Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 October 1943 — Page 10

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WANTED: MORE WAR NEWS Ls THE high commands of the army and navy must be . "aware of the necessity of keeping the public informed {about the war. Otherwise, why. would they maintain such L elaborate public relations machines, staffed by innumer-)| she : ) ; " A ; y i A % ” \ ; " “And yet, the press has the devil's own time prying appalling 2, , , \ Eis & important information out of the services. So does the es i . {office of war information, even though it is backed up by | President Roosevelt's executive order and by his recent "letters to the army and navy urging more co-operation with OWL ; : E- Only a few weeks ago Nicholas Roosevelt threw up his ® job as OWI's liaison officer with the services, on fue ¢ ground that his efforts to extract information from the \ army and navy amounted to just so much butting of his United Sides Seay. hie a

| against a stone wall, sweat of everyone who toils and heat 2 " ostensibly to pay only legitimate and necessary . 5» s 8 &

of the war, There is no obligation reduced . | but there is an implied admission in SINCE then we have been treated to a remarkable under promise to pay & couple of other fellows lining of the reticence of the high commands—the re- | junket was Bok underiaten Ju: ihe Julie. tn woh, | L d > te : N tra te interest |’ cent Winston Churchill speech revealing item after item | ;° Fo8 T° = I Remmi ‘of big news that our own generals and admirals—and the | his own costs.

a She ox : : 4 It would appear that Mrs. Roosevelt became a president—apparently had judged too important to be fleld service worker of the Red Cross only for the

entrusted to the public. | purpose and duration of this trip and, in that case, : ’. : i it would be the Red Cross which conferred a favor So the report of OWI's newspaper advisory committee B woud ig Birgadipnd in wrt

—a group of prominent editors—is timely and important. | of 4 degree of public confidence in the organization In the judgment of this committee, the people “are not | under the management of the president's political being adequately informed about the war. If there is any | house pet. Norman H. Davis. complacency or letdown in the war effort on the part of | Bad for Red Cross . the American people, it is not due to any lack of patriotism * or desire for easy victory, but rather to the absence of full wy ACR mr a ae necessary understanding.” And the editors blame “the | cate political situation surrounding Gen. Douglas “BRITISH SEEM TO BE

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wise, he asked ‘What is to happen to the large ber of small nations whose rights and interests mv be safeguarded?” 3

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- ° 2 : i ~The Hoosier Forum 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

great powers, there should be a number of grouping ; of states or confederations which would

(Times readers are invited

2 “; because he attended his son's wedding at Camp Wheeler.

disinclination on the part of some high naval and military authorities to evaluate what is information to which the public is entitled.” : Of course Gen. Marshall and Adm. King can’t do their war planning in a glass house wired for sound, but they will be serving the best interests of the war if they pay serious attention to this friendly counsel.

§ A COURT TURNS CENSOR °° ; | ARLY this summer the young editor of a Maryland weekly newspaper—Rives Matthews of the Somerset . News, published at Princess Anne, Md.—printed an | interesting story. It said that J. Millard Tawes, Maryland [state comptroller, had made a 2000-mile auto trip to Georgia | and back, to visit his son, in spite of the gasoline restrictions. bo : Mr. Tawes’ local ration board called a hearing, and I | quickly gave him a clean bill; the trip, it ruled, was justified

A day or two later the young editor was arrested on a charge of criminal libel. : And now comes word that, in Matthews’ absence, the case has been suddenly and curiously disposed of, with a court putting him on “technical probation,” whatever that is. His attorneys, says a dispatch, had agreed to advise the editor not to publish any more articles of the sort that ¢ started all the trouble. Meanwhile the indictment con- = . tinues to hang over his head—ready to invoke if he doesn’t . “behave.” t . Matthews, we are glad to see, denies having any truck

‘with such a deal. “This is the worst type of censorship,” | day

he says—and of course he is right. “I would rather be con-

| tics, and that is bad not only for the Red Cross

tiently the rationing of gasoline, illustrated his ples |

‘Roosevelt traveled by “automobile In Australia and

MacArthur, the Red Cross, by the connivance at a “pretext, has permitted itself to be drawn into poli-

but for those who, in the end, look to the Red Cross for its services. In a speech a few months ago, President Roosevelt, counseling the people at home to endure pa-

with the information that a Flying Fortress consumed 1110 gallons of gasoline in a bombardment mission of about 700 miles from North Africa, the equivalent of about 375 A ration units and “enough to drive your car five times across the continent.” On this basis, Mrs. Roosevelt, in a flight of 26,000 miles, consumed 41,070 gallons, representing 130,875 A coupons, and 185 trips in your car cross this con= tinent. - Moreover, in the fragmentary developments of the stery, it has now been disclosed that the plane had-been remodeled inside and fitted with seats and a bed.

