Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 April 1944 — Page 10

’

The Indianapolis Times

ksiempraint, and fiie¥ answers te of

PAGE 10 Wednesday, April 26, 1944 Be ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE MARK FERREE President Editor. Busipess Manager

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

Price in Marion County, 4 cents a copy; delive ered by carrier, 18 cents a week.

Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by Indianapolis Times Publishing Co, 214 W, Mary-

Zone 8. x land st, Pustal . Mail rates in Indi.

ana, $5 a year; adjoining

Member of United ? states, 75 cents a month;

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

NEW YORK, April 26. — The Rev. Edward Dowling, S. J, one of the editors of ‘a pious little monthly = magazine called the Queen's Work, has been my friend for 20 years, a personal fact which I mention only by way of disalarming any ‘Who may-be inclined to regard the ensuing discussion as an attack on him, the Catholic church and/or Christianity,

Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Serve fice, and ‘Audit Bureau of Circulations.

others, $1 monthly.

«Sp RILEY 551

Their Own Way

Give IAght and the People Will Find

BOON FROM MR. DOUGHTON

HIS newspaper has pounded the drums for income-tax simplification so often and so long that its readers may have come to regard us as single-tracked. But we will risk immodesty to remark today that this continued drumbeating, in which many others have joined, is at last producing results. t The bill just introduced by Chairman Doughton of the house ways and means committee, after weeks of study by himself and his colleagues in collaboration with their own experts and the treasury's, looks like a magnificent contribution to the peace of mind of the American taxpayer, who still cannot look back on March 15 without shuddering. - If this bill is passed—and certainly congress is now fully aware of the public sentiment for simplification— 80 million of the 50 million taxpayers won't have to file any return at all next March 15, aside from a withholdingph VST sp EsigRS. Where the withholding tax. has taken too much or too little, thé government will figure this out itself and mail either a bill or a rebate. Sos for these 30 million people, She bookkeeping nightmare of last March will be exercised. ® = = = s . SOME 10 MILLION others, naely those receiving more than $5000 from an employer or more than $100 from sources where withholding does not apply, will fill out a return—but a much simpler one than they have been accustomed (though not reconciled) to. The final 10 million, principally people in the middle

3

In a recent issue Father Dowling discussed taxes and came to the point of recommending, as an aid to the salvae tion of the rich, the limitation of individual possessions to $10,000 or $100,000. Inasmuch as he did propose the $10,000 limitation I will take the lower figure as the basis of my objection, It dramatizes the story.

‘Would Destroy Our System of Government’

WHAT FATHER DOWLING here recommends would destroy our system of government and substitute socialism, against which my old preceptor and, I believe Father Dowling’s, the Rev. Father Fritz Siedenburg, whose specialties were sociology and economics, inveighed in church and classroom and in print for many years, He also inveighed memorably to me in our frequent long walks by the shore of Lake Michigan on the north side of Chicago, where Father Siedenburg, who had a worldly genius for promotion, was building Loyola academy and accumulating a very tidy fortune for his order, or perhaps the diocese, through real estate operations. Limit individual ‘fortunes to $10,000 and you put an automatic stop to ambition very early in the lives of the exceptional men and women and confront everyone whosz wealth has reached the plimsoll with a great temptation to squander further earnings on luxurious and worldly and even loose living, which is just what Father Dowling is against. Parenthetically, I would say thdt I can see no objection to luxury as such and that nobody who has visited the Vatican

impression of bleakness.

‘No Private Vice of the Dirty Rich’

WHEN I WAS a public enemy in Excelsior, Minn, | oranges were a luxury at all times, green vegetables were available only to the rich in winter and a hesitant motorized buggy, with a cruising radius of about 20 miles, which steered with a tiller and had only dirt roads to run on, was the plaything of the millionaire. Millicnaires, then, as now, had other play-

or passed by the.qugriers provided for Archbishop|. P Frances CS peian in San 0 NIT TEA

J

. a re nw:

ir 2 © EXE.

ey

“ris

things, to be sure, but as one who has covered thousands of default divorce hearings, I am on sure ground in adding that this is no private vice of the dirty rich, but pretty evenly distributed.

and upper brackets, will file on a ‘dong form,” but here again a simpler one than in the past. Other changes are involved, notably the disappearance | of the pesky victory tax and the adoption of a flat surtax exemption of $500 a person, whether the person be the head of the house, his spouse, or his dependent. (And the myth that dependency ends as a son or daughter turns 18 ~—when in many cases the expense is just hitting a peak— is abandoned; hereafter the word dependent is to mean what it says). All in all, the Doughton bill represents a victory for sense and sanity.

