Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 April 1942 — Page 16

PAGE 18

The Indianapolis Times

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

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THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 1942

WASTING RUBBER HE New York state legislature, responding to President Roosevelt's request, has passed a 40-mile-ap-hour speed limit bill. Most of the other states have not acted. Yet in all states, including our own, unnecessarily fast driving is wearing out tires for which there is no prospect of replacement in the next three years.

THOSE NORMANDIE FIRES HE prolonged series of damaging fires on the French liner Normandie is becoming scandalous. -The third blaze, like the first and second, is described as accidental. Certainly we have no more evidence of sabotage than has the government, if as much. But if carelessness once a month did as serious damage to our personal property, a lot of supervisory heads would roll into baskets in short order,

BETTER NEIGHBORS UTUAL interdependence is drawing Mexico and the United States closer together. Distrust and envy die hard. So does superciliousness. We two neighbors do not fully understand each other yet. But we are learning. Strangely enough, the betterment rests in part upon our sudden discovery that the smaller republic can dc something important for us. So long as our country was the exclusive benefactor, the sensitive Mexicans knew we felt our superiority, and they resented it. Mexico still needs us. But today she is our sole source of graphite, antimony and mercury. She supplies us with vanadium, tungsten, some tin, hides, zine, copper and sisal and henequen fibers. These are war needs. Now the Latinos deal with us on a basis resembling equality. So relations improve.

TIME TO SET LIMITS NY labor union is potentially a combination in restraint of trade, and for that reason the organization of unions used to be forbidden by law. But enlightened public opinion came to realize that unions are necessary and desirable so that workers can bargain on equal terms with employers for better wages, shorter hours, improved working conditions. So the United States exempted these legitimate activities of unions from prosecution under the anti-trust laws. Some unions abused the liberties thus granted them. They restrained trade for purposes having nothing to do with their legitimate objectives. They levied tribute on consumers. A few of them engaged in downright racketeering. The government tried to prosecute them. But the supreme court held, in effect, that congress had given them immunity from any prosecution under the anti-trust and anti-racketeering laws. Many members of congress had not meant to go so far. Bills were introduced to define and protect the legitimate activities of unions, and to define and punish illegitimate activities. Those who advocated such bills were denounced by union officials as enemies of labor. = w = » UT now the judiciary committee of the house has been holding hearings on these bills, giving victims of union abuses a chance to testify, and giving union officials opportunity to state their specific objections to the proposed legislation. And the objections stated boil down to these: That laws would have to be very carefully written to correct abuses without infringing proper rights (which is «true); and that therefore no laws should be enacted, but that the correction of abuses should be left to the unions (which is nonsense). No group, business, labor or otherwise, can be trusted with great economic power unchecked by government. Unions have abused such power, and will continue to abuse it until congress sets limits beyond which they must not trespass on the rights of the public. The longer the setting of such limits is delayed, the farther they will go toward invasion of actual union rights. Therefore, in the interests of union members of all organizations, congress should proceed at once to consider, to improve if necessary, and to pass one of the proposed bills. The best of them, in our opinion, is the Monroney bill.

SURPRISE F it is true that New York City employees and equipment went over to New Jersey and fixed up Ed Flynn’s country estate grounds, the Democratic national chairman probably is surprised that so much furore has been created by the episode. The facts as to what really happened still are in the realm of charge and counter-charge. But from the viewpoint of Ed Flynn, veteran Tammany boss, what if the city did fix up his New Jersey grounds ? Why the fuss? Tammany politicians have been doing such favors for their political brethren for generations, while even the professional reformers yawned. What's a little honest graft among friends? The politicians wouldn't know. But the taxpayers do. Times have changed, and even “honest” graft isn’t popular.

SHIPS THAT GO DOWN

NEWS from the seven seas becomes increasingly distressing. Axis submarines are sinking our commercial tonnage faster than we can replace it. Germans and Japanese have whittled away our naval superiority. Vichy collaboration is about to strengthen Hitler even more. Under such circumstances, we may have to reconsider priorities on war production, and allocate more of our ma: terials and manpower to ships. We can’t win a war by training and arming men unless we can transport them to the scenes of action and maintain them while there.

