Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 May 1943 — Page 10

—__.

_ lishing Co., 214 W, Mary-

- the graduating %lass of Washington State college.

PACEW The Indianapolis Times

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER President Editor, in U. S. Service ‘ ‘MARK FERRER WALTER LECKRONE Business Manager Editor

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MONDAY, MAY 31, 1943

THE ROOSEVELT-CHURCHILL MEETING UST why the president broke the precedent of other Roosevelt-Churchill conferences and their announced plan of issuing the usual joint statement, and instead made a meager statement of his own, we do not know. But his words are adequate: “The conference of the combined staffs in Washington has ended in complete agreement on future operations in all theaters of war.” That is enough for the allied publics to know, particularly since the prime minister's address to congress and press statements have stressed global policy and the immediate importance of Pacific fronts. The words are enough until they are amplified by action—which the enemy ex-

pects from some quarter, but knows not where. » 2 o » »

THE sivaiogy conference ends in a spirit of general allied confidence. The North African and Attu victories, the

- mounting air offensive in Western Europe and the Medi-

terranean, and the vastly superior allied production, have lifted our long-deferred hopes and confirmed the certainty of eventual victory. So much so that the public is understanding the time and the cost, forgetting that the biggest and bloodiest battles are still ahead. If ‘Mr. Churchill had done nothing else on his very productive visit here, America would be indebted to him for this needed warning: . “The enemy . . . still ‘possesses enormous armies, vast resources and invaluable strategic territory. War is full of mysteries ard surprises. A false step, a wrong direction, of strategic effort, discord or lassitude among the allies might soon give the common enemy the power to confront us with’ new and hideous facts. We have surmounted many serious dangers, but there is one grave danger which will go along with us until the end. ... It is the dragging out of war at enormous expense till the democracies - are ‘tired or bored or split, that the main hopes of Germany and Japan must now reside. We must

destroy this hope as we have destroyed so many others.”

‘UNPROFESSIONAL AND UNETHICAL’ ILL M_ GRELN, jfesiden of the American Federa- : ifn of Labor, has “directed state federations of labor and city’ central bodies in Texas, Arkansas, South Dakota, Idaho, Kansas and ‘Colorado to refrain from complying with’ recently enacted anti-labor legislation in these states.” So says the A. F. of L.'s official Weekly News Service,

‘which adds that Mr. Green has received from Joseph A.

Padway, general counsel, “a legal opinion” that the state laws “violate both state and federal constitutions.” Mr. Green and his lawyer are, of course, entitled to believe that the laws in question are unconstitutional, and to prove thém so if they can. They are entitled to call them “‘anti-labor,” which also is a matter of opinion. But we question the propriety of directing noncompliance with

laws which as yet no court has passed upon.

~~ We question it in the case of Mr. Green and Judge Padway, and we raised the, same question nearly eight years ago when 58 lawyers under the auspices of the American Liberty League handed down their unanimous decision that the Wagner national labor relations act was unconstitutional—a decision later reversed by the supreme court of the United States. We said then that lawyers had no business to encourage defiance of the law by usurping a judicial function and among those who agreed with us (at that time) was William Green. This is what he said on Sept. 19, 1935: “The whole procedure of the Liberty League lawyers was, in my opinion, unprofessional and unethical. One "gains the impression that the pronouncement was made for the purpose of influencing public opinion in’ advance of the presentation of the constitutionality of the Wagner act to the courts for judicial determination.”

DYNAMIC FAITH HERE will be few more optimistic commencement addresses this year than the one by Henry J. Kaiser to And, _ strangely enough, Mr. Kaiser found his inspiration in an America where— ; “Our tools and machines are wearing out; our substance is being consumed ; our transportation system creaks and groans; our highways are inadequate; our people lack

safe and comfortable housing, by perhaps millions of units.”

