Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 December 1942 — Page 14

dianapolis Times

RALPH B OLDER Editor, in U. 8, Service WALTER LECKRONE. Business Manage Manager Editor (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) x ly Lo Sunday) by fo ty, 3 cents a copy; delivered. by carrier, 15 cents a week.

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Rc RILEY 5651

Give Light and the People wi Find Their Own Way

per Alliance, NEA ce, and Audit Bu-

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1942

A “CAN-DO” CHALLENGE TO INDUSTRY

‘HE epic of plenty has passed, the handout era has been completely swallowed up by a war debt which repre_Sents not only the spending of the nation’s wealth, but the mortgaging of its future. Out of our efforts, new wealth must be created, and some of it must be saved. Investment must once more take place, capital must once more be formed. 44 Li So says Henry J. Kaiser, in a challenge to American individualism. In other words, we have been living off our fat, and if in these times of brisk but deficit financing we just spend as we go, there will come a day when the cupboard will be bare, and only a busted bureaucracy left to guard it. 5 So Kaiser proposes a concrete thing—that industry now prepare to supply, to those who are earning now, those ~ things they would like to buy now but can’t buy because of the shortages caused by war. He cites for example an estimated posbwaP requirement for nine million units of housing, and turns his vision over a vast horizon of similar needs which will pour in on

je us when our productive capacity is once again turned ‘into

the paths of peace. x os ” ” ! 8 ” ” E would have the makers of automobiles, for example, accept war bonds now for delivery of cars after the

| close of the conflict; the same for housing and for a host

of other things. He recognizes thet bonds of present issue are not thus negotiable, but takes his usual can-do position that such a barrier is not insurmountable. By escrow proceedings, or by new bond issues, he says a way can be found, and he urges that industry take the leadership in showing our people now that there needs to be no postwar depression, but that we can have instead a postwar production that will spell vastly expanding prosperity achieved by individual endeavor. That, instead of enforced “liquidation by a super-state.” : “Our people want to work,” he says. “They want to possess. They do not wish to contribute to the coddling of the idle and the bureaucratic minds. They will reject the tyranny of government as they rejected the tyranny of wealth. They have no taste or enthusiasm for a public payroll which numbers more than five million. As the tax burden comes to them more and more, individually, they have begun to count the costs of the handouts.” » ” . : » #” 8 AT Kaiser proposes is a a practical and voluntary form of war savings which would absorb much of the purchasing power of today, thereby restraining inflation, and divert it to payment for things which all desire today but can’t now. get. His plan if put into effect would be a tremendous stimulant to bond sales—for people will save and ' wait for what they crave. The “inflation potential” for 1948 is now estimated at 40 billion dollars out of a national income of 125 billion— 40 billion over and above taxes and above the supply of goods and services available to meet civilian demands. For millions now employed in war factories it’s a silk-shirt era without the silk. ’ Unless that inflation Potential is withdrawn or immobilized, says Randolph Paul of the treasury, “the rush of spending power will break through price ceilings on a broad front. Black markets will mushroom; evasion and dealer favoritism will become commonplace, and empty shelves and illegitimate brofits will become the order of the day.” We Know: of no more practical or truly American plan for such an immobilization than that presented by Mr. Kaiser. ne \

TUNISIA IS NO PUSHOVER

AFTER three weeks of seesaw around outposts of the Bizerte-Tunis line, the big battle for the strategic tip of Tunisia apparently is just beginning. ~The public is showing impatience. There is still a general impression that Germany has cracked. Why that “absurd notion should poison our thinking is beyond reason; eertainly the record in Europe, in Libya and in Russia is : proof enough that licking the Nazis will be slow and bloody ‘business. But the relative ease and speed with which the "A. E. F. occupied Algeria and Morocco led some to believe ‘that Tunisia would be taken in the same way.

For once the official communiques and the press cannot |

"be blamed for such ‘wishful thinking. From the beginning of this campaign both officials and press have warned that t would be a harder job than expected. 4 The 4llies won the first- move by surprise occupation of Morocco-Algeria with minor losses, and the second move consolidating those gains and their rear through agreerent with the French. But the axis won the next move by ing into the Tunisian bases before the allies, Now we have to fight for those bases, which dominate » entire central Mediterranean. It is because of their md to Sicily and Sardinia that Hitler was-able to grab n before the allies could make the long trek across geria and the Tunisian mountains.

