Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 June 1943 — Page 12

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RALPH BURKHOLDER “Editor, -in U.S. : Service WALTER LECKRONE (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER).

ROY W.. egide

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reais, of Ciroulations,

Give Light and the People Will Find. Their Dion Way

Be ~~ ‘WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1043 DICTATOR OF COAL | J ABOR SECRETARY PERKINS and other administra 3 tion officials went before a committee of congress yesterday to argue against anti-strike legislation. As they ‘spoke the Stars and Stripes were flying over the nation’s coal mines, but nearly all of these mines ere closed by ~ what Secretary Ickes described, accurately, as “a strike against the government of the United States.” » Many ordinary citizens wondered whether the administration, which opposes legislation as a remedy, knew any other means of dealing with an intolerable situation. ~~ They remembered how the president said, a month ago, that “the stopping of the coal supply, even for a short time, would involve a gamble with the lives of American soldiers and sailors and the future security of our whole people.” They remembered how the national war labor board said two weeks ago that the defiant conduct of John L. Lewis “challenges the sovereignty of the United States in time of war and gives aid and comfort to our enemies.”

al # td s 8 » 8 WET they saw Lewis still defiant, still determined to have "his way at the cost of wrecking the government's antiinflation program, and again willing and fully able to stop ‘the coal supply. ¥ That supply, in the words of Luther Harr, the government coal-consumers’ counsel, is ‘the backbone of American industry. The united nations cannot win the war without America’s bituminous coal.” : Coal is indispensable to the making of steel—two tons of coal for each ton of finished steel. | Coal generates 55 per cent of the electric power. Coal rives four of every five railroad locomotives. ] | Coal heats three of every seven homes. Coal’s byroducts—coke, gas, tars, light oils, chemicals—are the sources of high explosives, of electrodes and carbon blocks for the making of aluminum, of industrial abrasives, of farm fertilizers, of benzol used in making parachutes, of drugs needed to save the lives of wounded soldiers, of hundreds of other necessities of war and civilian life. * Ordinary citizens knew that their government had helped John L. Lewis to attain the power which makes him dictator of coal. : = They wanted to know whether their government had any way of preventing Lewis from so using that power that it could cost the lives of thousands of America’s defenders— and might even bring America dowii to deféat by enemies abroad.. :

MR. BYRNES’ FACTS AND FIGURES | < ME: BYRNES, our new deputy president or director of ! war mobilization, surprised everybody by making a - full-dress speech in which he hardly mentioned the big job cut out for him. Perhaps it is just as well. There have been too mahy co-ordinators, super-co-ordinators, and r-supers in Washington who talked a strong organizaon without getting anywhere. If Mr. Byrnes’ idea is to let his accomplishments spea for themselves, more power to him. Certainly there is plenty of streamlining to be done, and there is’ no reason why he shouldn’t succeed—provided the president actually will give him the power, What Mr. Byrnes did talk about was the war production which American industry and labor have managed to pile up—largely despite the duplicating, ecross-purpose, multi-headed misdirection from Washington. 2” ” ” # zn » UN DER the circumstances it is a great record: Merchant ships constructed in the last 12 months, more than a thousand, compared with 50 two years ago; and 100 tankers compared with 22. . Machine-gun production of 1,500:{000 25,000 two years ago. Planes 60,000, compared with 10,000—with the 100,it 000th in the war-production program coming off the line yesterday. Fighting ships 100 in the past five months, which was three times as many completed as in the entire year of 1947, But that is not enough. As he warned us: “We are just entering the critical period of the war.” We must produce more, much more. That depends on the people, but also on . better leadership in Washington, Mr. Byrnes was agreeably frank about this: | | “We must streamline our governmental operations. . . . Your government has no right to call upon you to work as a team if it is not going to demand of government officials ‘that they work as a team. I admit that officials of the government have made mistakes. . . . But the people have a right to expect government officials to sacrifice all pride of opinion and co-operate. . ..” | Well, go to it Mr. Byrnes! for you.

compared with

The country is pulling

FARM TIES * ARL WILSON, Hoosier congressman who once startled ' Washington with his proposal for a capital curfew, writes a weekly news letter home to his constituents. In his most recent contact with the home folks, three paragraphs are devoted to the “Care and Use of Rope on the Farm,” a new bulletin of the department of agriculture - which, Congressman Wilson says, may be obtained by dropping a post card to-him in Washington. | A large part of the bulletin, Mr. Wilson points out, is taken up with illustrations of different kinds of knots ‘which a farmer might want to use. Apparently it skips

