Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 November 1942 — Page 10

e Indianapolis Times]

' RALPH BURKHOLDER WALTER LECKRONE Editor (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co, 314 W. Maryland st. _ Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard News- EE paper Alliance, NEA "Others, $1 monthly. ~ Service, and Audit Bu“reau of Circulations, By RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own ‘Way

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1942

. MANPOWER FACTS

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~

HERE are many theories, too few facts, about where ..~ we're going to get the manpower to fight the war, equip the fighters, grow the crops and supply the essentials " of civilian life. But here are six facts: 1. The federal government has about 2,700,000 civilian

: : -employees—three times as many as it had in the last war.

2. The state and local governments have about 3,020-

: * 000 employees—twice as many as in the last war.

8 3. The average work week in all manufacturing industries, including war industries, is less than 43 hours. 4. The U. S. supreme court has held that congress has _ forbidden the federal government to interfere with labor- * union practices which compel the hiring of more workers _ than are needed, on many jobs, and which block the adop- _ tion of more efficient and time-saving methods—and congress has not acted to make it plain that it never intended to protect such practices. 5. The federal, state and local governments could thin - down their overcrowded bureaucracies and release hundreds

! of thousands of employees for more useful jobs, but rey

- aren’t doing it. : 6. The federal government, preferably with the pith

otic help of organized labor, could make possible a longer

work week that still wouldn't be too long for efficiency, and] could get rid of the manpower-wasting union BRackiost) but

it isn’t doing either. > e T- i 4 4

NAVY NEWS ,

EP. MAAS’ attack on the navy policy of sippressing war facts strikes a popular chord. Maas, after his experience as a flying officer in the southwest Pacific, cannot be ignored. Whatever the reason, congress and the public think they are not getting enough information. There is big room for improvement, in our judgment. But the ptiblic in fairness to the naval authorities must understand that their first job is to win the war, which includes keeping information from the enemy. The lives of many Americans are at stake. The public would be the first to blame the authorities if premature disclosure of information cost the life of one sailor, marine or soldier. So it is natural, and wise, for the navy department to be cautious. If it must err, better that it should give out too little information than too much. We hope, however, that the navy after its experience of unwittingly injuring public confidence in the reliability of its battle statements will be able to make fuller announce-

be A.

. + ments of information already known to the enemy.

= slower motion.

HM

: usi | it has been switched to the grim and ghastly but necessary

In fact, the navy deserves credit for just that. During the last two or three weeks its statements seem to have been franker, and there has been less delay. This probably means that the navy, which is taught to fight rather than to deal with the public, is learning that in -a democracy informed public confidence is essential to sustained war ‘ effort. If so, this difficult problem will be worked out.

“SMASHING THE AXIS”

| WEE had some good news in recent days, after a long "run of the bad. Want to read some more? You'll find it aplenty, in a series which starts today on page one of the second section. The articles, written by Charles T. Lucey, show a modern industrial miracle has been perigrmod. They are the result of weeks of investigation by a highly skilled reporter into the turnover of America’s mass production from, as Mr. Lucey himself puts it, “the plush goods of peacetime to the desperately needed tools of war.” Mass production is distinctly an American creation.

_ It’s our own. Wherever around the world it is found, it * still stems back to the U. S. A. An assembly line in Ger-

* many, Japan or Italy had its birth here. The date of birth was about the time somebody cut . down the spreading chestnut tree and put the village smithy out of business. Whether that was good for civilization, “ net, may be debatable. There are those who yearn for But that we—and no one else—brought mass production about is a fact. And our superior ability to apply it to war as well as to peace is what is going to win this war, ” # ” ” LER and his fellow gangsters just took the formula ‘and’ turned it to the business of killing, a decade or ‘more before we did—while in all those years we still were it on the paths of peace. But now, in less than a year,

8

job of mass slaughter in order that our nation and our way of living may be saved. The imitation is never as good as the original. The inventor knows better how to use the tool than the one who copied it. So, if you want. to see the proof of that, go with Reporter Lucey through the plants, with him meet Ford and Ketteri g and Wilson and Litchfield and those other giants inddstry who with their superintendents and foremen Blilled workmen are carrying on with the miracle. / We tell you you'll get a lift. ‘The title of the articles is “Smashing The Axis.”

