Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 January 1942 — Page 14

PAGE 14

The Indianapolis Times

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 1042

PENALIZING COURAGE, HONESTY OBODY can question the authority of the Attorney General's office to overrule District Attorneys and take whatever action it deems necessary. On that basis, there can be little argument with the Attorney General's right to dismiss the Indianapolis WPA cases over the vigorous and outspoken objections of District Attorney Howard Caughran. But one can question the Attorney General's judgment in threatening to have Mr. Caughran ousted for disagreeing with him. Right or wrong, Howard Caughran has proved himself a thoroughly honorable official, faithful to his trust, courageous in his convigaions. This dismissal threat is strong disciplinary action for a prosecutor whose worst sin apparently was his insistence that “this case should stand trial just as any other case is tried in this court”—Dbefore a jury and not in a Washington office. We could understand such a threat if the District Attorney had been derelict in his duty or if he had failed to prosecute vigorously any case of such wide public interest. ‘But to dismiss Mr. Caughran for a conscientious desire to carry out the full obligations of his office is strange to the point of downright suspicion. The case is over and it should be forgotten. ney General Biddle as well as everybody else.

By Attor-

COMMANDER DISEASE ENERAL WINTER is not the only natural ally now helping defeat the Axis. Commander Disease is also moving in. The two march together in a pincers movement which the Germans dread even more than the slashing Red offensive itself. Spotted typhus is reported spreading. It became epidemic in Poland in November and was officially admitted by the German authorities there on the day of infamy, Dec. 7. The heaviest toll so far has been in the ghettos and the concentration and prison camps. Transfer of Nazi army units from the eastern front to western Europe has spread the disease as far south as Spain. Isolated cases also are reported from Finland, Yugoslavia, Rumania and the low countries. The disease is spread by lice which prey upon troops huddled together for warmth. Though the German medical services are known to be fighting this new enemy with extreme measures, they cannot change the basic conditions of cold and congregating. British strategists think the reported outbreak of typhus in Spain may be sufficient in itself to prevent the planned Hitler offensive on West Africa. Only a madman, they say, would risk decimation of a healthy army by sending it through an infected area.

IT'S SOME BUDGET! AS to the sheer size of the 59-billion-dollar budget, Presi“7 dent Roosevelt expressed the sentiments of most Americans when he said: “Nothing short of the maximum will suffice . . . we are determined to pay whatever price we must to preserve our way of life.” = = 2 = 2 2 UCH superlatives as “stupendous” and “staggering” and “largest in the world’s history® are inadequate to describe this budget of “a nation at war, in a world at war.” In any real sense, of course, it is not even a budget. For neither Mr. Roosevelt nor any other man can make more than a wild guess as to how much money we will have spent by July 1, 1943. What we spend will depend on “the changing fortunes of war,” on how much we can expand our capacity to produce weapons, on what happens to prices and wages. Of the 12 billions already spent for defense purposes, it has been computed that three billions went into higher prices and wages without adding a single plane, gun or cartridge to what had been estimated would cost nine

billions. = 8 ”

” » = HE President's new estimates anticipate only a moderate rise in costs. But if prices and wages are not held in check we shall spend much more money without placing any more equipment in hands of our fighting forces. And there are sound reasons for doubting that the so-called price-control legislation pending in Congress can effectively curb the inflationary spiral. Indeed, this legislation is designed not to hold down, but to increase prices of farm products, which will mean higher costs of food and clothing, causing workers to demand still higher wages and resulting in rising costs of everything produced. To give real value to the budget, Congress will have to do more than appropriate the money and lay the taxes the President requests. It will have to establish effective price and wage controls to make sure that the bombers, tanks and ships are produced at sensible costs. EJ n 8

