Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 April 1942 — Page 12

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The In

ROY W. HOWARD President

RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE

Editor (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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Give LApAE end the Peopre Will Find Ther Own Wap

TUESDAY, APRIL 14 1042

DRAFTING THE HARD WAY N changing its system of inducting draftees, the army has chosen—quite unnecessarily, it seems to us—the hard way. Briefly, here is what has happened. For some months the arrangement was for registrants to be given their final, thorough physical examinations before being sent off te induction centers. If they flunked, there was no interruption in their normal civilian lives. If they passed, they were allowed two to four weeks in which to put their houses in order, quit

girls goodby. But the army discovered that this interium period was being exploited by navy and marine recruiters,

So, the system was changed. What happens now is this: give a man only a quick once-over, the obviously unfit. army on a certain date, and warned that if the army's doctors accept them they'll become privates forthwith.

They weed out only

"h sult is that hundreds of men are quitting their | The re Sf 1 8 | be sub-human and with no rights which a human

jobs, accepting parties and purses and slaps on the back, and marching off—only to come home crestfallen, jobless, embarrassed, and probably broke. The army medicos have found something wrong. :

[t seems to us that the army could have found a sim- |

pler means of frustrating the rival recruiting officers, The men could be sworn in on a tentative basis after their first cursory physical exams: that would prevent their bolting to the navy or marines. Anyway, something ought to be done.

volume, it surely will do something.

“NO” ON VOTING MACHINES

NE of the things we can do without “for the duration” | , | farther off, but he is nearer than most of us realize,

| and if we are to get the benefit of our skill and It is true that some additional machines are needed | still have some sand in the glass, not when con- : : | fusion and panic are exciting the people. number of the present voting machines are obsolescent or |

is a lot of new voting machines for Marion county. because of the increased size of precincts, lt is true that a

unworkable. But it is also true that new voting machines cost in the

neighborhood of $1300 each and that when county commis- | | government should try to make the conscript workers | Join up and pay, which seems unthinkable. | closed shop and right to strike, even their hargaining | power, their whole reason for existence would vanish.

sioners talk of needing anywhere from 40 to 100 new ones they are talking of an investment ranging from $52,000 tq £130,000. We do not believe that taxpavers will welcome a bond issue of that size for anything other than essential purposes. And they will doubt quite properly whether expensive new voting machines are an absolute essential so long as the Australian ballot remains,

MORE THAN THE CREAM

HE closer we come to a showdown on taxes—and we're not now as close as we should be, for here again we are late—the more obvious it becomes that congress will have to resort either to a general sales tax or to a broader base for the income tax. There is no other way te get the volume of revenue which our gigantic war expenditures require, There is no other way to siphon off the inflated purchasing power which is pushing up prices and living costs. ® = 2 = 2 “HE treasury proposed to increase the corporate excessprofits tax to a maximum of 75 per cent—that to be laid on top of a regular corporate income tax as high as 35 per cent. Congress is questioning the wisdom of making the regular income tax that stiff, but there is no puiling back whatever on the treasury’'s proposed excess-profits levy. No corporation should be permitted to make a good thing out of this war. But even a 100 per cent excessprofits tax wouldn't bring in enough revenue. The treasury proposes steep tax increases in middle and upper brackets of individual incomes. Congress, balking a little on the middle brackets. is quite willing to go all the way with the treasury on the upper brackets. In our opinion, rates at least as high as the treasury suggests, in all brackets, are justified. No one in the present income-tax-paying group should get off light in this war. But that still will not produce enough revenue. The treasury proposes heavier excise taxes on all the go-called luxuries, ranging from toilet preparations and travel to cigarets and liquor. Congress is accepting these increases, too. But all this, and all that has been mentioned before. will not yield enough revenue. 2

. » =» HE great-bulk of the national income does not go into

the hands of persons in the middle and upper brackets

= s

of the present group of income-taxpayers—though indi- |

vidually they get more than their shave. The great bulk of American purchasing pewer is not spent for so-called luxuries.

