Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 April 1943 — Page 12

RALPH BURKHOLDER | Editor, in U. 8. Service WALTER LECKRONE itor SPAPER)

Price in Marion County, 4 cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 18 cents ‘a week. *

daily (except Sunday) by indianapolis Times Pub- : Tahing Co, 214 W. May: ; ; ° Mail rates in ‘Indiana, Member of United Press, $4 a year; adjoining - Scripps - Howard News: states, 75 cents. a month; paper ‘Alliance, NEA others, $1 monthly.

~ Service, .and Audit Bu- 5 resu of: Circulation. : ope RILEY 5501

TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1943

ARMY DAY

RMY day this year needs no tales to remind the ~ ‘people of the armed forces. Our fighters are active on six continents. Six million families have sent men inte the. army; by December it will be more than eight million. And every other American family knows, without being told, that its fate and the survival of the United States depend on military victory. Never before have so many civilians of a democratic nation been converted into trained soldiers in so short a time. When world war II began, our entire army numbered fewer than 200,000, and when we were attacked less than a million and a half. The training job has been stupendous, and the record in New Guinea and Tunisia is the proof of its thoroughness. Short of actual experience in battle, our troops in this country are getting the best training fossils for that ultimate test. 2 8 = # x = « NEITHER this training achievement, nor rapid mechanization of the army, nor liberation of the air forces as a major and semi-autonomous unit, would have been possible without the sweeping reorganization which streamlined staff, services, methods into an ultra-modern fighting machine. The exploits of the Eisenhowers and MacArthurs, the Andrews, Kenneys and Doolittles, and of the heroic men they lead, rest on that basic organization. * For this the nation is indebted chiefly to two men, Gen. Marshall and Secretary-of War Stimson. Theirs was the vision, the daring, and the ability to call forth new methods for new tasks, to choose younger leaders on merit, and to recognize the importance of the neglected air force. There are still weaknesses in our army, still problems to solve, but certainly the over-all progress since last Army day is close to miracle. If we on the home front do half as well, ours will be a victorious army.

WE WANT NO SUBSIDIES ENATOR WILLIS of Indiana announces that he is seeking means by which the government can pay newspapers “particularly small dailies and weeklies—“to channel information to the people without compromising the editorial policy of the newspapers or establishing the embarrassing inference of a subsidy.” ; That’s quite an order. can fill it. Government payments to newspapers for printing news would be subsidies, no matter by what name they might be called. ‘And the press cannot accept subsidies without sacriBeing independence and public confidence. - A newspaper’s function is to print news— “to channel information to the people,” as Senator Willis phrases it. * The most important domestic news at this time is information about what the government does, because that affects the lives and fortunes of us all. It is the business

We don’t believe the senator

and the duty of a newspaper to print such information. Why

should the government pay it to do so?

td 2 8

8 » o MERICAN newspapers have printed millions of columns += = explaining rationing, promoting bond sales, informing readers about selective service and interpreting other activ-. ities of government. These millions of columns have been printed without cost to the government, as they should have been, and as they should continue to be. ; We agree with Mr. Willis that 90 per cent of the governmental material now reaching editorial desks goes into wastebaskets. The remedy for that is to cut down the flood of material—most of it not worth printing—sent to newspapers by. government press agents. Any newspaper which accepts government pay for {channeling information to the public’’—that is, for printing news—is certain to discover that the bureaucrats and the politicians who control the payments will expect that newspaper to surrender its right to criticize government policies. ; , We want no subsidies. We believe that the overwhelm. ing majority of American newspapers, small and large, want no subsidies. The existence of a free press depends on publication of news as collected by its own reporters. When newspapers go on the government payroll to print what the government wants ‘them. to print, the American press as’ we have known it will die. :

REORGANIZATION INDICATED

TATE and local governments are being driven by war into making long-needed administrative reforms. A survey by the civil service assembly shows a turnover of close to 50 per cent in key administrative and technical personnel. About half of those who leave are taken into the : armed forces. The rest enter federal service, war industry, etc. ; To meet such situations alert communities are revamping old setups. Louisville, for example, has reorganized the police department to offset the loss of 25 per cent of its experienced men, Wichita has completely revamped admindstrative machinery, consolidating 15 major departments ‘into five. Even the war cloud has a silver lining.

