Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 May 1943 — Page 11

WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 1943

Hoosier Vagabond

IN TUNISIA—(By Wireless).—While with the infantry in the North Tunisian campaign I had to live of course just as they did. Our home was on the ground. We sat, ate and slept on the ground. We were in a different place almost every night, for we were constantly moving forward from hill to hill. Establishing a new bivouack consisted of nothing more than digging new foxholes. We never took off our clothes, not even our shoes. Nobody had more than one blanket, and many had none at all. For three nights I slept on the ground with nothing under or over me. Finally I got one blanket and my shelter halves sent up. We had no warm food for days. Each man kept his own rations and ate whenever he pleased. Oddly enough I was never conscious of the lack of warm food. Water was brought to us in cans, but very little washing was done. Sometimes we were up all night on the march and then would sleep in the daytime till the hot sun made sleep impossible. Some of the men slept right

in their foxholes, others on the ground alongside.

Since rocks were so abundant, most of us buttressed our foxholes with little rock walls around them.

Shot at by Everything

DURING THAT week we were shot at by 88s, 47s, machine guns and tanks. Despite our own air super»jority we were dive-bombed numerous times, but they were always in such a hurry to get it over and get home usually their aim was bad and the bombs fell harmlessly in open spaces. You could always count on being awakened at dawn by a dive-bombing. Having now been both shelled and bombed, I believe an artillery barrage is the worst of the two. A prolonged artillery barrage comes very close to being unbearable, and we saw many pitiful cases of “anxiety neurosis.”

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

THIS SHARE-THE-RIDE husiness produces many embarrassing experiences. Take the case of a fellow whose first name is Jack and who won't let us give his last name. He was waiting for a bus at $2d and Central the other day when a car with a man and a woman in it pulled up at the curb and honked the horn. Jack didn’t recognize the folks in the car but, when they honked again, he smiled. They smiled right back at him. So he thought he was being invited, and he opened the rear door and climbed into the car's rear seat. Just then three men— evidently regular share-the-riders —came up from three different directions and climbed in. One had to get in front. Jack was so embarrassed he didn't know what to do, stuttered around a bit, and finally decided it would be less embarrassing to stick it out than to get out of the car. He rode all the way downtown, but it was a long, long trip.

Around the Town

THE JACK REICH youngsters—Rosemary and Judy—are proud as punch of a gift sent to them from somewhere at sea by Lt. Herbert Strolin, U. S. Navy, formetly of the State Employment Security division. It consisted of seven coins from the Fiji islands, Australia, New Zealand and India. . .. Jepson Cadou Jr, son of the I. N. S. bureau chief, reported yesterday for army service. He's been at I. U— editor of the Daily Student. . . . Have you turned in your front license plate yet? If not, hurry up and do it this week. Turn it in at any filling station or garage. The metal in it will be used to make next year's plates. . . . Evan Miller, assistant manager of the I. A. C., dislocated his shoulder Monday. He was on a ladder, cleaning the gutters of his house, and

Sweden

STOCKHOLM, May 26.—(By Wireless). —Probably fio monarch or chief of state anywhere plays his part quite as King Gustav. He is far from a figurehead, as he demonstrated in one war crisis here. Instead of age reducing him to a mere name, I have the word of an opposition firebrand that the king's 85 years are a mighty force in Sweden. His very age gives him a patriarchial power which he does not hesitate to use in both large and smail things occasionally. Indeed, under Swedish law, the king is the principal representative of the people's will, in which fact lies his responsibility and his right to interfere whenever the seriousness of the situation calls for such action on his part. The other day f saw him play tennis on a public court. Several of us had been invited to be presented. The king came out of the tennis dressing room, wearing long flannels, a long white polo coat and white hat, and carrying a Yracket. He stopped and chatted with us, apologized for trying to play tennis at his age. But, he said, he liked the game so why not play? It is remarkable that any person of 85 could be gctive on his feet through such a game, much less handle a racket with the quick co-ordination re-

quired. (King Is Strong in the Pinches

WE VISITORS regarded it as phenomenal, but there was no excitement around the court, which was open to all on payment of a small fee. Sew eral persons were playing on other courts, and perhaps more than a hundred persons scattered around the clubhouse veranda, talking among themselves. Only a dozen or So bothered to sit in the gallery to watch him play, although this was the first time the king had played outdoors since his serious iliness some months ago. Not even Per Albin Hansson, prime minister for a decade and boss of the Social Democratic party, feels strong enough to oppose the king on a showdown—