If the government is to get the revenue required to |

wage this war, if prices and living costs are to be eld

down by restricting purchasing power to the supply of | civilian goods available, congress will have to pass a tax bill |

that will do more than skim off the cream. It will have to lay taxes that will veally hurt. It will have to reduce the exemptions and tax the incomes of a larger number of people. (Only the economic upper one- third of the population is represented in the present income-taxpaying group.) Or, it will have to wipe out all exemptions, and apply a generdl sales tax. In our opinion, the best, the wisest, the fairest course, is to broaden the income-tax base. For the income tax is geared to the principle of ability to pay.

Business Manager

dianapolis Times! Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

TUCSON, Ariz, April 14.-—The American people face a development in the national war effort which would abolish, temporarily, at least, one of our own great, traditional freedoms. Inevitably we shall have a form of conscription of labor and this will mean that the government will assign millions of men and women to jobs in factories and mines and on farms and that workers will have to go where they are sent, stay put and put in a day's work every working day. It is the most efficient way to get the full benefit of the skill and energy of a nation's working people and the enemy in this war, if victorious, would impose a worse system on us permanently. It goes without denving, also, that when this compulsion is adopted, it will apply also to property. In fact it has been applied to property directly or indirectly at many points already. The motor industry, for example, would have been commandeered if the management had not voluntarily abandoned automobile produce tion to convert its great plant to war work. We are an independent people, as individuals, accustomed to travel at will and jump the job for a better one or just to go fishing. The curtailment or

A lot of | the army's best timber was being lost to the sister services, |

T al raft-bo & loctors | The draft-hoard doctors | company towns, office help and even baseball players,

| and so has lost some of the terror which is in the

The rest are told to report to the! | literaily slavery.

revocation of this independence will not be accepted gracefully. It will be bitterly debated not only in

: | congress but all over the land, but I am one of those their jobs, hold a going-away party or two, and Kiss the | | a measure of insurance against the horrors of such | slavery as Hitler has imposed on the people of con-

who believe it must be adopted as a sacrifice and

quered Poland and conquered France.

The True Terror of Slavery

SLAVERY IS A WORD that has been idly misused to describe the condition of free workers in

true meaning of the word. Under Hitler, slavery is

Nothing is beyond him and actually slavery is the

| condition to which he consigns all peoples whom he

conquers. Not merely our Jews whom he holds to

being is bound to respect, nor our Negroes whom he frankly regards as beasts, but all Americans would

| be slaves except a few miserable Vierecks who would

be rewarded with special positions in which to assist his regime here.

Is conscription of work and compulsion to work | | and stay put until the war is won too great a sacri- . fice for a free people to impose on themselves? | Zealand has done it and although I have read of no | | actual conscription of labor as such in Australia, the

New

effect of a number of emergency rules in that very

: | free and inndependent country have amounted to And if the army |

has its ears open for the squawks now being heard in rising |

such conscription. If the enemy were that close to us we would not hesitate, perhaps too late then, to comvel every able-

| bodied man and woman to fight or work and there

would be no argument about it.

| "One Hand in Our Pocket"

FORTUNATELY IN our case the enemy fis

muscle the time to organize the effort is when we

Undoubtedly the unions will obeet as bitterly as any nomad riding the roads in his trailer with the wife and kids, following the sun through the seasons and taking his jobs, where he finds them. This would be a calamity to the unions unless the

Their

But, as I see it, without such compulsion and

| organization of the industrial and agricultural man

power, we are trving to fight a terrible enemy with one hand in our pockst,

Fighting Men

By Gen. Hugh S. Johnson

WASHINGTON, April 14 —The men of different groupings of mankind don’t all fight the same —not with the same determination, ferocity and indifference to death, ‘suffering and wounds. For a long time the difference was thought to be racial. For example, it was a kind of axiom that colored men were so put together nervously that they couldn't stand heavy and long continued shell fire. But records of their regiments in our regular army, especially when they were properly led, exploded that theory. It used to be said that Filipinos were first-class fighting men, except that they regarded a scrap as a kind of a days work and saw no particular disgrace

The Hoosier Forum

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

“IT MAKES ME ASHAMED I AM A WOMAN" By “Disgusted,” Columbus Mr. Emerson Neal, you talk as one with experience in regard to jealous women. Perhaps you are a disgrauntled he-man that like the at-

tentions of the fairer sex only to be thwarted. Speaking in my own behalf, 1

(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.)

