Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 January 1942 — Page 18
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PAGE 18 The Indianapolis Times
ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager
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Give Light end the People Will Find Their Own Wap
FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1942
HELL IS PAVED WITH . ..
WICE within 48 hours the President has tried to undo serious damage caused by two well-meaning associates. The results are still unknown. A statement by Chairman Connally of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has almost wrecked the Rio pact for a Latin American break in diplomatic relations with the Axis. Mr. Connally was reported as saying in Washington: : “We are trusting that before the meeting at Rio is over, Mr. Castillo (Argentina's acting president) will change his mind or the Argentines will change their president.” What would have been the reaction in this country if, during the recent Churchill-Roosevelt conference, a leader of the British parliament had made a similar crack against our President? Of course Secretary Hull and the President did what thev could to counteract the evil effects of the Connally blunder, but the angry Argentine delegation at Rio withdrew its promise to sign the solidarity pact. Now every effort is being made to pacify them, but a weaker pact may be the final outcome. »
=» = »
ARLIER in the week the President had to assure our Australian, Dutch and Chinese allies that we were not going to let them down—as they feared from the speech of Secretary of the Navy Knox apparently stressing the importance of the Hitler front as against the Pacific. Sun Fo, a high Chinese official, even warned that—
“If the United States and Britain intend to allow Japan a free rein in the Far East while they are finishing off | Hitler, as seems to have been indicated in recent speeches | by Alexander and Knox, there is grave doubt in Chungking as to the wisdom of China's continuing to fight as she now is doing so successfully.” We do not doubt that Secretary Knox and Chairman Connally were moved by good intentions. They aimed to fix everything in the far East and Latin America just | dandv. But they are expected to have too much sense, and too little time, to be interfering in this way.
ENLISTMENTS NOW A LUXURY
EN. HERSHEY makes sense, it seems to us, when he urges a gradual abolition of voluntary enlistments, and an exclusive reliance thereafter on the Selective Service ! for the manning of our fighting machine. Such patriotic gestures have become a luxury that the | country can’t afford. The question of where an able-bodied man can serve | his country best is one that should be decided not by the | individual but by the experts who know where he is needed most. | We don't want for a minute to deprecate the valor of | the volunteers, who deserve all praise. But the time has | come to revoke the enlistment privilege, in the interest of national efficiency.
THE STRANGE IMPORTANCE OF LASH
MES. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT may and apparently does deem it of high national moment to get Joseph P. Lash, former Communist-front leader, a commission in the Office of Naval Intelligence. By her conspicuous persistence in the matter Mrs.
Roosevelt is, we think, only further damaging her prestige |
by misusing it. We see no paramount need of Mr. Lash in an office which deals with counter-espionage and which, in the nature of things, is one of the most confidential and closely guarded in the whole war setup. We strongly doubt that the Navy wants Mr. Lash, even though he has abiured communism and become a protege of Mrs. Roosevelt. In view of his background and record we utterly fail to see why Mr. Lash, whatever his present professions, should be preferred for a commission in the office of naval intelligence in a nation now engaged in world-wide war. Or why the President's wife should be so determined
to push Mr. Lash past the Dies Committee and into the
preferred job. When his application for a reserve commission was turned down by the Navy Department earlier this month Mr. Lash, who is 32, is reported to have said, on being asked whether he would enlist, “I'll wait till I'm drafted” —which, we learn, may be in a few weeks. We think Mr. Lash would be wise to leave it at just that. Se, emphatically, would Mrs. Roosevelt.
