Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 December 1943 — Page 8

THE JAPS DIDN'T GET THROUGH ' TOOK a lot of Japs to get Butch O'Hare. _ The nation’s greatest naval air hero, who early-in the war saved his carrier, and possibly his country, by blasting single-handed five out of a formation of six Jap planes, was shot down Nov. 27 while leading his carrier fighter squadron in a furious twilight dogfight with more than 30 torpedo bombers in the mid-Pacific. There is only a slim chance ‘that he may have survived. FG If he is dead, Butch O'Hare met death on the wings of courage. If he is dead, he died because he never was one to count the odds. As an air group commander, it was his job to assign fighters to make the tricky night flight to beat off the swarm of attackers which menaced his carrier. It was not his job to lead an almost-suicidal mission. But Butch O'Hare was never one to ask men to undertake anything he wouldn't do himself. And besides it was going to be a good scrap and the Japs heavily outnumbered the navy fliers. So Butch led the way. Butch didn’t come back, but the bombers did not get through. And Butch went out, as he had lived, fighting against odds, and fighting for his home and country. And it's safe to guess that Butch took some Japs with him and

faced death unafraid. ‘He was that kind of a guy.

THE HERITAGE OF 127 YEARS

: ONE HUNDRED and twenty-seven years ago today, on Dee. 11, 1816, Indiana was admitted to the Union as the nation’s 19th state. In terms of history, 127 years is relatively a short span; in terms of progress and development, 127 years has had a long reach. Res The Indiana which marks its birthday today is far different from the Indiana that celebrated its new statehood 127 years ago. The state then was largely an unpeopled wilderness, where the forest grew in such profusion that an English traveler of that period observed, “It is seldom that a view of 200 yards in extent can be caught in Indiana.” Its citizens lived in scattered clearings and settlements, and its capital, the little hamlet of Corydon, had less than 100 ~ buildings—rude cabins and houses of hewn logs—when the first session of the legislature assembled. Indianapolis, which was mot settled until three years later, was still amalarial and swampy forest where Fall Creek and White river joined. Those who came to Indiana to live in those days had to “make their homes” here, in the most literal and ~ rigorous sense. But make them they did, and they built soundly and well. : _ Those who founded Indiana were plain, humble people, mostly struggling farmers with a sprinkling of tradesmen and artisans in the older towns along the Ohio river. But : these simple folk had faith and vision and courage. They had the liberal spirit which made the Indiana. constitution the first to recognize a state's obligation to educate its youth. And they had strong hands and an unbounded

willingness to work. : The land and the forests of the new state were teeming with fertility and resources, but its supreme wealth was, and is, its people. It was their industry and perseverance, their vision and their courage that has made the state great. And it is this same vision and courage which will lead Indiana to new heights and vaster accomplishment in the uncharted years ahead. ’ : : Ours is a noble heritage; ours an enduring responsibility. Et

AN AFTERNOON OF REVERENCE HERE is an intimate, and sublime, association between ~ religion and music. From the time of the Psalmist and the angel choir which brought tidings of great joy to shep- _ herds in the Judean hills, song has best expressed the : mountain moments of the human spirit, has best voiced its ¥ kinship with the Infinite, ; ‘The Christmas season is the greatest religious festival of Christendom and, in reverence to One who was born to . Save a troubled world, the Indianapolis Symphony orchestra, under the direction of Fabien Sevitzky, will present Handel's “Messiah” in the second of its municipal concerts in Cadle rn tomorrow afternoon. Assisting in the perpance of this masterpiece of religious music will be four 3 and the combined choruses of the Indianapolis

phonic choir, the choral section of the Indianapoli ol : : polis ec and the Indianapolis Maennerchor of the

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words can express the power of the spine-tingling : Chorus,” nor the magnificence of the entire Such music, when interpreted by a full symphony and a chorus of 300 trained voices, must, and

done.

+ Helen's,”

he doesn’t understand that cer-{

"Isn't This the Same Man?’

BUT HAS Stalin changed? Isn't this the same man who conducted blood purges no. less horrifying than Hitler's own, who deported and enslaved masses of his own people and attacked our own old friend, brave little Finland, as we called her then?

doms which America means, is nevertheless a despotism. Joseph E. Davies tampered with and history under government auspices but the damned spots will not out. Is it inopportune, is it disruptive or unpatriotic to remember things about Stalin, that it was his agreement with Hitler which touched off tHe war, or that he stood by and his Communists in Britain and France and here tried to help the Nazi while weak, small nations fell?

