Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 April 1942 — Page 16

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PAGE 168 : i The Indianapolis Times

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERRER President Editor Business Manager (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 1942

WILL BRITAIN ATTACK?

WO-THIRDS of the British public favor an immediate offensive from England, according to the Gallup poll in that country. In historic Trafalgar Square 20,000 Englishmen met to demand such an offefisive. What of it? Since when should public opinion influence military strategy? To these obvious, if contemptuous, questions there are several replies: 1. Under the British system of parliamentary demoecracy public opinion does rule in the long run, even in military matters. The theory is that the people pay, and therefore have the right to call the tune. 2. The Churchill government is particularly sensitive to public opinion now because, though still holding a safe majority, it is losing support. Unlike an American administration, it can, of course, be replaced at any time, 3. Civilian demand for an offensive is not a purely emotional and uninformed sentiment. On the same day that the public demonstrated in Trafalgar Square, Lieut. Gen. McNaughton, commander of Canadian forces in Britain, said that “you don't win wars by sitting in defensive positions, no matter how important they are.” Also on the same day Lord Beaverbrook, whose information is presumably second only to that of Churchill, called for an offensive. 4. Russia demands such a British offensive. And as long as Russia engages the bulk of the Nazi army, which otherwise would be free to attack England and Egypt, it is risky for London to continue to withhold a flank attack on the Nazis in Norway or elsewhere. Beaverbrook's statement on ‘‘the debt we owe Russia,” and the new Roosevelt order giving shipments to Russia over-all priority, are significant. 5. Troops in the British isles, which include Canadians and a sprinkling of Americans, are reported restive to attack. 6. Hitler's ability to keep such large British forces virtually immobilized is his least expensive strategic success to date. And, if maintained, may have a decisive effect on the crucial spring campaigns. Most of these factors are so clear that Americans share the impatience of the British public for action. 5 = = = 2 8 FF HEN why—if it is as simple as all that—why does Churchill hesitate? Of all the world leaders today, Churchill, the gambler of Gallipoli, has the longest record of taking a chance if it offers. If there is any real opportunity to win an offensive, Churchill—by temperment, and for political and military expediency—doubtless will make that gamble, From which there are two possible conclusions: Either Britain lacks the necessary strength, or Churchill even now is quietly preparing that offensive. In either case, it would be wise for Americans and Britons to restrain their understandable impatience.

SAFETY FOR CYCLISTS

‘HERE is already a pronounced trend toward pedaling to work and fun on a bicycle, saving tires and gasoline. The release of the new victory bike is expected to put more and more Americans on wheels, under their own power, But today, the cyclist takes his life in his hands if he ventures into arterial traffic ways, streets he must use if he is to pedal to his job or spend a holiday in the open. If cycling is to become generally popular, cities like Indianapolis must enact traffic ordinances regulating and protecting the cyclists,

BIG STEEL JOINS UP

HE United States Steel Corp. has pledged its subsidiaries to act as rapidly as they can to establish labormanagement committees, as asked by Donald M. Nelson, to increase war production in its plants. Cheers for that! The joint committees proposed by the chairman of the war production board can serve most usefully in work for victory. In many industries action toward setting them up has come much too slowly, because of suspicion—unjustified suspicion, we are sure. Suspicion by employers that the proposal was meant, or would be used by unions, to institute something like the “Murray plan” and enable labor leaders to usurp the functions of management. Suspicion by some workers that it would turn into “speed-up” systems, profiting their bosses 2% their expense. But Mr. Nelson has made it clear that no trick is intended. He isn’t trying to give labor an advantage over management, or management an advantage over labor. He wants only machinery through which workers and employers can co-operate—by studies of plant efficiency, by suggestion boxes, by production contests, by improved morale—for the benefit of their country and the men who are defending it. If big steel and the C. I. O. unions with which it deals can trust each other to play fair in creating committees to increase production, surely other employers and other unions have no excuse for holding back. There should be a stampede to adopt the Nelson plan, for, as its proposer has just warned labor and management: “This is our last chance to show that a free economy can survive.”

IS THIS NEEDED FOR VICTORY?

