Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 January 1942 — Page 10

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The Indianapolis Times

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager

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«=P RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1942

»

THAT'S FINE! HE whole country will welcome President Roosevelt's order establishing a war production board to be headed by Donald M. Nelson, whose “decisions as to questions of procurement and production will be final.” Mr. Nelson is among the many able men who have been laboring at the task of converting America’s industrial might to production, first for national defense, and now for winning the war. Such an effort demands the services of many men. But. above all, it demands direction and co-ordination by some one man who has complete authority to make decisions and who can be held fully responsible for results. Mr. Nelson now becomes that one man. The President's order should sweep away the fog of confusion that has surrounded the war production program. It sets up the type of industrial high command that is necessary to achieve the output of planes and tanks and ships and guns for which the President has called. We hope Mr. Nelson is the right man for this tremendous job, and his record of experience and achievement

leads us to believe that he is.

THE NAVY IS FIGHTING

GECRETARY KNOX'S statement to the U. S. Conference of Mavors should quiet some of the public fears that our Navy, after being caught napping, is now loafing because it has not sunk the Jap fleet. Of all the rumors that afflict the hysterical, none is far more absurd and unjust than this. It is true that Pearl Harbor losses have reduced our naval strength. It is true that this has forced reorganization and consequent delays. But these weaknesses have been offset, at least in part, by the increasing fighting morale and by the general speedup of production in place of our old complacency. There are various reasons why the American and Japanese grand fleets have not lined up in one mighty win-or-lose battle of the story bocks. One is that no nation in modern war dares risk so much on one throw of the dice. Another is that aircraft makes such strategy too expensive. Another is that both fleets must be widely scattered for imperative tasks of many kinds. The Japanese must spread themselves over the entire Pacific, in addition to fighting scores of separate battles in and out of the long South China Sea. Our forces must be divided four ways in the Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Near Pacific, and the Far Pacific, plus the Panama and Alaskan stations and the mainland patrols. The first job is to protect our bases fense and likewise to any offensive action. The second job is to keep open the dangerous supply lines to Allied forces around the world—to England, the Middle East, Russia and the Far East. This does not mean that a purely defensive strategy

can win the war, or that the Roosevelt-Churchill agreement |

on the n>cessity of taking the offensive is blufi. It does mean that first things must come first. If this war has proved anything, it has written in blood and failure the folly of half-cocked offensives.

Far from being disappointed, we should be profoundly |

thankful that our fighting chiefs have not buckled under public pressure for spectacular action.

WHERE SOME RUBBER GOES

T A time when auto tires are being rationed, and a still more serious shortage of rubber is definitely threatened, it isn’t at all comforting to read in the annual report of the U. S. Comptroller General that— “Considerable investigation has been made during the past few years in order to determine the extent to which Government-owned automobiles have been used for the personal convenience of officials and employees of the various departments and establishments, as a result of which it has been disclosed that in many instances officials are provided transportation to and from their homes and that such automobiles (with chauffeur) are used for personal convenience after official hours. “It has been further disclosed that in a few instances officials and employees keep the cars at their homes overnight and week-ends during which periods they are used for the personal convenience of such officials and employees. The cars are usually provided with gasoline and oil from the Government supply at closing time, and, in many instances, upon being returned to the Government garages, the tanks are empty even though they have not been driven on official business.”

SOAP BUBBLES FOR DEFENSE THE current issue of “Consumer Prices,” published by the lady Ph. D.’s of the Consumers Division, Office of Price Administration, contains a four-page thesis entitled “Soap Needs Saving, Too!” Excerpts: “Perhaps you never thought of its before, but the bar of soap you buy with scarcely a thought except that you want it, is a filament in a world-wide network of ships and men and goods closely tied to the whole defense program. .“Far that bar of soap may contain coconut oil from Java, or babassu oil from Brazil. The lavender scenting may have come from England or France. Qr its lemon fragrance may derive from an oil of India. “The geography of soap can mean but one thing these days: That the cargo space usually devoted to oils and scents for a bar of soap is now an essential ingredient of the nation’s defense. ...” There is much, much more. After expounding the “geography of soap” the authors get down to telling how to use it. Very realistic indeed. But just why the taxpayers shoud have to finance such tripe iA artis remains