By Ernie Pyle|

The nights were sometimes fantastic. The skies

would flash all night from the muzzle blasts of big guns

would rumble across country all night. German planes would thrum through the skies seeking some flash of light on the ground. Sometimes we didn’t sleep at all for 30 hours or more. At first the activity and excitement and everything kept me awake. I didn’t want to go to sleep for fear of missing something. Also, at first the terrific noise of the artillery kept us awake. But on my last two nights in the lines I slept eight hours solid and never heard a thing.

‘Shun Evil Companions’

DURING ALL the time we were under fire I felt The catch-as-catch-can sleep didn’t seem to I never felt physically tired even after

fine. united nations.

bother me. the marches. The days were so diverse and so unregimented that a week sped by before I knew it. I never felt that I was excited or tense except during certain fastmoving. periods of shelling or bombing, and these were quickly over. When I finally left the line just after daylight one morning I never felt better in my life. And yet, once I was safely back in camp an intense weariness came over me. I slept almost every minute of two days and nights. I just didn’t have the will to get up, except to eat. My mind was as blank as my body was lifeless. I felt as though every cell in my makeup had been consumed. It was utter exhaustion such as I had never known before. Apparently it was the letdown from a week of | being uncommonly tense without realizing I was tense. It was not until the fourth day that I began to feel really normal again, and even now I'm afraid I think too much z2bout the wounded men. Moral—German 88-mm. shells are evil companions and their company should be avoided.

Utopia” and

tion against Germany if Stalin in truth expected to | fight Hitler.

“Mission to Moscow,” Hellywood style, avoids the necessity of answering such questions by practically skipping over those 22 months. This, moreover, is just one of many chronological miracles. Whenever dates conflict with propaganda the calendar is revised to meet the emergency. For instance, the ambassador is shown returning to America late in August, 1939. The time is fixed precisely by the receipt of a radiogram while en route announcing the signing of the MoscowBerlin deal. Sometime later, however, we hear Mr. Davies warning a senate committee that

the ladder broke, throwing him for a one-point landing ¢his elbow) in a flower bed. He's back on the job wearing a sling.

Jingle Jangle Jangle

THE PHONE RANG at 2 a. m. Fred Schatz, Boy Scout district executive, got out of bed. It was his| war will break out in two months wife, who was out of town, phoning to let him know| —“in August or September.” she was coming home. Hse returned to bed. At 5 a. m. $ & & the phone rang again. The operator merely wanted to know if he had received the earlier call. To bed Make Hero a Prophet again. At 6 a. m., the alarm rang; he'd forgotten to : reset it. The bell was the signal for his dog to leap a Tn oa Ee on the bed and tease to go out. That taken care of, hi : ero a prophet. he got back in bed. And at 7 a. m,, the phone rang As one watches the screen vers again. This time it was the operator reporting there so Of “Missi to M " would be no charges on the 2 a. m. call. Fred wearily so o Sion Oto gave up trying to sleep... . Louis Carow, state war Comparisons vith totalitarian savings staff publicity man, received a long distance propaganda films are inevitable. call the other evening from a soldier asking for “Mary I have seen oS Bie b Hany Nazi Ann.” Said Louis: “No Mary Ann here; what number a al a Se you calling? The soldier gave Louis’ number, then that the Hollywood product has absorbed the worst features of

asked: “Say, is this Minneapolis?” False Alarm them all, without having learned the subtleties of the business.