New Zealand, using fuel imported, every single 3 over vast stretches of perilous ocean in tankers, and is always attended on her journeys by other hauling the official retinue and the sightseers. many times at home even when citizens of good conscience were willingly denying themselves all unnecessary mileage, :

Political Propaganda .

THE INTERFERENCE with the work of the busy generals, admirals and other officers fighting a war undoubtedly was real and seriously detrimental, but of course, it is not measurable, and no officer could admit that his work has been impeded without abandoning all hopes of promotion. Mention of the 23,000 feet of film suggests that when the fourth term campaign really warms up the American taxpayers and bond buyers will discover that they have paid for just that much political da, fed to them as tonic’ for their morale. A civilian can't buy a 50-foot spool of film these

od . Pat Robinson, the INS correspondent at Guad-

SHORT OF FOODS”

By Clviticus, Andersen. Despite, lend-lease, the British seem to be short of foods and other essential commodities as is evidenced by citizens’ opinions voiced through readers’ letters to the London Sunday Express: “#, . . the crasy sentimentalism of supplying food and goods we need so much ourselves to our enemies when they surrender. Let the Ital-

to hew coal for their own country— and send Italy precisely what quant. ity they dig.” : “The corn waves gold and red ~ ‘O'er every English down, Hurrah! the Huns may have white While we are eating brown!"

British, Charity begins at home.”

“If Germany or Italy won the war would they send us food or coal?”

“Why must children of Europe

“DANGER OF WARTIME TRAFFIC COMES CLOSE” By Walter L. Hess, LL 2544 N.

ian prisoners be put down the mines|

fo express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Because of the volume received, letters should be limited to 250 words. Letters must be signed. « Opinions set forth here are those of the writers, and publication in no way implies agreement with those

“opinions by The Times. The * Times assumes no responsi-

bility for the return of manuscripts and cannot enter core

National security and economis security go

“respondence regarding them)

‘encircle- -| ments.” Some such grouping seems indispensable

the economic life of some of Europe’s smaller

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: ” “y 3 : lcanal, te that Mrs. Roosevelt kissed her radical victed,” he adds. “I intend to fight this through to the | Diicai ‘protege, the inveterate professional youth end. of rising 30 summers, Joe Lash, for whom strenuous United States Senators Langer of North Dakota, | ®fforts were made to shiain $ Jyee commission in Willis of Indiana, and Capper of Kansas have organized a the navy, now a sergeant army. 2 Robinson also said he asked Pvt, Martin ‘Bazar, committee to see that Matthews gets justice. The Ameri- | of Po R. I, how he felt about being visited § can Newspaper Publishers’ association and other groups |bY the president's wife, and that Basar replied, “I'd : are actively interested. . If the clever little “technical pro- Suite 9 Visited hd ny ow 1 bation” trick frustrates their plans, perhaps the voters of the “free state of Maryland” will eventually have oppor- i tunity to pass judgment on an affair that must offend the We t e Peop e t state pride for which they are celebrated. % : By Ruth Millett

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to perfection, even among our wisest men in govern- :

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It is easy to understand that if they fix the price

of potatoes too low, the farmer won't grow any. Or, retail margin is too low, the merchant won't

i: ‘SEEMS WE'VE HEARD THIS TUNE BEFORE HILER, Forts a Swedish newspaper, has gone to the Russian front and proclaimed to his generals that the Dnieper Set Hoa line must be held. : I am and here I shall remain,” the fuehre * nounced, according to this account. : - 3 the fuehrer is 5o Joe accurate this time than in utterances of the past, the Russian ar ¥ bother to put on the brakes. ashy Sewlnty

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“The year 1941 will bring consumma- | victory in our history.” : “Russia is already broken and will

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. “When summer comes nothin g D stop the German advance.” wil

is a particularly choice one, the reference

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. 80, 1942: “You can be of the firm conviction In, I bein, shall ever push us away from that|