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CE BOY IST January Tom Cook was an office boy on the New York Daily Mirror. Now he’s a private in the marines, on Guadalcanal. The other night he and a fellow marine, Walter Leary of New Jersey, used pistol fire and hand grenades to stand oft an advancing force of 150 Japs. Newspaper men will feel a special pride in Private )k’8 heroism, and will wish him speedy recovery from the wound he suffered, but none of them will be surprised vhat he did. By the time an office boy learns to hold a pant city editor at bay-—and ‘that's one of the first ‘an office boy does learn—he certainly isn’t going to nidated by a mere 150 J.

or

$4 a year; adjoining states, 75 cents a month; |

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, Nov. 16.—Pardon me all over if I seem to dwell - overlong on the speech of Vice President Henry Wallace to the Congress of American Soviet Friendship, whatever that was, a week ago Sunday, but Mr, Wallace . stands in line for the presidency of the United States and might be the nominee of the New Deal party in 1944, so I just think we ought to study his ideas. It is pord and certainly more than I can do to discuss the difference between Russia's form of government and ours without drawing fire from those who insist that military co-operation with this ally in a war against a common enemy requires the political and economic assimilation of this country to Russia. That is called Red-baiting and disruptiveness and the bravery and sacrifice of millions of Russian common people in defense of their own homes and soil, which is sacred to them, are cited to show what a dirty dog you are for insisting that the virtues of the familiar American way out-value its defects and the virtues of Russia's way.

The Nubbin of His Speech’

Mr. Wallace disparaged-the Bill of Rights of our constitution and said that Russia and the United States both have been working toward a practical middle ground between economic and political democracy. ’ He said Russia had perceived some of the abuses of excessive Bill of Rights democracy and had placed strong emphasis on economic democracy, He acknowledged, however, that if economic democracy is carried to an extreme; all power resides in one man and his bureaucratic helpers. : He thinks Russia has been easing away from this extreme or dictatorial phase of economic democracy, which is a paradox for you, and said, “In present-day Russia differences in wage income are almost but not quite as great as in the United States. The

manager of a factory may be paid 10 times as much |

as the average worker. Artists, scientists and out standing writers are usually paid even more than factory managers or political commissars. “The chief difference between the economic organization of Russia and that of the United States is that in Russia it is almost _impossible to live on incomeproducing property.”

Theoretically, Yes; Practically, No

SO LET'S SEE. Knowing something about the political temperament of the American life, we can be apprehensive that the manager of the factory, getting 10 times as much as the average worker, would be chosen more for his party regularity than for his ability. Harry Hopkins, for example, would rank very high in title and in income, although his record of achievement is so involved in politics that it cannot be valued at all. What sort of artists and outstanding writers would be paid more than factory managers in our country if we were to adopt.that economic system which Mr. Wallace calls democracy? Art, theoretically, has no more politics than secience, but everyone in the American arts knows that that has not been so in practice here. It certainly is not so in Russia where, as in Germany, the greatest writer of the age would be recognized only as the guest of honor at an execution if he were to write contrary to the prevailing politics and powers.

What Is This Property?

MR. WALLACE does not state clearly whether he ‘desires that it be made almost impossible here, as in Russia, to live on income-producing property, but there is a feeling in his remarks that he sort of hankers that way.

Yet, in our country, income-producing property is |

owned largely by the common man, who bought insurance by saving during his earning years, which in turn was invested in private industry, or bought corporation stocks or maybe a little house to rent for income. This income-producing property is- the common man's reward for his toil. The American press, the freest and best in the world, is income-producing property and the only alternative is a press owned by the state, which would express only the views of the governing party and suppress all news unpalatable to the party. . That will be about all for the time being on Mr. Wallace's speech and, goodness knows, itt has been a long discussion, but it certainly is advisable to consider the implications of his ideas.

