Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 May 1943 — Page 10

Page PDF (10.61 MB)

Back to issue view

&. on ¢

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Times

RALPH BURKHOLDER Editor, in U. 8. Service

MARK FERREE WALTER LECKRONE Business Manager Editor :

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD President

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

Owned and published B= daily (except Sunday) by Indianapolis Times Publishing Co., 214 W. Mary-

land st. Mail rates in Indiana,

$4 a year; adjoining states, 75 cents a month; others, $1 monthly.

«SP RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

Member of United Press; Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA E Service, and Audit Bu- E reau of Circulations.

SATURDAY, MAY 15, 1943

THE TOWN BULLY KAMERADS HE difference between Tunisia and Dunkirk is the difference between the town bully and the little guy who is slow to anger but mighty and unrelenting in his wrath. A bully is a coward at heart. He can be a hard fighter when he is dishing it out, but he can’t take it. And when he turns yellow he turns fast. The end of the last war against Germany was dramatized by thousands of Kamerad incidents. The same German trait is showing up in the stories from North Africa. “They had plenty of guns—they could have made a helluva fight, but they're just packing up,” writes United Press Correspondent Ned Russell, describing how the Germans on Cap Bon flocked in to surrender. ; The bully is a quitter. That's true bully psychology. World war No. 1 proved it. This one will finish the same way. But let’s not assume that a bully will quit when he’s a little ahead, or just even. He's got to know he’s licked first. Then you can count on the Kamerads. In North Africa, history has repeated. But let’s not get over-confident. Africa is one continent and Europe is another.

SOME KANSAS COMMON SENSE LF M. LANDON in a Minneapolis address brought to

bear a lot of his Kansas common sense on the subject |

of the Republican party’s relationship to international affairs, past, present and future. In times like these when pulses, tempers, ideals, ideas and solutions run high and fast, the nation can use profitably the calm kind of treatment that characterizes this speech by the one-time presidential nominee. For instance, Landon doesn’t condemn those who envision America’s post-war responsibility as world-wide.

t He merely suggests the stop-look-and-listen technique as

geontrasted with what he calls the hallelujah approach to

entsuch problems as boundary restrictions, the future of im-

perialism, reconstruction of the Dutch and French empires, and the manner in which interpretations of the four freedoms and the Atlantic Charter shall be applied. To use a football term, he warns against our getting out too far ahead of our interference. 2 = » = 5 2 HERE is nothing isolationist about the speech. Rather it is an appeal to the realities in such language as: “It is not helping any to have public officials and citizens of this country making the glib statement that we alone are responsible for the kind of world government that has been or will be established.” It is obvious that other nations are looking at their necessities in a realistic way, he says, and that should warn us that our own foreign policy should be so conducted. “Otherwise we will find that we must either go back on our own promises and earn the ill will of other nations, or meekly give away everything we have in order to create and maintain a world federation built on an unsound basis.” In short, saving this wicked old globe, which has backslid hell-bent into war, can't be done by using the glands, but rather by using the head. Evangelism, the missionary spirit, starry-eyed and arm-waving sermons won't do the job. The sinner is too far gone to hit the sawdust trail or to find salvation in a Holy Roller revival. The appeal must be to the reason, not to the emotions. = = = = » = ND to be thus practical—and thereby effective—we’ve got to know what's going on. Landon swings a haymaker at Hot Springs and that secret non-military international food conference: “God save the United States from a centralized, governmentdominated source of news. . . . The greater danger is that these pow-wows may set the precedent for all international conferences that will be held preparing for peace.” We call those words, to put it mildly, pertinent.

HE UNIFIED STAFF SCHOOL

V[ORE important than many larger headlines was Secretary Stimson’s announcement of the creation of an my and navy staff college to train senior officers in co»dinated land-sea-air war. So at long last we have learned rom the enemy a basic military reform which the rivalry { some of our ancient admirals and generals has hitherto - * revented.

