Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 March 1943 — Page 21

- methods of obtaining reinforcements had failed.

The Indianapolis Times)

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

ROY W. HOWARD

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1943

THE PRESIDENT AND MR. LEWIS

HE coal wage conference in New York might as well adjourn. They are getting nowhere—and under the circumstances cannot get anywhere. John L. Lewis, boss of the miners’ union, has served notice that unless it gets a base wage increase of $2 a day, it will not sign a new contract and beginning April 1 no more coal will be mined. It is obvious that Mr. Lewis is hot talking just to hear the sound of his voice, and that he’s not worrying any about the consequences. The mine operators, on the other hand, cannot grant Mr. Lewis’ demands, even were they willing to do so. They cannot concede an increase of $2 a day, or even 50 cents a day—under the government's price and wage stabilization law. : Coal miners have already received a pay increase of 15 per eent over the level of January, 1941—which is all that is allowable under the “Little Steel wage formula,” the standard fixed by the war labor bgard to implement the government's stabilization program. So the quarrel is not between the workers and the owners; it is between the union and the government. # » o 8 2.8 WHY then, continue this filibuster in New York? Why ' not move the negotiations to Washington? That's where the showdown will have to come eventually—a test of strength between President Roosevelt of the U. S. A. and President Lewis of the U. M. W.,, two strong men, once friends, now foes. . Heretofore, Mr. Lewis has got what he wanted out of the mine owners, with the help of the administration. But ‘the time has come when the administration can no longer help Mr. Lewis without destroying its own stabilization program. If Mr. Lewis breaks the little steel formula, other unions will naturally demand, inevitably get, similar pay boosts. Prices will rise, living costs will rise, wage increases will be sopped up, leading to still higher wages,

still higher prices, still higher living costs—a mad spiral

upward in which nobody can gain and everybody will lose. But we can lose more than our home-front economy if this coal wage controversy isn’t settled in the public interest. We can lose the war. If a coal strike comes, blast furnaces and steel plants will begin to close within a week. Utilities and railroads will be hit quickly. War plants dependent upon Steel, coal and transportation will soon begin to close. . It would be better to move the controversy to Washington now, with Franklin D. Roosevelt on one side of the table and John L. Lewis on the other. Eventually the policies of one will prevail, the policies of the other will fall. The sands are running short.

MacARTHUR NEEDS MORE GEN MacARTHUR on his first anniversary in » Australia appealed to President Roosevelt for more ships and planes. His air commander, Gen. Kenney, and his chief of staff, Gen. Sutherland, were received at the White House. Presumably, Gen. MacArthur would not have sent to Washington these officers needed at the front unless other If Gen. Kenney, fresh from the great air victory of the Bismarck * sea, cannot get more planes, probably nobody can. - The kind of “holding” strategy forced on Gen. Mac- * Arthur and Admiral Halsey by the small strength available in the South Pacific, can be much more expensive in the long’ run than a properly directed offensive. If a slight increase in allied strength now could win us ~ Rabaul, the chief enemy base in the South Pacific, that ‘would be cheaper than providing the larger allied defen- ~ sive force required to meet a major Jap offensive later. As it is, the enemy with his small advantage is able to tie up allied forces at many points because we lack the edge to take the initiative. * Of course, the president is only too anxious to give Gen. MacArthur and Admiral Halsey any, supplies not pledged elsewhere. But there is the rub. He has been under similar pressure from other directions. Responsible for global strategy, he can no more neglect Tunisia than the Pacific. And when an allied invasion of Europe is planned, it is not easy for the president to give MacArthur more. But our guess is that the commander-in-chief somehow will manage to find more planes for the South Pacific and also for China. We hope he can.