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essential to de- |

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

WASHINGTON, Jan' 14. —Note to editors: Let's quit printing those poisonously optimistic cut-lines under the news-service photographs of tanks, bombers and the like, shot in long perspective so as to create an illusion of plenty, which speaks of these vehicles as “rolling off the assembly lines.” They aren’t rolling off the assembly lines and : these pictures, and especially the cut-lines, gives a dangerously false impression. If the pictures come with ready-made cut-lines, edit the cut-lines ‘way down. You don't need to say the tanks and bombers are stationary on the assembly lines, because, of course, they are inching along slowly, but they aren’t rolling off like flivvers as the pictures have suggested they are and nobody knows it better than Hitler and the only people who are deceived by the exaggeration are the Americans who shouldn't be hopped up with such habit-forming encouragement. The fact is that the rate of production to date is a disgrace to the greatest industrial nation on earth and a menace to life and liberty. It wouldn't be the worst idea, or a false one, either, to put across the suggestion that it is no dead sure thing that the United States is going to be on the winning side of this war,

Apathy - - Just Plain Apathy

IF WE DONT spit on our hands, pull up our socks and begin to realize those fatuous lines about heavy war stuff “rolling off the assembly lines” this country might get licked and never mind what the Russians are doing to Hitler or how many German generals get fired or how much the Italians really hate the heinies in their hearts. * Do you want a one-word description of our rate of production? You don't want to be kidded, do you? All right then, the word is awful, which is short for bloody-awful awful. Who is to blame? You, me, us, everybody—and that goes for the President of the United States-as well as for John Lewis and the dirty bolos who were holding back production until Hitler struck Russia. A lot of our trouble has been just apathy, personal, individual, let-George-do-it indifference. There has been no head man, no tough guy with authority to make brutal decisions, issue orders and compel obedience. I can report that at this writing tHe man who commands most respect in the capital, next to the President, himself, of course, is Leon Henderson, who had the gumption to say that, with small reservations, there would be no more tires on pleasure cays. The boss could have appointed him head of production and even industry would have forgotten his dream-book ideas of economics and given him a good substantial yell.

Mr. Pegler's Candidate - -

I HAVE GOT a candidate who would be even better in action, but I want to save his name for the end, so I can have the last word. Otherwise I would be mobbed by all the pinkoes and bleeding hearts and the greedy and power-hungry ignoramuses of the union racket. Mv man is as tough as Henderson. He is as dirty in a fight as any eye-gouging New Dealer and on his record he is so much better at producing hard stuff out of big factories than any of your Ivy-League lawyers, social workers, punk poets or misanthropic failures of the newspaper business that no comparison is possible. He met that beetle-browed bulldozer John L. Lewis toe-to-toe and ripped the belly right out of him with body punches and knocked him through the skylight. He is one of the most valuable men in the United States and most of his ability is being wasted now in an aircraft job that isn’t one-fiftieth of his size. His name is Tom Girdler.

U. S. Aviation

By Maj. Al Williams

I WAS SORRY to note Mayor La Guardie’s slur of un-Amer-icanism on those who disagree with his management of Civilian Defense. Any man who accepts appointment to lead our combat, industrial or home-defense forces must be ready to account to his fellow Americans. An alert citizenry should raise hell when any American's patriotic purpose is indicted without proof. IT have kept a careful file of almost all the recent literature belittling the war efficiency of Japan. The unthinking wishfulness and inaccurate blather is almost unbelievable. The result has been to incline public opinion toward underestimating our Asiatic enemy. This is always dangerous. Let's quit day dreaming and enter the lists of world combat as we were taught to enter a baseball or football game: “The enemy is tough, courageous and resourceful, and licking him will take all we've got.” There's a real formula for winning this war.

