Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 April 1942 — Page 10

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis

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

= Price in Marion Coun- | ——) ty, § cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 15 cents a week. Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $4 & year outside of Indiana, 8 cents a month.

RILEY 8831

Give taght and the Peopwe Will Find Thew Own Way

Owned and published : daily (except Sunday) by | a The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co, 214 W Maryland st.

> Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations.

MONDAY, APRIL 6, 1942

EASTER MORN IN CEYLON

N the calm of another early Sunday morning like Pearl Harbors, a Japanese sky armada launched its surprise attack. The object was Ceylon, which dominates the Indian ocean crossroads to the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian sea, the sea routes to Suez and to Asia. | But when the great battle was over, the surprise was for the attackers. The Japs had lost 57 or more planes shot down or damaged. British losses were “comparatively slight.” | The defenders were not caught napping—the price of

Pearl Harbor had not been paid in vain. The defenders were not unprepared—the price of | Singapore had not been in vain. “Recent arrival of reinforcements from all parts of | the empire” had occurred in time. So the evil spell of | “too little and too late” was broken in yesterday's dawn | over the Indian ocean. An Easter promise, we may hope, | of better fate in the battles ahead. | A hope, and also a warning that battles can be won | only by the prepared. That warning is particularly close | to India, where British and nationalist negotiators are still deadlocked while the invading waves roll nearer, Whatever the mistakes of Britain in India in the past, and they have been many, only British military leadership can save India in this war. Yesterday's victory over Ceylon | indicates that Britain is better prepared for the. defense | of India than she was in Malaya and Singapore. But if Britain were a hundredfoid stronger, and if the American shipments were a thousand times larger, | defense of India would be impossible without the vigorous |! vo-operation of Indians ready to fight for their freedom. | More important than the victory of Ceylon is the outcome of the battle for Indian-British unity at New Delhi.

CONSCIENCE AND COUNTRY

NCE again the problem of the conscientious objector dramatically forces itself upon an America at war. | Lew Ayres, popular and accomplished actor, goes to an Oren camp to cut timber and clear underbrush rather than man a gun in the hour of his country’s greatest peril. Ayres’ profession of faith reads as the word of a sincere man who has long pondered what he well realizes may ruin his career. We have no reason to doubt his sincerity. Americans, however, may well doubt his reasoning. “In my opinion, we will never stop wars until we individually cease fighting them and that is what 1 intend to do,” Ayres explained. The first part of that statement may , be true, but how apply it to the Japanese airmen who | bombed Pearl Harbor? How apply it to the German panzer troops who overran Poland and made people of that nation a “subject” race? : Would Avres have retired to his California mountaintop home, lifted not a finger come invasion and cheerfully been assimilated into Nippon's co-prosperity sphere or Hitjer's new order? These ideologies certainly must be as re- | pulsive to Ayres as is war itself. The answer to conscientious objectors lies in the type | of enemy we face. This is no War of the Spanish Succession | where armies battled under codes of honor, and the loser | knew nothing would be lost but a few acres of territory. | Our enemies in this war not oniy want our resources; they hate and would destroy our way of life. Most of us say: “It is better to die on our feet than to live on our knees.”

PROFITS AND WAR

NVESTIGATIONS, the last time, came after the war. The | whole obscene record of profiteering from the blood of | American soldiers was laid bare after it was too late to do anything much about it. The cost-plussers who squandered materials and labor to run up their commissions were, for the most part, be- | vond reach of the law. The gamblers in foods and other scarce commodities had their ill-gotten gains stowed safely | away. Hence the angry demands from the Legion, from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, from the labor unions, from the | ordinary taxpayers—have some of these forgotten?—to take the profits out of war. It is important to note a substantial gain. This time the investigations progress during, rather than after, the war: this time many industrialists and businessmen are more sincerely eager to prevent profiteering. But evidence accumulates that there's too much of it still going on.

political standing or way of life as a result of the war. If legislation and enforcement methods can’t be devised to prevent these benefits from being obtained, then taxes

must be made so severe that they will be certain to get all |

but the barely necessary and reasonable profits. The smart schemes of unscrupulous or wrong-headed

businessmen must be placed in the same class with the ex- | cessive demands of ambitious or thick-skulled labor leaders. |

A small minority is involved in either case, but it is a minority large enough to wreck the country’s morale if permitted to get away with it. The country demands, and the country must be furnished with plain proof, that no one is going to make a good thing for himself out of this war.

