Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 September 1942 — Page 16

“he Indianapolis op imes

RALPH BURKHOLDER Editor, in U8, Service MARK FERREE WALTER LECKRONE Business Manager Editor - ? (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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«Sp RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Will Fing Tuck’ Own Way } : ;

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1942

DIVIDED COMMAND DOWN UNDER APAN’S ability to launch another major counter-off€nsive in the southern Solomons indicates that official boasts "of allied supremacy in the Southwest Pacific are premature. “The continting enemy offensive in New Guinea also proves J “that Japan still has the i nitiative. So at both ends of the ‘southwest front we are subject to all the disadvantages and :dangers of being on the defensive. - This is not because our commanders want it that way. On the contrary, they are preaching the superiority of offensive strategy. This week Admiral Nimitz, commander-in-chief of the Pacific fleet, and Admiral Blandy, chief of . naval ordnance, who has just returned from a Pacific in_spection, emphasized that only aggressive operations could win and hinted at such American offensives. : Naval statements also say that Pearl Harbor losses _have been made good “far beyond expectations,” that anti.aircraft weapons are performing excellently. Official com- _ “muniques stress that enemy losses in the battles of the “Solomons and New Guinea have been much heavier than cours. We are apparently not outmanned on that front. , Why, then, after six weeks of preparation in the Solo“mons and many months in New Guinea, are we still unable to prevent enemy offensives and unable “to roll ’em back” “as planned? . Doubtless there are several explanations, some of them ¢ -military secrets. But one thing wrong down under is known “to everybody. That is the illogical, the unworkable, and indefensible division of command. % » td » » » # Yar closely interrelated front is split in two. Gen. MacArthur in Australia is commanding the New Guinea half, and Admiral Nimitz in Hawaii is commanding the “Solomon half through Vice Admiral Ghormley. This is in direct contradiction to the original Washington announcement that MacArthur would have unified command over all allied forces of all kinds in the Southwest Pacific. Gen. MacArthur has repeatedly explained enemy advances in New Guinea as due to sea control and his own «Jack of naval strength. Conversely, Admiral Ghormley ‘cannot wisely advance up the Solomons, while the enemy ds encircling him on his New Guinea flank. But while the “enemy fights the New Guinea-Solomon campaign as one _battle, we go on treating it as two separate fronts subject “to different commands thousands of miles apart. That is unfair to MacArthur, Nimitz, and Ghormley, _any one of whom is qualified on the record for unified com“mand. It is unfair to the separate fighting forces and services, whose fate is tied to perfect co-ordination. It will remain unfair to them even though MacArthur's men succeed in beating back the Japs from. Port Moresby, and Ghormley’s men win the third battle of Guadalcanal. ~~ Why can’t the united nations have the unified command in the Southwest Pacific originally demanded by Australia and originally pledged by Washington?

+ » 5

A YEAR BEHIND ON INCOME TAX

HOW ean we possibly get an adequate war revenue program—for that matter, even an adequate peacetime tax program-—as long as the law is so drawn that the people pay last year’s taxes out of this year’s income? IN the time this tax bill has been written, hundreds of thousands of Americans have left civilian life and entered the armed services. They have left jobs and businesses which netted incomes of $2000, $5000, $10,000 and $25,000 and up, and are in the army at $50 a month. Maybe 1 or 2 per cent of them are prudent enough to save out the money to pay that income tax: due next March 15. . But, human nature being what it is, it is a fair guess that a vast majority of them will fight through the war owing an income tax to their government—and not feeling ~ “very happy about it.

Yet it doesn’t have to be that way. It isn't necessary ‘ to be always a year behind in income-tax collections. Beards- |

ley Ruml, chairman of the New York federal reserve bank,

has advanced a plan to put the income tax on a basis of |

pay-as-you-go. The plan is simple. It would merely declare by law that taxes paid this year shall be considered taxes on this year’s incom d next year everybody starts resh, paying-as-they-earn, 1943 taxes on 1943 income. "The treasury wouldn’t lose any revenue, ‘In fact the treasury would gain—for the rates could be raised, to provide adequate war revenue, taxing each citizen on his ability to pay, at the time he is able to pay, on the basis of pay-as-you-go.

