Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 March 1943 — Page 12

Editor, in U. S. Service WALTER LECKRONE Editor

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> RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People wai Find Their Own Way

Scripps - Howard NewsAlliance, NEA and Audit Bu- E u of Circulations. :

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 1043

>

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RUML) PLAN IS STILL IN EVITABLE

THE Ruml-Carlson bill for pay-as-you-go income taxation = was defeated in roll call in the house of representatives Yesterday by a margin of 17 votes. : ‘The ways and means committée plan—to make people pay two years’ taxes in one or continue to carry one year of tax debt—was then defeated by 80 votes, on a roll call, and the whole tax mess was sent back to the committee.

The 44,000,000 income-tax payers of the country, it

seems to us, are getting pretty poor service out of our elected representatives—the issue being now back where it

“started four months ago, because they have voted against |

‘everything and in favor of nothing. - We still think that something like the Ruml-Carlson “bill will be adopted eventually. There is no other way for the government to make sure of collecting the taxes congress lays. 2 :

CHURCHILL'S WAY, AND ROOSEVELT’S DEC 26, 1941, speaking before our congress, Winston Churchill said: “On any day, if they thought the people ‘wanted it, the house of commons could, by a simple vote, ‘remove me from my office.” March 22, 1943, he hit the same note: “At my time of life I have no personal ambitions, no future to provide for.” Churchill’s approach to his job is in interesting contrast to Roosevelt's. Part of the contrast runs to the makeup of the two men; another; perhaps larger part, to the ‘difference between the English and the American democratic mechanisms. The American president is the leader of his party. He works by the four-year term, not by the day. He is always either running for office or running his party for office, and so he must constantly “heed the rumble of a distant drum.” The British prime minister is, so the speak, always running not for an election later, but to stay-tomorrow where he is today. ” » 8 ” 2. =» Ne that Churchill is without political guile. Far from ‘it. But his problem is entirely different. To him 1944 is just 366 more days. To Roosevelt it’s an election year. The advantages and disadvantages of the two systems are subjects for much argument. But as of now, Churchill, it seems to us, is in a better position to swing free; is unencumbered by the thing which handicaps Roosevelt—the necessity for translating every present action ‘into terms of future political reaction. A lot of 'theitemporizing that has cance o our muddling at the top is due to that. Too much strategy, too much deviousness, too little directness. Too much wet-finger- . sto-the-wind and ear-to-the-ground. Too many ‘implied _ promises of pie in the sky and bread and circuses to come. Too much jerry-building. Too many of what Churchill condemns as “pledge-bound delegates.” ‘Churchill says he is not “in need to go about making promises in order to win political support to be allowed to continue in office,” or to “drum up cheap cheers.” Accord: ingly, he tells his: people, “I am resolved not to give or make all kinds of promises and tell all kinds of fairy tales to you who have trusted me and gone with me so far... through the valley of the shadow.” So, footloose, he faces the present and the\future on an over-all basis of “no promises, but gery bisparation.” ” 2 \ » » » ymHoUT fear of \vhat the voters may decide six months, a year or- Your years hence, he can express himself about “wasters; in, every class, whether they come from the ancient ‘aristoeracy or the modern plutocracy or the ordinary type of pub ‘rawler.” Before speaking he doesn’t have to translate into votes how many plutocrats ‘God made and how many pub crawlers. He operates on a political schedule which closes the books every sundown, mot on an accrual basis, The temptation for any American president—leaving the fourth term out of ‘the discussion—is to temper the "wind of present necessity. to the shorn lamb of the political by-and-by. °° Maybe all that etpialné SPAB, for example, 1 that “fal‘tering step forward”; or the long stalling on over-all price control; or the reluctant approaches’ to so many vital probJems on the domestic front; the demagoguery that has ~ dominated fiscal policy; the delay in getting to a war cabinet . operation; the tenderness toward the blocs; the hesitancies ~ that have cost 80° auch: in ine, money, production—and lives. . Atthe hk of being called Anglophile, we believe Mayle Churchill is right when he. says: “The world is coming i increasingly to admire our British parliamentary system.” : Anyway; we can’t be accused of getting into a fight with our ally when we say it may be worth while for us, in our democracy, to take a look at the mirror,

was in 2 Weir Cook's blood and: he et _ distinguished ‘himself in ‘the first war, ms

when the war came, it was typical of Weir ‘Cook v tothe service. And it was equally

1 hard to} a’ se one so vitally alive and inter: ng and stimulating should now be dead. His friends and

ia a

ut of it lled for |.