The Outcome at Corregidor

CORREGIDOR IS a vertible Gibraltar—a mightily fortified island at the entrance to Manila Bay. Jap troops and tanks cannot march and roll across the waterways leading to its bastions. It is unbelievable that the Japs will be foolish enough to launch a warship attack against this rock fortress. I believe their only alternative will be continual massed air attack. So it becomes a question of whether Corregidor’s anti-aircraft guns will be able to smother or turn aside the Jap air force. I don’t know how many anti-aircraft guns are available, but I hope there are a thousand. Corregidor, like Gibraltar, was built to withstand warship attack and equipped with giant mortars and long-range guns. It's a tough nut to crack. You can bet that what happens at Corregidor will shape the tactics of resistance and the form of attack at Gibraltar. In either case, the great long muzzles of antiseapower guns will be cool and helpless while the little barkers—the anti-aircraft guns—will test the intestinal fortitude of the Japs.

So They Say—

The day is past when employers may compete with the Army for physically fit men. . . . Eventually the only labor supply may be women.—Lieut. Col. Joseph F. Battley, War Office. » %* * Wearing a sweater is really patriotic, because it pleases the soldiers.—Margaret Landry, much-publi-cized knitwear-makers’ “sweater girl.” - * * Aside from the hardships to individual motorists if this wave of tire thievery is to continue . . . it will have a detrimental effect on the program of rubber

| conservation for war purposes.—President Thomas P | Henry, of the American Auto Association. * He

- The repression of prostitution is a civilian community problem and one over which military authorities ordinarily have no direct control.—Dr. Ray Wilbur, president, American Social Hygiene Association. * . . ‘Man is the master machine in war.—Lieut. Gen. Ben Lear, Second Army. .

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 14, 1942

“The Fuehrer Wishes to See No. One Tay Gen. Joh nson

I wholly

The Hoosier Forum

defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

disagree with what you say, but will

DOUBTS PEGLER CONTRIBUTES TO UNITY By D. Reece, New Castle

An open letter to Westbrook Pegler: In your article about the so-called wrangle between the U. A. W. and the auto manufactures you say it makes no difference whose fault it was that auto production capacity was not used for defense production. As I get it the argument was and still is about the Reuther Plan not being adopted. The Reuther Plan was first proposed by the union better than 18 months ago but was not even given consideration until the union started this so-called wrangle last Sunday.

About the auto industry being slow going into war business because it has no future, they did not worry about the Government building and equipping plants to give to them when they had plants and machinery that were working only four days a week or less. When the union asked them to permit skilled men, who were working only part time on auto production to transfer to defense production they thought that had no future either.

You talk of the Communists in the C. I. O. fighting against the war effort. The Reuther Plan was suggested 18 months ago; your apology came after Pearl Harbor for the articles that you wrote against the war effort. You say the C. I. O. contributes nothing to unity by wrangling. Do you? The U. A. W. believes in curtailment of auto production but does want a plan adopted to use the production of the auto industry for defense in the most effective way.

8 & ® ‘AMERICA, GIVE US'A CHANCE TO WORK TOGETHER’ By John H. Walker, 615 W. Vermont St.

America, we have come a long way together and yet we have a long way to go. We have been with ever since Columbus discovered you. That was before the Mayflower came to America. We have been here so long that we are citizens by birth. We do not have to be naturalized to become an Ameri-

the citizens and attorneys of the State of Indiana. He is honest, fearless, and has proved himself to be a thoroughly honorable District Attorney, faithful to his trust and with the courage of his convictions. He succeeded Val Nolan, a man of equal qualities. The country needs men of Mr. Caughran's type in the office of District Attorney. Howard Caughran could not be, and would not be, controlled or dictated to in the execution of his public trust. He] stood foursquare on doing his duty las he saw it, Our citizenry demands that men of Mr. Caughran's type be rewarded for their honesty and cour-! age in an office of public trust. The to buy stamps and bonds. We, t00, | Atiorney General's office entirely! would be willing to buy stamps and misunderstands the attitude of the bonds and to help the Red Crm ngs in hurling a dismissal threat . against Mr. Caughran. The citizenry it y OF Will lise (he gate of wenres {of this country badly needs public gation and give us work So we Can maia)s who are true to their trusts help to carry on this fight. The gnd perform their duties with an only thing we are asking for is an honest and courageous heart. equal chance to do our part. Howard Caughran refused to disAfter ail, we are all Americans miss an indictment which had been if our skin is darker than yours.) voted by the Federal Grand Juiy. This war is not your fight or my

