Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 October 1942 — Page 11

ROY w. HOWARD President MARK FERREE Business Manager (A ‘SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

Price in. Marion County, 3 cents = deliv--.ered by carrier, 15 cents a week.

Mall rates. in Indiana,

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

|. .Member of United Press, | Scripps - Howard ‘Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations,

states, 75 cents a month; others, $1 monthly.

> RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Will ‘Find Their Own Woy

TUESDAY, OCTOBER , 1043

DON'T REPEAT THAT MISTAKE! HERE is real danger that a determined minority will bring back the curse of prohibition on this country under the specious pretext of “protecting” the soldiers and © sailors. We are convinced that a majority of the American * people do not want that to happen. -We believe that a secret ‘poll would show overwhelming opposition in both branches of congress to Senator Josh Lee's proposed amendment to the teen-age draft bill forbidding sale of alcoholic beverages in zones around army and navy camps. Yet Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky, Democ i leader of the senate, predicts that if there is a roll-c i vote this amendment probably will be adopted. How is that possible? Because dry organizations have been busy for months with resolutions’ and letters ta con- ' gress. Because the soldiers and sailors are too occupied with fighting and training to make themselves heard against this insulting proposal. Because millions of citizens who know prohibition is the enemy of temperance are not organized and have not taken the trouble to tell congress how they feel.

HE war and nowy departments are ofticidlly d strongly on record against the principle of the Lee amendment. ‘War Secretary Henry L. Stimson told congress that use of liquor. by military personnel could be controlled only “by practicable and tolerant measures,” and tl at prohibition would be “harmful to the men in service.”| He added that the degree of temperance among soldiers e ceeded that of the average civilian group and was greater than that either i in or out of the army during national prohibition. ! Urging congress not to “destroy the advancements made and return to the war department the difficult problems of combating bootleg operations,” Mr. Stimson says: “Temperance cannot be obtained by prohibition applied to military personnel any more than it can be obtained by prohibition’ applied to the nation at large.” © Josh Lee's prohibition, of course, would apply to civil- ~ jans ‘as well as soldiers and sailors in zones including many of the country’s largest cities. Prompt revival of speakeasies, bootlegging, gangsterism and graft would be in- : evitable. Men in the armed forces would be justly indignant ‘against a congress that orsered them to fight but would not trust them to drink a glass of legal beer. And they would, ‘inevitably feel contempt for a, Jow of the country they are defending. 1

. We. agree. with Secretary Sti on that the vast mas

jority . of service men are temperate. Yet “the exceptions ; are conspicuous—and, like drunken policemen |or drunken railroad engineers, shocking to those who see| them. So, we think, the General Federation of ‘Women’s Clubs is quite right in advocating stricter army and navy regulations . against intoxication among men in dn But that is a very different thing from trying to forbid ~ all drinking. We hope congress will show the courage of its own convictions and refuse to take the disastrous step - demanded by those who will not learn that prohibition never did prohibit, and never will,

CONGRESS CAN CURE ITSELF

HE house of representatives got some well-deserved praise. last week for the dispatch with which it met the thorny teen-age draft issue. Speaker Sam Rayburn asserted the leadership ‘that the house needed, and action followed. » That was a good first step. If the speaker continues to furnish two-fisted leadership the country and congress will benefit, - But congress suffers from disorders of its own making, and it must cure itself if it is to regain and maintain its equality with other branches of the government. “It seems to me,” said a wise friend who for years has watched the operation of this government in all its branches, “that the main “trouble with congress is funectional.” And it is. ‘© He added, “unless something is done to goat- gland congress, it’s a pushover for the quarterbacks and the bureaucrats.” — : Charles A. Beard, the noted historian, sa s teh the

same thing in a different way in the curre nt” American.

Mercury: ; “No small part of the weakness ascribed to congress and displayed by it is the fault of congress itself. It has stubbornly - continued . organizational * forms and methods adapted to an age of handicrafts and small .far atterly inadequate for a:complete discharge of its consti- ~ tutional duties. That is where the problem must be tackled, with a view to modernizing and fortifying the operation of our highest legislative body. That is where] criticism is justified, consti pies and Decesyary. ” 2 AND that ie where Speaker Rayburn “could again make his leadership felt. The house must eliminate or greatly modify its out.worn seniority system which makes committee chairmen— the leaders of congress—out of men who merely happen to outlive their colleagues and be re-elected regularly. It must equip itself with adequate staffs of experts for independent investigation of, and advice upon, governmental operation. It must co-ordinate its* machinery for raising revenue and making appropriations, so that those who write the tax bills will know what is being done with the money the government spends, and vice versa. - It must amalgamate its studies of military and naval “legislation, not only within tire house, but between the house and the senate. It must, in short, modernize itself, reorganize gel, | and thus equip itself to meet complex modern problems with modern legislative methods. = There's nothing ‘wrong’ with congress that a good. and ough o of its 0 on’t cure;