~

‘MAKING TAXES COMPLICATED THE treasury experts and the majority of the ways and

means committee didn’t like the Ruml pay-as-you-go

tax plan. They didn’t think of it first, and anyway it was too simple. : So they set about writing their own tax bill, which is now off the presses, and from which we herewith plick at random two illuminating excerpts: : ; Part II, Section 465, Paragraph (F) “Married person—the term ‘married person’ means a person with respect to whom a withholding exemption certificate is in effect under Section 466 (H) stating that he is married and living with ‘husband or wife.” ‘And— Section 466, Paragraph (C) ... “If the number of de‘pendents is in excess of five, the amount of tax to be witheld shall be that applicable in the case of five dependents Teduced by $1.35 for each dependent over five, except that in no event shall the amount to be withheld be less than 3 ar centum of the excess of the median wage in the bracket which the wages paid fall (or if the wages paid are $200 r over, of the excess of the wages) over $12, computed, in case such amount is not a multiple of $0.10, to the earess ‘multiple of $0.10.” We'll quote more later. We think the taxpayers ought ‘know What's being shov d of th

the | paste stamps in

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

KANSAS CITY, March 19— What evidence have we, then, that Harold Franklin, the son of the president - of the boilermakers’ union is now and for 17 years has been receiving a rakeoff from-<the premiums paid by the union members on compulsory life insurance? Young Franklin® denies all and William E. Walter, the secretarytreasurer of the union, which has x national headquarters in Kansas City, Kas., insists that he has no knowledge of the fact. Franklin's father says nothing. First we have photostats of various documents in the deal between the union and the Occidental Life Insurance Co. of California, signed by the elder Franklin and Walter. There is also a photostat of young Franklin’s commission agreement with the company, fixing his rakeoff on insurance which the workers are compelled to buy, failing which they are refused employment in shipyards buildjng vessels for the war. Thus, to work in a shipyard a man must pay tribute to young Franklin, .

Franklin's Suit on File

THERE IS ON file in the U. S. district court of Kansas a suit by young Franklin against the Chicago National Life Insurance Co., in which Franklin admitted that the company paid him $28,546.10 in com-

missions on the group insurance carried by his father’s union and demanded $47,100.16 more.

He based his claim on his services in writing this |.

insurance business for the company and appended his contract. It began Oct. 1, 1926, No term was stated and a year later the company, finding the agreement unprofitable when it had to pay the union president's son 10 per cent of the premiums on compulsory insurance and 15 per cent on voluntary policies, made a new arrangement. Thereby Franklin got $1000 a month for a year and 200 shares of stock in a company. He was beaten in court when a jury found for the company. As recently as last August, young Franklin took part in another lawsuit which is still pending on appeal to the U. S. circuit court in Denver. In that case, another insurance‘company, the American National of Dallas, which had succeeded to the business when Chicago National retired, recounted that it had insured the 58,000 members under a group contract. The contract ended on July 1, 1941, when President Franklin took it away and gave the business to his son’s new connection, the Occidental.

Judgment for Company

IN THAT SUIT, the American National asked for a declaratory judgment to the effect that young Franklin had broken his contract as agent and that the ‘company owed him nothing. The petition said he had been paid $10,000 cash and 25 monthly installments of $300 each, or $17,500. Nevertheless, the company alleged that he had refused. to use his best efforts and that he was instrumental in taking away the business and trans-

ferring it to Occidental, to which he now transferred.

his own interest. Now the American National's petition said, Franklin was demanding $18,000 more but would not bring the dispute to issue in court. Therefore the company asked the court to decide the matter one way or another and this the court did with a judgment for the company. This is the one that is now in the circuit court on young Franklin's appeal.

But before the case went to trial, young Franklin

made an affidavit which refutes the present denials of himself ‘and Walter and shows that he was agent for the Oceidental. He thought Federal Judge Rich-

{ard J. Hopkins was prejlidiced against him, and asked that another judge ‘be assigned to hear the

suit of American National. This request, Ingidonially; was granted.

Swore He Represented Occidental

AS SHOWING PREJUDICE, he quoted Judge Hopkins as having asked him during the hearing of a previous case: “Why do you think you are entitled to so much money for what you did? What did you do to earn such a large amount of money? Why are you claiming a sum of money entirely out of proportion to the time you spent and the work you did?” And then, young Franklin swore that he represented Occidental in the insurance deal with his father’s union. It is easy to understand why both Franklins and Walter would prefer that the young man’s insurance business with the union be kept quiet. The war workers all over the country who find, on applying for jobs, that they must join the union and buy insurance through the son of Ye union president, might be rebellious. Rich as they were, young Franklin's rewards for

the previous insurance on the members were petty by

comparison with the commissions which he may now receive from the Occidental on the enormously increased membership of about 200,000, most of it involuntary. If the war goes two or three years more, he will be fixed for life. Not even Mr. Roosevelt’s salary limitation decree would have touched him for such commissions are not salary The gravy train is really high balling now,

