Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 February 1943 — Page 20

"PAGE The Indianapolis Times

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Give Light and the People Will Pind Their Own Way

~ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1943

WAR MANPOWER J ABOR and management in Indianapolis war plants have worked out together a plan to keep factories running at full speed and to keep workers continuously employed at the jobs they can do best. The plan looks like a good one. On the one hand it is designed to prevent a factory operator from “raiding” his competitors for men. On the other hand it is designed to prevent workers from moving idly from job to job merely - because the pastures look a little greener in an untried

field. In the long run it should mean that a war plant worker will be settled steadily in the work for which he has the highest skill and in which he can earn the largest pay, and it should help to reduce the excessive personnel “turn over” and consequent loss of time that today is costly to war production. There are apparently ample safeguards in it to prevent any injustice in its administration. At least it is the product of long and careful and sincere effort by representatives of employers and employees to solve one of the most difficult of war labor problems—and it is worthy of a full and fair trial.

re IT WITH YOU?

lot of folks could help both the war effort and their own disposition if they would reread Ernie Pyle Ss recent columns.

If, after reading how our soldiers are living in Tunisia, any of them could grouse over a few paltry wartime restrictions on the home front, nothing could be done for them. They would be hopeless.

But we doubt that many of them—knowing the sacri- . fices at the front—would grouch or try to beat the rationing restrictions, or use the war to wrangle excessive pay or profits. It’s just that we at home don’t know—we haven’t suffered a fraction of what the boys in Tunisia and the Solomons and Iceland and other places are undergoing. That's why Ernie Pyle’s stories about how the boys at the front live—what they undergo and suffer—are MUST

reading. »

» » » » » T’S pretty petty to grouse about waiting an hour or so to get a ration book when your sons are waiting 30 days for a bath, or to bewail plucking a stamp for a can of beans when boys who fight all day are thankful for a chocolate bar or a cold sandwich, or a drink of water.

If you want to cheat on the ration rules, don’t read Ernie Pyle. If you can’t walk a few blocks on an errand, ‘don’t read about the lads who are thankful for a shrub or ditch or hut so they can sleep out of the wind: after a 15-mile stroll under fire. If you are ready to strike for higher wages or turn down a contract which doesn’t have higher profits, don’t read about the soldiers who are willing to pay a month's wages for a stove and a day’s pay for some soap or candy.

Ye of little faith and guts and patience shouldn’t read Ernie. For it would shame you to know how little you are giving up compared to the boys on the Tunisian front— and on every other fighting front.

» » » ”» » td

E all suffer agonies from the cold,” Ernie writes “... nights are almost inhuman. . . . You've struck gold when you find a Epot where you can lie down out of the wind. . .. :

“You're always cold and almost always dirty. Outside of food and cigarets you have absolutely none of the little things that made life normal back home. . . . You just sort - of exist, either standing up working or lying down asleep. There is no pleasant in-between. “They (our troops) have not slept in a bed for months. They’ve lived through this vicious winter sleeping out doors ..on the ground. ... They never take off their clothes at night, except their shoes. One small detachment acquired lice. . . .

“Very few of the front line troops have ever had any leave. They never go to town for an evening’s fun. They : work all the time. .. . Irregularity of sleep becomes normal. « .'« In battle you just go until you drop. ... Nurses tell me that when the more seriously wounded reach the hospital they are often so exhausted they fall asleep without drugs, despite their pain.” 8 » 4s 8

N top of all this, the troops in Tunisia are in constant |

danger of their lives, or horrible injury. And how's it with you?

