Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 June 1943 — Page 10
‘he Indianapolis Times
ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER President ; ; wo. ~-.. Editor, in U. 8S. Service MARK FERREE WALTER LECKRONE Business ‘Manager Editor .
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> RILEY 5551
Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way
MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1943
LEWIS KNOWS BETTER
ITHER ignorance or insolence promoted this statement issued by John L. Lewis and his union policy committee after ordering the coal miners to return to work and setting June 20 as a new strike deadline: “The nation has the greatest storage stocks of bituminous coal in history. There is an ample supply of coal on hand for every requirement. Even the present situation has not impaired our war productive effort.” It was not ignorance. Lewis would like the rank-and-file miners and the public to believe that no harm has ever been done by his two strikes which have cost the country more than a week's production of coal. But he knows better. : He knows that the storage stocks are not evenly distributed among the power plants and the war industries sdependent on coal. He knows that many small factories ‘—lacking storage facilities, never have on hand much more -than a week's supply of fuel, and that their reserves are ‘now depleted. Lewis knows that the steel industry has been seriously damaged by last week’s strike. Since last Tuesday there *haye been no shipments of coke from more than 9200 bee_hive ovens in the Connellsville-Uniontown fields of Penn«gylvania. The beehives depend on daily shipments of coal. »
O COAL, no beehive coke; no coke, no pig iron; no pig iron, no steel. That's why at least 13 big blast fur- * naces had closed down in steel mills by Saturday, and why others may have to close before the flow of coal resumes. Some of them will have to be .partly rebuilt before they can be put back into use.
By product coke ovens, which supply a greater number of furnaces, have been eating into their coal reserves, and must now attempt to build them up again. The over"burdened railroads will have to haul extra coal to them. The critical transportation system will be further compli- . cated. The difficulty of insuring adequate supplies of fuel for homes and buildings next winter will be increased. ; There is one week less to do a tremendous job for “which the time available was already dangerously short. John L. Lewis knows all that. And yet, having cursed the country with two inexcusable strikes which may pro- , Jong the war and cost the lives of many American boys, fhe threatens still another strike unless the government lets ' him have his way.
| GAS RATION RED TAPE
HEN gasoline rationing originally was ordered, Indiana |
: ration authorities undertook to cut waste, red tape annoyance and unnecessary cost in its administration to a minimum. To this end they devised the plant transportation plan, under which a committee in each factory or busi- * ness could be deputized to handle applications from its own * personnel. a
The plan was an instant success. Uncounted thousands + of miles of travel to and from local neighborhood ration ! boards were saved for war workers—and for their tires. ! In Indianapolis alone hundreds of thousands of hours of ' waiting in line at ration boards were avoided. Since the . plant committees handled an important share of the total . work of ration boards at no cost to the government it . effected a large saving in money. Ration applications were : handled more quickly, with more intimate knowledge of conditions affecting them, and generally more intelligently | than it would have been possible to handle them in neigh- | borheod boards. t 4 8 »
HE regional directors of the office of price administra7 tion located in Cleveland, didn’t like it—for no discern- | ible reason except that they hadn’t thought of it first. They issued orders virtually abolishing the system— and so complicating the procedure of .gasoline rationing that it now is costing, in Indianapolis alone, approximately $1000 2 week more, of completely needless expenditure, days of needless delay on every factory worker’s ration book issued, and inevitably less skillful decisions on the ‘merits of applications. .. Here is one more example of the constant fumbling of distant and incompetent bureaucrats, blissfully entangled in their own ‘red tape, which has made many times more difficult the jobs of local individuals who have tried to administer wartime controls of prices’ and Saplies with inlelligence, initiative and common sense. :
o CONGRATULATIONS
THE Union Trust Co., and its officers and directors, go the congratulations of the community upon the comAston of its first 50 years of setvice to Indianapolis. As an institution it has spanned the most vital period : mn the development . of this city. Horse cars still crept through the streets when it first opened its doors, and the ‘ great industrial growth which has made Indianapolis the sity it is today was still in the future. As the city has grown this institution has grown with it, as conditions have changed it has adjusted itself to meet them—and today, with half a century behind it, seems still vigorous and young and quite completely attuned to the times. From the beginning its destinies were in the hands of outstanding citizens—its board a roster of distinguished names of men of local, state and national prominence—a standard that has been carefully maintained through the years. Its record of service to Indianapolis is one in which these men can take justifiable pride—and from which they
