Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 March 1942 — Page 13
PAGE 14
The Indianapolis Times
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TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 1842
BACK HIM—OR FIRE HIM!
RUST-BUSTER Thurman Arnold, before a congressional committee the other day, charged that certain elements in organized labor are “injuring and destroying” independent business and holding farmers and consumers “at their mercy.” Attorney General Biddle has now repudiated the statements of his assistant in charge of anti-trust enforcement, asserting that Mr. Arnold was not speaking for the justice department and that what he said “was pretty unfortunate at this time.” A fine, brave attitude Mr. Biddle strikes! The trouble with Thurman Arnold (from Mr. Biddle's viewpoint) is that he plays no favorites. He goes roughshod after business when he believes business is robbing the public or impeding the war effort. And Mr. Arnold also goes hammer-and-tongs after
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labor unions when he believes they are robbing the public |
or impeding the war effort. To him, wrong-doing friends of the administration look just as bad as wrong-doing opponents. That's what his boss, Mr. Biddle, doesn’t like. EJ = = = = = R. BIDDLE and other “liberals” in congress and the administration who think it “unfortunate” that labor abuses should be talked about “at this time” are pleasing only the union bosses. Most rank-and-file union members hate the practices Mr. and the New Deal doesn’t have to be bought hy a license to plunder the public. To Mr. Biddle we say: Show as much courage as Thurman Arnold does, if vou've got it. [Either back him up, or fire him and bring this thing to a head. And to congress we say:
Arnold is attacking. Their loyalty to the war effort |
Fair Enough
By Westbrook Pegler
TUCSON, Ariz, March 31.—No man can accuse me of optimism and get away with it, for my record shows that I have always feared the worst, a trait which may account entirely for my dismal failure in draw poker. But on a recent evening in Tucson I attended a mass meeting called for the purpose of expressing alarm at our laggardness in the war, and at the height of the speaking, which touched some rather lofty peaks of indignation, it occurred to me that these people probably did not know how well or how poorly we have been doing and, in short, did not know what they were talking about. It surely is not boastful to say that a newspaper man with my cruising radius and entree knows at least a little more about what goes on than persons in most other lines of work, but I realized that I had had only glimpses of the effort, and these more encouraging than depressing. Who of us know how many soldiers are under arms, how many guns and tanks and of what kinds, and how many planes and of what types and how much ammunition we have today or what are the rates of production and increase or how our production of ships compares with the rate of losses? I haven't the faintest idea. but I take comfort from the realization that when we become a war-mongering nation, as Hitler called us, we were almost disarmed and have achieved such weight and power as we now possess, aside from the navy, in less than three years.
All This in Three Years
IT HAS BEEN less than three years since those great barracks which are now to be seen in the army centers were still trees in their native forests and the nails and paints were still in the ground. From one place and another, often through the mention of union troubles on the projects, we have been hearing within the last -18 months of powder plants which were not even drawings three years ago, and those people who live in certain areas where the planes fly over singly and in twos and threes and by ‘the dozens must realize that there was no such traffic across the skies when President Roosevelt went before congress at the fall of France to outline the dangers and the task. The tough, unlovable Tom Girdler, a man more like John L. Lewis than either of them would like to admit, was still making steel and was catching hell from all sides for beating the ears off Lewis in
Wrong John's revolutionary attempt to extend his | dictatorial power into any area where he would be a |
very dangerous man today. Just now Girdler is making planes for the war and, according to my reading, is turning them out
{ on an assembly line, the first American factory in
The supreme court has held that you intend such labor |
evils as Thurman Arnold is attacking to be immune from anti-trust prosecution. We don’t believe vou intend that. If you don’t, demand the right to vote on the Monroney bill, now before the house judiciary committee, which would protect all legitimate rights of labor but outlaw businesskilling, consumer-bleeding, victory-delaying union abuses.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? HE question before the house was whether to appropriate $10,475 for the Commission of Fine Arts. This is an agency which makes recommendations about the type of architecture used in Washington and the kind and location of statues and monuments that can be erected. Its members are unpaid. The money would go for books, maps, printing, travel expenses and office help. A proposal had been made to eliminate these expenditures during the war. Said Rep. Johnson of Oklahoma, steering the appropriation bill through the house: “This is not a defense activity. The war would not be lost if we should eliminate it. But I think the people of the United States are proud of their capital.
which that has been done with these big jobs, although Henry Ford is fixing to do the like 2* Willow Run, but not for some time yet.
