Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 June 1943 — Page 15

FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 1943

Hoosier Vagabond

.~ SOMEWHERE IN AFRICA (By Wireless).—From airo we retraced the whole long trail over which Gen. Montgomery chased Rommel last fall and winter, all the way from Egypt to Tunisia. Lord, what a vast blank distance it is! The desert in western Egypt and eastern Libya is absolutely barren. It is like looking down on an endless skating rink. From the air we could see where the war had been. We - could see wrecked and blackened tanks by the score. We could see dumps of abandoned gasoline cans and boxes, wrecked ships on the beach, crashed planes,” and even gun pits that had once poured out steel and death. Everything stood out as though it had been painted, for there was nothing else at all on the desert except these remnants of war. But the one thing that fascinated me most was the tracks of the tanks and the trucks. Yes, they were still there. The winter’s winds had not covered them up. ' Never was such a plain picture drawn of modern . War's mobility as that grandstand view of the infinite Wracks in the sands of Rommel’s defeat.

Finds Tripoli Boresome

WE STOPPED over for a day at Tripoli, and I was disappointed in Il Duce’s paradise city. Oh, it was all right, but now take some comparable place 3 Santa Barbara 'and you've . . . oh well, let's ip it. It didn’t seem to me that what few Italians we saw were having any trouble restraining their joy. We were. surprised to see Italian officers in the streets. The fronts-of the downtown buildings were pretty well smacked up by flying bomb fragments, but on the whole the city wasn’t devastated like Sfax, Gabes

‘Forced Savings

(Lowell Nussbaum is on vacation. This is the : fifth of six articles on the subject of compulsory ‘lending to the government.)

WASHINGTON, June 25.—In its simplest form, compulsory saving would require that a taxpayer turn {nto the federal treasury a certain specified fraction of his income periodically, and receive in return govgrnment bonds. By this means the taxpayer, instead of collecting a file of useless tax receipts, would accumulate a stake in the future. Rates would be fixed low enough to leave him sufficient money to maintain himself and his family and meet his fixed obligations, but high enough to drain off excess purchasing power. The taxpayer would make his compulsory saving payments as he earned his salary or wages; they would be taken out of his pay envelope or check just as social security benefit payments are now deducted. As the salary and wage deductions reached the point where they would purchase a bond, it would be turned over to the employee. ~# With the money he paid in to the treasury during 1943 and other war years, the taxpayer could, in this way, buy himself a refrigerator, or a radio, or an auto or a house, when victory is won. If, instead of such g simple compulsory saving program, an enlarged program of forced lending were decided on, congress might increase the rates of the victory tax, and boost the post-war refund.

Barly Proposals Defeated

ONE OF the first formal proposals for forced sav- ? ings came from Rep. Albert Gore (D. Tenn.), who last year introduced a bill aimed at curbing inflation by providing for compulsory investment in deferred, nonnegotiable bonds, bearing interest at 1 per cent, Mr. Gore, who intends to reintroduce his bill soon, provided that all persons covered by the social secur-

England

LONDON, June 25 (By Wireless)—Recent temperamental antics of Gen. de Gaulle have had a depressing effect here, as they must have had in Washington, because the duel of prima donnas at Algiers warns

us of the difficulties that will be involved in the restoration of France. Perhaps it is not going to be possible to work it out in advance. Perhaps we will have to wait for new leaders to rise from the soil of France. The appalling fact is that, in some areas, leadership material is running very thin. You can see it in Britain. The Labor party has just repudiated its best leader, Herbert Morrison, for the antiquated Arthur Greenwood, in a grudge fight. The Labor party has almost no leadership material outside of Morrison. Younger men have been snuffed out by the practice of putting : preumed trade union officials, aged and broken down, into parliament as Labor party members. The same dearth of good leadership shows in the French situation. - It is of vital importance that a strong France be reconstituted. Britain must have the bulwark of a friendly France on the continent. That is Britain's forward zone. She could not possibly afford to risk a hostile France across the channel moat. That ac- + eounts for the British promptness in picking up de - Gaulle and building him up as the leader of the Free French.