The only legitimate excuse—but a shameful one—for

has been our lack of any single commander, much less a ctaff, sufficiently trained in all three services, Yes, three—for the divided air service, though still denied equal status, is rapidly coming to dominate the land-sea-air team in battle. It is not too much to hope that the new staff school may soon make possible a unified command, and that the politicians will keep pace by merging the overlapping and often conflicting war and navy departments in a unified defense department with undersecretaries for land, sea and air,

HEALTH IN VICTORY GARDENS “THERE is no greater physical regard to humanity than that wonderful thing which Webster saw fit to call Sired.’ : - When a man is tired, he has made himself so—he

has strained those things which he calls his muscles, but

which are usually a few flabby tendons covered with fat. To become tired, a man must work, and when a man works,

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

TUCSON, Ariz, May 15.— within the next few weeks I shall - develop details of a conspiracy of the Communist fifth column to take over the American merchant "marine and the Atlantic and Gulf ports of the United States in addition to the Pacific ports which already have been conquered by Harry Bridges, the Australian Communist, - This is just an outline. The National Maritime Union is trying to get custody of the guns on the merchant vessels and the training of merchant sailors. The union also is trying to chase the longshoremen’s union of the. American Federation of Labor off the East coast and the Gulf and move Bridges in with his Communist-front West coast organization. v The A. F. of L. union is very bad. It charges out-

confidence of the men. At the same time Communist groups are trying to plant their own “intellectuals” in offices of various government agencies in Washington and New York having to do with the merchant marine. Some fel-lew-travelers already have been given jobs and recently an official of the union was given a post in the department of labor. ’ .

Money and Propaganda

THE UNION is conducting a strong propaganda campaign on government officials and congressmen to dissuade the government from training sailors for jobs on the merchant ships, fearing that a lot of genuine American youngsters would refuse to accept Communist leadership and doctrine and would dilute the union's power on board the boats which is now so great that ship captains are constantly heckled by Communists and delegates at sea and in port. It is also trying to seduce the navy sailors of the. gun crews, whose pay is very small by comparison with the tremendous wages, bonuses and allowances paid to merchant sailors with civilian status Whose risks, however, are no greater. : + The union program is to give the enlisted navy sailors food out of the crew's mess; to invite them to use the crew's library of Communist literature, and to take up collections among the crews when they air paid off and hand the money to the enlisted sailors as charity so as to make them dissatisfied with the navy pay, sullen against their government and grateful to the union.

Gunners Have Trying Time ‘

IT IS also proposed that the navy men be invited to Communist union meetings- on board the ships which, of course, would be a grave violation of navy regulations and customs. The Communists have been working on the enlisted gunners ever since they were put aboard the ships but the young commissioned officers, most of them reserves with little seagoing experience, have been having a trying time. They have no authority over the civilian Communists and are subject fo glancing insults from them for which they have no redress. It is useless for a young ensign or lieutenant to complain to the civilian captain of a merchant vessel that a sailor or steward has made sneering remarks about his uniform because the captain would have a committee down on him by the next watch if he tried to do anything. ‘ The Communist quality of this union is unmistakable. Up to June 22, 1941, when Hitler attacked Russia, it was one of the most violent opponents of every effort of the United States to arm for defense. It fought conscription; it fought the government's program to train key merchant sailors; it fought lendlease; it called all advocates of rearmament, including President Roosevelt, warmongers and Fascists and it organized gangs composed mainly of foreign-born New York Communists to parade under banners reading “The Yanks Aren't Coming” and “Don’t Turn Our Liners Into Troopships.”

Attitude Changed Abruptly

IT CHANGED abruptly after June 22, 1941, demanding immediate aid to Russia, and more recently it has been demanding a second front manned by American soldiers in Europe, although Joseph Curran and other key officers of the union have asked for and received deferment. The union is looking to a post-war period in which it will not merely man the ships but command them, with the officers reduced to the status of foremen, and if the American government gives in to the demand that union sailors be given training in gunnery and custody of the weapons and ammunition, the American Merchant marine will be a Communist fleet. The plan to move Bridges into control of the East and Guif coasts is a development of the broad, postwar revolutionary Communist party program against the American government. For, although Bridges has been adjudged a Communist and ordered deported, it may be taken as an absolute certainty that the order will not be enforced by the New Deal government which has been very friendly to Communists from the beginning.