U. S. ‘Imperialism’ By William Philip Simms

/

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16.—Yesterday President Roosevelt, President Quezon and other high officials, of both state and church, took the lead in celebrating the seventh anniversary of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. Yesterday marked a date almost unique in history. On Nov. 15, 1935, the United States to all intents set the Philippines free. Such ties as remain are by mutual choice and designed solely to cushion the shock of separation for the benefit of the Filipino people. In any event, the commonwealth is scheduled to become a full-fledged republic on July 4, 1946, as a gift from the American people to the people of the Philippine islands. If was back in President McKinley's time that we took the Philippines during our war with Spain. We took them by conquest. But we made them a promise. We said we were opposed to imperialism

and that just as soon as the inhabitants learned to-

govern themselves we would set them free,

Something to Be Proud of

THAT PROMISE was regarded throughout the rest of the world as a huge joke. Great powers didn’t behave that way, Oh, yes, they sometimes made such promises, but these were never kept. We ‘kept our promise. Yesterday commemorated the fact. The commonwealth has its own president, its own judiciary, its own legislative branch. And, once the 10-year transition period is past, the wholly sovereign Philippine republic will be born. Yesterday, therefore, was of great significance to the united nations as a whole and even to the other countries. It offers concrete evidence of the ideals and principles for-which we are fighting. Nor are the Philippines the only place where we

have lived up to the Atlantic Charter principles. |

China has good reason to know, In the 19th century, when other great powers were grabbing “concessions” at the expense of China,

we refused to accept a single acre of territory. When

John Hay was our secretary of state we risked war with the same powers by promulgating the doctrine of the open door, and warned Europe against attempting to dismember the flowery kingdom. After the war we took the lead in demanding that Japan get

out. of eastern Siberia and Shantung, and it was the

United States that called the Washington conference which resulted in the nine-power treaty to safeguard China, Disregard of that treaty by Japan is what Ted us to Pearl Harbor and our war in the Pacific. The record of the United States, of course, PA not

perfect. But yesterday's anniversary offers 8 Jastisson

that it; is far“from being as

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

“IF SOLDIERS LAID OFF

WOULD THEY BE AMERICAN?”

By Kenneth Powell, 329 Oxford st.

What if the boys in service would say, “We won't fight on Amristice day unless we get paid time and a half for it?” Could we call them American soldiers? What about the construction unions who wouldn't work on Armistice day because they couldn’t get time and a half for it? Can we eall them American workers? I'm just asking. How many of you feel like you let the boys down a little? How would you feel if you were in their place and they let you down? How would you feel if they let you down? I'm just asking.

2 o ” “SNAP OUT OF IT, THOSE OF YOU WHO SLEEP!” By Mrs. Sam D, Stabler, 4952 Kingsley dr. If you are one of those shiftless half-awake individuals who has the nerve to throw away tin cans in-

stead of preparing them so that they may be used . . . well, don't read what I have to say because you won't like it. As I went to the grocery Monday morning I noticed that there were properly prepared tin cans out in front of only half the houses in our block! (Others had the gall to set out unprepared cans for someone else to haul to the dump “for free.”) Do you mind if I tell you just one thing that I noticed? The people who had out the properly prepared cans are the ones who work hard all day and then take defense courses at night. They are the people whose time is extremely limited. . .. i Perhaps there is no one close to your heart who is giving everything for his or her country. Our fam-

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controveries excluded. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Letters must

be signed)

ily can't boast of such an individual but we can say that we do consider the other fellow enough to know that it hurts him or her to know that ‘occasionally we people here at home do sleep on the job. For heaven's sake, snap out of it! Those of you who are asleep. Don’t be so short sighted that you don’t realize how those tin cans

| tossed in with the trash appear out

on your boulevard. If you can’t fiix them right, then don’t put them out where people can see them: do with them what any self-respecting billy goat would do.

