Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 November 1942 — Page 10

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President

Service, and Audit Bu-

“and five destroyers—compared with two American light

" ordinate war production; army, navy, maritime and lend-

: to Correct it.

: great authority of great experience i great wisdom in

“he Indianapolis Times orn mo pr yo MARK FERREE WALTER LECKRONE Business Manager Editor (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

Price in Marion County, 3 cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 15 cents

Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by ~The Indianapolis Times

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§ «@@Po RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1942

NAVAL VICTORY HE U. S. navy has won a great victory off the Solomons. Because all the reports are not in, no - final estimate can yet be made. But the navy department, under its new policy of speeding up information to the public, lists 23 Jap ships destroyed, including a battleship and five cruisers

Scripps - Howard | Newspaper Alliance, NEA

reau of Circulations.

cruisers and six destroyers sunk. From the time the enemy expedition was launched from the upper Solomons on Nov. 10 until the Japs wi ithdrew | northward on the 15th, the battle raged over a wide area of air, sea and land, with the Guadalcanal sector the hottest. The navy credits MacArthur's army fliers with “great assistance” before .and during the naval actions. Although later reports may increase the number of American losses and the cost of driving off the enemy, there is no doubt that the Japs were turned back in their biggest all-out attempt to retake our bases. Though they apparently landed some reinforcements for their Guadalcanal troops, they lost eight transports and four cargo ships in addition to heavy loss of warships. ; 2 8 =» NTIL the final balance sheet is in, it would be premature to assume that this battle has destroyed Jap naval ~ superiority in numbers, and given us the balance of sea power in that area for the first time. But if such proves to be the case—as now seems probable—that will change the war in.the Pacific in all its aspects. Since Pearl Harbor we have been greatly handicapped by inferior numbers. Despite the battles of the Coral sea and Midway, the Japs have been able to put larger naval forces into the South Pacific. Though we have been turning out new naval vessels and planes, many of them have been required in other battle areas. Now that the navy has a huge job in keeping open the supply lines to the African front, destruction of our South Pacific fleet would have been particularly serious. By inflicting heavier blows on the enemy we have saved our strategic Solomon bases and improved our Pacific position at a critical moment. To all the officers and men of all the services, whose heroic fighting qualities have given us this victory, America pays tribute today.

HOME-FRONT COMMAND

IVE members of congress, chairmen of special committees investigating the war effort on the home front, have joined in a demand for legislation to enforce a unified civilian command of that front. All are Democrats and supporters of the New Deal. Among them are Senator Truman of Missouri and Rep. Tolan of California, men whose thorough and useful work as investigators has earned respect for their opinions. They believe—and we agree, and we think the election proved—that the public is dissatisfied with loose organization, scattered authority, and jurisdictional conflicts among the agencies that are trying to make the national economy serve the needs of total war. Their proposed law would create a.new, over-all office of war mobilization whose director would command and co-

lease procurement; civilian manpower and selective service; technical and scientific agencies, and the office of economic stabilization with its price-control and other functions. In other words, they want some one man given full authority to do what—in theory—the president does now. * * *

THE president names individuals or boards to manage war production, manpower, transportation, oil, rubber, prices, wages and what have you. They are responsible to him. He can give them orders. But the president is overloaded. Responsibility for actually fighting the war is on his shoulders. He can’t give constant attention to the multitude of domestic problems, and no one else has power to ‘make general plans at the top and require all the separated administrators and boards to conform to them. The result is confusion, muddling and delay. It is encouraging to find members of congress recognizing their responsibility for a bad situation and proposing measures

* * *

‘HERE are details of which, frankly, we are doubtful Senator Murray of Montana, for Instance, believes that responsibility for procuring and producing supplies needed by the armed forces must be taken out of military hands. * This, as we understand it, is what the congressional group proposes. to do. We think that no one except the commander-in-chief should have power to tell the army and navy what to order, where to order it, what the specifica‘tions shall be or how many men to mobilize. But, obviously, we're no great authority on such matters. However, the country is fortunate in having a really

‘home-front war. 1 The congressional group has not voi consulted Bernard Mm Baruch, but says it will. ~~ We want to know, and we think the country wants 3 foo. X Mr. Baruch’s opinion of this plan.

