Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 May 1942 — Page 12

AGE 12

The Indianapolis Times

ROY W. HOWARD

RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE Editor 3 Business Manager

Fair Enough

oa W

In Washington

gi By. Peter Edson

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Po RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 1943

CORREGIDOR ANY weeks of waiting for the tevitable could not entirely prepare the American public for the victorious Jap assault on Corregidor. It was human to hope against hope that something would happen to prevent the cer-

‘ tainty.

; Cruelly out-numbered, the Americans and Filipinos in ‘Bataan and on Corregidor have written in blood a record of bravery and endurance which will never perish. They

were finally

overcome because they had used up their

“ glender store of food and ammunition in the epic defense

of this war.

The natior: spoke its mind through President Roose- _ velt in his message to Gen. Wainwright just before the

5 : * battle:

“The American people ask no finer example of tenacity, resourcefulness, and steadfast courage. . . . You and your devoted followers have become the hving symbols of our war aims and the guarantee of victory.”

MOVING INTO MADAGASCAR

Ww

ORLD-WIDE military and political repercussions of . the allied landing on Vichy-France’s great island of

Madagascar are apt to be even more important than the immediate value of that base.

Not that Madagascar itself is unimportant.

It would

‘be hard to exaggerate what the Japs could do to allied 8hipping if they ever got hold of that base, which dominates "the New York-London supply routes to the Middle East

-and Asia.

The enemy then could cut off the Red Sea-

: Egyptian distribution points, the Persian Gulf-lranian line to Russia, and the India-China route.

But this

is more than just a military-naval operation.

ty, 3 cents a copy; deliy-

NEW YORK, May 6—We hear much about appeasement, defeatism, and disruptiveness, but I

discount ‘most of the complaints

because the actual traitors among us are all marked men whose in- - fluence is negligible and disruption, or ‘disunification, is & charge which any one person may hone estly lay against any other who disagrees with him. If everyone agreed with my thoroughly correct position on all matters we would all be unified and those who don’t agree with me are as disruptive as they say 1 am, and are, therefore, fifth, sixth or seventh columnists. > I suggest, however, that those who are now planning a postwar world in which there will’ be neither reprisals against the German nation nor restraints on this warlike and lunatic breed are guilty of serious,

if well-meant, mischief. Anyone who insists now that

the minute the Germans quit again and again repudiate their leaders the victors must promptly help them up, brush them off, feed them and lend them the money to do it all over again tends to undermine the determination of the American people.

Some Excuse for First Mistake

IT IS FOR THIS that another generation, the second in succession, has been called out of the normal ways of a very peaceful and unmilitary country to fight off a challenge of a nation calling itself a super-race and claiming the right to possess everything which it can steal by arms and to live by the slave-labor of all lesser breeds, including ours? There was some excuse for the first mistake. The leaders of this super-race had set bolshevism in mo-

. tion in Russia in order to liquidate a fighting front

and release troops for the final attack on civilization in the west. Bolshevism was a German creation deliberately released with no regard for the consequence to the world and when the last German assault failed the victors were called upon to save the German people, drive bolshevism back and confine it to Russia. Now the new situation ripens for repetition. Again, in defeat, the super-race will threaten to destroy itself and create a pestilential stench on civilization’s

doorstep as the Russians move in from the east. And.

again the whole world of victims will be asked to save Germany, lest the infection spread to our own houses.

What Do They Have to Do?

BUT WHAT POSSIBLE good could that do? Saved from bolshevism the last time, the Germans dressed bolshevism in a brown shirt. Would they be any more dangerous as Red bolsheviki than they are in brown? « ‘Are they to be permitted again to beg off with a threat to turn on civilization and Christianity when they have been fighting civilization and Christianity for years? If the civilized countries do have some freedom of

iT D WERE AND YOU'LL GET THAT AND A

eu Jal aS § WASHINGTON, May 6—Thats | segment of the population which . has believed the fake hue and cry that the investigation of Father Coughlin’s Social Justice represented a threat against all “free-

dom of the press” might take consideration some of the false rumors that have been. spread by like vermin. One lie that has bit. Whispered by such people and has been Saved: directly to the women in the Social Justice crowd is that the moves to establish women's aux. “iliaries for the army and navy were nothing more than veiled white slave recruiting drives- to procure women for the soldiers and sailors of the armed services. If there is any suppression of civil liberties in squelching people who spread stuff like this, bring on Hitlerism. .