FOOD MUDDLE

IN fixing arbitrary “price ceilings” on certain fresh vegetables this week the federal government has taken the surest step toward driving them entirely off store counters and consumers’ tables. Certainly it is desirable that food prices remain down within ‘easy reach of every family. It is even more desirable that there be food to buy. The present “ceiling price” order does nothing really effective about keeping the price down, but it makes it virtually inevitable that the supply ill be smaller, As As it stands today the grower can sell his produce for y price he can get—Dbut the retailer who buys from him

ust sell at a price limited by federal regulation. This in’

elf is an invitation to a legalized black market, and right y some Indianapolis grocers who see their already slim rgin squeezed still further between the grower’'s deds and the government's ceiling are seriously talking | gro ng He 2 ogee, It is Bhaciy s the kind of order, and

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, Feb. 26. — Those two foul racketeers, Willie Bioff and George Browne, late bosses of the union of stage and movie employees of the American Federation of Labor, have been brought back to New York from wherever they were imprisoned, presumably Leavenworth, and are comfortably jailed away in a place of detention. There is a possibility that if certain developments come to pass they will be given a discount on their prison terms of 10 and eight years, respectively, That would be re-

F grettable, for they were hard to catch and convict of

extortion and they fought every inch of the way with the active assistance of many professional unioneers, and the cause of the workers and clean unionism got no help from the A. F. of L.

In a Position to Tell All

HOWEVER, IF they do win a rebate, so to speak, from the court which sent them away, the people, the workers and unionism might be the gainers because, in the meantime, revelations will be made in court which should clean up the incredibly. corrupt condition of the federation in Chicago, where, as all the higher executives of federation and C. I. O. unionism know, the criminal underworld has dominated and preyed on labor for many years. Bioff, an old member of the Capone mob, and in his time the proprietor of a brothel, and Browne, are in a position to tell who got the money out of their enormous racket and the inducement of time off their sentences in return for their testimony may be regarded as a fair, practical trade. The courts and the law have taken that view in many other cases, and for that matter Joe Schenck, the movie producer, the man who squealed on them, was forgiven ‘a three-year sentence for a tax fraud and given a vacation of about five months in the minimum security prison at Danbury, Conn. known as the Country Club, as a reward for his help.

Cleanup’ ‘Might Be Forced

THERE IS absolutely no hope of reform and a revival of honor, idealism and decency from within the A. P, of L., but the development in the federal court in New York concerning the Chicago situation might cause a revolution of the rank and file and compel a cleanup. And, as the evidence develops, it should be remembered that Joseph Padway, the general counsel of the A. F. of L, was also general counsel for the Bioff and Browne racket, masquerading as a workers’ union and operating under an A, F. of L. charter. When racketeering first became a national scandal in the federation, William Green, the president, upheld Browne against the exploited rank and file of a St. Louis local and even appointed Browne to a committee to investigate racketeering. Moreover, instead of taking the initiative against crooks, Green denounced as enemies of American labor every reporter who exposed any. thief in his organization.

Padway Emissary to Britain

PADWAY, FURTHERMORE, repeatedly has had the effrontery to dictate to congress as a spokesman of American labor, although he holds no elective position in labor, and is just a smart lawyer with an enormous income from various unions. Only a few months ago he was sent to Great Britain on a mission from the American government as a labor spokesman. The background of Bioff and Browne is the darkest criminal underworld of the Chicago Capones and that vicious little racketeer, Frank Nitto, alias Nitti, who in wintertime is a prominent figure among the criminal scum of unionism in Miami. Unionism knows, and it probably will be shown in court, that Bioff and Browne were not independent racketeers but agents of the Chicago mob in unionism. Their fabulous graft apparently did not stop with them. There is a great job for clean, decent American unionism, Labor is in great danger of angry reactionary legislation and crooked unionism can do nothing to prevent it but a reform and pirified labor movement might.

In Washington

By Peter Edson

J

WASHINGTON, Feb 26. — Lieut. Gen. Brehon Somervell, just returned to Washington from a six-weeks’ flying tour of inspection of U. 8. army services of supply lines in Africa, the Middle East and India, took time out to do only two bits of sightseeing, the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and the Taj Mahal in India. He was duly impressed by the beauty of the Taj Mahal, though as a good army engineer should, he noted that there was considerable construction work and repair going on about the place. At Jerusalem, he went through the Holy Sepulcher in less time than any other visitor had ever done it in, but it was there he got the surprise of his life. He had noticed off in one corner a priest with head bowed, presumably in meditation. But when the priest saw the general, he walked over to him briskly, extended his hand and said, “My name’s Jones. I'm from Kansas.”