* Others, viewing that same picture, have found it cause for gloomy forebodings. Mr. Kaiser sees it as an unpre- - cedented opportunity Tor “heroic venture and dynamic faith.” _ “Our people have the right to facilities which assure their health; they are willing to pay for them. They want the equipment which a modern and progressive technology can provide. Beyond our borders are the markets of the

~ world, virtually every one of them depleted, nearly all of

them served by areas which now lie in the waste and ruin caused by war. There is demand enough in sight to keep every productive force in America working to capacity for 25: years,”

LIBERTY SHIPS

N view of skepticism which ‘some have expressed about the quality of mass-produced vessels such as our Liberty

5 ships, it is interesting to note that the first of these, the

Patrick Henry, now has entered her third year with two long war zone cruises behind her. “On her maiden voyage she traveled 30,000 miles and lost only three hours for repairs. On one voyage, carrying useful load of more than 11,000 tons (the Liberties are 10, 000 tons) she averaged | 11.6 knots for almost

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

¥ SAN FRANCISCO, Cal, May 31.—~Today I start my reply to the open letter received and published the other day, giving some assertions and arguments by Joseph Curran, the president of the National Maritime Union, which follows the Communist party line in all matters and controls shipping on our East coast. I think it is unnecessary to go into the question whether Curran, himself, asked for draft deferment. He controls this union absolutely. He is the union, and when the union asked that Curran be deferred so that he could continue to run it, that was a case of Curran, the union, asking a pass for Curran, the individual, and .the red-hot second-fronter, unless you want to believe his own statement that he told nobody but his secretary that he had been ealled up for physical examination and was absent from- New York, in another port, helping to man some new ships, when the request for deferment was presented.

Subordinates Don't Make Decisions

THE SUGGESTION that this could have been done without his knowledge is reminiscent of pious Dan Tobin’s great and grateful surprise when his executive committee of the teamsters’ union, without consulting him, voted to set aside $100,000 to buy him a winter home in the luxurious colony of A. F. of L. unioneers of Miami Beach, and to maintain it for him as ‘long as he lives. Mr. Tobin, after solemn deliberation, decided that “enemies of labor” would misinterpret this expression of appreciation of his services and therefore turned down the gift, but he may have heard that, in a similar case, Jimmy Petrillo, the boss of the musicians, who had received a $50,000 home as a love gift from his “boys” in Chicago, was ordered to pay income tax on the value of the present, on the ground that, as absolute controller of all the union’s affairs, he had given himself the house, and that the $50,000 therefore represented income. For smart guys, these unioneers certainly can be dumb on occasions, to hear them tell it, but you will notice that their subordinates don’t take it upon themselves to make important decisions without their knowledge in other matters.

Great Power Wielded Over Ships

CURRAN SAYS his board felt that the job “of keeping the merchant ships manned” required his presence ashore, and the answer to that is that the United States must be in one hell of a fix in the midst of the most dangerous war in our history if our government can’t handle the job of manning the American merchant marine and training new sailors and therefore must farm it out to a man who damned this war as a capitalistic conspiracy against the working people until Hitler attacked Russia. In fact, I believe. we truly are in just that fix now because President Roosevelt and even, inexplicably, Frank Knox, have given Curran so much power over our merchant marine that, as far as the East coast and the European and African routes are concerned, he can do us serious harm any time it suits his political ideas to call off the war. If you think he is bashful, consider the fact that on March 12, this yean (the union notified the state department that it would “not be a party to carrying vital materials to Franco Spain which can and will be utilized to bolster the Nazi war machine.” Later, I believe, the union hedged, saying this did not mean that Curran would refuse to let union men sail to Spain and thus dictate foreign policy to the United States government but what does that resolution mean to you?

Queer Trades Sometimes Necessary

I CAN'T DECIDE, but neither can Curran, whether it is smdrt or foolish to let Franco have a little stuff in the hope of keeping him friendly. Sometimes nations have to make queer trades in war and I call attention to the fact that Curran’s union has taken no similar interest in the state of relations between Russia and Japan which are not at war with each other. Curran accused me of certain omissions in previous discussions of his union and dragged in a lot of issues which had nothing to do with the case but which I will undertake to answer later. But he said nothing at all about drunkenness and indiscipline amqpong civilian sailors and was very meager in his delet about the disparity in pay which has created seMous unpleasantness among some of the enlisted men of the navy and their officers who sérve the guns aboard the same ships and run exactly the same risks. All these ships keep logs and they are supposed to be filed with the shipping commissioner in each American port and some of the episodes in them would curl your hair, although I do not mean to create an impression that the merchant sailors, as a group, are bad actors. ¢ Nevertheless, too many of them are drunks and habitual trouble-makers who get away with it because they have unions to protect them. Frank Knox knows this better than I do because the navy gets detailed reports on all such incidents but they are hushed up and the officers, anyway, of the nayy won't say anything for fear that the punishment will fall on them for not telling on the bad actors for misconduct.

