Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 April 1943 — Page 22

e Indianapolis Times RALPH BURKHOLDER Editor, in U. S. Service 1 WALTER LECKRONE Business Manager Editor (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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@ive Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1943

TAXES AND BONDS

: WE have a letter, this morning, from an Indianapolis woman who flatly proposes that we all quit buying war - bonds until congress enacts a sane tax law.

We can’t indorse her idea, but we certainly can understand her viewpoint.

Many thousands of us have pledged definite sums for war bonds, and expect to pledge more, and to meet those commitments as they come due. But as it stands today ~ we have no idea how much tax we will be required to pay on ‘this year’s income, nor how it will be collected, nor how much we may have left to pay for war bonds. Nearly a third of this year is past, nearly a third of this year’s in- : come has been received right now—and no taxpayer in ~ America is able to make a budget for his taxes because his government refuses to tell him what the bill will be.

; That is the biggest obstacle in the way of the sale of ,125 million dollars more bonds in Indiana in the campaign : that is opening now. Congress hasn’t passed a tax bill. So

» ” » (CONGRESS tried to pass a tax bill, which would have been just and fair and would have made the payment of taxes as easy as it is possible to make any payment.

It was based, as all tax laws should be, on the premise that the government taxes its citizens to get money it needs, and not, as most tax laws have been in the past decade, as a weapon to compel some sort of reform or to punish or reward some special group. This condemned it in the eyes of the administration’s taxation “experts.” The administration marshaled every force it could command to beat down this proposal amid the wildest outburst of demagoguery Washington has heard in years. The “experts” offered no sensible substitute. So there isn’t any tax law for 1943. No, we can’t go on a “bond-buying strike,” no matter how great the provocation. There is too much at stake. The desperate war needs of our country must be met, re‘gardless of muddling and delays and demagoguery. We'll buy all the war bonds we can buy, with every dollar we can get, because the war won’t wait while congress fiddles and “experts” dream.

But we know how you feel, lady, we know just iow: you feel.

A WORLD MONEY PACT?

"VW ASHINGTON and London have submitted differing plans for international monetary stabilization. Both are tentative, which is as it should be. But there is promise in the mere fact that the two richest nations are facing the problem and seeking a solution.

- Few of us are expert enough to know the answer. That isn’t too embarrassing; the experts disagree among themselves, and have been none too successful in the national, much less the international, field.

Nevertheless, all of us are intelligent enough to know —especially since the long depression—that the time is past when one nation can prosper while the others are in

financial chaos and that foreign trade is impossible without

some form of stable exchange.

The solution of this economic problem, or the failure to find a solution, may have more effect on future prosperity and peace than the more widely advertised issues of world political organization and frontiers. So it should be a matter of special pride to Americans that President Roosevelt, whose sudden reversal of policy wrecked the London ‘economic conference 10 years ago, is now leading the way. . The American and British plans are far apart, or rather the latter is much the more ambitious. The American is limited to a currency stabilization fund based on gold. The British propose, in addition to a currency stabilization not ‘tied to gold, an international “clearing unien” to provide anking facilities. Under both plans, however, long-term credits would be left to a supplementary organization to finance reconstruction. » # 2 8 8

PART from details, certain broad questions arise immediately, such as:

Will the president or congress have the final decision re? Though some believe that the president has necesary authority under existing law, he and Secretary Morenthau have wisely decided that nothing will be done rithout congressional approval.

What guarantee is there that American interests would 8 protected under an international financial setup? Under he American plan, the United States, as the largest (40 er cent) participant in the fund and with 25 per cent of vote, would have absolute veto Yower. Under the ritish plan, Lord Keynes says there would be no “preponsrant power of veto or enforcement lying with any country group.” Actually, Britain would be strongest.

What about gold? The American plan attempts to

the American hoard to put the world back on the gold |

andard. We would put up two billion dollars, the amount ‘the present treasury stabilization fund, and still have D billion left. (The rest of the world has only six billion).