Fair i

By Westbrook Pegler To

$4 a year; adjoining]

Jations themselves.

nough

NEW YORK, Oct. 20, — The |’

American Federation of Labor has "held another of its annual conventions and still has done noth"ing positive to remove racketeers from control of some of its component unions. From time to time, the federation and William ' - Green have expressed disapproval of the racketeer in union management but Joe Fay of Newark, who is not only a dangerous thug but a high union official and ‘a contractor as well, remains unchallenged and undisturbed. The insincerity in their dealings with the problem of the racketeer is more flagrant today than ever before and Fay is the test case. This man was thrown out of the A. F. of L, in 1932

“| for operating in the dual role of union leader, or boss,

and employer. He did not remain out long and is now not merely a geal union boss but international vice president of the e Operating Engineers. ‘He not only controls the labor on large construction jobs by various departments of the government in New Jersey but controls the operations as well through his various companies, chief of which is the International Excavating Co.

Just Look at the Record .

THE A. F. of L. decided that he was a racketeer 10 years ago. Today he is racketeering on a much greater scale and in the same way. Yet today he is accorded all the rights and privileges of a union boss and on at

least two occasions within the last two years Wil-

liam Green has shown official tolerance of Fay and all that he stands for. In one case, Green appeared as principal speaker at a typical testimonial souse party in Chicago which the local racketeers had arranged in honor of ‘the international president, William E. Maloney. Fay also spoke and Green did not walk out. . Later, Green gave a small and select tea in New York for a visiting dignitary of British labor and again Fay was present. David Dubinsky walked in, saw Fay talking with Mrs. Frances Perkins and walked out in protest. Dubinsky has been the only man in the whole federation who has openly recognized Fay as a racketeer and ‘tried to have him thrown out. To that end he introduced a resolution at the New Orleans convention a couple of years ago and Fay, who naturally knew that the resolution meant him, got brawling drunk, and beat up Dubinsky.

"Underlings Only Petty Racketeers".

GOVERNOR LEHMAN of New York recently ordered examination of the papers in the suspicious court proceedings in Syracuse in which Fay was absolved of a felony charge of assault good for a maximum prison term of five years because the prosecuting witness and victim of the slugging was mysteriously absent. After the dismissal, the witness, Orville Warner, mysteriously reappeared and Fay gave him back his old job running the local in Rochester. The disappearance, the reappearance and the re-employment of the witness made such a sequence as to suggest that the witness was induced to go absent for a

reward.

Mere examination of the papers, however, does not promise that action will be taken and the case will be watched closely lest it be forgotten or brushed off. Lately four of Fay’s racketeers in Albany were caught stealing from workers through the kick-back or Pernt system which is common practice in many A, F. of L. unions on war jobs. They pleaded guilty and were fined $10,000 each. But the underlings are only petty racketeers. Fay is a giant, ruthless, brutal and personally rich and politically powerful and he enjoys the friendship of Mr, Green and commands either. the respect or fear of the 'e egecutive council of the A. F.of L.

Our War Aims

By William Philip Simms

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20.—Now, if ever, is the time to launch an all-out political offensive against the axis, according to top-flight united nations officials both here and abroad. Soon, our long-awaited military. offensive will get’ under way. Yet literally hundreds of millions of people have only the vaguest idea what the fighting is all about, To assure the maximum results for the allies, therefore, the united nations should clarify their peace aims. Reports compiled here and in London reveal that the morale’ of Hitler's stooges is at an all-time low. The Italians are longing for peace as never before, and Vichy faces open revolt. Resentment among all of Germany’s neighbors has never been as bitter as now. The Atlantic Char ter was necessarily left somewhat vague. For one thing, as Churchill told Com-

- mons afterwards, he and Mr. Rosevelt were think-

ing mostly in terms of Europe. The inhabitants of Asia—half the population of the globe—are not altogether satisfied with it. Some of them, especially in India, deny that it applies to them at all,