od out and Gare | in every bit of old metal can posibly. spare? Well, here’s hoping you're right. ut maybe the following little story will make you think , as it did us: A 79-year-old widow at the Home for the Aged- in mphis contributed to the scrap heap a picture frame, a 1t buckle, a pin tray, an old brooch and a pair of knitting es she had owned for 50 years. Total weight, 13 ounces. she said, “but it's all had. 1 hope it will

| she didn't break her leg. . She did bite her dog,

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

' NEW YORK, Nov. 17.—By the kindness of her father, Lyle Wilson, I am able to publish a work by Miss Sally Wilson, of Washington, a young playwright who certainly makes a bum of that william Saroyan that they talk about so much. Miss Wilson, who is 10 years old, is a female gangster in her spare time and runs with Miss Boops Spaatz, also 10, who is the daughter of Maj. Gen. Carl Spaatz, the commander of the American air forces in Europe. I had heard that they once broke the lleg of a guest in the Wilson home, but Mrs. Wilson can’t recall any such incident although, she added, “I wouldn't put it past them.” “I think,” she said, “you mean the time Sally kicked her teacher for keeping her after school. But

Sarah, though, her little scottie. It was a fight over their dinner. Sarah ate something off Sally's plate so Sally ate a dog biscuit out of Sarah’s bowl and Sarah bit her and the fight was on.”

This Play Has No Title

MR. WILSON SAYS he is positive that Miss Sally has not been influenced by the works of ‘William Saroyan, never having read him or even heard of him. In the play, which has no title, the word, or rather the sound “huk” recurs and Mr. Wilson contends that this is good realism. He says it is considerably more like the sound issued by drunken persons than the conventional “hic.” He may be right, The play fgllows: STEFMOTHER—I'm tired of living here. I've always wanted to be an actress. FATHER~—You sertainly don't care for the children think of what they'll go threw grandmother is alwas getting drunk. MOTHER~If the children can’t get along by there self its to bad I can't help it if grandmother gets

drunk. (Children enter.)

It Moves Fast, Doesn't 1+?

JO—-GUESS WHAT I don't have any homework. FATHER—Good do you have any Clover, CLOVER~—A little bit. DICK—A little bit my foot. (Grandmother enters.) GRANDMOTHER—I've huk squesed the potatoes kuk and pealed the huk lemons, MGCTBHER~—Oh dear. (Children laugh and mother leaves the room.) FATHER—Granny wouldn’t you like to get some water. GRANDMOTHER—Later on I'm going to the bar now. JOE—If you don’t go to the bar more than twise a day I'l eat my hat.

Quite A Story, What?

GRANDMOTHER—You don't have any to eat huk. MOTHER—Come on in and eat children. FATHER—Grandmothers gone to the bar. MOTHER—Thank gonnese. FATHER—You know the children can’t stay with her. MOTBER—They are not my children where is there real mother, FATHER—Its a long story but you remember that big tank full of gas that started leaking in Gayton well we lived a block away and I was reading a paper and my wife was soing on some close and I opened the door and a man said the gas tank was busted so I ran for the boys and my wife ran for Clover. It was so fogie outside I couldn't see. MOTEER—The children must have very bad memerys not to remember this. FATHER—Well Dick was only two but he slept threw the whole thing Jo was one and Clover was 3 months well the streets were crowded my wife sliped on a rock I don’t know exactly how we got apart but I notised she was missing many a times I looked for her but I never found her. MOTHER—HoOw queer. Mr. Wilson, with Saroyan’s success in mind, is thinking of quitting his job and living on Miss Sally's royalties.