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, April 23.—-The so-

consisting of many small and generally scurrilous publications,

most of them conducted for the financial and political profit of the union bosses, has greeted with jubilation a decision by the New York court of appeals that unions may sue for libel. Up to now, however, I have seen no similar rejoicing in any of these sheets over another decision, by a state court in California, that unions and obviously also their publications may in turn be sued for libel by those whom they delight to defame. I venture to believe that this one will be stoutly resented as another low blow at labor's rights. The New York decision was no surprise to me because I had always assumed that a union had personality, so to speak, and could punish and obtain redress from anyone who slandered its fair name. That is why I have always been very careful to stay within the bounds of provable fact in my discussion of unions and those vicious personalities engaged in the union racket who exploit, persecute and rob the common American worker,

Will It Be Upheld?

STILL, I WOULD not be confident that this California decision would be sustained in the United States supreme court for I have just refreshed my memory on the famous Frankfurter decision in the so-called carpenters’ case and find no encouragement for victims of wanton injury at the hands of liars on the union side.

In that case, as Justice Frankfurter conceded, the carpenters and machinists both reached an agreement with Annheuser-Busch of St. Louis over the division of certain jobs among their respective memberships, promising to submit all disputes to arbitration. The carpenters, however, repudiated their treaty after the manner of aggressor nations, and when Annheuser-Busch, in turn, refused to repudiate its agreement with the machinists and the carpenters not only struck, but, by circulars and through their official journal, started an injurious boycott on the false representation that the company was unfair. According to Justice Frankfurter’s own statement of the case, it was the carpenters’ union which plainly was unfair and the company is plainly acquitted of untairness. Nevertheless Justice Frankfurter held that “the picketing of Annheuser-Busch with signs to indicate that Annheuser-Busch was unfair to organized labor” was ‘a familiar practice in these situations” and that “the facts here charged constitute lawful conduct under the Clayton act.”

Did Congress Intend Just That?

IN OTHER, BUT not substantially different words, the highest court in the United States here pointedly refrains from condemning an injurious slander of an innocent victim by a union and holds that, in the Clayton act, at least, the United States congress consciously intended to place in the hands of unions the weapons of defamation with which to beat into submission persons with whom they have already, and admittedly, broken faith. Unions and their publications are incomparably more guilty of vicious slanders and libel than their critics, while those who criticize unions generally may be said to err, when they do, only from lack of skill and caution in the presentation of facts.

It is the general public, candidates for political office and honest critics of criminality in unions who suffer by far the most from false witness in this equation. But it is the purveyors of this abuse who claim protection and disclaim legal responsibility. Possibly your congressman and senators would like to correct Mr. Frankfurter's impression that it ever was the intention of congress to legalize defamation of whomsoever by a special group.

Turkey Next?

By William Philip Simms

WASHINGTON, April 23. ‘Turkey may be one of the first victims of Vichy’s “collaboration” with Berlin, according to wellposted diplomats here. So far Turkey has resisted Hitler's most vigorous efforts—declining either to join the axis or to let axis troops cross her territory to get at Syria, Iraq and Iran. Neither threats nor promises have budged her. Turkey, however, is precariously placed. A certain amount of lend-lease materiel is reaching her via the Indian ocean and Suez. If the axis could cut off this supply it would be difficult for her to continue to resist the Germans. : Turkey is bordered on the south by the eastern Mediterranean and French Syria. The British fleet holds the one and a force of British and Free French the other. If Vichy, aided by the axis, could oust the Free French and British from the eastern Mediterranean and Syria, Turkey would be at the Nazis’ mercy. Nevertheless informed sources do not believe Laval is in a position to launch an expedition against Syria for the time being. He first must make the French peoble hate the British and Americans and stop hating the Germans. That is why he insisted on retaining for himself the job of minister of propaganda.