We the People By Ruth Millett

ONE OF the hardest things war wives have to learn is not to feel sorry for themselves. because their men are gone, while many other women their age still have their husbands with them. If they don’t’ fight it, they are apt to grow_ bitter about the inequality of sacrifice in wartime. For, of course, it is unequal. One woman's husband stays with her in a nice safe job. Another woman's husband is on a fighting front. The sacrifice those two women are making to the war is certainly unequal. But it must be that way. Every man can’t be used on a fighting front—but a certain number of men must be, The only thing a war wife can do to keep from becoming envious and bitter in her attitude is to realize that in wartime sacrifice is bound to be unequal—angd that the burden of war can’t be rationed to one and all alike. When she makes up her mind to that, she is all

right. Better to Be Glad

SHE IS even better off if she goes one step further and is really glad that every home doesn’t have to be broken up the way hers is. \ Then, instead of resenting the fact that Mary still has her husband with her, she will be ho Mary—glad for all the homes in America that remained intact despite the war. Gaining. that attitude is worth the effort it takes to any war wife.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES Memorial Day,

1943

te Wo Tol |

The Hoosier Forum

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

“INTERESTED ONLY IN BEING FAIR” _ By Mrs. W. C. P, Indianapolis

To Mrs. B. H. Stickles, Oaklandon: There seems to be someone like you who always turns things around to suit themselves. ‘As for Fido, we don't own a dog or cat. And if you will ‘be kind enough to. re-read my letter you will find I am not complaining about babies (or rationing) and if the babies needed the meat stamps, I would not have written the letter. It seems to me you are the one that is selfish in this matter, for; only the baby’s family could bene-| fit from them getting meat stamps. As for me picking on babies, as you call it, I think this is very childish . . . (I love babies.) I am very thankful there are people like Mrs. B. A. McMasters who can read things right. I feel like she does that the OPA should even things up. And we certainly don’t have meat three times a day as we only have one hot meal a day and then some days we don’t have meat. My husband works nights and as there isn’t anywhere to buy his lunch he must take it from home. I am only interested in having things done fair.

” 2 =» “LEWIS SHOWED TRUTH OF ‘MISSION TO MOSCOW’”

By Walter Frisbie, Indiana State Indusgrial Union Counc

The Times is lucky to have a movie critic like Lewis, who has the ken to see and the guts to say the

truth about the important picture, “Mission to Moscow.” With sense and neat satire Lewis exploded Mr. Lyons’ camouflage screen, swept up the debris of his misleading argument and showed the truth of the film. Whatever else “Mission to Moscow” may or may not be, it is a y important picture. Fair enent, it doesn’t pretend to be complete history. But though liberties have been taken with the sequence of events, this picture is the naked truth when compared to the run of the mill picture. “Mission to Moscow” is a faithful picturization of Mr. Davies’ book, which represented his reactions as an American capitalist to the Soviet Union. What made the book important

Becreturyeireasurer;

.{and different and what makes the

1. | Moscow.” .

spent his life conspiring to over-

(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.)

picture doubly so, is that Mr. Davis went to Russia with an open mind, saw some good there, and told about t. There are some people in our country who hate the Soviet Union so. much that they wish to suppress anything good that anybody says about it. Mr. Lyons, whose series of polemics against the Soviet Union Dick Lewis ably demolished, is one of the Soviet haters. Mr. Lyons has been making an excellent income now for a good meny years by “exposing” the Soviet Union. “Mission to Moscow” threatens Mr, Lyons’ livelihood; it threatens to make the “other side” of the Soviet Union somewhat better known; it threatens to narrow the market for Soviet-baiting material. Hence Mr. Lyons is angry . . ., at Davies for writing, at Warner Brothers for dramatizing and at the public ‘for seeing and enjoying “Mission -to

The picture does something else that angers . . . a whole cabal offs American writers who played around at being revolutionaries and had a sneaking fondness for Leon Trotsky, the hairy lad who thought communism like Mohammedism ought to be spread by fire and sword, was kicked out of Russia for “subversive” activities and then

turn the Soviet Union. The picture brings to millions of Americans the cheap kind of a traitor Trotsky was to the very government he helped establish. Because Joseph E. Davies saw some good in the Soviet Union and wrote about it, because Warner Brothers made a picture about it, the whole caboodle of Soviet haters is now up in arms. “Mission to Moscow” is a picture with a message, a inessage of unity and collaboration now to win the war and later to build the peace. It’s to the credit of movie critic

