Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 June 1943 — Page 18

The Indianapolis Times

ROY Ww. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER' President : 1 Editor, in U. 'S. Service * MARK FERREE ! WALTER LECKRONE : Business Manager Editor :

(A SCRIPPS. HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

fed and published Price in Marion Coun-

daily (except Sunday) by — Indianapolis Times Publishing Go., 214 W. Maryland st. Pm

Member of United Press, Scripps = Howard News: paper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bue ' reau of Circulations. :

ered by carrier, 18 cents a week.

others, $1 monthly.

Sa RILEY 5651

‘Give Light and the | 2evpte ‘Will Find Their Own Way

3 FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1943

DISCRETION IN THE DRAFT

THE end of “wide discretionary powers” of Indiana. draft boards in the selection of men for military service is. ‘announced here, with “rigid regulations” to be followed instead. The reason, as given to a meeting of board members yesterday by Maj. Robert W. Platte, is that “too : much diseretionary authority . . . has caused confusion and provoked nation-wide criticism.” If the major’s announcement is correct, the very basic principle of the selective service law has been revoked without the’ formality of action by congress, but simply by an arbitrary decree, the source of which is not even stated. There was careful discussion of that very point when the selective service act .was. under consideration— and there was no question whatever 2bout the intentions of congress in the matter. In this war, as in the two previous wars in which Americans were conscripted for military service, the principle was clearly established that . individual cases were to be decided by the immediate neighbors of the individual concerned—and that local draft boards, ‘were: endowed with the widest discretionary powers. So strong was the feeling on this subject that there is doubt whether congress would have adopted any draft law that did not embody that principle. : # x 8 * Le a HERE has been confusion, true enough, and there has been criticism. But not much confusion arose in the local draft boards, and not much criticism has been directed at them. Confusion in the selective service system has come almost wholly from above—in constantly changing orders and directives, in conflicting statements from the highest authorities about ‘who was to be drafted, and when, and how many. | In the face of this indecision and disagreement at the top, the local boards generally have done a superlative job. There is no reason to believe it will be improved by substituting of “rigid regulations” issued elsewhere.

BOMBING . SENTIMENTALITY

Now that allied bombers are getting in their licks, the enemy whines. That is not surprising—the worst bully is usually the first to whimper when hit. It was good clean warfare when they were blasting Warsaw; Rotterdam, Chungking, Manila, Malta, London, but now that those * militarists are on the receiving end it has Suddenly become, “inhuman.” * : ~All of which is the best proof that the allied air offensives are beginning to take hold. Pride, if nothing else, ‘would prevent the axis from yelling before they were hurt. The damage is clear from eye-witness accounts of neutrals in Sweden and.Switzerland, and from the air photographic : record of leveled war production areas, ‘disrupted rail centers, broken dams, fallen bridges, blasted harbors and ships, pocked airfields and. wrecked planes. Not being able to finish what he started, and fearing ~ that the air weapon with which he was to conquer the world instead will bring his own destruction, the enemy strikes back with another weapon—propaganda. He aims at AngloAmerican sentimentality. ” # tl » # ” THE slogans are slick: ‘Temper Justice With Mercy.” “Don’t War on Women and Children.” “Save the Italian Cities Which Belong to the Ages.” This propaganda i is showing i in England. Some of it is innocent and sincere, which is more effective than the énemy brand. But the British people generally are not apt ;0 succumb to it—their memories are too good. And certainly the hard-headed Churehill i is not going to forget. The best chance for this propaganda is here in Amer-’ ica, where there are ‘suckers. fof synthetic sentiment, where there are so many of foreign heritage, and where we have escaped enemy: bombing so far... There is pressure on. America of this sort from high slaces abroad. At the moment it comes chiefly from Italy. Our government i is not weakening, as the increased bombing of Italian war objectives ‘shows. But it is important that

all of us understand the issue, so that no political dema--

g0gs on the eve of .a campaign year can divide. us with a Santy.waish plea. ; nn s 8» We at home ‘must: face the grim fact that— Qur fighters must kill or be killed. ; ‘Every -successful allied bombing raid will save many American and ‘allied lives. In the end it will save Italians and Germans. and Japs, because it: will bring peace that ~ much sooner,

Unlike the sadistic enemy, our , commanders and fliers

omb only for victory and they rarely miss their military objectives. - : It is to our honor that we hate war. But it would be “to our dishonor and to our death as a nation if, in our selfdefense, we withheld the weapon of victory. What about humanitarian sentiment? Give it to those

who die for us and for a better world. ’

THE SCOUTS SELL BONDS

NDIANAPOLIS Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Campfire Girls were the first youth groups in the nation to under--

dake a war bond campaign of their own. Today they offizially launch their own drive with a parade and a giant bond rally that will compare favorably with any of the very successful adult mass meetings that have been held ere. ; i : While the ceremonies today make it official, not a few scouts who couldn’t wait for that have already begun their Joon solicitation—and that promises well, too. They are )od salesmen—polite but persistent, courteous but firm.

ty, 4 cents a copy; deliv- |'

Mail rates in Indiana, $4 a year; adjoining states, 75 cents a month;’

‘with coercion by employers.