the armed services drafted, paid what those same people, through their representatives have decided is enough and given orders to risk their lives? Why anyone should gripe over a loss of tires, gasoline, sugar or double time pay, when the other fellow is giving his life. Also there has been statements made as to the

are simply

haven't any one in camp to be jealous of, my “yipping” was main- practices against Negroes and use ly taken from articles I read in/our organized forces to eradicate papers, and not from experience. | those in existence. We stand pre-

That statement is from things I see pared to join our efforts with any

| |

‘cestors grew up by, and they were

in leaving for heme when the sun went down. Their |

record on Bataan is answer enough to that slander. For centuries there has lived in what is now Gere many, a race of people whose military record shows that while thev have frequently been defeated and down, they are never out. : The Fletch have a distinetly spotty military history and the Mongols almost none at all. Yet both responded to inspired leadership to the conquest of most of the world. The Moslems did it under the spur of religious fanaticism. Thus there seems to be no single common factor in the military formula and no racial monopoly on invincibility. Religion, or a long record of victory, or

‘ously oppose the segregated blood! hospital.

of conquest—each has at some time in histoty, been |

the keynote of success.

We've Got the Stuff

NOW, AS NEVER before, there seem to be at least three new factors—supremacy in new and powerful mechanized weapons including the ability to produce them; propaganda. building up the morale of the victorious side and bearing down that of the van-

quished: unity, including uniformity in bodily per- | fection and similarity in outlook and methods of |

thinking. If there is anything in this analysis—and the more

one studies it the more accurate it seems to be—if

there is anything in it, we have great advantages in

| every one of its elements, except, pechaps, in the possession of great leadership which we have not yet | | had time to prove. |

The tradition of heroism: under the most trying

| conditions stands out in 6ur history during the entire | period of the building of the nation, and our ability

and resources to build new arms is unequalled.

In a few words. we've got the stuff and the only |

thing that can Mek up is top-side bungling and spreading our strength too thin by trying to fight in too many places at one time.

So They Say—

Waiting for the other fellow to do it won't win this war—Albert 8. Goss, master of the National Grange, *

Our armed forces now in Ireland want to expand

* =

| td Europe.—Qen. George ©. Marshall, U. 8. army

chief of staff. Parents who fail to rear their children 0 become useful éitizens are very hel to the axis <The Rev. Bdward J. Flanagan, of Boystown,

= -

and know, and which make me other group striving for these same ashamed I am a woman. fends. We condemn those who conspired with the Red Cross to estab-

os ” » lish this center, We call for a uni-

“TEACH 'EM TO TUNE OF HICKORY STICK” {In order to let it be known that the By Mrs. Ruth Wood, 413 E. North st. (extension of segration does not meet

In regard to teachers whipping with favor among Negro citizens. children, I am the mother of five, We advocate that Negroes co-

|children, and I still believe in the Operate and work untiringly in all!

rule where they were taught readin’ endeavors wherein they will be useand writin'® and ‘rithmetic to the ful as American citizens and not as tune of the hickory stick. We had Negroes. We stand ready to So all better-disciplined boys and girls| Within our power to bring a Christthose days, more conscientious and (ln democracy into existence. We God-fearing. “He that spareth the implore the Negro population to

rod hateth his son. but he that (© stand with us for in our unity of

loveth him chasteneth his betimes,” |PUPOSe there is a strength with That is the kind of rule our an- Which to be reckoned. 2 ” . 100 per cent citizens. “I MERELY WRITE HISTORY,” 4 # # SAYS CARL H. MOTE NEGRO FEDERATION OPPOSES By Carl H. Mote, 3683 Central ave. BLOOD BANK “SEGREGATION" I am unable to understand why By Starling WW. James, chairman, and Mr. Kidney thought my pamphlet

members of Federation of Associated Y sociated “the most flagrant recent example

Clubs. Inc. Indianapolis Since the beginning of the con- Of anti<Semitism in Indiana.” I suspect he did not read it care-

troversy with the Red Cross over the acceptance of Negroes as donors fUllV. to the blood bank, numerous persons MY pamphlet did not deserve to be included in an article about the

have called or asked, “Where does the Federation of Associated Clubs, Bu-Klux Klan because anyone who knows his Indiana politics knows