The British plan would “supplant gold as'a governing ctor but not dispense with it”; and, by apportioning gz power on the basis of prewar world trade, if, would e ‘Britain shout: 50 per cent more votes than the United tes. In other words, Washington ahd London i in sosking a tion for world benefit’ are trying to guard their indiinterests first. That is desirable. But any internaagreement in this field, or another, will require comof course.

«E> RILEY 551 |

In Washington | By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, April 9—An easy generalization frequently made is that Vice President Henry A. Wallace is an impractical visionary, a bit of mystic and dreamer. From that start, it is a simple matter to go on and assume that in a crass, hard-head- ' ed, material world, Henry should not be allowed at large. : Strictly for your own amazement, however, you might some time care to check back on the record of Mr. Wallace’s screwy ideas @f the past, just to see how they turned out. Take just the idea of the “ever normal granary.” Remember how fantastic that sounded when it was first presented back in 1933? When the United States lost the. world markets in which it used to sell its surpluses, the idea of storing those surpluses against lean years looked ridiculous. . Yet along came the droughts of 1934 and 1936, and oh how those surpluses helped maintain supply and keep down prices. Again, in 1937, when the corn carry-over was only 170 million buskels and the wheat carry-over was only 100 million bushels, Wallace . called attention to the fact that these surpluses should be doubled.’

Welcome Surpluses

GOOD CROP years did finally build up the carryover stocks to peaks of 00 million bushels of corn in 1940 and 600 million bushels of wheat in 1942, and the cry went up that the government was going to be left holding the bag. Yet along came the war, and it is these very surpluses which may provide salvation as feed crops for increased livestock demands, if the use of these surpluses is not hamstrung by legislative restrictions.

Now it is not to be imagined that Henry Wallace, the mystic, gazed into any crystal ball and foresaw either the droughts of 1934 and ’36, or the wars of 1939 and ’'42, with their increased demands for farm products. But the fact remains that thus far, the theory of Henry Wallace’s ever normal granary has worked, and all that can be asked of any contraption or gadget or theory of economics is that it work. The same thing goes for the much-cussed and discussed Triple A—the agricultural adjustment administration- program. It was born out of the depths of depression, a Wallace-sponsored brain child. It was killed by the supreme court in 1936. It was revived in the new AAA act of 1938, taking the emphasis off production of more cotton and wheat, putting more emphasis on soil conservation; planting of soilbuilding crops, contour plowing and sd on.

Farm Income Tripled

WALLACE'S FARM program was, in all, responsible for building up national farm income from around 4 billion dollars in 1283 to 9 billion in 1940, but that was only the beginning. By enabling the farmers to earn more money, the fertility of their soil and the condition of their equipment and livestock was built up to a point where agricultural America could produce the biggest crops on record,

‘raising farm income to nearly 12 billion.

Maybe .this is just Wallace’s mystic luck, but if there had "been no farm program agriculture in America would have gone down hill and through the ‘30s, and the United States would have entered the war under the most serious of handicaps. The Wallace record is not infallible. The “slaughter of the little pigs,” proposed by some of the farm organizations as par} of the corn-hog program, was bad psychology, though economists can still be found who defend it. But balancing the books, over the past 10 years, Wallace’s ideas have been right far oftener than they have been wrong. » ” ”

Westbrook Pegler is on vacation.

Cargo Planes By Major Al Williams

NEW YORK, April 9. — We must provide g protection against " scientists, Or, at least, we must provide executive control which will limit scientific specialists to building or trying to build the machinery best suited to our needs. Who determines what kind of airplane is to be built? The executives of the company? Certainly. not. Engineers! Who determines what projects shall be exploited in our laboratories? Executives, the men who hold the money bags? Certainly not. Scientists! We have failed to train the type of executive who will exercise his authority to keep a: checkrein on the laboratory experts and the scientists. (Naturally these observations are concerned with the aviation industry). An engineer is essentially a specialist—-hydraulics, aeronautics, power plants, radio. He is deeply immersed in his specialty. Some kind of control must be provided to see to it that the users of the world’s machinery are protected from the wild and unproven

brain-children of this specialist.

Remember Ford Transport?

