Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 June 1943 — Page 15
RR ER NR gh us
Hoosier Vagabond
| SOMEWHERE IN AFRICA (By Wireless).—We e down one noontime upon a heat-baked desert rome in the center of Africa. It was just about as far: ‘away’ from ‘anywhere as I can conceive. At frst all their’ ‘gasoline had to be brought a hundred
miles. by camel train. Even now it is brought across a long desert only by truck, and so sandy and wasted are the trails that it takes : nearly. as long as by camel.
There are only three dozen American soldiers there to run the ® airdrome, Were it not for the BN planes that stop daily for gas, their isolation would be unbeare able. 3 ‘We were on the ground just
ie
six months already, and he didn’t think it was so bad. We flew nearly all day down the Nile. In my mental pictures of the great river it had always been dotted with those. little Egyptian sailboats with their white sails puffed out, and sure enough, on our very first glimpse—where the White and Blue Niles run together near Khartoum—there were the little sailboats. It is wretched, tortured and forbidding country on either side of the Nile, but the river creates for
itself a sheathing of green loveliness,‘'and for a thou- ,
Duce Didn't org
sand miles it makes a vivid tracing through ois background of gray waste.
‘Sphinx Still Mum .
AT LAST I have been to Cairo. To see Cairo and to sit on the terrace of Shepheard’s hotel at the crossroads of the world and see somebody I knew walk by had been among my minor ambitions for years, Now
3 an hour, and during that hour I discovered that in they have both been realized. The familiar face that this fantastically remote. spot two copies of this i, column arrive every day. One set is passed around derson of National Air Races fame. ffiamong the enlisted men to read, and one among the
i officers. TI suppose it’s the only place in the world where I can say the column is read by 100 per cent
passed on Shepheard’s terrace was that of Cliff Hen-
But there was something about Cairo that made me unhappy. Perhaps it was Cairo’s horn of plenty. Cairo was once frightened, but now all the war
! of the population. We will table the motion just danger has receded and the city thrums and throbs . heard that when youre that far away from home | you'll read anything.
Finds Two Hoosiers -
AND OF course 1 found a Hoosier there also. Not one, but two of them. One was right from the banks
. nf the Wabash. This was Pfc. George Richardson, who gets his mail either through Covington or Gessie,
* Papa.
* Ind., just up the road a few miles from my town of George was a. pipefitter’s helper before the ward Now he’s a mechanic.
The other one. wore.a natty sun helmet and high
: leather boots, and had a pointed mustache. I thought
= 1
Indianapolis.
at first he was an Englishman, but no, he was just plain Capt. Harold L. Lawler of 48 N. Whitcomb ave., He had been in this devastating spot
Forced Savings
{Lowell Nussbaum is on vacation. This is the fourth of six articles an compulsory saving.)
WASHINGTON, June 24—Congress opened the way for a’compulsory-saving program when, last year,
t it enacted the victory tax.
It advanced a considerable distance toward compulsory’ saving this month when it passed the current-tax-collection bill. Now there is ample precedent for enforced savings, or forced loans, and by July 1 machinery for putting either into effect will be in operation. Senator Bennett Clark, “(D. Mo.) a leading member. of the senate finance committee, summed up the situation this way: “It is no longer a matter of principle or of machinery in working out a } compulsory-saving program. Ii is 4 merely a matter of timing.” An important feature of the victory tax is its postwar refund provision. An unmarried taxpayer, for
. example, can be assured of a 25 per cent post-war
refund of his victory tax (up to a maximum of $500), and a married taxpayer can get a refund of 40 per
| cent of his tax (up to $1000 a year), plus an addi-
tional 2 per cent (up to $100 a year) for each child. 5 These post-war credits can, on the other hand, be consumed: currently by charging against them premiums on life insurance, payments on old debts, or
‘ purchases of war bonds.
IE SENS
EWI NS RAPE
-
Saving or Lending?
“THIS, AS Randolph Paul, treasury general counsel, explains, is actually enforced lending in a mild degree, and not compulsory saving. According to his sensible definition, compulspry saving “specifies a minimum amount which must be saved out of income itself, and the saving requirement cannot be met by converting ts-or by borrowing money.” An individual, he explains, can lend the government money without saving, by drawing on accumulated assets or by borrowing—as ying the victory tax; and he can save without ani to the governent. by investing in assets other than government
England
LONDON, “June 24 (By Wireless) —Second only to the: need of winning the war.is the need of holding the allied coalition together afterward’ ‘to’ prevent another war, | It is becoming clear beyond any question that Britain and Russia are most anxious to continue the coalition. The only uncertainty is what America will decide to do. Hence any indications that can be given now, such as through resolutions expressing the sense of congress, would help immeasurably toward cementing the allies against forces that would like to split us all apart again, as happened after the last war. 3 You can search the world over and find no wiser observation than Hebert Morrison's that after this war no power, however great, will be able singlehanded to insure its own
security. - 5
The issue, in fact, is much: deeper than peace as such. Sometimes peace is like happiness: If you make ‘it ‘the sole object of your existence you may lose not only peace but security.