The Indianapolis Times {By Westbrook Pegler

Price in.Marion Coun-

| move Harry Bridges, the Australian Communist, on

A 'Little Break for Suckers?"

ention of the sort of knots the department of agriculture has in the past used to tie up the farmers. Perhaps even in these days of paper shortage rope does present a knotty problem. But in these days of food scarcities it may be

Fair Enough |

SAN FRANCISCO, June 2— Inasmuch as Joe Curran, the ferocious, absentee second-fronter, taxed me with several omissions from some recent remarks of mine about his draft deferment, I take it as okay to heat up a prominent -omission from his open letter in reply to me. I refer to his conspicuous failure to say anything about the conspiracy that is now cooking to

to the eastern seaboard with his longshoremen’s union and its man-wasting, mock-war union regulations and its revolutionary control, which almost strangled the great port of San Francisco before we got into the war on Russia's side. Bridiges is under an order of deportation but you can put that one up behind the clock until you hear that he has actually been sent home and it isn’t necessary to believe any Communist and C. I. O. propaganda about the marvelous job that he is doing in loading ships on the West coast. He isn’t turning out near the work he could under the regulations which he imposed on the shipping industry with the assistance of the party of humanity, calling for much duplication of effort, restriction of the sling-loads and other policies. Ey There is a curious situation on our two coasts. In the East, Curran’s organization of merchant sailors, the National Maritime union, a party line group, is supreme, but Joe Ryan's A. F. of L. union controls the longshoremen and thus the docks. ; On the West coast there are several sailors’ unions but Curran hash’t got a foothold here. The biggest is the Sailors Union of the Pacific, nominally of the A.F.of L., but really an independent outfit, run by Harry Lundeberg, a tough guy of the Jack London tradition, who don't like nobody, least of all Bridges, whom he detests because Bridges is a Stalin Communist. .

Opposite and Hostile Outfits

SOME PEOPLE think Lundeberg leans to Trotsky communism and others that he hankers after oldfashioned Scandinavian socialism, but wherever you file his card you can be sure that he doesn’t run to any fires with Bridges or the Muscovite Communists. His union is composed of unlicensed personnel whereas Curran’s C.I.O., pro-Communist outfit is an indus trial union that takes them all in except wireless men. Other Pacific unions are the marine engineers, the radio operators, heavily infested with revolutionary communism, and the marine cooks and stewards, all of the C. I. O., the masters, mates and pilots of the A.F.of L. and the marine firemen, who pay no per capita to any central outfit and seem independent. So on both. coasts, the sailors and the longshoremen belong to opposite and hostile outfits. Now Curran is trying to take advantage of the rotten conditions that have existed for years and years in Ryan's East coast longshoremen's union and shoo them into Bridges’ outfit. ; Thus, in the East, two aggressively pro-Communist unions, one of them under the rule of a proved Communist, meaning Bridges, would have a monopoly of our foreign commerce and would be in a position to stop our shipping to support our soldiers in Europe and Africa if the Communist party, in some future Jevolopment, should decide that that was the thing do.

kind of people.

INDIANAPOLIS “TIMES

Maybe It’s Halitosis, Benito!

~~ : 2 The Hoosier Forum

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

“HOW ABOUT RUBBER AND COAL STRIKES?” By Gene Engle, Indianapolis C. F. L., Indianapolis: ‘What you said is good. It seems to be the typical expression of your I mean your big

' international union members.

IN THIS connection you have to remember, indeed you don’t dare forget for an instant, that Curran and Bridges were against this war and against our efforts to get ready for it until Hitler attacked Russia, They were against the draft, against war appropriations, against every one of the preparatory moves and, if they had their way, we might be invaded now and God only’ knows how ‘many “Americans would have been doomed to die who now won't have to. So, lately, Ryan has got religion, so to speak, and is trying to tidy up his longshoremen’s union and give the suckers a little break. The union has been lousy with racketeers since before the last war. It charges outrageous initiation fees, some as high as $500, and in one area in New York. an uncommonly greedy and low-grade gorilla, whom Ryan knows all about, shakes down the poor longies for tickets to the number racket and makes them buy their grog from his connections, That was the way things used to be in San Francisco and that is why the longshoremen here turned to Bridges when he came along to establish hiring halls and wipe out the corrupt system whereby a man had to pay a grafting union agent to select him for a day's work and pay tribute to the saloonkeepers whose joints were used as loafing places before the hiring halls, .