We the Women

By Ruth Millett i

“CAN WEAR my mink coat for day off.” That line in a classified help wanted ad brought a New Jersey housewife looking for a maid 600 telephone calls before she was forced to take the receiver off the hook to get a little peace. - The woman without a mink coat—or the inclination to share her wearing apparel with a maid —might think there's no lesson

ih : | for her in that incident. ailure to name a unified command for our armed forces

But there is if she wants a maid. The woman who advertised “Can wear my mink coat for day off” recognized a fact that many women overlook. And that is that maids aren’t so different from the women they work for. They're just women. An employer who keeps that in mind has less trouble than her sisters in getting and keeping help. She might not get 600 calls, but she would get some if she included in her want ads for a maid any of the following assurances: . “Housekeeper can do work in own way. one constantly to supervise and criticize.” “Realize private life your own affair. Will hot pry into it or attempt to regulate it.” “Will respect housekeeper’s time off.” “Will see that meals are always on schedule.” “Regular hours; no overtime.”

Important to Women “NICE, COMFORTABLE room whith will be ab-

rageous fees and dues and has otherwise lost the:

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES No Potato Shorta

Sra

e Here!

The Hoosier Forum

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

“MAKE INDIANAPOLIS

CITY TO BE PROUD OF” By Corp. W. C. Weaver, APO Angeles, Cal. To one returning from furlough to Indianapolis, the first impression is not a good one because of its dirty streets. I have been in more than 40 American cities but have yet to find one even approaching Indianapolis in lack of civic pride. In addition to papers, sticks, broken hottles, orange peelings, old shoes, | chewing gum and the like, there is enough actual dirt to make an enormous victory garden if it were only shoveled up. Come on, Indianapolis, don’t litter the streets! Use the corner trash boxes when you can. Keep the gutter in front of your house or place of business clean, even if you have to sweep it yourself! Help make Indianapolis look like a city to be proud of, not an overgrown country town,

254, Los

$8 8 “ONE FEATURE OF MANY LETTERS—INTOLERANCE” By Walter Heisel Jr., 1221 Park ave.

I have never attempted to express in the Forum columns an opinion on some ccntroversial subject, but after reading for over three years the viewpoints of so many I am tempted to express some opinions which I believe are not selfish nor purely personal. : ' There seems fo be one feature of all the many letters sent in—intolerance. Everyone who is howling about this or that group or organization, writer or columnist, always tries to assure readers that he or she is moved by patriotic impulse and by 100 per cent Americanism. I disagree, because the type of destructive criticism that crops up in the majority of these letters would disgrace the dogmatic, hateful works of Dr. Goebbels. Nowhere is any attempt made to see both sides of a question, nor the viewpoint and circumstances of the other fellow. I don’t care for Pegler or his attacks of everything and everyone but himself, nor can I approve starting a vitriolic campaign against labor or anyone else in th» midst of war; bu$ I believe the man is fearless and if in peacetime he does not hesitate to bring out the shortcomings of everyone but him-

Side Glances—By Galbraith

(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.)

self, then he is a valuable columnist. This last trouble in the coal pits has started a flurry of flag-waving, outraged individuals and 100 per centers, many of whom no doubt will be buying above-ceiling steaks for week-end dinners, which to me is as much treason as striking in wartime.

Don’t misunderstand me, I hate strikes anytime, and especially how when laws have been made for the express purpose of protecting the laborer and job worker in every field. The point I am trying to bring out Is that the barnstorming of Rickenbacker, the cries of treason by Waring, the vitriolic writings of Pegler and all the other loud criticism directed against the administration, labor or any other group including the farm bloc will neither help win the war, buy bonds, nor beat the black market. To my mind, the real heroes among the armed forces and the civilians are those who quietly go on serving their cause and together with other real patriotic Americans, follow the requests of their government to do this and that for the war effort without letting everyone in the country know what they have done or are doing. The money organized groups use for banquets in the Mayfair hotel in Washington to denounce absenteeism among workers, or to support and promote bloc legislation could well be used in supporting the Red Cross, in the purchase of bonds and other useful enterprises. Let us persuade our congressmen not to waste time in long holidays, delays and dilly-dallying, but to set the, example of duty for the rest of the country. . Let us also prevail upon the loud critics of everything under the sun to expend their energies on work useful to the conduct of the war,

—

and if they must use their vocal chords to the utmost, try to direct such blasts of wind toward making all of us less hateful and envious of each other, to be glad the other fellow has had better fortune than some of us and to realize more than anything else that our boys want to know we are united in deed and thought at home, and such a condition will be reached only when we stop clamoring and hating each other, achieve the art of being tolerant, one toward the other; finally, that each of us be sure, when ready to cast the first stone, that we are without sin. ” ” ” “WOMEN SMOKE, CUSS, DRINK, FIGHT” By Mrs. W. H. B., Bloomington.

