Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 February 1943 — Page 11
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Give Light and the People wit Find Thein Own Way
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1043
NSIGN ROBERT L. FLEETWOOD JE of The Indianapolis Times are understandably sad * today. For Ensign Robert L. Fleetwood, killed yesrday in the crash of his navy plane, was one of our own. 1t is hard to realize that we will never see Bob Fleet‘wood again in that familiar corner across the room, that
his. We could tell of Tow popular Bob was with every person in the plant, how friendly, how cheerful, how self-
But the real story of Bob Fleetwood is the story of America’s manhood. Bob was injus red in a basketball game as a high school boy and he came out of it with a “trick” back. It would go out of commission at times and leave im stranded in bed, unable to move without pain. ~~ When he went before his draft board he had to stand in a cold and drafty room. He was in bed for four days after that. Not only that, he had the blues. The army doctors had indicated his back wouldn't let him in the service. Once out of bed, Bob Fleetwood lost no time. He joined
Bob Fleetwood wanted to serve his country that badly. . Badly enough to give his life for it. Fo Is it any wonder this is such a great couizy?
GUARDING OUR TURKISH FLANK
: THE meager details in the London official announcement : ©. should not obscure the importance of the new allied greement with Turkey. For Turkey is one of the two key countries—the other is Spain—to be considered in the coming battle for the Mediterranean. Anything which ~ ‘counteracts the tremendous Nazi pressure on Turkey, and strengthens her allied ties, can pay big dividends in time gained and allied lives saved. : 2 ‘That. was the purpose of Prime Minister Churchill's conference with the Ankara government, following the his‘toric Casablanca meeting. If the London announcement that “on all principal points an identity of view was estab- ~ lished” is not an exaggeration, this is a major diplomatic
victory. » » » »
F course diplomatic victories, which are that and nothing more, are of doubtful value these days. Too many : SmTeom onl have become scraps of paper. The exception is ‘when an agreement confirms self-interests too beneficial to acrifice. Such may be the case in the closer relations beween Turkey and the allies, because of things that gpeak {louder than words, such as—' i" "1. Russian Vichorles, especially: in the Caucasus on ] Turkey s flank. ir 2 British victories in Egypt and Libya, Afiglo-Atner-ean occupation of northwest Africa, and the promise of
# 2
rn Europe. 3. American and allied arms,’ particalirly Planes and
4, Allied postwar aid and co-operation, which is a big item in the bidding for Turkish support. ” ” 8 " » 8 1 N her exposed position, with the axis on one side of her “= and the allies on the other, Ankara’s policy consists in. Ticking the winner and gambling on that choice. The point that today the allies are a far better bet than Hitler. For that reason the new v Clarchil agreement hes a good hance of standing up. - ; It is not necessary . that Turkey attack the axis s troops fon her European frontier—she is hardly strong enough for that, It is essential that she be réady and able to defend {herself if Hitler attempts a sudden drive through Turkey to flank Russia and Britain and to get Middle East oil. : If Churchill—acting for himself and Roosevelt—has ed that eastern door to Hitler, then the only remaining danger of a Mediterranean flank attack is through Spain, jhe Balearics, and Spanish Morocco. Whether that northtwestern door is also closed as securely as London and Washgton seem to think, time will tell.
1A WAR CABINET E think you will want to read E. A. Evins’ story on page one, on how controversies and confusion have isen in President Roosevelt's war administration, and womas L. Stokes’ story, page three, recalling how Woodrow ilson straightened out a similar mess in the last war. '- President Roosevelt has a bigger and tougher job than esident Wilson had—for this is a bigger and tougher war. ‘the administrative procedure which President Wilson ployed—forming a war cabinet of his principal executive delegating to each member definite powers, holdeach accountable for results, and himself taking final thority in resolving the conflicts between his administras—was an old and tested administrative system. This procedure has long been applied in the best run vernments and the best run business organizations. It es possible quick decisions, and a “follow through” on 1e execution of those decisions. President Roosevelt can y it as successfully now as President Wilson did then. We hope he will try.