HEREWITH the first paragraph in a press release from the office of Senater Chavez (D. N. M.): “Construction of a $32,809 student union building at New Mexico State college, Las Cruces, and a £30,652 municipal golf course at Raton are included in three WPA projects just given presidential approval, Senator Dennis Chavez said teday.” : :

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

TUCSON, Ariz, April 2— Somebody named L. Metcalfe Walling, described as administrator of the wages and hours divi sion of the department of labor, recently said that Nazi propaganda was responsible for the movement to abolish the 40-hour week. I don’t believe he had any ground for this charge because he offered no proof and, furthermore, this agitation over the 40hour week is a diversion which has temporarily switched public attention from the corruption of the union racket which the administration and the professional man-hunters of the unions have been trying to conceal. By kicking that gong around they have raised a great clatter in the manner of those old-time house-prowlers who would start a fight in the alley while the man around front went through the place. The real issues are not the 40-Hour week but the compulsory closed shop, the criminal practices of unions and the rising power of the union brown shirts to gang up on, persecute and rob citizens with the sanction of the packed supreme court. The bossfakers of this great criminal union power obviously must be glad of any such distraction, so there is as much reason to suspect them of fomenting this row as there is to suspect the Nazis on the word of an obscure recent appointee in the labor department who doesn’t support his statements and whose official background creates suspicion.

‘Something Deceitful and Dark'

EVERY WORD that Thurman Arnold said to the house judiciary committee about the predatory brutality and thievery of unions was absolutely true and proven, but he was not talking about the 40-hour week, which is quite another matter. If we realize that business firms and stockholders, big and little, are not philanthropists or governments with taxing powers and must take ih at one box office what they pay out in wages, taxes and all, we can maintain the 40-hour week by hoisting the ceilings on prices of war goods and civilian commodities and services. To bé sure this would mean higher costs

of living and the beneficiaries of the overtime pay

provided by the 40-hour week would be no better off than they would be on straight pay. But it is as long as it is wide, so what the hell. But there is something deliberately deceitful and dark in this persistent and stubborn avoidance by our government of the sorry facts of many of the union operations.

'Crookedest Calling in the U. S.'

SO MANY OF these unions are infested with dirty thieves and exploiters and betrayers of labor who do

hijack the farmer, the consumer and the employer

and who do beat up, rob and persecute common American citizens whose government ought to defend their right to work on war tasks free of any obligation to pay tribute to any extortioner. I promised Bill Green two years ago that IT would show up a whole rogues’ gallery of crooks in positions of power in unions and don't let any of the miserable frauds of the corrupt union press tell you that I cited only a few or that the proportion of crooks in union leadership has been no greater than in the clergy or finance or commerce. It is the crookedest calling in the whole United States, and the unions, far from exposing their vermin and pulling them off the backs of the workers and the whole community, have fronted for them and refused to co-operate with the prosecuting officers when they could have done so. Yes, I am an American, too, and so are millions of others who are determined not to permit anyone, the government or any gang of corruptioneers, to exploit our sacrifices so as to substitute criminal gang rule and compulsion for the free institutions which the nation is fighting to maintain.

Editor's Note: The views expressed be colnimnicte tn this newspaper are their own. Ther are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times.

Church & State

By Paul Ghali

BERN. April 2 An unmasked picture of the Nazi idea of Christianity is given in a circular memorandum signed by Reichsleiter Walter Rudolf Bormann, successor to Rudolf Hess as Hitler's deputy leader of the Nazi party, published in today's issue of The Nation, a Swiss newspaper This circular is being freely distributed in Germany. It states candidly that national socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable concepts. Christianity built up its age-long influence on the ignorance of the people, runs Bormann’s argument, while national socialism today builds on a “scientific foundation.” Nobody would know Christianity if it had not been hammered into the receptive minds of children by priests, says Bormann, who adds: “If our youth, in the future, does not learn about it, Christianity will disappear by itself.”

Death Knell to Christianity?