Germany’ s True Colors Now Show

EVEN IN EUROPE, for that matter, certain vitally interested nations are fearful that they may not benefit under the charter. Poland and Finland both fear that articles one and two—which pledge no territorial changes “that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned’— somehow or other may be lost in the shuffle at the peace table. A restatement of united nations aims would now seem to be very much in order. First of all it would tend to straighten out the thinking among the united Second, it would set friendly neutrals right. Third, it would counteract axis plopaganda in invaded territory, and, fourth, even Hitler's dupes—like the disillusioned Italians—would be shown that they have everything to gain and nothing to lose by an allied victory. Today fitler is showing himself in his true colors. Nothing more revealing has come out of Germany since the conflict began than Marshal Goering’s latest official pronouncement. Food, he warned, would be scarce this winter. There would not be enough to go around. But while others might go hungry, the Germans would eat.. Of that Europe could rest assured. At last the little countries around Germany know the truth. Politically, economically and otherwise they can expect only the crumbs that fall from the master’s table, Thus, by dotting some of the “I’ s” and crossing some of the “TI's” of their war aims, the united nations might now consolidate virtually ‘the whole world on our side.

So They Say—

Most important in prolonging life after” 50 are sound rules of diet and personal hygiene and suitable attention to the detection of degenerative diseases at the earliest possible moment.—Morris Fishbein, editor

‘of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

~ LE *

Any permanent settlement of the Indian problems

should he left until after we have won the war, Then the British and the Indians can settle things | ‘themselves.«-Sirdat J. J. president Indian |

The Hoosier Forum

I wholly disagree with what you say, but will

“LAY OFF THE OPERATORS, MR. FAULT FINDER ,..”

By Mrs. Betty Williams, 1133 Hoefgen st. Mr. R.A. Thompson: . « . Just read your article in The Times, alg your other articles you've written in to The Times. If it’s true. your wife has been insulted by an Indianapolis Railways operator, why in the world don’t you report it to their office in the Terminal Building? You know they too have an office , . . You sure look down ‘on an operator, don’t you? You think his a lower class of people. Really he’s not only trying to make an honest living just like you and probably receives as much pay as you, also

just remember they are classed as

state. Just because it isn’t a white collar job, that’s no sign they aren’t human and deserve some kind words. These operators do have days when they're rather cross, but remember, they may be ill. They work whether they're well or ill. . . , Mr. Fault Finder, why don’t ycu lay off the operators and look on your own door step? You've got plenty of work to do just to look after your office force--if you have any. The Indianapolis Railways are particular Whom they hire, too.

2 2 9» “IT DOES GOOD TO GET IT OFF OUR CHESTS”

By J. S., Indianapolis

The Carpenters and Joiners union? When they are on strike they can take out a withdrawal card and come out and work with nonunion men till the union takes over the job, and then they go back in the union again. That's organized scabbing where I came from. Why can they work with non-union men, but non-union men can not work with them?

If Westbrook Pegler ever wants some more lowdown on the carpenters’ union he can get in touch with me and I can tell him plenty that I can not tell on paper. And I have about 200 non-union carpenters to testify to the things I have to say to him. This is all foolish to write to a paper or to the public as they don't pay any attention to it any way, but sometimes it does good to get it off our chests. In times like the present in total war, the government has too much to look after. Let alone a bunch

having one of the best jobs in the|,

defend to the feng right to say it.—Voltaire.

(Times [readers are invited fo express their views in these columns, religious con-

Make your letters short, so all can

troveries excluded.

have a chance. Letters must

be signed)

of , . , loafers like the C. and J. union. Thanks, Mr. W. F. Smith, for the fine letter you wrote to the Forum. The only thing wrong with it, ‘you are like me. You can’t write all.you know. Let anyone talk to the old union men and they will tell you that the C. and J. are a bunch of . . lazy loafers. 2 ” ” “WHAT IS MY WIFE SUPPOSED TO DO ... STARVE?” By Pvt. Robt. J. Miller, U. S. Air Corps Training Detachment, Casey Jones School of Aeronautics, Newark, N. J. To whom it may concern:

I am writing this letter to the people of the fair city of Indianapolis, of which I was once a loyal citizen, in the hopes that it will sink

through the thick skulls of our so-!

called upright, patriotic citizens.

I am a soldier. I was drafted from one of your major defense plants early in April, 1942. I held a fairly important position, though not one of utmost importance.

