Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 June 1943 — Page 12

hi Editor, mn u. 8. 2 WALTER LECKRONE ; + Editor 2 SO y 4 5

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their own ' Way

TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 1943

WAGES AND PRICES

WW ASHINC GTON bureaucrats tinkering with the nation’s ‘economic structure under the cloak of the war emergency have resolutely refused to look facts in the face— even their own facts—in dealing with wages and prices. ~/ Figures of the bureau of labor statistics, an arm of Madame Perkins’ U. S. department of labor, reveal that the average weekly wage of Indiana workers now is $41.55, while at the beginning of the war it was $25.47—figures that differ by only a few cents fom the national average. Prices in the same period—and by the same set of statistics ~—have gone up an average of 20 per cent, so that an article that cost $1 when the war began now costs $1.20. Where does that leave the average worker?

Well, suppose he spent it all on potatoes. At the start of the war his week’s work would have bought him 25 bushels, at $1 a bushel. Today those potatoes would be $1.20 a bushel. So his week’s work would buy him 33 bushels. In terms of potatoes he is eight bushels ahead right now. In terms of actual living costs he draws ~ a third more pay than he got in 1939. 8 8

. N the face of those figures, and in defiance of the express wishes of the congress of the United States, the office of price administration now proposes to “roll back” prices by a subsidy, so that this average weekly income can buy still more. The OPA began on butter. Butter will be “rolled back” 5 cents a pound, and the government of the United States will pay the 5 cents. “Under present butter rationing allotments this will save’ the average individual the notable sum of ‘60 cents a year. It will cost the government $100 millions a year—or about 60 cents per person. But the government must borrow the money, and pay interest for it. Interest now is about 21% per cent a year, or 25 per cent for the 10 years in which current bond issues become due. So that each person who saves 60 cents a year on butter now will have to pay back 75 cents in 1958—when he may not be getting fe wages or the steady work he has today. -OPA has failed to keep prices down, and prices have advanced about as rapidly as they advanced in previous wars without attempts at price control. But wages have advanced still faster. While the labor department’s averages, of course, do not fit every individual, they nevertheless prove that Americans generally today have the biggest incomes, with the greatest purchasing power, that any people ever have had in all human history. This is no time for the government to borrow money to pay our grocery bills.

WHY NOT TRIPE? HE OPA’s meat-rationing authorities are doing their darndest to encourage the eating of tripe. They have lowered the value of this delicacy to one point a pound, ranking it along. with beef tails and pork snouts as among the best bargains on the list.: pion Always eager to aid a good cause, we hasten to say a few good words for tripe. It has been strangely neglected by the poets and sages.. Bobbie Burns preferred haggis or painch, but did consider tripe worthy of mention in the company of these noble viands. An old English proverb had it that “tripe broth is better than no porridge,” and another, with slightly less restraint, avowed that. “tripe’s good meat if it is well wiped.” But we string along with William Shakespeare, who wrote the deathless query, “How say you to a fat tripe finely broil’d ?”” and supplies the prompt, appropriate reply: “I like it well, good Grumio. Fetch it me!” o s be . 8 8 ANY are the merits of tripe. It is boneless and beauti- ~ ful with honeycomb effects. It can be stewed with onions and covered with cream sauce; it can be fried to a

rich and savory brownness. The people of France, in happier days, celebrated the delights of tripe a la mode de Caen. The people of Germany, according to a reliable report, use pickled tripe as a substitute for rubber heels. So hasten to the butcher shop and stock up on tripe. Meanwhile, we’ll be doing some research on pork snouts.

CRISIS IN UNDERWEAR

ROM the underwear institute comes alarming news.