EVERETTE LEE DE GOLYER
WE are glad to see that the scientist is not forgotten in this time when decorations are being handed out to our strictly military heroes. For without the scientist, the military man, no matter how brave, wouldn't have the tools with which to win. Everette Lee De Golyer applied the geophysical principle to the discovery of oil. He has just been awarded the John Fritz Medal by the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, his name thereby being added to an illustrious list that includes Orville Wright, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and Gen. George Goethals. Were it not for De Golyer’s work this nation would be shy three billion barrels of petroleum, produced by the discovery process he pioneered. What that process means
| concern is expressed over a proposal to establish a
| is an established thing affecting hunudreds of thou- | sands of toilers who simply kiss their money goodby |
| is inevitable and Congress alone can avert the final,
in terms of current production, and what our capacity to find further oil means, is obvious. The Fritz award to the man who made this possible
is indeed deserved, and timely. ©
LH ER A
Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler
NEW YORK, Jan. 23. —It is expedient politics to say that the great division of our unions into two rival and generally hostile groups is a deplorable thing and most citizens not in politics repeat the same phrases by way of proving that they are pro-labor. The reasons why politicians say what they say are various and always subject to suspicion, but those: other Americans, the non-
politicians, who accept their opinions ready-made
from the orations and editorials, just don’t know |
what they are talking about. They are emoting when when they should be thinking. A unified or combined organization of the C. I. O. and the A. F. of L,, under the present laws and under the leadership of any of the men now prominent in union politics would be disastrous to every American worker and would confer on the bosses of this new combine a power to govern our Government by the same brutal, cynical, thieving, irresponsible methods that have distinguished their rule of the unions up to now. Union bosses who have never been anything better than very low-grade politicians would acquire the rights, but none of the responsibilities of management in all the industries of the entire nation, including agriculture, and every man and woman who toils would be compelled to contribute to their financial and political power over the Government established by the Constitution.
So Much Power Is Dangerous
NO MAN OR GROUP of men on earth today can be trusted with such power and at least until Congress passes laws recognizing and forefending this danger by establishing the authority of the Government over unions the reconciliation of the C. I. O. and the A. F. of L. is to be feared and opposed in the interests of all the people. A unified organization, in the course of the industrial war effort, could run its membership up to 20 million and probably more. All these human bheings would have to pay fees, dues, assessments and income taxes at the source, through the check-off, into central union treasuries which, under existing laws, are under the hands of the boss unioneers who may use the money as they wish and steal it if they wish and need account to nobody. That great central pool, or sea, of money would be sufficient to buy the governorships of a majority, possibly all, of the states, buy or capture all the legislatures and buy a majority of both houses of Congress and the central bosses would still be private citizens, without official responsibilty to the nation and subject to no authority but their own will. That the best of them would be ignorant, if cun- | ning, and dishonest, if plausible, men is provable by | a glance over the roster of union leadership today | from which these new bosses of the nation and the | head-boss, who would become the President's boss, | must come.
Their Ethics Like Hitler's |
THE STRONGEST OF them are as fiercely Nazi | as Adolf Hitler, himself, except only that they reject | his concern with religion. Their methods of propaganda, their ethics and their brutal contempt for the | human rights and dignity of the individual man anda | woman are utterly Hitlerism and the reason why | they fight so fiercely against Government authority by law over unions is that they strive toward a day when they will be stronger than the Government, with power over the Government and all human | life in the nation still without responsibility. They claim a first lien on the earnings of all work- | ers who fall into their power and even today when
forced-savings plan with a small check-off to pay for the war and resist inflation, the union check-off
and never learn what is done with it. But this reunion of the C. I. O. and the A. PF. of L. total disaster by enacting laws permitting the nation
to control the unions, lest the union politicians acquire power to govern the Government.
U. S. Aviation
By Maj. Al Williams
THE SENATE MILITARY AFFAIRS COMMITTEE says: “Since our country is at war it is not now appropriate to bring up this controversial question.” The question it thus proposes to shelve for the duration is whether to create a separate air force and so convert our national defense system to a business like basis. So the committee will hold no hearings on this matter because we are at war? Well, the British were in a far worse fix than we are in today when they transformed the flying units of their army and navy into a unified air force—the Royal Flying Corps, which was the forerunner of the present Royal Air Force—in the darkest days of the first World War. ‘And even though that air force was never permitted to function without persistent hampering by the British Army and Navy chiefs during the period between that war and this one, it was the Royal Air Force that turned back what might have been the invasion of England in 1940. Churchill said so, and all the evidence confirms it.
