Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 December 1942 — Page 12

he Indianapolis Times

: ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER | Bresident Editor, in U. 8. Service 2 WALTER LECKRONE ; Editor : . a SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) ~~ Owned and published daily. (except Sunday) by j= ‘The Indianapolis Times

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Jesu of Circulatigns. Prnnme— En RILEY 5551

. Give Light dnd the People Will Find Their Own Way

MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1942

a——

4 RATIONING COLLAPSE?

“Back of it all is lack of leadership, no planning, too many changes; result, 8 breaking down of confidence not only of the

public but of the boards and the paid staff , . , the powers that be fail to even think about the mechanics of carrying out their orders . . , it is always too little a too late with forms, supplies, coupons and regulations , . . Excerpts from a letter from a county rationing administrator,

So rationing is threatened by collapse all over . Indiana. ; This is only one of many protests pouring in on the state administrator of rationing, who is charged with the duty of distributing all the sugar and coffee and gasoline ‘and fuel oil the residents of Indiana may buy—but not given a plan, nor a staff, nor a fixed policy, nor even enough desks and printed forms, to make the job possible. Overworked, discouraged, confused employees are quit- ~ ting, and threatening to quit. Officials are digging into their own pockets to provide essential office supplies. Volunteer helpers flounder valiantly, but to small purpose in the maze of conflicting “directives” that pours out of Washington. This is no isolated complaint of a disgruntled employee, nor is it any attack on the state and local administrative officers. The files bulge with such protests, from all over Indiana, and they are very plainly the sincere reports of men and women who have struggled to the point of desperation to handle a tremendous and vital job in spite of the bureaucratic incompetence that entangles them. Their eriticism is wholly constructive. There is wide and welldeserved confidence in James D. Strickland, the Indiana administrator, and in Alex L. Taggart, the administrator for Marion county. The trouble is not here.’ The trouble would seem to be “no planning, no leadership, too many Shanges, too little money, too few supplies.” ” » ” ” # » AV what will happen if the rationing system breaks down? Nothing, except that you could not then legally buy a single gallon of gasoline or a single pound of sugar, or coffee, or any of the other items that are to be rationed. The local administrators who reported this situation to their superior, and the state administrator who passed it on—not once but many times—to his superiors, have performed a valuable service to: their neighbors and to their country in doing so. ¢ If OPA’s rationing machinery is not working, it will be easier to correct it now than after it breaks down entirely.

HITLER AND HIS GENERALS

| substitution of a gestapo ‘“‘yes-man” as head of the German army in place of the junker Gen. Halder may be the beginning of the end. It is a temptation for us to think so. But it is safer to assume, instead, that the change presages even more vigorous enemy warfare, Indeed that has been the immediate result. 1 For the new Gen. Zeitzler, whose appointment as chief of the general staff is only now belatedly admitted:by Berlin, has. been in charge during the recent stiffening of German resistance in Russia and the remarkably improvised ae of Tunisia. ' When they say Zeitzler is "a gangster, not a soldier,” we can recall that they said the same thing about Rommel —and hope he is not as hard as that. "Though the military results of this shift cannot be predicted, some of the political implications are fairly clear. 1t widens the growing breach between the two main powers which constitute Nazi Germany: The gestapo dictatorship within the dictatorship, and the army heirarchy. These two always have hated and distrusted each other, but neither ‘could have won power without the other. Hence the unnatural marriage of convenience which has kept them together—despite inner conflicts, plots, and purges. tin» » AS the split has grown under the external and internal _pressures of 1942, Hitler has increased gestapo power : in the army and on the home front. In so doing he has weakened the generals, but has raised up a potential personal competitor in the gestapo chief, Himmler. Now itis a hice question whether Himmler or Hitler is more powerful. : Soon or late deposed generals, such as Halder and Branctizisch, are expected to attempt a separate deal with the allies. But it is also possible that Hitler, in his next “peace offensive, may take advantage of this obvious situation by using some such generals as his agents in a double ~ double-cross. . The allies must not become too much interested and oo hopeful about German internal developments, and repeat e blunders of the 1930s when Hitler outsmarted them. There can be no victory until both the Nazi party gangsters

8 =»

and the German milifary power are destroyed. The Nazi | menace is more than Hitler, more than Himmler, and more, |

n the Prussian militarists; it is their whole savage systhat must be wiped out—for the sake of the German ple ! no loss than the rest of the world.