(Times readers are invited their these columns, religious conMake

your letters short, so all can

to express views in

excluded.

troversies

have a chahce. Letters must be signed.)

can. America, we have fought in all your wars. We have never betrayed YOU: « 4» Now in 1942 another war is on. America, you are asking all of your citizens to help the Red Cross and

{He insisted uron a trial of the is- : sues, which was not only his prefight. This war is our fight. So let ,ogative, but his duty. Attorney us all work together for one com- General Biddle should not inmon cause and victory. Swing the doors of these plants wide open and

sist upon the dismissal of a case where the Federal Grand Jury has let us in to work as you have put guns on our shoulders and we will

found cause to indict, and his District Attorney was honest and courshow you how to buy stamps and bonds and help the Red Cross, and

ageous enough to stand upon his we will guarantee that there will

convictions. be no strikes or sabotage. America, give us a chance and let us work together. Don't let it be said any more that the Negro is the first to be laid off and the last to be hired, and is

We citizens of Indiana want to know what the reward for Mr. Caughran’s honesty and efficiency shall be. ” 2 ”

“WHAT DO YOU EXPECT—

THE KEYS TO THE CITY” By Fred J. Harrison, R. R. 9, Box 4-H Answer to A. S. W,, Indianapolis: What do you expect of any city— did you think you would get the keys to Indianapolis because you are a defense worker? Well, listen, chum, we also have defense workers and we have a shortage of housing facilities for them. If you were more patriotic and would let up on your

paid bottom wages. Let us rise together and work for America in time of war as well as in peace. ” ” s “MEN OF CAUGHRAN’'S TYPE NEEDED BY COUNTRY” Boge re A. Henry, 501 Security Trust

As a citizen and practicing attorney, I voice my protest against the considered dismissal of Howard Caughran as District Attorney. Mr, Caughran stands high among

chase of the almighty dollar, then

Side Glances=By Galbraith

perhaps you never would have seen the pitfalls of our city. In Indianapolis there are people

4 THC SE SONNY cS A Lp > Gy

faire

unemployed that with little training could fill your shoes in nothing flat. In a few words of slang, you have squawked before you have been hit. Anyway, this is a poor time to talk of reform. You probably will make greater sacrifices during the duration. The people of England probably would be very appreciative of a few sticks of discarded furniture (There was a man that had no shoes, then he saw a man that had no feet.) So stop your bellyaching, chum, and bear with us. We will improve with time.

THE POET

I take what never can be taken, Touch what cannot be; I wake what never could awaken, But for me,

I go where only winds are going, Kiss what fades away; I know a thing too strange for knowing, I, the clay. Haniel Long (1888—)

DAILY THOUGHT

‘Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing—I Corinthians 13:3.

Says—

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14. — Ask any statesman in Washington and he will tell you that the war can be won only through sacrifice. It is the keynote of all current elo= quence. But ask most of them to sacrifice anything for himself or his constituents and see where you get. Here are a few examples to prove the point. Everybody recognizes that price inflation could double and treble the cost of the war or even bankrupt the nation. “In principle” nearly everybody is for moving to stop it by simple and direct control through a price-fixing bill. It is not contested that the prine cipal elements in our whole price structure are farm prices and labor wages.

There would not be much sacrifice about control ing the whole upward spiral as Leon Henderson has been so valiantly trying to do—with insufficient authority and backing.

Another Two-Headed Boy!

