Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 June 1942 — Page 10
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The Indianapolis Times
ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)
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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way
TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 1042
GOOD START
NDIANA seems to be doing pretty well in its campaign to collect old scrap rubber. Tons of the valuable scrap are piling up in the form of old tires, hose, overshoes, rubber mats, bathing caps, jar washers, wading boots, heels, water bottles, raincoats, rubber soles, and even wornout baby pants. The spirit of most people has been fine, although some apparently brought in their old rubber in the belief that by so doing they could insure themselves new tires, avert gasoline rationing or whatnot. We have never been under any illusion that the campaign might produce the former or do more than modify the latter. The only purpose of the present campaign, as the President pointed out so clearly in his talk the night of June 12, is to bring in all the country’s scrap rubber so that it can “stand up and be counted.” That's the one unknown factor in the rubber situation. The government has to know the amount of scrap available, not to provide us with tires for pleasure driving, but to insure an adequate amount of rubber for our Army and Navy and defense workers. Your part and our part in this effort is simple. It is to gather up every bit of rubber you can spare—from the rubber tire on that ornamental ash tray to that worn old casing in your basement—and take or send it to your nearest filling station. Do it this week. And don’t be misled into believing that you will be doing anything more than rendering a great and necessary service to the armed forces of this nation.
“DANGEROUS WISHFUL THINKING”
E hope Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill in their proper concern over the British debacle in Libya will not forget the Pacific. Apparently inspired Washington dispatches suggest that the Midway battle has relieved the Roosevelt-Churchill conference of any immediate worry about the Pacific, thus making it easier to continue the old policy of concentrating on Europe and Africa on the theory that the Japs can be taken care of after Hitler's defeat.
Such suggestions unfortunately have a basis in Mr. Churchill's records, in efforts of certain admirals to laugh off the Jap occupation of the western Aleutians as of “no real importance,” and of other Washington officials to assume that Japanese offensive power was knocked out at Midway. In justice to those in the Pacific who have the thankless any dangerous task of meeting an enemy often better armed, the president and prime minister doubtless will weigh their warnings. 2 » ® URELY the British prime minister will not ignore the warning of the Australian prime minister that since the battles of the Coral sea and Midway Jap attacks are now carried on with new and superior air power. This comes from the same man who warned London and Washington in vain about Singapore. If President Roosevelt needs any expert testimony to add to that of the Australians and Gen. MacArthur, he has it in the reports of his chief Pacific commanders, Admiral Nimitz and Gen. Emmons. : | Admiral Nimitz in reporting the Japanese retreat from |
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defeat. Now Gen. Emmons, in asking all non-residents to leave Hawaii, warns: “The outcome of the battle of Midway has given many people a false sense of security,” he warns. “Nothing can be more dangerous than such an attitude. “To assume the enemy will not return in force and utilize every weapon at his disposal is the most dangerous kind of wishful thinking.” Not only are the Japs ready for more offensives against Australia and against Hawaii and Midway, but the Japs after three weeks are increasing their hold on the Aleutians, Within 24 hours Jap submarines were able to shell a Canadian radio station on Vancouver island and our Oregon coast. Certainly those shots could be heard in the RooseveltChurchill conference room.