2 ” 2 PUBLIC debt of 110 billions 18 months hence, and if it goes no higher than that an annual interest bill of two and one-half billions! : If we come out of this war a vigorous, productive, selfdenying people, we can carry that load. But, unless the self-denial starts now, we may not make the grade. Given stern leadership and example, the American people will turn heartily to their tasks, tighten their belts, dig deeply into their pockets. The President shaved a few hundred millions off the non-defense part of the budget. Congress, which has more time and opportunity to assay the value of depression-born civil extravagances, should start its economies where the President left off. The people are willing to pay the billions needed for victory—but are in no mood to dig up extra dollars for non-essential frills, 4

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, Jan. 8.< The loneliest people in the United States these last nine years have been those whose resentment against the greed and folly of the immedi« ate past could not shake their solid faith in the right and who would not advocate equal violence by way of compensation and revenge. The country was swept by a gale of enthusiasm for the new regime which, in a vague, tempting way, was seen as a people's government opposed to government by business. Many opportunists, their American principles addled by poisonous vapors blown here from Europe, offered the thought that business was the enemy of the common man and should be punished, even destroyed. Meanwhile, the Government would take over the personal problems and responsibilities of the common man, and, after a period of rearrangement, the com mon man would be discharged from the civic ree ceivership and returned to work but under government protection. The receivership never has ended and it seems very improbable now that it ever will end, for a great change has occurred in the relatione ship of the citizen to his government and the war precludes any serious effort to beat back.

Revolution? Who Can Say?

IF PEOPLE COULD be made comfortable and reasonably content this would be good Americanism, even though it would require that all men and women be averaged. The dullard and sluggard would be averaged with the intelligent and ambitious citizen, employment would be rotated and brakes would be applied to the energetic worker lest he disrupt the value of the standardization work-hour by superior diligence and skill. All this and much more was proposed and actually imposed and was defended by intellectuals who denounced as fascists and enemies of labor all who had the temerity and voice to disagree. It has been said that but for this change there might have been a revolution, which may be so. Nobody can say. But if we have achieved by subtle and bloodless methods the same result that would have been wrought by revolution we still have lost.

"l Perceive No Improvement"

UNDER THE OLD regime people were exploited by employers and robbed by financiers, and politicians sold them out, and it might have been expected that the new system would try to cure those evils, punish the offenders and restore the rights which had been flouted. But exploitation did not end. The right of exploitation was merely transferred to other hands and the millions of money which the common man has invested in American industry, in his own small business, were threatened from a new quarter by a governmental policy that industry and the worker were natural enemies and the worker a ward of the state. The morals of politicians could not have deteriorated since 1929, but there has been no visible reform, only a change of side. Personalities aside, and without bitterness, but with true regret, I perceive no improvement, except a doubtful and temporary material gain for the common man under the new system. Perhaps it won't hurt much when a whole generation has grown used to it, but it won't be the Americanism we used to know,

Aviation By Maj. Al Williams

SILENCING the airways radio direction beams is a necessary move during this emergency. Such a beam can guide an enemy airman to a big city just as it guides the pHots of our air transports. But what about the commercial radio broadcasting stations? Aircraft homing radios, tuned to a broadcasting station, can lead an airman direct y to that station as surely as an airways radic directional beam leads a transport pilot to the city’s airport. Remember how Nazi dive bombers found Polish field army control posts behind the front in that campaign? The posts were sending out radio orders to the Polish army ground units. The Nazis had receivers that picked up the wave lengths used by the Polish field control posts and guided planes to them. Someone hadn’t been thinking on the Polish general staff, and someone had been thinking on the German general staff. Logically, when we shut down the airways radio beams we should shut down the commercial broadcasting stations—all together, or none at all. This is what I call hard-headed thinking.