Laval's Aid Would Be Crucial

LAVAL HAS NOW commenced this task. And Goebbels is helping him. The press and radio of Paris and Vichy are filled with invective against the united nations and praise of Hitler and his new order. The united nations are out to destroy France, they are telling the luckless French people, hence France must join the axis if she would survive.

basin, probably in the direction of Syria. With the help of Vichy, Turkey might be forced in, and with Turkey's help—or even without it if the French retake Syria—the allied position in the Middle East and Russia’s position in the Caucasus would be grave.

pincer movement against the Russians via the Ukraine and the Caucasus. The southern jaw would move vin the Mediterranean, Suez and Syria. Laval's aid, therefore, might well be crucial.

So They Say—

It seems a just and proper step to impose a higher tax rate on profits made directly from war contracts.—Senator Walter F. George, Georgia Democrat. * = * A person can't sit around doing nothing when you've got your health and there's a job to do.—Mrs.

sons in army, joining up as an army nurse. * * * I and my [followers will refuse any help, even water, for the Japanese even if it should cost us our lives—Mohandas K. Gandhi. :

* * *

We cannot deal effectively with the labor situation until we curb outrageous profits made by certain busi-

ness firms.—Rep. Francis Case, South Dakota Repub-

called labor press of the country,’

Indications are multiplying that Laval’s first | major blow will fall somewhere in the Mediterranean |

Shortly—probably within 30 days—Hitler is ex- | pected to attempt one of his favorite coups, a giant |

May Murphy, New York City, with husband and two |

AY, APRIL 23, 1042

I wholly

The Hoosier Forum

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

“SOME WOMEN OVERDOING THIS SLACKS THING” By Mrs. R. IL. H., Indianapolis To Mr. R. W, Weber, Indianapolis, let me say I agree partly to his criticism of women wearing slacks. I believe some women are overdoing it by wearing slacks constantly with no regard as to whether they are fitting for the occasion or not. It is all right to lpunge around the home in slacks, and perhaps take a stroll in the evening, ete. But when the fairer sex starts wearing slacks with baggy knees and seats to public places she certainly doesn’t add to her charm, to say the least. Now I like slacks, especially the tailored ones but let us not discard our feminine attire entirely.

$ # =» “WE ARE GOING TO DO OUR JOB, SLACKS OR NOT”

By Mrs. 0. E. Havlin, 2031 Caroline ave. In answer to R. W. Weber's opinion of women of all ages, sizes and shapes wearing slacks. I wonder if he or she knows that a war is in progress. Everyone should be doing their share to help. There is a great demand for women to carry their burden and more. In so doing they find that skirts have no place. in factories and also first aid classes of which I ani a member. If he or she were injured during an air raid they would not stop to wonder if the layman was wearing a skirt or whether she was a trim young lady or fair, fat and forty. Women have a job to do and we are going to do it, slacks or not, Think it over.

” ” » “TD PUT JOE INTO A CONCENTRATION CAMP” By L. J. Sullivan, Indianapolis I have just read an item in a column carried in the Detroit Free Press as follows: “Saturday night Eleanor Roosevelt ‘gave a goingaway party for Joe Lash, who is going into the army. The party was given at the Lafayette hotel. Meyer Davis’ orchestra supplied the music.”

We all know who Joe Lash is and going into the army doesn’t increase his prestige one iota with me. Our government wouldn’t have him in any other position and the $21 per month probably is all he is worth, that is providing we do have to put up with him due to dear Eleanor’s influence. If my influence

(Times readers are invited their these columns, religious conMake

your letters short, so all can

to express views in

excluded.

troversies

have a chance. Letters must be signed.)

counted any, Joe would be in a concentration camp. I just wonder if Mrs. R. mentioned this going-away party in her column. Her own boys got in when commissions in the army, marines and navy were being passed out wholesale and she didn't mention any parties for, them when they left. It seems to me that a party at the Lafayette hotel with the society orchestra of Meyer Davis plus all the trimmings would pay one of our real soldiers for quite a few months or years or she could have bought some war bonds with it to much better advantage. I don’t wish Eleanor any permanent ill fortune but a slight attack of lockjaw: together with writer's cramp in her case would, I am sure, go a long way towards attaining our goal of national unity. If my wife said half as much as Mrs. R. and interfered half as much in my business as Eleanor does in Franklin's, I'd rap her smartly in the teeth with my No. 2 iron. 2 » 2 “CRIME THE WAY THINGS GET OUT OF HAND” By R. V. L., Indianapolis This city of ours must be wide open lately, what with everyone discussing openly the advisability of opening a legalized vice district. What is wrong? Has vice spread out over all the city so that it can’t be controlled properly? Must be, I guess. It’s a crime the way the police department lets these things get out of hand. Not so long ago there was all this talk about the drying up of Sunday liquor sales. : Right now it’s all-back again, but being right close to an election you don’t hear so much about it, what with the bi-partisan way they run this town. . . It’s common knowledge about all the gambling going on. . . . Most of the liquor joints in town violate the closing hour provisions and you can get away with almost every-