Unless the OPA acts ‘fast there won't be enough shirts, |

drawers and union suits to cover the home front next winter. It seems that the ceiling on underwear is.so low that it ‘almost touches the floor of production costs. Five mills have had to: close’ down because they could not. afford to operate at a loss, and others are curtailing activities,

This is something to which Administrator Brown should ttend with’ celerity and decision. We shiver to think what ill happen if he does not.

of ‘this production is going into

All is contributing directly to reortage and d Zeducing-- slightly, but

Price’ in. Marion Colin ‘ty, 4 cents a copy; deliv- | ‘ered by carrier, 18 Boas &

$4 a year; adjoining| states, 75 ‘cents a month; ¥:

Wi RILEY 8551 i |

did criticize the Pacific coast lr Bh industry board. ’ ‘But ‘he did not charge them with any guilt in the inefficiency. and congestion in the handilng of war |

"keep down their costs and anticipate their post-war

es Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

SAN FRANCISCO, June 8—| A The Communists who have been | H

conspiring, under cover of the war, to establish Harry Bridges on the

East. coast and their sailors’ union | | on the Pacific coast and create a |

Communist monopoly of all Amer- - ican shipping and dock services, doubtless will allege that these dispatches have omitted the criticism recently directed at the West . coast ship owners by Rear Admira] Emory S. Land, administrator of the war shipping administration. : ° To anticipate that, let .me say ‘that Adm. Land

cargoes from the West coast docks to the Aleutians and the Southwest Pacific. He said only that they

had ‘not lived up to some of these responsibilities. | : They had been unco-operative in their anxiety to |

restore old conditions, to establish the righteousness of their position and maintain their prerogatives, to

relations with labor. By quibbling they hindered the board of which they were members.

Questionable Practices Defended

THE UNION MEMBERS of the board, on the other hand, had pressed proposals which were trivial or absurd, defending practices, meaning man-wasting

and time-wasting methods, which were questionable even in peace and unjustified in war, and opposed many proposals: which would have increased efficiency in turning ships around and moving supplies to the fighters. ' -. In his statement of Feb. 8 which kicked up a row and brought from Harry Bridges a demand for his removal, Paul Eliel, chairman of the Pacific coast maritime industry board and Adm. Land’s representative, did say there had been improvement in the union’s methods of supplying labor, and he did acknowledge a real sacrifice by the rank and file longshoremen in spending long hours, but without comment on the amount of work done. These long hours were necessitated, however, by a shortage of hands which, in turn, was artificially created by the wasteful restrictions and the slowdown imposed by the union itself. Moreover, the men drew overtime at $1.10 an hour for a six-hour day between 8 a. m. and 5 p. m. and $1.65 an hour for all other hours of the 24. :

Production Record ‘Terrible’

THE SHIP owners, in the course of the wrangle which eventually prompted Eliel’s statement, had described the slowdown methods imposed by Bridges. In addition to many mock-work devices and deliberate restrictions: on the speed of machinery and limitations of loads hoisted off the docks, they had flatly accused Bridges’ men of shooting craps, playing cards, fishing, sleeping, leaving their work to drink coffee or beer and tardiness on arrival and whistle-jumping at the close of their shifts. - These specific complaints were not specifically confirmed, but neither were they denied by either Mr. Eliel or Adm. Land and they were reckoned in the study of conditions through which first Eliel and then Land arrived at their condemnation of the union’s conduct. They have been standard conduct in increasing degree ever since Bridges became the boss of the West coast docks, for the union’s work-program is such that often one group of men is compelled to be idle while another group works.

Slowdown Methods Described

THE ONE question has been whether Bridges, whom the Communists have lauded ‘as an “illustrious soldier of production in the war against fascism, has been loading the ships as fast as he could and the answer is that the production record is terrible. The ship owners, who might not be scrupulously fair, estimate that five men are required to do the work of three in San Francisco, the worst port on the coast in the matter of efficiency, and Eliel insisted that the union’s claim that ships are turned around here more quickly than on the Atlantic coast is meaningless, because turn-around speed is no measure of speed in loading. The reason is that convoy problems on the East coast obviously are more complicated. He studied the data and learned that almost without exception ships remain longer in Atlantic ports after they are loaded and ready to sail. Although ships do remain much longer in Atlantic Ports, they are loaded more quickly by the A. F. of L. This might seem to put Bridges in an embarrassing position before Mother Russia, but that is not necessarily so. Most of the supplies for Mother Russia go the other way and relatively little sail from here. The supplies which this Communist union handles in the Pacific ports are mainly destined to Americans fighting the Japanese with whom Mother Russia remains on terms of peace.