In Washington

By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, March 19. — The height of something or othef in lame-duck appointments was achieved when the Hon. Josh Lee, ex-senator from Oklahoma, was named as a member of the civil aeronautics board. Up to the time he was put on the board he had never been up in an airplane. When he went to Mexico City to attend a recent injernational conference on air travel, he went by train. The official explanation is that the new board member's family doesn’t want him to fly. But Josh has tackled his new job with’ vim and enthusiasm, has hired a smart young lawyer as his assistant, and is boning up on all that pertains to aviation, though strictly on a ground school, pre-

+ flight basis.

Almost any day now, you can expect Josh to make his maiden flight in one of them airyplanes. Maybe they're here to stay.

9 Million for Stamp Pasting

ALL HONEST storekeepers now admit that rationing is the only correct method to deal with food shortages, but one of the more statistically minded retailers has just estimated what it costs stores to handle the job on canned goods alone. There are 144 stamps a year to be handled for each of 125 million people holding ration books. That multiplies to 18 billion stamps a year, all of which

have to be pasted on cards before they can be turned | in for new supplies of canned goods. The govern=ment prints the cards, each of which holds 50 stamps. | Divide 18 billion by 50 and you get a total of 360 mil-

lion cards to be pasted up. Tests have shown that one clerk can paste up 20 cards an hour. Divide 360 million cards by 20 and You 3e} 1s Swen hous of Jaber eavived; clerks peid 50

just to

‘TREASORY :

"EXPERTS

."The Hoosier Forum

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

“EVIDENCE THAT THINKERS ARE WAKING UP” By Pat Hogan, Columbus

Mr. Isaacs’ exposure of the social security setup confirms the gnawing suspicion of millions of helpless workers and still Mr. Isaacs has only scratched the surface of a potential volcano that can bring grief when it hurts most.

The national cry to oust McNutt]

is sufficient evidence that thinkers are waking up. It would be difficult to find a man more inept and unqualified for this important post and McNutt is demonstrating daily his inability, his ineptitude, his moss-eaten impractical theories when facéd with realities; and to hamper instead of help the situation, he is dragging in more incompetent, unqualified aids. The two per cent club, sired by McNutt (and damned by everybody in Indiana) shows the foundation of McNutt philosophy, his assiduous desire for power of office and his love to create an army of patronage pensioners who are as unfit as himself. What Washington needs most is not college doctors, but a lot of good old-fashioned horse doctors. The manpower problem should be in charge of someone who has had experience with manpower — someone like Bill Knudsen, or Gen. Tyndall. . . . Let's have them before McNutt and’ his. college doctors bring the nation to ruin. ” » » “REAL NEWS

SLOUGHED OVER”

By Walter Frisbie, secretary-treasurer Indiana State Industrial Union Council, Tap

The Indianapolis Times has a definite responsibility to the public and to the country. Part of that

lently, but frequently by what appears to be deliberate placing of news items, The Times violates its i to the reading pubc The issue of March 15 carried a front-page story of a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, by Governor Schricker, requesting a blanket deferment of all farm labor. This story had a sub-headline and was given

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. BecauSe of the volume received, lotters must be limited to 250 words. Letters must be

signed.)

prominent placement. In the subsequent issue of March 16 on page three, with a headline, “Schricker

Parm-Labor Plan KO’D,” there is!

buried in the text of an article the words of an American who talks the way Americans should talk, who thinks the: way Americans should - think and who expressed the real feeling of the American farmers. . Governor Griswold of Nebraska, according to the story, told the meeting that farmers are patriotic, not cry-babies. He said, “ . . . our farmers in Nebraska made our

‘harvest in 1942 the largest crop in

history in this country. We intend to make it even larger,” even though 100,000 boys have leit Nebraska’s farms for war industries and the armed services. Buried deep in the column was the admission that he got the greatest applause of all the speakers. Governor Griswold said further, “There are no trick federal formulas by which the farm wartime problems can be solved. Let us solve them as best we can right in our own states. In Nebraska we intend to .find our own help to plant and harvest crops. It will include businessmen, boys and women. Of course 1 will be diffi-

cult. responsibility is carried out excel-|.