TAKE A LOOK AT BUILDING

ONE of the post-war committees of congress ought to “take a long, hard look at the home-building industry m all its branches. - There is opportunity and need for a truly tremendous boom in home construction, lasting for many years after the war. Talk about deferred demand! This industry has | operated at half speed or less, not just during tlie war, but | before that for 10 depression years, so that now the American people want millions upon millions of new homes. Construction as a whole accounts for about half of | the new capital formed in this country. Activity and health in the building trades are essential to any sustained prosperity. If the building industry muffs its coming chance | for great achievement, unemployment starting there will | spread in all directions. The people want homes that are reasonable in cost and high in comfort and convenience. There are industrial techniques, new processes, improved materials fully capable of creating such homes. The people have money to buy or rent them. The @'wentieth Century Fund, after careful research, estimates that the country can use well over a million new dwellings of good quality in each of the first 10 post-war years, if a large majority of them can be priced at $2000 to $4000. But the fund concludes that even with government help the industry “in its traditional form” can hardly cope effectively with that assignment. In adopting new processes it has “lagged far behind other industries serving mass needs” Its operating, financing and marketing methods, its business, labor and political practices, call for “basic reforms.”

= = y

» o » THESE THINGS have been said time and again. In many communities the housing industry has been notorious for price-fixing agreements and restraints set up to protect the short-sighted self-interests of contractor, supply-dealer and labor groups; for monopolistic tactics; for enforced waste in use of materials and manpower; for stubborn opposition to time-saving, money-saving methods. Men within the industry deplore these conditions, but seem to feel they are too deep-seated to be cured by voluntary action. We believe public opinion, adequately informed about how building costs have been kept artifically high and build‘ing employment unnecessarily low, would demand correction of the restrictive business and labor practices, the absurd construction codes and the self-defeating tax policies that prevail in far too many places. Some of the evils can be attacked by federal laws and local ordinances, if by no other means. But we think that a thoroughgoing congressional investigation could bring out facts that would force the home-bLuilding industry to go far toward reforming itself—and, in so doing, to remove one of the greatest obstacles to sound prosperity for itself and for the country.

ANOTHER DRAFT QUESTION

SOMETHING new has been added to the varied policies and” pronouncements of Selective Service. Mai. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey now says that after the 18-26 and 27-30 groups have been combed over, army and navy needs will be met by men over 30 not engaged in activities materially contributing to winning the war, or—and here’s the new addition—"“those who, although engaged in such activities .do so in a half-hearted mayner.” What system of fractios will be used to compute the degree of hearty effort? Who will make the decisions? Will every over-30 striker and frequent absentee he automatically drafted? Is military service a patriotic -and. honor-

| the average, up to the war, a very luxurious nation

If luxurious living is bad for the character and the soul, then the majority of our people are more than half likely to end up in hell, for this was on

I wholly disagree with what you say,

defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

The Hoosier Forum

but will |

by comparison with any other. To proceed, if my friend means, in addition, to make it impossible for the person of unusual ability, for example, one who has made some great contribution to his fellow-men, to enjoy a large income beyond his basic accumulation of $10,000, then he de-, stroys incentive and, on the spiritual side, imperils that one by condemning his hands to idleness, in which case the devil may find work for them to do. Beyond $10,000 he has nothing to work for but his day-to-day living. Some good men can earn a year's bare living in a few weeks.

'Man Could Own Very Little Property’

PEOPLE WHO argue that riches make for sin and also that poverty breeds -crime contradict themselves and assume an arbitrary and certainly a disputed authority to say exactly how much is enough to keep others as happy as they should be, but out of mischief, They have no right to rule that because one family goes to smash for having a great fortune, then no family, however decent, is to be trusted with more

“THEY'LL DO IT

By Percy Vere, Indianapolis {

what has become of Pfc, Victor Mc-| Ginnjs, the woman hater, let him note the four, count ’em, four en-! tries by Mr. McGinnis on page 6 of the current Liberty. Seems there | is at least one woman the guy not| only doesn't hate but has him ga-ga!

