Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 February 1942 — Page 10

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Times

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

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Give Licht end the People Will Find Their Own Wap

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1942

‘BUNDLES FOR CONGRESS” A MOVEMENT that might sweep the country has been started by the athletic round table of Spokane, Wash, which is sending out a flood of postcards with this appeal: “Congress needs help! They voted themselves a pension but that ain't enough. Mail your old straw hats, rags, mothballs—anything that's light and cheap—to your Congressmen and Senators today. Mail early and often. Let the Red Cross wait a while. Knit for Congress now. Knit for the nutty. Bundles for Britain? No! Bundles for Hawaii? No! Bundles for Congress? Yes! Don’t worry about the war and taxes. Get that pension—forget the Axis. Save a Congressman at any price.” Behind the attempt to be funny is a bitterness felt in many places besides Spokane. A lot of people have been mad since learning that Congress has voted its own members in on the Federal employees’ pension system. As a matter of fact, a good argument can be made for giving retirement pensions to Senators and Representatives, the amounts based on length of service and on their payments into the pension fund. But the present scheme was slipped through while the country was looking the other way, absorbed in the issues of war. Congress would be wise to undo what it has done, and let pensions for its members wait till the war is won. Democracy is badly served when its guardians in Washington make themselves the butt of “Bundles for Congress” jokes. And millions of voters feel—and have every right to feel—that this was no time for their representatives to confer a special benefit on themselves.

THEY REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR

TC the public the Pacific fleet's attack on Japanese bases in the Marshall and Gilbert islands is welcome evidence that our sea forces are able to take the offensive. To the strategists it is a forerunner of more ambitious action in he future against the enemy's outer defense screen. This is not a major engagement, Its purpose was to feel out enemy strength, and to destroy as many bases and craft as possible in a hit-and-run process, It was successful. The reconnaissance was completed. Jap losses were heavy, and American light. Fortunately for the enemy, no capital ships were found at or near the bases, or they probably would have been added to the toll of auxiliary ships and planes destroyed. = = - HE importance of the Marshalls, which Japan heavily fortified as a mandate power, and of the Gilberts, which she captured from the British in December, is obvious. They serve as a barrier between our Hawaiian-based fleet and the southwest Pacific war zone, and as bases against | the American-Australian supply line. From these Marshall bases, Japan launched the surprise assault on Pearl Harbor, Midway and Wake with aircraft carriers, long-range bombers and submarines. They are 2200 miles from Pearl Harbor, or almost halfway to the great Dutch Indies base of Amboina now threatened by the Japanese. They are less than 700 miles south of our lost Wake. Therefore, the safety of Hawaii, the recapture of Wake, the protection of our lifeline to the Indies, to Singapore and eventually to the Philippines, all would be greatly facilitated by our seizure of these enemy bases.

= = » = 2 = F Admiral Nimitz's destructive raids are merely the prelude to bigger action—as the Japanese fear and Americans hope—the enemy now faces the difficult choice of defending those crippled bases with inferior forces, or shifting some Japanese strength from the long Burma-Singapore-Philippines-Indies battle line. Either way the] Allies should profit. That, of course, is the supreme advantage of offensive over defensive strategy. Virtually all of Japan's extraordinary victories to date, extending over many thousands of miles, are due to her offensive advantage and our defengive action, however heroic. Only counter-offensives against

her dangerously lengthened lines can lick her.

THE CONSTITUTION NOTWITHSTANDING

HE Congress,” says the Constitution, “shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises . . . all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives . . .” To undertake the job of drafting all tax legislation, the House of Representatives created the Ways and Means Committee. A month ago, in his war budget message, President Roosevelt told Congress that the Government would need at least nine billion dollars in additional revenue—and even then would run about 26 billions in the red this next fiscal year. . But the Ways and Means Committee, following a habit of many years, is still waiting for the Secretary of the Treasury to come forward voluntarily and announce in detail just what taxes it should impose. Yet some Congressmen actually sit around and complain about the way the executive departments are “usurping” the constitutional functions of the legislative arm.