Fair Evouigh

By Westbrook Pegier

DENVER, June 11.—The A. F. of L. and C. I. O, attacked the new Colorado labor peace act on constitutional grounds and asked the state district court to enjoin the state industrial commission from enforcing its provisions. This is one of six new laws adopted by individual states in recent months, to regulate unions. William Green, president of the A. F. of 1. has directed the state

| federations in all cases to violate these laws until they

have been tested. In sq doing, Green has followed a course for which all the ‘large unions denounced the Liberty League when it advised employers to disregard the Wagner act until it had been passed on by the

4 supreme court. That, however, was mere advice.

Green goes further. He gives orders. The Colorado law, passed in exasperation and reaction, goes further than most attempts to regulate the conduct of unions, It is the more shocking to the unioneers of the movement because Colorado’s labor relations have been comparatively peaceful and the most flagrant practice on the workers was that familiar political subsidy which the New Deal party

|_handed to the racketeers who bestrode the roads and

shooed down temporary workers in the construction of war planes; a passing phase of the war program,

Goes Beyond Wisconsin Model

ITS SPONSORS profess to have used the Wisconsin labor peace law as their model, a successful act, painful only to racketeers and other professionals, but actually they have gone much further. It contains the mild reforms adopted at the same time by Colorado's neighbor, Kansas, requiring union bosses to meet certain qualifications and account for funds, but it also permits the industrial commission to plant a court reporter in meetings to report the proceedings on the request of .any 10 members. This the union regards as a serious invasion of their privacy and their right to conduct their own affairs. Another provision would permit any member to appeal to the courts or the industrial commission for redress of any complaint against the union and empower the commission to review any punishment of a member by his union. In Chicago, that abominable slum of the labor movement, all of the provisions of the Colorado act, whether constitutional or not, would work for the present good of the member victims whose case is hopeless under the conspiracy against the rights of the workers by the local chapter of the New Deal party and the criminal underworld. : But conditions in Chicago are not particularly bad and even if the new law should be entirely constitu tional- some of its sections would be excessive, nevertheless.

Coercion of Workers Penalized

~ THE COLORADO law conflicts in portions with the Wagner act, and, in one section, seems to be the means of reducing labor unity to microscopic units in subdivisions or departments of plants, forbidden to take joint action for mutual protection against a bad employer. # If the most vicious trait of the Wagner act be recognized, the Colorado law, in its principal point of conflict, may still be regarded as a desirable reform, for it provides that coercion of individual workers by pickets or other terrorists shall be penalized equally j Undoubtedly it will compel unions and employers to violate certain other provisions of the Wagner act in order to comply with the law of Colorado. This, the unions have alleged, would vidlate their right of contract, contrary to the

‘constitution. Theré seems ‘to be ‘a question. of a

state’s right involved in this. Fortunately, the new law contains a proviso that if any portion is invalidated by court decision, the rest shall remain in effect, meaning that a considerable" reform will be achieved nevertheless, so the upshot may be a model law, after all.

Both Sides May Benefit

THE UNIONS, as usual, attack the entire law in all its points. They object to. compulsory incorporation, to civil liability for damage to innocent persons, to the “reasonable” limitation placed on fees and dues, subject to the commission’s approval, to the strike referendum designed to destroy the racketeering power

.of union bosses so flagrantly abused elsewhere and to

the total forbiddance of the use of funds for any political purpose. Rather quaintly, the unions now are exercised over the rights of minorities which by union practice have been ruthlessly trampled down in many spectacular cases. They hold that the law would oppress a union embracing a minority of the workers in a plant by reserving only for the majority the right to go on strike. Constitutional or not, some of the provisions certainly would so seriously limit the power of even the best unions ‘as to leave sthem helpless in a contest. “It is not necessarily true that this would be unconstitutional but it surely would place the unions at an unfair. disadvantage.’ It is barely possible that out of this legal test and those in other states there will emerge an understanding -between wise and influential union leaders and reasonable men on the other side by which the employer and the worker will win protection against the reckless and arrogant conduct of the union movement under the New Deal.