THE HANDOUT SYSTEM

NEW slant on the volume of press releases being ground "out by the government’s publicity machine is provided rough a survey just made by the office of war information. It reveals that: Large metropolitian newspapers receive an average of 7 releases a week from federal departments and agencies about five pounds of paper. ! Small dailies get an average of#92 releases a week—ut two pounds of paper. : Weekly publications get an average of 53 releaes 3 a ~—about a pound of paper. About two-thirds of all government press releases origi-

; ate outside Washington, in regional, state and local offices |

federal agencies. : The figures are based on a spot survey during the week June 27 to July 3. The OWI asked 182 selected daily and cly newspapers throughout the country—including this

to save and send in all government releases they re-

ived that week. The material was then alalyzed. 'he most amusing release to us was that sent to a west ‘newspaper by a local office. of one of the armed

ered by carrier, 1 cents |

it rong

By Westbrook Pegler

~~

NEW YORK, Sept. 17.—Three

members of local 449 of the United

Association of Journeymen Plumbers and Steamfitters, a Pittsburgh union of the A. F. of Li, have filed an action in the local court of common pleas against Leo ' A. Green, the secretary and treasurer of the organization, naming five other officers as co-defendants. The plaintiffs are James A. Ahearn, formerly a. vice president of the local; his brother, John L. Ahearn, formerly a member of the finance coramittee, and John J. Morrison, who is at present a member of the union's executive board. ” The three petitioners make very unbrotherly allegations against the defendant n brothers. They charge that Mr. Green ed to give an accounting of $225,000 collected from workers in the routine operation of the sanctified shakedown commonly

practiced by many A. F. of L. unions with the con- |

nivance of the United States government and known as the permit syStem. Under this system nonunion workers are shaken down by the unions in control of the jobs for permission to earn their living, but are not allowed to become members. They are, in real

| effect, slaves, a subordinate class of beings with no

voice in union affairs and ineligible, of course, for office.

Work? What's That, Brother?

THEIR CASE, AND there are hundreds of thousands of them all over the United States, is clearly one of taxation without representation and there have been unions in which the bosses each had several such serfs as his personal property to do the work. A boss with a personal stable of serfs each kicking back a portion of his pay to him can live very well for years without stooping to vulgar toil, himself. In the present case, the complaining brothers say the shakedown amounted to as much as $1 a day per serf steamfitters and 50 cents a day for serf helpers. They allege that Brother Green bought $85,000 worth of bonds in his own name with money which belongs to the union, but my informant adds that counsel for the defense insists that $60,000 worth of these bonds were later turned into the treasury.

They charge that Brother Green bought $32,000:

worth of real estate, including a home, with union money, and that he spent a’'large amount electioneering in: the politics of the international, or parent body, to elect himself to the office of international vice president, which he now holds.

Lower Than Scabs, Too!

IN THE INFLUENTIAL position an accused brother might be able to prevail on his fellow international officers to pay no attention to intra-union

complaints involving his sacred honor and just ignore

them as destructive propaganda or smearing. The code of all unions is such that a man feels that his local officers are doing him dirt or yielding to larcenolis instinct must address his appeal to the international president and his cabinet. Then if, as often happens, the defendant is, himself, a member of the cabinet and the cocmplaint is dismissed without comment or with a broken leg or skull, the complaining brother is supposed to shut up. - It was Brother Dan Tobin, the international president of the Teamsters, who frankly wrote a few years ago his opinion that any brother who appealed to the public courts for redress of any wrong done him by his international officers was lower than a scab. Thus it will be seen that the Brothers Ahearn and Bivther Morrison have placed themselves beyond the pa €.

The Milk of Human Kindness!