E'S OWN LIGHTS LING cognizance of criticism of her continuous traveling, Mrs. Roosevelt has pointed out that while truly she s enjoyment in her peregrinations, “no trip is taken witht t a Serious object in view.” The objects, says she, all tend use her talents in such ways as are open to her. She adds: “I know many people will disagree with me as to what I is useful. . ... However, one must live according to

capely line into this country, seize one of China's

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, Frieda Hempel dog story has run a high score in the metropolitan papers, with art. Miss Hempel, the former opera star, for a long time had leff food at, a certain spot in Central park for a wild and wary mongrel and finally was induced to impose on his trust in connivance with - the SPCA to bring about his capture for his own good. Now he lives

3 in a fine apartment overlooking his old ‘hunting

ground and goes walking on a leash five times a day. Webb Miller, in his book, “I Found No Peace,” noted that Americans and British were more sensative to the sufferings of animals, especially horses, if war than to the agonies of their fellow men, suggesting, I believe, that they felt a pang of guilt that man made wars and was, in a general way, responsible for his own distress whereas the poor artillery horse, starved to emaciation and weakness and always cold in winter and utterly hopeless in any case, was lashed into barrages which he didn’t understand until he fell in a tangle of harness, mortally lacerated by jagged steel to die as he might without even the blessing of a mercy shot. If that is the true explanation, it is to our credit, proving that we have the decency to be ashamed.

We Must Have Been Pretty Harsh

0. O. MCINTYRE wrote a tribute, to a little dog of his which had died, in which he envisioned a dog heaven. It made a great impression on @any of his millions of readers and doubtless clippings of that little piece are still preserved and will be for ‘a long time, although the story would seem to have been a splinter off a stick called “Beautiful Joe's Paradise,” published around 45 years ago. This, itself, was seconds on an original idea, for the same author had made a hit a few years earlier with a children’s book called “Beautiful Joe,” the story of an abused mongrel, probably inspired by “Black Beauty,” the life of a horse which had many pathetic adventures, These books, like “Uncle Toni's Cabin,” helped to awaken sympathy and shame in sentimental Amerjcans and “Black Beauty” and the “Beautiful Joe” books probably were responsible for our tenderness

harsh on them.

On Man's Brutality to Animal

but— At dusk on a recent cold day an undersized, emaciated beagle was seen on a side road in the Connecticut hills, running in little circles in the middle of a road and a menace to himself and the navigation of such few vehicles as might come by. Worried, restless and weak, his eyes were yellow and bulbous and blind and it developed that he was deaf as well. Then a farmer came by and tried to pick him up

a blanket with which to smother his struggles. When he returned the dog was missing. At 2 a. m. the farmer was still awake and got his gun, determined to find the dog and put him out of misery. This time the dog was back, beside the road, shivering and whimpering and the farmer decided he was too cold to be killed now, so took him home, fed him warm milk and egg, wrapped him in a ‘blanket and saw him to sleep. Next morning he called the dog catcher who put the little deaf and. blind beagle in the gas chamber and said he must be all of 15 years old and both wondered who could have been so brutal as to keep a dog that long and then abandon him, helpless on, a highway on a cold night, and recalled Kipling’s contribution to the sentimental literature of the:dog, which asks only: the” mercy of a quick and painless death when the eyes and legs are gone.

Aitpower el By Major Al Williams

THE OFFICIAL photographs revealing the actual extent of the damage at Pearl Harbor provide the strongest airpower argument ever forced on the world. Our battleships were temporarily out of commission after that sneak air attack. But “temporarily,” in this instance, covered a period in which the Japs could and did ignore American seapower when they drove their transports up against the Philippine beach-heads and invaded those islands. We couldn't smash those Jap concentrations of transports because of Jap airpower.

