Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 February 1942 — Page 22

RALPH 'BURKHOLDER Editor b Busin

IPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY, 20, 1943

ON E | WAY OUT : REFE L of “Pensions for Congress” is coming with a | rush, and that’s all to the good. We'd like to be surer “that a ong attitude in Congress: is being completely re. pealed at the same time.

But many senators and representatives, while bowing to public opinion, are insisting that public opinion is ignorant or misinformed; that the peniions aren't so very big; that a Congress which has poured out benefits for so many other groups shouldn't be criticized for giving its own members a small benefit; that after all (as Mrs. Roosevelt said in her column yesterday) “It may be embarrassing to vole. yourself a pension, but whe else can do it?” | | They still dont get the point. If Congress had wanted the people to be thoroughly informed about this pension scheme, Congress could have made that possible. The bill could have been fully debated and put to a record vete in both branches. Instead, there was no debate in the House and. very | little in ‘the Senate. There was no record vote in the 'House. |And the whole thing was done at a time when || public attention was centered on the war. ll So the point is not whether the pensions are big or little, or whether the people do or do net understand all the details, It is that the bill wa passed at a wrong time, lin a furtive way. The people understand’ that very well. They also are beginning to insist, we believe, that the era of special benefits for every group that can exert enough pressure on Congress must come te an ‘end. The ' same public opinion that is forcing repeal of “Pensiens for Congress’ will be increasingly critical of every expenditure not | bleatly feseutin to the winning of the war.

COAST RAIDS QECRE ARY OF WAR STIMSON warns the public to pn attacks on our coasts. The President says New York and Detroit, as well as Alaska, might be attacked under ce ay conditions. pin rently they want to: snap us out of our old delusion that/the war is far away. That dangerous idea is still widespre d. Even Pearl Harbor, Singapore, Libya; Dover strait, the Burma retreat, the bombing of Australia, and the failure to relieve Gen. MacArthur have not entirely opened our eyes. After having believed for so long that we were strong enough to lick the world at the drop of a hat if necessary, * it is hard to realize that we cannot keep the enemy away from our own shores, Whatever is necessary for the administration te do to teach us those facts of life in February 1942, should be done. | For, in the long Tun, the best, insurance against hysteria is truth. But the first reaction io the warning is more nerves than sense. If Detroit is in danger of attack, naturally some Michigan, people: would like the army and air corps | concentrated there before nightfall; and some in New : York and San Francisco can’t understand why the fleet is ‘not in their particular waters ingtead of elsewhere. ® x = . 8 x = THERE can be no real savalion of this eountry unless our outlying bases fall. To. weaken our outposts in

order to “protect” our. coastline and interior Yeuld invite |

invasion [rather than prevent it. If we are not willing to pay the price of at home, we have not even learned that we —much Jess learned how to fight it. ‘When enemy subs strike in the Caribbean, as they are still doi should be worrying about the Panama canal. ; When raiders appear off California, we should be wor‘Tying about offensive Alaskan bases to attack Japan, | "The [fleet has no more business in American “coastal harbors today than it had in Pearl Harbor on Dee. 7. The best thing to come out of Washington recently is Mr, Stimson’s statement: “The only way to prevent these attacks is to mass our forees in offensive action, and carry the war to the enemy.” | PF of sporadic raids at heme should not be ‘allowed to paralyze that offensive Sitategy essential te victory,

sane bombed

re In 8 war

EXAMPLE

NE American community where thrift never has been eradicated is Lancaster County, Pa, Its rich lands, farmed intensively for two centuries and more, are todas as productive as ever. Its Pennsylvania Dutch people believe in working hard and saving their money. Some of them, members of the Amish faith, even object to borrowing fo ” funds to build schools. And so, the following news from Lancaster County is not surprising: | County Commissioners Diehm, Wagner and Metzler ~~ have announced that these are times when local governments must set an example of economy. They have repealed all property levies for 1942, and will operate on a surplus from last year, plus fees and incidental revenue, collecting no taxes “in order that the people can buy mre Defense | nds and help the boys at the front.”