“But our own boys who are in the front lines in Tunisia. and throughout the world have far more difficulties to face than the problem of labor for agriculture. “Getting the labor for the war industries is as essential as getting it for the farmers. It is an all-out war and this is part of the pattern| of sacrifice . . . To free farra boys

for farm services would be unfair.”|

The Indianapolis Times se: ms to

Side Glances—By Galbraith

| the legitimate farmers in order to make political |’

3

have a deliberate policy of playing down, even of hiding or sloughing over real news of this .sort. We are beginning to believe that The Indianapolis Times is more interested in demagogical playing up grievances. of the

capital against the president of the United States, our command-er-in-chief. When someone has a job to do it does not make it easier to have a couple of curs yapping at his heels. i" ® 2 2 “RECORD SHOWS WE HAVE BEEN DOING OUR PART" By Haze Murd, 830 S. Addison st. : To my way of thinking, Rickenbacker’s speech did more to lower the morale of the people and to give

tler th =I 3 aid and comfort to Hitler an any: | much emphasis on the little sadistic Pepernanges that

thing I have heard... =~ °°

It would be interesting to know|

just how many bonds he has bought. Well, for his information I will tell him this. In our union hall where I belong we have a board telling how many bonds our union has bought each month and for every month in the year of 1942. It shows $1000 each month for 12 months of 1942 and I haye heard of no complaint about it. y : He talked so much about long hours we should work. I would like to compare my hands with his. He never said one word about . . . profits and dividends and the racket of profiteering. I would like to know just who pays his salary for running over the country talking about time and onehalf for overtime. ... It gets on my nerves for fellows like that going over the country dnd challenging our working men’s loyalty. We know it takes work and sweat and blood to win this war and our record shows we Working nen have been doing our part. . ». ®8 »

“SLAP IT DOWN IN THE*NEX'’ ELECTION” By Edward F. Maddox, Indianapolis Well, well and well! . I hope some of the dumb chicks in this -state and nation read the editorial in The Times of March 11: from Want.” And they want a fourth term! For about 10 years I. have been

‘| pointing out that the New Deal .| leads to socialism, communism and '| regimentation. Your editorial hint-

ed at “benevolent fascism” and “national socialism.” ‘Well, it certainly is socialism and my prediction is that it is Stalin’s kind of socialism rather than Hitler's!’ And they are equally repulsive -fo all true Americans!" So let's slap it down in the next election. There is not, and never will be, “common ground™ American democracy and any brand of socialism. ‘Socialism of all kinds means dictatorship and slavery! And we know by experi-

| ence what our own American lib-

erty means. We have seen Hitler's and Stalin’s socialism drive those nations to financial . hatred and slaughter. Let us profit by - their

| bitter experience!

' DAILY THOUGHT The Lord make kis face shine

upon thee, and be gracious unto thee —Numbers 6:25.

AND 1 WILL trust that He who * heeds. The life that hides in mead and wold,

-

| Wno hangs son siders crimson ‘beads,

“Freedom | {

between |

By Charles ¥ Lucey

WASHINGTON, March 19. — For weeks the navy has kept the lid on a blistering report on federal handling of wartime problems in cities housing naval establishments. But some of its findings have been learned. The report was made by Robert Moses, New York City park commissioner. It condemns blunte ly not only local direction by federal officials, but confusion grow«« ing out of administrative policy in Washington, ' The report is based on lengthy studies in Norfolk,

4 Va.; Portland, Me.; Newport, R. 1.; San Francisco and

San Diego, Cal, covering such subjects as housing, health, sewerage, recreation, transportation and vice, Some naval commandants in the areas are critie -cized sharply for lack of interest or ability to meet conditions demanding a remedy; and as seeming too old and inelastic, or too immersed in routine, to meet community problems.

Local Officials Bewildered.