LOOK AROUND and audit the vast amount of proven types of aircraft that are discarded year by year. What happened to the grand old Ford ftrimotored transport? Shucks, just about the time it was making about 130 miles an hour carrying the country’s passengers and mail, it was junked so a bunch of engineers could

get at the job of designing and building a newer, bigger, faster air transport. These engineers couldn’t be harnessed to the task of refining the Ford. Oh no! They had to build something entirely new. And it wasn’t sufficient to build one new air transport, the Boeing 247D. We had to build another new type, the Douglas DC-2. And then the Boeing 247D (twin-engined, low-wing, metal job) was discarded, and now we are in the throes of building all kinds of new and bigger—but all unproven—ships. = And there are reams of blueprints for still bigger unproven transports.

Germans: Produced 'Workhorse'

: JUST WHERE has this got us? We are sadly in need of thousands of cargo-carrying airplanes today. The Ford is out, of course. We couldn’t be bothered refining anything that old. The grand old Boeing 247D is out. Both of them thoroughly safe airple- "3, neither one possessed of a nasty flight trick a: able to land almost everywhere. The Germans produced a basically sound trarisport -of about’ the same vin of the Ford tri-motored job, the JU-52, and they kept on refining that JU-52 until today it is the workhorse of the Nazi air force. The JU-52 is an honest-to~goodness cargo carrier

| which can be safely flown by almost anyone, landed

alinost everywhere, with all its pugs eliminated.

The navy fighting men staged a revolution recent- |

ly and won the power to have something to say about the kinds of warships that are built for them to fight with. But airmen are e still ying

The Hoosier Forum

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

“AFTER READING ERNIE PYLE’S DESCRIPTION ,..” By Lillian Dinehart 3920 Cornelius ave. After reading Ernie Pyle’s description ‘of our soldiers’ reaction to news of strikes in war plants, if I had ever been implicated in said strikes, I would start right now digging a hole to dive into when these kids begin: to come back. A good big deep hole, with ar lid I could pull in after me! 2 = = “LET'S MAKE THIS A COMPLETE VICTORY” By Mariam Williams, R. R. 1, Box 221, Plainfield

I would like to assure Mr. Maddox that there is no cause to fear government beeoming ‘a socialist totalitaristic state. : I cannot honestly deny that there have not been some mistakes and

gram; however, as many as these mistakes may seem, I do not think it fair for the people to criticize the administration when as often these seeming “mistakes” are the aftermath of bottlenecks caused by their own shortcomings or idle disinterest in this national emergency. People who persistently cling to the old political machine form of exercising their rights deserve what they get. The time to make sure that we won’t wake up one morning in a socialist state is to make sure of whom you are going to vote for. Don’t be too ready fo jump on any chariot of fair promises unless you know the man as well as your next door neighbor. And once he’s there, don’t let him forget for one moment it was the people who put him there, and that he is there in your interests. I cannot but agree with Mr. Maddox that good leaders are one of the things essential in winning the war, but I would like to remind him that in order to carry out our program successfully we must have a people entirely in sympathy with the needs and wishes of these leaders. Even if we are inclined to be prejudiced toward certain persons in power, it certainly won’t help matters any for us to backslide in our efforts just because others are doing so, or because we. think

errors in carrying out our war pro-|

(Times readers are invited to express their views -in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Because of the volume received, let‘ters must be limited to 250 Letters must. be

words. signed.)

him in the wrong. If we do our part, and we fail to win the war, then is the time to criticize. I think that our best chance in keeping for our children our cherished way of life is for us to go on and do what is expected of us in this emergency. Remember that we have a foe worthy of the name “enemy”; also that we must work hard and make real sacrifices in order to balance his strength and numerous resources. Make it a fact ih your mind that the next treaty signed by us shall not possess the same futility as the first signed in France in 1918. Make this a complete, indisputable victory so that the people of this nation may enjoy now, and in the future, the privilege of being Americans. ” » ”

“ENOUGH IMPURITIES

IN THE AIR AS IT IS”

By Corp. Wyldes H. Munree, Co. C, 3d Pit., D. E. T. 8.,, Ft. Harrison _

I have just read with interest the recent mention in your editorials and the replies of correspondents of the smoker problem on busses, streetcars and other conveyances.

