Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 March 1942 — Page 18

he Tn dianapolis Times!

ROY W. HOWARD | RALPH BURKHOLDER _MARK FERREE President i Editor - Business Manager RIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1043

TOO MANY COMMANDERS “RESIGN” \ HEN Admiral Hart “resigned” as allied naval chief of the Southwest Pacific, the public was shocked. The official explanation was “ill health.” But the admiral continued to appear in Java, apparently as hale as ever and actually ridiculing je idea that he was ready for a wheel chair. [ But that mys was accepted in good faith, because Admiral Hart was replaced by Admiral Helfrich. It seemed reasonable that a Dutchman should command in Dutch waters, and Helfrich had a remarkable war record, Well, the great Helfrich did not last even as long as Hart. Like Hart, he too has “resigned” in the midst of battle. The cases of Hart and Helfrich are not unusual. The me thing happened to Brooke-Popham, the British com-1ander-in-chief of the Southwest Pacific, vrho was pulled m Singapore in the early days. In the case of Brooke-Popham, the Australian prime minister, leading te of Singapore preparedness, says the commander w. made the goat for London's refusal to supply planes and guns. Is that the lanation of Hart and Helfrich also? The battle reports | all agree that allied naval forces are outnumbered in tl and planes. They were outnumbered

when Hart was in ommand, and a month later they were still outnumbered under Helfrich. We are not here questioning the decision that sent reinforcements to orth Ireland, Africa and elsewhere, ‘instead of to Java. Maybe that was wise. But we do question the fairness and the wisdom of any government policy or any public opinion that expects commanders to win battles when [overwhelmingly outnumbered on the ground, on the sea, under the sea, and in the air. Whatever the explanation, the turnover in command during the battle for the Southwest Pacific has been too ‘often and too fast i produce good results. ; !

IT’S BAD LEGISLATION

“WITH one hand Washington is pouring raoney into the states and municipalities—building houses for defense workers, providing money for schoals, sewer aud water-system expansions. With the other hand, the adininistration—through ‘the Cochran bill to| exempt war contractors and subcontractors from various state taxes—is proposing to dry up sources of state rebense and make the sub-divisions of government still less able to care for their own heeds. It doesn’t make sense. | Refrigerator factories, automobile plants, etc., have been forced to stop| producing goods for civilian use and convert to war production. Automatically cut off from the revenue from civilian industries, the states also will be denied the right to collect

gross income, sales and use taxes from the converted plants,

if the Cochran bill hecomes law. If the federal government can deny the states those . revenue sources, then it can by another statute exempt war contractors and subcontractors from ad valorem and other local taces. With civilian industries contracting and war industries expanding, this policy carried to its logical end would pauperize state and local governments until they would have to plead with Washington for still larger handouts. It is an unsound and vicious trend. It should be checked—now. | :

“COMMON LAW: ROBBERY” THE cost of living in New York City (and in many other cities) is unjustly increased by a labor-union racket ~ which the United States Supreme Court has held to be beyond the reach of federal law. . ~ Suppose you of food into New Yo k. * You can’t do it until you pay $9.42 to Local 807 of the F. of L. Teamsters’ Union, this representing a day’s wages for a union driver. You don’t want or need to hire a uni n iver, but you have fo pay for him

‘common law robbery.” , the trust-busting assistant attorney ; ' prosecute Local 807 and 26 of its members under the federal anti-racketing law. He con. victed them, but the convietions were set aside by a circuit _ court, and the surpreme court has now agreed with the circuit court. The majority opinion, written by Justice Byrnes, holds that congress wrote into the law a clear exemption for this sort of activity by a labor union. But, as Justice Byrnes points out, congress could change the law. And it should. Just as it should outlaw other similar union holdups which the supreme court has held, in previous decisions; to be exempt from, have nothing to do with the legitimate purposes of labor

organization. | 1: COUNTERS | | H°vY much is $1 000, 000, 000—the approximate amount "™ so far appropri ited or authorized by congress for war? Senator La Follette, trying to make that figure ‘ comprehens sible, points out that it means a billion and a half $100 . To count tha Suny $100slsy ul the eof ome 8

nths. It seems sligh y improbable that. any man will volun: for that job, and it shouldn’t be necessary to draft one. For the census bureau has just reported that there are : oso peradt ns on federal, state and local govern-

' ting a British cruiser.

own a truck and want to deliver a load.

anti-trust prosecution although they

| ¥in 8 war to have 1

A Boomerang? |

By Paul Ghali

BERN, March 6.—Voices from

pression of the Prench population by the slaughter of civilians in the Royal Air Force bombing of automobile factories in Boulogne and Billan-

“boomerang effect” against its authors. The question of whether or not the British were justified in bombing factories putting out German war material, is far outweighed in French minds today, these reports say, by the fact that 600 were killed and 2000 wounded among innocent civilians. That British tracts were dropped stating that England was aware of the French efforts to sabotage Franco-German collaboration and promising that the planes would return, is considered to be another “psychological error.”