: DANZIG STILL NOT GERMAN . 0 ~ JTall ‘over Danzig. Hitler, weeping and poinding ~ his between | Germany ‘and Poland on .Dangzig. Dansig- was : 1G y by heritage and by present population. ) compromise. So there must be war. Now the Koelnische Zeitung is quoted as telling of the J ifficulty in “Germanizing” the territory around Danzig.

tant tr Foe To | fs ik dito of Gale Forster Taoist

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

, instead of worrying about our own necks we

Hest, insisted that there could be no compromise

.. CHICAGO, Feb. 20.—1t is plain | that our government wants to gen-

ry —. cea .Sppealed to his colleagues to use

aggravating rider offered by Martin Dies which reiterated. the standard American opinion of eur domestic communist element and the American communist party. Judge Sumners held that this was an unnecessary offense to a proud and mighty ally and there was even that in his manner which suggested a fear that Stalin might pull out of the war and leave us flat if we didn't mind our business.’ President Roosevelt later vetoed same routine measure, possibly the same one, in the interests of harmonious relations with our stoutest military and industrial ally and 1 have diseovered in Joe Davies’ report of his “Mission to Moscow” an implied appeal to his countrymen to have done with red-baiting, lest we alienate a comrade in arms whom he deeply admires for qualities which all Americans must envy in the present hour. They are unified as we are not, apparently more efficient in industrial management and operation, and so much "better soldiers that comparisons are painful and humiliating,

Most Practical Patriots of All

BUT DOES THIS mean that Stalin and the Russians are fighting this war because they like us? I am willing to believe that they do like the American people better than they like the Germans, whe are their natural enemies. But Davies, himself, gives no reason to believe that the Russians would fire a single rifle bullet in any ether interest than their own. They are the most praetical patriots of all, fighting for Russia only, and it is ineoneeivable that they would prolong their war a single heur beyond some point at

which they decided that a truce or peace would best |.

serve the interests of Russia. Davies puts it that the Russians can afford .to feel kindly toward us and vice versa, because we have no designs on anything of theirs and they covet nothing of ours. ‘In the first half of that propesitien he is right, but I remember that during the peried when this was an imperialist war precipitated by the predatory pluto-democracies of the capitalistic blee, the American communists were muttering that Alaska should by rights be Russian beeguse the czar whe made the sale had no right to dispose of the praperty of the Russian people.

They're Not the Same

BUT I AGREE that noneé®of us should needlessly antagonize Russia and that we all sheuld appreciate the vast, if incidental, benefit that we have received from the astonishing bravery, tenacity and military skill of their fighters and the foresight and adaptability of their industries. I mark the fact that. the benefit to us, which may mean the saving of countless American lives through the saerifice of countless Russian patriots, is purely incidental, because all the testimony shows that Russia is fighting for Russia first and only. Purely gratuitous jibes at communism, as such, should be avoided in the interest of better sympathy between the two countries in this war. But the American eommunist party, by its own contention and by the terms of the basic treaty between our country and Russia, is not a Russian organization. It professes to be wholly American and absolutely independent of Moscow and if that is so, it is a strictly demestic affair of ours. The testimony from Russia begins te convince me that the Russian communist and the Americans are no more alike than a genuine lieuténant edmmander of the U. S. navy and one of the same rank who has won his commission in the heavy seas of Broadway and Hollywoed. The Russian communist is a brave idealist and magnificent patriot. The American is a misanthropic failure who profanes a political faith, sacred to the Russian, to justify licentigus conduct, and a traiter of his own country. The Russians must despise him as much as the Americans de. ——— Editor's Note; The views expressed by columnists in this newspaper are their own. They are not necessarily these of The Tndiananelin Mme,

U.S. Aviation

By Maj. Al Williams

THE AMERICAN NAVAL raid on the Gilbert and Marshall islands is a bright page in our naval history. The navy took the ball from the Japs and carried it for ‘a surprise attack, with a baffling change of tactics to a combinatien of warship and air thrust, No warship can out-run or outmaneuver gunfire; nor, for that matter, can any airplane. Bui this gallant raid against Jap-held ocean strongholds was the next pest thing to outmaneuvering defense weapens, by purely hit-and-rua operations. Evidently the necessity fer hit-and-run sirstegy and taetiecs is vindieating the younger officers in the navy’s high places and scrapping the outmoded pians for Trafalgar engagements where entire fleets were expected to engage entire fleets.