Side Glances=By Galbraith

"Private Baker—must : 3

you always wink when you salute me?"

| wearing them. So there!

thing if you know the right politician. It’s this way every time we get close to an election and if you think the two have no connection there's something wrong with your head. ¥ 8 wn “WILL THE TAXPAYERS EVER WAKE UP” By a Citizen, Indianapolis Did you ever see a town that had so many publicity men? I haven't, not in all my life, and I've been in some of the largest cities in the United States. Per capita, Indianapolis has more than any other city. I particularly am against the leeches who fasten themselves on the public payroll. If the public officials had clean skirts they wouldn't need publicity people to sugar coat their deeds. This goes for almost every municipal, county and state agency. And now the government is getting in its publicity men. Will the taxpayers ever wake up?

” 2 2 “CHOICE TO ME, AT LEAST, IS ALMOST SICKENING” By a Republican, Indianapolis I notice in Vern Boxell’s column

the statement that the total Republican vote in the primary will | be between 35,000 and 38,000. In| the last off-year election, there | were 98,000 Republican votes Sasi and this year I suppose we might | well expect about 105,000 votes in| the fall. Why the discrepancy? In May,| 35,000; in November, 100,000? The answer must be in what the party offers us. The choice to me, at least, is almost sickening. . . .

” ” 2 “THE POLICE DO THIS THING IN SPLURGES” By E. C. H., Indianapolis When is our chief of police going to start painting yellow traffic lines on our streets? It seems that the police do this thing in splurges. First they paint bright yellow lines and a week later, when the lines absolutely don’t need repainting, out comes Morrissey’s squad again. Now that the lines actually need a spring decorating, where are the police? Your guess is as good as mine,

” ” 2 “THEY'RE GOING TO KEEP ON WEARING SLACKS!” By a Slacks-Wearer, Indianapolis This Mr. R. W. Weber sounds as if he is one of those turn-of-the-century gentlemen who still believes women looked better in huge billowing dresses with countless petticoats and strangling corsets. The women, Mr, Weber, have disccvered how to wear pants and make them look well. And they're going to keep on

” ” ” A WORD OF TRIBUTE TO GEN. JOHNSON By T. D., Indianapolis The loss of Gen. Hugh Johnson from the daily columns of The Indianapolis Times is going to be a hard one for many. . Johnson’s prophecies have long since vindicated themselves. He was most urgently needed in Washington. . , . He was the best allaround informed man in the nation, His “indifferences” were not indifferences but fundamentally pure and sincere Americanism which is strictly against group or mob rule in any category.

DAILY THOUGHT

Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment; thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour. — Leviticus 19:15,

COMMONLY we say a Judgment falls upon a man for something in

him we cannot abide.~John Selden. i .

In Washington

By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, April 23.—8e Paul V. McNutt becomes chair= man of the war manpower come mission, It is his third big gove ernment job, the other two being federal security administrator and director of the office of defense health and welfare services. The proper way to address him hereafter is “Mr. Governor-Adminige Re trator - Director - Chairman Mg « Nutt,” and be sure you leave nothe ing out. e official designation. Unofficially, the appointment makes the silver-thatched Hoosier knight the fair-haired boy and white hope of the ore ganized labor movement. Labor wanted this mane power machinery set up in the department of labor, and not under Sidney Hillman. It is an open secret that opposition of the A. F. of L. and C. I. O. finally “got” Hilman, head of the labor division of the war production board.