Too Many Managers

I WAS FAMILIAR with air raid precautions projects in England, France, Germany and Italy long before the phrase was ever used or understood over here. Generally speaking, we Americans have too many grandstand managers running our preparations for air raids and behaving just as such “experts” ordinarily behave in the bleachers. If you are assigned a job in Air Raid Precautions, do that job. As a member of the ARP, you have no more moral license to leave your post than soldiers, sailors and airmen on the firing line have to desert to see how their relatives are getting along. Make suggestions, if you can think .of anything worth while. But learn to take orders. Undoubtedly, some will be appointed to air raid jobs for which they are not qualified. There is bound to be some fumbling. But this country has fumbled its way into being the greatest country the world has ever known, Danger? Certainly there's danger. There's danger on your highways every day. And more people are killed there every year in peace time than can be injured in any air raid you can dream of on the United States. If you haven't contributed any of your spare time to learning this air raid precautions business, pay attention to those who have and obey their orders.

So They Say—

As a nation Germany can never again be trusted with military weapons.—Margaret Bondfield, former British member of Parliament. * * * A new technique has been devised for this war, not the open sabotage of the last war. We have superpatriots seeking to find flaws and destroy the confidence of the people in their Government. That is the new technique.—Mayor La Guardia of New York. - =

*

American prosperity does not stand alone. Until

every nation is prosperous, no nation is prosperous.—

Henry Ford. * * . THE CHURCH should minister in mercy to those on whom the cruelty of war most heavily falls.— Pastoral letter of Federated Churches of Christ in America.

. * * IN SERVING each other and in sacrificing for our common good we are finding the true life —King George VI.

*® * *

WHEN the cause of freedom triumphs, we women not without blood and sweat and tears will have earned our share of it.—Madame Litvinov, wife of the

TE ——_—

INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

THURSDAY, JAN. 8, 1942 ,

"We Must Raise Our Sights!'—F. D. R.

The Hoosier Forum

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

A WORD IN FAVOR OF THE TOWN’S STARLINGS By Arthur S. Mellinger, 3500 W. 30th St.

I was interested in the bird survey. The fact that large numbers of starlings are going downtown to roost reminds me of a condition out our way a few years ago. Most of the blackbirds and starlings roosted in the evergreens along Cold Spring Road west of White River. For some reason the attendants began shooting the birds to discourage them from roosting there. So the poor birds have to try to live with man and his shortsightedness. They found they were not molested downtown, hence moved in. Who is to blame? A remedy is to have fenced bird sanctuaries in four or five places around the city. This is not silly. All large towns in Texas have bat roosts that are carefully watched to see that “dumb” people do not molest them. In case you don't know, the bats help keep down insects, such as mosquitoes. ‘ 2 8 os ‘WHY NOT QUIT MAKING WHISKY AND CIGARETS? By N. R., Indianapolis So much has been said about saving for defense and I believe we should do this. We are to save on tires, save on gasoline and as much as can be learned about this rationing of these things, it will be bad for some of these men who work on defense work who work all hours at night, who live out where there is no owl car at night with which to get home when work is through, yet this man is not put with the list of necessary users of tires and gasoline. If we wish to save on defense, why don’t they quit making whisky, beer and cigarets that don't do anyone any good only to take the necessary things from a family to keep soul and body together? Think if the unnecessary liquor business and the cigaret business were stopped how much it would save our nation for defense in foodstuffs, how many men could be put

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in defense plants and there would be all kinds of bonds sold because people would have money for defense then and there would not be s0 many drunken drivers on our highways. Are we willing to sacrifice these things for our country? It wil not even be termed a sacrifice in a while after you quit because you will be so much better off physically.

#§ #4 #4 FORECASTS JAPANESE ATTACK ON PANAMA

By F. T., Indianapolis As a matter of actual hindsight, nothing appears more reasonable than that the central strategy of the Japs would be just such an attack on Pearl Harbor as that which they actually made.