can Jook forward to another Ralf septiry of. sound and :
$
Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler ~~
SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., June 7. —The Communist propaganda agencies including the official publications of several C. I. O. unions, have tried lately to build up a fine but completely "false reputation for magnificent efficiency and selfless devotion to the war effort for the longshoremen’s union of the Pacific coast controlled by Harry Bridges, the Australian Communist who is under a suspended order of deportation. xe It is Bridges’ purpose to establish a beachhead, so to speak, on the Atlantic coast, where, up to now, the work of handling cargo loading and unloading ships has been controlled by the rival longshoremen’s union of the A. FP. of L. This is an anti-Communist organization but a bad one, much troubled by racketeering and other characteristic ills of the older and more complacent group. Bridges has made several trips to New York and
Washington ostensibly and in part actually. in cons |
nection with problems of efficiency and wages affecting his West coast union but, incidentally, to conspire with fellow Communists, avowed and covert, for the invasion of the Atlantic coast. Concurrently he has enjoyed considerable ballyhoo as a diligent and dynamic soldier of production, which is entirely
‘untrue,
Criticizes Own Board
THE ACTUAL measure of Bridges’ war effort was given in a statement by Paul Eliel, chairman of the
Pacific coast maritime industry board, a federal |
agency on Feb. 4. Mr. Eliel represents the war shipping administration of this board, whose other members represent, respectively, the Bridges union and the shipowners. In his statement Mr. Eliel said his board had fallen down on its job because production, meaning the performance of work, was ‘still pitifully below the standards that can properly be expected,” and, further on, “The production per gang hour can only be described as pitiful.” The showing, he held, was one which should cause his board “and every member of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen's union and all its officers to hide their heads in shame. No one in his right mind can claim that this over-all record is one. that is deserving of the slightest commendation.” As to comparisons between the efficiency of
Bridges’ Communist-front union and Joe Ryan’s East |
coast A. F. of L. men, Mr. Eliel said that until proof should be presented to the contrary, and on the basis of evidence already presented, “It must be assumed that there is a substantial unfavorable differential when West coast production is compared to that of the East coast.”
Land Rebuked Union
THIS FORTHRIGHT appraisal of Bridges’ performance, the more embarrassing because it’ sounded a sour, although not publicly audible note in the Communist propaganda, brought from Bridges and his two union members of the board a demand that Mr. Eliel resign. Pursuant to this, Rear Admiral Emory S. Land, administrator of the war shipping administration, called the whole board to Washington for a hearing on April 1, which lasted through April 3, and on April 7 he wrote a letter to the board upholding Eliel and rebuking { the union for demanding his removal and for tailurd to perform. He also criticized the shipowners’ representatives for stiff-neckedness in their dealing with the board's problems, but his most emphatic comments were addressed to Bridges and his union. . : He pointed out also that some of the board’ s decisions had run counter to the interests of the employers “without any demand from them that the chairman be removed.” Far from agreeing that Eliel should be removed for partiality to the employers, Adm. Land criticized Eliel because he had not made the same report weeks, or months, before.
Admiral Demands Results AFTER HIS study and on the basis of the facts
only, Adm. Land wrote that performance on the West
coast was unsatisfactory and instructed Elie! to get to work and produce tangible resuits. He said Eliel had been “too considerate of the longshoremen,” and “unwilling to press for needed corrections hard enough.” He referred pointedly to many feather-bedding or mock-work rules by which the union wastes manpower and extorts money that is not earned, and said Eliel’s policy of going slowly to achieve corrections of these rules had been continuing long after it should have been abandoned. There, or thereabouts, the matter stands now. Ship carrying cargo to American fighters in the Aleutians and the South Pacific are unnecessarily delayed. Meanwhile, a campaign progresses to establish the same power on the East coast and institute similar controls and methods in the loading of supplies to Russia and to the Americans in Africa on whom Bridges, Joe Curran of the Communist front maritime union, Chaylie Chaplin of Hollywood and other ferocious Communist and pro-Communist vicarious warriors, have been calling for a second front on continental Europe.
