Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 May 1944 — Page 6

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ianapolis Times

Saturday, May 20, 1944

Fair Enough

W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE = MARK FERREE Editor, : Business

Owned and

, 4 cents a copy; deliv

Mail rates in Indiana, §5 a year; adjoining states, 75 cents a month; others, $1 monthly,

«8 RILEY 551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

COMPLIANCE WITH LAW THE Indiana State Industrial Union Council, central governing body of C. I. O. has written the War Labor Board urging that the federal government take over the plant of the New Indiana Chair Co., at Jasper, because the * company has failed to obey a War Labor Board order to ; gign a contract with a local C. I. O. union, We know very few details of the dispute at Jasper, and they have no bearing on this discussion anyway, but this C. I. 0. demand does throw some fresh light on the t viewpoints involved. Indiana's C. I. O. complains that the company has refused to obey the War Labor Board upon advice of its attorneys that the War Labor Board had no power to compel it to do so. It has been only a few months since the War Labor. Board itself contended in federal court that it had no.power to enforce any of its orders, or “directives” as WLR prefers to call them. It has not been so very long since President Roosevelt said that he, also, had no power to compel anyone to sign any contract. So it would appear that the attorneys for the New Indiana Chair Co. in giving

such advice were in complete agreement with the War Labor Board and with the President, » IF ANY LAW has since been enacted granting any such powers to anyone it has escaped our attention, and apparently it has also escaped the attention of the attorney general of the United States who went to some pains to evade a court ruling on this very point in Chicago recently. Yet, in spite of these facts, Indiana's C. 1. O. leaders

“urge that the plant be taken over by the government” because “if the New Indiana Chair Co. is able to establish

» » ” » ~

h Manager

Price in Marion Coun-by-carrier,18-cen's | :

By Westbrook Pegler

too. The naval and military peopie were the only ones who wore any distinctive insignia, so if there were any members of the N. A. M. present I had no way of Knowing. "On the other hand, I do know a great many leaders, or bosses, of the labor movement. I know Dubinsky and Petrillo and Joe Ryan, Dan Tobin and Dave Beck, Will Green and John Lewis, Eddie McGrady and George Lynch, the president of the Pattern Makers league (which is, according to my standards, a very good union but too small to make its virtues felt in the larger organizations) and some others,

‘Charged | Was Doing Bidding of N. A.M."

I MAKE this point because from time to time, individuals and organizations with whom I have waged controversy these last few years have insine uated or flatly charged that I was doing the bidding of the N. A. M, presumably for secret pay, against the workers. It is true that I have received a good deal of propaganda, in the form of press releases, from the N. A. M,, but I read very little of it and, moreover, I get much more from other organizations over on ‘he left wing, and read it much more attentively, because I want to know what they are up to. . If the N. A. M. is anti-labor, I do not know it although it is reasonable to assume that an association of employers amounting to the grand lodge of | big business and heavy industry would put itself in a | state of resistance against a group at least equally i powerful financially, and much stronger politically | and highly privileged under the law# and the govern- | ment’s policy whose frank afd legitimate mission | is to press forward with more and greater demands and, in some cases, to make trouble and create unrest tending toward violent revolution—which is not a legitimate mission, as President Roosevelt and Fiorello La Guardia both have said.

‘N. A.M. Better Be Pretty Crafty

MOREOVER, ON the basis of most of my ac- | quaintance with officials of the union movement, I | should say that the officials of the N. A. M. had better be pretty crafty men, themselves, and always on their toes if they are to win anything approaching an even break. That John Lewis, for example, is one of the smartest men in America; and a very realistic big businessman, a large-scale employer, who had sat opposite him several times in goveinment hearings, once told me that he regarded Lewis as the champion negotiator of the age and cited, as an

in the city of Jasper an island of defiance, not subject to | the laws of this land or the authority of the War Labor | Board, we fear that like any other disease this will spread | and affect much of the rest of the state.” But just what laws and what authority are being defied? The War Labor Board says it hasn't any such authority. The President says he hasn't. Congressional leaders say they never passed any sugh law, the statute books * flo Tigt contain it, and thesattorney general was apparently unable to find any when he gravely needed one in that Chicago argument. . Maybe the local union in Jasper is entirely right, and the company is entirely wrong in this dispute—we don't sven know what points are in disagreement. But the state J. I. 0. council must be in error if it is urging federal offirials to violate long-established rights in the enforcement of a law which everybody else seems to agree never has axisted.