WHAT JEFFERSON BELIEVED-VI-

ND here are a couple of additional Jeffersonian .quotations on the subject of war:

“War requires every resource of taxation and credit. x

(Letter to George Washington). : eos ow Ge a =» “If we are forced into war, we must give up political

differences of opinion and unite as one man to defend our

try. But whether at the close of such a war, we should ic's inevitable triumph in the right.

| [n Washington

By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON,

as the pancake turner sagely remarked, and that would apply to

the current controversy over the.

efficiency of wartime railroad operation. This entire dispute is" merely a backdrop for the more fundamental issue of the big five railroad brotherhoods’ demands for a $3 per day wage increase, In the face of this, the railroad’ operators have been pointing out some of the wasteful practices wey are forced to follow, such as “featherbedding”— employment. of extra and apparently A

train crewmen on some runs—estimated to be. cost- | ing U. 8. railroads 400 million dollars of unnecessary"

expense a year, and wasting some 600 million manhours of labor a year, at a time when there is sup-

posed to be a manpower .shortage. All this looks and sounds bad. It is pictured as exploitation by the railway labor brotherhoods who demand that their members be paid for doing nothing.

The Trainmen's Side of It—

BUT THERE is another side of the pancacke. A. F. Whitney, big, battling white-haired president of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, has just released in Washington a blast against some of the wasteful practices of the railroad operators. He mentions, for instance, that a railroad can call a man for a run which will give him a full day's pay, then hold him a total of 16 hours at some terminal at the other end of the run, subject to call at any moment, without paying a cent for the time so spent.

Railroadmen say that for every hour a trainman |

is paid, he spends two hours waiting without pay for

a return run, From this, Whitney concludes there is no manpowershortage on the railroads that could not be overcome by more efficient utilization of manpower now on railroad payrolls, by temporary transfer of railroaders from areas of surplus labor to areas of shortage, and by reduction of labor turnover. At the suggestion of the office of defense transportation, railroad operators and representatives of the brotherhoods . sat down in Chicago at the end of March to see what could be done about relieving manpower shortage on the roads. According to Whitney, the conference quickly resolved itself into a demand from California and New York operators for an investigation of extra manpower wastage in those two states, which have full crew laws.

Disconcerting to the Public

THIS CHICAGO conference was a follow-up on railroad labor and management conferences held in Washington during the past winter, at which was drawn up an elaborate 13-point program to meet an estimated requirement for over 350,000 new railroad workers in 1943. The program called for training of new workers, up-grading, transfer from one road to another, relaxation of road mileage limitations, greater employment of women, reduction of retirements, encouragement of return to active service by employees already retired, and so on. It is Whitney’s conclusion that this entire program was a flop. To the general public, which merely tries to ride on the railroads or ship things on its freight trains, all this is pretty disconcerting. The fact that the brothérhoods and the operators should be throwing stones at each: others’ trains of thought, as they whiz hy, can be tinderstood at this time as part of the inevitable preliminaries to a new wage negotiation. If these charges and counter-charges were only that, they could be discounted accordingly. . But the general public does know that trains are late, trains are crowded, mail is slow, freight and express service are worse than they have been, and if the disruption of the nation’s food distribution system is in any way a transportation problem, things are in a mess.

A Whale of a Job!

IT IS EASY to explain and possible to take all this as a war necessity, but that apparently is not the complete answer. Fact is, the railroads have done a whale of a job. Freight hauled in 1942 was 630 billion ton-miles, or 33 per cent more than in 1941. Passenger traffic was 53 billion passenger miles, or 80 per cent above 1941. Both figures were far above previous national peak years. - Average trains were longer, heavier, faster, cheaper than ever before. Railroad net income was $1.48 billion, 48 per cent above 1941. Somebody must have worked, some place, to achieve those results. But even those records must be broken in 1943, when equipment will be further run down, old crews older and new crews greener. If there is any suspicion that there is'some truth in what both the operators and the brotherhoods say about each other, the tip for them should be to get together quickly, admit their errors, mend their ways. : ® # =» Westbrook Pegler is on vacation.