I have traveled across the continent on busses as a civilian and on trains as a soldier, and at all times I have to bow to the wishes of the smoking majority and bathe my lungs in smoke-filled air. I have tried to analyze the situation and decide in a rational manner why one who likes pure - air and hates the smell of burning tobacco should have to bow to the wishes of people who make themselves a public nuisance by polluting the air, I wonder if it is right because everyone, nearly, wants to. do it. There are enough impurities in the air as it is without people willfully

Side Glances—By Galbraith

9:15.

polluting it just to satisfy a craving in themselves. Many defense workers plead that they arise hurriedly, eat hurriedly and rush to catch the bus to work and the only time they have to enjoy a smoke is on the way to work. But how about the passengers who wish to enjoy clean air while riding to work, and many do. It can only be a courtesy to them for the smoker to desist from his foul practice when others are forced to inhale the smoke against their wishes, especially on a common carrier. The man who wilfully or otherwise burned a mess of trash or weeds three times a day and caused a smudge that would drift into his neighbor's house and nauseate him and his family would soon be declared a nuisance and be forced to stop the practice, but the man who smokes his pipe, cigar or cigaret every morning on the bus and nauseates his neighbor beside him is deemed within his rights. How inconsistent! But as truly as he lives, he is a nuisance to the man who rides beside him. God created the air free from man-made poisons. Shouldn’t the man who wishes to have clean air have his rights respected? “ hi ” » » “STREET A BEDLAM AFTER 11 O'CLOCK” By A Law Abiding Citizen, Indianapolis We note the good work the M. P. soldiers are doing directing traffic and would appreciate it very much

if they could correct a very trying situatign in the neighborhood of 9th and Pennsylvania sts. The Rollerland roller skating rink is located at 926 N. Pennsylvania st. This is a beneficial amusement place, - but they .let out: after 11 olock and from then until midnight the street is a bedlam of catcalls, screams, etc., until if one were lucky enough to be asleep before they dismiss they are awakened with a start thinking a murder is being committed. It is then after midnight before it quiets enough to sleep and those of us who have to get up fairly early in the morning do not get the sleep we need. 4 Could not this amusement let out ga little earlier, or the curfew law be brought into effect so that young girls. and mere children would not race and scream up and

. |down the street without any curb?

Where are their parents? Why should such young people be out

‘1so late unattended?

: 8 8.8 “OPINION APT TO BE SLIGHTLY BIASED” By Mrs. James Brothers, 5410 Rosslyn ave,

I see two persons have written to the Forum in defense of the po-

“|licemen of our fair city, but they

both happen to be policemen’s wives so I am afraid their opinion is apt to be slightly biased. They tell me I' know. nothing of this subject; if my whole letter had been published they: would see that maybe I know too much about it. Yes, Mrs. Cunningham, I read The Times from cover to cover but

| I feel the article you mention about

the city being cleaned up 100 per cent was on the wrong page—it should have heen on the comic. page, but still it didn’t fail to give plenty of people a good laugh. One per cent would have been closer as

{everyone except policemen’s wives

seems to realize.

DAILY THO OUGHT . ‘Thanks be to for His unspeakable gift. — II Corinthians

Mine Bitterness By Fred Ww. Perkins

NEW YORK, April 0.— Bitters ness charges the deadlocked bi= tuminous-coal wage negotiations here, as operators await action

from Washington on one broad -

hint and one specific request— made over protests of the United Mine Workers — for the nation war labor board to take charge working out the wage issues. } A moderate amount of name calling is usual in these biennial meetings, but most of it is put down as good fun or stage play. This year it is different. The leading

.men on both sides have become deadly serious after

four futile weeks of looking across conference tables at each other. 3 They are even more serious today after .the

inevitable showdown between John L. Lewis and’

President Roosevelt was made more imminent by the president's declaration in support of national wage control policies which Mr. Lewis has said he intends to break. . '

His Head in a Box?

