Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 July 1943 — Page 10

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis

ROY W. HOWARD President

MARK FERRER Business Manager

RALPH BURKHOLDER Editor, in U. S. Service WALTER LECKRONE Editor

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cE RILEY 5551

Their Own Way

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 19943

Give Light and the People Will Find

NINE POLICEMEN—TWO CHILDREN

Price in Marion Coun- | tv, 4 cents a copy: deliv- |

states, 73 cents a month; |

Times Fajr Enough

NDIANAPOLIS is entitled to a full and public investiga- | tion, without any whitewash, of the charges that city policemen beat two young boys with clubs during an arrest | Monday evening. These are serious charges. The beating of any person by policemen, before, during or after his arrest is a violation of law, of police regulations and of the sensibilities of a | civilized community. The fact that these may have been ! “tough kids” who had been arrested many times before, | gtill would not justify the kind of clubbing witnesses say these boys received. These policemen deserve to be exonerated if they are not guiity—or punished if they are guilty. Granting that everything these policemen say in their

| proving | photostat of the current insurance agreement between

| whereby the son of the president is promised 4 per

| nine years of the policy.

own defense is true—and for the sake of our police depart- |

ment we hope it is

there is still very little even in their |

own version of the affair to bring any credit to the police |

force. Two adult, and presumably armed, city detectives

backed down from their job of arresting a loud-talking, |

but, according to their own report an unarmed, boy of 17.

They sent for reinforcements and seven more policemen | | age for his $15, the second year man gets $666.66 and |

arrived. Thereafter their prisoner's little 15-year-old

too, with cuts and bruises on his head. =

T must have been quite a battle—nine adult, armed policemen against two boys of school age. One wonders what these officers of the law would do if they came up against a real, tough, grown-up criminal. The policemen involved convict themselves, by their own account of the incident, of pretty poor police work, regardless of the more serious accusation of brutality. We are glad to learn that Chief Becker proposes to

= " ” = ®

By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, July 7.—Since last winter when I went to Kansas City and completed a long preliminary investigation of the sweet | insurance racket conducted by Harold M. Franklin, the son of J. A. Franklin, president of the boilermakers’ union of the A. F. of L., I have gone further into the matter and made new interesting discoveries. Incidentally, lest there be any misunderstanding, I would say that Harold M. Frank- | lin, the old man's kid, and William E. Walter, the international secretary-treasurer, are both liars. Incidentally, an attempt was made to cover up this racket by denying that young Franklin was then, in March of this year, or ever had been the beneficiary agent in any insurance business between the union and any company. I have a number of court records that he was, and still is, the agent and a

the union and the Occidental Life Insurance Co. of California, signed by the elder Franklin and by | Walter. | I have also a photostat of the commission agreement between the company and Harold M. Franklin,

cent of the total premiums for the first year, which ended July 1, 1942, and 2 per cent for the remaining

About 300,000 Members

MEMBERS OF the union who were not only forced to join but also compelled to buy this insurance at the rate of $15 a year have told me that there are now about 300,000 members, which would mean that young Franklin and his partner, Jerome S. Koehler, a lawyer, | divide $180,000 a year equally between them. In addition, they receive commissions on other insurance promoted by the union through its national headquarters in Kansas City, Kas, and their total income would appear to be about $100,000 a year each. | The number of the policy is 756100. | The first year member gets only $333.33 of cover-

\ ; . . | those who have been members for three years or more | brother “attacked” them-—so they had to bring him in, |

get $1000. Young Franklin's cut is the same in all | cases, however. Another interesting provision of the contract is one which sets aside large amounts of money for payment to the union, itself. There is no mention of any in-

! tention to divide this money between the members or

| to use it to reduce the premiums.

It goes straight into the treasury presided over by Brother Walter in Kansas City, Kas, in addition to a rakeoff already de- | ducted from the victim's $1.25 a month ostensibly for |

| the expense of keeping the union's insurance records | | in its home office.

| Herded into the Fold

investigate the affair-—it is his primary responsibility to

do so, and not that of the county government. We hope he will make his inquiry thorough and impartial and that

will act sternly and decisively for the welfare of the police department,

IN DEFENSE OF OPA EMEMBER a play called “Lightnin’ ”? As we recollect, Frank Bacon, the chief actor, claimed he had herded a | whole swarm of bees clear across the desert. And do vou recall the remark ex-Senator Thomas P.

as the only man who could carry an armful of eels up the Capitol steps and never drop one? Well, some of the jobs which have been handed around to the bureaucrats and others since this war broke out have been assignments like that. OPA, for example— price administration meaning, when interpreted, the repeal of the law of supply and demand, said law being second in potency only to the law of gravity.