Mr. Pegler's 'Pleasant Suspicions’
I CAN'T EVEN speculate on the output today, but we all know it is considerable and growing as compared with zero-plus when we begin this job, and I suggest that the Office of Facts and Figures might substitute a little practical information on this matter for some of its inspirational stuff without communicating to the enemy information which he doesn’t possess already. After all, we have in our midst the accredited representatives of several nations which are more friendly to our enemies than to us, and I think we may assume that they are keeping the axis reasonably informed of our more lumpy achievements. We boasted much of our industrial war effort in the other one. but I have a pleasant suspicion that right now in this one we are producing much more and that the real reason why our rulers keep nagging
| us and scaring us is not that we have flopped so far,
1 am con- |
vinced the public would not want this item eliminated at |
this time. It is not a drop in the bucket as compared with other items.” You're a member of the public. Does pride in your capital make you feel that $10,475 should be spent on a
Commission of Fine Arts—in a year when few permanent |
buildings can be erected in Washington, when permissible types of architecture have already been well defined, when it would be criminal folly to use materials for monuments or statues? It would be a good idea to let Mr. Johnson know what vou think. Drop him a postal card. Address: Rep. Jed Johnson, house office building, Washington, D. C.
INDIA AND AUSTRALIA
HE london government has taken two steps toward removing empire barriers to all-out war effort. Britain has offered a postponed compromise settlement of the bitter Indian independence dispute, and she has bowed to Australia’s sharp demands for a Pacific war council in Washington with equal representatian. It is expecting too much of compromises to suppose they can patch to perfection such deep disputes. In India the conflict goes back for generations, and in Australia the issue goes back to the beginning of the war, ; Majority American sympathy has been with India and Australia. This, admittedly, has been a powerful factor in influencing London. Under the American-British military, economic and financial alliance for the duration, any British family row which weakens total war effert imperils the United States —and for that reason becomes our business, however distasteful. But, while Americans cannot ignore their unsought stake in such British empire policies, they can refrain from partisan pressure which makes a settlement harder. Political decisions almost always and almost inevitably are compromises—whether the compromisers are Britons, Australians, Indians or Am. _ans. = ® = = x» 2 N this delicate situation, it seems that the safest rule for Americans is twofold: Don’t expect complete agreement among members of the British group, regardless of formulas, when the United States has not achieved perfect unity even at home. Don’t put desirable long-range reforms ahead of the immediate job of winning the war. On that practical basis, we say: Any move which actually brings India into the war effort is a good move; any one which fails is no good. Any move which raises Austalian war morale and effort is a good move; any one which fails is no good. The only proof of these British compromises in their result—for precisely the same reason that the only proof of any military move now is victory.
but that this time we must give it all we have got, which is many times what we have done to date.
Incidentally, at this indignation meeting of which |
I spoke, there were few if any who had the appearance of men or women who were working at the lathe or bench on war production. *
What Will We Do?
By Gen. Hugh S. Johnson
WASHINGTON, March 31 — “Minx. minx the old witch winks The fat begins to fry.”
Some such language was used in the old nursery jingle to indicate that something big and bad was about to happen. We know only one thing with certainty about this big bad thing today. It is that, because spring is well on its way, nearly every actor in today’s tragedy must move. What is Britain going to do? What does Japan plan? Hitler? India? China? Russia? And above all, what are we going to do? We are committed to some kind of offensive. That means fighting overseas. During World War I we used to figure on 18 to 25 tons of shipping to transport a soldier with equipment to battlefields not more than 3000 miles away —including submarine losses. It required four tons constantly on duty supplying them. For distances from two to nearly four times as great, it is not necessary to multiply these figures by two or four but they must be much increased—
| especially when we do not have practically absolute
commana of the seas,
‘Facts Speak for Themselves
TO GET AN A. E. F. of 1,000,000 men to Europe would require about 20.000,000 tons of shipping and there are those who say that 4,000,000 rather than 1.000.000 men would be needed to attack Germany effectivelv—from 4.000.000 to 16.000,000 tons of shipping for supply alone, and 20 tc 80 million tons to get them there. The number of tons of shipping we have, after considering losses and new launchings, has not been published and cannot be used but it is a matter of commen knowledge that, at the end of 1941, we had only about 8000000 tons and not half of these were available for overseas transport and supply of troops. Considering all these figures, tricky as they are, one may not be able to tell what we are going to do this year, but it should not be too hard to say what we are not going to do. Our shortest and best protected ocean route is to Britain where there are bases and other facilities. Whatever A. E. F. we send abroad must be to England and not to the Orient, and it can’t be more than a few divisions. The facts speak for themselves.