A Few More Operations Needed

A FEW MORE such operations will develop the singular American initiative to introduce frontier fighting metheds into the sea warfare. Just as the | stand-and-slug type of warfare on land has been supplanted by the infiltrating blitzkrieg—a front made up of many spearheads which like a river stream, by-passes and eneircles the rock in its path—-so must the old-stand-and-slug type of naval warfare give way to the modern hit-and-run tactics of combined warship and airplane. The principle of the true blitzkrieg is the fundamental principle of military and naval strategy— that is, striking with your greatest force against the enemy's weakest points. The front composed of ‘highly mobile forces, a veritable front of many spearheads, enables the offense quickly to detect the weak points by probing and te slide around and encirele strongholds. The river doesn't halt its flow because of the rock An ts. It merely flows around it. ‘So does the a of war. poy plus the hit-and-run combination and co-ordination of warship and air attack, should indeed soon ‘become the specialty of the ingenious personnel which goes to make up the younger elements of our ‘navy. At any rate it looks as if the navy is beginning to hit its true stride and it looks, too, as if the old war college books on strategy and tactics have been a over the side,

So They Say—

It gives me a headache to see patriotic Americans —inside and outside congress—saying who should be permitted to serve this country. . . . Everybody has to pitch in and play on the same team or neme of Ghvciar of pnysins anes Svilian defense

ny ge . Bobi lot the hops

e the feelings of the Soviet gov- |

| Sumners of Dallas, one of eur | | recently

“herse sense” and reject a little |

Ha PR

The Hoosier Forum

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

“MRS. ROOSEVELT IS VERY MUCH MISTAKEN”

By One of the “People,” Calumbms According to Mrs. Reesevelt, the administration at Washington “reflects the sentiment of the peaple,” meaning, presumably, that her part in it also reflects the same sentiments. But Mrs. Roosevelt is very much mistaken if she thinks that the sentiment of the people is reflected in her appointments eof rhythmic daneers and parlor pinks, or even semi-pinks to places on the OCD, or to any other places in the government departments at the present time, or at any other time for that matter. And some of Mrs. Roosevelt's kind friends ought to have the coyrage to tell her about it, though probably even they couldn't cons vince the lady that she could ever he mistaken, or that any one would ever think eof criticizing her appointments of any one to places en the government payrell, at the taxpayers’ expense. - We nate that she is still holding on to her own place in the ©CD in spite of all the “sentiments ef the people” against it. s 8 ® “THIS PLAN WILL WORK

FOR THE WORKING MAN” By H. E. Marshall, 306 E. St. Joseph St. « « + I wonder how many working men ever stopped to ‘think how much money they lose by having to pay tribute te some non-worker to think for them? Suppose you are warking at 4 good job, say for $50 a week or say $1.25 an hour, 40 hours a week, same thing, well you and your family are happy, well fed, well dressed, have a nice car and do no{ owe anyone a cent; sounds good, doesn’t it? But here comes that union head to tell you that over at John Jones’ plant the boys want a nickel more an hour and are going on strike, you are told you will also have te strike, , . . 0, k., you are out six weeks, ne meney coming in, six weeks at $50 equals $300. At the end of six weeks the union compremises with the boas ail and Jaise the pay 2% cents per, hour * But the uniens de not pay you your $300 lost while en strike nar do they pay the accumulated bills that have piled yp while yeu were striking.

on x 3 3 sR

zation and pay this money into a

so|diseharging any person failing to

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious cantroversies excluded. Make your letters shert, so all can’ have a chance. Letters must be signed.)

Now how long will it take you to get back your $300 at 21% cents per hour? And remember, the union heads are drawing their pay and never working while you are on strike. Don’t get me wrong. I believe in organized labar, but in the form of callective bargaining. Form your own committee from the men in your partieular shop or factery to take up any grievance such as a raise in pay or peor working conditions and I am sure you can be just as foreeful and state your case much better than bringing in some outsider who knows nothing at all about your cause; all ke can do is stir up ill feeling between the empleyer and the werking man. And you have te pay him a tribute or as he calls it, dues. Why net have your own ergani-

sort of sinking fund, and if yeu at anytime find you are unable to come to an agreement with yeur employer and you vote to strike, then this money could he pro-rated to each person te tide them over until an agreement was reached with the firm or employer. Any person fajling to pay his dues would automatieally be out of a job. Have that understood and have an agreement to that effect signed by each employee, and have it further agreed that your employer would have the privilege of

perfarm his work satisfacterily. er for misdemeanor against the company or firm, without said firm or company becoming involved in a dispute with the whole organization. This gives the employer the right due him and keeps slaekers out of your organization. The aheve plan will work and the working man will go back to thinking for himself and net pay-

