Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 November 1942 — Page 10

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The Indianapolis Times

RALPH BURKHOLDER Editor, in U. S. Service

MARK FERREE WALTER LECKRONE Business Manager Editor (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1942

THE AMERICAN OFFENSIVE

THIS has been the happiest week-end of the war for Americans. For 11 months they demanded a big offen-

Now they have it. The movement into North and It aims at

sive. West Africa is large in size and in purpose. eventual invasion and victory in Europe. It is timed with the allied success in Egypt. Presumably axis reinforcements, otherwise available for the new Moroccan-Algerian-Tunisian fronts, have been drawn off to Tripoli and Bengasi to support Rommel in his Libyan retreat. If Montgomery can catch and wipe out Rommel’s fleeing remnant of tanks, as hoped, he can then sweep westward across Libya to meet the American forces driving eastward. : Also there is good news from the other prong of the German pincers. The Russians say they have stopped the Nazis on the three Caucasian fronts, as well as at Stalingrad. LE In the Far East the Chinese are making headway, the allies are bombing Burma from India, the Americans on Guadalcanal are advancing, the Aussies under MacArthur have driven the Japs out of all Papua except the enemy beachhead at Gona-Buna, while in the North Pacific the Japs are pinned back to Kiska and American supplies to the Alaskan-Aleutian front are beginning to flow over .the new Alcan highway. . All of which is important, for in a global war the fate of one fighting area is bound up with all others, however distant. 2 2 2 ” ” 8 UST as the situation on other fronts will affect our American offensive, so it can have far-reaching results elsewhere. ’ oo First, as the president explained, it forestalls axis occupation of the French colonies. The allies, instead of the axis, are to control the South Atlantic. ; Second, allied control of the North African coast would reopen the Mediterranean as a short supply line to the Middle East, Russia, India and China, thus almost doubling our shipping facilities now stretched thin on the long haul around the Cape of Good Hope. ~ Third, a successful North African offensive will force Hitler to shift some of his air strength from the Russian front, providing relief where it is desperately needed. Fourth, it can provide the bases and open the way for a South European offensive, the soft under-side of the axis in Italy and Greece. Fifth, is the effect on the native populations of Africa and the Middle East, and on Turkey, Portugal and Spain. Sixth, it will strengthen morale in all of the occupied countries of Europe, particularly in France, occupied and unoccupied—and hasten allied invasion of Western Europe. Immediately, it has fired the American and British peoples and armed services to even greater war effort. » ” ” HIS offensive did not just happen. It represents more than a bright idea and daring. It is the result of many months of the most careful military planning, of clever diplomacy in retaining our watchful representatives in France and Africa, of long-range co-ordination of supplies and transport and troop concentrations. $ For this the credit goes to the president and his joint staff, to Secretary Hull, and to Churchill and the British for their co-operation. The man who has carried out the general plan, and who is in complete command of the land-sea-air forces of

» # ”

all the allies in the new fighting area, is a popular choice.

Gen. Dwight Eisenhower is young, he has been a tank expert since the last war, he is a pilot, he is a specialist in the strategy of co-ordinated land-sea-air attack, he has the confidence of his government .and of his allies and. of his forces. And he is tough. : ‘ Those of us at home can help Eisenhower and his men, We can save more and produce more for them. And we can sustain them with confidence when the going is hard. The test is not how loud we cheer today, but whether we match their fortitude through the losses and temporary ~ reverses on the long road to victory. - There is no cheap way, no quick way, no easy way. - While we share the happiness of our forces, who are so glad to start getting the job done, we must also share their sober understanding of the great sacrifices ahead.

P. AND V. P. ON THE ELECTION

E THINK the country will be cheered by the spirit the commander-in-chief showed in his most recent press conference, following the political nows. It was Roosevelt at his best, chin up, cigaret-holder at jaunty angle, able to kid himself a bit and toss the snappy comeback at the press boys who tried to kid him a bit. When he is in that mood he builds personal popularity fast, and in times like these, no matter how we may feel about this and that on the political front, we don’t want to see our No. 1 down-in-the-mouth and sore and glum. Mr. Roosevelt's reaction was refreshing after reading No. 2’s alibi. Mr. Wallace injected the usual class angle, ~ about it being a ballot-box expression almost entirely confined to the well-to-do—and by the way there’s some consolation in being told that there are as many millions of well-to-do as voted last Tuesday. Then the V. P. went in for claiming that after all it was a great victory. Which ~ reminds us of the story about the man telling of the fight “whe got into and what he did to his adversary: “I got my fingers in his teeth, hit him in the elbow with my right eye, and jammed my groin into his knee. Then I ed him down on top of me and beat hell out of him.”