Side Glances—By Galbraith

Lewis that he saw that simple fact and told the public about it. EJ ” 2 “FOR BEST INTERESTS OF FELLOW AMERICANS” = By Edward F. Maddox, 959 W. 28th st. Well, since Mr. Daacke has called me to account for breaking what he calls “a gentleman’s agreement— to forget our personal and political differences” and “settle down to the great task of winning the war” as I did suggest some time ago; and also since another of my Hoosier Forum critics has demanded that I “offer something constructive,” IT must say in reply that what little influence I may have had on public opinion in my frequent articles . . . has all been done for God and country and for what I believe to be for the best interests of m fellow Americans. “I have kept faith!” ) I have made a long study of the evil tactics, doctrines and methods of the Socialist-Communist movements and am fully éonvinced that Socialists of every stripe . . . are all a menace to our American con-

ion is that the whole gang of alien-

solved and forbidden . . free and {independent States. , . . Here are some constructive suggestions: (1) “Let’s get on with the war!” (2) Let’y purge . the Socialists, Communists, Nazis and Fascists from offi¢ial posts in our government, \Qur churches, schools and labor uhjons! : (3 Let congress outlaw strikes for the duration! (4) Let’s stop a labor aristocracy of little “big shots.” (5) Let's win this war in ‘the American way—not Hitler's or Stalin’s totalitarian way! (6) Let's give these Socialist New Deal planners to understand that we still believe in and intend to preserve the “horse and buggy.” Yes, good old-fashioned Americanism and abhor all alien isms! Government seizure of private Indugiey leads to socialism! ge Bn 2. “SUCH INCONSISTENCY

A SHAME AND DISGRACE”

By Mrs. Dorothy Stackhouse, 249 Trowbridge ave.

I believe that not only will the Christian citizens of our city, but also every other conscientious .citizen will agree with me when I say it is a shame and a disgrace for a man of such inconsistency -as one of our local judges be allowed to hold public office. I am referring to Judge McNelis and his recent advice to two groups of quarreling neighbors to “settle their dispute with a beer party.” We hear on every hand tales of sabotage and saboteurs, and from those who know, it has been said that absenteeism is ane’ of our greatest saboteurs, and that liquor is the greatest cause of absenteeism, so where does that put Judge McNelis in advising drinking and consequently drunkenness? . And more recently he again (with a great show of feeling, I suppose) placed a number of counts against a drunken . .. driver whose car killed one of our women war workers whose husband, prostrated by grief, is serving in our army. What about it? Isn't it time we had a great protest against such rottenness, for is it nothing more? I am an army mother and also a war worker and I don’t think our courts or any other public institution be presided over by such poor examples of American manhood. Do I hear a second?

DAILY THOUGHTS

And He called them unto Him, and sald unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Seten?. ~Mark 3:23. ps

. in these United

stitutional liberties, so my conclus-

isms should be outlawed and dis- |

In Washington

By Pater Edson

. WASHINGTON, May 31.—The HY

question to decide is whether the proposed office of price adminisSe tration “rollbacks” on the prices. of foodstuffs will encourage pro duction of those foodstuffs, or not, Since the president's great “hold-the-line” gesture of April 8, OPA has proposed rollbacks of 10 per cent on the prices of mi butter and coffee. Aside from fixing of a lot of dollars-and-cents ceilings on specific food products at retail level, these three proposed rollbacks are the sum total and the net result of nearly two months of effort to reduce . the cost of living so as to stave off demands for wage increases. And it is woefully inadequate and incone sequential. The specific dollars-and-cents price ceilings on food ; prices in some 130 metropolitan areas, while easy for the housewife to understand, seem to have forced - many of the grocers in those areas into the position of being caught in such a squeeze that they are screaming about being forced to close down. One of the larger grocery chains actually did threaten to. close down for several days over the Memorial day holiday, to avoid runs on its stocks of goods for which ration stamps were expiring on May 30. Expiration date for the stamps was extended another week by a rush OPA order to avoid thas catastrophe, but the squeeze on the retailer still exists, the margin between the wholesale prices a% which they can buy and the retail prices at Which), they en sell being so Narrow. TT

