Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 March 1942 — Page 10

The Indianapolis Times

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MONDAY, MARCH 30, 1042

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REGISTER—NOW! HE deadline for voters’ registration is next Monday midnight. Far too few have registered thus far. And it is quite obvious that a great many citizens are going to be disfranchised unless they do register for the primary elections. If you have not yet registered, do it now! If you loge your vote, vou are running the gamble that vou will wake up the day after the primary elections to discover we have two hand-picked tickets on our hands. When vou fail to register you are playing the game of the machine politician, Register, Now!

A MIDDLE WAY FOUR base wage rate is, say $1 an hour. By working 14 hours a week—10 hours at the base rate, four hours at time-and-a-half——you can earn $46. If vou worked 48 hours at the base rate you would earn 48, We believe the vast majority of American war workers would gladly work 48 hours a week without premium pay for the overtime, tHereby producing more and in many cases earning more, one thing provided. They would have to be absolutely convinced that their sacrifice of premium pay beyond 40 hours a week would benefit only their country—that ne part of it would go in added profits to their employers. If we are correct in that belief, most of the current agitation of the 40-hour-week question is on a wrong basis. It is fostering suspicion and disunity, needlessly. 5 & ® 8 4&8 FET finding a right answer to that question is one of our most urgent national duties. The 40-hour-week laws were enacted to discourage overtime work, That was in a time when jobs were few and job-hunters were surplus, But now, with constantly growing insistence, jobs are seeking men. War production is far behind war needs. Our men are dying, our cause is losing ground, for lack of ships, planes, guns, It is absurd to contend that, under these terrible new conditions, the 40-hour-week laws do not still discourage overtime work. Certainly they increase costs, Overtime payments on £356,000,000,000 worth of war contracts, saves the assistant secretary of the navy, Mr. Bard, might amount to £4,000,000,000. . So, on one side, extremists in industry and in congress want to wipe out the 40-hour-week laws. And, on the other cide, extremists among union officials ery that labor will never surrender its hard-won gains, Rut to wipe out the laws would deprive workers, in some industries and sections, of protection they still need. The time may come again when workers in all industries and sections will need these laws, On the other hand, union officials are not disinterested, are not serving the best interests of workers by their total opposition. They are making the most of a chance to convince the workers that the unions, and the union officials, are all that stand behind them and ruthless oppression. And the public, as shown by the Gallup poll and every other test, is convinced that the 40-hour-week ig hindering war effort. e 8 » 8 - s WwW E need a middle way, and it can be found. There is a president whom the workers trust. He could propose: That 40-hour-week laws and contracts be suspended, hy agreement between workers and employers, in industries where the war production board certifies that such action would increase production, overtime pay in such industries to start only after 48 hours of weekly work. It should be specified that no man should earn less, though he might earn more, by a longer week at straight time than he has been earning by a shorter week at straight time plug overtime. That would not deprive workers of the £4,000,000.000 of which Mr. Bard speaks. It would give them opportunity to earn that money by full value in production. Congress could, and we are sure would, pass whatever laws are needed to authorize such an arrangement. Congress also should—and this must be done in any event—pass laws to guarantee that no advantage surrendered by workers shall increase the profits of employers. It might not be easy to work out, but it would be tremendously worth trying. It could convert the 40-hour-week question from a source of contention and bitterness to an inspiration for eager service and teamwork. We must have that if free Americans are to outproduce our enemies, who started years before we did and whose working hours are limited by no laws but only by the physical endurance of forced labor,

LET'S KEEP THE ORCHESTRA

GIVEN an encouraging pat on the back by Governor Schricker, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra—one of the nation’s 15 major musical organizations—closed its 1041-42 season Saturday night and today plans are being made for the coming season beginning next fall. IK is quite true that Indianapolis almost lost the orchestra. It is an excellent musical organization, directed by a sincere and highly able musician. But giant symphony orchestras cost money and a handful of music lovers are clearly unable to continue to keep it running. We hope that the leaders of the Indiana State Symphony Society are able to draft some plan during the summer months which will insure the future of the orchestra and eliminate the need of a painful fund-raising campaign each year.

