Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 December 1942 — Page 16

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| Ens Co, 214 W.

papsr Alliance, NEA . Sel "ice, and Audit Bu-

RALPH BURKHOLDER |

Editor, in U. S. Service WALTER LECKRONE Editor =

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PJ/ARL HARBOR-AND AFTER

N ow the navy has told the Pearl Harbor story, sup- . pressed for a year. It is worse than the public had be; 1 led to believe. No good purpose can be served by rehearsing the blame ov, It is unfortunate that the old wound is reopened at 1s) time. That is the price of the administration’s folly suppressing facts known to the enemy, and which could HB heen made public after two or three months as well after a year.

The: ‘public could halve taken the shock in its stride. But not, instead of having the story wel behind us, the governrient must lacerate the public with it again. The result ig painful.” And it is destructive of public confidence. | That is unfair and unfortunate. Unfair to the very Washington officials who are responsible for the old suppression policy. For those same officials have shown courage and wisdom in recent weeks in announcing promptly all {-cts of current battles, short of supplying information

Give Light’ and ths People Will Find Their Own Way

MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1042

to I e enemy.

Americans in all fairness and sanity should judge our govemment and our military and naval leaders, not by wha! ‘took place on Dec. 7, 1941, but by what has occurred

’

® 8 8 ’ 8 8 8

THE test of leaders in defeat is whether they are able to | turn that defeat into greater strength for victory. By that test our leaders may be proud. Their achievement in this year of disadvantage and disappointment has been near to miracle. With smaller forces than the enemy in the Pacific they have prevented him from making a single gain since June, and they have taken the offensive in the Solomons and New Guinea. Man for man, machine for machine, ‘plane for plane, and ship for ship, they have proved their superiority. And within 11 months—long before expected—they have lauric hed across the Atlantic the largest amphibian occupation n history, with initial success. Such achievements do not just happen. They cannot be vished into fact. They are the results of planning, organil’ ition, teamwork, courage, daring, and sheer military skill -the stuff that eventual victory is made of. Iegardless of the shame of Pearl Harbor—or, perhaps, pay it because of it—America’s fighting forces today are tops| | That does not mean they are yet large enough or stro} ; enough to force a quick enemy surrender. The victory road is long and hard. But if we on the hom: front do our part, our fighters and allies certainly will win his war.

” ” #

= THI. HOME-FRONT YEAR

SUE /EYING “the first year on the home front,” the Office

0 War Information observes that “the over-all accom-

plish| lents have been considerable, despite mistakes and

short dmings in details.” Jaw. will disagree. But we dissent from the OWI's concl}: sion ‘that these handicaps were inevitable—that the mist4 ‘es and shortcomings arose from the necessity for speed ~that in the race to catch up with and surpass the adval| age which long preparation had given to our enemies there vas no time to work out* the basic plans and details of ory, \nization.” The truth is that lack of planning has wasted precious time and prevented greater accomplishments. 4 few days after Dec. 7, 1941, we knew that our sources of cride rubber were gone. Yet not until nine months later vas William M. Jeffers named administrator of a new rubber program. Not until last week was gasoline rationing made nation-wide to conserve tires. And even now

Mr. Jeffers warns that his authority is not adequate to

insure that the new synthetic plants will be completed in Aiter months of muddling, Paul McNutt has only now been given what is called “complete” charge of manpower.

We hcie his authority is adequate. He has a terribly diffi-

cult tsk. Yet the average work week in American indus-

., try is|:till less than 43 hours. And though this obviously ‘means that much manpower is not being used to full ad-

tag, there is no sign of a plan to remove the artificial Festrietions that prevent a longer work week.

s s 2! 2 ” ”

GECE ITARY WI CKARD’ S appointment as food administra or comes a full 365 days after Pearl Harbor. He must 10w attempt to gather together and use powers that have been scattered among a dozen agencies. Lng before America entered the war there were promises to stabilize the civilian economy and hold down the cost of livitz. But a contest for special advantage between organize(| labor and lagriculture was allowed to prevent genuinely ¢/fective action until two months ago. And Leon