The chief allied disadvantages remain this longer sup-

line and the lack of air fields. The allied necessity of )aving to build or conquer air fields, rather than a shortage planes, explains axis air. superiority during the past rtnight. Hitler has withdrawn planes from ‘western and Russia for Tunisia, as desired by the allies. Though the allied advance is slow, with occasional re- , there is no reason for pessimism.

rope

report that Mussolini is seriously ill may merely nt at he is just sick of it all :

Price in Marion Coun- | |

Fair ‘Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

less than nine months ago, on March 10, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt "wrote in her column that, after a very interesting discussion in the White House, she had come to one very clear decision, “namely, that all of us, men and women in the service ‘and men and women at home, should be drafted and told what is the. job we are to do.” “The only way I can see to get the maximum service out of our citizens,” Mrs. Roose-

I would be relieved beyond measure, and so would people throughout the nation, if an authority greater than our own personal decision told us where we could be most useful.” As to-whether Mrs. Roosevelt was testing the wind, as they say in Washington, or proposing: another

can only guess, but either way, her clear decision, arrived at after that interesting discussion in the White House, is now the law, by decree.

"Compulsion Not Yet a Necessity"

PAUL V. McNUTT is the dictator of all American labor. He has power to assure that all hiring of workers in any occupation or area which he may designate shall be conducted only by the U. S. employment service or in accordance with such arrangements as he may approve. This means that he may approve an arrangement whereby workers may be required to join unions. He also has power to compel any employer to discharge any worker on the ground that the worker’s services are more urgently needed in any occupation or area which he may designate as more essential. The truth is that compulsion is not yet a necessity, because manpower is still being wasted deliberately by the unions through strikes and slowdowns and make-work schemes and, of course, wasted otherwise. In the city of New York, at last reports, the teamsters, for example, under authority of a New Deal supreme court decision, . were still planting guest drivers on trucks entering town in the operation of a scheme which the minority opinion compared to highway robbery.

You're Going to See What It Means

IN THE Pittsburgh area heavy trucks delivering war material to a big plant about 20 miles from town are required to travel 40 extra miles, consuming needlessly just that mich more fuel and rubber and time and manpower, so that a local union may squeeze out that much extra pay for its members and dues for itself at the expense of the taxpayers and bond buyers who ultimately foot the bill. The railroad featherbed rules have not been disturbed and similar rules are enforced in other fields for no purpose but to yield money to unions and to stretch the jobs so that men cannot perform a normal, honest day’s work. This order, putting into effect Mrs, Roosevelt's “very clear decision” does not except women, either, for it speaks of “workers,” not “men,” and in view of her recent observation while in England that the English papers get along with much less paper than ours, it ‘can mean that the American press will be required to relinquish for any work which McNutt may deem mniore suitable the staffs who produce the American free press. : Its full meaning cannot be ‘understood ‘by the mere reading or study. Its application, which doubtless will be gradual and become bolder, will reveal its full importance to the people of the United States.

Inside Finland

By Paul Ghali

BERN, Dec. 9.—The plight of Russian prisoners in Finland has just been revealed in a sensational article appearing in the Berner Tagwacht. Twenty thousand Russians out of:-a total of 45,000, the writer of the article asserts, have died of undernourishment within. the last year. Although it is impossible to check this information from here, there is no doubt of the desperate lot of prisoners in a country which can only just food and clothe its own people. Official Finnish circles admit that some 15,000 prisoners of a total number of 56,000 have died, but attribute this appalling figure partly to disease contracted by the Russians before their capture and partly to their wounds. The prisoners, these circles declare, receive. the same rations as the Finnish people. Their clothing, on the other hand, presents particular difficulties as they were captured during the summer ogensive so were without winter equipment.