The views expressed by columnists in this

Editor’s Note: They are not necessarily those

newspaper are Lheir own. of The Indianapolis Times,

‘

Age of Enterprise

Stephen Ellis

THOMAS C. COCHRAN, 40-year-old assistant, professor of history at N. Y. U., and William Miller, a New York journalist and critic, have turned out one of the most remarkable history books in years, “The Age of Enterprise.” The jacket says it Is “A social history of industrial America.” And, surprisingly, the book bears

The jacket

it out right to the hilt. For “The design of Age of Enterprise” is a concise, “The Age of Simple, straight forward and inEnterprise. » telligent study of American business—its beginning, its growth, its meanings. It is a book that cought to be made a

textbook by every great university in the land; indeed, every man or woman who has any role in our business growth, be he employer or employee, ought to be urged to read it, too. Cochran and Miller take their readers through the whole gamut of American growth, from the provincialism of the early 1800's to the bustling 1900's. Step by step, they trace the rise of industry, the status of labor, the social problems of the day, the whole picture of a gradually changing economy.

Written to Be Read Slowly

AND THIS A book not entirely’ without romance. For there is romance enough for anyone in the story of business. There is Cornelius Vanderbilt, a story in himself, and the amazing Jay Gould, who played the market for itself alone. “He knew his instrument like a virtuoso,” write Cochran and Miller, “knew every permutation ‘and combination of its possibilities, knew how to exploit them till. he hovered again and again on the very brink of failure but never once fell over.

. “The exclusive New York Yacht Club refused him admittance, and Mrs. Astor never invited his family to her quadrilles. With nothing to lose in that direc tion he was yet freer to fleece high society. By his raids and ripostes in the market he made enemies

though he was protected day and night by a detach=

“His retaliation was invariably to arrange ¢ transaction that would cost his assailant Yes, by all means, read this slowly. It was a book written that ‘way §

who did not hesitate to reply with violence; and ment of plainclothesmen he suffered physical beat-

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

“SOLDIERS AREN'T COMPELLED TO DRINK, YOU KNOW” By Pvt. E. R. Eppich, Crystal River, Fla. While home on a furlough recently I've read with considerable interest the various complaints regarding the matter of drinking in the armed forces. To these people who would again have the return of prohibition, need I remind you that all soldiers have

free wills and that they are not compelled to drink. I suggest that you keep out of the affairs of the armed forces in as much as we have many brilliant men in the service thoroughly capable of handling these matters and if it were hindering the war effort, don’t you think steps would have been taken to rectify the would-be error? So let's not be narrow minded. Surely if we are capable of fighting for eur country, a few foul tasting beers and those horrible cigarets won't delay an allied victory.

2 8 = “WOULD YOU WORKERS TRADE PLACES WITH THE SOLDIERS”

By Omer Wisehart, 3309 E. 26th st. In regard to the 5000 construction workers who did not report for work on three large war projects Armistice day, what kind of Americans are you? You are men who enjoy the comforts of America and call yourselves loyal Americans, yet you quibble about wages while the boys on the far flung battlefronts are braving every danger partly for you and me and partly as their blood-sweat/ contribution to a lasting “World Peace.” Do they ask an unjyst compensation for their services? No, they do their duty, and if they die, they die valiantly upholding the traditions of the ‘“doughboys” who didn’t come back from world war I, How about it, construction workers, would you exchange places with the boys on the front lines, knowing there are mer. like you backing them up, well?

By W. E. H., Indianapolis Appearing on the front page of The Indianapolis Times of Nov. 11, ’42 was the following: “Almost 5000 construction workers did not report for work on three large war projects today in a dispute over the -payment of time-

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

Make

your letters short, so all can

troveries excluded.

have a chance. Letters must

be signed)

and-one-half for work on Armistice day. “This was the report of the Indianapolis Building Contractors association which said the men on construction projects at Allison’s, the Fall Creek Ordnance plant, and Stout field had refused to work today for straight pay.” Well I have a son toiling in the hot rain soaked jungles of Panama for the U. S. army at $50 a month and I hope he will never have to shed a drop of his blood to make the world safe for such men as these. 2 a» x “NEVER SO BAD BUT WHAT SOMEBODY LIKED IT!” By James C. Clegg, 2209 Fletcher ave. Mattie Withers’ enthusiasm for Westbrook Pegler reminds me of the fact that during my 30 years in business I have never received any merchandise so bad but what somebody liked it. Evidently this is also true of the newspaper business. Pegler, convinced that everybody is a heel, seems a perfect example of the fellow who judges everyone by himself. Fair enough?