A TYPICAL comment on the Norfolk area charged that numerous federal agencies are competing with each other, and that there is no single federal official responsible for co-ordination and co-operation with local communities. ~The report said bewildered local officials could not cope with the problems thrust upon them by sudden war expansion. It cited the confused authority, tracing from Washington bureaus, and called the amoung of travel and communications between Washington and Hampton Roads appalling. - In a caustic discussion of Norfolk, the report re- ° marked that it was difficult to characterize past pube lic housing activities in temperate language. Planning was described as unco-ordinated, sites selected with little intelligence, and essential facilities ignored slighted. This referred to streets, stores, food and transportation.

Absenteeism Found Excessive Ni

MUCH OF THE civilian turnover in the navy: yards and shipbuilding plant at Newport News was ate tributed to poor living conditions. Absentee percen ages there, and in the Norfolk navy yard, in’ Fake month of 1942 were found excessive. Discussing conditions in Pacific coast naval estab= lishments, the report says that uncertainty as to draft and manpower has contributed to the problems of employment, morale and production. The major employment problems, the report charged, can be traced to Washington. The report, though intensely critical, has been termed “excellent” by Undersecretary of Navy James V. Forrestal. It recommends appointment of die rectors in the various naval districts to co-ordinate these related municipal and federal activities. Mr. Forrestal said about a week ago that steps

‘were being taken to remedy some of the conditions cited by Mr. Moses.

World in Trance

By Stephen Ellis

EVERYONE HAS damned Adolf Hitler as the beast ‘of the century and reams have been written about ‘what the German people think and feel, about Hitler's rumored breakdown, about the hopes of dealing wit a “free Germany.” - - Now comes a “new history,” a history of the era from Versailles to Pearl Harbor, written by a German, and presenting this modern history in a shocking and sensational backdrop. The historian is the anti Nazi Leopold Schwarzchild. His book is the fascine ‘ating and forceful “World in Trance.” Herr Schwarzchild disagrees with the Bistoey of these last few decades as we “think” it was. notes, his logic, and the clarity of his ya : will sway any reader to his side. The world, writes Schwarzchild, has placed so

.it has forgotten all his. predecessors. . “Whatever novelties Hitler brought about "n every other political field,” he writes, “in the field of foreign policy it was -only the continuation of previous German policy.” :

Shocking . . . and Sickening

HERE IS ONE historian frank enough to record that Germany lost the first world war and won the peace—and indicates that the peace of this war is well on the way to being lost right now over here. “World in Trance” is hardly a book you can gloss over. It may very well be one of the most quoted theses of the next decade. History in the making is always deceptive; things are rarely what they seem to be. Obviously, countless false premises were taken by all the allied nations in the period from 1918 to 1941. And, equally obviously, the people believed in these false premises. This, then, is Herr Schwarzchild’ s function-—-to pree sent this history of the period as it actually: was. And the history he presents is more than a little Shocking —and sickening. i

“Leopold Schwarzschild. 448 her Corp., New York,

We the Women

By Ruth Millett

WORLD IN TRANCE, by 1s documented and indexed.

4

THE WOMEN who are really going to suffer from food ratione ing aren't the full-time houses keepers, although their work will be harder, of course, 3 The one who will really get it in the neck is‘the woman worker who keeps house before and after working hours, with, perhaps the help of a Cleaning woman. i; One such woman said the other day that she thought she would have to give up working and make housekeeping & full-time ‘job. Her two children are in school, and in the past she has been able to manage her household by ‘dee pending on part-time household help and rushing home at night to covk dinner for her family. Well, cooking a dinner isn't going to be a halts hour job any more. The actual preparation will take time, and so will the marketing and planning—if & family is to eat well. ; Beside that, it will soon be time for a garden and time for home canning. “.

But Women Will Manage

THIS WOMAN fears that if she goes on worl all day away from home her family will suffer, and so she thinks it might be better for her to give up her job—which isn’t an essential one, : Many other women, however, won't be financially. able to quit their outside jobs in order to make a full-time job of housekeeping. So rationing is Yo be plenty tough on them. or oar 1 sestoua pb at 18 an expensive practice, and not very: good for the home life of a family. o But women will manage somehow. For ever the