Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 December 1941 — Page 22

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1041

“700 LITTLE AND TOO LATE” | HITLER'S all-out war against us did not start yesterday with his declaration. It began in the Hawaiian dawn last Sunday. At Pearl Harbor and Manila he struck with the only major force available for direct attack against us—the treacherous Japanese. So his belated declaration is anti-climax. President Roosevelt made this clear in his Monday message to Congress and in his public address: That we were attacked by Hitler's Axis, that we are defending ourgelves in a World War. The Berlin-Rome declarations help us more than hurt us. Help us by simplifying and formalizing a state of war which has existed in fact since Sunday morning. They enable us to handle the Axis fifth-column problem in this country as a unit, instead of ineffectively piecemeal. They enable us to bring all of our war laws, including use of troops abroad, up to the requirements in a stroke. They force us now to increase all our production and defense plans to global size, which might have been disastrously

delayed. * . r

N° les§ important, Hitler's declaration strengthens the Pan-American solidarity stimulated by his Japanese attack on Hawaii. The extraordinary Latin-American response to our defense of the Pacific will now be reinforced by the direet self-interest and danger of large South Amerjean contriés on the Atlantic, who were not directly menaced by Japan. Now that Hitler and Mussolini in alliance with Japan have formally started war against the United States, it will not be so easy for the large Nazi and Fascist movements of Latin America to find followers or to receive aid from fifth-column plants within some of the governments. The significance of Latin American co-operation with Washington's defense plans for the Atlantic cannot be exaggerated. This co-operation enables us.to move against certain Atlantic bases which, if taken first by the Axis, would threaten South America even more than North America.

= ” =

» » » 0 American is fool enough to under-rate the peril to our nation of the Axis attack. Never since Valley Forge have we been in such danger. Never have we suffered such defeat as at Pearl Harbor. The virtual unanimity of the Congressional votes and the public response witness that fact. Yet we can be thankful that our peril is not graver. However narrow may be our margin in the Pacific and elsewhere today, it was worse—much worse—a short time ago. If Hitler had succeeded in forcing Japan to attack four months ago, as he tried to do, there would have been little chance of defending Singapore and Manila. Indeed, the most important British and American reinforcements arrived in the Far East only last week. Four months ago, one month ago, Hitler was on top ih Russia and Libya. Every ounce of Russian strength was going out at home, while Britain was rushing all available land, sea and air reserves to the Middle East. And we were sending everything we could get our hands on. What would have happened to us and to the world if Hitler could have used his Japanese arm then, as he used it Sunday, is terrible to contemplate.

» » » » . » INCE then the Russians and British have held Hitler in Russia, Africa, and the North Atlantic, sufficiently to allow important American and British diversions to the Far East. Now in the very moment of Pacific attack the Axis forces actually are rétreating in Russia and Libya—at least temporarily. And now we have hundreds of new planes, intended for the Middle East, which we can—and are— putting into the air over the Pacific. Hitler's time-table is not working. It failed to work in Russia—by his own confession. It is failing to work against the United tSates, because we and our allies are immeasurably better placed than we were a year ago, a month ago, a week ago. “Too little and too late” is Hitler's jibe at his victims. We believe history will record that he and all his hordes wee too little and too late to defeat the United States.

THE BILL OF RIGHTS

HAS man, simply as a human being, any rights in the world merely by virtue of being born into it? We Americans say, yes. The whole core of our political and social belief revolver around the thought that the individual is sacred—that there is something in each man or woman, simply as men and women, which not governments, not social organizations, not monarchs, Caesars, nor dictators may molest or dilute. Always in a score of solemn declarations, Americans have asserted: “I ami a man. I can be persuaded, but I cannot be pushed.” . President Roosevelt has done well to call attention to the anniversary of Bill of Rights Day on Dec. 15. Whole pednles have not only had these elementary rights snatched trom them, but, more terrible still, some have even been persuaded that such rights do not exist at all. The fundamental rights of man can never be per manently taken from him by force. It it good to take part in the observance of Bill of Rights Day. It is better still to read that list of rights {taelf, carefully and thoughtfully, and then to ask oneself, “What would life be worth without them?”