We the People By Ruth Millett

THINGS ARE going to be different when you get home, George. The little woman says so. She has it all figured out. And she has had plenty of time to figure since you went into the service and left her to live alone. - She has decided you were right and she was wrong about a lot of things, George. .. About the Joneses, for instance. They bored you both to death, yet

you saw them gularly. Somehow, it- just gob to be a

habit. 5 And when you complained, your: wife. explained that you had to have them to dinner because they had asked you to dimner. That explanation makes sense to women—but it ‘never made sense to you. ‘It doesn’t make sense to your wife any more. Every time she thinks of the perfectly good evenings that went to waste because you had to go to the Joneses or they came to your: house—she could weep. . There aren't going to be any more evenings like that. The little woman has promised that to herself.

A Hotel No Longer! -

AND THOSE afternoons when she uséd to play ‘bridge with “the girls” until so late she had to feed you cold cuts for dinner. No more of those meals for you, George. She thinks now that having a man come home hungry at night would be such’a joy that in the future she intends always to beat you home by two hours.

And ‘all “those house guests. You always main- | tained that a home should be a man’s castle—not a

hotel run on a Don-profis plan. She has decided you were right. That is the straight dope, George. Come home as soon as can and see how things (including the little woman) have changed.

To the Point—

FOLKS WHO don't take their time about it. do

a poor job of growing’ old.

— ar

The Hoosier Forum

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

“SOMETHING WRONG WITH FINANCIAL SYSTEM” By W. H. Edwards, R. R. 2, Spencer J. M. W., who writes in the Forum of June 3, says all he knows is what he reads in the papers. From the sensible way he writes that statement of his is subject to much doubt. For he at least has come to realize that there's something radically wrong with our financial system when, in the midst of a bitter war, a prominent banker, while speaking before the Indiana Bankers

more important than the lives of our. soldiers and the lives of our working people here at home. J. M. W. must -get the idea out of his head that we, the people are sovereign. We can vote, it is true, for one or. the other of two men picked by the invisible government which is generally called Wall Street, but which is a relatively small group of financial barons who control not only .our economic lives, through their control over the circulation of money; they also control our nation's political life through their control over the public press and on through congress. That control was lately proven when a powerful bloc in congress, doing their ‘masters’ bidding, put over the modified Ruml plan of income tax evasion, making it thereby imperative that a national sales tax be enacted by congress, thus forcing those on pre-war incomes of low stature to make up from their meager incomes the billions of dollars forgiven the millionaires who are constantly adding more millions to their swollen fortunes. One member of congress stated: “Every member of congress knows that this bill stinks,” and he was exactly right. tJ ” “IN AMERICA WE HAVE MAJORITY RULE” By Haze Hurd, 830 S. Addison st

Mr. Edward F. Maddox: In answer to yours in the Forum of June 5 I wish to tell you a little story about a certain man. This man came teaching the people in the Middle East, and one day there was a very rich man who came to, him and said, “What shall I do?”| He answered him and said “You

association, implies that money is

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Because ot the volume received, letters must be limited: to 250 words. Letters must be signed.)

know the commandments.” This man said, “All these things have I kept from my youth up.” This man told him, “One thing thou lacketh. Go sell all you have and give to the poor.” And he went away grieved. This man got a few converts to his ideas and he left that part of the country. But he left 11 that carried on just like he did and in return they got a few converts and they believed like the 11. And the

multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul.

Neither said any of them that|.

ought of the things which he possessed was his own but they had all things common. Neither was there any among them that lacked, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them ard brought the price of the thivugs that were sold and laid them down. And distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. Karl Marx was not born then nor did they have communism in Russia as according to you and Westbrook Pegler. They did not have socialism in America. If we are to believe you and Westbrook Pegler that all union men and most of our Zovernment officials are Socialist, then that is what we ought to have because that is a majority, and in America we have majority rule. It seems like the Russians like the kind of governme:.t they have, ihe way they are fighting for.it. They must have a New Deal. They never did figh! likz this to uphold their old deal. if the rajor.ty of the people of America want socialism, that is what the ross »f us ought to want to be satisfied with. If we want to be Americans and if we want to: be Christians we wan: to sell all we have and give to the poor and have all things common.

Side Glances—By Galbraith

td ate

Tenens wi a

WIR ir aby i AF cI

“MINERS DON'T RESPECT SOLDIERS’ RIGHTS”

By Pvt. Marvin H. Walton, Station Hospital Ward A-4, Camp Wolters, Tex.

