Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 June 1942 — Page 12

PAGE 12

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

The Indianapolis Times

RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE Editor Business Manager (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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ǤS5> RILEY 35551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1942

WHAT'S WRONG IN EGYPT? A MERICANS who are watching the decisive battle for

’ Egypt as a British interest are shortsighted. We have’

a stake in it—a very large one. i Much of our war material has been diverted to Egypt during the last year. Before Pearl Harbor, equipment was sent to Africa for which American commanders in the Philippines and elsewhere were crying. , And during the last six months, the Middle East pool as been augmented by many American planes which might have saved Burma, the Chinese air bases, and the western Aleutians. That priority strategy was based on the theory that the united nations must hold the Middle East at all cost, pcause it is the crossroads to three continents and many sels. Nazi seizure of its oil, and a Nazi junction with the “4ps, would prolong the war indefinitely. is Because of this direct and indirect American stake, wy country shares with Britain the right to an explanation ine allied debacle in Libya and the Egyptian retreat. »

» n =

HIS IS the first case where the old weakness of ‘too little and too late” does not apply. According to the early London statements the allied army at first had more and better troops and planes, tank equality, and superior supply lines; plus the added advantage of the British fleet. British and American correspondents at the front seem to agree that the British generals were inferior to Rommel, lacking initiative and leadership to match the high quality of the allied troops. But it is easy to make scapegoats of defeated generals. That has been done several times before in the Middle East— as well as in Singapore and elsewhere—without improving the results. Hence the growing belief in England that the fault is not so much with individual generals as with an antiquated organization and system. particularly the lack of unified command. Americans should reserve judgment until they have analyzed Prime Minister Churchill's report to commons on the cause and cure of this military malady.

- »

STRETCHING THE RUBBER DRIVE

RESIDENT ROOSEVELT has extended the scrap-rub-ber drive for 10 more days—a desirable and necessary step in view of its disappointingly small results thus far. With only 219,000 tons of used rubber goods turned in up to June 27, the campaign has fallen so short of some of the more optimistic predictions that there is a tendency to regard it as a sad failure. It is by no means that. After all, in two weeks it brought out of hiding quite a lot of rubber that might never have been obtained by any other method. And between now and July 10 it should bring out a lot more. Every ounce you can contribute will help to make the final report more encouraging.

TO WIN THE WAR—AIRPOWER F I'THER the united nations must take all the wraps off

deed they do not lose it. This war will be won with air power or it will not be won. If the early events of the war were not evidence enough, events of the last two months have clinched the case. It was the awesome threat of Hitler's air might that subdued Austria, Czechoslovakia and Denmark.

slavia. It was air power that inflicted death and destruction on London for a hundred dreadful days in 1940—a Hitler program that faded and failed only because the R. A. F. fighter planes were strong enough to ward it off. = n » » = 2 T WAS a lack of air power that caused the fall of Bataan, and the fall of Singapore and Java and Burma. Air power sank the mighty Prince of Wales and Repulse. Air power sank the U. S. battleship Arizona and the Jap battleship Haruna, as well as half a dozen Jap carriers and our own great Lexington. Air power spotted and disabled the “unsinkable” German battleship Bismarck—and could have sunk it, except that the admiralty directed surface vessels to finish the job. American air power, striking in Macassar strait and in the Coral sea, saved Australia from invasion. Air power saved Midway in that spectacular battle of the mid-Pacific. Air power against sea power, or land power, is like shooting fish in a barrel. ® r > = ” » T IS NOT enough to build up an air auxiliary of the greatest land army in U. S. history. It is not enough to create an air auxiliary to a two-ocean navy, or a three- or fourocean navy. It will take a five-ocean air force to win the war. We have the resources, the brains, the skill, the genius, the manpower to build an incomparably great and destructive air armada—an armada that will defeat the axis by

“a destroying it.

\

But it will take something more than all these Jhings to do the job. It will take air leadership. You can’t run aa air armada from an obsolete battleship. The airmen of this country, the manpfacturers, the designers, are ready for such a program. It’s up to the statesmen and the high strategists to catch up and give air power the priority it must have if this war is to be won by us in 1943 or 1944.