\ ’ Come In By Stephen Ellis

FRIDAY NIGHT Robert Frost charmed a nearcapacity audience in the War Memorial auditorium by reading a number of his poems. He read from a book that had not yet been published—although already mentioned in Mrs. Roosevelt's daily column. "It is in the bookstores for the first time today. Besides an arrangement of many of the more familiar and best-loved Frost poems, “Come In” contains a running commentary by Louis Untermeyer, who is also a poet. It is illustrated with color and

line drawings by John O'Hara Cosgrove II reflecting

the austere Vermont beauty amid which the poet lives. The selection shows the chief Frost characteristics of humor, homely wisdom, a simple vocabulary and the unforgettable phrases he gives to usually forgotten thoughts. Mr. Frost, who is poet-in-residence at Indiana university this semester, writes in our own language. As Mr. Untermeyer comments, “He makes his verses talk and sing. His touch is as light as it is certain.”

Faith in America Is Triumph HE IS A TELLER of tales, a reteller of tall fales.

He urged his local audience not to geek second and | || third meanings behind the “first glance” significance

of his words. His newer poems witness a continuing growth and variety of genius, yet the title poem of this volume— previously unpublished—is in much the spirit of his earlier woods poems.

He says he doesn't write “war poems,” but the pa- | |

triotic and thoughtful “The Gift Outright” expresses love of country in terms of salvation of faith and of surrender to our beloved land: “Such as she was, such as she would become.” His word, “would,” was arrived at’ after much deliberation in which .he twice wrote “might.” The “would” carries the poet's conquering faith in Amter-

April 6— There are two sides to everything, |

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES . No Ordinary April Shower!

"0 FSD);

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

“A BAD CASE OF GRIPE-ITIS” By J. Haggerty, Southport To Mr. L. S. Benton, Beech Grove: On what, Mr. Benson, do you base your outlandish remarks which appeared in the March 30 Times? You speak of evil working under cover. If you will, please, give me one instance which could possibly illustrate this claim. I say hats off to Mr. Roosevelt, who, ‘like Lincoln, was elected by the common people and proceeded to work for the common people while in office. It is true that you cannot fool all the people all the time, but the new deal is merely trying to operate in the interest of most of the people most of the time and not for the over-privileged few, who certainly rode a gravy train with biscuit wheels during the “chicken in every pot” administration. You, Mr. Benson, like a few other of Uncle Sam's 135,000,000 ‘“patients,” are not satisfied with your cure, and are endeavoring to throw your crutches at the “doctor.” And if, in 1944, you go to a licensed doctor, I'm pretty sure he will fill up a prescription bottle with water, tell you to take so many doses every hour, and then assure you that you have nothing but a bad case of [“gripe-itis.” " .

® x 8 “ALL OF THIS AND MORE TO WIN A WAR” By C. A. Bicknell, Indianapolis I am a government inspector in defense plants and this capacity, I believe, enables me to answer the farmers on the editorial of “CityBred Youth Reported as Nuisance on Farms.” I have found that most of the city plants feel the same about most of the farmers in the shops, but they are forced to use them anyway and hope that one out of five can become capable of following instructions. : To Mr. Schaekel, who is afraid someone will ruin a tire (then he would have to get a horse), I would like to say I have seen farmers working on $2000 drill presses using $500 jigs to locate holes to be drilled

(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.) :

in armor plate (that is worth its weight in gold when you think of its use to save lives) and end up with some of the holes half an inch off location due to not placing the jig, then checking to see if it is right. I have also seen plates done by the same men that ended up with as high as 14 holes too many in one plate. And you can ask anyone and they will tell you that when you drill with a jig that this