This is a letter from a. plain buck private at Camp Wolters, Tex. At the present time I am in the station hospital with probably a fractured left ankle—the X-Ray has not come back as yet. Camp Wolters is an ietalitry training base. - Here we learn to fight our enemy at a distance or with our bayonets. Here in our camp we drill in the hot sun; the temperature may be 85 to 110 in the

shade. Some boys fall cut from ‘the heat,

isome are ‘completely exhausted. Nevertheless, when the time comes

but because we've got to or else.

.. we try and-read a paper. ... The headlines . . . “530,000 Miners Quit Work,” John L. Lewis . . . defies the war labor board, President

can soldier, then again the people’s government of these United States —oh man, what a day it would be if my buddies (and.I've a lot. of them) five million strong, would refuse to fight abroad or refuse to train in our respective camps. My mother, like many other great ‘American mothers, gave up three boys. Through all of her tears and heartaches she is still proud she could send three boys to defend our great country. Lots of these mothers have already lost a son, two, three or. more; yet she is willing to carry on. Are the American people going to let these boys, your boys die in vain, or are they going to let John L. Lewis be their unelected and unwanted president of our country? If I am not mistaken, this is what defeated France. The . . . men in our armed forces know to win the war we must have a home front that is willing to give up its greeds for money. What the people at home need is a united home front and I promise you your armed forces will give you a united armed front. We in the army can whip Hitler and the Japs, but we cannot whip John L, Lewis and all of the strikers. .. No. man. can ‘be’ called an American if he puts money before his country. We. fellows in the army respect the miners’ rights but the miners do not respect our rights. We have the right to demand a united home front and an uninterrupted line of vital war supplies; coal is one of the main war supplies. Come on, home front, and back your fighting soldiers abroad and ithe ones in caps training.

2.8 #8 “A BETTER NOVELIST THAN A FARMER?” By T. M. R.; Indianapolis’ Mr. Phil Stong is evidently a bet[ter novelist, than he is a farmer.

Any real farmer knows that the gestation period for cows is slightly over nine months and not 11 months as stated in his article of June 3.

"DAILY THOUGHTS

Seek him that" maketh the . seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into | the morning, and maketh the day dark with night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poyreth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.— Amos 5: 8.

HE E WALES a portion with Judicious

[Ew and 1944

to get up ands go out again we get : up, not for the $50 a montn--no,

Then at night when we come in|.

Roosevelt, and above all, the Ameri- |

By Thomas L. Stokes -

WASHINGTON, June 8—The

sudden shift of Republican pow- ‘y

ers-that-be in congress f r om

timidity to leadership- in labor=

regulatory legislation poses an interesting question as to the part. labor may play in the 1944 elece * tions. Have the Republicans decided that the “labor vote” has’ “been over-emphasized? Or: that war prosperity weakened labor's interest in the New Deal? Has labor become more conservative with the money rolling in off the production lines? In brief, is the workman, with money in his pockel, Tesling again like a small capitalist? . i These questions are being discussed. among Soliitcians.

has

Capitalize on , Lowls' Mishoivirs DEVELOPMENTS SUGGEST that Republican

+ | leaders in congress believe labor is changing its ctti=

tude, for they seized the opportunity to capitalize on John L. Lewis’ manifest unpopularity among rank

and file citizens by getting behind -a comprehensive .

bill for the regulation of unions.

It is true that the bill théy originally proposed,

the rather simple measure sponsored by Rep. Forest Harness (R. Ind.) was broadened .through the skill-

full strategy of an ‘archily congervative southern

Democrat, Rep. Smith of Virginia, who used the Republican vehicle for his own purposes. But after Mr. Smith had done his work—and he did it with the blessing of Republican leaders, if not of all the rank and file—a majority of ‘Republicans in the house voted for the measure: One outstanding fact is stressed ‘by Republicans

in their speculation about: 1944. This isc that labor

did not turn out for the Democrats in the 1942 congressional elections as expected. They grant the difficulties of getting to the polls, because of war plants inconveniently located, but believed that

there also was a wanning .of the interest formerly. | shown in the New Deal by labor.