It Comes at Bad Time

THERE 1S NO DOUBT here that some of the French people have Anglophile inclinations or, more exactly, are thoroughly disgusted with the interminable occupation. Even these elements, however, continue to ask if badly aimed bombing of Paris factories is more interesting and remunerative to Britain than bombing industrial plants in Berlin, according to reports reaching here. The R. A. F. strikes at the very moment when French nerves are at the highest pitch. The loss of the Normandie, the Riom trial, the increasing lack of food and most of all the phsychological effect of British defeats in the Far East have resulted in a state of mind in France for which the word depression is too weak. In its present state France could be led practically in any direction by clever propaganda. The British bombing also comes at an especially wrong moment vis-a-vis Franco-German relations, and may possibly result in harsher German demands on France, thus further restricting Vichy’s chances of resistance.

Swiss Sympathetic to French

THE PARIS-CONTROLLED press and even that of the unoccupied zone compare the bombing of Paris to the Mers-El-Kebir (Oran) incident of July, 1940, when the British attacked French warships in that North African port. After the Oran incident an unidentified plane flew over Gibraltar, bombing and hit-

The Swiss press this week is definitely sympathetic to France and expresses the feeling that Switzerland is threatened in the same way. The Bou-logne-Sur-Seine bombing, writes Rene Baume in La Suisse, was meant completely to disturb Germany’s ammunition system. An editorial in the Tribune De Lausanne admits that there is some logic in British Air Secretary Archibald Sinclair's reasoning but adds that such action, however, creates some discomfort in neutral countries, “even in countries which cherish distinct sympathies for Britain.” The editorial ends: “The Boulogne tragedy illustrates once more the lamentable fate of defeated contries caught between a victor’s exigencies and a former ally’s reprisals.”

Cc ight, 1942, by The Jndishapolis Times and the pss Chicago Daily News, Inc.

Westbrook Pegler is on Vacation

This and That By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, March, 6— Senator Carter Glass is a good bit like a great and venerable grandfather clock. He ticks along quietly, apparently unperturbed by what goes on about him, and then on the hour, wheels whir and he strikes. At hearings of the joint committee on reduction of non-essen-tial federal expenditures the other day, Senator Byrd called to the attention of OCD Director James M. Landis a speech which Philadelphia Jolin B. Kelly of OCD’s physical fitness department delivered, calling on the American people “to be a lot stronger and a little dumber.” Glass hadn't said a word all morning, but when he heard that his wheels whirred and he struck: “Could they be any dumber than they have been!”

Going Up—Up—Up— PER CAPITA taxes in the U. S. reached sa for 1941, as compared with $66 for 1932, . . . Sales taxes provide the states with 41 per cent of ‘their revenue. . « « One out of every 11 adult workers is on the public payroll, and that doesn’t include the armed forces. . . . No more deliveries of beer, coffee or hams in tin cans after May 31. . . . WPB has redefined “passenger automobile” to mean one having a seating capacity of. not more than 10 persons. . . . Add famous quotes of living statesmen:: “We bureaucrats, chained to desks in Washington, have too little opportunity to get out in the country and catch up on what people are feeling and thinking."—Price Administrator Leon Henderson.

Dry Sentiment on Increase

U. 8S. CONFERENCE of Mayors is shooting at Treasury Secretary Morgenthau’s trial balloon for abolition of tax-free state and municipal bonds. . . . U. 8. railroads and U. 8. residences consume about the same amount of coal, an average of eight million tons a month. . . . Bureau of standards says an inch

layer of concrete on your attic floor is good fire bomb protection—if the floor will stand the extra weight. . + « Brazil, not the United States or Argentina, has the largess livestock herd, 95 million head. . . . The dry won 650 out of 950 local option elections held in the: U. 8. last year. . . . Since repeal, the score has been, ays won 8350 out of 13,360.

