Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 May 1942 — Page 10

Page PDF (12.31 MB)

Back to issue view

PAGE Ts The Indianapolis Times

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

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

Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bu- . reau of Cirgulations.

ty, 3 cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 15 cents a week.

Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $4 & year, outside of Indiana, 78 cents a month.

E> RILEY 5551

. @ve Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

TUESDAY, MAY 19, 1942

_ UNANIMOUS LOWDOWN ON THE WAR

R the first time we have the lowdown on Germany and Italy. American press correspondents, interned in those countries, have reached Lisbon and are dispatching detailed accounts. The remarkable thing about these dispatches is not that they report the unexpected—they don’t. It is that they agree so completely among themselves and with information already obtained by the allied governments. Such virtual upanimity regarding the war picture must be accepted as authentic as it is unusual. Here is that consensus, as summarized by the United Press: : “The common people of Italy are sick of the war; the Germans are under an increasingly severe strain. . . . It is now or never for Hitler; victory at any price in 1942. . .. If Hitler loses in Russia in the next few months the tide will turn decisively against him. If he wins there, nobody can foresee fully the dangers that unlimited Nazi resources would create. . . . The axis can be broken and defeated if America and the allies will go all-out. But it is no push-

over.” ; ” ” o 2 » ”

THERE you have it. Despite weakness and weariness in the enemy countries, they are still capable of their biggest effort this summer—they are not cracking, and _won’t until they are defeated on the battlefield. Hitler's fate will be decided chiefly by the battle for Rusisa. This, of course, is precisely what has been believed in Washington, London and Moscow—even in Chungking and Canberra—for many weeks. Hence the allied effort to help the Russians lick the all-out Nazi concentration on the long eastern front. The amount of allied help to Russia this summer will determine whether this .is to be a short war with Hiller defeat, or a very long war.

POLICING THE GAS CARDS

AS-RATIONING cards have been made a matter of public record.. The president said that he thought they should be, and the office of price administration has ordered the lists thrown open to general inspection. We say hurrah for that! Gas rationing 1s public busi: ness. Unlike sugar rationing, it doesn’t treat everyone -alike. Some drivers are entitled to more gasoline than others—properly so, because they have greater need to drive. Under any system that doesn’t provide equality to all, some people will always try to get more than their fair and necessary share. And the only way to stop them is to make the records public.

As with the draft, every citizen and every official will be more careful about asking for special consideration because he knows his neighbor can go to the record. Gas rationing is confined to the Atlantic seaboard, the only section where gasoline is short. But apparently it soon may be made nation wide, to save rubber. So the whole country will do well to ponder the equities of the problem. : : #” ” » » » ” HEY are clear. The purpose of rationing is to prevent unnecessary driving, which wastes precious gas and oil in the east and unreplacable Fubber everywhere. The accent is on “unnecessary,” and it applies to all motorists, whether their cards are A or B or X. The X, or unlimited “class, is no more entitled to joyride than the A and B classes. Your family doctor, for instance, is rightly entitled to all the gas he needs to make his calls—but not to go rolling off to the seashore while you stay at home because you're limited to three gallons a week. Likewise for representatives, senators, bureaucrats, army men, navy men, everybody. : Neighbors are great policemen when it comes to the other, fellow getting something they can’t have. We don’t want to see any snooping crusade, and we don’t want to see anybody unfairly accused of abusing special privilege. The surest way to prevent that, it seems to us, is to have the information about who gets what on public record. Even the 65 senators who defended their sacred honor yesterday by voting down the horrid suggestion that they ‘should pledge themselves to ‘waive any special right, privileges or exemptions” under gasoline rationing, - shouldn’t object to this new move. ;

DON'T EXPECT MIRACLES

(GRADUALLY, it is seeping into America’s head that our rubber shortage is definite and deadly, and that when our present tires are gone there just ain’t gonna - be no more. ? Most of us have driven along on the optimistic ‘ American assumption that ‘somebody would discover _something”’—that when our tires ‘finally wore out there ‘would somehow be miraculous new ones, That might be, but the rubber people all doubt its They say to expect the worst. So, in view of that, we . ghouldn’t start skidding around corners every time a ray of hope pops out. Such a ray is the recently announced discovery by a West Virginia dentist that tires can be made of coal, wood, natural gas and grain. Dr. Glenn L. Casto of Spencer, W. Va, has already made several, and already they have given up to 4000 miles. "That would be a good substitute, and solve many problems, if such tires could be made fast in quantities. But let's not count our tires before they're hatched. \ Getting a new tire before this war ends will be like pulling teeth. That's our guess.