We the People
By Ruth Millett
SOME PEOPLE are already worrying about the effect that going into uniform for the duration will have on women. They think that WAACs and WAVES and SPARS may get so accustomed to regimentation that they won’t want to go back into civilian life. They wonder if they won't. begin to think too much like men to fit satisfactorily into a postwar world. They wonder if they'll ever want to settle down. With all the post-war problems there are to worry about, this is one I think we can skip over lightly. The girls are crazy about wearing uniforms—sure. But that is because uniforms are “the thing” in war time. :
Women Like Security
WHEN THE war is over, and women again start trying. to out-do each other in the matter of dress, won't the uniformed girls be just as anxious to get back. to their feminine trappings as they were to get out of them for uniforms? Sure, they will. Women don’t enjoy being out of step. And when the men come home, anxious to settle down and enjoy the ease and comforts of home, the girls will want to settle down, too. And as far as thinking like men is concerned— it is doubtful that they will ever start that. Probably there isn’t a man, in the service who joined on the chance that it might help him to find a wife. And yet, if they would admit it, probably a good percentage of the women in service went in because they thought they would have a good chance of finding themselves husbands.
The Hoosier Forum
1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
“FURNISHES PROOF OF INCONSISTENCY”
By H. W. Daacke, 1404 S. State ave. Mr. E. F. Maddox has again furnished definite proof of his inconsistency when he opens his article . « » With a reiteration of his suggestion regarding “Keeping the Faith” and a “Genfleman’s Agreement,” followed immediately by a paragraph in which he vents his spleen against a group of Socialists, of which he knows so little that each and every time his articles appear as such they make him ridiculous in the eyes of the reading and thinking public. And still he is egotistical enough to think he is moulding public opinion by his vile accusations against the Socialist movement that has, in the light of past history, a cleaner record than any other movement promulgated for the emancipation of all humanity. In one statement only is he correct, and that is, the Socialist movement is a menace to our present economic system for it intends and will eventually overthrow it, but will do it by the orderly processes made and provided for that purpose in the constitution of the U.-S. A. .
” ” » “WORKERS MUST HAVE A GOOD REASON” By Harry Hirschman, Plainfield You haven't been backward about Lewis and his miners in print. Ho#® about printing the other side of the case? The country is bubbling up a lot of war plant strikes as well as mines. There is no exception to the basic reason behind everyone of these work stoppages. Each strike is a retaliatory strike. Against the employer? The government? No! The WLB. The WLB goes on the first strike —they strike against every singie plant that submits a contract. And no wonder. They have over 12,000 cases pending right now. They admit it will be many years before they can all be considered and every confract, being . . . only a year’s agreement, leaves the re-
(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.)
newal of them possible by the next war. The remedy is so simplé and obvious that I won't go into that. Another reason workers strike: The WLB allows a 15 per cent increase over February, 1941, rates. It's called the Little Steel formula. If you announced in your paper that livihg costs were up only 15 per cent, people would think you mad. That leaves, in this matter, two courses open for the WLB. It's that simple. Third, no one frusts the WLB (they, only, may authorize a working agreement, mind you). These Akron rubber workers were promised an eight-cent raise over a year ago. They worked under their old contract patiently ‘for 13 months past its expiration. For their patience, trust and loyalty of country
they got three cents, not retro-
active. That retroactive clause is the only reason a union will extend a negotiation beyond the deadline. No one wants to strike, be it peace or war. We are the only country in the world that has this trouble. The workers must have a good reason. Think about it a moment. ” ” ” “THE POSITION OF THE
COMMUNIST PARTY”
By Elmer Johnson, 1aianagolis organizer, Communist party, P. O. Box 489
At the most critical moment of the war, John L. Lewis has brought the nation's miners out on strike. This action is taken in defiance of the forceful reiteration of labor’s no-strike policy by all the most responsible leaders of the labor movement. It is taken in the face of government guarantees to the miners that their justified claims will be protected. It is taken at a
Side Glances—By Galbraith
SOR $548 8Y HEA SEAVIEES ING: T. M. REG. VU. S. PAT. OFF.