Admiral Outranks Air General

THE PRESIDENT SAW that airpower had taken command of the Pacific and placed Gen. Emmons, an airman, as “supreme commander” in Hawaii. Nothing could have been more wisely realistic. But after all sorts of shenanigans, what do we find today? We find that the navy has plunked Admiral Nimitz in Pearl Harbor, and he, outranking Gen. Emmons, is now the senior officer present—hence the supreme commander. . Now suppose the Japs again tackle Pearl Harbor, and assume that Admiral Nimitz doesn't agree with Gen. Emmons’ estimate of the situation and his plans to meet it. Does this mean that we have to lose: ships and men again; as happened when four cruisers were lost when a naval commander didn’t agree with the information supplied by the airmen?

Japan's Strategy By A. T. Steele

CHUNGKING, Dec. 14. —American and British military experts in this part of the world believe that.Japan’'s winter strategy on the Asiatic mainland will be mainly defensive despite extensive troop movements and new flare-ups in the fighting on the China-Burma frontier.

: month have insistently claimed that the Japanese were massing for a push into the southwestern province of Yunnan and its capital Kunming—a supply terminus and air base of great importance. Four Courses Open to Her IF JAPAN is offensively minded this winter, she has four possible moves open to her. The first would be an attempt to resume her push southward either against Australia or the islands protecting its eastern flank, However serious her losses, this is and must continue to be Japan's main battlefront. Secondly, she could try to drive into northeastern India to frustrate the threatening allied offensive and wipe out industrial bases in Bengal and Bihar, : A third possible move would be to attack Russia— a stupendous and improbable undertaking. And finally, Japan could launch an offensive in southwestern China hoping thus to sever America’s

sy by

Dec. 14.—The

to animals. In earlier days we must have been pretty |

THE STANDARD dog story has a happy ending |

but the dog snarled and the farmer went home to get |

Chinese reports for the last

The Hoosier Forum

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

“BOTH MEN AND WOMEN MUST SET HIGHER GOAL” By An Interested Reader, Cicero

I believe in encouraging advancement, but why not take fair turns if your column, “We the Women,” must be shared. It is easily understood why men don’t habitually read the woman's or society page. ' However, they might glarice at an article so titled on the editor's page. Mrs. Walter Ferguson's items make one think of the deeper ideals of mankind. Her sincerity can be felt. These days both men and women must aim for the higher goal. Our nation’s Christianity must be upheld. More power to her that she may always have the courage of her convictions.

Also would like to say I'll believe part of what I read as long as Pegler is around and working in his fight for truth. » » ”

“McNUTT, FOXLIKE, PLANNED THIS coup” By Guy D. Sallee, 5801 Woodside dr,

The defeat of the Democrat party in the recent election proved nothing to our president—he plays politics by fiat and appoints the most political-minded man in the United States as supreme manpower commissioner. , , . McNutt, foxlike, slyly planned this’ coup for months®and placed former Indiana key men in important positions. Wayne Coy, his former secretary, became controller of the federal budget; Claude Wickard, of Camden, the food administrator; Elmer Davis, of Aurora, is in charge of war time news; Brig. Gen. Louis B. Hershey, of Angola, selective service, William Batt, of Salem, is right-hand-man to Donald Nelson, while ex-gov-ernor Clifford Townsend, of Marion, is in charge og agricultural adjustment department; Bryon Price, of Topeka, censors our mail; Lowell

(Times readers are invited

to express their views in these columns, religious: conMake

your letters short, so all can

troveries excluded.

have a chance. Letters must

be signed)