“PLEASE DON'T LET US DOWN” By Pfe. E. Cummings, Army of the U.S,

that I'm a sob story writer for I'm not, nor am I a hero looking for glory; I just want to write some-

(Times readers are invited EVERY TIME”

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, 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 cor-

If anyone has been wondering,

They'll do it every timel # 5 =

Overseas Please don’t get the impression

a two-fold basis. It was made both flexible and inflexible. It deals with fundamental principles which are unchangeable and governmental policies which are in flux. Certain provisions of the Constitution deal with the natural, inalienable, Godgiven rights of the individual which no government on earth has a right to abridge. The Constitution limits the power of the highest law-mak-ing body relative to these rights. These constitutional guaranties are found it what we call the Bill of Rights. Briefly summed up, they are freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, trial by jury, the sanctity of contract, the right to the writ of habeas | corpus and the right to property. These constitutional guaranties are!

respondence regarding them.)

than $1000¢ or any other amount. "And if it is | thing I've been thinking about for per cent because you can bet your

| argued that wealth is power and that a rich man | a long time. Well, to begin with, it! life they'll die and suffer, but they'll

should not be allowed to possess such power, then let | seems that when you pick up a never quit or let you down, me ask whether the Catholic chuch also would give | paper anymore you see this place Our world is free for every man,

up its wealth, and down to what maximum figure, [and that place on strike.

and who would get it.

property. His home would be small and not well | built, his furniture not very attractive, his farm a | mere patch with primitive tools and machinery, his | store a mom-and-pop establishment with a small | inventory and his automobile a jallopy, and I wait | to hear from Father Dowling how he would divide up the millions of American dwellings which alone, cost | more than $10,000 each and the many other indivisible | holdings of men and women who got theirs honestly | through hard work and unusual ability.

We The People

By Ruth Millett

THERE HAS been a lot said! about what women owe their men in service. But the men who are | holding down essential jobs on the | home front have been pretty | much neglected in the “keep up your man’s morale” suggestions. = Yet it is important that wives of men who are doing essential work, even though they aren’t in uniform, support them and back them up. It is easy for a woman to get so engrossed in volunteer work, or in some pet projects of her own, that she neglects the man she should be encouraging and for whom she should be making a good home, A hard-working man has a right to expect that his wife—if she also hasn't taken on a full time job outside the home—will make his comfort her No. 1 job. He has a right to expect a hot, well-balanced meal ready to go on the table when he walks in the door at night, instead of coming into an empty house because his wife is off doing some volunteer job that is more gratifying to hér ego than seeing that ler husband is well fed.

A Wife's Duties Are Inclusive

AND HE ha$ a right to spend the evenings when he says he is “dead tired” sitting around home in his house slippers,” ipstead of being pushed into going to the movies or to play bridge with the Joneses. Nor should his wife clutter up his mind with household errands if her only job is housekeeping. What if he did once pay the bills and order the coal? If he is working much hardef these days, he shouldn't have to worry about the running of the house. And he certainly has a right to expect his wife to get up and cook him a good breakfast before he leaves for work, ' A steel worker recently killed his wife in a fit of anger when she refused to get up and cook his breakfast. And though no man in’ the world will condone his deed, there are probably a lot of men who leave their homes in the morning disgruntled because. their wives are still asleep instead of waving Yen goodbye after having cooked them a hearty mea :

So They Say—

These and we want to keep it that way,

| fellows over here are doing a loti so when you buy a bond don't turn At a ceiling of $10,000 a man could own very little | bigger job than all those guys who iit in, Keep it; youll never be

strike all the time for a few cents,! sorry, only we can't strike nor holler about | We ask no favors, only the tools anything that goes on. These boys | to finish this whole awful job with. here sleep in mud; they do without | please don’t let us down. homes, wives, sweethearts and| mothers and a hell of a lot more! ’ 8. than most of them at home do, but| “OUR FOREFATHERS it's still a job to them that must: DID BUILD WISELY” be finished and you don't hear them pn W. G. D., Indianapolis

gripe. If any of these guys at home who! The Constitution of the United holler and strike all the time want| States and the Declaration of Into switch jobs with us and live in|dependence are the fundamental the mud and duck shells and bul-|8W of the land. The triumph of lets, we'll sure trade with them any | the fundamental principles in govday. To the boys who are fighting, | éfPment and the inalienable rights a guy who leads a strike or goes on | Of all men as set forth in these two one is just as low a traitor as a Jap| immortal documents gave birth to or a German.. These boys when | the American republic and made it