ITS EVEN-STEPHEN | more fun to give than to lend—and often costs about

gathe ge :

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

orthern Lights!

NEW YORK, June 30.—Regarding the attempt of the C.I.0.' council of Ft. Wayne, Ind. to muzzle the News-Sentinel of that city by intimidating the local advertisers, I think it should be pointed out that those advertisers and all other advertisers have as much at stake in any such fight as the proprietors of the newspapers. If they withdraw their business from our daily press under threats of boycott, the press will go broke. But it will not go out of existence. It will just cease to be a free press and will blossom forth as a subsidized press of which Germany and Italy provide many alarming examples. The subsidized press can be very attractive for it doesn’t have to count costs but the truth is not in it and, under a dictatorship, advertisers are not solicited to buy space but ordered #5 do so and told how much they must pay. Not only that, however, but the people are told what they must believe and I earnestly suggest that if the rank and file of the C. I. O. in Ft. Wayne comply with a boycott order from their council, thus forcing the advertisers to slay the News-Sentinel, they will strike a blow against their own freedom of belief and expression. It seems unlikely that they will comply but the threat is there and it should be considered in all its ugly implications.

It's Everybody's Battle

THE WISE AMERICAN businessman who spends money to advertise should always ‘realize that it is to his own interest and the interest of American freedom that he refrain from interfering with the editorial policy or the news judgment of papers in which he buys space. The press should be as independent of his judgment or prejudices in such matters as it is independent of pressure from political parties or agencies of the government, and advertising should be placed with an eye only to advertising value. a The people, in their turn, ill serve themselves if they punish a business firm by withdrawing their trade because the firm buys space in a paper whose editorial and news judgment offends the political beliefs or personalities of men in control of their unions. I can hear the C. I. O. council of Ft. Wayne now saying that I am pleading for my special interest as a newspaper writer operating under the freedom of the press. But my fundamental interest is no greater

By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, June 30.—The question arises as to whether the

U. S. tanker construction program

is big enough. The way things were seven months ago, concentrated on picking off tankers, the United States stood to have the largest tanker fleet in the world. Britain had a pre-war fleet of some 430 tankers, as against 360 for the U. 8. Then the maritime commission program plus private tanker construction indicated an increase of the tanker fleet

+ by 313 ships in two years—three a week—to bring the

total to 673 vessels. aE + Just how many tankers have been sunk is restricted information. Privately kept logs of publicly ah nounced tanker sinkings indicate a minimum of 23 up to mid-February and a minimum of 32 up to early June, when specific information oun the type of vessel torpedoed was withheld. And the unofficial grand total of more than 300 vessels sunk since Dec. 7 gives no information as to what percentage were tankers. Tanker losses were, of course, reduced when these vessels were withdrawn from coastwise trips, where their characteristic silhouette made them easy targets for subs. But the dependence of the war on tankerborne petroleum products and the serious tanker losses focus attention on this tanker program and emphasize the issue of whether it needs to be and whether it can be expanded.

Building Tankers Is Slow at Best

OF THE 313 NEW tankers under construction or under contract, 48 originally were contracted for by private shipping and petroleum interests, 28 were the smaller, so-called “coastal” type, and the remainder were the standard maritime commission large ‘type

of fast tanker. .

These standard design tankers are 500-foot boats

| 69 feet of beam and 39 feet in depth. They gross

than the interest of any other American. George Spelvin, American, the rank and file machinist or toolmaker in a C. I. O. factory, has as much to lose as I have and should be wary just now because the unions, combined, by the exercise of their power to tax him, are in a posifion to try to set up their own press everywhere and compel the advertisers to | play ball with them. In return for advertising revenue |

The Hoosier Forum

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

they surely would undertake to reverse the boycott | process initiated in Ft. Wayne and compel George Spelvin to trade only with approved stores, meaning those which buy space in the union press.

“PEGLER SO ONE-SIDED IT IS TRULY PATHETIC” By Harry L. Hinman, 803 Yoke ave.