‘is impossible to do, but the plate is

ruined just the same. The point I am trying to bring out is that you don’t hear the manufacturers saying, “We can’t use these men because they are a nuisance.” No, you don’t. They just pull their hair and cuss a little, give their belts a hitch, then sit right down on each man until they drum the instructions into him until he cannot do it wrong. Of course, this is tiresome, discouraging, nervewracking and extra work, but some people know that it takes all of this and ‘more to win a war. Mr. Spliker, who is a farmer, says, “It takes 15 years to make a farmer,” and he is probably right, but I am a welder and it takes 10 years or better to be a welder, but I can show you hundreds that have only been at the trade for half that many months who are doing 8 wonderful job of helping the real welder get out the things that are going to win the war. The ones I speak of are not welders but they know one set procedure and can do wonders on it. The same can be done on the farms. Boys from the farms can be trusted with $150,000 lathes, mikes, gauges, etc, and with the lives of our boys on the battlefield and in

the factories, but a city mechanic|

Side Glances—By Galbraith

or truck driver can’t be trusted to operate a $1100 tractor that probably sat out in a field and rusted all winter. To this I would like to add a good old-fashioned American word, “Baloney.” Wake up, farmers, there is a war on.

” » » “SAVE AMERICA FROM SOCIALIST SLAVERY”: - By Edward F. Maddox, Indianapolis We need patriotic American’ leaders right now whose whole purpose, desire and motive is geared to winning the war, and whose mind and actions, are not influenced by crackpot political “daydreaming, and who merely see.the war as a convenient: lever to pry the world into a “new order” of state socialism, national ‘socialism or international socialism.. The new orders, the .new free-. doms and the new deals-are all based on some form of socialistic totalitarianism. I challenge anybody to successfully and truthfully deny these facts. If we are to win this war for real Americanism, we must have believers in our American system in charge. A Nazi is for naziism, a Fascist is for fascism, a Bm \N is for socialism, and a real. American is for Americanism. So the only hope for a survival of the genuine democracy of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln is to keep the official government power and policy-making function in control of men who believe in

the democracy and republicanism | &

of Jefferson and Lincoln. Do the American people think that Henry Wallace, Harry Hopkins and Frances Perkins . . . intend to preserve American democracy? Are we really dumb? Hasn't Henry Wallace, for a long time, been trying to convince us that we now have “collectivism”? Well, that’s what Hitler and Stalin have! Is that what you’ Americans want? Well, that is what we are getting as fast as the left-wingers can force it on us! God save America from socialist slavery. » ” 5 “DON'T BE TOUGH ON BOYS AND GIRLS” By Harry J. Gasper, 903 E. 11th I see where our city councilman, Ed Kealing, proposes a bill to fine anyone caught smoking on a city streetcar $25. Gee, Ed, don't be so tough on the boys and girls. After

1all, the biggest part of them are

defense workers that are not al-

lowed to smoke on the job and that half hour or so ride home provides them with a little relaxation. . . . And anyhow, Ed, how .are you

going to enforce it? Deputize the|

motorman and have him issue “No Smoking Stickers?” - Or, will you have him grdb the nasty rascals by the neck and toss them to the first corner policeman? If you must do something for the welfare of the city, how about cleaning up some of the rubbish and broken glass that is cluttering up our streets and the miles of broken curbs with their sharp edges, ruining the side walls of tires.

Don’t say you inherited this from

the last administra tion—that's just so much log rolling. ' After all, your party sold the public on ‘the idea that you could do a better job, so how about proving it? So far this administration has not been competent enough to hire its own help.

DAILY THOUGHT

" Because he * considereth, and turneth away from-all his transgressions. that he hath committod he stall yurely. live, he shall not die—Esekiel 18

India Richa By William Philip Sine

WASHINGTON, April 8 While the United States, Britain and other war-burdened nations have been growing ‘poorer to the tune of billions of dollars weekly, India has actually been getting richer. In: the past three years of war. ' India has not only repaid the debt - incurred by investment of British capital there over a period of 60 years, but in addition has lated Shariitips assets more than equalling the whole of that debt. From a debtor, she has become a creditor nation. . So much has been said of British | ‘in the land of Mahatma Gandhi that it-is-only fair for this phenomenon to receive a little attention, . . - . At the outset of the war, according to the London Economist, the sterling debt. of the government -of India was approximately $1,440,000,000 including railway stocks and annuities. By the end of the financial year of 1940-41, the total had been reduced to less than a billion. Atrthe end of this year less than $30,000,000 will’ be outstanding. And that: will soon melt.

