Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 June 1944 — Page 18

Give Light und the People Will Find Their Own Way

F. D. R’S LEAGUE OF NATIONS

HE President's plan for a world peace organization contains no surprises. In general it is to be similar to the old League of Nations, with an assembly of all the peaceful nations and a’ council to include the Big Four. A world court would handle justiciable disputes. No details are given. 3 A Only one of the thee major issues is clarified—the sovereignty issue. There is to be no superstate, and no international police force. This will disappoint extreme internationalists, who have been working so hard for some form of union. Actually, those extreme plans never have had a chance of acceptance by the state department. or by congress. Some superstate advocates curse America's alleged “isolationism” and “blind stupidity” for this. But in fact there has never been a time when Britain or Russia had the least intention of sacrificing sovereignty, or of turning over command of the royal navy or the Soviet army to any world commander or authority. We agree with Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin that the only practicable police force for preservation of world security and peace is continued co-operation of allied military forces, chiefly those of the Big Three. But whether one agrees or disagrees with that accepted policy, discussion regarding a completely internationalized police force or a superstate will remain academic until all the major powers are willing to give up their own defense forces. - » - ~ ON THE two other hot issues, the President is evasive. One is whether the Big Three are to continue planning the peace settlement without allowing the smaller nations to share policy decisions. The other is whether the Big Three, having prevented formation of a league until after the peace settlement, will go on dictating world affairs through a league council. These are the basic questions on which Prime Minister Churchill and Secretary Hull have disagreed, the former wanting big power domination and the latter insisting on equal rights for small nations. We don't know whether the President is running out on his secretary of state, or whether he is simply trying in his evasive statement to gloss over the dispute with Britain in the hope it can be compromised better by that method. But, in our judgment, Secretary Hull has been right in challenging Churchill's attempts to scuttle the Atlantic Charter and Moscow Pact pledges for full representation of small nations. Refusal of London and Moscow to call the United Nations into political council is already reviving the vicious balance-of-power system, which is the opposite | of a representative international organization.

» - o - ” IF THE President does not soon begin to fight for allied pledges, the world organization he proposed yesterday is apt to turn out another puppet of imperialist politics like the last league. That is what happened to Woodrow Wilson. He let the European powers make the peace settlement in exchange for a paper organization—which they

controlled. To get a democratic settlement and an effective international organization, the President must bring the smaller allies into policy councils and keep them in.

HENRY C. ATKINS “(COMMUNITY leader” is a term so often used in biographies and tributes that it has lost much of its force. But there is no other which quite so truly nor so aptly describes the late Henry C. Atkins. And in this case those

two words do have meaning, a meaning that is deeply imbedded in the development of Indianapolis.

Henry C. Atkins was a leader in everything he touched, - and his interests and activities covered a broad field. was a business leader whose influence left its mark not only on his own firm and his particular field but throughout all American industry. Ie had a modern outlook, and grew with the times, but he never ceased to be a representative of the old school of family industrialists: he knew that no miracles of organizaitonal charts and corporate efficiencies could replace the personal human touch, the. individual integrity of an executive who dealt man-to-man, on a Golden Rule basis, with his employees and his customers. His responsibility did not end with payrolls, dividends and deliveries. That responsibility was to give full value, and something more, to those who used his product and to those whose labor made it good. os

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THIS SAME spirit marked him as a citizen. It was not enough to pay taxes and obey the laws. His fellow men had done well by him, and he owed a debt to give back more than he received, a duty to leave his community a better place than he had found it. To that end, he gave generously of his means and his great ability, and his achievements are measured not alone in material things but in human

lives and social betterment, the most enduring memorial of all. }

A leader is one who is ahead of the rest, who does more than he is required, whose counsel is wise, whose guidance good and whose precept is inspiring. Not titles _ and honors and goods are the stamp of a leader in the community, but the respect of his associates and influence with his fellow men. This gift Henry C. Atkins had and. this he used constructively and forcefully all the days of his life. Its fruits will live on in Indianapolis.

