Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 March 1943 — Page 10

‘Editor, in U 8 Service WALTER LECKRONE Editor

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«p> RILEY 5561

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

~ Member of United Press, Scripps. = Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA . Service, and Audit Bureay of Circulations.

SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1943

ROMMEL WINS TIME r ! EEE day of delay in Tunisia is worth a lot to Hitler. We like to forget that, in our relief over Rommel’s failure to “hold most of the ground gained from the A. E. F., ‘and his inability to shake off Montgomery. 3 Because Rommel’s hit-and-run tactics have netted him little territory, the headlines have demoted him from “the “desert fox” to “the cornered rat.” He faces “a worse . Dunkirk” or surrender, we are told. : : Isn’t this jubilation somewhat premature? What if "he chooses a third alternative, as the Germans did at Stalin“grad, and fights to the death? He did pretty well with 60,000—why should he surrender 250,000 troops? To “succeed” Rommel need not break out and recon_quer North Africa. He need not even hold Tunisia indefinitely, He has only to delay allied seizure of Tunisia and the Central Mediterranean until Hitler strengthens the “soft under-belly of Europe” and stabilizes the Russian front.

“BEHIND THE BIG ARMY : SECRETARY STIMSON’S speech ought to end the argument about the size of the army. We have always been inclined to trust that military question to military judgment, and we think Mr. Stimson showed that the military judgment is sound. 5 He could not properly tell all that shaped the decision “*on an army of 8, 200,000 men in 1943, with nearly 3,000,000 . more in the navy, coast guard and marine corps, but he told enough to convince us that it was shaped by careful “plan, not by guesswork. ak “The army,” he said, “is being raised- on the funda- - mental and correct theory that we shall at once take the offefisive and seize priceless opportunities already opening up to end the war as, quickly as possible.” ; Hurrah for that! And for: the clear explanation that “all the army’s training processes are moving toward the carefully thought out goal of a fighting force fully able to hammer the enemy into complete defeat or surrender. It would be disastrous, as he said, to disrupt those processes now. ‘But behind 11,000,000 men in uniform there muss be enormous productive effort by those left on the home front, in industries and on farms. Mr. Stimson seemed to consider this merely a matter of more “initiative, resourcefulness _.and willingness to sacrifice”’—to believe: all will go well: a only the people bring themselves to. realize truly what fi means to be at war and to remove such obstacles as Ty teeism, threatened strikes, general complacency, insistence . on ‘business as usual’ or even insistence on hoped-for ~ standards of living.” More than that is needed. The people will welcome the | thorough, drastic reorganization of industrial and civilian life which Mr. Stimson recommends—if they are shown that their home front government realizes truly what it “ means to be at war and if that government removes its . obstacles of complacency, confusion, endless divisions of _ authority, “politics as usual,” hesitation to make hard decisions, surrenders to blocs and pressure groups. Give the production army such planning, such singlepurpose leadership, such co-ordinated direction as Mr. Stimson describes in the fighting army, and both will march in step to stlier vistory. ;

_OC&FP : E had thought the alihabiok was being worked overtime in the creation of government bureaus and agen- . cies in Washington. But the bureaucrats in our neighbor . nation south of the Rio Grande display even greater imagination, ! From Mexico City comes a report of the “outstanding activities” of the office of co-ordination and fomentation of production. The report gives “a catalog of products, whose fabrication must be fomented,” and lists as No. 1, “the product most decisive for industrial’ development, of the country is iron, whose production demands an immediate - and thoroughgoing fomentation.” 2 The new deal has done a lot of “fomenting” in its time, but it has never used such a precise word in the naming of * any of its agencies.

PAPER SHORTAGE

YOUVE heard of the paper shortage, undoubtedly. You : must have noticed that your favorite newspapers and magazines are having to reduce their size. There’ s another cut coming, too,"the WPB says, If you run short of reading matter, the labor department has a series of brochures, just off the presses, telling all about office work in various cities. For Richmond, Va., 61 pages. For Kansas City, Mo., 74 pages. Others accord-

“True, they’ re a bit out of date. The date covers 1940, before ‘war industries. flooded many of the cities covered. what the heck! There are tens of thousands of words in one, and some pretty tabulations. You ought to read

N Bowes

st October, of liberalizing ein as s to leave withy, filling only essential vacancies, and using. women | men a ort possible.

t¥ anyway, and if we

By Westbrook Pegler

CHICAGO, March 13—All the | nervousness about this country’s |

* spiritual relationship with Russia could have been prevented by a

little. honesty in Washington and |

could be cured by a little of the same today.