FIGHTER EW YORK'S Governor Lehman estimates that his state's boxing tax receipts will drop from $125,000 in this fiscal year to $50,000 in the next, largely because Joe Louis has joined the Army. State taxes on admissions to the Champ’s recent battles in New York have averaged about £20,000. His state and Federal income tax payments probably have been a good deal more than that. The Governor's estimate is impressive

evidence that Joe was fighting for his country—at least,

ti ep © ala

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

DETROIT, Feb. S.—Years ago in my little home town in Minnesota, John Powers, our constable, used to pick up bums who tarried to maybe crack a safe or rob a clothesline on the way to and from the wheat fields and take- them before our august Mayor, Mr. Sampson, who was also our judge and held court wherever he happened to be. I have seen him hold court leaning against the front of Aug. Hay's meat market and sitting in the shade of the W. C. T. Us drinking fountain which was in a little pavilion. Mr. Powers would lead his bum up to our mayor and the mayor, without any “oyez” or ‘court is now holden” would look at his watch and say that the next freight was due through at such and such a time. This was common procedure in those days in those parts and was known as “hours.” A bum got so many hours to leave town and if he didn't leave he was supposed to be charged with vagrancy and jailed up for a month. Even then it occurred to my acutely constitutional mind that this sort of doing was somehow irregular but I never thought it would happen to me and in the capital of my native land and by decree of the President of the republic, of all people, but here I am in Detroit. Maybe this isn't far enough, maybe I better go to Canada.

He Can't, Can't He?

I DIDN'T EVEN know the President had any idea that I was in Washington until all of a sudden he remarked to his press conference that al] parasites ought to leave town and that those who didn’t leave voluntarily could be made so uncomfortable that they would break up camp and go under indirect compulsion. He was in his own office when he said this but, in effect, he was leaning against Aug. Hay's market because he really has no right to do this. Even now I keep saying fo myself, “Why he can't do this to you; he can't give you hours to get out of Washington,” but then I say, “The hell he can't, brother; you are in Detroit, aren't you?” Imagine!

What Happened to Joe Lash?

BUT HE MUST have meant some others because he used the plural] form and yet I seem to be the only one who took his remark personally, Down at the station I looked around thinking I might see Mrs. Roosevelt's protege, Mr. Joe Lash, that veteran and inveterate professional youth of 32 who is always in and out of the White House, but if he was on the lam I didn’t make him. Probably he isn't because Mr. Lash, though not quite the type for a commission in the Naval Intelligence, is nevertheless something in something called Youth Advisory Council of Civilian Defense which may be something whipped up special to employ his peculiar talents, whatever they may be. He was down there the other day because I saw him in Mrs. Roosevelt's column. I thought surely I would see quite a passel of parasites from Paul McNutt's department or some business experts from Price Control who got their training as dirty-book novelists in Paris and Union Square or anyhow one anti-capitalist from the Office of Facts and Figures. You would have thought they would sacrifice at least one Communist press agent, just as a token, even if they let him come back next week but no, I tell you, I was the only one in town who caught the freight. Yes, I heard the President and I went, but what about old Charlie Michelson? Is he essential to the war effort?

Aviation By Maj. Al Williams

\

PEARL HARBOR {s the most humiliating military and naval disaster ever suffered by American armed forces. And the Roberts Board's report —a whitewashing vindication of Brass Hatism—does not meet the full needs. That report told us little we didn't know or sense as soon as the military and naval success of the Japs against Pearl Harbor was flashed to the American people. We knew then that the local commanders—one General and one Admiral—had been asleep on their jobs. It’s true that the report tells us a lot of distressing things about how frightfully delinquent and unprepared the Army and Navy were to meet the potentialities of modern war. It tells how one warning after another from Washington had supplied information pointing to the likelihood of Jap attacks against the Philippines, Trai, the Kra Isthmus. or possibly Borneo—all conclusive evidence that the High Command in Washington was all set for the old type of warfare, and for nothing else. The stubborn opposition of the Navy and Army High Command to aviation—except as it might serve in an auxiliary capacityv—is well known to the Amerjcan public. Now the Roberts report states that “without exception,” the local commanders believed that while the Pacific Fleet was based at Pearl Harbor chances of such a raid as Hawaii suffered were “practically nil.”