Roll-Back Befuddlement

THEN THIS rollback business on meats, butter and coffee. The 10 per cent rollback on these three items would, it was figured by the economists, reduce the family food bill by 3 per cent, reduce the cost of living by 1 per cent. The savings miglit be as much as $7 per .person per year. You should be thankful for even these small favors, but wait &. minute. :

When there isn’t a normal supply of meat availe able at any price what good does it do to roll back - the price? You save money on meat when there isn’t any to buy, but you don’t save any more-—even if the price is rolled back-—on the meat that isn’t

' there.

+ The primary problem is to get more meat for you to buy. Will cutting the price, and then paying a subsidy to the meat packer eventually mean that . the livestock grower will get a few cents more per pound, thus encouraging him to raise more meat animals? The answer isn’t yet known. It is nos. even known how the rollback subsidy is to be paid, the mechanics ord Take butter. “The mere threat of a 4 or 5-cent-pere. pound rollback in the price of butter has caused the _ creameries to unload their stocks to the government at prevailing prices. If this movement of inventory butter stocks to the army and lend le purchasers goes on, it might ° cause a temporary shortage of butter for civilian consumers until the wise guys in government figure how this rollback subsidy is going to work, and the ~ creameries and the dairymen learn how this subsidy is going to roll back to them in a sum sufficient to encourage them to milk more cows, make more butter, / and build up butter stocks again.

Cheese Subsidy Hasn't Worked

OF ONE THING you can be sure. A rollback on the price of coffee isn't _going to get you any more" coffee, no matter how the ‘subsidy is paid or ‘who gets

it. The problem there isn't one of price but of shipe ¥

ping space. : Add all this up, and it begins to appear that the rollback idea on coffee, butter and meat at any mals,

is apt to be a bust. Previous to the rollback orders on these three” commodities, subsidies had been paid’ to cover ine * creased costs of insurance and Jartime transportation - on coffee and sugar imports.) These subsidies you can understand, because they cover an added emer- - gency cost which it was desired to keep consumers * from paying. Only other foodstuff under a subsidy was cheddar cheese. Cheese makers are paid 4 subsidy of 3% cents per pound to encourage them to buy more milk for cheese production. But the subsidy hasn’g worked, and production of cheese is now 24 per cent : below what it was a year ago. If the proposed subsidies on meat and butter den'$": work any better than they have on cheese, it’s going" to be too bad. (

‘Squad Goes Out’

By Helen Rusganer

ROBERT GREENWOOD'S '* book, “The Squad Goes Out,” is ~

the story bf a small group of Lone doners who were drawn together =

bil

by the death and destruction Heals +

them in the 1940 blitz of Britain, Refined Chester Browning, pretty laughing Jennie Dadds,bitter cockney Lawson and cheere ful Bill Battersby—they were meme bers of an ambulance squad which stood by in the defense of: Lone don. Strangers to each other, they were all assigned \ to duty in London’s heavily-populated Bermondsey, section where death and injury came frequently to i bombed civilians. “Brownie” was a well-educated young architect : ‘middle

to who association with the Bermondsey

class people was a new experience. Jennie, who | lived with her uncle, an idealistic watchmaker, asked only that she be permitted to dance and laugh her way through life. Downtrodden and cynical Lawson i blamed the government for ®verything—his : and the squalor in which he lived. Battersby, whose brainless cheerfulness served as a balance for the squad, found his enjoyment in collecting. rents from his slum houses and his nightly visits to the pub, :

indomitable Will and Courage , BUT THE WAR soon touched each of them. When Jennie’s uncle was serfously injured and his jewelry | shop destroyed, she realized the seriousness of Brie tain’s plight. When" Brownie’s art fiancee moved to the country to void the bombings, » found a debjded contrast in her blind anid selfish }

cency and the fearless: courage of his Bermondsey When Bill Battersby saw wiodiage” of; favorite pubs, his rage. Sav. he Huns | ] bounds. And when Lawson found. some rings in the debris of the watchmakers shop gave him the opportunity for a new start in he discovered there was a plage for him in, the and in Bermondsey after all. 2 The book has its moments of tragedy a of refreshing humor and comedy.

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