By Robert T. Kirkham, Sullivan Mattie Withers praises Westbrook

| Pegler for taking a slam at Russia.

Pegler said: “We never mess around in their domestic affairs.” The facts are that in 1913 we sent soldiers: into: Russia to shoot down the Russian people who had revolted against the czar and his Cossacks. Our boys refused to fight against the Russian common people. We do not expect the truth from Pegler, but believing that Miss Withers is a good, patriotic American who has been deluded by Pegler’s propaganda, we respectfully suggest that .she read “Mission to

“Moscow” by Joseph E. Davies, for-

mer U. S. ambassador to Russia. Russia has done a remarkable job in halting Hitler. Every Rus-

J serves to be read that way.

anHE/A

Side Glances—By Galbraith

{member that the Germans con-

sian who has given his life (and they have died gloriously by thousands) has made the supreme sacrifice to crush Naziism and fascism and Japism, just as our own boys are doing in Africa, the Solomons and elsewhere. It ill behooves any of us to make slighting remarks against our brave Russian allies.

2 = = “IS THERE A MANPOWER SHORTAGE—OR IS IT TALK?”

By Ted Rich, 2002 St. Paul st. I noticed in your paper where you keep talking about manpower shortage for workers at our local Allison plant, My wife and I have our application in there and get no response, although we would not solve the work shortage, but would ‘help. I have had a lot of auto mechanic experience and she has had assembly experience. Now the question is what string do you have to pull to get a job out: there. I know inexperienced men that went to work at once out there with no experience and women who never worked out before for a living just because they knew the right strings to pull. My wife has not worked for one year and I am on a non-defense job, would like to do our part. Is there really a shortage or is that just talk?

2 8 =» “MARK TWAIN CHANGED HIS ATTITUDE IN LATER YEARS”

By Frank C. Ayres, Christian Science Committee on Publication for Indiana.

Westbrook Pegler stated correctly in your columns recently that Mark Twain had campaigned against Mary Baker Eddy. It might be of interest to your readers to learn that in his later years he changed his attitude. His daughter, Mrs. Clara Clemens Gabrilowitsch, writes in her work, “My Husband Gabrilowitsch,” that “Mark Twain in contradiction to his previous statements §aid: ‘Christian Science is humanity's boon, . She (Mrs. Eddy) has organized and made available a healing principle that for 2000 years has never been employed except as the merest kind of guess-work. She is the benefactor of the age’.”

» » » “WE SHOULD MAKE SPITFIRES FOR OUR FLIERS” By A. B., Indianapolis.

When it was suggested, by critics of our fighter planes, that the U, S. convert some American aircraft plants . to the manufacture of the splendid British Spitfire the army replied that “it would neither be feasible, economical, nor likely.” I am of the opinion that it would be feasible: to hang with economy during wartime, if it will give our boys better planes, and if the P-47 “Thunderbolt” and the P-38 Lockheed “Lightning,” as yet untried on any front, don’t do any better than the P-40 did on the French coast. They further said “We must re-

stantly are working on a new plane to chase the Spitfire out of the sky.” The Nazis have already chased the P-40 out of the skies over the chan-

rons refuse to fly them. It's very serious, considering that the P-40 is

In Washington

By Peter Edson =

Planes and Ships

‘| and think in terms of wings, rather than more mil=

nel. The R.A.F. and Eagle squad-

RON EEN

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17.—An official regulation prohibiting the. hoarding of foods, clothing, meats, gasoline, fuel oil or any-and-ev= erything else that may be rationed is in the works at the office of a administration, If and when it comes out, this regulation will have all the force of any other’ OPA regulation, meaning that people found guilty of violating it will be subject to fines. and impritonment up to $10,000 and 10 years in the jail house. The regulation may not be as scary as it sounds. It isn’t the same as restoring an era of prohibition by official order, it isn’t intended to spy on hoarded stocks in- attic or cellar, and it doesn’t envisage any bootlegging of rationed commodities. Better than 99 per cent of the American people are beautifully and voluntarily abiding by OPA price ceiling orders and the anti-hoarding regulation is intended merely for the unpatriotic less than T™ per : cent who aren’t playing fair in this necessary busi- i ness. :

