persecution of this tiny minority of the German people, many Americans accused the President of schems« ing to sacrifice American boys and our whole Amerfan way of life to rescue and avenge the European ews. As the war developed, Mr. Roosevelt was accused of surrendering his own country to the British for Britain's own sake and the cry of warmonger, raised from Berlin, where this war was made, was taken up by many of the President's own people at home. More lately his unfortunate suggestion that religious freedom was enjoyed in Russia, intended undoubtedly to allay old hatreds of the Communists in our own midst and suspicion of Joseph Stalin for practical military results, was pounced upon and torn to tatters. But all the way from the hour when he first realized that war with Hitler was inevitable down to the moment when Hitler's ally in the Pacific suddenly bombed a sleeping American city, Mr. Roosevelt stood by his conviction,

He Never Faltered : :

THE AMERICAN people didn't want to believe that Hitler was their enemy and many prominent men with a talent for ridicule and propaganda played up the proposition that we could stay out of it and trust Hitler and the Japanese. A hundred reminders that the choice could not be ours but must be Hitler's, that if war came the German nation again would be the cause of all American suffering and sacrifice, were instantly scoffed down with sneers at the British and dark insinuations about the international Jew, The one man who is responsible for the vast improvement of the military fitness of the United States, achieved from a standing start after the invasion of the Low Countries, never for an instant faltered in his determination to get the American nation in shape to meet the inevitable. One newspaper of enormous circulation and, presumably, of great influence, which had gone along with him in every socialistic or totalitarian proposal on the home front, suddenly turned on him on the issue of war. Burt Wheeler and Ham Fish fought pipe down to the very hour of the attack on Honou,

Vindication at Dawn

ALL HIS opponents, including the tragic Charles Lindbergh and, of course, the evil Nazis of the antiAmerican Bund, who themselves employed every wicked scheme which they attributed to the Jew, insisted that with 3000 miles of water to the East and a wider ocean to the West, no enemy could reach American soil, even granting as they wouldn't, that any enemy would be rash enough to try. Phrough it all, Mr. Roosevelt fought on toward a vindication which came in the dawn of a Sunday in the Pacific and it must be said that he was embarrassed as much by some of his supporters as he was obstructed and reviled by his opponents. But he was right ali along and doggedly brave in times when he fought almost alone to make the people recognize their enemy and prepare to fight and the final proof of his wise courage was given by the enemy himself Sunday morning.

Slow Hari-Kiri

By Leland Stowe

CHUNGKING, Dec. 10—The far-flung nature and boldness of Japan's blitz attack admittedly surprised the majority of the diplomats and militarists of the Far East but, regardless of the succésses which the Japanese are likely to score at the outset, the conviction is universal here that Tokyo's dictatorship has chosen to commit slow-bleeding hari-kiri. It is believed to be virtually certain that the Japanese will be thrown on the defensive within three or four months and confronted by a desperate summer campaign. How soon this happens may depend largely upon the entrance of the Soviets into the war against Japan. Authoritative opinion is that the Russians will be loathe to take the step immediately or until such a time as American bombing squadrons can arrive at Vladivostok. Qualified experts insist that flying fortresses carrying half a bomb load only can strike at the southern Japanese coast from the Philippines and the others must operate from the Vladivostok area if they are to deal crippling blows to Japan's industrial centers. Therefore, it is expected that Washington must demand the use of air bases in eastern Siberia, also exerting the utmost pressure for early Soviet entrance into the war.