We the People By Ruth Millett

THE NEWS ITEM told a little story about a traveling salesman’s wife who took over. his job when he went into the army. At the end of the first week the wife's sales were higher than were her husband’s the last week he held the job. ~ There could have been several reasons for that. Maybe, being new at the job, she worked a little harder than she will after she has held it as lorig as her husband. Maybe the custoners showed their pride of the woman who had tackled her husband's Job by giving her extra large orders. Or, maybe the wife just struck a goud week by chance.

Whatever the reason there's a point. in it for other

wives who take over their husband’s jobs or businesses. ' ‘Be careful about how you outdo your husband. If you do happen to have periods of excelling him, soft-pedal them,

That Masculine Ego

FIND A REASON-—besides your own brains—for having done so well. As long as he is in this country, ask his advice— and take it. 2 If you take over your husband’s work—you'll want to do it well, and he'll want you to. But no man wants his successor—especially if his successor is his wife—to outshine him. Ji Way DiSiShd ie dossil} gare tut bo Will How

- THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

FRIDAY, : JUNE 11,

~ What It All Adds Up To

FILLTHIS ONE, ALSO!

The Hoosier Forum

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

“WE MUST CREATE STRUCTURE FOR FREEDOM” By F. W. V., Indianapolis

Probably no American could be found who opposes freedom of religious worship as one of the aims of the war, one of the hopes of the peace. Yet no one talks of ways in which it may be won. No word is said to remind the now captive peoples of Europe that religious liberty is one of the byproducts of political liberty. Instead we name it in a selected list of “four freedoms” and we let the implication spread that we, the united nations, or we, the Americans and the British, intend to bestow it as one of the dividends of victory. Of course, we shall be able to do nothing of the kind. .No matter what the extent of our military and naval triumphs we cannot give as free gifts to any liberated nation any collection of “freedoms” that may be named. Wé can do no more than, by protecting them from foreign aggression, create opportunity for the setting up of such systems of government as will offer to freedom a structure in which it can exist. And we can, by the example of our United States, illustrate one form and one method of government under which all men and women have enjoyed all the blessings named in our Bill of Rights. As these are the blessings for

‘which men hungered for centuries,

for. which all men now enslaved continually do hunger, what we can illustrate about their enjoyment and safeguarding is worth vastly more than anything phrase-makers can say about them. How nearly perfect is our illustration? We cannot consider the growth of freedom of religious belief and practice, everywhere in the world, without recognizing our need to make secure, here, the political basis on which alone it can endure. Whatever weakens the structure of our form of free government makes religious liberty less. Freedom isn’t plural. ! # 2.2 “OBLIGATION T0 SUFFER ANY SACRIFICE” By M. J., Indianapolis Many take the attitude that under no circumstances is a strike ever justified, that it is shameful and a disgrace to our nation. Others take the opposite attitude of justification for strikes as the only weapon which labor has.

This writer prefers a middle ground - which condones strikes as an absolutely last resort to force a morally correct decision. The opinion of the majority of people who have been involved in a strike of any duration is that it is a futile

(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.)

gesture, the benefits of which are usually far outweighed by the disadvantages such as loss of money, fear of physical violence and fear of an unsuccessful outcome. Their common sense dictates the strike as a last resort. However, at a time such as this it would seem that common sense again would rule out the strike no matter what the grievance, justification for a strike is scarcely an issue at present The only consideration should be maximum production of material for war in order to prosecute this war most effectively in the shortest possible time. And under this consideration any avoidable stoppage of work is just short of .intentional sabotage for which, incidentally, six Germans were recently executed in this country. This then brings us to the chief grievance today, increased cost of living. . Writing as a white collar worker whose income is essentially the same as it was one and one-half years ago 1 say that -all this talk is pish-tosh. Of course, the cost of living has gone up but so has the dollar income of nearly every wage earner in the country. My personal income has not increased nearly in proportion to that of the people working for me but I live better, eat better and have more than I have had for many years previously. One hears much talk of certain items which have increased in cost to the ccnsumer 300 per cent.- Did it ever occur to the consumer that he is not forced to purchase these items? , My family has cut its purchase of luxury items to minimum and

| concentrates on the necessities and

as a result is actually in better financial circumstances than it has ever been. ee . The bane of the average person’s financial existence is removed, namely installment purchases. -The buyer today can’t purchase a new car easily, it is nearly impossible to buy. -a stove, refrigerator or other household appliance. I have only to think of that fellow getting $50 per and facing death for me and it recalls that gbligation to suffer any sacrifice so that I can look him squarely in the face when he returns after fighting my war for me. :