So They Say— No war can be won by criticism which merely seeks to disoredit leaders. Sor Yeiitiita) or persons] reasons, —A. H. Silver, Cleveland rabbi. w . . Throw this at the ~T. H. Fisher, East Liver pool, O., banker contributing a S0-ton bridge to scrap metal salvage committee. : . ., 0 It’s the ne aa] San eip.a lids ana I sastataly want fo do my part.—~Babe Ruth, announcing he would enlist in some branch of the’ service.

We Filipinos, semember Japasioss “besevolencs through the centuries. So we sharpen our ~-Manvel Busien, PHipine writer,

The oily wiy-io end the: war iso. take the offen-

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

“IS IT SAME MADDOX WHO WAS PEDDLING EYEWASH?”

By A. H. Berman, 2841 N. Delaware st. For the benefit of Mr. Maddox and some of the other conclusionjumpers may I point out that Leon Blum was out of office long before this war started in September, 1939, and that armament production actually increased during his stay in office. It recently was reported in the papers that Blum has a letter from the French general staff in his possession commending him for this accomplishment and that he intends to use this letter in the mock-trial now being enacted - at

| Riom.

By the way, is this hot and bothered Mr. Maddox the same individual who was so busy peddling the American Pirst eyewash before Dec. 7? If so, silence would be most becoming to him. » 2 » “IT SMACKS SOMEWHAT OF COLLUSION-—-OR A TRUCE”

By Dee S. Gee, Indianapolis The big berthas of the republican party . in their Lincoln addresses have spoken for the coming campaign and the issue seems to be that we should have two political parties. Looking back over the acts of the last legislature and sizing up the results of the bills passed by that legislature, I believe they are 100 per cent right in their conclusions

- | that they need another party.

Their cue for the two-party system no doubt came from the democratic governor who so graciously helped to straighten their mess of legislation. I would presume that it is a foregone conclusion that the .democrats will concur in the two-party system; in fact I believe that Governor Schricker has already said that he believes there should be two parties, Who would have ever thought the lamb and the lion would have lain down together on such an important issue. It smacks somewhat of a collusion, a connivance or a truce: come: seven, come eleven. As no mention was made of a third party, one would infer they think it erroneous, and if proposed would no doubt be simultaneously attacked

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

troversies

by the harmonious and fraternal agreement of the self-appointed administrators. Selah. There is an ‘implied admission of a needful watching of either party; it has been said “that open confession is good for the soul”; but it is the first time that two sélf-con-fessed incompetents ever started out on an errand and agreed to watch one another. , . . You can fool all the people a part

|of. the time, that is during the

campaign. To yap at the other fellow is encouraged and while a barking dog does not bite, yet there is a lot of satisfaction in the barking. Now to make this two-party system a success in the coming campaign, should there be a full ticket on both ballots? Tor if one party elects all their men it. might defeat this proposed entangling alliance of political harmony, I'll let you bat the ball awhile. 8 =. 8 “FARMER'S AMBITION IS TO ACHIEVE PARITY”

By James R. Maitsler, Attica H. W. Daacke says, “I cannot understand the philosophy of placing farmers on & higher plane than the rest of producers.” Why, comrade, he is and always has been on a plane below the rest. His ambition was to attain parity or equality. When his wages came close to reaching parity, the government steps in and while allowing union wages to reach the heavens, puts a limit on farm prices. Not content with that, the secretary of agriculture sells grain. at cut-rate prices to break the market. No one ever heard of government breaking wages by ‘hiring its $21 a month men to the factories, nor allowing farm bureau or grange

members to prevent non-member

Side. Glances—By Galbraith

sive and {0 take it a8 vigorously as possible—Secre. Ly

tary Stimson.

It the story of human association tells us anyfreedom,

thing, it is that where all demand none has any,~—Norman Angell,

complete | d RY i ee *

1b fut iss in Keeping wth any wl-out effort 0 od GD as 1m

disunity and lower the morale and| .. "s creating morale and widening her own A horizons.

