Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 July 1943 — Page 10

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The Indianapolis Times

ROY W. HOWARD President

RALPH BURKHOLDER Editor, in U. S. Service | MARK FERREE WALTER LECKRONE Business Manager Editor

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

SATURDAY, JULY 17, 1943

| | GASOLINE CONFUSION | HERE is alarming indication that the nation's gasoline | problem may be getting into the same state of slap- | happy confusion the rubber muddle had attained before the appointment of the Baruch commission. Conflicting statements over how much gas we have, | how much we need, and how it ought to be distributed are coming out of Washington in ever-increasing number. In | the aggregate they serve only to create doubt that anyone | talking on the subject actually knows very much about it. The committee of eastern congressmen who some time ago demanded that the rest of the country, including areas where gas is plentiful, be permitted to use no more than Atlantic states where gas is scarce, are at it again, apparently on the sole grounds that misery loves company. Their proposal that the Middle West be sharply limited right now to build up stocks in storage against a time when | more gas could be transported east apparently is made | without consideration of storage facilities in this area or | whether they could hold any such gas reserves. Altogether there are too many amateurs in the gasoline | picture, making too many ill-considered statements, threats, promises and predictions. Inevitably, in consequence, there is very little public confidence in what they say. Perhaps the inquiry proposed by the Byrnes Oflice ef War Mobilization may get at the facts, and get the facts to the public | from a source the average citizen will respect and believe. Still better would be a comprehensive survey like the one the Baruch commission made of rubber, followed by a full | and frank statement of the facts. That, at least, would | furnish a basis for more constructive action and less destructive conversation.

A GOOD START, MR. PRESIDENT THE tough way in which President Roosevelt settled the | Wallace-Jones feud is a hopeful sign that he may at | last be taking the home front in hand. | Summarily relieving both the Vice President and bs RFC chief from all responsibility in foreign economic matters, he centralized operations in that field under one man, | Leo T. Crowley, director of the new office of economic war- | fare. And to achieve greater unity in economic warfare | activities, he delegated to War Mobilization Director Byrnes | authority to co-ordinate all foreign economic programs in | line with the foreign policies determined by the state | department. Of course this is the way it should have been handled from the first. That improvised dual set-up—with Henry | Wallace and Milo Perkins running the board of economic warfare, sometimes not in harmony with state department objectives, and depending upon Jesse Jones’ RFC subsi- | diaries to provide the money to make good on BEW com- | mitments—was administratively impossible. Rube Goldberg couldn't have invented a crazier contrivance for compounding confusion and provoking controversies. = = n

HE Wallace-Jones conflict reached the name-calling | stage before the president moved in, but when he did | he moved with full force, ordering Messrs. Wallace and | Jones to step aside because “the important thing is to | clear the decks and get on with the war at once.” The president’s letter to the heads of all government | departments and agencies, telling them to refrain from public debates with each other—or resign—should diminish the exhibition of conflicts. But keeping contlicts under cover is hardly a solution. Differences are bound to arise. A certain amount of pulling and hauling is inevitable among administrators charged with varying but interlocking responsibilities, unless they are worked as a team. The president has told them to bring their differences to him for settlement, or to War Mobilization Director Byrnes. But the president doesn’t have time to make small decisions, and Mr. Byrnes hasn't yet organized to handle such matters expeditiously.

” = Ld

= ONGRESS left Washington in an ugly mood. If the president has not restored order, purpose and direction to the home front, by the time congress returns two months hence, the president will be in for more trouble than he | has experienced in his 1015 long years. : ’ Because we believe the war would be shortened there-

| sank a pick into.

| they go to an employer and mention “labor” and

| of ads you ever did see.

| for dough taken by force from the faceless dummies of the rank and file and bought space not to advertise

i in any legitimate labor paper, but to chuck their

| get the information.

Even Joe Fay's Bodyguard!

| expressions regarding the issue of war bonds and our | brave lads and all anyone with a morbid interest had | | to do was just get out some long sheets of yellow paper

| and copy them down and put them away for compari- | son whenever some new shake or other racket comes | to notice.

by, we think the best possible program would be one on

which the president provided the leadership and which | 4

congress approved. For that reason we hope that .in his | two months’ breathing spell, the president will re-form | the home front—that he will make the war mobilization committee a real war cabinet, with clear lines of authority running down and clear lines of responsibility running back up; that he will formulate and regularize tax policies, borrowing policies, price and wage policies; that on all these matters he will gain the consent of the real (as distinguished from the nominal) leaders of congress. It won't do much longer just to.go on making scapegoats out of Wallaces and Joneses.