THE ODOR, TOO

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, May 19.—The presidential commutation of Earl Browder, chief of the Communist party and one of the foremost proaxis collaborationists during the life of Berlin-Moscow compact, establishes the principle that under American justice today the politics of a criminal may be . weighed in his favor. This is a political commutation as the White House statement admitted in the remark that Browder’s liberation would have a “tendency to promote national unity.” That was equival= ent to saying that Browder was given his freedom so as to quiet the political clamor of his followers who, incidentally, are all sworn enemies of the form of government provided by the United States constitution. : Browder's followers represented that because he was a Communist he received harsh treatment at the hands of the federal court. He was sentenced to four years and a fine of $2000 for swearing falsely in an application for an American passport which he used to travel abroad in the interests of a foreign power which was, until June 22, last year, a silent partner of Adolf Hitler in the war. The contention that Browder was punished, in part, for his politics, received acknowledgment from a number of genuine Americans as distinguished from Communist enemies of the American state, in its present form, who enjoy American citizenship.

What's the Difference?

BUT IT IS NO more dangerous to all liberty under law to punish a man for his political principles under a pretext of law than it is to liberate a criminal out of consideration for his politics in response to the clamor of an organized following, however large or small. : It must be noted that the White House statement concerning Browder’s communtation did not admit that he was sentenced for his politics. On that score the statement merely said the communtation would “have a tendency to allay any feeling which may exist in some minds” that this was the case. But the observation that his release would have “a tendency to promote national unity” does admit that his political views and political power were permitted to intimidate American justice.

Take the Browne Case, Too

UNDER THIS PRINCIPLE any public enemy serving a thoroughly just and well-deserved term might be released in response to a demand by an organized following. ; As a case in point, George Browne, late president of the one of the largest A. F. of L. unions and late member of William Green’s cabinet, might be turned out of prison in response to a demand by his former colleagues in that high body who have never had the courage or civic decency to repudiate this notorious underworld thief and betrayer of labor. Instead of repudiating him, Green and the rest of the A. F. of L. cabinet merely failed to re-elect him and delayed even that negative action until long after his criminal character and conduct were notorious and he was on the point of conviction in court. Green and his cabinet might demand Browne's release ostensibly in the name of 5,000,000 members.

Gas Rationing By S. Burton Heath

CLEVELAND, May 19.—Gasoline rationing is not going to be confined permanently to the eastern seaboard, which thus far has been the only victim. In time, the restrictions will be spread pretty much throughout the country, except for those fortunate areas which have oil fields in their back yards. Indirectly, perhaps, this will be attributable to the effects of a dog-in-the-manger attitude on the part of easterners .—or, to be more accurate, on the part of some of their more vociferous spokesmen. Humanly, if not generously, many in the east, notably politicians, are asking loudly why motorists elsewhere should be permitted unlimited fuel while those of 17 states and the District of Columbia are driven to using shanks’ mare. : # They are not satisfied with the explanation that the gasoline shortage is a matter of transportation— that it ‘is their bad fortune to live where the fuel has to be brought by methods which have proven inadequate under war conditions. They contend that by clever management it should be possible to reshuffle tank car, barge and pipeline facilities so as to divert some of the midweést’s and southwest’s plentiful supplies to the suffering east.