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This ls Wear

By A T. Steele

\

ISTRA, Soviet Russia, March 30. —Three and one-half months after the Germant trampled the life out of this once pleasant provincial town, we came back to Istra today to view the ghostly relic. All other recaptured towns of any sige, which I have visited, no matter how grievously dame aged, are on the road to recovery. Istra is different. It is dead. No tidal wave, no eathquake, no tornado could possibly have done more damage to Istra than the Germans did. It had more than 1000 buildings, including the famous three-century-old monastery called “New Jerusalem” A few hours before their departure the Germans set ablaze and completely destroyed all but three. It had more than iE re are only 350 persons out a ruins. No kerfous effort it being made to rebuild the town. When I asked Semen Batalin, chairman of the dis trict Sovilt about reconstruction plans, he replied with quiet malevolence: “We must wait. After the war we will make the Germans rebuild Istra’”

Existed on Hidden Food

ISTRA IS 40 miles west of Moscow. For 18 days the Germans held the town and the ancient monastery, which the Bolsheviks had converted into a museum and which the Nazis utilitised as an ammunition dump. Now the enemy has been pressed 0 miles further westward to the key centers of Rehev and Gzhatesk where intense battles have been raging for weeks, . The entire last half of our journey from Moscow was through a succession of burned-out villages detectable by naked chimneys, rusted bedsteads, and fence palings jutting above the show. Istra was the biggest complete ruin of all. Of the three buildings vet standing one is a small hospital. We called there and talked with Alexandra Guseva, who stayed through the German occupation. Only 1000 people, she said, remained in the town when the Germans came. “We existed on food we had hidden. We saw little and heard nothing. All the villagers were ordersd to stay indoors between 4 o'clock in the afternoon and 8 o'clock in the morning. Then one day the Germans told everybody to get out of their houses and move toward the German rear”

Robbed People of Fur Coats

“SPECIAL SQUADS went from house to house” the related, “sprinkling gasoline and setting it afire. The Germans seemed 0 lose all restraint. ‘They

stopped people on the streets and robbed them of |

their fur coats, felt boots and other warm things “We didn't realize the significance of all this until suddenly the German soldiers left the town. A few hours later our Red army marched in" The Germans used heavy charges of explosive to wreck the baroque but in the historically interesting “New Jerusalem™ monastery, where the czars oceasionally worshipped, Nazi correspondents extracted fine old ikons and bits of medieval equipment. Copyright, 1843, be he, Indianapolie Times and The

Westbrook Pegler is on Vacation

F.D.R. Wins Again

By Ludwell Denny

WASHINGTON, March 30— Despite swaying minds of adverse advents and hostile criticism, the administration continues to walk the tight-rope of peaceful relations with Vichy-France. That is some feat. Indeed, his latest success in getting a new promise from Petain not to exceed the armistice terms of axis collaboration is one of President Roosevelt's most skillful achievements to date. Credit also goes, of course, to Secretary Hull, Acting Secretary Welles and Ambassador Leahy. To say, as the critics do, that there is no permanent guarantee that Vichy will keep the pledge misses the point. There is no absolute guarantee of anything in this warring world, much lest of what any Hitler hostage like Petain mey do. But every month, every day gained in keeping the French fleet and bases out of Hitler's hands is important to allied victory.

Critics as Naive as Unjust

EVEN IF PETAIN went all out for the axis tomorrow, the Roosevelt policy would have helped to delay the blow almost two years. And now the new agreement promises at best to prevent that calamity, or at worst to postpone it until the allies are stronger. Nobody familiar with this situation will discount the value of the French fleet and bases to Hitler if he gets hold of them. This applies to Martinique and to Dakar, the closest take-off point for any attempted axis invasion of this hemisphere, It applies immediately to the battle of the Atlantic, the battle of the Mediterranean, and to the battle of the Indian ocean and Asia because of Madagascar, The critics, who charge that American policy toward France is dominated by an alleged un-demo-cratic state department clique, are as naive as they are unjust. Qbviously, this policy is determined by Roosevelt and Churchill, And just as obviously it must be judged not on the emotional basis of dislike for semi-Fascist Vichy. but on the realistic basis of winning the war To keep the French fleet and bases immobilized it to block Hitler. That it what the President has been trying to do. He has succeeded so far. He deserves the highest praise,

So They Say—

The Bill of Rights will outlast “Mein Kampf" just as the scientists objective search for truth will outlive all the regimented thinking of totalitarianism —Raymond B. Fosdick, president of the Rockefeller founda-

tion. * ® *

On the Soviet front the initiative has been forced from Hitler and we have not the slightest intention of letting this be taken from us. However, on some other fronts the initiative is still with the enemy. —Ian Maisky, Soviet ambassador to London.