BOOMERANG O PREVENT Hollanders from listening to allied broadcasts, Nazi authorities ordered that all privately-owned radio sets be turned in. Severe penalties were imposed for failure to comply. The Huns were in earnest because, they said “radios are a strong and dangerous weapon in the hands of the Dutch.” The net result is that the weak and the compliant, who gave up their radios, cannot be reached by the Nazis over the air. The strong, the clever, the defiant, who hid radios, still listen to London. Max Blokzijl, Dutch Nazi commentator, complains that the number of Hollanders listening illegally to allied broadcasts is “several times as large” as the number tuned in to him and his masters.

It’s bard to keep a brave people down, TD

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, July 17.—lLast fall, just after Labor day, a fellow who is a stranger to me, a man in a modest way of business, turning out war stuff for the government, sent me a copy of a special, gala, Labor day edition of a publication with the name “Labor” in its title. He had been hustled for an ad in the same and, although he had no line on its circulation, if any, and couldn't even learn how often it came out, whether weekly, monthly or just whenever the boys felt the need of a little dough, and, although he had nothing to advertise, he reflected on that word “labor” in the title and figured that maybe he could buy off a little union trouble and therefore went aiong. He settled for about half of the original demand and was just about to toss away his copy of the special gala Labor, day edition when the thought came to him that I might want it for my collection nf souvenirs. Well, pals, it is thumbed to tatters by now, for it has been the most productive dirt mine that I ever

This paper is turned out in a plant which the boys in the union racket call a boiler room which seems to refer to the heat that the operatives or solicitors can steam up by using that word “labor” across the top of page one. They don't threaten anyone, necessarily. They don't have to. They are psychologists. When

“unions” and the A. F. of L. and the C. I. O, the saps get it up. They see picket-lines hetween the lines of the ad-taker’s order blank. The special gala edition on the Labor day occasion contained greetings from the treasury department and formal thanks to the patriotic publishers for plugging the war loan and the damnedest collection Sa:ioons, steak-joints, big manufacturers, little ones, theaters, all the traditional suckers on the typical boiler-room list, finally, the dirt.

Chucked Their Weight Around

THE DIRT was a collection of more than 400 names of union officers who dug into their treasuries

their unions. which, of course, need no advertisement

weight around as big shots. They wanted to show off

| to the rest of the mob and impress their names on |

the employers who had thought it prudent to buy a

| little useless space for good-will purposes, and get

their pictures into print. They are the dumbest apes. | I know a cop who makes a specialty of keeping in touch with the baboons in the dirty shakedown | uniens, big and little, and I loaned him my copy because the special gala Labor day number seems to have been a limited edition and copies were hard to get. That cop like to went crazy over my weasure. | There, in cold print, were the full. official lists of | officers of unions that most people never even heard | of and even pictures of old friends with records and others without official police records whose prises graphs the cops have been wanting for identification purposes, some of them for three or four years. So | my friend made blow-ups of these little photos and | passed them around. It may be hard to understand but there are so | many unions and the boys are so secretive about many

of work. And it would take goodness knows how many cops how long to gather a roster of ‘he officials with their exact union titles because when anyone comes around asking who is who in this or that racket they ask who wants to know and why and, if the cop gets tough, they call up a lawyer and the lawyer says that Mayor l.a Guardia, that friend of the ! worker, won't leave them cops do that way to us | tighters for the toilers’ rights and maybe you neve: |

AND HERE the boiler room comes out with more than 400 of them, all with their titles, and patriotic

The Joe Fay mob wes there in all its dignity, including Fay's hodyguard who never, so far as the public or the cops knew before, heid any official position in the shake known as the Operating Engineers. And two smart dummies whose vanity got the best of them when they should have kept under cover and thus revealed themselves under their new names which aren't the same as the names on file in the records, although the features in the pictures indubitably are the same handsome, intelligent, spiritual countenances, that are recorded, front view and side, in the art gelleries of the police department and the

FBI. You have no idea what a labor-saving devicg this gala edition was. : My friend the cop inquired around among the big shots of the A. F. of L. and the C. I. O. whether this boiler room really had any official status in “labor” and they all said hell no, it was just a wey of making some dough and no great harm one way or another, although an employer wanting to keep out of union trouble or a sensitive saloonist hoping to drum up a little business among the rank and file couldn't be exvected to know this and might want to buy into a limited gala Labor day edition just by way of insurance or investment.