THERE OUGHT NOT T0 BE A LAW Americans Lave learned that there are three things

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler:

technically de service so that his deciding vote would not be that of a Government official is, itself, as truly Hitelrian as Hitler's nonbelligerency in the initial Japanese attack on us,

Is Such Conduct to Be Rewarded?

IT I8 HARD to ignore the uttér wrong of the verdict, but the personal triumph of Lewis is a al aggravation, for this man has absolutely no claim on any American, but, on the contrary, in view of his sullen obstruction of the national war effort, deserves more personal emnity than consideration. If such conduct is to be rewarded at the expense of all patriotic Americans then every adventurer and profiteér is invitéd to sabotage and loot while sailors and soldiers die for the lack of guns and ammunition. i The President's radio report to the country was a great rallying speech which aroused only dread of the future and determination to win. No loyal American who heard him would hesifate to work longer hours or seven days a week if called upon or to brush off any union boss who dared to interfere, so it was not only wrong and a repudiation of a promise to the people to give Lewis his closed shop, but absolutely unnecessary. If Lewis had dared to call another strike in those or any other mines after the attack on Pearl Harbor the whole American people, including those very miners of his, would have cheered the news that John L. Lewis had beén jailed away for the duration.

It's An Awkward Argument

AND IF THAT would be a serious impairment of '

a sacred constitutional principle in the interests of national safety, as I am not ready to admit it would be, then anyway, it would affect only one individual, and an obstructor at that, whereas this decision of the packed arbitration board unquestionably does impair a sacréd right of 130 millions to work though they réfuse to join a union. And if it be argued that one man’s right is as sacred as the same right of all the rest, then that argument commes awkwardly from those who said that, after all, only a few men, a scant 5 per cent of the miners in the captive diggings, would be driven unwillingly into the union and that these few were the real rascals of the plot. Not only is the President perfectly free to command the unions, as he commands the rest of us in

all things now, but in the interests of the unified:

effort he has a duty to refrain from gratuitous acts which flout the loyal feelings of the vast majority of the people, to say nothing of flouting their constitutional rights and their confidence in their Government’s pledge to them. He can trust all the people to support him and defend their country and any unioneér who dares to interfere represents nobody but himself, no interest but his own.

Key to Victory

By Leland Stowe

CHUNGKING, Dec. 12.-—The development of the Far Eastern conflict is already much more seri= ous than most Americans may realize — not because Japanese troops are now fighting on Philip pine soil, but because Singapore has the Nipponese dagger close to its spinal cord and Singapore must be saved or lost within a few weeks. The outcome of the present fierce Anglo-Japanese struggle in the center of the Malayan Peninsula will have almost inconceivable consequences over the entire World War but the outcome, nevertheless, may be decided by the narrowest margin.

If the Japanese capture Singapore, it seems cer tain that the Oriental conflict will be prolonged une predictably—perhaps by one or two years=while the Democratic allies would suffer a setback equivalent to that caused to Europe by the collapse of France in June of 1940. If Singapore falls, the American and British fleets will lost the only great base from which they can operate to attack Nipponese strongholds Shrgughout the South China Sea and the eastern cifie.

The Stakes Are Enormous

STILL GRAVER, if Singapore falls, the Japanese Navy will be in a position to cut Britain's lifeline to India and the Sues, simultaneously reducing to a dangerous point, of cutting off, Australian reinforce ments to the Near Bast. Thus the way could be paved for a Nazi cleanup of North Africa and Egypt with consequent puncturing of the blockade around Gers many. Incidentally, Burma would be probably ren dered untenable for the Allies and aid to China would be definitely doomed.