L * * . If management and labor are unable to sink their differences and work together, public indignation will sweep aside both management and labor and insist that rigid government controls be set up.—Donald M. Nelson.

* * * We shall win or we shall die. There will be no compromise. —Gen. Douglas MacArthur, * * * When peace comes it will be an opportunity to use our vastly increased plant and human resources to raise the standard of living for us all —Assistant Secretary of State A. A. Berle Jr.

- * . We're going to see to it that nobody pushes labor

around —but we're going to see to it that labor doesn't |

push anyone around, either. There's a small number of short-sighted employers at one end, and a small

number of short-sighted labor folks at the other end of the M. Nelson, *

Easter 1942

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The Hoosier Forum

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

STANDARD OIL OF INDIANA MAKES POSITION CLEAR By Conger Resrnolds, The Standard Oil Co. of Indiana

The newspapers report settlement of an action brought against Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey under the Sherman anti-trust law because of certain relations it had with the German dye-trust with respect to patents. Because of the lack of understanding by the public that Standard Oil Co. of Indiana, operating in this part of the country, is entirely separate and distinct from Standard Oil of New Jersey, our company is likely to be subjected to some ex-

hostility because of this incident. . .. To make sure that at least the newspapers where we are operating have no misunderstanding regarding this matter, we wish to inform

ana never has been a party to any of the agreements between Standard Oil of New Jersey and the I. G. Farbenindustries of Germany.

Without taking any position for or against Standard Oil of New Jersey we wish to state that any eriticism of Standard of Indiana in connection with the matter of the Jersey company's dealings with the German dye-trust would be entirely without justification.

” 2 . “DOWN WITH NARROW-MINDED MEN AND WOMEN" By Mrs. D. 8, Carmel

Down with narrow-minded women and men, I've read in your column. first do away with the boys' smokes, now it's their entertainments. What next? What are they supposed to do? They are not there for cannon fodder alone. No girls in camp? Why not? Are you afraid, Mrs. M. B. Strance, some nice girls may help your boy to forget the horrors he may be seeing? I have a brother, a sergeant, in the marine corps. We haven't heard from him for several months, but I hope he is enjoying himself in his spare time, besides winning this war, while grown men and women are back here debating amongst themselves, labor, congressmen and farmers. If it wasn't for our boys,

tent to popular criticism or even |

you that Standard Oil Co. of Indi- |

(Times readers are invited

to express their views in thease columns, religious cone excluded. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Letters must

be signed.)

troversies

where would we be? If it wasn't {Tor the farmer, where would America be? We would all be on diets. |As far as our government is cone cerned, the people are the governs ment, Several are raving about “My Day.” We also have freedom of {the press. I know lots of people {who enjoy it. I don't, but there |are enough other items in the paper it doesn't even bother me. As far as our boys are concerned, {let them have all the pleasure they ‘can, they earn it.

$ # gp “ADDRESS OURSELVES TO HITLERISM HERE FIRST” By F. B. Ransom, Indianapolis

I wonder if the good people of Indianapolis really know the extent to which the Negro is pushed and kicked around right here in Indianapolis. All we hear over the radio and read in the newspapers about {the alarming shortage of skilled ‘and semi-skilled workers do not take the Negro into consideration.

