Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 December 1943 — Page 14

CEN! CENSURES THE “CENSORS” somebody please pinch us? . . . No, we're not ‘dréaming. It's true. The head of the U. S. office msorship is asking the newspapers to print more, not information! "Before going further, let us remark that the office of censorship, under Director Byron Price (lent to the government by the Associated Press), has done a uniformly admirable job. Price has issued, from time to time, simple codes which advise us of the types of news we should not print without “appropriate authority.” In case ‘of doubt we check with his office. And we always get quick, friendly, and positive answers. No runaround, no “come around Tuesday,” no hemming, no hawing. And now Price has given two remarkable demonstraHons of the fact that his many months as censor have not made him a scissor-wielder for scissor-wielding’s sake. He

has :

1. Appealed to press and radio not tp “suppress” news “on the advice of persons having no authority.” . 2. Issued a revised code dropping various of the verbotens contained in the old one. . =» » . » - «JUST WHAT inspired his censor-in-reverse plea against heeding unauthorized busybodies who want this and that story killed, we can only conjecture. We do know that some government departments and agencies have

Russian system is opposed to ours in every important respect. It is a one-party ronment run by an absolute dictator and while it has been very efficient in Russias and may be to their liking, it still hag noth | ing in common with ours and therefore cannot represent to us anything but a total denial of freedom. The obvious reason why we have not insisted on putting forth our system is that Russias has other plans for the nations of the continen$ more consistent with Russia's system. | We are told that Russia is becoming freer as her | national power and confidence grow and that under { the new order the small nations will be protected by {| the thre great victorious giants, at least, will be | | spared the tragic necessity of continuing the ghastly | | ‘Taste of Forced Labor’

BUT IN this reticence of ours there is a dis- | quieting suggestion that even for our own home purposes, the American Constitution might be re. vised in the direction of the Soviet system. There | are some in high positions in our own government |

- | who, for years, have expressed the thought that the |

| government should be the people's boss, not their | { servant, and that equality of opportunity means | equality of achievement, enforced by government | regulations, Thus, in the income tax, it is proposed that the | more successful citizen be penalized and leveled off

| series of wars. 1

The Hoosier Forum

" without designating whether he meant

party. : Such threats are not new. A few months ago southern governors went on the warpath but since have quieted down. : . Nor is the reason behind them new, as effects voting. Southerners are jealous of the limited voting privilege in the South which disfranchises many thousands, poor whites and Negroes, by the poll tax and other restrictions.

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

“PARENTS FAILURE .

taken it upon themselves to tell us to “lay off” this or | not merely for the purposes of raising money but 0 | ~susEs CRIME”

that; Price himself says even some chambers of commerce have done the same, which is a new high in censoring. An item in Time this week tells how it took the Tulsa Tribune from July to December to get “permission” from the De= fense Plant Corp. (a government unit), to print a story gbout three Oklahoma coal mines that were developed to supply coking coal for a new Texas steel industry—whereas this Jesse Jones agency had no authority whatsoever to prevent publication of the story. In our own experience is the action of a certain department in submitting a dispatch from a correspondent of ours to a foreign embassy _ in Washington for approval or disapproval. (It was

graciously approved, or we might possibly have had 110re |

to say on that subject.) ~~ Censor Price has dévoted himself to the job of pre--venting—through the voluntary co-operation of press and

radio—the dissemination of information which might help |

the enemy. With that objective none of us can disagree. We can disagree, and we are happy to see that Price disagreés so frankly and openly, with offieious ‘bureaucrats who consider themselves anointed to the task of blacking out information that is of no possible military importance but may be of political importance—or just of plain every- ~ day interest—to the people.

MR. WILSON’S WARNING

| equalize the results of unequal ability and diligence. | Thus, also in the labor policy of the government, unions are encouraged to limit the effort and output { of the superior worker and his earnings as well, | ___ Meanwhile, too, our courts have been by-passed in | tavor of governmental commissions and bureaus and | there is just no mistaking the fact that our national | government has in many oases been warmly hospitable to men and women who either are outright Com- | munists or have strongly indicated their admiration | of the Russian system, and lately, we have had a taste | of forced labor through job freezing under cover of | the war emergency but without a labor shortage to | Justify it. 4

"We Are Missing Opportunities’ IN OFFERING freedom under protection to the

| rescued nations of the future world we have not made | any promises to the individual human being except in the vague terms of the Four Freedoms which are capable of various interpretations. They are so'gen« eral that even Communists can subscribe to them { whereas no Communist can suifseribe to the positive | and specific guarantees of the United: State§ Constls