When I was drafted, my employers told me that my wife would get preference over single -women who had no dependents. But it seems there have been quite a few slip-ups in these cases. They seem to forget all those flimsy promises they made to us boys of the service. Maybe that’s one of the reasons a man gets fed up with being patriotic. I love my country as much as, if not more than the next man. But if that isn’t enough to disgust a person, I'd like to know what is! What is she supposed to do, starve to death? Or go home to live with parents who are possibly too old to work, or who can barely make their own living, let alone hers? She has tried every defense plant in Indianapolis. No soap. “well call you someday if we need you.” Even the non-defense industries say | nothing doing. She is a trained nurse, graduated from the City hospital nursing school. She took her examinations and became a registered nurse.

Side Glances —By Galbraith

Still,” that seems to cut no ice. These money making plutocrats who run the defense industries have no ears. for an honest-to-goodness interested person who merely asks to be allowed to work and, earn herself an honest living while her husband is off in some army training camp training to give his life for the very men who refuse his wife or family employment. Yes. it is enough to disgust any red-blooded man with being patriotic. Disgust him with a bunch of penny-pinching wolves who profit by others misfortunes. I hope there is reason enough to print this in°®your Hoosier Forum column where maybe some of the other patriots can read it. Then maybe something can be done. Thank you. 2 8 2 “COMMUNISTS TRYING TO RUN OUR POLITICAL BUSINESS” By E. F. Maddox, 959 W. 28th st. Well the whole Hoosier Forum for Oct. 17 was given to the left wingers to “prod our public officials” as suggested from Moscow! It's the party line! Imogene Poston, who, I believe, is a candidate for office on the Communist ticket and Walter Frisbie whose demands on our public officials and candidates for office are so similar to Miss Poston’s that most people who read the two articles would, I think, decide that Mr. Frisbie is at least a fellow traveler with Miss Poston’s party. Shall they tell us how to vote?

these demands on our local and national candidates: and the propaganda they spew out against anybody who will not cringe when they crack the whip, we wonder if any-

trace this propaganda to its source. The Communists are not only trying to run our political and economic business, but they are now engaged in trying to boss our war strategy, our foreign policy and to purge our. public officials and control union labor. Are we saps or are we still Americans? ” ” ® “IT’S STUPID OF THESE FT. HARRISON SOLDIERS . ..” By Mrs. John Meehan, 837 N. Linwood ave. Long lines of men—men who looked: as if they had lost every hope, ethic, and ideal in life—stood in the semi-darkness awaiting the change from civilian living to that of the army. After much shuffling about they began the march to their designated barracks only to be bombarded with jeers, and shouts of “Youll be sorry,” “Youll be sorry!” Such was the greeting given these m 1 by the soldiers already at Ft. Benjamin Harrison. Perhaps if was supposed to be funny, or, a method of initiation; but to anyone who saw the discouragement, on the faces of those newly inducted men it was pitiful. They were rather. like small boys on their first day at school, standing on uncertainty, a little awed, and showing outward signs of perturbation in the way they shifted their small bundles of personal belongings from one arm to the other. It was stupid on the part of the Ft. Harrison soldiers to so discourage those new inductees and a stupidity that should be corrected by those in charge at the fort. Those men did not make a war; they are having to fight because of it. Therefore every soldier should be instructed to sow the seeds of friendliness by a “Hi, pal,” instead of a misunderstood “You'll be sorry!”

DAILY THOUGHT For the needy shall not always be forgotten; the expectation of

the poor shall not perish forever, —Psalms 9:18. ;

YES, may’st’ well be, sure

loves the poori—0. W.

Of course Communists follow or-|# ders from Mostow, so when we read | §

body is so ignorant that they can’t|#

"Moral standards will alter.

child “of “of suffering, - thou|

i He’ Who ordained. ithe. Sabbath|s Holmes.

n Washington By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20.—A this current campaigning to make you a better soldier or. civilian— increasing your wartime efficiency by improving your diet and make ing you eat more of the right kinds. of vitamin-packed nutritional foods } —is apt to have far-reaching post . . - war effects if calculations of dee partment of agriculture economists / can be realized. These changes in diet might even go so far as to solve the farm problem, or a part of it, anyway, A couple of figures will give you the drift. Out of the 447 million acres of U. S. land suitable for culti vation, the agricultural brain trusters figure that in the 1936-40 period some 311 million acres were used for raising food. But the pencil and paper farmers, by adding up the total quantities of food that would be required if all the 134 million people of the land ate adequate nutritional diets, have come up with the figure that to raise all these victuals, a minimum of* 321 million acres would have to be cultivated, an ine crease of 10 million acres.