Our War and Navy Departments were caught flat-footed by the use of airpower by our enemy in the Pacific. But don't forget that, while we customarily blame the individual departments for whatever goes wrong, Congress has a great share of the responsibility.
It's Up to Congress
THE ORATORS CAN YELL for sacrifices and courage on the field of battle, but the people eventually will question the courage and type of service renered by Congress. If Congress had been alert, it would have immediately questioned and chastised its own members and the Secretaries of War and
Navy for the Pear] Harbor and the Philippine dis- |
asters. Presumably we have been building thousands of airplanes, and tanks and guns and ships. But there were no reinforcements for the boys at Wake and not enough to date to insure victory from MacArthurs gallant stand. Who is to blame? The removal of a few delinquent generals and admirals isn't the answer to Pearl Harbor and Wake and the entire Pacific fumbling. The first constructive moves should be the quick housecleaning of incompetents and the abolition of the pitiful selection systems and seniority promotion procedures current in both services. We've got to get back to the merit system to building winning fighting forces.
Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists in this newspaper are their own. Thev Are net necéssarily those. of The Indianapolis Times,
So They Say—
New York debutantes look older than their mothers. Their appearance is distressing.—Bud Westmore, Hollywood makeup artist. * - -
Liet’s shoot the works and get this nightmare over with.—Produttion boss Donald M. Nelson. as
a TORE
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES Maybe It’s Done With Mirrors!
—
FRIDAY, JAN. 23,1942
HOW D0 YOU SUPPOSE "TREY DO IT
WITAOUT INTUITION,
The Hoosier Forum
I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
Gen. Johnson
WASHINGTON, Jan, 23. —It is not so much bad censorship as a lack of good leadership that leaves our country still unprepared spiritually for this war of all the world. United we are, and ready to make sacrifice without stint for the common cause. That, in itself, is a notable achievement of the President—fit to stand in the front rank with all his great deeds. The fighting spirit of our experienced and trained soldiers and sailors is plainly demonstrated by what has happened at Wake, Guam, Oahu and the Philippines.
Whether raw new levies will parallel those great deeds remains to be seen, but training, based on the same ideas of fighting is under expert general direction. Give them time. They will equal the work of their comrades in the Pacific islands. Yes, these are all notable achievements, but, standing alone, they are not enough. The missing element in our mental preparation is a flaming will to fight.
Napoleon Knew How
THE FAULT is not complacengy, or such a boondoggling attitude toward armament as the nations of Western Europe indulged to their ruin. The fault may be illustrated by the difference between the attitude of a great, shaggy powerful Newfoundland dog toward a field mouse and that of a well-trained terrier toward a rat. The big dog seems to think it sufficient to vawn and, without even getting up, to brush the impudent nuisance aside with one swipe of a ponderous paw. Toe terrier 1s in ihe air like a flasn of lightning and, never ceases to attack, with machine-gun rapidity until that rat is completely liquidated. The latter is the way in which the German Army and nation attacked and conquered western Europe, With his peculair knack for such things, Napoleon literally inspired his tattered, hungry French revolutionary troops with an unshakable conviction that they were fighting to bring liberty, equality and brotherhood to oppressed mankind of every nation. He had wholly inadequate troops, equipment and supplies. It didn't overbalance the moral determination of his soldiers. As he himself said of this: “In war the mental side is as to the material side as 3 to 1.”
List Could Be Multiplied
THIS LIST of examples could be so long extended
TAKING A SLAM AT
BARBER PRICE LAW
By Patrick C. Andrews, 410 Terrace Ave. Twenty-five years ago I sacrificed an $80-per-week job to go and help make the world safe for democracy. My job was promised to me when I came back, but when I did return, the shipyard was closed and I had to seek employment elsewhere. Not being able to find any, I decided to make my own future, so I took up barbering. So far in this occupation I have done fair. I am raising five children and paying my bills when they come due. Now, a Price and Hour Law is about to go into effect compelling all barbers to charge the
| price set by the board. It looks to me like the three wise]
men have set themselves up as a bright and shining example for all barbers to follow. Well, I fought for democracy in the last war and I aim to hold on to what little is left of it now. = = = ‘WHAT SACRIFICES HAVE UNIONS MADE?