But It Did Happen in Hawaii

THERE'S the real key to the Jap surprise. The local commanders, Army and Navy; reflecting what the brass hats had so long thought and planned, just didn’t believe that the Japs, or anyone else, would dare to attack a base defended by a fleet. Of course British, Nazi and Italian airpower had attacked and destroved seapower bases in Europe. But that was different—that couldn't happen in Hawaii! What the Roberts report doesn’t tell us is that the plans for joint co-ordination of the Army and Navy are formulated by the General Board in Washington, composed of high-ranking Army and Navy officers. Failure of co-ordination between the Army and Navy forces in Hawaii was the real reason for the Pear! Harbor disaster. Oh. certainly, the local commanders “slept.” But didn't the Army and Nevy General Board in Washington sleep, too?

One General and one Admiral are the goats. Of ||

course thev are culpable. but these two men are the products of a system. And it is the system that licked us at Pearl Harbor.

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

So They Say—

More than ever it is our duty . . . to restriet our state expenditures to the lowest levels compatible with the maintenance of state activities essential to efficiency and morale. —Governor Lehman, New York, * *

Not until there is widespread shrinkage in civilian consumer spending . . . Will the campaign for victory receive the right kind of support.—Henry Bruere, president, New York State Savings Bank Association. * * -

Air power, American air power, already represented by American aircraft fighting on all fronts throughShe year will win victory; it victory

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Raat dens oR

SEY

The Hoosier Forum

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

HEY, PEG, CALL OUT THE HEAVY ARTILLERY! By H. W. Daacke, 736 S. Neble St. For the information of Mr. Ward of Rushville, I can say that since Russia is our ally I am al! out for assisting to the utmost of our ability to help. But I cannot concede the assumption that Russia and Communism are synonymous by any stretch of the imagination. So when he says: “If Mr. Pegler keeps shiping at the Communists, will this help us any?” My reply is definitely no. But if Mr. Pegler will quit sniping and eall out his heavy artillery and blast them, I think it might do some good. = o 2 “SMALL BARBERS HARASSED IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY” By L. B. Gedby, 508 Fletcher Ave. I am a barber here in Indianapolis and an ex-soldier, having spent 18 months overseas in World War I, and most of that time on

{the front and in the Army of Oc-

cupation after the close of the war. I fought for what I thought was democracy. When I enlisted I owned a barber shop in Monticello, Ind., which

| I gave away at that time, not knowling whether or not I would ever

get back to the U. S. A. After I came back, I had no shop, no job, no money, only the $60 the Government handed me when I was discharged from the service. I finally got enough money together to buy a small shop. Now we are being harassed every way possible by the union and that State Board of Barber Examiners in the State House, for the sole purpose of putting the small shops out of business.

“PLEASE DO SOMETHING

ABOUT THIS BINGO THING”

By Mrs, Anderson

I am speaking for a group of law-abiding Anderson citizens who have protested in vain against the blemish of bingo in our city. We are appealing to Indiana authorities through the newspapers to do something. . . . We citizens here in Anderson seem powerless to stop bingo as one

Dorothy White, Main St,

(Times readers are invited their in these columns, religious cone Make

your letters short, so all can

to express views

troversies excluded.

have a chance. Letters must

be signed.)

of our police officials is head of labor council and they conduct Friday night games, while a brother of the prosecutor is often a monitor at the bingo games. Attention Mr. Sherwood Blue, Prosecuting Attorney of Marion County: Saturday evening after we had boarded a bus (at traction station) going to Anderson, a woman frepresentative or collector of bingo fares, distributed a bingo program giving the prices or rates, which was advertising bingo, to occupants of the bus while awaiting more passengers. Isn't this a direct violation of Marion County law? We noticed Saturday night at the railronders’ game in Anderson a little boy playing bingo, which is a direct violation of law. Indiana authorities, please do something about this unwanted bingo game in Anderson, as we Anderson citizens can do nothing.