HITLER'S DILEMMA

: ITLER'S dilemma is increased by allied successes in Italy. He cannot afford to continue the retreat, because 1i8 prestige is involved. He cannot afford to divert more ‘orces from his depleted reserves to stop the retreat, be:ause that would weaken his eastern and west anti-invasion ines. Whatever he does will hurt him somewhere. This is another one of the half-dozen milestones in the llied march to victory. As the battle of Britain saved ‘ngland from invasion, as the battles of Moscow and Stalin;rad turned back Hitler in the East and El Alamein in \frica, as the battle of the Atlantic saved the allied supply ines, and as the western air offensive won allied control of he skies, so this offensive in Italy can convert Hitler's in‘erior position from a great asset to a grave liability. Hitherto his interior lines permitted him to shift forces asily and quickly to meet attack from any direction, while he allies were crawling around the outside of a giant circle. ut as the circle tightens, and as the allies amass offenive strength, they are at last able to pin down his forces worth, east, south and west. He knows, of course, that the two knockout blows are *oming from east and west, but he dares not leave his flanks | inguarded. Hence the importance of the three southern ronts in Romania, Yugoslavia and Italy, hy which ‘the llies force upon Hitler the losing strategy of dividing in‘tead of concentrating his troops. He is at an added disadvantage because on the southrn fronts the allies do not have to take territory but he | 1as to hold it. The allies’ main job is to destroy as many Nazi divisions as possible regardless of territory, while fitler must sacrifice troops to hold Romanian oil fields and

0 hold Rome for political reasons. »

» . o 8 THIS IS the happiest paradox of Italy for us, and the bitterest for Hitler. Rome is of minor military value. So | Dong as we can wipe out more Nazi divisions there, a southrn Italian line is better for us than a northern—and worse Hitler. But his prestige is so shaky and he is in such 8 langer of being deserted by his frightened satellite states t political necessity forces him to sacrifice division th of Rome for no good military reason. ST ‘How will he meét this dilemma? He may retreat in aly and risk the political consequences, rather than draw leserves away from the Polish and anti-invasion fronts. But } may be so slow about it, while he prepares German public pinion and the satellites for the shock, that his losses will # larger than necessary—as at Stalingrad. Thus the 8 in smashing the Gustav line this week captured 5000, ng his best parachute regiments at Cassino, and ore, because Hitler held on too long. is not to suggest that the allied job in Italy is has just begun, Or that it will be easy—it probcontinue to be one of the bloodiest fronts. But as llies keep the o ensive in Italy there will be no

W Js called . ROY ; oti etal the ‘inevital

| working at handcrafts. But what they do with the

dilemma of encirclement—no ;

example of his great ability, the way he boxed up President Roosevelt and Harold Ickes in his coal strike last year. And look what Petrillo has done in the radio and canned-music business. Such union men will negotiate the pants off you and send you home in a barrel if you aren't careful. My thought all along has been that the people, most of whom are workers, just didn't realize how great a power over their own lives had been created by this political development of the last 10 years ich is called the labor ent. Barring the y>of honest error, I have stuck to the truth right along knowing that vou discredit yourself and lose your case if you make statements which the people, themselves, know to be untrue.

‘Power and Perquisites at Stake’

IF YOU have followed this running debate you may have noticed that the union people have never cited me for actual falsehood but have settled for something they call half-truths and statements that I am anti-labor, which is the substance of my owa

charge against them. They also referred to my enormous income, which is 'way short of Petrillo’s, and

nored the fact that Tobin, Ryan, George Berry of the Pressmen and Old Man Franklin of the Boilermakers have set themselves up for life on liberal salaries and allowances with absolute social security, ‘even though their abilities decline to the point of worthlessness, or worse. So it appears that the mere size of an income is not the point of objection. It is a question of who gets it and how he stands on the proposition of human rights and freedom to work, which IT am for and they are against. I knew when I started this work that these powerful people would throw the building at me, a brick at a time, because, after all, their power and perquisites were at stake, and self-interest is as strong in them as in the rest of us. They live on labor. I live by labor.

