Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 December 1942 — Page 14

“he Indianapolis Times

RALPH BURKHOLDER Editor, in U. 8. Service WALTER LECKRONE Editor

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1942

THE RAILROADERS’ DEMANDS -

THE railroad workers have a right to ask for higher pay. We suspect that the big five “operating” brotherhoods have alienated a lot of public sympathy at the start by demanding a 30 per cent wage boost, a minimum increase of $3 a day, for their 350,000 members. ; That’s absurdly out of line with the war labor board’s wage-stabilization policy of allowing for a 15 per cent rise in the cost of living since January, 1941. Especially since the “operating” railroaders, already one of the highest-paid groups of labor, got an 8 per cent increase just a year ago. They're making an extravagant demand for bargaining purposes, just as they did last year when they asked for 30 per cent and finally accepted one-fourth of that after threating to-strike. The 15 “non-operating” unions (maintenance workers, clerks, etc.) are asking an increase of 20 cents an hour for more than 800,000 members. That would put them, also, far above the WLB standard. They got a 10-cents-an-hour increase after the strike threat a year ago. The total cost to the railroads of the 20 unions’ demands is estimated at upwards of $700,000,000 a year. » sx » » » E don’t pretend to understand the intricacies of railroad finance. But the OPA says that thelr net operating income, before payment of accrued income taxes, was about $1,525,000,000 for the first nine months of this year—about $356,000,000 more than for 12 months last year. Anyway, there's a sizable melon. Taxes will get a big slice. As to future earnings, the OPA proposes to take another big slice for the benefit of the public. It's asking the ICC to cancel that rate increase, which would cost the railroads perhaps $250,000,000 a year. The unions, as noted, want $700,000,000 a year more. And the people who own railroad securities naturally think that they're entitled, after so many lean years, to a better return on their money. One thing is certain. The railway unions would help their case tremendously if they would, voluntarily and promptly, do away with their “featherbed” rules which, in effect, require great numbers of men to be paid for not folag = as Sich work as they reasonably could.

FOURTH TERM?

E INVITE your attention to the Washington column by Raymond Clapper which appears today on page one of the second section of this newspaper. Mr. Clapper is one of the most able and astute and congelentious of the writers who report Washington trends - today, and there is no doubt whatever that he interprets “correctly a very large body of Washington opinion when he says that President Roosevelt's retirement at the end of this, his third term, “becomes less likely every day.” But what Mr. Clapper records here is just that—Washington opinion, the voice of the topheavy bureaucracy that today impedes our war:effort, the belief of Mr. Roosevelt's loyal appointees that their leader is indispensable to American government. ‘The “logic” that only the man in office now has the experience and the knowledge and the prestige to carry on after the war has a faintly familiar sound. We seem to have heard it in 1940—and in 1936. We did not agree with it then—and we do not now. There probably never has been a time in the history of the United States when a similar*argument could not have been advanced in faver of retaining in office whoever happened to be in office at the time. Herbert Hoover, in 1932, for example, had had more experience with depressions than ‘any man in North America. Followed to its logical con-

clusion it would mean that no president ever would retire.

That the people of Indiana have no such view should ~ have been made abundantly clear by the results of the November elections.

- MODERN AESOP

“WOouLD there were a modern Aesop to write a fable about the young pelicans.

“Out on our mid-Pacific coast, in beautiful Monterey"

bay, there was long ago established a sardine factory on a pier which extended well out over the water. Every day ~ the refuse was thrown overboard and every day huge flocks . of pelicans came to feed upon it. “There grew up a generation of pelicans ‘which nad . known nothing but plenty, freely distributed in an almost _ unlimited daily ration. Suddenly men discovered that the practice of wholesale sardine fishing had interfered with nature’s law of supply and demand aud, to make a long story short, the sardine cannery was closed. “For sothe days the new generation of pelicans swam about in consternation and dismay. Then they bethought them of the old pelicans which had lived and prospered long before the era of bountiful refuse.