These are the enormous stakes of the battle for Singapore which is now .in its initial phase. They are sufficiently great to prolong the war for several years, or even under certain circumstances to determine the World War decision favorably for both the Japanese and the Nasis. Immediate recognition of these sobering facts is absolutely essential for the Allied govefnments’ strategic commanders and peoples. This is why the battle raging in Malaya commands the speediest united action of all the Allied fighting forces which can possibly be thrown into the struggle. This is also why the Japanese are attempting to tie up all American foroes within reach by invasion of the Philippines. » It is impossible to overlook the fact that Japan's fareflung and audacious blitz attacks are identical with the Nagi tactics and probably worked out with Nazi high strategists. The capture of Singapore is as vital to Germany as to Japan.

So They Say—

I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never en-

danger us again-—President Roosevelt in his War Message.

* * ®

So far as the C. I. O. is concerned all its unions and all its members will go straight down the road with President Roosevelt and Congress.Phil Murray, president, C. I. 0. . \

In all my 50 years of public service I have hever Doha PacumeEnt Ut rtortoal SOWA] ith in. State Cordell Hull 1o_the Japanese envoys.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES ___ Beating Them

Into Swords

AR CE

The Hoosier Forum

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

FREE TROLLEY RIDES FOR MEN IN UNIFORM

By Mrs. G. E. King Could you help the boys in service to get free transportation on our street cars and city busses while they are home on furloughs? I know they would appreciate it very much. Why not ask the railway company to give the boys a real Christmas present this year?

» s

‘OUT OUR WAY’ BRINGS UP FOND OLD MEMORIES

By Oarl M. J. ven Zielinski Your artist, Mr. J. R. Williams, surely produced an interesting cartoon Out Our Way (Nov. 26 issue). Any man who served at Fort Myer, Virginia, during the second administration of Teddy Roosevelt will undoubtedly recognize this event, “T. R.” had the brilliant idea of giving the staff officers at the War Department mounted exercise and we ‘in Fort Myer fur nished the horses and the orderlies who are shown in the rear of the column. AS the 13th Cavalry under Col. Hatfield was then stationed at Fort Myer, Mr. Williams correctly shows the insignia on the saddle blanket of the officer in command.

I don't know if Mr. Williams was in Washington during those years, but his eartoon shows a remarkable familiarity with conditions there over 30 years ago. ‘® . »

“IS THERE ACTUALLY A SHORTAGE OF PAPER?”

By A Curious One Recently you had an editorial entitled “Here's Where We Can All Help.” This editorial had reference to the paper waste situation, which you claim is becoming more acute every day, and asked that everyone co-operate in collecting wastepaper.

The writer seriously questions whether this is a fact or just another “gasoline shortage.” The reason I ask is that when I was in Washington a few days ago I was informed by some officials in the OPM that there is apparently some order issued which makes it neces-

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sary that all wastepaper of government offices must be burned. As I understand there are a few thousand men with a few thousand wastepaper baskets, I am sure there are thousands of pounds of paper wasted daily. While I understand that the government does not want these papers to fall into the hands of watepaper dealers, I can sée no reason why this paper could not be disposed of in such a way that no one else has access to it, and further be saved as wastepaper. If there is indeed a shortage, and the people of this country are to cooperate in saving paper I believe it would help if the example were set in our own government offices.

‘DON'T GIVE PETS TO VERY SMALL CHILDREN’

By Scholl White The other day I heard a woman in a pet shop asking the clerk what type of pet she could give to her five-year-old nephew. Experience has shown that a child of that age is much too young to properly care for a pet. Many a dumb little creature has suffered untold discomfort at the hands of a well-meaning but thoughtless little master, Before giving pets to children this Christmas please as a humanitarian gesture first make su.: the child is old enough to care for it properly and also that the child's parents are not of the “pethating” type.

” # “CAPTIVE MINE BOARD WAS A JOHN LEWIS BOARD” By James R. Meitzier, Attioa When baseball nines of the little towns used to play one another,

there was always considerable squabble as to which town would

” ”

tell. Mother you shot half

Side Glances=By Galbraith |

such 4 poor

furnish the umpire. The town that supplied the umpire usually won.