‘group of beneficiaries. Satied Wako 3 5. 20 Ie 1 8a nl En he hs a epost | | " 0 t 13 a EG EX pth ‘While waiting tor iis nuinber to be called; | :

WASHINGTON,

; _ Ind.) this week aired his views re"garding the “womb to tomb security promised in the national

congress.

those peally responsible for the re-

etirious discoveries made. ; “Some of the “personalities ‘dhoovered were more

alike, and even a goodly number of acknowledged ‘New Dealers’ “have ‘seen fit: to. state their objections to the ‘Bluéprint for Heaven’ as the NRPB report has been dubbed,” Mr. Wilson reported.

revealed as a mere ‘front man’ for other administration powers, who have: preferred to remain the ‘powers behind the thrones.’ “There is an old French quotation which goes, ‘If you would be splendid, be a duke. If you would be powerful, be a duke’s chambermaid’ The names involved in this case are mostly those of ‘dukes,’ or should it be spelled ‘dupes’? The actual power of the

of the war production board. Capital opinion has it Shas Donald Nelson and Mr. Delano merely bear he titles.

‘Looking Back at 1932

“QUITE INCIDENTALLY there are two lesser known names which stand out in each of the organizations, Dr. Eveline M. Burns, director of research for the NRPB, and Dr. Arthur R, Burns, chief labor adviser in the WPB.. The two doctors are man and wife of course, and were British subjects until very recently. “They are students of the London School of Economics, the headquarters of a Mr. Harold Laski who has figured in our American news several times recently. “The NRPB program is not the first outline for living other people's lives which Mrs. Dr. Burns has produced. She dguthored an interesting publication in 1932 entitled, ‘Socialist Planning and Program.” That publication should be read by all Americans who may find themselves living under controls set down in her latest plan. One statement which strikes the tone of the whole article it, ‘The Socialist state will have to devise some means of coercing labor where necessary to make labor do what the Socialist state wants,

'Furor in Washington’

“MANY OF THOSE who have ‘gone along’ as the administration leaders term it, with all proposals of the New Deal have dropped sponsorship of this newest plan like it was a ‘hot potato.’ “Dr. Alfred Haake, a former adviser to Rex Tugwell, spoke on the subject in Chicago the other day. One quotation from his speech was, ‘The bureaucratic boys feel that a cradle-to-the-grave plan of life is Merely another example of their benevolent paternalism. They want to save us the trouble of living our own lives. “It would be my personal comment that nothing has ever caused such a furor in Washington, not even the declarations of war on Japan and Germany.” t J E J o

Westbrook Pegler is on vacation.

es tnt

In Washington

By Peter Edson

»

* WASHINGTON; March 31.— There are today approximately 225,000 U. 8. workers drawing state unemployment insurance, and you can add that to your pet list of inconsistencies of war, taking into full consideration the’ fact that there is supposed to be a manpower shortage. 2 This figure has dropped 70 per cent from a level of 800,000 as of & year ago, and from a peak of 3 268,000 in June, 1940, but federal bureau of employment security officials do not believe this number will ever be ‘entirely eliminated, even when the armed services have their 11 million men and women and civilian industry has reached the idyllic and Utopian condition of so-called “full” employment. Examination of the various classes and the conditions of the quarter-million workers now drawing unemployment compensation gives a little light on why this must apparently be so, according to the social security board point of view. In the first group are war. industry workers temporarily laid off. The cause of the layoffs may be shortage of materials, lack of parts for assembly, change in design of some piece of war equipment making necessary a retooling of the factory. State unemployment compensation offices now have a better checkup on workers than they ever had, so applicants for unemployment insurance must present proof that they have left a job for good cause before they can begin to draw benefits. Also, there is a compulsory waiting period before the temporarily unemployed can begin to collect in most states.