No Guarantee of Freedom

THESE CERTAINLY are unappetizing truths, but: I hold that we cannot deceive ourselves however we may try and that the net results of Tehran, as far as we are allowed to know, is that there will be close fighting co-operation, no less for Russia’s benefit than for our own, but no guarantee that the peoples of Europe will enjoy freedom as we know the meaning of the sacred word. The most that can be hoped

| 1s. that they will be given a few generations of peace

under outside protection. I am one of those who said long ago and still insist

| that the difference between Hitler's dictatorship and

Stalin's is merely superficial and I could find corroboration in the old opinions of many men and women who now are squirming in distress of soul as they try to accept the new history of Stalin's rule and the new character that has been created. I believe that for our own good we should face the truth as we know it and accept the fact that the fortunes of war ‘have placed us on the side of one dictator against another who attacked us and would have taken our very life.

Concepts of Freedom Utterly Unlike

OUR CONCEPTS of government of freedom and, property are utterly unlike the Russian but we are not honestly committed-to the destruction of dictatorship and the establishment of freedom everywhere in the world and we should admit this to ourselves. If so, we should be at war with Portugal and some of the South American nations whose friendship we have been trying to buy and, for that matter, even ‘with our ally, China. In the first world war we were willing to fight as an ally of the czar, The very pomp of the meeting in Tehran ‘was out of keeping with American ideals but that we can dismiss as political showmanship intended to impress foe and friend alike. . But there is no need to deceive ourselves regard{ng Stalin, his career and the kind of government that he runs or to gulp down the naive belief that out of Tehran we received any assurance as to the kind of government that will run Europe henceforth,

We The People

“aaa”! YOU CAN'T help wondering, ¢ when you see the way women pass the letters from their servicemen around for anyone to read, just how the men would feel if they knew the letters they wrote to one woman were town property. : Bill writes his mother a brag- * ging, boy-like account of his small . successes, and Bill's mother shows the letter to all her friends. Joe writes his wife a homesick Ley letter, telling how much he misses her and how fed up he is with living in a strange land. His wife takes the letter: to & club meeting and drags it out for all the élub members to read. In one town there is even an organized group of servicemen's wives who get together monthly to pass

| around the letters from their husbands—all overseas.

And though they are all in sympathy with each other, so far as a group of women can be, at each meeting sometiody wonders why somebody's husband wasn't a little more demonstrative in his Jetter. ' And some woman says afterward to a friend, “I'm glad my husband doesn't seem to be having as good a time as

Others Don't Quite Understand : AND SO it goes. The men write their letters to

It doesn’t seem quite fair to the serviceman. Women would understand that if they ever stopped to think how they would feel if their men passed their wives’ letters around to be read by anyone who would take the time to skim through them.

to feel that they don't have to respect their privacy. It's the same kind of reasoning that makes the average civilian think it is all right to ply any strangeer in uniform with a stream of personal from “How do you like the army?" to “How often you write your mother?”

To the Point— °

t the dressing. a : ee . : HE WHOSE laugh lasts is the best sort of

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. .

rdinary times, none of these women would |

® : = : The Hoosier Forum : 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

“FOUR CARS PARKED IN HAZARDOUS LOCATION” By A Citizen, Indianapolis a There are four old cars parked on Kentucky ave. all day long in a most hazardous location, between Senate ave. and West st. mostly

under the viaduct where there are many steel posts and narrow driveways. Traffic is extremely heavy. There's plenty of side streets and parking lots in this neighborhood to park. - . s

“NO PLACE TO.GO? HOW ABOUT CHURCH" By Marge Handy, 400 8. Oxford st.