SPECIFICALLY, THESE unethical brothers charge that Brother Green failed to deposit with the union treasury “a great part” of $150,000 in permit fees or slave tribute extorted from 1200 workers on a big du Pont plant at Morgantown, W. Va. over a period of 10 months and failed to account for $75,000 similarly obtained from workers on a Carnegie-Illinois plant expansion job in 1937 and 1938. Beyond this there are several minor allegations. insulting in their triviality, such as one that Brother Green posted $2000 of the ynion’s money as bond for a friend charged with manslaughter, a humane act if there ever was one, and the charge ‘that he favored his relatives with jobs out of turn when other members were ‘unemployed, a perfectly natural thing to do. The attorney for the plaintiffs said he had a lot more charges, but wouldn’t go into them, unless forced to do so, as he wanted to avoid & scandal in the house of labor, which certainly was decent of him. There have been lots of.cases like this in the public courts, but usually nothing comes of them, as it is preferred to settle them quietly in a huddle in some union lawyer’s office, lest the details give aid and comfort to the enemies of labor with an upper case L,

i's Naminshng By Walker Stone

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17— Here are some statistics supplied by the Tax Foundation, Inc., a _ private research agency: “If we took away all net in. come over $100,000, there would be enough to pay for the war for only 4 days. “If we took away all net Income over $25,000, there would be enough to pay for the war for only 13% days. ; “If we took away all net income over $10,000, there would be enough to pay for the war for only 287% days. . “If we took away all net income over $5000, there would be enough to pay for the war for only 47% days.” These statistics are based on 1941 incomes and on recent war expenditures of approximately $140,000, 000 a day. By the end of this year we probably will be spending about $200,000,000 a day.

Eventually—Why Not Now?

THE FIGURES GO a long way toward explaining why the new War revenue program is sadly inadequate. From the start the aim of the framers of this legislation has been to put the burden of financing the war on persons having upper-bracket incomes. Admittedly, the more fortunate ‘upper-bracket citizens should be made to pay all the traffic will bear. But there just isnt enough money in the top layer to pay for a war on such a scale as the one we are fighting. Eighty per cent of the total income of the country is received by people who earn‘ less than $5000 a year. That 80 per cent will have to be taxed much more heavily than has yet been propoded, if not by a ‘broader-based income tax, then by a sales tax, and ‘if not. in this tax bill, then in the next one.

It will have to be done eventually. It ought to

be done now.

. +. So They Say— There are not enough married men without dependents for the mobilization of, say, between 10,000,000 and 13,000,000 in the United States.—Director of Selective Service Maj. Gen Lewis B, Hershey, © : NG ¥ % .

The

17, 1942 |

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

“WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TRY TO INTERPRET FOR ME?” By John W Blair, 1019 E. Ohio st. Will someone that has had the patience to read the whole of Mrs. Grace Newby’s article in Monday's Times Forum please try and interpret what she is trying to talk about, or at least make one sentence clear, as to what she means as .to our present day situation. # 2 » “A WORD OF PRAISE FOR WESTBROOK PEGLER” By M. L. G., 320 E. 28th st. Just a word of praise for Westbrook Pegler, the courageous advocate of decent labor policies, practices and personnel. With his splendid fact-finding ability he bases his statements on provable documentary evidence and a sound personal philosophy. Pegler stands head and shoulders above prattically all other columnists of the day. As ‘the protagonist of clean and fair labor organization, he will have more to do with the reformation of labor unions than any person or group of persons in the United States. We, the people, owe him a

{debt of gratitude for his efforts to

promote the welfare of humanity. ‘His utter honesty and fearless valor in pursuit of decent principles

land fair play for the rank and file

of labor makes us exclaim, “All power to Pegler! Orchids for his courage and pertinacity!” + We have feared for his life many times, and without his column we would not want The Times. : =n ‘ “THERE'S SOMETHING SCREWY IN THIS DRAFT SITUATION” By Mrs. R. J., Indianapolis : I would like to know what's wrong with. our draft boards? There's something very screwy. A young man who registered in the February registration, 21 this July, married last November, has no ‘children, none expectant, and is

