Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 June 1942 — Page 10

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Times

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

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Give Lioht an® the People Will Find Thew Own Way

WEDNESDAY,

JUNE 17, 1042 EVERY OUNCE COUNTS MILLION tons of serap rubber, collected and used, would be a big heip to this country right now. That's a lot of rubber, but the country has a lot of people, and the president has called upon all of them to turn in all the old rubber they can postibly spare. Have you done your part?

THE BATTLESHIP TAKES A BACK SEAT T looks as if the strategists in Washington have conceded that the battleship is no longer queen of the seas. A lot of nonprofessionals have been persuaded of that ever since the British battleships Repulse and Prince of Wales went down off Malaya under air attack, But now the navy itself, according to Senator Brewster | of Maine, has decided against building five 60,000-ton super- | battle already authorized by congresg—a decision | which, as future historians view it, may rank with the sub- | gtitution of firearms for the bow and arrow. Instead of battleships, the navy will bear down on aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers. [Half a million tong of new carriers are contemplated under the bill reported vesterday by the house naval affairs committee. Half a million tons would be, say 25 of the 20,000-ton type. This doesn’t necessarfly mean that the battleship is | washed up, but it does indicate a healthy recognition by ! the high command in Washington that the airplane is boss land,

ships

at sea as well as over

» FI HE decision to hold down on battleships and go stronger ! on airpower will be welcomed by most Americans, Rut there mav be some skepticism about the wisdom | of pouring so much of our airpower expenditure into the | carvier—a weapon that ig even more vulnerable than the capital ship. Ask the Japs. They have already lost, apparently, the bulk of their carriers, Our own carriers, with the tragic exception of the Lexington, have fared better, And their torpedo planes | and dive bombers have kicked the daylights out of Jap naval formations. But, another time, the breaks might go against them, What we're getting at is that it might be injudicious to concentrate too much on our airpower ahoard ship. The long-range, land-based bomber looks like the best bet in this war. Consider, for instance, the job done by half a dozen | flving fortresses in the battle of Midway—"one Japanese one carrier and one heavy cruiser bombed, a destroyer smashed, four fighter planes downed and two more crippled.” All that by a mere half dozen planes. We're happy to see Washington giving airpower precedence over the battleship. But it would be very bad news if it appeared that the carrier program would stand in the the maximum expansion of the heavy-bomber

battleship,

way of

program.

THE JAPS WON'T WAIT MERICAN airmen are figh'ing in four mighty battles, with the final results unknown. The battle for the Aleutians has been running two weeks, The China battle has no clear beginning or end. The two great air-sea battles | in the Mediterreanean have lasted four days, and may be | continuing. The China battle admittedly is going against the allies, but both sides claim the advantage in the others. Enemy losses in the Aleutians and the Mediterranean are said to be

heavy. In the Mediterranean, two allied convoys are reported to have fought through to Malta and Tobruk, which were in grave need of relief. In the Aleutians the Jap landing pare still retain their toe-holds, so far as known. In addition to these four great battles, American tanks and planes are in the hot battle of Libya. American fliers are bombing Rumanian and German positions on the Russian front and are active in India and in the English raids over western Europe. American ships and planes are in the battles of the | convoy routes on all the seas, and MacArthur's sea and air forces are in daily combat with the Japs in the southern Pacific. »

» SO the global war ig raging, with American fighters in the thick of it almost everywhere. But we should not let our just pride give us the notion that the United States is strong enough to fight victoriously on all the world fronts at once. We are not. As part of global strategy we must begin to concentrate, as our allies properly are concentrating. As England and Russia, with our help, are centering on Hitler while ignoring the Japs, it is all the more important that we protect Britain, Russia, China and ourselves by licking the Japs. Reinforce the Hawaii-Midway-Alaskan barrier for defense and offense!