” 2 ” “I'D LIKE TO MEET A MAN —NOT A POLITICIAN” By Edwin L. Olsen, 328 N. Riley Ave. “He had better button his lip.” “Our Government is the duly elected officials and their appointees who fill these offices.” These were the words of one F. C. McKee in the Hoosier Forum under date of Jan. 28th. In another article we find the title, “Less talk—more action, fewer words; more bullets,” by W. T., Indianapolis. But of all things—“Our Government is the duly elected officials and their appointees who fill these offices.” Oh me, oh my. Thought there was something wrong. We do need criticism but we do sorely need constructive criticism. Like Voltaire, “I wholly

Side Glances=By Galbraith

disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to Say 3 4 eo ’ I have been asked so many times if I was a Republican or a Democrat. It has caused me to think I'd like to meet a man sometime and not a Republican or a Demooratb. . « + Anyway you take it we have what you call a head supported upward from our trunk. This head has or has not hair on the top of it. And on the sides are what they call ears. On the front is what they call eyes, nose and below the nose is a hole commonly called the mouth. There's a lot of funny noises come out of that. Well, let's talk less and buy more defense bonds. More mighty than the sword or bullets is the pen, don't you know.

8 ” ” “LET'S HAVE BETTER CHILDREN AND FEWER DOGS” By Arthur S. Mellinger, 3500 W. 30th St. A little 65-year-old child on 63d St. was badly bitten by a dog yesterday., This was an extreme case, of course, but it shows what potential danger lays in a multitude of dogs running loose.. In the first

place, 99 per cent of the dogs are useless. Out in the country they have some use if properly trained, but in the city they are more of a nuisance than anything else , . «

If you city people are such lovers of dogs, why do you dump your curs around the edge of the city? If you can't feed them why don’t you humanely put them out of the way? I live here at the edge of the city and there has always been a bunch of stray dogs to bother and annoy the dogs that belong to owners who pay taxes on them and take care of them.

Here I-want to point out some of the principles about dogs. Dogs have been domesticated to this extent. If he has the companionship of man, he retains a respect for and a kindred sympathy for man. He must have this intimate contact or he reverts back to the savage state. When you turn a dog loose to shift for himself, he becomes a man hater after a certain length of time. He is dangerous. Would you turn your child loose at the edge of the eity to shift for himself? Then don't do that to a dog if you have any humanity in you. Get it a home or have it humanely killed.

A lot of folks have ‘a lot of maudlin sympathy for “man’s best friend” but would not give his neighbor's child a pleasant word or look. Let's have better children and fewer dogs.

THE INCENTIVE

I saw a sickly cellar plant Droop on its feeble stem, for want Of sun and wind and rain and dew— Of freedom!—Then a man came through The cellar, and I heard him say, “Poor, foolish plant, by all means stay Contented here: not?— This stagnant dampness, mould and rot Are your incentive to grow tall And reach that sunbeam on the wall.” Even as he spoke, the sun’s one spark Withdrew, and left the dusk more dark.— Sarah N. Cleghorn (1876- )

DAILY THOUGHT

Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth

for—know you

much good~Eocclesiastes 9:18,

TUESDAY, FEB. 3, 1942

The Old Housepainter Takes on Whitewashing Gen Joh nson

Says—

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3.—~The leading military lesson from this war seems to be that there is no leading lesson from this war. It started out with much talk about a revolution in tactics, with all the emphasis thrown directly opposite from the World War I doctrine of the offensive in mass to an almost complete reliance on such “impregnable” defenses as Maginot Line, Germany alone went far ahead in perfecting highly mobile, mechanized, armed and.armored offensive formations. All the principal nations out-did themselves in experi mentation and development of air-power as an auxe iliary—not as a main weapon. But the emphasis on defensive strategy was not lightened, even in Germany, which had her own an swer to the Maginot Line in her Siegfried Line, It is now clear that none of the nations had properly appraised the offensive strength of modern air-power,