Conscientious, hard-working Hillman ran his jobs the way he thought they should be run for the best interests of the war effort. But he would accept no dictation from the labor leaders, though he tried to Jake decisions which would not be unpopular with em. In the end he was damned by both A. F. of L. and C. I. O. leaders, and in the reorganization of the war production board, the labor division under Hillman was reduced to such secomdary importance that there was only one step further in his career—to be kicked upstairs to the position of “special assistant to t he president on labor matters.”

He's Still Available HOW LONG McNutt will remain the darling of

‘the labor leaders is something to make book on. Me-

Nutt is still so politically ambitious he wouldn't harm a flea—if it had a vote. He will make a speech on the slightest provocation before any assembly—of voters—and you may expect to see his name waving with the Stars and Stripes on any platform where labor harmony sentiments are expressed. His next major appearance will be at the joing A. F. of L.-C. I. O. “Buy a Bomber” show at St. Paul, April 29. There has been some speculation in labor circles ag to whether McNutt would reveal his manpower program at this St. Paul speech.

There isn't enough of an opportunity for the MeNutt brand of oratory in a speech of that kind. and besides, it is doubtful if the organization will have been perfected by that time.

This and That

FOUR-H CLUBS now have 1.5 million members. + + . While all other retail stores were reporting March sales of from 12 to 50 per cent over March, 1941, filling stations reported a 1 per cent drop and auto dealers a 75 per cent drop. . . . WPA has plans to turn its free school lunch kitchens over to feeding war victims in case of air raids. . . . Of the 53 million people in the U. S. labor force, census bureau reports 32 million live in cities, 11 million live in vile lages and 10 million on farms. . . . Forty million are males and 13 million females.

The Perils of War

ONE OF THE star writers of the office of facts and figures staff took leave of absence because of g muscular affliction which forced him to wear his arm in a sling. To inquiries on the cause of his afiment, he explains: “Well, when my grandchildren gather on my knee to ask me what I did in the second World war, TH be able to say that I fell out of a swivel chair In the office of facts and figures.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

“KEEP THAT Middle-Aged Look at Bay,” says a headline on my favorite woman's page, and I admire the t@@#liness of the military phraseology. Just the same, it put me in the dumps. For sometimes, in morbid moments, # seems to me too much is expected of the American woman. She is now engaged in a fight against fascism, yet there is no let up in her eternal fight against grey hair and wrinkles. Not a day passes but she is reminded of her duty to charm the men at home as well as assist them in industry and war work. Middle age must also be kept at bay. Hitler is on one side, the Japs on the other; our security, the lives of our children, everything is threatened. But the big battle with Father Time continues as usual on every feminine front. In her defense of a slim figure and a school-girl complexion, every women I know is a Gen. MacArthur in spirit.

And the Men . . .

MOREOVER THE housewife is now ordered te toil in machine shops and fields and government offices; to volunteer for nursing, motor corps, target practice, air raid warden duty and what have you, She must stretch her budget to cover doubled expenditures. And as for national morale—well, she is its chief custodian. Religion, the home, the welfare of the community, the character of the young are in her hands. Yet, with all that, if she knows what's good for her she will remain a perennial 35 in appearance. Now and then it strikes me that women past 40 may have to decide which job is the more important—winning a war against the axis or a war against time. The day may come when we can’t de both—when we shall be forced to choose between beauty and democracy. : And for the duration, gentlemen, couldn’t you co-operate with us in certain of our endeavors? If wives help }usbands to win the war, husbands could surely reciprocate by keeping their romances as home. : /

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 auestion 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 cannet be given, Address The Times Washington Service Bureau. 1013 Thirteenth St... Washington. D. ©.)

Q—How much crude rubber is required for retroads= ing a tire compared to the amount used in 4 new tire? ¥ x A—The average new tire contains about 14 peunds of crude rubber. Retreading requires about five pounds. ee 4 Q—-Why was the “Kentucky Derby” so named?

A—From a famous racing family in England. n

is run every year at Cnurchill ‘Downs, Louisville, Ky.

-

and the first race was in 1875, and Aristides was the winner. The race will be run on May 2, this year.

Q—Is there a story connected with the writing of

Paderewski’s “Minuet in G”? is

ewski that no one today could write in the

A—The story goes that a friend remarked to dignified manner of the Outs Ln 8