Post-War Coalition Vital
as though it had never-been afraid at all. And you can still buy anything in the world in Cairo, I believe, provided you have enough money. You can get silk stockings ($4 a pair), Bourbon whisky, razor blades (90 cents for a tiny pack), or precious star rubies and emeralds. And you can get fine food. I went to see the Pyramids in a jeep and found they were too steep for me to climb, The Sphinx did not speak to me, and I decided he was silent because he probably had nothing to say. At Shepheard’s I shooed away the gully-gully boys, and in Khalili I was set upon by droves: of aspiring merchants who persisted like desert flies. The spirit that flowed through Cairo irritated and frightened me. Maybe I was all wrong, but I was glad to get out of there.
‘By Marshall McNeil
But, in the face of the need for more money in the federal treasury now, the point about the victory tax is that it incorporates in law the principle of returning to the taxpayer, after the war, part of the taxes he pays during the war, If a full-scale compulsory-saving or forced-lending program were decided on now, congress would only have to determine how much it would withhold for compulsory bond purchases, or for post-war refunds, in addition to the 20 per cent withholding-tax deduction, fix the exemptions that would be granted to various categories of taxpayers, single, married, or parents, and the treasury could begin collecting any time after July 1. Because taxpayers are about to be placed on a pay-as-they-earn basis, compulsory saving or compulsory lending becomes feasible.
New Tax Field Narrowed
BUT THE current-tax-collection bill does another thing. It narrows the field of possible new taxes, and for this reason, some think, makes compulsory saving inevitable. The bill forgives all the middle and higher-bracket taxpayers 75 per cent of their 1942 tax liability, or their 1943 liability, whichever is the smaller. It also forgives 100 per cent of the 1942 liability of those who owed $50 or less in income taxes. And it provides for the payment of the unforgiven taxes in two equal installments in 1944 and 19465. This means that for a great bloc of citizens—not a majority in number, but certainly those who pay the greater part of the individual income taxes—taxes will be increased 12%; per cent in each of those years. In the face of this, it is generally agreed in con‘gress that it will be impossible to raise individual rates in the higher brackets in ’44 and ’45, and that increased rates in the middle and lower brackets are very unlikely. But while it probably will stop individual incometax increases the current-tax-collection bill is not a real obstacle to compulsory saving or forced loans. The burden of paying more will be much less severe if the taxpayer knows he is going to get back .all or part of-his additional payments after the war is won.
NEXT: The Leading ng Compulsory-Saving and Enforced-Lending Proposals.
By Raymond Clapper
Dependence on American strength has been the cornerstone of British policy traditionally, and twice erican strength has come to the rescue of Britain ause the security of Britain is vital to us. Russia is showing clear indications of wishing to continue the coalition. Dissolution of the Comintern was one gesture, indeed more than a gesture, because Stalin thus got rid of a big obstacle to closer relations with’ Britain and America. Holding these powers together is the biggest postwar need, on which everything possible ought to be done now.
Air Force Gives Prestige
AS SIR WILL JOWITT told Liverpool businessmen recently, it would be living in a fool's paradise to assume that there would be no danger of war within 50 or 100 years. He predicts, as do most informed persons here, that considerable armaments and military orces will be maintained for some time. The airpower which America is building is likely to become one of the great military forces in world history, like the British navy and the German army. The destructiveness of air war will grow vastly in the next few months. The coming winter will demonstrate over Europe that here is a weapon which can come as near to destroying civilization as any means nature herself ever used.
By Ernie Pyle 4
His People With ‘War Propaganda
X—ITALIANS’ APATHY TO WAR PROPAGANDA THERE WERE two stories which went the rounds
of the Foreign Press club.
One ' was about an Italian who entered the Cafe Aragno in Rome and ordered a waiter to bring him all the newspapers. He hurriedly glanced through the front page
* of each one and then put the paper aside without looking
at any of the inside pages. Day after day and week after week, he repeated this same procedure. Finally, one of the habitues of the cafe came over
and asked:
“Excuse me, but what have you been looking for all
these weeks ?”’ “A death notice.”
' “But death notices are always on the inside pages.” “Not the one I'm looking for. It would be on the front
page, all right.”
The other story concerned a tourist who entered one of the best restaurants in Naples during the time that Mussolini had ordered the Italian people to wage war
against flies.