Cancel Each Other Out

WHILE ALL acknowledge that de Gaulle more

than anyone else outside of France represents the flaming spirit of Free France, he certainly is a can‘tankerous customer to handle. As has been often '

~ My Day

HYDE PARK, Thursday.—I am printing a letter today which has come to me and reads as follows: “Long Beach, Cal. “Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. “My Day: : : “Could you spare me a few lines in your column for the youth of America? After all, they are as important as teas, victory gardens, etc. “My son, who is a private in the army, is home on furlough. Today we went down to get his transportation back to camp, which happens to be in Missis~ sippi, a long trip. \ “We were told that, because of his being a private, we could not buy him a pullman ticket. They were reserved for officers. The only way to procure a berth for him would I: on a troop train. I am asking you, Mrs. Roosevelt, is this a democratic way of doing things? Is he still not a citizen of the U. 8S. A and shouldn't, the soldiers be accorded Some consideration? “He came out of the ticket office and made one k—8& Fesark 1 have heard often of late—what

i re 1)

* not mean the treasury has abandoned its plan,

By Ernie Pyle

and Bizerte It was mainly the harbor that got it. Most of the shops were closed but a few were open. : In boredom we finally wound up in a little teashop, drinking lukewarm coffee made of date seeds and eating soggy little French pasiries. The place was packed with 8th army men. It seemed incongruous that an Italian shopkeeper in a"town that had just been conquered should be running around his crowded shop taking in money hand over fist from his conquerors. The next morning we left Tripoli on the last day of our long flight home.

Highlights On Africa

LOOKING BACK over Africa, there are a few little grab-bag items I didn’t get around to and haven't got room to do more than mention here—just a scat-' tering of notes like passing thoughts. . . . I was in one city where second-hand Packards sell today for $20,000 in American money, and where people pay a thousand dollars for tires. . . . Pilots on our ferry routes over here are flying as high as 150 hours a month, the maximum on the airlines back home being 90. . In one city, where gasoline is almost extinct, you see dozens of autos with horses hitched to them, being used as taxis. . . . Many people are making collections of paper money from different countries, pasting the ends of the bills together with Scotch tape. I saw many rolls so big you couldn't get them in your pocket, and I saw one more than 35 feet long. . . . In these travels I saw the largest Negro city in the world outside of Harlem (I'm sure you never heard of it), and I saw anthills higher than a two-story house. . . . In one country the earth is a sort of pinkish red, and when the wind blows this pink dust settles in a thin coat over everything. Pilots have been startled to look down and see herds of honest-to-goodness pink elephants. That's enough for today.

By Marshall McNeil

ity act, earning at least $1040 a year if single or $2080 if married, were to have a certain percentage of their pay deducted at the source for these bonds. In addition, persons with annual net incomes of $1040 after weekly deductions and after income-tax payments were to be required to buy more bonds. This additional levy was to start at 6 per cent and go up to a point where no one would retain more than $25,000 a year. Another compulsory lending plan was proposed by Senator John Danaher (R. Conn.). He advocated a 10 per cent assessment on the retail purchase price of every article. It was, in effect, a general retail sales tax. Mr. Danaher brought his proposal to a vote but it was defeated.

May Revive Spendings Tax

ALSO DEFEATED was a treasury proposal for a spendings tax, another sort of double-barreled sales tax and forced lending scheme. But that defeat does It

hasn’t. One part of the spendings tax would be refundable. It would be levied at the rate of 10 per cent an the taxpayer's total spending. If an individual with an income of $5000 spent only $2400, his tax would be reduced to $240. The second part of the spendings tax would not be refunded. It would be imposed at progressive rates on expenditures in excess of an exemption of $1000 for a single person, $2000 for a married couple, and an additional $500 for each dependent. The spendings would be calculated in the same manner as under the refundable portion of the tax— that is, they would not include payments on debts, insurance premiums and bond purchases. It was suggested that these rates range from 10 per cent to 75 per cent. It was estimated that «the treasury’s proposal would yield $6,500,000,000, with $4,500,000,000 refundable after the war.

NEXT—The Country May Lead Congress to Compulsory Savings.