We the People

By Ruth Millett

THREE hundred girls who have | been acting as hostesses in the service men’s centers in Chicago recently were dismissed to make room for that many more girls taken from a waiting list of 10,000. A group of the girls who were dismissed held mass meetings to protest. The chairman of the veteran hostesses based their complaint on the fact that they knew better how to handle men than do girls without hostess experience. The girls on the waiting list could point out, and have logic on their side, that there ought to be a turnover in the hostess ranks at specific times. For instance, a girl might serve as a hostess for six months and then be “retired”—giving her place to a newcomer. If the lingo has to be military, then the centers could call each dance or party a “mission,” and take the girls off active duty after a certain number of “missions.” That way every girl qualified could get a chance to learn how to get along with all types of men—as the veteran hostesses say they have learned to do.

Good Experience

THAT WOULD make the service centers good for the girls as well as for the men. Because learning how to get along with a variety of men is a good experience for any girl. She'll understand her own husband better (maybe too well, from his point of view) if she has had a chance to get acquainted with a number of men. ' Also, it probably isn't good for the girls to go on too long as popular, sought-after hostesses. Giving them vacations will remind them that such popularity

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Only as Strong as Its Weakest Link!

SATURDAY, JULY 17, 1943 |

Our Hoosiers By Daniel M. Kidney

WASHINGTON, July 17.—Former Democratic Rep. Samuel B. Pettengill of South Bend is tf author of a pamphlet against wal contract renegotiation which is) being distributed by the National Small Business Men's association, Inc. Title of the pamphlet is “A Shorter War for Billions Less!” In it the able Mr. Pettengill seeks to prove that the millions saved through contract renegotiation are “paper profits” and that adequate taxes woud be more beneficial to the government. a He also charges that the threat of renegotiatidy increases production costs and discourages efficiency. There may have been a time at the beginning of the war when renegotiation was useful, but it now is “legally obsolescent,” Mr. Pettengill maintains. Regardless of divergent views on renegotiation, everyone can find something to indorse in the well written foreword of the author. Here are,some ex= cerpts from it: “Many people say ‘I don't care what the war costs!” It is a thoughtless statement. Money is only the other name for man-hours, munitions, materiel— guns, planes, ships, gas, copper, iron, coal steel. “Money is also the other name for taxes, debt, flation—even repudiation and chaos. ‘Dictators a the receivers of bankrupt republics.’

'Plan for Long, Cruel War'

“PRUDENCE and patriotism require us to plan for a long, cruel war, lasting from two to five years, or longer. They require us to be able to mainta the pressure during the last quarter hour when wars are won, whenever that clock strikes. “The president has asked leave to spend $109,000.-

000,000 during the next fiscal year. He asks also~ffor $16,000,000,000 more of taxes, or forced savings. “It is obvious that if the cost were reduced to £93.000,000,000, we could omit the 16 additional billions of tax, and the debt at the end of the year would be no more than Mr. Roosevelt proposes. “Or, spending $93,000,000,000, and taxing $16,000,-

000,000. the debt would be $16,000,000,000 less than the

| president forecasts—a smaller debt for our soldiers | to pay when they come home and for their children’s

I wholly defend to

The Hoosier Forum

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

“WHISTLES AND SIRENS KEPT PEOPLE PUZZLED” By James X. Walton, Indianapolis The blackout staged in Indianapolis seemed very confusing in that it was inverted relative to the many alarms which sounded. I happened to be in Irvington the time the festivities began, and the first siren was very weak and carried on by itself for some time.

of them that a roster like this 1s equivalent to weeks | After a few minutes more “noise-

makers” blended in, but still in a weak and sluggish manner. On the street where I was situated was a partially deaf woman | who still had visible lights on after | the alarms had sounded. A pascing| air raid warden approached the | house to learn why they had not! been extinguished, and the lady reported she knew nothing of the incident. | The chief factor in my criticism ! is to sound the alarms in unison | and very loud for the original alert. This would enable all to detect the | sound and act accordingly. The! “all clear” should be sounded on the same basis. There were so many whistles and | sirens blowing at different intervals | in this area that the people concerned were puzzled as to whether ‘0 turn on the lights again after the supposedly “all clear” signal had sounded. In summarizing, the mock raid | was confusing because of its weak | and varied alarms, but on the whole, the people in this district responded to the fullest extent, | ” ” » “AWAKEN! READ AND HEED PEGLER” By Mrs. M. R. Johnson, Manor ave. Among the numerous good col- | umnists and news commentators! which are really good, all of them, | the one who stands out foremost in | my unbiased opinion is Westbrook | Pegler. The clearness and truthfulness he employs in presenting facts . . . are |