We The People

By Ruth Millett

CLEVELAND, OHIO, has a Mother's Night instead of Mother's | Day—and it comes once a week | instead of once a year. As a scheme for showing a little ap-

WARTIME

STRIKERS

The Hoosier Forum

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

“LET THEM READ THE CONSTITUTION” By A Disabled Veteran, Indianapolis The constitution of the United States, the fundamental law of the land upon which our government is | based, says that the President shall | be elected for four years, senators for six, and representatives for two. Therefore, we will have an election | this year. P)

The people who wish to organize movements to postpone or abolish elections are, it seems to me, advocating the overthro® of our constitutional government, Let“ read that constitution which protects every liberty and right that they have and it will tell them the correct procedure to amend it | without organizing movements. If! anyone does not like a nation with | Honaons ustaaey rons So many cars run here and there there are not any elections, looking the country over, doing The congress of the United | nothing about it only healing their States has the power to take awa ,| own tired minds temporarily in the President's power and if neces- | Pleasure seeking places, shows, sary to put the President out of | ames, dances, taverns, everything office. I believe I voice the opinion | that is degenerating. You can see of the greater share of our armed it anywhere but we cannoc get gas forces and ‘war veterans when I 10 help support our churches and say that we need a change of politi- | Carry our musical instruments. 1 do cal leadership. |ask response on this letter from I would hate to think that my, both sides. two brothers and sister in the] » army are fighting for a nation “WE ENJOY which disregards a constitution. My MORE FREEDOM” sister is at the front in Italy. Look

(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 hers are those of the writers, and publication in no way implies agreement with those opinions_by The, Times. The 4-1iEs assumes no responsi "bility for the return of manu scripts and cannot enter correspondence regarding them.)

as is spiritual work our country needs badly.

and you will see her crossing a Now that the initial shock of the muddy roadway in Italy. Look at Ward seizure is over and everybody her, then talk about postponing has yelled, “Dictators” at our govelections. A brother has been over- ernment leaders, let's look at the seas for two years also and I have thing on a common sense basis. been disabled because of my serv- | Conditions aren't nearly as bad as ice in the army. My mother has many would have sus believe. If four children in the army, and she the government takes 20 per cent still believes in constitutional gov-!of our earnings, we still have 80 ernment. per cent which is ours. We still drive automobiles, eat three square meals a day in our own homes, undamaged by enemy bombs. Taking into consideration everything, including our shortages on Where do people get so much gas? certain articles, it's still the greatAnd some boast about long trips est, country to live in. We enjoy keeping their car on the road while more freedom even in wartime than

. 8 = “WHERE DO PEOPLE GET SO MUCH GAS?” By Bertha Blaylock, R. R. 8, Box 266

preciation for mother, this one can't be beat. There is a group of mothers in | Cleveland who regularly get one! night out a week. Not after they have cooked dinner and washed the dishes and put the children to bed—but before. That is where papa comes in. He takes over those duties one night a week. The group in Cleveland spend their weekly night out at the Y. W. C. A—swimming, playing ping-pong,

evening isn't important. The thing that matters is that once a week they break away from the routine of cooking and washing dishes and caring for children to go out and act like carefree girls,

Mothers Need Night Out Too

MEN LONG ago discovered that they needed to escape from home life once in a while and papa’s night out has long been a national custom. ——But mamma-—the one who really needs-to-escape— has been slow to step up and assert her rights, She usually felt that if papa was home she had to sit at home to entertain him—even if he did only say “Uumm” to her best attempts at sparkling conversation. Somehow she never quite had the nerve to say to papa, “How about taking the kids off my hands one night a week so that I can go out without a worry on my mind?” But the Cleveland group is made of sterner stuff, Or are they? Maybe you could organize such a group yourself. But don't ask papa. Tell him,

To The Point WE'RE SWINGING into the season when even the moon is going to do its full share toward helping young people to save gas. A . . . : “DESPAIR FOUND Among Nazis Taken in Italy” . - Coming events cast their shadows before

—]

them.

some cannot even get enough to 80 any European ever knew. By orderto work and church, both very nec- ly procedure, laws creating the

{essary for the welfare of our coun- WLB and the President's wartime !

try. powers were enacted. We know the First of all we are working to pay ultimate purpose of the WLB is our honest debts and to keep our|to settle labor disputes at a time shoulders to the wheel and do our{when we can ill afford them. Avery bit. And above all other forms of [was ousteq from his office, not morale lifting is spiritual lifting |being hurt in any way except for

Side Glances—By Galbraith

a ——

in Life magazine, issue of Feb. 21 By Just An Average American, Indianapolis, said, “He planned it this way.”

his feelings. He violated the law | and enforcement became necessary. | We little people must toe the mark | so why not Avery and others like | him? Maybe Ward's didn’t produce | war goods, but they sold merchan- | dise to people who did, thereby | being indirectly engaged in the war effort. They are subject to wartime | conditions like the rest of the na-| tion. No, I'm not a New Dealer | or a Roosevelt man but merely one who wants to see this war over. Roosevelt isn't trying to be a dice tator or anything of the sort for

| two .reasons.. He pri |

principles of freedom.