MEMBERS, OF COURSE, will come and go. In | the last year vast and incalculable numbers of victims |

| have been herded into the fold in the great shipyards

: : : | of the country and Henry Kaiser has been a party to if he finds evidence to support the charges before him he | p

this operation through his closed shop agreements,

i i | whereby hordes of persons unknown were delivered |

over to the compulsory insurance racket far in advance of their employment. The transient members included in the great turn-

| over, of course, have a right to any benefit or kick-

|

| back accruing from their payments, for it is general |

| for the benefit of the policyholders. | Franklin and Walter saw to it that this money would '

practice in the insurance business to use the reserves |

e ; | not be ear-marked for the members. Gore made about a lawyer-lobbyist from the Indian country |

| are allowed to make a pass at it.

Not even the unioneers in command of the locals | It goes to the in-

| ternational, in addition to eight and one-third cents | a month from each member in the guise of adminis-

|

Accordingly, before we get too mad about all the!

regulations and start frothing at the mouth and biting each other in the leg, maybe we'd better try and imagine ourselves in the position of a Leon Henderson or a Prentiss Brown, and ask ourselves what we would have done. We, too, under such circumstances might have summoned soothsayers, buzzed for the Ph. D's, relied upon crystal balls, called for logarithms, gone in for rosicrucianism and, perhaps, even taken several shots of voodoo

in order, as Sam Goldwyn puts it, to solve the solution. =» = » = » » HAT brains, just brains, degrees, just degrees, haven't

that should necessarily give the public the rabies. Of course we do keep a bit dizzy. When east coasters, for example, on June 26 read that all A cards may be withdrawn, and then 10 days later that all A cards may be good for a round trip to the mountains or the seashore, there's occasion for getting groggy. The muddiing and the fumbling and cross-purposing in OPA have indeed been something to behold. But the recent departure of many of the high-learned, though all too gradual, has tended to cool us all off a bit. So, in the interest of tolerance let's view as what it js—unprecedented—the OPA problems as a whole and not forget that if it weren't for OPA, with all its faults, we might even now be paying a bushel basket full of foldin’ money for a sandwich. But let's continue to push for more clarification; for fewer crystal balls and more microscopes,

WHY THE HUSH-HUSH? HENRY WALLACE and Jesse Jones, who are blaming each other for failure of the critical materials part of the war program, are both talking as if they want a congressional investigation. But in the house and the genate administration forces have pigeon-holed resolutions ealling for an investigation. Why the hush-hush? This is serious business. Congress never hesitates to conduct a full-fledged examination of the tonsils and adenoids of any private citizen who is accused of not doing all he should do to promote the war effort. Here are two high-placed public officials, publicly accusing each other of negligence in the performance of duty, squandering of public funds, ete., all of which creates confusion and disquiet in the minds of citizens who pay the taxes and whose sons and husbands and brothers are

fighting overseas.

= Na ” ” » » HE only way to restore public confidence is by a let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may investigation—to determine what the truth really is. Incidentally, why is a special congressional resolution necessary? What's the Truman committee for, anyway? It was created to inquire into any vart of the war program that isn't clicking? Well, here's one part of the program

that's certainly in a mess. Is the big, bold, unafraid an eommittee going to dodge this one?

tration expenses in the union's insurance department, with its vast regular income, including money wrung from shipyard workers who had to join and pay in order to get jobs building ships for old Sam.

$25,000 a Month for Bookkeeping |

THE UNION, of course, easily could have absorbed this administration cost. But, in anv case, this shakedown of more than 6 per cent added to the cost of

| the coverage, obviously is far out of proportion to the

| | i | |

actual cost of keeping the insurance records. It comes

to $25,000 a month or $300,000 a year, just for book-

| keeping.

And, brooding over the entire situation is the fact that the union officials got together with the Occiden-

| tal Life Insurance Co. of California and negotiated a

| contract which throws a sweet profit to the company

| and to the union and a fabulous rakeoff to the son of | the union's president in which the policyholder had

: | contribute to the company, the union and young vet unscrewed the inscrutable isn't after all anything |

‘We the People By Ruth Millett

absolutely no voice. He was not consulted. He may not even have heen a member when the policy was written. Thousands | were not members then. But they are compelled to

Franklin and Koehler, his partner, under penalty of dismissal from the union and from their Jobs in the shipyards, and the United States government stands by approving.

