Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 October 1943 — Page 20

Cae Lion

and the People Will Find Their Own Way

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«can search the annals of Indianapolis in vain for an ‘ineident more sordid and shameful than the preying on

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«~ of vice control” that Noble Reed revealed this week. Words “ean hardly express the disgust any decent American must _ feel for the practice these victims describe. And it is a practice—not an isolated mistake. It has pecurred again and again and again. It could happen this evening to the wife, or: the sister or the daughter of any of us. ; : In fairness to the policemen involved, it must be pointed _ out that no evidence points to their participation in the cash shakedown. They have been under heavy pressure from military authorities to “clean up” the city where “ large numbers of soldiers spend their free hours. Their. ~ greatest error seems to be their insistence on continuing a method of arrest which the prosecutor and the higher courts of the county unanimously declare is illegal,’ and in extremely faulty judgment in making some of these arrests.

» 4 THESE young women, some of them daughters of some | of the finest families in Indiana, many of them employed | at responsible jobs, have uniformly been booked at police headquarters as “vagrants.” The charge of vagrancy in these cases is phony and fraudulent—but it has been used for years by the police as a convenient catch-all to hold temporarily any individual against whom they have no evidence of crime. These girls never are given a court hearing at all, but “records” implying that they are prosti- | tutes remain in the police files, a permanent blot against the | reputation of unfortunate victims against whom no single shred of evidence of any offense ever is produced. Municipal Judge McNelis today issued a statement | denying any improper procedure in his court in connection with the cases. It appears elsewhere in this edition. It in no way changes the fact that young girls were “' jllegally arrested, illegally held in jail, shaken down by bondsmen and lawyers for needless fees, branded for life

"innocent and respectable young women under the pretext! mes to

Gen. Marshall was a protege, a devoted friend of, Gen. John J. Pershing, who'undoubtedly takes great pride in the advancement and success of a man who went to France with the 1st -division.as a captain. It is not belittling Pershing, either, to say that he would not have made a distinguished president, whereas probably would, Gen. Marshall is a more rounded man and, whereas Gen. Pershing withdrew and called it a full career after his war. 5 The present chief of staff is still developing or growing at 63 years and seems to have plenty of margin over his job of managing one of the greatest armies in all history whose development, it must be remembered, is largely his doing.

Knows World Better Than Willkie

HE COERTAINLY knows the world as well as any other American, including the president, and much betiar- than Wendell Willkie, and I believe that, remembering Gen. Pershing’s stubborn and sucecessfub fight to keep the American army together

The Hoosier Forum

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

in France, he would not be tempted to give “any other nation any advantage in relations after the war but would nevertheless try earnestly to get along with the rest of the world. He is without guile but not naive and can be as hard as need be in circumstances calling for determination.” Nobody who. knows him can fancy his engaging in heckling or dangerous repartee in international relations or any other serious business of the presidency, and I am tempted to compare him with Washington in his character and, of course, in his patriotism, You just can't picture him with a Tommy-the-Cork for a house pet: y

in police records, ordered confined without trials or without any bona fide charge of law violation.. The city is entitled to know who is responsible for these practices. Safety Board Chairman Remy, Prosecutor Blue and | the Indianapolis Bar association are to be commended for | their prompt moves toward thorough investigation. If | only a fraction of the practices charged are proved there |

is ample ground for action by all three. :

OUR ‘CRITICAL’ LABOR SHORTAGE HE WMC order to place all Indianapolis workers on a 48- | hour week is the least important of the *‘directives” | with which WMC implements its ruling that this city is in an area of the most critical labor shortage. Something more than 95 per cent of all workers en- | in war production here already are working 48 hours | a week, or more. The five per cent who are not usually | cannot be productively employed for longer than their | present hours because of the nature of their work. So in war plants it will mean little or no change. rt The theory that.a compulsory 48-hour week in indus- | “tries not engaged in direct war production will release | some men who will then get jobs in direct war industry, | never has been shown to have the slightest foundation.

manufacturers is far more important, both to Indianapolis and to the nation's war effort. Contracts may be reshaped at the big war plants—but, of course, they canDot be withdrawn. Where else would the air forces get dAllison engines but at Allison's? But cancellations and “transfer of contracts from smaller war plants, and plants jo=that are making parts for other factories to use in direct ' war production can only mean waste, inefficiency and delay to the armed forces. And it may very well mean ruin for some of the factories, upon which this city depends so heavily for permanent, post-war production.

