Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 December 1942 — Page 25

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Give Light and the People Will Find Ther Own Way

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| FRIDAY, DECEMEER 4, 1043

- ey

- THE GROWTH OF INDIANAPOLIS

IN advocating streamlining of our county and city governmental structure, William H, Book, executive vice presi“dent of the chamber or commerce, is outlining the path Indianapolis must follow if it is to ever achieve the full status of a metropolitan community. Mr. Bcok’s three-point program is one of simplicity and good, American common-sense. He urzes, first, the revival of the bill which would merge the city and county planning commissions into a

Le single metropolitan planning commission.

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# Second, he advocates the granting to the city sanitary « district the powers to add other Incorporated areas to itself after mutual agreement, And, third, he recommends a single township for In- ' dianapolis instead of the present set-up of five separate - townships.

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JERE is a program that is concrete and far-reaching. Obviously, there can be no argument about the mutual interests of the city and the county. Many forward looking citizens long have pressed for a combined city-county government, That may come in time, but Mr, Book is a realist and he is approaching a difficult problem with sanity and good judgment. His recommendations for the merging of five townships into one is a reform that is long overdue. The pres-

_ ent system is antiquated and it has been held over only

through the energetic efforts of some politicians who always raise the same old bogie-man of “home rule.” Indian-

+ apolis retains its home rule in one township just as well as

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in five separate ones. Ome township means efficiency, it

. means an end to overlapping, and it means a sy stemization . of govern:nent.

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2 8 8 #2 8 8 HE sanitary district proposal is by all odds the most important step. It effects the health and well-being of .. every man, woman and child within the city limits of Info Indianapolis depends on White river for its water sup- | ply. To permit the building of any type of disposal plants on the river just above us is a thing that would seem to the

| ) most uniaformed as a dangerous step. What Indianapolis | needs is ‘0 expand to meet and absorb these growing com- ' munities on its outskirts, to provide these communities

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with all the services that a metropolitan area can provide--police, fire, water, light, heat and gas. * In that direction lies growth. In the other direction retrogression. Progressive retrogression.

ITALY NEXT HEN Winsten Churchill invited Italians to choose between revolt and worse war destruction with Mussolini,

he doubtless was thinking of future rather than immediate possibilities. Widespread sabotage and civil disobedience

; are first steps, leading to later open revolt. An unorganized,

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abortive uprising today would be welcomed by Hitler and Mussolini, for it would uncover hidden arms and rebel leaders, who would be shot down. Italian. rebels. alone cannot overthrow axis rule there. That might have been possible several months ago, but since then the Germans have moved in—at least 800,000 strong. The gestapo is reported in control of key posts and strategic points, _As the Fascist facade cracks, more Germans flow in. | The best opportunity of action from within Italy is a

_ - fifth-column revolt timed with an allied liberation attack,

: each aiding the other.

Yes, clearly, Italy remains the soft underbelly of the |

' axis, vulnerable to military and political attack.

FOR A WAR DEPARTMENT Lo CoOL MAAS of the marines, fighting congressman from

Minnesota, proposes that there should be a single war departrient in place of the present “War” (actually the army) and navy departments, and that a single committee in each house of congress should handle all war legislation. is proposal is so sane, in view of the interrelation of the 1 various services in modern fighting, that there can be no logical debate. But there will be debate, and administrative consolidation now is very unlikely. However, Songress, seeking to rebut criticism by becoming efficient, is not estopped from putting all war legiglation through a single committee of each house. Such a sap might well tend toward the Witimate administrative reform,

COFFEE RATIONING

OVERNMENT explanations of coffee rationing still do "nos satisfy doubts of a large sector of the public. Unubtecly they are true, but they are not adequate. There is an explanation—one of logic, not of inside inption—which could be made and would be ample. If wer told that coffee is being rationed because from now much more shipping must be diverted fo support a war of ous offensive, almost everybody would e satisfied, = that the real reason?

JING MANPOWER

EP. RAMSPECK of Georgia is a friend of labor, includ“ing the unions. Therefore his proposal that a 56-hour week be authorized without payment of overtime rates 1 not he denounced as reactionary labor-baiting, It is, rather, recognition of the fact that we cannot win wai sitting on our hands—that even this great nation ha ower to waste in such a cris:

ered by carrier, 15 cents |.