2923 Forrest |

| Use

| must also admit that A. Lincoln | [was of the masses, an uncouth, | homely backwoodsman who, se-| lected by the great masses and ‘classes, ruled the United States by the humble grace of God during the most critical time in our past | history. | | So much are we opposed to a [monarchy or a ruler succeeding | himself or picking his successor that (we of the wondering and truewhy they say “His column should | thinking kind are groping almost be left blank!” | desperately for a man who will be All those ill-wishers working able to fill the shoes of our almost

(Times readers are invited to their these columns, religious con-

express views in

troversies excluded. Because of the volume received, let: ters must be limited to 250 words. Letters must be signed.)

children to pay—Iless inflation, less chance of repudiation. Sixteen billions is more than we reduced the debt in the 1920's.”

'Means $7000 Mortgage’

“SIXTEEN BILLION of taxes is 50 per cent mor: | than present levels. It will be felt at every hearthside, whether in taxes, debt or inflation. “Spent this year, it can't be used thereafter. same water will not turn the mill wheel twice. “One again we should remind ourselves that 16 billion dollars is iron, steel, copper, hours of work. “One hundred nine billion dollars is more than all

the nations in the world will spend in war ‘next year, friend and foe together. It is three times use

The

five times German, and 14 times Japan. Of course, $n munitions the proportion is not so great because lower money costs in those countries. But it is more than federal treasuries paid out during 150 years of our naton'’s life. “The figures themselves should shock us out of our reckless, war-drunk mood. . . , “We on the home front owe something to opr soldier-sons. A $210 billion debt means a $7000 mort-,

against our freedom should be] indispensable commander - in-chief quickly deported amongst the Japs and president, Franklin D. Rooseand Huns, where we could fight velt, them in a “fair field with no favor.”| Never in the history of our reOn such frue, valiant patriots as public has a man of the people Pegler depend the hope of redeem-|peen so whole-heartedly and unan- | ing our almost lost free republic, | imously approved of. Why? He| which has, for the last 10 years, | has just got something that nobody gradually, under intriguing acts,|else has got. He is fearless in say- | deeds, and oily tongued chats, been ing and doing what he believes to slipping away from us. | be right. Awaken, rosy dreamers! Read and| Ang despite the scandal-mongers, heed Pegler! Don’t be lulled to|yijlifiers and mud-slingers who are sleep. . . . Keep our republic free||yjno about him and destroying the ere it eludes our grasp everlastingly. confidence of the public who trust

The people are the government! | pin, is there any honest man or your votes, people, to down

treason, dictatorships and tyranny! man fit to fill his shoes?

: #4 # “WE CAN DEPEND ON JUSTICE OF MASS OPINION” By T. McGuire, 1105 W. 28th st.

In all humility we must realize that the welfare of nations depends first of all on an all-wise master of destiny. Believing as we must in the faith of our founders who built our nation on a foundation of human freedom and brotherly love, we must look deeply into our own motives and find honestly and truly whether or not our patriotism is of the lip and profession type, selfish and deceitful, or is it of the grain in our character bred in us by generations of true patriots whose every act and word was for the better good of their family, their home and their state. Today in our land there is a determined effort of classes to rule,

at home or in the armed service

performance of our duties. Last time, I had a job to do in the Rif | service with the American people steady at the home plate for us. | We brought in the runs that beat | Kaiser Bill. This time I am one of those in the stand behind the home plate and know that our navy and our army are hitting the ball and scoring the runs because the people in the grandstand and on the bleachers are whole-heartedly and unselfishly out for them to win another victory, the final victory. In 1918 and 1919 a bunch of rats in our land gathered the victors’ spoils, feathered their nests with our money, won by blood and sweat (on the battlefield and at home. Can we say no to these self-seeking

group of men who can select al We who serve Uncle Sam either

must be honest and faithful in the |

gage on the average, on their future homes.”