SOUND THEORY ECENT supreme court decisions, notably that on the Jehovah's Witnesses case, suggest that we cannot abolish split decisions by changing the court's personnel. Nine smart men, well informed and accustomed to forming their own conclusions, inevitably will differ on moot points, which supposedly are the only matters which reach the highest tribunal. The decisions indicate also how deep-grained is the American concept that the courts are not super-legislative bodies—that within certain broad bounds, the people must be permitted to suffer for the errors of their chosen lawmakers. That was the expressed theory of the “conservatives” or “reactionaries” who used to make up the court; that is the theory of the “liberals” or “radicals” appointed ‘by President Roosevelt. It is a very sound :

Mail subscription rates iL

| described as voodoo matter.

| Negro paper,

Fair Enough

‘By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, June 17--James M. Nabrit Jr, the secretary of Howard university in Washington, DP. C, a Negro institution, writes on behalf of the university to disown a recent communication which I quoted and discussed in an essay on the low quality of two of the leading Negro newspapers, the Chicago Defender and the Pittsburgh Courier. X “The faets,” he says in part, “aye, in substance, these: Otto MeClarrin, an em-

ployee of Howard university, wrote an open letter | to you in his capacity as national president of a stu-

dent association of journalism in which he made no reference to Howard university, but did send the article to you ih an envelope stamped with a return address from: Otte MeOlarrin, the Press Service. Howard university, Washington, D, C” “Howard university,” writes Mr. Nabrit, “is deeply concerned by reason of the damaging effects caused by your article to the public relations of the univer sity. However, I am certain that you did not ine tend it to be so and that you will be more than glad to inform your readers that Howard university did not attempt to answer you and did not authorize anyone else to answer you.”

Listen to This, Mr. Nabrit

I AM GLAD to publish this disavowal, but the record should show that the document in question is not in the form of a letter of any kind, either open or private. It is a mimeographed document of the kind commonly used by schools and many other ine stitutions in their publicity work. It contained neither salutation nor signature, it did not address me in its text, but referred to me in the third person, and it bore no closing such as any letter would bear. Moreover, it was rubber-stamped on the first page “From Otto MeClarrin, the Press Service, Howard university, Washington, D. ©.” and the only personal note wag scribbled across the top of page one, in penéil: “Mr, Pegler: I thought you might be inter. ested in this open letter te you. Otto MeClarrin.” Someone has neglected to tell the seeretary of the university the whole truth, for Mr. Nabrit says the only reference to the university was on the envelope when the fact is that the copy, itself, iz stamped, also, as an outgiving of the university's press service.

"They've Had Their Chins Out"

AS TO THE ORIGINAL subject of the contro-

| versy I should like to report alco that the recent con-

vention in Chicago of the National Negro Publish ers’ association recognized one of the matters mentioned in my criticism of the Negro press, namely the publication of advertisements which might be In this program, for

the afternoon session of June 8, is the following item: |

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES Let's Hope It's Loaded!

——— O —

i Ha at Me ae

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1942

A at He C5 ans

In Washin

|

‘By Peter Edson

gton

WASHINGTON, June 17.—The major problems of the war effort can be shaken down into a single problem of distribution. Not just transportation, though that's im=portant and closely related, buty the much broader meaning of dis= tribution which includes supply and allocation and rationing. It's really amazing how little is known about this subject. It takes a war economy to bring out that | fact in stark nakedness, Any problem of production can be licked, But the problems of distribution are something else again and they hit at every level from local distribution of the morning's milk, of which there is a surplus, to world distribution of rubber, of which there is an artificial scarcity. The problems of dis- | tribution therefore reduce themselves to taking these | surpluses and shortages and finding ways to divide them up so that everyone has enough to get by on. | There are no rules for this matter of distribution. | The only rule of thumb has been that nothing was | ever distributed to anyone unless it was profitable | to do so.

Maybe We'll Learn Something

NO ONE GOVERNMENT agency has ever concerned itself with the over-all aspects of distribution, Even TNEC—the temporary national economic committee, which supposedly dug into every phase of con- | temporary economics—was woefully weak in its studies

[| of this subject,

The Hoosier Forum

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

“Is quack medicine, numbers, good luck charms, ete. |

type of ads hurting us?” I do not know the result of the publishers’ delib-

| erations but offer this item as proof that the ques- | | tion was not invented or provoked by me, but had | | | become a problem for serious consideration among the

publishers themselves. Further on this subject I should like to quote from an editorial in another the Los Angeles Tribune, which says: “Negro newspapers have had their ching stuck out long past the point where they should have known better, but nothing happened until Pegler beheld this vulnerable position and took a swing at it. That swing, which came from the floor, delighted a lot of Negroes who have suffered past the point of endurance from the misrepresentation of such journalism as the Chicago Defender and the Pittsburgh Courier.”