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

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NEW YORK, Dec. 4—The Nazis always said that the free countries could net fight them ef~ feetively witheut waiving er abandening their freedom and, whether we like it or not, events are bearing them out. We have learned that to fight an enemy who has total control of all his people and all the property and money in his country our government requires much firmer control of us and eurs than we ever expected to consent to. We hope that when the war is wen all this control will be relinquished, but we can't be sure that the post-war situation will permit a sudden return te the old American way. In fact, that way is constantly disparaged ‘as a nostalgic dream of a few rich men, and we are tending more and more frankly toward a way of life which combines elements of Nazi- ism and ‘communism and which our rulers call demecracy. We are striving toward a total war effort and, as theroughly as could be managed in a short time, American industry has gone to work for the government, subject to government regulation and enormous taxation on limitation of profit. Nenessential business is waning and, in many cases, has been told, frankly, to sell itself out of business for the duration.

Our United States Today . . .

AND—WITHOUT a murmur from the big unions— American labor has lost by decree the right te use collective force to compel an employer, nominally independent hut practically under government control, to pay higher wages, except by consent of & government agency. Wages are now limited by decree emanating from a general law and so are rents and prices, the purpose being to prevent inflation, and

taxation. Agencies of the national government now possess a power to legislate and sit as courts, subject to no review hy the real courts, and, so many and complex are the regulations controlling the lives of Americans today that innocent men may expose themselves to

_serious punishments without the faintest notion “that

they have done any wrong. In one instance, the president felt that urgent ngeessity and the danger of calamity compelled him to warn congress to give him a law or he would make his own, and, in another, where congress repeatedly and emphatically refused him a law which he had proposed, he passed it himself.

Remember What Naziism Was Called?

IN INDUSTRY, the national government is, in practical effect, now the employers of labor, as Hitler is in Germany and Stalin is in Russia, and is labor's

bargaining agent. And if the draft of civilian labor

should he adopted the first reason for the exgstence of the American union movement, already a wraith, will simply expire. Like Hitler and Stalin, we have concentration camps and the inmates of these camps, although most of them are native Americans, were swept up because we were afraid they would signal the enemy and otherwise betray us. Race was the basis of selection. All this could he accepted on faith, with an understanding that when the war is won the old American system will return, but for the fact that so many of the most powerful political personalities in the moyement regard controls as social gains. Vice President Wallace has spoken slightingly of the Bill of Rights and said that, as we move to the left, Stalin inches toward the right. But as we move toward Communism we also move toward Hitlerism, for they differ only in their labels, as our intelligence well knew until we found ourselves on Stalin's side, Since then it has been unpopular to remember out loud the identity of Communism and Hitlerism Which used to be called Brown. Bolshevism. :

They oop On!

By Ludwell Denny

WASHINGTON, Dgc. 4—In the South Pacific the Japs keep coming back for more, and our forces keep on. knocking them off —with our losses less than the enemy's. Reporting the latest battle off Guadalcanal the night of Nov. 30Dec. 1, our navy department says we sank nine Jap vessels, compared with one American cruiser sunk and an unannounced number of other ships damaged. The two largest Jap vessels were either destroyers Or cruisers; the others wete four destroyers, two transports and one cargo ship. This brings the total enemy naval losses in Guadalcanal battles up to 51 sunk, 76 damaged,

We Haye the Long-Run Advantage

THE EXPEDITION failed of its purpose. No troops were landed to reinforce the dwindling enemy units on the island. On the following day a smaller Jap convoy tried to reinforce the besieged garrisons of Buna and Gona, New Guinea, 800 miles west of the southern Solomons. There MacArthur's fliers, with “light losses,” downed 23 escort planes and drove off four destroyers after hitting one. The enemy landings, if any, were small. These two battles prove the foresight of our authorities, who have insisted from the beginning that Japan would keep on attacking in the South Pacific regardless of losses. She is driven by face-saving as well as strategic motives, and by the fact that she has the immediate advantage of closer bases and shorter supply lines. But in such warfare of attrition we have the longrun advantage,’ because our replacement capacity is much larger,