ELIEVE IT OR NOT N:: IOWA woman is city treasurer at 30. Any woman - who admits she’s 30 deserves some sort of honor! : : “i 2 Te

Price in Marion Coun-

states, 75 cents a month; |

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler -

NEW YORK, Nov. 9.—I suppose everyone will interpret the election returns to his own liking, and I am sure: that goes for me, but I can’t sound any funnier<than Vice President Wallace, who found in the robust reaction of the voters against New Dealism a demonstration of the president’s great popularity and indicated the majority of those who voted as : well-to-do slackers with time on their hands or dumb farmers who inherit their politics and can’t think out things pclitical. Did any man in so high office ever insult so openly not only the intelligence, but the quality, of the majority in an American election? My interpretation is that the people finally got sick of the cynicism which could bring about a political alliance between the governing party of the nation, with its mouthy professions of pure idealism, and the corrupt machines of Jersey and Chicago, and with the racketeers, grafters and dictators of the unions. The result seems to show that union bosses are talking beyond their actual powers when they claim to be able to deliver the labor vote and that, with hundreds of millions of dollars at their command, derived from private taxing powers conferred on them by the New Deal party, they can’t even buy it.

They All Outdid Each Other

CONTRARY TO Mr. Wallace’s view, I would say that if all the soldiers and other fighting men had been able to vote, the reaction would have been even more emphatic, in protest against the strikes and

weapons and vehicles for war. Nothing in the vote can be interpreted, even by Goebbels, as a repudiation of the war itself, for no candidate was elected who did not show an adequate detestation of the Nazi and the Jap. Indeed, like the friends, and even casual acquaintances, of Grantland Rice, who sometimes come to blows over the question of who loves him most, all the candidates, including even Ham Fish, the aging and incurable adolescent, tried to outdo one another in their hostility to the foe.

This Fourth Term Business

ON ELECTION NIGHT a Washington journalist, who is regarded as President Roosevelt’s best friend and severest apologist, in a radio comment, suggested that the president might be compelled to submit to a draft for a fourth term, and this gives fairly reliable

published in some newspapers, notably The New York News, and denounced as premature, indelicate and disruptive. Naturally, that brings us to the subject of New York state and the defeat of Jim Farley, whq will now be accused of letting down the Democratic party by his insistence on the nomination of John Bennett, an anti-New Dealer. Well, of course, the obvious answer to that is that the party lost in New York because Tom Dewey ran up a thumping pluraity, given him by voters who were motivated by the reasons mentioned earlier in this document and by others.

Oh Yes, About Mrs. Roosevelt

IF DEFEAT IN New York was due to Farley’s failure or his honesty and loyalty to his word, which, of course, will be summed up elsewhere as nothing better than his own selfish ambition, then who was responsible for the beating taken by Governor Olsen of California, who aped the New Deal there, and, like the New Deal at large, had the financial and coercive support of all the goons and tax collectors of the union? } The Democratic party would have' taken a worse beating in New York if the. present had been able to nominate his man, Senator Jim Mead, for that one had nothing to offer but dumb loyalty to the New Deal party, which was the object of the protest vote. Oh yes, again, like Mr. Wallace, I may be talking out of my prejudices and through my hat, but I think this vote may be traceable in part also to the emergence of Mrs. Roosevelt from her role of gracious lacy into that of superlegislature. I think the people figured it was about time to put a stop to her kind of operations. .

John Ls ‘Bit’

By E. A. Evans

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9.— Recognizing an “imperative necessity” for more coal in the Northwest and on the Pacific coast, John L. Lewis has consented to let his union miners in seven states of that area work on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. Certain conditions, of course, are attached. - The “basic seven-hour work day,” as prescribed in union contracts, will remain. That is, the miners will draw their regular hourly-wage rates for 35 hours of work a week, spread over Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. But if they work on Saturdays, Sundays or holidays they must be paid timeB01. cns-Hiali-50 per cent more than the regular rate.