FROM THAT AMAZING stafement. jumps to his own description of God: “We consider God Almighty as the natural force moving uncounted planets of the universe, and not as a silly Christian image of an almost-human sitting in the clouds. Te think that God can be influenced by pravers and other astounding rituals, needs strong doses of naivete. "We make no difference between the confessions. That is why we have refrained from creating a Reichs church uniting Protestants Protestants are just as inimical to Naziism as are the Catholics. “In the earlier vears,” Bormann avers, “the guid-

Bormann

ance of the people lay uniquely in the hands of the | church. Everything the church disliked, then, was |

suppressed without scruples.” “Any influence possibly interfering with the state must be excluded,” thunders the Bormann declaration. “Ever more people must be liberated from the grips of the church and its priests and never again must the clergy have a voice in state affairs. Thus the leadership in the Reich will assure its influence and grant complete security to the Germans.” Bormann’s words sound like the final death-stab to Christian religions in the Third Reich.

So They Say—

We want all our released prisoners to he of use in the war program, and those we do recommend have been absorbed very satisfactorily into private industry. —Director James V. Bennett of federal bu-

reau of prisons. * - -

There can be no peace until the wicked forces | that have wrecked the world have been cast down |

and destroyved.—George VI of England.

* = -

Some have been lead to believe we are losing the

war because of waste, stupidity and dishonesty. The facts are that no war has ever been administered better. —Rep. haat Cannon, Missouri Democrat, chairman of hduse appropriations committee,

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THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 1942

antime!

The Hoosier Forum

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

“STOP GRINDING THE AX FOR LABOR,” SAYS FRISBIF By Walter Frisbie, secretars-treasurer, Indiana State Industrial Union Council. About two weeks ago your paper commenced. . , . a poisonous attack on the entire war program of our country. This was masked as an attack on the non-existent 40-hour week and the organized labor movement of America. The highest officers of the government. . . . have testified before congressional committees and re-

wrongness of your position. You have carefully concealed these figures and facts at the bottom of your articles or on the inner pages of your paper, or have completely omitted them. Now vou propose a “middle way.’ Your editorial is too long to answer in brief. It contains certain truths, The vast majority of American workers in war industries and

gladly work as many hours a week as necessary provided it would benefit their country. Your editorial is completely incorrect on several counts, two of them follow:

1. Overtime benefits on the approximately $56,000,000,000 worth of war contracts which according to L. Metcalfe Walling have already been let, would not, as you imply, increase the cost to the government by a single penny, because those contracts already include the pay-

all the members of the C. 1.0. would |

(Times readers are invited

to express their views in these columns, religious conMake

your letters short, so all can

troversies excluded.

have a chance. Letters must

be signed.)

‘war labor board with more work

leased figures and facts to prove the |than it could handle, injure morale,

{threaten health and create general confusion.

With this much of your editorial

we can agree. The organized work-

organized workers will, {time comes that it is necessary, make such other concessions re{garding hours and pay as are es|sential to win the war. [time comes, your suggestions are premature and merely add more grist to the mills of the sixth columnists, Typical of your newspaper's insincerity is your use of Mr. Bard, assistant the navy, as the authority twice mentioned in a 21-paragraph article. Mr. Bard was the only government witness who testified in favor of the legislation before the Vinson committee. Mr. Bard is a notorious labor-hater, Mr. Bard's testimony was repudiated and com-

ment of overtime, and elimination of overtime would merely increase the profits of the companies holding these contracts. 2. You are completely wrong when you state that the overtime provision after 40 hours discourages overtime work. War workers al ready average more than 46 hours a week (these are the figures of the war production board) and in the machine tool industry the workers average 55 hours a week. Donald Nelson stated that elimination of the overtime provision after 40 hours would not increase production by a single hour and might materially hurt production

(pletely refuted by the testimony of

experts from the war department, the navy department, the labor department and by Mr. Nelson himself. Don't you think it is about time that you stopped grinding the ax for labor and did a little chopping at the axis? $ 4 4 “IT'S TIME TO BRING THIS DISCRIMINATION IN OPEN” By Democracy-Minded, Indianapolis, Mr. Ransom raises a very impor= tant issue when he complains about the exclusion of colored people from

because it would mean that millions of workers would receive pay cuts: with the increased cost of living and high taxes, this would necessitate adjustment of the base rates of pay in the majority of industries: this |

defense jobs. I do not think that the majority of white workers would object to Negroes on the job. I want to protest with Mr. Ransom against those employers who decide for all of

Side Glances=By G

albraith

and Catholics. |

T.M. REG. U. 8. PAT.

wy 2 85 0X

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"I'm en your side, Sergeant! | told Sis she ought to marry you, or she might gat some bird that was turned down in

e draft because of flat feet!"

according to Nelson would flood the

ers have faith in their government and their commander-in-chief, The when the

Until that

secretary of | y {mentary confusion due to a crunch

their employees that they do not want colored people. I think it is time to bring this issue of discrimination against the colored groups and certain religious groups out into the open. I would like to suggest a public meeting on the theme “Victory Through Unity.” at which this whole question should be given a public airing. ” 2 ” “IS RABBIT HUNTING PART

OF OUR WAR EFFORT?”