Pay- As. You: Go

By Walker Stone = -

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4—1t is now generally agreed that the federal income’ tax will have to be put on a pay-as-you-go basis if the government is to get the revenye it needs. The logical time to start payas- -you-go taxation, with collet tion at the source of income, is the first of the year. If congress F waits ta January to begin con- ~ sideration of a new tax bill, and rer oto the iopete the multitude of controvers: ssyes that are ly to develop, man months pass before the | measiise devel enacte tod. d. Meanile taxpayers will be speriding as they earn and Fin 3 year Jenin their tax dons a n’ possible for e moment Swee, aside sonfroveisis} questions such as the fri 000 Hemi, com pulsory savings, spending and es, and next couple % weeks get ac eiey + 2g in measure as the Ruml plan, ing tion on a current-income basis and provi the source through deductions from pay envelopes, dividend payments, commissions, ete.? . That way we could start the new year fresh, the

high salaries are reduced by limitation as well as by

g Sor collection at |.

government getting its revenue without waiting the | people keeping themselves abreast of thelr {4x obl

I wholly defend to

The Hoosier Forum

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

“GIVE THESE BOYS A CHANCE TO PROVE THEIR WORTH” By L. P. Quinton, Indianapolis In regard to Pat Hogan's article in the Hoosier Forum about how to help penal institutions, I wholeheartedly agree with him in every respect that the way to relieve the state of unnecessary expense in prisons and reformatories is to give some of the boys a chance to prove their worth to society. I mean by that to consider their case. more thoroughly when they go up for parole. And those with petty crimes—give them a chance to prove themselves either by going to the army or by honest work, which all of them can secure if they intend to do what is right. " Pat also is right again when he says that 80 per cent of the men, boys and girls in those places are there because of lack of work and r environment. So I say give he petty offenders a chance and I will bet that with plenty of work now that 80 per Gept of them will make e good. If then they don’t, return them and give them double time. And at the same time it will save the state a big expense. It will also take less guards and relieve their working hours. I do not mean by this that the desperate, hardened criminals should be turned loose. » ” # “I CAN DO A LITTLE INSULTING IN MY OWN WAY” By Lee Wiggs, 1405 E. 11th st. Another letter to David I. Haynes, who seems to know everything about the metal, rubber and gasoline. I hadn't intended to start a personal feud when I replied to your first letter, but since you started it, I can do a little insulting in my own “garbled way.” I don’t get the point you're supposed to he clearing up about sera metal. You'll find I'm just as bullheaded as the next Irishman, and I still say there's no need for the public to stop turning in metal just because you saw a lot of it piled along the road. In that second paragraph you were just rambling on about nothing. All right. So it’s several thousand tires instead of hundreds, but

'|ing preference in many ways, I lis-

I have read a lot of silly letters sent in by selfish, thoughtless people, but that one tops them all. I have heard so much hullabaloo about defense workers that I am sick and tired of the two words, The defense workers are given every consideration in the world. They get tires for their autos, they get gasoline for the same, when na one else can get it either. They get time and one-half for Saturday and where and why did you get this double time for Sunday. And now information? | those poor underprivileged people I hardly believe the government request that everyone else stay out would cause all the trouble of gas of the department stores on Monrationing just to have a means of day night but them, finding out who has how many| I have often considered going to tires. Do you know that from what work in a defense industry, but if you said a motorist will have to pay|I will be abused as these people at $.108 extra per gallon for gas?|Lukas-Harold have been, I'll stay in Tch! Tch! a non-essential business. Poor souls. And Davie, I didn't know so many 8s a8 =» people had a formula for synthetic “THE BIGGER THE WAR rubber. And I've never read any- Rae CTD » Ps about Henry Ford moving his THE BIGGER THE PROFITS plant to Russia, etc. Your last ax 3 Nt Tk Fevers 556 Middle drive, paragraph was completely off the|' oo Pi subject. How did you twist what I| The victors can’t afford to police the world, says James E. Watson,

said Into something about de- ? Indigna spokesman for the G. Q. P. mocracies and dictatorships EC er, Ws

