Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 January 1943 — Page 20

e Indianapolis Times W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER sident oo Editor, in U. 8. Service MARK FERREE WALTER LECKRONE

e (A SCRIPRPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Price in Marion County, 8 cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 15 cents a week,

Mail rates in Indiana, $4 a year; adjoining states, 75 cents a month; Alliance, NEA others, $1 monthly. ce, and Audit Bu- : of Circulations.

Give Light and the Zenie Will Find Their Own Way

FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1943

DE GAULLE AT CASABLANCA

AR. ROOSEVELT and Mr. Churchill got de Gaulle to pose > * with Giraud and to announce “agreement on the end to be achieved,” which was not in dispute. But they couldn’t ret him to rise above factionalism and unite with Giraud. at isunfortunate. Nevertheless, the situation is improved. There are signs that the president at Casablanca out- - maneuvered the British foreign office group, whose support has made the de Gaulist anti-American agitation and ‘activity so dangerous. Mr. Churchill, who has never been accused of being a party to it, should now quash the London ort to undermine confidence in Secretary of State Hull d Gen. Eisenhower. ¥ ” » ®

IGNIFICANTLY, Marcel Peyrouton became ' governor general of Algeria under the Giraud regime at the start f the Casablanca meeting. The London propagandists were ing this appointment of Peyrouton, an ex-Vichyite enemy Laval, as proof of the alleged undemocratic policy of Giraud-Eisenhower-Hull. Now it appears that Mr. Rooseelt and Mr. Churchill themselves made the realistic decision | o support Giraud appointments. So the Casablanca conference, apparently, has blocked plans of de Gaulle’s political -advisérs to make him: the nch power under British sponsorship. If so, this is anther victory in America’s continuing diplomatic battle to . prevent de Gaullists or any other faction from appropriating French political power, prior to a decision by the French “electorate after the war. ~~ Mr. Churchill, if thesreports are accuiats deserves ipraise for accepting this policy. It is to be hoped that he yet can persuade de Gaulle, who is a great patriot and great general despite irresponsible French and British political

cues DOWN i “I just felt I couldn't advise and consent to this ‘appointment. » —SENATOR GEORGE.

OUBTLESS the senator from Georgia, ranking Demo3 crat on the foreign .relations committee, would have ‘preferred to vote for confirmation of “Dear Eddie’ Flynn— undreds esident W ould the

‘of other diplomatic appointments submitted by ‘Roosevelt i in the last 10 years. So, too, no doubt;

ned up solidly against Mr. ly were breakin : ent. They had never done that before.

naniors and ministers. But the constitution (pose a senatorial responsibility. That responsibili by cannot

political boss from the Bronx. The southwest Pacific is as much a diplomatic as a military front. © Mr. Flynn's appointment goes next to the senate floor for debate. Our opinion, and our hope, is that by the time the debate is concluded a majority of the senate will join the statesman from Georgia in his conclusion—and will refuse to hold their noses.

ELF-TACKLEIZATION

WILLIAM GREEN utters this odd bit of naivete regards ing time-and-a-half pay after 40 hours: “It is no deterrent to employers, because they pass the costs along to the government.” - Naive, we say, because the government i is all of us. And of all of us, labor, for which Mr. Green undertakes to speak, ys the biggest share. Its percentage of the burden will increase sharply under the new tax law, including the victory tax, Mr. Green still wanders in the delusion that the costs ultimately are paid by the rich, forgetting that if the tredsactually confiscated every dollar of every income over 0,000 a year it would not run the war 28 days. He also srgets that 70 per cent of national income is to those who ceive less than $3000 a year. ‘An excited football announcer once coined a word, The all-carrier, far down the field and yards ahead of all oppon-. ents, slipped on a muddy spot and fell flat. “He,” stuttered the announcer, “is a victim of self-tackleization! I” That s to be Mr. Green’s predicament.

Overtime pay after 40 hours was the creation of hard mes, manpower surplus and vast unemployment—a penalty igned to spread ‘the work. And, of course, in this time f great and growing manpower scarcity it still is a deterent to employers serving the civilian market, operating nde price ceilings, and so unable to pass the costs along to ‘government, meaning all of us including Jaber: Ss

> RILEY S51 |

Our Hoosiers By Daniel M Key :

WASHINGTON, oy 20.— pum women. know all about work and

a

“any gal sitting around in a satin negligee,” Senator Raymond E.

one of his constitutents. The letter was handwritten in red ink by Ruth E. Norris, R. R. 3, Frankfort, Ind. She addressed it to the junior senator, who is a

committee, with the intention of giving him some of the real facts of farm life, she said. : Senator Willis thought so well of it, he gave it to committee colleagues to read and answered promptly with a gusty “thank you.” “By way of introduction,” the red letter began, “permit me to write, that during a recent interview

iin the local office of collection of income tax returns,

I was prompted to send along a personal notation to the Washington office. Not that I feel obligated in explaining my depleted income—certainly the govern-

ment does little explaining of what it does, either with |.

the money it has, or does not have.”