I do enjoy reading Ernie Pyle’s account of the war conditions in

see in print such profanity... . Men facing death at every turn and any moment may be hurled into eternity. I just can't understand how men could get so hardened and used to suffering and death. There was a time when such language was not found in print, either newspaper or books, but it seems things have changed so of late years. Women smoke, wear pants, cuss, drink, fight and frequent the beer joints and other questionable places and are boldly painted like a Jezebel—and many of them are mothers. I know we women are doing men's jobs but we don’t have to ape them in such things as degrade us. We need a host of old-fashioned mothers who will stand for the right regardless of where they have to work. Even men admire a modest, refined woman—one who stays in her place at all times. Lord hasten the day when war shall cease and we shall be redeemed from the curse of sin and the knowledge of ‘the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters that cover the sea. » ” » “IF HE WERE KNEELING TO SAY HIS PRAYERS By W. F. M., Indianapolis.

If my son were a little lad—he's 6 feet 4, a lieutenant in the army, training hard to go overseas. But if he were small anid kneeling here beside me to say his prayers tonight, I'd nudge him and whisper: “Don’t forget to say, ‘God bless Ernie Pyle.” For Ernie has endeared himself to us all with his writing about the war, especially these last recent weeks in Africa. And only the sincere prayer of a child could adequately thank him.

"8 ‘a “ON WRONG SIDE OF THE FENCE”

By Mr. L., Indianapolis Mrs. H. F.: Your response to Miss Taggart and myself was not constructive by far toward impressing proper conduct upon the minds of the “punks” who may have read your article. Their cry will be: “Ha! We have one score on our side.” Then they will feel prompted to be more impulsively rowdy. . . . A proper normal child will not try to be a disturbance while seek ing pleasure. Your idea of a normal child seems to be one who Has to go completely agog to have pleasure. -So, therefore, Mrs, H. F., you are

| hollering from the wrong side of

the fence,

DAILY THOUGHTS

Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations~I. Chronicles 16:15.

Africa, but it pains my heart to|

. 943 i pe i

"SATURDAY, MAY 15

Our Hoosiers By Daniel M. Kidney

' ; WASHINGTON, May 15. Fowler Harper, former I. U. law professor who quit in a huff as WMC deputy chairman to join the staff of BEW, was almost a com« plete washout so far as productive contacts on Capitol Hill were con= cerned. Somehow his “knowing-all-the« answers” attitude just did not click with the either congressmen or : senators. He did WMC no good with the men who control the purse strings and lay down ‘the rules. Nor did he boost the stock of his mentor, Paul V. McNutt, politically. ; In fact so far as Democratic politics are concerned, Professor Harper is in about the same class as his new boss, Vice President Wallace, head of BEW, Either would find difficulty in carrying a home town precinct. Upshot of whatever contacts Mr. Harper made at the capital was that Mr. McNutt, both as WMC chair« man and still a pofential Democratic presidential candidate, found himself with plenty of fences to fix,

McNutt Employs an Expert “ SO HE employed a quiet expert in that business,

Brazil, Ind. When Mr. McNutt was governor, “Jim" did much of the undercover work in selection of statehouse talent and it was often on his recome mendation that thumbs went up or down. . Whatever the verdict was it usually would bet loudly proclaimed by McNutt's patronage secretary, Pleas Greenlee. ; When Sherman Minton came to the senate, Mr,. Penman came along as his secretary. During the six. years of service with “Shay” he became intimately acquainted with all the senators then serving. Most of them grew to know and like him. That friendship has been an asset in his WMC job. WMC was the first agency put under an appro= priations rule requiring that all jobs paying more than $4500 be filled with senate approval. Huge lists. of names have been sent to the senate and Mr, Pene man has been extremely versatile in piloting them safely through. In fact, his succeess is one of ths arguments being used by Senator Kenneth McKellar (D. Tenn.) in support of his bill to apply the rule to all executive jobs.