The Finnish Political Front—

, announcement of the - resignation of the Finnish minister of social welfare, M. K. A. Fagerholm (of the Swedish people. party) has caused a certain sensation among Finnish and Swedish circles. Officially, Fagerholm is resigning for “private reasqns.” Most foreign observers here, however, link his resignation with his recent speech in Stockholm, in which he definitely repudiated the Nazi European order and the concept of a “greater Finland.” Stockholm circles reportedly share the cohviction that Germany was not “satisfied” with Fagerholm’s attitude. :

The Best Sellers

By Stephen Ellis

WHAT WITH Christmas sneaking right up on us, it may be an excellent day to run down the list of best sellers all over the counfry for those of you who prefer this type of holiday gift. In the fiction field, here’s your rundown: 1. The Robe, by Lloyd C. Douglas. 2. The Song of Bernadette, by Franz Werfel. 3. The Valley of Deéision, by Marcia Davenport. 4. The Prodigal Women, by Nancy Hale. .5. Drivin’ Woman, by. Elizabeth Chevalier. 6. Look to the Mountain, by Legrande Cannon. 7. The Seventh Cross, by Anna Seghers. 8. The Uninvited, by Dorothy McCardle. 9. The Cup and the Sword, by Alice Tisdale Hobart. . 10. Hostages, by Stefan Heym.

And Now for the General Field—

AMONG THE non-fiction works, here's the list: 1. See Here, Private Hargrove, by Marion Hargrove. 2. They Were Expendable, by W, L. White. 3. Suez to Singapore, by Cecil Brown. 4. Last Train From Berlin, by Howard Smith. 5. Van Loon’s Lives, by Hendrick W. Van Loon. i Lee's Lieutenants, by: Douglas S. Freemén. Sabotage, by Michael Sayers and Albert Kahn. 8. Queen of the Flat-tops, by Stanley Johnston. '9. The Coming Battle of Germany, by Wm, Ziff.

| \

NEW YORK, Dec. 9.—A little |

velt wrote, “is to draft us all and tell us where we | can be most useful and where our work is needed.’

dictatorial law in her role of ruler of the peoplé, one |

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

“PROTECT THE SAFETY ZONES FROM COLD WINDS”

By War Worker, Indianapolis Due to the increasing number of people riding the streetcars and trolleys, I think the city should do something regarding the safety zenes—protection against the cold winter winds. Some kind of protection would help keep off the cold winds and provide a great help when cars are running so late. Protection this year, not next. Safeguard your health—aid to winning the war. 2 2 = “RETENTION OF McNUTT WILL MEAN A G. O. P. LANDSLIDE” By Guy D. Sallee, 5801 Woodside dr. The defeat of the Democrat party in tHe recent election can be attrib-

uted to Paul V. McNutt, and his attempt to ape Pierre Laval, the French traitor. The only difference in freezing wages and men to jobs where corporations hold war contracts for profits in the United States and France is geographical; their objective is the same. The American working people showed their resentment by sitting down at their jobs, and refused to come out and vote even though they had received more labor benefits by law under the Democratic administration than any other. If the Democratic party expects to remain a major party in the future, the commander -in - chief should put a boot in the seat of McNutt’s pants, and kick him out and not upstairs to cabinet rank. If he is not willing, I'll accept the assignment, and consider it a patriotic. duty. I predict the retention of Paul V. McNuit in the president’s official family will mean a Republican landslide in 1944. ” ” ” “DEAR KITTIE OR WIGGIE, WHY ALL THE ALIASES?” By David I. Haynes, 3836 Rockville ave. In response to the letter signed by Kittie Lee, Lee Wiggs, and probably the next will be Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck or Minnie Mouse, In the first place, my dear Kittie or Wiggie, why all the aliases? We don’t know whether you wear skirts or pants or play with marbles or dolls. Why not send a photo and

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

Letters must

troveries excluded.

have a chance. be signed)

let us all see what you look like? As for starting a personal feud, you brought it on yourself by talking about something you know nothing about. My first article dealt with authentic facts and figures and can be proved. I happen to be connected with a .research bureau for the past several years that is nonpartisan <in politics. You must have gathered your information from an almanac or Uncle Wiggly’s Bedtime Story. Evidently you don’t read the newspapers very thoroughly or you would know when Henry Ford started to dismantle his synthetic rubber plant to be moved to Russia. . . . Do. you realize that the war effort is based on taxation and that most of the taxes come from private and individual businesses? It is these businesses that share the brunt of the cost of the war, and not the defense workers, whose money goes back where it originated, the treasury. It is this point that I am driving at as far as rationing gas and tires goes. Also, if you would look back at my articles, it gives the names of some of the companies holding the synthetic formula. I did not say anything about stopping the metal scrap drive but asked why the better metals are rusting away in the junk heaps. : 2 8 8

“JUVENILE COURT IS GRATEFUL TO THE OCD” °

y Charles Boswell, Chief Probation OfBon Juvenile Court of Marion County.