The basic trouble ‘is that, al-

though the American Communist © is no less treacherous and traitorous than the Nazi Bundist ‘and uses identical methods, our government, trom: 1933 down to this very day, with just one brief exception during the presidential cam-

paign of 1940, has been hospitable to Communists who |

annoy the real Americans. That suspension occurred when the Communists were doing sabotage in our war industries. The New

Deal tried to disown them and give them to Wendell

Willkie and Earl Browder was convicted and sent to prison for false swearing in an application for a passport.

Justice Tempered With Politics

BUT LAST SPRING, after Russia had become our ally, President Roosevelt let Browder out of prison for reasons which were, by his own admission, political. He said he was releasing Browder in the interests of unity which meant that for the first time in the history of our court system, justice was tempered with politics openly and admittedly. Browder then rode north as far as Newark and notwithstanding the. shortage of gas and rubber and the popular acceptance of rationing and other economies of fuel and tires, drove by car to his home in Yonkers, a distance of 50 or ‘60 miles, when he could have rolled into New York by train and home by subway as most loyal Americans would have. Americans just won't take Communism and they won’t believe the lying propaganda which, ‘unfortunately, Henry Wallace has been echoing, to the effect that there is very little difference between communism and Americanism,

Judged by Declarations

THAT SIMPLY is not so and our people know it and it is no more advisable that we accept com-

munism, ‘straight or diluted, in order to get along

as an ally of Russia than it is to adopt the British

system and select a king-emperor in order to get along with Britain. ° We have never sent political missionaries to Russia to convert those political heathen to our way of life and thinking but we have permitted Russia to maintain a fifth column in our midst and have even honored many of them with jobs in our government. Of course these vermin deny that they are Communists, but no fifth columnist ever admits that he is what he is. You have to judge them by their declarations and the company they keep and, although we cannot send them to prison on such evidence, keeping them out of the government is another and easier matter. We use such tests in keeping Nazis out.

Must We Do All ‘Placating?

IF WE HAD always treated Communists and Nazis exactly alike, Russia would understand us today and there would be no confusion as to our stand. But the New Deal has found jobs for them in Washington and Harold Ickés and Mrs. Roosevelt have taken many opportunities to associate with them. The idea behind our policy as to Communists among us is that if we don’t let. them do their stuff in this country and treat them nice, Stalin will not be friendly with. us when the war is over. or But we don’t w_whether he will be friendly, Ho adopt communism to-keep him on our side in the war and/keep him from jumping on us through Siberia afterward, what is the sense of fighting naziism, anyway? Why do we feel that we have to do all the placating?

In Washington

By Peter Edson -

(Last of a series on freedom of the air.)

WASHINGTON, March 13.— Principal place where “freedom of “'the air” debaters go wrong is in trying to tie up freedom of the air with freedom of the seas. They're two different kettles of fish. The United States got into the last war. over: freedom of the seas —the ‘right of any neutral nation to sail its ships on the open oceans in time of war. Great Britain has always favored. freedom of the seas because her life depended on the ability of her ships to travel the seven seas and bring back from her colonies the raw materials needed by the British Isles. But just. because a seaplane lands in the ocean it doesn’t follow that a seaplane has the same rights as a merchant ship. For one thing, the seaplane can

fly over land and come to rest on a river or lake, far

in the interior. And an ocean-spanning land plane is even less limited. Advocates of extending the. principle of freedom of the seas to the air have nevertheless developed

this theory of “the right of innocent passage”’—the

right of any plane to fly over, land on or take off from any air base. : Theoretically, a plane in innocent passage may refuel and be reserviced provided it does not pick up or discharge cargo. The right of innocent passage is built upon a similar right granted to merchant ships in trade. This is

the right of “cabotage”—the privilege to any carrier |

to bring cargo into a country in trans-shipment. Thus, a Canadian steamship line running to Bermuda might make stops in Boston and New York; but it could not Sy passengers or cargo between Boston and New Yor!

War Gives U. S. the Advantage

JUST AS the. British have traditionally found it to their advantage to fight for freedom of the seas, so now they appear to find it to. their advantage to support freedom of the air, or as. they call it, “the open sky” policy. ~ From London, it is possible for the British to fly to every one of their colonies except Canada over a land route. From the United States, however, it is possible to fly over land to Canada and Mexico only. The ‘United States can thus build up its future in

air transport by adhering to the doctrines of freedom | |

of the seas and the air over the seas. The British

| on the other hand must continue support for belief |

| Leaders say they- expect to

@® The Hoosier Forum 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say #®.—Voltaire.