How Miracle Was Accomplished

THAT, HOWEVER, is not half the story, says" the Economist. While cutting down her sterling debt, India has been accumulating, via the Reserve Bank of India, sterling securities and cash which, by the middle of last February, had reached the impressive total of $1,380,000,000 more than five times the

_amount held when the war started. If sterling assets

are added to the sterling debt repaid, the grand total is $2,428,000,000. How this miracle was accomplished is interesting. In November, 1939, Britain and India signed an agrees. £ ment. India agreed to pay from her own resources for all land forces raised, trained and equipped, but only so long as .they remained in India, Britai agreed to pay ior all imported equipment and meet

| all capital expenditures Incurred in India on airfields

and so forth. When the agreement was signed, India seemed fap removed from the conflict. At most, it was thought, she might send a smal! force to fight.in North’ or’ East Africa in the event of Italy declaring war.

And Then Came Japs

BUT WHEN Japan came in, the whole picture changed. India had to be prepared against invasion, This meant more capital expenditures within thé

| country and the use of more Indian troops outside

the country. The British tried to renegotiate the agreement, bus India stood firm. And not the least interesting thing about all this is that British administrators are responsible. They have conducted India’s’ case" throughout. Instead of favoring their own country they have really leaned backward to see that India got perhaps better than an even break. The moment an Indian soldier crosses into Burma, he ceases to be a charge on the government of India. He is defending his own country, but outsiders are footing the bill. Every bullet of Indian manufacture fired by an Indian soldier in the Burmese campaigns was paid for in sterling, cash on the barrelhead.

‘Some Real Benefits

- INDIA ALSO is receiving large quantities of lends’ t lease aid from the United States. And while she is giving “reciprocal aid,” she has not yet entered any .mutual aid agreement. A - The Indian government is now working on a post war reconstruction plan. This will entail the ime

portation of large amounts of locomotives, machine

ery .and materials of all kinds. An ambitious pfogram of industrial expansion is part of the scheme, The funds will come from the sterling Yeserves Row. piling up. Accordingly, says the Economist, the constitution of such funds “is an implied acknowledgement that the sterling resources in question must be regarded. as .blocked until such a time: as: they can be freed for financing British exports to India.” Thus Britain eventually will receive a cerfain ade vantage from the financial deal with India.. If much of the money goes to pay for British machinery and other goods, their manufacture will help reduce, Britain's post-war unemployment. But that. fact does not lessen the very real benefits to India. As things stand she will emerge from the. war better oR. than when she went. in,

We » the Women By Ruth Millett aie pe x

THE MAN—and he is a grande father himself—blew up when he read the newspaper interview with an old lady who had her picture in the paper because she had lived so long. The old lady was offering ad« vice ‘to the young wives of today and. it was her advice that Ath} the modern-minded grandfath sore. She said that the young wives of today would get along better if they would stop, sleeping late in the morning and get up and get their husbands’ breakfasts. - The grandfather said he thought it was about time for old lpdies to quit giving advice to the young women of today. ew He said no woman of another generation can L068 down her nose at the young wives and mothers of 1943. He said thousands ‘and thousands of them not only get up to cook their own and their husbands* breakfasts, but jump up from thie breakfast table to rush to a job in a war plant, work there all day, and then rush home at night to cook dinner, clean the house and then go out with their: husbands if ‘they are feeling in the mood for a movie.

Modern Women Pioneers, Too

. HE SAID many of them are even doing all thas and bringing up a child or two at the same time, And as far as he is concerned, he's tired of h about how much grandma Worked and how incom petent modern girls are. o He is rather bored, too, with hearing about th K way the pioneer women crossed the country in cov wagons. At least those women had their men at their side and he points out that plenty of m rs are following their men across the country, with three or four kids to take care of on crowded busses and trains—and no man to help them make the trip. 4 He believes: they have it.about as hard as the ploneer ‘'women—since their men could build them huts to live in. And today’s husbands in army or working in cities crowded with war workers always find places for their families to live, once arrive. This grandfather has decided: that young are having it plenty tough these: days—and that are proving they can really take it. «And under circumstances, he thinks the best, thing old folks do about offering advice is to keep still. __ ..

To the Point—.

PERHAPS it all evens up. JA: least “ti worm catches the fish. Te — m, sme, Semi 12a. Deon own as the sh mon yoar—snd Bon ig as SE Tn