If we can’t trust our government officia]s to try to do the best for Sheaves to jek the {isons gobice 1 the most in time of war, God help |S0 long as we don't take ihe pr P out of war. Naturally the bigger

i the war, the bigger the profits, if we can soak the poor for its cost. Business is business. And war is still the biggest and best business of all—and so declared to be, by majority vote of the congress which refused to take the profits out of war—the same congress which we have just returned to power. The new congress will be even more dominated by the descendants of southern slave owners than the last one, Already they regard the gains of the conservatives as a mandate to snatch the floor qut from the workman's wages. The the descendants of Middle West pioneers. they regard the city worker, not as a customer, but as just another “hired -hand conspiring to eat the farm owner out of house and home. It. is the kind of a congress that would hamstring Mr. Willkie as readily as it would Mr.] Roosevelt, if Mr. Willkie dared to incorporate in his Bil of Rights— the right to a job. . The o0ld guard in the North and the first families of the South are overlooking the fact that three New Dealers stayed away from the polls

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

excluded.

have a chance. be signed)

os » 8 “WHY FAVOR THE DEFENSE WORKER WITH EXTRA GAS?” By C..L. Coulter, 472 W. Washington st.

Speaking of defense workers hav-

tened to a radio reporter today and this is what I heard: A Mrs. — from Kokomo was asked by the reporter, “What brings you to Indianapolis?” : Her answer, “Christmas shopping. ” “How did you come, on a bus?” “No, I drove my car.” “What, on four gallons of gas?” “Qh, no, my husband is a defense wyorker—I haye an A and B card. I get plenty of gags.” This is not the first. I know of others whose bread earner is a defense worker doing the same. Why favor such people, and others like myself who are compelled to get to work on four gallons per week? We are all Americans.

By Eugene H. Stringer, 1: er, 132 N, Denny sf. In answer to the letter of Lukas-

Harold employees published Dec. 2d. for every one Republican. . It may

Side Glances—By Salbraith

be smart to let the losers police our victory. Buf .to wake up the hired hands too soon might make the

losers want to police the ‘next election.

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TN wren ou WER NE 2.8 8 “HELP THE STREETCARS— QUIT HAYSEED DRIVING!”

: rl W, Adell, BR. R. L Box 80, .BridgeTo the people that give the street-

car time card. You must co-operate whether you ei the streetcar or

delays is the streetcar riders. First, be ready at the door to get off and on the car quickly, have the

you do. Don’t get on a car with a hill to change, always have small change or tokens. You can buy them at the downtown booths. I am B50 years of age and I have never given an operator a bill to change. You can do likewise, The next thing, if you drive an auto, don't think it smart fo pull in front a streetcar a. hold -it up. ou are not Spitine the operator, you are keeping 1 ” pore: people Yom n geting to work on time by oughtless hayseed lying, Foirigtie duty to give

1s your t ride the streetcars

{the people

gto vey. The bw DAILY THOUGHT For the upright shall dwell fn

, and the jE Faroe 21,

and operator hell, it}: is ne matin toa governs a street- |:

drive a car. The cause for most |

exact fare ready, move to the rear|: of the car, without taking the oper-| : ator’s time to hold the car untill}

3 3 the right-of-way. ‘This is war... .|

In Washington ;

By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4.—Shooting strictly from, the hip, it is pos sible to cut loose with a couple o rounds of random opinion there is a darn sight more thar meets the eye to the W. battle over aircraft production control between the WPB and the army-navy brass hats, You may have the impression that this capital fight for power bigs was a personal feud between Don ald Nelson on the one hand and Lieut-Gen. Brehon Somervell, commanding the army services of suphiy, on the other, the issue being who is to be boss.