“And so they took counsel with their elders, first to |

; rotest because the supply of food had been shut off, and

hen with a deepening sense of the futility of protest, to ask A

for sage advice as to what to do. “The old pelicans heard the story without alarm, and

or due deliberation the eldest made a short speech to the |

Ww generation of pelicans in which he said: ‘There is only je answer to your heed for food—you must go out and forit’ - re “(Moral) In this Homely devies lies a profound truth: te epic of bounty has passed, the hand-out era has been mpletely swallowed up by a war-debt which represents t only the spending of the nation’s wealth, but the mortg of its future. We, all of our allies aod the eonqured 80 back Yo-wark.! Tew

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, Dec. 15—Way back in September, after persistent nagging in. these dispatches, Herbert H. Lehman, then governor of New York, called on the district attorney of Onondago county for the records in. the case of Joe Fay, a very hrutal and dangerous union racketeer, -Frank Hague political mob in New Jersey, who had been turned of court in Syracuse because the complaining witness in an assault case went into hiding when the indictment came on for trial. ” The case had the earmarks of a fix, because soon after the indictment was washed out and Fay thought he was out of jeopardy, Orville Warner, the missing witness, whom Fay had kicked out of his job as boss of some locals in Rochester, turned up again in his old position with his old powers. Their union is the Operating engineers and one of the worst in the A. F of L. Governor Lehman's action, on tie surface, seemed to mean serious business, but a lawysr who is well acquainted with the case pointed out at the time that it «didn’t necessarily mean a thing because Lehman could just toss the papers into a corner and leave them lay or, if you want to be nasty-nice about it, let them lie. Well, that was nigh onto three months ago and you would think that after all there would be something to report on it, but no report has been made public nor has any action occurred. So it may be that the lawyer called the turn,

I3-Cent Raise to Cure 'Epidemic'

IT DEVELOPS THAT not long after Warner went absent and Fay free of the indictment, which was good. for five years in prison, Warner suddenly showed some money. May 23, he bought a summer resort hotel at Handerson harbor on Lake Ontario, and, on June 11, bought another place, a fishing lodge. He immediately started alterations and improvements on both, with the apparent intention of going into the resort business. The alterations and improvements and the materials that went into them are trivial by comparison

with some really grandoise operations in Seattle and Portland where some of the boss unionists felt the need of clubrooms for the heirarchy and humble quarters for the stiffs. But after all, Warner is a bush-leaguer and this is his private project. ‘The hotel properties are near Madison barracks and Warner may be figuring on running a nice relaxing place for the soldiers away from it all. You can’t predict what a man of this type would do because he is pretty much of a muscle, himself, and only last July when Will Green was mumbling that his unions had waived their right to strike, he pulled an epidemic among the hoisting engineers under his command at five war plants around Rochester. It wasn’t a strike but a wave of illness for which Warner, although he is no doctor, prescribed a raise of 13 cents an nour as an infallible cure.

Dewey Knows Him of Old

OF COURSE, WARNER may have had the money before he did Fay the precious favor of being unavailable to repeat before a trial jury in court the story he had told a grand jury about the occasion when Fay kicked his face off at a state convention of the A F. of L. But anyone “investigating” in good faith his disappearance and the hasty dismissal of the indictment against Fay naturally would be inquisitive, That was one time in his careey as a racketeer' that Fay was really scared. Fay is almost through now. If the Lehman investigation washes out, Dewey, who knows him of old, surely will go into the Warner thing and is it only a question of which authority tags®him first, especially now that Frank Hague is beginning to slip and can’t protect his people.

\

Jap Boomerang By Major Al Williams

-—

FROM THE American view-'

point, Pearl Harbor is the most forcefully dramatic proof of the necessity. for creating a separate, sutonomeus air force. Pearl Harbor was under the command of a general and an admiral. Army and navy traditions could see no kind of an attack on Pearl Harbor except by great warships coming over te fight our great warships and guided by the “eyes of the navy gunfire”—that is, by a naval air service—~with a lot of transports in the rear of the enemy sea fleet bringing troops which our army would fight off the beaches if our navy didn’t smash the attack at sea.

‘Fortunately, Japs Copied U. S.