NOWKEEP THEM DOWN
LL 48 states have agreed to speed up movement of war materials and civilian goods by conforming to a uniform national code of rules and regulations for motor-truck transportation and by complying with reciprocal license arrangements. It is an important achievement. Many states are giving up for the duration laws and regulations which they adopted to penalize movement of goods from other states. They are taking down, temporarily, some of the legal barriers which have been erected against free trade within the United States. It will add speed and decrease cost in the war effort. But to imply, as some seem to do, that it means a great sacrifice by the American people is stretching a considerable point. Trade barriers between the states have been raised at the expense of the American people. In peacetimes, as in wartime, they restricted commerce and increased costs. Selfish interests, seeking “protection” against goods produced in other states, thought they profited by them. The people, as a whole, never did. They were heavily penalized. It’s a shame that nothing less than a war emergency could remove even part of these barriers. Now that they are eoming down, they should never be put up again. The nation is not truly united when the states refuse to trade
freely pith each other,
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Fair Enough
By Westbrook Pegler
NEW YORK, June 23—Four unioneers of the big A. F. of L. shakedown racket called the International Union of Operating Engineers, have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Albany, N. Y., on a charge of extorting $50,000 from a lot of workers employed on a wer project known as the Voorheesville Army Depot. The indictments were found under the anti-kickback law which provides a maximum punishment of five years in prison and a $5000 fine for anyone who shall by force or threat or otherwise induce any person employed on any public work financed in whole or in part by the government to give up any part of the compensation to which he is entitled. I believe this is the first time this law has been thus invoked, although many extortioners have been openly robbing thousands of Americans on war construction jobs all over the country. About a year ago I asked one United States district attorney if this law applied to such racketeering and he said it did not. That, however, was in another district.
Why Dabble in Politics?
THE PRESENT CASE may be only a demonstration intended to signify formal disapproval of the racket for politicai effect in the coming elections. Moreover, if the law applies in Albany it also applies in every other district in the country where the same racket has been operated. It is significant that both Attorney General Francis Biddle and Tom C. Clark, described as chief of the war frauds unit of the department of justice, took occasion to declare that the present indictments were not aimed at labor. That was a gratuitous assurance of obvious political purpose. Obviously labor could not suffer by the punishment of men who victimize labor, so there is no more legitimate excuse for the remarks of Clark and Biddle than there would be for explaining that no attack on religion was meant by the indictment of some leader of the miscalled Christian Front.
One of Worst Rogue Unions
THE SO-CALLED Operating Engineers’ union is one of the worst in the whole lineup of rogue unions of the A. F. of L.. All the wiser and more decent elder statesmen of the A. PF. of L. know it is rotten and admit among themselves that this is so. The president is William E. Maloney of Chicago, a well-known political white-hat or gangster of the union racket, who owned until recently and still may own a large stable of race horses. Maloney controls the licensing system in Chicago by which the city government examines the qualifications of men seeking credentials as engineers. He has been a common mobster for many years. If an applicant refuses to join the union he can be flunked and he can be flunked for any other reason that may seem sufficient to the men controlling the licensing authority.
Oh, Yes—And Joe Fay, Too
ONE OF THE vice presidents is Joe Fay, the notorious drunken thug and racketeer who has grown rich in the union racket and who slugged David Dubinsky at the A. F. of L. convention in New
Orleans for proposing that crooks be barred from union leadership or control. More recently Fay was indicted in Syracuse, N. Y., for a brutal assault on another union man whom he attacked from behind in a dare hall and injured severely, but the case was dismissed under circumstances which smelled. The complaining witness and victim, by name Orville Warner, disappeared when Fay’s trial came up and the case was quickly dismissed on the fraudulent representation that the services of this notorious goon were required by the country in the prosecution of the war. Promptly thereafter, Warner reappeared and was reinstated in his old job as a unioneer in Rochester at a large salary. The case has not been reopened, although a new indictment could be asked and Warner this time could be placed under bond or indicted for altering his original story. Governor Lehman’s attention has been called to this scandalous case and the obvious reason why Warner disappeared, but he has done nothing about it. Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists in this newspaper are their own. They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times.
New Books By Stephen Ellis
Midway carefully refrained from describing it as a decisive |
THE SECOND full-length fantasy by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, like their first effort, “The Incomplete Enchanter.” will afford no pleasure whatever to practical people who are sure that two plus two always equal four. In the collaborators’ second fairyland thriller, “Land of Unreason,” two plus two often equal five. Indeed, a practical reviewer might conclude that Messrs. Pratt and De Camp are a prize pair of literary screwballs. But from that viewpoint, so was Lewis Carroll and so was Jonathan Swift. You will recall that the satire of “Gulliver's Travels” was so sharp and so shrewd that the politicians who couldn’t take it condemned the volume to : juvenile audience—whose delight it has been ever since. In one sense, “Land of Unreason” is pure escape reading. In another, it is a withering satire that will outlive two of its victims, the Nazis and the fascist’, And in a third, it is a midsummer night's drean with more than one nightmarish episode, .