Specialists on Everything

THE U. S. department of agriculture, which in peacetimes was the biggest agency of the government though it now probably runs a poor tenth, still has more specialicts possessing more diversified knowledge than any similar acreage in the world. Walk into almost any office in the three main agriculture buildings and you'll find some character who carries around in his head information that not more than a score of other people ever heard of. A lend-lease administration official had occasion to put that to a test recently when he called up and wanted to know what could be done about the worms in the Nortn African sheep. * Well, the lend-leaser finally got to the right parasitologist in the bureau of animal industry, and within two hours there was on its way back to Africa a complete report on what particular types of worms infested North African sheep, together with full information on how to kill the parasites and cure the eep. The information had been gathered years before through an exchange of information with the old French colonial government ministry of . agriculture,

Rabbits Home Grown

RABBIT RAISING threatens to gain in popularity as a source of home-grown meat during wartimes, particularly in urban areas where zoning laws prohibit the raising of :hickens, Big point in favor of rahbits seems to be that the hares don’t crow and wake the neighbors. But so intricately is your federal government set up that if

you want information about raising rabbits, you |.

don’t go lo the bureau of animal industry in the de partment of agriculture, the first place you'd think to look. Instead, you go to the fish and wildlife service of the department of the interior. Rabbit raising was transferred from agriculture to interior some years ago, when, after a big huddle, it was determined that the principal reason hares were grown in the United States was for fur, not meat. Also, the wild jack rabbits of the plains are predatory Job

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES Out of the Smoke of Battle!

_ FRIDAY, FEB. 26,

| ——

2 . WE HAD 7656 LITTLE TQ WORK. WITH, AS USUAL.

=~ ERNIE, P(e

a

The Hoosier Forum

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

“HOW CAN WE SHOW OUR PATRIOTISM?” By Elnora L. Miller, 2149 Highland pl. There is a doubt in my mind concerning work in defense plants. I often wonder why it is that the pigment of one’s skin makes such a difference in these days and times when it behooves everyone to be as loyal and patriotic as possible, When the matter comes-up about fighting for the freedom of this, our country, there is no color line drawn. Our Negro boys and men are fighting for this freedom as well as others. When it comes to patriotism, I as a Negro woman can truthfully say my race is not only 100 per cent American but 101 per cent American as I've looked as far back in history as I could and as yet I've never found a traitor to our country from my race yet. But when it comes to Negro women trying to get employment in these defense plants, all we can get is a refusal and a smirk.

There are Negro women qualified to do quite a few jobs but how can

we prove and show our patriotism when we are so rudely pushed aside? I just wonder. If. you or people reading this letter can give me the answer to this $64 question it will be more than I can do. Ld » » ’ “THE WORLD MUST BE GROWING BETTER” By Mrs. Frank B, Flanner, R. R. 17, Box 74 This is the way it started. One cold day last week when it was

running around the corner of 38th and Illinois sts. My niece, Mrs. Robert Miles, tried to pick it up,

but the peppy little pup got away; she having her arms full of packages. Concerned I called the druggist at that corner, and asked him to hold it for me if it came back and to call me. Not hearing from him I supposed the pup had been picked up. At eight o'clock that night a kind-hearted lady found the pup on the same corner and took it home. ’ After keeping it for a week and watching the lost dog ads for its

zero, I was told a little puppy was]

(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.)

owner, and no one claiming it, she then called the city pound. When the boy who came for it said that after seven days the pound would have to put it to death, and being such a nice little dog he suggested she try and find a home for it. She asked a friend what to do and was advised to call me. I told her I would find a home for the