"| Live Alone on 80 Acres"

AN EXPLANATION of the loss of a soybean crop because of lack of labor and machinery followed and the letter: continued: : “If I had any whole grain to sell, which I haven't, I'd be compelled to sell # for less than it costs to produce it. The farmer has no desire to compete but -he does have the right to demand a chance to survive alongside, industry. “See to it that the farmer is granted ‘cost of production,” and that subsequent. chance of survival. Give the farmer buying power and he'll buy.” Saying that she is a member of the Farmers Guild, the writer pointed out that the senator was ill and unable to address the Indiana esting’ back in 1941. The letter concluded: “Not that you guys give a d---, but I live alone, on 80 acres, in central Indiana. For years, I have been doing and am still doing, any and all jobs connected with farming and care of livestock. That will

explain fully why I ‘rise to the boiling point’ when I read some of the articles originating in Washington.

Challenge t6 Women Editors

“MOST LIKELY the woman, or women, who dictate such articles, have never had their hands dirty (and I mean dirty). Yet, they have the audacity to ‘advise farm women to get out and work’ How many of those female editors are capable of forking manure, castrating pigs, or after sitting up with a laboring ewe, soaping their arm and pulling a lamb? I dare say, they'd faint at the first whiff. “Farm women, and I speak of my colleagues who. operate their own farms, as well as those who work

know all about work, and need no advice from any gal sitting around in a satin negligee.” In his reply, Senator Willis said: “I think you have presented the chief problems of agriculture in as forcible manner as has come to my attention.”

&

In Washington

|By, Peter fdson

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20— Within the next two weeks, the | “war: manpower commission expects to announce most of an additional 100 cities in which local area labor-management-manpow-er stabilization committees will be - set up on the paftern of the socalled Baltimore plan—instituted in that city last July to solve war production manpower problems. Eventually, there will be one of: these stabilization committees in every tight labor market in the country. : Today there are around 20 operating, the Baltimore plan having been extended with variations to meet local conditions in important .war production centers like Buffalo, Akron, Detroit, Louisville, Mobile, San Diego. Some have fared better than others. The Louisville operation is held up as a model. A lot depends on what kind of a start the local committee gets off to.

most wrecked the first day of its existence. A committee of labor representatives and leading emplovers was set up and a statement of policy agreed upon. "In announcing the inauguration of the plan, however, the impre§sion was given that 700,000 workers in the Detroit area had been “frozen” in their present jobs and no one would be allowed to change employment for the duration. That just added ‘to the confusion. :

A Rumpus Was Raised

THE WORD went round that Manpower Commissicnér Paul V. McNutt was cracking down on Detroit. Employers and employees alike began to bombard the Detroit office of the area manpower stabilization committee and some even tefephoned Washington to find out what was up. Worried, Washington headquarters of the manpower. commission had the full text of the Detroit agreement telephoned to the capital to see what went

‘agreement. So in Detroit & campuign of handiolding “and education had to be conducted. Because of the Detroit mixup the war manpower ‘commission would like to have everyone—employer and employee alike—get a clear picture of what a fatiorsmanagement-manpower stabilization committee can do. The whole business is strictly voluntary. There is as yet no law or executive order ‘which drafts labor or even freezes labor.. Until such a law is passed, the only way in which labor pirating, job jumping and kindred abuses can be eliminated is for the representatives of labor and the employers to get together

From Non-War to War Jobs

hire new employees only through a centralized agency

release from his former employer. : They can further agree that they will pool thelr | eftarts to recruit new workers, train new wor ons “ploy more women, use more Negro labor. They work out their own regulations guaranteeing yo

| i they switch to other cratis on their new jobs.

they do not want any advice from |

‘willis (R. Ind) was informed by |

beside their husbands and sons, I repeat, farm women |°

The Detroit manpower. stabilization plan was al-:

on. Much to their surprise and pleasure, they found |: it was practically the samé as the original Baltimore

and agree among’ ‘themselves not to do those things. 1.