‘Hender con’s precariously held price ceilings are now en-

danger: 1 by a faim-bloc rebellion owing much of its force to the ame old feeling that labor has been unduly favored. Taxes have been raised to record heights, and must go

higher ut there is still no plan for helping citizens to carry

an otherwise almost unbearable burden by permitting pay‘ment oi: current taxes out of current income. . On all sides—in the controversies over civilian as nst military control of war production; in a federal ; Bey acy overcrowded with nearly 8,000,000 employees; the! flood of complicated and duplicating government io naires; in conflicting statements as to policy—there yide: ce of the heavy price the country continues to pay hasic Plans and details of organization have To} been \ out, [h- next year, as the OWI correctly warns, walls for sater tasks and presents us with equal, if not great ob28. | It calls, then, for better planning, better organith iighter lines of authority and responsibility, | *"3

alr nougr By: Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, Dec. 7. — Mark Sullivan of the New York Herald Tribune has discovered in the decision of the war labor board in the Montgomery Ward case, and in a dozen similar documents, a clause whereby the union, in return for certain advantages, agrees not to intimidate or coerce workers into union membership. He sees in this the shocking implication that the national government of the U, 8. A. actually does recognize intimidation and coercion as a technique of union organizers and accepts it and “merely says it ought to be suspended in some cases. » Bless him, where has Mr. Sullivan. been all this time? That recognition and support of the unioneer in his dirty work against the reluctant worker and the unoffending and helpless employer have been proved beyond question these many years now and deplored by some of the most vociferous free-style angry men of the age in and out of congress.

I+ Was Foreseen and Debated

IT WAS FIRST noted in the debate on the Wagner act when oné senator—Tydings, I believe—wanted to insert an amendment forbidding the unioneer as well as the employer to practice terrorism, whether physical or mental, on workers who were not of a mind to join the union voluntarily. The unioneer could threaten, torment and beat up a nonjoiner, but Senator Wagner resisted all attempts to impair his right to do this by amendment to his act, and that right was preserved by negative process and established as the intent of the New Deal in the act as finally passed. If it had not been the intent of the New Deal to establish the right for the unioneer the amendment would have been adopted. It is not as though the danger of such coercion had been overlooked by congress. It was foreseen and debated, and the attempt to forbid it was frustrated to the end that the unioneers, who were the political cohorts of the party, should be free to use all their well-known terroristic practice to win control over the lives of millions and to collect income taxes and other tribute from an economic group whose income was so low that the government exempted them from the public income tax. . -

Many Strikes Not Strikes at All

THE LABOR relations board took its cue from congress and connived with the unioneers, and, after many outrageous violations of the rights of American citizens, a house committee, which made an investigation, demanded a complete delousing of the board’s personnel and reported that certain staff members of the board had used their power to “drive employees to join forms of organization not of their own choice, thereby depriving them of ad rights of self-or-ganization.” Many so-called strikes, it should be kept in mind, are not strikes at all, but plain rackets, but the Wagner act pointedly refrains from providing any penalty for the racketeer in such a case, For example, pickets show up before a little retail store declaring the boss to be unfair because he will not sign a closed-shop contract with some gangsters owning the charter and compel his employees, who are his personal friends, to join up and pay up. :

Unionheer Has All the Rights

THE EMPLOYER has no rights in such a case nor have the workers any rights. The unioneer and the pickets have all the rights, and if the boss goes into a huddle to discuss the situation with the employees that is intimidation ang coercion. Oh, sure, that is the way it has been right along under the Wagner act and the so-called labor policy of the New Deal party. Intimidation and coercion are recognized as legitimate weapons even -in the hands of Communists and underworld thugs if they possess union charters: which are not hard to get. And, if peace came tomorrow we. would be right where we were, subject to outrage by lawless, brutal and traitorous men operating under the authority of one of the New Deal's social gains.