"A Blessing in Disguise"

KNOWING WHAT RICH dividends such advers tisements pay to those tew publishers low enough to print them, I well knew in advance that I was inviting a storm of abusive lies from men whose racket was thus exposed. The Communists even perceived in this expose of an imposition by Negro publishers on Negro readers an attack on Negro womanhood. An Indianapolis Negro journalist writes: “What you did was a blessing in disguise; you did for Negro newspapers what the editors were afraid to do for themselves.”

One point I made was that such editors in their |

editorials tell the Negro he is a very high grade

| human being but, in ads, alongside, play him for an

ignorant, superstitious fool, for money. My Indianapolis Negro journalist friend says: “We know it is a detriment to ractal improvement if we write about the glorious gesture of democracy made by Crispus Attucks at Bunker Hill and then adver tise the chance of good luck forever on the same page.”

Frankly Speaking

By Norman E. Isaacs

THE CITY PARK board has announced that it is cutting its budget by some $36,000. As sort of an afterthought, the board added that this eliminated a few jobs, including that of the assistant recreation director, Patrick Rooney. All of which comprises a very neat political finesse by Jackiel W. Joseph, president of the park board. Mr. Rooney has been an aggravating symbol to Mr. Joseph for two years now. Mr. Rooney and his clerk have been the only two merit employees in city hall. A very distasteful symbol it has been, indeed, to Mr. Joseph since Mr. Rooney insists on picking people on merit rather than on their politics. It's not hard to add up the score on this affair. For a good many years our park and recreation system were operated exclusively on a patronage basis. It was proved over and over that all a person neec'ed to obtain a job as a recreation wtrker was to present a letter from his precinct committeemen or ward chairman. Some of these persons were the worst possible ine dividuals to have in contact with children, The record was a disgraceful one,

Coldly Efficient Is Right Term

A GROUP OF influential Indianapolis women became interested. They became the backbone of the mayor's advisory committee on recreation. Mr. Joseph played a merry game of ring-around-the-rosy, finally was forced into the position of accepting merit tests for recreation workers. Along with the reforms came Mr. Rooney, who

had achieved an excellent record as head of the 1

Catholic Youth Organisation's recreational work. Mr. Rooney is a trained recreation worker. That's his career. He is one of the most coldly efficient—yet pleasant—men in his business. Last year, under Rooney's direction, the whole thing was run on a merit basis. And the city had the best record it ever had. National recreation experts applauded the Indianapolis progress. All this settled, the groups which had fought o hard for this reform turned their attention to other problems. And Mr, Joseph—even more coldly effici« ent—went to work on his budget. The result: No Mr. Rooney. No Mr. Rooney's clerk. Why? Don't be silly! This is an election year. Who wants a merit employee around city hall?

So They Say—

We must establish a more just and equitable order after this war. We must be sure this time that the

gallant dead shall not have died in vain—Canon A.

C. Don of 8t. Margarets Ohuren, London. oe ping to dtr (he whe wuld en

Mr. Guy Sallee, whom I recognize

“DRIVE FOR WORLD UNITY IS JUST PLAIN SOCIALISM” By Edward F, Maddox, 859 W. 28th at, You said a mouthful when you (praised Alf Landon's “Kansas Common Sense” and Alf Landon hit the nail on the head by warning | American citizens of the hoopla drive for a dizay “Utopia” world se-

international socialism.

Here is some straight from the shoulder Hoosier common sense: The big drive for world unity, collective security, a quart of milk a day, all to be obtained by merging

curity quart of milk a day bait for {missions and boards created by

us all into a world commonwealth is the old international socialism! doctrine on a grand scale.

It all stems from the Collectivists, Socialists, Communists or whatever you wish to call the disci ples of Marx, Lenin and Stalin. There, my [riends, is the plain truth. The political fanatics are having a field day. Stop, look and!

| listen, Stick to geod common sense. |

|

8 # 4 | “DEMOCRATS ESCAPE FAGLE EYE OF DILIGENT SALLEE" | By M, David, 1728 N. Meridian st.

fas a Democratic politician and defeated candidate in the iate primary, seems teeming with criticism of General Tyndall, Republican candidate for mayor,

Mr, Sallee ascribes illegal conduct against the general in that he is participating in eivilian defense | activities while he is a candidate] for office. If what Mr. Sallee charges is the fact, then air war= dens and the many thousands of our good citizens who are training themselves for emergency defense work for the protection of lives and homes, would come into the same category, were they candidates for office. Our laws forbid and make it unlawful for legislators to receive appointments to positions created by such bodies of which they are members nor can they benefit by appropriations made by themselves. Yet, the McNutt administration inaugurated the practice of appoint ing legislators to positions on com-

duty from a political job.