Side Glances=—By Galbraith

—_— ——

ing for fine automabiles and vacation trips for some persen or group who live off the working man without themselves working.

nn “I AM A STOCKHOLDER IN THIS COUNTRY”

By OC. E. Burrews, 3005 Graceland Ave, The article on the front page about our great prosecutor, Sherwood Blue, is a fine example of the. corruption reigning im our city .. . As one of The Times columnists, Mrs. Ferguson, says, we will have another war after the one with the axis. It will be the hardest fought battle, which will be to try to get rid of the thousands upon thousands of parasites who held places in our government and who are the ones that are, not needed whatsoever to run our government efficiently. Someone reading this may tell me

go to Japan or Germany. But I am a stockholder in America as is every other taxpayer: «So if I am called to serve my counfry in war I expect the country to serve me in peacetime just as faithfully. It can not perform that function with the law prevailing “I am going to get while the gettin’ is good. To the devil with you.”

Blue the “congressman's razz” and clean up the politics in this town,

2 8 8 “SPEECHES ARE FINE BUT I'D LIKE TO SEE ACTION”

By W. C., Wesifield a Governor Schricker last week “demanded” economy. and efficiency in all state departments and said that an investigation would be conducted to determine if any state cars were being used for personal use. I doubt if one out of 10 state employees that are furnished a state car own one of their own purchase and we all know they're not using taxis on Sundays, holidays or during the evening. . . . State cars driven by state employees drawing state pay for the time used have on each election day for the past nine years carried voters to and from polls. . . , Perhaps this would be all right if an equal number of each party were state employees, but the bill hag to be

paid by all citizens regardless of political faith and personally I don’t like it.

During a recent visit to a State House office at the noon hour, I counted 10 150-200 watt ceiling

| lights and six desk lamps burning,

evidenty so one gum-chewing stenographer could read her library book and inform visitors to wait till after lunch. Last summer in front of my home on a state. highway 12 men with two trucks worked painting a railway crossing approach sign on the black top, At 10 a. m. dump trucks and oil spreaders began on one side and covered over the new signs but the 12 continued their work the rest of the day on the other half of the road until evening, knowing full well that the following morning a new black top surface would cover over their work. Of coursé, in about 10 days the same 12 or perhaps 14

"| were back painting another sign on

the new surface. Counting truck use, paint, wages, etc., at least $75 to $80 was wilfully wasted. This means the state tax on the next 2000 gallons of gasoline I purchase or the rons income tax on eight people earning $2000 per year. The state operated all departments 10

|years ago on one-half what the

jrtots t “take” from gross income 31 like to hear speeches on econ-

| omy, but I really love to see some |

action or evidences occasionally, DAILY THOUGHT There the ked cease from AT

Shia abe ak LE bin Er hi

- War andl La bor

1] By- Peter Edson

| tion Management organization,

if I don’t like the gevernment to

So let's all give Mr. Sherwood|

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20.—-Un-less it can be stopped by some of Donald Nelsen’s best straight from-the-shoulder shooting, another war preduction palace batis apparently in the making ‘ever how much say-so labor unions are to be given in shaping policies with management fon war i industries. yy EE uETOURA for this feud ean be traced directly to the C. I. O. insistence that labor be given a veice in manage-

ment. Management hss considered this theory as ‘nothing more than a fantastic pipedream, but the war

has given o labor leaders the Tray to plug the idea pretty hard. By calling every mistake that management has made in the defense effort, criticizing business ag usual and ‘high profits, the labor leaders have oted the idea further. Today they have it up at the top of the list of their principal ebjectives. It was, in fact, a squabble over labor's participation with management in cenversion of the automo bile industry that wrecked the old Office of Produce and packed William S. Knudsen off to the army ag a lieutenant general. When the protracted auto industry cenferences failed

| to produce any satisfactory program for conversion ): | of the auto plants OPM was knocked out of the box ‘and Donald Nelson and the War Production Board were sent in to pitch.