The Office of Civilian’ Defense through its Placement Service of Volunteers has made a great contribution in dealing with the problem of juvenile delinquency and child neglect in Marion county. Because of the great demands in defense industries for stenograpic and

clerical help, it has been almost impossible for public offices to obtain

i PU I YS SIA SII SHS cm vs # . & Jas .

Side Glances—By Galbraith _

"Would it be ro to ask fo other women to keep quiet? | used to enjoy the gossip, but now that I'm doing all my. rk own housework, | come here to relax!’

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fT V0 ed aps FS x “

a sufficient number of people for such work. The work of the juvenile court was being curtailed because of the shortage, . . . This problem was discussed with the OCD and they agreed to provide the volunteers which the court would need in order tp continue with its program. As a result it has been possible to continue the necessary probation services to the boys and girls in Marion county. Juvenile delinquency can effect directly the war effort, for if boys are stealing automobiles and tires of defense workers, there is bound to follow a slowdown in production. It has also been found that the spread of venereal disease can no longer be attributed to commercialized prostitution, but the greater part of the spread is due to the promiscuous activities of girls’ un=der the age of 18. In order to protect the health of our defense workers and our men in armed services, it is extremely important that this problem be. dealt with effectively. By providing the juvenile court with volunteers when they were needed, the OCD has aided materially in reducing these social problems to a minimum. The work of these volunteers has been characterized by thoroughness and .an intelligent approach. . . . We at the juvenile court are very grateful to them for the part they have played in reducing juvenile delinquency and child neglect. It certainly has been a patriotic service which deserves the highest of praise. pF oy 8 8 “MANY ARE OUT TO GET ALL THEY CAN” By A Voice of Experience, Indianapolis.

I see in the Indianapolis Star where someone stole a small house from a lady in Oklahoma City. Such an act is not surprising when so many are out to get all they can regardless of how. People who try to do what is right and just are the ones who get dry picked. I have a friend, who owns an apartment house and rents these apartments completely furnished. One party moved out one Sunday morning while the owners were at church, just gone from home one hour and 45 minutes. When the owners returned. the tenants were gone and 56 articles missing—articles valued from 10 cents to $10 each. Nothing left in a completely furnished apartment except a dishpan and a dough board. ~ Another one of their tenants moved. They packed everything. .. + » They tqld the landlady they

' |were going to Detroit, Mich.

She trusted these people, and did not sit in the apartment and watch them pack, but after they were gone,

she went in and found missing a

new. down comfort, value $30, also a wool blanket, all table and bed linen and. three feather pillows, and silver service fo: three, ° These people did not go to Detroit, but are here in Indianapolis, and these two

: former tenants both have good jobs _| here now.

1 was telling a frigidaire repair man about this party’s experience

.|and he said there was more of {hat

kind of robbery going on now than ever before. There are women who think nothing now of breaking up a home and robbing children of their father, and then sit up and sing in a church choir. We also Have religious racketeers these days. I would rather be right than president, for right is right and wrongs nobody. - But it takes all kinds of people to make a world and

‘116 looks like it is pretty well made,

DAILY THOUGHT It is good that man should both hope and quietly wait for the sal-

“| vation of the Lord. —Lamentations

3:26. always hope, and in all things

is better to hope than to de-

: By. Peter Edson

School children who work on farms are eligible to purchase new bicycles under rationing. . . . Navy wants Phi Beta Kappas between 20 and 30 to study Japanese language at Boulder, Colo... . . Get next to the science of Geriatrics, which means stretching the prime of life into ‘the 60-70 year age group, enabling them to do war work. . . : High school students who have studied pre-flight aeronautics may take mid-year exams giving them government certificates of aeronautical knowledge. . . . Demands for wood for heating purposes may be up 20 per cent this winter. . . . Seven thousand tons of Christmas mail for soidiers was shipped overseas up to Nov. 15.