* "This summer school course for seniors may be a good joa: but | breakdown ‘before
ihope | dont get & nervous
moment designed by Lewis to throw chaos into the whole labor movement and into the nation’s war eifort. The miners must choose between their country and John L. Lewis. The miners must return to work ime mediately. It has become obvious that from the side of the coal operators there is the same indifference to the nation's interests that is displayed by Lewis and his lieutenants. Nothing can be allowed to sabotage victory in the war. This is iabor’s war. The no-strike policy is labor's policy. The whole working class and its trade union movement will uphold the commander-in-chief in whatever steps may be necessary to insure uninterrupted production and orderly labor relations, This is the position of the Communist party, ” » » “TIMELY ADVICE FOR DRAFT-AGE BOYS” By John E. Bowman, 421 N, DeQuincy st. I believe this is a very good piece of timely advice . . . by Col. Leonard Rountree, medical director for national selective service. “It may surprise you to know that we now. reject one out of each four boys in the 17 and 18-year-old groups for some physical or mental defect which precludes military service. Contrast our rejection rate of 254 per cent with that of Sweden's low figure of 10 per cent of this same age group. “It’s bad enough to reject onequarter of our ‘teén age boys on the induction examination,” Col. Rountree emphasized, “but far more disquieting is a fact that a high proportion of the men we select lack the endurance and agility essential to perform the strenuous tasks modern war demands. “Fatalities caused by sheer fatigue —uncelated to wounds—have occured entirely too often during the Tunisian campaign. Thousands of our young soldiers just can’t stand the gaff. They are the victims of our luxurious, gadget-minded civilization, our pampered way of life. “As youngsters they were coddled by indulgent parents. Our kids pushed | a button for service or stepped on the gas pedal to go places. Now they are paying a stiff price for this soft upbringing.” Boys, get tough before it’s your turn, Start today to build a body that will be able to take it when the going gets tough. . .. = ” EJ ( “CONDITIONS CERTAINLY HAVE CHANGED” By A. H. Berman, 2841 N. Delaware st. Judging by the spirited defense of « « « “Mission to Moscow” by the fellow travelers old allegiances die hard. The fellow travelers are so worried about offending the sensibilities of Soviet Russia. Apparently it is quite all right to lambast Churchill and Roosevelt but be. ever so careful in judging Marshal Stalin. There was a time and not so long ago, before June 22, 1941, when the same fellow travelers were echoing the Communists in denouncing this imperialist war. At that time Germany was only the poor victim of Great Britain's imperialistic = designs. Roosevelt, you remember, was a warmonger. And Molotov was genially explaining to the critics of the Soviet-Nazi pact that after all ideology is just a matter of taste. 2 : Times certainly have changed.
DAILY THOUGHTS
Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not agdin.—Luke 6:30.
ORARITY wodit fills the aw.
And“ who
In Washinglon-
By Peter Edson
WASHINGTON, June 7—Add random notes on wartime cone, fusion: ” .