WHAT THE average war wife with children needs is an occasional furlough. Having the sole responsibility for keeping a home together and looking after children isn't an easy Job.

But the elder physiology and pathology as hand-

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES in.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 1943

Our Victory Garden’

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Loco-

Weed

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Q ud to

sp " ERE er

I wholly defend to

The Hoosier Forum

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

“KILLING THE CAT TO GET THE FLEA” By N. R. L., Indianapolis We are pouring out blood and treasure as never before to over- | throw oppression and tyranny under | the axis powers. Prohibition under the stars and | stripes is tyranny and the gestapo to boot. It is a violation of the bill of rights. | Doctor Logan Glendening in his hook, “The Human Body” says: “What I most emphatically objec: to is the use of the sciences of]

|

maids to the dirty work of prohibition agitators, because the facts do not warrant any such inierpre-|

tation. You may go into the library tion of the war.

of the American College of Sur- | geons any day at the cocktail hour | and ask the assembled f{eliows if they do not agree.” To penalize a thousand moderate drinkers because of a small percentage of inebriates is like Killing the cat to get the flea. { Prohibition, race and religious prejudices stem from the same source—ignorance and barbarism. ”

“JUVENILE PROBLEM A CHALLENGE TO AMERICA”

By Charles William Schaffer, 835 N. New Jersey st, I've been. reading much about juvenile delinquency. But as yet

|

care of it before it got beyond the

‘the child labor laws for the dura-|something about it.

|a child labor law, suitably useful

| make some good man a good wife | and a good mother, | We want more of this in America. | | We want more of this kind of children, Why don't we have them? | | They have the wrong kind of mothers and fathers, They have | been educated wrong. And the so‘cial agencies don't think in terms | of useful occupation. Put the children to work and punish those parents who spoil] them by giving them the car and! bounds of common decency? It money to run around and visit happened in the last war. They| taverns, buy booze, waste their should have profited by that. {time in dance halls, etc. Now is They criticized the revocation of the time. Let's quit talking and do | 9 A national | They agree these| emergency exists and the children want to work. ” ” ”

(Times readers are invited their

these columns, religious con-

to express views in

troversies excluded. Because

of the volume received, letters must be limited to 250 must be

words. Letters

signed.)

to see what was coming and take

children should be employed to help | keep them out of mischief. But | o ; what have they offered as a sub-|“WE MAY LOSE PEACE

stitute? If it isn't revoked then BUT NOT THE WAR” how about new legislation? Personally I think the present law : (which I have read) is a mess. | Re a Times Reader. | How about some of the brilliant; You you believe that the minds, legal minds . . . our college U. S. is going to lose the war. You professors in the law schools i _-|are definitely wrong. We may losc ivi i rorth-while in giving us something worth-whi n the peace as we did in the frst.

in the emergency? Ceriainly the world war, but not the war, | present law was not any good at definitely “no.” any time. It was a labor law, spon-| yo, reaffirm that the govern-

sored by a few liticians who! : wii to play y th and does Ment of the U. 8. is the most nearly

not express the will of the people, perfect government in the world. but a minority group. (Wrong again. I assume that, all

| By H. W. Daacke, 1404 S. State ave.

say

| do and the way they do it.

| two months | ight goes deeper into the New Deal

Congress By Thomas L. Stokes

WASHINGTON, July T7-—-A senate press gallery wag remarked that if congress doesn't recessy soon it may repeal the law of gravity. This was an off-side commentary on the hectic chopping away at New Deal agencies in the closing hours before its scheduled vacation—abolition of the national youth administration, discontinuance of crop insurance, ways and means committee refusal to extend the Guffey coal act, though the channels still remain open for something to be done about the last two. The conservative upsurge in congress, gradually gathering force since last November's elections, seems to have blazed almost into a fury in the final hours before congress quits for a rest. All the major wing-clipping of New Deal agencies —and some have been clipped that haven't been abolished, such as farm security administration, OPA, OWI, and the national resources planning board-—has originated in the house, which is fresh from an election and presumably reflects feeling among the people. The senate for a time resisted this onslaught from the other branch, but in the last few days it, too, has begun to give way, whether from utter weariness and exhaustion, or from some inkling that perhaps the house may have the right clue to public opinion.