By Raymond Clapper

said, patriotism alone is not enough. De Gaulle symbolizes the Frante that must come to life again, but if he is going to have a part in the process he must work with others, which he thus far has shown no capacity for doing. If it were possible to turn to other leaders who are coming along, to bring up someone else, it would be wise to do so. De Gaulle has made so many enemies, has so irritated his best friends, that it is questionable whether he could swing the job now even if his every whim had been granted. He and Giraud seem to have succeeded chiefly in cancelling each other out for the real task of leading France after the defeat of Germany. Meantime, the chief hope lies not in prima donna but in such practical and skillful negotiators as Jean Monnet, who has the confidence of the British as well as of the Americans,

Field Being Left to Old Men

PERHAPS THE best bet would be to lean on such good administrators as Monnet to carry on the hard work of holding French affairs together until Germany is defeated and the people of France can have an opportunity to indicate their wishes. It would probably be better, instead of trying to have a national leader like de Gaulle, to lean on able second-layer men for the time being. That, as well as the plight of the Labor party in Britain, and perhaps the state of American politics, especially on the Democratic side, suggests that the problem of new leadership is common now to ali the democracies. Dictatorships frankly rest on the leadership of one man. Democracies must have a flow of leaders, new shoots coming up. But instead we see the field being left to old men who are tired or who have developed temperamental limitations. Military leadership. seems to appear plentifully. We need the same thing politically.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

this consideration? and I thank you.” I think there must be some mistake about this, because, unless a train is already overcrowded, I am quite sure that a private, as well as a civilian, can get a berth or any accommodation that he is willing to pay for. What many people do not realize is the volume of travel today and the fact that they should make reservations far in advance. I know, for instance, of a case not long ago where a civilian waited in the stationmaster’s office for accommodations, in company with soldiers, sailors and officers of every grade. Some of the officers were willing to sit up all the way to California, even though it was a three-day trip, because they did not want to delay in getting to their destinations, and accommodations simply did not exist. Gradually the patient and very understanding officials of the railroad had everyone stowed away, but it took them over 12 hours. Now I realize that many a boy in the services cannot make his plans very far ahead, but he must take his chances with the others and not feel that because he is a private he is discriminated against. In the last war, my husband was asistant secretary

of the navy, but that didn’t give me any special

consideration. I can remember trips when I stood up for five hours, or sat on the arms of seats in crowded cars, so do not let your boy get the idea

i:

‘National Pastime

Of Fascists Was Black Marketing

X—VIOLATION OF RATIONING LAWS

THE HARDEST WORK of the Fascist government was to prevent widespread violation of rationing laws. No Italian we met ever seemed to regard it as his -patriotic

duty to observe them.

Bootlegging and hoarding flour-

ished, and the only people who did not buy contraband goods on the black market were those who could not afford

them.

Quite frequently, Italian inefficiency, combined with transportation difficulties, caused such shortages of food

at various times and various places that the workingman

was not able to get even the small quotas allotted him by

law.

Consequently, there was much grumbling against

those who had sufficient money to pay the high black

market prices and eat well.

This privileged group included

not only the normally well-to-do classes, but also many men who had made money exclusively through their political positions in the Fascist party. The more difficult the food situation became and the more strict the rationing, the more did the popularity of the Fascist party decline, and the greater the resentment against the new Fascist ruling class became. To make matters worse, the moment there began to

be a scarcity in any one food product, so that there

was the likelihood that it would be rationed, speculators immediately bought up all they could obtain of it, knowing well that they would be able to bootleg it at four or five times its normal price. The government did not show any “determination about suppressing these speculators. There were numerous arrests, but the arrested ones were only small fry and they were given ‘such light sentences and fines that bootlegging continued to be well worth the risk. The cynical and suffering public quickly came to the conclusion that the reason this outrageous black market was permitted to continue to flourish unchecked was that the high Fascist officials were engaging in it and making private fortunes. The only common people who were able to live well were those in the army, and that was true only to a relative degree. Mussolini had insisted that soldiers’ food should be pieniiful and nourishing, as he was well aware that there was nothing that would breed revolution more quickly than an armed but hungry army. The Fascists supplying the army did not dare to go against his orders too much in this respect. A few things had been rationed even before Italy went to war— coffee, sugar, gasoline, coal and laundry soap. A few months after Italy entered the war, the Fascist government rationed rice, flour, corn meal, butter, lard, and even spaghetti and olive oil, the two most fundamental ingredients of the Italian cuisine. > s ” ”