E 10 ONE IN THE AIR
HE war department has thrown some cold, hard figures | to the. warm and occasionally academic debate as to merits
American planes in Comparison with
| allied success in Tunisia i in preparation for i invasion. of south- |
ie = ar “nough
“By Westbrook : Pegler
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2. xt el
Harry Hopkins speaks with si- ;
thority, as we may assume ne| = does, being a resident of the White | 2 House and the president's nearest os
friend, then this government is
engaged in a furious contest with |
itself in the matier of manpower, . Mr.
through the I ps
or ghost-writer, that civilians must be mobilized through & selective service war work act and distributed Hairly ‘and efficiently. “No American,” said he, “should be allowed to decide for himself how much he will do or how much he will give.” At the same time, however, the political policy of the administration known as its labor program, insists that manpower must be wasted if a union decided that two men shall be hired to do the work of one.
Upheld by Supreme’ Court
THIS POLICY was upheld last winter by the supreme court in an opinion delivered by Justice James : Byrnes, who has since resigned to assist in the administration of the manpower problem,
Justice Byrnes held that men must be paid full
wages for doing no work at all in certain circumstances and the influence of the administration has been exerted to defeat legislation which od have. eorrected this fault. So we now stand at this point: Mr. Hopkins warns all citizens that a 45-year-old white-collar worker, a stenographer or a small businessman who says, “I can’t leave here and cross the continent to work in a shipyard,’ at smaller pay, will have to do so nevertheless, because we are short of hands. But while the 45-year-old white-collar worker, the stenographer and the small businessman are working in the shipyard far from home and at smaller pay, loafers are protected by a law, as interpreted by Mr. Byrnes, in their right to draw pay for doing no work at all or for doing much less work than they could do ‘without overstrain.
In Many Fields of Work
THE SYSTEM which imposes this waste of manpower and money is made up of union ‘customs and laws, blessed by the supreme court as an honest reflection of the will of congress known as make-work, mock-work, job-stretching and fegther-bed rules. It operates in many fields of Eon Nevertheless, because all persons so engaged are deemed to be fully and productively employed in the war effort, the 45-year-old white-collar worker, the stenographer and the small businessman are warned by Mr. Hopkins, speaking from the White House, that ‘they must ‘cross the continent to work in a shipyard.” Moreover, when they do leave home under the compulsion which he foresees, they will have to present themselves to the agents of the unions and either pay cash on the line or agree to the deduction from their weekly pay of large amounts of money as the price of membership in unions which they may have no desire fo join.
No Alternative Offered
THUS FAR, neither Mr. Hopkins nor Paul V, McNutt has offered any alternative to this compulsory membership in the union, although plainly in millions of cases, it has flouted the stated purpose of the Wagner act to permit workers to bargain through agents of their own choice. Nobody in this government has had the“ candor even to face these questions. But the test will come when according to Mr. Hopkins’ warning, George Spelvin, American, is ordered to leave hig home in: Larchmont, N. Y., and go to work in a shipyard and live in a boarding camp in Seattle and rears back and refuses to go until the man-wasting rules are repealed and his government agrees that his wages are all his own subject only to his taxes to his government, f!
In Washington
By Peter Edson
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2.—This is a dizzy piece, the title of which should be “How 45 Paratroopers Had a ‘Million Dollars’ Worth of #§ Fun for $1000,” or, “Through “Washington Society on Double= Time in Three Days .and Two Night,” or “The Collection of Famous Autographs on the Plaster Cast Around Sergt. Chapman's Sprained Ankle.” It's a tossup whether the 45 pardiioopers took Washington or whether Washington took the 45 paratroopers, but anyway, nobody who had anything to do with the affair will ever be the same again, except maybe the ’troopers, and Berlin had better look out if these boys start dropping in with their tommyguns, It al began’ when somebody in the headquarters company of the airborne infantry at Ft. Bragg, N. C,, decided it would be mice for some of :the boys to take a little vacation in Washington.