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious con troversies excluded. Make your letters short, so all can

have a chance. Letters must

be signed.) put in 3-A. Why? There's: certainly nothing wrong with him physically. His wife is a chronic patient, nothing serious, I'm sure, or she could not get out and run

around very much. : Another young man I know is also in 3-A. Just a wife and she works most of the time. He registered in first registration and nothing wrong physically with him, Neither one of these young men work on defense jobs. There’s another young man who was married quite some time before the drafting began. He was taken long in about the first bunches. He also has one little child. Of course, it’s not very old. Another case, a man in his 30s, sole support of his widowed mother and she not very young, too old to get work anywhere. Well, he’s gone and has been for a long time. Why are such things going on? Looks very screwy to me. I know every case I've mentioned personally. I thought they were going to take all men married or single who had no children. I also see quite a few single men still on the loose who look very able to me. +. . = = 0» “FREEZE FARM PRICES AND YOU WILL BE DEFEATED!” By Horace Chadwick, Morristown

The editer of the.Hoosier Forum has been very generous to me. On Aug. 28th (rural edition) there appeared an article by me in which I showed that “dirt” farniers are in a serious economic condition as compared to that of manufacturers

Side Glapuesby Saliva

and wage earners. In the issue of Sept. 11, I attempted to show one of the two causes of this disparity in the economic condition of the farmers—the - protective tariff. I

showed that although the tariff

rates on farm products were high the farmers re not able to get any benefits therefrom. Now, due to the worldwide war, the farmers are enabled to push the prices of thelr products higher. They have now. gone but a little way in that direction. ‘The people of the cities are very much aroused over the attempt of the farmers thus to use the present situation to really make the tariff on farm products effective. In effect they say “dt was never intended that you farmers should receive any benefit from a high tariff, and now that conditions are such that you can do so and have done so to a very small etxent we propose to stop it. We will do so by ‘freezing’ the prices of farm products. In order that this may not appear to discriminate against the farmers, we will at the same time

freeze manufacturers’ profits and

wages of labor.” They can well afford to do this because these two classes. long ago forced profits and wages to great heights while the farmers have just made a beginning in that direction. Now, in conclusion, I wish to say to.the president of the U. 8S, ahead with your plan to issue what you call an ‘executive order,’ but what is in reality a dictatorial decree over farm prices, unless the congress passes an act to that of fect prior to Oct. 1st. “Now, Mr. President, let me say to you that if you do so, you may bid adieu to any hopes to securing a fourth term or of placing one of your fawning sycophants in your shoes.” And to members of the congress we say: “If you pass any such law, those of you that have

many farmers as constituents, ex-

pect to see your political scalps dangling from a very high pole.”

#8 nN y “YOU ARE YOUR BROTHER'S KEEPER? REMEMBER THAT?” By Mrs. Frances Richmond, Columbus

If I understand Reader” cofrectly, unless you are Hoosier born you are a migrate. I have been in the Hoosier state since 1919, so you can readily see. that was after war no. 1 had ended, so we did not come for defense work. I was never in a tavern in my life. I don’t approve of them by any means, but let me tell you, “Times

‘| Reader,” I know plenty of Hoosier-

born that patronize taverns. Yom must live in a small world to hold such an opinion. ._Two-thirds of Indiana would have to be migrates according to ‘your view. ‘If so, then where are the Hoosiers? Have they migrated ‘to some other state? And if they have, perhaps someone is saying the same thing about’ them. That's why we are in war, hatred, |

‘| each nation hating the’ other, but

when it comes to one state calling residents of ‘another state Higiates, that's too much. : . hava inst vo du & lob of good ‘if you live in the kind of

‘neighborhood you have led us to

believe you do. You are your

| brother’s keeper. Remember that.

DAILY THOUGHT

Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart

Der Mr. Kaiser—

By Major Al Williams

NEW YORK CITY, 1+ Sept. 17, 1942, My Dear Mr. Henry Kaiser: : I like the cut of your jib, and so do milliohs of other Americans

who were brought up in the bee}:

lief that results count. You say you can build us a lot of giant cargo planes in a hurry, We need cargo planes in a hurry, We haven't got them because those responsible: have been off the beam. Airpower can't reach its full effectiveness as long as it must depend upon transportation of its essential tools and munitions by cargo-carrying steamships lumbering along at a dozen or so miles an hour. You have put a firecrackey under the tail of the shipbuilding industry, and the aircraft industry cere. tainly needs some fire where it is most likely to create a little motion.