‘Both Sides Such Liars'

HOW SERIOUS he is about cleaning up or whether he can succeed is just a guess. I think he really wants to make some reforms because he is a Catholic and communism both afloat and ashore on the eastern coast would be bad business from the standpoint of any Catholic, besides which "I am sure Joe how realizes that if he doesn't clean up Bridges and Cur- A ran will push him and his union into the river..

Both sides are such liars that you can throw their |

arugments right out of the window, but from shipping men who are not necessarily impartial I gather ghat, for all the C.I. O. and the Communist boasting about Bridges’ marvelous efficiency and his devotion to the cause now that Russia is in the war, Ryan's longies | do a better job of loading and waste less time and manpower. On past performances you may be absolutely certain that with Curran and Bridges in command of our East coast our shipping there would follow any decision that the Communist party might make in. any of the unpredictable future political turns of

the war, /

We the People By Ruth Millett

IT WAS unusual enough to make a news item: The wedding in which a woman stepped for ward as best man: Even with the scarcity of men these days it isn’t often that a woman has to act as best man in a wedding because no man can be found for the job. But even if few women ever get called on to act as “best men” many a woman these days is having to be a “good man.” There are the girls in uniform who are becoming “good men” in their jobs, so that the men who previously held them down can go out and fight. x There are the farm girls in overalls who are being “good men” as they run the tractors that used to be handled by their brothers in uniform, ; ; There are the slacks-clad women who are being “good men” as they run machinery that would have scared them a year ago.

Women Make 'Good Men'

THERE ARE the young women who are being “good fathers” as well as good mothers for the duration. There are the college girls who are preparing to be “good men” as they switch from poetry courses to math and mechanics. "oy It takes a woman acting as “best man” to make

As an example of your kind of free speech, free press and free thought— How about the rubber strikers, how about the coal miners, how about J. Lewis taking his “sheep back into the fold” of the A. F. of L? How about H. V. Brown taking his out of the A. F. of L? I wonder if you're smart enough to prove that improved conditions for. workers is due tc the efforts of either the C. I. O. or A. F. of L.

a #0» “PROGRAM OF SOCIALIST

LABOR PARTY”

By Chas. Ginsberg, state secretary, Socialist Labor Party, 2201 N. Keystone ave.

A lot of space has been utilized to refute the ravings of Mr. Maddox re¢ his misstatements of socialism. In the election of 1938 The Times was courteous in publishing a symposium of the minority parties, under the caption of “Why

| You Should Vote for Me.”

A few nights later Mr. Maddox rushed in his usual nonsense stating that the Communist and Socialist Labor party were the same. The writer of this letter was asked \why we did not crack down on him. / Anyone who willfully misconstrues facts and makes false statements about articles that the readérs themselves know are such, need not be rebuked. They stand convicted by the jury of readers themselves. Mr. Maddox . . . stands convicted on his own testimony. “The court's adjourned.” Since then several . . . eriticizing Mr. Maddox and appearing in the paper regularly are in themselves also guilty of—or perhaps I should say ignorant of—what socialism and communism really are. The Socialist and Communist

(Times readers are invited ~ to express their views in these columns, religious cons troversies excluded. Because ot the volume received, let"ters must be limited to 250 words. Letters must be

signed.)

parties are only nominal organizations and nothing but big machines for lying about socialism, as is well exemplified in the events that are going on in the world of today. The Social Democrats of Germany of which the Socialist party of this country and the European nations are a counterpart, seized power in Germany when the kaiser abdicated. Being nothing but opportunistic reformers, they proceeded to patch up outworn and broken-down capitalism to make it work instead of establishing the industrial republic. They paved the way for the dictatorship of Hitler. The above mentioned writers have themselves misstated facts. Socialism cannot be had without a revolution. Yes, and a fundamental revolution. When we say revolution many people including the, Communist and Socialist partyites become frightened. The word revolution is nothing to be fearful of as it only means a change and nothing violent: This government was founded upon a revolution and we did not have a revolutionary war and anyone who will say we did is ignorant, not only of the true meaning of the word, but of our American history. The American revolutionists of 1776 realized that “the time would come when our republic would become an impossibility” as in the words of Madison and drew up a constitution that not only legalized, but gave us, the weapon for the revolution. It is this weapon that the present capitalist clags and their henchmen are most fearful .of and which the working class should guard most jealously and exercise.