Labor Vote Called 'Myth'

INTERESTING in connection with speculation about the labor vote is an analysis prepared by Rogers C. Dunn, of the “Dunn Survey,” and supplied a few days ago to members of congress... Under the heading “The Labor Vote Is a Myth,” Mr. Dunn says: “The view that the New Deal’s benefits to labor have won for it the solid vote of labor is the product of Propaganda which has ‘successfully * Bankelay the truth.

He says that while labor-union membership increased from 3,250,000 in 1932 to’8,500,000 in 1940, a gain of 260 per cent, there was no gain in the Roose-

velt vote between 1932 and 1940 in the 33 leading °

industrial areas in: the country; that the Roosevelt vote dropped 8 per cent between 1936 and 1940, while union membership increased 180 per ‘cent. Breaking down the industrial areas into counties, Mr. Dunn said President Roosevelt's 1940 vote showed a loss in 90 of the 92 counties.

He has devoted much time in recent years to fore- _

casting elections on the basis of the relief vote and its size,. and he asserts that this, rather than labor, has been the preponderant factor in Roosevelt strength in large industrial areas.

In Washington

By Peter Edson’

WASHINGTON, June 8.— The situation fon attempts to control food prices at the present moment can best be described as “govern ment ‘by ‘yes and no.” cisions are made definitely “no.” Practically all decisions, whether : .. On wages, prices, or taxes, have ~~ been made with the apparent idea of trying, to keep everybody happy with a “yes and no” answer. The trouble isn’t lack of a principle on which to operate. The principles on which the anti-inflation campaign was to be fought were stated definitely by the president in his sevenpoint program of April-27, 1942, restated by the congressional stabilization act of Oct. 2, 1942, re-stated in the president’s hold-that-line order of April 8, 1943. The trouble has come through failure to execute those noble aims by decisive action. Too much compromise. Too much “yes and no.” ‘Three cases may illustrate what is meant: 1. There is a fundamental difference . of opinion between the office of price administration and war food administration on food price control. OPA

says “yes,” we must have price ceilings at all levels,

The WFA idea seems to be “yes” if price ceilings are high enough to encourage production,. but “no” if price ceilings are to be. applied to the growers. . Practically every food price ceiling which OPA. has. proposed has been questioned by WFA and has had to be referred to the office of sgononie stabilization for decision.

Won Reputations. as . Compras =

JUSTICE JAMES E. BYRNES, who held that office’ till he was promoted to the office of war mobilization, .

won his reputation in congress as a great compromiser. His decisions in OES have ‘been compromises. Judge Fred M. Vinson, who succeeded Byrnes in OES, was also a great ‘compromiser’in congress: How he will give ‘decisions in OES remains to be seen. |

2.11 ceilings are to. be appligd.on wholesale and

retail food prices but not on growers’ prices, the only way in which such economic juggling can be achieved is through payment of subsidies, yet on the subsidy ‘question there is ‘more yessing and noing than on any other phase of the price attempted control program. Authority for subsidies is in .the price control act, passed by congress, yes. ' Thé attorney general gave an opinion last ‘August, on a canned tomato juice - question, - that government subsidies are legal, yes. Subsidies have been a part of the RFC program since 1940, yes. The Commodity Credit Corp. is now paying subsidies to food canners, yes, But congress on subsidies says “no.” And War Food Administrator Chester ©. Davis has declared that general dependence on &. Iroad subsidy program, to hold prices, would be dangerous Are “no.”

And. Time's A-Wastin' -

3. FOOD CANNERS today ¢ are losing food} throw= ing it away, because they can’t, get labor, The reason they can’t get labor is that wages in the canning industry have been frozen st a Jevel so low they can’t compete with better paying industries. -In some regional war labor board offices, approval has been given to pay a higher wage rate, yes.. =. To pay these added wages, the canners say thers must be an up in ceiling prices on their products pay for the increased labor crops. A for price increases must come from OPA. OPA there is.a “yes and no” battle g prevents the making of any decision Maybe ‘it is unpatriotic to: bring these

to show how your government monkeys around,

Maybe this is just the democratic process in action, striving .to find the best possible solution. You n

hope that’s the answer, but it certainly isn’t ou

Few de- .