In the Big City . Si

MANUFACTURE OF MEN'S “elsure” coats has been banned for the war. ... U. 8. has 20° million

| sewing machines in use, plus another million in stock

piles, but after June 15 no new ones can bes made, . . Census of 1940 reports a million teachers, three fourths of them women, who might be given war production jobs during the summer. . , . And in

1940 there were 165,000 doctors, 370,000 trained nurses. . New name for the mechanized war is “gadget war.” . . . Food is one-third the cost of living and from 60 to 75 per cent of the food costs are frozen by the new general maximum price regulation. , . . Sir Norman Birkett of the English high court of justice, now visiting in Washington, apologizes for his shabby clothes, but says shabbiness is fashionable in London now, and patches show that a man is really in-style.

The We're-Well-Off Dept.

RED CROSS has sent $25,000 worth of sporting goods to the troops in Iceland. . . . The British have banned lace on women’s underwear, . . . And COS metice there are under 334 per .cent sales tax. . . « Yankee ways have come to Venezuela in the form of individual income taxes, the country’s first. . . . Coffee in Oslo, Norway, is quoted at. $30 a pound. . . . Gasoline-in Cuba has been raised 4 cents a gallon to 34 cents. . . . Cost of living index in Peru has gone up to 220. ,.. If you want a rough guess of how you'll be fixed at the end of this year or a year later, here's one official economic guess from the Henderson staff: By the end of 1942 the standard of living will be down to what it was in 1935. A year later, it will be back to the level of 1042. . Incidentally, Leon Henderson every now and then ‘has to get into what he calls a lecture on economics to explain some of the background for his anti-infla-tion moves. “A lot of people,” he says, “have had to take courses in Henderson I or Henderson II.”

The Hoosier Forum

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

action with regard to the German people they would be as stupid as Hitler says they are to repeat the mistake of rebuilding the German nation and the German country. Beyond provoking two world wars, what do the German people have to prove to the intelligent men of :the world that they are mentally inferior and morally bad? Like the German sheepdog, handsome,

It sharpens allied policy of combating Hitler control of ‘France. That involves not only Europe and the Mediterranean, but also the French empire and its strategic bases ‘in West Africa, the western hemisphere, and the Pacific. ‘Although Britain last year challenged Vichy-France in Africa and Syria, this is the first time that the United

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

their child commit & crime they cry and say they did their best for

“WHY SHOULD OUR CITY (Times readers are invited

. States and the united nations as a whole have taken over . Vichy colonial territory—in trusteeship for the French - people and freedom. Whether and when Dakar, Martinique, and other Vichy bases are occupied by the allies ceases to be a political question, because of the Madagascar precedent, and becomes ~ Solely a matter of military expedience. We are finally act_ing on the lesson learned when Vichy turned over Indo-

China to the enemy.

To trust Laval would be criminal folly.

If the military consolidation of Madagascar can be as effective as the policy which prompted it, this move may prove the turn from allied defensive to offensive strategy. The Madagascar job must not be bungled.

‘PULITZER PRIZES HE Los Angeles Times’ Pulitzer prize for “the most disinterested and meritorious public service rendered by an American newspaper in 1941” seems to us thoroughly

deserved.

The Times fought to establish the right to publish iticism of judicial opinion, even in cases not finally settled. It won a victory for freedom of the press, but a wider principle 'was involved. The United States supreme court, in holding that California judges had exceeded their powers by undertaking to punish the newspaper for contempt of court, held similarly in the case of labor leader Harry Bridges, who also had been sentenced for public criticism of a Los * Angeles court decision. What the supreme court decided is that a-union man and a newspaper both have constitutional rights of expresgion which judges must not deny. The Times award thus calls attention to a point in need of constant emphasis— that freedom to express opinions is not an exclusive privi- . lege of publishers and editors, but a right of individuals. We think the Pulitzer prize committee did a fine job _ in its other awards. And, naturally, we're proud that the _ prize for “distinguished service as a cartoonist” went to Herbert L. Block—“Herblock”—whose powerful drsfvings have had a frequent place on this page.