Mellett, of Elwood, who was McNutt and Coy’s Indiana publicity agent,

now in charge of federal works

agéncy publicity; Fowler Harper, law professor, Bloomington univer= sity, now legal adviser to McNutt; Leo Gardner, McNutt's ‘Philippine attorney, with Reconstruction Finance Corp.; Oscar Ewing, of Paoli, now attorney, Albron Aluminum Company of America and special assistant to U. S. atorney Bid-

dle, he is McNutt’s eastern cam-

paign manager; ex-senator Sherman Minton, now judge of U. S. court of‘ appeals, Chicago. Unfertunately, Congressman Louis Ludlow, member of the house finance committee and chairman of the deficiency committee, approved the allocating and appropriation of one million dollars to employ 1100 news writers and radio commentators to broadcast and release the kind of information McNutt though the people should know. This publicity agency convinced the commander-in-chief, but not the voters that Paul V. McNutt was it, while his appointment is vigorously resented by constitutional democrats, both in Indiana and the other 47 states. This coup d'etat provise conclusively centralized government means the destruction of the republic. It cannot and must not be tolerated as the other 47 states become subject to the dictates of ex-Indiana residents. The Baltimore Sun commented “McNutt now comes first, if not in the hearts. of his countrymen, at least in their lives.” It is the first

Side Glances—By Galbraith

on At, EE — or

that the 48 states and their citizens, property, lives and libérties become the playthings of a self-seeking group of politicians emanating from a single tsate in the union. We constitutional Democrats believe it is the mandatory duty of the free press and radio and publicspirited citizens to be vigilant in helping us to defend the home front against marauders of repr esentative | government. we win the battle of bullets, and lose the battle of ballots ‘and: the home front? ®_ nn = “WAR BEING FOUGHT TO PRESERVE FREEDOM” By Eugene H. Stringer, 132 N. Denny st.

I had no intention of starting a feud when I wrote my first letter, but I cannot let the letters of Mrs. Waggoner and Mr. Asahel R. Gwinn go unanswered. It is not the defense workers themselves, whom I dislike. It is their practices. I'm speaking of the ones I know and come in contact with. : In my non-essential business, which you insist couldn't thrive without you defense workers but had been.a prospering industry for the past 20 years, I ghave cashed the checks of many defense workers. I'm referring to checks as large as $80, with as little as $1 deducted for the purchase of defense bonds. And these are the patriots who are winning the war. While the entire personnel of our company is enrolled in the 10 per cent club. As for the shopping on Monday night, let me be the first to inform you, since it never entered your mind, that there are people with jobs such as mine, that have never been able to get downtown before the stores closed. That has been my situation for the past six years, and I feel that I am as much privileged to shop on that night as anyone else, Including defense workers. This war is being fought to preserve freedom and in my estimation, that includes the privilege of doing yeur Christmas shopping where you please, when you please, regardless of where you work. s ” ”

“UNABLE TO FIND 6-ROOM HOUSE UNDER $50 RENT”

By R. Kinuey, Y, M. C. A I have just read with incredulity and disgust a letter from Mr. Burkett in your columns saying “there is no real shortage of housing ‘here for families of defense workers.” This kind of uninformed twaddle gets my goat. If there is no real shortage, brother, I would hate to see that shortage this gentleman has in mind. I am employed at the naval ordnance plant and have been separated from my family for months

| simply because I have been unable

to find a single six-room modern house for rent for under $50.

I have spent time, money and

effort trying to locate one. I even ran an ad in a local paper offering $10 reward for information—results nil. Then to read “there is no real shortage” is just too much for my patience and courtesy. Phooey,

DAILY THOUGHT “And 1 ‘Bet’ my face unto the

an seek by prayer and sup-

* plications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.—Danlel 9:3.

Prayers are heard in heaven very much in

What shall we gain if | _

In Washinglon By Peter. Edson

THE NO. 1 MILITARY MAN whom the civilian war agencies of the government have picked out to concentrate their attack on is Lieut. Gen. Brehon Somervell, commanding the services of , supply. \ So successful have been whip-pers-up of the so-called feud between the army and the war production board that they would have you believe there is no limit to this man’s ambition and grasp for power. - They tell you not only to “Watch Somervell!” but to. “Wateh out for Somervell!” But somehow Somervell doesn’t quite fill the bill of what it takes to be a military dictator, or else there is something powerfully disarming about his rather slight figure, his graying hair, his ready smile, his quick sense of humor, his blue eyes. He is tough, but he can take it as well as dish it out.