Side Glances—By Galbraith

if he took over the Jo

The: :*

“PLEASE PROTECT THE PEOPLE” By T. M., Indianapolis

All of this furor about gambling and other petty evils that are under cover and as a rule hurt no one but those who participate. A gambler as a rule is a good sport and will lose with as good grace as he who wins. The gambler’s money has no home and there is this to be said in its favor—the cash circulates. While out in the open on some of our main thoroughfares a man’s life is in danger because of gangs, thugs, highwaymen and thieves. To fllustrate: June 3 of this year about 9 p. m. I took a walk to cool off and enjoy myself. Having heard of a trackless trolley crashing into a barber shop . I decided to look at the scene of the accident. The sfreet lights were all burning and there was plenty of traffic both ways. . . . A young man accosted me and asked for the price of a beer. He was able - bodied and well - dressed. When I refused he begged and threatened, apparently with the purpose of seizing all of my money. Finally he got tough and, with the aid of two others, began to surround me, pulled a knife and started to attack. The numerous people in the vicinity were either backers of the gang or afraid to interfere. Attacked with a deadly weapon, all I could do was run and fight when possible. By leaping back and forth from one side of the street to the other

in front of speeding machines, I was |

able to elude the bandits after a hot run of about four blocks. Lost my hat and a new magazine, the only weapon of defense I had. Was badly scared and narrowly escaped with my life and money but without serious injury. I am 53 years old and I still marvel that I was able to carry my 180 pounds to safety. With one old - fashioned, honest patrolman on his kLeat this attempted robbery and assault with lethal weapons would not have occurred. Why not put our city police on the streets to protect the public who pay their salaries instead of playing to the grandstand of public opinion and petty reformers whose desire is only a flash in the pan. Are the days of “Pussy-foot Johnson” and local option coming back again to Indiana? We tried reformation by law of man’s almost harmless habits of drinking and gambling once before in this country. It failed and will fail again because the laws that conflict with a majority opinion .... cannot succeed. Please protect the people who are paying for protection. ... 3 ” ” ” “NEVER HAD SOCIALISM ANYWHERE YET”

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

To Mr. Edw. F. Maddox: It is disgusting to read your many tirades against socialism and your misquotations, particularly of Karl Marx. It is still more disgusting when your pseudo - socialist adversaries failed to call your hand.

You state your articles “.*, . . have

all ‘been done for God and country.”

When I went to Sunday school they taught. me that one of the commandments of God was “Thou shalt not bear false witness . . . .” and yet in one of your articles you state that Karl Marx was an atheist and he said, “Religion is the opium of the people.” I am demanding proof as to where Marx made such a statement and what he meant, or did you merely hear someone make the statement? You state your “definition of socialism is based on what it is, not what it says.” I have never read where you have given any definition of socialism yet. We have never had socialism anywhere yet, so how can you make such a statement? Yes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, not by reading the recipe.” Pass the pudding, Maddox.

DAILY THOUGHTS

Use hospitality one to another without grudging.—I Peter 4:9.

densi. CHOOSE FOR your friend him

jiiat 3 Wiss and good, and secret and just, ingenious a | trucks to b

{Labor Bill Joker 4

| By Thomas L. Stokes

. : AL WASHINGTON, June 11.—The persistent and shrewd Rep. How= ard W. Smith (D. Va), who worked so hard and so long to get regulation of labor unions, may have overplayed his hand now that . congress finally has shown an ins clination to go at least part way with him. For a joker that he slipped into the so-called Harness-Smithe Connally bill, the import of which __ was missed when the measure was before the house,

{ threatened today to cause considerable trouble in the

final legislative stages of the bill in congress, and at the White House, This proviso, achieved by the insertion of only four words, is designed to prevent the war labor board from approving maintenance-of-membership clauses in future union contracts, The board has applied such clauses in more than 700 cases, y