What strikes me as even more remarkable is that so few people realize even now the enormity of the Japanese treacherous design. People's minds are still concentrated on Pearl Harbor, not realizing that the plan was for a simultaneous attack on Panama, Pearl Harbor, Wake, Midway, Guam and Manila, and including Singapore and Hongkong as well, which failed because of poor timing and co-or-dination. Instead of being a scheme which was cooked up a few weeks or months ago, it was the culmination of the grand strategy of the Japanese over a long period of time. Instead of marveling at the success of their treachery, the real marvel should be the enormity of their failure. Let no one be deceived, however, by the shrinkage in the size and magnitude of the task which is

Side Glances=By Galbraith

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ahead of us. It is no easy job to ferret a snake out of a hole. It is my observation that Panama and not Pearl Harbor was and still is the main objective of Japanese strategy, that there are some wellprepared and concealed air bases in the Galapagos, or other islands in that vicinity, that a desperate attempt will yet be made to destroy the locks of the Panama Canal, and that both Japan and Germany are likely to initiate gas-bombing attacks during the ensuing year.

That is what we must be prepared for,

o ” o

“FARMERS OBLIGATED TO BACK TRIPLE-A PROGRAM”

By Bertha J. Randall, R. R. 4, Noblesville

The Indiana farmer faces tremendous responsibilities in the coming year. He must provide food for our families, for our own country, help provide food for a hungry world and stay within his Triple A allotment.

The farmer has enjoyed great benefits urder the Triple A. Through it his soil has been built up so that he has been enabled to plant a smaller acreage, tend his crop better, use better seed corn, and still have a larger crop as evidenced by the reports of Indiana's corn crop this year. . . He has enjoyed greater economic freedom. His payments, though not large, have helped him meet his taxes and enjoy some of the better things of life. . . . The whole country, along with the farmer, has enjoyed the feeling of security the “ever normal granaries” program gives them. . . . In other years the farmer has been a victim of the Board of Trade. He will be sorely tempted in face of rapidly rising prices to throw caution to the winds, plant double his allotment and go back to the days when it was every fellow for himself. But when we hit the toboggan, as hit we must at the close of the war, the farmer will be the first to go down as h> did during the depression that followed the first World War when his taxes went unpaid, his buildings went unpainted, his insurance lapsed and he faced utter ruin in the foreclosure of his mortgage. We were in danger of becoming a tenant state. The President has signed a bill authorizing the extension of the life of the Triple-A for five more years, By the benefits we have, and will receive through the program, we are obligated to stand shoulder to shoulder with labor and industry, to the boys who have offered themselves to our country and our Allies. The Indiana farmer will not fail his obligation.

THE UNSCARRED FIGHTER REMEMBERS FRANCE

That amazing holiday; Wine and brotherhood and passion, Paradisal in its way, Elemental in its fashion.

Those of you that must come after, Will not know this blithe and brave Thing we met with vivid laughter, Standing by an open grave. Kenneth Slade Alling (1887- )

DAILY THOUGHT

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.—II Timothy 4:7.

THROUGH this dark and stormy night faith beholds a feeble light up the blackness streaking; knowsing God's own time is best, in a for the full day-

: er I rest you say yesl" | I—Whittler, a

Gen. Johnson Says—

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8.—As was remarked in this space recently there is tremendous struggle going on behind the scenes over who shall control our war production effort. Industry as such never did control it. It is true that there are industrialists

in OPM. But even a Knudsen is" covered by a Hillman and the

most influential people on the top In.

side are not “industrialists.” fact, in the strict sense, I don't know of any important industrialist there, Mostly, they are labor leaders and the type of

young economist that has helped to shape most of the

theories and practices of the later New Deals.

Together these groups seem to have their own men : at all key points and pretty generally to purge all ime

portant industrialists from the picture.

The technique is to say that we are lagging in war /

production, that this lag is largely due to the reluctance and failure of the automobile industry to close down all automobile plants and to put them on war

work. The accusers claim to have “had the imaginae. tion” to do this last year and say they produced the .

Reuther plan to do it but industry did not heed.

Government Also To Blame

THEY SAY openly “Knudsen must go.” Can you split a Siamese twin? They don’t say Hillman must go. sen. Certainly he has had co-equal authority, But these errors can't be charged to industry, nor to Knudsen or Hillman. These men serve where and as they were told to serve. Neither are these errors and many others, which have created a great unwieldy contraption of contradictions and confusion, to be charged to industry. Neither can the lag in

production behind appropriations be charged to ine dustry. All the errors mentioned in this paragraph -

are to be charged to Government itself.