In the dispute between John Lewis’ United Mine Workers and the steel companies as to whether the company owned mines should be free for any miner to work in or be monopolized by a tributary to the Lewis owned union, the mediation board decided 9 to 2 in favor of free labor, Lewis declared he would not abide such a decision,

In order to save President Roosevelt’'s face a new false mediation board, a John L. Lewis board, was appointed to decide the question in favor of tribute to and monopoly by the great dictator Lewis. The mediation board has now announced its decision, two to one for Lewis. That is the fair way to do when a decision between free and union labor is to be made. Appoint an umpire suitable to Lewis.

SW.

“GIVE A PIECE OF YOUR COUNTRY’S FUTURE”

By J. E. 8, Indianapolis Security for Christmas gifts. This is one you've heard before. You're hearing it now, and you'll hear it again during these last few days before Christmas. We all know that the joy of giving makes Christmas the swellest holiday of the year. And this year,

give. And each gift we give will be a slap in their yellow faces. How? By giving your son, dad, Uncle Jim, even your mom, a piece of our country’s future. The rates are low this year. You can buy them a piece for a dollar. You can buy them a plece for a dime. Gosh, Americans, where could you, how could you, find a better gift than United States defense bonds or stamps? . . . Get the best gift possible. Tiny portions of their own futures and the future of the United States of America. ® 8 =

“POLITICS NOT COMMENDABLE IN PEACE OR WAR”

By Raymond H. Stone, 581 E, 56th St, A declaration of war is an incident in American statecraft and not its termination. ? Politics in its cheap and petty form is not commendable in peace or war, Politics in its broadest and most vigorous sense never ends either in time of war or peace. As an individual voter I still believe that the pages of history will record Franklin Delano Roosevelt as head of the Democratic Party to be the outstanding isolationist in both domestic and foreign affairs in the present decade. In politics I have never voted for Mr. Roosevelt and enter this period of war in opposition to the isola-

J{tionism in which the gentleman still

| believes.

ODE WRITTEN IN MDCCXLVI How Siaep the Brave, who sink to By hy their Country's wishes blest! Waen Spring, with dewy fingers Returns to deck their hallow'd moul

d, She there shall dress a sweeter sod Than fancy’s feet have ever trod.

By fairy hands their knell is rung, By forms unseen their dirge is

sung: There Honour commes, a pilgram gray To bless the turf that wraps their

ay And freedom shall awhile repair To dwell a weeping hermit there!

~William Collins (1720-1759) DAILY THOUGHT

of these rabbits that | bagged, ight ;

Wisdom is beiter than rubies.— Proverbs 8:11,

Japs or no Japs, we're still going to| -

FRIDAY, DEC. 12, 1941 |

Gen. Johnson Says—

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12—It is too early to go head-hunting for a scapegoat for the Pacific catase trophe, particularly at Pearl Hare bor and the Philippine Islands. The damage done to our defenses seems to be so terrific that an eventual head-hunt is pretty cere ' tain—speaking now of individuals whose official skulls must roll in the sawdust basket for some gare rison’s Sunday morning snooze. But it is not too early to seek out. the direct responsibility that, considering the whole situation in the Pacific, could permit suck a ° relaxation of vigilance and disposition of troops and ships as would permit a daring raid on three such powerful stations as Pearl Harbor and, from all that appears, Cavite and Olangapo. '

On Armistice Day this column called attention, not only to the practical certainty of such s sudden attack, but to the absolute certainty of a very early war in the Pacific, and to the disposition to treat that ocean and our defenses there as a sort of side show to the main circus in Russia.

It showed, also, among other things, that such a Japanese war would close one of the only three routes by which we can send our promised billion dollars worth of supplies to our great democratic ally, Russia (Vladivostok, the most practical) the other two being through Murmansk by rail to central Russia and through the Persian Gulf,

Explaining War on Finland

THE SECOND, or Murmansk route, is threatened with control from Finland—whick: explains the Brite ish declaration of war on that great aggressor nation, The third (Persian Gulf) is likely to be useless. The Vladivostok route is now corked up by the Japanese action. The situation thus has more adverse aspects than appear on the surface,