In Washington

By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, July 17.—When the Communists crawled into bed with Boss Frank Hague of New Jersey the other day, their real inside political strategy was said , privately to have been determined by these motives: Governor Edison of New Jersey was fighting Hague. That threatened a split in the Democratic party for next year, giving the Republicans a chance to carry the state in a clean sweep, defeating Democratic Congresswoman Mary Norton of Bayonne, now chairman of the house committee on labor and decidedly er—liberal in her views. Rather than have that happen and give the whole state delegation in congress over to ultra conservatives like New Jersey's Senator Albert W. Hawkes, ex-president of the U. 8. Chamber of Commerce, the commies figured they might freeze out the Democratic element behind Edison and solidify the state machine behind Roosevelt, Hague and Norton. xX

Bobble on the Beef Front

WAR FOOD Administrator Marvin Jones’ first official order on his new job was a routine matter, citing one Roland Mason of Houston, Tex. doing business as the Houston Cattle company, for having

quite unwholesome to the class which | ignoring and arrogantly trampling is hand-in-glove with the treachery, |under foot the masses. Looking at treason and undercover meanness| things intelligently it is plain to be which he exposes and which are|seen that the masses have not the used . . . to do away with our|education, the position nor the liberties and free republic. This is! ability to govern a nation. But we

politicians who are already planning to control our reconstruction | days after the war by dictating a (class rule and a mass slavery using [money made by cheating Uncle | Sam in war contracts? Even as the

isn't normal in a girl's life. That it is just a

Side Glances—By Galbraith

| soldier is alert on duty and vigilant because of the foe, we must remember that eternal vigilance is the

!_COPR. 1943 8Y NEA SERVICE. INC. I. M. REC. U. 8. PAT. OFF.

"This withholding tax is going to make our budget much easier— we don't have to find ajplace to put that $2.50 we

price of freedom. Next year our government will not fail to pick a worthy leader because we can always depend on the justice of mass vote &nd opinion.

# 8 2 “A RELIEF TO TURN TO SECOND SECTION” By Wm. A. Frise, Indianapolis It was certainly a relief to turn to the second section of your paper and not have to look at Eleanor's picture. I am like a great many of your

readers who are really fed up with her, . ..,

# #8 “NEED SEVERAL HUNDRED LIKE DUNWOODY”

By G. A. Stark, Indianapolis

As to smoking in our city streetcars, hats off to Police Officer Dunwoody, who caused the arrest of eight air-polluters. Indianapolis needs several hundred officers like Dunwoody. May God bless us with a million Carrie Nations; then the nonsmoker could breathe fresh air into his lungs and no poison.

DAILY THOUGHTS

For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; His countenance doth behold the upright.—Psalms n1

a THE German way is the discipline of fear; ours is the discipline of faith—and faith will pt

ton fight for power and not a struggle

slaughtered 183,000 pounds of beef in April, when its quota was only 44,000 pounds. It was one of those simple affairs, probably prepared by some underling far down the line in WFA’s legal depart. ment, and shoved at the new administrator to sig: as one of those things that was okay. This one, however, had a kickback in it that the judge didn't see. Down near the end of the order was a preamble reading, “Because of the great scarcity of livestock for the fulfillment of meat requirements of the United States,” and so on. Texas Con gressman Dick Kleeberg, of King Ranch fame, spotted this in the official federal register. Scarcity of livestock? Meat animals were busting out the fences all over the country. Kleeberg reached for his phone and got Judge Jones to ask him if he knew what he had signed. Redder than usual in the face, he hag to admit he hadn't known that phrase was in the order. It was corrected, quick.

Build Up Wallace-Jones Tiff

A RATHER conscious but strained effort is being made by backers of both Vice President Henry A. Wallace and Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones to build up their recent tiff into a preliminary bout for the coming economic battle of the century. Jones is thus pictured as the symbol of conservative business, freedom of enterprise, traditional American wg of life. Wallace is billed as champion of the ray and the new order, with co-operatives, planned economy and all the other New Deal ideas which conservatives condemn as state socialism. ac

Jones’ supporters back their man as the last bulwark of democracy—if he is scuttled, all is lost. As a matter of fact, Uncle Jesse Jones is the one man in the government whom the younger intellectuals in government have picked out to hate most. But. Henry Wallace may have been inspired to delive his blast because he felt his board of econon it! warfare wasn't getting enough support from the

| White House, particularly the new east wing mk -

Wallace might have blasted at Jones public. ve

Just to get the fight out in the open and line { the White #louse behind and in support of his idea. On that basis, this is just another intra-administra.