The Real Co-ordinator Is...

SUCH EXTRA WORK for extra pay will be “optional,” not for the individual miners, but for their local unions and the mine owners. That is, no man can work more thna 35 hours a week without permission of his local, : However, Mr. Lewis has recommended that district officers encourage local unions to permit the additional work “in order to relieve the terrific pressure occasioned by the extraordinary demands for coal growing out of the war.” : But it must be “distinctly understood” that no man is to be fined or penalized for not showing up to dig coal on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday. The government, through Fuel Co-Ordinator Ickes, has suggested that miners in other areas also should be allowed to work a little longer. It would be safer, Mr. Ickes thinks, to build up larger reserve stocks of coal “in view of the uncertainties of the future caused by the war.” But Mr. Lewis is not convinced. Except in the seven Western states his miners’ work-week is still limited to five days of seven hours each. In other words, so far as coal is concerned, the real co-ordinator of fuel seems to be, not Mr. Ickes, but John L. Lewis. :

So They Say—

The ‘people of the United States salute the people of Greece in the conviction that Greek freedom and institutions will be resurrected and restored.—Senator Tom Connally, chairman foreign relations ‘committee.

America, our own country, is the world’s last citadel

of liberty. What we do.here at home, and what our boys do on the battlefields at this crucial time will decide the future of the world, possibly for a thousand years.—Governor Dwight H. Greeh of Illinois.

. * *

~ The aircraft industry is on the threshold of fulfilling President Roosevelt’s appedl for an annual

production rate of 60,000 planes.—Aetonautical Cham-

4

slowdowns which have curtailed the production of i

confirmation to the speculations which have been |

The Hoosier Forum

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

“HOW ABOUT LABELING WILLKIE A MAVERICK?” By J. Dinney, Columbus The people generally seem to be divided on the question of what to call Mr. Willkie—whether to call him a Democrat or a Republican, a patriot or a_politician, an American or a New Dealer, a ham or a diplomat, a high-powered shell or a dud, and so on. How about calling him a “maverick”? The dictionary says that a maverick is “an unbranded animal, especially a calf that has wandered from its mother.” That name would seem to suit Mr. Willkie admirably; for to date, he certainly is “unbranded,” and he seems to have done - considerable wandering in various senses of that term. So why not settle the question

definitely and call Mr. Willkie a “maverick”?

(Times readers are invited to express their these columns, religious conMake your letters short, so all can Letters must

views in

‘troveries excluded.

have a chance.

be signed)

own Gen. Graves who commanded one of our armies. I wonder if Mattie Withers ever ‘heard of the old saying, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t

throw stones.” Of course Pegler never heard of it. One has only to read a few of his columns to realize that he never heard of history, truth or decency. President Roosevelt has said that Russia is destroying more of the enemy’s’ manpower than the other united nations put together. So when we criticize Russia the least we can do is stick to the facts. After all, had it not been for the Soviet Union we would today be fighting a two-front war against Germany and Japan—and fighting it alone. The hundreds of thousands of Russians who have died has saved the lives of thousands of our own boys. Mattie Withers says “Hurrah for Pegler’—the Pegler who snipes at our fighting ally. As a patriotic American I say, “Hurrah for Russia who destroys thousands of our enemies every day.”

2 8 = “WHY NOT RATION SOME OF THESE RADIO ADS?” By Blanche Harris, 1125 Harlan st.

If there’s anything that disgusts me it’s these . , . infantile radio advertisements. A person can emotionally be wrapped in a world of thought resulting from a news broadcast. Then some. silly advertisement about various things from sausages to fur coats comes through and breaks a person's thought entirely. . After all, at a time like this

” 2 ” “PEGLER HAS NEVER HEARD OF HISTORY OR DECENCY” By Mrs. Rose Churchill, Cumberland

A Mattie Withers is enthusistic about the following paragraph of Pegler’s, “Mr. Willkie didn’t tell us what he said when the Russians told him how little of our stuff reached them, but a pat retort would have been that we never mess around in their domestic affairs, and that this should be a lesson to them not to mess around in ours.” This paragraph has just one slight defect. It is not true—which explains Mr. Willkie’s failure to make what a Pegler would consider a snappy retort. You see Mr. Willkie, unlike some of our columnists, and fifth columnists, is both honest and intelligent. The historical facts are that we “messed around” in Russia's domestic affairs with armed forces, we sent good-sized armies into Russia both from Archangel and Vladivos‘ok. These expeditions are a matter of record. The public library has plenty of history books giving all the details, including one by our