Putting Japs on Defensive

This is one of the first essentials for putting Japan on the defensive and eventually knocking her out. The question remains as to whether the United States has enough bombers in the Philippines at the moment to permit their dispatch to Vladivostok, or whether this step must be delayed until“the situation

is cleared up in Hawaii, Wake and Guam. If Japan | could be bombed from Siberia immediately, the psy- |

chological as well as physical blow to the Nipponese would be enormous. Members of the Magruder mission and American military and naval experts in China have long been convinced that the United States would be involved in war with Japan by April. Since this was inevitable most of them believe that it will be a long-term advantage to America that it has come now with the Japanese guilty of the most flagrant aggression on United States territory. This was the most effective way to galvanize and unite the American people behind a mighty war effort and America assuredly will accomplish infinitely oH A winter months than would other be

ay ELE TE e wa na Pn when the Nazis’ next major and Diovkade of Ja<

then. at least a year, maybe two, but do not question ultimate disaster for Tokyo.

Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists in this are thelr own. They are net necessarily these into Tanta .

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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.

JAPAN IN THE JACKAL'S ROLE By Claude Braddick, Kokome Japan has chosen! The precocious child of the West has proven but a poor imitator, a clever posturer, ungrateful and unworthy. Like the proud Prussians, she has mistaken “mechanical quackery” for Western civilization.

Japan's Kurusu hoped to get a touchdown. He might have got nothing worse than a penalty for stalling. But the war lords couldn't wait. With the tragic example of Mussolini before them, they have chosen boldly, but not wisely. Like him they have sought to get in at the kill. Like him they will learn they have only committed themselves to a war of self-destruction, the odds stacked against them, the outcome pre-ordained.

Verily, the jackal’s role is not an enviable one. There is always the delicate problem of choosing which lion to follow; and woe unto him who chooses rashly, or follows that lion too closely!

a“ 5 = ‘THE SCHOOL CUSTODIANS

ARE FORGOTTEN MEN By Oliver Thornberry, 120 S. Illinois St.

Some time ago I wrote to this paper in regards to some friends of mine who work for the School Board, Thesé men are commonly known as janitors or custodians but I must call them the forgotten men because obviously they were either forgotten or deliberately overlooked. Since my last article I've read that the school teachers were to receive a raise. The higher-ups were to get a raise, the garbage man, the ash men and yes, you guessed it, also the PWA. Well, that’s fine but what about the custodian. I'm sure he's just as important as any of those mentioned. Just because he’s dependable and

rent, clothing and food haven't gone up the same as the rest of us. You know and I know that he's the man who keeps the school warm and clean, who sees that your children get across the street safely

sincere surely doesn’t mean that his|

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to express their views in these columns, religious conMake

your letters short, so all can

troversies excluded.

have a chance. Letters must

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and many other things that are necessary. I've seen custodians that I thought would make good teachers but I can’t remember of seeing a teacher I thought would make a good custodian. Now would some kind person, preferably some higher-up on the School Board, please tell me why these men were forgotten? To the P.-T. A.: These same men have put in many extra hours for your organization and received nothing for them. Now it's your turn.

” ” » ‘HONEST COMPETITION IS OUR SPIRITUAL EXERCISE’ By Voice In The Crowd, Indianapolis, To ©. O. T.: It is not my right to tell you what to read. It is however your duty, if you are going to comment publicly, to read prac ticalities as well as ideals, or to have proven your point by experience. It is a deep responsibility to comment in the public press. If you have an ego that the problems of mankind and the many solutions that are being offered are in any manner new,’ I do recommend “So You Think It Is New” by Willefred Funk. If you do not appreciate the dangers to individual living under a centralized government, I am sure that you should read “Jefferson the Forgotten Man” and “Smoke Screen” both by Samuel B. Pettengill. I am certain that the form of society that you believe would be good for all of us hides behind its curtains, political power perpetuated in the hands of a few. The frailities of mankind average about

Side Glances — By Galbraith |

"He thinks | stood him up on our dance date—if hé had stood TP behind a counter all day, he'd know what the words meant!”

equal in all of us and no group is 80 pure or so superior that they deserve permanent power over all of us.

I cannot see the difference between “unity” and ‘‘competition” in defense. If we veid with each other to do more than the other fellow, and do it better and at lower nationa) cost, we would have both perfect unity and competition.