‘ The community's basic industrial structure remains in danger every day that this order continues in effect. The | program outlined this week by George Kuhn, president of | - the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce to make fullest | use of the workers available is a sound and practical one. | With a concerted effort along this line it should be possible soon to convince the war manpower commission that Indianapolis does not face a truly critical shortage of labor,

- and that this restrictive and wasteful order should be re- . scinded.

OEE A J

GET READY NOW

8’ REPRESENTATIVES ‘of business, labor and agriculture oC in-the National Planning association urge President Roosevelt to appoint at once a commission and an adminstrats to oversee and co-ordinate government policies industrial reconversion after the war. nat seems a sound idea. Whether industry can swing "Ito high. production of civilian goods and provide mob) Bed fighting men and war workers will [LEY “On: H

ty on the answers to such questions as these: romptly will the government free private worktied up in nearly 75 billion dollars of war con-

ir plants? With huge sur-

"VWITHDRAWAL of war contracts from Indianapolis | £8

It has seemed to me that those who have been talking up Gen. MacArthur have thought of him

| mainly as a candidate, considering - his possible

strength at the polls, which I believe is overestimated, but haven't thought him through four years of office. He is a stylish and eve-filling figure and a good soldier hut a little too temperamental and personally ambitious. E ho

Does MacArthur Wear a Plume?

OF COURSE, Gen. Marshall, too, is ambitious but he never was pushful, if you get the distinction, He

wears his cap straight, but Gen. MacArthur's best. |

known picture rather intimates that he wants his to look like a plume. Call it personality if you like, but whatever it is, it is important. Well, I suppose nothing will come of this until 1048, at the earliest, but there we have in Washington one of the ablest men in the country with many qualifications for the presidency and it would be a good idea to start adding him up. He glows with character and, although he may never have given a thought to the presidency he has never yet found & job too big for him and wouldn't flinch if he thought the country needed him,

N We the People By Ruth Millett

tos ~+ OZZIE 8T. GEORGE of Simpson, Minn-now Cpl. T. R. St. George, somewhere in Australia— saw the funny side of army life and made a book out of it. Confronted with the fact that her son had written a best seller, “Care of Postmaster,” his mother said truthfully, “Richard was always funny that way. Never serious,’ And we were troubled about him: . , I couldn't help worrying, y especially when one of his pranks finally gat him expelled from college. I don’t know what I would have done if he hadn't been coming up to draft age, anyway.” Mrs. St. George's confession ought to be good news to a lot of parents, who have seen their kids go off to war before they were settled, steady men. Not that all of them are going to write best-sellers and become rich and famous,

See Funny Side

BUT. THEIR ability to take life lightly, to see the funny side of things, to have fun wherever they are is Soing to help them keep sane and reasonably army.

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“I CONGRATULATE OFFICER DUNWOODY” ; By A Daily Reader of The Times, Greencastle

I read what Mr. Gasper wrote about Officer Dunwoody the other day and ¥ would like to present the other side of the picture about

smokers on streetcars, I think smoking is all right in its

your face—I think it's disgusting. could very well wait until t off the streetcar to light I think they would be betmore ways than one to or two less cigarets a day

would like to congratulate OffiDunwoody on his campaign against ‘these smokers and say— more power to Dunwoody

o 8

SER. “WORKERS WILL SMOKE -—LIKE IT OR NOT” By Edith G. Neal, 025 Woodrow Ave.

I am very interested in the article, “Excessive Penalties for Minor Infractions,” by James Stonehouse and the retaliations of Mr. R. J. Clark and the unknown Voice In The Crowd. It seems to me that the main issue of Mr. Stonehouse’s article was not that Allison workers be allowed to work with one hand and smoke with the other, but that something be done about the man hours being lost, The fact remains that war workers want to smoke and are going to, whether Allison officials like it or not. Note to Mr. R. J. Clark: Ernie Pyle has seen to it that the boys on Guadalcanal -and other battlefields have smokes. Perhaps Mr. Clark would like to send the ash trays over himself, .As for the statement that “no smoking” has been a rule at Alllson's for a long time (Voice In the Crowd), smoking was permitted at Allison's until December, 1041. Article I of the Bill of Rights states that freedom of speech shall not be abridged. What has happened to Mr. Stonehouse since his article

(Times readers are invited to 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, end 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 correspondence regarding them.)