Let's Simplify the Whole Thing! |

SOME OF THE WPB braintrusters, those bright page boys who hang around on the planning com-| mittees of the palace of production, would have you believe that this is a battle te determine the future | of America, something like Lexington or Bull Run. They will tell you in all seriousness that the ny represents fascism and dictatorship. It actually becomes. funny. After being filled | full of this talk for an hour or two you have to | pinch yourself to make sure you're not in King | Arthur's court, with all its back stairs gossip, intrigue | and dragons. No, this is Washington, 1942, So you start looking elsewhere for what really les” behing this fight, What is this issue, in its simplest terme? Donald | M. Nelson is meving to make C. E. Wilson hess of | airplane production. Army and navy have shown | reluctance to grant that authority. What's at stake? Well, not just the question of | the personality of Mr. Wilson, who gave up his $195,« | 000-0r-so per year job as president of General Electrio to come down to Washington and be shoved around by a hunch of $8000-a-year generals. What is to he controlled? Airplanes. oi Who has the most to gain or lose? Why not the companies that manufacture airplanes?

Oh, Yes, the Financial Picture . . . IF YOU LOOK on the list of the 100 companies

'| holding the greatest dollar value of war contracts,

you will find that these 100 companies have 83 per cent of all the war contracts, and of ‘these 100 come panies more than a fifth are bu’ 7 aircraft or aire cra; engines. Of the 10 largest \ ' ontractors, seven

| are building aircraft, the other ..ree being a steel

company and two shipyards. The issue here is billions of dollars worth of cone tracts already let, billions of dollars worth of cone tracts to be let from now till the end of the war and after that the aireraft business of the future, the business of the air age of peace. It would take a congressional investigating come mittee staff of lawyers from three to six months to sift out all the business relationships of all the companies involved and the tie-ups of the big b men now in Washington who will award the tracts. All this is shooting strictly from the hip, but it may present in brief form the idea that there is some= thing more at stake in one of these bureaucratic bate tles of Washington than just deciding wie is to be Mr. Big in any particular bureau.

A Russ-Finn Peace By William Philip Simms

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 — On Sunday, Finland will observe the 26th anniversary of her independence. Today, on the eve of that anniversary, there is reason to believe she might drop out of the war if given proper assurance that her security and independence would be respected. Finland, a country of 4,000,000 inhabitants, ~ Is’ at war with Russia and Brit : ain, with a combined population of 230, 000, 000. As a friend of all three, the United - States might well bring Russia, Britain and Finland together. Peace between Finland and Russia would shorten Russia's battle lines by nearly half. The difficulties in the way of a Russo-Finnish peace certainly do not seem insurmountable. From the start, the Finns have insisted that they are in the war only to pre serve their independence. They have clearly intis mated that they are prepared fo drop out gnce the danger is removed.

Britain No Stumbling Block at All

THERE HAVE BEEN reports here that Moscow is willing to discuss terms on a basis of the present battle lines. Helsinki says jt has not heen informed of any such attitude. Sumner Welles some time ago indicated that the American government had made cer« tain tentative peace moves, but neither the Finnish nor the Russian government seemed to know much about it. So the matter was dropped. Events in Russia and North Africa, however, * ‘might make this a good time to start all over again. Britain would hardly create ‘any difficulties, ‘the Stockholm “Allehanda” says: ‘Finland is at war with England, but the hgrbs dropped in their cone “flict can easily be counted.” There are close ties between Finland and democratic Sweden, her next-door neighbor on the west. Neither could be much of & menace to the great and powerful Soviet Union. A mutually satisfactory yn-

‘As |

Finland, Sweden and Norway on the other, would seem to be not only comparatively easy to arrange at this time, but highly advantageous all the way round,

We the Women

By Ruth Millett

SMALL FRY Hust et a kick out of the fact ths wi gto poe are now | +4 gut what it is like to hear “don’t” every time they turn around. Don’t drive over 35 miles an hour. Don’t hoard. Don't travel unless it Is ese sential. = Don’t yse the Jelephone any mgs mes To” n p about tary 8. Don't waste gas and’ lights. | Don’t buy anything you don't need,

No, No, No, No, No

AND ALONG with all the “don’t” they are 8 taste of what it means to have a higher one say, ‘No you can’t. There is no use arguing about No, you can’t have but four gallons of gas a tb (or maybe three). No, you can’t have but ore cup of coffee a day. 30, You can't have but half a pound of sugar * wi Yes, the small: try be ov it. they hear “don’t” oy you tog Ma y log from their parents whose word is law to

If you wish to be good, first believ

\

derstanding between Russia, on the one hand, and \

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