Maybe You Get the Idea
FRED BARBER IS-an American diplomat taking a rest cure in the English countryside from the blitz and noting with interest some peculiar country customs, like leaving a bow! of milk on the windowsill for the little people. He drinks the milk and refills the bowl with some excellent scotch. And when he awakes, there are the little people trying to pin diapers on him. There is a good deal of talk about King Oberon and Queen Titania and lissom ladies fly about, just out of reach. King Oberon and his pixies are in a tough spot. The kobolds are arming against him in their hills. The kobolds drink beer in beer cellars and follow a gent they call their leader. And they are quite sure they are going to conquer the world. In the pool, a mysterious place where crawfish knights and fair ladies dwell under water, the mussels are building their perfect state. It is a delightful place and its inhabitants say so. Those who don’t are quickly and nastily dispatched. Perhaps, you will get the idea. Whether you do or not, isn't very important, For a land where two plus two equal five or 11 is hound to be interesting. And it is. Mr. De Camp is one of America’s leading fantasy writers. His work, in its weird flashes of realism, shapes up against fantasy-satire like Mark Twain's “Connecticut Yankee.” Mr, Pratt is a biographer and war commentator. The two are a rare combination.
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
TUESDAY. TT » 3 1043
Stocks and Bonds!
The Hoosier Forum
I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
“THREE QUESTIONS FOR INDIANA REPUBLICANS...”
By Inquisitive, Indianapolis Here are three questions which deserve an answer in the Forum: 1, How does the state Republican party stand on the issue of taverns and the sale of intoxicating liquors? 2. Does the Republican party approve of a sales tax on groceries and food-stuffs? I would 1 ike to know if any resolutions have been made regarding the above issues, and—Ilast but not least, 3. Does James E. Watson have to be in the make-up of the Republican party? » ” ” “MAKE NO MENTION OF HITLER FOR A WEEK” By Lillian Dinehart, 3920 Cornelius ave.
To Mr. James Strong: I agree with you regarding all this Hitler
publicity. Do you suppose we could start a movement for a “Hitler blackout week?” I believe that if throughout the world, no mention was made of this monster for a week, his twisted mind would slip across the narrow margin into complete insanity. He! might even die of rage! What about starting a petition? | 2 2 2
“MR. STANFORD ASLEEP SINCE INVASION OF NORWAY” By Claude Braddick, Kokomo
How can anyone write today that “huge ships are the true basis of superiority at sea”? P, M. Stanford may be a learned man—a naval expert, even. But, judging him solely from his Forum letter of June 20, one would think that he had been asleep since the German invasion of Norway, and that he had read nothing since Mahan, who died in 1014, When the Germans invaded Norway, most of us naval amateurs were all a-tingle. Hitler, the big clown, had made a fatal mistake. Did not the huge British navy control the seas? Would it not isolate the Germans there, and counter-in-vade? But we soon learned that it was
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not Hitler who had made the mistake. It was those who still believed that battleships could operate effectively within range of landbased bombers. We saw them driven from the Skagerack, the Kattegat and the waters about Norway. We knew then that sea power had been seriously compromised—if not nullified altogether—by air power. And subsequent events have made it doubly clear. “The mighty battleship forms a steady, substantial platform for the heaviest caliber guns’—until a tor-
| pedo-carrying plane comes along
and sinks it.
§ 4 8 “CONFOUNDING THE PROPHETS
OF DEMOCRACY’S DOOM”
By Smith A. Grady, Indianapolis.