NOW, IT may seem paradoxical, but airmen believe that Pearl Harbor is also the soundest reason why the Jap airmen should have been operating under a three-way system of army, navy and air, with each service comparable in authority. It was mighty fortunate for us that the Japs operate their fighting air force pretty much as we do with our two air services as air arms of the navy and army. If the Japs had really realized what their own air

forces could do, and had jumped Pearl Harbor with |

an invasion farce as a quick follow-up to the bombing raid, they could have had the whole shebang in a walkover. But the senior Jap admirals planned the show as THEY saw ity and junior ranking Jap airmen erippled our coast defense at Pearl Harbor, but lacked the materials to wrap it up and hold it.

Moslem Mecca

|By Richard Mowrer

CAIRO, Dec. 15.—The number of Moslem pilgrims going t6 Mecca from Egypt this season has broken all records since 1929, Thirteen years ago free-spend-ing American tourists abounded in

shrewd, ling-shooting merchants

city of the Moslems.

~ Now, with the presence in Egypt | of increasing numbers of American soldiers as well |. as British, happy days are here again for many city |

Egyptians. 2 | With prices satis uncontrolledly—one Egyptian pound is equal in buying power, for most things ‘here, to $1 back home, and it takes $4 to buy one pound sterling—more Egyptians are making more money these days than they have been ‘able to make since the Wall Street srash. This season more than 12,000

of the’

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

“WHY NOT CUT DOWN ON ‘STOP AND GO'” .By Raymond, Indianapolis Why not cut out the “stop and go” hours? If you want to strike a popular public note, get busy. Stopping and starting are the automobile’s two most persistent robbers, Think what it would save the city, too. Is there too much politics involved? ® x = “WHAT GOOD ARE PLANES WITHOUT PILOTS”

By Mrs. Huey, Indianapolis My letter I wrote you to Mrs. Waggoner and all defense workers who have such feelings toward the housewife was not printed. May I add I have one son in foreign serv-, ice U. S. A. air force, also a son in training. I think raising boys with clean bodies and mind for our country is real defense. What good would! planes and ships be without boys to man them? Defense is like machine tape, one pin out and it just won't work. Take away the housewife, the mother and also children. Do you get what I am driving at? » 8 #” “BOND CASHERS EVIDENTLY FORGOT PEARL HARBOR" By Helen Videbeck, 1626 Medford ave.

I am a stenographer at a small

like to have.

semaphores except at rush|

shut” ,

| were having their signatures certi-

~

‘not care to help the boys who are

salary, and about two years ago I felt it my duty to try to buy one soci * gure, I'm sore, cause I'm an ‘bond each month, and in order to Jocis, Be) : do this I had to do without a lot of things that a young girl would

(Times readers are ihvited to express their these columns, religious conMake

your letters short, so all can

views in

troveries excluded.

have a chance. Letters must

be signed)

even more as my trips became more numerous and I became more acquainted with the activity at these wihdows, whether they were buying |: bonds or having their signatures certified on their bonds so that they could cash them in, I have been able to “keep my trap . . until today (note date— Dec. 7, 1942). About 40 people were lat the windows at 4 p. m., and you can check with the postal authori- | ties, as I stood back and counted {about 20 who were not buying, but

fied so as to cash in their bends. I asked you to note the gate, as of all days, this is the day that we were asked to buy an extra bond —these people evidently forgot Pearl Harbor. Yes, I know, if asked, some of these people will say they had to buy Christmas gifts, etc., ete. - I, myself, could" find plenty of reasons to cashiin a bond, but there! is no reason why anyone should cash ‘in a war bond, unless they do

helping us, and buying bonds themselves. Let anyone deny the above

“LET'S ALL START

» -

crawling people’ fight over it.”