$1000 Without Security
NO KIDDING, when these lads discovered they were short of money, they simply went to a bank in Fayetteville, N. JC. and borrowed if. Openly they declared they wanted the money to finance a binge in Washington, and in Fayetteville, N. C, there is a banker who lends thousands of dollars to paratroopers who want to go on busts, with no more security than the signature of their captain. The captain, by the way, came along. Forty-five soldiers signed up for the junket.
Going from one party to another in Georgetown : ! Sunday night, they made a wrong turn and went |§ 1 two niles out of their way, Pet they arrived less |i than 15 minutes late, and with wonderful appetites | 4"
for food and dancing that lasted till nearly midnight.
Then they broke up into ‘smaller private parties |!
in various apartments around town. It was like that all the time.
Congress Fails to Impress
ON CAPITOL HILL the paratroopers dined in the |
senate restaurant. If they wanted to see some par-
ticular senator from a home state, they said, “Send |: ! The senators made flowery |} speeches which the boys applauded politely, but they | E weren't much impressed by the way congress did |.
for him!” He came.
business and they said so. They saw all the sights—supreme court, Lincoln Memorial, and so on, ending up at the White House id morning.
‘Mrs. Roosevelt charmed the soldiers into the
elosest they came to surrendering. She knew all abouts ing.
sitver wings, a paratroopet’s most treasured
The $1000 went | farther than they thought it would, for everyone |: wanted to entertain them. Matrons recruited the || ‘best dates in town from the JANGLES, the Junior |: Army-Navy Guild League, ‘made | up of daughters of || army and navy officers. Hp
paratroop On the president's desk, one’of the men left his - possession. |
“The Hoosier Forum
1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
“THE STATE SHOULD SET AN EXAMPLE” By Ray Kuhn, R. R. 14, Box 507
An open letter to the general assembly: Back in 1935 a law was passed to compel all dealers in tires and batteries to purchase a license which cost $5. They were. also supposed to make a daily report to the statehouse of all used or junk tires and batteries that came into their place of business in whatever manner. The latter part of the law was never enforced. On Dec. 18, 1936, I paid to the state $5 for such a license for which I have a receipt. However, the license was never delivered.. The. 1937 session of the general assembly repealed the law, but made no provision for the return of the moneys already paid in for licenses. Therefore the state is guilty of taking money and holding it, which was to pay for a certain thing that was not delivered. Now if I was to do that I would no doubt be promptly hauled into court and charged with obtaining money. under false pretense. > . Now 1s it legal and just for the state to doa thing that the law says you cannot do? 1 do not think so. Rather, the state should set an example of honesty. Therefore 1 ask you gentlemen of this assembly to enact a law whereby this money (some $10,000, I am informed) be returned to the rightful owners. I have kept quiet all these years hoping the wrong would be righted, but nothing has happened. So I think it. high time: to make a “holler” about it.
» ” 2 “LET'S HAVE ACTION ON SATURDAY NIGHT” By Mrs. N, K., Indianapolis 1 see where Mr. Beeker, the chief of police, is cleaning up the gambling places. That is fine. How about some of these police on the force, too—not all, but some. At a certain tavern one Saturday night: out on W. Washington st. there was a young lady hit and knocked out, Some boy came run-
(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Because of the volume received, letters must be limited to 250 words. Letters must be signed.)
ning and said she was in the street. A few of us went to see, There in front of the tavern stood a crowd of men trying to hold this girl up. I thought about calling the police, when I looked and no-|
ticed that there was an officer there
and I thought he would take care of it; but he just went up and looked in her eyes and said you will have
to call the ambulance to bring her out of that and he walked away and left ‘the crowd standing. The girl looked like she was dead. Some thought she was, They just put her in a car on the side of the street. . . . ° After a while the policeman came back, got in with the crowd, pinched her cheeks and rolled her head and finally she was lucky enough to come out. . She could have died, the policemen didn’t do anything about it, never tried to see who hit her or nothing. Just mixed with |’ drunken crowd same as if he was one of them. "All thought he must of been off duty, He still had his uniform on. How. do you think people will do right when the police ‘don’t? Let's have a little action on Saturday night at these taverns. .