THEY CAN FURTHER agree that Shfloyets will |

such as the U.S. employment service and will hire no i |[one unless he is a new worker or unless he bears »

{men seniority on their old jobs If they switch to War o jobs or maintaining union membership in old mnjons { |

member of the senate agriculture |

| R | The Hoosier Forum 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

“WE SHOULD HAVE BIGGER AND BETTER GOVERNMENT”

By Mrs, Margaret Taylor, R. R. 1, Fortville, :

I don’t go to bat for people often, in fact not nearly so often as I should in this dog-eat-dog world, but some justification of government employees must be made after your recent attack of their numbers in Indianapolis. I say “attack” when actually, of course, you made. no such attack directly, but rather scurrilously, by. quoting in the most prominent front-page spot the curious reasoning of a préjudiced, horse-and-buggy-day* Republican representative, Not only was this indirect. attack bad newspaper ethics, but also it was false, untrue, distorted, manipulated use of information. At the time the original story appeared under the signature of one Bloem, the reporter stated that many government officials here were reluctant to tell the numbers of federal employees and the annual payrolls. The reporter stated this fear as with an implication of its being unfounded, unnecessary. Now, how can anyone longer maintain that this fear is unfounded: unnecessary’ when The Times has so maliciously contrived fo distort the story to its own original, and I maintain that this was your original, purpose. Is the story untrue? It'is untrue by the omission of certain facts. Springer stated that only 500 of the 4000 federal employees were directly in the war effort. How about those .indirectly in the war effort, those handling rationing, food distribution, war contracts, etc. etc? Just because these persons are not employed by the war department, they are not non-essential employees! This war must be fought on ‘the home front, too. How about postal employees? As I recall, Bloem’s original “attack” (because any story which points ou the numbers of

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Because of the volume received, let: ters must be limited to 250 words. Letters must be signed.)

federal employees and payroll without an accompanying statement as to the essential work these persons are doing is in reality attacking them), over 1550 of the 4000 were in the postal services. ! Are we te stop our postoifice, all mailings, including shipment of vital war materials because Springer of Connersville booms forth that these services are unessential? Where can such . distortions arise in this world of 1943? Can The Times justify these stories as a vehicle for getting some new reporter an opportunity to justify his exJstence? Another curious opinion which seems to have general acceptance among many newspaper readers of Indiana is that large numbers of government employees, per se, is inefficient. Therefore, when Springer states that there are twice as many federal employees in Indianapolis as municipal employees, everyone is expected to rise up and shout their horror. These federal employees are under civil service, they are performing vital and necessary services (congress itself determines the necessity of their work), they are not politically-appointed employees who do nothing but get their pay checks twice a month as are many of our local employees of tax-sup-ported state, county and township agencies not under civil service. (Springer should know; he’s got them over in his section of the

Side Glances—By Galbraith

1

state, and he would probably be the first to justify their existence as a part of this good old two-party system.) Indianapolis just simply isn’t getting as many public services as are other cities its size. You can’t get what you don’t pay for. St. Louis has 12,000 municipal employees; when Indianapolitans go to St.Louis and look at the magnificent art museum, zoo, openair theater, Forest park, Jefferson memorial, boulevards, etc., they.crab and grouse because our own fair city doesn’t have these?- Why? Because Springer and his ilk go around shooting off their mouths about the inefficiency of large num-=-bers of tax-supported employees under civil service. And too many people and newspapers believe him. And reporters like Bloem., If Indianapolis had as many per capita employees as St. Louis, we'd have three times what we now have in numbers and payrolls. And we'd have, I'm insistent, three times as many municipal services! That's the important thing. : If people want their garbage collected, they have to hire somebody to do it. If people want their mail delivered to service men in North Africa, they have to pay for the postal services. If people wang to prevent inflation, they have to pro-

but they're just as essential in spite of his criticisms. The role of The Times, rather than “to destroy, should be to enlarge and expand federal, state, county and municipal services, so that -we can have bigger and better government, not smaller and more corrupt government. Call in your reporter Bloem, get him to think over these things, and write a third article, this time factual, this time on the side of the peoplé for whom all these federal services are provided, this time constructive in praise or criticism of governmental services, this time to

‘| be proud of the numbers of federal

employees in our good old Hoosier

"lcapital and of the work they do.

Do that! Right the wrong!

(Editor’s Note: Mrs. Taylor misread ‘Mr, Bloem’s report. He stated, accurately, that of 4073 federal employees in Indianapolis 538 were engaged directly or indirectly in war work and that these included workers employed by ration boards, draft boards and all other governmental enterprises in any way related to the war effort. . The remaining 3533 have full-time federal jobs in no way connected with the war. We agree with Congressman Springer and with the leaders of the federal employees union that: 3,000,000 civilian federal employees are ‘too many, but we are glad to give ‘Mrs. Taylor space to express her opposing view and to advocate enlarging and expanding of this governmental staff.)