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION

S° democracy doesn’t work? It not only works at home but it works at the front. ~ A 23-year-old American doughboy in Australia is a fillionaire who gets spending money in $100 bills.’ On

a lieutenant

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, April 6. What I have been trying to say is that this war is not the exclusive task

of the New Deal wing of the Democratic party and the factory hands and the union bosses, This war is everybody's and that group professionals who are sistently and falsely referred to as labor, meaning the political posses of the twe big groups of unions, deserve no special consideration or credit for refraining from sabotage in the form of conspiratorial strikes. The commuter on the 5:15 whose kid is at the war and who faces the loss of his job or business, his home and his possessions and savings, represents a much finer type of patriotism than the swollen frauds who presume to speak for American labor, If this war had to be fought and worked and paid for by those who are kiver-to-kiver New Dealers and voluntary members of the unions, as distinguished from the poor devils who have been driven into the unions in the great man-hunt of the last eight years, you wouldn't have two divisions of soldiers nor enough equipment for those few. Your corps of officers would be a lot of lazy, stupid political bums

and the war would be repudiated by the majority

of the people.

Mrs. R's 2-Cents' Worth

THE WHOLE NATION, with no exceptions worth bothering about, accepted ‘the war as a fight for

{ life after Pearl Harbor and the assumption was

that in the face of the common enemy we would suspend for the duratidn the domestic social and political program of the national government. The country was stunned a few silent hours and then rallied around the president, as Americans. But the truce didn’t last long. We soon heard

| recriminations against business and big industry,

but all counter-criticism of the unions for strikes which retarded and tied up production was denounced in Washington. Mrs. R. had to put in her two cents’ worth with the observation which she had heard somewhere else that we had lost more man-powers through illness and accidents than by strikes, which was a silly irrelevancy and just what was to be expected of her. Accidents and illness aren’t preventable. Strikes are intentional.

- ho

But, although the administration has had few |

good words to say for business and industry, which | are the life of this country, not cne word has been |

said against the unions.

Concerning Ford and Reuther

THE WORKERS IN the American Federation of | Labor are not loyal to Bill Green as against their |

relatives and friends at the war and Lewis and Murray, on the C. I. O. side, are only impersonal, meaningless figures to most of the workers in their group; otherwise the unions would not require the

| checkoff and the closed shop to compel the payment | of dues and observance of discipline.

Henry Ford is one of the greatest industrialists

| the world has ever seen. Walter Reuther of the | C. I. O. auto workers is a young retired workman of | fighting age turned to union politics and gang action,

but Reuther has the respect of the government while Ford, who put this nation and others on wheels, is still called an enemy of labor, although

. he has granted the closed shop and the checkoft

in a deliberate decision to make the people sick of unionism, The bitter fact is that the whole American people in all economic grades in fighting an array of terrible foreign military foes who threaten to enslave and partition this country, are never allowed to forget that they are being used to create a new internal force governed by a few personalities who are contributing nothing to the war which plans to inherit the government after the war is won.

On Lew Ayres

By Gen. Hugh S. Johnson

WASHINGTON, April 86 —A conscientious objector is a quaint, queer bird. Several attempts have been made to define him. The one usually accepted is a “member of a well-recognized sect which has religious or other scruples against en~aging in war in any form.” It won't do. There are to0 many kinds of “konshies.” They start with those who will do anything to help their country in war ex-

| cept to pull the trigger of a gun aimed at an enemy. { At the other end of the scale are those who wouldn't | stick a pole in the ground if they thought it would

be used to grow a stalk of corn to feed a soldier. The government is right in not making martyrs out of anv of them, but, with a few exceptions, they are a lousy lot. They accept the protection of their government and their neighbors and the glory and privilege of American citizenship for years on end but when the time comes to pay something on account for it, their conscience won't let them.

'Distinct Odor of Publicity’ THEY CAN'T ALL BE CONDEMNED. but this hap-

| pens to be one of the very fundamental duties of

citizenship. Without its general performance, no nation could have an independent existence. This has

been proved over and over again since the world |

began. The experience of Sergt. York and Gary Cooper's excellent movie is being held up as a shining example, But there was only one York and Lew Ayres’ “con-

scientious” refusal to serve can hardly be mentioned '

in the same breath.