they come home won't ask for more | What it is today. than just their homes, wives, sweet-| When we consider the founders hearts or mothers, so when you guys of our democracy and compare lay down your tools and strike I!them with the general selection of hope it makes you sick because some | lawmakers of today, we are commother's son won't come home for pelled to admit that they were the the bullet, tank, truck or gun you ablest and best qualified group of didn't make. | statesmen that ever assembled in Does a life mean so very little to| any country to shape the future all you people at home? Maybe you | ideals and destiny of a nation. The have never seen your buddy die at|beneficent fruits and results which your side. Well, we have, and it's| have followed their labors attest the damned hard to take, but they still | enduring value of their work. plod on without a word. Our forefathers did build wisely. That is all T have to ask, only| They were indeed. champions of please, for God's sake, don't ever let| humanity. The Constitution of the these boys down. Back them 100' United States was constructed on

Side Glances—By Galbraith

IN SOLVING our manpower problems the first demand is- that we obtain for physical contact with the enemy enough of the kind of men we need to do the job.—Secrétary of War Henry 'L. Stimson, pi ¥ vy »:

able obligation, or a threat held over a war worker's head?

! Caltlol

i occurred very 23 oe ’ i

| part of its permanent framework | land structure. Th.y are funda-| mental principles which do not undergo any change and the gov-| ernment is always bound to respect! them, no matter how times and! circumstances may change policies in government. i Policies in government may; change under the Constitution, but] fundamental principles guarar as to the indvidual under the 1 ¥ stitution never change. The government may override fundamental | verities and inalienable rights, but! justice still confirms them. When- | ever essential justice is overridden by the administration of law and | man’s rights are ignored, our herit-'| age of civil and religious liberty is placed in jeopardy, and civilized society begins to retrograde. Of course, the hope of every truehearted American is that our government shall always seek to pPerpetuate this precious blood-bought heritage of civil and religious liberty which our forefathers bequeathed to posterity. »

i i {

» “VOTERS HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW” By A. C. Gorrell, 17 W. Merrill st. Hugh McK. Landon’s open letter to Rep. Earl Wilson certainly expressed the sentiment of many Americans. The speech of Congressman Wilson delivered 4n the house of representatives is nothing less than a bid for a negotiated peace. How else can anyone interpret his statement, “We had better pull out of the war in Europe and fight our battle in the Pacific”? Mr. Landon said, “We think of only one important person, Mr. Wilson, who would be delighted with your recent speech on the floor of congress. That person's ‘name is Adolf Hitler.” : All the more alarming is the fact that Reps. Harness and Springer have been making similar speeches. Because these speeches up to now have not been repudiated by the Republican party in Indiana, the question arises; What is the foreign policy of the Republican party in Indiana? Do the Republican leaders agree. ‘with "the decisions made by the united nations’ leaders at Tehran? Are they for a united nations: victory? The voters of Indiana have a tight to know the answers to these questions. '

8 ai “WHO WILL BE FIRST TO BREAK THE LINE?” By Edmund J. Rocker, Indianapolis’. Who will be the first to break. the line behind the boys who are doing the fighting? The man that breaks the Little Steel rule will be the candidate of the New Deal. He promised he wouldn't, but this was only a trick; the promise was made by the New Deal big stick.

DAILY THOUGHTS A reproof entereth more into a ‘wise man than “an - hundred stripes ‘into ‘a fool.—Proverbs me. tral

of the wise

London Agreement By William Philip Simms |

LONDON, April 26.—Undersec=~ secretary of State Stettinius will - soon return to Washington, his luggage laden with information of the utmost importance to the American people. : _ From a high British source it was learned that the United Kingdom is prepared to enter into a broad understanding with the United States. Specially mentioned were the. following points: Baan 1. An economic agreement which, among other things, would abolish cartels. 2. A civil aviation agreement permitting the oper=ation of world-wide airlines in an equitable basis, 3. A monetary and currency stabilization pact without which post-war reconstruction would be next to impossible, 4 An arrangement permitting the mutual use of: military bases. : * ‘5. Some sort of defense understanding, probably without a formal alliance.