Inc, stand on this issue?” Therefore it is the desire of this organ. Was never friendly to that organiization through their board of qi- zation. I merely write history and rectors to inform the public as to ! Strive to write accurately and ite position. truthfully, As an organization we believe in BL Ld ob. “THE PRICE OF GLORY se 0 the discriminatory and, gi “ segregated practice perpetrated | © HARD WORK against Negro citizens. We vigor- | By William O. Norris, 1360 WW. 28th st, Will someone please tell me, first, bank center established at our city! why it is permissible for civilians to We shall oppose the ex-! decide when, where and for how tension of ahy all undemocratic much they will work while men in

” o 2

Side Glances=By Galbraith

DEPOSITS wg An 5

|fied program of non co-operation

in war

"Furthermore, | think it's unpatriotic to complain abut my accou being overdrawn a few dollars when Pee Invested

I've ial

a laugh!

on the whole ticket in which there is a real contest.

guess, why the symbol of the party is a donkey. mental status of the take it.

“PAY EVERYONE $42INCLUDING EDITORS!” By Robert Collette, 314 E. St. Olair st.

month—including editors. Put ev-

erybody to work and the war will be over in six months.

necessity of sports and like activities in civilian defense. Personally I'd rather see even one anti-aircraft gun set up to defend a defense plant here. Oh! I know it couldn't happen (but it did). I think perhaps a couple of bombs falling on this town might wake everyone up to the fact that | we, you, I, and every mother's son |of us are in a war. Sure we know war is hell, but getting whipped is worse. Let's forget all our likes and dislikes, our political, and economical squabbles and for the duration (at least pull together, black and ‘white, rich and poor we're all Americans. The price of glory is hard work, |privation and an abiding faith in the right of free men to continue to be free.

# 8 =o “ONE WAY TO SAVE BOTH TIRES—AND NECKS”

By W. F. W,, Indianapolis One way to save rubber tires and also rubber necks would be to modernize fire alarms. Today if a parking lot shanty |starts to burn and a call is sent by | phone (very few calls being sent {through alarm boxes) the same | equipment answers the call as if there were a dangerous fire in a large downtown building. During wartime this not oaly wastes rubber, but oil and gasoline | also. i Two pieces of modern equipment, or possibly three at the most, would take care of most calls. One truck could be designed to carry enough of all three types of equipment for most calls. If fires were classified in three classes, the third class being the designation of most calls, including false alarms, the second class being a dangerous or large fire, the first class would be what is at present known as a two-alarm fire. Or they could be known by the reverse desighation. This would not reduce personnel or the quantity of equipment, but it would reduce the use of the equipment so that during periods with few large fires, training may be required to keep the men fit,

¥ 9 “WHY SYMBOL OF PARTY IS A DONKEY , , .” By J. T. D. Indianavolis

So the Democratic party still cqn- | tends it is having a primary? What

Why, there are only three races|

This is one of the reasons, I Representing the leaders, 1

8 Ed ”

Why not pay everyone $42 ga

DAILY THOUGHT

Ye shall diligen tly keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath com-

teronomy 6:17. ice learn. to com-

In Washingto

n By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, April 14— Census bureau reports city voters rejected two out of three ballot proposals for increased local taxes but voted for three out of four ballot proposals on increased bond issues. . . . Canada has distributed price ceiling lists which shippers can check against as they do their buying. . . . Department of com-= merce reports quantity of retail goods sold in February dropped below sales in corresponding month for first time in three years, though dollar volume was 5 per cent higher than a year ago, . . . In six months from September to March, income payments were 46 per cent higher than 1935-39 average, though retail sales were only 39 per cent higher, indicating extraordinary savings. . . . U. S. has 15,000 movies, 13,000 pool rooms, 4600 bowling alleys, 276 professional ball clubs, 45 race tracks. . . . Receipts from the bowling alleys were double those of professional baseball and second only ta movies. . . . Receipts at the race tracks were greater than in the pool rooms. . . . The coun=

try's total recreation bill has run from six billion \

to 10 billion a year,

Anent Washington's Rents

WASHINGTON RENTS are highest in the country—$53 for a family unit against the national urban average of $31. . . . Auto tourists entering Canada must obtain a gasoline license and coupon rationing book. . . . The war business boom in the Canal Zone has raised the price of chickens in Panama from $1.80 to $2.50. . . . Army construction projects—barracks, air bases, ordnance plants, etc.—number more than 1000, of which half have been completed. . . . A. F. of L. is protesting use of General MacArthur's photograph in ads advocating anti-labor legislation. , , . Add great words of famous living statesmen—‘In my country they work from kin to can't—from the time they kin see to the time it's so dark they can’t.”—The Hon. Howard Worth Smith of Alexandria, Va.