There has been considerable competition in Washington as to who would boss “Defense.” You will see that disappear as “Defense” is an earnest and living thing now with all of the doubts removed. So far as “competition in life” is concerned it is the most healthful thing that ever came to man. Honest competition is to a man’s spirit exactly as exercise is to his health.

It is man’s struggle to go forward from ga static condition, and every man who wills should be free withs out restriction to perform a better service and be rewarded by a higher station in life's standards.

There is no idealism in what I tell you. I live everything I write. I can see men glorifying, the dark ages anG trying to sell them to us as something new, and I am against 1t. : The President of the United States and the Congress made a resolution today to preserve the “American Way of Life” and I am impressed that it will be so protected.

y 19 ‘PUT IN JAIL WITH NO CRIME AGAINST THEM’

By Chief Two House, Greencastle.

We feel as if we should see in your paper about the Two House boys (Indians) being freed from the jails in Indianapolis and that after all of the smoke and noise there was no crime placed against them. And we have now gone again being just good people—not gypsies but real American Indians willing to do our share. And when they put us in jail and allow us to be robbed of money by lawyers, we feel that people in this state should know and be on the lookout for the real criminals. Perhaps if this note finds its way into the paper you will thank the many white friends for their help in this, our first trouble. We are ashamed that it was our misfortune to be placed in jail. “Thanking you

'| for good news.

DOVER CLIFFS

On these white cliffs, that calm above the flood Uplift their shadowy heads, and at their feet Scarce hear the surge that has for ages beat, Sure many a lonely wanderer has

sti ' And while the distant murmur met . his ear, And o'er the distant billows the still eve Sailed slow, has thought of all his heart must leave Tomorrow; of the friends he loved most dear; of social scenes from which he wept

par But if, like me, he knew how fruitless all The thoughts that would full fain the past recall; Soon would he quell’ the risings of his heart, And drave the wild winds and unhearing tide, The world his country, and his God his guide.

~William Lisle Bowles (1762-1850.)

DAILY THOUGHT

Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall resp if we faint not.—Galatians

SO LI 50 now, te ont & learn. —Hippoera .

long to

Ethiopia Reborn

By William H. Stoneman

LONDON, Dec. 10.—~The new Anglo-Ethiopian treaty will demonstrate to the world how well Great Britain can do by an ex=s victim of aggression which has been freed from the conqueror. All . indications point in the direction of a decent and realistic arrangement which will benefit Ethiopia and will be a credit to Great Britain. “

Haile Selassie will definitely be restored to his throne as sovereign of most of thé territories which belonged to Ethiopia before the Italian invasion in 1935. He wiil be pro~ vided with British or neutral advisers for the time bes ing and he probably will have a British military police force to assist him in maintaining order during the war period. A loan will have to be made to the Ethiopian Government to allow it to build up its central and provincial administrative systems to maintain security forces and to maintain public services. It is the Em peror's desire to establish a network of schools in order to educate his people to their future respone sibilities. The young Ethiopians whom he had caree

fully trained to run the modern Ethiopia were systes “0

matically slaughtered by the Italians during the occupation,

Budget Needs Modest

Margery Perham, one of Britain's most ens lightened and well informed Ethiopian experts, esti< mated recently that Ethiopia could manage with an annual budget of between $8,000,000 and $12,000,000,

This is a drop in the bucket compared with the sums being spent on destruction today but it means everything to Ethiopia and it will have to come from somewhere. The Egyptian and Sudan Governments might provide it in return from concessions around Lake Tana. The American Government might pro=vide it as investment in the new world order.

There has been much looose talk about the “sube ject races” of Ethiopia. Imperialists seeking an exe cuse for emasculating Ethiopia are in the habit of repeating the stable balderdash put out by the Teale ians to justify their aggression.

