Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 June 1944 — Page 14

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Woy

~ A DAY FOR THE “DOGFACES” 3 7OPAY is Infantry day, dedicated to that unglamorous 3 but all-important arm of warfare, jeered and cheered in . song and story, known to military commanders as “the "Queen of Battles,” to soldiers as the hardest of the services. It's a good day to remember that 214 months ago Ernie Pyle, writing from the front in Italy, pointed out that there was no payroll distinction between “the dogface lying for days and nights under constant mortar fire on an Italian hill, and the headquarters clerk living comfortably in a hotel in Rio de Janeiro.” . Ernie proposed “fight pay” for the ground troops as an equivalent of the 50 per cent extra flight pay given airmen. When bills were introduced in congress to carry out the suggestion, the war department countered with a plan to raise the pay of 65 per cent of the infantry by $5 and $10 a month. The war department agrees with Ernie that the infantryman has the worst job in the war. The highest casualty rate is among the rifle companies. From the beachheads of Normandy to the end of the fighting, the infantryman—whose pay is now lower than the average for all arms—will be in the front of the battle, bearing the brunt, gaining the ground. With so much agreement on the need for special recognition of the infantryman, congress should make Infantry day a signal for something tangible—passage of one of the combat-pay proposals before recessing for the political conventions.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE? HE war in Europe will not end for another year, people were saying 10 days ago. Now they are saying it will be over by September. So the pendulum of our emotions swings back and forth, our guesses guided by the passing fortune of the moment. Of course the popular guess is now suddenly moved up because of the western invasion. But that is rather strange, since everyone expected the invasion to come about this time and assumed the beachhead would be established. Informed military opinion—which is more than a guess and less than a certainty—has held for some time that German military forces could be defeated by Christmas, unless there was unexpected allied disaster on the battle front or the home front. Gen. Montgomery, before the invasion, said he expected military victory in 1944. Moscow said the same. On the Italian front, present successes speak louder than words. Note that the judgment of the generals is solely military. There are possibilities for a trick ending of the war outside the military. The European war could end tomorrow by a Hitler surrender, or by a sudden German revolution. But there is no reason for believing that either Hitler or the Junkers would willingly accept anything other than the impossible compromise peace they have been seeking for months, and there is no sign of effective revolution. » E 8 8 8 s THE POINT is that a peace without total German military defeat cannot be depended on. Therefore, while the allies doubtless will use weapons of political warfare to hasten disintegration of Nazi and Junker power and to encourage German revolt, our hope for unconditional surrender is in the allies’ capacity to wipe out German military power in battle. So the military judgment on the duration of the European war, though not absolute, is the only one worth anything. That military judgment must be based not ¢n one campaign, much less one phase of one battle as at Caen, but on the over-all. A serious setback in the Pacific could delay earlier European victory. The over-all includes the present strategic position on all fronts, plus the preponderance of our might and reserves of all kinds, plus the ability of our commanders and home fronts to increase that material superiority and morale, plus. allied unity, plus an even break in weather and the imponderables.

If we continue to have the wherewithal to maintain the f initiative on all major European fronts, we probably can |}

force a pace so fast and furious that it will destroy the weakened German military machine. Otherwise there will be a stalemate—Germany’s only chance to win by trickery the compromise peace she cannot win by arms. A compromise peace would save the Junkers and their power to resume the war for German domination after another 20-year armistice. But if we at home do our part there is a good chance that allied armed forces can destroy German militarism in 1944. That is still a long road measured by sacrifices.

‘A GREAT TEAM

o, # E are the only two peoples in the world who could have done it,” says England's Gen. Montgomery of the Anglo-American planning and accomplishment of the mvasion, : The general is probably right. Other anti-axis nations quarrel with each other, and within their own boundaries. British and American policies and diplomacy don’t always jell. But the two armies have fought as one—from Tunisia to Normandy. And Gen. Montgomery gives credit where credit is obviously due—to Gen. Eisenhower, a Through the long pre-invasion months of planning, . Britons and Americans were “we” to Gen. Ike. Any American officer who couldn't work with his British colleague was sent packing. By such methods Gen. Eisenhower ~ showed that he was a great enough coach to put together the greatest team in the world.