Talking about slush funds incessantly as you do, Mr. Pegler, I would like to ask you just who

(Times readers are invited to express their these columns, religious conexcluded. Make your letters short, so all can

views in

Look at Coughlin's Paper FOR A PATTERN, or, as we say In our trade, a

troversies

: : ~__ | to enforce this boycott. air power or they will needlessly prolong the war, if in- |

The Air Patrol

dummy of the subsidized press we have to look no further than some specimens which exist already. Charles E. Coughlin’s paper was supported by a subsidy or rakeoff from a large political following. We don’t need to discuss its character for we know it well. Another example, a paper published largely for the personal and political glorification of Henry Van

Arsdale of the New York electricians’ union, purported to tell his 20.000 members the whole story of a shooting case in which he was convicted but finally released from accusation entirely by recantation of the wounded men. But, in telling the “whole story” to the members, his paper thought it unnecessary to tell them that the wounded men had been paid $15,000 out of the union treasury. Our daily free press, the commercial press, if you will, is cleaner than any other and its independence has been maintained by the advertisers and the people who buy their wares. It will lose that independence and a subsidized press will take its place if the policy of the C. I. O. council of Ft. Wayne is executed generally over the country. ! The Pt. Wayne American rank and file: will be extending their Hands for the chains of totalitarian slavery if they permit their union bosses to use them

pays you for searching for every bit of dirt as you seem to spend all of your time—but of course on only one side of the fence, Your articles might carry a little more weight if you were not so vindictive — so narrow-minded — so one-sided it is truly pathetic. It is true that the power of repetition is great. However the public at large knows even if you choose to ignore the fact, there are two sides to every question. You have the gall to head your column “Fair Enough.” OKay, Mr. Pegler, I challenge you to live up to only what you yourself have set as your standard. I only ask you to spend an hour for an hour on each side of the fence. I only ask that for every column which you devote exclusively to union baiting you also devote one to exposing some of the employers’ little tricks. This would then be “Fair Enough.” Are you game? The freedom of the press, a powerful weapon, is given you and with the opportunity to write about any subject you may choose you elect to center all your time to union baiting. Why? I again repeat, is this “Fair Enough?” I leave it to the jury of the great American public if it is not true that employers’ tactics might also rate a little housecleaning.

have a chance. Letters must

be signed.)

nificance in the plans now under consideration. The battle between oil and agricultural interests, as to who shall furnish the raw materials, promises deep-seated contention, perhaps

(reaching into the coming election | next November.

The material from which synthetic rubber is made can be obtained from either oil or agricultural commodities. No one questions this. Figures are available which indicate the cost from either commodity is comparable and the results equal. This alone does not constitute all factors in question. The natural resources of the nation (of which oil is one of the greatest) become exhausted after exploitation or extraction over a period of years. These resources should be guarded diligently for use by future generations and the defense of the nation. Hitler right now is driving madly to obtain oil. To produce from oil all the synthetic rubber needed means a heavy drain on this natural resource. On the other hand, if agricultural products were used to supply the basic material for synthetic rub{ber, none of the natural resources

It was the | efficient use of that air might—against 1918 defenses— | that brushed off Poland, Norway, France, Greece and Yugo- |

| in peacetime.

| pumps.

By Major Al Williams

NEW YORK, June 30—If you want a real thrill, if you want to see America in her best light, visit one of these civil air patrol detachments and watch these fellows in tiny 90-horsepower Cubs and Aeroncas and Taylorcrafts patroling our coastlines against enemy submarines. Carrying twoway radio sets, rubber lifeboats to be inflated by lungpower, and bombs, these are the same men who were the backbone of our private flying business

Then and only then would your Would be used, as farmers would

column be living up to its name of | produce all of these needs annually | “Fair Enough.” Thus, an almost unlimited market

g #£ #8 would immediately open for an in“LET FARMERS MEET creased agricultural production. U. S. RUBBER NEEDS” Considering the nation’s immediate need for rubber, the element of BY admond C. Foust, editor, The Hoosier time enters to lend support toward While war rages in a score of agricultural production for these places throughout the world, post-|purposes. It is reliably estimated war economy is being planned by|that plants to produce butadiene American interests. Though the|from farm crops could be made emergency of rubber needs at pres- ready in about six months, while it ent constitute the pressing issue of | would require 18 months to do the synthetic rubber, the control of this|same thing from oil. By the same new and comprehensive industry recommendation, the cost of prepafollowing the war lends greatest sig- | ration for synthetic rubber from