Ever Hear of a "Mechstake"'?

THE WAACs now do 35 jobs formerly dome w soldiers, from accounting to weather observing. . Army still runs 464 recruiting stations for Specilists™. in spite of selective service. . , . Soldiers reported:

| mising for a year will be declared dead and death

benefits of six months’ pay awarded their relatives, . . . When an aviation mechanic makes a mistake, it's called a “mechstake.” . . . Army now has 2000 libraries with 7.5 million books. . . . A. sixth: of the soldiers read books, half read magazines. oe. All who can read at all read newspapers whenever they can get them, partioularly those from the home towns.

"Cripes! More Paperwork!"

HOTELS AND restaurants will. be able to serve only about 40 per cent of the coffee consumed before rationing. . . . Operators of gold mines shut down as non-essential have been forbidden to sell their mining equipment unless they get permission from Washington. . . . Department of labor's survey on cost of living reports increases in doctor bills, barber and beauty shop charges and movie admissions, none of which is under price control regulation. . . cial new slogan of the naval guard, the outfit which mans the guns on. merchant ships, is “Sighted sub. Glub! Glub!” . . . Unofficial’ designation of the new controlled materials plan or CMP, cooked up by the war production board, is “Cripes! More Paperwork!”

Helping the Axis! By William Philip Simms

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9.—The “average diplomat here is privately amazed at the way the anniversary of our disaster at Pearl Harbor was observed in this country. They

good. There is no difference of opinion as to the importance of making public the essential facts concerning our war effort, both good and bad. Most observers are convinced that the Pearl Harbor story should have been made known months ago. That they were saved up as though to give added punch to what undoubtedly has become a Japanese holiday is one of the most puzzling angles to the whole business. Given out the way it was, the axis governments were able to rehash the whole Japanese exploit almost as if it were something brand new, and do it at a moment when axis morale is in greater need of a shot in the arm than at any time since the outbreak of ’ the war.

Propaganda—But For Whom?

A YEAR AGO, the Japanese were having a field day telling the world how they had “broken” U, 8. naval power in the Pacific, and making other extravagant claims. Germany and Italy chimed in. Together, the axis powers wrung the subject completely dry of its propaganda value. Then, ridiculing our not very convincing denials, they finally let the matter drop. Any time during that period Washington could have released the essentials of the story to the Amer-

ican people without telling the enemy anything they did not know already and without bucking up the axis unduly. : Now, it is pointed out, the whole shameful story has necessarily been dragged into the open for another airing. By this time the people of Japan, Germany and Jtaly have come to suspect almost everything their governments tell them. Thus the well-adver-tised official releases from Washington, plus the dozens

| of dramatic photographs that accompanied them,

arrive at a most opportune moment for Tokyo, Berlin.

and Rome. . Their propagandists can now recaputre the. Waning confidence of their public.

Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists in this newspaper are their own. They are noi Becuaasily those of The Indianapolis Times. ¥

We the Women

By Ruth Millett

IT’S BEGINNING to look as though small fry as well as their parents are going to have to learn to take it—that the coddling of youngsters is a thing of the past. Take a look at these three separate items in the news: “The toughening process through which the nation is” passing to defeat the axis should start with. the youngster in classrooms.” That was the message sent by the army and navy to a recent physical education conference held at the Chicago college. “Spanking és a corrective measure has been approved by Cincinnati's Board of Education.” And the ODT has decided that a two-mile walk. to and from school is not too much to expect of school kids, in these days of gas rationing.

It's a New Trend ‘All Right

“THESE ITEMS would seem to indicate a trend toward the toughening up of Sis and Junior. They. are really quite revolutionary. I Tat w 10h of parents avd tn the past Tooke with disfavor on the rougher sports like football,

“thank you" rather than by the promise of 4 SENRIRG, for disobedience.

And what, a change 1t is going to be for children who have been driven io school and. driven home

iti

WASHINGTON, Dec. 0. —

. Unoffi~ .

fear it will do far more harm than -

v