So They Say-—
A price rise of 25 per cent means that 25 cents out of every dollar we spend is exacted from us— a forced tribute paid to the forces of inflation — Joseph E. Goodbar, New York attorney, before house ways and means committee tax bill hearing.
* * *
Men will not fight and will not die unless they know what they are fighting for. In democracies, it is essential that the public know the truth.—Gen.
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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
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TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 1942
Pour It On! «TO
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1 wholly disagree with what you say,
The Hoosier Forum
defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
but will
“MAKE A DATE TO GIVE A PINT OF BLOOD”
(Times readers are invited
to express their views in By James Van Zandt, 216 N. Blackford st. Ta Don't you think it would be a these columns, religious congood idea for us to get together (I| troversies excluded. Make
mean with ourselves) and call on the Red Cross, folks, and make a date to donate a pint of blood for the boys in service? The Red Cross is doing a mighty big job here, but they cannot get blood out of a tur-
nip, they need you and me. I know a gentleman that has made three blood donations to the {Red Cross and that gentleman is |59 years old, and he tells me he {does not feel any ill effects. It {takes about half an hour, then he goes on about his business. $57.60. Now I'm practically work- | In donating blood to the Red ing for the pawnshops, because I] | Cross for the boys in service, you have to hock my clothing between can do it the easy way, there is no! pays in order to keep going. (pain or ill effects. You are fur-{ And when he mentioned the| |nished with a nice clean cot and a | “halt and the lame,” I'm also in {smiling nurse and a nice lunch at|that bracket, being afflicted with a the finish. But think of our boys | double hernia. I made the fact that donate blood for you and me.|clear to the assignment officers, They do it the hard way, they may nevertheless I was assigicd to a be lying in mud and rain or in|machine shop, and anyone with the hot sun, giving their blood for {common sense knows that standyou and me. Better we reason with ing for six or eight hours doesn't ourselves and do something about |do anyone with a hernia any good. this blood donation. But I had to take it or else. And iF 7 3 as far as training is concerned, I haa CER know just as much about machinery | “WHY FORCE THIS TRAINING (now, as I did 10 weeks ago, and if ON PHYSICALLY UNFIT?” 'it was possible to become a finished Br Clarence Brown, 418 N. Senate ave. | machinist in 12 weeks. What I've just finished reading the | factory or shop, industrial plant or article by Mr. William Murphy, in | What have you would hire a man in
: ns Hind which he takes a slap at the|™ Fe condition? tr8i emergency training program spon-| I @m not against defense train-
sored by WPA. He says that, “Ey- | ing I think it is a great program.
eryone including the lame, the halt| But I am against the way it is] and the blind were rushed into the iorced upon those who are physical- | breech of training. Timekeepers, | ¥ uni clerks, foremen and water boys, and | men who had never worked around | PIMAGGIO DOESN'T a piece of machinery.” | ON ANY PEDESTAL” But he failed to mention another |g, Marshall E. Baldwin, 209 N. Pershing class of worker who was he ave. fortunate enough to have to be on| Americans are great hero worthe WPA roll, and those are the|gshipers, but I think we overdo it jones who have spent the best of|n,ny times. I think at this time { their lives, time and unlimited re-| sources in gaining proficiency in] ve should be very corerd] abou | their respective professions. { whom we idolize. I am speaking of none other than| I'm - thinking particularly about the musicians and recreational |one of the foremost baseball players workers, both highly essential dur- | of the day, Joe DiMaggio. Giving
Side Glances=By Galbraith
your letters short, so all can have a chance. Letters must
be signed.)
ing war times or any other time, for that matter. I am one of those, | but I was not receiving the magni- | ficent salary of $87.60 a month, but {the enormous pay of $86.40 and could barely make ends meet at that, but I was rushed into the socalled defense training and cut to
$ =u & BELONG
}
",
"My wife's been hollering at me fo get more exercise, boss! It'll be
REG.