Side Glances=By Galbraith

They used to set out—some of them with as little as five or 10 hours solo—in their own tiny planes on air tours to Florida each winter. They wiii operate from any patch of ground you dare to call an airport. They can refuel right out of gas drums, using hand

Where are they? Well, they're spread from Maine to Florida and giving a mighty good account of themselves. They have been cited for spotting and detecting enemy submarines, and before long you undoubtedly wili be told of exact instances in which they have sunk undersea raiders.

They Know Their Motors, Too |

THEY ARE FREE from one of the greatest handi- | caps to airplanes hunting subs—operation at high | speed. They can cruise nicely at 65 to 75 miles an | hour. with plenty of time to watch everything. | You are likely to see a chap wearing officer's in- | signia servicing his own plane and tuning his own engine. Their hangars may be only big tents, but they know their motors and they keep them running. | Out there over the sea every day, each patrolling | a designated area, relieving one another like sentries on the saltwater walls of America—if this civil air patrol outfit continues to grow and increase in effectiveness as it_has in the last few months, it may some day astound the country by becoming the nucleus of the United States air force. Watch the civil air patrol. It is playing a great part in this war.

So They Say—

What is inflation? Nothing but a continuing chain of runaway prices. If our prices spiral up in the | midst of this war economy, they will sooner or later | come down with a terrible crash.—Donald Nelson, | WPB chairman.

* * *

Independently and with full knowledge of her des- | tiny, Chile is now aroused by the call of democracy, and before long. I am sure, we shall join the ranks of save democracy.— an Senator

Pe

COPR. 1942 BY NEA SERVICE. INC. T. M. REG. U. S. PAT. OFF. | "Keep smiling, son! You father looks so serious because he’

i 1) Hin

oil would be better than three times that from grain. Allowing for a wide variance of these estimates, the facts would still favor agriculture. Viewing from an Indiana, or even the whole corn belt, area, certainly vastly more people would profit from’ the new industry should the raw material come from agricultural production. = More people would benefit materially, either directly or indirectly and that is necessary to a sound economy. Dozens of distilleries are located in the grain belt; the managements are willing and ready to eo-operate. Acres of grain land are available and farmers want to produce. If some method is provided to break down governmental resistance, the whole program can be in operation long before gas rationing should become necessary to conserve the tires on our cars. All of Indiana needs a portion of this new business. #8 “WALLACE, HENDERSON, ICKES HOPKINS WILL RUIN US” By Edward F. Maddox, 959 W. 28th st. Since Claude Braddick has objected because I have warned my fellow Americans against Henry Wallace’s Utopian dreams of international socialism or collectivism, I wish ‘to go a little further into this vital subject. Socialists plan for socialism—curious take notice! I state emphatically, as my hon-| est considered opinion, that Henry A. Wallace is a revolutionary Socialist, that he belongs to the Rex Tugwell left-wing school of Socialist planners, that Leon Henderson is a fellow traveler with Mr. Wallace, Harry Hopkins, Frances Perkins, Sidney Hillman, Harold Ickes and hundreds, if not thousands of left-wing Socialists who are, I believe, virtually controlling our domestic and foreign policies as well as exerting a powerful influence on our war licies and strategy. They will ruin us. Socialists are bitterly opposed to what they call “imperialism,” that is England’s control of India, Burma, Malay and other colonial possessions. they oppose our control of the Philippines or any other colonial territcry such as Hawaii. These Utopian planners say boldly that “imperialism is out.” Therefore they don’t fare if all of ours and England's colonies are lost. All they want is Socialism. Here is some more Hoosier comnmon sense; listen to it, fellows Americans. If we win this war, which is possible, if we ditch these Socalist schemes and put hardheaded common sense businessminded Americans at the vital controls of our military and economic machinery, we must and shall extend our control over vital strategic positions, resources and sea lanes. Every one of Japan's mandated islands should be taken over by the United States and Britain. Burma, Malay and Indo-China, the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines should be jointly controlled by England, the Dutch and the United States. The whole continent of Africa should be taken into BritishAmerican protective custody. We are fighting this war for raw materials and free seas as well as for free people. Only the strong can be free.