TUITION

hes only two

prisoners reveal that Hitler was on the Nor- | oof beaches « days before the invasion.|

‘Provisions Adopted Are Extremely Liberal’

THE PEOPLE of the United States are the sole authority on desirability and yet, in justice to them, it must be admitted that the provisions which they

ineligible to settle here when it was known that conditions would make it impossible to deport them, regardless of their active conduct, or their attitude toward the American form of government. Past performances in many flelds instinctively suggest that the promise that these refugees will be repatriated after the war and meanwhile restricted, will not be kept. Past performances suggest also that once a principle has been conceded by the importation of 1000 European aliens with no pretense that they are eligible or suitable for permanent residence here, the number that will be brought in later will be limited by shipping facilities, individual] pull exerted through personal friends and organizations within the United States, and public tolerance. The latter will be a weak and leaky barrier against the immigration of Communists and others who won't like our way of living and doing, and will do their damndest to make us live and do their way; and against continental crooks who would be no asset to any nation.

‘Not All Ennobled by Sufferings Abroad’

THE PUBLIC TOLERANCE operates through congress and congress is beset and bedeviled by propa-

a bigot any man who, in the interests of his own country and his own people, undertakes to restrict immigration to those who have something to offer. It is almost heresy to say that not all immigrants and refugees are ennobled by their sufferings abroad, but there is nevertheless much biographical data to prove that many who came here shortly before the first world war for asylum from European tyranny did not join the native American youth in destroying those tyrants, but joined alien groups and movements and tried to destroy the American system, instead. The whole, native public is not organized to counteract the pressure on public men exerted by the organized pressure groups which call the United States a melting pot but, in reality, have in mind something more like a Central park of the entire world where anyone may enter as a matter of right. The United States is, in reality, an exclusive organization. It has rules of eligibility and like most of our unions, reserves the right to reject applicants who do not meet certain requirements, These restrictions are unjust to no foreigner, because no foreigner has any rights in the matter. If he is admitted to residence, and, later, to citizenship, that is a privilege, not a right. The United States can decide to exclude all immigration, if it comes to that, and to restrict the right to vote and hold public office to natives and, I believe, should do so.

"First 1000 to Be Just a Sample’

OBVIOUSLY THE FIRST 1000 are to.be just a sample because 1000 more refugees, more.or less, in Southern Italy would make no appreciable difference in the problem of feeding and governing the region. But to this country the difference could and probably will be great with other thousands following on, with the conditions o¢ their immurement gradually relaxed and with carefully selected distress cases flaunted in the public eye in an appeal for sympathy and unwary kindness, all for the purpose of revising the law retroactively to confer legitimate immigrant status on unselected thousands with complete disregard of the legal standards of desirability. Of course this is all based on an assumption that there will be not 1000, but many thousands and that, once they are here, that will be the last the country will hear of their return to Europe after the war. That assumption in turn, is based however on such precedents, as the great-but-forgotten New Deal unemployment census, and the aluminum pot collection, which never were heard of again,

We The People

By Ruth Millett

A SCREEN ACTRESS who recently divorced her husband on the grounds of cruelty claimed he made her visit his desert ranch, although she was allergic to dust. Wives who keep their marriages out of the divorce courts Ses know that if they are allergic to LY LR any of their husbands’ interests Goo the thing to do is to ignore the So bp allergy. \ ; 4 Plenty of wives who are allergic to fishing pretend that their idea of a perfect holiday is to climb into a dinky little boat under mosquito attack and fish all day. Plenty of other wives who are mentally allergic to their husbands’ college pals make them welcome through the years. Other women cook their husbands’ favorite dish at least once a week—even though they don’t touch it themselves.

Not All One-Sided, Either

THAT IS just a part of marriage, and it isn't all one-sided, either. Look at the rugged men who put up with having a silly looking lap dog around the house because their ultra-feminine wives love the “cute little things.” Look at the men who say “Sure it’s a nice dress” about some creation that looks to them like nothing short of a nightmare. Look at the men who live in houses without a single comfortable chair, because a comfortable chair would not fit in with the decorating scheme a woman dreamed up to impress her friends. Making a partner put up with something to which he is allergic constitutes cruelty in a divorce court— but in a successful and endured. -

So They Say—

GIVE US bombers and fighter planes, long-range

ganda and pressure which attacks as a Fascist and |

\§ ¢ 3 oS oN yr . ”. ; a Gy

The Hoosier Forum

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

“WHAT IS HIS CRIME?” By James R. Meitzler, Attica

Organized labor and Roosevelt worshipers have denounced Sewell Avery of Montgomery Ward as a second ‘Benedict Arnold. What is his crime? He did not lock his workers out of his plant; he did not cut wages or lengthen hours of labor; he was perfectly willing to keep his company operating, to continue making the things his subsidiary plants had been manufacturing, to go on paying wages to his employees and profits to his stockholders, to advertise his goods and sell them to his customers, in fact to keep his company functioning after the contract with the C. I. O. had expired just as it had

been doing while the contract was

til an election was held to deter-

gaining agent, once President forever more.