Egypt, thus enabling thousands of | |

and others to pay the expenses.of,| | ; a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holy |

faithful

Every week I'd buy my war stamps A ‘4-8’ CAMPAIGN” and at the end of ‘each month I!sy Ed Bayless Jr., 4928 Guilford ave. would take my fittle $4 and my| The way we are hearing people

har Stamps and get my defense. mplain about shortages of certain Naturally I was only able] f to bug the smallest denomination, |cOmmodities, and the rationing o I have never ceased to keep up this others, one would think that the practice, which T am very proud of. American public is keing. sulfiected The above explanation of my | to unbearable hardships. Buf, conpurchases is not for any self-praise, sider the following excerpt, quoted and my reason is to show you how from “From the Land of Silent Peomany trips I have had to make ple,” an article concerning presenteach month during the past two day conditions in Greece, by Robyears to the postoffice so that I ert -St, John: . would be able to help “our Uncle “Out in front, on the sidewalk, Sam” (better than 208 trips). lay ' what hdd -once been a man. From the first trip to the bond | His screams turned your blood cold. window I have noticed people cash- Both his hands had been blown off ing bonds. Naturally I noticed itt the wrists, one leg was in shreds,

Side Glances —By Galbraith

|

| | books.

1cars, complete with operators, that

a piece of shrapnel had ripped open his stomach, and a yard of his in- | testines was hanging out. He also] had blood gushing from his head | and foaming from his mouth. Yet' he screamed like a maniac—not just | for a noise, but words that he kept repeating over and over again.” Or the following lines from “This | Is Starvation,” recently published in The American Mercury: “Ninety-five per cent of the Greek | people now have nothing left. Unless more food arrives, the ‘entire race of Greeks in in’ danger of perishing. Personal and public cleanliness are things of the past, and] disease is rampant. There is no soap. Filth and garbage accumulate in the streets, and dogs and

Now, what was the hardship you were ' griping about, Mister? Or you, sister?

Let's all start a 4-8 campaign on 3

the home front: 1. Sober up. 2. Stop complaining, 3. Start being more thankful. 4. Speed victory with more war bonds. 4-S for victory.

TN “EVERYONE HAS

TO BE UNSELFISH” By Lee Wiggs. 1405 E. 11th st. To Davey, I would like to say that you certainly don't stay on one subject very long. I will try to explain again what I started to. say in the first place. You wan't to know why the old automobiles in junkyards weren't being salvaged. I told you that they are being taken care of as fast as possible. . .. I only know that everyone has to be as unselfish as possible to get this war over with. Everybody has to give as much as they can spare to finish this mess in the shortest possible time. I only meant to say ‘that the people shouldn't feel too much at ease, and be over-confident, ! just because someone says we have a lot of scrap metal. As TI understand it, this column is dedicated to opinions of the people concrening community affairs and public problems, not whether I am male or female. My name has nothing to do with what we were discussing, and I'm sure the general public isn’t interested in it. , , . As a matter of fact, my real name is Ulah Lee Wiggs. Kittie is a nickname. So is Ukie, Ukelele and Poochie, _. -. I would be glad to, send a photo, but I'm sure The Times has ne space for such unnecesary things. I wear skirts, but. I play with neither marbles nor .dolls, but rather with protractors, compasses and | 5. You see, Davey, I am a 15-year-old sophomore at Arsenal]

lis cans o

2 » ” “WHY NOT JITNEYS ; AS IN FIRST WORLD WAR?” By Celia Warren, Indisnapolis ow To begin with; I wish to compliment Mrs, H. O. Neale on her letter. + + There is too much mud-sling-ing at the Republican Party before it even gets a chance to show, what it can do. However, the real reason for my letter is our transportation system, As you remarked, it is strained to the breaking point. Well, do you remember the days of the first world war-—and the jitneys? . There are plenty of private

could be pressed. into service as jitneys, if their rationing boards would allow them gasoline for this purpose. Could not this be done? . -

DAILY THOUGHT : - And they shall he mine, saith | Lord of hosts, in That a

ve been asking Youtor 4 an air rifle. for two yoars—now | suppose ) don't

re going to tell me

a

WASHINGTON, Dec.. 15. —A name you are apt to see more in the public prints from here on is that of Roy F. Hendrickson, the

Washington newspaperman who

.has been named head of the food. distribution administration in the. new department of agriculture setup to handle the nation's food problems. Mr, Hendrickson is the new fair-haired boy of the department, literally and figuratively, He will be 39 years old come Dec. 29. Planting the necessary acreage is a comparative cinch ‘and the technique of rationing is in a fair way of being worked out. But in between production :and rationing, foods have to pass through all the bottlenecks of harvesting and transportation to market, slaughtering, canning, dehydrating or otherwise processing, allogation to armed services, lend-lease, occu-

| pied countries’ and American home consumption.