“Public-owned” ' (whatever that

Side Glances—By Galbraith

wa ry DL tsp:

a news item these days. For the cc

is) or “municipal-owned” buildings and property, public parks, highways, courthouses, postoffices, schools, roads, streets, bridges, dams, canals, electric light plants, water works, etc., are not socialism. If they were, we are living under a mongrel setup, part capitalism and socialism. . , . I would never be guilty of accusing the president and his administration of such as they are the stanchest supporters of the capitalist system we ever had. Socialism is a setup where the industries will be collective property of those who operate them and wilf be democratically managed. The supervisory forces of industry will be elected by the people in the industries. Representation will’ be from industries instead of from geographical boundaries, as now, and the representatives will be industrial experts instéad of lawyers as mostly now. Capital will be abolished and production will be carried on for use instead of for sale. The Socialist Labor party is the only

” 2 »

“T00 OLD TO GIVE BLOOD AT 60?” By James Lloyd VanZandt, 725 N. East st. I read with much interest on the front page of the second section of The Indianapolis Times, “Your

Blood Is Needed.” 1 notice donations of blood to the Red Cross are short of the quota about 100 a day. I cannot understand why in this time of emergency that most people are more interested in figurthg up their points for food and never giving a thought about donating a pint of blood to the men that are fighting for them. Blood plasma is now saving the lives of thousands of our fighting men at the front, but they need more, and if we keep on hoarding our blood as we do our food we may find ourselves short of both. Our enemy wants our food and they will take our blood to get it, so why not give it to the men that are fighting to save both? : ... In front of me I have a Red Cross record of blood donations: 10-1-41, one pint; 12-3-41, one pint; 2-7-42, one pint; 8-29-42, one pint; 12-7-42, one pint.” On Aug. 17, 1942, I was 60 years old. I gave two blood donations after I became 60 years old, but in early February, 1943, I went up to give my sixth blood donation and was turned down by the lady at the desk advising me they had word from Washington not to take blood from any person over 60 years of

age. That broke up my. playhouse for I did want to donate one gallon of blood, so row I am short three’ pints of my intended quota. I wonder who in Washington is smart enough to know or rather think that us men out here in Indiana cannot give blood after we become 60 years of age. I have a card from Eli Lilly advising me my blood is type A. No time have I had any ill.effects from donating blood. . . . : ; Franklin D. Roosevelt is the president of the Red Cross and he fis the same age as I and I do hope he is not so narrow-minded as to think a man 60 years old is no good to the men in service.

DAILY THOUGHTS

GOD DROPPED a spark déwn into everyone, And if we find and fan it to a

blaze, . It'll spring up and: glow, like—like ci ‘the sun, - i at

party that has this program. . . . 2

surance and

DNESDAY,

Our Hoosiers

By Daniel M. Kidney

WASHINGTON, June 2—A gray-haired Hoosier philosopher - appeared before a house commiittee here and gave the congressmen some of his own ideas to. think about. . He was soft-spoken C. T. Habegger, president of the Berne Manufacturing Co. which has been making overalls in Indiana for over 40 years. % Mr. Habegger doesn't like the efforts OPA is putting forth to wipe out brand names and standardize everything to suit the notions of their . economic| professors. The committee investigating ‘this matter was formed through a resolution of Rep. Charles A. Halleck (R.Ind.) and chosen from the membership of | the house interstate and foreign commerce eommit« tee with Rep. Lyle Boren (D.Okla.) as chairman. . Mr. Halleck is on the committee and asks most of the questions. ; '

Americans Want Variety

CONDEMNING THE efforts at standardization as ~ “un-American,” Mr. Habegger said: “If the only thing we are after is mere cheapness, then the entire American economic system has been ° wrong and should be revised forthwith. x} “But—is mere cheapness the objective of all our strivings, economic, political, educational and religious? If so, then we ought to be consistent and follow through from the economic to the political as well as to the other fields of human endeavor. a “Our way of life will have to fall into the same” pattern in one field as it does in another, whether we like it or not. History holds too many examples of the truth that economic regimentation also leads to political, religious and intellectual regimentation. . . . “The American people don't want uniform styling , and pricing, nor do they want mere cheapness. They want ample choices, ample freedom, ample variety.

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Ra LN RE SRE SI R SS

Shs Se

FR LE ey.