By Smiley Fowler. Greensburg. Among the thousands of pages of | “publicity release” matter dumped weekly upon -the desks of newspapermen, one was noted with this headline, “1700 rabbits released for more sport.” To this 20-miles-a-day commuter, who observes from one to six man{gled rabbits on the highway each morning, there are several things wrong in this picture. It isn't conservation, nor essential wartime activity, nor economy. Most drivers are humane enough that they regret to kill or cripple any living thing. A slight twist of the wheel at high speed or the mo-

beneath the -car has been known to cause a wreck, Indiana land has been so nearly cleared for crop production that rabbits stand little chance of finding adequate shelters —even those not artificially reared. Which accounts for the increasing number encountered on roads. It is not fair to the rabbits and certainly not sport for motorists, Every ounce of gunpowder available in this eritical period should be used to kill Japs and Germans,

| Money spent for hunting licenses

would be better used for war stamps. Last year’s all-time record number of tuleremia cases rules out the idea of promoting human food. Men employed at propagating “game” which is not needed could do the country some good in army camps, in factories or on farms. What's this we keep hearing about an allout war effort?

2 o 2 “PROPOSAL TO DRAFT ALL IS PREMATURE . . .” By Edward F. Maddox, 959 W. 28th st.

Well! Well! So the editor of The Times wants to draft everyone does he? That is also Mrs. Roosevelt's pet idea and has already been discussed on a radio forum. TI heard H. V. Kaltenborn say that “congress thinks the proposal to draft us all |is premature, so do I.” And so do I and every other American who has not lost his faith in our constitutional democracy. The war to defeat aggressor dictators and preserve freedom everywhere has only been going about four months and some people are getting so hysterical they are demanding complete regimentation of our whole nation. So drafted people work better than free people? Or do you think Americans won't work as good voluntarily and as free men and women as they would as regimented slaves? We haven't lost the war yet! . . . The American way would be for those in authority to lay down a fair, logical and sensible set’ of rules for business, labor, farmers and workers, organized and unorganized, outlaw strikes and shutdowns in industry, regulate prices, wages and profits on a reasonable basis and stop discrimination against people over 50 years old who want to work, by both the unions and businessmen. .

DAILY THOUGHT

If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.—Matthew 6:15.

HIS HEART was as great as the worid, but there was no room in it

to hold the memory: of .a wrong.

wT -

§ ds ah

Burma's Jungles By Leland Stowe

CALCUTTA, April 2—Of all the tremendous dislocations of hue man beings in this war, the wildest and most fantastic pilgrimage is that which tens of thousands of refugees, chiefly Indians, but including a considerable number of Europeans, are making from Central Burma through primitive jungles, through malaria-infested wastelands and over formidable mountains into India. This is a trek of hundreds of miles, and the humblest Indian laborers, their wives and children, cover most of it afoot, often being en route for six to eight weeks or more, whereas the more fortunate evacuees travel by truck, river launch, elephant, motorbus and, finally, by train—except for three days of the most arduous mountain climbing where the only possible transport is two-legged. It is a long, terrible journey, where all risk exposure to cholera, undergo constant hardship and traverse regions where leopards and other jungle beasts rove within sight.