8 8 = . “DRAFT, MANPOWER TWO OF REASONS FOR ELECTION SHIFT” By A. J. Schneider, 504 West Dr., Woodruff Place

At the risk of seeming trite; I repeat what has been sajd perhaps several millions of times in the last few days—the people have spoken. And in no uncertain terms. It is difficult’ to pin the reasons for the peaceable revolt to any one factor. Indeed, as I have called upon several hundreds of people regularly, there are many factors which built up this revolt. I have noticed for several months recently that people have been more articulate regarding the conduct of their governmental affairs. , Among the dozens of complaints, however, two seemed to be ‘most popular—or should I say unpopular? The leader was the inefficient, heartless and discriminatory manner in which the selective service has been administered. . . . There is no reason or excuse for the bungling

Side Glances— By Galbraith

-with the ravings

uncertainty, which caused and in causing such cruel anxiety among mothers, wives and other relatives of prospective draftees. . . . Let's end the inhumanity of present draft effort. . The other chief complaint deals and rantings about manpower., People of the states, outside of Washington, see no emergency in ‘the manpower situation, so long as the New Deal maintains more than a million bought votes in Washington, serving no. other purpose than - their support of the perpetuation of the New Deal mistake. Nor is there any acute manpower emergency So long as a propaganda machine of some 34,000 propagand-

‘ists is maintained to discolor the

truth. Less than 1000 could tell the truth and such parts of the truth as do not’ disclose military information. Maintenance of propaganda machine is admission that our great humanitarian is trying to out-Hitler the axis by feeding us pap—which we are now beginning to see in its true colors. Lies and half truths by our chief executive has blasted confidence among the rank and file... .

There is no manpower problem at

all. . « « So long as workers in De- |. troit receive upward of $2 per hour |’

for the same chore as a worker in Indianapolis is paid about 90 cents per hour, or a worker in Indianapolis receives 90 cents per hour for work which brings about 40 cents per hour in Tennessee, or so long as a farm hand receives $1 per day for a day not limited by legislation, we are going to have labor migrating from the farms to the cities, from Tennessee to Indigna, from Indianapolis to Detroit. , . Instead of toying with the idea of compulsory labor, slavery, contrary to the bill of rights amendments to the constitution, if there.is an able commission in Washington, it should concentrate on the solution to the manpower problem without defeat-

ing at home the very thing we are j

waging a war to give to other nations. % Tn 2 2 “IS THERE REALLY A SCRAP SHORTAGE ‘IN THE U. 8.2”

‘| By Ray Clair, a2 N. Oxford st.

I have been reading about the scrap drive all over the country in which they have urged the school children to scour alleys, basements and garages for scrap, even to turning in their toys,

great scrap shortage in the country.

I have just finished a 2000-mile| [8

drive across the U. S., and was surprised to find that on both sides of the highway, in every village and town, were great auto gravéyards which apparently have never been touched. I passed abandoned mines and workings ;in which old discarded machinery has been lying idle for years. I observed hundreds of tons of scrap along this highway, is it that the government does not know of this.scrap, or are the boys hold-

{ing it for higher prices?

Scraping alleys with these hugh

.|auto graveyards all over the coun-

4 does not make sense to me.

DAILY THOUGHT

Ana it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath SinBey in. thas. Shing, ~1evilions

such a huge].

: and. have| been led to kelieve that their is aj.

Frankly Speaking

By Norman E. Isaacs

THE TOPIC OF most of the conversation around Indianapolis & at the moment is the next chief of police, The name most free quently mentioned is “Charlie Russell.” Indeed, it would seem - that from the list of his backers, that Mr. Russell has a very ‘good chance of being appointed our next chief, All this, of course, is predicated on the theory ‘that Mayor-elect Tyndall will accept the advice of the gentlemen supporting Russell's cane didacy. Who is Russell? What is his record? Well, Charles: J. Russell lives at 2631. Brookside parkway, He's 53 years old, has been a member of the police force ever since 1917. He has never held a rating above detective sergeant and at present he is a patrole man first grade with the title of acting sergeant, cone ferred at the request of Sherwood Blue. It was Prose= cutor Blue who requested his assignment to the prosecutor's office as a detective investigator.

Charles J. Russell's Record . . .