“IS THERE ANYONE WHO HASN'T MADE MISTAKES?” By John Sartor, Indianapolis

In answer to the articles by Clarence Lafferty in the March 9 es. . : Mr. Lafferty tells us we are suffering from malnutrition because some food was sent to Alaska and spoiled. It was mismanagement without a doubt that sent it there, but Mr. Lafferty, will you please show the people of one nation or governing agency that ‘hasn't or doesn’t make mistakes? . . ® o 8 “NOW THAT'S POLITICS” By Harry J. Gasper, 903 E. 11th st. I don’t know, but it seems to me your . editorial in regard to the Roosevelt pamphlet that was issued to our boys overseas was slightly off color, if not untimely. What's wrong with issuing a pamphlet on the life of our president and their commander-in-chief? It seems as though all some crackpot has to do is to, shout politics and the newspaper will take it up. If you want to devote some editorial space to politics, how’s about this one? The old cry we hear so much about—stop time and a half and double time for the poo laboring man and at the same time take the $25,000 limit off the coupon clipper so he can make as much ds he likes off the labor of the 48 or 56-hour fellow. “Now that's politics.” Here’s another good one—cancel all taxes for 1942 so the big boys who had a real field day in ’42 can

‘coast in 43. Who's doing’ the com-

plaining here, the little fellow who works 48 or 56 hours & week or the big fellow? “Now that’s politics.” Ah! and this one. Remember the boys that were going around a couple of years ago with those silly “I want to be a captain” buttons and they were the first to line up to the pie counter for a nice commission for themselves. Well, the other day a withered sunflower from up Kansas way saw fit in congress to try to belittle and stab the president’s sons in the back, yet these

(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.)

same bors seem 0 be doing quite well for themselves and asking no favors, while helping to fight this war for us. Now that’s cheap politics. ?# . Oh, yes, let’s get to Indiana. “Now here is politics.” We spend $100,000 for a legislature to raise their pwn salary, take away 10 or 12 deputy attorneys from the governor, take away the store license division from the governor, take ‘the inheritance tax department of Marion county away from the governor, raise the salary for the Republican mayor of Ft. Wayne . . . to as much as the

den ball trick ‘on poor Mr, York and his Anti-Saloon league and forgot the old-age pensioners. And this same bunch complained about Faul McNutt. Bey, he was a piker compared to them. You complain about the taxpayers paying for the Roosevelt pamphlet, yet how about the $100,000 we spent here for this farce? Now this may not all add. up to fourth term politics, but you will have to admit it’s politics no matter: how you slice it. : » ” ” “VERY PURPOSE OF DOG POUND DEFEATED” By A. J. Goulette, 4516 Winthrop ave.

The section of the proposed new dog pound ordinancs dealing with the opening of a downtown municipal pet shop would be: defeating the very purpose of the pound itself. It seems useless to spend time and money collecting’ and impounding stray dogs, and then turning them ‘loose again through {the medium of a municipal pet shop. As a rule, people who pay

litle or nothing for a dog give

Side Glances—By Galbraith

Ee = - ec crol

oo ® v wwELS

governor makes. Pulled the old hid-.

please a very small per cent of the

‘| “Praise the Lord, but stay armed.”

them little or no attention after the novelty. of new ownership wears off, and the dog is allowed to stray, joining other strays who wander in ‘packs from garbage can to garbage can, spreading disease, ruining gardens, destroying shrubs and again becoming fugitives from the dog pound. The sections of the proposed ordinance dealing with employing a veterinarian for the pound on a part-time basis, and the construction of a lethal chamber to administer ‘a. humane death to dogs which it is necessary to destroy, are sound and undoubtedly will have the support of all people who are seriously interested in - dogs. However, the section dealing with the opening of a municipal pet shop should be as vigor aoe posed as the other sections are supported. : . aH oo» “A LIMIT TO WHAT PEOPLE WILL STAND FOR”

By Mes. Cc. D., Indianapolis ... Some of the things of the new I ori that I supported: are necessary but there is a limit to what the people will stand for. I have sons overseas, we pay our taxes and buy our bonds and I reserve the right to: use the balance as I see fit.: After all there is such a thing as keeping up orale at home. I can forget my worries and hor= rible world conditions by playing penny bingo for a very short time and yet that is banned . . . or if you do play you wonder what minute they will descend on you for this pastime. I thought my boys| were called to preserve freedom, not to have us denied everything. Are the movies next? The things that are being done

people and the huge balance will see that never again does the present administration every have any power or authority put into their hands. will be another election, : a on» «pRAISE THE LORD, BUT STAY ARMED” By Charles William Schaffer, 835 N. New Jersey st. . . “The. winning of the peace,” this is a much talked of and abused subject. . . + My formula, if anybody cares, is

So long as we have a gun pointing at the head bf those who get ideas, we will have peace. Just. lay down that gun for five minutes and mil-