Mr. Ayres has been richly rewarded by this coun- | try. His recent discovery of his conscientious scruples |

mav be periceiiy sincere but they have a disunct odor of carefully planned and timed publicity. His imme-

| diate future course will be well worth watching. Having had a close experience with this thorny | . ; i | problem 25 years ago, it may seem more important ACK of the current wave of sentiment concerning wages, | hours and profits is a rising anger against anyone who | seeks to improve his position, his profits, bank account, | 4cicrmination and unswerving purpose of this coun- { try in time of war.

to me than it really is. But the present scramble of various pressure groups to serve at home rather than with the colors, indicates a distinct decline in the

We can't build good armiss and navies on any such sissy-britches policies as these.

So They Say— If management is sabotaging war production, we want the government to point out the case. Likewise we want our government to point the finger of responsibility toward those responsible for preventing maximum production within labor's ranks.—Snyder Oden, president, Texas Cotton association.

* » *

We are futile and impotent in the senate because of old rules which, like the laws of the Medes and the Persians, never change —Senator H. H, Sehwartz, Wyoming Democrat. - » - * They were coming straight for us so there wasn't much to do but get in there and shoot it out with them. —Lieut. Edward H. O'Hare, describing his shooting down of six Jap plane in one batfle.

® * *

Never mind about who got licked. It will not always be the same ones who get licked. —Edouard Dalad ner French premier, at his “war guilt”

The Hoosier Forum

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

“FED UP ON SINGING {SOLDIERS TO SLEEP!”

(Times readers are invited their these columns, religious conexcluded. Make your letters short, so all can

to express views in

| By “Disgusted,” Celumbus { “Disgusted Woman,” I am for you {100 per cent. What have we, men or mice? You never heard of the soldiers having to be entertained in World War I. Just give us a little more time and the Japs and Nazis will entertain us all with bombs and bullets instead of kisses and dancing. I am back of any soldier boy for man that is deserving, but I am|want to work around the clock on {pretty well fed up on all this war production. The industrialist tommyrot about them having to be and manufacturer says “no” in many sung to sleep every night. . . . |instances and gives vague reasons Faas | for not doing so. Of course there |

i are shortages of nt y - “UNTONS VAST MAJORITY OF | ip oriages Of essential war ma

. {terials, etc, due directly to the {AMERICAN PUBLIC” {shortsighted and stupid manipula By E. P. Harakas, 3126 Nowland st.

ition of our industrial leaders. NeedIn : ; {less shortages of such essentials as re a eas big hill 8 Of | rubber, copper, quinine, vegetable gressmen . . , are waging war again [fon ns SSY. Hie. Just pumas on our nation’s workers. Not thal, oo. they've ever stopped their effort to| Lnere are thousands of union undermine the benefits the worker workers who have actually sustained receives from the labor union. But ® 1Arge decrease in their income, due this latest attack is an especially wel) | the sharp increase in the cost of organized, concerted effort. a living and the fact that they have wonder how many millions it's cost- Nd NO wage increase to counteract ing) fit. It’s easy to tell the average worker to “pull in his belt” and “sacrifice.” That's what he’s been {doing for the past generation or so.

troversies

have a chance. Letters must be signed.)

As usual the press i$ printing a {one-sided story. . . . Though industry is making more profit now than in |'29 allowing for the new taxes, etc. (the thought of sharing profit with

{the worker is abhorent . as ever. b's tem tow, good and necessary cause.

Any { Let us make sure that this present yone who can dare accuse ‘dire emergency isn’t used by certain ‘organized labor of being unpatriotic | elements in this country to multiply or delaying defense for personal gain | : .

lis either terribly short-sighted ang | hc Personal Jortunegs 55 ie ens stupid or deliberately malicious, The |PENSe Of the WOTKers. labor unions are the American work- | /ing man. They are a vast majority “THAT GIRL WHO VOWED of the American public. They are pg KISS THE SOLDIERS! ... the men in the army. The biggest | per cent of our sailors, soldiers, etc, [PY A Diszusted Mother, Lawrence \are drafted from the ranks of or-| I want to thank you for your \ganized labor. And in our armed piece in The Times, signed a “Dis(forces they are giving their Hiern} ghsten Woman, Indianapolis.” . . . just as they are doing in our|You can see what will happen to factories. They are the doers on all our soldiers after the war, if their Lents. Organized labor is giving its morals are not taken care of in the lall to defense. In many defense camps. plants they are working seven days| And that girl in one army camp a week and giving up-their vacations {who vowed to kiss every soldier in {for the war effort. the camp if it took weeks to do | Can our industrial leaders truth- it. .. . {tully say they are doing likewise? There is not one of my giris | C. I. O. and A. F. of L. unions would have gone to the camp and

|sacrifice for a good and necessary (cause. But let's make sure it is a

»