Fl “WIN WAR BUT DON'T CODDLE LIQUOR BUSINESS” By Mrs. H. M. W., Indianapolis ;
To C. R. Hitch, Kirklin: I say win the war, too, but net by coddling the liquor business. It certainly isn’t helping win the war” How can “the arsenal of democracy” produce enough war equipment and men if such a large per cent doesn't help? Thousands ‘manufacturing beer and wine, thousands more - ablebodied men : running taverns and
Side Glances—By Galbraith
rT A
ET
trucks with their -precious rubber
and gas and oil, and two men on a truck and at least three different trucks delivering to each tavern. Add thousands engaged in making bottles, caps and cases (all needed material) and millions of dollars worth of machinery that would serve better as tanks and guns. And what is creating hatred and damage to that kind: of business compared fo the millions of broken
{homes and brokenhearted mothers
and sweethearts and the way little children are neglected? And as to the golden rule, that just couldn’t apply here because anyone connected with the liquor business is breaking God's rules and rules of health, peace and happiness. , , : Fa a “RATHER WORK ON JAPS THAN WITH THEM” By Haze Hurd, 830 S. ‘Addison st. -I am writing this as a protest. I believe it 1s right to uphold everything that contributes to winning this war, Buf when iti comes to the point where we have to work alongside a Jap. Well.
Patrick Henry said “Give me liberty or give me death.” I say, free me from the Japs or free me from life. I want no part of it. I am just wondering who started that talk about Japs working in our war plants. . . . They tell us to remember Pearl Harbor. I'd rather forget Pearl Harbor and remember our boys who are facing the .Japs today ‘and those that have gone down in the Solomons trying fo averige Pearl Harbor. Yes, I am willing to have my coffee, sugar and other foods rationed, or do anything else I have been asked to do. But don’t put me working by the side of a Jap until the whole race has shown signs of complete repentance, and that by an unconditional surrender. I'd rather work on the Japs than with them. If we are to teach the Japs a lesson we have to speak a language they can understand, And I don’t know anyone that can speak that language as perfect as MacArthur, So I say, let us help MacArthur talk till the Japs say they have enough. rn wn “NEW DEAL HARPS UPON CLASS, CLASS, CLASS” By W. Baker, 5821 Haverford - Henry Wallace spéaks of “a post‘war United States where all can become members of the class’ without seeming to realize that there can be no middle class without a class above and one below it to make it be in the middle of something, This is typical of the muddled thinking of the vice president, and
Mndeed, of the entire New Deal
group. They harp upon class, class, class and yet think they are democratic, It is ‘a curious thing that ihe
{word “class” appears so frequently
‘in the speeches of these men. No wonder ‘doubt as to the sincerity of their beliefs is: becoming more
4and more widespread.
Mr. Wallace's remarks ‘Tentind one of the story of the colored ‘preacher who listened to his son's} remarks, after the son had gone to] college and come home a Communist.
“Boy,” sald the father, “you says words, » but they don’t mean nuffin’!”