: ONE SURE THING

JOINT statement by President Mcrroy. of the C. '1. 0. ‘and President Green of the A. F. of L. accuses the

. . National Association of Manufacturers of continuing to

alert and outwardly ingratiating, they have shown that they will turn, on the instant, at the prompting of some vicious trait in their national, or, as they call it, their racil, character, and with a savage snarl rip the throat of any friend. It is no inspiration to say that the object of this war is to engble them to do it a third time. Twice should be sufficient to prove that as a nation Germany is suffered to exist only at the peril of civilization itself. The obliteration of Germany as thoroughly as Hitler has boasted that he obliterated Poland would be a drastic way of preserving civilization, but the only question is whether the real war aim of the United: States justifies the only positive means of securing that aim.

New Books By Stephen Ellis

A. I. BEZZERIDES is a new novelist who can swear in English, Turkish and Armenian and who writes in pungent, earthy American. You may remember the movie, “They Drive by Night.” It was adapted from his first novel, “Long Haul.” An electrical engineer by trade, Mr. Bezzerides finds a similarity between designing an electrical job and fashioning a novel. He goes to the Anderson-Hemingway-Steinbeck school of letters, and it is apparent that he is growing fast. He has a feeling for people and

- words which is richly illustrated in his second novel,

“There Is a Happy Land,” just off the presses. Mr. Bezzerides has an uncanny knack of recording the human image 'and his ear for dialog is keen. He writes of the plain folk, dirt farmers and migrants of California, but not from the Steinbeck point of View, His people are happy.

It Is Rich in Local Color

HARV (“A LEAN cat of a man with funning green eyes”) and his wife, Bonnie (“a slight woman, thin in arm and leg”), are happy settle down to sponge off the dirt farmers in the fertile California valley until their second child is born. Harv doesn’t work at an: Just goes fishin’. Kind of an easy-going citizen, when the occasion demands it’. One can’t quite figure Harv out, but one isn’t supposed to. Mr. Bezzerides’ characters have the deep-running complexities of simple people. The novel is rich in local ‘Color. Its descriptions are sharp and clear and its people emerge as definite individuals ag people do after you come to know them.

“There, Is a Happy land” is a pure character novel, eéncerned with the enigmatic Harv’s gradual

decision to found a home for himself and his family.

Perhaps it is not a great novel, but it is important

go-lucky ohiselers who

t tough end decent

BE LAST TO ACT” By Arthur Padgett, 635 E. Ohio st. I notice that plans have - been made to designate the space adjacent to every fire plug in American cities as parking stands for taxis. The plan was put forward by the office of defense transportation. Why should our city be the last to act? Other. cities have formed a pick-up taxi to share ride with others. Why don’t they give us a cab stand on all corners? » ” ” “WE SEEM TO FORGET WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT” By H. E. Marshall, 037 W. 21st st. American people both great and small and I include myself as one of the smaller ones in all the things I am about to say, but am not so sure that the rest of you will take the trouble to read and heed. The greed for money and power has taken such hold of us people we have become blinded to the possibility of our losing this war. This is a condition which exists in all branches of business and government and now the money end which always was labor and big business’ god is blinding us in our production speed which is the most essential thing now, not next week or next year, but now today. The motto today seems, stretch the job out, don’t work too fast, the boss has this job on cost plus basis and the government has plenty of money. We seem to forget that we are the government and we eventually are the ones who will have to pay the cost of this war, so why make your bill higher than necessary? Profits gotten this way. don’t do those persons much good, to prove this statement go back to the first World war when profit restrictions were few, see how many of the get rich quick Wallingfords at the ex-

to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Letters must

be signed.)