Taft vs. Willkie

By Thomas L. Stokes

The Hoosier Forum

-1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

“LIFT NO-TRUCKING SIGNS ON CITY’S BOULEVARDS” By Wilbur Kephart, Indianapolis Now that gasoline is rationed to save tires, why not ask the city to lift the “no truck” signs on downtown streets and on boulevards so that truck drivers can save their tires as well as pleasure cars. Several miles a day can be’ saved, and ‘gasoline, tires and man-hours as well,

” ” ” “BIBLE GIVES AN ANSWER TO SELFISH LANDOWNERS” By F. P. Fechtman, 4963 W. 11th st.

Suppose the following letter was written by little Bob to his older brother Bill who is serving this country in the armed forces: “Dear Bill: We are now living in Indianapolis and staying with Uncle Joe. We are quite crowded and since dad is now working at a defense plant here during the day, mother has been -out looking for a house for ‘us to rent. Houses are very scarce and most of them that are

‘|vacant don’t want tenants with

ST. LOUIS, Dec. 7—A casual risitor who strolled through the iotel here where the Republican aational committee is meeting, and: listened to the talk, would think they were nominating a ~andidate for president instead of clecting a national chairman. All eyes are on 1944, Everything that is done here— and everything not done, which is a large order and significant— bears upon that year starry with hope. From the whisper of gossip come the names of Wendell L. Willkie, with irritated accent, and Governor Bricker of Ohio, with serene tone, and Governor-elect Tom Dewey of New York, with occasional exhilarated fervor. These three are here only in spirit. But. here in person is a tall, bespectacled gentleman who's always sticking his neck out, and nearly always getting his chin cracked—Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, who came here to lead the anti-Willkie forces. He is a personification of political ineptitude, but withal, sincere, honest and able,

Are They Trying to Commit Suicide?

SENATOR TAFT represents the majority feeling of the Republican orthodoxy, which is an overweening desire to smack Wendell Willkie down, once and for all, right here at this meeting. ‘But Bob Taft finds himself again at the head of a lost cause, just as at the national committee session last spring in Chicago, when Mr, Willkie, by remcte control, jammed down the reluctant throats of the committee a resolution embodying his views on postwar foreign policy. The atmosphere is jittery. It is a sort of postelection fever. up to the big victory they won in November, and

becoming aware that it can be a prelude to a bigger |!

victory in 1944. They are very anxious lest anyone do anything to endanger this. They don’t want an explosion. There is disagreement over fundamental party policy. There are rivalries and jealousies over the 1944 presidential nomination. all, like a great, grinning gargoyle, is the man Willkie, who has become a more fearful figure to the regular Republicans than Franklin D, Roosevelt, be-

cause, like Mr. Roosevelt, he has a knack of speaking

out and getting heard by lots of folks. Taft has shed all the habiliments of ambition to come here and do a job on Willkie. He re-

nounced the 1944 nomination for himself—though he ||

lost it only by a handful of delegates in 1940—and came out positvely for Bricker. The committee chairmanship, for Taft's purposes, is only a symbol in the fight against Willkie. The anti-Willkie forces rallied a few weeks ago behind Werner - Schroeder, national committeeman from Illinois, and Willkie. made it plain he would fight Schroeder to the last ditch as a stooge of the Chicago Tribune-Curly Brooks isolationist wing of the oak came out here Saturday and immediately ounced he was for Schroeder. ; It looks like a sure way for the party to commit

suicide, here in the beginning of its year of jubilee.

The Republicans are just waking |,

Most threatening of |:

three kids around like us. I sure hope we find something soon since we are anxious to move our furniture here and sleep in our own beds again. . , .” Now just what ingentive do you think such a letter would be to Bill, who is just a kid, and who is willing to fight for and even lay down his life to protect the American ‘way of life. They tell us that this nation is built around the home and that the survival of the nation and its future depends on the raising of families in the homes. Yet Bill has to fight just as hard for those people who own houses’ where they allow no children as for houses where children are welcome. People who own houses where no children are wanted are setting