Democrats Are Uncertain

YET CONTACT with individual members leaves the impression of uncertainty about the ultimate effect of this past six months’ business, particularly among Democrats. One of the most frequently heard remarks in the » lobbies these days is: “I'm anxious to get home to find out what my people are thinking.”

Somewhat plaintively, and with a worried note.

What has been going on for the last six months

boils down, as the people see it, to a fight between President Roosevelt and congress, and seasoned mem-=-bers of congress know that it has to come down, in the public mind, to such simple terms. They realize that the issues of the fight become confused in the public mind, that it is difficult for congress to explain its case because of the technicalities of legislative procedure. They know, from experience, that it is easy for a president to set himself up successfully against congress, Even Calvin Coolidge could do that. The present occupant of the White House is a

| master at simple explanation, and his voice and de- | livery are good.

What complicates the problem for congress now is that things are going badly along the home front, and that congress has been very active on this sector. Congress also has been active against new dealism as represented in some of its agencies. Activity in congress tends to turn attention on congress,

Fear Public's Attitude

WHAT MEMBERS of congress fear is that the fight on New Deal agencies may get translated into the public mind as a personal fight on the president, and that they may get blamed for other things that go wrong which, in reality, are not entirely in their con« trol. This fear is exhibited in the effort to work out some compromise on food subsidies so that the president cannot blame congress if a food crisis develops. They are afraid that some fine day, after they have gone home, Mr. Roosevelt will tell his side on the radio and that congress will be made the goat. Some with an imaginative twist can even see President Roosevelt waiting for that hour, perhaps rubbing his hands in anticipation. The revolt in congress against the New Deal has not yet reached to fundamental New Deal reforms, though headed that way in some particulars. It has,

| largely, been a revulsion against the frills and ex-'

cesses of some New Deal agencies, both in what they > What the congressmen learn at home in the next probably will determine whether the

structure, or whether it will pull up short.

Some Democrats—and not all of them New Dealers —think the party is in the way of committing suicide with its eyes open.

In Washington

y Peter Edson

Ninety per cent of the people want other things being equal, any coun- |

| talk.

| necessary immediately, before it gets | filthy cities like Indianapolis, raising

| are what they are cracked up to be, when the kids want to do it and

I've seen no practical suggestions their children except by Judge Rhoads. | & : : : tlle i feel the whole prob- | Profitable occupations of which lem is a challenge to the entire foc) tiers ale mmeny. : Ly 2 on i ies i ica. There has| we : rc §3 cial agencies in America. There has from 6 a m. to 8 p. m. with time

ion—just | a been eh al a Ae dons Jo out for swimming and a bali gane.

tional crisis exists. Quick action | America could use a million such Where are titey? In such

and radical means to curb it are| boys.

fosord Ste ods of the police. hell or he San oo omelig The ce are overtaxed now. | 40. ely ’ Th poventte detention home is a| uncles and aunts are at war or Eo A ok oo. Lo state of Indiana, ese women's | ye ) . clubs Who are so interested in the I'm in this ight,” if they had a job problem want something to do they | Which had even a smell of being a had better get together with the defense job. They want to work. county officials and city officials and | MY boy begged to work on a farm. find a new juvenile home now, | My girl (11) takes care of a baby quick. The sheriff and city polices for a war mother, and tends a vichave no place to put them. | tory garden. She cleans house, If these so-called social agencies| cooks, etc. Is this child slavery.

Some day she will

why didn't they hay the foresight'enjoy doing it?

Side Glances—By Galbraith

Things go wrong around the house, the children get sick, a

period comes along when a hus- ||.

band’s letters don't get through— | and there is no one to talk to at the end of the day when the children are in bed. It is a lonely, confining, wearing sort of existence —Vet all over the country thousands of war wives are making the best of it. They do say wistfully, though, once in a while, “If I could just get away for a few days. Just have a few days when I could sleep late in the morning, eat meals I don't cook myself, and not have to have the children on my mind every minute of the day.”

What About War Wives?