DAILY THOUGHT

. For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and So, mole in fm; |

‘| once wielded.

vide a price - rationing agency. | Springer may not want these things, |

Pan-America

By William Philip. Simms

‘

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20.—One

of the most promising steps in

years to broaden the basis of une

derstanding between the 21 Amer=

ican republics has just been taken -

by this country’s two big labor or= ganizations with the encourage= ment. of the :United States gov= ernment. Working together in close hare mony for the first time on such __ a project, the American Federa~ tion of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organie zations have just forwarded identical invitations to Bernardo Ibanez, secretary general of the Confederation of Chilean Workers at Santiago, asking him ‘to come to the United States, meet labor leaders here and visit our war industries. ‘Apparently other such

‘| visits will follow.

Mr, Ibanez, though one of the foremost labor leaders in Latin America, is only about 40 years old. He is not a radical, either of the right or the left, but has the reputation of being keenly aware of today’s trends, *

Closer Relations Are Sought

FOR YEARS efforts have been made to bring about closer relations between Pan-American labor organizations. Everyone has felt the need for broader guderstending among the good neighbors of the new wor

But the desired rapprochement has never wholly

succeeded. In a few of the Latin countries labor organization is considerably advanced. In others, it remains almost negligible, In spots, leadership has been somewhat revolutionary in character and this has served to frighten the more moderate workers away. In the United States many laborites feel that. the influence of such leaders as Mexico's Vicente Lome= bardo Toledano has not been fortunate. He was the organizer, in 1936, of the C. T. M. (Confederation Trabajadores de Mexico) which quickly outgrew the older and more conservative C. R. O. M. to become

the biggest workers’ organization in all Latin America.

Followed Cummunist Party Line

SENOR TOLEDANO is an intellectual rather than a worker. And while he denies he is a Communist, he has followed the party line consistently, both be= fore and after the Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939 and’ the subsequent Russo-German break. Today Senor Toledano has little of the power he Communism lost much of its drive ‘in Mexico three years ago when Mostow sided with Berlin, and Toledano suffered similarly. Nevertheless, he served out his term as secretary general of the C.T.M. He was succeeded in 1941, however, by Pidel Velase quez, a moderate middle-of the-roader. Under Senor Velasquez and the gentle urging of President Avila Camacho, the C. T. M. has swung back at least part way from the left, But the Toledano influence on Latin Ameriesn labor has not wholly disappeared. He still heads the Confederation of Latin American Workers, which has international aspirations, and he travels a good deal between the United States, where he now is, and the countries below the Rio Grande.

Closer Relations Are Sought

CERTAIN LEFTWINGERS in the United States seem to regard him as spokesman for Latin American labor while leftists in Latin American countries seem to think he speaks. for the workers of North America. It is said here that Senor Toledano has no such powers. At the same time it is recognized that, unless and until some sort of liaison is set up between the ‘labor organizations of the western hemisphere, plenty of room for misunderstanding will continue to exist, What is particularly not wanted is a Latin American organization and North American organization,

"|

x

i

which would tend to split the Americas in two rather |

than draw them together. If the republics are to bs one for defense they should be one in general Sutieck,

We the Women

By Ruth Millett

IF THERE EVER was a tine when it was nice not to be rich, this is it. In New York a man who has five automobiles at his country house asked the OPA if he might have enough gas to drive his town car to the counfry. and put it in

dead storage with the other five,

- It’s bad enough to fight your

way onto a bus or subway with

only one car standing idle. Bug think what it must be like to have six, and not be able to use any of them for “pleasure” driving—which, in the East, takes in just about every kind of driving. The man to whom money is nothing is going to

find it hard going when rationing gets started in

earnest and he finds he can't have all the steaks he would like. But some of the rest of us will be a little relieved to find it’s no longer necessary to scare. up the price for the best cuts of meat. j

The Suffering Rich

WHAT GOOD is the wealthy man's big house today if he can’t get enough servants to do the

or enough fuel to keep it warm? And how much

worse it is, with plenty of money in- your pocket. to

see one luxury after another disappearing into'the sea of peo- ¥

of “discontinued items”—luxuries which a lot ple could not have afforded anyway. And then, of course, there’s March 15 coming up, when the size of your headache will be directly proportioned to the size of your last year’s income. No, this is no year to envy the rich their A-carq limousines, their- big, cold houses and servant probe lems and tayes. So let's enjoy our modest means hefore the war ends and all those “world of tomorrow” luxuries become the property of anybody who can pay for them—and ‘no ration coupons needed.

To the Point— :

. IF WE COULD just get rid of that “other fellow"

<

there'd be no more auto accidents. x $ * » Ir YOURE SHORT on gas, just remernber that i" is a lot safer to skid on foot. : . $8 7 \ NOTHING CAN BE done in a Say if the cay

always tomorrow. .

® * lawed. Well, that’s one way to promote it. 2 ” » 4

~ MANY A GIRL with a fine carriage sill

~ DENMARK IS ONE country. whi pbs ite A