It Will Spread Sacrifice

WHILE THESE AGITATORS exaggerate their case, there is enough merit in their contention so that eventually such a shuffling will be attempted. . This will not give the easterners unrestricted use of whatever tire mileage they still possess. It will, however, spread the sacrifice more evenly over the country. After all contemplated improvements have been made, the eastern seaboard still will he more than 350,000. barrels a day short of the minimum necessary for war and essential civilian use. One of the methods by which it is proposed that the supply be spread is by diverting tank cars from the long Texas-to-Atlantic run, and using them to bring gasoline from Chicago refineries. This would reduce the amount available in the midwestern area, of course. > However the problem is solved, one warning to the east and one promise to the west appear justified. By the time such relief becomes available, .it will be of no particular use to eastern civilians‘for pleasure driving. The three gallons a week now allotted to them is coming, apparently, out of reserves, Any additions taken from other sections for use of the Atlantic seaboard will hardly be enough to increase this allowance.

So They Say—

Every owner of a motor vehicle should realize that he holds this vehicle for the national war effort and that it should be used only for purposes of necessity.—Joseph B. Eastman,

Despite the extraordinary success of the axis with

training was first introduced at West Point.—Maj. Benjamin Namm, chairman of Retail Advisory Committee to Treasury Department.

Farmers of the nation are determined that they shall never be charged with furnishing “too little, too late.’—M. D. Newson, master of Indiana State Grange. ; : . * * * . a When the war is over, and the 10 or 12 million men come back, let’s have a country to hand over to them that is worthy of the sacrifices they have made. —Senator Millard E. Tydings of Maryland.

. * . We can't build shi fast as we

ye Ee g no

The Hoosier Forum

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

‘invulnerable and can

the air arm, it was only a few months ago that air |

“CAR JOCKEYS SHOULD BE PURLICLY HORSEWHIPPED!” By L. David, Maryland st. and Capitol ave. Todd Stoops and his Hoosier Motor club could render a real service by doing something about the parking lot jockeys who seem to delight in skidding cars into parking spaces. In the old horse and buggy days, these car jockeys would have been publicly horsewhipped for treating a horse like they do an automobile. There is more damage done to tires in 50 feet in downtown parking lots than in driving 500 miles. ” » » “IF THAT 1S METHOD, I'LL €ONTINUE TO BE SINNER” By Mrs. R. W. Clift, Mooresville In upholding the war effort and doing our bit, we the people of these wonderful United States should turn a deaf ear and forego any inherent desire to either listen to or pass on gossip that uncannily turns into information that is much needed by our enemies. The sooner the whole populace begin to realize the fact that we are not lose, the sooner we will begin to co-operate. Adolf and Mr. Mote are just spoiling for the American people to revolt against our leaders, then why, Mr. and Mrs. America, don’t you refrain from slander against the president? Republican or Democrat, remember he has a job that calls for inhuman endurance and the prayers .of the churches, not sneers and curses. In this country the people of the majority selected him as the votes counted out that way and all should stand behind him. One lady who incidentally is a pillar in one of our churches, mind you, told me that the reason the president rationed sugar was because he had to have it to make booze with and that they served booze at the White House and he was an old boozer. I asked her if she didn’t think that that was a fabrication and she said that the minister told them that and if that is the method used by

T imes readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious confroversies excluded. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed.)

the ministry to convert the sinners I will continue to be a sinner. The president is fighting for his freedom just the same as we should be doing. He is also fighting for us and we could simplify his job if everyone would quit griping and buckle down to these new war discomforts and pretend to like it anyway. In Germany and Japan they execute folks for less than idle talk. I think the FBI should find out about these people and not too

gently ask them to padlock their

talk shop for the duration. There is too much of this rotten talk being done and may lead to lawlessness of a different nature as it is a terrible temptation for a law-abiding citizen to have to listen to slander against their government without changing the color of their eyes or at least trying. # " ” “WHAT KIND OF DEMOCRACY IS THIS, ANYWAY?”