That is the problem of food distribution and that is where Roy Hendrickson, the boy from St. Ansgar, Towa, had better be good as Secretary Wickard's

-| assistant.

Troubles Keep Rolling Along THE MERE fact that full responsibility and control

| over the nation’s food program has been placed in

the hands of Secretary of Agriculture Wickard doesn’t mean that by Jan. 1, sooner or later, all your food troubles will vanish. This is just a beginning.

Secretary Wickard says he doesn’t yet know the answers, and he is telling the truth.

There is supposed to have been somewhat of :

Washington tussle between the department of agrie culture and the war production board over who should control the food program. WPB Chairman Nelson wrote a letter to the White House some weeks ago, saying that food control should reside in his department, but when the president's executive order gave control to Wickard, Nelson is supposed to have been vastly relieved. He had asked for control over food only because his advisers and braintrusters thought that would be the best setup, with all authority in one lap,

Would Tax Ingenuity of the Gods

THE FIRST job, perhaps, will be to win over the food processors and distributors, the packers and canners who have been almost solidly against putting control over their industry in the department of agriculture. It was their idea that a man from the

industry should be put in charge. Hendrickson plans to have various industry advisory committees and deal

| with the processors through these committees.

The food products on which completely new distri bution systems will have to be worked out are meats, canned goods and dairy products. Allocating the available supply, dividing it equitably between the civilian and military demands, then seeing that within the civilian allotment every community has its share in proportion to its population and still further down the line that no one store { will have more food stocks than it has customers— there the gods.

McNutt s Big Job

By S. Burton Heath

CLEVELAND, Dec. 15; ~ The task which has been handed to Paul McNutt is as big, as com= plicated and as saturated with chances for bitter failure as any job created by this super-war. Manpower cannot be co=ordinated, shuffled and’ effectively

utilized on the broad scale re-

quired by our crisis unless every personal or political consideration is shelved; unless a courageous, intelligent over-all plan is formulated; unless adequate machinery is provided; unless the administras tor receive the unqualified support of the president. Commissioner McNutt, and he alone, can supe ply the motive power that is essemitial. President Roosevelt, and he alone, can back Mr. McNutt when the going gets tough and the dead cats begin to fly, With the framework handed to him, and the collaboration of those available, Mr. McNutt should be able to formulate a workable plan’ and set up the machinery. ‘

Must Get Men and Jobs Together

ONE BIG JOB that faces him is/complete rehabili« tation of that well-meaning, but inefficient agency, the United States employment, service. The whole scheme will fall"of its own weight une

less the USES is organized to get men and jobs ,

together fast and right. Red tape and formalism

must be held to a minimum. The organization must .

be imbued with a spirit of aggression, of initiative, of imagination, of sound judgment that will overcome the distrust which both workers and employers now feel toward it. The unemployed have preferred to register with private agencies, and pay fees, because in that way they got better jobs faster. Mr. McNutt is going to have to change all this, if the USES is to be the sole placement agency for manpower. It may prove the hardest part of his onerous assignment.

We the Women

By Ruth Millett

IN ONE CHICAGO high school the principal and the students have clashed on a weighty probe lem. The glrls—some of them, anyway—want to wear slacks to school and the principal has made a ruling that if the girls do wear them to school they have to change into skirts in the locker room before attending classes,

Isn't it about time educators:

quit. making an issue over whether girl students wear slacks.

There is certainly nothing jmmoral or indecent about them.- They don't even offend the eye when worn by slim high school girls. . And they have a lot in their favor. ‘Warm.

They are

: What's the Harm, Anyway?

SO WHERE IS the harm in ‘slacks? A' prisicipal

or college dean of women may not like them per-

_sonally, Byt thal isn't reason-eucugh for falling yisle YHg) SHS wea: She. In sso days when uveile delinquency is on the increase, ¢ Sh oe Going veryiung

you have a problem to tax the ingenuity of

Vi