By James R. Meitzler, Attica Naughty, naughty, Mr. Taylor, to use that short and ugly word. You should count 10. Ignorant I may be, like many others, but not ignorant enough to believe that before the Wagner Act there were no labor unions, no union members, dues, meetings, halls, papers, bosses, strikes, bargaining, pickets and sluggers as you state.
You say, “Why not turn to con-|
structive unity to win, so we may argue out our differences after the war.” Fine, but why don’t you take your own medicine? The last two Sunday evenings I heard union bosses who have the workers ufider their thumb and management hobbled, demanding government give them still more control ever the automobile - business.
(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious conMake
your letters short, so all can
troversies excluded.
have a chance. Letters must
be .igned.)
these C. I. O. economists who never have invested a dollar in business, who meet their payrolls by levying dues instead of producing commodities for public consumption, know more about management than the men who have built more and better automobiles for America than all the rest of the world possesses. If government did not know which of the 57 varieties of planes it wanted, how could management know? Which one, all wise Taylor? And they charged management with doing business as usual and not sacrificing profits for public safety. What sacrifice have the unions made? Have they volunteered to take a cut in wages? All this last year they have called strike after strike for more wages than usual, more members than usual, more dues than usual. Their bloated union treasuries do not even pay the ordinary taxes all other corporations pay. ” ” 2 CALLS FOR CRACKDOWN
ON PINBALL MACHINES
By Chuck (Let's Chuck the Pinball Machines), Indianapolis
The dictionary says racket is “social dissipation”; and further that dissipation is “wasteful expenditure”; and still further that waste-
ful is “ruinous.” Well, that's a fair and square description of racket
when used “Pinball Machine Rack-
Heard them ©b.”
blaming management for not using | Our police won't let the old ladies the C. I. O. plan to convert their | (with every due respect) get toplants to plane production. {gether with a handful of corn or As if the public would believe|other coverings and play bingo in |
Side Glances=By Galbraith
COPR. 1982 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. TM. REG. U. 8 PAY, OFF,
"Let's have a dinner that we know we can't afford tonight, because we'll soon be broke and then what we can or can't affeld won't matter!
w¥
.| The edges of the stones are sharp
respectful places in our fair city— and yet tolerate gambling on the pinball machines in almost every restaurant, barber shop, filling station, tavern, or any other place
and room in front for one of Barnum’s minute men. (You remember what he said, “There's one born every minute.”) : The dictionary says a gamble is “to lose by betting” and “to waste” and further “to squander.” Well, thats also a fair and square description of what happens to a pinball machine player. This is one of the most vicious rackets this town has ever seen and the authorities have permitted it to flourish; and the purpose of this letter is to create interest and support by our citizenry for a movement to rid our beautiful city of this disgraceful blot. Our slogan will be: “Instead of the nickels to put out lights, Let's buy defense stamps to win our big fight!”