The office of war information's campaign division is now organizing a “Don’t Travel” crusade to get people to stay at home this summer and relieve transportation facilities. When Betty MacDonald, who writes the “Wartime Living” news called at the office of Defense
for this paper,
‘Transportation .Director Joseph Eastman to get a
statement on this campaign, she was informed that Mr. Eastman had: gone to the Maine woods to rest and recuperate. 8 ww » Sign in a war production board wash room: “One towel will wipe any pair of AMERICAN han
» » " Says Senator Cotton Ed Smith of Lynchburg, S.C., commenting on the Midwestern floods: “Why couldn’t OPA figure out some way to ration the Li
® 8 =
Later, after questioning Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones on the proposal to roll back prices of meats, butter and coffee, Cotton Ed sputtered: “The real roll back is going to come in the next election.” = # ” A flying officer who returned to Honolulu with a standard 6x17 Japanese-made auto tire which he had bought off a Solomon islander for a package of cigarets, has just been informed by his Hawa tire rationing board that he can’t legally uge the: tire on his own car till it is registered. But it it has no trade name or serial number, so can't be registered. : :
Eggs and Jackrabbits
A POULTRY RAISER who couldn’t understand OPA’s maximum price regulation on eggs appealed to a chain store purchasing agent for. an interpretation. The purchasnig agent couldn’t understand “it either, so he appealed to his public relations counsel. The public relations man finally got in touch by phone with ‘the OPA man who wrote the Spinal order. : “I can’t understand it either,” sald the ORAer. “But I thought you 3 wrote it!” insisted the public relations man. - : “I did!” confessed the OPAer. “But when it left my desk it- was only \three pages long. When it came back to me from the legal division it was 33 pages
long.” ” » » Sales of ammunition to civilians are now under wartime restrictions. Indian Service officials are trying to get the restrictions removed so that Indians on reservations -cgn- kill the jackrabbits which are threatening to destroy their war crops. At Tucson, Ariz.,, Indians recently visited the basements of local chain stores, shopping for bows and arrows.
War Agency Number 2241
THE FEDERAL HOUSING administration recently prettied up a statistical ‘story on how many new housing projects there were in Washington, the idea being to take the reader on an imaginary sight seeing plane ride. But OWI ordered all reference to the plane taken out of the story because military authorities say no plane can fly over Washington without drawn blinds. ” » ” Off the record, OPA enforcement officials refer to _ congress and the war food administration as “the twoy greatest inflationary forces in the country.” ’ ” tJ » “Victory” model garbage pails were ordered made of thinner metal, to save steel. But the lighter weight cans wear out faster, require replacement oftener, may in the end consume more metal than the heavier, pre-war varieties. t J t J ” . Real crisis: in the textile industry is. caused by the heavy wartime birth rate. Bumper baby crap has increased demand for diaper cloth.
# td s
There are now 2240 separate government agencies listed in the federal register. Creation of the office of war mobilization makes it 224%
‘Caroni Gold’
By Dan Gordon
.
A mining engineer, L. R. Dennison, has written his second book, “Caroni Gold.” The title is supposed to be a tip-off to the locale of his adventures, but is somewhat misleading: More than half of the book is taken up with a different gold-hunting expedition that the one the title is supposed to refer to. . of The author writes quite obJectively and his descriptions are fairly realistic. But he shows no genuine sensitivity to his environment, except perhaps to record his various uncomfortable moments in the jungle and in the village—coming down with a fever, being annoyed by Jiggers and ticks, having to pull a native girl's tooth. Mr. Dennison’s adventures take place in the vicinity of ‘the river Orinoco in Vennezuela, ‘Southk America. The Caroni river is a tributary ‘of this larger body of water. As a mining engineer for a New York syndicate he was always on the sharp lookout for valuable gold and other minerals. While waiting for a boat to take him back to the United States he was advised that the Caroni river was sinking again after a lapse of 14 years and that he would find fabulous wealth— diamonds, gold, silver and other precious stones—in the bed of the river,
Tells of Adventures With Natives,
BEFORE HE TELLS us of his experiences as the “alcalde,” or mayor, of the key town on this river, Mr. Dennison relates the story of his adventures with two Paul Bunyan-like natives, Valentine and Johnny Trim, and a native girl, Margarita, as they prospected for gold in a region east of the Caroni. R i He gives a fairly interesting description of “Venezuela’s river of wealth,” but depicts in a slow-moving } manner the difficulties he has in maintaining order = in Paviche, the city on the Caron; his clashes ‘with X.
such unscrupulous characters as “Dr. Andgdon,” who sells the natives “a lot of hypodermic needles to play with,” and. his role as a doctor, ministering to the ills of the natives. Throughout the book, Mr. Dennison’s phservatiohs