Somebody certainly is responsible for an insuffie cient preparation in this majer field of the larger strategy and this lack of proper emphasis on the Pacific area. Considering the distance of the scenes of the Japanese actions from the bases from which they were launched, a terrible revenge should be taken on the attacking forces before they can return home’ if our Navy and Air Forces are as good and the Japae nese are as poor as we have been led to believe, In addition, our.officials in charge of certain raw materials such as tin and rubber are already begine ning to talk about stringent shortages in those ime ported commodities by reason of our now being cut off from the East Indies and Burma,

Treated Like an Orphan

IF BRITAIN and America ean maintain prace tically an uninterrupted stream of lend-lease stipe plies through the submarine infested waters of the Atlantic, we and Britain certainly should be able to secure the rubber and tin needed from the Pacific §° areas, 1 , If we can't do so, this should be added to the other considerations on the side of a conclusion that our Pacific situation was treated, on its strategic side, more like an orphan foundling than ever, ' At least these circumstances should be given an airing at the earliest conyenient moment. But ‘it should be done in no spirit of hysteria, head-huntifig, scapegoat-finding or _buck-passing. Responsibility for this sort of thing usually goes very far up in the scale of rank, yet the practice ordinarily is to fi the guilt on a subordinate. ® The decisions that fixed these dispositions in th tremendous area of the Pacific Ocean could have been made only by men of the very highest rafk and responsibility in, or in connection with, the Navy and its Air Force. B

Unified Command

By Wm. Philip Simms

f 4 J » ? ’ . f

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12. —A formal five-power alliance pledge ing the members not to sign:a separate peace with the Axis poW= ers and setting up a supreme r staff is expected. I Included would be the United States, Great Britain and the Dominions, Soviet Russia, China and the Netherlands—that is ‘to say all the nations now engaged in actual hostilities against - many, Italy and Japan. The purpose of the sfep would be unity of counsel and unity of action. With out it team play would be hit-or-miss and eventual victory problematical. . It is believed that the formula will follow soniewhat along the lines laid down in the first World War. Throughout the first three years of that cone flict the Allies felt the need of some central plane ning authority in general and a unified command-in particular. National jealousies, however, stood in the way. The events of 1917, however, forced the die-hards to change their minds. $

Fitting Each Blow Together

TODAY THERE IS reason to believe that Presi dent Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill will not allow the present every-man-for-himself situation:ito continue indefinitely. 3 3 There are the Battle of Britain, the Battle of the ‘Atlantic, the Battle of the Pacific, the Battle of the Far East, the Battle of Russia and the Battle of North Africa, with innumerable problems in between, The President has intimated that he regards it as imperative that the efforts of Britain, Russia, Chiha, The Netherlands and the United States be integrated, War materials have to be allocated. Mutua) assist ance is to be thought of. And as soon as the enemies of the Axis can manage it, they will pass to the ofe fensive.* 3 : When that time comes, each blow, if it is to be really effective, will have to be carefully timed ito make it fit into the picture as a whole, ~

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

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer sny question of fact or information, net involving extensive thsearch. Write your question eleatly, sign name and address, inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal advise cannot be given, Address The Times Washington Service Bureau. 1013 Thirteenth St., Washington. D, C.) x

Q—Will the earth ever stop rotating on its axis? A~Probably, but not for a very long time. There is no friction in space, as there would be if the earth were rotating in air. The only thing that is tendiig to stop the rotation of the earth is the friction of the tides in the oceans. Probably this does slow up fhe earth a little, but the process is so gradual that science has not been able to detect it at all. A

Q—Is the actress Tallulah Bankhead the daug of Senator Bankhead, or of the late Speaker of the House, William B. Bankhead? Ta A—Her father was the late Speaker, William

Brockman Bankhead. Senator John Hollis Bankhead is her uncle. .

Q—Is standard time in use throughout the worff1? A—World standard time was adopted by thei International Meridian Conference at Washington, D. ©, in 1884. The earth was divided into zongs, each cov 15 degrees of longitude, the time for each zone that of the meridian of longitude the approximate center of the area, and differing one hour in adjacent zones. The meridian. of the Observatory at Greenwich, England, was designated 0 degree from which all standard time should be

council with an Allied General, md wR