I have before me a copy of the | St. Louis Globe-Democrat of June [ 18, which contains an editorial every paper in the country ought to reprint: “CUM LAUDE, CUM BROOM “Not long ago, a New York policeman received high scholastic honors at a university commencement. Now we learn one Isadore Goldstein has been graduated sum magna laude from the Brooklyn college. He was also awarded a graduate scholarship for proficiency in social science. This Isadore Goldstein is a broom-and-pushcart street sweeper. “It took him seven years of night school to get his bachelor’s sheepskin. ‘This in all truth is what is meant by the pursuit of learning. No ivory tower scholar is Isadore. What could be more mundane than the realities he encounters? The white wing will soon be a white collar. He has ranged highest in
Side Glances=By Galbraith
8:28 |
"I want an anniversary present for my wifel Have you anything alls or something
, rantive in the, wey of
for a ruck driver
civil service tests for a federal job as an assistant economist. “Maybe it's prosaic to pick platitudes out of such instances of the democratic way. Maybe it's old stuff to draw allusions from the Goldsteins about opportunity in a country where liberty is a working tradition. Perhaps it's old hat to say this sort of thing is what we mean by America—a land that makes rail magnates out of ferryboat captains, governors out of fish market clerks, theatrical artists out of Bowery waiters. “We like the Goldstein story. It seems to confound the prophets of democracy’s doom.”
2 o 8 “THIS IS THE OSTRICH METHOD WHICH BRINGS DOOM” By R. W. D., Indianapolis.
I have just returned from a visit to the east and I am appalled at the lack of preparation on the part of Indianapolis in civilian defense. The cities in the east are completely organized ready to go- into action at a moment's notice. The block wardens have contacted their fellow citizens and everything is in readiness. But here things are different. I don’t know who my warden is and I called up the war memorial and asked and they couldn't tell me either. I have been told that nothing has been done here about getting sirens or any other sort of equipment, presumably on the theory that “we're not going to be bombed, anyway.” This is the ostrich philosophy which brought Norway into bondage, drove France to the wall and has left so many other countries overriden and torn. We must realize that this is a war of survival and that we must leave no stone unturned in our efforts. We must prepare and prepare now. There is no use waiting until bombs fall in Philadelphia and then start screaming and tearing our hair and getting excited about doing the things which we should have started so many months ago.
4 # # “I WILL TEACH MY CHILD HIS RELIGION AT HOME” By L. L. G., Indianapolis.
If we were to allow religion to be taught in our schools, then who would we select as the teacher? We couldn't select a Catholic or a Protestant for ore would be o. k. for part of the people but ot for all The sure wey of a revolution would be to compel religion on people who don't believe it. I would fight to death the right of my opinion and for the right to work out my own salvation. If these women who are writing to the papers on this subject would go borrow their neighbor's Bible and read it until they come to the definition of religion, I am sure a lot of them would know a lot more than they now do. Pure and undefiled religion is to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and keep yourself unspotted from the world. How many of you hypocrites are doing this? Instead you are trying to get people to see the way that someone else tells you how they were told to act. Go read your Bible and say I will teach my child at home when I know enough to teach it.