RUSSELL WAS CONFIRMED as a member of the police force late in ’17, became a detective sergeant on Nov. 18, 1919, and three weeks later was transe ferred to be a regular police sergeant. On Oct. 13, 1920, he was charged with conduct unbecoming an officer, found not guilty on Oct. 26, and then on Nov. 23, 1920, reduced to patrolman (which, judging from the date) was probably the result of one of our local elections). On April 19, 1921, he was promoted to bicycle man, then on Jan. 2, 1922, to sergeant. On Dec. 26, 1922, he was reduced to traffic man, and on Jan. 9, 1923, he was reduced again to patrolman, this time at his own request. On May 8, 1923, he was granted a 90-day leave and this was stretched to an additional 90 days on Aug: 7th, This was during a primary election and one might assume that Mr. Russell was possibly active in that primary.

Bringing Things Up to Date f ON JUNE 28, 1924, Russell was promoted to ser= geant. Then, on March 16, 1926, he was transferred to detective sergeant. There was nothing to disturb this status until Jan. 1, 1935, when he was reduced to patrolman first grade. On May 27, 1941, he was transferred to the prosecutor's office, which brings us up to date. Whether Russell can qualify for a lieutenancy une der the merit law I don’t know. Perhaps he can. At any rate, the new ‘chief must have enough merit training to qualify for a lieutenant, since the chief must come from a rank not lower than that. The backers of Russell seem to be County Chaire man Henry Ostrom, Prosecutor Blue and Bill Armitage. Don't skip over this last name lightly,

Concerning Mr. Armitage:

BILL ARMITAGE is a name to conjure with n this town, Always in the background, he holds (or has held .at various times) the same kind of power in the Republican party which.-Bill Clauer is supposed to hold in the Democratine party. Bill Armitage has always been interested in autoe matic devices more commonly known as slot machines, If Bill has ever been on the wrong side of the law, nobody knows about it. He is a man of tremendous influence and he has a big following. The only busi. ness aside from these automatic devices he has ever been known to engage in was as a representative of an asphalt firm during the Lew Shank administration, At any rate, the word is out that Bill Armitage wants Charlie Russell to be chief. So does Henry Ostrom. Henry Ostrom and Bill Armitage are close friends,

Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists in this newspaper are their own, They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times, ;

In Washington

By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16—In

world war I, food shipments te Europe ran 65 per cent cereals, © 6 per ‘cent pork, 2 per cent dairy products. In world war II they run 20 per cent cereals, 24 per cent pork, 16 per. cent dairy products: . . . National Housing agency gives one tip on possible length of war by offering to lease houses for war workers for seven years or two years after the dura tion, whichever is longer. . . . Dehydrated pork that looks like granulated brown sugar is being shipped overseas. . . . Sales of goods by army and navy cane teens - have been: exempted from price regulations,

More Odds and Ends

THERE 18 NO price ceiling on sales of far businesses, or professional equipment not acquir or produced for the purpose of sale. . . Ceiling prices on cigars, beer, wine and spirits have been lifted to make allowances for increased taxes. ... Two extra trdins to Florida have been authorized to haul soldiers, hot winter tourists, - .

We the Women By Ruth Millet

THE BRITISH hostess who puts a loaf of bread and a knife. on the table, letting her guests. cut off what they want and no more, and who neglects to put on bread-and-butter plates; leaving her guests to put butter and jam on their bread directly from the dishes in which those are served, is doing the socially correct thing, It’s a new scheme for keeping as little food as possible from going to waste. War has changed and is ast changing many phases of social usage. Right here in America there's & social custom that ought to be put aside the way Britain is putting aside bread-and-butter plates. And it is one that women could rule out theme selves, In small towns and all but the largest cities it is customary: for & prospective bride’s friends to give showers for her. ™

It's a Real Handicap 2

IT ISN'T AT ALL unusual for a girl | to. have as many as six or eight showers given for her by friends ‘who are anxious to see her well stocked with linens, dishes, lamps and bric a brac. The hardship isn’t on the. friend whe gives the shower, or on the bride. The hardship is on the: friends of the ‘bride ‘who are invited to every shower given for her, and ‘who even if they can’t show up for the party, are expected brellas and send.it to the party. os hy dot the women of America put an end Ag

fo buy a gift, wrap it in paper covered with pink um- A 4