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payers, or adjoining premises. Applicants for war jobs, as a routine matter, have been required to pay cash on the line to the unioneers for the privilege of hellping to win the war on the home front. The USES “refers” applicants to the unions for “clearance” jwith the understanding that if they don’t “clear” by paying initiation fees and dues, or signing promises\to pay out of their immediate wages sometimes through the check-off, they won't be hired. In no case is there a garantee that the applicant will hold his job after he thas earned the amount of the shakedown plus an ual amount for himself. There are always more sBps coming in and the | temptation is strong to lay #off those Who have been | clipped for the union treasury and trim the new | suckers, {

Individual Is Not a Person but a Unit

THE USES also has assumgd the power to order independent employers to hire, whomsover it sends them, regardless of the applicant's competence or character or the employer's judgment of his or her personal fitness. The individual {is not a person but a unit, or number, a case on A dirty person, even a prostitute may be refe to a company engaged in packing food for packagd lunches in a war plant, and must be accepted. Theq{USES is especially stern if the dirty person or prosti is a member of a “minority group.” If a business ihas a practice of employing Negroes to run its elevafiors and asks for a Negro to fill a vacancy, the Ui will charge the management with racial discrimination against white men and make him accept a whiteYman. Then, if the applicant himself, being a white ;man, refuses to accept the job he, in turn, may be ywondemned for racial prejudice against Negroes, magked “unavailable” on his card and denied all further opportunities to earn *his living. For nonessential work is closed to him, and the USES which controls essential hiring has put him on its black list.

If a worker, leaving a nonessential job, refuses to take a job deemed to be essential, however inferior the work may be to his intelligence and skill, and however inferior the pay to his usual stamdards and his unavoidable commitments, he doesn’t go to jail, of course; he just goes idle, a man wasted, and broke and hungry until necessity breaks him down yor enough other men like him get sore enough to tel McNutt and the unions and the USES to go to hell in a voice loud enough to be heard by President Rooseyelt and congress.

Third Attempt at Civilian Labor Draft

THIS IS McNUTT'S third attempt in two years to impose a civilian labor draft without authority from congress and in the face of repeated refusals by congress, for good reasons, to adopt any such draft. It is dishonest, as well as illegal; for the labor shortage is only spotty, not general, and is due largely to artificial causes, including the political. The; political purpose of the decree is to swell the membership of the unions which, in turn, will contribute out of their loot to Mr. Roosevelt's fourth term campaign fund and thus compel millions of citizens who would regard a fourth term as a national calamity to far cilitate that disaster, The civilian who remains in private, nonessential employ is placed at the mercy of the employer, whonow knows that he may impose upon him ruthlessly* by holding over, him the threat of dismissal] and’ “referral” to the USES, The only hope for the civilian thus placed by MeNutt's dictatorial decree is that of a sit-down strike against the government by millions of those private citizens so often referred to, and so contemptuously, as little people. Because they are unorganized against politics and the power of the Roosevelt government and its union auxiliaries, that hope is wan and waning,

We The People

By Ruth Millett

acquainted. From very beginning, it has been as | a dragooning to herg unwilling civilians into } the unions. In places, union agents have occu-

offices, supported by the tax-|

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portation advisory board. His plea also was sented on behalf of the Indianapolis Board of Trade,

‘Equities Have Been Fully Discharged “I THINK it has been pretty well established, as is conceded even by the opponents of this bill, that as to the equities of the land grant arrangement

they have already been fully discharged,” Mr. Hollow peter’s statement read.

The Hoosier Forum

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

“OUT AND OUT NEW DEAL PROPAGANDA” By J. E. R., Indianapolis

H. L. Smith's naive and childish letter in the Forum handed me a laugh. To begin with, Roosevelt was elected in 1932 not by people who voted FOR him, but by people who voted AGAINST Hoover. In 1936, however, Roosevelt was re-1 elected by people who voted for him, namely: enslaved farmers, WPA workers, the “something for nothing” clan, bureaucrat payrollers, political machines and others too blinded by the brilliance of supposed “free” government checks to perceive that their children and their children’s children would pay for their criminal] folly in the long run, By 1940 sniping at those shopworn old bugaboos, the Economic Royal-| thankful to our President for what ists, Princes of Entrenched Greed, he has done for you. Well, I can etc., had begun to lose its vote-get- tell you I'll never forget what he ting value. So the éry went out that did for me. In truth, he should be

(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.)

landing on us by parachute any|for he surely did save thousands of minute now and only the in- us from death of starvation and dispensable man himself could cope you all know this the same as I do. with the situation. Unfortunately,|Of course, there were a few of you people believed this, so we were | that had jobs during the depresstuck again. I don't know where | sien, but the most of you that had Mr. Smith and a lot of others ever plenty to eat and plenty of coal, got the idea that Roosevelt was | you .didn’'t even care that others personally directing the conduct of | were going cold and hungry. the war. The generals and no one else are taking care of the military velt a thousand fold for his good-

the Germans were going to start/called the savior of our country,|

{needs were provided for and their

" |future secure, the five who deterMay God bless President Roose-|mine whether or not a citizen put

now. The people of Germany fell for it and they are still falling. Perhaps Mr. Ginsberg and other Socialist Laborites could obtain passage on one of the exchange ships to some country where the wicked capitalists are no longer tolerated. But, of course, I guess they have a right to their say because this is a free country.