The Date Is Not Yet Set

EXACT DATES and methods haven't been agreed on yet, so the whole program can’t be given in all its details, but in general it will probably Work some-

putting the coffee rationing program into effect will be Nov, 29. Sales of coffee from the stores to the public will be stopped Nov. 21 to Nov. 29 to give the, stores a chance to build up stocks. 2. Consumers won’t have to register to get their first rationed coffee. Instead, they will use stamp No, 27 in their war ration book No. l1—the book they now use for sugar. That stamp, which must be left in the book, will be good for one pound of coffee for every person 14 years or older, and that pound will have to last for five weeks, or through Jan, 3, 1943. 3. And this is unfortunate. On Nov. 29, every houses holder, restaurant or other coffee user should make a note of the amount of coffee he has on hand. The amount of this “hoarded” coffee won't have to be declared until later, but it will have to he declared later and it will figure in‘the amounts of coffee which ration book holders will be entitled to in 1943.

And Don't Cheat!

FOR ANYONE who thinks he can beat this game by not declaring hoarded stocks of coffee—there is already a regulation providing for $10,000 or 10-year penalties for making false declaration. But it is out of all this confusion that the need for an over-all anti-hoarding regulation became apparent. ° : Price administration officials have been careful about giving out advance information on commodities that might have to be rationed. In spite of that caution, there have been information leaks and resulting runs on the stores, With a general anti-hoarding regulation in effect, maybe all that can be stopped.

thing like this: g 1. Barring a last mihute change, the date for 1

By Major Al Williams

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17.—Human wealth of any description— money, natural resources, or mane power—can be wasted to the point where there “ain’t any more,” no - matter how inexhaustible it may seem. My conviction. is growing that before long we will be building airplanes and cargo ships, and mighty little else. It’s no use building cargo ships without turning out planes to keep them afloat, We've got to make up our minds sooner or later on what types of weapons can win this war, sing slick to building those weapons. The allied rout of Rommel in Africa wes ‘passiils only because the Allies had air superiority. There, again, we have proof that victory depends on cone trol of the air over the combat zone. This principle has held good in every phase of this war. Why doesn't 1t. hold for the entire war? And,.if it does, isn’t it about time we recognized its significance and reshaped our over-all war strategy.

Win the Air and Win the War

NO ONE NATION, regardless of its resources, can build more battleships, bigger armies and more planes, and get all these weapons to distant combat zones at the same time. It has been proved that air power dominates the entire picture. Without.it you cannot invade or attack, and you cannot defend successfully, Cannon, warships, machine guns, and millions of ‘foot soldiers just don’t move successfully without it. Win the air and you win the war. But to win the air you must get leaders who believe this. Our basic problem, our ‘major anxiety, is fouhd in a simple question, “Can we get bureaucracy—the old system—to reverse itself in time to climb on wings

lions of soldiers and more and -bigger warships?”

We the Women

By Ruth Millett

THE PROBLEM of getting and keeping househelp is women’s problem. So far they haven't done much in most communities * to solve it except tell each other how awful it is. Since: nobody else: has time-to work out. the problem for them, EF : housewives had better try to work : ~ it out themselves.- f 3ut_ they are so busy trying to lure maids away from each other with promises of higher pay or shorter hours that they aren't doing anything constructive, £00 Most of the women aren't at any rate. A few women, however, are bing to solve the Problem sensibly.

Rationing Domestic Help, Too

TAKE THE THREE housewives, all with children, who wanted full-time maids. . Finally one of the women found a. girl who wanted a job. Instead of grabbing her for herself, she asked her if she would split her day into three parts, working at each of ‘three houses for two a) a half hours. That suited the girl all right, since the wom arranged a schedule whereby she could haye son rest between jobs, and since the three of them ¢ ou afford to pay more than:any one housewife uly we have found that when there is shortage. of any _commodity:.one person can’t have richie pig ll wey %

Using ithe same prineiple, Rousewlves could

1. got opt and with. ut ‘: \ instead - of just sitting around -housewives ‘who: need: help are