After all, I suppose there

By T omas L Stokes

WASHINGTON, Marth 18. — The projected new tax | has become even more enme in polities than such measures usually do. Consequently, when it gets bes fore, the house in the near future, oné of the most dramatic floor battles of an already unruly session is expected, with the outcome - much in doubt. blicans are rallying behind the now famous Ruml plan for putting taxes on a pay-as-you-go basis, which was rejected by the Democratic majority on the ways and means committee. ‘The minority party is capitalizing on this proposal’s apparent popularity in the country, The Republican case ig strengthened by the dise satisfaction with the formula worked out after much fumbling by the Democratic majority on the coms mittee—a strange. sort of hybrid which ‘does not achieve ‘the pay-as-you-go principle for automatic and general application,

| Party Conference Monday

THERE IS MUCH comment about the capitol as to prospects of Republicans taking.charge of the house floor and, with allies’ from the Democratis side, putting over the Ruml plan and ‘getting credit among voters for providing a simple pay-as-you-go Republicans have called a party conference for

| Monday and will attempt to get as near a united

front as possible in support ih the Ruml plan, few Republicans, but, on the other hanty-count on help from. a number of Democrats; despite President Roosevel nent yesterday that: adeption of the plan. would “oause p. loss of revenue for the treasury. : A close fight is ‘forecast, with party strength in the house standing at 222 Desocrats, 208 . .Republicans. Democratic leaders are aware of the danger of an upset, which would be the first on & tax bill since a rank-and-file rebellion in 1931 defeated the then Democratic leadership's. bill for a manufacturers’ t of that successful revol§

of the ways and the fight for fne present col

Many Democrats Critical

MANY DEMOCRATS are critical of the scheme finally worked out by the Democratic majority on the committee. This provides for a 20 per cent withholding tax to be deducted from salary and wage earners beginning July 1, but still leaves the obligation of taxes on 1942 incomes. A taxpayer may pay both his 1942 taxes apd his 1943 taxes to get on

a pay-as-you-go basis, thus ‘doubling, up, or he may remain a year behind as now. As a slight concession to the pay-as-you-go prin ciple, the committee yesterday voted in favor of a 3 per cent discount to those who. would pay all their estimated 1942 and 1943 taxes by June 15. The Ruml plan, embodied in a bill by Rep. ‘Prank Carlson (R. Kas), simply calls for paying taxes on current income, which ‘would result in canceling the 1942 obligation and paying this year on 1943 ‘income, The Carlson bill imposes a windfall tax to- recover for the treasury large windfalls to big ‘taxpayers, 50 that they would not be unduly favored. The treasury, it was learned, opposed the plan no adopted by the ways and means committee in T memorandum submitted Feb. 27; bul the Democratie committee majority voted it despite this protest. The treasury is against the Ruml plan, bus it does not like this: substitue.

Claim Big Taxpayer Helped

IN FIGHTING the Ruml plan on the floor, Demo- , crats will lean heavily on the argument that it helps'" bix taxpayers, particularly war contractors who piled up big profits last year, and thus discriminates agains small taxpayers. They will contend that many big taXpayeRs will get an outright oH” by cancellation of taxes on 1942 incomes. - In secret sessions of the’ ways-and means committee, members have brought up the numerous letters - from businessmen, including war contractors, demanding passage of the Ruml plan. Some of this material comesiiglso from Advertising Associates in New York. Rep. A. Sidney Camp (D. Ga2), said he had writ= ten Advertising Associates asking who was paying for this campaign, but ‘had received no reply. He referred also to circulars from a bank-in Florida, and to forms published by newspapers in his: state, which urged readers to send them to ‘congressmen... These" de= manded passage of the Ruml plan withun} change, |

We ho Worms:

By Ruth Millett

TIPS TO CIVILIANS i a soldier: When there is a service man in the crowd, don’t make him uncomfortable by : asking him military questions he isn’t allowed to answer. Don’t kick about taxes, Don't tell him how you f the war ought to be run. | “+ Don’t brag about how you have plenty of coffee or how you are getting more gas than you have coupons to give for it. Don’t ‘tell him you think it is going to be the civilian as much as: ‘the fighting men who will suffer in this war. . Don’t say that you are planning to. go dows and stock up cn something- because you -have heard a rumor that it might be rationed.

Avoid Embarrassments : Don’t ask the service man if he ‘volunteered . or

lions are already starting some dirty work. : Man is an animal. You have got to keep him caged and have a keepef with & ‘gun watching the cage’ night and day lest he get out. An - enormous “international “police force” well armed can kéep the peace, thet is, providing this police force doesn’t get “ambitious” and

. | hook up with the racketeers. Peace

is something mental and a lot of}. people don’t want it. They like to. fight, even as you and I

Let’ _ hear. from. the “wise men”.

if he was drafted. Don’t ask, “When are you going. to get 8 promos tion?” Don't talk about how ‘much money you are make in your business. . ° Don't let your Inagination’ run. wila while paint gloomy post-war pictures, .* If you are talking abo semy. mattrs,

bec Ws 8 good sub- - iscussion, maybe.