Our war industries almost with jout a single exception do not employ nor pretend to employ skilled | Negro workers and will frankly admit the fact. Negroes trained at | Crispus Attucks high school haven't a ghost of a chance; notwithstanding the fact that they were trained at a great expense to the taxpayer. Incidentally, it is this same taxpayer who is refusing to employ him. No wonder Shakespeare laughed at consisteney. | Now the call is for women. There is a tremendous demand for trained women. We read it in the newspapers, they tell us about it morning, noon and night over the radio. They advise women to go down to 148 B. Market st. and register lor defense training classes. But when an intelligent Negro

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woman went down, they expressed great surprise to see her and frankly stated that the classes were for whites and there was no need for her to register because no provision had been made for Negroes in Indianapolis. We have a large reservoir of trained Negro men and boys who have completed the national defense training course at Orispus Attucks and are completely ignored and forgotten. Now they are calling for women but not Negro women, and yet a lot of well meaning people will stop you on the street and ask you about morale among the Negroes. I submit that we had better address ourselves to Hitler ism in Indiana before we question its existence abroad.

” 2 8 “SAVING TINFOIL HELPING WIN THIS BIG BATTLE” Br A Patriot, Indianapolis It's the little contributions, the almost insignificant efforts that add up to victory. We need the big bond purchases, the headlined war efforts, but the small, unsung, unnoticed cooperation of everyone is what will win this war. Two workingmen spend their lunch hour peeling tinfoil off empty cigaret packages. Insignificant? Perhaps. They went without lunch, or hurried through to save that tinfoil for war. They, and all the men they work with, take time to walk to a special box to save those empty cigaret packages. Don't let anyone tell you those men saving tinfoil aren't helping fight the battle of the Atlantic and the Pacific. 8 *8 ” “WITHOUT MATERIALS TO FIGHT, WE ARE LOST" By R. J. Jones, 1184 N. Illinois st. I can sure tell that Mr. D. J. Danforth doesn't have any sons or brothers or otherwise in the serve ice. If he did have anyone serving the country and going through what our boys are, and receiving 70 cents a day pay, he would sure be opposed to strikes that the unions are causing because they're not making $125 a week instead of $80 or $00 a week. I believe that a union has helped labor a lot. But what good will union, labor or this pay raise they're all fighting for do if our boys don't get the materials to fight with? wake up and see that without materials to fight with we are lost. I I “LET US TAKE THE BATTLE TO THE ENEMY” By N. G. A, Indianapolis I agree with Lieut. Col. Kernan in his little book, “Defense Will Not Win the War." Up to the present Hitler has chosen the battlefield and the time. Now is the time for us to take the initiative——not where Hitler wants us to (in the Far East) but in the West. Quickly, before he has a chance to launch an offensive in Russia, we should strike at the continent: Norway, France or Italy--preferably the latter. Of course this involves great risk but that is what war is about. Hitler has taken plenty of risks and he has been successful. Might he not have hesitated to strike at Poland with France at his rear? But he didn't, and France waited quietly behind the Maginot line. Let us not dissipate our strength by taking the battle to the enemy “wherever we may find him" Let us use our forces wisely and in one place, and strike hard. . ..

DAILY THOUGHT

Behold, I come quickly: and my reward is with me, to give man according his work shall he. Revelation 22:12.

LIFE WILL be lengthened while

, for thought is the

Banning Pelley

By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, March 30. The postoffice department has ise sued its first order of the war barring one issue of a periodical from the mails for publication of material held to be detrimental lo the national defense program under the so-called espionage act of 1917, but there's nothing to get excited about. The publication held to be unmailable was the March issue of the Gallilean, the magazine published by the Fellowship Press of William Dudley (Silver-Shirt, Seven-Minutes-in-Eternity) Pelley, lately of Indianapolis and Nobles ville, Ind.

Bleeding hearts who may be inclined to drain their liver and lights over this ruling may as well save the self-torture. Barring from the mails one issue of a dirty magazine isn't any violation of the right of free speech or freedom of the press and is no infringement on civil liberties.

All it amounts to is curbing the circulation of material that is definitely subversive. The borderline between sedition and criticism of government may at vimes be hard to draw, but the Pelley publication should offer no great problem on that point. Attorney General Biddle has indicated that crime inal proceedings will soon be started to expose and curb several persons and publications against whom evidence of seditious utterance has been gathered. In coming months, therefore, you may expect to see increased activity of this sort.