Non-Essential Unemployed

SECOND GROUP of workers drawing benefits includes those former employees of industries now considered non-essential to war production. During the time they're looking for an essential job in a war industry, these people can collect: compensa~ tion, but here again are checkups. Beneficiaries must report regularly at employment offices and must take the first bona fide offer of a job in ‘their particular . trade. Mechanics aren’t compelled to take farm jobs, or -vice versa, nor are workers- compelled to take jobs that require extreme inconvenience in travel to and from work or the taking of a job in another community, requiring a worker to move or be separated from his family. Workers living in communities remote from war production centers make up the third and probably the largest of the groups of unemployment insurance ‘beneficiaries. Twenty per cent of all the “benefits paid go to workers in the New York City area, which got comparatively few war contracts and is today | the biggest surplus labor supply. area in the sounizy.

i Wotking ‘Wives

; WORKING WIVES, on the Niringe of the labor | force, make up the fourth group. Many were per-. suaded to take war jobs, sometimes against their better judgment, sometimes through sheer patriotism |

and a desire to help win the war. When layoffs come, ‘these working wives are often the first to be dropped,

Men’ ‘about ‘to be"

“he is eligible for unemployment by federal-state unemployment insurance programs,

the 40: million workers under job insurance.

This is of course not the entire number of used

‘board experts estimate the total unemployed at the

know, however, that hed died the way every airman present time may number 15 rh

| aah 31. | - Outspoken Rep. Earl Wilson (R. |

resources planning board report to /

"in his weekly letter addressed | ¥ ’ to constituents, Mr. Wilson an- | og nounced that the backgrounds of | 3

ort had been gone into and some |

than interesting; and’ Democrats. and Republicans |

board lies in other quarters just as it does in the case:

a ee i ops 3

“Two out of three workers now are “being covered |

ihe figure of 225,000 workers now receiving benefits | | | represents only a little over one-half of 1 per. cent of

ployed in the United States today. . Social yuh

“First of all, Mr. Frederick A. Delano has been |

: he hh ° : The Hoosier Forum oid wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

“SOMEONE SHOULD INFORM CONGRESSMEN” By J. Dinay, Columbus Why do our congressmen: continue to let the president browbeat them? Someone should inform our

congressmen (though we trust that our Indiana congressmen already know it) that they have power ovex the president, not the president over them. They hold this power under the constitution. They can pass any bill over the president's veto, They can refuse to pass any bill that he sponsors. They can refuse his requests and demands in general according to their own good judgment. ‘ So, just why, under: any circumstances, do our congressmen continue to let the president browbeat them? - 8 8. “THE FACT THAT RUMLITES FORGET” By Edw. P. Barker, Indianapolis

Anent the Ruml plan. This Ruml plan is the most discussed and the least understood public question of the day. -In simple every day language, this is what its proponents urge. They claim that the average taxpayer spends his earnings as he goes aleng and when taxpaying time comes . . . he has great difficulty in scraping it together in one lump sum. And further, there is too much grace allowed him between earning and paying and he has spent it when the time comes to pay; and for the purpose of restoring the pay-as-you-go practice or current payment plan, the Rumlites suggest a cancellation of last year's taxes so as to make it easy to start over again or from scratch and with a clean slate. : The main fact these Rumlites forget is that delaying or changing the date of payment does not accelerate one second any prompt payment or make easier the task of paying at all No matter what or when the date and how often it is postponed, the line will still be just as long waiting to get in at the last minute. If the taxpayer cannot pay his '42 taxes in the first three months of ‘43, in the name of logic why forgive him his 42 taxes and make him pay his 43 taxes in monthly

‘installments?