Let's Take This Mars Thing

YOUR FIRST BARRICADE is the Brass Hatism of political and Service Washington. Can you scale that Maginot Line, manned by bureaucracy? If you can, there's a tank trap waiting for you in the horde of experts and quick talkers in our aeroe nautical circles. No highly specialized, tightly kni$ industry ever welcomed a newcomer of your directe action type. You haven’t been welcomed, and you won’t be exe cept, “perhaps, by those who have something to sell you. I don’t know who tossed the Mars 70-ton flying boat at you as a fit item for you to put into immedi ate mass production. According to my information, the Mars is the largest and first of its kind in the world, I'm told that it has made two flights and had two accidents, and hasn't yet been thoroughly tested une der the conditions for which it was designed.

Blueprints Won't Do It

: OF COURSE, you never would have set your press ent mark in getting things done if you had waited for a fellow like me to tell you the facts of life, but

one certainly known to hard-headed aviators is that

a new airplane of such dimensions is a deadly risk for mass production until it has had its teething troubles eliminated. I can’t recall any successful plane that plumped from - blue-prints right into mass production. It's been {ried lots of times, and the results have always been crack-ups, casualties, lengthy, expensive redesigning and revampings, and delays, : Every new type of aircraft is an experiment until it has been thoroughly flight-tested and flown under the conditions of loads for which it was designed. I've even heard that some fast talkers propose that

| you plunge into building 200-ton airplanes on a mass

production scale. Man, that would be plain, out-ande out suicide. - You might get away with mass-producing the blueprints, but nobody can fly blueprints.

—And Then We'll Win the War

IT'S CARGO PLANES we need—sensible, weight« carrying planes of proved design for the essential job of carrying loads of munitions across the oceans. I suggest that you gather a few hard-headed flying men -around you and ask ‘them a lot of questions, They have nothing to sell you. But they can tell you that the type of plane you select for mass production will determine ultimately whether your aircraft proe duction job will equal your shipbuilding ‘record or prove your first dismal bust. © If you can beat the Brass Hats and bureaucrats, other folks will think they can do it, too—and we'll win the war. Sincerely,

MAJ. AL IAMS.

Peter Edson is on vacation.

“Go 3

“By a Times].

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

)

SOMETIMES IT SEEMS that " politicians are more afraid of their constituents than they are of Hite ler: Time and time again in the last six’ months they have ignored dangers abroad in order to make certain the home folks couldn't get mad and refuse to return them to office. While cussing appeasement, they've appeased right and left,

While . crying for self-sacrifice,

they've noticeably side-stepped any sacrifice of prestige or power. Also, unless political expediency has become the mark of patriotism, a good many are guilty of those sins.they are so quick to blame. on the rest of us. When the life of the republic is at stake, no official of high or low degree should put his political fortunes above his country’s welfare. He should be as willing to throw away his personal, future as is the boy who shoulders a gun.

Don't Call the Kettle Black

‘UNFORTUNATELY, ONLY in theory does such distinterestedness exist. Human nature i$ still doing business at the old stand, and until we have all become noble and self-sacrificing creatures we should not expect too much from our officials, Yet I think we do expect, and we have expected, a little more than most of them have expected, a little more than most of them have given us. After we win the war one of the biggest jobs we'll have on our hands will be to restore his lost prestige to the American politician. At present it’s at a pretty low ebb. ' Yet it:doesn’t take much foresight or wisdom to see that voters who wish to esteem theme selves must esteem those who represent them. What the men in office do reflects as much on us as it does on them. i Right now there is no sense in the pot calling the kettle black. All together we must pitch in to scrub away the dirt and clean up the messes that have been made.

Editor’s Note: The views expressed by columnists in this newspaper arg their own. They are noi mecessarily those of The Indianapolis Times, ) ;

Questions and Answers {The Indianapolis Times Service Buresu will answer any

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isn,

eee a bre 0 up to the t time compare with the total congressional ‘appropriation for the present war effort?

A—From 1789 to Dec. 7, 1041, the treasury paid f=

out a total of $197.180000.000 The wat Drogram of

appropriations and war totals $197,267,000,000, as

Q—Are employees of the 1 y service

i

Fee ’ ot

—