(Times readers are invited their these columns, religious con. Make

your letters short, so ali can

to express views in

troversies excluded.

have a chance. Letters must

be signed.)

themselves and the succeeding Democratic administrations have continued that practice, all without the notice and protest of the worried and watchful Mr, Sallee. Democrats seem to escape the cagle eye and diligent pen of Mr. | Sallee, the cause evidently being his inability to distinguish a patriotic

y & 3 “WASHINGTON SHOULD CUT EXPENSES ONE-THIRD” By Ray Echols, 4028 8. Fast st.

I drive an average of 47,000 miles yearly in Indiana, This year I will cut this one-third to save tires and! gasoline and I find I am doing al-| most as much business; counting my expenses that I will cut, I think] I am doing as well as ever,

Riding over the state I hear a| great deal of different views on all] matters. I do not carry tales be- | tween towns as I was taught better 20 or 25 years ago. I am one that is trying to buy a $18.75 bond every|' month since Pearl Harbor and have| done it so far. | Now one story that left its sting] on me was the expense the govern-! ment is allowing for certain parties | traveling over the country buiding up a political machine for himself. We Hoosiers know he doesn't just) travel first-class, he has to have the best of everything. Now anyone who knows what traveling expense is knows that his last trip cost more than two ordinary families, like my own, will spend for war bonds for a whole year or 24—$18.75 ones. Now another I hear so much about of course is the gasoline shortage or to save the tires. So many say if the government would just pass a 40-mile speed law and

|

Side Glances—By Ga

Vary

[braith

| take the short end and you

for penalty take the car out of circulation: for the duration. That, to my idea, would help although if you drive anyways near a defense plant at time of shift changes it would almost cause a shutdown if everyone was caught the same day.

From the storekeepers came the complaint of the price ceiling. They want it curbed at the source and then up the line, Start at the farmer and the manufacturer. That means freezing all standard farm commodities and wages. The farm people think so many different ways that it would be hard to judge just what they want. I think there is going to be made many changes in our representatives to congress this year. From news that we get at the country store, the county seat towns, the large ‘filling stations where trucks hang out, I believe there is only one sure of his seat and that is Mr. Ludlow and I am not a Democrat either. I vote for the man and not the ticket. Mr. Springer of Connersville is, next to an even bet but the rest is! will more than break even on all the rest. If expenses were cut one-third at | Washington—I mean all govern- | ment, expense outside of war sup- | plies—you wouldn't have to ballyhoo bond sales for the people will flood | the treasury with money to beat that axis bunch in a hurry.

y wo 9 ‘WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED

TO DO WITH CHILDREN?" By Mrs, R. A. U, Indianapolis Won't somebody please tell me what is the matter with people of this city? A year ago my husband, our two sons and I came up here to make our home. My husband is a welder on defense work and we cannot find a decent place to live with our two small sons. I have nice children and am a very clean housekeeper. We buy bonds and try to act like decent American citizens but every house we turn to they say “no children” or “one child is ok. but not two.” What are we supposed to do with our children? Are all people heartless and cruel for it is cruel to turn families away from empty houses when we are all fighting te win this war, I have some friends who have the same trouble as we do. My sons may some day grow up to fight to defend these very people who have turned them away. ... won't somebody do something s0 other people can live, too? Do people forget they once were children or once had a family of their own? I don't see how people can be so heartless toward innocent children. I'm writing this for myself and other mothers from out of town, wives of defense workers.

” » ” “ENOUGH TO WORRY ABOUT WITHOUT TEACHING RELIGION By Miles Canovan, Bedford It unthinkable that anyone would consider the teaching in public schools of any kind of religion as is being done and sanctioned by our present state superintendent.