I heard the Town Hall discussion on this question and in all logic Congressman Gearhart of California - uncovered the mares nest if not a deep-laid scheme to profit large interests in saving them large sums by the change. Well, whether intended or not, such would be the effect. It would’ forgive the big interests, the saved-

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

up or laid" aside money during. 42 to pay '43 taxes March 16 and give them the benefit of paying their 43 taxes on the installment plan, thus giving them a clear gift or cancellation of ’42 taxes. : | What does it profit the United States treasury to forgive the millions. of taxpayers of less than $100 per year and lose the millions and millions of those many thousands of taxpayers whose. bookkeeping system has already laid aside . «. 10 billions . . . ready to pay. Make them all pay promptly as we compel the soldier to answer his draft ‘call promptly." : This is how a clear-eyed, unselfish citizen sees it. :

. no. “UNEQUAL EMPHASIS GIVEN TO SINS OF PUBLIC” -

By Walter Frisbie, Secretary, Indiana State Industrial Union Council

‘The Wednesday, March 24, editions of The Indianapolis Times were the only newspapers in -Indianapolis which gave the story of . « + Carnegie-Illinois Steel . . . a part of the importance due it.. In one of its editions The Times carried the story on the front page, although without any headline. This is to The Times’ eternal credit. This illustrates better than any vituperation or condemnation the point that we in organized labor have continually made that even the best newspapers do not give equal emphasis to the sins of all parts of the public.. When a group of workers exasperated by a long festering grievance go on strike for a single day in a. vital war plant their action is headlined; every phase of the story

is given great publicity; they are

assailed as traitors; editorials are written on the subject. But when one of the great steel corporations is revealed to have faked the specifications reports on vital plate going to shipbuilding and other concerns, the newspapers of this great city ignored the story as far as it was possible; your paper alone gave it the front page in one edition and then carried an excellent, complete and well-headlined article in the financial section in the later editions. If the workers in Carnegie-Tilinols plants had sabotaged worth of steel the newspapers of

the nation and your own newspaper

Side Glances—By Galbraith

$1,400,000 |

then would have been crying for their actual blood. But when it is revealed that this steel corporation had shipped out four carloads, $1,400,000 worth of steel plate which was definitely de-. fective with the tensile strength test reports falsified, it was merely handled as a routine story, given neither headline nor editorial comment;* and yet your newspaper which also played this down did by far the fairest and the completest job of any newspaper in Indianapolis. When a tanker built by Henry J. Kaiser broke in two last autumn the newspapers which carried ‘the story, and many of them didn't, implied that faulty workmanship, bad welding, was responsible for the disaster. But when it has been discovered that the reason the ship broke in two was that it was constructed of plate which was nearly as brittle as cast iron and that the CarnegieIllinois Steel Co. has been falsifying its tests on steel and shipping defective steel to shipyards and other war industries, there is not even a squib on the subject among your "editorial comment. We commend you on the fact that you did the best job in Indianapolis in covering this particular story but we have to point out that even the best job in Indianapolis on this story was a pretty poor piece of

work. 2 = =

(*Editor's Note: We respectfully call Mr. Frisbie’s attention to the editorial, Sitical of Car-negie-Illinois Steel, - published Thursday, March .25, on the editorial page of The Times.) 2 =» “BONDS WILL COME BACK—TAXES NEVER”

By Pat Hogan, Columbus

sanity which originated in ‘Wash-

now. : " A neat trick of the tax artists is

year’s tax. If there is any “forgiv-

give the congress that lowered the exemption so that it sucked in millions who had just begun to earn a decent living; and the people should do no forgiving until congress repeals that mistake. ? Also the newspapers bewail “the expanding purchasing power” .and “dangerously excessive purchasing

power” which must be drained from the workers’ pockets, or indeed, grabbed before it gets there. Millions of people are buying

"| homes, built before Pearl harbor,

others are buying farms and paying up old debts which accumulated during the depression, Does any sane person believe these folks have excessive cash to feed into the Lopper for the bureaucrats to quarrel over and lick up in salary while quarreling? Of course, we must, and will, finance this war, but this is Hitler's war and there is.no reason under

‘we go or at any other time. ‘Make the: axis pay if it takes 100 years.