Approved With Eyes Open

MEMBERS OF congress were just beginning Ay to wake up to Mr. Smith’s little trick, after senatey

| and house conferees had agreed on the bill which gives President Roosevelt broad powers to take over

war plants and mines, and to act against strikes that endanger war production. i The conferees approved Mr. Smith’s proviso with their eyes open, for the Virginia congressman, a vet eran legislator, was proud of his joker, and the word got around and into the secret meeting of the senators and representatives. But the conference agreement seems headed for trouble on this point when it gets before members of each body. For Mr. Smith ran into heavy opposition when he tried openly to get an amendment into the bill in the . house forbidding the WLB to “require as a condition . of employment that any individual become or remain a member of a labor organization,” and withdrew the amendment without a.vote,

Concealment Brings Resentment

BUT HE SAID nothing about the ace in the hole contained in another of the series of amendments he flered, and it was this concealment which contributed to resentment over his action. - ~ Mr. Smith achieved his objective anyhow through inclusion of the Wagner national labor relations act among laws which the WLB must consider in making * its decisions. The Wagner act forbids discrimination ° against any worker because he is or is not a member of a labor organization. Two years ago, Robert Watt, national labor relae tions board counsel, held in an advisory opinion thas: the then national defense mediation board, predecese sor of the WLB, could approve maintenance of meme bership clauses without violating the Wagner act. Senator Tom Connally (D. Tex.), chairman of the senate-house conference committee, said he did not know about Mr, Watt's opinion, but that it-was the specific intention of the conferees to outlaw maine, tenance of membership clauses. The WLB has made maintenance of membership % standard policy, holding that it is an essential protec tion for unions which have pledged themselves not te strike during the war, and often awarding it as a sube . stitute for larger wage increases.

In Washington

By Peter Edson

,

WASHINGTON, June 11.—The’ * extent to which too little is having to be stretched too far and spread too thin to keep this civilian econ= omy going in wartime is well ile. lustrated in the case of those. highly necessary = but unlovely-. things known as heavy duty motor. trucks—the things you used to . cuss at because you couldn’t pass. them or see around them in those by-gone happy days when you used to go joy riding. Farmers, loggers, operators of tank truck trains and trailers hauling milk and petroleum, common. carriers hauling war materials from sub-contractors to assembly plants—all have been making noises about a threatened breakdown of the country’s truck transe portation system. There are a couple of resolutions pending before congress, calling for investigations of the truck shorte" age and the effect of limited truck and trailer manus" facture upon the civilian economy. ‘Truck and trailer builders, who have their ears flattened against the pipelines of information on demands from their old customers for new equipe ment, are clamoring for authority to get back inte the production of more civilian trucks.

New Manufacture Stopped

IF THE nation’s truck transportation should bee gin to break down, you would be sorry for all those mean things you used “to mutter about road-hogging truck drivers—behind their backs and where they couldn’t hear you, of course. But the office of defense transportation, which supposed to have this trucking business under con is doing what little it can to see that truck transpors doesn’t break completely down, and says it won't. ODT, which is the, claimant agency for all mate« rials going into truck manufacture, has just obtained allocations for steel and other critical materials to assure the start of manufacture in the last half of 1943 of 7500 heavy trucks, eight tons gross vehicle weight and over, These will be the first new trucks manufactured for civilian use in more than a year, Truck ‘production for civilians was stopped come pletely May 31, 1942. Four thousand more trucks were authorized in August to replace civilian trucks taken by the army, but since then nothing. To show how pitifully inadequate the 7500 new trucks will be, consider that 770,000 new trucks were made in 1940 and over a million in 1941, Normal truck replacement before then averaged about 400,000 or 500,000 a year. When truck and trailer production was frozen a year ago, all existing equipment was put in a pool and special permits had to be obtained to buy from stockpile, The total reserve was around 185,000 vee hicles—50,000 lights, 115,000 mediums, 20,000 heavies, Withdrawals to date have left in the pool only 46,000 vehicles—15,000 lights, 28,000 mediums, 3000 heavies, That isn’t exactly the bottom of the barrel, but it's close to it.

ODT vs. Truckers

THE TRUCERS’ contention is that this stockpile should have been released faster to relieve a waned portation crisis, and not hoarded. The ODT reply that the stockpile should be conserved as long as possible s0 as to have something new to replace actual breakdowns—also, to save gas and rubber. Two months ago, the automotive division of WPB was saying. “When the reserve pool is-€xhausted, few if any trucks will be produced for the duration.” The picture today is better than that. The stock 4 pile of lights will be made to last a year. The mediums will last less than a year because many of them will be given heavier duty, hauling trailers. . The heavies will run out about the time the first of the 7500 new trucks come off the assembly line this fall, In the meantime, the demands on truck transport increase. More subcontracting requires more trick transport. More food ar means more an

U1 10