appeared in the Hoosier Forum? I haven't seen him around the plant lately. > os It has been proved in other defense plants that smokers who are allowed to smoke at work have much better morale, they work faster, more cheerfully and really are worth more to the company, As Mr, Van Zandt said (in his article on Oct. 14), if workers did not have to go to the lavatory to smoke, there would be no reason for loafThe workers at Allison's are as

anxious to get this war over success-|

fully as soon as possible. I myself work at Allison plant 5 on the swing shift and attend college in the mornings. : The . majority of the people are willing to do more than their share to get this bloodshed over. All we at Allison's are asking is the right that has been given to workers in numerous other plants in Indianapolis, the right to smoke. No one knows what a smoke means in a period of tension better than men who have seen active service. Mr. Clark stated that he bet Mr. Stonehouse received a medal from the army officials when they saw

are being lost is as good as an admission of guilt. One of the fundamentaal foundations democ-

Side Glances=By Galbraith

" |know.” Thus Westbrook Pegler con-

'| wounded in the war and I think he had a right to ask the bootblack not to be rough with his leg with which he just got out of hospital. FEL 1 don't think we should bow down to white folks but I feel we should be polite to them and especially not to get sassy to an old white officer just right so that the black

government, central or local, that is detrimental to the bettérment of his country’s cause, it is his right to bring that fact before the public, so that something can be done about it. Ne ” ” ®

“THANKS, PEG, BUT WE NEEED NO SYMPATHY” By Subhuman Member, Indianapolis “There are a lot of things about unions that most people don’t

cludes his daily tirade against unjonism of Saturday, October 16. He

might have added that if most|’

people wanted to know anything

good about unions, such information|: could never be obtained by the|™

reading of his dispatches. Pegler's sympathy for the poor, stupid and ignorant rank and file} union member is touching indeed. Thanks, Peg, but we don’t need your sympathy, I have been a

member for a number of years and]

know for a fact that ‘the benefits 1 enjoy as a member far exceed the initiation fee and small monthly dues paid. My rights as an American citizen have never been tampered with or questioned in any way whatsoever. My relations with my employer are as pleasant as before

not a Pegler hater. I am not blind to the evils of unionism. I -readily

admit that by exposing them to the|

public these evils may sooner be done away with, But why not be “fair enough” to give credit where credit is due for the sake of variety, if for no other reason. Raymond Clapper is an example of a truly “fair enough” writer, . s = ” “POOR ADVICE CAUSES

TROUBLE FOR NEGROES”

‘| tional socialism.” :

Can't Wait Until After War “WE OUGHT to remind ourselves that if we

lems, there simply will not be any planning. “Administration thinkers have already tossed: ir

He then urged the committee and the house t examine this program and concluded: Among the proposals now before the comm are the Towrszend plan and the general welfare plan both specificaily presented in the interest of ou 5. 8 grotp in no adequate way now protected or ‘benefited. 1 “If all the glowing promises to the common man which this administration has given in the past 10° years are anything more than hollow mockeries,’ why should we not at least hear and consider the claims of the: worthy citizens? 3

Victims of High Living Costs | “IP WE OWE them any consideration and assist ance at all, we certainly owe it to them immediately.

“Remember that they must depend upon fixed incomes which in most cases provide little more than | bare subsistence even in normal! times. Mounting

purchasing power off their dollars, and they have ne’ chance to supplément thelr incomés to make up| this loss they Lave sufferéd. - J “In simple justice, therefore, I urge that we at least give sympathetic consideration to these people, and to othcr similarly harassed groups who have come to us-asking attention to their problems and

suggestions. “I urgently request the ways and means commits

In Washington

By Peter Edson

APPEARANCE of the name of

Thomas J. Watson of Interna~ tional Business Machines. - Hawley is sole owner of his company, Which himself this salary for his own services. This is interesting because it is recalled about a year ago, when the pushing its $25,000-a-year salary | sent a long wire to the president, saying in effect that $25,000 a year was all anyone | could use and that he, Hawley, was all for the presi-

himself $15,000 a year. Then he raised it to $35,000 a year, and the most he ever paid himself before he got into war contracting on a really big scale was $40,000 a year. His pre-war business was making fire

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{to white folk may bring some of us colored folks who do not!

As many of us in this congress have pointed out? repeatedly, they as a group are the first and most seriously injured victims of skyrocketing living costs =

prices have already lopped at least one-third of the J

~still, the department was insistent that Mr. Hawley, |

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