The Dehydrated Industry

THIS ADMITTEDLY is a pretty “iffy” calculation, but it does indicate that all the increased food pro= duction being demanded of American farmers for feeding the American civilian population, army and navy, and lend-lease is not an inflationary bubble that has to burst when the war is over. And it is another indication that American agriculture can make and is making, in a. few years, gains which the economic planners had thought it might take ane other 25 years to make. In the last war, there was a tremendous advance in the use of canned fi Whole new farm industries and food processing industries grew.out of the de=velopment, but the changes in eating habits which the nutritionists are trying to put over today call for, changes far greater. Increased consumption of vege« tables, of milk and dairy products will all in time be translated to changes in agriculture, New processes of food handling developed in this war may have the same influence that improvement in canning methods had in the last war. Of first im= portance here is dehydrating of foods, which ig growing out of the need for reduced shipping space. No one can tell where the dehydrated meat induse try may go after the war,

For Lower Income Families—

THE SAME THING goes for dried milk. Millions of gallons of skim milk which used to be slopped to the hogs, may now find their way to the milk drying plants for processing into inexpensive but highly nu tritional food for the lower income families which have always been milk starved. Eighty per cent of the agricultural products go ultimately into food, but it isn’t just in the food crops that this wartime expansion of demand for agricule

.tural products is being felt. Cutting off the foreign

sources of fats and oils has given vegetable oil tech= nology a tremendous boost. You see that on the farm in the increased acreage put in soybeans and peanuts, The making of commercial alcohol from grain may at last be coming into its own as a new farm industry, a result of the.increased demand for alcohol for syne thetic rubber.

A Big War Baby

THIS WHOLE BUSINESS of agricultural chemis« try, the greater, use of farm products in manufacture ing, “which the chemurgy enthusiasts have been starry-eyed about for 10 years, may beconie a war baby that will grow up, man-size. On the new crops—the growing of farm products which have heretofore not been grown commercially in the U. S. because there has been no demand or because they could be' imported cheaper than they could be raised at home—the agricultural realists are not too sure of the future. In this group are flax, plants for seed that foreign markets used to supply, a potato starch industry to replace cassava and tapi oca, the cultivation of hemp and other fibre crops, the gardening of seasonings and medicinal herbs. The big catch in all this development now is, of course, farm labor. ,

A Woman's Viewpoint By ‘Mrs. Walter Ferguson

MRS. MARGUERITE WILSON of Memphis ends a letter to thiscolumn with the following requests “I should like to read an article

from you on the effect of mascue"

line interests and activities upon women.” It's assuredly an interesting topic, even though it requires a - -well-trained psychologist to give a correct answer, and then the chances are he’ll get off track. Who can tell, who can venture a guess, as to the changes which will take place in feminine character after present upheavals? I .only believe that the loveliest qualities will remain, hidden for a time, perhaps, but ready to bloom anew after the sun of peace shines again. I believe women as a whole will be helped and strengthened by the sorrow which they are now called upon to meet, and that they will" respond to all appeals with as much willingness and courage as their grandmothers showed when circume stance removed them from luxurious surroundings fe

the wilderness of a new world.

A New Concept of Womanhood

WE TOO, SHALL soon be entering a new univers —a universe which may resemble the old in the physi=

"cal sense, but where heart and spirit will be homesick

at first. Manners, customs, ways of life will change, For a time it may seem as if the foundation of Americanism had been swept away. But only for a while. Already millions of our women are doing the work of men) They are active on all fronts, business, politi cal, social and military.® Their psychology is bound

to undergo. drastic alterations.

Yet, looking back to the behavior of women between the two great wars, one seees elearly that we have failed in many ways. What did freedom mean to some of us? Pleasure and privilege, mainly. We were unwilling to assume the moral obligations of citizenship even while we enjoyed its rights, } Perhaps the present blood purge will wash away our sins of selfishness. Maybe emphasis upon physical beauty, upon perennial youth, upon fashion and ted fingernails, upon frills and fripperies, will give way:to a new concept of womanhood, and there will be born again within us the desire for those eternal verities without which no generation :stands.

Editor's Note: The views expréssed by columnists in this newspaper are their own. They are nof{ necessarily those of The Irdianapolis Times. 3

Questions and Answers

(The indianapolis Times Service Burean win answes any question of fact or (nformation, not invelving extensive rie search. Write your question clearly, sign mame and: sddresd, inclose a three-cent postage stamp. Medicai or legs) sdvies a8

* cannot be given. Address The. Times Washington Bureau. 1013 Thirteenth St. Washington, D. C.)

Q—How many guns are fired in the salute to hi army chief of staff? a

A—Seventeen. - Q-Is irregardless. a proper: word? :A+=It ig erroneous or: humorous. corvect word.