Side Glances=By Galbraith

pin :

"The movie at the neighborhood theater isn't very good, © we - thought it would be niee to drop in for an évening with a o bsnl for FHNGOr

{ And there's no group more willing to’

kissed one soldier, let alone the whole camp. .. . President Roosevelt United States is the country in the world

want to much fun. . . .

said the wealthiest But they

2 o 2 “LABOR CRACKDOWN MAY BE TO HIDE SOMETHING”

By

William Martin, recording secretary of lodge 1432, I. A. of M., Indianapolis

As defense workers we feel we are a part of this war. We either produce the weapons for our troops or the machines to make the parts. Either will be lost without the other. We buy bonds and stamps, give blood donations, work seven days a week, every hour of each day and do this gladly for our country, and yet our lawmakers in Washington decide we can't win the war on a 40-hour-week and overtime payments. . . . This sudden crackdown on labo laws may be to hide somethitig such as: Divert public attention and anger from huge profits made by some firms and these dollar-a-year men still drawing big salaries from private interests (refer to pages 2687-91 of the Congressional Record at Washington) or why our lawmakers tried to pass a law giving a pension to themselves, when they make as much in one term as some poor man makes all his life. Be fair to America and labor is, American. = ” s “WHY THE OPPOSITION

TO INDUSTRIAL UNIONS”

By Thomas L Watts, Masenie Franklin

The opposition to industrial unions now going on ought to be explained. Just why are industrial unions singled out for criticism and no mention. made of other forms of unionism? Doctors, lawyers, grocers, - druggists, police chiefs, county clerks, iron, steel, brass, aluminum founders, lumber dealers, coal, hardware, furniture dealers— all these hundreds of unions are operated for the benefit of their members. Can you, or someone, give a reasonable, logical, rational explanation? 8 ” o “NO SET-UP FOR MY PEOPLE

«+ + JUST YET!” By Henry Jackson, 14 W. 224 st., No. El Re: Mr. Van Zandt’s article:

«Make a date to give a pint of blood.” Perhaps he does not know

Home,

ex-soldiers,

‘| what I do about this blood business.

On Feb. 20, 1942, at 3:30 p.m. in response to my notification card from the American Red Cross, 508 Chamber of Commerce building, 'signed by Ruth C. Boswell, enroll

tions but when they saw me you should have seen the flutter it caused. : I readily saw through the whole mess. A mistake had been made. They had to go out through the back way and bring in an official looking young lady who tried to explain to me how sorry they were (as if I didn’t understand) that as yet there was no set-up for my

| | people—just yet. As if there was a ' | difference in hurhan blood!

Mr. Van Zandt, how would you feel after having gone across in

' [World War I? Of coursé you know | [what we were supposed to be fight|ing for. ing for a victory that has forced a

Right now we are fight-

reality in it—for my people it must be a double VV — at home and abroad. > :

DAILY THOUGHT

walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth— John 12:35. :

IN THE dark a glimmering light

ment secretary, I answered that call promptly and with patriotic inten-|

The Old Rebel :

By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, April 6, — The Hon. Kenneth McKellar, bachelor, senior senator from Tennessee, has emerged as one of thé gréate est advocates of government econe omy in the Congress, and maybe there's a reason: Last fall there was a great to-do about building Douglas Dam in western Tennessee, McKellar was agin’ it. His point was that to build Douglas Dam would flood some of the best farm land, cause a lot of farmers to be moved off their acres, and ruin the business of several canning face tories. . McKellar proposed that two or three other dams be built on other locations to give the same amount of power for about the same amount of money and at the same time avoid the upset of “pea canning as usual.” He wrote a bill to build “his” dams and he nearly, but not quite, slipped it through. The case for Douglas Dam was well prepared by smart young David E. Lilienthal, chairman of TVA. It was presented as a necessary itém of national dee fense. Everybody wanted it except McKellar. The senator had to back down and take his licking.