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. “AN EYE TO PEOPLE'S RIGHTS” J. C. Green, Indianapolis As a citizen of Indiana and a Democrat, I hope that the delegates to the convention nominate men with an eye to people's rights instead of those altogether devoted to the corporate aspects and that of the rich only, I have in mind a | membership of five men who are {the ruling body in our state government, and who are more power{ful than the governor or the legis-

{lature and who often set aside the {will of other departments, the five imen who determine whether the |widow or orphans of the policy holder may collect on the policy bought from an insurance company land pald for by a deceasd father | who thought at his death that their

on the shelf forever by injuries

strategy. Concerning the ridiculous assumption that F. D. R. is the only] one capable of running this country, | that is out and out New Deal propa-

ness here on earth. Give him the from a street or other accidents health and strength to run again in may receive some remuneration November and every four years!from the wrongdoer, after that as long as he may live. |

That, my dear friends, is my most 20

ganda. There are hundreds of men fervent prayer. in both the Republican and Democratic parties better fitted to be chief executive than our present leader. As for you, Mrs. Haggerty, I respectfully suggest that you stick to your hoeing and leave politics to people who at least know the difference between a senator and a representative,

n - “WE SHOULD BE VERY GRATEFUL” By Forum Fan, Indianapolis Charles Ginsberg, in the Forum of June 12, was kind enough to give us the light on the Montgomery Ward incident. We all should be very grateful to him, Mr. Ginsberg is safe from falling bombs and concentration camps and the Gestapo. He can read and write as he pleases. Well, all you Hoover-lovers who He can. hear what he chooses to

choose to forget the dark days of hear on his radio and come and go the depression, that’s your privilege, | gg is his pleasure. He can work but as for me, I'm going to remem-| where he likes and cuss and discuss ber., If you had gone through star-| ag he likes. vation and want like I did, you However, this gentlemen is not couldn’t forget, even if you wanted! happy about things. We workers to. Any of you people that were on should throw the dirty capitalists WPA or asked for a basket so that! out and rule this nation ourselves. you or your children would not Then we would all have plenty be-

2 = “I'M GOING ‘TO REMEMBER"

By Mrs, Helen McGuire, Indianapolis

SERVICEMEN are to get their | old jobs back at the war's end. That's right and good. But that | is only part of the story. What is to be done about jobs for the women who, because of the war, can no longer count on a husband or son for support? What of the woman whose husband is killed? Will there be a job for her? What of the wife who is married to a man who through some physical injury of war-induced psycho-neurosis is not able in ordinary times to be the sole support of his wife and children, but who will need help with the responsibility? Will his wife be sure of a job?

What Is Going to Happen to Them?

WHAT OF THE wives of men who come back home unwilling to go on with a settled life, who, to put it bluntly, desert their families? Will their wives be sure of a place where they can earn a living? What of the widowed women, getting on in years, who lose the sons who have been their support? Will they get jobs, even though they are older than women employers like to hire in ordinary times? The war is going to force many women, who once were taken care of, to earn their own livings in the post-war world. What is going to ‘happen to them? Are they going to get special consideration when jobs are scarce again? Or will they just be included with women as a whole, who will surely be told—for they are already being warned of it—that women’s place is in the home? Unfortunately a woman's place can't be in the home unless there is an.able-bodied man to support her. Let's start worrying now about what is to become of such women. It is high time, with "all of the talk that is going on about the necessity for

ready to take them over.

(with President Roosevelt now, you

lor a traitor and you ought to be |stood up in front of a firing squad. | things just to make sure we were as

women's giving up their jobs as soon as men are

starve to death and then find fault| cause we workers are all kind and unselfish and honest beyond reproach, In time some kind man or woman would assume control of

are worse in my opinion than a spy

Even that, I believe, would be more | perfect as we thought we were, and than you deserve because you cer-| tnere you have it. It is the perfect tainly arem’t worth the price of a set-up. bullet. | Well, we didn't fall for that bunk Some of you people are too ig-|back in the early 30's when things norant and! ungrateful to even be were plenty tough and we won't

Side Glances—By Galbraith

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“KNOWLEDGE ALONE YIELDS SMALL FRUIT”