Save Those Rubber Bands

FROM 60 TO 75 per cent of the savings stamps sold are of the 25-cent denomination. . .. Curtailment of Norwegian cod liver oil imports has boomed Flori= da’s shark liver oil industry because of vitamin des mand. .". . Nylon production will soon be at the rate of 16 million pounds a year, but still far short of the 36 million-pound silk imports of 1940. ., . Rayon production is near the 300 million-pound rate. . .. Two thousand tons of scrap were collected in Alaska. . Save those rubber bands.

Men's Wear Scare Buying

CHAIN STORES reported a 58 per cent increase over a year ago in men's wear sales for February— probably the result of scare buying. . .. RFC is mak-

mining strategic materials. . , . From the Red Cross— “One of the greatest menaces in the American home in time of peace or war is the appropriately named throw rug.” . .,. From the consumers’ division, Office of Price Administration—"Sweetness equal to one cup of refined white sugar is, 1 cup maple sugar or syrup, 1 cup honey, 1% cups of sorghum or cane syrup, 2 cups of corn syrup.” :

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

WASHINGTON, April 14, — The first hot day of spring in Washington, a couple of hefty men rounded a corner, collided, and went to the pavement in a heap, taking several other pedestrians with them, Somehow the incident illustrates the tempo and temper of the national capital better than anything I can think of. People fall over each other, literally and figuratively. Of course, this is not really funny, although everyone jokes about it. When a country girds itself for war, efforts should be made to preserve sanity as well as a sense of humor, Yet the latter is fast slipping here, and sometimes it looks as if the former had gone entirely, To outsiders as well as old residents the situation is alarming. Official Washington is always in g hurry, yet its speed is slow, and at the moment when every ounce of common sense and calm is needed we have surrounded the seat of government with conditions which can only bring on hysteria.

Tempers Are on Edge

MOREOVER THIS IS now a city of uncivil serve ice. Waiters in hotels, restaurants and drugstores, ushers in theaters, salespeople in shops, are so overworked they move about in a state of grumps. : The Washington eye is fishy cold these days, Tempers are on edge. Faces wear grim and often angry lines. You can get 10ts of various kinds of ine formation but few smiles. Laughter is heard at cocks tail bars—-which are always jammed-—but usually only after the third round. Only the blessed taxi driver is his usual affable self. For sensible information, cheer and good ade vice I can recommend him over most official bureaus. Washington has become a city of magnificent delusions, a modern Babel, a bedlam of sound and fury. Winning the war will be a slow process unless a lot of the surplus population is moved out of hers, As it is, the vast number of workers impedes the progress of the work.

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

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

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times 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 Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 Thirteenth St.. Washington. D. C.)

Q—Please describe the two-man submarines used by the Japs at Pearl Harbor. ; A~They were 41 feet long, with a five-foot beam.

| Their cruising radius was 200 miles at low speed and

they could attain a top surface speed of 24 knots. They were driven by motors operated by electric bate teries. They carried two 18-inch torpedoes and ade ditional explosives jacked under the stern, which ene abled the whole submarine to be used as a single torpedo. Expdrts believe that the submarines were built especially for the Pearl Harhor attack and were launched from a motor-ship about 100 miles off shore,

Q-In the army, what does the term ‘‘route step” mean? A=It means an easy way to march, and is pers mitted when troops are on long marches. The men commonly move in columns of four, the ranks covs ering and preserving their aistance, but they are not required to keep the cadenced step nor to maintain

silence, and are permitted to carry their arms at

will, provided the muzzies are elevated. The rate 1s from 3 to 3'2 miles an hour. : :

Q-Is there any state in the Union in governor has no veto power? , A—North Carolina i$ the ofily one. f Xi

Q—How many men of military age has the United States and Japan? ;

which the

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