(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)

their selfish material wealth high above the real wealth of this country; namely, the enjoyment, happiness and pleasure which children bring to surroundings where they live, play and grow to build up a future nation to guard our American way of life. .. . Other than the money they receive as rent I think the Bible tells the answer. It states “Whosoever shall offend one of these little ones, it were better that a millstone were hanged about their neck and they were drowned in the depth of the sea.” It states in another place, “Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them nof, for of such is the Kingdom of God.” Now if the kingdom of heaven is patterned after the like of little children, hell will surely be made up of the people that deprive children of shelter simply because they prize their property above love and kindness. ” ” 2 “GOVERNMENT'S TO BLAME FOR NOT TELLING TRUTH” By Mrs. Ben Maning, Spiceland The Indiana people who are raising such a ruckus over the gasoline ration are like a bunch of spoiled brats, lying on the floor kicking and squalling because they can’t have their way. But ‘there are a lot

more things ahead for them to cry

Side Glances—By Galbraith

"Well, there's one solution of the heat problem, and now we can resume our childhood study of how to keep warm both in front and back at the same time!"

| we have now.

over so by the time all the miseries have been meted out to them they will have grown so hoarse their voices won't be audible above all the other increased activities. In the first place the government was to blame for not issuing some straight from the shoulder information telling the people the exact status of our resources and not allowing this group and that, from the isolationists down to some of our own statesmen to paint suyh rosy pictures of easy conquest and business as usual. A few good solid headlines across our daily papers telling the stark, naked truth about our shortages and the real reasons, right in the start, would no doubt have put the $4000 or $5000 into bonds to help fight the war instead of cards and letters and petitions of protest against rationing... There was Lindbergh and more wiseacres who shouted from the speaker’s box and front pages of the daily papers that we were “safe frem - attack.” Thousands upon thousands sat back in their easy chairs and swallowed those dangerfraught words as law and gospel . The government wasn't smart enough to put the causes first and the effects afterwards and when once the causes were set forth, the voice and writings of all who set themselves up to inform the people that the government's facts and figures were all base lies and not to be heeded, that we could-win this war, safeguard our boys, build war supplies and still have our usual carefree way of life, our pleasures and freedom without a worry, a heartache or any bloodshed anywhere. Aren't we all pretty gullible?

» ” ” “I WOULD RATHER SEND MY BOY INTO A BURNING HOUSE” By Mrs. 'H. M. W., Indianapolis To the lady on Belmont: No, the tavern keeper don’t rope his victims. The blazing neon beer

_|and liquor signs are invitations and

temptation that no drinking person

will resist. At least during prohibition they had to find it before they could drink. The taxes the taverns pay don’t begin to pay for the disease and troubel they cause. I own property and for 19 years I lived in peace, until they opened a tavern two doors from me. Now the drunks run up and down the street until daylight. . . .

ruin as you might think. There was certainly no wisdom (or maybe I should say knowledge of facts) in the remark you made. Do you know that statistics prove that over 75 per cent of prostitutes are diseased? Why, I would rather send a boy of mine into a burning building With no hopes of his returning than to see him go into a house of prostitu-

and disease are truly partners and prohibition couldn't produce as much dirt and rotten conditions as And to confirm what I say, ask the ABC about the bootlegers we have right now, in this era of lawful liquors.

DAILY THOUGHT

Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High.—Psalms 50:14.

A thankful heart is not ‘only the

greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues.—Cicero,

And nice girls aren’t so easy tol’.

tion. And I still say that liquor.

Edson

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7.—U. 8 censorship is on the pan. It usually is, in a free, country, but now congressmen are objecting to cen= sorship and they are in a position * to do something about it. Senator Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota has suggested an investigation of all censorship practices. Senator Frederick VanNuys of Indiana, chaire man of the senate judiciary come mittee, has ordered an investiga tion of charges made by Ernest Gruening, governor of Alaska, that the office of censorship has beén illegally censoring mail to and from Alaska. Senator John A. Danaher of Portland, Conn., is responsible for having the senate call back for reconsideration a bill which it had already passed, giving congressional authority to censoring of communications between the United States and its territories and possessions such as Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Canal Zone.