No One Ever Picks on Marshall

TO MANY BUREAUCRATS and some congress men, Somervell is the army. When they say they are afraid of the ‘army they mean they. are afraid of Somervell. This might be flattering if it were not also embarrassing. Gen. George C. Marshall is chief of staff of the army and Somervell’s boss, but some= how no one ever picks on Gen, Marshall. Gen. Somervell is picked out for all the hate because as commander of the services of supply he heads up that part of the army which has most direct dealings with the civilian economy. and the other agencies of the government, He comes from. Arkansas, he is 50 years old, a West Pointer, an engineer, a lieutenant colonel in the last war with two and a half years’ service over= seas, holder of DSC and DSM, and he still loves a fight. The reason he fights now is that the responsibility ) is his to see that the biggest U, 8. army ever raised has all the guns, food, clothing and equipment it needs for the toughest war it ever fought. Gen, Somervell ‘ recalls constantly the scandals of the Civil war—embalmed beef, civilian purveyors to the army waxing fat and rich on war contracts out of which the soldiers who did the fighting got little or nothing. He konws by actual experience the supply scandals of the last war. He says his aim in this war is to see that those mistakes are not repeated.

Fights Civilian Control of Army:

SOMERVELL IS FIGHTING to keep the schedule ing of materials for army procurement contracts in army hands. Though there are only 184,000 manue facturers in the United States today, the army has 1,075,000 separate contracts. Requirements for materials on those contracts fill

16 thick volumes. They are in army hands now, that

is, they are in the hands of civilians in uniform now, and Somervell is fighting to keep them there and not have them transferred tc WPB or any other gov-

| ernment agency, time in the history of this nation |

As Gen. Somervell sees it, he is fighting to keep civilian agencies from taking over the army—not the other way round. ’

Watching India

By William Philip Simms

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14." President Roosevelt's decision to ~ send William Phillips, one of our top-flight career diplomats, to New Delhi, marks the end of what Wendell Willkie referred to as Washington's “wishy-washy” policy toward India. Though the president said that Mr. Phillips ‘would carry with him no special plan or formula for solution of the Indian problem, the mere fact that he is sending such a diplomat at all speaks volumes. That Phillips is not going to New Delhi to tell the British and the Indians how to settle their differences is unquestionably true. Officially Anglo-Indian re< lations are none of our business, but with more than a million American doughboys overseas, many of them within, and on the fringes of, the British empire, we cannot help being interested in what goes on.

Just the Man for the Job

INDIA IS IN constant danger. ‘The country bore ders on civil war. There are riots and bloodshed as the followers of Gandhi and the congress party erupt in behalf of immediate independence. Sabotage of railways, communications and the public services is fairly common. In a single sentence, the Indian situation 1s standing invitation to the Japanese, who are marking’ time on the Burmese border. But even if we are lucky and everything goes well for the durdtion, India will be one of the greatest postwar problems the allies have to face. Thus it is of the utmost importance for the presie dent and state department to have complete information on developments there, not only now, for war purposes, but for use afterwards at the peace table, ! And none better than William" “Phillips could provide it. I have known him: tor many years, He is one of the most careful and conscientious of diplomats. He is just the man for the prasivents job at New Delhi,

We the Women

By Ruth Millett

HOW TO KEEP A HUSBAND from feeling shut out of his place in the family circle is one of the many problems confronting the wife whose husband has gone to war. A wife can manage to do it if she writes often and tries with each letter to make her husband feel that he is as important to the family as he ever was. : By writing often, a wife will ‘nakiirally mention the little things that would seem too trivial to both if she wrote only once every week or two. alot to make the person away from home feel that he is still in touch, that he knows what is going on,

Don't Worry About Worrying Him

. AND INSTEAD OF thifiking, “I won’t worry him about this,” a wife should give her husband a chance to advise her about important decisions—when there is time for discussion by letter. . She should let him know, too, that | s wishes and his tastes aren’t being ignored or 1 in his.own home. When she mentions buying a new fre she might add that she thinks he would | it. red ! thinks } “might not

wholly approve of she can 1 make point the necessity for Pals 2

#

Those small delails of day-by-day living dol. .