DAILY THOUGHT
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.—I Peter 5:8,
THE INFERNAL serpent; he it was whose guile, stirr’'d up with
envy and revenge, deceived the mother of mankind.~Milton,
In ato
By Peter Edson
WASHINGTON, June 23—The biggest—not fire sale—but fire insurance sale ever held is scheduled to get under way before July lL. Fire insurance salesmen will become busier than the proverbial brush salesmen, and when the man knocks on your door the chances are even he won't ask, “Any bonds today?’ but, “How about some nice fresh bomb insutance, lady?” It's all part of the government's new War Damage Corp. the billion-dollar baby of the Jesse Jones-RFC family. At midnight on June 30 the government will fold up the blanket and tend which have been protecting all property in the United
| States against possible damage by enemy action—
bomb, bullet, shell or incendiary. After that date, if you don’t have one of these new War Damage Corp. policies, it's simply your tough luck. You won't be able to collect damages from anyone, The job of peddling this new insurance has been turned over to the regular fire insurance companies. To date, some 500 private companies have agreed to participate in this program and they, with their 175,000 salesmen, will be out to sign up the customers, Bight million sets of rules and regulations have been printed as an initial order, and three and a half mile lion application forms and policies. :
It's Good Government, Too
THE BUSINESS OF turning all this over to private insurance companies instead of setting up a huge government machine to do it is the typical technique of the RFC boys at their best. The mere thought of how this might have been kicked around as a political football, with another huge government agency hiring 175,000 salesmen, is enough to scare you to death, Subletting the job to the private fire insurance come panies, who have their customers already in the card index, is not only good business, it’s good government as well, The War Damage Corp., which is nothing more than the government holding company for the entire operation, has worked out a deal with private insure ance companies which really isn’t so hot for the com« panies, though the government also stands to lose a lot if damage is heavy in any sizable area. The insurance companies will assume 10 per cent of all losses in excess of net premiums collected after expense, with aggregate loss to the companies of 20 million, Government loss may run into billions,
So Stocks Are Out
THE COMPANIES WILL be paid 3% per cent of all premiums to cover costs and overhead, with a minimum of 50 cents a policy and a maximum of $700. The insurance salesmen will get 5 per cent of the premium collected, with a minimum of $1 and a maximum of $1000 a policy. Compare those percentages with the average 28 per cent of premium paid agents as commission on regular sales of fire insurance policies. For the average house of $10,000 valuation, the cost of the war insurance is $10 a year. You can insure your household goods, your jewels, paintings, stamp collections and the manuscript on your unpublished novel, up to $5000 on the item, with a maximum of $10,000. You can't insure your bills, your money, your deeds or your stocks and bonds. How much of this insurance will be sold, how big a business this government insurance will become, what the profits will be if there are no raids on U. 8S. shores, what the losses will be if there are—all these questions are of course speculative,
A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
ON THE OTHER side of the equal rights question, I have the following letter from a New York man who wishes his name with= held: “You write that you women do not have equal pay: for equal work and that something should be done about it. Why should you have? If you knew anything at all about the subject under discussion, upon which you pose as an expert, you would know that in industry a group of female employees as compared to a group of male employees means— “Greater rest room expense; “Greater medical clinic expense; “More extra reporting in the morning, since there will be more female absentees; “Greater employee turnover, which means more hiring and training expense; “Greater acoident insurance expense.
"You Are Arguing With Nature"
“Lesser return to industry out of the training expense,” he goes on, “because’ fewer, if any, superine tendents, managers and other executives will come out of the female working forces. Even those women who are capable of being executives are unsatisfactory, because other women won't work under them, or because they leave to marry or to have a baby. “There are a dozen other items. They add up te one thing: It costs more to have women on the working forces. If you say, overlook that and pay equal wages, be honest enough to say that you want a dot of charity. “And when legislators stupidly follow your advice, compelling equal rights, women will be (and right fully) discharged and replaced by men. “I am not arguing with you. You are arguing with nature and mathematics. I am only trying to put a stop to the wrong information which adds to the ignorance of the reading public on this question.” What do you think about that, girls?
Questions and Answers
(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of fact or information, not 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, C.)
Q—How did the property damage in the New England hurricane of September 21, 1938, compare with the San Francisco fire of 1806, and the Chicago fire of 1871?
A—The New England hurricane has been ranked as “America’s costliest disaster.” The exact property damage has never been ascertained, but eccording to the Travelers Insurance Co. the surveys ef ine surance companies and others justify the acceptance of an estimate of at least $400,000,000, compared with the commonly accepted figures of $350,000,000 loss in the San Francisco fire and $200,000,000 in the Chicago fire.
Q—Who may obtain new telephone service under the restrictions now in effect?
A—Only persons or organizations engaged in direct war work or in occupations essential to public welfare.
Q—I have been told that an electric current flows around the outside of a wire, rather than inside it. - Is this true?
A—An electric current consists of a stream of electrons flowing through the wire, Electromagnetio disturbances, however, follow the surface of the wire, The two are intimately connected, and for this reason
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