Yes, they even want an expensive type of government

—a representative democratic government, which is - a lot more expensive than a dictatorial machine. . “Our congress costs us a lot more than a dictatorship would cost, but look at the risk we run in pfe- : ferring mere cheapness to fairness and freedogn, and individual opportunity!” ;

Five-Point Program Urged

IN CONCLUDING his testimony before the com- 4 mittee, Mr. Habegger outlined a five-point program of his own as follows: 1. Start controlling margins—not prices—by indus-.-tries and types of industries. This #tlows reasonable freedom, individuality and variety. Penalize dishonest ™ offenders by doubling or tripling their income taxes. That will hold them in line, , 2. Encourage reasonable profits while people are ready to buy what is available because that is the easiest way to get money to retire our debts while the war is on. 3. Permit orderly wage increases, periodically, in the low-wage industries so that all labor may be more ° evenly rewarded, and award all possible wages on an incentive basis. When both labor and management are put on a controlled incentive basis, production problems will start to evaporate. : - 4. Tax individual ihcomes at the source at progressively higher rates as earnings reach into the higher brackets. . 5. Continue to expect all well-paid workers to invest in war bonds that mature in three to five years * to prevent poor times later. “This would be a workable, American way of doing things in time of war,” Mr. Habegger contended. “Let's try it. We have tried the complicated control route. It seems to me it has worked. clumsily. Let's try the simpler, the more free, the more direct route. I predict it will work much better—because it xy: fits into our American way of life.” x

In Washington

By Peter Edson =

WASHINGTON, June 2.—Five hyndred - trans-Atlantic airplane ° ghts are now being niade each’ week, exclusive of tha ferrying flights: to deliver combat planes on the other side, which go one= way only. The 500 flights referred to are transport flights, . hauling passengers, mail and cargo. They cover all foutes, whether by way of Iceland, non-stop from Newfoundland, by Bermuda and - the Azores, or over the South Atlantic crossing to Africa. : If the 500 flights per week, over 70 flights per day, sounds impressive—and it is when you compare it with the pré-war schedule of three flights per week, get out your pencil and figure it a little further. The average cargo which one of these planes can carry on a transoceanic hop is six tons. ve hundred planes carrying six tons apiece is 3 of cargd moving" by air each week. : One ordinary liberty ship can carry 10,000 tons of cargo. \ : . r Assuming that it would take the liberty ship two weeks to make a crossing, it could still deliver 66 per cent more freight in its one crossing in two weeks than can now be hauled in 500 plane crossings a week for two weeks.

How Costs Stack Up ! bine

EDWARD WARNER, vice chairman of the eivil~ aeronautics board, delivering the Wilbur Wright me= » morial lecture before the Royal Aeronautical Society: in London the other day, cited the cost experience of X U. 8. commercial airlinés to put this factor in proper: light wheh commercial airlines have to go out and compete with steamship companies and still show a profit. x The cost of operating a domestic commercial air--line is figured at over 68 cents per revenue mile flown,. but that includes all salaries, maintenance, ground. services, depreciation and solicitation of business.? Most of this business was, of course, passenger carry-* ing, cargo being only 4 per cent of the passenger load. The minimum cost of just moving mixed freight by air, exclusive of ground services and business so--licitation, is now 20 cents per ton mile. Substitution: of freight for passengers by the use of all-cargo planes” cuts the figure to 15 cents per ton mile. Allow for a. profit on the operation and the figure must becomey 16 cents or more. " But Mr, Warner anticipates an increase in the ef--ficiency of planes in the post-war period, with a con-» sequent reduction in costs which he.garefully esti-: mates may be as much as 15 per cent. Applying those’ figures to his previously developed cost figures, he. concludes that the best possible post-war rates will! be 14 cents per ton mile for cargo, or 2% cents per passenger mile for passengers. at Shipping Ratio Much Lower r Xe THESE FIGURES are for speeds of uhder 200 miles’ an hour and on flights where frequent refuling is pos sible. If the speed requisite is to be 260 miles an hour, the cost per passenger mile must jump to 4 cents and the cargo cost to 19 or 20 cents per ton mile." Taking the lower figures for slower, most economy

| cal flight speeds, the best commercial rate that .

now be anticipated for moving a ton of -cArge by airy the 3300 miles from New York to Lisbon or Liverpo is $462. al RE Compare that with the accepted shipping cost figure of less than 1 cent per ton mile—about $30 per ton for 3300 miles even in war time with higher iby