Doubtless industry has also much to answer for but failure to adopt the Reuther plan is by no means . proved to be even a contributing cause to the pres=r.

ent lag and delay. In many ways it is impracticable and its adoption would be ruinous.

ernment asks it to do.

No Time for Fault Finding

BUT NO planes and tanks and ships and guns until the Gove ernment tells him exactly what it wants and when and how and where. The Government has been slow in this regard. Some of these gentlemen want to oust the Army and Navy and Maritime Commission from the proe curement program. They, too, it seems, are scape= goats. This is fantastic. Navy war, a shipping war and above all an industrial war. So we oust the life-trained specialists in these fields and install some economists. Even the sugges= tion is almost incredible.

There are harsher things to be said than this,

First: Any group that uses this war to advance its private aims regardless of national aims is no fit partner in our united effort. Second: This is no time for fault-finding and shin-kicking. It is a time to forget the past and look with increased determination and vigor to the future. You can’t do that with a Kilkenny cat fight going on at the very heart and nerve center of Government itself.

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

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

RIGHT NOW I can think eof nothing we need so much as calm radio voices. If you listen persistently to air programs, you'll have the daylights scared out of you or your nerves will be so tensed by the shrill cries emitted, and you will end the evening as limp as a dish rag. Too many voices on the air maintain a breathless excitement, Whether they list war disasters or plug a commercial, their quality is about the same. There is a lilt for liver pills and tobaccos, the joyous sound foretelling delights to come, or its exact opposite, the ominous high pitched, panting monologue of one who brings bad tidings. For this reason we were relieved to hear that.the National Association of Broadcasters had warned its members against sensationalism, carelessness or the use of rumors in presenting war news. I wish they had gone further and demanded calmer speech. For it often seems that almost all announcers use headline language—or perhaps it's just a fashion.

We Need Our Heads :

AT ANY RATE, the voices shriek at us in what would be 72-point type if translated into print. And the worst of it is that they shriek over nothing as well as over something. A thousand times Walter Winchell and his imitae tors have brought us the news of some budding night club romance with the same vocal intensity needed to announce the bombing of Pearl Harbor. For years the radio has been so excited over the trivial that it has no breath left to recount the tragedy of a world, How grateful to the ears are the voices of men like Raymond Gram Swing who, in ordinary conversational tones, talk to an audience so that we can use our heads as well as our emotions to receive the news. ‘And if we ever needed our heads, this is the mo= ment,

Questions and Answers

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inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal advice cannot be given. Address The Times Washington Service Bureau 1013 Thirteenth St. Washington D. C.)

Q—How many naval vessels did Great Britain lose in World War I? . A—Thirteen battleships, 3 battle cruisers, 27 cruise ers, 6 monitors, 64 destroyers, 10 torpedo boats, 50 submarines and 27 small craft.

Q—How old is Josef Stalin, and what is nis ane cestry? A—Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili (Stalin) was born Dec. 21, 1879, in Gori, near Tiflis, Russia, the son of a poor, hard-working Georgian cobbler named Vissarion Djugashvili. He is reportedly pure Georgian. The boy's mother christened him Josef, after the husband of Mary, mother of Jesus. As a revolutionist he adopted the name Stalin, which means “steel.” Q—Can personal information given in connection with a worker’s Social Security account be kept secret from his employer? A—All information given to the Government by a worker in connection with his Social Security account, is confidential and will not be revealed to anyone, not even to representatives of other departments of the Government, except as required for the proper admine istration of the insurance provisions of tl.e Social Security Act. Q—How many planes are in a Wing of the Army Air Forces?

A—100,to 200.

Hillman is supposed to be one man with Knud=

I believe industry .. has been ready and is ready now to do whatever Gove .

MANUFACTURER can start making .

This war is an Army war, a -

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