(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, and publication in no way implies agreement with those opinions by The Times. The Times assumes no responsibility for the return of manuscripts and cannot enter correspondence regarding them.)

in effect. But, he did refuse to the wool” voters never. They say, sign a renewal of that contract un- after 16 years it is fatal.

A lie that looks like the truth is

mine the proper agency with which | the worst kind of a lie. Leave it to sign. There are those who be- t, lieve that once elected is forever jce.” Yes, there are 10,000 of them elected, a contract never dies, once ready to go to the polls in Novema bargaining agent, always a bar- per, gut Mr. President Roosevelt in President, office and also elect a decent con-

the “mothers with sons in serv-

marriage it is just to be expected -

artillery, howitzers, tanks and other necessary equip- |

the army.

office. s

“WHAT IS

ble bee!

FARLEY’S INCOME?” By Mrs. Walter Haggerty, R. R. 6, Box 404, One of the finest things in life, is an understanding among friends. Come election, sometimes our neigh- | bors, friends of long standing, pull] their windowshades and start look-| ing the other way. Curiously you drop in, wondering if something is] wrong and your conversation drifts]

{gress so that we may have a lasting

It is not Sewell Avery's business peace, Congress doesn't want the to co-operate with the President in|soldier vote or they would sign the maintaining the C. I. O. as bargain- national ballot which officials of ing agent for Montgomery Ward's both army and navy said would be workers, nor is it the business of (the only honest way to insure their Nor will maintaining vote; but never mind, sons, mothers that union help win the war cr are going to see that you don't get supporting that union back up our a stab in the back by their vote in fighting men. Mr. Avery and his November. stockholders were perfectly willing] Inconveniences of war are blamed to carry on the business. It wasion the New Deal, but the poorest the C. I. O. that struck. organized labor that picketed the| coming from a lady who said she

plant. It was the union that quit.| walked in rationed shoes to get raMr. Avery did not quit. He went |

on working until President Roose- | velt’s soldiers tossed him out of his shoes; however, she didn’t say the

It was excuse I ever heard was the one

tioned gas to put in a rationed car and on her way got mud on her

mud was rationed or there wouldn't be so much to sling, Elections, co ions, lobbying over here, and/D-day, foxholes and death for our hoys ‘over there. Does that lagk like ality and Sacrifice?” W ie. convention held here representative of the Republicans? Do you think thousands of dollars should be spent lobbying against our boys or to buy bonds to end the war and bring them home? ; What is Jim Farley’s income? If

z 8

into politics and jiminy crickets,|it is what I think it is, I don’t one would think he sat on a bum-| blame him for not voting for PresYou wonder how in the ident Roosevelt. name of Divine Providence you had | for him if you had a million? No; ever met such an idiot and never|the people are not eating crumbs found it out before. Sensible voters, any longer. They are going to take will listen to reason, but “dyed in what rightly belongs to them by

Would you vote

Side Glances—By Galbraith

ballot. It's the greatest privilege we have to pay taxes and buy bonds. Those who can't are pitiful, through no fault of their own. They can vote, though. The time is not far off when “man to man the world o'er shall brothers be.” 8 # . “WE STAND BY

FOR SERVICE” Dau Mei 3%. 18 Auxiliary Five For months the Hoosier Forum has been in the middle of politics for the coming big political events and everybody seems to fight everybody with bitter words and maybe facts, But the daily life in our town goes on even like ever before, fortunately for our citizens with the danger from the air almost gone. Bad words have been in the papers in the last few weeks about our civilian defense and how much money has been spent for auxiliary fire equipment like the 60 pumpers aud other badly-néeded equipment purchased two years ago. Yes, the thousands of air raid wardens and others are now on a reserve status. The OCD is in reserve and everybody should never forget the fact of how close the danger really was, how many hours each of those men spent in training to protect you citizens in the minute of acute danger and how happy everyone should be with the war thousands of miles away. ! Yes, some of those volunteers are now in reserve, but they don't sleep. The training, for example, in first aid may save many lives in case of accidents or emergency. But there are two groups still active and the public should know about them. The auxiliary police are ready for any emergency and on duty every Monday night; the medical men are regrouping their organization and the auxiliary firemen are now g part of the fire department as a reserve, ready on a minute's call notice in case of big fires or other emergency involving the fire department. We have eliminated all the men who lost interest ‘in our serious case; but we stand by for service, and the fire and ‘police chiefs are well aware that they can depend on the volunteers whenever the call comes. The citizens of Indianapolis can feel secure with a reserve organization like ours. No, the money for equipment has not been wasted and we are proud of our training, and the police should be more than happy that up till now there was no need to call up the emergency men. 8 . # “LET THEM REPEAT - THOSE WORDS BY PYLE” By August Naab, Indianapolis “In this article I want to tell you what. the opening of the second front in this one sector entailed, so that’ you can’ know and appreciate and forever be humbly grateful’ to those both dead and alive who did it for you.” : Now that the Fifth War Loan Drive is on, it seems that someone should call this to the attention of