In answer to the article of Nov. 27, “Give the Younger Generation a Chance:” . Have you really ever gone around and tried wholly to find a good place to have fun? I wonder? I'm a young girl 24. I don’t consider the younger generation as being neglected. You're in your teens, by now you should have some common sense of judgment of things you should and should not do. Do you necessarily have to go somewhere to have a good time? I never found it that way, which hasn't been so many years ago for me. People blame the war for so many things, but they really haven't got a leg to stand on when they say there's no place decent to go to (have fun or enjoy themselves. How about church, and I underline that because if you went once in awhile you'd soon be enjoying life to a far greater extent than evef before. Maybe you shun the church but alter all people will wake up maybe when it's too late. If your whole crowd would gather and go to church there's many activities where mixed groups are together. Also during the week there's always someone’s home you could go to, to dance. If dance halls such as are supplied now aren't suitable to your taste I've had many an éntertaining evening at home with friends and it costs very little. Entertaining in the home isn't oil fashioned. So why not kick back the rugs and have a get together alternating your homes? You'll enjoy it I grant you. So in my estimation you're being treated equally fair. You've a brain, use it and don't feel as if you're not getting the breaks in life; you should be. Be thankful for what you've got and make the best of it. After all our servicemen are going through plain _hell and you quibble over no place to go. Now do you think

[Times readers are invited 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 manu. scripts and cannot enter cor respondence regarding them.)

“LET FUTURE TAKE CARE OF ITSELF” By M. M. H., Indianapolis Well, Mr. Hunter, you broke into print all right and I'l bet that when you read your words they didn’t impress you so much, Pretty thin I'd say. Just the same thing over and over. Something about

war workers making too much money, more than was ever known in history and we don't like it,

“MAKE THE GERMANS RESTORE DAMAGE” By James R. Meitsler; Attics. The Cairo conference announced that Japan would be stripped of all her loot, the territory she annexed freed, and the Japs confined to their native islands. Stalin is said to have demanded that the Germans themselves, by their own labor, be forced to rebuild what they destroyed. This is only common sense and justice. But up pops union labor leader Green opposing this as slavery for German labor. And a news item in

make up softies are still going strong to save the Germans for another

After the Japs are driven back to

vails, it should be fairly easy to settle them, Surround their islands

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Germany and Japan must be emasculated 80 they can never fight again, ss 8's “M. BROWN SUFFERS FROM ‘ADULT COMPLEX"

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ill. be ’ should the picture change and a northern Indiana man be sought for the senator's race. . His new chairmanship leaves Mr. Halleck out of campaigning for Wendell L. Willkie or anyone else for the presidency. Not until the convéntion has decided upon the nominee will it be proper for him to

their homeland, -if good sense pre-|

take an active part in the presidential campaign. Not Very 'Pally’ With Willkie

ALTHOUGH HE made the nominating speech for Mr. Willkie in 1040, Mr. Halleck and Mr: Willkie haven't been very “pally” and the Indiana congressman chose to trail along with his fellow Hoosier Republicans on pre-war isolationism, so-ealled, rather than to embrace the doctrines which Mr. Willkie was preaching then, He never has made clear jugt how for he goes in indorsing the post-war ideas and ideals which Mr. Willkie develops in his best-seller — “One World.” But he says he has read the book. . One immediate effect of Mr. Halleck’s election wag to put the committee into the big money. He has many wealthy and influential friends who are ready

to aid in his expressed goal—igake the house Repube lican in 1944.

In Washington

By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11.—For whatever parallels or prophecies you can make of them, there are some interesting contrasts and comparisons between the present railway labor wage demands and . the - raflway- labor wage -adjustements made immediately before, during and after World War I, The contrasts are principally these: In World War I only about 30 per cent of the 1,750,000 railway employees were organized; today, close to 98 per cent of the 1,500,000 employees. Then, the railroads were under government operation from December, 1917, to March, 1020. Today they remain in private hands. They are specifically

exempted from government seizure by the Smithe.

Connally act, but other war-powers acts would probe ably permit the President to order the roads taken

-| over in case of strike or other emergency.

In World War I, there was no government mae chinery already established to mediate and adjust railway labor disputes. Today, there is the National Meditation Board set up by the Railway Labor act of 1926 to handle just such cases. On top of this, to handle the 20 cents an hour wage increuse demands made by the 15 non-operating unions for their

®| 1,100,000 members last December, the President named

an emergency panel to review a finding already made

First Panel Award Rejected DIRECTOR FRED M. VINSON of the Office of

4 cents an hour for higher paid workers, to 10 cents an hour for lower paid workers. A senate resolution

«| calls for setting aside this second award and returning

to the first. In this situation, the 15 non-operating unions called for a strike vote. pe Tracing the historical parallel, you must go back"

and engine employees. * Over the Adamson law was fought one of the bitterest battles in American labor history, leading right up to the eve of America’s

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