Several signs on the walls of the restau-
rant bore the words, “Guerra Congra La Mosca,” but nevertheless the tourist could hardly eat his spaghetti because of the flies that buzzed about. The tourists turned
to thé waiter and said: - “But I thought you had a war against flies here.” The waiter replied, with a shrug of indifference: “Oh, we did have one, but we lost.” These two stories illustrate how a people who are indifferent to their surroundings — whether flies or politicians—could accept the continued leadership of a man who at best had only a small minority of support, while millions of Italians wished for his demise. It was this political leth-
argy of his enemies that enabled .
I1 Duce to remain in power. But the indifference of the Italian public was. a two-edged sword, for the Italian would not be whipped up to the pitch of enthusiasm that was necessary for efficient co-operation between fighters and civilians. And this apathy was doubly hard to overcome because of the war’s unpopularity. Feeling as they did about Il Duce’s territorial ambitions, they refused to put their shoulders to the wheel and, in'a way, emulated the civil-disobedience movements in India. Only there was no Gandhi, no leader of any kind. It was blind, almost subconscious, and therefore all the harder to cope with, lJ
Ordered Radios On
AS SOON AS ITALY entered the conflict against France and
England, Mussolini - launched a press campaign to fire the Italians with a war spirit. When word reached him that the people showed little if any interest in official war news, he decreed that all public places having radios, especially cafes and bars, must turn them on at.1 p. m. and 6 p. m., when the communiques were broadcast, and that all people must cease their drinking, eating,
"or whatever they might be doing,
and stand at respectful attention ‘during the reading of the communique. On the radio, the foremost fascist commentators ‘bored the people. The Italians knew that what they were saying was just so much balderdash and did not bother to listen. A,trick was needed to arouse
who was frequently dubbed in the foreign press “Mussolini's mouthpiece.” As editor in chief of the Giornale d'Italia, he offered a channel whereby the Fascist government could present its views both inside Italy and -abroad, without committing itself to any official utterance. Gayda was exceedingly close to both Mussolini and Ciano, and his writings often reflected the latest thoughts of the Duce, but he was more than that; he was almost the Fascist conscience. When there were new developments abroad, Gayda often was not able to call on Mussolini before writing an article in time for his newspaper's deadline, yet he seldom failed to react as Mussolini himself would to news of importance. He was like a skinned frog reacting to a sprinkling of salt. Sometimes he even forecast Fascist policy before Mussolini had made up his own mind. Eleanor called on Gayda several times and found him an electrically energetic man of less than medium stature, with iron-gray hair and quick, penetrating eyes. “I can’t understand why Americans fail to grasp the real meaning of fascism,” Gayda said. to Eleanor, never losing an opportunity for a sales talk. “I am afraid you correspondents here in Rome are not sending the right sort of thing. There is no reason why America and Italy should not have a better understanding.’ This was about six months before America entered the war. Eleanor pointed out that the constant attacks of the Italian press against President Roosevelt, his wife, and all things American could certainly not help Americans to understand
- fascist philosophy.
,. Gayda replied. “That is for home consumption, for the home front. If you were really helpful, you would not mention these campaigns in your dispatches. You would write about
By MRS. GAYNOR MADDOX Times Special Writer
YR
AL VINA ZA ANT LY 4 LL
Throngs, like this one which greeted Mussolini and Hitler at Florence in 1940, cheered dutifully in the best-approved ' Fascist manner—but, the Italians were indifferent to Il Duce’s territorial ambitions. They would not be whipped up to the pitch of enthusiasm that was necessary for efficient fighting of a war,
the way fascism is helping the laborer, the office ‘worker, and people of all classes to improve their standard of living. You would make the .people of your country understand Italian revindications on France and her natural desire to take her rightful place in the sun.” “Yes,” Eleanor said. “But if Idid that I wouldn't be an American journalist. Or, for that matter, ah American.”
Pound Turns Traitor
THE BEST the ministry of popular culture could do in the way of getting an American to do fascist propaganda work was Ezra Pound, of Idaho. He was one of the few American admirers of fascism, and a personal friend of Mussolini. He had written a number of economic books, subsidized by the black ‘shirts, in which he attempted to show that fascist economy was better than tke democratic way of doing business. He was an easy mark for the fascist, and on Jan. 23, 1941, he adopted a southern accent and began a series of Broadcasts
Milk is the most important baby
against Roosevelt over the Rome radio. The .day of Pearl Harbor, Pound unexpectedly came to our: house and told us that war between the United States and Italy was - inevitable, but that he intended to stay on. Reynolds told him that he would be a traitor if he did so, and that now the time for: him to pipe down about the alleged’ glories of -fascmism. “But I. believe in fascism,” Pound said, giving the fascist salute, “And I want to gdefend it. I don’t see why fascism is contrary to American philosophy.. I have nothing against the. United States, quite the contrary. I consider myself a hundred per cent American and a patriot. I. am’ only against Roosevelt and the Jews who in- . fluence him.” “What does Pavolini pay you for a broadcast?” Reynolds asked. : “Two hundred lire,” Pound said, “for a fifteen-minute one. Otherwise, it’s less.” “That's only about ten dollars,”
" Eleanor said.