THAT MAKE YOU?” |

| | Since Mrs. Walter Haggerty seems | to approve 100, per cent of every-| thing done by

y the New

Deal, I won-| |

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22%

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at home and abroad) are swearing vengeance’ and death for the tyrants and traitors. But who cares, he says calmly, for their thredts, and walks away leaving a deathlike silence behind him.” 2

Holland Develops Art Highly

HOLLAND ALSO has developed the art of none co-operation to a high degree. In the schools, for

the request of their parents, and generally with the hearty approval of the principal, transferred other school. The Nazi teacher had the cis, but no students, x 7 ; In the little town of Zaamslag, the municipal clerk disappeared, taking with him the new identification cards which had just been made out for the 3584 citizens of the town. Not only did the Nazis lose all the records on who was who in the village, but 3584 nameless members of the underground were provided with legal credentials. The Nazi radio seemed most bitter that a staid, respectable burgher—who until now had been most co-operative—should have done this to them. For once they could not blame the crime on “bandits and Communists.” At about the same tithe, the radio broadcast an alarm for the burgomaster of the village of Ursem who likewise had vanished with the local population register and a large number of blank identification and ration cards, Amnesia can be contagious,

‘When the Cat's Away . . .'

THE NAZI-CONTROLLED police force of an ime portant town organized a ball recently for the benefit of the Dutch-Nazi winter help fund. As most of the officers were reluctant to attend, the Nazi authorities issued an order making appearance at the ball come pulsory. The police complied 100 per cent. And while the ball was in progress, someone broke into the schoolhouse, which was being used as a storehouse for confiscated radio sets, and cleaned the place out. “Which proves,” observed the underground newspaper, Trouw, “that even Nazl socials have some social value.” “One evening when I was distributing illegal newspapers on my bicycle,” says a Hollander who escaped to London after: living underground for more than two years, “I was stopped by a local policeman who loudly ordered me to turn on my lights. He then whispered in my ear, ‘You have been betrayed. Go to the local priest who will give you a new address for hiding out."” Obliging chaps, these Dutch police. Progressively by blandishment and flattery, by threats, by repression, by stern reprisals, and by terrorism, the Nazis have tried to convert the Dutch as they tried with equal futility to win over the Danes, Prench and Norwegians. But even when outwardly complying, the stanch Hollanders have found ways to annoy, harass and sabotage their conquerors. Resistance goes on—even more stéadfastly because it is beneath the surface. It is not for nothing that on the arms of Holland is emblazoned the motto: “No Surrender.”

Deciding Factor By James Thrasher

WASHINGTON, June 15. «= There has been much talk of ware time strikes and strikers, of swole len war profits and inferior mae terials, of ‘loafing and labor hoarding and general inefficiency. Théy're deplorable and should be talked about and acted upon, of course

But let's talk today about the industries that pitched in and have kept on pitching® and about the workers who stayed on -the job. Without the job they have done, there would be no beachheads in France today. The great problem of invasion was supply. The requisition, procurement and transportation was a miracle of long-range military planning that staggers civilian imagination. In the space of two years the invasion of western Europe grew from a rough plan to a mighty arsenal of assault, complete from battleships and bombers to buttons and shoe laces. And during all that time we were fighting in the Pacific and Africa and Italy, maintaining strong bases throughout the world, and supplying our allies.

700,000 Different Items Required.

and many of these items had to be supplied in numebers totaling millions, Ten tons of equipment were needed to .get each man across the channel into France. And he needs 60 pounds of supplies a day, now that he is there, : 5 With few exceptions this equipment and the ships’ ‘that carried it wi

THE INVASION required 700,000 different items,

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