{ would not work in America because | { we're not built that way and no one | | would support him. Anyone who be- | lieves contrarily to this has little | faith in our country. We are on the | road to victory and let's not conjdemn any but those who are ob-| stacles on that road.

{ » . LJ {“HE PLANNED IT THIS WAY”

| | By See Mors, Indianapolis

| After reading a couple of items by a Mr. Casey and several others in The Times, I've come to the conclusfon they could have saved a lot | of space for you if they had just

| But, true to all New Deal methods {in dollars and words, they used up

| thousands of words and that was {all any of them summed up to.

“LETTER WAS |

OUTSTANDING” | By Mary Studebaker, 22 E. 22d st. The letter by T. W. Yeager called: | “Consistency Thou Art a Jewel” which appeared in the Forum on {May 11, was an outstanding one, indeed. It gave me much pleasure to read an article as sane and | factual as this in the Frantic

[Forum. I should like to see some ‘more letters from this writer.

» EJ

® » = “THESE PEOPLE GO TO ANY LENGTH" By J. B. P., Indianapolis Mrs. Walter Haggerty's letters sound like three-fourths of the rest of the New Dealer's guff, as if she were the recipient of some form of Roosevelt largess and as if she were afraid of losing it. And those people will go to any length to pro-

tect their right to get something for nothing. If you will dig deep enough you will find that most of these rabid Roosevelters are receiving some form of Roosevelt chairty at, of course, the anti-New Dealer's | expense.

” ” on “PUTS A PREMIUM ON- REALITY"

| | 1s costing much in life goods and all

tues protect you. Nature, as Emer-

By: George Schults, 2210 Shelby at. Since people want peace the worid over, give the plan ‘of peace a chance to function. Let mercy show the way to peace and freedom. Fight force with force, if reces-

sary, and to keep them so they stay conquered strive for stability that the will to war, as this

the virtue that we have ever had is gone. . 2 Providence protects virtues, vir-

In a speech appearing in the appendix of the Congressional Record, the Connersville congressman says in part: “There are many pet schemes advanced for the salvation of the American farmer, but I do not know of any sound or adequate solution of this problem of preserving and improving farm prosperity, excépt to secure him against the loss of his market for his produce at a fair price therefor,

Believe Plan Would Solve Problem

“MANY PEOPLE believe that the enactment of H. R. 1649 (Townsend Plan), which has the support of many people in this nation, ‘and which should, perhaps, be designated as the national insurance plan, will aid materially in solving this portentious problem. “During this war we have witnessed the wholesome effect on a broad scale of the circulation of money, and the effect it has had upon increasing the national income. Certainly, if the national income can be raised in time of war, that same rule would apply to the advantage of all in time of peace. “By the provisions of the measure, above referred to, it is planned to establish and maintain a sound and equitable market for the farmers, based upon the consumer's need and his ability to pay, and upon the cost of production to the farmer with a fair margin of profit assured to him in his own markets. “Under this plan it is proposed that a tax be levied against all citizens, based upon the income, payable monthly, and which tax would approximate 3 per cent after exempting the first $100 of individual income, thereby creating a fund which would be available for use in creating the proposed circulation

| of money,

‘Money. Kept in Circulation’

“UNDER THIS proposed plan, each month thers would be apportioned, equally, among the aged people, who are unemployable because of age, illness, or infirmity, or because they are widows who are supporting children, and each recipient would be required to spend the money thus received within the next

30 days after the receipt thereof.

“The net result would be a tremendous circulation of money, and the money so provided would be kept in circulation. This plan has been proposed by many

of our people as a means of meeting the post-war problems.” ’

Mr, Springer rates as a gonstantly criticizing the “New Deal,” which he considers “radical” He is a member of the house judiciary committee and never misses a session on the floor. Three times elected to congress, Mr, Springer now is seeking a fourth term.