COPR. 1942 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T. PAT, OFF.
him all his just credit, I still don’t think we should place him on a pedestal for the American youth to claim as a hero. DiMaggio, whose parents are still citizens of an enemy country, hasn't as yet volunteered his services to the armed forces of the country which has made him a rich man. Instead, he was a “holdout” this year on the New York Yankee ball club, wanting to get even more money while other men of less physical ability were signing up with Uncle Sam for $21 a month to make this country a safe place to enjoy our national pastime and other activities. I think we should give all our hero worshiping to the men in the service and to the money grabbing children of non-citizens we should give our jeers. DiMaggio’s wife and child could get along very well without his $42,000 a year while he went to the front for the country which has helped him and his family. If he is not willing to volunteer his services in an effort to protect his freedom. the citizens of this country should not be foolish enough to help him gain a fortune. ” ” ” “TIME TO STOP THIS MONKEY-WRENCH BUSINESS” By An Ex-Church Member, Indianapolis This Bond Sunday incident is interesting. to say the least. . . . What rome to any one because, on a . .nday, he pledged his willingness to buy bonds? Is it that registering for bonds on Sunday is wrong, or is it that buying bonds and prosecuting a war—this war—is wrong? Before Pearl Harbor, the greatest single group in this country that acted as a dead weight around the necks of congress, preventing us from getting ready for this war, was the church group. Thousands upon thousands of them refused to look danger in ‘he face, and thousands
of American boys are going to be sacrificed to that sanctimonious blindness. No doubt many of these people were honest, they didn’t like Roosevelt anyway, so the isolationists’ arguments sounded like sweet music to their ears. But now the sons of many of these church members are in the service. Are these church members’ sons to be immune to shrapnel on Sundays? Must church
harm could
members always be gullible?
Will they never learn that they have been the easy dupe ler’'s agents in this country? Haven't they the ability and enough hardheaded American common sense to go to the root of some of these pious movements and find out who is starting them? They probably would find some pro-German group starting the agitation—those groups are still here. This very performance is evidence of their power. Democracy and Christianity go hand in hand. Americans who believe in Christ's kind of Christianity had better go to the bottom of this. Every parent with a boy in the service or a2 boy in the draft ought to find out right now who is so piously objecting to Bond Sunday. It is time to stop this money-wrench business. Enough American boys are dying for us and will have to keep on dying, without having that isolationist crowd raising their ugly heads this early in the game. Are isolationists just plain dumb or are they vicious? Who pulls the strings? I would like to know?
DAILY THOUGHT
The Lord preserveth the strangsers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked. he turneth upside down. —Psalms 146:9.
a good joke on her when she finds out | enlisted taday in the navy!"
=
Among Books
By Stephen Ellis
THE TITLE OF the book is “Only One Storm.” The author is Granville Hicks. You can take my word for it that it is a book you are going to hear a great deal about. The publisher, Macmillan, believes it has all the significance that “Main Street” had some 20 years ago. I have a feeling the publishing house is right. Granville Hicks sets Canby and Christina Kitteredge against the background of a New England town in the Berkshires. With consummate skill, he brings the young Kitteredges to life for the reader and then proceeds to tell the story of the whole town of Pendleton and its adjacent areas. What happens is the story of America—its preplexities, its gropings, its yearnings, its hopes, its ambitions. The characters actually move through this book as living, breathing people—not fictional inventions. You grow to know them, almost what to expect, as Mr. Hicks painstakingly weaves his tale of his America.
'Then | Got Sick of If!