Admittedly a Wartime Nuisance

IF THE SENATE goes into a full dress investiga tion of U. 8. censorship, it can unquestionably find that censorship steps on the private rights of a lot of people. That injuries their feelings, and there is no" more vociferous Americano than one who has had his civil liberties trampled and kicked around by his government. This censorship business is admittedly a wartime nuisance, distasteful even to the censors themselves, who do it only as a duty. They are charged with pre= venting the passage of any information which may give aid or comfort to the enemy. Other way around, they are charged with aiding in

| the protection. of American security. In protecting

American lives and property, they probably lean over backwards, figuring that in such cases too much censorship is better than too little.

Could Be a Rumpus

THE ONE POINT on which the U. S. office of cen= sorship will be open to criticism is if it ‘has allowed

misuse of information which has come into its hands

during the process of censoring. For instance: The U. S. office of censorship prepares today an extremely confidential resume of information which its censors have culled from communications coming under their inspection. This digest of information is given restricted circulation among top government officials, and it is considered valuable to the govern. ment in shaping policies. But if it should ever be proved that this secret" summary or any other censored communication ‘has been copied, shown to any one who did not have an official right to see it, or misused in any way to betray a constitutional right of privacy, as Governor Gruening and others may charge openly later on, then censorship will be in the soup and you will hear a lot of loud and loose yelling that U. S. censorship has become a _gestapo.

Pulling Together By William Philip Simms

(

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7—Cen. Charlés de Gaulle, leader of the Fighting French, is expected here, probably in January. His conversations with President Roosevelt and other high officials will almost certainly revolve around the lack of French unity. What is happening today in Tunisia reveals the need of wholehearted French col laboration with the allies. With=" out Tunisia, the whole North African occupation would be more ‘than half a failure. Because the axis had time to get to Bizerte and Tunis first, the allies have already been ‘held up several weeks, and it may be months before they throw the axis out. The fighting there will cost : dearly in lives and materiel and will give Hitler time to consolidate his position in weakened Italy. Had any one French authority been in a position to co-operate fully with the allies and, at the same time, command obedience of other French leaders overseas, the whole of French North Africa, Tunisia included, could have been occupied overnight, without firing a shot. Five crucially needed Americans transports, 10 British ships, and the French battleship Jean Mart would have been spared for further use against the common enemy.

| Something We Can't Neglect

ALL THAT is over the dam. But the war against the axis has only just begun. Hence the importance of the French pulling together for their own sake and for the sake of their friends and saviors. It is already clear that unity is not going to be easy. Feeling is high between the De Gaullists and the partisans of Admiral Darlan. While this is human and understandable, it doesn’t help win the war. This French schism is something Washington and London can harly neglect. If the various factions can not get together on some sort of modus operandi now, they certainly will not do so later. That France and all lovers of chivalry owe de) Gaulle a debt of gratitude can not be questioned. But Darlan is also serving. The feeling in Washington is that the services of all Hitler-hating Frenchmen are too valuable to be dispensed with at this time. And officials here see no valid reason why that should be necessary.

We the Women

By Ruth Millett

IN LANCASTER, Pa. somee ‘body started the rumor that the government was going to ration marriage licenses. It took six clerks to answer the telephone calls from men and women who wanted to know if there was any truth in the rumor, In a way it is a pity the rumor was stopped so efficiantly. Had it persisted for a week or two there is no telling how many women would have married heretofore reluctant bachelors and widowers. For a rationing rumor has a strange: effect on many human beings. It makes them frantic to rush out and buy things that aren’t even important to them when they are plentiful and easy to acquire,

Now Don't Start a Divorce Rumor!

SO, THERE IS no reason to suppost there wouldn't have been a run on marriage licenses just as thers was on sugar and coffee, if the rationing rumor hadn't { been killed immediately. Probably the rumor was started by a female student of psychology who thought that she could scare some eligible man, enjoying his popularity in the scarcity of men, into turning his thoughts toward

The marriage license rumor couldn't have had any

. disastrous effects. But for the sake of the American

home, let's hope nobody starts a rumor that divorces are going to be rationed or “frozen” for the duration,

Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists in this newspaper are their own, They Ste Nop mecssmelly hams, ‘of The Indianapolis Times,

)