By Rhells Proffitt, New Ross. 1 have noted in the columns of various newspapers the accounts of many law violations in which robbery and beatings hy young hoodlums seem to be increasing. 1 am very much concerned with this state of affairs, which to mv mind is not much short of chaos. I am concerned, although 1 live remote from cities where most of these acts are pérpetrated. I am concerned because the tentacles of this revolting situation may even reach our remotest communities;

tution, And, while they may repreSent some -gain,|tin

| they still constitute a sharp discount fom freedom | of the word. | I think we are missing opportunities along this | line.. After all, the American Constitution is much | greater than the Four Freedoms and, unless we are ashamed of it or. prepared to offer the world a compromise, our : should whoop it up as the goal toward which men should yearn, {| Our conduct in this matter is rather | of the shyness of a Roman Catholic who, saying | or the Lord's Prayer in mixed company, refrains

I | as the people of the United States know. the meaning | in most

(Times readers are invited fo express: their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded, Because of the volume received, lefters 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 refurn of manu. scripts and cannot enter correspondence regarding them.)

* It might be an agreement stating:

bolt the Democratic party because walks away from the people is likely walking alone, y

which promises to spread hatred, disunity and sedition in a nation at

picts a great soul suplicating:

Lord, help me to keep my big ko, In Washington

shut until I know what I am talking’ about, Amen.” : 8 8 =»

“"TEEN-AGERS NEED PLACE TO DANCE” By T. K., Indisnspelis M. Browh, Indianapolis of

(CHARLES E. WILSON, former president 6f General Elec- | : | making the sign of the cross, The

tric and now vice chairman of the war production | board, tells the National Association of Manufacturers he | is deeply alarmed by the possibility that a “right-wing | reaction” may go so far as to jeopardize our whole national | future, ~ This great industrialist who has served America well | in raising the output of ‘munitions to its present huge | yolume serves well ‘also in warning against future peril. | The dangers he fears are real—that political and economic | groups, struggling for selfish advantage in an election yéar, | J divide us hopelessly; that some sections of capital |:

for temporary gains and blind to enduring values, | _

| our expression of freedom: and this being so why

we pretend to be content with a formula ealling

freedom of speech and expression, of freedom from want and from fear which even Hitler;

himself, could warp to his own peculiar meanings?

We The People

By Ruth Millett

BR gay

may be drawn so far away from our traditions as to imperil | 4

the entire structure of American life,

= They are the dangers inherent in the tendency of public |

feeling to swing, like a violent pendulum, from extreme fo extreme. Too far right in the '20¢, wher businéss had

its own way and almost ruined the country. Too far left |

In the '30s, when business was banished to the doghouse ~ And the abuse of power was on the side of labor leadership and government bureaucracy. : ! i esl . ¥ = ¥ Se # » ow : THE HOPE of the American people for the post-war | 40s and thereafter is to prove that they are not puppets | of a law of physics—“for every action an equal and opposite | reaction.” Signs multiply that the pendulum-is-moving | oncemore to the right, and that, within limits, seems to | 18 both inevitable and desirable. ‘But we are thankful for those in business and industry who recognize the necessity for limits; thankful that one of Mr. Wilson's caliber stands up and tells other manufacturers: | “This above all is a time when the industrial. leaders 4 America owe it to their country and to themselves to Se temperate judgment—to practice the arts of mi 0 avoid the temptation of sacrificing endurhes for temporary gains—and to withhold encourage(#rom dangerous men who preach disunity,”

DS receive some unusual requests, even in norcs « but rarely has the office of an important rail been thrown into such a turmoil as it was rve-

ened out eventually, but for a while runnin

“We do not where there is of embarrassing is no one but the time before dinner answering and our jobs in the army. na “What we like is for several of us to be invited to the same place. And It helps a lot invited for each of us. :

Treat Them as Guests

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can we expect him to acespt ance and counsel from other We know there are many ea of delinquency such as health de-

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tween the government and the unions, and one McAdoo’s first acts was to name a railroad wage commission to study and to recommend. Secretary of the Interior Pranklin K. Lane was named chairman,

Increases Granted by Board

ON APRIL 30, 1918, the Lane commission reported, recommending flat increases of $20 per month for. all employees making less than $46 8 morith and sliding scale increase of from 43 per cent for those making $47 per month to no increase at all for those making more than $260 & month. The increases amounted to $360 million & year, based on December, 1915, wage levels. : i ek The railway unions yelled because the 1015 wige .| base meant that some of the workers would get less of an increase than they had already been promised. But the Lane commission's the next step to so similar

wartime and something to look forward to when the war is over.

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