Feudal Misrule Must Go

Neither Prime Minister Winston Churchill nor Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden have swallowed this trash but it is generally agreed that the religious and racial differences of Ethiopia must be taken into con= sideration. Haile Selassie will remain sovereign of Ethiopia proper, including those territories of southern Ethioe pia—roughly south of Addis Ababa which are largely populated by non-Amharans. What must be done, however, is to ensure that Galla and other none Amharan provinces will be administered properly, with the gradual diminution of favoritism and feudad exactions by overlords.

Needs Access to Ports

The Somali and Danakil country is another matter and it may well be that this will ultimately be treated as a separate entity and placed under international control. This low and fearfully hot country has never been fully controlled by Addis Ababa and its people who are either Pagans or Moslems have never fully acknowledged the central government's authority, It was recently suggested by Miss Perham that all the Somali country might be put under international control on the understanding that Ethiopia should have free access to the’ ports along its coast. The development of these ports is vital to Ethiopia's economic development. Whether the British Government agrees with this suggestion will be clearer when the terms of the Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty are made public,

Petain Balks By David M. Nichol

BERN, Dec. 10.—~Conflicting ace counts, sufficiently well founded to throw some doubt on official ver sions, continue to circulate here abouts concerning the interview between French Chief of State Marshal Henri Philippe Petain Reichsmarshal Hermann Cena at Saint Florentin-Versigny Dec. 1. The French actually made the first move toward the meeting; * chiefly on economic grounds, with Marshal Petain arguing that f France must collabe orate she must first be permitted to exist. Hitlen agreed to the meeting, but said that the French musé be prepared to negotiate’ terms for the.convoying by French. naval units .of French merchant ships from Algiers and Italian vessels traveling to Cyrenaica. Petain, according to the account, declined this basis of negotiation and the Germans saying that they were too busy with anti-Comintern activities, posts poned the meeting and finally sent Goering as § substitute, to the disappointment of both German and French extreme collaborationists. Goering is ree ported to have received a memorandum from Petain concerning the strangled French economy.

Talks Not So Cordial

OTHERWISE, the discussions between Petain an Goering were restricted to general grounds including some discussion of the African situation. The core diality of the conversations, it is reported, was somee what over-emphasized in official accounts. It also appears that the French were assured that there would be no concessions to Italy if the French were prepared to deal on German terms. The initial assur ance of this is believed to have been given to Vice Premier Admiral Jean Darlan at Berchtesgaden last May. Vichy is pictured in these reports to be currently prepared to agree to the strengthening of the North African garrisons, but reluctant to make any move considered to show “active” hostility toward England. Likewise it is said that the French, most eager to avoid a definite rupture of the American agreement to ship supplies. to North Africa, on the grounds of the possibility of losing these imports, offered this as a bargaining card against Nazi demands. There are no indications of how the Nazis are disposed toward French economic pleas, but their own economy is heavily strained by a third winter of war and their Eastern campaign. They have repeatedly said that they will be the last people in Europe to go hungry.

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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, sign name and address, inclose » three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal advico cannot be given, Address The Times Washington Service Bureau. 1018 Thirteenth St., Washington, D, C.)

* Q==Why and how did the steamship Queen Mary dock at New York about three years ago without he aid of tugs? A—Arriving Oct. 18, 1038, with 1602 ARLES the vessel was forced to dock without tugboat aid, due to a strike of 2000 towboat workers. The only craft that assisted in the docking was a small rowboat, used to carry forward lines to the pier. The operation, which required 34 minutes, was a matteg of maneuvering with the engines, and required considerable skill on the part of the master, Commodore Robert B. Irving, who was aided by ideal weather conditions.

Q—In a book I recently found the phrase “the Ultima Thule of his ambition” and I have looked in a dictionary and cannot find a satisfactory defini tion. Please tell me what it means.

A~The phrase is commonly used to describe the farthest limit possible. It derives from the Greek and Roman name for the most northerly known land in the Atlantic, described by Pytheas as the most northerly of the British Isles, possibly the Shetlands; Seclangor Norway. Ab thy rate. the Latin phrase or any e Ultima Thule means means literally the farthest Thule.

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