THERE'S A BELL in the press room at police “Mission to Moscow” seems to headquarters that rings whenever the deputy sheriffs| me far worse than those totaliare about to start out on an emergency run. It gives| tarian obscenities for at least two reporters time to race across the street to the jail] reasons: and catch a ride. The bell didn’t seem to be working 1. History as doctored by Nazi Monday so one of the boys asked te have it tested.| and Soviet propagandists is Someone over at the jail pushed a button, but it was| frankly angled by people who dethe wrong one. He pushed the general alarm button| spise the truth and regard the lie by mistake. That bell warns of a jail break. Im-| as a desirable political weapon. mediately, cops started boiling out of police head-| The producers and the audiences

‘Sinister’ Good Will?

Perhaps Warner Bros. were motivated by other than financial considerations. It is apparent from the picture that one of their sinister designs is to foment good will between the United States and

quarters and racing across the street. Squad cars| know what they are doing and came roaring in, converging on the jail from all di-| why. There is a kind of perrections. Embarrassed deputies came out the jail door| verted honesty about the candor and shooed the cops away. “False alarm,” they ex-| of the proceedings. plained. The police just went on back to work, pant- But this Hollywood concoction ing and mumbling under their breath. pretends elaborately to present only “the facts.” Its prelude is a sanctimonious speech by Mr. DaBy Raymond Clapper vies in person, wherein he offers his credentials as a simple, goodhearted, religious man as when the Germans demanded permission to send] He invokes the memory of his a division through Sweden to help the Finns. “sainted mother,” who was an The Social Democrats were against allowing the|, “ordained minister of the gospel.” German division to go through. They considered] Repeatedly in the body of the this a violation of neutrality, and also they were film he describes himself as a against the Nazis anyway. However, the king steered lawyer who looks at “both sides” his country through without becoming invoived in| of every question. the war. ow» It was a probability that, if permission had been refused, the Germans would have forcibly entered OES he ZWlanile Sweden. The king took a strong position for letting . the division go through, but he was emphatic that no ® more could be permitted again. Helped to Save Finland THERE HAS been much discussion about the dramatic conference between the king and the prime minister. The king took responsibility for the action. The fact that it helped to prevent the Russians from over-running Finland made the move popular with those in Sweden who strongly fear Russia. This incident demonstrated the political power of the king, although it is not exercised frequently. The Social Democratic party was in the majority, but the Conservatives joined in the wartime coalition. | The growing issue now is over whether to continue ii after the war or to return to party (ike himself, notably) are coms Hansson, who has been in power 10 years, wants| petent to interpret the film propto continue the coalition. Tt makes his job simpler,| °Ily» all others being unfit to his position more secure. However, some active memn- | evaluate its enane » Gemhokracy. bers of his party want a return to party government, He leaves the impression that feeling that the present static condition is a bad 2uybody who has passed the third thing to continue indefinitely. They accept it now grade in a single try would grasp only as a necessary evil. | the idea that the film is propaOne effect of it is to drive the discontented into ®anda with dark and sinister pur the government ranks for an outlet. The Communist] Poses transcending the profit moparty is small in Sweden, but is growing as a protest| ve. against the static, cozy government coalition. That is another reason why some of the younger Social Democrats want to get back to normal party government, wtih healthy opposition. They figure that conservative opposition would be a good thing for the Social Democratic majority, which would then rally its forces into more active life.

With Hitler,

In today’s article Mr. Lyons

By EUGENE LYONS,

Editor of the American Mereni. and author of “Assignment In “The

IF, AS MR. DAVIES and the Hollywood history claim, the Stalin-Hitler pact was simply a time-saving device at the expense of Western Europe, why did Russia interfere so conscientiously with our war production during the 22 months of Soviet-Nazi co-operation? Why did the Moscow party line follow the Berlin party line so exactly? Surely it was not to Russia's best interests to prevent American arming and American interven-