COPR. 1942 BV NEA SERVICE, INC. 7. M. REG. U. 8. PAT, OFF: _

"He's wrecking production—he was a drummer in an orchestra

and he rivets in thythml™

any person with average intelligence is more interested in what's happening not only to our country but also foreign countries.. We are conscious of our environment of washing powders, soaps, loans and sausages. We are rationing everything else, what do you say that we ration some of these radio advertisements in order .that we may stay in a serious state of mind, especia. ally at a time like this. CEE

2 2 2 “WHY DOESN'T POLICE GO AFTER THIS PROWLER?” By Mrs. K. C. S., Indianapolis.

Why doesn’t the police department do something about the prowler that has been looting the north side homes? Our home has been robbed the same as dozens of others and I think it is about time we should be rid of this robber. Everyone whose home has been robbed has my sympathy, for in these times we cannot afford to lose a penny of our money. If the others are as worried as I am, believe me, they will also want to know why the attempt to catch ‘him has not been started. Maybe if enough of us would ask the same question, they would take action. At least we hope so, as we are not even safe in our own homes. EJ ” ” “W. I.-BRIGHTWOOD TROLLEY SERVICE A PAIN IN NECK” By C. F. L., Indianapolis. The West Indianapolis-Bright-wood trolley service has become “a pain-in-the-neck”—all on aecount of the Belt railroad arossing in the western part of the city. Waiting for a W. I.-Brightwood trolley as long as 30 or 40 minutes

has become a frequent occurrence during the last three months. I was always under the impression that it was against the law for a train to hold a crossing closed more than three minutes. If that isn’t the law, it should be. 8 2 8 “SPEED THE DAY OF COFFEE RATIONING, I SAY” By Lillian Whicker, 419% N. Davidson st. As no one but grocers can get coffee from the wholesalers, the article should be for any purchaser who asks for it, but it doesn’t work out that way. While the grocer may not ask you to buy a certain amount of goods in order to get the coffee, it often happens that only

{the good customer or a friend is

able to make the purchase. Politics! Politics! Speed the day of rationing, I say. % = = : “EVERY DEMOCRAT OUGHT TO FAST BEFORE ELECTIONS”

By Life-Long Democrat and Reader of Times, Indianapolis

I have ad several ideas of different prominent newspapers and individuals regarding. the reasons of the recent: bad shewing of the Democratic vote. I do: not agree

.|'with any of them. Every Democrat

should fast the day before any election as a reminder of the last two years of Hoover. . Refreshing his memory in this manner, he would always go to the polls and vote.

DAILY THOUGHT

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.—~John 1:8.

HATEFUL to me as are the gates Ce i co ore (tee

in his heart, utters another.—Homer.

The Showdown By William Philip Simms

¢

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9. —The whole course of the war now\ hinges of the success or failure of the American expeditionary force in French North and West Africa. . If it succeeds, the Axis will be thrown out of Africa, Italy can be invaded, the simmering Balkans | may rise, the Nazi effort in Russia \ will bog down and Hitler will face almost certain defeat hardly later "- "than the summer of 1943. But the > American job in North Africa is colossal. With gaps here and there, the Anglo-American battle-line ex= tends from south of Casablanca, on the Atlantic, along the coast to Cairo, a distance of 3500 miles. That is farther than from New York to San Francisco. Much, therefore, depends on the native populations, the French overlords, and the extent of the collabora= tion between Vichy and Berlin.

Some Are Excellent Fighters

MOROCCO IS ABOUT the size of California. It has a population of 6,500,000. Algeria is much larger, It is about three times the size of Texas, with a popus lation of 7,500,000. Tunis, with 2,600,000 inhabitants, is a trifle smaller than Alabama. But French West . Africa, of which Dakar is the principal port,-has an . area nearly two-thirds as large as the United States . and a population of 15,000,000. oo Here, then, is a total of approximately 30,000,000 French colonials. They are excellent fighters. The Senegalese, Moroccans and Algerians were some of France’s toughest warriors in the first world war, They were led, of course, by French officers. Just before the present war broke out, France: kept about 90,000 troops in Algeria and Tunis. These ~ included the famous Foreign Legion; six regiments - of Zouaves:; six of Chasseurs D’Afrique; 12 of Algerian - tirailleurs; six of spahis and six of artillery, engineers, airmen and so on. At Dakar and in Senegal ther®

were still more.