Penman Fixes Things Up

JIM JUST operates in the good old Hoosier politi cal manner. He goes and sees the senator who might squawk and balk a WMC appointment either here or in his state and irons out the difficulties before the name is sent up to Capitol Hill. Thus, when it are rives the skids are greased and approval almost is

automatic. Senator Frederick VanNuys (D. Ind) reports that numerous senators who have arrived since Mr. Pen= man took the WMC assignment have come to him to inquire about his Indiana background. : “Of course I have nothing but the highest praise for a man like Penman, who really knows what he is "about,” Senator VanNuys said. “I think he is tops and all the senators who have talked to me about

him agree.” : So as of today, Jim Penman is “sittin’ pretty,”

* / ‘Armoraiders By Peter Edson

FT. KNOX, Ky. May 15.—As Gen. Eisenhower's British, French and American armies drove the Germans out of Africa, it was noticeable that practically nothing was heard of the Nazi panzer divi sions which were the scourge of Poland, France and Lybia in the days when Rommel was going great guns. t But here at the headquarters of the U. S. armored forces, they will tell you with assurance, gestures and profanity | that mechanized warfare is anything but dead, and ° they will take you out on the 109,000 acres of rugged | Kentucky hill land which make up this military reservation, and prove it to you with live ammunition, For the armored division of the U. 8, army today represents the heaviest concentration of fire power in any army in the world, with more guns than it has men, mounted on the fastest-moving vehicles that can be made by America’s motor vehicle manu= ,facturers. Consider the weapons which the armored force now packs, and bear in mind that every man in the force—“Armoraiders” they like to be called—is trained to handle at least two of ‘the weapons,

Divisions Move Swiftly aa

THEY BEGIN with the basic weapons of the ine fantry—the pistol, the Garand rifle, the new carbine, In automatic weapons, they include the .45-caliber Tommy gun, and both the .30 and .50-caliber machine guns, mounted ‘for use against both aircraft and

ground objectives, They carry 60 and 80-mm. mortars, Then they jump to artillery and pack their biggest - wallops in 75-mm. field guns, 37-mm. and 3-inch . antitank guns, and 75 and 105-mm. howitzers. The secret of strength of the armored. division is that it carries this dozen or more lethal weapons, including even its infantry soldiers, in fast-moving

bursts of from 100 to 150 miles a day. : , The variety of the motorized vehicles is as great as the weapons they carry, and in case you have been confused, here is a brief descriptive list that may help . you keep them straight: The motorcycle, to begin with. The peepsmore accurately known as the '4-ton truck. Carries a crew of three, armed with revolver, Garand and Tommy gun, together with a radio for communicating - the results of reconnaissance. nh The new Y%-ton amphibian truck, the “seep.” I% can do five miles an hour in the water, with a rudder operated by the steering wheel. It packs a 60-mm, mortar, with a crew of four who also carry tha * weapons of the peep.

Every Vehicle an Arsenal

THE SIX-MAN scout car, which was the original ' “jeep.” Carries both .30 and .50-caliber machine guns | and can do 45 miles an hour. : The M-4 half-track, carrying a crew of six men, and 80-mm. mortar and both 30 and 50-mm. mae chine: The a five~man crew, carrying as its principal weapon a 75-mm. artillery gun in a power-operated revolving turret, another .30 and a .50-caliber machine gun to ' boot. The M-7 105-mm. howitzer, called “The Priest which also mounts a .50-caliber anti-aircraft gun and carries a seven-man crew,

plus a 50-caliber anti-aircraft gun, qperated crew of four, oy » Finally, the M-10, the tank killer of 30 tons, whose principal weapon is a three-inch gun. It has a 50 caliber machine gun, too, and a five-man crew,

~The of each of these w in a divie sion Ja,% ours, sill restricted, and. ue. models are.

“ aiid Beate ‘tepakhad ms ay aa AREY

He is James Penman, pioneer McNutt man from { my

vehicles that can move and supply itself in lightning 4

guns. » M-~4 medium tank, the General Sherman, wit A

BREA L Ar ews