“NO COMMENT,” was all Mr. Lewis had to say when told of the president’s order, which is regarded

‘as striking into the heart of the coal dispute, over

which United Mine Workers and the bituminous operators have been conferring [Sruitlessly since a8 month ago tomorrow. The order was regarded as completing the box

‘into which the U. M. W. head has been driven of

has driven himself-—a box from which he can

“extricate himself only by withdrawal of the union's

wage demands or by the risky experiment of a strike in the middle of war. Yet the stakes are high, because if Mr. Lewis can force Mr. Roosevelt and his assistants to retreat, the man with the bushy eyebrows will again become the dominant figure in American organized labor an: will overshadow William Green and Philip Mu who now have taken the other tack in support of the administration's efforts to hold wages down if that will keep prices down.

This probably accounts for the bitterness apparent

in the present negotiations,

'Don't Show Your Amusement’

AT ONE POINT Mr. ‘Lewis demanded of R. IL Ireland Jr., one of the operator committee, “Wha are you laughing at?” Mr. Ireland replied that he was amused by certain Lewis statements, and the union leader snapped back: “All right, but don’t show your amusement in my face.” The southern operators conference produced simie lar evidence that tempers were getting ragged. Ede ward R. Burke, spokesman for the southerners, told of that group’s intentioh to ask immediate assumption of jurisdiction by the war labor board, and said: “The question to be answered is whether Mr, Lewis and the United Mine Workers are subject to the same obligations and responsibilities that rest on every one else in the country, or is Mr. Lewis so powerful that he can demand and receive special treatment accorded to no one else.”

'In Rather a Bad Way’

" PERCY TETLOW, a Lewis aid row in charge for

the union at the southern conference, accused Mr,

Burke of “a breach of a pledge of honor.” He said there had been an agreement that the petition to the war labor board was not to be made public pend ing a further conference with Dr, John R. Steelman, who had confined his attention to the northern conference. Mr. Burke outlined a series of unkept engagements which he declared absolved the southern group from responsibility. Said Mr. Steelman at the northern meeting: “Endugh has been said to indicate the conference is in rather a bad way at this time. But as long as people sit around the table, there’s hope.”

We the Women

By Ruth Millett

THE WAR IS offering parents |

of school age children a wonders ful opportunity for teaching them ' co-operation and responsibility.

They see their parents cow | and | townspeople in car-sharing pools, |

operating. with neighbors

in war work, and in home defense |

duties.

They see them helping each |

other out as it gets harder and harder to hire domestic help.

They see them giving up things because they wang .

to put the money into war bonds. They see them taking a responsible interest in government and world affairs. ‘ That is all to the good. Too many grownups have in the past taken a “Let George do it” attitude toward government, community projects, and anything gy worth while that called for work and co-operation. ~ Now children are having the right kind of example set them by grownups. But there is even more the grownups can do to make the lessons in cow operation stick. They can see that the children also are given jobs to do, and that, when co-operation is expected of them, they t0-Gperate, :

Make ‘the Most of It,

THE CHILDREN whose ents take turns driving them to school should be made to realize the impore | tance of being ready and waiting when the car stops for them, The children in a family where the mother is overa worked should be given definite jobs to do and held responsible for doing them every day. v . If they are old enough to.go to school they are old enough to make some contribution to the war effort, They should be made to see that eating what ig available instead of always just what they want is one of the ways in which they can help to win the war, It. is a wonderful time to teach children to assume responsibilities and ‘to consider the other fellow, And parents should be making the most of it.

To the Point—

THE SOONER all of us are on out foes, the soonep we'll stomp all over Hitler's Mussolini's and Tojo’s,

» * .

HAVING A swelled head is a fine way to get youre

self in a tight place. . . . IT WILL HELP a lot if sowing in the yard bee comes as popular as sewing in the home, > IT 18 TOO saly to slant hoping there be ng April fueling. . * *

BEAUTY SHOPS rank high is Sinétidun

THE LESS SOME More they seem. to talk it off.

A COLLECTOR PAID. $000 tor. several carved in wood. Maybe he’ a’ pamiing 81

Tomy ihn i. .