Can Hitler Rely on Vichy?

THE ARMISTICE OF JUNE, 1940, changed all this. At home, France was deprived of all but 100,000} troops for police purposes, she was allowed no military planes whatever. In the colonies, she was permitted to keep a few obsolescent “crates,” plus some troops, but the exact figures have not been divulged. Now Hitler faces a real problem. He must decide whether to trust Vichy or not. If he were certain they would not go over to the allies, he could rearm France’s trained colonials, call up additional reserves and put them under the eemmand of Marshal Rome mel. Were he to do this, the A. E. F. might not find the going so easy. But there are reasons to believe Hitler will. be afraid to rely too much on the French. They are re ° ported to be anti-Axis and pro-American. Already Vichy has reported mutinies among its African troopsg certain units of which refused to fight against the

| allies.

Ever since 1940 the president and the state des partment did everything they could to cultivate the: friendship not only of the metropolitan French, but of the anti-Axis peoples of North Africa as well We = sent certain minimum requirements of fuel and foodstuffs to help the natives out, and in return received - a vast amount of information concerning axis ace tivities not only in Europe, but in the French colonies, Now comes the showdown. We shall see whether Washington or Berlin has drawn the winning cards,

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

I HAD A PLEASANT little cha§ with a nutrition expert—one of those women who. is sent into the sticks to teach American housewives about balanced diets. Now that we face shortages and rationing and old High Cost .of Living has us by the throat, I think there _- is added need for such instruction. But how glad I was to meet an expert who knew enough to reckon with human nature before she handed out advice. This one put her finger right on - the chief trouble-maker in the whole food planning -s business—and that trouble-maker is Papa. I'll guarantee that housewives in general will de their part in the effort to give their families whole some and nourishing menus. But Mama's major problem is not the planning of the right sort of mealsy’ ~ it’s getting Papa to eat them after they’te on the table. 0 For the American man has always been a spoile brat about his food, ol

"Tackle the Real Boneheads" ns

IF HE LIKES fried things—fried things he will -» have. If he is fond of pie—and wasn’t he practically, raised on it?—he’ll yell for pie in spite of diet squads, And, remember, he’s been pampered for a long, long *~ time. no A large part of women’s energy has been used to" provide him with the things he loves to eat. -Andy" besides, many other experts—those who know what must be done to hold husbands—have insisted that Papa’s stomach is the most important fact in Mama's" universe. In fact, so they said, it was the only way ~~ to his heart. And, after believing them, all of a sudden Mams . finds she is due for a federal scolding because .she coddles the head of the house by catering to his sweet tooth or his meat eating habits or his dislike for green vegetables with their valuable vitamins. ; Seems as good a time as any to suggest that Uncle - Sam should instruct his experts to tackle the real bonehead in the case. About nine-tenths of the lecw turing directed to women ought to be given to married men who have never listened to reason or their doce tors or their mothers about foods. LL There are two of us who think they won't listen: » to their wives either—the Diet Lady and myself. “iy

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Editor’s Note: The views expressed by columnists: in thig = newspaper are their own. They are not necessarily ‘those of The Indianapolis Times. ; :

Questions and Answers

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Q—In a train of one hundred loaded cars, is the pull greater on the coupling of the first car or the . last? - Ba a A—Tt is greatest on the first car and 'decreases.on. . each car so that there is very little pull on the last | one. ; :

Q—Is helium gas lighter than hydrogen gas? A—No; it is heavier. A cubic foot of helium weighs 0.0112 1b: or 0 degrees C. and 760 mm. pressure, while a similar quantity of hydrogen at the same tempera ture and pressure weighs but .0.0056 1b,

Q—My husband is a petty officer, second class, in. the navy. Will I receive the government allotment .. provided for dependents of men in the service? s A—No. The bill authorizing the allowances pro- * vides that enlisted men in the fourth, fifth, sixth and ~ seventh grades in the armed forces will receive the allowances. A petty officer, second class, is in ‘the third pay grade and therefore his dependents are not