12 Hours . .. 11 Miles

AMONG THE RECENT arrivals here is a group of six American executives and engineers of General Motors, and two women, who made the war's worst trek, from Mandalay to Calcutta, in 14 days, They are David Ladin, manager of the General Motors’ lend-lease assembly plant at Rangoon; William White law, Wallace H. Thoresen, Alexander Gardner, Charles Hogg, Mrs. Helga Francis and Mr. and Mrs. Rene Guignard. All lost eight to 15 pounds during the trek, during which even the two women hiked over rugged mountains, 12 hours a day for three days, to cover a stretch of 36 miles in order to reach the first passable road inside India’s state of Assam. “One of those days,” related Thoresen, “we had the stiffest climb you could imagine. We climbed from 1200 to 3000 feet, then went down to 1500, then back up to 3600 feet, and dropped back to 2000. But that was only a starter. “We climbed again to 4200, went down to about 2800 and climbed to 4800. It was terribly steep going by that time, but we went down another 1000 feet, then up another ridge to 5200 feet—all in one day and, besides, there were countless small ranges in between, It was simply terrific and in 12 hours of hiking we had only advanced 11 miles.”

"Their Camps Were Pitiful’

“ALL THE WAY,” he told me, “we kept meeting flocks of Indian refugees with their wives and chile dren. Little tots struggled along, carrying bundles on their heads. Babies were being born beside the road, I don’t know how many thousands of Indians we passed in those days, but their camps beside the trail were pitiful. “There were absolutely no sanitary facilities and I don't know how many cases of cholera we ran across. Our coolies were simply fagged out, and no er It was all we could do to walk without any § or baggage. I lost eight pounds ij roa, © ght p in those 14 days,

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

TOO MUCH OF the patriotism on the air has degenerated into puerile patter, It is used for wrapping the packages offered us by commercial salesmen whose lingo, with the war's progress, becomes increasingly offensive as they recommend their country along with their goods. How the average listener can sit quietly under the barrage of indignity to which he is daily, even hourly, subjected, is hard to understand. Turning the dial is not enough for a good American. Somebody ought to have the courage to grab a BB-gun and go out after the men and women who have the effrontery to use the flag -to attract attention to their syrups and pills, their hair tonics and face creams, their beers and ales and cigarets. This, precisely, is what goes on, Everything sold is recommended for its patriotic value rather than its

intrinsic worth.

It's a Continuing Insult

ONE IS URGED to take laxatives in order to keep physically fit for Uncle Sam, Beauty and charm are nothing in themselves any more, if we believe the radio gabble. They must now be regarded as a means of keeping up the morale of the soldiers, who presumably can't or won't fight unless surrounded hy hevies of oomph girls, We're begged to eat Mr, A.'s breakfast food and to drink Mr, B.’s tea in order to do better work for democracy and the U. S. A. I think intelligent people—and there are a few left in the country—are growing restive under these insults. Even the so-called morons must be bored some=~ times by the nauseating prattle. After all, our men are fighting and dying for that flag. People are sacrificing and suffering and saying goodby to those they love—for what? Well, according to the air waves, for something that has turned out to be a swell new line for commercials. I agree heartily with H. G. Wells who says that if democracy loses, it will be the blockheads, not the traitors within, who defeat us.

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information, not involving extensive ree search. Write vour gnestion clearly. sign name and address, inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal advice cannot be given, Address The Times Washington Service Bureau. 1013 Thirteenth St. Washington D. C.)

@—How should demounted tires be stored? A—They should be protected against light, air and dirt, which are harmful to rubber, by covering them with a tarpaulin or other heavy, tightly woven fabric, The darker the storage place the better, Heat and air have a destruétive effect on casings. Seventy to eighty degrees Fahrenheit should be the maximum storage temperature. Drafts and moving air replenish the supply of oxygen, causing the casings to deteriore ate more rapidly.

Q—What is a “hutment”? A—It is an army term for a standard sleeping tent frame, made more house-like by shingle roof, plastic screening, and plywood shutters,

Q—Is there a law requiring workers to furnish birth certificates to get employment in factories pro ducing war and defense material for the United States? A—No-federal or state statute compels a worker to furnish proof of birth. But to protect the country from sabotage in factories where defense contracts are being performed, many employers do require their employees to show birth certificates proving their American ancestry and citizenship.

Q—What are some of the materials that can be used to replace rubber? A—Leather and fabrics in footwear; plastics in place of hard rubber in many articles; hair felt in such items as pads, cushions, and mattresses. Some rubber factories have departments specializing in production of non-rubber fabricated-plastic products and in others non-rubber plastic parts are combined with rubber in certain finished products.