IF WE WERE as interested in the happiness and welfare of war wives as we are of their soldier and sailor husbands, we would be doing something about that situation. We would be working out some kind of plan whereby war wives can have 12-hour or three-day leaves. Middle-aged women without enough to do to keep their minds busy are still going to club meetings, still playing bridge, still having teas. Instead, why couldn't those women organize themselves into a group with “furloughs for war wives” as its aim? Mrs. Brown, whose husband comes home at night

for dinner, could sign up to spend one day a week taking care of a war wife's children while she spent | the day shopping, having her hair done, and eating lunch downtown, Mrs. Smith, who is a widow, and who lives in | the house of a married daughter, could take over a war wife's household for two or three days while Mrs. War Wife takes a little vacation. But that would mean work, and it is even =o much easier for women with leisure to play bridge or

| |

"We can't get away with any more commando raids on the icebox

to work at decent

try that has less of these inequalities and injustices than the U. S. would be a more perfect govern- | meitt. | Switzerland can qualify for that! honor. So can the Dominion oH Canada. Based on the assumption | that we consider pre-war days, not | as of today under the Hitler yoke | and with conditions abnormal, I would add to that list Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands. The greatest problem we have today and have had for many a year is unemployment. Up in the | millions in peak times and the! tens of millions in time of stress. The best men, so-called, in the country have failed to solve this greatest of our injustices. The countries mentioned have reduced it to such a low figure that it is almost non-existent. : I am afraid “A Times Reader” is unduly alarmed over ‘subversive |clap-trap” as he states it. We had experienced this same thing in the first world war. War hysteria and gossip. The latter reduced to a| mathematical equation of two plus two equals eight. So far in this war we have no such series of disasters as we had in the first world war directly traceable to sabotage. Mr. Hoover and his capable FBI has, and will continue to take care of any subversive activities that are dangerous to the welfare of the nation. Regarding conditions at the plant where you work, as mentioned by you in your article, I can say that those slackers that want to ride without paying their fare, those barking dogs that seldom bite, had better not get too boisterous for, while Uncle Sam is very patient, when necessary “Uncle will spank.” In closing, I might say that if the rest of our government was as efficiently managed as the FBI you would have a good claim to your statement, “the best in the world.”

DAILY THOUGHTS

So Job died, being old and full of days.—Job 42:17,

FOR AGE is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress, And as the evening twilight fades away

this time I'll try a newslingle on Mom-fresdom from want!"

The sky is filled with stars, invisible

d

WASHINGTON, July 7 — The sequel to the slogan, "Food Will Win the War,” is “Lack of Food Can Lose the Election,” but that does not seem to have dawned on some of the political master minds who are supposed to keep up on such things, particularly in congress.

The way words have of getting \

twisted and exaggerated out of all proportion in wartime, lack of food today means lack of meat, and lack of meat means lack of beef in the meat market. Thee are plenty of live beef, and plenty of other meat animals on the hoof, enough food to keep body and soul flourishing for that matter, if equitably distributed. The problem of the moment in solving {he food situation therefore boils down to a matter of getting more beef moving to market and on that matter the best minds fail, As Senator Eugene D. Millikin of

Denver, Colo, put it after hearings on this subject be« A

fore the senate committee on agriculture, “We have this morning reached a state of complete intellectual backruptey in trying to put more meat back on the

| table.” It's a kind of a mixed metaphor, but if you

follow the train of thought you grasp the idea that yes. we have no beef and yes, we may he running out, of brains,

Questions of Subsidies

THE PREVAILING thought in congress now seems to be that subsidies shall not pass. Congress passed a law, the price control act of 1942, authorizing subsidy payments, apparently without realizing what it-« was doing. Office of price administration went ahead to put those subsidies in effect to hold down further rises in the cost of living, Now congress reneges and even considers repealing that portion of the price control act. The lack of beef on the table today is attributable primarily to only one thing—uncertainty on the market caused by failure of congress to take decisive action on subsidies. Packers can't be blamed for cutting prices to stockmen as a result, and stockmen have not shipped their beef animals to market because they have played the hunch that congress would knock out subsidies and permit the price of beef to rise. The only answer which most congressmen can ’ give for getting more meat on the table is to let the prices rise. That takes care of the stock raiser and packer, but what does it do to the consumer?

A

A

One Way to Harness Prices

THE PIOUS hope that letting the price of one commodity rise will not cause explosive inflation is bunk. On the theory that that we could have just one more little price rise here and there and then stop we have been deluding ourselves for the past, two years and a half, while the cost of food has risen 46 per cent and the cost of living 24 per cent. There is only one way to stop price increases an that is to say that present prices cannot be exceedee and assure producers and packers that prices are not to be increased again. Once that assurance is put over, then the meat will start coming to market. If prices are permitted to rise and food becomes consequently searcer with congressional approval, that is

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