There is a vicious: brand of n+

ington and now takes national scope}. and should be blasted: into oblivion |

thé “carping about “forgiving” last|

ing” it is up to the people to for-|

being taken seriously enfugh

| Instead of more and more taxes, | : make it compulsory. to. pat

“ders .in the & 3 [aiming at both victims and. dupes L of Adolf Hitler in Europe. 2% Woodiow, wilson siemichss the: ;

a

inpose. some new regime or other of our par Ar liking, but by promising them “gelf-determination.” oe Leaders of foreign groups.in the United States complain that some of the propaganda which we : are now sending into their countries is directed at:

‘| groups, rather than at populations as a Whole. Soma

of it, they charge, is class-angled. ~~ ° This, they say, is extremely harmful... For ‘while the inhabitants of Hitler's puppet states are almost! all hostile to Naziism, they are left guessing what their fate would be under the united, nations. © [ap

Italians Wonder, What Next? oR

ind TAKE ITALY. Italy is now a prisoner of Getmany and knows it. In Italy in 1940, just before she took the plunge, I failed to find a single Italian who want. ed to enter the war. As for entering it on the side _ of the Nazis, they were considerably more ‘hail,

opposed.

They hated the Germans, who openly treated them as inferiors. They clearly foresaw, even then, that a German victory would leave Italy Just a little fish in Hitler's big Eurepean pond. Today the people of Italy have their eyes. on’ Tunisia. Sooner or later this year, they expect ms. vasion. At heart, well-informed Italians tell. me, the vast majority of them would welcome united nations forces—especially the Americans—if * oy they had some idea of what might be in store fo them afterward. Luigt’ Sturzo,. founder of the Christian Democrat, popular party in Italy back in 1919, ‘author of “Italy and Fascism,” “Church and State” and other writings | on the subject, gives a pretty clear picture of the state of mind of his countrymen. :

Want No Fascism am x

HE SAYS, in the April number of “Foreign Affairs”: “The Italian people must feel ‘certain that after | the allied occupation is over they will not. have 0° face new variety of fascism which will continue: to tyrannize over them. They must be told, and be-" lieve, that in an earlier ‘stage they will have oppor--tunity to decide freely, as the third point of the Atlantic Charter provides, which form of government’ they wish to organize.” : Will the future Italy, he asks, be a monarchy ora republic? What about King Victor Emmanuel? Or the crown prince? Or the crown prince's 86-year-old. son, with the Crown. Princess Maria, Jose: as queen’ regent? . None of these questions, says Mr. Sturzo, is vital at this time. Nor should the united nations try to settle them at all. If the allies will only live up % their pledge “to. respect the rights of all people to choose the form of : government under which they .wil live,” the Italian people can be trusted to settle these ‘issues for them-" selves. One thing, howéver, may be taken for groited: They will not choose fascism, : : Th %

"The American Way' 2 THIS FORMULA, leaders of foreign groups mi America urge, should he adhered to in dealing with, all of Hitler's dupes, Not one of Germany's n 1 bors, they say, entered the Nazi camp voluntary, that is to say because of popular. leaning : of them could be won over to the allied side; ie | job were gone .abaut properly, When I asked what.they meant by going about ‘the job “properly,” the reply invariably was reducible’ to: | “The American way.” Some who are working on it; ! it is charged, do not seem always to be thinking in! : terms of the Atlahtic Charter, or even of ‘democracy | :

as the word is understood in this: country. : AS a result, not all ‘of Europe's desperate peoples

| are persuaded that they either understand or parties |

ularly like what they hear.

We the. Women 8

By. Ruth Millet.

: TOWNS AND \ cries tha +. nok near army. camps are fast peg Step ina resta in a bar—after a.moyle ne en see unescorted gine: and women ‘who are trying to make their ‘lonely “evenings less lonely by; ganging together. * The. picture is a pretty arab; one. A group of men out for ant _evening’s fun give ad impressio of having a swell time. But Ne women Hone dependent on each other for companionship, usually look a bit bored with it all. The situation is so bad in Washington, w there are three women for every man and most of men married, that the government girls are : offered an opportunity to-attend a ‘career clinie; whet po jeadeérs in the beauty and fashion world will a empéb: show the iris. Bow Deller 10 SE} Sion yes ; manless world. : So

What Use Is Charm?

IT 18 NICE to" * tii ‘that moments tang slinesg- is up the idea of a clinic, aimed to teach ii ow ta plan pleasant living, . ..But_it can’t (do muck ! taught a girl th 4 mapless nowt most of her looks and persis, and hoy room or an : right back ‘where you. 5 The girl wants to try:

pleasant home surround There is no haj

world. All they gs | the ‘sun why we should pay. for it-as| days: 't. drag