pense of the government that still have any of their quick profits. We, you and I, are always the eventual losers and in this particular war we stand not only to lose money and power but our liberty as well and I for one would rather have liberty. And if you agree with me on this score, then regardless of what your business may be you had better wake up and forget your selfishness long enough at least to win this war. If we fail to do this we can and will lose.

tJ o » “SO SPEAKS THE DEVIL TO ALL WHO LISTEN” By A Parent, Spencer So you think to give the soldiers pleasure there must be vice districts. By that admission you tell the kind of person you are. I say give the boys decent pleasures as much as possible but that doesn’t mean vice ‘districts. } You don’t want pleasure and recreation; you want lust, disease and all that vice includes. So speaks the devil to all who listen. These same soldiers will come home to be the future citizens and fathers. of a future generation so the cleaner they live the better. If more parents were decent we wouldn't need reform schools for the 12-year-old and older ‘children, ten not so many. jails for the older but unfortunately too many children have parents who lead the way. Shame to them. Then when

Side Glances=By Galbraith

them. So they did--their best to ruin therm. » » 8

“SEND PROSTITUTES TO PRISON FOR DURATION.”

By J. L. B,, Indianapolis The city is to be congratulated for its success in closing up the red light district, but it is to be hoped that the good work will not stop with the mere padlocking of brothels. Further steps, more far seeing and of more permanent character, are necessary. To use a metaphor, the capping of a well does not eliminate the pollution that is thus concealed from the eye. Prostitution, like poisoned water, will seep into other areas. Thé women who inhabited the nowclosed houses of prostitution have not been “eliminated” in the physical sense of the word. Where are they? One person's guess is as good as another, but it’s a safe surmsie that they're plying their trade somewhere. Their menace to the soldier, the sailor, the marine and the defense worker is just as great today as it was before the closing of -the zone. Gov. Sghricker and officials of the state health board have referred to prostitutes as “saboteurs” of the public health, taking a. damaging toll among soldiers and defense workers, In the military acceptance of the word, spies and saboteurs are subject to stiff prison sentences. If a prostitute is a “saboteur,” why cannot she be removed from society under the same principle of confinement. Send the Posting | to prison for the duration.

” ” o “NICE TO KNOW WE HELP UNDERMINE CHARACTER” By Mrs. G. W., Indianapolis To all those in favor of that vice district: . For sake of argument, say you got your vice district and it's all ready to take applications for “hostesses.” Would you let your daughters, sweethearts. or sisters be the first to fill out an application to become an

inmate of such a place?

We knit our soldiers sweaters, send them cigarets, candy, cookies, books and periodicals from our homes... Give them free shows at

. - ~ URGING CONTRIBUTIONS to the Washington Symphony, Mrs. Roosevelt wrote recently in her column that we cannot afford to give up our cultural assets. Yet it looks now as if we cannot afford to support some of them—and win the war. This is regrettable, of course. Probably there is no individual American who does not feel sick at heart when he thinks of the many religious, charitable and cultural institutions which will be sacrified to this carnival of bloodshed to which mankind has set its face and from| which there is now no turning back for us. The recent message of the President spelled it out in plain words. For when the rich men of the nation have their incomes cut to $25,000 & year and the middle class, who according to their means have matched the rich in contributions, are using 10 per cent of their incomes to buy war bonds and’ another large percentage to pay taxes, the smartest financier will find it hard to figure how we cen raise enough money to maintain all the churches and other humanitarian organizations whiclt have become an important part of our civilization,

War Is the Great Leveler

THE RICH HAVE been called many bad names. It has heen the fashion to hurl insults at them, and certainly there were instances when the name-calling was justified. Yet there stands no great city today which cannot point to some magnificent contribution made by one or several of its rich men, a lasting memorial to civic pride and humén generosity. In terms of dollars and cents, to say nothing of industrial expansion, the gold of our wealthy people —even though some of it was ill gotten——has been poured out in benefits to the people. Too often it. was true that wealth went into marble halls instead of into blood and bone and brain, where it would have produced better returns. But the fact remains that, without the gitts of the rich, many things of which we are proud in our country would never have been. War is a great leveler of classes; also it is a ters rible debaser of intellect and heart. We shall not escape its on influences.

snr

.. Editor's. Note: The views expressed by columnists "w this ge newspaper are their own. They are not necessarily those

of tho Sndiatinpte Times.