PUPPY. .-. I looked in -the evening paper and found an ad that described the pup perfectly. I went to the house and found it was the home

of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Carson, lifelong friends of my husband, only to find it was not their dog. I took the dog to my sister’s. Meanwhile, I put in two ads giving a description of the dog and my phone number. Then Tuesday my day began and the dog work's started. All day the phone has rung until the bells are hoarse. Thirty people called and wanted that dog! . ., All day I heard stories pepole; children losing their little pets; dogs lost or stolen or killed; sad, sob-broken stories from children and grownups, like the person advertising tonight for an old toothless, tiny, black dog and signing himself, “Griefstricken.” I told the phoners I had found a home for the dog, but that they could get a pet by going to the dog pound and picking one from the many strays that are taken there. All day the calls kept up and at 5:30 a little boy named Jackie called, and when I told him the dog had been placed he said so plaintively, “Ain’t you got any more pups?” Thinking this the last call of the day and my work was done, then the complications began. The man I'd told could have the dog went to see it only to decide it would grow too large for his small home, and

Side Glances—By Galbraith

from dog bereft.

did not want it. During my day's talking to many inquirers I had taken a number of names and addresses, so I called a Mrs. Bolander who said she’d get the puppy and give it a good home, While she was on her way to get it, a call came from a lady who thought she knew the owner. When the owner called up I called Mrs. Bolander to tell her I had located the owner, but she had already left for my sister's, Immediately I hung up, the owner called and said she would go get the dog. She called my sister but just as she got her on the phone Mrs. Bolander was leaving with the dog. Then I called the owner back and |. told her the dog was on its. way to its new home, and I would call the new owner if she wished. But she decided that after all it might be best for the puppy to stay with its new-found protectors. The calls to my ad still keep coming; the last one from a lady who - said she couldn't sleep since she lost her nine-year-old Pomeranian—she is so heartbroken. The world must. be growing better when so many people are willing to take a poor little cold and hungry stray dog and give it a home. Yes, when people are kind to animals they are surely learning to be kinder and friendlier to each other. Gabriel Heatter said the other Sunday night that no matter how little he might have, he would share it with his dog and the dog would come first, or he would do without before he would part with his dog. He said the kindest man he ever knew fed his dog before himself. Surely we are a better people, better to each other and closer to God when we love and protect His poo, helpless animals, ” o ”

“RUML PLAN ONLY SANE SOLUTION”

” By A Soldier's Proud Mother, Indianapolis Your editorial in Monday’s Times, “The Soldier and Pay-As-You-Go,” is excellent and very much to the point; but you just didn’t go. far enough. You state the soldier nat. $28 1 a month to blow on movies, cigarets, soft drinks and what not. ~ The largest what not is, of course, income tax. The Ruml pay-as-you-go plan is the only sane solution for that. And then there are war insurance, defense bonds, laundry and cleaning bills and other little items that make the $28 dwindle fast. I read not long ago that the soldiers would be in for a shock when they had to pay the victory tax, for

it was not being deducted from their pay.

one of the unfairest things I know. It is impossible to save any of their pay as it is now. One other very unfair thing is taxing the average person for symphony concerts. Echoing the words ‘of many others, I say let those wko can afford them and have the time to go and enjoy them pay for. them. If we can gladly, willingly and ‘most gratefully do without many of the things we are used to, to win this war, definitely we can do without symphony concerts for, the duration.

DAILY THOUGHT

For he clave to the lerd, and departed not from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses.—II Kings 18:6.

| THERE IS no “unbelief; - Whoever plants gered bensath the sod,

I think if they are made to pay that tax it would be |:

Food Supplies

By E. A. Evans

‘But there is Title chance. ‘the supplies can ve handied under the. prevailing d authority. «Let's .asstime that 1 Wickard ie the strongest, ab war food administrator that President Roo could find, He still can't do a good job without t co-operation of other agencies and: which he cannot command, For example, Editor Walter Sortelis reports th government price polities are causing & milk fi in Pine Bluff, Ark. and that dairymen are selling herds to butchers. Similar reports come from other places. But price policies are made, not Wickard, but by the office of price administration.