CANBY KITTEREDGE left his home town of Pene dleton to make good in New York. His grandfather had practically built the town of Pendleton, but Canby wanted bigger things. “I was making damn good money,” he told Joe Riley as they sat in the car watching the flood waters roll down the river, “but I got fed up. Advertising’s a racket. I was just turning out sucker bait. I decided I couldn't spend all my life telling lies. Hell, I don’t know what happened. My conscience woke up or something. You see, I've been on the make ever since before I went to college. I had made up my mind I was going to work and get ahead. Then I got sick of it.” a And so Canby was back in Pendleton, running the old print shop, living in the old family home and de= veloping a feeling for the land and the people. They went about their daily tasks, listening to the radio and reading their newspapers, cursing Chamber= lain quietly, and wondering where it was all going to lead.
It's 1942's 'Main Street’
CANBY’ OLD FRIENDS try to woo him to Coms= munism. He's intrigued and interested, but the Soviet pact with the Nazis ends that dream. You get a pice ture of these people, believing so intently and so dese perately in what they preach that they gloss over the simple things that run through Canby’s mind. How Canby stands for election as selectman, how the townspeople scrap and argue over what schoolbooks to use, how old Uncle Henry finally dies and is laid to rest is told with an artistry that few Ameri cans possess. Here is the story of the last ten years of life in this country, told by a writing man who is close to the people. The characterizations are superb, but you somehow miss that in the power of the story ite self. Granville Hicks has put no fireworks into his tale. It is a story of people's lives, everyday lives, yet packed with a mounting suspense that grips you to the very end, Yes, you are going to hear a great deal about “Only One Storm.” For I, too, think that is the 1942 counterpart of “Main Street.”
ONLY ONE STORM, by Granville Hicks. The Macmillan Co., New York City, 427 pages. $2.73,
Granville Hicks
A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson ‘
MME. CHIA-CHEN CHU, wifa of a Chinese attache, believes American Women should change their mental attitude in order to help win the war. In a talk beefore the Washington group of the American Association of University Women, she gave a vivid picture of her experiences in China's recent bombings. Having been educated in the United States, she possesses an insight into our national character; this, coupled with her war work among the women of her own land under the direction of Mme, Chiang Kai-shek, adds special emphasis to her words. Also she is a charming person, vivacious of expression and ardent for the allied cause. Though she’s much too polite to say so, Mme. Chu knows something about us that we do not know ahout ourselves—we are completely out of touch with reality. It's no fault of ours but simply the re= sult of the industrial changes which have taken place in our country. These changes have gradually dee prived us of our aptitudes.
Our Attitudes Must Change
BECAUSE OF THEM we've lost our ingenuity and our ability to produce the commonest household necessities. Everything women use is made for them outside the home. City housewives have not been called upon to think about fundamentals. Adl their wants have been supplied if there was money to buy with; if not, there was WPA. Now- it may be we are face 'o face with those basic problems of living which occupied the full attention of all pioneer mothers. From now on, sheltered wives may be forced to exercise their ine genuity—or suffer. They will probably have to work with their hands again, creating the goods: and gadgets needed in their kitchens because it will no longer be possible to get them on the market. Our ignorance of practical things is really ape« palling. How silly it is that so few men and women know anything about the workings of their motor cars, although America has practically lived in auto=
of Hit-|
mobiles for the last 20 years. We are helpless befors | the breakdown of most of our devices. Machinery | has enslaved us. We are not our own masters but bondservants of the industrial Prankenstein’s-monster we have built. Certainly our mental attitudes must change. When we learn to depend on ourselves for the simpler tasks of living the war will be half won.
Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists in “this newspaper are their own. They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times.
§ Questions and Answers
(The Indianapolis TI'imes Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information. not involving extensive research. Write vour question clearly sign name and address. inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal advice cannot be given. Address The [limes Washington Service Bureau 1013 Thirteenth St. Washington D C.)
Q—How much revenue will the federal government receive from the automobile use tax? A—It is estimated that collections from that tax will amount to approximately $62,700,000 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1942 and $150,000,000 in the next fiscal year, This amount may be reduced if many automobiles are taken out of use. Q—What is the purpose of a wing flap on an aire plane? : A—It acts as a brake, lowering the landing speed of an airplane. Some types of wing flap also assist in quicker take-off and climb, he,
Q—What is the origin helps those who help themselves” A=It is from Al