Maginot Line Not Tested

MILITARY publicists and experts during those early months were still debating the greatly increased value of the defense as a contribution to victory. That is to say that they continued to debate it until the sudden and miraculous armored German thrust through the lowlands which isolated France from Britain, completely outflanked the Maginot Line and left France helpless. Immediately the tune changed. The Maginot Line came to be regarded as one of the greatest follies of mankind. War, we were told, had returned to pree Napoleonic days of swift and sudden movement, and wide-spread strategical dispositions. While there is no doubt of great changes made by armored and motorized troops, there is danger of jumping too quick and too far to final conclusions. It was never proved that the Maginot Line was vulners able to assault. It was a great folly, but the folly was that it was entirely open on the northward flank, 1% merely channeled the German attack through the low countries.

Defense Back in Style

LATER developments promptly showed that the German swift offensive is not the whole story—especially by the holocaust of humanity in Russia where once again resistance through sheer weight of nume bers is shown to be as successful as it ever was, if the circumstances are favorable. In addition, in a small way at Wake Island and to a much greater and more significant extent in Bataan, the value of the defensive based on powerful or im< pregnable positions has been again demonstrated. I am aware that all this shows only one thing definitely. It is that the art of war is in one of the swiftest periods of flux and change in all its history. The place of air-power on both land and sea is still an unplumbed depth. Even the shocking lesson of Pearl Harbor did little te clear that fog. About the only lesson we can take is to be prepared in all kinds of warfare and to neglect none. That we seem to be doing.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

I NEVER DID think men would like women messing around in their wars, From several talks with those who direct State Coun cils of Defense and sundry other civilian measures, I find the huneh was correct. I sense signs of what may soon become open revolt, Subtle critie cisms of women creep into mascu«~ line conversations and bode no good for females who hanker to put on pants and get into the fighting. “I'm having the damndest time with the women volunteers,” says one—just like that and right out loud. “Most of them want to roll bandages, wade knee-deep in blood or drive ambulances. I hope the Government lifts the priority on needles pretty soon, so some of these gals can do a little mending at home and also a little more mending for the reclamation work that is bound to come on uniforms, bedding and clothing for hose pitals and soldiers.”

A Word to the Wise

IN OTHER WORDS, the gentleman is telling us we're apt to gum up the works by refusing to sit tight and wait for orders. He may be right, at that. It's & sure thing the men won't relish too much feminine meddling. War doesn’t change them; {it only makes them more set in their ways. And so already, only a few weeks after our ene trance into the conflict, there is a definite trend to the lectures. While the papers report all kinds of new jobs for girls and the pictures show them toiling’ at strange tasks, there is a tendency to classify us as defenders of morale, and I'm all for it. We may be good pinch hitters as welders, truck drivers and machine operators, but I feel the nation can't take much of that sort of stuff from its women and keep its values straight.

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of faet or information, not involving extensive ree search, Write vour 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—When was the first pension law passed for veterans of the armed forces of the United States? A—The pension act enacted by Congress, March 18, 1818, granted officers $20 a month and privates $8 & month during life, provided they had served nine months or more in the Continental Army or Navy, or to the end of the Revolutionary War and could prove need of the money.

Q—When did England and France change from absolute to limited monarchy? A—The modern form of absolute monarchy first made its appearance in France with the docleine of the Divine right of kings, culminating in the absolutism of Louis XIV. The Stuarts of England held the doctrine until the beheading of Charles I in 1649, It was shattered in France by the French Revolution,

Q—How many parcel post packages were received by the Dead Letter Office in 1940, and how much revenue was derived from auctioning this matter? A—Out of a total 433,000 packages received, 215,000 were sold through auction and brought $36,750.94.

Q—How long did American troops stay in the Rhineland after the World War? A—Those constituting part of the Allied forces of occupation, remained from Nov. 20, 1918, until- Jan. 24, 1923, when the American flag was lowered and our troops were formally withdrawn,

Q—Did the Greeks fight an important battle in the First World War? : A—On April 15, 1918, they fought a notable battle on the Struma front. They lost 600 dead, and 1700 wounded, but they shattered the Bulgarian morale, Q—Can you name the three costliest motion piotures ever produced? Ben