How Authority Is Divided

OUR LARGE SUPPLIES of some foods won't Ia forever, and others are short. More must be pros duced. Mr. Wickard . concedes that growing more

without more skilled labor will be very difficult for 8 the farmers. ; But how much skilled labor shall be left on tarms : is determined, not by Mr. Wickard, but by the army, the navy, the war manpower commission and the selective service, which plainly aren't giving their first thought to food. production.

Amir

Draft Director Hershey has told congress that by | CER

December only 500,000 able-bodied men of draft age | will be left on farms. Farmers are begging for machinery and fertilizer, | But the supplies of machinery and fertilizer are de< termined, not by Mr. Wickard, but by the war produc tion board. If food prices go higher, millions of people wha can't increase their incomes will find it hard to buy enough food. But whether food prices shall go will be determined, not by Mr. Wickard, but by Eeonomic Director Byrnes and the OPA, and beyond them by congress.

War Cabinet Needed

CONGRESS MIGHT be persuaded not to raise food prices if farmers could be assured of enough skilled labor, machinery and fertilizer to raise profit« able crops at present prices, but these assurances Mr)

Wickard cannot give. Yet we must have enough food, not only for everys one in this country, but for our soldiers and sailors in other countries, and for many of our allies’ sol and for hungry people in the countries we hope rescue from the axis. Without it, we will have to } ‘longer tc win the war, and we may lose the peace. Co-operation among all the government oncieh | affecting food production, transportation, distribution and pricing is necessary to avoid a serious crisis. could be obtained if the heads of these agencies were members of a real war cabinet, meeting regularly with the president, explaining their conflicts to him, and getting his prompt decisions to end the conflicts. . Only Mr. Roosevelt hag®all the information avail= able and authority necessary for making many of the decisions. . Because ‘he has no method for : them without months of friction between the agencies ‘and costly delays, congress is threatening to move in and make them, with danger of worse muddling as 8 4 réoult,

Tilda By Stephen Ellis

SOMETIMES IT is hard to remember that there - are other things besides the ebb and flow of battle going on in the world. But Mark Van Doren’s book, “Tilda,” recalls the

essence of life even in a wartime world—the joys, sorrows, loves and hatreds that make the difference between living and existing and which cannot be regulated by mere man. 4 Tilda is an average girl, bewildered but concerned about the world upheaval which has disturbed hep previously peaceful and uncomplicated life. As an air raid warden in her neighborhood in New York City, she finds an outlet for her desire to do her part. Her life is uneventful until she becomes aware of a nan frequently standing on the balcony of a hotel across the court from her apartment. Interest and curiosity in his lonely and forlorn figure almost obsesses her until he stops her on the street in front of his hotel one day and asks, “Is your name Harriet?” Struck by the sadness and loneliness as well as hopefulness mirrored in his face, she replies, “Yes, my name is Harriet.”

Simple and Timely Story

TILDA LEARNS that he is John Morgan and his wife, Harriet, has died only recently. this unforgettable loss and Tilda’s resemblance to wife that caused him to speak to her. To John Hood, Tilda is like the coming of spring as she helps him become adjusted that is changed but unending. To Tilda, J is all that she desires in life but she realizes must determine whether she appeals to him self or because she reminds him of a lost, happiness. "It'is a simple and timely love story. The isn’t poetic, artistic or profound. More than any it. is clear and plain—so much so: that there even be some question as to whether or not it . : worthy of a writer who won the Pglither prise in 1940 for his poetry. ; ‘ ; Ee Yar o£ We by Mark Van Doren. om ni & co, Ne

By Ruth Millett

workers in many plants to

Veronica Lake, which is even hazardous in a factory than movie screen, caused the WF ask that hereafter Miss Lake b her pictures taken with her hair up. The girl we are making a mistake in continuing to ape clothes and hair styles of movie glamor girls, only knew it, this is their ehance to be st) themselves. :

Their Clothes 4 are News

APTER ALL, what they wear is the big news They landed on the front pages when they stand on sweaters. They could just as eas their own safety styles across, and have them by housewives and glamor girls alike. ah10 do 1. they Wil hive 0 Wea: seit

S8 fhelf Safe Hhiteon Wilh auch