By La N y . Yl Lawrence M Burnette, 5410 N. Me-

Three weeks. ago a major construction job started at Manzanar, Cal. It became necessary because of war-time necessity. General DeWitt of the United States army decreed that all persons of Japanese descent must be moved, and moved hurriedly, and the army ordered a reception center built at Manzanar. Such speed was desired that the job was given a priority rating, of A-1-a, the highest possible priority that any job can receive. A. F. of T. business agents were on the job as soon as it started. They announced that the Manzanar project was a union job and the closed shop prevailed. Valley residents who offered to work there were told that they had to “join the union.” Fees for joining and work-

Side Glances=By Galbraith

can lose them |

4 ing on the job ranged from $23 to $50. Even though it has been difficult to get laborers, and skilled men, the union has been adamant in demanding ‘their toll. They know that this is temporary employment, but the business agents demand their cut from wages earned by the sweat

{of a man’s brow.

All of which makes a very nice racket for the boys. It makes us wonder what this war is all about. Here's why:

Recently, a contractor on the Manzanar job came into a business house at Lone Pine and asked R. R. Henderson if he knew of two men who could help them out on a night shift. He said, “Yes, there are two young civilian pilot training students here who need extra work ‘so that they can pay for their board and room while they are in training to fly.” . . “Send them out,” said the contractor, and on Saturday afternoon the twe men, Larry Assel and Robert White, went out to the job and worked the first night. The work every night from 8 p. m. to 4 a. m. Inasmuch as they were going to school days and flying in between time, the same two men could hardly work all night every night, so they sent their two roommates, also CPT students, to the job on Sunday night. The two men arrived to go to work and a union business agent asked them to show their union cards. They didn’t have any, so he told the young men it would cost them $23 apiece fees, before they could work part time or any time. The boys went home, for, if they had $23 they wouldn’t have to work. Now, let's take stock for a moment. Here were four young men who are training to be flyers so that they might enter the United States army and fight for freedom and democracy. Well, why should they go to all this trouble at their own expense when all they would seem to be fighting for is to perpetuate a dictatorship of labor racketeers? What kind of democracy is this anyway? , . . Free to learn to fly to fight for Uncle Sam, but not free to work for a few dollars to help them learn to fly a plane. . ..

«8 = = “ARE WE JUST PLUNGING INTO SLAVERY?” By L. A. M., Shelbyville

Whither are we drifting, or are we just plunging into slavery? I have always been a union man

at heart, am a member in good standing at present, and yet if I am permitted to work on an army camp must pay a.fee of at least $50. What a racket! There is no justice or even good horse sense to such a method. I imagine Herr Hitler is very much pleased with conditions of this kind among us and would say go ahead and sap the suckers and if I win, they will work for just a small bite to eat.

. » 8 ” “GET BORN OVER IN HANCOCK COUNTY FOR 50c¢” By James Van Zandt, 316 N. Blackford st. In answering ‘An Old Subscriber’s

"|my dear Old Subscriber, you should

have been smart and slipped over to Hancock county and gof born as I did. It only cost me 50 cents plus three cents postage and three cents return postage and that was way back in 1882 when I was given the right to exist.

DAILY THOUGHT The Lord is>my shepherd; I

| shall not want—Psalms 28:1.

contractor asked them to| fl

TUESDAY, MAY 19, 1942

|In Washington

By Peter Edson

We'll build and sail 'em—We'll never fail ‘em! The Victory Poet be completes we know. On every ocean, we'll be in motion, The Victory Fleet will soon defeat the foe. “We'll have a bridge of ips beyond compare We'll soon be able o walk Tom Bere to over thers. With the Victory het TES 's sare dearmg!

WASHINGTON, May 19.—Th is the chorus of the new “Song the Victory Fleet,” words and music by Leonard Whitcup, which will ring out on National Maritime Day, Friday, and from then on in, to speed the big shipbuilding pro=gram—one of the most impressive of the inspiring phases of this whole gigantic war production efe fort. The song is one of those rouse ing sea chanteys that even a landlubber building lifeboats in Kokomo can limber up his larynx on and

get a belt out of bellowing or barbershopping. And .

when you accompany the tune with full orchestration end sound effects of riveting hammers, clanking an= chor chains and the blowing of full-lunged baritone and bass steamship whistles—matey it does something to your morale. Morale building is the big idea behind observance 0! Maritime Day this year and this whole shipping program is something to give your spine a tingle. I¢ isn’t just something to celebrate on saltwater, either, with maybe the Great Lakes thrown in for good measure. There will be big celebrations in the 60 shipyards where, on some 300 ways, ocean-going shi are under construction. .