¥

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will ahswer any

question of fact or information, moi invelving rosearch. Write your questién clearly, sign name and inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or advice cannot be given, Address The Times Washington * Service Bureau. 1013 Thirteenth St., Washington, D. CO.) = °°

: wage “a private war against organized labor.” ! The N. A. M. had published advertisements contending

: that the war labor board, by “union security” and “mains |

tenance of membership” awards, is forcing the closed-sliop

principle on industry. It had urged congress to freeze the |

status quo for the war’s duration, keeping. the’ closed shop where it already exists by. voluntary agreement out forbid-

ding its ‘extension.

wr

"We ‘would say this of the N. A. M.: If it had been. Jess hostile to legislation forthe protection of labor in the past it would not be so’ vulnerable to charges that it seeks to destroy unions, now-that organized labor has promised to surrender the right to strike. ene, We would say this of the C. I. 0. and the A. F. of L.: ‘was their duty to surrender the right to strike. But it ‘was more than that. ‘It was an aet of self-préservation. If strikes had continued after Pearl Harbor, hampering the duct of the war as they incessantly hampered the defense ort, public opinion would have compelled terribly drastic trictions on unions. Organized labor is entitled to govent's protection aqainst unfair treatment, and there

tled

from the standpoint that it appears to be the work of a writer who'18 beginning {0 hit his stride,

Holt & Co. LAND.” by A, Co Is Agar York FAR py pages. 83.80,

So They Say—

‘We uve. sola 40 bok the anialty Wing encueh planes and ships to smother Germany and Japan.—

Senator Josiah Bailey. ®. * * : ‘Earlier, when I must have thought I knew everything, I sometimes acted without consulting her, and always I was sorry~Willlam N. Berry, Greensboro, N. C., husband of “The Amgrican Mother of 1042.”

We are hammering the Japs with automobiles—

not. the scrap from old jalopies, but with steel that

might have been 1943 models.—~Leon ‘Henderson. * . * 3 )

-I may be cynical, but I can't see why some executives can’t take time out for court cases without interfering ‘with the war effort, but’ have time to disport them s at cocktail parties~—Senator ‘T. Bone. ; ;

Bezzerides. Henry

their camps by stars of stage, screen and radio for entertainment and pleasure, Mr. Stone. All this is designed to help stretch that $21 a day once a month. They thank us by spending their money in this vice

+} |district, that’s nice!

It’s always nice to know we're helping to undermine the characters of our young men in service, besides giving. the mothers, wives ‘and sweethearts at home something to worry about on the side. : If the mefi can't get along without a Vice district, what gbout the women .at home? Maybe there should be a medically inspected and a police woman patrolled vice dis-

-|trict for them. If the women don't

object to this kind of a district for the men, then the men should think

it all right for the women,

DAILY THOUGHT

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the org is. —Jeremiah 1:7. x ss 8

N, and they

Q—Who is commanding general of the army defenses in Panama? : : A—Ljeut. Gen. Frank M. Andrews. a .

Q—This summer we expect to live near the seashore. ; Can you tell us what precauttions we should take to protect the paint and chromium on our car?

A—The body finish snd plated parts should be washed frequently and the body should be polished and waxed. The plated parts should be costed with Po ey hi A washed and are thoroughly dried nd in direct contact with the car, it should be washed

off as soon as possible.

United States highest?

A—In 1041, when it reached 948 bilo dots, x preliminary estimates.

according to

Qo Whet 1s tuceibed. oi the ‘tablet whids the

Statue of Liberty carries in her left srm, pressed

against her side? - A=It is a book

ting the law,

represen on 1 in block leers the date July 4, 1716, snd lizes Liberty based on law.