farmers to tend their crops until

they joined these organizations. Comrade Daacke also says, “Nature’s elements produce the crops he (the farmer) garners just as it produces coal, copper, iron and trees.” Daacke really believes wheat, corn, oats, beans and cotton grow wild and all the farmers has to do is gather them like he picks wild blackberries. No doubt he believes the cattle, hogs and sheep that are brought to the Indianapolis stockyards run wild in the woods. What can you say to that? Absolutely nothing. : . ¥ 8 “FAULT WITH THE U. 8. RESTS WITH SOCIALISTS” By Edward F. Maddox, 950 W. 28{8 St. Walter Frisbie has taken great pains to convince us that “labor has taken the lead in this war,” and to show us that labor leaders are “indispensable men.” . . . The . American people, I believe, have no quarrel with honest, patriotic union labor, or honest, patriotic union leaders. But a long record of

strikes, slowdowns, walkouts ‘and|

sabbotage of our war production program and shakedowns and persecut'on of honest capable American workers who were anxious and willing to work on defense projects, together with a multitude of charges that revolutionary fifth column elements had muscled into positions of leadership in many labor unions, have alarmed and caused suspicion among the American . people and congress. Mr. Frisbie has taken great pains to warn us against violence from union labor unless it is restrained by present leadership. Does he impugn the workers? Most people think he ‘has put the cart before the horse, that radical union leaders call the strikes and the poor workers walk out or else! Some labor leaders have defied the president, congress and flouted the law. Other labor leaders haye rejected the pleas of their own on presidents. There seems to be 3 erful revolutionary Socialist elément in union leadership. That, I believe, is where the danger lies. There is something badly wrong in this man’s country. The Socialists continue to attack our industrial and economic system and attempt to sow discord and

bo sine Questions and

tainment. But don’t you imagine it's

S50 is enthusiasm. Parades have wn

tional mind for war. Some with whom I have talked say that the businessuke, modern. efficiency of tae draft has taken away the need tor any such thing. We did not find it so in 1918.

to camp—with bands, flowers, committees of honor and parades until at the last the volunteers departed unnoticed and the draft became a very popular institution. : Then we stopped: volunteering altogether: It is absolutely inconsistent with every basic principle ‘of the draft. This time certain high officials, including the whole navy, do not see that, I understand that among these. is the president's better half—our first lady.

What, Eleanor Again?

I WAS TOLD that she had heard somewhere that a man holding a third :mate’s certificaté had been drafted and sent to the infantry which, she said, over the radio, did not make sense. She should check her information more carefully. That man could have entisted n “this ‘merchant marine or the navy, had he so desired, up to the day of his induction. After that, he had to'be sent to the army because the navy won't accept drafted men— which is, of itself, a serious lack of team. play and indifference te a proper classification of man-power, It is only one indication of a fine political fight which seems to be in course of preparation for Gen, Hershey's department. Up to recently he had done an alfriost perfect Job. Now several departments of government. want a fine ger In its ple. Movie and radio actors and officials, labor leaders, newspapermen and thousands in gove ernment clerical jobs can all be eferred as indispensible. That was the work of pressure groups close in the White House confidence. With Mrs. Roosevelt to lead them, there is grave danger that they will take the ball clear away from Hershey. ;

A Woman's Viewpoint By Ms, Walter Ferguson

: po CHURCH AND club groups ‘do things the slow, hard, expensive ‘way? A favdrite t ‘thinks so, explaining her meaning in these words: ou “When a government air school was located near our town I did not sign one of the service cards for women. Maybe I'm slow witted, but I felt honestly there : wis nothing ‘I could do to enterBANE pa the boys with leisure time on their Bandas? " Quite unexpectedly I found out my mistake. “One evening my, husband brought two. soldier boys home for supper. They were strangers to us, but ‘seeing them dévour my simple meal of homemade rolls, creamed chicken, salad and ‘was the most satisfying compliment I've ‘ever: had on my cooking ability, ‘They also ‘seémed to enjoy. the time spent in our home and, neediéss to say, we enjoyed our visit with them. “So, for the duration I shall spend nothing on entertainment for. those i who posssess ome

comforts. XY still’ ‘have not of the Bidlars ren

but I bake cookies tional ee ride for meals. i's Hin on (of Rte I Ju making up by suging Sewn ad ai ania tiont expense.” * Home Atmosphere Chis Lack; be

| OF COURSE IT would be & minor

would be splendid if the housewife: who is tied down by domestic routine would use this, simple but magie

“A 'hbme atmosphere is the chief. lack, in every

{ soldier’s life.

Groups are at work to give them mass enter abi tn a

‘soldier to feel himself oo by the’ tos Eh yng Pledge Himself to detend; PUNY Be has pledged’ himself to defend.

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Biltar's Notes ‘The’ views. expressed. by by, columatete tn the newspaper are their own, Indianapolis Times.

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