DAILY THOUGHT A new heart also will I give you, 1d will
|‘He admonished that such controversial ; not be. sent to the senate if F. D. R. wan
middle|
just as Dutch as he is just as bull-headed!”
tion ‘of Edward I ister’ to Australia, -
than any other Democrat, he pioneered or Wire the opposition within the majority party in the senate. As 8 member of the senate foreign relations come mittee, he was joined by Senators “Walter PF. George
thumbs down on the Bronx boss who
cratic: national committee chairman by o the commander-in-chief. |
Indiana Mail Against Flynn
SENATOR VANNUYS pointed his. jer at. the president in a statement after. the committee vote should to maine
jana exe
tain harmony in the midst of a global war later he told how his mail from I
‘pressed: the general view that Mr. Flynn of the pavs.
ing-block scandal was not the proper person to repre sent the U. S. A. “down under.” [5g . “TI didn’t receive a single letter on Mr. Flynn's behalf,” Senator VanNuys said. That meant that Frank M. Malia; ocratic national committeeman from Indiana, didn’t care enough about the matter to take any part in it. Like most other national committeemen “thro country, Mr. McHale probably figures that 1 ir; iyo. had been a complete flop as national chai The committeemen generally have conde a him because he never even called a meeting of | ‘the coms mitte. He had no support from these men , most of whom had served under his highly competent predecessor—James A. Farley. a . 1
May Run for a Third Term -
SENATOR VANNUYS first got his: “dutch - up against the chief executive when he tried to pack the supreme court. The Indiana senator was credited with major undercover work in bringing from the judiciary committee the : scathing majority report which slapped the packing proposal down. | Now Senator VanNuys is chairman of that potent senate committee, He likes his work so well he may run for a third term. “Did the White House call you on the Fiyan case?” a reporter asked Senator VanNuys. “I'll say they didn’t,” he retorted. “I've here 10 years and they have never called me about anything. And that is just the way I want it to stay.”
Hitler's Fears By William Philip Simms
{
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2. —m the - fuehrer’s 10th anniversary proclamation obsgrvers here see a mounting fear on Hitler's part that the fate which overtook the, + kaiser . in 1918 ‘may eventually catch up with him, © In no other way can they acs count for Hitler's almést psychos . pathic harping, in. his every : . speech; on the same three phases of the last world war: First, the “historic swindle, » as he describes President Wilson's ‘ “14 points”; second, the so-called “stab in the back” administered to the “undefeated” German army by the folks at home. and, third, the treaty of Versailles: Morbidly, these three things seem to be going round and round in Hitler's brain. On them he blames Germany's every ill of the past 20 years. Especially he srcems to fear they may contain the key to his own end. For that reason he keeps warning the ‘German people not to fall for any allied promises in the future. Die for him and all will be well.
Shoe on the Other Foot
BUT, THESE SAME observers point out, the post evidence seems to be against the contention that the kaiser was “betrayed” by the masses who saw an easy out in Wilson’s “14 points.” The shoe ‘seems to “have been on the other foot. Germany lost the war because of the progressive deteat of the various armies of the German coalition, and because of the panic: in high. places which uns questionably kept pace with: the defeats in the field, There is, some of these observers say, “a suicide point” in the German character beyond: which the “master race” seems unable to take it. Kaiser Wils helm II seems to have reached it when he fled, and ; Hitler may be ¢ on the way. yf
We the: Women
By Ruth Millett
hen :
IP YOU WANT to seem ‘young don’t grumble about the incon * veniences and hardships. war has brought into your civilian life, k Inability to. adjust easily tog wartime living conditions wil make you seem old and set, Ww your ways. * - As a rule young people don’t “have much trouble making adjust ments. They don't waste much time sitting around wortying ‘be= cause the world isn't what it once was, and they can’t have what they once could have. n they oar have this they take that and like it.’ Remember that the next time you: feel: a grumbling mood "coming on and ask yourself, “Have I heard any young folks complaining wbout the hardship that is getting me down?”
If not, what seems to be a nErdship to you may"
only mean that you are in a rut, set in your ways— unwilling to forget the past and find satisfactions, pleasures and opportunity for service in the present.
Complaining Dates You
DON'T MAKE any cracks like, 1 cand see. any : sense to all this rationing”; “If I can’ I must stay home”; “Getting sony
matter what his age is. If you ¢ about inconveniences dates you, sta most of such complaints come from Most. of them don’t come fre have to get along without their’ ; older women who have to get along Coffee They want,
ghout: the ££
5