DAILY THOUGHT

Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. —Mark 13:33.

IT IS uncertain in what place

That of course means|

death await thee;

™ ,

about 10,800 tons, cost about 2 million each, and are big enough to carry on one trip sufficient gasoline to run 100,000 autos for a month. : : These ships are the first standardized tankers ever planned, but the program has barely started since most of the ways on which tankers will be built have been tied up with custom-built tankers for private business. Unfortunately, a tanker can’t be ground out like 8 Liberty ship in the new record times of 46 to 48 days. Under the usual schedule of custom building each tanker to its own exclusive specifications, thesa ships were often six and eight months on the ways, At the Sun Shipyards, where 92 of the maritime come mission standard tankers are to be built, this time has been cut to some five months from keel laying to commissioning, and the drive is on to get it down to [four months. That will be record-making ship building history, but it’s still slow by comparison,

Turbines the Real Bottleneck

REASONS FOR THIS apparent slowness are seve eral. Tankers are complicated things. There are three rows of tanks running the length of the ship, one row amidships with a row of wing tanks at both sides. Each row of tanks is in turn divided into vo separate tanks and all must be absolutely leal proof. The Bethlehem yards have gz patented, flu welded tanker bulkhead which has saved i nd construction time, as well as weight. All tankers are well built, and it’s amazing how many survive torpedoings and come limping into port with part of their cargo. The principal bottleneck on the tanker pr however, is the one that holds up the i 1, of all fast shipping—turbines and gears. The maritime commission has financed a 50 million dollar plant expansion program for Westinghouse and Gene eral Electric, just to build ship turbines and gears,

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

DAY AFTER DAY letters come from heavy-hearted women whose

sweethearts or husbands have lost

their ardor. This perpetual plaint of outraged love resounds over the whole earth, sometimes even drowning out the clamor of war, and will resound, I suspect, as long as men and women exist, Actually, there's very little we can do about it except try to une derstand what lies beneath these infidelities—for we may be sure something vast and profound does lie there. : Men don’t wander from the family circle because they desire evil or ugliness or because they wish to hurt those who love them. They do so because, al though they may not realize it, they are engaged in an endless quest after beauty and truth. Oh, I know. Many laugh, and some would jeer, at such a statement. But men, like women, are incurably ro~ mantic and life offers them so little that is really splendid.

To Understand Is to Forgive:

I THINK PERHAPS that is why they can go off to war so blithely. They are chasing their dreams; they are after the thrills so often missing in everyday existence. They long for the taste of adventure, for the whiplash of change—and perhaps, as philosophers say, they feel the urge toward death, even as the tide

pefore submarines -

In Washington

r

is compelled to move again to the great deep from y

whence it came. Every man carries with him the image of an ideal

woman, just as he carries with him the longing for.

a more satisfying life. As it is, his existence is singu~ larly devoid of rc¢mance. He dwells in a world ¢f machines. The years stretch before him, sometimes harsh and arid, empty of all imagined loveliness, with middle age just around the corner and death in the dim distance. In such a world he dares not express even to his own heart his secret desires, lest he uncover strange things that might shame what he is pleased to eall his manhood. He can only snatch briefly at his lovely illusions. He is caught in a net of materialism from which there is no escape except in dreams. So sometimes, a new woman may be for him the symbol of a longing deeper and more intense than physical love and representing only his quest for the unattainable. To be able to understand this human trait is to be able fo forgive a man many thi even infidelity, and even war. ] Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists tn tHiS newspaper are their own They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times,

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any

‘question of fact or information, not involving extensive re= search. 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 Servies

{ Bureau, 1013 Thirteenth St., Washington, D. ©.)

sen m—

Q—Who is responsible for designating defense:

housing areas and regulating rentals in those areas? A—Leon Henderson of OPA. Q-—Of what religious faith was Rlla’ ?

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