Workingmen’s Diet

WHEN WE LEFT ITALY toward the end of May, 1942, the food situation had become immeasurably worse, By that time, the Italian workingman’s diet had been reduced to something like this: Ten ounces cf soggy, brownish bread a day; a little more than two ounces of black spaghetti a day; two eggs a week; three or four potatoes a week; enough beef or veal for one meal a week; enough lamb or goat for one meal a week; a quarter of a

pound of sugdr a week; a quarter

of a pound of butter or oil a week; from three to four ounces of cheese made from skimmed milk a week; fish, perhaps once a week (for the most part there was only enough to go around on Fridays); enough rabbit or sausage for one meal a week. Aside from these stapie foods, Italians of the poorer classes had nothing more to eat except green vegetables and fruit, which in

Italy gave indication of continu-

on a meatless day. But this time it was cleverly hidden beneath a huge leaf of lettuce. Almost every morning, two or three bootleggers would come to our home before we left for the office and offer us legs of lamb, goats, chickens, ducks, eggs by the dozen, and butter. It was just a question of paying more. ” ” ”

Heating Poor, Also

But a limited amount of food was far from being the only wartime hardship the Italians had to suffer. Lack of adequate heating was one of the worst. In Rome, during the winter of 1941-42, heating of apartment buildings, hotels, and houses was permitted only between 2 p. m. and 9 p. m, and that only for 100 days beginning Dec. 10. Office buildings had even greater restrictions on heat. Owners of apartment houses could only provide hot water for their tenants, three times a week for a few hours in the morning. Cooking gas was cut off except for two hours before each meal hour. This was all because of the coal shortage. The million tons of coal a month that Germany was shipping by train to Italy across the Brenner pass were all needed to keep Italian factories running. The Italians could not make up for the lack of heat by bundling themselves up in warm clothes, because clothes rationing had already been imposed. Usually, when a new rationing decree was about to be imposed, rumors about it got around for several days previously. But the clothes-rationing project came utterly without warning when the Rome radio, during one of its principal broadcasts the evening of Sept. 30, 1941, announced that beginning the next day all clothes, drygoods, and specialty shops and factories supplying them would be closed for a month. During the month’s closing, a careful inventory of the stocks would be taken and, when business resumed, clothing could be bought only with coupons. n ” ”

Nazis Cause Rationing

Clothes rationing was mainly provoked by the activities of the German tourists in Italy. Nazis who, because of party services,

RRIL ai

VL INA AN LLL RL IAL) 14

“The only common people who were able to live well were those in the army, and that was true only to a degree.” Here Mussolini reviews some of his warriors. He was well aware that nothing breeds revolution more quickly than an armed but hungry army.

These residents of Rome parade gleefully with a sign torn from the British consulate, after hearing Mussolini announce the Italian declaration of war against Britain. But soon the public grew cynical as the black market in foodstuffs flourished, and quickly became con-

vinced that high Fascist officials scarcity of food.

had been able to get one of the prized visas for Italy had swarmed over the Italian cities by the thousands, ransacking the shops for the goods they could not buy at home. When the rationing cards were issued, it was sadly learned that a man could buy a suit or a pair of shoes in one year, but not both, while if a woman bought a heavy winter coat she could get little else except a few handkerchiefs and some underwear. To check still further the purchase of clothes by German tourists, the government decreed that the stores must demand not only the ration coupons, but also

were making fortunes out of the

an identity card. As we ourselves soon found, getting identity cards was a long and complicated procedure which only permanent residents would have the time and patience to undertake. Nearly every day at the press conference, one of the German correspondents or a correspond-

ent from one. of the smaller Tripartite countries would raise the question as to when the press ministry was going to do something about getting identity cards for the correspondents, who were too busy to get them for them-= selves.

‘Action Acrimonious

Finally, one day, a distinctly acrimonious scene took place which was all the more extraordinary when it is remembered that’ this was less than a month before Italy declared war on the United States. A German correspondent got up and demanded to know when this farce was going to cease; that neither he nor his wife had been able to buy anything, whereas he had positive knowledge that an American woman had gone into a shop and had bought 35 pairs of silk stockings without any kind of identity card or coupon. ’ When he said this, all the correspondents and press officers looked at Eleanor, who was one of the few American women still in Italy. But before Eleanor had decided whether or not she should say anything, the German correspondent added, “It was not la Signora Packard. It was a lady from the American embassy.” The tension was not lessened by an attempted quip from an Italian journalist, Ermanno Frankinet, who attended the foreignpress cokmeence in his capacity as assistant to one of the Japanese correspondents. The Italian said: ” ” ”