The Tip-Off to Pelley

SEIZURES HAVE been made of several one-shot, subversive tracts, but the Pelley Gallilean is the first periodical to be touched under the espionage act. Examination of this magazine reveals what subtle and what stupid forms this propaganda can take, The title of the publication might lead anyone to believe that here was a good Christian magazine. Even the masthead proclaims it to be “A 32-page magazine devoted to research in the field of Chris tian Mysticism, Biblical Origins and Psychic Phee nomena.” It is a well-printed job, big type and arty, butcher paper. It can’t possibly be self supporting, for it is devoid of advertising except for the inside back cover which blurbs other publications of Fellowship Press.

One in particular holds the eye. It is titled “Your Rights,” and the catchline is “Do you know what to do when the G-man comes?” That's the tip-off.

Bulges With Balderdash

INSIDE IS THE most misbegotten line of gibberish ever handed out. The titles are “What You Should Know About the Cosmic Role of Race,” “Why the World's Aryan Races Are Disgusted by War” and “How It Feels to a Soldier to Lose His Life in the Heat of Battle.” Under those titles you find such scurrilous stuff as you get only in “Mein Kampf” and the mouthings of Goebbels and Rosenberg. “The world ‘aryan’ means ‘noble people’ or ‘the earth's aristocrats’” . . , “Germany is coming to the fore because she typifies the best and finest flower of Xanthochoric culture.” And so on, Violent anti-Semitism runs throughout. The United States is depicted as dominated by Mongoloide Judaism, whatever that is. The role of the solider is constantly belittled. If there is anything to get alarmed about over the barring from the mails of stuff like this, it should be centered on {he fact that the country has to wait for a war to come along before it can take such action.

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

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

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

WASHINGTON, March 30.—A pale sun hung low in the wintry sky. In Rock Creek Park cemetery, where the dead lie in eternal slumber, the noises of the city drift in, faint, muted, like sounds heard in a trance. And a trance is the best way of describing the sensation one feels sitting in that still remote spot, the alcoved recess where St. Gaudens’ statue stands in perpetual and lovely im mobility. No visit to Washington is ever complete for me without spending some time alone in that retreat where Henry Adams had erected to the memory of his wife a monument which has become a national shrine. It's not a place to listen to the chatter of sighte seers. Human voices are a desecration there. Before the figure whose pose and face expresses all that can be experienced or has ever been imagined of mortal sorrow, the spirit is humbled, yet strangely enough a lightness takes hold of the heart. :

Mourning the Lost Dreams

GAZING, YOUR SOUL sinks into a sea of reveries, and gradually from under the heavy pall qf depression a little spiral of pure joy stems and expands until your whole being is flooded with a peculiar ecstacy. For the figure expresses not only grief but a noble resignation. The strength of the human spirit and its capacity to endure suffering are inherent in every line and curve. The longer one looks the more sure is the feeling that only through grievous experiences can great men and women achieve their fullest development. The St. Gaudensg statue is one of the graridest pieces of sculpture ever to be carved by human hands. As I contemplated it again, that graven face, so strong, so sorrowful, so immutable, seemed to hold the sum total of all of earth's despair. Today it might well be the symbol of an ancient anguish, endlessly endured, and stand as a monumet to modern womanhood--all those millions of wives and mothers in every nation upon whom war has once again heen inflicted. She broods there, the eternal mother, mourning her dead sons and her lost dreams.

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Burean will answer any anestion of fact or information, not involving extensive re« search. Wrile vour question clearly, sign name and address, fnclose a three-cent postage stamp, Medical or legal advice cannot be given, Address The Times Washington Service Bureau. 1018 Thirteenth St, Washington. D. C.)

Q=What was the location of the Lusitania when she was torpedoed? Were the efforts at salvage suce cessful? A-—She was torpedoed by a German submarine near the southern coast of Ireland, about 10 miles off Kinsale Head, May 7, 1915. Salvage operations have been conducted without success. Frequent storms off the Irish coast make salvaging extremely hagardous. A large wreck was located which was thought to be the Lusitania but it may have been any one of a score of vessels sunk in the vicinity by U-boats during the last war.

+«Q-—Are blood donors classified as to race or color of skin? A-—No; there are four recognized types of blood, and they are found in all races,

Q—Has the manufacture of passenger automobiles for consumer use been stopped in Canada? A-—Production wili be halted at the end of March or early ip April as soon as existing inventories of parts already fabricated have been assembled. !

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