Surely, we can find enough to worry about without our children being forced to attend a school where the religious doctrine of a church is taught in which they do not believe,

DAILY THOUGHT

By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. —Matthew 12:37.

IT IS AS easy to draw back a

is

stone thrown with force from the| drid,’

ha

In this wartime controlled economy, there are half | a dozen government agencies concerning themselves | with some phase of distribution, though no-one has general, co-ordinating supervision, and it would probably be too big a job for anyone to tackle. Maybe, out of all the experience gained in meeting our mounting wartime problems of distribution, enough knowledge will be acquired to lick dat ol’ debbil distribution as called for by Point Four of the Atlantic Charter, “to further the enjoyment by all states . . . of access . . , to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity.”

Another Rubber Hope

ANOTHER HOPE for solving the synthetic rubber problem, though still in the laboratory stage, is buty= lene glycol, about which you may be hearing more from time to time. The basis of all synthetic rubber is butadiene, the gas which can be made from petroleum or ethyl alcohol. The alcohol is made by adding a ferment to a sugar or starch solution and distilling the resulting | fermented mash. Using a different fermenting agent, instead of getting ethyl alcohol, butylene glycol is obtained. Advantage of butylene glycol is said to be that it yields more butadiene per bushel of grain than ethyl alcohol. The yeast, or fermenting agent which produces butylene glycol, was developed at the University of Iowa.

Some Odds and Ends

Feldspar (cost 50 to 75 cents a hundredweight, wholesale) is recommended by Geological Survey as the best putter-outer of magnesium incendiary bombs. + + + Lumber produced in Alaska has been declared exempt from price regulation for 60 days. . . . You even have to get a permit to buy a new airplane tire, + + + Manufacturers of medicine are now restricted as to the amount of spices they can use. output is half a billion a year, equal to the cost of the Panama canal. . . , Scientific research projects not connected with the war effort won't be given laboratory equipment. . . . Wooden pails and tubs will do a comeback owing to restrictions on manufacture of steel pails and tubs. . . . Twenty million of the 28 million passenger cars must be kept running if the country’s transportation system isn't to break down. Editor's Note: The views expressed hy columnists in this newspaper are their own. They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times,

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

THE FOLLOWING letter puts questions too hard for me to answer, but they will certainly bear thinking about. Maybe you have some opinions about them: “Is the middle-class person (not in defense work) on the way out financially? I've been married 20 years and during that time we have budgeted our rent and insurance around our salary. “If you live in a city there are three bills you have to meet regularly—home payments, if you are buying a home, and we are; utili~ ties; insurance. These items can’t be cut. “For people of our kind, then, where is the extra money coming from that is being asked of us in war bonds and new taxes? The only way out, as I see it, is to drop our insurance which we've carried for over 15 years. I could cry when I think of how we have saved and done without to pay for it. “Unfortunately we are not raaking big money. We earn the same salary we got four years ago—there have been no raises for us, and there are thousands of our kind in the United States. ‘The increase in prices has taken up any excess buying power we have,

'We're on the Way Out for Good’

“I'VE LIVED ON the same allowance for 20 years. Our home payments are $38, utilities run to $15, insurance is $30. Then we must put aside $10 a month for clothes. “My husband buys two suits a year, and it takes six months to get them paid for. He has to buy an overcoat every four or five years, and there are such things as underwear, shirts and shoes, so you see this $10 item in our budget is not extravagant. “Of what is left—and it seems to get smaller all the time-—we have to meet local and federal taxes, which are going up, coctors’, dentists’ and fuel bills, Christmas bills, Community Fund and Red Cross donations, and other things good citizens are expected to support. “What I'd like to know is how we can take 10 per cent of our salary for War Bonds? The only possible way is to use what we've saved for emergencies, or borrow on our home and our insurance policies. It seems to me the middle class always gets hit hardest. It looks now as if weie on the way out for good.”

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information, mot involving extensive research. Write your 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. ©.) @--Does the department of agriculture issue a bulletin about growing mushrooms? A-—Yes, Farmers’ Bulletin 1875, “Mushroom Grow=ing in the United States,” price ten cents from the superintendent of documents, Washington, D. C. Postage stamps are not accepted in payment. @—~What selections were used as themes in the photoplay, “The Mark of Zorro”?

A Zone Tusuellof So suis and “Ma-

t

++ U.S soap ¥