WHEN THE PRICE control bill comes up we find almost no opposition to it except as to its principal clauses without which it is nothing. Labor won't stand for any wage control at all. Agriculture dewises a clever little scheme which defeats the very purpose of the bill, Consequently price inflation is upon us and has already increased war costs by $13,000,000,000. It is disgraceful. It is obvious that the President does not minimize the necessity for efficient civilian defense. He appoints Mr. La Guardia to get it. The public reaction to spreading the Little Flower’s great talents too thin and the lack of substantial progress were so deplorable that change was imperative. Does Mr. La Guardia make whatever sacrifice is necessary to his ambitions and step down—swhich he could do with the greatest of ease? He does not. He forces the President to appoint another KnudsenHillman two-headed boy monstrosity. 2ohady can argue that this is in the public interest in a time or crisis.

After All, This Is War!

ALL THIS IS understandable but this is war, Soldiers and sailors are taken from their families, their earnings cut to fractions and their lives some times lost. Millions of people will be deprived of their means of living by priorities and conservation. Yet they do not squawk. The resistance in Washington to this prime war requirement is shameful. Some labor leaders come to Washington to “cooperate” in industrial mobilization and plant conser= vation. When they arrive it develops that their prie mary purpose is to use this crisis to advance their own interests and to obtain a partial, if not total control of industry in the managerial sense. This list could be expanded indefinitely. It is too sickening. It shows that we are still “galloping in place.” If we can’t cure this and replace selfishness and cross purposes with a real unity in sacrifice and effort the President's armament program hasn't a chance of being completed in time.

Editor's Note: newspaper are their own, of The Indianapolis Times,

The views expressed by columnists in this They are not necessarily those

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

WARS ARE STARTED by two kinds of people—fanatics and fools. They are won by clear~ thinking and intelligent men. We are now in the midst of a conflict which was begun by a super-fa-natic—Adolf Schicklgruber, alias Hitler, To win it we shall need sanity and strategy, as well as self-sacrifice and loud talk. That is why I sincerely hope the War Department will accept the offer of Charles A. Lindbergh to serve in the air forces. True, he is cordially hated by many people and has been subjected to a campaign of abuse Which would do credit to Dr. Goebbels himself, Nevertheless one fact stands forth clearly. Lind bergh knows & lot about airplanes, and has established himself as an outstanding scientist. His services would be a thousand times more valuable i crisis than those of individuals whose only ability win a war seems to be thinking up nasty names to call their enemies. There is a group which regards Lindbergh as proe Nazi, but no actual proof has ever been offered that he is such. His only crime was a sincere belief in iso= lationism when isolation was nqt the vogue. And, mad as we get, we can hardly accuse a person of dise loyalty to country because he has put that country first in his thinking and worked to keep its arms and supplies for the use of its own people,

They Still Have Rights

UNTIL SOME reasonable evidence is offered to the contrary, I am prepared to believe that Charles Lindbergh is as good an American as the rank and flle of us. And in a total war effort, I think, he may be a more important figure in winning the war than news paper scribblers or super-patriots whose best bullets are words. Obviously it is time to shut up about isolationists. Under the Bill of Rights they can still claim citizen= ship, and many of them are great and intelligent citi« zens. Also, as Winston Churchill said in Washington, they are good fighters. To go on reviling them is a sorry way to maintain the unity we must have. And, as I see it, to deprive deliberately the nation of the services of a competent flier and airplane expert, because of past political differences, would be an act of supreme folly,

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information, mot 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, C.) :

Q—What is the rank of the Army Chief of Ohaplains? A—At present he holds the temporary rank: of Brigadier General.

Q—Does a hot copper wire conduct electricity bet ter than a cold othe? A~—The electrical conductivity of a copper Wit: des creases with increase in temperature,

Q—How much peanut butter is manufac nually? A~About 250 million pounds, Foquiring some. 400 million pounds of farmers’ stock peanuts. During the past year, production has increased, due partly to purchase for Army camps and for relief.

Q—Please compare the exports of the Utitted States to South America in 1939 and 1940, ra A—These exports jumped from $329,127.00 in 1939 to $435,588,000 in 1940, ; Q—Which type of naval vessel corresponds to the “Panzer divisions” of the Army?

A—Light cruisers are often so classed because of their leng cruising radius and high speed. :

Q—Is the expression “not feeling pr matical? ii ; Sood

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