Whet's His Knife

EVER SINCE, the Hon. Kenneth McKellar has been a changed man. The distinguished senator from Tennessee began to look through instead of over his spectacles at new appropriation bills. In the manner of a southern gentleman at his best, he began to go rebel. Cut some of his pet projects from under him, would they? He was in an excellent position to wage war. He had completed 30 years in Congress, and he knew all the tricks. He didn’t have to run for office again un= til 1947. He was chairman of the senate postoffice committee, which passed on postmasterships. Any congressman with a pet patronage postmaster to get appointed had to see Kenneth—and a favor granted is a favor gained. Moreover, he was ranking member and most active senator on the senate appropriations committee, The committee passes on all bills granting money to federal agencies. On top of that, McKellar was named a member of the congressional joint committee on ree duction of non-essential federal expenditures. Sena for Byrd was chairman of that committee, but again McKellar was ranking member. Armed with this double-barreled shotgun, Kenneth began blasting.

Would Tie Up Travelers

HE TOOK A NUMBER of potshots at the OCD, He began firing at the NYA and the CCO and he introduced a bill which would in effect abolish them both by transferring their useful functions to other existing government agencies. He started scrutinizing travel expenses of all fede eral organizations and he came up with the amaging revelation that the travel expenses of the government today, while only a small part of the grand total of all present expenditures, are a sixth of what the total cost . 4 was when McKellar came to congress n 1911. McKellar's gunning apparently has just begun. Before the hunting season is over, the Memphis sharp shooter will probably blast out of the federal budget the equal cost of a couple Douglas Dams. And, boy, is he laying for Dave Lilienthal! Kill his pet bills, will he!

Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists in this newspaper are their own, They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times

Chile On Fence By Carroll Binder

DISCLOSURE BY CHILE'S newly inaugurated president that - his government contemplates no immediate diplomatic break with the axig§ is an unpleasant reminder that impertant countries whose collaboration we need and seek still think the axis prospects of winning the war are too good to risk throwing their lot in with the United States and. her allies. President’ Juan Antonio Rios’ attitude would be regrettable under any circumstances but that it should be made known 48 hours after the United States got tough with a more unequivocal South American spéculator in the prospect of an axis victory, the government of Argentina, is particularly disappointing. On Tuesday the United States had publicly ane nounced its unwillingness to provide Argentina with military supplies so long as Argentina refuses to cooperate with the United States and other nations of the western hemisphere in the defense of the Americas.

Struggle for Survival

THIS IS THE sort of realistic economic sanction which President Castillo of Argentina and his collabo« rators had confidently asserted wotlld not be instie tuted by the United States. Chile's attitude at the Rio conference was defended on the ground that the country was in the process of choosing and installing a new government and that it should be coddled until the new president took office. The exposed nature of its long coast line and the importance of its territory to hemisphere defense also argued in favor of indulgent treatment in the matter of arms and economic favors. But in such a desperate struggle for survival as the . United States and its allies are now waging neighbors are either with you or against you. ' President Rios has indicated that his government would break with the axis only “undér the unmis= takable expression of the nation will” It-is weil known that the United States enjoys greater popular favor in Chile than it does in most other South American countries. If the United States shows that playing with the axis will cost Chile dearly, President Rios may construe the national will in a different sense.

| Copyright, 1942. by The Indianapolis Times and The | Chicago Daily News, Inc.

. : ‘Questions and Answers | (The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any | question of fact or information, not involving extensive re- | sesreh. Write vour question clearly. sign name and address, ! inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal advice | cannet be given, Address The Times Washington Service Bureau. 1013 Thirteenth St.. Washington. D, C0)

Q—How much help did the United States send to Japan after the great earthquake there in 1923? A—The people of the United States responded ime mediately to appeals for relief. Within a month they contributed through the American Red Oross alone $10,000,000, and the assistance given was gratefully acknowledged by the Japanese government.

Q=Are “seeing-eye” dogs given to persons who have collected large numbers of match book covers? A--Seeing Eye, Ine, deriles emphatically that they will furnish dogs to blind persons, or others, who have collected large numbers of match book covers, cigaret wrappers, and the like. This is a cruel and heartless rumor. Q—How long is the aviation cadet course in the army air force? ; ; A—TIt lasts 30 weeks. The first nihe weeks arg spent at a replacement ceriter Where preliminary ‘military indoctrination is given. The primary course of 10 weeks is spent at an army field; after which’

is often sufficient for ihe pilot So the polar star and to fit his

[a1

the cadets rgceive a basic course 10 weeks,