That Reuther Plan—Again

THE SPECIFIC ISSUE which wrecked OPM wa the so-called Reuther plan. It was a labor bid fer . voice in management. Management would have none of the idea, ostensibly because management was cone . vinced it wouldn't work, subconsciously, perhaps, bee cause it was a suggestion from labor. Whatever the reasoning, OPM fell, On Jan. 13 Nelson was called to hedd WPB and en Jan. 20 he announced his plan ef reorganization. Mr. Nelson | stated he would have one industry branch chief, a centralized authority gevernment man responsible di. rectly to the WPB bess, but that each of these ine dustry branch chiefs would have two advisory come mittees, one from management and one from labor, The formula seemed satisfactory. A month of opesation under his policy has seen varying developmenis. It has taken Nelson this long to name his planning committee,

Procedure Is Variable

THERE IS as yet no definite peliey en hew the labor advisory committees and the management ade visory committees are te work with the industry branch chiefs. Procedure varies within each industry. The automobile industry, under Branch Chief Emest Kangler, has shown an inclination to work with beth the management and labor advisers and Walter Reuther sees Edsel Ford to discuss a broad program for standardizing the production of tank engines. In the wool industry, labor sat down with mane agement and helped work out the program eof allocate ing produetion fer civilian use. In the pettery ine dustry, the management advisory group asked to have the head of the unien called in as s technical consultant, but the industry branch chief vetoed the praposal, Policy en this point of labar-management particle pation, in summary, is still undetermined and per formance is spotty. Laber leaders are meanwhile boring from within to get a greater veice in the affairs of management for all this war production, using the labor advisory committees as their vehicle,

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

HARK TO THE outcries! It’s the men, trying to figure out what ‘Mrs. Roosevelt is.up to. What she has dane in her office of eivilian defense position doesn’t their approval.

Many male molders of "opinion are in a quandary. For a long time they have spoken of Mrs. Roosevelt in a complimentary but patronizing manner, She was a well-meaning person, useful in certain ways, and, while they joked about her flair for public activity, we take it for granted that they assumed she could be “managed” when management hecame necessary. No wonder they are set back on ‘their editorial heels. For Mrs. Roosevelt is bland as a china doll under their verbal fire. The conservative Mark Sul livan rises te ask, “Won't, Franklin please speak to Eleanor?” and answers his own questien with: “But the disquieting thought arises that perhaps it is Eleanor who speaks te Franklin,”

Just a Normal Married Man

THAT 1S NOT beyond the beénds-ef pessibility, as the men should be aware. It deesn’t exactly strike them dumb, but they resent the netien. I don't know why. For romancers, song writers and journalists have consistently maintained that a wife's influence over a husband is subtle but strong. They started the old gag sbout the cradle-rocking hand ruling the world. Wouldn't it be funny if that came, true, here in the twentieth century? : Certainly, if the average husband can be beguiled or nagged into doing the will of a wife, it should not seem so strange te find the bess in the White House in the normal married man's predicament. After all, gentlemen, Franklin never has .spoken roughly te Frances Perkins, much as you have jeered at her. Why assume he will be harsher with Eleanor? And you should have knewn that feminine as well as masculine heads can be turped by toe much attention.

.— - — _—-

Oesiions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Buren wilf snswer any question of fact or informstign, met imwelving extensive research. Write vour question eléarly. sign name and sddress, inclose a three-cent t nsage stam Medical or legal sdvice cannot be given, he Times Washington Service

Bureau. 1013 Thirteenth wore 1) Ten Dn. 0) Q—Please give some information sbout.the Jape anese conscription system. - 1 A—On Nov. 15, 1941, the Japanese government ape nounced the establishment of a universal conscripe tion service through a revision of the military serve. ice law, which provides for reinstatement of first and second class militiamen Rot Saluda on the register, cancellation of mili for all Japanese residing in Ching, Macao, and extension of the present onefor volunteers, officers and Gow mi al see wade 1 Va States during World War I? ! A—Sixty-tour. : Q—Was there a supreme counter of the Alles forces in the First World War? A—Not until March 29, 1018, when Gen. Foch put in supreme command. ge GIs there a law prohibiting the Post Qffice or w partment from employing tubercular persons? 0s . A=No, but in accontante with an Executive of Feb. 3. pid iar hy ND ura tos

meet 5 1

PEs

Catt 7 a