Deca

Eugene Lyons

The distortion and elisions and alibis for Soviet horrors thus have an added dimension of hypocrisy. 2. There is at least the excuse of self-interest when Nazis make a picture glorifying Nazidom or when Russians make a picture extolling Stalinism. But this amazing “Mission to Moscow” provides the spectacle of a lot of Americans hoaxing their fellowcitizens in behalf of a foreign dictatorship and a way of life repugnant to all but a few Americans. One can understand why dictatorships should lie in their own behalf. It is not so easy to understand why a democracy should falsify history in behalf of policies condemned by its own government, in support of totalitare ian purges abhorrent to our own sense of justice and in whole= sale justification of all actions, past and future, by a foreign regime, By painting Stalin as an angel of peace and a democrat (he is made to talk about Russia and “the other democracies”) the pice ture sides in advance with the Kremlin as against Washington in any disputes that may arise in the future. One . of the most mysterious aspects of the film is the way in which the names aud prestige of the president and the state department are spread over the Hollywood hodge - podge. Mr. Roosevelt's voice and words are worked in several times, and the state department settings sare

Russia, two fighting allies. In the matter of reportorial

If he did see it, he has either missed the point or distorted it beyond recognition. He charges ‘the film is a smear. If any smearing has been done in connection with “Mission to Moscow,” Mr. Lyons has done it.

An Important Film

I am a stanch advocate of pasting the movies whenever necessary on the theory that the Hollywood technique of frustration and fahtasy is not a good infiuence in American life, But in the case of “Mission to Moscow,” I find a forthright attempt to project the interventionist point of view which Pearl Harbor justified so completely. I think

e Indianapolis Times

‘Mission To Moscow’ Called

mo mane me mons noes IMlOVI@ Practically Skips 22 Months of Stalin Pact Lyons Claims

Following is the third in a series of articles by Eugene Lyons, former Moscow correspondent of the United Press, discussing the controversial film “Mission to Moscow.” says he believes the Hollywood film endangers the unity of the

SECOND SECTION

‘Doctored’

On his way home from Moscow, the movie Ambassador Davies (Walter Huston) visits Winston Churchill (Dudley Field Malone) who is whiling away his time building a brick wall while the Chamberlain govern-

ment practices appeasement.

The film has Mr. Davies crusading for collective security, but Mr. Lyons

claims Mr. Davies got the Moscow job as a second rate political plum after donating to the New Deal cam-

paign fund.

employed throughout to give the picture an official halo. ” ” 2

Offending Our Allies

YET NEITHER THE White House nor the state department could conceivably sponsor a revision of history which offends all our allies except Russia, a whitewash of totalitarian terror which offends practically all Americans. In view of what the president has actually said about the Mos-cow-Berlin pact, the invasion of Finland and other such things, his implied indorsement of these very things in the picture surely calls for some explanation from the White House. The film is profoundly divisive. By advancing a phony defense of the pact, the invasion of neighboring countries and other such matters, “Mission to Moscow” endangers the unity of the united nations. It should be made clear quickly that Warner brothers do not make American foreign pol icy. By attacking the motives of pre-Pearl Harbor isolationists, nearly all of whom are now fighting the war as unreservedly as Mr. Davies, it strikes a blow at our national unity. The failure to extend the attack to the Moscow brand of isolationism—the kind that ended with the Hitler invasion of Russia—only makes this blow more mischievous. By making blind acceptance of past, present and future Soviet behavior a condition for true American patriotism the picture in effect calls about 99 per cent of the American people unpatriotic.

In Hot Water?

MOREOVER, IT IS NGT a. all certain that Moscow will appreciate this gift from Warner

distort the entire point of the film is a bad rhetorical trick. Mr. Lyons intimates that “Mission to Moscow” is pro-Soviet propaganda dished out at the expense of democratic institutions by a bunch of Hollywood reds. What balderdash!

Old Hollywood Method

What Mr. Lyons says is propaganda happens to be the old Hollywood method of dealing in blacks and whites, without intervening shadings of logic. Any ignorant movie critic would know that. As far as the overall credibility of this film is concerned, I would be far more inclined to rely on the reporting of Mr. Davies, Walter Duranty, Leland Stowe and Wendell Willkie, than on the emotional rantings of an ex-corre-spondent. Particularly when I find that said correspondent is not even capable of describing a motion