Makes Joking Retort

“You should feel sorry for the poor signora Americana. Remember, they do not have any silk in America any more, So probably she wants to take some Italian stockings back home to Mrs. Roosevelt.” “I fail to see the humor,” von Langen indignantly interposed. “I can see nothing funny in the fact that any American receives better treatment than Germans from Italian shopkeepers.” Rocco muttered that he would do something about the cards right away, and the incident was closed. But it was an interesting example of how many Italian shopkeepers hated their German allies and felt only the greatest friendliness toward their potential enemies, the Americans.

by. Reynolds and Eleanor Packard; published by Oxford University Press; distributed by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)

(Copyright, 1943,

NEXT—Italian Morale Sinks.

Giraud-De Gaulle Feud, Cooled by Allied Pressure, May Revive at Critical Moment

By WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS Scripps-Howard Foreign Editor WASHINGTON, June 25. — It

would be an error to think the

For some, however, it was not good enough. Left-wingers grew impatient. Gain Control

"That's why he came here—because

later, we were also

ing always abundant. The Italians took to bootlegging rationed products with such aptitude that it showed almost a national characteristic. After a few months of war, when it had been forbidden by decree to serve meat except 'on Saturday, we went into one of the leading restaurants on a Wednesday night. The menu was vegetarian, but the headwaiter, without any hesitancy, recommended that we have saltimbocca alla romana. on n ”

Official Eats Meat, Too

At a table near us was a bemedaled black shirt official in uniform. Reynolds pointed out that it might be dangerous for the restaurant to serve us meat in the presence of such an important fascist official. “Oh,” laughed the headwaiter, “he just ordered a steak himself.

settled.

Mr. Simms After Alfonso

President Zamora.

right radical.

he knows he can always get meat.” In another restaurant, a week

French quarrel in North Africa is

The arrangement between Generals De Gaulle and Giraud— brought about by allied pressure — is at best a truce. i The feud will | break out again, perhaps when even more dan:gerous to allied victory than it is now. Friends of France fear that she may become another Spain. I's overthrow in| 1931, Spain became a republic under

By Spanish standards, the new regime was democratic if not downIt liberalized the army, separated church and state, broke up some of the vast estates, enabled peasants to acquire farms, enfranchised women as well as men and emptied jails of political prisoned meat ers. It was a good start.

In 1936 the anarchists, syndicalists, communists and other extremists engineered a deal with the left republicans and socialists and gained control of the Cortes. This combination, called the popular front, at once ousted Zamora and put Manuel Azana, a left republican, in his place. But Azana likewise moved too slowly to suit the extremists. Violence broke out. Mobs surged through the streets crying death to their enemies and the torch “to the properties of the pope.” The - smoke ‘of churches and schools darkened the sky. Priests and laymen were killed. A rightist counter-revolution broke out, led by Francisco Franco. Azana was thrown out and Largo Caballero—called by some “the Spanish Lenin”—took over instead.

Lay Riddled

The republic was now deader than cock robin. She lay riddled by the bullets of both sides. It was no longer a struggle between democ-

tion was whether the people of Spain would live under a communist dictator or a fascist dictator. It was natural that France, across the Pyrenees, should catch the fever. She had no Alfonso XIII to overthrow, but most certainly she was extremely dissatisfied with her government. Therefore, it was hardly surprising that she should set up a popular front of her own—which she did in June, 1936. Out of those elections, Leon Blum’s socialists emerged the biggest’ single party in the country, with 147 seats in tie chamber . of deputies. The radical socialist party came second with 110 seats. The communists rose to third place, electing 72 candidates. Together with other groups, the leftists won 542 seats out of a total of 618. But France's situation did not greatly improve. There were strikes, riots and other disturbances. That was the general atmosphere in France at the outbreak of the war in- 1939." Since then nothing has happened to make the French people better satisfied. Their defeat, the occupation of their country by the hated Boches,

thes betrayal by Laval and his

crew, their long wait for liberation —all this has probably not improved their tempers, In other words the stage seems set for trouble after liberation.

JAPS ATTACK 3'U. 'S. SHIPS WASHINGTON, June 24 (U. P.). —S8ingle Japanese planes attempted night attacks on three small U. 8. ships in the Solomon islands, but their forays were unsuccessful, the Navy announced today.

HOLD EVERYTHING

"“You shouldn’t have rented thi