No Commitments Have Been Made

MR. STETTINIUS, of course, has made no commitments. He made it plain upon his arrival here that his trip was exploratory. But undoubtedly his mission will provide the state department and congress with a rich assortment of information so needed in the shaping of our post-war foreign policy. Any arrangements which may eventuate between Britain and the United States will not be exclusive, They will be open to all members of the united nations. All have been kept informed of everything affecting their interests. Two other items which Mr. Stettinius probably will report to Washington are: First, that a majority of British opinion seems opposed to the establishment of European spheres

of interest or a restoration of the old balance-of« ?

power system. . o : wih * Second, that only a small minority believe a formal

Alliance Would Arouse- Suspicion ONE OF Britain's foremost statesmen sald that, in his opinion, only as a last resort would Britain pare ticipate in an European balance of power system. Such things, he said, inevitably wind up in another war and Britain has had her fill of wars, What she wants is some kind of effective world association to prevent aggression. An exclusive Anglo-American alliance would arouse suspicions, he believed. Moreover, he went on to say, the past 25 years has demonstrated that enlightened. self-interest compels Britain and America to stand together,

The Sedition Trial

By Charles T. Lucey

WASHINGTON, April 26. —Trial of the 30 persons charged with conspiracy in the “Nazi network” sedition case has gone far enough to foreshadow sharp controversy fin coming montis on related civil. . liberties issues. . These issues already are being developed by a score of attorneys who, for the most part, are going their separate ways in trying ‘to get clients free of charges that they conspired to distribute printed matter urging disloyalty of U, 8, armed forces and cause insubordination and refusal of duty. No one who has watched these proceedings in Federal Judge Eicher's court doubts that defense counsel will use every possible legal device to thwart the justice department's case being presented. by Prosecuting Attorney O. John Rogge. With so many attorneys participating in so many facets of the same defense, it's a little like a busload of people in which each passenger's seat has a sepa~rate steering wheel. One observer suggested ‘the trial may go on and on and become one of the things the public comes to Washington to see—like the gton monument.

Warate Trial Issue Is Raised

ONE OF THE ISSUES raised in motions for severance is the trying of a large group of people under the same conspiracy indictment, some of whom perhaps never saw each other before the case opened in court. Some civil liberties advocates insist there should have been separate trials and in the local federal court districts in which the defendants live, But the government's position is that it is not necessary to show that every person named in the indictment knew personally every other one of the alleged conspirators. It is enough, it probably will be contended, that defendant A worked with defendants B and C, that defendants B and C spoke at alleged subversive meetings at which defendants X and Y also spoke, and that defendant ¥ was distributing the same kind of anti-U. 8. literature as defendant Z. The government, it is believed, will contend that while all did not know each other, all did know they were entering into a conspiracy promoting German national socialism and a leadership principle promoting A ism and opposing Jews. “ ® some civil liberties advocates also have raised the question of why the defendants have been taken away from their home jurisdictions for trial, The governments position here is that alleged overt acts were committed widely throughout the United States— though most widely in Washington, New York and Los Angeles—and that the trial may as well be here as anywhere,

Public Relations Angle Is Implied

IN THIS there is a public relations angle, implied though not expressed. It is that the impact of a mass trial for wartime sedition will be much greater on public consciousness than many isolated trials would be. Some of the defendants have been convicted earlier—George Sylvester Viereck for violating: the foreign agents’ registration act, Gerhard Wilhelm Kunze, German-American Bund leader, for espionage and counseling draft act evasion, william Dudley Pelley for sedition, to cite three. By certain civil liberties advocates, it is being contended that trying persons already convicted with others not convicted implies a kind of collective guilt over the whole assemblage. Another issue being raised is that in a trial likely to last several months, it would be virtually. impossible for jurors to recall all pertinent testimony or differentiate as to what evidence applied to certain defendants and not to others. But government attorneys apparently do not weigh this objection heavily, per« haps in the belief that the overall showing -of conspiracy is the important thing. A major test of the government's case, in the eyes of some, will be its ability to prove that because certain defendants voiced views alleged to be seditious, they were necessarily inspired by the Nazi propaganda pattermn’in Germany. :

To The Point— FOLKS SOON ‘will be out tramping all over the

3 - [ a NEW WAR MAP paper can be written on and erased while wet. Now

ground to pick spring bouquets. Maybe that’s what

maybe we can keep up with'

- Rain Beg On § fos