brothers. I suggest that the com=rades connected with it, from Litvinov down, may find themselves in hot water with their Muscovite bosses. To begin with, the picture weakens itself by going to fanatic extremes. A few bold admissions that the U. 8. S. R. is still an inch or two short of perfection and that Soviet leaders are not all frock -coated, peace-loving, far-sighted idealists might have made the movie less of a caricature. The Davies book, as is generally known, was a paste-up job. Passages were carefully selected from the ex-ambassador’s diary, journals and official dispatches to make the desired impression. It was a highly selective job of reporting. Mr. Davies should be challenged to put the unpublished portions of these materials at the disposal of unbiased Americans. Undoubtedly a second paste-up that conveys the diametrically opposite impression could be produced to balance “Mission to Moscow.” The notion that Mr. Davies fell in love with Russia and its dictatorial terrors is a silly legend. Correspondents who were in Moscow during his incumbency have told me that he was far from enthusiastic. The circumstance that he spent more time outside Russia — traveling and sailing his yacht—than at his post is not without some meaning. In a letter from Moscow, Mr. Davies was kind enough to praise my book, “Assignment in Utopia,” soon after its publication, in rather enthusiastic language. In subsequent letters he repeated that praise. Correspondents at the time reported to me his statement that he learned more from “Assignment in Utopia” in 10 davs than in months of living in Russia.

Lewis, Times Critic, Disagrees With Lyons; Charges That Bias Distorts Entire

By RICHARD LEWIS

Eugene Lyons’ “Mission to Moscow” attack sounds like the beginning of a post-war isolationism campaign. Mr. Lyons has prefaced his charge that the film is phony by intimating that the movie critics who liked it are a bunch of simple-minded hacks, intimidated or taken in by Warner Bros, Mr. Lyons further comments that only trained, political observers

* . Point of Film sion to Moscow” has a simple message: It says that it is important for this. country to have a working agreement with Russia both in the strategy of war and for the peace to follow. It suggests that if the democracies and Russia had acted in concert against the Nazis in 1938, war might have been averted. It offers the hope that if the united nations work together, they can enforce a durable peace so that the newborn generation can reap the benefits of the American way for which so many of our best citizens are dying today, That is the propaganda Mr. Lyons objects to.

| =The pure 132

MANY LIVES SAVED

BY BLOOD PLASMA

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, North Africa, May 26 (U. P.).—Blood do-

SINCE MY BOOK took a view of Soviet affairs, including the earlier purges, quite different from the one in this picture, there is additional ground for suspicion that “Mission to Mos« cow” represents an achievement in hindsight. In any case, Jay Franklin and the others who did the pasting and editing on the Davies book could not quite eliminate a few realistic touches here and there. There are references to Russia as a totalitarian dictatorship, to cumulative terror, to discontents and antagonism to the regime, ete. But the Hollywood production has carefully avoided any such recognition of the facts of life. All is goodness, gaiety and wise dom under the hammer and sickle. From the point of view of the Kremlin, which knows the psychology of propaganda better than the Warners do, such exe aggeration may seem self-defeat-ing. More important, the Soviet leaders are likely to be horrified by the fact that certain unpleasant matters, more or less buried, have been dug up again and submitted once more to public debate. In the very process of explaining them away “Mission to Moscow” has made the blood purges, the Moscow trials, the Soviet pacts with our enemies, the aggressions against our allies and other episodes into live issues. I should be surprised if Moscow is grateful for this achievement. It does not want such matters discussed. It wants them “liquidated” and forgotten. The joke of this Hollywood gesture of propitiation is that it may only make the Soviet gods sore. The cone tempt with which Bolsheviks look upon flattery from non-Soviet admirers is likely, in this case, to be mixed with anger.

TIRE WEAR WORRIES

OHIO °V! i WORKERS

WA= : 4 Nay 26 (U. PD. 5 administration predicted today, on the basis of a survey of 55,000 cars at 59 war plants in Ohio, that war workers will face an automobile transportation crisis before the end of this year because their tires are wearing out. At 78 establishments in nine other states, it said, studies showed relatively worse tire conditions than those in Ohio, leading the investigators to’ conclude that the Ohio survey was conservative from the national standpoint. Officials warned that any serious lag in the recapping program will prove “extremely dangerous.” The Ohio workers’ estimates revealed that by the end of 1943 almost 50 per cent of the tires now on their vehicles will have worn out under normal use—18 per cent before July 1 and 32 per cent in the latter half of the year.