# ” »
“TOBACCO STEADIES MOST WORKERS’ NFRVES”
|By Fred J. Harrison, R. BR. 9, Box 4i-H |
In answer to Mrs. Bessie Adams: | It would be better for some of us
where there is room to set a machine;
that no further proof would be necessary. An abso- | lute essential victory for us is an united and almost | fanatical determination throughout the whole country | to kill, crush and capture all means of Axis resistance, Do we have it? We have not. Events like Pearl Harbor and Gen. MacArthur's masterly “last stand” in Luzon tend to help supply it, but events alone are not enough. It needs a dynamic leadership to trans- ! late those events honestly and fairly into an united will for flaming action. The American people have not been fully convinced that we are fighting for our own country, our homes, our religions and for the beliefs and actions that have made this country great in its last 163 years. It is not as easy to arouse crusading American fanaticism for the defense of Sarawak as it would be for the salvation of Okmulgee. Okla. ‘
'A Woman's Viewpoint
‘By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
ONE COLD day last week I rounded a corner of the grade school and ran into a woman I know who was dragging a howling little boy after her. “What's wrong?” Never having heard. more mournful yells, I wondered whether thi§ usually kind-hearted friend was out to commit mayhem upon an innocent child. “You're asking me!” she snapped. “I'm out to run down this boy's mother. Found him crying at the school’s front entrance, which was locked. Seems he's been home and couldn't get in. So he ran back here in all this cold, because I suppose it's the only place he thought of. What are you doing? Why not come
to give up tobacco, but even you (would be surprised to know how | many people are supported by the | tobacco industry, and to do without | cigarets, for most of us, would be| like doing without water, and be- | sides you can’t make tires, gas, and oil out of tobacco. We do not want
the people to do without things that are not necessary for our defense. The Government wants the people to go on as near as possible as they were. We are trying to kill dictator- | ship and win world freedom. Tobacco steadies most smokers’ nerves and this is mostly a war of nerves. The Red Cross uniform could not | win the war. It is what the Red | Cross does that helps win. Crime, broken homes, juvenile delinquency don’t come from the use of cigarets. | It is the misuse. Maybe you refer to strong drink, the same oR ete applies to both. The laws are made to work a hardship upon the least number of people. Some of them | still like to make jackasses out of | themselves. Most of them dislike to see one of their number holding on to the gutter to keep from falling off the earth, but the law can’t behead each offender. It can fine and punish which most of the time works hardship upon the family of the offender and not the offender himself. The taxes derived from the sale of liquor and’ tobacco help to carry the burden of taxes on the people. If we didn’t have the taxes we would have to tax something else to raise money to fight the gangster and racketeer,
THE BUILDER
But I shall travel far For I must seek and seek and seek Wherever such stones are.
I am building me a secret place With stones that cut my hands; But I must build and build and build Until a temple stands. Caroline Giltinan (1884- ).
DAILY THOUGHT
For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one. Job 5:2,
ANGER IS momentary madness, so control your passion or it will
along with me and see what's become of her?” Well, we took the child home, only to discover the house tightly locked. Inquiry disclosed that a neighborhood Red Cross sewing meeting was in session at a nearby home. We invaded it and .there, happily laboring for the unfortunate, was a bevy of mamas, one of whom belonged to our captive.
Little Jobs Important, Too
THE HOURS had, slipped by—none had realized it was time for school to be out and that their own infants would be needing attention. Pa Now, this particular mother didn’t make neglect of her son a habit. She was thoroughly conscience stricken over the episode. But it set us to talking about the sometimes nutty way women have of saving the world. For there are a very great many who use the war emergency as an excuse to evade their
| own domestic responsibilities. ;
Right now, I think, every woman must do what she can for her country. But I am convinced also that she was never needed so badly at home, if a man and children are there, This is no time to welch on the little jobs. If you have a family to look after, put that task first, for none other is so important. During the emergency let's resolve to. wear our sensé of values a little straighter than we wear our
Questions and Answers
(1he Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information, not involving extensive research. 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 -Was the last increase’ in iirst class postal rates from 2 to 3 cents made during President Roosevelt's Administration? A—No, it was made July 6, 1932, while Herbert Hoover was President. Q—Please give me seme information about Reuben James, the man for whom the U. S. destroyer that was sunk by the Nazis, was named. A—He was a boatswain’s mate, U. S. Navy, who enlisted as a boy and served under Commodore Truxton on the Constellation, 1799-1800. He participated in engagements with L’Insurgente, and saw active service in the operations against Tripoli, 1803-1805. He volunteered as one of the party that boarded the Philadelphia in the harbor of Tripoli, and he participated in the engagement of Aug. 3, 1804, between the Tripolitan boats and the U. 8. gunboats, during which he saved the life of Capt. Decatur who was knocked down by a Tripolitan in a hand-to-hand fight and the scimiter of another was about to fall on him, James interposed his own body and received the blow intended for his commander. x Q—-How mucin must I contribute to my mether’s support to claim the $400 exemption for a dependent on my Federal income tax return? .A—More than 50 per cent of the sum required to
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