It's Quite a Technique

THIRTY-TWO SHIPS are schedule to slide down the ways Friday in what will be the biggest launching on record. And the three-quarters of a million ship= ( yards workers will have something else to cheer about, for this day will mark the achievement of the Marie time Commission of two ships a day. A full million men are building parts of ships al inland plants—parts so complete they can be timed to arrive just when they're needed, hoisted into the _ hulls of the shipyard ways, riveted or welded inte, rlace and be ready to function. : : Perfection of this technique for ship building has done wonders. Originally, it was figured that six

| months—180 days—would be required to build a Lib-

erty Ship from keel laying to commissioning. But the time was soon cut to 105 days, and as a record of 83 days has been set, marine engineers now figure that the average time will soon be 90 days. That's building ships, Mister, in anybody’s language.

How It's Gone Up and Up

FROM 1922 TO 1937 there were but two oceane going cargo vessels, other than tankers, built in American shipyards. . . . U., 8. Maritime Comsmission was brought into being by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936. . . . Then came the program to build 50 ships a year for 10 years to rehabilitate America’s merchant marine. , . . In '39 came war in Europe and the program was doubled to 100 ships a year. . . . In 1940 it was doubled again—200 a year, . «. In January, 1941, the goal was re-doubled to 400 a year, but month ‘by month the quotas were increased. . . . By January, 1942, it was 1200 ships a year and by April it was announced that contracts had been let for all the 2300 big ships to be built by the end of 1943. . . . Then came the President's message on the state of the nation and a call for 50 per cent increase in shipbuilding.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

MISS KATHERINE LENROOT, chief of the children’s bureau calls attention to a national prob=lem which, unless solved, will be= come a national disgrace. It ine volves the care of the children of war workers. And, since we are all war workers in a manner of speaking, it concerns all our chil. dren. : 3 What are we fighting this war for? You may have one answer to the question while your neighbor has another: But both will agree on one point. A major objective is to create a good world for children. Yet close scrutiny of every community proves that, while we work frantically for tomorrow's child, we neglect the one standing at our elbow. In some mushroom war-industry towns little hoys and girls are running wild. Social service workers say that. With mothers and close relatives away from home from morning until night, they are left in the hands of incompetents or have no care at all, Their health, education, home training and morals suffer,

It's a Woman's Job

ISN'T THIS A poor method of preserving the way of life which we are always talking about? What's the sense of setting it up in China or India or France if it disappears in America? : Unless we take care of today's children, that way of life is bound to be lost, no matter how hard we fight or how many bonds we buy. A nation that calls its mothers to arms and industry must be prepared to provide substitute mothers or to force its women with babies to stay at home. Here's another service which cannot he handled by a federal bureau. It must be done by the home community if it is to be done well. Club women need look no farther away than their own back streets or some nearby boom town for opportunity to do noble work. Additional nursery services should be arranged for, and the housewife longing to do something for the war effort could care for an extra child in hep own home while its mother toils at a machine. This is a major task for women. They can work at it singly or in groups. The main thing is to look after our own community needs; there's entirely too much dependence upon federal management as it is, The matter cries for personal attention. Let's all agree to give it some.

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

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau Will answer amy question of fact or information, not involving extensive ree search. Write your question clearly, sign name and address, inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medical or legal advice canpot be given. Address The Times Washington Services Bureau, 1018 Thirteenth St., Washington, D. 0.) :

Q—What was the percentage increase of cost of

living in the United States from January, 1041; to <

January, 1942? A—The Bureau of Labor Statistics, W : reports an increase of 11.1 per cent during that period. and on February the index figure was 112.6 compared to an average 100 average cost in the period 1985-1939, THe Q—When was the first night air raid in the presént war? ’ A—Aug. 22-23, 1940.

- & Aa

on London

| Q—What pay does & private in the Canadian army