“That's right; it's not much, but you don’t think I do it just
"asked, rising
Eleanor 1 University Press; distributed by United
‘indignantly ang. pacing up, and down the room, “I tell you I want to save the American people.” There was no way to reason with him. We had known him: in Paris in the old days when he was more poet than politician, more
"literary than fascist. There was
no doubt in our minds that bitterness. had caused: him to undergo’ this queer metamorphosis. He was regarded as a failure and an eccentric in his own country, and he knew it. But he still had aspirations to be great, somehow or other, and fascist Italy was interested in his talents, such as they were. He was going to give it a try. We felt that he was suffering from a case of acute inferiority complex. And when the United ' States went to war a few days later, Pound opted to continue his broadcasts for Pavolini and thus : become the American Lord Hawe Haw of Italy—and a traitor.
NEXT—Violation of Rationing Laws. :
(Copyright, 1943, by Reynolds ian@
Packard; published by
Our Governmental Agencies Are Keeping Watchful Eve On the Supply of Baby Foods as Birth Rate Increases 17%
.The government is beginning to
mits a watehful eye is being keph.
food. There is a possibility of a shortage, ‘especially in over-popu-lated industrial centers. And black
release 7,000,000 cases of evaporated milk—about 12 per cent of our normal annual consumption—formerly held in storage for army and navy and lend-lease purposes. Dry powdered milk takes up less space on ships. 1 } . Furthermore, many. neighborhood grocers and delicatessen owners are refusing to sell canned milk or baby food to customers unless they know
they have babies. - : Good News : HOLD (EVERYTHING. Favorable news comes from re =| . na ufacturers of farina and other ceree| als for babies. They do not foresee
on the baby food supply. The needs of babies are known by the civilian requirements branch and if a shorte age should develop, they promise that some sort of preferential The tioning will be set up. '
interest. For a week, an Italian voice broke into the broadcasts of the fascist commentators and criticized Mussolini, fascism, and the fascist war claims. This ruse excited the people, and by the millions they began listening. to the broadcasts, hoping to hear these interruptions by what became known as the “ghost voice.” Then it was announced that Mario Apelius had been appointed the official ghost catcher. Every time the intruding voice would interrupt a Fascist harangue, Apelius wculd come crashing in and give the ghost a forensic trouncing. The Italian people, however,
BY ATTENDING first of all to security, the We must try to control it, not leave it to other chances of peace are made greater. So far as we can individual nations to arm themselves similarly so that see ‘ahead, the best way to make ourselves secure is each goes around uneasy as to who is about to shoot to continue the present coalition of strong powers that first. is in process of defeating Germany’s second challenge The great work the American air forces are doing in 25 years. will give America the prestige to exert enormous inThe British are ready, indeed desperately anxious; fluence for collaboratipn to maintain “the security of to continue the coalition, because it is now clear that our side afterward. I believe there would be a deBritain, standing alone, is in a dangerously exposed cided lift and a brighter hope for our side, with a position. That 'is shown by her 20-year alliance with corresponding depression for the axis, it it could be Russia, and her willingness a year ago to concede made clear now that America is going to work for almost anything | Russia wanted. keeps to prevent another serious threat to freedom.
My Day By Eleanor Roosevelt
HYDE PARK, Wednesday. ~The two little girls gremlin’s destructive attributes, though I have had Who are staying With me manage to put in the most one or two: moments when 1 thought thess: were alse
Baby food has become a morale factor on our fighting fronts. Young soldier-fathers are troubled by rumors that their infant sons #nd maximum milk production age for beef. : Furthermore, the. unpromising condition of farm labor and feed crops together with the threat of some dairy groups to “strike” un-
markets and the threat of inflation. Nazi propaganda plays up these fears. How real is the danger? We are definitely approaching a shortage of canned baby foods Our birth rate is up 17 per cent but baby food processors have cnly as
- Our food goes to the armed forces orces first, next to civilians and then tg. our allies.
Suing days an Bnd ana Bris Ee oe ot e. up before anyone else this
to appear. 1.have had another communication from "just a reader,” who agrees with one of my former corre-
were not to be fooled. The ghost
‘came downstairs at 7 o'clock, spondents, that, it is outrageous for women in busin HE a oa ors a > for —