HOLD EVERYTHING

By Eleanor Roosevelt!

competence, I would like to sug- nated by the people of the United e Un

My Day

WASHINGTON, Tuesday.—I had a visitor this

gest that Mr. Lyons fooled me about the picture. When I read

This is no easy thing to work out, and yet there his series, I thought he had seen

is a germ of something here that needs to be studied.

the film does a grand job of dramatizing this viewpoint and also of stating the case for postwar collaboration among the unit-

picture accurately, a chore even a movie critic can accomplish

sometimes. It is true, of course, that Mr.

States to the Red Cross and other “some thou-

organizations saved

morning who came to talk on a subject which must " ! A democracy can never succeed unless each individual| the picture. After seeing the pic- sands of lives in the Tunisian

be troubling a great many people. This woman said she knew many people, particularly women, who had lost their sons in this war, and who felt that they L must have something to say about A * the kind of peace which will be made at the end of it. She felt sure that the people as a whole understood quite weil that during the war, meetings of tive leaders had to be held where no publicity was allowed at the time. People were only told afterward what had happened. But, the vast majority of people had such a sense of personal responsibility, that they could not be satisfied unless they felt that their leaders would give them the benefit of such facts as had a bearing on the afterwar period. Then they could allow the people to register their feelings, so that the preliminaries for peace would really be shaped in conjunction with ; :

takes responsibility for his nation, its policies and the representatives he elects. I have a letter from someone who really has faced a difficult problem, which may face a great many other “victory gardeners.” This family obtained permission to plant a vacant lot adjoining their home. The owner was not using it and evidently had no objection to giving his permission, but something must have come up to change his mind. Just as everything was beginning to grow, he decided that he wished to use the lot. Our poor gardeners were not only disappointed in their visions of future produce, but lost the opportunity of finding another plot, in addition to the money and the time they had put into this garden. The owner had agreed to let them plant the garden without paying any rent, but when he decided that he needed the land, he told them that if they paid $25 a month, he would not plow Needless to say, the price to

ture myself, I am not so sure.

Your Blood Is Needed

May quota for Red Cross Blood Plasma Center — 5800 donors. Donors so far this month— 2581. Yesterday's quota—200. Yesterday's donors—986.

You can help meet the quota by calling LI-1441 for an appointment or going t the Senter second floor, Chamber Meridian st.

ed nations for a durable peace. In this respect, I think “Mis sion to Moscow” is an important film. But along with Mr. Lyons, I deplore its touches of sheer propaganda, particularly that hallelujah ending which devaluates its message. No License With Truth

Mr. Lyons has, with facile vi tuperation, called the turn on the over-all, pro-Soviet slant of the film. That needs to be done. He has pointed out historical inaccuracies which apologists for the film defend in the name of dramatic license, whatever that is. can be no license, dramatic, poetic or fishing, in dealing with the truth. : these

Lyons doesn’t stand alone in castigating the film. He is noisily seconded by that articulate little group of thinkers who sat at the feet of the late Leon Trotsky. They get the grand prize of the cut-glass copy of “Das Capital” for hating Russia more and Hitler less than anybody else.

A Simple Message

Maybe Mr. Lyons is not hunting nightly for the red under his bed, but I have a feeling that he has red ants in his intellectual pants. He has a bias which magnifies and distorts his reaction to this picture beyond the borders

.| surprisingly great. Blood so willing

fighting,” British Maj. Gen. Ernest Cowell said yesterday. Cowell, director of medical services for the allied armies in North

Africa, said precise figures were a military secret, but he added that the number of lives saved by blood plasma from the United States was

ly given was not wasted.”

NAZI BARON TO ASK FREEDOM

MIAMI, Fla, May 26 (U. P).—A bid for freedom will be made here | this Si ru before the enemy alien

board by Baron Fritz Von Opel, |

multimillionaire son of Germany's!|e

automobile magnate, who had been interned in Texas for a year,