“conservative” and is

After D-Day

By Henry J. Taylor

: sponsible army and navy officers [4 belitve the public's ideas are badly j# out of focus in respect to the timing of the crucial battle of Europe. The pyblic is thinking of D-day, but the officers are thinking of a land battle to come much later. Hitler has two kinds of forces facing us in western Europe— defensive units and offensive troops. The first group, manning the Atlantic wall from Norway to the Bay of Biscay, are reported to be, for the most part, second-class personnel. They are chiefly older Germans, “drilled to watch and shoot.” They are equipped for little more than the protection of the fixed fortifications. These divisions, some reported to contain as few as 8000 men instead of the normal 16,000, are not motorized. And the distance’ they must defend spreads them thin along the 1200-mile coastline,

Defense Must Be Thinly Spread

WITHOUT EXPOSING gaps elsewhere along the coastline, which we might exploit, Hitler cannot concentrate such defensive troops at any one place or several places in real depth. They must stand in a thin line everywhere and depend on the cordon defense to take the widespread punches of our invasion assault. Every rule of military history says that under such circumstances we can land and break through by using heavy enough assault forces. Our officers foresee stories of “victory” and immense cheers from our public soon after our troops establish firm beachheads. This worries them, for they foresee the real invasion battle far later in the campaign. As one officer expressed it today: “The test of whether or not we can beat Germany in 1944 can hardly come for 60 or 90 days after our beachheads are established.” Hitler's other force, his offensive troops, young, battle-toughened and mobile, must be held in the rear for a long time. The German general staff knows it would be fatal to put them into action too soon. Their numbers are limited and if they lunge at our beachheads too soon they may find themselves attacking us at subordinate spots while our main drives pass them by from other beachheads. “So,” military officers explained, “while the American public is cheering, the German generals will waiting.” ’

bi 4

Germans Can Prolong the War .

WHEN THE Germans finally attack in force we must fight the battle of western Europe. This is the battle on which our victory over Germany in 1044 can depend. But, if the Germans know they cannot defeat us in this battle they may not permit us to fight it. In that case, although Germany loses the war, she will not lose it in 1944—and possibly not even in 1945. The German general staff may elect to “stall” by fighting only strong rear-guard engagements in an orderly step-by-step retreat to the German homeland, preserving the core of the German army. In that event our cheers over the quick flushes of

vietory, close on the heels of D-day, would easily

give way to some dissatisfaction over the absence of the essential clear-cut defeat which Germany's military leaders may be determined to avoid at any cost, For if the Germans do not fight us too hard they can prolong the war.

So They Say—

HAVING LEARNED thaj it lies within our power to create a level of prosperity double we have known before, we are not going to be content to go back to the artificial scarcitiles, the unemployment in the midst of plenty—OPA A Lor Chester Bowles, : . * . f: I KNOWED I was hit all right. It just took my breath. I went to callin’ en the Lord. —Basooka gunner from Virginia, after having rib shot away at

last war we.

WASHINGTON, May 20 —Re- .

Promos Ne

said: “I don't kn fee for. I was n At first I live squadron, then I ners, radiomen ar a little differently enlisted men amo you are barely a days’ acquaintanc

How the O;

FIRST I'LL t I stayed in the hu and Jack Arnold any hut, for ther on leave. . This barracks doors and windo § sides. The floor | 1 the hut. Three § and navigators. lieutenants, The boys sleep tresses. They h blankets. They 1 now, and they sl to bed he turns o

§ ventilation. Of « i} but has to be bla 1 Each cot has i shade made from | The boys hay i : i ;

Instd

By JOHN G. LO

Assistant te the pre Co. Guest columnist

BACK IN TH {ts regnlar, autho idea that readal might be found ir of the business wi

* Mr, Longsdorf

and here are « Power & Light |

'A Million Te

THERE ARE service of Indian: of 203 sons and have husbands | employees have | 1940, which gives close to their he 10 are native Hox in April than in person employed vestment of abo + +» « The utility | of coal in the st last vear, all of company’s power freight carlosds an ordinary bun . + « Much of the ing electricity co a blackface act, powder, then spr stories tall,

Pre-k

WASHINGTO tatives' lobbies a with what might blues.”

They are ins

“Why doesn’t They would I are not going to is part of the cl dent, for that t make the “draft a real call, with years ago.

Real Proof

THE OTHER tives still to fa surprising stren; its militant and ‘jl which broke ou “4! was real proof. i Every memb plants have bro

if My ]