“We merely subsidized the construction of certain § N of our railroads through unused areas in which it tr was desirable on the part of the government to de foster development of the territory. The construce [») tion of these railroads immediately served a very Le substantial public benefit, and&since that time, through *) the operation of land grant reductions in the freight charges the government has been paid more than § any reasonable amount that was represented by the T

land granted the carriers.” War traffic has caused land grant reductions te amount to $250,000000 a year the statement cone tinued, pointing out that this is more than the total value of the land granted. But the thing %o be stressed is the discrimination resulting to private shippers, Mr. Hollopeter said. “The interests I represent,” he continued, “desire the repeal of these land grants through the enacte ment of this bill for several reasons,

‘Create Discriminatory Situations’

“PIRST, they create discriminatory situations bee tween various industries and localities. Industries within the state of Indiana, as is also true in many other localities, are generally not in position to use land grant roads completely to make delivery of their products to common markets. Much of their operation is involved with government freight. “Competitive industries lecated ‘where they may use land grant roads for their entire transportation can deliver their products cheaper than our industries which must use roads not subject to land grants, at least for part of their shipments, and which must absorb this difference. “It frequently requires Industries located many miles closer to areas consuming government freight to pay more transportation than competitive induse tries located many miles farther. “Secondly, under our regulatory practices we guard carefully the revenues of our transportation facilities to see that they do not become excessive. It must be obvious to anyone, therefore, that when we withe held through land grant arrangements as much as 250 to 300 million dollars annually on government freight, these other individual shippers must carry that burden in rates which produce more revenue than would otherwise be necessary. “From the standpoint of fairness in our governe ment operations that certainly is not proper, to call

By John Coulter, Indianapolis

All the great problems reduce themselves to the problem of the, |individual. We cannot expect the {world to become better unless we become better. There's the rub! The vast majori\y of people are {more interested in other people's | shortcomings than in their own. |The British race problem in India |is a more popular subject than our own race problem in Indianapolis, Better understanding of ourselves is essential. Other essential things are: 1. A better technique of co-oper-ation. 2. A wider spread of justice. Therefore, in seeking to understand ourselves better, it becomes imperative to discover to what extent we are, in our individual behavior, obstructive to co-operation and to justice. We may be surprised {to discover the remoteness of our own behavior from the kind which is necessary if civilization is to be saved. Job analysis has proved to be very helpful. Analysis of one’s own behavior may be even more so. Study of social and economic problems is not enough. Criticism of others usually does more harm than good. Despite our colossal investment in education, there has been no appreciable improvement in social relations and behavior, no discernible increase in wisdom or understanding of the true values of life. Scholarship and technical training have been emphasized at the expense of something else for which the world now has greater need. Knowledge alone yields small fruit in better behavior. What benefit in appreciation of the validity of a principle if there is failure fo apply it? Colleges and universities advertise the successes of their alumni, the victories of their football teams, the average earnings of their recent graduates, the contributions of their

past, and the glamour of underthat stresses the individual's

upon a portion of our citizens to carry this added burden in order to relieve, through our governmeng activities, this amount from all the citizens.”

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Balcony Orator By James Thrasher

WASHINGTON, June 16. —Hige tory will never place Sgt. John Vita’s address to the Romans on the same page with those dee livered by Cicero, but to anyone with a taste for dramatic irony, the sergeant’s remarks will remain one of the memorable, if minor, footnotes to the liberation of Rome. It was Sgt. Vita who inserted the final pin.to complete the dee flation of Benito Mussolini, comice opera Caesar of the late Italian empire. Caesarg and would-be world conquerors are never very ade mirable characters, and Mussolini was no exception, But in Mussolini's case, something new had been added. He was not only treacherous and a vile lain, he was ridiculous. He will be remembered for the way he stabbed France in the back, and for his strafing of defenseless Ethiopians. But he will also be remembered for his pomposity and muscle flexing and bare-midriffed' hay pitching.

Darling of Vaudeville Impersonators

MOST OF ALL he will be remembered for hig speeches from the balcony of the Piazza Venezia, pre served for posterity in the newsreels. His jaw-jutting, his gestures, and his struttings made him the darling of vaudeville impersonators and, to an alien audience, converted his grandiose pretensions into hilarious absurdity. : It was fitting, somehow, that Sgt. Vita should have succeeded to the oratorical roost of the moulted Duce, The sergeant, a resident of Port Chester, N. Y,, is the son of Italian-American parents. He is part of an army that wants something for the Italians, but nothing from them—an army that has come to ree store self-respect and democratic government to the Italian people, to feed them and help them forget that miserable exploitation of the last 25 years.

Sgt. Vita Had a Mission BUT SGT. VITA had a mission all his own. Cone sciously or not, he was there to demonstrate that bale prerogative of one man. He gave the Italians an example of a country where any man can mount ‘the nearest stump and speak his mind without fear, He mimicked Mussolini, scaling him down to his